hilzoy

Flying Shoe Thread

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by hilzoy As you have probably heard, an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at president Bush. Here’s the video (via TPM): McClatchy: “As Bush finished remarks that hailed the security progress that led to a U.S.-Iraq agreement that sets a three-year timetable for an American withdrawal, an Iraqi television journalist leapt from his seat, pulled … Read more

Whistleblowers

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by hilzoy Newsweek has a fascinating story about the person who first leaked the warrantless surveillance story: “Thomas M. Tamm was entrusted with some of the government’s most important secrets. He had a Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance, a level above Top Secret. Government agents had probed Tamm’s background, his friends and associates, and determined … Read more

Details, Details

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by hilzoy Last night I wrote about the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction’s draft report. The NYT has put the draft online here. I’m still reading through it, but here’s a bit from p. 65. The scene is an interagency conference on reconstruction about a month before we invaded: “Ambassador George Ward, head of … Read more

Reconstruction

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by hilzoy From the NYT: “An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the … Read more

Shaun Donovan At HUD

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by hilzoy From the Washington Post: “President-elect Barack Obama has picked New York City housing commissioner Shaun Donovan to be secretary of housing and urban development, a post that Obama said would play a lead role in his administration’s efforts to stem the rising tide of foreclosures and rebuild the nation’s efforts to expand homeownership. … Read more

No Bailout

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by hilzoy From the NYT: “The Senate on Thursday night abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue of the American automobile industry, as Senate Republicans refused to support a bill endorsed by the White House and Congressional Democrats. The failure to reach agreement on Capitol Hill raised a specter of financial collapse for General Motors … Read more

Death To The “Czar”

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by hilzoy TNR reports on Obama’s energy and environmental team: “In addition to Carol Browner as the energy czar (but not czar, because apparently the transition folks don’t like that word), Obama reportedly has selected the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s director Steve Chu to be energy secretary; New Jersey’s Lisa Jackson as head of the … Read more

Happy Human Rights Day

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by hilzoy Via Undiplomatic, I see that Bush decided to celebrate Human Rights Day by awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal to, among other, Chuck Colson. Here’s what the Presidential Citizens Medal is supposed to be: “The Presidential Citizens Medal was established in November 13, 1969, to recognize U.S. citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of … Read more

Happy Birthday!

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by hilzoy Guess whose birthday it is today? Rod Blagojevich’s! So I thought I’d send a special birthday YouTube to the birthday boy: Yes, I know: he’s actually out on bail. Nonetheless, this seemed like an appropriate birthday message. So, Rod Blagojevich: Happy birthday — from jail!

Blagojevich

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by hilzoy Since everyone else has already noted the salient points from Rod Blagojevich’s Epic Fail — the appalling idea of selling a Senate seat, the utter boneheadedness, the total lack of conscience — I’ll just take that all as read, and highlight one bit of the charging documents (pdf). This is from p. 70; … Read more

Great News

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by hilzoy Wonderful news from the New England Journal of Medicine (1, 2), summarized by FP Passport: Results of the latest malaria vaccine trials will be published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, and from the looks of it, the news is good–fantastic, in fact. “We are closer than every before to having … Read more

The Price We Pay For Homophobia

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by hilzoy Via VetVoice, one more reason to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: “The Pentagon plans to recruit more foreigners in a fresh effort to make up for chronic shortages of doctors, nurses and linguists available for wartime duty. The Defense Department already draws from aliens living in the United States on green cards and … Read more

Jefferson Loses

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by hilzoy CNN tells us that “Dollar Bill” Jefferson will have to pick up his freezer and go home: “Nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who has been battling scandals and a federal indictment for the past three years, appears to have lost his bid for re-election. Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson has been embroiled in … Read more

Shinseki

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by hilzoy From the Washington Post: “Retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki will be introduced tomorrow as President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, a Democratic official familiar with the announcement said today. Obama confirmed that Shinseki was his choice In an exclusive interview with NBC News, taped for broadcast on … Read more

Bill Ayers: Please Go Away

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by hilzoy For reasons best known to themselves, the NYT has published an op-ed by William Ayers: “In the recently concluded presidential race, I was unwillingly thrust upon the stage and asked to play a role in a profoundly dishonest drama. (…) “Now that the election is over, I want to say as plainly as … Read more

Why Is This Story Missing?

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by hilzoy Wouldn’t you think that four days of riots that paralyzed a city of 15-18 million, and left over 40 people killed and over 300 injured, might merit a mention in our newspapers? Apparently not. Here’s the violence: “Life in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi is returning to normal following three days of … Read more

Pogrom

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by hilzoy From the LATimes: “Israel took its strongest action against Jewish settlers in nearly three years Thursday as riot police stormed a disputed building in Hebron, using tear gas and stun grenades to force out 250 young extremists bent on expanded Israeli occupation of the West Bank. After losing a swift afternoon battle, settlers … Read more

Zimbabwe Is Dying

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by hilzoy Every time I write about Zimbabwe, the news is even worse than before. Every time, I cannot imagine how Robert Mugabe could possibly stay in power when things are so bad. And every time, I remember all the previous times and think: things have gotten so much worse than I ever thought possible … Read more

Look Ma: No Gall Bladder!

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by hilzoy

As you might have noticed, I haven’t been around for the last few days. This is because, after getting hit with excruciating pain late Sunday night, heading to the emergency room early Monday morning, and having a series of increasingly high-tech tests, the doctors decided I needed emergency surgery, which I had Monday night. Nothing serious (though it would have been had I not gotten treatment), no complications, and I seem to be recovering nicely. However, the combination of recovery and Oxycodone has gotten in the way of my posting since I got back from the hospital on Tuesday. Since I don’t seem to be able to think of anything non-obvious, I’ll just make one simple point:

Despite the extraordinary competence and kindness of everyone who took care of me, Monday was pretty bad, all things considered. Even leaving aside the fact that the pain had kept me from sleeping the night before, and that I didn’t eat anything all day, the combination of serious pain and complete uncertainty is not, in my experience, a pleasant one.

I don’t even want to think how much worse it would have been had I had to worry about the money. I have no idea how much it cost, but I’m sure it’s well into five figures. I don’t have that kind of money lying around. Not many people do. So if I hadn’t had health insurance, I would have been wondering how on earth I was going to pay for it all.

Luckily, I do have health insurance. That meant that I was able to focus on doing what I had to do to get better, and that I was not tempted, for instance, to skip out after the initial tests, which were equivocal. (I did wonder, as they wheeled me into the Department of Nuclear Medicine for the last test, whether this was some of that unnecessary care I sometimes read about. I was wrong: that was the test that led them to decide to operate within the hour.) I could focus on what I needed to do, without having to worry about how on earth I was going to come up with a completely unanticipated $20,000 or so*.

Lacking health insurance does much worse things to people than that: for instance, it can kill them. But even if all it did was make people have to pay for health care they cannot afford, and thus make people in my situation have to worry about where they were going to find the money to pay the hospital bills, that would be too much. I would be more than happy to pay some additional amount in taxes in order to live in a country in which no one in my situation ever had to worry about that. Because, frankly, emergency surgery is quite bad enough by itself.

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Tanta

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by hilzoy From the NYT (via Calculated Risk): “The blogger Tanta, an influential voice on the mortgage collapse, died Sunday morning in Columbus, Ohio. Tanta, who wrote for Calculated Risk, a finance and economics blog, was a pseudonym for Doris Dungey, 47, who until recently had lived in Upper Marlboro, Md. The cause of death … Read more

Shifting Resources

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by hilzoy From the NYT: “When President-elect Barack Obama introduces his national security team on Monday, it will include two veteran cold warriors and a political rival whose records are all more hawkish than that of the new president who will face them in the White House Situation Room. Yet all three of his choices … Read more

Auto Industry Bleg

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by hilzoy I’ve been trying to understand the problems of the auto industry, and on a couple of points I can’t quite seem to figure out what’s going on. So I thought: why not ask? (1) A quote from Business Week: “Everyone knows that GM is over-branded. (…) At the core of GM’s problems is … Read more

Workplace Safety

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by hilzoy From the NYT: “The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job.” “The rule, which has strong support from business groups, says … Read more

Krauthammer Annoys My Inner Pedant

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by hilzoy I don’t normally read Charles Krauthammer, but Heather Hurlburt at Democracy Arsenal does, and she flagged this startling paragraph: “In the old days — from the Venetian Republic to, oh, the Bear Stearns rescue — if you wanted to get rich, you did it the Warren Buffett way: You learned to read balance … Read more

Who’s In Charge Here?

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by hilzoy From the WSJ: “Under fire for his role in the near-collapse of Citigroup Inc., Robert Rubin said its problems were due to the buckling financial system, not its own mistakes, and that his role was peripheral to the bank’s main operations even though he was one of its highest-paid officials.” “”Nobody was prepared … Read more

Annals Of Self-Deception

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by hilzoy From the NYT: “In an interview conducted earlier this month by his sister, Doro Bush Koch, Mr. Bush said he wanted to be remembered “as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process.”” “”I came to Washington with a set of values, and … Read more

Mortgages And Bankruptcy

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by hilzoy A bankruptcy judge in the Washington Post: “Homeowners are the only ones who cannot modify the terms of their secured debts in bankruptcy. Corporate America flocks to bankruptcy courts to do precisely this — to restructure and reamortize loans whose conditions they find onerous or can no longer meet. Airlines are still flying … Read more

Hunger

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by hilzoy From the Washington Post: “Fueled by rising unemployment and food prices, the number of Americans on food stamps is poised to exceed 30 million for the first time this month, surpassing the historic high set in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. The figures will put the spotlight on hunger when Congress begins deliberations on … Read more

Throw The Bums Out

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by hilzoy In a sign that the End Times are upon us, I actually agree with a WSJ Opinion column: “Another Sunday night, another ad hoc bank rescue rooted in no discernible principle. U.S. taxpayers, who invested $25 billion in Citigroup last month, will now pour in another $20 billion in exchange for preferred shares … Read more

Brennan Is Out

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by hilzoy Tonight was the night that I had set aside to go over John Brennan’s record in detail and post on it. But lo! I don’t have to: “John Brennan, President-elect Barack Obama’s top adviser on intelligence, took his name out of the running Tuesday for any intelligence position in the new administration. Brennan … Read more

Supporting Our Troops Yet Again

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by hilzoy From the LATimes, another story about the Bush administration deciding to nickel-and-dime wounded veterans: “Marine Cpl. James Dixon was wounded twice in Iraq — by a roadside bomb and a land mine. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, a dislocated hip and hearing loss. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. … Read more

Poverty

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by hilzoy The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has a new report on the likely effects of the recession on poverty. As you might expect, they aren’t pretty: “Goldman Sachs projects that the unemployment rate will rise to 9 percent by the fourth quarter of 2009 (the firm has increased its forecast for the … Read more

New Assignments

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by hilzoy Note to Barack Obama: there are ways to deal with all those unqualified appointees that Bush has smuggled into the civil service: “A MAVERICK Thai general who has threatened to bomb anti-government protesters and drop snakes on them from helicopters has been reassigned as an aerobics teacher, the Bangkok Post said on Friday. … Read more

Citi

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by hilzoy From the WSJ: “Citigroup Inc. is nearing agreement with U.S. government officials to create a structure that would house some of the financial giant’s risky assets, according to people familiar with the situation. While the discussions remain fluid and might not result in an agreement, talks were progressing Sunday toward creation of what … Read more