Sunday funnies, pundit style.
NY Times editorial:
Republican critics have a fiercely argued list of reasons to oppose health care reform. One that is resonating is that the nation cannot afford in tough economic times to add a new trillion-dollar health care entitlement.
However, the editorial goes on to point out that Republican critics are lying about cost, both by commission (current plans lower costs slightly) and omission (the cost of not doing anything remains tremendous.) The objection is pure ideology.
Maureen Dowd:
It seems late to realize this, but Gates told reporters he had only recently learned the "eye-opener" that the Taliban were able to attract so many fighters because they paid more. Generals in Afghanistan said the Taliban dole out $250 to $300 a month, while the Afghan Army paid about $120. So Gates has made sure that recruits get a raise to $240.
The American solution is always to throw more money at a problem; now we’re in a bidding war with the Taliban, which doesn’t bode well for the democracy manqué.
Don't be fooled by the title. It's not about Tiger Woods.
Frank Rich:
"Up in the Air" is not a political movie. It won’t be mistaken for either a Michael Moore or Ayn Rand polemic on capitalism. What makes it tick is Ryan’s struggle to reclaim his own humanity, a story that will not be described or spoiled here. But the film’s backdrop is just as primal — and these days perhaps more universal — than the personal drama so movingly atomized by Clooney in the foreground.
Here is an America whose battered inhabitants realize that the economic deck is stacked against them, gamed by distant, powerful figures they can’t see or know. "Up in the Air" may be a glossy production sprinkled with laughter and sex, but it captures the distinctive topography of our Great Recession as vividly as a far more dour Hollywood product of 70 years ago, "The Grapes of Wrath," did the vastly different landscape of the Great Depression.
Thomas Friedman:
The Great Inflection is the mass diffusion of low-cost, high-powered innovation technologies — from hand-held computers to Web sites that offer any imaginable service — plus cheap connectivity. They are transforming how business is done. The Great Recession you know.
The "good news" is that the Great Recession is forcing companies to take advantage of the Great Inflection faster than ever, making them more innovative. The bad news is that credit markets and bank lending are still constricted, so many companies can’t fully exploit their productivity gains and spin off the new jobs we desperately need.
If only the government would bail out the banksters... oh, wait! We did.
Nicholas Kristof offers his yearly "win a trip":
For the fourth time, I’ll take a student with me on a reporting trip to Africa to cover issues of global poverty — and their solutions.
It won’t be comfortable or glamorous. Maybe we’ll interview a president, but far more time will be spent squatting in thatch-roof huts, listening to villagers. Within The Times, my colleagues say that first prize is one trip with Kristof, second prize is two trips. ...
National Journal end of year Bloggers and Insiders polls: Contrast
What annoys the nation's political elite?
To put it bluntly, politicians who go rogue. Sarah Palin and Joe Lieberman have admirers, but plenty of Insiders dislike how they wield their independence as a club and undermine their parties' messages. Insiders generally don't like politicians with hard ideological edges. They prefer people who can stick to their principles without coming off as wing nuts. The political professionals who participated in this Insiders Poll may come from opposing camps, but they appreciate much the same qualities in their parties' public voices.
with
Which voice in the Democratic Party would you most like to mute?
"Anyone who thinks Joe Lieberman is worth having around." Greg Dworkin, Daily Kos
Going back (2/09 and 1/09) full circle on public health infrastructure, The Reveres (Effect Measure blog):
I know some of you don't think this pandemic is so bad. And as pandemics go, it isn't. It could be far, far worse and it might get that way. So far it is following closely the pattern of 1957 which began in the spring, had a second wave that started late summer peaking about now, then subsided, only to come back with a big third wave in January to March. In 1957 we didn't have a vaccine for the new H2N2 that appeared suddenly in the spring. We still don't know if the current vaccination campaign will make this pandemic different from 1957, but no responsible public health official is going to call [off] an all out effort on the chances there won't be a wave 3, which would lead to many thousands of additional deaths, including perhaps hundreds more children. If the people who say the vaccine is completely ineffective are right (and you know we don't think they are) the health departments and hospitals will still be fully occupied with the flu problem in the form of sick people.
If swine flu is a test of public health, we've already flunked. And we have only ourselves -- and the political leaders who have been disinvesting in public health since 1980 -- to blame.
The reason that we're flunking is that there's not enough PH workers to do the job (cover us for H1N1 while doing their day job: inspecting the restaurants and tracking down other outbreaks.) We call it infrastructure, and you can call it jobs... it's why H1N1 belonged in the original stimulus package, and why PH needs to be properly funded going forward.