Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner

Thanks for posting these-I thought Hodgman's was pretty sweet.

Speakers not working, alas, so I can't hear Hodgman. Heard most of Obama last night. Funny bri wi joke, and Obama feeling like he's on "I'm a celebrity get me out of here." I find his joke-telling laughing at himself telling jokes is sort of endearing.

Not to be a sour puss. But, I will any way. How many of these dinners are there a year? At what point does this begin to be unfunny? I am not against having fun at the expense of the President, Congress, celebrities and the media, but there is something about these kinds of dinners where different elements of power rub elbows that rubs me the wrong way.
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It seriously bugs me. At this moment in time when so many people are actually losing jobs, homes and gay Americans fighting for their rights to be treated like everyone else. I actually know people who don't have cable, the internet or any type of phone yet alone health care and the elite are partying like its 1999 and none of them are really on our side.
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The President is failing us because he keeps announcing polices with no teeth and on some issues seems to be doing all he can to keep GWB and Cheney's visions alive. The Democrats in Congress are failing us because when they are not attempting to snuggle up to their own corporate benefactors they spend their free time being afraid of making a republican mad and screwing the people that voted them in. Republicans are doing what republican do, being hypocrites, so no one expects a lot of them. The Supreme Court with their 5-4 batting average is handing down as many pro government and pro corporate decisions it can these days.
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The print media tied their horses to the Bush legacy, performed daily spiritual pilgrimages to the Drudge report and now they do the same to Politico, buried their government watchdog role in the back yards of the corporate offices they can no longer afford, and now pray to the God of Access. The lessons from the minor gods of fake balance, he said she said and always always anonymity have been learned and enshrined. For all this the print media is unable to make a profit and is dying slow death. Yet they can't for the life of them figure out why. So they blame it all them there nasty DFH bloggers stealing all their work. The print bosses stamp their feet and hire, promote and give space to even more people that were always wrong.
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Radio is a lost cause. Rush makes $400 mil while his corporation fires secretaries. If Rush ain't on not to worry you can always tune up and down the dial until you find Hannity.
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Teevee is also a lost cause. Filled with ex government officials, fake experts and fake consultants. Shouting matches posing as interviews and fake feuds with other networks. Its a sad state.
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I know there are exceptions to every thing I have said above. I know. And maybe they are on our side only hidden from the view of polite company.
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I know I am probably in the minority on this and should just lighten up, but something just does not feel right.

If only they the president and media had been working during those 2 hours on a Friday night! Everything would have been fixed, forever! Damn them... damn them to hell.
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I bet those bastards actually slept a few hours in between then and this morning.

I guess this will be the weekend's open thread so...
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This might explain why there is so little Beltway enthusiasm for healthcare reform.
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3. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America: $6,910,000
6. Pfizer, Inc: $6,140,000
12. American Medical Association: $4,240,000
18. American Hospital Association: $3,580,000
19. Eli Lilly and Company: $3,440,000
37. America's Health Insurance Plans, Inc: $2,030,000
39. CVS Caremark Inc: $2,005,000
47. Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association: $1,800,000
49. GlaxoSmithKline: $1,780,000
63. Merck & Co: $1,500,000
65. United Health Group, Inc: $1,500,000
69. Sanofi-Aventis U.S. Inc: $1,460,000
76. Novartis: $1,347,134
87. Abbott Laboratories: $1,260,000
89. Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP: $1,250,000
92. Medtronic, Inc: $1,238,000
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Those are the total lobbying dollars for those companies for the first THREE MONTHS of 2009
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oops-here is the link for those numbers.
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http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/1937/why-american-policy-sucks

PNNTO: Thanks. This adds to what SZ posted a week ago. Almost all our pols are bought and paid for. Some in our elite media are no better: they have incomes that immunize them against crippling medical costs. Others in the media, as distinct from the "elite" know what is happening in the debate. They should publish as much as possible about the linkages that we have to work against.

BTW: Daschle is saying he is not against the public health insurance option. Anyone picked up on that?

PNNTO:
Not to be contrarian but isn't that just a measure of how much money is at stake if their business model is suddenly declared illegal? Of course their going to throw huge sums of money at the problem. That's what self-interested capitalist entities do when they're threatened.

If I had to guess where Hodgman was from, I would have said Brookline.
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Facial roundness like that can only come from eating too many Bagels in Coolidge Corner.

I wonder if MSNBC would preempt plastic surgery and prison lock up videos on the week-end for any live news.

PD-which business model are you referring to? Suddenly declared illegal?
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Note that these numbers are from Jan-Feb-Mar. Before there was much of a proposal, heck there isn't much of one now in late June.
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I agree with you that they feel threatened, but it is an all hands on deck defense of the status quo.
I'll give them this much- the conversation isn't Universal Healthcare, it's Universal Coverage. They aren't the same.

Glenzilla, Krugman, Sullivan and Jane Hamsher are all over Froomkin and the Post. Pointing things out that can only lose them "Access." The spinning from those involved is getting pretty funny.
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
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http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/the-froomkin-firing/
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http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/the-purging-of-froomkin-ctd.html
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http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/06/19/froomkin-v-washington-post-the-battle-continues/

gunny, I look forward to Howie Kurtz's online chat Monday. He has three days to make it seem like no big deal.

Okay by all means let's join Bill Maher and make it all Obama's fault for only proposing measures that he can actually get through Congress. We will all feel so much better if he uses his political clout to tilt at windmills. It's much better to get defeated fighting for pipe dreams than actually win something that does more good than harm.
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Let's face it this situation exists because Americans are too dam selfish to switch the television from the bachelor to c-span's coverage of how we're being screwed by the telecoms again. If we don't demand more from Congress, it doesn't matter who is in the white house. You want a public option than take a cue from the Iranians and hit the streets. We can actually use Twitter too.

Oh by the way, by selfish I mean focused solely on self as opposed to the impact of things on the community. Please don't assume I mean selfish in the commonly used pejoritive sense, although Americans can clearly be that as well.

Dee, I have been a huge defender of Obama here and I still am. But this is exactly where he is supposed to use his clout. In every poll you can find, across every demographic, a public option is very popular with the American people. He won the effin election! He needs to stop trying to be bipartisan and rule like winners rule.
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He needs to tell congress, "the people voted me in to make changes and the people want a public option, anything less is a waste of time."
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What domestic issue would be better to use his clout on?

Might be some hope yet.
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Big PhRMA has worked out a deal with Baucus and Nancy-Ann DeParle to close the gap in Medicare part D. Saving 80 billion over ten years.
This gap should have not ever been there in the first place in my opinion.
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This is the only link I could find.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23958.html

Yes, and I believe he has told Congress exactly that. But guess what Congress doesn't fear polls this far out from the election as much as they fear voters reactions to potential GOP attack ads. The only way Congress is going to provide a public option is if the people make it clear with calls, letters, emails, texts and tweets and not just the activist cohort, that nothing less will be tolerated. The folks in South Carolina and Nebraska need demand this from conservative Democrats too.
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And the windmills referred to economic reforms.

Not to be contrarian but isn't that just a measure of how much money is at stake if their business model is suddenly declared illegal? Of course their going to throw huge sums of money at the problem. That's what self-interested capitalist entities do when they're threatened.
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Paul Dirks, but Congress doesn't have to take the money, and they don't have to do what the health insurance lobby wants.
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Signing off now...

Dee-Did you see Bill Maher's follow up from last week? Seriously, you need to catch it if you didn't. He's most certainly not implying that its all Obama's fault. Far from it. He is speaking about where the problems actually lie.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtUAHPYYzeM&hl=en&fs=1&]

PD - you're correct, there's no reason to expect big stakeholding companies to act in any other way. But those numbers still tell us something, and it's not something I see KT or the others make a lot of mention here - where the influence is coming from, and how much of it.

Yes, I saw it live, but I feel safe to bet my much diminished personal wealth that this clip won't end up being used by the msnbc echo chamber in the same way as they used his earlier statement to beat Obama over the head. The truth is that the real power always rested with Congress, it's just that Bush never had any opposition from his people. Obama can't make that claim. Frankly he's doing a good job herding cats.

Dee:

On the other hand, herding senate weasels (I'm looking at you, Max Baucus!) on health care may be more problematic

A good reality TV show might be what goes on in Fred Hiatt's brain. I would pay to see that.

(Although it would probably be painful to watch.)

Flown over -- exactly. I'm going from memory so I could be off a point or two, but in 2000 and 2004 the GOP won Montana by a 17-20 point advantage. However in 2008 the won by only a 2 point margin. An awful lot of so-called conservatives voted for the Obama health care plan that had a public option. In fact their uncertainty about guns was the only reason Obama didn't win the state. I suggest that if Baucus supporters were to make it clear to him that they want a public option we'd get one, the same goes for Ben Nelson and Evan Bayh. I think it's time for a serous public square demonstration for health care, where millions of voters across the country let there voices be heard and not co-opted by the spin doctors and commentators. I sat tweet their behinds back to reality.