Duck This Quackery

By JAMES TARANTO

Unemployment has hit double digits for the first time in more than a quarter-century, USA Today reports. The rate reached 10.2% in October, and President Obama says he's very, very concerned:

On Monday, Obama said the economy is starting to recover, but jobs are always a lagging indicator. He called higher employment "my administration's overriding focus."

"Having brought the economy back from the brink, the question is how are we going to make sure that people are getting back to work and able to support their families," Obama said. "It's not going to happen overnight, but we will not rest until we are succeeding in generating the jobs that this economy needs."

Well, they're not resting anyway. John Cassidy of The New Yorker explains what they are doing:

The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment to help provide health coverage for the vast majority of its citizens. I support this commitment, and I think the federal government's spending priorities should be altered to make it happen. But let's not pretend that it isn't a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won't.

Many Democratic insiders know all this, or most of it. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration before it (and many other Administrations before that) is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind. At some point in the future, the fiscal consequences of the reform will have to be dealt with in a more meaningful way, but by then the principle of (near) universal coverage will be well established. Even a twenty-first-century Ronald Reagan will have great difficult overturning it.

That takes me back to where I began. Both in terms of the political calculus of the Democratic Party, and in terms of making the United States a more equitable society, expanding health-care coverage now and worrying later about its long-term consequences is an eminently defensible strategy. Putting on my amateur historian's cap, I might even claim that some subterfuge is historically necessary to get great reforms enacted. But as an economics reporter and commentator, I feel obliged to put on my green eyeshade and count the dollars.

So, to sum up, in the name of an abstraction ("making the United States a more equitable society") and because it fits their "political calculus," Obama and Nancy Pelosi are planning to impose upon the country a massively expensive burden that can never be lifted. And they're lying to us about it ("some subterfuge is historically necessary").
Cassidy is for ObamaCare. Imagine what he'd say if he were against it.

Thousands of Americans gathered outside the Capitol yesterday to protest this impending monstrosity, and for their trouble they earned mockery from New York Times reporter David Herszenhorn:

It's a generally older crowd, many in their 50s and 60s, predominantly, white, and many self-identified as Christians. They are fiercely conservative and deeply skeptical of the government, many of them adamantly opposed to abortion rights. . . .

Mr. Hershberger, like many of the demonstrators, repeated some of the most common conservative and Republican talking points heard repeatedly on Fox News. . . .

Ms. Garloch, like many in the crowd who while visibly angry. [sic] could not articulate the main problems in the health care system or how they should be solved.

Some of the same people warning of too much government spending also complained that Medicare does not provide sufficient coverage.

Well, that settles it, then. If you can't "articulate the main problems in the health care system or how they should be solved," shut up and let Dr. Obama and Nurse Pelosi give you your medicine.
It is far from an original observation that with unemployment at 10% and the voters just having rebuked their party, it requires amazing hubris and insensitivity for the president and the Democratic leadership to push ahead with this. But the situation is not necessarily hopeless. There may be enough Democrats with enough sense to put a stop to this.
"There are going to be a lot more tensions between the White House and Congress," Rep. Jim Cooper (D., Tenn.), tells the Los Angeles Times. "They've been under the surface so far--and they're going to come out in the open." In time for the vote, one hopes--for their sake and the country's.

Podcast

James Taranto on ObamaCare quackery.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.) tells the Washington Post: "The question is, do people think we're tending to the things they care about?" It's a rhetorical question: The Post adds that Rockefeller "said there was palpable concern among his colleagues Wednesday that the main agenda items Democrats are pursuing--health care and climate change--resonate very little with voters focused on finding or keeping jobs."
Sen. Rockefeller, you're playing our song. The country is counting on dissident Democrats to dissonate from their ideologically addled leadership. Andrew Jackson is supposed to have said that one man with courage makes a majority. A handful of Democrats who haven't taken leave of their senses have it in their power to save the country from a disaster--and maybe to preserve their own party's majorities in Congress.
An Example of That 'Subterfuge'
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has a column purporting to debunk the claim that America's health-care system is the best in the world. But if you scratch the surface, you find that he is misleading his readers. Here's Kristof's claim:

Yet another study, cited in a recent report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute, looked at how well 19 developed countries succeeded in avoiding "preventable deaths," such as those where a disease could be cured or forestalled. What Senator [Richard] Shelby called "the best health care system" ranked in last place.

But if you look at the report, on pages 3-4, you find this:

Among 19 countries included in a recent study of amenable mortality, the United States had the highest rate of deaths from conditions that could have been prevented or treated successfully. The extent to which differences across countries in the prevalence of particular conditions may explain the poor U.S. showing in the recent study is unknown, although studies in which it was possible to adjust for such differences found that the greatest part of regional differences in mortality for certain conditions were explained by differences in disease prevalence.

A recent study comparing the United States and 10 European countries found that the United States had a much higher prevalence of nine of 10 conditions, including cancer, heart disease, and stroke, in its population over age 50.

In other words, Americans are more likely to die of these diseases because they're more likely to get them, not because they are likely to get inferior treatment.
Longtime readers will recall that we caught Kristof playing similar games with statistics back in January 2005, when he claimed that the U.S. infant-mortality rate was worse than communist Cuba's and much worse than European rates. We pointed out that a central reason U.S. rates are high is that American physicians make heroic efforts to save extremely premature infants, who nonetheless have a mortality rate in excess of 50%. In other countries, these babies are simply discarded and not even counted in the statistics.
Almost five years later, Kristof acknowledges his error--sort of: "We rank 37th in infant mortality (partly because of many premature births)," he writes. He still presents the infant-mortality rate as if it were evidence that America's medical care is inferior, when in fact it is evidence that it is superior. This time there is no question that he knows better.
Back in 2005, we observed that Kristof "seems to think it's cute to cast America in a negative light." That hasn't changed. Here are the two closing paragraphs of yesterday's column:

In several columns, I've noted indignantly that we have worse health statistics than Slovenia. For example, I noted that an American child is twice as likely to die in its first year as a Slovenian child. The tone--worse than Slovenia!--gravely offended Slovenians. They resent having their fine universal health coverage compared with the notoriously dysfunctional American system.

As far as I can tell, every Slovenian has written to me. Twice. So, to all you Slovenians, I apologize profusely for the invidious comparison of our health systems. Yet I still don't see anything wrong with us Americans aspiring for health care every bit as good as yours.

Kristof is really good when he writes earnest, reported columns about Third World human-rights horrors. When he tries to play Maureen Dowd and ventures into comedy at America's expense, however, he just stinks up the place.
Massacre at Fort Hood
The death toll stands at 13 in yesterday's mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. The suspect, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was shot by police and initially reported dead, but is now said to be in stable condition. An Army psychiatrist, he was scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan, The Wall Street Journal reports. A Houston Chronicle report suggests the military missed warning signs:

Federal law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.

One of the Web posts that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.

"To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause," said the Internet posting. "Scholars have paralled (sic) this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers."

The officials say Hasan appeared to have made the postings, but they are still trying to confirm that he was the author. They say an official investigation was not opened.

Brent Baker of Newsbusters.org faults the TV news networks for initially playing down that Hasan is Muslim:

Neither the CBS Evening News nor NBC Nightly News, in their East coast feeds Thursday night, noted the Muslim religious beliefs of the mass killer at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas, but ABC anchor Charles Gibson wasn't cowed by political correctness as he teased World News, "Fort Hood tragedy: An Army officer, a Muslim convert, is the suspect in a shooting spree . . ." Introducing his first story, Gibson referred to how Major Nidal Malik Hasan "an army officer, a Muslim, opened fire with handguns . . ." (With a range of frequency, during late afternoon/early evening coverage, CNN, FNC and MSNBC all identified Hasan as a Muslim.)

Cryptically, ABC's senior foreign affairs correspondent, Martha Raddatz, concluded a story on reaction at Fort Hood: "As for the suspect, Nadal Hasan, as one officer's wife told me, 'I wish his name was Smith.' " So, a concern this will lead to groundless fear of Muslims?

We'd say it's not unreasonable to be concerned that the massacre will feed anti-Muslim bigotry. But there's another way of taking "I wish his name was Smith." When the story first broke, it was reported that Hasan was dead and two other suspects were in custody. That suggested a conspiracy and immediately set us to worrying that al Qaeda had infiltrated the U.S. military.
We were very relieved when it emerged that the two other "suspects" had been cleared and released. This appears to have been not a coordinated terror attack but a case of what Daniel Pipes aptly terms "sudden jihad syndrome." If the alleged gunman had been named Smith--or, for that matter, Russell--our fears of al Qaeda infiltration would have been similarly allayed.
The Fort Hood massacre is feeding prejudice not only against Muslims but against the military--the latter a prejudice journalists do not particularly care to avoid. This is from Reuters:

The incident raised new questions about the toll that six years of continuous fighting in Iraq and nearly eight years of fighting in Afghanistan have taken on the U.S. military and on individual soldiers, many of whom have been on several combat tours.

Reuters doesn't stipulate what these "new questions" are or who is asking them. In any case, the assertion is a non sequitur. Hasan has never been on a combat tour.
My Pet Crow
Our friend Robert George of the New York Post, writing for an NBC News Web site, makes an important point about President Obama's lack of comportment in the aftermath of the Fort Hood massacre:

After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word went out that the president would speak about the incident prior to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable stations went to the president. The situation called for not only his trademark eloquence, but also grace and perspective.

But instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and inappropriately light president making introductory remarks. At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a "shout-out" to "Dr. Joe Medicine Crow--that Congressional Medal of Honor winner." Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?

Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a scrapping of the early light banter.

Video is here. It's of a piece with Obama's obsessive focus on health care at a time when voters are worried about unemployment: the latest evidence that the president's vaunted "cool" under pressure reflects indifference, not mastery.
Bushism of the Day, or Is Our Children Being?
"I know that in the past people are concerned, 'Are we going to have our young people being taught to the test?' That's the last thing we want."--President Obama, Nov. 4
Life Imitates the Movies

• Chance the Gardener: "As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden."--dialogue from "Being There," 1979
• "Kerry: Dems May Pull Carrots if GOP Won't Bite"--headline, NationalJournal.com, Nov. 4

Metaphor Alert
"The bottom line: the Obama team picked the wrong horse, found itself in a diplomatic dead end, found a mechanism to abandon its failed gambit, and now supports election."--Jennifer Rubin, Commentary Web site, Nov. 5
Not That There's Anything Wrong With That!
"White House: Crist Loved Obama Stimulation"--headline, WTVJ-TV (Miami), Nov. 5
C'mon, Hoffman, Concede Already
"Dark Horse Challenges Dark Matter to Explain Missing Matter"--headline, Space.com, Nov. 5
None of the Floats Will Be as Impressive as His
"Splashdown Pilot Sullenberger to Lead Rose Parade"--headline, Associated Press, Nov. 5
That's Got to Violate the Eighth Amendment
"Texas Executes Killer in Beating, Shooting Death"--headline, FoxNews.com, Nov. 5
Even 20 Years After the Berlin Wall Fell
"Germany Still Looking for Freedom From David Hasselhoff"--headline, Der Spiegel, Nov. 5
This Is What You Call an Impatient Patient
"Dead Doctor No Excuse for Lapse in Patient Care"--headline, Rapid City (S.D.) Journal, Nov. 4
That's Some Fine Detective Work
"Deputy: 'Explosive Diarrhea' Story Didn't Add Up"--headline, WBBH-TV Web site (Fort Myers, Fla.), Nov. 4
A 275,000-Pack-a-Day Habit
"14 People Charged With illegally Purchasing 77M Cigarettes"--headline, FoxNews.com, Nov. 6
Boat Shreds Inflatable Bears--Now That Would Be News
"Three Bears Shred Inflatable Boat Leaving Hunters Stranded"--headline, Anchorage Daily News, Nov. 4
Too Much Information
"Dow Closes Above 10,000 as Cisco Pleases"--headline, MarketWatch.com, Nov. 5
Look Out Below!
"Baltic Retail Sales Plummet"--headline, Baltic Times (Riga, Latvia), Nov. 5
Someone Set Up Us the Bomb
"Tiny Tech Sparks Cell Signal Find"--headline, BBC Web site, Nov. 5
Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control

• "Bitters Pill to Take! Acute Angostura Shortage Shakes Cocktail Trade"--headline, Guardian (London), Nov. 5
• " 'Bobbitt' Case: I Cut Off Dad's Penis and Burned It, but I Didn't Want Him to Die, Queens Woman Says"--headline, Daily News (New York), Nov. 5
• "Woman Forced to Wear Diapers to Work"--headline, Philadelphia Daily News, Nov. 5
• "Adopt Me: Prince Charles Looking for Someone to Love"--headline, El Paso Times, Nov. 6

News of the Tautological
"Cops Seek Thieves"--headline, Alberni Valley (British Columbia) News, Nov. 5
News You Can Use

• "Sleep Apnea Therapy Improves Golf Game"--headline, American College of Chest Physicians press release, Nov. 5
• "Kate Hudson's Right--All Men Want Is Sex, Subs"--headline, Boston Herald, Nov. 5
• "Expert: Open Window, Not Phone, if Vehicle Is Under Water"--headline, Canadian Press, Nov. 6

Bottom Stories of the Day

• "Texas Officials Decline to Outlaw Water Spinach"--headline, Austin American-Statesman, Nov. 6
• "Australia's Poultry, Egg Research Secure"--headline, Poultry International, November issue
• "Dinkins Takes Obama to Task for Not Supporting Thompson"--headline, New York Post, Nov. 5
• "General Assembly Urges Gaza Investigations"--headline, Associated Press, Nov. 5
• "ZOA Praises Sen. Brownback's Bill to Remove Presidential Waiver From Law Calling for U.S. Embassy in Israel to Be Moved to Jerusalem"--headline, Zionist Organization of America press release, Nov. 5

Educational Schadenfreude
It's a longtime sport of journalists and other critics: citing surveys finding that American schoolchildren are ignorant of basic historical facts. But it turns out that kids in at least one English-speaking land are even more ignorant than Americans, as the Herald of Glasgow, Scotland, reports:

One in 20 UK schoolchildren thought Adolf Hitler was a coach of the German football team, according to a survey.

As if it isn't bad enough they can't identify Hitler, they don't even know that there's no football in Germany!