Dare we dream? It’s beginning to look as if there’s been enough of a broad-based backlash against Washington’s inaction or indifference when it comes to meaningful Health Care Reform that our politicians are actually starting to take notice! We always knew that our House Reps and Senators could be gotten to. The only question was whether their respective ‘G’ spots were more susceptible to the lure of money or the need for votes.
The safe bet would be both, and although just how much each individual politician is influenced by either one or the other has yet to be determined, it would appear that most of them are now well aware of a rising level of dissent…on Main Street and beyond. The majority of Americans…65% and counting…are making it known that they want a public insurance option included in any Health Care bill that’s passed, and that demand is being echoed by more and more doctors and other health sector professionals every day.
It seems like the tide may finally be turning. The health insurance industry is being increasingly recognized and universally criticized for what it is…a corrupt, greedy, selfish, unfeeling profit center that cares only about its bottom line and nothing about its customers. The rest of the health sector concerns, and not an insignificant number of politicians, have begun distancing themselves from the insurers… leaving them isolated on an island by themselves so as to avoid being hit by shrapnel from the incoming bombs of outrage and grenades of discontent.
Since discussion concerning Health Care Reform was once again brought to the front burner in Washington earlier this year, the health insurance industry and their minions have been ‘wagging the dog’ in terms of the debate. A never-ending flood of fear-inspiring innuendo and outright lies, put forth in many cases by people and organizations who should know better, have kept supporters of meaningful reform consistently on the defensive. But with momentum starting to shift perceptibly in this battle, expect the insurers to lower the level of discourse and ethics even further.
So what’s next you ask? Well, as the legendary Al Jolson once said, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”. If you think that the health insurance conglomerates, their lobbyists, and the media mouthpieces and political apologists that support them and are supported by them, will stand by and watch the sun set on this gravy train, you’d better give your head a shake. To paraphrase an old hockey adage, the gloves are about to come off.
Through the ill-advised largesse of our lawmakers, up until now health insurers have been granted a license to print money…or perhaps steal would be a more apt description of what they’ve been allowed to do for all these years. They’ve been operating without effective oversight for so long that when something threatens to impact their bloated bottom line…something such as a public insurance option designed to, oh, let’s say keep them honest…they predictably react with snarling desperation, like any cornered animal would in those circumstances.
That means we shouldn’t be surprised by anything they say or do, or that’s said and done on their behalf, in the coming weeks. There’s likely nothing they won’t try in their effort to retain unfettered, Washington-condoned access to our wallets and bank accounts. The salvos they’ve fired so far…death panels, socialism, communism, fascism, birthers, tea-baggers, government controlled, etc., etc.…will pale in comparison to what lies ahead as this transcendent battle for meaningful Health Care Reform reaches its climax.
A recent Quinnipiac poll suggested that fixing our economy is the single most important thing Americans have to deal with…but understand this! If we can find the will to reform and control the health insurance industry, fixing the economy is doable. Without meaningful Health Care Reform though, more specifically without health insurance reform, our economy will continue spiraling downward. It’s that simple.
SC
Showing posts with label birthers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthers. Show all posts
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Republicans At The Brink: Lindsey Graham says hyperbole must stop
It would appear that the more conservative and, dare we say it, more sensible wing of the Republican Party, has finally started to figure out that it might be time to put some much needed distance between them and their extreme right fringe. Apparently some can see that the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are quickly pulling the GOP in a direction they don’t want to go… and if they don’t step up now, pretty soon there could be no turning back.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has become the first of what we would hope will be an ever-increasing number of legitimate Republican politicians who call out some of these vile and dangerous lunatics. Graham took a swipe at both Beck and the birthers when questioned at an event in Arlington, Virginia yesterday.
And lest you think that we’re being hyperbolic when we opine, as we often do, that Beck is certifiably crazy…check this out. What you’re about to hear is Beck losing his mind with a caller to his nationally syndicated radio show. The woman had the temerity to criticize him for being so virulently against comprehensive health care reform. We’re playing the entire call…no editing involved…just because. If you want to cut to the chase yourself, the fireworks start about 2:40 into the clip. Everything from about 3:35 to the end is just Beck and his producer trying to justify his melt down.
The most frightening thing is that Beck has a loyal following who believe everything he says, no matter how ludicrous. For all our sakes we’d better hope that listening to him is as far as it goes. Acting on what this crazy man says would be far, far worse…and after hearing that insane outburst, how long do you think it’ll be before he starts dragging the more extreme members of his cult over the edge with him?
Back in the real world the 2016 Summer Olympics were awarded to Rio de Janeiro today, so everyone who felt President Obama was wasting time better spent elsewhere trying to help Chicago win the bid will now have more fuel for their fires. For the most part, though, these would be the same people who so easily excused then President G. W. Bush for being four days late showing up to survey Hurricane Katrina damage in New Orleans and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast because he was clearing brush at his Texas ranch…or on a fishing trip. WTF?
If memory serves, W spent about half of his Presidency clearing brush at the ranch. This was an 18-hour trip the current President took to try and bolster his adopted home town’s Olympic bid…unsuccessfully as it turned out. And maybe that’s a good thing because it’s the opinion of this blog that the legacy left behind after staging an Olympics seldom if ever justifies the enormous cost and inconvenience of preparing for them.
That said, they are undeniably a great PR vehicle, and if Chicago wanted them badly enough to ask the President to help, good on him for making the effort. Lord knows, if Texas had been bidding for an Olympics during one of the Bush Presidencies, you can bet your tushie that either I or II would have been there to help with (cow)bells on.
And don’t give us that crap about America being in crisis right now. This country has been faced with one crisis or another at virtually every moment in our history. Sometimes, though, Presidents are asked to help with things that don’t involve a crisis. This was one such time…and lo and behold, the country didn’t suffer a complete melt down in the absence of our Commander In Chief.
Go Figure!
SC
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has become the first of what we would hope will be an ever-increasing number of legitimate Republican politicians who call out some of these vile and dangerous lunatics. Graham took a swipe at both Beck and the birthers when questioned at an event in Arlington, Virginia yesterday.
And lest you think that we’re being hyperbolic when we opine, as we often do, that Beck is certifiably crazy…check this out. What you’re about to hear is Beck losing his mind with a caller to his nationally syndicated radio show. The woman had the temerity to criticize him for being so virulently against comprehensive health care reform. We’re playing the entire call…no editing involved…just because. If you want to cut to the chase yourself, the fireworks start about 2:40 into the clip. Everything from about 3:35 to the end is just Beck and his producer trying to justify his melt down.
The most frightening thing is that Beck has a loyal following who believe everything he says, no matter how ludicrous. For all our sakes we’d better hope that listening to him is as far as it goes. Acting on what this crazy man says would be far, far worse…and after hearing that insane outburst, how long do you think it’ll be before he starts dragging the more extreme members of his cult over the edge with him?
Back in the real world the 2016 Summer Olympics were awarded to Rio de Janeiro today, so everyone who felt President Obama was wasting time better spent elsewhere trying to help Chicago win the bid will now have more fuel for their fires. For the most part, though, these would be the same people who so easily excused then President G. W. Bush for being four days late showing up to survey Hurricane Katrina damage in New Orleans and on the Mississippi Gulf Coast because he was clearing brush at his Texas ranch…or on a fishing trip. WTF?
If memory serves, W spent about half of his Presidency clearing brush at the ranch. This was an 18-hour trip the current President took to try and bolster his adopted home town’s Olympic bid…unsuccessfully as it turned out. And maybe that’s a good thing because it’s the opinion of this blog that the legacy left behind after staging an Olympics seldom if ever justifies the enormous cost and inconvenience of preparing for them.
That said, they are undeniably a great PR vehicle, and if Chicago wanted them badly enough to ask the President to help, good on him for making the effort. Lord knows, if Texas had been bidding for an Olympics during one of the Bush Presidencies, you can bet your tushie that either I or II would have been there to help with (cow)bells on.
And don’t give us that crap about America being in crisis right now. This country has been faced with one crisis or another at virtually every moment in our history. Sometimes, though, Presidents are asked to help with things that don’t involve a crisis. This was one such time…and lo and behold, the country didn’t suffer a complete melt down in the absence of our Commander In Chief.
Go Figure!
SC
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Right Wing World: Riding the express train to Crazy Town
Holy crap! Just when you thought the lunatics populating the right-wing fringe of the Republican Party couldn’t get any further out there than they have been throughout much of this summer, September happens. And just like that they test the limits of any sane person’s credulity yet again.
More on recent happenings in a moment, but first, let’s just think about some of the things that have been said and done by or on behalf of Republican politicians, their whacky supporters, or their enablers during these past few months…all of it meant to either undermine our President, or torpedo any kind of meaningful Health Care Reform, or both.
Start with the ‘birthers’…the bright lights who somehow have got it in what passes for their minds that Barack Obama was not actually born in the United States and therefore is not the legitimate President. It doesn’t matter how many sensible Republicans tell them they’re wrong, or what kind of proof they’re shown. They don’t believe it…because they simply don’t want to believe that a black man could ever have been elected President of ‘their’ country.
You’d expect attention seekers like Alan Keyes, smear author Jerome Corsi (the John Kerry/Swift Boat guy), and noted anti-Semite Andy Martin, would be front and center when this kind of garbage surfaces, and they were…along with others of their ilk. What’s distressing, though, is the credence these whack jobs are being given by supposedly sensible, highly-placed people such as Congressmen Roy Blunt and Trent Franks, television pundits Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity, former House majority leader Tom Delay, and Liz Cheney, the daughter of the dark lord himself. Yet there they came, together as one during this whole ‘birthers’ thing, like a big ol’ can of mixed nuts.
Then there was, and still is in some quarters, the ‘death panels’ maelstrom. It’s impossible to conceive of a scenario in which any right-thinking person could have knowingly bought into this nonsense, but as the far right proves time and again, nothing is out of the realm of possibility with these mush-heads. The phrase ‘turds for brains’ seems somehow appropriate.
The impetus for this lunacy actually came from one of the ‘supposedly sensible, highly-placed’ folks we should be able to rely on for even-handed analysis and assessment. You know, someone like a political leader. Whoops…somebody forgot to tell Sarah Palin that we really expect better from a person with designs on the White House…but when she informed her drooling followers that the Health Care Reform package making its way through Congress included provisions for pulling the plug on Grandma, we all saw what happened.
First, the mainstream media dutifully reported this absurdity as if it were…well…a real story. Then, predictably, the nuts started falling out of the trees…egged on by right-wing media blogs, and mouth-breathing pundits like Glenn Beck and the rest of the fear-mongering enablers at Faux News. And finally, an assortment of shameless Republican politicians, led by that lying sack of crap Chuck Grassley, jumped on the pile when they saw an opportunity to torpedo Barack Obama’s Health Care Reform initiative. Not surprisingly, they succeeded in scaring the hell out of every senior citizen in the country and, understandably, enraging anyone with an elderly parent or grandparent that they care about.
In other words, the game went exactly according to plan as far as the GOP was and is concerned.
Now, here we are in September and these bat-shit crazy, right-wingers are at it again. Seriously, look at what they’ve come up with in just the past few days! It’s almost as if they’re having an End of Summer Madness Sale…or a Pre-Labor Day WTF Extravaganza.
Take Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann…please! The resident House nut is urging people to slit their wrists…really, she said that…and become blood brothers unified in their opposition to Health Care Reform. Or at least any sort of Health Care Reform with Democratic finger prints on it.
Our old buddy Glenn Beck emerged from his rubber room long enough to suggest that the Obama administration is intent on enslaving the American people. And he claims that when the President addresses the country’s students next week on their return to school, while he may seem to be talking about working hard and getting good grades, he’ll actually be indoctrinating them?!?! So he’s urging parents to keep their children out of school that day. Spread the word.
Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge’s new book, ‘The Test of Our Times’, was just released, and boy did it cause the earth to stop spinning for a day or so. That’s because in one chapter Ridge said quite specifically that he believed the nation’s Threat Level Warning…you know, that red-orange-yellow color-coded nonsense…was changed just prior to the 2004 Presidential Election for what he feared at the time might have been political reasons, thereby possibly affecting the outcome of the election.
But by the next day Ridge must have received a ‘Threat Level Warning’ of his own, because he was all over the TV and radio circuit claiming he didn’t actually say that. However, when Rachel Maddow of MSNBC correctly pointed out to him during an interview that that’s what was written in the book he wrote, Ridge acknowledged that although he wrote the words in question, he didn’t mean what she…and apparently everybody else…thought he meant. We simply misunderstood his words. Ya…right!
“Now please Mr. Cheney, don’t shoot me. I’ve shredded my credibility to protect you. Isn’t that enough?”
Speaking of the BIG DICK…we’ve left the best for last…a true OMG moment. Someone is floating the idea that Cheney would be a good candidate, maybe the best the Republicans have, to head the GOP ticket for the 2012 election. That’s right…Dick Cheney running for President in 2012. Seriously, we couldn’t make this stuff up.
Imagine, the most hated American politician in recent memory…maybe ever, both here and throughout the free world…representing the best the Republicans have to offer. It’s laughable…and the amazing thing is that no one from the party who’s gone on record thinks it’s a bad idea. Well, maybe they’re afraid to, what with hunting accidents and rendition and all those other, nifty Cheney tactics.
Of course, as MSNBC’s Keith Olberman so astutely observed, he’s probably ineligible to run anyway because he’s already served two terms as President.
Say goodnight DICK!
SC
More on recent happenings in a moment, but first, let’s just think about some of the things that have been said and done by or on behalf of Republican politicians, their whacky supporters, or their enablers during these past few months…all of it meant to either undermine our President, or torpedo any kind of meaningful Health Care Reform, or both.
Start with the ‘birthers’…the bright lights who somehow have got it in what passes for their minds that Barack Obama was not actually born in the United States and therefore is not the legitimate President. It doesn’t matter how many sensible Republicans tell them they’re wrong, or what kind of proof they’re shown. They don’t believe it…because they simply don’t want to believe that a black man could ever have been elected President of ‘their’ country.
You’d expect attention seekers like Alan Keyes, smear author Jerome Corsi (the John Kerry/Swift Boat guy), and noted anti-Semite Andy Martin, would be front and center when this kind of garbage surfaces, and they were…along with others of their ilk. What’s distressing, though, is the credence these whack jobs are being given by supposedly sensible, highly-placed people such as Congressmen Roy Blunt and Trent Franks, television pundits Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity, former House majority leader Tom Delay, and Liz Cheney, the daughter of the dark lord himself. Yet there they came, together as one during this whole ‘birthers’ thing, like a big ol’ can of mixed nuts.
Then there was, and still is in some quarters, the ‘death panels’ maelstrom. It’s impossible to conceive of a scenario in which any right-thinking person could have knowingly bought into this nonsense, but as the far right proves time and again, nothing is out of the realm of possibility with these mush-heads. The phrase ‘turds for brains’ seems somehow appropriate.
The impetus for this lunacy actually came from one of the ‘supposedly sensible, highly-placed’ folks we should be able to rely on for even-handed analysis and assessment. You know, someone like a political leader. Whoops…somebody forgot to tell Sarah Palin that we really expect better from a person with designs on the White House…but when she informed her drooling followers that the Health Care Reform package making its way through Congress included provisions for pulling the plug on Grandma, we all saw what happened.
First, the mainstream media dutifully reported this absurdity as if it were…well…a real story. Then, predictably, the nuts started falling out of the trees…egged on by right-wing media blogs, and mouth-breathing pundits like Glenn Beck and the rest of the fear-mongering enablers at Faux News. And finally, an assortment of shameless Republican politicians, led by that lying sack of crap Chuck Grassley, jumped on the pile when they saw an opportunity to torpedo Barack Obama’s Health Care Reform initiative. Not surprisingly, they succeeded in scaring the hell out of every senior citizen in the country and, understandably, enraging anyone with an elderly parent or grandparent that they care about.
In other words, the game went exactly according to plan as far as the GOP was and is concerned.
Now, here we are in September and these bat-shit crazy, right-wingers are at it again. Seriously, look at what they’ve come up with in just the past few days! It’s almost as if they’re having an End of Summer Madness Sale…or a Pre-Labor Day WTF Extravaganza.
Take Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann…please! The resident House nut is urging people to slit their wrists…really, she said that…and become blood brothers unified in their opposition to Health Care Reform. Or at least any sort of Health Care Reform with Democratic finger prints on it.
Our old buddy Glenn Beck emerged from his rubber room long enough to suggest that the Obama administration is intent on enslaving the American people. And he claims that when the President addresses the country’s students next week on their return to school, while he may seem to be talking about working hard and getting good grades, he’ll actually be indoctrinating them?!?! So he’s urging parents to keep their children out of school that day. Spread the word.
Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge’s new book, ‘The Test of Our Times’, was just released, and boy did it cause the earth to stop spinning for a day or so. That’s because in one chapter Ridge said quite specifically that he believed the nation’s Threat Level Warning…you know, that red-orange-yellow color-coded nonsense…was changed just prior to the 2004 Presidential Election for what he feared at the time might have been political reasons, thereby possibly affecting the outcome of the election.
But by the next day Ridge must have received a ‘Threat Level Warning’ of his own, because he was all over the TV and radio circuit claiming he didn’t actually say that. However, when Rachel Maddow of MSNBC correctly pointed out to him during an interview that that’s what was written in the book he wrote, Ridge acknowledged that although he wrote the words in question, he didn’t mean what she…and apparently everybody else…thought he meant. We simply misunderstood his words. Ya…right!
“Now please Mr. Cheney, don’t shoot me. I’ve shredded my credibility to protect you. Isn’t that enough?”
Speaking of the BIG DICK…we’ve left the best for last…a true OMG moment. Someone is floating the idea that Cheney would be a good candidate, maybe the best the Republicans have, to head the GOP ticket for the 2012 election. That’s right…Dick Cheney running for President in 2012. Seriously, we couldn’t make this stuff up.
Imagine, the most hated American politician in recent memory…maybe ever, both here and throughout the free world…representing the best the Republicans have to offer. It’s laughable…and the amazing thing is that no one from the party who’s gone on record thinks it’s a bad idea. Well, maybe they’re afraid to, what with hunting accidents and rendition and all those other, nifty Cheney tactics.
Of course, as MSNBC’s Keith Olberman so astutely observed, he’s probably ineligible to run anyway because he’s already served two terms as President.
Say goodnight DICK!
SC
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