Yes, the House passed a health care reform bill. But in order to get the votes to make that happen, the House leadership caved to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Rep. Bart Stupid, making women — and again I emphasize particularly poor women — collateral damage in the war to make health care affordable.

Stupid’s amendment, approved by the bishops, makes it all but impossible for women to use public option insurance to pay for an abortion. They can, of course, pay for a rider that would include abortion, but it can’t come through any government program, like the public option or the health care exchanges.

Never mind that the public option doesn’t mean government funding. What it means is that the government will provide low cost insurance that people will pay for out of their own pockets. But that’s not good enough for Stupid and the bishops.

So, while women with some means will be able to buy coverage, I don’t see poor women, who would barely be able to afford the public option itself, if at all, having any money at all for that.

Way to go Dems. And what the fuck happened to the 190 members of the pro-choice caucus, who vowed to vote no on a bill that restricted funding for abortions?

Wimps.

I could say that this bill is better than nothing, because it is, but it is far from good enough. With Obama refusing to twist any arms, I’d look for this bill to get worse when and if it ever reaches a conference committee.

And here’s the real beauty of the vote: While 64 “Dems” voted for Bart Stupid’s amendment, 23 of those (and 16 more) voted against the bill as a whole –three more and the measure would have failed, and that’s only because a single Republican — Joe Cao, the guy who beat William Jefferson in Louisiana — vote in favor.

Assholes.

But I’m not really surprised. The denizens of Washington are completely out of touch with Americans. They don’t get it that a majority support abortion rights, support a robust public option. While we have a strong center left population in this country, it’s our government that insists on being center-right. And that’s just wrong.

But here’s the thing. Health care — all of it, including abortion, shouldn’t be a political issue, any more than the civil rights of any of the population. For all the right’s fearmongering that a Democratic health care bill would do things like create death panels and rationing of care, that’s exactly what we have now, and what the right wants to stick with.

Insurance companies, whose mission is to make money and not to pay for health care, already decide who gets the care and who does not. Their rationing is based on their bottom line, not on anything so logical as medical need.

But so far, not enough people understand that, although for the life of me I can’t understand why.

As for abortion, maybe if we focused on making that procedure less necessary, we’d all get what we want. Oh, I forgot. The right doesn’t want to do that either, at least not in any sensible way. An awful lot of them want to eliminate birth control, too — something some of them are starting to say out loud, although they’ve been saying it privately for decades.

And addressing the social issues that prevent women from saying no to sex and having that understood as a real no? Ha. That, my friends, would infringe on the rights of men to have what they want when they want it. Can’t have that, now can we?

64. That’s the number. “We got more than what we thought we’d get,” Stupid said about the compromise. Here are the jerks who agreed with him:

Altmire, Baca, Barrow, Berry, Bishop (GA), Boccieri, Boren, Bright, Cardoza, Carney, Chandler, Childers, Cooper, Costa, Costello, Cuellar, Dahlkemper, Davis (AL), Davis (TN), Donnelly (IN), Doyle, Driehaus, Ellsworth, Etheridge, Gordon (TN), Griffith, Hill, Holden, Kanjorski, Kaptur, Kildee, Langevin, Lipinski, Lynch, Marshall, Matheson, McIntyre, Melancon, Michaud, Mollohan, Murtha, Neal (MA), Oberstar, Obey, Ortiz, Perriello, Peterson, Pomeroy, Rahall, Reyes, Rodriguez, Ross, Ryan (OH), Salazar, Shuler, Skelton, Snyder, Space, Spratt, Stupak, Tanner, Taylor, Teague, Wilson (OH). And, of course, all the Republicans.

Those in bold also voted against the entire bill, along with Adler, Baird, Boucher, Boyd, Edwards, Herseth Sandin, Kissell, Kosmas, Kratovil, Kucinich, Markey, Massa, McMahon, Minnick, Murphy and Nye. They had a variety of reasons — bill was too progressive, not progressive enough, cost too much. And of course, all the Republicans except Cao, who voted against it because they like things the way they are.

There was one other interesting thing about the vote. Republicans wanted the vote because they were certain it would fail. Surprise, guys. Democrats are willing to kick women to the curb just as easily as you are.

Saturday night massacre originally appeared on A World of Progress TeamZine on November 10, 20092009-11-10T05:01:17ZF j, Y.

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So then Connecticut Democrats finally had enough of his pro-war idiocy and tapped Ned Lamont, a fairly progressive guy, as their Senate candidate, booting ole Joe to the curb.

But Joe, whose ego must span the entire state, from New York to Rhode Island and probably beyond, couldn’t have that. So he added himself as an independent candidate for Senate, taking with him a bunch of Republicans who knew damn well their candidate, whoever he was, didn’t have a chance in hell of being elected.

Result: Joe returns to the Senate on the votes of Republicans. And boy is he paying them back for the favor. Shit, the guy even endorsed and campaigned for John McCain.

LIEBERMAN: A public option plan is unnecessary. It has been put forward, I’m convinced, by people who really want the government to take over all of health insurance. They’ve got a right to do that; I think that would be wrong.

But worse than that, we have a problem even greater than the health insurance problems, and that is a debt — $12 trillion today, projected to be $21 trillion in 10 years.

WALLACE: So at this point, I take it, you’re a “no” vote in the Senate?

LIEBERMAN: If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote because I believe debt can break America and send us into a recession that’s worse than the one we’re fighting our way out of today. I don’t want to do that to our children and grandchildren.

So let me see if I have this right. First, we don’t need a public option. By “we,” I presume Joe must mean rich fucks like him, because 46 million Americans who don’t have insurance, most because they can’t afford it, beg to differ.

Second, debt is a bigger problem than Americans dying because they don’t have health care.

And third, Joe’s gonna filibuster the health care bill if it has a public option in it because … because … the conservatives have put us in massive debt?

That just doesn’t make sense.

Back when Joe came to the Senate as a Republican-backed independent, Harry Reid let him keep his Democratic seniority and committee chairmanships because he promised to back Democratic bills

Well, the cows have come home, Harry. And look at Joe now.  I don’t suppose Joe’s ridiculous opposition to a public option has anything at all to do with Connecticut’s No. 1 industry being insurance, now would it? It’s kinda like when Joe Biden, D-Visa, made sure the credit card companies, his state’s top industry, had plenty of time to screw the public before the weak regulations Congress passed took effect.

There’s a fourth thing about his comments on Hardball. He thinks the public option is being pushed by people who want government to take over all insurance. They have a right, he says, but he thinks it’s wrong.

Why’s that Joe Lieberman, I-The Hartford? Making health insurance affordable to all Americans, and not just the rich ones, would hurt your constituency, wouldn’t it? Insurance executives would no longer be the Wall Street fat cats of Connecticut.

Most of the Western world has government-run insurance, and it’s working just fine. Hasn’t bankrupted anybody. But here in America, where capitalism means ever sticking it to the American citizen at every opportunity, conservatives, including Joe Lieberman, run screaming that a public option would be the end of the world. And that’s not anywhere near government-run insurance for all. And by the way, it’s called universal health care. Look it up.

Bankers, insurance execs and credit card company CEOs are what’s worse than terrorism, Virginia Foxx. They’re aiming to destroy this country in the name of padding their own overseas bank accounts while our government tries to appease the conservatives who want to maintain the status quo.

I don’t even care that Joe’s usually been pro-choice in his votes, even with the House health care bill coming through with its Catholic bishop-mandated limitations on abortions. Do you really think Joe will stand up to his principles, if he has any, in that regard? The House’s pro-choice caucus sure as hell didn’t. Expect Joe to go the same way.

Seriously, I’ve had enough of Joe Lieberman running his mouth as if anybody gives a shit or he actually has something constructive to say. He’s a liar. Time for him to shut the fuck up.

Will somebody please tell Joe Lieberman to STFU? originally appeared on A World of Progress TeamZine on November 10, 20092009-11-10T05:01:12ZF j, Y.

Related posts:

1. Right to health care
2. Saturday night massacre
3. John Boehner admits he’s out of touch

I’m glad to hear that inflection in the caller’s voice, the surprise, the aural equivalent of their face lighting up, when I answer ‘Yes’ or whatever response they least expected, that invites them to continue with their spiel. If you’ve never done this work, trust me, rejection wears on you. Even if I ultimately reject, I feel good that I handle it civilly, not cussing anybody out, or slamming down the phone. If I’m not helping somebody make their quota; that’s unfortunate enough, no need to add insult to injury by being nasty.

Lately, I’ve noticed another motivation: I’m helping somebody keep a job. Kudos to any organization for hiring people to do the work, rather than some robocaller gadgetry. Tonight I talked to two people on one call, seemingly in the same room, given the short time that I elapsed before Scott spoke. I’m helping two people keep a job!

It’s the least I can do. There, or worse, but for the grace of God, go any of us.

Unemployment for middle-aged workers like Mr. Blattman is the highest it’s been since data was first collected 60 years ago. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, joblessness is worse for men over 45 (7.7 percent in July) than women the same age (6.9 percent). And while the middle-aged are still more likely to have jobs than younger workers, once people Mr. Blattman’s age are laid off, finding a new job is harder. In 2008, laid-off people over 45 were out of work 22.2 weeks, versus 16.2 weeks for younger workers.

Mr. Blattman used to make over $200k a year. Now? Nada. Zilch. He’s fortunate to have resources that have kept him going so far; not many people do. In Frontline’s Close to Home , a filmmaker spends a day in a hair salon on the Upper East Side listening to tales of woe that include a woman who had to sell a Porsche to pay for her health insurance, (too bad she couldn’t pawn her cheek implants). Still, no matter how far you fall, all outgo and no income is persistently, despressingly stressful. Unemployment benefits are bound to get extended again, but then what? I think there’s got to be some stimulus program to individuals similar to the dole the big banks have been subsisting on. THAT — and all companies who have outsourced Call Center jobs to India should be forced to bring them back stateside or pay some exorbitant amount of money. If you elect to buy a foreign car, rather than one made here, you should have to pay a special tax. Protectionist? Yeah, and? If there are other alternatives to stem the tide of skilled, eager to work, unemployed, homeless American citizens while corporate honchos continue to grow the middle class of developing countries by employing the cheap labor there, I’m eager to hear them.

Some may say I’m a sucker originally appeared on A World of Progress TeamZine on November 9, 20092009-11-09T16:03:34ZF j, Y.

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They got Chris Christie into the New Jersey statehouse, although if Jon Corzine had been a better governor that certainly wouldn’t have happened. Look for Christie to be a one-termer like Corzine.

But the one they really like to point to is the guy who lost: Doug Hoffman, defeated by Democrat Bill Owens in an upstate New York Congressional district that had been in Republican hands since 1872. Here’s Rush Limbaugh:

You know what, I was reading Erick Erickson today at RedState.com, and he was the real first behind Hoffman guy. I mean, he was really pushing it on his blog, and he wrote today — I’ll paraphrase it — he wrote, “Look, the message out of this is we took out a horrible Republican.  We kept a horrible Republican from possibly winning and totally redefining the party in a way that would make it a permanent minority party.”  So in Erick’s view, yeah, it would have been great if Hoffman won, but the real victory was making sure that a Republican-in-name-only did not win.

And here’s what Erickson himself said:

First, the GOP now must recognize it will either lose without conservatives or will win with conservatives. In 2008, many conservatives sat home instead of voting for John McCain. Now, in NY-23, conservatives rallied and destroyed the Republican candidate the establishment chose.

I have said all along that the goal of activists must be to defeat Scozzafava. Doug Hoffman winning would just be gravy. A Hoffman win is not in the cards, but we did exactly what we set out to do — crush the establishment backed GOP candidate.

And make no mistake, despite the Beltway spin, we know for certain based on statements from the local Republican parties, that they chose Scozzafava based on advice from the Washington crowd.

So we have demonstrated to the GOP that it must not take conservatives for granted. The GOP spent $900,000.00 on a Republican who dropped out and endorsed the Democrat. Were we to combine Scozzafava and Hoffman’s votes, Hoffman would have won.

Secondly, and just as importantly, there has all of a sudden been a huge movement among some activists to go the third party route. We see in NY-23 that this is not possible as third parties are not viable.

Third parties lack funding and ability for a host of reasons. Conservatives are going to have to work from within the GOP. The GOP had better pay attention.

For all intents and purposes, NY-23 is a trial run for Florida. And in Florida, the conservative candidate is operating inside the GOP. If John Cornyn and the NRSC do not want to see Florida go the way of NY-23, they better stand down.

Yeah, they really showed that GOP establishment, losing NY23 to a Democrat and all. And the message was not lost on that establishment. Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, did stand down. The NRSC, even though it recruited several candidates to run in 2010, won’t endorse anyone in the primaries.

And that little threat about Florida? It’s all about Gov. Charlie Crist, running for Senate. See, Charlie backed Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, and as we all know, backing anything a Democrat does is strictly prohibited in the new GOP, which views bipartisanship as a Democratically led Congress doing exactly what the Republicans want and nothing more.

The teabaggers want Marco Rubio, the lunatic rightwinger backed by by looniest of lunatics, South Carolina Sen. Jim Deminted.

I’d say the teabaggers did win Tuesday. But their big victory is severely limited — to the Republican Party. Republicans are now signalling that they’re willing to swing further to the right than they already are and take their lead from the teabaggers and the 912ers and birthers and all the other crazies who make up the far right.

The plan, of course, is to make sure Obama fails, so that next year the electorate will blame the Democrats for everything bad that happens and vote them back into power, this time with a solid wingnut majority.

Not gonna happen.

Sarah Palin and Dick Armey, the leaders of the new right, swooped in and backed Hoffman. He lost, something Erickson and Limbaugh think is no big deal. Really? Losing a seat you’ve had for 138 years, with your “big guns” leading the charge, is no big deal? Just where do they think moderate Republicans — and independents — are gonna go?

NY23 voters, about as conservative as they come, rejected the right wing crazy. Even the ousted Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, endorsed Bill Owens, while Republicans who had backed her scrambled to throw their support to Hoffman or hide behind the nearest rock hoping nobody noticed.

There’s a chance, of course, that their master plan will work. American voters, having put GWBush into the White House twice, aren’t known for casting informed ballots. And that’s where we progressives come in.

Independents and other moderates had a clear clue a year ago. The teabaggers, of course, claim that John McCain wasn’t conservative enough and that’s why he lost. Not true. McCain was a bad candidate, it’s true, but he lost because of Sarah Palin and her neolithic ideas about all manner of things, not to mention her complete disdain for actually understanding the issues of the day and being able to discuss them without calling Democrats socialists.

Expect the fearmongering to continue from the right, my friends. They are desperate to regain control and keep this country in the dark ages from which it is so valiantly trying to climb. These conservatives are fearful people, willing to lie and use outrageous hyperbole to frighten the good people of America into voting for them.

We don’t have the ear of my colleagues. Not yet. But we can get there. We must keep pushing into their faces the truth that conservative now equals crazy. The Republicans have abandoned true conservatism thoroughly. That is the No.  1 lesson of NY23.

Those true conservatives now face a dilemma. Do they continue to go with a Republican party that is actively working to force them out, or do they take solace with a Democratic party that will listen to them, and even adopt some of their ideas?

Olympia Snowe? Susan Collins? Your state just voted to take away civil rights from an entire population, thanks to the lies the crazies told. Do you really want that legacy attached to your names? The Republican party is now Tom Coburn, James Inhofe, Mike Pence, Jim Deminted, Michelle Bachmann, Virginia Foxx and Bob McDonnell. Care to join a group that hates women, denies climate change, believes Obama was born in Kenya and thinks health care reform is worse than terrorism? Really?

Look at Arlen Specter, who bolted the GOP when faced with a teabagger candidate, and now he’s moving as far left as he dares with a more progressive Democratic challenger in his primary. Which way do you think the general election will go in Pennsylvania?

Our time is here, my friends. Make the best of it, and we’ll see true change.

Conservative equals crazy originally appeared on A World of Progress TeamZine on November 9, 20092009-11-09T05:01:40ZF j, Y.

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Yes, the House passed a health care reform bill. But in order to get the votes to make that happen, the House leadership caved to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Rep. Bart Stupid, making women — and again I emphasize particularly poor women — collateral damage in the war to make health care affordable.

Stupid’s amendment, approved by the bishops, makes it all but impossible for women to use public option insurance to pay for an abortion. They can, of course, pay for a rider that would include abortion, but it can’t come through any government program, like the public option or the health care exchanges.

Never mind that the public option doesn’t mean government funding. What it means is that the government will provide low cost insurance that people will pay for out of their own pockets. But that’s not good enough for Stupid and the bishops.

So, while women with some means will be able to buy coverage, I don’t see poor women, who would barely be able to afford the public option itself, if at all, having any money at all for that.

Way to go Dems. And what the fuck happened to the 190 members of the pro-choice caucus, who vowed to vote no on a bill that restricted funding for abortions?

Wimps.

I could say that this bill is better than nothing, because it is, but it is far from good enough. With Obama refusing to twist any arms, I’d look for this bill to get worse when and if it ever reaches a conference committee.

And here’s the real beauty of the vote: While 64 “Dems” voted for Bart Stupid’s amendment, 23 of those (and 16 more) voted against the bill as a whole –three more and the measure would have failed, and that’s only because a single Republican — Joe Cao, the guy who beat William Jefferson in Louisiana — vote in favor.

Assholes.

But I’m not really surprised. The denizens of Washington are completely out of touch with Americans. They don’t get it that a majority support abortion rights, support a robust public option. While we have a strong center left population in this country, it’s our government that insists on being center-right. And that’s just wrong.

But here’s the thing. Health care — all of it, including abortion, shouldn’t be a political issue, any more than the civil rights of any of the population. For all the right’s fearmongering that a Democratic health care bill would do things like create death panels and rationing of care, that’s exactly what we have now, and what the right wants to stick with.

Insurance companies, whose mission is to make money and not to pay for health care, already decide who gets the care and who does not. Their rationing is based on their bottom line, not on anything so logical as medical need.

But so far, not enough people understand that, although for the life of me I can’t understand why.

As for abortion, maybe if we focused on making that procedure less necessary, we’d all get what we want. Oh, I forgot. The right doesn’t want to do that either, at least not in any sensible way. An awful lot of them want to eliminate birth control, too — something some of them are starting to say out loud, although they’ve been saying it privately for decades.

And addressing the social issues that prevent women from saying no to sex and having that understood as a real no? Ha. That, my friends, would infringe on the rights of men to have what they want when they want it. Can’t have that, now can we?

64. That’s the number. “We got more than what we thought we’d get,” Stupid said about the compromise. Here are the jerks who agreed with him:

Altmire, Baca, Barrow, Berry, Bishop (GA), Boccieri, Boren, Bright, Cardoza, Carney, Chandler, Childers, Cooper, Costa, Costello, Cuellar, Dahlkemper, Davis (AL), Davis (TN), Donnelly (IN), Doyle, Driehaus, Ellsworth, Etheridge, Gordon (TN), Griffith, Hill, Holden, Kanjorski, Kaptur, Kildee, Langevin, Lipinski, Lynch, Marshall, Matheson, McIntyre, Melancon, Michaud, Mollohan, Murtha, Neal (MA), Oberstar, Obey, Ortiz, Perriello, Peterson, Pomeroy, Rahall, Reyes, Rodriguez, Ross, Ryan (OH), Salazar, Shuler, Skelton, Snyder, Space, Spratt, Stupak, Tanner, Taylor, Teague, Wilson (OH). And, of course, all the Republicans.

Those in bold also voted against the entire bill, along with Adler, Baird, Boucher, Boyd, Edwards, Herseth Sandin, Kissell, Kosmas, Kratovil, Kucinich, Markey, Massa, McMahon, Minnick, Murphy and Nye. They had a variety of reasons — bill was too progressive, not progressive enough, cost too much. And of course, all the Republicans except Cao, who voted against it because they like things the way they are.

There was one other interesting thing about the vote. Republicans wanted the vote because they were certain it would fail. Surprise, guys. Democrats are willing to kick women to the curb just as easily as you are.

Saturday night massacre originally appeared on A World of Progress TeamZine on November 8, 20092009-11-08T07:10:40ZF j, Y.

Related posts:

1. Will somebody please tell Joe Lieberman to STFU?
2. Be careful what you wish for
3. Right to health care

GLBTQ

Election 2009 – No Surprises

International

Causes of Rwandan Genocide still not addressed

Politics

Conservative equals crazy

Election night 2009

Election day 2009

Of insurance, homosexuality and conservatism

Progressive Living

Jesus was a Socialist

AWOP week in review: 10/31-11/6 originally appeared on A World of Progress TeamZine on November 7, 20092009-11-07T05:01:15ZF j, Y.

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As of this morning, we can count Maine a loss.  Maine voters, with 87 percent reporting, have repealed the ability of queers to marry there by 53/47 percent.

In Washington, only half of the ballots are counted and it’s too close to call, but there is hope as the proposed law leads 51/49.

When put in the hands of our elected representatives, our batting average in successfully gaining rights is improving.  Politicians see the value in providing rights to a voting portion of their constituencies.  But, put before the people, and highly swayed by right wing religious factions, we lose.  Over and over and over.

When I woke up, I had zero expectation that either would pass.  The religious wingnuts have cohesive organization, adequate funds, and wild-eyed zealotry on their side.

And, I believe the biggest detriment to our success is us.  What do we have?  A mishmash of organizations, all with their hands out, developing strategies parallel to each other, but without cohesion.  We also have a population which doesn’t have 100% voter turnout.

We are, potentially, 10 percent of the population, yet are expected to sway at least 41 percent of the rest of the population with our supposed political power – the power the California Supreme Court says we have and the very power they cited as a reason why we weren’t deserving of special protection from crazy voter initiatives like Prop 8.

If we can’t connect and involve 100% of our people in their own fight, how can we expect to sway the requisite numbers to our side?  It’s going to take every one of us.  Every single day.  We have two years.  What will you do?

Election 2009 – No Surprises originally appeared on A World of Progress TeamZine on November 6, 20092009-11-06T05:01:15ZF j, Y.

AWOP contributing editor, GLBTQ
Author of Hahn at Home

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