Friday Mashup Part Two (3/19/10)

1) Don’t look now, kids, but here comes Joe (“You Lie!”) Wilson (here)…

As the 11th hour of the countdown to a (HCR) vote begins, we need concerned citizens across the country to channel the energy they had this summer to stop this health care takeover. We must spread the message that this job-killing health care takeover could not come at a more irresponsible time as unemployment still hovers double digits across the nation.

One wonders where this supposed instinct for employment existed in the earlier part of this decade while Wilson took up space in the U.S. House and Bushco was more concerned with creating wealth for its pals than it was for providing a decent standard of living for working men and women in this country via good jobs. But I digress.

Meanwhile, Think Progress tells us the following from here…

A new report by David Cutler (of the Center for American Progress) and Neeraj Sood (of the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics) suggests that health care reform would (create anywhere from 250,000 to 400,000 jobs a year through this decade).

In Part One of the Mashup here, I note the corruption of the political-media-industrial complex, if you will, that exists in South Carolina. You may safely consider Wilson to be part of that also.

2) Also, the Moonie Times wants to “Impeach Obama” here (too funny) over the “Slaughter Solution” in the matter of voting for health care reform…

The Democrats are assaulting the very pillars of our democracy. As the debate on Obamacare reaches the long, painful end, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is confronting a political nightmare. She may not have the 216 votes necessary to pass the Senate's health care bill in the House.

Hence, Mrs. Pelosi and her congressional Democratic allies are seriously considering using a procedural ruse to circumvent the traditional constitutional process. Led by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, New York Democrat and chairman of the House Rules Committee, the new plan - called the "Slaughter Solution" - is not to pass the Senate version on an up-or-down vote. Rather, it is to have the House "deem" that the legislation was passed and then have members vote directly on a series of "sidecar" amendments to fix the things it does not like.

(By the way, the phrase “Slaughter solution” was coined by Flush Limbore in response to a comment by Dem U.S. House Rep. Louise Slaughter – I guess the OxyContin was working overtime for this one – which, in essence, refers to the “deem and pass” process which was actually instituted about 25 years ago.)

In response, I give you this post from Media Matters, which tells us the following…

(In the Democratic U.S. House) "leaders have discussed the possibility of using the House Rules Committee to avoid an actual vote on the Senate's bill, according to leadership aides. They would do this by writing what's called a 'self-executing rule,' meaning the Senate bill would be attached to a package of fixes being negotiated between the two chambers -- without an actual vote on the Senate's legislation."

…

…self-executing rules may stipulate that a discrete policy proposal is deemed to have passed the House and been incorporated in the bill to be taken up.

…

When Republicans took power in 1995, they soon lost their aversion to self-executing rules and proceeded to set new records under Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). There were 38 and 52 self-executing rules in the 104th and 105th Congresses (1995-1998), making up 25 percent and 35 percent of all rules, respectively. Under Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) there were 40, 42 and 30 self-executing rules in the 106th, 107th and 108th Congresses (22 percent, 37 percent and 22 percent, respectively). Thus far in the 109th Congress, self-executing rules make up about 16 percent of all rules.

And what any of this has to do with President Obama is anyone’s guess.

3) Finally, I can’t let the week end without ignoring noting this little item from Ross Douthat of the New York Times about Rielle Hunter’s recent GQ interview (this is about as close as I come to the gossipy supermarket tabloid stuff, by the way – Douthat quotes the following from Hannah Rosin, and no, I don’t know who she is either)…

… I read Rielle’s interview and immediately thought of many yoga teachers I’ve met, the acolytes of Marianne Williamson and other devotees of what they call “Eastern” religion. The blossoming New Age/Buddhism lite that populates yoga classes talks about the toxic nature of the Western “ego” (you know, we work too hard, we value ourselves above others, etc.) But then it replaces this ego with something like a supreme inner deity residing in all of us whose dictates can never be ignored … you call it silly but to Rielle it’s so profound—divine, even.

This gives Douthat an opportunity to quote G.K. Chesterton, noted Catholic writer, on the matter of Hunter supposedly being preoccupied with the “inner light” of one’s own self (Douthat likes to continually remind us that he is Catholic also, though he somehow got the idea that anyone of our faith is “duty bound to oppose the tyranny of big government,” as noted here, which is a rather grotesque misrepresentation).

Well, aside from Douthat’s propensity for historical revisionism, particularly on the debacle in Mesopotamia (as noted here), I would say that he really isn’t someone qualified to render judgments on female psychology, based on this item (particularly this excerpt, during what I suppose were the author’s “salad days”)…

One successful foray ended on the guest bed of a high school friend’s parents, with a girl who resembled a chunkier Reese Witherspoon drunkenly masticating my neck and cheeks. It had taken some time to reach this point–”Do most Harvard guys take so long to get what they want?” she had asked, pushing her tongue into my mouth. I wasn’t sure what to say, but then I wasn’t sure this was what I wanted. My throat was dry from too much vodka, and her breasts, spilling out of pink pajamas, threatened my ability to. I was supposed to be excited, but I was bored and somewhat disgusted with myself, with her, with the whole business… and then whatever residual enthusiasm I felt for the venture dissipated, with shocking speed, as she nibbled at my ear and whispered–”You know, I’m on the pill…”

Gee, I wonder if G.K. Chesterton would approve?