There's a lesson in this

Why did an upstate New York congressional district election matter so much? Because it pitted Sarah Palin against Newt Gingrich for the soul of the Republican party.
And guess who won?
Neither of them.
Obama took it, for the first time since the Civil War.

Another freak-out is on the way

Well, we can expect another freak-out over the latest flap on health care reform -- the "opt-in" public option instead of the "opt-out" public option.
Did you know that Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the pharmaceutical companies were manoeuvering all along to pass a horrible health care bill? Did you know that the White House secretly plotting to screw America? Did you know that the only truly patriotic thing for the Democrats to do now is join the Republicans in voting down the health care bill? I expect to be reading all this and more next week in the Comment threads at Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Daily Kos, Americablog . . .
Its just a funny coincidence that voting down the health care bill is exactly what Republicans and the health insurance industry want to happen, isn't it?
I just posted this comment over at Digby's place and I'm repeating it here:

I hope Americans will soon realize there is no perfect health care plan -- single-payer, opt-out, opt-in, public-private mix, whatever, they all have problems and none are going to be effective in all circumstances.
In pushing for a reform bill to be approved, what Obama is actually doing here is shifting the momentum toward health care reform. But you will find that health care reform is not an event, its a process.
Canada approved medicare in the 1960s and we have spent the last 40 years fighting about it. As it turned out, it wasn't so important exactly what we passed, as that we passed SOMETHING that gave everyone a place to start.

Silver lining

Looking on the bright side, Saskatoon doesn't have to worry about closing H1N1 vaccination clinics because of a vaccine shortage.
Ours weren't open yet.

Honey, I can make anything look good

OK, ya got me.
But here's my favorite Muppet bit:

Throwdown!

I'll see your Buddy Rich, POGGE, and raise you some Gene Krupa:

Still Harry James on trumpet, though.
And here is Jeff Beck playing A Day In The Life:

Why is Saskatchewan so slow with the vaccine?

Does anyone understand why Saskatoon and Regina are not even starting to inoculate children and pregnant women against swine flu until next week or the week after?
Sure, I know the health workers have put themselves first in line this week, but couldn't the high risk groups like pregnant women and little children have been started at the same time?
I don't get it.

Great line of the day

Athenae on Ian Robinson's dumb sexist Calgary Sun column:

It's like Carrie Bradshaw and Cal Thomas had a stupid, stupid baby.

The Anti-Obama Phenomenon

Progressive blogs have demanded for years that right-wingers apologize for supporting George Bush. I wonder whether some progressive bloggers themselves will ever apologize for not supporting Barak Obama.?
There seems to be a knee-jerk anti-Obama reaction going on in some circles, progressive as well as right-wing.
The anti-Obama progressives try to justify their attitude by saying how they would still like him if it wasn't for this, that or the other, but it actually doesn't matter what he does, its never good enough -- Andrew Sullivan slams Obama for what he didn't say when he signed into law an historic hate crime bill, Jane Hamsher thinks Obama is just pretending to support health care reform while secretly plotting with Joe Lieberman to sabotage it.
As John Cole writes:

I seriously am to the point that every time I open memeorandum or check the progressive blogs, I’m beginning to see the same kind of batshit crazy I see on right wing blogs. Has every one just lost their damned minds? Did everyone go insane?

There are two things at the root of it, I think.
First, when it comes to their internal picture of a president, too many Americans want a President who they can think of as “Daddy” or “Grandpa” or “General” -- older and hefty and white -- and they are angry at Obama because none of these labels fits him. How dare he be president when he doesn't look like one? Clinton and Kennedy endured the same reaction.
But second, add to this that Obama is African-American.
In the unexamined, even unconscious, worldview of some Americans, a young slim black man is certainly not someone to be respected or listened to or deferred to. Their inner Pat Buchanan is scared of black people. Obama even plays basketball just like those juvenile delinquent gang banger inner city black kids. How dare he be president when he's so scary?
Americans who secretly feel this way will continue to figure out some way to blame Obama for their feelings, because its just too uncomfortable and difficult to examine and discard their own prejudices.

Back to the future

When I graduated from university in the 70s, we were in a recession, there were no jobs, we had inflation, nobody was building stuff, the stock market was poor, the economy was sort of limping along, yadda yadda.
So here I am approaching retirement and in a Globe and Mail article about what's next for the economy, I read this:

“Investors must recognize that if assets appreciate with nominal gross domestic product, a 4-5 per cent return is about all they can expect even with abnormally low policy rates,” [bond fund manager Bill Gross] said. “Rage, rage against this conclusion if you wish, but the six-month rally in risk assets … is likely at its pinnacle.”
Mr. Gross and his Pimco colleagues dismiss the prospects for a traditional V-shaped recovery and warn that the U.S. is facing a “new normal” of tight credit, higher inflation, slow growth and elevated unemployment levels.

Seems to me this is where I came in.

Great line of the day

Senator Joe Lieberman tries to make himself important by saying he's going to vote against health care reform because he doesn't support the public option, and John Cole reminds some progressive bloggers that reality bites

BTW- I’m laughing at the Lieberman stuff. Will all the folks who spent the last few weeks trashing the WH for being insufficiently aggressive with the public option please write up your apologies long-form? I’ll check memeorandum for you later. Pretty clearly, the swarthy guy knew the whip count better than Harry Reid. Imagine that! Of course, by noting that Team Obama has more political awareness and skill than Senate Democrats just makes me an O-bot.
Although I hear if you wish really hard and scream “Just words” at Obama, Lieberman might change his mind. That is how this shit works- I read it on the internet!

Emphasis mine.

Waiting for another shoe to drop

I guess it's not surprising that the Prime Minister's Office is now blaming "the media" for the stimulus funding scandal. Steve V points out:

What it suggests is the PMO is becoming exacerbated, they're lashing out because they're losing the public relations battle. The arguments are starting to bite, and it's getting under their skin.

We should have expected all this, really. This is the gang that couldn't shoot straight.
The Cons never had any real commitment to resolving Canada's economic problems, nor are they capable of doing so. First there was the economic update last November, showing such contemptuous and cynical ineptitude that Harper's government almost fell. Then they were dragged kicking and screaming to the "stimulus" table in January, so to speak. It's not surprising to discover they again took the cynical and contemptuous approach, just shovelling money to their own ridings, because they never really had a grip on where the money should be spent to improve the Canadian economy nor how to go about spending it for the best effect.
I wonder if there is another shoe going to drop before this is done?

Cheney as Dracula

Congressman Alan Grayson talks about Dick Cheney on Hardball yesterday:

. . . I have trouble listening to what he says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he‘s talking.
But—but my response is this. He's just angry because the president doesn't shoot old men in the face. Oh, by the way, when he was done speaking, did he just then turn into a bat and fly away?

Peeking through the curtains?

Stop gushing, John. Its just embarrassing.

Shorter

Shorter reports about paying the Taliban not to attack:

Nice little occupation you've got here, Canada. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.

What about Saskatchewan?

Canadian Press has a story about what every province is doing about swine-flu vaccine except for Saskatchewan and Newfoundland.
Doesn't surprise me -- even if you follow the news every day, its been hard to figure out what plan Saskatchewan has for swine flu inoculations.
There was a news story the other day which reported in shocked tones that more than 60 per cent in Saskatchewan didn't plan to get vaccinated -- well, I'm in that group and its because I had the distinct impression that nobody WANTED to vaccinate me because I'm not in one of the designated at-risk groups (pregnant, old-and-sick, young, remote).
I would happily get vaccinated if I can. But can I?
Sask Health yesterday posted a press release that says I can get a flu shot after Nov. 16.
Somewhere. Sometime. Maybe.
If they have enough doses.