Got It In One

Kos, Retweet from Twitter:

The weird thing about the coathanger amendment (the Stupak anti-abortion amendment to the health care reform bill) is that I thought Republicans didn't want government between a doctor and patient. Hypocrisy?

Hell yes, it is!

House Passes Health Care Bill!

The House, in an unusual Saturday night session, passed a bill calling for sweeping reform in America's health care system. The vote was 220 - 215; one lone Republican, Ahn "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana, voted with the Democratic majority in working to ensure that all Americans have access to quality health care.

NY Times:

Handing President Obama a hard-fought victory, the House narrowly approved a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system on Saturday, advancing legislation that the Democrats said could be their defining social policy achievement.

After a daylong clash with Republicans over what has been a Democratic goal for decades, lawmakers voted 220 to 215 to approve a plan that would cost $1.1 trillion over 10 years and that Democrats said would provide relief to Americans struggling to buy or hold on to health insurance.

"This is our moment," President Obama told the Democratic caucus in a closed-door meeting today. Damn right! After a week of nay-sayers lying about the consequences of Tuesday's election results, I want to see what they have to say now. The President used his powers of persuasion to shore up his fellow Democrats, with the results that only 39 Blue Dogs voted against the bill.

This is history, folks; this is the closest we've ever gotten to achieving this goal. President Clinton never got this close, and no one before him ever got closer. Expect the Rethugs to pull out all the stops in the Senate: in the House, they've already tried shouting down Democratic congresswomen, rallying insane teabaggers to storm the Capitol, attempts to stall the vote, and outright lying about health care reform. It ain't over yet, but this is damn good progress. Congrats to Speaker Pelosi and President Obama!

Jon Stewart Nails Glenn Beck

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart does a picture-perfect spoof of idiotic racist Faux News commentator Glenn Beck:

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Damn! So Near, And Yet So Far

Glenn Beck suffered an appendicitis attack yesterday during his radio show. He's currently hospitalized following surgery. We send him our coldest regards.

Much Ado About Nothing

As I predicted, the wingnut punditry is celebrating its wins in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races, while ignoring the shellacking it took in NY-23 and Cal-10.  Not too hard to make that prediction, since Virginia goes opposite the party in power, and New Jersey was Corsine's to lose, and he did. 

What Rethugs are not saying is that in the elections with national consequences, the Democrats swept them. The NJ And Virginia races were about local, not national, concerns. Also, these gubernatorial contests don't necessarily reflect the voters' concerns about the larger issues, nor do they indicate a swing to the right. In 2006, Tim Pawlenty was reelected as governor of Minnesota amidst a Democratic rout of the Rethugs nationwide, and in 2008 Obama won big here. (BTW, didn't T-Paw become a veritable model of Republican moderation after 2006?) "Bob 4 Jobs" in Virginia? Where do you think those jobs will be coming from?--the government! The federal government is the only entity that can create the number of jobs needed to pull us completely out of this recession, and to claim that the Repug win in that state is a refutation of Obama is utter and complete nonsense. 

Meanwhile, the Democrats added to their majority in the House with the wins in New York and California. Indeed, NY-23 is sending its first Democrat to the House since 1853--how's that for an endorsement of Pres. Obama's agenda? Sarah Palin and the wingnut clown parade behind her (*cough* T-Paw) don't look too powerful today! Meanwhile, CA-10 replaced a centrist with a progressive Democrat, and both Democratic winners are strong for health care reform. Also, New Jersey's Democrats added to their majority in the state legislature. So what's all this ballyhoo about a Republican "victory?"

Bullshit, that's what it is. After health care reform is passed--and make no mistake, it WILL be passed--the Democrats will be in position in the 2010 midterms to add to their majorities in both the House and the Senate. If national Democrats stay close to Obama and a progressive agenda, we will win big. If they don't, expect a repeat of 1994. Between then and now, however, expect the most outrageous attempts to scuttle health care reform.

And dammit, Maine voted in Prop. 1, denying equal rights under the law to its gay and lesbian citizens. Time is on our side, though--keep fighting!

A Tale Told by Many Idiots....

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

--Macbeth: Act 5, Scene 5

I've been avoiding the news today, in large part because all the hoopla about three races and one referendum frankly is insignificant and immaterial, in terms of Barack Obama's success or failure as President. I'm sick of all the importance being given to a congressional seat that's been held by Republicans since before the Civil War; sick of all the prognosticating and interpretations regarding the prospects of Virginia's gubernatorial election going to the party not in the White House, which it has for the last twenty-seven years; I'm sick of hearing about the race in my ancestral state of New Jersey between a corrupt fat man (no, Rush isn't running--he's the fat & cowardly man) and a former Goldman Sachs chairman pretending he really gives a damn about ordinary people. 

It all doesn't mean shit.

NY-23 has been warped by outside money and influence. Doug Hoffman, the Conservative candidate, doesn't even live in the district, has received 95% of his campaign funds from outside the state, and is clueless about local issues, only able to parrot the Sarah Barracuda talking points he's memorized. I wouldn't trust him to collect my garbage, much less be my congressman; he's a weak, opportunistic wingnut who called Glen Beck "one of my mentors"--but it's not up to me. The fact that Palin and our erstwhile governor Tim Pawlenty endorsed him over the Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava portends a nice, nasty civil war in the Republican party between now and the 2010 midterm elections. Good luck, NY-23! And remember: Jefferson said people get pretty much the government they deserve. Hope you've been good.

(Speaking of Pawlenty, who does he think he's kidding, dissing Olympia Snowe? Answer: probably the same people who think he'd make a good president. However, I seriously doubt that that group extends much beyond who he sees in the bathroom mirror in the morning.)

Virginia has gone with the opposite party from the one in the White House for decades, and the Obama machine has been largely offline in the off-year election. So why is this even remarkable, that the state might elect a Republican? Why, because the Rethugs have little to cheer about, and every little, incremental step they make towards regaining power must be trumpeted as "the beginning of the end!" for Obama. Yeahhhh, right.

New Jersey? Anyone who says he'll cut taxes in NJ has a shot, and the battle for most insulting attack ad has been more of a sideshow that anything that makes a material difference. With the nation's highest taxes and insurance rates, a good lie will go a long way against the truth here...whatever that may be. 

Lastly, I think Maine will do the right thing, and uphold the rights of it's gay and lesbian citizens.

All this together means very little towards the passage of meaningful health care reform, ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, fixing the economy, getting people back to work, and restoring America's place in the international order. But hey, I guess when you've got twenty-four hours of news to fill, and little to say, you have to do something.

This Pretty Much Sums Up the GOP Position on Health Care