StephCaster's Comments (405)

“I don't see how using the power of the federal government to force people to buy private insurance without any cost control measures will "strange the insurance companies". Won't having a captive audience just encourage them to even greater extortion behavior?

The only thing more counterproductive would be to subsidize the payments of these forced-customers, giving insurance companies even MORE incentive to raise rates. Oh wait, that is part of the plan as well.”

“"It is quite enjoyable to read about a health care deal that doesn't involve what Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins or any other Republican whose agenda is to torpedo real reform wants."

True. It's just too bad that the agenda of Joe Leiberman, Blanche Lincoln, and Ben Nelson also is to torpedo real reform.”

“Shame of HP for the "Police shoot panhandler" teaser headline on the main page, implying that he was shot FOR panhandling. Police shot an armed gunman who opened fire on them: his "occupation" is irrelevant.”

“What scares me is Fiscal Boneheads trying to sell a do nothing approach to the financial collapse brought about by the Bush Administration do nothing approach. It makes as much sense as telling a diabetic that if they eat better they will not need insulin.”

“The problem is that too many of they worked on Wall Street or for investment banking firms. As president of Harvard University, a private business, Summers had plenty of "experience" -- at gambling with a huge endowment. Most mega-businesses had CEOs who did the same thing. Few of them would provide good economic leadership for the country.”

“Putting this man and his cronies in charge of economic policy was the worst Presidential mistake since Bush put Michael Brown in charge of FEMA (and left New Orleans to die).”

“His rationale keeps changing because he is a saboteur, a Republican in Democrat clothing. His real motive is to sandbag the Democratic party in order to give power back to his beloved Republicans.”

“If we wanted quick bad decisions, we could have made W king for life.”

“Hear that flushing sound? That's the sound of hope circling down the drain...”

“It is highly irresponsible for this article to bring up Terri Schiavo without also noting that her autopsy verified that she was indeed brain dead.

We should use science for better diagnosis: let's get it right. However, I am sure it is 100 times more common for families to falsely believe there is consciousness when there isn't any, then for them to be correct. False hope can be a cruel thing as well.”

“Has nothing to do with government policy. Actually it's Herbert Hoover's policy.”

“We elected a community organizer, but he morphed into an investment banker after he took the oath of office.”

“This reads like an Onion article. The Repugs have definitely sent in the clowns.”

“If you want a plain English answer to an economics question, from a perspective that takes social justice concerns seriously, try Dollars & Sense magazine. On their website, I found an article that answers your question:

www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0709miller.html

This article was written in 1995, so you can't use the actual figures, but it does describe how to do the calculating.

P.S. Kuttner's rag, American Prospect, is pretty good too (though less nuts and bolts).”

“Wow. I attended the first Who farewell tour in the early 1980s. I feel old.”

“Interesting, but you apparently have forgotten the other bit of military disinformation. Contrary to the story they initially told -- and stood by for hours -- the gunman was not killed. He's alive, and will survive (until his execution anyways).”

“The several separate acts of disinformation perpetrated by the military in this instance are hard to account for. They apparently put out stories that they knew to be false (how can you not know the suspect you have in custody is alive, not dead?) -- and knew would later be shown to be false. That is, they could not possibly either have believed the falsehoods they were broadcaster, nor could they reasonably expect the lies to hold up.

Perhaps experiments in disinformation is a goal in itself. Testing the waters to see what they can get away with, so that -- when there is a need to tell a big lie -- they have experience in perpetrating it.

The classic example from the Reagan era was the time the US Navy shot down an Iranian airliner, killing everyone on board. The U.S. military put out a completely false initial story that the plane was on an attack vector, with no transponder. This story was at odds with all evidence, but dominated the headlines for the 2-day attention span of the media. Then the Navy retracted the story.

(For a good summary of what actually happened: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655)”

“Thanks for dredging up inconvenient history. I'm sick of the "no one could have anticipated" defense: lots of people anticipated the consequences of financial deregulation. (Go to the library and read an issue of The Nation or Dollars & Sense magazine from the time, for example.) But the faith-based economic-religion of the free-marketeers will never bother with the historical record of unregulated capitalism.

And most of the politicians who are not that stupid are engaging in premeditated theft. Sadly, they know they will never pay for their crimes. John McCain, the ringleader of the Keating 5 who caused the Savings and Loan collapse and bail out, could run for President last year, and never even have the subject brought up by the mainstream media.”

“"lack of legal skills will besmear her" ... You might even say her legal skills are "hacky" -- then you have a poem.”

“"Outside of paying attention to her own voice at length, Orly Taitz has the attention span of a small child."

I think we have found Sarah Palin's running mate (and certainly her soul mate)!”

“The "inadvertent" part was the getting caught.”

“The author presents no evidence that the Conservadems or Republidem Leibermann would accept such a "compromise". This seems to be an exercise in wishful thinking.”

“Reagan's unintended "contribution" was to sharply accelerate the militarization of both the USSR and USA economy. This crippled BOTH countries. It was a mortal wound to both economies, but the fragile USSR succumbed much more quickly. The damage to the USA is still playing out.

The real heroes of this story were the European peace movements (West and East). They championed a "third way" out of the Cold War, and things eventually played out almost exactly as their great thinkers (see E.P. Thompson) posited. The Nuclear Freeze Movement in the United States also played a part, as did Gorbachev. (Reagan fought tooth and nail against all these forces. Luckily the onset of Alzheimer's mellowed Reagan enough that he got out of the way of history.)

On the other hand, the non-military dissolution of the Soviet Bloc not only was NOT planned by the Reaganites, in was completely unthinkable in their ideological system. All their policy writings at the time justified the massive military build-up (and debt that went with it) on the basis that the USSR was incapable of internal change, and could only be met with military force. History showed their worldview to be completely bankrupt, and bankrupcy was literally their chief economic legacy.”

“Ha, ha, ha. Rudy-911's nominee for Home Land Security "czar"! Hope Rudy-911 gets visitation rights.

Bets on whether Kerik gets to appear on dancing with the stars before starting his prison term (like DeLay?)”

“A town (and lake) in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes.”