Oops. Another Clinton Story Turns Out To Be Not So True

You know I don't have a real interest in defending Hillary Clinton, but this ticky tack press attack against a Democrat is again juxtaposed against the kid-glove treatment St. McCain gets from the press.

His gaffes are either ignored, or pre-excused...constantly.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200804040009?f=h_top

I'm with Attaturk. What is with you, Karen? McCain makes EGREGIOUS errors on subjects that have *profound* impact on how he proposes to govern, and you all, Scherer, Cox, and Carney, completely ignore it, or spend a great deal of time, in Cox's case, defending him. And yet you continue to post on silly trivia like this. What is *wrong* with you people?

You people are so biased, so obviously, blatantly biased towards McCain that it is sickening.

KT here--

Attaturk, point taken that the media coverage among the candidates has not been even. But I am still shocked that they didn't vet this story, given how central it has become to her stump speech. I've added a link to a video, so you can see for yourself. This is a campaign that has enormous research resources.

This will reinforce the idea they can't tell the truth (they can't even tell the truth about not telling the truth).

But here's the big story for me: How does her health care plan "fix" this? Is the owner of the pizza parlor who can only afford to pay minimum wage going to be forced to pay health insurance premiums, or, if s/he can't, go out of business? Or is the woman who can't find $100 for treatment going to be punished because she's not any more able to find money to pay for Hillary's "mandated" health insurance?

KT here--

(Probably my last comment for a while, given my errand load today.) KathyR, I agree that I'd love to hear more about what actually did happen. It turns out the woman was the MANAGER of the pizza parlor (so she must have been making better than minimum wage). The hospital is not releasing any details of the case, citing what are legitimate privacy concerns, and her family is not talking.

She would be punished with the Hills plan, I can not believe that Hill believes people chose not to have insurance. They can not afford insurance with a minimum wage job. Thanks
to all the out sourcing of the higher wage jobs.
Hillary with hers and Bills millions will never know what it is truly like to struggle to make ends meat..if your lucky you can have meat daily..hot dogs , spam?
She is such a fraud.

I want to hear from the sheriff's deputy, to see if she embellished the story she heard.

When you think about it, this story is a much better argument for Barack's health insurance plan than Hillary's.

I wasn't clear in my last comment: I want to hear from the sheriff's deputy, to see if Hillary embellished the story she heard.

Clinton talks about how this woman haunts her, and how stories like this show the moral imperative--and the urgency--of fixing a badly broken health care system .
Clinton an the word Moral in the same sentence how funny is that one.
Moral values does she have any?

another pandering story .She is trying to put more of the vast right wing on her side?
Using the word moral imperative.

KathyR--

We'll never know, even if someone asks the sheriff. His recollection won't be reliable.

Stories that are too good to be true, usually are.

Our political discourse is so weird; anecdotes like this that, even if true, don't mean much get enormous attention, while outright policy falsehoods, like Bush's fiscal policy plans in the run-up to the 2000 election get ignored (by everyone except Krugman).

And if you're the president, you can just lie all you want, and only Froomkin seems to notice.

But she's truth impaired to say the least. Witness her attacks on Goulsbee re NAFTA when it turns out that her chief campaign strategist is representing Columbia on free trade. And she's now attacking outsourcing when she was clearly in favor of it in 2005, witness her speech in New Delhi.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/30/2857 /

She'll say what it takes with no regard for either truth or consistency. I started out willing to vote for her but her campaign has crossed the line for me.

You would think by now that Hillary would understand that the whole purpose of the Democratic presidential primary campaign is to determine who is the more EFFECTIVE liar and demagogue for the self-serving, destructive socialist pacifist agenda of the Democrat party. She of all people should understand that Democrats embrace rank dishonesty on every major issue as the most effective campaign tactics, but it is unforgivable to contiually get exposed for lying in the press until AFTER you have been elected president.

So far, Obama has far surpassed Hillary in both the quantity and quality of his mendacity on every major issue. This is no small achievement given Hillary's long term track record of purveying reckless falsehoods for personal political gain, but surely Hillary understands that EFFECTIVE demagoguery is the one area where she cannot come up short, and expect to win the Democrat nomination for President.

"Osama and Obama have a lot in common. They both have the same plan for destroying the American economy. Force America out of Iraq and cause oil prices explode."

You would think by now that Hillary would understand that the whole purpose of the Democratic presidential primary campaign is to determine who is the more EFFECTIVE liar and demagogue for the self-serving, destructive socialist pacifist agenda of the Democrat party. She of all people should understand that Democrats embrace rank dishonesty on every major issue as the most effective campaign tactics, but it is unforgivable to contiually get exposed for lying in the press until AFTER you have been elected president.

So far, Obama has far surpassed Hillary in both the quantity and quality of his mendacity on every major issue. This is no small achievement given Hillary's long term track record of purveying reckless falsehoods for personal political gain, but surely Hillary understands that EFFECTIVE demagoguery is the one area where she cannot come up short, and expect to win the Democrat nomination for President.

"Osama and Obama have a lot in common. They both have the same plan for destroying the American economy. Force America out of Iraq and cause oil prices explode."

Attaturk, point taken that the media coverage among the candidates has not been even.

Karen, it's not even that the coverage has been uneven. Michael responded to criticism over his McCain coverage yesterday by claiming that his critics want him to become a partisan, when all people were asking him to do was stop repeating campaign spin. Both the Washington Post and the New York Times have put out articles in the past 48 hours, defending John McCain's misstatements.

It's blatant the way the D.C. press will go after someone like Clinton or Obama or Gore over something like this, but aggressively defend W. or McCain. It's the kind of behavior that got us into this lovely war we find ourselves in, but saved us from tragically thinking that Tipper Gore was a model for Love Story. Heckuva job and all, Versailles.

This is another stupid exaggeration and I think the Clintons do this stuff because they have gotten away with so much over the year that they feel like they can spew this stuff with impunity.

Frankly, I am more concerned with HIllary's dissembling on why she voted for the war, how she implies that people who want health care wouldn't be able to get it in Obama'splan, how she says in mailers that raising the cap on social security taxes is a tax increase on the middle class, even thought the cap is at 97K and she told an Iowa voter she might increase the cap too. There are so many issues of Clintonian dishonesty on areas of policy, but for some reason the media only like to go into feedling frenzy when it involves a stupid personal story.

I'm not saying HIllary doesn't deserve criticsm on this. But what I am saying is that I wish journalists were more interested in playing gotcha on the endemic untruths told by poliiticians about policy matters....

Jacackroyd: It really is a mystery how we've become so inured to enormous lies. It sometimes seems the attention paid is inversely proportionate to the importance of the falsehood.

But I do think there's time and space to look at the small lies that a sign of character.

The Clinton story that's driving me crazy right now is Hillary's claim that Obama "wants to stop votes." Nobody's going to keep the people of Montana from going to the polls. She's just insisting that it be "tied" when they go to the polls, so that their votes "count."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4561530

RKA: Maybe it's just that it's easier to prove these factual untruths, as opposed to "endemic untruths told by politicians about policy matters," which for many are seen as matters of opinion, or points of view. There will always be somebody to defend Hillary's view that she didn't support Nafta, but nobody can defend the Bosnia story when there's video. (Of course, if Hillary opposed Nafta then she was out lying to people on the Hill when she was urging them to vote for it, and I wish that were more of a story).

Well, political "reality" online,

You and your ilk have been doing a heckuva job with the economy and oil prices.

But regarding Osama/Obama/pacifism?etc, perhaps you might want to explain why Bush and McCain are so soft on Bin Laden?

When Obama said this past summer that we needed to take out Al Qaeda targets in Waziristan, John McCain said in effect, "No, that hurt Musharraf's feeling?"

And why do Bush and McCain insist on holding al Qaeda recruiting fairs in Iraq?

And why does McCain speak the soundbites to help recuit the next suidcide bomber...100 years war.

It seems to me Bush, McCain, and Bin Laden all have a common purpose...to keep the American people scared.

Maybe that's why we really don't try to get the guy.

Maybe that's why Bin Laden purposely helped Bush get re-elected by putting out a video criticizing him 3 days before the 2004 election because he knew that it would cause a swing of voters to Bush.

McCain/Bin Laden '08!

Does this so called "lie" meme never end? First Al Gore then John Kerry, now Hillary. Do you honestly think this will stop with Barack Obama? If people would take the time to read the story they might note that she was not "lying", she told the story as it was told to her. The hospitals stance is what I find intriguing, they can't give any information but it wasn't their fault. Talk about covering your arse. When can we discuss Obamas big winner this week on "Hardball", when he agreed with Condi Rice that no one could have anticipated 9/11?

I'll give another example: Remember when McCain made the claim that Iran was training Al Qaeda on four seperate occassions? The Beltway media was downright aggressive in defending McCain over that and downplaying the lie. Chuck Todd came right out and said that the MSM assumes McCain knows what he's talking about so they give him a pass when he screws up repeatedly.

Florida, the secret to John McCain's success is that he marinates his barbeque in kool-aid.

Anti-Democrat bias as practiced by Time.com professional jouros:

///Hillary Clinton is far from the first politician to find herself in this kind of embarrassing situation. Remember how hard Al Gore got hit after the first debate in 2000, when it turned out that in his description of the very real problem of overcrowded schools in Sarasota, Fla., he used the wrong verb tense in telling of children who were forced to stand in their classrooms?
///

Karen drags out another *Al Gore* media distortion to illustrate how a campaign should vet what their candidate says. Geez, can we look at a few, er, more recent examples? "Al Queda being trained by Iran," for example?

No, you won't find anyone at Time.com to report (truthfully) any distortions about Saint John Sidney McCain. Instead they are happy to distribute McCain commercials every day, making excuses that "he's just a cranky old man."

And the Obamamaniacs here that are only too happy to pile on the Clinton campaign in the Democrat-bashing, great. Go ahead. Because they aren't going to spare your candidate either, when the time comes.

KathyR--

I agree that this is another example of Clinton's win at any cost attitude, which I believe is actually hurting her at this point.

But it is also a symptom of how journalism works--the anecdote used to illustrate a story is a very common technique that is often misleading. It's like the story about the orphanage in Khartoum in today's NYT. While it's an insight into all that's wrong in the Sudan, it's the human, dramatic element that is the part of the story that appeals to the journalists and, it must be said, to news consumers. One little (white) girl in a well is worth more than a thousand homeless children.

But, wait, I know the anecdotal lie they should be up in arms about--Mukasey's lie about the phone call from the safe house in Afghanistan that kept us from stopping the 9/11 attacks.

This is an outrageous lie, one meant to continue the lying fearmongering that has kept these people in office and to enhance their domestic surveillance apparatus. Where are the calls for Mukasey's resignation? Where are the headlines?

Yeah, Florida, that was a weird response from Michael, wasn't it? It's funny how often the response to "Why can't you be accurate and skeptical?" is "I don't care what you say. I won't take a partisan position."

Three things: Embellishing (lying or distorting) seems to be the SOP for the Clinton campaign. I agree with Karen that given the money and staff one would think they would run down this stuff and check it. Saying someone told them and they are repeating it is a nonsense: so if someone tells Clinton that Osama Bin Laden is hiding out in Boston will she repeat that?

If one wants to tie Obama into the embellishing meme I'd like to see some evidence.

Karen has not answered the point about McCain. Why is everyone so keen to give McCain a free pass? Why not hand him the Presidency courtesy his base in the MSM. We can all go back to watching Reality TV.

Time.com has already started on Obama. This is what the pro-Obama Democrat-bashers have to look forward to from the Republicans and the biased Time.com journalists:

Barack Obama as re-imagined by Time's Joe Klein

It's only a matter of time. Karl Rove is already advising the McCain campaign. It's a mistake to think that Obama is immune from biased mainstream media coverage. By the time you realize it, it's going to be too late, and we are going to have another reckless neoconservative fly-boy as President, only this time he'll be a 73-year-old frat-boy who is every bit as clueless at the frat-boy-in-chief. Who is he going to choose to be first-in-line? Karen suggest Condoleeza effin' *Rice.*

It doesn't have to be "embellishing." They have already settled on bashing his patriotism. Go right ahead with your Democrat-bashing. We've been down this road before, and we ended up right here where we are.

Hard to think to have to turn the TV off for eight more years. How can we not have to wonder every time she says something if it is true/somewhat true/could be true/probably is not true...... This is what the bullypulpit has been reduced to for the last 15 years already! I cringe at the thought of letting the circus back in town.

To that point, bitterpill8 and KT, I'd say the reason they didn't vet the story is if they had done so, they ran the risk of not being able to use it anymore. Whether that was conscious or unconscious doesn't matter much--either they're venial or sloppy, neither of which advances their prospects.

Media Matters discusses how McCain's hundred year occupation is getting papered over:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200804040009?f=h_top

And, of course, his outright lying about al qaeda in Iraq (and, no, Ana, four times speaking incorrectly about a fundamental fact is not a little mistake to be dismissed) is waved off as well.

BTW, this here mp3 is a conversation I had with Jay Rosen of NYU and PressThink last Thursday:

http://web17.streamhoster.com/inworld/vs/vs_jayrosen_040308.mp3

A good chunk of this was about the McCain press strategy. It happens that he put up a post about McCain and the press in between the time I scheduled the interview and the day it took place.

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2008/03/31/developing_as_m.html

One bit of bonus in that thread is p lukasiak is participating.

The expectations of a mature, experienced campaign staff is that: 1.) They are able to verify such stories before allowing the candidate to verbalize them. 2) That their message stays on track, which in the case of one of their primary consultants Mr. Penn and his meeting with Columbian officials did not happen. 3) That they are able to control their messengers (Bill Clinton - enough said) 4) That the mature, experienced campaign staff keep their candidate from embellishments and 5) They think ahead to visualize as many possible situations and make plans to deal with them should they occur (the surprising candidacy of Sen. Obama, and their lack of planning for caucus states). None of these things have happened in the Hillary Clinton campaign. Suggesting either the staff is not terribly competent or the candidate is flawed. I believe it is not a candidate issue but a campaign staff issue. Like so many of the old line Democratic consultants these people are lazy, thought all they need to do is show up to win, have no sense of the future or an ability to adapt to the changes. It is what has been wrong with the Democratic Party national campaigns since 2000. The good news is that most of these “old dogs” will be soon retired to the front porch. It is also good news for Democrats that these flaws appeared in this rough and tumble Democratic primary race. With Hillary’s flock of inept campaign advisors, operatives, and political personalities, it is likely that these flaws would have lead to a sure loss to McCain. Let’s stop the bickering and breathe a sigh of relief that this showed up in the primary campaign and go to work to stop the Bush III Presidency and merge as one to defeat John McCain this fall.

Jayackaroyd: I'm curious whether you think this free pass for McCain will continue in the general. I tend to think a lot of it at the moment is that the contest is between Clinton and Obama, and also that probably not even McCain thought he was actually going to be the nominee. So giving a pass is habitual. But once we're in the general it's hard to believe the press will really ignore the angry outbursts, the mistatements, the snarkiness, that will almost certainly occur. I do admit that it's astonishing to me that he could have said "what a bad boy was I" about his illspent youth and everyone seems to have smiled indulgently at him.

Where are the calls for Mukasey's resignation? Where are the headlines?

Look. This is what I hear from the inside. Stengel et al are extremely pleased with the number of hits this blog gets. *Extremely* pleased. They aren't so much interested in *public service* or responsible journalism.

So the strategy is to throw the rubes a lot of red meat to generate the hits. And the red meat is Obama-Clinton right now. Democrat-bashing generates a lot of piling on, and the Swamplanders are loving it. Get it?

These Swampland bloggers are willing to put up with a moderate amount of ire from us rubes, because in the end it is not only profitable, but makes them kinda kewl to the Politico Boyz and the McCain campaign. And that counts, okay?

Time managing editor Richard Stengel says: "My whole view was there's more information out there than any time in human history. What people don't need more of is information. They need a guide through the chaos."

Does that sound like anyone who is interested in journalism as we rubes would like and expect it to be?

I rest my case.

Floridian - agree thoroughly with your 10:05 comment. Except I do think this is a reflection of the candidate, also, who chose the staff, and evidently didn't move out of the circle of people she already knew. It's the echo chamber of people who hang out together for years that has left her unable to accomodate new realities.

the anecdote used to illustrate a story is a very common technique that is often misleading

Perhaps if they followed up with a human interest anecdote related to the McCain gaffe. Perhaps a one-on-one interview with someone tasked with picking through the results of an air strike to search for identifiable body-parts.

Karen, what's your take on the way Gore was attacked after the debate? Have you read the Evgenia Peretz's Vanity Fair article about this and other related press attacks on Gore? (Link to article) Do you read the Daily Howler at all?

I think I speak for a lot of the commenters here when I say that you're the one mainstream political reporter whom we respect. It would be great to see you write about this issue -- and the issue of it's happening again this election cycle.

"KT here--
Attaturk, point taken that the media coverage among the candidates has not been even"

So knowing that you go with this post. Way to serve the readership.

Karen Tumulty was the media source for the "Love Story" distortion described in the article you linked to. She has since expressed regret about how the whole thing played out.

She hasn't been reluctant to pile on the Democrats since then, though. Take the "Air Pelosi" incident for example. She jumped on that ginned up incident and wasn't too too regretful when it was proved to be false.

So I don't know so much about "respect." Better than the others, maybe.

KathyR--

I go on at greater length about this at Rosen's site. But the skinny is that the existence of video is going to make it difficult for the reporters on the bus to cover for lies, and ignore the gaffes. The MLK holiday video, with (I think) Bumiller pressing him, is an example. The video is more damning than either Michael Cooper's (McC BBQ) story on that day, or Bumiller's followup story the next day.

Rosen's view is also very interesting. He thinks that this is all McCain--that his staff hates and fears this access, but that McCain believes that it works in his favor. And he wonders whether there will be pressure on Obama to be more open. His campaign has extremely controlled press access.

I think the straight talk express will shut down eventually. They tried to shut him down right after the nomination, but he opened it back up again. Michael said there was no access the two days he was on the campaign, so it may already be coming to a halt.

As with accepting SS protection (and attendant restrictions on his social life), I think McCain will be forced into the usual hypercontrolled access (and attendant entertainment during boring trips. I'm sure talking to Ana is more fun than talking to Charlie Black--especially because dominance hierarchy with Ana is very clear, Charlie, not so much.)

KathyR -- "But once we're in the general it's hard to believe the press will really ignore the angry outbursts, the mistatements, the snarkiness, that will almost certainly occur. I do admit that it's astonishing to me that he could have said "what a bad boy was I" about his illspent youth and everyone seems to have smiled indulgently at him."

My answer is you bet your socks it will continue into the general. The "McCain good" story is so deeply embedded in the psyche that it will take a conscious effort to get a tinge of the truth out.

After reading the Daily Howler for a couple of years, I realized how insidious all this is and listen to the way Gore lies are still repeated by low-information, high-profile MSM types. Karen usually being the notable exception because she tried to push back one of the stupid Gore lies since he said it to her and she told the truth about it. However, that didn't stop the lie from being endlessly repeated.

Oops: Another Clinton Story Turns Out To Be Not So True

Wow this is so devastating, yet another half-truth, "mis-spoken" statement, twisted liberal GLOOM AND DOOM from out far-left LIBERALS. Is anyone really surprised???

All the cyclone spun Democratic bull-crap is more of the same supposed rhetoric we have all heard for the past 40 years. It started out with the Kennedys and now flys out of the mouth of Obama, the NEW and IMPROVED Democratic LIAR.

Spin all you want, the American general voter completely understands its all nothing but "get me elected for another term so I can continue to embezzle more money to pad my family fortunes and kickback to my special interests".

If you really cared about America, you would be screeming from the highest mountain about NO MORE TAX and SPEND PORK PROGRAMS.

Obama and Clinton's healthcare disaster plans will bring down the best medical programs in the world. The one shoe fits all "Universal" healthcare is a sham to put more money into the pockets of the already scrupulous and wasteful government backed insurance programs. Pray you do not get cancer, because if you do, you'll be dead in 8 months waiting to see a specialist. Ask any Canadian if their universal plan has met the needs of their citizens.

Stupidity at the highest levels in history, run by a bunch of extremists who can't see 2 feet in front of their faces.

If you really cared about America, you would be screeming from the highest mountain about NO MORE TAX and SPEND PORK PROGRAMS

Have you looked at the Federal budget lately? Under entirely republican leadership?

It astounds me there are still saps who repeat the lies about Republicans regarding the size and the role of government. (I've gotten used to the inability to write clear prose, use mixed case or use a spell-checker.)

Ask any Canadian if their universal plan has met the needs of their citizens.

You should watch Sicko, especially the part where the American citizen tries to find a way to fake Canadian citizenship so that she can get treated for a pre-existing condition.

The US has the worst health care in the OECD, as well as the most expensive and the least available.

Have you looked at the Federal budget lately? Under entirely republican leadership?

Yes I have ackroyd, and it is a DEMOCRATIC controlled House and Senate that pushes a budget through to the President. Feeble attempts at trying to put ALL of the blame on Republicans is not going to cut it. All you are saying is ADD MORE AND MORE. Take MORE tax dollars and eventually have the hard-working American shelling out OVER 50% of his or her income. Brilliant..........simply BRILLIANT!

Karen Tumulty was the media source for the "Love Story" distortion described in the article you linked to. She has since expressed regret about how the whole thing played out.

She comes off better than any of the other reporters in the story, though. I realize that's not setting the bar so high, but you go to war with the media you have, not the media you wish you had.

Rusty, much of what you say makes so little sense that I can't tell if you're serious or whether you're some kind of Balloon Juice style parody.

But I give you credit for saying "Democratic" rather than "Democrat".

There has been little press coverage about how Clinton went on Leno to Joke about her Bosnia Whopper and call it a "lapse" which is a lie about a lie. TPM has a video montage of all the times she has had the same "lapse". At this point the pattern is unmistakable. Any other candidate would have been drummed out of the campaign on the Bosnia issue alone.

Thanks a lot TomT that will be the last time Rushy makes that "mistake"

For example,

Wow this is so devastating,

You can't really believe this. I'm an Obama supporter who would like Hillary to drop out of the race, so I wish this were devastating enough to force her to, but I don't see anyone can claim with a straight face that it is. Not even the most faux-freedom-addled nut from Red State could possibly believe this story is "devastating."

2000-2006 say the fastest rise in Federal expenditures, and the deficit since the sixties.

And, no, I'm not saying add more and more. I'm saying cut the defense budget by between a half and two thirds.

Not a single republican House, Senate or president has ever proposed a decrease in the Federal budget. Not single post war republican president, except for one quarter under Nixon, did the federal government balance a budget.

The stupid lie of blaming the legislature when a republican president was in office was exposed when the republicans got control of all three branches, spending money like drunken sailors, with skyrocketing commitment to earmarked pork.

Just lying about it won't work anymore. Just like lying about the Republicans' understanding of national security issues won't work anymore. We've seen republican governance, now. We've seen how republicans of how to keep America safe.

In both cases, by opening the treasury to incompetent cronies.

SICKO?? You mean the Michael Moore so called docu-drama's about the failings of our various public and private endeavors? Michael Moore who is the biggest, FATTEST LIAR of the FAR LEFT EXTREME, that he is in a delusional and totally irrational world to himself??? Michael Moore who couldn't tell the truth if it slapped him up side the head???

Go to Canada and see if you can even get a routine appointment for a check-up. You'll be waiting 6 or 8 months, if you are lucky.

One of my best friends in the whole world just recently DIED from a sinus infection that turned into bacterial menningitis because of the great Canadian Universal Health Care System. You toads on the the democratic left-wing don't even have a clue.

Sicko....the only thing sicko is YOU Ackroyd.

I call "spoof" on Rusty. There's no way he can believe that you have to wait six months for a check up in Canada.

A GAME FOR ALL TO PLAY

After the HRC Campaign’s “misspeaking”, “misplacing”, and “mishearing”, and given HRC’s declared fight till the Convention, an expanded vocabulary will be needed to cover future mistruths. Some useful words follow, with “misappropriate” “misreferences” :

Misadventure(s) – Bill’s diversion(s)
Misalignment – supporting Obama
Misapplication - using a false resume for senior appointment
Misapprehension – caught in the act
Misappropriate – not politically correct
Mischance – trying to get away with a “whopper”
Mischief – someone not ready for the 3am phone call
Misconstruction – bad building control in NY
Miscount – figures showing the winner is the loser
Misdeal – NAFTA
Misdemeanor – smiling when your opponent wins
Miserable – the real person behind the mis-demeanor
Misfire – imaginary sniper rounds
Misfit – Mark Penn
Misfortune – the amount Obama raises every month
Misgiving – not paying campaign bills
Misguided – missiles that missed me
Misjudgement – justification for a Presidential pardon
Mislay – adultery
Misplace – the place where I really DID dodge sniper fire etc.
Misprint – the Press who attack me
Misquote – anything said that the voters didn’t like
Misread – anything written that the voters didn’t like
Misrepresentation – superdelegate supporting Obama in a Clinton state
Misspell – magic that Obama uses at his rallies
Misspend – February campaign finances
Misstate – State that doesn’t count because it voted by caucus
Mistake – White House gifts that went with the Clintons
Mistime – 3am phone calls that keep waking me
Misunderstand – anything not covered by the above

Further suggestions to be sent to Howard Wolfson.

Rusty,

Those are simple lies. Yes, I know that Rush talks about Michael Moore that way. And, yes I know that you dittoheads just repeat whatever Rush tells you. But I'm making a simple suggestion.

Watch the movie. It's not long. It's funny in places. And it has actual, real statistics that you can even check on the associated web site.

But none of your ranting can change the facts.

The US has the worst health care in the industrialized world, spends half again as much as the rest of the OECD and covers fewer citizens. And this is because there is a profitmaking layer between the patient and the doctor that excludes participants and drives up costs.

These are simple facts.

(I'm reminded of the Bugs and Daffy Jack in the beanstalk episode

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wDde7Wtp_Fg

"He's Jack!!! Jack Rabbit!!"

"No you are Jack, and you know that this is true because that is a fact.")

Be delusional like Michael Moore, TomT. But, you better have yourself in tip-top physical condition when Obama or Clinton roll out their Universal Health Care Plans.

I STRONGLY believe it and have seen it with my own eyes. I don't go to movie theaters to get information like some other loons on here do.

Question: Why did the woman die???? Why did the child die???? Because they had extraordinary health care insurance? The New York Times doesn't even seem to care about that but about the "accuracy" of Mrs. Clinton's anecdote. Please, please dig into the story. I am certain that it will be an even more powerful tool for Mrs. Clinton at the end.

Health Care in the US is deplorable. And for those of you who are clinging on to this, it is despicable. Even if the story were "fiction" it pales in comparison to the realities out there and most of you know it. But the big pictures matters not it's the nit picking that will help you choose the better president right.

Remember live by the sword, die by the sword.

Yes I have ackroyd, and it is a DEMOCRATIC controlled House and Senate that pushes a budget through to the President.

Gee how many budgets have they presented in the last 7 years? And why is the Iraq war not in the Budget?

You're free to beleive a lot of things. But if you think Republicans are fiscally responsible, the I'm not sure I'd trust you to drive a car.

We should wait to find out more details about the story before we make any blanket statements; clearly the story Clinton told/heard was inaccurate, but hospitals have been known to downplay the role money plays in a patient's care.

Also, everyone who is a Democratic primary voter knows that people die all the time because they don't have health insurance or because their health insurance doesn't provide enough coverage, so Clinton's basic point about lack of health care killing people is absolutely true.

And this is nothing in comparison to Obama's misleading statements in the S.C. debate about his relationship with Rezko. Seriously, even if the MSM doesn't report on a lie, the lie still happened. This is not a tree falling in an empty forest thing.

Paul D

I think he's one of those guys who drives his petroleum powered car to his weekly young earth creationist meetings.

No, Rusty, you certainly should not actually watch stuff or read things. You should definitely rely on people who make money from making you angry by telling you what's in them. Kind of super cognitive assonance.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2007/tc20070621_716260.htm

Of the countries surveyed, 81% of patients in New Zealand got a same or next-day appointment for a nonroutine visit, 71% in Britain, 69% in Germany, 66% in Australia, 47% in the U.S., and 36% in Canada. Those lengthy wait times in the U.S. explain why 26% of Americans reported going to an emergency room for a condition that could have been treated by a regular doctor if available, higher than every other country surveyed.

I call "spoof" on Rusty. There's no way he can believe that you have to wait six months for a check up in Canada.

Huh. I have a colleague, PhD in Sociology, non-blogreader, daily newspaper-only, conservative but not totally-looney-bin-conservative who sincerely believes that, and on occasion still repeats it straightfaced. After awhile it just gets so damn exhausting.

jayack -- splendid links, there, my friend. The Rosen interview was interesting -- gee it never occurred to me that he has an actual *voice* and the thread on his post was great -- it was good to see our old friend p_luk. I miss that guy. He hasn't changed a bit. Still great, great insightful commentary.

I realize that's not setting the bar so high, but you go to war with the media you have, not the media you wish you had.

I'll give you that, TomT.

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/20/health/main681801.shtml?cmp=EM8705 - 90k -

"A letter from the Moncton Hospital to a New Brunswick heart patient in need of an electrocardiogram said the appointment would be in three months. It added: 'If the person named on this computer-generated letter is deceased, please accept our sincere apologies."

Americans who flock to Canada for cheap flu shots often come away impressed at the free and first-class medical care available to Canadians, rich or poor. But tell that to hospital administrators constantly having to cut staff for lack of funds, or to the mother whose teenager was advised she would have to wait up to three years for surgery to repair a torn knee ligament.

The federal government and virtually every province acknowledge there's a crisis: a lack of physicians and nurses, state-of-the-art equipment and funding. In Ontario, more than 10,000 nurses and hospital workers are facing layoffs over the next two years unless the provincial government boosts funding, says the Ontario Hospital Association, which represents health care providers in the province.

Meanwhile, the average wait for surgical or specialist treatment is nearly 18 weeks, up from 9.3 weeks in 1993, according to the Fraser Institute, a right-wing public policy think tank in Vancouver. A Fraser study last year said the average wait for an orthopedic surgeon was more than nine months.

Go blow your liberal smoke up someone else's nose.

James-

These interviews take place pretty much every Thursday, Second Life at 6pm Pacific. I think we'll be simulcasting on BlogTalkRadio going forward.

Glenn Greenwald is coming by on the 24th.

PZ myers on the 17th and this week, John Gorenfeld, author of Bad Moon Rising

Your example is three months, not six. And an electrocardiogram is not part of a "routine" check up.

And there's no way a non-spoof would try this one:

Meanwhile, the average wait for surgical or specialist treatment is nearly 18 weeks, up from 9.3 weeks in 1993, according to the Fraser Institute, a right-wing public policy think tank in Vancouver.

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/20/health/main681801.shtml?cmp=EM8705 - 90k -

"A letter from the Moncton Hospital to a New Brunswick heart patient in need of an electrocardiogram said the appointment would be in three months. It added: 'If the person named on this computer-generated letter is deceased, please accept our sincere apologies."

Americans who flock to Canada for cheap flu shots often come away impressed at the free and first-class medical care available to Canadians, rich or poor. But tell that to hospital administrators constantly having to cut staff for lack of funds, or to the mother whose teenager was advised she would have to wait up to three years for surgery to repair a torn knee ligament.

The federal government and virtually every province acknowledge there's a crisis: a lack of physicians and nurses, state-of-the-art equipment and funding. In Ontario, more than 10,000 nurses and hospital workers are facing layoffs over the next two years unless the provincial government boosts funding, says the Ontario Hospital Association, which represents health care providers in the province.

Meanwhile, the average wait for surgical or specialist treatment is nearly 18 weeks, up from 9.3 weeks in 1993, according to the Fraser Institute, a right-wing public policy think tank in Vancouver. A Fraser study last year said the average wait for an orthopedic surgeon was more than nine months.

Just in case you MISSED the highlights of this CBS News story, I have BOLDED the really juicy parts for your meager brains to digest.

Michael Moore, not only rediculous, totally outgageous and insane. But what can we expect from our FAR LEFT EXTREMISTS!!!

Maybe Rusty's not a spoof, but he may as well be. Where do these people come from? Are they mentally ill or just stupid?

Rusty, you're going a little over the top here. Dial it back a little. Discretion is the better part of quality satire.

Give her a break! She just 'Misspoke' for the first time in last 12 Years!

Rationing : “Everything is Free but Nothing is Readily Available” (Frogue et al, 2001)
Like other nations experiencing limitless demand, an ageing population and the costly advance of medical technology, Canada has faced pressure to control health expenditure. It has done so through explicit rationing.
Set up in 1989, the Canadian Co-ordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment is the Canadian predecessor to our NICE, charged with exactly the same brief and, it seems, carrying out its function in the same way. For example, in the case of new cancer treatment, the latest pharmaceuticals (such as visudyne for macular degeneration), and high-tech diagnostic tests, Canadian governments simply reduce their expenses by limiting the service. Such a method of rationing is only possible in a single-payer monopoly. Medicare also shares other defining characteristics of monopolies: limited information, little transparency and poor accountability.

www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/Canada.pdf

Yup, this is the best thing since sliced bread for America. UNIVERAL HEALTHCARE RATIONING!!

More democratic party slime to dupe the American public into a "DREAM"...

As your wonder boy Barak HUSSEIN Obama puts it,
"Let them HOPE for a better place"..."it doesn't matter if we can deliver what we say we will do".

It's a weird thing, Tom, isn't it?

I mean, when the idea of introducing PPGPs was first being debated in the US, with people like Alain Enthoven and Victor Fuchs suggesting that group practice would create an incentive for preventative care rather than inpatient visits.

In the old fee for service system there was a lot of unnecessary surgery, hysterectomies and tonsillectomies for example. So the idea of going to an HMO system was to discourage expensive, unnecessary surgery, and to encourage routine preventative care visits.

This seemed persuasive to me. But, in the event, it turns out that I was wrong--that there was an implicit assumption that the HMOs would be relatively small, and that you'd stay in the same one for long periods of time. The idea that "insurance" companies would take over, that HMO rosters would actually be an enormous number of individual practitioners, and that the incentive would be to avoid treatment entirely, whenever possible.

Some good has come of this; outpatient services are way better than they were. It's way safer and cheaper to have a knee operation done on an outpatient basis. But overall this mechanism has failed. And the EU and the rest of the OECD demonstrate that government involvement saves money and improves care.

So I changed my mind. The thing that is so weird about these people the only evidence that exists in the world for them is evidence that supports the position they started out with.

And, heaven forfend, you actually look at evidence.

And meanwhile the wait for an appointment for an uninsured heart patient in the United States of America is....FOREVER!

jayack, do you have links to those, where? I never know where I'll be at 6pm PST on a Thursday. I'm really interested in the Greenwald cast especially.

KT:
I don't have time to check, as my husband is yelling that we really do have to leave the house now, but did you or anyone else do a post about Obama's being mistaken about the part the Kennedy family played in Obama's father's coming to America? Obama mispoke, got the facts wrong, did not check out the story.

I don't remember your posting about that, but maybe I'm wrong.

James,

http://www.inworldstudios.com/vs

has archives and schedules. There's also video of an earlier interview with Glenn, and audio of Greg Mitchell, which I think you also might find interesting. The mcjoan interview spends a lot of time on the politics of the mountain and pacific north-west.

To attend live and interact with the guest, you have to acquire a second life account.

And meanwhile the wait for an appointment for an uninsured heart patient in the United States of America is....FOREVER!

On the other hand, forever is not so long in this case.

Misplug - Inability to keep AC grid on in Queens come any August.

Free Health Care in Canada
by Walter Williams (July 22, 2004)

Let's start out by not quibbling with America's socialists' false claim that health-care service is a human right that people should have regardless of whether they can pay for it or not and that it should be free. Before we buy into this socialist agenda, we might check out just what happens when health-care services are "free." Let's look at our neighbor to the north -- Canada.

The Fraser Institute, a Vancouver, B.C.-based think tank, has done yeoman's work keeping track of Canada's socialized health-care system. It has just come out with its 13th annual waiting-list survey. It shows that the average time a patient waited between referral from a general practitioner to treatment rose from 16.5 weeks in 2001-02 to 17.7 weeks in 2003. Saskatchewan had the longest average waiting time of nearly 30 weeks, while Ontario had the shortest, 14 weeks.

Waiting lists also exist for diagnostic procedures such as computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound. Depending on what province and the particular diagnostic procedure, the waiting times can range from two to 24 weeks.

As reported in a December 2003 story by Kerri Houston for the Frontiers of Freedom Institute titled "Access Denied: Canada's Healthcare System Turns Patients Into Victims" (http://ff.org/centers/ccfsp/pdf/CCSFP-1203-PP.pdf), in some instances, patients die on the waiting list because they become too sick to tolerate a procedure. Houston says that hip-replacement patients often end up non-ambulatory while waiting an average of 20 weeks for the procedure, and that's after having waited 13 weeks just to see the specialist. The wait to get diagnostic scans followed by the wait for the radiologist to read them just might explain why Cleveland, Ohio, has become Canada's hip-replacement center.

Some patients avoided long waits for medical services by paying for private treatment.

In 2003, the government of British Columbia enacted Bill 82, an "Amendment to Strengthen Legislation and Protect Patients." On its face, Bill 82 is to "protect patients from inadvertent billing errors." That's on its face. But according to a January 2004 article written by Nadeem Esmail for the Fraser Institute's Forum and titled "Oh to Be a Prisoner," Bill 82 would disallow anyone from paying the clinical fees for private surgery, where previously only the patients themselves were forbidden from doing so. The bill also gives the government the power to levy fines of up to $20,000 on physicians who accept these fees or allow such a practice to occur. That means it is now against Canadian law to opt out of the Canadian health-care system and pay for your own surgery.

Need I say more on this totally A$$inine DEMOCRATIC proposal???

"HOPE and DREAMS" that is all the Far Left Democratic EXTREMIST can promise.

Misenfranchise - Running ballots to the wrong precinct in Poonlassy County

Misanthrope - Lack of real deal evidunce in the Jena Sixpack case

Missbehave - Gennifer Flowers et al

Misbelieve - Not exactly a history of burning black churches in Arkysaw during BJ Clixon's hot, hot Hot Springs yoofs

Misigan - see Floreeda

You da man, R-Dawg!

Huh -- I guess I'm one of the minority of folks who do think that this incident is indeed illustrative of a disturbing pattern in the Clinton campaign. No, not "devasating." But part of a growing recognition that there is something very detached about Clinton, a willingness to "mold" reality when desired for situational reasons.

There is something a little pathological about Hillary these days, and I don't like it a bit. Her sickly sweet persona -- trotted out now and again -- just doesn't play anymore, once I've seen her, too many times, on the unjustified and disproportionate attack. I can't crack a grin when she tries to lighten it up, like with the bowling thing.

Hundreds dying annually in Florida due to lack of health insurance
///Six Florida adults die every day because they lack health insurance and Florida appears to have one of the highest death rates due to its uninsured population, according to a national healthcare consumer group.
///

OT:
Thanks jayack, I'll check it out during my non-Swampland hours.

Misflavor - Adding wrong extra sweetener to iced tea at MickeyD's

Misdodge - Going AWOL in wrong European country for young Rhodes Scholar hippiecrap men

Misstate - see Halfbright, Maddy

Misakron - see Halfbright, Maddy

Missbudweiser - Land of the brewery tour freebie, home of the amusement park tube top navel

Mishiksa - Your junior senator from New Torts

Mislodged - see Richardson, Bill's old Dodgers cap

WND INVASION USA
Illegals threaten closure of emergency rooms
Florida hospitals face crisis of treating uninsured patients
Posted: January 03, 2006
1:00 am Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

Hospital emergency rooms in Florida may soon be closing their doors as a result of increased demands by uninsured and under-insured patients – many of them illegal aliens.

There is your answer.

KT here--

Southern Bell: Very fair question. I did not post anything on the Washington Post story about Obama being wrong about the Kennedy family's support for his father coming to America.

(For Swampers who haven't seen it, here's the link to the Washington Post story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032902031.html)

There may well be those of you who think that this is a double standard on my part, and I will certainly accept that criticism. But as I read the Dobbs piece in the Post, I saw it as a relatively minor error on Obama's part. While the Kennedys donated the money a year after Obama's father was airlifted to the US, the story suggests their contribution did help subsidize Obama Sr.'s continued studies in this country, at least indirectly. And given the significant amount of money that the Kennedy family put into the struggling program--$100,000 in 1960 dollars--and the political heat they generated on Nixon to get State Department funding for it, it seems they deserve enormous credit for the effort. Obama is surely correct that he owes a big personal debt and has a strong connection to the Kennedy family as a result of this role they played by serendipity in his own story.

Finally, though Obama has mentioned this on several occasions, it is not embedded in his stump speech the way the Ohio woman's story is in Clinton's. So I decided not to post on one, and to do it on the other.

Lack of health insurance never killed anybody.

Lack of not CONTROLLING YOURSELF when it comes to food, sex, drugs, and alcohol kills thousands EVERY DAY.

Not to mention the hospital errors from medical misfits that shouldn't be changing their own oil & filter much less somebody else's codeine drip.

This crazy Cradle To Grave crap will not just bankrupt us all, it will further reduce our ability to cover people and with decent, timely, educated, self-responsible care.

KT here again--

Looks like that link didn't work. I'll try again:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/29/AR2008032902031.html

Question for the FREE BEER, FREE CIGS, FREE MEDICRAP crowd:

Why do MY kids have to pay for YOUR self-inflicted problems?

When you start paying our $10k family insurance deducts, perhaps -- not federally funded, in any respect?

Take your Time.

You have 10 more months of 9.5% tithing to the Clixon Foundation until President McCain takes over.

Rustydog, Canadians are healthier than Americans by objective standards, and the Canadian health care system is much less expensive than the American equivalent (whatever health care America has, it's not really organized or efficient enough to be called a system). And aren't conservatives supposed to care about saving money?

Universal health care systems save money because they benefit from economies of scale, which is certainly not an exclusively Liberal concept, unless you're using the 19th century definition of the word. Are you opposed to big companies that benefit from economies of scale? Do you resent the lower prices they often offer consumers (when they don't form monopolies)?

Also, Canada's health care system is not a monopoly in the restricting sense of the word. Canadians get to vote politicians out of office if they are unhappy with how it's being run; Companies wouldn't be able to form monopolies if consumers were free to simply vote in new management.

KT, maybe my perception would be different if I were in Pennsylvania and listening to Clinton's stump speeches, but in the national media the original Kennedy story was much bigger than the original health care anecdote story. In fact, I had never even heard of this health care story before seeing the NY Times article, and I spend way too much time reading political news! By contrast, I had heard about Obama crediting Kennedy for making it possible for his father to come to America many times. Basically, from the perspective of someone who is not in Pennsylvania, the Kennedy story seemed much more embedded in Obama's campaign than the health care story was in Clinton's campaign.

Ms Tumulty:

Why don't you do a story on the comparison of Clinton/Obama Universal Health Care proposals to the Candian Healthcare System????

That makes one hell of alot more sense than two Democratic "mis-speaking" candidates trying to get elected, doesn't it??

Are you afraid to blow the myth out of both of these bogus contenders' plan to save America from the runination of potential continued Republican control of the White House?

Come on Karen, do some REAL journalism for a change instead of pandering to these Left wing extremists of Swampyland!!

Misinvest - betting on Hillary instead of HipHop Soda Shops (coming soon to Miami, Detroit, Newark)

:: Full Disclosure ::

QUESTION HILLARY (QH) remains and IS a proud investor in HTRE, parent company of HipHop Soda Shops.

Now back to our regularly scheduled trashing of Her Royal Fibness, already IS progress...

I think this is so interesting for one of the most recent, yesterday. I was watching Hillary speak to the day she heard about Dr. King, and she threw her book bag across the room. I'm not much younger than Hill, and I don't ever recall carrying a book bag in those days. I was a little set back by the recount of that day.

Good catch, rose.

Rustydog, Canadians are healthier than Americans by objective standards, and the Canadian health care system is much less expensive than the American equivalent (whatever health care America has, it's not really organized or efficient enough to be called a system). And aren't conservatives supposed to care about saving money? Tell that to my DEAD friends widow and their 4 children, Rose.

Tell my neice and her family living in British Columbia how easy it is to go to the doctors office and hospital. Tell my little neice whose tonsils were so infected and needed to be excised, but had to wait FOUR YEARS to get the procedure done.

Why are you all so DENSE on here? It IS a monopoly for health care in Canada, totally controlled by the government. That is always your answer, "let the government control everything". SOCIALISM DIED years ago, or didn't you get the memo, Rose???

After you get your Clinton or Obama Universal Health Care plan, don't come crying to me because you have to spend your own money going to India for the necessary treatment.

If you think socialism is so great, why not move to Russia, I am sure you can receive healthcare there for a reasonable price.

Rustydog, Russia is no longer Socialist.

Miscue - see Dress, Stained

Mistrangulation - inability to control former staffers now working rather cheaply if enthusiastically for Skippy O'Bonger

Misshapen - see hips

Misty - see Legacy, Bogus

Misapproach - overflight of Pristina Airport en route to Confidence Course completion ceremony for Chelsea at NTC via III Corps and Fort Hood

Misopportunity - grudging realization you couldn't get elected pro boner whore chaser in Hyannisport, much less POTUS, or maybe even Senator again (lacking an electorate as stupid as those in the formerly proud Empire State)

ALL of the domestic programs such as healthcare are STILL being run under a socialist program, Rose.

Their neo-Capitalist economy is run by a dictatorship under the hand of Putin.

But, the basic programs, that our illustrious Democratic Party is proposing is SOCIALISM pure and simple.

If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, then it must be a duck. Gee, how BRILLIANT!!

Rustydog:

Are there no private doctors in Canada?

"Rustydog, Russia is no longer Socialist."

True.

They've reverted to 90% dictatorship and 10% French.

“If the hospital claims it did not happen that way, we respect that.”

That is ridiculous. Either the hospital admitted the patient and provided proper care or it did not. If Hillary claims that the hospital denied care, which implies the hospital's partly responsible for the patient's death, then she better back up the claim with solid evidence. If she cannot, she is guilty of libel and should apologize to the hospital.

I do think Hillary's people have the research capacity to vet this story, but perhaps they thought it wasn't necessary to do so (because the big bad hospitals are always wrong!) or perhaps they thought it was okay to exaggerate some claims. I am saddened that she values her own interests over intellectual honesty. This is not how we can solve our nation's problems.

Guess you can't spell Hillary without liar.

Bill 82, an "Amendment to Strengthen Legislation and Protect Patients. "Bill 82 would disallow anyone from paying the clinical fees for private surgery, where previously only the patients themselves were forbidden from doing so. The bill also gives the government the power to levy fines of up to $20,000 on physicians who accept these fees or allow such a practice to occur. That means it is now against Canadian law to opt out of the Canadian health-care system and pay for your own surgery.

Apparently you missed an earlier post I had, SF Bear.

There are private Physicians, but if they do any medical procedures on a fee basis, they stand the risk of not only being fined $20,000 in Canadian dollars, but also loosing their license to practice medicine.

That's a bill.

Has it been passed? Is it law?

Never mind -- I see that, although denominated a bill, it is law in B.C.

I agree that this is too restrictive, Rusty.