bustardblog

Proofless Powerline

One of the many old-fashioned ideas discarded by neo-con bloggers is the concept of proof.
Powerline quotes Andrew Breitbart in a debate about Hollywood politics in the L.A. Times:

My father-in-law, Orson Bean... was once blacklisted as a Communist back in the '50s. Ed Sullivan called him to say he could no longer book him on the show...  Orson says it's harder now to be an open conservative on a Hollywood set than it was back then to be a Communist.

This is patently untrue.  It doesn't get "harder" to get work than being blacklisted.  People like Ed Sullivan were not allowed to hire him.

Yet for Powerline, a blatantly absurd anecdote is sufficient proof.

(memeorandum)

Your Medical Dollar

Mme Bustard is into her second round of chemotherapy and yesterday was a treatment day. We go uptown to the hospital, where she goes to a large room that has been nicely subdivided into about a dozen cubicles. Each has a bed or a lounge chair for the patient, and a couple of smaller chairs for visitors. Generally, there are about five nurses working there at a time. The protocol for her type of chemo requires an infusion via an I.V. that takes about fifteen minutes. It takes a little while to get the I.V started, so we're generally in the room for a bit under a half an hour.

Her insurance company pays the hospital $2,786.00 per treatment. This does not include blood tests,doctors visits, or anything else.

The nurses rushed us out quickly yesterday, as all they had all been invited to dinner by a drug company. Big Pharma takes them out several times a year, always to 4 or 5 star restaurants.  In New York this is a minimum of $150.00 per person. These nurses install I.V's and watch them drip. They do not consult with the doctors as to what medicine is prescribed.

Just one of the reasons we pay more for worse outcomes than the rest of the developed world...

Phony Numbers

Today's New York Times reports that the Blackwater security firm has fired 56 times thus far this year in Iraq.

The State Department said Thursday that Blackwater USA security personnel had been involved in 56 shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq so far this year.

What it does not report is how utterly meaningless this number is.  Assuming that the Bush State Department actually believes that it is telling the truth, there's no reason to believe that Blackwater is.  When they drive to the airport to pick up the visiting politician, who knows how many shots are fired?

Almost every day, several bodies are found in the streets of Baghdad. No one knows why they were killed or who shot them.

The report does not indicate how the State Department arrived at the numbers released yesterday and there's absolutely no reason to believe them.

memeorandum

Standard Idiot, Weakly

The Weakly Standard clearly agrees with the report published in the Post of a meeting  between Spain's President Anzar, and our President Bush in the run up to our invasion in Iraq. Brian Faughnan's post argues that the fact that Bush told Anzar that Saddam would not go into exile without plans for WMD, proves that Saddam was in fact a threat. 

There is no logic in the post, entitled "Saddam Risked his life for WMD Secrets," especially when you consider that Bush may have been misinformed by U.S. intelligence, or may have been lying in an effort to sell his case for war to Anzar. Even if you assume Bush was accurate in his statement, there is no justification for any conclusions as to Saddam's motives.

As Juan Cole points out, what the report does do is make Bush's dishonest immorality painfully  obvious. Bush did not try to negotiate Saddam's departure from Iraq.  He did not seriously consult with either our allies or the U.N. He was determined to start a war which has thus far killed almost 4,000 Americans.

Bush is despicable enough to implicitly threaten starving Africans if their government did not follow his lead. The report quotes Bush as saying "Angola is getting money from the Millennium Account, and those agreements could also be in danger if they don't show themselves to be favorable." This threat underscores the depravity of the man. In establishing the fund, Bush said that countries that received aid would be identified "based on a set of clear and concrete and objective criteria that would be applied rigorously and fairly."  Voting at the U.N. as per instructions received  President Bush was not listed amongst the criteria.

The report  proves a lot about Bush, but nothing about Saddam Hussein.

In 2008, Dear Lord, Please grant us a Grown Up

Richard Stengel of Time magazine described the leader of one nation as "courtly, preternaturally calm, and fiercely articulate." It wasn't George Bush.  Memeorandum led me to a report in which the press of one nation praised its leader for participating in an open dialog at a University in a hostile land, even though he knew he would be greeted with hostility. It wasn't George Bush. Mr. Bush doesn't have near enough courage to participate in an open dialog at a University in Iran.  He won't even participate in an unscripted dialog at any Ivy League school in the U.S.

I have no sympathy for the despicable regime in Iran.  I do mourn for our nation's hysterical, juvenile reaction to the Mr Ahmadinejad's visit. Please read Rick Perlstein's piece to find out how a real U.S. President treated a visitor from a country that actually was a nuclear power who had personally threatened the United States when he promised to bury us.

(h/t memeorandum)

Rudy Remains Shameless

This year it is really easy to tell the difference between those who are New Yorkers and those who aren't. The tell tale difference is in what surprises them.

• Anyone who is surprised that Hillary Clinton is smart, disciplined and hard working has not spent enough time in New York State. Republicans all start to look like childish bullies when they are around her.
• Anyone who is surprised that Rudy Giuliani is utterly shameless has to read more about him.  TPM reports that he is presently trying to distance himself from a fund raiser that asks his supporters to give $9.11.  Chris Dodd's spokesperson called it right:

"Exploiting the September 11th attacks for fund raising purposes is absolutely unconscionable, shameless and sickening," said spokesman Colleen Flanagan. "Mr. Giuliani was quick to express much vitriol for the independent ad created by MoveOn.org last week; we would hope he would express the same kind of outrage and indignation about this group that he is the beneficiary of."

The problem probably is that Rudy thinks it too cheap. He would rather collect $110.00 per person - there were 110 floors in the World Trade Center. He hasn't even had the fund raiser where each guest has to donate a dollar for everyone who died that day, and Rudy does not like to cheapen the brand prematurely.

(memeorandum)

And the Party of Racism Today is? The Republicans

Bob Herbert must have been reminded today that Racist Republicans don't like being called Racist Republicans - but then reality is never popular in today's GOP.

Herbert's op-ed today was about today's Racist Republican party.  And a lot of wing-nuts didn't like it. He made it perfectly clear that he was writing of what the GOP has been doing for  "the last 40 years." But in order to come up with some proof that they were not racists, bloggers like the Gateway Pundit discussed the events of the 1860's.

Like Ahmadinejihad trying to deny the Holocaust, the wing nuts are also trying to deny historical fact.  Flopping Aces and rightvoices do a hilarious review of the entire history of Republicans and race. Except they want to fast forward through the the last four decades.  The one "positive" item they came up with during all these years was Ronald Reagan's not having vetoed the extension of the Voting Rights Act.

To insult Herbert, jammiewearingfool berates him for "besmirching a man who can't defend himself."  It is true that the dead Lee Atwater cannot speak, and Herbert did in fact quote him. The famed writer at gatewaypundit entitled his screed "The Ugly Side of another failed Black Democrat." But who is the real failure here? Herbert, who is read by hundreds of thousands? or the pundit, who is read by hundreds - on a good day?

AllSpinZone is one of many bloggers who recognize the truth in Herbert's piece:

It is lovely when the GOP reveals its true colors. Anti-child, anti-family, pro-war, anti-black, and because they will not allow democracy in our capitol, we can also call them anti-American.

The recent visitor from Iran will not succeed at rewriting the history of the twentieth century, nor will the Republicans, the party of Racism.

(memeorandum sent me to it)

Mr. Ahmadinejihad comes to N.Y.

New York today was unseasonably warm, and even though they blocked the breeze, it was fun to see the right wing's reality hit the fan.

The huge demonstrations against Iranian President Ahmadinejihad that were promised by the right failed to materialize.

This photo is from Michelle Malkin, who was at Columbia, 116th and Broadway, where the President of Columbia harshly questioned the Iranian.

And their coverage of it was hilarious.  It as if the Persian carpet was pulled out from under them.  Malkin posted comments that were like the photo above - deafening in their silence.  All their outrage at Columbia's invitation was undercut by President Bollinger's "liberal" "Ivy League" "elitist" questions  - tough as nails. Her cautious lack of condemnation smacked of cowardice. Michelle without outrage isn't a whole lot.

Lisa Schiffren, former Quayle speech writer and big supporter of Santorum, was also rendered ridiculous.   She didn't like Bollinger's haircut. She "got a little bored during the science and technology part of the blather" and stopped listening. Even Dan Riehl called her performance pathetic, and noted that "The Corner Misses the Point."

She was pleased by at least one thing - the seriousness of the protesters: "precious few were having any kind of a good time. In general that's a good sign, if it means that these kids know that the stakes are higher for them - and for all of us."

The more serious and important demonstration was supposed to be the one in front of the U.N. In fact, it was almost all kids all having a good time. The vast majority of the "demonstrators"  were 16 and 17 year olds who had been given the day off from their religious high schools. It reminded me of the days when parochial schools closed on St. Patrick's day. (Except these kids weren't drinking. They were text messaging each other like crazy.)

Wing-nut bloggers will try like crazy to find a silver lining in today's events. They will undoubtedly look at donations to Columbia, and, if there's a decrease, they'll sound the trumpets.  If there is a decline in giving, the cause is more likely to be that students like Lisa Schiffren, and this duo, might be seen as representative of the University.

Thanks to meme o randum
too

Taxing and Spending; Here and There

Writing in the New York Review's October 11 edition, Andrew Hacker compiled some numbers comparing a country called Norway with a country called the United States.

Nine percent of the residents of Norway are foreign born; the number here is 12%.  They incarcerate 64 out of every 100,000 residents, while we lock away 715. (That's right, over ten times more.)

While 17% of our children live in poverty, 3% of Norway's do.  Yet the number of hours worked per year is 1,363 in Norway, and 1,824 in the U.S.  Our per capita spending power is virtually the same - they're at $37,108 and we are at $37,624.  We spend 15% of our GDP on health care - they pay 10%.

Just thought that you'd like to know.

Cap'n Ed Gets the Plank

I've had to fire Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters from his temporary position as reasonable Republican. He's just another sleaze merchant.

Mr. Morrissey linked to and praised a thoroughly despicable article on George Soros. The piece, from Investor's Business Daily, is an entirely fact free smear job.

"Soros has a pattern of undermining government institutions and democratic processes. He uses instability to make money in his currency speculation, racking up billions while nations reel from the effects of his trading."

"All Soros groups tend to tear down tyrannies rather than build up democracies."

Do they cite a single fact to back this up? Nope.

Morrissey has a pattern of beating his wife thoroughly enough to require repeated hospitalization. He uses these absences of hers to further his personal agenda while his wife is still reeling.

Despite repeated denials by Media Matters, they write that the organization is funded by Soros. Here's M.M.'s response.  Can we get some facts from Morrissey? Not a chance.

Morrissey is now a full time blogger, funding himself with the gold pulled from the teeth of Jews which his wife inherited from her father, a Nazi and S.S. prison guard.  Morrissey was fired from his previous position as a taxi dispatcher since drivers could not understand his slurred speech, caused by the huge quantities of anti-psychotic medication he takes six times per day.

In Fact

• "Billionaire...Soros is contributing $3.5 million to the fight against a new form of drug resistant tuberculosis."
• "Soros's role [in the collapse of Socialism in Eastern Europe] was crucial. From 1979 he distributed $3 million a year to dissidents including Poland's Solidarity movement, Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia and Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union."
• "his network [of philanthropic organizations] encompass a breadth of philanthropic work, from $100 million for an internet infrastructure for regional Russian universities to $50 million for the Millennium Promise initiative to eradicate extreme poverty in Africa.
• "Soros has financed every kind of project imaginable in promoting this goal [of Open Societies] from supporting dissidents such as Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, to providing water filtration systems for city residents during the siege of Sarajevo."

I could go like this forever - even the hit piece admits he's given away billions. To  Ed, tearing down walls, like tearing down tyrannies, is insufficient.  Meanwhile,

Cap'n Ed is suing the taxi company, as well as the state of Minnesota and the U.S. government for $382 million dollars - arguing that the cab company was not adhering to the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that the state and federal governments had a responsibility to enforce that Act, and have failed to do so.
He hopes to use that money to continue with his anti-American activities - to prevent defendants from having lawyers, to stop frivolous law suits, to end free and fair elections, and to disqualify any card carrying member of the "democrat" party from ever running for public office. To be fair, I must mention that the good Captain has stopped having sex with farm animals.

"And Sir -  the answer is No - in fact, the Captain has no sense of decency."

(h/t memeorandum)