Friday, August 7, 2009

I Made A Vow To Leave Sarah Palin Alone - But Unfortunately, There's No "OFF" Position On Her Crazy Switch.

Sarah Palin, on her Facebook page, weighs in on the health care reform debate.

And once again, she underscores the fact that she's completely batshit crazy.

Here's a direct quote:

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Holy Jeebus.

Aside from the fact that her statement is complete and utter bullshit, Palin underscores her insanity by going on in her post to cheer for Representative Michele Bachmann, someone who is just as loony as Palin.

Three things occur to me here.

The first:

Sarah Palin is, apparently, genetically incapable of just STFU.
She just can't do it.
As a result, even in her written comments, the verbal diarrhea spews forth, splattering hither and yon, staining anyone who comes near.

The second:

For someone who keeps screaming for the press to "leave her kids alone," she sure keeps trotting them out there as props.

The third:

Even if Sarah Palin is nuttier than a fruitcake, she's just as guilty of sedition as the rest of the GOP and the health care industry.

Dear Ex-Governor quitter Palin - how can we miss you if you won't go away?

h/t to Bob Cesca, Matt Osborne, and The Mudflats.

Steven Pearlstein Calls It What It Is.

Today, Steven Pearlstein, Business Columnist for the Washington Post, wrote a piece of such force and clarity that I feel it is a must-read.

He calls the Republicans trying to sabatoge ANY health care reform exactly what they are:

Political Terrorists.

The GOP opposition to health care reform isn't about "saving you from socialism." It's about insuring (no pun intended) profits for their corporate cronies, hoping to bring down Democrats in the process.

As Pearlstein notes:
The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems (emphasis mine).
Pearlstein goes on to say:
...there is no credible way to look at what has been proposed by the president or any congressional committee and conclude that these will result in a government takeover of the health-care system. That is a flat-out lie whose only purpose is to scare the public and stop political conversation (emphasis mine).
To the Main Stream Media:
What the GOP and the health care industry are doing is not political discourse.

It's sedition, and it should be reported as such.

h/t to Huffington Post and The Washington Post

Thursday, August 6, 2009

This Is What The Push For Health Care Reform Is About

All of the astroturf protesters disrupting town hall meetings this August should sit down and watch this short film:



Then tell us again how the system isn't broken, why doing nothing is the best course of action, and why a public option is so evil.

I have friends and family in Ireland who simply cannot get their minds around the fact that one's health insurance carrier (or one's elected representatives) will simply let you die.

Of course, they have a health care system that for the most part, works a lot better than ours.

h/t to Sick For Profit and Brave New Films

Speaking of Classy: Rep. Todd Akin, R-MO, Asshat of The Week

At a town hall-style meeting held at Maryville University in St. Louis on Tuesday, Representative Todd Akin blasted the House Democrats' health-care plan and cap-and-trade legislation.

Fine. That is perfectly within his purview as a GOP minority member of the U.S. House.

What wasn't fine is that Todd thinks that the escalating threat of violence at similar town hall meetings hosted by his Democratic Congressional colleagues is funny.

No, really.

Todd pointed out that the GOP is "not approving lynching" but then played it for laughs with his audience:


The ugliness being fomented by the GOP and corporate opponents of health care reform is no laughing matter.

One freshman Democratic Congressman has been physically assaulted at town hall event, another Democrat has been hung in effigy, and one has received a death threat.

That's side-splittingly funny stuff, Todd.

The fact that Todd Akin marches lock-step with Teh Wacky™ members of the GOP voting against middle-class Americans isn't all that surprising.

But you know what is ironic?

Rep. Akin has a Master of Divinity Degree from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis.

Congressman Akin - can you put that learning to use and point out for me where in the New Testament Jesus advocates violence?

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Fox's Morris: Classy, Dick.

Former President Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea and managed to convince Kim Jong Il that releasing American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling would be a good thing.

Since Bill Clinton was involved, Fox News "political contributor" Dick Morris tried to portray the event as a not-so-good thing (Dick does NOT like either of the Clintons - he said that he would leave the United States if Hillary Clinton were elected president in 2008).

Dick thought that Clinton's trip to North Korea was "awful" and "ridiculous."

Furthermore, Morris's view is that the two Americans should have just gone to prison.

Tough apples for them.

Way to be classy, Dick.

Perhaps you can go have a few beers and commiserate with Bush's former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton about this "diplomatic travesty."

Even though Bolton's first name is John, he's another Dick, just like you.

h/t to Huffington Post and Media Matters.

It's NOT A "Grass Roots Effort." It's called "Astroturfing."

At several recent town hall meetings sponsored by Democratic members of Congress, "angry protesters" are showing up to protest health care reform.

Many in the mainstream media - Fox News in particular but CBS as well - would have you believe these are natural and spontaneous "grass-roots" efforts by people who fear "government interference" and oppose the "socialist program" being pushed by President Obama.

They're not any such thing. It's phony. That's why it's called Astroturfing.

The "action memo," a blueprint on how to be a disruptive influence (thus preventing any meaningful public discourse) at such meetings has been promulgated and disseminated by Freedomworks.

Freedomworks has been described as a "conservative website," and gives the impression that it's some sort of "organic grassroots" outfit.

It isn't.

Freedomworks was the driving force behind the (mostly failed) "Teabag" events.

Freedomworks is run by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey - now a corporate lobbyist receiving bucks from, among others, the pharmaceutical industry.

The President and CEO of Freedomworks ("spontaneous" grassroots organizations need CEO's?) is Matt Kibbe, who's been wrapped up in political shenanigans for a while - including a Republican attempt in 2004 to get Ralph Nader on the Oregon (a presidential battleground state) ballot prompting a complaint to the FEC by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) .

The scare tactics and intimidation by the insurance and health care industries and the GOP in the guise of "a grass roots effort" is covered pretty well by Rachel Maddow:

Now, I have no doubt that some of the people showing up at these meetings are legitimately concerned, and want questions answered about how health care reform will affect them, and America.

It's too bad. If this effort is continued, people with actual questions will never have them answered.

I guess it's the anti-Obama pro corporate profit plan.

h/t to Media Matters, Think Progress, Huffington Post.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

And Now, For Your Listening Pleasure

I ran across this little ditty as a link posted by someone on Facebook.
Though it's a few years old, not much has changed.


h/t to lastangelman and The Austin Lounge Lizards.

In Honor Of President Obama's 48th Birthday: Orly Taitz PROVES He's An Alien!


California Lawyer, Dentist, Real Estate Agent (and Taekwondo Black Belt) Orly Taitz, Queen of the "Birther" movement, claims President Barack Obama is an ALIEN!
She should know (see picture, right).

As incontrovertable proof, Taitz has produced a copy of Obama's "Kenyan" birth certificate. Which is an obvious forgery. It's been debunked further here. And today, even further here.

When called on the forgery and inanity of her conspiracy theory, Taitz goes into meltdown on MSNBC:
So... NOW what will Ms. Taitz do?

Buck up, Dr. /Martial Arts Master/ Realtor/Orly Taitz Esq.!

Here is PROOF that President Obama is an ALIEN, and wasn't born at all, but instead most likely burst from the chest of some hapless human!











Happy birthday, Mr. President!