I was away over the weekend.\u00a0 The Morning Reports resume today, and again I\u2019ll try to keep them briefer.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 A story<\/a> in England\u2019s Daily Mail gives the fullest picture yet of the capture and eventual release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee\u2013and the picture is not flattering to the two novice reporters, least of all to Ling.\u00a0 While Euna Lee is portrayed as Ling\u2019s \u201clackey,\u201d someone who follows Ling around and holds the camera, Laura Ling, the little sister to the far more successful Lisa Ling of The View (and soon to have her own talk show, at the prompting of Oprah Winfrey), is portrayed as insecure, jealous, \u201cfiercely ambitious\u201d and yet less talented than her sister.\u00a0 The two were sent to the border of China and North Korea, to report on human trafficking for Current TV, Al Gore\u2019s television venture.\u00a0 Yet Ling led them across the border, according to the Mail, pranced around on North Korean territory, and refused to stop filming when North Korean soldiers ordered it.<\/p>\n Apparently the majority of the pressure for their release came from Ling\u2019s British husband Iain Clayton, through the London ambassador.\u00a0 Kim Jong Il, of course, is a complete nut, and he \u201cidolizes\u201d Bill Cilnton as a ruler who is also a \u201cvirile stud\u201d with influence over Hollywood (Mr. Kim is a big fan of such classic Hollywood fare as Rambo and Friday the 13th; he also goes from love affair to love affair with men as well as women).\u00a0 So Kim told the young women, and Laura told her husband in England, that they would receive amnesty if Bill Clinton were to pay a visit.\u00a0 When the Obama folks suggested sending Al Gore, but Kim insisted on Clinton.\u00a0 (See an entertaining take on the return of \u201cbig dog\u201d here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n To make a long story short, these two young women\u2013I am sure they are sweet and well-intentioned, and they were reporting on an important subject, yet they made a fool of themselves, created an international incident, embarrassed the Obama administration and handed one of the world\u2019s most brutal dictators a PR coup<\/a> that strengthened his regime\u2013and now they stand to make millions of dollars for telling the story in interviews, books and movies.\u00a0 And Laura Ling, for one brief shining moment, outshone her big sister.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure the \u201cmedia advisor\u201d (yes, they have one) who is handling their contracts will recommend that they donate a percentage of the money to a refugee agency.\u00a0 And I\u2019m sure there are other ways of looking at this story.\u00a0 Although they never saw the inside of a labor camp, and stayed for their 140 days in something like a luxury villa, I do not doubt that theirs was a terrifying experience.\u00a0 A grain of salt is advised, since this is the Daily Mail we\u2019re talking about.\u00a0 Yet these women are not heroes.\u00a0 As a senior state department official and a Clinton confidant say, these young women were \u201cuseful pawns in a much bigger chess game.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThis was a PR coup,\u201d a \u201cfarce.\u00a0 It couldn\u2019t be more embarrassing for Obama and the agency.\u00a0 No one hired these girls.\u00a0 No one in Washington had ever heard about them until they were captured by the North Koreans.\u201d\u00a0 Now the North Koreans are saying that they are willing to discuss nuclear disarmament\u2013but they won\u2019t speak with Obama or his delegates; they\u2019ll only speak with Bill.\u00a0 \u201cTwo greenhorn journalists stand to make a financial killing. And Bill is on a roll now that everybody has bought into the official story.\u201d<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 In a previous Morning Report, I noted how the Air Force had requested two more jets for its duties of ferrying members of Congress and other brass around the country.\u00a0 The Obama administration decided it wanted four.\u00a0 Now the House has voted for 8, at a cost of $550M.\u00a0 Yes, Congress lectured chief executives who were receiving taxpayer dollars (and even some who were not) for using private jets to fly to Washington.\u00a0 Yes, the rest of us are tightening our belts.\u00a0 But for Congress, the spending bonanza\u2013on our dime\u2013continues.\u00a0 When will these people get the message?\u00a0 Or, speaking from a Christian perspective, when will they learn to be wise stewards of our money?\u00a0 (And on this note, the deficit grew<\/a> by $181B just in the month of July.)<\/p>\n This is just foolish PR as well.\u00a0 It strengthens<\/a> the Republicans\u2019 attempt\u2013which is difficult, after the Bush years\u2013of returning to a message of fiscal responsibility.\u00a0 The poor press<\/a> is richly deserved.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer have a letter in today\u2019s USA Today in which they characterize the opposition many Congressmen and -women are facing in town halls as \u201cugly\u201d and \u201cun-American.\u201d\u00a0 They still seek to show that the appearance of opposition is manufactured by special interests, and truly found only on the fringe.\u00a0 In their defense, Pelosi and Hoyer do not say that protest is un-American, but the drowning out of voices and facts.\u00a0 (They also cite an effigy-burning and a picture of a tombstone with a Congressman\u2019s name on it, which makes one wonder where they were when those on the Left were burning effigies of Bush and displaying \u201cBush assassination porn\u201d.)<\/p>\n UPDATE: One can see a humorous \u201cI am the mob\u201d video here<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of the \u201cfacts\u201d they cite is Obama\u2019s oft-repeated promise that \u201chealth insurance reform will mean more patient choice. It will allow every American who likes his or her current plan to keep it.\u201d\u00a0 This, of course, is one of the primary points of contention between proponents and opponents of this reform.\u00a0 Opponents believe that the \u201cgovernment option\u201d (which some liberal commentators like Paul Krugman had said would never make it into the final legislation) is not a means of increasing competition, but of moving the American people away from private insurers and, eventually, toward a government monopoly (or \u201csingle payer\u201d plan) of health care.\u00a0 Is this a reasonable concern?<\/p>\n Many Democrats in the House had originally insisted on a single-payer plan, and only agreed to compromise when a \u201cstrong government option\u201d was promised.\u00a0 Then, single-payer advocates were excluded from Congressional hearings, and nary a word of single-payer has been spoken in public.\u00a0 Yet, it\u2019s not difficult to find many Democrats, speaking on record to supportive audiences, calling for the end of the private insurance industry and the birth of a single-payer plan.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a \u201cfact,\u201d despite Pelosi and Hoyer\u2019s claim, that \u201cevery American who likes his current plan\u201d will be able to keep it.\u00a0 As Jacob Hacker, a political theorist at Yale and the designer of the Democratic strategy on the point, says, at first, as a transitional stage, \u201cWe\u2019re going to give them a choice of public and private insurance when they\u2019re in the pool, and we\u2019re going to let them keep their private employer-based insurance if their employer continues to provide it.\u201d\u00a0 This is more honest.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that you can keep your coverage.\u00a0 It\u2019s that you can keep your coverage if <\/em>your employer continues to provide it.\u00a0 Yet, as one non-partisan group estimates, as many as 100 million Americans will see their employers drop their coverage in the first few years because it is cheaper for them to pay the penalty.\u00a0 Over a half of Americans (given Medicare and etc.) would then be covered by the government, and would have less to lose from a single-payer plan.\u00a0 See Robert Samuelson\u2019s column<\/a> today on this point.<\/p>\n UPDATE: One can also see a video from Verum Serum, which puts together the evidence for a single-payer deceit, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n As Hacker says, this is not even a Trojan horse sort of plan.\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201cright there,\u201d not even concealed, that this is intended to move toward a single-payer plan.\u00a0 Then of course there are the statements from Obama in 2003 and 2007, circulating on video, which suggest that he too shares the goal of moving from a government \u2018option\u2019 to a government monopoly of health care.<\/p>\n Is it perfectly clear that Obama and the Democrats want to move toward a single-payer plan?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Is it a justified fear?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 So if the Democrats are not interested in a single-payer plan, as they claim, then let them put it in writing.\u00a0 Let them write into the legislation<\/span> that this cannot be made into a government monopoly.\u00a0 If a certain number of Americans are unwillingly thrown out of their plans, it will \u201ctrigger\u201d the end of the \u201cgovernment option.\u201d\u00a0 Or let them write pledges that they will immediately resign their offices if the government option ever becomes a government monopoly.\u00a0 Sure, they can later change the laws and take back the promises, but not without paying a significant cost.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 More on the Health Care debate: a deal the Obama administration cut with \u201cbig Pharma\u201d is getting a lot of bad press.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s got more<\/a> from Robert Reich.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 Moderates on the Left are growing louder<\/a> with their questions of whether the war in Afghanistan is worth it.<\/p>\n