Special Rupert Murdoch Bad News Edition
Liberal Democrats urge Rupert Murdoch to exercise more dictatorial control over what's said on television:
At a hearing on Capitol Hill, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) asked News Corp.'s chairman and CEO to explain the "contradiction" and why he didn't do more to promote his views through his various news outlets ....
P.S.: Murdoch's pro-amnesty immigration stand will not surprise anyone who watched Fox News in the early days of the Bush immigration fight. ... Murdoch's a citizen of the world. He's also rich enough to be able to live happily in a city with the wealth contrasts of, say, Rio de Janeiro. He's not an unskilled laborer who has to compete with illegals. He's an employer who benefits from cheaper labor. ... 6:24 p.m.
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Bad news for the Orszagists (who think Obama's health care bill will somehow "bend the curve" on health costs and lower the federal deficit): Mammograms may be beneficial starting at least at age 40. It will be hard to save money by delaying them until 50 now. Remember that incoming, cost-cutting Medicare chief Donald Berwick has promised to cover "any care that helps." ... P.S.: Embattled Democrats like Harry Reid are now campaigning against denials of treatment:
Also last week, Reid aired a TV ad highlighting Angle's vote, as a state lawmaker, against requiring insurers to cover colonoscopies if they were providing treatment for colon cancer. " Colon cancer kills, unless you catch it early," intones the announcer, adding that Angle opposes "making insurance companies cover colon cancer tests, mammograms or anything else."
This is what happens when health care and health care decisionmaking becomes democratic--people want more treatments, not less. Fancy that! How are the Orszagists going to turn around and cut back on "colon cancer tests, mammograms or anything else" when the right now, in the crunch, Democrats are running on the opposite platform (of providing any test that might help)? Or do the Democrats want to fulfill dystopianTea Party fantasies and become the party of the bureaucratic experts who know better than the voters? ... 6:20 p.m.
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When they came for my font, I said nothing. ... 6:18 p.m.
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Yesterday's L.A. Times fake front page--"MEDIA ICON HIT BY CRIME WAVE/GRISLY SCENE IN NEWS VAN" --that was really an ad for NBC's Law & Order fooled nobody. Everyone knows the real L.A.Times would never put a huge, riveting crime story on the front page. (See Michael Kinsley's query: "Who do you have to decapitate to make Page 1 around here?") ... 6:16 p.m.
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Jerry Brown thinks he won his recent debate by a larger margin than I gave him credit for. That's possible, and I will vote for him for the reasons given here. But it's hard for me to be charmed by Brown at this point, even when he's being charming. The dude has some baggage, starting with Chief Justice Rose Bird, one of the most irresponsible appointments in California history. Also his recent, aggressive use of global warming laws to bludgeon cities into approving high density developments (without having the transit systems in place to serve them). ... If he were named Jerry Beige he'd be a prominent blogger by now, perhaps another Robert Cruickshank. ... 6:05 p.m.
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