Moonhowlings

A call for anarchy?

From the News & Messenger regarding the local Tea Party Rally yesterday:

Stewart, a Republican, said he will ask his colleagues to approve a resolution that would prevent county employees from implementing new Medicaid regulations when they take effect in 2014.

“That is a public option that increases Medicaid to beneficiaries by more than 40 percent,” Stewart said at a Prince William County TEA Party Patriots rally at the McCoart Administration Center on Thursday.

Stewart, who seemed confident that his resolution will pass, said the county would not provide the benefits until it is compelled to.

“We will not implement those regulations until we are required to do so through injunction, which can only be initiated by the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” he told the crowd of about 100.

Additionally, Stewart said he believes the regulations will not bear legal scrutiny.

“I do not believe they are legal,” he said about 2 p.m., when the crowd had dwindled from a high of about 200 at noon when the rally started. “I do not believe they will serve anyone.”

He continued, “I do believe that they will hurt the current beneficiaries of Medicaid—the disabled, the poor children and others—who already have difficulty finding physicians who will treat them on the low reimbursement rate.”

Stewart said the regulations amount to “unfunded mandates” that will cost taxpayers money and divert resources from other areas.

“I don’t think the county should be responsible for administering a federal program,” he said.

Still, Stewart said he didn’t know how thing would shake out legally.

STOP!  Stewart doesn’t know how things will ‘shake out legally?  That might be a real good question to ask before everyone jumps on the bandwagon trying to get re-elected.  Injunctions are orders by a court of law to do or not do something.  When the feds are involved, ‘an injunction’ can also come along with some enforcement  like the National Guard or US Marshalls.   Is that what we want?  Another University of Alamaba situation?

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A big thanks to Elena for this gem. She says that David Frum was subsequently fired from his job at American Enterprise Institute for expressing this opinion. How many of us could have easily have said this:

David Frum

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

 

 

 

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But:

(1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs.

(2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now.

So far, I think a lot of conservatives will agree with me. Now comes the hard lesson:

A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves.

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Rep. Perriello from the Charlottesville  area voted for the Health Care Reform bill.  Today officials and the FBI are looking in to how the propane gas line at his brother’s house got cut.  Political opponents had posted his brother’s address on a website, thinking the address was the congressman’s.   According to msnbc.com:

From NBC’s Pete Williams
Virginia officials, aided by the FBI, are looking into how a residential propane feeder line was cut at the home of the brother of a Virginia congressman.

Investigators have reached no conclusions about how or why it happened. But the line was cut after the home’s address was posted on a blog and a Facebook page, both maintained by members of a local Tea Party group who thought it was the home of Rep. Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat who voted in favor of the health-care bill.

One said, “This is Rep. Thomas Stuart Price Perriello’s home address,” and added, “I ain’t holding back anymore!!” The other urged readers to “drop by” the home and “express their thanks” for the vote. 

The cut in the gas line, which runs from a propane tank to a gas grill on a screened-in porch, was discovered Tuesday, the day after the address was posted. When they realized that it was incorrect, the operators of the blog and Faceboook page took the address off.

The chairman of the Lynchburg, VA, Tea Party, Mark Lloyd, told NBC News, “I learned what happened after the fact. We made an official statement on our Web site,” saying that that his group “did not request, sanction, or endorse” posting the address, which appeared on a different Web site.

Tea Party member Nigel Coleman, who wrote one of the Internet posts, told the Charlottesville Daily Progress that he was shocked when he heard about the incident.

Rep. Steny Hoyer reports that threats have been made to around ten Congressmen and women who voted yes to HCR legislation.  Shepherd Smith reports that he is waiting for an update from Capitol Police. 

Please note that the material for this post comes from both MSNBC and from Fox News.   Unfortunately incendiary rhetoric meant to gather the troops sometimes sends some of them off the deep end.  All of us, regardless of party affiliation or ideology must be mindful of our audience and what we say.  Civil debate becomes increasingly more important.  Shepherd Smith gave one of his fierce admonitions about settling political unhappiness and discontent at the ballot box.  I feel certain there will be footage of his remarks.  I will post them.  One bad apple can give many black eyes. 

It goes without saying that any  remarks like that would be removed from this blog.  However, no one here would post like that either.  The blogosphere does have the responsibility to maintain civil discussion.

Daily  Progress Story

Courtland Milloy is a Metro Section Washington Post columnist. The other day someone on this blog intimated that I would have no idea how a black person would feel and that I was insulting. Let’s look at it through someone’s eyes who meets all the qualifications. I have no opinion. Milloy has been with the Washington Post since 1983. I found the opinion piece to be rather humbling. I would like to highlight someone else’s opinion. We don’t have to agree with Milloy, but we need to view this incident through someone’s eyes other than our own. These are not MY sentiments but I feel it is imperative that we acknowledge how someone else might feel.
 

 Washington Post 3/24/10

Courtland Milloy: Congressmen show grace, restraint in the face of disrespect

I know how the “tea party” people feel, the anger, venom and bile that many of them showed during the recent House vote on health-care reform. I know because I want to spit on them, take one of their “Obama Plan White Slavery” signsand knock every racist and homophobic tooth out of their Cro-Magnon heads.

I am sick of these people — and those who make excuses for them and their victim-whiner mentality.

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Rep. (Dr.) Tom Coburn (R-OK) has introduced an amendment he feels most Democrats will support also:

No Erectile Dysfunction Drugs To Sex Offenders – This amendment would enact recommendations from the Government Accountability Office to stop fraudulent payments for prescription drugs prescribed by dead providers or, to dead patients. This amendment also prohibits coverage of Viagra and other ED medications to convicted child molesters, rapists, and sex offenders, and prohibits coverage of abortion drugs. (Note: the creation of exchanges could allow sex offenders to receive taxpayer-funded Viagra and other ED drugs unless Congress expressly prohibits this action

I guess I want to know why sex offenders are in a place where they would need ED products. What about when they have served their time. In addition to being on the sex offender list would they be banned from ED materials? (not that I care) Where do abortion drugs fit into this profile? Granted I am posting  an excerpt, but I don’t know how many sex offenders are standing in line for abortion drugs. I think I would need to see a list of what these abortion drugs are before I pull down the red flags that have shot up.

Meanwhile, I am all in favor of not giving sex offenders Viagra with taxpayer money.  Of course, this begs the question:  Can they buy it with their own money?   I suppose it depends on how badly they want it.

Politico

Democratic offices vandalized
By JUDY L. THOMAS

The Star

Authorities in Wichita and some other cities across the country are investigating vandalism against Democratic offices, apparently in response to health care reform.

And on Monday, a former Alabama militia leader took credit for instigating the actions.

Mike Vanderboegh of Pinson, Ala., former leader of the Alabama Constitutional Militia, put out a call on Friday for modern “Sons of Liberty” to break the windows of Democratic Party offices nationwide in opposition to health care reform. Since then, vandals have struck several offices, including the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita.

“There’s glass everywhere,” said Lyndsay Stauble, executive director of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party. “A brick took out the whole floor-to-ceiling window and put a gouge in my desk.”

Stauble said the brick, hurled through the window between Friday night and Saturday morning, had “some anti-Obama rhetoric” written on it.

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in·ci·vil·i·ty (ns-vl-t)

2. An uncivil or discourteous act.

Just for a moment, remove any accusation of racial slur, the N-word, or spitting.  How many of us would like to be an older black man having to walk through an angry mob of white people screaming, taunting, booing, hissing and whatever else they were doing.  Those congressman practically had to part the white sea to even move through the crowd. 

In the first place, the crowd should not have been that close.  The congressmen should have had  police escort.  I found myself having bad flashbacks to things I have seen on TV throughout my life, things that were going on during my lifetime.    No one should dismiss it.  Those men were brave to make that walk.  If one of them said he was spat on, then he was.  Perhaps it was just the spray from the vehenom of hatred spewing from a protestors mouth, but spit is spit–stream, lunger or spray, all gross.

Note: The video is the one Cargo Squid referenced.

As anti-abortion Democrat Bart Stupak attempted to speak on the House floor, a lone voice called out what sounded like ‘Baby Killer.‘  The entire House errupted in muffled whispers over the affrontery.  Gavels were banged and people whispered back and forth over what they thought they heard.  Rep. Stupak had held out his vote for Health Care Reform until President Obama promised to write an executive order stating no public funds were to be used for abortion.   The ‘baby killer’ remark must have smarted.  Again, rudeness. 

Now the shouter has stepped forward and confessed, along with a little equivocation.  It seems that he meant the Health Care Reform legislation was a baby killer, not Stupak.  Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Tx)  had the following to say:

Last night was the climax of weeks and months of debate on a health care bill that my constituents fear and do not support. In the heat and emotion of the debate, I exclaimed the phrase ‘it’s a baby killer’ in reference to the agreement reached by the Democratic leadership. 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.
“I have apologized to Mr. Stupak and also apologize to my colleagues for the manner in which I expressed my disappointment about the bill. The House Chamber is a place of decorum and respect. The timing and tone of my comment last night was inappropriate.”

Yea right, Mr. Neugebauer. Let’s have a listen. It’s brief:

We must live in an ‘anything goes’ culture where the rules of civilized society have been abandoned. On the national level, Members of Congress call the the President a liar, call each other names like ‘ Baby Killer.’ Outside, protestors spit, make racial slurs, and threaten with gun signs. At the local level a supervisor thinks its ok to call his constituents names and refer to them as ‘crap.’ There must be some rules of decorum. It’s one thing to speak informally with friends. It’s quite another to make public statements and direct racial slurs at people. The threatening and bullying must stop. And our leaders and entertainers who reach into millions and millions of homes per day must stop aiding, abetting and inciting this kind of behavior.

The huge unseen presence hung over the Capitol yesterday as the democrats voted for the hotly debated Health Care Reform Legislation.  That presence was the spirit of the Lion of the Senate:  Senator Teddy Kennedy.  Health Care Legislation was Kennedy’s life-long goal during his long tenure in public service.  His widow, Vicki Kennedy, visited the grave of her deceased husband to reflect.

Huffington Post:

Appearing on CNN’s ‘John King, USA’ the widow of former Sen. Ted Kennedy pointed to the commitment made by President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi as particularly critical for reform’s passage.

“I think that President Obama showed incredible determination and courage and focus when he continued this battle; and Speaker Pelosi to continue to rally the troops and the leaders in the House of Representatives showed incredible determination and focus and courage,” Kennedy said. “And I think it is a real tribute to all the members of the House of Representatives as well. I think it is a real tribute to all of them and I am deeply, deeply, grateful, as I think are the American people.”
Kennedy echoed a common refrain from her late husband — a longtime health care reform champion — in arguing that the public will fully embrace the legislation’s passage.

“You know Teddy always said that when we finally pass health care reform and when people understand what’s in the bill and what benefits there are for them, they are going to say ‘What took you so long?’ And I think that’s going to happen here,” Kennedy said

Signs Promoting Violence

Abusive, derogatory and racist behavior  directed at House Democrats by protesters on Saturday shocked lawmakers.  Before the President’s speech to  House Democrats, thousands of protestors gathered to protest the passage of health care reform.  Members of the crowd were shown heckling.   Some became abusive and resorted to  hurling racial epithets. 

The Huffington Post reports:

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 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.

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Michael Moore is a strange person. I have never seen one of his films. I have always assumed that he was far too liberal for my taste. Yet he is an interesting, thought-provoking man at times, in the interviews with him that I have seen. He has a middle class background with middle class values. He also seems to think capitalism is evil. Perhaps I misunderstood him though. He is not what people sometimes call ‘the Hollywood elite.’ I found his letter in the Huffington Post and almost didn’t read it.

I am going to ask you to read his letter. Please do not comment on Michael Moore. Our like or dislike of him is not the issue. Please respond to what he says. Any part of it. There are many layers in what he has to say.

 

Friends,

I live in Michigan, in one of the 31 counties represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by none other than Mr. Bart Stupak, a Democrat. You’ve probably never heard of him. He’s a pretty quiet guy, a former Michigan State Police trooper who boldly decided to run some 18 years ago as a Democrat in a rural part of Michigan that votes almost exclusively for Republicans (yes, I know — what am I doing here? I’ll save that story for a future letter).

His voting record is pretty conservative for a Democrat, but he’s had a few shining moments. In the wake of the Columbine shootings, he voted for some gun control, a not-too-popular position to take here in northern Michigan. The NRA came after him with all they had in 2000.

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