Grumpasaurus.com

‘Wash Post’ Endorses Lieberman for Senate

The Washington Post’s editorial page endorsed Sen. Joe Lieberman for re-election in his third-party Connecticut U.S. Senate race on Sunday, saying that even though he lost the Democratic primary — and Republican leaders are now backing him — his victory in November would still be the best thing for his party.

The Post, like Lieberman, is a strong backer of the Iraq war. Lieberman lost to an antiwar candidate, Ned Lamont.

The Post noted that “the critical question facing voters in November, as opposed to party leaders now, is who would make the better senator — which is why we welcome Mr. Lieberman’s decision to remain in the race. He would be, by far, the better choice for the people of Connecticut.” It even asserted that Lieberman had been making “sharp criticism” of the president on the war for years — likely a surprise to most Democratic voters in the state.

This, then, is truly their TNR moment (when TNR picked Joenomentum as their Dem candidate for ’04 preznit, thus eliminating what remaining credibility that magazine had).

The WaPo editors and opinion pieces are execrable. The news reporting is pretty darn good, but the OpEd/board? Not so much. In their world, it’s the social cocktail weenies and shrimp circuit (plus your breeding pedigree) that matters far, far more than any of those ‘facts,’ ‘actions,’ or that so-called ‘reality’ thing.

The awful Medicare “reform”/big Pharma handout that the GOP put into effect is entering the donut hole stage for many seniors.

Millions of older Americans are confronting a temporary break in their Medicare drug coverage this month that will require them to pay the full cost of their prescriptions or face the painful prospect of going without.

This is the “doughnut hole” in the new Medicare drug benefit that began in January, and advocates for seniors say there is nothing sweet about it. Some seniors knew nothing of the coverage gap until they were hit with a bigger drug bill, advocates say.

“Virtually everyone who calls to say they’ve been denied coverage, they’re shocked,” said Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center, a nonprofit that helps seniors navigate Medicare. “Trying to explain that this is the way the program was created by Congress angers folks who think it makes no sense. Many people feel blindsided.”

The coverage gap was one of the most contentious elements of the 2003 legislation that created the new benefit. It ends federal payments for a person’s drug purchases once an annual spending limit is reached, resuming them only after the beneficiary has spent thousands of dollars out of pocket.

…

Frances Acanfora, 65, had been paying $58 for a three-month supply of her five medications. But this month the retired school lunchroom aide learned that her next bill would be $1,294. She had entered the doughnut hole.

“It’s not my fault that I take this medicine,” the Brooklyn resident said. “I’ve got to take it. And they make a limit. That’s not fair.”

After talking to her doctor, Acanfora decided to temporarily stop taking a drug as part of her treatment for breast cancer. She hopes to obtain some free samples of eye drops for her glaucoma. Three other medicines — for high cholesterol, diabetes and osteoporosis — cost $506.62, which Acanfora put on her credit card.

“I pay a little bit at a time,” she said. “What am I going to do? I need it. . . . Sometimes, just to think about it, I cry.”

About 3 million of the 23 million Americans who receive the Medicare drug benefit are expected to reach the gap this year, officials said. That is fewer than half the 7 million cited in a 2004 report by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which Medicare chief Mark B. McClellan called outdated.

Note: Mark McClellan is brother of former Press Secretary Scott.

A new product has just been released, and with it, Hewlett Packard is showing the world that not only are they the market leader in illegal spying on their own board members, but also in sexist, self-hatred reinforcing cameras that can slim all you fat bitches down to a better, sexier size (hey, CBS did it to Katie after all).

They say cameras add ten pounds, but HP digital cameras can help reverse that effect. The slimming feature, available on select HP digital camera models, is a subtle effect that can instantly trim off pounds from the subjects in your photos!

I’m with Bitch Ph. D. on this one – boycott! Yarrrrr!