Capitalism: A Conservative Review.

Last in Line and I saw the new Michael Moore film last Saturday night. As with Moore's last film, Sicko, I thought a review was called for from the right side of the aisle and from the same astute scribe. Take it away, Last!

Last in line for Michael Moore's new movie. Keep in mind I’m no writer so random thoughts will be randomly thrown in among the paragraphs and I can’t talk about every subject covered in the movie because that would make this review too long.

One could easily make the observation that MM is irrelevant. GWB won by a wider margin in 2004 than he did in 2000, and that was 2 months after Fahrenheit 9/11 was released. The town hall meetings have had a much stronger impact on the health care debate in this nation than Sicko did and this new movie won't matter much either. The themes in this movie, while important, seemed dated to me…Sicko might have been more appropriate now (while Congress is debating the health-care bill).

One can’t help but notice the common schticks in Moores movies - one-sided stories, ironic stock footage, ominous music, exploitative interviews, awkward confrontations, personal testimonials, absurd/scary facts and figures, use of vintage documentary footage, and pranks that cheapen the message. The movie weaves a familiar Michael Moore story of David versus Goliath (and we all know that nobody ever roots for Goliath). To me, he paints America’s sins with too broad a brush. Pointing a relentless finger at “capitalism”, Moore sounds a little too much like anyone Markadelphia criticizes for getting a little too hot under the collar about “socialism”. In both cases, they’re not making an argument - they’re demonizing a word.

The opening credits roll over security-camera footage of bank robberies in progress. Moore associates the taking of property at gunpoint with free markets, not with taxation.

Next thing we learn is that America is Rome, too distracted by Nascar and Mixed Martial Arts to care that we’re being exploited by wall street. The people who are losing their homes because of the collapse of home prices didn’t do anything to deserve it - if they treated their houses like ATMs or didn’t understand that the A in ARM stands for Adjustable, it’s because greedy Wall Street CEOs and their minions tricked them into doing it. There were several personal testimonials showed here and I’m sorry but I need to know the context of the situation behind why these folks are losing their homes. As usual, Moore only tells part of the story. He doesn’t criticize the home owners who displayed their own greed in taking out unaffordable mortgages and tapping their home-equity every year to buy cars and flat-screen televisions. Sure he showed Countrywide ads about refinancing your home but nobody forces anybody to use their homes as an ATM every year.

Moore clings to a romanticized version of the American past where unions and 90% tax rates on millionaires made America totally awesome.

He interviews a guy from a company called Condo Vultures. This is the same stuff he pulled in Sicko – the Condo Vulture guy in this movie represents capitalism the same way the folks living off of skid row in Sicko represent the American health care system. When Moore goes over to Europe in Sicko, he only profiles white, upper middle class folks. Funny how that works, isn’t it? He also profiles a for-profit juvenile-detention center in Pennsylvania whose operators bribed two judges to give kids longer sentences, thus increasing revenues to the facility. This is a crime and aren’t the men involved are facing long prison sentences? It might come as a shock to some but political corruption predates capitalism and exists in every country on earth. While presenting both these stories, Moore is tackling the wrong subject. This isn't about Capitalism - this is about the lack of ethics and morals by some people who operate within the confines of a capitalistic system. That there are predators that will take advantage and exploit a situation for their own gain is not limited to capitalism. We all know that there are very bad excesses in capitalism - there always has been and there always will be. Capitalism will always be flawed by the prejudices inherent in all humans. Nobody I know who is pro-business thinks people should get away with breaking the law. Speaking for myself, I am pro-free markets. Health care could serve as a great example of what happens when free market forces are taken totally out of the equation. There is no way that nine-out-of-ten people in this country can afford an average hospital stay. This country decided that somebody else has to pay their hospital bills…insurance companies, medicare, medicaid, whoever. In an ideal world, the price in medical services would have to adjust to what people can afford, just as many other things in our economy do (in an ideal world).

Moore spends a lot of time profiling the Republic Window and Door workers in Chicago who refused to leave their factory. Completely left out of the movie was the fact that government (Daley, Blago, and Stroger Jr) had a strong role in Republic going out of business when Cook County raised its sales tax to 10.25%. Many people wrote in to local papers like the Daily Herald and stated that they started saving thousands of dollars on large purchases by doing their shopping outside of Cook County and purchasing windows and doors is a very large purchase. By the time the sit-in began, Cook County had posted a 13% drop in monthly revenue. Moore didn't touch the subject of how raising taxes, any taxes, hurts individuals with purchasing power, businesses being able to stay in their locations and make a profit, and a steady stream (not falling) of revenue for local governments. No company exists to provide jobs. A company exists to produce profit for the owners. Too many people function from a mindset that says the company had a primary responsibility to it's workers. The business owners didn't get together one day and say, "Let's create jobs for workers". They got together and said, "Let's create a business to produce profit for ourselves. In the process, we'll need to hire some people” and that’s why lots of people exchange the term "fair" for "my self-interest".

One particularly chilling sequence explores how woefully underpaid, overworked and therefore unreliable our nation's commercial airline pilots are. If you're currently afraid of flying this portion of the film won't do you any favors.

Moore talks about companies taking out life insurance policies on employees and cashing in on them when employees die. They are called Dead Peasant policies. If you feel they are just wrong, congress and the president can demand legislation banning them.

Moore admits that he once considered entering the priesthood because he admired the church’s commitment to helping the poor. Moore interviews several priests and bishops, some of whom share his view that capitalism is evil and none of whom think capitalism is good for poor people. At no time does anyone mention that some of the most impoverished places in the world do not have capitalist systems in place. It does make one think that maybe we should adopt a more "Christian" ethic of helping those less fortunate but then when you realize that the Christian Ethic isn’t an a la carte menu (allowing us to pick one item and not the others), you’ll then realize what a constitutional travesty that would be.

He spends a lot of time talking about unions and General Motors. I found it odd that he didn’t mention the bailout of the auto industry as he sure talked a lot about the bailout of the financial firms a lot. The union dream and the dream of a strong GM are over, and the reasons Moore cites are only part of the story. In 2008, GM and Toyota actually sold about the same number of vehicles. Toyota turned a $1.7 billion profit while GM lost around $9 billion. That doesn’t happen by accident. Until these automakers and their unions resolve the structural problems that creates this kind of unprofitability, the dream will remain just that – a dream. GM is basically a retirement home/health care facility with a auto plant as a side project. GM has a policy of 30 years there and you can retire and they seemed surprised when lots of people retired at 48 and drew on the pension and free health care for another 30 years.

Bernie Sanders makes a quip that Nurses salaries are too low. Nurses are very well paid at this point in time.

The commercial for the city of Cleveland was absolutely hilarious.

MM claimed that nobody saw the collapse coming. That’s wrong, Peter Schiff saw it –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-FYkpw

The film communicates that blood is on both Republican and Democratic hands when it comes to our nation's economic collapse. Chris Dodd and Tim Geithner come off almost as badly as Hank Paulson.

This concept of positive/negative rights colors Moore’s stories of foreclosures in Miami. The families facing eviction aren’t borrowers who failed to live up to their end of a contract. They are shown as Americans whose right to own a home is being violated (there is no such right but that doesn’t stop the folks in the community from harassing the process server who isn’t even an employee of the bank).

One problem with capitalism today could be globalism. We all compete but we don’t all play by the same rules. The transition to a global economy will be painful. Politicians are not going to tell you what you do not want to hear: that the days of getting paid $30/hr turning a bolt on an assembly line are over. Neither political party or labor union can stop that.

At the end of the film, Moore gives us what he thinks is the ultimate illustration of the failure of capitalism: shots of people on the rooftops in the flooded Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. The flooding occurred due to levee failure as well as poor maintenance of the flood walls surrounding the city. Spending many mornings of my youth hunting on farms along the Mississippi River in Illinois, I can tell you who is in charge of levees – the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (a government agency) but hey – if you refuse to know the facts, refuse to get alternative viewpoints and buy into everything Moore says then capitalism must be at fault.

In conclusion, I consider the crash of the mortgage backed securities market as perfect operation of the free market and this recession we find ourselves in is not a failure of market economics. It is a reassertion of market economics after a decade in which we paid ourselves more than we were producing, and funded it all with complicated credit instruments. Moore is throwing stones in a glass house he often frequents. Just look at how far Moore, a one-time assembly-line worker turned journalist turned documentary film maker, has come. His journey alone exemplifies the social mobility made possible by the very economic system he rails against. Economic downturns and upswings are as natural as the tides. Human history proves this. The causes can be heaped on “greed” or “capitalism,” but unless Moore thinks that human nature will suddenly transform and we’ll all behave as saints now that the “right people” have now been elected, he’s being just a little bit cynical.

The system could definitely use some improvement but it does not need replacement.

Huh. Now that's a shocker....not.

As we wait patiently for Last in Line's review of the new Michael Moore film, Capitalism: A Love Story (that's right, folks...a conservative reviewing the film...only at Notes do we actually embrace bipartisanship:)), take a look at this glowing bit of news on the state of our plutonomy.

The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans — those making more than $138,000 each year — earned 11.4 times the roughly $12,000 made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio was an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003.

Remember, though, any talk of having a slightly higher tax rate means you are A FUCKING SOCIALIST!! I WANT MY PIE!!! GIMME MY PIE!!! (Ok, that last bit was Glenn Beck, not me).

Household income declined across all groups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade's worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997. Poverty jumped sharply to 13.2 percent, an 11-year high.

Wait....huh? I thought all poor people drove Cadillacs with money stolen by the government from rich people. WTF?

Income at the top 5 percent of households — those making $180,000 or more — was 3.58 times the median income, the highest since 2006.

Well, that's because those at the median won't pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Lazy assholes...

Pharr, Texas, and Flint, Mich., each had more than a third of its residents on food stamps, at 38.5 percent and 35.4 percent, respectively.

Bootstraps!

Between 2007 and 2008, income at the 50th percentile (median) and the 10th percentile fell by 3.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, compared with a 2.1 percent decline at the 90th percentile. Between 1999 and 2008, income at the 50th and 10th percentiles decreased 4.3 percent and 9 percent, respectively, while income at the 90th percentile was statistically unchanged.

And we wonder why some areas of our country are starting to look like the Third World. Ah, well. It's all the gubmint's fault.

If we could just let the market be free, then all of these problems would be solved. People would work harder (or die if they didn't), health care costs would be lower, our country would return to the greatness that our founding fathers believed in, farts would no longer smell, and Jesus Christ could finally expand his derivative operations on Wall Street.

Yep

I want everyone to have health insurance and access to health care services. Health care is a right, not a privilege. The United States is a country built on capitalism and self-reliance, yet compassion is valued in equal measure. My neighbor who was laid off deserves coverage; the single mother without benefits deserves coverage, and the poor, disabled individual with a preexisting condition deserves coverage -- plain and simple.

-Kenneth H. Paulus, President and CEO of Allina clinics and hospitals.

And he runs a damn fine organization as well...one that remembers what it's like to be....oh, I don't know...HUMAN.

Ah, yes...

I think I need to chill out.

If I wait long enough...have patience...inevitably...it all works out:)

A while back, I was taken to the mat over just what exactly McCain campaign staffers thought about Sarah Palin. Carl Cameron of Fox News put out a story post election 2008 that said staffers thought Palin was incapable of handling the vice presidency due to incompetence. The sources he used were unnamed and many jumped on me for even talking about it...saying the story was hearsay and rumor mongering ("many" meaning men that think Sarah Palin is hot and want to fuck her).

But now we have this little tidbit from Steve Schmidt, McCain campaign manager.

I think that she has talents, but you know, my honest view is that she would not be a winning candidate for the Republican Party in 2012, and in fact, were she to be the nominee, we could have a catastrophic election result.

No shit. And why is that, Steve?

What it means to be a Real American

The worst day of Obama's presidency, folks. The ego has landed. The world has rejected Obama. For those of you ... who are upset that I sound gleeful, I am. I don't deny it. I'm happy. Anything that gets in the way of Barack Obama accomplishing his domestic agenda is fine with me.

-Rush Limbaugh, speaking on the rejection of Chicago as host to the 2016 Olympics, 10-2-09

Hitch Your Wagon To This Star

What a great side some of you are on...

Now, if I thought with the same pea brains that you ass hats do, then I would say that you "hate" America. That can't be true now, can it?

A Potpourri of Psychosis

Usually potpourri smells nice. The arrangement that I am about to unfold today smells like the morning after drinking fart...thick in its scent, lingering in it's time (to the point of nausea) hanging around, and gut wrenching due to the pain it causes.

First up, we have Minnesota's own Michelle Bachmann who said this on the floor of the US Congress., in regards to the House version of the health care bill.

Does that mean that someone's 13 year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have their abortion, be back and go home on the school bus that night? Mom and dad are never the wiser, they don't know any different.

I so love the tap into your inner rage and pass if off as fact meme.

Next we have Trent Franks, Republican Congressmen from Arizona.

President Obama has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity.

Quick! Someone find me a rope!

Along those same lines, we had this question from a recent Facebook poll

Should President Obama be killed?

Rounding out our mix of linguistic joy from the day room at Bellevue we have this little ditty from John Perry of Newsmax.

Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars.

He went on to say that President Obama is inviting a military coup and it would be pretty cool. You could file this last one under "Things The Base Like to Wank To At Night."

I must be out of my mind to say such awful things as I do about the right. The left is just as bad, right? I need to be more level-headed and less emotional.

Just like conservatives tell me they are every day.

Side By Side

Here is a recent gem from comments

"If you want to insult a conservative, lie to him. If you want to insult a liberal, tell him the truth."

This got me to thinking about the truth...and facts of course...and then I thought about these two.

Fact One: At this time in George Bush's presidency, our country had suffered the worst attack in history on our home soil (9/11 Al Qaeda attack). We had also suffered an attack of domestic origin (the anthrax attacks). The men responsible for the 9-11 attacks, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahari are still at large 8 years later. The man the FBI says carried out the anthrax attacks, Bruce Ivins, may not have actually done it...either alone or at all.

Fact Two: At this time in Barack Obama's presidency, our country has captured one major terrorist suspect (Najibullah Zazi) and several minor ones. All of these arrests were done, btw, without anyone being tortured or killed which I'm certain will be a giant boner softener for some on the right. There have been no attacks on our home soil.

Now, to be fair to George Bush, Barack Obama has benefited from increased knowledge in nabbing hirabis. But I can't help but wonder, given the insistence by the right that Bush made us safer and Obama has made us less safe, what truth they are looking at?

Which makes me realize that the statement above is complete fucking bullshit.

The Story of Stuff

I was just sent this video and here is my review of it.

Right off the bat she rips the military with the mention of her friends (probably all Che lovers) who think the goverment should be represented by a tank. So, clearly she is traitor. Send her down to Gitmo. Oh, that's right President Adolph Osama is closing it so terrorists can run free in our country and rape our women.

Then she lies about how the government is smaller than corporations and peddles Marxist propaganda by lying and saying that corporations are getting too big. She is an enemy of the free market and wants to throw us all in a boiling pit of sewage. Quick! Hide your children...they are in mortal danger.

Of course, we have to have the cry me a river sob story about the environment and how we are all destoying it. God gave us this planet to do whatever we want. It is our manifest destiny to conquer! Oh, and global warming is lie by the liberal media and scientists who seek to destroy us. It's all a myth and we are all going to be fine.

Her whole spiel about how our consumption of resources is a liberal lie. How dare she! America can do whatever it wants and we shouldn't have to apologize for anything. Apologies are for the weak...meaning liberal traitors.

Essentially this video is one long make out session with communism. If anyone takes anything she says seriously, we will all be camping on a pile of dead skulls. History has shown us that all liberal policies result in our children being slaughtered.

The fact that this video is being show in our schools proves the point that our education system has been taken over by socialist communist fascists who want to indoctrinate our children into their evil ways. Next thing you know, they'll try to turn our chidlren gay and then where will we be?

"We hate the president; we're gonna kill the president, his wife and his kids."

Let me see if I got the protocol straight here.

I put up a post (this one) about how Derrick Thomas, a Brooklyn Park, MN teenager, gets the shit beat out of him at 1am last Wednesday on a bike ride home. His attackers were armed with an ax, a gun, and brass knuckles. They called him a nigger while they were beating the crap out him and told him

"We hate the president; we're gonna kill the president, his wife and his kids."

They also assaulted Derrick's uncle only a few blocks away.

I say that this attack was racially motivated and that it is an indication of the uptick in bias of having a black president. I point out the obvious fanning the flames of this sentiment by people like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, who said recently.

"Barack Obama's America....black kids beating up white kids"

Several posters here then point out that some black kids beat up some white kids...somewhere...and raped a white woman but you'll never hear about it in the liberal media because they're all out to git us white folk.

These same commenters chide me for playing the race card and say that it's all the fault of race mongers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. How dare I even question that anyone is racist anymore...let alone any conservative or Republican? It's all an obvious liberal lie.

Then we get a bunch of horse shit about how hate crimes are crap and some very pleasant questions that are generally of the theme that perhaps this kid brought it on himself etc. Right around here is where I get accused of being a paranoid, conspiracy theory kook for thinking this is condoned by a large portion of a certain political party.

The original facts are quickly forgotten, a free pass is given to all who need it, and life goes merrily along....as a bunch of fucking Aryan nation asshats continue to draw support.

Sound about right?

Body Count: 2

I'm sure most of you will recall the death of Dr. George Tiller a few months back. He was killed by Scott Roeder, an anti abortion activist. Roeder's wife described him as follows

It was about 1991-92 when he basically couldn't cope with everyday life. He couldn't make ends meet, he couldn't pay the bills and didn't know why he couldn't do that. And someone told him that if he didn't pay his federal taxes, if those taxes were left in his check, he could make ends meet. And then he started investigating that and someone told him that it wasn't ratified properly in the Constitution, that it was illegal. And he went from there and got into the anti-government, got into the militia, got into the Freeman, and along those lines anti-abortion issues came up and he started becoming very religious in the sense that he finally — he was reading the Bible. But then, after we were divorced, his religion took on a whole new right wing of itself.

Roeder has said of the killing.

I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal.

I'm sure many of you will also recall Minnesota's own Michelle Bachmann calling for a boycott of the US Census because of its general evil and ACORN's faux involvement (ACORN!-Eep, blurp, squonk, output=RAGE!).

And now we have this, from AP.

Bill Sparkman, a census worker, age 51, was found hanged in a Kentucky national forest two weeks ago. The word "fed" had been scrawled on his chest, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the case.

The FBI are still investigated the case but I think we can all see where this is going. A recent column by Michael Smerconish makes it pretty clear what we are in store for....

Manchester, Kashner reports, found that in the third year of the Kennedy presidency, "a kind of fever lay over Dallas country. Mad things happened. Huge billboards screamed 'Impeach Earl Warren.' Jewish stores were smeared with crude swastikas. ... Radical right polemics were distributed in public schools; Kennedy's name was booed in classrooms; corporate junior executives were required to attend radical seminars."

And we are only in the ninth month of the Obama administration. In addition, our "fever" is sadly national.

A full-page advertisement had appeared the day of the assassination in the Dallas Morning News accusing Kennedy of making a secret deal with the Communist Party; when it was shown to the president, he was appalled. He turned to Jacqueline, who was visibly upset, and said, 'Oh, you know, we're headed into nut country today.'"

Mr. President, in the last 46 years, our entire nation has grown into nut country.

Protesters marched on Washington carrying signs that read "Bury Obamacare with Kennedy," "Impeach the Muslim Marxist," and "We came unarmed ... this time." A member of Congress shouted down the president and raked in more than $1.5 million in campaign contributions in the days that followed. Cable TV's hottest personality just called the commander-in-chief a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people."

We come unarmed...this time? And some of you think I am being paranoid? I'm sure some of you will point to the pro life activist who was killed recently or the white kids being beat up...somewhere...as evidence that the people on the "left" are just as dangerous. Sorry, but that dog won't hunt. Compare the acts of violence that I mention to the ones the right wings pundits have trotted out.

They aren't even in the same fucking ballpark.

It's going to get worse, folks, and you know what's really sad? The more the body count rises...and even if that includes President Obama...the more the base will scream that they were justified in murder.

Just wait...it's going to happen.

How is that racist?

Bill nails it again. Starts at 1:16.

Fox News Producer Caught Rallying 9/12 Protest Crowd

Why bother hiding it anymore?

Simply The Same

As I was scanning my morning emails today, I noticed that President Ahmadinejad of Iran made yet another in a series of comments that the Holocaust was a lie. "The pretext (Holocaust) for the creation of the Zionist regime (Israel) is false ... It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim," he told worshippers at Tehran University at the end of an annual anti-Israel "Qods (Jerusalem) Day" rally. We've heard this kind of talk before. It's outrageous, inhuman, offensive, and quite insane.

Essentially, it's the gold plated signature of the conservative base of this country.

Now I don't mean to imply that the right is anti Semitic. They aren't. Remember, suddenly they love Jewish people:) Of course, their reason for this (similar to a barbecue party admiring the fat hog about to be thrown on the spit) is due to their....ehm...belief...that the slaughter of many non-believing Jews will be the precursor to the Second Coming. Yea! I'm certain my friends in Israel can't wait...

What I am saying, though, is that the president of Iran seems to ALSO be a part of the tap into your inner rage and pass it off as fact crowd...Muslim version. He says something that is not true (death panels, Obama isn't a US citizen, immigrants are stealing our luggage and dinnerware) about an historical event (Vietnam was all fucked up because of the media, Iraq really had WMD's) and then spins it so his country is absolutely perfect, beyond reproach, and eternally above criticism.

Whenever he opens his mouth, I see Sarah Palin speaking...shouting about how America should never have to apologize for anything. And anyone who does isn't a real Muslim...ooops...I mean American. I hear her along with Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh talk about the "evil" of Barack Obama's health care plan and can't help but think that if you just substituted the word "Zionists" in there, that those three aforementioned folks would make great hirabis.

I've been taken to the mat before on similar comparisons so before all of you on the right start going ape shit (yet another similarity:)) think about this in terms of degrees. While the conservative base in this country has not openly murdered homosexuals...yet anyway...they do, just like their Muslim counterparts, cite biblical precedent for being anti-gay. It happened here recently in comments (kudos to rld). In addition, I think we can all agree that the conservative base is not going to make their women folk dress up in burkas anytime soon. Yet they do believe that a woman's place is in the home...just like the Bible says...a book that was written by men....just like The Qu'ran.

So, the next time President A opens his yap, take note of the similarity between what he espouses and what the base in this country preaches. Equally as important is HOW they say it which is EXACTLY the same...filled with fear, rage, and paranoia.

Wouldn't it be great if all of them could find some part of the world to yell at each other and leave the rest of us out of it so we can perhaps...EVOLVE?

The Wrecking Crew

The latest scalps that conservative activists have claimed (ACORN and Van Jones) got me to thinking about Thomas Frank's book The Wrecking Crew. If you want to understand why the right hates ACORN so much, read this book. In fact, if you want to understand the right at all and why I say the things I have said in some of the latest threads, you really need to read this book.

From the first review on Amazon.

According to Frank, the conservative worldview is totally committed to "the ideal of laissez faire, meaning minimal government interference in the marketplace, along with hostility to taxation, regulation, organized labor, state ownership, and all the business community's other enemies. "The conservative movement promotes the interests of business exclusively over all else in accordance with the motto, "More business in government, less government in business." So-called "big government," also tagged as the liberal state, is the enemy; in fact, virtually all government is the enemy, other than the national defense.

Juxtapose this with ACORN's central causes: higher minimum wages, more affordable housing, and voter registration and one can easily see why they are rabidly against everything that ACORN stands for and will stop at nothing to destroy them.

Further, from the same comment

Frank also highlights the manner in which conservatives have repeatedly run the country into huge spending deficits in order to "defund the left" while simultaneously politicizing government management positions by favoring ideology over competence. The end result under Republican conservative stewardship is government that demonstrates itself as ineffectual and incompetent, offering but further proof that big government is inherently incapable of working and needs to be outsourced to private, professional concerns who can do the job correctly (and then inevitably failing to do so).

Which is exactly what happened in the Bush Administration. Folks, continue to try to "see all sides" and "be fair" with the current incarnation of the right today and you do so at your own peril as we see in the final line of this review of Frank's book.

Frank demonstrates well that present day politics has truly become, to invert von Clausiwitz's famous maxim, "a continuation of war by other means." Regrettably, one side of the battle (liberals/progressives) continues to play the game as politics, as elections won or lost and citizens swayed or not, while the other side (the conservative base) approaches it as an act of war, a no-holds-barred contest in which the only goal is the complete and utter destruction of the other side.

Folks, this how the right thinks. Jones and ACORN are just the beginning. They can't accept the fact the Barack Obama is president and will do everything in their power to see him brought down. It's only going to be a matter of time before the methods they use will become violent. Their rage is too great and history, I fear, will be repeated.

Oh, no he di'int!!!

Former President Jimmy Carter recently stated that much of the bile towards President Obama is racially motivated. In addition to this comment being filed under "No Shit," this is sure to roil the right even more. First of all, it's Carter so expect all the Carter roasting over an open pit to begin again...always a classic, btw.

And then look for the re-direct on the racism as well. "It's all they have left", "Race Monger", "Eeep-Blurp-Squonk" will all be heard repeatedly over the next few days.

Or you can just check the comments section on the post below for similarly themed denials.

Say It Ain't So, Joe...

I've had a few emails and in person comments about my thoughts on the Joe Wilson deal. I think Andrew Sullivan put it best.

But there was something clarifying about a Southern good ol' boy yelling "Liar" at the president over illegal immigration. That's what the GOP now is: the worst aspects of the old Democratic party combined with a nihilism that is only eclipsed by its catastrophic governance for the past eight years.

No shit. And this is from someone who used to be a Republican.

The problem is that now we have a very large swath of conservatives running around re-framing the bias debate. It's clear to me that Joe Wilson is fucking racist. He can't stand the fact that a black man is president. In fact, I'd wager most people that told their children not to watch President Obama give his education speech last Tuesday are racist as well. But you can't call them on it. Oh no.

Because they start in with the song and dance routine about how that's all liberals know how to do, it's knee jerk reaction, it's unfair..blah blah blah etc etc. From there the left cowers in fear and thinks "Gee, maybe I went too far" and then loses the argument while the original action and it's obvious undertones are long forgotten.

Now, I have no problem admitting that I am biased against Muslim men. It's something I struggle with everyday. The question is...why can't nearly all conservatives admit their problem? I think it ties in to their complete inability to admit when they are at fault. You know...the whole "if you admit you are wrong, you show weakness" meme.

The fact is, folks, that we all have bias. It's part of our socio-cultural context. We distrust the other. And it doesn't matter what side of the aisle we are on. In fact, it's an historical truth that the Democrats have a longer history of racism than the Republicans which I find sad. Not for the Democrats, who have clearly taken steps to outgrow their racism but for the Republicans, a party who once proudly appointed the first black government officials.

A party who cannot see how far they have sunk.

Wow.

I have to admit that, while I liked Al Franken, I did not think he was the strongest Democrat my home state could field. After watching this video, I realize how wrong I was. Way to go, Senator Franken.

Mission Accomplished

"Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me," suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH. "I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now."

The UItimate Betrayal

WTF???!!!??

"Government efforts to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy appear to be helping the U.S. climb out of the worst recession in decades."

The rest of the article is pretty even handed but this line alone made me, as Bill Maher recently put it, "drop my Bible that I was using to help me masturbate into my gun."

I suppose it's only a matter of time before the right begins to accuse the Wall Street Journal of being a communist newspaper:)

The Sleeping Giant....AWAKE.

I haven't felt the urge to post lately...busy with all sorts of things in my life...school being the primary one. But this story has brought me out of my slumber.

Question for conservatives: WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!!!???

Seriously, your paranoia and psychosis is officially limitless. President Obama wants to address the students of this nation on the importance of hard work and staying in school. And you are "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology?" To put it simply, you are collection of asshats.

You complain about our schools not doing a good enough job educating children...the lack of motivation and inspiration...and yet your maniacal fervor won't even allow President Obama to deliver a simple message of on the significance of education. Do you seriously have a governor of a sitting state (Rick Perry, Texas) telling children to stay home from school that day?

I didn't think it was possible for me to be angrier than I was during the W years but I got news for all of you...I am. So, the gloves are off, folks. There won't be anymore polite debating and "trying to see all angles." As of right now, I am finished trying to be fair with you people. And it is YOUR fault. I am sick of trying to pretend otherwise. You aren't part of any sort of solution at all. You exist only to tap into your inner rage and try to fuck things up for this country. You are the problem.

For me to pretend otherwise any longer is insanity.

Not Even Hiding it Anymore

At a recent town hall meeting, Northern California US Rep. Wally Herger fielded a comment from one of his constituents.

“I am a proud right wing terrorist,” he declared to cheers.

And Congressmen Herger's response?

“Amen, God bless you,” Herger said with a broad smile. “There is a great American.”

And people are giving me shit about comparing the right to Al Qaeda...

Geography 101

Hmm....do they teach Geography at Fox News?

A Shovel to the Head Stunner

Check out this deeply personal column from a recent issue of the Atlantic by David Goldhill. It is a perfect summation of the deep malaise that has inflicted our health care system. From the article.

Accidentally, but relentlessly, America has built a health-care system with incentives that inexorably generate terrible and perverse results. Incentives that emphasize health care over any other aspect of health and well-being. That emphasize treatment over prevention. That disguise true costs. That favor complexity, and discourage transparent competition based on price or quality. That result in a generational pyramid scheme rather than sustainable financing. And that—most important—remove consumers from our irreplaceable role as the ultimate ensurer of value.

If you are heading to a town hall meeting with your representative, read this first.

Not So Much

Is there anyone else out there who is not at all shocked by former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge's "revelation" that he was pressured by the White House to raise the color coded threat level before the 2004 election?

What is interesting, though, is the reminder of how bin Laden released a tape right before that election. I have to say that I think Al Qaeda is befuddled about what to do now that they don't have poster boy Bush to hold up as a recruiting tool anymore. A country that elected a man whose middle name is Hussein? Well, that's not any fun.

Back in 2004, I imagine a very assertive group of hirabis shitting themselves at the thought of a President Kerry. Sure, he could probably bore everyone to death with his fine impression of a human toothache but rile up the natives? No one could get multiple psychotics to strap explosives to their chests like W.

Hence the video...

Classic

From today's Onion

Congress Deadlocked Over How To Not Provide Health Care

"Both parties understand that the current system is broken," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday. "But what we can't seem to agree upon is how to best keep it broken, while still ensuring that no elected official takes any political risk whatsoever. It’s a very complicated issue."

"Ultimately, though, it's our responsibility as lawmakers to put these differences aside and focus on refusing Americans the health care they deserve," Pelosi added.

No fucking shit.

Seven Falsehoods about Health Care Reform

Just a quick one so far today...check out these seven falsehoods from factcheck.org regarding health care reform.

Yeah, tell me again...

Perhaps it's naivete or perhaps he's just a nice guy trying to reach across the aisle. President Obama, in his first health care town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Tuesday, spoke highly of Senator Grassley of Iowa and Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia saying

I think there are my friends on Capital Hill who are sincerely trying to figure out a health care bill that works.

And how did they, in that spirit of bipartisanship, embrace him?

Grassley of Iowa:

In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life. You have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma.

And Johnny boy released this statement.

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today denounced comments made by President Obama and his spokesman regarding Isakson’s alleged connection to language contained in the House health care bill on “end-of-life counseling.”

Isakson vehemently opposes the House and Senate health care bills and he played no role in drafting language added to the House bill by House Democrats calling for the government to incentivize doctors by offering them money to conduct “end-of-life counseling” with Medicare patients every five years. Isakson also strongly opposed the House bill language calling for doctors to follow a government-mandated list of topics to discuss with patients during the counseling sessions.

Odd considering that he had this to say just in an interview, about the end of life counseling, just moments before.

I have no idea. I understand -- and you have to check this out -- I just had a phone call where someone said Sarah Palin's web site had talked about the House bill having death panels on it where people would be euthanized. How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You're putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don't know how that got so mixed up.

Even more odd considering Isakson PUSHED FOR THE SAME THING IN THE SENATE!!

And people are telling me that the Democrats have no interest in bipartisanship? If anything, they are being too nice and conciliatory while conservatives know (i.e. what I have been saying since I fucking started this blog) that they have to play to the nutters of their party because....THAT'S WHAT THEIR WHOLE PARTY IS!!!!

So, please, the next time someone tells you that the Democrats are stubborn, immovable, play to the crazies in their base, and don't want compromise, show them this post. And tell them to come back with something that isn't direct from their ass.

Very Cool

I am a very big fan of Morning Joe on MSNBC. This might come as a big shock to some of you being that Joe Scarborough is a Republican but I think he's great and his show is money.

Claire Macaskill, Democratic Senator from Missouri, was on this morning to ask about her raucous town hall meeting yesterday. She said a couple of things that I thought were pretty fucking great. When asked what she thought about the hecklers she said,

Well, this is what I signed up for. People that can't take this shouldn't run for office. It's democracy in its purest form and that isn't always pretty. We had a few bad moments when people were shouting over each other but all in all it was a good meeting.

It actually was a good meeting and she made some pretty good points that silenced the loud mouths right quick. When she asked for a show of hands as to who was on Medicare, several people raised them. Then she asked how many of those people wanted to get rid of Medicare because it was run by the government, I didn't see a single hand go up.

Turn Off Glen Beck?

"We are all afraid of Obama....Never!" cried the flat earthers and civil war re-enacters.

See what happens when you are a Republican (Bob Inglis, R-SC) and you try to get fervent psychotics to actually read the bill and dispute the policy?

Yeah, tell me again about the base.

Now, I wonder if there is a video similar to this one but instead has progressives/liberals booing a congressperson when asked to turn off their TV...

Obama=Stalin, Pol Pot, and Hitler

Check out this video.



I watch this and it reminds me of a comment made over 40 years ago by my biggest hero

Christianity will go.. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue with that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.

So said John Lennon in 1966 and those Americans who have "values" showed how similar they are to...well...you know:) The melee that ensued afterwards resulted in a Niagara Falls like outpouring of hatred and bile that is quite similar to what we are seeing at these town hall meetings in the last couple of weeks. We sure have come a long way....not.

The ironic part is that when Americans for Prosperity compares Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler they should really look in the fucking mirror. THEY are the ones who will be the first people to starting burning books, censoring art, and preventing any kind of progress in an issue as serious as health care. They would sooner see this country burn, just like all those Beatles albums four decades ago, then have to admit that there are other ways to govern this country.

The very word "change" to them is a devil's word. It's no wonder they hate President Obama as much as they do as this was his central campaign theme. He might as well of run with the slogan "I'm a comin' to git ya" because that's essentially what they hear. And they react accordingly. Want some evidence?

Take a look at this

This is a protester who has proudly hung freshman Maryland Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil in effigy. Look at his boy scout knot! And winning smile. How proud his mom must be...The note around his neck says, "Congress Traitors The American" and then a word that looks like idol. Americans for prosperity sponsored this event and look what has happened.

I'm sure there will be commenters that will trot out examples of Bush being burned in effigy. Or some dorkwad protest from the G8. There are several points I would like to make, pre-rebuttal.

First, anyone that does that is just as wrong as these people. They should be deplored just like this ass hat to the left. Second, as I have stated many times, there just isn't the venom on the left like there is on the right. Nor are there the numbers. Or the organization. They just don't have the teeth or the will power to do stuff like this.

Third, I have yet to see any town hall meeting, left leaning, that had this happen.



Listen to the cheers and take your mind to...say...the Middle East somewhere. As an American, what would be the first thing you would think if you saw this in a madrassa in Saudi Arabia? It's a traitorous act if someone named Mohamed Fatah calls for the death of an American CEO named Sam Tinkerbell, taunting him by calling him Sam Infidel and cheering his assassination. It is patriotic when Bill O'Reilly as well as Rush Limbaugh call Dr. George Tiller "Doctor Killer" and cheer his assassination. The double standard of the right fucking slays me.

Reps. Brad Miller of North Carolina and Brian Baird of Washington, both Democrats, have both received death threats--Miller from a caller who was upset that he was not holding a public forum and Baird via fax a day after he described town hall demonstrators as "a lynch mob." I predict it's only going to get worse...especially if health care passes.

Because these people aren't interested in honest debate or dissent. They have found an outlet for their hyper irrationality and are going to roll with it until they get what they want.

A good ol' fashioned lynching...just like them old days, pappy! And the best part? The base and their supporters will spin it as a good thing for our country.

Note: Please disregard any connection between the fact that all of the protesters are white and our president is black. And any unpleasant connection between the image of lynchings and black people. There is no racism on the right...there is no racism on the right (pause for a gulp of the kool aid)...there is no racism on the right...

A Little Story

Suppose there is a TV or radio personality named Mohammad Fatah. He has a very popular program with the Muslim population of this country. On the program, he accuses Sam Tinkerbell (CEO of Dark Springs, a military contractor) of murdering babies. He calls Tinkerbell, in mocking, Sam Infidel, and says he is dangerous to the world. This berating goes on for a few years off and on.

Then one day, a man named Jakarra Hussein kills Sam Tinkerbell, is caught, and sent to prison. Is Mohammad guilty of sedition and/or domestic terrorism? Or at least conspiracy to kill?

Well, is he?

The Latest Lie

The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care.

The above comment was made by former Alaskan governor Sara Palin in regards to President Obama's health care plan. Here is one from a chain email which I'm sure that some of you have seen.

On Page 425 of Obama’s health care bill, the Federal Government will require EVERYONE who is on Social Security to undergo a counseling session every 5 years with the objective being that they will explain to them just how to end their own life earlier. Yes…They are going to push SUICIDE to cut medicare spending!!!

As I mentioned earlier in the week, one of the many bits of insanity that are coming out at these town hall meetings from the right (disseminated by their propaganda network) is that the Obama bill will force euthanasia. I'll put some videos up in the next day or two in which seemingly ordinary Americans are comparing Obama to Hitler.

Taking our shuttle back to earth, we can see that these claims are flat out wrong. From factcheck.org.

In truth, that section of the bill would require Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care, including designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice and making decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It would not require doctors to counsel that their patients refuse medical intervention.

Page 425 does deal with counseling sessions for seniors, but it is far from recommending a "Logan’s Run" approach to Medicare spending. In fact, it requires Medicare to cover counseling sessions for seniors who want to consider their end-of-life choices – including whether they want to refuse or, conversely, require certain types of care. The claim that the bill would "push suicide" is a falsehood.

And here is page 425.

H.R. 3200, page 425: Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), the term ‘advance care planning consultation’ means a consultation between the individual and a practitioner described in paragraph (2) regarding advance care planning, if, subject to paragraph (3), the individual involved has not had such a consultation within the last 5 years. Such consultation shall include the following:

(A) An explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to.

(B) An explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses.

(C) An explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy.

(D) The provision by the practitioner of a list of national and State-specific resources to assist consumers and their families with advance care planning … .

(E) An explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title.

(F)(i) Subject to clause (ii), an explanation of orders regarding life sustaining treatment or similar orders … .

So, essentially, this offers each individual more choice and help...a word that must mean "the devil" in wing nut land.

Factcheck goes on to explain why yet another right wing lie is wrong.

The Plan of Last!

We've been talking about health care all week and I thought it would be interesting (especially since it has come up in comments) to cut and paste Last in Line's plan from a couple of years back so we could all comment on it. So without further adieu....here it is!

Based on my over 5 years of experience working in the health care field, and being a certified Paramedic in the state of Illinois, here is how my plan would work. Notice there is no cutting and pasting here from wikipedia.

The bottom line is that medicare IS the best system we have going right now in this country. IMO there needs to be more of a balance between medicare,private insurance, and co-pay.
Health care is one of the only industries where the government does not get the best rate for things. The company I work for gets better rates from Medica and UHG than the government does. Congress passed a law some time ago (not sure when) that stipulates that medicare cannot negotiate the price of anything while insurance companies can. I would reverse that so medicare IS allowed to negotiate for prices like everybody else.

Therefore I favor a medicare-style plan that EVERYBODY is on...sort of a National HMO if you will. 2 ways to go about this, and I’m not sure which way is the best...one way is to have hospitalizations covered 100%. Really expensive things like transplants and prescription drugs would NOT be covered under this. Everybody would have the option to purchase supplemental private insurance from insurance companies to cover such things based on their own or their families needs. The other way is to have all catastrophic things covered and have the option to buy private insurance for basic hospitalization or whatever else you want you and your family to be covered for. US companies would drop medical insurance as a benefit and they would get to keep that money for their own bottom line. Increase payroll taxes to pay for the plan.

Regarding co-pay, it is at about 20% now...increase it to 30% over a period of time...say 10 years or so…don’t implement that change right away all at once. Yes that will be painful to some people but no matter which way you go in this, somebody is going to get hurt and/or pissed off under any new plan. You have the option to buy private insurance from private insurance companies to help you out with co-pays.

In terms of implementing any new plan, the free market will determine the next great health care plan. When it will be successful will be when there is a market demand for it, sooner rather than later I bet. Maybe it will be something along the lines of what I typed. Maybe it will be some socialists wet dream, I don't know for sure. Whatever it is will come about because somebody has found a way to work with the free market and will allow people in the free market to sell services for a profit and the market has found that it is cheap, efficient, and is preferable to the current system. People have to want it, not be guilt tripped into accepting it (which is what I read when liberals tend to start spouting off on the subject). In other words, it can't be forced.

The main problem I still have is that US politicians and US government bureaucrats will be running the plan and the service we will receive and the implementation of the plan will be absolutely horrible and corruption just may rear its ugly head just a little, ya think? I mean, look at the areas that the government controls now – the post office, Department of Motor Vehicles, VA hospitals, Public Education…areas like those are horribly mismanaged with bureaucracies, corruption, overhead and waste as far as the eye can see, not to mention a poorly motivated workforce who all know it is impossible for them to get fired.

The Other Ones

The other two bills that have been kicking around the health care dais in our Congress are the The Healthy Americans Act and the United States National Health Care Act.

The Healthy Americans Act was put forth by Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, a "Blue Dog" Democrat. The bill relies on the private insurance market while imposing a series of regulations to squeeze savings from the private sector. It also requires individuals to buy coverage for themselves, the controversial "individual mandate." This is similar to how each of us goes about getting auto insurance.

The thing I like about this bill is that it puts the controls for health care back into the hands of the individual. It has often been said that if insurance companies didn't run the health industry, people would look at the costs of some things and say no. I also like the regulation in an industry that has basically done whatever they wanted to do with costs for the last thirty years.

My problem with this bill is no public option. There has to at least be a public option. And there is the simple fact that such a radical restructuring could cause more damage to an already fragile system. The president said his discussions with Wyden are similar to those with people who advocate a single payer system. In theory, those plans work. As President Obama said of the plan, though.

The problem is, we have evolved partly by accident into an employer-based system. A radical restructuring would meet significant political resistance. Families who are currently relatively satisfied with their insurance but are worried about rising costs ... would get real nervous about a wholesale change.

And speaking of the single payer system, the final bill floating around DC is the United States National Health Care Act. This bill is a single payer system, similar to Canada's health care system, that was put forth by John Conyers. Of the three bills that seek to overhaul health care in the United States, this is the one that is being taken the least seriously. Although, you wouldn't know it by listening to hyper paranoid voices on the right.

In fact, virtually all single payer advocacy groups have been screaming at the top of their lungs that they are being excluded from the process...other than a pity meeting with Max Bachus. The fact is that this bill is never going to pass because our country, despite what the flat earthers will have you believe, is center right. Private industry will never be shut out of the process. It's too integral to our economy and our future as a nation. This is very true when it comes to health care. I do agree that competition spurs innovation and with a single payer system, we would not have that.

And that's why out of all three bills, I favor HR3200 out of all three. Primarily, it offers the best of both worlds and addresses the issue of how to pay for all of this. Wyden's bill relies too heavily on the private sector and Conyers bill will, in all likelihood, break the bank. We need to strike a balance and that's what this bill does. And this balance allows for traps and pitfalls that are going to occur along the way where the other two really don't.

It certainly isn't perfect but it is a start. We need a start. Simply doing nothing is not going to cut it.

The First Bill

Essentially, there are three bills kicking around Congress right now to address the issue of health care coverage in this country. The first is America's Affordable Health Choices Act. The second is The Healthy Americans Act. The third is the United States National Health Care Act.

The first bill , which we will talk about today, is the one introduced by Ted Kennedy in the Senate and is also making the rounds in the House with Rep Dingell. It is also known as HR 3200. The bill requires that all American have health insurance similar to how all Americans must have auto insurance. Here are some of the highlights of the bill.

• Eliminating the Medicare Part D “donut hole” to help seniors. Each year, Seniors are forced to pay their full drug costs, despite having Part D drug coverage. The legislation would provide them with immediate relief, cutting brand name drug costs in the donut hole by 50%, and ultimately eliminate the donut hole.
• Relieving the burden of uncompensated care for hospitals and health care providers. Detractors of the bill don't like to talk about this one. The fact is that we are already spending taxpayer money on people who can't afford health insurance. This bill would end that as everyone would be insured.
  
• No deficit spending. The cost of health care reform under the legislation is fully paid for: half through making the Medicare and Medicaid program more efficient by eliminating waste and half through a surtax on the income of the wealthiest individuals aka the top one percent.
  
• Help for small businesses. Under the legislation, small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $40,000 qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. Don't believe the bullshit lie of the right that government run health care will ruin small business. It won't. What will ruin it is these same small businesses having to pay increase after increase...year after year.
  
• The bill provides health insurance for almost every American and provides common sense limits on annual out-of-pocket costs at $10,000 per year, ensuring that no citizen will have to face financial ruin because of high health care costs.

For some bizarre reason, the right's first beef with this bill was that it would force elderly citizens into euthanasia...a classic "fear-shit your pants" maneuver on a very small part of the bill. The reality is explained quite will in this Washington Post article.

The controversy stems from a proposal to pay physicians who counsel elderly or terminally ill patients about what medical interventions they would prefer near the end of life and how to prepare instructions such as living wills. Under the plan, Medicare would reimburse doctors for one session every five years to confer with a patient about his or her wishes and how to ensure those preferences are followed. The counseling sessions would be voluntary.

But on right-leaning radio programs, religious e-mail lists and Internet blogs, the proposal has been described as "guiding you in how to die," "an ORDER from the Government to end your life," promoting "death care" and, in the words of antiabortion leader Randall Terry, an attempt to "kill Granny."

What part of the word "voluntary" doesn't the right understand? I guess words only have meaning when they like the meaning.

The bill has gone through many changes and I'm sure it will continue to evolve. This is the plan that President Obama favors and stands the best chance of passing. But is it a good bill?

For the most part, yes. The core of this bill is to offer the public another option--an option that will compete with private insurers. I think this is a good thing because it puts the control back in the hands of the individual. If you are spending too much money on health insurance every month...something that will not likely change as virtually all insurance companies won't lower their prices...you now have a public option. If you don't like the public option and can afford to spend a little more money, you can keep your private insurance. No one is going to force you to do anything.

Another criticism of this bill is that it will drive insurance companies out of business. To those who say this, I say...take a look at the profits of Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble and tell me if they have been hurt by public libraries. People buy books and people check out books. People might by some extra insurance if they are worried (which, of course, they will be) about waiting in long lines.

No one really knows how the organic process of this is going to evolve. The right will have you believe that we will all be boiling alive in a pit of sewage. How the fuck do they know? What are the basing it on? I'm basing my optimism on the proven track record of Medicare. They are basing their ideas on....what exactly....their rage and fear?

I can safely say that I think that if this bill passes, there are going to be problems....PROBLEMS LIKE WE HAVE RIGHT NOW!! But they are going to be, at the very least, manageable because we, the people, are actually addressing them. Things might need to be changed (gasp!) as time goes on and the kinks are worked out.

At the end of the day, this bill could give us an increase in healthier Americans. Healthier Americans mean more innovation in the work place, more money to invest in the stock market and more money to spend in a sagging economy.

In other words, it's another example of President Obama attempting to save capitalism.

Just How Stupid Are We?

Apparently, very stupid.

Talk to most conservatives these days about health care and, generally speaking, they will tell you two things about the three health care plans floating around Congress right now.

One, if the government takes over health care, there will be rationing. In other words, old people, WATCH OUT! When you are old and sick, the US Government is going to take you out back and shoot you like a wounded horse.

Two, you will no longer be able to choose your doctor. The government will be choosing them for you.

Both of these points are fucking hilarious when you consider that both of them happen constantly with private insurance RIGHT NOW! As I often do, I tend to look at big issues like health care from the standpoint of my own kitchen table. So, let's take a look at these two points shall we?

About a year ago, a friend of mine from volleyball keeled over while biking and died. He was only 48 years old. We found out later that he his arteries were blocked and had he heeded his doctor's warnings about his high cholesterol, he might've lived. I asked my doctor about what options there were for me to check my arteries, other than the standard cholesterol check, and he said there were a variety of things I could do.

He then informed me that because I was under the age of 55 ALL of them were not covered by insurance. In fact, a simple chest scan, which would say whether or not I had blocked arteries, was never covered even after 55. Why? It is always deemed unnecessary by the insurance companies. All of them think that the blood test is just fine. The exam takes all of five minutes.

I live in a suburb of Minneapolis. This suburb has a Park Nicollet clinic that has served our family well for 13 years. Two months ago it was announced that due to budget issues, the clinic would be closing and the doctors scattered around the metro area. The doctors we go to will now be farther away than doctors at another clinic in neighboring suburb. So do we stick to our old doctors and spend the extra time and gas in the car? Or do we go to the new ones? Sounds like we are being forced into a choice of doctors.

So, you see that the "fear-shit your pants" scenario that is being floated out there by the right is really a load of shit. They don't actually have any real solution to health care. They just want to foment anger and fear in a very vocal and ignorant group of Americans...Americans, I might add, that we are now seeing yelling at town hall meetings because they are believing the two lies above.

Certainly, the plans linked above are not perfect. But they do address a very serious problem and at least attempt to do something about them. Read them for yourselves and see what you think. I will be talking more about them throughout the course of this week. In the meantime, ask a conservative what his plan is for a country that spends 16 percent of its GDP on health care and can't insure 46 million of its citizens. When he or she is done griping about lawsuits and sucking the cock of the status quo, ask him or her why we rank 50th in the world on life expectancy? Or why Costa Rica and Dominca have better health care than we do?

Ask them how they can be pro life and allow a system which currently is at least partially responsible (and that's being generous) for 7 out of 1000 babies dying every year after live births and 28,000 babies dying before they turn 1. We hear a lot of talk about what is wrong with the bills in Congress but there aren't many of them (1 by my count) who offer any sort of solution.

Think about this statement from comments yesterday.

I don't WANT to delegate something as personal and important as my healthcare decisions to a faceless bureaucrat thousands of miles away.

Exactly how is that any different from what insurance companies are doing now?

I'm Shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED to find out that gambling has been going on in this establishment.

In addition to having the desire of having my longest blog post title ever, I wanted to kick off my health care week with a bang. Today's front page of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune detailed how exactly how much money the insurance companies are paying three Minnesota members of the House of Representatives. This would be also be known as reason numero uno why most conservatives and Republicans are against any sort of public option. The people that butter their bread are terrified that if any sort of public option passes, they won't be able to afford that third vacation home. So, they are pouring dollar after dollar into the coffers of Michelle Bachmann, Erik Paulsen, and John Kline.

According to the article, insurers and HMOs have spent over 40 million dollars on current members of Congress in the past 10 years. This, of course, pales in comparison to the half a billion dollars they spent lobbying (aka lying) about the perils of government run health care.

Their tactics appear to be working. Late last week, the "liberal media" spent two news cycles reporting that Obama's approval ratings were slipping and this fact was largely due to his drive to pass health care. Even one short month ago, most Americans favored a public option (72 percent). Now it is just higher than 50 percent. And why?

Because conservatives (and their anal lubricant providers) have once again successfully used fear and ignorance as a tactic while the Democrats have spent the last few weeks trying to pull open a door that says "Push." Sadly, as a result, some Americans have done the usual "change-bad, same-good" caveman reaction to yet another classic Goebbelsesque propaganda campaign.

So, as is my duty as a fourth rate blogger, for the next few days, we are going to take a look at health care and separate the facts from the manufactured (surprise, surprise) reality by my colleagues on the right side of the aisle. I think it is going to be fun:)

Yep

It's not often that I agree with a poster from The Smallest Minority so I thought I would bring Kevin's (not Baker) comment regarding the Gates flap out front.

Gates was acting like an ass. His behavior, however, was NOT illegal. Crowley hooked him up and stuck him with BS charges for the offense of "contempt of cop". I highly doubt racism was a factor in this - I believe it was a petty tyrant with hurt feelings ruining the guys day, simply because he could. I think I would have been arrested had I behaved as Gates did, because cops have an expectation of deference from the ones they "serve". The fault lays with the cop - he's supposed to be the professional.

I agree completely. And thank you, Kevin, for having the viewpoint that I thought most conservatives would have on this issue.

No Judgement Yet

I have received several emails, a few phone calls, and a couple of in person inquiries regarding Sara Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska. I haven't commented much more on it than my post from a few weeks ago.

Her farewell speech intrigued me, though. This line...

So how about in honor of the American soldier, you quit making up things. And don't underestimate the wisdom of the people. And one other thing for the media -- our new governor has a very nice family, too, so leave his kids alone.

...perplexed me. Someone care to explain to me exactly what the fuck she was talking about?

Good Question

Bill raises an interesting point here...shouldn't there be some things in this country that are NOT for profit? And should health care be one of them?

When Congress breaks for recess, that's when I will be talking about health care. I've had some ideas bouncing around in my head but it took a few recent events in my own life to organize them to the point where I could articulate something worthwhile.

Long Walk, Short Pier

When asked whether or not she thought President Obama was born in this country, Liz Cheney (daughter of Dick), said the following on a recent edition of Larry King live.

I think the Democrats have got more crazies than the Republicans do. But setting that aside, one of the reasons you see people so concerned about this, I think this issue is, people are uncomfortable with having for the first time ever, I think, a president who seems so reluctant to defend the nation overseas.

First of all, Liz, FUCK YOU! I have pretty much had it with ass hats like yourself who think that being a Democrat means that you don't want to defend this country. Tell that to Tammy Duckworth, Paul Hackett or Ben Busch or the THOUSANDS of other Democrats who have fought and, in Duckworth's case, lost their limbs for this country.

And if President Obama is so reluctant to defend this country, why is he sending more troops to AfPak and adding 22K to the army? Why did he keep Robert Gates as SecDef? Why did he add a 40 year marine veteran (James Jones) as his National Security Advisor? Why is chucking the F-22, a cold war relic, in favor of the F-35 which is more adept at...well...bombing terrorist hideouts? Why is keeping many of the programs your father put in place?

Oh, and you're not-so-clever marrying of the birth certificate issue (see: weird fi'rner and not white) to the defense of this country is straight out of Joseph Goebbels playbook...proving my point once again that your father (and you, apparently) as well as others on the right are the ones that are more like fascists than Goldberg's psychotic fantasy.

Finally, Democrats have more crazies than Republicans? Where? The whole fucking Republican base (15-20 million people) are nutjobs. One of them has his own radio show which nets that many listeners.

By all means, though, get out their on TV on share your views to the ever growing group of voters who you continue to alienate every day with the "New Psychosis" of the conservative base. Meanwhile, we'll be over here defending this country so you can have a platform to be a brainwashed moron.

The Video

Well, here it is. The look on Castle's (the Republican rep at the podium) tells it all. This is my fucking party now?

Yep.

Absolutely Batshit

I have written many a word on here about how the base has become more and more nutty. A week or two ago, I put up a Bill Maher video in which he stated that "over the years the left has moved more to the right and the right has moved into a mental hospital." I caught a lot of flack for the that one but I stuck to my guns.

I did so because it seems that once a month or so the right, in what has to be the finest case of psychological denial in the history of the field, cannot accept Barack Obama as president. This simple fact is driving them (or already has driven them) insane and is driving them to do and say things that are completely maniacal.

I offer as an example the recent resurgence of the "Barack Obama was not born in this country" lie. A video has been making the rounds lately (I will post it tomorrow) that shows a nut ball woman yelling at Rep Mike Castle (R-Del) at a town hall meeting, waving a birth certificate and saying that President Obama is not eligible to president.

Clearly, this woman is a lunatic and some posters here would be correct in stating that if I used her as an example of the right, I would be guilty of out group bias. But Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh have been talking about it. There is now a bill in Congress, supported by 10 Republicans, that is calling for him to produce his birth certificate. Thus, I can officially say that, once again, the conservatives of this country are really going that extra mile to be even more fucking bat shit insane.

Since there are people that read this blog who will believe anything Rush says, I am here to tell all of you that all of this absolute nonsense. When Rush, Lou and others say that all President Obama has to do is "produce a birth certificate," they are completely full of shit. He did so nearly two years. ago. Here is is.
When they say it was not an official one with a raised seal, they are completely full of shit. Go to this site and you will see the official Hawaiian birth certificate of Barack Hussein Obama...raised seal and all. There are several photos of all the legal documents. There is also an announcement of his birth in the local paper. And if you call the state and/or the city, you yourself can obtain a copy of this birth certificate.

For the briefest of moments, I felt pity for people that believe things like this. They are uneducated and it's my job to educate, right?

And then I realized that their rage, paranoia, fear, and complete fucking ignorance has caused so much pain and heartache for many American families in the last ten years (or probably more) that any sympathy I felt was washed away quickly. It was replaced by a very evident truth which is still a central conviction of this blog.

These people are insane fucking morons that don't want to be educated. They are not the "fringe" of the right. They are the base. They are the 15-20 million people that listen to Rush Limbaugh, who now believes this, and the other 10 million or so that watch Lou Dobbs. They are the VERY NUMEROUS AND PERVASIVE conservative media who are reporting this story now as truth.

They need to be called on their bullshit every minute of every day. And at the loudest possible volume. So fucking go and do it!

Wait....

I wonder how long it will take right wing pundits to blow a bowel over this one.

I haven't checked Michelle Malkin's blog today but this story seems a sure fire bet for intestinal colon overload on her part. What I can't figure out is why would conservatives...and I know they will...side with the police on this one? Other than the fact that they love to play "make believe that we aren't racist" and then condescendingly smirk about it, the guy was in his own fucking home.

Wouldn't that constitute an intrusion by the state into a citizen's private domain?

I'll be here waiting for yet another example of

"It's not _____ when we do it!"

Only in this fucking state....

...would this be headline news. Sometimes, I have to say, I wonder why I live here.

The headline from WCCO.com

Man With Workout-Ball-Slashing Fetish Charged

From the article....

Court documents say Bjerkness told police he slashed the rubber balls to satisfy a sexual urge. Experts said he has an unusual attraction to inflatable exercise devices.

With every challenge we have facing us in this state as well as our nation, this warrants top billing?

What a load of shit.

Yep

"I love these folks who helped get us in this mess and then suddenly say, 'Well, this is Obama's economy.' That's fine. Give it to me! My job is to solve problems, not to stand on the sidelines and harp and gripe"

-President Barack Obama, July 14, 2009.

Back In Black

Sorry about the lack of posting lately folks. Been busy with school, kids and coaching tennis. I thought I would return with a doozy of a quote from our president. He was talking about parenting.

"We have to accept our responsibility to help them learn. That means putting away the Xbox. Putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent teacher conferences. And READING to our children."

Man, I love that guy!

Honestly, they need to ask why?

I spent this last weekend at my in-laws. Being that they know I love a good political discussion, they asked me why I thought Sarah Palin quit as governor of Alaska. My ultra conservative brother in law was perplexed.

"Why would she do that? It doesn't make sense, damnit!" he asked vehemently, "I only voted for McCain because she was on the ticket."

My wife, who is a moderate liberal, couldn't understand it.

"What...she's a quitter? I don't get it."

They both turned to me waiting to hear a political wonk (see:obsessive) 's point of view...the same one I have had since she first opened her mouth.

"She's a fucking moron."

Thank You, Michelle!

MN-06 representative Michelle Bachmann stated last week that she would not fully fill out her census report in the next federal census taking set to take place in 2010. She cited ACORN (eep urp bleep....output: insta right wing hot flaming anger) as one of her reasons. She went on to say that "between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that's how the Japanese were rounded up."

!!!??

Someone please give this woman a guest spot on every major news network in the nation. And let's give her that spot....oh...around the fall of next year:)

The story, of course, gets better. By failing to fill out her census report fully and by encouraging others in her district to do so, the chances are raised significantly then when they reduce the districts from 7 down to 6 in Minnesota, the Sixth will be the first one to go due to a not so real population drop because incomplete surveys will not be accepted.

So, if you live in the Sixth, please listen to your congresswoman!

Neda

A Good Run

Well, the mainstream media had a good run recently in regards to actually covering events that fucking matter. CNN led the way with wall to wall coverage of the amazing events going on in Iran. Other news networks and outlets followed with heretofore unseen and in depth coverage of a pivotal point in that country's history. I was elated to see your ordinary Joe on the street asking me about Iran and talking about it with a higher level of knowledge. People seemed to care about what was going on there and frivolous stories were nowhere to be found.

Then Mark Sanford, Governor of South Carlolina, went on a walkabout and....they started dropping like flies in CelebrityWood.

While I feel sad for their families (and am especially bummed that the passing of Ed McMahon got swept aside quickly...no one EVER will come close to him and Johnny), the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays are not "Breaking News" in the way that a revolution in a fucking country is news. My cup had already runneth over with Michael and now there will be no escaping it for the next month or possibly more.

And people will return to caring about shallow, meaningless bullshit when they were so close (!) to turning the corner and focusing on poignant matters like Iran, Pakistan, health care, energy, and Iraq. Do we really need to know the intimate details of Governor Sanford's life? I don't care. It's his business and I don't judge him for his actions...although I do find it HILARIOUS that my colleagues on the right are very sympathetic. Where was that sympathy from 1998-2000?

If any of you are wailing uncontrollably at the death of Michael Jackson, first of all....get a fucking life. You didn't know the guy. Save your sadness and empathy for people in your own life for crying out loud. And, if you must weep for someone you don't know, check this site out tomorrow for the video that changed my life.

Not Even Close

The next time you hear a conservative tell you that our government is close to socialism, show them this.













And then gently direct them to the nearest mental institution.

Another Classic (at 2:00)

"I don't want to be on your team. Pick another kid."

Given a recent post by Kevin Baker regarding last week's New Rules, I hope he checks this one out too:)

"We don't have a left or right party in this country anymore. We have a center right party and a crazy party. Over the last 30 odd years, Democrats have moved to the right and the right has moved into a mental hospital....they actually worry that Obama is a socialist. Socialist? He's not even a liberal."

And many of his commenters as well. I can already feel their heads exploding.

Wow.

"We had one vote and we gave it to Mousavi. We have one life and we'll give it up for freedom."

Anonymous Twitter from Tehran.

The Twitter Revolution

Like many of you, I am stunned by the events in Iran. Each day's news brings more excitement and more danger. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a warning today to protesters saying that the government would crack down on further dissent.

While they have been able to block some transmissions from Iran, the government has had a difficult time controlling all of the Twittering that has gone on. Everyday citizens have become global reporters pushing real time information out to the rest of the world. It's an amazing thing to watch a lumbering old and out of step theocracy sadly attempt to block free speech.

And, I have to say, my chiding of Twitter of late amongst my social circles seems to have come back and bitten me on the ass. I'm still not a big fan of people having to know and tell other people what they are doing exactly at every second of their lives but if you live in Tehran....I say Twitter away, revolutionary brothers and sisters!

Yet another reason to smile:)

Wow. They continue to amaze me. Just when I thought there was a smidgen of hope that the GOP might pull together and be a little smarter about how they communicate, this happens.

Really?

No prob, Hugh. We'll take all those votes off your hands:)

The Best

A few years back, the tennis world (mostly overzealous and irritating announcers like Mary Cirillo) claimed that Roger Federer was the best player in the history of the game. This was back when he had won a few Wimbledons and the US Open.

Many of my tennis pals said that he was the best ever and I reminded them that until he wins the French, my guy Andre is still the best. To win all four slams in a career had only been accomplished by Agassi, Laver, Perry, Emerson, and Budge. To understand how difficult this is, stand in your back yard and bounce a ball off of grass, a muddy patch, and your driveway. Watching how differently it bounces and you will get the idea. The French, played on clay, eluded Federer for years.

But yesterday, he fucking won it. And in convincing fashion.

So, it is NOW official. Roger Federer is the greatest player in the history of tennis. If he wins Wimbledon this year, he will have passed Pete Sampras (with whom he is currently tied at 14) with 15 Grand Slam wins. And Pete never even won the French!

Congrats, Roger. You are the man!

65 Years Ago Today

He said...what?

Check out this story from Andrew Sullivan. Apparently, Bill O'Reilly called the recently murdered Dr. George Tiller "Doctor Killer."

(Shakes head sadly)

And they wonder why the DHS is going to crawl up their ass with a fucking tweezers....

First Look

An intrepid (and large breasted) female friend (who recently declared open house to all comers :) on titty fucking if she ever gets breast cancer and has to have a masectomy) sent me this link and comment in regards to President Obama's meeting with King Abdullah (aka the "Saudi guy")

Note in the photo how he keeps his distance. I hope no photo surfaces showing them strolling and holding hands.

p.s. that Saudi guy still looks pregnant

Sweet...

Only The Beginning

Last Sunday, Scott Roeder walked into Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, KS and shot Dr. George Tiller, killing him for being a late term abortion provider. From my local paper:

Roeder's family life began unraveling more than a decade ago when he got involved with anti-government groups, and then became "very religious in an Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye way," his former wife, Lindsey Roeder, told The Associated Press. "The anti-tax stuff came first, and then it grew and grew. He became very anti-abortion."

I'm sad to report that I'm certain this is only the beginning. As I have been saying for months, the real danger in regards to domestic terrorism is from the right, not the left. The right is far more organized, greater in number, getting more armed every day, and fucking pissed off as hell. And people gave me shit for the DHS report...

What I find to be most interesting about this latest incident in relation to the DHS report is how the right complains of "profiling" when they do the exact same fucking thing every day with Muslims. How many times have we heard the line "not all terrorists are Muslims but all the ones that are attacking us are Muslims?"

Not anymore.

The people that are going to cause the most violence in this country in the next year are exactly what Ms. Roeder described above...anti government, anti tax, old testament, anti abortion.

Sound like the base of a certain party to anyone?