HEALTH CARE: RETURN OF THE BUNGLED TEA PARTY PROTESTS -

• Congressional Republicans have been holding a series of protests on the hill regarding health care reform legislation…of course they’re not calling them “protests,” but are rather using the term “press conferences.“  It’s what we have come to expect:  buses sponsored by “astroturf” groups dumping groups of disgruntled citizens at the Capitol steps…check.  Wildly inaccurate, misspelled, racist, and occasionally simply bizarre hand-held signs (including one featuring pictures of holocaust victims, comparing health reform to Nazi genocide)…check.  A Republican legislator (Rep. Todd Akin, R-MO) botching the Pledge of Allegiance right after extolling the importance of the pledge…check.  Another Republican representative (John Boehner, R-OH) holding up a copy of the Constitution, claiming that it is the most important guide to his actions and that he’d like to read a little excerpt from it…then proceeding to read from the Declaration of Independence…check.  Fox News, using an outdated photograph to misrepresent the attendance at the gathering (not the first time they’ve done this), only to get busted by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show…check.  For your viewing pleasure, here’s the Daily Show clip:

• The protests weren’t the only “health-care related” spectacle.  Here again is Jon Stewart…to address the OTHER antics of our elected officials:

THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Pro-Sex Offender?

• If you’ve heard about the conservative Heritage Foundation, it is probably due to the health care debate…where they have been quick to provide reform opponents with a variety of unfathomably unscientific and skewed “studies” with which to do battle.  They also have some rather interesting legal opinions, which they present on their sister website, Overcriminalized.com.  The Heritage Foundation claims that the site “...describes the trend in America -- and particularly in Congress -- to use the criminal law to “solve” every problem, punish every mistake (instead of making proper use of civil penalties), and coerce Americans into conforming their behavior to satisfy social engineering objectives.”  What examples do they give of unnecessary laws, to address minor “mistakes” that they’d rather see handled in civil proceedings?  How about HR5652, the Child Slavery Prevention Act of 2008…which provides strict sentences to people who engage in human trafficking and sex slavery.  And they’re not too fond of HR1632, the International Megan’s Law of 2009, which requires that sex offenders report any intention of travelling abroad, and prevents foreign sex offenders who committed their crimes against children from coming into our country.  And there’s HR3513, Prevention and Deterrence Of Crimes Against Children Act of 2009 (strongly penalizes those involved in child pornography), HR288, Save Our Children: Stop The Violent Predators Against Children DNA Act of 2009 (created the DNA database for use in identifying and prosecuting sex predators), and S431, Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sex Predators (KIDS) Act of 2007 (sex offenders have to register all online identifiers, IP address, email accounts, usernames, chat names).   Besides being an absolutely inane position to take, claiming that these bills are anything except a GOOD thing…it certainly seems an odd stance for a group that likes to portray themselves as the “law and order” crowd.

CONSERVATIVES: NO MUSLIMS IN THE MILITARY -

• You didn’t need to have a crystal ball to know that the right-wing response to the recent, tragic shooting at Fort Hood in Texas would focus on the fact that the shooter was a Muslim.  First there were calls for “screening Muslims” who want to serve in the military.  Besides the obviously xenophobic and discriminatory aspects of this suggestion,  it is clear that effecting such a policy would be difficult, given our military has been repeatedly and desperately lowering its recruiting standards, and currently fails to “screen out” members of biker gangs, street gangs, assorted violent felons, and individuals with terrifying mental histories.  Now, the American Family Association (you guessed it…with a name like that, it has to be a conservative activism group) wants to take things a step further: they call for a ban on Muslims in the military.  Quick little bit of history: In WWII…some of our greatest heroes were German-American soldiers who were very much in touch with their ancestry, but they put America first.  Also during WWII, Japanese-American soldiers, despite the internment of so many Japanese-Americans in camps…they put America first, served this country, and were recognized for their bravery and sacrifice.  If we were fighting in a Christian nation…would Christians not be allowed to serve, for fear of divided loyalty?  No…and Muslim-Americans who choose to bravely serve and protect our nation should continue to be afforded not only the opportunity…but also our full gratitude and respect.

CARRIE PREJEAN: FALL OF A POORLY CONCEIVED CONSERVATIVE ROLE MODEL -

• Quick Version: Carrie Prejean, Miss California, loses the Miss America pageant after saying that she opposes gay marriage.  Conservatives immediately hail Prejean as a hero, a wholesome Christian girl, and a victim of “political correctness.“  Prejean makes the rounds, speaking at conservative symposiums, tearfully recalling how she believes her First Amendment rights were violated (for the hundredth time…no, Carrie: the government never prevented you from exercising your free speech).  The Miss California Pageant fires Prejean, and wants the money for her boob job back (they paid for it) because despite being a “wholesome Christian girl” Prejean apparently never learned the whole “Christian-work-ethic-thing,” and has been ditching on her contractual commitments.  Prejean cries “religious discrimination” and sues the pageant for millions.  A sex tape appears…when the pageant’s lawyers bring it to a hearing (ouch).  Prejean drops her lawsuit…conservative groups drop her as a guest speaker.  Prejean tries to get her ex-boyfriend (the source of the tape) to say it was from a LONG time ago…he refuses and tells TMZ it was from 2007.  Now…here’s my favorite part: despite all this, Prejean is STILL plugging her new book on the talk show rounds, and I guess she just didn’t figure anybody would ask her about the lawsuit, and the reason she had to drop it.  Enjoy this bit from Larry King Live, where Prejean regresses to the level of an eight-year-old:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVwwZ1ZJrkE

LOU DOBBS: DON’T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU…

• Lou Dobbs…has quit CNN.   When one examines even just his most awful, most racist, most insane moments (much less his consistent stream of unresearched, patently false, and journalistically irresponsible claims), you are left asking: Why was he allowed to continue for so long? Here’s a compilation of some of Lou’s worst moments…CNN is planning to replace him with John King, which can only be an improvement.

Tomorrow…it’s time for our weekly “Chaos Theory” edition, where we’ll try to wrap up all remaining items from the week.  Until then…

Let’s start by saying, THE WHITE HOUSE MADE A MISTAKE.  First, a White House aide came forward and said that…yes…FOX News is biased, and often serves as the propaganda wing of the Republican Party.  A brief summary of the events following this statement may be found here.  Recently, another White House advisor, Valerie Jarrett, performed another disservice to the Office of the President, by reaffirming that “of course” FOX News is biased, by hedging on whether or not MSNBC is biased, and by saying that this was part of the White House’s ideology of “speaking truth to power:”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULYycgU8zY4

Why is all of this behavior, on the part of White House staff, inappropriate?  Is it because they are somehow curtailing the First Amendment?  No…they have prevented no one from speaking.  Is it because this is somehow, as talking heads on FOX suggest, tyrannical behavior typical of fascist and communist regimes?  No…George W. Bush and the presidents before him have always been critical of one or more news outlets, and it’s not like the government is shutting FOX down and arresting its people.  No…the reason that this is a mistake, is because it is unnecessary.

1) “Speaking truth to power?“  You are the White House.  You ARE “the power.“  By stooping to engage a lesser entity in a verbal sparring match, you miss the obvious opportunity to “rise above them” instead.  Ignoring them, much as one would ignore the attention-seeking behavior of a screaming child, would serve the image of the POTUS better.

2) What you’ve said is true and obviously so…but is pointless, and if anything, will only serve to boost FOX’s ratings.  Why? Because the people who watch FOX either do so because they LIKE that it is biased in such a way as to agree with them, or because they don’t watch anything else, in which case they do not know that it is biased, nor will they ever accept that it is…because it is the source of ALL their information and it provides the interpretation of said information.

If FOX weren’t biased…why would Shepard Smith being receiving so mach hate mail, and so many threats?  For those who do not recognize the name, Shep Smith is perhaps the LEAST biased anchor on FOX News.  Earlier this year, Smith grew tired of listening to his guests attempt to justify the unjustifiable.  He listened to them try to rationalize our country’s use of torture, while clumsily dodging the fact that it is not simply immoral…but also 100%, clearly, illegal.  When Smith had had enough, he erupted: “We are America, we don’t torture! And the moment that is not the case, I want off the train! This government is of, by, and for the people….I’m saying, whatever it is, you don’t do it for me.”  This is the same Shepard Smith, accurately identified former Vice President Cheney’s stance on gay rights, especially given the fact that his daughter is gay, as a “cop out.“  Smith also questioned the fairness of a story which criticized the Canadian health care system while attempting to discredit the current plans in our country to reform health care…and he rightly pointed out that the proposed reforms in the U.S., have absolutely NOTHING in common with the Canadian system.  Quite recently, Smith apologized after a segment where a Republican candidate was interviewed, but the Democratic candidate was not: “Wow. I didn’t know that was about to happen. My apologies for the lack of balance there. If I’d had control it wouldn’t have happened.”

Want to know something about FOX News’ viewers?  Want to know how one anchor’s attempts to remain objective and squelch bias on that network were rewarded?  He is attacked…threatened by viewers of the network, told by viewers, “You don’t belong here,” and harassed in public.  Do these sound like the kind of people who will respond to the White House’s criticism by changing channels?  Do they sound like people who will come to say, “Wow.  We had no idea that FOX was so unbalanced.  We are upset that they are distorting the news in order to communicate conservative dogma and ideology.”

No. They’ll keep watching FOX News.  They’ll watch it because it agrees with them…because it tells them what they want to hear…and because it plays into their psychological defense mechanisms.  That’s right.  There IS actually a psychological explanation for much of the unreasonable “outrage” and the inexplicable “conspiracy theorizing” that we are all observing.  A brief article in Psychology Today, sums up this all-too-human phenomenon quite clearly.  In short…the human brain WANTS to make connections between events and other things in our environment.  It is part of the way that our minds detect threats, and so the brain rewards this behavior with the release of dopamine.  In other words, it feels good to “connect the dots.“  In times of high uncertainty and stress…like say, a recession characterized by financial instability, high foreclosure rates, and rampant unemployment…or perhaps the election of a president who some view as “strange” and/or “different“…our brains may tend to go into overdrive, drawing connections between as many things in our world as possible, in hopes of identifying threats to our lives, our security, our comfort.  Here’s a fun example from Glenn Beck, who has provided us many such examples:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWL-pfCao-U

What should be obvious, is that such theorizing is not created through sound reasoning…and it is, therefore, impervious to facts and reasoning.  For example, if I take the unreasonable position that I was abducted by aliens and replaced by an identical pod person…you are going to have more than a little difficultly “disproving” this, simply because there is nothing factual or logical in it for you to address.  “Conspiracy thinking” is this way because is not the product of logical thinking…but is instead produced through a powerful defense mechanism.  This should be apparent to anyone who has attempted to “talk down” such a theorist through the communication of facts, or by pointing out that some of their “relationships” or “lines of causation” don’t make any sense.  The scholar’s reaction to such questioning would be engagement, and excitement.  The conspiracy theorists reaction…is heightened defensiveness, or even combativeness.  Your attempt to reason with them is a threat to the delicate and implausible “early warning system” they have meticulously built for themselves.  As crazy as it sounds…they feel safer thinking that the threat to their existence is a “president who is a secret Muslim trying to form a communist shadow government“…then for this NOT to be the case, and for them NOT to have any idea where actual threats might exist, which would make them feel blind and vulnerable.

Unfortunately, all this introspection into “why people think what they think” is lost in the media circus engaged in covering this minor and unnecessary dispute.  CNN, its ratings in the basement, decides to get in on the action by crying out (I’m paraphrasing), “MSNBC is as bad as FOX.“  A little transparent, even for you, Miss Campbell Brown.  Of course, Keith Olbermann can’t resist responding back to CNN…pointing out that “CNN seems to still think it is the primary source for its viewers, that they know nothing until they tune in.  This is, ever increasingly, nonsensical. People now watch news on TV for elucidation and context and analysis. They have brought the facts with them, the way we used to bring TV dinners.”  Meanwhile, no one is examining why people watch FOX News at all…and why so many are willing to believe some of the obvious falsehoods and patently inane conspiracy theories espoused on the network.  Maybe…it’s as simple as the psychology of a scared human being reacting to change and uncertain times.  Whatever it is…nobody is better than FOX News at exploiting it, as Jon Stewart of The Daily Show explains:

Only four categories this week…but lots of links, so let’s get started…

POLITICIANS BEHAVING BADLY:

• We’ve all been witness to the GOP’s recent “enlightenment” regarding the nation’s debt.  For the last eight years, while they held the reins of Congress, the rampant government spending was “absolutely necessary.”  Now: It’s the equivalent of kicking our grandchildren in the teeth.  Or, as Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) recently put it, it’s the equivalent of “waterboarding” them.  Coburn said, “We’re going to waterboard them.  We’re going to flood them with debt.“  Senator Coburn was referring to a program funding the study of political science, which Coburn claims is not necessary…since people can learn all that they need to know about politics from CABLE NEWS.  It’s suddenly quite obvious where HE learned most of what HE knows about it…
• It’s an established fact that Republicans have had some difficulty adjusting to the “internet age“…perhaps best displayed by the fact that most of them don’t seem to realize that if they say something that directly contradicts what they said one year ago, the clip of both statements will be on YouTube before the day is out.  Want to see a slideshow of the “Top Nine Republican Internet Fails?”  Here you go…
• The number one problem with allying oneself with a minority of loud, activist, ignorant, and unreasonable people…is that you suddenly lose the support of the much larger body of normal, moderate, sane folks.  Want to see what happens if you try to win the moderate people back by behaving like a reasonable human being, open to compromise and the good ideas of others?  Watch here as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) finds out what happens when the lunatics figure out that you are not really one of them:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP7nCyqMTsE

• Liz Cheney is not quite done fighting her father’s battles…no matter how many times she appears on discussion panels and is identified as having the foreign policy knowledge of a teenager.  Now she has formed the “Keep America Safe” organization, whose mission statement claims to support “an unapologetic approach to fighting terrorism around the world, for victory in the wars this country fights, for democracy and human rights, and for a strong American military that is needed in the dangerous world in which we live.“  Ms. Cheney…first of all, even if we look only at the fact that planes have not crashed into buildings this year, President Obama ALREADY has a better track record than your father had, in terms of keeping the country safe.  Secondly, Obama has succeeded in gaining international allies in the struggle against terrorists…allies that your father helped to alienate.  And third, well, I think the DNC put it best in their response: “Last fall, the American people overwhelmingly rejected a radical foreign policy authored by Dick Cheney that alienated our allies, emboldened our enemies, depleted our resources, distracted our focus and made the nation less secure. The Cheneys lost that debate and their approach was deemed a failure. The Cheneys can continue to focus on securing their sullied legacy if they want to. But, the President will continue to focus on securing the country.“  Exactly.
• Retaining his crown as “King of the Bizarre Analogy,” RNC Chariman Michael Steele said in a recent FOX interview that he feels like…well…health care reform is a “train,” and President Obama is the conductor, and Obama is trying to get all the Republicans to get on board, and Steele sees himself as a “cow on the tracks.“  Ok, sure.
• I mentioned in a previous post, one way that you know that the GOP is focused on simply OPPOSING EVERYTHING is when a number of GOP legislators vote against Senator Franken’s first bill:  a bill protecting rape victims, working for companies with government contracts.  Here’s Jon Stewart, who points out what should be an obvious truth: “If, to protect Halliburton, you have to side against rape victims, you might want to rethink your allegiances.“

• It recently came to light, in part because of the work done by the National Women’s Law Center, that in eight states, insurance companies can and do consider being the victim of spousal abuse a “pre-existing condition” that allows them to deny coverage.  State and Federal representatives from most of the eight states expressed immediate embarrassment and outrage over the situation, and most have already taken steps to remedy the matter. But not Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.).  When the president of the National Women’s Law Center, Marcia Greenberger, appeared before a Senate committee to discuss the issue, Burr thought it appropriate to repeatedly interrupt and otherwise disrespect her:

Greenberger:  If I could get back to your question about the specific examples: they manifest themselves in many different ways. For example, if a woman ends up in an emergency room with cuts, bruises, broken arms, black eyes, typical injuries that result from domestic violence, we know of instances where women are being denied insurance coverage and neither the insurance company…

Burr: My question…

Greenberger: …doesn’t view that…

Burr: …is specifically about North Carolina…

Greenberger: …and I’m trying to answer that…

Burr: …and the insurance commissioner tells me we haven’t had a case. We haven’t had anybody…

Greenberger: Well, I’m trying to explain. First, I think it’s great that he is now explicitly having a rule, which as our report pointed out, didn’t exist before. So that’s really excellent, because of the way insurance companies deal with this issue in particular. They will often deny the coverage of victims and survivors of domestic violence without saying that that’s the reason…

Burr: …I’m just going by your report…

Greenberger: You asked the question about did we follow up and we did.

Burr: Well, I found more information in my one call to North Carolina than I think your report did.

• Again? Representative Bill Otto (R-Kansas) has obviously not been paying attention.  First he puts a video on YouTube titled “Redneck Rap” where he raps (and badly) his various criticisms of President Obama, and about eating opossum, which he calls “the other dark meat.“  This obviously drew allegations of racism (at a minimum it is childish, insensitive, and inane), and eventually the clip was removed from the site.  And now…Otto says he’s going to repost the video, because it was his adult daughters who took the video down, and also because he fears that “People are going to think that this was done by people to shut me up.  I’m getting hate e-mails from Maryland to California, but, hey, that’s part of the game.“  Mr. Otto:  It’s not a game, it’s civil service and YOU are an elected official, jackass.  Next time, listen to your daughters…and try to learn from the lessons of other, like the OTHER Kansas legislator who just recently got in a heap of trouble for saying that the GOP is looking for a “great white hope” to defeat Obama.

THE MEDIA -- PUNDITS, HACKS, AND OTHER INVETERATE LIARS:

• Want the “short version” of the merry war between the White House and FOX News?  Here goes…

WHITE HOUSE: FOX News serves as the propaganda arm of the Republican Party.

BILL O’REILLY: Nuh uh…

MEDIA MATTERS: Umm…it’s pretty obvious, guys…

GLENN BECK: The administration is like the Nazis…and we’re the Jews!

NEW STUDY: Not only is it true, but we found something interesting:  Most of the anti-Obama forces aren’t particularly racist…the only thing they have in common is they all watch FOX News, and because of this…they believe some pretty outlandish sh-t.

• It’s fun picking on CNN’s inability to both perform research and report news.  It’s especially fun…if you’re Jon Stewart of The Daily Show:

• Remember the rather bizarre reactions from some members of the media when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize?  Well, Rachel Maddow thinks it can all be explained by “Obama Derangement Syndrome:“

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMJuEOaF84o

THE HEALTH CARE CARNIVAL OF DESPAIR:

• By now you’ve heard that the Senate Finance Committee managed to pass the “Baucus Bill.“  You also heard that Republican Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) voted along with the Democrats to send the bill on.  And recently, it may have come to your attention that another Maine Republican, Senator Susan Collins, may also lend her support for the bill.  Well, MoveOn.org, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the AFL-CIO, and the Communications Workers of America would like to remind you:  it’s a CRAPPY bill, that would make a mountain of money for the insurance companies, would change little in the way they do business, and would NOT serve to get all of America’s uninsured the health care coverage that they need.  In fact…any OTHER House and Senate version might just be a better choice.
• Thank you, Captain Obvious: The most ridiculously unnecessary headline in health care reform news comes courtesy of The Washington Post:  “Health Insurers Emerge as Obama’s Top Foe in Reform Effort.” That’s right….”emerging“…as if it weren’t always the case.
• Think only our elected officials are in the pocket of the health insurance industry…but our stalwart media will be there to keep us informed of the truth regarding the health care debate.  Maybe not. CNN contributor, Alex Castellanos…has been revealed to be connected at the hip with America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the monolithic insurance lobby currently (and ferociously) campaigning to kill reform legislation.
• You don’t generally hear about “progressive faith groups,” but the American Values Network aims to change that.  They are currently releasing ads…emphasizing the moral and religious arguments supporting heath care reform.  It’s not a difficult argument to make, and represents one of the best examples of “fighting fire with fire” that we have seen in a long time.
• Is it obvious that former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has a new book out?  Not only has he been making the usual talk show rounds, but he also managed to inject a little sanity into the health care debate.  Of right-wing assertions that the Obama plan represents “socialized medicine” and warrants comparisons to Britain, Canada, and France, Frist said on C-SPAN, “What the Obama administration is doing is not socialized medicine.  Socialized medicine is where the government owns the hospitals, owns the doctors, and decides how people get paid.“  Yes…thank you…finally…is everybody listening?

MISCELLANY:

• In Lakeville, Massachusetts, someone carved a swastika and the word “Obama” into a golf course green.  The course manager believes that someone used either a cleated golf shoe or some other tool to perform the vandalism.  Strange…one would certainly think that America’s golfers have had some extra time to get used to the idea of having a very popular, half African-American leader.
• NEW HERO: Dylan Ratigan hosts the “Morning Meeting” show on MSNBC, and lately has shown to be a tough, bright host…who knows how to play hardball.  In a recent interview with Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Ratigan responded to Donohue’s attempts to claim that free, unfettered enterprise has the solutions to all problems by saying, “unless the government and people like you that lobby to the exemptions that allow banks to [speculate with taxpayer money] get out of the way, we will never have fair play again in this country and we’ll have job creation by virtue of taxpayer theft, which is ultimately destructive, and I would argue, treasonous to this country.“  When Donohue complained that, in essence, it’s harder to spread economic propaganda when the host asks hard questions, Ratigan responded, “Yes, it is.  Especially when you talk nonsense.“
• Oh no they didn’t: The White House decided to take a play out of the “Sarah Palin Media Strategy” book, when confronted with the mounting criticism in the blogosphere regarding the administration’s failure to achieve civil rights goals for gay citizens.  NBC White House Correspondent John Harwood reported, “For a sign of how seriously the White House does or doesn’t take this opposition, one adviser told me today those bloggers need to take off their pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely-divided country is complicated and difficult.“  Caaaarefullll.  Remember the role bloggers played getting Obama into the White House?  UPDATE: The White House would like to disavow those comments…never happened…nothing to see here.

Now what could we possibly add to all that?  As CNN would say, we’ll “leave it there” for now…and see you back here on Monday.