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Paul Krugman, on Real Time With Bill Maher:

These past thirty years, the Right in America has had two big things: it was Social Conservatism and Economic Conservatism. And “we’re gonna stop all of these, gayness and drugs and sex and miscegenation and all these things,” right? They’re gonna stop all that, and “we’re gonna cut taxes on the rich and we’re gonna deregulate and we’re gonna make it possible…”

And they’ve lost all the battles on the social side. America’s gotten more and more liberal on the social side. Won almost all the battles on the economic side.

That’s not an accident. That’s a question of priorities. They actually kinda like seeing the social liberals keep on winning, ’cause it keeps their base riled up, so they can win the other stuff.

2004 — anybody remember that election? Bush ran as the nation’s defender against gay-married terrorists, and then two days after the election he said, “and now I have a mandate to privatize social security.” Right? That will show you what it’s really about.

As a social liberal, I have a hard time accepting that people of my ilk have “kept on winning” on social issues. Maybe it’s true in the long term. I do remember that George W. Bush insisted we needed a Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage before the 2004 election, and dropped the issue immediately after the election. I remember reading some proponent of gay rights who said it showed that Bush’s heart was in the right place. Personally, I thought it showed that nobody should trust George W. Bush as far as they could throw the Washington Monument.

I’ve been catching up on a backlog of TV programs I’ve recorded but not yet watched. I just watched a film called Money-Driven Medicine that ran last month on Bill Moyer’s Journal. (I thought you could watch it online, but it’s not working for me. Don’t miss seeing it if you get a chance. It’s educational, and moving.)

The narrator introduces a Harvard professor of medical economics named Rashi Fein by quoting him:

We live in a society, not just in an economy.

That’s a good point, I think. It should be obvious, but somehow I think we’ve forgotten that fact in recent decades. It would be good to remember it from now on.

Cartoonist Ruben Bolling looks at how the government is cracking down on malefactors in the banking industry a year after the economy collapsed. (Click the image to see the entire cartoon.)

I don’t often watch David Letterman, but I know about the Top Ten lists. But when I tuned in on Monday night to see President Obama, there was no Top Ten list. Turns out it was a “Web Exclusive,” which must mean they were too embarrassed to do it where Obama might hear or see it.

I think reason #2 probably hits the nail on the head.

All Hat No Cattle has discovered the GOP Healthcare Plan. You know, I thought it was a joke until I came to point five in the plan; then it sounded just like the Republicans. (Click the image to see the whole plan, and when you get there, scroll down and look at some of the other cartoons there. I particularly like the press asking whether Obama’s overexposed, and the quote of Dom Hélder Câmara.)

GOP HEALTH CARE PLAN
The “Stay Well, America” Act

The Republican health care plan is very simple.

1. If you are sick, something is obviously wrong with you.
2. If you believe in personal responsibility, then you know that ‘something wrong with you’ is your fault.
3. Why should the government pay to fix something that is your fault?
4. The way to put things right again in life is to get right with God. And prayer is free.
5. Therefore, we demand a tax cut.

Stay well, America.

(I’ve put the text here because it’s only an image at All Hat No Cattle, and wouldn’t show up on a web search.)

Rachel Maddow uses a crash test to suggest that government regulation may not be entirely bad:

This is what 50 years of safety regulations forced on industry looks like. Which of these cars would you rather be in in this crash?

Funny or Die and MoveOn.org tell us who the real victims are in the healthcare debate: health insurance executives.

If we don’t stand up for the insurance companies, who will?

Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow created this cartoon explaining the origins of our current health insurance system back in 2001. He recently re-ran it because nothing has changed. (Click the image to see the full cartoon.)

The webcomic xkcd suggests that the coarsening of our political discourse started a long time ago. (Click the image to see the cartoon.)

(If you like, you can read the actual Lincoln-Douglas Debates for perspective.)

The world of the future? It’s on the way:

The first-ever video advertisement will be published in a traditional paper magazine in September.

The video-in-print ads will appear in select copies of the US show business title Entertainment Weekly.

The slim-line screens – around the size of a mobile phone display – also have rechargeable batteries.

The chip technology used to store the video – described as similar to that used in singing greeting cards – is activated when the page is turned.
Each chip can hold up to 40 minutes of video.

I think Jetsons. BBC thinks Harry Potter. Either way, Pepsi will be getting a lot of buzz, and not just from poorly-connected batteries.

Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow asks what if Democrats behaved more like Republicans?

(Click the image to see the whole cartoon.)

Some polls show public support for healthcare reform dropping. I can’t help thinking it’s because Democrats — especially in Congress — are already acting too much like Republicans.

In November, voters elected Barack Obama and gave Democrats large majorities in the House and the Senate. Add one party-switcher named Arlen Specter, and Democrats now have 60 seats in the Senate, a so-called filibuster-proof majority. I don’t believe voters were hoping for the timid, corporate-interests-first policies that too many Congressional Democrats seem to be embracing right now.

Does the Democratic leadership think they’ll finally be strong enough to fix the healthcare mess only after the 2010 midterm elections? Do they imagine they’ll be in a stronger position then, if they can’t manage to get anything done now?

Bill Maher said of Obama, “He is Michael Jordan playing on a bad team. There’s nobody to pass the ball to.”

Congressional Democrats, you were elected to do a job. Stop running scared. Do the job. Do it right. Let the voters judge. The surest way to lose in 2010 is to fail to deliver the change voters demanded in 2008.

Greg Saunders says it’s time to unleash Joe Biden:

You know what the healthcare debate could use right now? Profanity.

Seriously. I’m not kidding.

Seriously. He’s not kidding. (Warning: linked blog post contains profanity.)

Rachel Maddow and Kent Jones illustrate the Republicans’ commitment to health care reform:

Barney Frank tells the truth about the health care debate:

I’ve gotta get me one of these:

“Those who really understand what we do here at Apple are going to love this new product,” Schiller continued. “Unless, you know, they happen to be totally lame.”

When you’re using something this advanced, some people look at you as if you were crazy, which just shows that they don’t “get it.” I feel sorry for those people.