Of Hitler and Healthcare

I like Congressman Barney Frank. He’s practical, whip smart and has the ability to cut through all of the foolishness regardless of the issue. This time he addresses a concern by one of his constituents about health care reform. Of course there are references to Nazis and Hitler but what debate or townhall meeting about healthcare would be complete without them?

This is the funniest retort I’ve seen to one of those wacky folks spewing nonsense about socialism, Nazis, healthcare and Hitler. I mean honestly, what does this woman really know about Nazis or Hitler? My guess is little to nothing. I bet she couldn’t even name five similarities between President Obama and dur fuhrer. She would first have to find Germany on the damn map!

We all know how ignorant Americans are about other countries and cultures so I’m baffled by the comparisons being made between the President and Hitler. This is a lame but effective attempt by conservative agitators to kill something that would actually benefit the poor and the estimated 44 million uninsured Americans.

No one ever does this much complaining when something benefits loudmouths like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly. They have health insurance and access to the best doctors and hospitals that money can buy;so do members of Congress. They have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Author and activist Tim Wise was right, this health care debate is really about stoking the flames of racism and xenophobia amongst a certain element in our society. You can see Wise’s take on the health care debate here.

I’m so glad Barney Frank put this woman in her place. This one is a classic.

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Michelle Bachmann, Republican Conspiracy Theorist

I don’t know what’s going on in Minnesota but Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann should be an embarrassment to the people who voted for her. This chick says some of the wackiest, craziest stuff that if I were one of her constituents, I’d be circulating a petition to get her ass recalled. She’s nuttier than box of peanut brittle.

According to Bachmann, the last time we had a swine flu epidemic another Democrat was president. She wasn’t signifying or insinuating anything but in her narrow, simple little mind there’s connection between Democrats and health epidemics.

By now, we all know chick doesn’t bother to check her facts because she’s so desperate to besmirch President Obama and the Democrats. We can always count on her for comic relief at the most inappropriate moments. I know she’s trying her best to politicize a health epidemic but I’m going to need her to check out her facts first but I may be expectng for too much.

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Barack Obama Brushes Off ABC News Philadelphia Debate

Here’s one reason why I love Barack Obama.

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Anybody but Hillary, Please!

Yesterday’s Democratic primaries failed to yield a clear winner between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. While it’s too premature for me to do my “anybody but Miss Hillary” dance, I’m hoping John Edwards will throw his delegates to Obama so we can end this ridiculousness for once and for all. Behind in fund raising, Miss Hillary had to dip into her personal fortune and loan herself $5 million to keep up with the $32 million Obama raised in January. If you can’t raise enough money to run for president then you can just buy your way in?! Let’s hope not! That just gives me yet another reason to dislike Hillary Clinton.

I bet folks like Bob Johnson and Rev. Calvin Butts are disappointed that their girl didn’t emerge as the front runner after yesterday’s primaries. As much as they tried to help Miss Hillary, it didn’t materialize into votes for her. Tsk, tsk. On the other hand, look for the Obama bandwagon to swell with more supporters and even more haters. The Clintons are going to have to make a bigger pitcher of that haterade and invite all of their civil rights cronies. The latest reason why Miss Hillary should be the Democrat’s presidential candidate, according to the folks that run her campaign, is that she’s been tested by the media; seems we know all the Clinton’s dirty laundry but don’t know Obama’s? Oh, really? I guess we’ll have to wait for Miss Hillary’s people to dig it up or maybe she’ll call Bob Johnson again.

It’s still a long way to the Democratic primary and many things can happen between now and then. The blabbermouth politcal analysts and pundits will be deconstructing Obama’s victories which they will attribute to the large turnout of black folks (as expected) in such remote places as Alaska and North Dakota. Can these analysts and experienced news reporters ever get beyond race? Not one candidate in the Republican primary has to contend with issues of race, ever.

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Republicans Might As Well Be Aliens

Photo from BBC News

For as much as Republicans appeal to me, they might as well be aliens on the outer edge of the universe. Months ago, I declared John McCain’s run for president dead on arrival. Before he started partaking in that Republican foolishness on immigration and Iraq and siding with President Bush on key issues, he was a Republican I would have actually consider voting for. Not now.

Now that Rudy Giuliani (was he really serious?) and Fred Thompson have been rooted out of the Republican race for president, we’re stuck with McCain, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. The way I see it, it’s going to be a two-man race to see which candidate can pander the party’s conservative, religious right. Unlike the Democratic presidential race, Republicans are allowed to stick to key issues like immigration, Iraq and the crappy U.S. economy.

No one in the mainstream media brings up race when talking to McCain, Romney or Huckabee but Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards couldn’t avoid it. Republicans have always been allowed to ignore the concerns of women and minorities without being held to task. They are overly concerned about abortion but support the death penalty. They complain about affirmative action but still find ways to discriminate in spite of it.

In spite of Condolezza Rice and Colin Powell, the Republican party is the party of old white men (circa 1970) whom I have nothing in common with. They embrace profit over people, believe poverty is a character affliction and profess to be Christian. Although these are character traits that could easily apply to Democrats as well, Republicans, in my opinion, are particularly adept at these strategies.

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Don’t Blame the Democrats

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Gonzales 2893, originally uploaded by bgarmisa.

I don’t understand why it took Alberto Gonzalez to resign his post as Attorney General. A Bush crony from back in the day, Gonzalez is the classic American dream story, the son of migrant workers who manages to become the first and only person in his family to go to college. Very impressive but Gonzalez has been a huge disappointment and has set a record for lying to under oath over the politically motivated firings of U.S. District Attorneys in the Justice Department.

Gonzalez studied the law but conveniently forgot the part about the branches of government, particularly the judicial branch. Even elementary school students learn why we have checks and balances of the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government. This kind of behavior has become standard for the Bush administration who seek to rule by decree rather than by abide by the checks and balances created in our constitution. With those signing statements and new rules regarding those enemy combatants, Gonzalez has contributed to America’s worsening image of abroad by attempting to circumvent the Geneva Convention.

The arrogance of the Bush administration is beyond comprehension. For all their talk of democracy and freedom, Gonzalez and the rest of the Bush administration are a secretive bunch. Poor Alberto, his name “got dragged through the mud” by a bunch of partisan-minded Democrats but let’s just overlook all that lying he did under oath. The Democrats probably made him do it.

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Annointing of the Hillary

Stanley Fish, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times has declared that its time for Hillary Clinton to pick a running mate. He has already written off the campaigns of John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson well before the first primary kicks off in January 2008. This is more than premature speculation, it’s wishful thinking on Fish’s part.

He has such low expectations of the Democratic presidential candidates, the American people and the election process. Fish would like for us to bypass all of the formalities and annoint Miss Hillary. I think not. Unlike Fish, I underestimate no one and look beyond the hype. I believe John Edwards could catch fire so but so could Barack Obama. If any of these candidates thought the Democratic nomination belonged to Miss Hillary like some ridiculous political pundits are saying, they wouldn’t bother wasting their time. It’s not over ’til its over.

Besides cheerleading for Miss Hillary, Fish believes the American people aren’t capable of picking their own candidates so he thinks he’s doing us all a favor. He swears that the only way Hillary can be elected is if she picks a governor from one of those states with a bunch of electoral college votes if so she can win. He also thinks she should avoid Bill Richardson (“three quarters Mexican, but with a reassuringly Anglo-Saxon name”) because he isn’t a polished speaker and New Mexico doesn’t have enough electoral votes to put her in the White House.

When discussing Barack Obama, Fish just rehashes some well-worn political mumbo-jumbo about the elect ability of a woman and a black and a woman and a Jew on a presidential ticket:

” . . . pundits keep wondering whether the country is ready for a woman president or a black president; it sure isn’t ready for a woman and a black on the same ticket. Nor is it ready for a woman and a Jew . . .”

It is 2007, not 1967. I’d like to think that people are much more open-minded and willing to hear what all of the candidates say and not just jump on the Hillary Clinton bandwagon because this op-ed columnist says so. People are much smarter than that, at least the people I know are much smarter than that anyway. I have to question Stanley Fish.

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Link of the Day: FactCheck

I had a chance to catch about 30 minutes of the Democratic presidential candidate debate on CNN. I like it when neutral parties host the debates because you never know what kind of spin the network is going to put on the debates. Last night Anderson Cooper and Larry King were providing commentary. During the break from the podium to the armchairs, I noticed all of the candidates but Hillary Clinton talking to the crowd and shaking hands during the break. She was noticeably absent. Maybe she had to make a potty run or freshen up her make-up or something, but I didn’t see her anywhere.

The next thing I noticed was how Larry King and Anderson Cooper only talked about the three front runners and basically ignored the other candidates(Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Mike Gravel), like they weren’t even there. All of the candidates made some good points but to only limit the discussion and commentary of candidates to Clinton, Obama and Edwards was detrimental to everyone. It was not a three way debate!

The relevance of New Hampshire primaries is lost on me. Besides being one of the first primaries, New Hampshire is not representative of what of the actual US population looks like or who they might vote for. Hispanics now make up the largest minority population in the country but New Hampshire’s population is primarily white. I saw one person of color in the entire audience unless the others were hiding in the dark.

FactCheck breaks down the lies and exaggerations made by the candidates last night just in case you are interested. You shouldn’t be surprised that there was no clear winner. All I saw was a very smug Hillary Clinton making lots of generalizations about the Republicans and John Edwards admit he was wrong for voting to invade Iraq. That was a smart move, Hillary better take some notes. Front runner status ain’t guaranteed, just ask Howard Dean.

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Link of the Day: Bill Richardson’s Plan to Deauthorize the Iraq War

I think Bill Richardson is one of the most dynamic candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. He’s currently governor of New Mexico but he served as Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the United Nations. He’s smart, he’s got some very good experience and he has a plan to get us out of Iraq.

Don’t get sucked in by all of the hype about those premature presidential polls. It’s still early and for the media to predict or anoint a certain candidate in either party before the primaries is doing our democratic voting process a huge disservice. All I can point to is Howard Dean’s campaign back in 2004, he was a dark horse candidate who built a very successful campaign on the internet. His campaign peaked prematurely and the Democrats ended up with John Kerry as their presidential candidate and we know how that ended.

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Mission Not Accomplished

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, originally uploaded by thane.

As promised President Bush vetoed the bill by Congress to provide more funding for Iraq and deadlines for troop withdrawal. He shows no signs of wanting to wind down the war, he just wants more money to pay for it. Grab your calculators, we have already spend $450 billion already and the additional spending on the war is projected to be about $124 billion once this funding bill is repackaged without the withdrawal deadlines. I’m not expecting Congress to override it.

We should be debating more constructive uses for $124 billion that don’t involve risking someone’s life or pissing it down the black hole that is Iraq. I’m not an isolationist but we have enough problems in America that deserve our immediate attention but President Bush would rather spend this money in Iraq so that our troops can be nothing more than security guards in Iraq. What’s missing is some much needed dialog between all the parties in Iraq, Sunnis, Shi’as, Kurds and even the al-Qaeda/terrorist types. Although I’m a firm believer of the “you broke, you fix it” philosophy, we should just stay out of it.

I bet old George is betting on dragging this thing out so that he can pawn the chaos that is Iraq off on the newly elected president in 2008. He ignored the Pigheaded doesn’t even begin to describe the president. He has no regard for the will of the American people, 71% of whom disagree with his handling of Iraq and the Iraqi people want us out of the country too. We need to be discussing options for withdrawing from Iraq, it’s been long overdue. To those who say the country will descend into chaos, they’re probably right but all we’re doing is delaying the inevitable. We can’t stay there forever. It’s time to move on.

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