‘Crazy…’ goes the old ARS song, ‘These are crazy crazy crazy, crazy times. But I just don’t understand. CRAZY! Crazy times make a crazy man.’
I admit, it was kinda fun laughing at Tea Party crazies like Christine O’Donnell, Glenn Beck, Michelle Bachman, and Sarah P…..
But this is no joke, and it’s no fun. These people are actually inciting and encouraging violence against the government…….
After she won the nomination to the Tea Party / Republican Party ticket in Nevada, Sharron Angle said that if she didn't win, they may have to resort to 2nd Amendment remedies.
Former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack has said “I pray for the day that the first sheriff in this country [takes] the shot heard ‘round the world and take out some IRS agents!”
Joyce Kaufman, who will serve as chief of staff to newly-elected Congressman Allen West of Florida, has said ‘If ballots don’t work, bullets will’. (Ooops, ‘liberal’ media pressure forced her out. Still, he wanted her, and she will still be a ‘consultant'.)
Stephen Broden, running in Texas’ 30th District in this month’s U.S.House election, told a local TV reporter that an armed uprising against the federal government is “on the table.” Broden is a senior pastor with the Fair Park Bible Church and a frequent speaker at tea party rallies. At at least one such event, Broden attacked the federal government as tyrannical, telling the crowd revolution was an option.
But what tyranny (tir′ə nē, noun …very cruel and unjust use of power or authority) are they protesting? If they’re really worried about tyranny, where were they when George W. Bush was lying us into war, trashing our economy and our civil rights, and signing more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in U.S. history.
And what ‘judicial activism’ do they oppose? Citizens United? Bush v. Gore? How about Justice Samuel Alito mouthing ‘that’s not true’ at the State of the Union address, or now, attending conservative political fund-raising rallies?
I mean, these people are nuts. Crazy. I don’t think they were at the Rally To Restore Sanity, if you know what I mean. It’s like the punk rock backlash against classic rock back in the 70’s. Anybody could get in; you didn’t have to be talented, didn’t have to work to hone your craft, you just had to be angry and disaffected. And more or less be a loudmouth. Classic. Fun, maybe, in popular music culture; ominous in governance.
One of the great calling cards of the party is a supposed reverence for the Constitution and a return to Constitutionalism, but they consistently display a lack of understanding of what is actually in the document (vs. what they THINK is in it). O’Donnell actually didn’t seem to realize that the audience was laughing at her when she repeatedly questioned her opponent, Chris Coons, when he told her the text of the constitution prohibited government from establishing any religion. ‘'You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?'', Ms O'Donnell replied in apparent bewilderment. As a candidate, Joe Miller of Alaska argued that the federal government has overreached into areas that should be run by the states, whether that was Social Security, health care, education or resource protection. Now that he appears to be losing his senate race against a write-in Lisa Murkowski, he asks a federal court to interfere in what should be an Alaskan affair. Some say that the Tea Party only reveres the ‘original’ Constitution, and maybe the first 10 Amendments (The Bill of Rights). The ‘original’ Constitution is the one which held that slaves were 3/5s of a person, one that did not grant the vote to women. So how do they show their reverence for that original? In the last session of Congress alone, Republicans introduced 41 constitutional amendments. None, of course, about inciting revolt and armed intervention. Crazy...
Maybe instead of voting with their guns they should consider voting with their feet, and walk away. Far away.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Health Care Reform Debate
An Open Letter to The Grand Obstructionists:
So, Health Care Reform appears to be DOA. Congratulations, you should be ashamed of yourselves. The American people want, need, and deserve Health Care Reform, or at least informed debate on the subject, but all we get is the Keystone Caper you have brought the American government to be, and zero results. Mr. Lincoln’s dream of a government of, by, and for the people has, unfortunately, perished as you continue to carry water for the big-monied special interests at the expense of the American public.
Make no mistake, the people collectively are bearing the expense. We pay far more (16% of GNP - more than twice as much as any other modern industrialized society) yet settle for far less. In case you hadn’t noticed, health insurance premiums have more than doubled in the last ten years, and are only projected to continue to rise, exponentially. Yes, American medicine is among the best in the world, when it’s available, but that probably doesn’t mean much to the 22,000 Americans who die every year because they can’t afford to see a doctor. That doesn’t happen in any other modern democracy, because the society does not allow it to happen. We choose to allow it to happen. 22,000 deaths annually. Seven 9/11’s, every year. We also allow 700,000 or so bankruptcies annually because of medical expenses. Again, other societies don’t allow that to happen. Universal health care coverage – not socialized medicine – is a fact of life in almost every modern society today. Conversely, in our feudal system, which mostly benefits insurance companies (whose collective profits run in the Billions annually), roughly 15% of us go uninsured. It’s not about ‘Death Panels’ or ‘Government Control’, it’s about making sure your neighbors can see a doctor when they need to. Government doesn’t want to make health care decisions; a government of, by, and for the people is there, Constitutionally, to provide for the general welfare. Profit-driven insurance companies do want to – and do – make health care decisions. And, in padding their bottom line, they are taking from us all. When Americans can’t afford to see a doctor, it’s an expense we all bear, collectively. The deaths. The bankruptcies. The financial costs when companies are forced to close because they can’t afford to insure their workers. It all makes it hard to compete in the global marketplace. Health care, the way it is, the way obstructionist so fiercely defend, is consuming our economy and our nation as a whole. So, again, congratulations. Anything for politics.
About that ‘informed debate’. Try, if you can tear your eyes away from ‘FAUX NEWS’, to represent the peoples interests by informing yourself on the subject. A simple look at factcheck.org can probably dispel 90% of the hyperbole that passes for debate. T.R. Reid’s “The Healing of America’ should probably be mandatory reading for anyone who wishes to join the debate. Bottom line: quit celebrating your obstructive ways, put down the water pails and start moving some of the stones out of the passway.
And a PS to the Dem dang donkeys: Grow some. Stand up for your principles, instead of worrying about your re-election. Keep the message simple, and repeat it. And forget the super-majority; let ‘em filibuster and show themselves the fool. We, the American public, deserve honest representation even more than we need health care reform. Let’s roll.
So, Health Care Reform appears to be DOA. Congratulations, you should be ashamed of yourselves. The American people want, need, and deserve Health Care Reform, or at least informed debate on the subject, but all we get is the Keystone Caper you have brought the American government to be, and zero results. Mr. Lincoln’s dream of a government of, by, and for the people has, unfortunately, perished as you continue to carry water for the big-monied special interests at the expense of the American public.
Make no mistake, the people collectively are bearing the expense. We pay far more (16% of GNP - more than twice as much as any other modern industrialized society) yet settle for far less. In case you hadn’t noticed, health insurance premiums have more than doubled in the last ten years, and are only projected to continue to rise, exponentially. Yes, American medicine is among the best in the world, when it’s available, but that probably doesn’t mean much to the 22,000 Americans who die every year because they can’t afford to see a doctor. That doesn’t happen in any other modern democracy, because the society does not allow it to happen. We choose to allow it to happen. 22,000 deaths annually. Seven 9/11’s, every year. We also allow 700,000 or so bankruptcies annually because of medical expenses. Again, other societies don’t allow that to happen. Universal health care coverage – not socialized medicine – is a fact of life in almost every modern society today. Conversely, in our feudal system, which mostly benefits insurance companies (whose collective profits run in the Billions annually), roughly 15% of us go uninsured. It’s not about ‘Death Panels’ or ‘Government Control’, it’s about making sure your neighbors can see a doctor when they need to. Government doesn’t want to make health care decisions; a government of, by, and for the people is there, Constitutionally, to provide for the general welfare. Profit-driven insurance companies do want to – and do – make health care decisions. And, in padding their bottom line, they are taking from us all. When Americans can’t afford to see a doctor, it’s an expense we all bear, collectively. The deaths. The bankruptcies. The financial costs when companies are forced to close because they can’t afford to insure their workers. It all makes it hard to compete in the global marketplace. Health care, the way it is, the way obstructionist so fiercely defend, is consuming our economy and our nation as a whole. So, again, congratulations. Anything for politics.
About that ‘informed debate’. Try, if you can tear your eyes away from ‘FAUX NEWS’, to represent the peoples interests by informing yourself on the subject. A simple look at factcheck.org can probably dispel 90% of the hyperbole that passes for debate. T.R. Reid’s “The Healing of America’ should probably be mandatory reading for anyone who wishes to join the debate. Bottom line: quit celebrating your obstructive ways, put down the water pails and start moving some of the stones out of the passway.
And a PS to the Dem dang donkeys: Grow some. Stand up for your principles, instead of worrying about your re-election. Keep the message simple, and repeat it. And forget the super-majority; let ‘em filibuster and show themselves the fool. We, the American public, deserve honest representation even more than we need health care reform. Let’s roll.
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