News Roundup for 9/18/09

Bill O'Reilly, shown disagreeing with Bill O'Reilly

-Headline of the day-
"O'Reilly Backs a Public Option?"

On his FOX News show, Blowhard Bill declared the public health insurance option dead...

Then he suggested that they ought to replace it with something like a public option. Speaking with Nina Owcharenko, a Heritage Foundation hack, Bill said, "The public option now is done. We discussed this, it's not going to happen. But you say that this little marketplace that they're going to set up, whereby the federal government would subsidize insurance for some Americans, that is, in your opinion, a public option?"

Yeah, Owcharenko said, it'd be a "massive new federal regulation" and pure godless communism.

"But you know, I want that, Ms. Owcharenko," he replied. "I want that. I want, not for personally for me, but for working Americans, to have a option, that if they don't like their health insurance, if it's too expensive, they can't afford it, if the government can cobble together a cheaper insurance policy that gives the same benefits, I see that as a plus for the folks."

Of course, that's the very definition of the public option that Bill just declared rightfully dead. It's also exactly what he's been railing against as "socialism."

You know, I might trust these TV pundits more if one of them would actually said something that showed they knew what the hell they were talking about -- ever. Don't worry wingnuts, the old Bill will be back soon enough, when he finally realizes that a good idea is rampant Marxism. Then he'll go back to hating it.

This is FOX News, after all. If Bill isn't willing to step up to the plate, Glenn Beck can go ahead and take over the bullshitting for him. Empty-headed commentary isn't very hard to come by; all these guys are eminently replaceable. When the researchers at FOX R&D finally come up with a slogan-spouting robot, they're both out of a job. (Political Animal)


-Striking a blow for freedom-
Now that the radical communist community organizer group ACORN has been exposed destroying America, Louisiana Gov. Bobbie Jindal has decided he's had enough -- no more state funding for ACORN. That'll show 'em!

The problem? According to the Times-Picayune, this isn't going to accomplish much. "According to the state's Division of Administration," the paper reports, "no state agencies have existing contracts with ACORN."

I guess it's the principle of the thing. Otherwise, it'd just be grandstanding for cheap political points.

And we know he wouldn't do that. (Talking Points Memo)


-Strap in...-
The good news is that the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat won't remain vacant for long. Gov. Patrick has an interim replacement. The other good news is that this temp senator is a very qualified appointment, who "is a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School, and has written extensively on medicine for The New Yorker." He's also "a former Rhodes Scholar, a MacArthur Fellow, and unquestionably one of the nation's leading health policy experts."

The bad news is that his name is Dr. Atul Gawande -- which means he's probably a terr'ist or a Muslim or something -- he's certainly not a real American. Double-bad, according to the report, "On the day he would step foot in the Senate, Dr. Gawande would be the most knowledgeable health policy expert in the chamber, an incredible resource for his fellow Senate colleagues, and a champion for reform."

If all hell breaks loose among the wingnuts, don't say I didn't warn you. (Think Progress)