UP-FRONT OBAMACARE/JOURNALISTS NUGGET!!
Lessons from the Obamacare 'Horror Stories' from The Wire
"At the root of every debunked, cancelled plan, Obamacare "horror story" is usually a person who isn't as informed as he or she would like to believe. Usually that person is a journalist. Last week Maggie Mahar at HealthInsurance.org debunked yet another horror story, but she didn't blame the misguided former policy holders so much as the journalist who wrote the story. "It appeared that no one at the Star-Telegram even attempted to run a background check on the sources, or fact check their stories," Mahar wrote. "I couldn’t help but wonder: 'Why?' ... with Obamacare, which leads all kinds of reporters to pick and choose details, everyone (everyone) can learn something from the mistakes of others. Here are the key lessons from the last three months of bogus horror stories."
U.S. and Iran Face Common Enemies in Mideast Strife (Thomas Erdbrink) from the New York Times
"The United States and Iran are being drawn together by their mutual opposition to a movement of Sunni fighters raising Al Qaeda's flag in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen."
Obama Lost Faith in His Afghan Strategy, Book Asserts: Obama Lost Faith in Afghan Strategy, Robert Gates Writes from the New York Times
"In a new memoir, Mr. Gates, a Republican holdover from the Bush administration who served for two years under Mr. Obama, praises the president as a rigorous thinker who frequently made decisions “opposed by his political advisers or that would be unpopular with his fellow Democrats.” But Mr. Gates says that by 2011, Mr. Obama began expressing his own criticism of the way his strategy in Afghanistan was playing out."
North Korean Execution by Dog Story Likely Came from Satire from Reuters
"An international media frenzy over reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's uncle had been executed by throwing him to a pack of dogs appears to have originated as satire on a Chinese microblogging website. The story, which spread like wildfire after it was picked up by a Hong Kong-based newspaper, has created an image that Pyongyang's young ruler is even more brutal and unpredictable than previously believed."
Well, there you go. Looks like Kim Jong Un is just a Joe Stalin-type rather than a Vlad the Impaler-type. I guess we can all be thankful for that. What remains the a disturbing element to the story is how
supposedly reputable US news organizations ran with this story. I saw the the original story from the Straits Times of Asia and was skeptical -- but then NBC News posted it -- which is when I posted it. Further evidence (if any was needed) about how mainstream network news is becoming simply useless to anyone committed to something beyond the most superficial understanding of what's going on in the world.
The Benghazi-fication of Obamacare (Ryan Cooper) from the Washington Post
"... both Vitter’s and Johnson’s carping about an “exemption” is incoherent nonsense. But that’s clearly where conservative thinking on Obamacare is going. When Healthcare.gov was an embarrassing disaster, conservatives could believe the law was just going to implode, but now that belief is being badly shaken, and the cognitive dissonance seems to be powerfully unpleasant."
I Corrected a Misinformed Conservative About Obamacare. What Happened Next Will Neither Surprise You Nor Restore Your Faith in Humanity (Jonathan Chait) from New York Magazine
"As health-care inflation has fallen to the lowest level in 50 years since Obamacare’s passage, conservatives have gone from arguing that Obamacare will absolutely cause health-care costs to rise to insisting that the decline in health-care costs has absolutely nothing to do with Obamacare. I have been trying to figure out what, if anything, could dent their overweening ideological certainty. The answer seems to be, nothing at all."
Obamacare Logistical Apocalypse Nowhere To Be Seen (Yet) (Jeffrey Young) from the Huffington Post
"The first days of Obamacare enrollment were a mess. The first days of Obamacare benefits, on the other hand, went quietly. The health care industry expects that to change soon. More than 2 million people signed up for insurance under the new law by year's end. Those people have yet to flood pharmacies, hospitals and community health centers surveyed by The Huffington Post."
Six Million Lost Coverage on First Day of Bush Medicare Drug Program (Jon Perr) from Daily Kos
"... Just eight years ago this week, the calamitous launch of President Bush's Medicare prescription drug program left over six million previously insured seniors without coverage. Hundreds of thousands more could not get their medications as problem-plagued government computer systems, confused insurers, and undertrained pharmacists left subscribers panicked and helpless. But unlike today's sabotage of the Affordable Care Act by Republicans in Congress and in the states, Democrats at all levels helped the Medicare Rx program whose design they opposed."
Long Time Gone from the Economist [of London]
"Can American labour policies face the challenge of long-term joblessness?"
The Wrong Kind of Queer (Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich) from Salon
"Growing up, I was ashamed to be a lesbian. Now the country is changing. Can I ever catch up?"
What Voter Turnout Means for Efforts to Remedy Income Inequality (Dan Balz) from the Washington Post
More favorable news on the deep fundamentals that are shifting in the Dems' direction.
"The authors found that there have been some important demographic changes in voting patterns within the overall electorate. Women are now more likely to vote than men. And the gap between black and white participation has narrowed significantly. In the most recent election, blacks voted at higher rates than whites in some states ..."
My take: older white men are beginning to check out -- even as women and African Americans are becoming more engaged. My guess is that as the GOP continues its record of non-accomplishment in all the areas voters truly care about, I'd look for these trends to continue.
2014 Promises Plenty of Positive Change (Katrina vanden Heuvel) from the Washington Post
Well, let's hear it from one of progressivism's most earnest sour grapes!
"... the widespread predictions that 2014 will witness only more of the same ignore the growing reality that, outside the Beltway, people are beginning to stir and change is in the air."
I rarely find myself agreeing with vanden Heuvel -- she is one of the most predictable and ideologically straight-jacketed pundits out there -- but here I find myself in complete agreement! For anyone left of center, they need to shake off their pessimism! Virtually all the fundamentals and underlying trends in our politics point to good things ahead. Indeed, the elections of 2014 (as we noted last week) look to be the GOP's last clear chance to alter the way things are trending. So we need to really hang in there for our lawmakers for this next cycle!!
THE-LITTLE-TRAIN-THAT-COULDN'T NUGGET!!
Hundreds of Passengers Rescued After Night on Frozen Amtrak Trains from ABC News
OMG!!
"Hundreds of Amtrak passengers were rescued today after spending a bone-chilling cold night stranded on board three Amtrak trains that were crippled by snow and ice outside of Chicago. More than 500 passengers who were affected by the delay are expected to arrive in Chicago this afternoon, likely on charter buses nearly 20 hours after the got stuck, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told ABC News."
FBI HISTORY NUGGET!!
The FBI File Heist That Changed History from the Daily Beast
"Eight anti-war protesters wanted to prove J. Edgar Hoover was breaking the law, so they broke into one of his offices. ... Despite the efforts of nearly 200 investigators, the F.B.I. couldn’t find the burglars. But 43 years later, a new book by a journalist who received and reported on the documents, identifies the Media burglars for the first time."
ANTARCTICA NUTTINESS NUGGET!!
On Getting Naked in Antarctica from the Atlantic
"Stuck at the South Pole during its coldest, darkest season? Find a sauna, grab some bunny boots, and join the most exclusive club in the world. "The objective: to endure a temperature swing of 300 degrees Fahrenheit by warming up in a sauna, heated to 200 degrees, and then running, naked, to and around the Ceremonial South Pole when the outdoor temperature is below -100 degrees. The select few who have participated in this rite belong to an exclusive group: the 300 Club."
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