Grayson's blockbuster appearance on CNN: "Democrats have to have guts"

Rep. Alan Grayson was also on CNN. Watch it. Really watch it. It's 10 minutes long. But, well worth it.


Grayson was excellent. But, wow, the traditional media types are pathetic and painfully annoying. They're so delicate....how could Grayson actually say anything mean about Republicans? Grayson rebuts and destroyed everything that Wolf, Alex Castellanos, Gloria Borger and Joe Johns. Everything. And, Wolf looked particularly clueless. The GOPers want health care reform to fail. They want Obama to fail. It's like Wolf and his colleagues have no clue as to just how extreme the modern GOP really is.

One of Grayson's best line was: "Democrats have to have guts." AMEN. He also did call GOPers "knuckle-dragging neanderthals." (And, they are.)

This is the kind of behavior that should be rewarded. We don't see enough of it from people on the Hill. You can donate to Grayson here. It's one way to show Grayson's colleagues that while "the Villagers" may be appalled, the rest of are ecstatic. Read More......

Newsmax is backing away from "Obama coup" story, fast

I was just contacted by Newsmax - there's a first - and they asked me to publish their statement regarding the story they printed earlier that discussed a possible military coup against President Obama's "Marxism." I have a feeling Newsmax wouldn't return the favor if the shoe were on the other foot, but perhaps that's what makes us different than them. Here's their statement - oh, and as TPM points out, according to Newsmax's own site, he sounds like a tad more than "some blogger":

Statement from Newsmax Regarding Blogger

In a blog posting to Newsmax John Perry wrote about a coup scenario involving the U.S. military. He clearly stated that he was not advocating such a scenario but simply describing one.

After several reader complaints, Newsmax wanted to insure that this article was not misinterpreted. It was removed after a short period after being posted.

Newsmax strongly believes in the principles of Constitutional government and would never advocate or insinuate any suggestion of an activity that would undermine our democracy or democratic institutions.

Mr. Perry served as a political appointee in the Carter administration in HUD and FEMA. He has no official relationship with Newsmax other than as an unpaid blogger.

Right, so he was a Democrat, 30 years ago (sure, that's why Newsmax, an arch-conservative Web site, published him) - and he wasn't advocating a coup. Really. Read the piece for yourself, Media Matters has a copy, and decide for yourself. Be interesting to hear what the RNC, which regularly sponsors Newsmax, has to say about this. Read More......

Leading conservative "thinker": Women shouldn't vote. He should go work for Republican Bob McDonnell in Virginia.

Over at Think Progress, we learn that John Derbyshire, who writes a column at the leading right-wing publication, National Review, thinks women shouldn't be allowed to vote:

COLMES: We would be a better country? John Derbyshire making the statement, we would be a better country if women did not vote.

DERBYSHIRE: Yeah, probably.

Sounds like Derbyshire should be working for Virginia's GOP candidate for Governor, Bob McDonnell, who had problems with women working outside of the home. According to McDonnell's law school thesis, which he authored in 1989 at the age of 39, that's "detrimental." McDonnell also has problems with contraception, too. He's a real theocrat trying to masquerade as a moderate. Read More......

Rep. Grayson's excellent speech on GOP health care plan upset the Republicans and George Stephanopoulos

UPDATE: Grayson did apologize today, but not to the Republicans:

_____________
Maybe there is at least one Democratic fighter.

Last night, I posted this floor speech from Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL). In under three minutes, he encapsulates the policy of the GOP when it comes to health care.

Via Marcy Wheeler, we learn that Grayson's speech gave poor George Stephanopoulos the vapors. He's so delicate. Wasn't George around in 1993 when the Clinton health care reform tanked? Maybe if the Democrats had a few more people like Grayson on their side back then, we could have done better.

Also, word is that the very sensitive House Republicans are trying to force Grayson to apologize for his remarks. Digby provides some video of Republican House members Virginia Foxx and Ginny Brown-Waite uttering some very harsh words about Democrats on the House Floor, but their speeches went unchallenged. The Republicans swarm over anyone who criticizes them. And, too often, Democrats get weak-kneed and cave in to GOP demands. That's already happened in this case. Rep. Larson, who serves in House leadership, thinks Grayson should apologize. That's so typical of Democratic "leaders" these days. You know, because if Democrats don't fight back and act sorry, maybe the Republicans will stop their dirty tricks. Right.

We need more Democrats like Alan Grayson. He's fearless, in addition to being right. As I said last night, I'm loving Grayson these days -- and all the more because he's offended the very delicate George Stephanopoulos and enraged the Republicans. I had a chance to spend some time with Grayson at Netroots Nation. The guy really is brilliant. His work on financial issues, especially his focus on the Fed, has really changed the course of the debate in Congress.

If you like what you're hearing from Rep. Grayson, help him out. The Republicans are gunning for him now. Read More......

DNC says Cillizza is wrong

Brad Woodhouse, communications director at the DNC, penned his first blog post today taking on the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza over yesterday's column claiming the Dems didn't have a sufficient attack dog to counter Michael Steele and Sarah Palin. I agree with Cillizza, I think the "death panel" crap, and more generally the Teabaggers, have caused significant damage to the Democratic effort in that they successfully scared the hell out of our leaders, and got them to back off on issue after issue, promise after promise. But since this is Woodhouse's first foray into the left of the left, I decided to welcome him anyway. Read More......

RNC sponsors NewsMax, which posted column about coup against Obama

Since the news broke about the column at NewsMax suggesting we needed a coup against Obama, there's been silence from the traditional media types. Literal silence. I just googled "Newsmax" and "coup" and did not find one article in the traditional media. Not one. The progressive media understands the import of this egregious action. Frankly, it just seemed like a matter of time before some right-winger started spouting this kind of sick talk (the post has been taken down, but we excerpted it here):

Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.

Military intervention is what Obama’s exponentially accelerating agenda for “fundamental change” toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama’s radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.

This is just an outrage. Clearly, the author felt like he was writing in a place where that message would resonate.

But, there's more to this story. Last night, John's post on the dangerous article was titled, Top GOP news portal discusses military "coup" against Obama. He was right. In fact, the Republican National Committee sponsors NewsMax.

NewsMax sends out emails quite frequently on behalf of the RNC. I was forwarded a NewsMax email sent for the RNC. The person who provided it told me he's gotten nine of these emails from NewsMax recently. It starts:


There's much more after the break. The RNC and NewsMax are very close.

Then, there was a lengthy message from RNC Chair Michael Steele, which concluded:

You and the RNC are all that stand between our sensible Republican plan for real health care reform and the Democrats' scheme to take more of your hard-earned income to pay for other people's health care while limiting yours.

So please complete your Future of American Health Care survey online right now and support our efforts to ensure our health care freedoms by making a special RNC contribution if you can. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Michael Steele
Chairman, Republican National Committee

P.S. GOP leaders in Congress are counting on the input of grassroots Republicans like you to help in the fight for sensible, responsive health care reform. Please fill out your Future of American Health Care survey online right now and make a special contribution of $1,000, $500, $100, $50 or $25 to help us stop “Obamacare” before it’s too late. Thank you.

So, let's review: The RNC sponsors NewsMax. NewsMax ran a disgusting column about a coup against Obama. Where's the RNC apology? Is the RNC ending its relationship with NewsMax? Where's the outrage in the traditional media? Where are the talking heads? Silence. That silence enables this craziness.

The RNC and FOX News create scandals out of nothing. They take tangential relationships and twist them. This isn't tangential. There is a strong relationship between the RNC and NewsMax.

Here's how the disclaimers on the email look:

NewsMax and the Republican National Committee speak with one voice. Believe me, none of the progressive media outlets on our side have that kind of relationship with the DNC. Read More......

Poll has "No on 1" leading in Maine

Just posted the latest available polling from the Maine marriage campaign over at AMERICAblog.com Gay. A new Democracy Corps poll shows our side leading 50% - 41%. This is good news, but, these off-year referenda are notoriously hard to poll. That's why having a very strong field operation really matters. And, No on 1 has a very strong field operation. (The No on 1 ActBlue page just hit $800,000 and we'll need every cent of that -- and lots more. The Bishop of Maine has been raising money for the anti-gay campaign through special collections at masses. Who knows where the National Organization for Marriage is getting its money??? AMERICAblog's ActBlue page is here. The financial reporting period ends tonight so donate now.) Read More......

Is it more important to pass a good bill, or a popular one?

From Dana Milbank at the Post:

My job is to put together a bill that gets 60 votes," the Finance Committee chairman [Baucus] said. "Now, I can count, and no one has been able to show me how we can count up to 60 votes with a public option in the bill. . . . I fear that if this provision is in the bill as it comes out of this committee, it will jeopardize real, meaningful, health-care reform."....

Rockefeller, who with a net worth north of $60 million is less skeptical of capitalism than Moore, argued to his colleagues that "Adam Smith would have cooked up this amendment." To Baucus, he said: "I understand the chairman has a responsibility to count votes and all the rest," but "I don't want to get to a point where process makes more difference than people."

Actually, no. Your job, Senator Baucus, and the President's job, is to whip your colleagues to get 60 votes for the kind of bill you'd prefer, not the other way around. This isn't the first time we've heard talk of putting the number of votes above the actual substance. On the stimulus bill, we heard how the most important thing was to get 80 votes in the Senate. No, the most important thing was to pass a bill that worked. Ditto on health care. Read More......

Corzine closing gap in New Jersey (and his opponent likes Springsteen, which the NY Times thinks is news)

This is one of the most useless and inane articles I've ever seen in the NY Times. Today, on the front page of the Times, we learn that GOP candidate for Governor, Chris Christie, is a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen. Seriously? That's news? A New Jersey politician likes The Boss. Stop the presses!!! Who cares? I don't know Bruce, but I do know his politics and I doubt he's a fan of Christie:

As to his rival’s admiration of Mr. Springsteen, Mr. Corzine said: “Last time I checked, Bruce Springsteen was for the working man, not giant corporations and the very wealthy.”

Fortunately, the polls in New Jersey have tightened up. Corzine has pulled to within four points: 43% - 39% in the Quinnipiac Poll. The margin of Christie's lead was 10% points a month ago.

This is what people really need to know about Chris Christie: He erupted at a constituent, a cancer-survivor, who asked about health care, telling her she's an "exception" because cancer happened in her 20s. Christie sides with insurance companies. Marcy Wheeler explained how she and Jane Hamsher were "exceptions," too. My cousin, Mary Jo, was an "exception," too. She died of breast cancer when she was 30. As Marcy put it, Christie is "a walking death panel for 'exceptions' like me and Jane.." Classy guy that Chris Christie:
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A "significant setback" that should have been avoided

First, McClatchy's take on the Senate Finance Committee votes yesterday:

In the first significant setback for the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday soundly rejected the "public option," or government-run health insurance plan.

It was a setback the Obama team brought upon itself. The Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House, Jim Messina, used to work for Baucus as his chief of staff. They're very close. Messina and his boss, Rahm Emanuel, had a Senate strategy built around Baucus and his bill. If the White House wanted a public option in the legislation, it would have been there. Then, the Republicans would have had to remove it, instead of having Democrats add it.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is going to be faced with a similar opportunity. He can include the very popular public option in the Senate bill. That way, the GOP will have to try to remove it on the Senate floor -- a move that could be filibustered by Democrats. I don't know why, with 60 votes, the Democrats haven't figured out how to use the process to their advantage. Sure, the GOP will try to filibuster the final bill. They're going to do that anyway. That's where leadership comes in -- from Harry Reid and Barack Obama.

Without leadership and using the power they have, there will be more articles about "significant setbacks." There's a growing sense in the traditional media and from the pundits that the public option is finished. That's because they know the players and are not expecting to see real leadership. Will our leaders prove them wrong? Read More......

THIS JUST IN: Newsmax pulls article suggesting military coup against Obama

We wrote about this earlier today. Now is when you go for the jugular. Hopefully the DNC, Democrats on the Hill, and the administration understand how politics works, how you take advantage of your opponent's mistakes, of his moment of weakness. Having said that, I expect silent and an olive branch. But hopefully I'm wrong. Read More......

Imagine holding a bake sale to pay for your heart surgery

He should have held a bake sale to pay off Democratic Senator Max Baucus, the man President Obama put in charge of health care reform, who has received millions from the health and insurance lobby. Why again is Baucus "first among equals" concerning health care reform when he shouldn't even be in the room because of his conflict of interests? For all intents and purposes, Max Baucus is an industry lobbyist. I thought this time around we weren't going to let lobbyists run the show. I thought wrong.

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Assassination

There, I said it. So did Thomas Friedman in today's NYT.

Oddly, like Friedman, I, John Aravosis, also met Yitzhak Rabin not long before he was assassinated. It was an odd meeting. I think it was September of 1993. He was in Washington to sign the "Declaration of Principles" with Yasser Arafat. My old boss, Senator Ted Stevens, had a private meeting set up with Rabin in the US Capitol building. As Stevens' foreign policy adviser, I went with. We made it through the gauntlet of (hot) Israeli security, and there was Rabin, sitting on a small piano-like bench, before a coffee table, with a couch to his right, and several chairs to his left. Everyone sat down, Stevens on the couch, Rabin on the piano-bench, I stood by the door politely deferential.

Rabin then looked at me, and said in his horrendously accented English, "come sit down." There was nowhere for me to sit, all the seats were taken (there were only six or seven seats around the coffee table, as I recall), and in any case, I could see Stevens glowering at me from the couch, and I knew it wasn't my place to join in.

Rabin would have none of it. Sit down, he told me again. It's okay, I said, and there's nowhere to sit anyway. Rabin looked around, realized I was right, and then scooched over on the very small single-person bench and said "sit here," patting the small space next to him.

I didn't know what to do. I was 30 at the time, in one of the more important meetings of my life, and the Israeli Prime Minister was demanding I share a love seat with him, while my boss gave me a "don't you dare" stare.

So, I scooched next to the Prime Minister of Israel, our sides touching, while everyone around the table gave me a "do you know who he is?" kind of look.

I didn't understand a thing Rabin said at the meeting. I speak five languages, four fluently. Rabin-English wasn't one of them.

Two years later he was dead from an assassin's bullet. Read More......

Please call GOP Senator David Vitter for any of your prostitution questions

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The president is hosting a big, really big, meeting on Afghanistan today. As I noted yesterday, the GOPers on the HIll, who ignored the war in Afghanistan during the Bush years, now want to play politics with national security again. That's just beyond disgusting, but it's what Republicans do. Anyway, the attendees list for today's meeting gives the sense of its import: Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General David Petraeus, U.S. Central Command, General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, Admiral Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, CIA Director Leon Panetta, Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Anne Patterson, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan and General James Jones, National Security Advisor.

If you live in Virginia, which has an election for Governor, or Washington State, where Approve Referendum 71 is on the ballot, make sure you're registered to vote. Registration closes on Monday, October 5th. Also, today is the end of the financial reporting in Maine for the No on 1/Protect Maine Equality Campaign. If you want to donate to save marriage equality in Maine, you can do it here. Our side is running an aggressive operation up there with very good tv ads and an excellent ground game. The anti-gay forces will have plenty of money to spew their anti-gay rhetoric. We can't let the lies win this time.

Let's get started. Busy day ahead.... Read More......

Climate change will force 25 million more children to hungry

Foot dragging is not an option. The Guardian:

Twenty-five million more children will go hungry by the middle of this century as climate change leads to food shortages and soaring prices for staples such as rice, wheat, maize and soya beans, a report says today.

If global warming goes unchecked, all regions of the world will be affected, but the most vulnerable – south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa – will be hit hardest by failing crop yields, according to the report, prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) for the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

The children of 2050 will have fewer calories to eat than those in 2000, the report says, and the effect would be to wipe out decades of progress in reducing child malnutrition.

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At least 80 dead in Samoa following tsunami

Unfortunately they expect the death toll on the islands to increase as well. The center of the large earthquake was in Hawaii though they reportedly did not feel the movement in Samoa. Very sad.

Dozens of people were feared dead and many more have been injured after a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that swept the Pacific islands of Samoa and American Samoa.

Cars and people were swept out to sea by the fast-churning water as survivors fled to high ground, where they remained huddled hours later. Signs of devastation were everywhere, with villages flattened, a giant boat getting washed ashore and coming to rest on the edge of a highway and floodwaters swallowing up cars and homes.

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Rep. Grayson (D-FL) unveils the GOP health care plan

I'm loving Rep. Alan Grayson. He's fearless.
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Layoffs stabilizing but few new jobs

As with many of the jobs updates lately, it's not the best of news but it could be much worse. It's doubtful much will change in 2009 though perhaps in 2010 we will start to see more positive change. Reuters:

Employers have sharply cut back on layoffs but hiring has yet to take off, putting a damper on domestic demand. That has left many analysts doubting the economy's recovery from its worst recession in 70 years will be sustainable once the government's various spending programs end.

The survey of 77 economists forecast employers cut 180,000 jobs in September, which would be the smallest amount for any month since August 2008. Payrolls declined 216,000 in August.

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Germans lose, Spanish win, survey of best lovers

Well, I don't plan on sharing much in this post, but... let me just say that rating the French at the top of the "best" list (right column) is not an outlier :-) Your votes? Read More......

Another example of the challenge Obama faces

Liberal pundits are still questioning whether he's got what it takes to be president. It doesn't really matter if you like those pundits or not. They are read by a lot of people, and particularly when the pundit is a liberal, their criticism of the president of their own party holds weight with a lot of people. Interestingly, Cohen weaves a number of other issues into the discussion, including President Obama's words and actions on Afghanistan, Iran, the CIA interrogations, and the public option. This is what has concerned me from the beginning. That a growing case could, and would, be made that our president doesn't have the right stuff. It's just very damaging for a politician to be facing this kind of doubt from within his own party. Hopefully someone at the White House recognizes this, and addresses it. Read More......

Rome delivers another surprise

What an amazing city. It's so exciting to see that Rome continues to produce so many wonderful pieces of history that we thought were gone.

Archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled what they think are the remains of Roman emperor Nero's extravagant banquet hall, a circular space that rotated day and night to imitate the Earth's movement and impress his guests.

The room, part of Nero's Golden Palace, a sprawling residence built in the first century A.D., is thought to have been built to entertain government officials and VIPs, said lead archaeologist Francoise Villedieu.

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THIS JUST IN: Top GOP news portal discusses military "coup" against Obama

This is beyond the pale. If the Democrats don't step up and shut this kind of talk down right now, I fear we are going to see violence in this country. And yes, it will be the Republicans' fault. But it will also be the fault of the Democratic party for watching the crazy talk grow, and not doing a thing to stand up to it. At some point, silence abets.

Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.

Military intervention is what Obama’s exponentially accelerating agenda for “fundamental change” toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama’s radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.

Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don’t shrug and say, “We can always worry about that later."

Read More......

Cillizza asks why the Dems don't have an attack dog

Do you agree? Should the Dems be more "attack dog"-ish on health care reform, or are the American people tired of anger politics?

The national debate over President Obama's health care plan has exposed a weakness in the Democratic Party apparatus: it lacks a high profile surrogate to push back -- hard -- against the rhetorical arguments put forward by Republicans.

While people like Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin have scored points by hammering the Obama plan hard and repeatedly, there has not been that same sort of presence on the Democratic side. The dearth of attack dogs contributed to the White House losing the message war in September....

But, politics is a game of choices -- the candidate or party that is able to define the choice in terms favorable to them usually wins.

Like it or not, Republicans have been relentless in their willingness to slam the Obama health care plan as -- among other things -- detrimental to seniors, sketchy when it comes to end of life care and almost certain to raise taxes on the middle class.

In politics, an attack with no response is often believed. Democrats' lack of an attack dog has meant that they have left too many Republican hits unanswered -- a problem not only for the remainder of the health care debate but the next several years of the Obama presidency.

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Huckabee attends rightwing conference that tells activists to get their guns ready for ‘Bloody Battle’ with Obama the Nazi

So when is a senior Democrat going to call on Republicans to denounce this hate speech?

Werthmann at How To Take Back America: "If we had our guns, we would have fought a bloody battle. So, keep your guns, and buy more guns, and buy ammunition. [...] Take back America. Don’t let them take the country into Socialism. And I refer again, Hitler’s party was National Socialism. [...] And that’s what we are having here right now, which is bordering on Marxism."

Let's see who was a part of this hate fest:

Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum
Janet Folger Porter, Faith2Action
Don Wildmon, American Family Association
Michael Farris, Home School Legal Defense Association
Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel
Rick Scarborough, Vision America
Don Feder, World Congress of Families
Joseph Farah, WorldNetDaily

That's not really the fringe of the conservative movement - it IS the conservative movement, and a good chunk of the religious right leadership to boot.

And GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee attended too. Imagine what the Rs would do if a top D presidential candidate attended a conference where things like this were said about George Bush, including comparing America to Nazi Germany. The Rs wouldn't do nothing, which seems to be the Democratic response plan - always. Read More......

GOP congressman: Obama is an “enemy of humanity,” has “no place” in government

An enemy of humanity? That is Hitler. We've now gone from crazy Teabaggers comparing Obama to Hitler, to members of Congress making statements that could inspire some nut to try to harm the president. At what point do Democrats say "enough"? (Via Jed at DKos)

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Concerns grow that Chuck Schumer just screwed the Netroots in his definition of what is a journalist?

Pam has this covered quite well. No point in my repeating it. Just go read it at her place.

I've read the legislation, and it's vague as hell, but sure sounds as if you're only a journalist if you write a blog and publish something in another non-online medium as well. Which might be news to the folks working at the Seattle Post online, the Washington Post online (which is not the same thing as the Washington Post), freelancers in general, and the blogs. Chuck Schumer, in the past, has been quite friendly to the blogs. It's not clear if someone on his staff screwed up, or what. But this is terribly troubling. Read More......

Senate Finance Comm. defeated Schumer public option amendment

Chuck Schumer gave a very powerful explanation of his public option amendment today, but it lost anyway by a margin of 10 - 13. Again, all the GOPers, including Olympia Snowe, voted no, as did Democrats Baucus (MT), Conrad (ND) and Lincoln (AR). Democrats control the committee by a margin of 13 - 10.

As with the Rockefeller amendment, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus voted against the Schumer amendment because he doesn't see how it can get 60 votes on the Senate floor. Here's an idea: All the Democrats vote for cloture on an underlying bill that includes the public option. Baucus proves over and over that he's really a fool. It's pathetic that the White House gave him so much control over the process -- and Rahm Emanuel and Jim Messina did give Baucus way too much power. (I should say appearance of power. Emanuel and Messina were really more like puppet-masters.)

All hope is not lost. The Finance Committee will finish working on its bill this week. Then, that bill will be joined with the Senate HELP Committee's bill, which includes a public option. And, there will be a floor fight. But, the Senate Democrats would be wise to include the public option and other strong provisions in their bill before it hits the floor. Read More......

Huckabee suggests that someone should take out the UN

Yes, he was just joking, I'm sure. It just seems odd that a lead GOP presidential candidate would make "jokes" about someone violently taking out entire NYC monuments. The September 11 parallel is a little too clear. Then again, look at the rest of the conference Huckabee was attending, I think he may have a few other questions to answer:

Conservatives gathered at a Hilton hotel in St. Louis over the weekend for the "How to Take Back America Conference," a Phyllis Schlafly-hosted gathering where the faithful gathered to discuss issues such as "How To Counter The Homosexual Extremist Movement," "How To Stop Socialism In Health Care" and "How To Recognize Living Under Nazis & Communists."

Perhaps some enterprising reporter will ask Mr. Huckabee just how can we recognize when we're living under Nazis and Communists? Read More......

Senate Finance Comm. defeated Rockefeller public option amendment

By a vote of 8 - 15, the Senate Finance Committee just defeated Senator Rockefeller's public option amendment. This was the strongest public option language being considered today. All of the Republicans voted no. The Democrats voting no were: Baucus (MT), Conrad (ND), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (FL) and Carper (DE).

The committee is now considering another version of a public option amendment offered by Senator Schumer. This one intends to provide a "level playing field" (meaning no competitive edge) for the public plan. Read More......

Political pain and the economics of insurance companies

A previous post looked at the problem of health insurance from the point of view of sick people who need coverage. There are legitimate concerns with getting everyone covered, since we achieve the lowest costs when the broadest possible pool (i.e., everyone) is included. The problem is that nobody wants to pay until they get sick, so broad coverage can only be achieved by making participation automatic (e.g., as single payer systems do by funding themselves through tax system a la Medicare) or by some sort of enforcement mechanism (a la Max Baucus, who wants to fine people who don’t join up). But there are also some pretty obvious problems with the incentives facing the insurance companies themselves.

Just as individuals don’t want insurance until they get sick, companies don’t want people to have insurance unless they don’t get sick. Insurance companies can make more money by some combination of not covering people likely to become sick (if they can identify them somehow before signing them up) and/or jacking up rates for people who DO become sick. This last part is particularly problematical because once you become sick you have entered the ranks of “those with pre-existing conditions,” and will have difficulty ever getting a new health insurance policy again. That means your current insurer has a de facto monopoly, and can charge you monopoly prices to keep you covered. How to deal with these problems? Other countries have come up with two solutions:

1. Regulate the health insurance companies to make sure they don’t abuse people. This works well in other countries, but runs a major risk in the USA, since one political party takes it as an article of faith that regulations are bad. That means as soon as Republicans get back in power, we can say goodbye to our regulatory oversight.

2. Offer public insurance to anyone who is shut out of the private system, or who doesn’t want private insurance. This is the so-called “public option,” and is the standard economic answer to a monopoly – open up the market to competition and watch the monopoly rents melt away. Note that the idea of opening up competition across state lines tries to achieve the goal of adding competition, but has an inherent problem. Once you get sick, you once again are facing a monopolist since you can’t switch companies with a preexisting condition – unless they are regulated, and forced to accept you, and then we are back to point 1 above, the political problem. It is worth saying that I have no problem with such interstate competition, and think it might have some limited benefits, but it can’t solve the basic problem you have without a public option.

So here is the question. Why are people so scared of the idea of publicly-run insurance? After all, everyone is already eligible for Medicare if they live long enough. There is a very real fear underlying this, and after the last 30 years it should be pretty clear to everyone. For the past three decades of Republican dominance we have seen countless federal programs either starved of the funding they need to operate properly, or run by people who clearly don’t believe in the desirability of the very agency or program they were appointed to run. If a public option health insurance program were run the way FEMA was run during the Katrina debacle, then nobody would be happy.

This also makes it clear why it has been so important to the Republican naysayers to whip up this fear as much as they can -- nobody loves their insurance company (at least I haven’t met them yet), so insurers would make a very inviting political target. So, the Republicans have to make the alternative to insurance companies even more unloved than the insurance companies themselves.

On the other hand, suppose a public system were funded adequately (e.g., suppose we forced Senators and Representatives to get THEIR insurance through this system, or better yet, that it was funded through a dedicated tax like Medicare or Social Security). We would quickly see the public system growing and operating with lower costs than the private system. Why? A whole list of reasons, but among the most important:

- It really is cheaper just to cure someone’s broken arm (or whatever ails them) than to put in place multiple layers of bureaucracy to try NOT to cure it. (Estimates are that around 30% of private insurance costs go to this purpose)

- We ALREADY are paying for the sickest segment of the population (those over 65) on a public system – Medicare. It can only be cheaper to pay for younger and healthier slices of the population.

- We ALREADY are paying for the “uninsured” on the public dime because the law says everyone has to be treated when they show up at the emergency room. Catching them earlier can only be cheaper.

This is why we know we can bring costs down. It isn’t magic or BS or rocket science. But incrementalism wont get us there. The insurance companies themselves are the enemies here because if they behave like capitalists and do their best to maximize profits – which is what they are supposed to do – then they are going to have a built in incentive to try not to cover sick people. But there is the rub – society as a whole is going to pay the cost one way or the other. By admitting this to ourselves and bringing everyone into the system we can avoid all the expense resulting from companies trying to push costs onto somebody else’s budget.

So what the hell is wrong with our Democratic Senators and Congressmen? Can it be that they are so myopic they can’t see that public health insurance is the biggest political winner since Social Security? (Yes, yes, I know the answer to that, many of them can’t see beyond the ends of their noses but I resist admitting it to myself). Message to my own rep, blue dog Mike Arcuri: “Hey Mike! Your constituents will LOVE this if you ever would do it. I know because I have talked to many of them, Dems and Republicans alike, at countless school events, sports events, concerts, parks, etc. Yes, they are afraid that it will only cost them and provide nothing, but it is up to YOU to make sure that the reform is real so that doesn’t happen.”

Finally, there is a very simple plain vanilla economic response to the problem of high cost health care. Increase the supply of health care providers! We should be giving away scholarships to medical students and nurses, as well as allowing qualified immigrants to come here to practice medicine. It can only bring costs down if there is increased competition at the “grass roots” level of medicine. It may not be a silver bullet to control costs but it sure could make a difference. Read More......

McConnell: Obama is a push-over

Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell:

[T]he president "would sign anything the Congress sent him, provided it had ‘Health Care Reform’ written at the top of the page."

What do you think? Is McConnell right? Or is he just goading Obama (but goading him to what)? Is McConnell saying what he actually thinks? Do you think Obama would sign anything the congress sends him? Should we care about the Republican leader making comments like this at all? Read More......

Harkin says he has the votes for the public option

Things are getting interesting:

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa.), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said that the Senate "comfortably" has a majority of votes to pass the public plan, and that he believes Democrats can muster 60 votes to break a filibuster.

"I have polled senators, and the vast majority of Democrats -- maybe approaching 50 -- support a public option," Harkin said told the liberal Bill Press Radio Show. "So why shouldn't we have a public option? We have the votes."

The president promised it, and we have the votes, yes, why shouldn't we? Read More......

Republicans ignored Afghanistan under Bush, now want "high stakes" hearings

There are many, many hypocritical things that Republicans do. But, when they play politics with national security, it's beyond hypocritical, it's despicable. For almost eight years, including those six when Republicans controlled the House and Senate, the GOP ignored the war in Afghanistan, just like George Bush did. They dutifully -- and without question -- followed Bush into the war in Iraq. And, they let Afghanistan fester. It was national security negligence on the part of the GOP. Now, that Bush is gone, Republicans are pretending to care about the Afghanistan war:

Republicans want to make the idea of a high stakes congressional hearing with Gen. Stanley McChrystal look inevitable.

On Monday, Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, became the latest GOP lawmaker to call on the top U.S. general in Afghanistan to come to Capitol Hill to testify about the need for more troops.

Kit Bond and his colleagues weren't screeching about hearings on Afghanistan when Bush was president. FOX News wasn't in a frenzy about that war either. They were all complicit in Bush's failure. But, now they think there's a political reason to talk Afghanistan. Really, they're sick. They don't care about the underlying policy, just the politics. Read More......

Baucus bill would let private group, with ties to industry, write the rules for implementing the entire health care bill

The Los Angeles Times has the story. Anybody have any thoughts about that? Read More......

Dorgan will try to blow up Big Pharma backroom deal, let cheaper drugs import from Canada, will save $50 billion by eliminating 300% Rx drug tax

Dorgan's amendment would let cheaper drugs from Canada come into the US, so people like you and me would no longer have to pay a 300% to 500% mark-up on the prescription drugs we buy. The administration scotched this possibility in their secret deal they made with Big Pharma, that was subsequently exposed. It will be interesting to see which politicians vote to have you pay three to five times as much for your prescriptions simply because American pharmaceutical companies have a monopoloy in our market. One could almost call that a prescription drug tax, since it's simply a mark-up that you're paying. Will our members of Congress vote to sustain the 300% Prescription Drug Tax? Stay tuned. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President is spending a lot of time on Afghanistan this week. My god, George Bush left a mess there. That's going to be one prime example of that failed presidency. This morning, Obama is meeting with Secretary General of NATO. He's also got Secretary Gates on the schedule.

The Senate Finance Committee reconvenes today to continue the mark-up of the Baucus health care bill. We should see votes on several amendments to add a public option to the bill. Senators Schumer and Rockefeller are leading the charge on the Committee. We'll see if Democrats are going to Democrats today or if they're still letting Olympia Snowe run the show, which is apparently a key part of the Rahm Emanuel strategy. The Senate Finance Committee should wrap up its mark-up by the end of the week. Then, Harry Reid will have to meld the Finance bill with the much better HELP Committee bill before it hits the Senate floor, which could happen in a couple weeks.

Should be lots of news today... Read More......

Income gap widens during recession

Talk about redistributing wealth. The Republicans are masters of the game. What's worse are the number of Democrats who buy into this scheme. Even worse, some of them are hired to run the US economy in a Democratic administration.

The recession has hit middle-income and poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravaged household budgets.

The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans — those making more than $138,000 each year — earned 11.4 times the roughly $12,000 made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio was an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003.

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Nazi POW to leave inheritance to Scottish village

Not the most typical story out there. He was taken prisoner in Normandy after D-Day and sent to the Scottish village of Comrie where he remained in prison until the end of the war. He decided to stay until 1956 before going back to Germany but he always appreciated the kindness of the local population. He even wants his ashes to be distributed in the countryside around the old camp. Amazing.

Speaking from his home near the northern German port of Bremen, he said: "I always wanted to pay something back. The people were very kind to us German PoWs. They did not treat us as the enemy. I had so many happy experiences in Scotland."

Speaking about his planned donation, he said: "I've always had it in my mind. I have no children and I live on my own. I came as a prisoner of war and I left as a friend."

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Vatican: we may be bad, but others are worse

Interesting strategy being promoted these days. For starters, it remains questionable how serious they really are about "cleaning their own house." The Vatican initially tried blaming the victims in Boston and explaining it away as an American problem. ("You know how those Americans are with lawsuits", for example.) But of course the problem was everywhere including all over Europe, despite the initial assertions to the contrary. They continue to fight back against it and even in Ireland where they did an extensive study, the church only agreed to the investigation by keeping names out of it.

There's very little to suggest any honest cooperation on their part which is probably why the new strategy is to shrug their shoulders and say "well yeah, but everyone else is worse." Great people at the Vatican.

In a defiant and provocative statement, issued following a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the Holy See said the majority of Catholic clergy who committed such acts were not paedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males.

The statement, read out by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's permanent observer to the UN, defended its record by claiming that "available research" showed that only 1.5%-5% of Catholic clergy were involved in child sex abuse.

He also quoted statistics from the Christian Scientist Monitor newspaper to show that most US churches being hit by child sex abuse allegations were Protestant and that sexual abuse within Jewish communities was common.

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The Catholic Bishops have a new enemy: Reiki

As if the Catholic Bishops don't have their hands full bashing gays, they've taken up a new cause: Fighting Reiki. An article in last week's Boston Globe reads like it's really from The Onion, but it's not. This is true:

Debbie Griseuk is a reiki practitioner and teacher who volunteered her time to elderly nuns in Manchester, N.H., and patients at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua. In fact, she first became interested in the Japanese hands-on healing technique at St. Joseph, where she attended a lecture along with some nuns. She went through a training course at the Roman Catholic hospital, eventually becoming a reiki master.

But last spring the US Conference of Catholic Bishops announced that reiki - hailed by many as therapy, derided by others as quackery - would no longer be practiced in the church’s hospitals and retreat centers. Reiki, according to the bishops, is not grounded in science or Christianity and is therefore inappropriate for Catholic institutions.

At that St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital in Nashua, a "brochure on reiki called it one of 'the most popular forms of integrated therapies’ at the hospital." Good thing the Bishops are on top of this.

I'm going to suggest that if you've got a few minutes, you should read some of the comments. Hysterical. I posted several after the break.

Here are some of my faves:

dvdoff wrote:

And I wonder how the church feels about the healing benefits of all those beatings the nuns gave me at Sacred Heart in East Boston? Or the healing benefits of covering up for pedophile priests? A bigger bunch of hypocrites NEVER existed.

And:

pinopino wrote:

"Reiki, according to the bishops, is not grounded in science or Christianity and is therefore inappropriate for Catholic institutions."

LOL!!! It is OK to pray to the Healing Saints, but it's not OK to give a massage. What a bunch of morons.

And:

Celts2008 wrote:

It's a bit late for the Church to adopt an "everyone keeps their hands to themselves" policy.

No calming massage but OK on exorcisms?

And, this one nails it:

Rydal wrote:

The bishops seem to lack a sense of irony.

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GOP's House chances seem to brighten

Wash Post:

House races -- with less-well-known candidates and less money flowing through them than Senate contests -- tend to be heavily influenced by which way the national winds are blowing.

Heading into the summer, the political environment had been neutral to slightly positive for Democrats. But it turned in a meaningful way as Labor Day approached and anger over the growth of government under President Obama emboldened Republicans.

The signs of this environmental change were everywhere.

Which is a bit odd, since nationally the polls are pretty bad for Republicans as compared to Dems. So why in Congress are their chances looking up? The supposed "anger" from August was from a very small percentage of the population, and in any case, from people who didn't vote for Obama anyway, and probably never vote Democratic. So why should their "anger" be a harbinger of anything?

I worry that it's something much more nuanced. The Teabaggers did nothing to change public opinion at all, in and of themselves. What they did do, however, was scare the bejeesus out of Democrats and the administration. That got Dem leaders to back off, respond incoherently and weakly, and overall give an impression of fear and incertitude. Those are not qualities the voters like. So, while the Teabaggers may be nuts, and fringe, and small and irrelevant, how our elected officials react to them - to any threat or challenge - is watched very closely by the voters. Read More......

If you get a Swine Flu shot and your boyfriend breaks up with you....

Authorities are getting ready for massive Swine Flue vaccinations, and are apparently attempting to educate the public on the concept of post hoc ergo propter hoc. I.e., just because one event precedes another does not mean that that event caused what followed.

You're walking down a street. You sneeze. In front of you two cars crash into each other. Just because you sneezed and then two cars crashed does not mean your sneeze CAUSED the cars to crash.

Same problem with the Swine Flu. Lots of people are going to get heart attacks, strokes, miscarriages, and more right after they get their Swine Flu shot. Many would have gotten those things anyway. How do we tell whether the shot caused those things, or whether they were destined to happen, even without the shots? In 1976, a lot of people freaked out when things happened after their shots, and eventually the shots got shut down. How do we know what reactions are truly linked to the shots? Read More......

Don't always trust the polls

I admit to trust polls a lot. Sure, people poo-poo them, but I often get the sense that it's a more populist kind of response (you can't trust those darn polls) than an intellectual one. Well, Nate Silver does an analysis of a recent poll showing Oklahoma high school students to be awfully dumb, and he does a very good job of debunking it. Of course, the post is classic Nate - don't read it unless you've put on your Stephen Hawking thinking cap first, or you'll be very very sorry :-)

I guess what I mean by posting this is the following. Don't trust individual polls, especially when they shock. It's better to look at the aggregate of polling, so that the good tend to even out the bad. That's why we like the way Pollster.com looks at numbers - they often aggregate all the poll results, like with Obama's approval rating, so you can see not just the trend, but you can also see which polls are a bit goofy. (Speaking of which, I though his approval had gone up - not doing so well, again.)

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Did 5,000 year old farmers start global warming?

Some say yes, some say no. Interesting article nonetheless. Read More......

Coulter says it's really liberals comparing Obama to Hitler

(H/t JoeMyGod) Read More......

World Bank warns against handing over more power to Fed

And the World Bank is right to be concerned about giving more authority to the Federal Reserve. Even if it wasn't Bernanke, handing over more power to the Fed is a bad idea. Why would anyone outside of Wall Street want to give more power to any group that is so cozy with banks?

It should not be a surprise that American democracy is hesitating about authorizing the Fed to supervise systemic banking as well as operating monetary policy, adding to its power," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said.

In a speech prepared for delivery at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Zoellick said the U.S. Congress had a long tradition of viewing banks with suspicion that made it a challenge to beef up the U.S. central bank's power after last year's financial panic.

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Reich: "Political operatives in the White House have quietly reassured the industries that [the public option] won't be included in the final bill"

Robert Reich:

Big Pharma and big insurance hate the public insurance option even more than they hate big Medicare discounts. And although the President has sounded as if he would welcome it, political operatives in the White House have quietly reassured the industries that it won't be included in the final bill. At most, the bill would allow the formation of non-profit "cooperatives" that wouldn't have the scale or authority to squeeze the profits of private industry, or a "trigger" that would allow states to form public insurance options eventually if certain goals for cost savings and coverage weren't met.

I'm not posting this to be gratuitously mean to the White House. I'm posting it because Robert Reich is someone I trust. And I think it's important that all of us have a full picture of what's going on behind the scenes. Read More......

Secret Service investigating Facebook poll asking if Obama should be assassinated

But seriously, it's not because black. Read More......

Who cares what Olympia Snowe thinks?

Here we go again.

For some reason I can't totally fathom, it's terribly important to get one GOP Senator to vote for health care reform. Why? Well, no one can quite tell us why. Other than some bizarre notion of - there's that word again - "bipartisanship."

Well here's a news flash. It's not a bipartisan bill when it passes with 59 Democratic votes, one Independent, and one Republican. That's a Democratic bill, with one Republican who for whatever reason abandoned her party. It's not bipartisan.

Don't listen to me, just look at recent history.

Remember the stimulus bill? The one we gave 40% away to the Republicans, in the form of relatively useless tax cuts, in order to woo GOP votes? How many GOP votes did we get out of the entire Congress of 535 members? Three, all Senators.

And that's three times more than we'll get if Olympia Snowe ends up voting for the bill.

What did we get for those 3 Republican votes? Did Republicans stop accusing Obama, Reid and Pelosi of breaking the bank and wasting the stimulus money on pork? No. Are all the angry Teabaggers protesting around the country focusing their ire on Republicans and Democrats for passing the stimulus bill? No. Does anyone in America outside of Washington, DC actually think that the stimulus package was a bipartisan coming together of both parties? No.

Then why are we repeating the same old charade and willing to make the health care reform plan less effective in order to get a single stupid Republican vote?

This is President Obama's plan that's going to pass a Democratic Congress. Come next year, if our rates still go up and insurance companies continue to stonewall when we ask them to pay our medical expenses, the only people anyone is going to blame are Democrats. I sure hope getting Olympia Snowe on board is worth it, because come next January, no one's going to remember that she was involved at all. Read More......