Now that health care reform is taken care of, Obama wants to tackle immigration reform
Now that President Obama has licked health care reform, he wants to next focus on immigration reform. He must be a gluten for punishment. He wanted to ensure that every American had access to affordable, quality health care and he got compared to Adolf Hitler and called a Marxist. What will he be compared to because of immigration reform? Whatever it is, it won’t be good.
Obama is crazy for getting involved with this. With unemployment already over ten percent, does he really want to make it easier for businesses and corporations to bring more unskilled workers into the country? Workers willing to accept wages far lower than the prevailing wage?
After all, that is what immigration reform is all about.
Obama needs to let the Republicans deal with immigration reform when they are back in charge. It’s a Republican issue, not an issue for the Democrats. If Obama keeps on not doing what he said he was going to do before he was elected, that day will be a lot sooner than he thinks.
This is the best they can do?
It looks as though health care reform will pass, but that’s only if you choose to label the bill coming out of the Senate as health care reform. The key points:
- No public option.
- No Medicare buy in.
- Penalize those that do not have health insurance.
- No tax on cosmetic procedures.
- A 10% tax on tanning.
What a joke. This makes me feel embarrassment to be a Democrat. Seriously, this is what you get when the House, the Senate, and the White House are all under Democratic control? We get 30,000 more combat troops in Afghanistan and a piece of crap bill pretending to be health care reform.
Is this what Change looks like?
The fact that people will be penalized if they don’t buy health insurance, coupled with the fact that there is no public option, means that the health insurance cartel is getting a heck of a Christmas present this year. I wish I sold a product that the government forced people to buy.
Teabaggers lose again
Every year, lexicographers at Oxford University Press track words that pop up in the English language and bestow the honor of Word of the Year on one of these new words. For 2009, the word “unfriend” wins that honor:
unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.
Also making the list of finalists is the word “teabagger”:
teabagger – a person who protests President Obama’s tax policies and stimulus package, often through local demonstrations known as “Tea Party” protests (in allusion to the Boston Tea Party of 1773.
Once again, the teabaggers are on the losing side. Usually they lose to Democrats. This is the first time they’ve lost to a word. For what it’s worth, I think they were robbed. Though I’ve heard the word “teabagger” used numerous times (I live in western Maryland), I’ve never heard the word “unfriend” used before.
The state of Virgina is fixin to kill Muhammad
Tonight at 9 p.m the state of Virgina will be executing John Allen Muhammad, one of the so-called beltway snipers.
Back in 2002, Muhammad and his young ward, Lee Boyd Malvo, terrorized people in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virgina. People were afraid to cut their grass, pump gas, or go shopping. Before they were done, they had killed 10 people and wounded 3 others.
The three weeks they were driving around and shooting people from the trunk of their car was a colossal bucket of suck for everyone. They were caught sleeping in their car at a rest stop here in Maryland on Interstate 70, about halfway between Frederick and Hagerstown.
The reason Muhammad is now in Virgina and not Maryland is because the Bush administration had him transfered to Virginia so that he could be tried there first. The reason? Because the prosecutor in Virginia was a Republican who had aspirations for higher office.
The prosecutor in Maryland was a Democrat.
I’m generally against the death penalty, not because I care about people like John Allen Muhammad. I don’t. I just don’t see how it solves anything. When Muhammad shuts his eyes for the last time tonight, the people he killed will still be dead. I also have a problem with how the death penalty is given to some, but not others.
It seems far too arbitrary.
With that said, I’m glad Muhammad is getting his ticket punched tonight. If we are going to have the death penalty in this country, why not him? I can think of no better person than John Allen Muhammad to get strapped down on a gurney and a toxic cocktail pumped through his veins.
Lieberman threatens to filibuster with Republicans against health care reform
Shocker of all shockers, U.S. Senator from Connecticut Joe Lieberman is threatening to filibuster with the Republicans against any health care reform bill if it contains a public option, something Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says it will have.
To say that Joe Lieberman is a weasel is an insult to weasels.
It’s almost hard to remember that Lieberman was the 2000 Democratic nominee for Vice-President. That almost seems like a bazillion years ago or that it took place in some other alternate universe. My how things change. Connecticut Democrats refused to make him their nominee in 2006 and instead picked someone else. Someone who was not Joe Lieberman. They voted for Ned Lamont, not Joe Lieberman.
Lieberman responded to the will of the Connecticut Democratic voters by telling them to go take a hike. He ran as an “independent” and defeated Lamont and whoever else the Republicans put up against Lamont.
I thought it was shameful on the part of Lieberman. The guy was the Democratic nominee for Vice-President in 2000 and six years later he ran against and defeated a Democrat in a general election. He’s a Democrat when it’s convenient for him and he’s an “independent” when it’s not.
I have a fairly low opinion of Joe Lieberman. Maybe that wasn’t clear.
Sarah Palin wears a scarf intended for Democrats
If you saw a woman wearing a red, white, and blue scarf decorated with patriotic images along with donkeys and the word “Vote”, what political party would you think she was a member of? Would you think she was a Democrat? Most of the time you would be correct unless that woman is the Republican candidate for vice president.
For some unknown reason, Sarah Palin appeared at an event in Reno, Nevada yesterday sporting a scarf intended for Democrats. The fact that it’s covered with donkeys and not elephants gives it away. Maybe she thought they were moose. What’s next, will she show up at an event wearing a vintage Carter-Mondale t-shirt?
Maybe it’s not her fault. Maybe the maker of the scarf failed to put sufficient warnings on the scarf stating that it should not be worn by Republicans running for political office. [Stumper]
Howard Dean is a big fat idiot
Former Vermont governor, failed presidential candidate, and current Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has issued an ultimatum of sorts to Democratic superdelegates; he wants them to decide now who they will be voting for at the Democratic National Convention in August.
He wants to lock down the Democratic nominee as soon as possible.
And I thought Doctor Dean was a stickler for keeping to a schedule. He disenfranchised Democrats in both Florida and Michigan because both states dared to hold their primaries before Dean said they could.
He can’t have it both ways. He can’t penalize the voters in Florida and Michigan because they supposedly voted early and then demand that superdelegates do the very same thing by declaring who they plan on voting for in August.
Decision Time, Says Dean [Yahoo]
Dear Roscoe Bartlett
Roscoe Bartlett
2412 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
20515-2006
Dear Roscoe Bartlett –
I’m writing this letter in regards to comments you made shortly after your historic vote last March against the continued funding of our troops in Iraq.
You stated that you were against a time table for withdrawal. Wouldn’t you agree that our military has already accomplished everything they were asked to do? They have:
- Ensured that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction.
- Removed Saddam Hussein from power.
- Allowed Iraq to become a democratic and free country.
Our troops have successfully done their job. Now it’s time for you to do yours. You need to work towards bringing them home. Their mission has been accomplished.
You stated back in March that another reason you voted NO was because one-fifth of the spending bill was pork. Expenditures unrelated to our national defense. As though the continued occupation of Iraq has anything to do with the defense of our nation. Now that the Democrats have caved and removed any type of timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, voting YES on the supplemental spending bill should be fairly easy for you to do – unless you really are a fiscal conservative. All that pork is still firmly attached to the bill.
Rick Rottman
Hagerstown, Maryland
I wont be voting for Hillary Clinton
I don’t care how much money she’s raised or how much money she’s raised for other politicians. I don’t care that her last name has a certain ring to it that hearkens back to a time when someone much more suited for the job of President sat in the Oval Office. More suited then the guy presently sitting there.
I won’t be voting for Hillary Clinton.
The simple reason I wont be voting for Hillary Clinton is because of her vote on Iraq. In October 2002 she voted for the resolution authorizing President Bush to take military action against Iraq. Big mistake. She has stated in the past that she wasn’t sorry for her vote. Now that she is running for President, she says that she wishes she had not voted the way she had, but she blames the Bush administration for false information about Iraq.
Frankly, I’m not impressed.
She and other elected leaders could have and should have used the power of their office to press the Bush administration into proving the case against Iraq. She now blames her vote on Iraq on Bush. She claims that it was Bush “who misled this country and this Congress“.
The problem is that she believed him.
Hillary Clinton asking to be my President is a lot like someone who was ripped off by one of those stupid Nigerian email banking scams asking to be my money manger. For a lie to work, it takes two people. The person telling the lie and the person believing the lie.
The fact is she failed to even consider that Bush was wrong when he claimed Iraq posed a threat. The fact that she wont even admit it was a mistake for voting the way she did is embarrassing. I think it says a lot about her character. She wont admit her mistakes. I’ve had enough of that particular character flaw in my President.
Also, I will never vote for anyone that wears a Yankee hat. Especially if they are not from New York. Hillary Clinton is from Chicago. She used to be a Cubs fan. I guess I could understand someone being a Yankee fan if they were raised that way from a very early age. If they were brainwashed into being a Yankee fan. With Hillary, that isn’t the case. If we were to elect Hilary to be President, who’s to say she wouldn’t wear that retched Yankees hat everywhere she goes?
John Edwards is a fake
Democrat John Edwards talks a lot about his humble beginnings. He likes to talk about there being two Americas. One that’s rich and one that is not. The above is a aerial photo of John Edward’s home. Guess which America he is in?
His recreation building contains a basketball court, a squash court, two stages, a bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, swimming pool, a four-story tower, and a room called “John’s Lounge.” Maybe instead of announcing his candidacy for President from the ninth ward in New Orleans, he should have made it from John’s Lounge. That at least would have been honest.
The guy is a fake. He’s a hypocrite. It’s not even as though he actually built his wealth with the sweat of his own brow. It’s not like he invented something innovative or spectacular. He didn’t build anything. He didn’t create anything. He didn’t even amass his wealth the old fashioned way by being born into it. No, he made his millions being a personal injury trial attorney. Two things had to happen for Edwards to make money. A doctor had to make a mistake and a patient had to suffer because of it.
The Edwards empire was built on the misfortune and misery of others.
Now he wants to use the economic misfortune of others to propel his presidential aspirations. Not that this is new. He used this same tactic the last time he tried to be President.
I don’t think some guy with his own personal squash court has any business lecturing anyone that there are two Americas.
[Link]
That’s not a 5-day work week
I don’t know what is more ridiculous. Republican congressmen that think a 5-day work week is too brutal or Democratic congressmen that think Monday night to Friday afternoon constitutes a work week. It seems to me that neither group has any understanding what the American worker does each and every week.
Not that it should be any surprise.
Next year, members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m. Friday, Hoyer said.
With the hours they will be working, it’s a wonder they even qualify for medical benefits. It almost seems like they are working part-time. Sort of.
This from the Republican viewpoint:
“Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families — that’s what this says.”
Those mean Democrats. They want members of congress to actually work. They want to keep congressmen like Jack Kingston away from their families. I guess that’s why they refer to it as public service. As in they are serving their nation. Whining about time away from the wife and kids sounds pathetic.
They had no problem sending American service members off to Iraq. I know Representative Jack Kingston enjoys posing with American service members when they come back from Iraq. I bet a lot of them want to be home with their wife and kids too. Instead, they are in Iraq stuck in the middle of a civil war. Maybe next time congressmen Jack Kingston uses an American soldier back from Iraq as a prop in a photo, he can tell them about the hardship for working a 5-day work week.
UPDATE - While Representative Jack Kingston (R-Ga) was whining about having to actually work five whole days a week in Washington DC, 10 more American GI’s were killed in Iraq today.
5-day work week is a Capitol Hill culture shock [Washington Post]
Congressman Rangle wants to draft Paris Hilton into the Army
Congressman Charles Rangel wants to bring back the draft:
Congressman Charles B. Rangel has long advocated returning to the draft, but his efforts drew little attention during the 12 years that House Democrats were in the minority. Starting in January, however, he will chair the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Yesterday he said “you bet your life” he will renew his drive for a draft.
“I will be introducing that bill as soon as we start the new session,” Rangel said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” He portrayed the draft, suspended since 1973, as a means of spreading military obligations more equitably and prompting political leaders to think twice before starting wars.
Spreading military obligations more equitably is code for making rich kids serve in the military. Oddly enough, not that many rich kids enlist to serve in the military. In fact, it’s not just rich kids that choose not to join the military. Kids that can go to college tend to go to college.
Does anyone really think it’s only kids that cannot go to college or find a decent job also happen to be the most patriotic of their generation? That they somehow love America more then other kids? I don’t think so.
Some believe that the fact the military is supposedly an all volunteer force has caused too many Americans to feel detached when it comes to sending our military into harm’s way. War sucks, but they all volunteered, right? Too many people actually think like that. It stops people from asking questions when our leaders rattle their sabers. When they want to invade another country.
Maybe more people would be reluctant to wage wars of choice if they actually had loved ones in the military. A son, a daughter, a niece, a nephew, or a grandchild. At least I would like to think so.
If Elvis Presley can be drafted into the Army and sent overseas to drive a truck, so can Paris Hilton.
Amid Uproar Over War, Rangel Renews Call for Draft [Washington Post]
John Murtha got 86 votes too many
It looks as though John Murtha wont be Majority Leader after all. Good.
Democratic Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland has been selected by the Democratic caucus to serve as Majority Leader in the 110th Congress, easily defeating Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania — who had been backed by incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California — on a 149-86 vote.
I’m only sorry that Murtha actually got 86 votes. He deserved to get none.
Why his constituents constantly reelect him to Congress is their business. I have no say in that. I don’t understand why they would constantly reelect him every two years, but it’s really of no concern to me. I just know how I feel about him. When I listen to the FBI tapes from 1980 where he is offered a bribe and technically refuses to accept it, yet still leaves the door open for a future time leaves me massively unimpressed. I guess he technically didn’t break any law. He sure didn’t come off looking ethical.
Ethics are important.
Maybe the Democratic leadership misunderstood the American people this past election day. It wasn’t just Republican unethical behavior Americans were unhappy with. It was all unethical behavior that we didn’t like or want.
It’s been argued that the reason Murtha deserved the position of Majority Leader was because he had become such an outspoken critic of the Iraq war. Really? Isn’t that his job? Like all elected officials, it is his duty to speak up about when he sees that things are going wrong in Iraq. That the war was a mistake. That it’s being managed very badly. The fact that he now thinks the Iraq war is going badly gets him no points from me. It just shows that he is aware of the obvious.
George Bush is only brave when other people’s lives are at stake
President Bush suggested Thursday that Democrats don’t have the stomach to fight the war on terror. He was at a Republican campaign fundraiser in Alabama and had lots of nasty stuff too.
“Five years after 9/11, the worst attack on the American homeland in our history, Democrats offer nothing but criticism and obstruction and endless second-guessing,” Bush said at a Republican fundraiser.”The party of FDR and the party of Harry Truman has become the party of cut and run,”.
Party of cut and run? How does Bush have any business saying something like this? He is the guy that acted like a wuss on the day of 9-11. When the Saudi terrorists attacked, he was at an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida reading to kids. Instead of getting on Air Force One and returning to Washington D.C., he flew around the country hiding from threats that never existed. He even spent time in a bomb shelter at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. How embarrassing. There were a lot of people doing brave and courageous things on the day of 9-11. Don’t let anyone fool you. George Bush wasn’t one of them.
I’m tired of Bush and gutless neo-con chickenhawks like him constantly trying to man-up on everyone else. Only in America can someone like Rush Limbaugh describe a man such as John Kerry as a coward. John Kerry earned a Silver Star for killing the Viet Cong into the jungles of Viet Nam. The only thing Limbaugh has ever killed was a bottle of oxicotin.
I find it ironic that Bush can refer to leaving Iraq as “cut and run”. What more do we have to do over there? We took care of ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Granted, Iraq didn’t have any weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein was captured and is now on trial. They have had democratic elections in Iraq. Twice. Iraqi People even got purple fingers. What more is there to do? Mission accomplished, right? Major combat operations in Iraq are over, right? So why continue the military occupation of Iraq?
Not only are we paying a heavy toll in American lives, it is costing the American taxpayers approximately $2 billion dollars a week to occupy Iraq. Then again, it’s not like current taxpayers are going to be footing this bill. It will be this country’s great, great, great grandchildren that end up paying for the Bush Iraq war. Future taxpayers will be footing the bill for Bush’s war. Bush isn’t really keen on the idea of paying for the things he wants. He drives up the national debt while cutting taxes. Mostly these tax cuts go to the ultra rich. Tax cuts for people that don’t sacrifice or contribute anything to the war on terror or Bush’s war in Iraq. It’s not as though their children are enlisting in the military after high school and going to Iraq or Afghanistan.
Then again, if you join the military, your chances of going to Afghanistan are not all that high. The odds of going to Iraq are seven times more likely then going to Afghanistan. That’s a shame too, especially if someone joined the armed forces to kill the people that caused the terror attacks on 9-11. Instead of occupying Iraq, our military needs to be in Afghanistan killing the Taliban and hunting down bin Laden.
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