Jack and Jill went up the hill……
“This is a big fucking deal” -Joe Biden.
“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” -MLK
The Devil is thriving in the Catholic church.
The Ides of March have passed.
The health care bill passed with some drama. As it should.
Outside, the wind blows hard.
My favorite part is that they lied without shame and cheated overtly and they still lost with ceremony all around them on worldwide television. Republicans sucked the other day like they haven’t in decades and it was all on display. They barked like dogs and continue to whine like toddlers. Shameless.
I readily confess I don’t have my brain wrapped entirely around this bill and some specifics of the reconciliation language. I have been paying attention. I didn’t for a time and then I did again. I got kinda sick of it all. It does suck. The bill. As in sucking chest wound suck. A mandate without fierce oversight, a mechanism to not only compete but provide accountability and barometric pressure is pure dumb.
A license to ill.
It was on it’s head already. I sort of understand the economic imperative behind the mandate but throw us a bone bitches or don’t even bother touching me there.
I just can’t help but get caught up in the symbolism. I know the bill sucks but it does accomplish some pretty important shit. I’ll defer to the fantastic Ms. Maddow:
“On September 23rd…
- All kids get covered (no pre-existing conditions)
- Can’t get dropped if you get sick (no more insurance companies dropping you)
- No more lifetime limits (on benefits)
- Children can stay on until 26 (coverage up to that age)
On January 1, 2011…
- Premium payment reformed (80-85% for medical care) with rebate if you don’t use coverage
- Free Medicare preventative care (no co-pays)
By 2014…
- Total ban on all pre-existing condition denials
- Health exchanges open
- End to annual limits on benefits
Republicans want to repeal this…” -democraticunderground.com
I’m not sure I want to “do” Rachel but I’m positive I want to get her drunk and cuddle.
So yeah, some good stuff. It’s just that it barely flirts with incentive for fairness via non profit competition.
That’s the part I liked the most when we started this whole thing. I see it as key. Public option, extended Medicare, whatever. Vital. We have miles to go before we sleep.
Single payer, Universal, whatever label you choose and whomever you choose to accuse, the richest spender nation on the planet ought to be covering it’s people. We buy half of all the weapons. Half of all of them. Half of all the weapons made for war, we buy. I don’t think we’re as big as Canada geographically, but our dick is way bigger. Can you hear me now? WAY bigger. We could take Canada in 72 hours without the military. They don’t have many guns but we do.
What exactly are health exchanges? We now know they will be open. How many? Where? I’ll assume that’s good news. A place to trade bandages and syringes. Do I have to volunteer? I’m gonna have to choke a bitch. I’m gonna have to read this bill and the 157 page reconciliation. I’m working like twelve hours a week and taking a class. You can see how I’m underwater.
My feet hurt and it’s humiliating.
It’s a simple problem and the answer is simple. Shave five or fifteen cents off the defense budget and we can throw in some jobs for infrastructure. Health care, jobs and mortgage relief. We spend half the entire global budget on weapons and ten times as much as our nearest competitor. China. That there is my idea of Socialism, spending way too much of the people’s money on things they vehemently disagree with. Wait, that’s Communism. Isn’t it? When they can’t afford roof and bread it is. There is your Goddamn communism.
That there is your buttock.
Wars are your ass.
Your ass mam, has gone missing.
I’m trying to make a point here. We still are a wealthy nation, despite our recent financial regress. Much of it was concentrated without equity in the last decade but there is plenty of money right here in River City. There is no reason, moral or fiscal, we should be denied this right. It insults my intelligence when anyone complains about paying for it. They talk about health care being 15 to 18 percent of our GDP. The defense budget is well over half of every dollar you pay in taxes. We spend so much fucking money on weapons, it makes the world go round.
Literally. The world turns because of America’s efforts to be able to kill everyone of us. Thank God for us. Don’t piss us off.
Still, I’m impressed and finally proud again of the Democrats. They pulled it off and scared the crap quite literally out of the obstructionist asstards by supplying them with an example of lockstep so long taken for granted as a fundament in the Republican playbook. Smoked them at their own game. Here’s hoping this bodes well and emboldens this heretofore assemblage of invertebrates. See little Billy, we knew you could do it. Now get your little ass back out there because the game isn’t even half over. Be a Democrat for fucks sake.
Now the crazies come out like corpses of Laurel & Hardy with giant red eyed rats speeding off and away from their persons and pockets and folds. Slack jawed zombies repeating obsolete talking points and swinging scythes. The Baggers. The Birthers. The Hawks, Neocons, Bigots and Bible thumpers. What an egregious ship of fools. Obsructionist pricks for infamy. Avoid their rodent familiars and do not dance with either of any of them.
It’s not safe to drink their liquor.
They really are beginning to parody themselves.
I’ve always thought that being a good loser is important. I’ve been on the losing end enough to approach being gracious I think. I’m hopeful that losing has humbled me, it sucks and it shames me but I try to learn and stuff and be polite about it. The way one loses speaks volumes about one’s character. If you listened to Boehner on the floor the other night or The Human Shitsmear and Butt Boy Hannity these last few mornings you might think the sky is about to kill you in your bed.
Not good losers, but excellent assholes.
These pricks are the epitome of sore losers along with the entire lock step, teeth full of Orios, lime green plastic tumbler full of cherry Kool Aid and rum mouth breathing members of the 1/4 Paradigm. That was a pretty cool sentence. If you don’t know about the 1/4 paradigm, categories are on the right on the main page. Just scroll down. I have a fairly general theory about relativity and how it applies without bias but with predictable pattern in a sociopolitical context. I offer a bold constant.
I don’t really know about other countries but I understand very well that one of every four people in this country are ignorant dipshits. My “1/4 Paradigm”. In stores near you.
You’d think an invitation was extended to a banquet just ahead of the apocalypse. You’d think because we passed a weak ass health care bill we were courting Satan himself. The bill sucks. Hello irony. Fuck us in the neck.
The reaction has been of the meanest of spirit and bafflingly irrational. Childish and callow. Pointless. Some fourteen state attorneys general have or intend to file suit. Futile. Not going to happen, if any single case enjoys a day in court it will be ashes, ashes and they will all fall down. A waste of time money and the attention of even the dumbest citizens. Give me a break. Might as well piss up a rope.
Children of the corn.
What has my attention is the ugly and still gathering brutal reaction of the great unwashed.
Bricks through windows and awful terrorizing threats directed at our elected representatives that have finally and with courage, attempted the right thing on behalf of us all. Stupak came around and they went after him like a common enemy. Cheers Bart. Those were your people. An articulate bunch. Very brave and very cool.
Kucinich is still the king of composure and principal. What a class act. I think Maddow and Kucinich should snuggle. Just then, Dennis’ hot, six foot tall, copper haired, wife with a scorching accent enters the room in a black skirt, pumps and a line up the back of the stocking. Nobody gets the Kucinich cool like I do.
Cantor’s claim of a bullet is looking dubious. I bet that little prick is lying.
What frightens me is the virulence and vehemence, the irrational fury of those that would oppose a leap forward.
What makes me sick is the publicly elected officials who foment such dehumanizing disregard for common decency and difference of, or deference for, an opinion. This is America. We aren’t ever going to be herded onto boxcars for mass extermination. If it ever happens here it will last an afternoon, maybe a day. I’m not referencing irresponsible roundheads like Limbaugh, Hannity or Beck but rather the Boehners, Bachmanns, Cantors, Kings, Grassleys and Demints. Allegedly responsible representatives who hobby, trade and wage in fear and dangerous incendiary nonsense.
Dirty, filthy immoral bastards who would blow anyone for $20k. How do these people get taken seriously? See above.
They deliberately cultivate and collect the same brand of bigoted, racist and ignorant subhuman that so violently opposed civil rights legislation. Dumbass mouth breathing fucktards. A handful of those folks have ended up being assassins. Murderers.
American tradition and legacy is such that justice and liberty for all eventually prevails. When there is will there is way.
It can take a while and never without a price. The vulgar and profane consistently manage to extract more than a pound of flesh. They are arrogant and bereft of humility. At this pace, there will be blood.
They will go too far unfortunately and their cause will be consigned to history as ill advised and malattempted. Political leprosy. Social pariahs. Just like McCarthy, Nixon and Dumbya’s entire posse.
These people are as ridiculous as they are dangerous. There will be blood.
Just do the best you can to think peace. It’s gonna get ugly.
It just might start rural.
All these earth quakes. Bound to be a volcano. See what I’m saying?
Health care is no mere privilege but a right that comes with being born human at least. I believe that. I always will.
Drinks for my friends.
Excellent writing and spot on. This was a gripping late-night read. Enjoyed!!
Michael — this is the MOST outstanding piece I’ve written yet. THANK YOU. 🙂
I don’t know that health care is a right; however I know it is the right thing to do, for America. We don’t hesitate, to use cheap labor from all over the world, & we don’t hesitate, to send our military to interfere with the sovereignty of other nations throughout the planet. Sometimes it should behoove our electorate; to pay attention to we the common folks, who really just want our basic fundamental human existence.
Wow!
@Deb: Gracias to you. I’ve updated you see.
@CarolAnnB: I’m so grateful you wrote it except I wrote it.
@Msss…T: Bring it.
@Eyes Wide Open in Pgh., PA: Dayum!!
very nice micheal. “it might start rural”…and “license to ill”. your command of the reverent and irreverent is pleasing to the eyes and ears. carry on, keep those of us who are fast asleep at 4:25 am wide awake when we are awake…signed, straight from the urban…b
Ah Miss Beth. Thank you and I am flattered. Wood drinks when I return.