SNL: Tina Fey (playing Sarah Palin) needs to explain health care reform as Al Franken's  Democratic Fairy Godmother.

Maybe I am smoking crack here, but I think turning Tina Fey's Sarah Palin into a Democrat and having her explain health care would be a great way to simplify the message.

Throw in a little Garrison Keillor and Marge from Fargo and you've got it done.

Trust me, this sketch will work   :^)  

Franken did a great job explaining Pre-existing Conditions, Equal Premiums, and no recission at the State Fair. He did it by patiently laying out the points in order and waiting until he got uh huhs from the crowd before moving on to the next ask. It was beautiful, clear and respectful. But, as always happens when people try to get through the Public Option stuff, he got lost in the weeds a little.

So Al needs to go to sleep wondering how he can help Barack Obama write a simplified speech and Sarah Palin, Democrat, needs to come to him in a dream as his Fairy Godmother and lay it out for him.

The key to the Public Option is to point out that the Government, meaning Taxpayers, (wink wink) already pick up 46% of the tab for Health Care. Most of it goes to Medicare, the VA, Schip, etc., which are Government programs and God knows they've got their flaws, but still, "Medicare's a heckuva lot better than kickin' Grandma in the ass with the frozen boot that sometimes I'd like to use on her."

"But here's the thing. Some of that money goes to hospitals to pay for uninsured people who use the emergency room for healthcare, then don't pay the bill. Yup, we the taxpayers are forking out the money to cover their care. Since we already pay it in the form of hospital subsidies n' stuff anyway, shouldn't we be able to hand those folks a health plan and say "Fer CryYieYie, get yourself a doctor and go to a clinic like the rest of us. I mean, we'd be doing ourselves a favor." (This is the old Minnesota "you'd be doing me a favor by takin' the rest of that hot dish" joke. It's also an outreach to the American sense of fair play which is a strong trait.)

"We can save a lot of money by makin' sure everybody's got a health plan--there might even be enough of that 46% left over for a little botox for those of us who have to look good for our jobs. Ok, I lied about the botox, that probably won't be covered."

There are a lot of ways to go with this, but the beautiful thing about having Tina Fey deliver the message as Sarah Palin, Democrat Fairy Godmother is that she can be engaging, make it simple and clear without having to be all pars-ey the way any Politician, including Franken, would have to be.

Anyone know how to get this idea to Franken & Fey on the Labor Day weekend before the presidential speech? Tall order, but what do we have to lose?

I didn't believe this at first when someone said it on a comments thread, but it is true.

http://www.bachmanncounseling.com/index.html

Make sure to take the time to go to the list of counselors and browse down. They must have found every Bible College mental health professional in Minnesota. Who knew there would even BE that many?

http://www.bachmanncounseling.com/counselors.html#LakeElmo

They accept most insurance plans, including, one assumes, payment from those dreadful government-run ones.

Ah, there's nothing like doing the Lord's work ministering to the populace for Caesar's good green money...much better than doing it for free like Jesus suggested.

***

This is really horrifying. It's one thing to think of the Bachmanns as rubes who don't understand health care, but these people have specific, high-level experience with the very issues they're bamboozling about.

They know perfectly well that a living will isn't the same as encouragement to commit suicide. They understand end-of-life and grief issues and in fact will counsel your kid about them (possibly throwing in a bit of religious opinion at the same time) for a fee.

Most of all, they understand, because they take insurance, how hard it is to get insurance companies to cover for mental health, and how poor people are just out in the cold if they try to get anyone to see them. (I learned this when I tried to help an adult with depression, ADHD and alcohol abuse issues get an appointment with a doctor. It seemed like it would be so easy but it was impossible.) They know this, but in order to protect their friends, their asses and their pocketbooks, they fight reform anyway. 

It's even more disgusting that they use religion as a cover for this blatant, insular commercialism.

I bet Christ is SO pissed.

Should we buy Afghanistan's opium crop in exchange for health care and other relatively simple things the Afghan people need? Then use the opium to manufacture legal drugs and sell them? If not, why not?

MiguelitoH2O's "Tough Guy" post gave rise to a complex and interesting discussion about Afghanistan. Hardnosed. Facty. I was glad to see Dan K back in action and in his element. Hardly an attaboy or co-sign in sight, just the occasional gruff compliment or "I'll concede the point" in the event of a serious rhetorical goring. (I enjoy my TPM Cafe in all its flavors, from blonde and creamy smooth to hot, dark and spiked with bathtub gin, so please don't think I'm recommending any particular mode here.)

But like I say, it was a good discussion, and I hope that some of it will be diced up and re-posted in future so those who missed it can partake. One point that kept coming up (and I hope I can adequately explain this) is that the situation on the ground is way more complicated than we think. Pakistan has nukes. People are poor. The religious aspect is complicated. AQ is not the Taliban, and vice versa. The opium crop is a huge factor. The country is gigantic and mountainous. They don't even speak English there. Etc.

What it comes down to is that it's tough for a US military effort to be anything other than asymetric and ultimately ineffective, especially when it comes to cultivating hearts and minds.

Then Saladin made a suggestion about the opium:

"Look this ain't rocket science. There is a simple solution- we make it legal and then buy it all up for medicine. We did it in the 70's in Turkey.

Check out this paper.

http://www.poppyformedicine.net/documents/Political_History_Poppy_Licensing_Turkey_May_2006

Bonus: Everybody loves painkillers."

This got me thinking, maybe every military base should include a children's clinic/hospital, and people could pay for their children's care with opium poppies. The kids would have to be brought in by their mother or some other female caregiver. There could also be stores, same form of payment. The object would be to create simple ways of working with what's actually there on the ground and with the people (MacGyver-ing) rather than trying to do more complicated military operations which fail.

Back at the beginning of the Afghanistan war, I remember reading that everywhere Osama bin Laden went, he brought a goat for dinner, which is one of the ways he cultivated loyalty. It seems like if we're going to stay in Afghanistan at all, we ought to be looking for what ordinary people want and figure out how to get it to them while cutting those other guys we don't like out of the deal. The Bush Administration chose to see enemies--maybe we need a more customer-service approach.

I know this will come off as gee-whiz, and I don't care. Those of you who are experts in this area can take it from here. I'm just saying that when it comes to protecting an area rife with nukes and enemies, it might be smart to figure out how to corner the market on good will, and if it takes spending a billion bucks on poppies, it could be the best billion we ever spent.

More bonuses: Poppies are pretty, and their seeds make for delicious bagels and strudels.