Nobody in prison is ever guilty, just ask them.

The reason this story sounds so unbelievable is because it is. If things really happened the way he claims, there's no way his public defender would advise him to plead guilty. Hell, with all of this media attention, there's no way he'd be sticking with that public defender - I'm sure a top-notch defense attorney would jump on the chance to be in the spotlight if they thought they could get him off. There's obviously another side to this story that we're not hearing.

"Because providing for a common defense is written into the Constitution, while taking care of citizens' every need (and want) is not."

While you're certainly entitled to your opinions, you aren't free to revise the Constitution to leave out the portions that are inconvenient to your argument. Let's go to the text:

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
...
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States"

So yes, "provide for the common defense" is written in the Constitution - but so is "promote the general welfare." Stepping away from your straw man argument about catering to "citizens' every need (and want)" and getting back to health care - I think it's clear that improving the health of the US falls well within the bounds established.

"...the huge, tyrannical government the South feared during Civil War days is now a dangerous reality."

You mean that huge, tyrannical government the South feared would regulate their slave trade? You don't see the irony in siding with the pro-slavery South in order to convince people to "defend liberty?"

"...there's a conservative pissed at 9 billion lost PER YEAR on Medicare fraud. "

Red herring issue - but hey, if you really want to go there let's do the comparison. On one hand, according to you, conservatives are pissed about 9 billion lost PER YEAR on Medicare fraud. On the other hand, you have liberals pisses about $605 billion and 4,276 troop deaths due to the fraudulent war in Iraq. Who do you think has the moral high ground?

"We're headed in, set tasers to stun."
"Aye captain!"

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
Section 1233 gives the doctor the mandate to 'initiate' so-called 'end of life couselling' to patients, and who is to say that at some point the government won't apply pressure to doctors to do this less as an 'option' and more as a 'you really should do this...' approach? For government to even brush against these kinds of issues is creepy beyond belief.


Funny. Hospitals, nursing homes, hospice programs and other medical facilities are already mandated to counsel patients on end of life issues. Why doesn't Fox news mention that part? Probably because it was signed into law by George H.W. Bush (hint: not a liberal democrat) back in 1990.

The proposal you misquote simply allows reimbursement when the Medicare patient talks to their actual doctor (who normally wouldn't be able to be paid for their time) instead of hospital staff.