His requests are frustrating county elections officials, who are being asked to produce thousands of documents.
In their fight to overturn the U.S. Senate recount, Norm Coleman's legal team has begun pressing some Minnesota counties for documents on hundreds of thousands of ballots that were not previously disputed.
Coleman's new strategy comes as some elections officials are expressing skepticism over his campaign's unproven assumptions......
Morning grandma - you know the rePigs don't play by the rules. I was reading over at yahoo that Al Franken has become the GOP Enemy No. 1. Last time a Minnesota Senator carried that title he and his family fell from the sky in a brand new aircraft. I'd be willing to bet Al avoids the use of small aircraft. The GOP is pitiful. Nothing but a fringe group of fascist wannabes. Too bad the Dems don't have a backbone, we could take our country back and get on the right track.
Bush Bites
· 10 months ago
I'm not sure why you guys list Fox as one of the "news" shows.
I see this on other liberal blogs and it annoys me there as well.
We spend the past four years saying Fox isn't a news network but a propaganda arm of the Republic Party, but then we treat them like a news network every Sunday by listing them with the others.
davidinchelseama
· 10 months ago
"Coming up next on Fox News, did Satan manipulate the '08 elections?"
Seriously, they'll get to that eventually, I'm sure, at good ole Fox "News."
Indigo
· 10 months ago
That would be on the History channel. Haven't you noticed? They're doing Bible Code followed by Armageddon followed by the Seven Deadly Sins followed by Bible Code followed by Armageddon Part 2 followed by The History of Sex followed by Hitler, Part One followed by Bible Code followed by Nostradamus, Part One followed by Nostradamus for the 21st Century followed by . . . well, are they bankrupt and just running the videos they have on hand or aren't they doing history on the History channel, just Canned Fundamentalist Nonsense? It's as if they're angling for honorable mention on the Jerry Springer Show.
Inquiring minds want to know.
lynchie
· 10 months ago
I love how the republicans simply forget history even if it isn't history quite yet.
WASHINGTON – Out of power, Republicans appear to be retreating to familiar old ground. They're becoming deficit hawks again.
GOP lawmakers didn't seem to mind enjoying the fruits of government largesse for the past eight years while one of their own was in the White House. Now they're struggling to regain footing at a time of economic rout, a record $1.2 trillion budget deficit and an incoming Democratic president claiming a mandate for change.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., gets more specific: "We would like, on the spending side, obviously, to avoid funding things like a mob museums or water slides." Mob museums?
These corrupt, bribe taking, diaper wearing, intern humping, daughter molesting ass blankets are nothing if not consistent. The current deficit has nothing to do with them. After giving their buddies $750 billion (or more) now they want to show restraint when dealing with a new President and the people in the U.S. who voted for change. Yeah, they really care. The republican party should adopt this new logo.
REPUBLICAN=FAIL
That is something i can believe in.
Bush Bites
· 10 months ago
It's not going to work anyway.
I've come to the conclusion that most voters just don't care about the deficit.
Bush Bites
· 10 months ago
Should add:
I prefered Hillary's domestic policies to Obama's in the primaries, primarily because she seemed more dedicated to reducing the deficit that he did.
In the general election, though, ,I realized that Obama was being politically brilliant by not putting deficits front and center.
Every four years, we've had Repubs win by charging the Democrats as "tax and spend" because they wanted to get the deficit under control without decimating the government, which invariably required tax increases and some form of service cuts. It was a losing game plan.
Just putting it aside and talking about economic growth first was a more successful strategy, although, I'll admit, it's not the "tough medicine" America's infantile voters need to hear.
grandma
· 10 months ago
Frank Rich:
One of the sharpest appointments yet made by the incoming president may support decisive action: Dawn Johnsen, a law professor and former Clinton administration official who last week was chosen to run the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice.
This is the same office where the Bush apparatchik John Yoo produced his infamous memos justifying torture. Johnsen is a fierce critic of such constitutional abuses. In articles for Slate last year, she wondered “where is the outrage, the public outcry” over a government that has acted lawlessly and that “does not respect the legal and moral bounds of human decency.”
It was good to see Obama talking about "Medicare Advantage" and the billions being paid to private insurers every year over and above the prescription drug plan. From the 3/31/06 NY Times (Note: Humana is one of those companies taking, well, advantage):
While the stand-alone Part D drug plans are expected to give insurers a small profit, the margins are likely to be thin — 1 percent to 3 percent before taxes, Humana estimates. That is partly because Humana is offering low premiums and co-payments to attract customers. And the federal subsidy for each customer in a stand-alone Medicare drug plan is only about $75 a month. [I've noticed persistent ads lately by Humana trying to get more recipients over to their plan.]
But for providing a full Medicare Advantage health policy to a patient, the government pays the insurer $900 to $2,000 a month beyond whatever premium, if any, the patient pays. With that revenue, come bigger profit margins — 3 percent to 5 percent, according to James H. Bloem, Humana's chief financial officer.
For UnitedHealth, the Part D drug business by itself would not be particularly lucrative, adding only 5 to 7 cents to earnings a share, according to Jason Nogueira, an analyst who tracks health care companies for the investment firm T. Rowe Price. That would be no more than 2 cents on the sales dollar for UnitedHealth, which had $45 billion in 2005 revenue and expects profit of $2.90 a share this year.
So the real financial opportunities lie in upgrading Part D enrollees to other Medicare-linked policies. In essence, the high federal subsidies for Medicare Advantage policies are the government's reward to insurers for taking people out of traditional, federally supervised Medicare and into the commercial world of managed care. In fact, Medicare now pays private insurers 15 percent more, on average, to take a patient than it spends in a traditional government program for each patient. ----------------
Ideally, private insurers would be kicked out of administering any Medicare, but right now, plans like Humana, when Medicaid, which some recipients qualify for, is present in them, is paid the Medicare rate, not the Medicaid rate, resulting in more profits for them.
HelenaMontana
· 10 months ago
I have areas of disagreement and disappointment with Obama, but having just watched him finesse George Suckleupagus while displaying intelligence, thoughtfulness, and amity, I've got to say that he really does give me hope that he can pull off at least a good part of what he's promised. And watching him smoothly talk over George S's attempted gotcha interruptions was just a treat to watch. Such a nice change from the ignorant malicious blowhard louts of the current administration, that Stephanpoulos did suck up to every chance he got..
Jay
· 10 months ago
Brit Hume is a BLOCKHEAD!
And Bush, don't you DARE show yourself in public after January 20. Just crawl into a bottle and die!
Fox will probably survive by pushing their fear, greed and hate agenda. I don't think they even recognize that the last eight years of failure were at least partly their fault. Playing on the knee jerk emotions of the lower class to social issues and duping them into voting against their own self interest still plays well. Or maybe it is just a coincidence that the neocon interests are only represented by those who have transferred all the wealth to the richest 1 per cent of Americans.
you are right. American's are not prepared to dig deep especially the rich and the politicians. I have not heard a word about them refusing their automatic pay increase they get every year. It might be nice if they showed some fiscal responsibility. Tough medicine is always targeted to the group that can afford it least. We need less tax for the rich and more for the middle class and poor. Yet with all of that the great unwashed vote Republican time after time. I have given up even trying to understand that. They live in another dimension. I must admit that the democrats do a piss poor job of putting a spotlight on the Republican screw ups and sit like passive little kitties waiting for a treat from the Republican bad guys. We have the best government money can buy.
High Crimes & Misdemeanors
· 10 months ago
CNN's "Late Edition": cheenny has admitted to torture. he just told us that water-boarding is not torture. he just admited that mccain is wrong in his definition. and he would recommend water-boarding again, if needed.
will someone please put this man in jail????
please, can we have some honest to goodness got'damn justice around here for once????
Obama? someone?
frank
· 10 months ago
This atheist is praying for Justice
frank
· 10 months ago
This recent critic of Obama was happy to hear him talk this morning. Our Prez looked a little tired but impressive
frank
· 10 months ago
I't was nice hearing an intellect and not a cowboy
Dave of the Jungle
· 10 months ago
8 days remaining in the reign of the Election Fraud Emperor.
I call on the Republican Party to disband, immediately.
RobertSanDimas
· 10 months ago
:) It'll be awhile before the Repugs are gone from the American scene, but at least Darth and Dumbo will be history!
All Comments
from Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
Coleman is casting wider net for votes
His requests are frustrating county elections officials, who are being asked to produce thousands of documents.
In their fight to overturn the U.S. Senate recount, Norm Coleman's legal team has begun pressing some Minnesota counties for documents on hundreds of thousands of ballots that were not previously disputed.
Coleman's new strategy comes as some elections officials are expressing skepticism over his campaign's unproven assumptions......
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/37390...
Coleman needs to face reality......he lost.
I see this on other liberal blogs and it annoys me there as well.
We spend the past four years saying Fox isn't a news network but a propaganda arm of the Republic Party, but then we treat them like a news network every Sunday by listing them with the others.
Seriously, they'll get to that eventually, I'm sure, at good ole Fox "News."
Inquiring minds want to know.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090111/ap_on_go_co...
WASHINGTON – Out of power, Republicans appear to be retreating to familiar old ground. They're becoming deficit hawks again.
GOP lawmakers didn't seem to mind enjoying the fruits of government largesse for the past eight years while one of their own was in the White House. Now they're struggling to regain footing at a time of economic rout, a record $1.2 trillion budget deficit and an incoming Democratic president claiming a mandate for change.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., gets more specific: "We would like, on the spending side, obviously, to avoid funding things like a mob museums or water slides." Mob museums?
These corrupt, bribe taking, diaper wearing, intern humping, daughter molesting ass blankets are nothing if not consistent. The current deficit has nothing to do with them. After giving their buddies $750 billion (or more) now they want to show restraint when dealing with a new President and the people in the U.S. who voted for change. Yeah, they really care.
The republican party should adopt this new logo.
REPUBLICAN=FAIL
That is something i can believe in.
I've come to the conclusion that most voters just don't care about the deficit.
I prefered Hillary's domestic policies to Obama's in the primaries, primarily because she seemed more dedicated to reducing the deficit that he did.
In the general election, though, ,I realized that Obama was being politically brilliant by not putting deficits front and center.
Every four years, we've had Repubs win by charging the Democrats as "tax and spend" because they wanted to get the deficit under control without decimating the government, which invariably required tax increases and some form of service cuts. It was a losing game plan.
Just putting it aside and talking about economic growth first was a more successful strategy, although, I'll admit, it's not the "tough medicine" America's infantile voters need to hear.
One of the sharpest appointments yet made by the incoming president may support decisive action: Dawn Johnsen, a law professor and former Clinton administration official who last week was chosen to run the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice.
This is the same office where the Bush apparatchik John Yoo produced his infamous memos justifying torture. Johnsen is a fierce critic of such constitutional abuses. In articles for Slate last year, she wondered “where is the outrage, the public outcry” over a government that has acted lawlessly and that “does not respect the legal and moral bounds of human decency.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/opinion/11ric...
While the stand-alone Part D drug plans are expected to give insurers a small profit, the margins are likely to be thin — 1 percent to 3 percent before taxes, Humana estimates. That is partly because Humana is offering low premiums and co-payments to attract customers. And the federal subsidy for each customer in a stand-alone Medicare drug plan is only about $75 a month. [I've noticed persistent ads lately by Humana trying to get more recipients over to their plan.]
But for providing a full Medicare Advantage health policy to a patient, the government pays the insurer $900 to $2,000 a month beyond whatever premium, if any, the patient pays. With that revenue, come bigger profit margins — 3 percent to 5 percent, according to James H. Bloem, Humana's chief financial officer.
For UnitedHealth, the Part D drug business by itself would not be particularly lucrative, adding only 5 to 7 cents to earnings a share, according to Jason Nogueira, an analyst who tracks health care companies for the investment firm T. Rowe Price. That would be no more than 2 cents on the sales dollar for UnitedHealth, which had $45 billion in 2005 revenue and expects profit of $2.90 a share this year.
So the real financial opportunities lie in upgrading Part D enrollees to other Medicare-linked policies. In essence, the high federal subsidies for Medicare Advantage policies are the government's reward to insurers for taking people out of traditional, federally supervised Medicare and into the commercial world of managed care. In fact, Medicare now pays private insurers 15 percent more, on average, to take a patient than it spends in a traditional government program for each patient.
----------------
Ideally, private insurers would be kicked out of administering any Medicare, but right now, plans like Humana, when Medicaid, which some recipients qualify for, is present in them, is paid the Medicare rate, not the Medicaid rate, resulting in more profits for them.
And Bush, don't you DARE show yourself in public after January 20. Just crawl into a bottle and die!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/articl...
will someone please put this man in jail????
please, can we have some honest to goodness got'damn justice around here for once????
Obama? someone?
I call on the Republican Party to disband, immediately.