Jul
31
Open Post
Filed Under Videos | 30 Comments
As we were discussing music, I thought I’d post this video of Neil Young singing “Old Man”. Whilst I’d heard of him, I never knew anything about him until watching him on Glastonbury and having my interest piqued. Boy had I missed out on some great music. His album Harvest is quite brilliant. It’s always nice to discover something new. “Old Man” is a great song.
Jul
31
….It all goes horribly wrong. The Cash for Clunkers program that is. This is the program that allows individuals to upgrade their old car to a new one with the aid of a government subsidy. Here is what one Republican Congresswoman, Candice Miller, had to say about Obama’s, and the Democrats, plan:
There can be no doubt that the Cash for Clunkers program is a complete success given the fact that the entire $1 billion allocated to the program was expended in less than a week.”
She called the program “simply the most stimulative $1 billion the federal government has spent during the entire economic downturn.”
How is that for effusive praise. However…
The Obama administration is telling lawmakers that its much-touted “cash-for-clunkers” program is already running out of money, according to three Senate aides familiar with the discussions.
The program — aimed at giving at boost to the U.S. auto industry — was supposed to expire at the end of October. But in the one week since it took effect, it appears to have run dry of the $1 billion allocated to it, aides said Thursday.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25638.html#ixzz0MpBBIJUb
So the genius’ in charge budgeted $1 billion for a stimulative program that worked, and $787 billion on a whole bunch of programs that didn’t.
Rightly, the administration are now planning to further fund the project. But as is usual for the left and left leaning, there will be a catch:
We believe that any extension of the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program must go further in advancing the goals of better fuel efficiency and greater emissions reductions. We will not support any bill that does not meet these goals,” they (Dianne Feinstein & Susan Collins*) said in a statement.
The Democrats have a successful stimulative program. Why can’t they just leave it at that? Why do they always have to invoke some special interest? That’s not what the country is wanting right now, they just want jobs.
* Yes I’m aware Susan Collins is technically a Republican, but as she spends most of her time voting with the Democrats nowadays, I’m happy to lump her in with them.
Jul
31
Playing Spot The Straw Man
Filed Under American Politics | 27 Comments
In a post on this disgusting and obviously racist e-mail by a Boston police officer, Sullivan doesn’t feel contented to criticise the officer involved for the content of the e-mail as any sane and normal person would do. No, for Sullivan this is an opportunity to attack all his favourite targets. Cheney, Palin, Christianists, Bush and FoxNews all feature in a post about one racist cop. Talk about projection. Here are the offending pieces:
Here it is, a fascinating glimpse into the actual attitudes and beliefs of a segment of American society, the part that strongly disapproves of Obama, the Palin base, the Fox News core.
Notice the Cheney view: that a suspect has no rights; and is always a suspect, always at the mercy of the state and government, with a duty to obey police and military power or face brutal consequences.
And the more you read, the more you realize how deep the Bush-Cheney legacy runs and how the torture and ‘enemy combatant’ state, celebrated nightly on Fox, easily seeps into domestic law enforcement.
And notice in the email how all of this is bound up with a defense of God. Notice the classic Christianist line
Andrew Sullivan is a very intelligent blogger. When he’s writing on the nature of conservatism from an intellectual standpoint, he’s an addictive read (although I don’t always agree with him). But posts like this are just idiotic. From one policeman referring to Gates as a “banana throwing jungle-monkey”, Sullivan has morphed this into a universally conservative sentiment. He makes no case to back this up, he doesn’t even attempt to. Andrew Sullivan is a hateful man. It is sad to see such intelligence go to waste.
Jul
30
And You Thought Birtherism Is Bad!
Filed Under American Politics, Videos | 38 Comments
Via Hotair
Jul
30
If Obama Was British
Filed Under American Politics, British Politics | 44 Comments
, BarackDaniel Hannan makes the point that if Obama was born in Kenya in 1961 as the Birthers believe, he would have been a British citizen. He then hypothetically speculates that this would bring about a union between Britain and America (not seriously though).
He then wonders how each country would benefit from such a union. It’s not good for America:
It would be nice if Americans learned to make tea properly (clue: the water has to be seriously hot). They might even find that the rules of cricket repay study
He believes Britain would come off much better (and I agree):
As for Britain, we could begin by adopting (or readopting) low taxes, sheriffs, a separation of powers, open primaries, localism, the direct election of public officials, a non-state healthcare system, capitalism, patriotism and sovereignty
Now that’s a Britain I’d be happy to live in.
So come on then, as an alternative to writing a plot for the upcoming “Cabbie” film, what could Britain give America and what could go in the other direction. Let’s make this a positive thread and discuss benefits from one to another.
Jul
30
Losing The Argument On Healthcare
Filed Under American Politics | 5 Comments
According to this Gallup poll, a plurality of Americans believe that healthcare reform would benefit the country as a whole (note that Gallup are asking about generic reform, not a specific plan working through Congress):
Forty-four percent of Americans believe a new healthcare reform law would improve medical care in the U.S., contrasted with 26% who say it would improve their personal medical care. Forty-seven percent of Americans believe reform will expand access to healthcare in the U.S., while 21% say it will expand their own access to healthcare.
But interestingly, this positive view of healthcare isn’t reflected in how people perceive their own healthcare will benefit. In fact, more people see the quality of their healthcare, and the costs getting worse. Only 26% think their own healthcare will get better through reform, whilst 34% think that their own quality of care will get worst. On costs, 21% think that reform will reduce their own costs whilst 29% think it will lead to more expensive healthcare.
So the Democrats have effectively won the argument on the necessity of healthcare reform as the plurality in favour of reform demonstrates. But they haven’t been able to come up with a solution that isn’t perceived as being punitive to those already with health insurance. The Democrats are expecting a self-sacrificing altruistic response from the American people, but one’s own health is probably the most important asset one has, and expecting people to sacrifice that, which the poll shows is how people are perceiving it, is not going to win the type of support needed to give reform the public mandate it needs to override the pressures from fiscal hawks and lobbyists.
This legislation is almost certainly going to be delayed beyond August which means that legislators will go back to their districts and states. This is a chance to rethink their approach to legislation on reform. They need to do this. Reform is still possible, it just needs to be less controlling, more targeted and much much more cautious fiscally. Not only have the Democrats lost the argument on healthcare reform benefiting everyone, if they continue on this path of crisis driven massive reform, they will lose the chance for even incremental reform (which should have been the path they took from the start). Creeping reform would not have concerned the public as much as this behemoth has.
Jul
29
Open Post
Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment
First night back to work. Will check in later.
Jul
29
Jon Stewart PWNES Bill Kristol
Filed Under American Politics | 7 Comments
By Israel
On his show on Monday night Jon Stewart proved why an online poll had him as the most trusted newsman in the US. His guest was Bill Kristol and the talk turned to Government Health Care. With just a few simple questions Stewart got him to admit that there was nothing wrong with a government health plan.
I’m not the best person to debate the US healthcare system. As a Brit l really don’t understand how for profit insurance companies are the best people to decide what level of care you receive, expecially when you can be denied for a pre-existing condition. To me that just seems callous, leaving the decision to someone more concerned about the bottom line than your health.
I watched with interest the to and fro between Stewart and Kristol as he had been on the show and, while l disagree with 99.99% of what Kristol has to say, he always made a great guest knowing he was going into a lions den of opposition thinking and would definitely get mauled.
I’m sorry that l couldn’t embed the video my computer skills are not what they should be but here’s a link to Crooks and Liars who have the video and here’s part of the transcript:
<blockquote>Stewart: Why no health care, Why no health care reform for Americans because the military fighting for us, gave it up. Why do you hate America?
Stewart: Why not? Why shouldn’t the government provide some sort of care to the 50 million that are uninsured?
Kristol: No, well the military has a different health system than the rest of Americans.
Stewart: It’s a public system, no?
Kristol: Yea, they don’t have an option they’re all in the military.
Stewart: Why don’t we go with that?
Kristol: I don’t know. Is military health care what you really…first of all it’s really expensive, they deserve it, the military…
Stewart: But people in public do not?
Kristol: No, the American public do not deserve the same…
Stewart: Are you saying Americans shouldn’t have access to the same plan health care that we give the soldiers?
Kristol: Yes, to our soldiers? Absolutely.
Stewart: Really?
Kristol: I think the one thing if you become a soldier…
Stewart: So you just said, Bill Kristol just said that the government can run a first class health care system.
Kristol: Sure it can.
Stewart: A government run health care system is better than the private health care system. You just said that…
Kristol: I don’t know if it’s better.
Stewart: No, you just said it was better.
Kristol: I didn’t say it was better all around.
Stewart: No, you said it was better. You said it’s the best, it’s a little more expensive, but it’s better. I just want to write this down. The government runs the best health care…
Stewart: I understand that so what you are suggesting is that the government could run the best health care system for Americans, but it’s a little too costly so we should have the shitty insurance companies health care.
Kristol: I’m suggesting our soldiers deserve better health care…
Stewart: They deserve the best. They have the best government run health care money can buy.</blockquote>
It’s sad to see that it took Stewart to ask these questions in the media. It would have been nice to see more established names asking these questions, but let’s be honest, as a Fox News contributor Kristol wasn’t really going to stroll over to MSNBC and sit down with Keith Olbermann, but maybe if he had less of what he thought was a comfort zone we would not have got such an honest answer out of him.
As l said, i’m not the best to debate the US health care system, l will leave most of that up to you guys, it just seems that Kristol gave an insight to the conservative viewpoint worth discussing.
The last thing. Kristol said that he would try to get Palin onto the Daily Show. Now THAT would be an episode worth watching!!
Jul
28
Just days after Barack Obama landed himself in hot water with the Policing community over his comments about Sergeant Crowley “acting stupidly” (glass houses Mr President), the police are suddenly getting a big pay off courtesy of the Obama administration (Via The Fix):
Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder will announce $1 billion in economic stimulus funds dedicated to the hiring and re-hiring of of police officers today in Philadelphia, according to an Administration source. The money will be parceled out via grants in all 50 states and will lead to the hiring of nearly 4,700 officers for three years.
What a coincidence!
Jul
28
Shatner Does Palin
Filed Under Videos | 123 Comments
I liked this. William Shatner interprets Sarah Palin’s goodbye speech as a poem.
Shatner is very good at taking the mickey out of himself, a lesson Palin could learn.