Current affairs

Conservatives are crowing over a federal judge's recent ruling that the requirement to purchase health insurance in the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) is unconstitutional. But Judge Roger Vinson's ruling actually showed that what Republicans have been claiming is false: it isn't possible to repeal the health insurance mandate and leave other more popular parts of the law intact. Vinson came to the legally questionable conclusion that the mandate is unconstitutional. He then went further, saying that the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down even though only this one part of it fails to pass constitutional muster. (In…

Last night I was inspired by President Obama's State of the Union speech. He seemed like the adult in the room, rising above childish political pettiness with his call for Americans to come together and work to improve our country's position in an increasingly competitive world economy. But it doesn't take a crystal ball for me to predict that almost all Republicans in Congress will ignore Obama's urging to put patriotism above politics, and idealism above ideology. So they'll keep on spouting platitudes about creeping socialism, reckless spending, liberty being threatened, blah, blah, blah. Which drives me nuts. As does…

Republicans keep saying that the 2010 midterm election was a mandate from the American people to repeal the health care reform bill, a.k.a. "Obamacare." That's not true, like so much else that leaves the lips of Republican leaders these days. A  New York Times/CBS poll found that only 20% of people said they want to do away with the entire bill. And of those, it turns out that when asked about specific parts of the bill, very few wanted to repeal anything. The poll first asked people a straight-up question -- should we do away with the law completely, or…

Oregon has some terrific writers and thinkers. John Daniel is one I hadn't known about until I read an essay of his in today's Portland Oregonian. "When blood is not a metaphor" is a terrific commentary about the shooting a week ago of Congresswoman Giffords and the murder of six others by crazed gunman Jared Loughner. Regarding Sarah Palin's crosshairs metaphor, Daniel says: Neither Palin nor anyone on her political action committee intended that a warped 22-year-old or anyone else should use a firearm to shoot Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. But language set loose in public is instantly nationalized and…

Driving home tonight, I heard part of President Obama's speech at the memorial service for the victims of the Tucson shooting and liked what he said. He called for a new era of civility in American politics. Nate Silver, one of the most savvy commentators on politics and current events, wrote: President Obama’s speech in Tucson tonight seems to have won nearly universal praise. I suspect it will be remembered as one of his best moments, almost regardless of what else takes place during the remainder of his presidency. ...Mr. Obama’s decision to focus in some detail on the victims…

I consider Glenn Beck to be dangerous, untruthful, and hugely irritating. So even though I don't like to see his name get used more often than it already does, I was pleased to see that "Becking" has become a new word. As in, the Becking of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. From a moral viewpoint Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is the victim of demagogues such as Glenn Beck and his allies at Fox News and in the Tea Party Movement. This is not about legal liability but about moral culpability. This is about a nation that has lost its moral compass. ...Now the…

I rule! The Salem (Oregon) Statesman Journal bowed before the powerful blog command that I issued yesterday: put a story about Congresswoman Giffords' shooting on your front page. Such didn't happen on Sunday, when it should have, but the editors took my advice and made up for their unfortunate oversight today. Here's the evidence: Portland blogger Jack Bogdanski picked up on my post with his pithy "You thought the O was bad." The folks running the daily newspaper down in Salem appear to have even less sense and a worse attitude. My post and that on Jack Bog's Blog got…

I've been surprised at how many people here in Salem (Oregon) don't read the city's newspaper, since we've always subscribed. Looking at the front pages of today's Salem Statesman Journal and the Portland Oregonian, I better understand why. Here's the email that I just sent to the Statesman Journal editorial board: If you ever wonder why people in Salem don't take your newspaper seriously, line up the front pages of today's Oregonian and Statesman Journal. The biggest story in the nation yesterday, which dominated the TV, radio, and Internet "airwaves" is relegated to page 11 of the Statesman Journal, with…

Today a Democratic Congresswoman from Arizona, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in the head by a young man at a public event in Tucson.

MSNBC is reporting that she is still alive and in surgery.

If it turns out that the murderer was a Tea Party crazy, targeting Giffords for her support of causes he detested…

Giffords, 40, is married to U.S. astronaut Mark Kelly. She took office in January 2007, emphasizing issues such as immigration reform, embryonic stem-cell research, alternative energy sources and a higher minimum wage. In November, she edged a tea party favorite.

…Then a lot of people, a lot, need to get very, very, very angry.

At Sarah Palin for putting Giffords on her "crosshair target list" for elimination in the 2010 elections. At Fox News for firing up the right-wing lunatics and failing to stamp out the vicious lies that fuel the flames of Tea Party extremism. At many, many people.

If this guy was a Glenn Beck-loving, gun-toting, take-back-our-country fanatic, it's time for all out war against immoderate Republicans. No more compromising. No more shading of the truth.

These assholes are out to destroy America, and all that it stands for: the rule of law, open and civilized debate, peaceful dissent.

Note: I said "if." I'm just saying…if.

[Update: when asked if Giffords had any enemies, her father said "Yes, the whole Tea Party."]

[Update 2: The sheriff of Pima County, where the attack occurred, wasn't shy about pointing out the responsibility talk radio and cable news (a.k.a. Fox "Noise") voices who spout anti-government vitriol have for pushing mentally balanced people over the edge into violence.

Paul Krugman, ditto.

You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate. And it’s long past time for the GOP’s leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers.

Along the same line, Gary Hart nails the dangers of over-the-top right-wing rheotric in "Words Have Consequences." Yes, they do. Six people died, including a 9 year-old girl. Are you proud of what you've wrought with your words, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Fox News, etc. etc. etc. etc.? Read on for what Hart wrote.]

I thought it would take a little longer, but after just one day of John Boehner's Republicans taking control of the House I'm already seriously sick from their crazed commitment to repealing 2010's hard-won health care reform legislation. The craziness starts with the name they've given to H.R. 2, inaccurately termed “Repealing the Job Killing Health Care Act.” Actually the facts are exactly opposite -- which is common with the truth-killing B.S. Republicans like to spew. Here's what is genuinely job-killing: the hugely inefficient and ineffective American health care non-system, which costs businesses and individuals double what other industrialized nations…

What a difference sixteen days can make. Back on December 6, I was super-irked at President Obama and urged people to do what I'd just done: unsubscribe from Organizing for America email alerts to tell his online presence extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy doesn't cut it with us once-fervent Obama supporters. Today I re-registered my email address with OFA. I'm back on (indirect) speaking terms with Obama, because his handling of the lame duck Congress after November's crushing Democratic setback in the midterm election was masterful. Or, amazingly lucky. Maybe a bit of both. Regardless, getting the…

No big surprise: Republicans conjured up PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: A government takeover of health care. By selecting "government takeover' as Lie of the Year, PolitiFact is not making a judgment on whether the health care law is good policy.The phrase is simply not true. ..."Government takeover" conjures a European approach where the government owns the hospitals and the doctors are public employees. But the law Congress passed, parts of which have already gone into effect, relies largely on the free market:• Employers will continue to provide health insurance to the majority of Americans through private insurance companies.• Contrary…

I'm still deeply disappointed in Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress. They had plenty of opportunities the past two years to fulfill one of Obama's central campaign promises: repeal the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans, and keep the middle class tax cuts. But I wrote my "Send a message to Obama: unsubscribe from OFA" post before all of the details about the deal with Republicans were released. I haven't changed my mind about Obama being a weenie, or the desirability of telling Organizing for American to take an email hike. However, I'm finding more things to like…

Like I said a few days ago, the Barack Obama I voted for isn't the same guy who is now President of the United States. I wanted change, optimism, and progressivism. What we're getting is more of the same, malaise, and some sort of amorphous whatever political philosophy. (There's another opinion floating around in the blogosphere -- that the current Obama is the same as the old one, a non-progressive who is kissing up to conservatives and Wall Street because that's who he has loved all along and just fooled us before. Having read his book, my wife doesn't believe…

Today's email from Organizing for America, the largely irrelevant remnant of the grassroots effort that helped get Obama elected, put another nail into my I'm pissed off at Obama coffin. I voted for him. I contributed quite a bit of money to his campaign. I started off enthused about Obama's presidency following his inauguration. Now just about everything he does irritates me -- especially the fact that he isn't doing much. A recent spate of opinion pieces in the New York Times crystallized my irked mood. They helped me realize that people who are a lot more knowledgeable about political…