Waitin' for the Weekend

OMG: It's Him!

According to a new Harris Poll:

Majorities of Republicans believe that President Obama:

--Is a socialist (67%)

--Wants to take away Americans' right to own guns (61%)

--Is a Muslim (57%)

--Wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government (51%); and

--Has done many things that are unconstitutional (55%).

Also, large numbers of Republicans also believe that President Obama:

--Resents America's heritage (47%)

--Does what Wall Street and the bankers tell him to do (40%)

--Was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president (45%)

--Is the "domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitution speaks of" (45%)

--Is a racist (42%)

--Want to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers (41%)

--Is doing many of the things that Hitler did (38%).

Even more remarkable perhaps, fully 24% of Republicans believe that "he may be the Anti-Christ" and 22% believe "he wants the terrorists to win."

While few Democrats believe any of these things, the proportions of Independents who do so are close to the national averages.

Did you get that, guys?  One out of four of your Republican neighbors thinks Obama might be the Antichrist.  How utterly, ludicrously, ignorantly absurd.

Everyone knows it's Oprah.

BFD: Healthcare Reform Signed into Law

President Obama signed the health insurance reform bill into law yesterday in the East Room of the White House.   "I'm signing this reform bill into law on behalf of my mother," he said, "who argued with insurance companies even as she battled cancer in her final days."  Transcript here.



And it's a Big Fucking Deal.  So said no less than Joe Biden, the Vice-President of the United States.  On live nationwide television, sort of.

And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tweeted shortly thereafter:  "And yes, Mr. Vice-President, you're right."

Be prepared for an unceasing campaign by the Republicans to repeal the law, at least from now till the November elections. 

From the L.A. Times, a map of how the House voted on Sunday:

Click to enlarge.

And FYI:  the Wikipedia article on the legislation provides an overview and many helpful links.

Dan Choi: Not Guilty, Not Ashamed, Not Finished

From Newsweek's interview with Dan Choi on his arrest with Capt. Jim Pietrangelo after handcuffing themselves to the White House gates last week:

Why not now? Within the gay community so many leaders want acceptance from polite society. I think there's been a betrayal of what is down inside of us in order to achieve what looks popular, what look enviable. The movement seems to be centered around how to become an elite. There is a deep schism [in the gay-rights movement], everyone knows this. But this shouldn't be about which group has better branding. There is a tremor right now in every gay and transgender youth that these groups are not grasping. I would say to them—you do not represent us if all you are looking for is a ladder into elite society.

When I get messages from people who want to be a part of this I ask back: what are you willing to sacrifice? We are tired of being stereotyped as privileged, bourgeois elites. Is someone willing to give up their career, their relationships with powerful people, their Rolodex, or their parents' love to stand up for who they are? I'm giving up my military rank, my unit—which to me is a family—my veterans' benefits, my health care, so what are you willing to sacrifice?

They say freedom is not free, but it doesn't have to cost anything either. Jesus up on the cross did not have a party with all his major donors to raise money for his cause, his cross was free. Ghandi did not need three-course dinners and a cocktail party to get his message out. These are people who sacrificed their lives. For them it was hemlock, a cross, the bullet that shot Harvey Milk . . . it was not the size of their distribution list, but their message that endured. . . .

When I was handcuffed to the gate someone else asked me what's next. I'm standing there with hands lifted skyward and I just told him, "This is." I have fully committed my life and all the sacrifices necessary to manifest equality and America's promises. Like I said at court, "I'm not guilty, I'm not ashamed, and I'm not finished."

A trial date is set for April 26.  They will also likely face courts-martial by the military.  Below, the two men after being released on bail last Saturday at the D. C. Courthouse:

Rube Goldberg Would Be Proud

The L.A. Times explains the nuts and bolts of healthcare reform and how it will affect you.  As I said in my last post, it's a mishmash of provisions no ordinary person would ever dream up, and few ordinary persons can see any sense to.  If you are poor or unemployed, and single - you are still screwed under this plan, basically, as I see it.

Sigh.  But as I also said - after a century of trying, it's a start.


Honk to Inverse Square for the illustration.


Update:  President Obama's remarks last night after the House vote:




Bonus:  Charts from the LAT and the NYT show how the plan will affect you.

House Passes Healthcare Reform

By 219 votes to 212, and not a single Republican vote among them.  NYT:

Never in modern memory has a major piece of legislation passed without a single Republican vote. Even President Lyndon B. Johnson got just shy of half of Republicans in the House to vote for Medicare in 1965, a piece of legislation that was denounced with many of the same words used to oppose this one. That may be the true measure of how much has changed in Washington in the ensuing 45 years, and how Mr. Obama’s own strategy is changing with the discovery that the approach to governing he had in mind simply will not work. . . .  In 1966, celebrating the creation of the first Medicare rolls that covered 20 million Americans, President Johnson recalled the complaints three decades earlier that Social Security “would destroy this country,” and noted “there is not one out of 100 who would think of repealing it.” . . .

Mr. Obama’s gamble is that what worked for Johnson and President Franklin D. Roosevelt will ultimately work for him. Once Americans discover that they can no longer be rejected for insurance for pre-existing conditions, he is betting, or that they can keep their children on their own insurance plans longer, the more they will come to appreciate the effect of the changes on their day-to-day lives.

L.A. Times:

The House vote Sunday to send a comprehensive healthcare reform bill to President Obama's desk put the United States on a path toward universal health insurance, a goal that had eluded reformers since then-presidential candidate Teddy Roosevelt called for all workers to have coverage in 1912. It may prove to be the signal accomplishment of Obama's administration, even though the controversy surrounding it threatens to end his party's majority in Congress. Rarely has such a good thing for Americans been perceived by so many as a threat to their livelihood and liberty.

There's wide agreement in the healthcare industry and across the political spectrum that the system is in dire need of repair. But while liberals called for government to eliminate the insurance middleman and act as the single source of coverage, conservatives sought to reduce the government's presence in the market and give consumers more responsibility.

The measure that emerged from the Senate, HR 3590, pursues a course between those two extremes. It augments the existing system with a new marketplace for individuals and small groups to shop for insurance, a mandate that everyone buy coverage, insurance subsidies for the working class and rules limiting insurers' freedom to design, price and market their policies. It won't bring coverage to everyone -- the Congressional Budget Office estimated that HR 3590 would leave about 6% of Americans uninsured in 10 years. But that's a significant improvement over the situation today, when an estimated 17% have no insurance and thousands lose their coverage daily.

Well, finally a victory after a hundred years of struggle on this issue:  Obama has done what FDR, Truman, Nixon, and Clinton could not.  For an enlightening history of the long, drawn-out fight for healthcare reform, see this excellent summary (PDF) by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

What this bill ended up being is a mishmash and doesn't go nearly far enough in my opinion; I would like to see a single-payer nationwide system, which this is not.  But at least, thank God, it's a start on something that could eventually be a decent program.

If the fascist fundamentalist know-nothing crowd doesn't overthrow the government, that is.  Note this very interesting map I swiped from Sullivan's blog, and the overwhelming Baptist population of my tragic, benighted Southern homeland:  notice that the green area is practically identical with the boundaries of the Confederacy, even 150 years later.  Nothing wrong with being a Baptist per se, but so very often that kind of believing is allied with ignorance, arrogance, and a hatred of everything and everyone who isn't a straight white Bible-believing Anglo-Saxon Republican.  And then there are plenty of people in this region who never show up in church and don't much miss it, but still retain the prejudices of the culture they grew up in.

Compare that with the NYT's interactive map of the geography of tonight's House vote here.

Lovelight: This Is My Life

I wish.



Good night and sweet dreams, guys.

Sunday Drive: So Far Away

For Scott.

Teabagger Circus

From HuffPo:

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

From Joe.My.God.:

A huge crowd of Tea Party protesters attempted to "storm" the U.S. Capitol and Congressional office buildings this afternoon, prompting DC police to close the buildings. Teabaggers also hung "Don't Tread On Me" and "American Revolution II" flags from the outer balcony of the Capitol.

WTF: Snow?!

On the first day of spring, no less.

Tonight and tomorrow too, they say.  That sucks.  Cold and rainy here at the house today, and 34 degrees as I type, but hoping this is winter's very last gasp before a warm sunny spring like we had all this week, till now.

Update:  Midnight and cold as fuck here, wind chill is 22 degrees.  And yesterday afternoon it was 70 degrees.  That's TX weather for you.  When I went out for liquor about 8:30, it was snowing so hard I had to run the windshield wipers the whole time.  Now we got a couple inches of white stuff on the ground, and more coming very steady.  This was fun at Christmas, but . . . I'm over it now, let's get on with spring.

It's lovely to stand on the front porch and watch the big, fluffy flakes blowing across the sky, big as quarters or more.  The haze around the street light in these following pics is actually hundreds of flakes swirling around the lamp just like bugs in summertime.

From the kitchen window, 3 a.m.:

WTF: Blog Security Warnings

Okay, surely this can't be just me.  The last 24 hours I've been getting dire Area-51-type pop-up warnings from McAfee SiteAdvisor on some of your blogs, guys.  Yesterday it was when I tried to open the comment box on Sebastian's blog; tonight his is okay, but Frank's blog does the same thing when I try to post a comment, and Gary's whole blog is radioactive, apparently.

Shit.   I loves the Intertubes and all, but things are getting out of hand here.  Let me know if this kind of stuff is happening on my blog.  Not that I have one fucking clue what to do if it is - but I guess it's the kind of thing your friends ought to tell you, like when your fly is open.