A Telling Misnomer

President Obama said today that the Senate is "on the precipice"of passing health care legislation.

It's hard to say whether the president choose the word precipice deliberately. I have heard this expression misused so often that I tend to think that its true, negative meaning is lost both on the President and on his listeners. Whatever the case, never have truer words been spoken. The Senate bill, misshapen beyond any usefulness thanks to the disruptive agency of people like Douche Evilman Lieberman, is a monstrosity that helps few Americans who are not in the employ of the insurance industry.

We are about to fall to unprecedented depths of political and policy disaster. On the precipice, indeed.

Who Elected Mr. Evilman, and Who Enables Him?

Douche "Evilman" Lieberman seems set to destroy health care reform. But single-handedly? No.

First of all, we have the more than 564,000 idiots voted for Lieberman in the 2006 Connecticut Senatorial Election to thank. In a perfect world they would have all repented by now, but chances are many have not. To those who have not I say: I hope you or someone you love is currently very ill, or about to become very ill, and will not receive needed health care because of the disingenuous and sophistic opposition of the very evil man you helped elect.

Then we have all the weak or spineless Democratic colleagues that helped turn Joe Lieberman, a pathetic cheat and liar, into the health care reform slaying monster he has revealed himself to be in the past few weeks. Every time they cave in to is whims and deceitful tactics, they betray the destiny of the nation. Every time they choose not to publicly expose and condemn his hypocritical justifications for opposing reform, they make him stronger. Every committee meeting that he chairs in spite of his active opposition to the Democratic Party's reform agenda is an insult to the millions of Americans whose life and financial stability depends on the quick passage of a meaningful reform bill.

I do not have a violent bone in my body so I am not advocating violence to solve the Evilman problem. I am counting on karma to do the job that good, peace-loving men cannot do before Sen. Evilman can ruin the lives of countless more Americans. Not single-handedly, but with much help from the many accessories to murder that have made his power possible.

Olbermann, At Long Last, On the Myth of "The Liberal Media"

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America The Corporate

Robert Reich explains why health care reform is largely a sham.

To add insult to injury, there will be scores of right wing shitting heads who will portray health care reform as a statist takeover of health care reform and the end of America. The stench of their rhetoric will make stomachs turn. The actual bill that Congress will produce will deal them (the stomachs) the final blow.

My reaction is that this country needs a revolution. Not the kind that teabaggers advocate, but a revolution nonetheless. The goal? To rid Washington of the influence of money. Good luck? I hear you.

Does It Really Take A Child To Remind Us?

It does. It does take a child to remind us that the way we treat each other now, the way we handle finite resources, the decisions we make affect others, those who are alive and those who have yet to be born, in ways they can hardly control.

Global warming and climate change deniers would do well to read about the "precautionary principle", which many countries around the world have embraced, except for the most powerful.

We are (almost) all wrong. There are those of us who reserve the precautionary principle for the unborn only, while sweeping it aside nonchalantly when it affects anything other than unborn humans. Alas, the reverse is also true. There are those who would do anything to protect plant or animal species and who consider the unborn an undesired effect of selfish causes (please do not read this as a condemnation of all who are pro-choice, or an endorsement of all who call themselves pro-life. Life is a bit more nuanced than these idiotic, oversimplified categories).

Everything we do affects others. We are particularly despicable when we do harmful things that affect those who have no choice or say.

And now watch this video, and prepared to be chastised, and hopefully touched.

MIT Analysis of Senate Health Care Reforms Contradicts GOP

How do you know when Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is lying? If you answered when his lips are moving you are only partly correct. You know he's lying when MIT says so.

Science Quote of the Day

"Physics is not a religion. If it were, we'd have a much easier time raising money." - Leon Lederman

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please consider giving if you can afford it.

The Climate Change Scandal That Wasn't

By now, you have probably heard about the climate change scandal that erupted last week, when the private emails of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia were hacked and made public. Conservative figures in the United States have already latched on to the email scandal and are trying to use it as proof that climate change is a myth and that climate change skeptics are martyrs about to be vindicated by the revelation contained in the emails.

But George Monbiot, the well-known British writer of all things environmental, has an article about the brouhaha surrounding the matter which is well worth reading. While he does not deny the gravity of the episode, he claims that climate change science is strong enough to weather the storm of the hacked CRU emails.

Social Progress v. Religion

An interesting paper has recently appeared in Evolutionary Psychology that establishes a strong inverse relationship between religiosity and prosperity. While the author clearly identifies the relationship as one of correlation, and not necessarily causation, the fact remains that less religious countries are at the top of the prosperity scale and more religious one can be found at the bottom.

Given the progress-stifling religiosity of many prominent public figures and leaders in this country, it is not hard to believe that the high level of true or styled religiosity in this country is a hindrance to prosperity and progress.

But there is hope, I tell you. Many other more prosperous countries prove it.

The Insurance Bureaucrat Between You and Your Doctor

One of the most disingenuous, disgusting, and despicable tactics used by health care reform opponent is the threat that passage of a Democratic health care reform bill will interpose government (statist) bureaucrats between you and your doctor. Several people have made the point that there already are bureaucrats between you and your doctor: they work for insurance companies but health care reform opponent continue their demagoguery undeterred. So here is the article that you need to print, read out aloud, and shove up their ass if they try the "government bureaucrats" argument on you.

Not All 17 Year-Olds Are Created Equal

Jackie and David Vines are both high-school seniors.
They are both 17.
One is a dumbass. The other is smart.

After Norah O'Donnell of MSNBC put her on the spot for not knowing basic facts about Sarah Palin, whom Jackie reveres, Jackie went on to accuse (from a blog) O'Donnell of being crafty and "biased.

David Vines points out that "This notion that [reporters are] being 'crafty' and 'biased' when they correct factually inaccurate statements is ridiculous."

As I said, Jackie is a dumbass. David Vines is smart.

The U.S. Senate: Where All Good Intentions Go To Die

Author and think-tank director Steven Hill examines the madness that is the United States Senate, which he describes as "a patrician gerontocracy more closely resembling the ancient Roman Senate than a New England town meeting."

Local Idiots

Colorado is a wonderful state, but--like all others--it has its share of idiots. My apologies for this one, a Wheat Ridge car dealer, on behalf of the good people of the state.

Oh, by the way, do not threaten to kill him or physically hurt him and his employees, as he alleges to have happened. Simply boycott his dealership and encourage others you know to do the same.

UPDATE:
It's incredible that this bit of asinine stupidity still has traction, and it's absurd to have to post the link to not one, but two fact-checking sites because there are lunatics who are too lazy to do their own "footwork" on the web.

By the way, should you encounter any of these Orly Taitz types who continue to push the "Obama was born in Kenya" bunk, just handle them like you would any undesired solicitor at your house.

The Sad Truth About The Public Option

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich calls it like he sees it. He says the only way the public option proposed by Senate Democrats could be more meaningless and gutted would be to make it available "to only twelve people" in America. The rest of his post is good, too.

April 30, 2010: A Dire Date for The Nation

On one date, April 30, 2010, we will lose two of the best (the best, IMHO) TV programs that this nation has.

A Plea to The Good Democrats of Connecticut

Sen. Lieberman will be up for re-election in 2012, which means that we will have to endure him as a Republican camouflaged as a Democrat for four more years.

Currently, there is no recall law on Connecticut's books. But even in 2007, the Daily Kos had a couple of posts about the need to recall Sen. Lieberman. That need is even more urgent now that health care reform hangs in the balance in the Senate thanks to Sen. Lieberman opposition to the public option.

It is something that cannot be done easily or quickly, but it is something that needs to be done because the country cannot afford four more years of people like Joe Lieberman.

Industry Talking Points and Republican Whores

Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler) has a post that shows that corrupt politicians (as in politicians whose mouths and votes are bought with industry money) are mouthpieces reading from the same script. Big deal? I'd say.

In Which PZ Myers Refutes Creationist Fallacies

Here is a very interesting and fairly mild-mannered post in which PZ Myers of Pharyngula fame refutes a number of creationist fallacies commonly used to support Intelligent Design bunk.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on Sarah Palin

Watch and laugh.

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