Finance Committee/Soapbox

The usual opponents of abortion, led by Sen. Orrin Hatch, are sanctimoniously using health reform to again mount their control over abortion. Have any of these preaching pious pariahs even introduced any legislation sponsoring free vasectomy clinics, male sexual education, safe sex practices or have they personally advanced such programs in their states to approach the abortion issue on the male angle? I seriously doubt it. This is another effort on the part of the Republican to promote universal thinking on this issue.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if they adopted a fresh stance on this and acknowledged the male responsibility and impose penalties if a male continued to inseminate casual sex partners?
The way they present this as a single sex issue infuriates me, and just so you know, I would never have one but have no right to think that should govern the decisions of others.

The R's have a medieval view of the subject. They use it as a political club and in these hearings they are taking all possible twisted opportunities to bash President Obama also.

The proceedings are oh so predictable, it is becoming harder and harder to listen and watch. Their determination to bury health insurance and issues reform is obvious to all but the blind,

EIGHT LONG YEARS and what?

The Republican members of the Senate Finance committee, now holding hearings on the Senator Baucus reform bill, sat on their hands for eight years and now, all of a sudden, they know just how to fix our dysfunctional health care system. Their whining is deafening......their amendment offerings transparently showing their intent to sabotage any efforts to improve the system and more than that, to prevent the disastrous economic breakdown that will be the result if no reform gets enacted.

Just watch their facial expressions during the hearings. There is grumpy, grouchy, goofy Grassley, and the sanctimonious Hatch, cruel Cornyn, sleepy Bunning, smart axx Kyl, preachy Ensign of recent adultery fame case, should I go on........real theater, guys and gals.

Why don't I?
Let's see, inscrutable, (she will -- she won't), Snow; wafting Lincoln, creepy Crapo -- who have I missed?All armed with their Luntz laced presentations of the blockade they are manning.

The next episode is coming Monday at 9:30 am ET -- shall we protest for a later start so we Westerners won't need to get up so early? Or will we just have to risk catching a C-Span repeat?

graysmoke

ENDURANCE TESTING

Here I am still sticking in there in front of the tube watching the Repugs trying their best to scuttle the Finance Cmte version of the health reform bill constructions.

One of the sessions (ahem) was devoted to arguing over whether to convert the text to legislative language which would mean hundreds of pages of gobbledegook that delineates cross references to existing codes in the case of tax impact or other current laws already on the books..this was the most obvious example of the attempt to slow walk getting this bill out of committee.

The R's are nitpicking, hairsplitting and in general not offering improvements only delays. Some of the references they use are in error. This is better drama than a soap opera but I am not addicted to those.

At the present pace it will take months to consider the stack of amendments meant to bury this bill.


graysmoke

DEATH BY AMENDMENT ASPHYXIATION

The twenty-three member Senate Finance committee is going to begin strangling the Baucus health reform bill tomorrow. It is to be execution by asphyxiation, amendment style. It is reported in the press that 534 or so amendments have been filed. I don't know how much of this may get televised on the C-Span channels but they will likely offer videos if they do not have scheduling opportunity to cover live committee sessions. So this is one execution you may want to watch and hopefully you are prepared for the demise and the tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars by these congressional members that have little or no, intention of reaching an acceptable compromise that meets the needs of the American public.



Where's my placard.....I'm ready to join a protest.......





graysmoke

CONTORTIONISTS

You would think we were being treated to a Chinese acrobatic performance the way the Repugs are bending and twisting to justify the Joe Wilson outrage......you can't change the facts folks, there has never been such an event during a Presidential address to a Joint Session of Congress. This is governed by the rules of the Senate and House of Representatives, they are technically in session during this period and therefore Rep. Wilson fully deserved his rebuke.

And on Countdown I hear Mr. Wilson lied about his ever being an immigration attorney....well what can one expect?


graysmoke

Racism River

Former President Carter knows of what he speaks. There is a subterranean river of racism still in the USA and the currents run strong in the South and in some MidWestern states, like Ohio and Pennsylvania. The caucasion population was indoctrinated by the media for years by only coverage of the criminal element of the whole black race and only now are the high achieveing individuals getting exposure.

Ask members of the white race to name prominent black individuals of the past who were not in sports or entertainment and they will look very puzzled. Those successes were invisible to them, why?


graysmoke

BOGUS BAUCUS

Yeah, Jay --- Rockefeller that is......he called it correctly --this plan hasn't a chance in a million of offering any control over private insurance raping of the public on health care dominance and drug coverages.

That committee should be disbanded.....it is a bad joke.

We don't need this from the shills for the industry.

Thank you Senator Rockefeller for calling a spade a spade.


graysmoke

Repug NOOSE building

Rep. Wilson found enough rope to loop a good one.........I say, let them continue shooting themselves in the foot.....exposure of what they are really like can only benefit the independents and democrats.

Now where have I been lately......well the reason I haven't posted lately is:


I got up and got out of the house.......maybe permanently. first though I packed 40 moving boxes without help, went through 22 yrs of accumulated "STUFF" -- discarded, shredded, donated, what have you? The the moving van came ( I left half my furnishings in my residence in AZ- which later I may market) and the partial van load was on its way to Oregon, I loaded up my CRV to the gills, climbed in and motored alone 1700 miles along the scenic route up 395, gaping at the splendor of the eastern Sierra foothills which always stuns me, and arrived two days before the van. NOW it is unpacking and stowing all those 40 boxes -- never want to see another piece of bubble wrap etc again, but as far as I can tell I weathered all this well even after all the health problems I had the first six months of the year, the hemicolectomy, resuming oral drug chemo for the myco's, falling and breaking my shoulder in two places and being hospitalized in June for pneumonia and hemoptysis. ################

P.S.And I celebrated my 82nd birthday on 9-9-9!!!

graysmoke