Who stole the sanity?

Friday September 18, 2009

. . . . . .It is Friday, and the end of another week. I used to say at the end of the week phrases like a really bizarre week, a big week in the news of the weird wingnut world, things like that. I don't anymore, just when I think that things can't be topped, it just gets weirder and worse.

. . . .I'll change the playlist around when I get around to it, where I work, it sometimes gets hard to upload files back and forth. I'll change the order up some, that's about the best I can do.

. . . .And a little note here, if you're reading this on the Facebooks Notes page, I'd switch over to the external site http://anidiotsravingsattheedge.blogspot.com, and catch it there. There's a video embedded that, of course, will not show up in the Notes page, and can only be seen on the external site, and it is hilarious and worth switching over to.

. . . . I get to see some amazing sights where I work, sunset and sunrise out over the open Gulf of Mexico is an incredible thing to see. Do you know the one creature that sharks are just absolutely scared to death of? Bottlenose dolphins, that's the one creature that can make a shark quiver and pee all over itself. Think about it, now a dolphin has zero interest in eating a shark, it's just not part of it's food chain. A shark, if it could, I'm sure would eat a dolphin. I've seen sharks eat boat cushions, wrenches, hard hats, you name it, a shark will stuff it in it's mouth. Dolphins? They're not scared of sharks, period, and the way I've seen dolphins at work, it isn't some desperate struggle for survival, dolphins just plain like to beat sharks up for fun. They will beat a shark to death, just ram it over and over until it's in a daze, and use their voices to drive the very sensitive sonar receptors that a shark has right over the brink. Once a shark stops moving, is just floating in a coma after being beaten to death, it dies. That's the nature of shark biology, they have to move to live. Dolphins do it to sharks because they can, and because someone has to. Someone in the food chain has to remind the shark that there will always be another creature that has their number, and just running around with their mouth open showing their teeth and scaring the hell out of every other marine creature just doesn't cut it some days, and most importantly, a dolphin isn't afraid to die, he or she isn't encumbered by someone's dogmatic beliefs about what may happen.

. . . .I say all the time in my closing about what I don't believe in. I don't believe that the alien bodies are hidden at Roswell, I don't believe that precisely at Midnight on Dec. 22, 2012 the alien spaceships will show up, I don't belive the sky will open up. I don't believe any of it. I also don't believe in your Rapture, your Armageddon, your Ragnarok, your Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds. I don't believe in any of it all.

. . . .That, all of that, is driven by fear, a very basic human emotion. The fear that we truly are unique and alone, the fear that our brief time in existence is really just that, a very brief time. The fear of accepting the knowledge that we're the 6th major species to rule this planet, and understanding that there'll be another one after us. It's the fear of death, that fear of oblivion that drives everything.

. . . .There are things I do believe in. I've led a fantastic life, met fascinating people. I've worked with a man that spent long years in the Amazon, some time as a graverobber, not of the Mayan civilizations, though, yes, he did that, and I've seen some artifacts that would blow your mind. He wound up further in, and going through the graves of the pre-Mayan civilizations, the mound builders before them. The things I've been privileged to hear. . . wow. . . and see. So yes, I believe in things, but they're mine to believe in, and I don't live in fear. Some of the worst things that I can imagine have happened to me in this life already, and I'm still quite alive and rocking and rolling.

. . . .I don't fear death, and I've found here in this stage of my life, that once you truly don't fear death, and don't have to live your life by someone else's dogmatic beliefs, there is very little that you fear. I don't fear other people's opinions, nor what they might think, it's of very little consequence to me. I don't fear the boogeymen, the "ism's", I don't fear someone being upset or uncomfortable or disagreeing, in a democratic Republic, we're supposed to. I don't fear the same things other people do.

. . . .What I do fear is ignorance, a lack of knowledge. I fear blind faith and dogma. I fear not questioning and not striving to find fact and truth. I fear blindly following some elitist, like the

. . . .The following is absolutely awesome, courtesy of Laura Clawson, via Bob Cesca, proudly I give you The Teabagger Socialist-Free Purity Pledge, please feel free to copy and paste, perfect for viral e-mails, like the ones the wingnuts send around, and a wonderful forward for your friends to read.

I, ________________________, do solemnly swear to uphold the principles of a socialism-free society and heretofore pledge my word that I shall strictly adhere to the following:

I will complain about the destruction of 1st Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights.

I will complain about the destruction of my 2nd Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights by legally but brazenly brandishing unconcealed firearms in public.

I will foreswear the time-honored principles of fairness, decency, and respect by screaming unintelligible platitudes regarding tyranny, Nazi-ism, and socialism at public town halls. Also.

I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life. I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following:

• Social Security
• Medicare/Medicaid
• State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP)
• Police, Fire, and Emergency Services
• US Postal Service
• Roads and Highways
• Air Travel (regulated by the socialist FAA)
• The US Railway System
• Public Subways and Metro Systems
• Public Bus and Lightrail Systems
• Rest Areas on Highways
• Sidewalks
• All Government-Funded Local/State Projects (e.g., see Iowa 2009 federal senate appropriations)
• Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet, shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, outdoor hose!)
• Public and State Universities and Colleges
• Public Primary and Secondary Schools
• Sesame Street
• Publicly Funded Anti-Drug Use Education for Children
• Public Museums
• Libraries
• Public Parks and Beaches
• State and National Parks
• Public Zoos
• Unemployment Insurance
• Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services
• Treatment at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, State or Federal Government (pretty much all of them)
• Medical Services and Medications That Were Created or Derived From Any Government Grant or Research Funding (again, pretty much all of them)
• Socialist Byproducts of Government Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions)
• Use of the Internets, email, and networked computers, as the DoD's ARPANET was the basis for subsequent computer networking
• Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown With Government Subsidies
• Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. cotton) That Were Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies

If a veteran of the government-run socialist US military, I will forego my VA benefits and insist on paying for my own medical care

I will not tour socialist government buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of the following types of socialist locations, including but not limited to:

• Smithsonian Museums such as the Air and Space Museum or Museum of American History
• The socialist Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments
• The government-operated Statue of Liberty
• The Grand Canyon
• The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials
• The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as Arlington National Cemetery
• All other public-funded socialist sites, whether it be in my state or in Washington, DC

I will urge my Member of Congress and Senators to forego their government salary and government-provided healthcare.

I will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist military of the United States of America.

I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana, FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army.

I will protest socialist security departments such as the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Department of Justice and their socialist employees.

Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist Social Security checks.

Upon reaching age 65, I will forego Medicare and pay for my own private health insurance until I die.

SWORN ON A BIBLE AND SIGNED THIS DAY OF __________ IN THE YEAR ___.

_____________ _________________________

Signed Printed Name/Town and State

. . . .Now as for this piece, Max Blumenthal took a little walk through the Washington Mall on 9/12 during the little (very little, Michelle Malkin still thinks that 70,000 equals 2 million, a very strong argument for education reform) Tea Party. Folks, in all it's glory,captured forever on video (if you can't see it you're reading the Facebook notes page, and have to go to the external site, see the opening paragraphs) here's neo-conservative extreme Right wing stupidity gone absolutely supernova.

. . . .I literally am afraid of these idiots gaining any type of power. They are so simplistic and so easily swayed. The best example being Dick Armey, the ex-congressman, and founder of FreedomWorks, the sponsor and founder of the Tea Parties. Armey lives an elite life of absolute privilege, money and power, and has spent his life working for universities, as an elected official and as a lobbyist. He is ultra-rich, and oh, by the way, has absolutely no clue what it is the people he organizes are protesting against, as a retired Congressman, he enoys, has always enjoyed, state-funded health care (boo, hiss, socialist!) the "Cadillac of coverage". Bill Moyers:

"Dick Armey is the epitome of those people with power and privilege who are insured against the vicissitudes of life and want no government assistance for any suffering except their own,"

. . . Tea Partiers. . . .that's your founder

. . . . . .I have very little use for what passes as conservatism anymore, that should be obvious to anyone who reads this regularly.

. . . .Why?

. . . .I find conservatism, and it's adherents; conservatives, neoconservatives, and Republicans in general to build their belief system out of outdated and outmoded beliefs. What they are able to summon up is not political philosophy or coherent contributions to America's political process anymore; they cannot build a logical argument, but instead cling desperately to a simplistic, evangelical quasi religious/political ideology which rejects rational thought and reason, avoids logic, fact and data at all costs and relies entirely on the concept of their side somehow "winning" and far from being banner carriers for liberty and freedom, are intent on inflicting their Christian Taliban regime on the citizenry.

. . . .I find that conservatives, neo-conservaties, the Right on the whole tend to be a desert dry of original idea or thought, intellectually bereft, and most comfortable when parroting what their party's media mouthpieces told them to say, and spitting today's bilious talking point back.

. . . .At one point in time, the conservative movement in the Republic was vital and alive, when minds like Irving Kristol, George Will and William F. Buckley held sway, and upheld the Republican tradition of Eisenhower. That day is long gone, Andrew Sullivan on the death of conservative thought:

James Warren recalls the good old days of intelligent conservatism. what he doesn't say, understandably, is that, as neoconservatism became a dogma, and support for general common sense morphed into the loopiest fundamentalism and know-nothing populsim, Kristol retained his Trotskyite political sense. No enemies to the right was his motto. Beck's ignorant, know-nothing, populist bile is the tiger neoconservatism rode. And you cannot write a history of neoconservatism without understanding that it became corrupt, cynical and so divorced from the reality it once championed that it unraveled itself. Bruce Bartlett has a good take, as usual, on the decline of the right under Irving's son Bill:

There is still a need for serious conservative social science research that has no other publication outlet. Commentary is now just a highbrow version of National Review, which is just a glossy version of Human Events, which has become a slightly less hysterical version of nutty websites like WorldNetDaily. The Wall Street Journal editorial page and the Weekly Standard, founded by Kristol's son Bill, just parrot the Republican Party line of the day. The intellectual bankruptcy of conservatism today is even greater than it was when Irving Kristol founded The Public Interest in 1965. What passes for a conservative movement these days wears its anti-intellectualism as a badge of honor.

My own interactions with Kristol and his wife were always cordial; he was a gentleman and a sharp mind. In the end, he surrendered the worst elements of Republican foreign adventurism and fiscal insanity. But, unlike with his son, there was once a core of intellectual courage and independence.

. . . .I find that same group these days, the extreme Right and neoconservatives, as a whole, to be anti-knowledge, anti-education, anti-anything that conflicts with their simplistic, child-like fantasy world-view and paradigm. They have a depth of thought that runs absolutely millimeters deep. Everything is always a personal wrong caused by anyone else who isn't the same race, the same color, the same religion or the same nationality. It's always feminists, hippies, union members, dark-skinned people, liberals, commies, socialists; always someone else from a group that's different than them. Always, always, those other people are evil, and bad, and have no qualities whatsover that make them human. Every ounce of energy is expended to marginalize, disenfranchise and delegitimize those "others", because without that, the position that those of the extreme Right, the zealots, the lunatic fringe takes cannot stand on their own merits. Reading, and understanding, are beyond their capabilities. They refuse to read a bill or piece of legislation for themselves and use their own minds, instead wasting that gift on the uber-drivel that spills from the mouths of drooling lunatics like Beck and fascists like Limbaugh. Fact and reason are beyond them, and when presented with fact, they resort to mouthing one word responses, spitting and drooling, "socialism", "communism", "Nazi", without even bothering to understand those definitions. Telling yesterday that a new poll came out that 3 out of 4 High School students in Oklahoma cannot identify the 1st President of the United States, or the author of the Declaration of Independence.

. . . .I have a problem when sign-carrying, t-shirt wearing teabaggers, who apparently just woke up yesterday fully grown in America and are completely ignorant of political process take on this week's latest cause and mouth the "party line". From the Washington Post today, David Rivkin and Lee Casey:

The White House czars are presidential assistants charged with responsibility for given policy areas. As such, they are among the president's closest advisers. In many respects, they are equivalent to the personal staff of a member of Congress. To subject the qualifications of such assistants to congressional scrutiny -- the regular confirmation process -- would trench upon the president's inherent right, as the head of an independent and equal branch of the federal government, to seek advice and counsel where he sees fit.

This raises a second point in the Obama administration's favor: Some of the positions many are now criticizing have existed for years. As The Post reported this week: "By one count, Bush had 36 czar positions filled by 46 people during his eight years as president." Historically, presidents have turned to special advisers.

However much the czars may drive the policymaking process at the White House, they cannot -- despite their grandiose (and frankly ridiculous) appellation -- determine what that policy will be. The Constitution's "appointments clause" requires that very senior federal officials be appointed with the Senate's consent, though lesser appointments can be made by the president, agency heads or the courts, as Congress provides. Well-established Supreme Court precedent holds that an "officer" subject to these requirements is one who exercises "significant authority pursuant to the laws of the United States."

This is the critical difference between the White House czars and federal officials who must be confirmed by the Senate. In the absence of legislation (such as that creating the Office of Drug Control Policy, whose director is the "drug czar"), the only power exercised by White House czars comes from their proximity to the president and the access this provides. Yes, as many will note, that truly is power. But it is not significant authority under U.S. law -- which only the Constitution or Congress can confer.

Far from undermining the separation of powers, however, the president's right to organize his White House policymaking apparatus is protected by constitutional principle.

. . . . And just to make a point, the two authors of that piece in the Post above were Constitutional attorneys for respectively, Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush.

. . . .I also find that when presented with fact which refutes any position that members of the extreme Right may hold, they will stubbornly cling to their original position, fly in the face of logic and refuse to provide fact or data that may indeed support their position, since it doesn't exist, but will retreat to a position that is completely untenable, all the while wildly throwing accusations out.

. . . .I will give them that, they are well-trained pit bulls and attack dogs, who will snap on word commands, and immediately spring into action, but like all dumb animals, when confronted and attacked back in exactly the same fashion by someone who is willing to meet force with force, immediately slink back off into the dark and will "mark the turf" to remind themselves to not stray near it again.

. . . . The best charade is when these extremists try to label themselves as Libertarians, they don't have the slightest concept, the least education or the barest exposure to true Libertarian thought. If they did, they'd know that 90% of what pours out of their mouths is totally antithetical to Libertarian thought. A true Libertarian understands that there is no place whatsoever in the political process for religious thought or precept whatsoever, and understands that Jefferson, Adams, Paine, Madison, Franklin founded this country as a secular country, based on Greek and Roman political priniciples that could not be found in Europe.

. . . .Now, this is not a defense of Democrats or liberals at all, merely some points on why I detest and loathe the conservatives and Republicans so much. Republicans, the conservative movement lately gives Democrats and progressives the guns and load the damn things up with bullets for them, but liberals will inevitably, form that big circular firing squad and do their damndest to fire wildly away on one another and any other bystanders.

. . . .The other problem with liberals and Democrats is that somehow, they just cannot get away from the thought that somehow they know what's best for everyone else, and how everyone else should act and be, that government is somehow supposed to act as a nanny-state parent.

. . . .But back to the original point. The Republican party, the conservative movement has been hijacked and held hostage by the extreme religious Right. I don't have a problem with Christianity, I do have a problem with mixing organized religion, any religion, at all into the American political process.

. . . .I have a real problem with a party, the Republican party getting into bed with an infotainment network like Fox News, who willingly become sweaty bed partners and trysting lovers in their attempt to subvert the Republic, deliberately lying, and attempting to overthrow Constitutional process in their attempt to maintain racial purity and singular dogmatic belief in an altered history and a homogenous belief in absolute inanity.

. . . .I have a problem when an unmedicated, lying sack of crap like Beck reaches his lowest point yet, just as I believe that this wingnut conspiracy theorist who is a victim of the mental health system cuts and must wander the streets, instead of being locked up, resorts to deliberately lying about a sitting President of the United States, parsing and cutting his words, to fit his (Beck's) Goebbel's-like propaganda agenda. Cesca:

So, yes, Glenn Beck is crazy and a race-baiter and all the rest of it.

But now he's deliberately editing audio of the president -- I mean, wholesale reconstruction of the president's thoughts about the Constitution in order to make it sound like the president hates that founding document.

This could be Beck's lowest moment. He's spent many months deceiving his ignorant viewers, but this is easily his most egregious and obvious deception. Media Matters fully documents the fraud, but here's the shorthand:

What Glenn Beck aired:

OBAMA: The original Constitution [edit] I think it is an imperfect document, and I think it is a document that reflects some deep flaws in American culture -- the colonial culture nascent at that time. [edit] I think we can say that the Constitution reflected a enormous blind spot in this culture [edit] and that the framers had that same blind spot. [edit] It also reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day.

What the president actually said in 2001 (cut lines noted):

OBAMA: Well, you know, I think it's a remarkable document. I think --

HOST: Which one?

OBAMA: The original Constitution, as well as -- as well as the Civil War amendments, but I think it is an imperfect document, and I think it is a document that reflects some deep flaws in American culture -- the colonial culture nascent at that time.

African-Americans were not -- first of all, they weren't African-Americans. The Africans at the time were not considered as part of the polity that was of concern to the framers. I think that, as [program co-panelist] Richard [John] said, it was a nagging problem in the same way that, these days, we might think of environmental issues or some other problem that, where you have to balance, you know, cost-benefits, as opposed to seeing it as a moral problem involving persons of moral worth.

And, in that sense, I think we can say that the Constitution reflected a enormous blind spot in this culture that carries on until this day, and that the framers had that same blind spot. I don't think the two views are contradictory to say that it was a remarkable political document that paved the way for where we are now, and to say that it also reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day.

The president was speaking about the 3/5 Compromise -- an embarrassingly racist line in the Constitution that defined African-American slaves as 3/5 of a person. John Santore at Media Matters writes:

Does Beck really believe that such original elements of the Constitution should not be considered imperfections -- imperfections that were indeed the product of a cultural "blind spot" shared by the 18th century individuals who authored it?

So now there are millions of wingnuts going around thinking the president hates the Constitution. And Glenn Beck can just do this and get away with it, and the people who ought to be seriously offended are the wingnuts who are tricked into believing it.

Remember in the 1950s when Congress investigated fraud in the quiz shows? That was awesome.

. . . .I have a problem when the unemployment rate reaches it's highest point in 70 years, when 94 banks have failed so far this year, when the only winners in the health care reform debate will be the insurance companies and the lifetime appointment mercenaries for hire masquerading as Congresspeople all stealthily take their lobbying money, and we wind up with worse coverage, more folks being denied coverage and dying (45,000 a year from lack of insurance) and a larger chunk out of our wallets, with Max Baucus serving up a dog turd of a bill and everyone starts high-fiving and chest-bumping over a victory at keeping the public option out, those people who did, didn't even pay attention to the fact that we've now locked the insurance companies, thanks to the $1.6 billion in lobbying money that they threw at both parties, all members of Congress, into being mega-corps and ultra-wealthy (just like JP Morgan Chase and Goldman-Sachs). That's what I have a problem over.

. . . .I have a problem with it because to me all of it is real. I've been an I.B.E.W. member and a U.A.W. member, I've lived in Michigan my entire life, and won't leave. I've watched an enormous number of very good people, people who only wanted to work and support their families, get the raw end of the deal, as union labor in construction and the domestic automotive companies absolutely got screwed, and we've now become the state with the highest unemployment in the nation.
. . . .I've got a problem with it when I know that my Mother's health care cost out of pocket last year after Medicare Part D, after insurance was more than some people are trying to even live on right now; when one of her medications costs $600 a month, and I know the cost in Canada, I live close enough to the border.

. . .So none of this to me is academic, or just musings. It's real. I work based out of New Orleans, a city and region whose mortality rate is now worse than North Korea's, my entire life is surrounded by people who are just trying to do the best they can to get by, and it's not getting any easier.

. . . .How big a piece of feral pig turd is the Baucus plan. Well, how about this list of points (Republican points by the way) that Baucus made sure to write into it. Courtesy of The Wonk Room:

after nine months of bipartisan negotiations, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) released the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill without attracting any Republican support. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the $774 billion proposal would not add any red ink to the deficit and would actually “result in a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $49 billion over the 2010-2019 period.” Nevertheless, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) falsely stated on Fox News, “This bill continues to spend trillions of dollars.”

For months, Republicans have complained that Democrats were pushing a partisan government-takeover of health care that would only add to the deficit and bankrupt the nation. They insisted that any health care reform bill must exclude a public option, allow Americans to purchase coverage across state lines, exclude funding for abortion and ensure that illegal immigrants are note eligible for coverage.

But once presented with legislation that met many of these demands, the GOP demurred, refusing to meet Baucus half-way:

REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – NO PUBLIC OPTION: “I urged the President to take the public option off the table because it’s universally opposed by all Republicans in the Senate…it is a roadblock to building the kind of consensus that we need to move forward.” [Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), 9/13/2009]

BAUCUS BILL – NO PUBLIC OPTION: The Baucus bill replaces the public option with a network of consumer driven cooperatives. As the Congressional Budget Office explains, “The specifications include provisions to establish health care cooperatives that would provide insurance coverage and operate as nonprofit organizations.” [pg. 32-38 in Baucus mark]

REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: “Interstate competition allowing people to buy insurance across state lines.” [Sen. John Thune (R-SD), 9/8/2009]

BAUCUS BILL – POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: Starting in 2015, states may form ―health care choice compacts to allow for the purchase of individual health insurance across state lines…. Once compacts have been agreed to, insurers would be allowed to sell policies in any state participating in the compact.” [pg. 12]

REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – HIGH RISK POOLS: “Senator McCain has a proposal sometimes called high-risk pools at the state level…These are efforts I think we can have bipartisan agreement on and deal with the question of pre-existing conditions.” [Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), 9/10/2009]

BAUCUS BILL – HIGH RISK POOLS: “Within a year of enactment, any uninsured individual who has been denied health care coverage due to a pre-existing condition can enroll in a high-risk pool….The high-risk pool will exist until 2013,” until the Exchange is established. [pg. 2]

REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – VERIFICATION OF CITIZENSHIP: “Because what the Republicans want was some verification between illegal and documented.” [Michael Steele, 9/10/2009]

BAUCUS BILL – VERIFICATION OF CITIZENSHIP: “In order to prevent illegal immigrants from accessing the state exchanges obtaining federal health care tax credits, the Chairman‘s Mark requires verification of the following personal data…” [pg. 21]

REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – NO PUBLIC FUNDS FOR ABORTION: “I’m not going to do anything that allows a health care bill to make more abortions permissible. And if I had my way, I would do something to make them less permissible, because I’m pro-life. And I believe that the — life is pretty important.” [Sen. Chuck Grassely (R-IA), 8/6/2009]

BAUCUS BILL – NO PUBLIC FUNDS FOR ABORTION: “No tax credit or cost-sharing credits may be used to pay for abortions.” [pg. 26]

REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – HIGH DEDUCTIBLE POLICIES: Ways for “individuals and businesses could purchase high deductible policies, create a fund for their first dollar benefits could be greatly expanded.” [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), 6/28/2009]

BAUCUS BILL – HIGH DEDUCTIBLE POLICIES: A separate ―young invincible policy would be available for those 25 years or younger. This plan would be a catastrophic only policy in which the catastrophic coverage level would be set at the HSA current law limit, but prevention benefits would be exempt from the deductible. [pg. 21]

Republicans, in other words, have moved the goal posts on reform. Despite Baucus’ many concessions, the GOP is still arguing that the proposal “simply leads to more government, more spending and more taxes” and “spends too much.”

“The chairman’s health care proposal (known as the “chairman’s mark”) that was released by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) in advance of next week’s Finance Committee Markup is just more of the same big government policies that have been proposed by this Congress and this administration for months,” Sen. Jim Demint (R-SC) wrote on his website.

. . . .I agree with Cesca:

The Wonk Room details the long list of Republican items in the Baucus Plan. There are many. It's really a Republican plan with a few concessions to centrist Democrats.

And yet somehow there's no Republican support.

What does this tell us? Baucus and the Finance Democrats will probably allow more Republican amendments to be included during markup and an already shitty bill will become way more shitty. But because increased subsidies will also be added, the Republicans won't vote for it anyway.

And around and around we go.

. . . .My biggest problem? When a group of sheep-like, bovine, mouth-breathing, screaming morons try to blame it on an administration that's 9 months old. That's my problem. For 30 years, the American people have been getting royally screwed, and it wasn't a secret, but I didn't see any of you hitting the streets when Reagan, George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr. raised your taxes. I didn't see you hitting the streets when Bush Sr. uttered the words "New Economic World Order" and started the process of turning us into the United States of Goldman-Sachs with every drop of debt this country has being held by the The People's Republic of China and the Royal Saudi Emirate. I didn't see you htting the streets when Bush Sr. and Clinton sold every manufacturing job in this nation to Mexico, Central America and South America. I didn't see you hitting the streets when Reagan signed an offshore drilling ban to pay off favors to the Royal Saudi Family. I didn't see you hitting the streets when Bush Jr. and Cheney abandoned the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan and decided to invade a sovereign country on false pretenses, leaving the mess for someone else to clean up. I didn't see you Tea-baggers hitting the streets when George Bush Jr. suspended your 1st and 4th amendment rights and Posse Comitatus and activated a U.S. Army Combat brigade for urban unrest duty within the continental borders of the United States.

. . . .None of you hit the streets then, nor raised your voices in protest. Instead, as I wrote about that, I was called un-American or un-patriotic.

. . . .So, the reading list:
Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party by Max Blumenthal
-An excellent exploration of how the Religious Right hijacked the Republican party and how they allowed themselves to be hold hostage, with any intelligent leadership finally forced out in the quest to establish a dominant, Christian power structure at the top of the American Republic.
Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce.
- An excellent piece on how America has become the land of the uninformed, where ignorance and stupidity are virtues, where swallowing whole every lie foisted on people by the media is swallowed whole and regurgitated as common wisdom, and the ability to think rationally and critically analyze somehow became "commie" and un-American.
Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of it Back by Frank Schaeffer
- An autobiography by one of the evanglical Right, who helped undermine the American political process and usurp the Republican power structure to get the Christian right to the "seats of power", got a good look at what he'd done, what he'd wrought, and his efforts since to undo much of the damage he helped create.
The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics and Religion by Matt Taibbi
- Taibbi is an extraordinarily witty writer, with a great sense of black humor as he explores the natural human tendency to deny the truth, even with presented with fact and instead resort to a combination of Intenet-fueled emails and rumors, New Age mysticism and warped personal belief systems.
The Death of Conservatism by Sam Tanenhaus
- Possibly the most studied work, and the most intellectual, and an epitaph for the conservative movement, it traces the movement's history and long decline from Edmund Burke to it's current incarnation in Rush Limbaugh and company. It makes the strongest and most logical argument yet that the conservative movement anymore is not a philosphical political ideology that wants to build or conserve anything, but strains everyday to top itself in what it can destroy in the American Republic.

. . . .And all of those are a prelude to The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. - by Jeff Sharlet
- Sharlet found himself inside the "invisible" power structure of the fundamentalists and evanglicals that have worked and wormed their way into Washinton. You've all heard of the prayer breakfasts and meetings that some Congressional members attend. Organized into small "cells" much like other (!!?) organizations around the world, the members as they come in are told they are there "to learn how to rule the world". Called formally, The Family, it's roots extend back to 1935 where they were organized to fight and subvert FDR's New Deal and organized labor and trade unions (sound familiar?).

. . . .The reason is simple, you're in a war, and we're all pawns. What you are seeing everyday is the footsoldiers in it, unwittingly in many cases, playing it out. It's not just me; bloggers, investigative journalists, authors, writers; many of us have gone over the turf of the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman-Sachs and their ownership of the United States Government and Treasury and the fact that they were Obama's biggest campaign donors. What you are seeing played out everyday is a war for power, one or the other will win; The Family (Bush(es)/Cheney) or Goldman-Sachs/Chase/CFR (Obama/Clinton). It's being played out everyday all around you.

. . . .We can salvage this shipwreck of a Nation. It will take all of us working together. It will take all of us understanding the concepts of the Great American Experiment, the political process of the Republic. It's amazing, I don't see eye-to-eye on every issue with my friends, but we respect one another's opinion, share information, share facts, and we don't talk over one another or at one another, we talk with one another. It's amazing what happens when a group of people who share the common goal of leaving a better country for their children and grandchildren can do when they sit down with one another as human beings, and realize that we each have power, and together, we are unstoppable.

. . . .I'm going to ask this of you for the next 30 days. Turn your TV off, turn your radio off. Start to use that beautiful mind that your Creator gave you, that your underpaid, underappreciated High School teachers tried to develop. If you hear something, if you read something, if someone sends you an e-mail that says "this bill will do this", or "this politician says this", I'm asking you to check it out. Check it out this way, use some of the following fact-based sites, who exist solely for the purpose of data and fact-checking.
- If whatever you've heard or read concerns a bill in Congress, use the following -
- Open Congress, it's non-partisan and devoted to a complete tracking of every bill in Congress, both houses. How a bill is developed, who is sponsoring it, what the riders are, what the discussion around it is.
- GovTrack, again non-partisan, non-commercial and open source; devoted to the same things, tracking Congress.
- Open Secrets, one of the most important ones, it tracks the lobbying money and campaign contributions flowing to your congressperson, and most of the time is a pretty good predictor of how they'll vote.
- Political Party Time, non-partisan, devoted to solely tracking political fundraisers, and letting you know exactly what parties your Representative and Senators are throwing for fundraisers and who is attending and how much money they're throwing at them to gain influence.

. . . .If someone sends something to you saying "this is so" or "that is so" or "the President/Senator/Representative said this" use the following:
- Fact Check, non-partisan, designed to separate fact from bullshit and fiction
- Snopes, devoted to the same thing.
- Politifact, devoted to getting to the truth, and separating out the lies that are spread.


. . . .I keep doing this not because I don't have faith, but because I do have faith. I have faith in the ultimate triumph of the spirit, intellect and heart of the American people. I have faith that the people I know want to leave something better for future generations, and know that something is terribly wrong, and want to do something about it. I do it because Paine and Jefferson were brilliant, unique singularities and were right.

. . . .I keep doing this because I don't believe in big imaginary friends for adults, I don't believe in alien conspiracies running the Government, I don't believe the Roswell bodies are at Wright-Patterson, I don't believe that a big portal will open up on Dec. 21, 2012, I don't believe that the spaceships will show up.

. . . I do believe that the people who have fucked everything up are greedy, avaricious human beings who have been able to steal from the American people, to harm them, who have run unchecked because no one calls it out for what it is. I believe that if we shine the light of day on it, if the people of this country have had enough, we can change it, and change it for the better.

. . . . I keep doing this because I do believe that people, human beings, unchecked will continue to do what they've done throughout history, and throughout the history of this country. Together, they will find the solutions and provide better for their children and grandchildren.

. . . .I believe in us, I believe in people. I believe in the beauty, power and grace of the individual.

. . . .I do this for everyone who's ever walked that lonely road of knowing what they do, what they believe, what they know is right. I do it for everyone who's ever walked that lonely road of faith, hope, love, hate, justice, war and peace.

. . . .I do it because I believe in justice, in all it's forms.

. . . .I do this everyday for the people and kids who are tattoed, pierced and inked and keep getting told to get "into the mainstream". I do this everyday for those guys who wear black that you don't understand, you just know there's something about them, and that when the chips are down, when you have to walk down a dark alley somewhere, and you know what's waiting for you at the end of it, and you can only take one person with you, that's who you want walking with you, because you know you'll come back out alive, and that guy doesn't care what it costs him.

. . . .I do this everyday for the outcasts, the misfits, the ones who don't fit and who will turn their back on you and walk away when you try to make them fit into a mold. I do it everyday for everyone who does it their way, knows that they're paying a high price for it, but the freedom is worth the cost.

. . . . I do this everyday for outlaws, cowboys, renegades, pirates and fallen angels. I do it everyday for the people who understand that rock and roll can save their soul, that redemption can be found in a 3-chord lick from a vintage Les Paul. I do it for the men and women who aren't afraid to turn it all the way up, who keep looking for an 11 setting on a volume knob that only goes to 10, who know that rock and roll's got nothing to do with age.


. . . .If right now, you're doing something you don't want to do, stop it. If you've surrounded yourself with people who want you to do or be something other than who you are, walk away. If you've got people around you who actually let it slip out that they think you "should be doing (fill in the blank here)" and it involves your life, your future, your existence as an individual, walk away, right now, and don't look back. You don't owe anyone anything. Live fearlessly. If the people around you can't accept it, can't accept you as you are, really are, they aren't and weren't friends anyhow.

. . . .Don't march to anyone else's drumbeat, don't drink the Kool-Aid, anyone's. Right, Left, conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican, Christian, Buddhist, Pagan. Use your own mind, that's why you were given one. Examine, question, do what's right for you first, everything else will fall in place from there, quit looking for the path, you're already on it.

. . . .Come out of the gate each morning with both barrels blazing, pedal-to-metal, full-tilt boogie, all-in and balls-out, what's stopping you? Do you want to live forever? That'd be boring.

. . . .Got your back. somewhere out there in the night

. . . .Kiss your kids, tell the ones you love out loud that you do. Seize the precious moments before they're ripped away from you. This rodeo is a one-way ticket and no one, absolutely no one gets out alive. There aren't a lot of second chances, and we don't get to dictate terms and circumstances of how the ticket gets punched. This ain't no dress rehearsal, and the curtain's gone up, it's real and right now. It's not about yesterday or tomorrow. It's about right fucking here, right fucking now. This, what you're reading, what you're hearing, is the proof, the words, the sounds and the sights of someone changing his own life and his own world and not being afraid to put it out there. What have you done for yourself lately and why are you waiting? Do it now.

The Desolation Angel
from somewhere halfway to Heaven, and just a mile out of Hell

You know someone like me, there's still a few of us left. If we have to, we'll stand at the gates of Hell and hold the last train home for you.