Month: January 2010

Health care rationing disaster averted by MLK Day?

It was a close-run thing, folks.  The nearest-run thing you ever saw.

Sen. Tom Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said negotiators from the White House, Senate and House reached a final deal on healthcare reform days before Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.

Labor leaders had announced an agreement with White House and congressional representatives over an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans on the Thursday before the special election.

[snip]

Harkin said “we had an agreement, with the House, the White House and the Senate. We sent it to [the Congressional Budget Office] to get scored and then Tuesday happened and we didn’t get it back.” He said negotiators had an agreement in hand on Friday, Jan. 15.

(Via The Corner) No chance at that point for calling an emergency session on Saturday the 16th or Sunday the 17th, of course. But Monday the 18th… was Martin Luther King Day. In other words, a federal holiday. So there was no chance of action until Tuesday the 19th; and Tuesday the 19th was too late.  Imagine what it would have looked like if they had passed this thing on the very day that Scott Brown won a Senate election in Massachusetts on a platform of stopping this thing; but even if you couldn’t, Democratic legislators apparently could.

Moe Lane

PS: Nope, it’s not even ironic.  Just… karmic.

Crossposted to RedState.

Pelosi’s 100 grand bar tab with the USAF. #rsrh

That’s ‘in-flight expenses.’ The full cost for ferrying around the Speaker and the House by the USAF was 2.1 million.  Some details:

Speaker Pelosi used Air Force aircraft to travel back to her district at an average cost of $28,210.51 per flight. The average cost of an international CODEL is $228,563.33. Of the 103 Pelosi-led congressional delegations (CODEL), 31 trips included members of the House Speaker’s family.

One CODEL traveling from Washington, DC, through Tel Aviv, Israel to Baghdad, Iraq May 15-20, 2008, “to discuss matters of mutual concern with government leaders” included members of Congress and their spouses and cost $17,931 per hour in aircraft alone. Purchases for the CODEL included: Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark whiskey, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewars scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.

You know, when it comes to air travel, most jobs require you to fly coach.  And pay for your own booze.  How fortunate we are to have Congressional leadership who are prepared to rise above such picayune considerations…

Moe Lane

PS: Via Dan Collins, who is upset about the Corona. Eh, stick a lime slice in it and it’s drinkable enough. That being said, what the hell is wrong with Pyramid Breweries?  They’re from freaking California!

Quote of the day, liberal distant finger-shaking edition.

On the decision not to subject New Yorkers to a terrorist show trial*:

“Obama and the Department of Justice need to get out there and push back very clearly with the public…Frankly, I thought New Yorkers were made of sterner stuff than this—traffic is going to be disrupted?” said Ken Gude of the liberal Center for American Progress.

Ken Gude lives in the Washington, DC area.

Moe Lane

PS: *I’m not the one who made this one of only two options, sorry.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

So much for a Yoo/Bybee show trial.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) Actually, there are two reasons why the Left is going to be upset:

For weeks, the right has heckled Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. for his plans to try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in New York City and his handling of the Christmas bombing plot suspect. Now the left is going to be upset: an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.

The first reason is, indeed, that their fever dream of seeing Yoo and Bybee in the dock – or even subject to disbarment – will die, choking.

The second reason is that ‘heckled’ is a poor choice of verb for what we did to Holder. ‘Overruled’ works so much better.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Arne Duncan: it takes a hurricane to fix Democratic education policy.

(Via a number of people out there) I’m not upset because Education Secretary Arne Duncan said this about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans education policy:

Martin was quoted as saying: “What’s amazing is New Orleans was devastated because of Hurricane Katrina, but because everything was wiped out, in essence, you are building from ground zero to change the dynamics of education in that city.”

Duncan was quoted as replying: “It’s a fascinating one. I spent a lot of time in New Orleans, and this is a tough thing to say, but let me be really honest. I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster, and it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that ‘we have to do better.’ And the progress that they’ve made in four years since the hurricane is unbelievable. They have a chance to create a phenomenal school district. Long way to go, but that — that city was not serious about its education. Those children were being desperately underserved prior, and the amount of progress and the amount of reform we’ve seen in a short amount of time has been absolutely amazing.”

…I’m angry because it’s true: it took a catastrophe to focus enough attention on New Orleans to make the local Democratic party’s tradition of malignant neglect too politically risky. The Republicans weren’t the ones who wrecked New Orleans’ schools in the first place; and if you expect us to be cheerful about the fact we’re doing well at cleaning up the mess that the Democrats made, well, don’t.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, I to have noticed that a lot of people like to suddenly decide that partisanship in this sort of thing is unfair – once they realize that they’re on the wrong side of it.  Odd, no?

PPS: I see that my colleague Erick Erickson has raised a similar point.  But he’s slightly nicer about it.

Administration cuts and runs on NYC KSM trial.

(H/T: @andylevy) Amazing what one Senatorial election can do. Like, say, make a Presidential administration pay attention to local political concerns for a change.

The Obama administration has abandoned its plan to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, on trial in Lower Manhattan, according to administration officials.

The reversal marks the latest setback for an administration that has been buffeted at every turn as it seeks to close the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And without the backdrop of Ground Zero for a trial, the administration will also lose some of the rich symbolism associated with its attempt to forge a new approach to handling high-value al-Qaeda detainees.

“New York is out,” said an administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been officially announced. “We’re considering other options.”

Try Gitmo. The unilateralist, simplisme cowboy put them there in the first place for a reason, you know. In fact, he actually had a reason for pretty much everything he did…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

The standard by which all future attack ads *must* be judged.

I know nothing about the race for New Orleans Coroner (except that yes, it is an elected position): I don’t know the participants, the issues, the truthfulness of this ad, or even whether I’m helping a Republican or a Democrat by reproducing it.

AND I DON’T CARE.

Via TPM, who couldn’t believe that that an ad where the coroner of New Orleans is being accused of selling organs actually got commercial airtime, either. But they got confirmation.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

When they ask, “Just when did Jim Treacher snap?” #rsrh

…they’re going to point to this post as the first, tragic sign that the rubber band inside his head had begun to fray.

I hope Tai Shan’s crate falls out of the plane and lands in the Pacific Ocean and sinks and he dies and everybody cries. Is that mean?

P.S. Panda Express should serve actual panda. Kung Pao Panda. And then a lightning bolt should hit the Pandas Unlimited-organized picket line.

P.P.S. Pandas are fat idiots who don’t even know how to have sex. Tai Shan should choke on some bamboo. I don’t know why I’m overcome with such virulent hatred of pandas all of a sudden. You guys need to report me to the PADL (Panda Anti-Defamation League).

Ralph Nader could not be reached for comment. OK, that’s a lie: I didn’t bother to try.

Moe Lane