Newstip from a reader

Hey, I read your recent post mentioning the Stupak amendment on health care reform. I'm not sure if you've seen this, but executives at Comcast just came out in favor of reform, taking a public stance opposite of the Chamber of Commerce to which they belong:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/05/comcast-chamber-health/

Anyway, I thought this was something you and your readers would find interesting.

take care,
simon

--
http://bloggasm.com
http://twitter.com/simonowens

Explaining fossils to creationists just isn't worth the effort

Chants of "Socialist!", "Communist!", and "health care rationer!" abound if you turn on the news and see a Tea Bagger rally taking place. Sadly, the irony of seeing simultaneous accusations of fascism and socialism on the same posters long since ceased to be amusing. As the debate on the Health Care reform bills meanders through the Senate, like a carton of molasses spilling across a frozen pond, the opponents of bringing America's health care system in line with the rest of the developing world continue to throw in new challenges and obstacles.

Senator Nelson has stated that he would like to put forward an amendment "based on a proposal by Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). The measure would prevent the public insurance plan from covering abortion. It would also prohibit any woman who got the tax credit from enrolling in a plan that covers the procedure." He has made clear that he will not vote for the bill if it does not include these restrictions. Fine! So be it. Let him go home to his 156,000 constituents in Nebraska that currently lack health insurance (www.familiesusa.org). Let him tell those families, and those 35,000 uninsured children that he doesn't want them to have health insurance because someone somewhere might try to get an abortion.

The unfortunate reality is that both the Stupak amendment and any potential other anti-choice amendments that are put forward will not ultimately matter for real meaningful reform. If a single payer plan were still on the table, and this asinine ban on abortion funding would mean that large numbers of Republicans would finally start voting for their constituents' interests instead of in the interest of their next campaign contributions, then I might even be ok with it, in the hopes that it would be repealed or declared unconstitutional down the line. But to give in on the issue of choice, when the reform that is taking place is no longer even Health Care reform, but Health Insurance reform makes my stomach churn.

For the past 30 years we have had to keep fighting the same fights that were thought to have been won already. The problem isn't even with the ridiculous views of the Sarah Palins and the Sam Brownbacks who probably think the Earth was created less than 10,000 years ago. Don't get me wrong, that's a serious problem and the millions of Americans that actually believe that nonsense doesn't help our scientific standing in the world, but the real problem stems from the turncoat, traitorous, backstabbing, shortsighted Democrats like Ben Nelson. A line must be drawn! These people need to be cast out and purged. Donations to their campaigns from any DNC or President Obama supporters should come to an end, and they should be left to rot in the beds they've made.

If they have such serious qualms with the efforts to make Health Care something that all Americans experience and can afford, then they should vote no on the bill itself, but they should stop this nonsense of holding up the bill with non-filibustering filibusters. Allow it to come to a vote and VOTE NO if your conscience demands. Democratic senators, no matter their view on health care reform, should not be trying to stop the vote itself with procedural wrangling.

Finally, I wish that those fighting for meaningful change, like the great Senators from Vermont, Leahy and Sanders, could organize their allies and lash back at the disinformation machine that has confused so many Americans this past year. If opponents are concerned about rationed care or medical services being denied due to Washington bureaucrats then they should be equally upset about the "rationing" of OBGYN services through the Stupak amendment. If people are concerned about the rationing of medical care then attack the Stupak amendment as a slippery slope towards bureaucrats, and not doctors, deciding what treatments can and cannot be provided to a patient.

President Obama is supposed to have the most cunning team ever assembled to deal with "the message." If only that were actually true.

Just another day as a NY State Senator

Hiram Monserrate, a now (in)famous New York State Senator who took part in the senseless coup last summer, has just been sentenced to community service and probation after cutting his girlfriend's face with a wine glass and dragging her through his building's lobby. Apparently in New York State, it is ok to slash your girlfriend's face with a wine glass, then intimidate her and her family into backing your half-baked story about her headbutting the glass that was in your hand, but it's still not ok for two women or two men to get married.

Not only does Mr. Monserrate get to avoid any possible jail time, but he has also vowed not to resign from the State Senate. While the NYS Senate is already a laughing stock after this past summer's pathetic display of childish behavior (turning off lights while opponents were speaking, bringing two gavels to the sessions, etc) the fact that they will now count among their current members a violent and abusive cretin who STABBED his girlfriend in the face with a broken wine glass.

C'mon New York! What the hell? Vote this shitbird out already. And take Pedro Espada down too.

Gay rights are civil rights...even if you don't approve of the lifestyle

Now that the District of Columbia has moved in the direction of expanding marriage rights equally to all people, it is time for those who have fought so valiantly all of their lives for equality to practice what they preach. While it is partially a generational issue, and partially one of culture, many of the opposition voices in Washington DC were those of longtime civil rights crusaders who made possible the legislation of the 60s. Now they are angry and offended that people are attempting to frame the battle for marriage equality in terms similar to those that they used 50 years ago.

As Christian Davenport of the Washington Post points out, some of the anger and resentment coming from the former leaders of the civil rights movement stems from some notion that homosexuality is something that can be hidden, while skin color cannot. I would have hoped that in this age we would have come to a point in our society where the goal is not simply to hide what one is to be accepted, but rather to be accepted for what we are or whatever differences exist between us.

The false sense of indignity that is being expressed by members of the black community over the comparison of gay rights and civil rights seems to be coming from the petty rejection they feel towards homosexuals. From the arguments put forth over the past few years, it seems clearer than ever that they object not because of some principled stance to preserve the honor of Black struggle, but rather they object because they just don't like gays, and that is simply not a strong enough argument to continue to deprive people of basic civil rights. Because let's be honest, that's exactly what marriage is, a civil right.

Minirets and Majority Rule Mistakes

Democracy is good and all, but there are times when democracies fall victim to the mistakes of blind majority rule. Such is the case with the recent Swiss referendum vote that prohibits the construction of minarets within the country. For those who don't know, minarets are "Minarets are generally tall spires with onion-shaped or conical crowns, usually either free standing or taller than any associated support structure"(wikipedia). Besides being tall spires, they are also typically found on mosques.

While we at PutridPundits wholeheartedly reject religion and religious doctrine, and see it as a blight on society that keeps the masses ignorant and docile, we neither can stand by and watch as even smaller minds pass referendums that are solely designed to intimidate and isolate an already insulated segment of society. It is exactly these types of thoughtless actions that push groups of people closer to their religious leaders; that make people embrace their foolish faith more than ever.

Much like the banning of head scarves, or the stopping of Christmas celebrations, all of these actions do nothing to free men and women of the chains of belief. They also don't make secular society any safer from the dangers of religious fundamentalism. It is too bad that the Swiss have been so short sighted on this issue, and more unfortunate still that enough people believe in fairy tales about massive floods and walking on water.

Obama's 30000 mistakes

Do not be alarmed. You have not accidentally stumbled across some ridiculous top 30000 list written by the great minds of Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck. I am not going to spew out 30000 ways that Barack Obama is trying to kill your grandma and rob your paycheck. I'll leave that kind of hackish nonsense to the triumvirate of stupidity that dominate FoxNews. Instead, this is one last plea for President Obama to save his administration and his legacy from making the biggest mistake of his first term: calling for the deployment of 30000 additional American soldiers to Afghanistan.

As Jonathan Schell details in his fantastic article in the November 30th issue of The Nation, there were plenty of things that Johnson and his team knew going into the Vietnam deployments that, had the people known, should have changed the course of history in that unfortunate fiasco. It is all too likely that Obama's team of advisors are seeing a similarly pessimistic outcome from this Afghan troop deployment but for some reason, believe that it is the only way to defend against the salacious accusations that he is "soft on terror."

Democrats need to dig deep, find their balls (or lady balls where appropriate) and present a real alternative to the hawkish war mongering that has dominated this country for far too long. The most courageous step President Obama could take today, contrary to what Glenn "the weeper" Beck says, would be to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan and urge our NATO allies to do the same.

By removing foreign soldiers from Afghanistan, President Obama would deal a momentous blow to Al Qaeda and other "terrorist" recruiting in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The vast majority of our "enemies" in those countries are either nationalists who are opposed to foreign occupation, mercenaries attacking the NATO forces for pay, or a mix of the two. If we removed the foreign occupier for the region then both the motivation, and the money (read Aram Roston's piece in the same issue of The Nation) would dry up.

Certainly, if someone proposes a full withdrawal some ill informed but well meaning person might scream "but what of the women?" Or someone else who recognizes that little progress has been made but still sees some women attending school and being set free from the captivity of the home might say "we can't just abandon those women who we have told to go to school." Sadly, that is exactly what we must do. Not just for our sake, or the sake of our soldiers, but for those women as well. By propping up a corrupt regime that passes laws that legalize rape and legitimize the oppression of Afghan women we are hurting the women more than most Westerners realize. Malalai Joya, who has spoken out against the current puppet government does not see any benefit for women in NATO's continued presence. As she says "Democracy never comes by occupation. You cannot give it with cluster bombs."

The Nation: How the US is funding the Taliban

Please read this article if you know anyone that still thinks we should remain in Afghanistan.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/roston/single

It details the corruption that exists in the doling out of DoD contracts, as well as the irony that our presence is quite literally, supplying our "enemies".