By Padmini Arhant
According to the latest report from the Associated Press:
Health care bill advances without bipartisan deal -
“After months of bipartisan negotiations, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee, told associates during the day he intends to unveil a detailed outline of legislation on Wednesday and convene the panel next week to vote on it.
Baucus’ proposal is certain to shun the liberals’ call for the government to sell insurance, and rely instead on co-ops to offer coverage in competition with private industry. His approach includes a requirement for individuals to buy insurance, with financial penalties for those who don’t. Rather than a mandate for larger businesses to provide coverage for employees, they would be required to defray the cost of any government subsidies their employees would qualify for.”
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Thank you.
Padmini Arhant
The GOP has stumbled upon a brilliant strategy. The strategy of NO.
The strategy of No coupled with distortions, misrepresentations, shock and awe has diverted attention from the real issues and has enabled the GOP to dilute and block any legislation that would benefit Americans.
By simply saying NO without any explanation or offering a counter plan, the Democratic must guess at what is need to gain bipartisan (Republican) support. So begins the game of what if....
If I remove this, if I change that, If I add this will you provide support. The if continues until a Maybe is said.
The loser in all of this is the American Public. The public is strapped with a bill that does not benefit them or address their needs. The winner is this are the lobbyist and special interest groups who provided the necessary funding (bribes) to ensure that their interest was represented. Neither party represents the people...the Republicans via the strategy of NO and the Democratic who have failed to take a position. This scenario is similar to that of an abused child who loves the abusive parent unconditionally and will do anything to please the abuser. The democratic party (or the party of wimps) by caving in to and making concessions to the GOP responses are similar to that of the abused child. The abuse does not stop if the child does everything they think will please the abuser. The GOP position does not change even if they are given everything that one thinks they want.
BRILLANT....AN BRILLANT AND EFFECTIVE STRATEGY....A disaster for the Public.
Mr. President,
The Republican party, the infamous GOP, will not compromise with you on anything. If you have the votes in the Democratic Congress, then tell the GOP to go hang itself and pass health care reform with the public option.
In my opinion the GOP is the hand-maiden to large corporations and shifty lobbyist. They have declared unabashedly that they do not wish you success. It is time (long in passing) that you rub their noses in the "pooh" they have spread across the country regarding health care reform.
Bi-partisanship with the GOP will only work if you do everything their way. Forget them. They aren't worth the effort.
Have you seen the latest inanity of the GOP rightists and their pet mainstream media puppets? here is the link:
http://news.aol.com/article/the-point-obama-school-speech/654754?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl1|link5|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fthe-point-obama-school-speech%2F654754
According to this it is a "socialist agenda" to tell school kids that they should exercise responsibility and work hard for the good of themselves and of the country. Apparently, GOPers are incensed about the idea of kids being asked to help President Obama, sensing some fascist/authoritarian dictatorship no doubt on the lines of Hitler's Fuehrerprinzip. How come they never felt the same when they were demanding total loyalty to our heroic Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush, after 9/11, and attacking any criticism of the regime as treason? Hypocrisy is too good a word for what Republicans are perpetrating at the moment. Let us hope the American people sees through this cynicism.
Guns at rallies, Attacks, Using the N word, calling Obama a Nazi, chanting Nazi slogans and even attempting to attack elected officials as they try to moderate the Health Care town halls, it seems the press is moving very slowly to understand who the FEW, the Minority, screamers, racists and right wing nut job, home grown terrorists really are.
Just reported: the SEIU obtained a Tea Party startegy via a Right Wing mobilization conf call.
The summary: Just destroy Obama's plan at any cost....No reasons....just be the party of NO
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/seius-notes-on-a-tea-party-strategy-conference-call/
Here we go again! To quote the former Republican President Ronald Reagan revered by the political faction on the right, the obstructionists rise against health care reform under the guise of ‘fiscal governance’ with the stagecraft artists as citizens screaming and ranting over the health care policy for all.
Should anyone be surprised about the sources responsible for the spectacle at the town hall meetings?
When the propagandists can’t think for themselves, they often lavishly steal ideas from others and misuse the Gandhian principle of non-violence and peaceful protest discussed earlier for their own diabolical means, despite the action being detrimental to national progress.
Surely, Gandhi will be turning in his grave on the abuse of his noble wisdom…at the narcissistic profiteers in the health care industry using the selective media muscle power drive insanity to no point of return.
Out of sight, out of mind and the opposition goes ballistic to stampede the health care legislation.
The noise and raucous in the public arena instigated by the agents of warfare against welfare of the people in a democracy are leaving no stones unturned for their vile personal agenda i.e. dominate and deploy the destructive forces in health care matter directly related to economic and employment recovery.
Don't miss the remaining content @http://www.padminiarhant.com
P.S. Time to replace the conservative propaganda machine with collective progressive action.
People vs. Special Interests and GOP
The opponents to health care reform – the conglomerate with legislators as spokespersons and the conservative media specifically a network dedicated to the hampering of national progress in every respect deserve scrutiny and appropriate response.
It’s no surprise to witness the ‘grandstanding’ against the President by the opposition retaliating to the brutal defeat in the ’06, ’08 and inevitably the 2010 elections.
Last week, Republican Senator Jim DeMint made it pretty clear why the opponents of health care reform are fighting so hard.
As he told a special interest attack group...
Continued @http://www.padminiarhant.com
Regarding the friendly disagreement between the Bard and myself, Bush and Cheney already enjoy undeserved folk hero status, and within the far right realms, they will always enjoy such status regardless of outcome.
I appreciate the debate.
BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
The Republican Vision for America - Divide and Conquer
The current situation in Iran is perfectly analogous to what's going on here in the United States. The vast majority of the people want a common-sense approach to domestic and world politics, while the old guard, stuck in the blind animosities of the past, are determined to promote and exploit those animosities for their own end, and at any cost - including the misery and death of their own people. In Iran the old guard is represented by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; in the U.S., Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh. In Iran they are called jihadist, while in the U.S. we refer to them as the Republican Party.
Is it just me- or is anyone else starting to feel 'had'?
Covering up and not prosecuting the torture scandal?
Going back on one of the most ringing campaign promises regarding transparency? And I get weekly requests to donate more money from the Obama campaign? Maybe I was just a dumb wide-eyed child.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31373407/ns/politics-white_house/
2010 Year of the Bible by Paul Broun AP/Photo
Happy New Year of The Bible 2010 by Paul Broun
On our countdown to a new year in 2010, Paul Broun (R-Ga.) wants everyone to ring in the “Year of the Bible”. He wants to pass legislation to honor the good book. Opposition is strong in the Democratic party, but whats the big deal? We’re already burning them suckers in Afghanistan. I wrote a post about it, and got negative feedback from every dem, saying I’m a GOP’r in disguise. In fact, I’m just a student pointing out similarities between different governments past and present. That isn’t choosing sides at all. When people see a political blog, they are automatically trying to figure out what party I am affiliated with. None. Well, whoever decides to pay me the most. Just kidding(That’s illegal for all you kids out there, no selling votes.) Sorry for ranting but I’ve been enraged at some of my readers that just don’t get the whole picture. Someone said I’m a Christian that hates America. No, I’m a Christian that loves America; the thought of America more like it. It used to stand for something, and all I see and read is how far it has gone from what our forefathers set forth to achieve. I am not ashamed of being an American. Our differences are what makes this country unique. I say instead of the “Year of the Bible”, we just go with the Chinese astrology and name it after an animal. Or we can ring in the New Year as a world united. All across Washington people are joking about what year its going to be after that. Year of the encyclopedia? Quran? Las Vegas escort Pamphlets? Whatever the year, I’ll be ringing it in with a smile, knowing I’m in a country that spends too much time on a stupid idea. Hey Paul Broun, think of a way to get your ass back to work on important things.
BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREERepublicans: Stuck in Own MuckWith the Grand Old Party experiencing its most precipitous decline in modern times, the very last thing it needs is a rusty old anchor pulling it down even farther. But that's exactly what it's got as it finds itself helplessly attached to a discredited and unrepentant Dick Cheney. Ironically, previously elusive and camera-shy, now that the former vice president is out of office, no one in the Republican Party seems to be able to shut him up.
Carrie Prejean: Are Progressives Becoming as Intolerant as Conservatives?
I've always been proud to consider myself a progressive, because being a progressive meant that I was open-minded, willing to assess every issue on its own merit, and I'm tolerant of varying points of view. But it seems that many of today's "progressives" have corrupted the term. Though many of these people call themselves progressives, they are not progressive thinkers–they are progressive in name only. Over the years they seem to have somehow lost their way, and as a result, have managed to redefined the term "progressive" to simply mean, not conservative.
A case in point is the unconscionable way in which the so-called progressive community has demonized Carrie Prejean after she indicated, almost apologetically during the Miss America Pageant, that she thought marriage should be between a man and a woman. Why in the world did she say that?!! Thereafter, she was called a bitch, seminude photos of her have been posted on the Internet, and she's been generally, dragged through the mud. It is unbelievable that people who call themselves progressive could do that to that young woman.
Accountability: America's Moral Responsibility to Humanity
Eight years of Republican "leadership" has left America both economically devastated, and globally humiliated. Yet, far from apologizing for the damage that they've done to the stability and image of this great nation, instead, they've circled their wagons and gone into damage control mode–not to control the damage that they've done to the nation, but in an attempt to rewrite history in order to control the damage that they've done to themselves.
So now, as President Obama goes about the business of desperately trying to return America to its former position of economic stability at home, and respect, admiration, and moral authority abroad, the GOP leadership seems to be completely oblivious to the nation's desperate and immediate need for a concerted effort in that regard. They're like clueless children who find it impossible to see the big picture. Thus, at this point it has become abundantly clear that their primary concern is not with restoring America to a sound footing in the world, but rather, simply restoring themselves to power at any cost.
In a Huffington Post article by Thomas B. Edsall, entitled “Permanent Democratic Majority: New Study Says Yes”, Mr. Edsall points out two areas of growth in the Democratic Party:
As quoted from the article:
In a March, 2009 51-page paper [PDF] “New Progressive America: Twenty Years of Demographic, Geographic, and Attitudinal Changes Across the Country Herald a New Progressive Majority,” Ruy Teixeira makes a strong case that “progressive arguments are in the ascendancy,” that demographic and geographic “trends should take America down a very different road than has been traveled in the last eight years. A new progressive America is on the rise.”To further buttress his case, Teixeira has put together “a very cool interactive map that includes 7 levels of exit poll demographics and county-level vote shifts going back to 1988.”
In a March, 2009 51-page paper [PDF] “New Progressive America: Twenty Years of Demographic, Geographic, and Attitudinal Changes Across the Country Herald a New Progressive Majority,” Ruy Teixeira makes a strong case that “progressive arguments are in the ascendancy,” that demographic and geographic “trends should take America down a very different road than has been traveled in the last eight years. A new progressive America is on the rise.”
To further buttress his case, Teixeira has put together “a very cool interactive map that includes 7 levels of exit poll demographics and county-level vote shifts going back to 1988.”
The only slightly negative point in the report was stated: “The only circumstances that could bring back the Republicans is Obama’s failure to stem the recession.”
“Obama does have to succeed, and so far, he’s pretty much on the right track, and the Republicans are definitely not. That suggests to me that he and the Democrats will be able to solidify their majority in 2010 and 2012,” Judis said. “But again, I don’t fully understand what is going on in the world, and events could defy demography.”
Again a quote from the report:
Perhaps the strongest evidence in support of the Teixeira-Judis-Abramowitz thesis is, however, the current inability of the Republican Party to respond to market pressures. Defeat has, ironically, diminished the GOP’s capacity to respond to loss. As the elected leadership gets smaller, the strength of the most dogmatically rigid and least elastic faction has grown. On issues running the gamut from immigration to the economy, this dominant faction has yet to demonstrate “a wonderful corrective” in reaction to losing. Instead, they have retreated further inside an ideological shell that began to show cracks — Bush I in ‘92, Dole in ‘96, and Bush v. Gore — well over a decade ago.
Additional postings regarding this topic and others may be found here:
GOP Underestimates Conservative America
While President Obama is going about his valiant and statesman-like attempt to rescue America and restore our image at home and abroad, the GOP's politics as usual, diehard operatives are acting like spoiled brats determined to undermine the president's–and America's–effort. But in their blind attempt to regain power they seem to have forgotten one important fact–the vast majority of true conservatives are fiercely loyal Americans, and don't share their view of power at any cost.
How Loyal is the Loyal Opposition?
From this point on I pledge to stop using the terms "conservative" and "Republican" interchangeably. I'm beginning to realize there's a big difference between the two. Conservatives are loyal and well-meaning Americans of good faith who just happen not to share my opinion of what's in the best interest of America. On the other hand, it has become clear that the Republican Party has crossed the line between the loyal opposition, and subversion.
