Buck Naked Politics

Full of Win: Grayson on MSNBC -- The GOP is a "lie factory"

by Damozel | This is how you do it.  When civility gets you nothing but FAIL, this is how you counter the untrue jeering and the lies that just won't die.. This is what we send people to Congress for. From The Hill:

"America is sick of you, Republican Party; you're a lie factory, that's all you do," he told MSNBC on Thursday. "Why don't you work together with the Democrats to solve America's problems instead of making stuff up?"

Grayson then called the party a bunch of "no-mongers."...

"The people who should be apologizing are the Republicans, they're the ones who should apologize for dragging us all through the mud here while we're just trying to improve healthcare in America," he said. "That's all we're trying to do."

Thank you, Alan Grayson, for standing up to the bullies. 

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Colbert: What Everyone Knows but No One Says About Congress & Lobbyists

by Damozel | Stephen wants Dems and Republicans to come out of the closet and march in pride parades with the lobbyists who are giving them money: 

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Out of the Closet
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Colbert: Send Your Health Care Bills to Max Baucus...

...because he can cover it with the $3.2 million he's had from the health care industry.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Send Your Medical Bills to Max Baucus
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Alan Grayson: Response Has Been Overwhelmingly Positive

Grayson: Republicans -- "Knuckle-Dragging Neanderthals" -- Should Do the Apologizing

by Damozel | That's our guy.

After Republicans Demand an Apology, Grayson (D-Fl) Apologizes to the 44,000 People Who Die Every Year for Lack of Health Insurance

by Damozel | Here's yer apology, GOP. Here's the study he mentions.

On Countdown, Arianna Huffington had his back:

Dr. Howard Dean Calls Senate Health Care Bill a Massive Redistribution of Taxpayer Money to the Insurance Industry; Sen. Dorgan Makes Plans to Introduce an Amendment to Undermine the Senate Bill

by Bartleby the Scrivener | Progressives call out invertebrate and corporatist Democrats; Dean calls the bill currently before the Senate Finance Committee exactly what it is. 

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Meanwhile, North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan has a cunning plan.   Nice to see a vertebrate Dem.

Colbert Hails the Triumphant Return to Wall Street of the Credit Default Swap; Takes On Capitalism's Enemy, Michael Moore

by Damozel | Wall Street traffics once more credit default swaps, which is why Colbert loves capitalism more than people.  Colbert loves capitalism because capitalism loves him back!

"You can't regulate evil, but I think I've found a way to chop it up, bundle it, and sell it to Goldman-Sachs." 

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Capitalism's Enemy - Michael Moore
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

Crucial Viewing for Left AND Right; Michael Moore Discusses How Corporatism Is Undermining Old-Fashioned Democratic Values

by bartleby the scrivener | Arianna Huffington, author of Pigs at the Trough, discusses here why Moore's film is so crucial for both left and right.  She writes:

"In capitalism as envisioned by its leading lights, including Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall, you need a moral foundation in order for free markets to work. And when a company fails, it fails. It doesn't get bailed out using trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. What we have right now is Corporatism. It's welfare for the rich. It's the government picking winners and losers. It's Wall Street having their taxpayer-funded cake and eating it too. It's socialized losses and privatized gains.

"Which is why -- although you can bet many will try -- Capitalism: A Love Story can't be dismissed as a left-wing tirade. Its condemnation of the status quo is too grounded in real stories and real suffering, its targets too evenly spread across the political spectrum. Indeed, Jay Leno, America's designated Everyman, was so moved by the film he insisted that Moore appear on the second night of his new show, and told his audience that the film was "completely nonpartisan... I was stunned by it, and I think it is the most fair film" Moore has done." (Huffington Post; emphasis added)

Michael Moore discusses the film with Olbermann on Countdown:

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/barack-obama-must-see-mic_b_293407.html

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Jon Stewart interviews Rod Blagojevich (Extended Version)

by bartleby the scrivener | In which Blagojevich denies ever trying to sell Obama's Senate seat, while his hair continues to insist otherwise.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Rod Blagojevich Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Bail-Out Watchdog & TARP Inspector Neil Barofsky Warns that We Are Now in a "Far More Dangerous Place"

by bartleby the scrivener | From Huffington Post:

"During an interview with the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, Barofsky made some striking observations. Among them were:

1. He found hundreds of banks capable of tracking their use of the TARP money - despite claims by the U.S. Treasury that the task was impossible.
2. If the purpose of the TARP rescue was to increase lending, it has failed.
3. The U.S. financial system, now dependent on bigger and fewer banks, is shakier than ever."  (More; emphasis added)

Arianna Huffington, Author of "Pigs at the Trough," Discusses Wall Street's Great Fall & the Lessons It Didn't Learn from It

What would have happened if all the king's horses and all the king's men COULD have put Humpty Dumpty together again?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Our Unreformed Financial System

by bartleby the scrivener | When the economic crisis hit last year, Paul Krugman and other progressives were hopeful that some good might be wrung out of the market's collapse.  What price such gossamer hopes now?   "The end of the world has been postponed," Krugman said at an economic seminar in Helsinki.   

Meanwhile, in an op-ed at NYT, Krugman points out that for the guys who brought about the collapse of Wall Street, it's now pretty much business as before:

"Even as the rest of the nation continues to suffer from rising unemployment and severe hardship, Wall Street paychecks are heading back to pre-crisis levels. And the industry is deploying its political clout to block even the most minimal reforms.

"The good news is that senior officials in the Obama administration and at the Federal Reserve seem to be losing patience with the industry’s selfishness. The bad news is that it’s not clear whether President Obama himself is ready, even now, to take on the bankers."

Obama's a smart guy, so why is he unable to understand the connection between the way the system rewards the financial industry movers and shakers and the need of banks for a massive bailout by American taxpayers?  Even I understand it.

Bill Maher Talks With Whistleblower & Ex-Cigna Exec Wendel Potter: "If There's Not a Public Option, then the Insurance Industry Wins Hands Down"

by bartleby the scrivener | After the jump, more from industry insider/whistleblower Wendel Potter.  Potter discusses Cigna's tricks and manners from his own first-hand experience and his own transformative experience (people who couldn't afford their co-payments).  He repeats his unfavorable opinion of the Baucus bill and agrees with Bill Maher that it is "a blowjob to the insurance industry" and discusses the role of lobbyists and propagandists from the insurance industry.  "I recognize some of the language."  He explains GOP opposition to the Baucus bill:  "It makes some things illegal that ought to have been illegal a long time ago."   He says:  "If there's not a public option, then the insurance industry wins, hands down." 

SC Supreme Court Makes an Insurance Company Pay $10 Mil for Wrongfully Revoking Policy of 17 Year Old with HIV (& Other Tales of Health Care Rescission)

by bartleby the scrivener |  Murray Waas has the story:

"The South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered an insurance company to pay $10 million for wrongly revoking the insurance policy of a 17-year-old college student after he tested positive for HIV. The court called the 2002 decision by the insurance company "reprehensible." ....

"In the ruling, Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal wrote: "We find ample support in the record that Fortis' conduct was reprehensible ... Fortis demonstrated an indifference to Mitchell's life and a reckless disregard to his health and safety."

"An investigation this summer by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and earlier ones by state regulators in California, New York and Connecticut, found that thousands of vulnerable and seriously ill policyholders have had their coverage canceled by many of the nation's largest insurance companies without any legal basis. The congressional committee found that three insurance companies alone made at least $300 million over five years from rescission....

Frank Rich: Far Right Racism, Rage, and Ranting (& Where Glenn Beck's Demagoguery May be Taking Us); Obama: "It's Not About Racism"

by bartleby the scrivener | From an op-ed by Frank Rich in The New York Times:

"[T]he racist component of Obama-hatred has been undeniable since the summer of 2008, when Sarah Palin rallied all-white mobs to the defense of the “real America.” Joe Wilson may or may not be in that camp, but, either way, that’s not the news. As we watched and rewatched the South Carolina congressman’s star turn, what grabbed us was the act itself.

"What made the lone, piercing cry of “You lie!” shocking was that it breached a previously secure barrier. It was the first time that the violent rage surging in town-hall meetings all summer blasted into the same room as the president. Wilson’s televised shout was tantamount to yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater. When he later explained that his behavior was “spontaneous” rather than premeditated, that was even more disturbing. It’s not good for the country that a lawmaker can’t control his anger at Barack Obama. It gives permission to crazy people....

"Beck has notoriously defamed Obama as a “racist,” but the race card is just one in his deck. His ideology, if it can be called that, mixes idolatrous Ayn Rand libertarianism with bumper-sticker slogans about “freedom,” self-help homilies and lunatic conspiracy theories....It’s the same crazy-quilt cosmology that could be found in last weekend’s Washington protest, where the marchers variously called Obama a fascist, a communist and a socialist, likening him to Hitler, Stalin, Castro and Pol Pot. They may not know that some of these libels are mutually exclusive. But what they do know is that they need a scapegoat for what ails them....

KosTV: Fox's Cavuto Caught on Tape Fabricating 9-12 Teabagger Count for Benefit of Fox Viewers?

by Bartleby the Scrivener | Via Countdown and KosTV:

It's all right for Fox News, I guess -- it isn't as if they pretend not to be Fox News. Original tape after the jump:

Indomitable Health Care Reform Warrior Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) Says Baucus Bill is Dead in the Water

by bartleby the scrivener | Via Jed Lewison:

Health Care Statistics in South Carolina (I'm Looking at You, Joe Wilson & Jim DeMint)

by Damozel |  If you crunch the numbers on "health-care statistics, such as teenage pregnancy rates, infant birth weight, premature births and infant mortality," guess which state comes at or near the tail end?  (Jason Linkins)  Since I'm South Carolinian by birth and upbringing, this really gets me down -- without really surprising me all that much.   For discussion, take a look below:

Colbert Stands Up for an Oppressed Minority -- Corporations

by Damozel | A brilliant rant by my fellow South Carolinian against the influence of corporate campaign donations on democracy.  Yes!  Colbert is right: why not just go to a ballot system where every dollar buys you one vote?