Whingeing Award

Right down to the wire we go.......Republicans howling and bleating sounding like a pen full of stuck pigs. It is just difficult to pick who is excelling at this. Maybe the award should go to Coburn. How would you like this guy for your physician - why he might pray that you wouldn't show up for your appointment. Christian my eye......he has no idea of what being one would entail. But maybe we should give multiple WHINGEING awards, one for Hatch for sure, and another for Sessions, McCain must have one too - maybe I should carve out a dozen.

What a relief it will be when on tomorrow morning the Senate has vaulted all the procedural hurdles and votes for the bill.

Peace on earth goodwill in WA DC?

Not a good bet for 2010, the R's haven't yet discovered the damage they have done to themselves and their party so the antics will continue. It'll take and election to sort it all out plainly enough for them.

graysmoke

Weekly Wrap

Dean's Defection--- this seemed a sudden about-face. Puzzling and again smells more of being political than anything else.

Poisoned Process---What a charade the floor sessions on the reform bill are in the Senate. This is just intolerable....

Fearless Franken---thanks Al for having the cajones to tell Leiberman to knock it off.

The Party of "NO" and not the party of "KNOW"---can't everybody see that a high value is placed on ignorance by the Republicans, the dumber their base the higher their re-election chances become. A very good reason for the high measure of disgust they generate.

Rules Rape---Coburn and McConnell are the rules rapists. Abusing the rules now has become another republican value.


graysmoke

The ULTIMATE in Obstructionism

At behest of Sen. Coburn, the Senate clerk is reading all the text in an amendment offered by Senator Sanders, there are more than seven hundred pages and anyone listening to the rapid reading will probably not know a bit more about the amendment and of course the senators are absent from the chamber so it is obvious what that tactic is. The Republicans will do anything to prevent the Democrats from passing any health care reform legislation, the reason being that they don't want the opposing party to have that victory that has been scuttled for years and years. And they don't want to spoil the source of major campaign finance contributions.

I AM SICK OF SUCH ANTICS.

Coburn needs to go back to his medical practice. I sure wouldn't want such a conniving individual though for my physician. He is under the delusion that just because he is a medical doctor he is always right.......well he isn't and he is guilty as h__ on misinforming by using the technique of selective citation even when it involves medical procedures, I heard him do this when railing against medicare regarding virtual colonoscopies.

The Republicans benefit from an ignorant base component.....thus the popularity game played by Palin and other rogues, i.e. Limbaugh, Beck et al.

Oh yes, the republican value of ignorance is important to them.


graysmoke

GET AN EARFUL

Read Jeremy Scahill's NATION article on the super secret antics of Blackwater.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091207/scahill

Is this how we want our country to behave, what about responsibilities - these operations should be kept in-house.

And Erik Prince seems a delusional crackpot.I wouldn't trust him any further than I can throw a feather.


graysmoke

LOST IN CONGRESS

Why nothing gets done is clearly demonstrated by Senator Judd Gregg's intention to use the archaic rules to master the "slow walk" death of the health reform bill.

You can find his engineering of how to accomplish this in an article on Talking Points Memo.

This demonstrates explicitly that bi-partisanship is mythical.

Gridlock eternal.

Is anyone going to get this overhauled into the twenty-first century before our country commits hari-kari by this method?

graysmoke

DESCRIPTIVE OF DEBATE

Trying to watch and listen to the Senate do what is called "debating" the health care reform bill is about as exciting and informative as watching cows chew on their cuds.

And it is quite debatable just what this exercise is.......obstructional workout comes to mind when any of the opposing party have a turn on the rule laden operation of what passes in this august body now for debate.

And when the cud chewing ends ..... and who knows how long this takes.......the public is going to be long tuned out. Having learned more perhaps about politics and power plays than reform of the health care system.


graysmoke