Wouldn't a Healthcare Riot Be Fun?

I think I just experienced my first push poll. This is probably because I'm still registered as a Republican even though I'm not homophobic, xenophobic, or Xian, and I don't tell or believe lies that are labeled as facts (these appear to be the current prerequisites for membership). My wife and I just decided long ago that one would register as a Dem. and the other as GOP to get all the voting info from both parties. I lost the coin toss.

Anyway, the phone rang this afternoon (I wish I'd paid more attention before I realized what was happening) and a woman's voice asked me to participate in a poll, she then ask me something like "Do you believe the government is being reckless in their handling of health-care?" I said "no", and she said "thanks", and hung up.

It's my understanding that a push poll usually has only one question, and the intention is not to get the called person's opinion, but to plant an idea in the person's head; in this case that the new health-care legislation is reckless and will jeopardize my health insurance. Probably the most famous push poll was right before the SC primary in 2000, when a "pollster" called people all over So. Carolina and asked if they knew that John McCain had fathered a black child. G. W. Bush's win in that primary is attributed to that push poll.

By comparison, this one question poll was pretty darn subtle and obviously some people are still trying to screw up health care legislation every way they can, but this conservative win-at-all-costs attitude is enabling the lunatic fringe. The resulting tumult is building some very scary momentum. Booths are set outside town hall meetings offering info that perpetuates the lies about death panels, euthanasia, ruination of medicare, etc. Signs depict Obama as Hitler, accuse him of taking not just their health care, but their religion, their guns, their money and their civil rights. People are screaming in the meetings and carrying guns outside.

We have healthcare execs financing disinformation to protect their multi-billion dollar profits, conservative politicians gleefully egging them on because they think of a failure of the plan as a personal victory, pundits spewing lies and hate to feed their own huge egos and show ratings and the victims of these puppet-master wannabees are frightened, frustrated, misinformed people who are on the verge of blind rage and could become homicidally violent at any moment.

There is a point where manipulating political facts for personal ends turns to inciting riots and conspiring to commit murder and I hope we're not as close to that point as it appears. Not that any of those doing the pot-stirring would admit any guilt, but I'd like to know how many murders and injuries do they think a political victory is worth? Also, if the victims arrive at the hospital without health insurance as a result of their machinations, is that a victory too?

The Health Care Spit Ball Fight

I've been trying to understand the proposed National health care plan and I was inspired to dig a little more today after Hemant Mehta brought up the subject on Friendly Atheist. Two of the most important things I learned today are; there is no such thing as "Obama's health plan" in that the current plan as written came from congress, not the President, and those who oppose the health care plan tell blatant lies to frighten people into opposing the plan.

Some good information can be found in an article in Yahoo news and from Politifact.com that indicate that many of the opponents of health care are not interested in objective discussion of pros and cons, they just want to be destructive. Why else would they say so many things that are completely false.

Part of the problem is that too many politicians, pundits and voters view politics as an us-against-them rivalry. The only goal is for the home team to win and the opposing team to lose and if lying, cheating and stealing are necessary to win, that's what you do for the sake of the team. It doesn't matter that legislation may benefit all Americans,if the opposing team wants it, they must be prevented from getting it or the home team loses.

It is as if the US' political system has created a government and constituency with a mean emotional age of twelve. The kids on this side of the street hate the kids on the other side of the street. What ever they like we hate, what ever they want to do we want to prevent and if they try to make friends, run away because they have cooties. Decisions are so much easier if you just do what your party or favorite pundit says and as you lay dying from a preventable disease for lack of health care, you can reassure yourself that it would have been worse if the other team had won.

The Missing Birth Certificate Unsolved Mystery

I thought the baloney about Obama's birth certificate would have died down by now, but it seems more conservative pundits are jumping on the bandwagon. Lou Dobbs, the self-appointed guardian of America's borders, picked up the birth cert banner and is keeping the story alive even though the head of CNN told him that researchers had determined that there is nothing to the claim of doubts about Obama's citizenship. This is yet another example of things that are good when it benefits the GOP but bad when connected to the Dems.

Remember a few years ago when the Republicans wanted to abolish the rule requiring the President to be born in the US? That was when they thought they could get Arnold Schwarzenegger elected President. Now that the shoe's on the other foot, a President born outside the US will put us on the slippery slope to anarchy. By the way, does anyone else think it's ironic that John McCain was born in Panama?

So, aside from being a Democrat, could there be any other reason why an Austrian might be a better choice than a Kenyan? Hmmm, what could be the difference between the two? It turns out that the answer was available in comments on some of the political blogs. Consistently President Obama is referred to, not primarily as a liberal or a thief or any of the usual labels, but as "that nigger." So, apparently the reason why people are clinging to this discredited paperwork problem is that they are so bigoted that they can't accept that a black man could be the legitimately elected President of the United States.

All through the 1960s and 70s as I was growing up the talk was about leveling the playing field and righting the wrongs perpetrated on the minorities up to that time. I honestly believed that racial prejudice would be a thing of the past by now. Of course, I also thought that we'd all be commuting in our personal flying machines. Still, if the Republican party doesn't disassociate itself from this kind of hate, the GOP will lose the support of everyone who at least needs to appear unbiased, like all the rich CEO's and be left as the party exclusively of white supremacists and religious fanatics.

Can’t Do Anything Constructive? Then Ruin the Ones Who Can

Today, John Boehner (R-OH), the house minority leader, led a group of about 100 Republican House members in protesting against the Obama’s health care plan by giving one minute speeches that each included the question “Where are the Jobs,” according to an article on the Roll Call website. After about two hours of this, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) got up and reminded them that the job losses were worse under the Bush administration.
Boehner said that his constituents want to know about jobs, but I suspect his constituents also want to know how they’re ever going to afford health care. The truth is that this has nothing to do with what his constituents want. The Republicans just want to link all of Obama’s policies together, paint them as bad decisions and try to make them fail. They’ve even said as much in interviews, and it’s because they think if Obama’s efforts fail, more people will vote for Republicans in the next election.
Maybe this strategy will work for the Republicans, but if I were one of the 11.4% of John Boehner’s constituents who is unemployed or one of who knows how many that is working but can’t afford health insurance, I think I would be at least as interested in seeing some effort made to assure me that some disease or injury won’t leave my family bankrupt and homeless. The current Republican strategy has nothing to offer but a warm feeling because the GOP won. Hurray! The stimulus failed and we’ve lost everything in the recession. Hurray! My daughter has pneumonia but if I take her to the hospital, I can’t afford to feed the rest of my family. Hurray! The energy plan failed and I can’t afford gas or find any alternative fuel sources so I can’t drive to work or heat the house. Let’s all go vote Republican.

Boston or Madhatter's Tea Party

I happened to catch part of an interview with an historian who was talking about what led to the Americans' Declaration of Independence, when the interviewer asked him about the Boston Tea Party. The historian described what occurred to motivate the colonists to destroy the shipload of tea and, although I had heard it all before I hadn't made the connection, that the Republican Tea Parties have gotten it all wrong. If you haven't heard about the GOP tea parties (lucky you), they were designed to be rallies against the tax increases under the current administration and trying to harken back to our founding fathers' protests against unfair taxation.

I always thought that these obviously contrived parties masquerading as a grass roots movement were pretty silly since 90% of taxpayers were receiving tax cuts at the time and the only tax increases were actually roll-backs of G. W. Bush's tax cuts for the richest 10% of taxpayers. I sort of imagined corporate boards of directors wearing slogan adorned T-shirts over their power suits while waving tea bags in the air.

What I realized after listening to the historian is, the Republicans who came up with the tea party idea got it all wrong. The Boston Tea Party wasn't about taxes. What happened was that the East India Company had a huge surplus of tea warehoused in England that was killing the old quarterly earnings. The British government had a cunning plan. They loaded the tea on ships and sent them to the American colonies where they would sell all the tea cheaply. The surplus turns to ready cash, the colonists save lots of money on discount tea and everyone goes away happy, right? Wrong; a lot of colonists were involved in smuggling tea into America and selling it. They saw the situation as a big company coming in, selling tea at artificially low prices to put all the colonial entrepreneurs out of business. Therefore, the Boston Tea Party was a protest against business monopolies by big companies and not about taxes.

So, as I said, the GOP got it all wrong because they thought they were protesting taxes like the patriots at the birth of our republic. Actually many of the wealthiest 10% represent businesses that are much more like the East India Company in the way they eliminate their competitors and try to monopolize the market than they are like their forefathers struggling to stay in business, so the modern tea party attendees not only are protesting the wrong thing, they are more likely to represent the side whose tea got thrown over the side.

Failure is the Best Option

Some conservative Republicans are advocating a boycott of all General Motors products to protest the Obama administration's management of the failing car maker. The boycotters have made it clear that they want GM to fail so the administration will look bad. I think I sense bathwater and a baby flying toward a window. The conservatives involved have assured the workers that they have nothing against them, but if the boycott succeeds, the auto workers and employees of all the supporting industries will be just as unemployed. I don't think this is a very well thought out plan because:

1. The Obama admin. stepped in at the request of GM and both parties agreed that the collapse of the automaker would cause an economic catastrophy in the US.

2. These Republicans hate Obama's plan, but, as far as I know, nobody, especially these guys, has come up with an alternative plan, so if the administration stops helping, we'll all just stand around watching the barn burn down.

3. The boycott plan is being broadcast on radio and television shows, making it clear who is behind the scheme so if it's successful and hundreds of thousands of people loose their jobs and the economy collapses, who do you think will be blamed? Will people blame the govt. that's making an honest effort to help or the conservative activists whose declared goal is to cause GM to fail?

I sure hope this is as obvious to everyone else as it is to me, because if these reactionary morons continue to be perceived as the spokespersons for the GOP, the Republican party is headed for extinction, and Jon Stewart will have nothing to talk about.

DHS is Right and Conservatives are Confused

DHS are my initials so I may be biased, but last month the Department of Homeland Security released a report saying that they expect an increase in violence from right wing extremists who are frustrated by illegal immigration, the bad economy, and a black president. The DHS was referring to extremists like an anti-abortion wacko who might kill a doctor (like last week) or a white supremacist wacko who might start shooting at the Holocaust Museum (like earlier today), but conservative common taters are convinced, for no apparent reason, that the evil communist-fascist Obama conspiracy is out to get them.

Six months ago conservative journalists and friends were the most vocal supports of DHS and frequently reassured those concerned about the department's sweeping powers that they had nothing to fear unless they were doing something wrong. Now conservatives are concerned. Hmmm. The weirdest thing is they've all decided they are right wing extremists.

I think that they think that the Obama administration is labeling all conservatives as right wing extremists so they are adopting the term as a badge of pride and printing bumper stickers to reflect that. Of course, what the DHS is worried about is the real lunatic fringe that does seem to be coming out from under their rocks. The result is a bunch of good, law-abiding people plastering their vehicles with signs that suggest that they are avid supporters of Adolph Hitler, white supremacists and the Oklahoma City bombing. Do these guys think that will attract more people to the Republican Party?

Domestic Terrorism

Just in the last few days I have learned that since McCain started talking about ACORN in his town hall meetings, the ACORN offices have been receiving a large number of threatening phone calls and death threats. Several of the offices have also received boxes covered with threats that contained an unidentified white powder.
Here in Ohio, Republicans filed a lawsuit that demanded that the Secretary of State’s Office investigate voter registrations that the Republicans felt were suspicious. The suit went through the courts all the way to the US Supreme Court who sided with the Secretary of State and struck down the law suit. Since that occurred, the Ohio State department’s website has been hacked into, the office has received many threatening phone calls including death threats and they have received a box covered with threats that contained an unidentified white powder. What a coincidence.
The Republican politicians have been the most vocal supporters of the War on Terrorism; actively promoting unconstitutional and unethical activities to be sure we keep America safe and get the bad guys. What occurred at ACORN and the Ohio SoS Off. were nothing less than terrorism and I think the investigative methods promoted by the GOP should be used to zealously investigate these crimes and then whoever is caught should be denied a trial and sent to Guantanamo for a few years of CIA hospitality.