"I want lower costs without harming a hair on any patient's head..."
Berwick, new head of Medicare and Medicaid
does not advocate rationing health care...
Off to the races after Labor Day...Events Create New Realities
At this point, if you follow the available evidence, it seems likely that the Democrats will get a severe beating on election day. Absent some rebound, it seems highly likely that the Dems will lose control of the House of Representatives. And it even seems possible now that they could lose control of the Senate.
--snip--
And remember, November won't be one senate race in Massachusetts. How well will Democrats stand up to the headline that says Republicans win 50 House seats?And remember, it won't be "Republicans win 50 House Seats."
The headline will read "Angry Country Repudiates Obama Agenda, Embraces Small Government Conservative Values." And that will be the Times. Believe me, it won't be pretty.
Republicans Have One-in-Four Chance to Claim Senate Majority, Model Shows
--snip--
Also, although it has become easier -- perhaps more so than ever -- to envision a Republican path toward taking over the Senate, they still remain underdogs and have, in essence, two significant hurdles to clear. The first hurdle is purely statistical: polls are relatively fuzzy instruments prior to the Labor Day holiday, before many voters have engaged with the campaigns. And in the weeks immediately leading up to Labor Day -- when many Americans are on vacation -- they can be especially erratic. If, in two or three weeks' time, the polls continue to show clear signs of Republican momentum, their prospects for a Senate takeover will be more robust.
FiveThirtyEight @ NYTimes - September 7, 2010
Don Key / Don Key
zonk / zonk
weezie.jefferson / weezie.jefferson
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acamus / acamus
carey_rowland / Carey Rowland
Sandwichman / Sandwichman
satyagraha / MBH
Joseph Chez / Joseph Chez
spiegelman / Eric Spiegelman
dikkday48@yahoo.com / dickday
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zroth / Zachary Roth
BobFred2 / BobFred2
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ashaw / Al Shaw
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Joe Mitchell / Indiana Oracle
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Tamarat / Tamarat
Jonze / Walter Mitty
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no one really / Bwakfat
thayden / Tom Hayden
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- izen
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Dan Grant / Doomer252
Next week, President Obama is scheduled to propose new measures to boost the economy. I hope they're bold and substantive, since the Republicans will oppose him regardless -- if he came out for motherhood, the G.O.P. would declare motherhood un-American. So he should put them on the spot for standing in the way of real action.
But let's put politics aside and talk about what we've actually learned about economic policy over the past 20 months.
The Real Story - NYT Opinion - Published: September 2, 2010
Lake Pontchartrain Levee Break - Orleans Parish
August 30, 2005, 1:49AM
Lake Pontchartrain Levee Break - Orleans Parish
It has been confirmed by the Louisiana State Police that there has been a two-block long breach of the 17th Street & Canal levee that holds back Lake Pontchartrain from entering Orleans Parish.
From a live report on CNN - According to the Information Director at Tulane University - Water is rising at 1-inch per minute at the Tulane Medical Center Hospital [MAP] which is located directly in the downtown business section.
Water can be observed rushing south on Canal Street with white-caps.
The Air National Guard is in the process of evacuating patients from the Medical Center by helicopter. They are also in the process of evacuating other hospitals in the area.
I don't even think I have to say this - but those residents who are not in a high ground position such as Class-A type structures and/or the Superdome are in serious peril, not to mention the the City Center of New Orleans as a whole.
New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- Calling the federal response to Hurricane Katrina "a shameful breakdown in government," President Barack Obama said Sunday as rebuilding continues, officials are looking ahead to avoid a repeat when future disasters strike."I don't have to tell you that there are still too many vacant and overgrown lots," Obama said. "There are still too many students attending classes in trailers. There are still too many people unable to find work. And there's still too many New Orleans folks who haven't been able to come home."
---snip---
"So while an incredible amount of progress has been made, on this fifth anniversary, I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: My administration is going to stand with you -- and fight alongside you -- until the job is done, until New Orleans is all the way back."
It took me a while to find this . . .I had recalled our dearly departed friend PseudoCyAnts posting the following that was so apt of his true nature...
"Bucking the trend? That would be a good description for much of my life. Elliptic could be my epitaph." June 23, 2006
A great ellipse is an ellipse passing through two points on a spheroid and having the same center as that of the spheroid.
The colored dots are clusters within one of four distance ranges, with redder colors indicating greater distance. Colored ellipses show the direction of bulk motion for the clusters of the corresponding color. Images of representative galaxy clusters in each distance slice are also shown. Credit: NASA/Goddard/A. Kashlinsky, et al.
My headline is a simple question . . .
Did the President once back the idea of single-payer and/or the public option?
What brought all this to the present again.
People here at the Cafe being accused of being lonely, silly, selfish people.
Read the following statement. It can be found here in my other blog thread.
"I see much selfishness from people here, Ripper. You know, the type that says 'Since I need healthcare, I'm behind a healthcare program'..."
--snip-
"Here's my take on TPM recently: a bunch of lonely people who would like to take pot shots at rather like-minded people because they have such impotent rage."
--snip--
"It's because the silly people on the left like to beat each other up rather than band together."
"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its gross national product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that's what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That's what I'd like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we've got to take back the White House, we've got to take back the Senate, and we've got to take back the House."
Regarding Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, two points. First, he does not speak for himself, he speaks for the president and the White House chief of staff, who has a renowned contempt for the Democratic base. Second, obviously, an attack on the Democratic base during a midterm election that will be decided on turnout will go down in history as one of the dumbest acts since the Titanic stopped for ice.
It is interesting that Gibbs mocked and scorned the people he called professional liberals (an expected attack from the people I call professional hacks) over their alleged obsession with the Canadian health care system.
No, Robert, the concern of liberals, which in this case I fully share, was the surrender on the public option, not the Canadian system. Liberals are being scorned for supporting a public option the president claimed he supported. It was the public option that was the most popular piece of the far less popular health care bill.
What infuriates liberals is being scorned for backing what the president said he backed, and then being slandered over the Canadian health care system. But Gibbs does not speak for himself, he speaks for the president and the White House chief of staff. Calls for his firing ignore the truth of what is happening and miss the heart of a very big matter.
Jason Anderson
Aaron Dale Burkeen
Donald Clark
Stephen Curtis
Roy Wyatt Kemp
Karl Kleppinger
Gordon Jones
Blair Manuel
Dewey Revette
Shane Roshto
Adam Weise
"I was like, 'Please God--and I'm not religious--please God, give me something that I'm passionate about. Because I cannot do something well that I'm not passionate about.' " (**)
Wormwood and Screwtape live in a peculiarly morally reversed world, where individual benefit and greed are seen as the greatest good, and neither demon is capable of comprehending or acknowledging true human virtue when he sees it.
