Kausfiles: A mostly political weblog.

Orszagism or Nothing

23. Which comes closest to your view? 1. The U.S. needs to fix its health care system now as part of fixing the overall economy. Or 2. Because of the state of the economy, the U.S. cannot afford to fix its health care system right now.

 
Unless you want to be a heartless Republican (2) you have to buy not only the basic Orszagist argument the health care reform is the key to solving the deficit problem but the broader argument that it's the key to fixing the entire economy? What if you just think it's something we should do and that we can afford to pay for? ... No wonder respondents were so confused by the poll's barrage of nonsensical, tedious, and guilt inducing questions ("are [health care reforms] confusing to you?") that when the big question (#41) about whether they supported Obama's health plans finally arrived, CBS and the Times managed to produce an unprecedentedly huge number who said they "don't know enough"--47%--rendering the poll basically useless. Congratulations! ... The Paranoid View: For the Times, it was less risky to have a useless poll than one that actually measured where health care stands with voters. ....

Update: Several emailers point out that conservative and libertarian plans to "fix" health care also fall into the poll's vast excluded middle--at least if they aren't necessary for fixing the overal economy or don't have to be done now, but are nevertheless considered affordable. And if you don't think health care needs a "fix" at all--well, you're a total unperson as far as question 23 goes.
 
**--They've asked this question twice before, in July. Doesn't make it any less stupid. ... 2:34 A.M.

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Fish Out of Water Uncomfortable in Own Skin! Beck seems phony here, no?*** Something creepily inauthentic about him. ...

***--Except 2/3 of the way through, when he says he's never heard of kf. ... [Thanks to alert reader H.] 2:40 A.M.

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Pelosi Has a Point About Violence

Is retiring Ohio Republican Senator George Voinovich the real Olympia Snowe--i.e. the GOP vote that will get health care reform through the Senate? His Ohio colleague Sherrod Brown suggests as much today. There's a ready-made Vandenberg-like MSM legacy for Voinovich if he does. ... The notion could also be textbook Dem wishful thinking--see what Voinovich told The Note. ['Wishful' like notion that Specter would switch parties and endorse a "card check" deal--ed Yes, exactly like that.]. ... 3:05 P.M.

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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Looks like the Law of Curated Humor--which holds that whenever the MSM offers up examples of celebrated wit, they will not be funny--extends to Twitter. ... 2:46 A.M.

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I hate to say it,** but doesn't Nancy Pelosi have a point when she worries about a rhetorical "climate" in which violence might take place? A few years ago, I fretted that crazies on the angry left might turn violent. These days, I've heard enough scary stories from conservative friends to justify worrying about the angry right. It only takes one or two people to make a mess, and the way opposition to Obama is phrased will obviously have something to do with how many, if any, nutters come out of the woodwork. Glenn Beck, the recent times I've listened to him, puts his Obama criticism in an apocalyptic framework--as if Obama is staging some sort of coup-- that might seem to justify violence (despite Beck's own disclaimers) if you happened to be a very disenchanted person with weapons lying around.

Righteously denouncing Beck only enhances his appeal, of course--better to deal with "root causes." But Pelosi's hardly crazy to worry. ...
 
**-- It's way more fun to mock Pelosi. ... 2:40 A.M.

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Orszagism Lives!

"The larger the bill is, the more it's going to save. ..."

-- Democratic Sen. Benjamin Cardin, quoted in WaPo about health care reform in the days before Obama's big speech. 

2:38 A.M.

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They're Just Baiting Glenn Beck with This One

National Public Radio fights back against the old accusation that if you scratch its surface you'll find a bunch of government-subsidized leftists. From the Sept. 11 "All Things Considered":

MELISSA BLOCK, host: This week, a Web site called FiLife.com launched a Twitter contest to reduce policy on how to fix health care to a mere three words. Some entries so far...

ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Promote Healthy Living and Eat an Apple are two examples.

[snip]

SIEGEL: Our staff made up some three-word policy proclamations: Doctors Make Less and Cuban Health Care. ...

[E.A.] 6:23 P.M.

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Joe Wilson: Controlled implosion? ... P.S.: And where was Kanye West that evening, I ask you? ...  6:24 P.M.

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@kausfiles--Does the Right Resent Glenn Beck?

Amplified and edited entries from the kausmickey Twitter feed. ... Just don't call them "curated."

My friends on the Right don't like Glenn Beck either. In private, they say he's a careerist phony. about 15 hours ago

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I don't think the last line of this Andrew Sullivan post will make Bartlett's http://bit.ly/2EtsLJ12:17 AM Sep 11th  

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The 'M' Word! "Did that clerk just call you 'ma'am'?" Subtle anti-Boxer shot in Mitsubishi Lancer ad before KCAL scandal report video? http://bit.ly/hcwa6 1:44 PM Sep 9th  

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Is Tom Wilson--who produced Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray" et al--wildly undersung or did he just preside and not do that much? 3:52 AM Sep 9th

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Poor L.A., off in its own little corner of Chris Wilson's News Dots news map. http://bit.ly/d2reS That's sure how it feels to us out here! 11:13 AM Sep 8th

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Even Van Jones' friend Arianna says, after talking to him and presumably getting his side of the story, that "it was stupid of Van to put his name on a very stupid '9/11 Truth Statement.' " 1:06 AM Sep 8th     

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Note to Slate ad corps: Wouldn't a 3 sec. ad that made you like H-P be better than a 10-15 sec. screen-hog ad that made you hate H-P? 11:29 PM Sep 7th     

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Got new ish of Automobile. Have a) glossy car mags gotten dull, or b) do opinionated blogs like Truth About Cars just make them seem dull? It's not only (b)! When these magazines get desperate for ad dollars, as they are now, they become scared to exist. ... 10:10 PM Sep 7th

 4:58 P.M.

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