Thursday, August 6, 2009  

Mary Katharine Ham does a pretty thorough job of undermining the basis for Rachel Maddow's influential piece claiming that health care protests are "astroturfed."   ... Maddow also had a couple of what looked like videotaped instances of geniune thuggishness, though the right-wing memo she cites as orchestrating the "hooliganism" actually says "Don't carry on and make a scene, just short, intermittent shout-outs ..."

P.S.: If an "astroturfing" campaign gets real people to show up at events stating their real views, isn't it ... community organizing? ...  5:04 P.M.

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Tim Noah has a terrific, opinionated page of health care links, including a putdown of kf .  But he seems a bit Orszag-skeptical himself. ... 5:02 P.M.

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Incoming: Chuck Lane on two things that might change the health care CW (which holds that Dems will pass something ): a) if the delayed mid-session budget review--now due later this month--shows a much-worse-than-expected deficit b) if Dems lose big in the NJ and Virginia elections ... 5:00 P.M.

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