Day: August 28, 2009

And The Lies Live On…….

A Daily Agitation

You know I have been watching, writing and analyzing politics for about four decades, but I can safely say that this year, 2009, is the worst case scenario for political lies and misinformation trying to sway a public on a specific issue, in this case it is health care reform.

We have heard all the crap…the death panels…a death book……creeping socialism….or was it creeping fascism?  But yesterday I read the best lie of the season, it came from Clark County, Washington:

Raymond and Louise Denny of La Center were surprised last week to receive a mailing from Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, entitled “2009 Future of American Health Survey.”

After reading it, their surprise turned to outrage.

They were especially irked by the following:

“It has been suggested that the government could use voter registration to determine a person’s political affiliation, prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system. Does this possibility concern you?”

The GOP cannot help themselves, apparently….they cannot stop the partisan BS…..they feel they have to make up stuff to influence the people to their way of thinking…….cool….but try coming up with an alternative plan….or possibly telling the truth……I know those are novel ideas and may be a stretch for the party….but to continue along these lines of lying and misinformation does nothing to make the GOP look like a viable alternative to the Dems.

It is impossible to come up with an alternative as long as they have members that think like this:

One of the most vociferous opponents of health care reform has been Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who previously promoted blocking reform because it would be a “huge gain” for the GOP.

At a town hall meeting Wednesday Sen. Jim Inhofe told Chickasha residents he does not need to read the 1,000 page health care reform bill, he will simply vote against it.

“I don’t have to read it, or know what’s in it. I’m going to oppose it anyways,” he said.

And Repubs get irrate if it is said that ther GOP is the party of NO…..but what else could you call it when members say things like that?  The GOP attacks every position the Dems have and they are truly pissed about the possibility of the Dems using reconciliation, that is the use of 51 votes in the Senate to pass legislation.  The Repubs are calling it everything but what it is…legal and lawful.

In the early years of the 21st century when Bush passed his tax cuts reconciliation was used and it was said of it back then….remember the Repubs had a majority in the Senate….

quote from Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH):

“Reconciliation is a rule of the Senate (that) has been used before for purposes exactly like this on numerous occasions.” … “Is there something wrong with majority rules? I don’t think so. … The point, of course, is this: If you have 51 votes for your position, you win.”

Interesting eh?  How they want to change the rules to suit their interests.

The BS gets deeper…….the stakes are high….and the lies live on…..

2009 Anal-Ocity

As I have said in the past….it has been a great year for anal statements and sadf to say that they just keep rolling in….eventually, these morons. both parties, no one is excluded, will realize that in this day of youtube, whatever they say will come back to haunt them.

This little bit of wisdom came from the mouth of a US representative, as reported by the AP:

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins told a recent gathering in northeast Kansas that the Republican Party is looking for a “great white hope” to help stop the political agenda of the Democratic party and President Barack Obama.Videotape shows Jenkins, a Republican, making the comment at an Aug. 19 forum. She was discussing the Republican party’s future after Democrats took control of the House and Senate in the 2008 elections, when the presidency went to Obama, the nation’s first black president.

It shows that what I have been saying for months now…that the GOP was the party of rural white people holds true.  (Kansas is pretty rural, right?)  Rep. Jenkins has apologized for her choice of words, but Sen. Trent Lott made a similar comment and was chastised heavily.  But to be fair, the GOP is the white party in Congress and they seem to think that all discrimination is against white people.  And since the civil rights battles the GOP has not changed much from those days….so Jenkins was just parroting the obvious.

She may have apologized but that does not change the fact that all analysis points to the fact that members of the party feel that way.

When Did The Hate Begin?

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  American History/Politics

Sen. Kennedy died the other day and I was surfing the web for stories and posts and I found that many right wing sites were filled with stories about his past, the drinking, the women and that damn bridge.  I thought just how moronic this was…why?….the man did a lot for the people of this country from kids health to civil rights to cancer research, on and on….and yes he made many mistakes and had many victories, but regardless what you thought of the man personally….to think only of his failures and mistakes is just pathetic.

When did the US become such a hot bed of hate?  When did American society move from a society of the poeple to a society of vile, disgusting people?

There will always be some form of hate in the US, whether it is racial hatred or gender hatred or whatever…but the hate that I question specifically is the political hate or also fondly known as partisanship.

My question is:  When did the vile and deep hatred of the opposing party begin in Washington?  Good question, right?

Political hatred or extreme partisanship has been festering for decades in Washington and among our different political parties, but the vile, disgusting and festering zit we know today came to a head in the early to mid 90’s.

It began in earnest when Bill Clinton was elected as president after it more or less hijacked the GOP for its own …his life and attitudes became a focus of the far wing of the GOP…this revolt brought the likes of the Newt to power and mouth organs like Tom DeLay and the hate served as a platform that swept conserv Repubs into control of the Congress in 1994.

The hatred played well with mid America and because it did many conserv jumped unto the bashing bandwagon to gain political advantage….and as they attacked liberals the tone became more and more vile and hate filled.  I am old enough to remember the days after Watergate and I cannot remember this much hate and name calling done by anyone.  That dark corner of America history was handled with intelligence and like adults.  Today’s hatred and handling of issues is like a couple of 7 year olds fighting with each other at day care.

Because the hatred was working and working very well the misinformation and lies became a constant part of the attacks on the opposition.  It began with the antics of Clinton and he gave his opponents lots to use against him and slowly as the Washington claptrap got louder and louder the people picked up on the hatred and it has snowballed to where it is today.  All the hatred began as opposition to a person and now it has morphed into hatred of ideas and those who work with them.  It is damn silly!

There comes a time when our elected officials have to start acting like adults.  Right now one party has lost so much support that it may NEVER return to its past glory.  One day an adult will step forward and start whacking these kids on the pee-pee.

It is suppose to be about what is best for the people of the country….not about who said what and why.  Demonizing is NOT the answer to our problems….all it does is waste time and money and accomplishes NOTHING but a continuation of hate.

Maybe the pea brains on the far right are correct in using Jefferson’s quote….but it should be the people rebelling against ALL politicians who are not working on their behalf…I mean both of the parties….not one of these stuffy pricks has Americans in mind as they go about their daily spewing of hatred.