"How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht. The weapon of choice for vigilante violence at Congressional offices has been a brick hurled through a window. So far."
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Vatican Declined to Defrock U.S. Priest Who Abused Boys - NYTimes.com
Inexplicable.
House of Anger - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com
Unfairly or not, the defining images of opposition to health care reform may end up being those rage-filled partisans with spittle on their lips. Whether the outbursts came from inside Congress — the “baby killer” shout of Rep. Randy Neugebauer, and his colleagues who cheered on hecklers — or outside, where protesters hurled vile names against elected representatives, they are powerful and lasting scenes of a democracy gasping for dignity. (more...)
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15772702&fsrc=rss
Despite a rare dressing down from America, Israel's leader shows no sign of yielding
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Mischief from Republicans in the Senate
Mischief
Republicans are having all kinds of fun shutting down the Senate today and introducing amendments to embarass weak-kneed Dems and load 30-second ads for November. The amendments are to the House "fixes" to the Senate health care bill that is now law. The House package still has to pass the Senate.
Some samples: (Sen. Orrin) HATCH (R-Utah) INTRODUCES AMENDMENT TO PROTECT VETERANS FROM PUNITIVE TAX HIKES IN HEALTH BILL
HATCH OFFERS PROVISION TO PROTECT SENIOR'S HEALTH BENEFITS TODAY
(Sen. John) BARRASSO (R-Wyo.) AMENDMENT PROHIBITS INSURANCE PREMIUM INCREASES: "My amendment will hold those who voted for this bill accountable to the promises they made to the American people."
If any of these pass, the House would have to vote again on the package of House changes to the underlying Senate health care law, creating all manner of headaches for Democrats who barely mustered the votes for passage on Sunday.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?blogid=14&entry_id=59836#ixzz0j8LaDcAg
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
An Embarrassment
In the struggle over how best to address shortcomings in America's health care system -- shortcomings acknowledged by almost all participants in the debate, regardless of party affiliation -- politicians and private citizens alike found their nerves frayed and their tempers short. That is not surprising: a vigorous contest over competing principles was very much in keeping with the democratic tradition.
But...
Democracy gives voice, and power, to the people. The mill worker and the street cleaner have a say in how their community is to be governed. In a great nation, however, this celebration of the masses, this empowerment of the non-elites, co-exists with great traditions and great institutions. To diminish those institutions is an insult not to one's opponents but to American democracy itself. That is why, when Congressman Joe Wilson hissed "you lie" in the midst of a presidential address, the affront was not to the president -- we don't treat political leaders as sacrosanct and immune from challenge -- but to the Congress, whose guest the president was and whose institutional standards were violated.
The House debate over health care reform was, for the most part, civil, intelligent, and thoughtful. Republicans, who had ample grounds for opposition to the legislation, might well have rested their case on their own very critical analysis of the proposal's likely effects. Hyperbole and excess are, unfortunately, to be expected, and poured forth from both sides of the aisle; nonetheless, there was sufficient thoughtful discussion in the chamber to meet a modern constitutional democracy's need for civil discourse and deliberation over important questions.
But in the midst of the legislative debate, a handful of juvenile members of Congress took to a second-floor balcony, looking out over a gathering of citizens objecting to the bill's pending passage, and proceeded, waving signs like a gang of street organizers, to incite the already angry protesters to new rounds of invective and cat-calls.
It is one thing for legislators, prior to the vote, to have joined citizen expressions of opposition to legislation they perceived to be harmful to the national interest. Many of them let their opposition be known, as they should have, in community meeting halls and at outdoor rallies. They wrote letters, signed op-eds, appeared on talk shows, and tried to rally public opinion.
But in the course of a debate already taking place on the House floor, in the Capitol, in the midst of a legislative session, with the sides declared and the die cast, for members of Congress to diminish themselves and the Congress by adopting the pose of street marchers and invective-hurlers, is, like Joe Wilson's "you lie," an insult to the dignity of America's democratic process. We are not a nation caught up in the folderol of top hats, silk gloves, and morning coats, but we are not a nation of ragtag rabble, either, and it seems that some House members have failed to grasp that being a member of the United States House of Representatives is a position of some obligation and worthy of being respected by those who serve in that institution.
But...
Democracy gives voice, and power, to the people. The mill worker and the street cleaner have a say in how their community is to be governed. In a great nation, however, this celebration of the masses, this empowerment of the non-elites, co-exists with great traditions and great institutions. To diminish those institutions is an insult not to one's opponents but to American democracy itself. That is why, when Congressman Joe Wilson hissed "you lie" in the midst of a presidential address, the affront was not to the president -- we don't treat political leaders as sacrosanct and immune from challenge -- but to the Congress, whose guest the president was and whose institutional standards were violated.
The House debate over health care reform was, for the most part, civil, intelligent, and thoughtful. Republicans, who had ample grounds for opposition to the legislation, might well have rested their case on their own very critical analysis of the proposal's likely effects. Hyperbole and excess are, unfortunately, to be expected, and poured forth from both sides of the aisle; nonetheless, there was sufficient thoughtful discussion in the chamber to meet a modern constitutional democracy's need for civil discourse and deliberation over important questions.
But in the midst of the legislative debate, a handful of juvenile members of Congress took to a second-floor balcony, looking out over a gathering of citizens objecting to the bill's pending passage, and proceeded, waving signs like a gang of street organizers, to incite the already angry protesters to new rounds of invective and cat-calls.
It is one thing for legislators, prior to the vote, to have joined citizen expressions of opposition to legislation they perceived to be harmful to the national interest. Many of them let their opposition be known, as they should have, in community meeting halls and at outdoor rallies. They wrote letters, signed op-eds, appeared on talk shows, and tried to rally public opinion.
But in the course of a debate already taking place on the House floor, in the Capitol, in the midst of a legislative session, with the sides declared and the die cast, for members of Congress to diminish themselves and the Congress by adopting the pose of street marchers and invective-hurlers, is, like Joe Wilson's "you lie," an insult to the dignity of America's democratic process. We are not a nation caught up in the folderol of top hats, silk gloves, and morning coats, but we are not a nation of ragtag rabble, either, and it seems that some House members have failed to grasp that being a member of the United States House of Representatives is a position of some obligation and worthy of being respected by those who serve in that institution.
She Got it Done
Without a doubt, one of the most effective Speakers ever.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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