"The Rage is Not About Health Care" (nor taxes)

A few weeks ago, New York Times columnist wrote an interesting opinion piece "The Rage Is Not About Health Care". For almost 3 weeks I've been mulling over commenting on the article.

Upon passage of the Health Care Reform bill, conservative heads everywhere started exploding. John Boehner's face almost turned red, if that's possible, from anger. Tea Partier's spat hateful comments at Congressmen Lewis and Frank. References to President Obama being Hitler, Stalin, Lenin etc. continued. Bricks were thrown through office windows, a gas line cut on the house of a congressman's brother and death threats were phoned in to congressional offices. As Rich pointed out, it was a "small scale mimicry of Kristallnacht".

What exactly did Democrats do to incite this anger? They campaigned on passing health care reform legislation. They continually folded to conservative demands and modified the HCR bill until it was a mirror image of Mitt Romney's health care reform bill in Massachusetts. Hell, the individual mandate was a conservative idea!

As Rich points out, the anger over this issue is similar to that over the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I agree. But like Rich says, the rage is not about HCR. The rage started shortly after President Obama was elected. In fact, there was plenty of rage against candidate Obama at Palin rallies well before he was elected.

Here is a key sentence in Rich's column.

The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House - topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman - would sow fears of disenfranchisment among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play.

Rich points out that these are the people Tea Partier's want to "take our country back" from.

Is this racism, sexism, bigotry? I don't know. But the white anglosaxon protestant needs to realize that the demographics of the US is changing. Most young people are no longer racist or intolerant. The mostly white and republican Tea Party members need to understand that they are rapidly becoming a minority group, at least by race.

Rich also pointed out something I didn't know.

The Republicans haven't had a single African-American in the Senate or the House since 2003 and have only had three in total since 1935 (my emphasis)

No, the rage is not about health care, or taxes, or spending. It's about the fear of becoming a minority. It's about race.

100,000 Visits

It has taken a little over 4 years, but sometime tonight or tomorrow I will have my 100,000th visitor. Thank you.

Racist Running for NY Gov

They tell me that the Tea Party is not racist. Maybe they're not. But some of their political candidates are racist. The above picture was emailed to political and business associates of Carl Paladino, the Tea-Party-backed guy running for governor of New York.

When asked about the emailed pictures (there are many others) Paladino had a simple reply. It's the Democrats fault.

The Next Supreme Court Justice

Here are the rules for President Obama in selecting the next Supreme Court justice.

First, she/he must strictly interpret the Constitution and not be an "activist judge". None of this overturning 100 years of legal precedence allowing corporations to finance elections.

Second, she/he cannot be a liberal. Only conservative Presidents are allowed to select conservative justices. President Obama must pick someone who is right-of- center, that is plenty liberal enough.

Third she/he shouldn't be too smart. Smart people are "elites". We need someone with common sense, like a member of the tea party. Pick someone with the brain power of a, I don't know, Clarence Thomas?

Fourth she/he should not be a she or a minority. White men rule.

Fifth he needs to consult with the leaders of the conservatives...Limbaugh/Beck/Hannity before he makes any decision.


However, even if President Obama follows the above rules, he can be certain that his nominee will face a filibuster.

Like Ezra Klein says

President Obama could nominate the guy on the Quaker Oats box and Glenn Beck would find a way to connect him to Trotsky on his blackboard ("you know who else liked oatmeal!?").

Since we know Republicans are going to filibuster anyone who President Obama nominates, my suggestion is to pick a young, far-left, highly qualified black woman. It would be fun to watch Republican heads explode.

What's Happened to the GOP?

I stumbled across this piece by Chris Curry at frumforum.com. Here is a very small sample of his post.

Then something happened in the 1990s. The leaders of the GOP grew belligerent. They became too religious, almost zealots. They became intolerant. They began searching for purity in Republican thought and doctrine. Ideology blinded them. I continued to vote Republican, but with a certain unease. Deep down I knew that a schism happened between the modern Republican Party and the one I grew up with. During the fight over the impeachment of President Clinton, the ugly face of the Republican Party was brought to the surface. Empty rhetoric, ideological intolerance, vengeance, and religious zealotry became the common currency. Suddenly, if you are pro-choice, you could not be a Republican. If you are for smart and sensible taxes to balance out the budget, you could not be a Republican. If you are pro-civil rights, you could not be a Republican.

It started with minorities: they left the party. Then women; they divorced the GOP and sent it to sleep on the couch. Then, the young folks; they left and are leaving the Republican Party in droves. Then, someone stood up and told my niece and my grandchild that they are not fully Americans — just second class Americans because they are homosexual. They wished hell and damnation upon my loved ones just because they are different. Are we led by priests or are we led by rational politicians? Now, we have became the party of the Old Straight White Folks. We should rename the Republican Party the OSWF rather than the GOP.

CSPAN Should be Renamed BlackSPAN

This guy wonders why "those folks" are calling in on the Republican line.

Republican or Democratic Theme Song?

Feds Make $8 Billion Profit

So the Federal government bailed out Citigroup to the tune of 45 billion dollars. Citigroup is raising $20 Billion to pay back the loan portion of the bailout. But what about the 25 billion dollars in common stock that the (we) Federal government owns. Well, it turns out they are going to sell it for 33 billion dollars - an $8 billion profit.

That's socialism for you.

Who Are the Tea Partiers

A Quinnipiac University national poll released today gives us some idea. Although it's really no surprise.

Looking at voters who consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement:

•74 percent are Republicans or independent voters leaning Republican;
•16 percent are Democrats or independent voters leaning Democratic;
•5 percent are solidly independent;
•45 percent are men;
•55 percent are women;
•88 percent are white;
•77 percent voted for Sen. John McCain in 2008;
•15 percent voted for President Barack Obama.

72% of tea baggers have a favorable opinion of Sarah Palin.

So the Tea Party is basically made up of very conservative members of the Republican party (the base)who are upset that the Bush years did not turn out the way they hoped and are pissed now that Democrats hold the reins of power.

Google the Adirondacks!

Google the Adirondacks has a "mission to promote the greater tri-lakes region as the best location for the Google Fiber Experiment". Go there immediately and add your comments in support of Google choosing the Adirondacks for their fiber experiment.

While you're at it visit the Google the Adirondacks Facebook page and become a fan. Let's all lobby Google now!

Everyone Loves a Winner

Yesterday a sizeable number of people did not support the health care reform bill. Today, there is a whole new picture.

By 49%-40% those surveyed say it was "a good thing" rather than a bad one that Congress passed the bill. Half describe their reaction in positive terms, as "enthusiastic" or "pleased," while about four in 10 describe it in negative ways, as "disappointed" or "angry."

I'm willing to bet there are a significant number of people in that 49% who did not support the Bill yesterday. Then there are likely a significant number of people who have a lets wait and see attitude. Others who were "opposed" to the Bill were progressives who didn't think it went far enough. There is still a large group of people who bought into the lies and misconceptions about the Bill. Many of them will soon see that there are no death panels. In any case, some people just love being on the winning side and I expect support of the passage of HCR will continue to rise.

Stuff

You may not like the "progressive" politics, but "The Story of Stuff" does make you think.

Are Federal Taxes Too High?

Complaints about taxes are everywhere. But are Federal taxes too high? According to the Tax Policy Center only 4 countries had taxes lower than the USA in 2006: Japan, Korea, Turkey and Mexico. All taxes, collected in the USA, accounted for about 28% of GDP compared with 36% of OECD countries. Many countries in Europe exceed 40% of GDP in taxes. Those are the countries that provide lot's of services to their citizens. The difference seems to be in how taxes are levied. Personal income taxes comprise 36% of US tax revenues. Most other countries use a "consumption tax" as a source of federal revenue. Surprisingly, corporate taxes in the USA account for only 12% of tax revenue in the US, only 1% more than most members of the OECD.

Where Were the Republicans?

Richard Cohen, not one of my favorites, writes this:

Anger comes from fear. What was once a white Protestant nation is changing hue and religion. It is no accident that racial epithets were yelled at black lawmakers on Saturday in Washington and a kind of venom even gets exclaimed from the floor of the Congress: "You lie!" "Baby killer!" The protesters were protesting health-care legislation. But they feared they were losing their country.

I think this is right. The tea party is a perfect example of the above. They are mostly white, middle-aged to older individuals who are fearful of change. Our nation is changing and persons of a conservative bent take change poorly.

Social security was passed with 81 republican votes in the House and 16 votes in the Senate. Only 6 republican senators voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Medicare was supported by 13 republican senators. The health care reform act passed without the support of a single republican.

So what was different in that vote? The answer is pretty simple. There are no longer republicans in the GOP like those that voted for SS, or Civil Rights, or Medicare. Those were RINO (republicans in name only) republicans. The Republican party today is made up of fearmongers, doomsayers, and politicians who care more about getting re-elected than doing the right thing.

See the post immediately below. Republicans have decided that the way to regain control of government is to obstruct every Democratic proposal, then run a campaign on how Democrats were unable to pass any legislation. It may work in the short run. But remember, the nation is getting less white, less racist, less religious (albeit very slowly) and more tolerant.

Republicans only need to keep using current tactics to eventually destroy their party.

5 Year Blog Anniversary

I missed my own blog anniversary. First post, March 10, 2005.

The Republican Plan to Destroy President Obama

You can read the whole thing here, but this is what stands out:

The GOP game is as simple as it is hypocritical. First: Reject every Democratic proposal — including some of the exact same initiatives that Republicans championed under Bush — while branding the consensus-seeking Obama as a radical leftist. Second: Stoke populist fury over exploding deficits, even though they're the fallout of eight catastrophic years of Republican rule. (President Bush inherited a projected surplus of $5.6 trillion and left behind a forecasted deficit of $3 trillion.) Three: Promise to fix what's wrong with Washington — despite having waged an all-out war to make government appear as broken as possible.

Wait for the Senate reconciliation vote on health care reform. All of a sudden Republicans are going to start supporting ideas that Democrats want removed from the Senate version of the health care bill. Republicans now want to make sure those items in the bill they were complaining about last week.....remain in the bill. The whole idea, of course, is to keep those special handouts to Florida and Nebraska in the Bill, so they can continue to complain about them.

Disgusting.

FOX News - Nonpartisan and Fair

Decide for yourself.

Why Do Americans Have So Much Hate?

Here are the tea baggers upset with a man with Parkinson's disease. No hand outs here, you have to work for what everything you "git". No compassion whatsoever.



Teabaggers kind of remind me of the residents of South Park.

Mumps

Mumps is a contagious disease caused by infection with a virus which belongs to the genus Paramyxovirus. The most common symptom of mumps is swollen parotid glands which are the large salivary glands located anterior and inferior to the ear. The mumps virus can be transmitted via the respiratory route (coughing), kissing, and contact with saliva. The virus also survives for short period on surfaces and can be spread by contact.



The incubation period for the mumps virus is 14-25 days with a 3-5 day prodromal period. Involvement of the of the central nervous system is common, but often asymptomatic in children. CNS involvement rarely manifests itself as encephalitis in adults. Shedding of virus in the saliva begins about 6 days prior to onset of symptoms and continues for another 5-9 days.

In postpubertal males, inflammation of the testicles occurs in about 50% of those infected. Sterility rarely results but testicular atrophy is more common.

The mumps virus can also infect the pancreas resulting in the disturbance of endocrine and exocrine functions. This can result in diabetic manifestations and has been hypothesized to be a cause of juvenile insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

The mumps paramyxovirus is enveloped and consists of a single negative sense segment of RNA, 15-19 kb in length containing 6-10 genes. More information on the genome of the mumps virus can be found here.



Mumps can be serologically diagnosed using ELISA to detect mumps-specific antibodies or using RT polymerase chain reaction to detect viral particles in the saliva.

Treatment consists of bed rest and over-the-counter drugs to relieve pain. Aspirin should not be taken, especially in those below the age of 20 due to a link to Reye Syndrome.

Good Question for Journalists

Why has our profession, through its general silence -- or only spasmodic protest -- helped Fox legitimize a style of journalism that is dishonest in its intellectual process, untrustworthy in its conclusions and biased in its gestalt?

Howell Raines