Saturday Musings

++I knew I was on to something. John Nichols at the Nation writes about how Elizabeth Warren has stepped up the populist message. She endorsed Rick Weiland, whom I wrote about yesterday. Nichols mentions that Weiland has now visited 300 out of South Dakota's 311 communities. Weiland was the head of the state's AARP.

++Chris Wiegant in his Friday Talking Points reveals the Democrats' 2014 strategy and says how effective Democratic ads pushing back on criticism of Obamacare have been. For instance,in West Virginia, Democrats are pointing out that because of Bob Byrd the ACA covers "black lung" disease,the scourge of the coal-mining regions. Sadly, it might be useful for Democrats to go back to mentioning the individual aspects of the insurance reform--like no pre-existing conditions,same costs for women as men,no lifetime caps,adult children on the parents' plan.  All of these get in the range of 80% approval ratings. No one mentions them anymore.

++About that crazy ad against Al Franken. It seems that one of the more obscure Koch front-groups funded it to defend the Koch Brothers. Apparently,there are more to be seen in your neighborhood this year. After all Senator Vitter proclaims the Koch Brothers the most patriotic Americans. 

++North Carolina is being forced by the courts to submit the racist e-mails on their new voting law. Surprise! They were aiming to suppress the minority vote.

++The Democratic Governor of West Virginia vetoed the bill that restricted abortions to 20-weeks.

++Will Putin invade the Ukraine? The Business Insider and Vice say "yes" because of the nature of the 50,000 troops on that country's border. Putin says no but he wants the Ukraine to become a federation. The ousted President has called for referenda in the Eastern part on whether to secede.

++On Obamacare,I answered my own question. Yes, you can enroll during the rest of the year if you have a life-changing event--like losing your job, having a kid,etc. 

++It's always nice to see America's staunch allies stand with this country. Israel abstained from condemning Russia's annexation of the Crimea at the UN General Assembly. I guess Bibi is mad.

++President Obama just finished one of the most distasteful tasks an American President has to do--pacify the Saudis. President Obama had to reassure the Saudi King that he wouldn't take just any deal with Iran on their nuclear program and that he would step up armed support to the Syria rebels. 

++In the phone call with Putin, Obama heard the Russian leader protest about the problems in the Transdniestr. I hope the President shut him down. Most observers see this as the next piece Putin will pick up.

++Tass ran a fascinating editorial on how much Russia and the United States have cooperated since the end of the Cold War and that we share many issues in common. It tried to minimize the Ukraine disagreement. I found this encouraging.

++Facebook is running amok with right-wingers saying that the Pope slapped President Obama down on Obamacare. They say they thought the Pope is a Communist but maybe there is hope for him. But there is no record of him saying this except rumors reported on Fox News.

++Since when did creationism deserve equal time. Even in my Sunday School as a kid,no one ever spoke of creationism. Now it is supposed to be equal to scientific theories? 

++Today in the Huffington Post,there was a smart article in their religion section about Pat Robertson's assertion that gays would be stoned in Jesus' time. The writer, a Jewish religion author,said that even under Leviticus this would not be true. There would have to be two eyewitnesses to men having anal sex and these two would have to warn the men about what they were doing wrong. And even then,there would be no capital punishment because at that time it wasn't in Jewish law. Now you know why we need more Jewish members of the Supreme Court.

++Ron Fournier,the former head of AP and a staunch Republican, thought he was clever and tweeted that Obamacare's six million enrollments was like Bush's Mission Accomplished. Conservative politicians have tweeted that their state exchanges, when they exist,didn't enroll enough to fill (blank) the largest stadium in their state. The White House tweeted back that the enrollments would fill all the pro-football stadiums three times over. The number of enrolled will literally be ignored by the GOP this year.

++This past week Rachel Maddow had a small segment on how the new GOP orthodoxy is anti-contraception. As a former Republican, I find this deeply disturbing and shocking. This was once a party whose leading women and first ladies sat on the board of Planned Parenthood. But as Dr. Maddow pointed out every GOP Senator voted in the last year on a bill that would allow employers not to buy health insurance that covered contraception. So not only does the GOP wage war on women but also women employees.

++Someone who could use Obamacare is Bridget Kelly,the aide to Chris Christie who is now blamed for causing the George Washington Bridge closing. Christie's white-washed report on the issue blames her and her alone for the lane closure. Bridget is a single mother with three kids. I hope she goes on the Obamacare exchange to cover her family. But if you believe she alone created this snarl, I have a bridge I could close for you.

Sunday News Roundup

++Jason Linkins provides all you need to know about the Sunday talk shows. He talks about his boss on McLaughlin Report probably being stoned and craving pizza. This week, some black people got to appear instead of the ancient, old white men to discuss the meaning of Nelson Mandela.

++Over 3.7 million have visited the Obamacare website and now the talk shows are asking whether enough young people will enroll.

++The week saw a slight uptick in the progressive agenda. Minimum wage fights are breaking out in local areas. Elizabeth Warren fought back against the "Third Way" crowd, pointing to their funding from banks. The Holy Writ of austerity by cutting Medicare and Social Security was damaged this week as more Democrats are arguing for an enlargement in Social Security. This is a seachange in the national debate.

++Chuck Hagel is in Kabul to secure the ever-elusive security pact with Afghanistan.

++John Kerry brought to Israel the details of secuity arrangments for an Israeli-Palestianian deal.

++President Obama appeared at the Saban Institute here in Washington,D.C. to argue that an Iranian deal is about 50-50 and maybe less.

++John Kerry appeared later at the same forum and was more hopeful than President Obama.

++Bibi Netanyahu said if Iran is nuclear, there will be no Palestinian peace deal. His coalition partners are urging him to get serious.

++The Ukraine has the largest protests since 2004. 

++Meanwhile in the Party of No Ideas, Rand Paul says that extending long-term unemployment benefits would be unfair to those workers,the Tea Party gang wants to block another budget deal,one-third of the delegates to the Virginia Republican Party convention believe Medicare is unconstitutional. The John Birch Society met yesterday at Mount Vernon to discuss how subversive the Right can become.

++Rand Paul offered ingenious solutions to Detroit. He wants the city to become like Saipan and attract foreign investors who would have a tax holiday. Meanwhile Christie's valued the Detroit Art Institute's art collection as worth about $1 billion--peanuts for the total debt of the city. Be assured the wealthy will get it for their private collections.

++Naomi Klein slams Nelson Mandela for adopting a neo-liberal capitalist model for South Africa as if in his two-terms he could preserve the peace and confiscate all the industries.

++Rand Paul won't say he is running for President. Elizabeth Warren said she is definitely not. Bernie Sanders said he might if no progressive runs for the Democratic nomination.

++The Times laments the state of South Africa, even though black South Africans feel better. This seems to be the new meme for the post-Mandela mourning. The man was great but didn't do enough. Maybe Romney will beat him next time.

++The relatively good economic news this week brought crickets from my conservative friends. They tell me "Wait until February." They still believe in hyperinflation and that there will be another crash. 

++Thomas Friedman of the NY Times this morning won another Friedman Unit--a term a blogger coined for every inanity he writes. Friedman claims the bad educational scores of our country indicates there is too much power among Teachers' Labor Unions and too many entitlement programs. Maybe he can join Rand Paul in re-creating Saipan in Detroit.