Political Blog—October 2009

October 9—Ignoble Nobel?

When I heard Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, I was all kinds of excited. I flipped on the news to find out more, and . . . I didn't. Apparently the committee awarded the prize to him for what they hope he will do rather than anything he's already done. I love Obama, but that's just not right. That prize is a high honor and ought to be bestowed only on those who have already accomplished a great body of work. It's not supposed to be a political move. Let's hope he earns the honor.

October 13—Way to go, Olympia Snowe!

Today, Republican Senator Olympia Snowe voted for health care reform. She was the only Republican to do so. Good for her, and shame on the other Republicans for being vindictive and childish and only voting no for the sake of voting no. She did point out that her voting yes did not imply she would repeat that vote in the future, which is as it should be. Nevertheless, I was quite pleased to see somebody participating in bipartisan politics.

October 25—Cornyn and Schumer

Senators Cornyn and Schumer were on Meet the Press this morning, talking about how Iraq is still fragile (no shit). When David Gregory asked if we'd achieved victory over there, Cornyn somewhat predictably said well maybe not victory but progress. Schumer somewhat predictably said that if the goal were to wipe out terrorism, then no, we haven't achieved victory; if we were trying to establish democracy, then it was a fifty-fifty.

Then David Gregory moved on to the economy, specificially, seven firms the government bailed out (AIG, Chrysler, Bank of America, GMAC, Chrysler Financial, citi, and GM). There's talk of slashing the salaries of the top executives at said firms, and Gregory asked if that were merely punishment for squandering the bailout money. I have to agree that it seems like mostly punishment, but Schumer stated that slashing their salaries wouldn't hurt the effectiveness of the companies. Cornyn said the reduction in salaries would lead to an exodus to other companies that would pay them the high salaries. Schumer said that the companies would find other ways to offer ridiculous amounts of cash to the executives, such as stock. It sickens me, but it's true: The top brass will always find a way to pay themselves and fuck over everyone else. It's true all the way down the system. I remember going to UT and the administration would constantly raise their salaries, yet people who cleaned the buildings for us saw their jobs disappearing, meaning we'd go to class every day and see piles of trash in the aisles.

Anyway, in other news, Cheney still won't shut the fuck up. He's calling Obama afraid of making a decision with regard to Afghanistan. After eight years of . . . what, now? Brilliant. I can't wait till he self destructs. In the meantime, I'm mighty tired of listening to him dithering.

October 26—Public Option Optional

Harry Reid announced today that there would indeed be a public option in health care reform. The snag, of course, is that it will only be available to people currently uninsured, and it will only be available in certain areas. Brilliant. *sigh* It's not going to be big enough to keep costs down.

In other news, the lunatic fringe on the far right is holding up Scott Roeder (accused of the murder of abortionist Dr. Tiller) as some kind of hero. How totally sick. How can you possibly claim to be pro-life when you support murder? There's bound to be more about this, so stay tuned.

Also, I forgot to mention yesterday that Obama's talking about how to improve energy; he was talking about smart meters (so people can watch how much energy they're using and monitor their usage accordingly) and how in the future we'll all have electric cars we can charge overnight. Sounds great, but I know it'll take forever to implement. This country desperately needs grid modernization, not to mention a serious overhaul of infrastructure. I was just thinking about that when I read an article about the ship channel bridge (officially known as Sidney Sherman Bridge, it spans the Houston Ship Channel) the other day. My dad and I used to cross it several times a week when I was a child; I recall it being closed for repairs a couple of times because the idiots who built it ignored the warnings that it wasn't tall enough. Guess what. A ship did collide with it, and another time a crane boom knocked a hole in the span. Both incidents resulted in weeks of construction with several lanes closed. Terrifying. And stuff like this keeps happening. I kind want to forget health care (despite the fact that I am uninsured and coming down with something) and focus on that. Let's fix bridges and shit.

October 28—Fuck Joe Lieberman.

Fuck Joe Lieberman.

I was tempted to leave today's entry at that, but I suppose some detail is called for. I'll try to keep from derailing into a rabid rant.

Lieberman, due to being in the lap of health care lobbyists (and not the good kind), is planning on totally blowing up health care. Asshole. His wife worked for APCO, the lobbying company with a shitload of pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations among its clients. Nooo, not a conflict of interest at all. So he's threatening to filibuster if the public option remains. This despite the fact that his voters support the public option by a ration of 68:21. Way to fuck over your constituents, Senator Joe. Ever heard the word "reelection"? Then again, being in the pocket of health care lobbyists and all, I suppose their campaign contributions will make up for any lost votes. Geez, at least when Arlen Specter switched parties, he was honest enough to say that he did it because he didn't think he could get reelected as a Republican. It wasn't this legalized corruption and bribery. For God's sake, Lieberman got $65,200 from AETNA. UGH.

Now. The New York Times recently broke a huge story about Ahmed Wali Karzai (the Afghan president's brother) being on the CIA payroll. It doesn't help that Ahmed is widely suspected of involvement in the drug trade. All I can think is, how many American dollars have thusly indirectly wound up funding the Taliban? I mean what the fuck. He better get the fuck out of there before the rest of that counterinsurgency plan in the works gets going.

In other news, I mentioned last time that Roeder, the suspected murderer of Dr. Tiller, is now the subject of hero worship by the lunatic right. His supporters were going to raise money for him by auctioning off a bunch of horrifying anti-abortion stuff on eBay, but eBay wouldn't hear of it. Good for eBay. I think I'll be spending my entire next paycheck on eBay.