Headline Press Blog

It's Monday, the start of another work week in the U.S. of Amurka.

The Potomac is reported quiet. The Coast Guard has gone back to merely checking for life preservers and backed off firing at fishing boats. CNN is not reporting the story.

The old, angry white people are back in their homes after a raucous weekend in the nation's capital where none of them saw fit to burn their Medicare cards to protest national healthcare.

Gee, we just can't wait to see what fun ensues THIS week! With Congress back in session, maybe someone will yell, "you lie like a rug," at somebody else.

It was fun, though, in Washington over the weekend as the Faux News and their geriatric minions filled, kinda, the national mall to protest…oh…they forget what, exactly, but by golly D.C. retail stores reported major surges in the sales of Metamucil and Ensure.

Let's see what WAS the Gin BecksBeer and Shame Humanity army protesting?

Fortunately for us, a small group called NineTwelvePhotos documented many of the hand-scrawled messages portrayed on cardboard and T-shirts and put them up on the Flickr for all to see. With these images we can get an idea what all the hub-bub was about.

Let's see, one sign read, "Ask not what Obommunism can do for you. Ask what you can do about Obommunism." Clever, I guess. Is that somehow about woodwind instruments?

Another sign read, "Through crooked politicians into the Boston Harbor." This from a man wearing a stereotypical western Native American headdress. Guess he got the wrong town.

Yet another protester, dressed as Santa, held a sign which read, "Government is not Santa Claus and I'm not his stinking elf." Okay…got it…I guess.

This was a good one: "If this is the change he meant, I'd rather have menapaus (sic)."

This one was cute: "Pelosi, Read & Obama: 3 stooges and two boobs." Nice.

Still another read, "We the people – from all 57 states."

Many of them took a rather disturbing violent tone.

"Waterboard Pelosi," read one sign. "I got your trigger right (drawings of guns) It's called the Second Amendment," read another.

Folks gathered on a street corner in a usually quiet mid-sized Florida town trended toward actual sedition.

"I'm ready for a revolution," one woman told the local newspaper.

Of course, many of the signs in Washington and around this feckless protest community where directed at the President – or, more precisely, at the President's own personal heritage.

"Impeach the mini Messiah," read one sign. "Kenya Born," another.

"What's the difference the Cleveland Zoo and the White House? The zoo has an African lion and the White House has a lyin' African," read still another.

Oh well…what they lack in focus they more than make up for in racist demagoguery.

"You lie!" shouted from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives at the President of the United States during a speech to a joint session of the Congress.

What IS this, the House of Commons? Yes, but not in the sense of the British Parliament. More like…just common.

South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson's outburst has become, of course, a great embarrassment to him, his Republican colleagues and has added nearly $700,000 to the coffers of his Democratic opponent next year, Mr…er…somebody, a struggling candidate until Wilson's moronic outburst.

The demure and thoughtful Mr. Wilson, you see, took umbrage at President Obama's statement before the joint session Wednesday that health care reform will not extend to people, mostly brown-skinned people, currently living in the U.S. of A without the benefit of a blessing by the nation's immigration bureau.

Mr. Wilson would, one supposes, like to see those folks get free medical care.

No, not really.

Back in the year 2000 – y'all remember that year, of course – Mr. Wilson was one of seven members of the South Carolina state senate who insisted the confederate flag remain flying over the state capitol. (The other 36 members of the South Carolina senate agreed it was high time to bring down that sucker.)

Here's how the BBC reported it back in 2000:

But local lawmakers, like Republican senator Joe Wilson say it is all about pride and history, and nothing to do with racism and hate. He finds comparisons with Nazis odious.

"That's offensive to me that they would take my heritage and make it into a Holocaust era type description. I find that very offensive, and it's not true," Senator Wilson said. "The Southern heritage, the Confederate heritage is very honourable."

Oh, and, no, that's not a typo. The British spell, "honourable," with a "u." People who think it honorable to enslave other people don't spell it with a "u."

Well, here we are: 8 years after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001 and where are we? How have we honored, or honoured, the souls we lost that day?

Let's see, we're still in Iraq, having invaded that nation for no good reason. (Where was Joe Wilson when President Bush stood in the well of the House in 2003?). Some estimates claim as many as 100,000 people have died in that tragic mistake.

We're still in Afghanistan – and our number is growing – and we still haven't rounded up the criminals that launched the 9-11 attack in the first place.

We can't agree that every American should have the opportunity for decent, affordable health care.

And tomorrow a bunch of angry, bitter folks will gather to shout epithets about our nation and its current leadership.

Eight years after the most tragic and savage attack on our great nation our entire political and civic discourse has been reduced to two words: "you lie."

Nice. Olbermann is right: stupidity is our greatest threat.

Having indoctrinated school children yesterday so they will be safe from polio and the flu, the President will try tonight to indoctrinate a joint session of the Congress and explain the moral imperative of providing health care for those who can't afford it.

The conservative media is already reporting liberals will be disappointed because he's going to through them under the bus – without a public option to care for their wounds. The conservative press is gleeful about this.

It's a good sign for our great nation that so much of the public debate over proposed health care reform has focused on the compassionate need for adequate and affordable health care. I'd hate to think we've become a society filled with meanness and hate. That would be bad.

But the season of public gatherings in town hall meetings where people freely bring guns and shout epithets is over, now that the Congress has returned to the friendly confines of that big white domed building and much of the health care debate has turned to the InnerTubes where one can post statements without having to back up anything with facts and have it repeated a million times.

This is fun because it allows for serious and meaningful debate.

One can now spend one's entire day watching a health care war of words go by on the email, the Twitter and online magazines and come away even more confused than one started because, well, that's the goal of some people in this country who think it's just fine for health insurance companies to run the place. Many of these people can't afford health care themselves but no matter. Many more receive health care coverage through Medicare but rail anyway about socialized medicine.

Fortunately for all of us there are some organizations working to bring focus to the confusion and set the record straight with facts, not hyperbole. I know, I know…none of us like to see THAT but, heck, somebody has to be truthful in all this. We just don't have to pay attention to them.

The St. Petersburg (FL) Times, highly-regarded for its journalistic integrity (back when there was just a thing), runs something called www.politifact.com and attempts to sort out lies from truth while at the same time hold accountable elected officials. I'm not sure why a journalist would want to do such things but clearly they think it important.

The Annenberg Center for Public Policy runs www.factcheck.org. I've seen knuckle-draggers refer to this organization as "leftist" because it was founded and funded by Walter Annenberg, publishing magnate, U.S. Ambassador and best friend of President Ronald Reagen. Both men were well-known for their leftist views.

The latter organization took it upon itself to debunk a particularly wide-spread (or "viral") email going around. You can read the full debunking here: http://factcheck.org/2009/08/twenty-six-lies-about-hr-3200/ .

But suffice it to say, the analysis concluded the email contains 26 completely and utter lies, one truth and three misleading or half-truthful statements about House Resolution 3200, the main bill on health care reform coming out of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Among the lies exposed by FactCheck are assertions we've all heard:

*Government will decide what health treatment you will get. A lie.
*Undocumented people (non-citizens) will get free health care. A lie.
*Government will block care for "special needs" children. A lie.
*ACORN will provide home health-care. A lie.

Do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes trying to get educated. Look for lies and truths…even though some extremists refer to such an enterprise as, "Marxist." Really, not making that up.

Happy Labor Day
Monday, September 7, 2009

If a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your group at the same time as a poor person in dirty clothes and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say,

"Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say,

"Stand over there," have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor.

Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into bankruptcy?

You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

But if you show partiality, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

So speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

What good is it if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?

So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Those are pretty radical words, scary even, because they call us accountable to care for each other. They call us to care for each other as a collective, IN a collective.

Again, pretty scary words; pretty radical. It's a good thing I'm not an official of the Obama Administration. I might be hounded from public service by the extreme right-wing for uttering such a radical doctrine.

Those words are old, though, and I didn't make 'em up. They're over 2,000 years old and attributed to the very first Bishop of Jerusalem. His name was James and most scholars think he was probably also the biological brother of the Christ. And, yea, he was killed, too, by the powers of the day for professing such a radical doctrine.

Today is Labor Day in the U.S. of A. and on this Labor Day, working men and women have it as tough as they've had it in 30 years. As a matter of fact, the quality of life for working men and women in the U.S. of A. has been steadily declining for the last 30 years.

One would think, if we're brave enough and radical enough, we could collectively do something about that…maybe even as a step toward the social justice demanded by James we might collectively reform our health care system so working men and women in the U.S. of A don't have to go bankrupt if they get sick.

Goin' Nuts
Friday, September 4, 2009

So, it's come to this has it?

We're bitin' the fingers off each other in fights over how to pay for treating that finger; other folks are so deranged they won't let school children watch the President of the United States on the TeeVee Box and…

…What do you do when you're the governor of a certain southern state we'll call South Carolina and get caught diddlin' another woman in another country?

You accuse your accusers of being gay, of course!

All this makes perfect sense…if you live on the far-distant Planet Paranoidus Moronus!

Come on, people! WTF?? Seriously, have we all gone completely nuts?

Wait…don't answer that until we can get some justice into the health care system and get mental health treatment for all y'all.

So, a man in California shows up to protest health care for his fellow citizens. He encounters an angry supporter of health care for fellow citizens. He gets mad, throws a punch and, in return, gets his finger bitten off by the fellow who supports health care for fellow citizens.

The now digitally reduced protester of health care for all goes to the hospital where Medicare pays for his treatment. He later goes on the TeeVee Box, on some right-wing talking head show where he's hailed as a hero – for getting his finger bitten off.

"Freedom isn't free," says the man. No, but his health care was because he's old and eligible for that dreadful, socialist program we lovingly call Medicare, which is beloved by people who protest such programs.

Following me, so far? Good. 'Cause it's a little hard to track if you're sane.

Okay, so now we have the President of the United States preparing to give a speech next week directly to school children, in their schools, on a direct link into their classrooms. The speech is billed as encouragement for the students, to wish them well and to push them to work hard and study well.

The only problem is there are, apparently, ignorant, dumbass people in this country who think this particular president (OF THE UNITED STATES) is some kind of hippie-communist-nazi-muslim-zen-zorastran-baptist who will, while beaming into their TeeVees, hypnotize them into wearing little Mao suits while chanting slogans…like, "freedom isn't free."

"As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology," said Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer. "The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the President justify his plans…blah, blah, blah…is not only infuriating but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power."

You know, kinda like starting a war in any country without any justifiable reason.

Sadly, there are equally moronic people running some schools in this country.

And, finally, y'all remember South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who went hiking on the Argentinean Tail. He's being hounded from office because he's a cheat and liar. What does he do? Well, of course, he accuses the Lt. Gov. of being gay (like that's some kind of epithet in the first place).

Unfortunately for him, the Lt. Gov. responded to the charges by saying, "I don't have one gay bone in my body," (while standing at the podium).

Said the immortal philosopher and soon-to-be voice on your car GPS, Bob Dylan, "There must be some way outa here, said the joke to the thief. There's too much confusion. I can't get no relief."

Back in Time
Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Sure, doesn't everyone in Virginia think women should be kept barefoot and pregnant, in the kitchen and out of the workforce?

It would appear so because GOP candidate for Virginia governor, a Bob McDonnell, holds a big lead in the polls over Democrat Creigh Deeds. And to prove it, McDonnell's willing to bounce rubber balls off the glass ceiling all day long.

McDonnell believes women in the workforce to be detrimental to the traditional family, according to a thesis he wrote in 1989 for a graduate degree from Open-Minded Pat Roberts' Regent University. His thesis, entitled, "The Republican Party's Vision for the Family: the Compelling Issue of the Decade," must have made the always chuckling Roberts happy but won't exactly win him the endorsement of Emily's List.

You gotta love it when politicians say something so stupid and, then, when called on it start walking back immediately – like they never said it in the first place.

McDonnell told reporters his views have changed – now that he's running for governor of a major state in which reside lots of women voters.

But 20 years ago, already elected to public office and courting the favor of Amurka's favorite religious nut job, he appeared ready and willing to take the lead and condemn not only women to a life of servitude but also to keep gay people in their place (What…discos?), restrict contraception and do something awful with what he described as, "fornicators."

Hey, Mr. McDonnell, this isn't the 1950s. Our great nation has actually moved forward on some issues. You know, like women's rights and, heck, some progressive states like Iowa even allow gay folks to marry.

As for fornicators, we'll always have a strong lobby in our nation's capital and most state capitals.

As for women in the workplace being a detriment to the traditional family, he didn't say but I wonder if it's okay with Mr. McDonnell for women to run businesses out of their homes…while raising children and watching their partner's pay dwindle?

And speaking of crazy, here comes the always quote-worthy Congresswoman Michelle Bachman, R-Minnesota.

Speaking in Colorado last weekend, Bachman said we should all become followers of the Jim Jones Temple school of politics to keep health care reform from passing.

"This cannot pass," she told an adoring crowd of the equally crazy. "What we have to do today is make a covenant to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn't pass."

She went to say, "something is crazy out there." Yes, ma'am. Look in the mirror much?

I'm not sure that Congresswoman Bachman was actually suggesting mass suicide as an appropriate tactic of political expression but these folks are rich with irony if nothing else. Such a civic expression would certainly eliminate the need for adequate health care.

Hey, candidate McDonnell? Is this woman detrimental to traditional family values? Just askin'.