The Al Franken Decade begins!

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It's good news for all of us who were disappointed that the '80s turned out to be The Reagan Decade instead of The Al Franken Decade (skip to bottom of page at other side of link). However, I note an unwarranted hint of gloating in this Atrios post about Franken giving the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Everybody needs to remember that there are about 15 Democratic Senators who are Democrats In Name Only (DINOs). They're "Blue Dogs," or "moderates," or weasels named "Lieberman" or "Specter." So now I think we'll get to see for once and for all what Harry Reid really is. (A "motherfucker," I predict.)

Editor's note: StuporMundi's use of profanity in the previous sentence is intended as a figure of speech only, and not a literal description of any individual living or dead. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Senator Burris at your service

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Tonight I wrote some letters to elected officials insisting that they unequivocally support a meaningful Public Option in the healthcare bill now being worked by the Congress. To my Senators I wrote:

Dear Senator,

I want you to know that I and the voting members of my household consider the Public Option to be non-negotiable in any reform of the nation’s healthcare system.

It is clear to me that the opposition to the Public Option in the Senate consists mainly of Senators from small states in which a single healthcare insurance provider has an actual or virtual monopoly on the health insurance insurance market. Health insurance reform will not work, period, without injecting the field with actual competition. Without competition, insurers will continue to have a free hand in fixing premium rates artificially high in order to extract more “overhead” resources from healthcare consumers. I’m certain you are aware of the numerous “horror stories” about individuals who have been denied coverage, or who have even had their policies canceled without notice, on the eve of major, necessary medical procedures. The costs are ruinous for these people, as you must be aware.

At this point I do not feel it is enough for you to simply commit to supporting the public option. I ask that you use every advantage your seniority provides to convince reluctant Senators that it is in the best interests of the nation to support the public option --- even if it means taxing the employer-provided benefits of more affluent beneficiaries (including myself). I will back my opinion on this with campaign contributions to primary challengers in any state where a Democratic Senator has worked to defeat or undermine an effective Public Option in the healthcare insurance reform effort.

I do appreciate your work toward solving our healthcare insurance and cost crises. Please use your considerable persuasive powers to get everyone possible on board with this critical provision.

Sincerely,
Stupor J. Mundi

The above message was to Dick Durbin. A similar note (without references to senate seniority) went to Roland Burris, the junior Senator from Illinois who was, by U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Chicago), declared not to have "one iota of taint" when appointed to the post by Blago back in December. Tonight Burris was really johnny-on-the-spot for his constituent, with a lightning-fast reply even before I'd finished modifying the note for consumption by our U.S. Representative (who actually looks like he suffers from consumption). The Burris response is a marvel of clarity, concision, and timeliness:

Thank you very much for contacting my office to express your views. I will take your opinions and concerns into consideration as we debate these issues in the United States Senate and address challenges facing Illinois and the nation.

The constituents of Illinois are of the utmost importance to me, and it is an honor to work on your behalf by representing you in the United States Senate.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, DC office. Again, thank you and I am honored to serve you in the United States Senate.

Sincerely,
Roland W. Burris
United States Senator

Hurrah --- we're saved! That's some real constituent service, from one Senator without an iota of taint or an iota of class. Not even trying....

Wise sayings

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If we learned anything from the Reagan Revolution it was that you only need a president, an army, a site license for QuickBooks Pro, and a bathtub to run a democracy.

One-handed photography

Here's a photograph shot with iPhone earlier tonight, left arm held upward out the driver's window, about 20 minutes after weird "wall cloud" raced through the south end of Champaign ripping some tree limbs asunder. The image was snapped in a different location, though: driving northbound toward the North Prospect Ave. shopping district. Note that while the traffic signals are dead, the jumbotron billboard near lower right still blazes like a sun. Civic priorities require a review.

Applied some automatic color corrections in Adobe Bridge, then pulled back the right slider in Photoshop to bring up the highlights, and finally added a little sharpening (probably unnecessary).

Note: StuporMundi does not endorse the practice of driving while shooting photographs. Do not attempt to duplicate this form of stunt photography without in situ psychiatric supervision.

I help Josh Marshall make a funny

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Josh: When House Republicans succeed in their own 'color revolution', what color will they be?

StuporMundi: Is "vomit" a color?

Disclaimer: Josh Marshall was in no way helped by StuporMundi.

Reading recommendation

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Here's a blog I like --- the guy has been on fire lately.

Iranatics

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I agree with Atrios. And I'll add that I believe most of the domestic saturation coverage of the Iran election postmortem is driven primarily by some news exec's idea that this whole Iran thing could end up being a real "happening" --- maybe even a "color" revolution if the networks play their cards right. And that could at least mean a spike in ad revenues, up to and including the possibility of a new show with an awesome flying-graphics logo, triumphal theme music, and a 21st century Ted Koppel. Wouldn't that be a "coup"? [Nyuk nyuk nyuk BONK D'OH!]

But he wears a flag pin!

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In observance of Flag Day I present to you Richard Bruce Cheney: Patriot.

Freedom was on the march

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But then Iran had its very own Brooks Brothers Riot. Before the weekend is over I'll be we're hearing from Republican elder statesmen how Obama "lost Iran."

Son of wise sayings

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I'll bet that Stephen Hawking would do really well in the next World Series of Poker, broadcast exclusively on ESPN.

Wise sayings

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The ubiquitous nonstop televised propaganda broadcasts in Orwell's 1984 seem like C-SPAN compared to the professional poker shows I see on ESPN at the gym.

More Fox Effect

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As seen first on TPM: the Executive Director of Minutemen American Defense (MAD*), Shawna Forde, and two others arrested on charges related to a double homicide in Arizona. Two members of a family with a Hispanic surname were reported to have been murdered in a 30 May home invasion 10 miles north of the border. Authorities suspect premeditated murder as part of a scheme by "thieves looking for drugs and money," according to the report. The Post-Intelligencer referred to the alleged home invasion ringleader as an "anti-immigration activist." That's some nice post-intelligence newswriting, I'd say. Here is an undated and unedited statement by Ms. Forde, copied and pasted directly from the MAD web page (go find it yourself, I'm not linking to it):

I would like to let everyone know that we are in full operation we have people coming from Florida and other parts of the country to assist in gathering exclusive footage of drug cartel drug smuggling and humane trafficking.

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* No shit!

It's time for a "Reckless Homicide Tax" [updated]

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In addition to empowering the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products, now let's levy a Reckless Homicide Tax on Big Tobacco. It's sole purpose would be to completely reimburse the Medicare and Medicaid programs for every single public health dollar spent to treat smoking-related diseases. The revenues from this tax would shrink the Medicaid funding crisis down to a size where we can drown it in the bathtub.

Update: it also appears that we may need to levy a Health Insurance Mafia Tax (to steal a term from Bob Cesca): a 100% tax on all proceeds, whether gains or the value of "paper losses" used for corporate tax breaks, by health insurers who invest in tobacco company stock. I'd also suggest that the Justice Department take a close look at all the tricky little words in the language of the RICO Act for possible future reference, just in case.

The Smirking Asshole Effect

It's Two-Part Quiz Time! Please answer in a short essay format (25 words or less). Because I know you're lazy, I'll provide the answer for you complete with background information available to you at click of a mouse!

Q1. What do you get 40 years after your state elects a smirking, reactionary asshole to be its Chief Executive Officer?

A1. An ungovernable state that recently had an economy larger than all but six nations on the planet.

Q2. What do you get when you cross a smirking, reactionary asshole, the American Medical Association, and President Barack Hussein Obama?

A2. Health insurance racketeers backstabbed by the AMA.

The Fox Effect [updated]

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Here's a timely example of The Fox Effect. It's about 30 seconds into a Glenn Beck segment:

"It's no longer dis... un... uh... respectable to be antisemitic on The Left."

Triple play! Some nobody on Fox immediately found a way to connect today's Nazi-inspired terrorism at the Holocaust Museum to the Palestinian people and American liberals while obscuring the fact that the suspect in custody for the shooting is an extreme right-winger with a history and a following. You know, just like Glenn Beck.

Yes, let's call it The Fox Effect. Even Shepard Smith knows it.

Update: as Martha Gellhorn's Ghost implies in the comments, The Fox Effect, like Mephistophiles, is known by many names. And it looks like she came up with a valid alternate coinage.

I have a better name for it

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Let's not call it "The Obama Effect." The correct name for it is "The Fox Effect."

This time the terrorist really *has* won

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For real.

Unlike a fertilized egg, Dr. Tiller did not have a right to life. Scott P. Roeder is a freedom fighter.

The outcome of Dr. Tiller's murder has been declared "bittersweet" by Kansas "abortion opponents." It is not really clear which part of it they thought was "bitter." The arrest, maybe. After all, the most important thing is that the "prayer was answered."

And in the article, the New York Times does a really nice job of balancing the viewpoints of physicians and advocates of reproductive rights versus people who support domestic terrorism.

Wise sayings

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"Nice" is the new "awesome."

Josh Marshall makes a funny

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Josh: "Modern day lynchings" seem to happen to people who get caught trying to do old-fashioned lynchings."

A sound piece of advice

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This, a wise saying of sorts, offered by a hillbilly-sounding guy* to his female companion while shopping at Schnuck's: "There's no more bein' any kinda way ya don't wanna be."

I liked it because it reminded me of Howard Beale's signature line, "I'm as mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" But instead of hearing some nobody utter a futile, meaningless expression that may have felt cathartic for an instant, I intuitively understood the drawling gentleman at the supermarket to be declaring a radical Everyman's manifesto for setting a final boundary between his own individuality and every external force trying to snuff it out. It's a concept open to deliberate misinterpretation and abuse, like most ideas, but nevertheless sound, and even unassailable, in its esoteric meaning.
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* This blog uses the term hillbilly to denote people who bear a surface resemblance to rednecks, but are primarily human beings. Please make a note of it.