Time Interviews Obama on Healthcare Reform

Karen Tumulty of Time, talks to Obama about healthcare reform in a pretty extensive interview.

A careful read illustrates how non-radical President Obama really is. Here he is responding to whether we can afford reform during this recession:

"But I disagree with this idea that because of the financial crisis somehow we can afford to put this off. In some ways I think it's just made it more urgent for some of the reasons you just said: A lot more people are losing their jobs,are vulnerable to losing their health care; our deficits are even bigger, which means the load on Medicare and Medicaid is just going to get worse. If we don't do this now we are going to be in a world of hurt later."

A legitimate conservative economist argues against national healthcare

Megan McArdle, a conservative economist who writes for The Atlantic and The Economist has a great post about why she opposes a national healthcare system.

"Once the government gets into the business of providing our health care, the government gets into the business of deciding whose life matters, and how much. It gets into the business of deciding what we "really" want, where what we really want can never be a second chocolate eclair that might make us a size fourteen and raise the cost of treating us."

Read the full blog post here.

More Palin Poetry

I apologize that I keep on posting video. I know I should write some more thoughtful analysis on the healthcare debate or Glenn Beck's most recent rant. However, I cannot resist; this is just too good.

She obviously shows signs that she was educated in Idaho.

I swear I invented this junior year of college!

My dreams stand before my eyes! I wanted to call it Stand UP! My super-amazing girlfriend called her mock-up, Punch! Check it out. It's super funny and awesome.

http://www.punchlinemagazine.com/

I'm going to cry now.

FOX News legal analyst says Gates arrest unconstitutional

I hope to the lord almighty, that this is my last post on the Gates thing.

Andrew Napolitano, by no means a liberal, sympathizes with Sgt. Crowley, but ultimately determines that the arrest was not legal under Mass General Law or the U.S. Constitution.

To be fair, my buddy policeman, Justin, says there was a solid legal basis for his arrest. Watch the video and decide for yourself.



Just to let you know, we only have one more day of the poll, so go vote!

Why the 4-day workweek for state government employees benefits everybody

You're probably asking, "don't they already work less than a full week?" Sometimes that is true, but for the large majority of staffers, analysts, and aides, this policy would be a common-sense way to cut down on electrical costs and create a more efficient work system.

Read the article here.

Palin Poetry

William Shatner reads:

The morality of prostitution?

In my first real crossing the line, economist Tyler Cowen makes the case.



Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish and Dan Savage's blog for the link.

Hitch takes on the Gates controversy

One of my favorite writers, Christopher Hitchens, on Gates' arrest.

"It is the U.S. Constitution, and not some competitive agglomeration of communities or constituencies, that makes a citizen the sovereign of his own home and privacy. There is absolutely no legal requirement to be polite in the defense of this right. And such rights cannot be negotiated away over beer."

Read the full essay here.

Ernie makes the news! (sort of)

Well my striking image did. I'm in the upper left-hand corner wearing the red tie in the background. It's funny how this Boston Herald article details legislators' abuse of their spending privileges with their office accounts, but the picture is from Ethics conference committee.

Conservatives (and some Dems) find newfound love for police intrusion on private property

As I said in my earlier post concerning the Gates arrest, the situation wasn't about race, it was about two people who overreacted to the situation. However, in the wake of this controversy I now find that many people have no problem with the police arresting you on your own property for yelling at them.

I think this is ridiculous; the police cannot arrest you for being an asshole. Again, it is never a good idea be rude to a police officer, but they are trained to decipher between someone who constitutes a threat and someone who is upset and being defensive.

So, I have a poll set up in the sidebar about whether people think that the police can arrest you for yelling at them.

Conan and Jordan Schlansky!

Irrelevant.

You'll see what I'm talking about.

Big Whiskey Alternate Track - Write a Song

I'm at the beach so I'm not feeling like a hefty blog post today.  So I'm posting a song instead.

This is a track that didn't make the final cut on U.S. versions of Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey and The GrooGrux King.  It is also available as a part of Big Whiskey's iTunes Pass, so if you like it, go get it!

Obama elegantly attempts to ratchet back racial heat

Whether or not you agree with his policies, our President is a class act.

Listen to the President take over today's press conference below.

The Professor Gates Controversy Isn't About Race, It's About Douchebaggery

The first major story about race since the election of President Obama has finally hit the collective societal consciousness, and the resulting dialogue is not moving in a productive way. People are taking sides in this debate in a sadly expected way. For the most part, Republicans are blindly backing up the policeman, while Democrats are doing the same on behalf of Professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates. And with a story like this, the way most rational people can decide who was in the wrong by knowing all of the details, and with the details not being available to the general public, the useless chatter is growing louder by the moment.

The President's attempt to wade into the issue only hurt his real goal of talking to the American people about healthcare, which is where the attention of the country should be. And although he asserted that he isn't sure how much race was a factor in this particular case, his use of the word "stupidly" has given him trouble that he doesn't need - especially now.

My thoughts on the controversy are this:

The woman who called the police might have engaged in racial profiling. A transcript of her call in the police record shows that she reported "two black males with backpacks." Neither Gates, who is 5'7", nor his driver were wearing backbacks at the time. However, the woman was in the right for reporting the behavior as Gates mentioned yesterday on CNN, "I hope right now if someone is breaking into my house, this nice lady is calling the police...It wasn't her fault."

The behavior of Officer Crowley however, is a different story. There is no reason to believe that he was acting with any racial prejudice.

Here's what I believe happened. Gates, upset by being questioned in his own home yelled at the police officer and stressed that he was a powerful and important Harvard professor not to be messed with. He repeatedly asked for his name and badge number and apparently those requests were met with silence. He was in his legal rights to complain and yell, but he was kind of being a douche.

Officer Crowley, after seeing Gates' ID left the house and asked Gates to follow him on the porch to further discuss the matter. Gates, thinking the incident over, further berated the officer as a racist. The officer then arrested Gates for disorderly conduct and handcuffed him with his hands behind his back. In my opinion, here is where Officer Crowley crosses the line into being a douche himself. There was absolutely no need for an arrest. A 58 year-old man who walks with a cane posed no physical threat to the officer or to the public. Mr. Gates was legally on his own property and was being a douche to the officer, which I might add is also legal.

Here's the moral of the story. Both parties were in the wrong to escalate the situation into something it did not need to become. But if this case reveals anything, it does not reveal anything about the nature of race, it reveals the nature of people who when annoyed act like douchebags. And it's never a good idea to act like a douchebag around cops. I respect the police and the job they do. Day in and day out, they do a great job of keeping us safe but we all know that sometimes certain policemen can be assholes.

On Nightline, as President Obama backpedaled his "stupidly" comment after his press conference slip-up, he stated, "cooler heads should have prevailed."

That's exactly how I feel.

My first post - Hooray!

Hello Everybody,

Welcome to Ernie Crossing the Line! I hope to create a space where people can feel free to "cross the line" on various topics as long as they do so in a respectful and intellectually honest way (ok, maybe not too respectful!). This blog will largely deal with politics, comedy and music but perhaps we'll cross the line on a bunch of other topics as well.

Thanks for reading. Let's get to crossing the line!

Best,

Dave (Ernie)