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Today's TRMS

Vanessa Silverton-Peel — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:04:34 -0400

We hope you all enjoyed Rachel filling in for David Gregory on Race for the White House tonight. But have no fear, there are still two more live hours of the Rachel Maddow Show coming up. On today's show Rachel will be talking to Steve Benen from the Carpetbagger Report about whether or not Obama is actually hitting McCain hard enough to win a presidential contest. And then David Bender will be here talking about Obama's week long vacation and whether or not he thinks it's a good thing for the tired candidate. Finally, Rachel welcomes Juan Cole back to the program. We want to know if the reports of a final agreement on a time line-- yes, you heard me, a time line-- has been reached between the Iraqi government and the Bush Administration.

VIDEO: Jukebox the Ghost

Dorsey Shaw — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:59:38 -0400

An interview with D.C. based indie pop band Jukebox the Ghost
jukeboxtheghost.com

No Man Is an Island No Matter How Rich He Is

Fact-esque — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:57:58 -0400

The Century Foundation recently held a conference titled "Billionaires and Their Impact" to examine, well, billionaires. Seems like we got a lot more of them than we used to.

This year Forbes magazine listed 1,125 billionaires in the world, compared to 946 in 2007—and a measly 140 billionaires in 1986, the first year of the publication's ranking.

They're multiplying, but none of them are you so it might be a good idea to find out what they plan to do with the planet, seeing as how they own it - or think they do. You can see a bunch of videos of the conference here, including my recommendation: my buddy David Cay Johnston of the NYT talking about how billionaires who don't think they owe nobody nothin' actually owe a lot of people a lot, people without whom they would still be sweeping floors at the Hardie's.

And yes, that includes - especially includes - Senor Bill G.

(Videos are in QuickTime, which I don't know hot to post here or I'd post a couple. There's a bunch of them and some of them are...surprising.)

Enermagy

Fact-esque — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:13:58 -0400

I've seen a lot of good stuff written about McCain's dopey tire guage stunt but I haven't seen anyone point out how well it fits in with the learned helplessness theory of governance that conservatives have made their stock and trade. Empowering Americans to feel like they can rise to meet any challenge isn't a Republican long suit. But I lived through the last time Americans were inspired to do something about the energy crisis and not only were the steps we took effective, they were often fun.

In blogging time, Obama's move to cautiously embrace domestic drilling as part of a compromise is very old news but I want to point to a post by Scarecrow at FDL, in which he explains why he likes what Obama is doing:

More off-shore drilling is
environmentally risky; as a supply or near-term price policy it's
delusional, and if done alone only locks us into an untenable future.
But conditioning it in the framework of strict environmental
protection, rather than immediate price/supply relief, and as part of a
transition to something else, is where the debate needed to be.

The Republicans are demanding to drill more, drill now, but no new
drilling will happen for years because it takes time to do the
permitting and there are no additional rigs available. But now
Republicans and oil companies will have to pay for it with immediate
support for alternatives they had been holding up.

He explains further in a down-thread comment:

Ron Kuby and Thomas Frank

Chris Rosen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:08:30 -0400

Fastest Show in Radio!

Chris Rosen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:42:35 -0400

Locking the Barn Door After the Horse Is Gone

Fact-esque — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:50:51 -0400

That's the specialty-of-the-house in the Bush Age.

A Wall Street consortium led by Goldman Sachs managing director E. Gerald Corrigan recommended new standards Wednesday for monitoring and managing risk, saying the financial industry must be better equipped to contain the type of widespread damage wrought by the credit crunch.

Actually, they don't need "new standards". They just need to replace the old standards the Republicans trashed so contemptuously over the last 30 years.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Fact-esque — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:43:17 -0400

Optimism has been the guiding force of conservatism for almost 40 years at least. Liberals and progressives who have warned of the dangers of recinding regulatory protections have been called "Chicken Littles", "Nervous Nellies", cowards, and Enemies of the State. Election campaign after election campaign has been labeled a referundum on whether Americans are optimistic about the future, and the primary selling point of many Republican campaigns has been their claimed ability to calm Americans' supposed fears (most of which the GOP created out of thin air) and turn a terrifying illusion into a comforting fantasy - "the shining city on a hill" myth.

But optimism has been a driving force in US business for even longer. For over a hundred years books and pamphlets have circulated freely promising wealth for anyone who would just believe. Those of us who warned that optimistic assessments in the face of all ration and reason could lead to dangerous consequences, were, at a minimum pooh-poohed, and at a maximum told we should be taken out behind the barn and shot as traitors to America. One of the results of this pervasive, militant optimism in business has been the mortgage crisis, which would not exist if idiot bankers hadn't insisted, against all historical evidence, that they were optimistic that this time the housing market would NEVER lose its value, that it would simply continue to be worth more every year in perpetuity.

Well, they were wrong, of course, and another optimistic bank - Florida's largest regional bank - is struggling to stay alive after CEO Alfred Camner, $$$ in his eyes, optimistically put as much as 3/4 of the bank's assets into risky sub-prime loans.

Today on Doing Time - Thursday August 7th, 2008

Alex G. — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:59:12 -0400

WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH WASHINGTON?

The bestselling author of What’s the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank, will join Kuby to talk about why Washington is broken. His new book is The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule. Tune in to find out how a group of Conservatives intent on dismantling government as we know it sought to take over the country … and started destroying it.

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

Yesterday Osama Bin Laden’s driver was convicted of war crimes. Justice served! Or was it? Kuby will explain how the whole trial was rigged, how the system was broken and why it’s a travesty of justice. If you don’t know the details, don’t worry. Kuby’s got ‘em.

Thom Hartmann: Politics behind China Olympics

Chris Rosen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:43:39 -0400

Thom Hartmann: Thom & the "Numbers Chick"

Chris Rosen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:41:29 -0400

Thom Hartmann: Right to vote guaranteed?

Chris Rosen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:39:56 -0400

Lionel: Language Lover

LionelShow — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:03:01 -0400

Hospitals Use Homeless in Medicare Scam

Fact-esque — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:57:20 -0400

"They should die and decrease the surplus population."

Ever since the right-wing began to insist that medical care was a business, and one that could make a HUGE profit if liberal busybodies would just stop talking foolishly about hyping "non-profit" insurance plans, HMO's - as we all know - have moved from patient-care centers to profit-care centers. Except that with insurance companies dumping millions of people for "pre-existing conditions", raising their rates so high that over 40 million of us have no insurance at all, and employers dumping insurance coverage as a bennie for millions more, the hospitals owned by investors who expected to make tons of easy money have instead had difficulty keeping their doors open.

In LA, land of the conscienceless scam (Hollywood thrives on them), three hospitals appear to have been caught doping out a solution to the medical profit problem.

On a Sunday afternoon two years ago, five homeless people being dropped off on Los Angeles' skid row by an ambulance caught the attention of police officers.

The officers videotaped what they thought was a case of hospitals dumping patients in a section of the city where few would notice or care.

But as investigators began to unravel the incident, they say they found something far different: a massive scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded healthcare programs of millions of dollars by recruiting homeless patients for unnecessary medical services.

The elaborate enterprise churned thousands of indigents through hospitals over the last four years and billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for costly and unjustified medical procedures, federal, state and local investigators said Wednesday.

(emphasis added)

Author Ammon Shea on Lionel!

LionelShow — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:55:16 -0400