You have to see the irony in the Georgia officials who have wanted to refuse stimulus funds for Georgia and have been campaigning against a role for government in health care to suddenly cry out that they should receive millions in a government bailout because Georgia got a heavy rain last week. If we don't want government money going to those without health care, why should we want government money going to people who got flooded last week. Didn't they make poor choices by buying those pricey homes next to river banks and then not buying flood insurance? Isn't a flooded home a pre-existing condition? Now they want the effects of insurance, a bail-out, when they never paid any premiums. And don't be fooled about this one, it is mostly rich people and commercial property and state infrastructure that needs money now. So of course the Governor is first in line, hat in hand at the door of congress saying bail out my buds.

But still, no government health care for the poor, those who have lost jobs and those who have a pre-existing condition.

Now to tell the truth. I think the government should play a major role in "disaster" relief, but they should also make sure healthcare is available for all.

This post was originally published on September 29, 2009

I enjoyed going to the Tour Players Championship Final Round on Sunday and watching Phil Mickelson. Turns out he won the tournament. Very cool.

I get tired of seeing Repubs on TV and the internet trying to convince everyone that what they have to say is important. They keep running polls and saying, "See how Obama has fallen in the polls? Americans don't want his policies. We must go back to doing things the Repub way."

Talk about being out of touch. Since they have put themselves in such a weak position that they can't even slow down legislation in the House of Representatives or the Senate, (nor do they have any influence with the Whitehouse), they are trying to con Americans by ruling the media wars. But the only poll that matters, last November's election, didn't come out the way they were hoping.

How far out of power are they?
In the house of representatives they have 78 fewer voices than the Democratic Party: 256 to 178 (59% Democratic 41% Repub*)
In the senate they trail 60 to 40, obviously by the same percentages.
It is surprising that there is that consistency in percentages whether you figure it by states or by congressional districts.

On all the TV shows we get a representative of the Repubs and one from the Democrats. The Democrat answers questions and the Repub shouts down his/her answers. Civility and logic are lost characteristics for Repubs. But that distribution of voices isn't fair. It doesn't represent the country. There should be 3 Democratic voices for every 2 Republican. That would represent America.

Now the Democratic Party has been trying to play nice with the Repubs, accomplishing little and winning over only Olympia Snow on any issue, but the time has come to push the noisy bums out of the way and vote in the new Democratic agenda. It is what the people voted for. Change. Without regard to the haranging, threatening voices of the right, it is time to vote in change. They are threatening to withdraw from the Union (Uh, that's already been tried and didn't work). They are threatening to kill the president (the secret service stands directly in their way on this one). They are threatening to march on Washington (Did you see their pitiful march? About 70,000, heavily financed by big oil and the health insurance industry and that's all they could rally. 100 times that many Americans went to a ball game this week.)

The polls are irrelevant. Change is now coming. If they do it well it will steer America into safe waters for the next 50 years. Be fearless Democrats. Legislate.

*(I'll remind you that I've taken to calling the GOP "Repubs" because of the slanderous way they chosen to call the Democratic Party the "Democrat" party, as though it were some evil undemocratic entity).

The end of civil discourse.

I've long thought that the Republican method of argument was to call names rather than offer a reasoned response of any kind. Rep. Wilson, now celebrated as a hero by the right for screaming out at our President, calling him a name, a liar, was either making a desperate attempt to call attention to himself, or having a temper tantrum. As always, the President was gracious.

I wish there had been more coverage of the tea-party convention last Saturday. I watched in vain for a shot from the air of teeming thousands covering the national mall (the million man march came to mind). The crowd was called alternately "thousands" and "tens of thousands." So how many were there? Apparently not that many. I was distressed by what they looked like. They were old. They were fat. (Older and fatter than me even). When interviewed they seemed confused. They didn't even have talking points. Maybe that was the liberal media trying to make them look bad. They were name callers.

If someone says something you disagree with, don't bother to explain your position, simply call them a name. Any name will do. A Nazi. A Communist. (Does any conservative know that those ideologies are extreme examples of right and left? Is there anyway to represent both at the same time?) An Indonesian Welfare Thug? Say that one is a discussion ender.

The conservatives could not elect a President. They cannot organize a march on Washington. Is there any reasonable person that can put together an argument against any initiative by the Democratic Party. I'd love to see ideas, discourse, and argument replace, ranting, posters, and tantrums.

I feel that the current political situation can be summed up as the party of ideas versus the party of temper tantrums. (It is almost the debate of reason against emotion). I pray that reason wins.

No "argument" that I have heard so far against a national healthcare coverage plan has been a serious idea for discussion. The right wing won't discuss healthcare for everyone as a possibility. They are fearful of the redistribution of the pie. Years and years ago, I sat in chapel at Southern Seminary listening to Duke McCall speak. I can't remember what he was talking about exactly, but he used a profound example that I remember often. It was an example that was about pie. He said that many people fear that if the poor are going to have pie, then they will take a portion of their pie. They have worked hard and earned their pie. They feel they deserve their pie. They do not wish to share with drug addicts, no accounts, thieves, and rascals who could have pie if they would just straighten up and fly right for a change. Duke said the answer was not to redistribute the pie. The answer was to make more pie. He was of the "more pie" philosophy and so am I.

The right tells us that we have the best healthcare in the world, yet thousands die every year, deaths that would have been preventable if the person had any health care. Our system is not the best in the world. No one but right wing Americans rank it as the best. Capitalism and healthcare have not mixed well except for drug company and insurance company executives.

Socialized medicine will be a disaster. They will kill Grandma.

I suppose socialized fire protection has been a disaster? Would it be much better if we all had our own fire insurance companies to call when our house was ablaze? Of course some fires would not be covered and no one would respond. And fire insurance execs would make 15 million a year.

I suppose socialized police protection has been a disaster too. Everyone knows that crime would be much lower if we all hired our own personal police. Everyone's policy would cost a different amount. Many people couldn't get coverage because their neighborhoods would just be too dangerous.

I suppose it would be terrible if we had socialized road building. That would be a disaster. Roads wouldn't go anywhere and they'd all be falling apart if they were socialized. Lucky we can have capitalism driven roads paid for by the people who live on each street. Oh wait, that's how it was in pioneer days when they were up to their axles in mud. It was that old rightwinger Eisenhower who thought up the interstate highway system. I always thought of him as a commie.

I sure hope we don't ever go to socialized emergency response. The government would totally mess that up. A single responder idea! What a joke. Like just dial 911 and someone would come immediately to help. No way we could afford something like that. Ridiculous.

And socialized healthcare would surely fail too. It would be the end of us all. Just look at how poorly medicare is run now. Oh wait. Medicare is rated higher by its participants than private health insurance, higher by 20% than private insurance.

So all of this stuff in the media is for show. Scare the people and maybe they'll vote Republicans back to power to steal more of America's treasures for the rich. That's what happened in '94. The Republicans are still crooks and liars, America. Don't listen to them.

The loss of Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate has made me sad. Living in Georgia, I never have any chance of having an elected representative who actually represents my views. But Senator Kennedy has represented me. I have even written him to explain that since Georgia will not elect anything other than rightwing nuts, that I have adopted him as my senator. The Kennedys have always influenced my life. Somehow, at only 9 or 10 I was mesmerized by JFK. I remember staying up late watching the tv returns hoping that he would be elected president. It was not decided until the next day. Senator Edward Kennedy has had a life like David, in the Bible. He has acted in the worst possible ways and brought about the death of a young woman. Whatever happened, his conduct was reprehensible, indefensible. Yet he continued and became more and more an advocate for those with no voice. Truthfully, he has been God's advocate. He fought for civil rights, rights for the handicapped, and most of all, for healthcare to be a right and not a privilege. With enormous wealth and power he should by rights have been a Republican, but at the expense of his family, he has been dedicated to the poor and needy.

He was a lion. The Lion of the Senate. I will miss him.

A dog is worth 14 belly laughs a day.

It's not like the Republicans have not effectively used the "fake grassroots" rallies before, and to their great advantage. I remember clearly the media coverage of dozens of "citizens" protesting the way ballots were being counted in Florida, the day after the polls closed for Bush's 2000 election. Angry, shouting, people, appeared to have poured out of their homes and into the streets to cry out that Al Gore's people were stealing the election. (A good rule for thieves is to always say the opposite of the truth). Much later, months later, the truth came out. When you ran those videos in slow and stop motion researchers could identify all those protestors. They weren't from Miami. They were from Washington. They were dozens of offices staffers of one Republican bigwig after another who looked at all their interns and said "Get on the first plane to Florida, raise a ruckus." Videos even showed protestors on different days in the same clothes. The staffers went straight to the airport with no bags. In just hours they were a grassroots movement.

This time we are calling them what they are, an astroturf movement, that is "fake grass." These poor "Tea Party" pawns are being fed their lines from the voices of the Repub party, Shawn and Rush, and they swallow it hook, line, and sinker.

A whole segment of the American population is now so brainwashed that they think FOX NEWS is presenting news instead of propaganda. If you believe what they project as truth, then NPR news must be in the service of the Dark Lord Obama.

There is no grass roots movement against health care. We need non-profit health care in this country for a change. If these guys are grass roots, I say it is time for a prairie fire.

I don't know if any health national care program at all will be allowed for the citizens of the United States. I do not understand why we can't have dialogue about a process that would work for us however. The democrats are discussing and the republicans are just cussing. Their histrionics can only remind one of a ill-mannered and angry four-year-old who screams and cries and smashes things because they cannot have their way. The question seems to be, will the screaming child get their way and remain in charge of the family, or will there be enough of us to let reason prevail. There certainly seem to be a lot of stooopid Americans.

I'm not crazy about Paul Krugman sometimes, but he is calling a spade a spade in this NYT opinion piece. The republicans have no leadership and they have no purpose except to destroy. If they can't have their way they may take up arms and kill us all. Read Paul. He says what I feel about today's situation in the battle for health care reform.

Concerning the Republican Party attacks on healthcare, Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post says it much better than I do. Read it here.

Since defeating healthcare in 1992 was followed by mid-term election victories for Republicans that allowed them to seize power for years to come, the Repubs are hoping that deja vu will occur if they can somehow defeat healthcare again. History will repeat and they will be right back in power. But I don't think the country is going to fall for it this time. These protesters are the same people who stopped the election in Florida and threw the 2000 election for the shrub.

The clearest voice of all is the president's. While there is no such thing as Obamacare (If you can remember back to 1992 the slanderers called it Hilliarycare), the congress, representatives of every American, are hammering out the beginning of healthcare as an American right instead of an American privilege. If you missed the President's concise explanation, here it is.

First things first. The crape myrtle is the grandest plant in the south. Introduced to America in 1747, they have endured and spread everywhere, known for flowering throughout the summer, their brillant blooms in a variety of colors, and the beautiful wood. As I walk every day, I'm impressed that no matter how unimaginatively they are pruned they remain beautiful.

There is an all out assault going on by the Republican party to try and prevent any movement by the government that would provide health care for people who do not have it. 50 million people who cannot afford to go to the doctor. I often hear Republicans boast that we live in the greatest nation on earth. If that is true, then we must have reached moral banckruptcy to allow the current situation to continue year after year. I hear people spouting that they don't want to be taxed to pay for someone else's healthcare. They must see healthcare as a product that people should want, they should work to have, and that everyone should provide for themself. No one should be burdened with another's healthcare. Of course, we already pay in spades for the healthcare of the poor and needy. A poor person with the flu who walks into the doctor's office, cannot be seen without insurance or prepayment. So that desperate, sick individual will instead call 911. When the paramedics bring him to the hospital, they will be treated by the emergency room at ten times the cost. The cost is then added on to my bill and yours. Anyone who thinks we are not already paying for the healthcare of the poor is simply stupid. The only difference is, the healthcare industry makes a profit ten times as great on that patient taking the ambulance ride as they would on the same patient walking into a clinic.

So it is capitalism that oppresses peoples healthcare. I recently heard a discussion on television that explained that government healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid run on a 3% cost for administration. Private health insurance runs on a 23% overhead. The extra 20% of the money goes to insurance executives salaries and to stockholder's profits. Since I am heavily invested in mutual funds in 401k and 403b accounts, I must be a stockholder in some of these companies. I do not wish to continue making that money by denial of healthcare to the poor.

And even if you think you have healthcare, you may turn out to be wrong. Get the wrong disease, of lose your job and then get sick, and you'll be denied coverage by health insurance bureaucrats (who are somehow different from government bureaucrats?), and lose you home and savings trying to fund treatment to keep yourself alive. If you live, you'll have nothing. Sixty percent of all bankruptcies are the result of medical emergencies carried to worst case senarios.

This is not right. President Obama's leadership is the light on the path to a better day in healthcare in America. The people disrupting town hall meetings are terrorists and should be imprisoned.