Harry, Louise, Paul & O
Paul Krugman takes note of insurance industry perfidy in the Blue Double Cross. He also takes note of one of Obama’s campaign promises.
“If those insurance companies and drug companies start trying to run ads with Harry and Louise, I’ll run my own ads as president. I’ll get on television and say ‘Harry and Louise are lying.’ ”
You know the way nervous seniors regard idle youth hanging out on street corners? Yeah, that’s a good metaphor for how the American public now sees the health insurance industry. People are tired of giving up their lunch money to these thugs. Call me a dreamer but I think this is the year Harry and Louise get the crap kicked out of them.
Ted Kennedy’s brain cancer is not in remission, btw, but he is back at work in the Senate crafting healthcare legislation. I do not expect him to be overly respectful of the health insurance industry.
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Raw Stories:
Steve Cohen, the Memphis Congressman smeared by an Emily’s List primary challenger, challenges FBI Director Robert Mueller over drug policies
Michael Moore’s next documentary on Wall Street is due out in October (I’m betting it will be a game changer and will cost Chris Dodd his Senate seat if he hasn’t lost it already)
Five of Birmingham’s finest have been fired for thumping an unconscious suspect
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Fighting the Taliban in pink boxers and flip flops.
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Digby on the Federal Reserve and the right-left push to force accountability on the gnomes.
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Atheism rocks.
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I’ve been using Simpsons stamps for a while now without remembering there was an online poll on which Simpson was most popular. Maggie won.
That baby is totally overrated, imho. Don’t read too much into this, but Lisa’s always been my favorite Simpson. Right up until she makes a speech, that is.
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On not becoming senile. So much of aging is outside our control but so much of it within our control. Mentally active seniors stay sharper. Turning off the TV or radio and playing cards with friends sounds like a great prescription.
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Shit. I thought the NYTimes had finally broken down and written something good about the Lubavitcher cults in NYC. Instead it’s a one paragraph bio that refers to them in passing like they were Greek Orthodox.
It’s the news newspapers don’t share with us that defines our lives. In every market I think people are figuring out it’s the stories their newspapers won’t touch that are really important. Have Minnesotans learned anything more about Norm Loserman and Nasser Kazeminy? Who are the most racist employers in the Twin Cities? Which banks screw their customers the hardest?
Online news sites that break these stories will break the Strib-PiPress duumvirate faster than any TV sweepsweek or MPR . . . ??? Does MPR ever break stories that involve more than a news tip? Ever heard them pitching for money for an investigative fund?
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No, just a beard contestant, but you’re forgiven if you thought Lubavitcher Phish fan.
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Gmail’s been punking out on me and I’ve seen some bad pageloads today from Google Ads. Could be a long day on the intertubes.
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It was people like Elaine Szymoniak who set my high standards for political candidates. Thinking about her this morning is helping me to realize that most of my disgust over Minnesota politics stems from the mostly poor quality candidates up here. For every Becky Lourey I’ve met in Minnesota, I’ve run into a dozen Klobuhatch-Daytadias.
Minnesota can do better but the DFL endorsement system has blighted this state with the curse of the schmoozer. Mass appeal doesn’t enter into the formula until it’s too late to switch candidates and then you have it: an overly coached untelegenic person who can be goaded into more dullness/inappropriate explosions.
For the first twenty years of my political life I watched Iowa Democrats scrap and win. For the last twenty years I’ve been watching Minnesota Democrats posture, preen and lose. Is anyone whose opinion makes a difference paying attention?
Tags: O, Norm Loserman, atheism, Elaine Szymoniak, DFL endorsement, Lubavitchers, Federal Reserve, PZ, aging
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May 22, 2009 at 10:39 am
I think you might be just old enough to remember Iowa’s most iconic contribution to mid-20th-century Washington : Representative H. R. Gross.
Gross was … known for his independence, so much so that then-House Minority Leader Gerald Ford remarked that “there are three parties in the House: Democrats, Republicans, and H.R. Gross.”
May 22, 2009 at 10:44 am
Old enough? He was my Congressman when I was growing up. Never got to vote against him because I registered to vote in Ames.
H.R. Gross would introduce H.R.144 each year to balance the budget. He was famous for it but when he retired he kept his unused franking money as his retirement nest egg and DM Register columnist and my political writing mentor Donald Kaul lambasted him for that over and over again.
May 22, 2009 at 11:25 am
Kaul is a continuing favorite of mine. I grew up reading him too. You can read his latest & archives of his columns here:
http://minutemanmedia.org/
May 23, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Ah, Over The Coffee on the left side of the back page of the Des Moines Register. I especially liked the columns in which Kaul related his encounters with The Man In The Seven Buckle Galoshes.
I think Kaul taught me to be a liberal.
May 22, 2009 at 2:07 pm
What I find curious in the Birmingham story is that I haven’t heard a single mention of the cop the guy ran over. Because he doesn’t matter at all, apparently.
May 24, 2009 at 6:23 am
I often find myself having to warn people who are playing with a hacky sack. I tell them, “Watch that you don’t get more than six of you playing at once, or a Phish concert might happen.”
May 24, 2009 at 10:14 am
I just want to note here that I am damn proud to have helped send Steve Cohen to Congress.