How many Executive Orders – and for what – can a corrupt VP sign while the C-In-C is hors de politics with a camera up his ass?
US politics
Future leaders of America
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
The Silent Coup
Just when we think Cheney’s out for the count he’s back, like the Terminator popping back up out of the molten metal tank.
Thiis is what I wrote about Cheney back in May:
Interesting Times
This is getting scary now – Steve Clemons at the Washington Note says that Cheney is planning an ‘end run’ around Bush to bomb Iran, that he doesn’t trust Bush, and he thinks he should take over as the ‘presidents hands’, colluding with Israel to attack Iran. He’s sent his minions out to various lobby groups and thinktanks to effectively seek support ifor a palace coup.
Good grief, Dr. Strangelove is actually playing out in real time and all the media act as though nothing was happening.
How far is the rest of the sane world going to let this go?
Well, now we know. It seems that Cheney’s War with Iran Show is back on. Here’s this morning’s top headline in the Grauniad:
Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran
· Military solution back in favour as Rice loses out
· President ‘not prepared to leave conflict unresolved’The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.
The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: “Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo.”
‘Internal review’ my ass. Cheney has taken advantage of Bush’s current weakness and used it against him to carry out a silent coup.
Tehran here we come!
Liberal imperialism
HTML Mencken is annoyed at the liberal hawks getting all the good gigs:
The liberal press — internet and dead tree versions — aren’t the gravy trains that the wingnut press is. Contrary to wingnut beliefs, George Soros isn’t handing out much ‘moonbat-welfare’. There’s already one guaranteed outlet for writers who’ll always be Liberal Hawks: it’s called The New Republic, and a worthless pile of shit it is, for that and other reasons. Why on earth do other progressive press organs, though, seem to desire to reward writers with such pseudo-progressive instincts? Does this reflect the sentiments of the movement? Are you, lefty blog reader, a liberal hawk? Jonathan Chait admitted that Liberal Hawks are massively over-represented in the Liberal press. Why do progressive people continue to put up with this shit, then? Why is it okay that Washington Monthly hired Liberal Hawk Kevin Drum to be its regular blogger? Why is it okay that TAP rewarded Ezra Klein and Yglesias with paying jobs for their Liberal Hawkery?
I hate to say it, but I’m afraid people like Kevin Drum, Matt Yglesias or Ezra Klein are far more in touch with mainstream liberalism on this subject than HTML Mencken is. Post-WWII liberalism has always been hawkish, has only differed in degree, not in kind, with conservative/Republican foreign policy. The only time that mainstream liberalism was even remotely dovish in outlook was at the end of the War on Vietnam, when the mood of the country forced the Democratic Party to become ever-so moderately antiwar, just as is happening now. It didn’t last.
The only real difference between liberal and conservative imperialism is that the former tends to be more realistic about America’s abilities to enforce its will on the rest of the world. For example whereas the neocons-to be were wetting their pants about the USSR’s overwhelming military superiority, it was that stereotype of lilylivered liberalism, president Carter, who made sure the Soviets walked into the trap marked Afghanistan. Not to mention that it was largely through Democratic Congressman Charles Wilson that the Muhajedin got the support they needed to keep the Soviets busy, while Reagan was busy ignoring them in favour of his beloved “freedom fighters”, the Contras.
Apart from this, conservatives and liberals largely agree about the foreign policy the US must follow, which in a nutshell is to keep the United States as the only superpower by any means necessary. Democrats tend to do this through institution building (UN, WTO, NAFTA etc) and soft power (diplomacy, peacekeeping, undercover dirty work), while the Republicans tend to do it through military action.
How healthcare is rationed in the US: an example
Mark Kleiman tells the story of what happened when he was diagnosed with cancer:
That process took just about one full month, a month during which my chances of survival were dropping fairly steadily and the intensity — and therefore the side-effect profile — of the treatment that would be required if we ever got the damned thing figured out was rising in parallel. It would have taken longer — quite possibly fatally longer — if Al Carnesale, whom I’d known when we were both at the Kennedy School, and who by then was the Chancellor of UCLA and thus at some ethereal level responsible for both me and the hospital, hadn’t sent a note to the guy who runs the entire UCLA medical area (hospital and medical school). The note politely hinted that it would be at least marginally preferable if my department didn’t have to go through the hassle of recruiting a replacement. After that, things speeded up somewhat.
What absorbed that month? Mostly waiting.
After the chest X-ray, I needed to see an oncologist. I couldn’t make an appointment until I had the approval of the insurance company for the referral. That took a few days. Getting on the oncologist’s schedule took a few more days.
After the oncologist saw me, he wanted a bone marrow sample to send to the pathologists to figure out what the cancer might be. I couldn’t make an appointment for the bone marrow procedure until the insurance company approved it. Then I had to wait for the bone-marrow extractor to have time on his busy schedule.
When it turned out that there wasn’t enough marrow to test, I needed a lymph-node biopsy. More waiting for an insurance approval and more waiting for an appointment.
Having seen the head-and-neck surgeon who was going to do the biopsy, I couldn’t have the biopsy right away because the insurance company wouldn’t approve it as an in-patient procedure and there was queue for outpatient biopsy operating room time. Anyway, the guy who had seen me didn’t have any time free on his dance card for the next several weeks, so he sent me to another surgeon to actually do the procedure.
When I showed up for the outpatient biopsy, the anaesthesiologist took one look at my chart and flatly refused to put me under for the procedure except in an in-patient setting, on what seemed like the reasonable grounds that otherwise I could easily die on the table. That meant, of course, more waiting for another approval and another appointment.
All this, let’s recall, with the Chancellor breathing down the neck of the boss of the medical area on behalf of a full professor at the university that owns the hospital. So my experience with the system was probably about as good as it gets except for corporate executives using places like the Mayo Clinic or family members of people on the boards of directors of hospitals. (Apparently it’s generally understood that if you stump up enough in the way of contributions to get on the board of the hospital, you’re entitled to priority care; that’s how not-for-profit hospitals raise capital.)
Not that the Dutch system is perfect by a longshot, but this simply could not happen here. Once you need this kind of medical help, you’re going to get it and the insurance companies will pay out, as they’re obliged to do by law. Basic health care insurance is mandatory by law, provided by commercial insurers who however cannot refuse to insure you. At the moment we’re paying roughly 200 euros a month for the two of us to be insured, which includes some additional coverage; it could be cheaper, it could be more expensive. It’s an awkward, cumbersome system supposed to bring healthcare costs down by increased competitio, which hasn’t happened, but at the very least it leaves the majority of people free not to worry about their ability to pay for cancer treatments…