Politics
The healthcare industry is forging people’s signatures on fake letters and sending them to local newspapers (UPDATED)
- 1 Comment
- Monday 27th July 2009
Trudy Lieberman again, on the case:
“The grassroots army is on the march. On Wednesday, Campaign Desk reported that health insurers have called up the grassroots reserves to help fight their battles over health reform and Medicare Advantage plans. But oops! The industry got ambushed in Massachusetts, where seniors have been bombarding their local newspapers with letters demanding that their…
Politics
Who owns Max Baucus?
- Add Comment
- Monday 27th July 2009
Meet Max Baucus, the man who’s single-handedly doing more to hold up universal health care in the US than anyone else.
Is it because Senator Baucus is worried about his own healthcare plan? Probably not, because he’s got fabulous healthcare for life, like any US Senator.
Is it because Senator Baucus is truly worried about the people in Montana he represents, and what their health care…
Politics
Jon Stewart on the “controversy” about Obama’s citizenship
- Add Comment
- Thursday 23rd July 2009
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon – Thurs 11p / 10cThe Born Identitywww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorJoke of the…
Politics
Makes sense to me
- Add Comment
- Wednesday 22nd July 2009
This comment by a TPM reader sums it up:
“Just to mention something that is obvious, but hopefully not overlooked, i.e., if this country cannot pass a bill which insures that every citizen has access to medical care, which every developed country has managed to do (and got done many many years ago), there is something very fundamentally and structurally wrong with this country.
Such an…
Politics
Ours is The Best Government Money Can Buy
- Add Comment
- Tuesday 21st July 2009
Change Congress and Lawrence Lessig have it 100% right; as long as private money is allowed in the US government, we’re screwed.
Today’s evidence:
1) Want the Republican right-wing think tanks to justify your position? Only 2 million dollars!
2) Banks and Wall Street financial concerns buy Republican Party’s support with campaign contributions. Coupla Democrats in there with their…
Thoughts on Life
What’s the difference between a journalist and a stenographer?
- Add Comment
- Monday 20th July 2009
These days, they’re the same thing.
As Steven Colbert said at the White House Press Association Dinner when he was ripping Bush and the assembled sycophantic media workers new assholes: “Your job is to copy down what you’re told to write, then go home at 6 PM and play with your kids.”
And journalists wonder why newspapers are going out of business?
In Glenn Greenwald’s review of…
Music & Sound
Expanded liner notes for the “Beat Rock” comp I did for Vibrations Magazine (at last!)
- Add Comment
- Sunday 19th July 2009
The very first thing I’d recommend you do is immediately get hold of a book called Unsung Heroes Of Rock’N Roll, by Nick Tosches (who’s also written several other outstanding music books, among them Where Dead Voices Gather, about the extraordinary musician Emmet Miller, and Hellfire, a biblical biography of Jerry Lee Lewis).
Other excellent books about the early days/birth of rock are Making…
Copyright
The Day ASCAP threatened to sue the Girl Scouts for singing around the campfire; Barbie’s hooker origins; and other true tales of copyright.
- Add Comment
- Wednesday 8th July 2009
I haven’t read the book Brand Name Bullies yet, but based on these excerpts, you know I will.
“In 1996, ASCAP decided that that since hotels, restaurants, funeral homes and resorts pay for the right to “perform” recorded music, and since many summer camps resemble resorts, why shouldn’t they pay too? Under copyright law, a public performance occurs “where a substantial number of persons…
Music & Sound
DJ Food reappears with a bang
- Add Comment
- Tuesday 7th July 2009
Strictly Kev has a new website, a new EP, and a new…
Politics
Excellent article on press coverage (or the lack of it) of the health care debate in Columbia Journalism Review
- Add Comment
- Tuesday 7th July 2009
Trudy Lieberman, an associate editor of CJR and health reporter for Consumers Union and Consumer Reports, writes in her essay Groundhog Day in the latest CJR of the striking similiarities in reporting of the health care debate in 2009 to the Clinton effort in 1993.
The argument that this reporting rigs the debate and therefore effects public perception of the options is well-made; it recalls…
