Bad Deeds for 8-31-2009

The Republican Death Machine – Sen. Charles Grassley rammed the GOP’s most astonishing pro-death policy through the Senate in 2001. The estate-tax revision he championed reduces the estate tax to zero next year. But it includes an expiration clause at year’s end, when the tax will jump back up to its previous level of 55 percent. Grassley’s exploding offer has an entirely foreseen consequence: It’s going to encourage those whose parents and grandparents are worth anything more than a million bucks to get them dead by midnight on Dec. 31, 2010.

Chuck Grassley Fundraises Against Health-Care Reform – Sen. Charles Grassley is responsible for developing a workable compromise on health-care reform. But as this fundraising letter (pdf) shows, Grassley is running against health-care reform back in Iowa. Here’s how the missive begins:

I had to rush you this Air-Gram today to set the record straight on my firm and unwavering opposition to government-run health care. And ask your immediate support in helping me defeat “Obama-care.”

Nice bi-partisanship there, Chuck.

Texas Republican Pete Olson’s Health Care Propaganda Fail – Texas Republican Pete Olson probably figured he could get away with using a young child as a propaganda tool at a recent town hall meeting — but he was in for a big surprise.

Republican Congressman Olson (R-TX) tells the townhall about a mother who was turned away by the free market doctors for her unborn child’s heart defect. She was denied by the free market doctors but persisted and was able to find a specialized doctor and got a very delicate operation and a heart transplant 17 days after he was born. Olson then claims that the public option would have denied him the needed health care and he would have died! After being challenged he abruptly ended the discussion. Watch as he is challenged, and clueless as to what to say.

As Olson spews out his talking points, people in the crowd repeatedly point out to him that it wasn’t the government who turned this poor child away, it was the insurance companies. Olson was absolutely gobsmacked when people started calling him out on his obvious gaffe as he stood there looking like a deer caught in the headlights. It’s so encouraging to see some town hall video from health care reform supporters giving these GOP shills a taste of their own medicine!

Conservative Commentator Says Katrina cleansed New Orleans. It Just Washed Out a Lot of Debris, Including Human Debris – Yesterday, hate-radio talk show host Neal Boortz mocked President Obama’s pledge to rebuild New Orleans, calling the victims of Hurricane Katrina human trash. Boortz, who regularly mocks Latinos, women and the poor — even calling Rep. Cynthia McKinney a “ghetto slut” — made an expansive case that the combined natural and human disaster of Hurricane Katrina actually helped the city of New Orleans on his June 24, 2009 radio show. Although Katrina’s devastation cost this nation $80 billion, killed thousands, and displaced a million people, Boortz believes “Katrina cleansed New Orleans“:

“Katrina cleansed New Orleans. It just washed out a lot of debris, including human debris.”

Boortz has also called the overwhelmingly black and poor victims of the Katrina disaster in New Orleans “human parasites” and “deadbeats,” even suggesting that a victim of Hurricane Katrina consider prostitution instead of “sucking off taxpayers.”

Boortz is nationally syndicated from Atlanta’s WSB, part of the Cox Enterprises empire, whose billionaire heiress Anne Cox Chambers is the richest person in Georgia and a million-dollar tax evader.
Compassionate conservatives, indeed! And by the way, no health care for you!

More on the I Hate Obama Sermon – I reported on this last week, but there’s more detail. The guy who carried an AR-15 rifle to President Obama’s event attended this church sermon the day before. Here are some excerpts:

Here is my sermon, why I hate Barack Obama. That’s my sermon tonight, because Barack Obama is coming to town tomorrow morning.

And I’m going to tell you something. I hate Barack Obama. You say, well, you just mean you don’t like what he stands for. No, I hate the person. Oh, you mean you just don’t like his policies. No, I hate him.

What goes around comes around. You love violence. You hate that which is right. You love to harm others. You love to hurt or kill the unborn or the innocent or the righteous. He is saying, God is going to bring that upon your own head, because whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Now, turn back to Psalm 58 and let me ask you this question. Why should Barack Obama melt like a snail? Why should Barack Obama die like the untimely birth of a woman? Why should his children be fatherless and his wife a widow, as we read in this passage?

What does this pastor “soweth”? He talks against hate while spewing hate? A defining characteristic of right-wing authoritarians is lack of self awareness.

Billionaires for Wealthcare Say, “If God Loved the Poor People, He Wouldn’t Let Them Get Sick.” – Carrying signs with irreverent messages praising the status quo of the American healthcare system, a farcical anti-healthcare reform group, Billionaires for Wealthcare, paraded outside a Democratic town hall meeting in Spring Valley, California Sunday.

Dressed in business suits and cocktail dresses, and occasionally sporting champagne, the motley crew of “billionaires” cheered on anti-healthcare protesters. They carried signs with messages including:

· “If God loved the poor people, he wouldn’t let them get sick.”
· “Survival of the RICHEST!” “IT’S A CLASS WAR AND WE’RE WINNING”
· “Keep WEALTHCARE alive / NO on HealthCare reform.”
· “Healthcare rationing, that’s our job!”
· “We love BlueDogs. A solid investment in healthcare profiteering.”

In a YouTube video the group posted, one top-hatted “billionaire” is quoted as endorsing the privatization of other public services, as well. “Along with privatized police, [we should have a] privatized fire department,” the gentleman quips. “I mean, because if my cat’s stuck in a tree, I don’t want the fire department taking ten extra minutes because of a silly fire going on somewhere else in my neighborhood. Because if I have the money, I get the first priority.”

Regards,

Jim