I love listening to Ed Schultz and I'm glad he stomped on Ben Nelson's douche bag. More, please.

From Josh Marshall's post on right-wing violence:

It was a typically Kausian post, not only for its strained contrarianism but more for its complete failure of predictive value.

I like that quote so much, I'm going to make that part of my e-mail sig.

Ed Schultz should be running the DNC.

Thanks to unexpected demand, General Motors is bringing back 1,350 of its U.S. and Canadian auto workers.

Wonder if they agree with the wingers that Cash For Clunkers is an utter failure?

Sen. Ben Nelson is surprisingly thin-skinned.

That's not that surprising. Nelson and his ilk have kept the fainting couch industry in business for years.

When Ben Nelson says the private option "won't work", what he really means is that there's no way to include it and keep the insurance companies who love him so much happy. Simple, isn't it?

If you're gonna poop on the hopes of millions, you can't expect universal adulation. The mucho moolah that Senator Nelson gets from the insurance industry will have to be sufficient balm on his skin, however thin it may be. I'm glad I contributed to that "skin-abrading" ad, and I'm really, really happy that Schultz showed it for free :)

Sen. Ben Nelson is surprisingly thin-skinned.

Finding out a politician is thin-skinned is never a surprise. Narcissists by definition have a hard time dealing with criticism and punish anyone they perceive to have a negative view of them.

And, we haven't even seen abortion surface, yet, in the healthcare 'debate'. That should be a hoot!

st john, you haven't been paying attention, then. The abortion question has popped up several times during this debate. Many pro-reform surrogates have stated that nothing in the current bills will pay for abortions.

Pity, really. If insurance will pay for Viagra, it should pay for the pill and necessary or requested abortions. Patriarchy rules the day.

if there's any justice in the hereafter, bob novak is gettin' lessons from a real pro...

A man carrying a semi-automatic assault rifle outside a presidential event told fellow protestors, "We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote."

Shorter wingnut: Fuck democracy.

Narcissists by definition have a hard time dealing with criticism and punish anyone they perceive to have a negative view of them.

Speaking of which, let's all bow our heads in memory of Novakula while we recall the selfless way he always put the lives of others, national security and the rule of law ahead of his own ego:

From a personal point of view, I said in the book I probably should have ignored what I'd been told about Mrs. Wilson. Now I'm much less ambivalent. I'd go full speed ahead because of the hateful and beastly way in which my left-wing critics in the press and Congress tried to make a political affair out of it and tried to ruin me. My response now is this: The hell with you. They didn't ruin me. I have my faith, my family, and a good life. A lot of people love me--or like me. So they failed. I would do the same thing over again because I don't think I hurt Valerie Plame whatsoever.

Thanks for leaving the planet, you despicable ass.

"We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote."

This man needs to get off the shooting range and into a remedial English class on his way to the psych ward. Did he just whine -- I ask because his syntax is so bad -- that the majority is oppressing him through their votes? Seri-effing-ously? Or is he trying to say that he and his band of brother patriots will retake the majority with their votes, should they be able to find their way to the polling places without help?

I have so much respect for color of change and their concerted effort to reject the Beck insanity from being so racist on our public national airways without consequences. Good on them.

A man carrying a semi-automatic assault rifle outside a presidential event told fellow protestors, "We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote."

Is it me or does this really make any sense. It seems an anti-democratic statement to say no matter what the majority decides we will not let them "impose" their will on us when our nation is based on the majority rules. What exactly is this nut saying..."I've got a gun so I will do what I want irregardless of what laws the majority enacts". Too bad guns don't come with a level of responsibility and common sense. To feel it necessary to bring a gun to a townhall event mens you didn't come to discuss but to intimidate. Have people forgotten already the violent insanity of the old west when everyone was allowed to carry weapons on them everywhere they went? If you have a gun you have a tendency to use it rather than find alternative ways of dealing with situations...but to bring a gun to a place where our president is speaking should be nipped in the bud....or people carrying should be put in the caged "gun zone" at least. Imagine guns being brought to the conventions, especially in MN?

Novak is the only person known to have lived with a brain tumor for 78 years.

How long can Krauthammer last? He has to shave that face every single day.

Must really wear on a guy.

Not only has the abortion issue been raised, but... wait for it... Illegal aliens!!! We don't want to pay for THEM!! What would the Repubs do without those two topics?

Get used to the guns. If the crazies are bringing guns to town hall meetings about health care, they're going to be bringing them everywhere from now on. And it will get more an more absurd. In New Hampshire it was a handgun. In Arizona it's an AR-15. I can hear Chris Matthews stupid voice asking Armey "What do people think of this? Is it excessive to bring a Howitzer to an anti-health care reform rally?"

Some enterprising journalist should stick a camera in the face of one of these strapped "patridiots" and ask them if they're ready to commit first degree murder and spend the rest of their life in prison to protect the wealth of insurance companies.

Howitzers are fer kids.

Real men carry a vial of weaponized anthrax.

Fer duck huntin'.

"Sen. Mike Enzi, (R-Wyo.), a member of the Finance Committee's Gang of Six, wants to break up health care reform into separate pieces."

Can we adopt an Eskimo tradition by putting the Gang of Six on an iceflow and pushing them out to sea ?

I opened up a window and

inflewenzi.

(ref. rhyme from the Spanish flu epidemic)

Sen. Mike Enzi, (R-Wyo.), a member of the Finance Committee's Gang of Six, wants to break up health care reform into separate pieces.

Who cares?

The Justice Department has hired a liaison to the gay community.

Joe Solmonese fellating the White House on command wasn't enough?

"We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote."

So noted. This will be of great interest to the gay people living in one of the 42 states where our right to civil marriage was trashed by rabid conservative hate voters. I know a lot of folks who will be glad to hear that those same voters now think that armed revolt against outcomes at the ballot box we don't like is now a go.

If insurance will pay for Viagra, it should pay for the pill and necessary or requested abortions. Patriarchy rules the day.

IIRC, the House plan ensures that birth control is covered, but abortions are banned by the Hyde Amendment, so they'd have to pass specific legislation for federal funds to be used for abortions.

If the crazies are bringing guns to town hall meetings about health care, they're going to be bringing them everywhere from now on.

In the states that allow open carry. You notice that no one has been attending rallies with a gun in a state that does not allow open carry and I predict you never will. They'll be stopped by police before they even get past the perimeter.

Idiots in Arizona and New Hampshire carried guns to political rallies because their state laws allow them to, and they were hoping to start an incident by goading police into arresting them for doing something that's perfectly legal under Arizona and New Hampshire law. Unfortunately for them, the Secret Service didn't rise to the bait, so now all they have is the footage of them looking like idiots in front of the whole country.

Redefining the Public Option for dummies

A must see interview with Howard Dean courtesy of Ezra Klein.
Wherein you will see the framing this debate so desperately needs:

Dean at minute 9:

The public option is allowing people to sign up for Medicare who are under 65.

That's how you sell this going forward.
Anchor it to the known.
Keep it simple stupid...

(Hat tip to all the commenters on this blog who have pointed this fact out repeatedly over the last few weeks. I finally got it. Let's see if the administration gets it too...)

"Novak is the only person known to have lived with a brain tumor for 78 years."

***

You got that wrong. The brain tumor was the only thing known to have lived with a Novak for 78 years.

.

Having been an Obama watcher since he spoke at the democratic convention when John Kerry was running for pres. I have been puzzling the events of the past couple of week, I have been watching Obama and thinking it was not like him to keep so quiet, unless there was a purpose, I think he is very shrewd, I think he saw the repubs all acting crazy and was content to let them show their craziness, and when it looked like the Public Option might be dead, he knew it would spur some of us into action, he knew this would be the best way to keep the public option. I think it is working and the progressives are waking up and now being as forceful as the repubs and their corporate masters. Let's not let him down!

Wow, Anthony Wiener was on Hardball and was able to actually talk thru Matthew's rude interruptions. And he makes a ton of sense. We need more of him, please!

And Ron Reagan was also on, and he and Matthews shot down (ooh, bad metaphor) that wacky second amendment guy. Good on them.

Then Matthews had to ruin the show by waxing poetic on Novakula. Ick.

Kim Dae-jung, former SKor Pres, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, anti-authoritarian, and architect of the Sunshine Policy (which was successfully working to diffuse tension on the Korean peninsula until GWB torpedoed everything with his Axis of Evil speech) passed away.

More Wiener...

Wow, Anthony Wiener was on Hardball and was able to actually talk thru Matthew's rude interruptions. And he makes a ton of sense. We need more of him, please!

Here is a comment I wrote about Wiener a while back.
If you like what you heard today you will definitely like my video link.

One the face of it, Skip Gates' contempt of cop and that nut carrying a handgun at the Obama rally were both exercising constitutional rights. But I know who I'd rather have a beer with.

Let's not let him down!

Um, you have that exactly backwards.

Since this is an "open thread": why do I see all these ads from Newsmax.com, featuring unflattering shots of Obama, when I bring up www.washingtonmonthly.com?

I thought Richard Perle was the Prince of Darkness. Or maybe both he and Novakula were, in which case Novak's death finally clears up the confusion.

Beck may be "losing" advertisers, but his show was the 2nd-most-watched show on Cable this past week--so he is gaining viewers. Lots of them.

I think Mnemosyne got it regarding the gun nuts. They were hoping to provoke a response by getting arrested doing something legal, thus showing what a tyrant Obama was and how he was going to have everyone arrested for having guns.

And I'm also glad they did nothing about it. I say, let the nuts be nuts, as long as nobody gets hurt.

We will forcefully resist people imposing their will on us through the strength of the majority with a vote.

Although the language is a little strained, if you understand the recently discovered language'right-wingnut-ese' you can get it.

It has something to do with projection and cognitive dissonance. The translation is something along these lines:

We (the silent majority who voted for a new president)will forcefully resist(as in ignoring their ridiculous rantings) people (right-wingers - teabaggers - birthers - death-panelists - etc) imposing their will on us (the people with common sense) through the strength of the majority (Senate majority without filibusters) with a vote.

I think that's what he intended to say, because Republicans usually project their worst fears on the opposition. It's weird, I know, but if you run it to the projection filter you pretty much know where they're coming from. Sometimes they even give you ideas on how to deal with them. :)

The only kind thing that can be said about culture of corruption and greed Republicans is that they are consistent in their idea of reform.

What? You thought Republicans were anti-reform?

Republicans are always pro-reform. Or should I say they are always for their definition of what amounts to reform, in their Republican way of viewing things?

Thus, Republicans are for health care reform, but only if the reform being considered and possibly passed involves them and their crony pals making even more money than they are already making. And their fall-back position? No reform, as they define reform, happening at all, leaving the status quo in place, with them and their crony pals maybe not making more money, but also not making any less. They win either way.

Which explains not only the response, and vehement opposition, of the Republicans to Democratic Party attempts at health care reform, based on the Democratic Party's definition of what reform means, lower health care costs and wider coverage, but also explains the Republican's idea of reform where Wall Street is concerned, as displayed last year in the Bush administrations bailout of Wall Street firms that cause the financial market meltdown in the first place.

At least the Republicans are consistent (in their selfish greed and outright evil): throw tons of money at the wealthiest, and screw everyone else, old folks, children, the destitute. As long as these type of Republicans end the day with either more money in their pockets or at least not less than they started with, then this is "reform" they can live with...and to hell with everyone else.

I had it directly from the "Big Boss" downstairs: Novakula will not be allowed to mow anyone with his car ever again.

Do people with guns at public forum really want to debate? This seems to be the worst kind of undemocratic intimidation--and yeah, there is no Constitutional right to to influence public debate with guns. That would be the opposite of a Constitutional right--that would be called treason.
We need to stop this shit right now. Nothing good happens when you mix firearms with stupidity. Nothing.

Saying that Robert Novak "finally" died seems a little harsh. It sounds like you think it was due... That construct comes up every now when an obituary happens to be the last item in one of the mini-reports. "Finally, he died." Rather than something like "As the last item in this particular list, he died."

"* Sen. Mike Enzi, (R-Wyo.), a member of the Finance Committee's Gang of Six, wants to break up health care reform into separate pieces."

Enzi might be sincere, but it seems you have to do everything together to get it to work. For example, you can only get insurance practice reform and insurance exchanges if you have the mandate.

I have been watching Obama and thinking it was not like him to keep so quiet ... and when it looked like the Public Option might be dead, he knew it would spur some of us into action, he knew this would be the best way to keep the public option.

Pathetic.

Saying that Robert Novak "finally" died seems a little harsh.

We're okay with that.

Econobuzz

Sounds like you're not a fan of the Tao Te Ching. Next time asshole, I suggest you vote for Rambo or Schwarzenegger, the last action hero.