Cheap Blogging Crutch 09.01

Baucus: Health Care Reform Will Happen This Year With Or Without GOP
Max Baucus wants you to know that we're all still on track for a "bipartisan" "compromise" on health care in his Finance Committee's "Gang of Six" negotiations. Sure, two of the three Republicans he's negotiating with, Grassley and Enzi, have overtly stated that they aren't interested in actually passing anything of use, are out there touting how destructive they've been to the process and how much they've helped delay reform, but Max is still convinced. They better watch out though, you cross Max Baucus sixty or seventy times and he'll start giving serious consideration to possibly not letting you have your way with him.

The Five Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate
Newsweek is back with an addendum to their previous Seven Falsehoods About Health Care article. Isn't it nice to be blessed with so many falsehoods? We're moving beyond mere death panels (though death panels still are a feature) and into specific false claims like dirty Mexicanos gettin' free health care, you will be randomly assigned health care benefits irrespective to what you want or need, and no chemo for old people. That's all well and good, but what about the plan for the death panels to authorize Mexicans to kill grandma with radiation in return for free health care? How come no one's talking about that?

White House drug deal won't save money
What. A. Shocker. Who could have foreseen that cutting a deal with pharmaceutical companies wouldn't be great for them and shitty for us. Namely in that it weakens incentives for people to buy generic drugs and makes sure that the government subsidizes the more expensive brand names. But hey, at least we did get all those great ads

Right-Wing Extremists Protest Health Care Reform: “We Hate the United States!”
Oh Texas secessionists, you are so precious. What was supposed to be just a simple protest about the icy hand of socialism strangling grandma at her bridge game, morphed into cries of governmental tyranny, demands for secession, and proclamations of flag/America hate. It must suck for guys like Glenn Beck and Hannity. Here you are trying to do all this hard work coming up with crazy conspiracy theories to poison the health care debate and then that hard work gets tainted by even crazier people with even crazier ideas. Is there no justice?

Han Solo Was No Vo Nguyen Giap
Wished there were more serious conversations about counterinsurgency policy in Iraq and Afghanistan as compared to the strategy of the Rebel Alliance and Empire in Star Wars? The Center For A New American Security is there for you with discussions about the destruction of Alderaan vis-a-vis an effective counterinsurgency policy. Hopefully they'll eventually get into the co-opting of the Ewoks as a homegrown insurgency, but for now this is a good start.

Talk Like Warren Ellis
ATTENTION SCUM: I WILL FUCKING CUT YOU. Ever wished you could Tweet like Warren Ellis, but lacked the disdain for humanity, expressive vocabulary, consumptive cough, or proper vulgar descriptives? No worries, the internet is here for you, providing an nigh on inexhaustible Warren Ellis styled Twitter greeting generator. Finally the intarwubs has produced something useful...something important. With that said, good day, internet porn intestines. I hate you with the fire of ten suns.