I'm trying to avoid thinking about the depressing HuffingtonPost headline that a secret deal between the White House and BigPharma will lead to a $137 billion increase in market sales for them.
I'd rather gloat over this little item they also reported. It seems that Sarah Palin's latest conspiracy theory tries to implicate the Obama administration in demoting God on U.S. coins. A new design moves "In God We Trust" from its prominent place on the face of some coins to the rim. Palin insinuated that this is another "change" that shows the Obama administration is pushing us toward socialism (hint, hint: "godless socialism," you know?).
Whether it's a result of White House criticism or whether they're finally taking seriously their motto of "fair and balanced," FOXNews actually did some fact-checking on dear Sarah.
It seems that the new design was authorized in 2005 when Republicans controlled Congress, and then it was approved by President Bush. Obama had nothing to do with it.
Now it will be interesting to see whether weepy Gleen Beck jumps on Sarah's conspiracy bandwagon or tries to cover up the embarrassment.
Either way, I found in this a moment of "gotcha" that felt sooo good.
Ralph
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The Big Pharma deal is old, and disturbing, news. As is the reason why the AMA jumped on board - Obama promised there would be no cap on doctor's fees. The Insurance Exchange serves only the needs of the insurance industry and won't bring anyone's healthcare costs down.
ReplyDeleteThe stimulus plan? Well, now we know what it looks like when you turn something like that over to Congress and let them 'craft' an important piece of economic legislation. No plan, no vision, lots of little pieces of pie to be distributed.
Maybe he'll surprise and do something intelligent on Afghanistan, but the early rumors don't tend to promise hope there.
Arne Johnson, Sec. of Education? Can you say 'Standardized Assessments?'
It's kind of hard to ignore the obvious - so far Obama has failed to deliver on much of what he promised during the campaign.
It's kind of hard to overlook that and take solace in the fact that Sarah Palin continues to look stupid. You could argue that continuing to waste energy on Palin destracts from trying to find a why to send a messaeg to Obama.
richard
Richard -- I tend to cut Obama a little more slack than you do, given that much of what he is trying to accomplish has to get through Congress. And, yes, I know there are some things he could do by executive order that he hasn't done.
ReplyDeleteBut I do agree that he has been too quick to compromise or delay and has not shown the bold leaderhship I was hoping for in getting things done. I just read a quote from the Brookings Institute on a similar point:
"Yes, politics is the art of the possible. But leadership is the art of expanding the possible. Leadership without politics is futile. But politics without leadership is blind."
I have a different take on both the Stimulus and Health Care. I think at heart, Obama is a Congressman, and thinks about what he can get passed. I don't know if he could have mustered much more from Congress with the Stimulus. I expect that Health Care is the same way. With the latter, after it has passed, there's a lot of tweaking room. The Medicare we have now is remarkably different from the one from the salad days of LBJ [another Congressman President]. Cheney was a CongressmanPresident too, and effective at getting things through Congress [too effective]. If Obama were to go at Health Care the way we would want him to, I expect it would be in the archives with Billary's try.
ReplyDeleteI hasten to add that I'm not convinced that his Congressman Presidency is a good idea. I expect that what he would say if he got the message would be "they won't buy it."
But as for Sarah, in these trying times, a bit of comic relief is always a nice diversion. Without Palin or Beck, the Daily Show just wouldn't have its old glow.
Hearing something like that about Sarah Palin doesn't feel comical to me; it makes me cringe to think that had the country not rallied behind Obama, she would be one seat away from the Presidency, and we'd be hearing her much more constantly and on a grander scale. With her willy-nilly, facts-be-damned rabble-rousing ways so evident here, it points up how irresponsible the McCain camp was in selecting her. We narrowly escaped (not in poll results, thank goodness, but it was a 1 out of 2 contest after all). I shudder whenever that dawns on me anew, and at every report of her twisted rhetoric. And, yeah, it feels good to gloat and watch her self-destruct (hopefully), but it isn't just mean-spirited or casual gloating, it's more like a hopeful sense of relief that maybe she won't be able to gain any power or momentum that could actually do any damage.
ReplyDelete--Barbara
I still think there are more important issues to focus on and if we let ourselves get diverted by trivialities, then we'll miss the big picture items.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I'm sure you're all following the recent revealtion that the military falsely pretended it was a white woman who was a hero at the Fort Hood shootings(when, in fact it was a black man who shot the alleged shooter). Why did they perpetrate this falsehood? What's the end game?
And what about the 3-5 other shooters those under siege at the scene claimed they witnessed?
This link raises some questions(I honestly know nothing about this guy) but some of the 'facts' that he questions(number of shooters, whether 'allah akbar' was ever really shouted) need to be investigated.
www.infowars.com/foot-hood-shooter-information-not-adding-up/
Even NPR wondered how one man with only two handguns could kill and wound so many people, or why the lockdown of the base after such a massacre lasted only 5 hours.
I have no idea what's going on. But isn't anyone else just a touch suspiscious that we have one more lone crazed gunman shooting people in the US?
Is this really about sending troops to Afghanistan? Or seizing mosques in NYC? Or embarassiing Obama? I have no idea. But as someone who has won regional awards for investigative reporting, the official story is being perpetrated without a lot of provable facts.
richard krawiec
Wow !!! I originally thought of this posting as a throw-away moment of levity. In no way was it meant to indicate a general attitude of ignoring serious issues.
ReplyDelete