Rep. Alan Grayson Refuses To Apologize For “Die Quickly” Remark

If you haven’t heard, Rep. Alan Grayson made a remark on the house floor stating, “if you get sick, America, the Republican healthcare plan is this: Die quickly”.  I may not agree with implying that republicans want Americans to die quickly.  But his point was that the republicans aren’t offering a plan and aren’t supporting health care reform.  The GOP wanted Rep. Grayson to apologize for his remarks and threatened to bring anti-Grayson legislation to the floor.  Grayson on the other hand doesn’t care and came back with this statement on the house floor,

There’s a bit of irony in the fact that republicans would accuse democrats of wanting to kill old people with death panels and then get upset at a statement like this.  Unlike the GOP, which seems to popularize their hateful slogans with t-shirt and posters, it’s truly unlikely you’ll see the democratic masses holding “GOP wants you to die quickly posters”.  Oh, and what about the Joe Wilson irony.  So republicans defend Wilson for screaming like an idiot at the President and get angry over Grayson’s comments.  Please, I think we know better.

The more I get to see Rep. Grayson, the more I like him.  Here’s his appearance on the Situation Room today, standing by his comments.

He has a point, the GOP is offering nothing new to health care reform.

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RNC Doesn’t Care About Hispanics Enough To Get A Translator

Well, as I mentioned earlier this year, even with the changing of pinheads over at the RNC, they still aren’t showing signs that they care about the Hispanic vote.  Steele has made promises to open the tent and include those of different backgrounds.  He has yet to make good on that promise.

Now, he does a lack luster job of convincing Hispanics to consider the GOP as their party.  Look at this letter that was sent to Hispanic voters, it’s filled with errors.  Via Think Progress.

You don’t have to know Spanish just use a translator.  How offensive that they didn’t even put in the effort to write a decent letter.  RNC chairman, Michael Steele must think Hispanic voters are dumb and wont realize the half-ass job he did on this letter.

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Support For Health Reform On The Rise, Conservatives Must Not Be Yelling Louder

A survey by Kaiser Family Foundation shows that there is an uptake in support for health care reform since this summer.  The article goes on to describe it’s because of the change of opinion among some republicans and independents.  I think this goes to show that Pres. Obama has gotten through the message that the status quo is unsustainable.  That we need health care reform in order to fix our overall budget in the long term, reduce health care costs for families and provide affordable insurance to those who can’t afford private insurance or those that were denied coverage.  Well, that was a long sentence, but I hope I hit all the necessary points as to who would benefit from health care reform.  That’s basically everyone who’d benefit.

Republicans for the most part are going to oppose health care reform at any cost.  They see this as a political gain, that could win them back the majority.   Unfortunately for them, it’s highly unlikely and republicans are going after a lost cause.  It was fun seeing republicans try to derail health care by acting psycho though.  Maybe this poll and other polls showing the uptake in support of health care reform will cause them to scream louder.  I mean, it seems like that’s the only way they can get their point across anyways.  For what it’s worth, here’s a Starbucks ad making fun townhall protesters.

Guess us elite latte drinking liberals just don’t understand what republicans are going through, oh well.

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Poll: Republicans Getting Nowhere & Blamed For Lack Of Bipartisanship On Health Reform

New CBS/NYT poll came out with mostly ok news for Pres. Obama then where he was earlier this month.  This poll headline isn’t about Pres. Obama (his numbers are steady though slightly higher) but about how the republican party.

First, 52% of respondents think we need health care reform changes now to improve the overall economy.  Even though most of those taking the poll are satisfied with the quality of their health care, they’re divided on whether satisfied or not with the costs of health care.  59% of the respondents say it’s more important to cover the uninsured then keep costs down.  This makes sense overall because everytime an uninsured person goes to the hospital and doesn’t pay their bill then the cost transfers over to those with health care in higher fees.

This little tid bit of info was interesting and 51% think government should “guarantee” that all Americans have health care.  I think this shows exactly where the country is.  This is the fundamental agreement that must be made in order for us to continue to push for health care reform.

Maybe this is a sign that republicans might want to stop screaming and actually articulate a plan they supposedly have.  When participants were asked, “Do you think the Republicans in Congress have clearly explained their plans for changing the health care system, or haven’t they clearly explained their plans?”, 76% thought they haven’t explained their plan and 3/4 of republicans agreed.

Clearly Americans think democrats and particularly Pres. Obama have the better ideas.  When asked, “Regardless of how you usually vote, who do you think has better ideas about reforming the health care system — Barack Obama, or the Republicans in Congress?”  Only 27 said Republicans in Congress but and 52% thought Pres. Obama has the best ideas.

Next up is lack of bipartisanship that people are noticing from the republican party.  While 60% thought Obama was trying to work with republicans, 61% didn’t think the republican party was trying to work with Pres. Obama on health care reform.  And 64% of respondents think the republicans are opposing health care for political reasons then what they think is right for the country.

The conclusion I draw is that republicans aren’t getting anywhere by screaming at townhalls, State of the Union addresses and calling people socialists.  While more people still need to learn about the current health care bill, no one really knows what the GOP plans to bring to the health care table.  They either need to articulate a plan so people can decide for themselves or not complain at all.

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Obama, Brown and Sarkozy Blast Iran For Nuke Plant

Today the US revealed that Iran has a second nuke site that has gone undisclosed to the international community for years.  With this news came strong statements not only from Pres. Obama but, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Sarkozy.  They blasted Iran and Washington Post reports that Iran scrambled to put together a statement about this second nuke site once revealed it existed,

Iran acknowledged the existence of the facility for the first time on Monday, in a letter to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. The letter said “a new pilot fuel enrichment plant is under construction in the country,” said Marc Vidricaire, a spokesman for the watchdog agency. “The letter stated that the enrichment level would be up to 5 percent.”

Um, yeah, I highly doubt this is a plant for pilot fuel enrichment.  Pres. Obama also suggested this by say,

“This is not the first time that Iran has concealed information about its nuclear program,” Obama said Friday morning. “The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program.”

Exactly, and if it was just about, “pilot fuel enrichment” then why keep it a secret?  Apparently the US knew about this for years,

White House officials said Western intelligence agencies have been tracking the facility for years. Obama said officials from the United States, France and Britain briefed the IAEA in Vienna on Thursday on what they knew about the facility. The three heads of state decided to publicly disclose the existence of the facility after learning that Iran had become aware the site was no longer a secret.

So now US, UK and France are pushing for more sanctions and for the plant to be open for inspection.  Here we go again.  Sanctions, sanctions obviously aren’t working or else we wouldn’t have to continue to push them on these rogue nations that could care less about having a more unified international community.  Iran will continue to step on the international community unless stronger action is taken.  What the action should be, I wouldn’t know and it’s not my job to figure it out.  But something needs to be done.  A nuclear Iran is a major threat.

Here is Obama’s G20 statement along with Prime Minister Brown and President Sarkozy.

More news from Washington Post is that exiles from Iran claim they have seen Iran use their plants to produce nuclear detonators.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/25/AR2009092500289_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009092501094

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Fox News Has Charts Therefore It Must Be True

I don’t know if this is just the dumbing of the Fox News audience that believes half the things on that station but it certainly seems that way.  Apparently the demographics is that of people who don’t care about or want to read facts so Fox News, mainly Glenn Beck, has found a way to convince his followers that what he’s saying is “real”.  That’s with cutesy pictographs and charts, you see the display over on MediaMatters.

Meanwhile, the press isn’t allowed to cover, “Glenn Beck Day” where his followers go to Mt. Vernon and “sip the kool-aid” whilst listening to every piece of lie that comes out of that man’s mouth.

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