“An open letter to conservatives”

(This is not my work, and I’m not trying to take any credit for it. I’ve copied this, just in case Russ’ site ever disappears. The only changes I made were to restyle the letter.)

Dear Conservative Americans,

The years have not been kind to you. I grew up in a profoundly Republican home so I can remember when you wore a very different face than the one we see now. You’ve lost me and you’ve lost most of America. Because I believe having responsible choices is important to democracy, I’d like to give you some advice and an invitation.

First, the invitation: Come back to us.

Now the advice. You’re going to have to come up with a platform that isn’t built on a foundation of cowardice: fear of people with colors, religions, cultures and sex lives that differ from yours; fear of reform in banking, health care, energy; fantasy fears of America being transformed into an Islamic nation, into social/commun/fasc-ism, into a disarmed populace put in internment camps; and more. But you have work to do even before you take on that task.

Your party — the GOP — and the conservative end of the American political spectrum has become irresponsible and irrational. Worse, it’s tolerating, promoting and celebrating prejudice and hatred. Let me provide some examples – by no means an exhaustive list — of where the Right as gotten itself stuck in a swamp of hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred.

If you’re going to regain your stature as a party of rational, responsible people, you’ll have to start by draining this swamp:

Hypocrisy

You can’t flip out — and threaten impeachment — when Dems use a parliamentary procedure (deem and pass) that you used repeatedly (more than 35 times in just one session and more than 100 times in all!), that’s centuries old and which the courts have supported. Especially when your leaders admit it all.

You can’t vote and scream against the stimulus package and then take credit for the good it’s done in your own district (happily handing out enormous checks representing money that you voted against is especially ugly) — 114 of you (at last count) did just that — and it’s even worse when you secretly beg for more.

You can’t fight against your own ideas just because the Dem president endorses your proposal.

You can’t call for a pay-as-you-go policy, and then vote against your own ideas.

Are they “unlawful enemy combatants” or are they “prisoners of war” at Gitmo? You can’t have it both ways.

You can’t carry on about the evils of government spending when your family has accepted more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts.

You can’t refuse to go to a scheduled meeting, to which you were invited, and then blame the Dems because they didn’t meet with you.

You can’t rail against using teleprompters while using teleprompters. Repeatedly.

You can’t rail against the bank bailouts when you supported them as they were happening.

You can’t be for immigration reform, then against it.

You can’t enjoy socialized medicine while condemning it.

You can’t flip out when the black president puts his feet on the presidential desk when you were silent when the white presidents did the same. (Bush; Ford)

You can’t complain that the president hasn’t closed Gitmo yet when you’ve campaigned to keep Gitmo open.

You can’t flip out when the black president bows to foreign dignitaries, as appropriate for their culture, when you were silent when the white presidents did the same. (Bush; Nixon; Ike) You didn’t even make a peep when Bush held hands and kissed leaders of a country that’s not on “kissing terms” with the US.

You can’t complain that the undies bomber was read his Miranda rights under Obama when the shoe bomber was read his Miranda rights under Bush and you remained silent. (And, no, Newt — the shoe bomber was not a US citizen either, so there is no difference.)

You can’t attack the Dem president for not personally* publicly condemning a terrorist event for 72 hours when you said nothing about the Rep president waiting 6 days in an eerily similar incident (and, even then, he didn’t issue any condemnation). *The Obama administration did the day of the event.

You can’t throw a hissy fit, sound alarms and cry that Obama freed Gitmo prisoners who later helped plan the Christmas Day undie bombing, when — in fact — only one former Gitmo detainee, released by Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, helped to plan the failed attack.

You can’t condemn blaming the Republican president for an attempted terror attack on his watch, then blame the Dem president for an attempted terror attack on his.

You can’t mount a boycott against singers who say they’re ashamed of the president for starting a war, but remain silent when another singer says he’s ashamed of the president and falsely calls him a Maoist who makes him want to throw up and says he ought to be in jail.

You can’t cry that the health care bill is too long, then cry that it’s too short.

You can’t support the individual mandate for health insurance, then call it unconstitutional when Dems propose it and campaign against your own ideas.

You can’t demand television coverage, then whine about it when you get it. Repeatedly.

You can’t praise criminal trials in US courts for terror suspects under a Rep president, then call it “treasonous” under a Dem president.

You can’t propose ideas to create jobs, and then work against them when the Dems put your ideas in a bill.

You can’t be both pro-choice and anti-choice.

You can’t damn someone for failing to pay $900 in taxes when you’ve paid nearly $20,000 in IRS fines.

You can’t condemn criticizing the president when US troops are in harm’s way, then attack the president when US troops are in harm’s way, the only difference being the president’s party affiliation (and, by the way, armed conflict does NOT remove our right and our duty as Americans to speak up).

You can’t be both for cap-and-trade policy and against it.

You can’t vote to block debate on a bill, then bemoan the lack of ‘open debate’.

If you push anti-gay legislation and make anti-gay speeches, you should probably take a pass on having gay sex, regardless of whether it’s 2004 or 2010. This is true, too, if you’re taking GOP money and giving anti-gay rants on CNN. Taking right-wing money and GOP favors to write anti-gay stories for news sites while working as a gay prostitute, doubles down on both the hypocrisy and the prostitution. This is especially true if you claim your anti-gay stand is God’s stand, too.

When you chair the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, you can’t send sexy emails to 16-year-old boys (illegal anyway, but you made it hypocritical as well).

You can’t criticize Dems for not doing something you didn’t do while you held power over the past 16 years, especially when the Dems have done more in one year than you did in 16.

You can’t decry “name calling” when you’ve been the most consistent and outrageous at it. And the most vile.

You can’t spend more than 40 years hating, cutting and trying to kill Medicare, and then pretend to be the defenders of Medicare.

You can’t praise the Congressional Budget Office when its analysis produces numbers that fit your political agenda, then claim it’s unreliable when it comes up with numbers that don’t.

You can’t vote for X under a Republican president, then vote against X under a Democratic president. Either you support X or you don’t. And it makes it worse when you change your position merely for the sake obstructionism.

You can’t call a reconciliation out of bounds when you used it repeatedly.

You can’t spend tax-payer money on ads against spending tax-payer money.

You can’t condemn individual health insurance mandates in a Dem bill, when the mandates were your idea.

You can’t demand everyone listen to the generals when they say what fits your agenda, and then ignore them when they don’t.

You can’t whine that it’s unfair when people accuse you of exploiting racism for political gain, when your party’s former leader admits you’ve been doing it for decades.

You can’t portray yourself as fighting terrorists when you openly and passionately support terrorists.

You can’t complain about a lack of bipartisanship when you’ve routinely obstructed for the sake of political gain — threatening to filibuster at least 100 pieces of legislation in one session, far more than any other since the procedural tactic was invented — and admitted it. Some admissions are unintentional, others are made proudly. This is especially true when the bill is the result of decades of compromise between the two parties and is filled with your own ideas.

You can’t question the loyalty of Department of Justice lawyers when you didn’t object when your own Republican president appointed them.

You can’t preach and try to legislate “Family Values” when you: take nude hot tub dips with teenagers (and pay them hush money); cheat on your wife with a secret lover and lie about it to the world; cheat with a staffer’s wife (and pay them off with a new job); pay hookers for sex while wearing a diaper and cheating on your wife; or just enjoying an old fashioned non-kinky cheating on your wife; try to have gay sex in a public toilet; authorize the rape of children in Iraqi prisons to coerce their parents into providing information; seek, look at or have sex with children; replace a guy who cheats on his wife with a guy who cheats on his pregnant wife with his wife’s mother;

Hyperbole

You really need to disassociate with those among you who:

• assert that people making a quarter-million dollars a year can barely make ends meet or that $1 million “isn’t a lot of money”
• say that “Comrade” Obama is a “Bolshevik” who is “taking cues from Lenin”
• ignore the many times your buddies use a term that offends you and complain only when a Dem says it
• liken political opponents to murderers, rapists, and “this Muslim guy” that “offed his wife’s head”
• say Obama “wants his plan to fail…so that he can make the case for bank nationalization and vindicate his dream of a socialist economy”
• equate putting the good of the people ahead of your personal fortunes with terrorism
• smear an entire major religion with the actions of a few fanatics
• say that the president wants to “annihilate us”
• compare health care reform with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a Bolshevik plot, the attack on 9/11, or reviving the ghosts of communist dictators
• equate our disease-fighting stem cell research with “what the Nazis did”
• call a bill passed by the majority of both houses of Congress, by members of Congress each elected by a majority in their districts, as “the end of representative government”
• shout “baby killer” at a member of Congress on the floor of the House, especially one who so fought against abortion rights that he nearly killed health care reform (in fact, a little decorum, a little respect for our national institutions and the people and the values they represent, would be refreshing — cut out the shouting, the swearing and the obscenities)
• prove your machismo by claiming your going to “crash a party” to which you’re officially invited
• claim that Obama is pushing America’s “submission to Shariah”
• question the patriotism of people upholding cherished American values and the rule of law
• claim the president is making us less safe without a hint of evidence
• call a majority vote the “tyranny of the minority” — even if you meant to call it tyranny of the majority — it’s democracy, not tyranny
• call the president’s support of a criminal trial for a terror suspect “treasonous” (especially when supported the same thing when the president shared your party)
• call the Pope the anti-Christ
• assert that the constitutionally mandated census is an attempt to enslave us
• accuse opponents of being backed by Arab slave-drivers or being drunk and suicidal
• equate family planing with eugenics or Nazism
• accuse the president of changing the missile defense program’s logo to match his campaign logo and reflect what you say is his secret Muslim identity
• accuse political opponents of being totalitarians, socialists, communists, fascists, Marxists, terrorist sympathizers, McCarthy-like, Nazis or drug pushers
• advocate a traitorous act like secession, violent revolution, military coup or civil war (just so we’re clear: sedition is a bad thing).

History

If you’re going to use words like socialism, communism and fascism, you must have at least a basic understanding of what those words mean (hint: they’re NOT synonymous!)

You can’t cut a leading Founding Father out the history books because you’ve decided you don’t like his ideas.

You cant repeatedly assert that the president refuses to say the word “terrorism” or say we’re at war with terror when we have an awful lot of videotape showing him repeatedly assailing terrorism and using those exact words.

If you’re going to invoke the names of historical figures, it does not serve you well to whitewash them. Especially this one.

You can’t just pretend historical events didn’t happen in an effort to make a political opponent look dishonest or to make your side look better. Especially these events. (And, no, repeating it doesn’t make it less of a lie.)

You can’t say things that are simply and demonstrably false: health care reform will not push people out of their private insurance and into a government-run program; health care reform (which contains a good many of your ideas and very few from the Left) is a long way from “socialist utopia”; is not “reparations”; and does not create “death panels”.

Hatred

You have to condemn those among you who:

• call members of Congress n*gger and f*ggot when they disagree with them on policy
• elected leaders who say “I’m a proud racist”
• state that America has been built by white people
• say that poor people are poor because they’re rotten people, call them “parasitic garbage” or say they shouldn’t be allowed to vote
• call women bitches and prostitutes just because you don’t like their politics (re-pea-ted-ly)
• assert that the women who are serving our nation in uniform are hookers
• mock and celebrate the death of a grandmother because you disagree with her son’s politics
• declare that those who disagree with them are shown by that disagreement to be not just “Marxist radicals” but also monsters and a deadly disease killing the nation (this would fit in the hyperbole and history categories, too)
• joke about blindness
• advocate euthanizing the wives of your political opponents
• taunt people with incurable, life-threatening diseases — especially if you do it on a syndicated broadcast
• equate gay love with bestiality — involving horses or dogs or turtles or ducks — or polygamy, child molestation, pedophilia
• casually assume that only white males look “like a real American”
• assert presidential power to torture a child by having his testicles crushed in front of his parents to get them to talk, order the massacre of a civilian village and launch a nuclear attack without the consent of Congress
• attack children whose mothers have died
• call people racists without producing a shred of evidence that they said or done something that would even smell like racism — same for invoking racially charged “dog whistle” words (repeatedly)
• condemn the one thing that every major religion agrees on
• complain that we no longer employ the tactics we once used to disenfranchise millions of Americans because of their race
• blame the victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks for their suffering and losses
• celebrate violence, joke about violence, prepare for violence or use violent imagery, “fun” political violence, hints of violence, threats of violence (this one is rather explicit), suggestions of violence or actual violence (and, really, suggesting anal rape with a hot piece of metal is beyond the pale)
• incite insurrection telling people to get their guns ready for a “bloody battle” with the president of the United States

Oh, and I’m not alone: One of your most respected and decorated leaders agrees with me.

Conclusion

So, dear conservatives, get to work. Drain the swamp of the conspiracy nuts, the bald-faced liars undeterred by demonstrable facts, the overt hypocrisy and the hatred. Then offer us a calm, responsible, grownup agenda based on your values and your vision for America. We may or may not agree with your values and vision, but we’ll certainly welcome you back to the American mainstream with open arms. We need you.

“…the time was now for healthcare for all Americans: as a right, not a privilege.”

Nancy Pelosi thanks members of the Daily Kos community for flowers on her 70th birthday.

“…As a bill, as an amendment, as an artistic poster suitable for framing…”

Alan Grayson (of GOP Health Care Plan fame) participated in a conversation with AmericaBlog readers today.

Our country has finally passed meaningful — and necessary — health care reforms

And now, as payback, the Rethuglicans have decided to obstruct the routine business of Congress. What the hell is happening on Capitol Hill? I’m beyond caring about which party did what years ago. Grow the fuck up. Stop objecting to everything, especially the usual business of the Congress.

Finally…

My partner and I are excited that our country is finally taking steps to move in the right direction in the healthcare scene. It is far from perfect, a single payer system like Canada’s would be ideal, but at least it’s a start in the right direction that hopefully can be improved upon.

It is truly disgusting that our country and some of its citizens think that healthcare is just a privilege and not an inalienable human right! It’s truly disgusting that the insurance companies, the doctors, the hospitals and big pharmacy corporations all engage in making absurdly ludicrous profits from our ill health! If one is fortunate enough to have health insurance it does not always mean that the insurance company will cover all of the cost one incurs and most insurance companies here have annual caps and lifetime limits! If one does not have health insurance and needs to make arrangements to make payments in installments or just simply cannot afford to pay, then the hospitals will put a lien on their home, garnish their wages and force them to have to file for bankruptcy! This happens to our citizens all over our country every single day!

The priorities in our country have been oh so wrong for oh so long… hopefully this is the turning point for the better, let’s hope!

Not very progressive

I just decided to look at how many African American Rethuglicans are currently serving in Congress. I figured at least a few — how naïve. How about zero?

Actually, I was right about the “few” in my guess above. There have been four total African American Rethuglicans in the modern (post 1929) era. Let’s try to help them out. I almost feel bad. How about going back to the first African American to ever serve? Well, there were 23 in the “Reconstruction” era. So, in all, that’s 27.

A progressive party? The Democrats. We have elected 93 African Americans throughout our history — and currently, there are 40 serving!

Now, I know that many don’t realize that the Democratic Party was originally the party of the racists. All of the African Americans serving prior to 1935 were Republicans. But something amazing has happened. The Democrats have completely swapped positions with the Rethuglicans.

Nothing in particular prompted me to run these numbers, I was just curious. And shocked. Shame on you Rethuglicans. You prove more each day that you are racists. The electability of a African American Congressperson further proves the point. Not that I’d want to run as a Rethuglican if I were African American.

Audacity, indeed

I just added to the conversation at Jesper’s blog:

You said, “Oh, I’m sorry, I was under the impression that you could keep the same provider and the same insurance company you had today, just that they couldn’t wiggle out of their responsibility quite as easily.”

The biggest features of this bill:

• If people are satisfied with their provider, they can keep it
• It would insure over 30 million people currently without coverage
• One can’t be dropped when they fall ill
• One can’t be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition
• Children can remain on their parent’s plans until age 26
• Most citizens would be required to buy a health plan

There is a failure on both our government (to more clearly explain what the reforms mean to the average person), but also a large portion of people, like “Foo,” that don’t want to understand the issues. There are a large group of people in this country that feel that government regulation of the for-profit health insurance businesses equates a takeover. Don’t waste your time trying to wrap your head around it — I have tried and I can’t.

So, unlike every other advanced country in the world, in America you have to buy health care. It is not provided to all by the government. Many employers provide access to their pre-selected health care plan. (For many, they hesitate leaving jobs because they will loose their coverage. Also, our companies face a competitive disadvantage against companies in other countries whose governments provide health care.) For others, there are government funded plans for the poorest of the poor, seniors, and children. But everyone else? They have to buy their care. They are fucked.

However, if one gets seriously ill, the for-profit health insurance businesses can (and often will) drop your coverage. If one has a pre-existing condition, the for-profit health insurance businesses can (and often will) either not extend coverage or make the applicant pay exorbitant premiums. Etc…

You also asked, “Did government ‘take over health care’?”

No. Absolutely not. Regulation? Yes. The oppositions plans were to slash regulation and let the marketplace regulate itself.

It’s fucked up, because under the new law, starting in 2014, people would be forced to pay a for-profit health insurance business for a plan. If they don’t buy a plan, they’d be subject to a penalty. There are a lot of thoughts about this. If people weren’t forced to buy and couldn’t be denied coverage, nobody would buy until they needed coverage. Costs would soar.

But the health care companies are for-profit. They have been dropping people when they get sick and raising premiums by double digits each year — all for profits. The reforms are supposed to lower costs, but we’ll have to see.

However, for almost 100 years politicians here have been trying to reform health care. That this passed is huge. The issue has been made too complex. The solution is simple — government provided health care.

I read a comment about health reform, but I forget where I read it, so I’ll paraphrase. For the next 10-20 years we’ll screw around with trying to tweak these plans, but in the end, we’ll settle on a universal or single payer system like everyone else.

I can only hope. The sooner the better.

I’m placing this in the record

As of late, Michael has been making pizzas at home using store purchased kits. They have been good. However, tonight we tried something a bit different — I wanted a white sauce pizza. I can’t find the words to express how fucking wonderful tonight’s meal has been.

He used a box of the Jiffy dough mix, but added course ground pepper. He let the dough rest for about 15 minutes and then shaped it to the edge of our stone. Next, he baked it for about 7 minutes, then pulled it out of the oven. He spread roasted garlic alfredo sauce to the edge of the partially baked crust. On top of that went the shredded six-cheese blend, then the chicken, artichoke hearts and black olives. Back in the oven for about thirteen minutes, followed by a couple more minutes to melt slices of provolone used to top the pie.

Nom. Nom. Nom.

Also, too
I took a sip of Michael’s ale the other night. I am now drinking my own. This is significant — I have never finished an ale or a beer before — my tastes are definitely changing.

They still don’t get it

“Though Motorola and HTC say they will upgrade some of the phones to the latest version of Android, consumers shouldn’t assume it will be the case with every phone.” — Wired

And yet again, the industry proves that they still don’t get it.

Consumers choose Android handsets for a variety of reasons. What are these customers supposed to think when they discover their new phone can’t support newer Android features they hear about? What should they do when it’s likely they won’t ever be able to update to newer versions of Android?

When customers learn that even the original iPhone (from June 2007) runs iPhone OS 3.0, it is bad. When customers learn that their new HTC Eris (shipping with Android 1.5) can’t be upgraded to a later version of Android — one that offers new features, or worse, features that don’t require additional monthly fees — it is going to be worse.

I understand that Android is a fast moving target and that it’s additional work for the carriers and manufacturers to upgrade the phones. The average consumer may be more understanding if they were told that the upgrades will come, and thanked for their patience.

I might suggest that carriers and manufacturers either tell customers up front that they will provide upgrades for, at minimum, the life of the contract, or, perhaps three years from the date of the handset’s release. Or tell the consumers that they won’t be getting any updates — they shouldn’t expect anything more than what they see today. Either way would be a massive improvement. Only then could purchasers make a better informed decision.

Geeks may enjoy this crap, but “regular” people don’t — and shouldn’t be expected to.

“If the aggressors finally ignite a war, we will, together with the people in the homeland, deal a merciless and annihilating blow at the provokers…”

“…and wage to the last the struggle for peace against war…”

I can’t keep reading. I really think these people have written propaganda so long that they actually believe this crap doesn’t read like, well, propaganda. And crap.

One of the recurring themes of the DPRK is that everyone is out to get them.*

For entertainment, please check out the KNS, the official news** agency of the “Democratic People’s” Republic of Korea.

* Similar to how the Republicans think everyone’s out to get them.
**News, in the sense that Fox broadcasts “news”.

“I gave up on it because I didn’t want to do hours or days of study and research just to install an office suite.”

“I tried Linux as a Windows substitute; What really turned me off to the experience was that both with the OS itself, and with several software packages I tried, the userbase was extremely unhelpful. They either had the attitude of ‘I figured it out, you figure it out yourself’, or they would point to something online that doesn’t apply at all, or something that links to something else, etc, on and on forever. I gave up on it because I didn’t want to do hours or days of study and research just to install an office suite.” — a MacInTouch reader adding to the conversation about why there is no version of iTunes on any Linux distribution.