These people cannot stand the idea that they might spend $50 to help save some stranger’s life, and in doing so, save $100 on their own health care.

While there are a lot of ideals that founded our country, one of them was the ideal that by banding together, we could make things better for ourselves.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

And there are some out there who are so afraid of this, that they make up lies about “death panels” or say that illegal immigrants would be covered. They know these things are blatant lies, yet they spread them, and inspire fear in their constituents or viewers, in order to not face the fact that they don’t have a leg to stand on.

Any Senator or Representative worthy of their office should at least consider the idea that health reform has to happen, because the people of our country need it to. They might fight against parts that they don’t agree with, but they damn sure should be fighting for the things they do agree with. But, yet, we have people like Jason Chaffetz, who sends out this message, minutes after Obama addressed the Joint Sessions of Congress this evening:

That’s right. My representative just sent out a message saying “I have made two big decisions tonight. We are killing the health care bill and we we are killing the mouse in the office.” This, after his Town Hall, which I swear I will blog very soon, where he said that he wasn’t an obstructionist, and he wanted health care reform to happen the right way. This, after Obama invited every one of them, including Chaffetz, to talk to him about their ideas. Chaffetz has never had any intention of considering health care reform.

None.

Those who are against health care reform, while simultaneously refusing to add ideas to the conversation, make me sick. We need health care reform. This conversation is supposed to be about what that reform means. And, as Rep. barney Frank told Rachel Maddow this evening:

The weakness of their argument is a testimony to the strength of ours.

To all the teabaggers, I have a few things to say to you.

First, you keep talking about taxes. Except your taxes just got cut. Unless you’re rich, and make over $250K a year, President Obama just gave you a tax cut. I’m guessing there won’t be many people at these “parties” that didn’t get a tax break.

Second, I hate to try to redirect your failed anger, but I think your problem is the spending, rather than the taxes. But, see, your party (or at least the party of most of the teabaggers) is the one behind the problem we’re facing right now. The GOP, with Bush at the helm, drove our country into the ground. When Bush got into office, the Democratic Party (with Clinton at the helm) had managed to give our country a surplus. Bush took that surplus away, and put us back into deficit spending. Obama walked into a huge mess, and he has no choice but to fix it. And now, it seems convenient for Republicans to blame Obama and the Democrats.

But blaming Obama and the Democrats is wrong. Obama is doing what is necessary to fix this mess. It’s not pleasant, but it has to be done. And I don’t think any of you are considering the big picture. You’re in this narrow little alley that says the other party must be wrong, and that’s as much consideration as you’re willing to give it.

And finally: All of you are coming of like a bunch of two year olds throwing a tantrum. If you can quit the partisan whining, maybe we can go back to having a real conversation.

Just a little update: Teablogging.net. ’nuff said.

I’m all for open debate, and making Representatives answer for their votes. But, this video shows that Rep. Jason Chaffetz is participating in pre-planned attacks, designed only to badger the Democrats, with no clear purpose or ability to make progress. It’s simple kindergarten bullying. From Politico:

Cantor’s floor staff has created a photo album to help identify the 42 most vulnerable Democrats. The aides send daily e-mails to the members of the attack team and alert lawmakers when these targeted members are speaking on the floor. They even draft quick scripts to help focus the questioning.

This is beyond childish. And it’s embarrassing, since apparently, Chaffetz made an idiot out of himself when it was his turn up, and it didn’t quite turn out the way he wanted. Go, Utah!

As Politico says, about this video:

Of course, these attacks don’t always work out. Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly, a veteran of party politics, quickly turned a Chaffetz challenge against his attacker. The Utah freshman also appeared flustered when Kilroy left the floor recently as he launched another line of questioning about her AIG vote.

Perhaps this is an alternative explanation for Jason Chaffetz blocking me on Twitter. Hearing from me was sometimes a little taste of his own medicine. Oh, and what was that advice Chaffetz had for the President again?

(h/t Glen Warchol)

A college student wrote to ask me for her class assignment what the most pressing issue facing our society. I decided not to speak to moral issues but said the following:

My first thought was “Wow! He’s not going to go with some religious pronouncement that gays are ruining marriage, or that letting children see alcholic drinks poured in restaurants is going to make them grab the nearest bottle and drive over grandma.” Then, I wondered what the subject would be. Being a Utah Republican, it wasn’t likely that he was too worried that bad environmental policies are going to leave our children without a planet upon which to reside. Nor was it likely that he’s too worried that Utah’s one-party rule is bad for our state. Highly doubtful that it had anything to do with Human Rights, or the lack thereof, of any sort. So, what could Sen. Bell think was the most pressing issue for our society?

Although he never mentions Democrats or Obama directly, he infers that the whole economic mess we’re in is their fault. Yep, those Obama Democrats are the “most pressing issue facing society”. Here’s how he starts out:

The most pressing governmental policy issue is the expansion of the federal government into areas I believe are unconstitutional. And whether or not these actions are unconstitutional, the funding for the federal government’s programs and bail-out packages is unsustainable. The government has shouldered staggering debt to finance programs and the bail-outs. The massive expenditure of funds in the bail-out/stimulus packages will, by almost everyone’s admission, cause serious inflation. Moreover, taxes will have to be increased, jobs and company expansions will be curtailed with higher taxes, and more and more people will become dependent on the federal government for income, health care and food.

Apparently, it’s ok for the State of Utah to tread on unconstitutional ground, though. I mean, they just passed a bill with the purpose of funding the legal battles that come from attempting to ban abortions. Um, which is unconstitutional. That’s about the point I started feeling pressure in my head. Then I got to the point where he used the word “unsustainable”. Because I can think of a ton of ways that government practices are unsustainable, and most of them are related to the environment, of Bush’s (and the GOP’s) last 8 years, which got us into this mess to begin with. So, he’s seriously telling this college  kid that GW’s trash heap that Obama’s attempting to clean up is somehow all Obama’s fault. That’s about where my head exploded.

He then takes the opportunity to give himself and the rest of the Utah Senate a nice pat on the back by saying how neighboring states are failing, but Utah is doing the right thing, and businesses like us.

Wait, what was the original question, again? Oh, yeah. “What is the most pressing issue facing our society?” His answer: ‘Those darn Democrats. But Utah politicians are the good guys’. Way to stay on topic, Senator.

Anyone have a better answer?

Amusing, as all Chaffetz-Colbert interaction seems to be. But, the next one has me a bit concerned. Watch him talk about Obama’s budget:

He says that Obama’s budget is “an all time record high”. Except he’s leaving out the fact that Obama isn’t hiding pieces of his budget, as Bush did. He included everything that should have been in there, instead of hiding funding in other bills and pretending they weren’t supposed to be part of the budget.

“It is only by restoring fiscal discipline over the long run that we can produce sustained growth and prosperity. [...] In keeping with my commitment to make our government more open and transparent, this budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go. For too long, our budget has not told the whole truth about how precious tax dollars are spent. Large sums have been left off the books, including the true cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

It feels like Chaffetz is not viewing the situation honestly, and is instead giving in to the kneejerk reaction that there’s no room for compromise between Democrats and Republicans. Perhaps he’s trying to make a name for himself, and secure his seat in the years to come. But, if he saw things wrong with the budget, I think he would have been far more effective to try to work with it, and fix the things he saw wrong, instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. He won’t prevent the budget from being passed, but it’s possible that if he wasn’t so dead set against it, that he might be able to make it better. And that if he didn’t view everything with partisan glasses, he might be an effective Congressman someday.

At the close of Mr. Bush’s Presidency, we’d like to give a moment of thanks for all the folks who made it such an interesting time. Here’s your credits for the last 8 years.

Written and directed by: Karl Rove

Cast in Order of Appearance:
Decider - George W. Bush
Actual President - Richard Cheney
Mr. Cheney’s Attempts at Human Emotion by - Industrial Light & Magic
Decider’s Wife - Laura Bush
Decider’s Actual Wife - Condoleezza Rice

The Supreme Court 
John Roberts
Samuel Alito
Clarence Thomas
Antonin Scalia
Anthony Kennedy
William Rehnquist
Sandra Day O’Connor
…and some other people who don’t matter

Prop Master - Gen. Colin Powell
Evildoer - Osama bin Laden
Mr. Bin Laden’s Stand-in - Saddam Hussein

Guantanamo Detainees - [censored by order of the Department of Homeland Security]

Heckuva-Job Doer - Mike Brown

Best Boy - Gen. David Patraeus
Worst Boy - Richard Clarke

Iraq Location Team
Second Unit Director - Donald Rumsfeld
Location Scout - Paul Wolfowitz
Iraq Extras Casting - Pal Bremer
Additional Material by - Ahmad Chalabi
Abu Ghraib Sequences Directed by - Donald Rumsfeld A few bad apples
Guantanamo bay Sequences Directed by - Dick Cheney a few other bad apples
John Bolton’s Mustache Wrangler - John Bolton

Unit Publicists -
Sean Hannity
Steve Doocy
Bill O’Reilly
Brian Kilmeade
Greta Van Susteren
Glenn Back

Undercover CIA Agent - Valerie Plume Ooops…sorry. Forget we mentioned it.

Stenographer - Judith Miller

Scapegoat provided by - I. Lewis Libby

Shrapnel Collector - Harry Whittington

Reporters -
Stretch
Super-stretch
Little Stretch
Hammy
Slick
Tiny
Ox
Moose
Helen Thomas

Coalition of the Willing -
England
Austrailia
Estonia
Lithuania
Slovakia
Tonga

Coalition of the Unwilling -
Everybody Else

Pooty-poot - Vladmir Putin

Executive Boob Coverer - John Ashcroft

Rich Uncle Pennybags - Henry Paulson

Chief of Stuff - Joshua Bolten

The Truth Squad -
Ari Fleischer
Scott McClellen
Dana Perino
Tony Snow

Sweat Hog (Uncredited) - Scott McClellan

Key Grip - Lynndie England

Promotional Considerations Paid by - Haliburton
Additional Dialogue - Roger Ailes
Gaffer - Douglas Feith

Songs
“I (don’t recall) Remembering to Recall”
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
Alberto Gonzales

“Let the Eagle Soar”
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
John Ashcroft

“I am the Decider”
WRITTEN BY
Karl Rove
PERFORMED BY
George W. Bush

SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE:
Inside your head for the rest of your life

Mr. Bush’s suits courtesy of BOTANY 5000

Mr. Cheney’s suits courtesy of the Filipino women locked in his basement

BOTCHED ON LOCATION IN WASHINGTON, IRAQ, and NEW ORLEANS

SPECIAL THANKS TO: 537 confused elderly voters in Florida

We believe, we believe that the best of America is in the small towns that we get to visit, and in the wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom.

She’s feeding part of a message intended to “inspire” the right wing of the Republican Party. Here’s the other part of the message, from a different mouthpiece:

Well, I would say that people who hold anti- American views. I don’t think it’s geography. I think it’s people who don’t like America, who detest America. And on college campuses, a Ward Churchill, another college campus, a Bill Ayers, you find people who hate America. And unfortunately, some of these people have positions teaching in institutions of higher learning. But you’ll find them in all walks of life all throughout America.
[...]
I think the people that Barack Obama has been associating with are anti-American, by and large, the people who are radical leftists. That’s the real question about Barack Obama — Saul Alinsky, one of his teachers, you might say, out of the Chicago area; Tony Rezko, who is an associate also.

It disgusts me to think that they are getting away with trying to divide our country in this fashion, not by pitting political ideas against political ideas, but by pitting ordinary Americans against ordinary Americans. And it disgusts me that it seems to be working, and that somehow that message is more attractive to some people than this message:

(Check it out about 4:50 in)

“There are no real or fake parts of this country. We are not separated by the pro-America and anti-America parts of this country. We all love this country, no matter where we live, where we come from.”

This idea that Barack Obama wants a united country is not a new one. His 2004 DNC speech is an easy example. “There is not a red America and a blue America…There is a United States of America”, and if you look, those examples go back through all of his public life.

For more, see Keith Olbermann’s special comment last night:

As I was writing this, a friend sent me this link, to an article titled “Populism Without Pitchforks“:

Here again, Obama’s recent soft-populist language goes off in another direction entirely, not targeting much of anyone, but instead invoking a sense of natural order in which all of us live up to our responsibilities, in service of a sense of national purpose. It is an ethics based on a sense of mutual obligation and engagement, embodied in the ever-expanding circle of Obama’s own campaign. And in this sense, it is deeply reflective of the best in American populism, what the historian Lawrence Goodwyn called, “the movement culture” characterized by “collective self-confidence,” and the active engagement of millions in the practice of democracy.

I voted yesterday, and I feel even better about my vote today, knowing that in two short weeks, we’ll find that Obama won the 2008 Presidential Election, and that we can look forward to a United States of America, and not a Divided States of America. And when Obama wins, that means that Americans will have chosen to band together, and rejected the politics of hate and fear. God bless America.

(h/t Richard Warnick and Jason The)

(via Wonkette)

I thought about this for a moment after watching, and wondered how I’d like it if “they” came to an Obama event and tried pulling the same thing on me. I’d be a bit irritated, right? Then I realized, I’d just be laughing because it would be the same nonsensical people, only behind the camera instead of in front of it, and I’m sure I’d have to see the humor in it. Idiocy at it’s finest.

Anyone know what the molecules thing had to do with the rest of the sentence? Or well, what any of it meant? I think all of America may feel like they’re drunk (even if they’re not) when listening to her this Thursday!

Speaking of Thursday’s debate, I’ll be hanging out at Saints and Sinners with Drinking Liberally for the Vice Presidential Debate Watch Party. Event information here. (3040 South State St, SLC at 6:30 PM, Private Club for Members, 21+)

P.S. If you want your own chance to Interview Sarah Palin, check out InterviewPalin.com.

This idea came from Letty Cotton Pogrebin.

Make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin’s name. A Planned Parenthood donation is tax deductible, where a political donation isn’t.And here’s the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they’ll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here’s the link to the Planned Parenthood website:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ go to donate, then to honorary gifts.

You’ll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the “in Sarah Palin’s honor” card.

Governor Sarah Palin
Alaska State Capital Building, 3rd floor
P.O. Box 110001
Juneau AK 99811-0001.

The fax # is 907 465.3532.