Panem and Circenses ( Bread and Circuses) described the methods used by Roman Caesars to exert control on the populace and distract the masses from important matters of public affairs, policies and society by having them feast and watch gladiators fight to the death in Roman arenas. Little has changed in 2,000 years, and if […]
On Saturday, February 4, the Federal Parks Police raided the Occupy DC encampment at McPherson Square. Less than 24 hours later they are at it again at Freedom Plaza. Live streaming video of the violation of protesters rights can be viewed here. Equipped with riot gear, mounted troops, and hazmat suits, the police executed a […]
A bit more than two years after the devastating earthquake, the country which used to be called “The Pearl of the Caribbeans” is still in a complete state of disarray. Many Haitians are very religious people, and some put their hopes more in the hands of God than in human beings for help. The numbers […]
2011: The Cleveland Cavaliers lose their 25th consecutive game—a 99-96 defeat at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks 99-96—setting an NBA record for most consecutive losses. 2009: Jennifer Figge, 56, of Aspen, Colorado, reports swimming across the Atlantic Ocean over the course of 25 days, ostensibly making her the first woman to accomplish this feat. It turns […]
pastINprint: RT @mmfa: On ABC, CNN's Loesch hypes heavily-discredited Planned Parenthood sting. Are any MSM outlets safe from her lies? http://t.co/x ... […]
pastINprint: RT @thenation: From our archives: An article written in aftermath of Memphis riots, by Nation co-founder http://t.co/hr505kO3 #BLackHist ... […]
By AP | March 30, 2010 - 6:52 am - Posted in Politics, Satire
Back from his vacation, Stephen sends up Senator Jim “Creme” DeMint (R-SC) and his “Waterloo” meme. DeMint articulated what became the Republican strategy to “break” Obama by defeating the administration’s effort to reform health care in July, 2009.
Now that the Democrats have successfully passed reform, DeMint has taken to pushing back the goal posts, tellingFace the Nation‘s Bob Schieffer that the true test of the GOP’s cynical strategy will come with the results of the 2010 midterm elections.
Stephen, of course, has some fun with DeMint’s assessment:
For political junkies, it’s a telling summarization of the just how sharp the partisan fault-lines have become. For historians, it’s window into a momentous moment in social policy. For humorists it’s, well, a guilty pleasure…
TalkingPointsMemo’s Brian Beutler provides the House scoreboard:
By a razor thin margin of 219-212, the House of Representatives tonight passed far-reaching legislation that will lead to near-universal health care coverage in the United States — a goal that has eluded Presidents and Congresses for a century.
The vote on the Senate bill concluded at 10:48 p.m., almost 10 hours after Democrats gavelled the chamber into session, confident the vote would be there. Within an hour, the House also passed the “fix” to the Senate bill, on a 220-211 vote…
Elsewhere on TPM, Christina Bellatoni explains why it’s not quite over yet:
The Senate parliamentary rules are that a reconciliation measure cannot be considered unless it is actually reconciling existing law. So Obama has to sign the bill before debate can start in the upper chamber. Senators have indicated they will start debate right after Obama signs the measure, and House Democrats said Sunday night they think the matter can be wrapped up within the week…
President Barack Obama outlined his administration’s proposal Wednesday, seeking to bring reform of the American health care system to a successful conclusion. Considering the recent spurious criticisms from reform opponents, it appears that, indeed, the arduous process of steering health care reform through Congress may well be nearing its end.
It’s really only become apparent in the last week or so. Leading up to and during the White House bipartisan health care summit, Republican politicians have repeatedly acknowledged the need for reform, but that Democrats should scrap their health care bills and “start over.”
Meanwhile, the Democrats began to show some spine leading up to the summit, signaling their willingness to use the budget reconciliation process to pass reform, if necessary. Consequently, Republicans’ concerns over the use of reconciliation became more prominent within their media talking points, and at the Blair House summit where the issue was frequently raised. Since the summit’s conclusion, however, GOP concerns over reconciliation have evolved into what appears to be panic.
Republicans are decrying the potential use of the parliamentary measure, attempting to gloss over the GOP’s historical record, having happily employed the measure when it suited them.
Further, in their attempts to rationalize their hypocrisy — insisting that the pending health care legislation is beyond the parameters of reconciliation — they have engaged in a campaign of historical revisionism. Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT) wrote an op-ed, published Mar. 2 in the increasingly subjective Washington Post, is a prime example of how Republicans are falsely framing the historical use of reconciliation.
Regarding Hatch’s opinion piece, Steve Benen of The Washington Monthlywrites, “Hatch is simply and unambiguously wrong. And the Post published his demonstrably false arguments anyway…” From Benen’s Political Animal blog, Mar. 2:
The whole pitch is absurd to the point of being insulting. Hatch has repeatedly supported up-or-down votes on legislation large and small. Indeed, he thought it was a great idea for delivering massive tax breaks for the rich — packages that cost far more than health care reform now — but whines incessantly when Dems consider the same procedure to pass a modest fix related to health care.
Hatch really ought to be embarrassed.
But Hatch, and those who mimic his intellectually dishonest argument, aren’t embarrassed, as Rachel Maddow deftly explains in this clip from her Mar. 2 MSNBC broadcast:
Adding emphasis to his lack of shame, Hatch tweeted his response to Maddow’s damning assessment. Here’s his tweet by way of PoliticusUSA:
@maddow ran me down on her show last night over my views on health care reform. Wonderful badge of honor.
However, if you watched the above clip you’d know that Maddow’s assessment had nothing to do with his “views.” Rather, as Maddow indicated in her response tweet, it was Hatch’s misstating of the facts which were at issue.
Sadly, no matter how plainly the GOP’s efforts to falsely frame reconciliation are laid out, they’ll continue beyond the bill’s passage. And, as Maddow put it in the above clip, “It’s going to pass.”
What I’m struggling with is, how could Republicans expect anything different from the Democrats? It seems to me that consistently obstructing Democratic efforts on health care — and everything else, for that matter, guaranteed that reconciliation would be used.
They’ve already telegraphed their intentions to use health reform’s passage as a campaign issue in the 2010 midterms, asserting that using reconciliation will cost the Democrats votes. However, wouldn’t a failure by the Democrats to use any means at their disposal to conclude a year’s worth of work cost them more?
Frankly, the GOP needs to get over it. I think is was Jon Stewart who put it best. Following Obama’s 2008 election to the presidency, Stewart reminded the already whining congressional Repbulicans of what their electoral losses meant. “You’re in the minority,” Stewart said. “It’s supposed to taste like a s#!t sandwich.”
By AP | February 25, 2010 - 9:29 pm - Posted in Politics
I caught Rep. Anthony Weiner’s — “Republicans are a wholly owned subsidiary of the health care industry” — remarks from the House floor, Feb. 24, and immediately knew I wanted to share it here. But, when I saw Rachel Maddow’s analysis that evening, my inclination became obligatory.
Weiner is awesome, of course, but Maddow concludes the below clip stating America’s health care reform dilemma in manner so rational that, in my opinion, it should give the staunchest reform cynic pause.
WASHINGTON — The Constitution has seen better days.Sure, it is the nation’s founding document and sacred text. And it is the oldest written constitution still in force anywhere in the world. But its influence is waning.In 1987, on the Constitution’s bicentennial, Time magazine calculated that “of the 170 countries that exist today, more than 160 have written […]
“We are the only people on the earth that put our hand over our heart during the playing of the national anthem. It was FDR who asked us to do that, in honor of the blood that was being shed by our sons and daughters in far-off places.”— Mitt Romney, Feb. 2, 2012This is a strange one.Kudos to Andrew Kaczynski at Buzzfeed for first spotting this claim, though […]
Americans have always sought architectural brushes with greatness.The nation's first president spent the night at so many inns and private houses that signs advertising "George Washington slept here" were regular roadside attractions even during his lifetime.But only a few homes of celebrated figures, such as Thomas Jefferson's Monticello […]
In the 1960s, Americans were focused on space and the idea of sending a man to the moon. In the meantime, a scrappy group of sea-dwelling divers were looking down—to the bottom of the ocean—and opening a vast undersea world to human exploration. […]
In “Leningrad,” author Anna Reid recounts the siege and contends that the death toll would have been far lower under a different sort of government, one better prepared and more responsive to the challenges faced by the city’s citizens. […]
It’s been more than four decades since the last use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, but the impact of the U.S. military’s defoliation campaign is still being felt by the Vietnamese people. […]
