Amid the continued politicking on health care and new reports of Tea Party thuggery, comes this from a friend of mine who lives in Australia.  One of the oft-repeated lies in the health care debate is that sure-fire applause line:  "The United States has the finest health care system in the world."  The only problem is, we don't.  Read this.

Two months ago, I thought that the GOP was poised to make huge gains in this year's elections.  But with Republican House members shouting about how the health reform bill is a "baby killer", with Tea Party activists using racial epithets against John Lewis and other African American Democrats and calling Barney Frank "a faggot", and now with this, ( Read more... )

I just received an automated call, which turned out to be a push poll sponsored by Americans in Contact PAC, and which used the voice of Michael Reagan, Ronald Reagan's moron of a son (as opposed to Ron Reagan, who has turned out to be a pretty cool guy).  The poll was designed to rally older male voters against health care reform by focusing on ( Read more... )

Okay, let’s try this for a moment: Let’s suppose that the premise underlying Congressman Joe Wilson’s unconscionable outburst during the President’s address to Congress last week has some truth to it. Yes, I know: FactCheck.org points out that the bills before Congress all contain provisions that would prevent any Federal health subsidies or ( Read more... )

A follow-up to yesterday's post, for those of you who might not have read all the comment threads.

While Joe Wilson is being lionized by Rush Limbaugh and other wing-nutters for calling his commander-in-chief a liar (Wilson is a veteran of the Guard), others are digging a little deeper into Wilson's background and finding out all sorts of cool ( Read more... )

I'm not going to go on and on about Obama's terrific speech last night, nor I am going to spend too much time or energy dissing Congressthug Joe Wilson, the imbecile who called the President of the United States a liar, in the House Chamber, while Mr. Obama was actually correcting  conservative lies (When you follow the link, the facts about ( Read more... )

I'm not looking for a fight or an argument.  I know that Ted Kennedy was a flawed human being, that his flaws cost a young woman her life, that he hurt his children and his first wife and others with his drinking.  I don't presume to make excuses for him.  He had to live with his flaws and following the tenets of his faith, he believed that he ( Read more... )

To Congressman Lincoln Davis (D-TN4 ( Read more... )

I'm back from two weeks of vacationing up north, and in getting back into the swing of everyday life, I'm also getting back into checking the news more regularly.  And I'm shocked and disgusted by the tone of the health care debate.  This issue is too important for our nation's health, for our children's future, and for our economic stability.  We ( Read more... )

I meant to post much earlier today, but after hitting a small speedbump with the WIP at the beginning of the week, I churned out over 2,700 words today, and didn't want to interrupt the flow.  The book should come in somewhere around 100k and I'm just past 85,000.  At the rate I've been going recently, I could be done by the end of next week ( Read more... )