...in 10 minutes. Congrats to the Dems for getting the job done. Now, on to SINGLE PAYER!!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Healthcare passes
To hear the Republicans talk about it, the recent passage of healthcare legislation is the worst thing EVER to happen to this country. Their hyperbolic rhetoric is so overblown as to be comical. It would be hilarious, if they had not been whipping up the rubes out there to do violent things in response.
I wonder how long it will take before these same rubes come to love and covet the new healthcare program?
An Open Letter To Republicans from Michael Moore
To my fellow citizens, the Republicans:
Thanks to last night's vote, that child of yours who has had asthma since birth will now be covered after suffering for her first nine years as an American child with a pre-existing condition.
Thanks to last night's vote, that 23-year-old of yours who will be hit one day by a drunk driver and spend six months recovering in the hospital will now not go bankrupt because you will be able to keep him on your insurance policy.
Thanks to last night's vote, after your cancer returns for the third time -- racking up another $200,000 in costs to keep you alive -- your insurance company will have to commit a criminal act if they even think of dropping you from their rolls.
Yes, my Republican friends, even though you have opposed this health care bill, we've made sure it is going to cover you, too, in your time of need. I know you're upset right now. I know you probably think that if you did get wiped out by an illness, or thrown out of your home because of a medical bankruptcy, that you would somehow pull yourself up by your bootstraps and survive. I know that's a comforting story to tell yourself, and if John Wayne were still alive I'm sure he could make that into a movie for you.
But the reality is that these health insurance companies have only one mission: To take as much money from you as they can -- and then work like demons to deny you whatever coverage and help they can should you get sick.
So, when you find yourself suddenly broadsided by a life-threatening illness someday, perhaps you'll thank those pinko-socialist, Canadian-loving Democrats and independents for what they did Sunday evening.
If it's any consolation, the thieves who run the health insurance companies will still get to deny coverage to adults with pre-existing conditions for the next four years. They'll also get to cap an individual's annual health care reimbursements for the next four years. And if they break the pre-existing ban that was passed last night, they'll only be fined $100 a day! And, the best part? The law will require all citizens who aren't poor or old to write a check to a private insurance company. It's truly a banner day for these corporations.
So don't feel too bad. We're a long way from universal health care. Over 15 million Americans will still be uncovered -- and that means about 15,000 will still lose their lives each year because they won't be able to afford to see a doctor or get an operation. But another 30,000 will live. I hope that's ok with you.
If you don't mind, we're now going to get busy trying to improve upon this bill so that all Americans are covered and so the grubby health insurance companies will be put out of business -- because when it comes to helping the sick, no one should ever be allowed to ask the question, "How much money can we save by making this poor bastard suffer?"
Please, my Republican friends, if you can, take a quiet moment away from your AM radio and cable news network this morning and be happy for your country. We're doing better. And we're doing it for you, too.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
P.S. I'll have more to say on this tonight, live on CNN, at 9pm ET. I'll be talking with Larry King about the health care bill and where we go from here, considering we still don't have universal health care.
P.P.S. In case you missed these photos in yesterday's NY Times Sunday Magazine... That's the results of seven years of madness. The Iraq War began its 8th year this weekend. How can we remove more of those responsible for this tragedy in November?
You can find the original Moore column here.
...and here's the recent Krugman....
FEAR STRIKES OUT
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: March 21, 2010
The day before Sunday’s health care vote, President Obama gave an unscripted talk to House Democrats. Near the end, he spoke about why his party should pass reform: “Every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made ... And this is the time to make true on that promise. We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine.”
And on the other side, here’s what Newt Gingrich, the Republican former speaker of the House — a man celebrated by many in his party as an intellectual leader — had to say: If Democrats pass health reform, “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” by passing civil rights legislation.
I’d argue that Mr. Gingrich is wrong about that: proposals to guarantee health insurance are often controversial before they go into effect — Ronald Reagan famously argued that Medicare would mean the end of American freedom — but always popular once enacted.
But that’s not the point I want to make today. Instead, I want you to consider the contrast: on one side, the closing argument was an appeal to our better angels, urging politicians to do what is right, even if it hurts their careers; on the other side, callous cynicism. Think about what it means to condemn health reform by comparing it to the Civil Rights Act. Who in modern America would say that L.B.J. did the wrong thing by pushing for racial equality? (Actually, we know who: the people at the Tea Party protest who hurled racial epithets at Democratic members of Congress on the eve of the vote.)
And that cynicism has been the hallmark of the whole campaign against reform.
Yes, a few conservative policy intellectuals, after making a show of thinking hard about the issues, claimed to be disturbed by reform’s fiscal implications (but were strangely unmoved by the clean bill of fiscal health from the Congressional Budget Office) or to want stronger action on costs (even though this reform does more to tackle health care costs than any previous legislation). For the most part, however, opponents of reform didn’t even pretend to engage with the reality either of the existing health care system or of the moderate, centrist plan — very close in outline to the reform Mitt Romney introduced in Massachusetts — that Democrats were proposing.
Instead, the emotional core of opposition to reform was blatant fear-mongering, unconstrained either by the facts or by any sense of decency.
It wasn’t just the death panel smear. It was racial hate-mongering, like a piece in Investor’s Business Daily declaring that health reform is “affirmative action on steroids, deciding everything from who becomes a doctor to who gets treatment on the basis of skin color.” It was wild claims about abortion funding. It was the insistence that there is something tyrannical about giving young working Americans the assurance that health care will be available when they need it, an assurance that older Americans have enjoyed ever since Lyndon Johnson — whom Mr. Gingrich considers a failed president — pushed Medicare through over the howls of conservatives.
And let’s be clear: the campaign of fear hasn’t been carried out by a radical fringe, unconnected to the Republican establishment. On the contrary, that establishment has been involved and approving all the way. Politicians like Sarah Palin — who was, let us remember, the G.O.P.’s vice-presidential candidate — eagerly spread the death panel lie, and supposedly reasonable, moderate politicians like Senator Chuck Grassley refused to say that it was untrue. On the eve of the big vote, Republican members of Congress warned that “freedom dies a little bit today” and accused Democrats of “totalitarian tactics,” which I believe means the process known as “voting.”
Without question, the campaign of fear was effective: health reform went from being highly popular to wide disapproval, although the numbers have been improving lately. But the question was, would it actually be enough to block reform?
And the answer is no. The Democrats have done it. The House has passed the Senate version of health reform, and an improved version will be achieved through reconciliation.
This is, of course, a political victory for President Obama, and a triumph for Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. But it is also a victory for America’s soul. In the end, a vicious, unprincipled fear offensive failed to block reform. This time, fear struck out.
You can find the original Krugman column here.
I wonder how long it will take before these same rubes come to love and covet the new healthcare program?
An Open Letter To Republicans from Michael Moore
To my fellow citizens, the Republicans:
Thanks to last night's vote, that child of yours who has had asthma since birth will now be covered after suffering for her first nine years as an American child with a pre-existing condition.
Thanks to last night's vote, that 23-year-old of yours who will be hit one day by a drunk driver and spend six months recovering in the hospital will now not go bankrupt because you will be able to keep him on your insurance policy.
Thanks to last night's vote, after your cancer returns for the third time -- racking up another $200,000 in costs to keep you alive -- your insurance company will have to commit a criminal act if they even think of dropping you from their rolls.
Yes, my Republican friends, even though you have opposed this health care bill, we've made sure it is going to cover you, too, in your time of need. I know you're upset right now. I know you probably think that if you did get wiped out by an illness, or thrown out of your home because of a medical bankruptcy, that you would somehow pull yourself up by your bootstraps and survive. I know that's a comforting story to tell yourself, and if John Wayne were still alive I'm sure he could make that into a movie for you.
But the reality is that these health insurance companies have only one mission: To take as much money from you as they can -- and then work like demons to deny you whatever coverage and help they can should you get sick.
So, when you find yourself suddenly broadsided by a life-threatening illness someday, perhaps you'll thank those pinko-socialist, Canadian-loving Democrats and independents for what they did Sunday evening.
If it's any consolation, the thieves who run the health insurance companies will still get to deny coverage to adults with pre-existing conditions for the next four years. They'll also get to cap an individual's annual health care reimbursements for the next four years. And if they break the pre-existing ban that was passed last night, they'll only be fined $100 a day! And, the best part? The law will require all citizens who aren't poor or old to write a check to a private insurance company. It's truly a banner day for these corporations.
So don't feel too bad. We're a long way from universal health care. Over 15 million Americans will still be uncovered -- and that means about 15,000 will still lose their lives each year because they won't be able to afford to see a doctor or get an operation. But another 30,000 will live. I hope that's ok with you.
If you don't mind, we're now going to get busy trying to improve upon this bill so that all Americans are covered and so the grubby health insurance companies will be put out of business -- because when it comes to helping the sick, no one should ever be allowed to ask the question, "How much money can we save by making this poor bastard suffer?"
Please, my Republican friends, if you can, take a quiet moment away from your AM radio and cable news network this morning and be happy for your country. We're doing better. And we're doing it for you, too.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
P.S. I'll have more to say on this tonight, live on CNN, at 9pm ET. I'll be talking with Larry King about the health care bill and where we go from here, considering we still don't have universal health care.
P.P.S. In case you missed these photos in yesterday's NY Times Sunday Magazine... That's the results of seven years of madness. The Iraq War began its 8th year this weekend. How can we remove more of those responsible for this tragedy in November?
You can find the original Moore column here.
...and here's the recent Krugman....
FEAR STRIKES OUT
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: March 21, 2010
The day before Sunday’s health care vote, President Obama gave an unscripted talk to House Democrats. Near the end, he spoke about why his party should pass reform: “Every once in a while a moment comes where you have a chance to vindicate all those best hopes that you had about yourself, about this country, where you have a chance to make good on those promises that you made ... And this is the time to make true on that promise. We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine.”
And on the other side, here’s what Newt Gingrich, the Republican former speaker of the House — a man celebrated by many in his party as an intellectual leader — had to say: If Democrats pass health reform, “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” by passing civil rights legislation.
I’d argue that Mr. Gingrich is wrong about that: proposals to guarantee health insurance are often controversial before they go into effect — Ronald Reagan famously argued that Medicare would mean the end of American freedom — but always popular once enacted.
But that’s not the point I want to make today. Instead, I want you to consider the contrast: on one side, the closing argument was an appeal to our better angels, urging politicians to do what is right, even if it hurts their careers; on the other side, callous cynicism. Think about what it means to condemn health reform by comparing it to the Civil Rights Act. Who in modern America would say that L.B.J. did the wrong thing by pushing for racial equality? (Actually, we know who: the people at the Tea Party protest who hurled racial epithets at Democratic members of Congress on the eve of the vote.)
And that cynicism has been the hallmark of the whole campaign against reform.
Yes, a few conservative policy intellectuals, after making a show of thinking hard about the issues, claimed to be disturbed by reform’s fiscal implications (but were strangely unmoved by the clean bill of fiscal health from the Congressional Budget Office) or to want stronger action on costs (even though this reform does more to tackle health care costs than any previous legislation). For the most part, however, opponents of reform didn’t even pretend to engage with the reality either of the existing health care system or of the moderate, centrist plan — very close in outline to the reform Mitt Romney introduced in Massachusetts — that Democrats were proposing.
Instead, the emotional core of opposition to reform was blatant fear-mongering, unconstrained either by the facts or by any sense of decency.
It wasn’t just the death panel smear. It was racial hate-mongering, like a piece in Investor’s Business Daily declaring that health reform is “affirmative action on steroids, deciding everything from who becomes a doctor to who gets treatment on the basis of skin color.” It was wild claims about abortion funding. It was the insistence that there is something tyrannical about giving young working Americans the assurance that health care will be available when they need it, an assurance that older Americans have enjoyed ever since Lyndon Johnson — whom Mr. Gingrich considers a failed president — pushed Medicare through over the howls of conservatives.
And let’s be clear: the campaign of fear hasn’t been carried out by a radical fringe, unconnected to the Republican establishment. On the contrary, that establishment has been involved and approving all the way. Politicians like Sarah Palin — who was, let us remember, the G.O.P.’s vice-presidential candidate — eagerly spread the death panel lie, and supposedly reasonable, moderate politicians like Senator Chuck Grassley refused to say that it was untrue. On the eve of the big vote, Republican members of Congress warned that “freedom dies a little bit today” and accused Democrats of “totalitarian tactics,” which I believe means the process known as “voting.”
Without question, the campaign of fear was effective: health reform went from being highly popular to wide disapproval, although the numbers have been improving lately. But the question was, would it actually be enough to block reform?
And the answer is no. The Democrats have done it. The House has passed the Senate version of health reform, and an improved version will be achieved through reconciliation.
This is, of course, a political victory for President Obama, and a triumph for Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. But it is also a victory for America’s soul. In the end, a vicious, unprincipled fear offensive failed to block reform. This time, fear struck out.
You can find the original Krugman column here.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Gardening report
Spring is in the air, and so is the pollen. The tree pollen around Houston has been in the "EXTREME" range for weeks now, and people all over are sneezing, coughing and sniffling. But not me. Somehow, I escaped all of those allergies that drive my poor wife mad. I see the beauty in the green sprouts all over the landscape, but she can't see much through her runny eyes and nose.
So, what in the garden has survived this brutal winter we've had? Only cold-weather plants, for sure. We easily lost half of all of our plants, and it's taken quite a long time to clean out the dead stuff and haul it all downstairs.
This year, we tried some broccoli for the first time: some Green Goliath and Waltham. Both appeared dead for the longest time, or at least dormant, but then, about a month ago, they started sprouting broccoli heads! We snipped a few heads when they got fairly large, cooked them up for dinner (hey, they're DELICIOUS!), and in a few days, we had multiple side heads developing where we had cut! Pretty cool. It's a beautiful plant. And this one goes into the victory column!
One of our perennial "winners" is "winter purslane. We bought these seeds from "Gourmet Seed" a few years back. Aka "Miner's Lettuce." This has been one of the most successful and effortless plants we've grown. The plant is prolific as hell, and the little leaves are tender and tasty. It just needs a little bit of water and seems to like being left to its own devices. Very low maintenance. No pests at all.
We accidentally let a couple of them go to seed, and before we knew it, the pot next to the original purslane pot was sprouting purslane. It soon took over the entire pot, so we have winter purslane in abundance. Even though the seeds are several years old, it grows really well year after year, and we still have about 50,000 seeds left over!
This year we discovered the joy and ease of growing garlic greens. What is that, you ask? Well, you've seen a clove of garlic, right? Just leave a clove out on the counter and watch it. Eventually, it will sprout a little green shoot out of one end. When that shoot gets to be an inch or two long, plant it in the dirt, sprouting side up, with just a little of the clove showing above the soil line. Give it some water and watch it go to town!
The little green shoots can be snipped off when they get six or eight inches long and they are perfect for salads or soups, or sauteed with other things. Raw, it gives a wonderful garlic-y taste, and they grow rapidly. We put several down in the common herb garden in the front yard for the neighbors, put some on the deck, and even grew some inside, in the kitchen window, so you just snip snip snip. It couldn't be easier! And they taste great!
We successfully grew some carrots this year for the first time, after a couple of failures. We had about 20 "little finger" carrots, some pretty small, but some upwards of six inches long, and they taste more like carrots than any carrots I've ever tasted. Now, we have two batches in one pot: half "little finger" and half "parisienne." Both are Baker Creek heirloom varieties.
The endive, also a Baker Creek seed, is another easy and prolific plant. In this long pot, we put tons of seeds and thinned and thinned until we had about six plants. It's a beautiful plant, and it just keeps coming. It's in the "cut and come" variety: you cut it, and it just keeps coming back. We have given each plant two or three major chopping haircuts, and they all just keep coming back. It's awesome and perfect in salads. (Winter purslane + endive + avocado + Green Goddess salad dressing makes a great side salad).
The chard, some of the swiss variety and some of the Baker Creek single color types, have gone gangbusters all winter. Very colorful and fast-growing. Very nice sauteed in some oil. They cook down a lot, like spinach does, so it takes a good bit to make a side dish, but it just grows right back in no time. Very high in nutrients and very high in the "ease-of-growing" factor.
Kale is in the same boat (not pot) as the chard. It loves the cooler weather and grows and grows, no matter how many times you chop it for a salad or sauteeing. Too bad every plant can't be so maintenance-free.
Speaking of maintenance, it's time to get some tomatoes in the ground! We're late already!
So, what in the garden has survived this brutal winter we've had? Only cold-weather plants, for sure. We easily lost half of all of our plants, and it's taken quite a long time to clean out the dead stuff and haul it all downstairs.
This year, we tried some broccoli for the first time: some Green Goliath and Waltham. Both appeared dead for the longest time, or at least dormant, but then, about a month ago, they started sprouting broccoli heads! We snipped a few heads when they got fairly large, cooked them up for dinner (hey, they're DELICIOUS!), and in a few days, we had multiple side heads developing where we had cut! Pretty cool. It's a beautiful plant. And this one goes into the victory column!
One of our perennial "winners" is "winter purslane. We bought these seeds from "Gourmet Seed" a few years back. Aka "Miner's Lettuce." This has been one of the most successful and effortless plants we've grown. The plant is prolific as hell, and the little leaves are tender and tasty. It just needs a little bit of water and seems to like being left to its own devices. Very low maintenance. No pests at all.
We accidentally let a couple of them go to seed, and before we knew it, the pot next to the original purslane pot was sprouting purslane. It soon took over the entire pot, so we have winter purslane in abundance. Even though the seeds are several years old, it grows really well year after year, and we still have about 50,000 seeds left over!
This year we discovered the joy and ease of growing garlic greens. What is that, you ask? Well, you've seen a clove of garlic, right? Just leave a clove out on the counter and watch it. Eventually, it will sprout a little green shoot out of one end. When that shoot gets to be an inch or two long, plant it in the dirt, sprouting side up, with just a little of the clove showing above the soil line. Give it some water and watch it go to town!
The little green shoots can be snipped off when they get six or eight inches long and they are perfect for salads or soups, or sauteed with other things. Raw, it gives a wonderful garlic-y taste, and they grow rapidly. We put several down in the common herb garden in the front yard for the neighbors, put some on the deck, and even grew some inside, in the kitchen window, so you just snip snip snip. It couldn't be easier! And they taste great!
We successfully grew some carrots this year for the first time, after a couple of failures. We had about 20 "little finger" carrots, some pretty small, but some upwards of six inches long, and they taste more like carrots than any carrots I've ever tasted. Now, we have two batches in one pot: half "little finger" and half "parisienne." Both are Baker Creek heirloom varieties.
The endive, also a Baker Creek seed, is another easy and prolific plant. In this long pot, we put tons of seeds and thinned and thinned until we had about six plants. It's a beautiful plant, and it just keeps coming. It's in the "cut and come" variety: you cut it, and it just keeps coming back. We have given each plant two or three major chopping haircuts, and they all just keep coming back. It's awesome and perfect in salads. (Winter purslane + endive + avocado + Green Goddess salad dressing makes a great side salad).
The chard, some of the swiss variety and some of the Baker Creek single color types, have gone gangbusters all winter. Very colorful and fast-growing. Very nice sauteed in some oil. They cook down a lot, like spinach does, so it takes a good bit to make a side dish, but it just grows right back in no time. Very high in nutrients and very high in the "ease-of-growing" factor.
Kale is in the same boat (not pot) as the chard. It loves the cooler weather and grows and grows, no matter how many times you chop it for a salad or sauteeing. Too bad every plant can't be so maintenance-free.
Speaking of maintenance, it's time to get some tomatoes in the ground! We're late already!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Jesus was a Nazi
The fact that FOX gives up one hour of its programming day every weekday to Glenn Beck is a little scary. Beck is dangerous. And embarrassing, or he would be, if Roger Ailes or Rupert Murdoch were capable of feeling that emotion. It's like we're watching Beck slowly spiral into insanity.
Problem is, there are loonies out there already on the edge and they get all fired up by Glenn and stagger across the fuzzy line and go fly planes into IRS offices, or shoot up Unitarians in church, or try to attack the Pentagon with handguns, or bomb women's health care clinics, or kill doctors who perform abortions, or ... any number of irrational acts.
Roger Ebert catalogues one of Beck's recent meltdowns. Geez, how long can you keep such a nutbag on the air?
I do have to say, however, that this little religious bitchfest has great potential!
"Jesus was a Nazi. So's your preacher"
What were Beck's unifying words? "I beg you, look for the words social justice or economic justice on your church web site," he told his audience. "If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes! If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop and tell them, 'Excuse me are you down with this whole social justice thing?' If it's my church, I'm alerting the church authorities: 'Excuse me, what's this social justice thing?' And if they say, 'yeah, we're all in that social justice thing'--I'm in the wrong place."
Problem is, there are loonies out there already on the edge and they get all fired up by Glenn and stagger across the fuzzy line and go fly planes into IRS offices, or shoot up Unitarians in church, or try to attack the Pentagon with handguns, or bomb women's health care clinics, or kill doctors who perform abortions, or ... any number of irrational acts.
Roger Ebert catalogues one of Beck's recent meltdowns. Geez, how long can you keep such a nutbag on the air?
I do have to say, however, that this little religious bitchfest has great potential!
"Jesus was a Nazi. So's your preacher"
Many other Christians were not so silent Dr. David P. Gushee, Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, wrote: "He managed to do something few have been able to do -- speaking only of my own religious community, he has united Catholics and Protestants, evangelicals and mainliners, Christian progressives and moderates and conservatives."
I was on the brink of picking up the phone and asking Francis Cardinal George if he was down on this whole social justice thing, but then I recalled that I no longer use the telephone. Do you suppose the cardinal texts? I know some priests pretty well, and two ministers I went to high school with, and a rabbi, and I have a Muslim friend who teaches that faith in Chicago universities, and I work with a Buddhist, but it's no use asking them. They're all down on this social justice thing.
What are the words "social justice" code for? Why, Nazism and Communism, says Beck: "Social justice was the rallying cry--economic justice and social justice--the rallying cry on both the communist front and the fascist front." Beck even went so far as to cite Jesus Christ, saying, and I quote: "Nowhere does Jesus say, Hey, if somebody asks for your shirt, give your coat to the government and have the government give them a pair of slacks." Well, Beck has me there. It is quite true that nowhere does Jesus say that. Nor, for that matter, does he ever say, A wop bop a lu bop, a wop bam boom!
What I would enjoy hearing is one single clergyman from any faith in America, appearing on Beck's program to agree with him and denouncing social justice. Such a person might be a real piece of work. I suspect he might currently be in between congregations. Beck's oversight is that all religions teach social justice. That's sort of what they're about. "My church doesn't," said Beck, who is a Mormon. Not for the first time, he was dead wrong, and the mountains of Utah rang with the thunder of outraged Mormon elders. I know now, and did not know before, that before statehood the Mormons in the Utah territory provided universal health care and care for the poor as a matter of their duty.
What Beck has demonstrated, in a singularly inelegant way, is an increasing tendency of the extreme right to automatically describe its opponents in negative buzz words. You would think that if it's possible to be a conservative it's also possible to be a liberal. Not so. In the Beckian theology, a conservative is merely a conservative. Liberals are socialists, community organizers, Marxists, traitors, communists, haters, Nazis, elitists and, in general, liars. Conservatives, on the other hand, are moderates, patriots, reasonable, pro-American, and stand for family values.
I am proudly a liberal. I am also patriotic, reasonable, pro-American, and stand for family values. Sometimes I stray from moderation. I do not remotely identify with the ideologies Beck wants to tar and feather me with. Nor, for that matter, could a genuine conservative identify with a flywheel like Beck. Conservatism is a political and ethical philosophy that exists in another universe from Beck's shopping cart. Remember that TV show where couples raced up and down aisles seeing who could jam the most loot into their carts? Beck loads up from the shelves of the Discount Screwball Supermart. He needs material to fill his daily hours of air time and fuel his fans with one-liners they can pass off as thought.
What is social justice, anyway? I think it involves civil rights and liberties. It involves a trial in a fair legal system. It involves freedom of speech and the practice, or non-practice, of religion. It involves a living wage and decent working conditions. As my father often repeated, "A fair day's work for a fair day's pay." Which of these areas does Glenn Beck believe the Communists and Nazis excelled in? Is he holding in reserve a secret cache of obscure speeches by Hitler? If his listeners heard those words (which real liberals and real conservatives subscribe to) emerging from Hitler's mouth, would they be confused?
Another quote from Beck. The Communists and Nazis "talked about economic justice, rights of the workers, redistribution of wealth, and surprisingly, democracy." Why, that proves it! Those are the very same things Christians talk about. And Democrats. And liberals. And find me, please, one single genuine Republican who doesn't also talk about them. We can gather that Beck disagrees with all of them. Even -- given his maladroit syntax -- surprisingly, democracy.
Beck has strayed way, way off beyond conservatism, to a land where reason itself is an evil conspiracy. This is a growing trend. In Texas, I learn from prisonplanet.com, "A prominent insider has told Infowars that Texas Governor Rick Perry and other establishment neo-cons have decided to deliberately target grass roots constitutionalists with dirty tricks campaigns in an effort to derail and hijack the growing liberty movement whose influence is threatening to blow the Texas gubernatorial race wide open." Yes. Rick Perry, indistinguishable from Democrats, mainstream Republicans, liberals, socialists, Nazis, elitists and believers in social justice.
This whole argument is described by a term widely familiar on the internet, the reductio ad Hitlerum. It is also known, Wikipedia explains, as playing the Nazi card. Anyone using this argumentum, it is believed, is signaling that his logical facility has jumped the rails. It is frequently used in a reflexive sense, as when your opponent accuses you of doing the same thing: "You guys called Bush a Nazi, so it's all right for the Tea Partiers to call Obama a Nazi." To the extent that this is accurate, it is an appeal to -- why, one's sense of social justice, actually.
I am writing this because I have a blog and I needed to vent. I am told repeatedly that Fox News is fair and balanced, that it has the largest share of the (actually rather small) cable news audience, and that it speaks for ordinary Americans. To the degree that this is true, Beck has left them all behind, watching his figure shrink on the far horizon of fanaticism. He has finally, definitively, said something that is completely Wrong from every viewpoint.
Does Glenn Beck speak for average Americans? His logic indicates they must be attending churches that preach Communism and Nazism from the pulpit every Sunday. Why are they so slow to catch on? Now that Beck has alerted them, where can they flee to worship? What will become of them? They have been cast out into the wilderness, where nothing makes sense anymore. The lonely, barren, ignorant wilderness, silent but for the gnashing of Glenn Beck.
Go here for the original and the comments.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Morford: Dear Texas
Yes, we live in Texas. But don't hold that against us. The following is what happens when you allow holier-than-thou conservatives to have power. This state is very screwed up thanks to Republicans. Texas is last or near the bottom in all sorts of categories, including taxes. The cost of living is still very affordable here, which is one main reason we're still here. It's going to take years to fix. But as Ron White likes to say, "You can't fix stupid."
Dear Texas: Please shut up. Sincerely, History
by Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
I bet you didn't know: Black people? Back in 1800 or whenever? They liked being slaves. True! Many savvy, industrious Negroes actually volunteered for that fine, desirable position. It was a completely balanced, fair, hugely successful system, until those damn liberals came along and ruined everything. I know, right? What a shame.
Even more good, newly historic news: Despite what you may have heard from the liberal media, America has very much won its recent, God-sanctioned wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Angry Allah loses again! Just look at this handy diagram on page 281, Figure 4-9. See those little dark-skinned bodies stacked up neatly beside that minaret? Right next to that completely unstaged photo of the toppled Saddam statue? Look how many there are! Graphs never lie.
Did you know, back in the frontier days, that Native Americans welcomed the white man with open arms? Absolutely true. Those poor, sunburned people were so beaten down and exploited by their oppressive dictator "chiefs," they were forced to believe in all sorts of disgusting pagan sun gods and had to eat, like, rocks and snakes and stuff.
It's no wonder they greeted proud, fair-minded American colonials as great liberators -- yes! Just like in Baghdad! -- and happily gave us free access to their fields and their women and their wonderful bead-making technology, in exchange for, you know, gin and fireworks. And casinos.
Never doubt America's irrefutable greatness, kids. Our prison system, for example, is the finest in the world. Also, dirty Mexican people had no role whatsoever in the Civil War or U.S. history (except as troublesome immigrants, yuck), hip-hop music is in no way, shape or form to be considered a significant cultural movement -- unlike totally awesome Country & Western, and the War on Drugs is going spectacularly well, thanks to our fine military, numerous Afterschool Specials and the deep love of Jesus -- who, if you look really closely at those old photographs from the Bible, is clearly wearing a U.S. flag pin on his robes to go along with his friendly, competely legal sidearm. God bless America.
These irrefutable facts -- and many more just like them -- are brought to you by the Texas State Board of Education, packed like a jug of rancid tartar sauce with intellectually numb simpletons who smell like ignorance and taste like fear. The TSBE: We make revisionist brainwashing fun!™
Maybe you didn't hear? The little item about how a small pod of pale ultra-conservatives in Texas has just demanded a whole slew of specific changes be made to history textbooks down in the Lone Star State? About how, in fact, nearly every change is a rather ridiculous rewriting of history and the language surrounding it, all tending to favor -- can you guess? -- white privileged capitalist males, a bitter Christian God, and a whitewashed version of history that never actually existed?
Not much shocking about it all, really. "Texas education" has never exactly equated with "intellectual range and nuance." But there's a big, ugly snag: Due to the state's huge purchasing power, the decisions of these tiny-brained ultra-conservatives could well influence what goes into various school history textbooks nationwide.
So it is that that some inbred neocon beliefs about homophobic God and gun-loving country will ooze their way into the minds of unsuspecting youth in a completely different state say, 10 years' hence, like a poison slowly leeching into the cultural water supply. Ah, Texas conservatism. It's the new DDT!
What, too harsh? I'm not so sure. Yes, everyone knows that history is slippery and spurious to begin with, all about context and spin and who's telling the tale. History is, after all, written by the victors.
Say what you will about standardized testing, draconian teachers' unions, lazy tenured teachers, crumbling campuses, slashed budgets, et al. I can think of no better argument for mortgaging everything you own so as to afford a private/charter school for your kid than the disturbing fact that these Texas State Board mongrels might have any power whatsoever to shape young minds by way of further tainting the already wobbly, spurious historical record.
Maybe it doesn't really matter. After all, it's widely understood that, given the state of public education, children don't really learn much in school anyway. The system is so problematic and the teachers union so dangerously obstinate, there's a good chance your kid will never crack open one of these flawed, historically inaccurate textbooks in the first place. Small consolation indeed.
It's not all dire and brimstone. Prior to this ridiculous move -- and by the way, the board's revisions still have to be ratified, so there's a slim chance public outcry and a deep sense of shame at their own repellant personal politics will get them to back off -- there's apparently been a small amount of improvement in school textbooks over the years.
Alas, if California weren't so utterly broke, slashing education budgets and shutting down schools, maybe our fair state could launch a counter-attack, demand some reasonably accurate historic revisions in those selfsame texts. Time was when we had some killer purchasing power of our own. Remember? Yeah, me neither.
Sadly, from what I hear, California schools don't even use textbooks anymore. Or classrooms. Or desks. They all disintegrated sometime back in 1987. History is now taught by means of sock puppets, toothpick dioramas and firecrackers. And gin.
Dear Texas: Please shut up. Sincerely, History
by Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
I bet you didn't know: Black people? Back in 1800 or whenever? They liked being slaves. True! Many savvy, industrious Negroes actually volunteered for that fine, desirable position. It was a completely balanced, fair, hugely successful system, until those damn liberals came along and ruined everything. I know, right? What a shame. Do you know what else? America was wholly victorious in Vietnam. It's a fact! Kicked some serious enemy butt! Mission accomplished! Sure it was a little bumpy for awhile, but President Nixon, that great and wronged American hero, put us on the righteous path in the end, wrapped that sucker up beautifully and made America the noble Superman to the world. Hey, it's the truth! You can look it up in your history textbook!
Even more good, newly historic news: Despite what you may have heard from the liberal media, America has very much won its recent, God-sanctioned wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Angry Allah loses again! Just look at this handy diagram on page 281, Figure 4-9. See those little dark-skinned bodies stacked up neatly beside that minaret? Right next to that completely unstaged photo of the toppled Saddam statue? Look how many there are! Graphs never lie.
Did you know, back in the frontier days, that Native Americans welcomed the white man with open arms? Absolutely true. Those poor, sunburned people were so beaten down and exploited by their oppressive dictator "chiefs," they were forced to believe in all sorts of disgusting pagan sun gods and had to eat, like, rocks and snakes and stuff.
It's no wonder they greeted proud, fair-minded American colonials as great liberators -- yes! Just like in Baghdad! -- and happily gave us free access to their fields and their women and their wonderful bead-making technology, in exchange for, you know, gin and fireworks. And casinos.
Never doubt America's irrefutable greatness, kids. Our prison system, for example, is the finest in the world. Also, dirty Mexican people had no role whatsoever in the Civil War or U.S. history (except as troublesome immigrants, yuck), hip-hop music is in no way, shape or form to be considered a significant cultural movement -- unlike totally awesome Country & Western, and the War on Drugs is going spectacularly well, thanks to our fine military, numerous Afterschool Specials and the deep love of Jesus -- who, if you look really closely at those old photographs from the Bible, is clearly wearing a U.S. flag pin on his robes to go along with his friendly, competely legal sidearm. God bless America.
These irrefutable facts -- and many more just like them -- are brought to you by the Texas State Board of Education, packed like a jug of rancid tartar sauce with intellectually numb simpletons who smell like ignorance and taste like fear. The TSBE: We make revisionist brainwashing fun!™
Maybe you didn't hear? The little item about how a small pod of pale ultra-conservatives in Texas has just demanded a whole slew of specific changes be made to history textbooks down in the Lone Star State? About how, in fact, nearly every change is a rather ridiculous rewriting of history and the language surrounding it, all tending to favor -- can you guess? -- white privileged capitalist males, a bitter Christian God, and a whitewashed version of history that never actually existed?
Not much shocking about it all, really. "Texas education" has never exactly equated with "intellectual range and nuance." But there's a big, ugly snag: Due to the state's huge purchasing power, the decisions of these tiny-brained ultra-conservatives could well influence what goes into various school history textbooks nationwide.
So it is that that some inbred neocon beliefs about homophobic God and gun-loving country will ooze their way into the minds of unsuspecting youth in a completely different state say, 10 years' hence, like a poison slowly leeching into the cultural water supply. Ah, Texas conservatism. It's the new DDT!
What, too harsh? I'm not so sure. Yes, everyone knows that history is slippery and spurious to begin with, all about context and spin and who's telling the tale. History is, after all, written by the victors.
What they don't usually add is how history is then revised by the politicians, gutted by the church leaders, molested by the power mongers, skinned alive by paranoid militants, poorly codified by the speechwriters and then spun, torqued and diluted by countless mealy "experts" before being shoved down the gullet of unsuspecting youth, where it is partially digested like so much liquefied school lunch meat, only to be wrongly half-remembered later in life by the most insane among them, who then quickly gets his own talk show on Fox News. And lo, the circle of life continues.
Say what you will about standardized testing, draconian teachers' unions, lazy tenured teachers, crumbling campuses, slashed budgets, et al. I can think of no better argument for mortgaging everything you own so as to afford a private/charter school for your kid than the disturbing fact that these Texas State Board mongrels might have any power whatsoever to shape young minds by way of further tainting the already wobbly, spurious historical record.
Maybe it doesn't really matter. After all, it's widely understood that, given the state of public education, children don't really learn much in school anyway. The system is so problematic and the teachers union so dangerously obstinate, there's a good chance your kid will never crack open one of these flawed, historically inaccurate textbooks in the first place. Small consolation indeed.
It's not all dire and brimstone. Prior to this ridiculous move -- and by the way, the board's revisions still have to be ratified, so there's a slim chance public outcry and a deep sense of shame at their own repellant personal politics will get them to back off -- there's apparently been a small amount of improvement in school textbooks over the years.
From what I understand, in the wake of wildly influential bestsellers like "Lies my Teacher Told Me" and the late, great Howard Zinn's "People History" series, among many others, school textbooks underwent some significant improvements in the past couple of decades, slightly more multicultural and inclusive, balanced, realistic. Not nearly as thin, lopsided, sexist, jingoistic, myopic as they used to be. Is that damning with faint praise? Maybe.
Alas, if California weren't so utterly broke, slashing education budgets and shutting down schools, maybe our fair state could launch a counter-attack, demand some reasonably accurate historic revisions in those selfsame texts. Time was when we had some killer purchasing power of our own. Remember? Yeah, me neither.
Sadly, from what I hear, California schools don't even use textbooks anymore. Or classrooms. Or desks. They all disintegrated sometime back in 1987. History is now taught by means of sock puppets, toothpick dioramas and firecrackers. And gin.
Of course, I'm completely exaggerating. The changes the Texas Board is shoving through are probably relatively innocuous, just another toxic chemical added to the already lethal school lunch menu, one of a thousand, really. I'm sure everything will be fine. Kids won't mind a whit that they're being fed heavily processed, dangerous, non-nutritive mental crap. Hell, they'll probably enjoy it. You know, just like all those happy, contented slaves.
You can find the original here.
Chutzpah Watch
Normally, Joe Scarborough, the host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, and a former Republican U.S. House member from Florida (who is suspected of offing one of his aides), is one of the more level-headed Republicans out there. He has been known to speak the truth now and then (on rare occasion), and occasionally will criticize Republicans (shocking!). This only makes him a little more treacherous, because he easily slips back into Republican Talking Points, and the waters get murky.
This morning, he was going on and on about how, if the Democrats use "reconciliation" and this "self-executing rule" to pass healthcare, the Dems better know that the Republicans will use the same techniques when the Republicans are back in power.
Of course, what Scarborough is NOT saying is that Republicans have already used these tactics extensively. All of this "concern" being expressed by Republicans that the Democrats will lose their majority if they pass healthcare is so much bullshit and faux concern. I think Republicans are scared to death that the healthcare bill will end up being VERY POPULAR, and the public will credit the Dems, and so Republicans have to resort to their favorite tactic: FEAR! SCARE THE PEOPLE!!
Thus, another post by The Political Animal:
CHUTZPAH WATCH.... Let me get this straight -- the single biggest story in the political world yesterday was over consideration of a House procedure, used many times before by both parties? Republicans decided they don't like "self-executing rules" anymore, so the matter dominated the discourse?
Pretty much. We talked yesterday about how "deem and pass" became more common after Gingrich's Republicans took over, but AEI's Norm Ornstein delved into this in more detail, expressing dismay over the "level of feigned indignation" coming from GOP lawmakers and their media allies.
I'll assume that's a rhetorical question. Of course there's no shame anymore. Republicans who are scandalously abusing legislative procedures have found that the media will play along if they accuse Democrats of abusing legislative procedures. The GOP relied on reconciliation when they were in the majority, but raise hell about reconciliation now. The GOP relied on self-executing rules when they were in the majority, but are apoplectic about the same procedure now.
And news outlets just keep deeming routine steps as "controversial" because Republicans say so.
To be sure, Democrats complained about "deem and pass" when Republicans used it, so the hypocrisy isn't exactly scarce on the Hill right now. For that matter, there's a reasonable case to be made that Dems moving forward on health reform using this procedure complicates the political implications in unhelpful ways.
But the larger freak-out reminds us of how silly our discourse can be sometimes.
Indeed, hearing Republicans whine incessantly yesterday about the need for an "up-or-down vote" on the Senate bill was especially amusing yesterday. If GOP lawmakers would allow both chambers to vote up or down on important legislation, procedural alternatives wouldn't be necessary in the first place.
Indeed.
This morning, he was going on and on about how, if the Democrats use "reconciliation" and this "self-executing rule" to pass healthcare, the Dems better know that the Republicans will use the same techniques when the Republicans are back in power.
Of course, what Scarborough is NOT saying is that Republicans have already used these tactics extensively. All of this "concern" being expressed by Republicans that the Democrats will lose their majority if they pass healthcare is so much bullshit and faux concern. I think Republicans are scared to death that the healthcare bill will end up being VERY POPULAR, and the public will credit the Dems, and so Republicans have to resort to their favorite tactic: FEAR! SCARE THE PEOPLE!!
Thus, another post by The Political Animal:
CHUTZPAH WATCH.... Let me get this straight -- the single biggest story in the political world yesterday was over consideration of a House procedure, used many times before by both parties? Republicans decided they don't like "self-executing rules" anymore, so the matter dominated the discourse?
Pretty much. We talked yesterday about how "deem and pass" became more common after Gingrich's Republicans took over, but AEI's Norm Ornstein delved into this in more detail, expressing dismay over the "level of feigned indignation" coming from GOP lawmakers and their media allies.
In the last Congress that Republicans controlled, from
2005 to 2006, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier used the self-executing rule more than 35 times, and was no stranger to the concept of "deem and pass." That strategy, then decried by the House Democrats who are now using it, and now being called unconstitutional by WSJ editorialists, was defended by House Republicans in court (and upheld). Dreier used it for a $40 billion deficit reduction package so that his fellow GOPers could avoid an embarrassing vote on immigration.
I don't like self-executing rules by either party -- I prefer the
"regular order" -- so I am not going to say this is a great idea by the Democrats. But even so -- is there no shame anymore?
I'll assume that's a rhetorical question. Of course there's no shame anymore. Republicans who are scandalously abusing legislative procedures have found that the media will play along if they accuse Democrats of abusing legislative procedures. The GOP relied on reconciliation when they were in the majority, but raise hell about reconciliation now. The GOP relied on self-executing rules when they were in the majority, but are apoplectic about the same procedure now.
And news outlets just keep deeming routine steps as "controversial" because Republicans say so.
To be sure, Democrats complained about "deem and pass" when Republicans used it, so the hypocrisy isn't exactly scarce on the Hill right now. For that matter, there's a reasonable case to be made that Dems moving forward on health reform using this procedure complicates the political implications in unhelpful ways.
But the larger freak-out reminds us of how silly our discourse can be sometimes.
Indeed, hearing Republicans whine incessantly yesterday about the need for an "up-or-down vote" on the Senate bill was especially amusing yesterday. If GOP lawmakers would allow both chambers to vote up or down on important legislation, procedural alternatives wouldn't be necessary in the first place.
Indeed.
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deja vu
indeed
Delete Fox "News"
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