Linkage

This is why I have no use for the VFW.  It's also why, when I bought a poppy several weeks ago (as I always do during VFW fund raising season), I made the poor VFW guy listen to me tell him gently that while I will donate in order to get a poppy in memory of my father, I consider the VFW to be a corrosive and unreasonably partisan force in the country.

Ezra calls out swiftboatin', corporate welfare seekin', wind fan, T. Boone Pickens and thank god for that.  I'm so sick of Pickens and wish that someone would step up to compete against him with a plan that takes into account the welfare of workers, the public good, the environment and the people who will be displaced along the way to wind. 

With two videos of people dropping dead while being denied care in American hospitals floating around, Jacob Rosenbaum, writing at the Health Care for America Now blog is wondering when the calls for real, wider accountability will start:

True, King-Drew did eventually get shut down, and Kings Country may get hit with a big lawsuit. And these YouTube videos certainly contributed to that outcome. But the problem we're facing is systemic. Hospitals are caught between greed and public obligations, between spiraling costs and an under-insured populace, between people who need urgent care and insurance companies unwilling to pay. The question is, how does filming a video in a hospital connect to the larger goal of stopping the practice of putting profit before people and reforming our health care system?

Another (lack of) Accountability Moment: Harry Shearer, one of the best, most consistent sources for New Orleans commentary, wants to know how we're going to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past (shoddy levees and ruined coasts) that led to a devestated New Orleans, if we don't hold anyone accountable for the mistakes?  I guess that would be playing the Blame Game ...