Also, House Democrats reached agreement Wednesday on key elements of a health care bill that would vastly alter America’s medical landscape, requiring virtually universal sign-ups and establishing a new government-run insurance option for millions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi planned a formal announcement Thursday morning in front of the Capitol. Lawmakers said the legislation could be up for a vote on the House floor next week, according to the Associated Press.
In general people experience their present naively, as it were, without being able to form an estimate of its contents; they have first to put themselves at a distance from it – the present, that is to say, must have become the past – before it can yield points of vantage from which to judge the future.
-Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion
Editor’s Note: I could say more, but this speaks for itself…
“I don’t want to live in a nation where I am in a hospital getting a treatment for $25,000 and a person just a few floors away is being denied the same treatment, because they have no money. What kind of civilization is that? What kind of moral order is that?”
-Bill Moyers, Real Time with Bill Maher
See parts two and three after the jump, plus the full text and more…
Sarah Palin declared her independence from the people of Alaska by quitting her job as governor on our nation’s birthday, the Fourth of July. She claimed to answer a “higher calling” to conservative activism in the private sector so she could fight for “truth and justice” for the American people.
Of course her higher calling has nothing to do with book deals, speaking tours or Fox News talk shows that will make her an instant millionaire and cement her place in history as the first major female voice of the Republican Party.
No, she’s doing it all for us.
Meanwhile, GOP stalwarts wish that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford would answer a higher calling and resign following his bizarre South America love fest with his Argentine “soul mate.” Although his wife and sons have moved out and state residents from both political parties call for his removal, Sanford pledges to stay in office by comparing himself to the biblical King David who also cheated with another man’s wife.
Conservatives have mastered the art of using God and religion to get or keep what they want.
But little piety is now on display in town hall meetings nationwide as hordes of angry screamers shout down questions or debate on health care reform. These are the white, middle class self professed Christians and culture warriors who stoke rage and hysteria to prevent universal health care. It shows a raw ugliness in a struggle between the haves and the have nots. Those with health care want no change that may provide the same care for others.
More than 40 million people, 15 percent of our population, have no access to health care and skyrocketing costs are eroding our economy and driving millions of jobs overseas. For the past 50 years, Americans have griped, whined, complained and worried over health care costs and availability. Now, we have a president who wants to confront the problem and he’s vilified by the GOP.
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
