And though is doesn't need mentioning...

...how bad was that second half against Brazil? I still haven't recovered.

The short answer is often the best

Paul Krugman has the most concise and dead on response I have ever seen to the laissez-faire dead enders in the healthcare debate. This post ought to be printed on index cards and handed out to every wavering Democrat in the Senate.

Health care is not a bowl of cherries

Or a carton of milk, or a loaf of bread.

Both George Will and Greg Mankiw basically argue that we don’t need a government role because we can trust the market to work — hey, we do it for groceries, right?

Um, economists have known for 45 years — ever since Kenneth Arrow’s seminal paper — that the standard competitive market model just doesn’t work for health care: adverse selection and moral hazard are so central to the enterprise that nobody, nobody expects free-market principles to be enough. To act all wide-eyed and innocent about these problems at this late date is either remarkably ignorant or simply disingenuous.

Word. And that is why he has a Nobel Prize and I am just some jerkoff with a website.

The Sanford affair

This is the weirdest story I’ve seen in a while. Telling your office that you are hiking the Appalachian Trail but then flying to Argentina for five days to break it off with your mistress? Oy. So much comes to mind like how did he think he, a sitting Governor, was going to get away with a 5 day disappearing act? And who takes five days to break up? That sounds more like one (several?) last roll in the hay rather than a man trying to reconcile with his wife. Finally, is “hiking the Appalachian Trail” the new euphemism for ditching your Argentine concubine? If so, I love it…

They got one right

The Supremes rule that school officials may not strip search students. I agree.

A stunner

In absolutely shocking fashion, the US just beat the best team in the world 2-0 and advanced to the Confederation Cup Final versus the winner of Brazil/South Africa. Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey scored for the US but for my money, the man of the match was Keeper Tim Howard. Given the number of terrific saves he made and the extreme pressure Spain exerted on offense, his clean sheet was the real difference. This game is probably the biggest upset in US soccer history and maybe the biggest win for a US team ever. I can’t wait for the Sunday’s Final.

I need a miracle

The underwhelming US team takes on #1 ranked Spain in 2 hours. While I know it is unrealistic to expect the US to win this game, I feel like this team may have finally found its edge versus Egypt. Optimism aside, I just hope we don't get abused...

New life for the public option?

Support for a government-sponsored “public” healthcare option is hovering around 70-75% of late. One can’t get three quarters of Americans to agree on what time it is so that level of support for anything is extraordinary. That goes double for anything that has been derided, if inaccurately, as socialized medicine. That stigma has scared many a jello-spined Democrat (Blue Dogs, I am looking at you), who would like nothing more than to compromise on public coverage and take away that GOP talking point.

Given the new polling, that may be changing.

(CBS/AP) Emboldened by polls that show public backing for a government health insurance plan, Democrats are moving to make it a politically defining issue in the debate over the future of medical care.

[Snip]

Most Democrats want the final health care bill to include a government sponsored plan that for the first time would be open to middle-class workers and their families. It would be offered alongside private plans through a new kind of insurance purchasing pool called an exchange. Individuals and small businesses would be able to buy coverage through exchanges, but eventually businesses of any size might be able to join. Proponents say the option of a public plan in the marketplace would put a brake on costs and check the power of insurers. But Republicans, insurers and many business leaders say a government plan could drive private insurance companies out of business.

Nonetheless, two recent news media polls have found public support for a government plan, even if many people are unsure about its implications. The most recent survey, a New York Times-CBS News poll released Sunday, found that 72 percent supported the idea, including half of those who identified themselves as Republicans.

"The polling data backs up our subjective view that to make health care reform work, you need a public option," said Schumer.

I say kudos to those Dems getting on board with the government plan, but the devil is in the details. I am not convinced that they can actually deliver a meaningful public option but at least they seem to be making the right noises about it.

Today's required reading

Roger Cohen reporting from the streets of Tehran:

There were people of all ages. I saw an old man on crutches, middle-aged office workers and bands of teenagers. Unlike the student revolts of 2003 and 1999, this movement is broad.

“Can’t the United Nations help us?” one woman asked me. I said I doubted that very much. “So,” she said, “we are on our own.”

The world is watching, and technology is connecting, and the West is sending what signals it can, but in the end that is true. Iranians have fought this lonely fight for a long time: to be free, to have a measure of democracy.

Powerful, powerful stuff.

Looks like skull-cracking time in Iran

Iranian democracy (if one can call it that), is an odd bird indeed. The Guardian Council disqualifies from elections reformist politicians that they deem threatening to the system, thereby insuring a “safe” slate of candidates upon which the people may vote. Despite that amazingly undemocratic practice, the regime has, until now, valued the sanctity of the voting process and held fairly clean elections. If a candidate made it past the Council, there was little or no funny business regarding the vote tally and the will of the people (albeit one narrowed by censorship) was respected. For whatever reason, the regime decided to dispense with that tradition and opened up a Pandora’s Box. Now, with few good options, the question is where do the Ayatollahs go from here?

If they acquiesce to the protestors and allow a revote, they risk devastating the Iranian system’s legitimacy and touching off a second revolution.

If they decide to crack down on the protestors, they risk devastating the Iranian system’s legitimacy and touching off a second revolution.

If they do nothing, they look weak, risk emboldening the opposition, and merely delay the fight or flight decision.

Ayatollah Khamanei appears to have laid down his cards in an oddly disjointed and muddled speech today, declaring that the street protests will no longer be tolerated and ominously warned that opposition leaders will be held accountable if they persist.

It was not clear whether Iran’s government, made up of fractious power centers, was pursuing a calculated strategy or if the moves reflected internal disagreements, or even an uncertainty not apparent in Ayatollah Khamenei’s address.

“Most analysts believe the outreach is just to kill time and extend this while they search for a solution, although there doesn’t seem to be any,” said a political analyst in Tehran, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “This will only be a postponement of the inevitable, which is indeed a brutal crackdown.”

This promises to get ugly as hell.

My tough ass wife and the new kid on the block

My darling wife gave birth to our second son S. on Sunday morning. It was a profound experience, let me tell you (both Mom and the boy are doing well – thanks for asking). It is hard to articulate just how proud and appreciative I am of her for enduring some truly excrutiating pain during labor and delivery. People, Lo is tougher than shoe leather and she makes some really cool, really pretty babies.

Love you babe – you done good.

Supporting the troops

Reason #642 why Stephen Colbert is awesome.