Consider the source

There is no shortage of polls about the Shutdown, the Affordable Care Act and President Obama, mony of them showing completely opposite results.  I got a survey from something called Newsmax.com this morning showing that respondents very strongly blame Obama and the Congressional Democrats for the shutdown and like the Affordable Care Act even less than they like Judas Iscariot. Newsmax of course, although it covers general interest stories, seems to have more inflammatory and  paranoid items that Chips Ahoy has bits of chocolate. One has to consider the source. One has to remember that voluntary polls are not scientific.

That's hardly the results one sees in the probably more objective Gallup polls that show America's opinion of  the Republican party at a lower ebb than it was during the last Republican forced shutdown in 1999.  It was 31% favorable then.  Now it's 28%. There has been a precipitous drop in approval since the beginning of 2013. Perhaps it was the end of an era after all.

With so much effort being made to portray Obama and "his policies" as being increasingly rejected, it's interesting to note that at least according to Gallup, unfavorable ratings of the GOP are a bit higher than they were at the end of the Cheney/Bush era and the economy was losing altitude faster than a coyote running off a cliff.  61% when Obama was elected, 62% now and in a country so heavily intransigent it is nothing short of amazing that lifelong Republicans I've talked to of late don't want to be called that any more.

The obvious seems invisible to the entrenched opinion shouters and faux news sources. Glenn Beck all but spits out his tonsils execrating his array of standard demons and everywhere you look are polls and surveys with as much credibility as goat entrails.  I suspect we're getting to theoretical low point of public approval for the Tea Twinkies and the corporate backed opinion shouters, given that insanity is not as subject to persuasion as reason is.  Many would still listen to Beck and Bachmann and their ilk despite all the spinning heads and green vomit and sulfur smoke the Devil himself could demonstrate.  People on that side of the fence tattoo swastikas on their necks after all.

But as the shutdown continues and as the GOP has to rely on publicity stunts like Michelle Bachmanns at the WWII memorial, the bailouts will continue. With each family ruined by lack of health care, with each family ruined by the furlough, with each business bankrupted by Republican spite, the "Base" will shrink.  Were an election held today, it would hardly be a tea party for the Tea Party and tomorrow could be worse.

Of course this being the Amnesiac States of America, who knows about 2014? 

Such are all their wicked works, and there is no truth in them.

Although most Democrats already know that most Republicans are, as a group, pathological lying sacks of shit, perhaps it will be the government shutdown that brings this fact into focus for most of America.

I doubt it - much of the country is blinded by partisan hatred of our president, and the many of the rest will stick with the "both sides do it" cop-out. But a guy can hope, right?

This tiny-minded Koch-sucking group of overwhelmingly Caucasian males has, for the most part, stopped even trying to tell the truth, because they know that any lie they tell will be twisted by a compliant press to extract what few grains of reality might have accidentally been included.

Alternatively, when there isn't a passing relationship with the truth in whatever ignorant statement they vomited up, Fox "News" and the right-wing blogs will simply repeat it over and over, louder. And through sheer repetition, the hope is that the inbred paste-eaters making up their "base" will come to believe it anyway.

And sadly, this tactic all too often works.

The GOP has turned the act of making ridiculous untruths a standard move in their playbook. They've been lying about the Affordable Care Act for so long, and in such idiotic ways, that they can't even make lucid arguments any more. They just devolve into random spewings of illegitimate talking points and mindless babble.

These "fiscal conservatives" who are so worried about passing along the costs to our children? They're costing the country $300 million per day that the government is shut down.

John Boehner's latest mantra is that he won't even allow reopening the government to come to a vote, because it couldn't pass. Which is an open and blatant lie, as just a little math will tell you. But it doesn't matter. Why would Boehner want to allow the government to reopen? There is ample evidence that the GOP has been trying to shut down the government since at least 2010.

The GOP has lied about the Affordable Care Act so hard, and for so long, that the drooling illiterati don't even know what they want any more. In poll after poll, they show that they support every aspect of Obamacare; they just hate anything named "Obamacare." This is so universal that late night comedians can create viral videos around the concept.



One of the GOP's current talking points is that Obamacare must be defeated because it was "rammed through in the middle of the night without a single Republican vote." Which, of course, ignores an entire year of committee meetings, and dozens of compromises and changes to make it palatable to the Republicans who joined in voting for it.

But the brightest zit on the GOP nose, the puddle of puke that they keep returning to, is "he won't meet with us." Which is eyeball-meltingly stupid. He's met with them multiple times - he just hasn't caved in to their demands. Because you don't negotiate with terrorists.

In fact, that's probably the one fact that's driving them into the most stroke-inducing paroxysms of rage. Obama has been compromising and negotiating with them for so long that, now that he's standing firm on a position, they don't know what to do.

So they've shut down the government, after planning on it for so long. And now that they've done it, they don't even know what they actually want. The few who realize that defunding "Obamacare" is a losing proposition don't care. Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind) accidentally let slip the fact that they really don't care about the American people any more - they govern with the calm logic of a six-year-old throwing a temper tantrum. "We're not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is."

The lunatics have taken over the asylum. They've taken their hostages and are screaming about what they're going to do to them. It may be time to reactivate Seal Team Six.

Government Shutdown: Truth or Consequences

Carl Bernstein Slams Media Coverage of the Shutdown:

Longtime journalist Carl Bernstein on Tuesday called on the press to abandon the false equivalence that's colored much of the coverage of the government shutdown. 

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," the man who helped break the Watergate scandal said that the current budget impasse is not a two-sided matter.

"This is about the Republican Party and what it's going to be," Bernstein said. "Is it going to conduct a fact-based, philosophical argument in our political system or is it going to be a nihilistic, hateful, asymmetrical in terms of facts and the truth part of the party, as in Joe McCarthy?"

And with that in mind, Bernstein said that the press should cover the story accordingly. 

"This is about media as well. These poll numbers are about a totally different media culture than we've had in the past...we need to start covering this story not 50/50 — this much on this side, that on the other — we need to cover it factually," Bernstein said. "Because there are facts here that will show what this event is about. And where, in fact, is this anger, hatred of Obama coming from? What is the root of this?"

(…)

"It's about demagoguery and it needs to be viewed that way," Bernstein said.

Is Government the Problem?

The first problem facing early human beings was survival. 

The second was government.

These are the opening words (rough paraphrase) of an obscure, out-of-print textbook on American government written by Theodore Lowi.  I quote these words because I believe these are relevant to any debate regarding the current political impasse in Washington.

Imagine the earliest Homo sapiens struggling to survive in the Great Rift Valley, in the forests of Europe, on the steppes of Asia.  Imagine how the earliest human beings organized themselves to survive harsh and primitive conditions; how they hunted in groups to overwhelm large prey and better feed themselves; how they divided their labors and distributed scarce and hard-won resources.  In short, social organization - as manifested in government - is an evolutionary adaptation that enhanced survival. 

No doubt, there are rightwing ideologues inclined to interrupt me with this all too familiar screed:  Another stooge of the collectivist, commie-socialist state!  Misplaced invective misses the point.

Imagine Tea Party Republicans of today surviving without the trappings of civilization:  Living in a wilderness without neighbors, hunting their own game, growing their own crops, felling their own trees and sawing their own lumber, with no Internet connection to scam, spam, or troll other folks living in the valley below; with no cell phone - no fire, first aid, or police protection.

At least, with no taxes and no government, their meager subsistence would be theirs and theirs alone for the keeping … as their wives and children are carried off and eaten by lions and tigers and bears.

“Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem,” spoke Ronald Reagan in a failed campaign promise to limit the size of government.  Until the day arrived when government shuttered its doors and then we learned just how vital government is in our lives, our communities, and the life our country.

The first problem facing human kind was survival.  The second is self-sabotage.

$30 Million Per Hour, $1.6 Billion Per Week

If the government shutdown revealed anything, it exposed he craven hypocrisy of Tea Party Republicans whose lust for partisan terrorism far exceeds any real concern for deficits or debt. Forty million dollars per hour, $330 million per day, and $1.6 billion per week … these are conservative estimates of how much the government shutdown is costing the American people.  More here.

Hobby Lobby: Jews and Other Non-Christians Not Welcome Here

Hobby Lobby is a national chain of craft stores owned by billionaire Steve Green. Hobby Lobby refuses to carry any merchandise - Hanukkah, Passover, Deepavali, Kwanza, or Goth - that caters to a non-Christian clientele.

Green owns more than 550 Hobby Lobby craft stores nationwide, all of which close on Sunday. He is also known for his lawsuit against the Affordable Healthcare Act (aka ObamaCare), which he claims tramples on his religious liberty by forcing him to insure employees for medical services (such as contraception) that Green deems objectionable on religious grounds.

The Hobby Lobby controversy began when Ken Berwitz, who resides in Marlboro NJ, learned that his local Hobby Lobby store stocks Christmas items but nothing related to Hanukkah or Passover. According to Berwitz, a Hobby Lobby salesperson said: “We don’t cater to you people.”

This experience prompted Berwitz, who writes the Hopelessly Partisan blog, to ask his local Marlboro store why it supported Christmas but not Hanukkah. In response, Berwitz received this reply: “Because Mr. Green is the owner of the company, he’s a Christian, and those are his values.”

Here is how Ken Berwitz replied on his blog:

I have a great many Christian friends and acquaintances. And I can honestly say that I don't know even one who would ever see excluding Jews as having anything to do with Christian "values". But, evidently, Hobby Lobby owner [Steve] Green does. 

Well, here are MY values. I will never set foot in a Hobby Lobby. Ever. I will be sure to tell everyone I know the reason why, with a request that they pass it along to others …  Had they said this about Christians and had it been the other way around I would be just as annoyed. Shame on him. 

Of course, any retailer has the right to stock any merchandise and cater to any clientele it wants – discounting for bad manners and bad PR. Similarly, any excluded group that feels offended has the right to boycott.  In the hyper-opinionated blather of Cyberspace, one gripe always propagates another:

“Political correctness will destroy America,” writes Amber Wright, joining in the conversation. “Political correctness is forcing us to include an ideology like Islam alongside of Judaism and Catholicism or Christianity - it is nothing like those religions and should not be afforded the same considerations and protections.”

How magnanimous of Amber to include Christianity and Judaism but not Islam, a religion practiced by 1.1 billion people worldwide and 2.6 million people in America. Every school kid knows what Amber doesn't know: Freedom to worship is a fundamental human right protected by the U.S. Constitution. Will political correctness destroy America?  Funny how some folks invoke this term to spout bias and stupidity and then indemnify themselves against criticism:

Dear Amber,
Please note: Political correctness is also a form of free speech protected by the Constitution. Political correctness may or may not destroy America; but bigotry, hatred, intolerance, and oppression assuredly will.

Obamacare: Up Close and Personal

I dislike cliches but I'll use one here:  Obamacare for our family is "up close and personal."

Without going into too much detail and to preserve her privacy, I'll tell you about how Obamacare has given my daughter a chance to finally take care of her long-neglected health.

My daughter has had four jobs in three years, three of which provided no medical insurance.  The one company that did provide coverage left the state.  She was covered for only one year.  Before those jobs there was no insurance because of  the exorbitant premiums, lay-offs, and other extenuating circumstances, which I will not go into for privacy reasons.

During the long stretches of time she was not covered, she had to be hospitalized twice for life-threatening issues.  Each time, she had to go to the emergency room--the health care systems that conservatives always state is available for Americans who need it.  Those two emergency visits cost well over $11 thousand dollars.  Since these two hospitalizations occurred during the financial disasters and job losses of 2008 and 2009, her family was living off of unemployment and whatever her retired parents could send her to keep her and her family's head above water.

Going without regular medical check-ups for years has taken its toll on her health, and she has developed, as a result, chronic conditions that could very well have been prevented with regular check-ups.  

Now comes her chance to be able to afford medical insurance through Obamacare, since the job she now holds does not offer it.   Now that there is some proverbial light at the end of her unhealthy medical history, our family has had to stand by and watch the selfish, heartless, self-serving members of a minority of a minority try to obstruct and delay medical coverage for my daughter--and millions of other people's daughters, sons, fathers and mothers.  Why?  

Are the monsters in that minority afraid that people who have gone without insurance will benefit from this opportunity to buy it at an affordable price? Afraid it will be popular?  Afraid their constant attempts to ruin the lives of people, such as my daughter, will have a deleterious affect on their political brand?  

What in damnation's name is the reason they could give me for denying my daughter the opportunity to buy health care at an affordable price and force her to go another year without coverage and health care?

I'd like one of their fat-cat, insurance conglomerate funded, politicians to answer me that question.  

But, I'd also like them to know that their grotesque campaign to deny Americans a basic human right will not succeed.  

Right now, the minority of a minority and their hopelessly misinformed followers believe they are standing on principle.  But, I ask, what is the principle they claim they are standing for that would deny my daughter, and millions of other Americans, the ability to buy affordable insurance, insurance that could prevent her and them from having to deal with catastrophic health issues.




What principle are they defending?





There's a particular irony in all of this for our family.  My parents emigrated to this country of hope and opportunity in the early part of the 20th century.  But had they stayed in Italy, and had I been born there and raised my daughter there, she would not have had to go without health care for all these years, because Italy has a better system in place than does the "Hope of the World," the U.S.A.

Bloomberg's chart of the worlds most efficient health care countries lists Italy as #6; the United States, #46.

The U.S. has a chance to become a leader, not a "46er" in delivering efficient health care to her citizens. Do not allow the monsters in the minority of a minority to prevent this.



Infidel753 enlightens us further.

More

In principio erat verbum

That first word; can we imagine it being spoken as something more than infantile balbation, something more like a concept than a name? Names are spoken, but we invented them. We have names because we have want and that want came before the name. Without it there were no names nor those to name them.  In any sort of beginning there was a word and we made that word because we want, and what we want is more. In the beginning there was desire and want became word.  I want, therefore I am aware. I am aware, therefore I am.  In the beginning there was the word and the word was more.

Do we imagine some Lord uttering a command to the emptiness, or do we wonder why something so primordial and infinite embedded in a finite chaos of dirt and water and wind and nothingness would have words?  Was there a beginning without a prior want?  In whom dwelt the want that became God? Would words arise without anyone to listen?  But in any kind of beginning -- of man, of  God -- any dawn of any ego, that decision to change what had always been and what is now -- the want that made that decision became the word and the word was more. Let there be more than there is.

A lord of dust and gas and particles and heat; it means little to be lord of nothing. A God who never did anything and never wanted to: a Lord without volition is no more than dead matter and empty space. A lord, to be a lord needs more and so want itself  makes the Lord and so he makes the world, orders it, speaks the word to himself and creates his creation so that what he says can be a word.  From more, existence proceeds. God said more and there was more.

A lord: meaning us; us being separate from the nothing, separate from oblivion and the chaos and the word that separates is more.  The word that defines consciousness is more; we wake, we perceive we want and in that beginning the word becomes flesh, the flesh becomes word: let there be more.

Do we ever progress far beyond the primordial word?  We strive we desire we achieve, we preserve, we pile thing upon thing, experience upon experience -- we live and we want more. We want more life and we want more of desire itself because desire is life and life must want  more or it dies.

We struggle against entropy and we want more and in the face of ravenous oblivion, in the end, we want more and we invent agencies from which to beg for more as possibility fades. We want new realities where we can have more and there always is more to have -- and we imagine them, we fight to imagine them and we fight to preserve the imagining; the imagining of more and more forever when forever, nonetheless, is only nothing more.

In the beginning we say .  . .  but that was too long ago to matter. In our beginning was desire and if more comes after us, there will be no words at all.

Desiderium erat in princípio. In finis est solum nihil

Tea Party Republicanism = Totalitarianism

Government by brinksmanship, by blackmail, by obstruction, by hostage taking - the Republican Party is no longer a partner in representative democracy. More like a bad marriage to an abusive spouse, the GOP has been violating boundaries and abusing the public trust since the last government shutdown of 1996.

Like a bad marriage, Tea Party Republicans refuse to distinguish between YOURS, MINE, and OURS. The United States is not just THEIR country; it is also OUR country and MY country. It spends not just THEIR tax money; it spends OUR tax dollars and MY tax dollars too. Government should represent the values and priorities of the American people, not merely the demands of a rabble-rousing minority. Public policy debates without compromise and consensus are not my idea of “consent of the governed” when blackmail leaves a country held hostage and a majority of its voters disenfranchised.

This insurgent minority has:

• Employed covert and overt racism, deception, and defamation to delegitimize and undermine a twice-elected president;
• Tried and failed 44 times to overturn a healthcare reform bill passed by Congress, signed into law by the president, and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court;
• Presented a list of non-negotiable demands to gut environmental protection and financial reform, weaken the social safety net, hurt the working poor, and further undermine the middle class;
• Threatened default on the public debt in violation of Amendment 14, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution – thus risking a worldwide financial crisis.

Over the last four decades, the Republican Party has transformed from a loyal opposition into an insurrectionary party that flouts the law when it is in the majority and threatens disorder when it is the minority (John P. Judis).

[The Republican Party is] becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe (Mike Lofgren).

A disciplined minority of totalitarians can use the instruments of democratic government to undermine democracy itself (Hannah Arendt).

These actions by Tea Party Republicans, as reckless as they are, are examples of nascent totalitarianism. Let the backlash begin.

The Sky is Falling

Candy Crowley's State of the Union this morning with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA).  It seems the Republican line is that Congress needs to have a debate on health care because the public is panicked, confused -- because health care is being denied because of it, because hospitals aren't buying new technology because of it -- because they're making it all up as it goes along. Lying, misleading, giving false analogies. . . The desperation alone gives them away. At what time were they ever so animated at any question affecting the security of the United States? Were they ever so doubtful about abridging the bill of rights as they are about reforming one of the worst health care systems in the world?

Polls seem to show the public does not want this "debate," does not want ACA defunded or delayed.
Congress already had the debate.  It passed, it was signed into law, it survived a challenge in the Supreme court.

Health insurance premiums will soar says Sen. John Barrasso M.D. (R-WY). People ae going to die in the streets, chaos will ensue.

They've gone down 40% in his state says Howard Dean M.D. ,  Doctors won't see patients. You won't be able to find a doctor says the Wyoming dude.  The sky is falling, just like it was going to with Social Security, with Medicare, with female suffrage, with integration. . . .

My prayer for this Sunday morning?

God damn the Republican party.