Sorry I’m late.

Let’s start with the back and forth on Astroturfing that, for me, culminates with this comment from mw:

If we agree that there is no difference in political tactics between Bush/Rove and Obama/Axelrod, that both bring an identical “end justifies the means” ethos to their political shenanigans, that both are willing to push every boundary of propriety in the service of their ideological agenda… that point is good enough. – mw

This is, actually, the entire point. We can argue about which party pushes propriety further but that wont promote the public dialogue.

I happen to agree with Health Care reform, but what happens when I don’t agree? Am I going to complain about the tactics? Not if I’m an honest man.

(There’s something in here, Nancy, about independents role in changing the game)

Moving on to lazy agit-prop:

Given my druthers, I would prefer a rational, careful examination of the healthcare and ways to fix the problem, but since the opposition has taken the stance that nothing is wrong it’s kind of pointless. – gerryf

One side says I want to make sure Americans have health care and the other side is stuck trying to explain why people having health care is a bad thing. It is not that there are not good arguments against the proposals of the Obama admin. it is just that those arguments don’t look good in short clips on TV news. – Trescml

So, Steny and Nancy are saying that Democrats were being un-american in 2005. -mw

Again, thanks go to mw for pointing out the partisan hypocrisy – but the fundamental issue is the lack of public dialogue on health care. We, as Americans, are excluding ourselves from the conversation, forfeiting our Democracy even, when we condone/participate in this type of behavior.

These town halls are political theater, not a vehicle for shaping policy. No town hall discussion was going to change Santorum’s vote on SS. – mw

Frankly, such “civil discussion” [in a town hall meeting] would be ignored — by the press, Congress and the White House. – John Burke

With all this new technology – this “information age” – is it naive to think we can fundamentally alter politics/society/culture/media in a way that ensures an informed electorate gets the same input as lobbyists and elected officials?

I hope not.

As it happens the good folks at Donklephant managed to do something this week that looks remarkably like productive health care dialogue.

Here, here, here, and here

Maybe we should email our Congresspeople and ask them to weigh in at the Donk. I promise not to yell.

Finally, a comment the likes of which I hope to hear from the mouths of future (non-zombie, boat dwelling?) television pundits.

You make some good points, John Burke. You may change my mind yet. – WHQ

What do George Bush, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama have in common?

Cindy Sheehan.

The anti-war protester who used to stake herself at George Bush’s ranch in Texas will now follow the Obamas’ to their vacation at Martha’s Vineyard. Her cause is to protest the continuing wars in the Middle East.

She also ran against Nancy Pelosi last November as an Independent. Sheehan garnered 16% of the vote to Pelosi’s 72%.

Her visit to Martha’s Vineyard is unlikely to generate the attention she received in Texas, however. Most liberals are not criticizing Obama as they did Bush, partially because those wars remain linked in the minds of most American with George Bush.

Sheehan said she plans to be at Martha’s Vineyard because “the body bags aren’t taking a vacation.”

With that in mind, I guess Barack Obama is not supposed to either.

(from Foolocracy.com)

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Not that this is any surprise, but the speed in which they’re signaling they won’t accept any reform package is startling.

Just check out what Senator Jon Kyl is saying today…

President Barack Obama has vowed to veto any bill that would increase the deficit over the long term, but Kyl said that a revenue-neutral bill probably won’t get much GOP support either.

“I have no doubt that they can make it revenue neutral to find enough ways to tax the American people, but that doesn’t mean the Republicans will support it,” Kyl said.

On the nonprofit insurance cooperatives that Sen. Kent Conrad and other centrist Democrats are proposing as an alternative to a public plan, Kyl said it was a “Trojan horse.”

“It’s a step towards government-run health care in this country,” Kyl said.

Yes, folks everything is a Trojan horse. Any additional competition that puts pressure on private insurance to reform their policies so they don’t condemn thousands to unmanageable health care costs every year is a bad thing because it’s not a FOR PROFIT enterprise. It’s this same old, tired “government is always wrong, capitalism is always right” meme that people just blindly accept because it’s easy to blame the government.

However, is it odd to anybody else that Repubilcans will rubber stamp nearly every single increase for defense spending without knowing whether or not we’re going to get something out of it, but when we talk about needed reforms that could actually help normal Americans lead better lives, well, a big fat NO to that.

Also, GOP “leader” John Boehner weighed in as well…

[He] likened the administration to a school yard bully intent on stealing lunch money, and accused the nation’s drug makers of “cutting a deal with the bully.”

In a letter to Billy Tauzin, the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Boehner said the industry had agreed to a deal with the White House “in hopes of securing favorable treatment and future profits.”

PhRMA agreed to pick up no more than $80 billion in costs for health care overhaul over the next decade, under a deal with the White House. It also will spend as much as $150 million in the next few months on television ads to promote health care legislation.

Ken Johnson, senior vice president at PhRMA, said in response to Boehner’s letter: “We have been working diligently for more than a year to advance bipartisan health care reform. We’re proud of those efforts, and they are completely consistent with our core principals.”

I’ll let that nonsense speak for itself. Ugh.

Here’s the thing…Obama is going to have to pick a plan and soon. My guess is it’ll be the co-ops because some Senate Republicans would actually vote for it. So it would be the same situation as the stimulus. Basically, Republicans weren’t going to accept any legislation except they wrote (which is unrealistic when you’re in the minority), so craft legislation with the support of the Republicans you need and move on. To me, that’s as realistically bipartisan you can get when the other side refuses to meet you 60% of the way on the issue.

What do you think?

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You may have heard about this before, and one Florida lawmaker is finally doing something about it.

Yes, I realize these laws are meant to prevent repeat offenses, but either up the penalties for those offenses or just leave them be. Once somebody gets out of prison, that should be it. End of story. If they commit another crime it would be tragic, but we have gone WAY too far with these laws and who can honestly defend forcing people to live under a bridge?

Also, let’s not forget that there are plenty of really stupid sex offender laws out there too. People get locked up for doing some fairly innocent things.

The Economist takes a closer look…

In all, 674,000 Americans are on sex-offender registries—more than the population of Vermont, North Dakota or Wyoming. The number keeps growing partly because in several states registration is for life and partly because registries are not confined to the sort of murderer who ensnared Megan Kanka. According to Human Rights Watch, at least five states require registration for people who visit prostitutes, 29 require it for consensual sex between young teenagers and 32 require it for indecent exposure. Some prosecutors are now stretching the definition of “distributing child pornography” to include teens who text half-naked photos of themselves to their friends.

How dangerous are the people on the registries? A state review of one sample in Georgia found that two-thirds of them posed little risk. For example, Janet Allison was found guilty of being “party to the crime of child molestation” because she let her 15-year-old daughter have sex with a boyfriend. The young couple later married. But Ms Allison will spend the rest of her life publicly branded as a sex offender.

The problem is…these laws will only get harsher because what politician in their right mind will try and soften them? This guy in Florida who’s suing the state is certainly a brave guy, but let’s remember that this has been going on for 2 YEARS. That’s how long it took for this to become enough of an eyesore for somebody to make a case that it’s hurting the economy.

What do you think?

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Looks like the left is realizing that the bait and switch was in from the start and now the White House is trying to do a little damage control. But let’s not kid ourselves…it wasn’t just Sebelius who said it. Obama said it too. In fact, her response was after she was asked a question about Obama’s recent comments.

Still, the White House is maintaining that a public option is still viable.

From Ambinder…

The official said that the White House did not intend to change its messaging and that Sebelius simply meant to echo the president, who has acknowledged that the public option is a tough sell in the Senate and is, at the same time, a must-pass for House Democrats, and is not, in the president’s view, the most important element of the reform package.

A second official, Linda Douglass, director of health reform communications for the administration, said that President Obama believed that a public option was the best way to reduce costs and promote competition among insurance companies, that he had not backed away from that belief, and that he still wanted to see a public option in the final bill.

“Nothing has changed,” she said. “The President has always said that what is essential that health insurance reform lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and increase choice and competition in the health insurance market. He believes that the public option is the best way to achieve these goals.”

Let’s go back to Obama and parse what he said…

The public option, whether we have it or we don’t have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it. One aspect of it.

Yes, it’s not him saying explicitly, “The public option is dead,” but you don’t go out there on the road and play it so “maybe, maybe not” if you’re not willing to throw it under the bus.

Again, why do you think the White House asked the Blue Dogs to come up with alternatives to the public option? Because they realize that they didn’t have enough votes and needed a fallback.

But hey, convince me that I’m wrong.

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At first glance, this would appear to be a huge step towards peace with the troubled nation. But it’s simply a reopening of the border so the North can make some money from the South.

Still, a positive step and one worth noting.

From Reuters:

North Korea said on Monday it had agreed to reopen the border to South Korea its neighbor and allow tourism and family reunions to start again.

The agreement to ease restrictions on the border follows a meeting between the reclusive state’s leader Kim Jong-il and the head of the South Korean Hyundai Group who had gone to Pyongyang to seek the release of a detained worker. The visit followed hot on the heels of one earlier in the month by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who also met Kim, to win the release of two jailed American journalists. [...]

North Korea has portrayed both visits as paying tribute to leader Kim, 67, whose health is the subject of speculation. He is believed to be trying to ensure his youngest son becomes the third generation in the family to head the destitute communist dynasty, its coffers drained by heavy military spending, poor economic management and years of U.N. sanctions.

One would hope, between Clinton’s visit and this one, that the North would start to realize that how much good will can come their way if they stop rattling their sabres and open their borders for good. But something tells me that even if they do, the citizenry is so brainwashed that it’ll take a few generations for things to return to any sense of normalcy.

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As this health care debate has dragged on, Obama has taken a lot of shots from both the left and the right.

From the left comes the charge that he hasn’t taken more control over the debate or the legislation, but I wonder if they’ve forgotten what happened in 1993 or if they’re just ignoring it. Either way, they don’t think he has sold the public option effectively enough, and that’s why it’s going down.

The other shot Obama has taken is from the right about nationalized health care or single payer. Do know that a public option that could compete with private industry was never designed to be a single payer system, but many characterized it as a trojan horse that would eventually lead there. That’s obviously wildly speculative since transitioning a public option into single payer would have taken another massive piece of legislation that would have required an even larger majority of Dems.

And that’s where the number crunchers at FiveThirtyEight come in.

See, they’ve been taking a look at the actual votes in the House and the Senate…and they found is barely enough appetite for a public option, must less single payer.

And to that point…

We estimated based on committee votes that a bill containing a fairly weak public option — like the one approved by the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee — would be a favorite to pass the House but probably only by a slim margin, with between 220-225 votes for passage (a minimum of 218 are required). And arguably, the conditions have worsened somewhat for health care reform since the Commerce Committee’s compromise passed on July 31st.

It’s the Senate side, though, where the public option was encountering most of its difficulties. Only 37** Senators, according to the whip count at Howard Dean’s website, were firmly on board with the public option, whereas at least a few Democrats (Mary Landrieu, Joe Lieberman, Kent Conrad) had stipulated their opposition to it. (** EDIT: The information at the Dean website appears to be somewhat out of date. More recent counts show something like 43-45 Dems in favor.) There were nevertheless a number of scenarios under which one can imagine a bill with a public option having passed — Lieberman, Landrieu, et. al. might be nominally opposed to a public option, but is their opposition so firm that they would vote to filibuster any bill that contained one?

Wonder why Obama wasn’t putting the full weight of his popularity behind the public option?

Well, now you know.

The votes simply weren’t there. This is why he asked the Blue Dogs to come up with a bipartisan alternative: the co-ops.

And maybe it’s just me, but the basic idea of the co-ops have more appeal to me on a personal level since they’re so localized, which might actually be better for competition in the long run. In other words, do you think one monolithic provider competing against many localized private companies will do better than many localized public options that are in line with the needs of the community?

In any event, those are my thoughts for now. What are yours?

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Philadelphia Tribune Sunday July 13, 2008

News Headlines for Independent Voters DATE

Independent voters

Debate over where independents stand on health care reform stands…

• GOP seeks its revival in the revolt against Obama’s healthcare plan (By Janet Hook and Peter Wallsten, LA Times) Others are still trying to figure out how to balance the desires of the base with the need to appeal to moderate swing voters who might be turned off by high-volume rhetoric. Whether they find that balance could determine whether the Republican Party can win back independents who voted overwhelmingly for Obama last year but now, according to several polls, are questioning their commitment to him.

Open Primaries

Lots of election reform coming up in California

• California Legislature Returns to Work on August 17 (Ballot Access News)

Bloomberg 09

Dems think Bill Thompson is a bad investment? Apparently not DC 37 and the Working Families Party. Meanwhile Mayor Bloomberg is financing his independent campaign from personal funds, and is being backed by the NYC Independence Party and also running on the Repub line… New York is a fusion state.

• Thompson Fund-Raising Drops in His Bid to Unseat Bloomberg (By DAVID W. CHEN, NY Times)

Blogosphere

• Right Wing Strategy Successful in Disrupting Health Care Debate (Carol Forsloff, DigitalJournal) “Some writers who have examined the information and misinformation, as well as poll results, have been particularly concerned that the pushback by liberals has not been sufficient to educate the American public and that in fact liberals may not have been dramatic enough to get enough attention on the evening news.Nate Silver at Five Thirty Eight bemoans the media’s lack of responsibility in skewing or not reporting correct information so the public can make informed decisions….”

For more news for independents, see The Hankster

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Yesterday, Obama positioned the public option as something that everybody was getting hung up on. Not only that Kent Conrad said he wouldn’t vote for legislation that had it in it and neither would Blue Dog Dems or moderate Repubs.

Well, now HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is continuing the meme that the public option isn’t necessary…and if that’s the case, well, it’s dead folks.

Here she is today, along with a clip of Obama…

If anything passes, and I bet it will, we’re looking at health care co-ops.

Count on it.

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I’ve found the base camp of crazy.

Have a look:

At the time that I am writing this, at least 20 – 30% of Americans understand thus far, know the true nature of President Obama, and the steps he is now taking to destroy freedom.  [...]  A real Second American Revolution is now on the horizon.

We are witnessing the literal death of our Republic, that can come in less than 4 years.

Well, let us start the journey down the road to Revolution in the United States of America.  I believe you will understand it all, and at the very least, by the end of this article you will be ever vigilant.  Perhaps maybe, you’ll even exercise your 2nd Amendment rights, before you can no longer do so.

maybe, just maybe, enough of us can “peacefully” prevent it all.  It is not likely by far, but we can hope.  Marxists won’t go down without a fight so keep this in mind…

Even if you have never fired a weapon, do yourself a favor and exercise your constitutional right to bear arms. Buy a rifle, take some lessons and start up a hunting club. Even if you don’t hunt.  Start a marksmanship club in your college or even high school.  Whatever you do, DO NOT EVER Give up your right to bear arms! Not to any government EVER.

I’m a fan of the 2nd amendment…

the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Every American should be able to own the biggest, sickest, machine-gunniest weapon they can afford. The modern day fight against tyranny will require more than your average hand gun. These people are spot on.

However,

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state

A well regulated militia (read: gun-toting populace) should be educated enough to actually recognize tyranny, distinguish between fact and fiction, and exercise some amount of self-control and patience before blowing the roof off the White House. These people are – what’s the opposite of spot on?

These days everybody has a reason for saying that the founders are rolling over in their graves. Here’s mine:

It’s because their Republic is becoming a nation expecting to be ignorant and free.

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Everyone has one. The one piece of technology that makes it official for you that you’re living in the future. Whether it’s a Roomba vacuum, Skype, the iPhone or something else – there’s something floating around in your mind that, when you see it in real life, you’ll know you’ve reached the future.

For me it’s cloud ships that look like this:

When this flotilla (1500+) of wind-powered spew ships is complete and I can watch them bellow sea water and (presumably) fish guts into the sky, I will have reached the future. One can only hope that the accordion-like stacks will crouch lower and lower as the pressure builds until BOOM! A new cloud is born … to reflect the sun … so the Earth doesn’t get warm.

Clouds are good. Let’s make more.

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We’ve seen and heard President Obama at town halls, press conferences, interviews, Saturday radio chats, industry summit meetings and delivering the keynote speech at medical conferences. All focused on health care reform, all covered breathlessly by the new and traditional media. No one can accuse this president of being AWOL in the health care debate.

Some might suggest that yet another Obama presentation on health care reform is as welcome as watching another Sham-Wow! commercial. Exposure has its risks as well as rewards.

Yet, despite his popularity, despite his much vaunted communication skills, despite his persuasive logic, despite his ubiquitous presence in the media, when the needle of popular sentiment has moved at all, it has moved in the wrong direction for the President’s version of reform. The Salesman in Chief can’t seem to close the deal with the American people. Moreover, the pundit class across the political spectrum are assessing the President’s sales skills, and finding them wanting:

Presidential Sales Job on Health Care Falling Short
Doug Bandow – Cato

It’s not working. The president enjoys the use of the executive branch’s bountiful resources, control of Congress by his party, and aid of a sympathetic media. Yet support for expanding government control over health care is falling the more people learn about it.

Sell Me!
Kevin Drum – Mother Jones

Obama’s sales pitch still needs work
Concord Monitor

Sales Pitch…
Steve Benen – Washington Monthly

Obama is failing on health reform
Clive Crook – Financial Times

One More With Feeling
The New Republic

In many ways, this is puzzling. The President is justifiably known for his oratorical skills and power to persuade. What is going on here? Even the President seems confused. From a Time interview…
Read the rest of this entry »

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Independent Voters

Independent voters are at the center of the storm about health care reform.

Katrina Swett: Democratic Party has plenty of room for moderate voices (NH Union Leader, By KATRINA SWETT) As a lifelong Democrat who is proud to be considered part of the vibrant and effective heart of the party, I strongly disagree. It is certainly true that increasing numbers of voters are choosing to identify themselves as independents. But, if anything, that trend only underscores the growing strength and numbers of those voters who are seeking practical, achievable solutions to the many challenges that our country faces.

Open Primaries

Open Primaries On the Table in Pennsylvania (IndependentVoting.org) In June, Rep. Eugene DePasquale, a Pennsylvania state legislator, introduced an open primary bill that would give the Keystone State’s million-plus independent voters the right to participate in the crucial first round of voting.

In the Blogosphere

White Conservatives and Black Traitors (Burr Deming, Fair and Unbalanced) NOTE: Fair and Unbalanced is an independent blog recommended by The Hankster

On the Radio

Jackie Salit on WLRN Radio Aug 19th. Jackie Salit will be the guest on WLRN’s “Topical Currents” show serving Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Marathon and Key West with host Joseph Cooper to discuss the role independent voters are playing in reshaping American politics. (independentvoting.org) Listen Online http://www.wlrn.org/web/index.php

For more news for independents, see The Hankster

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Given how intellectually dishonest she was in the past, especially about issues like the Bridge to Nowhere, you knew something like this might pop up.

Apparently she made the following proclamations during Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska in April 2008.

Here’s the relevant text…

WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions. [...]

WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.

WHEREAS, the Foundation for End of Life Care in Juneau, Alaska, and other organizations throughout the United States have endorsed this event and are committed to educating the public about the importance of discussing healthcare choices and executing advance directives.

And so it goes…

By the way, Palin posted some more about end of life counseling on her Facebook page, and this time she’s trying to justify her previous post by suggesting that just because end-of-life counseling can be offered if a patient comes into a facility with serious enough conditions to warrant it that this somehow means that the government would be in the business of putting people to death.

Ugh.

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Shocking, I know.

Ed’s post is here — and it is indeed some very good writing.

Allahpundit responds:

For the rare distinction of having earned Olbermann’s blessing, let me be the first to say to Ed: You are the RINO king. Enjoy the throne of shame; if you need me, I’ll be at the bar adjusting to my new role as Hot Air’s “true conservative.”

Ed then chimes in, very graciously:

I’m sure people would like me to be a jerk about this, but I’ll say thank you to Keith instead for the kind words. We’ll be arguing again tomorrow, and for the … rest of eternity, probably, but I’d prefer to return graciousness with graciousness.

Look-ee-here! We’ve got no less than three fierce partisans talking about (to?) each other with some dignity and respect (and some humor).

If these three dudes can get along, maybe there is hope for the rest of us…

[cross-posted at ThePajamaPundit.com]

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I’m becoming more and more convinced that Republicans in Washington simply don’t want any sort of health care reform. Because the way this “death panel” nonsense is picking up steam seems coordinated.

The latest is one of the Republicans working on health care legislation in the Senate, Chuck Grassley. Here he is talking in Iowa yesterday…

“Pull the plug on grandma?”

Seriously?

Folks, it’s literally getting to the point where I want to throw things. Because not only is this a massively dishonest, fear mongering meme that uses old people as victims, but it has been rebutted by one of the leading Republican voices on end-of-life issues, Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

This from an interview with him a few days ago…

I just had a phone call where someone said Sarah Palin’s Web site had talked about the House bill having death panels on it where people would be euthanized. How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You’re putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don’t know how that got so mixed up.

In other words, do you want somebody to be counseled on end-of-life issues while they still have the capacity to make those decisions or not? Apparently Republicans like Grassley don’t.

UPDATE:
This is amazing. The end-of-life provisions have been dropped from Finance Committee’s version of the bill because Grassley things could get confused. This after he purposefully confused the debate by saying what he said above.

From The Hill…

“On the Finance Committee, we are working very hard to avoid unintended consequences by methodically working through the complexities of all of these issues and policy options,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement. “We dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly.”

Implemented incorrectly? Misinterpreted? How is offering voluntary end-of-life counseling every 5 years going to either be implemented incorrectly or misinterpreted? Do they think there will be some rule put in place after the fact that will force doctors to tell their patients to end their life?

Folks, I don’t care what party you belong to, end-of-life counseling is nothing more than INFORMATION about what your options might be. Some may choose to do everything they can to stay alive, while others may sign a “do not resuscitate” order. But if people don’t have the facts, they can’t make informed decisions about what options are available, and it could force a family member to make a life or death choice.

Amazing.

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Jason over at Poligazette sends over a worthwhile post about the ins and outs of the health care “non-debate” and identifies 4 key points that he feels are potentially consensus building.

1. Serious fees imposed on employers that drop health coverage to dump employees on to the government plan. These fees would have to be sufficient to make up the cost to the government of the new additions.
2. New budgeting procedures that ensure providers have incentive to account for future as well as current demand in research as well as equipment investment.
3. Tort reform to relieve doctors of fear about being sued for failing to do every test available.
4. Market-based mechanisms like co-operatives that could pool some of the 47 million uninsured without dropping them directly onto an already overstretched government program.

To my knowledge, some Dems have proposed #1 and #4, but not #2 and #3. Repubs have definitely proposed #3, but I’m not sure anybody has proposed #2.

Obviously tort reform (#3) is especially contentious in Dem circles given their allegiances with trial attorneys, but if we’re going to set specific guidelines for medical costs, having some limits on damages people can receive on botched medical procedures makes sense too.

However, do you really think Republicans would ever accept fees for employers who dump their coverage (#1)? I have serious doubts about that because it would be quickly positioned as “anti-business,” even though it’s designed to prop up private insurance.

Last, I think #2 hasn’t been brought up because health care is still a lucrative industry (despite all the misinfo) and there aren’t any good reasons to stop research and development. Remember, we’re not talking about single payer, government run health care here. Obama and the Dems simply want to get everybody in the system and increase competition so costs can be controlled. And this could be accomplished by #4.

In any event, what do you think? Could both sides agree on these? Could these 4 simple things really keep costs under control?

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“In LaCrosse, Wisc., the Gundersen Lutheran Hospital system is, according to the Dartmouth [Atlas of Health Care], the least expensive place in America for the last two years of life. They have an advanced directive program, and over 90 percent of their patients have an advanced directive. They have electronic health records, so everybody on the staff knows what the advanced directive is. They have a very strong palliative care program for using drugs to manage pain. They have a hospice program. The result is today, the last two years of your life in costs are about $13,600. The last two years of your life at UCLA are $58,000. Now, why should Medicare pay $58,000 for the same outcome if it could pay $13,600?”
- Newt Gingrich responding to a question from PBS

So, sounds like a pretty fair broker, right? After all, the biggest issue isn’t quality of care, it’s how we can contain costs so everybody can get in the system. And if the majority of costs are found in the last two years of your life, there are certain things you can do to make sure you have a say in those decisions.

However…

Compare that Newt with the Newt who was on This Week recently and was asked him about Sarah Palin’s death panel Facebook posting…

Okay folks…I realize that politicians sometimes feel obligated to defend their side, but why would Newt engage is such obvious mental gymnastics to defend something that’s clearly a lie. Especially when he purports to believe the exact opposite!

Consider me disappointed, but not surprised.

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Obama supporter Camille Paglia in the pages of Salon:

“The president is promoting the most colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation since the Bush administration snookered the country into invading Iraq with apocalyptic visions of mushroom clouds over American cities.”

True. The whole article is filled with gems. It is almost enough to restore my faith in Democrats. Almost. Read the whole thing, but the relevant portion is on the first page. A bit more of this reality check:

“I just don’t get it. Why the insane rush to pass a bill, any bill, in three weeks? And why such an abject failure by the Obama administration to present the issues to the public in a rational, detailed, informational way? The U.S. is gigantic; many of our states are bigger than whole European nations. The bureaucracy required to institute and manage a nationalized health system here would be Byzantine beyond belief and would vampirically absorb whatever savings Obama thinks could be made. And the transition period would be a nightmare of red tape and mammoth screw-ups, which we can ill afford with a faltering economy.

As with the massive boondoggle of the stimulus package, which Obama foolishly let Congress turn into a pork rut, too much has been attempted all at once; focused, targeted initiatives would, instead, have won wide public support. How is it possible that Democrats, through their own clumsiness and arrogance, have sabotaged healthcare reform yet again? Blaming obstructionist Republicans is nonsensical because Democrats control all three branches of government. It isn’t conservative rumors or lies that are stopping healthcare legislation; it’s the justifiable alarm of an electorate that has been cut out of the loop and is watching its representatives construct a tangled labyrinth for others but not for themselves. No, the airheads of Congress will keep their own plush healthcare plan — it’s the rest of us guinea pigs who will be thrown to the wolves.”

Heads up Camille. This kind of apostasy cannot be tolerated.

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