Short List News

A fundraiser for John McCain at the home of Texas oilman and Republican Clayton "Claytie" Williams was canceled due to a joke he told during his failed 1990 campaign for governor against Democrat Ann Richards. Williams compared rape to the weather, saying, "As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it." He also compared Richards to the cattle on his ranch, saying he would "head her and hoof her and drag her through the dirt." Is it any surprise that this skittering cockroach is a Republican.

The war on higher education has been in full swing here in Wisconsin for years, and it’s biggest enemy is Republican Representative Steve Nass, elected ironically by the people of the small UW city of Whitewater. Like anywhere else in the country, colleges have been cranking out liberals, and silencing conservatives by threat of violence. So in response, this Capital Times reader, Derek Popp, made some interesting observations:

Rep. Steve Nass, is once again concerned about children, this time that the young minds will be indoctrinated into the liberal agenda by new UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin. If the UW System is so liberal and so effective at indoctrinating its students to become liberals, what happened? More often than not when I check the biographies of our conservative leaders, it turns out they are alumni of one of the UW campuses. Tommy Thompson graduated from Madison, Nass from Whitewater, Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, from Madison (in law), Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, from Madison, for example. It seems the system has failed in its mission to turn out liberals.

On the McCain health care front, it's always a good idea to put people out there alone, left to buy there own insurance from the private for profit extortionists. According to the Capital Times:

Kevin and Amy Summersthen 3-year-old son, Parker, was diagnosed with a rare
form of brain cancer in 2002, their carefully constructed safety net turned out to be illusory. The stem cell rescue therapy recommended by Parker's pediatric oncologist was turned down for coverage by Touchpoint Health Plan, the Summers' insurance company. The couple were faced with an excruciating choice: go forward with the stem cell therapy without knowing how they'd pay for the expensive treatment, or put Parker through a regimen of radiation that was covered by insurance, but was more likely to inflict damage on his internal organs. They chose the first route and their gamble paid off.

Late last month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed that Touchpoint should not have denied coverage and it ordered that the HMO retroactively reinstate benefits and "resolve any other collateral issues." Patient advocate Meg Gaines says the decision should also alert consumers to the fact that virtually all health insurance policies contain provisions excluding coverage for clinical trials." Greater than 90 percent of children are treated on these clinical protocols…that upwards of 80 percent of children are "cured" after treatment. Adds Gaines: "The vast majority of people don't know their children are not covered for cancer care as a technical matter. It is at the discretion of a profit-making enterprise, not your doctor." Touchpoint is not a bunch of doctors making a medical decision about what this kid needs," says Gaines.

Again, who would you trust making your medical decisions: The government assisted program concerned with making you well, or an insurance company weighing your treatment against their bottom line. Come on, you know the answer. Ask your Republican legislator if they dropped their taxpayer paid health care plan for a health savings account. (crickets effects here)