Health Care Reform: Harder Than It Needs To Be

by Stuart Shapiro

Controlling health care costs has become critical to the nation’s long term health and impossible politically at the same time.  If one thing puts our economy into a tailspin from which it cannot recover, it will be the contradiction of the above sentence.  Yet, ideas exist to deal with costs.  This week three of them got attention from various corners.  Joe Nocera wrote about halting Medicare payments for dubious treatments.

The strangest reaction, though, has come from the nation’s health insurers and the administrators of Medicare. Despite the clear evidence of Avastin’s lack of efficacy in treating …

Occupy LA To Be Evicted From City Hall Park 12:01AM Monday

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa supports the OWS movement, but says it’s time to move on.

“The movement has awakened the country’s conscience. It has given voice to those who have not been heard,” the mayor said. “I am proud of the fact that this has been a peaceful, nonviolent protest. It has been peaceful because we decided to do things differently in Los Angeles, not stare each other down across barricades and barbed wire.”

It’s not the end of the movement, but a step toward the next phase.

Occupy L.A. organizers said the end of the tent city would offer …

Sandusky Daughter-In-Law Says He Abused His Own Grandchild

The latest complaint against Jerry Sandusky comes from his own family.

The complaint was filed with Centre County’s Children and Youth Services by the wife of one of his adopted sons, Sandusky’s lawyer told ABC News.

The lawyer, Joe Amendola, said the allegation cites the abuse of one grandchild.

“The allegations are ridiculous and unfounded. Jerry has absolutely denied any inappropriate contact with his grandkids,” Amendola told ABC News.

The family is divided.

One of Sandusky’s adopted sons, Matt Sandusky, still supports his father despite the allegations and even brought his children to visit Sandusky after his Nov. 5 …

Gary Johnson May Seek Libertarian Nomination For President

Feeling “abandoned” by the Republican Party, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson says he may seek the libertarian nomination for president.

“I feel abandoned by the Republican Party,” Johnson said in a phone interview. “The Republican Party has left me by the wayside.”

He’s been left out of all but two of the seemingly endless Republican presidential debates. His fundraising is low and his poll numbers are below radar level.

“If I’d have been included in 16 of the last debates we wouldn’t even be having this conversation,” Johnson said.

Johnson said there have been “overtures made” by the Libertarian …

Shopper Pepper-Sprays Other Shoppers To Get Walmart Deal

Walmart had a deal on Xbox video game players and while the crowd was waiting, a woman pepper-sprayed other customers “in order to get advantage,” says Sgt. Jose Valle.

Ten people were slightly injured by the pepper spray and 10 others suffered minor bumps and bruises in the chaos, Valle said. They were treated at the scene.

“People could have gotten trampled,” he said. “Good thing there were no small kids.”

The woman got away in the confusion, but it was not immediately clear whether she got an Xbox, Valle said.

View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.…

Mark Kelly Expresses Surprise That Sarah Palin Never Contacted His Family

Mark Kelly told Piers Morgan that, given the Palin crosshairs map and the association with the attack on his wife, Gabrielle Giffords, it’s surprising she never contacted them. Piers Morgan said that inaction is “extraordinary.”

“Yeah, I was surprised too,” Kelly replied. “You know, certainly the targets that she put over Gabby’s and other people’s districts, in our opinion, was not the right thing to do. She is not the first person to do that. And it hasn’t always been Republicans that have done that.”

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Bachmann says NBC’s Apology Not Good Enough

NBC apologized to Michele Bachmann for the way she was introduced on Jimmy Fallon’s show; the band played the song “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.” But Bachmann says the apology isn’t sufficient, because it comes from the Vice President of Programming, not the network president. She also complains that things would have been different if a liberal got this treatment.

Bachmann: We just had it Fedexed to my home this morning. The event happened on Monday night. We just received the Fedex copy this morning. You know, my response was that no matter if you’re a liberal or a conservative …

On Friday’s Radio Show…

Guest host Barry Weintraub fills in for Alan.…

Jon Huntsman’s Game-Changing Plan To Reform Wall Street

By Yashwanth Manjunath

With the exception of the iconoclastic Ron Paul, the GOP presidential field is filled entirely with candidates who subscribe to the same uninteresting and toxic formula of religious extremism and crony capitalism. But Jon Huntsman may have finally given empirically-driven voters a reason to support someone other than Barack Obama, by devising a truly game-changing Wall Street reform proposal that goes much farther than the largely toothless Dodd-Frank legislation.

Here are the key elements of his plan:

 1. Set a hard cap on bank size based on assets as a percentage of GDP. (This cap would

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Woman Gets Jail For Lying To Get Food Stamps, While Wall Street Fraudsters Get Bailouts

Submitted by Jazmine

A mother of two named Anita McLemore lied about past drug convictions to feed her family.

Last week, a federal judge in Mississippi sentenced a mother of two named Anita McLemore to three years in federal prison for lying on a government application in order to obtain food stamps.

Apparently in this country you become ineligible to eat if you have a record of criminal drug offenses. States have the option of opting out of that federal ban, but Mississippi is not one of those states. Since McLemore had four drug convictions in her past, she was …

Former NY Mayor Ed Koch Wants Current Mayor Mike Bloomberg To Run For President

Ed Koch has said he supports the re-elecition of Barack Obama, but he wants to see New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg get into the race (via Political Wire)

“I believe there is a major chance of a third party winning and I would like to see him pursue it for 2012,” Koch said. “What I believe he offers is independence and money to finance a campaign and to be president.”…