Comments Posted By Tom Bowler
Displaying 1 To 10 Of 10 Comments
ZUCKERMAN'S LAMENT, KRUGMAN'S DISGUST
"There isn’t much reason and less logic."
Rick, you must be kidding! We have Republican Scott Brown taking the seat once occupied by Ted Kennedy, and he got there by campaigning as the 41st vote against health care reform. This is in true blue Massachusetts for crying out loud. And you think Obama hasn't misjudged the character of the country?
Zuckerman has nailed it. If Obama's health care plan is passed it will undoubtedly be a fiscal disaster for the country. There is absolutely nothing in it that addresses the cost of health care.
There are two things advertised as intended to control costs. One is the threat of a public option, which does not attempt to control health care costs, only insurance costs, supposedly by providing competition. In reality it will reduce it by eliminating small insurers. The other is the threat to reduce the medicare budget by $400 billion which, again, doesn't control costs. It's only a refusal to pay the costs.
Will the plan allow competition across state lines? No. Will it address tort reform? No. Will it address the shortage of doctors and nurses? No.
Although the kind of vote buying that has gone into pushing this health care mess forward is most assuredly legal, it is thoroughly corrupt. Zuckerman is right on the money when he says, "It’s revolting."
Obama, Reid, and Pelosi don't know what will ultimately be in their health care plan and I don't believe for a second that they actually care. For them the important thing is to make as much of the health care industry as possible, and as many people as possible, more beholden to government. The objective the health care plan is not to improve health care. The objective is to create conditions for an enduring progressive majority. It's all politics. And as Zuckerman says, it's revolting.
Comment Posted By Tom Bowler On 22.01.2010 @ 08:57
WAR ON FOX OR BUSINESS AS USUAL?
"I actually think the Bush White House did some serious, lasting damage to CNN by isolating them and dismissing them. I don’t think CNN has recovered yet."
Michael,
You don't think CNN might have shot themselves in the foot by things like their own self-consorship of news from Baghdad in the Saddam era? Or how about hard hitting journalism like fact checking a Saturday Night Live skit?
Comment Posted By Tom Bowler On 23.10.2009 @ 13:25
SHOULD NEWSPAPERS GO NON-PROFIT?
Sorry, Rick. Gotta disagree with you on this one:
"You can say political bias is killing newspapers and you would be picking nits. Bias in reporting only makes the political class angry. No one else really notices or cares."
It's true there are other factors, but bias is so prevalent now at some institutions that readers may not rely on the veracity of the reporting. Who is going to buy a newspaper, or even click on a papers web site, when doubt runs so high that the content is true and accurate. Papers like the Washington Post and the New York Times have destroyed the one thing that once made them indispensable. That would be their own credibility.
And people do notice.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/55_say_media_bias_bigger_problem_than_campaign_cash
August 11, 2008: "The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 55% believe media bias is more of a problem than big campaign contributions. "
Comment Posted By Tom Bowler On 21.09.2009 @ 10:36
CARNIVAL OF THE CLUELESS: THE "WAR IS HELL" EDITION
Rick,
Comment Posted By Tom Bowler On 24.07.2006 @ 11:00
As always, you do a terrific job on the Carnival. Thanks for the complimentary words on my entry.
HALF A MILLION READERS FOR THE HOUSE!
Congratulations, Rick. You get the traffic because you do quality work.
Tom Bowler
Comment Posted By Tom Bowler On 24.01.2006 @ 09:32
Libertarian Leanings
Rick, thanks for your usual great job on this week's idiocy extravaganza.
Comment Posted By Tom Bowler On 10.01.2006 @ 11:38
TOOTING MY OWN HORN SO THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO
Wait a minute. I want to jump on this band wagon, too. My speculative blather in this vain goes all the way back to July 21, 2004, where I said,
"Here's an imaginative scenario. Val and pals from the CIA send Joe on an African junket, expenses paid, for the purpose of finding nothing. This, they hope, will weaken any possible case for military action against Iraq. Joe's exhaustive eight day trip culminates in success. Jackpot! He found it - nothing! Unfortunately the administration made their case anyway citing British intelligence. What to do now."
http://www.libertarianleanings.com/2004/07/thoughts_on_joe.html
I never did get my trackbacks to work, Rick. I'll have to try it again sometime.
Comment Posted By Tom Bowler On 8.11.2005 @ 10:26
With the title "The Best Possible Outcome", I thought you were talking about the World Series. Oh. That was the previous post. Congrats!
But to the topic at hand. I didn't have strong feelings about the Miers nomination to begin with, but I thought Bush missed a great opportunity by trying to avoid the fight that he would have had over someone like Janice Rogers Brown. Let's have that fight.
Comment Posted By Tom Bowler On 27.10.2005 @ 13:45
Terrific job on the Carnival, Rick. And I must say, you're too kind. Extremely perceptive, but too kind.
Comment Posted By Tom Bowler On 30.09.2005 @ 14:20
I'm Godlike too. Quite frankly I've been frustrated. No matter how I try, the message just will not penetrate mortal skulls. Until now. I can't begin to tell you what it means to finally win the recognition I've always deserved. But one thing troubles me. What act of homage should we require of the mortals?
Prostration at our feet, while certainly appropriate might not be workable. With the Republican party growing as it has, the thousands of mortals constantly flopping over on their faces would simply bring the ecomomy to a halt and the country to its knees. Ah! I've just answered my own question. A simple genuflection ought to do it. What do you think?
Comment Posted By Tom Bowler On 18.07.2005 @ 12:04
