Health Care Summit

Image by ~C4Chaos via Flickr

I thought this summit thing with the Republicans, Democrats and the President was going to be a farce and it pretty much was, but I was also pleasantly surprised. The one good thing about it was Obama’s performance. He was strong, decisive and in charge, it was clear he had - finally - taken over health care and was going to get it done, no more nonsense. We’ve only been waiting for a year for him to do that, with a lot of people saying he needed to grow a pair.

Well, today he did. He dominated the debate, clearly pushing the Republicans around. He called them all only by their first names, that was absolutely brilliant, McCain really didn't care for that at all. He let them know they were in the White House and he was the president and he trumps all of them. I’ve never seen him be so forceful and commanding before, good show.

And he would not let the Republicans get away with their usual talking points (lies). Every time they told their lies he corrected them, strongly. He was so strong he was barely being polite and made sure he got his point across that the Republican talking point was completely wrong. And he did it over and over again. I’ve been wanting the Democrats in general to do that for years, instead they always just let the Republicans win the propaganda war.

One part that really stood out was when one idiot Republican kept saying how Congress should have high deductible insurance plans along with Health Savings Accounts, that way they would have skin in the game and be more responsible in their health care choices, implying that it would work well for America, too. Obama said that’s easy for him to say because he makes $160,000 a year, but that idea just isn’t viable to the farmer making $40,000 a year. The IR (Idiot Republican) came back and tried to make the point again and Obama slapped him down again and did it several times. The IR came across as this rich guy completely out of touch with 95% of the American public (because he was) while, for the first time since his Inauguration, I saw Obama acting as a true, and impassioned, advocate for the working man, for the struggling middle class. Instead of a supporter of the corporations.

At the end Obama gave a little speech to the press, the gist of which was he appeared to realize that the Republicans were never going to support the health bill, that it wasn’t in their political self-interest to do so. It’s about time he gave up on his idea of bi-partisanship. I’m feeling more hopeful in regards to both Obama and health care reform than I have at any point up until now. It finally looked like he understood the situation and knew what he had to do to get things done.

Hope I’m right this time.

Related articles by Zemanta

• First Thoughts on the Health Care Summit (meganmcardle.theatlantic.com)
• The White House Healthcare Summit - Democrats 0 Republicans 0 (thehealthcareblog.com)

DICK!

Image by futureatlas.com via Flickr

Cheney had his 5th heart attack a couple of days ago and survived it. I get the feeling that if he died no one would be able to tell the difference, he would look and sound the same.

Dick first got his government insurance back in 1967, before his first heart attack. Isn’t it funny how Republicans LOVE their own government-run insurance plans but it’s evil to give that to the rest of us? Hahaha! Fucking funny as hell.

If Dick was an average guy like you and me he would have died by his 3rd heart attack because by then his insurance company would have refused coverage because it’s a pre-existing condition. Or else Dick would have lost everything paying for the things insurance won’t cover to the point where he could no longer pay his insurance premiums so they would have dropped him.

I bet Dick never loses a single night’s sleep thinking about those of us out here in America for whom a heart attack is fatal because we can’t pay for it.

If only we had that evil, socialist, government-run health insurance that Dick has.

That is the god-damned death panel, Sarah Palin!

Keith Olbermann said that on his Special Comment last night. He did a brilliant one on health care once again about his dad. He speaks about it the way only one who has gone through it could and I was in tears by the end of it. It was all familiar to me, hell, I even understood most of the medical terminology and procedures he talked about. Anyone who thinks this is hyperbole simply hasn’t been through it, especially with a loved one that you know is going to die, you just don’t know when.

Keith’s theme this time was the death panels the Right has been going on and on about. He had long talks with his dad about what he wanted and with his dad’s doctors, so everyone knew Keith had final say and what his dad’s wishes were. This is what those so-called death panels are, a chance to pay the doctor for having these very necessary discussions. He called these Life Panels. Keith said having all this squared away was the only feeling of comfort he had in the whole thing and that the real death panels were already happening when the insurance companies deny coverage that will save someone’s life.

I know Darcy and I - and her doctor - had these discussions, and I had fully expected for the last 16 years that someday I’d have to step in and tell them to disconnect the breathing machine and pull the intubation tube. I saw my roll as coming in to rescue her from a medical profession that is unable to let someone die when that is the better choice. Darcy’s greatest fear was being on intubation in a nursing home indefinitely.

Keith said that his out of pocket expenses were higher for HIM than they were for his dad because Dad had Medicare. The same was true of Darcy, no treatment was ever denied to her because she was on Medicare, in fact, according to her email lung-buddies it was all the people with private insurance who had nothing but problems and had to fight with those companies constantly. Let me assure you that fighting with your insurance company when you’ve just been diagnosed with a fatal disease is horrible. This idea of “socialized medicine” being a big boogie man is pure bullshit and designed to push people’s buttons, to get irrational, emotional reactions from them. Most of the people crying about socialism don’t even know what it is.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Old Lady and the Thief

I love this video, it speaks for itself no need for me to say anything about it accept YOU GO, GIRL!!

Global Warming

I am so sick of all the Right Wingnuts ranting about how the storm in Washington DC disproves global warming. Most of the time I think those people know they are lying but do it anyway because all their fortunes and power are based on a specific set of lies, the truth is their enemy. But this time I think they really are ignorant of the facts and willfully maintain that ignorance.

If anything the worst storm in Washington in living memory is clear evidence in support of global warming. The warming refers to the ENTIRE globe, not little sections of it. Whatever “weather” is happening in any one section of the globe does not speak to global “climate.”

Note the phrases Local Weather and Global Climate, two very different things.

But a really bad storm would be caused by global warming. The extra warmth puts more energy into the weather systems and also causes more evaporation of water which makes the air more humid. So what do you get with increased energy to drive the weather and greater moisture? Record snow storms in places that get snow, exactly like what is happening now.

At some future date it’s entirely possible that all snow across the globe is gone but there will be a lot fewer people around to complain about it.

The wingnuts have doomed their own children and grandchildren to live in a world where things keep getting progressively worse, where droughts and blazing heat, vicious snow storms and massive hurricanes are all the norm, making life difficult for a lot of people. And why are they doing it? For money. They don’t give a damn about their own decedents or are incapable of projecting their imaginations that far ahead.

Related articles by Zemanta

• What Does Winter Weather Reveal about Global Warming? (scientificamerican.com)
• TIME: Why Cold Weather Doesn't Disprove Global Warming (trueslant.com)
• Weather is not Climate: What the Bad Winter Storms in the U.S. Northeast Have to Do With Global Warming (themoderatevoice.com)