I haven't posted much this week because I came down with a cold and awful sore throat with almost complete laryngitis. Between the sniffles and not being able to squeak out more than a few sounds at a time,I'm squarely in "the doldrums."

Anyone have any ideas for busting out? I made chicken soup with matzoh balls tonight, but by the time it was done, I was too tired to eat.

I'm looking forward to this weekend so I can stay inside my abode until Monday. Reading makes me dizzy, so I'm just going to watch old movies.

Whhat do you have planned, and if you were feeling under the weather, what would make you feel better?

this is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm going to an early screening of "It's A Wonderful Life" at one of those old movie theaters that has been around for 80 years and actually had the first run of the movie. So with that excuse, I now present you one of my favorite scenes in film history:

You remember when there used to a be a political party that used to think and talk like that?

The Heisman award is tonight. Toby Gerhart should win. Colt McCoy will.

This is an Open Thread.

Conservative Andrew Breitbart has launched a series of new sites called Big Government. Today, the site published this leaked memo which suggests that President Obama is going to order the detainees at Guantanamo to be moved to the Thomson Correctional Facility in Illinois.

Key portions are below:

ABC News has obtained the Pakistani report on the interrogations of the five men who were reported missing in the U.S. and arrested in Pakistan. (Report available here.) Three of the five were born in the U.S. From the report:

They were all college students. They had deep interest in the religion and they were of the opinion that a Jihad must be waged against the infidels for the atrocities committed by them against Muslims around the world. Among them Ahmed Abdullah Minni used to regularly visit the internet page of YouTube. He used to the praise the videos which showed attacks on the US Army and Installations. This became a regular feature and Minni, a registered user of YouTube, regularly praised such attacks. Soon after, Minni was contacted by a person named “Saifullah”.

The five had an interesting way of e-mailing each other: [More...]

Crazy:

I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children. I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I've done, but I want to do my best to try.

[. . .] After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person.

Again, I ask for privacy for my family and I am especially grateful for all those who have offered compassion and concern during this difficult period.

The man has chosen to live his entire life in public now. Nuts. Yes, this announcement is living your private life in public to me. Just go do what you think you should do and STOP issuing press releases.

Speaking for me only

Hannukkah? Chanukah? Anyway, have a happy first night.

This is an Open Thread.

Being President of the United States at any time is probably the most difficult job in the world. Becoming President after the worst President in history left the nation in shambles puts Barack Obama in the position of being able to say his job is as difficult as any person's since FDR. That and 3 dollars will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Let me put it bluntly, saying the job is hard at this point will do no one a bit of good - politically or otherwise. Ezra Klein tries anyway:

Noam Scheiber compares the task facing deficit hawks in 2009 to the task facing deficit hawks in 1993 [. . .] As Noam [. . .] explain[s], one of the difficulties facing the Obama team is that it was a lot easier to see how to kick-start the economy in 1993 than in 2009. [. . .]

And it's a lot easier to see how to kickstart the economy now than it was in 1933. You see, Keynes had not yet been proven right. More . . .

mcjoan:

Senate [HCR] Bill has Loophole Allowing Coverage Limits

That was an easy catch. Just wait till the lawyers start in on the meaning of "is," "may," "shall," "notice," etc. Regulation of health insurance does not work in the United States.

Speaking for me only

Blogometer quotes Nate Silver:

"Liberals have tended to underestimate what a significant political achievement it would be for Democrats to pass such a major bill that has become rather unpopular with the public."

Is Silver praising Democrats for making health care reform unpopular? Or praising them for doing the bidding of certain interests in the face of the unpopularity Dems have created regarding health care reform? Should I read Silver to find out? Maybe later.

Speaking for me only

This is quite the ethical lapse:

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, gave a nearly $14,000 pay raise to a female staffer in 2008, at the time he was becoming romantically involved with her, and later that year took her on a taxpayer-funded trip to Southeast Asia and the Middle East, though foreign policy was not her specialty. Late last Friday, Baucus acknowledged his relationship with Melodee Hanes, whom he nominated for the job of U.S. attorney in Montana, after it was first reported on the website MainJustice.com. [. . .] [Baucus] dismissed calls for an ethics investigation, saying, “I went out of my way to be up and up.”

I think Baucus misunderstands that his being on "the up and up" with an employee would be the subject of an ethics investigation.

Speaking for me only

In the season finale of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry was supposed to do a favor ("F for Favor") for Mocha Joe, whom Larry had neglected to tip for doing him a favor. Mocha Joe asked Larry to pick up coffee beans ("C for Coffee") for Mocha Joe. Larry tried to get the beans, but arrived late and could not get the beans. The next day, Larry pleaded for an "E for Effort."

Mocha Joe (with an assist from Jerry Seinfeld) gave Larry an F for not completing the favor. Right now I am prepared to give the Democrats in Congress an E for Effort on their Health Insurance Premium Assistance Bill, but I still want a favor -- forget the pipe dream of 60 votes in the Senate and figure out what you can pass through R for Reconciliation.

Then they can all declare a V for Victory (S for Success?) and at least some less well off folks can get some insurance (C for Crappy?) paid for by wealthy folks (P for Progressive taxation?)

Otherwise, maybe we put Susie Essman on them.

Speaking for me only

I like that Ezra Klein wrote the post he just did. Because I think it illustrates precisely what is wrong with the analysis provided by the Village Wonks. Ezra writes:

Insurers seem evil because of the marketplace in which they operate. The healthy don't buy as much insurance as the sick. The sick aren't as profitable as the healthy. Insurers, like all private firms, are very simple: They pursue profit like a pig sniffing after truffles. It is up to society to train them, and we do that by setting rules.

Health-care reform will establish many, if not all, of those rules. The individual mandate will mean the healthy cannot hang back until they become the sick. Insurers, for their part, will not be able to discard the sick in favor of the healthy. Perhaps more importantly, risk adjustment -- which compensates insurers with sicker customers by taxing insurers who have cherrypicked healthier people -- will end the days when it is profitable to do so. As the exchanges open up -- if they open up, more to the point -- all of this will work better and more smoothly. This is how the Netherlands' health-care system looks, and few would accuse their insurers of being evil.

(Emphasis supplied.) We do not live in the Netherlands. If what Ezra prescribed actually worked, it would have worked in even one state in the US. Regulation would work. It has not. The Exchange has not worked in any state the way Ezra describes. The individual mandate has not worked in any state the way Ezra describes. The excise tax has not worked in any state the way that Ezra describes. Only one thing has worked to contain health care costs in the United States - government run insurance plans. Those are the facts. In ivory towers, you can build any Rube Goldberg contraption you want and claim it will work. In the real world, one program HAS worked. Only one. Medicare. Therein lies the problem with the Village Wonk. He lives in the Ivory Tower. The rest of us have to live in the real world. Right here in the good ole USA - where regulators do not effectively regulate health insurance; where exchanges do not work; where excise taxes will result in less health care for workers, not lower health care costs and increased wages.

Speaking for me only