Archive for September, 2009

Reboot Afghanistan. Here’s How to Win.

A little over 200 years ago, the most powerful military empire on Earth became mired in a decade-long war that ended in humiliating defeat. The locals, consisting mostly of poor uneducated rural farmers and ranchers with few resources, used their “homefield advantage” to eventually defeat the foreign invaders. If you haven’t already figured it out, [...]

Public Option Trigger? How about a PRIVATE Option Trigger?

Special Edition So-called “Moderate” Republicans like Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and “Blue Dog” Democrats have been all about including a “trigger” provision in any healthcare reform bill. What exactly is the “trigger”? Lindsay Beyerstein of The Huffington Post defined it best: “A public option with a trigger is a compromise whereby a public system would only [...]

A Closer Look at the 9/12 Rallies

My heart sank a bit upon seeing the following image to open the NBC Nightly News Saturday evening:   “9/12″ Conservative protest rally in D.C.   Hard numbers for the actual size of the protest vary wildly. A number of Right-wing groups are claiming “between 1.5 and 2 million”… a number they falsely attributed to [...]

Wilson’s “Lie” reveals GOP wants untenable Citizenship test for healthcare.

Everyone has heard by now “the heckle heard round the world”: Rep. Joe Wilson’s astoundingly disrespectful outburst calling the President of the United States a liar before a televised joint session of Congress Wednesday. But that incident is only half the story. What Wilson was referring to is the other. While there are five draft [...]

Petition: Public Option must be available to EVERYONE, or there’s no incentive to cut costs!

During his historic healthcare speech Wednesday night, President Obama suggested the possibility of placing crippling restrictions on any Public Option that would almost certainly doom it to fail from Day One.     In response, I have created the following petition on Change.org. Please forward the link to everyone you know. – Mugsy Public Option [...]

Funny of the day: “Conflict of interests”.

Just had to share this. Tonight, President Obama delivers his big healthcare speech before Congress. The TV Guide listings for my local NBC affiliate (digital 2.1), which operates a separate movie channel on digital 2.2, struck me funny:   Click to enlarge.   Yes, it’s a movie, not an editorial by TV Guide. ADDENDUM: During President [...]

Healthcare reform as Economic stimulus.

Some call me crazy (and some have called me worse… like “a Republican”), but I watch Fox News Sunday every week as part of my Sunday routine of watching all the political talkshows every Sunday morning. I subject myself to this torture each week to catch moments like the one below from a week ago: [...]