PalMD Gets Mail

It turns out chiropractors are no better than creationists when it comes to intellectual honesty:

A long while back, at the original wordpress incarnation of this blog, I wrote a piece on the reasons that chiropractic is unscientific nonsense. Because it was popular, I moved it over here. Well, a chiropractor has come to bravely defend his field and left us a comment.

A study in the May 2007 issue of the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics reports health plans that use Chiropractors as Primary Care Providers (PCPs) reduce their health care utilization costs significantly.

The study covers the seven-year period from 1999 to 2005. Researchers compared costs and utilization data from an Independent Physicians Association (IPA) that uses Chiropractors as PCPs and a traditional HMO that doesn’t.

[snip]

Study co-author James Winterstein, D.C. says that patients using Chiropractic PCP health care groups “experienced fewer hospitalizations, underwent fewer surgeries and used considerably fewer pharmaceuticals than HMO patients who received traditional medical care.”

I know what you’re thinking. You don’t even need to read PalMD’s delicious dissection of the study to know where the problem lies, do you? It wouldn’t really even matter if the study had been written up in a respectable medical journal rather than the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, which hasn’t the most stellar reputation. No, all you’d have to look at is the fact that patients using chiropractors as their Primary Care Physicians obviously didn’t use as much traditional medical care because their PCP is an alt-med fucktard. Duh-huh.

Read PalMD’s smackdown anyway, as it is absolutely delectable. I’ll give you a morsel. Now, keep in mind, this poor schmuck emailed PalMD this study to try to defend chiropractic against charges that it’s complete and utter bullshit, full of pseudoscience, and has no place in medicine outside the treatment of minor lower back pain.

Now savor this:

The goal of the study is quite clearly set out:

In this article, we are not taking a position on the efficacy of any CAM treatment. Rather, we are interested in the current use of CAM modalities and cost effects of such use, regardless of treatment outcome. These clinical utilization and cost outcomes are compared with previously published results.

In other words, they are looking at alternative medicine vs. real medicine to see which is cheaper, not whether it actually works.

Ha ha ha ha FAIL.

PalMD Gets Mail
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Justifying a Coup

Our right wing is really something special:

Evidently, there is actually some question among certain people as to whether or not the ousting of the president of Honduras by the Honduran military can be considered a coup. You see, they did it on behalf of the legislature, supposedly, so that makes it completely different.

I don’t know about you but if it walks like a junta and talks like a junta…

Anyway, in their quest to turn this into a blow for freedom and democracy, some people on the right have found some interesting new ways to describe it.

Whose description is the most tortured, Orwellian, or otherwise insane?

  • Candidate 1: Interim dictator Roberto Micheletti describes how he found himself in this new role: “I did not reach this position because of a coup. I am here because of an absolutely legal transition process.”
  • Candidate 2: The WSJ’s Mary Anastacia O’Grady describes the military overthrow as all part of a country’s democratic system of “checks and balances.”
  • Candidate 3: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air invents an awesome new concept. This was “less of a coup and more of a military impeachment.”
  • Candidate 4: At the Corner, Ray Walser praised the way “Congress, the courts, and the military joined forces” in a “deliberate, bipartisan manner.”
  • Candidate 5: Rick Moran at the American Thinker doesn’t care if it’s a coup, only who it serves: “Does the fact that the coup is in the interests of the United States even matter to our president?”

Your turn starts…now!

Go here to vote for your favorite Orwellian Euphemism.

I can’t decide. They’re all such wonderful examples of the Con tendency to twist into mental pretzels trying to justify the unjustifiable. 2 and 4 win points for their spectacular misunderstanding of common political terms. 3’s just being a glib dickhead, so although his phrase wins on the “Orwellian” side, it loses on the “tortured” and “insane” scales.

They’re all so precious, aren’t they?

Justifying a Coup

Didn't Miss a Thing – Aside from Pure Fucking Bullshit

Last week, my friends at work invited me to go see Transformers when it opened. I’m a purist, so I said no. I’m not having my delightful childhood memories of a damned fine cartoon ruined by live-action malarkey.

Turns out it’s a bloody good thing I didn’t go, because I would’ve spent most of my time fuming. My friends tell me there was plenty of not-so-veiled racism. And then there’s this:

A reader emailed me the other day to let me know about the political subtexts of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a big-budget action flick released last week. Reader P.C. told me the movie mentioned President Obama in a less than flattering light.

I haven’t seen it, but Matt Yglesias also saw the movie, and noticed its “searing indictment” of the administration.

[O]ne critical turn in the storyline comes when a heroic Major in the United States Army (or possibly Air Force) decides to disobey orders and mutiny against a civilian operative specifically sent by POTUS to take command of the operation. But what’s more, this is no rogue special forces officer, he’s clearly supported in his action by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who elects to turn a blind eye, and leave President Obama (who’s named specifically) in the dark as he cowers in fear in an underground bunker. Obama, you see, has ordered American forces to attempt to appease the Deceptecon threat by halting all collaboration with the Autobots, and agreeing to turn Sam Witwicky over to the forces of evil. By defying Obama and staging what amounts to a coup, the military saves the day.

[snip]

Maybe Michael Bay could stick to explosions and steer clear of political messages? (If we’re lucky, he might also stay away from cameras, the movie industry, scripts, actors….)

If only we were so lucky. Hollywood’s output would improve a thousand-fold if a Transformer prop were to fall over and end Bay’s career. There should be a law against no-talent hacks politicizing movies inspired by iconic childrens’ cartoons.

At least we know whose side he would’ve been on in the cartoon series. It begins with Decepti– and ends in Con.

Didn't Miss a Thing – Aside from Pure Fucking Bullshit

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

Don’t talk to me about why it’s actually yesterday’s news. Grr, argh. Let’s just say a lot of things broke, my company’s games with schedules due to their pathetic attempts to save a few bucks on holiday pay left us understaffed, and things esploded from there. But look at it this way – it’s Happy Hour somewhere.

And I shall do my best to entertain even though I’m having to type this with the laptop precariously balanced on the arm of the chair due to someone deciding laps are for kitties, not computers.

For those of you wondering if Inhofe could possibly get any dumber, the answer is, alas, yes:

On Fox News this morning, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) insisted the Environmental Protection Agency was given evidence that undermines global warming, so the agency hid it to advance “probably the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

Inhofe said the EPA “absolutely” buried evidence undermining policy on global warming after a researcher’s report claimed that carbon dioxide has had little effect on the environment.

“They’ve been cooking that science since 1998,” Inhofe said during an interview on Fox News.

Inhofe argued that there should be a criminal investigation into the EPA report, as well.

“I don’t know whether there would be or not,” he said. “There could be, and there probably should be.”

In our reality, the EPA has an employee — an economist, not a climate scientist — named Alan Carlin who apparently doesn’t believe in global warming. In fact, he insists that global temperatures are “not going up, and if anything they’re going down.” He submitted a “report” arguing that the government shouldn’t worry about regulating carbon emission, relying on familiar conservative arguments.

Strangely, the EPA prefers the work of actual climate scientists when it comes to reversing a ginormous body of scientific consensus on global warming. I believe, Mr. Inhofe, there is a difference between “burying evidence” and laughing heartily as one files the rantings of an ignorant fucktard with delusions of scientific ability in the nearest circular filing cabinet.

Faux News, of course, is ecstatic over Inhofe’s conspiracy theories. Considering they credulously report satire as news, I’m not surprised:

The blog, Elective Decisions, which features “the satire of Chris Davis,” then wrote up a post saying that Ridge responded to Rush by challenging him to a fight:

So this morning, Ridge went back on Washington Journal, responding to Limbaugh’s rhetoric. “I’m so sick of Rush Limbaugh. He’s the reason we lose elections. He needs to get the hell out of the Republican Party. As far as I’m concerned, he isn’t a Republican anymore. The man’s running. The man’s hiding. He’s too scared to face me!”

Ridge continued his rant, threatening Limbaugh. “Meanwhile, he sits there in his ‘Southern Command Post,’ and destroys the Republican Party! I’d like to just have three rounds in a boxing ring with that guy so I could shut him up! I’m caling (sic) you out, Limbaugh. Let’s see if you have a big enough set of marbles to back up your crap!”

Though the “Elective Decisions” blog is clearly marked as “satire,” the Fox Nation linked to the post and promoted it as if it were based on reported facts:

Fox Nation promotes a satire story as a true story.

Next thing you know, Faux’ll be breathlessly running breaking news stories from The Onion. But what else can we expect from a “news” empire that goes to court to protect its right to outright lie?

Now, most news outlets this outrageously stupid would perish, but not Faux. Oh, no. And I think I have a good idea why: their likely viewers can’t even comprehend the fact that a 5-4 ruling is not equal to a 9-0 ruling:

Everyone knew the Ricci ruling would come down today. It was the last day of the session, and the Supreme Court hadn’t issued its decision yet. By mid-day Friday, we knew the ruling would be released early Monday.

And that, in turn, gave the various players plenty of time to come up with their carefully crafted over-the-top responses. I’m afraid some of the leading conservative activists didn’t use the time wisely.

Wendy Long, head of the Judicial Confirmation Network, which apparently exists for no other reason than to attack Democratic judicial nominees, quickly issued a statement this morning with the headline: “Not Even One Justice Approved Sotomayer In Ricci Case.” Yes, even now, Wendy Long can’t spell “Sotomayor.” The press statement went on to say:

“Frank Ricci finally got his day in court, despite the judging of Sonia Sotomayor, which all nine Justices of U.S. Supreme Court have now confirmed was in error.”

Soon after, on a Federalist Society conference call with reporters, additional conservative activists emphasized a similar line.

Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity suggested that the ruling “gives the Senate Judiciary Committee a lot to ask about” and that it brings to light her past statements on this issue.

He was joined by Gail Heriot, a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law in the insistence that each of the nine Justices had rejected Sotomayor’s reasoning in her Second Circuit decision.

There’s a variety of problems with all of this, but the most obvious is the fact that the Ricci ruling was 5 to 4, not 9 to 0.

[snip]

Update: Rush Limbaugh also insisted that Ricci was “a nine-zip decision.” Is the right so far gone that they can no longer count to four?

Short answer: yes. They’re also so far gone that they slurp up slop like this:

NewsHounds:

The headline of the linked article is “House Passes Milestone Energy, Climate Change Bill.” Obviously not happy with the AP headline, the Fox Nation writers, in order to put it in right wing terms the pitchfork gang can understand and appreciate, tweaked it thusly: “Treason? House Passes Direct Assault On Industrial Base.” It is accompanied by a photo of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The AP article is what real journalism is all about, as it describes what happened in the House of Representatives with no reference to “treason.” The Fox Nation headline is a subjective statement of pure right wing propaganda by those who haven’t read the constitution and is aimed at those who are constitutionally illiterate.

Our right wing is either going to implode from its own phenomenal dumbfuckery, or explode from same. They can’t go on like this without one of those two things happening. I just hope they don’t fatally injure America when they finally pop.

Perhaps they won’t, seeing as how they might eliminate themselves first:

While noting that “conspiracy theories have been a constant in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s political career since she first ran for the Stillwater school board in the late 1990s,” the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune’s editorial page called into question the collateral damage that could stem from Bachmann’s irrational 2010 Census fear-mongering. The Star-Tribune points out that not only is Bachmann “a politician interested more in being the face of the fringe element than solving the real-life problems of her north-suburban district,” but that “she may be setting in motion events that could substantially hurt her home state and potentially cost her the office she occupies.” The Star-Tribune writes:

The 2010 census will likely determine whether Minnesota loses one of its eight U.S. House seats; population determines seat allocation. Political experts agree that a few thousand people not filling out census forms may be all it takes for the state to lose a congressional advocate in the nation’s capital. If Minnesota were to lose a congressional seat, Bachmann’s district appears to be candidate for absorption.

I’m torn. On the one hand, it would be a shame for voters to lose a Congressional seat when their population says they should have one. On the other hand, we are talking about a district where the majority voted Michele Bachmann into office. So I think that if her Census fearmongering leads a lot of people to break Federal law and thus lose their seat, I’m going to laugh my ass off with merely a passing pang of pity.

And it gives me hope that these fucktards will crazy themselves right out of public office. That would be awesome.

Happy Hour Discurso

Sanford's Shocking Chutzpah

Forget the fact the little fucker howled for Clinton’s head, but won’t step down himself. Forget for a moment (but only for a moment) that he left his state unhelmed while he scampered to South America for a week of driving along his mistress’s coastline. All of that takes chutzpah. But it takes an absolute motherfucking asshole to cheat on his wife and then ask if he can do it some more:

Jenny Sanford opens up to the AP in an incredible, must-read interview about Mark Sanford and her repeated attempts to save their marriage.

SULLIVANS ISLAND, S.C. — South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford sat in her oceanfront living room Friday, recalling how her husband repeatedly asked permission to visit his lover in the months after she discovered his affair. [emphasis added]

“I said absolutely not. It’s one thing to forgive adultery; it’s another thing to condone it,” Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press during a 20-minute interview at the coastal home where she sought refuge with their four sons. They were her first extended comments on the affair.

…”He was told in no uncertain terms not to see her,” she said in a strong, steady voice. “I was hoping he was on the Appalachian Trail. But I was not worried about his safety. I was hoping he was doing some real soul searching somewhere and devastated to find out it was Argentina. It’s tragic.”

This is the sick, twisted piece of shit so many Cons and Con-loving hacks are bending over backwards to defend. (The latest pathetic performance: Lindsey Graham, with an assist from Mittens.)

Remember that the next time they start spouting off about how they’re such awesome defenders of the sanctity of marriage and family values.

Sanford's Shocking Chutzpah

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

The Cons are out to destroy America:

It hasn’t gotten too much attention — all things considered, that’s probably a good thing — but MSNBC picked up on the calls from some conservatives for a boycott of General Motors. (The idea also got some airtime recently on “The Colbert Report.”)

A sizable share of Americans, recent surveys show, are reluctant to buy from a bankrupt automaker. Complicating matters, the bailout is triggering a harsh reaction from the conservative end of the political spectrum, with some high-profile pundits calling for an outright boycott of what many are calling “Government Motors.”

Among the most vocal is Hugh Hewitt, who has frequently called for a boycott to protest the “Obamaization of the American car business,” both on his syndicated radio show and on his blog.

Hewitt insists that “individual Americans” must resist buying the automaker’s products because, as he wrote in one blog entry, “every dollar spent with GM is a dollar spent against free enterprise.”

I rarely agree with Joe Scarborough, but two weeks ago, he described the idea of a GM boycott as “stupid,” and the conservative proponents of the boycott “morons.”

It’s simple, really. The government stepped in because an enormous American employer was about to go belly-up. The government can’t step out until Americans start buying GM’s cars. Boycotting GM will either lead to indefinite government intervention or the total collapse of a major American employer. And here are the Cons, calling for a fucking boycott.

Way to go, fucktards.

While we’re on the topic of raging stupidity, let’s check in with Pat Buchanan on the recently-passed Clean Energy and Security Act. Some people think it will lead to a cleaner environment, green jobs, and a chance to nip climate change in the bud. Some others whine about higher taxes and so forth. But Pat’s thinking world domination:

Pat Buchanan on MSNBC during a break in their wall to wall Michael Jackson coverage fear mongering over the energy bill that just passed the House.

Witt: Why doesn’t anyone want to call it a climate bill?

Buchanan: Well, because the science is suggesting that maybe all of this isn’t really happening or it’s not really dangerous or it’s not really man made. Barack Obama, the President is right when he said we shouldn’t be afraid of the future. That is how this bill got passed through fear. We’re all going to change. The climate’s going to change. The oceans are going to rise. Our cities are going to be under water.

But more and more scientists are coming forward to say this is a hoax and a scam which is designed to transfer wealth and power from the private sector to the government sector and from the government of the United States to a world government. Which is what we’re going to get in Copenhagen when we get this Kyoto two agreement.

OMFG, what a remarkable doofus. Only Pat Buchanan (along with other right-wing paranoid delusionals) can look into his tea leaves and see a world government in cap-and-trade legislation. As for those “scientists” he mentions, bet you a dollar he’s talking about Inhofe’s list. These people wouldn’t know a scientist if one personally shoved a beaker up their bottoms.

Cons have been rather unhinged of late, but this energy bill seems to have really brought out the inanity in them. Just take the Con party’s very own sad crying clown:

Irony just called and is more than a little pissed off it keeps getting abused by Republicans:

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a few choice words about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) landmark climate-change bill after its passage Friday.

When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, Boehner told The Hill, “Hey, people deserve to know what’s in this pile of s–t.”

[snip]

AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Don’t get me wrong — the bill that was passed on Friday night leaves a metric assload to be desired. But this pretty much sums up Boehner’s position:

[O]ne Democratic aide quipped, “What do you expect from a guy who thinks global warming is caused by cow manure?”

What, indeed?

One could wish stupidity could be limited to the occasional outrageous dumbfuckery over boycotts and bills, but alas, tisn’t. And nothing exemplifies the lack-of-quality of our right-wing punditry so well as this little gem (h/t):

STEYN: SOUTH CAROLINA HAS A CHEATING, SELF-DESTRUCTIVE GOVERNOR BECAUSE OF LIBERALISM

Yup, that’s the message from the insufferable Mark Steyn, along with (as I suggested a few days ago) the talking point that governors should be able to go AWOL for days and days, and the only reason we don’t think so is that we’re zombified addicts of Big Government:

…At the news conference, the governor rationalized his unfaithfulness to Mrs. Sanford by saying that he needed to get out of “the bubble.” …

Although staffers kept up his ghostwritten tweet of the day on Twitter, by Monday state senators were revealing that they hadn’t heard from the Governor since Thursday.

And we can’t have that, can we? …

In a republic of limited government, the governor, two-thirds of the state legislature and the heads of every regulatory agency should be able to go “hiking the Appalachian Trail” for a lot longer than five days, and nobody would notice….

… The real bubble is a consequence of big government. The more the citizenry expect from the state, the more our political class will depend on ever more swollen Gulf Emir-size retinues of staffers hovering at the elbow to steer you from one corner of the fishbowl to another 24/7.

Yup, that’s right — it’s not a problem that he was gone and incommunicado — it’s a problem that we think that’s a problem.

The only thing more pathetic than Mark Sanford’s sexcapades has been the plethora of right-wing justifications for said sexcapades.

Continuing with the media-lackwit theme, here’s a little item you might want to show folks who think they’re getting actual news at Faux News (h/t):

Yes, Fox News has won a court ruling that holds that broadcasters have a 1st Amendment right to deliberately distort news or outright lie on the air. This is a ruling that Fox News sought, and that their lawyers fought for:

A Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.

Hey, at least they’re being honest about their dishonesty.

No, this cuts to the chase on the old, tired argument I get when I try to trash Faux News to true believers: ‘Oh, but all the news lies, it’s just a matter of their view.’

Yes, it is true, in the simplest sense of true, that all news is by definition biased. There can be no truly objective news, because it is presented by humans, who have biases. However, this court ruling shows that Fox News, and Fox News alone, as far as I know, deliberately sets out to distort the truth as a matter of course.

And will go to court to defend their lies, distortions and hackery as “free speech.” In-fucking-credible.

I think all of the above fuckery calls for a song:

Happy Hour Discurso

I Am A Disappointed Admiral – and Somewhere, a Pirate Lawyer is Crying

Look what you’ve done to poor Captain John:


Yes, you. You know how many Elitist Bastards answered this months’ call?

4.

People. Not only is there an infinity of stupidity needing bashing out there, you’ve all let John down on his birthday.

I’m so disappointed I can’t even talk pirate right now. And Captain John – well, here’s a reconstruction of his current state:


This situation must be rectified. If you merely forgot to submit, get your submission in to [email protected] immediately. If you didn’t think you had anything worth submitting, find something anyway – you’re Elitist Bastards, your every word drips with immeasurable intellect. If you’re new and have no idea what’s going on, here are the requirements:

1. Pick one (or more) of your blog posts that blasts ignorance or celebrates some aspect of wisdom, or if you’re really ambitious, does both.

2. Send us the link.

Is that hard? Not at all. Do you have any excuse not to submit a post? None.

I want the COTEB inbox full to the bursting. You have until Sunday morning to wriggle back into John’s and my good graces. Otherwise, you will have to live with the fact that you’ve made John sad on his birthday.

I Am A Disappointed Admiral – and Somewhere, a Pirate Lawyer is Crying

No Sunday Science Today

You should all be diligently working on your submissions for COTEB, you scurvy dogs. And I’ve been too busy press-ganging to whip up a post for this Sunday. Alas, that means even the heroic crew members who already made their contributions suffer a lack of sensational science this week.

See how it is when you make a pirate lawyer cry?

I’ll give you one little science tidbit: according to Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, the most likely explanation for why Europeans had nasty epidemic diseases while Native Americans didn’t was that Europeans had more livestock. Makes perfect sense, really, considering so many of our diseases come from animals, and is a concept easily illustrated:


Yup.

No Sunday Science Today

Happy Hour Discurso

Today’s opining on the public discourse.

Yes, late again, curses. I’ve been busy reading most o’ the day. And then there was the small matter of the empty inbox… (speaking of which, there’s still time to make the Captain and the Admiral happy if you’re reading this before late Sunday morning). But enough with the reasons, let’s get on with the spanking the stupid.

The Census Bureau seems to have gotten there ahead of us:

In the past couple weeks, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has used her public appearances to fear-monger about the 2010 Census.

[snip]

Yesterday, Census Bureau spokesman Steve Buckner spoke to Minnesota Public Radio and said that many of Bachmann’s concerns were misguided.

[snip]

Buckner also said that Census officials have been working with Bachmann’s office to clear up the misinformation:

BUCKNER: Well, we certainly are working with the Congresswoman’s office here in DC, and have already had a briefing with her to explain the rules of the Census and why they’re there, and explain some of the Constitutional law. I mean, the Supreme Court has upheld the powers of the data to be collected. But we’re not asking anything on the 2010 Census that I can see that would be intrusive in terms of the basic information.

As Buckner also pointed out, “For the most part, people put more information on a credit card application than they do on the Census form.”

I hope Michele’s having fun being educated regarding her duties. But I’m not sure she’ll learn. It’s hard to smack sense into the senseless. Which should make it interesting when she breaks federal law by not filling in the Census completely. But I do hope she doesn’t end up in prison. What she needs is psychiatric care, not punishment.

Speaking of psychiatric and other health care, let’s take a moment to see where we’re at. The Prez and the public (along with the vast majority of Dems), want a public option. The GOP and their braindead base don’t wanna public option cuz that’s so-shuh-lized mid-uh-sin. Yet shouting talking points and silly slogans is no way to govern a country. If the opposition party’s opposing, they need to present an alternative. Morning Joe came up with the utterly brilliant idea of asking Rep. Cantor what that alternative plan might look like (video at the link):

Eric Cantor is asked by MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan to explain just what the GOP’s plan is for health care reform, and again, Cantor fails to give any details as to just what their plan is, other than saying no to a public option and offering consumers more “choice”. Even Ratigan points out at the end of the interview that Cantor didn’t answer his question.

As Jason Linkins pointed out at the HuffPo, Cantor had some similar trouble on the same show when asked by Mike Barnicle what the GOP’s plan was for health care reform back on May 6th, 2009.

Jason Linkins also has the specific question-and-answer from that original fiasco, which illustrates the whole bankruptcy of the Con philosophy perfectly:

MIKE BARNICLE: You just raised the issue of health care. We live in the only civilized nation in the world, where if … your child gets sick with a really terrible illness, you might find yourself in bankruptcy court in order to pay the bills. So, without the pretty language, without the big words, can you tell me: what’s your health plan, what’s it going to cost, how are you going to get it done, how can you work with the Democrats in concocting … in coming up with a health plan that works for everyone?

CANTOR: First of all, let me just go in here and address the assumption here in the discussion. We also have a health care system that, in reality, if you are sick anywhere in this world and you can afford it, you can come here for your care because we do have access to the best care, but you’re right, there are too many people who don’t have access to that care, so what we need to do is to be able to address — number one — the coverage and access to insurance, and number two, to be able to demonstrate that we can bring down cost. Now this notion that we are somehow going to allow the government to take over providing the care because that’s going to address the cost factor, is just a false start. You can’t assume that this place in Washington is going to do things efficiently. What we do know is that we need to promote the ability for people to — number one — if they lose their job, they don’t necessarily lose their health care — number two — if they are sick and they have a pre-existing condition, we must allow for them to access affordable coverage, because that’s a huge issue right now, how people can access coverage when they are sick, and that has to do with expanding the risk pools, giving people the ability to access much more affordable coverage. Right now, we are so tied to a third-party payer system that, you know, people are at a whim cut off from access to care. so we’ve got to go back to centering our focus on patient/doctor relationships.

Do you see a plan in there? No? That’s probably because there isn’t one. There’s a hash of lame GOP talking points, magic unicorns, and wishes. A plan it is not.

The truly pathetic part:

So we have the second failure on the same show within a little over a month for Cantor to actually respond in a meaningful way with details and to give them some specific answers on just what the GOP’s health care plan entails. Willie Geist’s response when Ratigan pointed out that Cantor didn’t answer the question….we’ll have him back on again to explain it.

I’m so looking forward to strike three.

Yesterday, the House passed important cap-and-trade legislation. Today, the whining starts. We know the wingnuts would whine, so before we get to them, let’s watch a Dem snivel over imaginary victimhood:

Last night, the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which will establish the first national standards for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and global warming pollution. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) responded on Twitter this morning, saying that the legislation’s cap on carbon pollution would “unfairly punish” Missouri’s families and businesses:

Claire McCaskill tweets on cap and trade

Missouri gets 85 percent of its electricity from coal and is home to the world’s largest coal company, Peabody Energy. Peabody has spent neatly $10 million lobbying against climate legislation since 2008. In reality, the cap-and-trade system the House passed fully protects states now dependent on coal, with multi-billion-dollar programs for advanced coal technology. “My focus in the shaping of the bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee was to keep electricity rates affordable and to enable utilities to continue using coal,” coal-district Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) explained during yesterday’s debate. “Both of these goals have been achieved.”

Deary, deary me, Claire. Looks like your buddies in the coal industry got just what they needed, so you’re little pity party’s just kind of silly now. In fact, it’s just about as silly as the rabid base reaction to the few Republican yay votes:

RedState labeled them “quisling” Republicans who “sold out the nation’s [sic] future.” Malkin put up a “wanted” poster with the eight, under the text: “Wanted in the United States of America for selling out taxpayers.” She went on label them the “GOP’s Cap-and-Tax 8.”

And Robert Stacy McCain is targeting the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), now that the “Monstrosity From Hell That Will Destroy the American Economy” passed with the help of eight GOP lawmakers.

Wow. “Monstrosity From Hell,” even. All this for a watered-down piece of energy legislation that’ll end up costing families under 50 cents per day. Sad, aren’t they? Too bad they don’t get this excited when Congress decides to authorize rampant spying on American citizens.

And then here’s where it gets really funny. Victor Davis Hanson tries to explain that because a few places experienced colder weather this year, global warming’s a complete crock (apparently, he’s too ignorant to know the difference between a long-term trend like climate and a short-term thng like weather. Dumbshit). And then came the WSJ, trumping his dumbfuckery a thousandfold:

Also yesterday, the Wall Street Journal editorial page ran an item from Kimberly Strassel that offered even less persuasive evidence. (via Jon Chait)

The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. — 13 times the number who authored the U.N.’s 2007 climate summary for policymakers.

Ah, yes, the Inhofe list. Strassel sees “more than 700 scientists” who reject evidence of global warming, but a closer look reveals that the list includes economists, engineers, geographers, TV weathermen, and physicists — none of whom has a background in climate science. Some of the “more than 700” actually accept global warming as fact, have asked that their names be removed from the list, only to find Inhofe ignore their requests.

In my favorite example, one of the 700 “scientists” is a weatherman at the FOX-affiliated station in Bowling Green, Ky. The “scientist’ doesn’t have a college degree, believes in creationism, and rejects evidence of global warming because he doesn’t believe “God would allow humans to destroy the earth He created.” He’s also argued that his perspective on science has value, despite not having a background in science, because, “The way I see it, some people are too smart for their own good.”

But other than the fact it’s nearly entirely bogus, yeah, it really shows some skepticism about climate change among scientists, ya, sure, you betcha. *Wink*

It’s things like those that may help explain poll numbers like these:

This week’s big Washington Post poll asked respondents who they trust to handle health care, the economy, the budget deficit, and terrorism. The poll didn’t include a partisan breakdown, but WaPo’s polling director sent it over to us, and here’s where indys stand:

* On health care, 51% of indys trust Obama, and 26% trust GOPers in Congress.

* On the economy, 51% of indys trust Obama, and 31% trust the GOP.

* On the budget deficit, 52% of indys trust Obama, and 30% trust the GOP.

* And on terrorism, 53% of indys trust Obama, and 36% trust the GOP.

To recap: On every one of these major issues — even terrorism — majorities of indys trust Obama, and small minorities trust Congressional Republicans.

No wonder DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan was wondering, with respect to the annual DNC vs. RNC softball game, “Are there even nine Republicans left to field a team?”

Yes, but I’m not sure how many of them can play ball. After all, they’ll always taking their ball and running home…

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