If you are diagnosed with cancer, better pray that M.D. Anderson and other hospitals don't lock their doors to you until you pay tens of thousands of dollars up front. In this case, a woman with leukemia managed to borrow enough to meet a demand for a $45,000 cash pre-payment; then was refused treatment at time of admitting until she came up with $60,000 more.
She had insurance. You read that right. She had insurance. It just didn't guarantee enough payment to earn treatment for the patient, who was fighting for her life.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Our First SPANK THE MEDIA Honoree: WMAQ NBC 5
We're so excited! We have a winner in the Peanut crew's new "Spank the Media" competition to find the stupidest, most overblown, most time-wasting, or downright unfactual bit of media out there. (Really, though, we have to limit it to the most blatant examples; we don't have room or time enough to list the daily Hefty bags of eligible competitors.)
Admittedly, the Barack Obama-Rev. Jeremiah Wright linkage is a hot, hot, hot topic. The fires are repeatedly stoked by Wright's particular-and often downright weird--skill in hopping back out in front of the media sideshow tent. Still and all, a newscast trumpeting an "exclusive, one on one" interview with Obama about his reaction to Wright's latest pronouncements outdid even Little Egypt in teasing the midway but delivering little.
WMAQ NBC-5 repeatedly referenced their "exclusive one on one" interview with Obama, "the first" since the sneak peek release of Wright's interview with Bill Moyers. Was it an "exclusive one on one" interview?
Only if you're so hard up for dubious glory to claim that an awkward, poorly-photographed, poorly-structured, and even-more-poorly questioned standard "shove mike in face" is an "exclusive one on one interview." An example of a true exclusive, personal interview is the upcoming Moyers piece.
But a tease in a short, less than three-minute clip isn't the same thing. Nor is a second clip, which has only a short reference to the Wright controversy, an exclusive interview as in Moyer's piece.
We'll save you the time of learning just what it is that Obama had to say about Wright's piece in that oh-so-exclusive interview (which is hinted at, in the first clip, as focusing on the Wright issue). Here's the exclusive news: Obama hasn't seen Wright's interview yet, so he isn't able to comment.
Wow! We hope you were sitting down for that huge bit of exclusive, breaking news.
The second clip offers a few surface gloss-overs of other topics, served up by a softball reporter with basic "I'm so impressed you're talking to me" questions.
The piece is only otherwise remarkable in the shots over the reporter's stooped back, the nifty sustained shot of her cellphone (looks like a Palm Treo), and, occasionally, a bit of the reporter's face bobbing up and down, darting, at the side.
It wasn't an exclusive one-on-one interview, it wasn't even a quick mike-in-face chat of substance, it was poorly presented, and it had nothing more to offer than basic Obama public relations pablum. Bend over, NBC 5 WMAQ, it's your turn in the SPANK THE MEDIA spotlight.
And what about a thoughtful look at the Obama-Wright issue? Analyst & campaign expert Ned Barnett weighed in on that.
At Wright's church, Easter celebrations included a from-the-pulpit admonition to not give interviews. There's a lot of blame going around for the "God damn America" mess, and both the Obama and Wright camps are busy trying to make sure the blame doesn't stick to either of the two men.
Admittedly, the Barack Obama-Rev. Jeremiah Wright linkage is a hot, hot, hot topic. The fires are repeatedly stoked by Wright's particular-and often downright weird--skill in hopping back out in front of the media sideshow tent. Still and all, a newscast trumpeting an "exclusive, one on one" interview with Obama about his reaction to Wright's latest pronouncements outdid even Little Egypt in teasing the midway but delivering little.
WMAQ NBC-5 repeatedly referenced their "exclusive one on one" interview with Obama, "the first" since the sneak peek release of Wright's interview with Bill Moyers. Was it an "exclusive one on one" interview?
Only if you're so hard up for dubious glory to claim that an awkward, poorly-photographed, poorly-structured, and even-more-poorly questioned standard "shove mike in face" is an "exclusive one on one interview." An example of a true exclusive, personal interview is the upcoming Moyers piece.
But a tease in a short, less than three-minute clip isn't the same thing. Nor is a second clip, which has only a short reference to the Wright controversy, an exclusive interview as in Moyer's piece.
We'll save you the time of learning just what it is that Obama had to say about Wright's piece in that oh-so-exclusive interview (which is hinted at, in the first clip, as focusing on the Wright issue). Here's the exclusive news: Obama hasn't seen Wright's interview yet, so he isn't able to comment.
Wow! We hope you were sitting down for that huge bit of exclusive, breaking news.
The second clip offers a few surface gloss-overs of other topics, served up by a softball reporter with basic "I'm so impressed you're talking to me" questions.
The piece is only otherwise remarkable in the shots over the reporter's stooped back, the nifty sustained shot of her cellphone (looks like a Palm Treo), and, occasionally, a bit of the reporter's face bobbing up and down, darting, at the side.
It wasn't an exclusive one-on-one interview, it wasn't even a quick mike-in-face chat of substance, it was poorly presented, and it had nothing more to offer than basic Obama public relations pablum. Bend over, NBC 5 WMAQ, it's your turn in the SPANK THE MEDIA spotlight.
And what about a thoughtful look at the Obama-Wright issue? Analyst & campaign expert Ned Barnett weighed in on that.
At Wright's church, Easter celebrations included a from-the-pulpit admonition to not give interviews. There's a lot of blame going around for the "God damn America" mess, and both the Obama and Wright camps are busy trying to make sure the blame doesn't stick to either of the two men.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Sneak Peek Video: Rev. Wright Tries to Cover for Barack Obama with Bill Moyers Friday Night
Here's a brief refresher on one small part of Wright's theology, which Sen. Barack Obama has followed and endorse for two decades.
"“Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer and we had better kill him.
The task of black theology is to kill gods who do not belong to the black community. Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.
What we need is the divine love as expressed in black power which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means
at their disposal."
That theology is from Wright favorite James Cones. He's one of the most vocal voices leading the black liberation theology movement.
" Dr. Robert Morey points out that for Black Liberation Theology, "their focus is always on skin and not sin; race and not grace; gossip and not gospel. Racism is always focused on the outward instead of the inward because it cannot deal with the root problem of sin." The Ankerberg Theological Institute further explains the roots of the belief system.
Does Wright have Obama's best interests at heart? Consider that carefully. This attention hound and media exploiter has chosen to again raise issues that Obama's slick campaign staff have been trying to back and fill,and bury.
Which is more important to Wright--his ego, supporting Obama, or getting new venues to get his attacks on America attention? Hint: the answers are two of the previous three, and not in the order presented.
An exclusive CBS affiliate story makes more of this story clear.
Saluting Military Veterans: Wounded Warrior Bicycle Ride Begins
Memo to Veteran's Administration & Washington: let's take better care of our military veterans. Our Vietnam vets were basically tossed on the trash heap.
Iraq's simmering ethnic war over Kirkuk
"Tensions are rising between Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmen factions over power and populations in the province, the heart of northern Iraq's oil industry.
Graffiti inside this city's ancient hilltop citadel quickly spells out the tension between Kirkuk's three main ethnic groups; Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen."
"On one wall, an eagle descends on a two-headed serpent meant to symbolize enemies of the Kurdish nation. Next to it, the word "Arab" is erased and replaced with an etched "Kurdish" in a slogan that once read: "Kirkuk is an Arab city." Another slogan reads: "Kirkuk is Turkmen."
Kirkuk has been the object of a bitter struggle over the past five years among Iraq's competing ethnic and sectarian groups. And now Arab, Kurd, and Turkmen factions seem to be digging in, anticipating that tensions may erupt in an area that is the center of northern Iraq's oil industry ahead of a promised referendum on the fate of Kirkuk Province, officially still called Tamim, its previous Baath Party-era name.
Article 140 of Iraq's Constitution was supposed to resolve the issue by the end of 2007 but the deadline for a vote has been extended to the end of June in the hopes that the United Nations may be able to broker a solution by then.
But with or without a referendum, Kurds maintain that almost the entirety of Kirkuk Province, of which the city of Kirkuk is the capital, is a natural part of their semiautonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq. Arabs and Turkmen, on the other hand, say Article 140 is now "null and void" and that other solutions must be devised.
In general, Turkmen support a semi-independent Kirkuk Province while Arabs back the idea of the central government remaining in control.
Meanwhile, the United States is exerting a mix of coercion and incentives to prevent the feuding parties from battling each other over the issue.
But already local security officials say a simmering conflict is under way with no day going by without a tit-for-tat kidnapping or assassination involving a member of the city's three competing population groups. Turkmen and Arab leaders say hundreds of their own have been jailed inside Kurdistan."
Source: the always excellent Christian Science Monitor
Commentary: the problems within this region are large, and I fear they will eventually spill out to affect the entire world. The old ethnic hatreds are strong. Add to that the enticements of oil money, the lust for power, and Al-Qaeda quick moves into fragmented regions, and Iraq is in for even larger problems ahead.
This is part of a continuing series on the situation. The Christian Science Monitor's work simply must not be missed.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Rickroll Me Baby, Lemme Meme You All Night (& Other Bouts of Internet Video Humor)
And on the 32nd Day, the Lord said: let there be craziness on the Internet. And so it came to pass. And lo, verily, we duckrolled into rickrolling, which took off like a giant, crazed bat this April Fool's Day.
But before the rickroll, there were the ancient days of meme. Back in the 90's, when Dancing Hamsters and Dancing Jesus were the headliners. Yes, the original dancers, long before The Simpson's derivative art.
It took a long time to find even a small version of the original Dancing Jesus to share with you in this quick-look history of whacky web memes.. So far, we haven't been able to get the music playing, but the spirit is there. Nor have I been able to find the original Dancing Jesus and the Dancing Apostles. It appears they have entered through the door of 404.
But not the Dancing Hamsters. They party on, in various forms. In fact, you can get your groove on and exercise with Hampton and the Hampsters.
The amazing thing about these original memes: they were all just moving .gifs, with music. Oh, those of us who were early webmasters (and webmistresses), we thought that the first time we could insert moving gifs that verily, we had come into manna.
And then came rickrolling. 80's singer Rick Astley has found himself to be a new internet phenomena, albeit in a strange way.
.
Rickrolling t even made it unto the New York Mets, where, lo, it was mightily booed.
New York, New York: if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Even if the Mets fans did roll over rickroll, the meme barrels on. Millions of Astley videos are still being downloaded, even though April Fool's Day has passed.
But before rickrolling, there was the Macarena. On the internet, macaroni performed the Macarena, now apparently replaced by the Papaya Dance.
Another new epoch in internet fads has dawned as peach and orange-clad Filipino prisoners perform choreographed dances. Although "Thriller" was the original meme hit, you can also see routines set to Sister Act's "I Will Follow Him" to Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major"(with guitar) .
But before the rickroll, there were the ancient days of meme. Back in the 90's, when Dancing Hamsters and Dancing Jesus were the headliners. Yes, the original dancers, long before The Simpson's derivative art.
It took a long time to find even a small version of the original Dancing Jesus to share with you in this quick-look history of whacky web memes.. So far, we haven't been able to get the music playing, but the spirit is there. Nor have I been able to find the original Dancing Jesus and the Dancing Apostles. It appears they have entered through the door of 404.
But not the Dancing Hamsters. They party on, in various forms. In fact, you can get your groove on and exercise with Hampton and the Hampsters.
The amazing thing about these original memes: they were all just moving .gifs, with music. Oh, those of us who were early webmasters (and webmistresses), we thought that the first time we could insert moving gifs that verily, we had come into manna.
And then came rickrolling. 80's singer Rick Astley has found himself to be a new internet phenomena, albeit in a strange way.
.
Rickrolling t even made it unto the New York Mets, where, lo, it was mightily booed.
New York, New York: if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Even if the Mets fans did roll over rickroll, the meme barrels on. Millions of Astley videos are still being downloaded, even though April Fool's Day has passed.
But before rickrolling, there was the Macarena. On the internet, macaroni performed the Macarena, now apparently replaced by the Papaya Dance.
Another new epoch in internet fads has dawned as peach and orange-clad Filipino prisoners perform choreographed dances. Although "Thriller" was the original meme hit, you can also see routines set to Sister Act's "I Will Follow Him" to Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major"(with guitar) .
Sunday, April 20, 2008
The Drew Dumpster: 0 for 2; One Judge Nixes Guns Returns; Another Ayes Kathleen Savio Estate Changes
The odor from the Drew Dumpster just got a brief blast of air freshener as former Bolingbrook cop Drew Peterson didn't get his guns back from one judge, but did get a big money change from another--and finally, he faces liability for lawsuits from the family of third wife Kathleen Savio.
Peterson, you may recall, seems to have what he calls "bad luck" with women. Savio, who Peterson dumped after he impregnated a teenager he met on the job, wound up dead, and Peterson wound up with a seven-figure profit. Fourth wife Stacy Peterson, who confessed to a minister that Peterson killed Savio, has been missing for months.
Savio was repeatedly ignored by local authorities even though she had filed multiple abuse reports against Peterson. Despite a plea for help to a prosecutor, and her prediction that Peterson would kill her and get away with it, no one helped Savio, even though Peterson reportedly broke into her home and terrorized her.
A bruised Savior wound up "drowned" in a dry bathtub. Her death scene was one of several that Peterson, swinging his nightstick as a cop, took over when people who had displeased him wound up dead.
In November, 2007, as part of a series on this bizarre case, we told you how easy it is to kill someone and fake drowning. Out of respect to Dr. Baden's work, we held off on publishing that article, and the entire series, including this list of questions that should have been asked about Savio's death, but weren't asked despite her mysterious death.
Not, of course, that Peterson has been charged with anything, even though Stacy Peterson has been missing since November, 2007. Her family has led a sustained effort to find her. Eerily, Stacy, echoing Savio, had warned her family Peterson told her he could kill her and get away with it, because, as a cop, he knew how. His second wife, Vicki Connolly, said the same thing--and that she's still afraid of him.
Thanks to Fox News and expert Dr. Michael Baden, Savio was exhumed and two new autopsies, one by Baden, proved that her death was not an accidental drowning. Earlier this year, Savio's death was ruled a "wrongful homicide." This week, a judge appointed legal guardians for Savio's children, a move that's been long overdue, and changed the executors of the estate to Savio family members.
Really, it's hard to keep up with all the twists and turns in this dirty tangle. A former fiancee told of Peterson stalking and threatening her, using his badge to do so. Peterson was once fired as a cop for, among other things, outing an undercover cop to a known killer.
He was under investigation again for alleged improper conduct when he hastily resigned. Now represented by hoping-for-a-TV-movie mouthpiece Joel Brodsky, Peterson has been playing peep show teaser with the media. He's a regular on media circuits, talking about his "Mr. Mom" duties and oh yea, the women who are hot, hot, hot for this baggy-eyed, paunchy, Lothario of loathing.
However, he won't answer relevant questions about the fate of his wives. Most recently, he and Brodsky, in yet another Charlie McCarthy performance, finally went back to the Greta Van Susteren show--with of course, "no talk" rules.
Peterson bluntly said he'd take the Fifth Amendment if he's called to court in any civil action from Savio's family. Coyly, he giggled and said that he would do and say whatever Brodsky told him to say. Then Peterson, good buddy of media stars, reminded Greta that she's overdue for a tea party with Stacy's daughter.
At least he's still got one weapon: his mouth. But that's all he has, other than his Charlie McCarthy sidekick Brodsky. Peterson has again been blocked from getting his guns back.
Earlier this year, Brodsky asked the court to return Peterson's guns, and place them in the custody of Peterson's Oak Brook cop son. Judge Richard Schoenstedt agreed, if Peterson had a valid Illinois Firearm Owners Identification Card. Authorities immediately revoked Peterson's firearms card.
This time around,Brodsky asked that the weapons be returned to Peterson's adult son Stephen Peterson, an Oak Brook police officer. This dance-around idea, another entry in the growing pile of Brodsky-Peterson weirdness, made no sense. If Peterson needed *a* (not nine) guns for self-defense, then how would they be useful at Stephen his son's house? If he wanted them back because of their monetary value and he wanted them to be safe, why did he and Brodsky believe that police custody was an unsafe place for them to be?
This time, Schoenstedt ruled that the guns were evidence in an ongoing investigation of "possible criminal conduct," The Peanut crew wonders if the discovery of an illegal, hidden weapon at Drew Peterson's home may have swayed the judge about Peterson's reliability.
Not that the public is buying what Peterson is selling. A MediaCurves study of audience responses to Peterson's first interview with Today Show's Matt Lauer on TV showed that the audience believed only one thing Peterson said.
When Lauer asked Peterson if he could present anything that would clear him in the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, or or the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, Peterson said "no." For the record, Peterson has continously said that Stacy ran off with another man--leaving her two children behind with no communication.
The search for Stacy Peterson goes on. Ditto the search for truth and justice for Kathleen Savio, Stacy Peterson, their children, and families.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
