The quote of the day comes from columnist Bill Boyarsky, talking about President Barack Obama’s prevent-defense approach to governing:
It’s hard to rally behind a man who appears willing to give up his principles in order to keep his job.
A quotation from Andrew Bacevich’s The Limits of Power:
Great powers wage “small wars” not to defend themselves but to assert control over foreign populations. Denominating an operation “Iraqi Freedom” or “Enduring Freedom” does not alter that reality. Historically, that is, “small wars” are imperial wars. The wars in which the United States currently finds itself engaged are no exception.
Read this quotation from Len Deo, president of the nonprofit New Jersey Policy Council — which opposes marriage equality.
“They don’t have the votes. It would be a real tragedy if it was passed in lame-duck.”
Maybe I’m misreading this, but he seems to be saying that they don’t have the votes, but it could pass — otherwise why would he be wortied about it passing in lame-duck. A bit of hyperbole? Or I’m just tired.
Gail Collins, in her back-and-forth with David Brooks on The New York Times Web site, has this to say about the absence of a single-payer option from the discussion on healthcare reform:
Since something like a third of the cost of health care is in administration, and the problem with reorganizing health care has to do with all the multitudinous plans and policies, a single-payer system would be far and away the most cost effective answer. We don’t talk much about it because it isn’t politically possible. But it isn’t politically possible because we don’t talk about it.
Well said.
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Elizabeth Warren, chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for Troubled-Asset Relief Program Funds, offered this comment on last night’s Rachel Maddow Show what Congress should be telling the banks and credit card companies and why oversight of the industry — in the form of a consumer protection panel — is necessary:
I‘m just saying, look, if you can‘t explain it so the person on the other side can understand it, then you shouldn‘t sell it to them.
Seems a pretty straightforward rule.
Hank Kalet 