Archive for the 'Politics' Category

Rahm Emanuel has a message for rejectionist Republicans

From the beginning, it’s been clear that the Republican strategy on healthcare has been to block any meaningful reform. Now it looks like that strategy might bite them in the ass:

Given hardening Republican opposition to Congressional health care proposals, Democrats now say they see little chance of the minority’s cooperation in approving any overhaul, and are increasingly focused on drawing support for a final plan from within their own ranks.

Top Democrats said Tuesday that their go-it-alone view was being shaped by what they saw as Republicans’ purposely strident tone against health care legislation during this month’s Congressional recess, as well as remarks by leading Republicans that current proposals were flawed beyond repair. Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said the heated opposition was evidence that Republicans had made a political calculation to draw a line against any health care changes, the latest in a string of major administration proposals that Republicans have opposed.

“The Republican leadership,” Mr. Emanuel said, “has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama’s health care proposal is more important for their political goals than solving the health insurance problems that Americans face every day.”

Such a change could alter the dynamic of talks surrounding health care legislation, and even change the substance of a final bill. With no need to negotiate with Republicans, Democrats might be better able to move more quickly, relying on their large majorities in both houses. Democratic senators might feel more empowered, for example, to define the authority of the nonprofit insurance cooperatives that are emerging as an alternative to a public insurance plan.

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We already have ‘death panels, and they’re manned by the greediest people in the country

I almost feel bad for the fools and knaves tasked with defending our current healthcare system against any meaningful reform. Imagine having to defend a system that costs twice as much per capita as just about any other in the world, which denies basic healthcare to tens of millions, which bankrupts middle-class families even if they have insurance, and which needlessly kills 17-year-old girls by denying them the care that they need?

The answer is that you can’t defend such a system, so you lie. Currently, the most popular lie being told is that Obama’s healthcare plan would establish “death panels” that would ration care to the elderly and determine which individuals should be allowed to die rather than receive medical care. Predictably, this particular lie has been embraced enthusiastically by Sarah Palin, a woman who somehow manages to embody all the ignorance, dishonesty, nastiness, corruption, and sense of entitlement that characterizes the modern Republican Party:

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Of course, such decisions are already made, but by insurance company executives rather than by government officials who are accountable to the public. And it will surprise no reasonable person to find that Obama does not favor creation of “death panels”, and none are mandated by his proposal.

Opponents of universal health care have grown so hysterical that they’re now bolstering their claim that Obama’s proposal would include forced euthanasia by bringing up examples that directly contradict their own point. For example, the execrable Investor’s Business Daily recently ran an editorial alleging that if physicist Stephen Hawking had lived in the UK, a government health board would have denied him care and allowed him to die because he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Investor’s Business Daily was forced to withdraw that claim when Hawking, who has lived in the UK all his life, thanked the National Health Service for keeping him alive:

We say his life is far from worthless, as they do at Addenbrooke’s hospital, Cambridge, where Professor Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, was treated for chest problems in April. As indeed does he. “I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS,” he told us. “I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.”

What really bothers me about the assholes over at Investor’s Business Daily isn’t that they’re telling lies about Obama’s supposed desire to deny health care to the elderly and handicapped. What gets me angry is the fact that their purpose in telling these lies is to perpetuate a system that denies health care to anyone, young or old, who would cost the health insurance industry too much money.

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Business Week has an interesting story on how the health insurance industry is conspiring with “moderate” congressional Democrats to thwart the will of the majority who want meaningful healthcare reform. I put “moderate” in quotes because defending an obviously failed and deeply unpopular system against reform is actually a very radical position.

Coincidentally, Business Week recently ran a photo essay illustrating The World’s Best Places to Live. The top 25 are all in countries that offer universal health care.

Polls show that Democrats have a lot to be happy about

Alert reader Squashed recently pointed out that the latest Gallup poll shows that Obama’s approval rating is back up to 58%. And the Republicans are now so unpopular that Texas has become a swing state.

How did this happen? Well, when the Republicans nominated McCain, I predicted that he would lose badly to either Obama or Clinton, mostly because some of his more extreme positions (most notably, his wholehearted embrace of Bushonomics and his hyperaggressive posturing on foreign policy issues). I also predicted that in the near term, the most reactionary elements of the Republican Party would succeed in taking control of the party by arguing that the election had been lost because of the “liberal” McCain’s more moderate positions.

It seems that this has come to pass, as the GOP leadership has engaged in knee-jerk, obstructionist politics from day 1 of Obama’s administration. They refused to support Obama’s economic rescue package even after he took out hundreds of billions in spending and added the tax cuts for the wealthy that Republican leaders demanded. They squealed about Obama’s conciliatory gestures toward Iran, even after they helped produce a political crisis that badly weakened Ahmadinejad and his fellow hard-liners. They locked arms in opposition to expanding the popular “Cash for Klunkers” program. They even stood on the side of the hated Health Insurance Lobby and fought against reforming a healthcare structure that everyone knows is badly broken.

So now we see the results of the Republicans’ obstructionism: Obama’s popularity is soaring again, and Texas is now in play for the first time since 1964. I guess the strategy of demonizing Mexicans and single mothers, fighting against healthcare reform, and giving tax breaks to CEOs didn’t turn out to be so smart after all.

Breaking news from yesterday that Faux seems to have missed.  A little something to hook nearly anyone’s sense of the macabre.   It seems like a couple of guys on the inside think there is not much that Prince is not capable of.
The Nation

ABC News

Some of us don’t take much convincing, already pretty convinced that this stuff was going on, but everybody else needs to take a much harder look at this crook and his organization, pretty much fits the definition of violent psychopath.

The new “cash for klunkers” program helps address three immediate problems, and in a way that costs relatively little. So naturally congressional Republicans and their apologists in the media are against the program.

Under the program, people can turn in their old gas-hogging, pollution-spewing cars for more efficient new cars. This helps us reduce greenhouse gas production and energy dependence while stimulating new car sales. It’s a step in the right direction in terms of global warming, improving America’s foreign policy position, and stimulating the economy. And the initial cost was just $1 billion. The program became so popular that Obama and his congressional allies are now asking for another $2 billion to extend the program through November.

The results have been impressive. Consumers have rushed to trade in their inefficient old vehicles and purchase more environmentally friendly new vehicles. They’ve been telling reporters that the incentive came at a perfect time, enabling them to stretch their budgets and invest in new cars that they otherwise couldn’t afford. And dealers across the country say that the program gave them a boost in sales at a critical time.

Predictably, all this success has inspired the Party of No to rise up in opposition:

The clunkers program, originally funded for $1 billion, faces strong headwinds from conservatives who view it as another taxpayer bailout for the auto industry.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate’s second-ranking Republican, suggested lawmakers “take a time-out” so they could receive more details about the program before providing more money. “I’m concerned that somebody’s going to have to pay for this, and $4,500 for everybody that wants to take advantage of this program is a lot of money.”

“We were told this program would last for several months,” Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said. “It ran out of money in a week, prompting the House to rush a $2 billion extension before anybody even had time to figure out what happened to the first billion.”

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This is what happens when Republicans try to do math

Why do wingnuts find it so hard to figure out what numbers mean, and how to use them effectively to describe the world? Here’s a few examples of the sort of mathematical failures that I’m talking about:

Jonathan Schwarz dismantles Mitch Albom:

Albom

In explaining why it was OK to sock a new 5.4% tax on the highest earners in this country — to pay for health care reform — President Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said this:

“The president believes that the richest 1% of this country has had a pretty good run of it for many, many, many years.”

Ah. So that’s it. The old “You’ve had it good enough for long enough” policy. That’s why a family earning a million dollars a year should now cough up $54,000 of that — in addition to all the other taxes it pays…

Schwarz

Someone making $1,000,000 per year wouldn’t pay $54,000 more in taxes under this bill. They’d pay $9,000.

That’s because the 5.4% surcharge would only apply to someone’s income over $1,000,000. Your tax bill wouldn’t suddenly go up by $54,000 if one year you made $1,000,000 instead of $999,999.

Here’s how the proposed surcharge would actually work. There would be:

• an additional 1% tax on income between $350,000 and $500,000. Thus, if someone makes $500,000 per year, they would pay an extra 1% of $150,000, or $1,500.

• an additional 1.5% tax on income between $500,000 and $1,000,000. Thus, if someone makes $1,000,000 per year, they would pay an extra 1.5% of $500,000, or $7,500.

That’s $9,000 more in taxes ($1,500 + $7,500), or 0.9%.

THE BEST PART: The best part is, Mitch Albom has a degree from the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism plus an MBA from Columbia’s Graduate School of Business.

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The only constituency that the Republican Party really serves

Schumer Asks SEC to Ban Flash Orders Used by High-Speed Traders

Senator Charles Schumer asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ban “flash orders,” saying the transactions give high-speed traders an unfair advantage over other investors.

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., Bats Exchange Inc. and Direct Edge Holdings Inc. hold these orders for milliseconds, giving their customers the opportunity to gauge demand before traders on other exchanges get the chance to bid, Schumer said in a letter to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro. Brian Fallon, a spokesman at Schumer’s office, confirmed the authenticity of the letter.

“Flash orders allow certain members of these exchanges to obtain access to order flow information before that information is made available to the public,” Schumer wrote. That allows “those members to use rapid trading programs to trade ahead of those orders and profit from advanced knowledge of buying and selling activity,” he added.

The senator said that if the SEC doesn’t prohibit flash orders, he will introduce legislation that would.

A couple of centuries of economic research tell us that allowing a few traders to have an advantage over other traders will harm the economy. But this is exactly the sort of common-sense regulation that the Republican Party has fought since the days of Ronald Reagan, and that mindset (along with Reaganite borrow-and-spend fiscal policies) helped create the current financial crisis.

It’s true that Democrats like Bill Clinton co-opted much of the Republicans’ deregulatory ideology, so I’m not trying to say that Republicans like Phil Gramm, John Kyl, and George W. Bush are the only ones responsible for the economic debacle, but the Republicans’ continued resistance to re-regulation of the financial markets makes it clear that the Democrats represent our only hope of real economic reform.

From the Cape Cod Times:

Voters narrowly approved one of four zoning amendments late Tuesday night at the annual town meeting. But town officials were still looking at the exact vote count on that article yesterday.

In a vote of 136 to 70, voters passed a new time limit on how quickly a cottage colony, cabin colony, motel or hotel can be converted to condominiums. The new limit requires that those properties be in operation for three years before being converted to condominiums.

The exact count of the vote — 136 to 70 —had town officials hitting their calculators yesterday. The zoning measure needed a two-thirds vote to pass. A calculation by town accountant Trudy Brazil indicated that 136 votes are two-thirds of 206 total votes, said Town Clerk Cynthia Slade.

Brazil said she used the calculation of .66 multiplied by 206 to obtain the number.

But using .6666 — a more accurate version of two-thirds — the affirmative vote needed to be 137 instead of 136, according to an anonymous caller to town hall and to the Times.

My favorite part of this story is the fact that the local newspaper refuses to take a firm position as to whether or not 136 is 2/3 of 206, as if the matter were subject to interpretation.

As Albert Einstein demonstrates in the illustration above, 2/3 of 206 is 137.33333…, so if the law doesn’t give the formula to be used, then either 137 or 138 votes are needed to pass the measure, depending on the actual wording of the law.

Palin has been a national joke from day one

It seems that Sarah Palin wasn’t done resigning on July 3, so she decided to celebrate our nation’s independence by resigning some more. Let’s have a look at her second resignation speech and play ‘count the lies’ (lies in bold):

For months now, I have consulted with friends and family, and with the Lieutenant Governor, about what is best for our wonderful state. I even made a few administrative changes over that course in time in preparation for yesterday. We have accomplished so much and there’s much more to do, but my family and I determined after prayerful consideration that sacrificing my title helps Alaska most. And once I decided not to run for re-election, my decision was that much easier - I’ve never been one to waste time or resources. Those who know me know this is the right decision and obvious decision at that, including Senator John McCain. I thank him for his kind, insightful comments.

The response in the main stream media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the “politics of personal destruction”. How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country. And though it’s honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it’s right for all, including your family.

I shared with you yesterday my heartfelt and candid reasons for this change; I’ve never thought I needed a title before one’s name to forge progress in America.

Here’s my analysis:

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Sarah Palin resigns

Sarah Palin announced her resignation today. I can’t think of a better time to bury a story than the Friday before a holiday, the same week several major celebrities died. Do you think it’s a coincidence that America’s Worst Governor would pick today to abruptly resign? If you do, then I have a Bridge to Nowhere to sell you.

Predictably, Palin gave a whiny speech when she resigned, blaming everyone but herself for her problems and saying that she was retiring because she wanted to save money for the taxpayers. That didn’t stop her from bilking taxpayers out of thousands of dollars in an expense account scam, and it didn’t stop her from requesting $300 in federal pork money for every man, woman, and child in Alaska, so this explanation isn’t really believable. Nevertheless, Palin is sticking to her “I just wanted to save taxpayers a few pennies” story.

But Max Blumenthal uncovered a more plausible explanation for Palin’s abrupt resignation:

One logical place to start looking is the affair that has Alaska political circles buzzing: an alleged scandal centered around a building contractor, Spenard Building Supplies, with close ties to Palin and her husband, Todd.

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state.

SBS has close ties to the Palins. The company has not only sponsored Todd Palin’s snowmobile team, according to the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett, it hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004.

Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few “buddies,” according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.

Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an additional $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.

Right now, Palin’s “I want to save tax money” story is looking even less likely than Mark Sanford’s “I was hiking on the Appalachian Trail” story.