Monthly Archives: December 2009

It’s not Health; it’s not Care; and it’s not Reform

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Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment about the hollowed out health care reform bill, HR3590, killed by political gamesmanship.

Part 1

Part 2

No single-payer.

No public option.

No Medicare buy-in.

Purchase of health insurance mandatory, or pay a penalty.

Not health, not care, and not reform — but it is a tremendous gift to the death panels insurance cartel.

Former Gov. Howard Dean writes in the Washington Post, “If I were a senator, I would not vote for the current health-care bill. … Washington has decided, once again, that the American people cannot be trusted to choose for themselves.” (HT: ThinkProgress)

UPDATE:  Bob Cesca is really pissed off, but…

UPDATE:  Here’s a list of 54 Republican members of Congress who receive government-funded; government-administered single-payer health care – Medicare, but oppose anyone else having the same option:

Rep. Ralph M. Hall
Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett
Rep. Sam Johnson
Rep. C.W. Bill Young
Rep. Howard Coble
Sen. Jim Bunning
Sen. Richard G. Lugar
Rep. Don Young
Sen. Charles E. Grassley
Sen. Robert F. Bennett
Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch
Sen. Richard C. Shelby
Rep. Jerry Lewis
Sen. James M. Inhofe
Rep. Ron Paul
Rep. Henry E. Brown
Sen. Pat Roberts
Sen. George V. Voinovich
Sen. John McCain
Rep. Judy Biggert
Sen. Thad Cochran
Rep. Harold Rogers
Rep. Dan Burton
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon
Rep. Frank R. Wolf
Rep. Michael N. Castle
Rep. Joe Pitts
Rep. Tom Petri
Sen. Lamar Alexander
Rep. Doc Hastings
Rep. Cliff Stearns
Rep. Sue Myrick
Rep. John Carter
Sen. Mitch McConnell
Sen. Jon Kyl
Rep. Phil Gingrey
Rep. Nathan Deal
Rep. John Linder
Rep. Kay Granger
Rep. John L. Mica
Rep. Walter B. Jones
Sen. Jim Risch
Rep. Ed Whitfield
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner
Rep. Virginia Foxx
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite
Sen. Saxby Chambliss
Sen. Michael B. Enzi
Rep. Elton Gallegly
Rep. Donald Manzullo
Rep. Peter T. King
Rep. Ander Crenshaw

And Joe Lieberman (party of one, for one)

Stewart: ‘Psycho’ Laura Ingraham recites Holocaust poem

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Laura Ingraham…. What a nut job.

Jon Stewart covers the last “Tea Party Protest” of the year. In this clip, Laura Ingraham paraphrases a famous Holocaust poem to complain about the government possibly raising the marginal tax rate.

This clip is from The Daily Show broadcast December 16, 2009.

The Watering Hole: December 17 – The End of the White Majority

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Here’s something to send the troll, teabagger, white supremacist, scared-to-death-of-anything-not-white crowds:

White Americans’ Majority to End by Mid-Century

The estimated time when whites will no longer make up the majority of Americans has been pushed back eight years — to 2050 — because the recession and stricter immigration policies have slowed the flow of foreigners into the U.S.

…

The total population should climb to 399 million by 2050, under the new projection, with whites making up 49.9 percent of the population. Blacks will make up 12.2 percent, virtually unchanged from today. Hispanics, currently 15 percent of the population, will rise to 28 percent in 2050.  Asians are expected to increase from 4.4 percent of the population to 6 percent.

Oh my god!!!  It’s terrifying!  What will we do!?

I have an idea:  How about we stop thinking of ourselves in terms of what color we are, grow up, pull up our big boy/girl panties, and start thinking about (and loving) one another as the HUMAN RACE?

The Watering Hole: December 16 – The Great White Fleet

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This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments on any topic.

On this date in 1907, Teddy Roosevelt sent forth four naval battle groups on a mission to project US naval power around the world. This was the largest naval group from a single nation to circumnavigate the world in history. This mission became ensconced as The Great White Fleet.

It was at this point that the United States established it’s position as the major World power.  That position did not begin to fade until 1963 with the assassination of JFK (IMHO). He committed this nation to a scientific and engineering effort that surpassed the Manhattan Project with these words:

Continue reading →

An Open Letter to President Obama

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Let it go, let it go, let it go.  Let go of trying to get “a” health care bill enacted before Christmas. Let go of trying to get something passed that will garner 60 votes in the Senate. The price is too high. The only thing that will get through the Senate with a 60 vote supermajority is a health industry bill, not a health care reform bill.

Have the courage to deliver the State of the Union Address next January and announce you tried working with Republicans, but they didn’t want to work with you. They just wanted to work for the corporations that drove this country to the brink of bankruptcy; the insurance companies that come between patients and their doctors, the $10 million dollar a year CEOs that make their millions by denying health care to American citizens. Tell us that you pulled the plug on the health insurance industry’s bill, and have decided to work with House and Senate Democrats to put together a Universal Health Care system modeled after the best in the world, because American citizens deserve to have the best in the world. And tell us that the House and Senate Democrats will pass the bill using the reconciliation process used so effectively by Republicans under the previous administration.

Put Republicans on notice that if they continue to obstruct and delay progress for American citizens that it will be their seats at risk. Tell us that you will do everything in your power to help elect progressive candidates across this great country of ours. Tell Reid and Pelosi that if they can’t get the job done, they should look for a replacement.

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We voted for you, President Obama. We voted for change. Be the change we voted for.

Joe The Bummer

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Lieberman Gets Ex-Party to Shift on Health Plan

A Sucker-Punched Harry Reid Throws in the Towel on Real Reform

Kill The Bill? Some Progressives Say Nothing Is Better Than Senate Health Care Bill

Where We’re At On The Lieberman Health Care Industry Profit Protection Act Of 2009

Lieberman: Liberal Enthusiasm Convinced Me To Oppose Medicare Buy-In

Unprincipled Joe

Andy Borowitz reports: A majority of those surveyed agreed with the statement, “I want an asshole to represent me in the Senate, and there is no bigger asshole out there than Joe Lieberman.”

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Matt Davies, NY Journal News

The Watering Hole: December 15 – WISE

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This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments on any topic.

Yesterday, NASA launched its most ambitious infrared satellite ever. This probe will map the entire sky twice a year at a resolution of 4 million pixels, eclipsing the capabilities of IRAS which is capable of a mere 62 pixels.

WISE sky maps will augment the James Webb orbital telescope which is slated to replace Hubble in 2014. This combo could well extend our view into the origins of creation to within a few hundred millennia of the Big Bang.

The Watering Hole: December 14th – Italian’s don’t throw shoes!

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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was hit by a metal object, thought to be a model of the Dome of Milano at a rally yesterday. He suffered a broken nose, lost or cracked two teeth and has a split lip now (on top of the forked tongue he already has). His attacker was labeled mentally unstable as he had been in therapy ten years ago.

This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments on any topic.