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Nightly Ramble: We’re All Subjects on This Bus

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere The BitsBlog Nightly Ramble

bus2-ramble [1]

  • BRUCE JENNER: ... clearly has a grip on reality [2], and apparently still has the testicular mass to say the truth plainly. But is this really headline stuff? Don’t misunderstand, more power to him, I say.  But is the ability and the inclination to speak the truth clearly and plainly such a rarity anymore that it deserves this kind of treatment?  Maybe it does, but I wonder about the state of our culture, and our country if that’s true that he’s a rarity in that regard.
  • DUMB “REFORM”: Is there anybody left in the country who really thinks that the Democrats are about reformatting health care to save you money?  Did you notice the report from Price Waterhouse [3] on the impact of the Healthcare monster currently residing in the Senate Finace Committee? John Hinderaker did. [4] The report  is both comprehensive and intuitive and yet as has been so often the case in the past, the Democrats immediately pounced on the messenger, and not the message [5]. Says John:

    Democrats responded angrily [6] to the PWC report. AARP, which risibly denies that it is in the bag for the Dems, called it “fundamentally dishonest.” A Baucus spokesman called the report “a hatchet job.” The Democrats’ denunciations are hollow, however. It is possible that they could have read the report before condemning it–it is only 26 pages long–but the PWC report relies mainly on statistical work done by the Hay Group, which is not part of the report and to my knowledge has not been made public. In any event, even if the Democrats had access to the Hay Group’s work, they couldn’t possibly have had time to analyze it.

    Apparently, they consider the message unassailable .Else, as John suggests, they’ve had as much time to actually read and analyze the report as they’ve had time to read and analyze, say, the actual health care bill, or perhaps the TARP nonsense.

    HInderaker1 [7]It actually would be very easy to make health insurance cheaper. All we have to do is allow insurance companies to compete nationally instead of state-by-state and eliminate all mandates that limit consumer choice. It has been estimated that these simple reforms–which are not part of any of the Democrats’ “reform” bills, for obvious reasons–would reduce health care costs by one-quarter to one-third. Instead of such common-sense reforms, the Dems are proposing Rube Goldberg measures that will make health care more expensive. Instead of eliminating mandates, their measures, including the Baucus bill, increase them–in effect making cheaper health insurance illegal.Once more: this isn’t reform, it is stupidity.

    Well, yeah, but it does have the quality of turning the whole mess over to the government. Frankly, that was always the point of this exercise.  Unless and until we start viewing this whole mess through that filter, none of it is ever going to make any sense whatsoever. I think it clear that the only way this thing is ever going to end up, if it manages to get itself into law, is with higher premiums, higher taxes, [8]and a Healthcare system with all the responsiveness of the post office or the DMV [9].  Personally, I wonder what the democrats are going to be saying in terms of excuses when these increased bills lower service levels and so on all come home to roost?   NRO puts up some interesting numbers from that report. [10] I have little doubt that NRO will be on a White House enemies list, soon enough.

  • SNOWE JOB: Will someone please explain to me of what advantage is is to Republicans in general, much less conservatism, to allow Olympia Snowe to retain her position as a member of the GOP? [11] I recognize, of course, that the ask is nigh to impossible.
  • RICHARD NIXON CALL YOUR OFFICE: Speaking of enemies lists,   [12]I wrote extensively yesterday [12] about how the White House is apparently working from an ‘enemies list’ which obviously includes anyone who dares question the Chosen One.  I got a bunch of notes from all over suggesting correctly that the last president to operate in that fashion was Richard Nixon.  And there are others, of course, who have suggested in the past that Obama has had a Nixon momen [13]t at one point or another.  Amazing, accomplishment given the man is only been in office for less than a year.  Even with that aside, the evidence is piling up that this White House has gone into full CYA mode. That seems to me and ominous sign for both our immediate future and for our long-term future   Let’s remember that the response to Richard Nixon, other than drumming him out of office, was replacing him at the next electoral opportunity with the walking disaster that was Jimmy Carter.  I can only imagine a Republican with a Jimmy Carter stature and what that would do the country.
  • THEY SEE IT COMING: Gold at record highs [14]. Dollar weakens sharply [15].  Gee, do you suppose it has anything do to with all the spending Obama’s been doing?  With a weaker United States, is it any wonder the Euro -wienies love Obama? They’re getting what they wanted. Meanwhile, we get the higher costs and the pink slips as our country fails under the sheer weight of Obama’s socialist policies. Someone… please convince me this isn’t happening.