HCR: Count Me Out!

Created: December 17th, 2009 | Written By: Macswain

I have spent the last few days reading numerous blog posts on whether progressives should continue to support the Senate Bill on healthcare reform.  These would include posts by Ezra Klein, Nate Silver and Kevin Drum on the pro-side and posts on Daily Kos and FireDogLake on the Con side.

I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer support the “reform” bill in the Senate as it is a gross give away to the insurance industry and does not come close to accomplishing all that we could and should accomplish at this critical point in time with large public support for real reform.  I also think that the passage of this bill will be a political disaster for the Democrats.

I would add that having Gibbs & Axelrod call us “irrational” and “insane,” respectively, is not a way to win the support of those of us who have come to a reasoned conclusion that this bill is bad.  In fact, it only works to diminish my respect for them and President Obama.

Is Facebook unethical, clueless or unlucky?

Created: December 13th, 2009 | Written By: Michael Tedesco

This post is a verbatim repost of Jason Calacanis’ email distribution. I am doing this because I find Facebook’s behavior in this matter repulsive and I am seriosly debating whether to cancel my account as a result. The bottom line here is that if you clicked through the recent terms pop up like I did, you will need to return to your privacy settings on Facebook, click to the new “search” section and uncheck the Public Search Results option which is now set, by default to “Allow search engines to access your publicly available info and any information visible to Everyone.”

Just in case you are saying “so what” let me point out that my wife tested out the results of this little stealth move by Facebook by searching Google for her name. The first thing that came up in Google’s search results – less than a day after she accepted the new terms – was a link to her entire friends list on Facebook!

The sordid details can be found below the fold.

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US Health Care Reform: Made in…Afghanistan?

Created: December 2nd, 2009 | Written By: matttbastard

Stephen M. Walt, commenting on Obama’s recent AfPak escalation and the incongruity of domestic spending initatives vs expensive foreign military endeavours on the part of the US:

As I’ve said before, Americans have come to believe that spending government revenues on U.S. citizens here at home is usually a bad thing and should be viewed with suspicion, but spending billions on vast social engineering projects overseas is the hallmark of patriotism and should never be questioned. This position makes no sense, but it is hard to think of a prominent U.S. leader who is making an explicit case for doing somewhat less abroad so that we can afford to build a better future here at home. Debates about foreign policy, grand strategy, and military engagement — including the current debate over Obama’s decision to add another30,000-plus troops in Afghanistan — tend to occur in isolation from a discussion of other priorities, as if there were no tradeoffs between what we do for others and what we are able to do for Americans here at home.

Thankfully, E-Mart has proposed a modest solution to one particularly contentious domestic issue currently mired in the US Senate:

Maybe we can set up an efficient health insurance delivery system in Iraq or Afghanistan and then import it to the States. Call it a part of our COIN strategy, get Petraeus to endorse it and then ship it home under cover of night.

Wow. That’s so crazy, it just might work.

Le sigh.

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