Kill the Bill!!!

First, Congress should kill this sorry excuse for a Health Care Reform Bill.
Second, Joe Lieberman should be stripped of his Chairmanship, then Kicked the Fuck out of the Democratic Caucus….loudly and soundly.
Third, Democrats should abandon Bipartisanship, come up with a Single Payer Bill, and ram that fucker through…
Reconciliation sounds good.
Dems have the Majority…what’s the fucking problem/?
A much slimmer Majority of Republicans held us all hostage during Lil George…
Is it that the Dems are too nice?
Or is it, as I suspect, a lack of Spine/Stones?

Silence

The main reason that we are NOT a Democracy, but a Republic, is that the Founders feared Pure Democracy.
They had been in the Political Minority, and wanted to avoid Mob-Rule, the Tyranny of the Majority.
Thus, we have a Constitutional Democratic Republic, where the Minority (or Minorities...) are protected, under Law.
I wholeheartedly agree with these sentiments...they sound great.
What a wonderful country that would be, that enjoyed such Egalitarian Freedom.
Sadly, that's not how it always is "on the ground".
I live in a Red County...the last 20 years have seen the Republicans gain the Majority.
The problem is that the Democratic Remnant is afraid to speak.
They feel intimidated, I think...judging by my Wife and the few other Liberals I am acquainted with.
The Right walks around, spouting their eliminationist, racist,dishonest rhetoric...and noone calls them on it.
Kids in the high school call the President a "Nigger" on the way to class...and nothing is said.
Teachers provide their captive audiences with the vilest of misogynist, anti liberal rants.
Regular folks,good Christian women, talk of the need for public executions and a return to Prayer in the Public School.
I have overheard talk of "running the Socialists off'...and, indeed, have been nearly strangled by a member of the local American Legion, in a bar, for relplying to his query,"what do you think about George Bush"...with "I think he's a War Criminal."
The local paper is filled with columns, and the occasional letter,with a decidedly "Conservative" slant...but any "Liberal" reply is demeaningly labeled "Politics as usual"...as if to say "how dare they"...or"see, we let the crazies speak, too..."

And the "opposition" lies down.
They are too polite, it seems, to actually call any of this what it so obviously is...Fascism...lest they offend their neighbors.
They are as shocked as the Right when someone has the temerity to stand up and call "Bullshit!".
So the eliminationism, the racism, the underlying violence of the rhetoric of the Right goes unchallenged...
And they begin to believe that "everyone" believes as they do...
And ,eventually, they will think that they are within their "God Given Rights" to "get rid" of any remaining Liberals...or Queers, or voting Mexicans,or...well, you get the idea.
These things must needs be challenged, ere they grow and fester, and turn into a new Civil War.
It is the Duty of the Minority to be vocal and unafraid...to stand up and speak out...whether the Right likes it, or no.

Another reason why we shouldn't torture people...

...I mean besides the troublesome fact that it's inherently immoral, uncivilised and beneath what we ,as a Nation, purport to hold dear.
Seems the Obama Administration wants to bring 3 Al Queda "Detainees" out of Guantanimo, where they have been safely out of reach of Justice.
So now the Right has a conundrum.
In fact we all have a conundrum, just the Right's hands are a little more sticky.
You see, during the Bush II Years, we abandoned the Rule of Law...we took these "Enemy Combatants" and placed them on a US Base, on a Communist Isle...Placed them in a kind of Legal No-Man's-Land.
We stripped them of all Human Rights...
Then we Tortured them, in violation of our own laws, international law and human dignity.
They are tainted men, not only for their horrible crimes, but for how their accusers have treated them.
Now that they are being brought to a Court in New York, the Right would have us fear that they may escape, or (ludicrously) get off on a "Technicality"....
Which translates as,"get off scott-free because our torturing them rendered our "evidence" against them unusable..."
What really has the Right worried is the prospect of the sordid details of the Guantanimo Experience all over the Media.
What was done in the seven years, Post 9-11, of the Bush II "Administration" will be once again laid on the dinner table, as it were, where it can quiver and ooze.

The Right will argue that it is so much better, and more likely to remain forgotten, if we just keep them in Cuba...out of sight, out of mind.
What the present Administration is doing will ensure that these 3 men, and their stories, will be right in front of everyone...just in time for the start of the 2010 campaign season.

Should be very entertaining to watch the contortions of logic, the stammering and righteous indignation that are sure to ensue.

tangled

"All the people we used to know
They're an illusion to me now.
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenter's wives.
Don't know how it all got started,
I don't know what they're doin' with their lives.
But me, I'm still on the road
Headin' for another joint
We always did feel the same,
We just saw it from a different point of view,
Tangled up in blue."
-Bob Dylan
Copyright ©1974 Ram's Horn Music

Suddenly, after 20 years of exile, a drunken, half-hearted web search finds 2 old friends...
The other hair-farmer from HS and the lead singer in my first band...
20 years+- ago, I was on the road...mostly.
Couch-surfing, VW Van living, wandering....
Ended up in Austin, Texas....And didn't really tell anyone...
I had lost connection.
And what I knew of the other's lives pointed to them being very different from my own.
Oat Willie's "Onward through the Fog" and Kesey's "Further" were ingrained in me....
So I didn't even try to go back....save once...

Made an appearance at my 10 reunion, but the former Jocks and Bowheads didn't remember me, and I wasn't on their list....so couldn't get in..
(!)
Clinched the deal for me....
I inadvertantly disappeared into the Texas Hill Country.
(All of the dates, chronologies and timelines are approximate, at best....I am Timeless.)
Had a few contacts, over the years...usually during an exceptionally inebriated phase...Proved my theory, that I alone still harbor the Wildness that defined us, back then...
'Normal" lives, all of them...
I can't say I haven't thought about at least attempting a "Normal" life....Just don't think it's in me.
I've strayed too far from the reservation,it seems....and can't be found.
Our experiences constitute who we are, and how we define the World.
My experiences have been singular, and far outside the norm...ergo...
Strange duckness.
I've had a wild and interesting life.
(only 2 regrets...not sticking to my guns on a Philosophy degree, and not seeing more of the world)

Pain makes ya bored

A "Stop health Care Reform!" advertisment appears next to my Blog!

What can one do in the face of such incredible, well-funded, rediculousness?
I managed to plant 2 beds of Garlic and set 2 (very heavy) steel posts...in the last week.
Rest of the time, I've been laying here, in a vicodin haze....
Neck-down pain.
I'm doing good to do the laundry and dishes.
And cook.
Gotta earn my keep, after all.
My wife is very understanding....
The Depression that inevitably results from being a couch creature is almost as bad as the pain.
Daytime Tv...sucks.
I've watched all the dvd's we've collected over the years....and I read, a lot.
Now, it appears that my eyesight is in trouble.
The walmart magnifyers (x2.5) no longer do the trick.
Add "real glasses" to the list of health related things I can't afford.
sigh.
Still waiting for the county "indigent care" chick to get back to me....perhaps she'll have good news.
And I reapplied for Disability/SSI...for what it's worth.
Preemptively, I asked the (very nice) woman if i could get my employment records.....
Last time I applied, I got all the dates and stuff wrong...only to find out that they had the correct info right in front of them.(duh! they're Social Security...)
I was told it would cost me $57 to get my records.
Not gonna matter, anyway...my "credits" have decreased in the last 3.5-4 years...and I am probably not eligable for Disability/SSI.
Won't know for sure for a very long time, I suppose...given the glacial pace of these things.
One good piece of news...Doc upped my dosage of Vicodin...so I can take what's necessary without running out.
I'm still quite miserly, tho....Titration, and all.


With news being the only, somewhat, intelligent thing on TV during the day....I surf through all those channels.
Even Fox.
The "Debate" on health is an endless source of hollerin' at the boob Tube.
Bachmann's nutty Tea Party at the capital, yeaterday, marked the end of my Tolerance.
I switched it off and attempted to sleep.
Today, I've been sending irate e-mails to the AstroTurfers...including the RNC.
And I know that it will not make a difference.
They don't even hear contradictory opinions.
It's like arguing with Geese.

response to ignorant diatribe

This is a letter to the editor of my local paper, never sent(no internet at the time), in response to another letter, in which a woman fawned ond masturbated over Glenn Beck...and called on us to "Wake Up" and resist the "Socialist Menace".....


Gerry,

I read the three-column diatribe in "Letters" last week, and felt it needed a response...

Where was the outrage, for the past 8 years, as the Right's poster-boy subverted the Bill of Rights, handed out no-bid contracts to his corporate pals, wiretapped all and sundry, etc. etc. etc.?
I guess that when a Republican endeavors to destroy the very Foundations of this country, that's somehow OK?
And that all us who disagree must sit down and shut up?
Love it or leave it, and all….
But Heaven forbid that a "Liberal" gets into office (sans "voting irregularities" or unprecedented "help" from the Supreme Court)...Then it's "Man the barricades!!!"

Heaven forbid that a "Liberal" try to repair the damage done by 30+ years of "conservative" policy...like reregulating Wall st., putting giant, multinational corporations back in their box, and endeavoring to make the Super-Rich pay their fair share.(the Horror!)
And Heaven forbid that someone attempts to rebuild our station in the world, renounces torture or puts an end to these stupid, wasteful wars.
And, please, Heaven forbid that anyone would attempt to see Justice done, and our former Employees punished if they have broken the Law.
For 30+ years, the Right has poisoned the mind of America...with lies and disinformation, fear-mongering and ad hominem.
And, for those 30 years, we have heard the ceaseless cry of “Deregulate!” and “Free Market!” and “Trust Business!”
“Drown Government in a bathtub.”


The Bush II "administration" was the horrible fruition of "conservative" policies that have brought us to the very edge of ruin.
And now that a majority of Americans have opened their eyes to the folly of such nonsense, the Right has no choice but to get up on it's hind legs and holler...
It has no other recourse with which to fight the Truth.
It's "ideas" have been shorn of their Glamour, laid bare for what they are, and always have been:
Government by, and for, a self-selected handful of Elites and the corporations they hide behind.

And, all my counterparts on the Right, I challenge any of you to define “Socialism”.
I’ll bet that you can’t.
Your’ studious ignorance, your’ emotional reactionism, plays right into the hands of those who would rule us all.
Those aren’t reins in your hands,
But chains.
Wake up, indeed...then look in the mirror.
And look into getting a dictionary.

Thanks,

Whores and Weasels and Mossadegh.

Whores and Weasels

The Senate has caved....
Passed a "health bill" that "contains a public option"...
Except that it allows States to "Opt Out"....
And would only "cover" a smidgen of folks who need or want such an option.
I guess the money was just too good.

And even with such a cowardly, niggardly bill...the Dems lost Olympia Snowe...their sole product of months of "Bipartisan" handholding.

sigh.

Missing in all of this is examination of fundamental assumptions....per usual.
For instance, (and most importantly)...
Why the percieved necessity of preserving the Health Insurance Industry?
TINA.
(!)
The Parisitical Corporation has no business being in the business of "providing" access to Health , for Profit.
This isn't hard to understand.
What do they do?
They don't "lower costs"....this would be against their very Nature.
Everything in their Being leads them to cut expenditure in order to increase Profits...
Expenditure, here, is read as "Providing Health".
Why not do away with them....for the very same reason we don't (so far) Privatise water, sewer, Interstates (and other roads), the Air Force, the cops, the courts, and the fire Department.
There are efforts to Privatise these things, I know...Toll Roads and Military Contractors, etc.....
Luckily, these have been limited, almost experimental....and disasters.(see the record of the Bush II "administration")
(Hardy Toll Road, in Houston was great when it was government run...I think it wa privatised, I don't know)

The Profit Motive is anathema to some endeavors.
Really wan't "cost-cutting efficiency" on that bridge?Or would engineering overkill be more confidence-inspiring?
What about the fire crew rushing to your' aid?
Why send 3 trucks, when one might do?
Costs money to be proactive and preemptive, after all...might harm the Bottom Line.(There is actual history regarding private fire departments...ugh!)

Healthcare should be a Human Right, not a "Product"....that we "Consume".

A perennial problem with Corporations is even more egregious when it involves Health and Life....
Recourse.
Bodiless...Soulless...Artificial Creations that ultimately turn on their Creators.
Where does one place the bullet?

That is one reason we have Government.
To rein in, and kill when necessary, these Vampires.
Corporations are extensions of Human Avarice into the Realm of Myth....almost a magical cloak, behind which greedy men can hide.
Government, almost alone, has the Power to destroy them...or keep them on a leash...since it is Government that facilitates their creation.
(The other Entity that has this Power is the People....but, I fear we are too ignorant and fractured to be effective...)
(and Government is supposed to be an extension of the People, anyhow...)

So....
Obama should abandon the Republicans....and the "Blue Dogs"...to the Political Wilderness.
Abandon "Bipartisanship"....the Opposition abandoned it 30 years ago.
Pull a Mossadegh!
Nationalise the Health Insurance Companies!!!

The Right will wail....and maybe even rise up...
But then, at least, we can all choose sides.....inject a little honesty into this fight.
Who sides up with who.
Abandon this horrible pretense that Politicians are not Whores and Weasels...that they work for us, not Vampires....
Put it to the test.
Nationalise, and see what happens.