A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today by several House Democrats found that call centers run by private Medicare drug plans provide inaccurate and incomplete information for 66% of calls for help. Congress allowed for the privatization of prescription drug plans in 2003, which has resulted in over 1,400 stand-alone plans, all varying in cost and coverage.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Yes, we're posting a news analysis that actually emphasizes a couple of signs of hope! We're even surprising ourselves. First, we were watching Robert Greenwald's latest fab documentary, "The Big Buy," and we realized this: Tom DeLay was forced to give up running Congress. It took awhile to sink in ("The Big Buy" is about DeLay's fall from power) what an incredible milestone this was. DeLay appeared as permanent and unstoppable as Bush and Cheney. He was, indeed, the Cheney of the House of Representatives, ruling through secrecy, corruption, ruthlessness and fear. He appeared as untouchable as Stalin in his prime. But due to an unrelenting prosecutor in Austin -- and the burgeoning Abramoff scandal at the federal level -- DeLay became a liability for the Busheviks. It seemed unthinkable two years ago that DeLay would ever voluntarily resign, but it did happen. That is cause for hope. Our second little ray of democracy sunshine has to do with the state of radical Republican politics in Kansas. (Just look at its two U.S. GOP Senators -- Pat Roberts, who has singlehandedly undermined American Constitutional government by refusing to investigage any of Bush's intelligence misdeeds, and extreme Christian fundamentalist Sam Brownback) If you read the article below, you will see that some sane Republican elected officials (there are a few) in Kansas are switching to the Democratic Party because they can no longer associate with the right wing Jihad wing of the GOP. This is in part due to the persuasive political work of the Democratic Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius. Her current running mate for Lt. Governor is the former Chairman of the Kansas Republican Party. He's now a Democrat. When the fundamentalist, radical wing of the Republican Party starts driving State GOP Charimen into the Democratic camp, there may, indeed, be something happening out there. And Sebelius is no wimpy Democratic. When the legislature passed an NRA bill to allow people to carry hidden handguns in Kansas, she didn't do the usual craven Democratic "centrist" thing and sign it. She vetoed it. Her veto was eventually overridden, but she took a stand. Apparently, that's what Kansans are looking for in a Democrat. So are we.