Vets Need Health Care Reform, Christian Twitter, Fox and Blackwater, Steele vs Sarah and Rush, more Abortion and Health Care, and Take Action on Joe

Quick Hits for November 13, 2009

* Republicans have long told us how valuable our veterans are, and as we passed Veterans' Day, it is important to ponder how we take care of our vets. We have already heard of the problems with hospitals under the Bush Administration, but a new study indicates that 1.5 million veterans don't have health insurance, and 2,200 veterans die every single year due to a lack of health insurance. Don't our veterans deserve better? We know that you are 40% more likely to die if you are uninsured than if you are insured. Don't our vets deserve better?

* As Christian Conservatives have long since played the victim in their story, they portray themselves as the oppressed, the chosen ones to be persecuted, and thus, the heroes in their own Biblical narrative. They have isolated themselves with their own Christian Wiki, and started work on their Conservative Bible Project to create a Bible that "liberals" cannot share, and they have introduced their own Twitter called ChristianChirp. While they call themselves the oppressed victims, they have created the isolation for themselves, which continues to leave them out of touch with the rest of reality.

* Fox Entertainment continues to focus on ACORN and its problems with prostitution, but ironically, it has ignored Blackwater Security and its bribe scandal of Iraqi officials. Fox continues to show its partisan strips, to no one's surprise. Do conservatives even try to deny Fox's bias anymore or do they just shout at the top of their lungs that everyone else is out to get them?

* GOP Chairman Michael Steele says Rush and Sarah's opinions don't really matter much in an interview. I wonder how long it will take him to start sucking up to Rush yet again in his back and forth trying to deny Rush's influence, while trying to keep Rush supporting him to keep his job. There is no denying their influence in GOP politics and it is wishful thinking on Steele's part to assume their opinions don't matter, because they do to many conservatives, probably more than Steele's. Maybe he would be better off to coordinate them to be on the same page, but from the outside looking in, it is fun to watch the kids fight.

* I have really been thinking more and more about the anti-abortion amendment in relation to health care. This article in the Christian Science Monitor put recent events into context a little in terms of its history, and why it is so important for women not to have the amendment.

I have to say that any part of the amendment that limits normal medical insurance options in a public option such as birth control or pelvic exams or coverage of care for STDs is absurd and must be taken out of the bill. Those exams are far more vital to women's health than some guy's viagra prescription (covered in the bill) is to his health. It is obscene to support giving a man viagra but not covering a woman's birth control pills.

However, if the bill does not limit abortions but simply does not pay for them within the public option, then there should be no problem with it. Many insurance comnpany policies do not pay for abortions but rather they are often done at clinics that support the procedures. However, should it actually try to limit abortions, it should not be put in the bill because of the Supreme Court challenges that could kick out the entire bill.

It is one thing to limit a woman's right to choose about abortion, that would be both wrong and unconstitutional; but it is quite another to have the federal government pay for it. Just because there is a Second Amendment does not mean the government should buy people's guns either. The right to choose should not be infringed upon, but that doesn't mean it should be fully funded either.

Take Action:
* Joe Must Go. It says it all. Joe talks like a Republican, except at election time. Joe votes like a Republican. It is time for the Senate to treat Joe like a Republican.





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