Health Care Summit

I watched the Health Care Summit today on C-Span. Before I go further, I'd like to give kudos to the network.  They did a fabulous job.

Here's my take on the Summit:

Republicans were intent on arguing for a reset.  Getting a "do over" on the legislation would be a significant win for them.  Not only could they claim credit for "stopping a government takeover of health care," (which incidentally is a misrepresentation..) they would gain more time to whittle away at any attempt for reform in an election year.  Democrats would be fools to sacrifice their advantage at this stage in the game, so my money says the Republicans will be disappointed.

The President handled the matter very well today.  He appeared very Presidential and kept himself above the fray.  Throughout the day, he sought to keep the focus on solutions and grounds for compromise rather than political points.

John Boehner is a lying sack of shit.  Not only does his proposed legislation do nothing to ameliorate the health care problem in any appreciable way, it would exacerbate it.  The true beneficiary would be John Boehner and his re-election committee. Boehner outright lied through his teeth with his figures--his misuse of data was so extreme that calling him a liar is to defame real liars everywhere.

Dick Durbin nailed the problem succinctly.  He asked everyone present if they would be willing to give up their insurance so they would understand the plight of millions of Americans.  Wonder how many of those rich people would do that?  I smell a "let them eat cake" obliviousness run rampant.

Jim Cooper acquitted himself appropriately.  He reiterated that every delay in reform costs lives and pushes the debt onto succeeding generations.  Excellent point.  Jim doesn't photograph well though....

Some annoyances:  John McCain needs to get a clue.  Henry Waxman, although rather accurate, is no Mr. Personality.  

My ultimate opinion:  I think the Summit was a success.  It forced everyone to put forward their ideas to be judged on the merits.  It reduced the partisan advantage of health care reform.

The President and the Democrats have extended the olive branch of bipartisanship (moreso than the Republicans).  I suspect they will push their agenda and pass reform, either with or without Republican help.  If they're smart they'll push ahead.

We'll see.

Health Care Reform - Negotiating 101

The President is playing the Republicans masterfully with his proposed Health Care Summit.  Here's a Summary of Obama's Plan.

For too long the Republicans have complained about the lack of bipartisanship in the Health Care Reform business.  Bipartisanship for those ideological windbags means nothing more than giving them everything they want and getting nothing for yourself.  In my book that's not bipartisanship but being spoiled.

With the Health Care Summit looming, the Republicans, who've been nothing but obstructionist since the beginning of Obama's term, have everything to lose and nothing to gain.  Here's why:

If they refuse to participate in the summit, then the accusation that they are the "Party of NO" begins to stick in an election year.  The American People don't want obstruction, they demand real work get finished.  Refusing to play ball makes the Republicans look more partisan than ever; that will not help in an election where the best way to get elected is to look more moderate.

Secondly, if the Republicans do participate, then their role of lobbing bombs is taken from them and they must contribute to a solution.  This mean compromise is the order of the day.  Unfortunately, this batch of Republicans is the most extreme bunch we've seen in a long time, so their ability to compromise is handicapped ab initio.

The net result:  Obama and his team look reasonable and industrious while working for the greater good.  The Republicans look like partisan hacks who are only in it for advantage, but really offer nothing substantive to the debate.

Fascinating and brilliant tactic if you ask me.

It's been a long time, but I'm back: Health Care Reform Screw up.

I want to apologize for my dilatory posting.  My focus has been on Health Care Reform and I wanted to see how the legislation fared.

With the election of Scott Brown to fill Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts, it appears as if the health Care Bill is dead in its tracks.  Kudos to the Republicans for getting back in the game, but shame on them for ignoring the plight of real Americans to help their real constituencies, viz. Big Insurance, Big Hospitals, and Big Pharma.

You can't support policies that help fat cats and also claim to be working for the little guy.  It's hypocrisy at its finest.  Making it worse in my book is all the idiots who are little guys that believe the propaganda and not the results.

Health Care Reform

Health Reform was the driving issue for my vote during the Presidential Election.  Obama promised to use his political capital (All of it I might add...) to get Health Reform passed.

The failure of the Senate and the House to pass meaningful Health Reform falls squarely at Obama's feet.  Instead of leading the battle for this historic legislation, Obama chose to play it cool and stand back while the Legislature did what it does best: Screw up.

I saw this coming, but was hopeful that surely the Democrats wouldn't mess up something so vital  to not only the nation's financial health, but also their political future over the venal scumbaggery so evident in the Republican Party.

But, alas it was not to be.  With the likes of Ben Nelson holding up passage to get some special favors and other Democrats too worried about their political careers to concern themselves with the literal health of our nation, we got nothing but a lot of drama culminating in a loss of Ted Kennedy's seat.

Obama played it too cool on this issue and he "cooled" himself right out of success.

As a lifelong Democrat I am ashamed of my party.  I'm a Democrat because I can't bring myself to support a party that advocates policies for the wealthy and powerful at the expense of everyday folks.  When you fight the well-financed and hypocritical forces of the right, you can't play fair because they won't--they're on a mission from God.

I said it before Obama was elected and I repeat it:  You must fight assholes with assholes. If your aim is to protect the nation's working people and powerless, you must fight fire with fire.  Politics is not the place for playing Jesus and turning the other cheek.

Republicans receive support from Al Qaeda

How convenient. It seems that the Republicans have found an ally in Al Qaeda.

For a time, the Republicans have bashed Obama. Hell, there's a contingent of wingnuts claiming Obama isn't really American by birth.

Now, Osama bin Laden's number two is siding with the Republicans and their extremist leader (Limbaugh), their extremist hatchet man (Hannity), their extremist court jester (O'Reilly) and their extremist idiot (Beck).

Who'd a thunk it: Republicans and Al Qaeda on the same team!

Cafferty Agrees with me on dealing with Bush Administration...for what it's worth.

As a charter member of the crotchety old fart club, of which I consider myself a member in good standing, Jack Cafferty of CNN calls for a special prosecutor for the Bush Administration.

Obama is making a big mistake by ignoring the crimes of the last administration. Until the matter is examined, publicly and fully, then our country won't be free of taint from the Bush years.

I say again that it's not a liberal/conservative or Republican/Democrat issue; it one of crime and justice.

It should surprise no one that two cronies from the Nixon Administration (Cheney & Rumsfeld) share a large part of the blame for the screw-ups and law-breaking of the Bush years. You can't teach old dogs new tricks. Both Cheney and Rumsfeld learned at the feet of the master--Tricky Dick. These two bozos retained the paranoia and the deceit that marked the Nixon administration. On top of that, they had something to prove.

I think Cheney and Rumsfeld went to great lengths to turn the Bush Administration into a continuation of the Nixon years. In some sick psychodrama, they sought redemption for themselves and Nixon by making policy indicative of their previous tenure. America is saddled with the results of these two geezers who couldn't let go of their ignominious service with Nixon.

Obama must excise this blot from our collective conscious. Pelosi, although a good conciliator, should own her failure to impeach Cheney and Rumsfeld; she could have stopped the tragedy of the Bush years caused by the Dicky & Donny Show.

Obama has ticked me off! Military brass is a bunch a wusses.

Obama has finally pissed me off.

I'm sorry that the troops might be put in danger over the release of the photos of abuse.

But all I have to say is "Tough shit."

If they're so damned worried about the effect it might have then perhaps they should have obeyed the Constitution instead of following the dictates of their Commander-In-Chief (Bush) when they had the chance.

Need I remind everyone that soldiers take an oath when they join the service. Every last one of them swears to uphold the Constitution before anything. Next in the oath is to follow the orders of the President. If the President gives an order that contradicts the Constitution then as I see it, every soldier has a legal obligation to disobey.

Why? Because the Constitution governs all of us, including the President. Otherwise, we are no longer a nation of laws, but one of tyranny.

The way I see it, if the military want's to act like a bunch of pussies and worry about the effect that photos of their malfeasance and broken oaths might have, then perhaps they should have thought about that before they violated the damn law!

I may get hate mail for this, but one thing I am not is a wuss. I speak the truth and when Obama wimps out on the truth because some pansy-ass Generals are worried about hurt feelings and the potential consequences, then I draw the line.

These Generals are more worried about their careers than they are about their oaths to uphold the Constitution and defend our county. If they aren't smart enough to follow the law then they need to be replaced.

Sometimes to the truth hurts. Grow a spine you sissies.

Obama administration is restoring competitiveness to the marketplace.

Upon reading this story all I could say to myself is this: It's about time we restore some real competition to the marketplace.

Despite all the blathering about the "free market" and "capitalism", the Bush administration did more to undermine real competition than many previous administrations by gutting anti-trust law.

You can't call yourself a capitalist unless you support strong anti-trust enforcement.

Anti-trust law, when properly applied, eliminates monopolies and punishes those profiting from anti-competitive contracts. Basically, anti-trust law punishes croneyism--a hallmark of the Bush years.

For a market to work properly, concentrations of market power must be thwarted; that's what anti-trust law does--it prevents concentrations of power and greases the wheels of commerce.

Easy commerce makes for cheaper stuff.

Excellent!

Using Rove arguments to support Obama--try it for fun.

I've decided to try a thought experiment as an homage to the last administration.

I want to trot out some of the same arguments used by the Bush administration and followed by McCain & Palin during the '08 election.

If you supported McCain/Palin or Bush you will remember these. As a point of consistency, they should apply equally well to Obama.

If you find yourself incapable of applying these same chestnuts to Obama, without caveat, then you need to ask yourself if you're not being a little intellectually dishonest.

1. Since Obama's been in office, the terrorists have not attacked us. Therefore, Obama's policies on national security are working. (You'll recall Bush used this same argument as validation for the efficacy of his presidency despite the fact that absence of evidence is not the same as evidence--it's sophistry, specifically argumentum ad ignorantiam --Glenn Beck's stock in trade).

2. Don't change horses in the middle of the stream. Even if Obama's not doing such a good job, things are so bad right now that we shoudn't go messing up things by replacing him because during a crisis, we need stability more than change. (Bush used this and McCain/Palin tried to link into the whole stability of vision thing to keep the Republicans in power--again, this is nothing but Bullshit and the results of the Bush years show it to be the case.)

3. Obama's a secret Muslim and is going to turn us into a communist state. (This doesn't pass the laugh test so I won't even diginify it with an answer except to say that if you believed this crap, you're an idiot.)

I'll stop here. Once I've gone through my Rove file, we can talk about it some more.

The same arguments used in the past must work equally well for the other side. if they don't then perhaps the arguments are suspect to begin with.

Obama giving up the macho in favor of the smart approach to Iran.

I would like to point out that President Obama's approach to Iran is exactly what is needed.

For far too long the U.S. has tried to bully and threaten its way to a solution with the Islamist nation--all to little effect.

I would also like to point out that I suggested just such an approach in an earlier post on this blog.

Being the big dog on the block gives us ample strength without us needing to strut around and tell everyone about how great we are. Previous administrations and our most recent Republican nominee for president pursued the same agenda: Talk tough and be tough.

It didn't work, except at the polls. The message lost on all the talk tough crowd is that being macho and being smart are mutually exclusive endeavors. This is why you don't find big tough rednecks on Jeopardy and why you don't find pointy-headed nerds on the football field.

Obama's nuanced approach to Iran creates an untenable situation for the mullahs. The "Great Satan" ceases to motivate when the U.S. is extending a hand in peace. The youthful Iranian population wants to participate in the world at large. The restraints placed on them by their reactionary leaders generates increased discontent when the "Great Satan" is perceived as the "Great Peace-Maker".

Obama's approach boxes in the Iranian leadership between moribund rhetoric and youthful population bristling under the reactionary yoke of oppression. Strategically, it's brilliant.

Kudos to Obama for being smart instead of macho.

Shinseki choice highlights Rumsfeld's and Wolfowitz's ignominy

Here's a notable piece about General Shinsheki possibly getting a job in the Obama administration.

The General behaves with integrity and character and that serves to highlight the utter lack of integrity and character of his former boss Donald Rumsfeld and the latter's neo-con butt buddy Paul Wolfowitz.

Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were nothing but scumbags and they deserve the ignominy their loser asses will get.

Thank God I never voted for the man who so sacrificed his obligation to the country when he hired such incompetent boobs in the first place.

Whackos on parade: Fight to prove Obama is really foreign-born. Morons

Here's a story about pretext racism.

A group of whackos is attempting to derail Obama's presidency by having the Supreme Court declare him ineligible since he was born outside the U.S.

Every time someone points out the evidence showing Obama was born in the U.S., it is dismissed in favor of the conspiracy.

It's very difficult to respond to a conspiracy theory, not because the conspiracy is true, but because the conspiracy relies on faith, so any evidence to the contrary is dismissed, while evidence supporting the conspiracy takes on added importance.

Here's a problem for the conspiracy theorists: If they manage to win (which they won't) then John McCain has a similar citizenship problem, viz., he was born in Panama.

Between Obama and McCain, Obama has the stronger claim to U.S. citizenship since he was born in the U.S. to a native-born mother.

West Wing laid the groundwork for the Obama campaign

Here's a reason why I like the West Wing. In a dramatic display of art imitating life, I give you the following.




Enjoy.

Powell endorsement of Obama more complex than racist reductionists allow

General Colin Powell endorses Obama.

Right-wing talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh, resorts to racial reductionism by claiming Powell's endorsement is based entirely on race.

I suppose we should expect nothing less from radio's demagogue-in-chief. He does nothing, but spread simple-minded reasons for his simple-minded audience.

I think Colin Powell has more complexity and gravitas than to resort to race as the single most salient factor for choosing his candidate.

General Powell is siding with history. He's also showing the world that more important things inform his attitudes and opinions than mere party loyalty.

Let the Republicans play the race card. It will blow up in their faces. History will bear this out.

Winston Churchill said it best...

After watching all the bloviating by the typical press opinion-istas and watching the Democrats fall victim to the out and out bald-faced lying coming from the McCain camp, I worry about the results of the election.

If we, as a nation, allow another Republican deceiver into the White House all because he and his campaign manage to say what people want to hear, even if it's not true, then we probably deserve what we get.

I'm reminded of a quote from Winston Churchill when I think of the possible consequences of electing a lying Senator, too old to live out a term without dementia, along with his ideologue running mate.

Winston summed it up about Americans when he said of us:

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing...after they've exhausted all other possibilities."

I don't know what's more stunning: The fact that so many willingly give up any notion of good sense and reason just to elect some party willing to lie, cheat, and obfuscate? Or, whether people are really such ignoramuses.

If McCain wins with the sort of campaign he's running, then we've sacrificed our collective intelligence upon the alter of our shallow foolishness. The results will be dire...more dire than they've already been.

I know that since Bush was elected I've seen my personal wealth disappear. I've seen my career prospects dry up and my income fall dramatically, even though I should be in the prime years of my earning potential. It can't all be my fault like the Republicans will try to argue.

Palin is bringing trouble to McCan't already

Well, it looks like McCan't's VP choice is a Republican through and through.

She's already under investigation by a special prosecutor in Alaska for using her office for a personal family feud.

The Republicans are so rife with corrupt practices and so forth, that it underscores the need for the change Obama advocates.

It's house-cleaning time.

John McCan't chooses Governor Palin as his right-wing running mate

Well John McCan't has chosen an inexperienced right-winger from Alaska for his running mate.

The only thing Governor Palin has going for her is that she will shore up McCan't's conservative base.

The governor is an attractive woman so that shouldn't hurt McCan't.

The Vice Presidential debates should be a clock cleaning by Biden.

Biden's a tough customer and the Obama campaign has momentum.

I don't think Governor Palin will attract any Hillary supporters. Governor Palin is staunchly pro-life.

Any Hillary supporters willing to swing to the complete opposite side of the political divide to stick it to Obama will probably number only in the hundreds.

One hopes the McCan't campaign is not so silly to think Americans will be fooled by such a cynical choice in running mate. But who knows.

Americans were fooled by Rovian tactics the last time around.

Obama knocks it out of the park.

I'm not one to gush, but Barack Obama's speech tonight had to be one of the most inspiring speeches I've ever seen.

In his speech he really made McCain and the Republicans look very small and petty.

That point was driven home by the tepid response from McCain basically calling Obama a liar.

I was surprised to hear all the talking heads in utter amazement at how powerful a speech Obama gave.

The speech asked us to look beyond the petty and toward our own greater future. It asked us to leave the past and unite together as a nation without political divide.

Bold and sweeping language that almost left a tear in my eye.

I felt a seismic shift occur with his speech. All I could do was shake my head at poor old John McCain.

In one single flourish, Obama made obsolete the political tricks of Karl Rove. He did it by pointing out that we, as a people, are better than that and deserve better than that.

I can't wait for the Debates. McCain won't be able to use his tired old stories and Karl Rove's tired old tricks to good effect on Obama. This was a game changer and McCain is one old dog who can't learn new tricks.

The game is afoot.

Who's the real elitist? Saying it doesn't make it true.

Here's what I don't get about the elitist label getting thrown about by the Republicans and their friends over at Fox News.

Between Obama and McCain, which one flies around in a private jet all the time?

McCain.

Between Obama and McCain, which one has millions upon millions of dollars at their personal disposal?

McCain.

Between Obama and McCain, which one was born in the good old U.S.A.?

Obama. (McCain was born in Panama)

Between Obama and McCain, which one has a wife that voted to sell out a large U.S. company to a foreign company?

McCain. (Cindy McCain owns 80,000 shares of Anheiser-Busch. She voted in favor of selling the company to InBev, over the interests of all the U.S. workers who rely on A-B for jobs, etc.)

Let's face it: McCain is the elitist here. Just because Obama got a good education, it doesn't make him an elitist. It makes him smart. McCain hasn't been poor since the 1970's when he married money.

To call Obama an elitist is a bald-faced lie.

Why do we let the rich get away with calling the non-rich elitists? It makes no sense.

Who's closer to living the lifestyle of everyday Americans, Obama or McCain?

Obama because he doesn't fly around in a private jet, nor own 7 + homes, nor advocate for the interests of large corporations and wealthy individuals at the expense of the rest of us.

Get a grip people. McCain is not interested in helping everyday Americans, only his well-heeled friends an supporters, who are not everyday Americans.

Funny stuff. Shows media bias

Here's a good example of how the media shows bias.

It helps to have a side by side comparison and Slate provides one in this video.

Of course Fox has Bill Kristol, one of the architects of neoconservativism. Kristol calls Obama an elitist because Obama went to law school at Harvard.

Funny thing is, Kristol went to Harvard for his undergraduate AND graduate degrees.

Kind of dripping with hypocrisy if you ask me, but we're dealing with ideologues here, so it's impossible for them to avoid hypocrisy because that would actually require them to be logical AND consistent.

Racist plot to kill Obama foiled by stupidity

When I read stories like this one, I find it hard to ignore the undercurrent of racism that exists against Obama.

I read a story the other day indicating that attacks against Obama have nothing to do with racism.

Unfortunately, that isn't entirely true.

Give people a pretext for their racism and they'll be sure to adopt it rather than admit being racist.