Little more than a year ago, Americans met Sarah Palin and her family, in all their blazing glory, onstage, at the Republican National Convention. Other than Lipstick on a Pig, I don't remember much of what Palin said that night but I sure remember what I saw...
A months old special needs baby who shouldn't have been in a place with thousands of people making a lot of noise late into the night, and a 17 year old, very pregnant daughter, holding little Trig, flanked by an uncomfortable looking baby daddy who was informed days earlier he had just become a fiance.
Levi Johnson was used to portray a family visual which didn't exist, and was quickly cast aside after McCain/Palin went down in flames on election night. Not willing to return to obscurity, Johnson has pursued Media attention with a vengeance and will be appearing in an upcoming issue of Playgirl, baring all.
He's also used the Media to spill about his ongoing war with the Palin family and their refusal to allow him visitation with his son. Things have gotten so bad, the WAPost's Reliable Source is reporting that Johnson is suing for joint custody of his child with Bristol Palin.
If Sarah Palin gave a wit about her daughter and grandson, she would have been there for these very young parents and encouraged amicable relations. Whether she likes it or not, Levi will forever be Tripp's father and a caring Mom would have found a way to prevent the soured relationship from turning into a sordid soap opera on our nightly news.
All the fame and money in the world won't tidy this mess. A Mom who makes a good faith effort to sit these kids down and provide guidance might. Sarah, you still have the chance to do the right thing....put your family first!
Monday, November 09, 2009
Thursday, November 05, 2009
The Killing Fields
Kudos to effervescent Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), for establishing November 5, 2009 as "Kill the Bill" day in Washington. With her lead clarion call, Republicans have again bused in thousands of red faced, angry, older white voters, adamantly opposed to abortion, to hoot and holler on the steps of the Capitol. What bill do these protesters want to crucify? Why, of course, Democratic Health Care Reform, which just received endorsements today from both the AARP and, shockingly, the American Medical Association, and is expected to go to the House floor for a vote this weekend. No matter, it's another urgent GOP call to arms and the faithful are happy to oblige in full regalia.
Live blogging the festivities, a few NY Times reporters fanned the crowds, to discuss protesters' concerns. Most responses were nearly identical, verbatim blusterings from recycled Fox News broadcasts, but a few new gems have surfaced.
A good ole boy from Texas thinks after almost a year of non-stop negotiations, "they should just start all over again and see what we need to do to get the 12-14 million people insurance". Hmmmm...counting illegals there are probably that many people, just in the Alamo, who don't have health insurance. Guess Mr. Longhorn doesn't travel much either by foot or brain.
Next up is a woman from Ohio who tells the Times she fears government in health care saying, "we support our country and we're patriots and I don't want my health care to change". We then learn Mrs. "Chillihoot" is a recipient of the mother of all government run programs, Medicare. Like most in the crowd, she could not articulate the main problems in the health care system or how they should be solved. Unarmed with facts or a loaded weapon, reporters stood down and watched the smoke blow from her ears.
On a Buckeye slow roll, reporters found another protester whose wife had received a heart transplant at the Cleveland Clinic a year ago. After a $4000 annual family deductible, Mr. Quickdraw says the rest of the tab was picked up 100% by insurance, but this angry man, who works in health care finance, had no idea how much the procedure was, nor did he have any ideas on how to control costs. He just knows "he doesn't want to change a thing". I wouldn't want to see that 3/4 of a million dollar bill either, just for the heart transplant, not to mention the $25K in drugs his wife will be on, annually, for the rest of her life, and that's barring any followups, tests, complications, procedures or other medical events. Let's hope this guy's employer didn't get wind of this sharp shooter's comments and he doesn't lose the job he knows nothing about, or bankrupt his employer's self-insurance, otherwise something beyond bills may become target practice for his six gauges of separation.
Michelle Bachmann and her like-minded Republicans have deftly attached words of demise to any and all Obama and/or democratic initiatives this year to scare the bejesus out of ill-informed voters. Be it the soon to expire Estate Tax, which they tortured into odes of Death, or the Death Panels and Plug Pulling fireworks which lit up the summer skies, or today's Bill Killing demolition derby, these Pro-Lifers are in a perpetual state of mortal attack, with the American people the unwitting casualties.
The unspeakable happened at Fort Hood today, as a Psychiatrist, who was set to deploy to Iraq, unloaded massive gunfire, killing 12 and injuring 31 at the base. Those injured will at least be cared for under VA Health benefits and every American hopes and prays for their full recoveries. The same cannot be said of the 44 thousand citizens who will die this year because they don't have health insurance. Some people in Washington are trying desperately to change this picture. For the rest of you, put down the guns and promote that which you speak....LIFE!
Live blogging the festivities, a few NY Times reporters fanned the crowds, to discuss protesters' concerns. Most responses were nearly identical, verbatim blusterings from recycled Fox News broadcasts, but a few new gems have surfaced.
A good ole boy from Texas thinks after almost a year of non-stop negotiations, "they should just start all over again and see what we need to do to get the 12-14 million people insurance". Hmmmm...counting illegals there are probably that many people, just in the Alamo, who don't have health insurance. Guess Mr. Longhorn doesn't travel much either by foot or brain.
Next up is a woman from Ohio who tells the Times she fears government in health care saying, "we support our country and we're patriots and I don't want my health care to change". We then learn Mrs. "Chillihoot" is a recipient of the mother of all government run programs, Medicare. Like most in the crowd, she could not articulate the main problems in the health care system or how they should be solved. Unarmed with facts or a loaded weapon, reporters stood down and watched the smoke blow from her ears.
On a Buckeye slow roll, reporters found another protester whose wife had received a heart transplant at the Cleveland Clinic a year ago. After a $4000 annual family deductible, Mr. Quickdraw says the rest of the tab was picked up 100% by insurance, but this angry man, who works in health care finance, had no idea how much the procedure was, nor did he have any ideas on how to control costs. He just knows "he doesn't want to change a thing". I wouldn't want to see that 3/4 of a million dollar bill either, just for the heart transplant, not to mention the $25K in drugs his wife will be on, annually, for the rest of her life, and that's barring any followups, tests, complications, procedures or other medical events. Let's hope this guy's employer didn't get wind of this sharp shooter's comments and he doesn't lose the job he knows nothing about, or bankrupt his employer's self-insurance, otherwise something beyond bills may become target practice for his six gauges of separation.
Michelle Bachmann and her like-minded Republicans have deftly attached words of demise to any and all Obama and/or democratic initiatives this year to scare the bejesus out of ill-informed voters. Be it the soon to expire Estate Tax, which they tortured into odes of Death, or the Death Panels and Plug Pulling fireworks which lit up the summer skies, or today's Bill Killing demolition derby, these Pro-Lifers are in a perpetual state of mortal attack, with the American people the unwitting casualties.
The unspeakable happened at Fort Hood today, as a Psychiatrist, who was set to deploy to Iraq, unloaded massive gunfire, killing 12 and injuring 31 at the base. Those injured will at least be cared for under VA Health benefits and every American hopes and prays for their full recoveries. The same cannot be said of the 44 thousand citizens who will die this year because they don't have health insurance. Some people in Washington are trying desperately to change this picture. For the rest of you, put down the guns and promote that which you speak....LIFE!
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Extreme Caution
Election night in odd number, off years, is pretty boring stuff. For starters, turnout is always way down and, particularly, in a year after the most exciting Presidential election any of us has ever witnessed.
I didn't mail in our absentee ballots for local council seats until 24 hours before Tuesday, something I normally do at least a week in advance, because of lack of motivation. Turnout here was a whopping 14%, consequently, only the most reliable voters cast ballots, and the teeny tiny percentage of us who did, ousted our first female Mayor by a double digit margin. YEAH!!!
On to bigger races, the GOP, as expected, won the open Governor's race in Virginia and rested control of the Governorship in New Jersey from a weak, incumbent Democrat. What do these results portend Nationally? Not a whole hell of a lot. For 36 years running, Virginians again chose to elect a Governor from the opposite party of the President of the United States. Nothing's changed. McDonnell, a conservative, led this race from the getgo, moderated some positions, and kept Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck out of the state.
John Corzine was in deep trouble long before the 2008 Presidential election. I've polled several counties in the Garden State over the last year and Corzine was simply an ineffective candidate and communicator and disliked by the wider electorate. Chris Christie, the victor, should take little solace in a close win. New Jersey voters don't like him either and he won mainly because they disliked Corzine more, and didn't want to expend a vote on a more likeable independent candidate who had no legitimate shot at election.
The only surprise last night was that a Democrat, Bill Owens won the NY-23 Congressional seat, the first time this has happened in 100 years. This race should have been an easy win for the Republican candidate, who was pushed to withdraw from the race days before the vote, because extreme factions of the Republican base put up a 3rd, Conservative, candidate who was too far to the right of even this ruby red district.
A note of caution to tea baggers, birthers and other SoCon fringe types of the Republican party, who are now headed to my state of Florida to do to Charlie Crist what they did to Dede Scozzafava in NY-23. Think long and hard before you nominate an extreme candidate with no experience or political cred outside of the insular Florida State House, who no longer serves in elected office, to represent your party in Florida's US Senate election in 2010. If Crist is the nominee, this Senate seat is a republican hold. If you serve up Marco Rubio, all bets are off.
I didn't mail in our absentee ballots for local council seats until 24 hours before Tuesday, something I normally do at least a week in advance, because of lack of motivation. Turnout here was a whopping 14%, consequently, only the most reliable voters cast ballots, and the teeny tiny percentage of us who did, ousted our first female Mayor by a double digit margin. YEAH!!!
On to bigger races, the GOP, as expected, won the open Governor's race in Virginia and rested control of the Governorship in New Jersey from a weak, incumbent Democrat. What do these results portend Nationally? Not a whole hell of a lot. For 36 years running, Virginians again chose to elect a Governor from the opposite party of the President of the United States. Nothing's changed. McDonnell, a conservative, led this race from the getgo, moderated some positions, and kept Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck out of the state.
John Corzine was in deep trouble long before the 2008 Presidential election. I've polled several counties in the Garden State over the last year and Corzine was simply an ineffective candidate and communicator and disliked by the wider electorate. Chris Christie, the victor, should take little solace in a close win. New Jersey voters don't like him either and he won mainly because they disliked Corzine more, and didn't want to expend a vote on a more likeable independent candidate who had no legitimate shot at election.
The only surprise last night was that a Democrat, Bill Owens won the NY-23 Congressional seat, the first time this has happened in 100 years. This race should have been an easy win for the Republican candidate, who was pushed to withdraw from the race days before the vote, because extreme factions of the Republican base put up a 3rd, Conservative, candidate who was too far to the right of even this ruby red district.
A note of caution to tea baggers, birthers and other SoCon fringe types of the Republican party, who are now headed to my state of Florida to do to Charlie Crist what they did to Dede Scozzafava in NY-23. Think long and hard before you nominate an extreme candidate with no experience or political cred outside of the insular Florida State House, who no longer serves in elected office, to represent your party in Florida's US Senate election in 2010. If Crist is the nominee, this Senate seat is a republican hold. If you serve up Marco Rubio, all bets are off.
Monday, November 02, 2009
Do Not Abort Reform
Very few health insurance policies have ever provided coverage for abortion, except in cases of medical emergency, and medicaid does not cover the procedure for current recipients, as the majority of citizens oppose government funding.
With a sizable majority in the US House ready to pass comprehensive health care reform, more liberal members of the Democratic caucus must not be so emboldened as to insist on an abortion provision for either new exchanges, or a public option, regardless of the specificity of wording that no public dollars would be used for the procedure.
We must pick and choose our battles. This one is not winnable and completely unnecessary in the large context of providing accessible, affordable health care to millions who don't have it now. Let this go and move on!
With a sizable majority in the US House ready to pass comprehensive health care reform, more liberal members of the Democratic caucus must not be so emboldened as to insist on an abortion provision for either new exchanges, or a public option, regardless of the specificity of wording that no public dollars would be used for the procedure.
We must pick and choose our battles. This one is not winnable and completely unnecessary in the large context of providing accessible, affordable health care to millions who don't have it now. Let this go and move on!
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Eating their Own
As pundits continue to talk up opportunities for Republicans to gain seats in Congress in 2010, the Republican party is under seige from within, and the party's continued purge of traditional Republican candidates will guarantee, the once Grand Ole Party, minority status for years to come.
Devoid of Party leaders, radio/talk show buffoons and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, whose Facebook diatribes are followed by desperate politicos, are now, incredibly, calling the shots and making pariahs of candidates who don't adhere to social conservative orthodoxy. The latest casuality in NY-23 wasn't forced to suspend her campaign because she supported Obama's economic stimulus package. That was merely an aside for her dual sins of supporting a woman's right to choose and same sex marriage, positions which are supported by the majority of New York state residents, even if the hamlet of district 23 sways more conservative.
The victor in this spoils, Doug Hoffman, doesn't live in NY-23 and seems to possess little knowledge of the issues facing the district. No matter, as long as he tows the biblical line, he's a better choice than someone with real experience who knows how to get things done. Conservatives will likely win this race on Tuesday, but to what end? Hoffman will be marginalized in the Congress, becoming the newest member of the shrinking Study Committee, and on the fringes in a state that demands moderation.
And a Hoffman victory will ensure that republican moderates elsewhere either won't run for election in a party which now loathes them, or switch to the ever expanding tent of the Democratic party, where its leaders recognize that a candidate they run in New York won't play in Kentucky, accept the reality on the ground, and support both candidates because principles, not faux morality, present opportunities for consensus building and governance.
Welcome to Republican cannibalism.
Devoid of Party leaders, radio/talk show buffoons and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, whose Facebook diatribes are followed by desperate politicos, are now, incredibly, calling the shots and making pariahs of candidates who don't adhere to social conservative orthodoxy. The latest casuality in NY-23 wasn't forced to suspend her campaign because she supported Obama's economic stimulus package. That was merely an aside for her dual sins of supporting a woman's right to choose and same sex marriage, positions which are supported by the majority of New York state residents, even if the hamlet of district 23 sways more conservative.
The victor in this spoils, Doug Hoffman, doesn't live in NY-23 and seems to possess little knowledge of the issues facing the district. No matter, as long as he tows the biblical line, he's a better choice than someone with real experience who knows how to get things done. Conservatives will likely win this race on Tuesday, but to what end? Hoffman will be marginalized in the Congress, becoming the newest member of the shrinking Study Committee, and on the fringes in a state that demands moderation.
And a Hoffman victory will ensure that republican moderates elsewhere either won't run for election in a party which now loathes them, or switch to the ever expanding tent of the Democratic party, where its leaders recognize that a candidate they run in New York won't play in Kentucky, accept the reality on the ground, and support both candidates because principles, not faux morality, present opportunities for consensus building and governance.
Welcome to Republican cannibalism.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Eject Lieberman!
When is the Democratic caucus going to give Joe Lieberman his walking papers? That they didn't kick him out of their Senate caucus after he campaigned tirelessly for John McCain, slamming the Democratic ticket for months, was beyond comprehension.
Today, Lieberman determines he'll be a one man wrecking crew for any form of public health care option the Democrats bring to the Senate floor, by threatening a filibuster. Ever look at how many insurers are based in his home state of Connecticut? Lieberman's position has nothing to do with principles and everything to do with who greases his campaign wheels.
Lieberman opts in and opts out with no impunity. Eject him now!
Today, Lieberman determines he'll be a one man wrecking crew for any form of public health care option the Democrats bring to the Senate floor, by threatening a filibuster. Ever look at how many insurers are based in his home state of Connecticut? Lieberman's position has nothing to do with principles and everything to do with who greases his campaign wheels.
Lieberman opts in and opts out with no impunity. Eject him now!
Friday, October 23, 2009
As The Beck Convulses
In the mood for erratic entertainment while dining yesterday, we powered up Fox's latest entry into the world of comedy, the Glen Beck show, and we're ecstatic.
While engrossed in one of Beck's self-cleansing rants about the Obama administration, what we thought was erroneous background noise turned out to be Beck's secret phone ringing persistently. As the anticipation heightened, Beck answered the phone, and proceeded to taunt, tease and excite his audience of billions about some super secret and seemingly dastardly inside information he had just gleaned from a perfectly positioned source.
Intentionally leaving us to hang through a round of very important commercials, purchased by the 5 advertisers who have not yet pulled their offerings from Beck's program, the giddy one returned and dropped three critically urgent clues ... "Anita Dunn" "husband" and "White House job".
The next sequence of events was just so damn funny, I found myself helplessly rolling all over the floor, teaming with excitement. These clues were just what we needed to follow along for the next month with the latest Obama administration conspiracy perpetrated by Beck.
What's it all about? It appears that current White House Counsel Greg Craig is on his way out by year's end, and will probably be replaced by Bob Baurer, Obama's personal lawyer, as well as DNC lawyer, and the husband of none other than Anita Dunn, WH Communications Director, who will also be exiting before the year's out.
Ask 1000 people on the street who George W. Bush's White House Counsel was and you'd get 999 blank stares. For the 1 correct response received, it's because Bush nominated her to the US Supreme Court. Leaving out the gory details of the ensuing bloodbath over the nomination, Miers was forced to withdraw her name from consideration.
Like Bauer, Miers was Dubya's personal lawyer. And like Bauer assisting the DNC, Miers provided counsel to the Republican Party Gubernatorial campaign in Texas. I suspect this is the typical resume of those who seek this position.
I don't remember Beck commenting at all when Ms. Miers was selected as Counsel. He also remained silent about Miers' involvement on torture and the political firing of US Attorneys, but he didn't have a comedy show back then.
Now he does, and Beck's pulling out all the stops including conspiratorial manic episodes, all in good fun. For one who doesn't suffer fools easily, he sure had me going there.
While engrossed in one of Beck's self-cleansing rants about the Obama administration, what we thought was erroneous background noise turned out to be Beck's secret phone ringing persistently. As the anticipation heightened, Beck answered the phone, and proceeded to taunt, tease and excite his audience of billions about some super secret and seemingly dastardly inside information he had just gleaned from a perfectly positioned source.
Intentionally leaving us to hang through a round of very important commercials, purchased by the 5 advertisers who have not yet pulled their offerings from Beck's program, the giddy one returned and dropped three critically urgent clues ... "Anita Dunn" "husband" and "White House job".
The next sequence of events was just so damn funny, I found myself helplessly rolling all over the floor, teaming with excitement. These clues were just what we needed to follow along for the next month with the latest Obama administration conspiracy perpetrated by Beck.
What's it all about? It appears that current White House Counsel Greg Craig is on his way out by year's end, and will probably be replaced by Bob Baurer, Obama's personal lawyer, as well as DNC lawyer, and the husband of none other than Anita Dunn, WH Communications Director, who will also be exiting before the year's out.
Ask 1000 people on the street who George W. Bush's White House Counsel was and you'd get 999 blank stares. For the 1 correct response received, it's because Bush nominated her to the US Supreme Court. Leaving out the gory details of the ensuing bloodbath over the nomination, Miers was forced to withdraw her name from consideration.
Like Bauer, Miers was Dubya's personal lawyer. And like Bauer assisting the DNC, Miers provided counsel to the Republican Party Gubernatorial campaign in Texas. I suspect this is the typical resume of those who seek this position.
I don't remember Beck commenting at all when Ms. Miers was selected as Counsel. He also remained silent about Miers' involvement on torture and the political firing of US Attorneys, but he didn't have a comedy show back then.
Now he does, and Beck's pulling out all the stops including conspiratorial manic episodes, all in good fun. For one who doesn't suffer fools easily, he sure had me going there.
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