Bumped and promoted. Originally posted 2010-03-20 09:38:16 -0400. CTMan makes a good point. -- GH

President Alf Landon?

"This is the largest tax bill in history," the Republican leader fumed. The reform "is unjust, unworkable, stupidly drafted and wastefully financed."

And that wasn't all. This "cruel hoax," he said, this "folly" of "bungling and waste," compared poorly to the "much less expensive" and "practical measures" favored by the Republicans.

"We must repeal," the GOP leader argued. "The Republican Party is pledged to do this."

That was Republican presidential nominee Alf Landon in a September 1936 campaign speech. He based his bid for the White House on repealing Social Security.

Unless you have some kind of alternate universe revisionist history to go by, expect this kind of campaign lunacy to go over just as well in the next election cycle.

As we wind down to the end of the Healthcare Reform cycle we get a view of the the few Teabagrrrrs that bothered to show up in D.C. on March 16th to make their last stand in fighting against reforms that will likely be voted on tomorrow. New Left Media showed up with camera in hand and documented some of the embarrassingly empty talking points that make absolutely no sense at all. From TomK1960:

New Left Media has compiled one of the funniest (and most pathetic) videos in recent memory featuring interviews with Tea Baggers at the last health care protest in Washington D.C. Although sparsely attended.....the folks who do appear on camera exhibit the consequences of Fox News/Right Wing Radio/Glenn Beck influence to the point of parroting word for word what is preached by these people.

Prepare to be simultaneously amused and appalled at at the misinformation you are about to be view in the GOP funded Tea Party Healthcare Reform Waterloo that comes up shorter than Napoleon both on the numbers that bothered to show up and the FOXiffied facts they toss around:

From TPM we get this Weiner take-down of Noonan:

In a shocking development, Peggy Noonan is accused of making "the most cliched, hackneyed assessments." In this case, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was referring specifically to her take on health care reform. Watch.

       --David Kurtz

There are a lot of interesting points in this video from Morning Joe featuring Anthony Weiner, Howard Dean and Peggy Noonan. While TPM concentrates on the part of Noonan's silliness near the end, unremarkable to anyone who really follows her endless stupidity, and Anthony Weiner's take-down of said silliness, I found the fact that Joe Scarborough, while pointing out some of the very real holes in the bill, said that he is moving closer to Weiner's view of Medicare for All. Watch it all below the fold, along with BIG news on Grayson's Medicare You Can Buy Into Act, because all 8 minutes or so are well worth your time:

Over at Ted Talks (h/t lambert) we get an interesting discussion on "Why Societies Collapse":

Why do societies fail? With lessons from the Norse of Iron Age Greenland, deforested Easter Island and present-day Montana, Jared Diamond talks about the signs that collapse is near, and how -- if we see it in time -- we can prevent it.

From BooMan we get video documentation of some insane and bigoted psycho talk:

Rep. Paul Broun, whose district includes the University of Georgia, went to the floor of the House of Representatives and said:

"If ObamaCare passes, that free insurance card that’s in people’s pockets is gonna be as worthless as a Confederate dollar after the War Between The States — the Great War of Yankee Aggression."

Does any part of that comment make sense? Over at Think Progress, Lee Fang notes a pattern, with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina comparing the effort to pass health reform to Japan's kamikaze pilots and Glenn Beck repeatedly referring to the effort as 'reparations' for slavery. Frankly, I can't decipher Rep. Broun's meaning. It's just psycho talk. But, in this day and age, to refer to the Civil War as ' the Great War of Yankee Aggression' is simply racist.

More Open Thread goodies to snack on below the fold...

From the BBC we get news that scientists have managed to observe fruit fly sperm that they have made glow either red or green and watched them duke it out in the sexual selection process. They believe this breakthrough may help advance theories on evolution and could provide solutions to human infertility:

In nature, monogamy is often the exception, promiscuity usually the rule, the BBC's Matt McGrath reports.

But whenever a female of any species mates with more than one male there is a battle between the sperm of the potential fathers as they attempt to fertilise the eggs.

Scientists regard this type of sexual selection as a very important force for evolutionary change.

...snip...

Prof Scott Pitnick says it was a jaw-dropping moment when he saw the multicoloured sperm through the microscope for the first time.

"It turns out that they [the sperm] are constantly on the move within the female's specialised sperm-storage organs and exhibit surprisingly complex behaviour," Prof Pitnick said.

Below the fold are some other stories on this breakthrough and other related fields of study as recommended by the BBC.

We have a broadband connection at our house so it isn't too bad on downloading information even in comparison to the rest of the world that is burning up the internet with speed. But for the most part the USA is lagging versus the parts of the world that have truly embraced the high speed connection world. Go ahead and take this test to compare where you stand in your State, in the nation and in comparison to internet connections around the world. And please remember that many of the nations that have better or similar connections than you are paying less for it.

When I look at my own results, where our internet connection and most US users' internet connections really lag is in the uploading of information. Something that can be considered a serious issue when you think about Freedom of Speech and getting information out in any Citizen Journalists' world. And when you consider that we have the fiber optics and technology to hit some serious Terabits for connection speeds, it makes setting standards of 100 Megabits for ten years down the road seem like a slow walk that won't even keep pace with the parts of the world that invest heavily in moving forward quickly on this stuff.

In other words, by the time we reach the FCC goals those standards will probably be near obsolete in other parts of the world. And we will still be lagging.

Below the fold are some recent articles from SpeedMatters.org's Blog where they are embracing the FCC's new standards which will be an improvement. But I honestly think we can and should do better and it starts with thinking faster NOW.

And compared to the previous scores of both the Senate and House versions... The costs are down even more:

As Cantor sings deliriously about what he does not understand*, over on the FOX "News" side, where unlike the "opinion" right wing activists they supposedly deal in facts, they can't seem to get the facts straight about whether or not there is a vote:

There is a vote on Healthcare Reform when someone flips their vote on Healthcare Reform but there isn't a vote minutes later when the Dems are using magic** by taking what the GOP calls the unprecedented*** move of deeming a bill passed.

Almost sounds like dizzy political opinion that doesn't reconcile with the truth, eh? But FOX says it is just the "News" and facts in that slot.

* Where understand means Cantor does not like political reality smacking his argument up-side the head with a vote moving ahead.

** Where Magic means evil things only the Democratic party could ever do. If the GOP were to do it it would be called "doing God's work".

*** Where unprecedented means it has been done thousands of times before by both parties BUT it is outrageous that the Dems might do it now.

Via The Existentialist Cowboy, A court case concerning an attempted arrest of Bush in Canada gets about as politically charged as it can get:

Today the trial of Splitting the Sky commenced. Splitting the Sky attempted a citizens' arrest on credibly accused war criminal George W. Bush on March 17, 2009, and was arrested and jailed for doing so by police. Try as its representatives might to disguise their motivations with the kind PR spin doctoring we witnessed in the court today, the Calgary Police, the RCMP and its contractors were under the Harper government's strict political orders to protect the Alberta home turf of the current minority government that came to power as the holder of the Bushite franchise in Canada. Some have termed this historic proceeding as "The Trial of Splitting the Sky versus George W. Bush." From what I witnessed firsthand on day one, the government attempt to manage this highly volatile convergence of law and politics was an exciting affair.

For those of you that might try to point out the lack of the word "alleged" in front of the "Bush War crimes" part of the title, this has already been dealt with legally as Canada had already documented some war crimes of the Bush administration previously in court leading to their placing the USA on its torture watch list:

If your name is not Anthony Weiner, Dennis Kucinich or self-evidently Alan Grayson as you will read below the fold... And you are a member of the Democratic party, then this note is directed at you:

GROW A SPINE, DAMNIT!

Now... Things you can say to show that you may actually have one?

From Rep. Alan Grayson and, YES, he (and most in the left because we have spines) approves of this message taken from his own site:

Of note is the fact that they still have yet to fix any of the underlying problems that resulted in what is nothing more than trillion dollar welfare checks for the bankers:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

"The leaders on Wall Street completely lost any sense of their responsibility to the society," Lewis said. "And if you know you're gonna blow up AIG by putting $20 billion of bad subprime mortgage risk into it even though it's gonna be very profitable for you, you should stop and say this shouldn't be done."

You would think that Wall Street and the bankers would feel some sense of shame because they are living on welfare. But the absurd size of their welfare checks eases their pain and I am sure they would like to thank you for keeping them in the money as you go without. (H/T to Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars)

I am guessing you were probably thinking when you saw the Open Thread title that I may have had 10 questions for you to ask politicians to anwer or something along those lines. Nope. I am talking about 10 simple questions that you need to answer to help keep this country working for you.

I am talking about the 2010 Census.

And the only bad news is that, no! You can not fill it out the 2010 Census online. Below the fold of this Open Thread are links to some basic information on the 2010 Census that is getting underway.

Putting aside all of the kerfluffle about whether or not Durbin will actually whip the good side of Public Option legislation, since that seems to be settled, and whether or not Vice President Biden is willing to play hard ball on the Byrd rule. We know Senator Bernie Sanders is going to toss a Public Option into the reconciliation mix:

It is good to see that Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is willing to defy them and instead go with the will of the American people. From Greg Sargent:

“I think somebody should do that, and I’d certainly be prepared to do that,” Sanders told me when I asked him if he’d be willing to commit to introducing a public option amendment. This is, in effect, a commitment to introduce the amendment if no one else does.

As I have explained earlier, if even one senator offers a public option amendment, and it is ruled germane, it would likely get an up-or-down vote as part of the reconciliation vote-a-rama. Designing a public option/public program buy-in that would be ruled germane and does not violate the Byrd rule should definitely be possible.

And we know it has to be based on an existing program OR legislation that is currently moving and/or pending. And budget neutral or budget saving etc.- blah blah. The most likely vehicle would be Medicare. But it could be Medicaid? What else is there? The VA?

Partially wishful thinking and my best guess?

Hows'about we start with a little dark humor:

Ghastly Al Qaeda Plot Uncovered!

Just hitting the newswire:

The CIA's uncovered an al Qaeda plot to crash 1 fully-loaded 747 every other day for a full year and to continuing crashing 747s until the world bows to this terrorist group. It's estimated that over the course of a year this would result in about 45,000 deaths.

 Source

What's almost as (more?) disturbing is that -- according to anonymous sources -- when the Obama Administration disclosed this plot to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and laid-out its plan to begin, at least begin, thwarting these attacks, Republican members of those committees objected strenuously to the Administration "interfering" in al Qaeda's plans. According to leaked reports, Republicans on Capitol Hill are holding fast to their belief that "The Market" would be better suited to manage this crisis.

And below the Open Thread fold some "real" news taken to task.

Just curious if any of you plan to go to Netroots Nation '10 in Vegas or if you are even thinking about it?