Counting their chickens a little too soon.

One of my guilty pleasures  in life is EPL soccer. I spend too much time on Sunday mornings watching the match of the day from across the pond.

Anyway, I was just watching the Manchester City Middlesbrough match, and right before halftime Middlesbrough scored to take a one to nothing lead. They celebrated, to be sure, but they knew there was a half to go, so they couldn't rest on their laurels. Invariably, the better side ended up scoring to equalize things, and the match ended in a 2-2 draw.

Which brings me to my post.  Today I watched Donald trump and his band of merry -winngut- men declare victory because the house narrowly passed a bill to replace the ACA. Trump was chirping on the White House lawn about what a victory he had won, and he gloated, once again, that he is the president.

You read that right. There was a Rose Garden ceremony for a bill that passed only one chamber.  But that is so trump. Spiking the ball before he gets in the end zone.

The bill still has to pass the senate, and chances are zero to nothing that it will pass in its present form, if it passes at all. To stay with my soccer analogy, Mr. Orange Hair and his gang are celebrating as if they won the match and it's only halftime. They still have an entire half to go.

These clowns were so desperate for a political win that they rushed through the bill without some of their members reading it, and before it was scored and analyzed by the CBO.

But let's see where this goes from here, and what will happen to some of these GOP politricksters in swing districts when it's time to send them back to Washington.

If you listen to trump and his friends tell it, premiums will go down, coverage will go up, and all will be hunky dory in trumpland. We. Will. See.

"Appearing on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer Thursday, Congressman Chris Collins (R-NY) conceded that he hadn’t even examined the document.

“I will fully admit, Wolf, I did not,” Collins said, saying that he relied on his staff to read the bill and brief him.

Collins was not alone. In the very next segment, Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) likewise said that he was briefed by his staff.

 

Blitzer was taken aback by this. He pressed Collins on whether he had a responsibility to actually read the legislation which stands to impact so many.

“This legislation affects a fifth of the U.S. economy and millions and millions of Americans,” Blitzer said. “Don’t you think it was important to actually sit down and read — read the language of this bill?”'

“You know, I have to rely on my staff,” Collins said. “And I can probably tell you that I read every word, and I wouldn’t be telling you the truth, nor would any other member. We rely on our staff, and we rely on our committees, and I’m comfortable that I understand this bill in its entirety, Wolf, without poring through every word.”'

   

Down goes trumpcare!

  "If you want to be ignored, speak the truth. If you want to be heard, speak bullshit and people will take notes. "

 

That quote above is from my friend, Danny Alvarez, who made a good run to become Philadelphia's District Attorney but lost to a more popular democrat. Philadelphia is regretting that now, because the man who beat him, Seth Williams, was recently charged with various crimes by Uncle Sam, and might be facing some serious jail time. But I digress.

 

I was thinking about that quote as I watched trumpcare flame out today. I must admit that I even drank the trump bullshit Kool-Aid. I really thought that Mr. Art of the deal would get it done. But alas, he was just blowing smoke like he always does. 

 

There has not been a whole lot of "winning" for trump these days. All those promises on the campaign trail are not panning out. There is no wall, no Muslim ban, and certainly no Obamacare repeal and replace. Now, in typical trump fashion, he is backing away and blaming others for his failures. His concession speech today was pathetic, and it made him come off as weak and delusional.

 

 He kept saying that the vote was close when they missed the mark by fifteen votes;  he  kept saying that Obamacare will implode and go away when there is no sign of that happening, and he whined that Obamacare would not go away in just 64 days, but he boasted on the campaign trial that he would do away with it immediately.   

 

And even with all of that, Paul Ryan was taking notes,

 

 "We came really close today but we came up short. ... This is a disappointing day for us." He said the president has "really been fantastic."

 

"Fantastic"?

 

Well trump can take solace in one thing: He clearly has a lot of bullshit left to give.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still stocking the swamp.

When president-elect trump said that he was "draining the swamp" in Washington, he forgot to mention that he was going to restock it with more swamp creatures. I mean seriously, it's almost as if he has been living on another planet for the past few years.  Did he not hear about Bridgegate?

"President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Bill Stepien — Chris Christie’s former campaign manager whom the New Jersey governor axed after becoming mired in the — as his White House political director, his transition team said Wednesday.

Stepien, who ran both of Christie’s gubernatorial campaigns and who the oversized guv fired after his name came up in emails related to the scandal over the George Washington Bridge lane closures, had been working with the Trump transition team in recent months and had previously worked on the presidential bids of George W. Bush and John McCain.

While Stepien’s hire had been expected, it was nevertheless ironic, considering Christie — who had supported Trump quickly after he abandoned his own bid and who became a prominent surrogate for the mogul — will be awarded with no title or responsibilities in the incoming administration." [Source]

Hey, he is male and he is white; that should be good enough for Herr trump.

In other news, republicans are gearing up to repeal the ACA, also known as Obamacare. I suspect that they will try to come up with something similar, but with a different name. Their "smart" supporters will be cool with that as long as it doesn't have Obama's name on it.

They better be careful, though, there are a lot of Americans who are pretty cool with the ACA. They keep saying things like "repeal and replace", but they haven't come up with a proposed replacement in eight years.

Pence was in Washington today rallying the troops, but so far we have heard nothing that remotely sounds like a plan coming from the republicans that is better than what we currently have. They will son learn that just being against something isn't enough, you have to give us an alternative, and one that actually works.

What the republicans are floating out there does not work in terms of guaranteeing health coverage for everyone,  and it will be expensive to boot. According to CNN Money, repealing Obamacare will cost us $350 billion dollars.

Unfortunately for republicans, it seems the slogan that Chuck Schumer came up with for them ["Make America Sick Again"] might be all too accurate. 

*Pic from vanityfair.com

American theocracy, and turning death into good politics.

Man these Supremes are getting scarier every day. I know that this latest 5-4 ruling upholding prayer at a government meeting is limited, but my goodness, have these people ever heard of the Establishment Clause?


In order to justify this clear violation of the Constitution, the justices relied on something called the "history of legislative prayers". They said that the town of Greece, New York can open their meetings with prayers as long as they don't "coerce" others to do the same, and as long as they don't "advance" a particular religion. Yeah, good luck with that.


"When the citizens of this country approach their government, they do so only as Americans, not as members of one faith or another," Kagan said. "And that means that even in a partly legislative body, they should not confront government-sponsored worship that divides them along religious lines."


Folks, this is why it is important to vote. Presidents select the Justices who sit on the Supreme Court. Right now the Supremes could use a makeover.


Moving on.


Another day another republican using a slave or Nazi reference to refer to a government program.


This gem comes from a GOP state senator from the great state of Tennessee.


"Democrats bragging about the number of mandatory sign ups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the number of manditory [sic] sign ups for “train rides” for Jews in the 40s." [Source]


Huh?


So signing up to get health care is like going off to get gassed in an oven.


Lord have mercy these people are nuts!


Finally, the GOP's politicizing the deaths of Americans in Libya continues.


They have now convened a select committee to look into the B word. Trey Gowdy will lead this particular political charade and side show. I guess it is better to have him than the car thief. He is a former death row prosecutor, I hope, for his sake, this will not lead to his own political execution.   


Still, I have to give it to Mr. Tan Man; this is good politics. Anything to energize the base. But he has to be careful. The base was already energized, and the republicans were already going to win big this coming mid-term. So why risk it by overplaying your hand and turning normal Americans against your cause?


"Americans learned this week that the Obama administration is so intent on obstructing the truth about Benghazi that it is even willing to defy subpoenas issued by the standing committees of the people's House," Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "These revelations compel the House to take every possible action to ensure the American people have the truth about the terrorist attack on our consulate that killed four of our countrymen."


"Obstructing the truth"? I think this investigation already gave us the truth.
But hey, never let a few dead bodies go to waste.


"For Boehner, a select committee raises the profile of one of the Republicans' main points of attack against Obama ahead of November's elections, which could swing the Senate to GOP control. Benghazi is a rallying cry for the conservative GOP base and will be critical for fundraising and getting voters to the polls in typically low-turnout midterm contests."


Just be careful what you wish for.


Pic from Specific-Gravity.BlogSpot.com

A very smart kid, and smart adults getting health coverage.

I will start this post by giving a big shout out to a very talented and hard working young man named Kwasi Enin.


This young man did such a good job of applying himself and putting in work, that he was accepted to all eight Ivy League schools that he sent applications to.


"In the next month, Kwasi Enin must make a tough decision: Which of the eight Ivy League universities should he attend this fall?


A first-generation American from Shirley, N.Y., the 17-year-old violist and aspiring physician applied to all eight, from Brown to Yale.


The responses began rolling in over the past few months, and by late last week when he opened an e-mail from Harvard, he found he'd been accepted to every one. School district officials provided scanned copies of acceptance letters from all eight on Monday. Yale confirmed that it was holding a spot for Enin.


The feat is extremely rare, say college counselors — few students even apply to all eight, because each seeks different qualities in their freshman class. Almost none are invited to attend them all. The Ivy League colleges are among the nation's most elite." [Source]


The young man's parents must be proud. Although I suspect that they are not surprised. I am pretty sure that this is the kind of outcome that they expected when they were training their son to value education and to put in the hard work needed to get it.


Yesterday was the deadline to sign up for Obamacare, and from the looks of things the goal of seven million people signing up has been met.
(That sound you hear is the head of various wingnuts exploding. The poor folks over at GOP News can't even keep their graphics straight. )

I am not a huge fan, because I would have preferred a single- payer system and not this watered down product that we have now. But still, it's better than what we had before. And while right wing republicans are screaming for us to repeal it, they still have no alternative.


Unfortunately for them, though, the numbers are changing. And, as was predicted, the more accustomed people get to having Obamacare around, the more satisfied they will be. All the anecdotal horror stories about how bad Obamacare was have changed to stories about how great it is, and how it has actually been saving lives. Poor Ted Cruz found out about this new reality the hard way.


In some red states the uninsured rate has been cut by 40%. They still hate the HNIC, but they might want to thank him for being able to enjoy their lives on earth just a little longer.


Enjoy your victory lap O, and get ready for phase two of the republican resistance. Those Koch boyz don't like to see their money going to waste.

















  















   

What is the alternative?

“First of all, there is nothing for free. You're going to pay for it, and we're paying for it through higher premiums,” Paul said. “We're also going to find out in January that more people will lose their insurance under Obamacare, I think, than will actually gain it. The Republican plan is freedom of choice -- more choices, not less. ‘Obamacare’ narrows your choices.  We're for competition. We're for selling insurance across state lines. And above all, we’re for driving premiums down.” [Source]

That is Rand Paul explaining the republican's alternative to the Affordable Care Act. (Obamacare)

It is very vague, and a little sketchy in the details, so let me check with Google  for a republican plan that is the alternative to the Affordable Care Act......

Nope, nothing. Although I did find something from 1993 which is very similar to Obamacare.

Those republicans were so full of ideas back then.

"An individual mandate;

Creation of purchasing pools;

Standardized benefits;

Vouchers for the poor to buy insurance;

A ban on denying coverage based on a pre-existing condition"

Wow! This seems so much like the one we have now. But I bet there was no cry of Socialism and wealth redistribution back then. I guess it all just depends on the messenger.

Anyway, if there is a current  republican alternative to Obamacare and  someone reading this can give it to me in more detail; I would certainly appreciate you explaining it to me.

Thank you.

"Oh Field, that's a trick question and you know it. To be a replacement for Obamacare the other plan has to do the same thing it does in pretty much the same way."

OK, so maybe republicans have a different philosophy on health care and how it should be delivered. I would like to hear that as well.

People often accuse me of being close-minded --hey my Birds won today and I am in a good mood-- so tonight I am making an effort to open up.

Pic from Freedomworks.org

Shooting at LAX, and a GOP expert tells us about Obamacare.

It was bound to happen, someone finally decided to take out someone from one of the most unpopular symbols of the "evil government." They have been vilified over and over again by the conservative media and made out to be everything from pedophiles to goons.

Today, some kid from South Jersey decided to act on his anger towards the TSA by going all Dylan Klebold at the Los Angeles International Airport. (LAX)

I have never understood the anger towards the ordinary folks who work at the TSA and who are just following orders and doing their jobs. I hate having to go through airport security as much as the next guy, but I understand why it has to be done. You can't just jump on a plane like you do a train or a Greyhound bus in 2013.

So anyway, we are learning more and more about the alleged shooter today, and it appears that he is just an American who had issues with his government.

"Police in Los Angeles went to Ciancia's apartment for a well-being check. However, that contact was made after the shooting had already happened.
Neighbors were stunned that the news hit so close to home.

"It's tragic, who would ever think this would happen to a very quiet neighborhood. A very rural community such as Pennsville," said Gary Hankins, neighbor.

"I am completely shocked. I would never think of anyone out here doing anything like that," said Jennifer Pagan, neighbor."

Don't be shocked. People in "rural" communities watch fox, too.

Finally, as the GOP continues to trot out their medical experts such as Suzanne Somers to tell us about the evils of Obamacare, we are learning more and more that the road to Obamacare's destruction might be littered with lies.

Thankfully, there are a few real journalists left in America.

"We are being majorly trolled by the media.

The President is not impressed, we are not impressed, and Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times is also not impressed with the media’s ObamaCare reporting.

 He called out the media for running Deborah Cavallaro’s well televised rage (for example, CNBC during a segment titled, “Ordinary people talk huge price hikes” ) at Obama over her wild misunderstandings regarding ObamaCare.

It turns out that she never even tried to go to the website to sign up or get information.

Hiltzik took a look at the facts and concluded, “If her insurance brokers told her what she says they did, they failed her. And the reporters who interviewed her without getting all the facts produced inexcusably shoddy work — from Maria Bartiromo on down. They not only did her a disservice, but failed the rest of us too.”

Cavallaro claimed there is nothing affordable about the Affordable Care Act, and Hiltzik determines “at her current income, the act is vastly more affordable to her than what she’s paying now.” She is eligible for $200 a month in subsidies this year.

Hiltzik writes, “The bottom line is that Cavallaro’s assertion that “there’s nothing affordable about the Affordable Care Act,” as she put it Tuesday on NBC Channel 4, is the product of her own misunderstandings, abetted by a passel of uninformed and incurious news reporters.” [Source]

Mr. Hiltzik, you deserve another Pulitzer.





 

Who will swerve first?

I love the scenes in action movies when cars go hurtling towards each other from opposite directions and none of the drivers seem like they are going to back down. Of course at the last minute someone always decides that it's better to live than to die in a fiery ball of smashed metal, and then they swerve their vehicle out of the way to avoid sure death.

So this is where we are in America. In one car we have tea party right wing extremists, and in the other car we have the President of these divided states. Both are determined to keep driving, and they are boldly telling anyone who will listen that they are not turning their car off the road. Bring on the fiery crash.

Laughably, to the right wingnuts, this fight is akin to the civil rights struggle back in the day. (Yeah, I know. I am still laughing at that one.) To republicans, this Affordable Care Act is like Bull Conner's dogs and Jim Crow. The thing is, though, ninety percent of them have never read the act and don't really understand it. When you live in an age of sound bites and 24 hour cable news echo chambers, your thirst for real knowledge tends to become limited. (We see you Ted Cruz. Just telling a shameless lie on the Senate floor is not a good look.) Of course, most of us know that their unwillingness to accept what has already become the law of the land is motivated by something else.

In the other car is President Obama. He has vowed that he will not back down, because, to him, nothing in his signature piece of legislation known as Obamacare is negotiable. Right wingnuts believe that he will, because they see the polls and his latest foreign policy blunders and think that they are looking at a wounded president who is ready for the taking. This is how it works in Washington. Forget the fact that our government is on the verge of a shut down and that bad things will happen. (Soldiers not getting paid come to mind.) As long as they cripple the Kenyan Socialist and his presidency nothing else matters.

"At least 43 conservatives want the GOP leadership to go for broke, asserting that Obama has been damaged by stumbles over Syria and by several delays in implementing the Affordable Care Act.

The GOP’s internal battle pits lawmakers who want the party to take a calculated risk against leaders who fear it would be a big losing bet.
Democrats say there is no chance that they or the president will agree to hollow-out their signature domestic achievement.

The White House did not comment for this story, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last week said the Senate would reject any attempt to defund the law.

Still, the GOP’s roll-the-dice faction is undaunted.
“I think the president’s too weak to shut the government down … I think we will win,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) said.

“Syria has hurt him significantly … it is a factor in the CR going forward, it is a factor in the debt ceiling,” Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said.

Conservatives cite recent polling to buttress their case. Following Obama’s aborted attempt to get congressional backing for an attack on Syria, Fox News found public disapproval of Obama’s job performance at an all-time high of 54 percent and his approval rating at 40 percent, equal to his all-time low." [Source]

Easy there wingnuts, remember what happened the last time you watched those FOX News polls? (Mitt by a landslide).

Anyway, I hope that Obama holds on to the wheel. It's time he grew a pair. He has been playing nice to his political enemies too long. The ACA didn't go far enough, but it's a start. The fact that elected officials would try to overturn what has already been declared law in this country is frightening. Could a revolution where citizens take up arms be far behind? The Koch Brothers might be funding their own army somewhere in North Dakota as I write this.

The cars are getting closer. Mr. President, you better not turn that wheel. In fact, you might want to press harder on the accelerator.

*Pic with this post from pensitorereview.com
 

The last zealot standing.

Is Ted Cruz still talking?

Ted is probably in the middle of his filibuster as he tries to slow down efforts to prevent a government shutdown. In case you didn't notice Ted really hates Obamacare, and he believes that this little stunt will somehow prevent it from becoming the law of the land on October 1, 2013. It won't.

Of course most sane people believe that Ted is nuts, and that he is the worst thing to come out of Canada since their version of American football. But Ted will not be deterred, he, along with his many supporters, believe that Ted is one of the last true conservatives in Washington. That he is a real man of the people. Of course the joke is on them. Ted is far from a man of the people.

Still, I have to give it to Ted; he will raise a lot of money and expand an already large mailing list. I can see those dollar signs floating around in his head now.

But this is all bad news for the GOP. Because as much as I rip the party of Lincoln, I believe that there are still a lot of sensible people under their tent.

Dorothy Rabinowitz who writes for that extreme left wing paper, The Wall Street Journal, had some interesting things to say, and it pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject. 

“Whether the government shuts down or not, we will live..” . “But what needed to be met – what needed to be joined was the battle between the sane elements of the Republican Party and the massive range of extremist, deranged believers – false leaders – who have just taken over.”

......“conservative cable TV” elevated conservative legislators to positions of undue influence within the GOP.

'Do you really want to smear the tea party with such a broad brush?” Kissel asked.'

“Yes,” Rabinowitz interjected. “All we know is that there is an effort – and a very successful one – to say, ‘This is what the American people want. We know that. We’re the tea party. We speak for them.’ Really? How do you know that? Did you ever speak to the American people what they thought of the tea party? No.”

She added that the conservative base of the party derives their power from “threatening” legislators who diverge from their brand of “zealotry.”

Kissel challenged Rabinowitz on her assertion that the tea party is composed entirely of unhinged representatives noting that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) counts himself a member of the tea party ascendency.

“And where is he?” Rabinowitz asked. “He just isn’t insane enough.”

She called the idea that the government should be shut down a “maniacal effort” and noted that the good intentions that the tea party set out with has been “permanently” erased by its extremist members in government. " [Source]

I think Ted is still talking. Something about Nazis, the moon, and the Soviet Union.




    

"American Intellectuals"

I was going to write something about the politics of the Supreme Court decision on Thursday, but, quite frankly, I am sick of politics in this country and all the players who are involved with it.

Most of us who know how America really works, and how the political parties function, understand that it doesn't matter who is in the White House or who controls the halls of congress. We know that real power in America comes from lobbyist and the people who can afford to pay them. Politicians who go to Washington need money to get elected and John Q. Public cannot afford to write a big enough check.

The sad truth of the matter is that most of our fellow citizens are extremely naive and are not in the least intellectually curious.  As a result, what we get are dimwitted sound bite politicians who are elected every year by dim witted intellectually lazy citizens. (The republican Governor of Louisiana says that he will ignore a federal law and not implement Obamacare in his state.)

Just think, playmates are now getting "Genius visas" to come to our country. Nothing against playmates, I am sure that some of them are really smart people, but think about that for a minute.

The right keeps screaming that if Obama wins November it will be the end of the world as we all know it. But with all due respect to Sarah Palin, Rush Limpboy and the FOX NEWS crowd, nothing will change. America will pretty much be the same sound bite celebrity driven place with a few wealthy people controlling our lives, and the rest of us wishing that we were them.

The beautiful thing about this American experiment is that every one of those folks in the 99% believes that with just a little hard work they too will be in that 1% some day. And they believe that only if certain people are in power will they have a chance of getting there. "Mitt Romney has a better chance of making me rich because he is rich." 

Finally, I know I said I wouldn't write about it, but I can't resist one aspect of this Obamacare decision by the supremes: the reaction of [right] wingnuts to the ruling. (Did you see representative Jean Schmidt's orgasmic reaction to the wrong news about Obamacare?)  

"On his radio show Thursday, conservative talk radio firebrand Michael Savage wondered whether Roberts’ epilepsy medication affected the chief justice’s cognition. “I’m going to tell you something that you’re not going to hear anywhere else, that you must pay attention to,” Savage said. “It’s well known that Roberts, unfortunately for him, has suffered from epileptic seizures. Therefore he has been on medication. Therefore neurologists will tell you that medication used for seizure disorders, such as epilepsy, can introduce mental slowing, forgetfulness and other cognitive problems. And if you look at Roberts’ writings you can see the cognitive dissociation in what he is saying,”
In a closed door meeting with House Republicans, Rep. Mike Pence likened the health care ruling to Sept. 11, Politico reported

Geraldo Rivera didn’t criticize Roberts as much as call him a mad genius. On Fox and Friends Friday morning, Geraldo said: “(Roberts) has gifted President Obama a poison pill. Republicans now can remember, unless something is done, that the Bush tax cuts also lapse at the end of the year. So here you have the largest tax increase and the increase coming from the expiration of the Bush tax cuts - he taxed us, he said he wouldn’t tax us, he taxed us. I think the Obama presidency hangs by a thread right now.”

Saying the Supreme Court decision “destroys Bush’s legacy,” dimmed conservative star Glenn Beck put his rhetoric where his online store is. He is selling screen-printed Roberts “coward” t-shirts for $30 a pop." [Source]

What's amazing is that our republic has managed to survive this long.








     





          

Keeping immigrants out of America and killing Americans in Arizona. Republicans are on a roll.

Boy those wingnuts in Washington are off to a really great start.

"House GOP leaders are scrambling to remedy the rocky start to the opening of the 112th Congress by approving a measure Friday to invalidate votes taken by two Republican lawmakers who weren't properly sworn in.

As The Ticket reported Thursday, the leaders were stunned discover that two representatives — veteran Texas Rep. Pete Sessions and freshman Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick — weren't on the House floor Wednesday during the official swearing-in. Instead, they were in the Capitol Visitors Center at a party marking Fitzpatrick's first day in Congress. At one point, the lawmakers looked up and noticed on TV that the oath was being administered to their colleagues." [Source]

First order of business; pass a bill to repeal "Obamacare". It has no shot of passing, but hey, you know, anything for the "tea party" folks.

Meanwhile, here in Pistolvania, republi-clowns are taking steps to keep those immigrants from getting out of control.

"Hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are crossing U.S. borders to give birth and exploit their child as an 'anchor baby'.." [Source]

You tell em, Daryl. And, while we are at it, why don't just we revoke the citizenship of all those Negroes who live in Detroit? I mean, since we are just kind of toying around with the 14th Amendment, why don't we just go for it?

And finally, the republi-clown governor is killing people in Arizona.

"Two people have already died in Arizona and another 96 are waiting for a life-saving transplant they may no longer be able to afford after the state slashed money reserved for the procedures.

One lawmaker said Arizona is now home to "death panels." And those whose names were on the list, those who will surely die without a transplant, found themselves in a state of disbelief.
"It's a shock to me," said Randall Shepherd, who thought he would receive Medicaid funding for the heart transplant he needs.

"There's a bit of a personal loss and the realization that this could be me in time if something's not changed here," Shepherd said, referring to the two who have died. "Until I get a new heart, my life is in a holding pattern."

Shepherd, like many others outraged by the state decision to slash $1.2 million from the state's Medicaid funding, said he believes the cuts could have come from elsewhere. Nonetheless, he said he understands the reasoning behind the decision.

"It's obvious. If the state's broke, it is broke," he said. "I can kick and scream all I want, and if there's no money for a transplant, it is just not going to happen.

"I really feel bad for the governor, for the legislators, those who had to make this decision," he said. "I certainly wouldn't want to be in their shoes and making the call that results in somebody else living or dying."

Arizona's Senate Minority Leader-elect David Schapira, a Democrat from Tempe, said he will seek emergency restoration of Medicaid coverage for certain kinds of transplants.

"I would like to alert people in the rest of the country that we have death panels right here in Arizona, and those who cut this funding and refuse to restore it are the death panels," Schapira said.

He was referring to Gov. Jan Brewer and her fellow Republicans who now hold a two-thirds majority in both legislative chambers. Schapira called Brewer "a one-person death panel." [Source]

Maybe Sarah was right, but she had the wrong person all along. Jan Brewer, how do you sleep at night? That was a rhetorical question. I know you sleep quite well. You are, after all, a wingnut.

That's the way to give that Obamacare supporter your finger.

Hey do fries go with that finger? See wingnuts, this is what you get when you try to give his O ness your finger, you lose it. Yep seems that these health care debates are getting rather heated. Those damn Obamaholics are finally coming out to stand by their man. What were you wingnuts thinking? Did you really think that you were the only ones who were going to come out swinging...or should I say biting at these debates? There is passion on both sides.

But it's nice to see that you wingnuts are fighting back . -There is nothing like a vibrant political debate- I bet poor Luis Perrero didn't know what hit him.

"I'm amazed at the way this has become such a politicized issue,'' Perrero said as he sat on the ground holding his jaw. ``It shows that people who are against the public option will resort to anything -- including battery on a senior citizen -- to prevent healthcare reform.''

Oh come on Luis; man up. You took one for the home team. I know you are 65 but we need every able bodied man and woman out there fighting these wingnuts.

Still, in spite of Luis doing like Sony Liston, this round goes to the Obamacare folks.

"The Obamacare supporter, who was on the side of the street with other supporters, came across the street toward the anti-Obamacare crowd and singled out an elderly man and proceeded to “get in his face” about his views. The Obamacare supporter then pulled the old man out into the street, unprovoked I might add, and then bit the old guys finger off while the old guy was just trying to get away. The old man then shuffled off toward a hospital.
I then went out into the street and found the old man’s finger. We called 911 and the dispatcher gave them the location to the nearest hospital which she said would be their best bet for finding the man. They rushed over and were able to find the old man and provide him with his finger. I went back to the scene to wait for police and gave the police the entire account and they tried to find the attacker amongst the Obamacare supports, but he had fled by then." [From Beetle Blogger]

Boy wingnuts really are dumb. If someone went Mike Tyson on my finger I guarantee you that I wouldn't be "shuffling" to the hospital. Nope, I would be doing my best Usain Bolt imitation. And here is the irony: seems the old wingnut is covered by Medicare. So, in essence, the very kind of program that he is protesting against is what paid for his medical treatment in the first place. But don't worry for the old guy. All is well that ends well, because it seems that they were able to find his finger. I sure hope they can reattach it for him. He is going to need that finger to give the Socialist president in the beige house a proper salute.