Thats 2 down

Post #303,544 by beepster 2/3/09 2:43:49 PM Reply	Thats 2 down Seems like Democrats are pretty bad at figuring out their taxes. Who knew? I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #303,545 by boxley 2/3/09 2:47:45 PM Reply	maybe stevens should ask for a job
Post #303,546 by beepster 2/3/09 2:48:41 PM Reply	He could hire their contractors for them:-) I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #303,552 by drook 2/3/09 3:45:29 PM Reply	Really hard to bite my tongue here My instinct is to say, "Sure, but the Republicans keep getting caught diddling the pages." But that's what the Republicans have been doing: Whenever they get caught, try to change the subject to how the Democrats have done something worse. I hope the Dems don't go down that path. -- Drew
Post #303,553 by boxley 2/3/09 3:49:03 PM Reply	not all of them diddle the pages equal opportunity diddlers, no party hack is immune. Just more amusing when the party on the left is now the party on the right......
Post #303,555 by Another Scott 2/3/09 3:56:34 PM Reply	Yup. Beeps doin' some chain yanking here, but Obama shouldn't have nominated Daschle for this position. The job of making health care in the US more universal is difficult enough without having a proposed leader with such glaring ties to the industry he would be regulating, and his oblivousness to the tax issues. Cheers, Scott.
Post #303,557 by drook 2/3/09 4:24:52 PM Reply	But ... ... and this was true when Republicans said it about energy ... anyone without ties to the industry won't know enough about it to do anything useful. I would prefer being open about those ties, rather than pretending they don't exist, or don't matter. -- Drew
Post #303,558 by Another Scott 2/3/09 4:47:41 PM Reply	Good point. But, perhaps an academic, or someone already in HHS as a career civil servant, or someone currently sitting on one of the important committees that oversees it in the House or Senate would have been a better fit. I dunno. (And I honestly don't know enough about Daschle's ties to be irate about it - I'm not.) Apparently Daschle's still got the opportunity to be Obama's WH adviser on the subject, since that wouldn't need Senate approval. Of course, one wants someone with expertise in the field to head the agency. But that expertise shouldn't then be used for lobbying purposes, as he apparently did (to at least a small extent). Cheers, Scott.
Post #303,559 by boxley 2/3/09 4:59:39 PM Reply	I would suggest that "someone already in HHS as a career civil servant" is not who we want as all they know is how to NOT do health care efficiently. The cabinet post should go to an interested outsider without ties to industry.
Post #303,563 by beepster 2/3/09 5:48:32 PM Reply	Of course I am I'm just waiting for the uproar to start. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #303,570 by Ashton 2/4/09 4:22:32 AM Reply	Synchronicity: 'Snark' - new book by David Denby, on Charlie Rose this PM. Early-on: a disagreement [one example cited] with C.R. re. whether, say, Maureen Dowd is merely snarky (its lowest level: ridicule of simple mannerisms which everyone has, rather than substance) or ... rises to satire. As she's a friend of CR.'s -- interesting exchange. Author's point - we're drowning in it; it distracts from any possible useful purpose... poisons debate. (He feared that the 'Muslim etc.' red herrings noised about, just might torpedo Obama's chances.) Agreement that his unflappable mien, calm non-response, especially to the absurdities -- rendered the noise machine's contrivances visible this time around, thus impotent (my summary.) (Buy the book.) The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. -- H.L. Mencken
Post #303,574 by Another Scott 2/4/09 7:31:16 AM Reply	Yeah, it's a big problem. I've been disgusted by how much of the news has been taken over by silly, stupid, idiotic, snarky stuff in the last 2 weeks. "Obama hasn't saved the world, so he's just a politician like all the other liberals who are trying to turn the USA into the USSA...." "Oooh! Is this what Woodward was talking about a week or so ago????!??!!?" It's hard even to watch the NewsHour any more. :-/ Oh well... Cheers, Scott. (Who realizes this is nothing new about the media in the US.)
Post #303,622 by Another Scott 2/4/09 8:12:33 PM Reply	Equal opportunity, as you know. http://mediamatters....0902040004?show=1 HTH. Cheers, Scott.
Post #303,625 by beepster 2/4/09 9:03:13 PM Reply	Absolutely just so we understand that the balance of power shift hasn't changed business as usual inside the beltway. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #303,627 by Another Scott 2/4/09 9:23:56 PM Reply	We'll see.

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