Copyright © 2009 Frank Lynch.
Copyright © 2009 Frank Lynch.
Me: Frank Lynch Home These are my mundane daily ramblings.
Email: |
How inept can the GOP be? The response to Obama's speech to Congress on health care reform was given by Representative Charles Boustany (LA), who seemed not to have had more than one speech at the ready. For in the response, he referred to care that America can "afford," taking no notice of Obama's pledge that any public option would have to pay for itself — or through spending cuts elsewhere. So "afford" is a red herring. And Boustany warned against "replacing your family's current health care with government-run health care," something Obama was decidedly not talking about, having reiterated what he's said before, that you can keep your coverage. And where did he think he was coming from, talking about what "most Americans [want]," and then saying that's what he's "heard over the past several months in talking to thousands of [his] constituents." As if those who come to him in Louisiana are representative of Americans in general? Not even a presumptuous New Yorker would claim that. In short, it seems like they're not even trying. Boustany's response can't really be seen as an honest effort to discuss the merits of health care plans. Perhaps Boustany was doing something similar to what Adlai Stevenson did in the UN after the Bay of Pigs: deliver a speech so insincerely, so badly, that no one would conclude it was really his. 
Toxic waters for Obama? Even Tony Blankley thinks that the Obama political staff is facing a different political environment, with today's speech to school children:
Blankley's correct, of course, but he glided past the issue about how Obamaphobia helped create the toxic atmosphere. Source it where you want it - - being black, irrational fears he's a Muslim, birthers, etc. - - people are just disposed against this man. Blankley himself has contributed to this atmosphere. Last year he suggested Obama might be a dictator; that Obama doesn't like America throughout its history; to conservatives who take "false comfort" in Obama's words; and suggested comparisons between Obama's 100 Days and Napoleon's (ending in Napoleon's defeat at Warterloo). So Blankley not only glided past irrational Obamaphobia, he said nothing about his contributions in creating it. Shouldn't there have been some kind of disclosure statement to the effect that Tony Blankley is paid to fan the fires?
I can't believe Minnesota elected a comedian to the Senate. That's what Al Franken is, after all. Just a filthy-minded comedian who plays state fairs, and does comedy routines explaining the advantages of health care reform. By the way, Senator Schumer (D-NY) was a couple chairs down from me this afternoon when I was getting my hair cut. (He lives about ten minutes' walk away.) On my way out I told him I knew he was taking the day off, but that we needed the public option. He said "I'm in favor of it." Not exactly an "I'll go to the mat for it" statement, but I really didn't want to press him on his day off. He's probably already made up his mind about how far he wants to go on that. New York Times on a fool's errand. NBC ran an early reality show called Real People, a look into others' lives, done considerably less artfully than Joyce did with Leopold Bloom, but it was a very popular show. I also remember a mock promo on SNL where Jane Curtin promised the show would look at someone who — get this — likes to read in bed. Well, someone at the New York Times has noticed that people (drum roll) read on the subways. Will wonders never cease, and all that. And to prove it, they have pictures of people reading on the subways. I don't doubt the pics are legit, but one of them looks so staged (an isolated passenger, standing at a pole with a book), you could be forgiven for asking why someone would be reading in the Transit Museum. This article struck me as August filler, except it's September, but a worse part is that they're trying to see if there are trends to what people are reading in transit. Good luck with that: it's not just a convenience sample, it's not just that people will want to tell the Times that they're reading Plato, it's that small percentage trends are very difficult to spot. And then to think that it's somehow special for subways as opposed to general New York behavior? For example, they printed an interim note that there was a blip for Infinite Jest. Well, there's a popular move to read it this summer anyway. So big deal. (I do find it a little surprising, though, that it would carry into the subway — it's a bulky book, not easily read while standing and supported by one hand. I don't know that the Times is thinking beyond titles, to the physical characteristics.) I know I would finish more big books if they were split into volumes. There have been a few occasions in my 27 years here that I've seen more than one person in the same car reading the same title, or over the course of a day. But it's very rare. I have the sense that a book is popular long before it rises to being unscientifically spotted as a trend on the subways.
Health care reform is pro-family. Courtesy of whitehouse.gov. You'll never believe what Obama did now. It looks like he put some of those powerful Chicago-style drugs into the drinks of some religious figures and ethicists to get them to approve of the Veterans Adminstration's Death Book. How else to explain it?
How on earth could it go any slower, Sen. McCain? Senators McCain and McConnell spoke to an invited audience of health care professionals today in Charlotte, and had some inspired ideas about the best way to reform health care: start all over, and go slower. As in, let us act like we really want it when we don't, because we really want to kill it. Seriously, slower? I mean, health care reform has been something sought as far back as President Truman. And McCain and McConnell want it to "slower." Like, let's not rush into getting rid of slavery too quickly, I might get the vapors. They really want to kill it. That's all there is to it. They could have worked for reform instead of against it, offering ideas up front. But noooo. UPDATE: I'm trying to remember... what was the GOP reaction when the UNESCO Iraq inspectors only wanted a little more time? A specific amount of time, a couple more months, not the open-ended time McCain and McConnell want... Duncan Hunter: waterboard training means it's OK for interrogations. Not sure if you caught Hardball on MSNBC yesterday, but one of the topics was torture. Matthews' guests were former representative Duncan Hunter and Representative Debbie Wasserstein. Hunter was going down the path that if waterboarding is torture, we shouldn't be doing it to our soldiers in training exercises. And since we do put our soldiers through it, that means it's okay if we use it on detainees. We all know why our soldiers are waterboarded in training: it was the SERE program, designed to build our soldiers' resistance against the known practices of other countries. Soldiers who went into it knew they were training, knew that the goal was for a greater good (build up their resistance to the enemies), and knew that if at some point it became unbearable they could call out a code word and it would stop. The Bush Administration took this program, based on what enemies do, and somehow concluded that what our enemies do is sufficiently benign that in our hands it was no longer torture. I don't have to tell you that Hunter is basically arguing for a continued escalation of the efforts; that anything the enemies do, seen through the lens of our training, will be blessed as benign. It's patently ridiculous and shows no moral compass whatsoever: whatever our enemies do is fine, so long as we can train our soldiers with it first. Neither Chris Matthews nor Debbie Wasserman would have anything to do with it, asking him where he would draw the line. Hunter made a really obvious dodge, asking Wasserman — who I believe is Jewish — why she didn't criticize Israel for its practices instead of criticizing the U.S. He may have a legitimate point that Wasserman's standards for complaint aren't consistent, but it's besides the point.
|
|
