US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

you would be cool w/ diminished liberty?

trading freedom for fillings

ok maybe the liberty part wouldnt be so great

It will put the government in charge of more than 18 percent of our private sector economy

Wrong

I like how the main argument against this health care bill is that it will destroy competition because any given government-run plan will clearly be superior to the private plans we already have.

I am still getting over the statistic that health care is 18% of the economy?

Making that argument only illustrates how bad the problem has become

But it doesn't make sense. If financial services was 33% of the economy as of Sept 2008, then... well... what is the rest of the US economy even doing right now

Don't ask

At least 20% is Wal-Mart

So premiums are going to be capped in the public exchanges that are created, but there's nothing in this bill that caps premiums in the private market. Sounds like a good way to indirectly control prices, if the exchanges are strong enough. Hopefully the gov't-run health fearmongering we've been seeing won't enter the permanent market with an unending deluge of anti-exchange ads.

there isn't any government run plan in this bill so WTF are they talking about

I assume they're talking about regulations. which, you know, have completely destroyed America's agriculture, finance, energy, insurance, and construction industries, among others

like did you know the FCC controls the entertainment industry? it's true!

someone's got to--those homosexuals in Hollywood are out of control

Oh shit -- The Corner's page ain't loading. Is this a consequence of government-run health care?

this is your web browser attempting to save you from yourself

hey the internet was subsidized by the government with your tax dollars, so of course it doesn't work

here Al I will step in

Fucking Crazy Bullshit [Mr. Que]

Blah blah blah blah blah blah? Blah blah blah Satanic Obama. Blah blah blah tea party Pelosi treason. Blah Blah blah blah!

Blah blah blah blah blah, no birth certificate, blah blah blah blah, Socialism!

i think right-wing opposition (citizen, pundit, pol, whatever) to HCR comes from three different spots. what % of those opposed belong in each? well, who knows.

* the truly marinated-in-stupidity types who really do think this is the blooming of fascism, raping the productive, controlling your life, exacting third-world revenge on white people, and on and on. people who have lived so long in this kind of rhetorical soup that the old nixonian codes are all that is real anymore. paranoia goes back a long way tho (check this out: http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/5851637/the-unholy-three-threaten-america.thtml). i think this is more than half, at least, of the sentiment and energy behind what we're seeing

* folks who are committed to trimming to dismantling the public sector, either as a principle or a reflex. this covers everyone from the dude flipping bills at a guy with parkinson's disease (see that video?) to guys like reihan salam who just think the current bill will make the US fiscal and economic outlook worse instead of better. a lot of the no-longer-republican suburban dad types, or people who think our HC sucks but are "nervous" about obama's plan fit in here.

* and then, crucially, there a few historically astute and extraordinarily cynical right wingers who know the score: people love medicare, they love medicare part D, they love Social Security. any expansion in the welfare state, especially if it really makes life better, especially if it's cheap and well-designed, will quickly become holy writ in US politics, and the people who built it will have earned a page in the history books. who is this, besides bill kristol? i dunno, but my suspicion is it's every major financial backer of the GOP.

http://bp0.blogger.com/_KVs9dCdKpn4/RXz147gLurI/AAAAAAAAAAg/LGAKmgQYkYo/s320/Dragonheart1.jpg
"A Knight of the Old Nixonian Code...!"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_V9qnSnzZ5PI/SNEwvLqZzUI/AAAAAAAAAPs/w9aODuyeHb0/s400/nixon.jpg

yumz

i do not think that is an actual picture of richard m. nixon.

But you wish it was.

I though Nixon melted in water?

t, anyone?

But you wish it was.

he he!

really, this incredibly revealing video needs to be broadcast coast-to-coast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXsRH73Cnw8&feature=player_embedded

it shows the opposition in an unvarnished -- and very unflattering -- light.

apologies if this was posted upthread. it was new -- and shocking -- to me.

yeah that's the video i'm talking about.

unreal

there are moments where those opposing change reveal their insensitivity and callousness in ways that move the nation to support change. that video felt like such a moment for me.

obv., i can't say if others will see it as i do, but i think that video is a powerful weapon for change-advocates in this final stretch.

(not just "those opposing change," i guess, since one of the moments that occurred to me is the famous "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.... You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" line . . .)

Since they're still railing about gov't controlled health care it really makes me wish there was a fucking public option in this bill. It really doesn't make a difference to these people if it's in or not.

ladies and gentlemen, ilxors, romans, countrymen, we've won this one. we did it. it's a done deal. the democrats did their shitty halfassed best, and here we are. wait wait you say, don't jinx it. how do i know?

A Pyrrhic Passage? [Victor Davis Hanson]

At an outdoor rally today, the president described the health-care debate as a referendum on the “character” of the country, and I do believe he was correct.

The president is pushing legislation that a clear majority of the people dislike, and whose details neither he nor his supporters can explain in simple language. Its ends-justify-the-means passage will require legislative gymnastics that border on the unconstitutional, and in Orwellian fashion are designed to reassure its sheepish supporters that they can appear not to be voting for the bill they vote for. And to achieve a House majority, Obama must offer an array of personal favors, political payoffs, federal stipends, and open threats, which, if done in the private sector, would be actionable acts of felonious bribery or racketeering.

So, yes, this is a reflection about character; and so far the president has throughout this entire shameful process been shown to be utterly wanting on that count, as he misrepresents both the bill’s contents and the opposition to it. All of his “let me be perfectly clear” and “make no mistake about it” and now-tired rhetoric and faux cadences simply cannot change that disturbing reality.

That such chameleon legislation is the work of a supposedly healing, post-partisan, post-ideological politician makes it even more embarrassing. There will be lots of us — Democrats, Republicans, Independents — who simply will not vote this fall for any congressional representative who votes for this tawdry DMV-like take-over of health care.

03/19 03:28 PMShare

that's know i know.

pop champagne.

how do you say "countrymen" in latin?

That guy forgot to include criticism of the ACTUAL CONTENTS OF THE BILL. But hey that seems like a common mistake.

o achieve a House majority, Obama must offer an array of personal favors, political payoffs, federal stipends, and open threats, which, if done in the private sector, would be actionable acts of felonious bribery or racketeering.

I would have thought that of all the Corner-ites, scholar of war Hanson would have savored this.

how do you say "countrymen" in latin?

Cives

So it's "Amici, Romani, Cives"?

I would have thought that of all the Corner-ites, scholar of war Hanson would have savored this.

it's like he's never seen legislation passed before.

those guys were cutting DEALS and ADDING AMENDMENTS! the republic is dead!

also, follow-up interview with the parkinson's guy who was accosted by tea partiers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfvnNzgQy7Q

dude got his PhD from Cornell and apparently taught at both my alma mater and the hated Ohio State for awhile

here's his post at the Columbus Dispatch

kf i think the line is shakespeare's caesar, not the real one; dunno if there's a "real" latin for it.

Well, yeah, the line is from that, but I didn't know if it had an actual translation or not.

Something vaguely good is about to happen. Even the creeps now decrying it will benefit from it. They will never apologize for their asshatted opposition to health care reform, but in the decades to come they will come to claim that they always supported it. One day, when you are old, you will think about this, then glower, then sigh. Or maybe you'll sigh, then glower.

chris matthews interviewed the head of americans for prosperity, one of the groups that organized the protest (you can see their logo at one point)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E8GT1Saly0

"Sickening Display" caption should probably appear under all Chris Matthews appearances

It just blows my mind that the GOP is able to achieve any success at all in elections, given that, for the last 20 years, here are their major accomplishments:

- Nearly drove a popular President from office and successfully impeached him over what amounted to consensual sex with a staffer.
- Getting elected, with the help of a friendly Supreme Court, the most incompetent and unqualified candidate in living memory.
- Allowed a terrorist attack that killed some 3,000 American
- Started a series of pointless, costly and ineffective wars of aggression.

That's it. That's their scorecard, in a big picture sense.

And, you know, I can almost sorta understand the conservative fights against civil rights legislation back in the 60s, because racism and states' rights and all that are quantities that I can get my head around. But of all the hills to make your stand on, health care? Really? It truly does make me despair of my fellow humans.

i have heard it said more than once by rightwing people that health care is not a right.

which you know, what do you even say to that?

Also, the bloggers at Balloon Juice have been calling members of the House of Reps, and posting about what staffers are telling them. They're targeting the people whose votes are most on the line, and being told that apparently phone calls opposed to HCR outnumber those in favor by the hundreds, because the GOP does have such a well-oiled propaganda machine. But then you also get this kind of crap:

Not so long ago I got off the phone with a member of John Barrow’s campaign team. He told me that John would be voting NO. The reasons given were quite a few, but they all boiled down to fear.

John Barrow is afraid that the Republicans will use a YES vote to beat him in November. He has made the calculation that he can vote NO in a District that Barack Obama won by 54.09% because he thinks the Democrats in the 12th will have no options other than giving him their support in November—no matter how much he betrays them.

Almost one out of every four people in his District do not have any health insurance, but John seems to feel that it is OK to tell them to fuck off because he is afraid that Glenn Beck might say something mean about him.

He is a spineless coward, but that means he could change his vote between now and Sunday if he is given reasons to fear the backlash of his NO vote more than he already fears Fox News and Republican talking points.

So call him. His numbers are below the fold. And if you have connections to an organization (Unions, the NAACP, AARP, etc.) that could send the weasel a message—encourage them to give Barrow a call as well.

Also, John D. and John Cole should get together:

In a country where abortion is legal, how did the anti-choice goons so thoroughly game the system that their one pet issue can not be funded federally? I have tons of things that are “moral issues” to me that are funded against my will, but no one gives a shit. And you know what- I’m ok with that, because I understand how our democracy works. You don’t get any trump cards. And unlike the anti-choice squad, my “moral issues” are not dictated to me by the lunatics at Focus on the Family or by the hypocrites in a couple thousand year old business run by old men who look the other way when child rape happens.

which you know, what do you even say to that?

I hope you get sick and die...?