Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Headlines - Tuesday

Happy election day, and best wishes to my friend and neighbor in his run for mayor. 
 
 
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h/t Dick: Two deaths and 26 other illnesses may be linked to possibly contaminated ground beef recalled by a New York company.
 
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pilots
 
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                  "Tell me the story, Mama, about 'Rush Limbaugh, the Pig King', and I shall fall fast asleep."
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Rep. Virginia Fox, "I believe the greatest fear that we all should have to our freedom comes from this room — this very room — and what may happen later this week in terms of a tax increase bill masquerading as a health care bill," said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.). "I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country."
 
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Kilimanjaro's ice melting at fastest rate in 100 years
 
But as the teabaggers keep saying, climate change doesn't exist. It's not real in their bizarre fantasy land and yes, they are like schoolchildren in the GOP. Their latest plan is to hold their breath until they turn blue and block any discussions on the subject. The party of "no" continues.
 
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You can't tell it from this picture, but this was the exact moment when it dawned on Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of
Goldman Sachs, that he could make a killing by selling billions of dollars in risky mortgage-based securities to suckers who didn't know he was also betting that the housing bubble was about to bust.
 
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An Arizona Republican National Committeeman called a Tucson conservative talk radio program last week and advised an Arizona Democratic County Chairperson that if he wanted to learn about crime in Tucson he should "ask the brown people."

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vladurday putin and hu jintao

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Top McCain adviser running out of insurance, has pre-existing condition.

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If he were white, does anyone actually believe this would be an issue? 

..... But the birther hysteria has taken hold in even a more local context than the Presidency: the New York City Marathon, where a naturalized American citizen who hails from Eritrea, and whose skin color is somewhat dark, is facing questions about whether he is a "real" American. I kid you not: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/11/if-he-were-white-does-anyone-actually.html

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Pop quiz

tila tequila

Meghan McCain's BFF, Tila Tequila, will be auctioning off a plaster cast of her boobs for charity, the Keep a Breast foundation. The current bid is $44, 500, and there is still a week of bidding left.

So for 2.8% of your grade, complete the following sentence:

"If you spend $50,000+ on a plaster bust of a plastered bust like Tila Tequila that make you ____________________."

Time's up, pencils down. Answer in the comments.

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The suicide rate in the Army has passed that of the general population for the first time. Sixteen American soldiers took their lives in October, and suicides have risen 36 percent since 2006.

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Why Hatch is really blocking health reform: Americans will love the new system and vote Democratic 

In a new interview with CNS News, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) repeated his concern that requiring Americans to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional. Hatch offered typical run-of-the-mill conservative arguments about "socialized medicine." But at one point, he let it slip that the real reason he is trying to stop health care reform is that the American public might really like it and therefore vote for Democrats:

HATCH: That's their goal. Move people into government that way. Do it in increments. They've actually said it. They've said it out loud.

Q: This is a step-by-step approach —

HATCH: A step-by-step approach to socialized medicine. And if they get there, of course, you're going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody's going to say, "All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party."

Q: They'll have reduced the American people to dependency on the federal government.

HATCH: Yeah, you got that right. That's their goal. That's what keeps Democrats in power.

A scenario whereby the two-party system is abolished because of government-run health care is unlikely at best. Republicans were also fear-mongering about the "socialized" system that became Medicare. In 1961, Ronald Reagan stated:

[I]f you don't [stop Medicare] and I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free.

Republicans, of course, have had no problem getting elected with Medicare in place, and they now wholeheartedly support the program (recognizing that it's popular with American seniors). For months, it's been clear that electoral considerations are behind the GOP's efforts to block reform. In July, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) said that if they could "stall" or "block" any legislation, it would be a "huge gain" for the 2010 elections.

In June, President Obama pointed out Republican's illogical opposition to a public plan, saying that if government-run health care will really be as bad as they say it will be, how could it "drive" private insurers out of business anyway?

Update Atrios sums up what Hatch is saying: "Orrin Hatch says we can't have health care reform because it will be awesome and everyone will love it and they'll be so grateful that they will vote for Democrats for all eternity."
 
Update Steve Benen also notes that Hatch isn't just against "socialized medicine," since he has "suggested he'd oppose health care reform whether the provision [public option] is in the bill or not."
 
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Panoramic image of the Milky Way
 
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"What do you do to correct this kind of thing? You're told one thing, you'd have so much and you didn't. 
These are the kinds of things we heard after Katrina during a previous administration." - Bob Schieffer, blaming Obama for the failure of that French company to deliver enough H1N1 vaccine on time, 
Link  

It's my understanding Bush made a deal with this French company last summer to deliver the vaccine on time.
Under Bush, his crooked cronies got paid, regardless if they delivered the goods or not.

60 Minutes asked the same questions last night and they suggested the French company was doing their best but they had run into problems and things are working better now.

How does Schieffer hold Obama accountable for a deal Bush made in 2008?  

Oh, that's right - Bob Schieffer is a senior Bush bastard. 

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Republicans promise a healthcare reform bill .... again

Stop the presses! Republicans have an alternate healthcare reform plan... Well, maybe "have" is the wrong word. They don't actually have a plan, but they're gonna -- you just wait and see.
http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/11/republicans-promise-healthcare-reform.html