The Astro Turfer

Like the Silver Surfer, Marvel Comics has introduced its new comic book character, the Astro Turfer, seen here with a hangover after a night on the town hall meeting.

While the Silver Surfer roams the galaxy looking for planets for Galactus to consume, the Astro Turfer roams the U.S. looking for health care discussions to obliterate with screaming and shouting.

The Silver Surfer’s work stems from his profession, an astronomer, and his identity is known as Norrin Radd, while the Astro Turfer’s work stems from his role as someone against health care for all.

And while no one knows the Astro Turfer’s identity, many suspect him to be either Joe Lieberman or Barack Obama.

The Wrong Things

How is it that in a country of 300 million-plus, in a representative democracy of 535 Senators and Representatives, that one man can “kill” something that benefits, well, according to an AP story over the weekend, a whopping two percent of our population.

Well, everybody’s talking about Joe Lieberman exercising his option in the Senate to filibuster this extremely weak health care reform bill that will benefit almost no one which progressives have promised to bend over and vote for just to be loyal democrats.

And Obama talks about how hard change is. While he made small and medium advances on his agenda, his legacy will most likely be judged (by me) on health care reform, Afghanistan, Iraq and the economy. How many times have I and others tried to get him out of the White House and involved in the health care reform process.

But he didn’t and now Lieberman may wreck all that change Obama promised way back when. Didn’t Obama reach out to Lieberman earlier this year and convince democratic leadership to give ol’ Joe some important committee chairmanship, like Homeland Security?

I never graduated Harvard and I’ve never been elected president, but even I knew bi-partisanship was bullshit. Sure, change is hard—especially if you keep fucking it up from the beginning.

Right now I’m watching “The Right Stuff”, the 1983 Phillip Kaufman film based on the 1979 book by Tom Wolfe. And while the film may have taken some artistic license and emphasized the pilot over the scientists and the politicians who made it happen, the fact is without the pilots’ expertise, how different would the space program have been. Armstrong’s piloting of the LEM on the moon with only a few seconds of fuel is a perfect example.

A couple of months ago while watching “Serpico” I wrote that we needed a Frank Serpico in Congress to clean it up and get rid of the corruption.

Now I’m writing that we need a new generation of politicians with, you guessed it, the right stuff.

These new politicians would hold with pride, dignity and integrity, the weighty meaning and solemn responsibility of the office which they would hold. They would be leather jacket-wearing, gum chewing, whiskey drinking courageous hotshots who would push the boundaries, just as Yeager broke the sound barrier, of creating and enacting legislation that helps the people, just like all the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts who also did what no one did before them.

American space exploration since Kennedy’s call to action drew qualified and fearless men and women to the mission.

But when Obama called for Change, no one—not even Obama himself—seems to have heeded that call. With Kennedy’s announcement about the moon shot, we made it to the moon many times. But in this analogy, with Obama’s call for health care reform, we exploded just above the launch tower.

Until we can get some politicians with the right stuff, it may suffice if Obama would simply put Joe Lieberman on the moon.

An Obvious Lie

GOP secret revealed: Republicans don’t want a public option or health care for the poor (including poor white Tea Baggers) because they know there is a Swine Flu vaccine shortage and they want poor people to die from H1N1.

Huffington Post ran a story about Dana Perrino and Swine Flu vaccine shortage which conservative critics of the public option are using as proof that the government cannot run a health care program despite the fact that Medicare, Congressional health care and the military are all government-run.

But what these “conservative critics” failed to mention is the secret and real reason the GOP doesn’t want a public option or health care for everyone or to approve Obama’s nominee for Surgeon General is they know there is a shortage of the Swine Flu vaccine and they want to capitalize on that fact.

Conservative Republicans don’t want poor people to have health care through a public option, but especially single payer, because they want poor people who are uninsured to die from Swine Flu because they know that means there will be more vaccine for the rich.

Republicans want poor people to be forced to die from Swine Flu.

What they also won’t tell you is that Swine Flu re-emerged during the Bush Administration and was re-named “H1N1” because they believed poor people were so uneducated that they would get confused about its meaning.

The “h” and “n” are said to mean “have nots”—the poor in America. 11 means 11 million which is the number of poor in America they hope will die.

Republicans will deny this because they are Republicans and love the rich.

Ask Cheney, Palin, Beck and Limbaugh why they hate the poor and want them to die from Swine Flu and see how they deny it and change the subject by accusing Obama of being Hitler-ish.

Be sure to wash your hands after shaking mitts with a Republican or Blue Dog—they may be trying to infect you if they think you are poor.

There is even some speculation that Rush Limbaugh has become addicted to the vaccine which means the shortage will only increase in the coming months.

There is also speculation that Glenn Beck uses his show to mind control Republicans in the Senate to hold up Obama’s Surgeon General nomination because he too hates poor people because he thinks they’re crybabies about their “disadvantage”.

Senators or Cynictors?

I get angry when I watch the news about health care reform, then I become fatigued by the anger. Unh…I, I…need to go lie down….

I am tired of all this legalized corruption and legalized bribery that enables Senators Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh, among many others, to sabotage health care for Americans who need it because of campaign contributions from the health insurance industry.

I for one think we should call our Congresspoersons and tell then we sincerely believe their adult male of large mammal feces.

What a great photo above, eh. While Jesse Helms took pride in being called “Senator No!”, I think Ben Nelson may take offense at being called “Senator Nose”.

Okay, my apologies—wait, what?—oh, another one:

I don’t know which Ben Nelson is less capable of—health care reform or hair care reform? I mean, is that a really bad toupé or are his hair weaves made of wool?

Badaboom!

But seriously, Obama worked hard to get Lieberman the Chairmanship of Homeland Security. Was this Obama’s attempt to show forgiveness and induce his prized bi-partisanship? Did Rahm make him do it? I don’t get Obama anymore. Is there a Quija board in the White House?

Salon writer Glenn Greenwald was on Rachel Maddow last night (FF to 5:30) and revealed that Bayh’s wife sits on the board of Wellpoint and they own nearly a million dollars of Wellpoint stock and, consequently, Bayh may vote to filibuster for reasons of “fiscal responsibility”.

Obama wanted bi-partisanship but he got Bayh-partisanship. Obama promised transparency, but the only thing completely visible are these guys’ true motives in denying reform.

Bayh and Lieberman should be investigated not only by the Senate Ethics Committee but by the FBI.

The American people (are you listening, progressives—I mean, reading?) need to remember what these Senators have done with their elected responsibility and vote them out. They are corrupt, they do not care about people and they are a cancer.

I will say it louder.

They are a cancer in the body of America!

We need health reform just to cure us of them.

Voting. That’s the real public option.

Single payer!

Single payer!

Single payer!

Single payer!

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.

Max Redroom

In 1980, the great director Stanley Kubrick committed to film his version of the Stephen King novel, “The Shining”. In the film as in the book, there is a scene where the son Danny writes “REDRUM” on the wall in lipstick so that when it is viewed in the mirror by his mother Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and she sees “murder”.

Max Headroom was a fictional character that was pure artificial intelligence and had a TV show in the 80s.

Max Baucus is the United States Senator from Montana and Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who, yesterday, revealed his health care bill.

Put them all together and you get a guy named Max who was on TV today and many times in the past, whose intelligence seems as artificial as Styrofoam who has murdered his own Senate health care bill, his reputation in Congress and possibly, and hopefully, his chances of getting re-elected in Montana.

One of my favorite comments from Deep Throat, Hal Holbrook’s character in the movie “All the President’s Men”, is appropriate here: “These guys just aren’t that bright and things got a little out of hand.”

These are a few of Baucus’s comments, “It is balanced, a common sense bill that can pass the Senate,” and “It is time to act. This is our moment in history.”

Now you see why I compared Baucus’s brain to Styrofoam.

Baucus has received more money from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries than almost any other Senator. No one expected him to deliver anything substantial on health care reform. But he thinks we believe he did.

All these guys do is lie anyway. Even Olympia Stone reportedly described the legislation he created as “watered down”.

All that time wasted in pursuit of bi-partisanship

This makes Obama that much more frustrating. I knew Baucus was ridiculous way back when. Could Obama not have exercised some leadership in July, for God’s fuck’s sake?

Could Obama not have written the health care bill he wanted back in February or March or April and told the Senate and House to make it work by September?

As I offered in a previous post, perhaps Obama was allowing the Teabaggers (and even Blue Dogs connected to the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries) to run their course and then he would take control. I’m paraphrasing my own theory—it had more to do with poker and being Captain Kirk.

Hang on. Am I talking about the same Obama who was brown nosing Wall Street Tuesday, basically asking them to regulate themselves or he’s going to hold his breath?

If Obama can call Kanye West a “jackass”, you know what he thinks about Baucus, Grassley, Palin, Enzi and the rest.

Well, today everyone balked at Baucus. Why? Because Baucus bogged us down and Baucus mocked us.

Yes, the plays on his name are important.

Repetitive ridicule is a superiority tactic most apparent in the principles of school yard/locker room bullying from my youth. I know it well because I was subjected to it mercilessly and failed in turn at it miserably.

We all need superiority over these assholes. I am tired of my government behaving the way it does—and that’s before the corporations take over everything after the Supreme Court rules in favor of Citizens United and makes multi-nationals people too!

HEAVY AGONIZED SIGH

Two Oh One Oh

It’s been a rough couple of months for progressives—and Americans—surrounding all this health care reform traveling vaudeville show.

Nothing is certain as yet, but many believe Obama pulled the rabbit out of the hat. I did not get to see the speech because I was picking up a friend at the airport.

However, I saw snippets of it and listened to some guests on the Marxist Socialist Nazi Bolshevik Communist network (MSNBC) and they believe Obama “hit one out of the park” and brought a “game changer”.

The four year conversion time table may complicate my strategy of making America a more progressive country, but we have time.

I said a couple of weeks ago that Republicans could lose even more seats in the House and the Senate in 2010 if the Democratic Party and the progressives in it play it right.

By 2012, progressive Democrats could win even more so that the Blue Dogs are significantly marginalized just in time for the asteroid to wipe us all out because the Mayans said so.

The working, middle and lower classes of America want and need help and not just because of Bush’s economic meltdown. Average Americans have a deep need to know that their government cares more about them.

Senator Tom Coburn’s belief that people should not turn to their government for help is, I believe, classism. If corporations can turn to their government for help, and Republicans agree with that, they are classists and corporatists and hypocrites.

Taxpayers pay taxes. They deserve more for their tax dollar than to have 50 cents of every one of those dollars to be given to the military for contractors and weapons manufacturers who have no oversight or accountability. That is never mentioned by the Coburns and his ilk—I mean, like.

This is their Achilles Heel. Republicans don’t really care about the American people despite the right-wing Christian and abortion and flag-waving brainwashing. This needs to be explained to the American voter provided the Supreme Court doesn’t rule in favor of Citizens United and our elections can be bought and sold by corporate America.

They can also lose from a true Christian point of view because their lack of compassion for the uninsured in favor of insurance companies is certainly un-Christian. If Christ was anything, he was progressive. Lying and scaring old people is not something Christ would approve of. Really make the old Midwesterner Bible Belters understand this and watch what happens.

Someone with guts and balls needs to exploit the Repub’s and Blue Dogs’ lies about health care reform at their town halls and defeat them in the next available election. But that requires a very good opposing candidate.

If health care reform succeeds, all the Birthers in Congress could be forced out of office because of the high poll numbers Obama could well have because of a rebounding economy and the initial successes of health care reform.

I would caution progressives not to get greedy. The goal is to win centrist and slightly-conservative Americans with health care. Americans want to know that people care about them and do not care more about illegal aliens, etc. The Republicans are going to exploit immigration. Progressives should not make the mistake of stepping into the trap.

The goal is to build a better America. That cannot be done by piling on everything all at once. Some issues must be left for another time. If you convince Americans you are for them, they will help you be for others next time.

Certain Congressional races should be targeted, but not all. Perhaps Grassley is vulnerable—and easily defeated—because of his speeches about “death panels”, obstructionism in his “Gang of Six” seat and flip flopping on “death panels” by blaming it on Sarah Palin.

Obama needs to help forcefully. With the anticipated success of health care reform by 2010, Bill Clinton also needs to campaign. His ability to gloat because of the health care victory could be extremely valuable and key to Congressional victories in many, many races.

I personally am slightly more conservative than the average progressive on some issues. But we need to take this country in another direction and swimming to the other shore after the shipwreck we all survived since 2000 is the only real way to recover. We need to get as far away from conservatism and corporatism as possible then we can slide back down when progressives begin fucking everything up in another 10-20 years.

This is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Grassley, Coburn, Vitter and the others need to be made understand that fact in no uncertain terms.

And if they do not agree, they need to hear the same phrase I remember hearing conservatives say to liberals and leftists when I was a kid, and that was: “This is America, love it or leave it!”

On to Single Payer!

Labor Day, All My Troubles Seemed So Far Away

According to that well of socialist indoctrination, the Wikipedia, the form of the celebration for Labor Day since its inception in America in 1882 after being borrowed from Canada, involved a parade for labor and trade organizations, followed by a festival for the workers and their families.

Originally, the AFL (American Federation of Labor)—back then not yet joined with the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations)—decided that the Sunday preceding Labor Day should be called Labor Sunday to nourish the spiritual aspects of the labor movement.

So, how ironic that Obama is giving his speech to a joint session of Congress a mere two days after Labor Day on historic legislation regarding health care reform for those who have fallen through the cracks that organized labor sought to protect.

It seems that everything everyone in the Obama camp has been saying up to now, including Obama himself; has been telegraphing that he has abandoned the public option in favor of a bill in which all Americans are legally obligated to get health coverage from an insurance company just like car insurance.

This means the next time you get pulled over by a cop and he asks for registration and insurance it may mean registration with a health insurance carrier and proof that a current policy is in force so that if you are in an accident there will be proof that when taken to the emergency room, your emergency health care expenses will not be paid for by those who’ve been bearing the burden up to now.

I prefer to wait until Obama speaks before getting nasty about it.

I have been rewriting this screenplay on honor killing. That’s an even more depressing subject than health care reform. And it is almost as complex.

Honor killing is illegal in Islam. It is against Islam to kill someone without trial. Honor killing takes place only in cultures in which men have absolute control over a woman’s sexuality usually in communities where that is used to judge a family’s “honor”.

We’ve had honor killings in this country. But mostly we’ve just had violence against women in the west.

I am also writing a book about how honor killing began and the birth of honor killings shares the same history as Christianity and Judaism. Perhaps after that history becomes familiar, male domination through all things social, political and religious throughout the world may begin to be resolved and hideous things like acid attacks against teenage girls like those that are common in Afghanistan may become as ancient history.

Even if Obama doesn’t say what we want about public option health care reform, our lives haven’t been put in jeopardy or taken for innocently talking to a stranger and we haven’t had to go to a hospital because acid was thrown in our faces for a variety of insane reasons.

The Prejudice Opposing Health Care Reform

One day this will all be history. And I hope this generation and the ones that follow will see the important lessons to be learned. One of the most important of which is how strong is the grip by American corporations on our country and our politicians.

In theory, I suppose, American corporations are not a bad thing. But when you factor in greed, and when greed is piggybacked on war profits, oh boy…! All hell breaks loose.

Every political era has its defining moments and its defining issues. It is no different now than it was in the 60s when I was a kid. With Ted Kennedy’s death, Obama on the ropes (hopefully doing a rope-a-dope), the Democrats being weak and spineless and the Republicans also on the ropes but screaming as if vocal intimidation instead of hard hitting punches will win the match, health care reform and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the defining issues of today.

The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a defining moment in America because it helped lead to the correction of a centuries-old travesty in America, meaning slavery and discrimination against the descendents of slaves.

The possible passage of health care reform is similar to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in at least one respect which has to do with prejudice. In the case of health care reform that prejudice is based on class.

Perhaps because we are so focused on white/black and white/Hispanic racism, we have totally ignored and, therefore, not become educated about, nor had a national conversation about class prejudice. It seems that classism and class prejudice was discussed much more a century ago and through the Depression.

But that all seemed to be swept away by the American victory in WWII and to be crushed by the anti-Communist witch hunt of the McCarthy era in the early 1950s and replaced by the growing Civil Rights Movement in the mid-50s through to today with the election of America’s first African-American president and the appointment of our first Latina Supreme Court Justice.

Insurance industry CEOs and their corporate capo regimes are like the Jim Crow bigots of the Old South. They are the lords of the health care power structure just as some Whites in the Old South were the lords of that power structure.

Possible passage of a bill requiring all Americans to carry insurance so that insurance companies make money of the now uninsured 46 million means they control every aspect of health care in America just as the lords in the Jim Crow South controlled nearly all aspects of life for blacks back then.

Insurance industry CEOs view people with disdain and contempt because they know they need us just as the Old South Whites—especially the slave masters—viewed blacks with contempt and hatred and violence because they knew they needed them for as one of the primary pillars of their agrarian economy.

Just as the white power structure in America determined which blacks they approved of, the insurance industry power structure does the same with who gets an operation, who gets an operation denied and who gets coverage period.

Those in Congress now are like those Dixiecrats back in the 60s who tried to maintain their status quo on segregation until the Kennedys, Martin Luther King, Jr., LBJ and others forced the Civil Rights Act through Congress.

The insurance and health industries and their Congressional minions want to maintain the status quo and put the prejudiced power structure and its profits over providing the human right of adequate health care for the People. “The People” in America has always represented a class of people which is usually the heart and soul of America—the poor and working class and small business owners.

One cannot have such a profound lack of compassion for something as fundamental to compassion itself as quality and affordable health care unless they already have a prejudice, a disdain and contempt for “the People”.

Those opposed to the principles of equality during the Civil Rights Movement often resorted to convoluted logic and confused doubletalk when trying to explain why segregation was good and how white superiority was “God’s will”.

We hear this same convoluted logic and confused doubletalk today from Republicans and Democrats opposed to health care reform on unspoken class grounds.

Others simply won’t even participate in the discussion. There are Congresspersons, Democrat and Republican, who won’t even read the bills and won’t vote for health care reform anyway.

Just as they called Martin Luther King, Jr. a “communist” because that was how their simplistic minds processed the concept of equality, they view health care reform as “socialism” because it benefits “We the People” and that is how their simplistic minds view equality.

There are those in the intelligentsia of the insurance industry power structure who use these buzzwords to inflame the situation. The ultimate irony is these racists are accusing Obama of being Hitler without making a coherent argument because they simply cannot due to a complete and total lack of logic inherent in its premise.
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The vocal, violent mob mentality of the Old South’s power structure is very similar to what we see in the town hallers, the tea baggers and those “proud to be right wing terrorists” like that guy at the recent town hall in Reading, California.

The use of terrorism was how the Old South kept control over blacks, largely through the KKK and other vigilante means. The use of the town halls is how an insurance industry prejudiced against working class is keeping control over “the People”.

Between the two political parties, the Democrats were supposed to be for the people. Democrats like Ted Kennedy were, but many are not. Just as there were blacks known as Uncle Toms back in the day who sided with the white power structure that oppressed them and other blacks, many Democrats are traitors to the causes of the People because they are not of the same class.

Obviously Ted Kennedy was also not of the working class but was instructed from a very early age to help those less fortunate and that to whom much is given much is expected. That is compassion. But now they are trying to say that Kennedy was a “centrist” and not a liberal.

Just like some Whites in the Old South, Republicans and conservative Democrats believe that only they should be in power. They, like the Old South, believe it is God’s Will that they lead our country the way they see fit and the rest of us should shut up and be happy.

Now that we have a black president, can we now engage in some amount of discussion of classism in America without detracting from the worthy and ongoing national discussion of racism in America?

I still believe this moment in history gives us a profound opportunity to change America and make this country live up to its ideals that we so loudly profess to the rest of the world.

The forces that oppose health care reform in this country do so out of a deep, deep prejudice against the poor and working class in America. It is that simple and that discussion needs to be had on a national level so that we may out those bigots before they can poison our country any further.

Beyond Teddy Kennedy

I remember watching JFK’s funeral on TV when I was six years old and crying and not really understanding why I was crying. I don’t really remember hearing the news of RFK’s assassination but I have always taken pride that he was in my hometown the week before.

Tuesday night when I was writing yesterday’s blog, the news of Ted Kennedy’s death came across. But I knew I did not really know enough about his life and career to write a respectable and respectful piece, and that I would leave it to others.

The one thought I had Tuesday night was on a theme I have touched upon a few times, which is that there are certain people in the world who you feel are pillars of strength to guard you from bad things and you almost take them for granted. Ted Kennedy has always been one of those for me. One did not have to pay as much attention because Kennedy was there to do it for us.

There has been much made today of Ted Kennedy’s greatness as a Senator. I don’t doubt that. I think what contributed to our thoughts of Kennedy’s greatness was his special place in our national family as the only surviving brother of JFK and RFK.

We as Americans will never get over the assassinations of John and Bobby. It will simply fade from our collective national consciousness as those who have any memories of them fade into the night.

Who will replace Kennedy in what he wanted to accomplish? I had hoped Kennedy would have lived long enough to make the difference in the current health care reform debate that seems to have been hijacked away from the passionate, eloquence of Kennedy by the thuggish, screaming of the town hallers.

Kennedy’s death should be a wake up call to those with progressive ideals and the skills, intellect and talent to carry them through.

This means you, Mr. President.

Perhaps your attempt at bipartisanship is learned from Ted Kennedy’s modus operandi within the Senate. Well, I believe times have changed and a different strategy is obviously needed. I don’t believe saying you promised Kennedy and just naming the health care reform bill after him is enough to get Republicans and errant Democrats on board. Many of these people seem to have lost their souls long ago.

This means you, Mr. Hatch—Moonie alumni.

There are progressives waiting to be led if you are so inclined to lead, Mr. President. We need toughness and rapid response to shifting sands caused by insurance and pharmaceutical industry con men. If we see you are waiting too long we are prepared to go it alone.

One of Reagan’s famous quotes was, “Government isn’t the solution to our problems government is the problem.” Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn said Tuesday that government was not the solution. Obviously what they want is to de-regulate corporations and to corporatize America in education, health care and Social Security, among others.

We don’t want America to become corporatized. With Kennedy gone, we must now do it ourselves, trust no one and take no prisoners.

Good luck on Saturday, Mr. President. We will all be watching for more than just a eulogy. You have a lot of rising to the occasion to do.

What would America be like if JFK and RFK had lived with Teddy in the Senate? Maybe Oliver Stone needs a new film?

All that’s left in the immediate is for Glenn Beck to make some insensitive comments about Kennedy’s death and lose even more sponsors.

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.

Bipartisans Disease Becomes Contagious

Dateline December 5, 2010.

AMERICA - One month after the mid-term election in which Republicans roundly defeated Democrats and took back 21 seats in the Senate and 112 seats in the House, a strange and curious psychological phenomenon has befallen Americans.

Symptoms were noticed at the beginning of game four of the World Series in October when coaches from the two teams met each other on the infield to determine an outline for how both teams could come together to give America a good game.

The next day, after the media revealed that neither coach really wanted to win the remaining games, many believed the coaches and their teams had become the victims of some unknown freak side effect of steroid abuse that ESPN assumed was an over stimulation of the glands that manufactured estrogen, making the Boys of Summer seem like the Hermaphrodites of Fall. Balls were being dropped in more way than one.

People really began to notice when Heavyweight Boxing became Heavyweight Boring as #1 ranked Vitali Klitcshko and #4 ranked Chris Arreola stepped into the middle of the ring after the bell and began “getting along” with each other. They didn’t begin fighting, they began talking…about serious things—global climate change, international relations, and Jon and Kate Plus Hate as Vitali mis-stated it, causing Arreola and the Referee to laugh.

But the truth was Jon and Kate had inexplicably and suddenly reconciled which caused their ratings to, thankfully, plummet.

In courtrooms all over America, prosecutors and defense attorneys in capital murder cases suddenly began determining that bi-partisanship should prevail and both their interests be met, then immediately agreed that the murderers would be free on Wednesdays, Saturday and Sundays and incarcerated on Mondays, Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays with a promise not to murder any one unless the murderer and a potential victim agree that attempted murder of the victim complies with a bi-partisan meeting of murderer’s and victim’s needs.

In this spirit Martin Scorsese recently announced plans for GoodFellas II where the son of Tommy (Joe Pesci’s character) grows up to avenge his father’s murder by having a sit down with the son of Billy Batts where he allows Junior Batts to beat him senseless in a Vegan restaurant, stuff him in the trunk of a Prius and bury him in an organic sugar snap pea patch until six months later when they have to “get it out of there” because the pea patch is going to be made into a Buddhist conflict resolution center.

Later in the year, the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine termed bi-partisans disease “Obamitis”. At the beginning, some in America confused bipartisans disease with Parkinson’s Disease, but those people were usually in the early stages of Alzheimer’s anyway.

The Journal says that being bi-partisan is the opposite of being bi-polar but is much more dangerous.

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.

10 Worst Untold Things About Health Care Reform

A few things they are not telling us about public health care reform:

1. To be bipartisan, Obama has decided that Karl Rove will determine which doctors will be fired for medicinal reasons.

2. Similar to do-it-at-home dentistry, under the health care reform, vasectomies will also be performed with a string and a slamming door.

3. All those needing costly invasive medical procedures will first be sent to Afghanistan and made to kill three Taliban leaders before any surgery takes place.

4. There will be a Death Panel and it will consist of Paula Abdul. It will be televised on the Disney Channel where the elderly will be required to perform their end-of-life wishes in interpretive song, dance or other talent and Paula will determine who lives and dies.

5. Under public health, a “birther” will not qualify for the plan unless they are eight months pregnant. Conversely, “deathers” will not qualify for the plan unless they are already deceased.

6. In some cases, the prescribed medicine will be replaced with placebos. Also, in some cases, medical professionals will be replaced with casual bowlers.

7. Pediatric care covered by the public health plan shall not apply to the first born son of the family due to the plan’s requirement of child sacrifice to Obama.

8. While Obama is not a Nazi, the doctors in the public health care plan will be Nazis. Josef Mengele’s grandson, Rutger Mengele will determine who gets treatment and who gets amputations. The procedure for who sees the doctor first will be changed from “Take a number” to “Take a Swastika”.

9. Siamese Twins will be separated, but to save time, operations will only be performed during scheduled Two-for-One specials.

10. To save taxpayer money, all plastic surgery procedures shall use soda bottles cultivated from bus stop trash cans, microwave-melted to your individual face’s specifications.

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”.

I Want My Country Back

One of my all-time favorite films is “To Kill a Mockingbird” (“TKM”). I first saw it at about age 13 or so on TV. It moved me so much I even read the book. I don’t know that I comprehended the racial message or the sexual and physical abuse message that much on a conscious level, but I am certain I got much of it on a subconscious level.

Last week during one of the town hall meetings on the health care reform debate debacle, a teary-eyed, red-headed, emotional woman who had the aura of a domestic violence survivor, almost stomping her feet in a childish way exclaimed into a microphone, “I want my country back!”

She reminded me of the character Mayella Violet Ewell who was sexually and physically assaulted by her father and, when it became obvious she was lying, she lashed out at the jury, screaming incoherently, “And if you fine fancy gentlemen ain’t gonna do nothin’ about it…with your fancy ass…don’t come to nothin’, Mr. Finch! Ugh!” before she ran into the arms of her abusive father.

I will never be able to look at the face of Brock Peters as Tom Robinson, the accused rapist, without seeing Barack Obama again. After all, they’re both black (although Obama’s half-white, remember?) and there are the similarities in their names—I think Brock Obama would be better than Barry, don’t you?

Despite the disappointment and frustration that progressives have with him or his war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan as our Imperial Manager, Obama, in the context of health care reform debate/debacle, is being accused, tried and executed for crimes he did not commit.

The Radical Right accusing Obama of socialism, killing old people and Sarah Palin’s baby, comparing him to Hitler, and attempting to overthrow his presidency with fake birth certificates are nothing more than attempts to reassert the power structure that was taken away from them in the last two elections.

Trying and sentencing Tom Robinson for a crime committed by the abusive white father of the victim sitting on the witness stand was the way the corrupt power structure, the men from Old Sarum, maintained control. Accusing and trying Obama in the court of public opinion and convicting him of Nazism is nothing more than the white conservative power structure in America attempting to maintain control and maintain the status quo of a corrupt and abusive health care system that does their community more damage than good just like Maycomb’s racism held that community back.

In this analogy, I guess Rush Limbaugh would be the father character, Bob Ewell, since Limbaugh’s the father of the Republican Party, and benefited from his own health insurance with his OxyContin addiction which certainly was not on a single payer plan if Palm Beach County Florida law enforcement authorities noticed Limbaugh’s name in connection with a black market drug ring during an investigation back in 2003. But I digress.

The members of the Old Sarum mob who confront Atticus the night they try to break Tom Robinson out for a lynching would be Glenn Beck, Dick Armey and throw some of those damned Blue Dog Dems in there as well. They’re all idiots.

If Beck and Limbaugh had lived thousands of years ago, they would have been against the use of fire, they would have been against the creation of the wheel and they would have been against planting crops. These guys and the people they represent would rather eat raw meat just to maintain their status quo than create anything that would benefit those without in America.

But who is the Atticus Finch character in all this? Will it be Bill Clinton? Ooh, interesting characterization on at least the southern male angle—but no. I doubt Atticus Finch would have killed innocents in Iraq or had oral sex with an intern. And I am certain Atticus knew what the meaning of the word “is” is.

And perhaps more importantly, who is the Boo Radley character— who comes to save the day by killing the Bob Ewell character and every evil thing he was capable of from that day forward?

As we all know (and for those who don’t) Boo was a guy perceived as evil by the entire community who was misunderstood and came to save the day in the end. Who would be Boo?

John Cornyn? He has white hair and that albino look—even though Robert Duval is better looking. Bobby Jindal? No albino look, but hey, aren’t some of the broader points of this piece and “TKM” about race. The problem with Jindal is he’s too much of Barney Fife to be a Boo Radley. Se la vie.

Progressive, pro-health care reformers sitting quietly in the town hall meeting are like the blacks of Maycomb (the fictional town) forced to sit silently up in the second-floor gallery while the rabble rousers take up every occupiable space on the first floor of the courtroom.

This is an incredible similarity in this analysis between Mayella Ewell and Sarah Palin, however. The lies and victimization from the witness stand and not knowing how Tom Robinson supposedly raped her is like Palin lying during the campaign and now claiming Obama will kill her baby, proclaiming the media elites have treated her badly and not knowing anything about Supreme Court cases, etc and many other things she has shown her ignorance on. Mayella’s lashing out at the courtroom before feeling the witness stand into her father’s arms is uniquely similar to Palin lashing out at everyone before fleeing the governor’s office into First Dude’s arms. Even their shoes are almost the same.

The major differences between Obama and Tom Robinson in this analogy are that Obama is left handed and Tom Robinson’s left arm was damaged. What I hope is the other difference is that Obama doesn’t run away like Tom Robinson did.

Barack Obama. B-rock Peters.

Obama is no more a Nazi than Tom Robinson was a rapist. But the tactics of loud and constant accusation is how mob rule wins just as it did in “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

I want my country too. But I can’t want it back because I don’t think I ever had it. Instead, it’s something I’ll just have to keep working toward.

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?