Why am I up at this time? I really didn’t sleep so it good morning or good night?

Mornin’, Elliott and pups -

Ell, you just *had* to put that strikethru on top of scar to suck us in, didn’t ya?

First, lemme see if I got this part right: Mica’s now pimpin’ scar’s new book? Isn’t that what writers pay publicists to do?

Second, scar claims “gregory had a fit”. Given scar’s propensity for outright lieing, one’s supposed to take that statement for a fact? Is scar trying to make it look like gregory is discriminating against him?

I admit to being slow so can someone explain to me what the brouhaha is all about?

What’s amazing is the drop in viewership of press the meat…..given those figures, how long is gregory gonna be in that slot and how much worse will the person be who replaces him? That’s one of the problems when these networks keep relying on the same old faces without developing fresh, new ones.

The continuing idolization of russert by all the people at msnbc is sickening.

Tell it Wac!

Oh, spit! The call-in question on Washington Journal: Is there a love affair with the media and Barack Obama?

*click*

Thanks, Elliott. Good morning pups.

With ya on the morning joke thing Waccamaw. Joe is a genuine piece of shit and mica, more and more every day, is a lap dog infatuated with the master. During the show from Florida last week they gave the impression that they are intimate. Made me gag and turn off the tv.

Good morning, pups. Y’all are stronger than I — the morning gasbags give me the pip. Today we’ve got MoDo (with a bit of speculation on who leaked Sanford’s e-mails), Friedman, Kristof and Rich. MoDo talks about “Genius in the Bottle,” and says with his Argentine lover, Mark Sanford was no longer the penny-pinching governor, but someone more fascinating: Marco, international man of mystery. The Moustache of Wisdom says we must “Invent, Invent, Invent,” and that the country that endows its people with more tools and basic research to create new goods and services is the one that will not just survive this crisis but thrive down the road. Mr. Kristof says “It’s Time to Learn From Frogs,” and that scientists are beginning to find a connection between bizarre deformities in water animals and abnormalities in humans. Mr. Rich gives us “40 Years Later, Still Second-Class Americans,” and says gay civil rights history is moving faster in the country than it is in Washington.

Here they are.

The coffee and tea are ready, and there’s a big plate of chocolate croissants. The heat index is already 90, and I’m not turning the stove on today! There are also pitchers of iced drinks in the fridge, so help yourselves. I’m off to get a second cup of tea, eat a handful of ibuprofen (bad day for the achy joints) and whittle away at the backlog of work. Have a great day.

a lap dog infatuated with the master [and all things republican]

During the show from Florida last week they gave the impression that they are intimate.

“Gave the impression” how exactly? Dish! Darlin’. I haven’t had my allocation of dirt on thugs this week. *g*

Nothin real concrete. Just the way they looked at one another and leaned into each other. Instinct said, “oooohhhhh, they’re f*ckin.”

[shudder]

Would not be at all surprising. And aren’t they now spending even more time together on some radio show or the other? That would allow for assorted hanky-panky sans viewing by listeners which might inadvertently bleed over into the morning Starbucks show.

Morning all, Thanks Elliott. Holy Shit is Steph. going to try to wing it with out his sidekick George Will.

In my favorite dream george will is one of the people that disappear off the face of the planet. Along with 2/3 of the assholes listed as guests on the talking head shows.

Why is it that the tv folks can’t get up to speed with the whole 60-70% Democrat thing?

Morning. We finally have sunshine here in CNY so I’m not going to watch anything above. It’ll do wonders for my blood pressure.

Good morning all, and thanks Elliott.

solai, ditto here. After coffee, I’ll be outside all day.

In David Gregory’s defense, I think it was pretty stupid to book an appearance with the competition. I would have reacted the same way and my argument would have started with “How could you be so effing dumb?”

MoDo’s speculating on who released the emails? I thought Maria’s boyfriend released them. Did I miss something or has MoDo been in a coma for the last week?

How did the boyfriend get the emails?

Well, it’s a story I haven’t been following all that closely (well, except for the schadenfreude). I didn’t know it was another boyfriend. Guess I’m not enough of a gossip maven!

A diary at DKos said that the boyfriend saw one email from Sanford and then went into Maria’s computer to see the rest. I took it as fact, but who knows?

Good morning, everyone. Why are we up?

Good Morning to all! And a grand morning it is. I love June. (’cept for those *scratch*mosquitoes*scratch* that keep finding me.)

McConnell on FNS: Heath care will be paid for by cuts in Medicare and raising taxes. he tells host “Bert” who is really Brett. Government taking over insurance companies. Will wreck the finest health care system in the world.

Thanks. That’s how I would have supposed it happened, if indeed it did.

These little guys are more fun to watch than teebee.

“How could you be so effing dumb?”

And since it is Joe Scar of whom that question is being asked, there is no need for an answer.

Despite the rain, this has been a pretty spectacular June in the NE U.S. I’m lovin’ it that it’s been one of the coolest on record. I hate hot weather.

To meet the press!

Mornin’ Ellie and Pups.

My goodness boyz’n grrls. I skipped thru Ellie’s fine run-down in absolute wonderment at the lack of twitterglitter on poor Jacko’s passing, and then I hit the comments.

Is everyone suffering from a sudden withdrawal of all-gossip-alldedamtime?

At least some of the nation’s finest pressicks promise something other than prurient cornybeefhashing.

But no. I’m not so into their schtick that I want to endure the endless patter of little minds on the toobz this fine day. We’ve got 10 trillion boxes yet to pack. Looks kinda interesting, since we’re moving recyclin’- style. The casual observer would assume every brand of likker know to man or beast is piled high throughout the house. Good sized boxes for old coots & biddies like us, but our reputation is shot to blithereensh. *hic*

Peace to all.

Don’t work too hard on those new trees eCAHN. Nebbertheless, I do think I understand your joy in getting outside with the greenery. Good on ya.

He (word, word, word) broke into her email from afar and, pissed off, shared the wealth. Or something. G’morning everyone. (Word: hacked!!)

Why indeed? Speaking of “why are we up,” saw the movie “Up” yesterday. Cute. Cuter than Sunday morning toobz fer sure.

Thanks for that!

Time to bicycle in to the farmers’ market.

Be well.

agreed, Marion. Wayyyyyyyy too early in the morn for that kinda mind-pic.
Ewwwwwwwwwww.

Oh, darn. George Will is not on THIS WEEK, this week. How disappointing. He must have checked to see if Paul Krugman would be invited, and decided to take his long awaited vacation to Palau.

Everyone otter take a look at this.

Grassley on THIS WEEK said all Republican view is that all of the money to pay for health care reform will come from reshuffling money within the health care system, like fraud and waste. The example he cited was about $50,000,000. He needs $1 trillion, but hey, who’s counting.

You been drinkin’ outta punaise’s cup?

You have been moving for quite some time Adie. I can only imagine what an “adventure” it must be to empty out a lifetime of living.

Thanks Dragon. Cute lil’ fellas. In a zoo, I presume, but obviously they know how to have a good time with what they have. Good on ‘em.

We’re doomed.

If we could book Jane and Amy Goodman on the same day he’d retire.

I believe the pix were shot in the wild. Doesn’t look like any zoo I’ve seen them in.

Nooners says Clinton caused the media to be bad; “a new devishness was released,” she says, and they became more puritanical.

The other woman says that it was wrong to post Sandford’s personal e-mails, but “once they were there, I read them all.”

Just kill me.

The other woman says that it was wrong to post Sandford’s personal e-mails, but “once they were there, I read them all.”

Then proceeded to berate her SO with, “Why don’t you ever say these kind of things to me? Don’t you love me any more?”

So Snuffie puts up a string of pictures with 11 GOP politicians, and then blacks out Sandford, some other Republican affair guy, and Huntsford, because, you know, becoming Ambassador to China kills your career the same as having an affair.

Once upun a time, I might have . . . (Punaise!!! Save me from myself!)

heh heh heh heh

The “other woman” on THIS WEEK is Kathleen Parker, who says it’s always the guys who try hardest to be good who fall the hardest, which, she explains, why this tends to happen to Republicans.

I had no idea our planet was inhabited by such people.

The missing link.

Nooners says Obama may get lucky and get a Republican Congress and be “saved” just like Clinton was.

I have to call my cable company, because I seem to be getting stations from another galaxy.

From Nico at Huff Post

11:29 AM ET – Programming note. I’ll be appearing on CNN’s Reliable Sources with Dana Milbank on Sunday at 10AM ET. Dana wrote a column about President Obama’s press conference last week, calling me a “planted questioner” and arguing that my question sent the message that “the American press isn’t as free as advertised.”

This should be fun — see you soon Dana!

Oh, wow. Profound. I see a new seating arrangement in Congress. Gleaming pedestals on the right and peach crates on the left. And I hear the sound of bodies tumbling off the pedestals, one by one. Tragic, really. Their goodness makes me verklempt. Talk among yourselves, please.

Crazy ass Noonan just said “Maybe Obama will get lucky and his over reach will cause him to have a Republican congress in 2010, which will save him just like it did Clinton in 94.”

Huh?

I go no words for that. Someone help me.

I blame Elliot for this silly panel, because every week, without fail, the programs invite exactly the people she posts here. Elliot rules.

No fair!

You type faster than I do.

I do, I’m the Henry VIII of my time …

You get the same alien tv cable channel I get.

This is a Contact moment. An idiot species in another galaxy just contacted us and said, “we’re crazy, don’t come here!”

Will smelling salts be any good here?

Some one better warn your potential spouses, before you make the final cut.

I have to call my cable company, because I seem to be getting stations from another galaxy.

And that’s why I asked for help at my 51; I never figured the problem was the broadcast was coming from another galaxy.

Now I know.

Thank MM! I updated uptop.

Will smelling salts be any good here?

Thanks.

Whatever you got.

Because that was a moment.

mWaha! You should see what happened to the last one… *wicked snicker*

You’re welcome, that segment is coming up next. Amanda Carpenter is there also but who really cares what she has to say.

What country is he living in?

You’re absolutely right. I finally got a better look. OMG what cuties!
Makes my day!

p.s., anyone else have toobz problems a bit earlier? All of a sudden, both FDL and Huffpo wouldn’t load right, even when I tried to sneak in thru Marcy’s back door. Dang.

My helpful hubby suggested mebbe the wingers were trying to swamp our craft at the Lake. Anyway. All’s well that ends well. It’s fine now.

Picked up a local rag here yestidie, and some wang-noodle was seriously blaming Obama for wrecking our whole economy – presumably at light-speed.
My dawgness, who’s hatching out these idgits?!

On t’other side, a nice fella last week, while working on levelling our concrete walk, had Rush blaring away from his truck radio the whole dang day as he drilled his holes and pumped in the slurry-goop (with amazingly successful results, I might add! ;->). We helped a little, but mostly watched him work, handed him tools and a tall cool glass of water periodically. All the time chatting about “stuff”. He’s furious at the current situation the country’s in, and made a comment about taxes, so I gently picked up on it, explained how the schools were on a fixed income, no matter WHAT the nay-sayers brayed, how the schools’ funding system had been found unconstitutional twice in a row, and then the OH supremes simply declared they didn’t feel like dealing with the matter any more, so they haven’t. Our own “kids” are in their mid to late 30’s, & the same situation exists now that did when they started kindergarten.

Pretty soon, the guy’s jaw was slack and he was muttering, “No Kidding!” Why those…. […]. So I expressed my exasperation with those who would summarily blame Obama for all these dreadful education, health, environmental, economy… ALL problems, because it’s been a few months here, and he hasn’t fixed any of these messes. By then, the guy’s yammering right back at me in agreement with everything I said. Late in the day, Rush was still babbling from the truck, and the concrete craftsman dropped his trowel, marched resolutely over to the truck and slapped the knob to OFF with a barely suppressed epithet.

Be careful who you label a redneck, folks. We’re all in this together.

Frank Rich is correct. The whole country is ahead of Washington, D.C. and not just on equal civil rights for gay Americans, but also on a national health care system, of which the public health option is a weaker option, for combating climate change in order to preserve an environment that can sustain human life, for stabilizing Social Security and Medicare, and in light of the thousands of senior Americans ripped off by Madoff and Stanford and the millions of younger Americans who saw their 401k plans and other retirement vehicles shrink substantially or entirely in the last 18 months, this has become a bigger not smaller priority. Americans want more affordable funding for higher education, and the American economy needs this in order to sustain itself and grow. And, finally, Americans know that we cannot deficit finance forever, and that the enormous debt service that the current national debt will require will cripple federal government initiatives and services across the board for 30 years, and have consequent impacts at the state and local levels.

Americans know all this, and they are way ahead of the Congress, particularly the odious US Senate, and the President. So in light of all this, let me suggest some food for thought. We spend 17% of our GDP on health care expenditures from all private and public sources, and that’s about $4.2 trillion annually. If we can implement a single payer high quality universal health care system at a cost of $2 trillion annually, then we would have $2 trillion to apply against the principal of the national debt, which I think is about $14 trillion right now, and we would have another $200 billion to make available for low cost or no cost funding for higher education.

This would not increase the total amount that the American economy is already spending on health care alone. But by extracting the same amount in taxes, you would reconfigure American health care so that it was truly accessible and efficient with no reduction in a patient’s choice of his or her primary care physician or access to specialist care, and you would spend the rest in two ways that would make this country more competitive. More competitive in the short term because after 7 years the national debt would be paid in full, or maybe it will be 8-10 years since deficit spending isn’t going to go away until the recession ends and a robust recovery is underway. More competitive in the long term because we will be educating the next generation of engineers, scientists, mathematicians, accountants, physicians, lawyers, artists, musicians, film makers, computer programmers, et cetera.

Some individuals on another forum have suggested that a high quality universal national health care system would cost closer to $2.5 or even $3 trillion annually. So what? That still leaves $1 to $1.5 trillion per year to pay off the national debt, and would then vanish over 14-20 years, depending on our future operating deficits, and $200 billion annually to finance higher education, which is the life blood of our economy and society.

The positive effects of high quality universal health care system and a credible plan to pay off a national debt that will otherwise weigh on the backs of a generation of younger Americans while finding the money to finance their higher education would be enormous. Every year that the national debt is reduced, that frees up private capital to finance all kinds of individual, business and government consumption worldwide. That’s a good thing that will help to grow all economies. Every 4 years that we turn out more highly educated Americans, and every 6 or 8 or 10 years that we graduate highly skilled specialist, we are ensuring the future of our very complex society. And every year that we meet the health care needs of all Americans in a timely and human fashion we ensure a greater quality of life for all Americans and we create a more cohesive society, both of which reduces costs and increases quality of life into the future.

I apologize for running so far with this post. But my basic point is that the average American wants and needs something more than their leaders in D.C. want and need. They are failing to respond to what Americans want and need because they do not see the public welfare as their primary obligation. There is a way to deliver what America needs and wants in such a way that makes this country stronger for the short and long runs, and the key is a single payer universal health insurance system, and there’s the irony. By nationalizing health care we can solve all our immediate and long-term health and financial problems. That’s the point that needs to be articulated for the benefit of the average American and hen it needs to be pressed hard upon the politicians in DC who love to talk about our major problems but haven’t the spine to solve any of our major problems.

By the way, this paves the way to saving Social Security too. You might still increase the age of retirement 2-3 years in 3 month per year increments, but eventually this approach would lead to an economy that will expand to beyond full employment, thereby solving our illegal immigration problem if we want to solve it, and attract more and more private capital which permits the private economy to sustain itself.

Again, I apologize for the length of this reply (I’m sure an economist could reply more briefly and elegantly) but not for it’s content and passion.

Put the old cow out to pasture, Peggy Noonan just said our culture is too unified to have huge stars like Michael Jaskon ever again. Give. Me. A. Break.

oh no need for any apology, you should consider writing for Oxdown :)

Checked into watch Matthews during his regularly scheduled show today at 9:00 AM in LA but it appears he’s lost the slot to a new animated kids show called Turbo Dogs.

The snark writes itself.

Read every word, and couldn’t agree more.

Your ‘problem’ is it makes way too much sense and therefore will never happen.

Interesting twist on how to sell single payer, however.

And thanks for your kind words re: my Gov. Sanford post.

Looks like your time in Ohio smartened you right up, didn’t it?

Chuck Grassley on “This Week” proves himself to be less than honest about CO2 emissions.

Watch the clip here.

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=1971