February 28, 2010

Did I Say Tax The Churches?

Politicians are such scum. They can't do the hard business of balancing their budgets (not that I think this is the time to balance budgets) so they are now looking for new tax victims. The New York Times reports today that in many states nonprofits are the new victims. Hawaii has a bill that would slap a one percent excise tax on charities, and Kansas has a proposal to make them subject to sales tax. Charities now have to pay the street light fee in Minneapolis. The sheer stupidity of these policies is obvious. Nonprofits feed the poor, train the unemployed, provide health care and generally do the good deeds that need to be done to keep the poor and crazy together in tough times. They mostly operate through donations, or other public sources like state and federal grants. Is it not counterproductive to take with one hand the money we give them with another? What is really idiotic about this in all cases is that they have exempted the churches from these taxes. While I will concede that there are some churches that do real charitable work, most of them are useless. They spend their money to hire preachers and support their palaces of worship. They harbor pedofiles and obstruct health reform legislation. They promote hatred of gay and lesbian citizens. Few if any feed the poor, provide health care or do anything else useful. Let me suggest a constructive solution. Tax the churches. Grant them reasonable deductions for actual charitable works, but tax them on any money they collect to support the rest of their substantial infrastructure. Perhaps this new tax structure will provide an incentive to them to perform actual works of charity.

Liars

There are like a thousand lies going around in the punditsphere these days regarding health care reform. Let's have a look at one now. They're saying that there is no public support for health care reform. They're saying that nobody has protested in support of health care reform. Not true. Or don't we count May 2009, when doctors and nurses showed up at the initial hearings, demanding to heard on single payer and were tossed out summarily on their asses? This lady sure was a protestor for single payer. So is this lady. Beside that, such statements, as none other than David Gregarious made this morning on "Meat the Press," give credence to a "protest" "movement" that was largely funded by the insurance industry itself but claimed inexplicably to be "grass roots," that also vigorously promoted and utilized racism regarding the President of the United States, and that also was cheer-led strongly by the ongoing propaganda concern known as Fox "News." It is unfathomable to me that now that the shitty corporate media is bowing to the conventional wisdom that these "protests" had any credence whatsoever. What an incredible load of bullshit. Americans want reform. They just don't want this bullshit.

February 27, 2010

You Choose

I am surprised I have not run into Angie the Anti-Theist on Twitter before. But she is awesome. Angie's backstory is interesting enough, reared as a fundamentalist, now an advocate of atheism. But her latest stand, her decision to talk about her RU-486-aided abortion on YouTube and Twitter and such, is a hell of a thing. I am a fan. Listen to Angie Jackson explain her choice—as if she owes anyone such—and then tell her you'd force her to carry a pregnancy to term. I think both she and her family will be very pleased that she made the decision to end her pregnancy.

This is something we don't hear very often—testimony from the women. To most people on either side of this issue, the women are faceless; it's just a bunch of slogans and protest signs. Well. Here's a face. And she chose to lose a zygote rather than to risk not being there for the kid she's already got. It was the right choice. More important, though: It was her choice. And that is the way things need to stay. Thanks, Angie.

What It's Really All About

I want to take a moment to remind everyone what the "health care" "reform" "debate" is really all about. Because it's not actually about health care. It's not about doctors or hospitals or insurance or insurance companies or Steven Hemsley or pre-existing conditions or anti-trust or socialism or a government takeover or any of that. It's not even about you or me. This is about which political party will be in power for the next fifty years. Republigoats have baldly admitted this. You must recall in July 2009 when South Carolina GOOPer Jim Demented said this:
If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.
The fact is that universal health care is a good idea. The Republigoats know this. They know that universal health care is such a good idea that if the Democrats were to deliver on it, the Democrats would have a lock on the nation's political power for generations. It would be nice, of course, if all of our Democratic legislators were hip to this.

February 26, 2010

About That Unconstitutional Mandate

The GOOP contention that a mandate for every citizen to have health insurance is unconstitutional is, like everything else the GOOP says, complete bullshit. What is amazing is that anyone, even the teabagger morons, can't see through this. There are, after all, other, very similar mandates. Everyone is required to pay taxes. Everyone is mandated to participate in Social Security. Nearly every state mandates that car owners have car insurance. Some states, notably Massachusetts, mandate that every citizen have health insurance. (Scott Brown, the until-recently messiah of the whacky right, voted for mandatory health insurance in Massachusetts). And, as I may have pointed out here before, anyone who lives in a flood plain is mandated by the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to have flood insurance. Only one company underwrites flood insurance in the USA. It's called the Federal Flood Insurance Program… yep. Uncle Sam. Maybe someone should remind Sen. Chuck Gassey (GOOP- IA) of that next time he starts raving about unconstitutionality of the federal mandate. (Which, by the way, was first proposed in the United States Senate in 1993 by… THE GOOP, in particular by Chuck Gassey.)

But The Government Already DID Take Over Health Care

You don't remember when that happened, do you? When big government took over health care? You know. The only time that Chimpy ever cut a vacation short? To sign S.686? "A bill to provide for the relief of the parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo?" Ringing any bells? Thanks, @mattemmer.

Bumpersticker of the Year

Smirking Chimp—which is on the tail end of its annual fund raiser—reports eyeing the bumpersticker of the year:
Tea Parties Are For Little Girls With Imaginary Playmates
Heh.

Cool!

Lizz Winstead is in for Ed Schultz today.

Drat. Kentucky Wins, 82-61

The Huffington Post reports that Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky is an asshole. Surprised?
Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits next month. As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go along. And when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: "Tough shit."
Actually, I kind of like him.
Bunning says he doesn't oppose extending benefits—he just doesn't want the money that's required added to the deficit. He proposes paying for the 30-day extension with stimulus funds. The Senate's GOP leadership did not support him in his objections.
Again, where the fuck was Jim Bunning and the rest of these defecit "hawks" (this term is especially offensive to the greatest junior welterweight boxer in the world) when Gorge Dubya Boosh was Preznit?
And at one point during the debate, which dragged on till nearly midnight, Bunning complained of missing a basketball game.
Okay, that I can totally understand dude. Totally.
"I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00," he said, "and it's the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they're the only team that has beat Kentucky this year.
Not that it matters anyway because eventually your Cocks may have to face the Jayhawks, so, you know. Tough shit.
The unemployment rate in Kentucky is 10.7 percent.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. That is all.

Health Care Summit Blues

I cannot begin to say how disappointed I am with the Health Care Summit. Not that I expected any real compromises and resolution to happen. But I did not expect the GOOP to be allowed to run rough shod over PODUS and use the opportunity to shine up their stupid mantra on health care, and that's what happened. The White House was unprepared, or unwilling, to challenge the GOOP talking points. "Lets start with a blank sheet of paper," was an easy one to knock down. We started with a blank sheet of paper a year ago. Max Baucus sat down with a team of GOOP and right wing Democrats to write a health care bill. The result was the abortion we have today. What makes the GOOP think we can do any better by starting over again. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Do they think we are crazy? John McCaine got a wonderful opportunity to preach his mantra about the evils of pork barrels and compromise precisely because the Senate Bill is a Christmas Tree covered with pork chops. There is an answer to McCaine and the President never made it. John McCaine campaigned for president on health care reform and offered a plan that represented at least a step forward on the subject. Where was John McCaine when the Senate needed one vote to make the deal work? The pork and the compromises were necessary to get the votes the senate needed. Why wasn't McCaine John in the mix instead of on the sidelines saying no? The singular most disappointing performance I saw was Hairy Reed talking out of both sides of his mouth at once on the subject of reconciliation. With an aghast Steney Hoyer looking on, Reed explained that we were not gong to use the "controversial" reconciliation method of getting the bill passed. Then he said we were. It is hard to understand how this happened. The best case scenario is that the President naïvely believed that we would go in there, take their best shots, and prove to the American people that they are idiots. Sort of a political rope a dope. If that's true, then the President has a lot more to learn than he should have to learn at this juncture in his career. It should also mean that if his staff is any good, they lost a fight to get him to do otherwise. Maybe his staff is incompetent. Maybe they advised him that the rope a dope is the best way to go. Maybe, and this is the scary part, POTUS is a process-based ideologue who really has a tin ear for political nuance and believes totally that the process, if left to its own devices, will produce the correct result. If that is true, then a sure sign is that he is not listening to his advisors (who sat ominously silent during the entire summit), or at least not listening to them when they say things he does not agree with. The truth is that process does not produce correct results on it's own. It requires a kick in the head from time to time. It has the be led by a person who knows where he or she is going and is not going to be deterred by nuisance opposition. That's the kind of leader we need. Do we have one?

February 25, 2010

Can you imagine...

...the previous President going toe to toe with the opposition for six hours live and on television?

Health Care Summit

I am trying to be knee-deep in health care summit geeky goodness today, but this damned job keeps interfering...It is odd to think though that this thing is happening just blocks from where I am sitting...more later perhaps...

February 24, 2010

Now Let Us All Praise NPR

They often annoy me for sloppy interviewing, breathless hero worship, mostly of GOOPers, and frequent gross violation of the standards of good journalism, but I have to give then credit today. Two reports cover controversial territory, provide good facts relevant to current issues and reflect the best in enterprise journalism as it should be practiced. Julie Rovner reported on the frequent use of Budget Reconciliation over the years (most frequently by GOOPers) to pass controversial measures. Most of the use of Reconciliation by Democrats has been used for HEALTH CARE REFORM. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124009985 Likewise, KUDOs for Peter Overby who has more than once raised questions about "The Family" a Christofacist movement intent on taking over the nation if not the world. Overby reports on the illegal use of a 501(C)(3) property tax exemption for "The C-Street house," a crash pad maintained by the secretive cabal for the convenience of evangelical politicians and their clandestine lovers. http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=124031022&m=124031013

Now Let Us All Praise NPR

They often annoy me for sloppy interviewing, breathless hero worship, mostly of GOOPers, and frequent gross violation of the standards of good journalism, but I have to give then credit today. Two reports cover controversial territory, provide good facts relevant to current issues and reflect the best in enterprise journalism as it should be practiced. Julie Rovner reported on the frequent use of Budget Reconciliation over the years (most frequently by GOOPers) to pass controversial measures. Most of the use of Reconciliation by Democrats has been used for HEALTH CARE REFORM. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124009985 Likewise, KUDOs for Peter Overby who has more than once raised questions about "The Family" a Christofacist movement intent on taking over the nation if not the world. Overby reports on the illegal use of a 501(C)(3) property tax exemption for "The C-Street house," a crash pad maintained by the secretive cabal for the convenience of evangelical politicians and their clandestine lovers. http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=124031022&m=124031013

February 23, 2010

With Liver Tea...

From Wikipedia:

In 1940 the Supreme Court, in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, ruled that students in public schools could be compelled to swear the Pledge, even Jehovah's Witnesses like the defendants in that case who considered the flag salute to be idolatry. A rash of mob violence and intimidation against Jehovah's Witnesses followed the ruling. In 1943 the Supreme Court reversed its decision, ruling in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that "compulsory unification of opinion" violated the First Amendment.[6]

From today's The Washington Post:
The mother of a 13-year-old Montgomery County middle school student is demanding an apology from a teacher who had school police escort the youngster from her classroom for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Also:
The ACLU asked in a Feb. 5 letter that the teacher personally apologize to the student, promise to respect her rights in the future and discuss the incident with the class so it can become an educational opportunity.
No, wait. I know. I know. FIRE HER. States are just looking for excuses these days to RIF educators. Violating a ruling by the United States Supreme Court sounds like plenty of reason to me. By the way. The fella what actually penned the pledge? He was a SOCIALIST. Put that in your pipe and shove it up your ass, Glenn.

February 19, 2010

If It's Friday, It Must Be FARTHAMMER!

Charles Farthammer this morning begins his column for some reason by burying a reference to a person, referring to "[Jimmy Carter's] own White House counsel." Mr. Farthammer should really be more clear, especially since President Carter had two men in that position. The person referred to in today's column is the late Lloyd N. Cutler, by the way, not Robert Lipshutz. In case you were curious. Here is the opening of the Farthammer Opus, followed by a smarmy comment from your friendly neighborhood blogger.
In the latter days of the Carter presidency, it became fashionable to say that the office had become unmanageable and was simply too big for one man. Some suggested a single, six-year presidential term. The president's own White House counsel suggested abolishing the separation of powers and going to a more parliamentary system of unitary executive control. America had become ungovernable. Then came Ronald Reagan, and all that chatter disappeared.
Yes, and then came George W. Bush, who really put that "scuttling the separation of powers" stuff to the test. Farthammer's point today, of course, is that there is too much whining about the structural weaknesses in American government, when, in fact, the real problem is that Obama is a socialist commie trying to shove a radical socialist commie program down America's throat, and, by golly, America is a center-right country, and if I hear America described as that one more time I'm going to vomit.
The rage at the machine has produced the usual litany of systemic explanations. Special interests are too powerful. The Senate filibuster stymies social progress.
Yes, Charles, buddy. Look at the chart! It is crystal clear that the filibuster is being sorely abused by the Republigoats in the Senate. It needs to be reformed, and there is no reason not to do so.
If only we could be more like China, pines Tom Friedman, waxing poetic about the efficiency of the Chinese authoritarian model, while America flails about under its "two parties . . . with their duel-to-the-death paralysis."
Well. Tom Friedman is an idiot. On this we both agree. Cheers. Another excellent point you make on which we agree, Mr. Farthammer sir.
Leave it to Mickey Kaus, a principled liberal who supports health-care reform, to debunk these structural excuses: "Lots of intellectual effort now seems to be going into explaining Obama's (possible/likely/impending) health care failure as the inevitable product of larger historic and constitutional forces. . . . But in this case there's a simpler explanation: Barack Obama's job was to sell a health care reform plan to American voters. He failed."
Yyyyyyyyyyyep. But he did NOT fail because of what you wrote next:
He failed because the utter implausibility of its central promise -- expanded coverage at lower cost -- led voters to conclude that it would lead ultimately to more government, more taxes and more debt. More broadly, the Democrats failed because, thinking the economic emergency would give them the political mandate and legislative window, they tried to impose a left-wing agenda on a center-right country. The people said no, expressing themselves first in spontaneous demonstrations, then in public opinion polls, then in elections -- Virginia, New Jersey and, most emphatically, Massachusetts.
Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Obama has failed because Americans voted for bold change in 2008. What they got was a rather milquetoast, slow-motion retreat from every opportunity to create actual reform. That's why it has failed, Mr. Farthammer sir. Not because it was too "radical." But because it was not enough so. Well, look. I shall enjoy continuing to read your column every Friday, especially in coming years as the United States faces more and more difficult economic times due to out-of-control health care costs and insurance company CEOs who continue to suck money bags out of their firms the size of Denver. That shall be the world that you and yours have created. Not me and mine.

February 17, 2010

Duh Der Doy Duh

The Washington Post today editorializes about Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's seeming inelegance on budget issues early in his term. One note in particular caught my eye:
We'd ask the same question about his much-vaunted transportation plan. The governor said he would raise hundreds of millions of dollars to build roads by selling off state-run liquor stores. But at his urging, a bill in the legislature to do just that was killed last week. The probable reason? Profits from such liquor stores go directly into the state's coffers, to the tune of about $100 million a year. Mr. McDonnell, having promised to tackle Virginia's transportation funding crisis in his first year in office, still has time. What Virginians have yet to see are viable ideas that will yield cash for a transportation budget whose construction funds are just about gone.
I had previously seen estimates of $180 million a year, actually. It appears we're not the only ones here at the imaginary think-tank of Crack Whores for Good Government who noticed that Virginia had heard a man offer to gut a golden goose and decided it sounded like a pretty cool idea to them and made that guy the Governor. As The Washington Post basically said today, how are you going to fix transportation in Virginia now, Bobby?

Short Comment: DUH!

A New York Times-CBS News poll released on Feb. 11 revealed that only 44 percent of adults support the idea of "homosexuals" serving openly in the military, while 58 percent favor allowing "gay men and lesbians" to serve openly.

Me Neither

Utah Senator Chris Buttars Doesn't Want The Gays Stuffing It Down His Throat All The Time

February 16, 2010

Filibuster Buster

It is my opinion that you can't or shouldn't just "get rid of" the filibuster in the Senate because the tactic was actually born rather organically in the legislative process and in the larger rules of the Senate, which does not allot time for debate as does the House. Since the rules allow for unlimited debate, of course you'd stand up and talk for as long as you can to drag down legislation you don't like. Reform is needed, however. And there are some really good ideas out there about how to do it. The first notion is the sad news that filibuster reform will not be enacted in this session of the Senate or the next. As The New Republic points out, you've got to accomplish it now for a term in the near future, say, 2017. After all, neither party is going to accept filibuster reform while it is the majority party. If you kick that can down the road a little, then we don't know which side will be on top when the new rules take effect. So don't look for filibuster reform anytime soon. The only way it will work is if we kick the floe out to sea a little. The best idea of course is to blow up Senate Rule XXII. Created in 1975, this is the rule that allows a senator to simply announce that he's filibustering and then he gets to go home and have a nice cup of cocoa. Screw that. Make them stand there and talk and pee in their pants if they want to filibuster. I mean, one reason there's cloture inflation (see chart) is because there is literally no cost associated with the procedure. (Of course, the other reason there is cloture inflation is because Republigoats are assholes.) Tom Harkin has another interesting idea for filibuster reform. Continue to allow a procedural filibuster, but change the rule so that each successive vote requires a smaller threshold for cloture. So your first vote requires 60, but the second only requires 57, then 54, and so on, until you achieve cloture. This would still somewhat protect the minority's power in the filibuster in that they could still hold up key legislation for a month or so, but the logjam (or lawjam, as some suggest) would eventually be broken. Good ideas, all. Then again, isn't our Senate immune to good ideas?

Just So You Can Say You Heard It Here First

I also think Bayh has dropped out of the Senate to position himself to run for the Presidency in 2012. It's a long shot but he may have a suspicion that the GOOP will wear down Obama and make him vulnerable to attack from his own right wing. In the alternative, he may see himself as the best GOOP candidate in 2012. In any case, he is a politician with actual governing experience and a nationally recognized brand name. He is not to be counted out.

February 15, 2010

Are They All Bozos On This Bus?

Is Max Baucus a dumbass or just a WOLFE IN SHEEEP's CLOTHING? Here he is, chair the powerful Senate Finance Committee and he offers up a jobs bill that looks like a relic of the Raygun years. Chock full of tax cuts for the rich, negotiated it with the GOOP as though that was surely the very best thing for all of us. Back when the world was talking about the value of bipartisanship this may have been a good idea, but today even Hairy Reid, not the sharpest tack in the Senate Cloak Room, decided it was not a good idea. Here is the funny part. Maybe somebody needs to tell Baucus. The Democrats have the majority of the seats on the Finance Committee and the Chair is supposed to use his majority to get legislation out that is consistent with the Democratic Party Platform. Someplace in the Platform is something about no tax cuts for the rich, I am pretty sure. Now comes Chris Dodd. Chair of the Banking Committee. Also a powerful position where you are supposed to use your considerable majority to at least get a proposal out of committee that is consistent with the promises your party made in its platform. Remember how they promised to reform the financial services industry that was so screwed up by the Busches and such? In December, Dodd took the House-passed financial institutions reform bill and parceled it out to four bipartisan study groups that were supposed to develop legislation. ANYTHING HAPPEN YET, MR. CHAIRMAN? No. Right. Nothing happened. So Chairman Dodd now announces that he is working directly with Sen. Bob Corker to write a proposed bill. Corker, a GOOPer from Tennessee, is a "serious thinker" on this subject, Dodd says. Does anyone want to bet that we are not going to see a serious proposal to reregulate the banking industry come out of this? Senate Majority? Who has a Senate Majority? The Insurance industry represented so ably for years by Chris Dodd?? The rich guys on Wall Street who benefit from the tax cuts Baucus was so willing to pass out? The Health Insurance Boys? There is no Democratic majority in the United States Senate. There will be even less of a not majority after we lose about five seats in the elections next November. Here is the good news. Evan Bayh will be gone. Chris Dodd will be gone. We may lose Blanche Lincoln. Hairy Reid is likely to be gone, too. I will not miss any of them. My fantasy is a few good losses will wake up the Senate Leadership, get a majority leader with some brass knuckles and common sense. Straighten up, fly left. If we don't it won't matter much. We will be right here where we are, in the hands of a bunch of dumbass bozos who either don't know how to use the authority they have, or use it well to suit the interests of the people who really own them.

February 13, 2010

Happy Birthday to the League of Women Voters

If you're on Facebook, stop by and become a fan of the League of Women Voters. This fine organization will be 90 years old tomorrow. Let's remember that this is an organization with, well, balls. In 1976, 1980 and 1984, the nonpartisan organization sponsored the presidential debates. In 1988, the group's board voted to withdraw becase, they said, tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee were making too many demands of the debate format. From the press release of Oct. 3, 1988:
The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates...because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.
It is a shame LWV is no longer running the debates. But this statement—issued after it became known that the Bush and Dukakis camps were secretly negotiating their debates' terms—kicks ass. Via Feministe.

February 10, 2010

Why Is Gerard Alexander Such An Asshole?

I am not sure if I even got a The Washington Post on Sunday. If I did, it was buried in snow. So I was only recently made aware of the abomination the newspaper printed, via Media Matters for America. Gerard Alexander, an associate professor at the University of Virginia, wrote an opinion piece titled "Why are liberals so condescending?" It is a stunning work of art. Gerard begins:
Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration.
Yeah? So?
It's an odd time for liberals to feel smug. But even with Democratic fortunes on the wane, leading liberals insist that they have almost nothing to learn from conservatives.
Gerard. Buddy. There's nothing conservatives about American conservatives anymore. Barry Goldwater would have been tossed out on his ass in Minneapolis and called a "faggot," and I daresay that your vaunted Ronald Raygun would be made to wear a funny hat and sit in a corner.
Many Democrats describe their troubles simply as a PR challenge, a combination of conservative misinformation—as when Obama charges that critics of health-care reform are peddling fake fears of a "Bolshevik plot"
Um...they're not? I could continue, I suppose, but that's not the point. The point is, actually, that The Washington Post is a piece of shit of a newspaper. First there were the "salons," when it was exposed that the paper was planning on selling access to editors and reporters and other luminaries. Then, it published a piece by an obviously biased source as news. And now, as it turns out, WaPo actively sought out this piece of shit opinion column by Gerard Alexander. What the hell is going on over there?

Health Care Again

If the USA were the libertarian, take care of yourself society some people like to think it is, we would not have a health care issue. In that fantasy world, hospitals would throw out people who could not pay. Let them die in the street. Bloody gun shots, pneumonia, children who swallow rat poison. No tickee, no washee. Pay the money or die. What the hell. We are a market economy. The bastards who cannot pay don't need to live. I can imagine the Fixxed News Channel… indeed every joker with a Brownie… if that happened. There would be endless outrage. Hearings would be held, politicians would bloviate. No one would defend the heartless hospitals which are only protecting their economic interests as they are wont. We all want to have heart, but no one wants to pay for the consequences of heart. Instead, here is what happens. People who cannot pay for health care get it anyway. The hospital grosses up the cost of everyone's care and passes the costs for the uninsureded on to the rest of us. Remember that the uninsured do not include the indigent, who are covered by Medicare. Thus, the people who are getting free health care are people who have jobs and can afford to buy some form of health insurance. These slackers are now represented by the dumbass teabaggers who defend the right of people not to be forced to buy government insurance. Couple thoughts: First, there is another model for forced federal insurance. If you own a home in a flood zone, you are required by federal law to buy flood insurance. The law was passed for the same reasons we now seek mandatory health insurance. Homeowners (mostly rich people with very expensive summer homes on the ocean) would get wiped out by flood or hurricaine and have no insurance. People would whine to Congress that they had lost everything (especially the rich people on the Carolina Coast) and Congress would subsidize their rebuilding. Mandatory flood insura ce was the way Congress finally dealt with this problem. After 1993, you could not whine that you did not have the option. Second, along with removing the antitrust exemption perhaps we should make hospital bills exempt from bankruptcy and assign... sell... all hospital debt, whether or not in bankruptcy, to a government agency that can collect on it and force the debtor to buy health insurance.

February 9, 2010

Quoth

Nothing is more frightening than an empty vessel in power. —Chris Matthews


R.I.P. Jack Redux Again

According to a source close to Mr. Murtha—confirming a report in Politico—doctors inadvertently cut Mr. Murtha's intestine during the laparoscopic surgery, causing an infection.
Wasn't someone here just recently blogging about "malpractice reform?"

February 8, 2010

R.I.P. Jack Redux

KIAV transcript from this evening's episode of Hardballs with Chris Matthews. Chris. Take it away.
Jack Murtha who died today was an American patriot. He quit college to join the Marines and fight in Korea. We were fighting the Communists, and he didn't want to shirk his duty. He did the same thing as an officer, earning two Purple Hearts when America became involved in Vietnam. He bravely and single-mindedly carried on a family tradition of military life going back to the Civil War and the Revolution. And, for 37 years, Jack represented his western Pennsylvania district in the U.S. Congress. He was a close friend and supporter of my old boss, Speaker Tip O'Neill. He was a leader in standing up for the economic interests of our home state of Pennsylvania, and he was always there for the good fight, and he was so much fun to have around, in good times and bad. Jack Murtha was what Tip O'Neill liked to call a street-corner guy, someone who never lost touch with the people who elected him. He loved this country and looked out for its interests. He fought bravely in war and fought just as valiantly against a war in Iraq he believed was not in our country's interest. Jack was old-school. Let's see if the new-school types can match him in patriotism and looking out for their people and keeping this country great. For generations, he presided over the Pennsylvania corner in the House of Representatives, you could see him up there, surrounded by the members who looked up to him for leadership, for the inside word on what was coming legislatively and to carry out the gung-ho bread-and-butter American values he was brought up with. My prayers and good wishes are with his wife, Joyce, and the Murtha family, and the thousands of Jack Murtha fans in Johnstown, Altoona, and those hard-working communities out there in the mountains of Pennsylvania. I loved Jack Murtha. God bless him. U.S. Congressman Jack Murtha.


R.I.P. Jack

I have an uncle who is a die-hard, and I mean die-hard, active Republigoat in Jack Murtha's district. But he'd always put Murtha signs out. To the point that he had to tell his local party leaders to go to h-e-double-hockey-sticks when they gave him crap for it. I think that says what needs said about Congressman John Patrick "Jack" Murtha, Jr., who died today. I think that said uncle identified with him as a fellow Marine and as a fellow bona fide Johnstown-area dude. I think he also knew that Murtha represented his district regardless of what capital consonant came after his name. You'll hear from Murtha's detractors today, about ABSCAM, about some airport, they'll say he was corrupt and what the hell ever else. But I know that Murtha only came up on my radar after he became a genuine military voice that called tons of shenanigans on Gorge Dubya Boosh's Dirty Big War. I don't care what else the man did or didn't otherwise. He did that. His voice among a few others affected a real horizon change on Iraq. For that and for his service, Murtha was a true American hero. God bless you, Congressman Murtha.

Taking Notes

Dear Prudence Palin... This is a notecard. Note cards are handy tools for public speaking. You can write notes on them that you intend to use while you are speaking in public. Showing up with a few of these can even make people believe that you have thoroughly prepared for your presentation. A speaker with note cards can appear to be collected and can even rely on them as a bit of a crutch. But all anyone who ever writes anything on her hand ever looks like she's doing is cheating. Listen. If a note card like the one above was good enough for President John F. Kennedy...don't you think it might be okay for you, too?

Weird

As I've mentioned before, Facebook is an effective way to learn how different I am from many of the people with whom I grew up. There are, fortunately, a number of folks there who are down. Some of them, though, just take my breath away. Last evening, one of my former classmates was complaining about the amount of money the federal government has spent on Super Bowl advertising to promote the census. I was tempted to chime in but did not. If I did, I would have to ask the poster and his several assenters: Did you bother to find out exactly how much such advertising cost the federal government? The fact is that advertising on the Super Bowl this year was a bargain. Rates fell this year from around $3 million per 30 seconds in 2009 to $2.5 to $2.8 million per 30 seconds in 2010. This is to advertise on programming that pulls a 40 rating and a 60 share, reaching 80 to 90 million Americans. That is a bargain. And it's a drop in the bucket when you consider the total amount appropriated to promote the census in advertising: $340 million. Which, when you consider the enormous resources that are allocated by the process of the census—which is, by the way, a constitutionally mandated process—is in itself chump change. The census literally determines how trillions of dollars are spent. I think spending $340 million to convince people to sit down with an ink pen and fill it out is worth the dime. But it's not worth the fight. It's just not. These are folks whose minds have been so thoroughly pithed by the likes of Michele Bachmann Turner Overdrive that they view an innocuous and constitutional (see Article I, Section 2, Paragraph 3; it's in there, really) process like the census with partisan suspicion. These are the same people who were shitting themselves because the President wanted to speak to school children. So I am afraid there is no use in laying out facts before them. It is a shame.

February 7, 2010

What's Good About Medical Malpractice

I have argued here before that we should never agree to "malpractice reform" until the medical profession comes up with a way to police itself and remove incompetents from its ranks. Thus, the case against said "reform" has gotten a lot stronger in the wake of a recent criminal prosecution in Texas. In Kermit, TX, Anne Mitchell is charged with a third degree felony for blowing the whistle on a doctor she believed to be incompetent who was practicing at the local hospital where she is a nurse supervisor. Ms. Mitchell sent an anonymous letter to the State Medical Board suggesting a review of five cases where she believed the doctor, Rolando Arafiles, Jr., had engaged in "a pattern of improper prescribing and surgical procedures," according to the New York Times. She has lost her job, cannot get another, and faces prison and fines. As I have pointed out earlier, the medical profession does not adequately protect the general public from medical incompetence, and prefers to shield its members from outside criticism. This leaves malpractice as the only realistic tool for policing the medical profession. Now we have the full force of the state's prosecutorial apparatus brought to bear on a woman who believed it was her duty to inform the medical board. "We are just in disbelief that you could be arrested for doing something that you had been told your whole life you were obligated to do," Ms. Mitchell said. That might be true in a rational universe, but there is nothing about the medical profession's obsession with self protection that is rational. I say we better hang onto that medical malpractice practice a while longer.

February 6, 2010

Attention, Republigoats...

Why aren't you hitting the Obama administration on its lukewarm support of veteran caregiver stipends? Just curious.

Quote Of The Week

When you've got a government regulatory agency, it has to be a government cop on the corporate beat. And it's got to act like a cop. Joan Claybrook. Former chief, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (during the Carter administration)


Might the 2000-sies Be Attributable to Genetics?

Barbara Bush is only one of two women in American history to be both First Lady and First Mama, the other being Abigail Adams. Her maiden name is "Pierce." Why yes, that does make her a direct descendant of Franklin Pierce, one of the most ineffectual chief executives ever and the only incumbent President EVAR to be denied a re-nomination by his own party—why do you ask?

February 5, 2010

Definitely Question their Motives

I am not in favor of supporting any religious events, charities or rituals, so I am never in favor of the President of the United States attending the National Prayer Breakfast. That is especially true now. I don't care how many presidents attended in the past, it is now clear that the event's sponsor, the Family, is a dangerously powerful, darkly secret conspiracy against individual freedom. We should not give it more power by blessing its events. None the less, if he had to go (and I expect President Obama would rather avoid the drama that would accompany not going) it is good that he turned it into his event… a lecture on the need for civility in government discourse, strong words in defense of gay rights. Good for that. Now let me be uncivil. The President said that we cannot discuss policy if we continue to question the motives of the opposition. In dealing with the GOOP, I am not sure that is true. In particular, the President concluded: "We may disagree about the best way to reform our health-care system, but surely we can agree that no one ought to go broke when they get sick in the richest nation on Earth. We can take different approaches to ending inequality, but surely we can agree on the need to lift our children out of ignorance; to lift our neighbors from poverty. " I am fairly certain the GOOP doesn't give a damn if people go broke because they got sick and I am certain they don't care about lifting children out of ignorance and neighbors out of poverty. These boys are not their brothers' keepers. They are the people who saw the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity to make money. I am sure their primary interest in Haiti today is development of new resort hotels. They are ruthless money grubbing worshippers at the altar of capitalism. To make their system work best they need lots of people living in ignorance and grinding poverty. Ignorance is particularly useful to them because educated people can see through their lies. Morons, the unwashed masses I pretend to be writing to all the time, are stupid enough to believe that the Constitution only grants rights to American citizens, that it guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion, and the endless string of lies about the current government that cement together what is becoming an effective assault on our future. If you can keep stupid people living on the edge of poverty you can keep them frightened and malleable. It is no coincidence that the quality of life for the average American middle income earner declined significantly in the Busch years while the percentage of the wealth held by the top two percent got bigger and bigger. It is no coincidence that the GOOP is fighting hard to maintain that trend by standing in the way of healthcare reform and Obama's new stimulus plans, such as the jobs bill. The model for the GOOP is the British Empire which sustained itself on the sacrifices of an impoverished underclass that found it better to fight the Empire's wars than starve to death on the streets of London. The GOOP vision for our future looks more like George Orwell's 1984 than Augustine's City on a Hill. We should always keep that in mind when we think their motives don't count.

Stand Your Ground

Putting up your dukes for fair trade doesn't always mean the end of the world:
Canada has reached a tentative deal with the United States to end a dispute over "Buy American" provisions that had strained bilateral ties, the two trading partners announced on Friday. Under the agreement, which is designed to settle months of wrangling over what Canada saw as U.S. protectionism, both nations will open up parts of their internal markets to the other's companies. Washington said it was happy with the deal because U.S. companies will finally gain access to long-closed and potentially lucrative public works contracts in Canada's 10 provinces and three territories. In return, Canadian companies will be able to compete for projects in the 37 U.S. states already covered by the World Trade Organization government procurement agreement.
By the way. How about them unemployment numbers. Eh?

February 4, 2010

Balls Recovered at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

WASHINGTON (ABP)—First Lady Michelle Obama didn't remember shoving the shoebox-sized box marked "Barack's Balls" under the bed while the family hurriedly unpacked on or around Jaunuary 20, 2010. But she was certainly glad for the day last week when an earring backing fell to the floor and brought her to the ground to peek there. "I peered right under there, and there it was, that little pink box! I couldn't believe it," said Mrs. Obama. "He'd been all over the place looking for it—er, for them—for months! 'Michelle,' he'd say, 'Where the hell are my balls?' And I'd say, 'I don't know, Barack, where were you when you last had them?' And he'd say, 'Denver.'" Mrs. Obama returned the balls to her husband the afternoon before the State of the Union Address. "He reinstalled them and then he started walking differently, even!" she said. "He said, you know, I think I'm going to tell that Supreme Court a thing or two tonight! Screw those people!" For a moment, Mrs. Obama said she thought there was another President in the White House. "All he needed was a cowboy hat and you would have thought it was Dubya," she said. "His swagger was getting pretty fierce until I swatted him in the ass and reminded him about the Olympics. He may be a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and all, but even he couldn't bring the Olymics home! That brought him down a peg or two." Press Secretary Robert Gibbs confirmed that the President has recovered his balls. "Oh, he's quit happy to have them back," said Gibbs. "The President hasn't felt right without his balls. Now he's much more comfortable. Republicans and 'moderate' Democrats had best beware. And, for that matter, you need to watch it when the man turns around. His balls are pretty hefty, and if you're not careful, the President might just whack you in the thigh with his balls." Having attended both the Republicans' and the Democrats' retreats with his balls and the National Prayer Breakfast to boot, it is hoped by some that Obama will not be seen in public without them again. "Maybe we'll do something with them for April Fools'," said Mrs. Obama. "But I don't think they're going back in that box again." Then, she added, with a sideways smile, "And, thank goodness for that!" -30-

Sofa King We Todd Did

Does it bother anyone else that Rahm Emanuel has had to apologize to "advocates for the disabled" for using the word "retarded," but he hasn't had to apologize to his own political base, to whom he was referring when he used this slur? It is also bothersome to note that Prudence Palin has seen fit to liken use of this word to the use of another certain pejorative term historically used in reference to African-Americans. We're sorry, Prudence, but there is no word in the American lexicon that carries more cruel weight with it than that one. Or did I miss it when they turned hoses on the developmentally disabled?

Wrong Wrong Wrong and Wrong Again A liberal blogger such as myself would not have a complete day without embedding this video of Rachel Maddow, who is, really, the best damned thing on television this side of Battlestacked Galactica, debunking the hell out of Sen. Susan M. Collins, who is no relation to Sophie B. Hawkins.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This country has lost its damned mind. When a United States Senator can stand in front of a television camera and just say such egregiously wrong things, I mean...come ON New England! Ya'll have GOT to send us somebody who isn't...you know...THIS. Well. We here at the imaginary think tank that is the Serious Poo-Poo Institute of Technology (SPIT) are just looking for a couple of stupid lawmakers to work hard against in the mid-terms. Sen. Collins just came up on the radar.

February 3, 2010

Don't Study, Don't Wait

It would be nice to believe that Harry Truman effected integration of the armed forces with a single executive order issued in 1948. In fact it was three years before the Army reported the complete integration of basic training and five years before it could report that it had integrated 95 percent of its ground forces. But integration happened in a methodical way, in the middle of a war, and eventually it was completed. Not a bad piece of work considering that the rest of the nation, particularly that part of the country where most military bases were located, practiced a rigid form of apartheid. That is, of course, the point. In 1948, African American soldiers were fully segregated from the white military community. The outside culture preached racial inequality and the segregated nature of apartheid was fully accepted in most American communities, north and south. (Truman's 1948 order responded, in part, to the brutal lynching of two WWII veterans and their wives by a Georgia mob.) Integration was a very tall order, particularly in the middle of a war, and it got done. In 2010, when considering the integration of the Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered community into normal military life, we start from the fact that the community is already integrated. There are an estimated 13,500 GLBT soldiers, sailors, marines and airpersons in uniform now. They went through basic and advanced training at great expense to the Defense Department all while living side by side with straight counterparts. They now live together daily. Gay sailors shower with straight sailors, lesbian Army nurses shower with straight Army nurses. It is sheer bullshit to argue that the integration will be difficult and complicated. The great unfairness about DADT is not that it prohibits integration or even opportunity. THe unfairness is it leaves every GLBT service person wondering when he or she will be called out and expelled for being who he or she is. Moreover, the greater community can't seem to understand what is wrong with eliminating DADT. Even conservatives are not opposed as a matter of doctrine. It was Barry Goldwater who said he was more interested in whether a soldier could shoot straight than if he was straight. Of course the GOOP will do what it can to make a political issue out of it. John McCaine is insulted that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has thought for himself and supports eliminating DADT even though he did not consult with the Great Senator. Sen. Sexy Champlaiin of Georgia says the military will not be able to regulate tattoos if gays are let out of the military closet. Sen. Jeff (Henry Gibson) Sessions says it's better to leave well enough alone. Adm. Mike Mullen had the right answer for all that. "It's about leadership," he said. So, let's get on leading now. We do not need to wait a year for another study. Let us allow these good citizens to get on with the business of defending us without further harassment.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

There is an earth-shattering paragraph in today's The Washington Post. And here it is:
Before the war, the equilibrium between Iraq and Iran was a principal geopolitical reality within the region. At that time, the government in Baghdad was a Sunni-run dictatorship. The Shiite-dominated, partly democratic structure that has emerged from the war has not yet found the appropriate balance among its Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish components. Nor is its long-term relationship to Iran settled. If radicals prevail in the Shiite part, and the Shiite part comes to dominate the Sunni and Kurdish regions, and if it then lines up with Tehran, we will witness -- and will have partially contributed to -- a fundamental shift in the balance of the region. <\blockquote> This is the man one could call the Father of All Neocons admitting that one consequence, unintended or not, of the U.S. incursion into Iraq was the unsettling of a secular Sunni government in favor of a radical Muslim Shia one that has more in common with Iran than with us. Yet, somehow, Henry Kissinger manages to lay that shit at President Obama's feet. Wow.

February 2, 2010

John McWeirdsmile. Still a Disingenuous Asshole.

DADT hearings today. Here's something what happened. The Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, who you might remember also held that post during the administration of Chimpy McCokespoon, came out (no pun intended) in support of ending DADT. He referenced the statement of the President of the United States during the SOTU, saying:
The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change but how we best prepare for it. We received our orders from the commander-in-chief, and we are moving out accordingly. However, we can only take this process only so far, as the ultimate decision rests with you, the Congress.
Sen. John McWeirdsmile, a twice-failed presidential candidate, was deeply disappointed with Secretary Gates' statement. He said:
I'm deeply disappointed with your statement, Secretary Gates.
Then he said:
Your statement obviously is one that is clearly biased without the view of Congress being taken into consideration...I'm happy to say that we still have a Congress of the United States to repeal don't ask don't tell, despite your efforts to repeal it in many respects by fiat.
Let's read again what Gates actually said.
The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change but how we best prepare for it. We received our orders from the commander-in-chief, and we are moving out accordingly. However, we can only take this process only so far, as the ultimate decision rests with you, the Congress.
John McWeirdsmile is either a disingenous asshole, or he's a fucking moron. I never thought I'd have crossed fingers for this but: Godspeed, J.D. Hayworth.

You Have The Right To Remain Stupid

Guess who else was read his Miranda rights upon his arrest for attempting to blow an aeroplane out of the sky?

The Old Formula Never Worked

One aspect of Faith is that it seek a moment when perfection has been achieved. The nature of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Science is the art of drawing reasonable conclusions from replicable experiments. This explains why scientists think religion is crazy. It also explains what is wrong with conservatives. Like any religion, the conservative faith has its mantra. Small government, balanced budgets, tax cuts, family values. And like any faith based system that has failed to achieve nirvana, conservatives insist it didn't work because they did not have true faith. The only reason the magic moment did not happen in the Busch years is that Busch was not a true conservative, they now insist. Of course he was probably the truest conservative since Hoover. Busch, backed by a GOOP based Congress, reduced the size and the effectiveness of government. He substantially slashed taxes, giving rich people the best years of their lives. Busch increased government effort to establish religion by "faith based initiatives" and used the Justice Department to fight religious discrimination (as opposed to racial discrimination). He set back stem cell research in the US by a generation and forbade the use of federal funds to promote safe sex, preferring to teach abstinence. Not to mention he was a hawk's hawk. He got tough with everyone and would have rather bombed hell out of the opposition than talk to them. The only aspect of the conservative mantra that Busch did not live up to was that he spent money like a drunken Air Force reservist. Starting out with money is his pocket, he created the largest debt in history. Conservatives insist The Raygunner was the real conservative whose eight years of service brought us a political nirvana we should all aspire to. Raygun was a scumball and a fool, but he was not otherwise a conservative. The government had 61,000 more employees when the Raygunner left office than it had when he was sworn in. (Clinton cut 374,000 federal jobs). Raygun never balanced the budget, leaving GHW Busch with a record deficit (which he, in turn, left to Bill Clinton). The Raygunner largely cut taxes for individuals, including wealthy individuals, he also implemented the largest corporate tax increase in history. Although he got a lot of his policy advice from an astrologer, The Raygunner could have cared less about establishing a religion. On the whole he was hands off on social issues. The truth is the Raygunner was a pragmatist, and he knew conservatism did not offer a way to govern. Conservatism does not work. This is not because it has not been tried, but because if government is intended to maintain peace and ensure domestic tranquility, conservatism does not work. Conservative principles cannot regulate a stock market and conservative governments, with their blind faith in free markets and scorn for regulation are the primary cause of economic meltdown. Conservative governments substitute war for negotiation and thus require a substantially higher investment in the military budget. Conservatives have no respect for government and so they put incompetents in charge and the government does not work when you need it to. Balanced budgets are a good thing, a fact demonstrated by Bill Clinton, but in times of economic collapse the government must act as the engine of the economy. Failure to do so is the highest form of economic malpractice, a fact that we learned from Herbert Hoover. A fact that even that Moron George W. Busch finally understood. But while it is fairly clear that FDR's failure to pour more money into the economy in 1937 ended the recovery and created a new depression, the GOOP wants to go there again. If you want to balance budgets, you must raise taxes or cut spending. You can't cut spending in hard times. History has already proven that but the GOOP wants to cut taxes and spending. The President has presented a pragmatic, fact-based budget with a comprehensive plan for long term budget control. The GOOP is standing on the sideline like an ancient witch doctor mumbling the mantra and whistling I the wind.

Yep.