Tainted Saints

“The pivotal Senate Finance Committee was poised to approve sweeping legislation Tuesday requiring nearly all Americans to purchase insurance and ushering in a host of other changes to the nation’s $2.5 trillion medical system.

Much work would lie ahead before a bill could arrive on Obama’s desk, but action by the Finance Committee would mark a significant advance, capping numerous delays as Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., held marathon negotiating sessions — ultimately unsuccessful — aimed at producing a bipartisan bill.

Four other congressional committees acted before August to pass health legislation, so for months all eyes have been on the Finance Committee, the remaining one. It’s also the panel whose moderate makeup most closely resembles the Senate as a whole. And the committee’s centrist legislation is seen as the best building block for a compromise plan that could find favor on the Senate floor.”

“The US believes this is not the time to impose more sanctions against Iran as part of its push to get the country to end its nuclear programme.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, emphasised co-operation with Moscow on the atomic issue in statements on Tuesday after talks with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.”

“There are plenty of rational reasons to disapprove of the Obama administration. There are plenty of curious policy decisions in his history already and he has already drawn plenty of real ideological lines in the sand that people looking to whine about something could whine about, if they so chose.

But instead of that, the opponents of Barack Obama seem determined to make a villain out of him almost solely on the basis of his completely innocent and irrelevant behaviors. Instead of bitching at him for things like giving away billions of dollars via his Public-Private Investment Program — a natural rallying cry for conservatives, you would think — they’re constantly getting on his balls about stuff that has no relevance to anything at all, much less the conservative-liberal divide. It’s almost as though the haters have an emotional attachment to the notion of Obama as being guilty of and responsible for everything, from bad weather to the lack of good movies outside of District 9 to the flattening out of Brandon Webb’s sinker.”

I would just argue that it’s incumbent on not just the gay community, but all Americans, to demand repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

“…I have two brothers serving in the military and as far as I’m concerned, when an Arabic translator is kicked out of the military for being gay, it quite literally makes my brothers and our troops less safe. For me, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell isn’t just an equality issue. It is also a national-security issue…”

” “It seems like the Obama team through FEMA has come in with a whole new attitude that says, ‘Let’s cut through the red tape so we can get to building,’” said New Orleans City Council president Arnie Fielkow.

The administration’s August announcement of a new arbitration process could be a turning point for stalled health, school, road, public safety and environmental work.

Still, even as Obama pushes for a health care overhaul in Congress, there’s a struggle in New Orleans to get federal funds for building a much-needed public hospital. Louisiana leaders are also working to prevent the federal government from cutting $700 million from the state’s Medicaid funds after hurricane recovery payments artificially spiked the state’s per capita income.

Much remains to be done… “

“I was dismayed when I heard Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize. A shock, really, to think that a president carrying on wars in two countries and launching military action in a third country (Pakistan), would be given a peace prize. But then I recalled that Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Kissinger had all received Nobel Peace Prizes. The Nobel Committee is famous for its superficial estimates and for its susceptibility to rhetoric and empty gestures, while ignoring blatant violations of world peace…”

Read more…

The Senate Judiciary Committee rejected  most “proposed changes to surveillance laws sought by civil liberties and privacy advocates,” and sent the bill to the Senate yesterday.

“The first provision that would be renewed under the bill allows investigators to get “roving wiretap” court orders authorizing them to follow a target who switches phone numbers or phone companies, rather than having to apply for a new warrant each time.

The second such provision allows the F.B.I. to get a court order to seize “any tangible things” deemed relevant to a terrorism investigation — like a business’s records of what kinds of products various customers have purchased.

The final provision set to expire is called the “lone wolf” provision. It allows the F.B.I. to get a court order to wiretap a terrorism suspect who is not connected to any foreign terrorist group or foreign government.”

Apparently, how this would work is that some form of the public option passes (I think that’s a critical point, because we still don’t know what they’re referring to now when they say “public option”), but voters in states that strongly object to it (read: the people who would probably benefit most from the public option, but have been thoroughly snowed by right-wing talk radio, Glenn Beck, and their idiot representatives in Congress) could vote their state out of it. Crazy, but maybe the only way now to get something done.

In a stunning announcement, President Obama was awarded the prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” But  given that he hasn’tcome close to establishing peace anywhere on Earth, and frankly, doesn’t appear to even be trying at this point, isn’t this really because he’s not George W. Bush, and the rest of the world is just SO relieved about that…?

The full Finance committee is scheduled to vote on the bill next Tuesday, which is backed by Republican Senator Olympia Snowe. In addition to scorning the public option, the bill also doesn’t “…allow Medicare to use its bargaining power to negotiate lower drug prices, or adequately subsidize millions of middle-class families who will be required to buy health insurance that will be hard for them to afford. In short, it’s a great deal for private insurers and Big Pharma but not such a great deal for middle-class Americans.”