Ebert's - "I'm safe on board. Pull up the life rope"

Thanks to the wonderful Chicagoan Driftglass, I came across this column by Roger Ebert.

Wow. Simply wow.

Now, how come we cannot have the discussion about health care reform in focus on the basic, moral soundness of caring for all? I suppose its because if that discussion were to break out into the mainstream, many, many citizens would discover the ugly truth about politics in our age. That is, the ultra-small, ultra-wealthy elites have long used and continue to use the "rubes" in ways that pit them against each other and their own interests.

More interesting, why is the Administration not using the basic, compelling moral argument to defend progress in national health care?????

His column is so full of straight up good plain talk that I can hardly believe it was published at all, let alone in a major city daily. For example:

Federal Death panels would decide who lives or dies. This, very frankly, is a lie. The nearest thing we have to a death panel in the United States is an insurance company claims adjuster. Some readers wrote that they or their loved ones were denied tests or treatment by their insurance companies, especially in the case of "pre-existing conditions." One, who had a brain tumor, says he was denied coverage of the treatment by an adjuster, as if he'd known about the tumor at the time he took out his policy some time earlier. Think about this. Unless we die violently or in an accident, we all die of a pre-existing condition. The condition is called "life."

and

A nation is a mutual undertaking. In a democracy, we set out together to do what we believe is good for the commonwealth. That means voluntarily subjecting ourselves to the rule of law, taxation, military service, the guaranteeing of rights to minorities, and so on. That is a cheap price to pay....Yes, even the senior citizen at that Arizona town hall meeting who screamed at his congressman: "Keep the government's hands off my Medicare!" He didn't know Medicare is a federal program, and he didn't want to know.

Ebert really says it best:

I believe universal health care is, quite simply, right.

And that, quite simply, is where this serving patriot stands.

Just in case we need a reminder

It's hard to believe we are still exactly where we were a couple of weeks ago.

I guess I should not be surprised that the opposition to helping fellow American workers continues to emanate from the vindictive, spiteful, loser frothing of neo-confederate senators from the South. It's to be expected". Over at the Hullabaloo, Digby and DDay both describe better than I can the insanity and ridiculousness. What's more disappointing to me is the apparent spinelessness of the Democratic Party leadership in this sordid affair.

Suffice it to say, its well past time for the UAW to spend some of its money to help its members partake in direct, in-person workers action against Shelby, Sessions, McConnell and Corker and hound these hounds until they cry UNCLE.

Barring that, when the bottom does fall out of the rest of the economy as flagship U.S. manufacturing interests go into default (and the billions, perhaps trillions, of credit default swaps that start trading hands as a result), I advocate tossing these four pogues from the People's lifeboat first. Of course, hoisting these fellas on the stabby ends of very, very sharp sticks would work just as well.

Oh, and when that next hurricane comes crashing through Alabama, FYYFFs!

When John Stewart Speaks...

... Congress should listen.

Of late, very few issues have infuriated me more than the ongoing "bail-outs" of various segments of the U.S. economy by our government.

Don't get me wrong, I am not some sort of "free-market" disciple or one who holds crazy beliefs on the Randian variety that the role of government in the economy is no role at all. That's just crazy talk!

Government must play a role in our economy. Critical elements of that role are protecting geographic area of economic activity (also known as national security), developing the "commons" where no single company dares to tread for fear of losing money (also known as infrastructure like roads, bridges, etc.) and supporting the citizens so they can participate and benefit (and sometimes be protected from) all that economic activity going on (this is promoting the general welfare).

To do all these things, government has to be funded (why we pay taxes), organized (this is where our Constitution comes in) and led (preferably in a manner agreeable to the majority of citizens as well as cognizant and protective of the minority who oppose the governments activities).

For the last several decades, however, these basic principles were corrupted, discarded, and simply not taught to younger generations. How else to explain the insanity observed when the citizens’ representatives deliver TRILLIONS of current and future tax revenue to the hands of financial swindlers while ignoring even the most basic duties of government?

Now that the financial ponzi scheme that was masquerading as the U.S. economy is imploding, the rush to the lifeboats by the well heeled has been unseemly and downright breathtaking. An objective observer may conclude that it is nothing short than outright theft by the moneyed interests from the last of the workers who actually create tangible, valuable products (and not simply leveraged paper transactions). So breathtaking in fact that when those who manufacture products, now crushed by the financial implosion, seek some assistance from the government that serves them as well, they’re told to forget it, their products suck anyways, they should throw themselves on the mercy of bankruptcy, or simply, we don't care about you. Our Congress and inept Administration today doesn’t care about you and is happy to throw you to the wolves.

Well, unless and until we figure it out that the United States actually has to once again make things of value, our economy is going to suffer and the number of citizens harmed by it will swell.

All of this is a long and rambling way to say you have to watch what America’s best “newscaster” and “pundit” had to say to Congress earlier this week.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Autoerotic Explanation

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Let me repeat: “Wall Street lost $7 trillion without selling anything -- at least when Detroit loses money, we get cars.”

Thank you John.

We're All In this Together??

The most excellent Driftglass thoroughly deconstructs Andy Sullivan's latest lament that we're all in it together.

It really is too bad so many of our fellow citizens (those "masters of the universe"), who have made so much from the rest of us ("rubes"), feel that we ALL should pay for the wages of their sin and excess. It is this very lack of responsibility among our so-called elites that has led our Republic to the economic brink. It is this continuing lack of shame, guilt, fair-play and justice that allows these elites to demand that the rest of us descend deep into the bowels of their Titanic to bail them out and prolong their happy existance in the first-class lounge. Sadly, the ad-driven and marketed illusion (constantly reinforced by our horribly compromised mainstream media) that by trusting these people we will "ALL BE RICH!!" continues to send all to many of our friends, neighbors and relatives down into the bilges to drown first in the losing battle to keep the ship afloat.

Somehow, unlike the Billy Joel's soldier brothers, our nation's elites simply do not think we'll all go down together. They have their lifeboats and wealth to carry them to the next Promised Land while nearly everyone else is still bailing water. Well, you can put me down for drifty's proposed solution - pike poles for The Street. And, if we can't have the pike poles, then let's have a radical adjustment of tax rates for those much more fortunate citizens just might do.

Too bad a more progressive tax policy - one that requires those who have made (and make) the most from our government - will probably not happen.

Maybe then the pike poles will get broken out.

• d r i f t g l a s s: Two Blind Men. One Elephant.

"All their troubles proceed from us."

Over at the Hullabaloo, Digby absolutely nails one out of the park with her analysis on our new rump party - the GOP.

Watching some of the most tawdry and infuriating Republican Senators knife their fellow citizens over the so-called bailout of the automakers (once again spinmeisters, please use the phrase Auto Industry RESCUE, eh?) has just about put me over the edge. Jerks like Jeff (I can outdrawl any of y'all) Sessions and Mitch (I can't believe I won) McConnell whine and complain becasue they are asked to save American jobs. Funny, I didn't hear of their principled stand against auto companies when they fell all over themselves to squeeze their own citizens into giving HUGE taxbreaks and subsidies to relocate foreign automakers into thier own states. Given that states like Alabama have long lived off the proceeds of federal taxes paid by workers from Michigan, Ohio and Illinois, the venality and hypocrisy of these pearl-clutching hissy fit mongers is pretty much beyond the pale.

In a sinking economy, the failure to save jobs - any jobs - is exceptionally stupid, nay criminally negligent. Economists and industry analysts are already warning that failure among the Big Three will cost HUNDREDS of BILLIONS in economic losses, revenue shortages and costs - seems like a LOAN of some TENS of BILLIONS is more than a good deal in this situation.

And please don't cry "moral hazard" now. Congress and the Bush Administration crossed that threshold months ago when they started subsidizing banks, insurance companies, mortgage brokers (and most importantly, their extraordinarily well paid corporate leaders). Just like these titans of our unraveling economy, the Big Three are simply "too big to fail." Indeed, several HUNDRED BILLION dollars already flowed to major banks with the caveat that they should get the "credit markets working again;" yet, consumers can't get loans to buy cars and (obviously) the Big Three cannot get them either!

But the part of this entire sad, sad episode that torques me off the most has to be the shameless displays of know nothingism and aggreivement from the Rump GOP. As Digby notes, its a stench that can not be salved since "All their troubles proceed from [the rest of] us." That "us" being the rest of our progressive, fair-minded, patriotic and good natured nation. As Digby notes:

It means they are not a majority, which is the good. But it also means that it is far more conservative and consumed with a sense of its own victimization at the hands of the rest of the country. That makes them dangerous, even in their relative weakness... Losing the last of their moderating regional and ideological ballast leaves them with nothing but a 250 year old chip on their shoulders and they have quite a vivid history of acting in very destructive ways toward the nation as a whole.

Well, maybe it is time to knock that chip off some shoulders. One can only hope. But, given the spinelessness of so many of our Democratic leaders lately, its a slim hope at best.


(PS - to understand what MUST happen to auto industry leaderhsip, if the Feds get to call any "Rescue"-related shots that is, check out Driftglass' solution. Come to think of it, Drifty's idea of a "bigger axe" would work pretty well for the "federally rescued" financial industry and in Congress too!)