Archive: March, 2010
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by Calickizzle
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 12:35pm
Supposedly, Republican attorney generals from 10 states have filed lawsuits challenging the Constituional basis of the health care reform legislation that was just signed into law by Obama. (Wait, did the President sign a bill turning health care reform into law, or did he sign a declaration that declared the GOP all but politically irrelevant? Oh, right. Same thing. My bad.)
Included with this group is the State of Washington’s AG Rob McKenna, who I guess is not willing to extend health care coverage to his constituents and avoid similar events as what happened to Marcelus Owens, the 11-year old boy from Everett attacked by conservatives because his mother had the gall to die due to a lack of health care coverage. McKenna’s predecessor? Christine Gregoire, the current Governor of Washginton who helped spearhead a landmark multi-billion dollar settlement from the tobacco companies, collecting funds to help pay the states for health care costs incurred by the effects of smoking. As a direct opposite approach, Mr. McKenna seems committed to ensuring that the health of Washington State residents is not improved by the legislation passed by Congress this past week. To little surprise, plenty of Washington voters on Facebook are taking umbrage with the approach taken by their current attorney general.
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constitution | health care reform | Obama | View Comments
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by Calickizzle
Monday, March 22, 2010 at 10:48am
Boy, that was an exciting Sunday, wasn’t it?
And no, I’m not referring to March Madness. Most of the excitement in the NCAA college basketball championship came the day before, when Northern Iowa ruined approximately 99% of the brackets filled out around the nation invalid by beating conference favorite Kansas. Of course, I’m referring to the House of Representatives passing health care reform, the only significant piece of legislation that has passed in my lifetime.
The day sure had a feel similar to a nail-biting college basketball game, didn’t it? The breathless Tweets from members of Congress, celebrating the historical moment. The votes tallied on C-Span’s screen, generating the type of tension that would otherwise be present at a Syracuse-North Carolina showdown.
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health care reform | Pelosi | Stupak | View Comments
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by Jsmog
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 11:27am
Have fun trying to repeal HCR next time you are in power, as if the Republicans will have a majority any time soon. But say they do, what are the Republicans going to do? Remove all those awful taxes? Put the wasteful medicare advantage subsidies back in? Well, like all Congresses, at the end of the year you got to balance the budget, so now how are you going to pay for it? If you guys have a better way of paying for it all by all means, but at the end of the day, it needs to be paid for somehow. Or will you fiscal responsible conservatives go back to deficit spending? My guess is that is exactly what will happen, and there goes the country again into a spiral of deficit spending whenever the Republicans are in charge.
Oh, but then I suppose you could “reform” health care again? You guys want to give it a go next time you are in power? It’s so easy afterall. And clearly after everything you wanted in the health care reform bill is actually included in the bill I can see why you’d want to completely reform it. Maybe you guys can call it the “Health Care Deform bill”? Just give the insurance companies anti-trust exemptions again and let them drop whoever and jack up premiums to whatever? That’s been working out so great so far, afterall. Would you spend a whole year debating it like the Democrats? Or would you “ram it through”? Would you use reconciliation? How about a “self-executing action”? Which form of hypocrisy would you use to get it accomplished? Because after all, the Democrats wouldn’t think of using every single tactic the Republicans used against them when the shoe is on the other foot. For some strange reason Republicans think that if they take back over Congress Democrats aren’t going to filibuster every goddam thing they offer. I guess you guys are prepared for the barrage of hypocrisy attacks that will follow, right? In fact, Republicans should campaign on repealing Health Care. That would be very fun to watch.
But the fact of the matter is, when Health Care reform passes on Sunday, and signed by Obama, it becomes law. If the Republicans want to “gut” it and take away its funding, a program that is paid for and is not contributing to the national deficit, then they will basically have to deficit spend to pay for it. Yeah, nobody will notice that. After all the horse shit the Republicans and conservatives are bitching about Obama spending money to keep our country’s economy from collapsing, trust me, if the Republicans even hint they are about to go on a Reagan/Bush spending spree there will be rioting in the streets.
So yeah, good luck with that.
health care | health care reform | hypocrisy | repeal | Republicans | View Comments
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by Calickizzle
Monday, March 15, 2010 at 01:04pm
Justice Roberts was an unabashed corporatist apologist while working in Reagan’s Department of Justice, and as Chief Justice he presided over the reversal of a century of campaign finance laws in the Citizens United v. FEC decision, which will turn our elections into a free-for-all rugby match while expanding corporate influence in elections. After President Obama pointed out this obvious fact in the State of the Union address, Roberts threw a snit in a recent speech he gave at the University of Alabama, stating:
“….there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum. The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.”
Hey, Mr. Roberts, you don’t want one of the branches of government standing up and cheering criticisms of you? How about not presiding over decisions that are obvious pandering to corporate interests, one that 80 percent of Americans disapproved of, according to a poll result taken shortly after the Citizens United decision. I mean, after all you’re only the Chief Justice of the frickin’ Court, and your name will be forever attached with one of the worst constitutional abuses, ever.
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Clarence Thomas | John Roberts | Supreme Court | View Comments
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by Calickizzle
Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 04:42pm
Over on his blog, in which he wages a daily battle agaisnt “the stupid”, Zandar makes some excellent observations as he skewers the so-called “liberal media’ (aka the “Village Idiots”). In summary:
• The New York Times claims that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich- who, lets remind everyone, was forced out of Congress by his own party- is “resurgent” because he tells a crowd in Iowa that “you can’t put a gun rack on a Smart Car.” Nor can you create a non-toxic environment for your kids by driving 10 mph vehicles for quick trips to the grocery store, which may explain why Hummers are now as extinct as the dodo.
• The only reason why the ethically corrupt Gingrich and Sarah Palin have any political weight at all is because the “liberal media” believes that they are worth coverage. Typically, if a politician finds their elected job “too hard” and quits halfway through, their reputation suffers irreparable damage and they are shunned by the media. Not Sarah Palin, who has mastered the art of the double standard. (For example, it appears that the Palins were in Los Angeles during Oscars week, helping herself to some free Oscar swag, when the news broke that she used Canada’s free health care system. Rumor has it that Todd spent a good chunk of that time trying to spell out the Hollywood sign.)
• Finally, let’s not forget that Fox News believes its too late for Obama to be bringing his pitch for health care directly to the American public. He should have done that shortly after taking office when his approval ratings were higher, as opposed to preventing our economy for going belly up with the passing of the stimulus package. Never mind the fact that every time the President did leave Washington for domestic trips, the “liberal media” criticized these excursions outside the Beltway, regardless of the reason.
So, can we finally please put this “liberal media” meme that lacks any connection with reality to rest all ready? Seriously, when the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Summer Redstone manipulate information is being relayed to the masses and the resources how media is being shared, how could media possibly be considered “liberal?”
Fox News | Gingrich | liberal media | Obama | Palin | View Comments
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by Calickizzle
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 12:47pm
Let’s see. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation report (obvious liberal bias) shows that the average amount of employer-sponsored health coverage is $1,115 a month. That’s the equivalent of $13,375 a year- or roughly the equivalent of the annual salary of a minimum wage job. That’s what an employer pays on top of each employees’ salary. Little wonder why employers are transferring an increasing portion of health care costs on to their employees’, eating into employees take-home pay. Can you imagine if you were a small-business owner, trying to get your feet off the ground, and you had to factor in the costs of paying the equivalence of an annual employee salary on top of the salary you all ready pay out?
Why, that’s madness. But, that’s also the current system status quo which some disillusioned and ill-informed individuals are fighting tooth-and-nail to preserve. All that talk about how Obama’s health care plan is a “job killer?” Yet paying the equivalence of a year’s worth of salary for each job somehow isn’t a job killer?
If the current health care system remains unchanged, then our country continues down an economically ruinous path. All of these cynical pessimists that are opposing the attempts to health care reform- and support the current towards for national economic ruin- are treasonous, plain and simple. Despite the undeniable fact that efforts need to be done, and we are looking at a comprehensive piece of legislation that deals with these issues in a systemic manner, these cynics keep braying about a “clean sheet of paper.” Consider how this extra $1,115 chokes the innovative efforts and the economic driving force of America’s small businesses- how will a “clean sheet of paper” help them? Consider the 45,000 unnecessary deaths that occur in this country this year due to the lack of health insurance, or health insurance that denies coverage. How will a “clean sheet of paper” put an end to that? And consider the outrageous premium increases that occur each year- at least double-digits regardless of where you’re at, but in some locations reaching up to 39 and even 60 percent. How will a “clean sheet of paper” put an end to those?
Boehner, Cantor, McConnell… I have an idea of what you can do with your “clean sheet of paper.” You better home you have a comprehensive health care plan that won’t refuse coverage of what procedures would be needed to take care of you afterwards!”
health care | View Comments
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by Calickizzle
Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 01:25pm
If you’re not paying attention, you may miss this AP story about the American-born al Qaeda spokesperson getting captured in Pakistan. As this development is a major coup for the Obama administration and represents the fact that it is more successful fighting terrorism than the preceding Bush administration, the “liberal media” will probably not give it much attention. After all, the Obama administration is refusing to take the War on Terror “seriously” and anything that indicates otherwise is to be ignored. (F U Cheney!)
The capture of Adam Gadahn by Pakistani intelligence officers indicates that Pakistan is now a cooperating partner in the War on Terror, and not just giving us lip service as they accept billions of our tax dollars to provide the Taliban (and Osama bin Laden) safe haven inside its borders. How many al Qaeda were captured when Shrub was President? And remember all that harsh rhetoric of Obama’s regarding Pakistan that he was criticized for on the campaign trail? You know, the same rhetoric that supposedly showed how “inexperienced” he was to be President? (Meanwhile, his “experienced” rival can’t seem to remember if he is for or against cutting Medicare.) Well, it appears that such rhetoric has had an effect, as Pakistan is forced to work in partnership with the U.S. in the capture of al Qaeda residing within its borders.
But, as I said, as this reflects well on the Obama administration’s efforts to fight terrorism, it will be probably ignored by the media. The inevitable push back by the conservative media has all ready occurred. FOX News, the propaganda wing of the GOP, is claiming that a different associate of bin Laden’s was arrested in Karachi, with limited information available. (What did you expect? An acknowledgment of a job well done to the Obama administration?) I can’t wait for the inevitable post by that retard Sarah Palin’s Facebook writers suggesting that the capture of Gadahn makes our country ‘unsafe’.
al-qaeda | Bush | Obama | Pakistan | Palin | war on terror | View Comments
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by Calickizzle
Friday, March 5, 2010 at 05:16pm
It’s like they don’t think such things as the Internet or the freaking LAWS THEY PASS aren’t around to catch them in their mile-high piles of excrement.
When Governor Mitt Romney passes an individual mandate to ensure 98% of Massachusetts has health insurance = totally okay and acceptable, and worthy of Scott Brown voting in favor of.
When Obama proposes a similar individual mandate to ensure 98% of Americans have health insurance = a socialist tool of government take over of Medicare, which Scott Brown needs to cast a vote in opposition to.
I’m sorry, but that is sarah todded!
You just know that if Mitt Romney was currently President, he’d be pushing for an individual mandate to pass a similar health care system as they have in Massachusetts. I know it, you know it, we allknow it….
health care | Obama | Romney | View Comments
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