News Roundup for 10/1/09

It's not like it's a major American city or anything...

-Headline of the day-
"Question: Why Don’t Conservatives Want The US To Get The Olympics?"

When Barack Obama went to Copenhagen to make the case for a Chicago Olympics, the right went nuts. Obama's from Chicago (among other places), so that means that the president was trying to get the Olympics for his home town. This is the worst thing ever.

According to the report, "House Minority Leader John Boehner torched President Barack Obama Wednesday for his European trip to pitch the Chicago Olympics bid, criticizing the president for 'going to go off to Copenhagen when we’ve got serious issues here at home that need to be debated.'" Like Boehner's interested in debating anything.

Are they under the impression that Chicago isn't in the United States? It's like free stimulus money. For about a month, the Windy City would be the de facto capital of the world. Seriously, you think we don't need that kind of scratch around here? Hell, I plan on making about fifty million just by letting people park on my lawn while they take buses down there.

Now, I'll admit that if George W. Bush had gone on a trip to push his hometown's Olympic dreams, I'd be a little suspicious -- mostly because Crawford, Texas is about the size of a Chicago bus stop. Seriously, you'd have to be an idiot not to think there was something hinky about that.

But we're talking about freakin' Chicago, not the capital of haystack country. Who do they want to get it; Tokyo, Rio, Madrid? It'd be helpful if they came out and said what they wanted.

But Boehner's not interested in being helpful, either. (Donklephant)


-Ladies man-
National Review write John Derbyshire has a brand-new book coming out that no one will ever read. I think the title is Shit I Came Up With While I Was Drinking... Something like that, anyway.

One of the things Derbyshire came up with while enjoying surgical alcohol was "The Case Against Female Suffrage" -- so that's one of the chapters in his book. That's right, he's against ladies voting. See, women are "nurturing," so they vote for crazy shit like not letting people starve and die in the streets -- which makes them commies. And he went on Alan Colmes radio show to defend that position.

DERBYSHIRE: Among the hopes that I do not realistically nurse is the hope that female suffrage will be repealed. But I’ll say this -– if it were to be, I wouldn’t lose a minute's sleep.

COLMES: We'd be a better country if women didn’t vote?

DERBYSHIRE: Probably. Don't you think so?

COLMES: No, I do not think so whatsoever.

DERBYSHIRE: Come on Alan. Come clean here [laughing].

COLMES: We would be a better country? John Derbyshire making the statement, we would be a better country if women did not vote.

DERBYSHIRE: Yeah, probably. Well we got along like that for what, 130 years?

I always say that when conservatives say they want change, it means they want to change things back. Who knew they wanted to go this far back? You wonder if Derbyshire didn't just arrive in a time machine from 1910, don't you? On thing's for sure, once this book is out, he's never getting laid again. (Wonkette)


-And furthermore...-
You remember Democratic Representative of Florida and hero to the children Alan Grayson, right? He's the guy who said that the GOP healthcare plan was "die quickly." This was of course, the worst thing that ever happened since Barack Obama went to Copenhagen. Republicans climbed over each other demanding that Grayson resign -- including many who'd previously backed Sarah Palin's "death panel" bullshit.

Well, you know how it goes. Some politician says something that makes them a hero to the base, then disappoints everyone by apologizing. It's just the way Washington works. And Alan Grayson is no different. He bent under the pressure and apologized.

"I would like to apologize. I would like to apologize to the dead..." he said. "I apologize to the dead and their families that we haven't voted [on healthcare reform] sooner."

What a let-down... (Think Progress)

A 'Public Option' by Any Other Name?

Too soon to know whether this is good news or bad news. To be honest, it doesn't sound good.

Politico:

Senate Democratic leaders signaled Thursday that their version of health care overhaul will include some form of a public option, but it may be limited in scope so they can secure 60 votes to break a Republican filibuster.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called the public option a "relative term" and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said "there is not one way to Rome, there are lots of ways to Rome."

"Remember, a public option is a relative term," Reid said. "There's a public option, there's a public option, and there's a public option. And we're going to look at each of them."

None of the leaders discussed the specifics of what a watered down public option would look like. Two versions have already been rejected by the Senate Finance Committee.

So, is this a case of a half a loaf being better than none or is it a case of taking a piece of crap and just calling it a loaf? Obviously, it's hard to say. Having an actual public option coming out of the Senate means that there will be a public option on the president's desk. They'll need to resolve differences between the House and Senate bills and the Senate's idea of what constitutes a public option could be strengthened by the House bill in conference committee. Remember, no matter what the Senate does, we're going to get a hybrid.

Still, this doesn't sound very good. A "relative term" suggests a fundamental redefiniton, which means it wouldn't be a public option at all, but some horseshit they want to sell as one. At this point, I guess we wait and see... That is, when we're not emailing and calling our Senators.

Griper Blade: Senate Committee for Sale

The Senate is often referred to as the "higher body." It's a genteel place of grace and wisdom, with every member a Cicero. The House of Representatives -- the "People's House" -- is a frat house by comparison. Or maybe a daycare center. When Reps are jumping up and down and freaking out, Senators rise above the fray and deal with the problems of the day with dignity and cooler heads. In the Senate, decisions are made after cool deliberation, based on reason and...

Pffft! I can't keep this up. It's fun for a while, but eventually you're laughing too hard to keep going. Yeah, there are a lot of thoughtful Senators who take their oath to the Constitution seriously, who believe that they have to work in the best interests of the people. But there are also a lot of whores who'll vote whichever way they're paid to. The best interests of the people be damned. Being a Senator is a pretty sweet gig, after all. The pay is good and you only have to run for reelection once every six years. In between, there's fundraising, but some have that all figured out. You can nickel and dime yourself to death with small donors and community organizations or you can go for the big score and save yourself a lot of time.

We can see this in the Democrats who voted against a public option on the Senate Finance Committee this week. The most liberal amendment offered by Chuck Schumer was defeated 15-8, with five Democrats defecting to vote against it. Of those five, all have received funding from the health industry -- to the tune of $19,219,860. That's a lot of fundraising dinners these guys get to skip... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]