Another Savage Halloween

In what's becoming a Halloween tradition, we like to see how Dan Savage handles the "holiday." Two years ago, he wrote one of the funniest things I've ever read. John posted it here with this excerpt:

I sharpened up six big wooden stakes to plant along the walk up to the house. I wanted to go buy a six cheap kids’ Halloween costumes, stuff ‘em, and impale ‘em on the stakes. I wanted it to like we’d been murdering every, oh, 50th trick-or-treater that came to our house....

This year, Dan tells us how to deal with those older trick-or-treaters. You know, the ones who are really too old to be out there, but still want the candy:

For these trick-or-treaters—older kids who aren't in costumes—we lay in a few bags of peeled-and-wrapped garlic cloves. We mix 'em into the bowl with the rest of the candy so they're handy, but we're careful to only give 'em to older kids who don't come in costume. The garlic says, "My, you're getting up there," and, "Gee, you could at least make an effort." We think everybody should do it.

I think he's onto something.... Read More......

Krugman: Polls show it's dumb to focus on the deficit

More precisely, polls show that voters have no clue what really goes on with the budget deficit, and even when you eliminate it entirely, which Bill Clinton did, they still think he created a massive deficit. Lesson: If you focus on the deficit, the voters will still punish you. Read More......

French make world's largest tiramisu

Since Chris is away with the Mrs. this weekend, I post this in his honor.

Weighing in at nearly 1,076kg (2,372 lb) the giant tiramisu - which means "pick me up" in Italian - used 300kg of mascarpone cheese, 60kg of cream and 192 kg of sugar.

It also contained about 180kg of biscuits, 12kg of chocolate and nearly 5kg of cocoa powder.

Read More......

Will Net Neutrality be the new "Death Panel"?

Of course, our favorite paranoid teenager is leading the charge. Read More......

By visiting our war dead, Obama passes Dover test

Mark Shields writes a moving column about how President Obama passes the Dover Test that George Bush failed:

President Obama, during his winning campaign, promised to make Washington more "transparent" and more "accountable." At 4 a.m. on Oct. 29, as he stood silently by as six soldiers carried the remains of Army Sgt. Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute, Ind., back to American soil and to those who mourned him, President Obama made both himself, and the national government he leads, more responsible and made the reality of war more transparent.

At Dover, he personally met with and consoled — in their time of profound sorrow — the families of 18 fallen Americans. No form letter or phone call. Just human being to human being.

As John Glenn said: "It's easy to see the flags flying and the people go off to war, and the bands play and the flags fly. And it's not quite so easy when the flag is draped over a coffin coming back through Dover, Delaware." Barack Obama, by choosing the "not quite so easy" path, has earned his nation's thanks.

Read More......

A right-wing rapper raps about teabagging. It's bad.

Okay, first, this video isn't a joke. It isn't a parody. You'll just think it is. It's a right-wing rapper. Yes, right-wing rapper. He's bad. And, I mean bad in the traditional sense, not the hip, cool sense. And, of course, he throws in the requisite gay-bashing. It's just bad:

These are the people who rule the GOP now. Read More......

Teabaggers have forced moderate GOP candidate to quit race in NY-23

The teabaggers now own the Republican Party. The GOP candidate for Congress in New York's 23rd CD, Dede Scozzafava, has suspended her campaign. Scozzofava was under assault from the hard-core wing of the GOP because she was pro-choice and supported lgbt equality. The local paper has the story and an excerpt from Scozzofava's letter to her supporters announcing the decision.

The hard-core right wingers have rallied around the Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman. A poll released today showed Scozzofava had dropped to a distant third place:

Today's hotly anticipated Siena poll confirms the race for the seat vacated by former Rep. John McHugh in NY-23 has become a too-close-to-call fight between Democratic nominee Bill Owens and Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman, who are tied at 36-35.

The Republicans' pick, Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava, who started out as the frontrunner, is now at 20 percent. Nine percent of voters remain undecided.

There is no room for different ideas in the modern day GOP. The teabaggers rule their world. Read More......

In Afghanistan, the political situation is unraveling. Not good for the U.S.

As if things aren't bad enough in Afghanistan, it's could be getting worse. The presidential run-off election is on the brink of collapsing because the challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, probably won't participate:

A presidential run-off election planned for Nov. 7 seemed headed for collapse Saturday, with the main challenger to President Hamid Karzai, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, widely expected to pull out of the race.

That's not good for Afghanistan. And, it's a problem for the United States:

A canceled or marred runoff would also further complicate matters for the Obama administration as it nears a decision on whether to significantly expand its military commitment to the war against Afghan and al-Qaeda insurgents.

"Further complicate matters" seems like an understatement. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Happy Halloween. And, it's a final get-out-the-vote weekend in Maine, Washington State, Kalamazoo, Virginia and New Jersey.

Here's the closing ad from the No on 1 side in Maine. On, Tuesday, the state's voters have a clear choice:


What's the news? Read More......

Spanish winemaker faces the environment

The wine business is one of those industries that feels the effects of the climate variations more than many others. (Agriculture in general faces this issue, of course.) One progressive producer in Spain is making an effort to act responsibly today and plan for the possible changes tomorrow. It's a very interesting ready even beyond the climate change issue as he discusses how he runs the family business and what he considers fair to all of his workers.

Production of pinot noir and chardonnay at 1,200 metres above sea level has already started, showing no less quality than the wine produced on the gentle hills of the Penedès region, just south of Barcelona. Fears are growing, however, that lowland areas could be reduced to dust in a couple of generations. "Temperatures have already risen by one degree," Torres says. "If they increase by five, southern Europe will be full of arid steppes." This one-degree rise has already brought forward the harvest by 12 or 13 days, he says. "Vineyards are very sensitive."

Torres has donated €10m (£9m) of his own money to environmental issues, and is aiming to reduce the output of CO2 in the winery by 30% by 2020. He has a hybrid car and has bought them for his staff, invested in a wind park and is experimenting with the capture and use of CO2 from wine fermentation.

The businessman has not used synthetic chemicals in his vineyards for more than 20 years, instead using insect traps baited with sex pheromones secreted by females to trap the males and thereby stop reproduction.

Read More......

Nine more banks, closed

115 banks this year. Read More......

When doctors and insurance companies conspire to wipe out 61% of your bill

In the never-ending saga that is my eyes, my retina specialist referred me to another specialist a few weeks ago, because of some peculiarities in my vision. I paid my usual $25 copay at the new specialist, and just got his bill the other day. Now, the total cost of the treatment, not taking account my insurance, was $855.00. But, below that amount, my insurance company CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield listed the "non-allowed amount" for that exam, in my case $525.


(I had to cut and paste the numbers to fit it all in a size you could read.)

Basically, the non-allowed amount is a portion of the doctor's charges that the insurance company is throwing out, and that the doctor agrees to throw out. So in my case, above, the insurance company got the doctor to accept $287 as payment for my exam instead of the full $855.

Anyone want to take a bet on whether my doctor is treating me at a loss?

Welcome to the bizarre world of your insurance. You pay all this money every year for the right to have your insurance company and the doctor collude to lower the cost of your treatment. Which of course begs the question: Why am I being charged a phony inflated amount for the treatment in the first place? Do people without insurance pay the full $855? Of course, people without insurance probably go blind in the United States, so the point is likely moot.

But it really is infuriating to see the absurdly high costs we pay for health care in this country, then to see an indication that the costs are simply phony anyway. Andrew Sullivan posted about this today, using another example a reader gave him, which motivated me to write about my recent bill. Read More......

I head to Maine tomorrow to help on the No on 1 campaign... and it's Halloween

So it got me thinking... what would be a good political Halloween costume this year? Going as Glenn Beck comes to mind. Carry a Little Red Book, a kleenex (for the tears), a container of vapor rub (to make the tears), lithium, an Anita Dunn voodoo doll...

Thoughts for what topical Halloween costumes come to mind for this year? Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments. Oh, and if folks get any good Halloween pictures (don't have to be just political costumes), send them to us at this address, and if we get enough good ones, we'll post them: ablogphotos@gmail.com (As always, by sending us your photo you are swearing that you have rights to the photo and that you give us permission to print it for free :-) Read More......

Gavin Newsom dropped out of CA Governor's race today

This is a surprise. Robert Cruickshank at Calitics has the email from Newsom and some of the reasons. According to the California political punditry, lack of money was the biggest issue. This development leaves Attorney General (and former Governor) Jerry Brown as the only Democrat in the race, for now anyway. Read More......

Fast food labeling shows diet changes in NY

Maybe the fast food labeling initiative made a lot more sense than some previously suggested.

The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released preliminary data showing evidence that people bought food with fewer calories at nine of the 13 fast-food and coffee chains included in a study on the effects of menu-labeling laws that went into effect in 2008.

Researchers surveyed more than 10,000 customers at 275 locations in early 2007 and another 12,000 this year.

They found statistically significant decreases at four chains -- McDonald's, Au Bon Pain, KFC and Starbucks -- and said diners who saw and acted on calorie information bought food containing 106 fewer calories on average than those who did not notice the postings.

Read More......

Moody's: Home prices and unemployment won't turn around until mid-2010

Moody's via Matisse Capital:

"...Moody's said it now expects a trough in home prices won't be reached until the middle of next year...Moody's said in addition to borrowers' financial pressure, unemployment is now projected to peak at over 10% in mid-2010 and remain in the high-single digits for two years after they peak."

We always knew that unemployment wasn't going to run around until much later than now. Read More......

Obama administration again defends DOMA in court, says gays have no "fundamental right" to marriage benefits

Hope the champagne party at the White House was fun the other night. And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

From AP:

States that allow gay marriage can't force the federal government to provide benefits to those couples, the Obama administration argued Friday in court papers in a lawsuit by Massachusetts.

The Justice Department is at odds with Massachusetts — the first state to allow gay marriage — over a 1996 federal law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Massachusetts sued in July, saying that law is discriminatory and deprives gay couples in the state of some federal spousal benefits.

The Obama administration agrees the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, is discriminatory and wants it repealed, but says it has an obligation to defend laws enacted by Congress while they are on the books and can be reasonably defended.

Except they don't. But they'd like you to believe they do.

Here is a former senior aide to President Clinton explaining how it actually works in the Oval Office when a president wants to oppose a law in court. And here are examples from Reagan, Bush I, Clinton and Bush II where the White House didn't defend laws it didn't agree with. So it's an outright lie for the administration to say it has an obligation to defend all laws enacted by Congress.

Not to mention, this White House has already refused to enforce laws it didn't like - on immigration and medical marijuana - so don't lecture us about how you had to side with the religious right because of your respect for the rule of law. We simply weren't important enough.

"There is, however, no fundamental right to marriage-based federal benefits," according to the 36-page filing.

Thanks, that helps. Read More......

Jonathan Allen at the Politico makes fun of health reform legislation for having legal terms in it

THIS JUST IN!!! MUST CREDIT AMERICABLOG!!! THE HOUSE WELFARE REFORM LEGISLATION INCLUDES LEGAL WORDS AND LEGISLATIVE LANGUAGE!!!!

Jonathan Allen at the Politico (often referred to as the Republico) wrote a story today revealing for the first time that the House health care reform legislation includes legal phrases that non-lawyers might find difficult to understand.

Seriously:

And for those who cry “read the bill,” beware. There are plenty of paragraphs like this one:

“(a) Outpatient Hospitals – (1) In General – Section 1833(t)(3)(C)(iv) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395(t)(3)(C)(iv)) is amended – (A) in the first sentence – (i) by inserting “(which is subject to the productivity adjustment described in subclause (II) of such section)” after “1886(b)(3)(B)(iii); and (ii) by inserting “(but not below 0)” after “reduced”; and (B) in the second sentence, by inserting “and which is subject, beginning with 2010 to the productivity adjustment described in section 1886(b)(3)(B)(iii)(II)”.

The section deals with “incorporating productivity improvements into market basket updates that do not already incorporate such improvements,” if that helps.

I'd certainly hope there are plenty of paragraphs like that one, as that's how one writes legislation, you moron.

With all due respect, you'd have to be an idiot to quote a paragraph like that as proof that there's a problem with the health care bill. I got my law degree from Georgetown, and I worked in the Senate for five years, during which time I helped write legislation. Legislation is per se extremely legalistic. It has to be (duh). Or else you get it wrong and the entire country is screwed. That paragraph reads like any paragraph in any bill. It's not easy stuff. It never has been. There's a reason a law degree takes seven years of university after high school. It's actually hard stuff. And for a reporter to point out that paragraph as evidence of a problem with the bill - well, it only evidences a problem with the reporter. And it's frankly embarrassing, and rather FOX News-y to boot.

It is incredibly disingenuous to write something like this. It's intended to convince Politico's readers that the Democrats did something wrong with the legislation. Read More......

FOX trying to make 'death panels' a story again

From Media Matters:

Linking to an Associated Press article about Medicare coverage for voluntary end-of-life counseling in the House health care bill, conservative media outlets such as Fox News and BigGovernment.com have featured misleading headlines to revive the widely debunked "death panel" smear. Fox News' Peter Johnson Jr. also stated during an interview with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), "So with regard to the death panel, nothing much has changed."

With regards to FOX News, nothing much has changed.

Read More......

Jon Stewart rips FOX

Read More......

Lieberman says he'll support GOP candidates in the future

But, via Barb at DailyKos, next year, Lieberman "probably will support some Republican candidates ..."

No surprise, really. Lieberman did campaign tirelessly for John McCain last year. Read More......

Obama to end HIV travel ban today

This is great news, and the president deserves our thanks. This has been a good week, with the signing of the hate crimes bill and now lifting the HIV travel ban. Remember, however, all the pressure it took from the grassroots to get us to this point. It's been a not-so-good year in gay community/President Obama relations. Let's hope that the next three years we don't have to be equally vigilant in order to get the President's really big promises - ENDA, and the repeal of DADT and DOMA - fulfilled. Read More......

The anti-gay bigots from Maine are advertising on our site

BUMP: Folks, just an FYI, the anti-gay bigots in the Catholic Church and the religious right in Maine are buying Google Ads on all the gay sites. The ads suggest that the gays are going to steal your children - not exactly what Jesus would do (then again, Jesus wouldn't aid and abet pedophiles, unlike far too many in the Catholic church leadership). We've been trying for a day now to pull them down, but it's not easy.

The good news, however, is that they're wasting a lot of money on people who clearly aren't going to support their hate and bigotry. I'm sure a lot of our readers are clicking on the ad just to see what the hatemongers are doing - I known I've clicked on their hateful ads when I've seen them on other sites, just to check up on the opposition - and every time someone clicks the ad, it costs the haters more money, money they could have spending convincing actual undecided voters. Yet at the same time I doubt it will convince a single reader to support discrimination. So rest assured, we're trying to get rid of the ads. Just wanted to let folks know since a number of readers had written in. Read More......

Wall Street feeling very good about 2009 bonuses

So what Wall Street is saying is that Washington is all bark, no bite. They may be right about that too. Besides the high level of comfort amongst Wall Street types that their bonus will be fat again this year is the kicker at the end. Only on Wall Street would anyone suggest that making a six figure base salary is low. Yes, if that was the total income the argument makes sense due to the high cost of living in Manhattan. However, when that is half or a third of your total income (as is generally the case in the industry) it's totally ridiculous.

If the bankers were so worried about their "commission" being hit then maybe they ought to re-think the business model. Selling garbage and then paying the price because everyone (except Geithner) realized it was trash sounds more like a personal problem. There's no reason why the middle class ought to fund these arrogant freeloaders who can't turn a corporate profit.

According to the survey, 83 percent of Wall Street professionals expect to receive bonuses this year, and one-third expect to receive even bigger bonuses than they did in 2008.

"You can't change 200 years of history overnight," said John Benson, founder and CEO of eFinancialCareers.com. "...Changing the pay structure is going to be an iterative process, because there are always unintended consequences to every change."

Read More......

"Consumer spending plunged in September"

So, the economic roller-coaster ride continues:

Consumer spending plunged in September by the largest amount in nine months, reflecting the end of the government's Cash for Clunkers auto sales program. Incomes, the fuel for future spending, were flat.

While the government reported that the overall economy grew in the July-September period, signaling the end of the worst recession in seven decades, the weakness in spending and incomes as the quarter ended underscores the fragility of the recovery

To my untrained economic eye, this seems to show how much government intervention helped keep the U.S. economy afloat.

Obama really did inherit a mess from George Bush. And, Bush's comrades in the GOP who helped created the mess have barely lifted a finger to help Obama fix it. Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Yesterday was quite a day. We learned the economy grew in the last quarter, although the job situation is still bleak.

We saw the House health insurance reform bill and Speaker Pelosi discussed it on a call with bloggers. The biggest complaint from Republicans is that the bill is long, over 1900 pages. That's the best GOPers can throw at it. Perhaps if all the previous GOP presidents hadn't failed to act, and if GOPers in the Senate hadn't killed reform in 1994, the bill wouldn't be so long. But, the current system is a mess.

Today, the President is expected to finally lift the HIV travel ban.

On the election front, there are four days to get-out-the vote in the key races and referenda around the country. There are two gubernatorial races: New Jersey and Virginia. I'm really pulling for Jon Corzine to win again in New Jersey. The guy is a true progressive. I met him at Netroots Nation this past summer and he was just unyielding in his commitment to progressive values, including marriage equality.

Let's see where today leads us.... Read More......

Even mild Wall Street change is getting hit in Congress

This gives a pretty good indication of how strong the Wall Street lobbyists are in Washington. It also reminds me yet another problem during the peak of the TARP days when Wall Street shoveled out millions to lobbyists to help block any changes. They claimed that the money was completely different than the bailout money and some fools may have even fallen for that nonsense. (OK, maybe just five year olds fell for that story.)

Reasons for being against the mild Wall Street changes are all over the board. One of the few good ideas that has been suggested during the debate has been by Sheila Bair at the FDIC but even there, Geithner has shot it down. I'd hate to see what would happen in Congress if there was actually some serious reform on the table. Read More......

EU left and right all agree against Blair for President

Maybe ol' Tony will just have to stick to raking in millions a year from the bankers. For years he tried to talk up Europe though he never really made an effort to move the UK closer to the EU. Heaven forbid he bothered to try something risky. Well, something risky besides invading Iraq and going along with Bush. Now the center-right leaders of the EU are turning away and looking for someone who bothers to care about the EU. Even better, the center-left is just as, if not more, uninterested in Blair. The Guardian:

Sarkozy, the French president, and Merkel, the German chancellor, discussed the new EU president at a dinner at the Elysée palace on Wednesday. They are understood to have agreed that the post should be filled from the main centre-right EPP grouping, which brings together the parties currently ruling most EU countries.

The French made clear in Brussels last night that Blair was losing their support. Jean-David Levitte, Sarkozy's most senior foreign affairs adviser, said: "The UK is not in the eurozone, nor in the Schengen [free travel area in the EU] and it has a number of opt outs. These are not advantageous in this search for a candidate."

Read More......

Big Pharma ready for all out to war to defend its sweetheart deal

Too bad. It's absurd the White House agreed to a deal that keeps your and my prescription drug prices artificially, and ridiculously, high.

The White House deal bars the government from negotiating drug prices, extends patent protections and blocks re-importing cheaper drugs from Canada.

I get the White House's logic. Someone there thought they had a masterful plan to neuter Big Pharma's opposition to health care reform by, essentially buying them off with our money. You and I get to pay more for prescription drugs - a drug tax, as it were - to line Big Pharma's pockets, and keep them supporting the administration's reform effort. It was smart, perhaps too smart by half, but smart. But was it wise? Was it sound policy? Was it even necessary? Read More......

Why does Obama's pay czar want to limit his authority?

Limiting his authority to the Wall Street TARP recipients is understandable. Limiting that authority to only seven simply doesn't make sense. Noticeably missing is Goldman Sachs who greatly benefited and continue to benefit fro the TARP money given to AIG. Why the free ride for some? If Goldman wants to flaunt their obnoxious numbers, shouldn't they also be ready to deal with the fallout? Leaving them off the list when they are alive due to billions of taxpayer dollars still does not make any sense.

Feinberg also testified that his authority to set pay should not extend beyond the seven firms. Taxpayers have a vested interest in these companies since the government owns significant stakes in each. Aside from AIG and Bank of America, the other firms are Citigroup, General Motors, Chrysler, GMAC Financial Services and Chrysler Financial.

"The federal government should not enter the business of micromanaging compensation practices beyond these seven companies," he said. But Feinberg added that he hoped other companies would model their executive compensation on the practices he was putting in place at the seven firms.

Hoped? Really? What part of this botched bailout process did he miss? It's precisely this kind of ignorance and foolish hope that got us to this point in the first place. Wall Street does not respond to "hope" or asking nicely. They only respond to force and a lot of it. This pay czar is more disappointing by the day. Read More......

ACCCE and Bonner knew of faked letters to members of Congress even before House voted on energy bill

This story gets dirtier with each new development. You'll recall that a D.C.-base astroturf lobbying firm, Bonner & Associates, was busted for sending forged letters to members of Congress during the debate on the energy bill last spring. The company's defense was that a rogue employee was responsible. But, Bonner & Associates, and its client, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), knew about the faked letters before the House voted, but apparently "did nothing" about it:

A grassroots lobbying firm knew several days ahead of a critical House climate change vote that letters it sent to members claiming local nonprofit groups opposed the bill were fake.

Working on behalf of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), the firm Bonner & Associates has acknowledged that it sent about a dozen forged letters to three House Democrats who were seen as critical swing votes.

The head of the ACCCE also acknowledged learning of some of the forgeries the day before the vote, a discovery he said “appalled” him.

But both the firm and the coal group did nothing to inform the members or the misrepresented companies about the forged letters ahead of the vote.

So dirty. Not only are these people willing to destroy the environment, they've got zero integrity.

For more on the astroturfers, check out: astrotruth.org to "peel back the turf." Read More......

Conrad urges Dem Senators to vote to bring health care bill to the floor

Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), and a key moderate in the health care debate, today urged his Senate Democratic colleagues to vote to bring the health care bill to the Senate floor - i.e., oppose any attempts to filibuster starting debate on the bill. There are still additional potential filibusters, as Matt Browner-Hamlin detailed in the post below, but this is a step in the right direction. Read More......

Everything you always wanted to know about "cloture" but were afraid to ask

Matt Browner-Hamlin at SEIU does a great job explaining what "cloture" is in the Senate, also known as breaking a filibuster. The most confusing part, I suspect, is that a vote FOR cloture is a vote AGAINST a filibuster (kind of reminds me how in Greek we say "ne" for yes, which people just assume is "no"). Here's a portion of Matt's explanation of the four cloture votes we should expect on the health care bill (if not more):

1.Cloture Motion on Motion to Proceed to Measure's Consideration: This will be the first step, where the Senate will ask itself: Do enough of us want to start debating specific health care reform legislation on the floor? Assuming that 60 senators do, the process will continue;

If Cloture on the Motion to Proceed is "invoked" (a fancy senate term for saying 60 Senators voted yes) then the Motion to Proceed will be adopted by a majority vote and the Senate will start debating the House bill that I mentioned above. Next the very first thing that will happen is that the "merged" Finance/HELP Committee bill will be offered as a complete substitute to the House bill. Then the fun really begins. Senators offer dozens of amendments, the Majority and Minority Leaders try to work out Unanimous Consent agreements, which I will explain below, to get lots of the amendments votes and sometimes Senators even filibuster each other's amendments. But sooner or later the Majority Leader says that is enough. That's when...

2.Cloture Motion on Manager's Amendment (Substitute Amendment): After considerable debate and amendment to the substitute, the Majority Leader will file Cloture on the Substitute. If there are 60 votes here, the Merged reform bill/Substitute as amended will get an up or down vote after 30 hours of post cloture consideration. Then...

3. Cloture Motion Filed on Measure (Final Passage): After the Substitute Amendment is adopted, the Senate still needs to bring debate on the entire bill to a close, so in oder to get to final passage of the health reform bill in the Senate, there will be one more cloture vote -- on the final bill (or to get super technical, on that old house bill as amended by the Substitute). Assuming 60 senators support getting to a final vote on the bill they've just spent days and weeks amending and debating (not to mention months doing the same in Committee), then there will be an opportunity for the health care reform bill to receive a straight up-or-down vote.

Read More......

Live blogging blog call with Speaker Pelosi about health care reform

House Speaker Pelosi has invited a number of us on a blog call with her, happening right now. Here is my live blog. This isn't verbatim, it's my best effort at contemporaneous notes.

Thanked us for all of our help, without the help of the blogs would not be able to move ahead as we are with the public option.

8.2m downloads of health care bill on the House Web site.

Kids stay on parents' policy until age of 27.

Next week or week after we'll be voting on the bill, hopefully.

Q from McJoan at Dkos: Will amendments be allowed on the floor?

A: Been focused on policy, haven't focused on manager's amendment yet. She'd have to be talked into accepting amendments, but she's open to it.

Q from me,: How helpful has the WH been?

A: Depends what part of the bill. WH has been fine, pleased with the president's statement. Grateful to progressive caucus and to many of us for helping her get the public option. Senate coming forth with public option has been very powerful for the House, helped the House.

Q from Chris Bowers, OpenLeft: Is the Kucinich amendment permitting states to move ahead with single payer in the bill?

A: No.

Q from Ryan Grim with Huff Post: Weiner was promised he'd get a substantive amendment on single payer. Also elaborate on Pharma White House deal.

A: We cant take something to the floor that isn't scored. Trying to figure out how you score single payer. I've been for single payer for 30 years. Single payer now can be disruptive to Medicare, some say. We've put forth a bill that has consensus in our caucus, and the ability to pass. Remains to be seen what we add between now and Monday.

On the Pharma deal, we weren't a part of that. We rejected it, we were disappointed by it. In our bill, we require the Sec of HHS to negotiate drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries.

We took our costs down by demanding a price rebate for low income people to the tune of $14bn. Takes it out of Pharma. I never thought that the 80 was a serious antie from them.

Q: How high a priority is it keeping the drug price rebate in conference?

A: We were told to keep the bill under a trillion dollars. We worked on three bills. Then the president announced $900bn, well that's a big reduction. So we had to find out where we could do that. Of course members were very very unhappy about the Pharma deal, and that was a place where we could find the money. I don't know how we can do all these thing if an industry like Pharma will make - are you ready for this - 4 to 5 trillion dollars over the next ten years.

Q from Brian Beutler at TPM: WH reported trying to make public option more moderate to get Snowe on board. Was that a political calculation? Do you worry about president's support for public option going forward?

A: We have Senator Kennedy's public option. It's what he had in his HELP bill. I don't see any way to go less than that. I'm trying to deal with the calibration I have to make in the House with how we go forward. We never said we would come up with Medicare plus 5 public option, we said a public option. We are playing our role, strongest way for consumer, seniors, future generations, small businesses is this bill.

We honor the administration's principles in the "pay for" - surcharge for people making a lot of money. They made their preference the Senate pay-for which is unpopular in the public in its present form. We have a pay-for that 99.7% of American people are excluded from 0.3% are the people who make $500,000 a couple a year. It's a few people, but it's $400bn.

So we have the issue of how strong is the public option. How is the bill paid for. How can we agree on something stronger for seniors. Insurance affordability for middle class. We insure 7m or 8m more people than the Senate. We're up to 36m insured. Closing the donut hole sooner. Adding in kids up to 27. We think we're much better in many areas.

Senate has to do what they have to do, House has to do what we have to do, WH has to do what they have to do. I'm just so busy with what I'm doing, I'm not worried about what someone else is doing. I have confidence in the president.

We're the strongest bill at the table, but this isn't a fight between the House and the Senate.

Call is over. Read More......

FOX mentions ACORN 22 times this morning, poo-poos GDP growth of 3.5%

I guess that truce we heard rumors of last night is over. From Sam Stein at Huffington Post:

On Thursday morning, Fox and Friends made 22 mentions of the minority-organizing group ACORN -- a consistent boogeyman for the GOP -- despite the fact that there has been no new news on the ACORN front in weeks.

"Straight ahead," said host Steve Doocy early in Thursday's show. "Congress has stopped funding ACORN after... Fox News uncovered shocking video tapes. But did you know that that ACORN ban was only temporary? Should ACORN get its funding back?"

Contrast that to the tone of the coverage when news broke, at roughly 8:30 am (late in the broadcast) that the economy had grown for the first time in the past year. The host spent just a handful of minutes -- and made only two mentions -- on the 3.5 percent growth in GDP, despite the fact that it signaled the beginning of the end of the worst recession in 70 years.

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Blue Cross increasing premiums in DC area by 32%

This is stunning. And don't think for a minute that it's not their effort to gouge the consumer before "reform" is passed. I have the same plan as this reader (they're in northern Virginia, I'm in DC), whose email I'm printing below. My insurance premiums have been going up 20% to 25% a year for the past couple of years as well. And mind you, Blue Cross claims that they don't increase your premiums based on your health care needs, rather they increase premiums for everyone in your category of coverage, so you're not being "punished." Yeah right, 32%? How much was inflation last year? How much did drug and medical prices go up over the last year? I don't think it's 32%.

You and I have CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO, individual plan, and are about the same age and live a few miles apart. My rates change every December, and guess what they have in store for me (and probably you, too). Here is what I have paid per month every year I've had the plan:

2004 ... $203
2005 ... $240 ... +18%
2006 ... $241 ... +0.4%
2007 ... $238 ... -1.2%
2008 ... $300 ... +26.1%
2009 ... $365 ... +21.7%
2010 ... $483 ... +32.3%

When they jack up your rate by over 32% on your policy anniversary, don't assume it's because they are punishing you for the rightful indignation you blog about, or your prescriptions, because I am perfectly healthy and have no prescriptions. My only hope is that they genuinely fear the impending loss of their monopolistic stranglehold and are just profiteering until the bitter end. In which case, I hope they are dead right.

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House health-care reform bill includes public option

UPDATE: The summary of the bill, and the legislation itself, are online here.

Shailagh Murray at the Washington Post:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) unveiled a health-care reform bill Thursday that includes a government insurance option and a historic expansion of Medicaid, although sticking points involving abortion and immigration remain unresolved.

The bill includes a version of the "public option" preferred by moderates and raises Medicaid eligibility levels to 150 percent of the federal poverty level for all adults, a steeper increase than in earlier drafts....

The House legislation aims to provide health insurance of one form or another to 96 percent of all Americans at an expected cost just below $900 billion over 10 years, without increasing the federal budget deficit for at least 20 years, House Democrats said....

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White House refuses to release list of gay invitees at Hate Crimes reception

It's not entirely clearly why, but the White House is refusing to release the list of gay invitees for the hate crimes reception last night. I've tried to get it. We know which members of Congress were invited, and which members of the Shepard and Byrd families. But nothing about any gays invited at all. They're simply refusing to release any of the names. Why the White House would want, today of all days, to feed the story line about transparency and White House invitees is beyond me. This is just dumb. Read More......

Blue Cross asks customers to help defeat health care reform, after sending them an 11% premium increase - oops

Blue Cross Blue Shield in North Carolina thought it might be nifty to spend a lot of money writing its customers and asking them to lobby Democratic Senator Kay Hagen to oppose the health care reform bill. Only problem? Blue Cross had just raised their customers' rates by 11%. People lost it.

First, they learned their rates will rise by an average of 11 percent next year.

Next, they opened a slick flier from the insurer urging them to send an enclosed pre-printed, postage-paid note to Sen. Kay Hagan denouncing what the company says is unfair competition that would be imposed by a government-backed insurance plan. The so-called public option is likely to be considered by Congress in the health-care overhaul debate.

"No matter what you call it, if the federal government intervenes in the private health insurance market, it's a slippery slope to a single-payer system," the BCBS flier read. "Who wants that?"

Plenty of people, it turns out.

Indignant Blue Cross customers have rebelled against the insurer's message, complaining that their premium dollars have funded such a campaign.

They've hit the Internet in a flurry of e-mails to friends and neighbors throughout the state. They've called Hagan's office to voice support for a public option. They've marked through the Blue Cross message on their postcards to instead vouch support, then dropped them in the mail -- in at least one case taped to a brick -- to be paid on Blue Cross' dime. Or dimes.

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In 3rd Quarter, U.S. economy grew "for the first time in a year"

UPDATE: Oops, Chris already posted about this! Sorry about that. He gives a good explanation of what this means.

Chris will have a better sense of what this really means, but it looks like we're getting some good economic news for a change:

For the first time in a year, the United States economy grew, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. But even if a recovery is technically in the offing, job-seekers likely will not begin to feel the benefits for months to come.

Gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the three months ending in September, a significant spike from a relatively shrunken base. The economy had contracted at annual rates of 0.7 percent and 6.4 percent in the first and second quarters of this year, respectively.

Robust government spending, exports, consumer durables — buoyed by auto purchases Congress’s now-expired “Cash for Clunkers” program — and housing helped finally push the measure into positive territory.

Cars and houses. Both aided by government programs. First-time home buyers are still getting the $8,000 tax credit. Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Late last night, the President traveled to Dover, Delaware to pay his respects to 18 members of the military whose bodies were being returned from Afghanistan. You may recall that George Bush would never do that. Obama has to make a decision on Afghanistan soon. George Bush never paid attention to that war.

Later this afternoon, Obama has a meeting with House members who are in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. They're all talking health insurance reform. These are the members who have pushed the hardest for real reform.

In Maine, the No on 1 operation is gearing up for the final push. It's impressive. If you want to help with pro-equality referenda in Maine, Washington State or Kalamazoo, check out the 3-2-1 Countdown for Equality post here.

Let's get threading... Read More......

Zimbabwe welcomes UN human rights expert by arresting him at the airport

That pretty much sums up what Robert Mugabe thinks of human rights.

U.N. human rights expert Manfred Nowak was detained at Harare airport on Wednesday by Zimbabwean security agents, even though he said he had been invited by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The Austrian academic arrived in Zimbabwe from Johannesburg, a stopover over on his way to Harare, where a power-sharing deal between Tsvangirai and long-time ruler Robert Mugabe is under severe strain.

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Economy forecasted to grow in third quarter

The figures are all in a close range but any of them will be good news. For now, growth is growth. Of course much of this has to do with the stimulus. That was the plan. The question will be what about the fourth quarter and then the first quarter of 2010? It will be very important to string together two quarters and then a third, etc. Some still are concerned about faltering in the next few quarters as the impact of the stimulus lessens.

Another concern are the forecasts of increasing unemployment which are very likely to go over 10% in the near term. Hopefully those numbers start moving down soon though jobs growth does not look encouraging.

Many analysts expect the economy returned to growth in the July-September quarter, expanding at a pace of 3.3 percent. If they are right, it would end the streak of four straight quarters of contraction, the first time that's happened on records dating to 1947.

A turnaround would be the strongest signal yet that the economy has entered a new, fragile phase of recovery and that the recession, which started in December 2007, has ended.

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Why my prescription drug coverage is maxed out

As a follow-up to my post below about the latest lies from CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, a health care policy expert wrote me to explain why my prescription drug benefit is maxed out at only $1500 year:

The reason insurance companies will never up your pharmaceutical benefit is that they would like anyone who reaches your $1500 a year prescription benefit level to switch to another insurance carrier. They are hoping to antagonize you into leaving them. Reaching the pharma cap is a good indicator of a person on whom they are less likely to profit. Their ideal customer does not use this benefit (or any benefit, for that matter) at all. Unlike someone who breaks a leg and has big one-year costs, but probably nothing the next year, those with chronic health conditions take meds regularly, and scare the bejesus out of the profiteers.

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More South Carolina GOP sex shenanigans

I live for headlines like this.

As the officer approached, Corning sped off, then pulled over a few blocks away. He and the 18-year-old woman with him, an employee of the Platinum Plus Gentleman's Club, gave conflicting stories about what they were doing in the cemetery, Officer Michael Wines wrote in his report, though he did not elaborate.

Corning gave Wines a badge showing he worked for the state Attorney General's Office. Wines, whose wife also works there, called her to make sure Corning was telling the truth.

He then searched the SUV, where he found a Viagra pill and several sex toys, items Corning said he always kept with him, "just in case," according to the report.

Must have been a Boy Scout. Read More......

Curry an answer for curing cancer?

For esophagus cancer, the test results are looking positive. Eating more curry may not help because the turmeric loses its cancer fighting qualities but could be introduced as a key component in the fight.

McKenna said the study showed curcumin caused the cancer cells to die "using an unexpected system of cell messages."

Normally, faulty cells die by committing programed suicide, or apoptosis, which occurs when proteins called caspases are 'switched on' in cells, the researchers said.

But these cells showed no evidence of suicide, and the addition of a molecule that inhibits caspases and stops this "switch being flicked' made no difference to the number of cells that died, suggesting curcumin attacked the cancer cells using an alternative cell signaling system.

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Just because they say they don't like the bill, doesn't mean they'll vote for a filibuster

SEIU compiled some compelling examples of how Democratic Senator Evan Bayh (D-OH) has voted for cloture (i.e., against a filibuster) numerous times, even though in the end he voted against the Democratic legislation itself.

Even Evan Bayh, who said earlier today he doesn't see "much difference between process and policy at this particular juncture" hasn't always voted the same way on cloture as on final passage. Here are a few quick examples:

Example 1: In 2008, Evan Bayh voted in favor of a cloture motion on the bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, though he opposed the bill itself. "Bayh voted with most Democrats to stop the filibuster because, he said, it was preventing amendments that could have improved the bill."[Gannett, 6/12/2008; Vote 145, 6/6/2008]

Example 2: In 2005, Senator Bayh voted for cloture on Judge Owen's nomiation, but against final confirmation. Vote 127, 5/24/05: Senate.gov ; Vote 128, 5/25/05: Senate.gov. Judge Owen, you might recall, was the first nominee to reach the floor after the "Gang of 14" agreements.

Example 3: In 2004, Senator Bayh voted for cloture on the conference report to H.R. 1047, a $388 billion spending bill, then voted against final passage the next day. Vote 214, 11/19/04 ; Vote 215, 11/20/04

And this makes sense. It's one thing to vote against a bill, especially if the Dems already have the votes to pass it without you. It's an entirely other thing to vote to sustain a filibuster killing the bill. Depending on how important the bill is to the party - like, say it's the president's top initiative for his presidency - the Democratic Senator voting to sustain a filibuster, and kill the bill, could pay a huge price for his vote. That is, if the White House and the Democratic leadership actually make him pay a price. Read More......

FOX and White House reach a truce?

Maybe. But the issue isn't that FOX is unfair, or unbalanced. They're simply not media, period. They were set up as a conservative propaganda operation, and that is what they are to this day. There is no way that they can promise to be nice. It's like the liberal blogs promising to stop favoring Democrats over Republicans. It's not who we are, or why we exist, and if we were to promise it, we'd be lying. So if FOX, if in fact they've promised any truce. Read More......

Conservative Dems, who claim to be worried about the deficit, just killed the more cost-effective version of the public option in the House

Note the conservative Dems openly admit they're more worried about preserving a doctor's half a million a year salary than helping regular Americans cut their medical costs.

In the end, Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House leaders were unable to round up the necessary votes for their preferred version of the government insurance plan — one that would base payment rates to providers on rates paid by Medicare. Instead, the Health and Human Services secretary would negotiate rates with providers, the approach preferred by moderates and the one that will be featured in the Senate's version.

That marked a defeat for liberal lawmakers, who argued for months that a public insurance plan tied to Medicare would save more money for the government, and offer cheaper rates to consumers. Moderates feared that doctors, hospitals and other providers, particularly those in rural states, would be hurt, and in the end they looked poised to prevail, despite constituting a distinct minority in the 256-member House Democratic caucus.

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US ranked 9th in global prosperity index

There's no reason why the US can't be higher. Reuters:

The index is based on a definition of prosperity that combines economic growth with the level of personal freedoms and democracy in a country as well as measures of happiness and quality of life.

With the exception of Switzerland, which came in at number 2, Nordic countries dominated the top 5 slots, with Sweden in third place followed by Denmark and Norway.

The top 10 were all also Western nations, with Australia (6th place) and Canada (7th place) both beating the United States, ranked 9th. Britain came in at number 12.

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