Watching Obama on Snuffleupagus today dodging around the question of whether individual mandates are a tax or not had me squirming in my seat.

The whole idea of a mandate seems to me like political suicide.  Regardless of whether it is or not, wingnuts will jump on it (Snuffles took his cue and ran with it) as a huge new tax increase, and the media (as it always does) will dutifully "report" on mandates under the right wing framing.  The "public option" story is now buried under the woodshed, and the new 24 hour focus will be on mandates.

I understand the theory behind the shared risk pool, but the argument seems to fly in the face of logic, especially when Obama clumsily tries to compare it to auto insurance, a "mandate" that can be simply avoided by not owning a car.  You can't simply choose to not get sick.

People in this country rebel against the idea of being "required" to do anything, much less spend money, even if it is shown to be good for them.  A mandate will be political suicide among the "independents", whose support Obama badly needs to get reform passed.

If you think the furor over the public option was bad, it will be a whisper compared to the coming outrage over the indiviudal mandate.

I joined the many that have been incensed by Betsy McCaughey's "interview" on the Daily Show last night.  A more potent example of the way opponents of health care reform will spin and obfuscate facts to drum up fear and opposition I haven't yet seen.

McCaughey certainly knows full well what the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative is, and how the paragraphs in HR 3200 discussing end of life measures are talking only about the VOLUNTARY data collection undertaken by this program.  

Still I have to thank her and Jon, because amidst all the furor over "death panels"  I hadn't seen anyone point to the exact legislative paragraphs that led to this "belief"

For the uninitiated, here's a good place to start

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/...

No it's not a typo.

It's increasingly obvious which side of the healthcare debate our corporately owned and run media comes down on.

Take a look at a few of the top news articles posted today regarding a Washington Post/ABC news poll today...

Los Angeles Times:
Public support for Obama on healthcare dips to 49%

Fox News:
Obamas public approval on Healthcare Reform slipping

Washington Post:
Obama's shrinking approval on healthcare

Boston Globe:
Obama under fire on healthcare

Reuters:
Support for Obama slips on healthcare

What the poll actually asked below the fold...

First, let me unequivocally state that my own beliefs on this issue lie firmly with those who believe that

a) we should have never engaged in torture tactics  
b) they don't work  
c) those who authorized them need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  
d) those that actually engaged in performing them should not be allowed to continue in any position where prisoner interaction would be required.

I was also one of those who found themselves extremely disappointed with Obama's recent public positions on the issues.  

Then earlier this week I noticed a CNN online poll that asked the question about whether the torture photos should be allowed to be released and was shocked at the 80% no response.

So today I spent some time at pollingreport.com

The Path to finding out who is behind the Path to 9/11 is a long an winding road through some scary places.  Below is a summary of the facts that I've found so far.. although it seems like there is probably more digging to be done..

The film was tentatively titled "Untitled History Project" and from this came the name of the Production Company, UHP Productions.  (you can confirm this via IMDB..)

Obviously even the tentative name given to this film during it's 2+ years of production illustrates that this film was intended to re-write the history of 9/11.

On Wednesday, Dkos diarist Thereisnospoon compared the influence of internet bloggers and unpaid volunteers vs. the Beltway Democratic political machine in the Connecticut primary..

That's not David vs. Goliath.  This isn't even the NBA champions versus a rec league team.That's more like an ant vs. my shoe.

And the shoe lost.

If anyone needed a reminder of how ant-like the blogs influence on public discourse can be, just tune in to any TV or radio station over the last couple of days. As the media giants shift into ATATT mode (All Terror All The Time), the actual news presented has been viewed through a decidedly Republican lens and slathered with Republican talking points and attacks against Democratic phantom "positions" without rebuttal or even critical questioning from the cheerleaders.

Did you ever notice that anytime a beltway pundit or politician gets annoyed with an argument and wants to quickly bat it down or dismiss it, they always start their reply with "LOOK",  listen up..

LOOK, you idiots in the media desparately trying to find a way to disparage Markos.  I don't give a damn who he knows, who he works for, who's in his "inner circle" and who's not, who he consults for and who he doesn't.. I don't care about these things because he has given me something far more important that I have never had in the last decade, a VOICE.

I confess to being one who needs to search for a "Global Currency for Dummies" book while I'm Crashing Kos's Crashing the Gate party at Quail Books in Raleigh tonight.

But one of the lead stories on Yahoo laments that the dollar is in a pretty uinterruptible downward slide right now, despite supposedly favorable conditions.
 http://news.yahoo.com/...

Surfing by Yahoo this evening I notice some interesting headlines.

Ney to Temporarily Cede House Panel Chair

Poll: Delay Losing Support in Own District

Cronkite: Time for US to Leave Iraq

Over at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, there's a nice faq about the Abramoff case which clearly lays out many of the points our side has been vociferously making.

What is the primary focus of Dkos talk today?  Those "weak, spineless" Democrats.

Yesterday, the 24 news channels were all aflutter with the killing of a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 924.

All the headlines reported as fact that the man yelled "I have a bomb" and reached into his backpack before he was shot.  

News cameras showed the man's luggage being blown up on the tarmac, as dozens of heavily armed agents milled around the plane.

CNN posts a Quick poll in which close to 75% of the respondents said having armed air marshals on planes makes them feel safer.

Welcome to America, post 9/11 hysteria style.

Sorry if I'm late to the party on this, but I've seen a few diaries already bemoaning Howard Dean's comments on some San Antonio morning show yesterday.  I've also noticed the coordinated piling on of the noise machine on what appears to be a fiery new statement from him.. that we can't "win" the war in Iraq.  The cacophony from the right has reached enough of a fever pitch that the top Google searches now for "Dean Iraq" yield a page of stories from all our favorite nemeses and more.. with headlines like

"Dean Iraq is Vietnam: Let's cut and Run" (courtesy Rush Limbaugh)

Prosecutor Ronnie Earle has filed a motion to recuse the administrative judge B.B. Schraub in the Delay case. Schraub appointed Judge CW Duncan to hear Delay's motion to dismiss Democratic judge Bob Perkins, ostensibly for being a Democrat and giving $5,000 to various Democratic organizations over the last 5 years

http://www.law.com/...

My wife and I rented 2 films today, first Mike Tucker's well known and discussed Gunner Palace which offered an honest view of the occupation from some American Soldiers' perspectives.  The second, the not so well known and not so well discussed The Dreams of Sparrows offered the mirror occupation perspective of an Iraqi filmmaker.  We found it moving, frightening, enlightening, and most of all eerily reminiscent of the ideological battle over the war in our own country.

Karl Rove and the Republican party have made clear that their next target in the War On Terror is not Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, or even Iran, or North Korea.  No, their next target is dissent, as in any opposition to their policies.  They want to crush and bury dissent, so no remnant of it is recognizable.  

I think, in this, they have made a colossal error, in that dissent is not just a word, it's not just a feeling, it's not just a belief.    Dissent is a seed, that grows in the minds of individuals.  

It is planted, not by bloggers, or journalists, or clergy into the minds of their readers or followers.  

Winn Dixie is closing over 300 stores and laying off over 22,000 workers.  As Bloomberg says:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aVIYn9hJSAm0&refer=news_index

(plus a personal DSM timeline)

Just call him "Bartelby" Bush.. this week we were all treated to yet another media splash on the inability of our government to find the man responsible for the worst terror attack in history, that murdered nearly 3,000 Americans in one fateful day.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0615/dailyUpdate.html

Newspaper after newspaper reprinted variations of this AP story, not one of them featuring any comments from U.S. leaders, who you'd think would be under severe pressure from the media to explain, why after nearly 4 years, this man is still at large and free to plan more attacks upon our country.  

You would think that there would be daily questions from our stalwart media on what we are doing to catch this criminal and when can we expect to see him stand trial for his crimes against the United States and the world community?

The simple irrefutable answer, is that this administration, prefers not to get Bin Laden, and the media prefers not to care.

By sticking to the rather fact-based assertion that Republicans are merely the party of White Christians, Dean ignored many well known characteristics and traits of the modern day Republican, some of which I hope he addresses in his next informative public discussion.

Great, just great

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/social_security