;)
Wednesday
May212014
The Commentariat -- May 22, 2014
Internal links removed.
CW: I'm sitting in a McDonald's listening to old farts of the winger persuasion. I have not told a single one of them he was an ignorant asshole. Is there an award for forbearance? Or am I doing the wrong thing?
Reuters: "US House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday named the five members of her party who will serve on a special panel investigating the 2012 attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya...: Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee; Adam Smith of Washington, the senior Democrat on House Armed Services; Adam Schiff, a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Linda Sanchez of California, a Ways and Means Committee member; and Tammy Duckworth, of Illinois, who serves on the Armed Services Committee and is an Iraq war veteran." ...
... CW: As a commenter to the Reuters piece opines: "Bad move, Nancy--should have gone with Rep. Grayson's proposal to let him kamikazi the witch-hunt on his own."
There's No Free Lunch for Black People. Josh Marshall of TPM: "... the House GOP agriculture bill ... takes a small program intended provide meals to children in the school lunch program during the summer months and says it can now only be used to benefit kids in 'rural areas'. In other words, 'urban' kids are now out of luck." ...
... We Are All Strom Thurmond Now. CW: As contributor Ken W. remarked yesterday, "All pretense is gone." Republicans aren't just limiting their campaign appeals to white voters; they are actively & openly discriminating against blacks, Latinos & other "urban people."
An excellent -- & important -- commentary by Akhilleus in yesterday's thread on the GOP/Dubya record on veterans' services. ...
... Mark Thompson of Time adds more perspective. ...
... Adrianna McIntyre of Vox: "The failure of some states to expand Medicaid is leaving a quarter-million veterans without health insurance."
... A Pox on Both Your Houses. Brent Budowsky in the Hill: "It is inexcusable that the president said he learned about the VA crisis on television, sent his staff to tell Americans he is angry about the alleged deaths, let his press secretary dish ridiculous spin that the departure of a VA official who was already leaving represented accountability, and retreated into media seclusion on the matter until Wednesday. Republicans in Congress were no better. Every member of the House and Senate works on cases for veterans. Numerous committees have oversight duties they neglected. They, like the president, learned about this scandal from television. They, like the VA and White House staff, did nothing to prevent it. In a Congress that will be remembered for how many vacations it took, how little work it accomplished and how much taxpayer money Republicans misused investigating Democrats rather than veterans care...."
Julian Hattem & Kate Tummarello of the Hill: "The House is set to vote on a bill to curb surveillance programs at the National Security Agency on Thursday." ...
... Dustin Volz of the National Journal: "A day before the House will vote on a major bill designed to rein in government surveillance, a group of blue-chip tech firms are warning that the measure falls far short of what is advertised. The Reform Government Surveillance coalition -- whose members include Google, Facebook, Microsoft, AOL, Apple, Twitter, LinkedIn, DropBox, and Yahoo -- issued a statement Wednesday announcing it was pulling its support of the USA Freedom Act. The legislation would take the storage of phone records out of government hands and keep them with phone companies."
Ernesto Londoño of the Washington Post: "The United States has deployed 80 troops to Chad to augment efforts to find the Nigerian schoolgirls recently taken hostage, the White House announced Wednesday, a significant escalation of Washington's contribution to a crisis that has created global consternation."
Robert Barnes & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court halted on Wednesday night the execution of a Missouri death-row inmate who said he is afflicted with a rare condition that means lethal injection would be likely to cause him an unconstitutional degree of pain and suffering. In an unsigned opinion with no reported dissents, the justices sent the case back to lower courts for further consideration and left open whether there was a need for an evidentiary hearing. The three-sentence order gave no reason."
Robert Bateman of Esquire: Mothers Demand Action Against Gun Violence win a big one: Chipotle restaurants nationwide have banned guns from their restaurants. "These women are doing what nobody else had managed to do before now. They are actually affecting change.... [Chipotle founder Shannon] Watts has become a target, and a heroine.... Gun advocates (most who identify themselves as such are also NRA members) have threatened her life, they have threatened to rape her, they have threatened her family, and they have demonstrated their earnestness by showing up at her house. But she has not stopped, she has not quit, and she has not backed down."
Justin McCarthy of Gallup: "Americans' support for the law recognizing same-sex marriages as legally valid has increased yet again, now at 55%." See also Beyond the Beltway.
Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "A federal court has forced the US government to reveal that it has secretly recorded dozens of force-feedings of just one Guantánamo Bay detainee, raising the prospect that the military possesses a vast video library of a practice criticised as abusive. On Wednesday, a federal judge decreed that lawyers for that detainee can view hours of his videotaped force feedings, the first time a non-government official will be permitted to view the secret recordings."
Dennis Wagner of the Arizona Republic: "Since the FBI began under President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, agents have not only shunned the use of tape recorders, they've been prohibited by policy from making audio and video records of statements by criminal suspects without special approval. Now, after more than a century, the U.S. Department of Justice has quietly reversed that directive by issuing orders May 12 that video recording is presumptively required for interrogations of suspects in custody, with some exceptions."
Jesse Singal of New York: "... an important new paper soon to be published in American Psychologist argues that 'in present-day America, discrimination results more from helping ingroup members than from harming outgroup members.' In other words, racist outcomes can arise without much actual racism, simply through the very human tendency to help out people with whom you have something in common." ...
... CW: No surprise here. Decades ago studies showed that the only effect of the personnel interview ("Tell me something about yourself") was to make it much more likely that the person selected for the job had a lot in common with the interviewer. There a reason that "racist," "sexist," etc., go hand-in-hand with "narrow-minded"; many people just can't -- or won't try to -- see beyond their own limited orbit.
CW: Wherein Ta-Nehisi Coates demonstrates that he is living in a bubble as impenetrable as the Right Wing World reality shield. I know many of you will disagree with me, & that's fine. But the concept of reparations is crap. The discrimination Coates outlines is real, but his "solution" is nonsense. Will Coates contribute to reparations for me because women still receive unequal treatment? Or to you because ... whatever? Let's have a big reparations swap. I've linked the story only because it's the Atlantic's cover story, & people will discuss it.
Swiss Wrist, Slapped. John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... in eliciting a single guilty plea from Credit Suisse, didn't the Justice Department also have an obligation to hold its senior management to account? ... No senior executives have been charged, though." And the bank is carrying on with business as usual.
Jack Jenkins of Think Progress: "Pope Francis made the religious case for tackling climate change on Wednesday, calling on his fellow Christians to become 'Custodians of Creation' and issuing a dire warning about the potentially catastrophic effects of global climate change. Speaking to a massive crowd in Rome, the first Argentinian pope delivered a short address in which he argued that respect for the 'beauty of nature and the grandeur of the cosmos' is a Christian value, noting that failure to care for the planet risks apocalyptic consequences. 'Safeguard Creation,' he said. 'Because if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us! Never forget this!'" CW: Presents a conundrum for that good Catholic boy Marco of Planet Rubio, where people cannot change the climate & scientists are deemed to be morons.
AND thanks to contributor James S. for this. Dude. Max Cherney of Motherboard: "The FBI Says It Can't Find Hackers to Hire Because They All Smoke Pot."
Annals of Journalism, Ctd.
Joy Powell of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett was jailed Wednesday after being arrested in a bar at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Jarrett, who is a weekend co-anchor on the FOX News Channel, was arrested about 12:30 p.m. at Northern Lights Grill in the main terminal, said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission." CW: Hard drinking is a well-established journalists' tradition. Maybe Jarrett wishes he were a real journalist & really enjoys playing one on teevee.
"Clinton Allies Pressured Dems on Benghazi." Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico: "Hillary Clinton's world was so worried about a Republican investigation of the Benghazi attacks, they sent a message to House Democrats: We need backup. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) publicly considered boycotting the panel, an idea that Clinton supporters feared would leave the potential 2016 candidate exposed to the enemy fire of House Republicans. So Clinton emissaries launched a back channel campaign, contacting several House Democratic lawmakers and aides to say they'd prefer Democrats participate, according to sources familiar with the conversations. Pelosi's staff said they have not heard from Clinton’s camp." ...
... CW: Really? Exactly what piece of evidence do the reporters provide that "Clinton allies pressured Dems"? As far as I can tell, none. An actual journalistic enterprise would not publish a story based entirely on anonymous "Clinton emmissaries" in "Hillary Clinton's world." The story here is not about Clinton; it's about Politico's so-called editors. ...
... Update: Charles Pierce weighs in before guzzling antifreeze.
Congressional Races
Gail Collins has a hilarious take on Tuesday's primary results. Laughter may be the best remedy for coping with the sorry lot who aim to whack the poor, abolish the teaching of evolution, or whatever.
John Cassidy: "Unless something changes over the summer, the G.O.P. is likely to gain the six seats it needs to capture the Senate, which could well usher in a two-year standoff with the White House that would make the current gridlock look like a model of benign administration."
David Lightman of McClatchy News: "Women might be the Democrats' 2014 firewall, the force that holds back a Republican wave that appears to be building toward seizing control of the Senate. Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes and Georgia's Michelle Nunn won primaries Tuesday and are their states' Democratic U.S. Senate nominees, joining Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and other prominent Democratic women as competitive Senate candidates in pivotal battlegrounds."
Rebekah Sanders of the Arizona Republic: "Arizona police associations are calling on Republican Gary Kiehne to disband his campaign for Congress over remarks he made comparing police officers carrying out a wildfire evacuation to Nazi SS agents."
Kate Taylor & Megan Thee-Brenan of the New York Times: "Charles B. Rangel, the scandal-scarred Harlem congressman seeking a 23rd term in office, holds a modest but meaningful lead in his Democratic primary battle against State Senator Adriano D. Espaillat, a Dominican-American...."
Beyond the Beltway
Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Gov. Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania said Wednesday that he would not appeal a judge's ruling striking down Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage. With the decision, Pennsylvania became the 19th state, along with the District of Columbia, where same-sex couples are able to marry. Judge John E. Jones III of Federal District Court on Tuesday became the latest judge to throw out a series of state bans around the country, writing, 'It is time to discard them into the ash heap of history.'"
Jeremy Alford & Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "The Louisiana State Legislature on Wednesday passed a bill that could force three of the state's five abortion clinics to close, echoing rules passed in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas and raising the possibility of drastically reduced access to abortion across a broad stretch of the South."
Adam Serwer of NBC News: "The sense of inevitability surrounding same-sex marriage rights has turned the federal judiciary into something of an informal writing contest, with judges competing to write the most memorable ruling striking down state bans on same-sex marriage.
News Lede
New York Times: "The Thai military on Thursday launched a coup, declaring that it was 'necessary to seize power.' The head of the Thai Army, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, made the announcement on television flanked by senior military officers. The Thai news media reported that political officers who were attending a meeting called by the military had been detained. The coup came after the introduction of martial law on Tuesday and follows a long history of coups in Thailand."
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Reader Comments (21)
Akhilleus's post yesterday re: the veteran situation was indeed excellent revealing the hypocrisy of those that voted against methods that could have helped ease the bureaucracy and forgetting that the previous administration apparently didn't give a flying fuck about our 'brave men in uniform" once they came home bruised and damaged. My fear, however, is that this "scandal" will be another push for privatization ––"You see? Them socialist libruls can't run nothin right" as though management problems don't occur in private concerns. As with the rough implementation of the ACA with Obama seemingly kept in the dark about the "glitch" and now this revelation––which apparently is not a revelation––it begs one to ask whether information is deliberately kept from him or there are people in the W.H. who aren't doing their jobs––or both.
RE: The question whether Democrats should join the Benghazi circus: If we only sent Grayson in he'd be criticized by the right just as Cummings was for being "disruptive", "bombastic", "out of control", etc. If we had decided to protest the hearings THEY would have accused us of "not wanting to get at the truth." This way we have a fair amount of sane people who can and will call out the bull pucky and perhaps shut those bastards up for good. It's hard to know how to proceed with a party that sends in so many contumacious clowns in festive disguise.
Re: Somethin' the mackerel snappers on the Supreme Court need to listen to; Pope Francis; "'Safeguard Creation,' he said. 'Because if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us! Never forget this!'”
So if you are Catholic and by circumstance, a Supreme Court Justice, your leader-in-chief just told you to protect the environment at all costs. All costs being lost corporate profits. Not going to happen. Too bad.
PD,
Contumacious they certainly are. Laws and rules only appeal to the right as handy tools with which beat up others who refuse to go along with their 9th century view of the world and the overarching idée fixe that they, and only they, are fit to rule.
The clown part speaks for itself. But they are less of the Clarbell, Bozo type clowns and more the terrifying clowns of the Stephen King variety.
The VA mess is another instance of the trouble we all, but the Right especially, have with complex systems. After the hash Dubya's administration made of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and their predictable but wholly ignored aftermath, in part detailed yesterday by Akhilleus, Obama has managed to increase VA funding by about thirty percent. Unfortunately, during that same period the VA's burden has more than doubled, due to both the complicated medical and psychological problems those returning from the Mideast present and, I suspect, because those who served in Vietnam (my generation) are of an age to experience all those near-end-of-life conditions that burden our entire healthcare system, the VA included.
It would be refreshing to hear politicians cite the actual numbers of veterans who seek and need care, to put those numbers in historical context and to suggest we cannot possibly solve big problems without accurately defining them first. So far, I have not heard the problems the VA is having very well defined.
Of course, the Right doesn't want to define them at all. Not in real world terms anyway. That's why the Right and its reliance on denial or simple-mindedness (as PD says, it's socialism... or it's Obama) is a long-term dead end.
Unfortunately, I don't hear much more intelligent or useful responses from the Democrats either...Don't know if they don't get it either or if they just don't have the courage to speak the uncomfortable truths realistic analysis involves.
I'd hate to think our social systems have become so complicated, they're just befuddled, too.
Lynn Paramore at Alternet, calls attention to the latest issue of the conservative journal American Spectator, whose editors have decided that they have had just about all they can stand from the worthless, ungrateful rabble.
The truth is, right-wing oligarchs are heroes. But not just heroes. Victim-Heroes.
The astounding cover of this issue depicts an Uncle Pennybags like character, standing in for all the uber wealthy victim-heroes on the right who are being readied for the slaughter by the great unwashed.
And even more outrageously, those stinking hordes of poors are being led by....a Frenchman! The symbolism here could yield 20 pages of a graduate paper in political and social semiotics. So here we have the indignity of a masked executioner (Thomas Piketty?) holding aloft a blood-soaked copy of his book on Capital in the 21st century. The poor rich man is being dragged and manhandled by brutish thugs who probably haven't had a bath in god knows how long, being cheered on by a ruthless mob none of whom could produce a country club membership if their lives depended on it. Very likely none of them even own their own homes, never mind several and a few more vacation homes too many to keep track of. The poor man is being led to a guillotine, the blade of which is already dripping with the blood of previous rich martyrs, signifying all the other victimized one percenters whose heads have rolled.
Oh, the injustice of it all! And this on the verge of owning the entire country!
And the whole horrid spectacle is taking place on a platform decorated with American flag bunting which surely is being trampled under the poorly shod feet (not a bespoke shoe among them) of the ungrateful mob.
So, rich victims attacked by lazy rabble who don't have two nickels to rub together but hate the rich anyway, trampling the American flag and all at the behest of a French academician using the execution tool of choice for an earlier mob in France when they murdered all those nice rich people in the name of terror and called it Democracy. Let the head spinning commence.
But, according to Lynn Paramore, "It is the rich who have made war against the 99 percent, not the other way around. They have dumped the tax burden onto the rest of us. They have shredded our social safety net and attacked our retirements. In their insatiable greed, they refuse even to consider raising the minimum wage for people who toil all day and can’t earn enough to feed their children. And they do everything in their power to block as many people from the polls as possible who might protest these conditions, while crushing the unions and any other countervailing forces that could fight to improve them."
So why the outrageous depiction of the ultra rich as poor victims being led to the slaughter?
"People in America are under attack daily. The greedy rich know it, because they are the ones doing the attacking...And somewhere behind the gates of their private communities and the roped-off ares...they fear that the aggression may one day be turned back."
Just the fact that a supposedly serious publication would use a cover more fit for Mad Magazine is just one more indication of how far removed from reality these people have strayed. Another page in their "Fantasies for Wingnuts" magnum opus.
Let them eat cake.
A few observations about the VA:
-- Last month I received a letter from the VA, suggesting that I join the VA health system. I have no idea why they would be soliciting business given their current caseload, unless VA is concerned that some vets may be unaware of their eligibility and so VA is reaching out. I did not take up the offer.
-- Had I done so, I can only imagine that it would have taken some time for me to be categorized in the VA system. I have no service disability, but even so VA would have to create a file on me, while it is also trying to accommodate new applicants who do have service-related claims. Workload goes up.
-- When I left active duty in 1971, and was going into the reserves, I had to have a session with an Army (not VA) doctor to identify possible service-connected medical problems. He told me to list any defect I had, no matter what. Moles, warts, dandruff, jumpy at the sound of backfires, etc. I did, and ten minutes later he said "nope, none of these are service-connected," signed the form, and my "claims" had been considered and closed. It was efficient. If I were being discharged today and claimed PTSD, or agent orange exposure (to which I got a LOT of exposure in 69-70), that Army doc could not close my case, but it would have to go to the VA. And even if VA disallowed it, I could appeal forever. So, a good part of the VA's disability case management today is that it is dealing with many claims it can't close, even if case managers would deny the claim on the face of the merits. I'm not saying there are a lot of fraudulent applications -- just that the process now is much more drawn out in an effort to ensure vets don't get sidelined.
-- I read a comment from a vet the other day, that there are a lot of vets who when on active duty concealed medical problems in order to maintain their duty availability. He said pilots were the worst. Then, at discharge, when they try to document disabilities, they have no history from their service records, and have to support their claims from scratch. That can take a long time, and requires them to document problems in both the disability and the medical systems.
-- I have vet acquaintances, some of whom have disabilities, who are eligible for high quality, reasonable cost employer's insurance, but who choose to use the VA even though it is less convenient (you have to go to the VA location, rather than a doc a mile away.) Their logic is (a) it is REALLY inexpensive and (b) once you are in the system, you are in a total care system ... which is really important to people who have suffered combat trauma.
The VA care system has always had capacity and workforce problems, but it is much better now than it has ever been, and is dealing with volumes and types of problems that are staggering. They can do better, but they should not be whipped on for doing what they can with what they've got.
And I am very glad I don't need to burden them with my healthcare; let them focus on the folks who really need it.
But ... there are days when some of the news in RC makes me feel that ol' PTSD comin' on ... or maybe that's just creeping crotchetiness.
@Patrick: Thanks for your comment, but it confused me. I understood that the VA would accommodate any veteran for any illness & that the condition need not be service-related.
My father was a WWII vet, & tho he had one minor service-related claim (which the VA treated him for in the 1950s), he spent his last days in a VA hospital -- where he got excellent care -- for an illness completely unrelated to his military service. He had been a federal employee, so he also had Blue Cross thru the federal employees association & maybe Medicare (or the fed. employees' equivalent), plus special federal coverage for a condition he had, so it wasn't an either-or situation where he had to give up his other coverage if he accepted VA health benefits.
I know the Congress has given different benefits to veterans of different wars. Are Viet Nam vets not eligible for VA health care for non-service-related conditions? I vaguely (and therefore likely inaccurately) recall that Nam vets didn't get some benefits that WWII & Korean vets got but that later Congress extended wider benefits to vets of Nam & later wars.
In short, I don't quite understand why you shouldn't be eligible for VA coverage. (I'm not trying to pry here or to influence what personal decisions you make; I'm just, as I said at the top, confused by your comment.)
Marie
Akhilleus,
And those Founder worshipers on the Right conveniently forget (oh, so much) that without the happy circumstance of the prolonged English/French conflict that prompted the French military aid we received at Yorktown (I believe French troops outnumbered our homegrown soldiers at that pivotal battle), not to mention the millions they lent us to finance our War of Independence along the way, there would be no American flags for the unwashed hordes to trample...We'd be Tories all, not just the Tories who support, write for and edit the American Spectator, a journal I haven't read for years but remember as a fit home for ne'er-do-well intellectual snobs seeking a platform upon which to display their natural superiority--to anyone (yawn) who cares.
@Patrick: Actually, the Vox story I just linked helped explain your comment. According to Adrianna McIntyre, "... a veteran must have served for two continuous years or the full period for which they were called to active duty in order to be eligible. There are some exceptions — like for individuals who were discharged for a disability sustained in the line of duty — but about 1.3 million veterans remain uninsured nationwide."
Marie
Hoax causes cities and towns to go broke!
Now I know you're thinking, "That Akhilleus. Here he goes again. How can something that doesn't exist cost money?"
(I'd be tempted to respond that we pay Republican congress people for work we never see....but that dilutes my point...)
Well, according to Minnesota Public Radio and the Washington Post, Farmers Insurance is suing the City of Chicago for payouts related to something that conservatives swear on stacks of bibles does not exist: climate change.
“During the past 40 years, climate change in Cook County has caused rains to be of greater volume, greater intensity and greater duration than pre-1970 rainfall history evidenced,” a fact that local governments were well aware of, a suit filed in Cook County, Ill., alleges, citing a climate change action plan adopted in 2008 that acknowledges the link between climate change and increased rainfall."
So it looks like insurance companies believe in climate change. If it costs money, it must be real. Or at least worthy of pulling our heads out of the conservative sand pile long enough to consider it.
So take that Pat Sajak.
For those of you who are unaware, game show host Pat Sajak is attacking those who think climate change is real. Somehow, according to ol' Pat, belief in climate change is the mark of an unpatriotic racist. I know, I know. Don't ask me. I don't have a clue what the fuck that means either. He also reminds everyone that "weather is not climate, moron."
Well gee, Pat, that's what we've been saying for years to those on your side who claim that snow in March is sure fire evidence that there's no such thing as global warming. Weather.Is.Not.Climate.
Der.
Okay Pat, here's your chance to win a trip to beautiful, soon to be submerged, Miami Beach.
You asked for an "I". Great! Spell this word and you win: _D_OT
It's all fun and games until it starts costing money.
Just think of the conservative conniption fits when they get hit with a city and county Climate Change Preparation Tax. Hoo boy.
Marie, sorry to confuse. Yes, of course I am eligible to enroll in the VA medical system, without a service disability, and would not have to drop other coverage to do so. And I have no service disability ... but if I walked in and said "Agent Orange," even after forty years, VA would have to process a disability claim (which is a separate process from just enrolling in VA medical.) I know two guys in my Viet Nam unit who did that (after 30 years), and the claims were upheld, with stipend.
Eligibility for benefits (such as education, survivor benefits, etc.) does vary among periods and by type (e.g., draft, regular, reserve, NG) of service, and some (education) are not available after a period of time. It is a long and variable list. But a vet can always walk in to a VA clinic and ask for medical help, and get it ... but as we see in the news, a problem is the time lag involved for new entrants, especially those not coming right off active service.
But, I am not an expert. One of my goals in life has been to never wake up in a VA hospital. So far, so good. Knock wood.
Ken,
And not to forget that two charter members of the Founders' Club, John Adams and Ben Franklin (and one future president, J.Q. Adams), spent considerable time in France working the powers that be to support the revolution, and just as you say, had it not been for the French blockade during the siege of Yorktown, Cornwallis could have skeedaddled and lived to fight another day.
My favorite story of the surrender is that of the fiddle tune played by pipers as Cornwallis sat in his tent, too ashamed to meet Washington and Lafayette face to face. They played "The World Turned Upside Down".
And so it had, thanks in no small part, to la belle France.
Try tellin' that to wingnuts, and they won't believe ya.
Good news for New Hampshire residents (especially new ones) who aren't fans of a certain carpetbagging, pickup driving, racist beefcake boy newly transplanted from the Bay State where a professorial type kicked his ass around the state and back a few times.
A poll conducted by Mary Cheney's new company, Vox Populi, finds Senator Jeanne Shaheen giving Brown another ass kicking. Little Scotty (Indian war whoop) Brown was only able to muster 35% to Shaheen's 47. And this is a poll conducted by a company designed to help Republicans. Even worse, when asking registered Republicans who they'd vote for, 13% went for peripatetic whackadoodle Bob Smith, former US Rep and NH senator. 28% were undecided. Brown corralled only 38% of those voters.
Koch cash will be pouring in any day now.
Bad news for Brown. Good news for America.
About interacting with rightwing assholes. Usually, I don’t bother. But sometimes one has to, and when I sense I’m so obliged, I try to be patronizing and condescending, saying inane things like “How nice for you” and “I’ll bet you’ve spent a lot of time researching that.” I think of it as pouring syrup on them.
My last angry confrontation with a winger occurred in a liquor store in a blood-red part of Florida just after the French declined Dubya’s invitation to join him in the Iraqi sandbox. As the guy in front of me in the checkout line paid his bill and picked up his package, he turned to me and said, for no apparent reason: “I’ll never buy French wine again! Take that, Chirac!”
I hadn’t planned on responding, but I couldn’t help myself. “That’s about the dumbest fucking thing I’ve heard in a long time,” I said. His face turned as red as the voting precinct, and he stormed out. The clerk shrugged and started checking out my booze.
James,
He no doubt had to rush home to smash his Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel records. That'll show 'em. Probably cancelled his subscription to Paris Match as well. Bloody French.
Ak: My guesses were/are he had no idea who Piaf and Brel were, and had probably never bought a bottle of French wine in his life... which was the spark that set me off. I've often wished that instead of "a long time" I had the presence of mind to say "since the 7th grade."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/05/20/after-the-wars-cold-calculations/?wpisrc=nl%5Feve
This story gives one reason why this won't be fixed soon. IMO, Bush and Congress are largely to blame for getting us into wars that resulted in thousands pouring into a system that couldn't handle the "surge." As Joseph Steiglitz, et al, estimated, these wars are going to cost over a trillion dollars when you factor in veterans' care. General Shinseki warned them before we went into Iraq. Did the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Wolfowitiz cabal listen? Hell no! Do I think General Shinseki should resign. Also hell no! Has Congress appropriated what it's going to take? No. And for the first time in our history, we cut taxes, instead of raising them. Earth to Shrub: wars cost a lot.
I'm sure some will start to beat the privatization drum. What system would even come close to absorbing the numbers we're talking about.
The VA is already contracting out some functions out, such as evaluating for service-connected disabilities. If there's a medical college near, the VA collaborates with them.
This mess won't be solved next week, next month, or next year, no matter who you put in charge.
As for me, since I'm 100% disabled and get most my care from the VA, I have few complaints. I never thought I would need the VA until ALS intervened at the age of 67. My care costs a lot. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands.
Barbarossa,
History offers legions of stories about monarchies and parliamentary governments forced to find ways to pay for their foreign adventures. Pretty much every leader in history (except the truly insane) have had to do the same.
Among the few who have not had to balance the books is our very own Alfred E. (What, Me Worry?) Neuman, George W. (The Decider) Bush who believed that his wars would be paid by the blue fairies floating around his head. Or money we'd save by letting blah people die in terrible storms.
So, I'd like to share with my brothers and sisters out here in reality land, the sound I heard in my head every time this stupid fucking simpleton opened his yap:
Hey! It's me! The Decider! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha,
No, Patrick. Agent Orange is "stipulated." Go to the VA. Register for Agent Orange. ANY listed complication (look online) from AO exposure is treated for free.
No SC needed. No paperwork. Just go.
" My care costs a lot. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands," says B. above. Two of these hundreds of thousands are that brother in Wisconsin you all are so fond of hearing about––served in the Army while stationed in Germany during the sixties, bought a snazzy auto and drank a lot of beer with lovely fräuleins. He has been using the VA system for his health care ever since. Also my older son who served in the Army during the eighties stationed in Italy running a radio station. He, too, has been using the VA system for his health care. And both tell me they never have trouble getting appointments and are pleased with their care.
The brother is in Wisconsin and the son is here in Ct. Unlike Patrick who has opted for different insurance there are obviously many like my brother and son, (neither have disabilities from their service) who get treated for years by this system, so it makes sense that it becomes bogged down by our recent veterans that come back with all the problems they come back with.
I think B. is right–-this mess is going to take years to solve.
@Patrick: Victoria is right. There's a whole program devoted to Agent Orange at the VA. There are diseases attributed to Agent Orange. Getting on the registry is really easy. It took me about an hour.
Get to the VA.