The First Time Was Also A Farce
Noel Coward should sue the flying spaghetti monster for stealing his shit.
***Update***
I asked a Congressional aide recently whether the House would accept a deal where they pass the Senate bill first if Max Baucus promises to man a dunk tank for charity. He laughed, but I wasn’t (completely) joking.
February 25, 2010 11:25 am
Posted in: 59-41 Senate Minority
28 Comments
28 Responses
Napoleon - February 25, 2010 | 11:31 am · Link
Conrad is an absolute tool.
General Egali Tarian Stuck - February 25, 2010 | 11:33 am · Link
Reminds me when the baby Emperor Penguins are for the first time ready to take the leap into the Pacific and make false runs that looks like they’re hoping the other chick jumps first.
They will work this out. The big step was to commit to it in the first place, which has been made, it seems. There is really no turning back now, short of unforeseen procedural snafus.
Keith - February 25, 2010 | 11:46 am · Link
Baucus looks like he’d be better suited to biting the heads off chickens (for charity).
robertdsc - February 25, 2010 | 11:47 am · Link
I think people would line up to throw the ball at Baucus himself rather than the target to put him in the water.
MikeTheZ - February 25, 2010 | 11:50 am · Link
Ok, so I hear the ideas are tort reform, secret shoppers, and health savings accounts.
Do these people actually think that’s going to solve this? Really?
SGEW - February 25, 2010 | 11:53 am · Link
Comedy follows tragedy
It doesn’t need more help, son
And when the comedy is done
The tragic reasserts itself
One of these days
Everything might change
But I bet you a nickel that we’ll be the same
Martin - February 25, 2010 | 11:55 am · Link
@MikeTheZ: I really wish the Dems would call out the GOP harder on tort reform. Many states have already done tort reform. It didn’t meaningfully affect insurance costs at all – either the consumer cost for insurance or physician cost for insurance. It’s not a bad idea to work on (which is why it’s in the Senate bill), but its not one that’s going to solve the problem.
gypsy howell - February 25, 2010 | 12:05 pm · Link
@Martin:
Sometimes that seems like the whole goal of this clusterf*ck. Do the least amount possible but still claim we have “health care reform”.
Per TPM, Reid just said something along the lines of “Reconciliation? Who said anything about reconciliation?”
MagicPanda - February 25, 2010 | 12:07 pm · Link
Is there a good live blog for the health care summit? I can’t watch in real time, but I’d like to know what’s going on.
ALL_CAPS_FOR_CHRIST - February 25, 2010 | 12:11 pm · Link
HEY JESUS DIDNT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT HEALTH INSURANCE SO YOU DUMBOCRAPS BETTER GET ON BOARD AND GIVE THIS COMMUNIST PLOT UP BEFORE YOU ALL GET SMOTE HARD BY THE LORD
Zifnab - February 25, 2010 | 12:13 pm · Link
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
Any more Massachusetts Senate seats for us to lose?
namekarB - February 25, 2010 | 12:17 pm · Link
@Martin:
So true. California has a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice which hasn’t made a dent in the ever rising costs of health care in the Golden State. To wit, Anthem Blue Cross who wants to raise premiums by 39% this year.
Belafon (formerly anonevent) - February 25, 2010 | 12:18 pm · Link
@Keith: As my oldest pointed out, that is the actual definition of “geek.”
Svensker - February 25, 2010 | 12:18 pm · Link
@ALL_CAPS_FOR_CHRIST:
but saul alinsky didn’t tell me how to answer that
L. Ron Obama - February 25, 2010 | 12:20 pm · Link
@MagicPanda:
There is a fairly slow “live” blog at the Trib.
L. Ron Obama - February 25, 2010 | 12:24 pm · Link
@MagicPanda:
Another slow live blog at CNN.
kay - February 25, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link
@namekarB:
Tort reform is one of those issues that Republicans have lied so consistently about that the vast majority of people believe them.
Like the estate tax.
Trial lawyers do give to Democrats, just like people affected by the estate tax give to Republicans.
That doesn’t change the fact that we have been sold a complete load of bullshit on these two issues.
What I resent about it is it’s just one more way to privatize profits and load risk onto taxpayers.
People are damaged by medical mistakes, and we don’t just leave them lying in the street. They have to be compensated and they are going to be cared for, and that costs. They’re going to burn through all their assets and turn to government agencies for help.
Taxpayers are picking up the risk. Physicians and insurance companies are picking up the profit. We have to stop doing that.
bago - February 25, 2010 | 12:32 pm · Link
@ALL_CAPS_FOR_CHRIST: Kinky. I Always do enjoy a good smoting.
PeakVT - February 25, 2010 | 12:33 pm · Link
America could be such a great country, ya know?
It really bugs the shit out of me that we fall so far short.
/random grumpiness
ALL_CAPS_FOR_CHRIST - February 25, 2010 | 12:35 pm · Link
@Svensker: THATS WHY PEOPLE DONT PRAY TO SAUL ALINSKY, CAUSE HE DIDNT COVER ALL THE CONTINGENCIES.
ID ALSO LIKE TO POINT OUT IN THE INTEREST OF PARTISAN FAIRNESS THAT JESUS ALSO DIDNT GREEN-LIGHT DIPPING YOUR BALLS IN TABASCO SAUCE UNTIL YOUR WHOLE BEING TURNS ORANGE. THATS RIGHT, IM LOOKING AT YOU, JOHN BOEHNER.
inkadu - February 25, 2010 | 12:41 pm · Link
@namekarB: $250,000 cap? That’s ridiculous. Some doctors could kill one person a year and still pay their rent.
OT: Does anyone use Opera? I usually use Firefox, but I’m trying OpenSUSE on a crash-happy Dell, and seeing if I can effect the frequency of cursing. So my question for Opera people: How can I open a new tab (shift-click) but keep the focus on the tab that’s already open? I’m trying to tab dumps, clicking on a bunch of links on a page, but it always switches to the new tab, so I have to click back to the original page, click the next tab, click back to the original page, etc.
Svensker - February 25, 2010 | 12:41 pm · Link
@ALL_CAPS_FOR_CHRIST:
also, i am very interested in li’l abner’s relationship to christianity. could you explain?
4tehlulz - February 25, 2010 | 12:41 pm · Link
@ALL_CAPS_FOR_CHRIST: SMOTE ME HARD? FUCK YEARRRRR SMOTE ME HARD BABY
The Moar You Know - February 25, 2010 | 12:56 pm · Link
@inkadu: Right-click is your friend. Right-click on the link, select “Open in Background Tab”, and it will open the link but keep you on your current page.
Origuy - February 25, 2010 | 12:58 pm · Link
@ALL_CAPS_FOR_CHRIST: Newsletter?
ALL_CAPS_FOR_CHRIST - February 25, 2010 | 1:06 pm · Link
@Origuy: COMING OUT NEXT WEEK, POORLY XEROXED, NO EDITING, THE USUAL.
inkadu - February 25, 2010 | 1:47 pm · Link
@The Moar You Know: Ah. Thanks! That’s handy. I didn’t even know how to say it. I was searching for “open new tab while old tab is still in focus.” Now if I could only figure out how to make background tab the default behavior…
Ah! Here it is: Ctrl-Shift-Click. I shouldda guessed. Well, the more you know…
rachel - February 26, 2010 | 12:43 am · Link
@inkadu: I use Opera on Mandriva Linux. I just put the cursor on a link and click the mouse wheel to open the link on a new tab in the background.