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POPSAnd the Knives Come Out.....
READ THE 26-PAGE REPORTpdf. READ KAREN IGNAGNI’S 2-PAGE MEMO TO MEMBER PRESIDENTS AND CEOs. http://bit.ly/2QirZ. KEY GRAF: “Between 2010 and 2019 the cumulative increases in the cost of a typical family policy under this reform proposal will be approximately $20,700 more than it would be under the current system.” TNR’s Jonathan Cohn -- in “Is the Insurance Industry Declaring War?” -- sees “some pretty questionable assumptions.” Excerpts below. Cohn here. THE NARRATIVE -- L.A. Times A1 tease: “An about-face by insurers: After working with the White House to overhaul healthcare, the insurance industry now plans to fight the reform effort.” TALKRADIO ALERT -- USA Today A1 tease: “Benefits in health bill not immediate: Tax credits for insurance won’t start until 2013; tax hikes to pay for changes kick in right away.” THE WHITE HOUSE FEELS “MISLED” BY THE AHIP SALVO, reports POLITICO’s Carrie Budoff Brown: “The report will drop ahead of a crucial vote on the bill . . .
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POPSAHIP Declares War On the U.S. Read the article and then DO SOMETHING! Following are a couple more paragraphs to whet your curiosity. "For many years America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) have been fighting an undeclared war on US citizens. According to the Harvard Study cited recently by Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), lack of health insurance and denials of legitimate claims kill more Americans each month than died in the attacks on the World Trade Center. When Al-Qaeda or Nazi Germany declared war on the United States, their intent was to kill US citizens and to cause economic collapse in the United States. That’s how a modern war works. The study released by PWC and commissioned by AHIP reveals the arsenal the Health Insurance companies plan to use in the coming war. They are going to kill Americans by putting the price of health care out of reach. They are planning to kill their paying customers by finding new ways to deny care."
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POPSReport: ‘Death panels’ author worked with big tobacco to scuttle health reform Susie Madrak, in her blog at Crooks and Liars, cites key parts of the Rolling Stone article: W]hat has not been reported until now is that McCaughey’s writing was influenced by Phillip Morris, the world’s largest tobacco company, as part of a secret campaign to scuttle Clinton’s health care reform. (The measure would have been funded by a huge increase in tobacco taxes.) In an internal company memo from March 1994, the tobacco giant detailed its strategy to derail Hillarycare through an alliance with conservative think tanks, front groups and media outlets. Integral to the company’s strategy, the memo observed, was an effort to “work on the development of favorable pieces” with “friendly contacts in the media.” The memo, prepared by a Phillip Morris executive, mentions only one author by name:
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POPSRED ALERT: Thousands Of Youths Train For Obama's "Civilian National Security Force" thousands of youths as counter-terror and immigration enforcement operators: The group uses compressed-air guns — known as airsoft guns, which fire tiny plastic pellets — in the training exercises, and sometimes they shoot real guns on a closed range. Boy Scouts used to to work on survival skills, science and engineering. So let me see if I understand. President Obama promised to build a "civilian national security force" with capabilities equal to those of our military. Now we discover thousands of armed teenagers training for the very first time to handle all sorts of domestic law enforcement and paramilitary scenarios. Anyone else concerned? Update: Even The New Republic's Marty Peretz is alarmed. http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_spine/archive/2009/05/14/have-the-boy-scouts-of-america-gone-completely-berserk.aspx
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POPSDidn't Republicans JUST Say We Shouldn't Ban Bonuses...2 Weeks Ago? And a few more FTA: "I really don't want the government to take over these businesses and start telling them everything about what they can do." Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told ABC News in February, when asked about Obama's proposed limits on executive compensation. Senator Jim DeMint, who attacked the original bailout bill as "pure socialism," characterized executive pay caps as a dangerous government intervention.
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POPSWeren't Repubs protecting bonuses 2 weeks ago? TNR has collected an assortment of quotes from leading Republicans on the hill about executive bonuses and boy are they a doozy. Remember how just a few weeks ago the thought of limiting executive compesation for corporate executives was pure socialism for Republicans?
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POPSShould Health Insurance Benefits be Taxed? It's a rare occasion when the Heritage Foundation agrees on tax policy with The New Republic, but that's what's happening in the current debate over whether or not to tax health insurance benefits. I've clipped the related blog entry from the Heritage Foundation explaining why this is a truly bipartisan opportunity to reform health care. Here is the link to Jon Cohn's very similar argument at TNR: http://tinyurl.com/crokz5. You'll notice they have different ideas about what should be done with the income from new taxes. What do you think?
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POPSSeeing and Believing: Jerry A. Coyne Interesting read. --Via Sam Harris who says a heated comment debate over the article has started here: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/coyne09/coyne09_index.html#tnr-coyne
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POPSOne last Bill for workers, to be VETOED by Bush.
Right to the end, with economy going down the old flusher and many breadwinners out of work, to begin a long tedious quest to keep their families from homelessness and starvation; Bush and cronies at the helm, (but with a countdown) still waging the battle to keep hard working Americans from their civil rights. What the...? I had heard about Ledbetter vs. Goodyear when John McCain didn't even bother to show up for the vote, which helped it to fail in the Senate. One thing for sure, if the McCain (ugh) Palin ticket would have won... This would be a non-issue and what is even more frightening... McCain would have stacked the court with one or two more judges who most certainly would have been against WE THE PEOPLE... http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/04/23/republicans-kill-fair-pay-bill.aspx Will the hits on the average American worker ever end? I can answer that one... (it's a NO-BRAINER...) NO, Not if the Republicans have anything to do with it!
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POPS Obama's Summary Of Issues Agenda ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ who attacked us on 9/11~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I am not reassured. And dare we ask - does Obama have a plan for finishing US involvement in Kosovo? Currently we are slated to be there for at least late 2009: Defense Chief Robert Gates Says Presence Still Important In Wake Of Russia-Georgia War (AP) The United States will continue its troop presence in Kosovo until at least late next year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said just before he arrived here Tuesday, reaffirming U.S. support for the world's newest nation in the face of stern opposition from Russia. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/07/world/main4505480.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4505480
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POPSBiden's Response to 9/11 Even TNR is amused at Biden's foreign policy gravitas... First, Iranians aren’t Arabs. They’re Persians, as both Arabs and Iranians would quickly point out to anyone ignorant of the distinction. They have no relation linguistically or culturally, except that both are predominantly Islamic. One would expect a foreign-policy expert to know at least that much. Team Obama ridiculed John McCain when he inadvertently mixed up Sunnis and Shi’ites, but this is much more fundamental. ...a man who thinks it appropriate to send hundreds of millions of dollars — “no strings attached” — to a terror-sponsoring regime in order to make America a supplicant of radicals is no foreign-policy genius.
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POPS Too Much Romney-Bashing UPDATED A quick thought on the GOP debate: During an immigration back-and-forth, McCain said (something like): "You can spend your entire fortune mischaracterizing my immigration position but that still won't make what you say true." After Romney complained about getting misquoted by the AP, McCain chimed in with: "If you keep changing your positions you're going to get misquoted every now and then." At one point he said, seemingly apropos of nothing: "I just want to say: Governor Romney--we disagree on many things, but you are the candidate of change." He had trouble suppressing his laughter as he said this. I could see the pundits proclaiming Mitt the loser since he took so much incoming fire. But my hunch is that it won't play that way among voters.
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POPSLA Times Swallows for TNR Are you kidding me? "It's also not at all clear to any fair-minded reader what the telephone transcripts actually show" WHAT? After hearing their continued defense of this guy, then reading the phone transcript tells me that the TNR guys were trying to hold on to this military-bashing with every last shred of fingernail and dignity. What a load of crap from this LAT guy. Every reference to blogs and mags that tried to get at the underlying B.S. are derogatory. AND WHAT'S MORE~they still haven't retracted it. It still, after all this, sits out there like a festering, fetid load long devoid of any telltale steam. ;-)
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POPSWhy we curse-What the @#$%? In English-speaking countries today, religious swearing barely raises an eyebrow. Gone with the wind are the days when people could be titillated by a character in a movie saying "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."... IN DEPTH ANALYSIS AT http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20071008&s=pinker100807
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POPSTNR's Scott Thomas Beauchamp Like Ward Churchill's 'conscientious objectors'...who Churchill said should frag their officers. This guy claimed a lot of ridiculous things, which have been pretty much debunked already; like chasing dogs in a Bradley. A Bradley isn't stealth enough to chase a dog. It's too loud, it doesn't turn on a dime, and visibility is limited because the hatch is on the left...not very bright. But propaganda works...like Lenin said, A lie told often enough becomes truth.
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POPSThe "God Gap" is no more Exit polls suggest that Catholic and evangelical Christians are now just about as likely to support middle-of-the-road Democrats as Republicans. Notably, this includes pro-choice Democrats.
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POPSMore Witnesses Say Allen Used Racial Epitet In addition, there is a video (that I have not seen yet b/c I'm on dialup) where Larry Sabato, a political analyst who attended UVa with Virginia , apparently confirms that Allen used racial epithets. According to this NYT article and to the TNR blog , even Republicans are not taking Allen seriously owing to the macaca incident and his going ballistic over being asked about his Jewish heritage.
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POPSThe Sleepwalkers: September 11 Stunted America's Political Growth A nicely written piece attempting to explain America's internal political currents before, during, and after 9/11. (Free registration required for full text.) Bush was more of an isolationist, and he had criticized America's recent involvement in peacekeeping missions, scorning the very idea of "nation-building." And, in this, he was perhaps closer to the emerging America than Clinton was--an America at peace with modern culture and modern capitalism, self-satisfied, and without large global ambitions.
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POPSFEAR FACTOR: Crying wolf about the British airline terrorist plot Still waiting to be proved wrong that citizens were in danger of anything on August 10 besides a massive dose of manufactured hysteria. There are, of course, other details that came out, but these are the main ones; and, over the last three weeks, doubts have been raised about each one of them. If the initial story offered by Chertoff and Townsend--and their British and Pakistani counterparts--represents a house, then that house is now tottering on its foundations and ready to collapse in ruins.
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POPSDuke Cunningham's Wife Tells All (The New Republic) In the only interview ever given, Mrs. Cunnigham defends herself (somewhat) and reveals some insights into the sad life and psychology of her husband that allowed him to set a new record for Congressional corruption. Originally published in the August 28, 2006 issue of TNR .
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