Thanks to Socialized Medicine, Dick Cheney Is Still Alive

Question for the tea party and everyone who voted for tea party Republicans in November: Did you enjoy your purely cosmetic vote to repeal the health care reform law? Personally, I would feel pandered to, and not particularly satisfied with all of that fiscally expensive congressional time being wasted on a vote that meant absolutely nothing. But that’s me.

I mean, you and your peers are obsessively focused on budget deficits and the national debt. Perhaps all of that federal money, all of that federal time and all of those federal resources would have been more effectively spent on something that had a chance of actually happening. Instead, you mandated that your Republican members of the House spend countless dollars on a symbolic exercise in, well, hooey. Nonsense. The political equivalent of pissing into the wind.

Considering that many of us on the progressive side of the political divide supported the health care law in part because it actually reduces the deficit, and considering that many of us on the progressive side of the political divide supported the stimulus and, within it, the largest middle class tax cut in American history, I’m getting a strong idea as to who is more interested in fiscal discipline and who isn’t.

With this meaningless vote, not only have the Republicans proved themselves to be entirely disinterested in reducing the deficit, but they’ve also reinforced their obsession with bumper sticker slogans, self-contradictions and utterly nonsensical political gestures.

Here are two more fantastic examples of how Republicans seriously dislike health care reform, socialized medicine and “government-run” healthcare — that is, until they actually need it.

You may or may not recall a study conducted before the health care reform law was passed by the office of Rep. Anthony Weiner. At the time, 55 Republican members of Congress were enrolled in Medicare, including Senators McCain, McConnell, Kyl, Shelby, Lugar, Inhofe and Grassley. All of whom were opposed to the public option and health care reform.

On the House side, Rep. Weiner’s list includes Peter King, Phil Gingrey, wingnut Virginia Foxx and the godfather of the tea party movement Ron Paul. Seriously, Ron Paul! All 55 members are accepting a form of the public option. Government-run health care. Socialized medicine. I wonder what Ayn Rand would say about Ron Paul accepting Medicare? A program that, more than anything else, will help to bump the national debt from 15 percent of GDP to 35 percent of GDP by 2082. And they claim to be worried about the debt? That’s rich.

Where are the tea party budget hawks — the tri-corned hat reenactors with their misspelled signs and racist voodoo portraits of the president — screeching for Ron Paul to give up his share in American socialism?

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9th. Anniversary of 911 rolls around with Neocons calling for war with Iran

Geezerpower

September 9, 2010

With the 9th. Anniversary of 911 Current U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan are reaching 95,000, more than we have in Iraq. We are leaving the Worlds largest embassy, Fortress America, in Iraq and currently working on a similar one in Pakistan, while boasting of 737 military bases worldwide.

As the frogwater becomes noticably warm, the AIPAC oriented congress along with a senate that is directly tied to the shadow government quietly acquiecse to eternal war and the invasion of Iran.

All this because of a war that was started based on a lie; weapons of mass destruction, the same reason that is being used for Iran. and implemented by accusations of terrorists in airliners flying into the World Trade Center buildings WTC 1 & WTC 2.

As many folks now believe the official story of the collapse of the buildings was fabricated and promoted by the NIST, it is important that there be an open and independent investigation to analyse the overly abundent evidence that there was more to it than airplanes, Al Qaeda, building fires and gravity.

More

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Republicans Demand a Government Takeover and Bailout of the Oil Spill

The words “government takeover” were originally injected into the discourse by Frank Luntz in the early stages of the health care reform process and have been repeated in the pejorative sense by Republicans across the board.

Despite the fact that thousands of Americans die every month from a lack of affordable health insurance, the Republicans have argued that the government isn’t allowed to “takeover” the industry. It goes without saying that the president wasn’t proposing any such thing and, in fact, publicly denounced single-payer health insurance, but okay. The Republicans truly believe the health care reform bill is socialism and a total takeover of the industry. It’s not.

Likewise, the Republicans and tea party people have been screeching about the bailouts. They insist that the banks and financial institutions (and GM) should have been allowed to fail, rather than receiving emergency loans from the government in order to, at the time, prevent the American economy from being dragged down along with these institutions had they not been hoisted with an infusion of cash.

Speaking of which, the Republicans also loudly opposed the recovery bill, which included, as a total dollar amount, the biggest middle class tax cut in American history as well as a considerable amount of funding for the states. Yet the Republicans, once again, screeched about state’s rights and tried to block the funding.

In his response to the president’s first address to a joint session of Congress, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana famously mocked such obviously hilarious things as volcano monitoring in the recovery bill. Volcanoes? Why should we monitor those?

The dominant centerpiece to all of this outrage has been the Republican idea that the states and the free market should be left alone to deal with problems and crises on its own without “socialist” — or even “communist” depending on which AM radio station you listen to — interference from big government and our America-hating president. No government takeovers. Freedom! Liberty! And no stupid volcano thingees also.

Americans dying from a lack of health insurance? Too bad. No government takeover. The economy about to sink into a second Great Depression? Too bad. No government takeover. The Earth growing warmer due to the burning of fossil fuels? Too bad. No government takeover.

That is until last month.

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Those Republican “Hooligans” And Their Loud Noises

At the risk of bringing down the digital wrath of blog-savvy oldsters, I’ve noticed that a considerable number of the anti-reform Republican “hooligans,” as Rachel Maddow describes them, who turn up at various town hall meetings to shout incomprehensible loud noises just happen to be senior citizens. And while the old people who turn up to protest health care reform are, to come extent, victims of the usual Republican lies and disinformation, they’re still adults and therefore responsible for their opinions, their actions and their ziplock baggies filled with crazy.

Yes, they’ve been tricked by Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh into believing that health care reform will somehow involve golden-grilled ACORN thugs showing up at bingo with a tray of syringes filled with black liberal death juice. Yes, they’ve been tricked by Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs into thinking that this “halfrican American” president with his terrorist pals and Kenyan birth certificate is trying to supplant God’s U.S. government with a liberal fascist homocracy.

But failing to grasp the extraordinary contradiction evident in receiving Medicare benefits while simultaneously shouting nonsense about “government-run health care” is quite simply inexcusable.

President Obama at a town hall meeting last week described a letter he received from a Medicare recipient:

“I got a letter the other day from a woman. She said, ‘I don’t want government-run health care. I don’t want socialized medicine. And don’t touch my Medicare.'”

At a town hall meeting held by Rep. Robert Inglis (R-SC):

Someone reportedly told Inglis, “Keep your government hands off my Medicare.”
“I had to politely explain that, ‘Actually, sir, your health care is being provided by the government,'” Inglis told the Post. “But he wasn’t having any of it.”

It’s no wonder with “very serious” analysts like Arthur Laffer are appearing on CNN and saying things like this (and getting away with it unchallenged):

“If you like the post office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they’re run well, just wait till you see Medicare, Medicaid and health care done by the government.”

Yeah, just wait until the government gets its mighty robot claws on Medicare and Medicaid — snatching control away from, you know, the government. (Incidentally, the post office is amazing. As Maher said recently, anyone can drop a letter into a blue metal box on the sidewalk and in a couple of days it arrives at the place listed on the envelope. For 44 cents. Off the top of your head, can you name anything that costs 44 cents and actually functions exactly as advertised?)

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Send It All Back

When I watched the video of Sean Hannity’s Tuesday night show, I was half expecting him to leap out of his chair, grab his producer by the lapels and scream something about a goblin on the wing of the airplane — all puffy and bloodshot, hair mussed, tie undone, spittle and sweat flying all around.

There was Sean Hannity on television: breathlessly announcing the red dawn of “socialism you can believe in.” “The New America.” He called the recovery bill, “a liberal hijacking of the American way of life.” Uh-huh. Hijacking. Terrorists rather than goblins on the wing. I get it. And even though we just wrapped up eight years of the largest government expansion in our country’s history, Hannity derided the recovery bill as “the largest government expansion in our country’s history.”

But, unbelievably, that wasn’t the most ludicrous part of the show. The frantic announcement was preceded by a newsreel-style montage featuring video of the various congressional floor debates about the bill, footage of Boehner throwing down the bill and, naturally, President Obama signing the bill. All backed with the frighteningly pulse-pounding choir chants of the apocalyptic anthem “O Fortuna.”

There’s no gray area in what he was suggesting. Socialism is here, said Hannity, and it’s really scary. The choir music said so.

Hannity is once again joined in this crusade by very serious pundits like Rush Limbaugh, Steve Doocy, Alex Castellanos, Joe Scarborough, Laura Ingraham and Glenn Beck who, at one point, claimed that President Obama is both a socialist and a fascist — a feat that calls to mind an old George Carlin joke about how it’s physically impossible to “put your seat-back forward.”

The message is clear. The voices on the far-right are unanimous.

Therefore, I’m calling upon Sean Hannity to use his prime time television program as a platform to rally Republican politicians, cable news hacks and citizens alike to refuse delivery of not just recovery bill spending, but all so-called “socialist” government programs. Send it all back. End American socialism now! All of it.

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Warning….Nationalism Ahead for US Auto Industry!

White House, Congress hammer out auto bailout

The White House Tuesday demanded that Detroit automakers prove their “long-term viability” in return for a 15-billion-dollar rescue bailout but said a deal with Congress was in sight.

President George W. Bush’s administration is making “good progress” in its talks with congressional leaders over legislation to shore up General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.

“We are still working through a number of issues, some of them just small and technical, and other ones a little bit more meaty in scope, but, all in all, making sure we’re headed in the right direction,” she said.

But Perino stressed: “Our insistence that long-term viability be reflected in the legislation is something that we have held very strong feelings about, and that has not changed.

“There will not be long-term financing if they cannot prove long-term viability.”

Short-term loans of 15 billion dollars are meant to sustain the car giants through March, allowing president-elect Barack Obama time to address their crisis after he takes office on January 20.

GM and Chrysler are first in line after warning they are fast running out of cash. Ford, though equally hampered by slumping sales, says it faces no immediate liquidity crisis but wants a nine-billion-dollar line of credit.

While the Democratic-led Congress was ready to extend a larger amount of aid, the Bush administration has balked at giving any more than 15 billion and insists — like Obama — that the automakers must retool for the long haul.

White House and congressional negotiators held talks late into Monday and the emerging total proposed is less than half of the 34 billion dollars the auto giants say they would need to stave off a “catastrophic collapse.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said late Tuesday morning: “I’m confident that those matters can be resolved within the next hour or so.”

But Perino said that “while we’re working fast, we want to get it right.”

“So I wouldn’t read into anything if we don’t get it all finalized today.”

The proposed legislation calls for a presidential appointee, or “car czar,” to oversee the overhaul of the Big Three US automakers, which have been losing ground for years to their Japanese rivals.

In return for the loans, the government would get an equity stake and the automakers would have to improve their fleets’ fuel-efficiency and also examine using their excess capacity to build bus and rail cars for public transit.

The bill also requires the automakers to sell their private jets and places strict limits on executive compensation, similar to a recent bailout for financial firms buffeted by the global credit crunch and toxic mortgage loans.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday Congress expects stakeholders in the industry — including bosses, union members, shareholders, car dealers and suppliers — to make sacrifices for the bailout.

“We call this the barbershop,” Pelosi said. “Everybody’s getting a haircut here, in terms of the conditions of the bill,” she said, adding: “The management itself has to take a big haircut on all of this.”

Obama has called a collapse of the auto industry “unacceptable,” and said Sunday he wanted a supervisory process that would hold the companies’ “feet to the fire.”

GM, which had warned it could run out of cash as early as January, urged swift passage of the bill and vowed it will “abide by the conditions proposed in the bill and will continue our restructuring with great urgency.”

Chrysler made similar noises while Ford, the second-biggest US automaker after GM, said: “Our industry is highly interdependent and a failure of one of our competitors could affect us all.”

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