"I'm not even sure this is a racial situation because I don't know if this cop is racist. But I have to say it seems to me more like a police situation. I think Henry Louis Gates was arrested for the crime of not kissing the behind of the police officer."Police are to be servants of the community. Not intimidating, brutes with inferiority complexes and barely a high school diploma. Ever see the police at a job fair or high school recruiting the top candidates? Nope.
"While traditional adherence to quaint philosophic concepts might make it appear that the evidence overwhelmingly favors the conclusion that Barack Obama is a United States citizen, it is clear that this cannot be the case so long as we don’t pay any attention to the idea that there is an objective reality.Andrew Sullivan adds his take on GOP realism:
Cognitive Realism, the Law of Attraction, and Norse Mythology all provide plausible philosophic justification for ignoring evidence and logic. Accordingly, because Obama’s claim to American citizenship is only supported by evidence and logic, he must not be an American citizen. Thus, Barack Obama is not eligible to be President of the United States.
It’s perfectly logical."
"If you're a Republican, a lot of things are logical: the entire debt began the moment Obama took office; Bush and Cheney never tortured anyone, but Obama is about to; the WMDs really are in Iraq; the president has the constitutional power to send tanks into the streets to arrest any American without charges; deficits don't matter; Obama is a Kenyan Muslim impostor; and Sarah Palin was qualified to be president of the United States at a moment's notice."Then you have to be bi-partisan with this lot?
"If you do a survey of Medicare, most people are happy with Medicare. There are no bureaucrats interfering between doctors and patients in Medicare. But there are a lot of bureaucrats interfering between private health insurance companies and patients and doctors. … It’s time that the special interests in Congress stopped influencing folks to make their choices for them, and let the American people choose." - Howard DeanWhy do we have to wait to be over 65 to have a public choice in this country?
Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, has introduced a bill called the Say No to Drug Ads Act. It would amend the federal tax code to prevent pharmaceutical companies from deducting the cost of direct-to-consumer drug advertisements as a business expense.It was never like that 10 years ago. You never saw ads on TV for all these unpronounceable drugs. These ads drive the demand and push people to use drugs for ailments they might not otherwise care about. Pretty devious.
“You should not be going to a doctor saying, ‘I have restless leg syndrome’ — whatever the hell that is — or going to a doctor saying, ‘I have the mumps,’ ” Mr. Nadler said in an interview. “You should not be diagnosed by some pitchman on TV who doesn’t know you whatsoever.”
"The Republicans claim the health insurance reform debate has been moving at lightning speed. In fact for 15 years, it's hardly moved at all. Now the Republicans say Congress should slow down? That's because when something goes slow enough it's easy to kill it dead in its tracks."It's government of the people for the people. The bought-off Democrats need to be brought inline, represent their constituents and not corporations running up profits, and pass some meaningful reform.
"The Blue Dogs are (suddenly and at last) concerned with how much health care reform is going to cost, keeping watch for the next CBO report whose scoring does not land close to the deficit-neutral target. And yet, the alternatives they propose for health care reform would all -- uhm...drive up costs! So, what's the deal? Are these people basically just morons?"Paul Krugman writes in is column:
"Maybe they're just being complete hypocrites. It's worth remembering the history of one of the Blue Dog Coalition's founders: former Representative Billy Tauzin of Louisiana. Mr. Tauzin switched to the Republicans soon after the group's creation; eight years later he pushed through the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, a deeply irresponsible bill that included huge giveaways to drug and insurance companies. And then he left Congress to become, yes, the lavishly paid president of PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry lobby.The influence of the health care industry, insurers and lobbyists is massive. They are spending over $1.4 million a day and have hired "350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in hopes of influencing their old bosses and colleagues."One interpretation, then, is that the Blue Dogs are basically following in Mr. Tauzin's footsteps: if their position is incoherent, it's because they're nothing but corporate tools, defending special interests. And as the Center for Responsive Politics pointed out in a recent report, drug and insurance companies have lately been pouring money into Blue Dog coffers."
"Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase have reported huge profits, the Dow has made it past 9000, and Barack Obama has moved on to health care. The horror show seems to be over. But as in one of those clichéd Hollywood endings, the monster in this story isn't really dead, even if most people think he is. Lost amid all the premature self-congratulation is the fact that the deepest underlying problem that caused the financial disaster is not being solved.This is the United States of Amnesia. We tend to forget all the meaningful details in no time. The heavy lifting always seems to be pushed off to the next guy. I hope we can stick to getting real change this time and maybe our approaches to future problems will reflect this shift.
The problem: how to control and keep tabs on the market activities of giant firms that cause such a disruption to the system they can't be allowed to fail."
"I talked to people on the Hill all day today. Talked to Republicans as well as Democrats. Republicans claims they have a plan. They don't. They claim they're going to have a plan. They won't. Their whole strategy ... is to stand on the sidelines with their arms folded while the Democrats try to work this thing out. That's their whole strategy."
"Approximately 114 million Americans are expected to leave private health insurance. Why? Their employers will drop the insurance because the taxpayer-subsidized plan will be 30 to 40 percent cheaper." -- Rep. Michele Bachmann accidentally making the case for the public option.Since when is something 30-40% cheaper a bad thing. Does she not realize that every paycheck, if my employer offers health care, a payment goes toward health insurance? Now if that payment is 30-40% less, not only is that good for me, but it's less overhead for my company. For individuals and businesses alike, this is great news.
"You're playing to the crazies."Republicans refuse to outright deny whether Obama is a citizen, playing the "it's not what I think" bullshit game, because they want to foment their wacko base into spreading this fallacy. They can not take on his policies or his leadership, so they are reduced to petty racism and attacks on his ethnicity.
"...the right's claim that the administration used $1.19 million of taxpayer funds to buy just two pounds of ham. In the real world where the grown-ups live, the Department of Agriculture actually spent $1.19 million of taxpayer funds to buy 760,000 pounds of ham -- that's 380 tons -- to be distributed to local organizations that assist low-income Americans through food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens.They were only off by 759,998 pounds.
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