In general “health care week” sounds like a great opportunity for Harry Reid to remind everybody which party is standing in the way of stem cell research. Heck, let’s make it ‘health care month.’
Archives for May 2006
Grading The Prescription Drug Plan
The WaPo has an interesting piece of reporting today that includes some senior comments about the new Drug Plan. Rather than excerpting it, I will simply direct you to the story itself, which is worth a read.
The Digitial Lynch Mob
Richard Cohen gets a taste of what it is like to cross the Eschaton knuckle-dragger crew:
Two weeks ago I wrote about Al Gore’s new movie on global warming. I liked the film. In response, I instantly got more than 1,000 e-mails, most of them praising Gore, some calling him the usual names and some concluding there was no such thing as global warming, if only because Gore said there was. I put the messages aside for a slow day, when I would answer them. Then I wrote about Stephen Colbert and his unfunny performance at the White House correspondents’ dinner.
Kapow! Within a day, I got more than 2,000 e-mails. A day later, I got 1,000 more. By the fourth day, the number had reached 3,499 — a figure that does not include the usual offers of nubile Russian women or loot from African dictators. The Colbert messages began with Patrick Manley (“You wouldn’t know funny if it slapped you in the face”) and ended with Ron (“Colbert ROCKS, you MURDER”) who was so proud of his thought that he copied countless others. Ron, you’re a genius.
***The hatred is back. I know it’s only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations. I can appreciate some of it. Institution after institution failed America — the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have. Now, though, that gullibility is being matched by war critics who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that’s going to be the case, then Iraq is a war its critics will lose twice — once because they couldn’t stop it and once more at the polls.
The reactions were immediate and predictable:
Richard Cohen got 2,000 mean e-mails and this signals the end of the Democratic party. I’ll leave you to figure out why that should follow. In case Cohen hasn’t noticed nobody on the fucking planet likes squishy faux liberal courtiers. There’s no political downside to hating Richard Cohen.
There is, apparently, no ‘political downside’ to being an asshole, so many on the left and the right will continue to urge people to behave like one. Something upsets you- get ten thousand people to fire off vulgar e-mails. Really- it convinces people your position is right. [/sarcasm]
At any rate, there is a certain segment of the online left (and right, for that matter) who think that the key to electoral victory is to keep a certain segment of the population in a frothing rage. Any perceived slight must immediately be met with an email campaign and a ‘Wanker of the day” post that can be linked by the entire “spittle-flecked monitor” wing of the Democratic party, and that will ensure that the evil NEOCONS are kicked out of office in November.
And within an hour of posting this, I will have several people calling me an asshole for not realizing that the country is going to hell and that THEY HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE MAD AS HELL!
Back Off Barry Bonds
As Barry Bonds closes in on Babe Ruth’s HR count, the whining is starting again- this is a typical example from the sportswriters:
Bud Selig is as right as an April shower. What we do now with Barry Bonds is, we go 7-year-old on him.
Close our eyes. Stick our fingers in our ears. Chant, in a voice no more annoying than a chainsaw starting up at 6 a.m., “La-la-la, la-la-la, I’m not listening, I’m not listening …”
In case you missed it, Barry gave a ride to No. 713 Sunday night.
Most of them should have some practice at that, because as the NFL and the other major sports were banning steroids and aggressively testing for them, baseball writers stuck their fingers in their ears and paid no attention to what everyone knew was happening. Bud Selig did nothing because Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire and the sluggers saved the game of baseball for Bud.
And now, because Barry is close to the mythical babe, it is time to start trashing Barry and pretending that we are shocked (insert your own Casablanca reference) to learn that some people were taking steroids. The whole thing stinks to me.
Additionally, placing all the credit for Barry Bond’s hitting success on allegations of steroids usage also unfairly diminishes how good of a hitter he really is. Look at his statistics. Look at how many walks he has and how few walks he has and compare that to his power numbers. Steroids didn’t give Barry Bonds his instincts. Steroids did not give Barry Bonds his bat speed.* Steroids did not give Barry Bonds his discipline.
This is more about Barry Bonds’ acerbic attitude towards the press than it is anything else, and now they are going to do their best to get their pound of flesh. And while we are at it, we can stop pretending that the Baseball HoF is filled with nothing but angels, too. So, while all the bigmouths in the press and all the self-anointed baseball purists are pissing and moaning about the game of baseball being ruined by Bonds and that there should an asterisk next to his name, I will be cracking a beer and hoping he hits 800 and pisses them all off one last time.
*I stand corrected- steroids can help with bat speed.
Foggo Out
Christy Smith reports that David Shuster reports that Foggo has just stepped down from the #3 post at CIA. Unlike Goss, whose resignation remains somewhat of a mystery, Foggo’s resignation probably comes from the San Diego investigators preparing to indict him:
Friday, people with knowledge of the continuing Cunningham inquiry said the CIA official, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, is under federal criminal investigation in connection with awarding agency contracts.
…Mr. Foggo has been a close friend since junior high school with Poway, Calif., defense contractor Brent R. Wilkes. The criminal investigation centers on whether Mr. Foggo used his postings at the CIA to improperly steer contracts to Mr. Wilkes’s companies.
Mr. Wilkes earlier this year was implicated in the charges filed against Mr. Cunningham, as an unindicted co-conspirator who allegedly had paid about $630,000 in bribes to Mr. Cunningham for help in obtaining federal contracts.
No charges have been filed against Mr. Wilkes, although federal prosecutors in San Diego are working to build a case against him, as well as Mr. Foggo, people with knowledge of the investigation said.
The FBI and federal prosecutors also are investigating evidence that Mr. Wilkes had given gifts to Mr. Foggo and paid for various services for him while Mr. Foggo was in a position to help him gain particular CIA contracts.
Let me repeat a simple point that I never get tired of making. People who want increased power to intrude into citizens’ privacy and at the same time want to increasingly escape supervision of their own ought to raise all kinds of alarm bells. When you know that they have abused the levers of government then it is simply time to clean house, full stop. If government genuinely needs increased power over its citizens in order to fight whatever global struggle that it is we’re fighting then it is that much more important that we install leaders who can handle it responsibly.
Removing Goss is a step in the right direction, assuming that he got caught up in the Foggo/MZM bribery shenanigans, but it means nothing if the general atmosphere of laissez-faire authoriatarianism goes on unabated. At this point about the only thing that will significantly change that is a thorough turnover of Congress.
The Democratic Agenda
It turns out that they have one, in case you were wondering.
House Democrats have formulated a plan of action for their first week in control. Their leaders said a Democratic House would quickly vote to raise the minimum wage for the first time since 1997. It would roll back a provision in the Republicans’ Medicare prescription drug benefit that prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services from negotiating prices for drugs offered under the program.
It would vote to fully implement the recommendations of the bipartisan panel convened to shore up homeland security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Democratic leaders said.
And it would reinstate lapsed rules that say any tax cuts or spending increases have to be offset by spending cuts or tax increases to prevent the federal deficit from growing.
That looks pretty good to me. If I would add one thing, it baffles me why Dems remain afraid of a policy initiative, single-payer healthcare, that would singlehandedly rescue United, GM, Ford and dozens of other American employers from bankruptcy and go a long way towards making it more competitive to do business in America. And oh yeah, you won’t have to make the emergency room your PCP if you lose your job.
Apparently impeachment has to wait until week three. I’m cool with that.
Final Grades
Finalizing grades this morning, then Balloon Juice will be back in action.