Let's talk about race!  Let's talk about the police state!  Let's talk about a "stupid" comment!  Let's forget the whole press conference about healthcare and suck all the air out of the room to nationalize an incident where a white officer arrested an older black man in his home for making too much noise.  But let's not talk about the failure of the Democratic Party to get it done.  It was there for the taking.  It still is, but it's just not that important, is all.   This SNAFU steals the headlines.

Should we blame the MSM for this illusion, that the Cambridge Confrontation is what this country needs to discuss right now?  Should we stand aghast that our President declared that the police acted stupidly, before he had all the facts?  What we should do is rally for healthcare!  We should make this rally the event of 2009.  It should dwarf the inauguration.  It should remind Obama and our lawmakers that the people expect reform of the healthcare system, and we are seriously angry with their lack of performance.  We need just one slogan at the event, "Git 'er done!"  We need it to be unmistakable that the people are disappointed it was not done and not getting it done the day they return is unacceptable.  {Pssst!  Dems!  Go get the health insurance lobbyists' money and return to vote for single payer.  Last call, this bar is closing!} 

What I took from the press conference was we that had another set-up.  Isn't this the same woman who ended the last one with some race-related comment?  Didn't she raise some concern that world leaders would dismiss Obama because he was black, or some other idiotic rant?  Isn't she the one whose remarks dominated the news after that press conference?  So, when Obama called on her and made his "stupidly" remark, was it a blunder?  Think chess.  Obama had a brain fart?  Really?  Is there any indication this is something that he has a tendency for, these indiscretions?  Come on, we're not talking about the Vice President, we're talking about Barack Hussein Obama!  The most measured speaker this side of Abraham Lincoln. 

There were mixed feelings for me regarding what I believe he just did.  On the one hand, I have some more respect for him.  He took one for the team.  A team that does not deserve him.  The Democratic Party, especially the lawmakers, is still the party of weakness.  What is glaring and irritating is that with 58 democrats and 2 independents, they can't get healthcare reform passed before the next recess.  It's truly a pathetic performance.  The Democrats need to put on their big boy pants and stop their little tantrums  about how the Republicans are not participating.  [They're not even tantrums, really.]  On the other hand, I wish Obama would say just that more emphatically, that the Democrats are not getting it done and the Republicans are not offering any solutions.

When I think of this, however, I realize that neither is a good idea.  If Obama scolds his party, then he reminds the nation of their weakness, which does not bode well for the next election cycle.  If he underscores the GOP obstructionism, then he reveals what a minority can "achieve" if they work together, which the Democrats are not.  Niether proposition favors a good outcome for Obama, so what does he do?  He says something "stupid"?  I don't think so.  I believe this was an intentional distraction to take our eyes off the ball of a healthcare package bogged down in Congress, evidently immovable.  Or maybe, more importantly, the task of achieving reform is beyond the capacity of the Democratic Congressional leadership.  Has Obama gone to war with the lawmakers he has, rather then the lawmakers he wishes he had?  There is going to be a reckoning over the recess.  Time will tell.  IMHO, if they get this figured out during the recess, they should return and slam a program through Congress on Day 1, showing that they are capable of making a plan and carrying it out. 

Some might say that this strategy lacks the GOP input.  No, we have their input.  They have stated overtly they are not going to participate.  They will bring nothing to the development of this reform.  They want it to fail.  How much more clarity is required for the Demcorats to understand and accept this unconscionable decision, to ignore their duties as lawmakers?  Why ARE the Democrats still talking to them?  This is fantastic!  Then the Democrats get to do it right!  They can craft a program that is not burdened with corporate considerations at the expense of an effective delivery of healthcare.  They will not be saying, "What part of this program will direct funds to private interests?"  Or, "Why are we using all the money for the people and none for the investor class?"  Instead, they will be asking, "Is this the best way to provide healthcare services to the American people?"  If the Democrats create and implement a world class healthcare delivery system, they will get ALL the credit.  WHY is this not the opportunity they wanted all along?!?!?

Obama knows this.  It's not some hidden dynamic. It's right out in the open.  So how does he avoid ending his press conference without people saying, "The Democrats are not getting it done.  The Democrats are allowing a minority party, thoroughly renounced at the last election, to hamstring them.  They're not the right people to get the job done."  How does he avoid that?  He says something "stupid". BRILLIANT!!   

    

 

This abuse we face every time any idiot gets on TV who has no business in the national spotlight?  We can stop it.  We change the channel and we tell our friends and family to do likewise.  Every MSM network has the same goal, to make money.  Take away their money and they will change their behavior.  So, when Liz Cheney gets on TV, change the channel.  It seems nearly unanimous.  We all appear to agree she is not qualified to have a voice in any of the matters she addresses, so it is up to us to change the channel.  And it is up to us to encourage others to do the same. 

Higher Premiums?  Less Treatment?  Those are pretty much the two options.  What happens as this healthcare reform debate continues to struggle past the deadline Obama has set for the bill?  Hard to know, but it happens at over $1,000,000 dollars per day by most accounts.  The health insurance industry is commonly believed to be spending as much as that to fight city hall.  It seems that this is the kind of money it takes if you wish to win, or maybe how much the industry is willing to pay to win.  Are there any more questions as to what the goals of the health insurance industry are?  Why were there EVER any questions related to what the health insurance industry wants?

It's really very simple, MONEY!!!.  There will be millions spent on advertising too, before all this is said and done, but it will be done because the Democrats have something to prove and they are the majority.  Could this be Obama's Waterloo?  More importantly, will it be the Waterloo of the Democratic Party?  It's going to be something!!!  It is highly unlikely that there will be no reform.  So now it is just a matter of whether it is "change we can believe in".

Somethings do not change.  Businesses are created to make money and the insurance industry makes some serious cash.  Without going into any detail, just think about these 1,000,000 dollar days.  When greed sets in, these frightened and desperate profiteers tend to lose their minds.  So, at a rate of $1,000,000 dollars a day, these industry leaders are fighting an inevitability.  There will be reform.  But one has to wonder where they had all this cash laying around, too, and how come when you want to see the doctor they act like you are asking for a Ferarri?

The whole thing is to cover their fraud, however.  The fraud that they are in the business of providing healthcare.  Not so.  They are in the business of making money and they will spend $1,000,000 per day to prevent the unfortunate happening of having to spend money on actual healthcare.  It's a very slippery slope they are on right now, and it leads to less care and higher premiums.  Of course, there are several ways to express this, but essentially, those are the two choices they will have to make in order to recoup the costs of these incredible lobbying and PR efforts to prevent, God forbid {blesses himself}, having to pay for anyone's healthcre.

Let's just take a quick look at what they might have provided to a policy holder today, instead of paying that $1,000,000.  Let's just look at one example, something we probably have all experienced hitting either close to home, or among friends, or a friend of a friend.  I'm talking about uterine cancer. I met a girl, 23 years old  while volunteering.  She shared with me that her 41 year old mother was dying.  Six months earlier, because she was feeling tired and run down, the mother decided she would get a check up.  Long story short, two weeks after I spoke to this young girl, her mother passed away, leaving the girl, her father and her 14 year-old brother devastated. 

If this mother, who died far too early, barely middle age, had been prescribed Gardasil, she might be alive today.   

Gardasil (Merck & Co.), also known as Gardisil or Silgard,[1] is a vaccine against certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV).

Gardasil is designed to prevent infection with HPV types 16, 18, 6, and 11. HPV types 16 and 18 currently cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases,[2][3] and also cause some vulvar, vaginal,[4] penile and anal cancers.[5] HPV types 6 and 11 cause about 90% of genital warts cases.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections cause nearly all cases of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the fifth leading cause of death from cancer in women world-wide,[6] and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the majority of developing countries.

Now for some quick math, you know, basic accounting.  I'm not very good with numbers and this is all soooooo complicated.  The vaccine costs around $360.  So If the health insurance industry takes that $1,000,000 dollars being spent today to prevent healthcare and actually provides that service instead of fighting city hall, there would be approximately 2,777 women receiving this vaccine today.  If the health insurers took the next 5 weeks off, that would get around 100,000 women vaccinated against a disease that is too often fatal.  I often wonder, how did her treatment costs stack up against getting that vaccine?  But I've done too much math already.  My head hurts.  Besides, it's too late for her and her family anyway.

This is where it gets ugly, as if that were not ugly enough.  It would seem the smart people, perhaps the smartest people in the room, would realize, "Hey! You know what?  We're going to lose this one and it's going to cost us millions!  Let's figure out how to make this work fast!  What were we thinking wasting all this money to fight a losing battle.  We should have negotiated and been done with this months ago!  It's not like we did not see this coming when Obama was elected and the Democrats obtained a serious majority in both houses of Congress!"  But it seems our best and our brightest are really quite stupid and selected for their greed and not their wisdom.  Should the health insurance lay down their sword today it still has to pay for all the previous days fighting against providing healthcare, and how will they do that?  Higher premiums?  Less treatment?  You tell me.

 

JUST KIDDING!!!. 

 

Will Princeton respond to the insult he leveled against their summa cum laude program? 

Will the military speak out against the insult to the contributions Black soldiers made in World War II? 

Seriously, what are the chances any of those response would happen?  I'm just saying.

LisB had a great rant yesterday here:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/lisb/2009/07/on-ceosjust-seems-to-me.php?ref=reccafe

As if so often the case in this cauldron of thought, something bubbled up with me and I felt a rant rise to the surface.  I've been here before, talking about Rush Limbaugh, but perhaps working through it again I can refine it.  With so many visitors to TPM, perhaps some new ears can hear it and we can diminish this dark power and the power of the rest of the ragemakers from the screamoshpere.

We should stop yelling at the CEOs, first.  It does no good.  They have no stake in improving the lot of anyone else but themselves.  Our pleas will fall on deaf ears.  Nothing wil change this.  Like the parasites they are, they will bring the death of the host and move to another host.  They can always cash in their dollars for Euro, or Yen, or Rupies, or Rubels.  They understand  money is not their wealth.  Money is just a way to keep score.  Some country will remain where they can survive.  That we should be seeking help from these self-absorbed CEOs is absurd, in and of itself.  We need to help ourselves and to help each other.  So why don't we do this?!?  The Rage-makers!

Ever since men began fighting each other in clans and tribes, the strategy for success has always been the same, divide and conquer.  We are a conquered people.  Our emotions have killed us.  Our emotions are being played like a fiddle in a Texas band. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9oqWZ38eBA

With the recent demise of Walter Cronkite, one has to wonder, "What would Walter do?"  We have turned the news into infotainment, following whatever distraction has the most visual interest or sexual titilation, you know, something emotionally charged.

What were Walter's thoughts regarding Rush Limbaugh, and what would he say about Jeff Beck, or Michael Savage, or Bill O'Reilly if he still had an anchor chair.  An anchor chair? Anchors are those extremely heavy, nearly immovable weights that dig into the sea bottom and keep a ship from drifting far from shore and keep that ship away from the storm.  Do we have any of those today?  Is there any anchor on the news that takes their responsibility to anchor the USS America to the bottom and keep us safe in the storm?

What we have are pyromaniacs, gawking at flames, mesmerized as they burn this or that.  That's just the newspeople!  Our commentators are arsonists, looking for any bright coals which they fan up to a flame after which they pour gas over the top and then run to the woodshed to get some fuel and see if they can generate a bon fire.  They will not be happy until the ship has burned everything above the waterline.

In the grand scheme of things, this is class warfare.   The leaders of the noise machines are not of the Middle Class any longer, even though they may once have been.  However, they speak the language of the middle class and they craft words and ideas to appear to make sense.  But what they are really doing is severing the bond that ties us together, dividing us.    They are no longer us, the working class.  They look like us, and sound like us on TV, but they are Uppity Class, each and every one of them.

We must work together to get anything because, as has been proven time and again, the Uppitiest Class, of which the commentators are now a part, will take it all, and they will leave the wreckage behind them as they walk away without a second look.  Yes, you meek may have the Earth.  "Excuse me, could I have some Rupies for these dollars?  Oh, make that half Rupies, half Yen.  Rubels?  Yes, certainly, I'll take some of those too.  Ha! Ha! Ha!  The exchange rate is horrific!  My $500 million has become $150 million.  How will I live on that? Ha! Ha! Ha!"

We are all so caught up in pyrotechniques.  The Uppitiest know this.  They're human!  They like to too!   Let's just take a look at Iraq.  How did it begin?  Shock and Awe!  Did you see that?!?  Wasn't was incredible?!?  Hundreds of missiles rained down on Bagdad and we had cameras everywhere to bring you the show.  We were HOOKED!!!  Show it again!  Show it again!  And the TVs did, again and again.  It was 9/11, all over again but payback time!  We were ecstatic.  Never mind that we were a thousand miles away from the people who actually planned 9/11.   What would Walter have said about that?  What news would have led his evening broadcast as voices rose to question the relationship of Iraq to 9/11?  Might we have benefitted from a real news anchor?

It's hard not to be fearful.  It seems we are being tossed around far from shelter now.  The wind is screaming through the rigging and the waves are crashing with an avalanche of water over the rails, causing the entire ship to shudder.  It is amazing that half of us are running around screaming about who brought us here, while the other half are praying, and those men and women in the belly of the ship are desperately trying to start the engines so we can get the ship back to the shore and drop anchor.  Who will be our Walter now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYoh_sV35eA

These are serious times and we need a real, honest debate about how we can get this ship to shore.  We need the engineers, not the crew or the deck hands or someone with no real knowledge of these things, to start talking about what methods will really work to get the engine to turn over and run again, and we need a Captain to restore order.  Those crew members running around screaming about whose fault it was that we are here getting our asses kicked so thoroughly in this tempestuous sea, need to be confined to quarters.  We have no time for their hysterical outbursts, not even if it's an hour in the evening.  It's too much.

What would Walter do?  I would think he would very plainly and clearly describe how these rage-makers from the scream machine were profiting from pulling on the emotional strings of people who need to stop and really think.  This is no time for the twisted fun and games the rage makers employ to keep people glued to their radios and TVs.  It's time to get to work, to pull together, to pull for all of us, no exceptions.  We need to be one, we working lower and middle class.

Even if we get the engine running, our anchor remains over the side floating on the end of a very long, heavy cable attached to an even heavier chain.  WE NEED TO PULL TOGETHER!!!  Because we are not going to be able to run our engines, burning our precious fuel, day and night to stay in that cove assumng we get there.  We will need our anchor to dig into the bottom and keep us grounded, out of the storm and the deep water where the waves can capsize a vessel who has lost all power.  We, the crew, have to get that anchor on deck first before we can again let it go in hope that it finds good bottom to dig into and hold the boat.

Maybe then we can release those hysterical, crying, screaming, shocking commentators from their quarters and get them into a life raft and send them to shore.  They have nothing useful to provide.  Space is limited.  Unless things serve a useful purpose on a boat, they should never leave the dock.  We should reevaluate our crew as well.  Who helped in the storm and who kept order when everywhere there was chaos?  Who stayed at their post and did their duty, and who went to their cabins to indulge in pleasure when there was a crisis on deck?  They can be put to shore ... also.

This is our mess.  We the people, who have always done the heavy lifting need to PULL TOGETHER, all of us, to have any chance of saving the vessel.  We cannot rely on Walter.  HIs time has passed.  But we should resurrect his spirit and PULL TOGETHER to bring up the anchor.  Because, long before we get to shore, Walter had his own journey to take in a craft of his own making.  Where is Walter now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYoh_sV35eA

Thank you Sir.  You may not have shown us where to go, but you showed us how to get there, stay calm and PULL TOGETHER!!!.