Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

How stupid are these people?

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

The revolution will be supervised.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

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Archives for 2009

Starting over

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Okay, one more question about the Senate Bill: is the idea of opposing it that we should (a) scrap it and start over, (b) fight like hell to improve it in reconciliation conference, (c) threaten to walk away if Nelson waters it down more in order to keep Nelson from watering it down more, or (d) all of the above? I’m for b and c (I don’t think threatening to walk away helps with Lieberman, but I think it may with Nelson).

For those who favor (a), a musical salute from one of the original hippies:

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Strong persuader

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Krugman on the Senate bill (as usual, he is quite persuasive):

But let’s all take a deep breath, and consider just how much good this bill would do, if passed — and how much better it would be than anything that seemed possible just a few years ago. With all its flaws, the Senate health bill would be the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare, greatly improving the lives of millions. Getting this bill would be much, much better than watching health care reform fail.

At its core, the bill would do two things. First, it would prohibit discrimination by insurance companies on the basis of medical condition or history: Americans could no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, or have their insurance canceled when they get sick. Second, the bill would provide substantial financial aid to those who don’t get insurance through their employers, as well as tax breaks for small employers that do provide insurance.

All of this would be paid for in large part with the first serious effort ever to rein in rising health care costs.

There are those that say that Krugman doesn’t always understand the politics of things. In fact, I am one of those. As I see it, the two political reasons to oppose passage of the bill is that (a) by forcing people to buy crappy insurance, it will piss voters off and (b) passing this now puts off the possibility of more serious reform. I have no idea about (a), but I it seems to me that the bill going down in flames will put off the possibility of any reform for even longer.

If, at this point, the choice is between a crappy bill that will improve health care for millions of people (at too high a cost to them, yes, and without reining in insurance companies as much as it should) and a catastrophic political defeat for Democrats and for the cause of health care reform, I’m going to take the crappy bill.

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Home Free

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And while we were all arguing about the Lieberman/Nelson Hippie Retribution and Anti-Abortion Act of 2009, look what happened:

A Congressional tax standoff has opened a window of opportunity for wealthy Americans determined to avoid paying up post-mortem.

With lawmakers unable to agree on a year-end fix for a quirk in the Bush-era tax cuts, the federal estate tax is set to be repealed for one year as of Jan. 1, meaning that those who suffer a timely death could escape the usual certainty of taxes.

Not like we could have used that money or anything. You do have to appreciate the fact that the Republicans are still achieving the legislative goals even in the minority. Personally, I blame Obama for not using the bully pulpit and think a stronger President like Hillary would have never let this happen.

More at LGM.

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Open Thread: Thursday Nite Menu Edition

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The way this week has been going, I think we can all agree on one issue: Moar sweet, delicious COOKIES!

Bad Horse’s Filly writes:

Since we will have no Thursday Night Menu next week, this week I’m going to give you my traditional Christmas morning breakfast. These are simple to make and taste so good. And of course I’ve included a recipe for Santa’s cookies, ‘cause you know the better the cookies, the better the presents he leaves you, so you don’t want to be leaving any store-bought cookies. On the board tonight:

1) German Pancakes
2) Walnut Syrup
3) Sliced Peaches
4) Santa Cookies

Click here or on the link above for recipes and shopping list.

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He’s in love with Jim Jones whoa

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As much as I hate to link to the Politico….

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.), chairman of the Republican Governors Association, called the Democrats’ health care reform proposal “catastrophic” Thursday and compared it to the poison ingested at the infamous Jonestown cult’s mass suicide in 1978.

At a press conference, flanked by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Barbour said that if the Senate passes the health care reform bill, it would result in huge electoral gains for the GOP in 2010.

[….[

“I’ve been looking for Jim Jones and where’s the Kool-Aid. This is awful, awful policy for our country — and the people know it. The public already understands this. And the longer the debate goes on, the more the public understands that they’re going to end up paying more and that they’re going to get lower quality health care. But politically, if the nation can survive it, it will be a political windfall for Republicans.”

Barbour, Alexander, and Gregg represent the supposedly sane wing of the GOP that David Broder is always fluffing. And, in fairness, they are saner than the teabaggers and the Khmer Rogue.

But, the end, Obama is no different, not after the way he’s slapped us all in the face this week.

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Something to Think About

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Ezra:

Would public insurance be better? It would. I’d be happier arguing for it right now. But that’s not the choice before us. The people this bill will affect aren’t facing divergent futures with public and private insurance. They’re facing divergent futures with private insurance or no insurance. Regulated insurance or unregulated insurance. Exchanges that pool their bargaining power and spreads their risk and a world in which they’re on their own. And people are being awfully cavalier in the abstract about a decision that virtually always comes out the same way when people have the good fortune to make it.

This is not a great bill. But the status quo is very, very bad. The cost controls may be insufficient, but in the status quo, they simply don’t exist. Private insurance isn’t optimal, but it’s better than the total absence of coverage.

Also read this at TPM.

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Blue Dog

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Means almost as stupid as Republicans:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) muscled a $154 billion jobs bill through the House on Wednesday evening just before Congress departed for a holiday recess. With the vote in serious doubt until seconds before it was gaveled to a close, Pelosi worked the floor furiously, imploring her caucus to stick with her and move the measure through.

The bill passed 217-212, but when the time on the clock expired, it was losing 208-212. A few minutes later, when it hit 214-213 and then 215-213, someone shouted “gavel it!” from the Democratic side. A bill doesn’t need the full 218 to pass — only a simple majority of those voting. The presiding officer took the suggestion and closed the vote.

Not a single Republican approved of the bill.

The slim margin is strong evidence that deficit hawks have momentum in the ideological battle between one camp that demands more spending on job creation and another, dominated by the GOP and Blue Dog Democrats, calling for immediate reductions in the deficit. Even the fact that the money was being redirected from Wall Street couldn’t sway 38 Democrats, who voted with the Republicans.

No Blue Dog is going to lose his seat in 2010 because of the size of the deficit or the national debt. Plenty of blue dogs are going to lose their seats because THEIR CONSTITUENTS HAVE NO JOBS. So obviously, the logic is clear if you are a blue dog- vote against the jobs bill.

And no doubt when these idiots lose, some internet activist somewhere will claim it is because Obama is not progressive enough and Rahm Emmanuel hates the netroots.

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