Independence Day

Today we celebrate our nation's fight for freedom. Tomorrow we go back to giving our nation's freedom away.

If Republicans take Congress in November

The fine folks who shut down government for an extramarital blowjob vow more of the same if they regain the majority:

According to Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., the House Republicans should exercise their power to subpoena and hold continuous hearings. Speaking to a gathering for the GOP Youth Convention on July 22 in Washington, D.C., she emphasized this point.

“Oh, I think that’s all we should do,” Bachmann said. “I think that all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another. And expose all the nonsense that is going on. And it’s very important when we come back that we have constitutional conservative leadership because the American people’s patience is about this big.”

Did you get that? No legislation, no efforts whatsoever to solve the nation's problems, just one witch hunt after another for at least two years. These people still love George W. Bush and think he did a fine job. These are the stakes for this election.

Finally done

Health insurance reform legislation passed in the Senate today after more than a year of wrangling between progressive and corporate Democrats, and an all-out effort among Republicans to derail it. The Teabaggers and other right-wingers throughout the country reacted with their usual grace and sophistication: racist and homophobic slurs, vandalism, threats, envelopes of white powder in the mail and other charming instances of the spittle-flecked, purple-faced rage that spills over whenever a small, long-overdue step towards social justice is achieved.

The ignorance and incoherence of the Right was in full flower during the past year, what with cries of "keep government hands off my medicare," attacks on medical patients and children, and the comparison of Obama to Hitler in the apparent belief that attempting to solve the healthcare crisis is equivalent to exterminating millions of people.

The spectacle was similar to school integration in the 60's when the desire of dark-skinned children to have a better educations was a crime worthy of capital punishment by vigilante mobs.

It would have been nice to have a single-payer system or at least a public option for all this effort, but when you want something more than your opponent does, you are at a disadvantage in the negotiation process.

There is good to be had out of this, with the closing of the Medicare donut hole, the ending of discrimination against pre-existing conditions, ending limits on coverage, and of course, extending coverage to more people. I also hope that this ordeal has finally convinced Democrats that Republicans care about nothing but regaining power and will never negotiate in good faith.

Who lies?

The douchebag who called Obama a liar during his speech last night is a major recipient of health insurance industry lobby money. What a surprise. It's a classic Rovian tactic to accuse the other side of what you are doing. Fight back here.

Why we need public health care

A common practice among health insurers is rescission, customers dropped from coverage as soon as they need care. Now that the Democrats are a majority, lawmakers want to put a stop to it. So they had some execs from three of the biggest companies testify. Here's how it went:

Late in the hearing, Stupak, the committee chairman, put the executives on the spot. Stupak asked each of them whether he would at least commit his company to immediately stop rescissions except where they could show "intentional fraud."

The answer from all three executives:

"No."

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) said that a public insurance plan should be a part of any overhaul because it would force private companies to treat consumers fairly or risk losing them.

"This is precisely why we need a public option," Dingell said.

You can see for yourself, it's about 4:45 in:

Health care reform is not reform until it has the public option.

Now it's personal

My boss had to cut everybody's hours at work. We're all taking one unpaid day off per week in the hope of avoiding layoffs. While there is no shortage of work to do around the house and I'll have more time to do it, a 20% pay cut hurts. Especially with a California mortgage. This economy hasn't hit bottom yet, so my pay might still get cut again, maybe by 100%.

Lee J and I have done our part all these years. Our mortgage is one we could afford, with 20% down and a fixed rate. We don't have any other debt except for a modest amount on the credit card. I put my 15% into retirement savings every single pay period and Lee J went back to school and begun a new career. The Republicans took a surplus of hundreds of billions of dollars and squandered it into a trillion dollar hole. All they can say is "more tax cuts" while arrogant executives spend our bailout money on cruises and manicures. Overpaid and unregulated Masters Of The Universe showed they had no idea what they're doing and were rewarded anyway.

President Obama, members of Congress, here's my take on the stimulus. Right now, I'm not gonna spend a dime unless it's necessary. No going out, no purchasing of gadgets, toys, treats, goodies or anything. A tax cut won't mean a damn thing. If I can't be reasonably sure I'm still going to have a job, any tax savings will go into the bank, or to the aforesaid mortgage. I'm not helping the overall situation this way, but I've got my own ass to worry about. Democrats, we donated money, worked the phones and pounded the pavement for you. Do your part. Shut the Republicans up and do this right.

Total capitulation

Our 9% approval Congress killed the 4th amendment today. Just about everyone, including Clinton and Obama have blood on their hands. Good places to share the misery are here, here, and here. I'm going to stand in the hot sun for a couple of hours and try to get people to vote for Obama. The thing to remember is that, even though he let me down today, he's still much better than McCain. However, we still have a long way to go.

Congressional Cowardice

Passage of the FISA Destruction Bill by Congress today was a total collapse of integrity by congressional Democrats. This bill, which will bury forever any knowledge of how far our government has gone to undermine our rights. The President has given himself the right to eavesdrop on anyone, without a warrant, for any reason purely because he wants to.

The Democratic Congress, who we spent hours on the phone for and donated money to, betrayed us. Nancy Pelosi let herself be steamrolled by Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emanuel, then gave a mealy-mouthed defense. Barack Obama had a golden leadership opportunity pitched right down the center of the plate and didn't even swing.

Sigh.

The Democrats are still better than the Republicans, who are just plain crazy, but we have a lot dead weight to get rid of before we can turn this country back to the light.

You Go, Barney

It won't go anywhere, but the always entertaining Barney Frank has introduced legislation to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. Congress and especially this President are nowhere near facing the fact that the War On Drugs has been an expensive waste of money, time and lives, but it's nice to see that it's even brought up. You have to start somewhere and Frank took a step.

Speier Comes Out Swinging

Talk about hitting the ground running! Her first speech in Congress and the Republicans run for the door. More of this, please.