EFFin' Unsound

Post by Carl

While I appreciate Joni Balter’s eventual concern that the Teabagging movement has gone too far, she’s a bit late to the party, wouldn’t you say?

The health care debate has brought out some of the most uncivilized elements of public protest our nation has ever seen. And it needs to stop.

And yet your paper has been right there with them from the beginning. Cheering them on, and excusing the extremist elements of the movement.

Some will discount all this by saying it was organized, or that the rally sprung from the fringe. Of course it was organized. All protests with people carrying signs and listening to speakers are organized.

But when organizers get 5,000 people to come to Olympia on a workday, it is evidence of a strong feeling. Some of the sentiment was extreme, but much was not. These were the largest protests there in years.

In reality any protest group led by Glenn Beck was going to have more than its share of crazy people. And instead of recognize that, the Times encouraged it. Shame on them.

Post by Carl

The best thing about the health care bill passing, of course, is that millions of Americans will have care who didn’t before. The fewer medical bankruptcies, the lives saved, and quality of life improved going forward. But a nice side benefit is that the righties have gone even further off their rockers, and it’s oh so fun to watch (Sharkenfreude). Delightfully, Liberty Belle is one of those crazies.

Normally, when two teams compete, and it is a close, close game with both teams playing their hardest and their best, the two teams come together, shake hands and say, “good game” when the game is over.

Does anyone believe that? Or do you think it’s more like, “we lost the beer league softball game, well you’re a communist.”

If this had been a fair fight I would congratulate my opponents on a battle well won. I always do.

Then I compare them Mao.

However, when the other team cheats, lies, manipulates, twists arms, shreds the Constitution, bribes, steals, pressures, bullies, and ignores the will of the people whom they purport to represent, there can be no congratulations. There can be no handshakes. There certainly can be no “good games.”

Links helpfully provided by me. I didn’t bother to add a link to “arm twists,” “manipulates,” or “pressures” because what are you 10 years old?

Gloating and preening after cheating and bullying people into voting a certain way when the American people overwhelmingly demanded a fresh start makes the “winners” wholly unworthy of any sort of victory or support.

Now a plurality of Americans, outside the margin of error, say it’s good that it passed.

Also remember that ObamaPelosi Co. wanted this bill passed by July 2009. They wanted no debate and they wanted it signed into law before the August recess so that politicians would not have to face their constituents. Thus, when the President and Queen Nancy prattle on about “everyone has read the bill,” and “this bill has been debated for over a year,” remember their disingenuousness. The only reason the American people had even the little debate that we did, was due to the AMERICAN PEOPLE, not due to any dignity or adherance [sic] to propriety by Obama or Pelosi or Reid.

Were does the guy who got 53% of the vote campaigning on health care reform get off saying THE PEOPLE want health care reform?

Pick your candidates and propel them into office this November. Volunteer for them, give them money, talk about them, wear their t-shirts, poster their faces all over your city, talk to your neighbors, go door-to-door, participate in phone banking for them, hold fundraisers for them…

Will do.

This was a big battle for sure, but it was hardly the last or deciding battle. We will win the war of ideas because our ideas combine mercy, grace, charity, freedom and liberty together, while their ideas gut liberty and hide cruelty and oppression in a cloak of false compassion. And in the end, we can always ask the question, “How will you pay for this when we all Go Galt?”

You mean like when all those banksters went Galt after we suspended their bonuses?

While I never thought you would support the health care package that passed Congress last night, I’m still disappointed to see that I was correct. If you and your party had their way, the doughnut hole for Medicare coverage would stay open, small businesses across the country wouldn’t have help paying for coverage for their employees, and rescissions — where health care companies drop you from coverage because you become sick — would happen into perpetuity instead of stopping immediately.

And soon the over 44,000 American adults who die for want of health care annually will live longer lives. In a few years, despite you and your party’s intransigence, fewer parents in America will hear their child crying congested in the next room and have to wonder how they can afford to take their child to the doctor. Nobody will wake up in the middle of the night their chest feeling crushed and say to themselves, “I can’t afford to go to the ER right now.”

For while the bill you voted against is far from perfect, America is a better country today. It’s a better country despite you. Despite your party.

XXOO

Carl Ballard

Post by Carl

I didn’t set out to make it an all health care edition of Shorter Wingnuttia, but I guess that’s what wingnuttia is talking about.

Shorter Pudge: Health care is like a bad simile. No wait, it’s like a completely different bad simile. Actually it’s like a movie I liked, but it could be like another movie I liked.

Shorter Frosty Hardison*: If the health care bill passes doctors might move out of America and into Texas.

Shorter Bruce Chapman: Look at me ignoring the Congressional Budget Office: Obama’s plan will add to the deficit because shut up that’s why.

(more…)

Post by Carl

Lou Guzzo is not happy with Al Gore for his continued insistence on things that are true. Since you can’t link to individual posts, this was March 17, happy St. Pat’s all over again.

Al Gore Is At It Again With His Global-Warming Hokum

Was there ever a time when the use of “Hokum” wasn’t considered passe?

Former Vice President Al Gore continues to promote his global-warming hoax, despite the fact that his book, his film, and all his speeches have been proved to be a gigantic fraud, along with the U.N. phony scientists, whose lies and misguided propaganda match the Gore fraud.

Yes Lou, scientists the world over are perpetrating a gigantic hoax because Al Gore told them to.

In a recent appearance on a Norwegian talk show, Gore had the gall to say that his warnings about global warming have been attacked by what he called a “massive, organized campaign.” As usual, Gore has the situation reversed; it was he and his global warmers who have been guilty of organizing a “massive, fraudulent campaign.”

Zing. Take that, Gore! I demand you return your so called peace so called prize.

Of course, there was a special madness in Gore’s appearance on the Norwegian talk show. He has written a second book, “Our Choice,” and he is anxious to make a lot of money selling it, just as his first book, a collection of “Convenient” lies, brought him the dollars of so many innocent readers who didn’t realize they’d been hoodwinked.

I’ll say it, Lou Guzzo hates capitalism.

If there is a person on Earth who condemns himself with every false word he utters, he cannot match Gore. Take heed of what he had to say in his appearance on the Norwegian program: “There has been a very large, organized campaign to try to convince people that it (global warming) is not real and to try to convince people they shouldn’t worry about it.”

And guess what Lou? You’re helping them out!

Sounds like the old, misguided Gore, doesn’t it? Here’s more: “In my country, the oil and coal companies spent $500 million last year just on television advertising on these questions. There are now five anti-climate lobbyists on Capitol Hill in Washington for every member of the House and Senate. So it’s been a very massive organized campaign.”

Lou knows the truth. The more lobbyists there are on your side of an issue, the better your side is.

The Norwegian interviewer asked Gore if his opinions were any different today than they were a few years ago. Gore replied: “It doesn’t feel different. It feels like the same struggle. There is still a massive movement worldwide to respond to the climate crisis. It would be an enormous relief if the recent criticism of the science actually meant there wasn’t a crisis. Unfortunately, there is. We’re still putting 90 million tons of global-warming pollution every day into the atmosphere, as if it’s an open sewer.”

And we should probably stop that.

If there was at least one bright spot in Gore’s harangue, it was this. In acknowledging that he still has a long way to go in his effort to educate the world about climate change, he confessed: “I have thus far failed, and our world has thus far failed to respond adequately to this crisis.”

That’s too bad.

Gore has failed because his campaign has been based on falsehoods, utter lies about pollution and global warming. The world’s legitimate scientists have berated the global-warming hoax, and they have proved that any warming trends have not been caused by mankind’s pollution.

Lou doesn’t have any links, so I’ve helpfully added one for him (.pdf).

If only Gore would take time out from his phony campaign and listen to those legitimate scientists, instead of the phonies in the U.N. The honest scientists would tell him that, “Yes, there has been warming, but it has come and gone at intervals in the millions of years the Earth has been in existence. And, most important, earthlings have had nothing to do with those occasional periods of warmth.”

So who are those legitimate scientists? No? Who are you actually quoting? The end I guess.

Post by Carl

The other day Goldy wrote a piece attacking the Seattle Times for their stance on their stance on Google in China. Righteous. But I have to disagree with him when he says, “I have to admit that the Seattle Times editorial board is usually pretty good on issues involving free speech.” Of course this is the same ed page whose editor whines about people having opinions on the teevee box and the introwebs.

My quick take is the Internet and cable news have become places where people can easily seek out journalism that reinforces their political and world views.

Boo more opinions than psudo centrism.

And perhaps Goldy has forgotten Ryan Blethen’s desire that some of us bloggers get sued for defamation.

There is nothing wrong with pushing the limits of the First Amendment, but there is a line where free speech can go too far and real damage is done. Bloggers are writing past this line and finding themselves in trouble.

Of course Blethen has had it in for Google for some time:

Essentially, Google News is hijacking news with no compensation to newspapers. The search engines then get credit for the entire news-gathering and presentation process. A lot of online news reader say they get their news from Google or Yahoo! — even though all those sites do is use a program that grabs the news off newspaper Web sites.

You combine that with the Times’ relentless attempts to drive the PI out of business and it’s tough to see how the Times is all that favorable to free speech. Although, I guess in fairness to Goldy, the whole ed board seems somewhat more favorable to free speech than the owner of the paper and his kiddo editing the board.

Post by Carl

This press release from the state Senate Republicans (.pdf) is another example of why people don’t consider them serious partners on budgetary matters. I’m only quoting two paragraphs, but keep in mind they appear back-to-back.

“Republicans have been sounding the alarm about the state’s unsustainable spending growth for more than four years. We saw this latest shortfall coming last fall and called on the majority party to meet in December, when the Legislature was already scheduled to be in Olympia, to begin working on the budget. When that didn’t happen, we encouraged budget writers to act early this session and make policy changes that would create savings not only through the remainder of the biennium but into the 2011-13 budget cycle, in hopes of fending off another deficit.

We sounded the alarm by demanding tax cuts. But any way, they should have had a special session.

“They dragged their feet again, saying they needed to wait for the February 12 revenue forecast. Now here we are, a full month later, embarking on a special session that will cost taxpayers an extra 20,000 dollars a day. Only Olympia would make the people pay more while it figures out how much more to take from them through tax increases.

They had the audacity to wait until they knew what the budget hole would be before they said exactly how they would fill it. Monsters. I totally bet that they weren’t even working on budget issues until the forecast came out. I bet the legislators were all just masturbating or something.

And now, look. A special session. Those are expensive, and we should never have one.

Post by Carl

Since it was a warm winter in Washington, I can’t do a “Global Warming Update.” But don’t worry, I can still pretend an anecdote is a fact if I say the reason some Latin American coffee farms are failing is because of Seattle hippies.

Post by Carl

Ken Hutcherson has a commentary on Focus on the Family. I didn’t even realize there had been a shakeup. Because a lot of it is boring, here are some excerpts:

Of all the people I know, in an effort to find some semblance of reality about what really happened, I am the only one who has talked to both sides – Dr. James Dobson and Jim Daly, the new president of Focus on the Family who also represents the board.

I am the only one among everyone I’ve ever heard of with a telephone. I say nobody else has talked to two whole people about a thing.

I think that Focus does have a new focus; an image change designed to make them accepted and well-liked rather than standing for righteousness in an unrighteous society.

So, word play is neat. And I guess standing for righteousness is condemning Dick Cheney’s daughter for having a kid, but not his other daughter for, you know, supporting fucking torture. Righteous!

Dr. James Dobson is one of the most loving, committed Christian men I have ever met. I love him with all my heart, am committed to him and would take a bullet for him.

OK, I hope you never have to. Anyway, skipping ahead a bit.

The current emphasis at Focus is on being loved and understood. I have read the entire Bible from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21 – and while it says, “The truth shall set you free,” nowhere does it say, “Sensitivity shall set you free.” What set the Focus board free to take Dr. Dobson off the air?

The Bible is mostly about how you should be an insensitive ass. Woo.

I am not very happy with the new, progressive, “loving” leadership at Focus on the Family. However, it is God’s ministry, and He will do with it what He pleases.

If there’s one thing everyone knows about Jesus, he hates “loving” people. Anyway, the rest is kind of boring, so we’ll end here.