|
Edited on Sun Sep-06-09 07:46 PM by erehwon2
There have been a couple of red herrings sucking the oxygen out of the room over the last few days. But we really have bigger fish to fry.
RH-1: The raging about the Obama speech to schoolkids. We all know it will be innocuous in political terms, and in tone and content will neither pander nor "indoctrinate". Please keep in mind that the squeeky wheels in the media here are by and large the same folks who gave us the Creationist Museum in Buttfuck, KY.
RH-2: Van Jones was well within his rights to say what he did, and I thought it was fun to hear. If the shoe had been on the other foot, e.g. "major league asshole" and "go fuck yerself", the mouth breathers might have had a circle jerk over how tough their guys were (oh that's right, they did). I think Van Jones did the right thing resigning because it's true he signed a petition implying LIHOP, and there was no way that was going away. He did the right thing in shaking off the media and not letting himself distract from the real issues he was dealing with. The "asshole" thing was innocuous, but would be just the thing for riling up the mouth-breathers of the Beck/Limbaugh cult, aka the target audience of the so-called Republican party, aka true-believing assholes. Read Fromm's True Believer for details.
We have a few bigger fish to fry, really really big.
I'm not going to second-guess Obama's bicameral speech on Wednesday, but I hope against hope he will come out forcefully for MEDICARE 4 ALL. I hope he gets nasty, as a matter of fact, because the insurance vampires are MAKING A KILLING in more ways than one. The US has the most dysfunctional health care in the whole fucking developed world, pay a lot and get shit in return. There are better ways and while I'm a single-payer guy, I'd sure as shit settle for a public option (lousy name, by the way, MEDICARE 4 ALL makes a better bumper sticker). The public option is a great fallback bargaining chip.
I hope people can keep focused on HCR and not get sidetracked by non-issues and red herrings. Real HCR changes all the rules of the game. With the public option, you don't lose healthcare if you're laid off. You don't have to switch to a new, probably shittier insurer if you actually manage to find a new job. Costs go down. That makes our labor pool more competetive. BTW, Mexico has single-payer and damned competent professional medical staff.
There's a lot of nasty shit that needs fixing, but right now, this minute, the battle is raging on HCR and we cannot afford to lose it. The Repubs want to bring Obama down on it for fun, profit, and the 2010 run. They don't give a shit if we live or die. Fuck them, let's win this one. Dems: don't fuck it up. There's reconciliation right there in front of you staring you in the face. Use it or lose it.
I'm going to continue to chime in on this until it's resolved. It's too important, even the public option plus tight regulation of private insurers will be a huge step forward that will affect everyone. However, if we hear "trigger" and "co-op", they might as well just forget about the whole damn thing. So get loud, be proud.
There are other huge issues to deal with, I know, but right now the focus is on the chance to make a real change on a debate that has raged since the 1940's and can finally be resolved if the right people do the right things right now.
---------------------------
Coming up next:
After HCR is in the can, and it better get done, I would like to get back to the complete, unconditional, immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Chapter 2: The debt culture, with particular reference to usury and college tuition, we all know what a scam and ripoff this shit is.
Chapters 3-187: To Be Announced, sticking to HCR for now.
Your Voice in the Wilderness, Erehwon2
|