The Hollywood Liberal

WellPoint CEO receives a 51 percent increase in compensation.
Angela Braly, CEO of health insurance giant WellPoint, saw her compensation jump 51 percent to $13.1 million in 2009. The LA Times adds, “At least three other WellPoint executives got compensation increases of as much as 75%.” Braly’s boost comes as “WellPoint’s California subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross in Woodland Hills, seeks double-digit rate increases […]

Angela Braly, CEO of health insurance giant WellPoint, saw her compensation jump 51 percent to $13.1 million in 2009. The LA Times adds, “At least three other WellPoint executives got compensation increases of as much as 75%.” Braly’s boost comes as “WellPoint’s California subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross in Woodland Hills, seeks double-digit rate increases for many of its 800,000 members who buy individual policies.” During the health care debate, WellPoint became the poster child for the abuses of the health insurance industry, pressuring lawmakers to support drastic reform and pushing Obama to add stronger cost control provisions into his health care blueprint. A Center for American Progress analysis from February found that “double-digit hikes have been implemented or are pending in at least 11 other states among the 14 where WellPoint’s Blue Cross Blue Shield companies are active.” WellPoint spokesman Jon Mills justified Braly’s compensation by saying that the company “wants to attract and retain top talent.”

Palin?s talk show debut garners weak reviews, lower-than-expected ratings.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) lack of policy knowledge and gaffes on the 2008 campaign led many to conclude that she may be better cut out to host a talk show than stay in politics. But her first foray into the genre, “Real American Stories,” which debuted on Fox News Thursday night, […]

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) lack of policy knowledge and gaffes on the 2008 campaign led many to conclude that she may be better cut out to host a talk show than stay in politics. But her first foray into the genre, “Real American Stories,” which debuted on Fox News Thursday night, was beset with controversy before it even aired. Rapper LL Cool J and country music star Toby Keith both expressed disapproval that Fox was using canned interviews they had recorded with different people for Palin’s show, leading the network to pull LL Cool J’s interview. Following the show’s airing, critics gave middling reviews, calling it “canned,” “innocuous, flat,” and a “letdown.” It appears viewers weren’t thrilled either, as Mediaite notes that the show’s ratings didn’t even beat those of the program it replaced:

Sarah Palin’s much-hyped LL Cool J-less Fox News special last night didn’t bring in the huge ratings some (ok, we) predicted. Greta Van Susteren’s On The Record which normally airs at 10pmET beat the program the previous three nights in the A25-54 demographic and two out of three nights in total viewers.

Moreover, the show “shed viewers from start to finish,” losing 18 percent of viewers over the course of the program.

In Colorado, health-care debate reverberates in congressional race
FORT COLLINS, COLO. — Rep. Betsy Markey, a first-term Democrat in a Republican district, was one of just eight House members who switched their votes from “no” to “yes” when President Obama’s health-care bill finally passed Congress. Her vote left the endangered incumbent in an even more precarious position.

In closely watched races, the money’s about to talk
This is a make-or-break week for many campaigns around the country, as fundraising numbers from the first three months of the year begin to come out.

White House starts $21 million program to aid small businesses
In March 2009, President Obama vowed to address the drought of bank lending to small companies and announced an initiative to use $15 billion from the federal bailout to unfreeze the markets that finance Small Business Administration loans.

Halter challenges Arkansas’ Lincoln from left in Senate race
LITTLE ROCK — Sharp words and millions of dollars in television advertising are turning a Democratic primary challenge to two-term Sen. Blanche Lincoln into an outsize duel over the party’s direction in the heartland.

High Court: Justices increasingly speaking outside the courtroom
One of the first things to remember when discussing rules for Supreme Court justices is that, well, there are very few of them. It is hard to think of a more independent and self-policing group in government than the nine members of the high court.

To Battle Wall St, Obama Should Channel TR
Johnson & Kwak, Wash Post
In late February 1902, J.P. Morgan, the leading financier of his day, went to the White House to meet with President Theodore Roosevelt and Attorney General Philander Knox. The government had just announced an antitrust suit — the first of its kind — against Morgan's recently formed railroad monopoly, Northern Securities, and this was a tense moment for the stock market. Morgan argued strongly that his industrial trusts were essential to American prosperity and competitiveness.The banker wanted a deal. “If we have done anything wrong, send your man to my man and they can fix it…

Drowning in Hate
Ellis Cose, Newsweek
Much has been made of the abuse showered on members of Congress at a recent tea-party demonstration on Capitol Hill. Georgia Congressman John Lewis was greeted with racial slurs. Emanuel Cleaver, a black congressman from Missouri, was spat on. Congressman Barney Frank, who is openly gay, was tarred with homophobic epithets. Later, Democrats in various cities had their offices vandalized. And Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida said one of his 5-year-old twins picked up the phone and heard a voice threatening to kill him if he voted for the bill. The startled child, Grayson told me, initially…

Obama Not Making the Grade on Reform
Ruben Navarrette, San Diego UT
SAN DIEGO — As one of the chief architects of No Child Left Behind, Sandy Kress wishes that when it comes to education reform, President Obama offered more hope and less change. The longtime Democrat wanted the administration to continue George W. Bush's attempts to hold schools accountable for the academic progress of children typically underserved by the public schools, i.e., Hispanics, African-Americans, English-language learners, and the disadvantaged.A former president of the Dallas school board who is now an Austin-based attorney, Kress initially liked what he saw. Obama…