The Obama Lie

Over at No More Mister Nice Blog this week, Steve’s been giving full coverage to recent nasty rumors about Barak Obama that have been circulating through the Internet and various right-wing news outlets. Based on information about where Obama went to school when he was 6 years old, the intent is to plant the seeds of fear in people and thereby scuttle his potential presidential run in 2008. To borrow a techie phrase, it’s classic FUD.

I find the whole thing despicable, not least because the real fear-mongering part of this crap is based on the concept that all Muslims are somehow part of a vast, evil, and powerful worldwide conspiracy. Replace the word “Jew” for “Muslim” and this is the exact same horrible lie that’s been lobbed against the Jews for centuries.

The sad part is, it was a highly effective lie. People still believe it today. And at least some of them will believe this too.

Yes, I Am Still Here

Life is slowly getting back to normal chez lux, but I’ve managed to fall out of the blogging habit in the interim. I feel some lingering guilt for not posting daily, but I also don’t feel that I have much to say right now.

If past experience is a reliable guide, my blogging frequency tends to go up almost immediately after I make a post like this. We’ll see what happens.

Sunday Evening Cat Blogging

Gimi and Bear on the couch

A quiet night in chilly California.

Two happy kitties hanging out on the office couch. Even though Bear is no longer a kitten, Gimi is almost always very gentle with him.

Both Sides of the Coin

Starting off the morning, I noticed that Glenn Greenwald links to an NPR audiocast wherein longtime conservative Rod Dreher expereinces a crisis in his political faith.

As President Bush marched the country to war with Iraq, even some voices on the Right warned that this was a fool’s errand. I dismissed them angrily. I thought them unpatriotic. But almost four years later, I see that I was the fool.

In Iraq, this Republican President for whom I voted twice has shamed our country with weakness and incompetence, and the consequences of his failure will be far, far worse than anything Carter did. The fraud, the mendacity, the utter haplessness of our government’s conduct of the Iraq war have been shattering to me.

It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. Not under a Republican President.

I turn 40 next month — middle aged at last — a time of discovering limits, finitude. I expected that. But what I did not expect was to see the limits of finitude of American power revealed so painfully. I did not expect Vietnam.

As I sat in my office last night watching President Bush deliver his big speech, I seethed over the waste, the folly, the stupidity of this war.

I had a heretical thought for a conservative – that I have got to teach my kids that they must never, ever take Presidents and Generals at their word – that their government will send them to kill and die for noble-sounding rot – that they have to question authority.

On the walk to the parking garage, it hit me. Hadn’t the hippies tried to tell my generation that? Why had we scorned them so blithely?

Powerful stuff, and I feel for the guy. It is not easy to admit that you were wrong and question yourself after so many years of believing you were right.

The Mahablog, picking up on the theme, muses:

The problem is, as it is with so many of his fellow travelers, that his understanding of politics remained childish. He seems to have retained a child

Only In America

Only in America would the idea that corporate sponsorship of healthcare services be seen as a bold, innovative approach to help make healthcare more affordable. If our system weren’t so screwed up in the first place, we wouldn’t need to discuss whether Google, Yahoo, or Ask.com would be a better sponsor of test results.

Why the discussion? This piece by David Lazarus in the SF Chronicle today:

On Monday, [Gov. Arnold] Schwarzenegger took the wraps off a plan that would require all state residents to have medical insurance.

“Everyone in California must have health insurance,” he said. “If you can’t afford it, the state will help you buy it, but you must be insured.”

Among other things, Schwarzenegger’s plan would require employers with at least 10 workers to provide insurance or pay 4 percent of their payroll into a state fund that would buy insurance for such people.

It would also prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone because of their age or a pre-existing condition, and would force insurers to spend at least 85 percent of premiums on patient care (as opposed to administrative costs).

One catch, however, is that the governor’s plan relies on an infusion of about $5.5 billion in additional federal money, which isn’t a sure thing. It also raises a possibility that contributions from employers to a state insurance fund would lag annual increases in health care costs, thus creating a shortfall for lawmakers to deal with.

That’s where corporate sponsorship would help.

Although, as the article points out, companies would have to position themselves carefully to make sure that their brand is nowhere near any part of the healthcare system that delivers bad news. So, expect lots of jockying for support for children’s immunizations or well-baby initiatives, but not so much for things like chemotherapy or surgery. Because after all, providing corporate sponsorship for inexpensive immunizations will help fill in budget shortfalls so much faster than offering financial support for expensive things like chemotherapy.

Yes, that was sarcasm. Sorry. Haven’t had my coffee yet and I’m feeling cranky.