"IS PALIN QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT?"

Joe Miller couldn't bring himself to say "yes" and Christine O'Donnell also won't say that.   Maybe they both know that Palin is becoming toxic?

PLANTED CALLERS?

Last week I was monitoring Mark Levin's show and he took a call from a reporter for the Washington Examiner (I think, maybe the W. Times) and acted like it was just another caller.  It seems unlikely that this wasn't planned but I can't be sure.  

A couple of days ago I was monitoring Beck and he took a call from a woman who complained about the Fabian's being close to genocidal monsters based on a conversation her mother had with a friend from Britain who was a Fabian.  The woman said she overheard this conversation when she was only 12 years old.  This also seems unlikely to me but I can't tell if the caller was simply lying or if Beck staged the call.

UNUSUAL

Yahoo News has the story about Sharron Angle claiming that "Muslim law taking hold in parts of US" but after only 1,406 posts, the comment section is closed.  I've seen much longer threads, so I wonder why this one was closed down?

ACCOUNTING FOR AMERICA'S LONGEVITY LAG

Some commenters at POLITICO have replied to my posts that show America behind other advanced countries on many health measures reply that we're fatter and smoke more than the other countries that are ahead of us.  Until now, I've never found any research that examines this objection.

According to this study, neither smoking nor obesity account for America's comparatively poor longevity results.

What Changes In Survival Rates Tell Us About US Health Care

Peter A. Muennig1,* and Sherry A. Glied2
Health Affairs, doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0073
(Published online October 7, 2010)


We compared the performance of the United States to that of twelve nations that have populations of at least seven million and per capita GDP of at least 60 percent of the US per capita GDP since 1975. These nations are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

If smoking is an important explanation of poor US health outcomes, this should be apparent in indicators of health that are closely linked to smoking. To assess this, we examined patterns of mortality from lung cancer, a disease mostly related to lifetime cigarette smoking, across countries over time (see the Appendix).24 Because lung cancer takes many decades to develop, on average, lung cancer mortality serves as a good measure of the long-term effects of smoking.

Behavioral Risk Factors Smoking:

For both age cohorts, the mortality from lung cancer over time has increased in the United States relative to some other groups, such as sixty-five-year-olds in Australia and Austria. However, US mortality from lung cancer has declined relative to other groups, including sixty-five-year-olds in Belgium and France. Lung cancer mortality rates varied greatly by country, age, and sex over the four time periods, and no clear relationship emerged.

Behavioral Risk Factors Obesity: 

For obesity to explain the decline in US life expectancy or the increase in health spending relative to the twelve comparison countries, Americans would have to be becoming obese at a faster rate than people in the comparison nations over time. Exhibit 3 shows that the United States has generally had a slower rate of growth in the percentage of obese men and women over this period, relative to many of the comparison countries for which data were available. Across both sexes and all time periods, there were only three instances in which obesity was growing at a more rapid rate in the United States than in the comparison countries for which data were available.

ANOTHER BAD AP HEADLINE

This headline is inexcuable:

Southern Baptist leader on yoga: Not Christianity
Oct 7 05:32 AM US/Eastern
By DYLAN LOVAN
Associated Press Writer

What Mohler really said is that yoga is UNchristian and should not be practiced by the Fundies.

SOME GOOD NEWS!

An anonymous donor stepped up and will cover the cost of the bone marrow transplant for Mark Price.

APNewsBreak: Donation pledged for Ariz. transplant
Associated Press
Posted on October 7, 2010 at 8:31 AM
Updated today at 10:12 AM

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona man who lost his eligibility for a state-funded transplant due to state budget cuts is the beneficiary of an anonymous donation to pay for the life-saving procedure.

Leukemia patient Mark Price's transplant physician, Dr. Jeffrey Schriber, says the donation will allow preparations to move forward for a bone-marrow transplant that could take place within two to three weeks.

Banner Health spokeswoman Nancy Neff confirms that a donation has been made but says no details are available. Bone-marrow transplants cost $250,000 or above.

Price tells The Associated Press that he's elated by the news.

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES WAS WRITTEN BY FABIANS!!!

Or so I imagine Glenn Beck would claim.  I've noted before another passage from Acts which indicates the earliest Christians were Marxist swine and yesterday I found another one:

Acts of the Apostles 2:39-47
New Revised Standard Version

39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." 40 And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." 41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

ACCORDING TO WILDMON'S AFA...

Jesus Christ was the first libertarian. From Wonkette:

The fire department did the right and Christian thing. The right thing, by the way, is also the Christian thing, because there can be no difference between the two. The right thing to do will always be the Christian thing to do, and the Christian thing to do will always be the right thing to do.

Here's the background if you need it.

MATT TAIBBI SUMS UP THE BAGGERS...

(h/t John Cole and John Amato)

I think these are the best lines from his article in Rolling Stone:

Vast forests have already been sacrificed to the public debate about the Tea Party: what it is, what it means, where it's going. But after lengthy study of the phenomenon, I've concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They're full of shit. All of them.

They want desperately to believe in the one-size-fits-all, no-government theology of Rand Paul because it's so easy to understand.

THE LATEST GASBAG RADIO RATINGS

This is current as of Sept. 2010, from Talkers Magazine. Beck is now in 3rd place all by himself.

SOME HEARTENING NEWS

(h/t David Weigel)

I've noted before that Ilario Pantano is a murderer and I'm glad to learn that some conservatives agree that he does not belong in the House of Representatives. From The Daily Beast:

Deborah Johns is a former vice chair of the Tea Party Express, the influential conservative organization that helped bankroll the upset campaigns of Joe Miller in Alaska and Christine O'Donnell in Delaware. She's also the mother of a Marine and once organized pro-Iraq War counterprotests against Cindy Sheehan. In an interview with the Associated Press, Johns said that she's endorsing McIntyre and that Pantano's conduct in Iraq, which a number of military and human-rights experts have condemned as deplorable, is to blame for the surprise move.

"That is not a war hero," Johns said. "It is people like that that give all our military a bad name."

MARK "FOAMER" LEVIN ISN'T MAKING MANY FRIENDS

I've noted before his pettiness toward other people and usually this aren't prominent people but this time he's gone after one of the Big Boys. From Media Matters:

LEVIN: Why is the 8 pmer so scared of me? Why is Bill O'Reilly so fearful of me? My name can't even cross the man's lips, not that I want anything to cross his lips, but you get the point.

That's what he is - a fraud. Tell you what, fraud. Anytime you want to come on here, more than happy to debate you on anything. Including your legal issues.

Yeah, Rush nailed it, absolutely nailed it. Ted Baxter. That's about right.

FATS LIMBAUGH SLAMS PRES. OBAMA AND THE MSM NOTICES

I don't know why this took so long because Fats has been insulting Pres. Obama before he was elected.  Like many others (e.g., David Frum), ABC News hasn't been paying attention:

Derision of the president on his program is nothing new, but Rush Limbaugh’s tone today may have struck the ears of regular listeners as particularly disdainful, taking his contempt of the president to a new level.

It's NOT a new level and Limbaugh has plenty of company, including Beck, Savage and Mark Levin.

POLITICO linked to the ABC post, so maybe this will catch on.

A PROTO-BAGGER

(h/t Ken Hoop)

Joseph Sobran was a star at the National Review until he started to realize that Israel was much more of a liability than an ally.   Here's why I claim he was a forerunner of the Baggers:

He wrote often on the Constitution as well, and as he underwent a slow conversion to anarchism beginning in the late 1980s, he arrived at the conclusion, based on his reading of the 10th Amendment, that virtually every act of the federal government since the Civil War was illegal.

WHY THE MARK PRICE STORY SHOULD GO NATIONAL

Many other GOP candidates would probably approve of letting Price die in order to balance the budget.  Here's just one example:

Rand Paul says Medicaid causes 'intergenerational welfare'
Posted on Tuesday, October 5, 2010
By Jack Brammer | The Lexington Herald-Leader

FRANKFORT — Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul said Medicaid's lenient eligibility standards have led to "intergenerational welfare" in a discussion Monday with three members of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

He focused on the high costs of Medicaid, a federal-state health-insurance program that covers about 800,000 poor and disabled Kentuckians and costs nearly $6 billion.

"When we have a government program to help those who are in need or who have unfortunate problems, let's help those truly in need," Paul said.

He contended that lenient eligibility standards have led to "intergenerational welfare."

DISAPPOINTMENT

Some time ago, I filed a complaint against Mark Levin with the FEC for raising money for conservative candidates on his radio show.   Today I received the FEC's decision by registered letter and unfortunately Levin can do fund raising on air.

YES, MOST BAGGERS ARE STUPID & IGNORANT

If I put on my tinfoil hat and gloves, I can see the Bagger movement as a way to sneak the unpopular Fundie agenda back into national politics.

Many Tea Partiers part of religious right
By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 5, 2010 1:26pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Many supporters of the conservative Tea Party movement that has shaken up politics share the same views as the Christian right on social issues like abortion and the role of religion in public life, according to a poll released on Tuesday.

...are more likely to support government restrictions on gay marriage and other social issues, the Public Religion Research Institute found in its American Values Survey.

Nearly half of those who identify with the Tea Party believe that the Bible is the literal word of God, and a similar proportion thinks that public officials do not pay enough attention to religion, the survey found. They are more likely than the population as a whole to view America as a Christian nation.

EVEN CHILDREN WILL DIE...

The cutbacks to health care passed by the GOP legislature and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R) will also lead to the deaths of children.   WHY HASN'T THIS MADE THE NATIONAL NEWS?

Criticism for Brewer for declaring 'Child Health Day' in wake of cuts
by Alicia E. Barrón
Fox 11
Posted on October 5, 2010 at 10:46 AM

PHOENIX - There is criticism of Gov. Jan Brewer for declaring Monday Child Health Care Day in Arizona in the wake of severe budget cuts to programs.

It is expected that both the governor and her democratic challenger, Terry Goddard, are going to try and use cuts to Kids Care and Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to their political benefit.

For one local mother the issue is not about politics, it is a real-life dilemma with her daughter’s health insurance hanging in the balance.

“You know, my first thought was that I failed her," Dianne Ereth said.

She is lamenting the fact that in a couple of months her 7-year-old daughter, Sierra, will be left without health insurance.

The Ereth family has been given a 90-day emergency re-instatement, which runs out Nov. 31. In the meantime, Sierra cannot get back on Kids Care because the Legislature has frozen enrollment in order to save money.

BIG PHARMA AT IT AGAIN...

Too many times, Big Pharma puts profits above patients and here's another example:

Novartis fined $422.5M in kickback case
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • September 30, 2010

Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. will pay $422.5 million in penalties for marketing an epilepsy medicine for unapproved uses and for paying kickbacks to doctors to prescribe it and five other drugs, federal officials in Philadelphia announced Thursday.

The drug maker illegally marketed Trileptal as a treatment for bipolar disorder and nerve pain, sending its sales force to the offices of neurologists, psychiatrists and pain specialists, Memeger said.

Novartis sought FDA approval in 1995 to sell Trileptal as a treatment for mania … a component of bipolar disorder … but that it was not effective in clinical trials.

BECK GETS AWAY WITH SAYING ALMOST ANYTHING

On his radio show today, he criticized Rick Sanchez for being an anti-Semite!!!

I MISSED THIS PIECE OF BECK'S KRAZINESS

This is from The Daily Beast which ran an excerpt from Dana Milbank's Tears of a Clown.

There was, for example, Beck’s promotion on air of Nazi sympathizer Elizabeth Dilling’s The Red Network from the 1930s. “McCarthy was absolutely right,” he told radio listeners as he recommended Dilling’s book in June. “He may have used bad tactics or whatever, but he was absolutely right.” Dilling’s book, he continued, was “doing what we’re doing now”—documenting communists in America.

What Beck did not tell listeners is that Dilling referred to President Dwight Eisenhower as “Ike the kike” and President John Kennedy’s New Frontier as the “Jew Frontier.” Dilling made common cause with Adolf Hitler and blamed communism and the Second World War on the Jews. She considered interracial mixing to be a communist plot.

ARRGH!

The bitch is back!  Caitlyn Jensen is apparently working on a GOTV campaign.

MICHELE BACHMANN AND FAUX NEWS

This POLITICO article notes that extremist politicians are often "rewarded with cable television appearances" and that certainly applies to Krazy Bachmann.   Here's a partial list of her appearances on the agit-prop network:

1. Interview With Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, September 17, 2010 Friday, NEWS; Domestic, 1317 words, Sean Hannity
2. Interview With Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, July 21, 2010 Wednesday, NEWS; Domestic, 1028 words, Greta Van Susteren
3. Interview with Rep. Bachmann
Fox News Network, July 16, 2010 Friday, NEWS; Domestic, 1967 words, Sean Hannity
4. Interview With Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, June 24, 2010 Thursday, NEWS; Domestic, 1605 words, Sean Hannity
5. Interview With Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, June 4, 2010 Friday, NEWS; Domestic, 910 words, Connell McShane
6. Interview With Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, May 19, 2010 Wednesday, NEWS; Domestic, 1665 words, Sean Hannity
7. Interview With Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, April 19, 2010 Monday, NEWS; Domestic, 2237 words, Sean Hannity
8. Interview with Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, April 11, 2010 Sunday, NEWS; Domestic, 1874 words, Chris Wallace
9. Interview With Michele Bachmann, Tom Price
Fox News Network, March 25, 2010 Thursday, NEWS; Domestic, 1705 words, Sean Hannity
10. Interview with Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, March 18, 2010 Thursday, NEWS; Domestic, 1793 words, Sean Hannity
11. Interview With Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, March 4, 2010 Thursday, NEWS; Domestic, 650 words, Neil Cavuto
12. Interview With Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, February 15, 2010 Monday, NEWS; Domestic, 2106 words, Sean Hannity
13. Interview with Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, January 25, 2010 Monday, NEWS; Domestic, 1033 words, Bill O'Reilly
14. Interview With Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, January 21, 2010 Thursday, NEWS; Domestic, 1987 words, Sean Hannity
15. Interview with Rep. Michele Bachman; Interview with Michael Steele
Fox News Network, December 14, 2009 Monday, NEWS; Domestic, 4003 words, Sean Hannity
16. Interview With Michelle Bachmann
Fox News Network, August 18, 2009 Tuesday, NEWS; Domestic, 2057 words, Sean Hannity, Griff Jenkins
17. Interview With Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, November 19, 2008 Wednesday, NEWS; Domestic, 575 words, Neil Cavuto
18. Interview With Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, November 18, 2008 Tuesday, NEWS; Domestic, 1773 words, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes
19. Congresswoman Bachmann Clarifies Remarks
Fox News Network, October 22, 2008 Wednesday, NEWS; Domestic, 1223 words, Bill O'Reilly
20. Interview With Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann
Fox News Network, October 17, 2008 Friday, NEWS; Domestic, 790 words, Neil Cavuto

THE FREE MARKET AT WORK

These banksters were so eager to foreclose that they didn't bother to make sure the paper work was correct.

Wells Fargo Exec Checked Only Date On Documents
by The Associated Press
October 4, 2010

A Wells Fargo executive has acknowledged that he verified only the dates on up to 150 foreclosure documents he signed daily.

Three other lenders, Ally Financial Inc.'s GMAC Mortgage unit, Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have halted tens of thousands of foreclosures after similar practices became public.

I JUST CHECKED GOOGLE NEWS...

and the Mark Price story still hasn't gone national.

JOHN CALVIN ON THE FUNDIE RUBES

William J. Bouwsma has written a terrific book on the thought of John Calvin and in it I found one nice statement by Calvin that applies to the Fundie rubes of America in his commentary on Galatians 1:8:

Of what avail was it to profess respect for the gospel, and not to know what it meant? With Papists, who hold themselves bound to render implicit faith, that might be perfectly sufficient; but with Christians, where there is no knowledge, there is no faith.

The same criticism also applies to the rubes knowledge of the Constitution.

THE VILLAGERS STILL LIKE THEMS SOME CHALABI

(h/t Gawker)

Ahmad Chalabi, the single person most responsible for supporting the neo-cons war with Iraq, was invited to a nice & fancy "Washington Ideas Forum" but he wasn't guillotined.  The Forum was sponsored by The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute.

Chalabi re-iterated his support for the Iraq War and did not apologize for helping to lie us into it:

"Getting rid of Saddam was certainly justified," he told Washington Post columnist Sally Quinn in their conversation at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. He said of his famously influential support for the war, "We were concerned about Saddam's oppression." He added when Quinn asked about the alleged weapons of mass destruction that never materialized, "The weapons of mass destruction was to our view a marginal issue."

ANOTHER NARRATIVE CONTRADICTION

Last week on his radio show, Hannity attacked health care reform again, this time by taking a fact - that there will be a doctor shortage - and turning it against reform.  The reform will lead to 32 million more people getting coverage so the real question should be: How can America have the best health care in the world when we don't have enough doctors?

Here's the link to the report by the Association of American Medical Colleges

GOV. JAN BREWER (R-AZ) MAY LOSE HER ELECTION BID

Based on the comments I've read at the Arizona Republic, her stance on Mark Price will cost her dearly.
It may even go national and damage the GOP.

IS THE RADIO PART OF THE NOISE MACHINE MOVING TO "FULL SPEED"

Prior to the last week, I had only seen one billboard ad for a national radio host and that was because Laura Ingraham had switched local stations. Below I noted that I saw an ad for Fats Limbaugh and yesterday near Alvernon and Irvington, I saw one that was an ad for Beck and Hannity with the words "what a pair" between their pictures.

REMEMBER "COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM"?

We knew that slogan was almost meaningless and now we find out that GOP hearts are even darker than we thought.  I noted below that part of Arizona's budget cuts to Medicaid, known here as AHCCCS, will condemn people to death and no sooner did the law take effect than we have our first victim.

Transplant man needs to live no longer covered under AHCCCS
by Alicia E. Barrón
azfamily.com
Posted on October 1, 2010 at 8:08 PM
Updated yesterday at 9:54 PM

PHOENIX – Budget cuts to the state's Medicaid program AHCCCS went into effect Friday but it was a few hours too late for a local father who is dying of Leukemia.

The transplant operation Mark Price needs is no longer covered under his health program even though he got was notified Friday there are two perfect bone marrow matches.

Price explains, “We got a phone call from the hospital telling us the good news that there were two perfect matches.”

Nevertheless Friday is also the day the Arizona’s Medicaid benefits that would pay for the expensive transplant expired.

Gov. Brewer says the cuts were hard but necessary and her spokesperson made clear it is unlikely the governor will change her mind and move to reinstate the transplant cuts

I posted a longer version of this at Daily Kos.

STUPID OLD BITCH WHINES TO FATS LIMBAUGH

She strongly asserted that she didn't vote for Pres. Obama and from the tone of her remarks, I suspect she thinks he's a Marxist out to destroy America.   Of course, she's collecting Social Security Disability and other people in her household are relying on other Federal SOCIAL programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

She and her family are about to be evicted from their trailer home.

WHY MANY AMERICANS ARE GOING TO BE POORER

It's because of free trade in manufactured goods.   We simply can't compete with workers who make $300 a month AFTER a huge raise.

Foxconn to raise wages again at China plant
BEIJING | Fri Oct 1, 2010 8:42am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Electronics maker Foxconn Technologies, under fire for its working practices after a string of worker suicides, has decided to up salaries by two-thirds at its Shenzhen factory, state media said on Friday.

News agency Xinhua quoted company spokesman Liu Kun as saying the roughly 66 percent pay rise for assembly line workers, the second this year, would bring salaries to 2,000 yuan ($298.9) per month. It starts from this month.

JOHN GIBSON WAS SURPRISED AGAIN

Yesterday, he continued with his low-level race baiting by asking his audience if there was any racism behind Pres. Obama's low poll numbers.   Most of the callers were wingnuts who hewed to the official line that there is no racism but several others, including some who seemed to be conservatives, did admit that some of the opposition to Pres. Obama was based on racism.  From what I heard, these people are worried about whites becoming a minority in America and that creates a lot of anxiety in them.