TheDailyBanter.com

Rockefeller Still Fighting for Public Option

by Ben Cohen

Jay Rockefeller discusses a new strategy with Keith Olbermann on how to hold insurance companies accountable, and continue the fight for the public option. The fight isn't over yet:

Alan Grayson is Awesome

by Ben Cohen

First, there was this:

Then, there was this:

Finally, a Democrat who doesn't give a shit about lunatic Republicans, and is willing to say EXACTLY what he means.

Bellwether NewsPaper Switches to U.K Conservative Party

by Ben Cohen

From the Guardian:

A copy of the Sun was torn in half on the platform of the Labour conference today as a succession of senior party figures condemned the paper after it declared that it was backing the Tories.

Tony Woodley, the joint general secretary of Unite, received a standing ovation from the conference as he attacked the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch, and said the Sun had never supported progressive values.

Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, and other cabinet ministers also hit out at Britain's best-selling daily following its decision to publish a frontpage leader declaring that Labour has "lost it" only hours after Gordon Brown finished his conference speech.

Poor Gordon Brown. The man cannot get a break, and the likelihood of him winning the next general election is fading faster than ever. Losing the Sun newspaper (the Murdoch owned paper that has backed the Labour Party since 1997) may well be the final nail in the coffin for Brown as the paper acts as bellwether for the election outcome. This isn't really Brown's fault as the Sun only backed Labour because of all the concessions Blair promised to give big business, but nevertheless, it isn't great news. 

Brown's speech at the Labour Party convention in Brighton was decent, but his lack of charisma, lack of ideas and lack of leadership has cost the party dearly, and Britain must brace itself for a Tory government within the next few months. 

Pulled NewsMax Article: Right Wing Fantasy Gone Mad

by Ben Cohen

The pulled NewsMax article imagining a military coup in the United States really is a riot to read. While it is of course utterly offensive and would have probably led to the writers death in most other countries, it provides a fascinating insight into the mind of a socially dysfunctional fantasist. John L.Perry's article 'Obama Risks a Domestic Military Intervention' is so silly it's funny. He begins with this grave warning (h/t Sullivan):

There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the "Obama problem." Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.

Perry then begins a long list of crimes Obama is committing against the constitution (being black, being intelligent, not being insane etc), and asks us to look at the crisis through the military's eyes:

America isn't the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it. So, view the following through military eyes:

# Officers swear to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Unlike enlisted personnel, they do not swear to "obey the orders of the president of the United States."

# Top military officers can see the Constitution they are sworn to defend being trampled as American institutions and enterprises are nationalized.

# They can see that Americans are increasingly alarmed that this nation, under President Barack Obama, may not even be recognizable as America by the 2012 election, in which he will surely seek continuation in office.

The list goes on, and it get increasingly ridiculous as Perry paints a picture of a country thrown to Islamic terrorists by a latte drinking hipster. More than anything, it shows how disconnected the author is from any sense of reality. Check out this telling paragraph:

Will the day come when patriotic general and flag officers sit down with the president, or with those who control him, and work out the national equivalent of a "family intervention," with some form of limited, shared responsibility?

The writer is clearly imagining a nail biting scene in a Tom Clancy movie where men in crisp uniforms gallantly confront the evil President and recite the constitution in their best 'Go America!' voice. The whole idea of sitting down with the President 'or with those who control him' is also side splittingly funny. While George Bush clearly was manipulated by the neo imperial loons who surrounded him, Barack Obama has proved over and over again that he is a damn sight smarter than almost everyone around him. And certainly smarter than a NewsMax columnist who imagines a center left politician spreading Marxism in the United States.

The dark forces the columnist is imagining exist only in his mind, and charitably, his editors pulled the piece to avoid ridicule. Unfortunately for Perry, he published his article on the internet where it was copied, saved and republished immediately. So now everyone knows what a silly little man he is, and he'll bear the full brunt of a rightly disgusted nation.

The Mean Country

   

by David Glenn Cox

Last winter I wrote a story about the number of people who were dying in house fires after having their utilities turned off. I began to do some research on the growing numbers of tent cities springing up across America. How, I wondered, will these people deal with the coming months of winter cold?

But, as I find is so often the case, I start off on one story and end up doing another. Officially there are over fourteen million unemployed in America. That is the official number that the politicians will own up to; in actuality the number could be as high as twenty million.

I have been unemployed myself for well over a year. I have twenty years of management experience, and I have a great track record with a proven record for results. However, I am over fifty years old and to prospective employers that is the kiss of death. They perceive you as about to keel over from a heart attack at any moment.

U.S and Cuba Begin Serious Talks

by Ben Cohen

Part of the reason I supported Obama over Clinton in the Democratic primaries was Obama's approach to foreign policy. He's an advocate of soft power, while Clinton was about as hawkish as most Republicans.

Perhaps one of the most idiotic facets of American foreign policy is its incomprehensible stance towards Cuba - a completely unthreatening and docile country that poses absolutely no threat to anyone. Cuba has played the role of the punching bag for aspiring politicians who like to look tough on foreign policy issues, and they have paid a heavy price. The decades long embargo has severely damaged the Cuban economy, and it is a miracle the country is as prosperous as it is (and it isn't particularly prosperous).

While Obama stuck to the original script and continued the embargo, he is playing a smarter game by easing restrictions and has welcoming dialogue with the Castro government. And now it looks like the two countries are holding high level talks that would never had happened under a McCain/Clinton government.

It's difficult to tell where the talks will lead, but the fact that both sides are willing to negotiate cannot be a bad thing.

U.S Hypocrisy on Iran

by Ben Cohen

Glenn Greenwald beautifully illustrates the gigantic hypocrisy on Iran:

Just today, a columnist in Capehart's paper, Richard Cohen, suggests we may have to attack Iran.  Over the weekend, another columnist in Capehart's newspaper, David Ignatius, beat his chest and roared:  "It’s hard to see how this one will end short of military confrontation if the Iranians don’t start bargaining for real."  Last week, Capehart's Editorial Page published an attack-Iran Op-Ed from two former Senators (one from each party) who have spent the last year advocating a detailed plan for blockading, attacking, bombing and invading that country.....

And, oh yeah -- we're currently occupying two Muslim countries on either side of Iran, having invaded them many years ago.  There's nothing Iran has done that we and our clients/allies haven't done ourselves to a far greater extent.  But remember:  it's Iran that is run by people with crazy, belligerent, fanatical, war-loving sentiments and is therefore a grave threat to world peace (imagine if Iran had invaded, bombed and then spent the last eight years militarily occupying Canada and Mexico, only for Iranian media elites to keep insisting that it was the U.S. that was the rogue state run by aggressive fanatics who threatened world peace).

I find it consistently amazing the cognitive dissonance U.S politicians and media commentators display when it comes to foreign policy. In their eyes, the U.S is always the good guy, no matter how many vile things it does, and the official enemies list is never, ever questioned. I'm not defending the Iranian government - I don't particularly like it, but you can see why they would want nuclear capability.

Why is it so difficult to see it from the other sides perspective?

Jay Rockefeller is The Man

by Ben Cohen

Jay Rockefeller spells out what a health care bill with no public option really is:

Public Option Shot Down by Corporate Dems

by Ben Cohen

The cowardly corporate Democrats have shot down the Jay Rockefeller public option failed in the Finance Committee 8 votes to 15.

While the Republicans predictably voted no, we have 5 'Democrats' to thank for the failed vote. Here they are (via NY Times):

Mr. Baucus voted no, as did Senators Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and Bill Nelson of Florida, joining all 10 Republicans in opposition.

This is very bad news, but not the end of the fight by a very long way. Progressive Democrats will continue to bring floor amendments to try and re-add public option provisions, and should the House bill includes a public option (which is more likely), there will be an almighty fight to try and mesh the two together.

All is not lost, but the public option is looking less and less likely. The political blow back for the Democrats responsible for losing the public option should be warned: Progressives will not forget what you may do in the coming months. And they will punish you severely for your cowardliness.

Over Population isn't Real Threat to Environment. Rich White People Are.

by Ben Cohen

A fascinating piece by environmentalist extraordinaire George Monbiot, who persuasively argues that the countries with the fastest growing population pale in comparison to rich Western countries when it comes to CO2 emissions:

A paper published yesterday in the journal Environment and Urbanization shows that the places where population has been growing fastest are those in which carbon dioxide has been growing most slowly, and vice versa. Between 1980 and 2005, for instance, sub-Saharan Africa produced 18.5% of the world's population growth and just 2.4% of the growth in CO₂. North America turned out only 4% of the extra people, but 14% of the extra emissions. Sixty-three percent of the world's population growth happened in places with very low emissions.

Monbiot points out that a lot of rich people like to go on about population growth as being a major contributor to global warming and environmental destruction, when their own individual contribution dwarfs that of literally thousands in poorer countries:

Someone I know who hangs out with the very rich tells me that in the banker belt of the lower Thames valley there are people who heat their outdoor swimming pools to bath temperature, all round the year. They like to lie in the pool on winter nights, looking up at the stars. The fuel costs them £3,000 a month. One hundred thousand people living like these bankers would knacker our life support systems faster than 10 billion people living like the African peasantry. But at least the super wealthy have the good manners not to breed very much, so the rich old men who bang on about human reproduction leave them alone.