HOW TO PARE $500 BILLION FROM MEDICARE IN TEN YEARS.

A good start would be cutting down on fraud. In fiscal year 2009, up to $47 billion in fraudulent payments may have been made and in Florida, ripping off Medicare is a cottage industry. If we crack down on this, as Pres. Obama and AG Holder seem to be doing, we may save $25 billion or more per year.

DOES "EXTENDED DEBATE" MEAN FILIBUSTER?

I just looked up what happens after the Senate and House iron out their differences and the result is called the "conference report." This may not be amended but in the Senate it seems that the report may be filibustered:

In the Senate, conference reports are usually brought up by unanimous consent at a time agreed to by the party leaders and floor managers. Because conference reports are privileged, if any Senator objects to the unanimous consent request, a nondebatable motion can be made to take up the conference report. Approval of the conference report itself is subject to extended debate, but conference reports are not open to amendment.

MIXED NEWS

Looks like Reid finally has 60 votes to pass health care reform but Stupak seems to be adamant on prohibiting abortion. Once it passes the Senate, there will be a conference with senators and house members to iron out the differences and I wonder if the result of that compromise can be filibustered?

FUNDIES SUCK

Even the very brightest ones aren't worth much. I was reading this NYT Magazine article about Robert P. George, supposedly a Fundie intellectual giant who was primarily responsible for the Manhattan Declaration. I went to read the Declaration and I found this howler in the 2nd paragraph:

While fully acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the Empire’s sanctioning of infanticide.

THIS DID NOT HAPPEN, as John Boswell makes very clear in The Kindness of Strangers. BTW, I just read a comment left at the last link and it turns out that the popular Italian name "ESPOSITO" originally referred to people who were abandoned as babies.

YUP, I'M WRONG AGAIN...

According to this piece in the WaPo, Sen. Nelson is full of shit about Nebraska having to shell out a lot more money for Medicaid:

Under the legislation, much of the extension of coverage would be accomplished by raising the threshold for Medicaid eligibility to a uniform level across the country -- to 133 percent of the poverty level in the Senate bill, and 150 percent of the poverty level in the House bill.

To keep this expansion from burdening already-strapped state governments, the bills call for the federal government to pick up nearly the entire cost of covering newly eligible people -- 91 percent of the cost in the House bill, and even more of it in the Senate bill.

Under the legislation, states that have been stingy -- Nebraska covers parents to only 58 percent of poverty, and does not cover childless adults -- will be able to cover their low-income residents with the feds picking up more than 90 percent of the cost.

MAKING THE ROUNDS

Joe Bastardi is a senior forecaster for Accuweather and a global warming denialist, so he naturally got time on Imus In The Morning and Hannity's radio show to spout his uninformed views.

A STOOGE ABROAD

(h/t Politics Daily)

Sen. Inhofe (R-Barbarians) goes all the way to Copenhagen only to make a fool of himself and hurt America's image abroad:

Jim Inhofe gets cool reception in Denmark
By LOUISE ROUG | 12/18/09 4:34 AM EST
POLITICO

Inhofe’s aides eventually rustled up a group of reporters, and the Oklahoman — wearing black snakeskin cowboy boots — held forth from the top of a flight of stairs in the conference media center.

“We in the United States owe it to the 191 countries to be well-informed and know what the intentions of the United States are. The United States is not going to pass a cap and trade,” he said. “It’s just not going to happen.”

A reporter asked: “If there’s a hoax, then who’s putting on this hoax, and what’s the motive?”

“It started in the United Nations,” Inhofe said, “and the ones in the United States who really grab ahold of this is the Hollywood elite.”

One reporter asked Inhofe if he was referring to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Another reporter — this one from Der Spiegel — told the senator: “You’re ridiculous.”

What adds to the humor is the fact that Sen. Numbnuts then hopped on a place back to the U.S.! Did we pay for this farce?

A LITTLE MORE EVIDENCE

I recently read that the John Birch Society is trying to mainstream itself and then I learned that it's going to co-sponsor CPAC. Now, I've come across a poster on this WaPo thread who links to the Bircher site:

dlong32 wrote:
Pinealla, thank you for proving my point that Mann supporters would point to the NAS report...the methods used were incorrect! Get a grip. The Wegman report was completed by an independent group of stataticians who concluded that Mann's conclusion were not legimately supported by his work. HE CHEATED to arrive at the result he wanted...also look up John Christie when you get time. He's a bit more honest than the Chicken Little Society clan.

http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/3349
12/18/2009 1:09:56 PM

A LITTLE TOO LATE

Prof. Michael E. Mann is given op-ed space in the WaPo to reply to Palin and other denialists and it is a pretty good job but I don't think it's going to help much because the smears have had too much time to get embedded into our culture.

OK, LIVING IN A SERIOUSLY BROKE STATE (ARIZONA)

(via John Walker at FDL)

I can see the point behind Sen. Nelson's objection to the expansion of Medicaid:

GOP senators to block defense bill in bid to delay health-care vote

By Paul Kane and Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 18, 2009; A03

Earlier Thursday, in an interview with a Nebraska radio station, Nelson said even if the abortion issue were resolved, he still could not support the $848 billion package, complaining that the plan to cover more than 30 million additional Americans calls for dramatically expanding Medicaid, which is partially funded by the states. The Medicaid expansion would "create an underfunded federal mandate for the state of Nebraska," Nelson said, arguing that states should be permitted to "opt out" of that idea and find other ways to offer coverage to their poorest residents.

Now, why doesn't he propose some help for the states?

WHO'S LISTENING TO THE RADIO GASBAGS?

I assumed that major conservative players like Frum and Kain would be at least somewhat familiar with the bilge poured out by right-wing radio hosts and I was wrong. Now it seems that two POLITICO reporters, Josh Gerstein and John F. Harris, also don't have a clue because they wrote this:

Two presidents later, the saga feels like a far-off chapter in the nation’s history,

I think it's fair to say that not a single weekday goes by without a derogatory mention of the Clinton sex scandal, directly or indirectly, on at least one of the wingnut radio shows.

GOOD REPORTING FROM THE RAW STORY

This article exposes the American Seniors Association as just another conservative front group backed by wealthy reactionaries and FAUX News bozos.

Exclusive: Fox-backed seniors group exposed as conservative front

By Sahil Kapur
Thursday, December 17th, 2009 -- 12:01 pm

WASHINGTON -- The seniors group American Seniors Association (ASA) describes itself as a conservative alternative to the AARP and has attracted notable press coverage this year for its opposition to health care reform. A Raw Story investigation, however, reveals that the group has a massive web of affiliations to right-wing activists, think tanks, politicians, media and executives -- signaling ideological motivations than extend well beyond serving the interests of seniors.

ABSOLUTELY NO SELF-AWARENESS

Chuck Norris doesn't have a clue about how he appears to normal folks and should think about writing for The Onion. He writes in Human Events that if health care reform had been in place 2000 years ago, the Baby Jesus would've died.

Chuck Norris: Public health care would have killed Baby Jesus

By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, December 17th, 2009 -- 9:46 pm
The Raw Story

BLOOMBERG GOES LIMBAUGH

Limbaugh and other right-wing climate change denialists just LOVE to report on record cold weather whenever they get the chance and I have an uneasy feeling that many of the rubes think these statements are real evidence that there is no global warming.

Sadly, Bloomberg News joins in:

Blizzard Dumps Snow on Copenhagen as Leaders Battle Warming
By Christian Wienberg

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- World leaders flying into Copenhagen today to discuss a solution to global warming will first face freezing weather as a blizzard dumped 10 centimeters (4 inches) of snow on the Danish capital overnight.

Denmark has a maritime climate and milder winters than its Scandinavian neighbors. It hasn’t had a white Christmas for 14 years, under the DMI’s definition, and only had seven last century.

I PREDICTED THIS

One of the wingers long-standing complaints is how much money the U.S. spends on other countries and international groups, so when Sec. Clinton said that the U.S. would join with other countries "in raising $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations cope with global warming," I just knew the wingers would claim that the U.S. would be ponying up the entire $100 billion.

Hannity rarely lets me down:

Hannity falsely suggests Clinton "promis[ed]" U.S. would pay $100 billion per year to address climate change in developing countries
December 17, 2009 8:08 pm ET

ANOTHER NARRATIVE CONFLICT

Limbaugh, Levin, Savage and other wingnuts have repeatedly claimed that Pres. Obama is a Marxist so I wonder how they will explain this?

Obama faces healthcare insurrection from left flank
Thu Dec 17, 2009 1:03pm EST
By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The White House worked on Thursday to tamp down an insurrection from some of President Barack Obama's liberal backers who feel he has been too willing to compromise away their priorities on a healthcare overhaul.

SHERIFF ARPAIO NEEDS A GOOD SMACKDOWN

I've listened to a few clips of him speaking and he really seems to think he's the top dog in Maricopa County, unanswerable to anyone. I came across a hint that as part of his campaign to attack his political opponents, the county attorney was going to bring in two wingnut lawyers:

Prosecutors hired in Stapley case
Celebrity D.C. attorneys to look into allegations of fraud, theft
by Michael Kiefer - Oct. 6, 2009 11:04 AM
The Arizona Republic

Two celebrity Washington, D.C., attorneys who make frequent TV-news appearances as legal commentators will take over the investigation into allegations of fraud and theft against County Supervisor Don Stapley.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas appointed the husband-and-wife law team of Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing to conduct an independent investigation. He also gave them the authority to use the Maricopa County grand jury for a potential indictment.

Arpaio also buys into the War on Christman BS (via Amanda Terkel at Think Progress):

According to ABC News, Arpaio said that “for agnostics,” he would “mix in the singing Chipmunks” — who also presumably sing Christmas carols. “We can’t say ‘Merry Christmas’ in the U.S., in the world anymore,” said Arpaio, fulling joining in the War on Christmas. “What are we coming to? I am saying it. I am singing it. It’s gonna be in this jail, and that’s the way the ball bounces.”

THEN AGAIN, IT'S NOT LIKE I HAVE MUCH CHOICE

Despite my gripes, I can't stand by and let the lunatic wingers near the levers of power again.

SOMETIMES, IT'S HARD NOT TO BE CYNICAL

These are some of my gripes.

I voted for John Edwards in my state's Democratic primary only to find out much later he was covering up an affair which would've doomed his (and our) chances if he had won the nomination. Pres. Obama has decided to "turn the page" on torture and illegal spying, almost insuring that these crimes will be committed again. Ben Bernanke has done a reasonably good job of dealing with the Great Recession but he's really part of the Wall Street culture that led to the collapse, so he should not be given another term. Health care reform may be so flawed that it isn't worth passing, thus wasting the best chance for improving our system in about 60 years.

This isn't the change I was hoping for.

ANOTHER SCREW-UP BY OUR MILITARY

Those nifty drone killing machines did not have ALL their communication links encrypted so militants have been able to see what the drones are looking at just by purchasing a $30 software program. This really is a disgrace when you consider that we've known about this since the 1990s (from the WSJ):

The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said.

NEW LOOK...

I finally switched over to Blogger's new system and I've made a few changes that seem useful. I've split my links into those that I primarily consider to be sources of information and those that I consider to be opinions. This isn't a strict division but it does help make the links a little more rational.

If you have any suggestions, please be my guest.

IN BECK WORLD, IT'S STILL 1932

Glenn Beck echoed Ludwig von Mises criticism of health insurance.

THIS MAKES SENSE

From AOL's Politics Daily:

YES, THEY SHOULD BEG FOR FORGIVENESS

(h/t Wonkette)

The Fundies are at it again. They plan to have a rally in DC in May to beg God to forgive our nation. Among the backers of this pinhead movement are several people who really should beg:

Three Star General Jerry Boykin, Kingdom Warriors Ministries
Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America
Tim Wildmon, American Family Association
Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, Pray In Jesus Name
Jerome Corsi, author, journalist

WINGERS OFTEN BABBLE ABOUT THE LAW

For example, Mark Levin has repeatedly said that most of the New Deal is unconstitutional and I've posted on POLITICO that he should back up his statements by filing suit. So far as I know, he has only come with excuses for not doing so.

Keith Olbermann has decided to challenge O'Reilly to also back up his words and sue for defamation. Let's see how BOR responds.

YES, PRES. OBAMA LIED TO US

Jon Walker at FDL found a blatant lie:

You talk to every health care economist out there, they will tell you that what ever ideas exist in terms of bending the cost curve and starting to reduce cost for families, businesses, and government, those elements are in this bill.

I have given the President a little bit of slack on other issues (FISA, enemy combatants) but this statement is simply insulting to many of us who believed he would bring some real change to the WH.

PERHAPS WE'LL HAVE TO MAKE DO

There's a lot of diversity among liberals about the Senate's health care reform bill, some even want it defeated. Nate Silver makes a fairly persuasive case that even though the bill is far from what liberals wanted, it's still much better than doing nothing. I agree with him and we shouldn't forget that this doesn't mean we can't have better legislation in the future.

AT FIRST I THOUGHT THIS WAS LEFTWING AGIT-PROP

The idea that some "moderates" would oppose allowing a Medicare buy-in because us dirty fucking hippies liked it seemed over the top when Atrios first suggested it. Once again, I'm naive:

[I]n the interview, Mr. Lieberman said that he grew apprehensive when a formal proposal began to take shape. He said he worried that the program would lead to financial trouble and contribute to the instability of the existing Medicare program.

And he said he was particularly troubled by the overly enthusiastic reaction to the proposal by some liberals, including Representative Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York, who champions a fully government-run health care system.

"Congressman Weiner made a comment that Medicare-buy in is better than a public option, it's the beginning of a road to single-payer," Mr. Lieberman said. "Jacob Hacker, who's a Yale professor who is actually the man who created the public option, said, 'This is a dream. This is better than a public option. This is a giant step.'"

BTW, Prof. Hacker did not make those comments.

CHICKEN LITTLE CONSERVATIVES

At least 5 days a week, conservative radio hosts try to sell the rubes the proposition that we are facing the worst times EVAH and all sorts of things, like Capitalism itself, are about to disappear. Today, I got an e-mail solicition from the right-wing mag Commentary and it uses the same approach:

The fate of the United States, the fate of Western civilization, and the fate of democracies great and small—especially the miraculous, vibrant, and besieged democracy called Israel—all hang in the balance.

NOT "WATCHING OUT FOR THE LITTLE GUY"

Despite the recent fraud perpetrated by the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street, conservative thinking still seems to concentrate on the shortcomings of the lower classes. Consider this article, approved by Andrew Sullivan, from what appears to be a neo-con magazine devoted to social issues:

Keeping America's Edge

JIM MANZI
FROM ISSUE NUMBER 2 ~ WINTER 2010
NATIONAL AFFAIRS

And third is the growing disparity in behavioral norms and social conditions between the upper and lower income strata of American society.

Increasingly, our country is segregated into high-income groups with a tendency to bourgeois norms, and low-income groups experiencing profound social breakdown.

ARE WE MAKING AN EVEN WORSE MISTAKE?

In the past, we've come close to indiscriminate air strikes in Afghanistan and that's alienated millions of Afghanis. John Cole found a PRI report that our use of drones in Pakistan may be even less discriminating:

SHACHTMAN: Well there’s certainly very different rules that apply from Afghanistan to Pakistan. You know in Afghanistan the air strikes have got to be very tightly constrained. You know you really can’t drop a bomb in Afghanistan without layers and layers and layers of approval. And you have to be very careful about civilian casualties. In Pakistan if the media reports are at all correct you know you’re having two, three, four dozen people get killed at a time in these drone attacks and let me tell you they are not all terrorists or militants. There’s got to be some civilians involved when you’re getting that many people killed at once. So there’s a very different feel to the air war in Pakistan. And they don’t seem to be taking the kind of care that they do in Afghanistan.

If this is true, then this report in the LA Times is very disturbing:

Drone attacks may be expanded in Pakistan
U.S. officials seek to push CIA drone strikes into the major city of Quetta to try to pressure Pakistan into pursuing Taliban leaders based there.

By Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes
December 14, 2009
LA Times

Reporting from Washington - Senior U.S. officials are pushing to expand CIA drone strikes beyond Pakistan's tribal region and into a major city in an attempt to pressure the Pakistani government to pursue Taliban leaders based in Quetta.

The proposal has opened a contentious new front in the clandestine war. The prospect of Predator aircraft strikes in Quetta, a sprawling city, signals a new U.S. resolve to decapitate the Taliban.

In case you are wondering, we aren't the Pakistanis favorite country:

Pakistan: Percent responding Favorable, all years measured

2 DEGREES OF SEPARATION

Sen. Thune (R-SD), the dodo who barely beat Daschle, was on Imus In The Morning yesterday and Imus has been asking some of this guests to name their 5 favorite songs, which are then played, at least partially, during the program. One of Thune's choices was Martina McBrides' "Independence Day," which also happens to be the theme song for Sean Hannity's radio show.

This may all tie in to what seems to be a recent push to elevate Thune on the national scene.

WHAT MARK LEVIN AND BILL BENNETT WON'T TELL YOU

They were both delighted to tell you one result from a recent CNN/Opinion Research poll because it found that most people were opposed to the Senate health care reform bill. What the left out was the level of support for a public option:



POPULIST CONSERVATIVES???

How does the GOP continue to attract and keep the Joe the Plumber crowd when it's chairman wants to reduce unemployment benefits and it's cable network wants to lower the minimum wage?

WE'RE SCREWED

By "we" I mean most people in Arizona and I say that because until now I thought our budget problems were caused by the current recession. A leading in-state economist writes that budget deficits will continue for a LONG time.

UA Economist Marshall Vest: State Budget Crisis "Looks To Be Unsolvable"
Posted by Jim Nintzel on Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:11 PM
Tucsonm Weekly

UA economist Marshall Vest became the latest Cassandra to warn about the state government’s impending financial collapse.

"After cutting budgets significantly during the past two years, the state of Arizona this year is spending roughly $10.1 billion, but revenues of only $6.4 billion will be collected. $1.1 billion of federal stimulus money, coupled with additional cuts, fund sweeps, and sales of state buildings reduces the current-year shortfall to about $2 billion. The gap will grow to $3 billion-plus next year, and a structural deficit of similar size looms for as far as the eye can see."

According to Vest, the only possible way out is to restore tax cuts made in the mid-90s but the GOP simply won't do that.

A TIMELY STUDY

I haven't read the original study but the BBC reported that The New Economics Foundation found that bankers "destroy $11 for every $1.50 they create." This may seem exaggerated if you don't consider the many colossal failures the MOTU have either caused or been deeply involved with.

GASBAG RADIO IS NOT THE APPROPRIATE FORUM

It's not the appropriate forum to discuss global warming not only because the major players (Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, etc.) are scientifically illiterate but also because the necessary arguments are too complicated to be resolved in 10 minutes or so. Kevin Drum links to a good discussion in The Economist about data from just a single recording station and if you read it through, I think you'll agree that a purely aural presentation would be inadequate to conveying the results.

MAYBE KRAZY DAVY HOROWITZ IS NO LONGER A BIG WINGER

but it's still great that he implied that Sean Hannity is an idiot for supporting the birther nonsense.

BAD NEWS

A new poll by Ipsos/McClatchy finds that only 43% of Americans think global warming is mostly caused by human activity. 24% think there has been global warming but it's mostly due to natural causes. And a further 28% are brain dead.

MAYBE THIS WILL GET SOME TRACTION HERE

Joining Brown and Sarkozy is the president of the European Union Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet.

European Bank President Joins Critics of Bonuses
By STEPHEN CASTLE and KATRIN BENNHOLD
Published: December 11, 2009

Joining the chorus of criticism against big payouts, the president of the central bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, urged banks that had recently returned to profitability to use the cash to “strengthen their capital positions, rather than to distribute a large part of their profits or to pay out unwarranted levels of compensation or bonuses.”

Mr. Trichet, in a speech delivered in London, said that the “so-called bonus culture is one of the many factors that can drive the financial system in the wrong direction.” He added that it encouraged “self-referential speculation,” discouraged medium-term stability and drove banking “away from being a service sector to being a self-serving sector.”

Rep. Dennis Kucinich is moving in the right direction but all we're getting from Pres. Obama is useless jaw-boning.

MARK LEVIN, A MAN OF THE PEOPLE?

Not so much, really. Last week he called for an end to supplemental unemployment benefits because "some people" were taking advantage of it. What's remarkable is that he did acknowledge that others weren't taking advantage but in his value system, it's better that they suffer rather than let others take advantage.

AN EXAMPLE OF RIGHT-WING NIHILISM

Rush Limbaugh has been referring to almost any non-conservative news source as "state-run media" for several months now and this is the atttitude that helps create. From a POLITICO thread.

Hank G

Member Since: Dec. 22, 2008

Party: Independent

Last Visited: Dec. 12, 2009 - 10:27 PM EST

#295

Dec. 12, 2009 - 1:58 PM EST

liggy: Dec. 12, 2009 - 1:54 PM EST

This is an AP analysis of the stolen emails.

...and we should believe anything written by the AP because....? The AP has been complicit in this hoax from day one, they are in this up to their ears with Algor. They have no credibility in this matter, no US news organizations have any credibility as far as that goes. Obama being elected President attests to that.