I was just thinking the other day that it sure seems like it has been a relatively slow hurricane season. Looks like that might change.
Archives for August 2009
Sad News
Frequent commenter Svensker passes along the sad news that her friend, Mary Catherine, who we all pitched in to help out a few months back, has passed:
My friend MC – Mary Catherine Lamb – for whom John sponsored a fundraiser last winter, lost her battle with cancer on August 15.
MC’s passing was a shock to everyone. Her prognosis had been very good. She had recently been diagnosed with some tiny tumors in her brain but the doctor expected treatment to be effective. At first everything went well – in fact, in typical MC fashion, she thought that the aluminum mask used to target the radiation was so beautiful that she turned it into a sculpture. But an infection took hold in her weakened state and neither antibiotics nor her body could stop it. She died very quickly with many loved ones around her.
60 Minutes
CBS News says Don Hewitt, the newsman who invented “60 Minutes” and produced the popular newsmagazine for 36 years, has died. He was 86.
60 Minutes was one of the top-rated shows on television for God knows how many years. It was also, to my knowledge, the only network show that featured serious investigative journalism during that period. I still don’t know why that doesn’t prove that networks really can make money doing real journalism.
Let The Games Begin
UBS and the IRS reach a final deal:
The Swiss banking giant UBS on Wednesday reached a final deal with the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service in which it will ultimately disclose names and account details for more than 4,450 wealthy Americans suspected of tax evasion.
Details of the settlement were unveiled Wednesday by the I.R.S. commissioner, Douglas Shulman.
The agreement, he said, also allows the Swiss government to work with other Swiss financial institutions to disclose the identities of other Americans who have hidden money offshore.
UBS will notify the clients whose names are to be disclosed in coming weeks, Mr. Shulman said. Clients still have time to reveal themselves before a voluntary disclosure program ends Sept. 23 to potentially avoid prosecution and steeper penalties and fines, he said.
Should be entertaining.
Just As Predicted
As we noted the other day, the next card in the Republican effort to scuttle health care reform is being played:
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday defended critics of Democratic health care reform plans who claim the proposals would provide subsidized health care to illegal immigrants. Kyl said Democrats have long sought to block curbs on public services for people illegally in the country.
“It’s a logical question for people to ask,” Kyl said during a conference call with reporters, maintaining that during last year’s State Children’s Health Insurance Program debate and other legislative fights, Democrats blocked efforts by Republicans to include curbs on health care for illegal immigrants.
“In the last couple of bills … there were efforts to ensure that only eligible people would get the benefits … those efforts were defeated by Democrats,” Kyl argued, pointing out that hospitals currently are required to provide illegal aliens — as well as anyone else — with health care if they are in need.
You thought the teabaggers and patriots were insane at the town halls before- wait until the border folks start whipping up the hysteria. On the upside, this makes scheduling easier for Hardball, since Matthews has Tancredo on every week anyway.
You Can Go Your Own Way
Via Steve Benen, it looks like they have finally had enough of the Republican BS:
Given hardening Republican opposition to Congressional health care proposals, Democrats now say they see little chance of the minority’s cooperation in approving any overhaul, and are increasingly focused on drawing support for a final plan from within their own ranks.
Top Democrats said Tuesday that their go-it-alone view was being shaped by what they saw as Republicans’ purposely strident tone against health care legislation during this month’s Congressional recess, as well as remarks by leading Republicans that current proposals were flawed beyond repair.
Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said the heated opposition was evidence that Republicans had made a political calculation to draw a line against any health care changes, the latest in a string of major administration proposals that Republicans have opposed.
“The Republican leadership,” Mr. Emanuel said, “has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama’s health care proposal is more important for their political goals than solving the health insurance problems that Americans face every day.”
The worst thing about the Republican obstructionism and nonsense the past month is the national conversation has been about death panels and angry blue hairs screaming about medicare and wingnuts carrying guns to townhall events and chants of tyranny. How many of you actually know what the Democratic proposals are? How many of you actually know what is being suggested? How many people can say, in a paragraph, what the difference between co-ops and the public option are? I’m trying to pay attention but I do not understand all the ins and outs. Hell, I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what value the insurance companies add at all. Seems like all they do is skim money off the top, add layers of paperwork, and then screw people when they get a serious illness.
Not only has this been a failure of leadership by the minority party, it has significantly dumbed down the debate.
Barney Frank, by popular demand
I’d like to see the rest of the interview interrupted here, because I wonder if Frist attempted a remote diagnosis of this woman.
(via Wonkette)