Cheap Blogging Crutch 07.31

Health Care Realities
Paul Krugman on the general ignorance of the American public about health care and how much government already props up the health industry. He tells an amusing anecdote about a guy not understanding Medicare is a government program. It makes you shudder a bit inside when you think about how the combination of that lack of knowledge with the media's sole desire to cover everything in terms of political battles is going to drastically effect public perception of health care efforts and the climate for getting something worthwhile done when Congress gets back from their vacation. That's what I love about this health care fight, it just fills you with so much optimism.

U.S. Adviser’s Blunt Memo on Iraq: Time ‘to Go Home’
I know what you're thinking: "we're still in Iraq?" Yes, we are. The senior military adviser kindly trots out a stinking fish metaphor to describe our current occupation there. And here I thought things were going so well. I just hope the "senior military adviser" knows that when he says "declare victory and go home" he understands that the US government has now redefined "home" to include Afghanistan.

Obama Restores Credibility To The Presidential Medal Of Freedom
No, no, no, Barry. Don't you understand? The Presidential Medal of Freedom isn't for people like Harvey Milk, Desmond Tutu, Sidney Poitier, or Stephen Hawking. It's for rewarding political hacks who carried out your destructive orders, guys who played baseball for the team you used to own, and foreign sycophants who supported your unpopular actions against the will of their own people. Get it right next time.

E-Mails Show Larger White House Role in Prosecutor Firings
Hey, Karl Rove is an even bigger fucking liar than you originally thought he was. I know, imagining that possibility is almost inconceivable. Being asked to know the depths to which Karl Rove will sink is like being asked to know the mind of God. No man can know and it will drive you to insanity just to think about it.

The Senate and its round numbers
Tim Fernholz from the American Prospect on how all those cuts from health care an stimulus bills made by crusading "centrist" lawmakers just looking out for the little guy, seem to always be in such nice, round $100 billion type numbers. I'm sure it's just because those centrist Democrats and Blue Dogs are just so adept at removing waste and not because they pick random numbers that sound good in a newspaper headline, and set to work lopping out that number no matter how it affects a bill just so they can pretend they did something. Remember: we are governed by adults.

Demonstrators Want Lemonade at Obama Beer Summit
From yesterday, the protest of tee-totaling religious types over the consumption of alcohol at Crowley/Gates "Beer Summit". Yes it is a 'Why won't someone think of the children' argument replete with a 'booze leads to cocaine and knife crime' chaser. Unfortuantely no one at the White House listened and four adults ended up consuming a beer or two, warping the minds of impressionable children everywhere. So if you get stabbed by a coked out 8-year-old, now you know who to blame.

Michael Jackson's Hair Used for Jewelry
I don't know what's creepier: turning a dead man's hair into limited edition jewelry or holding onto charred locks of hair from a disastrous Pepsi commercial shoot for two decades in the hopes that you could make money off it. I'm betting Joe Jackson is kicking himself that he didn't think of it first.