Free Republic

VIA EMAIL AND OVERNIGHT DELIVERY Assembly Member Dave Jones Chair, Assembly Health Committee State of California Assembly 915 L Street, Suite 110 Sacramento, CA 95814 Dear Chairman Jones: Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you and the members of your Assembly Health Committee last Tuesday. Committee members’ questions were, by and large, thoughtful, appropriate and aimed at getting to an understanding of the drivers of escalating premium costs. I am sorry I was not better able to answer questions regarding the Individual market; however, I am assured you will receive responses to your questions on those issues in...

Retreats, Million-Dollar Salaries Paid For As Anthem Blue Cross Sought Rate Hike Rob Hotakainen WASHINGTON - While Anthem Blue Cross proposed a 39 percent rate increase on thousands of its California customers, its parent company paid 39 of its executives more than $1 million each and spent more than $27 million on 103 lavish executive retreats, congressional investigators say. "One question we asked is where does all of this money go?" Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles said at a House subcommittee hearing today. "Corporate executives at WellPoint are thriving, while its policyholders are paying the price." In response...

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner says the insurer failed to pay medical claims on time and misrepresented policies from 2006 to 2009. The firm faces up to $7 million in fines. California's largest for-profit health insurer violated state law more than 700 times over a three-year period by failing to pay medical claims on time and misrepresenting policies to customers, the state's insurance commissioner said Monday. Anthem Blue Cross could face fines of up to $7 million stemming from the alleged violations from 2006 to 2009. Commissioner Steve Poizner said that the insurer repeatedly failed to respond to state regulators...

'Oh, Say, Can You See, by the...Um...Help!' They can ski down steep slopes at lightning speeds, perform quad spins on ice and do backflips on halfpipes, so how's this for a new, novel Olympic challenge: Singing your country's national anthem on the medal stand. A scant 21.2% of gold-medal winners in these Games actually sang their entire national anthem, with an additional 18.2% mustering bits and pieces while mumbling or entirely missing other parts, according to a Wall Street Journal study of 33 winners through Thursday's events. Six Americans were part of this assessment and only one, snowboarder Seth Wescott,...

Following the White House’s lead, “Good Morning America” criticized insurance companies on Feb. 17 going so far as to insinuate they might be breaking the law by raising premiums. “Now to the outrage over skyrocketing health insurance premiums, some Americans covered by Anthem Blue Cross were recently hit by a whopping 39 percent rate increase. President Obama called out Anthem and a congressional hearing on this big rate hike is coming next week, but in the mean time regulators are trying to determine if rate hikes like this are even legal,” George Stephanopoulos said. Those rate hikes averaging around 24...

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following statement is being issued today by Consumer Watchdog -- Anthem Blue Cross's announcement today that it will temporarily suspend a premium increase of up to 39% or more should not deter the California Legislature from taking immediate action to regulate health insurance premium increases, said Consumer Watchdog.

An unofficial anthem for Tea Partiers??An awesome song

Grammy Award-winning music artist Ray Stevens has recorded a song and video that is fast becoming the anthem of the Tea Party Movement. “We the People” is about Obamacare and the health-care reform bills that have passed both houses of Congress. The lyrics express a comic, but pointed warning to members of Congress: “You vote Obamacare, we’re going to vote you out of there. We the People have awakened to your tricks. You vote to let this pass, you’re going to be out on your (sound of foghorn).” ...

If Patriotic "on hold" music on the Capital switchboard was enough to irritate Mrs. Pelosi, this song just might make her melt!

Mikhalkov, Author of Soviet and Russian Anthem, Dead at 96 28 August 2009 By Nabi Abdullaev / The Moscow Times Sergei Mikhalkov, author of the lyrics of the Soviet and Russian national anthems and a Rolls-Royce of Soviet poetry for more than four decades, died Thursday in a Moscow hospital. He was 96. "He died of old age. He simply fell asleep," said his grandson, film producer Yegor Konchalovsky, RIA-Novosti reported. President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered condolences to his family, including his two sons, prominent film directors Oscar-winning Nikita Mikhalkov and Andrei Konchalovsky. Both of his...

I could use some help solving this mystery. This has not been confirmed, the The American Thinker speculates: An anti-Obama website, The Obama File, posts a photograph purporting to show President Obama putting his hand over his heart during the playing of the Russian national anthem, during his visit to Moscow. How can it possibly be a genuine photograph, when we know that the President didn't put his hand over his heart during the playing of the American national anthem, as demonstrated in this now-infamous photograph taken during the campaign? UPDATE: The above photo of Obama holding his hand over...

Reminder: download "The Tea Party Anthem" to play at your 4th of July Tea Party. http://bit.ly/zMYfG Hear "The American TEa Party Anthem" here: http://bit.ly/6mfvC

Although I have lived in the Washington, D.C., area since 1984, I am an orthodox Baltimorean by birth, nurture, education, baseball loyalties, and a settled disdain for offering tartar sauce with crab cakes. So I should be the last person to think the unthinkable about my native city’s principal contribution to American public culture (after, of course, the Colts’ sudden-death victory over the New York Giants in the 1958 NFL championship game). Nonetheless, I shall risk the charges of heresy and treason by proposing the following thought experiment: as America celebrates Independence Day, let’s ponder a switch in national anthems,...

As in the Civil War, the Obama administration is straining relationships. Here is my letter to Al (not his real name) a fellow black, long time friend and mentor. Dear Al, I didn't pick up when you called because I don't know how you will re-act to what is going on in my life. I've become famous for my “American Tea Party Anthem” which opposes the policies of Obama. I know you're a HUGE Obama fan and believe ALL who oppose him are evil. So, you can understand how I find myself in an awkward position. I'm totally accepting of...

BROSSARD, Quebec -- Montreal coach Bob Gainey appealed to Canadiens fans to stop booing the U.S. national anthem. Gainey, also the team's general manager, said fans who booed during "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Game 3 of their playoff series with the Boston Bruins should find other ways to voice support for their team. "I feel like there's a confusion there with our fans," Gainey said Tuesday. "They feel like booing the anthem is supporting our team, in that the anthem represents the Boston team. "And I think if they could separate those two things, then we could respect the anthem...

Now here is something you definitely don't see at left-wing protests: http://www.vimeo.com/4204301 (captured at the Raleigh, NC Tea Party tax protest on the Capitol Grounds)

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin on Sunday chose the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm, home to the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, as his first location for a formal visit following his induction. Less than a month after fights broke out when rightists undertook the controversial 'flag march' through the city, Rivlin went so far as to say he would not ask residents to sing the national anthem during his visit. "I can't require non-Jews to sing 'as long as in all hearts there beats a Jewish spirit'," he said. However, "it is important not to incite against...

give these little girls a listen...they can sing!

FUNNY, `CAUSE IT`S TRUE: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=l46t_nrySg4 . . .

U.S. Soldiers in Iraq Sing the National Anthem in a Movie Theater-Truth! For those who are unaware, at a military theater, the National Anthem is played before every movie. From a Chaplain in Iraq: I recently attended a showing of 'Superman 3,' here at LSA Anaconda. We have a large auditorium we use for movies, as well as memorial services and other large gatherings. As is the custom back in the States, we stood and snapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature. All was going as planned until about three-quarters of the way through The...