Kelly in Kansas

So I haven’t been prolific lately, blogwise.  Not because I don’t have thoughts or fodder, but because lately the entire blogosphere has been ramped up to 11, and most likely I wouldn’t be able to get my volume up enough to be heard.

Oh, wait, there’s one way:  RACISM!!!!ELEVEN!!!

There, that should do it.

Seriously.  This is just ridiculous.  For those of you following along at home, perhaps you’ve noticed the inevitable devolving argument that is fast becoming the predominant narrative:  if you oppose a policy, any policy, from the current administration, you’re obviously an ignorant racist.  Insert bizarre sexual slur here to make your point.

Or, if you aren’t racist, you’re ignorant and SKEERID OF CHANGE!

Insert concern trolling about our “increasingly uncivil discourse” and “ungovernable America” here.

Sigh.  There is a third option, you know, but it doesn’t generate breathless media headlines about how the skinheads are coming for us and how a bunch of middle-aged middle-class protesters standing around the desert are obviously a proto-Kristallnacht writ large for 2010.

. . .


Here’s the thing – it is possible to believe that health care should be reformed, and yet oppose the bill that just passed without being a terrified racist.  It is possible to do this because as a person who lives in the real world you may be a bit skeptical over claims that a bill which increases an entitlement by billions will somehow reduce a deficit, and you’re wondering where, exactly, this money is going to come from seeing as how we’re kind of BROKE and things are just a wee bit unsettled right now, economy-wise.

You may also be skeptical over the whole “We’ll pay for it by taxing people who aren’t YOU, no really, we promise,” line of speaking, partly because the promises kept track record from this administration isn’t all that great, and partly because hearing that makes you hearken back to another president saying, “Read my lips – no new taxes,” and you remember just how well THAT went.

You may also oppose the bill because you’re a bit put off by the manner in which it was written and passed, and you may, in the aftermath of the entire stupid process, feel that the factions in our “ruling class” are so caught up in putting a “W” on the scoreboard that they’ll pass a resolution requiring all males over the age of twelve to get scrotal piercings if they can then cry “VICTORY!” on all the cable news shows.

I could go on, but the larger point I’m making here is that fiscal concern and opposition to mandated scrotal piercings do not make a person a crazy frightened racist.

And as to the “uncivil discourse, ungovernable America” trope, until people start caning each other on the floor of Congress I think we can relax.  We managed to survive plays that called for the assassination of the last President, anarchist raids on every city that hosted a G8 summit, “don’t taze me bro!” stupidity at universities, and people flinging pies, eggs, shoes, and a live freaking GRENADE (it was a dud) at elected officials–and that was during the LAST eight years.  I think we’ll survive the local chapter of the AARP chanting “Kill the Bill.”  And no, pearl clutchers, they aren’t referring to Bill Clinton, our OTHER black president.

All this hysteria makes me wonder who the scared racists really may be, you know?
But that could just be a result of all those Psych courses in college and spending too much time reading about projection.

Labels: health care, politics, Tightly Wound

// posted by Kelly in Kansas @ 7:31:00 AM 0 Comments

"Why did it take so long for Democrats to realize that this year's tea party and town hall uprisings were a genuine barometer of widespread public discontent and not simply a staged scenario by kooks and conspirators? First of all, too many political analysts still think that network and cable TV chat shows are the central forums of national debate. But the truly transformative political energy is coming from talk radio and the Web -- both of which Democrat-sponsored proposals have threatened to stifle, in defiance of freedom of speech guarantees in the Bill of Rights."

"It was on talk radio, which I have resumed monitoring around the clock because of the healthcare fiasco, that I heard the passionate voices of callers coming directly from the town hall meetings. Hence I was alerted to the depth and intensity of national sentiment long before others who were simply watching staged, manipulated TV shows."

"By a proportion of something like 10-to-1, negative articles by conservatives were vastly more detailed, specific and practical about the proposals than were supportive articles by Democrats, which often made gestures rather than arguments and brimmed with emotion and sneers."

"An example of the provincial amateurism of current White House operations was the way the president's innocuous back-to-school pep talk got sandbagged by imbecilic support materials soliciting students to write fantasy letters to "help" the president (a coercive directive quickly withdrawn under pressure). Even worse, the entire project was stupidly scheduled to conflict with the busy opening days of class this week, when harried teachers already have their hands full. Comically, some major school districts, including New York City, were not even open yet. And this is the gang who wants to revamp national healthcare?"

"If Obama fails to win reelection, let the blame be first laid at the door of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who at a pivotal point threw gasoline on the flames by comparing angry American citizens to Nazis."

Labels: critics, Democrats, former presidents, health care, Obama, opposition, Republicans, speech

// posted by Kelly in Kansas @ 7:57:00 AM 0 Comments

President Bush leaves office with a health care legacy in bricks and mortar: he has doubled federal financing for community health centers, enabling the creation or expansion of 1,297 clinics in medically underserved areas.

For those in poor urban neighborhoods and isolated rural areas, including Indian reservations, the clinics are often the only dependable providers of basic services like prenatal care, childhood immunizations, asthma treatments, cancer screenings and tests for sexually transmitted diseases.

Labels: Bush, health care, Republicans

// posted by Kelly in Kansas @ 8:42:00 AM 0 Comments