July 2009
594 posts
WatchColbert: “Beck likes arguing but has a deep-seated hatred for logic”
WatchTim Geithner Can’t Even Sell His Own Home - John Oliver reports [via Mankiw]
Quote of the Day II →
The distinctive American version of libertarianism focuses almost solely on the value of freedom, and makes freedom synonymous with non-interference at the hands of government. In more sophisticated…
WSJ Editor Attacks The Non-Existent ‘Public... →
Oops.
There’s one problem with Freeman’s analysis: Massachusetts doesn’t have a public plan. As former MA governor Mitt Romney, who implemented the plan, told CNSNews last month, “Our plan did not include a government insurance plan.” “Instead, we relied entirely on private market-based insurance plans to help people get insurance,” said Romney.
5 Freedoms To Be Lost with Health Care Reform →
Alright, Michelle sent me this article from CNN Money/Fortune on 5 potential freedoms to be lost with health care reform, at least in its pretty unclear form at this point. I thought I’d post the…
“Lot’s of chatter lately about Jon Stewart being the new ‘most trusted man in...”
–
Glynnis MacNicol
Charlie Rose comes to mind but he’s not confrontational enough. If Stewart would pander less to his left leaning guests, he would be more deserving of the title. He’s unapologetically partisan. The right doesn’t have anyone like Stewart, and could use one, P.J. O’Rouke is as...
“Our current food industry is the perfect storm of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle...”
– Demanding Justice for the People that Harvest our Food (via azspot)
“Man’s creative struggle, his search for wisdom and truth, is a love story”
– Iris Murdoch (via kari-shma)
“First, Hawaii checked out that birth certificate once more, because they’re...”
– A Bad Day for Birthers — Daily Intel — New York News Blog — New York Magazine (via peterwknox) (via banalitycheck) (via ericmortensen)
“In Honduras, the rightwing has kept the masses of poor people at bay not through...”
– A Chance for Real Democracy in Honduras (via azspot)
Why People Believe Health Care is a Right, Even... →
azspot:
Let’s say a ten-year-old girl is brought into the local ER with life-threatening injuries sustained from a car accident. Let’s say she needs treatment immediately. Now, let’s say her parents are uninsured and can’t afford the life-saving treatment she so desperately needs.
Should the girl be turned away because of her inability to pay?
If you answered no, then you believe she has a...
Coming Soon
Apologies for the lack of posting all day. I’ve been crafting a really long post in my other blog. Just finished, and hopefully it should import soon. I’d love any feedback, for I spent a lot of time on it. Check it out here if you’d rather not wait for it to import.
Updated: A taste:
2. Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs Americans with...
Pot Is an Anti-Cancer Drug →
azspot:
The active ingredient in marijuana appears to target cancerous brain cells for destruction while leaving healthy cells alone, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Complutense University in Madrid, and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Sweet.
Link →
Spot on: So here’s how this game works: Republican and centrist Dems attack the stimulus and force changes that make it less effective. Then, a few months later, these same parties turn around…
“Legalization [of marijuana] is not in the president’s vocabulary, and...”
– Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (more from an earlier post) [via Dish]
Can a Lottery Make People Save More? →
Such a cool, cool idea:
Psychologists have long known that people tend to overestimate the odds of rare events. Applying that behavioral insight, finance professor Peter Tufano of Harvard Business School has devised a clever program called “Save to Win.” Launched earlier this year for members of eight credit unions in Michigan, it is a cross between a certificate of deposit and a...
My New Blog →
I just started a new blog over on blogger, but I’ve been having a bit of difficulty with the importing. I think I have it figured out now, but here’s the text of my first post there.
Nescio. “I do not know.” This was also the title of my first blog. The message is simple enough to grasp. I am a thinker, yet, in my own way, controlled by passion. This does not lead to...
The Truth about Socialized Medicine →
azspot:
While living in Finland for three years, I experienced socialized medicine up close and personal. I gave birth to my son there.
…
All Finnish citizens and permanent residents are eligible for KELA benefits, as are immigrants on work and political asylum visas. I was eligible for the KELA system because I was in Finland on a work visa, and I paid income and social services...
The War Being Waged on TARP Watchdog's... →
From Greenwald. This is a man truly after my own heart. So seriously does Barofsky take his oversight duties that, as a Washington Post profile noted in March, “he refuses to eat with senior…
Rebalancing the economy →
azspot:
The shift in consumption and savings patterns around 1980 really is remarkably stark.
Ooh, really helpful. Video feature from the Economist. Watch.
Watchsoupsoup:
Jon Stewart destroys Bill Kristol on Health Care.
He actually gets Kristol to admit government run health care is better than private health care.
Wow, I really can’t believe he got him to say all that.
Personal Values Color Understanding Of Sentences... →
And it seems that fate kindly tossed up a freebie for my first day of blogging. All the more reason why we do not, and cannot, know. The researchers conclude that existing views and beliefs…
“Perhaps the greatest fantasy of the present moment is that there is a choice...”
– Tom Engelhardt | American Empire Project (via retropolitics)
More About Me →
A little bit more about me. These are the blogs/sites I tend to read: Greg Mankiw Paul Krugman Democracy in America Glenn Greenwald Hullabaloo Media Matters for America Obsidian Wings Politifact …
Does anyone have another blog they import into...
Every time it’s supposed to import, it just says it’s queued, but it’s not. And then nothing happens. Help
“Following up on dday’s post below, I see that Jon Cohn is also reading the...”
– Digby
“An important new report (.pdf) was released today by Human Rights First...”
– Greenwald, pointing out what is a fact so clear in the record that it astounds as ever, though it probably should not, that no one within the mainstream discussion will stand up and fight for this position
“American capitalism needs a laboring underclass to survive. It requires that all...”
– Joe Bageant (via azspot)
Regular working class folks are pissed at them not because of their greed and criminality, but because, as my friend Eddie said yesterday at the Twilight Zone Cafe here in Winchester, “The CEO’s didn’t do their jobs, and so other people lost their jobs.
Probably true.
Report: Cheney Wanted To Illegally Deploy Troops... →
This guy is simply a horrible, horrible human being.
A decision to dispatch troops into the streets to make arrests has few precedents in American history, as both the Constitution and subsequent laws restrict the military from being used to conduct domestic raids and seize property.
The Fourth Amendment bans “unreasonable” searches and seizures without probable cause. And the Posse Comitatus...
“It’s disappointing to hear him say that — and a bit cowardly. But hardly...”
– Kevin Drum on drug czar Gil Kerlikowske saying that marijuana “has no medicinal benefit”
[via Dish]
Socialism And The Politics Of Fear →
retropolitics:
Frank Llewellyn | CBS News
“Socialism” is now an active part of the Republican lexicon, among the litany of routine charges to be trotted out whenever they cannot come up with a substantive critique of policy initiatives they oppose. Beginning with a steady drumbeat from the far-right blogosphere during last year’s Democratic primary campaign, Republicans have attacked health care...
New-Home Sales Jump by 11%, Largest Monthly Rise... →
(via soupsoup)
“The chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, Representative...”
– From Digby at Hullabaloo.
Obama Claims 14,000 Lose Health Insurance Daily →
Truth-o-Meter: Mostly True
Obama was very close to Holohan’s calculations — in fact he was slightly low. But as Haislmaier pointed out, the stimulus COBRA provisions could reduce the numbers because more people will still be covered. We can’t be sure until the data is in. So in the meantime, we find Obama’s claim Mostly True.
Sketchy, much?
browhat:
Fresh reports tell us the U.S. will no longer be releasing enemy body counts in Afghanistan. According to the military, this is because the number of militants killed “has little relevance” to the lives of Afghan citizens. Well the millions of murders committed in recurring African genocides are also irrelevant to my life, so I guess there’s no need for me to know about them.
Bottom...
More Job Losses in Bush's Last 3 Months Than Last... →
Just a fun little fact. Mostly true.
So Hoyer’s figures mostly hold up under scrutiny. He’s right if you calculate an average, but he’s only right six of nine times when you look at the monthly changes. So we rate his statement Mostly True.
“The Federal Reserve has benefited for decades from the notion that it is...”
– Elliot Spitzer, Fed Reserve is a Ponzi Scheme and an Inside Job (via soupsoup)
Pressure is certainly building. The counterargument that the Fed must be independent from political factors, and thus avoid the oversight, has been falling apart, as it becomes clearer and clearer that it is far from an...
Taxing Marijuana: First Steps →
Good stuff:
Oakland residents overwhelmingly voted Tuesday to approve a first-of-its kind tax on medical marijuana sold at the city’s four cannabis dispensaries. Preliminary election results showed the measure passing with 80 percent of the vote, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.
Push Back the August Recess? →
I’m not going to go back and post too much from over the weekend, but just a few things that I haven’t seen from going back over yours from over the weekend that seem important.
Asked at a press conference whether she’d support keeping the House of Representatives in session into the August recess to complete work on health care reform, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was fairly adamant.
...
“We have begun to talk casually about our wars; and this should be surprising for...”
– David Bromwich, from his article “America’s Wars: How Serial War Became the American Way of Life.” (via anitaprentice) (via retropolitics)
“The Populists of the 1890s were neither primitive nor pre-modern. They believed...”
– What Passes for “Populism” These Days Is Laughable (via azspot)
My take away:
The Populists sought to make sense of it all. They believed that if only the citizenry had a better understanding of the mechanisms of modern government, finance, and economics, they could retool these mechanisms to...