The Semantics Of Orrin Hatch

In yesterday’s Chicago Tribune there was an opinion piece written by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), with retired Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese, and Northwestern University Law Professor Steven Calabresi (read it here). It was the title “Forcing Americans To Buy What They Don’t Want” that caught my eye, and what followed was a stream of misleading boilerplate text that I’ve heard over and over from the GOP regarding the healthcare reform bill that is now law today.

I am just a regular guy, so far be it from me to take on such accomplished men as Senator Hatch, Mr. Meese, and Professor Calabresi, but I know BS when I smell it. So here goes.

First the title of the piece. Senator Hatch and his Hatchmen posit that Americans are being forced to buy health insurance, and this is something we supposedly do not want. Or perhaps they are trying to intimate that we are being forced to buy government health insurance? I can’t seem to figure out any other possible meaning of the title, and either explanation is a lie. Americans want health insurance, they want the security of knowing that if they pay for it they can’t be dropped when they get sick, and they want to be able to buy it if they were sick once before. The only thing Americans are being forced to do is insure that their bills will be paid so the rest of us don’t pick up the tab in increased premiums and higher taxes. Otherwise, it sounds like Hatch wants to return to being a welfare state where we pay for those who can’t or won’t pay for themselves.

The article opens up with some pithy statements about “playing fair”, and “ends not justifying means” in order to assert that the Democrats passed this law while ignoring the procedural rules of Congress. Really? If that were the case then the GOP’s lawyers would have already succeeded in overturning it. The fact is that Democrats used all the rules that were available to them, and Hatch doesn’t like it because he and his party couldn’t stop it. They got beat fair-and-square and now they are calling foul. That sounds like a case of being a sore loser over “how the legislative game is played”, as he puts it. Game over. You lost. Deal with it like a grownup.

But Hatch saves his best canned party lines for the end when he says “In 220 years, Congress has never required Americans to purchase a particular good or service”, and he specifically cites the “liberal” pivot of comparing this to being mandated to purchase auto insurance. Hatch has the nerve to say that purchasing auto insurance is okay because it is a state mandate, and not a federal mandate. C’mon Senator–you’re either for mandates or against mandates. A state mandate can’t be good when a federal mandate is bad; those are just semantics.

Just because the Fed has never mandated the purchase of health insurance before, that doesn’t make it a bad idea right now. Senator Hatch’s argument sounds like an argument against evolving, against learning, against growing up and facing our responsibilities together as a nation. Why, that sounds like an argument against patriotism, and e pluribus unum, and “one nation under God”! It’s an argument against the United States of America!!!

Sorry, I didn’t mean to get semantical on you.

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Kristallnacht In America

Germany, 1938

New York, 2010

On November 9, 1938, thousands of Jewish owned businesses in Germany were destroyed by Nazi mobs who hurled bricks through the storefront windows, ransacked the buildings, and burned many of them to the ground. By the next morning, almost 100 Jews had been murdered, and tens of thousands of them were arrested. Forever known as Kristallnacht (crystal night) or “Night Of Broken Glass”, this was effectively and symbolically the beginning of the Holocaust.

On March 22, 2010, Democratic offices in New York, Kansas, Arizona, and Ohio were vandalized by brick-throwing vigilantes in response to the passage of the healthcare reform bill the day before. Even more Hitleresque are the reports that several Democratic lawmakers received death threats against their children because of their support of the bill.

Anyone who has read this blog knows that i do not appreciate comparisons to the Holocaust. But I find these tactics by the extremist opponents to healthcare reform to be too similar to ignore.

The irony is, these are the same people who called President Obama “Hitler” and healthcare reform “Nazi Healthcare.”

There is a group taking responsibility for this action, but I am not going to give them exposure here. You can look it up on the internet.

I’m just saying: Be careful, America has lost its mind.

A Picture Worth 37,000,000 Words

President Obama signs the healthcare bill into law, giving 37,000,000 uninsured Americans access to health insurance.

Making our lives better. Making a difference. Making history.

Hey Rush, time to pack your bags!

A few weeks ago, Conservative blowhard extraordinaire Rush Limbaugh said that if the healthcare reform bill passed, he was going to leave the USA and probably move to Costa Rica (where, incidentally, they have “socialized” medicine).

Well Rush, your one-way flight is waiting to take you and your insanity away.

Last night, Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party courageously passed the sweeping healthcare reform bill that is heading to the White House to be signed into law. Say what you want about the process and the procedures because it no longer matters. The bill legally passed for the good of the American people, and no amount of posturing, lying, Sarah Palinizing, or whining will  change this. If they want to repeal this law, the GOP needs to get itself a majority in Congress and a Conservative in the White House. Then they will need to explain why they are taking away things like the ban on pre-existing conditions, the ban on lifetime insurance caps, and why they want to re-open the “donut hole” in the Medicare Prescription Drug plan. Good luck with that.

Today officially marks the opening of the 2010 mid-term election campaign season, and it started off last night with a bang. As Representative Bart Stupak was finishing his remarks on the House floor explaining why he, as the most ardent anti-abortion member of the Democratic Party, was agreeing to vote in favor of this bill, someone from the Republican side of the House chambers shouted out “baby killer!” Wow. Just when you thought Joe Wilson owned the title of “Most Obnoxious Politician” for his “you lie” outburst during President Obama’s address a few months ago, a new source of despicable brattiness has come out from under a rock. But none of his cronies will give him up, and as of this writing his identification is still unknown. How typical of this particular brand of Republicans. They don’t even have the nerve to take ownership of their own disgusting behavior.

But I have to give Minority Leader John Boehner credit; when he says something stupid, at least he takes credit for it. Last night in his remarks, he claimed that the House “failed” because there was no bi-partisan deal. A deal is defined as an “agreement, compromise, or settlement.” You cannot have a bi-partisan “deal” when one side refuses to agree, compromise, or settle, and that is exactly what the GOP did for the last 14 months as the healthcare reform debate raged on. There was not one single vote in favor of the bill’s passage last night coming from the right side of the room. Is that how you compromise? Even when there are several components of the bill that include Republican ideas? The Republicans actively took themselves out of the development of this bill by fighting it tooth-and-nail, and by creating lies such as “death panels”, “socialized medicine”, and “government takeover.” Those are the only significant contributions their entire party made to this process, and now they will pay the price  by cementing their reputation as the “party of NO.” As in “no ideas”, “no compromise”, “no civility”, “no compassion”, and “no progress.”

But back to the business at hand. Rush Limbaugh needs to pack his things and move to Costa Rica. Here’s a packing list for him just to be sure he doesn’t leave anything behind:

John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, Eric Cantor, Karl Rove, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, The Tea Party, Glenn Beck, David Frumm, the guy who yelled “baby killer”, Roger Ailes, Michelle Bachman, John McCain, and Joe LIEberman.

Goodbye, and good riddance.

COUNTDOWN TO HEALTHCARE REFORM: Anyone want to make a prediction on the house for tomorrow/Sunday?

VOTING MAD>>COUNTDOWN TO HEALTHCARE REFORM:

Anyone want to make a prediction on the house for tomorrow/Sunday?

#hcr#p2 #votingmad #fb

Tell us what you think in the comments.

HCR: What They Are Trying To Obstruct

If you only heard the John Boehner and Mitch McConnell sound bites, you’d have plenty of reason to wonder if the current healthcare reform bill on the table was evil or not. A lot of politicians are effectively putting their jobs on the line depending on how all of this shakes out over the next few months and years. But consider what is going to immediately take effect with the passage of this bill into law, and it makes one wonder what all the controversy is really about:

Eliminating Lifetime Caps: No longer will insurance agencies be allowed to drop a policyholder simply for outliving their coverage. There are some medical conditions that can cost millions of dollars in treatment and care over a policyholder’s lifetime, where the person actually lives a decent life. Should this person be thrown out of treatment or into bankruptcy just because they have a horrible but maintainable medical condition?

Insurance is always a gamble for either side: the overwhelming majority of policyholders NEVER cost more than the services they pay for in premiums, and thus they are mostly very profitable. But some insurance customers will far exceed their lifetime value because of circumstance or plain old bad luck. Accidents and diseases strike rich and poor with equal frequency, so why penalize someone just because they don’t have the financial resources to save their own life? It is cynical to call that “survival of the fittest” in a country that espouses equal opportunities for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If you pay for a health insurance policy that basically just collects your money in good times, then that same policy should pay off in bad times too. That’s a fair contract.

Eliminating Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions: It is barbaric to turn our backs on people who need healthcare. If you have cancer, then having health insurance is critical to your recovery. Then if you go into remission–which is the goal of treatment–you shouldn’t be penalized for being a survivor by being denied future coverage. Currently the insurance companies are insulated from future liabilities by being able to deny coverage to people who were previously sick. That’s like saying, “Congratulations, you’ve survived your struggle against a life-threatening disease, but now you are on your own. Good luck if you ever get sick again, but you are dead to us now.”

This is especially important to children, who we claim to treasure more than anything else in this country. The same people who are against this reform are the same people who rant and rave against passing the national debt on to the future of this nation–the children. They want to protect our childrens’ futures by not saddling them with debt, but could care less if those same kids get sick and die from lack of resources and access to quality care. It makes no sense. Children come into this world with total innocence, and they deserve a chance to grow up and fix all the problems we’ve created.

Expanded Coverage For Dependent Children: This gives parents the option of covering their non-student dependents up to the age of 26. The current age limit is 21, unless they are enrolled as full-time students. Today’s economy has altered the playing field for young people, and employer-provided insurance doesn’t exist in abundance like it used to. And besides, do you know many graduates who come out of school with a job at all these days? That’s not their fault, it’s ours. So we owe them a better chance. It doesn’t mean they get free insurance, just the opportunity to have paid access. There’s a huge difference. It’s not an entitlement, it is an option.

Small Business Tax Credits: This sounds like a completely right-wing, pro-business idea. And it is. Republicans are always screaming for tax breaks and aid to small businesses, and this is exactly that. For a small company to compete for top talent, they need to offer benefits that are competitive with large corporations. Health insurance costs can destroy the existence of a small business, so why not give them a hand? I dare one single Republican to call this a “re-distribution of wealth”, when all it can do is help create jobs, and encourage the start-up of innovative new companies in the United States.

Preventive Care: Checkups, routine testing, and immunizations can all catch, diagnose, and prevent diseases early and cut down on the cost of treatment in the future. So the current HCR bill provides for full-coverage of these kinds of doctor’s visits. All it does is protect the insurance companies’ liabilities–the customers they have contracted with to insure care for. The people who pay the premiums finance the high salaries of the insurance company CEOs, and their collective profitability drives shareholder returns. Don’t kill the golden goose by ignoring it, encourage it to live a long and prosperous life at least until it qualifies for Medicare.

Appeals Process: If you feel that your insurance company is unfairly denying your claim you should have some recourse to appeal and protect the rights that you have paid for. It doesn’t mean you will always win, but there shouldn’t be the current draconian system of the insurance company having the final word. That runs contrary to the American way of life. There would be an independent arbitrator that mediates these kinds of disagreements, just like in sports. Why is it we care more about ballplayers getting fair contracts than we do the average American citizen getting fair treatment by their health insurance company? An insurance company has gobs of money (ours) to hire top lawyers to fight these cases, and the average citizen is almost helpless by comparison, and needs an impartial advocate on behalf of the truth. Something tells me the legal lobby is behind the resistance to this reform.

Close The “Doughnut Hole”: For seniors who fall into the Medicare Part D Drug Coverage “gap”, this reform will provide  help to pay for prescriptions. Otherwise seniors will be less likely to receive their medications, thus increasing their risk of developing diseases or great health complications, and then requiring more financial resources for care. This is an excellent way to keep healthcare costs down, no matter what anyone says to the contrary.

Now, will someone please explain what the hell is so controversial about any of that?

47.3% Government-Run Healthcare

Daniel Gross of newsweek.com posted a very eye-opening article on the healthcare reform debate yesterday (read it here). He correctly posits that the US government has been slowly “taking over” healthcare since 1990.

I’ll admit that last sentence is a bit misleading, but I am just using the same rhetoric that anti-reform politicians have been using. The argument against healthcare reform, when concerning single-payer or a public option, is that if the government is paying for it then the government will control the amount and quality of care we receive. Well, Mr. Gross looked at the numbers provided by trustworthy and impartial sources such as the US Deptartment of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and it is clear that during the times when Republicans controlled either Congress or The White House, the Federal Government has been paying more and more for healthcare than the private sector.

In 1990 private expenditures vs. public expenditures on healthcare were 60%-40%. In 2000, after a period where Republicans controlled the Congress for six years, that ratio was 55.9% (private funds) to 44.1% (Federal Government/public funds). Over the following eight years, when W was president and Congress was mostly controlled by Republicans, that ratio changed again and as of 2008 the United States Federal Government was paying 47.3% of all healthcare expenditures. The CMS projects that Federal healthcare spending will exceed 50% in 2012, and reach almost 52% by 2019.

So by the GOP standard of “paying for it = controlling it”, the United States is more than 47.3% of the way towards “Socialized Medicine”. And so far the anti-reformists continue to claim that we have the best system in the world. They are either not paying attention to the numbers, or they are very confused as to the meaning of Socialized Medicine. Or both.

In 2009 an average of 625 people PER HOUR were dropped by their health insurance companies in the USA. This would not be possible if everyone in America had healthcare guaranteed by the Federal government. We’re already halfway towards a “government-run (paid for)” healthcare system. It’s time we went all the way and stopped playing politics with Americans’ lives.

Palin & Limbaugh and the Joys of Universal Healthcare

Sometimes politicians and political pundits say the darndest things!

Take that goofy half-Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. Last weekend, while speaking to a group in Canada, she admitted to “hustling over the border” to Canada while growing up so she could tap into Canada’s single-payer, low-cost healthcare system. Imagine that. On the campaign trail in 2008, and everywhere she goes as the Queen of The Tea Party, she blasts the “poor” quality of the Canadian healthcare system with it’s “death panels” and “rationed care”. Apparently it was good enough for her to take advantage of as a regular Alaskan gal, but not as a big-time important political player. Before politics: Canadian healthcare = good. After politics: Canadian healthcare = the devil’s hospital.

And how about that drug-addled blowhard Rush Limbaugh? He said that if Obama’s healthcare reform bill passes, Rush will leave the USA and move to Costa Rica. Brilliant! Rush claims that government-run healthcare is the worst kind of healthcare, however he threatens to move to a country with excellent healthcare that is run by–wait for it, wait for it–THE GOVERNMENT OF COSTA RICA! Isn’t that funny? Isn’t that a ratings booster? Isn’t that Rush a smart guy? If you don’t like what’s happening in your own country, move to another country that’s doing exactly what you say you hate.

What I love most about Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh is their incredible hypocrisy. Here are two people who live their lives in total opposition to “government-run healthcare” for me, but they have no problem with it when it suits their own purpose. They are lying cowards, and are robbing their foolish supporters by selling them a phony agenda that they ignore when it suits them.

May the two of them rot in a government-run version of hell.

The US Political Spectrum: 2010

Do you get confused when people use terms like “Socialist“, “Moderate“, “Democrat“, and “Tea Party“? Does it seem oxymoronic (with emphasis on the moronic part) to accuse someone of being a “Communist“, while emulating a “Fascist”  dictator like Adolph Hitler at the same time? Is the media “Liberal” or “Independent“? How come conservationists are hardly ever “Conservative“, and why are “Republicans” typically in support of big corporations instead of the Republic? And do the “Progressives“ actually make any progress?

Here’s a handy guide to help you understand the state of politics–The US Political Spectrum: 2010. Now complete with a “Tea Party” addition and the actual definition of “Socialism”. Suitable for printing and saving, for those times when you are dragged into an impromptu civics debate, or start a drunken political argument at Thanksgiving dinner, or when you are simply taking in the latest punditry on either FOX News or MSNBC. It’s YOURS FREE–just for reading Voting Mad!

Going from LEFT to RIGHT, here’s what it all means, including some key players and controversies. Refer to the chart above, and see if you can figure out where you fit into politics as we know it in modern day America:

COMMUNISM: Putting the fear of Karl Marx into people from around 1917 until the day the Berlin Wall fell, Communists were the boogey-men of the infamous Red Scare in the 1950s. Derived from the word commune, Communists believe in advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. Unless you are a party boss, in which case you live like a king while destroying your political enemies. The USSR was the mother-of-all Communist regimes, until they decided to embrace mafioso-style corruption, wear western clothing, and experiment with Democracy. Now they are broke, less powerful, and more strung out on Vodka and prostitution than ever before. But hey–at least they have a whole new generation of rich oligarchs who are living proof that if you can make it in Russia, you can dominate anyone anywhere. About the only legitimate Communist countries left now are China and Cuba. China is now a global economic powerhouse and basically the lien holder of the entire US of A, while Cuba boasts some of the best public education and healthcare in the entire world. But just try to buy a home in either one of those countries and you risk your life, or become indebted to a black-market warlord. Famous Communists: Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, and anyone who marched against the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

SOCIALISM: One might be brainwashed by now to first think of Barack Obama as a Socialist–after all, such geniuses as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity all said he is because he wants to make healthcare affordable and lower taxes for the middle class. But read the definition of socialism and you’ll see this can’t be so: a political and economic theory of social organization advocating the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. “Regulation” seems like a pretty smart word. So does “community”, and “organization”. But not if you are rich. Then those words start to mean “rules for other people to live by”, “those people outside my fence”, and “unions=death to the individual”. Socialism’s core aims to protect and serve everyone equally. If “Protect and Serve” sounds familiar, it’s because that phrase just happens to adorn many publicly-funded police cars in many towns, cities, and rural counties across America. Having publicly-funded (ie: funded by taxes) municipal services are a foundation of American life. Famous Socialist programs: the United States Federal Government, police, fire and rescue services, the military, education, bridges, roads and tunnels, sewers, Federal Parks, Social Security and Medicare, the Post Office, scientific research funding grants, and coming soon to a President’s desk near you…healthcare industry reform!

LIBERALS: Archie Bunker hated Liberals. Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh hate Liberals. Liberals even hate Liberals. A Liberal is someone who has made too good of a living to be a Socialist. Not necessarily rich, but not angry enough to protest either. A Liberal is the conscience of the Democratic Party. Liberty, or liberte as in “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”, French for “Liberty, equality, fraternity (brotherhood)” is the whole reason America has for being in existence. It’s so bizarre that some Americans hate the French (see Conservatives and Tea Party), when you consider that they helped save our butts in the Revolutionary War and influenced the essence of our culture. A Liberal hates killing people so much that they want to outlaw guns completely, they want to end the death penalty, and they are anti-political assassinations–even for people like Saddam Hussein. But don’t mess with abortion rights! Liberals are everybody from the welfare queens to gay couples to Greenpeace donors to San Francisco Mayors to blue collar workers to Riesling-sipping adjunct professors at New England Universities. Famous Liberals: Al Gore, George Soros, Hendrik Hertzberg, Howard Dean, Kweisi Mfume, Arianna Huffington, Noam Chomsky, Paul Krugman, Tavis Smiley, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, Tom Daschle, Tom Hanks, and every single goddamned page ever published by the New York  f***ing Times!

DEMOCRATS: This is the “left wing” of politics. The Democratic Party is one of the world’s oldest political parties and is the party with the lengthiest record of continuous operation in the United States. Thomas Jefferson helped create the Democrats in opposition to the Federalist government and Alexander Hamilton’s fiscal policies. Democrats opposed a national bank and wealthy interests. Most people think of liberals when they think of Democrats, however most of the history of the racist south is told by Southern Democrats, or “Dixie-Crats”. Lincoln was a Republican after all. LBJ was the guy who really changed the identity of the Democrats by getting so much accomplished in his one lone term. And he did it with Socialist entitlement programs like Social Security, and by signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which he predicted would “…sign away the South for 50 years.” But LBJ also oversaw some of the worst moments and bloodiest mistakes of the Vietnam War. Democrats today are an odd bunch because they don’t know if they need to be Liberal, Progressive, Independent, or what they call “Blue Dog”. For example, President Obama is a Progressive Democrat. Joe LIEberman was almost the Democratic Vice President of the USA, but then he became an Independent who votes “NO” with the GOP on healthcare, and votes “YES” to war. Vermont’s Bernie Sanders is an Independent, but sounds like a Liberal and caucuses with the Democrats, and Evan Bayh is a Blue Dog Democrat, otherwise known as a Conservative. Bill Clinton was a Democrat’s Democrat-smart, tough, and real like FDR. But he was also like JFK in that he couldn’t keep his pants on. Speaking of not wearing pants, John Edwards could have redefined what it meant to be a Democrat–self made, defender of the poor, smart, southern, and rich enough to empathize with a Republican base below the Mason-Dixie Line. But John Edwards would have destroyed the party if he and John Kerry would have been elected in 2004, just like how he destroyed not just one but both of his families, and earning himself a lifetime spot in the  “WTF Were You Thinking” hall of fame, right next to disgraced ex-Governor of New York Elliott Spitzer. The Democrats are always the smartest people in the room, but too stupid to pay their whores to stay quiet.

PROGRESSIVES: Most people don’t know that there already was an established Progressive Party, which was founded in 1912 by none other than President Theodore Roosevelt. The Progressives trace their political roots back to workers’ rights and the emergence of Union protections and safety regulations. They are more conservative than Liberals, despite their name. When one thinks Progressively, one usually thinks of innovation and invention, and you know, progress. You would not expect Progressives to be the most centrist democrats, but they are. What makes them this way are their unquenchable thirst for making bi-partisan deals and working with their political enemies. Is that progressive? Is that their radical idea–make friends first, then ask for votes on legislation later? I don’t know why these folks are called Progressive. They’re no more Liberal than a Liberal, and they believe in a women’s right to choose, laws against concealed handguns, healthcare reform legislation, gay marriage, and financial regulations. Sounds almost like a real Liberal. But Progressives are different from Liberals. Liberals get things done, progressives make talk shows about getting things done. For example, the most famous Progressives are all on TV: John Stewart, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow,  and David Gergen are some of the best-known and most Progressive thinkers out there. By contrast, there is not one single politician who would call themselves a Progressive right now without running the risk of ending up like Ralph Nader-he speaks the truth, but you don’t want to be caught hanging out with him.

INDEPENDENTS: Independents are the middle finger of the political spectrum. An Independent effectively says “I have no party loyalty”, and in a close vote I can put you over the top or ruin your dream. Independents tend to caucus with Democrats, but as referenced above this is not always so. JoeLIEberman is an Independent ex-Democrat who caucuses with the GOP. Vermont’s Bernie Sanders is an Independent and is more Liberal than most politicians anywhere. And New York City’s lovable Mayor Michael Bloomberg, self-made billionaire and media mogul, got elected as a Republican because there were no openings to challenge the party structure for him to run naturally as a Democrat. Now he is an Independent and the city has never been in better shape. And to think that this party was started by a spandex-wearing ex-pro wrestler in Minnesota named Jessie?

MODERATE: Moderates are often referred to as RINOs (Republican In Name Only), and are viewed as equals to the Liberal by traditional Republican standards. Moderates are not typically extreme, partisan, or radical. They do not always vote with mainstream Republicans, and are always thought of as the only ones capable of preventing legislative gridlock. Moderates are really the best examples of open-mindedness, fairness, and bi-partisanship that we have  in this country. Moderates are the voices of reason, the champions of compromise, and the defenders of rational discussion. Examples of Political Moderates: …

REPUBLICANS: The Grand Old Party. The Party of Lincoln, and Reagan…and Nixon too! And Gingrich and Karl Rove. George H.W. Bush and his boy W. Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt, and Herbert Hoover. And Ford. John McCain was the darling of the political Right in 2008 until he picked a more conservative running mate named Sarah Palin. Then he was exposed as a nitwit with shoddy judgement. A Republican believes in “America..love it or leave it.” Republicans believe they are the true patriots of this country. Republicans think that smaller government is the way to go, and free markets need to be free. Because freedom is everything. That’s right, Republicans believe no government should ever be able to take away your freedom and they are against government intervention of any kind. To a Republican government is the enemy of freedom, and that government should stay out of the lives of ordinary people. Unless those ordinary people want an abortion, or are gay and want to get married. And Republicans believe that government has no right to regulate guns, healthcare, or even the banking sector. But they go full-contact government to make sure the pledge of alligience always includes the line “under God” or that coins minted by the US Treasury always include the phrase “In God We Trust”. So it’s tricky with the Republican party. They are against government intrusion in our lives, but are actually for government intrusion when it comes to sex and religion. So if you run a huge bank or a corporation that ruins the lives of thousands and millions of people because you were allowed to run wild and unregulated, then that’s just free market capitalism. But if you are a homosexual that wants to get married to your partner of 30 years because you love each other, that is a threat to the very fabric of American life and the Government needs to step in protect the people of this great land. Republicans: God, Guns, and Good-Ol’ Hypocracy.

CONSERVATIVES: A Conservative is a Republican on religious steroids. Conservatives can quote the bible better than they can quote the Constitution. And Conservatives love to rationalize their decision making process by tracing everything back to God. Conservatives don’t want things to change, and would prefer it if this country stayed exactly the way it was–the way it was in 1850. Gays can’t get married in the US because the bible says so. Conservatives believe in the institution of marriage for heterosexuals only. They believe that homosexuality is a sin, but infidelity is just an indescretion. After all, men have been cheating on their wives since before time. It even says so in the bible. Score one for the conservatives. Mark Sanford, John Ensign, John McCain, Newt Gingrich, Larry Craig (who cheated with men, and therefore may not be eligible for the Conservative Unfaithfulness Exemption), David Vitter, Dan Burton, Dan Crane, Henry Hyde, and Mark Foley have all claimed to be “Family Values Conservatives” and then they cheated on their wives. Gays can’t get married, but these guys can all go out and cheat on their wives. The only thing Conservatives don’t conserve is semen.

Tea Party Conservatives: These are Conservatives on LSD. They have delusions of the US government taking over. They believe in death panels, and they believe Sarah Palin would make a great President. Tea Partiers are scarier than a Hells Angels biker rally because they are just as psychotic and they believe they have God on their side. They talk about starting a revolution again, and they hate Obama with a passion. They are anti-immigration, anti-taxes, anti-globalization, and anti-intelligence. The Tea Party worships Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, FOX News, and believe they aren’t just entitled to their own opinions, but their own facts as well. The Tea-Party calls Obama’s healthcare reform both “socialized medicine” and “Nazi healthcare”, which if you look up at the spectrum chart I have provided you will see that is impossible. So it appears the Tea Partiers are also apparently anti-education as well.

FASCISM: Far out on the fringes of the political Right are the Fascists. Fascists believe in purity of the nation and strive for one-party rule over a homogenized population. That’s where Hitler and Mussolini came in. Hitler believed that one party could rule a nation of Aryans, and ultimately take over the world to create one human race. Sounds a little like Reagan’s casting call for the “Morning In America” commercial he put out in 1984. But Ronald Reagan was no Fascist. At least Fascists care about their own people. Reagan didn’t seem to give a damn about anyone.

So that’s our blog post on The US Political Spectrum: 2010. Check back in 10 years and we’ll see what the political landscape looks like. Unless we’ve all killed each other by then.

Mitch McConnell Does NOT Speak For Me

I try to keep this blog bipartisan in my critique of politics and politicians. I am always on the side of the average American citizen, and therefore I consider anyone who has our well-being under their control to be fair game. Republicans and Democrats, and even President Obama himself.

But this healthcare debate is making everyone say outrageous things. Coming out of last week’s joke of a healthcare summit, both sides are spinning the situation to make themselves appear to be on the side of the people. But US Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell from Kentucky went on the Sunday talk shows yesterday and said something that made me flip out:

“…the American people do not want this bill. They have paid a lot of attention to this issue. They have focused on it like a laser for months.”

Excuse me Senator McConnell, but you do not speak for this American or the millions of others in this country that do in fact want this bill to pass. To say that we do not want this bill is inaccurate. We have been asking for healthcare reform for years. It is also false to say that people have focused on this bill “like a laser”. Most people cannot cite any details of the bill that is currently on the table, INCLUDING many of the people in Congress.

What people have been forced to focus on are things like “death panels” and “socialism” and “government takeover of your healthcare”, because those are the Republican scare tactics masquerading as facts. That’s what the polls are reflecting. If you average the Rasmussen, CNN, FOX, and MSNBC polls there are still almost 50% of the American population who are in favor of this bill. If you factor out all the distortions by people like McConnell then the number would surely go over 50%. That is NOT “the American people do not want this bill.” That is McConnell’s arrogant and skewed reading of exactly what the people want.

And in case there are those who read this and say, “well that’s just your opinion–fact is there’s still a simple majority of the electorate who oppose this bill”, then I would counter that over 40% of the country deserves to be considered on this issue. You know, just like how the Republicans claim that even though they are the minority party they still deserve to be listened to or else they will filibuster.  As usual, there is a double standard for GOP politicians like McConnell.

McConnell and other jerks like John McCain (for the record: I think John McCain is an arrogant, closed-minded, unintelligent, and reckless jerk) also cry foul that the Democrats are going to pass healthcare reform via reconciliation. This is ridiculous when you consider that the GOP has used reconciliation 16 times since 1980, vs. only 6 times by the Democrats–INCLUDING the outrageous tax cuts for the wealthy by W.

Mitch McConnell and his cronies are arrogant, shameless, deceitful, self-centered jerks. They have sunk to the lowest levels of fear-mongering and hypocrisy, and they can not stand the idea that the Democrats are going to ram this healthcare bill down their throats and continue to do the Peoples’ business that we elected them to do. Unlike the “G-no-P”, who measures progress by how long they can try to block legislation up to the election season, and then they run on distortions of the facts.

Mitch McConnell speaks for the fools who voted for him, but that’s it. He is the MINORITY leader of his party in the Senate–the party that is NOT in control. I voted for the party that right now holds a majority. They speak for me, and most intelligent and reasonably sane Americans.