bill frist

It really isn’t a lesson, but more of a reminder. Democrats suck at politics. To the Democrats out there acting shocked over the Brown win, all I can say is “wake up!”

We don’t need to turn back the pages of history more than a few months to remind us how bad Democrats are at politics. Last August they sat shell shocked as the tea bagger movement erupted. During the entire health care debate they were crap. They started negotiations low and just kept going lower. When someone like Lieberman threw a monkey wrench in the plans the leadership just blinked.

For the Democrats to remain a majority party they have to become the party people want, not the party that people resort to as the ‘they are better than the alternative” candidates. They need to remember what promises brought them to power in 2008 and deliver on them. Stop it with the dream of “bi-partisanship”. It isn’t going to happen. We are not going to pull this highly polarized country together over night. Hell we probably won’t be able to until some massive national disaster happens again, and a near depression wasn’t even enough for that.

Democrats also need to learn a thing called message control. This is something the Republicans excel at, while the Democrats fail every time. Health care is a perfect example of this. The Republicans had “death panels”, while the Democrats counter argument was “health exchanges”. Average Joe voter has no idea what a “health exchange” is and Democrats sure as hell didn’t try to explain it.

The former Senate majority leader has written a piece in U.S. News and World Report pushing for a mandate on health coverage:

I believe in limited government and individual responsibility, cherish the freedom to choose, and generally oppose individual mandates—except where markets fail, individuals suffer, and society pays a hefty price. Let's face it, in a country as productive and advanced as ours, every American deserves affordable access to healthcare delivered at the right time. And they don't have it today.

It is time for an individual health insurance mandate for a minimum level of health coverage. Catastrophic coverage would be an appropriate place to start.

Frist goes on to say how this will reduce the cost of coverage since people won’t use the emergency room as their doctor anymore. Honestly I don’t see how mandating catastrophic coverage would do that. The currently uninsured would now be forking out money for this catastrophic coverage, or maybe a fine and that will leave them with less to spend on coverage. That means the current uninsured who might have enough money to fork out for a doctor’s visit when they fall ill won’t have that extra money. They will still rely upon the emergency room and end up with bills they can’t afford to pay.

A mandate can not be confused as a sole solution to drive down costs. For a mandate to work it has to be coupled with extreme cost cutting measures. People should be encouraged to seek preventive care, not feel like they are being financially punished for it.

I have been looking into a story that I first heard on Countdown last night. It seems that the birth of Palin's son this year was met with a little drama.

Palin was speaking at the Republican Governors Association in April. A couple of hours before her speech she started having labor pains, I have also read mixed reports. Some say her water broke and others say she was just "leaking amniotic fluid". Palin says she called her doctor, who told her to go ahead with the speech then fly back to Alaska.

A typical flight from Dallas to Anchorage is between 5-6 hours. Palin also wasn't full term yet. I haven't been able to find out how early she was, but she knew she was having a baby with Downs Syndrome through testing.

So you have a person who is showing signs of labor and not full term yet. She goes into labor and they tell her to go about her business, which includes a lengthy flight. It really seems like Palin put herself and her baby at risk.

Most airlines have strict rules regarding flying while pregnant. I did find one article stating she flew on Alaska Airlines, which doesn't list any restrictions. The part that I find really odd is that either her fluid broke or she was leaking. Once that happens there is a risk of infection to the baby. That risk increases greatly over time, so they want to get the mother on antibiotics right away. Shouldn't Palin have at least gone to a hospital in Dallas to get checked out?

Even Bill Frist had a video camera feed when he made a diagnosis from afar. Palin's doctor only did it over the phone. Maybe the media should look a little more into this story and find out exactly what happened.

Just in the last 24 hours:

Calif. candidate's office, home raided

Roll Call: Rep. Rodney Alexander's office sued for sexual harassment

CREW asks DOJ to investigate Weldon for e-mails outlining possible threats of retaliation against his opponent's contributors Submitted by CREW

Congresswoman on page board buried file on husband's child abuse allegation

Every single headline involves Republicans. Consider all the other scandals added to this:

• Cunningham
• Ney
• Delay
• Libby
• Scafavian
• Abramoff
• Claude Allen
• Foley
• Lester Crawford
• Col. Republican Governor candidate Bob Beauuprez
• Bill Frist
• Dennis Hastert land deal
• Dennis Haster's cover-up of Foley
• NV Republican Governor candidate Gibbons
• Rep. Don Sherwood
• Mit Romney and his legal problems involving the Big Dig collapse

Plus all the other ones I have missed. Of course the Republicans continue to lie to the American people and treat them like they are ignorant infidels and say that the problems are equal on both sides of the aisle. That is denial and denial is the first sign that someone does not want to change.

This shows how bad things really are:

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring the Islamic militia and its supporters into the Afghan government.

The Tennessee Republican said he learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated on the battlefield.

"You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government," Frist said during a brief visit to a U.S. and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. "And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful."

Afghanistan is suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since a U.S.-led military force toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

And it would not be this bad if we kept our eye on Afghanistan and not go into Iraq. Bush's little game called Iraq has not only destroyed the Middle East, but also allowed the Taliban to regain strength to this point. Remember - it is Frist saying this. That means things are worse than anyone can imagine over there.

Something that appears to have fallen under the blogosphere radar today is a treaty that was ratified by Senate to fight cybercrime:

The Senate has ratified a treaty under which the United States will join more than 40 other countries, mainly from Europe, in fighting crimes committed via the Internet.

The Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime, ratified late Thursday, is the first international treaty seeking to address Internet crimes by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques and increasing cooperation among nations.

The convention had been signed by 38 European nations plus the United States, Canada, Japan and South Africa, as of the end of 2005. It was opened for signature in 2001

"While balancing civil liberty and privacy concerns, this treaty encourages the sharing of critical electronic evidence among foreign countries so that law enforcement can more effectively investigate and combat these crimes," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

The convention targets hackers, those spreading destructive computer viruses, those using the Internet for the sexual exploitation of children or the distribution of racist material and terrorists attempting to attack infrastructure facilities or financial institutions.

"This treaty provides important tools in the battles against terrorism, attacks on computer networks, and the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet, by strengthening U.S. cooperation with foreign countries in obtaining electronic evidence," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said. "The Convention is in full accord with all U.S. constitutional protections, such as free speech and other civil liberties, and will require no change to U.S. laws."

This really shows the fantasy land that Republicans choose to live in:

Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) appeared on CNN's American Morning to explain why the Senate is spending time on issues like flag burning while polls indicate that the American people are more concerned about Iraq and the economy.

CNN host Miles O'Brien asked Frist why recent polls show that show 54% of Americans will vote for Democrats in the upcoming elections while only 38% planned to vote for Republicans. Frist explained that the people's concerns were being addressed by the Republican Senate but told O'Brein those were the sort of issues "you may not cover and others may not cover."

O'Brien defended CNN, "We are covering but I think there is -- a lot of what you say there -- Americans are not hearing that particular message. As the majority leader, isn't that part of your job?"

You can view the video of this here.

So the fact that this Republican lead Congress chooses to focus only on issues that either protect big business or appeal to the extreme right of their base is now the fault of the media. The fact is the Republicans have done nothing for the majority of this country for the past couple of years. That is why America wants a change and that is why Republicans are now looked at as incompetents. Bill Frist is the same person who made the big deal out of Terri Schiavo and the whole country did not feel it was an issue for our nation.

All I can say is this - I hope Bill Frist wins the nomination in 2008 for the Republicans. The Democrats could run a monkey and beat that pompous ass.

This is a nice defeat for the GOP:

Senators voted Thursday to reject a Republican effort to shrink taxes on inherited estates during this election year.

GOP leaders had pushed senators to end the tax once and for all. It disappears in 2010, under President Bush's first tax cut, but rears up again a year later.

"This death tax is unfair," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

A 57-41 vote fell three votes short of advancing the bill.

Knowing they lacked the votes to eliminate the tax, a small group of senators had hoped to keep the issue alive with an agreement to lift the tax from smaller estates and lessen the hit on larger ones.

Here is what really stinks about the estate tax cut:

According to the most recent statistics available from the Internal Revenue Service, 1.17 percent of people who died in 2002 left a taxable estate.

Again - our Senate has taken time away from worrying about our country as a whole to pander to a very small fraction of the nation. This is dereliction of duty in its purest form and the Republican leadership should be held to that.

(on a side note - next up is the flag burning amendment. Could this lead to a tri-fecta of Republican defeats. One can only hope so)