Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC Hardball, recently charged that those of us in the Netroots are not real Democrats. Apparently we are a bunch of spoiled brats who fail to vote in every election and none of us ever runs for office. We are different. We are not grownups. We are a mere trouble makers who sit in the back seat, doing nothing but bitching and complaining.
Sure Chris. Whatever. I guess the thousands of college students who took semester leaves and the young professionals who took leaves of absences from their jobs to campaign for Obama are a bunch of do nothing bitching complainers. Not to mention others who block walked, canvassed, raised and donated boatloads of money. And let us not forget about those who had no money but somehow, and God knows how, had managed to find more than a buck or two to pitch in. In certain areas of Houston, volunteers had canvassed areas in which houses were on the verge of near collapse from poverty and neglect. And yet the occupants stepped up and gave what little they could.
Shame on you, Chris Matthews. You live in a bubble that is completely detached from hardcore reality.
And Matthews had waxed lyrical if not almost lustful about W. Matthews must have a few too many with Karl Rove.
"We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple. We're not like the Brits."
when W. ginned up his dumb and irresponsible war in Iraq.
So much for professional journalism and integrity.
The Netroots, of course, fought back. I guess Matthews is outraged now that the not real and back seat bitching Democrats are frequent invited guests on cable TV political news shows.
We are making great strides, but we must keep up the pressure. On all levels.
This President rocks. It's daunting to think about how many warehouses of socialist mops and vats of extra strength socialist Lysol we'll need to clean up Republican Texas.
Aside from the need for socialist mops, the really good news today is that it looks like we are getting closer to HCR that includes a public option. We have the AHIP (American Health Insurance Plans) to thank for this. According to Paul Krugman of the New York Times AHIP's threat to increase rates b/c it didn't like the Baucus bill backfired.
A Hatchet Job So Bad It's Good
It seems that a bunch of selfish greed mongering fat cats had become so desperate and crazed by the mere thought of losing one penny that the fat cats blew up the very building they were protecting.
Shall we cry 'em a river folks?
I didn't think so.
Meanwhile, there were other pressing developments today in the U.N and in the U.S. Congress:
Big thanks to the 44 Diaries for sharing this with us.
Governor Rick Perry must be blinded by arrogance to believe that he could actually shut down and cover up an investigation and no one would notice. A politician would also have to be completely overcome by an over sized ego to do so during a tough primary contest.
Last night on MSNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews interviewed Samuel Bassett, former Texas Forensic Science Commission Officer about the Todd Willingham case.
OK so Perry did not like where this investigation was going and so, as only a dictator would do, he shut it down. And now we also know where the fake, self-serving "moderate" Kay Bailey Hutchison stands on barbaric medieval practices. We already know where she stands on ginned up wars and a deregulated Wall St. KBH voted with W. over 90% of the time. Princess Sparkle Pony may have made a brilliant tactical political move, at least according to Slater, but she also revealed her true colors as anything but moderate.
Earth to Perry: as hard as you spin, rail and cry, the execution of an innocent man on your watch ain't going away. And Kay, hell will freeze over before this liberal would ever in her dreams vote for the likes of you. You squarely belong in the deather box right there along with Dictator Perry and your beloved W. who is responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis. For? Please do remind us.
Scott Cobb over at The Burnt Orange Report has been providing exhaustive and outstanding coverage of this issue. Please click on the link to see how you can get involved with ongoing efforts to abolish the death penalty. Now that we know Texas has executed an innocent man, never has the case been stronger to eliminate this barbaric medieval practice.
This morning in the Houston Chronicle, Lisa Falkenberg wrote a sobering commentary about Rick Perry and the Todd Willingham execution.
Senator John Cornyn, by the way, ran an ad during a commercial break, extolling the virtues of the status quo.
Here we go again. Yet another Republican sells his/her soul to the devil for the money. It's all about the money. It is always about the money. Cornyn receives $1.6 million from his big ol' sugar daddies in insurance.
As we know by now, there is very little, if any, competition in the health insurance industry. Some states have only one provider. Everyone and that would be everyone involved in the discussions about health care reform knows this is the case nationwide.
So why is the very notion of introducing competition into the health insurance industry such a big deal for Congress? It should be a no brainer. I mean, isn't capitalism and the belief in free markets as the be all and end all of everything perfect and sacred all about competition?
If members of Congress truly embrace the principles of competitive capitalism they would not obstruct health care reform that includes a public option. Indeed, by resisting a competitive force in the health insurance industry Republicans, especially, clearly demonstrate their unbending support for non-competitive monopolies.
Monopolies!? But I thought that is what Communism is all about.
This morning MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan had a debate with Betsy McCaughey, a well known Republican opponent of health care reform. Her remarks about health care reform and its impact on seniors have been so extreme that AARP found it necessary to call her out. The organization said her remarks bordered on the cruel.
Cruella McCaughey obviously did not like Ratigan's questions, especially when he described the current state of health insurance as
Corporate Communism.
Predictably, when a Republican does not like the questions, (s)he will hammer the interviewer. When an interviewer will not let a Republican hack spew talking point BS non-stop, the hack will always go for the jugular.
And thank you, Sir, for apologizing to the dead. It is well about time someone had the decency to stand up.
I would like to share a little personal information about the horrors of socialized medicine. My husband's family lives in France. One of my brothers-in-law needs back surgery. Because he is in pain he wants it done quickly. He has two options.
The Public Plan: $75.00 co-pay, no choice of doctor, waiting period.
The Private Plan: $150. co-pay, he chooses his doctor, no waiting period.
If my brother-in-law and his family could not afford the private plan they would still get whatever care and treatments they need at very affordable rates. A catastrophic illness would not cost them their entire savings, house, cars and everything they own, either.
We obviously have a very serious problem in the U.S.
There is no reason, knowing what we know about insurance companies and their $400. billion in annual profits, that we cannot have the same here in the good ol' U.S. of A.
No reason at all. So, what's the problem Congress? What the hell is the problem? You all get the best government run tax payer funded health coverage that money can buy at very, very affordable costs. Your premiums cost approximately $40.00 per month. The average American family with employer provided health coverage pays from $200.00 to approximately $1200 per month. Those without employer provided insurance pay even more. And, despite the fact that we pay significantly more for our plans, we receive fewer choices than you do.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow gives us some straight talk about who is ginning up the ACORN witch hunt. As one can suspect, the usual right wing suspects are fanning the flames of a grossly exaggerated scandal. It is really too bad that the pathetically lame, lazy and blatantly biased mainstream media is not as bright and as ethical as Maddow and other progressive TV anchors.
Part I: Hint: pay attention to the clown acts in Congress and their "kill mode" go to sugar daddies.
Part 2: Check out the vile, criminal and um, ahem, the really ugly vodka swilling naked. Warning: grab a barf bag before viewing.
The truly sad outcome of all of this is the de-funding of ACORN. Ultimately, the Congress is punishing the folks who need the organization's services the most. ACORN's evil deeds include finding affordable housing for folks; advocating for minimum wage increases, affordable loans, hospital services for veterans and, of course what conservatives hate the most, it registers voters.
There they go again. Texas Republicans continue to bring embarrassment and shame to the people of Texas. This time Kay Bailey Hutchison is busted for lying on national TV. She called the public option in health care reform a "government takeover." Please. Enough already. No more lies!
No wonder Texas is the butt of national derision and provides great material in the stupidity and jackassery departments for late night comedy.
Are we ready for new leadership yet?
How about voting for smarter and more progressive lawmakers, folks? We need politicians who will actually work for us. We pay their salaries and we fund their stellar health care coverage, which, no Texas Republican thinks we deserve, though they somehow do.
I want real representation, and excellent representation for my bucks. Come on Texas, surely we can do better than this! We deserve better than this.
Remember all of the color coded alerts issued from Tom Ridge, former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security? The red alerts and the orange alerts that would send chills down the spines of the American people? The ones that would make some hearts stop with fear? The alerts that would send CNN and all news channels into feeding frenzies that would in turn bring fear and anxiety into homes across America? Remember the huge and bold front-page headlines in our daily newspapers? How many children went to bed at night afraid? If parents were fearful, their children were terrified. For those who live in New York City and Washington, D.C. the fear was even more palpable because the residents know all about a terrorist attack.
And now we learn some of the alerts, if not most of them, were fake.
According to an article published in Politico posted on Daily Kos Tom Ridge admits he was pushed by the Bush Administration to announce terror alerts when it was politically advantageous to do so.
Tom Ridge confirms a long-held suspicion among Bush critics, writing in his new autobiography that he "was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over."
My U.S. House Rep (Houston) never fails to embarrass the living daylights out of many of his constituents. That would be those of us who are not invited to Culberson's orchestrated town hall meetings.
GOP Playbook, Chapter I: When you don't like the question posed by a journalist or if you simply can't handle it, change the subject.
Chapter 2: If the journalist won't let you change the subject, ties you into a pretzel and if you fall into his/her trap, attack the interviewer's network.
What happens when none of the above works?
Play dumb.
Or
Throw a tantrum. Look like a deer caught in the headlights because you really, really believe your own fabricated spin.
It was so very naive and silly of me to suggest that the GOP should step up and take responsibility, as any adult would do, by calling a halt to the brown shirt shout downs at town hall meetings on healthcare reform.
Silly, silly me. That won't happen. Never. Ever. Even if hell freezes over and the entire country is in the throes of death, the answer remains to be no, never, in your dreams, not even if hell freezes over.
Despite GOP cries for freedom, its flag waving, its prominence of lapel wearing flag pins, its highly orchestrated scenarios of patriotism and noble words about freedom, the GOP's behavior has nothing to do with any of the principles mentioned above.
Actions speak louder than words. Shouting down and shutting out the questions and opinions that fellow Americans want to ask and share with their elected representative is:
anti-democratic,
anti-patriotic and
anti-American.
When political rhetoric goes over the top, inaction by a party's leadership is the same as blind acquiescence.
According to former right wing Republican and evangelical Christian leader, Frank Schaeffer, the GOP, its conservative pundits and the self-serving corporate sharks in the healthcare industry know no bounds in pulling off what is best for them.
For right wing Republicans, conservative pundits, the corporate sharks and their now enabled fruit loop nut jobs, it is a fight to the death.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow recently reported on a Christian boardinghouse in Washington that serves as a dorm, meeting and praying place for conservative Christian Republican politicians. But it seems that the occupants and members of this prayer house are busy doing a lot more than praying. According to Maddow's reports, the religious boardinghouse is also a safe haven for adulterers. But this is not the only unholy activity that has pervaded this so-called Christian establishment. According to a separate report written by Gail Collins of The New York Times the founder of the religious group that owns the boardinghouse had organized a movement of those who were united against President Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression.
I could not believe my eyes this morning when I turned on MSNBC's Morning Joe and saw Chris Matthews tearing into Joe Scarborough on national health care reform. The exchange was music to my ears. In essence Matthews tore off the mask of the right wing. He completely dismantled their rationale for opposing government run health care. He shows us how Joe Scarborough and other right wing Republicans are merely parroting big insurance's talking points.
The exchange is captured on You Tube and posted over at Daily Kos.
Heaven help us. The good old boys have been throwing endless hissy fits and temper tantrums on cable TV since yesterday. President Barack Obama had the nerve to appoint a Latina, Sonia Sotomayor, to fill retiring David Souter's seat on the Supreme Court. The appointment has apparently whipped the Party of Rush and Dick into a carnival like frenzy.
Rush is ballistic. Karl Rove babbles psycho nonsense about Ms. Sotomayor's intelligence. Pat Buchanan is apoplectic and Newt has been screaming "Racist!" for nearly twenty four hours.
According to the some of the renowned Viet Nam War draft evaders and right wing war hawks
Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Pat Buchanan, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Bill Kristol, Bill Blunt, Tom Delay, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Phil Gramm, John Cornyn, Trent Lott, Mitch McConnell, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage
Nancy Pelosi personally ordered the CIA to find a link between Iraq and Al-Qaida. The GOP sissy boys also insist that when no links between the two evil doers could be found, Nancy the D Girl unilaterally ordered heinous torture to bring about the results the sissy boy cowards needed to gin up their war on Iraq.
Hats off to Ed Shultz of MSNBC for calling the Sissy Boys out for their psycho babble.
As one would expect Karl Rove blatantly lied about Senator Arlen Specter's motivation for switching his Party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.
In a statement issued earlier today, Senator Specter said his former Party had moved too far right.
Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.
Speaking from FOX Looney Tunes News, Rove said Specter had lurched left.
First, from the Texas wing of The Party of Torture and Tax Cuts.
Senator John Cornyn, prominent member of the Party of Torture and willing player in the Bush Administration's
Journey to Depravity must think Democrats are quaking in their boots because, according to The Huffington Post he attempted to bully and blackmail them on the torture issue.
Cornyn apparently prefers to sweep the recent revelations of torture under the rug. That or pin the blame on Democrats who served on the Foreign Intelligence Committee at the time, and/or stick it to low level military and CIA officers at the bottom of the torture chain of command.
If Democrats insist on probing the Bush administration's program of detainee torture, they'd better be careful, a senior Senate Republican said Tuesday, because they might find blood on their own hands as well.
"To sit quietly and to let this happen and then to come back later and say people ought to be prosecuted criminally, not just here in the United States but perhaps internationally, to me is inconsistent, to say the least," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
According to Gail Collins of the New York Times (see below) Rick Perry and other Republicans are behaving like gerbils that just bit an electric wire.
I don't think anyone could have said it better. Ms. Collins is absolutely right and she is not the only one who thinks so.
The words "looney talk" "nuts" and "whacko world" are the terms used by Hardball's Chris Matthews when he refers to Rick Perry and Tom Delay's views on secession and state sovereignty.
It seems that certain members of the Republican Party, specifically former Texas U.S. Senator Phil Gramm, created mechanisms by which very wealthy Americans could cheat Uncle Sam by hiding their incomes in off shore tax havens. Unfortunately for Joe and Jane the Taxpayers (that would be you, clueless Republican tea baggers, and me), we are the go to folks who have to pony up the mind numbing shortfall.
Apparently there is no end in sight to the Bush Administration and its Republican Party's pillage and looting of every existing piggy bank whether it is that of the federal government, Republican dominated states and local governments, the private sector including formerly revered and respected banks and investment firms, corporations and small businesses. The insatiable and pervasive tentacles of reckless irresponsibility, greed and corruption spread like a lethal and uncontrollable cancer.
Diarist Muzikal203 over at Daily Kos uploaded a video clip of Keith Olbermann's rant on tax evaders last night. Olbermann has every right to howl about this. We all should be doing the same.
