After the leaves have fallen, we return
To a plain sense of things. It is as if
We had come to an end of the imagination,
Inanimate in an inert savoir.
-Wallace Stevens-
___________________________
To a plain sense of things. It is as if
We had come to an end of the imagination,
Inanimate in an inert savoir.
-Wallace Stevens-
___________________________
Remember when Obama was "the most liberal Senator" in the whole, wide world and we were supposed to tremble at the thought of his limitless liberalness making Capitalism illegal while the Government Printing office was strained to its limit printing little red books? Wasn't long ago.
Now what seems like a majority of those who voted for him are asking what things would be like if he really were a liberal. Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi -- they don't seem much like the little red " far left liberal" devils we were warned about. In fact, with a health care bill that seems to have been written by the Health Care corporations and the anti-abortion Religious Right, some are asking if this isn't indeed a country for old men; the same old men whose exclusive country club it's been all along.
No, it's not like the crazy bastards we had for the last 8 years are back and in fact I think we'd have been far worse off had the Republicans won the White House once again, but still. It's like we had come to an end of the imagination -- a fantastic effort has failed, a repetition in a repetitiousness of men and lies.
Capt., I linked to the very same piece (by Marsh) on my blog today. Used her last line as the post's title.
ReplyDeleteRemember that the same wingnut source claimed that Kerry was the most liberal Senator, back in 2004. Our wonderful "liberal" press, apparently having never realized that two minutes at the ADA website would prove that self-serving statement utterly false, repeated the lie over and over again.
ReplyDeleteA Democrat's view from the House: Senate bill isn't health reform
ReplyDeleteTo get an idea of the comical incoherence of the National Journal "study" that proclaimed Obama "the most liberal", we need only consider that he outscored Bernie Saunders, an avowed Socialist.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for the flaw in the ostensibly neutral study is interesting although a bit technical, and relates to the fact that people campaigning for president tend to skip a lot of votes that don't matter, thereby coming off as more "extreme". But it's obviously a faulty study used for political purposes only.
Happy Holidays to The Swash Zone!
ReplyDeleteIf the republicans were writing this bill, it would be the same, a boost for the profits of the health insurance companies.
Except republicans would have buried a Congressional pay raise somewhere in the fine print.
Merry Christmas bloggers. Can't believe I'm blogging on the holy night. Gotta wind it down. My little angel waited up for me, but is now fast asleep in bed. I'm not gonna join the disillusioned democrats. But it has been a bitch. It was no secret that Obama promised to continue the war on terra. I think at one point he even made Bush blush, he came off so hawkish. But does he still have to invoke 9/11 as the reason we are there? Fuck. That was just twenty guys or something. It wasn't a nation. Does he have to mention Hitler to justify his escalation of the war? Fuck him. I'm pretty tired of it.
ReplyDeleteHealth Care Reform sounded pretty good on the drawing board. But the reality is a big bite on the ass. Lemme just give you one example. I have the true Cadillac insurance. But dig this. My recent hospital bill was $84,000 for three days. Blue Cross Anthem picked up $35k for which I will truly be eternally grateful. I paid $4k out-of-pocket. But $46,000 was simply "adjusted" off the bill. It's this type of latitude that is the shenanigans about spiralling prices that Obama was supposed to "negotiate down." The only thing he negotiated was to force every man, woman and child to sign up for insurance. How does this help poor people? Can you imagine how poor you would have to be to actually qualify for government-sponsored insurance? How humiliating that would be? What a hardship on everybody else? It's just insane. Peace and Love. Currently flying over Bethlehem.
Random observations about health insurance really don't mean anything and no, it won't be a hardship on everybody else. What is demonstrated is that there is a lot of padding in your medical bills that they're willing to "negotiate" away for Blue Cross customers because Blue Cross won't pay them that much.
ReplyDeleteMedicare does the same thing.
Frank Schaeffer has a different take:
ReplyDeletehttp://frank-schaeffer.blogspot.com/2009/12/obama-will-triumph-so-will-america.html
Andrew Sullivan adds his comments at the top or above Schaeffer's essay.
Merry, merry Christmas everyone.
Welcome Leslie and thanks for the link. I wish I could be optimistic, but only the worm triumphs in the end. There are more worms than ever.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you.