President Obama, you've sold us out!

According to an AP story published today: "Apparently ready to abandon the idea, President Barack Obama's health secretary said Sunday a government alternative to private health insurance is 'not the essential element' of the administration's health care overhaul."

Dear Mr. President: For months I've tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, tried to understand about the nuances of the politics of getting things done. But if you do this, if you cave in to the right wing thugs (Republicans) and to the greedy insurance companies, then you will have lost your credibility with me. Earlier today I read a story in the NY Times that said the old Obama network that helped you get elected has been reluctant to help you with health care. Did it ever occur to you this is the very reason why! Because we feel sold out, betrayed.

It's still prejudice

Oh, the conservatives are so gleeful that the California State Supreme Court has upheld Proposition 8, which bans same sex marriage in California. But let me ask the court this question:

Suppose the question on the Prop 8 ballet had been to ban marriage between races, specifically black and white? Suppose the question on Prop 8 had been to ban marriage between different religions, say Christians and Muslims? Suppose the question on Prop 8 had been to ban marriages based on age, perhaps requiring that there could not be more than 15 years difference in age between the couple? Would you have recognized such ludicrous propositions as the prejudice they are? Then why didn't you recognize Prop 8 for the prejudice it was?

The "majority" may have the right to amend the state constitution, but it does NOT have the right to use that constitution to legalize prejudice

Bean-counters making medical decisions

The Democrats are supposedly looking for a message to counter the Republicans criticism of health care reform. Apparently the Republicans theme is going to be: "You don't want the government to come between you and your doctor."

In the first place, it's another one of the Republicans favorite tricks, The Big Lie. Repeat it over and over until people start to believe it.

Second, it is yet another classic anti-critical thinking trick, a distraction from the real issue.

Because the real issue is that under the system we've got now it is ACCOUNTANTS who are always more concerned about increasing the profits of their insurance company employers than they are about your family's health who are making your medeical decisions for you, with refusals cover certain people, with limits on what they will cover, with limits on what they will pay, with limits on which hsopitals and which doctors you can go to.

So here's my suggestion for the Democrats' counter-message: "Do you want a bean-counter between you and yoour doctor?"

Right Analogy, Wrong Target

I happened to catch a brief video of Sen. Kit Bond, a Republican from Missouri, on one of the cable news channels. He was comparing the call by many for some kind of “truth commission” to investigate the Bush administration’s use of torture as something you’d see “in a banana republic,” basically trying to argue that it was a partisan witch hunt that wasn’t worth the effort. Several thoughts to share with you Mr. Bond:

- First, you are engaging in one of the oldest and most transparent anti-critical thinking techniques in the book, marginalizing what your opposition is proposing as a distraction from the seriousness of that proposal.

- Second, if you want to talk about “partisan witch hunts,” how about the way the Republicans gleefully went after Bill Clinton for having had sex with a consenting adult in the Oval Office? Questionable judgment for sure, but as far as I know not a federal crime.

- Finally, be careful with your analogies, Senator, because they might come back to bite you. Banana republics are usually run by petty dictators who hold themselves above the law, who spy on everyone for fear they are being plotted against and who torture people. Sounds rather like the George W. Bush administration to me.

If you always do what you've always done...

Here's a quote from an online NY Times article today about how the Republicans are now thinking of trying out the word "fascist" against President Obama, since "socialist" doesn't seem to be getting much traction: “They’re trying to figure out how to oppose a relatively popular president during an economic emergency,” said Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect, dismissing the fascism charge. “That’s not an easy thing to do.”

It's amazing how utterly clueless you Republicans are. There's an old axiom in management that goes: If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always got.

Maybe what's needed for you to get back into the mainstream of American politics is not to "oppose" anything and everything Mr. Obama does, which seems to be the essence of the Republican strategy these days. A strategy that doesn't seem to be working very well, does it? And you think becoming even more rhetorically hysterical is going to change things?

Here's a radical idea: Try cooperating for a change. Try helping instead of hindering. Try collaborating instead of confronting. Who knows, you might be surprised.

Disappointed

President Obama has decided his administration will not prosecute anyone who participated in what are euphemistically called "harsh interrogation" techniques because the perpetrators had supposedly believed what they were doing had been cleared by legal opinions.

Isn't that pretty much the same discredited rationale low-level Nazi war criminals tried to use to justify their actions?

Mr. President, you are a political animal and you've made a political choice to not stir the partisan pot. I understand that.

But I am disappointed that those who severely damaged our international reputation, to say nothing of the integrity of our Constitution, are not going to be held accountable.

I can only hope that our Congress (doubtful) or some human rights group (hopefully) will have the will to see this through.

"Palin Blasts Obama On Abortion Stance"

That was the headline on the AP's story of Sarah Palin's recent visit to a cheering Right To Live group. In the article she talked about the so-called "culture of life," but only in the context of a woman's right to end an unwanted pregnancy, with her basic point being a woman shouldn't have such a right.

When you right-to-lifers start talking about ending capital punishment as a "culture of life" issue, then I will stop thinking of you as hypocrites.

Gold Bricks

I've used this analogy often in a variety of contexts, but it seems especially appropriate today...

So, the rightees criticize Obama for waiting until Sunday to take out the Somali pirates and "save" the American ship captain, arguing he shoulda done it on Friday.

I suspect that if President Obama handed out solid gold bricks to every man, woman and child in this country they'd complain because they were too heavy to carry.