Politics, open government, and safe streets. And the constant incursion of cycling.

Category: Politics Page 13 of 73

Krugman on Health Care Realities

Well done:

At a recent town hall meeting, a man stood up and told Representative Bob Inglis to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.” The congressman, a Republican from South Carolina, tried to explain that Medicare is already a government program — but the voter, Mr. Inglis said, “wasn’t having any of it.”

It’s a funny story — but it illustrates the extent to which health reform must climb a wall of misinformation. It’s not just that many Americans don’t understand what President Obama is proposing; many people don’t understand the way American health care works right now. They don’t understand, in particular, that getting the government involved in health care wouldn’t be a radical step: the government is already deeply involved, even in private insurance.

And that government involvement is the only reason our system works at all.

He goes on to explain what I think of as obvious, but apparently isn’t.  Check it out.

Maybe Mark Warner Should Pay Attention . . .

to this.

Southern Stupid

I used to try and defend the South against stereotype-fueled charges of racism and ignorance, but I’ve long since stopped, in part because of things like this:

It turns out, less than surprisingly, that the cradle of the birther faith is in the South. Just shy of a majority of Southerners — not just Republicans, but everyone — believe Barack Obama was born in the United States. 47% of Southerners say Obama was born in the US; 30% aren’t sure; and 23% say Obama was not born in the USA.

And for those that don’t trust a DKos/Research 2000 poll, well:

Public Policy Polling was skeptical of the results found by DailyKos/Research 2000 that fewer than half of Republicans believed President Obama was a natural born American citizen.

However, in a Virginia poll currently in the field, PPP finds that just 79 of the first 168 respondents — both Democrats and Republicans — think Obama is a citizen, while 56 say he is not and 33 are not sure.

Update: Okay, that’s it.  Get out of the )(*@#@%@# Union.

Did You Know that Under the Proposed Health Care Reform You Could DIE?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6nMegZRejs[/youtube]

Because things never seem to change.

Virginia Republicans – All Whack Jobs, Or

just this one?

(And to my Republican friends, I’ll point out that you seem to have a lot of problems with the whole violent rhetoric thing.  Have you ever wondered why?  Oh, that’s right.  It’s a party that thrives on that.  Maybe you should do something about it.)

Stewart on the Real Obscenity on Television

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Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Sweet.

Via TPM:

Despite lots of recent evidence to the contrary (see, e.g., Michelle Bachmann and Norm Coleman), I cling to the idea of Minnesota as a place that produces good politicians in a climate of genuine decency.  I’ve got high hopes for Franken.  Very.

No, Sen. Schumer, it’s not “the only way.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gets on the Big Brother/REAL ID bandwagon:

I’m sure the civil libertarians will object to some kind of biometric card — although … there’ll be all kinds of protections — but we’re going to have to do it. It’s the only way.

As Lauren Weinstein puts it:

Isn’t that last sentence what Darth Vader said to Luke when trying to get his son to join him, just after revealing his relationship?

Here we go again. At least in regards to certain topics, when it comes to Congress, it’s:

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!

Sometimes – too often – it is. And this Democrat is tired of it.

Maher on Democrats

Not Maher’s biggest fan here, but he absolutely nails it, starting two minutes in:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtUAHPYYzeM[/youtube]

“Democrats are the new Republicans.” Indeed.

Virginia Democratic Primary Post-Mortem

I’m very late in linking this, but on the off-chance that you haven’t read Vivian Paige’s analysis of what happened on June 9th, do so.

Page 13 of 73

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