Our political Quote of the Day comes from the a Chris Cillizza Washington Post piece on a new poll which he notes has some big, fat, warning flags to Republicans who think that they have Barack Obama and the Demmies on the political ropes: Republicans in Washington can barely contain their glee at the turn of President Obama’s political fortunes in the first nine months of the year but a new Washington...

She’s working on beating the opposition at their own game:

This, folks, is why Thomas Franks called them the wrecking crew:

This morning AP reported that the Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws. The NYTimes points to the three-page memo spelling out the policy, but I’m thinking Reason’s Jacob Sullum still believes there’s good reason for legit distributors to worry: [T]he Drug Enforcement Administration can still participate in...

The knock on Barack Obama from the start was his unwillingness to go head to head–”mix it up a little,” as Maureen Dowd urged during the campaign. Now, after a Nobel Peace prize, he suddenly seems to be brawling with everybody, from the health insurance industry down to Fox News. “They’re filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads,” he said this weekend in counterattacking...

For critics claiming we cannot afford health care reform for our own people in which 45,000 uninsured die annually — a report I admit may be high — consider these apples. It costs about $400 a gallon to deliver fuel to our troops in Afghanistan. The Pentagon reports it costs about $1 billion for ever 1,000 troops in that land-locked nation which has an infrastructure worse than the poorest barrio...

If there is an emergency room for lobbyists, the gunslingers for America’s health insurance giants need treatment for shooting themselves in the foot when they went on the attack this week against the Senate Finance Committee’s bill. Their coming out of the weeds has drawn fire, first from the White House (”everyone recognizes their motives: profits”) and now Nancy Pelosi as she warns...

In many parts of India you can see people enjoying bhang/hashish (or cannabis/marijuana) by the roadside without attracting a look of surprise or disapproval. It is only when the Western world began to raise hue and cry that people in the urban areas began to smoke/drink it discreetly at the occasional activation of the dormant laws. In nearly 80 per cent of India it is still openly consumed (generally in...

Hello there, Dr. Estés here w/ a tale of being mix-mastered in the house of mirrors passing for health insurance– or not. The cadeusus w/ sword and serpent once meant instinctive balance of mind/spirit, (serpent considered helping messenger between heaven & earth) w/strong dose of protectiveness toward body via symbol of flaming sword, to fight afflictions. Nowadays, seems more like poke in eye...

Biting the hand that feeds me, I think it is a bad idea that President Barack Obama is urging Congress to kick in an extra one-lump $250 to each of the 57 million seniors, veterans and people with disabilities because they will not receive cost-of-living increases in 2010 from Social Security benefits. It’s not that I prefer to go without. If Congress goes along with the president, and key leaders say...

I would like to invite all writers, editors, commentators and readers to make some major predictions for the future that they believe will transpire by or around certain future dates. I ran this idea by Joe Gandelman last week who told me to run with it. These “revelations” can concern science, technology, environment, wars and militaries, climate change, healthcare, religion, politics, economics, business,...

TNR’s Jon Chait is furious about Republican demagoguery: There’s not much fun in conceding that your side is winning over public opinion by exploiting ignorance and fear. It’s far more pleasant to imagine that the people have risen up in principled revulsion against statism. The vanguard of this fantasy movement rests at The Weekly Standard. One issue from a few weeks ago featured a cover image...

Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All right reserved.

WASHINGTON — Now, two people will have to choose. The fate of the health care bill is largely in the hands of Barack Obama and Olympia Snowe. The Finance Committee’s vote on Tuesday to send its bill to the Senate floor vindicated President Obama’s strategy of giving Congress wide latitude to write the early drafts. Major health reform has advanced further than it ever has before. ...

Democratic leaders are willing to offer her the earth, the moon, and the stars if she will only stay, and not leave them (ital is in original):

The assembly line in the Congressional sausage factory is ready to roll, to stuff what Max Baucus’ butchers have hacked up into a casing with scraps from four other committees in the Senate and House. Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the “Bill Blenders” start work today in a process that will make the past few months look like the Lincoln-Douglas debates as lobbying groups across the spectrum flood...

As a journalism teacher I am often asked: Should media cater to what interests the public or PUBLIC INTEREST? In recent times the media, with honorable exceptions, has brazenly catered to the lowest common denominator (generally pandering to the basest instincts) under the cloak of infotainment. Arianna Huffington, the moving spirit behind Huffington Post, has started HuffPost Impact to talk about issues that...

Sounds True is the superlative audio company that has produced my audio books for the last twenty years… my works like The Radiant Coat, Stories about the Crossings Between Life and Death… a work used by many professionals in health, healing and hospices. Other of my works: Theatre of the Imagination: Thirteen weeks of live performances of myths and stories revolving around dark and difficult life...

The Senate Finance Committee finally voted 14-9 its sweeping health care bill out of committee Tuesday with the lone Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine on board. Whoopty doo. Now maybe we can get down to business and fix the system. This bill is a massive subsidy to private insurance carriers who are not happy because it falls short of universal coverage which would mean more bucks in their pockets with little...

Health care reform is now formally on the move with the Senate Finance Committee’s passage of a historic bill that got the support of all Democrats and one moderate Republican. If it isn’t the undisputed bipartisan vote that the White House sought, it isn’t the totally Democratic party vote that the White House feared. So it’s likely to advance the drive to come up with a bill by the...

Olympia Snowe may not be out of a Frank Capra movie but, as an independent-minded Republican in an era of hard-line party politics, she is certainly an anachronism. When Time Magazine picked her as one of “America’s 10 Best Senators” in 2006, it noted: “Because of her centrist views and eagerness to get beyond partisan point scoring, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe is in the center of...

The Huffington Post reports: Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) said Tuesday that she intends to vote for the Senate Finance Committee’s health care reform package. She cautioned that her vote should be seen as a sign of her faith in the process going forward, not as support for the final package that will arrive on the Senate floor. “Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it,” said Snowe....

In the wake of the criticism over the accuracy of the AHIP-financed report from Price Waterhouse yesterday, it looks like the accounting firm is trying to do some damage control:

The prediction: It’ll pass on a straight party line vote.

What’s so lucrative about selling chicken to China? We sell them parts of the bird that we won’t eat – like the feet. Worth just a few cents a pound in the U.S., American chicken feet fetch 60-80 cents a pound in China. From the Xinjingbao of the People’s Republic of China, this strategy session from Chinese researcher Xue Chung explains more than you ever wanted to know about what China...