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An Immoral PhilosophyWhen a child is enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (Schip), the positive results can be dramatic. For example, after asthmatic children are enrolled in Schip, the frequency of their attacks declines on average by 60 percent, and their likelihood of being hospitalized for the condition declines more than 70 percent.
Regular care, in other words, makes a big difference. That's why Congressional Democrats, with support from many Republicans, are trying to expand Schip, which already provides essential medical care to millions of children, to cover millions of additional children who would otherwise lack health insurance.
But President Bush says that access to care is no problem - "After all, you just go to an emergency room" - and, with the support of the Republican Congressional leadership, he's declared that he'll veto any Schip expansion on "philosophical" grounds.
It must be about philosophy, because it surely isn't about cost. One of the plans Mr. Bush opposes, the one approved by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the Senate Finance Committee, would cost less over the next five years than we'll spend in Iraq in the next four months. And it would be fully paid for by an increase in tobacco taxes.
The House plan, which would cover more children, is more expensive, but it offsets Schip costs by reducing subsidies to Medicare Advantage - a privatization scheme that pays insurance companies to provide coverage, and costs taxpayers 12 percent more per beneficiary than traditional Medicare.
Disgraced Pastor Ted Haggard Can't Pray Away the GayJames Harris: [Mike Jones] is the author of the new book I Had to Say Something -- the book outlining and detailing his relationship with Ted Haggard. Since his new book was published, Ted Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, a 30,000-member organization, has stepped down. And this book has caused an incredible stir. Mike, usually I would start off a discussion of your book by saying clearly you were in this for the money. But you lost your escort capacity. You were fired from your fitness consultancy. Why did you do it?
Mike Jones: Yes, when I exposed Ted Haggard, I exposed myself. There's no doubt about it. I also had death threats, and I risked being arrested, also. But you know, this man was such a hypocrite. This was a man who talked to Bush once a week. This was a man who actively campaigned against gay marriage. And he could not even abide by his own marriage vows. This is so strong for me, and it hurt me so deeply, that I simply reached the point where I had to say something.
Josh Scheer: What about in recent news where he said he has been cured of being a homosexual, he's reformed. Do you believe that, since you spent three years with him?
Jones: Well, first of all, the word cured is disgusting. It's not a disease or a sickness. Listen, this man I had seen for approximately three years ... this man is in denial. It's part of the problem with the evangelical church, it's part of the problem with the Catholic Church. They put such guilt and shame on being a gay man that you end up with someone like Ted Haggard who has to sneak around. And that's the sad situation about all of this.
Bill O'Reilly Banned MeSince I gave completely accurate information when registering and I never made a post, uncivil or otherwise, I can only assume that I committed the unpardonable sin of exposing hate speech on his website. Which of course, according to Bill-O himself, means hate speech that O'Reilly agrees with and endorses. He's angry that we're not going to let this purveyor of hate hide his beliefs behind closed doors anymore.
And it's funny that Bill O'Reilly, who said he controls what's on his website, only chooses to act against those who show what exactly it is that he endorses. Because the hateful calls for violence and bigotry that I posted about earlier are still on his website.
A New Bush "Executive Privilege" Theory
So now we have a President that virtually says that he is above the law because he is the law because he hires the lawyers and they work for him. What chutzpah! If this is allowed to stand, then Congress could use its "inherent contempt powers allowing either body to hold its own trials and even jail those found in defiance of Congress. According to the Post this was "widely used during the 19th century, the power has not been invoked since 1934 and Democratic lawmakers have not displayed an appetite for reviving the practice."
It's about time that Congress started using it again. The old saying that "drastic times call for drastic measures" could not be as appropriate as they are now. These indeed are drastic times. The American people would have no problem with Congress using drastic measures. In fact they have been calling for Congress to do just that for months now.
College Republican Convention: Meet the Next Generation of GOP Hypocrites
In conversations with at least twenty College Republicans about the war in Iraq, I listened as they lip-synched discredited cant about "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here." Many of the young GOP cadres I met described the so-called "war on terror" as nothing less than the cause of their time.
Yet when I asked these College Republicans why they were not participating in this historic cause, they immediately went into contortions. Asthma. Bad knees from playing catcher in high school. "Medical reasons." "It's not for me." These were some of the excuses College Republicans offered for why they could not fight them "over there."
Meet the Pentagon's New Spin Unit: Bush Administration hacks court bloggers, talk radioThis project seeks to bypass the traditional media and work directly with talk radio and bloggers, mostly those with a heavily conservative tilt. The unit, which one source says was originally called "Surrogates Operation" but was later rechristened "Communications Outreach," also reportedly provides talking points and briefings to retired military officials who now support the administration in appearances as media pundits.
