WASHINGTON — Americans by 9 percentage points have a favorable view of the health care overhaul that President Obama signed into law Tuesday, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, a notable turnaround from surveys before the vote that showed a plurality against it.

By 49%-40% those surveyed say it was "a good thing" rather than a bad one that Congress passed the bill. Half describe their reaction in positive terms, as "enthusiastic" or "pleased," while about four in 10 describe it in negative ways, as "disappointed" or "angry."

The largest single group, 48%, calls the bill "a good first step" that should be followed by more action on health care. An additional 4% also have a favorable view, saying the bill makes the most important changes needed in the nation's health care system.

 

LAWSUITS: 13 AGs sue over health bill

 

HEALTH BILL: How six groups will be affected

 

BUSINESS: Employers unclear on impact

To be sure, the nation remains divided about the massive legislation that narrowly passed the House late Sunday and was signed by Obama in an emotional East Room ceremony Tuesday morning. The Senate began debate Tuesday afternoon on a package of "fixes" demanded by the House.

The findings are encouraging for the White House and congressional Democrats, who get higher ratings than congressional Republicans for their work on the issue. The poll shows receptive terrain as the White House and advocacy groups launch efforts to sell the plan, including a trip by Obama to Iowa on Thursday.

No one gets overwhelmingly positive ratings on the issue, but Obama fares the best: 46% say his work has been excellent or good; 31% call it poor. Congressional Democrats get an even split: 32% call their efforts good or excellent; 33% poor.

The standing of congressional Republicans is more negative. While 26% rate their work on health care as good or excellent, a larger group, 34%, say it has been poor.

For more results and a look at the demographic breakdown of the poll findings, see Wednesday's USA TODAY.

You might be interested in:

• Obama invites Republicans to health care talks (USATODAY.com in News)
• Sunday's best: The big health care vote (USATODAY.com )
• Health care bill heads for showdown (USATODAY.com in News)
• Obama: Republican health care ideas must meet certain goals (USATODAY.com )

Let The Sun Shine In......

TeagBaggers, awesome Americans?

  I'M still threatening to leave if one hair is harmed on Obama's head!

by Meg White

Ordinarily, angry people threatening to leave the U.S. over political matters rethink their dramatic plans. I know; I was one of them.

I was disappointed by the first nation-wide electoral "victory" handed to George W. Bush. But, especially after his first year or two in office, I knew he couldn't get reelected. I was so certain of this that I vowed to leave the country if he did.

Guess what? I'm still here!

Being in the midst of writing my thesis was a sufficient excuse to remain. But deep down I knew that I wouldn't abandon my country in its hour of need, no matter how dumb it looked. My parents taught me that "love it or leave it" is as stupidly intolerant as it sounds.
"Oh, honey. I was around your age when Reagan was reelected, and we thought it was the end of the world too," my mom told me at the time. "But if all the people like you leave, this country will never be like you want it to be."

Little did she know, my mother planted the seed for the tumultuous times we're experiencing today. I was convinced that the only way to save my country was to elect a president that would drive out the crazy, racist conservatives. And I'm proud to report it's working.

Of course, my sinister plan finally took root in the only place it rightfully could: the Lone Star State.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been positioning himself as the new president of the secessionist state, which I like to call "Merica," ever since Barack Obama was elected president. Just calling him a founding father, thanks! Considering the fact that Texas isn't legally allowed to secede from the union (contrary to the beliefs of one-third of Texans), looks like Perry and his band of rebels will be taking off for Merica any day now.

Then came blowhard extraordinaire Rush Limbaugh who announced he'd be leaving (for Costa Rica..?) if healthcare passed. Buh bye, Rushie. We'll miss you. And hey, if all that socialism in Costa Rica gets to you, maybe Merica will have a nice fat time slot for you to put all your hot air in.

Of course, Rush isn't the first conservative making rebellious threats in advance of President Obama signing healthcare into law. In fact, there's been a fair amount of race baiting from the right on healthcare reform. Somehow by granting more citizens access to healthcare, doctors will all be slaves to Overload Obama. Oh, and those subsidies for low-income people to buy health insurance? Those are totally reparations for slavery. Now, the fact that those two arguments contradict each other in your mind is just evidence that you're an Obamatron.

Anyway, it's certainly not shocking that all this talk of healthcare slavery would eventually lead the right to compare our current political discourse with that of the Civil War. Or, as Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) called it on the House floor, "the Great War of Yankee Aggression" (emphasis mine):

If Obamacare passes, that free insurance card that's in people's pockets is going to be as worthless as a Confederate dollar after the war between the states -- the Great War of Yankee Aggression.

(Side note: When Broun referenced "that free insurance card," he must be talking about life in Merica, because I have never seen such a thing in ye olde U.S. of A.)

Of course, this Civil War comparison only works because the tea party movement is steeped in a colorful re-imagining of our founding fathers as God-fearing men who hated Obamacare. The many references to the Revolutionary War -- from "Don't Tread on Me" to lovingly misreading the Constitution to the ill-fated naming of the movement in the first place -- are clear attempts to align themselves simultaneously with patriotism and revolt. 

Without such a willingness to blend history with fantasy, they'd have to admit they're the losers advocating for slavery in their bizarre Civil War reenactment, or that they have more in common with British loyalists than Paul Revere.

No matter what chapter of twisted history you subscribe to, rebellion is the constant narrative. I mean really; these people embrace the term "angry mob" as a potent descriptor of their movement. It was only a matter of time before the secessionists latched on.

Broun and others invoking the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and the legally specious states' rights argument to "opt out of" the federal government's healthcare plan are simply making poorly-veiled references to their imminent departure. I was hoping by now they'd be gutsy enough to abandon their false sense of historicity and get down to actually planning their exodus. Finally, it looks like that's happening, thanks to the Aryan representing Iowa.

At a tea party rally against healthcare reform this past Sunday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) suggested teabaggers are the "best" stock with which to make a new nation, if it, uh, should come to that. And he was sure to throw a whole mess of coded violence into his speech, so that we would all be aware that this will be no bloodless revolution (emphasis mine):

KING: I just came down here so I could say to you, God bless you. … You are the awesome American people. [...]

If I could start a country with a bunch of people, they’d be the folks who were standing with us the last few days. Let’s hope we don’t have to do that! Let’s beat that other side to a pulp! Let’s take them out. Let’s chase them down. 

There’s going to be a reckoning!

So if Perry's the future president of Merica, will the Iowa congressman be the eventual King?
There's one part where I agree with King (other than the overarching notion that these people should just get the hell out of the U.S.): I also hope it doesn't have to come down to violence. I bet King and his self-styled "angry mob" fight dirty, and I have no doubt they could "beat" my wimpy liberal ass "to a pulp," as threatened.

So what if we just reminded these conservative rebels of what they've been telling us liberals for years? This country ain't no prison. You can leave any time you damn well please.
In fact, we'll even give 'em a few parting gifts as a reward for leaving quietly (that's more than they offered Eddie Vedder, after all). I'm sure we could cobble something together with stuff we've got lying around...

Ah, here we are! These intellectually-mangled Texas text books ought to be mighty handy in teaching the young citizens of Merica the "real" version of history, science and the one, true religion. Heck, Merica can even have that war-mongering national anthem of ours. We have plenty of other options. America the Beautiful has been suggested many times as a suitable replacement. Or how about this classic?

Na na na na,
Na na na na,
Hey hey hey,
Goodbye!

Let The Sun Shine In......

Vulture Predatory Funds

GREG PALAST FOR BUZZFLASH.COM

Exclusive for Buzzflash.com                                                     
by Greg Palast

March 23, 2010

For the two weeks before tickle-and-grope charges busted open on him, and before his resignation from Congress, our BBC Television investigations team was hunting for Representative Eric Massa.

We wanted to know what he had hidden in his drawers. Not his knickers, which have captivated America's peep-show media, but Massa's file drawers where he keeps his dirtier secrets.




Greg Palast on the Hunt for Profiteers from the Predatory Vulture Funds

Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass about Massa's creepy little peccadilloes.  But I care an awful lot about creeps that quietly backed him.

Massa plays himself as a two-fisted Progressive Democrat, telling the President to jam his fake health care bill where the Rahm don't shine, and he gave the Iraq war his middle finger.  I mean, the guy was on Rachel Maddow.

That's the television Massa.  But what about the Congressman Massa?  And why was he ducking us?

I specifically wanted to ask the New York Congressman about Paul Singer:  "Swift Boat" Singer, the guy who funded the vile attacks on Presidential Candidate John Kerry.  "Swift Boat" Singer — reportedly the biggest funder of the Republican Party in New York.  Our information was that the demi-billionaire Singer was backing Massa.

Singer's nickname isn't really Swift Boat.  It's "The Vulture."

Singer is a speculator, the predator-in-chief of the flock of financiers, collectively known as "vultures," who buy up the right to collect on old loans made to the world's poorest nations.  Vultures use law suits, political muscle, and in some cases, bribery, to get nations like Congo and Liberia to pay these hedge funds up to 100 times what the vulture originally paid for the debt.  

As you can imagine, vultures don't have lots of friends; and those they have they must purchase.

The vultures had been looking for some morally challenged congressperson to front a bill to help them crank billions from the budgets of Third World nations.  The law that could make demi-billionaire Singer a billionaire is called, "The Judgment Evading Foreign States Accountability Act" (H.R. 2493).

In effect, the bill says that if Argentina (and other Third World nations) don't pay Mr. Singer and his vulture buddies the billions they demand, then the US government will act as Singer's enforcement arm, hanging out Argentina to dry, cutting off trade between our countries.

Now, as Mr. Singer became Mr. Checkbook to the Republican Party in New York, you'd assume that his make-me-richer bill would be sponsored by some right-wing GOP troglodyte.  Wrong:  the rent-boy, the chief sponsor of Singer's bill, was, to our amazement, the "liberal" Democrat Eric Massa.

Two sources tell us that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not amused at Massa's weirdo attack on the financial lifeblood of US allies, nor does the White House favor a law which would provoke seizures of US assets abroad.

Our information was that Massa, crazy-desperate for campaign cash, was now getting juice from Singer and other vultures.  I wanted to ask the Republican-turned-Democrat about his funding and about how he ended up in a political tryst with vultures. 

The normally television-hungry Congressman refused our every attempt to get him on camera.  And Singer's PR flack told me his own boss would speak to me "never, ever."
But we do know the cover story.  Massa's bill was promoted by a benign-sounding group called, "The American Task Force Argentina."  The ATFA website says their goal is, "Pursuing a Fair Reconciliation of the Argentine Debt Default."

There are some very progressive folk on ATFA's payroll.  Its masthead lists "Ambassador Nancy Soderberg." Nancy's not actually an ambassador, but she did hold that title a decade ago under Bill Clinton, and she even worked for Ted Kennedy.  The other co-Chair is listed as "The Honorable Dr. Robert J. Shapiro." Shapiro's no longer an "Honorable," but, back in the day, he held that title under Clinton as Undersecretary of Commerce.  Now he's a lobbyist.

These good liberals charge mucho bucks per hour for their influence.  Who picked up the tab?  Well, there was FH International and Montreux Capital, vulture funds that tormented West Africa's poorest nation, Liberia.

Those are the vulture funds that, when I came to question them in their New York offices last month, unbolted their name plaque from the building wall and locked their employees inside to hide from our camera crew. Also behind ATFA: Elliot Associates -- Paul Singer, proprietor. 

I wanted to ask Bob Shapiro what he and these other good Democrats were doing with vulture feathers in their wallets.  (The Honorable Bob leaped at the chance to appear on BBC TV ... until he was told that the reporter would be Greg Palast.  Instantly, Dr. Shapiro became unavailable.)

I'm sure Shapiro would have told me that, unlike Republicans, you can't buy Democrats.  True, but apparently, you can rent them.

So, that's the cover.  A "liberal" group funded by a right-wing Republican fronting for those trying to shake down Argentina to pay on bogus "loans" that Singer and FH International bought for next to nothing.

If Bob Shapiro will front for predators for cash, that's his business.  But if Massa took campaign loot in a quid pro quo for legislation, that's our business.

I don't know the answer.  But Massa does.  And he won't talk to me.  Nor will he talk to the House Ethics Committee.

On March 5, Massa abruptly resigned from Congress - which put an immediate end to the Ethics investigation of his activities.

At first, he said he was quitting Congress because he has cancer.  Then he said he resigned because a buck-naked Rahm Emanuel bullied him in the Congressional shower-room and then threatened him over his health care vote.  (Foxhole wing-nut Glenn Beck fell for that canard.)  Then Massa said he resigned because of an aide's accusation that the Congressman tickled the aide in an "inappropriate" manner.  (The mainstream press swallowed that one whole.)

I don't believe any of it.  (Senator David Vitter (R-LA), known as "Vitter The hitter," was caught getting diapered by the Washington Madame, and still remains in the Senate voting against what he calls Obama's "immoral" program.)

Would the real Eric Massa please step forward and tell us the real reason he's resigning?  Eric, my door's open and my microphone's on.

I don't want to talk about your zipper.  I do want to ask you about any connection between speculator money and your save-the-vultures bill.

Unfortunately, despite our many pleas, Mr. Massa, you won't speak to us on camera or off.  Apparently the subject of your financier buddies is a little too ticklish.

***
Greg Palast's investigative reports for BBC Television on vulture funds can be viewed at http://www.GregPalast.com.
 
Palast will be speaking in Chicago, on Friday, April 9, at 6:30pm, at Columbia College Film Row Cinema in conversation with This is Hell radio host Chuck Mertz.

BuzzFlash highly recommends you watch Greg's "Palast Hunts the Vultures" BBC Report.



The Predatory Vulture Funds Prey on the Misery of Humanity

Let The Sun Shine In......

Why Won't the Media Correct Past Lies?

by David Swanson
ACORN is shutting down because of a fraudulent video pimped by the corporate media.  U.S. forces in Afghanistan have heroically laid seige to and conquered a fictional city, helping build the case for further escalation.  A cable news channel has created a right-wing mass movement by pretending it already existed.  Congressman Dennis Kucinich voted for a health insurance bill he believed would deprive more people of healthcare (and wealth and homes), because fraudulent reports had convinced his constituents of the opposite.  The peace movement was defunded in November 2008, because of a fraudulent presidential election campaign.  71% of Americans believe Iran has nuclear weapons.  41% of Americans think the quality of the environment is improving.  Has the power of the corporate media to overwhelm all before it begun to sink in yet?

ACORN's funders didn't have to run and hide because of a bunch of laughably bad lies, but they were afraid.  The most common excuse of progressive congress members for anything they do is fear of the media.  The peace movement didn't have to shut down, but its funders had used war as a criticism of Republicans; opposing war for its own sake was secondary, and their televisions told them peace had arrived.  Kucinich could have stuck to his No vote on healthcare, but he probably wouldn't have lasted long in Congress.  We don't have to be suckered by comically manipulative war news, but all the big media outlets want war -- and the Democratic-party outlets especially favor war now.  Fox News could not have created the Teabaggers on its own, but MSNBC and the Democratic blogosphere spend a majority of their time focused on Teabaggers and Republicans because it unites their viewers/readers against something uglier than elected Democrats, never mind that in Washington the Democrats technically have all the power.

We need independent media.  Is that not yet crystal clear?  The strongest grassroots community organization in the country, ACORN, has been swatted away like a fly through the endless airing of fraudulent, badly edited, and irrelevant, but salacious video clips.  Elected officials or electoral candidates succeed or fail at the whim of the media cartel.  And the biggest lies of all are buried so deeply beneath the hot news stories that they're almost impossible to see.  Does or does not Iran possess nuclear weapons?  That question hides the insidious assumption that if a nation possesses nuclear weapons, then our nation can and should launch an illegal war of aggression against it.  Or at least our nation should have a debate over how best to take action against our "enemy," a debate that will represent us all because it will include two political parties.

This is the biggest lie of them all: the system works.  Vote for this corporatist war party or that warmongering corporate party, and you will have played your role well.  The system works.  The president makes the laws.  The Congress gets in the way.  The two parties are significantly different from each other and represent our views.  News stories that include the views of both parties are complete and admirable journalism.  The journalism itself has no viewpoint at all.  The role of a citizen is to support politicians and parties.

Imagine if Bush wanted to try alleged terrorists in court (as in fact he did).  All the Republicanites would have cheered (as in fact they did).  Imagine if Bush had pushed a health insurance bill written by the industry and had cut deals with the insurance and drug companies.  Imagine if Republicans had called a private program for 3% of Americans a "public option".  All the Democratites in the country would have denounced the whole thing as a scam.  The problem with "balanced" reporting is that those who consume it pick one of the two partisan positions presented and follow it as if they'd thought of it themselves.  This mindless obedience is going to destroy us all.

We need independent media, meaning sources of news that are independent of either political party.  We could easily find the money to create it right now if we chose to make that a priority.  We will do so or we, and this republic, and the world as we know it will perish . . . in horrible pain, with a grin on our face.

David Swanson is the author of the new book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press.  You can order it and find out when tour will be in your town: http://davidswanson.org/book.

Let The Sun Shine In......

Neugeberger was the Republican Who Shouted "Baby Killer!"

It's getting way past NASTY in D.C.

enhanced by Google

By JIM ABRAMS, AP
2 hours ago
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WASHINGTON — Texas Republican Rep. Randy Neugebauer acknowledged Monday that he is the lawmaker who shouted out "baby killer" during a floor speech by Rep. Bart Stupak, an anti-abortion Democrat whose vote was crucial to passing the Democratic health care bill Sunday evening.

Neugebauer, who has represented a solidly GOP district that includes the city of Lubbock since 2003, said he had apologized to Stupak for his outburst, which drew a rebuke from the chair during the often-rowdy debate.

"Those that are shouting out are out of order," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., who was presiding in the chair at the time.

Neugebauer insisted in a statement that he was not referring directly to Stupak but to the agreement that the Michigan Democrat helped work out with the White House. That eleventh-hour agreement, under which President Barack Obama said he would issue an executive order pledging that no federal funds be used for abortions, helped seal the last votes Democrats needed to pass the bill.

He said his exact words, referring to that agreement, were "it's a baby killer."

"While I remain heartbroken over the passage of this bill and the tragic consequences it will have for the unborn, I deeply regret that my actions were mistakenly interpreted as a direct reference to Congressman Stupak himself," he said.

But Neugebauer also acknowledged that the House chamber "is a place of decorum and respect. The timing and tone of my comment last night was inappropriate."

AP - Watch the Outburst

Neugebauer is one of the House's most conservative members, consistently speaking out about the need for lower taxes and smaller government. Last year he co-sponsored a resolution requiring that presidential candidates produce copies of their birth certificates.
That followed "birther" movement allegations that Obama was born outside the United States and not qualified to be president.

In an interview Monday with Fox News, Stupak lamented the prevalence over the past year of "uncivilized behavior" when lawmakers are trying to speak on the House floor. "We can disagree on these issues as we should and we should have a meaningful debate but personal attacks have no place on it."

Later, talking to MSNBC, Stupak said he accepted Neugebauer's apology but questioned the Texas Republican's claim that it was not personal. "I certainly took it as a personal attack on me," Stupak said. If not, "maybe Randy needs to apologize to the House of Representatives."

The outburst was reminiscent of last September when another GOP conservative, Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, yelled out "you lie" when Obama was addressing Congress on the health care issue. He also issued an apology.

Unlike that incident, Wilson was quickly identified by reporters covering the speech. This time, it was not immediately known who did the shouting and it was nearly a day before Neugebauer came forward.

In Wilson's case, the House on a mainly party line vote passed a resolution of disapproval formally criticizing him for violating basic rules of decorum and civility.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., asked Monday about Neugebauer, noted that he had apologized.

"He shouldn't have done it. ... I don't think further action is needed," Hoyer said.

Neugebauer's "baby killer" shout came at the end of a day of passionate and often vitriolic speeches on both sides of the health care issue. There were also tea party movement protests against the health care bill in which some demonstrators used racial slurs against black members of Congress and reportedly spit at one black lawmaker.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Let The Sun Shine In......

HCR has Passes the House

But Not without ugliness both outside and inside the Capital

Sunday 21 March 2010

by: David Lightman and William Douglas  |  McClatchy Newspapers

 

(Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: o palsson, takomabibelot)

Washington - The House of Representatives late Sunday passed by a 219 to 212 vote the biggest overhaul of the nation's health care system in more than four decades, sweeping changes expected to make coverage easier and cheaper to obtain.

The largely party-line vote — 219 Democrats voted "yea," while all 178 Republicans and 34 Democrats voted no — meant President Barack Obama's biggest domestic initiative inched closer to the end of its year-long political and legislative odyssey.

The vote sent a bill passed on Dec. 24 by the Senate to Obama for his signature. The House, however, will consider later Sunday another bill that would make major changes, called reconciliation.

If that passes — and approval seems virtually assured — it would go to the Senate immediately. Should the Senate concur, probably later this week, all the health care changes would need is Obama's certain signature.

The $940 billion legislation would make the biggest health care since Medicare was created 45 years ago. Under the new plan, most consumers would be required to have coverage by 2014, and most employers would have to offer it.

Within a year, insurers would be barred from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions, imposing lifetime limits on coverage and dropping people from coverage when they get sick.

The reconciliation bill makes several key changes to the Senate measure. A Medicare payroll tax would increase of 0.9 percentage points, to 2.35 percent, for earnings of more than $200,000 a year for single filers and $250,000 for joint filers. In addition, such earners would pay 3.8 percent on dividend, interest and other unearned income, starting in 2013.

The bill also provides more help with insurance premiums for lower- and middle-income consumers and expands Medicaid funding to states.

"I know that this bill is complicated," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. "It's also very simple. Illness and infirmity are universal, and we are stronger against them together than alone. Our bodies may fail us. Our neighbors don't have to."

Republicans warned the plan's impact would reverberate beyond health care policy.

In an impassioned floor speech, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, chastised House Democrats for ramming through a bill and suggested that the majority party will pay the price in November's midterm elections.

"We have failed to listen to America," Boehner said. "If we pass this bill, there will be no turning back. It will be the last straw for the American people. In a democracy, you can only ignore the will of the people for so long and get away with it."

The outcome was in some doubt early Sunday as about a dozen anti-abortion Democrats threatened to withhold their support unless they got guarantees that the legislation wouldn't expand the government's role in abortion. However, the White House said Sunday afternoon that Obama would issue an executive order to ensure that the administration will enforce long-standing restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who led the anti-abortion group, was pleased, and flatly predicted that when the House votes late Sunday, it will have the 216 needed for passage.

"We wanted to see health care reform, but there was a principle we wanted to see — the sanctity of life." Stupak said. Another group member, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said he now planned to cast "the most pro-life vote" in his 34-year congressional career.

The lengthy executive order, negotiated over several days, resolves several thorny problems — it removes from the legislation any changes to abortion policy, which would have required the difficult prospect of getting Senate approval. It also assures the support of the last big bloc of holdout Democrats.

Democrats picked up other key votes Sunday. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., who'd voted no on the House bill in November, said he'd now vote yes. "This legislation before us in not perfect, but it does make substantial improvements on what exists today," he said.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, one of the anti-abortion Democrats on the fence, told Toledo, Ohio, said she got assurances from administration officials that current federal law on abortion would be preserved.

Democrats, though, were still having trouble convincing a lot of "Blue Dogs," or fiscal conservatives. Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., Sunday decided to vote "no" because "I am unconvinced the long-term trend of rising health care costs is adequately addressed."

The debate Sunday began as the Capitol buzzed with an electric atmosphere. Outside in warm early spring weather, crowds protesting the health care bill and others supporting it rallied.

"Things are colliding today," said Maria Robalino, 35, of Washington, carrying a purple "Catholics for Healthcare Reform" sign.

Inside the Capitol, the mood could be tense. Particularly after a protester jumped up during the debate and shouted "kill the bill." Police quickly pounced and escorted him out of the chamber.

The debate on the House floor was a rerun of sorts, as Republicans and Democrats took turns offering well-rehearsed talking points.

"We know a nation is truly healthy when all of its citizens can have health care," said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash.

"These bills are not the answer. They compound current problems and make health care even more expensive for small businesses," argued Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.

(Erika Bolstad and Les Blumenthal contributed to this article.)

All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license.

Let The Sun Shine In......

A Disgusting Display By Teabaggers

Tea Party protesters reportedly spit on one lawmaker, call others ‘faggot’ and the n-word.

Today’s Code Red rally appears to be one of the most raucous Tea Party gatherings on Capitol Hill yet. In addition to protesters shouting with rage at federal lawmakers, Sam Stein reports on some more disturbing incidents:

A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-M.D.) had been spit on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-G.A.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a ‘ni–er.’ And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a “faggot,” as protestors shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams. Frank, approached in the halls after the president’s speech, shrugged off the incident.

But Clyburn was downright incredulous, saying he had not witnessed such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.

“I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus,” [said Clyburn.]

Clyburn added, “I think a lot of those people today demonstrated that this is not about health care…it is about trying to extend a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful.” TPM, Mother Jones, and The Hill have reports of similar behavior by the Tea Party protesters.

Let The Sun Shine In......

Is The Boomerrand Curving...Again

We can only hope. I know I do because I have always hated a bully.

THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter

I'm sensing that Congressional Republicans are swiftly moving to a monumental "Oops" mentality; that, having watched their Waterloo strategy march right up to the edge of victory, they're now realizing that the worm of political battle has irreversibly turned -- and, having already exhausted their supply of star-spangled obstructionism, there's nothing left but foxhole prayer and battlefield panic.

Ponder, for instance, the utter void of this risible threat, issued last Sunday by a seethingly insincere Lindsay Graham, on ABC's "This Week": "When it comes to health care, [Obama's] been tone-deaf, he's been arrogant and they're pushing a legislative proposal and a way to that legislative proposal that's going to destroy the ability of this country to work together for a very long time."

It's the president and his Capitol Hill allies who are going to destroy the ability of this country to work together? Man, that's classic; a genuine knee-slapper, even for the barely and only occasionally attentive.

The president, Mr. Graham, outfoxed your party but good. You never should have gathered your House forces to confront him on national TV, and you never ever should have shown up at Blair House. Not, that is, with the strategy you were packing, which was noticeably reducible to one word: "No."

Those sorry engagements were, with apologies to Churchill, the beginning of the end. They were the equivalent of orderly town halls -- now where's the populist fun in that? -- endlessly looped on video tape and expository of nothing but GOP nihilism.

No, No, No blanketed the airwaves for days -- a patchwork-spectacle ranging from unremitting hostility to uncomprehending sheepishness, a range that instilled a creeping sense of reconsideration among independents. Hold it, they thought; these guys aren't the principled opposition -- they're just a bunch of insatiable, unprincipled thugs.

The evidence of this is just barely quantifiable, but quantifiable nevertheless. Slight but undeniable upticks in pro-reform polling have appeared of late (pdf), with the shifts and stirrings coming almost certainly from the middle only. This tectonic phenomenon should be, of course, unsurprising, since in general it's only the non-ideological middle that's moveable.

And not a single one of my friends have been called for their opinions and they are all pro-reform and anti-healthcare industry. Their only regret is that big pharma aren't going to take the hit they deserve.

And though non-ideological the American middle may be, its one consistent sensibility is a resistance to naked brutishness.

Me thinks that the GOP ignored one very important thing. That would be the building animosity toward corporate America. I'm hearing and seeing a lot about that. 

Recall, for example, the GOP's "Oops" moments of the mid and late 1990s, infused as they were with a mindless government shutdown and a malicious impeachment. In both instances the GOP pushed too far -- as is the characteristic wont of a bully -- and was repelled into a humiliating retreat.

Now, the denouement of its Waterloo strategy is beginning to look familiar; indeed sound familiar, as rang so true in the hysteria of Lindsay Graham's "arrogance"-hurling and spectacularly laughable accusation of Democratic intransigence.

Aside from brutish obstructionism, Dennis Kucinich put his belated finger on an even larger GOP program already well in progress, which the body politic had been watching and uneasily noticing before this week:

"One of the things that’s bothered me is the attempt to try to delegitimize [Obama's] presidency," said the congressman at his Wednesday press conference. "That hurts the nation when that happens ... We have to be very careful that the potential of President Obama’s presidency not be destroyed by this debate. And I feel, even though I have many differences with him on policy, there’s something much bigger at stake here for America, and that’s what I’d like people to think about."

Mr. Kucinich, I think -- with no quantifying proof whatsoever -- that they've been doing just that.

While remaining rather neurotic about Obama's health care reform, public attitudes have begun to transcend that singular debate. Historical memory is stirring: The GOP's strategy is more than mere partisanship and polarization; it's yet another attempt to overturn yet another legitimate election. Or at least that's my sense of the electorate's sense.

Will all of this boomerang on the GOP in November? Who knows. It's way too early (albeit fun) to prognosticate with assurance, as Karl Rove preposterously did with his recent prediction that "if [Democrats] pass" health care reform, "they’re dead in the polls."

All we can do is watch the boomerang in flight; its destination unknown , but it seems to be curving.

Please respond to P.M.'s commentary by leaving comments below and sharing them with the BuzzFlash community. For personal questions or comments you can contact him at fifthcolumnistmail@gmail.com

THE FIFTH COLUMNIST by P.M. Carpenter

Let The Sun Shine In......