Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

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

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

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

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

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

This fight is for everything.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

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

You are here: Home / Observing the hypocrites as they would mingle with the good people

Observing the hypocrites as they would mingle with the good people

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This, from Steve Pearlstein, turned my stomach:

[M]any good people either have been reduced to shameless pandering (John McCain) or are simply giving up and going home (Byron Dorgan, Evan Bayh, Billy Tauzin).

Billy Tauzin quit midterm to be become a million-dollar-a-year lobbyist, Evan Bayh is, at best, a minor deficit hypocrite (as Ezra Klein kindly put it), John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate…

Sorry for the rant. This sentence is much more telling than Pearlstein means it to be.

Reader Interactions

137Comments

  4. 4.

    Eric U.

    I look at those names and think that worse things have happened to my country than have those particular politicians quit to cash in.

    @General Winfield Stuck: a graph where everyone has lost their job at the end looks the same as that one. No doubt it is good news. The problem is that jobs need to be created at something like 150k a month just to keep even. And that number is getting rather old, I suspect it needs to be significantly higher than that.

  5. 5.

    General Winfield Stuck

    It should be obvious to all, that we need a new Senate, or new Senators. It is our countries Clowning Achievement. Lincoln didn’t get much Limbaugh before quipping about forming a more perfect union.

  6. 6.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I’ve been thinking about running for Senator so I can quit in disgust and disappointment to a million dollar inside-the-beltway job.

  7. 7.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Eric U.: A graph where where at the end everyone had lost their job would not exist. Chew on that a while. In politics, trends are important, and it’s only been a year, but I agree fully to get credit at the ballot box this fall, that graph will need to be turned over some and soon.

  8. 8.

    MikeJ

    You weren’t supposed to look at the qualities of the people he mentioned. They aren’t real people. They’re props. Pearlstein has a story to tell and isn’t going to let reality get in the way.

  9. 9.

    beltane

    If this is what passes for good these days, I’d hate to see what bad looks like. Sorry, but encasing cowardice and opportunism under a thin veneer of civility is a trick that only fools idiots.

  10. 10.

    ellaesther

    Again with the ruining of good songs for me!

    No, actually, this one is perfect, so it’s ok. That Chris Isaak one earlier in the day, though. That was just cruel.

  11. 11.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    More Perlstein:

    This Presidents’ Day week, we celebrate the leadership of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who confronted far worse division and dissent in their times. The reason we remember them as great presidents is that they threw off the yoke of party loyalty, defied popular opinion and used the full weight of their office to do what had to be done. They understood, or came to understand, an important truth: that only after they had demonstrated that they were willing to lead, and lead boldly, were the people willing to follow and drag Congress along with them.

    Same question I always have for ‘baggers: How? What exactly is it within the “full weight of [his] office” that Obama can do without Congress that will get Congress (actually even two Republican senators) to stop obstructing the will of the majority?

  13. 13.

    slag

    So, a whole year with a new president is as much of a commitment as we should expect from these “good people”? At this rate, Pearlstein probably considers Sarah Palin a serious statesperson.

  19. 19.

    thejoz

    McCain stopped being good a long time ago, same can probably be said for Bayh. Tauzin has never been good.

    Shame on Pearlstein for shitting on Byron Dorgan by comparing him with those twats. If Dorgan had given the speech that Bayh did, I’d have believed it – Dorgan got railroaded out of Congress by standing for things he believed in.

    The rest of the lot can go fuck something rusty.

  21. 21.

    J. Michael Neal

    Repeated, because I want it in a thread where people are still going:

    Fuck NBC. I mean, really, fuck ‘em. WHERE ARE MY WOMEN SPEEDSKATERS! They were advertised as being on the afternoon broadcast on CNBC. They didn’t show. Now, women biathletes are pretty damned good; hot chicks, head-to-toe spandex, prone position, with a gun. However, they are not women speedskaters.

    Give me my fucking (I wish) speedskaters, NBC.

  22. 22.

    J. Michael Neal

    @thejoz:

    Shame on Pearlstein for shitting on Byron Dorgan by comparing him with those twats. If Dorgan had given the speech that Bayh did, I’d have believed it – Dorgan got railroaded out of Congress by standing for things he believed in.

    I love how Dorgan went from corrupt tool of the financial industry to the heroic martyr for the progressive cause in six months. I guess we can call it a Full Reverse Dodd.

  28. 28.

    thejoz

    @J. Michael Neal:

    I never heard anything about Dorgan being corrupt. All I know is he championed a drug importation bill and was shot down because that would have made people like Rahm other assclowns who wanted things like the PhRMA deal to stay intact versus things like, you know, helping people.

    I’m not going to say Dorgan was “Best Senator Evar” or anything, just stating where I am coming from.

    At this point though, short of giving cash-filled BJ’s to Goldman’s CEO’s or something, he’d still be a better person in my mind than any of the rest of them.

  32. 32.

    Church Lady

    The world would be a much better place if only the scribes of the WaPo had Doug’s purity of heart.

  35. 35.

    Sly

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    A new Senate wouldn’t change anything. It would still be dominated by local concerns that often compete with one another for Federal spending.

    The only difference between the Senate of today and the Senate of yesteryear is that modern Senators try to masquerade their local concerns in the cloak of national politics. That is a purely modern phenomenon. So, too, to a very large extent, is the notion that there is such as thing a national political culture in the United States. But the careers of people like Pearlstein depend upon there being a such a culture, so it must exist.

  37. 37.

    Will

    @J. Michael Neal

    I love how Dorgan went from corrupt tool of the financial industry to the heroic martyr for the progressive cause in six months. I guess we can call it a Full Reverse Dodd.

    To my knowledge, Dorgan never had any sort of corruption problems with the financial industry. You might be thinking of his fellow ND Senator (Conrad).

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/07/AR2009080703015.html

    All in all, Dorgan was a pretty great Senator, especially coming from a deeply conservative state. He will be missed.

  38. 38.

    madmommy

    The Scottie wins!! Such personality-plus dogs. And he’ll fit inside the trophy for pictures. Also.

  39. 39.

    Mike Kay

    @thejoz:

    Dorgan got railroaded out of Congress by standing for things he believed in.

    Dorgan voted to invade Iraq. The worst foreign policy disaster in US history.

  40. 40.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    [M]any good people either have been reduced to shameless pandering

    Ah. Good people can nevertheless pander without shame. Glad we cleared that up.

  41. 41.

    cincyanon

    The term “good person” used by someone who’s met or knows them does not mean the person identified was considered a good legislator, a good leader or even a good politician.

  44. 44.

    Martin

    @Eric U.: What do you propose all of these people do? Not to pee in everyone’s Pepsi, but ‘create more jobs’ is something a supply-sider would suggest. What’s the demand out there? What needs to be done? Are we building things? Servicing? Who is paying for all of this?

    Honestly, I’m not sure there is more that we should encourage people to consume, though we could shift the production jobs to the U.S. I don’t think we need bigger homes. I don’t think we need more bankers or hairdressers. I don’t think we need more doctors and nurses to any meaningful degree (hard to argue too strongly for it while demanding that health care costs go down).

    I’m not trying to be antagonistic, but I’m a bit irritated by the plain calls for jobs, without any real thought as to what they would be, come from, be funded by, and so on, or whether the country can even support more jobs in a sustainable way – or what we would be willing to change in order to support them.

  45. 45.

    RareSanity

    OT, but interesting:

    Beck loses 103 sponsors as his UK television broadcast runs for five days straight without any ads.

    Betcha he never accounted for the two-way street of karma…

  46. 46.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Sly: I know, was just kidding. We don’t really have a Senate with members seeking common cause. Each one is a little sovereign nation unto themselves that can wreak havoc on our politics with two words, “I object”/ And the longer they stay there, the more that power goes to their head and they start believing they are entitled to their personal wonts and desires. It has always been that way to one degree or another. The real problem is a split nation on basic world view that is more pronounced currently and it plays itself out in that anti majoritarian body.

  48. 48.

    RareSanity

    @J. Michael Neal:

    Sir, I clicked the link, and I owe you a deep, heartfelt apology.

    Please, continue your quest for toned, shapely women wearing body suits with my blessing…

  50. 50.

    Martin

    @J. Michael Neal: What’s most ridiculous about it is that in the name of avoiding soc!alism in having the govt negotiate drug prices, it delegates that negotiation to some other government, which is unquestionably more soc!alist than ours will ever become. And somehow that’s a better solution.

    But points to Dorgan for chasing a pragmatic (if laughable) solution to the drug pricing problem.

  51. 51.

    J. Michael Neal

    @batgirl: That’s fine and dandy, but the big problems didn’t result from the repeal of Glass-Steagal. The three huge crises were Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and AIG. None of them were commercial banks. A lot of the other problems were in European banks not regulated by US law. He may have successfully predicted what would happen, but he was incorrect about the mechanism, which is just as useless as being wrong.

    The much bigger problem, among many, was the combination of investment banking and prop trading in a big way. That merger wasn’t prevented by Glass-Steagal or any other existing regulation, and came about for entirely different reasons. One of the largest was the changeover of the large investment banks from partnerships to publicly traded corporations, which shifted the risk away from those making the trades.

  52. 52.

    thejoz

    @Mike Kay:

    That list also includes Biden, Cantwell, Carper, Clinton, Reid, Rockefeller, Johnson, Schumer and Harkin.

    If you’re going to hold that vote against every Dem senator because you feel that strongly about it, that’s fine, kudos to you. But to call out Dorgan for it specifically because I’m trying to defend him against the likes of Evan Bayh and John McCain? A little unnecessary, I think.

  53. 53.

    batgirl

    @Mike Kay: I was responding to J. Michael Neal’s reference to Dorgan as a “corrupt tool of the financial industry.”

    Now give me my fuckin’ pony!

  57. 57.

    Ailuridae

    @J. Michael Neal:

    Ive mentioned before that I grew up in Upstate NY. As such I grew up around a lot of Olympic hopefuls in speed skating. Needless to say I agree with the lust for women speed skaters.

  60. 60.

    Darkrose

    @J. Michael Neal:

    At least you can see something, even if it’s not what you want. I work until 9, and since we don’t have cable at home, I can’t get the live feed from fucking NBC.

    Agreed, speed skaters are hot. I felt deeply ashamed for thinking that J. R. Celski had a really nice ass–and then realizing that he’s 17.

  62. 62.

    mcc

    Same question I always have for ‘baggers: How? What exactly is it within the “full weight of [his] office” that Obama can do without Congress that will get Congress (actually even two Republican senators) to stop obstructing the will of the majority?

    I seem to remember a large portion of Lincoln’s ability to get stuff done was founded on half the Congress seceding

    I also don’t remember George Washington’s term in office being widely described as particularly acrimonious, more often it’s described as a lull before the Adams/Jefferson conflicts. We didn’t even have political parties yet at that point, properly speaking. Please correct me if I’m wrong here.

  63. 63.

    rootless_e

    @Martin: Didn’t you get the memo? Jobs can be created if Obama just leads and fires Rahm and Timmey. It’s that simple. And we will each get a pony too. Why won’t he just stand for something and stuff?

    Oh that feels good. Now I’m going to sulk.

  65. 65.

    Mike E

    AP – The moderate middle is disappearing from Congress. Evan Bayh is just the latest senator to forgo a re-election bid, joining a growing line of pragmatic, find-a-way politicians who are abandoning Washington. Still here: ever-more-polarized colleagues locked in gridlock — exactly what voters say they don’t like about politics in the nation’s capital.

    *Sigh*

  66. 66.

    Balconesfault

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    This Presidents’ Day week, we celebrate the leadership of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who confronted far worse division and dissent in their times.

    lol … yeah, Abraham Lincoln was certainly practicing bipartisanship with all those southern congressmen of his day, wasn’t he?

    Maybe what Perlstein means by “leadership” is Obama sending Petraeus on a Shermanesque march through Georgia?

  67. 67.

    Mark S.

    @RareSanity:

    I had no idea Glenn Beck was even shown in Britain. He’s pretty insane even by American cable news standards. I can’t imagine he plays very well over there. I wonder what they think when he compares universal health care to Nazism.

  68. 68.

    MikeJ

    Maybe what Perlstein means by “leadership” is Obama sending Petraeus on a Shermanesque march through Georgia?

    I have no problem with this.

  69. 69.

    J. Michael Neal

    Watching women’s hockey on tape delay. At least they skate. There are stretches here where Finland just won’t let China have the puck. Nice rush by Hovi to put Suomi up 2-1.

  70. 70.

    AnotherBruce

    @JGabriel:

    I hate to point out the obvious, but wasn’t (isn’t?) Dorgan the Senator from North Dakota, you know, the low population state with a lot of seniors that borders Canada?

    Like Cheney with his convenient compassion for gays.

  71. 71.

    mcc

    @Mike E: The most interesting thing about that quote is the idea that Bayh represented a solution to the gridlock, rather than one of the people contributing to it.

    Anybody notice what made the Senate process on the health care bill take well over six months last year? Hint: It wasn’t Bernie Sanders.

  73. 73.

    inkadu

    @J. Michael Neal: I have no idea if reimportation would raise canadian prices. My online service uses the global market, and I’ve gotten drugs from the UK and Switzerland.

    Not really sure why everyone is so fixated on getting their drugs from Canada specifically.

  74. 74.

    rob!

    Ah yes, John McCain: just TOO GOOD for our country’s political system. We don’t deserve the likes of him.

    (Seriously, we don’t)

  75. 75.

    Ed in NJ

    Maybe I’m misreading the situation, and being far too hopeful here, but is it possible that Bayh’s departure has changed the dynamic for the pundits in DC? Clearly he was seen as some kind of moderate, bipartisan hero, and by taking his ball and going home, the tide seems to be turning towards reporting the gridlock in DC as something more than Republicans being successful in stopping creeping soci ali sm.

    Maybe is some small way the conventional wisdom is becoming that things have been taken too far, and some momentum for HCR and other progressive causes can be gained from this.

    In this way, Bayh may well become our useful idiot.

  77. 77.

    J. Michael Neal

    @inkadu: The result would be equalization of prices between the US and whatever countries reimportation is permitted from. I’m assuming that that wouldn’t be all of them, only the ones whose regulatory standards are adequate. That’s going to lead to prices going up in all such countries, assuming they don’t as was suggested by someone above, just ban export.

  79. 79.

    Brian J

    @Eric U.:

    I’m really, really bad at the procedural stuff, so while I doubt this is the case, I have to ask, isn’t there anything that he can do by executive order or some procedure like it? At this point, I’m not sure I care if it’s outside the bounds of normal executive authority.

  80. 80.

    tammanycall

    OT: The NYT finally published its Paterson story. It’s more of a profile of an asshole aide rather than an expose of the governor.

  82. 82.

    dww44

    @thejoz: I agree. I thought and think that Bryan Dorgan was/is a decent U.S. Senator and I, personally, am sad to see him go.

    I. too, rooted for the French bulldog, since he/she defeated my personal favorite the (English) bulldog. But alas, no cigar. Once again a terrier won (they win far too much;laid back dogs never seem to carry the day), but, IMO the show was nowhere near as exciting as last year’s with the barking Beagle. And this new announcer had a real case of the flubs, probably occasioned by nerves.

  85. 85.

    inkadu

    @J. Michael Neal:
    – In the civilized world, drug prices are not set by the market.

    – Manufacturing drugs is cheap (development is expensive), and therefore easy to scale up.

    Hence, I think your thesis is incorrect.

    Beck: I don’t know all about them fancy sports finance talk. All I know is I like athletic women in spandex.

  86. 86.

    J. Michael Neal

    @dww44: I think he’s pretty good, too, as senators go. I’m mostly amused by how progressives are such a What Have You Done for Me Lately crowd. Legislators are either saints or demons based upon their stance on whatever issue is in the headlines right now, with no memory of previous issues at all.

  87. 87.

    dww44

    @MikeJ: That’s not nice., speaks a lifelong Georgian. Not my fault we are ruled by a bunch of reactionary Republicans and I have to read Erick Erickson’s weekly column in my paper. Now, Obama could send Petraeus after a couple of U.S. Senators, a few Congress Critters, and do a sweep up of Erickson while he’s at it. That I wouldn’t object to.

  88. 88.

    J. Michael Neal

    @inkadu:

    Manufacturing drugs is cheap (development is expensive), and therefore easy to scale up.

    True, but they have to recoup their fixed costs somewhere. Currently, since the US is just about the only country in the world where they aren’t negotiated by the government, with the power of legislation if necessary, they recover just about all of them here. Given that this is where they have pricing power, they can afford to price the drugs at marginal cost everywhere else.

    If we drop drug prices here, this is no longer true. Governments in other countries will either lose their power to negotiate down to the marginal price, or drug companies will stop manufacturing drugs that they can’t make money on. The reason I’m not terrified like Silly Sully is because it’s pretty clear to me that it will be the former. Prices will go up, and equalize across the world.

    Now, granted, this would be the result of any scheme to lower drug prices in the US. I just don’t think that it’s such a great result that it’s worth making the health care system even more ridiculously inefficient.

  89. 89.

    Cain

    more O/T (where the fuck is our open thread?):

    Dudes, seen this shit Yeah, man! That’s how we deal with terror, finally some fucking competence. Why aren’t we trumpeting this?? Blog swarm baby!

    cain

  90. 90.

    dww44

    @General Winfield Stuck: Great comment. One of the best of yours I have ever read.

    The real problem is a split nation on basic world view that is more pronounced currently and it plays itself out in that anti majoritarian body

    That is so true, and if everyone hasn’t read the article about the tea partiers in todays NYT, it’s a do not miss read. Frightening people they are and a portent of how much more divided as a nation we may well become. That topic may have been covered at BJ earlier today, but this is my first visit today and it’s late, so my apologies if it has already been discussed. But the existence of the various tea party groups helps to support the General’s statement.

  91. 91.

    J. Michael Neal

    @dww44: Oh, come now. How can you turn down an opportunity to be a collaborator with a good March to the Sea? Ignore the fact that we abandoned Reconstruction too quickly the last time and hung the collaborators out to dry.

  92. 92.

    MikeJ

    @dww44: You wouldn’t have idiots in congress if not for the people who elect them.

    Could he also pick up every idiot who slyly told me what MARTA “really” stands for?

  94. 94.

    Eric U.

    @Martin: Infrastructure. We need to rebuild with more sustainable infrastructure, meaning SUPERTRAINS! That would be one thing that actually benefits the economy and creates jobs. Not to mention that we have been ignoring our road system’s maintenance needs since Reagan discovered he could reduce the deficit by letting the potholes grow.

  95. 95.

    Cain

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    been that way to one degree or another. The real problem is a split nation on basic world view that is more pronounced currently and it plays itself out in that anti majoritarian body.

    We clearly need a war and a draft. That should fix things. There should have been a draft for Iraq/Afghanistan. We then can see how well our tea partiers are willing to fight for their country. We know that liberals can.

    cain

  97. 97.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @beltane:

    Problem for us is that there’s lots of idiots out there. Lots, as in one-third of our country.

    Speaking of idiots, I was listening to a head teabagger (if you’re going to be down there then why not?) that was on with Tweety today. I guess Texas is going to be bummed to find out that they aren’t so special. This teagagger says that every single state has the right to secede from the Union! Of course he isn’t for secession but he did point out (four times) that we all have the right to do it.

    Tweety mentioned that the issue of secession was settled in 1861 but it went right over his head. Oh, this guy also says that OSHA needs to be abolished and everyone should be able to own machine guns, no background checks at all, but somehow felons will not own them. Yes, he said that. No joke.

    Someone needs to drop this guy and his followers off in Afghanistan, I hear the place is run exactly the way they like it.

    Oh, right… wrong religion. Maybe he’s so envious of the Muslims that he wants to turn our country into a Jeebus-fearing post-apocalyptic Mad Max world. A world where the biggest and baddest assholes run everything (into the ground) with an iron fist. A mirror of Afghanistan, ruled by well-armed insanely religious zealots who all fight to kiss the ass of their clan leaders, each trying to outdo the other in proving their loyalty and worthiness. Numerous clans, all at each other’s throats fighting to prove that they  are the true believers and everyone should follow them to the Promised Land (or else).

    These people think they’re patriots? They’re insane, absolutely and totally insane. You can’t reason with people like this because they are too busy dining on tire rims and anthrax.

  98. 98.

    Eric U.

    and I was just interpreting the chart. It’s nice that, on average, people aren’t losing their jobs, but we do have a constant flow of new job seekers. Thus, zero job loss means increasing unemployment. The fact that they are touting this chart and ignoring the brutal unemployment numbers is hopefully just marketing. Particularly since the administration started talking about cutting the deficit when we actually need more stimulus.

    And I’m anything but a supply sider. Marginal tax rates are far too low. I am of the opinion that increasing marginal tax rates will help our economy as much as any other act over the long term. The Laffer curve has an inflection point, it’s not monotonic like the Republicans think.

  99. 99.

    inkadu

    @J. Michael Neal: “Drug companies” proper are mostly about development and production of still-under-patent medicine. Every country seems to have its own drug manufacturers… so, again, local prices for drugs shouldn’t see much change. Only drug development could theoretically be effected (and that could be compensated for (as it is already) with government research grants).

    I think Megan McArdle has an article on just this subject that may appeal to you.

    @dww44: That teaparty article is quite terrifying. I’m depressed that it is Obama that seems to have excited American populism, and not George Bush. I wonder how they compare to Democracy for America? So far they are splintered — they have no real agenda and no real candidates… so we can cross our fingers, but, really… forecasts for our national experiment in democracy look grim. Crushing recession triggered by lack of regulation, for-profit health care bankrupting people or letting them die, and concentration of wealth continuing on the top of the income ladder, and the populist backlash is towards less government control? FMC(ountry)

  100. 100.

    J. Michael Neal

    @inkadu:

    “Drug companies” proper are mostly about development and production of still-under-patent medicine. Every country seems to have its own drug manufacturers… so, again, local prices for drugs shouldn’t see much change.

    Why not? Just because a drug is manufactured in, say, Switzerland doesn’t mean that it isn’t subject to the same pricing conditions as one made in the US. Both drug companies have pricing power in the US, and neither of them have it in Switzerland. They both have to make up R&D costs somewhere.

    Only drug development could theoretically be effected (and that could be compensated for (as it is already) with government research grants).

    Sure, this could be what happens, but that’s going to take some major changes in government funding. I’m all in favor of it, but what makes you think that that’s so likely to happen?

  102. 102.

    inkadu

    @J. Michael Neal: You’re saying that the United States entry into a global drug market would raise drug prices all around the world. I’m saying that drugs are cheap to produce, like TicTacs, and so won’t raise the price. So, if we take manufacturing out of it, we’re left with development.

    Development is usually paid for by the short-term sale of the drug while its under patent… if the company doesn’t think a drug will make money, they’re not going to waste time developing it. Whatever effect this has on the market will loop back into development. No money, no development. Nobody is is going to raise the price of a generic drug.

    As for the money potentially lost to innovation, there’s this article critiquing Ms. McArdle making your points.

  104. 104.

    gwangung

    @inkadu: Sorry, but you’re not making a whole lot of sense to me.

    Development is funded by sales when drug is under patent, yes. And JMN’s point is that they’re going to raise the price around the world of that drug while under patent protection when the US enters the negotiated drug market. Nobody’s talking about prices when the drug leaves patent protection and nothing you’ve talked about prevents or would even work against price increases world wide.

  106. 106.

    mclaren

    Please! Don’t be so shrill.

    Everyone knows Rev. Jim Jones and Pol Pot and the leader of the Heavens Gate cult were good people who made some unfortunate choices…just like President McCain et al.

  107. 107.

    Cain

    @slag: <blockquoteAhhh…optimism…I remember it well.

    I got nothing else to do but do an optimism swarm or maybe I can just swarm. heh.

    cain

  111. 111.

    Mike G

    I had no idea Glenn Beck was even shown in Britain. He’s pretty insane even by American cable news standards.

    They probably watch it for the train-wreck performance value. I imagine there’s very few in the UK who take political guidance from it, due to its jingocentrism as well as general batshittiness.

    When I lived in Australia they would broadcast the NBC Today show at midnight, and my buddies and I would watch it after a night at the pub just to laugh at Bryant Gumbel and Willard Scott.

  113. 113.

    Yutsano

    @MikeJ: It was more a protest against the institution rather than specific people. I agree it’s a good thing no one died, but it’s definitely an attention getter.

  116. 116.

    freelancer

    @Yutsano:

    I’m guessing that the Greek version of the teabagger sect will start postulating that the people responsible for the bombing are the actual authors of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Last Temptation of Christ.

  117. 117.

    arguingwithsignposts

    FSM, evan bayh is a WATB. Tweety even more so. “the Katrina van den heuvel’s on the left.” FMN! I need some women speed skaters!

    ETA: that asshat Breaux sucks too. I’m sure morning ho will be wonderful this morning!

  118. 118.

    bob h

    I think in the case of the “good” Tauzin, he is going home because he was kicked out of his cushy job.

  119. 119.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @arguingwithsignposts: O/T, glad to see you this morning. Maybe I’ve just missed the right threads, but I haven’t seen Smudge for a while and was wondering if you could oblige with a photo or two.

    Yawn. Must get up and dressed — long day with lots of VIPs and visiting firemen that begins with a 7:30 breakfast meeting and goes through until about 10:00 tonight.

    And I just cleared my throat in an experimental early-morning way and I seem to have laryngitis!! Oh joy!

  120. 120.

    inkadu

    @gwangung: I was wondering how long I would be allowed to dribble oatmeal on my cardigan.

    How big is the negotiated drug market, and whom does it include? Because I don’t want to get my drugs from Botswana. I want to get them from developed countries. And most developed countries control their drug prices, so importation to the United States will not effect their local prices.

    The drug companies here in the United States charge as much as the market will bear. TWhy would they charge less?

  121. 121.

    harlana peppper

    $400 prescription yesterday and this is not the exception to the rule, this is just for one Rx, I have 5 that must be filled every month

    getting sneaky, asked the doc, would you please write for 2mg, as price for 2 is about the same as for .50 mg, i am quartering these babies (and the damned things are marquis shaped, wouldn’t you know)

    I very much appreciate Dorgan for trying on reimportation, my theory is he is just plain fed up and disgusted with lobbyists driving the train

  124. 124.

    bemused

    So many spouses of legislators have high salary positions in banking, Wall Street, pharma, insurance companies, lobbhying, etc. Do spouses who don’t have jobs that raise obvious questions of conflict of interest for the legislator even exist?

  125. 125.

    demo woman

    Pearlstein has an online chat at 11am and you can submit questions now. There is so much wrong about his column but he is right that the American people just want results.
    I’m not sure what he expects the President to do. Does he want him to land on an aircraft carrier with a cod piece? Does he want him to tell the country they will all die if they don’t listen to him? Does he want him to start a war? To bring up Washington and Lincoln is not relative to our country today. Life would be easier if the south were allowed to succeed.
    The President does have an opportunity to show some leadership during the Health Care Summit but Reid has to step in and pass the bill through reconciliation.

  126. 126.

    kay

    @demo woman:

    It’s an astonishingly tall order, isn’t it?

    Congress sucks, and is full of venal and cynical losers, Americans have no clue about anything, and it is all up to one man, Obama, relying only on the “content of his character” to fix this problem?

    “Obama! Save us from ourselves!” That’s a little bit of a problem, in a country that runs around touting democracy and self-governance.

    You’ll notice he left the media out, too, on the list of problems.

    Glaring omission, that.

  127. 127.

    Michael

    But hey, on a fun note, the Mt. Vernon Declaration (a renewed Contract on America) is being signed today by a list of conservatard luminaries.

    Sadly, there probably won’t be an Inglourious Basterds ending to the meeting.

  128. 128.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @Michael:

    Kos is in full ‘I luv Jane!’ mode so maybe the rest of the FP gang is going gonzo along with him. Thars money in them thar rubes and someone needs to milk them of it! Page clicks! We need page clicks!

    When the other sides ideas look good to you I think you owe it to yourself to closely examine exactly which side you are really on. When you are willing to embrace the detestable shit that you once railed against, you have become that shit.

    You are no better than they are. There is no justification for it, none.

  129. 129.

    demo woman

    @kay: I submitted a question. It was not an easy task because what I wanted to say would not have been printed.

  131. 131.

    Little Dreamer

    @J. Michael Neal:

    Why don’t you just use your hand, a little bit of lube, some imagination and get it over with? I don’t need to hear about your difficulty achieving sexual satisfaction.

  132. 132.

    debit

    @Michael: No payroll taxes for two years? Is he talking withholding only, or medicare and social security too? Aside from the obvious (how will the country run without collecting money) my next question would be: who is going to explain to my office’s dumbass clients that they won’t get a tax refund if they didn’t have anything withheld?

  133. 133.

    Nick

    @Eric U.:

    a graph where everyone has lost their job at the end looks the same as that one.

    math is important. In January, 2009, we lost about 2.1million jobs total, and a net loss of about 589,000, which means 1.6 million people actually got jobs.

    Last month, we lost 20,000 jobs, but about 2 million people actually lost their jobs, meaning 1.98 million got jobs.

    That means not only have job cuts decreased, but almost 300,000 more people are getting jobs now than they were a year ago.

    Even at the very best economic conditions, more than a million people lose their jobs per month.

  134. 134.

    kay

    @demo woman:

    Why won’t reporters admit they were wrong about John McCain?
    It’s silly to say “he’s changed”.
    He’s in his 70’s. He had this sterling character until 2008? That isn’t how human beings work.
    I’ve been only a casual observer, and he’s always been a bitter and vindictive pain in the ass with nothing positive to contribute.
    He didn’t change. They got duped.

  135. 135.

    Michael

    No payroll taxes for two years? Is he talking withholding only, or medicare and social security too? Aside from the obvious (how will the country run without collecting money) my next question would be: who is going to explain to my office’s dumbass clients that they won’t get a tax refund if they didn’t have anything withheld?

    We’ll all be starving and unemployed and running from Libertarian rape gangs and torch wielding Christianist mobs, but there won’t be any more rich New York Jewish Wall Streeters, so its all a big Conservative win and good news for Sarah Palin.

  136. 136.

    gwangung

    @inkadu: What? You’re still not making sense. Corporation negotiates with each country separately, yes, but manufactures locally–costs are spread out world wide. How could it NOT be????

  137. 137.

    bayville

    This sentence is much more telling than Pearlstein means it to be.

    Disagree. Pearlstein won a Pullitzer for semi-predicting the financial collapse but he’s been (much) more wrong than right since. He was one of the major schills for the Paulson/Bernancke/Goldman/AIG bailout and generally takes hacks like Bayh/Tauzin/Bernancke at their word.

    Pearlstein is as Village as they come, he just knows more about the economy than anyone of the Beltway pundits. Frankly, since 99-percent of the Big Money D.C. journalists are completely ignorant about this topic – along with an overwhelming majority of our elected Representatives – that’s not much of an accomplishment.

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