Tony Blair admits: I would have invaded Iraq anyway

[Polk]

Iraq inquiry told U.S. mentioned link to Saddam Hussein within hours of 9/11 attacks | Mail Online

PS: Daily Mail is a right-wing paper.

like I said...Polk -ZERO credibility...links...all left wing loon sites with ZERO credibility.

Left-wing loon sites? That's a major British newspaper that has a hard-right editorial line.

 

[Murf76]

There is nothing here I haven't put up links to at least a half dozen times, at least.

Good grief, man. What would make you think I'm interested enough in your opinion to dig through 2,654 posts to get it?

"Skimming off the top" though is an interesting charge. Are orange jumpsuits in the offing at Cigna? I hadn't heard.

A company can do anything as long as congress makes it legal. Skimming off the top? What would you call it? Health care companies don't have any doctors, nurses, hospitals or medicines. They sell policies and then use a portion of that money to license health care services. They stand between you and your doctor and decide what they will pay for. If you cost too much, they cancel your policy. They nearly always use "pre-existing condition" as the reason, which is how they get around the law.

The VA, considered the best in the world, spends 96 cents per dollar on health care. They have a central data base that keeps track of the use of medicine and therapies and their effectiveness, in every field, cancer, neurology, psychiatry and others.

Health care companies spend less than 60 cents per dollar on health care. The rest is spent on CEO salaries, stock options, bonuses, rent and administration. The average CEO has a salary of more than 4 million. Nice for companies that don't make anything or sell anything except insurance policies.

I put up so many links to this stuff, I know it forwards and backwards.

What would help is a public option linked to the VA data base so we know what actually works. That would be a beginning. Then incentives for weight reduction and other health improvements. I'm not a medical professional, but I do understand the difference between being ripped off and health care.

Okay... medical insurance policies are CONTRACTS. They just can't be set aside on a whim. I'm not saying that there's never any wrong-doing, but the idea that the Big Insurance Boogeyman can legally get away with anything it wants in whatever arbitrary way it chooses... is ludicrous.

Sure, you hear all these horror stories from Capitol Hill, and every now and then one will actually be true. But these snake-oil salesman are trying to sell you something. Each one gets before the mic and says essentially the same thing... "Here's some awful sob-story I heard", and "We're the government and we're here to help".

I've talked to countless people who were dismayed with insurance paperwork, but thrilled at their coverage, people who've had open-heart surgery to save their lives... and only paid a co-pay for the whole thing. 85% of Americans are happy with their coverage.

Understand... that you can SUE a private insurer who doesn't fulfill your contract. But your recourse in dealing with the federal government will be 'slim' and 'none'.
It will do as it pleases, changing terms as it likes. Instead of the insurance boogeyman, standing between you and your doctor, it will be a government bureaucrat that you can't fight.

And this business about insurance companies taking 4 administrative dollars out of every 10 is something I'll take your word on for the sake of discussion. (Although, once again you have failed to provide a link.) But consider... that the mechanism that stops top-heavy corporations from spending too much on themselves is... COMPETITION. The "lean-and-mean" well-run corporation will whip the sloppy out of 'em any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

The idea that the federal government can create "competition" by giving us one crappy government option or expanding Medicare and Medicaid isn't even credible. Particularly not when one considers that all it takes to bring something like 1300 companies into direct competition with one another is to allow health insurance to cross state lines. It's constitutional and it costs the taxpayer NOTHING!

You liberals whine and carry on about Big Insurance and Corporate Conglomerates, but your policies ENCOURAGE them. Cigna would shit its pants if it had to face an open market. Why do you think these people have been in back-door support of Obamacare right up until they decided his individual mandate wasn't stringent enough?

Big Government *and* Big Insurance are playing a game of "Hide-the-Sausage" with you.
Wake up and realize that the partisan divide is meant to keep us at one another's throats while the rich and powerful become MORE rich and powerful.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Here's another relatively obscure gem, from 2004:

“It was known in Israel that the story that weapons of mass destruction could be activated in 45 minutes was an old wives’ tale,” said [lawmaker Yossi] Sarid, [a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee], regarding a claim leading up to the war. “Israel didn’t want to spoil President Bush’s scenario, and it should have,” Sarid told The Associated Press.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[PatekPhilippe]

Bush has previously admitted it as well:

12/14/05:

BUSH: I said I made the right decision. Knowing what I know today, I would have still made that decision.

HUME: So, if you had had this — if the weapons had been out of the equation because the intelligence did not conclude that he had them, it was still the right call?

BUSH: Absolutely.

Think Progress » Caught on Tape: Bush Admits WMD Were Irrelevant

Good...not a damn thing wrong with his decision as we have seen. YOU weren't privy to the intel that led up to the decision so YOU cannot judge.

How's that impeachment thingy working out for you 'tards on the left!!!

Right offhand I can think of 4000 reasons his decision was wrong. Of course I may place different value on American lives than you do.

I can think of about 4000 reasons you get to tell your bullshit partisan lies to any leftard who will listen...count your lucky stars you were born in America jackass!!!

 

[rdean]

There is nothing here I haven't put up links to at least a half dozen times, at least.

Good grief, man. What would make you think I'm interested enough in your opinion to dig through 2,654 posts to get it?

"Skimming off the top" though is an interesting charge. Are orange jumpsuits in the offing at Cigna? I hadn't heard.

A company can do anything as long as congress makes it legal. Skimming off the top? What would you call it? Health care companies don't have any doctors, nurses, hospitals or medicines. They sell policies and then use a portion of that money to license health care services. They stand between you and your doctor and decide what they will pay for. If you cost too much, they cancel your policy. They nearly always use "pre-existing condition" as the reason, which is how they get around the law.

The VA, considered the best in the world, spends 96 cents per dollar on health care. They have a central data base that keeps track of the use of medicine and therapies and their effectiveness, in every field, cancer, neurology, psychiatry and others.

Health care companies spend less than 60 cents per dollar on health care. The rest is spent on CEO salaries, stock options, bonuses, rent and administration. The average CEO has a salary of more than 4 million. Nice for companies that don't make anything or sell anything except insurance policies.

I put up so many links to this stuff, I know it forwards and backwards.

What would help is a public option linked to the VA data base so we know what actually works. That would be a beginning. Then incentives for weight reduction and other health improvements. I'm not a medical professional, but I do understand the difference between being ripped off and health care.

Okay... medical insurance policies are CONTRACTS. They just can't be set aside on a whim. I'm not saying that there's never any wrong-doing, but the idea that the Big Insurance Boogeyman can legally get away with anything it wants in whatever arbitrary way it chooses... is ludicrous.

Sure, you hear all these horror stories from Capitol Hill, and every now and then one will actually be true. But these snake-oil salesman are trying to sell you something. Each one gets before the mic and says essentially the same thing... "Here's some awful sob-story I heard", and "We're the government and we're here to help".

I've talked to countless people who were dismayed with insurance paperwork, but thrilled at their coverage, people who've had open-heart surgery to save their lives... and only paid a co-pay for the whole thing. 85% of Americans are happy with their coverage.

Understand... that you can SUE a private insurer who doesn't fulfill your contract. But your recourse in dealing with the federal government will be 'slim' and 'none'.
It will do as it pleases, changing terms as it likes. Instead of the insurance boogeyman, standing between you and your doctor, it will be a government bureaucrat that you can't fight.

And this business about insurance companies taking 4 administrative dollars out of every 10 is something I'll take your word on for the sake of discussion. (Although, once again you have failed to provide a link.) But consider... that the mechanism that stops top-heavy corporations from spending too much on themselves is... COMPETITION. The "lean-and-mean" well-run corporation will whip the sloppy out of 'em any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

The idea that the federal government can create "competition" by giving us one crappy government option or expanding Medicare and Medicaid isn't even credible. Particularly not when one considers that all it takes to bring something like 1300 companies into direct competition with one another is to allow health insurance to cross state lines. It's constitutional and it costs the taxpayer NOTHING!

You liberals whine and carry on about Big Insurance and Corporate Conglomerates, but your policies ENCOURAGE them. Cigna would shit its pants if it had to face an open market. Why do you think these people have been in back-door support of Obamacare right up until they decided his individual mandate wasn't stringent enough?

Big Government *and* Big Insurance are playing a game of "Hide-the-Sausage" with you.
Wake up and realize that the partisan divide is meant to keep us at one another's throats while the rich and powerful become MORE rich and powerful.

Yea, you say that private insurers can't just "cut off" policies. If only that were true. If you are really so "concerned", perhaps do a little research on "pre-existing condition" and find out how that is a catch-all.

Insurance companies are careful who they cut off. A factory worker in a small town is easy pickens. Not the same as an engineer or a board room executive. Maybe check that out too.

Put the companies into direct competition? The big ones will swallow the smaller ones and there will be even less choice. Maybe a regulation that a company can't make a profit that is a certain percentage beyond what they take in? After all, who deserves a hundred million dollars in compensation? Just because something is "legal", doesn't make it "ethical".

And that's the problem with the Republican Party. They have no ethics, at least, not anymore.

 

[Murf76]

Yea, you say that private insurers can't just "cut off" policies. If only that were true. If you are really so "concerned", perhaps do a little research on "pre-existing condition" and find out how that is a catch-all.

Insurance companies are careful who they cut off. A factory worker in a small town is easy pickens. Not the same as an engineer or a board room executive. Maybe check that out too.

Put the companies into direct competition? The big ones will swallow the smaller ones and there will be even less choice. Maybe a regulation that a company can't make a profit that is a certain percentage beyond what they take in? After all, who deserves a hundred million dollars in compensation? Just because something is "legal", doesn't make it "ethical".

And that's the problem with the Republican Party. They have no ethics, at least, not anymore.

One needn't support the ham-fisted seizure of our entire medical industry to deal with the problem of "pre-existing conditions".

Further, in a free society, a modicum of personal responsibility is crucial to an individual's success. It's not MY fault if some factory worker allows his insurance company to evade its contractual agreement. That's on him. I'm not willing to change my life or give up my liberties in order to protect him from his own stupidity.

And 'yes'... put the insurance companies in direct competition with one another. If the little ones get eaten, it'll be because they SUCKED. The free market is the quality-control mechanism. People have a direct vote... with their dollar. Instead of some bureaucrat picking winners and losers, WE pick them.

As far as your comment on "the Republican Party", I think you've just proved yourself to be a partisan hack whose commentary is unworthy of notice. If you lack enough logic to connect the dots and understand that the "Us-Against-Them" malarkey you've been fed is coming to you from the self-same people who desire to squeeze you... you're beyond hope or help.

The good ole days of Republican v. Democrat and Conservative v. Liberal are gone. Once you wrap your mind around that... you begin to see that it's ALL about corporatism, whether it comes from Haliburton, GE, the SEIU, or ACORN. The proposition before you is, in actuality, The Rich and Powerful v. We The People.

Your fate, under a state of tyranny, is the same as mine... the same as any other average citizen's. And YOUR children will share the yoke with ours. And if that's not incentive to pull your head out of your ass and earnestly explore the possibility that you've got it all wrong... I can't imagine what is.