Jack Black Takes on Liars for Hire

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the health insurance industry and a slew of new front groups that refuse to reveal their funding sources (like the 60 Plus Association and Karl Rove's American Crossroads), have been pouring millions of dollars into advertising campaigns that present false information about health reform, financial reform and the economy. The pro-reform group Health Care for America Now is fighting back with a funny video series called "The Mis-Informant," starring Jack Black as Nathan Spewman, a professional propagandist who poses as an overgrown kid with a hormone problem who infiltrates an elementary school to convince kids Obama wants to kill their grandparents. The video is part of a public education campaign to make people aware of how big businesses are spreading ridiculous lies for corporate gain.

Comments

Saw JR on CNN Just wanted to say he comes across as a serious person, has a head on his shoulders and I hope that his health is good.

For the record, I just want to say that my cousin in California who is 67 years old tells me that there are no Cost of Living Increases and lots of cuts in Social Security. She is just a housewife, not a political person. Apparently, older people on Social Security are being hurt in order to prepare for financing healthcare "reform." I do not see "reform" here. I see a bill that is greatly flawed.

The economy has not improved and the money is going to have to come from somewhere if you are going to tax people. One can tax a thriving populace but one cannot get the proverbial blood out of a turnip if the economy continues to be stagnant due to the tin ear of the political leadership of the nation. Thus far, ignoring the old has not helped much. Sure, the young support the current administration but only up to a point. Eventually they are going to emerge from graduate school and reach 30 years of age and demand more. That’s when Lyndon Johnson lost them. They all went to grad school on Student Loans and when they grew up and were 30 they wanted to enter the economy but there was no economy to enter. A war was raging and they were angry. Thus, the Chicago 7 and the police riot.

Catering to the young but doing nothing but making deals with the healthcare industry that are going to cost the taxpayer lots of money not only in taxes but in higher premiums for their health insurance is not something everyone in the public sees right now about the Democratic party but they do know something is up. One day they will figure it out that our leadership is more concerned about campaign contributions than us and they will demand a change. I think this time the change will lead to a growth in Green Party votes and in a third party movement.

I am the daughter of New Dealers and I would say about healthcare “reform” that this is not the way they would have done it. Medicare or Medical Care for the Aged was a plan that was proposed by the Kennedy Administration and carried out by the Johnson Administration. The legislative history suggests that the Congress determined that the elderly were more likely to suffer illness in old age with higher expenses than the young. Thus, it was determined that legislation providing health insurance for the elderly, yet to be patronizingly called "senior citizens" by PC politicians who did not like to use the term "old," should be enacted to protect them. Now everybody is going to be protected, or so they say. I suppose everyone can be protected, badly.

In the attempt to mobilize voters in colleges and universities by sending them emails to make small donations online, and to get them to canvass and phone bank, which means going from door to door begging for money for the Democratic National Committee and to make telephone solicitations to people to beg them for money for the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic National Committee has forgotten that appealing to kids means that you are cutting out older people.

The only thing I can say about older people is that those who work for the Democratic National Committee are all going to be old some day. If they are lucky. If they don’t plan to get old, I suppose that would explain the haste to ignore the needs of the old.

It was Lester C. Thurow who wrote a book in the seventies called “The Zero Sum Society.” He said that politicians wanted to promise the world to get people to vote for them but it was the task of economists to point out that there are finite resources and in any economy some will win and some will lose. Those who promise ”healthcare for all” are ignoring this premise. Some will lose. That is why economics is called “the dismal science.” Every politician wants every voter to think they are getting their very own ice cream and cake, or rather, piece of the pie, as Thurow used in his illustrations.

This situation also reminds me of Aesop's Tale about the donkey.

A man and his son were crossing a bridge leading a donkey. A passerby comes by and says that the boy should be considerate of his father and that the man should ride the donkey. Another passerby a few minutes later says that the man is cruel and should also let the boy sit on the donkey's back. So he does. A little later another man comes by and says that the two are being cruel to the donkey and should carry the animal on their backs. The father and son cannot find a way to carry the donkey so they get a long plank of wood and put the donkey on a sling and try to carry the wooden plank with the donkey on a sling together over the bridge, The bridge cannot bear the weight of the donkey and the two in this fashion so the bridge collapses and all three fall into the raging river beneath.

It is really strange for us europeans to see and read the polemics of us health problems. It all sounds very much like third world cronyisme '?.... only people who can afford medical care should be covered ..... it's a strange and distorted view of the sacro-saint american view of what the word freedom really means. Health insurance is a universal issue and should be treated as such. You can't just want to get "rich" even if it means killing your neighbour - you take out the word "civilisation" right out of the equation if you are sincerly opting for this view. I don°t think the founding fathers of the u.s.a. ever wanted that type of "freedom"...