McMegan is doing a live Q&A at Kaplan in 20 minutes about HCR. I really would like to see her defend the spitting and so on and will try to get her to talk about it. I will be polite about it, though I may also try some gonzo spoofing.
Update. I’m not getting any questions through. Also, too many of her answers sound like what would happen if Jim Morrison did a song about health care (e.g. “One of the hardest problems that economists deal with is how to weight the interests of future people. The problem is, there are so damn many of them (we hope!)……Unfortunately, because the future is very long…Compound interest is a killer.”). My head hurts.
Update. Finally, but the second paragraph makes it almost a reasonable answer:
———-
Los Angeles, CA: Why so much liberal consternation about guns at town halls and violent threats and spitting and racial epithets and so on?
Can’t they see the hypocrisy of this, given that they hung Bush in effigy and compared him to Hitler?
Megan McArdle: Yes, liberals are hypocrites, most of whom got mad when the right demanded that they denounce the crazies at left wing protests. Yes, the right has done a marginally better job of actually denouncing their crazies.
But in the end, what really matters is that the crazies are doing pretty evil and awful things that need to be denounced. The fact that liberals get to make a little bit of political hay out of this is a distant second, in terms of relative importance.
robertdsc
Kick her ass for all of us, Doug!
licensed to kill time
Oh, go GO! Dr. Gonzospoof! ;-)
Brandon
I wonder what “facts” and stats she is going to make up this time to support her position, only later to call “illustrative” when they get called out as backasswardly wrong?
Felonious Wench
Go with God, DougJ.
I’ve got the headphones on, blasting Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Mr. Wench is yelling out news on health care from the other room. 5 and 7 year-olds, excited about anything resembling a party, are running around the house screaming “Health Care! Health Care!”
I am steadfastly speaking to none of my Republican friends today, aware that it’s going to be bad day for our relationship if I do.
Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta.
TR
I dropped a question in there. I doubt it gets picked, but it might make yours look civilized by comparison.
Think of it as my own contribution to the Overton window.
Moses2317
We’re in the final stretch here and need to keep the heat on the undecideds on health care reform. Below are their D.C., district, and fax #s. I have left off some district numbers that we know the mailboxes are full on.
If you cannot get through on the phone, use this free internet fax service – http://faxzero.com/
Paul Kanjorski – Pennsylvania (Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Mount Pocono) – 202-225-6511
District # – 570-496-1011 – they were answering this morning
Fax # – 202-225-0764
John Tanner – Tennessee (Union City, Jackson, Millington) – 202-225-4714
District # – (731) 885-7070
Fax # – (202) 225-1765
Earl Pomeroy – North Dakota (Bismarck, Fargo) – (202) 225-2611
Fax # – (202) 226-0893
Kathy Dahlkemper – Pennsylvania (Erie) – (202) 225-5406
Fax # – (202) 225-3103
Lincoln Davis – Tennessee (Columbia, Jamestown, Rockwood) – 202.225.6831
District #s – 931.879.2361
Fax # – 202.226.5172
Mike Michaud – Maine (Bangor, Lewiston, Presque Isle, Waterville) – 202-225-6306
District # – 207-942-6935 – 207-782-3704 – 207-764-1036 – 207-873-5713
Fax # – 202-225-2943
Steve Driehaus – Ohio (Cincinnati) – (202) 225-2216
District # – (513) 684-2723
Fax # – (202) 225-3012
Stephen Lynch – Massachusetts (Brockton, Boston) – 202-225-8273
District # – 617-428-2000 – 508-586-5555
Fax # – 202-225-3984
Rick Boucher – Virginia (Abingdon, Pulaski, Big Stone Gap) – 202-225-3861
District # – 276-628-1145 – 540-980-4310 – 276-523-5450
Fax # – 202-225-0442
Loretta Sanchez – California (Garden Grove) – (202) 225-2965
District # – (714) 621-0102
Fax # – (202) 225-5859
Dan Lipinski – Illinois (LaGrange, Oak Lawn, Chicago’s southwest side) – (202) 225 – 5701
District #s – (312) 886 – 0481 – (708) 352 – 0524 – (708) 424 – 0853
Fax # – (202) 225 – 1012
Joe Donnelly – Indiana (South Bend, LaPorte, Michigan City, Kokomo) – (202) 225-3915
District #s – 574.288.2780 – 574-753-2671 – 219.326.6808 ext. 2414 – 219.873.1408 ext. 354
Fax # – (202) 225-6798
Marion Berry – Arkansas (Jonesboro, Cabot, Mountain Home) – (202) 225-4076
District # – (870) 972-4600 – (501) 843-3043 – (870) 425-3510
Fax # – (202) 225-5602
Jerry Costello – Illinois (Carbondale, Belleville, E. St. Louis, Granite City, Chester) – (202) 225-5661
District #s – (618) 233-8026 – (618) 529-3791 – (618) 826-3043 – (618) 397-8833 – (618) 451-7065 – (618) 937-6402
Fax # – (202) 225-0285
Nick Rahall – West Virginia (Beckley, Bluefield, Huntington, Logan) – (202) 225-3452
District #s – (304) 252-5000 – (304) 325-6222 – (304) 522-6425 – (304) 752-4934
Alan Mollohan – West Virginia (Morgantown, Wheeling, Clarksburg, Parkersburg) – (202) 225-4172
District #s – (304) 623-4422 – (304) 292-3019 – (304) 428-0493 – (304) 232-5390
Fax #s – (202) 225-7564
Fitzwili
I also submitted question about her policy of wanting to hit protesters with 2by4s and if she thought that policy should be upheld for teabaggers.
freelancer
@Moses2317:
Dood. Srsly?
@DougJ,
“If those against HCR throw $3 each at those with no insurance, will that be a more neighborly and American way to deal with the current problems that this bill may or may not address?”
Martin
Spit is a free market solution. Shouting ‘nigger’ is just an exercise of the first amendment. The senators were free to spit back and call everyone a ‘honkey honkey’.
Bulworth
1. There was no spitting[torture]
2. The spitting [torture] they were doing wasn’t really spitting [torture]
3. Spitting [torture] is among our most cherished constitutional rights
4. If you don’t spit[torture] you don’t love America
ajr22
Please go with gonzo spoofing, that shit is epic. By the way according to tpm teaparty people are saying the people yelling the N word were plants. I might go with some conspiracy angle.
Martin
@freelancer: Yeah, everyone is in the chamber for the duration. Constituent calls are going nowhere. This is all in the leadership & Obama’s hands now.
Moses2317
Freelancer and Martin,
I disagree. You should never assume a victory until the vote is final, and pressure from the public is critical to ensuring that the Democrats really get this done. The Republicans and teabaggers certainly aren’t letting up – I don’t why we would.
Moses2317
DS
Here is the question I just submitted:
Megan –
From one Libertarian to another, what is the best way to express your Randian opinion at one of the FreedomWorks engineered hate-fests of ours:
a) yelling at people with Parkinsons?
b) calling civil-rights icons “niggers”?
c) gay congressmen “fags”?
d) all of the above?
Given that have you supported (a) on your blog already, I’m leaning towards (d).
I hope you and your fiancee have a nice day figuring out new and uniquely libertarian ways to screw over poor people.
Sincerely,
DS
I’m not sure it will actually get to McMegan unfortunately.
Brandon
I submitted a question about her statement that the CBO process “has now been so thoroughly gamed that it’s useless”. Asking why it is a bad thing that lawmakers are actually informed enough to understand the budget consequences of legislation as they are writing it.
I don’t think she has an answer for that.
The reality is, I don’t see what the point is to her. I really don’t know what her credentials are and have little idea how she got to where she is, except through her career as a blogger. How hard is it to just ignore her? The only way that I have any idea what she is on about any given day is what DougJ posts about her.
gbear
By the way according to tpm teaparty people are saying the people yelling the N word
werehad the intelligence of plants.I wanted to be the first to do that.
Go DougJ. Looking forward to reading about it later.
PeakVT
5 and 7 year-olds … are running around the house screaming “Health Care! Health Care!”
LOL. If only the teabaggers were that mature. They seem to be stuck in the terrible twos.
ruemara
Smack her and tell her to stop making you do that.
mcc
The killer awoke before dawn.
He put his boots on.
geg6
Go, Doug, go. Smack that stupid Randian witch as hard as he deserves. But in you brilliant, inimitable best trolling way, of course. ;-)
JenJen
Looks like McMegan took her teabagger question:
Los Angeles, CA: Why so much liberal consternation about guns at town halls and violent threats and spitting and racial epithets and so on?
Can’t they see the hypocrisy of this, given that they hung Bush in effigy and compared him to Hitler?
Megan McArdle: Yes, liberals are hypocrites, most of whom got mad when the right demanded that they denounce the crazies at left wing protests. Yes, the right has done a marginally better job of actually denouncing their crazies.
But in the end, what really matters is that the crazies are doing pretty evil and awful things that need to be denounced. The fact that liberals get to make a little bit of political hay out of this is a distant second, in terms of relative importance.
Oy. False equivalence, noted. “Need to be denounced,” but not actually denounced. Noted.
Actually, on second read, if that was your question, DougJ, I’m gonna send your table a round of drinks.
geg6
Damn, that is supposed to say “she” at 20, dammit.
DougJ
@JenJen:
Yeah, it was my question.
sven
I am pretty sure that Megan deemed the comments denounced and therefore did not need to actually denounce them.
JenJen
@DougJ: Champagne? Wine? Martinis? You need to hold a seminar entitled “how to successfully bait Kaplanites”. I’m in awe, yet again.
I don’t find that second paragraph terribly reasonable, though. She certainly doesn’t denounce the behavior herself.
@sven: I always knew I liked you.
mcc
“…which is why I waited until you brought it up to say anything”. Meh
matt
dammit dougj you rule.
thomas Levenson
@JenJen: Not just false equivalence; we see here the usual McArdle assertion of facts that are really assumptions not in evidence.
E.g.: “liberals are hypocrites, most of whom got mad when the right demanded that they denounce the crazies at left wing protests. Yes, the right has done a marginally better job of actually denouncing their crazies.”
Most of whom? She knows this how? The right has done a marginally better job? And the instance of this is what?
Last I looked the left crazies calling Bush a war criminal were (a) right and (b) in instances like the “Betray-us” faux pas, roundly denounced by wide majorities on the floor of Congress.
N-words, calls for assassination; calls for secession and treason…Crickets.
McArdle is an oblivious, self centered golem who knows on which side her bread is buttered…hence her relentless determination to comfort the comfortable. She wields her pen with all the grace and aesthetic glory of an entrenching tool, also.
Now let me tell you what I really think.
russell
The problem here is that there different bars for “crazy” on left and right.
Lefty “crazies” compare Bush to Hitler.
Righty “crazies” shoot people.
As an aside, I don’t understand what qualifications McArdle brings to the table. What is she expert in? What academic or real-world background does she have that qualifies her as someone whose opinion on public policy is worth considering?
Citizen_X
@Bulworth:
1. There is no spitting [global warming].
2. If there is spitting [global warming], we’re not causing it.
3. If there is spitting [global warming], and we are causing it, there’s nothing we can do about it.
FlipYrWhig
When has the right ever denounced its crazies? Tell me one time it has happened. And don’t tell me it was when John McCain looked vaguely uncomfortable when the crazy-haired lady said Obama was an Arab.
FlipYrWhig
And, for that matter, tell me one time that there were left-wing “crazies” anywhere near as visible as the right-wing variety. The window-smashing anarchists are mostly mythical. The giant puppet people may be expressive and colorful, but, ya know, NOT VIOLENT.
Mark S.
Funny, I’ve never seen a utilitarian argue anything remotely like that.
kommrade reproductive vigor
It’s just that the crazies on the right are vastly superior to the crazies on the left. So all of this denouncing has somehow made the right wing crazies even crazier. You can’t expect the GOP to tell that sort of ReaLAMErican can-do spirit to FOAD.
JenJen
@thomas Levenson: It’s maddening. I mean, these assertions by McMegan, et al, that a handful of “Bush = Hitler” signs at anti-war protests seven years ago are somehow the exact same thing as screaming “nigger” and “faggot” at a member of Congress on his way to listen to the President talk about health care reform.
War = Health Care Reform; Anything Anyone Wrote On A Sign About President Bush = Yelling Epithets at Members of Congress.
Got it, Megan.
DougJ
@Mark S.:
Me neither.
Mark S.
And that’s why Canada pays so much more per capita on health care than we do.
Oh, wait, no they don’t.
gbear
@FlipYrWhig:
And, in addition, tell us when the left’s crazies that were inciting people to acts of violence were actual congressmen and women.
licensed to kill time
@Mark S.: That sounds like BOBmath.
celticdragonchick
My question got through:
washingtonpost.com: GOP denounces slurs
Megan McArdle: The right was pretty fast to denounce any actual violence or racist catcalls–much faster than the left was, in my experience, to denounce Bush=Hitler signs.
DougJ
@celticdragonchick:
Great!
b-psycho
The rescission one was me, btw. I’d asked her about it on her blog before & not received an answer, so figured I’d ask again.
Found this part of her reply especially amusing:
Fraud is a criminal act. If the insurance company thinks you committed fraud, then rescission is the least of your worries. The problem is the standard they’re using is well below the legal standard, so to them forgetting about having had acne at age 14 is equivalent to lying about an organ transplant.
JenJen
@celticdragonchick: Your question got through, but her answer sure didn’t. :-)
Good job, celticdragonchick.
Jamey
The right was pretty fast to denounce any actual violence or racist catcalls—much faster than the left was, in my experience, to denounce Bush=Hitler signs.
That’s because Bush really DID = Hitler. Duh!
DS
My question: how can you even compare what is an essential existential comparsion between Bush and Hitler and calling John Lewis and James Clyburn “niggers”? I swear to Jesus this woman is dumber than a bag of hammers.
MBunge
Did anybody ask McMegan about the new sci-fi movie Repo Men? A guy at Reason has already thrown a fit over it for daring to explore what libertarian health care might look like.
Mike
Ruckus
@DS:
A hammer has a purpose. It can be used for constructive uses. Therefore a bag of hammers is at least an order of magnitude more useful. And smarter.
TR
@TR:
I got through! Metuchen for the win!
Nancy Irving
Q: But Megan, don’t you think that lynching was wrong?
McArdle: Oh, definitely, but Democrats hang people in effigy, which makes them so, so much hypocrites!