ChaoticFat

Health Care Reform | Law of the Land

The Rethuglicants can SUCK IT!

More than a year’s worth of intense political haggling, legislative maneuvering and emotional debate reached its stirring conclusion Tuesday morning as President Barack Obama officially signed health care reform legislation into law.

Speaking in the East Room of the White House, with roughly 200 lawmakers seated before him as well as Vicky Kennedy, the widow of the late Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), the president called the moment a “new season in America.”

“Today, after almost a century of trying, today, after over a year of debate, today, after all the votes have been tallied, health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America. In a few moments when I sign this bill, all of the overheated rhetoric of reform will finally confront the reality of reform.”

“We are not a nation that scales back its aspirations,” Obama said. “We don’t fall prey to fear. We are not a nation that does what’s easy. That is not who we are, that’s not how we got here. We are a nation that faces its challenges and accepts its responsibilities.”

via The Huffington Post

As always, be well

CF

David Frum and I Actually Agree on Something

Conservative baller David Frum is one of the few conservative republicans making any sense today. Here’s what he had to say.

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders are on TV and radio, and they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination. When Rush Limbaugh said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for Sleepnumber beds.

So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.

As always, be well

CF

The President Accepts Nobel Prize

I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize — men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women, and all Americans, want to build — a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents. And I know that throughout history, the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes. And that is why I will accept this award as a call to action — a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century.

This is why I have great admiration for my President.

As always, be well
CF

Obama is the worst President ever…

…and he just won the Nobel Peace Prize. The GOP is about to shit a million bricks over this.

This video conveys my sentiments almost exactly.

As always, be well

CF

Fake Rage, The GOP and Americans who are falling for the Hype

Below is the speech the president gave yesterday to the children of America before they return to school. What was all the hoopla about? It wasn’t about anything, it was a bunch of FAKE RAGE. All of you people who are climbing on the FAKE RAGE bandwagon, don’t be surprised when the GOP doesn’t need you anymore and they throw you under the wagon. Believe me, it’s coming; one of you is going to do something dumber than hell and the GOP will act like they don’t know you.

Stop letting some corporate slog decide your fate; don’t be a dumb ass all your life.

As always, be well
CF

Homebuyer Credit Makes August Hot For Home Sales

Everybody wants to say that nothing that Obama did to stimulate the economy is working; but the pundits and economists are wrong and here is one example why:

Homebuyer Credit Makes August Hot For Home Sales

by Marilyn Geewax

August 9, 2009

Spring is usually the peak season for home buying. But this year is different.

Real estate agents say that when Congress decided in February to create an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers — and set a Nov. 30 deadline — it turned August into the new real-estate rush hour. Because a sales contract can take months to complete, buyers are turning out in droves this month to ensure they make the deadline.

“It’s having a big impact,” said Iverson Moore, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors.

The trade group is collecting data to measure just how big the impact is.

“We are hearing … that a large share of first-time buyers are being motivated by the tax credit,” Moore said.

To qualify, buyers must be purchasing a principle residence for the first time or at least for the first time after at least three years of renting. To keep the focus on first-time buyers, Congress set an income limit for the full credit. For a single person, it’s $75,000 and for married couples, it’s double that.

Read the rest of the story here.

As always, be well
CF

Is Obama Punking Us?

Unfortunately, sometimes if feels that way. The honeymoon is over and now we need you to do the damn thing. I have the patients of Job, but please don’t punk out on healthcare. Below is part of a great article from our friend Frank Rich of the NY Times.

Here are two not very daring predictions: Obama will get some kind of health care reform done come fall. His poll numbers will not crater any time soon.

Yet there is real reason for longer-term worry in the form of a persistent, anecdotal drift toward disillusionment among some of the president’s supporters. And not merely those on the left. This concern was perhaps best articulated by an Obama voter, a real estate agent in Virginia, featured on the front page of The Washington Post last week. “Nothing’s changed for the common guy,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been punked.” She cited in particular the billions of dollars in bailouts given to banks that still “act like they’re broke.”

Read the entire article here.

As always, be well

CF

Obama: The Urdu Poetry Man

Our President is so frigg’in awesome; he reads Pakistani Urdu poetry. How many of you have even heard of Urdu poetry and if it wasn’t for him, you probably never would have?

This is why it is so important to expose your kids to cultures other than your own. We can be so myopic here in the United States; it’s really unfortunate for our children and their perspective on a global scale. It is also unfortunate that America is practically the only country that produces children that speak only one language.

If you want to make high-brow small talk at one of President Barack Obama’s cocktail parties, don’t bother brushing up your Shakespeare. Try reading Urdu poetry.

As POLITICO’s Ben Smith points out in his blog, Obama showed off his intellectual flair by evoking a standard of Pakistani culture in a recent interview with Dawn, a popular English-language newspaper in Pakistan.

I would love to visit. As you know, I had Pakistani roommates in college who were very close friends of mine. I went to visit them when I was still in college; was in Karachi and went to Hyderabad. Their mothers taught me to cook,’ said Mr Obama.

‘What can you cook?’

‘Oh, keema … daal … You name it, I can cook it. And so I have a great affinity for Pakistani culture and the great Urdu poets.’

You read Urdu poetry?’

‘Absolutely. So my hope is that I’m going to have an opportunity at some point to visit Pakistan,’ said Mr Obama.”

It may sound somewhat esoteric, but this ancient form of mystical and oft-times philosophical love poetry has been popular in Pakistan and parts of India for centuries. And there are a few things to know before you try to impress the poetry-lover-in-chief.

One of the most popular poets was Mirza Ghalib, whose work dates from the mid-19th century. The still-popular art form usually features the story of a lover scorned by his beloved. And there is almost never a happy ending. “Often the beloved is often a total witch,” says Gwen Kirk, a University of Texas master’s candidate in the subject of Urdu poetry. “She breaks the lover’s heart all the time; she neglects him. It’s all about the process of trying to get closer to the beloved, and it’s got a lot of Sufi and mystical elements as well.”

The ghazal is the most common form of Urdu poetry, and, like sonnets, it follows strict rules of form: four to 12 couplets with a meter and rhyme scheme. But the similarities end there. Couplets in an Urdu poem can sometimes be completely unrelated to each other, each delving into themes that range from unrequited love to the meaning of life.

Fear not if your Urdu — one of two official languages in Pakistan — is a little rusty. Obama likely reads one of the many translated compilations of the texts, according to Kirk. Or if he is a truly savvy Urdu poetry enthusiast, he may choose to listen to the poems recited or sung, as it is commonly performed in the region.

Obama’s admission that he shares an affinity with the “great Urdu poets” may get him further in the region than most think. The language and poetry are commonly associated with Pakistan’s and India’s Muslim population, according to Kirk, and it remains intensely popular in the region — poetry recitals sometimes attract gatherings of thousands of people.

“It does show a willingness to understand that part of the world,” says Kirk.

And in general, it gives Obama further credibility as a supporter of the arts. Not only is he one of three American presidents to have poetry read at their Inaugurations, but he reads the stuff, too!

As always, be well
CF

“The Only Ones” and The Obamas

More Members of the Dumbass Brigade

Below is a basic definition of The Only Ones:

The Only Ones—black professional and social elites who travel in worlds where they’re often the only black person in the room. The Only Ones typically break into fields or companies that admit few blacks, move into neighborhoods where few blacks live, and send their kids to mostly white schools. They are not running from their own—they’re chasing after the best they can get. They aren’t assimilationist; they’re ascensionist.

Summering on Martha’s Vineyard…were the elite meet

Many blacks from Oak Bluffs are elated that the Only One–in–Chief may be joining them. “People are going to lose their minds!” Tonya Lewis Lee says. At the same time, there’s also a bit of wariness among the wealthiest ones, an uncertainty whether Obama will affirm them. “Obama is more a man of the people,” says a Vineyarder who’s part of black high society. “He doesn’t seem to identify with affluent black people. His wife definitely doesn’t; she is basically a ghetto girl. That’s what she says—I’m just being sociological. She grew up in the same place Jennifer Hudson did. She hasn’t reached out to the social community of Washington, and people are waiting to see what they’ll do about that.”

Being the FIRST FAMILY OF THE UNITED STATES isn’t ELITE enough for snobby assed Upper Middle Class Black Folks. They are beside themselves because the Obamas aren’t kissing their asses to be apart of their inner circle in Washington and beyond.  WTF are these people thinking; they should be falling all over themselves trying to get into Obama’s circle. HE IS THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD ASSHOLES. Why should the First Lady of the United States be expected to chase after the wife of some Doctor, Lawyer, or Indian chief on Martha’s Vineyard for an invitation to a party or lunch or anything for that matter.

On November 8, 2008, THE OBAMAS BECOME “THE ELITE.” So my brothers and sisters (who seem to think those of us who are less fortunate want them to apologize for being successful…NOT) take the stick out of your ass and give the Obamas the same respect you would give any of the other 43 presidents who have served this country.

You dumbasses should be chasing Desiree Rogers the Whitehouse social secretary to get your name on their list and you should be sending gift baskets and toys and anything else you can think of (you’re smart asses, be creative) begging to have Sasha and Malia participate in Jack & Jill of America and your other elitist organizations; instead you feel the Obamas should come to you…it’s not enough to have degrees from Harvard and Princeton or to be the President of the United States, you still are expected to kiss someone’s ass in this country to fit in with your own kind. How sad…that’s snobbery to the ninth degree.

As always, be well

CF

Legislative Aid says, “Oops, I Sent It To The WRONG LIST”

The Dumbass Brigade strikes again. Sherri Goforth a legislative aid for Senator Diane Black (R-Gallatin) says that she sent this racist piece of crap to the wrong people.  She really meant to send it to her bigoted friends and she’s sorry to have made such a stupid mistake.  Woohoo Go Nashville!!

Are these people serious.

Most people wonder why black folks can come off angry sometimes, well it’s because of shit like this that has been happening in the dark for so long. Now these racists are so bold or are too dumb to understand technology that they are doing it in the light of day for everyone to see. I guess in a way this is a good thing because now we are not the only ones who know this all too familiar racism.

Sen Diane Black’s R-Gallatin legislative aid circulates racist email « Nashville Is Talking.

As always, be well

CF