Posts filed under 'Uncategorized'
October 26th, 2009
 
 Howard Fineman NAILS IT.
 An excerpt:
 [T]he pursuit of [Olympia] Snowe is pretty close to obsessive, which is not a good thing either for Democrats or for the prospects of health-care reform worthy of the name. First, Snowe’s exaggerated prominence is both the result and symbol of Obama’s quixotic and ultimately time-wasting pursuit of “bipartisanship.” In case the White House hasn’t noticed, Republicans in Congress are engaged in what amounts to a sitdown strike. They don’t like anything about Obama or his policies; they have no interest in seeing him succeed. Despite the occasional protestation to the contrary, the GOP has no intention of helping him pass any legislation. Snowe may very well end up voting for whatever she and Democrats craft, but that won’t make the outcome bipartisan any more than dancing shoes made Tom DeLay Fred Astaire.
October 26th, 2009
 
 With cities across America strapped for cash, THIS KIND OF THING could become a trend.
 But how well will it work?
October 26th, 2009
 
 Paul Krugman offers an EDUCATED GUESS on the future of health-care reform.
 A few excerpts:
 Right now it looks highly likely that Congress will, indeed, send a health care bill to the president’s desk. Then what?
 Conservatives insist (and hope) that reform will fail, and that there will be a huge popular backlash. Some progressives worry that they might be right, that the imperfections of reform — what we’re about to get will be far from ideal — will be so severe as to undermine public support. And many critics complain, with some justice, that the planned reform won’t do much to contain rising costs.
 But the experience in Massachusetts, which passed major health reform back in 2006, should dampen conservative hopes and soothe progressive fears…
 [I]f the Massachusetts experience is any guide, health care reform will have broad public support once it’s in place and the scare stories are proved false. The new health care system will be criticized; people will demand changes and improvements; but only a small minority will want reform reversed.
 This thing is going to work.
October 26th, 2009
 There’s nothing downright vulgar in this video, but it’s nonetheless for adults only.
 Take notice of Max Blumenthal’s reference to a study on repressed homophobic homosexuals, a study to which I’ve alluded on several occasions in comment threads.
October 26th, 2009
 
 This handbill accusing John F. Kennedy of treason is UP FOR AUCTION.
 (Hat-tip to J-Walk Blog.)
October 26th, 2009
 
 Newtie says he might run for president in 2012 if he finds that there’s “a vacuum.”
 But he said pretty much the same thing prior to the 2008 campaign, as Steve M. notes HERE.
October 26th, 2009
 
 Fareed Zakaria, who’s not exactly a flaming liberal, offers some USEFUL INSIGHTS on the dilemma the United States faces in Afghanistan.
 A few excerpts:
 Dick Cheney has accused Barack Obama of “dithering” over Afghanistan. If the president were to quickly invade a country on the basis of half-baked intelligence, would that demonstrate his courage and decisiveness to Cheney? In fact, it’s not a bad idea for Obama to take his time, examine all options and watch how the post-election landscape in Afghanistan evolves…
 [F]ocusing on the number of additional troops needed “misses the point entirely,” says Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander Obama put in place this summer. “The key takeaway” from his now-famous assessment “is the urgent need for a significant change to our strategy and the way we think and operate.” The quotes are from the third paragraph of his 66-page memo. These changes in strategy have just begun.
October 25th, 2009
 
 You have to be really wacky to come up with theories that are too much even for WorldNetDaily, which ordinarily is a citadel of wingnuttiness.
 But, hey, it can happen, as we see HERE.
October 25th, 2009
 
 The basics of this funny episode are as follows:
 A satirical Web site posted a phony story to the effect that Joe Klein of Time magazine had come upon 10 pages of a thesis Barack Obama wrote while a student at Columbia University, a thesis in which the young lad disparaged the Founding Fathers and the U.S. Constitution.
 A blogger on the Fox News Web site, failing to notice the “satire” label on the phony story, picked it up and hawked it like crazy.
 When radio blabber Rush Limbaugh got wind of this scandalous example of Obama’s lack of patriotism, he immediately shared it with has vast audience of wingnuts, many of whom, no doubt, broke into gleeful dance.
 But then the truth of the matter emerged, whereupon the question posed in the photo above was answered at least in part.
 For more on this story, check HERE and HERE.
October 24th, 2009
 
 The Washington Post reports this morning:
 Democratic leaders in the Senate and House have concluded that a government-run insurance plan is the cheapest way to expand health coverage, and they sought Friday to rally support for the idea, prospects for which have gone in a few short weeks from bleak to bright.
 The shift in momentum is so dramatic that many lawmakers now predict that President Obama will sign a final bill that includes some form of government-sponsored insurance for people who do not receive coverage through the workplace. Even Democrats with strong reservations about expanding government’s role in the health-care system say they are reconsidering the approach in hopes of making low-cost plans broadly available.
 Read the whole thing HERE.
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