The Atheist Communist Caliphate Made Flesh, Spread the Clusterfuck Around Thread

[Oleg]

Heckuvajob, Maxie...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_09/019962.php

After months of negotiations, debate, and partisan wrangling, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will unveil his health care reform framework today. Baucus, who delayed the entire legislative process for months, simply so he could work with Republicans on a bipartisan solution, has managed to garner a grand total of zero GOP votes for his proposal.

CNN has learned that -- barring some unforeseen change -- Democratic Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus will unveil a health care proposal Wednesday without the support of the three Republican senators -- Charles Grassley, Mike Enzi and Olympia Snowe -- he's been negotiating with for months.

...Wednesday, when the Senate Finance Chairman unveils his bill, all indications are he will be doing it without the support of Republicans he has spent hundreds of hours negotiating with.

Gang of Six members reportedly chatted again last night, but agreed to nothing.

So, in the span of a half-day, Baucus' reform package was rejected by one of the Finance Committee's leading Democrats (Jay Rockefeller) and all of the Finance Committee's Republicans. An inauspicious start, to be sure.

All eyes have been on Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe (R), the Senate's most moderate Republican and the only GOP lawmaker on the Hill who seems sincere about wanting a reform bill. She no doubt disappointed Baucus when she concluded that his bill just isn't good enough.

But let's not lose sight of why Snowe balked at the Baucus framework. For one thing, she's concerned about the financing mechanism, which she believes would hit Maine hard. But just as importantly, Snowe also believes (as I do) that Baucus' plan offers weak and inadequate subsidies. "The affordability question is crucial," Snowe said. "It's a central component, because at the end of the day people have high expectations they will have access to affordable health insurance."

In other words, one of the leading Republican negotiators on health care reform believes Baucus' plan is too conservative.

Fuck Max Baucus with Mike Fontenot's dad's cosmetically altered schwantz. There are two possibilities here:

1. Baucus is just a complete dumbshit who negotiated away the best parts of his own health care plan in exchange for...zero GOP votes.

Tell me how this sounds for a health care reform plan.

    * A national health care exchange
    * Buy-in to Medicare at age 55
    * No discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions
    * No waiting period for Medicare for disabled
    * CHIP covers up to 250% of poverty level
    * Credits for small businesses and individuals to make health care affordable

Oh, and don't forget this bit:

    * A public option

Now, it may surprise you to learn this. But the architect of this program is none other than Max Baucus--the guy who has been pushing against a public option since the insurers were allowed to drive this debate.

2. It's more than mere happenstance that a framework authored by a guy who received a shit ton of cash from insurance companies, with the help of a former insurance company VP, contains an individual mandate, insufficient subsidies, and no public plan - resulting in "an absolute gift to the industry."

A little from column A, a little from column B.

[R-V]

More ACORN videos today, looks like they are heading out west to San Bernardino.

EDIT: Well that was quick, Video #4 just dropped......

http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/15/acorn-prostitution-scandal-california-here-we-come/

Another new video...these ACORN wackos are unbelievable!

http://mediamatters.org/research/200909160003

[Chuck to Chuck]

US Rep. Mark Kirk now blames *me* (and TJ, too) for his vote on cap-and-trade.  I thought he was supposed to represent his district with his conscious, not vote what polled well.  This is a republic, no?

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?page_id=2308&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a1daca073-2eab-468e-9f19-ec177090a35cPost%3a63e941fd-24d6-4897-be67-fecc8b3bf313&plckCommentSortOrder=TimeStampAscending&sid=sitelife.chicagobusiness.com

[Brownie]

US Rep. Mark Kirk now blames *me* (and TJ, too) for his vote on cap-and-trade.  I thought he was supposed to represent his district with his conscious, not vote what polled well.  This is a republic, no?

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?page_id=2308&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a1daca073-2eab-468e-9f19-ec177090a35cPost%3a63e941fd-24d6-4897-be67-fecc8b3bf313&plckCommentSortOrder=TimeStampAscending&sid=sitelife.chicagobusiness.com

Well, they're supposed to represent the district while conscious (Strom Thurmond, Robert Byrd and others have had trouble with that), and with their conscience, but Kirk was voting with his polling data?

I don't know how I'm to blame. I called his office, sent his office a letter and during a very friendly face-to-face with him in June, I told him I didn't like the bill.

[Quality Start Machine]

US Rep. Mark Kirk now blames *me* (and TJ, too) for his vote on cap-and-trade.  I thought he was supposed to represent his district with his conscious, not vote what polled well.  This is a republic, no?

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?page_id=2308&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a1daca073-2eab-468e-9f19-ec177090a35cPost%3a63e941fd-24d6-4897-be67-fecc8b3bf313&plckCommentSortOrder=TimeStampAscending&sid=sitelife.chicagobusiness.com

Well, they're supposed to represent the district while conscious (Strom Thurmond, Robert Byrd and others have had trouble with that), and with their conscience, but Kirk was voting with his polling data?

I don't know how I'm to blame. I called his office, sent his office a letter and during a very friendly face-to-face with him in June, I told him I didn't like the bill.

A muffin basket would have clinched it.

[Chuck to Chuck]

US Rep. Mark Kirk now blames *me* (and TJ, too) for his vote on cap-and-trade.  I thought he was supposed to represent his district with his conscious, not vote what polled well.  This is a republic, no?

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?page_id=2308&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a1daca073-2eab-468e-9f19-ec177090a35cPost%3a63e941fd-24d6-4897-be67-fecc8b3bf313&plckCommentSortOrder=TimeStampAscending&sid=sitelife.chicagobusiness.com

Well, they're supposed to represent the district while conscious (Strom Thurmond, Robert Byrd and others have had trouble with that), and with their conscience, but Kirk was voting with his polling data?

I don't know how I'm to blame. I called his office, sent his office a letter and during a very friendly face-to-face with him in June, I told him I didn't like the bill.

So, he doesn't listen to you.  Will he ever?

This is the problem with Kirk.  He's not a politician, he's a bureaucrat.  He was the Chief of Staff to Rep. Porter and won the seat when Porter retired.  He's not ready for prime time.

And we're going to get stuck with Alexi the Crook instead.

[Quality Start Machine]

This is the problem with Kirk.  He's not a politician, he's a bureaucrat.  

Close.

He's not a legislator, he's a politician.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

More ACORN videos today, looks like they are heading out west to San Bernardino.

EDIT: Well that was quick, Video #4 just dropped......

http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/15/acorn-prostitution-scandal-california-here-we-come/

Another new video...these ACORN wackos are unbelievable!

http://mediamatters.org/research/200909160003

OpinionJournal.com editor James Taranto isn't saying, he's just saying...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204518504574416833436798004.html

The Wall Street Journal urges the U.S. Justice Department to undertake a criminal investigation of Acorn. This column echoes that call, although we wonder if the Obama administration is compromised here. The president, who as a candidate touted his background as a "community organizer," has extensive ties to Acorn...

...

Obama worked for Acorn and Acorn worked for Obama. That doesn't mean the president is implicated in any wrongdoing, but it suggests at least that the worse things get for Acorn, the more embarrassing it is for him. If the Justice Department fails to prosecute, it invariably would raise suspicions of political favoritism. This column does not care for special prosecutors, but the case for appointing one would seem to be stronger here than usual.

Intrepid Reader: Fork
MURDOCH!

[ChuckD]

Obama worked for Acorn and Acorn worked for Obama.

Finkle is Einhorn! Einhorn is Finkle!

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of my favorite political bloggers that I never remember to read, responding to the race baiting of Limbaugh and Malkin's ilk (in particular, in the wake of that St. Louis school bus beating)...

http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/09/flip_and_pop_my_collar_like_the_fonz.php

...Rightly or wrongly, a lot of us grew tired of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, mostly because they presented easy foils for Limbaugh-land. Moreover, again rightly or wrongly, they were used to define all of us.

It's intensely grating to live say, in Atlanta, and have some dude in Harlem crowned as your unelected leader. It's even more grating if said dude's agenda seems, in large measure, come down to standing in front of cameras and tweaking his opponents. It's no mistake that O'Reilly and Sharpton would break bread together at Sylvia's--they feed each other.

But Barack Obama, bourgeois in every way that bourgeois is right and just, will not dance. He tells kids to study--and they seethe. He accepts an apology for an immature act of rudeness--and they go hysterical. He takes his wife out for a date--and their veins bulge. His humanity, his ordinary blackness, is killing them. Dig the audio of his response to Kanye West--the way he says, "He's a jackass." He sounds like one of my brothers. And that's the point, because that's what he is. Barack Obama refuses to be their nigger. And it's driving them crazy.

It's about time.

[Dr. Nguyen Van Falk]

I think I'm starting to hate white people in general almost as much as I hate Cubs fans in particular...













http://www.flickr.com/photos/42406957@N04/

(The GOP Zubaz are for TEC.)

[CT III]

I'm now totally on board with death panels.

[cubbiebluestew]

These mad dogs will not be muzzled.  Shame on Pelosi for encouraging them toward violence.

[Quality Start Machine]

I'm now totally on board with death panels.

I keep looking for death panel openings on Monster. Would I be better off on a Government site?

[Jon]

I'm now totally on board with death panels.

I keep looking for death panel openings on Monster. Would I be better off on a Government site?

I'd be down for that. Maybe we can start our own death panel. What's more American than using the entreprenuerial spirit to make a cheap buck on human misery?