Political Blog—March 2010

March 5—Liz Cheney, the True Terrorist

Liz Cheney has antagonized even conservatives. She claimed that lawyers representing terrorists were themselves terrorist sympathizers. Somebody called her worse than McCarthy. Other conservatives used words including "vicious" and "unfounded." Various conservatives said "it's inappropriate to suggest that these lawyers share the values of terrorists," "it's truly offensive. It's beyond a cheap shot to suggest that a lawyer is an Al Qaeda sympathizer," it's wrong to suggest that people who sought judicial review are somehow sympathetic to Al Qaeda," "it's absolutely outrageous for the Cheney-Grassely crowd do try to tar and feather them," "if you zealously represent a client, there's nothing shameful about that; it's the American way," etc., etc., etc. Even Bill O'Reilly, for God's sake, wouldn't play. Well, maybe this will wake up some on the right. But I know some idiots will pipe up and side with her. Ugh.

Speaking of unfounded accusations of palling around with terrorists, that idiot Hayworth accused McCain of palling around with liberals (who?), so McCain responded by snaring Scott Brown, a liberal Republican who has already angered some of the conservatives who elected him by supporting the jobs bill. He called McCain his mentor and praised him for being an outsider despite his many years inside Washington. Anyway, Hayworth made an ad of McCain painted blue like an Avatar character parodying the Oscars, calling him the nominee for "best conservative actor," never mind that his voting record has been at least 60% conservative for years and jumped to over 80% in the last year.

Not really worth mentioning, but Sarah Palin was on Leno the other night. I didn't think she was very funny. Scott Wolfe said the worst danger for a politician is when he starts to think he's funny. Having said that, Mitt Romney was on Letterman and was, I thought, funny. Big surprise, it turned out that some of the audience laughter at Sarah Palin was "sweetened." I knew I wasn't the only one who found her material and delivery stale and lacking.

March 7—Blah Blah Blah Health Care Reform Blah Blah Blah

Health care is up to the latest deadline. Like Douglas Adams, Congress seems to enjoy the whooshing sound deadlines make as the rush past. Stupak is still bitching about abortion, which isn't even in the bill. I think he's kicking up a fuss about it not because he thinks it'll work but because it'll make him famous. Then they talked about the filibuster rule and partisanship and the negative points in the bill and everything else we've heard ad nauseam for weeks. Health care was all they talked about on Meet the Press really; I'm sick to death of it. I know it matters, but God damn. Is there nothing else going on in the country?

Oh. Well. Not this country, but in Iraq, which is in the midst of a violent election. Of course there was hardly anything about that; I'll have to stay tuned later this week. I'll be busy with work, though, and likely miss a lot of excitement.

March 15—Oh, Health Reform, Schmealth Reform

I'm sick of hearing about it, I'm sick of talking about it, and I'm sick of knowing that there's nothing else to talk about until the damn thing passes, and even then it won't stop. You know it's going to pass and then there will be controversies and tea party-esque protests and who knows what else. Nevertheless, I admired what Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio said regarding his determination to pass the bill. He talked about how the Republicans always campaign on fear—be it McCarthyism, Soviets, Medicare, terrorism, etc.—and how it's the same thing with tea parties and whatnot today. The best antidote to fear, he said, was stories about human beings. Not just tugging at heartstrings, but really showing how the health insurance system abuses people who get sick. I hate that dinky human interest stories are the only tactic that works, but if it gets this thing passed, then so be it.

In other old news, Senators Dodd and Mammon are talking about working on legislation to see to it that tax dollars don't fund further bailouts. Given the disastrous unpopularity of the last bailouts, I'm inclined to agree.

Rachel Maddow had J. D. Hayworth on, calling him out on his hypocrisy for lambasting McCain for voting for the bailout because of its earmarks, while Hayworth himself in 2005 voted for the Bush Transportation Bill, which had $138 million in earmarks for Arizona alone. He of course defended his actions, and Rachel said, "So his earmarks are bad, and your earmarks are good?" Hee. He didn't really have a comeback for that one, try as he might.

Then Hayworth stated that the Supreme Court had defined marriage as "the establishment of intimacy," which Rachel proved that it did not. She read the exact wording of the ruling off, and he could only reply with "we have a disagreement here." Yes, he has a disagreement with the truth.

Meanwhile, Texas has made headlines again, in typical embarrassing backwards redneck fashion. Damn it, this is a great state; why is it represented by such tools? The Texas State Board Education wants a more "fair and balanced" outlook in Social Studies textbooks, and yes "fair and balanced" in quotes is right. They want to put Jeff Davis alongside Abe Lincoln, and they want to demote Thomas Jefferson—Thomas Fucking Jefferson—because, ZOMG, he wrote about the separation of church and state. Apparently the Declaration of Independence is just some commie tract that should be wiped from history. *sigh*

Anyway, financial reform comes next . . . and I thought hearing about health care reform was annoying. And I'm not going to have a clue what's going on in the next project. I don't have a clue how the stock market works, and the concept of the bond market is a new one on me. I realize that the stock market, contrary to what the Madoff scandal might have implied, is heavily regulated, at least in part because it has so many people in it. Everyone can invest in the stock market. The bond market, comprised of huge institutions, is much more like the Wild West, thusly it is much easier to rip people off in the bond market. But that is the limit of my understanding.

In other news, what sounds like the plot to a Matt Damon movie made the news tonight. Defense Department official Michael D. Furlong, a civilian, personally hired private contractors to carry out an intelligence-gathering operation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That information was turned over to the military and may have been used in targeted assassinations. The military can't do the spying itself because it's supposed to be apolitical, that plus the fact that it'd suck if one of them got caught and then the military denied that person's existence. Instead that fate will befall a civilian. Fine. It ought to be interesting to see how this unfolds . . .

March 17—Finally, something in health care reform worth listening to.

Today, Dennis Kucinich reversed himself to vote yes for health care reform after months of saying he'd vote no if the bill didn't have a option. That was fast. Perhaps he finally caved due to pressure from Obama himself yesterday in the public meeting in Ohio about the woman whose insurance coverage grew so high she had to drop it and then she got diagnosed with leukemia. Whatever Kucinich's reasoning, it sparked a bunch of thought on the news this evening about the progressive divide—idealism vs. pragmatism; is it strategy or caving? I suspect it's caving; health care reform is almost inevitably always going to suck in this country. And yet there are jingoistic morons who believe health care in this country is top shelf stuff.

Anyway, the House is close to ready to vote on health care reform; they're supposed to vote Sunday, and the Senate is supposed to vote by Easter. Yeah, where have we heard that before? Eh. Anyway, it'll be on to the White House then, and then it's all ours. A whole new world for insurance companies and their victims. Within ninety days, those who were denied coverage due to a preexisting condition will have access to care through the government's high risk pools. It will be illegal to deny kids coverage for their preexisting conditions, plus they can stay on their folks' insurance till age twenty-six. There will be no lifetime limits and no rescinding of insurance when you file a claim. Woo! And then. By next year, if you're on Medicare, you will qualify for free annual wellness visits. Also next year, insurance companies will have to spend eighty to eight-five percent of your premium on actual medical care, and if they don't, they will have to refund you the difference back. If they want to hike your rates, they will have to announce it and justify it, and the justification will have to be reviewed. Then, in 2014, it will no longer be legal for insurance companies to deny anyone coverage based on preexisting conditions, period. Woot! Plus there will be no more annual limits on your benefits. God damn, why didn't they explain all that before? For months all we've heard about is "reform" with absolutely no explanation of what it actually entailed. I'm still sick of hearing about it, yes, but now that it looks like it might actually be going somewhere, it's getting to the point where I might start listening.

March 22—Now what?

So, health care reform passed. Now what? Now the madness begins. No, not from the government, from the lunatic fringe. It started in the House last night when Congressman Neugebauer of Texas (always Texas! Why us? How embarrassing.) screamed "This is a baby killer!" at Bart Stupak. Of course, only the phrase "baby killer" got heard. Other protestors, not members of Congress, shouted racial epithets and spat at black Congressmen, and a few Democratic representatives had bricks put through their office windows. Luckily, at least one of the above was arrested.

March 24—The Smile on the Face of the Tiger

The GOP is finally taking some responsibility for the lunacy of its members, telling them not to throw bricks but rather participate in political debates in a civilized manner. I think it's too little too late really—Where were they when Palin was babbling about death panels, or they were saying that Joe Stack was justified? The GOP was trying to ride the tiger of the so-called populist rebellion, and they wound up looking like the tiger themselves.

March 29—Scandal! . . . Again?

The GOP made headlines embarrassing itself yet again with yet another sex scandal. A Young Eagles meeting dropped two thousand dollars at a lesbian-themed bondage strip club called Voyeur in West Hollywood, sending the bill to the RNC. Way to spend taxpayers' money, guys. No wonder they can't get anything done; they're looking at half naked women suspended from the ceiling rather than their constituents. To be fair, the half naked women are probably more interesting, but that's not the point. The left, of course (myself included) is enjoying a terrific giggle at that. Nice to know fiscal conservatism and moral values are alive and well on the right . . .

March 31—Georgia on My Mind

The GOP is now against offshore drilling, just as Obama announced he would do it. Well. Certain factions of the GOP, like John Boehner, are against it. John McCain and a few other Republicans made mildly positive remarks regarding Obama's decision, most likely because of a keen awareness of the all-too-recent, all-too-unimaginative "Drill, baby, drill." I've never really been a fan of offshore drilling myself, but honestly? This business of hating everything Obama is for is simply ridiculous.

Related to offshore drilling, it's none too surprising that the oil and gas industry is funding climate change opposition groups. Koch Industries, whose vice president founded Americans for Prosperity (the same group who sponsored so much anti-health care reform garbage), gave forty-eight and a half million dollars to climate change opposition groups. I think it's convenient that the same people who hate health care reform also hate the environment; it just goes together somehow.

Speaking of hating everything Obama is for, several state attorneys general are trying to file lawsuits against health care reform—and making ludicrous claims to support themselves. The Virginia Attorney General wants to file a suit claiming health care reform is unconstitutional, and he said it would only cost the taxpayers three hundred fifty dollars, which cannot possibly work unless the whole staff works for free, on their own time, using their own office supplies, etc. Of course, there are a few voices of reason, but they're in danger of being trampled. Some of the Georgia government also wanted to file a suit, but their Attorney General, Thurbert Baker, refused. Now he's facing impeachment charges for doing his job and telling the truth. He said that it would be fruitless and frivolous to waste taxpayers' money on such a lawsuit, especially with the economy in such a state: Georgia is laying off teachers and cutting back on school days because the economy is so bad; Baker is not going to lose more money bringing a stupid suit about something that's not even unconstitutional. Of course his opponents claim that he abdicated his authority and committed an act against Georgia. Really, the people willing to waste taxpayers' money on some ridiculous political vendetta are the ones committing an act against the state.

Still on the health care reform tangent, the GOP is now trying to fund health care reform's repeal. . . . How? How are they supposed to pass it without the votes? I seem to recall the Republicans were badly outnumbered when health care reform passed; do they honestly think the votes would magically appear when they need them now? It's a futile, dramatic political stunt purely to emphasize their hatred of health care reform . . . and Obama. The sad thing is they can't even find anyone to say it's unconstitutional.

The lunatic fringe is still at large, of course. Armed and dangerous, they're planning a hate march on April 19th—the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing and the David Koresh disaster at Waco. Of course, Washington, D.C. has a sensible ban on guns, so they'll have to meet on a tiny strip of land on the other side of the Potomac. I trust the place will be awash with Secret Service Agents. With any luck, the crazies will plunge into the Potomac and drown.