The Dish

Bruce Bartlett's criticism of health insurance reform:

I thought its proposals were ill thought-through and that it would have been better to take the time to develop something more coherent, rather than making things up on the fly, which appears to be the case.

I also believe the administration has done a poor job of addressing what I think is the biggest problem with the American health care system: It costs too much for what we get. We spend in total twice as much of our gross domestic product on health as most other major countries without getting much in return for the extra spending.

Finally, I think the goal of universal coverage is a good one, but the Obama proposal is not properly financed. I think a broad-based new government benefit should be financed with a broad-based tax that is to a large extent paid by the beneficiaries, as is the case with Social Security.

Jimmy Kimmel outsasses Melissa Joan Hart.

Today on the Dish, Andrew delivered a keen analysis on the differing activism of the right and the left. He also tackled news of Karzai’s CIA-funded brother and parsed the newest polling on Obama and his policies.

In equality coverage, Schumer and Specter spoke out for marriage, Zack Rosen dug deeper into the DC drag race, another heartwarming tale emerged from Maine, and polling analysis showed hope on the horizon. In lesser developments, the hate crimes bill was quietly signed, and Holder joined his boss in relative silence. Many liberals touted the new law in absurd terms. Meanwhile, with NOM on the ropes, here’s how you can help in Maine. Oh, and a gay fish said something stupid.

Today was also a bustling day of Palin-blogging. In response to Levi’s latest warning, she continued to throw fuel on her pyre. Andrew, Ambers, and Weigel parsed her last polling, while Mudflats picked apart her latest financial report.

— C.B.

A female reader writes:

Levi is absolutely smoking hot to a wide range of us out here: MILFs, gay youth, grade school girls – and that's just the groups I'm aware of. At 45, I think I might just buy my first Playgirl this year.

You can't buy Playgirl any more. It's just a website. But I do wonder if Oprah can ask Palin herself what Levi could possibly mean when he says he knows something about her that is huge. Well: I don't wonder, actually. Oprah will ask no such question. Because that would not be deferent enough.

An Afghan policeman carries a wounded man near the Bekhtar guesthouse after an attack by Taliban militants on October 28, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. According to the UN six of its staff are reported to have been killed and nine were wounded in the attack on the Bekhtar guesthouse. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack which took place as Afghanistan prepares for the upcoming second round run-off in the presidential elections. By Majid Saeedi/Getty.

Robert Shiller is perplexed. Justin Fox frets:

As with much of the economic semi-recovery of recent months, the housing revival has been a combination of (1) bounceback from those scary moments last fall and winter when it seemed to many that the financial world might be about to end and (2) rational response to government subsidies. I'm betting that tax credit will be renewed, but the Federal Reserve has already announced that it plans to wind up its $1.25 trillion mortgage-buying binge—which has helped keep rates way, way down and thus spur home sales—in the first quarter of next year. If mortgage rates start rising next spring and unemployment is still rising, watch out in housing.

Weigel mulls over today's poll:

It’s far too early in the game to make much of this, but consider: Four years ago, when Republicans knew they’d be facing a tough election, their early presidential frontrunners were Rudy Giuliani, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Romney. The first two were unacceptable to social conservatives, and the third was somewhat more acceptable, but still had huge problems with that part of the GOP coalition. Now the early frontrunners are two social conservatives, one of whom (Huckabee) is despised by the party’s economic conservatives and libertarians, and one of whom (Palin) is seen by many as unelectable — indeed, only 29 percent of Americans in this poll consider Palin qualified for the presidency. And that’s why, despite lagging in surveys like this, most wags still see Romney as the frontrunner.

That's HuffPo's headline for the hate crimes amendment to the Defense Appropriation bill. It's absurd. Does anyone seriously believe that a hate crimes federal law will actually prevent gay bashing? How exactly?

What it will do is allow for extra federal penalties for anyone found guilty of such an attack if its victim was selected by anti-gay bias and if local authorities refuse to prosecute. Now recall that Matthew Shepard's murderers were given the harshest sentence allowed under the law (a hate crime provision would have added nothing) and that sentence was passed down in the absence of any hate crime law in Wyoming. So this bill has zero actual relevance to the Shepard case: in fact, the Shepard case is really salient in showing why hate crimes laws are unnecessary.

But, again, the proof of the pudding: Let's see what results this amendment gets within six months, and every six months thereafter. Meanwhile, have some great cocktails at the White House, guys. Get a souvenir.

This is getting more and more interesting. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin took time today to lash out at the father of her grandson, Tripp. By lash out, I mean using the words "malicious", "mean-spirited" and "selling his body for money." Kinda sensitive, isn't she? I wonder why. If Levi has nothing, wouldn't it best to ignore him? This, by the way, is his version of malicious:

"There are some things that I have that are huge. And I haven't said them because I'm not gonna hurt her that way. I have things that can, you know — that would get her in trouble, and could hurt her. Will hurt her. But I'm not gonna go that far. You know, I mean, if I really wanted to hurt her, I could, very easily. But there's — I'm not gonna do it. I'm not going that far."

At this point, it seems to me that Levi has nothing to lose and a lot to gain by telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Next month would be a great opportunity, as Palin's latest vehicle is wheeled out by the marketing company, Harper Collins. If she can make millions off lies and spin, why should he not make some cash by telling the truth and exposing the fraud?

Tim Nudd explains:

Last October, [DirecTV] had the spot with with Craig T. Nelson and Heather O’Rourke from Poltergeist, which was unfortunate, given that O’Rourke (who played Carol Anne) died tragically in 1988 at age 12. Now, a year later (hey, Halloween’s coming up again), we get this Tommy Boy homage, with Chris Farley and David Spade. Farley, of course, died of a drug overdose in 1997. The whole dead-celebs thing is a gray area in advertising. Sometimes it seems less off-putting than other times. But you know there’s an issue when an ad finishes and you hear audible groans from around the room.