It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, but it was close… close enough, I suppose. Alas, President Obama left open the possibility that his preferred public option — which, in my view, should be non-negotiable (see also Krugman on this) — could be replaced with some other alternative to private insurance, such as a non-profit co-op system or a “trigger” (which would kick...

Where is the public place for loss of personal control? Where is the place for ‘fight club?’ The gridiron, the clay court, the roped ring, and other similar, are where that all belongs… there are many many venues for men (and women and children) who ‘cant bear the burden’ one moment longer, to vent their particular pique or outrage. Long ago I knew Chained Lightning Johnson,...

Guest post by Frankie Sturm Frankie Sturm is communications director at the Truman National Security Project and a free-lance journalist. The debate over climate change and energy legislation is becoming a debate over America’s national security. And this is just where the debate belongs. As nearly 150 veterans gear up to visit Washington to ask their senators to take serious action on climate change,...

The St. Petersburg Times’ Pulitzer Prize winning Politifact has its Truth-O-Meter look at Rep. Joe Wilson’s shouted “You lied!” to President Barack Obama and finds: Wilson erred. It’s an extensive post that needs to be read in full, but here is the conclusion: The best argument that we find that health reform would help illegal immigrants is that some might be able to purchase...

In an attempt to regain control of the health care debate if not his presidency, President Barack Obama crafted a speech a fifth grader could grasp and Congress could follow allowing all Americans to receive affordable medical services. What struck me was all the goals and specifics outlined by the president seem reasonable enough for Congress to adopt with all sides of the equation giving up some of their hallowed...

One Right wing blogger raised a bit of a stir earlier this week with his “interesting” explanation of why so many Jews are “liberal” when, if they had the brains God gave a goat, they should be hard core, conservative Republicans. Here’s one Jewish lady who was shocked to find out how unintelligent she must be and how Republicans are the real philo-semitic party. (Don’t feel...

This morning, Mid Stream Radio will be back on the air picking through the aftermath of Obama’s health care speech. Cindy and I will be joined by Rick Moran, of Right Wing Nuthouse, to replay a few of the highlights and lowlights and see what it all means. You can listen live at the show’s web site, join in our comments section (if you have done your free registration at the BTR home page) or call...

India’s favourite spiritual book, The Bhagavad Gita, has made a dramatic impact at Harvard, Wharton and other business schools with its universal message of “concentration, consistency, and cooperation”. In a nutshell: “You can’t succeed in business (or war) unless you develop the intellect, which controls the mind and body.” The Gita remains relevant in the conduct of any...

WASHINGTON — After a listless summer during which his opponents dominated the health care debate, President Obama used a dramatic appearance before Congress on Wednesday to seize control of the autumn, the season of decision for the initiative he has turned into the central test of his presidency. Having avoided specifics in order to give the House and Senate room to legislate, he piled on the...

An appointment in L.A. for non-blogging business meant that I’d miss part of President Obama’s speech on health care but I knew I could catch at least some of it on the radio. Switching the dial, I heard always-lively conservative talker Mark Levin talking over Obama’s speech, making sarcastic negative comments throughout. So I switched to trusted news radio KNX for the unfiltered speech —...

If passion, eloquence and moral gravity were the main currency of American politics, Barack Obama would have changed the course of the health care debate tonight. But with Washington as it is, the President could hope for no more than to restore some sanity by calling out the opposition for its “scare tactics,” indicting insurance companies for greed and evoking the “large-heartedness”...

I heard most the President’s speech tonight over the radio. Here are some of what I thought were highlights and what I thought. What this plan will do is to make the insurance you have work better for you. Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. As soon as I sign this bill, it will be against the law for insurance companies...

I watched the speech earlier but for me it came right around dinnertime so I decided to eat and take some time to gather a few thoughts before posting. As always I thought his speech was quite good on style, there is no doubting that the man can give a superb speech. His skills are such that even if you disagree with what he is saying you can’t help but to be charmed by him anyway. I also felt that Congressman...

There isn’t much commentary up yet, but I saw the whole thing, and it was everything that it had to be to get back control over health care reform. In fact, I thought the speech was overwhelmingly good. It was tight, well organized, superbly paced, impassioned, and convincing. And Obama stood up for the public option.

Tonight, the President of the United States takes to the air again at 8 PM eastern to explain to us why, if we like our doctors, we’ll get to keep our doctors under a public plan, even if our insurance providers who provide coverage through our employers go out of business. Never shirking from my duty here at TMV, I will be joining Rick Moran and Ed Morrissey for live coverage of the event. You will be...

It appears Ezra Klein is not the only Progressive-inclined pundit who has semi-nice things to say about Sen. Baucus’ proposal. Here’s Matt Yglesias, via Andrew Sullivan: The status quo in the United States is really bad. Baucus’ plan would make it better. That line and this one from Yglesias — “even in its meager Baucusish form, the health reform currently on the table would be the...

This is serious, folks. I cannot repeat or stress this enough. This is serious:

California Assemblyman Mike Duvall (R-Yorba Linda) has resigned after the family values politician talked into a mike he didn’t know was hot as he talked about his hot affairs with two women. Here’s a TV report that helped break and spread the story:

RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Now I can understand that perhaps Mr. Friedman doesn’t like what he sees as corporate influence over our government, I think most of us don’t like it. While I would strongly disagree with him, I could even understand if he wanted to ban anyone more conservative that Ted Kennedy from being allowed to participate in politics. But looking to CHINA as an example of good government ?? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/opinion/09friedman.html?_r=2 Reasonably...

, , We have been so absorbed by issues such as what health care reform will do to our national character and what the President of the United States will say to our kids (and I am not minimizing the importance of these concerns), that other issues and stories have tended to go completely off the public’s radar screen. One such story is the never-ending personal tragedy of David Goldman, the New Jersey...

In tonight’s confrontation with Congress, Barack Obama will not be sweet-talking Republicans, who are locked into a long-term temper tantrum, but Democrats and independents who embraced him last November and expected to live happily ever after. Maureen Dowd, as usual, puts it in quasi-sexual terms, complaining that she “always knew he was going to be trouble…He was going to be the kind of guy...

Newsweek’s “The Gaggle” offers this analysis.

So concludes Ezra Klein: The legislation really would protect millions of Americans from medical bankruptcy. It really would insure tens of millions of people. It really will curb the worst practices of the private insurance industry. It really will expand Medicaid and transform it from a mish-mash of state regulation into a dependable benefit. It really will lay down out-of-pocket caps which are a lot better...

That comes from Tunku Varadarajan, a newcomer to the United States (which I just typed as “Untied States,” talk about Freudian slips). Here is more of an op-ed Varadarajan wrote (yesterday, obviously) at Forbes.com: