The Whole Delivery

Just last week I had a conversation with a so-called "friend" of mine on the topic of universal health care. Providing some background information, I write "friend" in quotations because this individual was more like a student government partner, with our collective work serving as Presidents of our respective constituents, which often overlapped. Basically, that was the extent of our relationship with each other. This individual posted a link to a NY Times editorial advocating that in order to enact universal health care, a system of rationing must be implemented. He then advocated ethically indefensible statements, including "On that note, since when do we have the right to long or healthy life? The fact that we're living so long is a product of our scientific progress, medical advancement, and financial incentives" and "The free market has enabled us to experience a side of life which is unnatural... and now that we're convinced we...

(click on the photo, because you will need to see it larger unless you have 5/5 vision) That just has to be the case The cable and network news outlets were especially guilty of turning away from the A1 Times story on Sunday. The survey indicated a jaw-dropping 85 percent of Americans think "the health care system needed to be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt." Seventy-two percent support a government-run system, and a solid majority would pay higher taxes to get the reform done. Yet despite the relentless discussion of the topic of health care on television Sunday, particularly the morning talk shows, the Times poll went largely unmentioned. According to a search on TVeyes.com both NBC and Fox News (surprise!) never once mentioned the polling results on Sunday. On ABC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC combined, the results were mentioned approximately one dozen times. If the poll had showed 85 percent opposed government-run health care reform, what kind of coverage do you thi...

Photo from Arko Datta of Reuters It's over : Indian commandos took control of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, the last nest of terrorist resistance, on Saturday morning, after a lengthy assault that left three terrorists dead and sections of the hotel in flames, the head of the commando unit said in a televised news conference. A three day nightmare appears to be over: It was the third day of a siege that has shaken India, raised tensions with neighboring Pakistan and prompted questions about the failure of the authorities to anticipate the tragedy or to react swiftly enough as it unfolded. And it seems the Lashkar-e-Taiba group did the unforgivable deed: American intelligence and counterterrorism officials said Friday that there was mounting evidence that a Pakistani militant group — Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has long been involved in the conflict with India over the disputed territory of Kashmir — was responsible. It's Saturday, night time on the near end of this Thanksgiving...

Utterly shameful stuff that the New York Times Joe Nocera reported yesterday in regards to what is actually happening with the bailout money that the television media isn't covering. But that's typical of our corrupt television, Republican owned media (and General Electric isn't any better, no matter if they put Olbermann and Maddow in to make the "left" happy). Back to this great, but very alarmingly, article from Nocera. It shows how Paulson is being slick King Henry again , and benefitting those who don't even need the money on Fall Street : “Chase recently received $25 billion in federal funding. What effect will that have on the business side and will it change our strategic lending policy?” It was Oct. 17, just four days after JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, agreed to take a $25 billion capital injection courtesy of the United States government, when a JPMorgan employee asked that question. It came toward the end of an employee-only confer...

(Photo from Rob Bennett for The New York Times) Oh yes, this is great news indeed. First, this great diary from Stu hunter over at the Kos : In television, ratings are the bottom line, and Rachel Maddow has little to worry about these days. In the six weeks since Maddow took over the 9:00 p.m. hour on MSNBC, she's doubled the timeslot's audience. "I'm pinching myself," Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, tells The New York Times. More, from the NY Times about Rachel's success . More important for her bosses at MSNBC is that “The Rachel Maddow Show,” her left-leaning news and commentary program, has averaged a higher rating among 25- to 54-year-olds than “Larry King Live” on CNN for 13 of the 25 nights she has been host. While the average total audience of her program remains slightly smaller than that of Mr. King’s, Ms. Maddow, 35, has made MSNBC competitive in that time slot for the first time in a decade. The channel at that hour has an average viewers...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. And the Flyers' sound technicians turned up the sound of the music to drown out the boos. But to almost no avail. I iwll get better video later, but at the beginning, you can clearly here the boos well. Apologize earlier for the wrong video. From the NY Times blog of Lyzz Zisner of Ny Times : The biggest problem: when Palin came out to onto the Wachovia Center ice Saturday night — greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd — the the two hockey players who had no choice but to appear with her in that photo op were turned into props in a political campaign. If Rangers center Scott Gomez or Flyers center Mike Richards wanted to make some sort of political statement, that would be fine, but in this case, they were thrust into a situation not of their choosing. Snider put them there with his ill-advised mixing of politics and sports. HAHAHAHAHAHA John McCain and Sarah Palin: The Laughinstocks of America, The Shame of America. Update: Thanks ...