Michael Collins
If you're in the retail business, it's all about packaging. If you're in wholesale, it's about volume. If you're Congressman Anthony Weiner, it's about the double game of liberal packaging without the throw weight to justify the image.
I managed to get through the last few days without much information on Weiner's Tweets. etc. As I exited the corporate media's fantasy land a few days ago, I saw a clip of Weiner with a shit eating grin on his face. He was trying to act like an “adult” (i.e., a pol like Cheney who lies without blinking).
Weiner asked that people not make more out if his situation than was actually there. I thought he's lying as I left the virtual world for some pressing business. Upon my return, I saw just enough to let me know that the congressman was the subject of the much discussed underwear shot heard round the world.
What difference does it make? None, really. It's just another distraction in the nonstop series of distractions fueled by corporate media in an attempt to keep us from the more vital issues. Why are there only four million more jobs today than there were in 2000? How are citizens supposed to stay healthy, even alive, when the cost of health care is through the roof? Is there any reason for those 80,000 United States troops in Afghanistan or the 700 overseas US military installations?
Anthony Weiner and the Public Option
As much as I hate to admit it, L'Affaire Weiner explains a key event in our decline and fall as a civilized nation. During the run up to the health care "reform" vote, the eminently rational notion of a public option for health care was put forward. The idea was to have the Federal government provide an efficient health insurance alternative to make health care affordable to those who were not among the 60% covered through the self-paying plans of medium to large business and government entities. If you're not part of that 60%, you have to buy direct from health care insurance companies. The costs for a variety of premiums and deductibles can be as high as $25,000.
Congressman Weiner led a block of liberal representatives who demanded a viable public option, one that was available to a broad cross section of the public. This would have provided significant relief with substantial cuts in premiums without the private insurance gorging. This was so important that Weiner, as spokesman for the group, stated that the sixty or so would vote no on President Obama's plan, a gift to the insurance carriers.
Of course, Obama's plan didn't include a real public option.
What happened?
All but one of the public option group voted in favor of the Obama plan. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) was the sole exception. Kucinich held out until the bitter end then capitulated to President Obama.(Note*)
Those who buy their insurance direct, and to a somewhat lesser degree, those who get health insurance through their employers, are experiencing record cost increases. That makes perfect sense given the lack of real competition. The administration can create all the "insurance exchanges" it wants (nothing more than a web page menu system). The people will continue to pay through the nose.
Weiner acted as though he could make history with his sixty or so defenders of the people. In reality, he could only talk about it. Had he done more, they'd have talked about him.
A Weiner in Hand
Weiner's indiscretions are not unique among elected officials. There are all sorts of strange goings on in the stalls of the rest stops of power. And that's a good thing for any member of The Money Party who wants ultimate influence over their bought and paid for representative. The donors hear about the personal indiscretions of the elected and just file them away. When a big vote comes along, they can assure compliance beyond what even contributions can buy. They just remind any temporary friend of the people about "the pictures" or other evidence that's on hand and the cooperation flows.
There are a few politicians who are so stupid they don't need to be bribed. There is a much larger group where money does the trick. But if you want to really own an elected official, put your money on those with massively embarrassing flaws. Get them elected again and again. When it comes time for them to deliver on the tough votes, they will have no choice. It works every time.
END
This article may be reproduced entirely or in part with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.
Comments
Oh, THAT Weiner!
Now I remember the actual significance - the 60 or so Democrats who tried to get some kind of public option (supported by Howard Dean, M.D.) into the healthcare bill. Weiner was rallying them at one point, then they capitulated ... leaving Dennis Kucinich to stand alone, a role to which he is too often consigned. Ultimately, President Obama flew from Washington to Cleveland with Kucinich riding along in US 1, and shortly thereafter Dennis bowed to the inevitable and announced he would vote for a compromise bill.
Kucinich had earlier introduced six (I think it was) amendments that were passed out of committee (about April 2009) by a substantial majority of Judiciary Committee (I think it was), including Republicans. Then the insurance company lobbyists reorganized and counter-attacked, co-opting the original (protectionist) Tea Party populist movement and merging it into the obstructionist (and anti-protectionist) anti-Obama movement (anti-Obama except with-Obama when it comes to endorsing 'free' trade). CONTENT OF ALL KUCINICH AMENDMENTS WERE PROBABLY VIEWED FAVORABLY BY THE PUBLIC BUT NOT ONE SURVIVED INTO THE LEGISLATION ENACTED EARLY IN 2010.
Bottom line: another victory for the Money Party (not Michael Collins' The Money Party blog!)
Myself, I follow MSM hardly at all, and I still don't know - don't care to know - the nature of whatever the alleged scandalous behavior of Weiner may have been. The point is that this Weinergate news story seems to be receiving far more and in-depth coverage than did the Kucinich amendments that were, I believe, systematically ignored by most of MSM.
I guess the moral of the story is that MSM news sources, and those who pay attention to them, are and will always be surrounded by self-imposed darkness. They are like the legend of Diogenes, who supposedly wandered around Athens with a lantern in broad day light looking for an honest man. (MSM television is the unnecessary energy-wasting lantern!)
great point, no more distraction issues
There is so much going on. First Warren isn't going to head the CFPA, no surprise and supposedly is being blocked by 40 GOP in the Senate.
We have the never ending debt ceiling argument. In fact so much is going on, I think I'm going to do two link posts, one today and another tomorrow.
I cannot wrap my head around the flow of funds report to get what the hell is households to explain those numbers. This is a Federal Reserve release so I might just put up what other people who are credible found. I'll do that as a blow post.
Next, we have a jobs crisis, a retirement crisis, a middle class destruction crisis and we cannot even get one policy, nothing, to turn this around. This is our money party at work.
Let's write about that, how one cannot get a single thing through Congress, this administration too, that would actually be effective.
That's the point of this site, to write about things that matter. What mattered is how the fact Obamacare is a corporate lobbyist written nightmare was taken up by the Tea party and the GOP, but they don't want to fix anything, nope, they want to make it worse.
You can say that as a strategy. They grab something everyone is unhappy about and bang on that, as "Repeal", but behind that is an agenda to make the situation worse.
Little Oscar would hae done better
Corporate media is there to create the storyline, just like a prime time series. We lack any public dialog and it is entirely their fault. Those who expect corporate media to actually cover an issue might just as well expect Microsoft's PR department to endorse Linux as a fine operating system. It is a big part of our downfall. Garbage in .... Even so, the public usually has it right. There was majority opposition to the Iraq invasion, among both Republicans and Democrats.
The money party has no friends or enemies, just permanent interests (as has been said of past Money Parties). It's sans soul and has an endless appetite to take more and more without ever expanding opportunities. It's a fixed sum game where creativity is ruled out, unless it's creative ways to bilk every last dime out of a public corralled into a dead calm by the policies of those who run the casino and always get the rake off.
Michael Collins
The end of Weinergate, thank god
He's stepping down and once again anything involving sex is the only way to get most of these politicians out of office.