Beer Summit Light

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 31st, 2009 @ 04:22:08 pm , using 274 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

It's just like the media to make a farce of this rather folksy effort by Obama. Bill (Puffgutt) Bennett managed to wonder where the leadership was on the various war fronts when the brews were going down. Dana Milbank in today's WaPo gets off some wisecr… more »
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Health Care Realities

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 31st, 2009 @ 07:45:03 am , using 209 words
Category: Repetitions

So here’s the bottom line: if you currently have decent health insurance, thank the government. It’s true that if you’re young and healthy, with nothing in your medical history that could possibly have raised red flags with corporate accountants, you mig… more »
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Health Reform, Markets, Bipartisanship

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 29th, 2009 @ 04:42:34 pm , using 437 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

This am post in WaPo from Ezra Klein needs to be in the mix for health reform. A bridge system makes all kinds of sense. And and a health insurance exchange has recognizable market features, which seems to be a helpful notion at this time. And a bipartis… more »
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HEALTH & AMORALITY IN US POLITICS

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 27th, 2009 @ 10:09:28 am , using 347 words
Category: Repetitions

There's no moral calculus at all, for people like Kristol, or Inhofe, or Gingrich, or other supposed leaders. None is pretended at: none is cowed to. There's no good or bad, there's no long term vs short term -- nothing. And it's among both Republican an… more »
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Tell Me What's Wrong With It

Posted by: Steve Belasco
Published on July 26th, 2009 @ 10:46:03 am , using 2244 words
Category: Commentary

I am waiting for some solid criticism of President Obama’s health care reform proposals and I’m not getting it. Just so you know what I have already heard and junked I will set it out. 1. It will lead us down the road to socialism. I’m never quite… more »
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Health Care Reform Will Pass

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 23rd, 2009 @ 09:37:14 am , using 289 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

Obama sounded confident and sure of his health reform motif at Wednesday press conference and hit the right marks, I think. This is something that has been struggled with so long, and the stakes are becoming clearer. Costs sky-high, insurance companies i… more »
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Can't Do Nation, or 'helluva job Brownie' revisited

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 22nd, 2009 @ 09:34:11 am , using 477 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

The surge of Republican ads putting down health care reform as another 'government takeover' of the rights of the people as well as the now shameful so-called 'blue dog democrats' timidity on this issue is beginning to wear thin. Meyerson in today's WaPo… more »
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No Comment on Sotomayor

Posted by: Steve Belasco
Published on July 19th, 2009 @ 12:22:33 pm , using 1355 words
Category: Commentary

I was going to write a comment on the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, but I decided not to. If I had written a comment I would certainly have noted the bravado with which Senators Grassley, Graham and Sessions paraded out their rock-like stupidity for… more »
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Bush & Co: Illegal & Pointless

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 17th, 2009 @ 10:19:39 am , using 322 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

This NY Times editorial this am (16July) takes on the abuses of Bush & Co and details the findings and just how outrageous were the claims and the secrecy. Bob Woodward on Charlie Rose (15July) talked about how Bush and Cheney never opened up discuss… more »
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Moyers and Potter on Bill Moyers Journal on Health Care Reform

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 11th, 2009 @ 02:46:33 pm , using 1858 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions, Interviews

I watched Bill Moyers Journal on Friday and never has the health care debate become so clear after hearing Wendell Potter, a former executive for Cigna Health, relate the conditions under which the health insurance companies discredit every attempt (sinc… more »
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Two Sonnets

Posted by: Geoffrey Young
Published on July 11th, 2009 @ 12:23:01 pm , using 228 words
Category: Poetry

ON A CASE OF CHAMPAGNE Cropping extraneous detail I use the enlarger to simplify images Burning them free of the background To brilliant effect. Gibbon becomes a monkey, Swift a bird, the 18th Century a contagion. When I get done you can… more »
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Job Creation, 'The Human Equation'

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 11th, 2009 @ 10:59:11 am , using 555 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

Bob Herbert in today's NY Times throws up a large warning piece about the tremendous job loss going down in the U.S. (and elsewhere). But he pulls no punches, calls it as bad as it is and makes a powerful suggestion. A wholesale mincing of realities is g… more »
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Sanford & Palin

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 8th, 2009 @ 08:42:08 am , using 168 words
Category: Commentary

I have much more sympathy for the absolutely overwhelming seizure Eros can become in certain circumstances (Sanford) than I do for Palin's rambling narcissistic banter about the problems of office when one is under siege from media and pundits, etc. All… more »
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GRAND SLAM

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on July 6th, 2009 @ 08:22:35 am , using 83 words
Category: Poetry

I suffered for baseliners, whiners flaky transcendentalists, showboat former champs, old washed-up pranksters, mood-disordered gremlins aching for day treatment, sacred cow patrician theater managers, weak-serving stars with stage moms, racket str… more »
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Among the Trees So Green-O

Posted by: Bill Dodd
Published on July 5th, 2009 @ 11:45:05 am , using 795 words
Category: Commentary

In assessing global and national events, while it is true one must observe not only one’s inherent limitations of perspective, one must also respect the fact that others’ approaches to them may have underlying truths, or, simply, other plans that, in som… more »
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Under the Heading "Ya Think"

Posted by: Steve Belasco
Published on July 1st, 2009 @ 08:05:36 am , using 29 words
Category: Commentary

The San Luis Obispo, California Tribune printed the following headline: MADOFF MAY DIE IN PRISON. He’s 77 and was sentenced to 150 years. And they say news people sensationalize events. more »
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Under The Heading Fair is Fair

Posted by: Steve Belasco
Published on July 1st, 2009 @ 07:34:07 am , using 65 words
Category: Commentary

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya when asked why his government was refusing to negotiate continued presence of the U.S. military base at Soto Cano responded that he wasn’t refusing to negotiate and that he was perfectly willing to allow continued… more »
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