peril

I can’t help but laugh every time I hear some Republican say “passing this bill [health care reform] will cost the Democrats in November”. I keep wondering to myself if Coach K is calling up John Calipari and saying “if we meet in final four and you run a zone defense, it will cost you dearly”.

But today I got thinking more about this and translating it to when Republicans controlled everything, like they did for a majority of the last decade. Is that why the Republicans never tried to push through legislation they have campaigned on for decades? For example:

Republicans are “small government”, yet the government grew at record rates under their rule.

They have been against abortion for all these years, yet when have they actually tried to outlaw it?

Or how about taxes? We hear Republicans all the time crowing about across the board tax cuts, yet the only tax cuts they ever did was for the rich.

The Republican solution to health care for years has been tort reform, dating back to at least the last time the issue came up – during the Clinton years. Yet with the Republicans holding control of the entire government, they never once tried to do anything about it.

So this brings me to the big question – has the Republicans been erring on the side of caution when they have control? Sure the issues above make great campaign talking points, but are they afraid that any real action will lead to an electorate peril?

The Democrats are on the verge of passing legislation they have been advocating since the days of FDR. Now it is suddenly “politically dangerous”. They are working towards delivering on a major campaign promise from 2008, and that will cost them? If you really believe this, then you believe that our government is incapable of change, and that leaves us in a very bad position as a nation. A nation that can’t change is a nation that will be left behind.

Things are looking more and more uncertain on the House side when it comes to the new health care bill coming out of the senate. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.), the co-chairs of the 190 member strong abortion rights caucus are question the Constitutionality of the new anti-abortion language:

As the Co-Chairs of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, we have serious reservations about the abortion provision included in the U.S. Senate’s health care bill," the lawmakers said.

"This provision is not only offensive to people who believe in choice, but it is also possibly unconstitutional," DeGette and Slaughter added. "As we have maintained throughout this process, health care reform should not be misused to take away access to health care."

Add to that the fact that NOW, NARAL and the Center for Reproductive Rights have now all come out opposing the bill, this will spell a lot of trouble for the bill, especially when it comes time to vote on the final conference.

As far as what would be unconstitutional about the provision, I’m not really sure, but Slaughter and DeGette are promising a fight:

DeGette and Slaughter had previously warned that if the final healthcare bill were to include restrictions on abortion spending, they would lead the Pro-Choice Caucus against the bill.

"The more than 190-member Caucus will review this language carefully as we move forward on health care reform," the two said.

Given the 220-215 victory the original House bill saw, this puts acceptance of the conference bill in big peril.

It's amazing how much the wingnuts hate our country, and it's basic freedoms. When a student gets tasered for asking a simple question at a political rally, or founding principal of free speech is in great peril.

Take the popular wingnut Ace of Spades. He is quick to point out that this action happened because - well just read it:

Boy, that security team sure was in a wicked hurry to lay hands on someone disrespecting a Democrat, weren't they?

Meanwhile protesters are allowed to menace and charge conservative speakers at will.

Wow! I never knew the conservative speakers went through so much. How about Ann Coulter? When she spoke here, at our local college, last year only registered Republicans could get in. How about George Bush? When he was campaigning in 2004 it was common knowledge that they only allowed registered Republicans into the events.

It get's even better. The "Ace of Spades" should just fold up his blogging career now. Here is where he contradicts his first part of that statement in the same post:

Apparently the guy was a raging moonbat upset that Kerry didn't contest the 04' election results and demanding to know why impeachment proceeding haven't progressed any further.

So it was a Democrat disrespecting a Democrat. Perhaps the Ace should realize that Democrats do accept opposing views and will argue, debate, or whatever with them - unlike Republicans. Here - you can see what happens when opposing views crash an anti-war protest. Now if this person ended up tasered, you could bet the wingnuts would be calling for Jihad.

The times are getting darker. We are in a war that we never
imagined and our country is strongly divided, not only by political but also
religious lines. There is a tension in the air of America that I have not felt
before and I don’t think many others have. We are in a time where we hear about
growing corruption in government and reduction in social services. It leaves you
with a sense of once great nation that is now in great peril.

Once the dust settled down from the falling towers in New
York City, and people were reassessing their lives, one question came to
everyone’s mind; why do they hate us? Throughout the course of time and debates
since that horrific September morning, no question merits more need to a
truthful answer than that.

We have all heard reasoning behind the attacks, including
analysis of the hate that Osama Bin Laden and his faithful followers have for
us. Our President even said they hated us because of our freedoms. That would
seem to lead to more of a envy than a hatred though, especially when we allow
them to live here.

Once we invaded Iraq, it became clearer to me why they may
hate us. It is not because we live free and have a wonderful life in America.
It’s not because we are a rich nation in which most citizens are overweight and
we can live on such things as Big Macs and Whoppers. You can also dismiss the
notion that their hate stems in part from our great entertainment.

So why is it they hate us so much? It is because Americans
have a sense of infallibility and a tendency to force their beliefs onto others.