Ministry of Information

If you've been paying attention this week, you're probably aware many opposed to health care reform (HCR) have come a little unhinged since its passage. Multiple death threats have been reported by multiple Members of Congress, and even Bible Spice has gotten into the act, posting on her Facebook page what only can be considered a hit list.

This behavior is clearly over the top. It's also what one would expect after months of being whipped into a frenzy by Rethuglican lies disseminated by Faux News and other "news" outlets. The HCR debate and its immediate aftermath are, in my mind, the best recent examples of the extreme damage to this country being done by traditional media, which refuses to characterize a lie as a lie but insists on simply reporting what each side of a debate says, without doing even elemental reporting on whether the stated claims are true. But I digress.

This week's prize for best lead role in opportunistic drama must go to Rep. Eric Cantor (R, of course), House Minority Whip, for his self-serving press conference yesterday wherein he shouted "me too," and pointed to an incident in which the building housing his Richmond, Va., district office was hit by what police say was a stray bullet. The bullet, police believe, was randomly fired into the air and by chance struck the building's window. It had enough energy to break the glass but not penetrate the window blinds. Some attack, that. This event apparently occurred around 0100 Tuesday morning.

Cantor's a whiney little fuck, perfectly suited for a leadership role among House Rethuglicans. But his presser was designed to deflect what was a growing meme throughout the mainstream media that Democrats and Democrats alone were being targeted by the Rethuglican's extra-chromosome wing. Whether it worked or not remains to be seen -- I'm agnostic at this point.

But as an exercise in disinformation, it was a masterpiece. I can't even begin to compete with Billmon's treatment at GOS; just go read it.

How can you tell when a Rethuglican is lying? The lips are moving.

(h/t Anne Laurie)

Quick Question

Where can I apply to be on a death panel?

DCr

Immigration bill

So, Congress' next big legislative push apparently will be an immigration reform bill. My only real contribution to such a debate:

My family has had problems with immigrants ever since we came to this country.

DCr

A Ga. Dem with balls?

Comes now Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a black Democrat running for governor this year, who has declined Gov. Sonny Perdue's request [PDF] to file a lawsuit against the new federal health insurance reform law.

It seems our Democrats is learning.

DCr

(h/t lanae)

HCR ruminations

Although the Senate still must adopt the House-passed reconciliation bill to seal the deal, the President has signed health care reform into law. To suggest it was a long, hard fight would be to wildly underestimate the complications -- in language, in egos and in timing -- the Democrats in both houses of Congress overcame. It wasn't pretty, but it got done.

What is "it," exactly? What does it do, and where does it leave us? Finally, is it good, or bad?

First, the bill is H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It's accompanied by H.R.4872, the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010, a.k.a. the "reconciliation bill," which the Senate is considering as this is written. The health care/insurance bill is 906 pages in its final form. The reconciliation bill is 2310 pages. No, I haven't read them.

Second, let's distinguish between health "care" and health "insurance." Basically, we're talking about reforming the health insurance market/industry in the U.S. By definition, that also means improving the availability, quality and cost of health care. In my book, that's a good thing.

There are good things in the bill. According to CBS News:

• The uninsured and self-employed would be able to purchase insurance through state-based exchanges with subsidies available to individuals and families with income between the 133 percent and 400 percent of poverty level.
• Closes the Medicare prescription drug "donut hole" by 2020.
• Beginning in 2011, seniors in the gap will receive a 50 percent discount on brand name drugs.
• Individuals and families who make between 100 percent - 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level and want to purchase their own health insurance on an exchange are eligible for subsidies.
• Six months after enactment, insurance companies could no longer denying children coverage based on a preexisting condition.
• Starting in 2014, insurance companies cannot deny coverage to anyone with preexisting conditions.

There's bad stuff, too. For example, some of this is going to take way too fucking long. 2020? 2014? Also, there's no public option and/or no mechanism to buy into Medicare. For the un- or self-employed (I am about to become the latter...), very little will change immediately. The individual coverage mandate also is problematic, along with fines and excise taxes on so-called "Cadillac" plans.

In my case, for example, I have decent health insurance through my employer. That will end soon as I'm leaving that job. In the near-term, if I want insurance (I do...), I must purchase it on the open market and/or under COBRA. Until the exchanges are created and until the mandate kicks in, I remain at the insurance companies' mercy.

(Interesting factoid, for those who don't know and perhaps buy into Rethuglican shrieks of how Dems have manipulated the system and rammed this legislation through the process by using reconciliation. COBRA stands for "Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1985." Reconciliation itself is a Congressional procedure, adopted via the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. It basically is the process by which Congress does its fine-tuning of the federal budget. It's not unlike an individual sitting down at a kitchen table to balance his/her personal budget and deciding where to cut and where to expand expenditures and income. To suggest it's some rare, unused procedure hidden in the Congressional rulebook is deceitful at best.)

There's a lot not to like in the bill(s). Mainly, though, the result is a compromise, one continuing the status quo of commercial insurance and private health care providers for the time being. It's a far cry from the ways in which most, if not all, other industrialized countries deal with these challenges.

However, it's a start. It's a start toward ending ever-escalating health insurance premiums. It's a start toward preventing corporate bureaucrats from deciding who lives and dies. It's a start toward equalizing the disparities in health care between the elites and the underprivileged. It's a beginning of the trend away from employer-provided health insurance and toward universal coverage (the status quo makes little sense).

Given the realities of our political system, the legislation is something of a miracle, actually. It's not the end of reform. It's the beginning.

DCr

Party of cruelty

Heh.

DCr

(h/t BJ)

All politics is local...and personal

Just a reminder.

DCr

Get off my lawn!

Can you imagine if this senile old fuck was in charge?

DCr

(image from here)

Take that, Boeing

At last -- some competition will be injected into the USAF tanker contract. Oh, wait...

DCr

(h/t LGM)

Beware of Romulans bearing gifts

Most of this is way over my head, but it helps explain where the hell my good screwdriver is.

DCr

(h/t LGM)

Institutionalizing teh stupid

The statewide Texas Board of Education last week adopted curriculum standards designed to promote what I'll call a conservative slant on history.

There's so much wrong with this, I'm not sure where to start. Some bullet points:

• Since the Texas schoolbook market is so large, the state's decisions on what goes into its textbooks can affect other states; publishers may find it uneconomical to provide two versions of various books.
• This isn't new. Stories like this periodically come out of Texas about this time each year.
• This is yet another example of the conservative agenda at work: To dumb down the populace and eliminate any criticism of elites and their institutions.

Public school students in Texas (and perhaps other states) now will have an artificial hurdle they must clear before they can effectively compete in the marketplace of ideas.

According to 2007 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas ranked 33rd among all 50 states when examining persons 25 years old and over with a bachelor's degree or more.

May the FSM help us all.

DCr

R.I.P.

Peter Graves.

I was a big fan of Mission: Impossible back in the day (less so the films). His presence and, umm, "straightness" in Airplane was one of the features helping put that film over the top. (Yes, I have the DVD. No, I won't come up with a quote or two. You're on your own.)

Thanks for the memories.

DCr

Is our Senate learning?

Seems so. Excerpts from a letter Majority Leader Harry Reid sent yesterday to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:

“Many Republicans now are demanding that we simply ignore the progress we’ve made, the extensive debate and negotiations we’ve held, the amendments we’ve added (including more than 100 from Republicans) and the votes of a supermajority in favor of a bill whose contents the American people unambiguously support. We will not. We will finish the job.”

“As you know, the vast majority of bills developed through reconciliation were passed by Republican Congresses and signed into law by Republican Presidents – including President Bush’s massive, budget-busting tax breaks for multi-millionaires. Given this history, one might conclude that Republicans believe a majority vote is sufficient to increase the deficit and benefit the super-rich, but not to reduce the deficit and benefit the middle class. Alternatively, perhaps Republicans believe a majority vote is appropriate only when Republicans are in the majority. Either way, we disagree.”

“At the end of the process, the bill can pass only if it wins a democratic, up-or-down majority vote. If Republicans want to vote against a bill that reduces health care costs, fills the prescription drug ‘donut hole’ for seniors and reduces the deficit, you will have every right to do so.”

As someone pointed out, 2009's gonna be awesome!

DCr

The fierce urgency of real soon now

Can't you just feel the momentum?

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is pushing back against the March 18 deadline that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs indicated was the target for a vote on health care reform.

...

Hoyer declined to give a specific deadline for when the House would take up health care, saying only that it would be "soon."

DCr

(h/t John Cole)

Competition: Good for thee, but not for me

With Airbus/EADS/Northrup Grumman pulling out (at least for now), it looks like Boeing will get the long-awaited and -contested USAF tanker contract:

As a team, our serious concerns were expressed to the Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force that the acquisition methodology outlined in the request for proposal (RFP) would heavily weigh the competition in favor of the smaller, less capable Boeing tanker. Northrop Grumman’s analysis of the RFP reaffirmed those concerns and prompted the decision not to bid.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

DCr

(h/t LGM)

Do you think we will survive?

Maybe.

DCr

Laugh tracks

Two items caught my eye this morning, both evoking the same basic reaction: No, that's not the way it happened.

First is Susie:

Why are the people who encouraged or committed war crimes more trustworthy sources for the media than the people who opposed them?

The second was TBTM Julie's diary on GOS, discussing Bible Spice's appearance earlier this week on The Tonight Show. Both struck me as excellent examples of the subtle revisionism going on in the MSM.

WRT to Susie and the war-crime cheerleaders, it's rather simple. First, these generally are the same people who cheered on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They long ago bought the ticket and took the ride, urging military intervention, nation-building, finding the weapons of mass destruction and "an eye for an eye." The MSM, of course, bought into all this because war coverage sells stuff (and if there's anything the MSM is about, it's selling stuff).

So, even though most of the reasons for invading Iraq (at least, if not Afghanistan) have been proven, at best, "misleading," and since the MSM is never wrong, the same people who got us into this mess are the same people doubling down and cheerleading war crimes. In for a penny, and all that. And, of course, since more stuff needs to be sold, the same people who brought us Iraq and torture keep getting invited back to justify their advocacy. Yes, it's a self-replicating dynamic. Get used to it.

The dynamic at work with Bible Spice is a bit different, I think, but similar. First, I didn't watch her appearance, but I did listen to it as I went to sleep. I believe either Countdown or TRMS ran the tape while I drifted off. I could hear her schtick, but wasn't watching the video. At the time, the laughter struck me as a) ill-timed (it seemed to erupt before she finished her "jokes"), b) seemed consistent (i.e., the same amount of laughter, same timing, same duration, regardless of the "joke") and c) seemed a bit much for a normal Tonight Show audience, which in my experience haven't been the sort to enjoy Bible Spice. Now, with TBTM Julie's diary, I realize what happened.

See, the MSM needs its horse-race. Bible Spice, if nothing else, evokes strong emotions in everyone. Which is tailor-made for the MSM. They'd love it if she was the Rethuglican nominee in '12, since the public's visceral reaction to her would have people riveted.

These days, you can't even believe a laugh track.

DCr

First officer flying with forged certificate

A Swede was arrested 3/3/10 at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport and apparently accused of falsifying his pilot certificates. According to a number of media outlets, the unidentified man had been flying for Turkey-based Corendon Airlines, apparently as a first officer, for as long as 13 years. Some sources say he had appropriate certificates, but they expired in the 1990s. Others say he passed all check rides with flying colors.

Damn! Why didn't I think of that!

DCr

Believe it when I see it...

U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-of course, Batshit Crazy) last night lifted his hold on legislation to, among other things, extend unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. Earlier comment here.

This morning, Steve Benen at the invaluable Washington Monthly quotes a Senate Dem staffer as saying, among other things, "Bunning lifted the curtain on the great lengths that Republicans go to drag out every single action taken by the Senate, no matter how routine.... It's why all options are on the table moving forward, including reconciliation."

Yeah. Okay. Fine.

I will acknowledge the Bunning Episode embodies many of the Rethuglican obstructionist memes Dems should have been employing for the last several months. It's tailor-made for Dems to use against them now and when the mid-terms heat up.

But I have no doubts Dems will figure out a way to fumble this FSM-given gift and utterly fail to use it for its maximum effectiveness. Yes, part of the reason is the media will not pick up on Rethuglican obstructionism. Another part of the reason is DC is just wired for Rethuglican rule. These factors, of course, result in self-denying prophecies and further the status quo.

But the ultimate reason Dems won't maximize this opportunity is they don't want to. They'd rather do just barely enough to get by, leaving this and other unfinished business on the table. Then, during an election, they can point to all the broken promises and various other things needing to get done and say, "Elect us, we'll fix all this."

But it never gets fixed, creating a self-sustaining cycle of unfinished business and electoral tension. Of course, it also gives the media more of what it craves: horse-race coverage.

After all, if we fixed everything that needs fixing, why would we need a Congress, a political party, a media establishment or a federal government?

DCr

Al

Love ya, man.



DCr

h/t Susie

Defying gravity

Over the last 10 or so days, I've done a lot of flying. Two round-trips from my home in FL to AR were among them, as well as a couple of shorter, local hops and some diversions. I've easily put some 25 hours on the airplane, covered at least 3300 nm, safely and securely transported myself and loved ones, and done it all without the stress and inconvenience of airline travel or being on someone else's schedule.

It was more expensive than doing it via airlines, yes, but considering there were two people and a dog on many legs, only slightly so. And the total travel time was much less than airlining it.

It's truly the only way to travel.

DCr

No, it's because you'd get beaten like a drum

Former Rep. Harold Ford (Tenn./N.Y.?) yesterday decided against running in the Dem primary for the U.S. Senate seat current held by Kirsten Gillibrand. He's been toying with the idea for several weeks now.

In today's NYT, he has an op-ed entitled, "Why I’m Not Running for the Senate." The abstract states "the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary...where the winner emerges weakened and the Republican strengthened."

Right...

The most recent NY polling -- from less than two weeks ago -- showed Gillibrand at 42, and Ford at 16.

That couldn't be it, could it?

DCr

Just take him out and shoot him

As if we need more evidence our political system -- and especially the U.S. Senate -- is broken, Rethuglican Senator Jim Bunning (Ky.) is filibustering a bill providing an extension to unemployment benefits, as well as highway funding and Medicare payments, among other things. And, as this McClatchy article details, he's being an asshole about it. Bunning is widely regarded as batshit crazy, but this latest tantrum is over the top.

Since his purported motivation is to save us all from teh deficit, I only have one question: Jim, where were you in, say, 2001 through 2008? Different meds? Okay; that's two questions.

DCr

h/t Digby