Reason Morning Links: Record Foreclosures, the U.K.'s Torture Files, Obamacare Mandates Free "Obesity Screening"

• Tea Party spokesman to NAACP: No, you're racist.
• Affordable Care Act will require new insurance policies to cover preventative screenings.
• Second quarter foreclosures hit record high.
• U.K. releases "torture documents" revealing government's role in rendition, torture of terror suspects after 2001.
• Poll: 73 percent of Americans oppose deep water drilling ban.
• Nine state attorneys general file brief in support of Arizona's immigration law.

Comments

[MikeP]

Obamacare Mandates Free "Obesity Screening"

That used to cost a quarter. But you'd get a fortune with it too.

[J sub D]

Heh.

[Weight Guesser]

One of the services provided under the new guidelines, obesity screenings

I'll do the first pass screenings for half what the government will charge: "Sorry, I see you're obese. Next."

[Jerry]

Free colonoscopies for everyone!

[Elena Kagan]

Many people ask me, "What is racism?"

[The Gobbler]

That would depend on what the definition of is, is.

[Bill]

That's MY line! MY line!

[Hillary]

WillIAM!!! Put down the redhead and get your ass back home!

[Elena Kagan]

Thanks, Hillary! That was most uncomfortable.

[Jordan Elliot]

"Tea Party spokesman to NAACP: No, you're racist."

Ha! It gets better and better.

[Yonemoto]

This whole charade is just a bunch of pots calling kettles... oh wait.

[Almanian]

Racist!

[?]

On this morning's Morning Joe, the usual MSNBC suspects, including NAACP President Ben Jealous, went back and forth without saying anything substantive, but in the end, after Jealous had gotten in his last semi-coherent talking points, all agreed that racism was bad, and shame on anyone for [further] trying to score political points by playing the race card. What wasn't said is that MSNBC's prime time lefty lineup of Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow have been pushing the Tea Party racism theme all week, and will continue to do so. Leftist hypocrisy is alive and well on MSNBC.

[The Libertarian Guy]

Jealous... what a fitting name.

[Tulpa]

considering MSNBC is in the 400s channel range on my cable system, I'm not worried about what they're saying.

[Steve Nash Equilibrium]

Poll: 73 percent of Americans oppose deep water drilling ban.

This just proves that most Americans are stupid and need their intellectual superiors in government and academia to tell them what to do.

[Nick]

27% is not most.

[Nick]

Oh, I see what you did. Nevermind.

[Timon19]

The HuffPo comments are predictable.

I must say, though, that Williams needed to do that very carefully to be effective. I don't think he succeeded. It needed to be said, if for no other reason to knock the NAACP down a peg or two, but the delivery needed to be perfect.

[Yonemoto]

Sounds familiar.

Ron Paul '08!!

[The Angry Optimist]

Carefully? No way! Look at this ending phrase of glory:

[The NAACP is]"a bunch of old fossils looking to make a buck off skin color.".

HA! Beautiful.

[Timon19]

Actually, that was a great line. From what I could tolerate of the HuffPo comments, no one mentioned that.

[The Angry Optimist]

1500 comments of pure ignorance. The full intellectual firepower of the HuffPo commentariat has nothing on our own Max, fer chrissakes.

[&]

You have to wonder about anyone who would add his crackpot notions to a 1500-comment thread. Who but other narcissistic crackpots would even notice?

[Citizen Nothing]

Only a crackpot would comment on any blog.

[The Gobbler]

^^THIS^^

[&]

You can say that again. Or, if you're episiarch, 500 more times.*

*Chin up, pisi. You know we love you.

[Isaac Bartram]

It's hard to get a delivery perfect if some asshole is there cutting you off with shouts of "YOU'RE A RACIST" before you get more than three words out.

[Leroy]

So I tried to put some logic into the thread on Huffpo. I pointed out that all threads with opposing viewpoints are quickly flagged as abusive.

My account lasted an hour, now I can't access it or post replies anymore.

[Leroy]

heh..

I tried to get my login info sent to my e-mail... my account has been removed. All for

Why is it that when someone posts a question or comment on here that isn't in line with the liberal group think it is marked as abusive?

Its a very good barometer of the left's willingness to discuss opposing viewpoints.

Within 10 minutes I had generated numerous 'abusive post' flags, and within 30 minutes, BAN HAMMER!

[Mike Laursen]

I've had success with my replies being posted, but it's hardly a victory. Like folks said above, it all gets lost in the noise in the 1500 comments.

[Mike Laursen]

I love that there are "facts" that are repeated over and over at the HuffPo that are not facts anywhere else. Like, the "fact" that there were no Tea Party protests during the Bush Administration.

[James Ard]

God bless the American people and their wisdom to know the drilling ban is a bad idea. hopefully 73% is enough to get Obama to back off, but I doubt it. He'll still inhibit drilling with permit delays and onerous safety regulations.

[Corduroy]

But Terrence Ayms says we're all going to die in extinction event that is occurring now http://www.helium.com/items/18.....ling-event

[The Gobbler]

"hopefully 73% is enough to get Obama to back off"

Of course it isn't. Obama doesn't give a rat's ass what THE PEOPLE want. He knows he's getting nuetered come November and will do as he pleases until then. Too bad he's stupid.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Tea Party spokesman to NAACP: No, you're racist.

...and calling the TPM racist wasn't the best way to regain relevance.

Affordable Care Act will require new insurance policies to cover preventative screenings.

If only there was a little preventative screening by lawmakers of the Affordable Care Act before they voted for it.

Poll: 73 percent of Americans oppose deep water drilling ban.

100 percent of Oval Office occupants don't care what Americans oppose.

[Jordan Elliot]

I'm stealing the last line.

Nicely done, FoE.

[Barack Obama]

Most Americans oppose President Barack Obama's ban on deepwater oil drilling in response to BP Plc's Gulf of Mexico spill

Let me be clear.

If I cave to the desires of the American People on this, I will appear to be as indecisive as Mr. Holder. I will, however, be able to blame all future incidents on George Bush. Therefore I have appointed Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Axelrod co-heads of an independent commission to study the costs and benefits of pursuing such a course of action.

[Jerry]

CNN is racist too. Whenever there is a story about African Americans, they send out a black reporter. As if white reporters are somehow intrinsically biased against blacks.

[CNN]

As if white reporters are somehow intrinsically biased against blacks.

We wouldn't say that. But you must admit whites just don't get it!

[?]

Whites are broken. I'm calling for substantial reform.

[Rich]

Props to Warty.

[cynical]

Was it CNN that censored the image of the gun-toting black guy at the Tea Party rally, or was that a different network?

[James Ard]

That was MSNBC.

[cynical]

Thanks.

[John]

http://www.washingtonexaminer......66894.html

Remember we were going to have the most transparent ethical administration ever.

[NoVAHockey]

Linked from that article is an AP story with this quote: Michael Oreskes, an AP senior managing editor. "So far, I think the government has done a better job of controlling the flow of information than of controlling the flow of oil in the Gulf."

It's always been about the message w/ these guys. it must be a disaster beyond belief if they're clamping down like this. this should be easy for the press. violate air space, get arrested, win pulitzer.

[John]

but doing that would make Obama look bad. And they won't do that. They would rather go broke and ask for a government bailout than tell the biggest and most interesting story of the year.

[Tulpa]

There is a legitimate concern about the press mobbing affected areas to such a degree that they actually hamper cleanup efforts. If you allow one reporter and cameraman in, you have to allow every reporter and cameraman in.

[alan]

You could fit the press corp in one of those over rated crummy bars on Bourbon St. and still have room left for their police escorts, depending on the size of the bribe you give to the fire marshal, of course!

[J sub D]

Second quarter foreclosures hit record high.

All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't make houses overvalued again.

After billions (a trillion?) being foolishly sunk into keeping up the real estate bubble inflated we are finding out we should have started taking our medicine back in 2007.

I guess TARP, the stimulus package, buying AIG, Fannie and Freddie, assorted tax breaks and dancing around the fire under a full moon didn't change reality much after all.

[John]

The market is racist J sub D.

[BakedPenguin]

And the government can change supply and demand with their powerful magic!

Keynesian economists and cargo cultists share a lot of the same basic principles, including a total ignorance of how and why goods are produced.

[Government]

Damn right! I just rolled a d20 to employ my Wand of Will to Power, and earned +3 against the Dreaded Adam Smith.

[John]

Yeah, the market is not a "theory" it is a law of behavior. No amount of wishing or spending other people's money is going to change reality.

[Nick]

This should be tattooed on the foreheads of people, backwards, so they see it in the mirror every day.

[John Frum]

I produce the goods.

[John Frum]

Hey now, don't be comparing my followers with that Keynesian lot.

[mark]

I don't know which economists you're talking about. Why, just look at Paul Krugman. He looks like a man who knows what he's talking about, rather than a shifty rationalizing loser.

[Chad]

But, but....the externalities!

[Oh Noes!]

externalities! The homeopathic version of economics.

Don't make him pull out the phrase 'game theory'! That may be one word more than 'extenalities', but any one of them alone can disprove the entire basis of market fundamentalism!

[Fluffy]

http://www.bostonherald.com/ne.....p;srvc=rss

Cop Tasers Cop

Please let this become a trend.

[Nipplemancer]

from the abused wife - "It wasn't domestic violence, it was an argument that got out of hand" Lulz

[Citizen Nothing]

"It wasn't a slap to the chops -- he was trying to get a stray piece of pesto off my tooth."

[J sub D]

Poll: 73 percent of Americans oppose deep water drilling ban.

As much as I think BP* should get financially hammered over their fuckup, stopping deep water drilling is just plain stupid.

* And let us not forget the utter uselessness of the Minerals Management Service. Somebody tell me again that civil service workers aren't overpaid, I could use a wry chuckle.

[John]

There is one upshot to lousy economic times; it focuses people's minds. When things are booming people tend to support stupid feel good policies like this because they don't think anything can ever go wrong. Hard times tends to sober them up.

[Astrid]

Biden, wife of the vice president,

Editing is hard.

[WTF]

It's getting to the point where the immediate knee-jerk reaction to anything is simply to call it racist.

"That's racist!"

As whatsisname points out, it's exactly like saying, "When did you stop beating your wife?"

Someone calls you a racist, there's no amount of protesting the accusation that can clear you - every time you say, "no, I'm not racist," they just nod knowingly and say, "suuuuuure you're not."

Fucking morons.

[Chris Matthews]

So why doesn't every white person in America publicly declare that they disavow Tea Party racism? Why won't they do it? Why won't Rush Limbaugh come on Hardball and set the record straight? Why won't he do it? And John Boehner! What is he afraid of? Why won't he come on Hardball and disavow his racism?

[Atanarjuat]

"Why is it so hard for liberals to say they love America?"

[Astrid]

"This growing supply of lender-owned properties could set back the nation's housing recovery but probably won't sink it completely if the nation's employment situation doesn't deteriorate further and the economy begins to pick up steam, experts said."

Also if the stars align and Mercury isn't in Retrograde, maybe we can delay the inevitable just a few more months.

[Hair]

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius...the Age of Aquariuuuuuus...

[John]

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

[kinnath]

What a wonderful time to pass through puberty.

[hmm]

Not a completely accurate summation of the NAACP.

...a bunch of old fossils looking to make a buck off skin color.

But he's wrong. They aren't all old.

[hmm]

Free obesity screening.

If you can't see your toes, your willy, or your belt buckle you are fat.

[The Angry Optimist]

Sexist!

[SugarFree]

The Bottom Buddy shall be their guide.

[Citizen Nothing]

Thanks, SF. I'm going to put that site on my "favorites." I figure I'll need it someday, for one reason or another.

[John]

http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/303650.php

If you are not racist, the Left will just make it up that you are.

Think Progress Caught Using Liberal-Manufactured Signs From "Crash the Tea Party" as Evidence of Tea Party Racism.

[Tulpa]

I also like their sheepish "apology" for there being footage from a 2006 anti-immigration rally in their Tea Party Racism montage. Yes, you "regret the error." I wonder how that error was made?

[Brinks Lindsey]

All of you should apologize for slavery every day or your racists.

[Chris Matthews]

That's right! Why won't they come on Hardball? What are they afraid of?

[Jordan]

One of the services provided under the new guidelines, obesity screenings

I'm sure this will be every bit as successful as HMOs (another creature of government). If only fat people knew that eating McDonalds everyday was bad for them!

[P Brooks]

I volunteer to conduct "preventive obesity screenings" at all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants. I shall wander around patrol these facilities, knocking plates out of the hands of people, and say, "You're done, Tubby! Get your fat ass out of here."

For this service, I will require a salary of a mere $350,000-. Plus expenses; and a government jet, to kept at the ready at all times, because I understand they have buffets in Las Vegas. And an assistant. A really cute assistant, with a lean and shapely derriere.

And I shall be known as the something-or-other Czar. I'm still working on that part.

[zoltan]

Channing Tatum has a lean, cute butt. I guess you'd want him as your assistant, huh?

[Lionel Itchy]

Watch out, parents!

Kids using digital drugs to get high on the internet

[Lamar]

Back in my day we got high on Chopin from a player piano, but today's MP3s are over 300% more potent.

[The Gobbler]

:0)

[Che Thrill]

It goes without saying this is better with VR Goggles.

[WTF]

Yeah, except the claim that it simulates a pot or coke high is total nonsense.

[The Angry Optimist]

i-dosing? Are these people fucked in the head or what?

[Arne Duncan]

If only fat people knew that eating McDonalds everyday was bad for them!

This Administration is working very hard on that.

[Maverick]

Cop uses confiscated marijuana in brownies, goes on bad trip, and calls 911.

[TrickyVic]

""One of the services provided under the new guidelines, obesity screenings""

Ok kid, your fat. NEXT!!

[Tulpa]

I assume they mean body fat percentage measurements, which provide a much better indication of obesity than BMI calculation but are not trivial to do.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Robert Gibbs at yesterday's press briefing: Warren Buffett was here earlier today. He and the President spoke about the economy in a fairly lengthy meeting, the efforts that we're taking to get the economy -- continue to get the economy moving again. He wanted to come in and see the President, and you don't turn down the opportunity to talk to Warren Buffett.

If Obama is the Messiah, does that mean he thinks Buffett is God?

[The Gobbler]

Who lives in a pineapple, under the sea? SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS! Who died in an oil spill, because of BP? SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!!"

[Jordan Elliot]

That's great.

[skr]

so there IS a silver lining.

[P Brooks]

Warren Buffett was here earlier today. He and the President spoke about the economy in a fairly lengthy meeting

Oh, goody.

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[Pat]

So much about the talking. We need actions now. By the way, do you need cash fast through selling your house in Nottingham United Kingdom? Your search is over because I found the best people in the housing business who can help you. Thanks and good luck!

[Pat]

So much with the flowery words. We need actions now that will answer our problems.

[Pat]

The worst really wasn't over yet. We still have a lot to get through. It's good that people are discovering ways to make ends meet. By the way, if you think it's time to have your own place in Nottingham, why not try this great option of rent to own homes. It's the best option you have these days. Good luck in everything!