Last night and this morning, that clip has been played on loop on every news and political talk show on the air, accompanied by choruses of “Oooh, he di’n't!” or some version thereof. It’s as if Franken had turned to Lieberman and said, “Your mother, buddy!” or “Stick your extra minute up your ass, Senator.”

What he did say, exactly and precisely, was, “As the Senator from Minnesota, I object.”

This is what passes for a sharp exchange on the floors of our hallowed legislative bodies. No frickin’ wonder the rest of the world finds us less-than-entertaining or amusing. This comes at the end of a week when Paul Gogarty, a member of the Irish Parliament uttered the infamous line, “With all due respect and in the most un-Parliamentary language, FUCK you, Deputy Stagg, Fuck you!”

“As the Senator from Minnesota, I object” pales in comparison. It also pales in comparison to the various episodes of fisticuffs that seem to routinely break out on the floors of other legislatures. Face it, folks – we’re boring. It’s no damn wonder that Florida’s Rep. Grayson is seen as such a political bad boy.

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The tele’d in guest was RNC Chairman Michael Steele, who was there to take potshots on the misinterpretation of Harry Reid’s remarks comparing the passage of revolutionary health care reform to other legislative revolutions in history, most notoriously, to the passage of emancipation legislation. Like the other Republicans, he is in high dudgeon, acting as if Reid had just called them all sadistic slave owners – though Steele did put a finer point on it. Reid’s analogy, he said, is an insult to the millions of African Americans who are descended from slaves because it compares their situation to the situation of people who don’t have health insurance. It almost makes sense viewed that way – almost – if it didn’t completely miss the point of the analogy: that medical care is a basic human right, and that legislation that recognizes that fact is as revolutionary and game-changing as legislation that outlawed the ownership of another human being.

So what did Deutsch do that made me want to kiss him? He brought the analogy back home after Steele deliberately distorted it, and said it that plainly. “When you bring it back to the basic intent of the analogy,” he said, And he laid out the analogy as it was intended, to portray the Republicans as akin to the naysayers who have tried to block every major revolution in American government by saying “It’s not time yet”.

And Steele’s response?

“I won’t even dignify that with an answer.”

Yeah. Good call when you don’t have any dignity with which to dignify a blatant mischaracterization. That’s the answer that every bluffer knows – it’s a cheesy way to avoid answering a question when you don’t have a good answer. Deutsch’s question called Steele out, and Steele’s best shot was to stand on dignity that he doesn’t have and refuse to answer. And Deutsch noted that as well.

So go Donnie. You’re the golden Ken doll today. Keep this up and I just may have to start looking beyond your hot exterior and start thinking you might have a brain.

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About a year and a half ago, I watched in rather unbelieving amusement as a bunch of Republican congressmen turned Congress into more of a sideshow than usual when they  “occupied the House floor” after Nancy Pelosi dismissed the chamber for the August recess. Frankly, it was hilarious watching a bunch of rich, preppy legislators pretend they were revolutionaries, right down to tweeting that the Capitol police were standing outside the chamber ooh noes! and might.. oh, the glory of it! … arrest them!
It was the start of the silly season – but this silly season didn’t last for a single month. Their stunt ushered in a silly season that appears to have no end. I suspect that they won’t be happy till their constituents get to watch them engaging in public fisticuffs on the House floor, swinging chairs at each others’ heads and throwing punches.

This silly season culminated in the entire Congress looking like a sixth grade classroom when Sen. Joe Wilson from S. Carolina missed his cue and yelled out “You lie!” a couple of seconds after his cronies had stopped providing protective cover by loud muttering and booing. Mind you, no one is talking about the booing this morning because Wilson distinguished himself by having the bad timing to shout out AFTER the other Republicans around him had shut up.

It’s a typical rookie mistake that any sixth grade teacher might have recognized. In fact, the Republican party’s entire performance last night – because make no mistake, it WAS a carefully orchestrated performance – resembled an attempted coup staged by a bunch of sixth graders. It was complete with hand-printed signs on notebook paper that they waved in unison at key points and the obligatory outburst of boos when the president mentioned illegal immigrants – and the one kid who goofs it up by overestimating how far his classmates will go to support him.

And immediately following his flub, there was the second of hushed silence, and then the “Ooooooh, oooohhhh!” of the kids in the class as they realize that a challenge has been made – and wait to see if the teacher takes the bait.

And the teacher did not, beyond a pointed stare in Wilson’s direction. Frankly, I’d love to have seen Wilson’s reaction during those few seconds. I’ll bet he was withering and looking around at all his fellows, wondering where the hell were the voices that were supposed to accompany his.

So Joe Wilson, with his bad timing, earned his fifteen minutes of national fame. The reaction on the internets is not surprising – the “serious kids” are shocked, shocked they tell you, and demanding that he be “punished”. The unruly kids that think the teacher is a dictator and must be undermined at every turn are hailing him as a hero. And the vast majority are rolling their eyes, and taking another careful step away from the class clowns.

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This summer, all over the country families are sitting down to decide what they want to do on vacation – maybe they want to go out to dinner once a week, or spend a weekend at the water park. And they have this same conversation – CAN WE AFFORD IT? And they don’t understand why the government isn’t asking the same question.

The answer is easy – health care is not a night out at the movies. It is not a family dinner. It is not a weekend at the water park. The analogy is false.

No – the mess that is health insurance and health care in this country is the ruptured sewer pipe spewing raw sewage into your basement. It’s the roof that’s sprung so many leaks you’re spending money to repair the water damage every time it rains – or dealing with the mold. It’s your son’s diagnosis of bone cancer.

When those things happen, families don’t sit around the table asking “Can we afford this?” If they ask anything beyond “Who do we call to fix this?” it’s HOW can we afford this? What do we go without to make sure this doesn’t destroy us? What sacrifices do we make to do the things that need to be done to keep a roof over our head, the shit out of the basement and our children alive and healthy?

And the sacrifice we are being asked to pay by most of these bills is a simple one – man up and buy health insurance. Take personal responsibility to make sure that you and your family are covered by health insurance and in turn, we will do this:

- we will make the insurance companies agree to cover every single person who applies for health insurance

- we will make it illegal for the health insurance companies to make you pay more for your health insurance because you have a pre-existing condition

- we will make it illegal for them to take away your insurance for any reason other than non-payment of premiums or outright, provable fraud

- we will set standards of care for your health insurance companies to follow

- we will set standards of administration that your health insurance companies must meet

- we will make sure that the care you get is the best practice in medicine so that when you pay for health care, you will be getting health care that actually works

- we will provide subsidies for those who cannot afford to pay for health insurance

- we will provide competition for the private health insurance companies so that they have to cut their costs and charge you less money

A health care reform bill that contains an individual and an employer mandate but does not include a public option – or an EQUALLY EFFECTIVE mechanism for containing costs is a giveaway – but it doesn’t change the basic fact that health care reform is something that needs doing… it’s not rocket surgery, folks. It’s just what it is.

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I recently moved back to Worcester with my new husband, excited to jump into the civic life of a city that I spent my first 22 years in, before moving to Lowell and Boston to help start small social entrepreneurships and support the development of city youth. Now 26 and armed with nearly 8 years small business management experience, a Masters degree and a doctorate on the way, I am excited to support growth of youth in THIS city, to give them the same opportunities that allowed me to complete two degrees, help build three successful youth programs and publish my first book.

I grew up in Main South in a time when many communities like ours were considered the problem, and not a source of solutions. During the early to mid 1990s I grew up around things that no one should ever have to see. In second grade, a classmate died in a housefire later ruled an arson. When I was 10 a 2-year-old neighbor was shot and killed. We played in a vacant lot filled with crack pipes, hidden weapons, and the remnants of buildings that once stood there. But when my mother organized kids in the neighborhood to help clean up the lot, and plant a garden, our City Councilor, Janice Nadeau, had the DPW out the next day to cart away discarded furniture and trash. The kids in the neighborhood planted gardens, and maintained that property, an abandoned lot, the community was involved and engaged. And out of that engagement grew a network of neighbors that held community meetings, helped each other in need, met with city officials, carpooled to parks, pools and beaches, and felt the sense of community that I believe made me who I am today.

I don’t know how young people growing up in this city today could feel the same. We were taught to be civically engaged because if we were, our elected officials would be able to partner with us to make our city great. This City Council seems to thrive on a lack of civic participation. Attending tonight’s City Council meeting I was shocked, appalled and ashamed that you are our elected officials. I’m not surprised when I overhear public servants excitedly predicting a low voter turnout, given how little the majority of you do to win votes that should be hard earned. I saw such disrespect, and even contempt for the public at tonight’s City Council meeting. It is no wonder that Worcester lacks the respect that the second largest city in New England should have in the region.

I watched a Mayor insist that we cannot sustain multiple neighborhood pools because the City has failed in the past to do so. She says this as though she is not the Mayor, as though she has not been a City Councilor for TWENTY years. If someone is responsible for failing the people of Worcester, is she not at least near the front of the line? Madam Mayor, you are quick to gavel silent a public that has waded through 7 community hearings, only to be displaced by a couple of well payed consultants. The respect you demand for “this body” of the City Council needs to be taken more seriously by its members. If you want the community to respect your representation, than perhaps you should learn to represent. I would like to thank Councilor Palmieri, Councilor Toomey, and especially Councilor Rushton, not for standing up for neighborhood pools, but for standing up for democratic values and due process that all of our policies deserve.

I know that you are all used to not having to do much to defend your place in the Council chambers, but I hope to appeal to your sense of duty, if you still have any, and ask you to step up to the call of your office. If you are going to sit and hear the will of the people, at least have the gumption to carry that will out to the City Manager who should, for all intents and purposes, report to you. I am ashamed at the pandering, corruption, and politicking that I witnessed this evening, and if you hope to keep your seats beyond November, perhaps you should be too. Because I pledge to do everything in my power to see that representatives that are incapable of representing will not have that awesome opportunity again.

Most sincerely,

Cara Lisa Berg Powers

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Good evening. Welcome back to Washington. I hope you’re ready to work harder than you’ve ever worked, because this is not the time to repackage old, failed solutions with shiny new ribbons and pass it off as new work. The issues that are facing this country are not issues that can be fixed with half-assed solutions designed to line the pockets of big industry players while leaving the working people out in the cold.

Going into the August recess, I made it clear, as I have been doing since the earliest days of my campaign for the presidency, that reforming the system of health care delivery and access is of vital importance to this country. That has not changed, and it will not change. I made it clear from the start that while I believe a single payer system works fine for other countries, it is not the right solution for the United States.

I have repeatedly stated my goals for health care reform in this country. They are not that hard to understand, unless you happen to be a journalist looking for a way to stir up controversy. I have said that any health care reform bill must do four things:

• It must provide access to quality health care, including preventive health care, for all people.
• It must contain the costs of health insurance and health care – bend the cost curve.
• It must provide health care security by eliminating discrimination for pre-existing conditions, removing cost-sharing for preventive care, limiting the use of annual and lifetime caps, reducing the amount of out-of-pocket expenses and abolishing the use of rescission to drop coverage on those that become sick.
• It must be budget neutral.

I have said over and over again that I believe a public option is the best way to accomplish those goals, particularly the ones that provide competition for private health insurance companies and reign in the outrageously steep climb of health insurance premiums – but that I’m willing to listen to other ideas to accomplish that aim.

Well, I’ve been listening for eight months, and all I’ve heard are ideas that will enrich the insurance companies without providing any guarantees that the American people will get any benefit at all. These ideas – tort reform, deregulation, non-profit coops – have been tried and do not work – except for the corporations they are meant to protect. After eight months of listening for new ideas that might work, I’m more convinced than ever that the best way to force insurance companies to be competitive and provide good service is to offer a public option.

Now, let me be clear about what a public option is and what it is not.

A public option is a non-profit health insurance plan that will be managed by the federal government. It will be open to anyone who does not have access to health insurance through an employer or other group mechanism. It will be started with an initial infusion of taxpayer money to get it off the ground. That initial infusion will be repaid as any other loan or investment would be paid. Aside from that initial infusion, it will be forced to exist on the premiums it collects from those who buy the plans it offers.

The public option will not be mandatory for anyone. It will not be free. It will not provide health insurance for illegal aliens. It will be one of many plans offered through a health insurance exchange where any citizen of the United States who does not have access to affordable health care is guaranteed the ability to buy a health insurance plan.

With all of that said, the public option is only one part of effective health care delivery reform. There are many things that we all agree upon. The lack of a public option will not destroy reform – it will only make it far less effective. Without an efficient mechanism to force insurance companies to stop gouging the American public, a health care bill will still stop rescission, cap out of pocket expenses, do away with annual and lifetime caps on coverage and guarantee that you can renew your insurance even if you actually use it. It will, however, cost far more to do those things without a public option.

And that may be good enough for you, but it’s not good enough for me. The hard working people who voted you into office deserve at least as much consideration as the corporations that put money into your campaign war chests. I will not sign a bill that forces people to buy health insurance unless it also contains the most effective and efficient option to make sure that those health insurance costs are bearable. Unless I see something radically different than I’ve seen to date, that option is a government run public option.

If you can not in good conscience vote for a bill that includes that reform, you can return to your constituents and let them know that you were willing to throw them under the bus so that health insurance companies could keep paying their CEOs and vice presidents more money every year than most of them will ever see in their lives. If you don’t, I will make sure that they get that message loud and clear.

A lot of the political pundits out there have been calling on me to give you a plan and tell you to pass it. Writing the laws is not my job – it’s yours. It’s your job to pass legislation that is in the best interests of your constituents, and that’s what I expect you to do.

So welcome back to Washington. I hope you enjoyed some fishing and some ice cream and some family time. It’s time to get back to work, so get out there and do your job.

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It’s OKAY When THEY Do It!

If you point out the fact that there are more people of color in prison than white people, you are not a racist, because you are simply stating a fact.

If you point out the fact that black kids may kill each other, but they don’t go nuts and shoot up schools, you are a racist despite the fact that you are simply stating a fact.

If you cheat on your wife while she’s sick, then dump her and marry someone richer, you can be the Republican candidate for president.

If you cheat on your wife while she’s sick, admit your fault, try to work things out through counseling and maintain that the issue is a family one not a political one, you can try to run for public office, but you will be excoriated and held up as an example of your entire party’s perfidy.

If you raise questions about the administration’s handling of 9/11 or Katrina after viewing footage of the events and reading an incomplete report, you’re a complete loon who should be wearing a tinfoil dunce cap – not to mention an un-American traitor espousing treason.

If you raise questions about the president’s citizenship despite wide debunking, call him a traitor and a fascist, stand on the world stage as a publicly elected official and agree that he should offer proof of his birth – AFTER said proof has been repeatedly shown, you are a true American patriot who doesn’t listen to the media lies (unless it’s Fox News lies because, you know, they’re the only station in the country who have a court ruling that SAYS they can lie in their “reporting”).

If you routinely cheat on your wife, divorce her and marry the person you cheated with, only to do it again a few years later, you can maintain your credibility and standing with your party and be suggested as the next Republican candidate for president.

If you routinely cheat on your wife, but your wife stands by you and says that it’s a personal issue between the two of you, you will be called into a special hearing convened by a specially appointed prosecutor who demands intimate details of your relationship with a woman who told her mother she was going to seduce you and write a book about it.

If you cheat on your wife, get your parents to pay off your mistress and her husband, hire her son for your campaign offices, and confess it all to your Republican friends in a secret fraternity, you will be supported and lauded by your party and retain your seat.

If you cheat on your wife, abandon your children on Fathers Day, get caught lying to your staff, your constituents and the general public, use state funds to pay for trysts with your mistress and claim that God has told you to stay in office, you can become a Republican hero who is being unfairly scrutinized by the left-wing media.

If you protest a war that was entered into on false pretenses to avenge a wrong that was committed by someone other than the country that we invaded, you are an unpatriotic traitor who hates soldiers and wants to see our country fail.

If you protest taxes that have not risen based on your belief that those taxes WILL be raised at some point in the future, as well as policies that will actually restore the dignity of the American worker, and you openly and stridently state that you want this president to fail, you are a true patriot and hero who dares to stand up to the government-run media – that is actually run by corporate moguls who are stealing you blind in order to enrich the top .05% of the country.

If you believe in an America where every citizen has the potential to improve his life and the lives of his family through hard work, but realize that we have drifted very far from that ideal, you are a communist welfare leech.

If you believe in an America where those who believe in God make lots of money and those who are poor, homeless, sick or jobless did something  wrong and are being punished for it, you are a true American who espouses the American ideal.

If you believe that compassion is weakness, admitting fault is treason and working for a better country and a better world is hating your country, you could be a Republican – but then you wouldn’t be reading this because it doesn’t fit your world view.

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Lately, you’ve been musing a lot about things like why the president’s approval rating on things like health care and the economy is dropping. You’ve been asking dramatically why people are so. afraid. of. change. You wonder why the polls show that fewer and fewer people like the “president’s health care plan” or why more and more people “think the stimulus bill was a bad idea”.

Gosh, I don’t know. Do you think it might be because guys like you keep airing shit like John Boehner declaring that the stimulus was not creating jobs by putting on that unctuous voice and asking guests:

“Well, you know, Congressman Boehner says that the stimulus is not working. That not a single job has been created by stimulus money. Now why is that, do you think?”

What I would really love to see is someone on your show who would respond to a question like that with the truth. Something like:

Well, Joe, I have to think it’s because John Boehner is an incompetent ass who has no idea what’s going on in his own home state, since at the time he stated that not a single infrastructure contract had been awarded from the stimulus funds, his own state of Ohio had already awarded over $87 million in infrastructure project contracts, and several of those projects had already hired people and put them to work. I have to believe that John Boehner is an inadequate nincompoop who is out of touch with his own state, because the alternative is admitting that John Boehner is a barefaced liar.

But see, that’s just the start of the intellectual dishonesty. You and guys like you give a voice to total idiocy without ever countering it. Idiocy like:

- Virginia Foxx stating that the U.S. government is going to “put seniors to death”.

Once upon a time, news guys would have looked up that bill, found the relevant clause and responded with something like:

Now, I don’t know what the good Congresswoman has been imbibing before she steps out on the floor, but she’s got to be on something to misinterpret the language in this bill so badly. This thing in the bill that they say is all about euthanizing senior citizens actually says that IF YOU’RE ON MEDICARE and IF YOU ASK YOUR DOCTOR to talk to you about things like “what the hell does palliative care mean?” and “what if I don’t want a tube shoved down my throat the rest of my life?” and “who gets to decide if I can’t?” - that if you ask your doctor to take fifteen minutes to talk to you about these things, Medicare will pay for it. That’s it. That’s all it says. It says that the doctor must answer your questions and Medicare must pay him for his time.

But hey, it’s easier to let liars and fools assert that the health care bill will outlaw private insurance and force everyone into a public option than it is to treat the American public like adults and explain what the health care exchange is and how it works, and to explain what the requirements for a health care plan will be under the exchange.

That’s boring, though. Nowhere near as much fun as presiding like a dictatorial papa over your dysfunctional family, making pompous proclamations and out-shouting anyone who disagrees with your point of view.

But hey, I know. That’s not as much fun as stirring this fake bullshit controversy with mock solicitous questions like “Why does our government want to kill old people?”

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At that point, Watson interrupted Pence to quote the CBO’s assertion that over two-thirds of the cost of the bill would be offset by cost cutting and other measures and asked Pence if he was certain that the bill would raise money for health care reform with $1 trillion in new taxes.

Spence’s response: “Yes. I’m rounding up.”

The CBO report estimates that “new revenues” – i.e. taxes, fees and penalties – will account for $583 billion of the offset cost to the $1.04 trillion cost of the health care bill. Rep. Spence claims that the health care bill will be paid for with a $1 trillion tax increase. His figure is off by $459 billion – because he’s “rounding up”.

Most people think of rounding up as adding a few cents to the next whole dollar – that is, $1.98 might as well be $2. Rounding up $583 billion to $1 trillion is sorta like rounding up $50.01 and saying you have “about $100″. Technically, since it’s 1 cent over halfway to $100, it’s correct. Intellectually – not so much.

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• The Board of Directors underwrites all fund-raising and staff expenses so that 100% of all contributions from others go directly to the foundation’s charitable programs.
• Robin Hood attacks the root causes of poverty by funding programs that fundamentally change the paradigm – education, good nutrition, health services and economic security.
• The foundation also funds survival programs to help those struggling in poverty right now.
• The foundation’s programs are supported with professional expertise and pro bono help from those who are best equipped to give it.

$100 Million Challenge Grant

On Tuesday, May 26, 2009, the Robin Hood Foundation’s Annual Dinner raised over $56 million for charity in a single night, and laid the foundation for further donations. George Soros, one of the wealthiest men in the world, laid down a donation challenge: he will match every donation raised by the foundation’s Board of Directors in 2009 and 2010 up to $50 million. The Board of Directors stepped up the challenge further with an additional $50 million in matching grant money to effectively double the first $100 million in donations from givers.

The following Sunday, Verena von Pfetten, a senior editor with Air America Media, mused at the Huffington Post that she had spent part of the evening looking for some sort of smug, self-congratulatory air at the dinner, and found it remarkably absent. It was, she declared, “absolutely, utterly, and undeniably inspiring.”

And she is right. There is no denying that such devoted acts of charity are inspiring. Nor is there any questioning that those who make those gifts – whether for $1 or $100 million – are good people who want to help others rise out of poverty and get their share of the American Dream. At the very least, they are good people who cannot bear the thought of a child going to bed hungry if there is something they can do to help. And yet, hundreds of thousands of people of good conscience – these same people who would give half of their last dollar to another in need – close their minds tightly when they hear the words “economic justice“.

Philanthropy vs. Economic Justice

In the face of such incredible generosity, it may be considered uncharitable to wonder how many of those generous people have made their millions off the backs of working people who did not get a chance to share in the profits of their labor. How many inherited fortunes made by ancestors who exploited workers by underpaying them or exposing them to risks they would never take themselves? Even as society applauds the goodness of those who give charity to others, one has to wonder if it doesn’t make more sense to pursue economic justice in the form of fair wages, universal health care and a guarantee of basic human needs.

One of the basic tenets of economics in the “free market system” is that the responsibility of an organization’s board of directors is to make as much money as possible for the corporation’s shareholders. One might suggest that the major responsibility of the Board of Directors should be to make decisions that are best for all of the corporation’s stake holders, and that those stake holders should include not only the shareholders, but also the employees and the overall community. Profits for shareholders must be balanced by meeting the concerns of employees for a living wage and the community for fair business practices that don’t harm the world.

What happens when corporations ignore the needs of their workers in the interests of making more money for their owners? History offers a few examples:

• Hundreds of thousands of workers dying of conditions caused by exposure to toxic chemicals and substances like asbestos
• Buildings and bridges collapsing because of the use of substandarnd (cheaper) materials
• Widespread outbreaks of salmonella poisoning caused by corner-cutting in the inspection process
• Lakes and waterways destroyed by the spillage of millions of tons of toxic chemicals

Big business has fought reforms and regulations to ensure safe operations of their facilities for decades. It is and has been common practice to ignore the common good in the interests of making more money. One effect of this in today’s economy is the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, not to countries where the tax burden is lighter, but to those countries that have yet to feel the disasters brought on by devotion to the bottom line.

Those who give generously to charity are to be applauded. Those who, like the Robin Hood Foundation, couple their charity with work that supports economic justice, are to be doubly applauded. Until those who support unregulated free-market capitalism understand, though, that a fair sharing of profits is the only way to a profitable world, philanthropy will never be enough to cure poverty.

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