Ah, success. It breathes a sweetness that is borne not in and of itself, but rather from victory over an odious opposition. Simply put, American glory has always been remarkable because of the defeat of a clear-cut enemy - and the traitors in our midst.
Heroes need villains; always have, always will. Benedict Arnold worked hard to thwart the Revolution. The Rosenbergs delivered The Bomb to the Russians. Today, we have Joe Lieberman, who says he wants to derail health care reform.
"I can't see a way in which I can vote for cloture on any bill that contained a creation of a government-operated and run insurance company," he said, getting in the way of the very thing that Americans want and need in the face of a bloodthirsty insurance industry. Of course, that's who has always supported his political career, to the tune of millions of dollars in campaign contributions.
Without any Party affiliation (Connecticut Democrats rejected him in his last primary race only to see conservative voters push him back into office as an "Independent"), he represents only those bloated corporate interests. As such, his Senate colleagues can feel free to strip him of everything, including the key to the bathroom - to figuratively do him like some poor turkey in the background of a Sarah Palin interview.
To put this in alarmist right-wing terminology, Joe Lieberman is a danger and a threat to the public. His obstructionist stance is terrifying, as it will leave millions of people at risk of suffering and dying in this nation. We would all be better off were he to somehow wake up and fall into his coffin tomorrow morning.
He's almost as disturbed (and disturbing) as the man he endorsed in the 2008 election, my senator, John McCain. After all, Lieberman's just doing what he's done for four terms - whoring out his vote for cash. McCain's stance, however, is more predictable, since he is a Republican.
It is also far more hypocritical, since John McCain has received nothing but government health care since before he was born. The same goes for his kids. Today, he is insulated by three layers of taxpayer-provided subsidies.
As a Senator, he enjoys blue-chip coverage, the likes of which the average American could never afford. He's also eligible for Veterans Administration benefits. To top it all off, he's a senior citizen, so he qualifies for Medicare. It's a good thing he's so well insured, because he is truly a sick individual.
Of course, since he had the courage and convictions to dump his first wife in favor of a rich broad, he doesn't really need any of that. He could just pay out of pocket for his health care, the way 47 million Americans have to do every year, which he thinks is just fine - for them.
For John McCain to oppose meaninful health care reform, to block relief to the public which has always taken such good care of him, is an obscenity that borders on treachery. He and Joe Lieberman are peas in a pod, all right, a regular Aldrich and Alger comedy duo.
pH 1o.28.o9
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Worse Than The Disease
The latest numbers are in, and it doesn't look good for the minority Party. Today only twenty percent of Americans identify themselves as Republicans. Since they have already displayed an amazing incapacity for shame, one can only assume that the GOP is splintering under the weight of the Rush Limbaughs of the world.
Such confused little people, these Republicans. They look up at a wooden cross and declare, Right to Life. Paint that cross red and the tune changes. Demonization becomes policy. Compassion goes out the window. Their health care plan could be coined Single Prayer.
In that regard, fright-wing media should be in line for the Medal of Freedom, with their suicidal tendencies sending conservatives scattering like billiard balls. Many will cling to Sarah Palin's skirts. Some will follow Ron Paul (not caring where he leads them). Others will go into their Libertarian shells. Any way you slice it, the Party's over.
And no wonder. Being stupid is one thing; not getting out of the way is another crime entirely. Find me a Republican plan. Health-savings accounts? Gambling. Not only does that idea amount to you paying out of pocket, it ignores everything we've come to know about capitalism in the past year.
They're clearly not interested in reforming health care in any fashion. The Party of No Way would rather see tens of thousands of Americans die each year than do anything to insult, or even annoy, the megabillion-dollar industry that uses our premiums to line their pockets every year. (The same can be said of the Blue Dog Democrats, who may have finally underestimated the mindset of their constituents.)
It's as though they're watching a person bleed to death in front of them, standing there and doing nothing while shrieking at those who are trying to stanch the bleeding, "You're doing it wrong! You're doing it wrong!"
Even the concept of a public option - a government-run, premium-supported non-profit with limited eligibility - causes them to react with the kind of feigned horror normally reserved for mimes. That's all they are, mimes with sound. Who needs that?
In 2001, the GOP found a trillion dollars to alleviate the tax burden on the wealthiest of Americans. In 2003, they found a trillion dollars to pay for a needless war in Iraq. In 2008, the Bush White House left the American taxpayers on the hook for a trillion dollars' worth of bank bailouts - all the while racking up record deficits year after year.
Ask them, though, for any measure of relief against a predatory industry that gets in between patients and their doctors and suddenly they've rediscovered fiscal conservatism. If you think the madness ends there, you know nothing of their ways:
http://www.dnforum.com/f254/30-republicans-oppose-frankens-anti-rape-amendment-thread-391419.html
They're a joke. They're a gag. And if they keep this up, they'll be extinct, and our nation can get back to the business that the Founding Fathers intended.
pH 1o.2o.o9
Such confused little people, these Republicans. They look up at a wooden cross and declare, Right to Life. Paint that cross red and the tune changes. Demonization becomes policy. Compassion goes out the window. Their health care plan could be coined Single Prayer.
In that regard, fright-wing media should be in line for the Medal of Freedom, with their suicidal tendencies sending conservatives scattering like billiard balls. Many will cling to Sarah Palin's skirts. Some will follow Ron Paul (not caring where he leads them). Others will go into their Libertarian shells. Any way you slice it, the Party's over.
And no wonder. Being stupid is one thing; not getting out of the way is another crime entirely. Find me a Republican plan. Health-savings accounts? Gambling. Not only does that idea amount to you paying out of pocket, it ignores everything we've come to know about capitalism in the past year.
They're clearly not interested in reforming health care in any fashion. The Party of No Way would rather see tens of thousands of Americans die each year than do anything to insult, or even annoy, the megabillion-dollar industry that uses our premiums to line their pockets every year. (The same can be said of the Blue Dog Democrats, who may have finally underestimated the mindset of their constituents.)
It's as though they're watching a person bleed to death in front of them, standing there and doing nothing while shrieking at those who are trying to stanch the bleeding, "You're doing it wrong! You're doing it wrong!"
Even the concept of a public option - a government-run, premium-supported non-profit with limited eligibility - causes them to react with the kind of feigned horror normally reserved for mimes. That's all they are, mimes with sound. Who needs that?
In 2001, the GOP found a trillion dollars to alleviate the tax burden on the wealthiest of Americans. In 2003, they found a trillion dollars to pay for a needless war in Iraq. In 2008, the Bush White House left the American taxpayers on the hook for a trillion dollars' worth of bank bailouts - all the while racking up record deficits year after year.
Ask them, though, for any measure of relief against a predatory industry that gets in between patients and their doctors and suddenly they've rediscovered fiscal conservatism. If you think the madness ends there, you know nothing of their ways:
http://www.dnforum.com/f254/30-republicans-oppose-frankens-anti-rape-amendment-thread-391419.html
They're a joke. They're a gag. And if they keep this up, they'll be extinct, and our nation can get back to the business that the Founding Fathers intended.
pH 1o.2o.o9
Saturday, October 17, 2009
No Sweat
A strange and fickle relationship exists between Arizona and the national media. The CNNs of the world tend to focus more on the exploits of crazy Sheriff Joe Arpaio, or the fact that we can bring guns into bars, than on anything of true importance. We're the state that had the governor who said "pickaninny". In the overall realm of current events, we usually land somewhere in between Mayberry and Lobster Boy.
The latest news coming out of Arizona - listed under "foreign studies" at Columbia University - is a tragic story involving at least two deaths at a tony Sedona resort called Angel Valley. It was there that a so-called financial guru, James Arthur Ray, conducted a "sweat lodge ceremony" that killed two people and sickened many more (one remains in critical condition).
What were 60-odd people doing in a sweat lodge with a financial guru? They were taking part in Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" seminar, for which they each paid a little under ten thousand dollars. White-collar victims of a red-collar crime.
The sheriff of Yavapai County has declared it a case of homicide. This sparked an indignant outburst from Ray's publicist in Los Angeles, one Howard Bragman. He's in the Arizona Republic today, calling the charges "purposely incendiary", crying about "finger-pointing".
Well, yes; contrary to the media legends, we in Arizona take such fatalities seriously. We don't simply dig holes in the desert and dispose of the corpses (that's actually Nevada). And for some reason, we no longer leave the perpetrators hanging from the boughs of mesquite trees, to be discovered at first light.
Ray is certain to be held responsible for the deaths of these people, and may well go to prison for this ridiculous stunt. As for Mr. Bragman and his blustery complaints, please remember that he is an L.A. publicist. You know who else is an L.A. publicist? Balloon Boy's huckster dad. Take it for what it's worth.
I don't mean to disparage the dead, or to antagonize their next of kin, but there might be a silver lining in all of this. Hopefully, this unfortunate news will carry Back East, where these rich flakes came from in search of (quite honestly) ever more money.
Let them now understand that Sedona isn't some psychic vortex location. It's just a seriously expensive, and apparently dangerous, tourist trap. Ask the locals - the ones who aren't hawking rose-quartz crystals and copper bracelets, I mean.
The supposed sweat lodge ceremony that Ray was attempting to recreate for these saps is based upon Native American spirituality. It means something more to them than selling tickets to quack seminars, otherwise there would be billboards all along I-40, like there are for geodes and blankets. They don't need, and likely don't appreciate, $nake Oil Guy exploiting their culture.
Let's face it. Sedona hasn't been a spiritual place since the Yavapai-Apaches were driven from the land, force-marched 180 miles in winter to the San Carlos reservation. Since then it has been nothing but a stunning geological cauldron that, to this very day, steams with the stench of greed and death.
pH 1o.17.o9
(Editor's note: A third victim died at a Flagstaff-area hospital on Monday, October 19, 2oo9.)
The latest news coming out of Arizona - listed under "foreign studies" at Columbia University - is a tragic story involving at least two deaths at a tony Sedona resort called Angel Valley. It was there that a so-called financial guru, James Arthur Ray, conducted a "sweat lodge ceremony" that killed two people and sickened many more (one remains in critical condition).
What were 60-odd people doing in a sweat lodge with a financial guru? They were taking part in Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" seminar, for which they each paid a little under ten thousand dollars. White-collar victims of a red-collar crime.
The sheriff of Yavapai County has declared it a case of homicide. This sparked an indignant outburst from Ray's publicist in Los Angeles, one Howard Bragman. He's in the Arizona Republic today, calling the charges "purposely incendiary", crying about "finger-pointing".
Well, yes; contrary to the media legends, we in Arizona take such fatalities seriously. We don't simply dig holes in the desert and dispose of the corpses (that's actually Nevada). And for some reason, we no longer leave the perpetrators hanging from the boughs of mesquite trees, to be discovered at first light.
Ray is certain to be held responsible for the deaths of these people, and may well go to prison for this ridiculous stunt. As for Mr. Bragman and his blustery complaints, please remember that he is an L.A. publicist. You know who else is an L.A. publicist? Balloon Boy's huckster dad. Take it for what it's worth.
I don't mean to disparage the dead, or to antagonize their next of kin, but there might be a silver lining in all of this. Hopefully, this unfortunate news will carry Back East, where these rich flakes came from in search of (quite honestly) ever more money.
Let them now understand that Sedona isn't some psychic vortex location. It's just a seriously expensive, and apparently dangerous, tourist trap. Ask the locals - the ones who aren't hawking rose-quartz crystals and copper bracelets, I mean.
The supposed sweat lodge ceremony that Ray was attempting to recreate for these saps is based upon Native American spirituality. It means something more to them than selling tickets to quack seminars, otherwise there would be billboards all along I-40, like there are for geodes and blankets. They don't need, and likely don't appreciate, $nake Oil Guy exploiting their culture.
Let's face it. Sedona hasn't been a spiritual place since the Yavapai-Apaches were driven from the land, force-marched 180 miles in winter to the San Carlos reservation. Since then it has been nothing but a stunning geological cauldron that, to this very day, steams with the stench of greed and death.
pH 1o.17.o9
(Editor's note: A third victim died at a Flagstaff-area hospital on Monday, October 19, 2oo9.)
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Peace Out
Clearly, I am not getting enough irony in my diet. The last column I posted urged President Obama to win the war in Afghanistan (as opposed to abandoning it). Not too much farther down the road, he gets awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
It is unlikely that this prestigious honor will prevent the administration from following an honorable path with respect to the war that George W. Bush - himself a finalist for the Jonas Zavimbi War Prize - started and never wanted to finish. Never mind all that; the story's more interesting tangents lead into the murky world of right-wing media.
Even Obama acknowledged that he hadn't yet really accomplished so much as to be awarded the Nobel, so the conservative avalanche of disgust was easily anticipated. For them, any excuse to ridicule the president will suffice, but they went after more than just the man this time.
Conservative commentators, from Rush Limbaugh all the way down to the lowest intellectual termite, made the time to actually denigrate the notion of peace itself. They equate it with weakness. They label it appeasement. They consider it next to evil.
Okay.
Today, then, is a red-letter day in American politics. It means that there are no more so-called "Christian conservatives". Such a thing can no longer be. It would make no more sense than a "man fish", or a "dirt beverage".
Can't happen. Doesn't exist. It just... isn't. Why? Because a Christian believes in peace. Every single mass, regardless of denomination, is briefly paused so that the parishioners can greet everyone around them with a handshake (or, I suppose, a fist-bump) and the words, "Peace be with you."
Who are we honoring with this pacifist gibberish? Jesus Christ, that's who. The Prince of Peace himself. The man who reportedly said, "Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive." If you go to any popular search engine and type in "Jesus Christ Peace", you will find some 38 million results.
Therefore, if you consider yourself a Christian, you cannot be aligned with conservatism. And those who identify with conservatism (and its most voracious partners in capitalism) cannot get into Heaven. But you already knew that. You just refuse to act on your faith and your beliefs.
Anyway. I really felt that Obama, as awesome as he obviously is, should not have received the award. He's just doing what he feels is right. The real credit should go to the one person most responsible for getting him into the White House where he could be most effective. That person is, without a doubt, Paris Hilton.
After all, Barack Obama was running neck and neck with John McCain last year, right up until the time that McCain put out that Obama-as-celebrity commercial (in which McCain strategists played up the images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton). Britney did nothing more than smack her bubblegum in response, but Paris came back with an ad of her own.
In it, she put the devastating hit on Arizona's senior senator, calling him a "wrinkly white-haired guy." That was all she wrote for John McCain. Obama went into cruise control at that point, and the rest is history, right up to the point where "the guy who promised change" won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Paris Hilton may not exactly be royalty, but she's as close as we can get to that in America today.
Nobility.
pH 1o.1o.o9
It is unlikely that this prestigious honor will prevent the administration from following an honorable path with respect to the war that George W. Bush - himself a finalist for the Jonas Zavimbi War Prize - started and never wanted to finish. Never mind all that; the story's more interesting tangents lead into the murky world of right-wing media.
Even Obama acknowledged that he hadn't yet really accomplished so much as to be awarded the Nobel, so the conservative avalanche of disgust was easily anticipated. For them, any excuse to ridicule the president will suffice, but they went after more than just the man this time.
Conservative commentators, from Rush Limbaugh all the way down to the lowest intellectual termite, made the time to actually denigrate the notion of peace itself. They equate it with weakness. They label it appeasement. They consider it next to evil.
Okay.
Today, then, is a red-letter day in American politics. It means that there are no more so-called "Christian conservatives". Such a thing can no longer be. It would make no more sense than a "man fish", or a "dirt beverage".
Can't happen. Doesn't exist. It just... isn't. Why? Because a Christian believes in peace. Every single mass, regardless of denomination, is briefly paused so that the parishioners can greet everyone around them with a handshake (or, I suppose, a fist-bump) and the words, "Peace be with you."
Who are we honoring with this pacifist gibberish? Jesus Christ, that's who. The Prince of Peace himself. The man who reportedly said, "Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive." If you go to any popular search engine and type in "Jesus Christ Peace", you will find some 38 million results.
Therefore, if you consider yourself a Christian, you cannot be aligned with conservatism. And those who identify with conservatism (and its most voracious partners in capitalism) cannot get into Heaven. But you already knew that. You just refuse to act on your faith and your beliefs.
Anyway. I really felt that Obama, as awesome as he obviously is, should not have received the award. He's just doing what he feels is right. The real credit should go to the one person most responsible for getting him into the White House where he could be most effective. That person is, without a doubt, Paris Hilton.
After all, Barack Obama was running neck and neck with John McCain last year, right up until the time that McCain put out that Obama-as-celebrity commercial (in which McCain strategists played up the images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton). Britney did nothing more than smack her bubblegum in response, but Paris came back with an ad of her own.
In it, she put the devastating hit on Arizona's senior senator, calling him a "wrinkly white-haired guy." That was all she wrote for John McCain. Obama went into cruise control at that point, and the rest is history, right up to the point where "the guy who promised change" won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Paris Hilton may not exactly be royalty, but she's as close as we can get to that in America today.
Nobility.
pH 1o.1o.o9
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)