CapitalistImperialistPig

Robert Pear, writing in The New York Times, looks at Bush's privatized Medicare insurance benefit and finds the predictable problems: Tens of thousands of Medicare recipients have been victims of deceptive sales tactics and had claims improperly denied by private insurers that run the system’s huge new drug benefit program and offer other private insurance options encouraged by the Bush administration, a review of scores of federal audits has found Probably the worst problem is the systematic denial of claims and obstruction of patient attempts to correct errors. One does not need to be a genius economist to understand the intrinsic problem of this type of privatization: it places the patient and the service provider in adversarial positions. The more effective the insurance company is in denying claims, the more money it makes - thus it has positive incentives to give poor service. This tactic is most effective with the sickest patients who are least able to defend themselves....

Alan Greenspan is 81 years old, I think, so he's probably entitled to a senior moment or two. Which is good, since his recent claim that Saddam Hussein was a threat to close the Strait of Hormuz doesn't pass the geographic laugh test . John McCain is a dozen years younger, but he had a whole flock of either "senior moments" or maybe just dishonesty moments on Meet the Press last Sunday. Josh Marshall has the video goods on those, too.

Alan Greenspan, so far as I know, is not a Catholic, which is just as well, since his recent confessions are far too calculated and self-serving to earn the reward of sincere repentence. I'm thinking of his attempt to evade responsibility for his role in the Bush tax cuts and resulting deficits. Kevin Drum takes a look, here . Paul Krugman penetrates the sophistry and exposes the deception with a well placed shiv: If anyone had doubts about Mr. Greenspan's determination not to inconvenience the Bush administration, those doubts were resolved two years later, when the administration proposed another round of tax cuts, even though the budget was now deep in deficit. And guess what? The former high priest of fiscal responsibility did not object. And in 2004 he expressed support for making the Bush tax cuts permanent — remember, these are the tax cuts he now says he didn't endorse — and argued that the budget should be balanced with cuts in entitlement spending, including So...

How a conservative think tank became a right-wing stink tank. Shorter version: Assume supine position, extend hand, palm up, spread [wallet].

John McCain has brought back his old bus, AKA The Straight Talk Express. In its new incarnation it will be called The Demagogic Lies Express.

The Republican Party has been the stalwart defender of Christian virtue against the supposed evils of homosexuality, so why does it seem that the most conservative, anti-gay reactionaries keep turning out to be closeted Republican gays? Compulsive dishonesty about everything?

NPR went all out to hand Bush a double early Valentine today. First a story claiming that a growing consensus in Washington has concluded that "the surge is working." They hauled out Michael O'Hanlon of the "center-left" Brookings Institution for his usual line of crap (though they did concede that his billing as an anti-war Democrat might be "slightly misleading"). Next was US Representative Bryan Baird (D - Wash) who had voted against the war before he was for it. He thinks we need another Friedman Unit or two before we can start to pull back a little. It's like being the prosecuting attorney at one of those old Mafia trials. All your witnesses suddenly seem to have developed terrible memories. Hillary seems to be ramping up her pro-war rhetoric as well - is the fix really already in? Somebody at least seems to be working at giving the impression.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Fox News Thug Bill O'Reilly decided to go after sponsors of The Daily Kos a bit ago. Kos returned the favor, provoking protests from the likes of our friend Lumo . Since then, the battle has escalated a bit, provoking Atrios to proclaim it "felafel day." For those with short memories, this is a reference to a successful sexual harrassment suit by a female former Fox News producer against O'Reilly, who had the habit of calling her up and asking for phone sex while masturbating himself. O'Reilly blustered about extortion for a bit but shut up and payed quick when she filed transcripts which made it clear that she had a detailed record (recording) of the incidents. One incidental bit of comedy occurred when, according to the transcripts, he suggested sexual acts involving a felafel - most think he meant a loofah - I doubt that a felafel would stand up to a shower, much less hard use in a shower. Brad DeLong extracts some excer...

The most damning information in Nixon's White House tapes has nothing to do with Watergate. It's the conversations that show that Nixon and Kissinger knew in 1971 that the war was lost. Kissinger advised him to wait until after the election, so as not to jeapodize his chances. Another 23,000 American soldiers died, as well as many times as many Vietnamese. The scary part is that Nixon was brilliant compared to Bush.

Josh Marshall finds this quote in a Business Week interview with Sec. of State Condileeza Rice: From Maria Bartiromo's interview of Condi Rice in the current issue of BusinessWeek: MB: Would you consider a position in business or on Wall Street? CR: I don't know what I'll do long-term. I'm a terrible long-term planner.

Joe Lieberman, John McCain and other nutcases want to bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. The President will veto any legislation that crimps his ability to attack Iran. Granting that Iran may be providing some minimal support to Shia militias in Iran, what about Saudi Arabia? Most of the 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. Most of the al Quaeda in Mesopotania foreign fighters in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia. So why are the Saudis immune? Couldn't have anything to do with the close financial and personal links of certain Saudis and certain Bushs, could it?

It's more aptly described as a feature when you: Launch a war under blatantly false pretenses. Fail to commit adequate troops and equipment to the task. Greviously misunderstand the nature of the enemy and of the war you have launched. Fail to plan for any of the likely contingencies. Fritter away the moral high ground. Refuse to accept or comprehend what is actually happening. Refuse to change course when it becomes obvious that you have blundered. The Moral of the Story: Stupidity has consequences. Reality will have its day. Facts sometimes catch up with lies.

The President gave a speech on Iraq today. Rather than listen to my predictable reaction, why not listen to liberal hater, former Bush worshipper, and former war promoter Andrew Sullivan : He's arguing he didn't decide to go to war; Saddam did. He's saying he agrees with his Republican critics. He's blaming the generals for all the combat decisions that have made this war a failure. His blaming Tommy Franks specifically for the troop levels was particularly piquant. So he gave him a Medal of Freedom anyway? Worse, the president conflated every single radical element in the Middle East into one amorphous anti-American entity. It appears that he sees Shiite militias, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Hamas and the Sunni insurgents as indistinguishable. He has even said baldly that the people bombing and murdering in Iraq are the same people who attacked us on 9/11. The Shiite militias? The Baathist dead-enders? What a friggin maroon - and I don't mean Andy - at least not at this ...

From E.A. Torriero's Chicago Tribune article : Fearing complacency among the American people over possible terror threats, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in Chicago Tuesday that the nation faces a heightened chance of an attack this summer. Combine that with the fact that I've now heard at least a couple of right wing talking heads speculate the Bush Presidency might be "rescued" by a major terrorist attack on American soil, and if you aren't nervous, then you haven't seen the Mel Gibson - Julia Roberts Conspiracy Theory recently enough. Or maybe Michael Moore's Farenheit 911 .

If Rupert Murdoch, as widely rumored, has succeeded in buying Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal , we will no doubt soon be seeing Murdoch's trademark soft porn on the news pages of the WSJ. Nowdays, if you want to find boobs in the WSJ, you need to go to the editorial pages .

A popular theory holds that Scooter's friends among the wealthy and powerful got him out of jail. This may have been a factor, but I think it's far more likely that he is the man who knew too much. By springing him, Bush not only takes away Libby's motivation for talking, but sends a powerful message to all the other perjurers and justice obstructors in his administration. Stick with me and you walk - guilty or not.

I don't recommend reading the Washington Post's Angler series on Vice President Cheney before bedtime. It certainly gave me nightmares. I can't think of another high American official who has pursued policies so deeply subversive of the Constitution and the law. Because Cheney combined enormous influence with nearly total unaccountability, he has dominated every aspect of Bush administration policy. Because he combines great secrecy with abominable judgement, those policies have catastrophically failed. Bush bears a huge burden of guilt for outsourcing so much of his Presidency to this man. Fortunately for him, he is too dumb to know it. For an alternative point of view, you might want to check out Tucker Carlson and Jonah Goldberg working themselves into a homoerotic lather over the VP's manly manliness. (Via Glenn Greenwald )

The present Supreme Court is the most radical Court in many decades. They have overturned a large number of previously settled decisions, rolling back desegregation, trashing separation of church and state, and said free speech is only for corporations, not for the people. Each case has been decided by the narrowest possible majority. Adam B of Daily Kos notes that: In one full term, this Court has severely curbed local efforts to promote racial diversity in schools, upheld a right-wing ban on a necessary medical procedure for women, curbed students' free speech rights, crippled Congress' ability to keep corporate money out of political advertising, prevented taxpayers from challenging the constitutionality of Bush's faith-based initiatives, made it almost impossible for women to prevail on claims of longterm sex discrimination . . . and they're just getting started. Unfortunately, these guys are the ones who will be deciding whether the King President is entitled t...

... is not, so far as I know, the name of a new Fox reality show, but if I had to vote, I would definitely pick Rupert Murdoch. A new New York Times series profiles the remarkably successful Australian (and naturalized American citizen) purveyor of soft porn and softer trash news. Murdoch's wealth and media empire gives him tremendous power to buy politicians and influence people. Murdoch’s sprawling media empire was in jeopardy. Congress was on the verge of limiting any company from owning local television stations that reached more than 35 percent of American homes. Mr. Murdoch’s Fox stations reached nearly 39 percent, meaning he would have to sell some. A strike force of Mr. Murdoch’s lobbyists joined other media companies in working on the issue. The White House backed the industry, and in a late-night meeting just before Thanksgiving, Congressional leaders agreed to raise the limit — to 39 percent. One leader of the Congressional movement to limit ownership was Senator Tren...

The Republican party has proven so corrupt in both Congress and the White House that it should by rights be euthanized. Unfortunately, the one party state envishioned by Karl Rove can no more be trusted to the Democrats than to the Republicans. The GOP has clearly become the OGP (Old Gangster Party) so what are we to do? Third parties rarely get going in the US, and this is probably not time for one of those seismic political events to happen, so clearly some other type of massive adjustment is necessary. Such an event occurred in the sixties when the Democrats abandoned their racist Southern component in favor of civil rights. The Republicans inherited a significantly reformed if still bitter South, and Democratic power went gradually into eclipse. Karl Rove and his Justice Department henchmen (von Spassovsky, Sholzman, et. al.) did their best to bring back Black vote suppression but those guys may now be looking at some slammer time. Who or what can put the Republicans back toge...