Keeping Eyes on the Prize

According to MSNBC Obama was not a factor in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races. In fact, to extrapolate on that assessment, Obama doesn’t seem to be a factor in much of anything these days—certainly not health care reform.

However, Palin, Beck, Limbaugh and Armey may have been a factor in the very telling election in New York State’s 23rd district. Their candidate, Doug Hoffman, looking like someone arrested on “Dateline: To Catch a Predator” conceded, handing a victory to a Democrat in that district for the first time since the Civil War.

The strange thing about all the brouhaha raised by conservatives in getting Hoffman into the New York 23 race is that district gets absorbed by surrounding Democratic districts in a redistricting based on the 2010 census.

I can’t wait to hear how Beck, Limbaugh and Palin spin the Hoffman loss. Gingrich ought to have a bit of fun with this. Let’s keep the civil war going.

For Democrat losses, Chris Christie is said to be a moderate, a fiscal conservative but not a social conservative, so the Tea Baggers will not make any real headway there until they put tremendous pressure on him and he caves to Birther demands, if that happens.

Bob O’Donnell effectively refused Palin and her brand of conservatism and won anyway over a weak Democrat. However, she will probably take credit for his victory.

Jon Corzine was apparently an unappealing incumbent. His approval was at 39%. There is speculation that his connection to Goldman Sachs may have contributed to his downfall in addition to other issues. The voters are tired of Wall Street.

Bloomberg got a run for his money, literally, by someone without much political power or billionaire bank account. Bloomberg is also another incumbent and is associated with Wall Street.

Bloomberg and Corzine are connected to Wall Street. This does not bode well for Obama in 2010 if he does not get the economy going by then or does not punish Wall Street more harshly than Geithner and the boys have so far.

While the losses of Corzine and Deeds do not necessarily presage the future of the Democratic Party, they do presage the future of similar Democrat candidates—those weak Democrats like Harry Reid, Blanche Lincoln and others who refuse to be tough.

Reid wants to wait until next year on health care. Obama’s response will probably be, “Well, if you say so.”

Some believe this is a bad idea. I entertain the possibility that they want to move Republican refusal to participate in an historic piece of bad bill legislation that the vast majority of Americans want, despite all that poser Tea Bagger nonsense in July and August, as close to the primaries as possible.

A year ago tonight the great Anarchist of Ann Arbor and I discussed our beliefs that the first party to split, thereby creating a third party, would be the Republicans. We may be seeing that materialize right before our eyes. The Tea Baggers will be so incensed by Hoffman’s loss in New York that they will come back in greater numbers and intensity in 2010.

But the Democrats beginning to split between progressive and conservative may become the speculative talk of 2012 if not sooner.

A possible Democrat strategy for 2010—or simply my delusion—is the Democrats may be hoping the conservative wing of the Republican Party will defeat a sufficient number of Republicans in 2010 primaries so that Democrats gain the Republican seat easily in the general election a year from now.

I do not know what the issue for the 2010 general will be right now that will separate the Democrats from the Tea Bagger/Birthers. Certainly health care reform should be decided in favor of the insurance companies by then. There is still time.

And maybe that strategy applies to conservative Democrats as well. Goodbye Lincoln, Bayh and those in the House too numerous to mention. The delusion disclaimer is still in effect.

One thing I believe this election says loud and clear is: Democrats get off your asses, get some guts and do the right things before 2010.

Obama, this means you too.

The Fox and the Henhouse

Much is being made about Obama’s Henhouse taking on the Fox. Suspicion and doubt is easier than the patience of waiting to see how a game plays out. Presently, Obama is taking on the radical right and pointing out what fakes Fox is.

However, one way of looking at this is it creates the illusion that Obama is the good ol’ liberal we knew we elected and secretly he using this Fox attack as a distraction as we get to the crucial time when he, the health insurance industry and participating Democrats drown the public option like nine year olds pouring water on an ant hill. Obama says he “prefers” a public option but won’t demand it. Yet, most everyone I trust says quite correctly that without a public option it is not real reform.

Either Obama is playing a very sophisticated strategy in pursuit of the promises he made last year or he is slowly selling us out.

As the Kinks sang, “Paranoia will destroy ya”, however there are possible realities we must consider just to understand the terrain of the whole battle field.

His ratings dropped fifteen points in the polls recently on health care at the same time the polls attest that most Americans want a public option more than they want bipartisanship.

I think the Obama Henhouse has sniffed the air and smelled the change in the direction the wind is blowing, which means they know Americans are tired of his delaying delivering on his promises. They are afraid the American people are soon to be as vocal about a public option as gays are for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Obama gets close to the issues in which he made impassioned campaign promises about and then all he does is make a speech.

He’s made a speech about DADT, he’s made speeches about health care reform, especially in admiring the not necessary to be admired Olympia Snowe vote, and on and on.

Sometimes I get the feeling he’s stalling for time until the Supreme Court rules that corporations are people too and he’s given the signal by his overlords to declare martial law, force us all into corporate labor camps, work co-ops and employment pools while being forced to buy their health insurance or imprisoned, forced to buy their products or fired and forced to fight in their wars to take oil, uranium and water, and nuke Iran, Russia and make an uneasy peace with China.

That’s the new America for the new American Century.

What’s the difference between a neo-con and a paranoiac? Paranoiacs don’t get political appointments, they only get elected.

Obama and Fox has repercussions. As Craig Crawford said on Olbermann tonight, it only makes Fox bigger. It means they will mobilize the conservative vote in 2010 and take House and Senate seats away from Democrats.

Another way of looking at that is: by turning up the heat on Fox, and with mid-terms at stake, it may serve to further divide the Republican Party so that the far right breaks off and neither trusts the other and they cannot get their act together to mount any sort of solid opposition to Democrats.

But, if Obama was truly interested in skewering Fox for its bias, why doesn’t he next go after CNN for its bias as well, or for it simply being ridiculous in covering certain issues.

Obama changing how the major media in this country performs its democratic function and inform our citizenry would be something I could believe in.

I’m waiting for him to tell us we just couldn’t get a public option and blame it on Fox’s influence on the Teabaggers and the Teabaggers’ influence on Congress—which we all know is a lie.

Possessive Progressive

After the vote on Al Franken’s amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill, I am even more convinced that a progressive agenda can gain ground in 2010 and prevent Republicans from increasing their seat count in the Senate and perhaps even the House.

Of course, that is, provided the progressive movement can generate money and organization in time.

Conservative Democrats and Republicans have shown themselves to be against the American people and that can be proven with the health care reform shenanigans making it abundantly apparent that they have been on the side of the anti-people health care/insurance industry.

With Franken’s amendment Republicans have further shown themselves to be on the side and in the pocket of the defense industry and against women’s rights and the American people.

The Republicans are currently led by Limbaugh and Beck. They have no leadership, they have no policies, they have no plans. Not even Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman can save them.

Max Baucus has revealed himself to be an automaton for the health insurance mafia. So have Conrad and a host of other God Damnedocrats.

Republicans, it has been said, are going to run on Cap and Trade and a few other issues. After their eight years in power and their recent behavior they can be further ostracized from American politics with some effort. And that’s not including the further damage they can and will do to themselves between now and then as their desperation, stagnation and ignorance forces them to continue being stupid. And I mean, really stupid.

Conservatives are now so desperate they are starting to re-translate the liberal parts of the Bible to make Jesus seem like a heartless capitalist.

And Sarah Palin is still around, isn’t she?—lots of embarrassing self-destructiveness there to exploit.

However, I caution progressives not to get too greedy. Right now Americans want and need a progressive approach to various issues, but I suggest progressives wait on immigration reform and a few other issues until progressives have proven themselves to the voters they need that they are not commies and socialists and the economy has revived.

The pundits are wrong about Democrats losing in 2010 if progressives take charge.
Come on progressives. Now is the time to begin rising to these challenges.

Venting

I am considering not participating in Obama’s plan to hold us economically hostage through hefty insurance fees and fines for not signing up for what may well be fake reform through welfare for the health insurance industry.

As Moulitsas said on Olbermann tonight, Obama may think he will be able to take any bill the Senate gives him, call it historic health care reform and sign it believing he is insuring (no pun intended) his place in history.

I did not vote for him twice for his personal glory. This is the strangest position I have been in as a voter. I wanted him to succeed and now feel betrayal. I listen to Republican attacks and find them to be so stupid and yet I cannot get behind Obama while finding 99.9% of Republicans and about 89% of Democrats abhorrent in this health care reform debate.

The mental melt-down on the right with town hall screaming, health reform lies, socialist labels, calls for assassination, guns at rallies, calls for military coups and more lies, lies, lies.

I don’t know which is worse—the inspidness of Limbaugh and Beck on a daily basis or the inspidness of Baucus and Conrad on a daily basis.

I hate that the majority of Democrats are so corrupt they cannot do what they were elected to do.

Does Boehner and Cantor think we believe their bullshit? Does Harry Reid have any look on his face other than just woke up?

The Republican hypocrisy when complaining about Obama and Clinton compared to Bush and Cheney makes me want to scream.

I applaud Rep. Alan Grayson for hyperbolically proclaiming the Republican health care plan as don’t get sick and if you do, die quickly.

I fear for the future of America and wish I had more power to do battle against the corporatists who are “trying to take away our freedoms”. Isn’t that how they used to describe terrorists?

Almost all Republicans and Democrats in Congress are anti-American by the truest definition of American.

Those town hallers are puppets and do not impress me as being real Americans in the Constitutional sense or Christians in the Jesus preaching sense yet they continue to act as morally superior and victimized by everyone.

If they want true socialism, let them go live in Cuba. I am sick and tired of people living in the country with the highest standard of living and the worst health care system for a country like ours of complaining of socialism. They are idiots and they have no appreciation for America.

I am frustrated there is no discussion among progressives that they can, as I believe and have written here many times, actually win elections in 2010 and steer America in a pragmatic progressive direction not the reactionary liberal one. I am frustrated they are not following through with any kind of plans to battle conservative Republicans and Democrats.

If there was ever a time for progressive Democrats and Independents to win by holding lying Republicans and Democrats to their lies it is now.

Dem Damn Dems

A majority of Americans are in favor of health care reform with a public option and are more often than not in opposition with the Blue Dogs and Red Dogs who represent them on this very issue. Why? The corporatization of every aspect of American life.

It was reported last night on Keith Olbermann during Countdown’s report on United Health Group that Obama met twice in May. So, it’s not just bipartisanship Obama is pursuing, it is tripartisanship—Democrats, Republicans and corporations.

While focusing one eye on health care reform, progressive Independents and Democrats should focus the other eye on winning as much as possible in 2010 and then again in 2012. Despite what I think we will be stuck will re-electing Obama at that time, no matter how frustrating and disappointing his first seven months have been.

Recently on Huffington Post, Beltway soothsayer Charlie Cook believes the Democrats may lose a minimum of 20 seats. I assume that is from both the Senate and the House. Cook’s prediction is based on the economy as the predominate issue.

I believe it’s still too early to tell. But I disagree that things will necessarily be so bad in 2010 for Democrats or those with a progressive agenda, but there may be one hell of a fight just to hold and gain ground.

The recent ridiculousness uttered by Tom Coburn, Chuck Grassley and Michael Steele in just the last day provide a bathroom window which progressives can go through if they just make an effort to connect to average Americans.

Can the opponents of Coburn, Grassley, etc. not point out that they and Republicans like them are out of step with the American people and in-step with heartless corporations who don’t care one bit about the American people except as consumers? Of course they can.

Obama is a great campaigner as evidenced by the fact he is our first black president. Can he convince voters that he needs Democrats help to finish his economic recovery? Without any unforeseen catastrophes, what’s not possible here without some hard work?

The other thing Progressives and progressive Democrats have going for them to insure victory and gains in 2010 is we are not that much of a center right country anymore. And we have not been for awhile. Remember, America did not really elect George Bush in 2000 or 2004, but we did really elect Obama last year.

A separation between progressive Democrats and Blue Dogs needs to be made more pronounced in 2010. My sense is the average American embraced a slightly more progressive agenda in 2008 because Bush was sooo bad. Well the Republicans are also bad and I think most Americans are not represented by these town hallers or their corporate agenda. For this reason progressives should go on the attack and paint Republicans and Blue Dogs as the corporate whores they are. I believe progressives can also make more victories than in the past provided they only talk about issues important to Americans and leave immigration reform for another election cycle or until the economy gets better.

Winning in 2010 means Republicans and Blue Dogs must pay for their lies, deception and acquiescence to the insurance industry.

But that means having viable Democratic or Independent candidates who can speak to the American people and show them how Grassley, Coburn, Baucus and the rest have lied to them about death panels, etc.

Progressives can build on this with clean energy and global climate change legislation, just as Republicans and Blue Dogs hope to, because most Americans want a clean energy world, not this “I’m an Energy Citizen” crap. The important thing to remember is set the agenda. That means begin talking about issues important to Americans NOW.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s Senior Health Care bullshit is only an attempt for the Republicans to save face in 2010. The Democrats and Progressives may see this as an RNC-Steele hypocrisy—Republicans saying they’re protecting Medicare for Seniors while having bashed Medicare while ranting against health care reform—but progressive may not be looking down the road.

The Democrats are only in power because Bush was so bad. Unfortunately, America electing the Democrats in 2006 was like an abused child running away from its violent and drunken father and into the care of a psychopath.

If a progressive agenda and candidates can hold against the push back in 2010, Republicans will be even more marginalized and crazed and will run someone guaranteed to lose in 2012 like Sarah Palin against Obama.

Barring any political violence—and you all know what I mean—there is hope for a progressive America in 2010 and even more so in 2012 and beyond. President Rahm Emanuel, anyone?

Will Democrats become impassioned by Kennedy’s death to vote for health care reform with a public option? Doubtful.

Most of them are not very bright guys and they will see Kennedy’s death as an excuse not to feel guilty about doing what the insurance industry wants them to do.

No, Obama Got a Little Excited!

In his radio interview with radio talk show host Michael Smerconish yesterday, President Obama said that the media and progressives got “a little excited” about the public option issue.

I would counter that President Obama got a little excited about the prospect of bi-partisanship for his health care reform effort. He got a little “turned on” one might say about Republicans helping him pass substantial and historic health care reform and I think it goes back to his semi-delusional Lincoln fantasy that he touted during the campaign. Did he think he and the Republicans were going to bring this country together? Is he putting his legacy ahead of the process of health care reform? Shouldn’t he be channeling the spirit of Teddy Roosevelt instead of Lincoln and FDR?

I would also argue that “progressives”—and me—didn’t get a little excited as much as we became a little afraid. Why? Because we can’t read his mind, and lately he has said some things about health care reform which raised concern that he may be selling us out. Also, we don’t fully trust that he knows what he’s doing or he is doing what he should be doing the right way.

Now, while we don’t all crowd into the cockpit to second guess the airline pilot when we’re going through turbulence, Obama seems to have lost some measure of control. Did he jump into this with too much naiveté? And by “this” I don’t just mean health care reform, I also mean his presidency.

I would have approached health care reform in a different way, so obviously there is not as much faith in him as he may expect us to have. Our trust is not strong for this and other reasons. Why? Because this is the President who has gone soft on the Bush-era torture issue prosecutions and policies, he has kept his White House visitor log secret, and he confused and even angered many with his reversal on Guantanamo, among other things during his seven-plus months in office. And, because this is the President who insists he is going to get the very same Republicans to join him who want to destroy him.

He is too nice and calm when I want fight and fire. Has his being born in laid-back Hawaii revealed itself to be a detriment for him? Seems like it. Next time we elect a black president maybe he should be born in Kenya!

Now, if this pursuit of bi-partisanship is a tactic of Obama’s to make the Republicans look bad and lose even more in 2010, I’ll give it a chance. But first, let me explain what I mean.

Only Obama knows exactly what he can and will do on health care reform to get what he promised during the campaign. Just as Captain Kirk frequently took the Enterprise to the brink of destruction—and scared Scotty, the ship’s most intimately knowledgeable engineer, to death—in pursuit of that week’s enemy, perhaps that is what Obama is doing. Perhaps the Spock comparison has been misapplied all along.

If Obama is buttering up the Republicans by being very diplomatic in his pursuit of bi-partisanship by not doing or saying anything rude or mean or nasty to anger them, his strategy may be that he knows the Republicans will reject his attempts in the end anyway and then when Democrats do pass health care reform with the public option alone and the American people like it and find there are no death panels and none of the other scare tactic items they hurled with venom during the August recess, then Americans will have good reason not to trust Republicans. That’s my theory.

Two things anyone who has ever played poker knows are: play your cards close to your vest and always keep a poker face. Is that what Obama is doing? Is that what he did on Saturday when he said the public option was only a sliver of health care reform? Was he bluffing the Republicans?

The Republicans have already shown their hand because we know how many cards they have in Congress and from these stupid town hall bullying sessions, they led early with their best cards. Everyone already knows the Republican believe they are ordained by God to head the American government. Therefore, their actions are somewhat predictable and their hand can be figured out.

However, to embellish my theory about Obama, when the American voter sees how the Republicans shamelessly sided with the insurance industry and blatantly lied to scare them, maybe a sufficient number of elderly, poor and working class Republican and Independent voters may vote against Grassley, Coburn, DeMint and Vitter in the Senate and various Republican and evil Democrat Representatives in the House.

We’ll see.

On the other hand, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Obama needs to become someone we can trust by fighting. He needs to stop being Barack Obama and become Barrage (of punches) o-BAM!!-a, and he needs to start swinging now.

SOCK!

POW!

ZOK!

BAM!

SOCK!

BLAP!

WHAP!

BIFF!

OOF!

Yes, I loved the 60s Batman TV series when I was a kid.

So, no, Mr. President, we did not become a little excited. It was more like we don’t know you that well or for that long and what you revealed about yourself during the courtship, you changed noticeably once we said “I do”.

What kind of marriage is this going to be?

Well, if we find out after the 2010 elections that Obama has secretly been a Scientologist since the late-80s that may explain some things but we’d better make an appointment with an attorney asap.

If he is or has ever been a Scientologist, he needs to resolve this bi-partisan engram that tortures him and focus on a uni-partisan endgame.

Rimshot!! Goodnight, everybody!!

Join us Monday for another thrilling and rapturous episode of the Internet’s #1 blog serial, Congressman Christ, where President Obama invites Jesus to the White House to shoot some hoops.

Check out the best of JimBuckBlog list over the weekend!!!

A Progressive Option?

Are progressives now an option in Congress? It has been within progressives control since January 20th if not Election Day last year. By “it” I mean their ability to influence national policy on some issues, the biggest and most important of which is arguably health care reform. But they don’t seem to have done it.

The first draft of yesterday’s blog contained the question “Where are the progressives?” I took it out Monday night because progressive Democrats drew a “line in the sand” on Monday (and we all know how solid and unmovable sand is) about the public option being included in anything that comes out of Congress and goes to Obama’s desk.

Being pro-active is very helpful to get what you want. This may be a gross generalization, but I think most progressives are so passive and peaceful that they even think fighting for what’s right is wrong. Get some cojones! Get your knuckles bloody if you have to!

Today I called the police at the building I manage because the problem-causing guest of a less-than-admirable tenant molested one of my tenants. Yesterday the guest caused another problem which brought everything forward. Now it is a matter of building the case against the tenant which will legally force him to leave because he did not believe he had to control his guest which allowed the guest to molest the tenant. Drugs were involved, of course. Containing and removing threats to other tenants’ peaceful enjoyment of their premises is part of my job and doesn’t happen if I just sit in my office and wait for things to resolve themselves or complain that I have no control over my building.

This is what progressives must do continuously from health care forward because I don’t think most mainstream Democrats have enough cojones to stand up to Republican bullying.

What may help progressives and Democrats in general with regard to public support of health care reform is to define the terms being used in the bills in Congress and the plans Obama has in mind.

At first hearing, who would know what a public option is just from hearing those two words? That sounds like public offering of a stock purchase. A co-op. What the hell? That’s a real estate term to most people. Couldn’t the brains behind Obama’s election and his campaign slogans not have invented terms which makes the specifics of health care reform easy to understand.

Perhaps like politics, landlord-tenant law in California does not always follow common sense or logic. But there is a framework with which I can protect my tenants.

Teabaggers and Astroturfers defined and owned health care debate in this country for a good month through town halls until last week when Obama finally came out of his cave and began to refute the outrageous myths which many Americans believed were true. Republicans defined the game while Obama and the Democrats were on the sidelines warming up. Playing catch up is not good politics.

Progressives need to get ahead of the scare tactic-question of health care reform providing free health care for illegal immigrants.

Should progressives not have started earlier to take control? Hell yes! Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are simply not fighters. Don’t wait for them to do anything.

I don’t care if this is a recess or not. Reid needs to be on the phone to Max “Raucous” Baucus and Kent “Been had” Conrad and reign them in. I hope they have learned their lesson for agenda items in the future. As the Republicans become more and more controlled by the far right, doesn’t that not also mean that, conversely, lefty liberals should move to take control of the Democrats just to balance things out in America?? Maybe I’m nuts.

The work of the Democrats in the 2010 election, before they become the Dem-o-craps, should be to focus on defeating Grassley, Coburn, DeMint and Vitter.

If the Dems allow Stormy Daniels to be Vitter’s only challenger I will be move to Louisiana and vote for Vitter myself.

HEAVY AGONIZED SIGH

Losing the Public Option

When Keith Olbermann announced last Election Day that Obama would be our next president, I choked up and became emotional, partly because of the racial aspect—America elected it’s first African American president—and partly due to relief for my two months of concern and frustration about Sarah Palin and her hate-filled campaign rallies where she pretended she had a right to stir up cries of “Kill him!”, and partly because I thought we’d elected a president who may reverse some of the Bush administration’s policies and give America some standing in the world.

Sunday morning when I saw that Obama was considering surrendering the public option to the Republicans and the insurance industry I became angry. “Republican pressure” and “uneasy public” is what it said was Obama’s explanation.

Where are the Democrats’ backbones? So far all I’ve seen on this side of the debate is an ad using the same actors from 1994 who were in an ad against it (Great [heavy sarcasm] gimmick!!) and an ad by AARP. This seems to be a case of too little too late.

And what about Obama? We elect him for “change” and the only thing he changes is what he is doing compared to what he said he’d do. Is he taking this Lincoln fixation he has too far by actually believing he will unite the country. Does he realize Lincoln only did that after winning a war?! Does he further realize he’s not even fighting a war to win health care reform that he could win if he tried.

Immediately after his Inauguration, Obama wussed out by trying to be all bi-partisan, inviting the Republicans to the White House for cocktails. Who gives a shit about cocktails?! Did he think after losing to him that Republicans were going to be civil? That kind of civility is like a thief smiling at you before he pulls the gun.

I am tired of the weak Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama-type Democrats. After eight years of Bush we all have to vent some anger. And nothing does that better than impeachment.

But Democrats are the true Christians because they always turn the other cheek. Democrats love their enemies so much they kiss their ass. In the Bible Matthew 5:40 it says “If anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic (shirt), let him have your cloak as well.” To Democrats their “cloak” is synonymous with majority votes.

Some of these sell-out Democrats are already bought by the Health Insurance industry. That’s the behind-the-scenes aspect to this whole mess that the town halls are a distraction from.

Democrats think that because they gained in 2006 and 2008 that now it’s their turn to be corrupt and get away with it. Their campaign contributions, they think, will go up in 2010 because they “behaved”. Idiots! They’ve been bought and sold like the weak, stupid slaves they are. GodDem damnocrats.

I watched “Goodfellas” yesterday—not on AMC—and it reminded me of this very situation. Obama is the restaurant owner trying to get Joe Pesci to pay his $7,000 bill because fair is fair. Joe Pesci is the health care industry who hits him over the head with a bottle and kicks him in the ass.

All I’m smart enough to do right now is write and manage an apartment building. But even I know that health care reform should have been pre-sold back in June and July by using the same means that helped Obama get elected.

Today there was talk that the Republicans want to dismantle Medi-care. A word of advice to them: ask the Democrats to be bi-partisan and they will do it for you.

Both Obama and Palin played basketball. Palin was so competitive she earned the nickname “barracuda”. Obama’s competitiveness probably earned the nickname “tortoise”.

During the campaign Palin described her ferocity as lipstick on a Pitbull. Obama may as well describe his as Chapstick on a Chihuahua.

Last year Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. Last year, Obama was for the public option before he was against it and health care reform isn’t going anywhere.

His campaign slogan was “Yes We Can”. Now it seems to be more like “Yes We…Well, Let Me See if They’ll Agree To It First”.

His other slogan was “Change We Can Believe In”. Now it seems to be more like, “Change We Can Deceive In”.

Am I missing something here? Was Blagojevich secretly appointed to head health care in a quid pro quo for naming someone ridiculous to fill his Senate seat so Obama could have it back in January 2013?

We have a first with Obama being the first black president. Will we have another first in that Obama will also be the first president to run for his old Senate seat while serving as president?

All the Republicans have to do now is create a phony national security issue to really wrest the government back from Americans.

On to Global Warming, Social Security, Medi-Care and every other campaign promise he made.

I hope I’m wrong.

Republicans May Lose More in 2010

I say let the Republicans and Blue Dogs say and do whatever they want on health care reform. If polls, which I will cite are accurate, the Republican Party may be even more marginalized in 2010, reversing a long-standing trend where the opposing party gains seats. Impossible you say? Didn’t Reagan end the trend of curse of the “zero president” or was John David Hinckley just a wuss in his job as the curse’s facilitator?

On Election Night last year a close personal friend of mine up the beach who is a recording artist agreed with me that if there is ever going to be a three-party system in this country it would be the Republicans splitting in two—like an earthworm that, when it’s cut in half, crawls in two separate directions.

With extremism on the right increasing through the issues of health care and abortion and birtherism, moderate Republicans have been effectively silenced. In fact, this recent extremism is so loud, even other far-right Republicans are working hard just to catch up and be heard, except John Ensign and the C Street-The Family politicians.

Warning: the following is not a prediction but only the observance of a possible scenario.

Recent polls show that the “vast” or “overwhelming” majority of Americans—in some polls more than the number of those who voted for Hope and Change—want health care reform. Health care is one of those hot button issues that effect people in a deeply emotional way—much more than tax cuts. Health care involves a relative dying or in misery, tax cuts only involve freeing up enough cash to buy a new car or get a face lift.

If Republicans and Blue Dog Dems are seen as being whores for insurance industry pimps and against the people come 2010 the trend Dems benefited from beginning in 2006, and which grew in 2008, could grow even more in 2010.

If that happens and the Republicans are forced down to about 30 in the Senate and down to about 150 in the House, two things may happen—the Republicans may split after a long-overdue moderate Republican backlash takes place, and, passing a progressive agenda through Congress may also get easier.

But the above presupposes that Democrats will get the balls and fight to win elections as happened in 2008. I have never thought Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid had the balls to correct the wrongs in government when they had the opportunity. I still wish Pelosi had gone after Bush-Cheney for impeachment. Cheney deserved to have his face rubbed in the dirt after the things he’s done throughout his political career, not just as vice-president. His I’m-above-the-law snobbish attitude alone deserved a bloody nose.

Impeaching Bush may have set some things straight in that stratosphere of government just as impeaching Reagan may have straightened out the abuses in his office, many of which involving drugs that I wrote about in my first four posts of this blog.

If they had impeached Bush maybe that would have shaken up the Imperial Owners so that our Imperial Manager, Obama, would not have had to sell out as much as he has or experience the difficulties he has. But no, Pelosi and Reid chose to put all that behind us just as Attorney Genital Eric Holder is putting torture behind us so they can keep using it, I guess, by not making it a crime, despite the Special Prosecutor sideshow he seems to be starting.

But I digress. Recent polls by the Gallup organization, which, according to Wikipedia, rates 17th out of 23 for accuracy, show that many states that were red in 2008 are now in play. A slight majority of these people in Texas have labeled themselves as “leaning Democrat”. Thanks, Rick Perry.

And that gubernatorial reference points me to the thesis of this piece that I have lolligagged about getting to, which is this: let the Republicans do and say what they want and they will pay for it next year. As Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does”.

As my close personal friend who is a recording artist will tell you, the Democrats are just as pro-war as the Republicans.

That is true, but I believe the Democrats are more malleable, as evidenced by the putty-like feeling I get when I’ve held Barbara Boxer in my hands. Plus, progressivism is more closely connected to Independents but there aren’t enough of them so, for now, Democrats will have to do until the Democrats break down into more than one party after the Republicans.

Exploring the point I made about the Republicans splitting will have to wait for another post.

Once the far right is marginalized into extremist criminal acts and all locked up, and as their audiences for their TV networks and radio shows disappears, maybe, just maybe, we can turn our attention to ending global climate change, providing quality health care for all and reducing the Taliban to becoming contestants on a nationally-televised show in Afghanistan and Pakistan called “Talibans Got Talent”.

Are Lobbyists Doctors Too?

On January 29, 2002, during his State of the Union speech, George Bush stood before the American people and proclaimed that Iran, Iraq and North Korea were the “axis of evil” and accused these countries of helping terrorism and pursuing weapons of mass destruction. We all know how that turned out.

The only true axis of evil George Bush ever really knew (but wasn’t fully aware of) was he, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

However, there is another triad of troublemakers who I call the “ass kiss of evil”. They are the insurance industry and American Medical Association, various congresspersons, mostly Republican, and these fake grassroots people screaming at congressional presentations. Thankfully, this Ass Kiss of Evil doesn’t have nukes.

Members of Congress (Senate and House) have excellent health insurance, US soldiers have government-run health care (except for Veterans) and yet many Members of Congress of the American people are siding with the enemies of the American people on health care reform despite the fact that the Constitution they are sworn to uphold makes our government, as Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, “of the People, by the People and for the People.”

The lobbying industry needs to be regulated. They have a python-like stranglehold on our democracy if they can invade sessions for public discourse on health care reform and disrupt it to the extent they have in recent days. If our government’s job is to first serve the people who elect them and then industry and commerce, lobbyists are cutting in line and usurping that process by calling out these groups of thugs and hooligans to prevent a public from being informed by their congresspersons..

With scenes of fake grassroots outrage at government all over our TV screens in the past few days, I have become inspired. I think to insure lobby reform, groups of citizens should flood Congressional offices and whenever insurance industry and pharmaceutical industry lobbyists begin selling their wares in congressional offices we should shout them down, call them liars and start chanting “Just Say No”.

Under our laws, persons who prevent others from receiving what is their due are in violation of either criminal or civil laws, or both.

Excessive lobbyists like the ones behind the thugs and hooligans are guilty of impeding the process of representative government. This should be illegal on some level and to some degree. There should be a well-drawn and restrictive line that lobbyists cannot cross which respects the needs of the people more than it presently does.

I’m sure if I use the word “people” one more time I’ll be accused of being a socialist.

America is the most rabid capitalist country in the world. What did Atticus Finch do to the rabid dog coming down the street in “To Kill a Mockingbird”? He shot and killed it.

That’s what needs to happen to the rabid aspects of American capitalism. They need to be shot like a dog on a dirt road. Swiftly. And the remains burned, not buried.

Greed is the rabies in the diseased minds of these raging capitalist dogs. Lobbyists are the infected foam dripping from their mouths.

And while our focus is now on lobbyists and the Republicans, it may well be Blue Dog Democrats who will destroy health care reform. Damned Blue Dogs. Those Democrats are rabid.

Where is Atticus Finch when we need him?