If this is true--this latest re-estimate of the cost of Obama's health care initiative--I simply find it incredible to believe. Back of the envelope math tells me this: 60 billion divided by 40 million equals one thousand five hundred. As in dollars per year. To insure someone medically.

That ain't much more than chump change, folks. $1500 a year to insure someone? How much do YOU spend on health care?

I already know that we spend too much on health care apiece in this country--something close to six thousand dollars a year. And that $1500 works in most countries, if not a bit more than that. But I remember the Medicare Drug Benefit debate only too well, and it turns out THAT was a pack of lies, too.

And if this IS true, it begs yet another question: Why the flying fuck did it take so long? What is WRONG with this country?

Besides FOX News and Republicans in general, of course. Purely a rhetorical question.

I am a movie buff. I'm a screenwriter and I've made a few short student films for classes I've taken. I'm searching for the word to describe how I feel about really well-made war films; admire comes to mind, but it's much more powerful than that. I also appreciate the best war films since they remind us all of what it's like to be in combat. Only a select few humans compared with the rest of us civilians ever face live firing rounds or incoming projectiles or IEDs.

My favorite war movie, for this reason, is probably Black Hawk Down. This movie shows SOME of the politics involved in the tug-of-war between Clinton detractors and supporters and warlord manipulation of the military. It's impossible to clearly assign blame for the fiasco in Mogadishu. It just told the stories as accurately as possible, massacres and rescues alike.

But my Yahoo! News headline tells me there is, presently, a huge maneuver in Afghanistan by our military.

U.S. Marines launch helicopter assault in southern Afghanistan

URL: http://www.yahoo.com/s/1094508

I can already see the scene from the movie about twenty years from now, or sooner: The flotilla of Hueys and other missile-armed jet copters, heading straight for the camera, long telescopic shot with the heat rays shimmering the air. Michael Bay, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer: Call your office.

But for some reason the only face I can guess that might star in this movie is Abigail Breslin...Everybody else will be too old. Because, as Kurt Vonnegut noted decades ago, mostly children fight wars; his masterpiece "Slaughterhouse-Five" was subtitled "The Children's Crusade", referring to World War II.

When most people read headlines, they see something they can look right past and onto the next headline. But when I read that headline, I saw disaster, death, destruction, more American ill-will, with one small difference: The President. Again, I say: Get out of Afghanistan. Bring these men and women home. They are not preventing the next 9-11, and they may just be the cause of it.

Sanford backs out of vow to release [financial] records to AP

URL:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090701/ap_on_re_us/us_sc_governor_records

Not lookin' good for the ole guv there.

Why is Mark Sanford treating us all to the inner secrets of his mind and soul?

As far as I'm concerned, the most important reason of all is this: It's a calculated attempt to curry as much empathy among Republicans, the Religious Right and other conservative-minded South Carolinians. And it just might work, despite the well-known scorn with which conservative Republicans view empathy.

I wonder if he ran this strategy by the architect of his political career first--Jenny. Something tells me that's not too likely.

I know, I know. You're thinking: C'mon, Daddy-O...tell me something I don't know.

I know your time is limited, and your patience might be thin. But...doesn't he?

Mark Sanford, Casanova of the Born Again Fundies.

Sanford, who also admitted meeting his lover more times than he had previously claimed, told The Associated Press in emotional interviews that he "crossed lines" with a handful of other women during 20 years of marriage.

But he said he never went as far as he did with Maria Belen Chapur, the woman at the center of the scandal that has derailed his once-promising political future.

Even with the latest revelations, Sanford maintains he is fit to govern and has no plans to resign. And he insisted his relationship with Chapur, whom he met at an open air dance spot in Uruguay eight years ago, was more than just sex.

"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story," Sanford said. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."

During more than three hours of interviews over two days at his Statehouse office, Sanford said he is trying to fall back in love with his wife even as he grapples with his deep feelings for Chapur.

Sanford detailed more encounters with his mistress than he had disclosed during a rambling, emotional press conference last week. The new revelations Tuesday led the state attorney general to launch an investigation of his travels, and some are calling for him to step down.

Among the encounters was what he described as a farewell meeting in New York this past winter, chaperoned by a spiritual adviser and sanctioned by his wife soon after she found out about the affair.

But he saw Chapur again, this time over Father's Day weekend and after his wife expressly told him not to, leaving the country without telling his staff and instead leading them to believe he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Anybody feel sorry for this guy? After he's lied about his story non-stop? What else DON'T we know about this that's pertinent?

Sanford said he is trying to fall back in love with his wife even as he grapples with his deep feelings for Chapur.

That's WAY more information than I needed, or asked for. The scent of pandering in a lame attempt to generate sympathy is strong. I think I need some air.

It was another olde-tyme religious politician who said it: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...won't get fooled agin.

Mission accomplished.

It was the will of Allah, or maybe someone else. Who wanted a Yemeni airliner to crash? What does Occam's Razor say?

I scour the Internets Tubes daily, and I've found it:

Case closed: Obama not literate enough to write his books
Jack Cashill -- author of "Gone With the Wind" -- thinks he's proved the case that Bill Ayers wrote Obama's memoir

ha ha

I can't think of a single reason.

After all, like David, Mark Sanford was chosen by God to lead his people. Like David, he had dozens of concubines and wives. Like David, and John Ashcroft, too, he was anointed with oil. Like Solomon, Mark Sanford rejected all worldly goods offered him by God and asked for wisdom instead.

The worst example of religious political hypocrisy I've ever seen--and I've seen plenty. On a side note, it appears that Maria's job and its connection to South Carolina's business interests, however distant, reminds me nothing so much as Roy Blunt Jr destroying HIS marriage by becoming lovers with a TOBACCO LOBBYIST.

This tobacco lobbyist is his wife today. And yet the incredibly red 7th Congressional District of Missouri keeps voting this hypocrite back into office.

Those Republican family values, and the pretzel logic that goes with them. Pure comedy GOLD, baby!

When Eliot Spitzer was caught hiring hookers, I just shrugged. Oh, well, I guess he's not gonna run for President after all.

When I discussed it with my buddy, he said in no uncertain terms that Spitzer would resign. I vehemently disagreed. Why should he resign, when every Republican caught with his pants down in the last ten years has apologized, teared up, wet down a dozen microphones in front of him, and continued serving his term of office?

Why is it that the Democrats are the only ones who are hounded out of office in shame? While the hypocritical Republicans remain in office, thwarting the progressive agenda endlessly?

Of course, my buddy turned out to be right in his prediction, no matter how pissed off the double standard made me...

Granted, there were some extenuating circumstances in the Spitzer affair. He should have been investigating the call girl organization instead of patronizing it. He was an attorney general and was caught breaking the law.

Still, it seems like it's a one-way street when it comes to sex and politics. It's ALWAYS okay if you're a Republican, and I'm goddamned fucking sick and tired of that shit.

ha ha

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he's been unfaithful to his wife with a friend from Argentina

ha ha

ha ha

ha ha

Anytime I get a cheap laugh from a self-righteous hypocritical Republican, it's one of the best laughs in life! Hallelujah!

And Jesus is up there in Heaven right now, laughing with me.

ha ha

And maybe they will. Who knows? Kim Jong Il has certainly made current events interesting.

But he knows better than anyone else that a nuke is only a defensive weapon. It's a THREAT. You SAY you're going to use it when you feel threatened. You HAVE it when you feel threatened. But you only use it in self-defense, unless Kim Jong Il has gone completely around the bend and decided, like "Papa" Monzano in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, "Now I will destroy the world"--right before he committed suicide.

Something tells me the guys in the big hats with all the stars on their lapels are going to stop the Dear Leader before he goes that far. Something tells me that the Cult of Kim isn't so deeply buried in the psyche of North Korea that they're willing to go into the Great Void alongside Kim. Just a little bird.

Subject: You fired Dan Froomkin?

Shocked. I am shocked. Tell me; when do you merge with The Washington Times? Any day now?

Pathetic. Hire him back, TODAY, if you want the least bit of credibility with me and literally millions of other readers. Otherwise...the dustbin of history awaits you. Katharine Graham is rolling over in her grave today. You blithering idiots!

His reply:

Thanks for writing. As you may know, as ombudsman I operate independently from The Post's newsroom and management. But I regularly inform them of what I'm hearing from readers. Currently, I'm receiving a large number of e-mails from readers like you who are unhappy with Mr. Froomkin's departure. I appreciate your comment and will share your views.

Best wishes,

Andy Alexander
Washington Post Ombudsman

Me:

Thanks for your reply. If I may offer one more bit of advice before the Washington Post falls into irrelevance:

Write a column about it, and take a stand. This is ridiculous, and if you don't know it, you aren't comprehending the situation. Froomkin was the only person in Washington who skewered what needed to be skewered, who talked about what needed to be talked about, who informed us about what we needed to be informed about.

We aren't stupid. If Obama makes a mistake, or if Obama continues a Bush policy that is absolutely abhorrent (and about 99% of them were, that is NO joke), if Obama uses an excuse as lame as 'we wish to avoid Dick Cheney being made fun of on late night television and comedy shows', and nobody else is reporting this...then you NEED Dan Froomkin.

You just lost a lot of readers. Your management needs to know this. If they don't care, then they obviously don't see the direction newspapers are taking these days. They'll be at the elephant graveyard before they ever know it.

The ombudsman's reply was a bit bland, but it could have been worse. Like the response I got from the New York Times in 2001: I wrote and asked their ombudsman why, after eight years of investigating President Clinton for what was ultimately bogus Whitewater corruption charges, they were not investigating Vice President Cheney as intensely for his involvement in Halliburton's $100 million Enron-style writedowns?

I have the email somewhere, but this is the gist of it, swear to God:

We'll investigate Vice President Cheney when the Democrats start hollering about it, and not before.

Some wankering, eh? Swear to God.

It took six years to wait for as good an example as this, but these examples are only going to multiply as long as John Roberts is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

John Roberts has written that he thinks it's more important to uphold previous judicial rulings that are WRONG than it is for a person convicted wrongly to be able to prove it. Via the Daily Kos:

Although Roberts conceded that "[i]t is now often possible to determine whether a biological tissue matches a suspect with near certainty," he determined that Osburne has no right to pay for a test that could exonerate him for a crime he did not commit. Allowing Osburne to prove his potential innocence, Roberts said, risks "unnecessarily overthrowing the established system of criminal justice."

Read that last clause. Unnecessarily overthrowing the established system of criminal justice.

A lot of folks sitting in prison waiting to be exonerated for ANY reason just lost all hope.

In August and September of 2003, a great verbal war was ongoing. On one side, George W. Bush and his Lying Liars all screeched day and night that if we did not invade Iraq, we would suffer another 9-11. Bush put the screws to Congress for an authorization for the war. It was put to a vote in the Senate.

I was against it, but I knew only too well that George would get his way. The two previous years had seen him get everything he asked for and more from Congress, in the name of his 'War on Terror'. I knew this much: No matter HOW Congress voted, no matter what they did, even if they outright FORBADE Bush from invading Iraq, Bush was going to invade Iraq. The Constitution, legal U.S. statutes and two other branches of government be damned, not to mention public sentiment. He was going to invade.

The Senate seat held by my state's only Democrat was not in good hands. The Senator had voted for Bush's tax cuts; voted for quite a few of his draconian conservative issues; she was a decent representative of my very conservative state.

I still maintain that I wanted her to vote FOR the AUMF for one reason only: To be able to hold her seat. If she's going to vote FOR insane wars led by would-be dictators, then what's the point of keeping her in? A DINO?

In order to keep her seat, she couldn't be seen as a pinko hippie war-hater. But there are more important issues to vote on than just one war resolution.

Supreme Court nominees, and Federal judges, too.

It was a Sysiphian effort. To this day, it never ends.

But I guess in fairness, we're going to have to start counting Barack Obama's lies, too. So far, not many people have died for those lies. But we'll be watching.

This is yet another example of Obama's lawyers blatantly violating the president's promise not to "protect information merely because it reveals the violation of a law or embarrassment to the government."

And for his trouble in reporting this debacle, Dan Froomkin was fired.

We're back to Bizarro-World, politically speaking.