In a news story today several ISP's have agreed with the Attorney General of New York to filter content which promotes child "pornography". This is the first time that ISP's have agreed to censorship not forced upon them by an authoritarian regime.

There has been much criticism, for example, of Google for agreeing to filter search results to conform to Chinese demands, but the actual blocking of traffic is handled by the government-controlled network providers. Google doesn't filter content, it only makes it harder to find. This new agreement is something else.

Until now the telecom companies have always maintained that they are "common carriers". They provide the road and what sort of vehicle you drive or where you are going is of no concern to them. This kept them away from some very ticklish political situations. There was supposed to be a complete separation between content and delivery.

Time has come up with a list of the top five strategic mistakes Hillary Clinton made during her unsuccessful bid for the White House, and while in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter why she went from inevitable to also-ran, there is one point in the article that deserves some attention:

As aides looked over the campaign calendar, chief strategist Mark Penn confidently predicted that an early win in California would put her over the top because she would pick up all the state's 370 delegates. It sounded smart, but as every high school civics student now knows, Penn was wrong: Democrats, unlike the Republicans, apportion their delegates according to vote totals, rather than allowing any state to award them winner-take-all.

It should be noted that Penn denies the story, so we'll just have to take him at his word that he isn't that stupid.  But if it's true it does raise the question, was this the stupidest thing said or done by a Clinton surrogate over the course of her campaign?   Because Penn had some stiff competition.  Who could forget:

• Geraldine Ferraro's claim that Obama has an unfair advantage because he was black.
• Bob Kerrey's happiness that Barack Hussein Obama attended a madrassa and had all that experience with Muslims.
• Billy Shaheen's concern over Obama's use of drugs and possible questions on whether he was ever a drug dealer.
• Andrew Cuoma saying that "You can't shuck and jive," in reference to Obama.
• And of course the First Surrogate, Bill Clinton, comparing Obama's win in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson's wins in the 1980's, and then being shocked at the suggestion that he was trying to paint Obama as "the black candidate."

Let's throw Mark Penn a lifeline here and prove that he wasn't the worst of the Clinton surrogates. Share your favorite (for lack of a better word) "worst surrogate moment," of the campaign.    

Over the last couple of months, I've told you about David Rosen, the CEO of Medisys Health.

In several conversation I had with Rosen, he  discussed institutionalized and organized corruption at the highest levels of U.S. health insurance companies. He described regulators who look the other way, politicians who listen to his documented litany of insurance industry crimes, say they will "look into it," and then do nothing. He called what is going on in the United States "nationwide insurance industry fraud."

Then in a second  diary, I told you about his testimony before a committee of the New York State Assembly.

Today, I'm going to give you a brief update on several very significant legal actions which may focus a harsh national spotlight on the murderous and predatory U.S. health insurance industry.  

Finally, we may be seeing action. A few politicians (thank you, Andrew Cuomo), are finally getting the message and doing their jobs.

Until we get rid of the health insurance corporations, we can at least fight back, shame them, and force them to do the right thing.

We did with the tragic story of Nataline Sarkisyan.

And now, Kim Kutcher enters the stage.

She’s in full-on patient revolt mode, working with fellow nurses to get the back surgery she needs to avoid a lifetime of disability.  We’ll take a look at what’s happening and why.  It’s an important template that someday might help your friends or family—and ask you to lend a hand, or at least a couple of dialing fingers.

...cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog...

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced an "industrywide" investigation into an alleged scheme in which insurers and health information firm Ingenix manipulated reimbursement rates. Cuomo said he has issued 16 subpoenas to insurers and plans to file a lawsuit against Ingenix, its parent, UnitedHealth Group, and three UnitedHealth subsidiaries.

This investigation has just been announced by Attorney General Cuomo. Let's hope that this is only the first act, and that other state AG's will follow his courageous lead.

Here is a link to the press release just issued by Cuomo's office.

And as you're reading this, please keep in mind that these are the same criminal companies that sadly our two Democratic candidates for President want the American people to entrust their lives to.

And a brief message to Henry Waxman. When you're finished with Roger Clemens, do you think you could do the business of the American people and get the insurance industry CEOs under oath?

Dear Bill Clinton:

You're right.  Obama people are smearing you and Hillary.  Your campaign is not offering any sort of innuendo or veiled references to anything.  

This morning, The New York Times is reporting that  New York prosecutors under the leadership of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, are investigating whether Wall Street banks withheld crucial information about the risks posed by investments linked to subprime loans.

It's long, long overdue for state prosecutors to focus on the illegal and criminal activity of the health insurance industry.  

I think I can speak for all of us in urging Mr. Cuomo to lead the nation, and swiftly turn his attention to the health insurance industry.

Does Cuomo have the courage to do this? Will Cuomo and his army of prosecutors ignore ongoing illegal criminal activity? Is Cuomo a leader, or part of the problem?  It remains to be seen.

What follows is testimony before a committee of the New York State Assembly, of a courageous hospital CEO and his Director of Utilization Management. You'll glimpse the all-encompassing corruption and power of the health insurance industry  in the United States. You'll be appalled and horrified to see how the political system is doing nothing to protect the American people from this predatory and merciless industry.

Sadly for all Democrats, there's a minor firefight going on right now about whether Hillary Clinton and her campaign are engaging in racist or race-baiting behavior. The Politico has an article out in which the Obama campaign suggests that they might be. Without getting into my personal opinion on this issue, let me just address one of the issues at hand, that of Andrew Cuomo and his use of the phrase "shuck and jive". It should be noted that Cuomo has no role with the Clinton campaign.

I had no intention of getting into this racism debate, but I'm listening to Slate-V, where Slate's Dahlia Lithwick and Emily Bazelon weigh in on the SCOTUS voting rights argument.

Check out the 3 1/2 minute mark.

A reference to the Justices "Shucking and Jiving" to avoid the case.

My valuable opinion after the fold.

My God, bigotry, you are kidding, have you any brains, minds, do you even know what bigotry is?  Being a fool and putting your foot in your mouth is different than bigotry. Period.

Enough already!

Senator Clinton fired the Iowa staffers. Good. Senator Clinton had Billy Shaheen resign, and personally apologized to Senator Obama. Good. Senator Clinton sent Bob Kerrey packing, and Kerrey apologized to Senator Obama. Good. Andrew Cuomo does not hold any official position within the Clinton campaign. She is no more responsible for his behavior than any of the other candidates are for any of their supporters.

Senator Obama used Donnie McClurkin to raise money for his campaign. McClurkin behaved reprehensibly at the Obama event. Senator Obama has neither condemned McClurkin nor apologized for causing so much pain in the gay community. And I want to emphasize something very important: I do not believe Senator Obama is a homophobic bigot. Unlike some Clinton critics, who inflate everything said or done by one of her surrogates into evidence of racism or race-baiting, I prefer to stick to the facts. The fact is that Senator Obama has been very good on LGBT issues. The fact also is that he used a homophobic bigot to further his presidential aspirations.

I'm going to preface this entry by stating unequivocally that this has absolutely nothing to do with the 2008 presidential race. I don't care which candidate you may be supporting.

In the past couple of days, Andrew Cuomo recently made these remarks:

"It's not a TV-crazed race, you know, you can't just buy your way through that race ... It doesn't work that way, it's frankly a more demanding process. You have to get on a bus, you have to go into a diner, you have to shake hands, you have to sit down with 10 people in a living room.

"You can't shuck and jive at a press conference, you can't just put off reporters, because you have real people looking at you saying answer the question, you know, and all those moves you can make with the press don't work when you're in someone's living room.

Does this mean Andrew Cuomo is racist? Probably not. But it sure as hell means he is tone-deaf, if not racially insensitive.

What's disturbing, though, is that Kossacks have been defending the use of the term 'shuck and jive'.

Apparently "shuck and jive" isn’t racist. To some members of this community, the term just doesn’t have any sort of racial connotation. Even when used in a context that alludes to an African American.

Unfortunately, the Oxford English Dictionary begs to differ.

Yesterday's shameful meltdown in the Recommended Diary list needs to be revisited.

What have we come to, that it takes Andrew fucking Sullivan to lead us away from scandalous lies told by Democrats against Democrats?  The entire folderal about Cuomo turns out to be a complete sham.  The (mock) outrage against Hillary and her campaign now turns out to be a gross misunderstanding or, more likely, a blatant lie created to demonize her and turn Obama into a victim.  This smells a lot like the misquotes through creative use of ellipses making it look like Hillary compared Obama to MLK, rather than JFK.  People talk about "patterns of Hillary's 'surrogates' (whatever that means)."  Well, now it turns out the real "pattern of 'surrogates'" is reverse slime from Obama's camp.  That, or one hell of a lot of people here owe Hillary, and a lot of Kossacks, one hell of a lot of apologies.

(Note- there will not be an edition of The Daily Pulse today because I'm using my diary to try to stop this bullshit.)

(cross-posted at Hatewatch from the Left)

I doubt any but a small fringe of Kossacks would think or say otherwise.  But as some commenters on that thread pointed out, one need not be a racist to employ race unfairly in an argument.

With that in mind, the latest kerfuffle centered around Andrew Cuomo's "shuck and jive" comments beg the following question:

Has Obama been victim of a pattern of attacks with racial undertones or not?    

How one answers that question probably depends one which candidate one supports. It is a rorschach test. Which begs another question:

What does that say about us?

To Whom It May Concern:

As representatives of Hillary Clinton supporters from the unreconstructed racists’ community and the African American community, we are issuing a statement together for the first time. Our letter addresses the recent issue of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo saying "Shuck and Jive" during a radio interview.  In the midst of division, we hope and believe that this is a moment to bring together communities that have been divided for far too long.