Monday Open Thread
Welcome comrades, to your new Socialist Utopia. All citizens are required to report to the nearest Death Panel for processing. It’s open thread time!
The House approved the Senate bill last night, warts and all. Those warts – a tax on high-end insurance plans, several special deals made for members of the Senate on Medicaid and abortion language that pro-life Democrats in the House weren’t comfortable with – are removed through a budget reconciliation measure. That plan – which also passed the House last night – was the product of careful negotiations between the House, Senate and Obama administration and had the blessing of labor unions and many health care advocacy and interest groups. It also contained reforms to the student loan system.
Here’s where it gets tricky. Obama on Tuesday will sign the Senate-passed bill, clearing the way procedurally for Senators to begin debate on the reconciliation fix. The whole thing made House Democrats very nervous since that meant trusting the Senate would actually fix the bits they didn’t like. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid showed House Democrats a letter signed by members of his caucus proving they had the votes to pass the reconciliation measure on an up-or-down vote. That paved the way for Sunday night’s House victory. Still with me?
The Republicans will try to challenge the reconciliation under the Byrd rule. The Senate parliamentarian will rule on whether individual provisions in the bill are budget-related. If the parliamentarian rules agains the Democrats, that measure will be stricken from the bill. If the bill is changed, it will have to go back to the House for a vote on the changed bill. Members of the Senate are meeting with the parliamentarian today, so later we may have news about any changes to the bill.
Matt Yglesias has an interesting perspective on the health care reform legislative victory – that it was partially driven by Republican intransigence:
My point is even more basic—at a couple of moments along this race the conservatives won the argument and Democrats were ready to buckle. Credit for not buckling goes to Nancy Pelosi and other gutsy leaders. But it also goes to the GOP. They wouldn’t take “yes” for an answer when lots of people wanted to surrender and settle for something much smaller. Instead, whipped up into a frenzy of ideological fanaticism and overconfidence, they decided to take no prisoners. So nobody surrendered! And that’s how Mitch McConnell brought universal health care to America. And the thing of it is that most conservatives are so shallow, and so driven by hippie-hatred rather than any real views, that if they get to use this as an “issue” to win seats in the midterms and it never gets repealed, they’ll consider themselves vindicated.
Tags: Open Thread
Think Progress has a round-up of Republicans calling the health care reform bill dead:
I’m enjoying the sounds of conservative head explosions.
I’ll own up… I declared it dead also. Glad to be wrong on that one.
Betting against Nancy Pelosi should be done with care. Seriously.
The Huffington Post has another round-up, and it includes Democrats and media figures as well:
I, for one, never thought it was dead.
I, for one, never thought it was dead.
It depends on what the definition of “it” is.
I guess we can pass any bill if we just push it far enough to the right.
Love this post at dKos — this poster went to Red State to report on the war they plan to wage on us. Or, rather, our bumperstickers.
I’m wondering if those of us on Death Panels should dress alike. Sorta like Agent Smith or something.
Best rationalization of the day (and today, the bar is set pretty high) from David A. defending Christine O’Donnell:
“At least she is an anti-tax candidate so a tax lien won’t hurt her base. “
Those Republican challenges to the Constitutionality of the bill won’t get very far.
We also had a little thing called the Civil War, that answered this question as well.
The GOP braintrust has come up with a plan to challenge the reconciliation bill. Kevin Drum says it means they got nothin’ which makes sense considering the bill was written with Byrd rule challenges in mind.
Comrade UI, I’m reporting on another braintrust of FAIL — Time Magazine. Time seems to think that after last night’s votes it is Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh who are the winners here. Apparently you only get to win at politics if you increase your audience marketshare or something.
Sounds to me like they’re playing Six Degrees of Social Security. If they can link Bacon, too, I hear Boehner gets 6 free tanning sessions.
I know the Boren family. When did he become lumped in with Republicans? By the way, I like that opening. Too bad it is close to the truth.
I hate to say it, Cassandra, but I agree with Time. The important point is where you said “Apparently you only get to win at politics…” Beck and Limbaugh aren’t politicians, they’re whiners, complainers, and fear-mongerers (of course, so is most of the GOP, but that’s fodder for another post). The more they have to whine, complain, and whip up hysteria over the better off they are. How visible was Rush during most of the Bush years? The stronger the Democrats are, the better off conservative entertainers are.
I think that Time represents what is really despicable and really brain dead about the pundit class these days — it is the entertainment value and the entertainment assets that somehow are the privileged topics here. Not that the Democrats just changed their narrative here, just changed what the CW of the state of play on the political board,or even this remarkable achievement. It is whether the ratings will be good for somebody. And that isn’t all that interesting even when you are talking about entertainment.
It is all part of Atrios’ persistent joke : This is good for the Republicans — as a response to every achievement the Ds come through with.
Key Gitmo Detainee Ordered Released
Wall Street Journal ^ | 3/22/2010 | JESS BRAVIN
A suspected al Qaeda organizer once called “the highest value detainee” at Guantánamo Bay was ordered released by a federal judge in an order issued Monday. Mohamedou Ould Slahi was accused in the 9/11 Commission report of helping recruit Mohammed Atta and other members of the al Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany, that took part in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Military prosecutors suspected Mr. Slahi of links to other al Qaeda operations, and considered seeking the death penalty against him while preparing possible charges in 2003 and 2004.
Re Yesterday’s Vote: Is there some kind of “Godwin’s Law” that applies if your political argument becomes “My opponents are niggers and faggots.”
Breaking now: the Senate parliamentarian rules against the GOP Social Security challenge to the reform bill. I also haven’t seen video yet, but I heard that Glenn Beck was super-sized crazy on his show today.
Also…ice skaters should not be allowed on “Dancin with the Stars.”
“Glenn Beck was super-sized crazy on his show today” How is that different from any other day?
I’m not sure Jason. I can’t watch Beck on most days. He apparently criticized civil rights hero John Lewis for comparing himself to civil rights activists or something.
Mmm Bacon…Flavored Vodka?
FoxNews.com ^ | March 18, 2010 | Richard Goldsmith
Mmm Bacon…Flavored Vodka? By Richard Goldsmith – FOXNews.com America’s favorite straight stuff gets an injection of flavor. Once upon a time, vodka was popular for being virtually tasteless, delivering all the punch of alcohol without all of that annoying flavor. It was the ultimate blank canvas, melding with pretty much any mixer a bartender could pair it with. As vodka popularity grew in the ‘80s and ‘90s, liquor distillers realized there was money to be made through product extensions, so companies dove in head first. Thus, the tidal wave of flavored vodkas was unleashed. Flavored vodkas have actually been around…
Al Mascitti touched on this during hour one of his show yesterday. At the heart of everything is Republican racism.
Amanda Marcotte sums it up:
On the front page of yesterday’s NYT on-line they had photos of the events leading to the vote. One was of Nancy Pelosi leading the Democratic Caucus to the Capitol. She was carrying the big gavel and behind her were men and women, whites and African-Americans, people of all hues and colors. A few clicks on we came to the photo of three white-guys on the Members-Only balcony with “kill the bill” signs. All male and all white and all Republican. The contrast could not have been clearer.
Many here will remember President Clinton’s speech at the J-J dinner last fall where he made the point that the demographics of our nation will — eventually — defeat the Republicans. They know it. The screaming tantrums are simply a reaction to this reality. They’ve spent the past forty years stacking the courts, deregulating the banksters, tilting the playing field, amassing unimaginable wealth, turning the media into a corporatist propaganda machine, and fighting, fighting, fighting against the inevitable. Now, all they’ve got left are threats, wing-nuts, and Costa Rica.
Good riddance. (I feel bad for Costa Rica though.)
Amanda is exactly right – people like Ann Coulter and John Derbyshire have stated explicitly that women shouldn’t vote since they vote the “wrong” way. One thing that’s always pissed me off is when the media plays the game that Obama’s favorability with white voters is low, like that counts more than voters of other colors.
AGW – it’s all about the funding…
Researchers Present Study on How Global Climate Change Affects Violence
Iowa State University via newswise.com ^ | 3/19/2010 | NA
Newswise — If global warming is a scientific fact, then you better be prepared for the earth to become a more violent place. That’s because new Iowa State University research shows that as the earth’s average temperature rises, so too does human “heat” in the form of violent tendencies.
Co-authored by Craig Anderson, a Distinguished Professor of psychology and director of Iowa State’s Center for the Study of Violence; and Matt DeLisi, an associate professor of sociology and director of ISU’s criminal justice program, the paper was presented by Anderson this week (March 15-19) at the Sydney (Australia) Symposium of Social Psychology.
Using U.S. government data on average yearly temperatures and the number of violent crimes between 1950 and 2008, the researchers estimate that if the annual average temperature in the U.S. increases by 8°F (4.4°C), the yearly murder and assault rate will increase by 34 per 100,000 people — or 100,000 more per year in a population of 305 million.
And while the global warming science has recently come under fire, the main premise behind the Iowa State researchers’ paper is irrefutable.