Well…I am laughing out loud at a fact that I just uncovered in the news this morning, something I probably should have learned a couple of weeks or months ago with all of the news I read….I know you’ve read about the concerted effort by the repubs to discredit the Congressional Budget Office…the non-partisan part of the government that calculates (or estimates) the cost of proposed legislation, saying that the 253 billion dollar savings from the healthcare law is just their “opinion” and is based on untrue assumptions. They are going so far as is the tired old phrase ‘garbage in, garbage out” to describe the process used to come to those conclusions. Well…guess what? Guess where the repubs got the figures that put job-killing in the title of the healthcare repeal bill that was just passed in the House? Yep, you guessed it…from the very same analysis that reported a net savings from the healthcare reform bill….go on, you can laugh, too….
Well…here’s the shorty I promised…did anyone else laugh when one of the repub congressmen had the gall or chutzpah to get up on the floor of the house and claim that the recovery that is slowly building is because the repubs took control of the House? Nevermind that they haven’t done anything but bluster and waste time on the doomed repeal of the healthcare law since they took control. These guys are the most cynical type of politicians…those who oppose real reform and stimulus for the economy to play to their base and then, when it looks like they were wrong, come crawling out from under their rocks to claim that their actions in opposing this help was what has made the economy turn around. I just hope they keep this up, I hope they keep trying to repeal healthcare..especially when only 18% of the country wants this done…they will be exposed as the shills they are for the insurance lobby and maybe, just maybe, the American people will start to vote in their own self interests, not in the interests of the wealthy an powerful….geez…
Well…read ole Georges op-ed in the newspaper this morning and I just had to laugh at his rantings against the political power that he feels is too concentrated in the executive branch….I can trump this by just one question…where the hell were you, George, when your buddy GW was growing the executive branches power more than any president in modern history. And, George, you decry this growing power now, but where were you when ole GW was using “signing statements” to reserve to the executive branch the power to ignore congress and the laws it has passed? It is just another instance of “it’s okay if it’s our guy”, but if the opposition is in control, they are going to take over the country by executive fiat. Such a disingenuous take that I think you should be ashamed, George.
The second part of this one is his assertion that “American exceptionalism is obnoxious to progressives”, no, George, I have never met or heard a progressive say that America is not exceptional…but what progressives do is live that exceptionalism…who try to make this a better country for those who don’t have money or power; to use the power inherent in this country to truly become exceptional..not last in the industrialized world in access to affordable healthcare…or in the access and affordability of higher education. What the right does, aided by shills like George, is to thump their chests just like the fratboy jocks they are and dance around shouting “we’re number one!” when it’s not true…geez…
Well..I have worked up a little outrage while working out…I only get a couple of channels on the tv by my weight machine and was watching Today when Dr. Laura came on touting some new screed she wrote, and I was struck by the sense of victim hood that just exuded from her….but she is not the first bully on the right who has done this…it appears to be page 8 in the right wing bullies handbook…after you get called out for your bad behavior, go on tv and claim the mantel of the victim…that it was not your fault that you spewed your hate, it is the fault of the media for reporting on it….and, of course, it’s a concerted, organized, effort by the left wing media to smear you. We’ve seen this in almost all of the right’s darlings…especially sister Sarah, who has used her self- identified victim status as a bludgeon whenever the press doesn’t kiss her ass..but it is not only her, the entire list of the right’s leaders from Beck, to Limbaugh, to Gingrich use the same tactics all the time. But it is not only these folks, but the Christian Majority in this country that always feel put upon and whine and cry whenever anyone questions them. Aren’t you getting tired of this crap? I know I am and I think the right needs to follow it’s own favorite admonition from the last election..”man up”…you’ve made a good living spouting your hatred and division….now reap the fruits….geez…
Well…this one started to bubble after I read George Will’s column this morning where he goes on and on about the lack of self-control in the American populace and the fact that we supposedly lie to ourselves about everything….and this constant lack of self control is what is ruining the country. But, lies, obfuscation, and this lack of self control is only a problem when it is coming from individuals; when it is coming from the repub party; and it’s lies are for a political purpose, everything is just fine. Didn’t we hear this nonsense the last time the repubs were in power? That deficits don’t matter, that we can cut taxes and increase spending without any consequences? Now, they are treating facts as opinion again…calling the 230 billion dollar savings from the healthcare law (that was calculated by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office) just the “opinion” of the office…as if accounting principles now are like faith instead of math. They just loved the CBO when the numbers came up in their favor…but when the facts get in the way of their agenda, they are all too quick to discard them as partisan…think back to the Iraq war….reminds me of the lyrics to “Rocky Mountain Way” by Joe Walsh….”he’s tellin us this, he’s tellin us that, changes it every day, says it doesn’t matter….bases are loaded and Casey’s at bat, time to change the batter…”
I just want everyone to remember where “faith based” accounting led us the last time these guys were in power….two wars that were “off book” and not paid for…huge surpluses that were turned into the largest deficits in the history of the country….and a complete disdain for the truth that was not spun by their lies….fasten the seatbelts, here we go again…geez….
Well…I think I may be coming to my saturation point for reading the news for a few days….one thing that has moved me to this realization might be what I see out there in the comments to articles that I read…and I know, I shouldn’t expect a change in the discourse this soon after the calls for civility…but the swamp has not been drained one bit…well…the lefties seem to have realized the error of their ways and have toned it down somewhat…but, why can’t we have the progressives be adults all the time? Why is there no thoughtful contemplation of an issue before everyone starts to weigh in? It used to be okay or even preferred when public figures didn’t comment on every story in the nanoseconds after it occurred but thought about it for a while… to make sure they had time to form an opinion that took in all the facts…but not any longer. Do they get paid more if they comment first? I think one factor that has spurred this kind of behavior is the fact that no one is held accountable for being wrong anymore. People can just spout whatever comes into their heads and then come back later to clean up the mess with their well-oiled spin machines.
Now that I have excoriated the left and it’s behavior, can I just ask one favor of the progressives out there? Can we stop talking about Sarah Palin? She just doesn’t deserve any more of our energy….and the right is never going to change so let’s just try to change ourselves; let’s be the adults here….
Well…I just don’t get the repubs these days…never really have, I guess and their obsession with the healthcare reform bill passed last year is making it even worse. I know, I can look at it in the context of their complete disdain for anyone but the rich, but I think their constant attacks are going to be their undoing; especially since parts of the law are extremely popular and have proven to already be quite effective. What spurred this one was a short segment on “Countdown” last night that quoted an article in the LA Times (that I couldn’t find) that the tax credit included in the law has spurred a flurry of activity in small business; that thousands of them have started offering their employees health care since the credit makes it affordable to them. How are the repubs going to explain being against something that helps one of their core constituencies? In the last election, they rode the lies that they were the saviors of small business but I think it’s just another case of the repub disease; promise everything, deliver nothing, that has been their M.O. since the early 90′s. When are people going to learn that these guys don’t give a damn about anything but getting elected….I know, I’m becoming repetitive, but repetition helped the repubs turn lies into truth in the minds of some of the people…maybe it will work to keep the truth the truth…geez…
Well…how much more depressing can the news get that the new repub controlled house is going back to the bad old days that gave us the financial meltdown….I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when they went back to the people that gave them money to construct their version of these regulations…but to have businesses and lobbyists come back to write their proposed changes to the ones enacted under the dems is just too much to bear…I mean, really guys? You couldn’t at least have made it look like you weren’t bought in the last election? I am astounded by the repubs going back to their old ways the first frickin day of the new congress…and, I don’t even feel good that I predicted this back in August when it looked like the repubs would be back in control…I really didn’t want to be right, I hoped and hoped that these idiots had leaned something…but, I guess the only thing they learned was that lies and giving the country to the rich works…for them…I fear for the rest of the country….
Well…quite a heated discussion this morning on Justice Scalia’s latest outrageous statement that the 14th amendment that deals with equal rights doesn’t guarantee them for women or gays and lesbians since they were not mentioned by name in the amendment; only the phrase “any person’ and Scalia wants to go back to the interpretation of the time that only white males were considered “persons” in the law. This idiot is always searching for “original intent” when it suits his political ends but is so quick to discard it when his corporate masters say jump…as evidenced by the Citizens United decision where he sided with the right wing majority and granted corporations the same first amendment rights as flesh and blood citizens when corporations are not mentioned anywhere in the constitution. What is it Anty? Do you read the constitution as written or do you make it up as you go? This abject abandonment of consistency or even of following the constitution is seen best in the Bush v. Gore decision where old Anty was so quick to abandon the “states rights” mantra that he and his ilk shout from the rooftops….made even more egregious by the fact that the majority in that case knew they were making law and being the worst kind of activist judges; because they stated that the decision was a one-off and couldn’t be used for precedent in any other case….the time is coming to impeach this idiot…geez…
Well…don’t know where to start this morning but I know I have to deal with Chuck Krauthhammer and Darrell Issa…and the crazy assertions they make in the papers this morning…first, let’s start with Chuck…the headline of his article was ‘Obama’s secret plan: governing by regulation”…and he goes on to assert that since Obama can’t get bills with what he wants passed through congress, he is going to use the regulatory apparatus of the government to bypass congress and enact all kinds of scary things…his prime example being the new Medicare regulation that will pay for end of life counseling that the repbs labeled “death panels” last summer and was left out of the bill because of those scare tactics pushed by the rabid right wingers. Where have you been for the last 30 years Chuck? This type of thing has been done ever since these regulatory organizations were first enacted by legislation….so now, you don’t want Obama to keep the government functioning just because you don’t like it…elections have consequences, Chuck…look what your boys did with financial regulation in the 8 years of ole GW. At least Obama is doing something for the middle class, not just the rich that your party bows to every day.
Then, you have Darrell Issa saying that his primary focus as the chair of the congressional oversight committee is going to be investigate Obama and his administration and to blanket them with subpoenas until they can’t do anything except answer them…since he calls them the most corrupt government in American history. Oh, really Darrell? Didn’t see them authorizing torture, or letting the oil industry write our energy policy, or providing sweetheart no-bid contracts to all of Cheney’s cronies, or removing enough financial regulation that allowed the banks to almost steal the whole country. What about the people of this country Darrell? When are you going to focus on jobs? When are you going to focus on healing the divide that splits us? Oh, I get it, never…just another political hack that chooses to put party before country….again, and, again, and again….geez…