ALAN BOCK: Dems Likely To Torpedo Obamacare. “Over the weekend at the National Governors Association, it was Democratic governors publicly expressing concern that Congress is talking about expanding Medicaid as part of insuring the uninsured. The costs of Medicaid, designed for a relatively small slice of the poor, are shared by the feds (57%) and the states. Besides the fact that Medicaid is hardly a model of administrative perfection, governors are concerned that even though some versions have the feds covering new enrollees for 3-5 years, they’ll get stuck with yet another unfunded mandate from the feds.” Phil Bredesen is among those worried, and he ought to know.
Archive for 2009
July 22, 2009
ANN ALTHOUSE: “The Democrats have dumped a drastic, complicated health care bill on us and they are ramming it through before we can even figure it out. That’s what matters, not the fact that the party out of power is squawking about it.”
TECHNOLOGY MARCHES ON: Stone-age innovation explains ancient population boom. “Thirty-five thousand years before nanotechnology became a buzzword, a different kind of diminutive innovation transformed India. The advent of stone microblades set the stage for the subcontinent’s explosive population growth, new research suggests. The easy-to-manufacture tools – also known as microliths – were a vast improvement over larger stone flake tools used previously, says Michael Petraglia, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford, UK, who led the study. Because microblades could be cut from stone more quickly and in higher volumes than flakes, hunting probably became a vastly more efficient endeavour.”
JOHN ONDRASIK (Five For Fighting) has a new single out called “Chances.” You can get it on iTunes here, or hear it at his website. He’s a cool guy — we talked to him here. (Bumped).
ARE PEOPLE WRONG ABOUT THE HEALTHCARE BILL’S death counseling provision? “Advance Care Planning Consultations are not compelled, required, or mandated.”
HOPE AND CHANGE SAME! “Obama White House breaks another promise to reject Bush secrecy.”
ROGER KIMBALL: Unseemly Haste, Thy Name is Obama. “Sure, he got the dough. But the rumble you’ve been hearing in the background are doubts congregating. Any real stimulus does–what? It stimulates. And what has the President’s ‘stimulus’ (really, a spending) package given us (apart from higher taxes coming to a paycheck near you, I mean)? Take your time . . .”
Not everything is a rush, though: Obama Administration Misses $100 Million Cut in 90 Days Deadline. It’s just the spending that has to be done in a hurry.
July 21, 2009
STARVING VS. STUFFING THE BEAST. There is a school — you might call it “Leninist Libertarianism” after Lenin’s “the worse, the better” — that suggests the best thing to do is to give the big-spenders their head until they bring the whole system down in a financial collapse that will force the reorganization of government along smaller lines. My question is, how likely is it to work out that way? I imagine somebody was probably holding forth along those lines in a Weimar-Republic cafe somewhere . . . .
MORE TEA PARTY PROTESTS IN ARIZONA THIS WEEKEND. These things are happening all over, under the media radar.
CHRIS MATTHEWS takes on the Birthers.
POPULAR RESISTANCE: Cardin Town Hall Meeting On Health Care Gets Angry.
Kinda like with Russ Carnahan. “These are ‘Tea Party’ folks. Following the advice they have received on the Internet, they are finding their voices in public forums like this. I would guess that Congressmen are not used to being laughed at and challenged by members of the audience in these forums. Right now they are trying to determine if these are few malcontents or if it’s more than that. The point is that it does not take a majority to make a movement. The majority in any society is always going to be busy with other things. But they may well be sympathetic … the sea in which the activists swim.”
Read the whole thing, which predicts some responses. And note this: “Success will feed on itself.”
UPDATE: Charges of racism? Carnahan Dismisses Black Man At Town Hall.
Related thoughts here. “Expect more counter-protests. The organization formerly known as ACORN – and its ilk – will no doubt look at McCaskill’s apology as a canary in the coalmine of sorts…”
BILL HARWOOD: Astronomers Study “Gargantuan” Jupiter Impact. “Over the next few days and weeks, the Hubble Space Telescope, other space-based telescopes, and observatories around the world will focus on the impact site to learn as much as possible about what might have hit Jupiter and how the impact affected the planet’s atmosphere.”
Now Jupiter is bigger and farther out than Earth, so it’s likely to get hit more often. But we’ve been watching it seriously for about 50 years, and we’ve seen two major impacts. What does that suggest about the risk to Earth?
UPDATE: Reader Dale Osborn writes: “So, Jupiter’s role in the solar system is to be the Big Hoover, vacuuming up most of the big rocks that could head Earth’s way. It’s like Someone designed the solar system that way.” Well, but sometimes it slingshots ’em our way, too . . . .
INDEED: “A rule we can rely on to be unfailingly applied is this: No matter how much the government controls the economic system, any problem will be blamed on whatever small zone of freedom that remains.” Hey, people don’t go into politics to take the blame for their own mistakes . . . .
IT’S NOT A GREAT DEAL: Netbooks tied to wireless data plans.
STILL MORE ON THOSE Inspector-General scandals.
IT’S STILL NOT TOO LATE to submit your questions for tomorrow night’s PJTV health care forum.
FIVE FUTURE ACHIEVEMENTS THAT COULD TOP THE MOON LANDING.
JOHN TIERNEY: KENNETH CHANG: The Future of NASA? Once Again, Obama Says Nothing.
TSUNAMI RISK FOR WEST COAST higher than expected.
REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.
PJTV: California Screaming: Why The Political Class Is Blaming Citizens for the Cash Crunch. With Matt Welch.
HOPE AND CHANGE: A glimpse from the shiny, happy future.