Fox more concerned with optics of huge increases in health insurance costs than impact on consumers

California's Anthem Blue Cross would raise insurance premiums by a startling 39%, analysts considered its impact on consumers.

At Fox Business Channel, the hosts appeared to be solely concerned that it could boost support for health care reform.

On Monday Brad Fluegel, Vice President of Blue Cross's parent company Wellpoint, Inc., appeared on Fox with hosts Stu Varney and Charles Payne to discuss his subsidiary company's recent moves.

Fluegel downplayed the company's $2.7 billion profit in the final quarter of 2009 and insisted the premium jumps were in accordance with rising medical costs. He also lamented the "highly politicized debate" nationally on health care.

White House Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius pointed out that Blue Cross's rate increase is 15 times that of inflation.

The health care advocacy group HCAN alleged in a report this month that such rate hikes are designed to boost the profits of insurers rather than pay medical expenses.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce chairman Rep. Henry Waxman called Blue Cross's decision "deeply troubling" and demanded to "know what possible justification there could be for increases of this magnitude."

Neither Fox host asked Fluegel about the forthcoming increased costs to consumers. They appeared more concerned that it could boost enthusiasm for insurance reform.

"You handed the politicians red meat at a time when health care is being discussed," Varney said. "You gave it to them... You couldn’t see this coming? I mean really, you couldn’t see this coming?"

Anthem Blue Cross spent nearly $9.5 million lobbying against health reforms; the annual salary for Anthem’s CEO tops $10 million.

Bob Barr angrily booed at CPAC for saying waterboarding is torture

Former Republican congressman Bob Barr was angrily booed at the CPAC conference in Washington, DC on Friday when he declared that water-boarding is torture.

During a debate of whether suspected terrorists ought to be tried in civilian courts or read Miranda rights upon arrest, Barr said the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 provided the framework for how to deal with terrorist suspects, and said government officials should stick to that law.

"Either we believe, as lawyers, as lawmakers and as citizens, that there is value in laws, that laws that are passed have meaning and have a purpose, or we don’t," Barr said.

Barr said there's nothing magical about military tribunals, they don't have necessarily better lawyers than in the civilian sector. He went on to say that he has more faith in our US attorneys, who are non-political, than all the many republicans who do not support the use of civilian trials.

Barr said that the civilian courts can try them, and should try them, which is precisely what our laws provide for. He challenged the idea of handing all suspected terrorists to the military to let them torture them for a while. He declared that water-boarding is not an advanced interrogation technique, it is torture.

His comments were met with little applause and gasps among the audience at the conservative conference, which was quickly drowned out by loud jeers.

Earlier in Barr’s debate with Republican Congressman of California, Lundgren got an enthusiastic round of applause when he declared, "I support enhanced interrogation."

Barr served as a Republican House representative from Georgia from 1995 to 2003, before switching to the Libertarian Party in 2006. Prior he served as U.S. Attorney for Georgia during the Reagan and first Bush years.

See portions of the debate here:

http://vodpod.com/watch/3081515-bob-barr-jeered-at-cpac-for-saying-waterboarding-is-torture-raw-story

A third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs coexisted, Only 6% of Gov. Perry supporters believe in evolution

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to a recent University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. The survey was designed by David Prindle, a University of Texas government professor. 

The differences in beliefs about evolution and the length of time that living things have existed on earth are clearly reflected in the political preference of the respondents.

38 percent surveyed said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and while only 12 percent said that human development happened without God having any part of the process. 38 percent believed that God created human beings in their present form about 10,000 years ago."

47 percent of Republicans believed that humans have always existed in their present form and as compared to 26 percent for Democrats.

Only 26 percent of Republicans surveyed believe that humans developed from earlier species of animals, the common hypothesis for the theory of evolution. 46 percent of Democrats believe that humans evolved from earlier species. 


When asked about whom they would be supporting for Texas Governor only 6 percent of Gov. Perry's supporters believe that humans developed from earlier species of animals.

31 percent of Republicans thought dinosaurs and humans lived on the planet at the same time. While only 21 percent of Democrats believed that to be the case. 

Republicans want to fire top counter-terrorism adviser who outed them for their own failures

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asserted today on FOX News that President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, a 25-year veteran of the CIA and adviser to Republicans and Democrats alike, “had lost any utility he could have for the President of the United States," because of recent statements he's made about the prosecution of the war on terror and the administration's critics.

"When you impugn people's patriotism and integrity and make statements that compare people going back into the fight in Afghanistan or Yemen or other places, with criminals who go back to a life of crime in the United States, you've lost touch with reality," McCain said, in an appearance on Fox News.

The issue of terrorist recidivism was a very significant problem under the Bush administration. Two weeks ago, Brennan sent a letter to members of Congress, informing them that after a comprehensive records review, it was determined that all the former detainees released or transferred who returned to terrorism after their release did so during the Bush years. 

The Arizona Republican did not expressly call for Brennan's firing, though it was implied in his comments. During an appearance on Fox News the day before Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), McCain’s close friend in the Senate, did in fact call for Brennan’s firing, saying it would be better to have a new person in that job.

The GOP guns clearly are pointed in Brennan's direction, despite the fact that, having worked for five administrations. He is widely regarded as an apolitical figure. Some of his statements that the republicans find so offensive aren't all that controversial as compared to those made by legislators and officials from the Bush administration.

McCain, for example, seemed particularly irked that Brennan would compare recidivism rates for terrorists with those for criminals, when former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did much the same.

Rice, the long-time Bush confidant affirmed, during a 2005 AP interview, that recidivism isn't just a problem at Guantanamo; it is a problem with criminal justice as well.

Instead of working with the Obama administration to resolve these concerns, republicans want kill the messenger in hopes that voters will not find out how inept they are at governing or at protecting Americans.

Republicans just hate it when the facts get in the way of their attempts at revising recent history.

Republicans take credit for Iraq withdrawl which they vigorously opposed before

Earlier this week on the Larry King Show Vice President Biden said that he was very optimistic about Iraq and noted that it’s going to be one of the great achievements of this administration.

 President Obama had previously announced a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, an issue that he campaigned on and was vigorously opposed by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who advocated keeping U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely.

A few days earlier former Vice President Cheney took to the airwaves and took credit for a withdrawal plan he opposed, saying that Biden should be “thanking George Bush.” 

Later Biden pushed back against Cheney’s distortions on Meet the Press and Face the Nation, maintaining that the Iraq war “wasn’t worth it.” Biden argued that the Obama administration has managed the drawdown “very very well,” noting that the administration has acted as a “catalyst” for political reconciliation, which was the source of violence and the primary obstacle to a successful withdrawal. He also pointed out that in January 2009, the Bush administration had no political plan for Iraq.

Cheney’s attempt to take credit for the withdrawal represents a total turnaround. Last summer, Cheney expressed concern that Iraq withdrawal will “waste all the tremendous sacrifice” of US troops. Cheney has long fear-mongered on the implication of U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. During the 2008 campaign, he even called the demands from Democrats in Congress for a timetable for withdrawal an act of “betrayal.”

Watch Cheney and Biden interviews here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QxPcNGscRQ&feature=player_embedded