Commentary By Ron Beasley
The Plan A in Afghanistan is to train the Afghan National Army to defend themselves so we can leave. There is no Plan B. As we have said here before Afghanistan is not a nation but a collection of tribes so can you have a national army [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
In the middle of a health care debate does this make a lot of sense?
Aetna Forcing 600,000-Plus To Lose Coverage In Effort To Raise ProfitsHealth insurance giant Aetna is planning to force up to 650,000 clients to drop their coverage next year as it seeks to raise additional [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
There is an upside to the Rethuglicans pandering to the teabaggers - they are forced to take on the oligarchs represented by The Federal Reserve. Of course it's mostly lip service but something might come of this:
Vitter wants vote on Fed audit before Bernanke voteOf [...]
By Ron Beasley
Tonight the 113th civil war game between Oregon and Oregon State will be on national TV. The powerful PAC 10 has half of it's teams in the top 25 and is so deep it's virtually impossible to go undefeated. Tonight's game is different' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Fred Kaplan correctly states Obama's War begins. He then correctly asks the question but where does it end? We have asked what does winning look like? The reality is war is profitable and it's a mistake to look for a win in the valleys and mountains [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
This old hippie is tired of getting punched. I have no intention of voting for my Democratic congressman David Wu in 2010 even if it might mean a Republican will take the seat. Over at Hullabaloo tristero explains it better than I could:
There surely [...]By Ron Beasley
OK it's not Saturday but it's a good time for the most inspirational song the world is not ready for:
I'm not the only one but there are not nearly enough of people like me. This is the ultimate anti-tribal anthem but we are still tribal. ' [...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
Now that Woods appears to have been involved in a domestic dispute, the media are wondering if there is "another Tiger." They are desperate to pillory the man for his personal problems. It would be more appropriate if they took this opportunity to scrutinize him for the right reasons. Woods has [...]
By Ron Beasley
I'm with John Cole here:
I have nothing but bad feelings about the addition of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Watching Michael O’Hanlon on the evening news was like a punch to the gut- we’ve been down this road before.
At what point are O’Hanlon and Pollack every going to be discredited enough' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
If Mike Huckabee had any further political aspirations they were probably dashed in a Seattle area coffee shop yesterday when Maurice Clemmons murdered four police officers.
Maurice Clemmons, man wanted for questioning, has troubling criminal historyMaurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
There are many things you can blame the Bush administration for but not capturing Osama bin Laden is not one of them.
Senate Report Explores 2001 Escape by bin Laden From Afghan MountainsAs President Obama vows to “finish the job” in Afghanistan by sending more troops, [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
As Dave noted the other day Self-preservation is not a Democratic instinct. In the comments section of that post I wrote the following:
People voted for the Democrats and Obama for change and they have gotten damn little of it. The danger in 2010 is that millions will simply [...]
By Ron Beasley
I too would like to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. Although it was difficult to give up my own blog a year and a half ago it was the right move and I am so grateful to be here with my fellow Newhoggers. I am also thankful [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
When the United States falls it will be because it's population is simply not up to critical thought - too stupid. Headlines like this would lead one to believe the end is not too far away.
Sarah Palin: 'We'll see' about run with Glenn BeckWhat is it' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
In response to 60 Minutes' The Cost Of Dying one of my few conservative friends Rick Moran has a very good post. Rick is not afflicted with religion which is probably why he can make educated moral decisions.
Now for the moral questions raised by the' [...]
By Ron Beasley
For the last seven years the University of Southern California has dominated the PAC10 college football league.
That domination came to an end in the extremly deep and competitive PAC10 this year. In what has to be the thriller of the year Oregon Quarterback Jeremiah [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
The headline reads:
Reid pulls together Senate Dems to take huge step on health reform
Although the Senate’s action was a mere procedural vote, it represented the end of weeks of anxiety for Reid while foreshadowing difficult legislative and political battles ahead. Applause from spectators greeted the final tally announced by [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
I have said for years that the best way to end foreign misadventures like Iraq and Afghanistan was to make the millionaire pundits and neocons pay for them. Let's see how enthusiastic Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes are when their wars are being paid for by them. [...]
By Ron Beasley
Oberammergau, from a Kodachrome slide taken in 1970.
Click on picture for larger image
[...]By Ron Beasley
DaveNoon at Lawyers, Guns and Money is reading Going Rogue so we don't have too. Now I'm not really interested in even reading about the book but I found this amusing.
I realize this is a pedantic complaint, but would it be possible for Sarah Palin to launch [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Here in my State of Oregon it was announced this week that health insurance premiums will be going up 16 percent in 2010. Some employers will increase the amount of the employees share while some small and medium sized businesses will be priced out and have to [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
I am old enough to remember the thrill of the moon landings and the national pride that followed. There was little doubt that The United States was the worlds technology leader. Thanks to foolish wars and tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent the mantle of technology [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
The wingers are outraged. Why? Because Sen. Patrick Leahy said there was no reason to interrogate Osama bin Laden if he's captured. This was a stupid thing for Leahy to say but the outrage is just as stupid.
The writers of fiction know it, movie makers know' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
No, it's not the dreaded "liberals" who are singing that song to Sarah Palin, it's the Republicans and conservatives who dream of winning again.
First we have Conservative and Evangelical Christian Rod Dreher:
The rap on Palin is that she's too shallow and inexperienced for the presidency — a [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Judging from his campaign rhetoric we might have assumed that Barack Obama would have stood up to the Corporatocracy not join it but as Robert Scheer points out join it is what he did.
What's up with Barack Obama? The candidate for change once promised to take [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Obama has to make a decision of Afghanistan - is he going to make an LBJ decision and be a one term president or.....? Harvey Wasserman explains the wrong decision will make him a one term president.
As the world awaits Barack Obama's decision on Afghanistan, [...]
By Ron Beasley
Daniel Larison has another great Palin post but the quote of the day comes from commenter nomakesense who makes a lot of sense.
The current direction of the Republican party is, quite frankly, horrifying. Policy is being directed by people who are essentially entertainers. I don’t believe that Palin has [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
It has become obvious that the Republicans will attack and try to obstruct anything - anything the Democrats and the Obama administration try to do even if it was something they might have agreed with a few days before, In yesterday's New York Times Oregon's Representative Earl [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
I covered the dangerous senile rantings of the old fool David Broder here yesterday morning.
It's still getting some play over at memeorandum this morning.
Steve Benen has a great reaction:
I realize there's been a painful decline in the quality of Broder's analysis' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
It's not too surprising but the narcissistic ignorant insensitive wingnuttery are upset because:
Obama has now done it again. Andrew Malcolm asks (and reports): "How low will he go? Obama gives Japan's Emperor Akihito a wow bow."
Obama's breach of protocol is of a piece [...]
By Ron Beasley
Juan Cole on the Republican Party:
This decision by the Obama administration demonstrates faith in the American way of life, and a conviction that even the worst mass murderers can be dealt justice by democratic institutions.Predictably, Republican critics vowed to fight the decision, since they much prefer to hold people forever without [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
David Broder proves beyond all doubt that he is not just a senile old fool but a dangerous one at that. In Enough Afghan debate he channels Dick Cheney and says:
The more President Obama examines our options in Afghanistan, the less he likes the choices he sees. [...]
By Ron Beasley
AP (sorry) fact checks Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue, and finds it lacking when it comes to facts.
Meanwhile Matthew Continetti asks: can Sarah Palin Make A Comeback? He finds some really lame reasons to answer yes but Daniel Larison says No She Can't and Ann [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
As our current health care system collapses people will suffer but so will the health care industry and the insurance companies as fewer and fewer people can afford their services. It's already happening:
A weak economy has reduced the insurer's customer base
Regence BlueCross BlueShield, Oregon's largest [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Revisionist history is nothing new. As they say the winners write history. We saw it with Ronald Reagan. Shortly after he left office the process began to white wash the negatives and invent positives. He is giving credit for ending the cold war and bringing down the [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
It looks like Obama may be getting closer to doing the right think in Afghanistan will we see the same thing on the economy. If he does he needs to look at what happened and how we got here. Robert Weissman reminds us that this [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
The right wingers are pro life until the baby is born but then it and it's family is on their own when it comes to medical care or proper diet or living conditions that would allow a life worth living - hypocrisy!
The' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
I have have said that a bad health care bill is worse than no bill at all. Dr Marcia Angell agrees:
Conservative rhetoric notwithstanding, the House bill is not a "government takeover." I wish it were. Instead, it enshrines and subsidizes the "takeover" by the investor-owned insurance industry [...]
By Ron Beasley
This is a follow up to Jay's post below. The corporate media just like the Republicans think that if they say something often enough it will become reality. A case in point is all the recent talk of a Republican come back because the Republicans won two [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Senator Joseph Lieberman, (Zionist), Israel, has decided that the Fort Hood Massacre is a terrorist act.
Sen. Joe Lieberman called the Fort Hood massacre an act of "Islamist extremism" - even as top Army brass warned Sunday against guessing at a motive, fearing [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Thomas Friedman has been taking some reality drugs.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has become a bad play. It is obvious that all the parties are just acting out the same old scenes, with the same old tired clichés — and that no one believes any of it anymore. There is [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
A few days ago I wrote A Bad Bill Is Worse Than No Bill At All.
I remain convinced that there was never any possibility of a health care reform bill that actually reformed anything. Obama just wants a bill - he really doesn't care what's in it. This [...]
By Ron Beasley
As Steve noted below Obama's National Security Adviser, James L. Jones has some serious doubts about sending additional troops to Afghanistan. As Jones said:
"we can't want this more than the Afghans"
Well increasingly the Afghans want it less.
“What have the Americans done in eight years?” asked' [...]
By Ron Beasley
John Cole asks:What does it cost to get $2.4 billion in unemployment benefits extension?
The answer - $24 billion.
You see- you aren’t allowed to just pass a bill extending unemployment benefits at the cost of $2.4 billion dollars, because that would be socialism. It takes another $21.6 billion to [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Barack Obama ran his campaign on the platform of change but by the time the election rolled around a year ago he had already been bought and paid for by Wall Street and the Financial Industry. James Lieber explains:
We've Bailed out the Banks. When Do We' [...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
Yesterday we reported that we have the best government money can buy. We have yet another example today.
It took just five weeks after the WorldCom accounting scandal erupted in 2002 for Congress to pass, and President [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
The number one censored story at Project Censored this year is:
US Congress Sells Out to Wall StreetFederal lawmakers responsible for overseeing the US economy have received millions of dollars from Wall Street firms. Since 2001, eight of the most troubled firms have donated $64.2 million to congressional candidates, [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
New Yorker DougJ at Balloon Juice suggested it first:
What happened in NY-23 is that a bunch of confederate pukes came in and told a perfectly nice, socially moderate, Republican Albany hack (and I mean that affectionately) to go get bent.
Megan McArdle seems to agree although as usual [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Jay had a good analysis of yesterday's election below. Perhaps the only really significant result was in NY-23 where a Democrat won for the first time in a 140 years. The Palin/Limbaugh/Beck lunatics managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But the lunatics' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Common wisdom in the world of geology went from uniformitarianism to catastrophism, that is to say the forces that shape the earth happen slowly VS they happen in catastrophic bursts. Today it is generally agreed that the correct answer is all of the above. There [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
So, the Republicans have a health care reform plan - sorta. Like the Democratic plans it really doesn't reform anything but it does allow the insurance companies to act even more outrageously. Ezra Klein explains:
"A House Republican health-care bill wouldn't seek to prevent health-insurance companies from denying" [...]
By Ron Beasley
Too big to fail - not if you live in a Corporatocracy. Even if you are a Democrat, Shaun Mullen explains.
[...]By Ron Beasley
Note: Youtube may be down - try back later.
This song was taken out of the Broadway production of Annie during the Bush years because it was thought to be politically incorrect.
[...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
As I noted in The Cost Of Health Care - The Food Industry one of the reasons our health care costs are so high is the processed foods from the Food Industry. While the Obama administration talks health care reform he continues the support for the [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Hillary Clinton's trip to Pakistan didn't make any friends but it did point out one thing - we don't belong in the middle east. The Pakistanis told the Secretary of State that the Western War On Terror is not their war.
After three days of encounters with [...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
I remain convinced that there was never any possibility of a health care reform bill that actually reformed anything. Obama just wants a bill - he really doesn't care what's in it. This is not only wrong but politically stupid, more about that later. As lawmakers do' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
As I pointed out here we don't have a Democracy in the U.S. we have a Corporatcracy. Well here is a great example.
Evan Bayh: Hypocrisy on the Public OptionEvan Bayh, the junior senator from Indiana, is in the middle of a heated debate in' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Eight years ago, a small number of U.S. personnel, working in tandem with local Afghan leaders, entered Afghanistan with a defined aim: to punish al-Qaida and overthrow the Taliban regime that harbored them. Over the past year, that mission has morphed into the much broader objective of [...]
By Ron Beasley
While it makes little difference what the people think about the war in Afghanistan for some reason it does matter what the village pundits think. It was not much of a surprise when George Will said it was time to get out - but Thomas Friedman has [...]
By Ron Beasley
OK, the picture of the week is an angry looking sky. A sky that is a good illustration for an angry rant. You may have noticed that the new boss is a lot like the old boss. The Obama administration makes some populist pleasing moves [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
We have all heard of the of the military industrial complex. Almost 50 years after Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about it we still have wars that are more about defense industry oligarchs making money than defending the nation and nothing has changed on Obama's watch. ' [...]
By Ron Beasley
Ron Reagan Jr. Takes on uber neocon wingnut Frank Gaffney.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
[...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
At first glance this might look good:
The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday issued a proposal designed to ensure that the incentive compensation policies of banking organizations do not undermine the safety and soundness of their organizations.
The proposal includes two supervisory initiatives. One, applicable to 28 large, complex banking organizations, will [...]
By Ron Beasley
Windows 7 is here and so is the pain. The nightmare continues.
As my old boss from my engineering days used to say - if it ain't broken don't try to fix it.
[...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
How dysfunctional is the the US health care system? We have lotteries to decide who lives and dies.
Oregon will draw names to expand health plan
Oregon is gearing up to open the state health insurance plan next month to cover an additional 35,000 uninsured adults who have [...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
This was predictable, a tea party civil war. While the tea party movement may have some anti-government bigots they are upset about many of the same things as we progressives. In a post this morning I wrote:
This is just another indication that the US is [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Dylan Ratigan talks with TARP Inspector General Neil Barofsky:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
So the only thing the Bush and Obama administrations fixed was the bottom line of the large institutions that were bailed out. The people who [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
There are those among the DC brain(dead) trust who think that Obama's war against FOX news is a mistake - I disagree. If you are a student of fiction you know that it is the antagonist that empowers the protagonist - every good guy needs a bad [...]
By Ron Beasley
Judge revokes Bernard Kerik bail,sends ex-NYPD top cop to jail for trying to taint jury pool
A judge tossed former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik in jail for trying to taint the jury pool via the Internet Tuesday - days before the top cop's corruption trial starts.
Federal Judge [...]
Commentary by Ron Beasley
About a month ago I wrote:
So just like Vietnam simply throwing more troops into a country with no legitimate government cannot be a successful strategy. This can only bring us back to the conversations going on in the Oval Office in 1965.
It's going to be' [...]
By Ron Beasley
House GOP Leader John Boehner of Ohio says he doesn't know anyone who is in favor of a public option. Well perhaps he doesn't go back to Ohio often enough.
[...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
Because the military/Industrial/media complex is set on a war with Iran this important OP ED has not received the coverage it deserves. - Five Myths About Iran's Nuclear Program:
Iran's expanding nuclear program poses one of the Obama administration's most vexing foreign policy challenges. Fortunately, the conditions for containing' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
The shift in economic policy over the last thirty years could have been written by Ayn Rand. Greed was a virtue meaning regulation was the ultimate sin. The corporate community depended on honest gatekeepers in the form of accounting firms to make sure their business practices were [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton don't get it but the perennial trouble maker Ted Rall does:
Not only is every Taliban not al-Qaida, there’s no such thing as a Taliban, as in: “That guy is a Taliban.” Members of the Taliban are called Talibs. You invade a country,' [...]By Ron Beasley
Presented without comment:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
But still we have this:
Another Goldman executive named to key government post as its profits skyrocket [...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
While all of the neocons are criminally insane the head nut case has to be John Bolton. Remember him? He was so crazy that he could not get Senate approval when the Republicans were in charge. Well, he's outdone himself:
John Bolton: Israel' [...]By Ron Beasley
In 1936 the Republicans were much like the Republicans today. They were attempting to block everything FDR was trying to do for the American people. Unlike Obama FDR knew how to deal with the Republicans - he made fun of them.
[...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
Apparently a near depression on his watch was enough to make Alan Greenspan rethink his Ayn Rand roots and make him sound more like Thom Hartmann.
Greenspan Says U.S. Should Consider Breaking Up Large BanksU.S. regulators should consider breaking up large financial institutions [...]
By Ron Beasley
You may have noticed that I haven't been around the last few days. The reason is I had a medical adventure. Yes, it involved an ambulance and a hospital and since I have no insurance the second part of the adventure is still to come. What happened to' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
Dow Exceeds 10,000 as Banks Turn From Drag to DriversThe Dow Jones Industrial Average’s rally above 10,000 erases about half the damage done since the gauge soared to a record two years ago.
Led by financial companies, the Dow climbed 3,454.53 points since falling to a 12-year [...]
By Ron Beasley
With the South freaked out because we have a black president Southern Man from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young would seem to be a good choice for the Saturday Night Flashback.
[...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
I first suggested that Wall Street and the US economy was little more than a Ponzi Scheme almost two years ago.
We have constantly been told that the American economy is strong. An increasing number of Americans know this just isn't so. The problem is that Wall Street has' [...]
By Ron Beasley
This is really what it's all about - from my friend DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS
Just For A Moment, Rest [...]Commentary By Ron Beasley
On the 8th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan it might be a good time to ask - whatever happened to Osama bin Laden? I have always thought that he has been dead for all or most of those eight years and I'm not alone. Romesh Rathnesar' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
A few days ago I asked But What About The Israeli Nukes?
It's probably the worst kept secret in the world - Israel's nuclear arsenal. It's the original "don't ask don't tell" policy.
Now I don't know is Tom Engelhardt reads Newshoggers but he sure picks up the' [...]
By Ron Beasley
Now we all know that the Republican party has a serious demographic problem. To survive the party needs to do some serious outreach to women and minorities. Over at Balloon Juice Tim F points out that today they managed to alienate blacks, women and Jews - [...]
By Ron Beasley
FOX's Shep Smith will have the wingnuts screaming for his scalp again after this. Via TPM he takes on Sen. John Barrasso (Wingnut, WY).
He did a better job of making a case for the public option than anyone on MSNBC.
The likelihood of a bill without a' [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
One of the reasons our health care costs are so high is that our diet is making us sick and killing us or to be more exact the food industry is killing us. Like the health insurance industry the food industry primarily exists [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
The new FTC Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials includes bloggers. It's probably necessary and probably won't impact us here at Newshoggers or at least it shouldn't. OK, I will now tell you when I received a free book from a publisher for one of my reviews. [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
GOP senators: US, not Israel, should attack Iran ‘if necessary’
Two senior Republican senators say the United States, and not Israel, should attack Iran if military action becomes "necessary."
They also say a simple strike at the country's nuclear capability wouldn't be enough -- the US would have to [...]
Commentary By Ron Beasley
The New York Times editorial board gets it right: Wanted: Leadership on Jobs
By every meaningful measure, the weak job market deteriorated further in September. Federal stimulus spending has prevented an even worse decline. But that is cold comfort for the tens of millions of working men and women [...]
