When the present health care battle comes to its untimely conclusion this week in Congress the ongoing tug-of-war between angry right wing Republicans and disheartened left wing Democrats will not only go on unabated – whichever way the vote goes -- but threatens a political tsunami that could spell disaster for President Barack Obama throughout his term of office.
If the vote goes President Obama’s way Democrats across the nation will celebrate a hard-fought victory while Republican outrage will insure the most acrimonious congressional campaign in many decades throughout this summer and fall. Should congress fail to approve the health care plan, jubilant Republicans will declare Obama a failed president and redouble their efforts to prevent him and the majority Democrats from achieving any success on any of their proposals.
Wise Republicans understand, however, that health care reform has already failed. True reform, which would create a universal single-payer health care system that covers everyone in America, has been unceremoniously defeated. The so-called public option also has gone by the boards.
Whichever way the vote goes, insurance companies and health care corporations are the big winners. The capitalist system prevails. Private insurers not only maintain their monopoly over healthcare but get a bigger piece of the pie – some 30,000,000 new customers with little or no requirements to keep premiums at reasonable rates. Millions of additional taxpayer and premium dollars will go to private corporations – or should I say “persons” considering the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision (Aren’t “persons” supposed to have a “birth certificate?”)
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat with strong health care credentials, and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader have vigorously criticized the health care bill, but the Ohio congressman has nevertheless announced he will vote for the bill although it’s not the bill he wanted. Nader remains adamantly opposed to it. A vote is expected on the bill on Sunday.
President Obama points out that the bill includes a provision that would ban insurers from denying coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions. It also would prevent insurers from denying coverage or impose limits on care when a person becomes ill. It would require free preventive care and allow children to remain on their parents’ health plan until the age of 26. “The insurance industry would run amok" if the vote fails, Obama said.
So would the Republican opposition to the president and his efforts to bring back American jobs and reinvigorate the economy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------John McCain and George W. Bush.
Contrary to what you hear the talking heads say on television, the legacy of George W. Bush will not be tied to the fate of the beleaguered country of Iraq or to the democratization of the Middle East.
Former President Bush illegally, and unnecessarily, invaded the sovereign country of Iraq in what he referred to as a “War on Terror.” Sadly, his actions were endorsed both by his Administration and Republicans in Congress as well as by many Americans who believed he had the national security of the country at heart. Disappointingly, Democrats in Congress voted for the war resolution, generally relying on the expression in that resolution that there would be diplomatic efforts by the President. President Bush chose to ignore the request of the weapons inspectors who found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
Even if Iraq were to become a model of democracy (a desirable but unlikely outcome), an objective observer of history would have to endorse the illegal invasion and occupation of a foreign country in order to assign credit to President Bush.
Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, image above left, defeated Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona by a decisive margin. It was a clear repudiation of the failed Bush Administration.
Obama, the 44th president of the United States, received 66,882,239 votes (53 percent of the popular vote) and 365 electoral votes to McCain’s 58,343,671 votes (46 percent of the popular vote) and 173 electoral votes. That’s an 8,538,559 majority of popular votes for Obama. The new President’s overwhelming victory also significantly increased Democratic majorities in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.
President Obama inherits an economy in chaos on the heels of collapses in the real estate and mortgage markets, the banking meltdown and the stock market dive that combined to put the government into record deficits, business in a tailspin and consumers losing their homes and their savings. President Bush’s policies of deregulating business and industry, his efforts to privatize Social Security and virtually every industry, the uncontrolled spending and anti-labor attitude, not to mention a belligerent, aggressive stance in international relations had more than a little to do with the financial problems in the United States and the world today.
In the 110th Congress, the Senate was composed of 49 Democrats and 49 Republicans with two independents, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, both of whom caucused with the Democrats. In the new, 111th Congress, there are 57 Democrats with the same two independents caucusing with the Democrats and 41 Republicans.
The Democratic count includes Al Franken whose tentative victory in Minnesota is being challenged by Norm Coleman. In the 110th Congress, the House of Representatives was composed of 233 Democrats and 202 Republicans. In the 111th Congress, the new House will have 257 Democrats to 178 Republicans, a pickup of 34 seats for the Democrats. The statements of President Bush speak for themselves.
If you were on the planet over the past eight years you are familiar with them. There are many of them, including many funny, foot-in-mouth quotes, but here’s just four that show the general flavor of his thinking:
*"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
*“Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
*“I'm the commander — see, I don't need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president.”
*“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
It would take volumes to hash over the most grievous faults of President Bush, so I’m offering here only the alleged high crimes and misdemeanors detailed by Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich in the articles of impeachment filed with Congress on June 9, 2008.
On June 9, 2008 U.S. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio put forward 35 articles of impeachment in a resolution against President George W. Bush detailing charges of high crimes and misdemeanors. The House buried the action by voting, 251-166, to send the articles to the House Judiciary Committee. Kucinich previously had introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney that suffered the same fate.
Rep. Kucinich’s resolution of impeachment gives a comprehensive list of the allegations against President Bush. Here is an index of the articles of impeachment:
Article I Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.
Article II Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.
Article III Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.
Article IV Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.
Article V Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.
Article VI Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes 114.
Article VII Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.
Article VIII Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.
Article IX Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor
Article X Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes
Article XI Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq
Article XII Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation's Natural Resources
Article XIIII Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries
Article XIV Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency
Article XV Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq
Article XVI Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors
Article XVII Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives
Article XVIII Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy
Article XIX Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to "Black Sites" Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture
Article XX Imprisoning Children
Article XXI Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government
Article XXII Creating Secret Laws
Article XXIII Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act
Article XXIV Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment
Article XXV Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens
Article XXVI Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements
Article XXVII Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply
Article XXVIII Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice
Article XXIX Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Article XXX Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare
Article XXXI Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency
Article XXXII Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change
Article XXXIII Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.
Article XXXIV Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001.
Article XXXV Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders.
Here is the link that is the source of this outline. It provides a more detailed and comprehensive index of the charges: http://chun.afterdowningstreet.org/amomentoftruth.pdf
Here are some Barack Obama quotes from brainyquote.com: * “Americans... still believe in an America where anything's possible - they just don't think their leaders do.”
* “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
* “I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.”
* “I don't take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House.”
* “I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.”
* “I think when you spread the wealth around it's good for everybody.”
* “If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.”
* “It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.”
* “Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism have reduced the pace of military transformation and have revealed our lack of preparation for defensive and stability operations. This Administration has overextended our military.”
* “The Bush Administration's failure to be consistently involved in helping Israel achieve peace with the Palestinians has been both wrong for our friendship with Israel, as well as badly damaging to our standing in the Arab world.”
* “There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”
Can President Obama bring peace, security and the good old American dream back to America?
ans and disheartened left wing Democrats will not only go on unabated – whichever way the vote goes -- but threatens a political tsunami that could spell disaster for President Barack Obama throughout his term of office.
ans and disheartened left wing Democrats will not only go on unabated – whichever way the vote goes -- but threatens a political tsunami that could spell disaster for President Barack Obama throughout his term of office.
vote goes President Obama’s way Democrats across the nation will celebrate a hard-fought victory while Republican outrage will insure the most acrimonious congressional campaign in many decades throughout this summer and fall. Should congress fail to approve the health care plan, jubilant Republicans will declare Obama a failed president and redouble their efforts to prevent him and the majority Democrats from achieving any success on any of their proposals.
vote goes President Obama’s way Democrats across the nation will celebrate a hard-fought victory while Republican outrage will insure the most acrimonious congressional campaign in many decades throughout this summer and fall. Should congress fail to approve the health care plan, jubilant Republicans will declare Obama a failed president and redouble their efforts to prevent him and the majority Democrats from achieving any success on any of their proposals.
