zed!

ZED or almost

Hi RonD.

Waitin’ for the Shuttle to launch…how’re you?

Howdy ES!

Wigwam!

Good evening..)

I didn’t know a shuttle was up for launch. I’ve always wanted to see one land.

Hey ES.

ES!
Evening, pups.
Still catching up downstairs. Hope to be back soon!

FunnyWheelieDiva

Hey, thanks for the heads up! I had no idea.. and am fortunate enough to have the NASA TV station.

FunnyDW! Had you on me mind – good to see ya!

KCD Loud!

There’s this double sonic boom when they come in…it’ll scare the hell out of you first time, if you don’t know what it is.
A launch is really amazing though. A tower of steel and fire, blasting towards the stars…just awesome.

If anyone here is on twitter… this is both a neat new method of signing a petition… and a very good petition.

http://act.ly/gg

Hello Pups!
Not having TDS and Colbert for three weeks is just sad (who said that they could have a vacation anyway!!!!). What a Monday.

They could at least stagger their vacations.

Oh those two, attached at the hip…

We watched Whale Wars instead. I’m agitated as hell.

Hey CE…. who vacations in France and Maine… cry me a river. /s

Sigh, you are right my friend.

hey chris
the teevee cupboard is indeed bare. just as well…

hey ES!

Just how in the world do you keep up with all the cool kid music? You have a talent ES.

And for FWDiva – more straight jacket escapes – via Opera-Kadabara! (trust me, get past the 2:14 worth of setup, this one is a good one!)

Hey, bud. Whazzup?

Good soundtrack note: voyages of discovery, Nansen’s voyage to North pole…using Grieg’s Holberg Suite for a celebration scene. Nice (navigator and composer both Norwegian). It’s a cute little piece for strings…fun to play…

FWDiva

I know. Guess we’ll just have to entertain each other…
FWDiva

heh,
I have some DVDs that I’ve yet to see: Ewan McGreggor and Charley Boorman on Long Way Round.

Newt… what’s shakin’ in mac land?

Has nahant gone on strike?

And that entertainment’s quite abundant, Ms. Witty :)

Haven’t see it, but I have special respect for McGreggor. Trainspotting and all that.

Hey Funny!
Yes, indeed! And various cable shows not seen much.

If you’re into garage-band psychedelia, you might like this:
Silversun Pickups/ Panic Switch

Found myself humming this several times lately.

A new virii has taken him down, no doubt :-)

It’s been a tough month on new music vids. i don’t know why… Maybe it’s because all the bands in the northern hemisphere are playing summer festivals.

Fanfarlo’s inclusion of Rosyln Walker, the escapologist, was a nice twist.

Hey newt,
Oy, Trainspotting and all that. I LOVED Long Way Round when they drove from London to New York. What a scary series.

I know…
Sometimes character studies, no matter how bleak, are more interesting. Impossible roles can be uplifting just to see them executed.

BOBBY LONG – nice playing, too.

Wait? Linky?
FWDiva

Shit. Launch is scrubbed. Will try for 1:10 am EST Wednesday.

Don’t look now but Murdoch is trying to sell the Dow Jones indexes to raise cash. Maybe barefaced lying is not such a great business model after all.

Oh good Dog, I was watching it and didn’t link it! here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w32bhawXEHM

Mo Boogie sure does a nice job recording folks.

Maybe barefaced lying is not such a great business model after all.

Since convservatism cannot fail, one can only fail conservatism…

Why? (I had the sound on mute)

Hi everyone….. it sure has been quite a day……starting with vomiting & nausea most of the day. Calls to two different doctors and trip to the pharmacy.

As I was worshiping at the throne I found the toilet was leaking at the floor which means a broken wax seal. Plumber visit, had to cancel my radiation treatment and received my Lifeline setup.

After two new RX and some toast….. I think I might survive….Elmore is now replacing the bathroom faucets

“Those aren’t lies, but rather gross misinterpretations. I cannot be held responsible if you believed what you surmised what I meant from the words I spoke.”

Signed, Rupe

They said the weather, which they also said is improving. Local Doppler confirms….
Why is Barack Obama refusing to let people see Discovery launch? Huh?

Hi katymine!

katymine – some day.
feel better

Per Neil King Jr at WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/…..53921.html

The Republican Party issued a new salvo in the health debate Monday with a “seniors’ health care bill of rights” that opposed any moves to trim Medicare spending or limit end-of-life care to seniors.

Intended as a political shot at President Barack Obama, the Republican National Committee manifesto marks a remarkable turnaround for a party that had once fought to trim the health program for the elderly and disabled, which last year cost taxpayers over $330 billion.

The Republican stance also underscores how tough it will be for Mr. Obama to find politically palatable savings to pay for new coverage while reining in spiraling health-care costs.

The Republicans said they aimed to “protect Medicare and not cut it in the name of health-care reform,” in a statement and an accompanying op-ed written by RNC Chairman Michael Steele and published in Monday’s Washington Post.

The party also vowed to oppose any Democratic effort to ration care or to insert the government between seniors and their doctors.

[…]

So, the Republicans now endorse Medicare. Then all we have to do is define the Public Option to be “allowing people under 65 to buy into Mecicare,” as recommended by Thom Hartmann:

[…] Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won’t – just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you’re so comfortable with.

Just pass a simple bill – it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people – that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.

So it’s revenue neutral!

And, then we’ll have a bipartisan bill and everyone will live happily ever after. Right?

I blame President Emmanuel…. for everything.

Stormy weather? The water is smooth as glass.

Because it’s Mars, Bitches!

Hoaxes abound, dammit!

Good night from the Great Swamp, all. The best of all possible tomorrows to you all.
Especially you, katymine.

I’m thinking of you, katymine, big hugs.

Good nite all. Best of all tomorrows.

My God man… that’s checkmate on 11 dimension chess.

Oh, dear!
Hope you get a good rest and feel way better tomorrow.
Glad you got the toilet leak under control!
(((((Katymine)))))

FWDiva

Katymine, what is lifeline? And send the plumber my way…)

Dood!

I’ve been spending way too much time lately trying to figure out who’s playing what game against whom on this health-care front, but the one thing I could never have anticipate ever in my life was the Republican party endorsing Medicare and the WSJ writing approvingly about it. That simply blows my mind.

The repugs don’t care one WHIT ever about wethepeoplecare.

Don’t ever forget that its “Us and Them.”

Makes you wonder which White House flack they’ll send out onto the lawn tomorrow to coyly take a bow on behalf of the President.

“Yes, Head… We planned it this way all along.”

When I read things like that I imagine a bunch of slighly annuated frat boys sitting around drinking very expensive wine and saying: “You know what would really blow their minds …”

Been saying it for a while, just eliminate the phrase 65 and older to the Medicare Legislation would do it……. saving all those ER charges and negotiated drug prices……

GOP are math impaired and have constipation of the brain

Expect the republicans to say anything.

And i do expect them to try and seize a new populist meme along the way. After all it matters least if they speak the truth.

Several things I’ve been wondering about… especially… who can we get to write in a real public option? Which congress critter / senator?

Scarecrow thinks there is enough to work with in the senate HELP and HR 3200 if I understand him correctly… but I think we need one damn bill to get behind… and we need someone to push /support / write it.

You haven’t settled on an author yet?
You talked about Dennis a few nights ago. Would he do it, lacking Single-Payer?

Dunno… for that matter, would Conyers?

Funny, we only have SP die hard advocates who we can think of to pen a PO bill.

Lifeline

The plumber was a young kid, he was talking and found that his father had his kidney removed for cancer and they told him they got it all (Ha). Gave him my weblinks to get info and insisted that his father should receive CT scans every three months…..

Scarecrow thinks there is enough to work with in the senate HELP and HR 3200 if I understand him correctly… but I think we need one damn bill to get behind… and we need someone to push /support / write it.

“

Let’s keep it simple, e.g., like katymine said: “just eliminate the phrase ‘65 and older’ from the Medicare legislation.” Or, like Thom Hartmann said, let people under 65 “buy into Medicare,” in which case people would merely switch their premiums from a for-profit insurer to Medicare.

And I don’t understand rules procedure on this … but it sure seems like the peoples House should wait until the Senate passes their version first. Let the House do the final work, imo.

I’d recommend Bernie.

That’s not an accident if you ask me.

“just eliminate … ‘65 and older’ …”

no, not the death panels!

I am all for simple. But switching? I haven’t had health insurance for the last 20 plus years. Bain of self employment and gambling on youth. When i broke my arm last winter… as expensive as it was… no deductible i would have had with coverage would have helped me with one penny of coverage.

If they start over, I want the opening position to be VHA for all.

Kid sure is lucky he met you and got some sage advice. Hope he gave you a discount. *s*

I think about Bernie, and I wonder if his faith in Obama, in whatever depth it runs, will eventually bite him very hard when the dust settles.

I am still holding out for Obama’s utter exasperation with Republican AND Democratic obstructionism, and flipping the table on them. It seems like that’s the only thing that will get anything resembling decent.

And no, I am still not giving odds.

Watching Anthony Bourdain about Montana, ranchers are part of the 47 million uninsured……

Feingold can help Saunders.

I am still holding out for Obama’s utter exasperation with Republican AND Democratic obstructionism, and flipping the table on them.

I’d so love to see that.

Oh (((katymine))))!

Of all the trades, plumbers are my favorites. They clean up after themselves.

What is Bourdain doing in Montana?

Correct me if I am wrong, but Russ has been mostly hiding his very Liberal-Progressive credentials since the FISA reauth, and his attacks on Edwards during the primaries.

What have I missed?

Bourdain is a riot. Guy likes pork more than Ted Stevens.

Where TFork is Feingold on all this?

Hey emerson..)

Bourdain’s reporting from Beiruit during the Isreali invasion and the Hezbollah quasi-takeover of Beiruit was a classic. All the time enjoying fine food and wine. He finally snuck out of town on a trawler.

Nothing. He’s gone underground as far as I can tell. Seen him serving aon a couple of committees on CSPAN, but you’re right-he hasn’t been out there. You would think he’d being a leading proponent of Health Care reform.

besides eating all the local food…..introducing some of the crusty residents and features about the scenery….

It is the only shot left. As if he is only just now realizing it, Republicans will do no better than 3 steps back on health care, and a lot of heavy Democrats are no better. If this is so, his team is sorely lacking in political vision, and I refuse to believe that (wigwam’s prescient observations of the other night notwithstanding)

Assuming Obama is determined to add a competitive element to the market, either the lack of clarity on this by his team is startlingly absent, or he planned to sucker them into it the whole time.

But assuming he doesn’t care about anything but something he can sign, he is again AWOL.

Travel channel Bourdain?

http://anthony-bourdain-blog.travelchannel.com/

Hey ES-glad you’re back!

I thought FISA took something out of him. I recall him being nearly inconsolable. Then he pops up and gives a real thumping to Edwards about his faux-Progressive appeal, and poof – gone again.

EDIT: It may have been me who was nearly inconsolable wrt FISA, and I was projecting. But his floor speeches were blistering and he took special aim at Orin Hatch. That was plenty fun to watch.

One of these trips, he’s just gonna say, “That’s it, I’m staying right here.” Somewhere in the far east, I bet.

Excellent question. We’re being gamed, big time. Feingold will understand the implications of the language.

Thanks… was good to get away and good to get back..)

I think you’re on to something.If he’s losing his drive, he has to be seeing things that are not only illegal/unethical, but of the scale he hasn’t encountered before. Hope I’m wrong. Hate to even say but, that’s what the thugs did to Leahy with the anthrax attacks.

I’m going to call his office tomorrow… or Wed. at the latest. I have errands to run tomorrow.

So i heard somewhere that some folks are pushing their local D parties to push State parties to support the PO. If I can find a text copy of it… I will take it to my locals.

falling asleep on the sofa…… round em up and head em off to bed…. Night everyone

Great idea. I think I will too.

But assuming he doesn’t care about anything but something he can sign, he is again AWOL.

I’m still trying to figure out what he’s up to. Setting aside for the moment your hypothesis that he has an inexplicable affinity for elderly conservative senators, we have the Hamsher/Greenwald hypothesis that he and Emanuel are shaking down the healthcare industry and threatening them not to give any money to the Republicans. IMHO, that’s a bit too thuggish for Obama.

Then there’s the hypothesis that he’s a multi-dimensional chess master, waiting for the exactly right moment to do an uncover checkmate.

One thing that’s clear, the gang of six have no official status except that Harry Reid says that their bill is the one that is going forward. And that’s not the sort of thing that Reid does on his own.

His attacks on Gonzales, Ashcroft and Bush (offered censure measures against all three) during SJC hearings in ‘07 were epic. If he was unhappy about seeing the Senate fold on FISA, he had to be even more dismayed by seeing the Democrats simply go along.

I recall being floored by it, and he is on both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees (like Whitehouse), so he saw all the data.

I don’t blame him if he has withdrawn some, and if true, I hope he is regaining strength for the next battle.

That said, seeing Eric Holder heading up DOJ cannot give him hope.

Yeah, let me be clear – that hypothesis is not mine, but just one of several floating around about why Obama is so tepid. I don’t think we will ever know, but it would explain a lot.

If he shivs Baucus and throws serious weight behind some real reform that includes introducing genuine competition, we will know that he drew them in close so he could blow them away.

Short of that, it’s gossip, and a particularly cruel variety, IMO.

I’m going to tell them.. we are all wondering about him over at firedoglake…)

Per Reuters:

U.S. President Barack Obama will nominate Ben Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve on Tuesday as the economy shows signs of recovery, a senior administration official said on Monday.

Bernanke, whose appointment as head of the U.S. central bank must be confirmed by the Senate, has led the Fed and the U.S. economy through its most tumultuous period since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Obama’s Democrats control the Senate.

Helicopter Ben lives!

Holder is a disgrace in my book. He’s on a par with Rahm and Reid. No matter what Obama believes or suggests, the damn Atty General can investigate wrongdoing on all levels. Holder seems disinterested in law.

Nah, it wasn’t just you. From here it seems he is the only guy in the senate driven by principle.

His financials are great evidence of that.

OK, I’ll do the same so he knows we, as a fighting entity, are behind him. Yeah, good idea, ES.

Wonder if Krugman will praise that decision.. keeping his old Princeton buddy in charge?

And this:

http://www.reuters.com/article…..sinessNews

Federal Reserve loses suit demanding transparency

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge on Monday ruled against an effort by the U.S. Federal Reserve to block disclosure of companies that participated in and securities covered by a series of emergency funding programs as the global credit crisis began to intensify.

In a 47-page opinion, Chief District Judge Loretta Preska of the federal court in Manhattan said the central bank failed to show that disclosure would cause borrowers in the Federal Reserve System to suffer “imminent competitive harm,” by stigmatizing them for using Fed lending programs.

Whitehouse, after throwing in with Arlen on an amendment that would substitute the government for the plaintiffs in the lawsuits against the telecoms, voted to reauthorize.

That’s the one that killed me.

Floored me too.

on another thread, I think it was Hugh who said Krugman agreed with the re-ben-ediction.

In a 47-page opinion, Chief District Judge Loretta Preska of the federal court in Manhattan said the central bank failed to show that disclosure would cause borrowers in the Federal Reserve System to suffer “imminent competitive harm,” by stigmatizing them for using Fed lending programs.

That some very good news.

I have a friend who knows a whole lot of gossip about top economists and could probably tell me what Krugman thinks of his former department chair. Given that Bernanke seems impressed with Milton Friedman, I’d suspect that Krugman is not impressed with Bernanke.

Interesting. I’m (strangely) in synch with Niall Ferguson in the belief that all of those trillions of dollars that Ben printed up and helicopter dropped into the liquidity trap is going to come back to haunt us once a real turnaround is established.

Well, it’s again that hour.

G’nite, all.

Hasn’t it already? I mean how on earth can the market be this high without being filled with worthless new paper?

It’s not like anything else has changed.

nite wigwam
good idea
nite pups

evening, flammable canine inland bodies of water

Good evening PPDCUS,, just heading off for the night myself.. be well.

night

good thread – see y’all tomorrow

That’s for sure. The market is just invisible air now. “How much for this bag of air? Step right up folks!”

Nite wigwam & Newt

Hey PPDCUS

hey emerson

Attaturk is upstairs!
Oh please, oh please…well, not really