Morning Jolts
A new feature: A morning roundup…
* Indiana voters want a public option and a sizeable chunk does not want Senator Evan Bayh to join a GOP heath care filibuster, according to a new poll by the nonpartisan Research 2000 for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America.
* The House bill, to be unveiled today, will not include the most robust public option.
* OFA’s newest target: Sarah Palin. Obama’s political operation goes out to its massive list with a new video “calling out” her health care “lies,” continuing to elevate Palin as the face of the harsh, angry, uncompromising opposition:
* Interesting piece from Dana Milbank on what Obama’s signing of the military spending plan tells us about how Washington works.
* Dem strategists think the GOP blundered by training so much fire-power on the public option.
* Obama is really not heeding demands that he hurry up and make a decision about Afghanistan.
* And is there a truce between Fox News and the White House? I’m told there’s no truce. More on this later, hopefully.
All, please let me know if you want this feature to continue and what you think would make it more useful or improve it…
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
Good morning. I think a daily morning-roundup thread a good idea. Many of us, I expect, read during the late evening or early morning and bump into stories we feel significant. If such insertions are welcome, I’d find that most agreeable.
For example, Koppelman at Salon notes an interesting dynamic in Texas where Dick Cheney will be campaigning for Hutchinson while Palin will be campaigning for Perry (or at least this is how it stands at present)… http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2009/10/28/cheney/index.html
That’s an unexpected and significant pair of opponents.
Good morning Greg!
I like the concept Greg–will definately use it.
And, at the WSJ and NRO, Rove and Lowry discern that the Virginia vote on Tuesday is really the significant indicator of America’s rejection of Obama and of the Republicans’ rosy electoral future. The other contests, Rove feels, are either incredibly wonderful news for Republicans or of no importance at all, depending on outcomes.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjQ2NjQyNzljMzkzYzYzYmExZWQ0MmMyZDRkOTk2Zjc=
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703574604574501322618623620.html
“Just in case”… http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/10/they_know_how_to_party.php#more?ref=fpblg
Evan Bayh is a total scumbag…his wife made over two million from Wellpoint and other large health insurers…Leiberman’s wife has done the same thing in Connecticutt. These two Senators are as shameful as ANYONE in our history…this is just as bad as Teapot Dome or any other scandal. Hopefully the MSM will pick up and keep reporting on Bayh and Leiberman’s total sellout of the citizens they are supposed to represent…both Indiana and Connecticutt have polled as being in favor of a public option by very large margins…when will a reporter get the cojones to ask Leiberman/Bayh a direct question…”Sir your constituents have indicated they are for a public option…your wife has taken/earned millions from the health insurance industry…can you tell us why you choose to represent corporate interests over your constituents? Can you at least see why this looks like a HUGE conflict of interest?
Bernie — absolutely. Links more than welcome, always! And thx Casual/slugga.
Yes, Greg! Keep the feature going– thanks!
Bayh and Lugar are my senators. I sent an email to Lugar asking why he is covered by single payer (Medicare) but opposes the public option. I got back the usual form letter email with a quote from a speech that basically sais, “We can’t afford to give our citizens health care” and a clear subtext “Let them eat cake.”
I am beyond disgusted.
P.S. Love Morning Jolts! Keep it up!
Greg, we like the new feature except I feel like I have even more reading to do in the A.M. before I can start commenting….Oh the pressure, JK.
This story seemed really important to me this morning considering all the elements of Obama’s decision in Afghanistan.
“President Obama traveled to Dover Air Force Base early Thursday morning, where he met with family members and paid his respects as the bodies of 18 Americans killed this week in Afghanistan were returned to the United States.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/us/30obama.html?adxnnl=1&ref=world&adxnnlx=1256821603-ma/HdWsx5yyxiKW/BFsstw
Now the battle REALLY begins! Check out “Healthcare Fighting (Kung Fu Mix)” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nc1VwJOb9Y
If you have the stomach for it here’s Jon Walker at FDL congratulating the Blue Dogs for saving the insurance industry and denying Americans and the government a nice savings with the more robust PO.
“The Blue Dogs fought hard and they won a big victory for the for-profit health insurance companies. If I were an insurance company CEO, I would be writing each of them a very large thank you note (i.e. a campaign contribution). Of course, today was a huge defeat for the American taxpayer, serious health care reform, and working class Americans who are going to be denied a robust public option which could have saved them thousands of dollars.”
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/10/29/blue-dogs-win-huge-victory-for-the-health-insurance-industry/
The anti-Palin ad is grossly dishonest. Just go examine the claims being made and the sources cited, and take note of the slippery wording of the ad. The third point, for example, is just a repition of the fallacy that because a particular draft bill doesn’t contain the word “rationing” any claim that rationing would result from Obamacare is “false.” The second point is similarly a cheap bit of misdirection and deceit. Palin cited an op-ed analysis based on the figures from the joint taxation committee. The Dem ad miscites a Tax Foundation analysis of a different point. It’s apples and oranges.
Go google up the sources in the ad see for yourselves. Once again the lies are being told by the Dems. Lying about a political figure they claim is irrelevant and radioactive. Wonder why that is.
Morning Greg- I likes it.
rukidding:
“Evan Bayh is a total scumbag…his wife made over two million from Wellpoint and other large health insurers…Leiberman’s wife has done the same thing in Connecticutt. These two Senators are as shameful as ANYONE in our history”
Yeah, right?
But I would have thought they would have been regarded as good Democrats,(at least until nutroot moonbats forced Lieberman out of the communal sweat lodge).
So, if they are scumbags because their wives made money from the health care industry, then what would you yammer about the Nobel Prize-winning Alleged Hawaiian, whose wife made an ending slary of $317,000 a year to dump poor patients out of University of Chicago Hospital?
A very critical look at phoney as a three dollar bill, Michelle Obama, from that hotbed of wingnuttery, the UK Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-517824/Mrs-O-The-truth-Michelle-Obamas-working-class-credentials.html
Including this tasty little factoid in the last sentence:
“More contentious still was Michelle’s appointment as the £150,000-a-year vice-president of external affairs at the University of Chicago hospital in 2005.
It came only two months after Barack was sworn in as a U.S. senator, and was attacked by critics as a blatant attempt, critics claim, by the hospital’s hierarchy to curry favour with her husband, in an era when some politicians want to rein in the vast profits of America’s medical system.
They questioned why the wife of a committed Democrat would work for a hospital that has been accused of ruthless greed.
Michelle’s image was further tarnished in May 2006, when it was revealed that the centre – despite earning some £50million a year – had refused to treat a man who could not afford to pay his bill. He died.”
Still think the Obamacrats are the compassionate ones who will reform Health Care for YOUR benefit?
“Still think the Obamacrats are the compassionate ones who will reform Health Care for YOUR benefit?”
Yes.
And I think you’re a chickens*h*i*t SOB for attacking Michelle Obama.
Hey, Tena! You’ve been pretty quiet lately! Or have you just been avoiding the trolls who seem to have taken up permanent residence on this blog?
Great ad. Yup. Yup. Call out the lies from that twit from the tundras. Also.
What would a truce look like? Would Fox start being a news rather than propaganda organization? Or would the WH simply accept that Fox and the rest of the MSM are vapid twits and an enemy of democracy and try to do their best despite that?
msmolly – Actually, I was offline last week. I was closing down my Taos house to come back to Dallas, which I did last Saturday.
Thanks, msmolly, for noticing.
“What would a truce look like?”
Exactly.
“that hotbed of wingnuttery, the UK Daily Mail”
Well, yes it is, actually. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail
The DM is frequently used by the US right as a propaganda tool (a NYRB article recently detailed the how and why…if I can find it, I’ll link or quote).
But the technique is an old one… place a story or smear into a foreign English-speaking paper (note wikipedia’s list of successful libel suits against the paper) that you wish covered here and then quote it or link to it in order to give it credence.
Thank you, Bernie, for explaining that.
Obama’s making an effort to eliminate waste in government spending.
“But as the president signed a $680 billion military policy bill on Wednesday, it was clear that he had succeeded in paring back nearly all of the programs and setting a tone of greater restraint than the Pentagon had seen in many years.”
“Mr. Obama has said that he does not intend to reduce military spending while the nation is engaged in two wars. But Mr. Gates also wants to cut more futuristic programs to free money for simpler systems like helicopters and unmanned spy planes that can help the troops now.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/business/29defense.html?_r=2&ref=politics
“For example, Koppelman at Salon notes an interesting dynamic in Texas where Dick Cheney will be campaigning for Hutchinson while Palin will be campaigning for Perry (or at least this is how it stands at present)… http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2009/10/28/cheney/index.html”
This is not only interesting, it’s weird.
I’m hoping that Cheney and Palin knock each other out and their candidates get lost in the battle.
Interesting factum from the Dem Strategist…
“Medicaid, for instance, is an opt-out program, but no state has ever chosen to take that step.”
http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/ (4:09 PM post by Matt Compton)
That was interesting regarding the DM and something I was completely unaware of, thanks.
I sent an email to Lugar asking why he is covered by single payer (Medicare) but opposes the public option. I got back the usual form letter email with a quote from a speech that basically sais, “We can’t afford to give our citizens health care” and a clear subtext “Let them eat cake.”
I have no doubt that had he been in the Senate back during the Johnson administration when they enacted Medicare he would have been opposed to that also, and for the same reason he gave you in his form letter.
You can call the UK DM whatever you all want. Michelle Obama still had a $300k make-work job with a hospital, and she got a huge raise shortly after Senator Hubby sent a huge earmark to her employer.
But apparently it is okay for you all to smear wives of poltical enemies, while it is off limits to point out the sweetheart arragement Mrs. One had.
‘Medicaid, for instance, is an opt-out program, but no state has ever chosen to take that step.””
Holy cow! I had no idea that states could opt out of medicare. This puts Perry in a very tight spot, which I know people were relishing the idea of this happening to Republicans.
But I still Perry will possibly opt out just because that’s how he is campaigning and has been all along.
“while it is off limits to point out the sweetheart arragement Mrs. One had.”
I don’t even know the names of the wives of most of the GOP snd I don’t think anyone else does, either.
Sarah Palin is not a political wife -she’s a politician and she gets the same treatment they all get.
Now, if you like I can spend the day saying really tacky things about First Dude, Todd, and the rest of that trailer trash bunch.
Lying about a political figure they claim is irrelevant and radioactive. Wonder why that is.
After months of significant exposure to her 71% of the country is convinced Palin’s unqualified to be president and doesn’t want her ever to be president, but the war crminal wannabe has stated that she’s the real deal……..
But we’re the imbeciles, you see…………..
“After months of significant exposure to her 71% of the country is convinced Palin’s unqualified to be president and doesn’t want her ever to be president,”
That empty-headed, hateful beauty pageant contestant does not even have a college degree that can be verified and she is not now or ever going to get anywhere near the White House again.
Tena – I think her momentary, for-the-elections-only son-in-law is taking care of that trailer trash bunch.
The most hypocritic and vile bunch of family evah to infest american politics.
Palin’s white trash in a good body with a pretty face.
That’s all.
Tena – re Cheney/Palin
Very weird indeed. We’ll have to see how this plays out to get a perspective on what’s going on.
“Tena – I think her momentary, for-the-elections-only son-in-law is taking care of that trailer trash bunch.
”
O Levi, Levi, Levi. LOLOLOLOL!!!!
I want them to stick around – they are almost a piece of performance art – rather like the Duggers are.
The more I read, the more futile and wasteful our presence in Afghanistan is. I don’t envy the President being under so much pressure to keep the war effort not only going but increasing our troop levels. I’m with ruk on all of this more and more. This from Andrew Bacevich.
“Let’s assume the best. Let’s assume that after five to ten years of additional effort, the expenditure of several hundred billion more dollars, and the loss of at least several hundred more American lives, something like the McChrystal plan “works.” What will the United States have gained? Will we have driven a stake through the heart of violent jihadism? Will we have even reduced the jihadist threat appreciably? To answer any of those questions in the affirmative, you have to believe that Afghanistan is jihad central. But it’s not. We could convert Afghanistan into a Central Asian version of Disney World and violent Islamic radicalism would persist unabated in various quarters of the world–probably including major cities in the West. The threat is a transnational one and is not subject to elimination no matter how energetically we pursue armed nation-building campaigns in far-off places. Indeed, it’s at least as plausible to argue that persisting in the effort to pacify Afghanistan will further incite, rather than reduce, jihadist opposition worldwide.”
http://www.tnr.com/article/world/disputations-root-causes
“Very weird indeed. We’ll have to see how this plays out to get a perspective on what’s going on.”
The only thing I can tell for sure right now is that the Democratic candidates, and there are rumors that Kinky Friedman is running as a Democrat this time, are invisible. No one knows who or where they are and that’s not a good situation.
If Kinky will promise to legalize, I’ll vote for him this time. Our gov has very little power – the Speaker of the Texas House runs the state.
Star Telegram on Cheney/Hutchinson…but fails to mention the fun Palin aspect… http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1719531.html
Unfortunately, Levi comes off as a scummy opportunist, and that CBS twit who interviewed him was poking and prodding and dirt-digging as fast as her little paws could go. I couldn’t believe that not only did CBS fill the airwaves with that garbage, but that other outlets replayed it. Apparently morning teevee is junk.
“Apparently morning teevee is junk.”
Darln, if you’d left the qualifier “morning” out of that sentence, it would be been even more true.
msmolly – of course he comes off that way – that’s what he is. But that’s what all of them are.
Wasilla is really a big damn trailer park with the worst meth problem in Alaska.
“I’m so pleased. We [Kay and Cheney] worked together on the conservative agenda”
O my gawd Fluffy!
You may be writing your own death warrant here. And I do not want Rick Perry to win again.
I wonder if this could clear the way for the Democrat, if we could find him…?
Run, Tena, run!
I’ve noted on Sarah’s facebook page this traitorous move by Washington insiders to thwart the godly. Someone had to do it.
Bernie:
Uh, no. Never. I like my life the way it is. It doesn’t get a lot better. A gov cannot roll out of bed and spark a bowl.
Hmmmmm…I wonder if Kinky knows that?
QB:
“I don’t even know the names of the wives of most of the GOP snd I don’t think anyone else does, either.”-Tena
Either she’s clueless, not having bothered to read rukidding’s comment, or she’s trying to be dishonestly cute.
“Sarah Palin is not a political wife -she’s a politician and she gets the same treatment they all get.”-Tena
Back to the hate for a strong and successful woman.
Am I alone in the suspicion that Tena wasn’t one of the pretty and popular girls in school?
“Now, if you like I can spend the day saying really tacky things about First Dude, Todd, and the rest of that trailer trash bunch.”
I can hear very clearly the esteem here that moonbats hold the working class poor in.
Palin, tmk, has never in her life inhabited a mobile home, but here Tena, crazed with jealousy, chooses “trailer trash” as her epithet.
Tells one a lot about Tena and her REAL views on those less fortunate than herself.
Funny, though, how she “represents” as such a nice and compassionate person. On the inside, where it matters, we get a peek of a totally different and very ugly picture.
“Darln, if you’d left the qualifier “morning” out of that sentence, it would be been even more true.”
Yeah, I guess so. I watch almost none (except Rachel, KO, Bill Moyers and occasional specials like Richard Engel’s latest) so I’m probably not qualified to comment. But I gather it’s a wasteland. I can’t imagine spending time watching the View, Morning Joe, or any of the other twaddle that fills the airwaves. But then I’m a cranky old lady
Bilgeman and QB, why don’t you either add substance to the discourse instead of attacking other commenters.
Funny, you don’t seem to mind attacks on Michelle Obama, but you dislike comments about a “strong successful” Sarah Palin. You expose your ignorance and hypocracy.
And now I will not engage our resident trolls further. I do wish they’d go away. This is a great blog, but they consume far too much of the threads.
Tena – perhaps one day you and yours and me and mine can go bowling together.
EDIT. That should have been “why don’t you either add substance to the discourse instead of attacking other commenters, or just STFU and go away.”
By the by…circulation for the Washington Times is a whopping 67,148
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=28868
“Back to the hate for a strong and successful woman.”
No, just kicking the usual GOP retards, regardless of whether or not they have breasts. She divides the party and repulses the country, so please: keep supporting her.
Bildge, Sarah Palin is a joke. If being a dunce makes you popular then I don’t want to be popular either.
“I watch almost none (”
One of my guilty pleasures – which I just discovered recently – is trash tv. I watch Trailer Park Boys, L.A. Ink, the Duggers – I’m not knocking people’s tv watching habits, msmolly. But I do think the content is like Cool Whip – mostly air. I agree about Keith and Rachel and mostly Rachel. She may well be the best journalist out there. She’s the only one who will take on the people who are her sworn enemies, and ask them the real questions.
Oh my goodness! We haven’t watched the last episode yet but will do so with dispatch… http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=28863
“a strong and successful woman.””
LMAO!
Someone needs to tell her that a wink will only take a woman so far and no further.
Here come the Dems down the steps. Lol. These things always seem cheesy to me.
They should parachute in. Now THAT would be cool. Or maybe have one of those fun slides put in and they could slide down.
“what would you yammer about the Nobel Prize-winning Alleged Hawaiian, whose wife made an ending slary of $317,000 a year to dump poor patients out of University of Chicago Hospital?”
I’d say you were drinking the same FOX sewage as usual. That’s not what the job was for and that’s not what it paid.
Geeze, polifact dealt with this back in May. Next, dumbass will be babbling about Vince Foster.
Umm…CNN better put some volume on this live feed, those bozo’s.
“Bilgeman and QB, why don’t you either add substance to the discourse instead of attacking other commenters.”
I disagree. If they didn’t come here to spit up what their handlers are feeding them, how would we know what the troll cafeteria is serving these days?
That’ some crowd for an unveiling of a bill that hasn’t even been merged with the Senate bill. Reid should take note.
I wonder what they are going to do for the final merged bill when its unveiled? Have U2 play or something?
If anyone cares, the US economy grew @ 3.5% in the 3rd quarter – the most in over two years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/business/8331497.stm
…and that is after declines for four consecutive quarters. The most on record since they’ve been recording GDP in the way they do.
“The anti-Palin ad is grossly dishonest.”
You didn’t even watch it, did you?
“I wonder what they are going to do for the final merged bill when its unveiled?”
Maybe Palin’s witch-pastor could stage an exorcism?
“If anyone cares, the US economy grew @ 3.5% in the 3rd quarter – the most in over two years.”
I do care. I wish someone would engrave this on the end of a mallet and whack Arianna with it – lightly, just enough to make an impression.
msmolly,
I didn’t attack other commenters. I pointed out that the anti-Palin ad is dishonest. Which it is.
I’ve noticed again on this thread the common m.o. of the liberal commenters as a collective. You keep changing the issue and moving the goalposts so you can avoid the issue and fuss and complain that conservatives are supposedly inconsistent.
One of you attacked wives of your perceived political enemies as being part of the corruption. Then Bilgeman posted a link about Mrs. One and her sweetheart job.
Then Tena complains that Palin isn’t a political wife but a politician who is fair game.
You all should try to keep your story straight.
“You didn’t even watch it, did you?”
Only about five times, and fact checked it. It is fraudulent.
“Only about five times, and fact checked it. It is fraudulent.”
Right. I mean, they only quote her and then show where she is wrong, at one point using a conservative source.
“Fraudulent” doesn’t mean “makes conservatives uncomfortable with their pathetic leadership,” you know.
Yeah, it’s “fraudulent” the way Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah is “fraudulent.”
She always used Sarah’s own words.
Greg,
I think the morning jolt seems to be a hit! It sure put a jolt in the commentary to start the day.
I am anxious to hear more about Fox vs the W.H. my former life was in journalism.
I still can’t stand Milbank. He is such a whinny SOB.
It’s amazing that bilgey and qb can vomit in such a precise pattern. That’s how you produce your posts right?
Tena:
“LMAO!
Someone needs to tell her that a wink will only take a woman so far and no further.”
Governor of Alaska and mother of four,(five? honestly lost count), while married to those children’s father ain’t bad, snookums.
Have YOU done as well?
Or are you pysically incapable of winking?
msmolly:
“Bilgeman and QB, why don’t you either add substance to the discourse instead of attacking other commenters.”
As rabid moonbat once told me after seeing fit to bring my mother into a discussion:
‘Get over it’.
“Funny, you don’t seem to mind attacks on Michelle Obama, but you dislike comments about a “strong successful” Sarah Palin. You expose your ignorance and hypocracy.”
Only to a moonbat moral degenerate would stating facts equal an attack. I cited and linked the UK Daily Mail for your edumacation, and I note that no Obama has sued and won judgements against them them to date for this story.
“And now I will not engage our resident trolls further. I do wish they’d go away. This is a great blog, but they consume far too much of the threads.”
Awwwww, I’m crushed, really.
And so this is the moonbat equivalent of a child sticking it’s fingers in it’s ears and hawling:
“La-la-la! I Can’t HEAR you! La-la-la.”
Pathetic.
portland john:
“It’s amazing that bilgey and qb can vomit in such a precise pattern. That’s how you produce your posts right?”
Ah, now THERE’S a post with SUBSTANCE that doesn’t attack other commenters!
Hey “Earplug Girl” msmolly…have you met my fan-boi portland john?
msmolly, put a sock in it.
I came here originally to question Greg about what statements Dick Cheney had made that had been proven lies, as Greg was claiming at the time.
The horde of charlatans and cretins here descended on me with every name in the book. So don’t give me any **** about who contributes substance. You for sure contribute nothing.
You’re the pervert who wants to waterboard.
You don’t want to be called names, don’t support committing war crimes.
“If somebody tells me they want me to pay an appearance fee, it tells me they’re not very serious about running for president,” – Ed Failor, Jr., Iowan GOP insider, on Palin’s demand of $100,000 to speak at the The Iowa Family Policy Center banquet next month.
I couldn’t care less if you call me names, pervert.
I’ve told you a dozen times, your curses are like blessings to me. Please keep them coming.
porta-john,
I’m sure everyone here learned a lot from your erudite contribution.
Now you can go back to xbox or pulling the wings off insects or gratifying yourself with porn or whatever it is you spend your time doing.
I couldn’t care less if you call me names, pervert.
Except that in calling me a pervert, you also call George Washington and the rule of law perverted.
You are a war criminal in all but deed. I look forwards to the day that you gnash your teeth because Dick Cheney has been put in jail where he belongs.
You should move to a dictatorship so you can commune with your own.
You don’t belong in the USA.
You aren’t an American because you don’t understand what this country is about and you never have.
You are just a dime-store authoritarian nationalist, just like all the other little fascists of the world.
I love that you find it necessary to respond to me. It testifies to your knowledge of moral inadequacy, and your innate perversion.
First you gripe because we don’t torture, despite the fact that torture’s a war crime and torture was never an official policy of the USA until Dick Cheney & George Bush made it so, in defiance of laws enacted while Ronald Reagan was president, and then you call those who oppose you perverts!
Poor oddjob. So angry, so ignorant. So perverted in his understanding of history and law, so perverted in his political perspective. So full of lies large and small. So embittered and hateful and frustrated that no one listens to a word he says.
“I love that you find it necessary to respond to me. It testifies to your knowledge of moral inadequacy, and your innate perversion.”
What does this say about you?
And what does it say about you that you have to make up the stupidest lies even about what I’ve said?
It says all of the above.