Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Tuesday Mashup (11/17/09)

  • Oh yes, I’m so upset that Sarah Palin is unhappy about the photo of her selected for the Newsweek cover.

    Which she posed for, by the way.

    In the course of an interview about her book (which, based on this, must be utterly rife with inaccuracies - and speaking of which, kos asks the question of the year here).

    With said criticism coming from an individual who winked during the course of a vice-presidential debate last year (causing Rich Lowry, among others, to very nearly have an accident here).

    Yes, part of me is repulsed that Newsweek would use her looks to sell their magazine (which helps her book sales, of course). But to me, this sounds like a boy who yelled “Fire” in a crowded movie theater and then is upset when someone is trampled to death in the ensuing stampede.

    Most of the marketing of Sarah Palin has to do with her looks, along with her ability to toss out “dog-whistle” catchphrases for her blinkered idiot supporters who actually take her seriously as a person of any political import whatsoever. If she denies that, then she’s a fool (and when it comes to understanding of our functions of government and the political history of this country, Palin may be an idiot, but if there is one thing she most certainly is not, it is a fool).

    So stow your criticisms and veiled allegations of sexism, former Madame Governor. It all contributes to money in your pocket anyway.

    Besides, if you want to get mad about a photo, feel free to get steamed about the one with this post.


  • So “Doctor” Bart Stupak of Michigan believes that he has enough votes to kill health care reform if that horrible amendment he sponsored with Joe Pitts is removed in the Senate or in a House-Senate conference, does he (here)?

    Fortunately, Dem U.S. House Rep Mark Schauer of Michigan’s 7th District (who lives in the real world) tells us the following from here…

    This bill will offer every American access to quality, affordable health insurance, strengthen Medicare for seniors by closing the prescription drug donut hole, and lower health care costs for businesses to help them compete. Additionally, this fiscally responsible plan will reduce the federal budget deficit by $109 billion over the next decade.

    Doing nothing is simply not an option.‬‪ Families and businesses are drowning under rising health care costs. Since 2000, health costs for small businesses have skyrocketed 129%, and premiums for families have doubled while wages have only gone up 3%. In 2008, there were 1,600 health care-related bankruptcies locally, and this year more than 176,900 Michiganders lost their health insurance due to the economic crisis.‬‪

    Without taking action, health costs for Michigan families will continue to rise by $1,800 each year. Seniors will keep falling into the prescription drug donut hole. Businesses will continue to face double digit premium increases annually, costing us jobs. And rising costs will keep adding to the deficit.‬‪ The status quo is simply unsustainable.‬‪
    (I know this stuff is a recording, but in response to the same old propaganda, I have to recycle the same old truth.)

    And if you want to do something about Stupak-Pitts, by the way, click here (and in the meantime, I apologize to every living being in the universe for actually supporting Stupak on anything, as I did once here).


  • And finally, I came across the following from Stanley Fish of the New York Times today (here)…

    There is a class of utterances that, when encountered, produces irritation, distress and, in some cases, the desire to kill. You hear or read one of these and your heart sinks. Everyone will have his or her (non)favorites. Mine is a three-word announcement on the TV screen, “To Be Continued,” which says, “I know that you have become invested in this story and are eager to find out how it ends, but you’re going to have to wait for a few days or a week or a month or forever.” In the great order of things, it is only a minor inconvenience, but it is experienced as a deprivation; you were banking on something and now it has been taken away.
    Fish then goes on to list various phrases that he finds to be tiresome, which is his right I guess. That, though, prompted me to add a few of my own, as noted below…

  • “Moderate” politician – This is someone who appears to be claiming some kind of middle ground in an argument, though what you usually find out is that this person, just about always a Democrat, has ended up compromising on his or her core beliefs, and in response, the Republican with whom that person is trying to reach an accommodation has compromised not one bit.


  • “Deeply divided” – This is a phrase used in a headline to indicate deep disagreement usually between core demographics of a particular party (again, often among Democrats), though upon reading the story in depth, what is usually discovered is that there is more overall agreement than not (e.g., health care reform).


  • “Core liberal constituency” (or some variation thereof) – This is used when describing support for a particular policy or item of congressional legislation, and what the reader would be inclined to believe upon reading this phrase is that such a policy or item of legislation would be favored only by individuals currently not in the majority (e.g., LGBT individuals, union members, African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans). However (and even if it turns out to be true that such a policy or item of legislation enjoys support only among minority groups like this), what you discover when you add up all of the groups that support this is that such a policy or item of legislation enjoys pretty damn broad support beyond “liberals” and probably among a lot of independents and maybe even some Republicans (e.g., support for the public option).


  • “Global War On Terror” – I realize this has been retired a bit by the Obama Administration, to its credit, but it has come to denote terrorists in general across the world as if they are part of some “evil empire,” though in reality they are dispersed and only occasionally have intersecting interests, usually against a common enemy (often us). And the phrase will always remain in vogue among Repugs certainly, who continue to nurse the delusion that it excuses our country's basic compliance with the rule of law.
  • And last, but certainly least…

  • “We’ll have to leave it there”
  • And to ensure that the posting circle, as it were, remains unbroken here, this is an episode of mindless punditry by Fish on Just Plain Folks Sarah Palin and “Governor Appalachian Trail” from last summer (and I’ll add to this list if I can think of anything else).
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