(Jim Morin via GoComics.com)
Via Quartz, Michael Hilzick at the LA Times:
Attacks on the Affordable Care Act have stepped up over the last week or so. You’d think that the healthcare reform known as Obamacare is leading to the wholesale loss of affordable insurance by huge sectors of the American public, many of whom will be impoverished by being forced into low-quality health plans at exorbitant prices….
Don’t buy the hype. The numbers tell an entirely different story. What they also demonstrate is that the myth of Obamacare’s “failure” is a product of the same Republican noise machine that has been working to undermine this crucial reform since Day One. It’s assisted by news reporting about canceled health policies that typically ranges from woefully misinformed to spectacularly ignorant, and even at its best is incomplete.
Indeed, the spectacle of Democrats panicking over bad news on Obamacare resembles the herds of giraffes one sees on the Serengeti being stampeded by swarms of tsetse flies. Here’s a lesson the giraffes could teach the Dems: Stampeding leads only to injuries and death, and doesn’t solve the tsetse fly problem…
I think it’s the media that serves as the tsetse flies in this analogy, carrying the debilitating, eventually fatal GOP trypanosomes…
Baud
More importantly,
Astor Column
Our horserace media is the problem again. It was obvious that the subprime mortgage/derivatives bubbles were going to blow up but difficult to buck the tide and say so. It was obvious that Republicans were going to blow themselves up electorally by insisting on cutting the budget in the middle of a world-wide recession but difficult to say so against the pro-austerian media.
It’s obvious that the ACA’s website’s problems will be fixed and millions of Americans who couldn’t afford insurance before will be able to afford it and tens of millions more will be given better deals as insurers have to compete head-to-head in a transparent marketplace… but difficult to say so over the OMG-he-promised-us-no-delays! and the This-is-soooo-awfull!!! shrieks of Fox and the eager-for-controversy media that wants to cover a horserace… not analyze health care.
James E. Powell
What is consistently disappointing is that there is never any Democratic or progressive stampeding of the corporate press/media. Their reactions to anything coming from the left is to ignore it or denigrate it.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
Glad I don’t watch the teevee. My facebook feed is loaded with positive stories about Obamacare.
ETA: I personally know at least a dozen people who will benefit from the PPACA (Okay, really about a thousand) but the dozed were previously uninsured, and will mostly qualify for medicaid.
Baud
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo):
I stopped trusting the media’s anti-Democratic spin a long time ago. With rare exception, it just doesn’t faze me anymore.
Paddy
When BJ does the “things you do” posts for artists here there are always sooo many great jewelry, craft, writer offerings. That is why I want ya’ll to know that every year we run a series about stuff that would make good holiday gifts. Charities are a big plus also. It gets alot of exposure and the participants are very pleased. See here-
Got A Book, Art, Product Or Charity That Would Make A Cool Holiday Gift? Tell Us!
cckids
@Baud: Compassion? So same-sex marriage is like being a hurricane victim or something? Jesus, these people.
kc
Is Lara Logan still employed by CBS?
Baud
@cckids:
Liz loves her sister, but she also hates her sister.
Anya
@kc: No one ever lost a job for lying about Obama.
MattR
@Baud: As I read through their statement, it really feels like Ma and Pa Cheney blame Mary for the whole mess. Not only is she gay, but she is outspoken about being treated as an equal. She is being incredibly unfair to Liz by putting her in this situation.
cckids
@Baud: She may love her sister, but she obviously loves her career hopes much, much more.
Chris
http://www.gallup.com/poll/165917/majority-say-healthcare-not-gov-responsibility.aspx
Stumbled across a Gallup poll of “is it the federal government’s responsibility to ensure that everyone has health coverage?” that has a majority saying no. The funny thing being that a substantial majority throughout the 2000s said “yes” according to this, but there was a sharp turn between 2006 and 2010.
No idea how accurate the poll is, but thought it was worth posting here anyway.
Chris
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo):
Lucky you/them. All I got is the Appalachian businessman uncle whining about how “anyone who understands markets” or whatever “knew” it was going to be a disaster.
Glad to hear about all the people it’s going well for, though.
Belafon
@Chris: I suspect people’s response to the poll question goes something like this:
before 2008: Yes, I think the government should manage my Medicare.
After 2008: No, the government shouldn’t be helping those people receive medical care.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Balloon Juice’s Steely Eyed Realists have failed the President and all of America. They sold the fuck out of this thing when it was still the Heritage Foundation’s wet dream but as soon as the Supreme Court upheld ACA, they wuz all arms-crossed, whatchu bitches gone do naow, dis be da law of thee Land!”
And here we are now, the whole fucking thing a complete and total failure.
Anya
@Baud:”Compassion is called for, even when there is disagreement about such a fundamental matter and Liz’s many kindnesses shouldn’t be used to distort her position.” If I was Mary Cheney, I would find this extremely insulting. This is as dumb and as insulting as ‘love the sinner but hate the sin.’
Chris
@Astor Column:
I think what the media’s really going to hammer on are “OMG people are losing their health insurance plans” (and they’ll ignore the fact that most of these plans were offered by the insurance companies after the ACA passed and they knew full well they wouldn’t meet the requirements), plus “OMG people are getting downgraded to part time because their employees can’t afford to pay for their health insurance” (and ignore the fact that companies have been doing that left and right for years, the ACA just gave them a shiny new excuse. And the fact that with their corporate profits being what they are plenty of those companies could in fact afford it, and are just too cheap to. And the obvious question “if their company can’t afford to pay for their health insurance, then they weren’t getting health insurance in the first place, were they? So what does this change other than offering them other options and subsidies to help pay for them?”)
I’d like to hope that it would get a few more people thinking on the whole “gee, maybe the media really isn’t liberally biased,” but I know that’s too much to hope for.
Aji
@Paddy: Hey, I didn’t know you linked my diary on the Propane Project last year! Thanks! We’ll be doing that again this year; just logistical stuff to work out first. We’re also raising funds – again – for Okiciyap, which was founded by the late Georgia Little Shield on the Cheyenne River Reservation. [Some folks here might know of Georgia as the founder of Pretty Bird Woman House, the first full-scale domestic violence shelter in Indian Country.] I’ll be writing on behalf of Okiciyap in a couple of weeks and will gladly forward the link – it’s a combination food pantry and youth center, feeding the hungry, body and spirit. This includes suicide prevention work for our young people up there; Indian kids have the highest suicide rate (both attempts and “successes” of any ethnic group in their age bracket). VERY worthy cause, and need that’s indescribable to people who’ve never had to live it.
As to artsy stuff, can I also put in a plug for my other half, who is a traditional silversmith, among other things? My name links to our site (badly in need of updating, which is slated for later this week), and in addition to his own work, we carry a lot of other Native art from fellow Indian artists in the area.
catclub
I think this is very good news. The bad thing about a real scandal is that bad and progressively worse news continues to drip out, because that is what the facts are. In the non-scandals, there is a big blast of misinformed news, and then the truth starts leaking out slowly — and there is no even worse news coming. Benghazi is one, Shirley Sherrod and ACORN
were excellent examples, also.
Now the real news comes out and it gets better and better.
Baud
@Anya:
That’s because that’s exactly what it is.
catclub
Also, was the point made in the Hiltzik article that there are millions of people the GOP state governments have kept from getting health insurance, mentioned? I thought that was important.
dww44
@Baud: Over the weekend, the spouse was channel surfing and had stopped on Fox, which he does on occasion, mostly to see what the blondes are up to. The hosts were interviewing someone about the Obamacare trainwreck, and the big headline underneath was “Democrats in Disarray”. I laughed.
But, it would be nice to have a messaging squad, and not just a “truth squad”. Those misleading headlines and stories are everywhere. Obama himself was on an OFA call tonight talking about Obamacare, but he didn’t say anything any different than I’ve heard him say many times already. Honestly, he sounded tired and while he talked about us having the energy to promote Obamacare, he didn’t seem to have any himself. He should have someone around him, who can jazz up the pro ObamaCare stuff in informed but pithy soundbites. Just my opinion, though.
Aji
@MattR: Bin.Go. How dare she, you know, be herself and all, especially with her wife and kids, flaunting them in everyone’s faces like they were . . . well, her wife and kids. Poor, poor little Lizzie, so persecuted by that sister who doesn’t have the decency to sublimate her entire existence to Lizzie’s career.
My contempt for everyone in that family named Cheney (other than Mary) is boundless.
Spaghetti Lee
Speaking of things that drive people nuts, grad school applications are already taxing my sanity. School A wants online transcripts, paper rec letters, third party submission site and a personal statement no greater than 500 words. School B wants paper transcripts, online rec letters, sent directly by the applicant, and a personal statement/academic statement hybrid no less than 500 words. School C wants the application completed with the blood of a slaughtered black goat and delivered by hand to a woman with no eyes who still sees all (that’s the liberal arts school, obviously.) If it was just “Show me how well you can write” I’d be fine. Well, I’d feel fine. That doesn’t stress me out as much as worrying that some red-tape thing will disqualify my entire application.
Yes, I got started on them too late. What else is new?
Paddy
@Aji: Send all of that to me, it’s easier. I just throw everything into a file and build from there. I really love how creative all the www people are and it’s huge fun to give people a marketplace of unique shit esp around the holidays.
Hope we got you some hits on the Propane Project!
paddy at the political carnival dot net.
More explanation here.
Fair Economist
I think the media is desperately trying to get an “Obamacare isn’t working” meme fixed because it’s now actually working. The blogs and forums are full of anecdotes from people who hadn’t been able to sign up and now can. The anecdotes from people who can’t seem to involve unusual situations – like a GOS blogger with an old green card from before green cards had expiration dates, who couldn’t fill out the forms, because they needed his green card expiration date. My conclusion is that people in ordinary circumstances pretty much can all sign up now.
Those who don’t want the public to realize Obamacare signups *are* working are trying to convince people it’s failed and they can stop thinking about it . So the Wurlitzer is being cranked up to 11. Once people start saying “oh it’s working now – I’ll check it out” it’s all over for the Republicans.
Aji
@Paddy: Okay, will do – thanks! And I’m sure the Propane Project did get some hits off it last year; we were all just too swamped to try to figure out what came from where. :-D
scav
@MattR: I mean, how dare she put a personal relationship, let alone expressing a personal opinion, above attaining still more political power in the larger family? A personal relationship, with a mere non-Cheney person! Weighed against political ambition of a sibling! The betrayal is manifest.
Baud
@dww44:
I’m sure it’s got to be frustrating. I can turn off the TV when I’m tired of dealing with the bullshit. Obama has to live it every day.
jayackroyd
I’m no fan of the PPACA, but the Dems have no choice but to embrace it. If they’re gonna express misgivings they have to be from the side of expanding Medicare or Medicaid to make up for the problems, attacking the insurance companies, not the PPACA itself.
But they own this sucker. If they let the GOP attacks stick, they’re fucked. If they join in those attacks, they’re committing suicide.
MikeJ
Not just Republicans attacking it. Dumbfuck defenders of a loser who couldn’t get healthcare done really really want to bring down the usurper who did.
Chris
@Spaghetti Lee:
Oy, man. All my sympathies. That was me two years ago and is me (to a lesser degree) right now with scholarship applications.
jayackroyd
@Fair Economist: More to the point, I think, is that people are finding workarounds, problems are being fixed, all the usual roll out stuff is happening. Nervous Democrats spooked by the Beltway spin need to suck it up and remember how low the bar is. The PPACA just has to be better than the current system. And it most certainly is in states that implemented their exchanges.
MattR
@Fair Economist: I thought Josh Marshall’s comments yesterday about a WaPo piece were pretty good. He said essentially the same thing you did. The website can handle the basic cases but has issues when the scenarios get more complicated and unique. And it will never be able to handle 100% of people because there will always be a group who don’t want to go through this process online.
@jayackroyd: Except for Oregon. Apparently it is a bit of a clusterfuck there.
Narcissus
I like how problems with the ACA website mean the entire legislation should be forfeit
? Martin
Whelp, Pats almost pulled it off…
Spaghetti Lee
If anyone wants to read the book I was talking about last night and tell me what they think, I have about six pages worth done here: http://sta.sh/0gpwfyu4da0
It doesn’t start exactly at the beginning, and it’s a pretty rough draft, but I’d appreciate it if someone gave it a look.
Roger Moore
@cckids:
I don’t think she’s capable of loving anyone or anything but herself, but like most high functioning sociopaths, she’s figured out how to fake it so she doesn’t scare away potential victims.
David Koch
Stephanie Miller has interesting take, she thinks this Cheney family feud is really fake, and meant to boaster Liz with the Tea Pukes. Lord knows the Cheneys have a long history of creating false narratives to accomplish political aims.
BAtFFP
@Spaghetti Lee:
Clearly you must be applying to something popular, like nursing school.
Here in Seattle, each school (as per usual) has its own unique, exhausting requirements. My favorite was the application to the Seattle CENTRAL Community College (not to be confused with the NORTH Seattle CC or the SOUTH Seattle CC, which are all part of the same system but have their own individual prereqs and application processes — because why not).
The year I was applying, the Central CC specified not just the size of envelope (8.5 x 11) the paperwork had to be sent in, but also the appropriate method of transporting the envelope to their office (UPS only — any sent USPS or delivered by hand would be thrown away unopened) and even the ORIENTATION of the papers in the envelope. Anything not facing up and rotated 90 degrees to the left would be shredded.
Fuckers. I did not apply.
Splitting Image
@Narcissus:
Citing the ongoing problems with the Sports Illustrated website, the NFL announced today that it is shutting down and endorsing FIFA.
Betsy
@MattR: as Ed Kilgore points out, in their public statement the Cheney parents chose to support the daughter running for office over the daughter whose life is deeply affected by the policy.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_11/days_end_and_night_watch_352047854.php
Spaghetti Lee
@BAtFFP:
Going for an MFA actually. And that story is pretty gruesome. I haven’t run into anything quite that bad. So far my favorite is the University of Michigan requesting two transcripts, one to allow you to begin the application process and a different one that’s sent in at the end. Yes, the exact same transcript. Oh, and the first one has to be scanned. I guess they assume that if you’re applying for an MFA at Michigan, you have access to a scanner, which is probably true.
Spaghetti Lee
@Splitting Image:
Ha!
Anoniminous
I’d say the disease isn’t trypanosomes but a mutation of toxoplasmosis where the excreta vector isn’t cat urine but Right Wing Bullshit.
noabsolutes
Trypanosomiasis, or rinderpest? We report, you decide.
BAtFFP
@Spaghetti Lee:
Stupid as the nursing applications were, they served one valid purpose (or so I figured): to determine whether or not you could follow lots and lots and lots and lots of detailed, semi-pointless instructions. Perfect for health care!
I cannot wrap my head around why any admissions process would want the same transcript at two different times in two different formats. Just to make sure you didn’t change your mind (and bolt for an MBA) halfway through applying?
SatanicPanic
For some stupid reason I’ve been reading Bloomberg News a lot lately and McMegan’s glee at the trouble with the law shows through in her headlines every fucking day. That woman is not only a total moron, but she’s a ghoulish total moron. I hope Obamacare succeeds if only to make that smug asshat angry.
mouse tolliver
@kc:
Yes. But Maria Bartiromo is moving to Fox. Shocker!
Anoniminous
@Anoniminous:
Take it back.
They are plain and simple stark raving bonkers. For evidence I point to (GOS Alert!) The Great Zombie Apocalypse
Mike G
@Splitting Image:
By the same standard, Hewlett Packard should shut down and liquidate. Their tech support site has been abysmal for years.
NotMax
@mouse tolliver
If it’s the Fox Business channel, rather than the Fox ‘news’ channel, then it is to laugh.
The viewership of Fox Business is abysmal. Haven’t sought out numbers in a while, but do remember seeing reports that their total viewership – nationwide – was hovering around 90,000. On a good day.
? Martin
@BAtFFP:
Well, I can’t justify it for everyone, but my unit received 17,000 applications last year. Not the whole campus – just my unit. That’s 34,000 reads in 6 weeks. And that number has doubled in the last 5 years. I’m expecting 19,500 this year. We don’t scale staff to the number of apps, so we’re overwhelmed. I’ll be reading an additional 1,500 apps this year. App reading is above my usual 40 hours/wk. Every little bit we can do to improve workflow is critical. Our students submit an average of 4 transcripts per application, so you’re going to scan them and send them online, exactly the way I want it. The apps barely get read as it is, and if you can’t follow the instructions, then your app doesn’t get read. I’d hire people just to do this, but the best people for this job are the people that work here and can be responsible for taking care of every student that comes. As we reduce staff due to efficiencies elsewhere, and as students apply to more schools, the application/staff ratio has gotten totally out of hand.
Typically the first transcript is unofficial and comes while students are still in their studies and is incomplete. It’s used for evaluation. The second is official and used to verify work done. If the unofficial was falsified in any way, your admission gets cancelled. Time was we required an in-progress official and a final official. We’ve simplified that. Fewer than 3% of our students have completed all prior studies prior to application, there are so few that actually send the same transcript twice that we’ve never created a provision for them.
Keith P.
@Narcissus: and not just y
Hill Dweller
@NotMax: It hovered around 10,000 for the key advertising demographic.
pseudonymous in nc
@Chris:
The ACA’s minimum coverage requirements have really brought out the selfish-bastard streak in a lot of people. They’re also illuminating a fundamental ignorance of risk pooling and the basis of health insurance. People want exemptions for all the shit they don’t think they need, but they don’t seem to want to pay extra to cover the stuff they might be susceptible to. Funny, that.
Seriously, if you want a bespoke special snowflake health insurance plan, send a cheek swab to your insurer along with all your medical records, drugstore receipts and any Twitter or Facebook posts where you mention illness or injury. You really won’t like the results.
David Koch
@NotMax: actually, it’s much lower. last Tuesday’s average number was 44.5K with only 10K who weren’t seniors. CNBC’s average was roughly 3 times bigger. She’s facing (as Fox would say) quite a “slimdown”.
pseudonymous in nc
Roger Ailes seems to think that staffing Faux Bidness with CNN and CNBC people is sufficient. And look, there are enough wonks watching it who’ll stick clips up on Politico or wherever to catapult the propaganda. It’s not designed as a money-making enterprise.
Omnes Omnibus
@pseudonymous in nc: A whole bunch of people don’t really understand how insurance works. Those special Lloyd’s policies ensuring some model’s legs are really, really unusual They cost a lot and are very specific in their coverage. Unless one is a supermodel (and I could be if I chose to) or similarly out of the ordinary, such a policy makes no sense. The bigger the risk pool, the better is a good general rule.
Alison
Sorry, Rachel Maddow, I love you but there is nothing you can say to get me to watch Duck Dynasty. FFS.
fuckwit
Fuck the media, BECOME THE MEDIA!
Talk to your friends and neighbors. Bypass the fucking corporate right-wing media completely.
Join with Organizing for Action, to help get out the word, and educate and inform people about Obamacare and what their options are. Point them to the telephone number if the website sucks. Help them figure out the bewildering array of plans and help them make good choices. Help them get into Medicaid if they can now qualify for it– many can now who didn’t before.
The ACA is changing America for the better– millions who had no insurance can now get it, millions more who were tied to their fucking jobs forever are now free to change jobs– without worrying about being denied coverage for preexisting conditions– or start their own businesses, or work for smaller companies who couldn’t afford good plans before.
This is a huge positive change for almost all of us. You’ll have to do what the media won’t do: tell the truth about how living in a country with healthy people in it makes it a better place for all of us.
Most importantly: Obamacare ends the fundamental, mortal, existential terror of living in this country without a corporate job (or the threat of death and bankruptcy for you and your family if you lose your corporate job). Not surpising that the corporate media and their corporate advertisers find this a very dangerous, threatening thing, and will do everything in their power to destroy it. Too fucking bad for them.
Oh and in case you want the link, it’s here:
http://my.barackobama.com/Now-Join-Truth-Team
GregB
So, I think I have noticed a mindset, meme among far righties that I have noticed and it is to the effect that the very edifice of liberalism is collapsing because there are apparently some issues with the ACA rollout.
Has anyone else encountered this?
They seem to be really convinced that there is a full on collapse going on and that all things liberal are totally discredited.
First I want to ask if the menagerie of Bush fuck-ups were ever called ‘the collapse of conservatism’ in the media.
Secondly, the same people who see liberalism on the edge of total defeat were also the same folks who saw Mitt Romney on the verge of a landslide victory.
Keith P
@Alison: Don’t like DD? I’ve been a fan since day 1 in spite of their political leanings. It reminds me of the Cosby Show in that it presents a nice family dynamic, although I could do without the gun orgasms (I’m on record as not understanding the level of infatuation people have with their guns…they’re machines, fer chrissake). All the characters are pretty likeable (except for Phil, IMO), and it’s not overtly political. I even think the family blessing at the end is a nice touch, although I’m not a very religious person myself.
Omnes Omnibus
@fuckwit: THIS! If people talk about problems, don’t dismiss them. Say that the law isn’t perfect and can be tweaked and immediately switch to the upsides. “Yeah, the website has had some problems but millions who couldn’t get coverage now can. And so on.
Alison
@Keith P: Well, I despise guns, hunting, conservatives politics, and willful dumbness, so…..a nice family dynamic isn’t enough to overcome all that.
? Martin
Interesting read
Apple has pushed Duke energy into the clean energy market.
Omnes Omnibus
@Keith P: I believe that one of the people on this show was the starting QB at Louisiana Tech ahead of Terry Bradshaw.
Citizen_X
@Baud:
“Because now we look like even more venal assholes than we did previously, something many would have thought impossible.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen_X: It is amazing how many subbasements there are.
NotMax
@Alison
Never even heard of Duck Dynasty, but the magic duck cries out to becomes a regular feature on Maddow’s desk.
Maybe her staff can conjure up a magic elephant as well for when she’s talking about the GOP.
Suffern ACE
@Citizen_X: oh well. I was going to give the Cheney grandparents some compliments for at least acknowledging that they had a grandchild by spending thanksgiving with Mary. Have some good friends where the relationship was basically shut down after they adopted a child and got married. Sure it was a acrimonious resigned truce the first 15 years of the relationship, but the grandchild sent the grandparents over the edge.
But typically given the chance of a hobby for Liz, Mary gets thrown off the yacht.
NotMax
@Suffern ACE
And here we thought the original Liz & Dick were acrimonious when it came to marriage….
Bill E Pilgrim
@GregB: Antidote from Chait, who gets it even if the rest of the corporate press doesn’t:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/11/obamacare-hyperventilation-to-continue-forever.html
It’s never ceased to amaze me how this basic principle is so lost on the punditry. Week after week the Cokies (note to self: is she even around anymore? Time to find a new epitome of the Sunday Rich People’s Bloviating and Chitlin Circuit, but that would mean I’d have to watch one ever again so never mind) swarm around whatever meme Republicans have spoon fed them, and then as early as a week later find themselves saying things like well just last month everyone thought the ACA was dead forever, I mean, remember that? And now look!
It’s like they’re amazed at their own gullibility, right out loud, and yet the next thing out of their mouths is whatever the newer talking points are.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Does not compute.
wasabi gasp
@David Koch:
I think it’s bullshit, too. What kind of family airs this crap in public, especially this particular family…even Governor Gonerogue knows to keep her families dirty laundry in check. Dog and pony show.
fuckwit
Also, http://gigaom.com/2013/11/18/apple-solar-farm-fuel-cell-farms-exclusive-photos-investigative-report/
Ah, NM, someone already posted this upthread. Sorry.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Omnes Omnibus:
Meaning a performance venue/circuit for a marginalized demographic, in this case however the demo being wealthy white conservatives.
It was a joke.
piratedan
@wasabi gasp: the old… we’re Americans dealing with issues of the family, see how genuine we are!
yeah, I have so much empathy for the Cheney’s, in fact, they are right up there with the Walton family, CEO’s of Insurance companies and Wall Street…
Omnes Omnibus
@Bill E Pilgrim:
No shit. Read my comment in that context.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Omnes Omnibus: Uh, okay. Not really enough info to know, I thought you were genuinely confused. My bad. I guess.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bill E Pilgrim: Rich people and the Chitlin Circuit don’t normally go together. That was all I was trying to say. Maybe I read in too much. Maybe I read in too little.
? Martin
It’s working…
So California has about 100K subscribers now. I’ll guess that the last half of the month will match that number again and take us to 200K.
Funny what happens when you make a genuine effort…
wasabi gasp
Dilaila – Simmetrie
cckids
Since its an open thread, I’m loving this new Joe Boxer Christmas ad. Given the puritans out there in this country, I’m amazed there isn’t some ginned-up outcry about it.
Enjoy.
Sloane Ranger
Never forget that as far as the media is concerned Good News is No News!
With a 24/7 news cycle it needs constant diet of sensation to keep the punters watching and the GOP knows how to feed the beast with the sort of stories they need.
Sloane Ranger
Never forget that as far as the media is concerned Good News is No News!
With a 24/7 news cycle it needs constant diet of sensation, horror and fear to keep the punters watching and the GOP knows how to feed the beast with the sort of stories they need.
As previous commentators have said, the truth will slowly emerge I just hope that it is widely enough spread for the 2014 elections.
Matt McIrvin
@GregB:
If you looked at the Newsmax headlines in the right margin, over the past week they went from the usual mix of resentful whining and grift to triumphal chortling. I have to admit at least part of the reason I was freaking out last week was that I was picking up on that. The righties were happy again. It was just like my whole adolescence and GWB’s first term.
But the headlines up there now are mostly whining and grift again. So maybe the news cycle just ticked over.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@MattR: I thought Pa Cheny is gay to. I recall the press talking about that after the 1st Gulf War why Dick Cheny couldn’t run for president.
boatboy_srq
Interesting artifact of the debate. According to Benen, there was a letter to the editor in the Orlando Sentinel from one of those “can’t keep his/her insurance after all” folks – who got better coverage for less and bragged about it. The link is still there in the Opinion section of the site – but it brings up a great big Nothing now.
dww44
@GregB: If you didn’t catch Colbert’s show last evening, make sure to watch a clip or a replay (I will watch tonight at 6:30) as he does a masterful job on Bachmann and her supposed brilliance. He also shows a clip of Krauthammer saying exactly what you mention: that with the Obamacare failure, we are watching the total collapse of Obama’s Presidency, and liberalism, and Democrats will lose the Senate. Sadly, not only do Fox Watchers believe this 100%, that meme has moved over to the MSM and to certain progressive pundits, with posts like “Obama has One Year to Save his Presidency” from TNR.
I’m with Chris Hayes and his comments 2 nights ago about the whole Obamacare affair. All of us, whether we originally supported the ACA have to get behind it. But, we do need some media place champions out there. Obviously, Bill Clinton’s no longer a candidate for this. We don’t have the time to let the system work, although that’s important. We need to take control now of the media mouthpiece. It can be done.
Talentless Hack
@Baud: I just turn it off. I have way too much studying to do to worry about it anyway.
Talentless Hack
And if I were the President, I’d hold a joint session of Congress just to tell them that the ACA is here to stay, no matter what, that short of impeachment, the administration is going full steam ahead with it, that no further administration officials will be coming to any more of Rep. Issa’s witch hunts, subpoenas be damned, and that if Democrats don’t want to deal with Republican majorities big enough to override vetoes, they’d better put their big boy (girl) pants on and get with the program.
Should have happened years ago, but whatevs.