Moment of Truth on Health Reform

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 30th, 2009 @ 09:36:23 am , using 886 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

Who would have guessed? After all the gasbag hyperbole about a 'government-run (egad! the Feds) we actually near the final destiny on this bill! You gotta love such a wise and fluent populace, such a clear and abundant leadership. I just went through a f… more »
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Barry Levinson on Entertainment and News

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 29th, 2009 @ 11:21:00 am , using 542 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

  In 1959, JFK wrote an article in TV Guide talking about the influence of television on politics: Television is a medium that lends itself to manipulation, exploitation, and gimmicks. Political campaigns can actually be taken over by the public r… more »
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US Offical Matthew Hoh Quits Afghanistan Operation

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 27th, 2009 @ 10:02:51 am , using 400 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

This in today's WaPo. Also heard Dan Ellsberg comparing Afghan failure with Vietnam. The Afghans don't want the foreigner there and are fighting us the way they fought Russians, etc. Ellsberg also says McCrystal is expert on death squads and adds that fo… more »
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The Long Road Sweating Its Way to BO

Posted by: Bill Dodd
Published on October 26th, 2009 @ 07:18:25 pm , using 403 words
Category: Poetry, Commentary

    An Essay With a Long Title & A Short Fuse Bronald Reigan, Homelessness, Pitiless, Endless Suffering, Mental Institutions, Social Progress, Social Cretinism, Liberal Idiocy & All those other niceties that have helped lead us down our… more »
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The Circus Is Always Open

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 25th, 2009 @ 11:06:00 am , using 794 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

Richard Heene is the inevitable product of this reigning culture, where “news,” “reality” television and reality itself are hopelessly scrambled and the warp-speed imperatives of cable-Internet competition allow no time for fact checking. Norman Lear, ab… more »
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How To Get Out of Afghanistan & Give it Alternative Futures

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 23rd, 2009 @ 08:21:44 am , using 626 words
Category: Commentary

Al Qaeda lis already out of Dodge and Afghanistan is going nowhere with Karzai and his bunch. Why not try another road entirely? BP   Accordingly, the first step for Washington must be to abandon the idea of a decades-long counterinsurgency, fire its… more »
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Short improvisation

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 22nd, 2009 @ 08:00:12 pm , using 237 words
Category: Poetry

The playoffs on, it looks like the Angels may go on to live another day. Had some cardiac workup today, the rap is that I may have both lung and heart issues. Trying some Pinot Noir local wines, not bad, though I much prefer Cabernets and Zins. Self refl… more »
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Insurance Company Disinformation (Again)

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 15th, 2009 @ 05:23:33 pm , using 910 words
Category: Commentary

Most analysts already agree that the industry’s report was so deliberately skewed to produce frightening results that it deserves little credence. The analysis was commissioned by the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans and prepared by Pricewa… more »
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Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 9th, 2009 @ 10:58:54 am , using 435 words
Category: Commentary

Stunning event, even in the midst of absolute hosility from Republicans who are running a populist revolt against what they see as big government. Aspirational, to be sure, but still a great honor. One hopes he can use it as leverage to get some of the w… more »
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Public Imperative

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 5th, 2009 @ 01:37:27 pm , using 606 words
Category: Repetitions

Post-heroic European societies, having paid in blood for violent political movements born of inequality and class struggle, see greater risk in unfettered individualism than in social solidarity. Americans, born in revolt against Europe and so ever defin… more »
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Afghanistan & Escalation

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 5th, 2009 @ 10:45:50 am , using 1094 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

Dionne in WaPo argues there should be no immediate need to escalate the Afghanistan war gamble. Impatience with this kind of situation will only make a bad decision more likely. Obama is in a pickle but going along with the hawks could land his other age… more »
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Republican Spite

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 5th, 2009 @ 10:19:44 am , using 479 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

Paul Krugman in today's NY Times hits a long one and it slams the current divisive politics of spite with a real force. After eight years of Bush when Democrats and Liberals had to stand and watch in amazement as incompetence and smug leaders took the co… more »
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Morning by Peter Marin

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 3rd, 2009 @ 09:19:34 am , using 90 words
Category: Poetry

  MORNING                                   (For Stanley Kunitz)  Morning and the slow sorrows of the night, the failures of age, the resistence of the flesh, fade away. Twenty, again, in the brightness of morning! A… more »
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Public Option Like Many Others We Already Have

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on October 1st, 2009 @ 09:57:17 am , using 298 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

Dionne in WaPo for the lst of October uses the word timidity in describing the Dems on the public option for health care reform. The obvious parallels in education, Social Security, Medicare, clean water act should be driven home by this time...But the i… more »
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