I wonder if we could put 45,000 protestors in zombie masks on the Washington Mall? And if we did, would any of the Media Village Idiots bother to cover it?
I have an uncle who is currently in the hospital. His wife just had to pay 2400 up front for a blood thinner medication. Without the medication, he has a very slim chance of recovery due to complications related to blood clots. They both have health insurance. This wasn’t covered. They used an emergency credit card that is going to charge them 20+ percent interest. She may lose her medical benefits, which are paying for most of this hospital visit, because she is unable to go in to work and has used up all her medical and family leave. Even with the benefits, they are looking at thousands of dollars of debt from the hospitals. I’m worried about his condition more, but it stays in the back of my mind that if they were up here where I am, they wouldn’t be worrying about whether or not they will be able to afford the bills when they get home. They would just be able to focus on his well-being.
So, please, someone tell me again why Americans can’t get healthcare reform. “Because John McCain is pissed he’s not president” does not count as a good enough reason, IMO.
So… remember a month ago, when all the blogs and everyone else were buzzing about how the New York Times was working on some earth-shattering article that was supposed to destroy NY-GOV Paterson’s career, and then they delayed it and delayed it, and ultimately published some article about one of Paterson’s aides being kind of mean and everyone was like “wtf, this is not bad at all”?
Well, did anyone see this? This is apparently the article they were writing at the time, and the puff piece about the aide was clearly something like a bowdlerized early version. It’s… sort of horrifying.
Last fall, a woman went to court in the Bronx to testify that she had been violently assaulted by a top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson, and to seek a protective order against the man… In the ensuing months, she returned to court twice to press her case, complaining that the State Police had been harassing her to drop it. The State Police, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, confirmed that the woman was visited by a member of the governor’s personal security detail… Then, just before she was due to return to court to seek a final protective order, the woman got a phone call from the governor, according to her lawyer. She failed to appear for her next hearing on Feb. 8, and as a result her case was dismissed… Through a spokesman, Mr. Paterson said the call actually took place the day before the scheduled court hearing and maintained that the woman had initiated it…
Goes downhill from there. Apparently already the Governor’s office has asked the state atty general’s office to open an investigation, the aide in question has been suspended, and the state deputy secretary for public safety has resigned.
6.
Restrung
“Because John McCain is pissed he’s not president”
noice.
7.
Martin
Sully suicide watch! The Atlantic has their web spit-and-polish up and Sully lost his green.
8.
jenniebee
@YellowJournalism: for these guys it isn’t personal and it isn’t because they’re stupid. It’s because they believe in a beautiful economic theory more than they believe in the reality they’re beautifully insulated from.
Gosh, I am so sorry to hear that. I know it is so tough watching loved ones battle against such odds.
Ya know, it really isn’t about McCain – though he is a fuckwad. It is about 1) A critical mass of American’s well off just do not give a shit. They are not poor, they are not in trouble, and they are not interested. 2) A critical mass (hell, any mass) of America’s poor/near poor/those in need are not willing to hit the streets and make some noise in defense of their needs.
McCain, Alexander, Thune, or Lincoln are tools. They are weather vanes. Money talks, but so to numbers of active voters, aka noise.
So tired of this claim. Americans who care have hit the street, hell, way more Americans than have ever gone to one of the corporate sponsored Tea Party rallies have waited overnight for the “mobile free clinic” things that were supposed to be for third world nations.
The problem isn’t flooding the streets with the limited time and energy and well, lack of health care if the cops get violent they have. It’s getting the media to give a shit when they do.
There recently was a march for health care in New York that drew more people than the National Tea Party Convention, not a single national news camera recorded it and it barely made the lower pages of the local sections. There have been any number of die-ins, marches, and one or two pieces of performance art that has woken the media briefly from their comas to make a small notice in the “isn’t that cute” file.
It isn’t getting them out into the streets that’s the problem, it’s getting anyone to notice that they’re out into the streets and that’s been a problem for a very long time for progressive causes.
Now if you want to argue that progressives in general are not blowing up nearly enough corporate headquarters and otherwise putting the direct fear of 60s era riots into the comfortable political class, that’s a separate issue entirely and one worth discussing about the role of violence being positive or negative for a movement, but on the issue of pouring into the streets, we’ve been doing it.
12.
JGabriel
Anne Laurie @ Top:
I wonder if we could put 45,000 protestors in zombie masks on the Washington Mall? And if we did, would any of the Media Village Idiots bother to cover it?
They covered the Tea Parties.
.
13.
Martin
Anyone who hasn’t watched the summit, the White House website has it in 1080i HD .mp4 format that you can download. Nice enough quality you can read everyone’s name plates.
The alarming implication of posts 11 and 12, if taken together, is that the only way to get the media to cover something is if it’s bugfuck bizarre
16.
wasabi gasp
Nobody consulted me because, in the late 18th century, I was busy smoking crack. So, I think we should do away with this country and then start from scratch.
17.
TuiMel
Chuck Todd said that the Republicans came to the summit “10 times more prepared than the Democrats…” I just cannot agree with that assessment – even compensating for my own liberal bias. Chuck is such a schmuck.
18.
JGabriel
Schmuck Todd?
Not bad.
.
19.
JGabriel
Crooks & Liars has a photo, post-hockey, of a Canadian holding a sign that says:
zombies, as everyone knows, are unserious. Clearly the zombies bear the moral responsibility for their deaths and subsequent conversion. If they had money they could have paid xe to protect them from being turned into zombies. Besides, none of those zombies look white to me. Any protest by those not white isnt news.
Sure they’d cover it. They’d say the silly zombie masks show that people aren’t really SERIOUS about health care reform and then they’d ask President McCain what he thinks of the march.
Heck, it’s visual enough that It’ll probably get press coverage. Especially if they top 50k attendance.
24.
Josh Huaco
If it was sponsored by MoveOn they would be virtual zombies.
25.
smiley
Guess who’s going to ne on Meet the Press on Sunday. Yup, John McCain. Unbelievable but typical. I’ll bet Gregory got his bookers on it as soon as the Obama/McCain exchange ended.
26.
bob h
45,000 dead seems like a reasonable price so that Republican ideology may live.
They used an emergency credit card that is going to charge them 20+ percent interest.
There are millions of stories like yours. No one was interested in hearing them told, apparently.
We’ll never know, because there was no “health care” covered in the health care debate. There were no sick people shown in this debate. Instead we heard from hale and hearty tea partiers who are on Medicare, and want the government out of health care.
I’m still flabbergasted by it. We complain here that media need a compelling hook, because they’re bored and cranky when confronted with complex legislation and issues.
In this instance, there was one, and it’s all around them. There are millions of people with stories. There is an actual health care system: the failure of it isn’t a theory. It’s happening. No one covered it. There were thousands of people lining up for basic medical care at free clinics. That wasn’t covered. Instead they spent days on tea baggers.
This had to be an editorial decision. It was deliberate.
This had to be an editorial decision. It was deliberate.
Absolutely. I remember when journalists would crawl all over themselves for such tear jerking stories as doomed children.
Now that they are common… perhaps no one else finds them compelling.
29.
John Quixote
This had to be an editorial decision. It was deliberate.
Of course it was. Which is going to get you more eyeballs? Stories about how the insurance industry fucks people over constantly, or screaming assholes packing heat? The demographics of the baggers match up very closely with that of the MSM. Older, white, upper-class and male. They give the baggers all the time that they want because they ARE the teabaggers. The MSM is populated by rich upper class males who don’t want to give back the tax cuts that Daddy Dubya gave them, are scared to death of terrorists (real or imagined), and are really pissed off over the number of women and minorities that are now in the workplace and in the government, like Bobo Brooks. Besides, Kicking The N****r POTUS, is the thing to do right now. There is a shit-ton of money in that. Or is it coincidence that FOX News is the highest rated channel?
30.
SGEW
Speaker: What do we want?
Crowd: Brains!
Speaker: When do we want it?
Crowd: BRAINS!
[an old joke at this point]
31.
JGabriel
FYI: From relatively meager beginnings, the phrase “skull fuck a kitten” now generates a massive 67,600 hits on Google. John Cole has birth a neologism.
Two talented politicians have tried to get health care reform past the media since 1994. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
We can go on and on about tactical mistakes they made, and the 1994 effort has been endlessly debated.
Obama tried a completely different approach, and now we’re all gaming out how his approach wasn’t quite right either.
But what everyone remembers about 1994, and will remember about this effort is the direct role media played in promoting the opposition. WTF? When did that become acceptable?
We all remember the parade of liars who were given endless air time in 1994, and now we will all remember the tea partiers. How did “death panels” enter the vernacular? They put it there.
I don’t know that they will allow health care reform. I’ve now watched two very talented politicians try to get facts past this “greatest health care system in the world” wall of bullshit they’re selling, and fail. I suppose I can hope the next President can tweak the reform campaign to engage and delight media, but I don’t know. Not quite Bill Clinton’s aggressiveness but a little more aggressive than Barack Obama’s? I don’t know that it can be done. We might need their permission. They’re probably going to have to drop their opposition to reform, because we don’t have any more talented politicians than Obama and Clinton, and we’re not likely to get one.
Another thing working against the health care debate is simply this: the cosmos-wide capacity in the human brain for denial.
I had a group conversation the other day, talking about health care, which focused on getting it. But when I pointed out that even when we have it, it’s no guarantee that it will pay for anything… the conversation veered away from that fact after an uncomfortable silence.
Like finance did. Then we need a magical politician with just the right strategy and tactics, but he or she has to be quick about it, like with the finance implosion, before media has a chance to rally opposition to reform.
Had a conversation last night with a middle-class gentleman who is well compensated, reasonably intelligent and fairly affable. His political sense was “a pox on both their houses,” because he thought Pelosi was too far to the left.
I was not to kind in my response. “Where is the left’s version of ‘handicapped babies are God’s judgment on women who have abortions?'” I asked.
He had no good response, but he maintained his viewpoint.
39.
Morbo
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko: More specifically, the zombies wouldn’t be loud and angry enough. They would also not have homemade signs rife with misspellings.
This had to be an editorial decision. It was deliberate.
Of course it’s deliberate. I was a producer for ABC for six years, I know what goes on. They take their direction from Disney.
43.
The Steel General
I regret that Obama didn’t ask Cantor to drop out the Federal health care program if he thought it was so bad. THAT would have made a good TV moment.
My dream rebuke to Boehners assertion that malpractice suites are the main costdriver to health care costs would have been:
“Why, that’s almost as dumb as saying: CO2 is not a problem, because it doesn’t cause cancer….”
I regret that Obama stuttered and uuuh’d so much. That didn’t help at all. I cringed a lot during that summit.
He was on the defensive a lot and Pelosi was a tat too aggressive, she will be made fun of by FoKKKs. Perhaps that’s a good thing, a badge of honor.
We need a little less thoughtfulness from Obama and little more sharp soundbites, preferably without all the uuhs.
Civility is nice. When Repukes lie like that, sarcasm is totally allowed though. I missed that.
Zombie march: Good Idea!
Also, what I really hate is all these embarrassed repubs who now claim to be Independent or Libertarian and say we don’t like either party. Cowards.
And it’s really sad that nobody covers Health Care marches if they are bigger than the Teaparties, I think MSNBC dropped the ball on that one? Or was forced to drop it?
However, try to put it up on Youtube! They’re still relatively free from censorship …. :)
44.
former_friend
@mcc: “The alarming implication of posts 11 and 12, if taken together, is that the only way to get the media to cover something is if it’s bugfuck bizarre”
Actually a more alarming implication is that our media is in the control of Wealth carrying on an undeclared war against Middle Class.
Absolutely. I remember when journalists would crawl all over themselves for such tear jerking stories as doomed children.
Now that they are common… perhaps no one else finds them compelling.
Remember that the next time the MSM decides to make the world stop turning because an amber alert was issued Princess Tiffany Marie from Holyandperfect, Texas. Of course assuming Princess Tiffany Marie is rich and white.
Chuck Todd said that the Republicans came to the summit “10 times more prepared than the Democrats…
Yes, according to the Drudgebots the GOP won the summit because they came with fully rehearsed talking points to repeat nonstop, got to sit at a square table in order to appear to be the president’s equals and accused him of being an uppity negro whenever he interrupted their steady stream of lies to tell them they were full of shit.
CNN either talked over or cut to commercial whenever a Democrat had a chance to speak.
MSNBC thought an Olympic hockey game between Sweden and Norway – two countries with universal healthcare by the way – was more important than bringing health care affordability to 30 million Americans.
And of course, all of this is great news for John McCain.
49.
satby
@Nick: I think they used to be less common and therefore more compelling because a higher percentage of working Americans had health insurance through their employers, and it covered more. Now, with the implosion of the economy, and the near destruction of the unions, most of the working class either has no health insurance, or it covers very little. And the upper classes have theirs, thanks very much, and see no reason why undeserving (insert minority of choice) people should be covered if it means the well off fucks have to pay even 1% higher in taxes.
And because they are special people who DESERVE their good fortune, they can’t imagine that someday they could be in the same boat as the uninsured are now.
Of course it’s deliberate. I was a producer for ABC for six years, I know what goes on. They take their direction from Disney.
I can’t watch anymore. I think it’s mind-boggling. I can’t watch and listen to them sitting there and saying, essentially, “the President didn’t make this interesting enough”.
For them.
I’ve now heard two cable news personalities look at a poll that shows no one knows what’s in the health care bill, and announce that means the White House hasn’t “sold” it effectively. To whom is the White House selling it? To media?
The public is completely ill-informed and that is not the fault of the people paid to inform, but is instead the fault of the White House, who couldn’t make a compelling case to media. I heard analysis yesterday where it was casually stated that the forum was for the benefit of media. To turn media from opposition to health care reform to support? We’re now admitting they have to be “sold”?
Where are viewers and readers in this closed circle between the White House and media?
“Ax”-gate: Rush Limbaugh hears a slip of the tongue by Obama and decides he must be sending a secret signal to Jesse Jackson by turning on the Negro dialect for 100 milliseconds. Ann Althouse leaps to Limbaugh’s defense when Hendrik Hertzberg points out the idiocy.
I wonder if we could put 45,000 protestors in zombie masks on the Washington Mall? And if we did, would any of the Media Village Idiots bother to cover it?
No. The smart idea is to have 45,000 protesters disguised as Tea Party protesters and wait to reveal the “Universal Heath Care Now” banners just as Sean Hannity is praising them as American heros.
53.
dcdl
Affordable healthcare you would think would be a ‘no-brainer’.
Of course that could be the problem.
Seriously. I honestly believe that would be the only thing that would work.
I, too, am sick of the meme (here; I don’t expect the msm to ever even discuss anyone who’s for HCR) that no one has been out there marching for HCR. I, personally, have been to two well-attended events in support of HCR. The smaller one outside of Jason Altmire’s office and the other larger one in Pittsburgh. Both got about a 10 second blurb on local tv, no mention at all in local papers, and a big nada by any sort of national media. I have heard of marches all over the country through new media. But the msm could not care less. Hell, most of the msm didn’t think the health care clinics lasting days and providing services to thousands and thousands of working people all over America were stories important enough to cover.
Speaking of President McCain, I’m surprised to find he’s running anti-birther ads and attacking Orly Taitz. Is that really going to help him win the Republican primary? It’s just going to spark the Minutemen to discover that McCain wasn’t born in the United States.
I think you might’ve been joking, but 45,000 people in zombie costumes on the national mall would be an awesome protest.
In poor taste, and AWESOME. seems like it would be fun to organize and attend. and the clips would be terrific. I’m picturing the signs already…
59.
Fleas correct the era
[I]f we did, would any of the Media Village Idiots bother to cover it?
On past performance, I’d say that if they can’t manage not to notice in the first place, they’ll do whatever they can to forget about it as soon as possible thereafter.
So, please, someone tell me again why Americans can’t get healthcare reform.
Because it’s not Freedom.
Freedom = blowing up other people’s shit, hopefully killing as many of the uppity ones as possible.
Seriously. Trillions for guns. Not a penny for butter.
61.
AkaDad
At least we have HealthCare!
Can we invade Canada now?
62.
sbjules
Words that make me change the channel despite my love of Robin Roberts : “We’ll be speaking to Senator John McCain.” On Good Morning America.
Why oh why.
63.
JohnR
A couple thoughts – yes, it seems true that the “Traditional Media” view themselves as critical gatekeepers for information. If it’s not important enought to be reported, it never happened. This isn’t news (get it? ha!); it’s been like this for a longish time now. It’s interesting that Journalism in the traditional sense is now practiced primarily by a few magazines, some webloggers and some local newspapers.
Also, I don’t understand why people don’t pound on the obvious point that this weird neo-Randian “Free Market” Capitalism is fundamentally the same as Communism in that it requires human beings to be angels for it to work. That’s the hallmark of every good Utopian philosophy, of course, but it needs to be repeated endlessly, just like the obvious notion that all this stuff going on now comes from the vicious GOP hatred of the New Deal, which has become such an unquestioned article of faith that people treat every facet of Norquistian-style “bankrupt the government to kill the social programs” maneuvering as novel, but legitimate, political and economic maneuvering. *whew*. It’s all about that class traitor FDR. He forced the US to fight “our natural allies” in Europe simply because he was a Jew, right? This is simply understood, but never stated, and it drives the GOP and the Right to this day. The present leaders absorbed this sort of filth with their mother’s artificial baby-formula, and it has become unquestioned, knee-jerk orthodoxy. It’s not just about hatred of blacks – remember, these guys come from a line that hated Italians, Irish, Slavs, Arabs, Levantines and all Asians with the same degree of passion. It’s all about money. “We”, the morally upright, God-fearing Republicans have it, due to our morally-upright God-fearing-ness, and “they”, the depraved, monstrous “others”, want to drag us down into their muck and take it away, out of their obvious evil moral degeneracy (as demonstrated by their lack of money), rather than pulling themselves up by their bootstraps as we all had to do.
Wow – it’s true; you get on a good rant, and the words just flow. Good thing I don’t need to breath to type..
64.
TomG
Just noticed that my governor (NY, Patterson) has decided to not run for re-election. I know very little about Andrew Cuomo but I doubt things will improve in NY in 2012 no matter who wins.
They would probably send Luke Russert to cover it, and I would die a little inside.
67.
WaterGirl
I just got an email message asking me to drop off a pair of shoes at my representative’s office today – making sure his office knows that this pair of shoes represents one of the 45,000 people who died this year because they didn’t have health insurance.
I actually think that’s a great idea. It really brought the point home for me, reminding me of noticing my mom’s purse and shoes in the days after she died – things that were very personal that suddenly have no purpose.
And maybe, just maybe, it would get the attention of the media.
68.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@AkaDad: Why aren’t we trying to impose our health care on the rest of the world like we have tried to impose Democracy? Let’s invade Canada, install our health care, and watch the rest of the countries convert to our wonderful system.
If they did cover it, they’d probably note how only ‘hundreds of performance artists in masks’ came, and how their message was diffuse and ineffective. Whereas the teabagger counter protest of 200 was ‘at least in the thousands’ and effective in its singlemindedness, even as they railed against The Obammunist Islamarxist radical Black Christian gutless wimp dictator.
“Let’s invade Canada, install our health care, and watch the rest of the countries convert to our wonderful system.”
Why, of course! I’m sure the Canadians will be grateful for being liberated from the clutches of the evil, sadistic tyrant Saddam Harper. They will greet our soldiers with candy and flowers. Just like the Iraquis.
And we can make Mark Steyn the Minister of Information for the interim regime.
Chuck Todd said that the Republicans came to the summit “10 times more prepared than the Democrats…” I just cannot agree with that assessment – even compensating for my own liberal bias. Chuck is such a schmuck.
I heard that and nearly threw my TV through the window. But on calmer reflection I realized that Toddler speak for “better prepared” translates into “armed with cheap talking points”, and by that metric he had a point.
Of course this doesn’t change that fact that the only useful public purpose Todd is serving is to act as a very small and temporary carbon sink.
75.
Phoebe
I would be there with bells on. Also zombie make up, rather than a mask. I’m a zombie every year for Halloween, because it’s so easy and fun, the make up.
But good lard, it would be so fun to stagger around with 45,000 people, bawling and howling for health care. You could be completely plastered and nobody would notice. Except now that I type this I see how fast it could turn into some horrible Burning Man thing.
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ, as a political commentator, Chuck Todd is a great delegate counter. I think he needs to go into cold storage until the next somewhat close presidential nomination contest.
I told you he has a drug problem. He freely admits he’s a drug user.
78.
Comrade Mary
Wow. No daylight threads yet today. I guess people are still tired out from yesterday’s marathon.
I’m crawling into bed shortly. I’ve been up since early Thursday morning running errands, then updating my portfolio for a prospective client. I think I hit my second wind around 6 AM, and have been holding out waiting for client email, Canada Post with some important snailmail, and Godot. I think. But after this cup of tea, it’s beddy-bye.
Just watched last night’s TDS – the part with John Oliver was classic. “What if the members of these two houses were complete f**kheads?”
FTW!
80.
Face
Todd is serving is to act as a very small and temporary carbon sink.
Have you seen the boiler on that chump? Nothing about Charles Todd says “very small”, at least not above the waist (waste?).
81.
srv
Snowpocolypse III, Escape from Big Trouble in Newark. Features Kurt Russell as a snowplow driver and a Triad stuck at Newark Airport battling TSA ninjas.
If I remember, there’s someone who posts who’s in the industry. Let me know if you’re interested in the outline.
srv, +2 (Vino Volo has leather chairs)
82.
Jon H
45,000 no-healthcare zombies outside the Today Show.
The moment I post there will be a new open thread, but anyway… a dose of cuteness and a dose of prettiness for you all.
(Links contain pictures of a dog, a handsome Portuguese boy and flowers.)
84.
Lisa
I am getting a tired of Obama banging on about bipartisanship. How he is not going to do ANYTHING until it is bipartisan. Everything he proposes is watered-down and meaningless, for the sake of bipartisanship (and of course, the bipartisanship never materializes). The opposition leads him down the primrose path, he and the congressional Dems gut their own proposals, the GOP votes against it….and then we are left with a piece of shit bill. Republicans win. Rinse, repeat.
Does he think that the Mystic Genie of Bipartisanship is going to appear in the mirror and grant him his heart’s desire at midnight on the full moon if he does this shit enough times?
85.
geg6
It’s possible that DougJ and John are completely snowed in with no electricity from the high winds (not sure Western NY is getting the same crap WVA is, but I know John’s part of the world has been getting just slammed since it’s just a bit south of me).
However, DougJ’s big NY governor story has finally broken and put an end to David Paterson’s bid for a full term.
I have to wonder what the hell Paterson was thinking when he so combatively insisted that he’d run regardless of whatever the NYT had on him. When the not-very-juicy story broke about his aide a couple of weeks ago, I guess he decided that was all they had. But I had a hard time believing that simply because the buzz had been so complete and so vicious. I knew something else had to be coming. You’d think a pol like Paterson or his entourage might have anticipated the same. He’s totally screwed now. Cuomo, who was going to win the primary and probably the general anyway, should get this in a cakewalk at this point.
Now that they are common… perhaps no one else finds them compelling.
I tend to think that is the answer.
Remember how America was shocked by the photos of police dogs and water hoses being turned on civil rights protesters in the 60’s?
Do you think that would get more then a yawn today even if blasted at the top of the CBS nightly news?
We have become accustomed to living with brutality, and people dying from lack of health care does not animate our “amused to death” society of American Idol fans…
Well, I think it was pretty clear as of the end of the HCR summit yesterday that he has lost much of his enthusiasm for any sort of bipartisanship. In fact, crystal clear. And backed that up today by telling Congress to go right on ahead with reconciliation, with his blessings.
@geg6: Hopefully everyone is okay at the Cole household.
92.
TuiMel
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I could not agree more. McCain whined and pouted about “no change in Washington” while he and the other leaders of the party treated the meeting as a political stunt. And they inflicted Marsha Blackburn on the nation once again. That alone should finish off any rumor of their so-called credibility.
@mcc: Paterson just announced this morning that he will not run for re-election this fall.
@TuiMel: I saw that too. Just ridiculous. As others have said, lining up talking points and spouting misinformation means you’re better prepared? Even after Obama schools you like he did Alexander and Barasso, or calls you out on your political games, like he did Boehner and Cantor, and they just sit there with no cogent response? Yeah, right.
95.
Lisa
Nick: No. I don’t even read that annoying blog. I am just frustrated. I adore Obama and want him to succeed. But I definitely want him to be meaner and start being more of a badass. He is a thousand times smarter than we deserve, but being bright, eloquent, and RIGHT is not working, because the opposition, the press, and most of the electorate are all stupid twats (and we celebrate and fetishize being stupid and under-informed as if it is wonderful and Uniquely American). Stupid people respond to force and strength. So bring it.
But I definitely want him to be meaner and start being more of a badass. He is a thousand times smarter than we deserve, but being bright, eloquent, and RIGHT is not working, because the opposition, the press, and most of the electorate are all stupid twats (and we celebrate and fetishize being stupid and under-informed as if it is wonderful and Uniquely American). Stupid people respond to force and strength. So bring it.
What could possibly go wrong? I’m sure being “a badass” will get the media to respect him, and it will certainly make it more likely to pass bills. Nope, we won’t see an infinate number of pundits and columnists slamming him for being “too partisan”, “too abrasive” and “not who we elected.” Nope, that won’t happen at all.
97.
Lisa
geg6: I saw that after my first post!! Squee! (Yes, I am an underinformed and stupid commenter.)
Goodie. After all of the hand-extending exercises he has publicly displayed, I hope he brings the down the hammer hard.
What could possibly go wrong? I’m sure being “a badass” will get the media to respect him, and it will certainly make it more likely to pass bills. Nope, we won’t see an infinate number of pundits and columnists slamming him for being “too partisan”, “too abrasive” and “not who we elected.” Nope, that won’t happen at all.
It might, however, get his base a little more energized and willing to start fighting for him again.
Nobody likes leaders who look like suppine jellyfish. Hello, Reid??
101.
Lisa
Celticdragonchick,
Word.
Hopefully, as geg6 pointed out, he is done being the conciliator and has decided to get out the bare knuckles. I would like to think there is a method to his (spineless looking) madness. If we come out of this with a solid bill with a public option or a medicare buy-in, he will look like a genius (and a total badass). If not, then we will be congratulating whatever Wingnut Du Jour they happen to have glommed onto in the next couple of years for their landslide presidential election victory in 2012.
And we lazy socialists will be working three jobs a piece to pay into the health savings account that will hopefully pay something towards our 10k deductibles on our catastrophic health insurance policies. Our freedom and way of life will be safe from soshulist healthcare coverage. Yay! We’re number one, fuckers! USA! USA!
102.
Comrade Dread
Any necromancers out there willing to give this a shot?
103.
Mike Kay
I’m starting to get worried. Maybe the hippies got John or tampered with the servers.
It might, however, get his base a little more energized and willing to start fighting for him again.
So the base needs to hear to hear the President say mean things to Republicans to get them energized for healthcare? Pathetic. One would think getting a bill would be enough to energize them.
105.
Lisa
Nick,
The answer is yes.
Yes!!
We are in insecure times. It is great to have a leader is cerebral. Those of us who listen to All Things Considered on the way home and read the Sunday Times from cover to cover for pleasure appreciate knowing we elected a thinking man. However, the rest of us are idiots. Insecure, nervous idiots.
Clinton once said:
“When people are insecure, they’d rather have somebody who is strong and wrong than someone who’s weak and right.”
Imagine the potential for a strong and RIGHT president. The sky is the freaking limit for Obama if he stops fretting over bipartisanship.
Alex, I’ll take the category OH NOES, AN ANGREE BLACK MAN! for $500.
107.
Tonal Crow
Please call Congress and ask them to PTDB via reconciliation. If you want a public option, it’s do or die time for that, too. You’ll never get what you don’t request.
108.
Lisa
Well he is already angry, arrogant, and hates Teh Whitez.
Oh, and he is an IslamoSocialist Iranian mole sympathizer who puts an IslamObama logo on our bombs.
Exactly what “reputation” would he be saving by being deferential to these motherfuckers again?
109.
Nick
@Lisa: What a fucking pathetic country we are. Pathetic.
110.
Nick
@Lisa: I’m talking about the media, not the Republicans…the media.
Alex, I’ll take the category OH NOES, AN ANGREE BLACK MAN! for $500.
I’ll go further;
“A President elected who promised to change the tone of Washington and work across party lines is ramming this agenda through without a well thought out debate with the other side. Here’s Gloria Borger to tell us what a disappointment this is!”
and don’t say people don’t care about bipartisanship;
Two-thirds of Americans think that the Republicans in Congress are not doing enough to cooperate with President Obama, according to a new national poll. But a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, released Wednesday, also indicates the public believes the Democrats should be the ones to take the first step toward bipartisan cooperation and they want the Democrats to give up more than the GOP to reach a consensus.
Yep, that’s America; “I know they’re being unreasonable, but capitulate to them anyway or we’ll put them in power”
112.
Lisa
Nick,
Our media is really pathetic. Really really really pathetic. It can’t die fast enough as far as I am concerned.
But I would have to say that your statement applies to we the people as well. We are so simple-minded that the crappy media we have is largely acceptable. The only criticism that the average Joe has of the media is that it is not engaged in inane babble that flatters their ideas or candidates. Little or no criticism that it is engaged in inane babble in the first place.
When the populace devolves, our media and elected officials can’t help but reflect it. If we stay on this path, we have no where to go but down. See: Sinclair Lewis, 1935.
113.
FlipYrWhig
I don’t think Obama cares about _actual_ bipartisanship. I think he cares about the _appearance_ of bipartisanship. And a huge part of the reason is that there are influential Democrats and influential media personalities who really do think that partisanship is very, very bad. Bipartisanship isn’t wooing Republicans, although if that happens he’ll embrace it. It’s wooing the right flank of the Democrats and the Broder-Brooks brigade by _appearing_ to woo Republicans. You kiss Olympia Snowe’s butt not because you like the taste, but because it impresses people like Evan Bayh.
Martin
The real question is if they could tell it apart from a teabagger event.
mclaren
“Internal documents show Anthem Blue Cross lied, manipulated data in an attempt to justify outrageous rate increase”
Source: Truthout
Restrung
I’ll go. I’m the one in the yellow shirt.
YellowJournalism
I have an uncle who is currently in the hospital. His wife just had to pay 2400 up front for a blood thinner medication. Without the medication, he has a very slim chance of recovery due to complications related to blood clots. They both have health insurance. This wasn’t covered. They used an emergency credit card that is going to charge them 20+ percent interest. She may lose her medical benefits, which are paying for most of this hospital visit, because she is unable to go in to work and has used up all her medical and family leave. Even with the benefits, they are looking at thousands of dollars of debt from the hospitals. I’m worried about his condition more, but it stays in the back of my mind that if they were up here where I am, they wouldn’t be worrying about whether or not they will be able to afford the bills when they get home. They would just be able to focus on his well-being.
So, please, someone tell me again why Americans can’t get healthcare reform. “Because John McCain is pissed he’s not president” does not count as a good enough reason, IMO.
mcc
So… remember a month ago, when all the blogs and everyone else were buzzing about how the New York Times was working on some earth-shattering article that was supposed to destroy NY-GOV Paterson’s career, and then they delayed it and delayed it, and ultimately published some article about one of Paterson’s aides being kind of mean and everyone was like “wtf, this is not bad at all”?
Well, did anyone see this? This is apparently the article they were writing at the time, and the puff piece about the aide was clearly something like a bowdlerized early version. It’s… sort of horrifying.
Goes downhill from there. Apparently already the Governor’s office has asked the state atty general’s office to open an investigation, the aide in question has been suspended, and the state deputy secretary for public safety has resigned.
Restrung
“Because John McCain is pissed he’s not president”
noice.
Martin
Sully suicide watch! The Atlantic has their web spit-and-polish up and Sully lost his green.
jenniebee
@YellowJournalism: for these guys it isn’t personal and it isn’t because they’re stupid. It’s because they believe in a beautiful economic theory more than they believe in the reality they’re beautifully insulated from.
I’m so sorry to hear about your uncle.
Keith G
@YellowJournalism:
Gosh, I am so sorry to hear that. I know it is so tough watching loved ones battle against such odds.
Ya know, it really isn’t about McCain – though he is a fuckwad. It is about 1) A critical mass of American’s well off just do not give a shit. They are not poor, they are not in trouble, and they are not interested. 2) A critical mass (hell, any mass) of America’s poor/near poor/those in need are not willing to hit the streets and make some noise in defense of their needs.
McCain, Alexander, Thune, or Lincoln are tools. They are weather vanes. Money talks, but so to numbers of active voters, aka noise.
Been said before, but our enemy is us.
freelancer
@Martin:
OMFG! What a bunch of anti anti-semites!
Cerberus
@Keith G:
Nngh.
So tired of this claim. Americans who care have hit the street, hell, way more Americans than have ever gone to one of the corporate sponsored Tea Party rallies have waited overnight for the “mobile free clinic” things that were supposed to be for third world nations.
The problem isn’t flooding the streets with the limited time and energy and well, lack of health care if the cops get violent they have. It’s getting the media to give a shit when they do.
There recently was a march for health care in New York that drew more people than the National Tea Party Convention, not a single national news camera recorded it and it barely made the lower pages of the local sections. There have been any number of die-ins, marches, and one or two pieces of performance art that has woken the media briefly from their comas to make a small notice in the “isn’t that cute” file.
It isn’t getting them out into the streets that’s the problem, it’s getting anyone to notice that they’re out into the streets and that’s been a problem for a very long time for progressive causes.
Now if you want to argue that progressives in general are not blowing up nearly enough corporate headquarters and otherwise putting the direct fear of 60s era riots into the comfortable political class, that’s a separate issue entirely and one worth discussing about the role of violence being positive or negative for a movement, but on the issue of pouring into the streets, we’ve been doing it.
JGabriel
Anne Laurie @ Top:
They covered the Tea Parties.
.
Martin
Anyone who hasn’t watched the summit, the White House website has it in 1080i HD .mp4 format that you can download. Nice enough quality you can read everyone’s name plates.
goatchowder
It’s been done, here in San Francisco:
http://voteforchicken.wordpress.com/2007/10/12/great-night/
There’s a tradition of it:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicken_John_at_Zombie_Mob.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_mob
mcc
The alarming implication of posts 11 and 12, if taken together, is that the only way to get the media to cover something is if it’s bugfuck bizarre
wasabi gasp
Nobody consulted me because, in the late 18th century, I was busy smoking crack. So, I think we should do away with this country and then start from scratch.
TuiMel
Chuck Todd said that the Republicans came to the summit “10 times more prepared than the Democrats…” I just cannot agree with that assessment – even compensating for my own liberal bias. Chuck is such a schmuck.
JGabriel
Schmuck Todd?
Not bad.
.
JGabriel
Crooks & Liars has a photo, post-hockey, of a Canadian holding a sign that says:
Harsh.
Admittedly, they have a point.
.
tgp
no.
zombies, as everyone knows, are unserious. Clearly the zombies bear the moral responsibility for their deaths and subsequent conversion. If they had money they could have paid xe to protect them from being turned into zombies. Besides, none of those zombies look white to me. Any protest by those not white isnt news.
Ogami Itto
@JGabriel: Canadians can be so cruel.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Sure they’d cover it. They’d say the silly zombie masks show that people aren’t really SERIOUS about health care reform and then they’d ask President McCain what he thinks of the march.
willf
If Zombies can legally march in Minnesota, they can march in Washington.
Or you know, shamble in Washington.
Heck, it’s visual enough that It’ll probably get press coverage. Especially if they top 50k attendance.
Josh Huaco
If it was sponsored by MoveOn they would be virtual zombies.
smiley
Guess who’s going to ne on Meet the Press on Sunday. Yup, John McCain. Unbelievable but typical. I’ll bet Gregory got his bookers on it as soon as the Obama/McCain exchange ended.
bob h
45,000 dead seems like a reasonable price so that Republican ideology may live.
kay
@YellowJournalism:
There are millions of stories like yours. No one was interested in hearing them told, apparently.
We’ll never know, because there was no “health care” covered in the health care debate. There were no sick people shown in this debate. Instead we heard from hale and hearty tea partiers who are on Medicare, and want the government out of health care.
I’m still flabbergasted by it. We complain here that media need a compelling hook, because they’re bored and cranky when confronted with complex legislation and issues.
In this instance, there was one, and it’s all around them. There are millions of people with stories. There is an actual health care system: the failure of it isn’t a theory. It’s happening. No one covered it. There were thousands of people lining up for basic medical care at free clinics. That wasn’t covered. Instead they spent days on tea baggers.
This had to be an editorial decision. It was deliberate.
WereBear
@kay: Yes, this:
Absolutely. I remember when journalists would crawl all over themselves for such tear jerking stories as doomed children.
Now that they are common… perhaps no one else finds them compelling.
John Quixote
Of course it was. Which is going to get you more eyeballs? Stories about how the insurance industry fucks people over constantly, or screaming assholes packing heat? The demographics of the baggers match up very closely with that of the MSM. Older, white, upper-class and male. They give the baggers all the time that they want because they ARE the teabaggers. The MSM is populated by rich upper class males who don’t want to give back the tax cuts that Daddy Dubya gave them, are scared to death of terrorists (real or imagined), and are really pissed off over the number of women and minorities that are now in the workplace and in the government, like Bobo Brooks. Besides, Kicking The N****r POTUS, is the thing to do right now. There is a shit-ton of money in that. Or is it coincidence that FOX News is the highest rated channel?
SGEW
Speaker: What do we want?
Crowd: Brains!
Speaker: When do we want it?
Crowd: BRAINS!
[an old joke at this point]
JGabriel
FYI: From relatively meager beginnings, the phrase “skull fuck a kitten” now generates a massive 67,600 hits on Google. John Cole has birth a neologism.
(No, I’m not especially bored. Why do you ask?)
.
kay
@WereBear:
Two talented politicians have tried to get health care reform past the media since 1994. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
We can go on and on about tactical mistakes they made, and the 1994 effort has been endlessly debated.
Obama tried a completely different approach, and now we’re all gaming out how his approach wasn’t quite right either.
But what everyone remembers about 1994, and will remember about this effort is the direct role media played in promoting the opposition. WTF? When did that become acceptable?
We all remember the parade of liars who were given endless air time in 1994, and now we will all remember the tea partiers. How did “death panels” enter the vernacular? They put it there.
I don’t know that they will allow health care reform. I’ve now watched two very talented politicians try to get facts past this “greatest health care system in the world” wall of bullshit they’re selling, and fail. I suppose I can hope the next President can tweak the reform campaign to engage and delight media, but I don’t know. Not quite Bill Clinton’s aggressiveness but a little more aggressive than Barack Obama’s? I don’t know that it can be done. We might need their permission. They’re probably going to have to drop their opposition to reform, because we don’t have any more talented politicians than Obama and Clinton, and we’re not likely to get one.
WereBear
Another thing working against the health care debate is simply this: the cosmos-wide capacity in the human brain for denial.
I had a group conversation the other day, talking about health care, which focused on getting it. But when I pointed out that even when we have it, it’s no guarantee that it will pay for anything… the conversation veered away from that fact after an uncomfortable silence.
Warren Terra
Is The 45,000 Zombie March the same as Lurch For The Cure?
eastriver
@SGEW:
I hadn’t heard it. Funny.
(Anne, the cartoon is humor. A nasty comment about the cartoon would count as snark. Like this comment. It’s snark. Not humor.)
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
No. SATSQ, & c.
kay
@WereBear:
It probably has to fail, in a spectacular way.
Like finance did. Then we need a magical politician with just the right strategy and tactics, but he or she has to be quick about it, like with the finance implosion, before media has a chance to rally opposition to reform.
arguingwithsignposts
Had a conversation last night with a middle-class gentleman who is well compensated, reasonably intelligent and fairly affable. His political sense was “a pox on both their houses,” because he thought Pelosi was too far to the left.
I was not to kind in my response. “Where is the left’s version of ‘handicapped babies are God’s judgment on women who have abortions?'” I asked.
He had no good response, but he maintained his viewpoint.
Morbo
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko: More specifically, the zombies wouldn’t be loud and angry enough. They would also not have homemade signs rife with misspellings.
Taibbi’s got some pretty thin skin. This says nothing about his work of course.
SGEW
@arguingwithsignposts:
“Dick Cheney is a war criminal.”
Mind you, it’s true. Which tells you something, doesn’t it?
Nick
Last Saturday we put 700 people on the Brooklyn Bridge and marched them to the front of Wellpoint’s New York headquarters.
…only one channel covered it and as a 30-second story at the bottom of the hour while throwing to commercial break.
Nick
@kay:
Of course it’s deliberate. I was a producer for ABC for six years, I know what goes on. They take their direction from Disney.
The Steel General
I regret that Obama didn’t ask Cantor to drop out the Federal health care program if he thought it was so bad. THAT would have made a good TV moment.
My dream rebuke to Boehners assertion that malpractice suites are the main costdriver to health care costs would have been:
“Why, that’s almost as dumb as saying: CO2 is not a problem, because it doesn’t cause cancer….”
I regret that Obama stuttered and uuuh’d so much. That didn’t help at all. I cringed a lot during that summit.
He was on the defensive a lot and Pelosi was a tat too aggressive, she will be made fun of by FoKKKs. Perhaps that’s a good thing, a badge of honor.
We need a little less thoughtfulness from Obama and little more sharp soundbites, preferably without all the uuhs.
Civility is nice. When Repukes lie like that, sarcasm is totally allowed though. I missed that.
Zombie march: Good Idea!
Also, what I really hate is all these embarrassed repubs who now claim to be Independent or Libertarian and say we don’t like either party. Cowards.
And it’s really sad that nobody covers Health Care marches if they are bigger than the Teaparties, I think MSNBC dropped the ball on that one? Or was forced to drop it?
However, try to put it up on Youtube! They’re still relatively free from censorship …. :)
former_friend
@mcc: “The alarming implication of posts 11 and 12, if taken together, is that the only way to get the media to cover something is if it’s bugfuck bizarre”
Actually a more alarming implication is that our media is in the control of Wealth carrying on an undeclared war against Middle Class.
Nick
@WereBear:
You mean something in America sucks!?!? But everything here in the bestest in the world! Stoopid ‘merka-hating liburl!
Nick
@WereBear:
Remember that the next time the MSM decides to make the world stop turning because an amber alert was issued Princess Tiffany Marie from Holyandperfect, Texas. Of course assuming Princess Tiffany Marie is rich and white.
The Steel General
@kay:
Kay, I agree. Big question is, where was Msnbc? Were they forced out of this? And can you film the next one and put it up on Youtube?
For that matter, why wasn’t there a protest organized outside the summit? Or was there one?
Malron
@TuiMel:
Yes, according to the Drudgebots the GOP won the summit because they came with fully rehearsed talking points to repeat nonstop, got to sit at a square table in order to appear to be the president’s equals and accused him of being an uppity negro whenever he interrupted their steady stream of lies to tell them they were full of shit.
CNN either talked over or cut to commercial whenever a Democrat had a chance to speak.
MSNBC thought an Olympic hockey game between Sweden and Norway – two countries with universal healthcare by the way – was more important than bringing health care affordability to 30 million Americans.
And of course, all of this is great news for John McCain.
satby
@Nick: I think they used to be less common and therefore more compelling because a higher percentage of working Americans had health insurance through their employers, and it covered more. Now, with the implosion of the economy, and the near destruction of the unions, most of the working class either has no health insurance, or it covers very little. And the upper classes have theirs, thanks very much, and see no reason why undeserving (insert minority of choice) people should be covered if it means the well off fucks have to pay even 1% higher in taxes.
And because they are special people who DESERVE their good fortune, they can’t imagine that someday they could be in the same boat as the uninsured are now.
Empathy fail, common good fail.
kay
@Nick:
I can’t watch anymore. I think it’s mind-boggling. I can’t watch and listen to them sitting there and saying, essentially, “the President didn’t make this interesting enough”.
For them.
I’ve now heard two cable news personalities look at a poll that shows no one knows what’s in the health care bill, and announce that means the White House hasn’t “sold” it effectively. To whom is the White House selling it? To media?
The public is completely ill-informed and that is not the fault of the people paid to inform, but is instead the fault of the White House, who couldn’t make a compelling case to media. I heard analysis yesterday where it was casually stated that the forum was for the benefit of media. To turn media from opposition to health care reform to support? We’re now admitting they have to be “sold”?
Where are viewers and readers in this closed circle between the White House and media?
KCinDC
“Ax”-gate: Rush Limbaugh hears a slip of the tongue by Obama and decides he must be sending a secret signal to Jesse Jackson by turning on the Negro dialect for 100 milliseconds. Ann Althouse leaps to Limbaugh’s defense when Hendrik Hertzberg points out the idiocy.
Jinchi
No. The smart idea is to have 45,000 protesters disguised as Tea Party protesters and wait to reveal the “Universal Heath Care Now” banners just as Sean Hannity is praising them as American heros.
dcdl
Affordable healthcare you would think would be a ‘no-brainer’.
Of course that could be the problem.
geg6
@Jinchi:
Seriously. I honestly believe that would be the only thing that would work.
I, too, am sick of the meme (here; I don’t expect the msm to ever even discuss anyone who’s for HCR) that no one has been out there marching for HCR. I, personally, have been to two well-attended events in support of HCR. The smaller one outside of Jason Altmire’s office and the other larger one in Pittsburgh. Both got about a 10 second blurb on local tv, no mention at all in local papers, and a big nada by any sort of national media. I have heard of marches all over the country through new media. But the msm could not care less. Hell, most of the msm didn’t think the health care clinics lasting days and providing services to thousands and thousands of working people all over America were stories important enough to cover.
Our media iz not learning.
KCinDC
Speaking of President McCain, I’m surprised to find he’s running anti-birther ads and attacking Orly Taitz. Is that really going to help him win the Republican primary? It’s just going to spark the Minutemen to discover that McCain wasn’t born in the United States.
valdivia
@Morbo:
wow that Taibbi thing is pretty scary. Is he unbalanced or something?
DanF
FYI Zombies – don’t bother with the Indiana reps – not enough brains to feed a zombie baby.
jron
I think you might’ve been joking, but 45,000 people in zombie costumes on the national mall would be an awesome protest.
In poor taste, and AWESOME. seems like it would be fun to organize and attend. and the clips would be terrific. I’m picturing the signs already…
Fleas correct the era
On past performance, I’d say that if they can’t manage not to notice in the first place, they’ll do whatever they can to forget about it as soon as possible thereafter.
Viva journalismo.
Svensker
@YellowJournalism:
Because it’s not Freedom.
Freedom = blowing up other people’s shit, hopefully killing as many of the uppity ones as possible.
Seriously. Trillions for guns. Not a penny for butter.
AkaDad
Can we invade Canada now?
sbjules
Words that make me change the channel despite my love of Robin Roberts : “We’ll be speaking to Senator John McCain.” On Good Morning America.
Why oh why.
JohnR
A couple thoughts – yes, it seems true that the “Traditional Media” view themselves as critical gatekeepers for information. If it’s not important enought to be reported, it never happened. This isn’t news (get it? ha!); it’s been like this for a longish time now. It’s interesting that Journalism in the traditional sense is now practiced primarily by a few magazines, some webloggers and some local newspapers.
Also, I don’t understand why people don’t pound on the obvious point that this weird neo-Randian “Free Market” Capitalism is fundamentally the same as Communism in that it requires human beings to be angels for it to work. That’s the hallmark of every good Utopian philosophy, of course, but it needs to be repeated endlessly, just like the obvious notion that all this stuff going on now comes from the vicious GOP hatred of the New Deal, which has become such an unquestioned article of faith that people treat every facet of Norquistian-style “bankrupt the government to kill the social programs” maneuvering as novel, but legitimate, political and economic maneuvering. *whew*. It’s all about that class traitor FDR. He forced the US to fight “our natural allies” in Europe simply because he was a Jew, right? This is simply understood, but never stated, and it drives the GOP and the Right to this day. The present leaders absorbed this sort of filth with their mother’s artificial baby-formula, and it has become unquestioned, knee-jerk orthodoxy. It’s not just about hatred of blacks – remember, these guys come from a line that hated Italians, Irish, Slavs, Arabs, Levantines and all Asians with the same degree of passion. It’s all about money. “We”, the morally upright, God-fearing Republicans have it, due to our morally-upright God-fearing-ness, and “they”, the depraved, monstrous “others”, want to drag us down into their muck and take it away, out of their obvious evil moral degeneracy (as demonstrated by their lack of money), rather than pulling themselves up by their bootstraps as we all had to do.
Wow – it’s true; you get on a good rant, and the words just flow. Good thing I don’t need to breath to type..
TomG
Just noticed that my governor (NY, Patterson) has decided to not run for re-election. I know very little about Andrew Cuomo but I doubt things will improve in NY in 2012 no matter who wins.
burnspbesq
@Morbo:
Taibbi’s a schmuck?
Imagine my surprise.
ajr22
They would probably send Luke Russert to cover it, and I would die a little inside.
WaterGirl
I just got an email message asking me to drop off a pair of shoes at my representative’s office today – making sure his office knows that this pair of shoes represents one of the 45,000 people who died this year because they didn’t have health insurance.
I actually think that’s a great idea. It really brought the point home for me, reminding me of noticing my mom’s purse and shoes in the days after she died – things that were very personal that suddenly have no purpose.
And maybe, just maybe, it would get the attention of the media.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@AkaDad: Why aren’t we trying to impose our health care on the rest of the world like we have tried to impose Democracy? Let’s invade Canada, install our health care, and watch the rest of the countries convert to our wonderful system.
Kryptik
@Fleas correct the era:
If they did cover it, they’d probably note how only ‘hundreds of performance artists in masks’ came, and how their message was diffuse and ineffective. Whereas the teabagger counter protest of 200 was ‘at least in the thousands’ and effective in its singlemindedness, even as they railed against The Obammunist Islamarxist radical Black Christian gutless wimp dictator.
@KCinDC:
Beck’s Razor, bitches!
AkaDad
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Your ideas intrigue me…
arguingwithsignposts
BTW, any Phoenix area B-J readers want to meet up later this evening or tomorrow sometime? I’m in town. I’ll wear my Balloon Juice t-shirt.
Jamie
Well you might get a response if the Zombies are in Colonial garb.
burnspbesq
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
“Let’s invade Canada, install our health care, and watch the rest of the countries convert to our wonderful system.”
Why, of course! I’m sure the Canadians will be grateful for being liberated from the clutches of the evil, sadistic tyrant Saddam Harper. They will greet our soldiers with candy and flowers. Just like the Iraquis.
And we can make Mark Steyn the Minister of Information for the interim regime.
Umm, wait a sec …
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@TuiMel:
I heard that and nearly threw my TV through the window. But on calmer reflection I realized that Toddler speak for “better prepared” translates into “armed with cheap talking points”, and by that metric he had a point.
Of course this doesn’t change that fact that the only useful public purpose Todd is serving is to act as a very small and temporary carbon sink.
Phoebe
I would be there with bells on. Also zombie make up, rather than a mask. I’m a zombie every year for Halloween, because it’s so easy and fun, the make up.
But good lard, it would be so fun to stagger around with 45,000 people, bawling and howling for health care. You could be completely plastered and nobody would notice. Except now that I type this I see how fast it could turn into some horrible Burning Man thing.
KCinDC
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ, as a political commentator, Chuck Todd is a great delegate counter. I think he needs to go into cold storage until the next somewhat close presidential nomination contest.
Mike Kay
@valdivia:
I told you he has a drug problem. He freely admits he’s a drug user.
Comrade Mary
Wow. No daylight threads yet today. I guess people are still tired out from yesterday’s marathon.
I’m crawling into bed shortly. I’ve been up since early Thursday morning running errands, then updating my portfolio for a prospective client. I think I hit my second wind around 6 AM, and have been holding out waiting for client email, Canada Post with some important snailmail, and Godot. I think. But after this cup of tea, it’s beddy-bye.
arguingwithsignposts
Just watched last night’s TDS – the part with John Oliver was classic. “What if the members of these two houses were complete f**kheads?”
FTW!
Face
Have you seen the boiler on that chump? Nothing about Charles Todd says “very small”, at least not above the waist (waste?).
srv
Snowpocolypse III, Escape from Big Trouble in Newark. Features Kurt Russell as a snowplow driver and a Triad stuck at Newark Airport battling TSA ninjas.
If I remember, there’s someone who posts who’s in the industry. Let me know if you’re interested in the outline.
srv, +2 (Vino Volo has leather chairs)
Jon H
45,000 no-healthcare zombies outside the Today Show.
Tattoosydney
The moment I post there will be a new open thread, but anyway… a dose of cuteness and a dose of prettiness for you all.
(Links contain pictures of a dog, a handsome Portuguese boy and flowers.)
Lisa
I am getting a tired of Obama banging on about bipartisanship. How he is not going to do ANYTHING until it is bipartisan. Everything he proposes is watered-down and meaningless, for the sake of bipartisanship (and of course, the bipartisanship never materializes). The opposition leads him down the primrose path, he and the congressional Dems gut their own proposals, the GOP votes against it….and then we are left with a piece of shit bill. Republicans win. Rinse, repeat.
Does he think that the Mystic Genie of Bipartisanship is going to appear in the mirror and grant him his heart’s desire at midnight on the full moon if he does this shit enough times?
geg6
It’s possible that DougJ and John are completely snowed in with no electricity from the high winds (not sure Western NY is getting the same crap WVA is, but I know John’s part of the world has been getting just slammed since it’s just a bit south of me).
However, DougJ’s big NY governor story has finally broken and put an end to David Paterson’s bid for a full term.
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/reports-gov-paterson-will-end-campaign.php
I have to wonder what the hell Paterson was thinking when he so combatively insisted that he’d run regardless of whatever the NYT had on him. When the not-very-juicy story broke about his aide a couple of weeks ago, I guess he decided that was all they had. But I had a hard time believing that simply because the buzz had been so complete and so vicious. I knew something else had to be coming. You’d think a pol like Paterson or his entourage might have anticipated the same. He’s totally screwed now. Cuomo, who was going to win the primary and probably the general anyway, should get this in a cakewalk at this point.
Nick
@Lisa: FireDogLake ask you to stop by?
celticdragonchick
@Nick:
I tend to think that is the answer.
Remember how America was shocked by the photos of police dogs and water hoses being turned on civil rights protesters in the 60’s?
Do you think that would get more then a yawn today even if blasted at the top of the CBS nightly news?
We have become accustomed to living with brutality, and people dying from lack of health care does not animate our “amused to death” society of American Idol fans…
celticdragonchick
@Jamie:
I’ll go for that. I have the colonial garb and the real, live King’s Land Pattern #2 Brown Bess musket to go with it.
We can bag the legislators before we eat their brains…
Mmm! Brains!
frankdawg
But wait – zombies feed on brains. yes the cheap joke is approaching.
Those that went after the Rs would starve to death. If any lived on spines those that went after the Ds would starve.
geg6
@Lisa:
Well, I think it was pretty clear as of the end of the HCR summit yesterday that he has lost much of his enthusiasm for any sort of bipartisanship. In fact, crystal clear. And backed that up today by telling Congress to go right on ahead with reconciliation, with his blessings.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/white-house-look-where-we-agree-on-health-care.php?ref=fpa
demo woman
@geg6: Hopefully everyone is okay at the Cole household.
TuiMel
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I could not agree more. McCain whined and pouted about “no change in Washington” while he and the other leaders of the party treated the meeting as a political stunt. And they inflicted Marsha Blackburn on the nation once again. That alone should finish off any rumor of their so-called credibility.
Mike Kay
@Lisa:
step away from the bong, lisa, step away
ChrisB
@mcc: Paterson just announced this morning that he will not run for re-election this fall.
@TuiMel: I saw that too. Just ridiculous. As others have said, lining up talking points and spouting misinformation means you’re better prepared? Even after Obama schools you like he did Alexander and Barasso, or calls you out on your political games, like he did Boehner and Cantor, and they just sit there with no cogent response? Yeah, right.
Lisa
Nick: No. I don’t even read that annoying blog. I am just frustrated. I adore Obama and want him to succeed. But I definitely want him to be meaner and start being more of a badass. He is a thousand times smarter than we deserve, but being bright, eloquent, and RIGHT is not working, because the opposition, the press, and most of the electorate are all stupid twats (and we celebrate and fetishize being stupid and under-informed as if it is wonderful and Uniquely American). Stupid people respond to force and strength. So bring it.
Nick
@Lisa:
What could possibly go wrong? I’m sure being “a badass” will get the media to respect him, and it will certainly make it more likely to pass bills. Nope, we won’t see an infinate number of pundits and columnists slamming him for being “too partisan”, “too abrasive” and “not who we elected.” Nope, that won’t happen at all.
Lisa
geg6: I saw that after my first post!! Squee! (Yes, I am an underinformed and stupid commenter.)
Goodie. After all of the hand-extending exercises he has publicly displayed, I hope he brings the down the hammer hard.
suzanne
@arguingwithsignposts:
I can’t tonight, but it’d be great to plan an event. :)
Jon
@burnspbesq: Pretty much that. It’s not too far of a leap to think that he’s a fucking jerk.
celticdragonchick
@Nick:
It might, however, get his base a little more energized and willing to start fighting for him again.
Nobody likes leaders who look like suppine jellyfish. Hello, Reid??
Lisa
Celticdragonchick,
Word.
Hopefully, as geg6 pointed out, he is done being the conciliator and has decided to get out the bare knuckles. I would like to think there is a method to his (spineless looking) madness. If we come out of this with a solid bill with a public option or a medicare buy-in, he will look like a genius (and a total badass). If not, then we will be congratulating whatever Wingnut Du Jour they happen to have glommed onto in the next couple of years for their landslide presidential election victory in 2012.
And we lazy socialists will be working three jobs a piece to pay into the health savings account that will hopefully pay something towards our 10k deductibles on our catastrophic health insurance policies. Our freedom and way of life will be safe from soshulist healthcare coverage. Yay! We’re number one, fuckers! USA! USA!
Comrade Dread
Any necromancers out there willing to give this a shot?
Mike Kay
I’m starting to get worried. Maybe the hippies got John or tampered with the servers.
Nick
@celticdragonchick:
So the base needs to hear to hear the President say mean things to Republicans to get them energized for healthcare? Pathetic. One would think getting a bill would be enough to energize them.
Lisa
Nick,
The answer is yes.
Yes!!
We are in insecure times. It is great to have a leader is cerebral. Those of us who listen to All Things Considered on the way home and read the Sunday Times from cover to cover for pleasure appreciate knowing we elected a thinking man. However, the rest of us are idiots. Insecure, nervous idiots.
Clinton once said:
“When people are insecure, they’d rather have somebody who is strong and wrong than someone who’s weak and right.”
Imagine the potential for a strong and RIGHT president. The sky is the freaking limit for Obama if he stops fretting over bipartisanship.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Nick:
Alex, I’ll take the category OH NOES, AN ANGREE BLACK MAN! for $500.
Tonal Crow
Please call Congress and ask them to PTDB via reconciliation. If you want a public option, it’s do or die time for that, too. You’ll never get what you don’t request.
Lisa
Well he is already angry, arrogant, and hates Teh Whitez.
Oh, and he is an IslamoSocialist Iranian mole sympathizer who puts an IslamObama logo on our bombs.
Exactly what “reputation” would he be saving by being deferential to these motherfuckers again?
Nick
@Lisa: What a fucking pathetic country we are. Pathetic.
Nick
@Lisa: I’m talking about the media, not the Republicans…the media.
Nick
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I’ll go further;
“A President elected who promised to change the tone of Washington and work across party lines is ramming this agenda through without a well thought out debate with the other side. Here’s Gloria Borger to tell us what a disappointment this is!”
and don’t say people don’t care about bipartisanship;
Yep, that’s America; “I know they’re being unreasonable, but capitulate to them anyway or we’ll put them in power”
Lisa
Nick,
Our media is really pathetic. Really really really pathetic. It can’t die fast enough as far as I am concerned.
But I would have to say that your statement applies to we the people as well. We are so simple-minded that the crappy media we have is largely acceptable. The only criticism that the average Joe has of the media is that it is not engaged in inane babble that flatters their ideas or candidates. Little or no criticism that it is engaged in inane babble in the first place.
When the populace devolves, our media and elected officials can’t help but reflect it. If we stay on this path, we have no where to go but down. See: Sinclair Lewis, 1935.
FlipYrWhig
I don’t think Obama cares about _actual_ bipartisanship. I think he cares about the _appearance_ of bipartisanship. And a huge part of the reason is that there are influential Democrats and influential media personalities who really do think that partisanship is very, very bad. Bipartisanship isn’t wooing Republicans, although if that happens he’ll embrace it. It’s wooing the right flank of the Democrats and the Broder-Brooks brigade by _appearing_ to woo Republicans. You kiss Olympia Snowe’s butt not because you like the taste, but because it impresses people like Evan Bayh.
Kevin Moore
Tim Egan is a brilliant satirist and cartoonist. Please give him credit for writing and drawing this cartoon. Thank you.
Lisa
Kevin: He signed the second to the last panel. You can clearly see his name.