Archive for March, 2010

It’s pretty sad where Lawrence O’Donnell is the voice of reason…

Posted: March 16, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…but today (and yesterday) on Morning Joe he is.

“I don’t understand about Wall Street and I don’t pretend to.” but when it comes to how bills get passed how things work on the finance committee he knows it. He compared it to turning a triple play yesterday. “The rules committee is a total scam”.

“They didn’t want the ‘I voted for it before I voted against it’ defense” that is the slaughter rule. “You are voting to amend a law that doesn’t exist.”

As he put it, they lose one seat in Massachusetts and they all go nuts.

Crammer is now talking about what this bill is going to mean taxwise. “I’m going to work for the government till September then it’s all mine.” This is not unusual in the North.

He is talking about a huge “ghost cost” to NY. “They are delivering a long term burden to the states.” this is in terms of medicare. That is the Nebraska deal. He calls it “subsidizing the health insurance companies.”

He compares covering an 85 year old needing a hip replacement to selling fire insurance for a house on fire. This is why he supports a single payer.

I suspect a lot of e-mails are going to the Morning Joe team from the White House right now screaming bloody murder.

The “Courage” argument is so bogus…

Posted: March 16, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…the motivation for passing this bill right now is all about saving the political bacon of this administration. It has nothing to the bill and if it is good or bad.

If it was about courage then you wouldn’t need to play the Slaughter business to try to get through this.

A white house with courage. A white house sure of itself would be brave enough to let this go and put the priority on the economy where it belongs.

It’s all false.

Update: DaScienceGuy puts it well:

With or without the deals we need a vote and then let the politicians STAND ON THEIR VOTE! If you vote for it and fear that may cost you your seat in the next election then at least be a grown up. Stand up, on the floor and vote Yes or No.

Yup.

“I deem it 9 a.m. and I can go home”

Posted: March 16, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…says Joe Scarborough this morning mocking the house for their tactics.

This is still still MSNBC so you have Joe Conason calling it a mistake but overblown, “The public doesn’t care about the tactics”, but when MSNBC is willing to mock this stuff.

Joe Conason is talking about how they “passed” healthcare already and it is close and Joe is reminding him of schoolhouse rock about how bills are actually passed.

Mort reminds them about Obama’s “no politics as usual” and then does this. I have to take exception this is not politics as usual, this makes politics as usual look like a boy scout meeting.

The Campaign Spot makes a good point

Posted: March 16, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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concerning the vote.

I’m a little wary of some of these “likely nos” we’re hearing a lot about lately. If some of these endangered Democrats are going to flip to Pelosi’s side after voting “no” last fall, the last thing they want to do is hint that they’re flipping and make themselves targets for attack ads, tsunamis of calls from constituents, etc.

In other words, if Obamacare passes, it’s going to pass because a bunch of Democrats who went on and on about how deep their concerns are and how troubled they are suddenly make their peace with the bill.

Later in the piece is a reader e-mail that is exactly right. If it passes it passes by one or two votes (Pelosi giving everyone possible the ability to vote against to try to save their butts) If it fails then it will fail overwhelmingly because there will be no point in making a suicidal vote for no reason.

This might be worth remembering if “swing” democrats who vote against the bill go on about their no votes in a losing cause. Perhaps we should be encouraging them to lobby on the other side to prove that they were not just votes kept in Pelosi’s pocket.

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