Double Stupid Probation

Wingers are always good for a laugh as displayed by Laura Ingraham as she goes for the double word score on Obama Derangement Scrabble and spells out S-T-O-O-P-I-D.

Ingraham argued that "a lot of people are saying" that the Obama administration is more "impassioned about" Fox News than "other threats to the United States, whether economic threats or real threats, Islamic jihadists."

Ingraham didn't say who these "people" are who are "saying" this, but apparently, there are "a lot" of them. (When right-wing media personalities appear on mainstream outlets, they do this quite a bit -- they don't want to say crazy things on their own behalf, so they attribute nonsensical ideas to vague and undefined groups of "a lot of people," who do not appear to exist in reality.)

Even Stephanopoulos seemed incredulous about the observation, saying, "You don't believe that they've been softer on Islamic jihadists than they have on Fox News. Come on." Ingraham, dropping the pretense of passing along the thoughts of "a lot of people," insisted she hasn't seen White House officials "talk about other real threats in the same coordinated and sophisticated way as they're going after" Fox News.

John Podesta responded that Ingraham might be right "when the drones start flying over Fox News."

Yeah. Get that, people? Obama is tougher on FOX News than he is terrorists. I don't know who's laughing harder at that idiocy, Obama or the terrorists. Have you ever seen anyone cut themselves playing the victim card before? You have now.

Remember, Obama is the scariest fascist to ever walk the Earth because he thinks FOX might not be fair and balanced. Not even the Village is ready to make that analogy, and that alone should tell you everything you need to know.

And yet, Laura Ingraham will be right back on the Sunday shows again after this because they think you'll want to listen to her opinion.

Oiled Up, Dollar Down

Oil is now hovering at the $80 mark after starting the month around $65 a barrel. Gas prices are up nationwide by about 35 cents a gallon. In many parts of the country, gas prices are more expensive now than they were a year ago.

"The market is cautious about pushing oil prices higher because the demand fundamentals are still weak and the world economy is still fragile," said Ryuichi Sato, an analyst at Mizuho Corporate Bank.

Adding to bearish sentiment, Nigeria's main militant group reinstated a ceasefire on Sunday in the oil-producing Niger Delta to allow for peace talks with the government. Attacks on oil installations by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have cut output in the major oil exporter for the last three years.

The dollar weakened against a basket of currencies, offering some support for oil. A Chinese report saying Beijing should increase its holdings of euros and yen in its foreign reserves knocked the U.S. currency.

China was again the bright spot for the global economic outlook, following comments by Vice Premier Li Keqiang that the country's economic recovery has consolidated after having performed better than expected. Its strong economic growth was reflected in a 12.5 percent year on year jump in implied oil demand, the sixth rise in a row and first double-digit growth since August 2006.

That doesn't bode well for the recovery. If the dollar continues to weaken and China continues to grow rapidly, oil prices will go up regardless.

Searching For Understanding

...On the Teabagger front. Overlooked this one on Friday.

In a message sent this morning to fellow members of the Tea Party Patriots, who had been discussing movement strategy, Richard A. Correa Sr., who identifies himself as a retired sergeant, wrote:

Civil disobedience is the next logical step.

Correa's email, which was obtained by TPMmuckraker, was sent using a U.S. army address.

The email may in fact have been an effort to tone down the fervor among Tea Partiers. It appears to have been a response to a fellow activist, Carol Dietz, who, in her own email sent to the Tea Party group on Wednesday, had argued that the group needed to become more aggressive in its effort to resist the administration. Dietz compared the Tea Partiers to Jews in Nazi Germany, who, she said, "went like sheep quietly to their slaughter."

If you honestly believe that the current Obama domestic agenda of trying to fix the economy through badly needed oversight, wanting to make health care affordable and actually doing something about immigration, education, and the environment is equivalent to "Brownshirts are coming to put you in work camps" then the Bush administration dismantlement of the Constitution in the name of the almighty plenary executive must of had you in the streets with Molotov cocktails and shotguns, right?

Wait, you want those days back? Look folks, there's nothing wrong with civil disobedience. It works as long as you actually keep it civil. You don't like Obama? You have the right not to like Obama. Vote for the other person in 2012. I have my problems with the guy's policies too, especially on the economic and civil liberties fronts. But the talk of armed and open revolution? Obama as a Nazi fascist? Give me a break.

You're fighting to the last man against...what exactly? More wind turbines? Removing the anti-trust exemption from insurance companies? Highway construction projects? What? What is so godwawful terrible about what Obama is doing that you 100% supported Bush when he did it?

Is Obama continuing some of Bush's policies? Yes. I do not support that. But that's not the problem I see the teabaggers screaming about. It's specifically Obama's policies that will destroy this country, apparently...and none of these fools batted an eyelash when Bush did far worse.

So yes, I guess I just don't get it.

A Newt Dawn In America

Newtie is considering a run for Obama's job in 2012.

Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker and perennial big thinker in the Republican party, said this morning that he will likely run for president in 2012 if he and his wife, Callista, assess the field of candidates in 2011 and feel "a requirement as citizens that we run." His comments came during an interview on C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning.

Considering Newt is the only major Republican to back actual GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava in NY-23's special election next week (the Winger Nation wants Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman to win in order to teach the NRCC a lesson) I somehow see the reaction from the right to Sunday's statement from Newt being almost universally like this.

Newt my boy, there is absolutely no need for you and Callista to sit down and discuss anything. You have forever destroyed all your chances of getting a majority of conservatives to vote for you after pig-headishly sticking to Dede Scozzafava. That über RINO is now a permanent albatross around your neck.

The days of the GOP shoving RINOs onto conservatives are over. Thanks to Obama's radical agenda, the conservative base is now active and organized. RINO candidates will be met with the strongest resistance and those who push them will lose support.

The days of Newt's Contract With America are over. The Great Purge is underway, starting next Tuesday. As Republicans continue to jettison any hope of moderation from the party, it'll only get worse and worse for them nationally, prompting cries of "We must purge MORE!" from the screaming Wingnuts.

I continue to not be worried about these guys into 2010 and 2012, but if you think you're gonna run there Newt, OK. You've earned a StupidiTag.

Finally Taking A Stand

BooMan notes the White House has finally come out with rumor control on the public option.

A rumor is making the rounds that the White House and Senator Reid are pursuing different strategies on the public option. Those rumors are absolutely false.

In his September 9th address to Congress, President Obama made clear that he supports the public option because it has the potential to play an essential role in holding insurance companies accountable through choice and competition. That continues to be the President's position.

At any point the White House could have said this, but, you know, the Snowe Queen and everything. Go figure. As BooMan says:

It probably was like pulling teeth to get the White House to release that memo. They've been avoiding getting boxed in with religious devotion. But their media outreach guys knew they were taking a beating. Some liberal senators were getting grumpy. And Pelosi needs a little push as she finalizes her whip count for the strongest possible public option. This last bit is probably what tipped the White House in favor of publicly backing Reid. As long as the Senate looks wobbly, it's hard for Pelosi to push her caucus over the top for a robust public option.

Perhaps something will get done now that everyone believes we're on the same page. Important to note however that one news story to the contrary is still able to derail the Dems for days, and it's getting silly.

At some point we have to trust the Dems to do this and that it will work. The Zen of Kroog:

Still, if the Massachusetts experience is any guide, health care reform will have broad public support once it’s in place and the scare stories are proved false. The new health care system will be criticized; people will demand changes and improvements; but only a small minority will want reform reversed.

This thing is going to work.

And we're close...very close.

StupidiNews!

• A series of car bombings outside government buildings in Baghdad have claimed 160 lives.
• So far Iran is cooperating with UN nuclear inspectors at its hidden nuclear site in Qum.
• All three of California's Republican candidates for Governor have in the past contributed to Democrats.
• Three helicopter crashes in Afghanistan over the weekend resulted in the deaths of 14 US servicemen.
• A Tennessee case pitting a local couple versus a blogger may have far reaching consequences.

Last Call

George Will has apparently thrown in the towel on another war...the war on pot.

Appearing on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, the Pulitzer-winning journalist and longtime icon of America's political right declared that with President Barack Obama's new policy which respects the states right to allow medical marijuana, the United States is "probably in the process now of legalizing marijuana."

He added that if there were to be a serious effort to fight the increasingly violent, powerful Mexican drug cartels, "you'd legalize marijuana," the sale of which provides the gangs the vast majority of their funding.

Will's comments come not even a week after a Gallup poll found record-breaking support across the United States for the legalization of marijuana, with nearly half of U.S. citizens in favor and a clear majority of support emerging among liberals, Democrats and moderates.

Will's proclamation, as a well-respected conservative thinker, is especially significant given that Gallup found the only two political groups in the U.S. that are still very strongly opposed to legalization are conservatives and Republicans.

Honestly, you'd think Republicans and conservatives would jump at the chance to have Big Pharma or Big Tobacco sell pot.

Go fig.

They Do It Because They Care

The Denver Post is reporting that women, on average, pay up to 50% more for the same insurance coverage, if not higher.

Checking the "female" box when buying health insurance is likely to cost extra — perhaps up to 50 percent more than a man would pay for the same coverage.

Gender-rating — or what some term as flat-out sexual discrimination — is linked to the simple fact that women, particularly those under age 50 or so, go to the doctor more often than men.

But outrage over how women are treated in the individual health insurance market is mounting as stories emerge of companies refusing to cover maternity benefits and denying coverage because of past domestic violence or cesarean sections, including a Colorado woman who was told she would have to get sterilized to qualify for insurance.

Federal proposals, as well as pending state legislation, would ban gender-rating and require maternity coverage, even as the insurance industry warns that lowering premiums for younger women could mean higher premiums for most everyone else.

Colorado women age 40 and under shopping for health insurance in the individual market, not through an employer, pay from 10 percent to 59 percent more than men, according to analysis by the National Women's Law Center.

They pay more even when maternity coverage is not included. And in many cases, a female nonsmoker pays more for health coverage than a man who smokes.

But in America, that's fair. And the insurance companies are more than happy to gouge the millions of American women who have no health insurance the same way.

Suzanne Pariser, a Denver lawyer and mother of 2-year-old Willa, is putting off expanding her family because she cannot find an affordable insurance plan that includes maternity coverage.

"That's the main reason we're not having a baby right now," she said. "We definitely want to have another child."

Pariser is annoyed that insurance company executives, in essence, are determining her family planning.

"My anger is mostly that insurance companies view having a baby as a medical complication that costs them money," she said. "They view it as a disease."

The only plan she could find that offered maternity coverage was more expensive in the long run than paying out of pocket to have a baby, Pariser figured.

Costs vary by hospital or birthing center, but the average bill for a vaginal birth with no complications is about $7,500 and for a cesarean section, $13,200.

A uterus is nothing more than a pre-existing condition to insurance companies, and that means dollar signs.

But Republicans keep telling us that the key is removing insurance regulations to foster more competition.

Sure it is. Insurance companies really do want to compete over which company will be able to overcharge people, you know.

Are there no women who work in the insurance industry? Honestly?

The Spin We're In

It doesn't actually matter what Doug Hoffman does in NY-23's special election a week from Tuesday. If the Conservative party candidate wins overwhelmingly, loses badly, splits the GOP vote allowing the Dems to win with less that 50% of the vote, comes in dead last with a single digit total or gives the Dems a substantial win, the message will be that only ideological purity can save the GOP.

The National Republican Congressional Committee remains committed to embattled GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava in the upstate New York House special election, even as many of the party's top names throw their support to Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman.

Two party officials tell POLITICO that the NRCC will continue to air TV ads propping up Scozzafava in the days leading up to the Nov. 3 contest and plans to keep up a near relentless barrage of press releases slamming Hoffman.

Scozzafava, a state assemblywoman who supports gay marriage, abortion rights and has a close relationship with leading labor officials in her region, has been the target of sustained criticism from conservatives who claim she is too liberal for them to support her candidacy.

Hoffman, an accounting executive, is attracting an ever-growing group of conservative backers, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) have also endorsed the third-party candidate.

Public and private polls have shown Hoffman gaining on Scozzafava but both trail the Democratic nominee, attorney Bill Owens.

Democrats may have their differences but in the end, they're together. The Republicans? By the time this civil war clears, there won't be much of a party left.

The Problem Is Affordablity

Remember, when you see articles like this in the Village media and the Wingers claim a mandate to buy health insurance will destroy America, isn't the problem the affordability of the insurance and not the mandate?

The proposals now before Congress would require just about everyone to buy health insurance or to get it through their employers — which would generally result in lower wages. In other words, millions of people would be compelled to spend lots of money on something they previously did not want, at least not at prevailing prices.

Estimates of this burden vary, but for a family of four it could range up to $14,000 a year over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Right now, many Americans take the gamble of going without insurance, just as many of us take our chances with how much we drive or how little we exercise.

The paradox is this: Reform advocates start with anecdotes about the underprivileged who are uninsured, then turn around and propose something that would hurt at least some members of that group.

To ease the burdens of the insurance mandate, the reform proposals call for varying levels of subsidy. In some versions, such as the current Senate bill, subsidies are handed out to families with incomes as high as $88,000 a year. How long will it be before just about everyone wants further assistance, and this new form of entitlement spending spins out of control? It’s possible to lower insurance subsidies, but then the insurance mandate would impose a bigger burden on the people we are trying to help.

The solution therefore is an affordable government run plan, is it not? Glad to see Wingers are on board then!

On Again, Off Again

Friday and Saturday we had news that the White House was behind the public option and had finally weighed in supporting Dems in the House and Senate to get the plan to his desk.

Today however HuffPo is reporting that Obama is now trying to stop the public option in Congress and he's pushing for the Snowe Queen's trigger plan.

"The leadership understands that pushing for a public option is a somewhat risky strategy, but we may be within striking distance. A signal from the president could be enough to put us over the top," said one Senate Democratic leadership aide. Such pleading is exceedingly rare on Capitol Hill and comes only after Senate leaders exhausted every effort to encourage Obama to engage.

"Everybody knows we're close enough that these guys could be rolled. They just don't want to do it because it makes the politics harder," said a senior Democratic source, saying that Obama is worried about the political fate of Blue Dogs and conservative Senate Democrats if the bill isn't seen as bipartisan. "These last couple folks, they could get them if Obama leaned on them."

But with fundamental reform of the health care system in plain sight for the first time in half a century, the president appears to be siding with those who see the Senate and its entrenched culture as too resistant to change. Administration officials say that Obama's preference for the trigger, which is backed by Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, is founded in a fear that Reid's public option couldn't get the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster. More specifically, aides fear that a handful of conservative Democrats will not support a bill unless it has at least one Republican member's support.

The president's retreat leaves Reid as the champion of progressive reform -- an irony that is not lost on those who have long derided the Majority Leader as too cautious.

"Who knew that when it came down to crunch time, Harry Reid would be the one who stepped up to the plate and Barack Obama would shy away from the fight," emailed one progressive strategist.

HuffPo's usually better than this, but it's clear that there's a long way to go in this fight still, and that the President's current level of support is not good enough for some.

We've seen this before. Bob Cesca has some good advice:

Over the last several months it's almost become a regular feature of the news, like weather reports and stock market updates. Every week, stories about how the public option isn't going to happen, or how the White House is telling the House progressives to STFU about it. We've seen numerous stories about alleged White House support for co-ops or triggers or nothing at all. And every time, there's a wild kneejerk spaz attack about it.

The fact remains that the only named source in the piece is Dan Pfeiffer who insists that the whole trigger/Snowe story "is false." Now any quote should be taken with a grain of skepticism, but in relative terms, it's a good rule of thumb to take a named quote more seriously than an unnamed one.

Agreed. Every news cycle it's how the public option is doomed...when it refuses to die and a majority of Americans still want it. The always reliable BooMan with some much needed perspective:

Let me tell you something. If Harry Reid went up to the White House with a plan to pass a public option and the president did not like the plan, you never would have heard about it. Reid never would have taken the step to float putting the public option in the base bill if he didn't already have a green light from the White House. The truth is that the administration never believed they could pass a public option through the Senate on the first pass. That was what Obama was telling us on that conference call back in July. But things changed when Kirk replaced Kennedy and Byrd regained his health. We have 60 senators now, and if Reid thinks he can get 60 votes for cloture that changes the plan.

In the end, we have to trust somebody. It's a representative democracy, after all.

My Katrina, Your Katrina, His Katrina, Her Katrina, Wouldn't You Like Katrinas Too?

Last night I predicted after President Obama declared a national emergency over H1N1:

No doubt this will be viewed as more Obamafascism, trying to get more vaccine to Americans faster in order to save American lives and prevent illness is of course an egregious offense that no doubt requires impeachment by a court of armed patriots.

And lo and behold this morning, we have the Wingnut Response.

Wizbang's Shawn Mallow could give a damn about those that Swine Flu have killed already.

For some perspective, here are death statistics for several flu viruses that have occurred:

Spanish Flu (1918-1920): 50 million
Asian Flu (1957-1958): 1.5-2 million
Hong Kong Flu (1968-1969): 1 million
Asiatic Flu (1989-1990): 1 million
Influenza (Normal yearly world-wide): 250-500,000
H1N1/Swine Flu (2009 world-wide): 5,000

Yawn.

It's a variation of the classic Winger trope, The Ol' Iraq War Didn't Really Kill That Many Americans, Quite Whining, It's Fine You Liberal Pussies play. That of course didn't go over real well when families of those killed started calling the Wingers out on this one, but it's nice to see assholes believe in recycling.

Clifton B at Another Black Conservative has a similar response:

I know I may catch hell for saying this, but I just cannot get all worked up about H1N1. When I look at the numbers, especially in light of the fact that there are 300 million of us, I just don’t see what all the panic is about

Nope. Nothing to worry about here, stupid libs...or IS there?

Jules Crittenden is scared that Obama has already failed America on stopping the deadly H1N1 virus and brings up the K word...Katrina.

I got the news yesterday on the car radio while driving back from the supermarket with my son. He and his sisters got their swine flu shots at the pediatrician’s office the other day. But he’s been studying the Black Death in history class. (So proud. In parent-teacher conference last week, the teacher related that she asked the class, “Who knows what the Black Death is?” and his hand shot up. “It’s a disease that killed half of Europe in the Middle Ages!” Their minds are like little sponges.) Anyway, just yesterday morning, he and I had been discussing again how the Black Death caused massive social turmoil, how all of us alive today are plague survivors.

So, about this swine flu state of emergency, I told him:

There are two pieces to this. One is that it makes sense, if you have a serious situation, to let the hospitals and various government agencies bypass regulations so they can treat more people.

Then, there’s something called CYA. It means, “cover your behind.” It’s political. When you have a disaster looming, you need to look like you’re doing something.

I told him swine flu is like Hurricane Katrina. It’s coming, and it’s going to do what it’s going to do. Big force of nature. Might be bad, might not be so bad. Dunno yet. But when it’s over, everyone is going to want to know whether the president did everything he could do to limit the damage. People are already starting to talk about swine flu as Obama’s Katrina.

And, given the headsup the feds had, and the drastic shortfall and delay in vaccine preparation and distribution, it isn’t looking good for him if this thing gets bad.

Wait, what? H1N1 is Obama's Katrina? Are you f'cking serious? Talk about intellectual dishonesty. It seems that Obama has simultaneously destroyed the Constitution by declaring a health emergency for nothing and has failed to protect America from a deadly virus, resulting in his "Katrina" event...at the same time. H1N1 is harmless and Obama is wasting America's time with his feeble attempts at fascism and we're not scared unless he has failed to craft a strong enough government response to this DEADLY KILLER YOU MUST FEAR THE OTHER IN THE WHITE HOUSE REBEL NOW PATRIOTS!

For the record, I thought the Cash For Clunkers program was Obama's Katrina. No wait, it was the ice storm here in Kentucky last year. No wait, it was the Georgia floods in August, yeah that's it...no no no it's the economy...no wait it's just everything Obama has even tried this year!

Boy with all those Katrinas, America must hate the President worse than George W. Bush's low 20's approval numbers.

Wait, Obama's approval rating average is still thirty points higher than Bush's nadir and rising?

Gosh, it's almost like conservatives are full of bullshit or something and have no idea what they are talking about, automatically declaring anything Obama does to be the most evil thing since Hammurabi's code of laws.

Last Call

Been a day away from the blog, even I get those. A couple of events to note today:

First, President Obama has declared a national emergency over the H1N1 virus.

The emergency declaration, signed by the president late Friday, enhances the ability of medical treatment facilities to handle a spike in influenza A (H1N1) patients by allowing medical officials to temporarily bypass certain federal requirements.

"The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve," Obama said in the declaration.

"The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities."

The declaration comes just days after Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned that demand was outstripping supply of vaccine for the novel flu strain.

As Americans waited for more shipments of vaccine, 46 of the 50 states now report widespread swine flu activity -- an unusually early uptick that ordinarily takes place in January or February at the peak of a normal flu season.

No doubt this will be viewed as more Obamafascism, trying to get more vaccine to Americans faster in order to save American lives and prevent illness is of course an egregious offense that no doubt requires impeachment by a court of armed patriots.

Meanwhile in financial news, the commercial real estate depression I've been warning about just tripped a major set of alarm bells as lender Capmark Financial is about to declare bankruptcy.

It's happening. The long-awaited bankruptcy of big-time commercial real estate lender Capmark is just about here.

WSJ: In 2006, a group led by KKR & Co., Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Five Mile Capital Partners acquired the lender GMAC LLC's commercial-real estate business and renamed it Capmark. As of March 31, the investor group owned about 75% of the company, with GMAC and its employees owning the balance.

The Horsham, Pa., company recently reported a $1.6 billion second-quarter loss and warned it might be forced to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. KKR has already written down its investment in Capmark to zero.

Capmark recently entered an agreement to sell its North American servicing and mortgage-banking operations to a new company owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway and Leucadia National Corp. for as much as $490 million. Under the deal's terms, the sale could occur while Capmark is in bankruptcy, but would require a bigger cash payment. Read the whole thing >

Even before the filing, the battles have begun.

Capmark is just the first. More will follow. We're nowhere near out of the woods, Dow 10,000 or not. The Icarus markets are about to rediscover that gravity is a harsh mistress.

A more regular schedule tomorrow.

Pushing Back

The White House is letting Washington know that the fight for the public option is on.

Multiple sources tell TPMDC that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is very close to rounding up 60 members in support of a public option with an opt out clause, and are continuing to push skeptical members. But they also say that the White House is pushing back against the idea, in a bid to retain the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

"They're skeptical of opt out and are generally deferential to the Snowe strategy that involves the trigger," said one source close to negotiations between the Senate and the White House. "they're certainly not calming moderates' concerns on opt out."

This new development, which casts the White House as an opponent of all but the most watered down form of public option, is likely to yield backlash from progressives, especially those in the House who have been pushing for a more maximal version of reform.

It also suggests for perhaps the first time that the White House's supposed hands off approach that ostensibly allowed the two chambers in Congress to craft their own bill has been discarded.

High level White House officials have floated the trigger idea a number of times, and it seems they continue to do so, even at this, crucial stage of the health care reform process, when their involvement is greatest. That has senators who support the public option concerned.

The question now is what form will the public option take? Will it be strong, or will it be a gift to the insurance companies?

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• The H1N1 vaccine is in short supply in some areas of the country.
• Michigan lawmakers are looking to pass a bill that defines a fertilized egg as a person in the state's constitution.
• Iranian officials appear shaky on an international agreement to move the country's uranium stockpile to Russia.
• Germany's government will reportedly ask the U.S. to remove its nuclear weapons from the country permanently.
• A new NASA committee report suggests the space agency should put plans for Mars on hold.