Health Care and the GOP

Hey, you can hardly see the marionette strings coming from Insurance's hands to Steele's back.

The continued failing of the RNC: always in opposition but never offering an "alternative". We know being conservative by definition means resistant to change, but you have to have some kind of offering other than "no".
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If voters don't want "this kind of health care reform" then create a package of the kind of health care reform voters "do want". Less time developing negative ad campaigns, more time developing solutions.

Aren't these two terms mutually exclusive?

Oh, forgive me!

I was thinking of mental health and the GOP...

You'll really love his answer to a follow up question. Sometimes I think he is a secret plant by the Democrats.
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Paraphrase: "I don't do policy. I set a tone." /sigh
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Say, Karen Tumulty, is there any chance you might ask someone about something important, such as why ObamaCare might include millions of foreign citizens? Why should Americans be forced to subsidize corrupt businesses and governments? Maybe you could ask David Cutler.

Thanks so much for continuing to cover this issue, KT.

Part of Republican (and corporatist Democratic) Senators' tactics seems to be to promote delay and obfuscation, so that Health Care Reform ends up in the Iraq-occupation trash-heap of reportorial/editorial attention.

I can't wait for the predictable slew of "It's going nowhere./The President is taking an enormous hit the longer this drags on./The American people like it less and less the longer this drags on./" directives certain to issue forth from Politico as the issue wears down the already transparently thin attention-spans of the Beltway political-media class.

If Obama doesn't capitulate to the forces of "negotiation" (delay/obstruction) in the Senate, the message transmitted by your colleagues will soon be very, very clear: "Get this over with --Now!", and your commitment to quality journalism will be sorely tested, KT. In a war of message attrition, the political press corps are almost always (de facto) on the side of the dishonest foot-draggers. You're a part of their tactics.

When your peers look sideways at you for asking questions about an issue that they (and the Administration) are sick to death of, please always remember how much we're begging you to keep us informed, KT.

I turned on my TeeVee yesterday just in time to see an old interview with "Uncle Walter" as he explained his "reporters should be liberals" comment.
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It was dead solid perfect.
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"Liberal" as he explained it was a willingness to question information or events with no biases and no preconceived idealogical position and to call out lies and misinformation when it it proper to do so (pretty much all of the time).
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I also realized what we lost and how much the country continues to miss him and his kind.
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Karen, the country needs reporters who will tell us what is happening without spin and will report BS as BS when it is obvious. This will be especially true during the healthcare debate and development of legislation. It (the BS) is going to flying fast and thick.
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We need someone to step up. We don't need another tribute to Walter Cronkite from those who couldn't carry his shoes if they tried. We need someone to "walk the walk" as he and Edward Murrow did .
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Feel up to the task?

Thank you for Michael Steele and Sarah Palin. Every time I get down in the dumps about Obama not doing things the way I think he should, I all I have to do is look at what might have been.

Pretty color charts aside, maybe in a press conference I'd ask Steele what then IS the solution to HC coverage / reform? The dropped jaw stunned silence would be worth my getting thrown out by bouncers (literally).

"Karen, the country needs reporters who will tell us what is happening without spin and will report BS as BS when it is obvious."

I think that pointing out that opposition rhetoric is nothing but focus-group tested scare-mongering and putting up the poster child for empty-headed political nonsense is a decent step in the right direction. In fact, I'm hoping that even this weak tea for hippies isn't getting KT in trouble with the aristocrats.

"I don't do policy..."

But he's entitled to endlessly criticize policy? Steele really is a piece of work...

http://www.political-buzz.com/

I guess the lack of posts about Cronkite are a tacit admission that corporate journalism today is a total failure. Is it that hard to look in the mirror corporate journalists?

I guess the lack of posts about Cronkite are a tacit admission that corporate journalism today is a total failure. Is it that hard to look in the mirror corporate journalists?

Hi, Cincy!

I think the answer to that would be "Yes". Just for you and the others who care what quality looks like (and want to see what good people these "gold standard" journalists were like), I found a couple of episodes of 'What's My Line' where Ed Murrow and Walter and others appeared as guests.

Enjoy.

Read it pintortwo....good stuff. The contrast between Cronkite's behavior vis-a-vis the Vietnam War and the behavior of our cadre of corporate wh0res is stark to say the least. Ironic that he died the same week the MSM got caught on it's knees, wearing lucite hooker heels, bib tied and mouth wide open in regard to Sanford. I'm still waiting for the emails released showing DJ Jazzy David Gregory offering up his wife as a party favor to get 'the get'.

"I guess the lack of posts about Cronkite are a tacit admission that corporate journalism today is a total failure. Is it that hard to look in the mirror corporate journalists?"

Nice juxtaposition to David Gregory's conspicuously unnoticed consulting work for the GOP and Gov. Sanford, don't you think?

"This situation only exacerbates the issue of how the GOP recovers when another national leader suffers a setback like this. So coming on Meet The Press allows you to frame the conversation how you really want to...and then move on."

You guys might want to check out Time's front page, they've got a poll as to whom is the most trusted newsman in America now that Cronkite is gone. Coming in at #1 by far is Jon Stewart. Again, Cronkite stood up and told the truth about the Vietnam War 40 years ago, it now falls on our comedians to tell us the truth about our world while the corporate media scurries to PREVENT us from knowing the truth about our world.

AHOY mateys!

Ye know wha' ELSE were an "experiment"?

Social Security!

Ye know wha' ELSE?

Medicare!

Ye know wha' ELSE?

Head Start!

Ye know wha' ELSE?

WIC (Women, Infants and Children food program)!

Ye know wha' ELSE?

Civil Rights legislation!

Ye know wha' ELSE?

Mandatory Public Education!

I could be goin' on an' on, bu'...

Ye know wha' ELSE?

Constitutional Democracy! How be THA' workin' out?

ARRGH!

deconstructiva, and all it took was for her to be personally affected by the health care crisis. Too bad more corporate journalists don't have kids in the military....maybe we wouldn't be in Iraq pouring 100s of billions of dollars(which you might notice no one in the corporate media is questioning the funding of) into a pit in the sand.

Cincy,

You have NO idea how much I've personally missed your input into these discussions.

Good points, pirate and cinci. Did loyal readers here long ago suggest Karen start her own blog? But how to pay for it? Alas, even fivethirtyeight.com runs SarahPac ads (!). Financial wizard Jim Jubak left MSN for his own blog but he makes his $ from books. Even without anyone quitting (don't want to see that) / starting own blog, maybe problems (if any, may not apply to KT but can happen elsewhere) would be solved through financial independence from bestsellers – “Anthem Shrugged” / HC exposes + “Winning Hearts, Minds, and Stomachs: A Day in the Life of KT on the Obama Campaign Trail”? Free to do your job as needed since you have the money to tell the bosses to go Fthemselves? It's not a lovely fantasy; some realize it.

One wonders if anyone in the GOP can spell the word "experiment". Or "scientist". Or "integrity". Or "public good". Just curious.

Thanx afguy, but I feel dirty posting here. I want this blog to die and don't really like adding comments and page hits, but my boredom overruled my common sense today.
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Know what word Republicans don't have a problem spelling? N*gger:
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'"In the past several months Atwater City Councilman Gary Frago has sent at least a half-dozen e-mails to city staff and other prominent community members containing racist jokes aimed at President Barack Obama, his wife and black people in general.

In all, the Sun-Star obtained seven e-mails that Frago sent from October 2008 to February 2009 from an anonymous source.

Some compared Obama to O.J. Simpson while others suggested that "ni*gger rigs" should now be called "presidential solutions."

Perhaps the most overboard e-mail was sent on Jan. 15. It read: "Breaking News Playboy just offered Sarah Palin $1 million to pose nude in the January issue. Michelle Obama got the same offer from National Geographic."

Frago admitted sending the e-mails, but showed no regret. "If they're from me, then I sent them," he said. "I have no disrespect for the president or anybody, they weren't meant in any bad way or harm."'
[edited to get past Time censorbot]
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/07/councilman-sent-brazenly-racist-obama-e-mails/

So the GNOP keeps whining without an alternative? What's new?

OT, FYI, and BTW, spob really needs good advice on how to live in a multicultural world while preserving his conservatism. As do others of his ilk.

Here it is:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/07/teixeira-says-culture-war-ending-gop.html

It's worth a read, an excellent piece!