Indefinite Detention? But I Have Soccer Practice at 4: U.S. Politics 2012

and they charge private insurers way more for those same procedures! that's the big mystery.

a friend who worked at a dentist's office once showed me the markup the doctor was pushing on Medicare: a deep cleaning that cost a few hundred dollars was now $1300.

wtf at this bullshit

If confirmed, the decision would seem likely to anger environmentalists
uh, yeah
—and do little to quiet Republican criticisms—
uh, yeah
and is unlikely to lead to an immediate fall in gas prices.
should be "will never lead to", but uh, yeah
But it could reinforce the White House's argument that Obama supports an "all of the above" energy policy, including the exploitation of domestic oil and natural gas deposits.

god this "strategy" is so fucking stupid

I do think it's commendable, though, that Obama shows such a willingness to compromise with the laws of physics

an empty gesture that makes nobody happy! awesome!

my god do I hate the neologism "fast-track"

an empty gesture that makes nobody happy! awesome!

this could practically be the motto for the Obama Administration in general, come to think of it.

I think everyone is deluding themselves if they think Obama is NOT going to approve this pipeline.. When/if there's any ecological disaster everyone will blame the oil companies and not Obama for approving it.. Whats there to lose! hehe

Relevant article from David Roberts:

As Politico says, the U.S. president has virtually no control over gas prices. Time’s Bryan Walsh lays it out clearly here (in an entirely factual piece that is nonetheless labeled “viewpoint”). Gas prices are tightly linked to oil prices, which are set by forces over which the U.S. has little control.

This is something that energy experts and analysts are more or less unanimous on. The Initiative on Global Markets gathered a panel of economic experts, from across the professional and ideological spectrum, and asked them to react to this thesis: “Changes in U.S. gasoline prices over the past 10 years have predominantly been due to market factors rather than U.S. federal economic or energy policies.” Some 92 percent agreed. Eight percent were “uncertain.” Not a single one disagreed.

So, just to be clear: Anyone who says the president is responsible for gas prices is either lying or woefully ignorant. This category includes all of the Republican candidates for president, virtually every GOP elected official, many conservative Democrats, legions of conservative and centrist pundits, and occasionally Obama himself.

Can't wait to see the right wing cheering the very same sort of eminent domain land grabs they denounced in Kelo when they're performed for this pipeline.

I doubt that they'll be cheering anything, it'll just bring attention back to the rest of the permit that wasn't "fast-tracked". they'll just focus on that.

actually, the article shakey linked to includes the typical response:

Republicans immediately mocked the plan, with a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, Brendan Buck, comparing it to "a governor personally issuing a fishing license." "There is only a minor, routine permit needed for this leg of the project. Only a desperate administration would inject the President of the United States into this trivial matter. The President's attempt to take credit for a pipeline he blocked and personally lobbied Congress against is staggering in its disingenuousness. This portion of the pipeline is being built in spite of the President, not because of him," Buck said in a statement.

i think there was a krugman article this week saying pretty much the same thing about keystone having little or no effect on gas prices

not that anyone really pays attention to paul krugman anymore

There were several dozen great facebook status updates by me over the last year making the point that keystone will little to no effect on domestic gas prices (same with offshore drilling, and drilling in ANWR for that matter). but for some reason the lamestream media doesn't pay much attention to my facebook status updates

that was supposed to be really sarcastic and humorous, but as usual, didn't come across that way.

anyway, my point was just that no one that knows anything about energy believes that keystone would reduce U.S. gas prices, especially in the short-term. to see "debates" on this issue between politicians, and pundits/politicians talking about it on tv, watching half of america get infected by this onslaught of idiocy...it's just fucking sad, and infuriating.

i thought it was pretty funny.

I saw on a CNN morning show this morning footage of Obama, on his current "energy" tour out west somewhere, boasting about how much more drilling is going on under his administration. With the Republicans and the lamestream media pushing the notion that the Prez can affect gas prices, Obama is out there pushing his I am for drilling and for solar energy and for everything energy policy. I saw on a conservative website someone claiming that drilling on private land is up but not public land. A Republican congressman was on that CNN morning show and was pushing for Keystone and complaining that Artic/Anwar drilling wasn't approved years ago, and suggesting that it could have pushed gas prices down.

guys can we not use 'lamestream media' non-ironically?

let's fast-track your ire.

lol

I recommend incentivizing throwing that term under the bus

make no mistake about it

let's move this conversation forward and innovate

I recommend incentivizing throwing that term under the bus

I would prefer that term be sunsetted.

we've done a good job synergizing here!

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00055

The Senate passed the JOBS Act today 73 to 26, seeking to ease government red tape on small and start-up businesses.

Some economists have said the "red tape" here was necessary regulation, and the more liberal Senate Dems voted against this bill.

Most of the below issues were not remedied in the bill that passed the Seante.

Mary Schapiro, chairman of the SEC, listed a number of concerns, including that the bill would remove the firewall between research analysts who are supposed to provide objective information about investments and investment bankers in the same firm whose main function is to encourage people to invest. AARP said the elderly are disproportionately the victims of investment fraud and said it agreed with Schapiro that, absent safeguards, the House bill "may well open the floodgates to a repeat of the kind of penny stock and other frauds that ensnared financially unsophisticated and other vulnerable investors in the past."

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_20215510/senate-moves-toward-vote-small-business-bill

from Obama's inspiring speech on his 'energy policy' today in Oklahoma:

So today, I’ve come to Cushing, an oil town -- (applause) -- because producing more oil and gas here at home has been, and will continue to be, a critical part of an all-of-the-above energy strategy. (Applause.)

Now, under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. (Applause.) That's important to know. Over the last three years, I’ve directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states. We’re opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We’ve quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We’ve added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.

(applause)

Obama's continual "I don't actually give a fuck about climate change" is the single biggest betrayal I feel re: his administration.

but who cares rite

i think i have a maybe-shitty explanation for this

Most Democrats would probably agree that doctors charge Medicare and Medicaid way more than the procedures actually cost.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 22, 2012 12:03 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and they charge private insurers way more for those same procedures! that's the big mystery.

― goole, Thursday, March 22, 2012 12:05 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you have to enroll in medica-re/id iirc. i haven't done the diligence on the stats, but i'd imagine that there are more ppl eligible for these programs than there are ppl served by them. which is to say: it may be that ppl get billed to govt programs when are ~eligible~ (as determined by their care providers) but not actually ~enrolled~. so each billing is practically guaranteed to produce a fractional return. whereas: private insurance is guaranteed (by contractual law i think?) to pay what is billed.

this, paradoxically, is why some ppl that want to provide inexpensive healthcare to underserved communities don't accept any insurance. it's also why universal insurance is a good idea

private insurers are price-takers, fed gov't has actual bargaining power so it get better prices. where's the mystery in that?

The good news on another subject: Obama did not nominate Larry Summers to head the World Bank, he went with Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and a global health expert instead

The bad civil liberties news:

The Obama administration has approved guidelines that allow counterterrorism officials to lengthen the period of time they retain information about U.S. residents, even if they have no known connection to terrorism.

The changes allow the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the intelligence community’s clearinghouse for terrorism data, to keep information for up to five years. Previously, the center was required to promptly destroy — generally within 180 days — any information about U.S. citizens or residents unless a connection to terrorism was evident.

The new guidelines, which were approved Thursday by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., have been in the works for more than a year, officials said.

The guidelines have prompted concern from civil liberties advocates.

Those advocates have repeatedly clashed with the administration over a host of national security issues, including its military detention without trial of individuals in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, its authorization of the killing of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in a drone strike in Yemen, and its prosecution of an unprecedented number of suspects in the leaking of classified information.

...

“A number of different agencies looked at these to try to make sure that everyone was comfortable that we had the correct balance here between the information-sharing that was needed to protect the country and protections for people’s privacy and civil liberties,” said Robert S. Litt, the general counsel in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the NCTC.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/new-counterterrorism-guidelines-would-permit-data-on-us-citizens-to-be-held-longer/2012/03/21/gIQAFLm7TS_story.html?hpid=z4

The good news on another subject: Obama did not nominate Larry Summers to head the World Bank, he went with Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and a global health expert instead

say what

that's....weird. dude has been the pres of Dartmouth for like five minutes, and I guess for some reason I assumed that Kim and his crew at PIH were not exactly down with the world bank. Like, if the dude shares Farmers convictions on global health/aid/etc, then this is like appoint Rick perry to head the EPA

yeah idk I think it probably makes more sense for an economist to head to world bank

Other countries will also be nominating candidates for the job and they are reportedly tired of Americans getting the spot, so I think Obama was trying to think outside the box here

Other countries will also be nominating candidates for the job and they are reportedly tired of Americans getting the spot, so I think Obama was trying to think outside the box here

oops

not convinced you need to be an economist for this job btw. and I do think Kim would be a good candidate inasmuch as PIH has a p radical approach to aid, and Paul Farmer (who is not Kim obv) is basically a communist, and afaik not a fan of how aid is usually done

apparently buddies with geithner

ding ding ding....We have a winning answer

can't believe cheney got another heart

cheney don't you lose heart

1 google result

I believe they're planning to entomb the old one near Carlsbad for 10,000 years.

he had an artificial heart and now he has a real one

that has to be a bizarre feeling tbh