Perhaps I’m just imagining it, but the enemies of womens’ choice seem to be a lot more universally opposed to the Nelson “compromise” in the Senate bill than liberal healthcare advocates are to its lack of a public option. Despite the fact that Nelson is a lot closer to Stupak than No Public Option is to Public Option, and the fact that reconciliation could be used to pass the public option, but not to pass Stupak.
At any rate, I certainly don’t see a whole lot of bishops or Blue Dogs saying, “Come on! This is a historic once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to roll back women’s rights! Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good!”
I really really hated having to choose between choice and the public option, but choosing between choice and forcing people to buy crappy private insurance policies they probably can’t afford to use isn’t very difficult at all. But one that, amazingly, Obama and the Democrats are still on the brink of getting wrong.
It’s a double epic fail. Like saying that everyone has to give up their bathroom privileges in exchange for mandatory shit sandwich lunches every day (”But look! Now everyone gets a lunch! Isn’t that awesome?”).
March 18th, 2010 at 07:25am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Choice,
Democrats,
Healthcare,
Politics,
Religion,
Wankers
People For the American Way charts how many executive branch nominees have had to get through cloture votes over the last 60 years:
Tell me again about how shamelessly those terrible obstructionist Democrats used the filibuster against poor oppressed President Dubya and are simply getting their just due and comeuppance now.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:26am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Judiciary,
Obama,
Politics,
Republicans,
Wankers
As Gregg very effectively points out, it’s funny how Obama and the Democrats couldn’t be bothered to make an effort on behalf of the public option, much less single payer, dithering endlessly and fruitlessly with Republicans and immediately capitulating when conservative wankers like Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson say they’ll vote no… yet now that the healthcare reform bill has transformed into a huge windfall for the insurance industry (and antichoice fanatics), they’ve pulled out all the stops to push for its passage and aggressively (and apparently effectively) attack any Democrats who hold out. They’re even getting creative with arcane procedural workarounds.
So, to sum up: Public option/single payer? Not worth the slightest effort to defend. Gutting abortion rights and forcing people to buy insurance from the private companies who made healthcare suck in the first place? The most important bill ever, and woe unto any Democrat who votes against it.
I guess it’s all just a matter of priorities, and Obama and the Democrats clearly have the wrong ones.
March 17th, 2010 at 07:25am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Corruption/Cronyism,
Democrats,
Healthcare,
Obama,
Politics,
Wankers
Shorter Rielle Hunter: Does this lack of pants make my ass look pantsless?
I particularly like the GQ video accompanying the interview and photo shoot, in which the photographer is showing Hunter the pantsless photos he’s taking, and she seems quite happy with them. Although I suppose maybe they never showed her the ones they ended up using…
March 16th, 2010 at 11:26am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Edwards,
Media
You know, I have to wonder if all the bigoted right’s stereotyping of gays as amoral libertines, perverts and pedophiles might not just be a bad case of projection…
A far-right Republican candidate for governor of Georgia has issued what must be one of the most counter-productive — and flat-out hilarious — denials in the history of modern political campaigning.
On Saturday, Ray McBerry sent out a lengthy statement denying that he “attempted to have an affair” with his former campaign manager; had sexual relations with under-aged girls; stole custody of his son from the son’s mother (who, he noted, had tested positive for meth anyway); is no longer allowed to teach in the state; and is unpatriotic, just because he refuses to salute “the current federal flag which represents the present unconstitutional leviathan in Washington,” and instead salutes the flag of Georgia and the “original Betsy Ross American flag.”
Oh, and please stop calling me unpatriotic when all the separatists are on your side of the fence. (And what is it with pervy separatist Republicans running for Governor of Georgia???)
March 16th, 2010 at 07:55am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Republicans,
Wankers
Another day, another homophobic Republican wanker:
Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that the expansion of state laws allowing gay marriage could lead to people marrying horses.
Hayworth, during an interview with an Orlando, Fla., radio station explained: “You see, the Massachusetts Supreme Court, when it started this move toward same-sex marriage, actually defined marriage — now get this — it defined marriage as simply, ‘the establishment of intimacy.’”
(…)
“I mean, I don’t mean to be absurd about it, but I guess I can make the point of absurdity with an absurd point,” he continued. “I guess that would mean if you really had affection for your horse, I guess you could marry your horse.”
The former Republican congressman then insisted that the “only way” to prevent men from marrying horses is to create a federal marriage amendment. Hayworth noted that he supports such an amendment.
Or you could, y’know, just make it illegal to marry horses.
Personally, I’d like to see Obama pass a bill outlawing cross-species marriage, just for the fun of watching Republicans and conservatives reflexively oppose it. Mitch McConnell would unleash the full fury of his obstructionist bag of tricks, and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck would rant and rave about Obama the communofascist infringing on Americans’ God-given Constitutional right to wed farm animals.
Who knows, maybe the GOP would even add horse-buggery equiphilia as an official plank in the party platform, just to show those liberals that no one tells them what to do.
March 15th, 2010 at 08:01pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Republicans,
Teh Gay,
Wankers
I have been reliably informed that this is the new Rickroll in the UK, and possibly all of Europe.
Crikey.
March 15th, 2010 at 11:24am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
Because only gay officers would ever sexually harass their subordinates…
Rep. Massa, an upstate Democrat, resigned his seat after admitting to “inappropriate” behavior with young male aides – groping and unwanted advances, the complaints alleged – that he described as a carry-over from his days as a career Navy officer.
Then former shipmates emerged last week with stories that Massa tried to grope, “snorkel” and ogle those of lesser rank.
“It’s a cautionary tale” of a superior officer allegedly seeking to prey upon subordinates that argues against repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, said Elaine Donnelly, head of the anti-repeal Center for Military Readiness.
“That kind of abuse would become far more frequent” if gays were allowed to serve openly, Donnelly said.
That is such homophobic bullshit, right up there with all the arguments against gay priests/teachers/scoutmasters that equate homosexuality with pedophilia. There has never been any shortage of straight sexual harassers, and tolerance for gay servicemembers doesn’t mean tolerance for abusive ones.
March 15th, 2010 at 07:03am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Politics,
Republicans,
Teh Gay,
Wankers,
War
Yet another reason why it sucks to be Jesus.
We’re going to need a lot more Jesus.
March 14th, 2010 at 06:18pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging,
Mr. Deity,
Religion
Tutu says what desperately needed to be said, and not just to Africa. I usually try not to quote an entire column, but, well…
Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity — or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds. In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity.
It is time to stand up against another wrong.
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God’s family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.
Uganda’s parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.
These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.
Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.
And they are living in hiding — away from care, away from the protection the state should offer to every citizen and away from health care in the AIDS era, when all of us, especially Africans, need access to essential HIV services. That this pandering to intolerance is being done by politicians looking for scapegoats for their failures is not surprising. But it is a great wrong. An even larger offense is that it is being done in the name of God. Show me where Christ said “Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones.” Gay people, too, are made in my God’s image. I would never worship a homophobic God.
“But they are sinners,” I can hear the preachers and politicians say. “They are choosing a life of sin for which they must be punished.” My scientist and medical friends have shared with me a reality that so many gay people have confirmed, I now know it in my heart to be true. No one chooses to be gay. Sexual orientation, like skin color, is another feature of our diversity as a human family. Isn’t it amazing that we are all made in God’s image, and yet there is so much diversity among his people? Does God love his dark- or his light-skinned children less? The brave more than the timid? And does any of us know the mind of God so well that we can decide for him who is included, and who is excluded, from the circle of his love?
The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.
More Tutus, fewer Hagees. And Warrens. And Dobsons. And…
March 13th, 2010 at 12:36pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Coolness,
Religion,
Teh Gay
That Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen could write so many words about how healthcare reform is doomed and everybody hates it because they hate Big Government without ever once mentioning the public option and how overwhelmingly popular it is.
I’m sure it’s just an oversight; so many people seem to have forgotten all about the public option lately.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:32am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Healthcare,
Media,
Politics,
Wankers
Condom machines don’t encourage teenagers to have sex.
Being teenagers encourages teenagers to have sex.
March 12th, 2010 at 07:10am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Religion,
Wankers
Harry Reid and Dick Durbin.
After all their pro-public-option posturing, now they’re urging Senate Democrats to vote against any amendments to the woefully inadequate and public-optionless reconciliation bill, even if they’re popular and/or they personally support them.
Great plan, make Democrats vote against popular healthcare policies that they support… in an election year. They must be worried that the base isn’t depressed enough.
(Gee, I guess Bernie didn’t get the memo…)
March 11th, 2010 at 08:41pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Healthcare,
Politics,
Wankers
The problem isn’t that the government lacks an agency “that would provide early warnings of possible systemic collapses,” the problem is that it lacks an agency that will listen to early warnings of possible systemic collapses.
March 11th, 2010 at 11:22am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Corruption/Cronyism,
Economy
Lindsey seems a little unclear on the concept:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wants to revive the bipartisan Gang of 14 — this time for health care reform, not judicial nominees.
But most of his moderate Democratic colleagues aren’t rushing to R.S.V.P.
Graham said Tuesday that a coalition of Republican and Democratic senators could rescue the Senate from an institutional disaster brought on by the use of the parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation to finish the health care bill.
“Many Republicans who were ready to pull the trigger on the nuclear option on judges are now glad they didn’t,” Graham said. “This place would have ceased to function as we know it. If they do health care through reconciliation, it will be the same consequence. So if you are a moderate Democrat out there looking for a way to deliver health care reforms and not pull the nuclear trigger, there is a model to look at.”
I wouldn’t mind seeing something like the original Gang Of 14 compromise, where the majority agreed not to eliminate the filibuster in exchange for the minority agreeing not to use it. But this is more like the minority party agreeing not to use it in exchange for the majority party not making them want to.
What both “compromises” have in common, of course, is that the Democrats cede power to let the Republicans get their way.
March 11th, 2010 at 07:20am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Healthcare,
Politics,
Republicans,
Wankers
Messrs. Barry Friedman and Andrew Martin have A Cunning Plan to overcome the Republican filibuster:
[T]he Democrats need to take three steps: First, they should announce the order in which they will take up their legislative agenda. Next, they should declare that they will no longer be using dual tracking, so that the Senate will hear just one issue at a time. Finally, Democrats should require those who want to filibuster legislation or appointments to actually do so, by holding the floor, talking the issue to death and bringing everything to a halt.
The new-school filibuster would preserve minority rights in the Senate, while imposing significant costs on obstructionist members, changing the calculus that causes today’s logjam. Stuck on the Senate floor, filibustering senators couldn’t meet with lobbyists or attend campaign fund-raising events; they couldn’t do much of anything, really, until their filibuster ended.
Getting rid of dual-tracking would require the minority to make careful choices about what to obstruct, and when to obstruct it. As Senator Bunning’s unsuccessful solo stand against jobless benefits showed, even Republicans have limited tolerance when it comes to stalling legislation for reasons that lack popular support.
After all, filibusters historically broke when public opinion went against the Senate minority. If the Democratic leadership eliminated the dual-track system, serial, single-issue filibusters would give us an opportunity to see where the country actually stands on issues like health care reform and financial regulation — and where the Senate should stand.
First of all, my understanding was that the rules change that lowered the filibuster threshold from 67 to 60 votes also eliminated the requirement for the minority party to actually perform the full-blown cots-and-phonebooks Mr. Smith-style filibuster. But even if it hadn’t, this strategy sounds a lot like handing your kidnapper a gun and hoping he shoots himself with it.
The Republicans have absolutely no compunction about obstructing everything, the media has no particular interest in accurately reporting what’s going on, and consequently the public backlash Friedman and Martin are counting on would simply never happen. Either that or the Republican spin (Healthcare reform is a socialist government takeover! Financial reform/tax increases/environmental regulation will take away your jobs!) will triumph and make their obstructionism look like a heroic effort to Save America.
I would much rather find ways to neutralize the Republicans, not further empower them in hopes that they will commit suicide by overreach. It took six years for that to work the last time, and the damage was incalculable. Why would we want to do it again?
March 10th, 2010 at 07:46pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Media,
Politics,
Republicans
Poor Glenn Beck. Massa was serving up all kinds of juicy tidbits about groping and tickling and naked browbeating, but because he wouldn’t come out and say that Rahm or Obama did horrible corrupt illegal conspiracy things to force him out of office, the whole interview was a waste of time.
March 10th, 2010 at 11:36am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Healthcare,
Media,
Politics,
Republicans,
Wankers
I am just not at all comfortable with the idea of making Medicare a government service…
March 10th, 2010 at 07:07am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Healthcare,
Politics
Oh yeah, this seems like a real effective argument against financial regulation:
Alex Castellanos, a Republican consultant, pointed to another edge: with Americans most anxious about unemployment, calling for stricter regulation of Wall Street is “not a growth argument, it’s a punishment argument.”
Aside from being dishonest in the extreme, is it even relevant to anything? Wall Street’s growth has done little if anything to enrich anyone outside of Wall Street, so it’s a little difficult to see what the harm in curbing it to sustainable levels of non-recklessness would be.
March 9th, 2010 at 11:23am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Corruption/Cronyism,
Economy,
Politics,
Republicans,
Wankers
Lynn Woolsey’s attempt to convince us that she’s not a total spineless weakling on the public option is quite remarkable. She starts out with an excellent defense of the public option, then pledges to… push for a separate public option bill right after the current monstrosity passes. Right, because that would totally happen. The only chance to pass the public option is now, when the White House is desperate for a win on healthcare.
This is strongly reminiscent of Candidate Obama’s promise to fight to strip telecom immunity from the FISA reform bill… immediately after he voted for it. And look how well that worked out.
Reading Woolsey’s op-ed was like watching Ron Carey in High Anxiety: “I get it… I get it… I get it… I don’t get it.”
(Side question: Has anyone in the Senate leadership yet given any kind of coherent explanation for why the public option isn’t in the reconciliation sidecar? I know Gibbs – who is not in the Senate – said it didn’t have the votes, but otherwise it seems more like the public option simply hasn’t occurred to Harry, and all the Senators who have signed the public option are just a vague buzzing noise in his ear.)
March 9th, 2010 at 07:22am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Healthcare,
Politics,
Wankers
In other news… Multi Medium is the #2 search result for obama is the biggest liar.
I kinda thought I would have more competition…
March 8th, 2010 at 08:21pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Eli's Obsession With The Google,
Obama
An Ikea commercial that appears to be Germans making fun of Swedes for being eccentric and weird. Yes, really.
March 8th, 2010 at 07:03pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Monday Media Blogging
NY Daily News reports that one of the reasons Bill Thompson narrowly lost his bid for NYC mayor is that only 20% of the city’s 338,000 first-time voters who voted for Obama turned out to vote for him. Which begs the question: What happens in November, and in 2012, when those voters don’t show up nationwide? Because I really don’t see any way that Obama’s going to convince them to turn out again after he completely failed to deliver on everything he promised them.
All that optimism, all that enthusiasm, all that, yes, hope, is gone for good, dead by Obama’s own hand. I wonder if he thinks he’s going to be able to crank it up again somehow – he’s going to be in for an unpleasant shock if he does.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:31am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Elections,
Obama,
Politics
Blanche Lincoln:
“The larger message being sent to the administration and Congress is: You are with us or you are against us,” said Patterson, Lincoln’s campaign manager. “The left feels frustrated after eight years [of President George W. Bush] their agenda should be at the forefront and should be passed in its entirety in the first year. That didn’t happen and that anger, some of that is being magnified in our race.”
This might – I repeat, might - be a plausible defense for the Obama administration, which can claim that it’s had to make unpalatable compromises because its awesome progressive agenda has been obstructed by Congress, but it is disingenuous at best coming from one of the obstructors herself.
Instead, Lincoln’s campaign manager pretends that his boss is just some kind of innocent bystander, caught up in “the left’s” overall frustration with Congress, and not one of the primary causes of it.
March 8th, 2010 at 07:10am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Elections,
Politics,
Wankers
In their latest e-mail blast, apparently the DNC actually thinks this is a good thing:
On Fox News Sunday this morning Mitt Romney defended the individual mandate, which was in the health care plan he championed as Governor, as the “ultimate conservative plan”
See it HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzdhJ3CsYLQ
DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan offered the following response to Romney’s declaration:
“We know that ensuring everyone is covered and expanding the risk pool will lower costs, but it certainly speaks to the bipartisan nature of the President’s plan that Governor Romney calls the idea of an individual mandate the “ultimate conservative plan.”
Romney Defends Individual Mandate as “Conservative.” “What we did, I think, is the ultimate conservative plan. We said people have to take responsibility for getting insurance, if they can afford it, or paying their own way. No more free-riders.” [FOX News, 3/7/10, See it HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzdhJ3CsYLQ]
DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan offered the following response to Romney’s declaration:
“We know that ensuring everyone is covered and expanding the risk pool will lower costs, but it certainly speaks to the bipartisan nature of the President’s plan that Governor Romney calls the idea of an individual mandate the “ultimate conservative plan.”
Oh yeah, I am soooo stoked to run out and support the Senate’s healthcare plan now that I know that Mitt Romney has endorsed the individual mandate as “the ultimate conservative plan” – I’m gonna get on the phone to my congressman right away!
March 7th, 2010 at 03:27pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Healthcare,
Obama,
Politics,
Wankers
Does The Obama Administration Even Want To Win In November?
Johnson’s bafflement is an excellent companion piece to Scarecrow’s.
My take on it is that a Republican-controlled (or Republican + Blue Dog-controlled) Congress gives Obama an excuse to pursue the Republican policies that he apparently wants to pursue anyway. “Oh gee, I really wanted to do something about healthcare/unemployment/financial shenanigans/global warming/EFCA/DADT, but my hands are tied by all those Republicans. How about some nice shiny tax cuts?”
What I don’t get is how Obama actually thinks that leading his party into a rout in 2010 and then using that as an excuse to govern like a full-blown Republican is going to win him any votes in 2012. Maybe he’s counting on the Republicans nominating someone terrifyingly, unelectably insane. Which is not completely out of the question.
March 6th, 2010 at 01:11pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Elections,
Obama,
Politics,
Wankers
This week’s quote is from the very entertaining horror B-movie Head Of The Family, directed by my good buddy Charles Band:
Keep on talking, you little country con man. Every stupid word’s a deposit in the pain bank. Heh. You just wait, pretty soon you’ll be making a withdrawal.
And, of course, there’ll be other people’s wee baby seals…
Awww.
March 5th, 2010 at 06:35pm
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Friday Quote & Cat Blogging
This. Is. Awesome.
Republicans like a politician who stands up for what he believes — even if he believes the Republican Party is populated by a bunch of “knuckle-dragging Neanderthals.”
The candidate leading the Florida GOP primary to determine who will take on Rep. Alan Grayson, the Democrat who represents the Orlando-based district, is none other than Grayson himself, according to a poll paid for by his campaign. Grayson is a freshman congressman who has drawn scorn from the GOP and has quickly built a nationwide following of progressives.
The poll has Grayson leading the 13 Republicans — among Republicans — with 27.8 percent of the vote. The congressman who mocked the GOP health care plan by saying that it amounts to telling people not to get sick and if they do, to die quickly, received more support than all of the Republican candidates combined.
No GOP candidate scored above 3.7 percent; 57.7 percent said they were undecided.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh yeah, he’s really in Desperate Electoral Peril all right.
I know it’s his own poll, but if the numbers are even close to right it’s hugely embarrassing for the Republicans. It’s also some pretty brilliant and creative campaign messaging.
March 5th, 2010 at 11:24am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Coolness,
Democrats,
Elections,
Politics,
Polls,
Republicans
Funny how Obama’s patience was nearly infinite when the public option was in the Senate healthcare bill with Republicans and conservadems trying to take it out, but now that the public option is out with liberals and moderates trying to put it back in, he can’t get it passed soon enough.
If it weren’t for his solemn promise to “revisit” the public option at some unspecified future time (just like his promise to “revisit” NAFTA!), I might think that he really really doesn’t want it.
March 5th, 2010 at 07:02am
Posted by Eli Permalink
Entry Filed under:
Democrats,
Healthcare,
Obama,
Politics,
Wankers
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