We Weren't the Only Ones Thinking.....

See the whole Cartoon here...

Moyers Understands Health Care Reform, Why Can't Obama?

Knowing that the opposition to health care reform angrily protested items that weren't in any of the bills (isn't that surreal), is there any reason not to include the public option? Of course not. If conservatives used actual congressional language to make their point, we might have had a legitimate debate. Having said that...

Hey Democrats, need a backbone? Need a pep talk? Former White House Press Secretary Bill Moyers nails it again. Why can't President Obama have Moyers clarity?

Moyers on Campaign Money: Corporate Personhood will take Control of our Elections.

Does McCain Feingold censor corporations, infringing on their free speech rights? Are corporations people, with the same rights guaranteed in the constitution? Could corporate money influence elections? Bill Moyers Journal presents both side of the issue before the conservative activist Supreme Court next week. The answer is clearly no, corporations aren't like people, but advocates of corporate personhood cannot be swayed by reality. The odd thing is, these are the same people claiming to be strict constitutional constructionists, like Justice Thomas and Scalia.

Trevor Potter, the founding president and general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, and someone who helped to successfully defend the McCain-Feingold law in the lower and Supreme courts, obliterates Floyd Abrams arguments promoting corporate free speech.

Franken Needs a Little Attention, Advice and a few Angry Protesters.

Ana Marie Cox, filling in for Rachel Maddow, featured this little helpful piece directed at Sen. Al Franken, who seems to be getting little national attention.

Franken needs to throw a little madness into his health care speaking engagements.

GOP: The President Will Steal Your Kids on Tuesday!

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann starts this clip with the GOP warning, "Just stay home from school." From there, the insane idea that kids should not be exposed to the presidents radical message that students should staying in school and working hard are pushed by the usual cast of Republican zanies; Hannity, Beck, Pawlenty and Malkin.

The Authoritarian Republican "Public Servant"

I remember the day clearly, when I did an entire 2 hour radio show on John Dean's books detailing the authoritarian tendencies of the Republican Party. I made the case and the audience responded well to topic. Who would know better than Dean, who is and always has been a Republican. So imagine my surprise when my program director came up to me after the program, sounding less than pleased with the subject matter, angrily said it sounded to much like public radio.

Here's an excerpt of a John Dean article from Oct. 31, 2008, before the presidential election.

The Republican Approach to Government: Authoritarian Rule

Republicans rule, rather than govern, when they are in power by imposing their authoritarian conservative philosophy on everyone, as their answer for everything. This works for them because their interest is in power, and in what it can do for those who think as they do. Ruling, of course, must be distinguished from governing, which is a more nuanced process that entails give-and-take and the kind of compromises that are often necessary to find a consensus and solutions that will best serve the interests of all Americans.

Republicans' authoritarian rule can also be characterized by its striking incivility and intolerance toward those who do not view the world as Republicans do. Their insufferable attitude is not dangerous in itself, but it is employed to accomplish what they want, which is to take care of themselves and those who work to keep them in power.

Authoritarian conservatives are primarily anti-government, except where they believe the government can be useful to impose moral or social order (for example, with respect to matters like abortion, prayer in schools, or prohibiting sexually-explicit information from public view). Similarly, Republicans' limited-government attitude does not apply regarding national security, where they feel there can never be too much government activity - nor are the rights and liberties of individuals respected when national security is involved.

Authoritarian Republicans do oppose the government interfering with markets and the economy, however - and generally oppose the government's doing anything to help anyone they feel should be able to help themselves.

In my book Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches, I set forth the facts regarding the consequences of the Republicans' controlling government for too many years. No Republican - nor anyone else, for that matter - has refuted these facts, and for good reason: They are irrefutable.

The McCain/Palin Ticket Perfectly Fits the Authoritarian Conservative Mold
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican candidates, have shown themselves to be unapologetic and archetypical authoritarian conservatives. Indeed, their campaign has warmed the hearts of fellow authoritarians, who applaud them for their negativity, nastiness, and dishonest ploys and only criticize them for not offering more of the same.

The McCain/Palin campaign has assumed a typical authoritarian posture: The candidates provide no true, specific proposals to address America's needs. Rather, they simply ask voters to "trust us" and suggest that their opponents - Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden - are not "real Americans" like McCain, Palin, and the voters they are seeking to court. Accordingly, McCain and Plain have called Obama "a socialist," "a redistributionist," "a Marxist," and "a communist" - without a shred of evidence to support their name-calling, for these terms are pejorative, rather than in any manner descriptive. This is the way authoritarian leaders operate.

GOP Okay with Government Intervention When Free Markets Fail. Few Noticed, Until Now.

Lou Kaye at Rocknetroots.blogspot.com hit on the heart of the Republican Party's hypocrisy on free markets.

As published in Sunday's Janesville Messenger in an article titled, "Doyle proves he's just not one of us."

Excerpt: People are right to ask why is there such reluctance on the part of our governor to impose himself in the discussion to get a deal so the jobs can remain in Wisconsin? Where was the passion he tried to show at the eleventh hour in Janesville?

Against all common sense for the sake of the failed free markets, Doyle played into the extortion game when state and locals offered a very respectable "bribery" package to General Motors at the 11th hour on behalf of Janesville and the State of Wisconsin. We were out-extorted and lost.

But it wasn't because Doyle's heart is not in saving jobs. On the other hand, Doyle and the state supposedly played a much lesser role with Mercury Marine and.....won.

And despite limited details on reports indicating that state government and Fond du Lac officials "imposed" themselves into the private negotiations carried out between Mercury Marine and the union, I only hope a tax raising "bribery" package was not part of the equation.

Although all the facts are not yet known, apparently the "free market" reacted very favorably to the "nothing" role the WPRI perceives Doyle played with Mercury Marine. They bash him for it. One would think any true free-market think tank would want as little government influence as possible when it comes to corporate free market decisions.

But what kind of a "free market" do we have when its so-called risk-takers suckle on the collectivist system of government taxation to bail out their mismanaged losses?

Check out the whole article here. I've only scratched the surface with Kaye's introduction.

The GOP's "Conspiracy Theories R' Us" Department Store of Red Herrings and Straw Men

If you've wondered why Republicans are finding it so hard to moderate their now out of control party, author and NY Times book review editor Sam Tanenhaus offers his analysis, from World Net Daily to William F. Buckley Jr.. Tanenhaus is also promoting his book appropriately titled, "The Death of Conservatism."

The bottom line: With the death of Buckley, conservative intellectualism has been pushed aside for those advocating their anti-intellectual elitist extremism. What the birthers and deathers have now is a "Conspiracy Theories R' Us" department store of red herrings and straw men.

MSNBC:

Catholic Diocese Blocks Obama School Speech. Church Politics of the Lunatic Fringe.

Isn't it time we start making churches pay their fair share of taxes...

Wisconsin State Journal: Catholic schools in Madison should not broadcast President Barack Obama's back-to-school address Tuesday, the Catholic Diocese of Madison instructed principals in a letter this week.

"It would be irresponsible of any teacher to introduce to her/his students material that the teacher has not screened, evaluated, found to be educationally sound and then integrated into the lesson plan as a means of meeting the standards of the curriculum," according to the letter from Michael Lancaster, superintendent of Catholic schools in the Madison diocese.

The letter goes on to say it appears the message will only reiterate messages already delivered every day such as "work hard, be responsible, set goals and don't give up."

Officials with the Madison School District have said teachers will decide whether to tune their classrooms in to the back-to-school address. Students who don't want to listen can leave class without penalty."

As long as we allow the few "school yard bullies," church leaders and racist parents get their way in marginalizing the president, we will have ceded the political winds to lunatics.

GOP to Obama: Tort Reform Starts with the Victims and Their Legal Representation. Not with the 200,000 Deaths a Year.

Like any Republican hot button issue, they are often wrong about the solution and start reform at the wrong end of problem.

Instead of preventing over 200,000 deaths from medical errors a year, the GOP wants to attack the issue well after the fact in a way that protects the insurance companies bottom line and paid out settlements. Smart. According to American Association for Justice President Anthony Tarricone, “Over 98,000 people are killed every year by 'preventable' medical errors. Reducing accountability won’t improve health care.”

There would be fewer malpractice awards it we reduced medical errors first. Right? You don't have to be a friggin' genius to figure that one out. Yet President Obama doesn't even get it, a victim of years of Republican whining and positioning.

According to Examiner.com:

...the conservative approach of "tort reform" that seeks to eliminate "frivolous" lawsuits is nothing more than a ploy by insurance companies to avoid paying claims in order to boost their profits. Public Citizen, outlines 10 proposed reforms ... save 85,000 lives and $35 billion a year. These proposed reforms are:

Use best practices to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia, saving 32,000 lives and $900 million; 

Use best practices to prevent pressure ulcers (bed sores), saving 14,071 lives and $5.5 billion; 

Implement safeguards and quality control measures to reduce medication errors, saving 4,620 lives and $2.3 billion; 

Use best practices to prevent patient falls in health care facilities, saving $1.5 billion; 

Use a checklist to prevent catheter infections, saving 15,680 lives and $1.3 billion; 

Increase nurse staffing, saving 5,000 lives and $242 million; 

Permit standing orders to increase flu and pneumococcal vaccinations in the elderly, saving 9,520 lives and $545 million; 

Use beta-blockers after heart attacks, saving 3,600 lives and $900,000;

and increase the use of advanced care planning, saving $3.2 billion.

Other recommendations include mandatory reporting of medical errors; expanding nursing education to eliminate a shortage of 126,000 nurses; and an adequate peer review process for the medical profession to better police itself in order to weed out the incompetents responsible for a large proportion of medical errors. Better patient care is what's really needed to reduce medical malpractice lawsuits.

Media Should Clamp Down on "far left" references. Rep. Ryan's Views on "left" wing Public Option.

I am so tired of the media allowing Republicans to get away with saying their "far left" and "left wing" slams at the Democratic Party and voter.

May I remind media that Rep. Ryan and others are proposing their own "far right"/"right wing" agenda, an agenda that failed and brought about a second economic depression.

People who are "left" are independents and Democrats. They have a real belief system based on real solutions, not "right" Ayn Rand theories that have since been discredited.

Marginalizing the "left" should no longer be tolerated by serious talk show hosts. Make Republicans say the word Democrat.

Finally, Ryan continues to suggest that reform is possible without competition, with little tweaks here and there. If anyone thinks that requiring insurance companies to pay for one extra "tweak," without a premium increase to cover that "tweak," then they are incredibly uninformed or completely unaware of the current private health care system.

Expecting reform out of an industry that had 65 years to get it right, and decided to only concentrate on bigger profits, is a striking flaw in the minds of free market "thinkers" like Ryan. Here's Upfront with Mike Gousha:

Health Care Stupidity in the Media and Rep. Jenkins says: Be a grown-up, buy insurance. It's that easy.

It's frustrating to watch the media analyze the health care debate. In most cases they don't have a clue as to how it works, and are usually duped by the barrage of misinformation . Rep. Anthony Weiner finds out the hard way as he tries not to appear stunned and amazed.

In another clip, Rep. Jenkin's tells a young waitress and her uninsured son "to go be a grown-up and go buy the insurance." What a well thought out solution.

Jenkin's likes the idea of "buying the insurance" because to here, that's what grown-ups do automatically, without a thought of how it will effect the family budget or how it will impact putting food on the table.

Doesn't anyone at these town hall meetings realize insurance has no medical purpose?

Believing Anything, No Matter How Crazy, is GOP's Biggest Strength.

After watching this compilation of the GOP's health care fear mongering put together by Healthcheckfactcheck.com, it still amazes me there was one person taken in by this baseless trash talk.



Wouldn't it be nice if the media began to say, as MSNBC's John Harwood does here about Obama's upcoming speech to our public schools, that there are "a lot of stupid people" in this country and they may not be the greatest parents.

Coming Soon (I hope).....Democurmudgeon.com

After a great run here at blogspot, I have had enough. Many of the updated new features for producing this blog are not working (like video), editing links that are gone, and the addition soon of an my opinionated real estate blog (returning to my old career), made it obvious that a simple easy to read updated blog was needed.

I expect to have Democurmudgeon.com and radiorealestateguy.com up and running within the month. The learning curve is my only impediment.

For now, nothing has changed but the continuing drama in politics.

Assassination Agenda: Pastor Wants Obama to Die Like Ted Kennedy, Now! The "Civil" Debate Continues...

With God on my side...

The cool but passionate intellectual debate Republicans are demanding on health care and cap and trade is a little different than the one most Democrats would envision. Consider the following bible thumping conservative out of Phoenix, Arizona, compliments of MyFoxPhoenix.com:

The sermons at Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona are stirring controversy and for some, causing alarm. Pastor Steven Anderson says he's a man of God, but some are horrified at what he's preaching. Anderson is standing by his controversial sermon, entitled "Why I Hate Barack Obama."

Anderson is continuing to encourage his parishioners to pray
for the president's death, but says he doesn't condone killing. "I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today. I will not take the law into my own hands. I will not take up any arms. It's a spiritual battle, spiritual warfare."

In the conservative mindset of having God on their side, and fighting God's war against the liberal/gay agenda, God's army of gun toting believers make up what some might consider "the civil debate" of the issues.

Many parishioners walked into the church carrying guns
on their hips. One of them was Christopher Broughton, who got national attention when he brought an AR-15 assault rifle to an Aug. 17 rally outside the Phoenix Convention Center where President Obama was addressing veterans.

We asked him if he wanted to clarify what the impact of Pastor Anderson's sermon was on his decision to bring a gun to the rally, but he had no response. (In another statement) Brighton says he carried the weapon because of his long-standing dislike for Obama. Anderson says his sermon about wanting Obama
to die was not meant to rile people up. "If anything, I was talking him (Broughton) down," he said, "Not riling him up."

Pastor Anderson says, "Look up the word hate. Look up the word abhor, the word loathe. You'll see there are a lot of people that God hates, and so we should hate. But see, I didn't write that, that's in the Bible."

This is the same pastor who told FOX 10 that Border Patrol and DPS officers Tased him in March. Video of that incident was posted -- and officers said Anderson refused to cooperate.

Now, he's under scrutiny for his own words, "I hate Barack Obama… I hate the person... I hate him!"

And so the civil "debate" of the issues continues....

The Marginalization of Obama: People are Afraid of the President Speaking to School Kids!

A simple presidential address to school kids has forced the Republicans to hit the self destruct button. For me, this is the final straw. I don't think I'll ever see anything like this again. Here are a few headlines greeting our country:

Fla. GOP: Obama to Spread Socialism in Schools

Presidential address to students creates malaise

Obama Big Brotherism Targets Your Kids

Right wing jumps shark; This is not the loyal opposition. This is the Loco Sore Loser Coalition.

Pledging Allegiance to Whom?

And finally, this headline and story segment says it all:

Wichita Falls Independent School District says no to Obama's speech

District Superintendent George Kazanas said, "Too many aspects of the speech, which is designed to be streamed directly into classrooms over the Internet from the White House Web site, are unusual and atypical and conflict with education protocol."

A Nation of Monsters....?

See the whole cartoon here.

Racist State of Texas Ponders Not Letting Kids See Obama Give Pep Talk on TV in Classrooms. Did You know He's a Socialist Black President?

Instead of being appalled, maybe we should ask Texas to secede from the union. These racist anti-education geniuses would hate to have the president of the United States "challenge students to work hard." Did you know he's black...

(AP) — School districts across Texas are pondering whether they'll have their students watch a national address by President Barack Obama next week.

The speech on the importance of education is aimed directly
at the nation's school children at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

In the Wylie school district in suburban Dallas, spokeswoman Susan Dacus says officials are leaving the decision to individual teachers. She says parents who don't want their children to see it can opt out. In Houston, each school will decide.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the speech would challenge students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning.

Note: the above right picture is from my right wing born again conservative friend, who apparently finds this stuff funny or he's just taunting me.

Here's a short run down of this decidedly anti-government, anti-president and anti-American movement on the right from Disecting Leftism:

"He's recruiting his civilian army. His 'Hitler' youth brigade," wrote one participant in a forum at Free Republic.

"I am not going to compare President Obama to Hitler. A key ingredient in that spread of propaganda was through the youth," wrote a blogger at the AmericanElephant.com blog, where the subject of the day was a national "Keep-Your-Child-at-Home-Day."

AmericanElephant blog: "Now the former community organizer and current president of the United States is making an unprecedented speech to the school children of our nation. "When the president browbeats property owners who want to protect their legal rights…when the president calls me a liar for reporting what is actually in the health care bills … when the president apologizes to nations around the world and bows to a Saudi king… he loses the benefit of the doubt," the blogger wrote.

At the Docstoc website where the announcement about the speech was drawing negative reaction, one forum participant confirmed that his grandchildren would not be in school that day. "What's he going to do, tell the kids to report their parents to the Thought Police if they don't support Obamacare?" added another.

Duane Lester, writing at All American Blogger, has verbalized opponents' worst fears. "Hitler knew that if you control the youth, you control the future. I wrote about him in 'The Threats to Homeschooling: From Hitler to the NEA.'

Dan Savage on the Media Silence Regarding the Republicans Assassination Agenda

Oops, Dan Savage mentions the unmentionable on Countdown with Keith Olbermann...

Isn't it about time we start sounding the alarm about the radicalized right wing Repbulicans assassination agenda?

Rep. Pete Olson Caught Lying at Health Care Town Hall by Protesters.

Rep. Pete Olson lasted 47 seconds under intense questioning over a woman he described as not being able to find a doctor for her unborn child's heart defect, and who also claimed the child would have died under a public option.

Not true according to the crowd, who shouted the insurance company turned her down, not the government. That's when the town hall meeting ended.

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn is Holding Up Cancer Research in the Hopes of Getting a Better Return. Rationing?

I came across video of a recent Sen. Tom Coburn town hall meeting, but didn't have any reason to use it here as a posting, until Rachel Maddow featured a story about the Independent Women's Forum. They are now trying to scare women into thinking that Obama's health care reform will result in rationing of breast cancer treatments which will end up killing thousands of women a year. They ask, "What are your chances?"

Isn't it odd that the party trying to provide health care treatment in an attempt to bring about the early detection of disease, the Democrats, are the ones trying to withhold life saving cancer treatments. It would appear just the opposite is true. Another case of Republicna projection.

"Doctor" and Sen. Tom Coburn is one of the Republicans holding up a vote to increase funding for breast cancer research. And he's proud of it. His response to a women at a town hall meeting who had suffered from breast cancer was a bluntly delivered no:

"The point its, we don't want politicians making those decisions. We want scientists making those decisions. And we want peer reviewed science to make the decision to send the dollars where we're gonna get the best return, to save the most lives, have the greatest impact."

"Send the dollars where we're gonna get the best return..." sounds like rationing to me. But it looks like Sen. Tom Coburn is okay with rationing and allowing scientists the power to make those life and death decisions. A death panel if you will.

The New Way to Fund Health Care Reform: Car Washes

I wonder how many "grass roots" town hall protesters saw this feature story on Rachel Maddow's show the other night.

I like to call it our "Car Wash" health care system. Heather Sherba was a gun shot victim at the recent health club murder spree. She didn't have health care coverage and needs help now.

The odd part of the following video are the clueless car wash volunteers raising money for Heather's medical care. They all seem to think what they're doing is normal. Even Heather takes all of the charity in stride. It doesn't occur to them that health care fund raising like this is crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of people shown here are happy with health care just the way it is.