Today in health care

Yeah, the fight is still going on and it will never end. Howard Dean is pissed and wants the bill killed. Paul Krugman feels it is underwhelming but saves lives. Keith Olbermann went all "Special Comment" on the bill. The unions are wondering what the hell they fought for. Cheaper prescription drugs and real cost savings on health care was killed. And now, near the end, two Senators are vying to extract their last pounds of flesh from the bill. In a surprise move, one of them actually has good intentions.

Independent socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is mad. Mad that reconciliation wasn't at least credibly threatened as an option, mad that his single payer bill was used as both a delaying tactic and not given a vote on the floor, and, as of now, he isn't voting for the bill. Whether he'll vote for cloture is another question, but he is concerned that the bill doesn't help enough people, cut costs enough, and provide real options to people. This makes him the first Senator all year to actually throw a tantrum in an attempt to extract something positive from the legislative process. Mark this on your calendar folks, it's a historic day.

The same cannot be said for Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. He saw what Joe Lieberman got and now he's salivating over his power. And he will not vote for cloture until he shouts "Cave" and the Democratic leadership responds with a sufficient attempt to pile rubble on themselves. He's back on the abortion thing.

One issue that will be handled separately, though, is abortion. As I reported yesterday, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), who has been working with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), presented Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) with new legislative language on federal funding for abortion yesterday. Nelson says abortion is a make or break issue for him, and he regards the provision in the current Senate bill as too lax to support.

As of last night, Nelson hadn't had a chance to evaluate the new compromise. But according to Politico, Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee has already decided: "This proposal would break from the long-established principles of the Hyde Amendment by providing federal subsidies for health plans that cover abortion on demand. This is entirely unacceptable."

If past discussions over the Stupak Amendment and the Catholic Bishops are any indication, Ben Nelson has turned over veto power on a health care bill and the right to try to recede women back into second class citizen status on matters of their own body to private abortion groups like the NRLC. Isn't that nice? On the bright side, the fight to get Ben Nelson to sign on has at least given Glenn Beck a nice platform to lob dishonest accusations of treason around. So there is that.

So, the horse trading isn't over and the fight to make the bill worse goes ever on. Likely they will end up trading women's rights for a health care vote, because really, the goal is to get anything passed at this point. And what's more important, passing a bill where opinions on it range from "deeply mediocre with the bad outweighing the good" to "deeply mediocre with the good minutely outweighing the bad" or women having some sort of personal rights to make decisions on their own? I think we know the answer to that.

Bill Kristol finds new purpose in his life

Hey, what's the thing you most wanted to hear in the news this morning? Police exhaust world's supply of pepper spray on puppet wielding protester? Cast of Transformers 2 dead in tragic meteor strike? Neoconservatives have 4 hour plus boner, need to consult doctor after Obama and Iran reveal existence of secret nuclear facility? Sorry, only the third one happened.

President Obama and leaders of Britain and France accused Iran on Friday of building a secret underground plant to manufacture nuclear fuel, saying the country has hidden the covert operation from international weapons inspectors for years.

Appearing before reporters in Pittsburgh, Mr. Obama said that the Iranian nuclear program “represents a direct challenge to the basic foundation of the nonproliferation regime.” President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, appearing beside Mr. Obama, said that Iran had a deadline of two months to comply with international demands or face increased sanctions.
...
American officials said that they had been tracking the covert project for years, but that Mr. Obama decided to disclose the American findings after Iran discovered, in recent weeks, that Western intelligence agencies had breached the secrecy surrounding the complex. On Monday, Iran wrote a brief, cryptic letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency, saying that it now had a “pilot plant” under construction, whose existence it had never before revealed.

Well that's the way you always want to reveal things, with cryptic letters. Maybe a short text message. I'm sure it was just an accident that they never revealed the existence of this "pilot plant" before this week. I mean they were so busy rigging an election, coming up with new Holocaust denials, and suppressing protests that they probably didn't have time. What's Farsi for "my bad"?

But this is good. This country needed a good, honest media debate about whether to nuke Iran into parking lot status or to bomb them back into the stone age and then invade. I'm sure all the people who were tragically wrong every step of the way about Iraq will be brought back and treated as "serious people" with "serious opinions" about the war boner they have and the need to quench their lust with another Middle East conflict. The people who were right about Iraq or display any skepticism towards a new war with Iran will of course be treated like the fringe lunatics that they are. This is good, because we don't have enough going on right now. Ah well, hope you're all prepared for the stupid.

You win again, reality

You know, I had a nice little idea for a Broken in Brief piece. It was called "Man brandishing assault rifle at Presidential speech not sure why everyone thinks he's a lunatic". But then stupid reality has to cut in front of me at the buffet line and walk away with all the stuff I wanted to feast on.

One sight was perhaps a little unnerving to those in charge of making sure everybody remains on their best behavior.

A man, who decided not to give his name, was walking around the pro-health care reform rally at Third and Washington streets, with a pistol on his hip and an AR-15 (a semi-automatic assault weapon) on a strap over his shoulder.

"Because I can do it," he said when asked why he was armed. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms."

Two police officers were staying very close to the man.

Yes, because the most 'extra free with special freedom eagle sauce on top' way to express your freedom and your anger over the prospect that you might get health care coverage or cheaper health care coverage is......to walk around carrying a rifle at a Presidential speech. But it's not like he was alone, there were a dozen people at this particular speech carrying firearms. There's no possibility that this will ever turn bad. I mean what could possibly go wrong when a bunch of people who believe the President is an illegal Kenyan interloper trying to kill their loved ones with government controlled health care, who are also carrying around guns openly in an attempt to intimidate everyone around them with a differing opinion, get involved with heated political protests outside a Presidential speech?

It is surprising that one side is bringing ideas about how we can get better health care and the other side is bringing conspiracy theories and tactical assault weaponry. But then again "it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." But hey, I'm not expecting a man who regards the possibility of cheap health care the final assault on his freedom to recognize that kind of prescient understanding on the part of Mombasa Barry. Where were these people when actual freedoms were being threatened?

I can't believe he didn't adress his illegitimacy

With his country rioting after its sham election, seven killed in recent protests, Iranian press being confined to their buildings, foreign press having visa's revoked and being thrown out of the country, and Iran's Guardian Council saying things like "partial recount" and "maybe this wasn't the best idea we've ever had", Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took to the stage at meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation with a lot to talk about and a lot of problems to address. So of course he banged on about the US and empires.

"The international capitalist order is retreating. It is absolutely obvious that the age of empires has ended and its revival will not take place."
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"Iraq is still occupied. There is no order in Afghanistan. The Palestinian problem is unsolved," he said.

"America is overwhelmed by economic and political crises and there is no hope in their decisions.

"The allies of the United States are also not in a position to wrestle with these problems."

Don't forget "Iran is affected by a corrupt dictatorship that rigs elections, its people are rioting in the street." That's kind of a large problem. Mostly for you. The US? We're doing just fine, thanks for worrying though. You're so sweet.

Maybe you didn't read up on those parts of history where massive populist uprisings against dictatorships turn violent, but it usually doesn't end well for the leadership. At the end it usually veers into shot in the head/on fire in a ditch or shot alongside your your mistress/hanging on meathooks in the public square/bodies stoned by revelers. If I were a Iranian Mullah, and Allah willing some day I will be, I'd be more than a little worried that my body would be dragged through a public square while citizens gleefully struck my corpse with their shoes. Just food for thought Mahmoud. But then again maybe this will all just go away if you keep pretending nothing happened. I'm sure it'll end well. Especially for you.

Christmas come early

Bill O'Reilly Plans Barack Obama Book

In a Page Six interview, popular right-wing pundit Bill O'Reilly said is planning a book about President Barack Obama to be released next year.

The talk show host said he reads two or three books every week. O'Reilly has sold millions of copies of his books, and there are eight titles currently sold on his website, including "The O'Reilly Factor for Kids."

Here's more from the interview: "My next book, out the latter part of 2010, is on Obama. He's becoming a historical figure not because he's black, but because his liberal agenda is taking the country in a direction we've never been before."

What's that, Think Progress? You're going to be kept in business for another year just because of this book? Good to hear. Media Matters has also come out to announce that it will in no way strangle its own mother to get an advance copy. Kieth Olbermann hass reportedly placed a large three ring binder on his lap so no staffers can see the erection this news gave him.

300 pages of O'Reilly whining about the liberalism of a black guy. I'm sure this book will in no way be racist or hilarious.

If we're all going out, let's go out with a beat

Seriously, how bad can our impending doom really be if a bunch of physicists are willing to take the time to compose, perform and record a rap explaining what the LHC aims to accomplish?



See you all at the singularity.

Vengeance is theirs, I guess...

It seems Georgia's hiring of Brazilian mercenaries to upset the Russian Beach Volleyball team will not go unpunished.

Villages in Georgia were being burned and looted as Russian tanks and soldiers followed by "irregulars" advanced from the breakaway province of South Ossetia, eyewitnesses said today.

"People are fleeing, there is a mood of absolute panic. The idea there is a ceasefire is ridiculous," Luke Harding, the Guardian's correspondent, said.

Earlier, witnesses reported a military convoy heading towards the Georgian capital Tbilisi, but it later turned off the road and headed back towards South Ossetia. Russia denied any advance.

You'd have thought that mishandling a breakaway element of your fledgling democracy would have stirred up the most shit. But no, Georgia had to go and kick a wolverine in the testes by paying Brazilians to play beach volleyball.

At any rate, keep searching for that cease-fire, Russia. Make sure you check over there under that pile of melted dolls and old people parts.

The Georgian conflict is over, that's just thunder you hear

I know you're heartened by the alleged cease fire in the Russia/Georgia conflict. Even though Russia is still bombing the shit out of Georgia with no plans to leave. Hey, they carted the misses over there, this just saves on transit costs. I'm sure those tanks are just advancing to tell Georgian soldiers that there's a cease fire.

I wonder what America's been doing to mediate the conflict. We know Bush jawboned with Putin at the opening ceremonies, between mouthfuls of hot dog. "You know Vladdly, you should really stop...oh shit, look at what Tajikistan is wearing......because bombing is like bad and....I ordered relish on this...since when is there a French Guyana?"

There was that amusing exchange where America claimed opposition to regime change, preemptive war, and disproportionate response without a hint of self awareness. It was judged a 7.3 in difficulty and a 9.525 in execution, leaving America with an almost unbeatable score of 16.825 on the hypocrisy vault, before they move on to floor exercise.

Just know that our nation's top diplomat, Condoleeza Rice, is on it......right after her vacation.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has also been noticeably absent on the diplomatic scene, having failed to interrupt her holidays to fly to Tbilisi in support of the Georgian government.

Instead senior State Department official, Matthew Bryza, who oversees the Caucasus region was sent, two days later than planned, to join a joint EU-US mediation effort to win a ceasefire.

You don't up and jet to Tbilisi when you've got the hot hand at the dice game over at Wynn Las Vegas. You only do that when the Russians invade Atlanta, Georgia. Clackety clackety clack.

Truthfully she was better off staying on vacation, it's hard to negotiate with no moral standing. I'm sure this will all end well.

Dick Cheney has declared war on you

Hates puppies. And you.

No longer content with the wars he's got going (Afghanistan, Iraq, Civil Liberties, basic human decency), Cheney is fixin' to throw down with Russia over its invasion of Georgia.

I find the phrasing, specifically the claim that Russia's actions "Must not go unanswered," particularly pleasing. You can practically see Cheney's knuckles whitening around the neck of whatever small animal he was throttling as he delivered this latest verbal 80's action retread.

For some strange reason, I'm compelled to call into question the sincerity of Cheney's dedication to national sovereignty. But hey, if Bill Kristol is on board, what could possibly go wrong?

Impeaching Musharraf. This will end well.

Pakistan coalition moves to impeach Musharraf

Pakistan's usually fractious coalition government moved decisively for the first time on Thursday to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, who has been an important American ally in the campaign against terror but who has largely been pushed to the sidelines since his party lost elections in February.

The leaders of the two main parties in the coalition - who have barely been on speaking terms in recent weeks - announced their impeachment strategy at a news conference in Islamabad.

In the joint statement, they said that Musharraf would be required to face a vote of confidence in the national assembly, with the implication that if that vote did not pass then impeachment would immediately proceed.

Of course Musharraf still has considerable power, he can legally dissolve Parliament to avoid impeachment as long as he gets an agreement from the army. Boy, that ought to be hard for the former leader of the military to get.

According to politicians who have seen Musharraf recently, the president has declared he would not go easily. Zardari warned the president against dismissing parliament as a way of clinging to power. "If he does it, it will be his last verdict against the people, against the people's mandate and against Pakistan."

Yeah, I'm sure that's of real ethical concern to a military strongman who took power by coup. But, dear reader, I'm sure you're wondering what exactly has brought about this series of events in Pakistan. Well according to the news: "the coalition says that Musharraf acted unconstitutionally by declaring a state of emergency last November and dismissing nearly 60 judges, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court."

That barely rates on the list of things Bush has done. Yeah, Pakistan takes it Constitution more seriously than we do. By the way, that cry you heard? It was the furious anguish of Dennis Kucinich as he trained angrily in his basement dojo. Don't bring it up to him or you'll quickly fall to his sword as he parrys and thrusts and twirls all around you like a Congressional Yoda.

The fact is this could very well end with Parliament dissolved and the military hunting for the traitors as Musharraf consolidates power even more. The men who moved to start impeachment know this and they still went ahead with it. Meanwhile in our country you can recklessly violate thousands of laws, pardon cronies who committed illegal acts on your behalf, spy on your citizens, out CIA agents, violate several Constitutional Amendments, and completely politicize the Justice Department to protect yourself from prosecution, combine it with the lowest approval rating for a President ever, and only a tiny man from Ohio seems to view it seriously enough to move for impeachment. Pakistan has a better functioning Democracy than we do.