December 2009 archive

Open Thread

“You have to begin somewhere” I remember somebody telling me that when I first started lifting weights in a gym. (Not much weight on the bar, you see. IIRC, there was actually no weight on the bar.) However, it’s true in a lot of areas – like all of them.

So, even though I’m not a Democrat, I’m trying to help jeffroby get the ‘Full Court Press’ going for Dems. (I expect I’ll try and help Republicans get their version  going, if I can find any Republican-leaning citizens who are interested). Because we all have to start somewhere, and complaining in the blogosphere and petitioning those in power don’t seem very effective, we need to truly dump sellout Congress critters.

Chris Bowers has wisely advised us to do things correctly, legally speaking, so I sent an email to a lawyer I had retained, who I knew was a Democrat and seemed like a very good guy, overall. What follows is a modified, de-personalized version, that has a lot of links which will be useful for telling friend, family, and even strangers about the new group.

Chief executives of the largest U.S. banks acknowledged Monday the “disconnect” between their expressed support for re-regulating financial markets and the work of their lobbyists to weaken any new rules.

In later comments, one CEO elaborated as follows:

There’s a yawning chasm between what we say and what we do.  It’s unconscionable.

How big is this disconnect?  Well, say you had a choice between measuring it in angstroms or light years…take a guess!

It’s absolute, two-faced hypocrisy.

Let me give you an example: On one hand I’ve got Barney Frank’s balls in a vise, which I guess is why he’s always raising his eyebrows at everything we say, and on the other I’m drawing upon every inch of will power not to burst out laughing in the President’s face when he asks us to comply with greater lending and restraining our bonuses.  I mean, he can’t be serious.  And we know he’s not.  That’s what makes it so hard not to laugh.  Remember how Tim Conway used to crack-up Harvey Korman when he’d go off script?  God forbid that Lloyd Blankfein starts busting up, because it’s contagious, ya know?  That man is a riot.  The White House publicly said Blankfein showed contempt for the President in refusing to come to the last meeting, but privately they asked him not to come because of that comment about “doing God’s work.”  He even had the President laughing his guts out with that one.  And the President knows that’s no way to run a meeting to dress down us “fat cat bankers.”  I loved how the Wall Street journal played up the meeting as a no amenities, all business and brass tacks sort of thing: “The executives were served glasses of water — and nothing else -” as if we’re not milking it for all it’s worth, but that’s just Axelrod’s attention to detail. The President himself is damned good at keeping a straight face, but I’ve $300 million bucks that says we’re gonna make him laugh again, with or without Lloyd.

While everyone is talking about health care, there are some definite winners in the health care debate: the Indianapolis Colts.

13-0 this season, playing in Jacksonville as I type, the Indianapolis players are winning the health care debate of “do we sit our players or not”?

They aren’t (so far), and, they are winning the game.

We kept hearing about Triggers and State Opt-Ins and State Opt-Outs … for the Public Option. Its time to move an amendment to the Individual Mandate that triggers it, with an Opt-Out. Note that these can be split into two Amendments, as the Opt-Out works with or without the Trigger.

(1) The Individual Mandate is triggered when everyone subject to the Mandate in a state has available to them insurance from a not-for-profit entity, and excluding all entities owned by for-profit entities, at a premium after any public subsidy of less than 5% of their annual income.

(2) Before the Individual Mandate can come into force in any state, a measure approving the individual mandate must be placed on the ballot in the next Federal general election, and the mandate must obtain a simple majority of votes cast.

This is a diary touting a diary on DKOS called No One is Going to Save You Fools”. A big thank-you to thereisnospoon.

Some exerpts.

I’m what they call a Qualitative Research Consultant, or QRC for short.  Here’s my website.  There’s even a whole association of us who meet regularly to discuss ideas and tactics.  Together with the AAPC, the MRA, the AMA, ESOMAR, and a whole host of other organizations you’ve never heard of, we have more power and control than you know.  We’re extremely good at what we do, and we do it all behind the scenes, appealing to and manipulating your subconscious brain in ways that your conscious brain has little to no control over.