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24 May 2011 14:59

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Politics: Rep. Rob Woodall uninterested in woman’s health care woes

  • Hear yourself, ma’am. Hear yourself. You want the government to take care of you, because your employer decided not to take care of you. My question is, ‘When do I decide I’m going to take care of me?
  • Rep. Rob Woodall • Responding to a constituent who opposes Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare as a guaranteed program, on the basis that her employer doesn’t offer medical benefits to retirees. Woodall’s response gets credit for exactly one thing, which is that it would seem to be an honest answer. However, that honesty underscores the callous hand-washing inherent to the Ryan plan that’s made it such a lightning rod for criticism. The basic premise of what Woodall and this constituent said to each other was “I can’t get medical coverage in this scenario,” to which Woodall essentially replied, “well, sorry, not my job.” This is, it seems to us, not hyperbolic, but the core subtext of Paul Ryan’s plan, and the incredibly callous nature of it is what’s handed the Democrats one of their signature, winning issues back to them on a shiny silver platter. source

18 Apr 2011 14:54

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U.S.: GOP Rep. McKinley not so sure about Paul Ryan’s Medicare

  • The Congressional Budget Office determined that some of the out-of-pocket costs could double for seniors and that sent up a red flag for me… I think we can do it another way and now I’m going to be curious to see what the Senate does. I want to be an independent voice here.
  • GOP Rep. Dave MicKinley • Speaking on Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed “Path to Prosperity,” which eliminates the traditional Medicare program (essentially, guaranteed health coverage) in favor of a voucher/privatized system. Quotes like these often strike us as noteworthy, specifically because it’s rather rare to hear Republican politicians break ranks around big policy proposals, especially when compared to Democrats. On the Democratic side, whether it’s Joe Manchin, Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Bart Stupak (now retired), the list goes on — the conservative wing of the party last Congress provided a palpable thorn in President Obama’s side on a lot of his big initiatives. The GOP, on the other hand, always seems like an on-message, political machine — so to that end, we laud Rep. McKinley for speaking his mind on the hottest topic in Washington today. source

21 Feb 2010 10:27

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Biz: Is The New York Times giving Carlos Slim preferential treatment?

  • Under any other circumstances, the business section of the Times would be expected to cover it, as the Journal and Bloomberg have. Yet as of Saturday midday, I cannot find a single mention of any aspect of this case, anywhere in the physical New York Times, or on its Web site – not even a blog post or a wire story.
  • The Big Money blogger James Ledbetter • Regarding a huge uncovered scandal involving billionaire Carlos Slim, who has a huge stake in The New York Times. J.P. Morgan is accused of trying to push Grupo Televisa’s business secrets to a bank owned by Slim, who owns a major rival. Other major sources have covered it, but there’s literally nothing on the NYT site about the scandal. This is bad precedent. source

20 Jan 2010 10:16

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Tech: Analyst: AT&T is laughably far behind Verizon’s mobile network

  • $353 amount Verizon has spent in infrastructure per customer
  • $308 amount AT&T has spent on infrastructure per customer
  • $5B amount AT&T needs to spend, at least, just to catch up source

18 Nov 2009 10:54

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Tech: Daily poll: On Verizon and AT&T’s laughable coverage lawsuit

  • Truth in advertising? Who really knows. But today, a federal court hears arguments in a case that debates whether Verizon’s being truthful about its 3G coverage in maps. The claim, of course, is put up by AT&T. To undercut both companies, we’ve created a poll clearly designed to joke on both of them. Put your little selector whereever. We don’t care.source

28 Oct 2009 21:51

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Politics: Calling the Fox News black: Shepard Smith chides lack of balance

  • Wow, Fox News reporter Shannon Bream comes off like an uber-snippy something-or-other in this clip, where Shepard Smith notes that Bream made no effort to cover the Democratic side of the New Jersey governor race. Smith – again – comes off like the voice of reason.source

17 Oct 2009 12:20

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U.S.: Daily poll: On Balloon Boy and the 24-hour news cycle

  • We just watched Balloon Boy dad Richard Heene’s “big announcement”: He put a box in front of his house and told reporters to put questions in the box. Wha? Sounds like someone’s living his personal PR nightmare. Anyway, this got us to thinking. Between this and talk-show chatter, is the 24-hour news cycle broken? Let us know what you think.source
 

08 Oct 2009 20:30

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U.S.: State health care coverage: Vermont’s best, Mississippi’s worst

  • 7% of Vermont residents are uninsured, and most of the uninsured are dirty, smelly hippies (we think) source

06 Oct 2009 11:15

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21 Aug 2009 12:12

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Sports: Three examples of awkward Caster Semenya press coverage

  • From this NYT article: “Medical experts said assigning sex was hardly as easy as sizing someone up visually. Even rigorous examinations can result in ambiguous findings.”
  • From an L.A. Times article: “An Italian rival, Elisa Cusma Piccione, called her a man. Russian runner Mariya Savinova agreed. ‘Just look at her,’ she told journalists in Berlin.”
  • The BBC notes that what’s down there isn’t enough for the judges: “They will look at her external genitalia, but they will also look at hormone levels and her chromosomal make-up.”