Flap’s Links and Comments for July 5th on 12:09

These are my links for July 5th from 12:09 to 12:12:

• Double Standards at MSNBC – So here we are in a brand new week and Mark Halperin, a senior political analyst at Time magazine and a regular contributor on MSNBC, is still suspended for calling President Obama a “di**” on Morning Joe.

  Never mind that Halperin thought he was on a seven-second delay and that his remark would never be heard by the public. Never mind, too, that he immediately apologized, on the air. The White House press secretary called MSNBC to complain and, poof, Halperin was gone. Suspended indefinitely.

  MSNBC issued a statement saying, “Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologize to the President, The White House, and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air.”

  Really? When did MSNBC start to care about what is and what is not appropriate when it comes to commenting on a sitting president of the United States? And when did the network start to strive for a high level of discourse?

  I offer up two words to show how self-serving and disingenuous the MSNBC statement is: Keith. Olbermann.

  Perhaps the MSNBC suits missed the show when Olbermann, talking about then-President Bush, said, “You’re a fascist! Get them to print you a T-shirt with ‘fascist’ on it!”

  Maybe they also missed the one when Olbermann said President Bush was guilty of “murderous deceit” and then, working himself up into a frenzy, looked into the camera and yelled at the president to “shut the hell up.”

  Or how about the time this popped up on the screen while Olbermann was ranting about President Bush: “Pathological presidential liar or an idiot in chief?”

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  But, it was Booooosh…..

• Entitlement Bandits – Medicare and Medicaid Fraud – The budget blueprint crafted by Paul Ryan, passed by the House of Representatives, and voted down by the Senate would essentially give Medicare enrollees a voucher to purchase private coverage, and would change the federal government’s contribution to each state’s Medicaid program from an unlimited “matching” grant to a fixed “block” grant. These reforms deserve to come back from defeat, because the only alternatives for saving Medicare or Medicaid would either dramatically raise tax rates or have the government ration care to the elderly and disabled. What may be less widely appreciated, however, is that the Ryan proposal is our only hope of reducing the crushing levels of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.
   
  The three most salient characteristics of Medicare and Medicaid fraud are: It’s brazen, it’s ubiquitous, and it’s other people’s money, so nobody cares.

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  Read it all