Dems on Dems Violence: Healthcare Edition
Blue Dog Democrats are a bunch of assholes thumb sucking 3-years old.
Conservative Democrats break ranks on health care
The “Blue Dog Democrats” group released a list of demands on the eve of House Democratic leaders’ planned unveiling of their final bill Friday. The bill release was pushed back to next week and Democratic leaders spent part of Friday meeting with the fiscally conservative Blue Dogs to work through their concerns.
Obama confident of passing healthcare reform
The conservative Democrats, known as the Blue Dog Democrats, also took aim at the president’s proposal for a public insurance option to compete with private insurers in a marketplace that would provide plans for those who cannot buy coverage through their employers.
‘Moderate Dems’ squeeze President Obama
“What you don’t want to do is to give the Republicans the fodder to be able to say, ‘Yeah, we’ve got these moderate Democrats with us — and then we’ve got these leftists, these socialists like Obama proposing these programs,’” says Drew Westen, a political psychology expert and author of “The Political Brain.”
Kennedy’s voice missed in health debate
“Obviously, if Kennedy were here, the whole process would be further along,’’ said Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa and a senior member of Kennedy’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “He’d be working his magic. He has a way of getting everybody on board.’’
White House officials say with some pride that Obama doesn’t draw lines in the sand. Maybe he should. If political capital is measured by popularity, Obama still has plenty. What he doesn’t seem to have is a willingness to spend it.
Meanwhile in GOPville
Republican candidates are shying away from inviting Palin to campaign for them. Is Palin losing her party?
John Ensign’s parental bailout
Was the $96,000 Ensign’s parents gave to his mistress a gift, a payoff, or a crime?
A $30,000 an hour attorney? Palin report overstates inquiries’ costs
Why the GOP is falling out of love with gun-toting, churchgoing, working-class whites.
Prosecution Is Off The Table
It all happened in the past, you know…
Bush-era surveillance went beyond wiretaps
The Bush administration’s post-Sept. 11 surveillance efforts went beyond the widely publicized warrantless wiretapping program, a government report disclosed Friday, encompassing additional secretive activities that created “unprecedented” spying powers.
The report also raised new questions about how the Bush White House kept key Justice Department officials in the dark as it launched the surveillance program.
Democrats Call for Full Investigation of CIA Allegations
US accused of inaction after Taliban POWs killed in ’01
After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of a US-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode, according to government officials and human rights organizations.
Is there still any doubt that this country run for 8 long years by a bunch of thugs?
The Bush program’s secrecy – only three Justice lawyers knew of it – nearly brought mass resignations.
U.S. Wiretaps Were of Limited Value, Officials Report
While the Bush administration had defended its program of wiretapping without warrants as a vital tool that saved lives, a new government review released Friday said the program’s effectiveness in fighting terrorism was unclear.
I didn’t know this nonsense was still around
Will Obama scrap Bush’s color-coded terror alerts?
Obama And The World
Obama and the Pope: Agreeing to Disagree on “Life” Issues
Obama plans no big public appearances in Africa visit
Though Obama Viewed Positively, Still Much Criticism of US Foreign Policy
The US is criticized for coercing other nations with its superior power (15 of 19 nations), failing to abide by international law (17 of 19 nations), and for how it is dealing with climate change (11 of 18 nations). Overall, views are mixed on whether the US is playing a mainly positive or mainly negative role in the world.
The Burden of (High) Expectations
For blacks, a hidden cost of Obama’s win?
“What was the price of Obama’s election? In part, it was that we can no longer talk about race explicitly around national policy issues, or at least [Obama] can’t, without being accused of playing identity politics,” says Eddie Glaude, professor at the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. “So the question is then: How do African-American communities engage issues in light of their particular experiences without being accused of pushing a racial agenda?”
Economy Watch
Read this story carefully. It contains some very very interesting nuggets.
Goldman Sachs Loses Grip on Its Doomsday Machine
(h/t maxkeiser.com)
From Treasury to Banks, an Ultimatum on Mortgage Relief
Obama says stimulus plan to kick in later this year
President Barack Obama said on Saturday more time was needed for his $787 billion (485 billion pound) stimulus package to work, predicting the spending would have a bigger impact on the economy later this year.
The dollar’s role as the world’s main reserve currency is being challenged
Demographics and Deflation: an unpleasant comparison
To judge from his encyclical Caritas in Veritate, published this week, Pope Benedict XVI agrees with those who say that something has gone wrong with the way the world does business. What makes his document unusually disturbing and thought-provoking is an assumption he does not share.
Lunch with the FT: Larry Summers
Around The World
G-8 Celebrates Summit of Unity
A clear statement on Iran, ambitious targets for climate protection and billions of dollars in aid for developing countries: the G-8’s ability to make real decisions has impressed its critics. Yet it was easy to regard the summit as a success when expectations were so low.
Honduras Coup Reveals Deep Divisions in Latin America
The coup in the small Central American nation of Honduras reveals the deep divisions in the region. The triumphal march of the leftist followers of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has provoked the established elites. The knee-jerk reaction in Honduras has been, yet again, to stage a coup.
Uighurs Force Opening of Mosques in Urumqi
Crowds of Muslim Uighurs ignored orders canceling Friday prayers and talked their way in to at least two mosques in neighborhoods hit by ethnic tensions here, as officials raised the death toll and released the first ethnic breakdown of casualties in riots Sunday.
China has learned how to spin
Urumqi unrest: China’s savvier media strategy
Taking a cue from Western PR tactics, Beijing moved away from trying to block coverage altogether – and was benefited by doing so.
Frail Kim Jong-il ‘may only have months to live’
Kim Jong-il is seriously ill and is likely to be dead before the end of the year, according to a source within the North Korean leader’s own family.
Seven Somalis beheaded by extremists for ’spying for government’
Seven people accused of renouncing Islam and spying for the Government were beheaded in Somalia yesterday in a move that underlined the growing authority of the country’s Islamist insurgents.
More News
Civil rights group warns of neo-Nazis in the US military
The appearance of 40 active-duty US soldiers on a social networking site known as the “fascist Facebook” appears to add credibility to a controversial government report released in April about extremism in the military.
Jackson death may have been ‘homicide’, says police chief
The Los Angeles police chief has raised the prospect of a homicide charge over the death of Michael Jackson.
Saudi casting call: one kiss and it’s over for women
The World Of Science
Katiebird will certainly love this one.
Calorie-Counting Monkeys Live Longer
Rodents, yeast, and roundworms all have something in common: They live longer when they consume less. Now a primate has joined the calorie-restriction club. After 20 long years of waiting, scientists have concluded that rhesus monkeys that eat nearly a third less food than normal monkeys age more slowly. The results come as close as any can to proving that calorie restriction could significantly slow aging in humans–even if such a lean diet would not appeal to most of us.
Why live longer if the precondition is such unrelenting misery?
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Nice article on the G8-thx.
Where do you get your illustrations from mablue?
Pretty much all the the images are from thee Intertubes.
Any Democrat that is complicit in scuttling the public option without replacing it with something better, needs to be replaced.
Thanks for highlighting this, mablue.
Calorie-Counting Monkeys Live Longer
“Why live longer if the precondition is such unrelenting misery?”
For the most part, I agree with you. However, I wonder whether a gradual decrease in “intake” would be that painful?
it wouldn’t be painful if you don’t much care for food.
Of course it would be a great idea for me to cut my calories in thirds, but once down to my normal weight I am not sure I want to proceed to skeleton.
I’m trying to find the consistency here. When Republicans voted in lockstep with their leadership and the Republican President it was a terrible, horrible, just downright awful thing to do.
But when Blue Dog Democrats do not do the same thing it is a terrible, horrible, just downright awful thing to do.
They are categorized as
.
And they need to be replaced.
But weren’t they put in place by a constituency that is slightly more conservative than than other Democrats? And aren’t they serving that constituency, i.e. representing them as they are supposed to do?
I may not like or agree with much of what the Blue Dogs say or do but I find it odd to be saying they should be ousted for representing their constituents.
yes but in this case they are not representing those that voted for them, they are representing the insurance companies. What is it, 72 percent of Americans want a single payer system, but not only do we not get that, we don’t even get a public option?
I am represented by a blue dog democrat and I can promise you that there are many many people around here democratic and republican who are dying for health care and can not afford to buy it. I don’t think they are contacting Chris and telling him…”God no, no public option please, I’d rather continue to get last gasp care at the emergency room.”
Then people should tell their congressperson that during the August recess. That’s one reason I don’t want this rushed, so constituents can get to them in their districts and not just the lobbyists in DC.
kenoshamarge – Exactly. This is still a democracy and elected officials are supposed to represent their constituents. And getting a bill passed in the United States of America requires compromise between conflicting priorities.If you want lockstep-no disagreement bill-passing government it won’t happen with the greatest deliberative governing body ever created on earth. Calling people who represent those who sent them to D.C., “Blue Dog Democrats are a bunch of assholes thumb sucking 3-years old,” does not live up to the best that America should be.
Advocate and lobby for what you wnat all the way. But don’t call those who disagree with you names like this.
You’re right. I amend my statement to: Any congressperson that is complicit in scuttling the public option without replacing it with something better, needs to be replaced.
This is a life or death issue -
a make or break financially issue
a general welfare issue
a quality of life issue
If the public option or whatever change we get doesn’t work, change it. Health care in the U.S. is not working for enough people. We can do better.
Keep in mind that many of the Blue Dogs in the House were hand-picked by Rahm Emmanuel. He frequently threw money at Blue Dog primary challengers in order to eliminate true liberals. So no, they don’t necessarily represent the views of their constituents–they were merely the lesser of two evils by the time the primaries were over.
I forgot to add to my original comment on Blue Dogs and health care that the Blue Dogs do not necessarily want to deep six health care or a public option. Their biggets concern is the cost of the program (s) in their current form.
One of the reasons we need to overhaul our so-called heath care system is that the cost is too high. And so far the projected costs of any of the new proposals is much higher than current costs.
Bush and Obama already have mortaged our great-grandchildren’s future by bailing out the banks and finaciers, bankrupting our country. We are already trillions of dollars in debt. How can we afford another trillion dollar program on top of that debt?
How can anyone say that Blue Dogs don’t represent their constituents? For Pete’s sake they got elected. They must represent someone.
They represent Party maneouvering. Voters get next to no choice these days-didn’t you know that?
Hate to say this but other European countries have UHC at far less cost (proportion of the GDP) than the insurance machine of the USA.
Well, Laurie, we certainly get more choice than the citizens of Iran. Your snark does not invalidate my comment. The Blue Dogs are a bit more conservative, especially where my money/taxes go. After all the waste of late I am glad some body is looking out for the Treasury.
Yes. I know Europe has health care for all at far less cost. I read and keep up on current affairs. My point, the fact of the matter, was that the proposals on the table so far for all cost more than what we currently have now. Why is that? I don’t trust Obama or any of his supporters in Congress to craft a good, decent, universal health care package that is not a give away to his freinds and cronies who bought him the office. So I am glad the Blue Dogs are watching out and not giving in to Obama and his croonies.
You also get FAR less choice than other Western Democracies who happen to have a proper paper trail.
That’s why voters do not get what they want in the US.
There’s a word for it-it’s called Machine Politics.
The concerns about the impact to the budget of a “public plan” ARE totally valid. As a comparison Congress should score HR-676 to see what savings would come from a single-payer plan.
But that wouldn’t change MY Congressman’s support. He just pledged in our local paper that he doesn’t support a government run plan at all. No mention of cost. He’s just against it.
Sorry about your congressman. Scoring HR676 is the only way to know where it all really stands. If they can’t do that, then I don’t think they are serious about reform from a “care” perspective.
On a happier note: A Public Policy Polling survey in Virginia found Obama’s approval and disapproval numbers effectively tied, with independents disapproving of the president’s job performance, 52 percent to 38 percent.
Heh.
After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of a US-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode, according to government officials and human rights organizations.
I just can not get too upset over this one. The more dead
Taliban the better for women around the world. I only wish I could go help knock them off.
So the killing of POW’s is a good thing if one doesn’t like them?
I didn’t say it was okay, I said I couldn’t be too upset by it. These people are a scourge against women and since no one defends women, I am not too worried about defending them, sorry.
But nice dkos/DU twisting of words there.
It was a war crime! I’m not OK with the murder of prisoners of war.
I thought the people who were killed were prisoners of the Taliban?
Those killed were Taliban (maybe). They were prisoners of a Northern Alliance warlord who was a CIA asset.
But that doesn’t matter, it’s still a war crime!
Yes, killing and torturing of PoWs is wrong. So is handing them over to be killed.
Republican candidates are shying away from inviting Palin to campaign for them.
They got the blast fax
Is Palin losing her party?
I sometimes think the whole Palin picked as VP , then we trash her adventure was payback for her upsetting the apple cart and winning in AK…as well as blocking women from national office. Lord knows, but her party left her sometime ago.
Even the Dems simply sat on their hands as Hill and Bill was attacked by the GOP in the ’90’s….( of course that changed in 08 when Dems joined the pile on and made up for lost time) But Palin has faced the elite of both parties from the national get go. One way or another, they all knew McCain was losing and it was decided to lash Palin to that concrete block….(many of the first rumors about her came from McCain staff! ) If she had the backing of her party, she might well have stuck it out. But Palin did not have that backing.
People should look at Palin’s actual governing positions, rather than projecting some conservative boogeyman on her. If they did, they would find someone who looks very much like a throwback to decades ago a good-government, reformist republican. No one has spotted one of those in so long it’s not recognizable anymore.
Here’s an excellent analysis of the media’s history and recent implosion. Partisan sheeple are dominating the comments, so if you have time, offer some intelligent feedback (though we know how averse Bots are to actual facts):
Sarah ‘Barracuda’ Palin and the Piranhas of the Press
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/07/08/sarah-barracuda-palin-and-the-piranhas-of-the-press/
I posted That story yesterday, and the response to that guy’s colleague:
With all due respect, Carl: Horsepucky
Oddly, the more the MSM trashes Sarah Palin, the higher her approval rating goes. The MSM may well be creating the conservative Joan of Arc.
Exactly. If they wanted her to disappear, then quit talking about her…I guess they have to have a ” trash for cash” figure in the press and Hill’s off the radar for now .
More like the public is getting fed up with the blo-dried mannequins and supermarket tabloid rejects that are the print and broadcast media.
Speaking of which, did you hear about the pro-Obama blogger that went to his doctor because his private parts were turning orange?
The doctor told him to wash the cheese puff dust off his hands before his usual Saturday activities.
LOL – hilarious!
It has been fascinating to watch the Democratic party go to war with the CIA. Nicely fits into the meme that Dems don’t like security and defense doesn’t it. Ah, the Dems, they just can’t help themselves. And sadly here it’s all about saving Nancy’s butt from her own stupidity.
That may well work against them, it’s a little like talking smack about the aunt that knows everything in the family…they may end up regretting that move. Unless of course they found out about some tapping and there are more amorous scandals just waiting to leap out of the box.
It’s no wonder we don’t have Single Payer on the table of discussions, when all the power legislators are acting like Single Players…while married.
I don’t believe for one minute that Pelosi and Congress were not very well informed indeed on what was going on. This is pure CYA, blame the evuhl CIA for stuff that THEY approved. It’s blame avoidance and shifting, pure and simple. It’s a cover for the Dems cowardice.
The CIA has done some very bad stuff, but the vast, VAST majority of the time it is the administration and congress driving and approving it, either openly or tacitly. The CIA may at times overstep bounds, but they simply do not, as a rule, dash off and “do their own thing”. They implement the policy given them. And Pelosi and her buddies were all too aware of what that policy was, and remains. They knew.
It is a dangerous thing to make our intelligence services believe that at any time they can be hung out to dry as scapegoat, for shifting political reasons. That is a very dangerous road, indeed.
Before there is too much trashing of the Blue Dogs, I hope folks here recall that Blue Dogs were a source of support for HRC and the “public option” is really a compromise for doing real health care reform. In my opinion we have nothing but lousy legislation on the table and a public option and other proposals are all half-assed solutions when there is little to no significant work on the costs of health care. Without looking at how to contain the size of the bill the plans for who will pay the bill and how are an open invitation to a rampant entitlement program that none of us will be able to afford.
Thanks. I couldn’t have said is nearly as well.
All of this Congressional handwringing is nothing more than theater and the constituent outrage over a failure to pursue single payer is confusing to me.
The “public option” was the configuration touted by every presidential candidate except Kucinich, who proposed a single-payer format. Hillary’s plan was a public option concept, that provided universal coverage, no exceptions for pre-existing condition, and sliding scale subsidies for the tax-deducted contributions. Her plan would have opened the FEHB to all citizens and Medicare for those who could not afford that. She also outlined in very specific terms how to pay for it.
Had Hillary been elected, the single-payer idea would still not be “on-the-table.” However, she had a plan, “ready on day 1″ to overhaul our health system.
Unless you backed Kucinich or Nader, there was never any hope for single-payer. And now with the current bunch in DC, we’re not even going to get the real reform results that were proposed by Hillary. She spent over a decade figuring out how to do it. What’s going on in DC in the name of healthcare reform is nothing like what Hillary put together. The “public option” format is not the enemy. The problem is that there are corporate-owned shill legislators designing it. I wish these two things could be separated in the public psyche.
Speaking of the economy….
Here;s something to note–and I STRONGLY recommend you take some time to check out THE CRASH COURSE and the material at the site referenced. The links to the mini-chapters are all in this post!!!!
Saturday, July 11, 2009: One Year Anniversary of “Peak Oil Day” Makes it a MUST to Watch “The Crash Course”
http://insightanalytical.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/saturday-july-11-2009-one-year-anniversary-of-peak-oil-day-makes-it-a-must-to-watch-the-crash-course/
About Hillary…I actually watched her Town Hall at the State Department last night (rerun) in which she solicited suggestions from employees.
It just made me MAD! This woman should be in the White House. I was not madly in love with HIllary and am not to this day…however, her KNOWLEDGE of the government and all the connections is incredible and she speaks clearly without a teleprompter and inspires confidence! The employees were VERY happy with what she is doing, by the way.
The party purged the Clintons but now will face destruction as we predicted as Obama lumbers along with his spending plans. The Democrats will rue the day and so will we as the Republicans take over again and decimate what’s left of the social safety net which Obama seems to be setting up for the final death blow.
I really don’t think Hillary Clinton would have allowed that to happen. She’s a centrist and pragmatic, but I think she wouldn’t have been as destructive as Obama is…
And women wouldn’t be getting the shaft either….
she is not that centrist. It depends on the issue, but she is more liberal than Obama and certainly more populist.
Amen.
Bill Moyers interview (and transcript) with former Cigna top dog who finally sees the light!
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html
Obama Says Economic Stimulus Worked as Intended, Urges Patience
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0StZd9y2rCY
Dakinikat? What is with this “2 year” plan? Where is this mythic recovery supposed to come from with escalating costs, job losses, and no foreseeable source for jobs and wages increases in the future? I don’t get it.
“2 year plan” is code for “well planned money drop just in time for the 2010 elections.”
LOL! Yep! I’ve been saying that for some time, because it’s just so freaking transparent. Bread and circuses, get ‘em to the polls. Can’t do it too soon, because the stupid fickle masses might forget the one-time handout, and realize that that things really aren’t better.
BTW: great news round-up MABlue. Good to have you back
Interesting. Some docs in Vancouver have banded together and created a “flat rate” clinic that is totally bypassing the insurance companies.
They are making a nice living without gouging the patients, because they are spending their time TREATING, not arguing over payment and qualifications and claims and doing endless paperwork.
http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Seattle+doctors+flat+rate+limit+primary+care/1767374/story.html
Oops, they are in Seattle, not Vancouver.