The Return of McCarthyism?

Scary parallels.


Find more videos like this on DramaTube

The Death of Common Sense

Man, if Republicans weren't so good at politics and Fox News weren't the #1 news channel on cable, I'd laugh this kind of stuff off. But these guys are fucking relentless. Obama is brainwashing your kids!? They will stop at nothing to tear Obama down.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
America: Target America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Insurance Companies 1, American People 0

As I mentioned last week, the Senate Finance Committee, which is currently working on one of the health care reform bills (often called the Baucus bill, after the committee chairman), held a long debate on amendments which would add a public health insurance option to the bill. I'm disappointed to report that these amendments failed 10-13 (3 Dems voted with the Republicans).

That's right. Even though all the Republicans on the committee voted against the public option amendments, it was the Democrats who killed it. Someone needs to show these "scum-sucking, insurance industry-loving weasels" (as the Daily Kos has appropriately labeled them) that their constituents support the public option:

Put into words: although the Senate Finance Committee defeated the public option, nearly 6 million more Americans voted for the 10 senators who supported it than the 13 senators who opposed it.

Another way of saying it: anyone who claims the public option doesn't have public support is full of bull.

Senator Tom Harkin isn't deterred:



So what's next?

A public health insurance option has been passed by four out of five committees in Congress dealing with health care. The next time the public health insurance option will come up for consideration is when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid merges the Baucus bill with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee bill.

If a public option is not added on the Senate floor, it could also wind up in the bill once the Congress merges the Senate and the House bills. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi repeated her assurance that the House bill will have a public option.

It's still early in the game, and as Yogi said, it ain't over 'til it's over.

Some Things Never Change

Rock Out to Science

Kudos to They Might Be Giants for making science kid-friendly. You can get the full album (which is a CD/DVD with animated videos) for your kids here.

Poll: 65% of Americans Support Goverment Health Insurance Option

Findings from the latest New York Times/CBS poll:

By a margin of 52 percent to 27 percent, Americans said Mr. Obama has better ideas about overhauling health care than Republicans. And the percentage of Americans who approve of how Mr. Obama has handled health care has gone from 40 percent in August to 47 percent, about equal to where it was earlier in the summer.

On one of the most contentious issues in the health care debate — whether to establish a government-run health insurance plan as an alternative to private insurers — nearly two-thirds of the country continues to favor the proposal, which is backed by Mr. Obama but has drawn intense fire from most Republicans and some moderate Democrats.

Even though these "moderate" Dems (those from conservative districts) have put up some resistance, another poll found that their constituents support the public option.

What do docs want? A survey of more than 5,000 docs of various specialties found that they:

..overwhelmingly support either a public option or a public system. Indeed, when you add the two groups together, it's more than 70 percent of respondents.

Ok, let's tally the score. A large majority of Americans want the public option. Docs want the public option. Obama and (most) Dems want the public option. Amazingly, even Bill O'Reilly wants a public option. The only ones against the public option are Republicans, a diminishing number of conservative Dems, and of course, the insurance companies.

Amendments related to the public option are scheduled to be debated by the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday. Are they listening?

What About Insurance Company Execs?

Who's looking out for them? (other than BOTH political parties, that is)

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Kinda Catchy

Porn Makes You Gay

Witness Michael Schwartz, staffer for far-right Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, tell the folks at the Value Voters Summit how pornography will make you gay:



What is wrong with these people?

Obama's Health Care Plan in 4 Minutes

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that many people still don't understand how the Dems intend to reform health care or why it's important (even if you already have health insurance). If you are one of these people, this is for you:

American Psychos

Videos like this really disturb me. Of course, I should note that Glenn Beck and Fox News played a key role in publicizing this event. In fact, Fox producer Heidi Noonan was caught riling up the crowd for the cameras. Fail.



My question is: what are they so pissed about? What, exactly, has Obama done during his 8 months in office that has so radically changed the country? Salon's Glenn Greenwald provides some interesting insight:

Some argued that Obama's race has caused the Right's hostility towards him to be both unique and unprecedentedly intense. That some people react with particular animus towards the first black President is obvious. But there is nothing new about the character of the American Right or their concerted efforts to destroy the legitimacy of Obama's presidency.

To see that, just look at what that movement's leading figures said and did during the Clinton years. In 1994, Jesse Helms, then-Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, claimed that "just about every military man" believes Clinton is unqualified to be Commander-in-Chief and then warned/threatened him not to venture onto military bases in the South: "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He better have a bodyguard." The Wall St. Journal called for a Special Prosecutor to investigate the possible "murder" of Vince Foster. Clinton was relentlessly accused by leading right-wing voices of being a murderer, a serial rapist, and a drug trafficker. Tens of millions of dollars and barrels of media ink were expended investigating "Whitewater," a "scandal" which, to this day, virtually nobody can even define. When Clinton tried to kill Osama bin Laden, they accused him of "wagging the dog" -- trying to distract the country from the truly important matters at hand (his sex scandal). And, of course, the GOP ultimately impeached him over that sex scandal -- in the process issuing a lengthy legal brief with footnotes detailing his sex acts (cigars and sex talk), publicly speculating about (and demanding examinations of) the unique "distinguishing" spots on his penis, and using leading right-wing organs to disseminate innuendo that he had an abandoned, out-of-wedlock child. More intense and constant attacks on a President's "legitimacy" are difficult to imagine.

..Nothing that the GOP is doing to Obama should be the slightest bit surprising because this is the true face of the American Right -- and that's been true for a very long time now. It didn't just become true in the last few months or in the last two years. Recent months is just the time period when the media began noticing and acknowledging what they are: a pack of crazed, primitive radicals who don't really believe in the country's core founding values and don't merely disagree with, but contest the legitimacy of, any elected political officials who aren't part of their movement.

PSG is Back!

I hope you all had a good Summer. A lot has happened during the past couple of months, but the focus continues to be on health care reform. So where are we? The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn explains what has happened over the past month or so:

The August recess began with critics attacking health care reform because of its high price tag. It ended with critics attacking health care reform because of how reformers proposed to reduce that high price tag. The intervening weeks were nightmarish: Instead of using August to showcase what reform could do for the average American, the White House spent most of its time knocking down rumors of death panels for the sick and elderly. And as the right became energized, the left grew disillusioned, as much by the administration’s backroom deals as by its ineffectual messaging. Eventually, the shift showed up in the polls. First people grew more wary of reform. Then they grew more wary of the president. It was if everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Somehow, though, health reform is not dead. Despite all of the setbacks and all of the missed opportunities--despite this train wreck of a month--the situation remains remarkably similar to what it was before the recess.

Last week, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee (which is the last of five congressional committees that need to approve health care legislation before the topic can be taken up by both the full Senate and the full House of Representatives), Max Baucus, unveiled his long-awaited plan to remake the nation’s health care system and insure millions of Americans. The bill is generally in line with what President Obama requested, except that it does not include a new government insurance plan (the so-called public option) to compete with private insurers.

The full Senate Finance Committee now gets to offer their requested amendments to the bill. Senators have offered 564 amendments, and of course the Republican proposals generally gut the bill. However, one Republican, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, is signaling that she may be willing to vote for the bill. Naturally, the Dems and the White House are wooing her.

In most polls, Americans are divided on whether to reform health care (although I'd guess most people have no idea what's in the bill). With support somewhat slipping (GOP scare tactics have been effective), Obama is currently on a media blitz to increase public support.

Many questions still remain. Will there be a public option in the final bill? Should employers be required to offer coverage? Should individuals be forced to buy it? And what should be the consequences if they don't?

We'll soon find out.