The indispensable D-Day has an update on HR 3808, and it looks like this is more about a pissing match between Congress and the WH than an actual attempt to override the bill.
Archives for November 2010
Paid In Full
Pretty soon we’ll be talking about big money:
Health insurers last year gave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce $86.2 million that was used to oppose the health-care overhaul law, according to tax records and people familiar with the donation.
The insurance lobby, whose members include Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp., gave the money to the Chamber in 2009 as Democrats were increasing their criticism of the industry, according to one person who requested anonymity because laws don’t require identifying funding sources. The Chamber of Commerce received the money from the Washington-based America’s Health Insurance Plans when the industry was urging Congress to drop a plan to create a competing public insurance option.
The spending exceeded the insurer group’s entire budget from a year earlier and accounted for 40 percent of the Chamber’s $214.6 million in 2009 spending. The expenditures reflect the insurers’ attempts to influence the bill after Democrats in Congress and the White House put more focus on regulation of the insurance industry.
$86 million buys a lot of “Keep Government out of My Medicare” signs.
Smoking Crack Rock
By now, you all have heard that the Republicans, in one of their first acts back from the midterm elections, have decided to scuttle START. Yes, that is crazy, obscene, and will undercut our foreign policy with Russia while making the world less safe, but to me, the craziest thing I’ve seen about the whole affair came in this NY Times write-up:
President Obama’s hopes of ratifying a new arms control treaty with Russia by the end of the year appeared to come undone on Tuesday as the chief Senate Republican negotiator moved to block a vote on the pact, one of the White House’s top foreign policy goals, in the lame-duck session of Congress.
The announcement by the senator, Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican point man on the issue, blindsided and angered the White House, which vowed to keep pressing for approval of the so-called New Start treaty. But the White House strategy had hinged entirely on winning over Mr. Kyl, and Democrats, who began scrambling for a backup plan, said they considered the chances of success slim.
Really? This blind-sided them? Sweet mother of everything holy.
Just what the hell have the members of this administration been paying attention to for the last two years? The Republicans are going to do EVERY single thing they can to ruin your administration. If they sense there is the slightest chance for you to do anything positive or constructive, they will block it. Did you not see them demanding that Robert Byrd be wheeled to the floor of the Senate at midnight on Christmas to vote for HCR? Did they not learn from Chuck Grassley saying that sure, if everything I want in HCR is in there, I will still vote against it. Did they not learn anything from all their dealings with the snow princesses in Maine? Have they not learned anything from the antics of mean old man McCain in regards to DADT? Lindsey Graham on cap and trade and immigration? They are actively working to keep the economy in the shitter until 2012, for chrissakes.
With all due respect, what the hell are you idiots in the White House smoking? You incompetent boobs. THE REPUBLICANS WILL NOT WORK WITH YOU IN GOOD FAITH ON ANYTHING. Get it through your god damned heads. And they will screw you dim bulbs on tax cuts next, and then you all will throw up your hands and tell us no one could have predicted. The Republicans aren’t the only one living in their own reality, as this White House clearly has constructed a new reality in which Republicans act in good faith. It’s about as real as Narnia.
Count Me Out
Yes, Willow Palin said something stupid on her facebook page. Big deal. She’s sixteen, and most of the time when a sixteen year old opens his or her mouth, something stupid will fall out. Often times, they say things and don’t even really think about what they are saying. So spare me if I refuse to get all worked up about what she wrote. There is a reason we call sixteen year olds “minors” and don’t let them vote, drink, etc.
And seriously. We’re trolling the facebook pages of teenagers looking for political advantage? Knock it off. Willow Palin isn’t the only one who needs to grow up.
Today in TSA
I’m outsourcing today’s TSA tale of shame to Fly with Dignity, the new Reddit-inspired site that’s collecting TSA groping stories:
I was going through ORD on Oct 19th and with a metal implant in my hip, of course I set off the detector. I put all of my items on the belt and just before going through the detector, I told the attendant that it would go off because of the implant in my hip, He stopped me from going through and told me to go stand in line by the scanner…yes, they had one.
I complied and in the meantime, three of them were surrounding my bag asking me if there was any liquid in there. I said no, and one said “You wouldn’t lie to us, would you”? They went through it, found a liquid and called me a liar in front of everyone in line… that was embarrassing… Anyway, the lady barked at me to come over and help find the said liquid. I complied and pulled out a tiny toothpaste tube and asked if that was it. She barked no and then found the liquid… my facial towelettes which I always carry when I travel.
Oddly enough, the one decent security experience I’ve ever had was at Chicago O’Hare (ORD) a couple of years ago, when a TSA agent looked me in the eye and asked a few questions about the purpose of my trip while carefully studying me and my family. That’s the only time I’ve ever sensed anything but rote, bored, mechanistic and stupid adherence to ritual from a TSA agent.
Don’t Mess With Snowbillies
Apparently the pain from David Letterman’s joke about her is causing Willow to lash out:
Willow Palin was responding to a boy named Tre who updated his Facebook status on Sunday night to read: “Sarah Palin’s Alaska, is failing so hard right now.”
Willow then replied, saying: “Tre stfu. Your such a faggot.”
Willow also wrote a message on Tre’s wall which read: “Haha your so gay. I have no idea who you are, But what I’ve seen pictures of, your disgusting … My sister had a kid and is still hot.”
(via)
Naïveté
Remember when President Obama attended a January House Republican caucus gathering in Baltimore and schooled jackasses like Mike Pence who weren’t used to their weak-ass Fox talking points getting challenged? Well, fast-forward 10 months, and the new word is that Obama crashed their party:
“He has a ways to go to rebuild the trust,” said a top Republican Hill staffer. “The Baltimore thing was unbelievable. There were [House Republicans] who only knew Obama was coming when they saw Secret Service guys scouting out the place.”
TPM demolishes this bullshit, which was credulously repeated in Politico, by linking to press releases from Mike Pence and others, welcoming Obama and thanking him for accepting their invitation. Josh Marshall finishes his otherwise excellent piece with this:
This whole episode, this made up story, is embarrassing.
I don’t know who he thinks is embarrassed, Politico or Republicans, but it doesn’t matter, because he’s wrong about both.
The piece is a bitch-slapping win for the Republicans. When Obama spoke with Mitch McConnell on election night, he suggested a November 18 meeting. McConnell and Boehner aren’t ready to have that meeting until November 30. That’s the real story, but instead of looking like what they are — unprepared and scared — Republicans are claiming that Obama fucked up the meeting time. In order to push that bullshit line, they simply made up a whole new story about how that uncivilized, unsocialized black man crashed their meeting in January.
The story is also a win for Politico, because it is what they covet, a morning-winning “exclusive”. It’s also a beat-sweetener. House Republicans are the new power in DC, and Politico needs to “win the morning” by being first to print every bullshit talking point that will come out of Boehner’s press operation. By showing that they aren’t going to be too picky about fact checking, they’re setting themselves up as the perfect conduit for a series of anonymously-sourced horseshit stories just like this one.
Update: Commenters point out that Politico has issued a correction that removes the last sentence of the staffer’s anonymous quote. That makes everything all better, of course.