* Just love them Golden Oldies – There are so many great songs that I fondly remember from the 1960s. There is Devil with A Blue Dress, Johnny B. Goode, Hang on Sloopy, Sugar Pie Honey Bunch, Heatwave, Mustang Sally and so many more. However, my very favorite song is the one sung by a group that is still as active today as 45 years ago – The Conservatives. The song is titled, “Medicare Will Result in the Rationing of Medical Care.” Members of this doo wop group included, Ronald Regan, Bob Dole, George H. W. Bush and Barry Goldwater. Actually, the song was off key then and the current version is equally dissonate.

Time and energy does not permit linking to every absurdity The Conservatives have put forth in opposing healthcare and health insurance reform but examples include: every American already has good health coverage; reform will result in the euthanasia of the elderly; a government bureaucrat will decide what treatment a patient will be allowed; America already has the best healthcare in the world; we must protect the health insurers; reform will result in the rationing of health care. It reminds one of “The Twist” by Chubby Checker.

Medicare is a government-sponsored health care program that provides health coverage to virtually all of the nation’s elderly and a large share of people with disabilities. While the program is not perfect, as Igor Volsky notes at ThinkProgress.org, “it has dramatically improved access to health care, allowed seniors to live longer and healthier lives, contributed to the desegregation of southern hospitals, and has become one of the most popular government programs.” The fears and lies promulgated by the forces that oppose healthcare reform today are a cabal of conservative Republicans and some Democrats who are in the pocket of the insurance industry and are fueled by millions of dollars in spending by the health insurance industry intent on protecting their monopolies and profits. It is a familiar tune but inaccurate history and terrible policy for the majority of Americans. As a participant in Medicare I have never experienced interference in my choice of doctors, medical facilities or treatments. I have seen no evidence that supports such claims. Perhaps some of the old songs are not as good as I would like to recall. At the same time, if intelligent healthcare reform is not enacted soon, many people will be left with that groovy song from the Temptations - “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.”

Although I believe that President Obama waited too long to become forcefully involved in the healthcare and health insurance reform discussion, he said in a speech in North Carolina on Wednesday, “First of all, no one is talking about some government takeover of health care. Under the reform I’ve proposed, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. And if you’re one of the 46 million Americans who don’t have coverage today, you will finally be able to get quality, affordable coverage…. the truth is, we have a system today that works well for the insurance industry, but it doesn’t always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass these reforms, are health insurance consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and insurance companies are held accountable… We will stop insurance companies from denying you coverage because of your medical history… We will require insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms, colonoscopies, or eye and foot exams for diabetics, so we can avoid chronic illnesses that cost not only lives, but money… And we will stop insurance companies from placing arbitrary caps on the coverage you can receive in a given year or in a lifetime.” We are now “In the Midnight Hour” (Wilson Picket) with respect to healthcare reform. We should not let the naysayers do “Somethin’ Stupid” (Frank and Nancy Sinatra).

* How does the Republican leadership feel about their Party? – An interesting post by Markos Moulitas at dailykos.com notes that “Republicans flee congress in droves.” Seven of the 41 Republican senators have announced they will not seek re-election and Arlen Specter has switched parties. There is somewhat of a satisfying feeling seeing so many of the legislators who rubber-stamped Bush policy that resulted in so much pain for this country leaving the national scene for lucrative lobbying jobs or to bask in the comfort of their government–provided retirement plans and healthcare coverage. I am reminded of the song by Vanilla Fudge, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.”

* Speaking of sounds – Over the last few weeks my ears have begun hurting from one of the ugliest sounds imaginable - the sound of racism. No, I did not expect meanness, hatred and divisiveness from those who harbor racism to disappear with the inauguration of Barack Obama. I also did not believe that such maliciousness that we currently see could gain its current traction in the 21^st Century in the United States of America. Once again my naïveté causes me to blush. Or is that redness on my face anger?

Free speech does not allow the silencing of Glenn Beck and fellow conservative talk shlocks who spew racist rhetoric in order to appeal to a wacko listening core. Free speech does not allow the muting of the bile excreted by a rejuvenated white supremacist coven in this country. At the same time, decency requires that we speak out about such outrages. And while on this subject, I say to CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who is giving voice to and exposure to the idiots who have been termed “birthers” (those who question the validity of Obamas birth certificate), I find your “journalism” to be as appealing as afterbirth.

Richard Cohen, President of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a major force in the fight against racism said, “But Dobbs is playing a dangerous game. By promoting paranoid conspiracy theories that originate in extremist circles, he's fanning the flames of racism among a segment of society that can't accept a black man in the White House. And we've already seen a wave of violence committed by racial extremists since Obama was elected.” The SPLC is sponsoring a petition to CNN titled, “Tell CNN to Stop Peddling Racist Propaganda.”

Criticism should vociferously be directed at CNN for allowing Dobbs to play a ratings game that appeals to the lowest instincts and divides our country. This is not intelligent discourse and certainly does not serve the interests of this country. More than enough of such crap is already available on FOX News. At a time when our country is overburdened with problems and challenges the network that bills itself as the best source for political news has made itself a source of a problem. Although Dobbs knows no shame it is a shame on CNN.

In a “man bites dog moment” you have to love this video clip made available at CrooksandLiars.com where Bill O’Reilly (Faux News, of course) and Bernie Goldberg theorize that the Birther controversy is a plot by liberals to make the conservatives look nutty. Memo to Bill: You do not need our help.

* “People are asking me about the race problem.... I know of no race problem. The great problem that confronts the American people to-day is a national problem -- whether this great nation of ours is great enough to live up to its own convictions, carry out its own declaration of independence, and execute the provisions of its own constitution.”

Spoken by Frederick Douglas in the year 1893

Tea and Torture on a Spring Day

* The prestidigitation of the political right – There was much ado about very little with last week’s tax day Tea-Bagging protests about taxes and an assortment of sometimes hate-filled accusations. Although it was billed as a populist movement of significant proportions it was neither populist nor populous.

The event was repeatedly promoted by FOX News. While some consider FOX News a news station what it has demonstrated over the last 10 years is that it is the public relations arm of the Republican Party. FOX silence was telling on the subject of federal spending during the years that Bush and Republicans blew through the Clinton budget surplus and proceeded to build huge deficits. Who were the other movers and shakers behind Tea-Bagging?

Americans for Prosperity – a right wing think tank funded by billionaire David Koch. Koch Industries was fined $35 million dollars in 2000 for oil spills resulting from eroded and broken pipelines. “During the 1990s, the firm's faulty pipelines were responsible for more than 300 oil spills in five states, prompting a penalty of $35 million. In 1996, a flawed pipeline caused an explosion outside of Dallas in which two teenagers were killed. In a lawsuit related to the deaths, a trial court returned a judgment of $376.69 million against the company. Now there is a populist face to put on your tea bag tag.

The Independence Institute – This very conservative think tank is funded by the Coors Foundation’s Castle Rock Foundation both of whom advocate for the wealthy interests and their privileged needs. Just because they supply beer to the masses does not mean they are interested in the masses beyond the purchase of the next six-pack.

FreedomWorks – An organization that supports and promotes the interests of lobbyist Dick Armey. Those interests include Bristol-Myers Squibb, the insurance industry, and oil interests. Armey opposes health reform that would cut into the profits of branded drugs, works for deregulated life insurance reform and supports the status quo reliance on fossil fuels. Not to go unnoticed, none of these issues are in the interests of the American people.

The funders of the Tea-Bagging movement are to populism what the Republican Party was to the religious right. It is the illusion of representing the interests of a broad segment of the citizenry while in fact representing the interests of a select few. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had the appropriate response to the Tea-Bagging magical mystery tour. “The president, he stressed, had just recently passed a ‘tax cut that covers the most people in the history of this country’…The president promised significant tax relief for working families of this country, and in the first month of the administration delivered that to the American people.”

What are the facts concerning U.S. tax policy? A report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “Federal Tax Burdens for Most Near Their Lowest Levels in Decades” concludes: Overall Federal Tax Burdens Are Low by Historical Standards; Federal Individual Income Tax Burdens Have Fallen Significantly; and Tax Burdens Have Dropped Most Sharply for the Highest-Income Households. I would suggest that this is what the Tea-Bagging rallies were about. It involved the wealthiest of society protecting their privileged tax concessions which they manipulated through congress in recent decades. And the sly shysters at FOX carried their water. What is being touted as a grassroots movement is little more than an assroots movement ensconced in deception and illusion.

John Perr at Crooks and Liars compiled a list of 10 Republican Tax Day Lies. They are listed below and the link provides fuller explanations:
1. President Obama will raise taxes on small businesses.
2. The estate tax devastates small businesses and family farms.
3. 40% of Americans pay no taxes.
4. Tax cuts always increase revenue.
5. The GOP is the party of fiscal discipline.
6. Ronald Reagan was the greatest tax cutter of all time.
7. FDR caused the Great Depression, or at least made it worse.
8. Obama's cap-and-trade plan will cost each American family $3,100 a year.
9. Obama's tax proposals will undermine charitable giving.
10. The rich pay too much in taxes already.

* The Torture Memos –Obama’s release of Bush’s Justice Department torture memos showed courage and at the same time focused attention once again on some of the moral and legal issues these memos engender. It required courage to go against the national security community, some of his advisors and the bulk of the political right. These memos broke laws and their release exposes the shrewd but amoral reasoning used by the Bush appointees who concocted these “justifications.” And make no mistake! U.S. laws and international laws were broken, as pointed out by constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com. How many times in the last two decades have we heard conservatives lecture about the rule of law, at least until the law is an inconvenient truth? Our laws, including international treaties, exist apart from political party or political perspective. They exist regardless of issue or circumstance.

My ambiguity about the CIA interrogators empowered by these memos uncomfortably surfaced when Obama said that CIA operatives would not be prosecuted for committing torture. This is a difficult subject to embrace from either side. From one standpoint if one thought that they were following the law they should be free of prosecution. And yet, the Nuremburg trials concluded that this was not a satisfactory defense. This is not an attempt to equate the widespread inhuman acts of the Nazi regime against innocent and defenseless people to what occurred at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and secret prison sites. It is a question of where one draws the line. It is my strong feeling that the line must not be subject to situational ethics. It is also a matter that these operatives were burdened with directives that stemmed from the Bush administration’s strained attempts to circumvent the law. It is interesting that when Obama said that CIA personnel involved in these interrogations would not be prosecuted there was no mention of a pass for the people that designed and authorized these programs. Perhaps there will be consequences but in either case we are at least addressing this difficult and challenging subject. Democracy and morality are not always easy and the fact that we question our actions in an open forum only adds gravitas to the proud claims we proclaim as a nation.

* Quotes of the Week:

~ Richard Armitage, second in command at the State Department under George W. Bush, said in an interview (about the torture of detainees), "I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign,"

~ “The image of the United States of America throughout the world (committing torture) is a recruiting tool for Islamic extremists.” John McCain 4/20/09

* “The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers”
Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961) Swiss psychiatrist

8/26/07

*Iraq Report Cliff Notes - Republican senator from Louisiana David Vitter (recently embarrassed for procuring prostitutes) just returned from a trip to Iraq and announced that the surge is working. Vitter said, “The United States has made significant strikes against Al Qaeda terrorist forces and reduced sectarian violence in the nation.” It was quite the productive visit. He was actually on the ground in Iraq for somewhere between 10 and 14 hours according to accompanying colleagues. Republicans praised his report.

*Iraq Report Unabridged Edition – Republican senator from Virginia John Warner is one of the Republican party's most prominent senators, a former Secretary of the Navy, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and consistent supporter of Bush policy. He just returned from Iraq with his assessment of the circumstances on the ground based on conversations with military commanders and intelligence personnel. Warner concludes that the crisis on the ground is so severe that it is time to begin an "orderly and carefully planned withdrawal…as part of a long-term strategy to extract U.S. troops from a distant and dysfunctional quagmire" The Republican National Committee is highly critical of Warner’s statements and the right-wing pundits have launched an assault against him. For the Republican party “team player” trumps the interests of America, its citizens and especially the men and women in the military.

*Abortive leadership / Catatonic citizenry - It has been well documented that this administration’s support of the troops has been short on performance and long on rhetoric. The Pentagon shares culpability. One example is their goal by end of year to supply the troops with 3500 mine-resistant vehicles. Only 1500 will have been delivered. In another disgraceful assessment on the people running this war we learn of a Department of Defense inspector general report from June. “The Pentagon awarded contracts for the vehicles to companies that failed to produce them on time despite knowing that there were other contractors who could have supplied some more quickly… resulting in increased risk to the lives of soldiers”. Are we so inured by federal incompetence and corruption that we no longer express outrage? Is memory of the Viet Nam war protesters a reason why this administration opposes a draft?

*Good governing (Skeptics, this is not a typo) – It is not often that we have an opportunity to praise good government in action. Let us savor the moment. Medicare instituted a program that encourages hospitals to practice increased defensive medicine against preventable errors, injuries and infections. Health-care providers will not be reimbursed for extra costs of treatment and extended stays resulting from errors and avoidable infections. And, patients cannot be billed for the additional care. More good news! In Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is improving on this concept by requiring health-care providers to report errors and mishaps (I believe to a public data base) and adds the incentive of higher state reimbursements for improved safety performance. Kudos to Medicare and Governor Rendell.

*MSNBC host Tucker Carlson recently sat around with 3 other white men discussing whether Barack Obama is Black enough. Not Obama’s position on foreign policy or health care or immigration. Black enough? Next week these same four MENSA males will be asking a woman in her second trimester if she is pregnant enough.

*Immoral, Psychologically Damaging, Counterproductive - That’s the conclusion reached by the American Psychological Association on many of the interrogation techniques used by the Bush administration on suspected terrorists. I have no doubt that there have been times in the past and there will be times in the future when information must be obtained using any method possible to avert a catastrophe. However, the national policy for a civilized society should not include torture and detainment without legal recourse. It is not the ethos that I want for America.

*Russia’s Putin mentors Bush - A White House guide called the Presidential Advice Manual, gives specific instructions to administration staff for dealing with protesters during President Bush’s speaking engagements. If they absolutely have to be there protesters should be placed in a designated protest area where President Bush cannot see them. I guess this falls under the category of executive privilege superseding the Constitution of the United States of America.

*Fear, FEar. FEAr, FEAR - Joe Lieberman, with his pompoms flailing, is not satisfied with war fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan and the rumbling threats of attacking Iran. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Lieberman says, “…we must now focus on disrupting the flow of suicide bombers – and that means focusing on Syria…” McClatchy reports that since 2003 seven suicide bombers in Iraq have been identified as coming from Syria. Fifty-three have come from Saudi Arabia (the same country that spawned many of the 9/11 hijackers). Syria is now in the neocon bomb sites but I predict that the Saudi oil shield will protect them from the Lieberman kryptonite and the Bush/Cheney death ray.

*Faux News Redux – Prior to the Iraq War FOX News beat the war drum parroting every justification to attack Saddam that flowed from the disingenuous lips of the Bush/Cheney cabal. The “show” returns with Iran now the target. Robert Greenwald, who has exposed this symbiotic relationship before, has a new 2 minute video (taken from 4 hours of FOX broadcast footage) that would be comic if not so lamentable. The link is: http://foxattacks.com/iran?utm_source=rgemail.

*Atlanta plumbers to be forced out of business - Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs would be illegal under a proposed amendment to Atlanta's indecency laws. The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants and they would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap. I surmise that topless dancers will not be subject to this crack down.

*Not ready for prime time 1 – Former actor Fred Thompson is a likely Republican presidential candidate. He recently gave a speech to Veterans of Foreign Wars. He said, “the nation needs to rebuild its military to fight global terrorism because the leaders took a holiday in the 1990s after the end of the cold war”. Say what? Thompson must have experienced a blackout. He failed to mention the damage inflicted on our military over these past 5 years. Our nation needs serious leaders for serious times, not actors who cannot remember their lines.

*Was there ever a prime time? In a speech to the VFW Pres. Bush said, “U.S. forces have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January”. That would seem to be a substantial number of al Qaeda guys. A NY Times rough estimate last month had 5000 al Qaeda fighters in all of Iraq. The LA Times says that of the 19,000 detainees in custody in Iraq, 135 are foreigners. Doesn’t seem to add up, again.

*Not ready for prime time 2 – NJ Attorney General Anne Milgram has directed state and local police to ask all suspects charged with serious crimes about their immigration status. If it is believed that the suspect is in the country illegally they are to inform federal authorities. NJ state judges were informed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not set up to receive large-scale immigration referrals from local authorities. Since there are 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants in the United States “large-scale” is a relative term. “Ineffective” is an absolute term.

*Happy Birthday Mac, hold the cake – McDonald’s Big Mac sandwich is celebrating its 40th birthday. It became a part of our pop culture with the jingle, “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun". Each year 550 million Big Macs are sold in the U.S. At almost a half pound it contains 540 calories and 29 grams of fat. Its introduction marked the beginning of “super-size” in fast food marketing. With epidemic obesity, diabetes and heart disease weighing heavily on the health of Americans and the American health-care system perhaps there is not much to celebrate.

*The math of politics, seeking the lowest common denominator – Scott Howell and Co. is an advertising agency with a specialty in political campaigns. The Bush campaign in 2000 hired them for the South Carolina primaries to trash John McCain. This ad agency did the same in 2006 to Harold Ford in the Tennessee senatorial race by creating ads with racial overtones to frighten off white voters. Rudy Giuliani just hired them for his presidential run. This is the perfect ad agency for the former NYC mayor who in radio ads in Iowa claims that he “turned a $2.3 billion deficit into a multibillion dollar surplus.” Independent fiscal monitors say that Giuliani left his successor Michael Bloomberg with a bigger deficit than what Giuliani inherited in 1994. Reference serious leaders for serious times. Reference disingenuous lips.

*Vibrator control, no batteries needed – In Alabama you can buy a gun as easily as a corndog with a side of grits. But the deep thinkers in the Alabama legislature have banned marital aides in an effort to protect the morals of its good citizens. I was raised to believe that I was responsible for my soul. I never imagined that I would have so much assistance.

*Looking ahead – It appears that the Bush administration is working in front of and behind the scenes to oust Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in favor of Iyad Allawi, a non-sectarian Iraqi legislator and in 2005 interim Iraqi Prime Minister. Allawi has strong ties to Bush and Cheney. While in exile he urged the U. S. to invade Iraq and since the attack he has worked very hard to be Iraq’s leader. It was learned this week that Allawi has hired a lobbying firm with strong connections to the Bush administration, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, to lobby for Malaki’s ouster – the man Bush has supported as the duly elected leader of Iraq. The compelling question is whether there is any individual or group of individuals that can lead Iraq out of the black hole in which it exists?

*I never met a man who thought his thinking was faulty. 16th century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne