Yearly Archives: 2009


Bill Clinton on The Daily Show

Follow this link to the three video segments of Bill Clinton’s appearance on the Daily Show. Where else are you going to see an 18 minute interview without commercial interruption?

The major topics covered were Clinton’s foundation, his trip to North Korea, empowering women,  Health Care Reform, and a little on the economy.

I am so glad Jon didn’t make any jokes about the Clinton history and the topic of empowering women.


Newspapers ‘Slit Their Own Throats’

I know a lot of you may have a prejudice about listening to anything Michael Moore says, but this time I think he hit the nail right on the head. Not only that, but he introduces some information into the discussion that I had not known.

Despite what you read on the headline of the video clip below, he said no such thing in what I heard.

Follow this link to the discussion on Huffington Post.


Kennedy Recounts Decision To Endorse Obama

Follow this link to this excerpt from Ted Kennedy’s auto-biography.

This inspired me to post the following comment.

President Obama can be a great President because he inspires people to action.

That means that he can’t be a great President all by himself.  He needs the continuous support of those he inspires.  It is as much up to us to make him a great President as it is up to him.

If we can’t out talk the lies with the truth, then it is our failure as much as it is his.

Keep talking, keep posting, keep blogging, keep writing letters to editors, keep organizing, keep writing to Senators and Representatives, and keep on doing whatever you can think of to overcome the vocal minority and those who are confused by this vocal minority.


Finding New Opportunities Amid the Economic Wreckage

Follow this link to a lecture given by Robert H. Frank.

In the lecture he explains one of the main thrusts of his book, The Economic Naturalist’s Field Guide: Common Sense Principles For Troubled Time. If you don’t know where he is going, the lecture may seem to drag a bit, even though he is humorous.  I think it is worth it to stick it out.

He explains why the Bush tax cuts that went mostly to the wealthy were not good even for the wealthy.  It also explains why they didn’t do much to stimulate an economy that didn’t need stimulation at the time anyway.  In some respects this is even more convincing argument in the current economy  than the argument that you need to give tax cuts to the middle and lower classes because they will spend more of it than the wealthy.

It’s not only a question of how much they spend, but what they spend it for.  Even the lower classes are likely to misspend some of the money than if the money were used for the investments proposed by the President’s stimulus plan.


Coburn-Ryan Health Bill Would Jeopardize Coverage for Many, While Failing To Reduce the Number of Uninsured Significantly

Follow this link to an unbiased analysis of the Coburn-Ryan Health Bill, the Republican alternative to the President’s health care reform plans.

Follow this link to see what the right wing nuts at the CATO Institute have to say.

Follow this link if you want to read the Ryan bill HR 2520 and follow its legislative history.

Follow this link if you want to read the Coburn bill S 1099 and follow its legislative history.

Here are a few biasedly chosen items from the bills’ summaries.

Replaces title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act with a program to provide grants to states

Repeals title XXI (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) (CHIP, formerly known as SCHIP) of the Social Security Act.

Establishes: (1) a Health Care Services Commission to enhance the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of health care services and access to such services; and (2) the Office of the Forum for Quality and Effectiveness in Health Care.

Terminates the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Terminates the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research.


Obama’s Health Care Speech

Follow this link to the video of President Obama’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress on Health Care, Wednesday, September 9th, 2009, Washington, DC

Follow this link to see the prepared text of the speech.

At the same link where you can see the President’s video, you will find a link to the Republican response.  In this response, you will hear them lie about what the President’s bill would do and you will hear them lie about what their own bill would do.  And that is my considered, biased opinion.