FLASH! All may not be lost!

I wasn’t expecting this one… It got posted on the Daily Beast 20 minutes ago!

clipped from www.thedailybeast.com Report: Obama Rejects All Options A bombshell from the White House: A senior Obama administration official tells MSNBC that the president will reject all of the options that have been presented to him by his national-security team, and that instead he will demand clarifications on when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility for the country to the Afghan government. The sticking point appears to be timelines: President Obama wants to make clear that the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan is not open-ended. Consequently, the options presented to Obama will be amended. Previously, it was believed he was leaning toward 30,000 additional troops. Read it at MSNBC

There is a lot of prep going on to defeat Health Care in the Senate…

“Danger! Danger!”
It’s like we’re in a Saturday morning kids scifi show… the goodguy robot (in this case MSNBC) is telling us that the Repubs are getting ready to attack the Senate’s vote on a Health Care Plan any way they can.

To start with, more than one of the Repub Senators (led by Lamar Alexander – R, TN) have called for new “Town Hall” meetings, like the ones the House members had in August – and it looks like the groups of lobbyists are ready to bus the same people in.

We’ve heard phrases like “dead on arrival” referring any consideration of the House passed bill by the Senate, and that we have to take it slow… not try to do too much. “Too much” apparently refers to doing anything at all.

We know that Lieberman is out there waiting to jump on a filibuster if there is any government based, non-profit choice option… and a good dozen Democratic Senators who will note vote for it if such an option is missing.

We won’t even get into bringing the Stupak Amendment which makes property out of insured women into the Senate Bill.

But this Health Care brouhaha won’t be the only problem coming up in the Senate. Chris Dodd’s Banking Bill, which is a distinct pull of control away from the Treasury Department and a return to the kind of regulations we lost starting with the Reagan Devastation (oops) Administration.

Repubs are coming out of the walls already, making early attacks on Dodd for allegedly taking money from a housing funder and other unrelated things. Dodd is a tough politician, though, and has been through worse than this.

Then there is Afghanistan… and this could be used, if the Repubs have their way, to completely destroy the entire Obama Administration. Now there hasn’t been a final decision on how many troops will be sent to Afghanistan yet… they are hinting at Thanksgiving week as an announcement date… but we’re already hearing from the Right that Obama is not capable of making a decision here. Then there are the far left folks ( and frankly, some of us moderates who really remember Viet Nam) who want us to just get out. That doesn’t look like it’s in the cards. Remember, in the words of Paul Hipp’s song “We’re Number 37”:

Were #1 one in tanks
Were #1 in planes
Were #1 in war with #2 for brains

And I’m afraid our whole government DOES have #2 for brains. (When I was playing the Paul Hipp tune it made me think of playing Country Joe and the Fish’s “Feelin’ Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag” and wondering why in Hell we were in Viet Nam killing off our best young men. The difference now is we kill off our best young women, too.)

So tune into C-Span 2 and watch the Senate debates. Keep checking the blogs to get the information the TV news won’t give you. And hope that Health Care, Finances, and War get resolved to the satisfaction of THINKING people.

We’re Number 37

Has anyone heard this great number by Paul Hipp? You can get it on iTunes.

Here is a little song celebrating our position at #37 in the world in healthcare.

“We’re Number 37”

Come one, Come all
Down to the hall
Were gonna make noise
Were gonna bust balls
Were gonna disrupt
Were gonna jump in the fray
I got a list of all the things that were supposed to say
Were gonna get real rowdy
Have a barrel of fun
But were the USA so by the way be sure to bring a gun
And buddy

Were Number 37
Were the USA
Were Number 37
And were so proud to say
We got old people crying at the pharmacy
Pay your deductible
This aint the land of the f-f-f-free Grandma
Were Number 37
Were the USA

People of the town come on down
And if you got a crazy rumor you can spread it around
I kind of like my insurance and I like my health
The other 47 million can go treat themselves
To some prayer in chapel
Fold your hands and pray
Because we are a Christian nation and that is the Christian way
And brother

Were Number 37
Were the USA
The big Number 37
And were so proud to say
Were #1 one in tanks
Were #1 in planes
Were #1 in war with #2 for brains
Were Number 37
Were the USA

I drew a Hitler mustache on the president
Yea! Aint that neat
My brother had a hernia operation last year
And now hes living out on the street

Were Number 37
Were the USA
The big Number 37
And we want to keep it that way
Be sure to bring the kids
All of the boys and girls
Because the #1 health care system in the world.

Is inFrance???

Were Number 37
Were the USA
Were Number 37
And we got something to say
We pay more for less
40% in fact
Lets bite some fingers off
Shout at the handicapped
Cause buddy
Were Number 37
Were the USA

Were Number 37
Were the USA
Were Number 37
Were the USA

© Paul Hipp 2009

Veterans Day

I’d like to give a nod to all the Vets who read Under The LobsterScope and salute them for the service they have given to this country…

And I hope we can bring our service folks in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places home.

Is this the next big Congressional Battle?

Think the Republicans made themselves huge obstacles on Health Care? Let’s see what they do in the face of massive Banking Reform.

As many of you know, I am a strong supporter of Chris Dodd, going back to my days as a Connecticut taxpayer. When you look at the changes he is trying to put into this corrupt banking system which has landed us in much of the mess we’re in you’ll see why.

clipped from www.mcclatchydc.com Dodd upsets banks with plan for a single bank overseer A key Senate committee chairman unveiled a sweeping 1,136-page bill Tuesday that, if enacted, would mandate the most comprehensive overhaul of financial regulation since the Great Depression. The bill proposed by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., would give ordinary folks tough protections against predatory lending and abuses by credit card companies, and would create a government agency to oversee mortgages, credit cards and other consumer-credit products. However, the Senate bill differs in one significant and controversial way: It would strip the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. of their bank supervisory powers and merge federal bank regulation into a single entity, a new Financial Institutions Regulatory Administration. Dodd said the times demanded a bold plan. “This is not the time for timidity,” he said. Summary of Dodd bill