Lisa Falkenberg of the Houston Chroncle attended a medical support group with a family member in Katy outside Houston recently. The group's leader handed out a flyer that was supposedly distributed to share information on the U.S. House healthcare proposals. The flyer was anything but credible. It contained nothing but pants-on-fire whoppers and frightening misinformation surrounding healthcare reform.
The first order of business was for the group's leader to pass around a handout that supposedly offered a page-by-page translation of the House health care reform bill from an alien bureaucratic dialect to everyday English.
"A U.S. Army translator has been found who speaks 'Washington Doublespeak' and he was kind enough to decode the bill and post his plain-language findings," read an introductory paragraph.
As one who also has a family member who attends medical support group meetings I must say the group's leader did the unspeakable and unforgivable. Folks attend these meetings for support, empathy and encouragement. They are there to learn ways in which they and their families can cope with the diseases that plague them. They are there to learn how to fight the depression and fear that accompanies so many diseases. For a leader to introduce a new level of fear and anxiety to people in this state is criminal.
Obviously the GOP and HCR opponents know no shame.
Below are a few of the despicable whoppers used to foment fear among the ill.
Among the supposed findings: "Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed! ... Page 42: The 'Health Choices Commissioner' will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None. ... Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with fee healthcare services. ... Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer."
Just when you think the Republicans and their love mates in big insurance and pharma have sunk to the lowest hole in a snake pit, they manage to creep into an even deeper one. Their latest stunt goes beyond the pale in much the same fashion as the GOP did in the Terri Schiavo case. But the Schiavo incident was child's play when compared to the cruel and sinister stuff Republicans and their love mates are up to today.
In a recent multi-million dollar PR campaign to kill off health care reform, insurance companies, special interest groups and Republicans are lying to and scaring the daylights out of senior citizens in the most appalling manner. The self-serving, unconscionable and greedy ghouls are telling older folks that health care reform will literally kill them. They will be euthanized, or they will be required to have five- year medical reviews that could result in death sentences.
I am not making this up or telling a really sick and inappropriate joke. This ruthless fear and smear campaign is happening while I type. And, as I mentioned in a diary posted below, Republicans in Congress are completely on board with this beyond the pale campaign of terror against senior citizens.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow has revealed much about the despicable "deather" movement.
In yesterday's Houston Chronicle readers learned much about Rick Perry's fancy globe trotting extravaganzas, golfing, hunting trips and lavish gifts, much of it donated by the governor's sugar daddy supporters. The Chronicle's R.G. Ratcliffe revealed that thanks to taxpayers and generous supporters, Perry, a modest cotton farmer from West Texas, now leads the life of the rich and famous.
We taxpayers take care of the basic needs: housing, cooks, housekeepers, stewards and gardeners.
The taxpayers shell out $108,000 a year to rent him an estate west of Austin, and spend another $168,000 on chefs, stewards and housekeepers for the Perrys' creature comforts.
The governor's donors and supporters take care of the really fun stuff like overseas travel to wonderful places, concerts, basketball games and hunting trips.
Throughout the years, from the Reagan Administration through 2008, we've heard a lot of talk about compassionate conservatism. According to conservative conventional wisdom, it is entirely possible for a state and/or federal government to be fiscally conservative without, at the same time, disenfranchising those who are economically disadvantaged and others who are vulnerable, like the children of the poor.
The reality? When conservatives talk about compassion they are reading GOP talking point memos. The real GOP imperative:
Kiss up to special and corporate interests. Kick down the everyday constituents.
I guess Ronald Reagan thought he embodied compassionate conservatism when his administration deemed ketchup a vegetable in the public schools' federal lunch programs. What's wrong with poor kids eating a paste comprised mostly of salt and sugar with nil nutritional value? It has a vegetable kind of product added to it. Let them eat a salt/sugar paste with artificial coloring.
Reagan's budget cuts, especially those involving social programs, effectively dismantled all safety nets for the nation's poor.
When George W. Bush ran for the Presidential office in 2000 he promoted himself as a compassionate conservative. His tax cuts would produce more jobs. Life would be good for all.
According to an article written in the Houston Chronicle this morning, John Cornyn, John McCain and Mitch McConnell met with a group of doctors at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. John Cornyn is apparently on a mission to destroy health care reform by misleading and scaring doctors and patients, alike.
According to Cornyn, the evil doer is a non-existent single payer option.
"This is where the government option is a competitor but the government's not exactly a fair competitor," said Cornyn, of Texas, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which is considering health care reform proposals. "It's an 800-pound gorilla that has the capacity to undermine other competitors. We want to make sure we don't do anything to crush the kind of innovation that has led to cures and happier and healthier lives in Texas and around the world."
Dude, the only thing destroying innovation and cures are the crippling costs imposed by for-profit driven health care insurance companies.
The federal government agencies (i.e. the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health etc.) and private foundations provide grants that fuel much of the innovation and cures. Is John Cornyn suggesting the public option will automatically become single-payer and federal grants will no longer be awarded to research faculty and doctors? The public option means no more federal funding for research?
If he is suggesting this he is both a fool and a liar.
I definitely have to stop sipping coffee when reading the Houston Chronicle in the morning. Too many times my freshly brewed favorite morning beverage is spat out because I am appalled and/or disgusted by something I read.
This morning happened to be one of those days when my morning joe ended up on the front page of the Houston Chronicle.
The headline that captured my attention:
A case of mistaken identity?
Environmentalists surprised that A&M scientist named to board has sided with industry
By MATTHEW TRESAUGUE
Apparently a Texas A&M educated scientist who holds two advanced degrees and a doctorate in agricultural engineering to boot, is skeptical of the proven science supporting the rather inconvenient fact that human activity is largely responsible for pollution.
Governor Rick Perry the Secessionist ought to take notice. Federal stimulus funding will provide thousands of Houston's teenagers and unemployed young adults with summer jobs. This is obviously wonderful news in a market in which jobs, especially part-time and summer jobs, are hard to find.
This program is an outreach initiative that will provide jobs for at risk youth who may have dropped out of school. Students and young adults will be assigned to various city projects in Houston and Harris County. They will work under the guidance of mentors and role models. In a nutshell, the hope is that unemployed young folks will have the opportunity to develop solid working skills, learn about team building, responsibility, the rewards of hard work and the long term value of higher education.
Sounds like a potential a win-win for Houston's at-risk youth, right?
According to Gail Collins of the New York Times (see below) Rick Perry and other Republicans are behaving like gerbils that just bit an electric wire.
I don't think anyone could have said it better. Ms. Collins is absolutely right and she is not the only one who thinks so.
The words "looney talk" "nuts" and "whacko world" are the terms used by Hardball's Chris Matthews when he refers to Rick Perry and Tom Delay's views on secession and state sovereignty.
Lawmakers here intend to replace existing funds with federal stimulus money.
I literally spat out my coffee this morning when I saw an article on front page of the Houston Chronicle's City and State section Stimulus, or better yet, status quo. Political reporter Lisa Falkenberg reveals one of the most appalling and unimaginable Republican shenanigans regarding federal stimulus money.
It seems that our esteemed lawmakers cleaned out the public schools' piggy bank so it could replace it with federal stimulus money
Markos Moulitsas ("Kos") founder of Daily Kos recently observed that his two year old daughter had reached a Republican stage in her development because the majority her vocabulary consisted of two words: "NO!" and "MINE!"
Indeed. At least Markos understands that his two year old will grow out of her stubborn and selfish phase.
But those of us who live in Republican run states do not have the luxury of believing in or hoping for the evolution of maturity where our childlike NO! and MINE! lawmakers are concerned.
According to a source cited over at Daily Kos Kay Bailey Hutchison will not give up her U.S. Senate seat while running for governor.
