Month: October 2009

Why Do They Hate America?

by digby

A new Pew poll says that Americans don’t think their health care is simply the best after all. (Well, except for the wealthy and the dittoheads, of course.)

America’s Health Care is … Fairly Average According to Americans the United States does not have the best health care in the world. Most see our health care as average (32%) or below average (27%) when compared with health care in other industrialized countries. Only 15% support the often-used political talking point that America has the best health care in the world; 23% say it is above average. Republicans (28%) are far more likely than Democrats (9%) or independents (12%) to say American health care is the best in the world, and conservative Republicans are even more pro American health care (66% say it is the best in the world or above average). More wealthy Americans are also more supportive of American health care. While 50% of those earning an income of $100,000 or more say American health care is above average or the best in the world, more than six-in-ten in the three income groups earning less than $75,000 say it is average or below average. Read more

It’s hard to argue that the wealthy don’t have the best health care in the world. They do. But that’s true of the wealthy in all countries.

Conservatives watch Fox News and listen to Rush Limbaugh and noxious in a cloud of misinformation about everything, so it isn’t surprising. Most of them also believe that Obama is a Kenyan usurper, so there’s not much you can do about them.

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Set The Pan Over Medium-Wrong

by tristero

Matthew Yglesias has it wrong and Mark Bittman rightly responds :

The fact is that fast food isn’t “bad” because it’s fast — it’s bad because of crummy ingredients. And it contains crummy ingredients because crummy ingredients — i.e., ground up cow’s noses, high fructose corn syrup, potatoes grown for “sliceability” (or whatever it’s called), or worse — are more profitable than real ingredients.

(Ground-up cow’s noses? Um, do they, you know, wipe them clean before they grind ’em up? Or do they just irradiate the snot like they do the fecal matter?)

In fact, the problem isn’t even eating awful fast food as it is eating it all the time. You like to feed your children irradiated cow’s nose every once in a while for a treat? Alright, whatever. But if you do it a lot, which Americans are increasingly doing, you’re gonna risk making them really, really sick as they grow up:

BACKGROUND: Fast-food consumption has increased greatly in the USA during the past three decades. However, the effect of fast food on risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes has received little attention. We aimed to investigate the association between reported fast-food habits and changes in bodyweight and insulin resistance over a 15-year period in the USA…

FINDINGS: Fast-food frequency was lowest for white women (about 1.3 times per week) compared with the other ethnic-sex groups (about twice a week). After adjustment for lifestyle factors, baseline fast-food frequency was directly associated with changes in bodyweight in both black (p=0.0050) and white people (p=0.0013). Change in fast-food frequency over 15 years was directly associated with changes in bodyweight in white individuals (p

Hey,Pal

by digby

While I appreciate the fact that Tom Friedman isn’t saying that the Aemricans should be running around Afghanistan shoving their guns in people’s faces and telling them to “suck on this,” I really wish someone could tell him not write embarrassing things like this:

We have been way too polite, and too worried about looking like a colonial power, in dealing with Karzai. I would not add a single soldier there before this guy, if hedoes win the presidency, takes visible steps to clean up his government in ways that would be respected by the Afghan people.

If Karzai says no, then there is only one answer: “You’re on your own, pal. Have a nice life with the Taliban. We can’t and will not put more American blood and treasure behind a government that behaves like a Mafia family. If you don’t think we will leave — watch this.” (Cue the helicopters.)

No tin-horn dictator is gonna tell us what tah do!

He’s right that Karzai is corrupt and that he has no legitimacy. And he’s right that our latest quixotic nation building exercise, if it were possible, which it isn’t, would depend upon a functioning, legitimate government. (Of course, it would depend upon an existing nation as well.) But threatening Karzai with bad Sopranos dialog isn’t going to make the difference.

More importantly, I thought we understood that this kind of adolescent, swaggering attitude turned out not to be the best way to deal with the rest of the world. I guess it’s a sign of maturity that Friedman isn’t advocating shock and awe this time, but it’s clear he hasn’t yet grokked the fact that the US can’t rely on bombast and bombs to deal with foreign governments, legitimate or not.

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Anti-trust

by digby

McJoan:

AHIP has excellent timing. Releasing their “report” on the eve of the Senate Finance Committee’s vote on the Baucus bill had a real boomerang effect. It made the argument for the public option, as Rep. Anthony Weiner effectively argued. Now Americans United for Change is seizing the moment with this ad, pointing out that there are only two industries exempt from anti-trust laws: baseball and insurance.

How are professional baseball and insurance companies alike? Baseball and insurance are the only industries exempt from anti-trust laws.

How are they different? Insurance industry executives are scared of competition. Baseball players aren’t.

When baseball players fix the games, they get in trouble. When health insurance executives fix the game, they get … rich

Time for competition when it comes to health insurance… we need the choice of a public health insurance plan.

And the last I heard, nobody died from not being allowed to go to a baseball game. I can’t think of a single reason why the insurers should keep their anti-trust exemption. In fact, it seems absurd that they had one in the first place.

While it certainly would seem to make the argument for a public option much more obvious, if this move allows the Baucus plan to become the “liberal bill” I’m not so sure it was such a bad play on the part of the insurers in the long run. We’ll have to see.

Only in America could a group of corporations get away with holding a gun to the government’s head and basically saying that any plan to regulate them will result in them raising prices so high their own customers won’t be able to afford to buy their product anymore. The fact that their “product” is the difference between life and death isn’t even mentioned.

And only in America would this threat be presented to the public as a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

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Where Do They Get Their Wack Ideas: Part 753

by digby

And you wonder why people are confused …

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
CNN Leaves It There
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

h/t to Amato

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Chickens Roosting On His Head

by digby

From Boehlert:

In the wake of today’s stinging comments from respected Indianapolis Colts owner, Jim Irsay, my guess is that Limbaugh’s chances of successfully bidding to become an owner of the St. Louis Ram are close to nil. The idea that the controversy-averse NFL would go forward over the increasingly loud objections to Limbaugh’s proposed bid just doesn’t fly, especially since, at least out front, Limbaugh appears to have no powerful NFL allies in his corner pushing for the deal to happen. And make no mistake, this story is playing out as a very public rejection of Limbaugh and what he stands for. The only question is who the talker will blame when he ultimately is forced to withdraw his ownership bid and he commences with his full-time victimhood shtick. In truth, it looks like Limbaugh will have only himself, and his incendiary rhetoric to blame. And in terms of who’s actually driving Limbaugh off the playing field, it’s millionaire NFL players and owners.

He goes on to note that the NFL commissioner came out against Limbaugh today as well.

It is as insulting to allow the racist Limbaugh to become an NFL owner as it would be to allow the sexist pig* Limbaugh to judge the Miss American pageant.

Oh wait…

*If you haven’t heard his braying and whining about Olympia Snow and her “castrati” today, you are in for a real treat.

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Hate Speech

by digby

They just can’t help themselves, apparently:

Hitler hearts Pelosi? That seems to be a view the National Republican Congressional Committee [which brought you the put-Pelosi-in-her-place statement last week] seems to be endorsing, judging from what the committee posts on their Twitter account. On Tuesday morning, as the Senate Finance Committee prepared to vote on the Baucus bill, someone at the NRCC posted a bizarre Tweet linking to an altered three-minute section of the 2004 Hitler biopic “Der Untergang” from the conservative site Moonbattery — with a voice-over of the The Fuhrer ranting about how only Nancy Pelosi shares his vision of health care reform. The Tweet: “Funny Video: Moonbattery: Hitler Reacts to ObamaCare Maneuvers” Hitler, played by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, is trapped in his bunker with his generals, and rants [in the phony subtitles] about President Obama’s revisions to his socialized medicine plan — and how only he and Nancy Pelosi are still fighting the good fight. “What the hell are the Democrats doing?” Hitler screams. “At least I have Pelosi on my side. What’s wrong with them?… I socialized medicine overnight and everything’s going great… Like Pelosi, I don’t give a s**t about the American people.”

There was a time when something exactly like this would cause a hissy fit of epic proportions, as Greenwald laboriously documented here. (Well, not exactly. That earlier controversy involved an outside group, not the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.)

The Jewish groups simply have to weigh in on this one. They certainly wasted little time going after Alan Grayson for using the word holocaust in a completely reasonable context. They were completely beside themselves on the Move On flap and have been very slow off the mark about these “Democrats are Hitler” comments, which have become so common we are starting to get used to them.

I’m not one to be delicate about language, so I’m not going to be too shocked if everyone wants to start allowing Hitler comparisons. But this double standard is out of hand. I’ve heard gasbags in just the last month characterize Move-On as a hate group based on this flap. If that’s so, then at this point the Republican party is too.

Update: Good God:

BECK: When they’re done with Fox, and you decide to speak out on something. The old, “first they came for the Jews, and I wasn’t Jewish.” When you have a question, and you believe that something should be asked, they’re a — totally fine with you right now; they have no problem with you. When they’re done with Fox and talk radio, do you really think they’re going to leave you alone if you want to ask a tough question? Do you really think that a man who has never had to stand against tough questions and has as much power as he does — do you really believe after he takes out the number one news network, do you really think that this man is then not going to turn on you? That you and your little organization is going to cause him any hesitation at all not to take you out? If you believe that, you should open up a history book, because you’ve missed the point of many brutal dictators. You missed the point on how they always start.

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Sticking It To America

by digby

Looks to me like we’ve got us a new King:

Asked by radio host Don Imus today what aspects of the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill he supported, Lieberman struck a negative tone, saying, “I’m concerned that there’s a danger that we’re trying to do too much”:

LIEBERMAN: I’ve been saying for a couple of months now that I’m concerned, that I’m concerned that there’s a danger that we’re trying to do too much here and the president is trying to do two good things. But doing them at once in the middle of a recession may be hard to pull off. And the two good things are to bend the cost of health care down by changing a lot of the ways health care is delivered. The second thing is to cover some of the people, millions of people, who are not covered with insurance. So, this puts us in the position where you say, on the one hand, what we’re about to do in adopting health care reform will, will reduce the cost of health insurance from what it would otherwise be and the other hand you say, oh incidentally, we’re going to raise your taxes or cut your Medicare to the tune of $900 billion or a trillion. And people are beginning to think that maybe they’d do better holding on to what they have now.

Lieberman added that he thinks “we should really focus on what’s being called health care delivery reform.” Asked later by Imus if he specifically supported Sen. Max Baucus’ (D-MT) health care reform bill, Lieberman said, “no”:

IMUS: Do you support the Baucus bill? LIEBERMAN: Not, not, no. I mean, not the way it is now. IMUS: Ok, what about it don’t you like? LIEBERMAN: Well, here’s my concern, as I watch the way it took shape. And it goes back to these two things we’re trying to do at once. I’m afraid that in the end, the Baucus bill is actually going to raise the price of insurance for most of the people in the country because most of the people in our country have health insurance, either private or Medicare or Medicaid or veteran’s benefits.

Now we know why they are courting Snowe like she’s the second coming. This asshole is clearly going to show the Democrats who they messed with and vote with the Republicans every step of the way. He’s off the team entirely.

It’s long past time to strip him of his chairmanship and lock him out of all strategy meetings. If he gets mad, who gives a shit? It’s impossible to believe that there’s any benefit to having him vote with caucus anymore. 60 doesn’t mean 60, that’s for sure.

I wonder if Obama has any regrets at this point about supporting Lieberman against Lamont? Remember this, from the 2006 campaign?

“I know that some in the party have differences with Joe,” Senator Obama said, all but silencing the crowd. “I’m going to go ahead and say it. It’s the elephant in the room. And Joe and I don’t agree on everything. But what I know is, Joe Lieberman’s a man with a good heart, with a keen intellect, who cares about the working families of America.” Then, with applause beginning to build, he finished the thought: “I am absolutely certain that Connecticut’s going to have the good sense to send Joe Lieberman back to the United States Senate.”

They did, and the angry, bitter Holy Joe is now intent on destroying any hope of a decent health care reform bill. That’ll show us. Too bad about all the dead people.

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Spinning Like Tops

by digby

Savannah Guthrie on MSNBC just said:

I think there will be courtshipo of those moderate Senators, but look, one thing I heard this morning here at the White House was that the insurance company report, the Price Waterhouse Cooper report, has actually been helpful to some extent (now granted this may be spin but let me just tell you what their argument is) is helpful because some of the liberal Senators who are concerned that the Baucus bill was just way too easy on the insurance companies, now have some cover. If the insurance companies think it’s so objectionable that they’re getting off the train and writing this report and signalling they’re no longer at the bargaining table on health reform, it must be something that really hurts them.

So that’s been helpful, the White House say, in terms of getting some of the more liberal senators that they are trying to get on board with health care reform.

Well played Jim Messina, well played. If he and his former boss Max Baucus cooked this up with the insurance companies, you have to give them credit. On the other hand, it assumes that everyone believes that the liberal Senators are all idiots, which I’m sure is true in the Village, but elsewhere not so much. It’s definitely spin. The question is by whom, for whom?

It looks like we are about to see a kabuki swing dance on six foot stilts. Should be entertaining.

By the way, if Olympia Snowe can say in advance that her vote to pass the Baucus bill doesn’t foreshadow how she will vote on the final bill, there is absolutely no reason that every single Democrat can’t say the same thing about cloture: they can all say that their vote to have an up or down vote doesn’t foreshadow how they will vote on the final bill. Obviously, there is no requirement to be “consistent.” Snowe just proved it.

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Up Or Down Vote

by digby

Adam Green writes:

From The Hill, “Sens: Snowe may be risking a high perch on healthcare reform vote”:

Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) is risking a shot at becoming the top Republican on an influential Senate committee by backing Democratic healthcare legislation, according to senators on the panel. …”A vote for healthcare would be something that would weigh on our minds when it came time to vote,” said a Republican on Commerce, who said Snowe would otherwise be assured of the ranking member post if not for the healthcare debate.

From Politico, “Dem leaders brush off the left”: Now, more than 79,000 people have signed a Progressive Change Campaign Committee petition urging Reid to strip the chairmanship of any Democratic senator who votes to filibuster health care reform. The response from Reid’s No. 2, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.): “We’ve never done that. We’re not going to do that.” Durbin said the petitioners needed to “count to 60 and understand we need to be together, and there are times when we need to work out our differences.” “This is a silly and unnecessary distraction that is not going to happen — period,” added a Senate Democratic leadership aide. “Given how important this is to the rest of his agenda, it is up to President Obama to help the leadership to hold the caucus together.”

Read on to see what the other perfumed corporate princelings of the Democratic Party have to say. You’ll especially enjoy reading Joe Lieberman’s comments. Who would have thought he, of all people, would possibly join Republicans in a filibuster? After all, “he’s with us on everything but the war.”

Anyway, those last comments probably tell us where the filibuster issue is, in my opinion. The leadership aide says that Obama needs to step up to twist those arms, which one assumes from the comment, he is not doing. And Dick Durbin, who is Obama’s staunchest supporter in the Senate, is basically saying that nobody’s going to play hardball. So, there you have it. At least for today.

As I’ve been writing for a while, it’s all about cloture. There’s no need for them to vote for the final bill, they just need to allow their president and the people of the United States to have a simple up or down vote on health care reform. And there is a cluster of egos in the centrist caucus (not the least of whom is Holy Joe) that is getting ready to stamp their little feet and hold their breath until they turn blue unless someone, goddamn it, finally understands that they are the most important people in the world.

If only the Nobel Committee had thought to give the prize to the truly deserving Evan Bayh and Mary Landrieu, sick and broke Americans wouldn’t have to be held hostage to their puerile need for attention.

Irritate the corporate clones. Demand an up or down vote. Sign the petition.

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