Exposing the Health Care Reform Lies

Seems that there's a really crazy email going around conservative circles that's full of lies about health care reform. MNPublius's Jeff Rosenberg summarizes the debunking of its lies:

FactCheck.org has been really busy poring through conservative claims about the house health care bill, particularly a chain email claiming to summarize the bill:

The chain e-mail purports to give “a few highlights” from the first half of the bill, but the list of 48 assertions is filled with falsehoods, exaggerations and misinterpretations. We examined each of the e-mail’s claims, finding 26 of them to be false and 18 to be misleading, only partly true or half true. Only four are accurate.

Conservatives keep coming back to the same old bogeymen, even when they don’t make sense:

[The chain email] claims that a section about “Community-based Home Medical Services” means “more payoffs for ACORN.” ACORN does not provide medical home services. The e-mail interprets any reference to the word “community” to be some kind of payoff for ACORN. That’s nonsense.

Damn, the lies just keep on comin'. The Republicans just don't want health care reform to happen, period; seeing it (rightly) as the start of another forty-year stretch of Democratic ascendency, just like what happened after FDR pushed through Social Security. I say it's time to give up on "bipartisanship" and forge ahead with a Democrats-only health care bill. The Repugs will never agree to anything on this issue, so let's tell those Congressional wingnuts to go straight to hell, and pass real health care reform with a public option! So what if they bitch & moan, they all have that "socialist" federal health care coverage for themselves, anyway.

Ted Kennedy Has Died

The Boston Globe:

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who carried aloft the torch of a Massachusetts dynasty and a liberal ideology to the citadel of Senate power, but whose personal and political failings may have prevented him from realizing the ultimate prize of the presidency, died at his home in Hyannis Port last night after a battle with brain cancer. He was 77.

The family's statement:

“Edward M. Kennedy – the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply – died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port. We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.”

MeteorBlades at DailyKos:

Kennedy was a liberal fighter in the old mold. The plethora of legislation he helped pass made life better for children, for the poor, for African-Americans, for immigrants, for workers. He didn't just give lip service to the rights of workers, he stood in their corner. He fought for access to health care and for quality education. And he opposed the likes of Robert Bork and others who wanted to trash the gains American women, workers and minorities had made over the years.

He will be sorely missed.

Ted Kennedy lived through Shakespearean extremes of tragedy and triumph that would have crushed anyone, yet he never forgot the less-fortunate among us. He left this world a better place; who can ask for more from one life?



The New York Times:

He was a Rabelaisian figure in the Senate and in life, instantly recognizable by his shock of white hair, his florid, oversize face, his booming Boston brogue, his powerful but pained stride. He was a celebrity, sometimes a self-parody, a hearty friend, an implacable foe, a man of large faith and large flaws, a melancholy character who persevered, drank deeply and sang loudly. He was a Kennedy.

In putting together this post, I've noticed that the viciousness and hatred the wingnuts have for Ted Kennedy has already begun to boil over. As always, their hatred overwhelms any shred of human decency that they may have left within them. But you know what?--to hell with them. The last prince has died....but "the dream lives on."

Hey, We Did Win The Election, Didn't We?

Digby:

Without a public option, I feel like I've got a gun to my head telling me that I am forced by law to pay some CEOs obscene salary with no guarantee that I'm not going to get the shaft if I get sick. Regulation alone, subject to K Street influence and corporate whores in the congress, will not get the job done. Short of single payer, the only thing that even has a chance of working is making these parasites compete. So, on a policy level, I have halfheatertedly supported the only thing that was offered, and am now being told that's going to be bargained away too. Feh.

[...]After 2000, what is it going to take for the Democrats to realize that constantly using their base as a doormat is not a good idea? It only takes a few defections or enough people staying home to make a difference. And there are people on the left who have proven they're willing to do it. The Democrats are playing with fire if they think they don't have to deliver anything at all to their liberal base --- and abandoning the public option, particularly in light of what we already know about the bailouts and the side deals, may be what breaks the bond.

Will somebody please tell President Obama that it's time to kick the Rethugs and his hopes of bipartisanship to the curb, and to start acting like he the election won in a landslide--which he did!--before he gets a rude message from those of us on the left? Enough of this "bipartisan" bullshit! The Republican definition of "bipartisan" is crude effigies of Pres. Obama, screaming idiots and gun-toting vigilantes at town hall meetings, and dissent solely for the sake of power. As Satan Dick Cheney once said, you don't reward bad behavior.

When the Republicans are in the majority, they run roughshod over the Democrats (and the rest of the country). The President, and the congressional Democrats, need to take that lesson to heart. It's long past time for our team to start playing a little hardball. Pass real health care reform, with a public option! So what if Max Baucus (D-United HealthCare) and Chuck Grassley (R-Corn/Wingnuts) want to screw the rest of the country with soft lies and reasonable sounding bullshit? We've got a 60-seat majority in the Senate; let's use it. Pass the public option by reconciliation, and let the Repugs wail and gnash their teeth!

Honestly, does the Obama White House want to see Ralph Nader screw things up again, like he did in 2000?

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Watch below as a teabagger wearing an "Israel Defense Forces" t-shirt yells "Heil Hitler!" at an Israeli explaining why he supports health care reform:




DailyKos:

Here's what you need to know about this video.

This man, originally from Israel, discusses with a local reporter the fact that Israel has a national health care system, and that he thinks it's great.

A local wingnut teabagger -- identified in another video offered by the television station that conducted this interview as one Pamela Pilger -- thinks the appropriate response to this is to scream, "Heil Hitler!" at him.

Your modern conservative, ladies and gentlemen.

'Nuff said.

This Is How To Handle Idiots At A Town Hall Meeting

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), one of the good guys and a man who's not afraid to speak the truth, shows how to handle moronic birthers/deathers/teabaggers at a recent town hall meeting:

Quote of the Day

The Rude Pundit:

"Stupid people need to be led, and if it ain't by us, it'll be by the right."

He's right; more on this later.

Bachmann: "I'll Run For President If Called By God"

This is so crazy that it even tops my "Michele Bachmann Is A Stupid & Crazy Bitch" list: the nuttiest congresscritter in D.C. says she'd run for president if God tell her to. In an interview with the rightwing rag World Net Daily, and as also reported by TPM, Bachmann (R-Wingnut) said, when asked if she'd run for the highest office in the land:

"If I felt that's what the Lord was calling me to do, I would do it," she answered. "When I have sensed that the Lord is calling me to do something, I've said yes to it. But I will not seek a higher office if God is not calling me to do it. That's really my standard.

"If I am called to serve in that realm I would serve," she concluded, "but if I am not called, I wouldn't do it."

Michele, that's not God calling you, that's your cell phone's new ringtone. God is the one telling you to STFU.

Guidelines and A Modest Proposal For The Health Care Debate

Hunter at DailyKos:

Three general guidelines for the healthcare debate:

First, whenever someone is spouting off about "communist fascism", you may ignore everything that person says from that point forward. Fascism and communism are two entirely different things, and a primary tenet of fascism is its opposition to communism.

[...]Second, you cannot be "against socialized medicine" and at the same time think Medicare is good. Medicare is, in no uncertain term, socialized medicine, and government run, and all of that very scary stuff. If the concept of "socialized medicine" outrages you, you are against Medicare. If you are for Medicare, then by definition there is some level of "socialized medicine" you are willing to accept, and at that point you are exactly where the entire rest of the country is, and we're merely arguing about the details.

All of the people who say that they are afraid of socialized medicine but that they support Medicare are liars. All of them. They either secretly don't support Medicare but are unwilling to say such an unpopular thing out loud, for obvious reasons, or they aren't in fact afraid of "socialized medicine" but still want to use the talking point.

[...]The third guideline: the first two guidelines are freaking obvious.

I'd also add a fourth guideline: call them a liar to their face, and walk away. Anyone who says one. some, or all of the above talking points has drunk the kool-aid for far too long to listen to reason.

And if all else fails, and you can't walk away, I'd like to suggest a fifth guideline: give your opponent a real reason to support health care reform by putting them in immediate need of emergency medical attention. After all, "we've got the best health care system in the world!" Why not make them prove it, personally?

Yay, Rachel Maddow!

Dick Armey today resigned his position with DLA Piper, a top D.C. lobbying and law firm, "citing negative attention that the firm is receiving thanks to the role of Armey's corporate-backed outfit, FreedomWorks, in turning out protesters to shut down town hall meetings on health care."

And who do we have to thank for Armey hitting the bricks? Rachel Maddow! Maddow's reporting of the connections between Armey and FreedomWorks, the wingnut outfit responsible for organizing opposition to health care reform, the teabagger protests earlier this year, and the climate change bill. Great job, Rachel! I guess Armey's going to be just another slacker on the public dole....at least until he finds another wingnut outfit to suck dry.

Gee, things are tough all over.

So guess who's going to be on Meet the Press this Sunday? Rachel Maddow and Dick Armey! I've got a fiver that says Armey will reference Maddow's sexuality before the first half-hour is over. Any takers?

"The Stew Gets Darker"

The Daily Show's Larry Wilmore gets to the source of the real problem the wingnut birthers/teabaggers/deathers have with President Obama:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Reform Madness - White Minority
www.thedailyshow.com
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The Lies of Sarah Palin, Or, I May Have To Start A New List

By now you've no doubt heard Sarah Palin's untrue and imbecilic assertion that "Obama's death panel" could decide if her Downs Syndrome child Trig (and I'm still not convinced that it's her kid), or her parents, "based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care." What you may not have heard is that she cited our favorite crazed congresscritter, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Wingnut), in the course of lying about health care reform:

Rep. Michele Bachmann highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, in a floor speech to the House of Representatives. I commend her for being a voice for the most precious members of our society, our children and our seniors.

TPM asked, in reporting this startling connection, if this could be the start of a Palin/Bachmann ticket in 2012 . To that, I can only laughingly quote our recent and unlamented Commander-in-Chief:

"Bring 'em on!"

Honestly, is there some central source for all this insanity? Are they all really drinking the same kool-aid? And who's supplying it, Timothy Leary or Jim Jones?

Journalists Home, Clinton Triumphant, and....what?? Pissed-Off GOPers?

President Bill Clinton has successfully negotiated the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, saving them from a twelve-year sentence at hard labor in a North Korean prison. You'd think that his success would be cause for nationwide praise, wouldn't you? No, not if you've been following the Party of No for the last six months like BarbinMD at Daily Kos has been:

• "It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists," [John] Bolton said.
• Fox News’ Dick Morris called Clinton’s trip "awful" and "ridiculous" and suggested that Ling and Lee should "live with the consequences of their decision to go" to North Korea.
• Charles Krauthammer complained that North Korea "got a lot" out of the deal and that "it does help the North Koreans in their legitimacy."

You get the idea.

Bunch of jealous bastards, all of 'em.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Happy birthday today to President Barack Obama, born today in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawai'i!

Of course, there are those like the crazy lady, below, who dispute that:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Mr. President, many happy returns, and I hope you get as big a laugh out of these nutbags as I do!