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Entirely too funny. And entirely too true.
That is entirely too sad for words.

Barack Obama: Muddling Centrist

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » A Good Question

Sure, what is happening is more “liberal” than what we have seen the last decade (and considering Clinton was no flaming liberal either, we could say several decades), and yes, the budget is large and made me want to vomit when I first saw the number. But this is not socialism, we are not “soaking the rich,” etc. Nothing radical has happened at all, and if anything, it is the far left who has every right to be pissed impatient because Obama is moving so slowly and so cautiously, and from a progressive standpoint is little more than a muddling centrist.

Once again, I read the work of others and find nothing to say other than, go read it.

Karen Tumulty in Time

The Health-Care Crisis Hits Home - TIME

When we talk about health-care reform, we usually start with the problem of the roughly 45 million (and rising) uninsured Americans who have no health coverage at all. But Pat represents the shadow problem facing an additional 25 million people who spend more than 10% of their income on out-of-pocket medical costs. They are the underinsured, who may be all the more vulnerable because, until a health catastrophe hits, they're often blind to the danger they're in. In a 2005 Harvard University study of more than 1,700 bankruptcies across the country, researchers found that medical problems were behind half of them — and three-quarters of those bankrupt people actually had health insurance. As Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law professor who helped conduct the study, wrote in the Washington Post, "Nobody's safe ... A comfortable middle-class lifestyle? Good education? Decent job? No safeguards there. Most of the medically bankrupt were middle-class homeowners who had been to college and had responsible jobs — until illness struck."

This article should be required reading for every American who thinks that they have decent health insurance. I know it scared the shit out of me.

TBogg strikes again

TBogg » You’re going to miss me when I’m gone. No. No I won’t. Why are you still here?

But no, he didn't, and norbizness, commenting over at LG&M, explains their completely reasonable response:

Yeah, if the marginal tax rate on my 250,001th dollar meant I kept 62 cents of it rather than 65 cents (or whatever the increase would be), I would pretty much go apeshit and fire everyone.

I will miss our Don't Understand the Marginal Tax Rate Overlords. I can only hope my favorite barista makes $249,999 a year or less because 7/11 coffee sucks and my day might come to a grinding halt if it's not freshly ground.

I can add nothing to this. But then I generally can't to his posts.

How not to be self-aware

Via Thers over at firedoglake comes news of this loony site
 The Other White People

This is a blogsite run by Mary Grabar, who does not apologize for being white, who believes that "hope" and "change" come not from some academic, politician, or celebrity, but from within with the help of God, and that Western civilization is the best civilization. All who hold such values are welcome to participate in this forum. You don't have to be white. The only ones not welcome are supremacists of any kind, white, black, or other.

Someone please explain to me how the fuck saying that "Western civilization is the best civilization" isn't fairly equivalent to being a white supremacist.

And while I am in the naming and shaming business. How hard up does Denise Lukas at Academus Design have to be in order that she thinks that this is a good thing to have in her fucking portfolio

Colour me astonished on this one.

LA Times Joins the Birther Loonies

Via Lawyers, Guns and Money comes this piece of weirdness.
Alan Keyes stokes Obama birth certificate controversy | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

The controversy over the validity of Barack Obama's birth certificate is back on a burner with firebrand conservative Alan Keyes making serious new charges.

In a video (see below) released Friday, Keyes, who lost to Obama in the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois that launched the new president's national political career, calls Obama a communist and usurper and says he refuses to acknowledge the validity of Obama's inauguration over lingering questions in the minds of many conspiracists about the 44th president's birthplace.

The U.S. Constitution requires any president be born an American citizen.

In June, the Obama campaign released to The Ticket a copy of the then-senator's Hawaiian birth certificate (see the jump below and also here). But stubbornly persistent critics demand to see the original, which the state has refused to provide, citing personal privacy reasons.

The mind reels at the level of stupidity that went into that post.

Instant Movie Review: FreezeFrame

Just watched this little Irish movie. No bigname actors that i recognized although there was a fellow that was in either the Prime Suspect or MI-5 series. Not sure which and I am too lazy to google it.

The basic premise is that a man was accused (perhaps wrongly) of a gruesome murder 10 years ago and due to a prosecution fuckup he was released. Since then he has had himself under 24/7/52 self surveillance.

The plot follows him as he is accused of another murder and he has to face some of the same police officers involved in the original investigation as well as the inevitable media attention.

It isn't a classic but it is a reasonable way to spend an hour and a half and while I will not tell the ending, I will say that I did not see it coming.