It’s back to a confederacy of states. The President abandons federalizing health laws. Obama said on Monday that he “backs a bipartisan congressional proposal to move up the date when states could opt out of the health care law — including the individual mandate — as long as they show they have met the law’s goals.” (CQ.com)
This seems to be a major victory for conservative Republicans, tea partyers and their allies who won last year’s midterm elections partly due to their hue and cry against what they called “Obamacare.”
Giving up so much so soon could embolden GOP lawmakers who immediately said Obama’s concessions are not enough. They remain intent on much more sweeping changes, including complete repeal. The President’s sudden flexibility paves the way.
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68 Responses to Obama Caves on Health Mandate
Now on The Trail
Woo?
From last thread.
http://blogs.cqrollcall.com/trailmix/2011/02/politics-at-the-oscars.html#comment-330471
Craig, Obama reminds me of the lawyer who bids against the last offer he made without having the other side respond first.
hoo?
pogo, this negotiation cartoon of man and dog is like what the prez is faced with
http://www.stus.com/sv/subjects/negotiation.htm
and take your pick as to which, prez or gopers, is the threatening pee-er
President jell-o takes a firm stand.
Could you pass the U.S. citizenship quiz? Test yourself here: http://roll.cl/gLiPU4
no queston there, pat -- Obama is the “master” (the leash is illusory) the goopsters are the pee-ers -- we’re the carpet.
Well, I think I’m running along. Got work I can do at home on the ‘puter and gotta go suffer through another basketball game -- the 6th in the last 5 days -- all 45 minutes of 2 lane highway away. This is begininning to get old -- and yes, I’d like cheese with my whine.
The chief U.S. diplomat who negotiated the restoration of U.S.-Libya relations was later hired as a vice president for Bechtel, the giant engineering company, and put in charge of overseeing projects in Libya. The top British spymaster who helped arrange for Gadhafi to give up his nuclear weapons program was then hired by BP to oversee the oil company’s massive exploration deal in Libya.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41833115/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/
The unfolding scenario I see: The national mandate for everyone to buy their product was the reason why insurance industry tolerated the law without spending tens of millions to stop it. If it unravels, they force repeal of the whole damn thing.
Could you pass the U.S. citizenship quiz?
10 for 10
Congrats CBob! You were AWOL on the Oscar pool but you nailed this one.
Report: Wartime Contractors Waste, Steal Tens Of Billions — Then Come Back For More
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/28/wartime-contractors-waste-billions_n_829251.html
http://www.taylormarsh.com/2011/02/28/olbermann-slaps-sulzberger-around/
‘Olbermann Slaps Sulzberger Around”
“When I read the New York Times story last week about union bonds fraying, starting with the headline, it felt like one of those Politico stories with the set up in front. Keith Olbermann lays out the Times for it today.”
AWOL on the Oscar pool
I only saw True Grit , and Jeff Bridges already had one of those little golden guys.
flexibility…. smexibility….
here let me fix a couple of typos in your last sentence, Craig….
The President’s persistent weenyism paves the way.
ps…. me too…. 10 for 10
didn’t see True Grit, CBob, but definitely plan to after seeing clips on the Oscars
ha, RR, you said what i was really thinking. that’s what i count on you guys to do.
True Grit,
A 19th century time machine. You can almost smell Rooster’s long johns.
I got 10 out of 10 as well…..
Confirmed: Union-Bashing Right-Wing Media Stars Hannity, Limbaugh and O’Reilly Are AFL-CIO Union-Affiliated Members
In spite of their criticism of unions in Wisconsin, AlterNet has confirmed that leading right-wing pundits are American Federation Television and Radio Artists union members.
http://www.alternet.org/story/150054/confirmed:_union-bashing_right-wing_media_stars_hannity,_limbaugh_and_o%27reilly_are_afl-cio_union_affiliated_members?page=1%27
Craig,
Upon reading your post today for some reason the parallel I drew from it was the career of porn star Ron Jeremy.
When Ron started in the industry, he made a series of films where he was orally pleasuring himself…and I can’t help but think that this presidents constant need to be “flexible” is just an effort of the same ilk.
Now Jeremy proved to have a prolific career and when people got to know him they realized he was an affable, intelligent person, capable of a close friendship with Tammy Faye Mesner.
I guess this president’s friendship with Dr. Tom Coburn is of the same class?
I know the president has talked about bringing a gun to a knife fight, but I want a Bruce Lee type…who’ll bring nunchucks to a sword fight and still kick ass
Your Score » 100 out of 100 ( 100 %)
Answered Correctly » 10 out of 10 correct
Can you believe I missed the first question? I did…shame on me…9 of ten right.
Craig, kudos for sticking to the old-school use of the word “partyer” and not caving in to the modern “partier”. You are NOT wrong here.
Craig,
Still having to sign in every time.
Dexter, don’t feel bad. I missed the first one as well. Really should have known better. We can go sit in the corner with our 90% passing dunce caps.
Thanks for comforting me, Jamie. If anyone else ever brings up to me as to if I missed that question, I will plead the fifth!
Cate Blanchett’s dress from the Oscars is still burning up the nets on some sites I frequent. Most love it…some, like me, don’t dislike it, just never saw anything like it.
http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/oscars/env-oscars-backstage-2011-pictures,0,7287497.photogallery
Well, don’t feel so bad.
We just won’t let you two immigrate, unless like rupert murdoch you have zillions of porn dollars and a history of slanting the news to make right wing flakes seem normal. If you meet those two qualifications, as with murdoch, we will waive the seven year wait and allow you to begin buying tv stations immediately.
I have a different take on Obama’s extending the state opportunity to innovate from 2014 to 2017 differently.
Liberal Democratic Senator Ron Wyden is the main archichet of this plan to allow states to create their own health coverage systems as long as they meet the benchmarks of the federal legislation.
I anticipate that Oregon with our former Governor, Dr. John Kitzhaber, a strong propoent of a better system, will lead to something superior to the bill we had to settle for because of a weak President Obama.
Conservative crackpots will not evade the goals of the federal law and get approval.
I hope I’m right. With Mr. Weak, President Obama; there is no telling what dumb thing he will do next.
Nine out of ten. Does this mean I get deported????
oh man, i screwed up on the senator question- i just forgot, along with a lifetime of info.
Hey, don’t know if any of y’all are Anthony Bourdain fans, but his new season starts on Travel Channel tonight--in Haiti. He’s usually a cranky snarky bastard (his word, not mine) but once in a while Bourdain really does manage to convey what’s actually happening in a given place at a given time--between meals, of course--as in Beirut where he was stuck for days during the last showdown between Israel & Hezbollah. I’m hoping he’ll rise above the snark and just describe Haiti as it is in the aftermath of its worst-ever disaster.
9 PM on Travel--277 on DirecTV, not sure what channel on other systems.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/marauding-gay-hordes-drag-thousands-of-helpless-ci,19325/
“Marauding Gay Hordes Drag Thousands Of Helpless Citizens From Marriages After Obama Drops Defense Of Marriage Act”
“WASHINGTON—Reports continue to pour in from around the nation today of helpless Americans being forcibly taken from their marital unions after President Obama dropped the Defense of Marriage Act earlier this week, leaving the institution completely vulnerable to roving bands of homosexuals. “It was just awful—they smashed through our living room window, one of them said ‘I’ve had my eye on you, Roger,’ and then they dragged my husband off kicking and screaming,” said Cleveland-area homemaker Rita Ellington, one of the latest victims whose defenseless marriage was overrun by the hordes of battle-ready gays that had been clambering at the gates of matrimony since the DOMA went into effect in 1996. “Oh dear God, why did they remove the protection provided by this vital piece of legislation? My children! What will I tell my children?” A video communique was sent to the media late yesterday from what appears to be the as-yet unidentified leader of the gay marauders, who, adorned in terrifying warpaint, announced “Richard Dickson of Ames, Iowa. We’re coming for you next. Put on something nice.”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/mediaite-founder-dan-abrams-officially-joins-abc-news-good-morning-america/
“Mediaite Founder Dan Abrams Officially Joins ABC News, Good Morning America”
With all the movie and politics almost missed that Jane Russell passed away today at the age of 89
http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/28/russell.obit/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8v486aUYu0
AND YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN.
World in change, or, as Mark Twain once wrote:
“Nothing remains the same. When a man goes back to look at the house of his childhood, it has always shrunk: there is no instance of such a house being as big as the picture in memory and imagination call for. Shrunk how? Why, to its correct dimensions: the house hasn’t altered; this is the first time it has been in focus.”
tony, that 8:40 onion piece is priceless. almost as good as the mind explosions of our trail buddy nash.
newtie news:
Newt Gingrich prepares for likely White House bid
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gyD2aHE_DwEmp9kW3JpDU0li5Ttg?docId=e176738d6c1749d2b44cec849f047133
Newt Gingrich’s simultaneous courtship of the base of the Republican Party and Latino voters could pose major problems for his likely bid for the White House.
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/146631-gingrich-runs-to-right-but-not-on-immigration-
some pundit pointed out yesterday that newtie will lose his cushy $100,000 faux analyst gig once he announces. wonder if that applies only upon the formal submission of run papers or intent-to-run announcements and not to these iowa excursions.
or maybe newtie is just taking his own advice and trying to get a raise:
“The conservative commentator Ann Coulter made the claim on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News on Feb. 25 2011 that Sarah Palin is fueling speculation she may run for the 2012 Republican nomination for the U.S. Presidency because she wants higher fees at speaking engagements.
“I think she’s saying that (she might run) because she also said Newt Gingrich told her you can get higher speaking fees if you pretend you are running for President,” Coulter told Hannity. She did not go on to reveal if Palin herself, or anyone else, told her that Gingrich had given this advice.”
http://www.suite101.com/content/coulter-says-sarah-palin-seeks-money-not-office-of-president-a353577
at what point does his faux news contract ban presidential bids? is it one of those “you’re either pregnant or not. no in between” clauses?
http://blogs.cqrollcall.com/trailmix/2011/02/obama-caves-on-health-mandate.html#comment-330498
o-d, sorta on the same wave length as the clean air and water acts. states can have individual environmental plans as long as they’re as good as or better than the feds.
however, craig is probably right about the insuro pigs will pull out if anything less than a captive consumer mandate exists.
So, Obama is running as a centrist this time. I guess he has finished using the far left. But they aren’t going to stay home and let someone less liberal win, so it’s a win-win for Obama. He doesn’t care.
However, he is misreading this one. If state and federal GOoPers make cuts that people feel, there will be a back-lash against their party in 2012.
If they are talking about Repubs continuing to sweep through new territory, well, this is the thing that will keep it from happening.
Initially, I compared Obama to W, but he’s beginning to remind me more and more of that little, old fence-rider, John McCain.
OK, so the Iranian Olympic committee is dyslexic.
Wouldn’t the year have to be 2102, not 2012, in order for the London logo to resemble the word Zion?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110228/sp_nm/us_iran_olympic_logo
K’daffy trying to point a finger to AQ because he thinks the West will then help him stay in power is just sooo desparate.
http://blogs.cqrollcall.com/trailmix/2011/02/obama-caves-on-health-mandate.html#comment-330508
Yep, Pat,
The Onion piece was sooooo funny but doesn’t come close to are Nash!
http://blogs.cqrollcall.com/trailmix/2011/02/obama-caves-on-health-mandate.html#comment-330512
“So, Obama is running as a centrist this time. I guess he has finished using the far left. But they aren’t going to stay home and let someone less liberal win, so it’s a win-win for Obama. He doesn’t care.”
Blue,
You are so spot on! Obama does give McCain are run for his money on fence riding. Typical politician. I always knew it. Obama, not so terrific!
“It’s back to a confederacy of states.”
craig, didn’t john kennedy toole write that?
oh, you said states, not dunces…. same thing
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50388.html
“DOMA move helps President Obama with gays”
“President Barack Obama’s decision to stop fighting lawsuits challenging the Defense of Marriage Act has dramatically warmed his chilly relationship with gay and lesbian activists—clearing the way for the president and Democrats to fundraise aggressively in the gay community in the crucial lead-up to his 2012 re-election bid.
“Folks in our affiliates around the country were grumbling about the pace of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal and other things, but since the announcement that’s really changed,” said Michael Mitchell of the National Stonewall Democrats. “I think it will be a game-changer both with our organizers and also with the LGBT community at large.”
Not a game changer for me as far as giving the President cash! Not a dime from me..
http://gay.americablog.com/2011/03/another-vehemently-anti-gay-reverend.html
“Another vehemently anti-gay Reverend has been busted for lewd behavior”
“President Obama issued an executive order Friday evening that imposes immediate sanctions on Libyan ruler Muammar al Qaddafi, his sons and his accomplices in the slaughter of civilians. In a letter accompanying the order, Obama declared a national emergency over the situation.
“I have determined that the actions of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, his government, and close associates, including extreme measures against the people of Libya, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. The order declares a national emergency to deal with this threat,” Obama wrote in the letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).”
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/
flatus, what all iyo does that portend?
http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/brent-budowsky/146559-shock-wave-is-coming
“Shock wave is coming”
“Those waging war against American workers are winning. Incumbents of both parties will be losing. The next great change election is coming. The economic and political shock wave will be momentous as budget politics will increase joblessness and reveal with brutality that Washington is out of touch with heartland America and dominated by special interests that voters deplore.
One-fifth of the nation suffers from Depression-like pain. Tens of millions of additional voters know the recession continues for them. Yet the president and Congress seem destined to enact policy blunders that virtually guarantee, based on lessons of economic history, a savage economy through 2012. This makes probable, based on lessons of political history, another great change election directed against both parties”
Testing to see if this works
Temporary, qualitative, keeping fingers crossed “Yippeee”. It looks as if the automatic sign in is working.
Obama promised to fix the way DC works. He hasn’t fixed anything. NOTHING is working. All he does is negotiate compromises with the idiots in the GOP.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022803518.html
Life as a “communist”
Pretty funny….
Surprise Surprise Obama’s jello spine strikes again. I personally hate the health care bill that was passed for benefit of the insurance companies and the mandate. Congress and Obama screwed the Health Care Bill up. They blew it, again. No surprise that Obama capitulated and with a tack to the right.
I can feel it…another wave of recession and the rich are getting richer, meaner and more selfish. Benefits? HA!
Today is the first day hubby is without health insurance…most likely I will have to drop mine in the next few months. Hubby injured himself on Christmas eve at the department store and eventually ended-up on workman’s comp. It has been downhill ever since…very little pay and they dropped his health insurance due to lack of qualifying hours. He is devastated, but still has to have a surgery. It took two months for WC to allow and MRI. Communication is awful regarding his claim. We have thought about getting a lawyer.
Our next step is to sell the house…we have nothing left but the house. Everything is wiped-out and we still do not have decent health care. Loss is very upsetting to our spirit.
In Thailand, where he visited reefs last summer, nearly all were hit by bleaching.
Andrew Baird, a scientist at the Australian Research Council’s Coral Reef Studies center, said he just returned from Indonesia’s Aceh province, where nearly 100 percent of corals died at most sites. He said the total loss of coral cover could range from 50 percent to 80 percent.
“This is as bad as I have ever seen,” Baird said. A similar level of bleaching is likely in Thailand and India, but it isn’t nearly as bad elsewhere, he said.
Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/ 2011/ 02/ 28/ 109579/ warmer-oceans-taking-toll-on-worlds.html#ixzz1FIFLakFR
bw, it may help to contact each one of your congressional critters. their staff may find your travails useful fodder for speechifying or to prod reluctant votes to do right or even, hopefully, bureaucratic efforts to be made in your behalf.
my heart goes out to you. we’re all in this together.
Oh Blonde, what terrible news. All can wish is for courage.
patd…I was on the verge of signing the congressional approval for an inquiry into my struggle with health insurance, but declined when I finally got some answers on my own. And my Senator, Jeff Bingaman, is retiring from the Senate. I have been writing to him for years..he and his staff are the best in terms of responding to my emails. So, I haven’t really given much thought to once again, detailing the abuses in the system.
After a huge blow-up at work, hubby is getting some results this morning…his boss threatened to call the cops on hubby if he did not lower his voice. But, he finally got some attention to his problem. When he was injured, he was to NOT to file workman’s comp per his boss. When he went to the doctor under his own insurance, the doctor told him it was workman’s comp….forced the issue with the department store and here we are…paperwork snafu supposedly caused the problems. Literally, no one is minding the store or helping…hubby drags his leg five hours a day until surgery is approved.
I guess it is not wise to tell a cancer survivor they no longer have health insurance. They get very loud.
BTW, Bart turned 59 on Saturday!
Blondie, that is awful. I suspect that the ass boss was trying to lower his WC rating by not having the claim turned in -- of course I doubt that the WC rates are as high as experience adjusted insurance rates, and i figure that in at least half the states directing an employee not to file WC when the injury is clearly a WC issue is criminal. Stupid bastard. Paperwork snafu my ass -- I suspect more likely it was a problem with the claim not being filed within the filing window. I hope the fricking prick gets to try and explain to the WC commission why he told your hubb not to file. Shit like that costs employers fines in this neck of the woods.
Hubby and I are just ‘canaries’ in this process….the entire country is morphing…the stress of four years of economic down turn coupled with the lack of morality in jailing those responsible for sucking the wealth and spirit out of the little people IS taking its toll. It is why I get very upset with tea party tactics….just dancing on the grave of the American worker. Big money to sink the middle class ship because they vote democratic? No glory there.
I know, we should be happy for the job…Underemployment is in some ways worse than no employment. Sort of like electrical brownouts vs. blackouts. Brownouts destroy what was working and blackouts just do not deliver anything.
Thanks…I have to get my underemployed butt out-of here!
Damn Damn Damn, BW — this news just makes me ill. So very sorry.
The ice chart takes another dip ;
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_stddev_timeseries.png
Awareness is increasing of a fundamental problem looming, in which rising demand departs from flattening supply, leading to a shortage in the supply of the global economy’s life blood. Until now, false reassurance that we can carry on as we are has come from two factors. First, that there is still oil and second, that new oil fields are still being discovered.
And, of course, there is still oil and small, new amounts are being found. But the situation is like knowing there are 10 mouths to feed tomorrow, yet only food stores enough for eight. Worse, each day, less food is replaced than the amount eaten, while the number of mouths to feed increases.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2011/mar/01/addiction-oil-global-economy?commentpage=last#end-of-comments
(Reuters) -- The United States will keep squeezing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi until he quits, a top U.S. official said on Tuesday after Washington imposed sanctions and began moving warships in a show of force.
The USS Barry, a destroyer, moved through the Suez Canal on Monday and is now in the southwestern Mediterranean. Two amphibious assault ships, the USS Kearsarge, which can carry 2,000 Marines, and the USS Ponce, are in the Red Sea and now heading to the canal
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/01/us-libya-usa-idUSTRE7204YL20110301
But we are seeing a political movement that wishes to misinform the next generation regarding these basic things. It is more than inconvenient to have a climate that is growing dangerously warmer. It threatens the market-based system that drives production ever forward. In the US the output of the economy is expected to grow by 2% to 5% per year -- indefinitely! This is absolutely unsustainable given current modes of energy and resource uses, but any scientific data that contradicts this must be undermined and declared “controversial,” even if it is completely factual.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/anthony-cody/the-fight-over-teaching-evolut.html
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