The Shonda Chair has become a Couch

Posted on September 10, 2009 by 40andover

What is SO crazy is that these ideologues get tripped up by the very things they rail against.

Move over Governor Sanford and Senator Ensign, we need to make room for Mike Duvall, a GOP legislator in California on the Shonda Chair. Maybe we need a Shonda Couch.

**********************************************************************************************

By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer Juliet Williams, Associated Press Writer – 40 mins ago SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A pro-family values California lawmaker who resigned after being caught on tape boasting about his sexual conquests denied Thursday that he had extramarital affairs, saying “my offense was engaging in inappropriate storytelling.” Mike Duvall stepped down Wednesday after a videotape surfaced in which he was overheard telling a lawmaker about having sex with a lobbyist and another woman, including salacious details about how one mistress wears skimpy underwear and likes to be spanked. The 54-year-old Republican is married with two adult children. Duvall said Thursday his “decision to resign is in no way an admission that I had an affair or affairs.”

[text deleted]

The lawmaker had received a 100 percent rating from Capitol Resource Institute, a conservative advocacy group, for his votes on legislation considered pro-family during the 2007-08 legislative session.

Say it ain’t so, Joe

Posted on September 10, 2009 by 40andover

Joe Wilson, GOP Congressman from South Carolina, broke protocol by yelling at the President, “you lie!” when the President was giving his address to Congress last night. Of course, this is the same guy who supports Sarah Palin’s assertions about death panels that will decide care for elderly.

Look, I wish some people called out Bush on the false claims of Iraq’s buying WMDs and plutoniun from Niger in his speech to Congress, so maybe protocol breaches are ok every now and then.

The problem with Wilson’s outburst is what it lays bare for all to see:

the discussion of health care reform has become an exercise in name-calling and fear mongering;
there can be no debate while people are screaming to score points with constituents; and
the ideologues (on either side of the issue) will not bend to acknowledge the facts and realities “on the ground”.

Ideology without common sense (and some sinister malfeasance, thank you, Dick Cheney) got us in the guagmire known as the Iraq War, where debate was stifled by fear-mongering and name-calling (“unpatriotic” was often used) and people afraid to be unpopular with constituencies that just wanted revenge (as in “round up the usual suspects”).

Trying to bring the likes of Joe Wilson into the bipartisan tent is a fool’s errand. Similarly, if bringing in armchair “Progressives” into the bipartisan tent means clinging onto a public option come hell or high water, then close the tent flaps to them, too.

Actually, let’s have both sides of the extreme ideologies in an arena and let them scream at each other. We’ll sell tickets, televise it (and get advertising revenue) and the proceeds will help pay for health care reform. We’ll call the show “Extreme Dysfunction”.

Fox News, Shame On You.

Posted on September 9, 2009 by 40andover

A friend emailed me that I should blog about Fox News Network’s being the only network NOT to air President Obama’s speech.

Fox News Network: it was very classy move, really.

Ok, it is so despicable that I can’t even write something merely sarcastic or facetious. I know why people think that the owners and talking heads on Fox are evil. Because they are.

What is the fear?

Posted on September 9, 2009 by 40andover

The minute President Obama took the oath of office, there has been a fevered pitch among white right wing radicals, as if somehow life imitated art and we elected the Manchurian Candidate.

Relax, everyone, Barack Obama is not the Manchurian Candidate. How do I know? Because George Bush was the Manchurian Candidate. Think about it. Whether you read the book, or saw either of the movies, George Bush bent to the will of his vice president (through Cheney’s own statements), a vice president who believed in torture and brain washing and who, as vice president, was able to wage war within the US and outside. (Even the Manchurian Candidate had limits so we did not bomb Iran. Thank G-d.) During those 8 years, we fought a senseless war and muddled through another and let tinder boxes of Anti-American sentiment smolder and erupt. The country was almost destroyed by catastrophic financial crises. The government put incompetent people in charge of disaster relief for its own citizens. We survived the Manchurian Candidate.

Relax, everyone. Give Obama the chance to do the things we elected him to do.

Stop fighting and start compromising

Posted on September 3, 2009 by 40andover

Don’t blame President Obama for our nation’s war fatigue. Iraq was unnecessary and we ignored the problem in Afghanistan for too long. And before the 2004 elections, Tom Ridge raised the terror warning to scare the nation into electing Bush. President Obama was given a mess.

Also, as a gay American, I would love for President Obama to come out more strongly in support of same-sex marriage rights. I also want him to stop enforcement of don’t ask, don’t tell. But I have no interest in diverting attention from getting health care and economic reform accomplished now.

And liberals and conservatives: get off your soap boxes and compromise. Our nation needs more action and less talk.

Progressives and liberals: you will lose my vote if you lose sight of the importance of incremental victories.

And Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America, and that includes conservatives, liberals, progressives, communists, fascists, socialists, agnostics, fundamentalists and idiots. So, everyone stop your whining that he is selling out.

Bush had 8 years to destroy this nation. Let’s give President Obama more than 6 months to try to fix it.

Post-script to “No, really, she said ‘Great White Hope’?”

Posted on September 1, 2009 by 40andover

Last week, I wrote: No, really, she said “Great White Hope”? http://40andoverblog.com/?p=1148

So, it turns out that Rep. Jenkins did know EXACTLY what she was saying when she used the phrase, the “Great White Hope.” Racism isn’t even veiled anymore.

Dick Cheney, AGAIN?

Posted on August 31, 2009 by 40andover

Dick Cheney never went to war. Dick Cheney was never interrogated. Dick Cheney has been a bureaucrat and desk jockey his whole life. Dick Cheney is not a member — trained or otherwise — of the military. In short, Dick Cheney doesn’t know anything about war, prisoners of war or interrogations, except what he has read from the Gestapo and Maoist rule books. I bet he really likes war games.

I don’t know anything about war either. But I know that only a sadistic fool rushes into war where young people die and lives of so many are forever destroyed. And I believe that only a sadistic fool goes straight to torture — yes, torture, and NO, there are not “enhanced interrogation techniques” — when there is at least a preponderance of credible information and analyses that show that a person subjected to these techniques will say anything to make the torture stop. So, the information is no more value than a coin flip.

Cheney’s unprincipled approach to all of this is appalling, but not surprising. Under the Bush Administration, his venal attacks on the government’s readiness to safeguard our nation would make him “unpatriotic,” “unAmerican,” and might subject him or his loved ones to attack in planted articles and leaks. (Valerie Plame comes to mind.)

He showed his true colors when he said that Bush would not bend to Cheney’s will in the second administration and that Bush showed an independent streak. Dick, no one elected you president. Ever.

The irony of Dominick Dunne’s and Ted Kennedy’s contemporaneous deaths

Posted on August 29, 2009 by 40andover

Dominick Dunne was a writer of some repute early in his career. A career which careened out of control from drugs and alcohol, if I remember correctly. A person of power and privilege was the main suspect in his daughter’s murder and the suspect eluded conviction, as Mr. Dunne maintained, precisely because of his power and privilege. He then became a TV personality doing exposés on the “unsolved” crimes committed by the rich and powerful.

Dominick Dunne’s death has gone relatively unnoticed, more unnoticed probably because Ted Kennedy died hours earlier. What a strange juxtaposition. One man, a TV personality driven by never having gotten justice for his daughter; the other, a child of our American aristocracy and leader of a political dynasty who was responsible for a woman’s death and at the scene of another’s rape.

In these last few days, our leaders have gently referred to Ted Kennedy’s “transgressions” as they eulogize the liberal lion of the Senate. I keep thinking of Dominick Dunne.

I loved Ted Kennedy’s politics, but I am still working through my issues with all of these days of mourning. Was the nation better served by his service in the Senate or would his being held to account for his behavior have made us the more perfect union we desire? I keep thinking about the pledge of allegiance: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands: one nation [under G-d] with liberty and justice for all.”

I just don’t know.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, part 2

Posted on August 26, 2009 by 40andover

I have been reading that many wonder whether such a flawed person could have been re-elected so many times in the age of the 24-hour news REcycle.

I would like to believe that we recognize that we all have flaws and moral failings. It is hypocrisy that we cannot abide. And maybe, too, the lies that seek to cover up the hypocrisy.

Sen. Kennedy was human and so he is flawed. He was born into wealth and into the closest thing this nation has to an aristocracy. He lost his brothers by violence, two of them by assassination. The dreams and hopes of a mourning nation broke his shoulders. He also is responsible for the death of a young woman and possibly two passengers on a private plane. He was the adult at a drinking party where a rape occurred. He had affairs and abused alcohol.

He never pretended to anything other than a flawed man and he used his wealth and name to do good for others. He didn’t use others to create his wealth and name. That is why his political career would have survived the 24-hour news REcycle.

GOP: Congrats on your Pyrrhic Victory

Posted on August 25, 2009 by 40andover

So, scare tactics work (see below article). Great. Thanks for that information.

Pyrrhic victory, don’t you think? No reform now — let’s leave the disaster to our children.

Thanks, Glenn Beck, Dick Armey, GOP leaders. I hope your children and grandchildren remember that, at this critical juncture, you chose to support big business profits over better medical services and economic stability.

From Yahoo:

67 percent of respondents believe that wait times for health care services, such as surgery, will increase (91 percent of Republicans, 37 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Independents).

About five out of 10 believe the federal government will become directly involved in making personal health care decisions (80 percent of Republicans, 25 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Independents).

Roughly six out of 10 Americans believe taxpayers will be required to pay for abortions (78 percent of Republicans, 30 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of Independents)

46 percent believe reforms will result in health care coverage for all illegal immigrants (66 percent of Republicans, 29 percent of Democrats, 43 percent of Independents).

54 percent believe the public option will increase premiums for Americans with private health insurance (78 percent of Republicans, 28 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of Independents).

Five out of 10 think cuts will be made to Medicare in order to cover more Americans (66 percent of Republicans, 37 percent of Democrats, 44 percent of Independents).

There were exceptions.

Fewer participants believe “myths” regarding the impact of proposed changes on current health insurance coverage. For instance, less than 30 percent think private insurance coverage will be eliminated. And just 36 percent think a public insurance option will put private insurance companies out of business.

In addition, only three out of 10 respondents believe the government will require the elderly to make decisions about how and when they will die.

40 — oh wait, yikes!! 50 — andoverblog

Aging and living in urban US

Tag Archives: Politics