The American People - Screwed Again

And again, and again...

In no particular order:

Number One:
The Supreme Court decison to let corporations, any and all corporations, spend as much money as the want to buy politicians and elections.  I wonder how many people realize that this can be Chinese, Saudi, Indian, German, Japanese, ANY COMPANY ANYWHERE WITH ANY AGENDA as well as U.S. companies?

Oil companies will be able to drill on your property.  Hell, they'll be able to take you property!  Coal companies will be able to strip mine you favorite vacation spot and dump waste into the rivers and lakes that provide your drinking water.  They'll be able to build power stations in you neighborhood and NOT need to worry about pollution controls.  Just imagine your kids having to wear gas masks to breathe.

Yum foods will be stocking your kids cafeterias with high sugar, high fat, artificially colored, flavored and preservative loaded snack foods.  No worries!  At least they'll be fat, happy and need treatment for diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity by the time they're fifteen. 

That'll keep the healthcare companies doing booming business!  As long as you fork over half of your paycheck every month to the insurance companies, you can get every medication under the sun.

The other half of you pay will go to banks and credit card companies.  They'll be able to increase interest rates and tack on fees for everything from using an ATM card to sneezing.  You'll need to use one credit card to pay another.  You'll need to dig cans and bottles out of garbage cans to have any money for food.

It's all good, though!  the Supreme Court is always right.  Right?

Number Two:
The Democrats are doing their customary cowering, cringing and kowtowing  to the Republicans.  Despite months of polls showing that most Americans want healthcare reform, the Dems are now wanting to "think" about it a little longer.  They want to slw down a process that has been fifty years and twleve months in the making.  They want to "wait" and get it perfect before they act.  They want to include the Republicans in the discussion.

Who are they supposed to be serving?  The American people?  The majority?  The millions that gave millions in campaign donations and time and sweat and tears?  Apparently not.  Apparently they are serving the minority and the Republicans.

Number Three:
Chickens with no heads.  The Democrats are in such a panic over the election in MA, that they have turned into deer caught in headlights.  Again.  They are frozen with fear and trembling.  They are quivering in the corner, too afraid to move their collective asses.  And this is over a very poorly run campaign that just about anyone would have lost.  The Senate seat waas lost by Coakley, not won by Brown.

Learn from it and do better next time.  Don't hide under the bed!

Number Four:
The Media.  As usual, the story is not about the facts.  It's about the fear and headlines and what can be made the most salacious and sensational.  Hey, the media is big business!  They need to earn profits, too.  Everyone knows you can't make profits with the facts and truth.

Have you read any history?

God help us.

Oops, They've Done it Again!

I'm really, really sad I wasn't able to get anyone to take my bet last November.  It was a bet on how long it would take the Democrats to shoot themselves in both feet.   Not one foot, two.  I said one year after the inauguration, 365 days.  I would have won, hands down.

I'm going to site only a couple of things and in no particular order:

• The race to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.  It should have been a no-brainer.  Well, the Democrats left their brains and any common sense they might own at home and have handed the seat to a very scary Republican.  Was everyone on vacation?  Did no-one notice what was happening?
• On top of that, the blame game started before the polls closed, loudly and publicly.  What are they thinking???  Oops, I forgot, brains and good sense left at home.
• The health care reform bill - where does one start?  For the first time in, oh, many years, the Democrats had the golden triangle - White House, super majority in the Senate and a huge majority in the House.  One might think they'd get something done that would do the people of this country some good, right?  Nope.  Screw the people out here that are getting sicker, getting more broke, getting dead.  They bickered and whined and played "mine is bigger than everyone else's" games, frittering away the opportunity to DO SOMETHING.  Brains and sense no-where in sight.
• The Democrats stand by and let attack after attack by the GOP go by without response, or coherent reponse.  They try to shut down anyone in their party that is willing and able to stand up for the truth and say it.
• Finance reform - not happening yet and probably never will.  And, the news that Dodd wants to dismantle the CPA is downright scary.
• Mortgage relief - Let's give a whole bunch of money to big banks and not ask for any accounting.  I don't care if TARP was put in by Bush or not.  Change the rules or get the money back or shut them down.  Make sure the banks do what they were supposed to do with the money, not pay huge bounses or buy other banks.

Should I add their souls are MIA, too?

• Pollution - stop calling it global warming if you don't think people believe it.  The big businesses on the right are going to campaign like crazy the global warming isn't real.  Instead, call it POLLUTION.  It's pollution that makes the children sick.  It's pollution that contaminates drinking water.  It's pollution that makes the air so thick and toxic that we cough and wheeze and have "Spare the Air" days that force the old and kids with asthma stay indoors.  It's pollution that makes our food crops inedible.  It's pollution that gives fish mercury levels so hight that eating it will sicken us and our kids. 

The Democrats don't seem to be able to find their way out of a wet paper bag with a map, GPS and a box cutter.  They just don't seem to know what to do when they have the power to do something.   They don't seem to be able to remember that they've done this before.  Oops...

Bloody idiots.

Lies and the Media That Repeat Them Just Because They Sound Good

I am watching Countdown on MSNBC and one of the first stories tonight was about the flat out LIE about 9/11 Rudy Giuliani decided to tell in his interview with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America.  Good old George, who seems to be more about promoting himself and earning big bucks, let the lie slide.  He did nothing to question it until the hue and cry went up on the internets and other places.  We got a "my bad", which is, actually, more than we normally get when the talking heads allow or even repeat the lies their (paying) guests tell during so-called interviews.

Eric Burns from Media Matters was a guest on Countdown and he said said the interviewers (I really can't call most of them journalists, since their ambition for fame and fortune made them the whores of the airwaves long ago) had a responsibilty to be nice to the guests and get to the truth.

Even though he did say there was a need to get to the truth, it wasn't the emphasis.

I believe the media and journalists, reporters, editors, producers primary responisbility is the TRUTH in bold capital letters.  Responsible reporting, including fact checking, is second.  A distant third is to be civil, not nice, to the guest or interviewed party.  If the person(s) being interviewed is willing to tell lies, especially knowingly, they do not deserve niceness in any way.  This telling of lies, especially on national TV, is reprehensible and does a huge diservice to the country and the American people.

The media's willingness to repeat the lies and replicate them without challenging them across programs and networks is telling lies.  It is not reporting the facts.  It is not journalism.  It is lying.  Period.  I hope there is a special place in hell for you. 

You may get the titillating controversary that will bring in viewers or sell papers when you spread the lies, but the interviewer who stands up and challenges the liar would earn a huge spotlight for doing so.  I'm sure your next paycheck will help you sleep and make you happy, but- try to think about it.

Rush Loves Health Care in the USA!

Well, isn’t it good news? Rush Limbaugh has declared the USA has the best health care in the world and nothing about it should be changed. He should know.

Mr. Limbaugh was recently rushed to the hospital with chest pains that were just like a heart attack. After a battery of tests, the doctors declared that it wasn’t a heart attack. As a matter of fact, they couldn’t find the cause. He should be pleased. He didn’t have a heart attack or any other life threatening condition. Health care in the USA triumphs!

Isn’t it amazing what $33,000,000 a year in pay can buy? Please note that I am quoting the lower end of his annual earnings estimates I’ve been able to find. One was as high as $50M.

For $33M per year, Mr. Limbaugh can buy the best care in the world many times over. He can get the best doctors, emergency transportation, hospitals without thought or care about how he might pay for it. I don’t know if he has insurance. Maybe he does. Even if it’s a high deductible insurance, I’m sure the premiums are not too burdensome for him.

Even with half, or quarter, that amount in income, Mr. Limbaugh would have more than enough to cover any healthcare costs he might have.

Were we all in such circumstances, we would have no need for reform either. If we all had insurance or could afford the premiums or have access to first class care, we would none of us need reform. If only.

I wonder when Mr. Limbaugh last had to worry about whether to pay for a doctor or pay the rent. I wonder when Mr. Limbaugh last needed to decide if he could afford to buy his cholesterol medication or antibiotics or whatever prescription he might be taking instead of food. I wonder when Mr. Limbaugh last had to choose between vaccinating his children against deadly childhood diseases or putting gas in the car so that he could get to work every day. I wonder if Mr. Limbaugh has ever had to make these choices.

If these were choices that didn’t need to be made by millions of people daily in this country, we wouldn’t need healthcare reform. But people need to make the choices. People get sicker and die every day across this nation because they have to make those choices. They need healthcare reform, no matter what Mr. Limbaugh thinks.