Two dogs is more than twice one dog.
Archives for 2009
The Never-ending Pursuit for Bipartisanship
This ought to make you want to bang your head off your desk:
As the Senate convened a rare Saturday session, 10 Democratic senators continued intensive talks on the public option, with the goal of agreeing on a framework that can garner 60 votes. They are considering proposals that could win the support of one Republican, Sen. Olympia Snowe on Maine.
“As long as both sides are willing to give a little, we can meet in the middle,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). “It may not be exactly what I’d like and exactly what they’d like, but we’ll meet in the middle somewhere.
You know, as much as our national political chattering classes are enamored with the baby Jesus, I find it amazing that none of them ever managed to hear the story of King Solomon. For the life of me, I don’t understand the workings of a mind that says “That is a terrible idea, but if we do it halfway, it becomes better!” As Tim has noted before, a weak public option is worse than no public option at all, and a carelessly constructed public option will just become a dumping ground for high-risk patients that will require billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up. A couple years ago I said that I thought health care reform was inevitable, the only question would be how bad we would make it and how quickly we would bankrupt ourselves with it. I thought at the time I was being too cynical, but the moderates in both parties are proving me wrong.
As such, we now charge forward in the spirit of bipartisanship, with every Senator apparently eager to rush home to show off their half of the bloody baby. At least Ben Nelson will be able to suckle at the insurance company teat for the next ten years or so of his life. A real patriot, that guy.
The Never-ending Pursuit for BipartisanshipPost + Comments (117)
Will this happen to Charlie Crist?
I have no idea whether or not Charlie Crist is gay, mostly because I don’t care. But, given that a lot of people do seem to think he’s gay, I have to wonder if the teabaggers will do something like this to him:
The NRCC has been quick to attack Tennessee state Sen. Roy Herron, who has emerged as the Democratic candidate for the seating of retiring Blue Dog Rep. John Tanner — and along the way, they seem to be using some rather interesting rhetoric.
Herron is a former minister and an attorney, and he has taught at both the divinity and law schools at Vanderbilt, his alma mater. He has been married for 22 years, and has three sons. He has also written several books, including Tennessee Political Humor, How Can a Christian Be in Politics?, and God And Politics. However, the NRCC says Herron isn’t being honest about his social liberalism.
Over the course of the past week, the NRCC has mounted a series of attacks on Herron that taken together could suggest they’re trying to say that Herron is gay or effeminate. The NRCC denies that’s their line of attack, and the Herron camp hasn’t publicly raised the issue (see late update below), but take a look at what the NRCC has been saying.
Am I wrong to think that, sooner or later, Rubio will pull this trick out of his teabag? And if the teabaggers challenge Lindsay Graham for acting sanely on a few issues (say, climate change), will he get hit with this too?
At some point, hitting below the belt has to seem like a very tempting option for Hoffman crowd.
How Did We Miss This?
Via Sullivan, apparently Slate held a write like Sarah Palin contest, and we missed it. Some of the entries are truly excellent:
“The campaign path once led me into the homey kitchen of June Asbel, where the aroma of toasted almonds and nutmeg mixed with a sense of American perseverance and optimism.”
I am sure you all can do better. I’m going to think about my entry for a while, but you all can start in the comments.
I am not drinking merlot!
I went to a fascinating wine tasting yesterday at the nearby New York Wine and Culinary Center. The wines were all Long Island merlots. I wasn’t expecting to like them all that much because (a) I don’t like New World merlot much in general and (b) I don’t like Long Island (a few Billy Joel songs notwithstanding). So I was surprised that…I loved the wines! They don’t taste like other New World merlot at all — to me, they tasted liked Bordeaux only much more herbal, a bit more acidic, and a bit less fruity and tannic. The wines were from the wineries that form the Merliance: seven wineries on Long Island that make merlot as their flagship wines. These are Wolffer, Clovis Point, Pellegrini, Raphael, Sherwood House, Castello di Borghese, and McCall.
Having never had these wines before, I wasn’t able to get a great sense of the differences between the different estates: vintage variation was more striking. The 2007 vintage was fantastic, the 2004, 2005, and 2006 vintages more variable (2005 has the best reputation, 2006 the worst, but I actually like 2006 the best of the three within this limited sample size). The vineyards are primarily in the North Fork of Long Island, though Wolffer is on the South Fork.
These wines, in general, are lower in alcohol than California bordeaux blends and also more food-friendly. They also have a fascinating spice/herbal quality that I’m embarrassed to describe for fear of sounding too much like Paul Giamatti, so I’ll just quote Appellation America (by subscription only, unfortunately):
“Heady violets, rich plum, huckleberry and Darjeeling tea aromas are accented by complex and exotic aromas of lemongrass, cilantro, ginseng, bay, Seville orange, and white pepper, which develop an amazing bouquet of cedar, sandalwood, and tobacco with age.” A bit much, ya think? Yet this complexity itself is the common thread of the region.
These wines aren’t cheap — most have suggested retail between $20 and $30, though I find them a bit cheaper at my local shop. But I think the 2007s, as good as they were, are an excellent deal. For purposes of comparison, I tasted a lot of red wines in Oregon last weekend and the only reds I liked better than the 2007 McCall and Wolffer were much pricier.
This tasting was a real revelation, one of the most surprising I’ve ever been to.
Let It Snow!
We have our first snow of the year, so clearly global warming is a hoax.
Are there no regulations about this?
When I flip through the channel guide on my tv, the infomercials are labeled as such. How is this different from infomercials?
But Beck has recently come under fire from liberals alleging a conflict of interest. The criticism spiked after he used one of his trademark blackboard illustrations to provide tips for weathering “the three scenarios that we could be facing: recession, depression or collapse.” In the case of a total collapse of the economic system, he recommended that his viewers construct “fruit cellars” and rely on what he called “the three G system. It’s God, gold and guns.”
[…..]Peter Epstein, president of Merit Financial Services, which advertises on Beck’s show, says gold retailers expect favorable coverage from commentators on whose shows they pay to advertise. “You pay anybody on any network and they say what you pay them to say,” said Epstein. “They’re bought and sold.”