VIDEO: Tea Baggers turn on one of their own for dissing Sarah Palin

By GottaLaff

This is yummier than yummy. On April 15, he Tea Tantrumers threw a Tea Tantrum because a speaker dared-- dared!-- to smack down Quitty McHalfGov.

"Please do not vote for Sarah Palin," said the naive speaker to a crowd of Palinbots.

Enjoy... and make sure to watch from about 3:10 until the very end, when the host sings "Kumbaya".

No, I'm not kidding:

Speaker: "You're gonna pull me off because I'm talking about Sarah Palin? Then you're the problem. .... I'm a punk? Because I'm talking about Sarah Palin?

Crowd member: "She's more of a man than you are."

Speaker: "You're the problem, sir!... You're an old senile fart, so back off!... Sarah Palin is a Republican and she's a part of the system. She couldn't even finish her time as governor of Alaska."

Around that time, a crowd member holds a big sign up to the speaker that reads, "Infil-traitor".

Speaker: "This is not the Sarah Palin movement, is it!?"

Apparently so. And what an ugly, splintered, unruly movement it is.

How's that free speechy thing workin' out for ya?

H/t: Coopster04

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Country: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about the increasingly worrisome (read: scary) events of late. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Now for his Special Comment:

It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad Country

The last time I had such fear about what might happen to this country was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. That fear came from dealings with a foreign entity, the current fear is coming from sources within the country, which is far worse and scarier.

For almost the past two years we have heard and have had events such as “ He isn’t one of us”, He is un-American”, “There are members of Congress who are un-American”, “Death Panels”; “no terrorist attacks under Bush administration”, “ I want my country back”, Mob Rule at Town Hall meetings, Tea Party rallies with hateful signs and banners, the re-writing of history, words of nullification and many more incendiary remarks and events.

But, when I think things can’t get any scarier or crazier, they do.

During the last couple of weeks we have seen the following:

* The Governor of Virginia, Robert McDonnell declare April to be Confederate History Month. In his proclamation, he made no mention of slavery as a being one of the causes for the Civil War.

This is like Germany declaring April is Third Reich History Month and omitting any reference to the Holocaust.

While Gov. McDonnell amended his proclamation to include the slavery issue, the damage was done. Once said, the intent of what was in the original proclamation said is hard to take back.

*On April 13th the Oklahoma Tea Party announced, with support from State Senator Randy Brogdon, the possibility of creating a volunteer militia to be used to oppose the federal government and to protect against any infringements of state sovereignty.

Sen. Brogdon has since taken back that the militia would be used to oppose the government, but now says it will be used as a state force to support the National Guard during emergencies.

Again what was originally stated and its initial intent is hard to take back or how Oklahomans may relate to it.

* On April 13th, the Arizona house of Representatives passed a tough immigration law. The bill is expected to be passed by the State Senate and signed by the Governor.

The law when enacted would allow police to question anyone without cause who they believe may be an illegal alien. Sounds like the start of a police state to me.

What next Arizona, require citizens to wear a badge on their clothing to identify whether they are a U.S. citizen, registered alien, or here on a work visas?

* On April 19th, “Restore the Constitution”, an open carry-firearms rally, will be held in Virginia. The Oath Keepers-- an organization I’ve written about before-- which is made up of police officers and military personnel, announced it is withdrawing from the rally because of the events confrontational stance against the government. Their withdrawal should give one a moment of concern of what possibly could happen.

When you take all these events into consideration, we are truly becoming a Mad Mad Mad Mad Country; but its not like the movie “It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World”. In the movie there was mad car chase to find buried treasure, but what we have here is a mad chase to an abyss, from which this country will never get out of, should it ever fall into it.

The Republican leadership, (Boehner, Bachmann, and Palin) and the Right Wing Media ( Rush, Beck, Hannity, FOX News) let the teabagger genie out of the bottle and it's too late to be put back in. They all promoted the Teabaggers/Tea Party and they own it and are responsible for all the hate and violence that comes from it.

Its like the sign in a China Shop “ You broke it, you own it.”

Many thanks again for another thorough, relevant piece, 42bkdodgr. You often say what many of us are thinking and feeling, and we thank you for your unique perspective.

The Fuse Is Burning: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about something very worrisome (read: scary) that he feels is happening to America before our very eyes. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Now for his Special Comment:

The Fuse Is Burning

Over the past few months I wrote several Special Comments about the growing hate in the United States:

Beginning of the End
It Can’t Happen Here
We’re Sitting on a Powder Keg
The Tumbling Boulder of Racism
The Mob Has Taken Over
It’s Happening Here

In The Mob Has Taken Over, I wrote:

“Until the moderates regain control of the Republican Party and denounce the antics, words and actions of the tea baggers, Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, Palin and Bachmann the hatred will continue and the division in the country will only get wider.”

In The Beginning of the End, I concluded with the following sentence:

“I hope it doesn’t take a climatic event to bring this great country back to its senses”.

In It Can’t Happen Here, I stated:

“If HCR is passed, the hatred will intensify; if it is defeated the haters will become bolder in their action.”

After watching cable and network news this week, I believe the above statements are even more relevant today than they were a few months ago.

It's not a good sign when in one news day you have :

* the former Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain stating to the effect he has no intention of cooperating in any way for the rest of the year.

* the former Republican Vice President candidate Sarah Palin uses the word “reload” and the rifle “cross hair” symbol to identify those Democratic candidates who voted in favor health care reform as targets in the forth coming November election.

* Rep. Louie Gohmert proposing to eliminate the right of U.S. citizens to elect Senators.

* Reports of numerous Democratic offices, from N.Y. to Arizona, having their windows broken from thrown rocks or gun shots.

* A Militia leader telling his followers to get their rifles cleaned and ready.

These statements and acts are intended to rile the far right base of the Republican Party, and at the same time it moves the lit fuse closer to the powder keg.

I know if the powder keg should ever explode, the Republican leadership will react in the same manner as the police captain in the movie Casablanca, “I’m shocked" that there is so much hatred in the country.

I find it somewhat ironic that members of the Republican Party, who like to promote themselves as the party of law and order, always like to use words that can incite fear and violence.

So I beseech you Michael Steele, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell as leaders of the Republican Party, if you consider yourselves patriotic Americans, now is the time for you to denounce the hate and rhetoric coming from within your own party, the Tea Party movement, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the far right media of our country, as time is running out before the powder keg explodes.

Its time to move your party in a different direction, not only for the safety of American citizens because the future of our nation may rest in your hands.

Many thanks again for another thorough, relevant piece, 42bkdodgr. You often say what many of us are thinking and feeling, and we thank you for your unique perspective

VIDEO- Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on GOPFail

By GottaLaff

Keithgasm:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Keith to The Boehner: "You lost.... You are behind the wheel of a political Toyota."

Just. Watch. It's a thing of beauty.

Keith is back with a bang.

Freedom of speech: "No 1st Amendment right to go into an auditorium & prevent a speaker from being heard"

By GottaLaff

Erwin Chemerinsky wrote an op-ed about a free speech debate they're having at UC Irvine, where he is dean.

However, there were two paragraphs that stood out to me, because he could have been writing about the Tea Tantrumers and their megaphonic escapades during the health care reform town hall meetings et al:

Freedom of speech, on campuses and elsewhere, is rendered meaningless if speakers can be shouted down by those who disagree. The law is well established that the government can act to prevent a heckler's veto -- to prevent the reaction of the audience from silencing the speaker. There is simply no 1st Amendment right to go into an auditorium and prevent a speaker from being heard, no matter who the speaker is or how strongly one disagrees with his or her message.

The remedy for those who disagreed with the ambassador was to engage in speech of their own, but in a way that was not disruptive. They could have handed out leaflets, stood with picket signs, spoken during the question-and-answer session, held a demonstration elsewhere on campus or invited their own speakers.

People really need to brush up on the First Amendment.

Especially people who complain that theirs are the rights being trampled upon.

Especially people who corrupt our democracy.

Especially people who infringe on the free speech of others.

Especially people who look like this:

To All Teabaggers, You didn’t get mad when…

By GottaLaff

This is from an August post over at Progressive Nation. It still applies, and I'm sure you'll have plenty to add, because a lot has happened in the past month or so:

You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy com­pany offi­cials to dic­tate energy policy.

You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA oper­a­tive got outed.

You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn’t get mad when we ille­gally invaded a coun­try that posed no threat to us.

You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and count­ing) on said ille­gal war.

You didn’t get mad when over 10 bil­lion dol­lars just dis­ap­peared in Iraq.

You didn’t get mad when you saw the Abu Grahib photos.

You didn’t get mad when you found out we were tor­tur­ing people.

You didn’t get mad when the gov­ern­ment was ille­gally wire­tap­ping Americans.

You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden.

You didn’t get mad when you saw the hor­ri­ble con­di­tions at Wal­ter Reed.

You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city drown.

You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the tril­lion dol­lar mark.

You finally got mad when.. when… wait for it… when the gov­ern­ment decided that peo­ple in Amer­ica deserved the right to see a doc­tor if they are sick.

Very well done. Feel free to add your two cents.

Where Will It End? Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about the very scary, very hostile attitudes and actions that have been way too prevalent in this country lately. I am more than happy to post his essay here.

Take it away, 42bkdodgr:

Where Will It End

I hate to sound like a broken record always writing about the hate I see in the country today. I wrote about it in my very first Special Comment posted on this site on July 30th. At that time I said I hadn’t seen so much hate in this country since the civil rights movement.

In other commentaries I wrote about the beginning of the end of democracy in this country, the growth of hatred since the election (using a tumbling boulder metaphor), racism, McCarthyism. I said I felt the hate will only get worse until some climatic event took place that would bring the country to its senses.

I have no problem with people disagreeing with the policies of President Obama; but the expression of such differences should be done in a civil manner and with respect given to the other side’s point of view. Nothing is accomplished by addressing differences of opinion by the mob rule we saw at Town Hall meetings or by the spiteful placards, banners and T shirts that were on display at the 9/12 Project Rally in Washington D.C. It only hardens each side’s point of view.

I asked in my commentaries: When will the leadership of the Republican party find some backbone and tell the Limbaughs and Becks of this country, enough with the hate words? You are hurting the country. So far they haven’t stepped forward with any great assertiveness.

In the past week we have seen the hanging of a census worker, Limbaugh calling for segregated school buses, and last night the worst of all, on Facebook, from an unknown party, a poll on “Should Obama Be Killed”. The hate-- and now violence-- continues to grow.

In the past 8 years the country has worried about being attacked by terrorists, while at the same time the country maintains a strong defense system to protect us against attacks from other nations. What I’m beginning to realize is, we don’t have to worry about terrorists or outside forces... we are doing job for them. Unless this country gets back to some civility, we are headed for a major civil disturbance that will tear the fabric of this country apart more than any terrorist group could do.

What has to occur, before its too late, is a strong campaign directed at the Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The campaign should urge them to think of country first, asking them to work towards ending the hate in this country by taking a united stand against the hate mongers and groups. Unless something happens soon, this nation is headed for difficult times.

Many thanks again for another relevant, cogent piece, 42bkdodgr. You never disappoint.

Where will it end, indeed...

McCarthyism: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about something very scary, and sadly, making a comeback: McCarthyism. I am more than happy to post his essay here.

Take it away, 42bkdodgr:

McCarthyism

One thing that is sure to make my blood pressure rise is the mention of Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism. Recently there have been several mentions of McCarthyism in the news.

At the 9/12 Project Rally, in Washington D.C., the media showed a picture of a young man wearing a tee shirt with “The Cure of Obama Communism, Is A New Era Of McCarthyism” printed on it. What could this young man possibly know about McCarthyism and what it stood for?

I felt it important to write about McCarthyism, as many younger people today have no idea what it was like living in America during that time.... which was one the darkest periods in the history of this nation.

The term McCarthyism is basically associated with the period of late 1940s to late 1950s known as the Second Red Scare period, although the practice of McCarthyism could also be applied to other eras in American history. During this period, a witch hunt took place. The sole purpose was to identify and weed out suspected communists in the entertainment industry and the federal government.

The House Un-American Activity Committee (HUAC) brought people from the entertainment industry before the Committee to answer the question “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party of the United States?”; or to name names of those who might be Communists or belong to Communist type organizations. Failure to answer the Committee’s questions, even using the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution, often led to a jail term or banishment from the industry.

In many instances, those who refused to name names, even if they had never been Communists, were added to a blacklist developed by the Hollywood studios. Over 300 people were placed on the blacklist that prevented them from working in the entertainment industry. Such well known names as: Charlie Chaplin, John Garfield, Paul Robeson, Carl Foreman, Arthur Miller, Burl Ives, Orson Welles, Sam Jaffe, Lee Grant were on the blacklist.

Blacklists were also at work in the universities, schools at all levels, the legal profession and television. Being on any of these blacklists had the same effect as those who were on the entertainment industry blacklist.

In some instances the stigma of being on the blacklist, even if you had done nothing wrong, resulted in divorce, financial ruin, leaving the country to earn a living, writing under an assumed name, working in other professions, and in some cases it led to suicide. The overwhelming majority of those put on the Hollywood blacklist never found work in the entertainment industry again.

During the period of McCarthyism, there was the banning of books written by Howard Fast, Dashiell Hammett, Theodore White and others deemed “un-American”, whose books were removed from U.S. Information Service Libraries.

In the early 1950s, Joseph McCarthy, through his Senate Committee on Government Operations and related sub-committee, began a witch hunt looking for infiltration by Communists or sympathizers into the State Department, other government agencies, and U.S. Army Signal Corp. It was through these witch hunts that the term “McCarthyism” was born.

The witch hunt into the Signal Corp wasn’t very successful, and it eventually led to the Army-McCarthy hearings. It was through the televised public hearings that the true meanness, brutality, and tactics used by Joseph McCarthy was exposed and seen by the American people.

It was during the Army-McCarthy hearings that the famous line "Have You No Sense of Decency?" was spoken by Joseph Welch, the Army‘s attorney. It was said during an exchange between McCarthy and Welch in discussing a young attorney’s controversial background who was working for Welch’s law firm.

The McCarthy-Army hearings were the turning point in Joseph McCarthy’s career and McCarthyism, and he was censured by the Senate in December 1954 for his actions during those hearings.

I don’t ever want to see the rise of McCarthyism in America again in my lifetime; where just knowing someone or innocently belonging to an organization during your youth could cost you the ability to earn a living in your chosen profession, lead to financial ruin, and possibly the loss of your family and friends.

That isn’t America, that’s a Nation of Fear.

To get a sense of what life was like during that period, rent the movies “The Front”, “Guilty by Suspicion” and “Good Night & Good Luck”.

Great thanks again for another relevant, cogent piece, 42bkdodgr.

You not only educated us, you dovetailed two eras, putting today's McCarthyism into perspective, especially for those who may have been unaware of the original.

Incivility is the new secondhand smoke

By GottaLaff

Earlier I posted a rather disturbing MUST-SEE video that shows sweet, kind children morphing into nasty, uncivil bigots in a mere 15 minutes. It was a heart-wrenching, appalling eye-opener, and should me mandatory viewing.

Then I opened the L.A. Times this morning and found a "a crash course in American coarseness" via an op-ed by Tim Rutten:

Incivility is the new secondhand smoke. Everyone feels impelled to disdain it, but nobody is willing to do away with it entirely.

Besides, it's profitable. Look at South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson. Two weeks ago, he was just a loudmouth with the bad taste to shout an insult at the president of the United States from the House floor. Since then, he's become a right-wing darling, and $2 million in new campaign contributions have flowed his way. Incivility apparently cuts both ways, though; his Democratic challenger has taken in more than $1.5 million. [...]

People enjoy incivility -- maybe because it's easy to remember; maybe because it's entertaining. [...]

These days, everyone seems to remember a time in the relatively recent past when civility wasn't in such short supply and when rudeness and boorishness of the Wilson variety wouldn't be tolerated. So the natural question is: How did we get here?

Actually, our recent descent into boorishness didn't begin on the political platform but on the stage -- not with our politicians but with our stand-up comics. [...]

From the perspective of cultural history, you can draw a straight line from Rickles' Las Vegas lounge act through Stern and Limbaugh and on to Wilson's big mouth. [...]

[O]ur electoral politics have always been essentially uncivil, from the founding of the country to the present day. The problem is that we suffer from an insufficient regard for the facts.

Without facts there is no argument, and without argument there is no persuasion. Argument plus civility is dialogue, and that produces compromise, which is what permits people of good conscience to live peacefully with one another even though they hold different views.

The growing culture of assertion and the death of persuasion, rather than the loss of civility, are what we ought to fear about our politics. Because there's no insistence on a common set of facts, we're perilously close to the point at which we stop even talking past each other and the language of our politics dissolves into mutually unintelligible dialects.

As the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan liked to say, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

Please read the whole thing.

VIDEO- Obama On CBS: "Rambunctious" Outbursts Are "Catnip To The Media"

By GottaLaff



Hey, Prez O, don't knock the blogs! We helped get you elected. Oh, you're talking about those other bloggers, the extreme wingnutty ones.... gotcha.

VIDEO- Our own Cliff Schecter: "This is a party that makes Kanye West look humble"

By GottaLaff

CliffDoggie's back, and he goes after Joe "You lie!" Wilson... and more:



Cliff Schecter is a very talented political analyst, Democratic consultant/strategist, and author (The Real McCain). He's also a good friend... so good, in fact, that he convinced me to co-edit this very blog with him and Paddy a couple of years ago.

He's been busy working on Very Important Things, so he had to leave The Political Carnival (he may pop in again, though, stay tuned...)

I nicknamed him "Bulldog" because of his ability to go up against any political talking head, sink his teeth into him/her, and not let up. When given the chance, he devours his opponents. This video doesn't get quite as wild and woolly as usual, but he still gets to strut his stuff.

It's so good to see him back on air, especially on my Twitter pal David Shuster's show.

The Tumbling Boulder of Racism: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about the hypocrisy, racism, and outright hostility of the -Ers, and I am more than happy to oblige.

Take it away, 42bkdodgr:

The Boulder

In 2008, many Americans and I pushed a boulder up a steep mountain from a valley to accomplish something that most of us didn’t think we would live to see in our lifetime; the election of a black man to the highest elected office in this Nation, President of the United States.

We thought the country had reached a milestone in race relations with the election, and while we all rejoiced, a small group of Americans who couldn’t accept change, started to push the boulder back down the mountain.

It started with the hateful words spewed by the right wing media following President Obama’s election, such as Rush Limbaugh saying “I hope he fails“.

The speed of the boulder increased with:

*The birther movement.
*"He’s not one of us" statement.

The speed of the boulder increased momentum with:

*Glenn Beck calling President Obama a “racist” and that he “hates white people”.
*Mob rule at Town Hall meetings.
*Open display of firearms at Town Hall meetings.
*Depicting the President as a Nazi.

The boulder continued to gain speed by:

*remarks made by Pastor Steven L. Anderson asking members of his parish to pray for the death of the President.
*Rush Limbaugh saying the Health Care logo is close to a Nazi swastika logo and
*"we want our country back" statements.

The speed of the boulder increased as it went faster down the mountain with:

* Rep. Joe Wilson yelling “you lie” during President Obama’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress on Health Care Reform.
*9/12 Protest rally where such banners and placards were on display:
--“Undocumented worker”.
--"bury Obamacare with Kennedy".
--“Hitler gave good speeches too”.
--"Joe Wilson: My hero".
--“Obama for President of Kenya”
--“Obama does Lie”
--a young lad wearing a T shirt “The Cure for Obama Communism, is a New Era of McCarthyism”
--The Zoo has an African Lion and the White House has a Lyin’ African”
--Confederate flag with “bring back we the people”, and
--Comparing Obama to the worst dictators of the 20th century.

As the boulder continues to tumble down the mountain with ever increasing speed, we are faced with a grave situation until the country regains its sanity and accepts Barack Obama as the President of the United States.

If that doesn’t happen the boulder will eventually crash into a house in the valley, dividing the house in two as it had once been before. Then the question will be: How do you put a divided house than can’t stand, back together?

I pray that the boulder crash doesn’t happen.

Great thanks again for another relevant, cogent piece, 42bkdodgr.

You're a gem.

Obama: National debate is 'coarsening'

By GottaLaff

How charmingly understated, Laffy said dryly:

President Barack Obama said in an interview to be aired Sunday night on “60 Minutes" that he sees “a coarsening of our political dialogue.”

“The truth of the matter is that there has been, I think, a coarsening of our political dialogue,” Obama told Steve Kroft in an interview taped at the White House on Friday evening.

Ya think?

“I will also say that in the era of 24-hour cable news cycles, that the loudest, shrillest voices get the most attention. And so one of the things that I’m trying to figure out is: How can we make sure that civility is interesting?”

Strip naked?

VIDEO: GOP rally mimics Joe "You lie!" Wilson

By GottaLaff

The Rushpublic loons continue to do nothing to stem the epidemic of hatred:



If Eric Cantor had one ounce of class, he would have encouraged some semblance of civility while he had a mic in his grubby little hands. He is as guilty as the Mouthers, including Joe the original Mouther himself, for not making some minimal attempt to contain an unruly crowd.

We're right back to the town hall mob mentality. And you know why? Because the Rushpublics know that when Obama gets some version of health care reform passed, they will have lost. And with that loss go a whole lot of Big Insurance/Big Pharma big donations.

Despite the major problems I have with what may end up in the final legislation, I will still appreciate the enormous accomplishment of passing a bill at all, especially in this poisonous, sick atmosphere. The Mouthers have reduced whatever shreds of dignity and credibility they had to nothing. They're self-destructing.

No wonder these deranged, self-serving cretins are worried. They know they've already lost.

Obama: I allowed the loons to take over the asylum

By GottaLaff

Oh goody. President Obama just admitted he let the crazies take over the asylum:

President Barack Obama said Wednesday he has left “too much ambiguity” in what he wants for healthcare reform, allowing his opponents to control the message.

At least he said it out loud. His intentions for backing off were understandable, though. He was trying to avoid the mistakes made by Bill Clinton:

The morning before his address on healthcare to a joint session of Congress, Obama said he took a relatively hands-off approach “out of an effort to give Congress the ability to do their thing and not step on their toes.”

That allowed “opponents of reform to come in and to fill up the airwaves with a lot of nonsense — everything from the this ridiculous idea that we were setting up death panels to false notions that this was designed to provide health insurance to illegal immigrants,” Obama said in an interview on ABC’s "Good Morning America."

He also criticized a “broader notion of a government takeover of healthcare, which none of the bills that worked their way through Congress ever envisioned.”

Obama’s speech Wednesday night is intended to get the White House back in control of a debate it has been ceding ground on for the past month.

Let's hope he can do that. And let's really, really hope that he doesn't cede ground on a strong public option, while he's at it.

The president blamed told "Good Morning America" that despite the best efforts of his White House, “unyielding partisanship” has hampered the healthcare debate.

“In some ways, I think it's gotten worse,” said Obama.

He blasted the right wing of the Republican Party for obscuring what he sees as the reasonable voices of centrists within the GOP.

Okay, good, good, but what about the bill? Give us a teeny tiny hint... pleeeeease? Just one?

Obama warned that if some principles are not included in a congressional healthcare bill, he will not sign it, but he stressed that the intent of his address to Congress is to ensure that people understand exactly what he is proposing.

He said he wants to ensure that lawmakers in both parties understand that he is open to new ideas and that the White House is not being “rigid and ideological” about healthcare reform.

Could you just be rigid about the public option? We're not asking much. Take me, for instance. Have I ever asked you for anything before? I mean other than that whole torture thing...

VIDEO- Tea Party Express Guy: "This is AFRO-LENINISM! Coming to you on a silver platter! Barack Hussein Obama!"

By GottaLaff

Somethin's a-comin'! I don't know what, but... but... somethin'! It could be somethin' GREAT! Who the hell knows, man, 'cause I don't care! It doesn't matter!! Barack Hussein... He's... he's black! Gaaaaaaa!!! We're all gonna die!



How reassuring to witness adults-- these are adults, aren't they?-- who get so lathered up they can't see straight, yet insist upon spreading their unadulterated, seething, hateful spew on the Tee Vee Machine for children to watch while eating their Mac'N'Cheez din-dins.

But hey! Them Family Values, they sure 'nough do come through LOUD AND CLEAR!!

Health care ideas losing out to ideology

By GottaLaff

Michael Hiltzik has a few things to say about the wingnutty memes v. the substance of the actual, you know, merits of health care reform. In other words, the real, and vital, message is being drowned out by lies and propaganda.

We already knew that, but he spells it out clearly enough for even the dimmest bulbs to grasp the entire ugly picture:

The big mystery of the Democrats' loss of the commanding heights in the national healthcare debate is how they managed to let ideologies trump ideas.

The difference between these two terms is crucial. Ideas arise from recognizing reality for what it is; ideologies attempt to impose themselves on the real world, whether or not they fit.

In this case, the Republican ideologies of limited government, of the free market as the cherished American way and the answer to most problems, have taken over the discussion.

Meanwhile, the search for ideas to solve a real American crisis is left gasping for life like a gaffed fish.

When President Obama speaks Wednesday to a joint session of Congress on the subject of healthcare reform, his main task must be to retrieve the issue from the clutches of ideology and restore the search for ideas to the forefront. Nothing is as important for the economic recovery and the competitiveness of American business. [...]

Blacks and Hispanics account for nearly half the uninsured, and members of families living at or below the federal poverty line for more than a third. (These figures come from a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation.) [...]

Commercial insurers deploy armies of clerks to find excuses for rejecting claims and weed out less-profitable customers. [...]

Those are the facts, and there's nothing that ideology can do to change them.

Nevertheless, it's ideology that has dominated this summer's healthcare discussion, such as it is. Those people shrieking with fury at congressional town halls across the country aren't putting forth ideas; they're responding to a right-wing small-government ideology as though to a hallucination. They're being goaded into speaking out against their own best interests [...]

A common trope is that "obtaining healthcare will be like service from the DMV," as one e-mailer wrote.

These sound like the words of someone who isn't bothering to think through what he's saying. [...] In my experience, the California DMV manages my registration and license renewals with admirable efficiency [...]

By contrast, I've wasted days at a time trying to extract treatment approvals from anonymous bureaucrats at my insurance carrier. [...]

If their hypothetical DMV is emblematic of the inefficiency of government-managed healthcare, what's the proper analogy for the "efficient" private sector? Enron? General Motors? AIG? The health insurance industry itself? [...]

California has had one of the nation’s strictest malpractice tort limits for 34 years. But it still boasts among the highest per capita ratios of uninsured residents in the nation. And don't tell me that's because of our illegal immigrants; UCLA's figures show that if you factor out all uninsured residents lacking green cards (assuming they're all here illegally), California would still rank in the bottom half of all states in this measure.

What's surprising is that the White House and Democratic congressional leaders don't seem to have seen the ideological attack coming. Yet it's a familiar phenomenon. [...]

Ideologies aren't always virulent. Sometimes they can help structure a consistent approach to economic or social conditions -- from either side of the political divide. But not when their purpose is merely to body check rational debate out of the arena. On such occasions, aggressive treatment is necessary. Will Wednesday's operation on Capitol Hill set the patient on the path to recovery?

It's all about profit. Human lives are expendable. And our side needs to communicate clearly, forcefully, and in simple terms exactly what is taking place, and what is needed.

It's the same old story, but this is about our health, and we cannot afford to lose this one.

Shallow Thoughts: Covering Town Hall Mobs edition

By GottaLaff

Today's Shallow Thought:

Davis Shuster just commented on how tough it is to have a real debate on health care because of the hostile, out-of-control environment at the town halls.

Instead of reporting on how difficult it is to have an exchange of ideas on health care because of the Republimobs, how about reporting on the ideas themselves? That would most likely put a major dent in the effectiveness, and therefore, the visibility of the crazies.

That was today's Shallow Thought. Thank you for wading in.

"Town Hall Face": An unsightly condition

By GottaLaff

Town Hall Face

An unsightly condition caused by unsanitary health-care politics

(click on image to enlarge, unless you have super powers and can read that teeny tiny writing to the left)

Plus, check out The Five Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate.

Who's paying to kill health reform: The Chart

By GottaLaff

Just follow the bouncing ball arrow!

(click on image to enlarge)

We could turn this into a freakin' board (no pun) game.