Well, it’s not exactly a town hall meeting and it’s not exactly in Greece.  But maybe we can help make it a town hall meeting. Cincy passed along a tip he received from an avid reader that Congressman Eric Massa will be hosting a fundraiser for Greece Democrat Supervisor candidate Dan Maloney.  I’m a little surprised that Maloney would buddy up with Massa.  Maloney and the UAW union proudly supported Eric Massa in his campaign.  Massa used to make a big deal out of the fact that he promised to

Ross Douthat argues that Republican rhetoric over health care reform misses the point and ignores the fast-approaching Medicare crisis: Conservatives have marshaled various briefs against the Democratic health care proposals. They’ve argued that the plans will be too expensive, that they’ll cramp innovation and raise premiums for the already-insured, that they’ll encourage employers to drop coverage and discourage them from hiring. These arguments have been effective, up to a point.

According to the AP, US President Barack Obama is willing to embrace insurance cooperatives over a government-run plan as the White House faces mounting opposition to its broad overhaul of the nation’s health care system.Bowing to Republican pressure and offering political cover to fiscally conservative Democrats, Obama’s administration signaled on Sunday that it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance, the agency says.

Activating duality. I closed my last post with this: “If Team Obama is following the doctrine of Alinsky, by the book, then there is another layer to what’s happening. Here is another bon mot from Alinksy; “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Is Obama and The DC gang pushing hard so that when they unveil the next iteration of healthcare reform, one that they probably already have cooked up, that the reflexive force exerted upon them by the masses will be successfully dissipated as a solution in a classically Hegellian fashion arrives on time.

As the Administration stages a tactical retreat WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is willing to embrace insurance cooperatives over a government-run plan as the White House faces mounting opposition to its broad overhaul of the nation’s health care system. Bowing to Republican pressure and offering political cover to fiscally conservative Democrats, Obama’s administration signaled on Sunday that it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance.

Yishai: Building in settlements legal, approved by government [..] several senior government ministers toured outposts in Samaria in an expression of solidarity with residents there. Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas), Science Minister Daniel Herschkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi), Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein (both Likud) toured the outposts, and Yishai said “these settlements were established by Israeli governments and approved by them.” Yishai added that “the people of Israel should know this settlement is legal.

(Saturday’s NYT op-ed by US President Barack Obama.) OUR nation is now engaged in a great debate about the future of health care in America. And over the past few weeks, much of the media attention has been focused on the loudest voices. What we haven’t heard are the voices of the millions upon millions of Americans who quietly struggle every day with a system that often works better for the health-insurance companies than it does for them. These are people like Lori Hitchcock, whom I met in New Hampshire last week.

“I’m proposing something that will be paid for and they signed into law something that wasn’t, and they had no problem with it. Same people, same folks. And they say with a straight face how we’ve got to be fiscally responsible.” — President Barack Obama at a health reform town hall meeting Tuesday, about GOP lawmakers who added prescription drug coverage to Medicare without a plan to pay for it By Phillip BrownleePosted at Just now Filed under Congress, President ObamaPermalinkComments

The events are not in dispute. Wikipedia says that “On May 11, 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked for McKiernan’s resignation from ISAF and USFOR-A. Gates said new leadership was needed as the administration of President Barack Obama launched a new strategy in the seven-year-old Afghanistan war.” But the reasons are: the background of the decision to replace McKiernan are still unclear. Now, the Washington Post describes the firing of the top US Commander in Afghanistan in more detail.

In the late afternoon of July 10, President Obama met privately with Pope Benedict XVI for just over 30 minutes. According to official Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J., “The president explicitly expressed his commitment to reducing the numbers of abortions and to listen to the church’s concern on moral issues.” On July 13 in a Senate committee hearing, Sen. Barbara Mikulski was forced to admit under persistent questioning by Sen. Orrin Hatch that the new health-care bill includes abortion coverage.