"Paranoia is Having All The Facts"--Bill Burroughs

++Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of Bill Burroughs' birth. For the event we have the publication of the definitive biography Call Me Burroughs--A Life, by Barry Miles. Miles, who has written about Burroughs several times before, has done a magnificent job in researching the wild times of Bill Burroughs and his effect on the so-called Beat Generation and later the punk movement. It is a good, but long read, weighing in at 700 pages. But it is worth it.

++It is an appropriate book for the political times we live in. I'm sure you read that the deficit has shrunk larger than anticipated and will shrink even further next year. The American people actually believe Obama has enlarged the deficit.

++The OMB report on Obamacare managed to receive very warped news coverage that claimed it would cost 2 million jobs. E.G. Dionne's column in the Amazon Post this morning showed how this was willful ignorance on the part of the media and the GOP to hide the fact that premiums weren't going up the way critics projected, but more importantly that an unintended consequence of the law was that Americans are freer to retire earlier,embark on their own careers and retreat from the job market if they want to stay home and have kids because they aren't tied to health insurance. The OMB director appeared yesterday at a House hearing to assert that Obamacare will add jobs. The whole idea is that the demand for labor will actually increase wages. Don't expect anyone to figure this out anytime soon.

++In the early days of this blog, I opined that we may have moved beyond the point where we could adopt sophisticated policies to deal with our most crushing issues. Even the GOP disinformation on health care runs against what would seem to be the interest of their core financial base--the corporations. The health insurance industry, which spent almost a billion dollars against Obamacare has now realized they have a larger market and will profit from it. The Koch Brothers will not because they have to pay an additional 3.6% on their capital gains and during the Obama Administration they have made billions in capital gains. They just want to keep all of it.

++Marco Rubio wanted to eliminate the "risk corridors" for the health insurance industry arguing it was a "bailout" to the industry. Which is a strange position for Republicans, who always want industry bailed out. He testified before Darryl Issa's committee yesterday but Elijah Cummings was not allowed question him. His question was going to be why Rubio was against the extension of Medicaid in Florida.

++Rubio's plan for linking the "risk corridors" to the debt ceiling came undone when the CBO's study showed that in fact the health industry would be paying $8 billion into the government's coffers.

++The House's plan to seek ransom on the debt ceiling has gone bizarre. "Risk Corridors" are out and the next Keystone Pipeline approval looks like a loser. So John Boehner proposes restoring benefit cuts to veterans in the future as a plan. In other words,increase debt to raise the debt ceiling.

++Now the Senate GOP wants to force Harry Reid to have a vote on the new Iran Sanctions. I really can not understand this insanity. It's one thing to try and sabotage the Obama presidency by obstructing. There is another to sabotage the United States by setting in motion events that will lead to war. 

++Let me clear as someone who has been opposed to Iran my entire adult life, additional sanctions will trigger the defection of France,Russia and China from the sanction regime. John Kerry already warned France that sending a group of French businessmen to Iran was counter-productive. Any vote on additional sanctions will trigger a stampede and an end to the possibility of a negotiated settlement. So what do you propose? That America is exceptional and can go it alone in attacking Iran. We saw how that came out in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, even the GOP base views Iraq and Afghanistan as not worth the risk. Is it three times the charm with Iran? 

++Remember in the first term when President Obama negotiated the arms reduction treaty with Russia? The treaty logically continued the nuclear reduction treaty signed by Ronald Reagan and had the support of Dick Lugar and Sam Nunn. The GOP fought ratification of the treaty tooth and nail. What does this all say about the GOP?

++Meanwhile in the land of Bibi ,rabbis have promised that John Kerry will face the wrath of God if he won't allow the Israelis to pave over Palestine and erect Levittown settlements.

++The GOP has rejected any immigration reform until 2015 because they believe they will win the Senate and the bill will be different. Of course, they could pass it in a minute by abandoning the Hastert rule. The new excuse is that they don't trust Barack Obama to enforce any law. I guess 2 million deportations doesn't convince them.

++We are going into the Interzone, which only Bill Burroughs would appreciate.