Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Snowe drifting toward burial of Public Option

POLITICO Pulse - POLITICO.com

The news outlets are acting as if there's some a priori legitimacy to having a corporation play Caesar in the Arena. The public can provide healthcare to ourselves, thank you, and we don't need any corpulent parasites piratizing the system.




Posted using ShareThis

Friday, June 26, 2009

Perils of the Public Plan | The American Prospect

There are a lot of ways to defeat reform, not just by blocking it entirely, but by setting it up for failure. Those who think a public plan is a good idea no matter how badly designed are not thinking ahead.


Posted using ShareThis

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Oxdown Gazette » Obama’s Extraordinary Health Care Townhall - And ABC’s Offensive Commercial Exploitation

The all too frequent commercial interruptions

served as an apt metaphor for how private commercial interests demand our attention and extract their profits while limiting our ability to discuss critical public policy issues.

. . . instead of covering this event as the enormous public service it should have been, ABC chose to exploit the occasion to sell us Hondas and pimp for their own after-show local coverage and commercials.

Posted using ShareThis

Media Moon America

There was a town hall on health care last night. I didn't see it, but from what I have heard, Obama handled the topic well and ABC (and their sponsors, and especially their commentators) made asses of themselves (AGAIN).

Sawyer's main contribution was to introduce her own uninformed biases/opinions in framing issues and introducing questioners. Gibson's primary role was to reveal his own misconceptions and then literally read talking points from a Republican letter -- an obvious ransom extracted after days of Republican whining about giving the President air time on a critical public issue.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Whip It Day 1

Let's see what the commercial bandwagoneers have to say about this on the networks and cable channels, assuming the gag rule isn't in effect.

Tri-Committee Draft Proposal for Health Care Reform: ReShonda Young

Did everyone hear her say, "strong Public Option?"

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

t r u t h o u t | Spreading the Wealth Around to the Insurance Industry and Friends

t r u t h o u t |: "'I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.' This was written almost 200 years ago..... Thomas Jefferson, 1812"

No Liberal After All

Obama a Very Smooth Liar | CommonDreams.org

Pay Reparations Now

Reparations and U.S. Out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraq Deaths Estimator

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Washington Post fires its best columnist. Why? - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

The Washington Post fires its best columnist. Why? - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

When a once-proud major American daily has to stoop to scrapping for the measely Moonie market share.

The Early Word: Financial Upheavals - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

The Early Word: Financial Upheavals - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Foul Ball! AT

Think the iPhone is the free-flowing Internet in your pocket? Think again. AT&T, the sole wireless carrier for the iPhone, has decided to allow Major League Baseball to stream video live to the new iPhone, but is blocking other companies from doing the same.


The New York Times reports that Major League Baseball's live stream "will play regardless of whether an iPhone is connected to a WiFi network or a 3G network."


But you’ll strike out trying to do the same on 3G with the SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone application or other online video services.


Free Press has challenged the FCC to confirm that wireless networks must adhere to the agency’s Internet Policy Statement, which protects consumers against just this sort of discrimination. Given AT&T’s recent MLB play, the incoming FCC chair should put our challenge on deck.


"We are troubled that carriers like AT&T are playing gatekeeper to the next generation of wireless Internet applications,” Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott said. “No Internet service provider should be allowed to pick winners and losers online.”


AT&T has conceded that open Internet principles should govern wireless communications and that consumers expect unfettered mobile access. So why is AT&T deciding what online video its iPhone customers can and can’t watch?




Posted using ShareThis

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Jolly Jay Rockefeller's Optionus Publicus

There's something suspiciously threadbare when it comes to specifics in Senator Rockefeller's Public Health Care Option proposal.

But man, o man, is it ever dripping with glittering generalities!