Pushing back against the push-back, or why we need the public option.

I try not to get soapbox-y here in the blogosphere, because it opens my little collection of musings to vitriolic chest-thumping.

So to avoid a potential headache, here’s what you need to know about me:

I am a liberal. A very progressive liberal. I think single-payer health care is the way to go. I think same-sex couples have an inalienable right to get married and divorced with the same enthusiasm and frequency as hetero folk. I think that on the whole, organized religion is a perversion of the tenets from which it initially sprung. I don’t think the second amendment should cover semi-automatic or automatic weapons. I think that the first amendment has limitations as far as what it protects when it is invoked to justify fomenting violence except in the most exceptional cases, and crying about a 3-5% tax hike when you make $250,000 a year is not one of those exceptions.

I find it appalling that certain segments of our society view out-of-control, inefficient defense spending as sound fiscal policy but balk at investing in the reform of our health care system.

The public option is not being “forced” on anybody. And fiscal conservatives that whine about a relatively small tax increase for the wealthiest among us should really take a long, hard look in the mirror. Your behavior is not at all Christ-like, and besides, I didn’t really like the fact that my tax dollars over the last 6 years (and counting) were funding an unnecessary war and the torturing of innocent people, but you didn’t see me Photoshopping swastikas all over Bush’s face.

Get a fucking job. Maybe then the majority of you that oppose the public option might actually make half of what it would take to bump you into the tax bracket being aimed at to fund this thing.

And Democratic policy-makers? Sac up. Act like you won for a change.

Huh? Buh? Snuh?

Wow. Cramazing! Not only was her first missive regarding the health care reform bill completely wrong and unsupported by any factual back-up at all, but her defense of her position in the face of the White House’s counter-argument is weak and simply a reiteration of her original fact-challenged assertion. Note how she doesn’t actually quote the section of the bill she’s referring to; she knows there’s nothing in the language that implies, intimates, or alludes to anything resembling a “death panel”.

Perhaps now that she is no longer holds a political office, she can get on with her life of being late-night monologue fodder and inspiring parody porn. No one wants to euthanize your unfortunate son, Sarah. At least he will more or less be oblivious to your wretchedness. But I’m probably not the only one out there who wouldn’t mind seeing you sterilized. Idiocracy, people. It’s coming. Welcome to Costco, I love you.

Eat Brawndo, drink Brawndo, be merry stupid. Electrolytes!

SHUT. IT. DOWN.

Bubba lays it on thick, N. Korea gets pwned in the process.

Nobody fucks with Bubba.

Proving once again why he is The Man, Bill Clinton secured the safe return of the two incarcerated Asian-American journalists that were imprisoned a couple months ago for having the ill-advised idea that a reporting assignment in North Korea would be a swell jaunt within 24 hours of his unannounced visit to Kim Jong Il.

As ecstatic as I am as a proud American to have our citizens out of harm’s way, this turn of events begs two important questions:

1. Isn’t this Hillary’s job?

2. What kind of smooth-talking black magic is involved in Bill’s diplomacy? Does he just whip out his (I’d imagine) massive you-know-what and give a wink? Less than 24 hours? Seriously? Explain to me again why we didn’t repeal the 22nd Amendment in 2000?