We wouldn't need Olympia Snowe if the president simply told the Dems to vote the right way

I was talking to a politically astute friend the other day about health care reform and Olympia Snowe, and I asked her, "could Obama get 60 Democratic votes on health care reform?" She answered: "Sure, like this." Then she poked her finger at me. Huh? All he has to do, my friend then told me, is call up the Senators and tell them how to vote. In particular, Mary Landrieu (who needs a threat) and Ben Nelson (who needs an incentive). In other words, the president of the United States of America has a quite significant ability to get his way on legislation, if he wants to. Then why isn't he? Read the rest of this post...

They lie a lot

AP examines the arguments the health care industry is using to oppose reform, and AP is not impressed. Read the rest of this post...

FOX News is now the opposition party

I've been calling them the propaganda organ of the GOP for years. Because they are. Read the rest of this post...

Why are health insurance companies exempt from antitrust laws? Not for long...

Why should the health insurance industry get some sweetheart deal that other industries don't get? The other industry with an antitrust exemption? Baseball. That's it. Below is Americans United's ad, and Politico has more info, and Harry Reid even testified in favor of removing the exemption. Regardless of what happens on health care, I can't imagine how the Democrats can leave this in place now. People will be livid. (And this should have been in Baucus' bill from the beginning - you'd better believe Max Baucus and his staff knew about this, and did nothing about it.)

Read the rest of this post...

Scientists think their experiment may have sabotaged itself from the future

Seriously. Ridiculously freaking cool.

I’m not talking about extra dimensions of space-time, dark matter or even black holes that eat the Earth. No, I’m talking about the notion that the troubled collider is being sabotaged by its own future. A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.

Or someone's been watching too much Star Trek (though, in that case, the experiment was sabotaging itself from the past, but who's counting?) Read the rest of this post...

Glenn Beck's fixation with Nazis

Perhaps that's why he's always crying. The NYT's blog also has tracked the GOP's fascination with Hitler analogies. Read the rest of this post...

Grayson to Reid: Get tougher on Senate Dem health care holdouts

Interesting, one house meddling in the other house's business. But I like it.

Liberal hero Alan Grayson — who’s suddenly a national figure thanks to his high-octane tirades against Republicans — is joining the campaign to pressure Harry Reid to get tougher with Senate Dems who might join the GOP health care filubuster.

I’m told Dem Rep. Grayson will hold a press conference this afternoon in D.C. to unveil a petition to Reid bearing more than 90,000 signatures, collected by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, insisting that “any Democratic senators who support a Republican attempt to block a vote on health care reform should be stripped of their leadership titles.”

Reid’s office has strongly protested this pressure campaign, saying that it won’t have an impact, because the Dem caucus reaches decisions on legislation together. That only prompted further demands from the left that Reid “lead.”

Read the rest of this post...

Now Olympia Snowe isn't sure she likes the public option opt out

The longer Democrats and the administration empower Olympia Snowe, the more she's going to yank their chain. Remember, Olympia Snowe, in the end, usually does whatever her Republican leadership tells her to do. So Obama and Reid aren't just negotiating with Snowe, they're negotiating with McConnell and all the Senate Rs who have no intent to let any health care reform pass.

At some point Democrats need to tell Olympia Snowe to take a hike. Her party lost the last election, yet she's acting like she won it. Our party won the last election, yet we're acting like we lost. Does anyone else see the problem here? Telegraph weakness and you will be walked all over.

Snowe's words are being closely scrutinized on the public option because the White House views her support as essential to getting to the 60 votes needed in the Senate. Without her backing, Obama advisers worry that the president will be at risk of losing the votes of conservative Democratic senators who want to back a proposal which has a modicum of Republican support.

Here's a thought. Why doesn't the White House, and Senator Reid, tell those Senators to get with the program or else? George Bush never even asked the Congress - never even asked his own party - how they felt about legislation. He'd simply jam it down their throats. Democrats, instead, want to hold group therapy.

PS Note that in the article Snowe isn't even talking about an opt out. She's talking about an opt IN. So even there, she's moved the goal posts again, and is still refusing to play ball. Read the rest of this post...

Immigration reform looking less likely

I pretty much called it. Immigration reform is "controversial," and the current crop of Democrats don't do controversy. Perhaps we can put Baucus in charge of immigration too, seeing as Tancredo is no longer available. Read the rest of this post...

Mormon anti-gay activists, who have their own recent history of racism, now say they're just like southern blacks during the civil rights movement

Which might be true, if southern blacks believed that God gave black people dark skin to punish them for being evil. Otherwise, not so much.

It's so hard to be a bigot in America these days. Read the rest of this post...

Teabaggers target Lindsey Graham

The teabaggers are turning their sights on Republicans. And, I learned via my friend, Alvin in South Carolina, that one big target is Lindsey Graham. They seem to think Lindsey is too squishy:

The 75-minute forum filled several sections of Furman University's Timmons Arena and attracted demonstrators, critics with handheld cameras, shouts of "traitor" and "Sotomayor" - and a smattering of supporters.

Graham repeatedly told those who shouted to "chill out," and addressed most of the hot-button issues that have rankled some in the state's conservative epicenter, including an op-ed column he co-authored this week with Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, which called for climate change legislation.

One man told Graham he had "betrayed" conservatism and made a "pact with the devil" by working with Democrats, and asked when Graham would switch parties.

Think Progress has video which includes teabaggers planning to flush Graham and other RINOs, in addition to the heckling of Graham at the town hall meeting. Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Obama is holding another meeting today with all the key players on Afghanistan. John posted the report that the U.S. already sent an additional 13,000 soldiers to that war, beyond the initial announced increase of 21,000. At some point in the near future, we'll be get Obama's plan for the war he inherited from George Bush.

In the Senate, the pressure is now on Majority Leader Harry Reid to craft a real health insurance reform bill. The model is the Senate HELP Committee's legislation, not the Baucus bill. And, here's an idea: no gimmicks. Just include a robust public option. Senators are always coming up with convoluted ideas. We've heard co-ops, triggers and opt-out. How about just doing what a 51 Democratic Senators (a majority, btw) support and the vast majority of Americans want? That means a real public option.

You have been given great power, Harry Reid, use it wisely and do the right thing.

Let's start.... Read the rest of this post...