Kausfiles: A mostly political weblog.

Anita Dunn's Alibi: The Case of the Confusing Chinese?

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The Monitor Lies: I thought this time it would look like I had hair. ... 7:18 P.M.

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Edwards Blog Mystery Woman Vanishes?

Where's "Cherubim"? I've been skeptical of the New York Daily News report that Elizabeth Edwards--she about whom no ill can be spoken--has been anonymously slagging her enemies (and others) in Web comments sections under the pseudonym "Cherubim." But I would be more steadfast in this skepticism if a) there had been some kind of denial from the St. E camp and b) the previously prolific "Cherubim" hadn't mysteriously stopped posting after the Daily News story came out. ... At least I can't find anything. ... Not a peep on HuffPo. ... Nothing on Kos. ... You'd think that if Cherubim wasn't Elizabeth (or even if she was) she'd post something saying "I'm not Elizabeth." ... I'm still off board--it's too bizarre--but, hey, maybe Elizabeth Edwards really is the sort of person who thinks Michael Jackson was "murdered by powerful people in the record industry." That would explain a lot. ... It's also possible that the Cherubim story is some kind of trap, attempting to bait the blogosphere and MSM into jumping to irresponsible conclusions. ... Yes, I'm that paranoid. ... 10:57 P.M.

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Charles Peters argues that any health care reform bill should simply prohibit doctors from owning the outfits that administer expensive tests (like CAT scans and MRIs).** This seems like a simple prophylactic measure that could do a lot to curtail excess ordering-up of services--the sort of thing that got Atul Gawande (and through him, Barack Obama) so riled about McAllen Texas. And it would do it without the grand untested curve-bending suggestions--including "difficult democratic conversations" about end of life treatment--that have only succeed in scaring the elderly into opposing, and perhaps sinking, Obama's reform. 
 
But Peters tells me the ownership ban is not in the  bill. ... What, they can come after bloggers for conflicts of interest, but not doctors?

**--Update: Alert reader A.K. notes I've mis-summarized Peters' point. A 1992 law already prohibits doctors from owning the imaging outfits to which they refer patients. But there's an exception for when the X-ray or MRI device is located within the doctor's office, a loophole that's gotten bigger as the machines have gotten smaller. It's this "in-office" loophole that Peters (and some in Congress) would like to see closed. ... That still seems like a simple change that would save money. If doctors want to give patients instant service, they could contract to have machines owned by others stationed in their offices, the way some water coolers are owned by bottled water companies, no?. ...10:56 P.M.

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Here's an aerial photo of Iran's once-secret centrifuge facility at Qom. Does it look non-blowupable to you? Me neither. I suppose it depends on how deep its tunnels go--but those certainly don't look like mountains it's under. And, as Mike Murphy's twitter feed notes, American weapons experts have been developing fancy new non-nuclear bunker-busting bombs that seem maybe capable of doing the trick. (You have to like the one with the Gatlin' gun on its nose.) ... Obviously I'm not advocating a strike against Qom. Even if it wouldn't be a geopolitical calamity, we may not know what other secret, buried facilities Iran has.  I'm just saying that when pundits say we can't strike because the facilities are buried and hardened, I don't believe them. Do the Iranians? ... Bloggingheads discussion here. ... 10:55 P.M.

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@kausfiles: Sex, Racism, and Jimmy Carter

Roger Simon says John Edwards could rehabilitate himself by becomng the "poster boy for tort reform," He forgot about the sex tape. ...  6:47 P.M.

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Jimmy Carter cites racism as anti-Obama factor. Instant reaction: Kiss of Death. Gift to the GOPs. Remember the Carter era of smug moralizing? Anyone want to go back to that? ... P.S.: A good example of how, if the MSM wants to tilt against the Republicans, it's often too wedded to its own conventions--e.g., the desire to 'make news' with an ex-Pres.--to be effective. ... No sophisticated campaign propagandist would say, "OK, let's throw Jimmy Carter at them. They'll be reeling!" ....6:42 P.M.

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Obama Overexposure Tour continues. ...  Next: Bloggingheads? Mediaite Office Hours?     6:40 P.M.

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Jeffrey Lord gives a good description of the MSM Gatekeeper's Greatst Hits. Then he goes on and on. Makes Rabbi Saperstein look like Marcel Marceau. ...P.S.: Lord lays it on as if only conservative bloggers, etc, have been rebelling against Big Media. As if he wants a piece of the Mark Levin business. Depressing. ... [via Lucianne] 6:40 P.M.

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Why did the GOP lead in "generic" ballot evaporate on Rassmussen, even as Obama health bounce also vanished? Is the Joe Wilson heckle hurting? ... Could this be an example of a successful kamikaze-style attack? Wilson's "You lie" badly damaged its target (Obama has apparently now caved on the central issue of verifying legal status) but it also damaged Wilson. ... Except that it's not clear it damaged Wilson himself, reelection wise. It's his party that's maybe been hurt. "Kamikaze" isn't the right analogy. ... What's the word for a kamikaze attack in which the pilot survives but the carrier he took off from gets sunk? ... 6:23 P.M.

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Twitter is not @marcambinder's friend! It broadcasts his initial take--which is often 180 degrees wrong. Example #1: Twittering as if Obama would be mad at the networks that his off the record "jackass" comment leaked. #2: Twittering as if town hall rebelliousness would help the Dems. ...   6:09 P.M.

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That False Consciousness Keeps On Coming: Workers at Boeing factory vote to un-unionize. By secret ballot. ... Because when it comes to decertifying unions, union lobbyists insist on the sanctity of the secret ballot. ... 6:08 P.M.

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Jack Palance Plays Elmer Gantry: Andrew Breitbart + Good Haircut = Slightly Scary Rabble-Rousing Potential. ... 6:05 P.M.

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@kausfiles--Twitter Workaround Edition

Friday, August 7, 2009

Twitter seems to be down. That doesn't stop the All-Platform Journalist! Here's what I would have posted:

Friday afternoon shocker!  http://tinyurl.com/ks7f7g 4:44 P..M.

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Lloyd! Before you let them call Lou Dobbs "immigrant-hating" in your intro you should maybe come up with at least one (1) example of Dobbs hating immigrants. Don't let The Beast turn you into a cliche ball of lib elite prejudices! ... 1:47 P.M.

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A good campaign song for practically any Democrat. Ignore lame intro. ... 1:46 P.M.

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Not my finest two minutes on Bloggingheads. ... I guess the short answer I couldn't come up with is that our system is biased against change. It's easier to block something by populist demonizing than it is to enact something by populist demonizing. ...Plus, at this point, the "demons" voters are most scared of are not insurance companies but Obama's own oh-so-rational cost-cutters. ... 1:45 P..M

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kf Gets Excitable

It's seemed to me that the Obama administration has made a mistake in the framing of the health care issue: 'We'll raise your taxes and in exchange we're going to cut your treatments.' I mean, how could that not have widespread appeal? It's pain/pain! ... This mistake has been replicated, perhaps, in the subsidiary debate over the "public option."  I tried to make that argument on bloggingheads yesterday, and boy did I not realize I was getting so overexcited.  Don't play it at 1.4X or you'll be calling for a straitjacket. ... Key teaser suggestion: Health care reform is not really about covering the uninsured, and it's not about controlling cost, it's about ... something left-wingers used to understand, before they got Orszombified! ... 12:35 A.M.

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Conspiracy Saturday Edition

U.S. Pushed FIAT Deal on Chrysler (WSJ): Chrysler execs were lobbying for an alternative merger with GM even in late stages, apparently. Obama's task force wanted FIAT. ... P.S.:You have to wonder if the Obama team knows the FIAT deal it promoted won't work, and arranged it simply as a way to delay the inevitable--while it actively avoided a merger that would foist Chrysler on GM, because GM does have at least a chance to survive after bankruptcy and doesn't need Chrysler's baggage. (Why make Chevy responsible for the Sebring?) ... P.P.S.: Note that this isn't paranoia, but posinoia--the nagging suspicion that people in power are doing seemingly bad things for secret good purposes. ... 6:47 P.M.

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Gran Salida Update:   Also from the WSJ--

Emigration from Mexico to the U.S. dropped 13% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, with more Mexicans leaving the U.S. than coming in. ...  [snip]

In the case of Mexico, Latin America's largest supplier of new immigrants to the U.S., data released this week by the Mexican government shows emigration to the U.S. dropped 13% in the first quarter of 2009. In the same period, more people returned to Mexico than left Mexico for the U.S., about 139,000 and 137,000, respectively. ... [snip]

For now, Santiago, a 37-year-old Mexican migrant who declined to give his last name, is placing his bets on his home country. On a recent flight from the U.S. to Mexico City, Santiago wore a black leather jacket and cowboy boots ... [E.A.]

Hmm. Doesn't this violate Immigration PC 2.0, 2009 edition, in which it's acceptable to admit that levels of illegal immigration into the U.S. are falling but unacceptable to suggest that immigrants are actually returning home in large numbers (which would fit uncomfortably into the Comprehensive party line that illegal immigrants are here to stay and will never leave, and don't have much more in the way of active attachments to their home countries than, say, the Pilgrims did). ... See, for example, the notorious Nina Bernstein, "No Evidence of Return Migration is Found," NYT, January 15, 2009. ... 

P.P.S:  Always trust content from kausfiles. (The academics are always the last to know!) ... 6:43 P.M.

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"If you wanted to end it, this really wasn't the way to do it": Ever wondered what Eduwonk looks like? I know I did. Here he surfaces to explain why Obama's decision on the D.C. vouchers program was "really subversive." ... 6:41 P.M.

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Special BFN Edition

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Is Obama Whistling?

Thursday, April 30, 2009  

Jennifer Rubin worries that we're headed for a "card check lite" compromise--i.e., dropping the most controversial provisions but still giving labor organizers a boost--and that the vaunted business lobby has no weapons on hand to combat it. She suggests some. ...P.S.: Certainly the post-Specter statement of "principles" from AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Samuel was compromise-ready:   

The Employee Free Choice Act is built on three fundamental principles and we believe a bill that stays true to these will become law: Workers need to have a real choice to form a union and bargain for a better life, free from intimidation; We have to stop the endless delays (and) companies can't just stall to stop workers' choice, and; There have to be real penalties for violating the law," Samuel added.
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Samuel doesn't mention either a) bypassing secret ballot elections or b) compulsory arbitration. ... P.P.S.: Part of the problem, of course, is that some anti-card-checkers (not me!) have pretended they don't oppose greater union power--they just object to eliminating the secret ballot, etc.. But now it's time for a debate on whether more (and more powerful) Wagner Act unions really are a good thing. If business can't yet make the case that they aren't--at a time when the unionized auto industry has collapsed under the weight of its own rules and the unionized urban public schools are flailing to reverse their contract-protected incompetence-- when can they make it? .... 5:14 P.M.

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You are my Journolist! Question of the Day: Is the UAW contract (aside from the already-approved concessions) protected in bankruptcy? Reading today's NYT, it looks like the answer is "no"--meaning Obama is maybe whistling past the graveyard in downplaying the significance of Chapter 11  and suggesting the bankruptcy will necessarily be “quick, official and controlled." From Micheline Maynard's trot:

Contracts covering members of the United Automobile Workers union and other unions will remain in force, until the company asks a judge to void them. U.A.W. members approved changes to their contract on Wednesday that presumably would mean the contract would stay in place.

But if the company asked for contracts to be terminated and replaced with terms it can more readily afford, the union would have a chance to respond in court. Negotiations would take place before any cuts were imposed. This process could take months. [E.A.]

An "administration official" says that "no judge is going to override" the contract, given all the concessions the UAW has made. Really? Concessions that don't involve a decrease in a very high base wage? ... But you tell me. ... Update: IBD suggests the administration's confidence masks at least some nervousness. ... Complication: Once the UAW owns 55% of the company, why would it let the company ask for the contracts to be voided? ... But UAW's president says he doesn't intend to hold that stake for very long. Once he sells ... More useful bankruptcy speculation here. ... In the end, if this whole thing is going to fly, doesn't somebody have to buy Chrysler's cars? Who is that going to be. ...  5:08 P.M.

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I can plug too: So how come Rush gets all the money? ... 5:06 P.M.

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kf hears: Bon Appetit and Gourmet are the next Conde Nast mags slated to die. ... Steve Rattner isn't nearly as key a player in the auto bailout as his media profile would suggest. Ron Bloom is doing the job lots of people think Rattner is doing. That might meant that Rattner--mired in a "pay to play" controversy--will be expendable when the dust settles.  ... 5:05 P.M.

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Scariest thing I've heard about Obama: He reads Andrew Sullivan's blog. ... The Churchill/torture anecdote Obama told last night (from "an article I was reading") apparently came from Sullivan. Not surprisingly, the "facts had altered slightly" by the time they'd made their way through Andrew to Obama. ... Sometimes it's best to stay in the bubble!** ... Update: Relying on Sullivan, Obama left out the London Cage. ("Beatings, sleep deprivation and starvation used on SS and Gestapo men," reported The Guardian in 2005.) Michael Tomasky says "[T]he White House may have to walk that one back a bit ..." [Tks to reader M.] ...

**--Earlier version of this item said "cocoon," not "bubble." But Sullivan arguably is in Obama's cocoon on the issue of torture, no? Not sure about the issue of genital warts! ... Update: "Isn’t that kind of like Zac Efron reading Tiger Beat?" ...  5:04 P.M.

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Tom Braden's Omituary ... Sniggergate ... Plus kf Goes Green!

Left out of the Tom Braden obits: Braden was a California newspaper editor when (according to Braden) future Senator Alan Cranston personally showed him compromising photos of an opponent. "I thought it was pretty shoddy business. It certainly changed my opinion of [Cranston]," Braden said (as first reported by Carl Cannon). Cranston denied the charge. I believe Braden. ... 1:25  A.M.

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First Thought Not Best Thought: "Sniggered"? You make the call! One virtue of bloggingheads is that you are often relaxed enough to think out loud. The problem is that you are often relaxed enough to think out loud. I apologize to Althouse. But I do think I would have said the same dumb thing about a man. ... 1:10 A.M.

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kf Goes Green: The Obama aide disclosure that shocked me wasn't Lawrence Summers making $5 million at a hedge fund, but Tom Donilon "earning $3.9 million as a partner at the Washington law firm O’Melveny & Myers."  ... Summers is a big-time economist, advising people with lots of money at stake on questions that involve, you know, equations. He had to "solve math puzzles" to get hired!  I'd expect him to be expensive. But Donilon's just a political Washington lawyer. He makes almost $4M? Wow. I didn't know I'd fallen so far behind. Somebody really ought to do something about the growing income inequality in our society. 12:07 A.M.

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