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by John Cole
What does it cost to get $2.4 billion in unemployment benefits extension?
$24 billion:
President Obama is scheduled today to put his signature to HR 3548, the unemployment extension bill that’s been struggling to make its way out of Congress for over a month. Thousands of unemployed Americans will applaud this move by Congress and the White House. Despite the protracted process of getting the bill through the Senate after an initial version was passed in the House, this is much-needed legislation that will help unemployed Americans whose benefits have or will run out in all 50 states.
***
Also included in this bill is an extension of the homebuyer tax credit to April 2010. The bill totals $24 billion in economic stimulus through these programs.
More here:
The House voted 403-12 today to approve Senate amendments to H.R. 3548, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009, and sent the measure to
President Obama for his signature. The bill extends unemployment insurance benefits but also includes a provision added in the Senate that will expand businesses` ability to “carry back” net operating losses suffered during the current recession in order to claim a refund from taxes paid in previous years.
You see- you aren’t allowed to just pass a bill extending unemployment benefits at the cost of $2.4 billion dollars, because that would be socialism. It takes another $21.6 billion to grease the palms of the people who own the “moderates” and the “fiscal conservatives,” and once you get the cost up to $24 billion, you have achieved “capitalism.”
Please tell me I am interpreting this wrong. I would love to be wrong about this. I really would. I’m sure no bad can come from artificially propping up the housing market with tax credits.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=29408
SEOUL, South Korea — A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test.
Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju, 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of Seoul.
Police said Cha took the test hundreds of times, but had no specific total. Local media said she took the test 950 times.
Now she must pass a driving test before getting her license, Choi said.
Repeated calls to Cha seeking comment went unanswered. She told the Korea Times newspaper she needed the license for her vegetable-selling business.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/1..._n_34929...
Posted by Zandar
The big story this morning is last night's deal with the Blue Dogs to strip any and all abortion funding from the House health care reform measure. Today's vote will indeed continue, but Nancy Pelosi has been forced to allow an amendment vote to block not only the public option from being used to pay for abortions, but from any insurance plan offered in the so called health insurance exchange. As Steve Benen reports, Pelosi had no choice.
The House Democratic leadership didn't want to go this route, but was out of options -- they just couldn't get to 218.
The idea, at this point, is to allow a vote on the amendment. Pro-choice Dems can register their opposition, but the amendment is expected to have the votes pass.
And that's when this might get a little trickier. If the Stupak/Ellsworth amendment is approved, Democrats who've withheld their support over this issue will throw their support to the larger reform bill. The angle to keep an eye on, however, is what happens to the strong, pro-choice leaders in the caucus -- will they switch sides and vote to kill the bill?
Most of the vote counts I've seen put the number of hard "no" votes in the Democratic caucus at 25. The majority can lose no more than 40. The vote is still expected for tonight, with top White House officials and cabinet sectaries working the phones and walking the halls of Congress, keeping the heat on wavering members.
On one hand, most private health insurance plans offered through the workplace simply don't cover abortions to begin with. Mine doesn't, for example. There's also a raft of state laws and limited doctors who will perform the procedure that make getting an abortion nearly impossible anyway no matter what the public option says.
On the other hand, the Dems are better people than to be misogynist assholes. The reality is this: Will the Blue Dogs who vote for the anti-abortion amendment vote for the House bill at the final vote?
I'm thinking no. If the measure dies in the House due to the abortion measure, well, there's no way anyone will ever touch health care reform in the future. Nancy just may have dealt herself into a corner, and the Blue Dogs may just end up putting the Dems out of business in 2010.
Hasn't anyone on Capitol Hill figured out that the reason the Republicans won in 1994 was because Democrats killed Clinton's health care reform?
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2009/11/dealing-w...
A completely new concept of underwater wave energy using a simple 7 ton kite turbine design has been developed by Minesto; which is a spinoff from the Swedish military and aircraft design firm Saab. The Deep Green underwater turbine captures the power of the ocean just like a kite in wind.
The system could generate 18 terawatthours of energy annually, enough to provide nearly 4 million British households with reliably green electricity every year. UK households now use about a third of what average US households use in energy.
>>Find local group discounts on solar power for your home.
Originally Saab was working on a kite design for a wind turbine, but found that the concept would actually work better in water, which is 832 times more dense than air.
The kite twirls in a repeating figure eight pattern (video) that increases the ocean velocity ten-fold. The first stage increases the relative flow speed entering a turbine. When the tide hits the wing it turns down, which creates a lift force. The kite is mounted to the ocean bed with a tether and is controlled by a rudder to gently nudge it in the desired trajectory.
According to Minesto’s website, each megawatt-worth of kite(s) would weigh 14 tons, so it would seem that each 7 ton kite is a 500 KW unit. According to CEO Anders Jansson’s estimate, these could probably produce power for somewhere between $0.09 cents and $0.20 cents per kwh.
Certainly because these are such extremely simple-tech structures they would be cost effective - costing less in materials per power produced, and costing less in transporting them to the site, in installing them and even in ongoing maintenance costs.
Almost half the potential in Europe is in British waters, with the ocean moving an average of 1 to 2 metres per second between 60 and 120 metres below the surface.
The Carbon Trust based in the UK gave early development support. Minesto’s Deep Green is now funded in part by the UK and Swedish governments, and has nearly $3 million in additional capital from parent company Saab Group, Midroc New Technology, Verdane Capital and Encubator.
With these kinds of serious investors, and such a simple and cost effective design, this could be what gets wave power to the world.
http://cleantechnica.com/2009/10/23/underwater-...
The largest job losses over the month were in manufacturing employment, which fell 61,000 last month, construction industries payrolls dropped 62,000, and retail trade was down 40,000. Private economists had forecast that the unemployment rate would rise to 9.9 percent from 9.8 percent in September, and that jobs would drop by about 175,000 jobs in October. It’s the 22nd straight month the U.S. economy has shed jobs, the longest on records dating back 70 years.
The underemployment rate, which includes part-time workers, the jobless and those who have given up on searching, was 17.5 percent in October, the highest level since at least 1994. There is great concern that rising unemployment could derail any recovery by restricting consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of the economy. Friday’s report comes one day after Congress voted overwhelmingly to extend unemployment benefits by up to 20 weeks and upbeat economic data on the jobs market and from several retailers helped the Dow push back above the 10000 level with a 203-point gain. The dollar fell against both the euro and the yen following the release of the figures.
Unemployment Rate Highest in 26 Years - Jumps To 10.2 Percent
10.2 is the "official" rate. Black males' unemployment in urban areas have been consistently at 50% because long before THIS recession jobs were moved from urban centers where Blacks are concentrated.
Elizabeth Warren: We Rescued The Top Of The System, Left The Bottom To Fend For Itself (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/elizab...
Elizabeth Warren, the chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel charged with monitoring the bank bailout, was on Morning Joe Friday morning to dig in to the newly released unemployment report. The numbers are bleak -- unemployment has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 -- and Warren is not surprised.
"Let's face it," Warren said, "This is sort of how we went about the rescue -- we rescued at the top and we left the bottom to kind of fend for itself -- and that's showing up in the unemployment numbers."
Warren went on to explain that the report is really about the guarantees the Government made to protect banks' assets while leaving the public out to dry.
"Look, it saved the top of the system," Warren acknowledged. "It helped stabilize it, but not so much for families who are hard hit down on the ground, the real economy." There's always the question, Warren explains, about how you save the top -- in this case, the public pays for the banks' guarantees and the top executives benefit. "We said, in effect, at the top, there's really not any pain in return for taxpayer support. Not so much so when it comes to folks at the bottom. We said wait a year, we'll get there, we'll do what we can."
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough suggested that it was the old "socialize the profits, privatize the gains" scenario, but Warren took it one step further.
"The way I think of it is: they say something like 'Give me your money, investors and I'm going to Las Vegas and put it all on red 22. And if red 22 comes in -- woo! we are RICH. If red 22 doesn't come in, don't worry because the tax payers will pay you back the money you invested."
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/elizab...
The ownership of the federal government by banks and other large corporations is effectuated in literally countless ways, none more effective than the endless and increasingly sleazy overlap between government and corporate officials. Here is just one random item this week announcing a couple of standard personnel moves ...
Top Senate Democrat: bankers "own" the U.S. Congress
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over United Security Bank, based in Sparta, Ga., with $157 million in assets and $150 million in deposits, and Home Federal Savings Bank in Detroit, with $14.9 million in assets and $12.8 million in deposits.
Ameris Bank, based in Moultrie, Ga., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of United Security, while Liberty Bank and Trust Co., based in New Orleans, is buying the assets and deposits of Home Federal Savings.
The failure of United Security is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $58 million; that of Home Federal Savings is expected to cost $5.4 million. The 117 failures this year compare with 25 last year and three in 2007. The failures have cost the federal fund more than $27 billion so far this year
Two bank failures make 117 for the year
The Drug Policy Alliance report also called on government agencies to adopt overdose prevention programs and policies for vets who misuse substances or take prescription medicines, and urged “significantly expanded” access to medication-assisted therapies, such as methadone and buprenorphine, for the treatment of dependence on opioid drugs used to treat pain and mood disorders.
During a conference call with a Drug Policy Alliance representative and seven other advocates for change in the treatment of veterans, the military’s Tricare health benefits program came under fire for what a New York-based physician and specialist in drug addiction treatment called its failure to pay for veterans’ and family members’ opioid dependence treatments.
The treatments, said Robert Newman of the Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute, are endorsed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Institute of Medicine.
Newman cited a 2008 speech by U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak in Hanoi, in which he acknowledged that U.S. dollars were being spent on methadone treatment for Vietnamese drug addicts.
“And yet, our government, our Department of Defense, has an insurance plan that simply excludes maintenance treatment,” Newman said. “I find that outrageous.”
Report: Vets need drug treatment, not jail
This article seems to be addressing Vietnam redux: The Iraq War—On Drugs (giving troops bags of meds, pills). Returning soldiers must go "cold turkey" after free flowing drugs given to them to function while in Iraq.
This exciting discovery lays waste to a still predominant theory that the earliest human inhabitants of North America, referred to as the Clovis culture, arrived here 12,900 to 12,400 years ago, while crossing the Bering Strait.
Scientists believe that pre-Clovis peoples migrated here south along the North American coastlines. The Paisley Caves are located upriver from the Pacific Ocean, placing them along the possible migration route of pre-Clovis Native Americans.
The recent excavation of the Paisley Caves was conducted by the Northern Great Basin Field School, with the University of Oregon, lead by archaeologist Dennis L. Jenkins. The head archaeologist presented his team’s exciting finding last month in a lecture at the University of Oregon. He explained that the simple bone tool was subjected to studies of sediment and radiocarbon dating, which suggested it belonged to a pre Clovis culture.
Jon Erlandson, an archaeologist at the University of Oregon said, “They can’t yet rule out the Paisley Cave people weren’t Clovis.” But none of the Clovis people’s distinct fluted spear and arrow points were found in the cave.
Oregon Caves Yield Rare Pre-Clovis Artifact 14,230 Years Old
By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 5, 2009
MILAN -- The design team at Moschino, led by Rossella Jardini, didn't even realize that Michelle Obama was wearing one of the company's ensembles the first few times it happened. She'd selected a chartreuse suit for a campaign rally in Iowa. But she'd cinched the belt, which had been sold with the collarless, hip-length jacket, in a pleasingly eccentric manner. It was tied in a bow and then adorned with an abstract brooch that looked vaguely Native American. Later, at the Democratic National Convention, she wore the jacket with black trousers. And without a belt. The result was to render the suit virtually unrecognizable to its own designer. Not that that was a bad thing.
Yet even more surprising than Obama's personalized styling of the suit was the choice itself. Moschino is an Italian brand -- based in Milan, manufactured in Italy and with 54 percent of its sales in Europe, compared with only 10 percent in the United States. (Dresses, for instance, are priced between $895 and upward of $2,000.) In fact, it was only last year that the company opened a New York flagship after several years without a U.S. presence. In a politically correct world -- one in which first ladies traditionally wear clothes created by American designers for their most public appearances -- Jardini simply didn't think that Obama would ever wear a high-priced Italian designer brand, with a history for outrageous humor, on such public occasions.
After all, in the 1960s, Jackie Kennedy was taken to task by American apparel unions because of her fondness for French designers. As a remedy, she chose Oleg Cassini as her go-to dressmaker, in part, because he was an American designer who could and would re-interpret the work that came down the Paris runways. (Kennedy still managed to continue wearing French designs.) Since then, it has always been assumed that the first lady's state wardrobe would be handled by Americans. When Laura Bush, for instance, made one of her earliest trips abroad as first lady in 2001, she enlisted old-guard New York designers Arnold Scaasi and Oscar de la Renta to create her most significant ensembles. And other recent first ladies -- from Nancy Reagan to Hillary Clinton -- have relied on Scaasi and de la Renta, as well as St. John, James Galanos, Carolina Herrera and the occasional Donna Karan.
The executives at Moschino understood that long-standing tradition. So while they have been happy to claim credit when the first lady has worn the brand, they have not aggressively touted it. Their public comments have been brief. Bragging? Almost nonexistent. "It's a bit difficult to handle the situation because you don't want to push it," Jardini says. "That would seem indelicate."
In addition to Moschino, Obama has worn Lanvin, Junya Watanabe, Sonia Rykiel and plenty of Azzedine Alaia, one of the French fashion industry's most elusive designers. She has had the most international wardrobe of any modern first lady, turning her closet into a virtual United Nations and using her aesthetic sensibility as a form of non-verbal diplomacy as well as a reflection of an increasingly inter-connected world.
Of all the non-American labels Obama has worn, Moschino appears to be the one most frequently in rotation. And the clothes -- some of them dramatic, insouciant and attention-grabbing -- have made repeat appearances, often on the most memorable occasions. Obama wore a white blouse with a Brobdingnagian bow in Prague on her first overseas trip as first lady. She chose a lime-colored sequined dress with cap sleeves for the Cinco de Mayo celebration at the White House. A coral-colored jacket with a pleated swing back and a matching skirt made an appearance during the "You lie!" address to Congress in September. At other public events, she has worn a purple floral dress, a pink and gray printed skirt, a black blazer with scalloped edges and a circular jeweled brooch. And perhaps most notably, she was in a modest black Moschino ensemble -- veil included -- when she met the pope in July.
"I was in front of the television when she went to visit the pope in our black bow blouse," Jardini says. "It was an extremely emotional moment."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...
Nice little story about the "stimulus" package.
Cover of Men Who Stare at Goats
When I was a reporter in the Washington bureau of Jane’s Defence Weekly, it was my job to uncover new things that the U.S. military was up to. By far the most tedious way of doing this was to comb through the FedBizOpps website, where the government publicly has to solicit pretty much everything it wants to buy. But for every sexy new missile or helicopter program you’d come across, there would be 10,000 requests for office furniture or lawnmowing services. But that one in 10,000 made it worth the time, so about once a week I got an extra cup of coffee and set to it.
One day, in 2005, I came across this solicitation, from the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.:
88 — LIVE, MALE, CAPRINES (GOATS)
This caught my attention. I had just read The Men Who Stare at Goats, and was blown away by the incredible story of serious military research done on the paranormal, and that it was ever considered that soldiers might walk into battle holding baby lambs to pacify enemies. And that the Army had a program called “Jedi Warrior.” And, of course, as per the title of the book, that researchers experimented on how to kill goats simply by staring at them. The research was being done, the book said, by U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Ft. Bragg.
So that listing obviously rang a bell. It went on: “The US Army has a a requirement for Caprines (goats) to be delivered to Fort Bragg, NC as required during the period 1 June 2002 thru 31 May 2003 with (2) one-year option periods. The caprines must be live, male, healthy, weighing fifty (50) pounds or more.”
Curious, I called the public affairs officer at Ft Bragg, and asked what it was about. He didn’t know — and, to my surprise, hadn’t heard of the book. I also emailed the author, Jon Ronson, through his website, thinking he might find the solicitation funny. (Unfortunately all of this email traffic was on my janes account, which has been lost, so I’m paraphrasing.)
I heard back quickly from Ronson, who said “Wow — so it might be true.” Which wasn’t the response I expected to get from an author of a purportedly nonfiction book. But as True/Slant’s Dan Kois reports, the opening title of the movie, opening Friday, reads: “More of this is true than you would believe.” So the filmmakers seem to be making no claims about airtight facts.
And then, I heard back from the public affairs officer at Ft. Bragg. He had found out what they used the goats for, but asked me not to report it: They were used for ballistics testing. Apparently goat flesh is a close enough approximation to human flesh that when researchers want to figure out how a human might react to being shot in various situations, well… (This was not a secret, anyway, plenty of people have discussed it.)
The army has solicited for goats lots of times, from at least 2002 to 2006. One time, for example, the army was looking for 150 goats, and specified that “[g]oats can not be fed the night prior to delivery.” Would cut down on the mess, I imagine. But I did a search on fedbizopps now, which lets you search for solicitations back 365 days, and found that there have been no goat orders in the past year.
So: does the army have a better means of ballistics testing now? Did they get in trouble with animal rights people? Are they raising their own goats now? Anyone reading this at Ft Bragg, drop a line…
http://trueslant.com/joshuakucera/2009/11/06/wh...
U.S. "security interest" projects reveal many paranormal efforts.
Why does Michael Steele always look like his suit is two sizes too big? Is it because his head is so tiny in relation to his trunk?
Or does he pad the shoulders of his jackets to look all broad shouldered and manly and republican?
Inquiring minds want to know.
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
The deadly rampage at Fort Hood is forcing Pentagon officials to confront difficult questions about the military's growing Muslim population.
The military has worked hard to recruit more Muslims since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the number of Muslim troops, while still small, has been increasing. There were 3,409 Muslims in the active-duty military as of April 2008, according to Pentagon statistics.
Military personnel don't have to disclose their religions, and many officials believe the actual number of Muslim soldiers may be at least 10,000 higher than the Pentagon statistics. For instance, the military "Officer Record Brief" of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings, said he had "no religious preference" and didn't identify him as a Muslim.
Even now, Muslim soldiers remain fairly rare in some parts of the military. At West Point, Army officials said there were just 24 Muslim cadets out of a total student body of 4,400. The Muslim cadets worship in an interfaith center on the bucolic New York campus, but don't have a dedicated mosque.
The push to boost Muslim representation has proven to be a double-edged sword for the military, which desperately needs the Muslim soldiers for their language skills and cultural knowledge, but also worries that a small percentage of those soldiers might harbor extremist ideologies or choose to turn their guns on their fellow soldiers.
In one of the military's most notorious cases of fratricide since Vietnam, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar, a convert to Islam, rolled a grenade into a tent filled with other soldiers in April 2003. The attack killed two officers and wounded 14 others. During his court-martial, prosecution witnesses testified Sgt. Akbar had committed the attack because he believed the U.S. military would kill Muslim civilians during the coming invasion. Sgt. Akbar was later sentenced to death.
Muslim soldiers also face challenges stemming from their dual identities as adherents of the Islamic faith and as members of the U.S. military. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Muslims serving in the U.S. military often use fake last names to avoid being singled out by insurgents as traitors and to prevent reprisals against their families elsewhere in the world.
The Pentagon's outreach to the Muslim community has expanded significantly in recent years. The first Muslim chaplain in the military, Army Lt. Col. Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad, wasn't appointed until 1994. The military didn't open its first permanent mosque, the Masjid al Da'Wah facility at Virginia's Norfolk Navy Base, until late 1998.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125755853525335...
www.icanbeastupidassbigotalso.com
Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut-Muslim extremists
First World Trade Center Bombing-Muslim extremists
Sept 11- Muslim extremists
Embassy Bombings in Africa- Muslim extremists
USS Cole-Muslim extremists
Train bombings in London-Muslim extremists
Fort Hood-Muslim extremist
You can ignore the trend if you want. There is a small percentage of the Muslim population that interpret Koran in a way that justifies violence against others. This is a fact dj. Please, get your head out of your ass and don't call people bigots when they present facts.
2.When our policies according to the UN killed over a half million Iraqis WTF do you think people will do but to take the fight to your enemies.
Look all you fuckers are crazy who just want destruction because for some reason that makes you feel manly.I think 99% of us would just say can I just raise my children in peace and you warmongers leave us the fuck alone.
I've been to the middle east the woman over there are treated like fucking property. They kill women for simply having pre-marital sex or having a boyfriend. And your dumbass is excusing it. Get off the computer and get your passport stamped. See the world boy and get back to me. Stop your talking points from the Daily Kos.
It's obvious that he's calling people bigots not for calling out Muslim extremists, but for calling out...Muslims.
Of course, a lot of your ideological brothers and sisters say things like that with regard to black people.
There's nothing more sad, stupid, brainwashed and delusional than a xenophobic black person.
by Jonathan Singer, Sat Nov 07, 2009 at 11:19:11 AM EST
For those not currently watching C-SPAN, which is recommended watching at present, the Republicans are trying to turn the House of Representatives into a zoo in an effort to impede debate over healthcare reform. At present, they are interrupting every short speech by a group of Democratic women legislators. The Joe Wilsonification of the GOP continues...
Take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewafPV2brQA
Rep. Dingell to preside over House for first time since 1965 Medicare vote. Democrats wavering on the health care bill will have their heart-strings tugged by the man overseeing today's planned vote: Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the Dean of the House of Representatives and the longest-serving member in history.
Dingell's late father, also a congressman, introduced the first bill to provide national health insurance in 1933, and his son has continued a tradition started by his father by introducing health care legislation at the beginning of every session of Congress.
Rep. Dingell last led debate on a vote on April 8, 1965, the day the House passed legislation creating Medicare, according to his office.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/7/801700/...
As to the 1990 page wish list - I doubt if most people in congress have read it, understand it, and will for the most part just vote their party line.
Meanwhile - the plan is to save money by shaving money from MEDICARE. Since I have paid money into Medicare for about 40 years and am about to retire in a few years, this reduction in money for Medicare is not welcome news.
Krugman refers to Medicare spending as "excessive" spending. Are you suggesting that old people should not get FULL medical care? Like my mother said when she was 91 and broke a bone in her back "they don't believe I am in pain just because I am old."
What are you willing to sacrifice so that others can "get theirs"?
Higher taxes - no problem - in fact I have endorsed higher Medicare taxes on this blog.
by John Cole
Why is this not a bigger story:
Late last night, the Congressional Budget Office released its initial analysis of the health-care reform plan that Republican Minority Leader John Boehner offered as a substitute to the Democratic legislation. CBO begins with the baseline estimate that 17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won’t have health-care insurance in 2010. In 2019, after 10 years of the Republican plan, CBO estimates that …17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won’t have health-care insurance. The Republican alternative will have helped 3 million people secure coverage, which is barely keeping up with population growth. Compare that to the Democratic bill, which covers 36 million more people and cuts the uninsured population to 4 percent.
But maybe, you say, the Republican bill does a really good job cutting costs. According to CBO, the GOP’s alternative will shave $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. The Democrats, CBO says, will slice $104 billion off the deficit.
The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan. And amazingly, the Democratic bill has already been through three committees and a merger process. It’s already been shown to interest groups and advocacy organizations and industry stakeholders. It’s already made its compromises with reality. It’s already been through the legislative sausage grinder. And yet it saves more money and covers more people than the blank-slate alternative proposed by John Boehner and the House Republicans. The Democrats, constrained by reality, produced a far better plan than Boehner, who was constrained solely by his political imagination and legislative skill.
I seriously do not get this country. The subservience to the Republicans by the media at least made sense when they were in the majority and held the Presidency in 2001. But this is 2009, the Republicans have been routed electorally for the past few years, everything the Republican party believed in failed miserably the last eight years and they have been exposed as total frauds, they released a budget with no numbers on April Fools day, they have been whipping up teabaggers and gun nuts into a froth for months and screaming about death panels because they have no ideas or solutions, and when they finally do release their health care “plan,” it totally and completely sucks. It is nothing but fail, fail, fail, from the GOP, they just lost two more seats in the house, they are going through a horrible (yet delicious) civil war, yet according to the media, everything is bad news for Democrats.
You know what is bad news for Republicans? They used to be able to get elected and be incapable of governing, and as the House elections on Tuesday and the CBO score today show, now they are incapable of getting elected and governing.
And yet somewhere, Chuck Todd or one of the other Beltway drooling class is typing up their next thought piece explaining how all of this is bad news for Democrats, and David Gregory’s staff is probably getting touch with McCain and Boehner’s Chiefs of staff to see if they are available for Meet the Press on Sunday.
I can’t tell what is a bigger joke- the Republicans, or our failed media experiment. Three decades of screaming liberal media bias is about the only smart long-term thing republicans have done in my lifetime.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=29355
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/want-o...