US Politics: Papers of Nefarious Clinton Regime Released!

[lokisnow]

continue:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/us/politics/bill-clinton-white-house-papers.html?hp&_r=0

The documents reflect internal fights over direction and include sometimes-blunt assessments of different political actors: One state leader is a retrograde governor with no common sense or compassion. A key congressman is not well liked by state officials. A House Democrat could be a problem unless he is made to feel consulted. Anothers appetite for meetings can never be satiated, and he may be mad unless he is called. Still another requires stroking that will pay dividends later.

Although incomplete reviews of the documents turned up no explosive revelations, collectively they detail the inner workings of a White House during a tumultuous time and reinforce the signal role played by Mrs. Clinton, particularly in her early years before she became a senator and later secretary of state.

Or, apparently, surprising no one except the extreme right, the papers are not shocking revelations and proof of how the Clinton's really chopped off the heads of those who disagreed with them.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-hillary-clinton-efforts-1993-healthcare-20140228,0,2929762.story#axzz2uecF02jU

New transcripts in the first batch include Hillary Clintons private meetings with Senate and House Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill in early September of 1993 about two weeks before President Clinton told the nation it was time to fix a healthcare system that was badly broken and guarantee healthcare that can never be taken away. His wife was placed in charge of the effort, a massively complex undertaking that foreshadowed the Obama administration's more recent tackling of the issue.

In remarks behind closed doors, the first lady outlined the administrations plan which ultimately collapsed and urged members to study the numbers carefully so they would see that it was not an Alice in Wonderland scenario. She noted that she had met with Republicans to solicit their ideas, and said the administration had done modeling relentlessly, day after day after day subjecting financial assumptions to actuaries and accountants inside and outside the government.

If weve messed up somewhere we need to know about it, Clinton said, because we have tried to double, triple, quadruple check ourselves all the way down the line.

In a meeting where one participant complained about the veil of secrecy surrounding the plan and the difficulty lawmakers had in accessing even a 250-page outline that had been leaked to the Washington Post and the New York Times, the first lady told Democratic leaders that the administration was very serious about consultations.

I think that there will be, very honestly, a period of adjustment, a period of setting, before any of you will feel comfortable with all the features of this, because we are really approaching the health care system in a different way, Clinton said in one Capitol Hill meeting. She noted it had taken six months for the administration to understand how the features of the nations healthcare system and its financing worked, as well as the tradeoffs of the approach it was pursuing.

I think that, unfortunately, in the glare of the public political process, we may not have as much time as we need for that kind of thoughtful reflection and research, she said, but I think we have to resist as hard as possible any tendency to leap to judgment until at least the entire framework is laid out and the way things work together is understood.

She explained in detail the administration's controversial plan to cap the rate of growth of Medicaid and Medicare and urged Democratic allies to present those moves as part of an overall program that would improve the level of care for beneficiaries. And she acknowledged that the political hot button for members would be the proposed requirements that employers and employees contribute to their healthcare.

Im not going to underestimate the political battle that will ensue because of this, she said.

The first lady said the administration had studied approaches to insuring universal coverage, but found that even advocates had trouble pinpointing sources of public funding that would win approval from Congress. A solution like a payroll tax would be simpler, she acknowledged, but would not be politically acceptable.

Though she would later embrace it, Clinton described the individual mandate option favored by some moderate Republicans that is, requiring Americans to purchase insurance as a much harder sell that would send shockwaves through the insured population.

I believe weve got the better argument, she said.

By the time she ran for president in 2008, Clinton had embraced the individual mandate, a stance that her then-opponent Barack Obama opposed.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-hillary-clinton-efforts-1993-healthcare-20140228,0,2929762.story#ixzz2ueqwMdAV

in other news, GDP only grew at 2.4 percent last quarter. :(

[Sci-2]

Seems like there'll be nothing there, given Bill and Obama signed off on it.

=-=-=

The Right’s atheism problem: Why it should rethink its marriage with Christianity

It's an interesting assertion, suggesting that Christianity is dying off so conservatives should not tie themselves to a sinking ship. While I do wonder how many more elections can be won via appeals to culture war issues, I don't think the death knell is that close. Then again, it's hard to know how young people will vote on these issues.

I also wonder how many conservatives are driven off by the religious Right. While atheism may be growing, people who will vote for the less religious party solely due to a lack of belief in God would likely be small IMO.

For a few hours Tuesday, American Atheists was scheduled to have a booth at CPAC, the premier right-wing conference the American Conservative Union will host that week. Tuesday afternoon, ACU announced that the invitation had been rescinded, and accused the atheist nonprofit of having “misrepresented itself about their willingness to engage in positive dialogue and work together to promote limited government.” (Featured CPAC speakers this year include Donald Trump, Sarah Palin and National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre.)

“What CPAC has done is effectively bury its head in the sand …” American Atheists president David Silverman countered in a Wednesday interview with Salon. “They are pretending that atheists aren’t relevant. And they are pretending that Christianity still holds water in American society.” A condensed version of our conversation follows.

[lokisnow]

Good news on the 2014 senate race/democrat recruitment effort. Mississippi is in play.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/hotline-on-call/democrats-land-top-tier-senate-recruit-in-mississippi-20140228

Childers, a Blue Dog Democrat, held a solidly Republican House seat from 2008 to 2010, proving his ability to win over conservative voters despite his Democratic affiliation. Democrats are hoping that conservative state Sen. Chris McDaniel topples longtime Sen. Thad Cochran in a June primary—a development they believe will make the race highly competitive.

"He's certainly a first-tier candidate. We expect this to be a first-tier race," said one Mississippi-based Democratic operative. "The Republican primary is very uncertain right now, and we believe the tea-party candidate will make a strong showing."

Childers is following a similar path to Sen. Joe Donnelly, who jumped from the House into a 2012 Senate race against Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana, hoping he would lose to a conservative rival. Lugar lost the primary to Richard Mourdock, whose outspoken conservatism proved out of step, even in a Republican-friendly state.

Cochran is regarded as the most vulnerable Republican senator in a primary, and outside conservative groups are united behind McDaniel. Cochran, a veteran appropriator, hasn't faced a challenging campaign since he was first elected to the Senate in 1978.

Regardless of the Republican nominee, Mississippi is still a very tough state for Democrats to contest, especially in a midterm year. President Obama won just 44 percent of the vote in 2012, and African-American turnout is lower in a midterm election. Childers won reelection in a presidential year—he was first elected in a 2008 special election—but lost by 14 points to GOP Rep. Alan Nunnelee in 2010.

[aceluby]

Seems like there'll be nothing there, given Bill and Obama signed off on it.

=-=-=

The Right’s atheism problem: Why it should rethink its marriage with Christianity

It's an interesting assertion, suggesting that Christianity is dying off so conservatives should not tie themselves to a sinking ship. While I do wonder how many more elections can be won via appeals to culture war issues, I don't think the death knell is that close. Then again, it's hard to know how young people will vote on these issues.

I also wonder how many conservatives are driven off by the religious Right. While atheism may be growing, people who will vote for the less religious party solely due to a lack of belief in God would likely be small IMO.

Yeah, I can't see many people voting on which party has the least amount of religion. The opposite for sure, which is why you see both parties pander to the god fearing crowd. I think a more plausible scenario is that an atheist right leaner is so turned off with the ties to religion that they abstain from voting. I know my father in law did in 2012 and my father stopped voting after Reagan.

[Ormond]

I also think in an American cultural context that just because 20% of "conservatives" say they "never pray", that doesn't mean they would identify themselves as "atheists." The great majority of Americans who have no affiliation with organized religion and say they are "non-religious" nevertheless also say they believe in God and would not be comfortable with labeing themselves as "atheists."

[TrackerNeil]

I think any poll that require Americans to self-identify should be taken with a healthy measure of skepticism. What one American defines as an atheist may not match what her neighbor defines. I wish that these polls would first establish definitions before asking for opinions.

[Shryke]

Yeah, I can't see many people voting on which party has the least amount of religion. The opposite for sure, which is why you see both parties pander to the god fearing crowd. I think a more plausible scenario is that an atheist right leaner is so turned off with the ties to religion that they abstain from voting. I know my father in law did in 2012 and my father stopped voting after Reagan.

I think it's more likely that the general trend is extreme religiosity and the ensuing social positions it forces the GOP to take turn many not-extremely-religious voters off.

[Gneisenau]

I think it's more likely that the general trend is extreme religiosity and the ensuing social positions it forces the GOP to take turn many not-extremely-religious voters off.

But the extreme religious vote do they not ? The GOP just has to be slightly more appealing then the democrats and they will still have the extreme religion vote.

[Shryke]

But the extreme religious vote do they not ? The GOP just has to be slightly more appealing then the democrats and they will still have the extreme religion vote.

Yes, they vote. But that doesn't mean it doesn't also turn off other voters.

Which leaves you with a committed but not-growing (and in this case due to demographics, actually shrinking) voter block.

[Sci-2]

Joe Bageant, Duck Dynasty, and the American Hologram

He often referred to America as “The Hologram”: a self-referential corporatist theatre state in which the consciousness of its denizens had been mutated by an endless parade of consumer spectacle. Could any thinking person really argue with such a clear and concise characterization of America’s modus operandi?

Interesting essay - imperfect from my personal "reality tunnel" but still worth a read IMO. I don't fully agree that Duck Dynasty is a complete distraction - I think it forms a larger social picture - but that debate's been had in Entertainment. (Not to say people can't talk about, I just want to get to some other parts of this thing.)

The recent Duck Dynasty “controversy” is a case in point. Why should anyone care what Phil Robertson, a multi-millionaire pseudo-everyman “reality” star who peddles crap merchandise through Wal-Mart, thinks about anything let alone homosexuals? Did any of the people who piled criticism on Robertson and A&E really imagine they were making some kind of meaningful stand against bigotry? Were the 1.5 million others who rose to his defense on Facebook and elsewhere really deluded enough to think they were defending free speech? The sad and likely answer to both questions is a resounding “yes”. Lacking the ability to recognize let alone focus on what’s actually important, we have become addicted to the celebrity-driven media circus, and are desperate to be a part of it (whether consciously or subconsciously) if it means even a brief respite from our disempowered, anxiety driven lives. Working-class American citizens have been made to feel so small that we now seek vicarious experience and pseudo-empowerment wherever we can manage to drudge them up.

Now allowing for the fact that media shapes public opinion, there is IMO some reality to the way wedge issues are raised to distract from the overlying economic concerns. This is not to say issues like gay rights or reproductive freedom are unimportant but rather that other issues are driven off the stage by continual media and political focus on a subset of concerns. I do admit being a straight male it's probably easier for me to feel that way, but at the same time I do think there's some reality to the fact that problems inherent to both Dems and Repubs don't get raised into the social consciousness.

The notion of "pseduo-empowerment" is something I think is poignant here. One of my worries about the online social justice movement is it allows the feeling of moral indignation and sense of meaningful accomplishment to be achieved with a forum post (yes I see the irony) or even an up-vote. In all the talk of privilege I feel like class concerns get shafted when in at least some cases I think they're paramount. How can some poor white guy in Appalachia be a bigger beneficiary of privilege then someone born with to compartively well off East Coast parents like mine?

Better than anyone else Joe made it crystal clear that the greatest mass delusion hanging over the United States is the widespread belief that we are a “classless” nation where people are supposedly “created equal”. Despite our unusual talent for collective self-denial, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to uphold such a ridiculous myth when 1% of the population is holding 45% of the nation’s wealth hostage. To quote from the seven commandments of Animal Farm: “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”. Many of us who have suffered one indignity or another at the hands of snow-job America have come to recognize that the emperor wears no clothes, but most remain oblivious, willfully ignorant, or apathetic in the face of it. If we can’t recognize, acknowledge, or organize for the class war staring us dead in the eye, what hope do we have of winning it?

Back in the day I'd go to various protests, both as volunteer medic and participant, and it did feel like we were trying to get past a mountain of prejudice against "class warriors". Part of this is the media treatment one can see against the Occupy movement, and part of it is overzealous nature of some protest leaders who think we're just one protest away from the supposed "Revolution".

We need to evolve America, not preserve its current state of arrested development. In an interview held before the 2008 election Joe pointed out that “Ignorance is the worst kind of prison. It’s the one you can barely escape from…because you don’t know why these things are affecting you. But your angst, your confusion, your darkness is somebody’s tool. And that is the business of politics.” Joe constantly touted the potentially revolutionary implications of free, universal education that actually teaches people critical thinking and facts about class dynamics. While it seems unlikely that the capitalist gulag-state will provide such an altruistic service to its captives anytime soon, it doesn’t mean we can’t still work toward that goal on a smaller scale.

Man after my own heart here. Chomsky has a whole presentation about corporate attacks on education as well. (Best saved for another time.)

I didn't really learn about logic beyond the basics for math proofs, and that was at uni. It seems to me the basics of critical thinking would serve all of us well if inculcated into the next generation.

We need to think and act locally. We need to dialogue with our neighbors, even those we might subconsciously perceive as “untouchable”. We need to become conscious in how we utilize language, and how we can make better use of it to break through cultural barriers that only appear insurmountable.

This I think is much more easier said than done. I do agree though that local politics is incredibly important. I think the world might be better served if even online there was more discussion of issues at the local level. Obviously it makes work and social existence more peaceful if you're not confronting people about these things, but it also removes us from finding common ground and considering alternative viewpoints.

“Fairness, justice, the thing that’s right…If you can go to the most fundamental level of what is just, there’s no man so [beaten down] by labor that he will not recognize that, if you keep it fundamental and right enough. And I think for liberals…and that working man alike…that’s the thing that’s the same…the struggle is for the consciousness of the planet.”

Naturally I don't agree with the separation of liberals from working people, especially nowadays I don't know how well that generalization would hold. However I think all in all it was a good essay that spoke to some of my general feels about American politics.

[ThinkerX]

Sci-2, I like the articles at that link. I've long suspected many of the 'reveals' concerning cold fusion, zero point or vacuum point energy, among others.

[Sci-2]

Sci-2, I like the articles at that link. I've long suspected many of the 'reveals' concerning cold fusion, zero point or vacuum point energy, among others.

Yeah, John McGuire is a great guy. He actually introduced me to the more philosophical ideas of the physicist David Bohm and took the time to explain a few things I didn't understand about Bohm's views on how consciousness fit in with the underlying order of things.

I also like his essay rebutting the idea of the Singularity.

[awesome possum]

I know that this really isn't news, but this study kind of puts the lid on the coffin of the idea that the rich are rich because they worked harder than everyone else and did it all by themselves. As the president put it, they really didn't build that. They didn't even pay for recent maintenance.

As a result of substantial enhancements Good Jobs First has made to our Subsidy Tracker database, it is possible for the first time to estimate the share of total state and local economic development awards going to big business. The data show a very high degree of concentration: we estimate that at least 75 percent of cumulative disclosed subsidy dollars have gone to just 965 large corporations, even though these companies account for only about 10 percent of the number of announced awards.

In dollar terms, the biggest recipient by far is Boeing, with a total of more than $13 billion, reflecting the giant deals it has gotten in Washington and South Carolina as well as more than 130 smaller deals around the country. The others at the top of the cumulative subsidy dollar list are: Alcoa ($5.6 billion), Intel ($3.9 billion), General Motors ($3.5 billion) and Ford Motor ($2.5 billion). A total of 17 companies have received cumulative subsidy awards worth more than $1 billion; 182 have received awards of $100 million or more.

[Paladin of Ice]

That's some impressive bootstrapping. Truly cases of making your own way with no help whatsoever.

[Sci-2]

That's some impressive bootstrapping. Truly cases of making your own way with no help whatsoever.

Education is Ignorance by Noam Chomsky

Chomsky's more anti-capitalist than I am, but there's still tons of relevance in his ideas:

There's a side current here which is rarely looked at but which is also quite fascinating. That's the working class literature of the nineteenth century. They didn't read Adam Smith and Wilhelm von Humboldt, but they're saying the same things. Read journals put out by the people called the "factory girls of Lowell," young women in the factories, mechanics, and other working people who were running their own newspapers. It's the same kind of critique. There was a real battle fought by working people in England and the U.S. to defend themselves against what they called the degradation and oppression and violence of the industrial capitalist system, which was not only dehumanizing them but was even radically reducing their intellectual level. So, you go back to the mid-nineteenth century and these so-called "factory girls," young girls working in the Lowell [Massachusetts] mills, were reading serious contemporary literature. They recognized that the point of the system was to turn them into tools who would be manipulated, degraded, kicked around, and so on. And they fought against it bitterly for a long period. That's the history of the rise of capitalism.

[Fez]

Every time I think Republicans can't reach any further heights of self-parody, they go and top themselves. This was Lindsay Graham on twitter today:

It started with Benghazi. When you kill Americans and nobody pays a price, you invite this type of aggression. #Ukraine

Scot, as the South Carolinean I know, I blame you for this.

[Jon Sprunk]

The real question is whether Graham typed that himself, or did McCain tweet it for him?

The world may never know...

[TerraPrime]

McCain? He was probably too busy playing online poker to tweet anything.

[Sci-2]

McCain? He was probably too busy playing online poker to tweet anything.

Didn't he also miss the Congressional Benghazi meeting he was demanding take place?

[Commodore]

first primary of 2014 today in Texas, polls close at 8PM EST, results here

https://team1.sos.state.tx.us/enr/