Killing GOP Anti-Healthcare Bill Is Genuine Feel-good Story; But John McCain Ain't No Hero

Roll Call vote on S.Amdt. 667 to S.Amdt. 267 to H.R. 1628
(American Health Care Act of 2017),
(Roll Call vote, July 28, 2017, United States Senate)

The political legend of John McCain long ago veered into the ridiculous.

But McCain's vote early Friday morning against the Republican Party's bill to take away healthcare from millions of Americans was not heroic, maverick, or confirmation of his supernatural streak of independence and decency to which we can only look upon in awe, (Business Insider).

McCain's vote was not even fleeting recognition that Americans deserve healthcare every bit as excellent as that McCain receives as he battles his own tragic bout with cancer.

No, McCain's grandstanding vote was all about McCain. And much of the American political press omits the fact two years ago McCain voted along with his fellow Republicans to deny healthcare to 10s of millions of Americans in an effort to repeal ObamaCare, (McCain and Healthcare Vote).

If we conceptualize the workings of the United States Senate in term of heroism, (never a good idea), the heroes are Sens. Lisa Murkowski, (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins, (R-Maine), along with the 48 Democratic Party and independent senators who represented the overwhelming pro-healthcare sentiment of the American people, (Esquire).

"If you want to laud Senator John McCain for his military service, or for his occasional high-profile stabs at bipartisanship, feel free. But it didn’t take a lick of courage to vote against an ACA repeal bill that was supported by fewer than 20 percent of the electorate, and which would have killed off some unknown number of his constituents if it passed," notes Joshua Holland at The Nation in a piece to which every political commentator should allude.

Friday's vote against Republicans and only Republicans including the lunatic in the White House to deny healthcare to the American people was not a "goddamned Frank Capra movie," (Pierce, Esquire); it was the sum total of American will and millions of citizens who told clueless senators they demand healthcare as an unalienable right.

"If millions of Americans had not raised their voices at town hall meetings, made phone calls to their senators, posted on social media, and resisted in other ways, this bill might already be law. But we know this fight is not over: the threat of repeal remains real. Republicans in Congress will not give up. Neither can we. MoveOn members will remain vigilant and prepared to mobilize at a moment’s notice if it appears Congress is attempting to advance a new bill," notes Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org, (Stewart, MoveOn).

A citizenry prepared to mobilize. That is the real feel-good story of the Summer.

As John Nichols writes, (Twitter):

They traveled to D.C.
They slept outside in wheelchairs.
They were arrested.
They never lost faith.

MoveOn Hits Feingold

Most progressives love Russ Feingold but sometimes ... WTF, Russ?

MoveOn is alerting its members to contact Feingold and tell him to keep his eye on the ball as Obama pushes his budget.

Feingold's idiosyncratic tangents such as hitting Janesville workers' job training and placement services in a recent spending bill and getting in bed with John McCain aren't doing anyone any good.

So, we need Russ behind this budget like right now.

Dear MoveOn member,
As a Wisconsin resident, you're in a unique position this week to help pass major progressive reforms. Here's why:

President Obama's budget (the critical bill that decides how the government will spend trillions of dollars) is being debated right now in Congress. And Senator Russell Feingold, as a member of the budget committee, is one of just a few make-or-break votes.

The budget is the change we voted for: health care reform, a plan to make polluters pay for clean energy investment, tax breaks for 95% of Americans, even a firm timeline for the end of the war in Iraq. As Paul Krugman said, it will set America on a "fundamentally new course."1

But the budget faces mounting opposition from special interests and conservative Democrats who want to take out key parts of the bill.

Senators on the committee are already making up their minds about whether they'll pass Obama's progressive budget or water it down—and they're hearing from the opposition every day. So it's really important that your senator hears from MoveOn members in Wisconsin right away.

Can you call Senator Feingold? Tell him to pass Obama's budget without stripping the crucial provisions that make sure polluters and other special interests pay their fair share.
Here's where to call:

Senator Russell FeingoldPhone: 202-224-5323

Then, please report your call by clicking here:

http://pol.moveon.org/call?tg=FSWI_2&cp_id=865&id=15755-9747951-fuXtUrx&t=3

Obama's plan is boldly progressive—which makes the special interest lobbyists dead-set against it:

Oil companies don't like a key provision that taxes polluters to help pay for a transition to a clean-energy economy.

Insurance companies are fighting the health care funding that will help create a more efficient system and pave the way for universal coverage.

Highly paid executives are against the elimination of tax loopholes that they've gotten rich off of for years.

Let's be honest. "Passing a budget" doesn't sound particularly compelling. But few people realize that if we lose this budget fight, our other goals like transitioning to a green economy and health care reform will become difficult or impossible to achieve. So there's a real risk that millions of progressives who helped elect this president will sit on the sidelines during this fight.

We can't let that happen—especially in Wisconsin, where our voices can have a huge impact on the outcome. Please call today.

Sources:
1. "Climate of Change," The New York Times, February 27, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27krugman.html?em

Rightwingers Set to Mock Themselves

A valuable bequest from the Clinton administration is the revealing to a wide political audience of the American rightwing as hateful whack jobs.

Decent, hard-working people no doubt, but whack jobs nonetheless who pursued the Clintons relentlessly and shamelessly, casting every aspersion imaginable upon a cautious administration.

As a result of the Clintons' devastating rebuttal of the rightwing attacks [at the height of the impeachment, Bill Clinton's approval numbers rose to 69 percent], George W. Bush was forced to run as an anti-rightwing, centrist Republican, proclaiming non-divisive moderation in the 2000 election.

Progressive groups like Move On flowered as the attacks on Clinton became utterly untenable and the American people soured on the politics of the right.

Yet, there is every indication to believe that the rightwing is ready to launch another war on Obama led by many of the same characters.

Arguably, the war has already been declared in light of the vicious attacks that Obama has already repelled, and faces in the more doctrinaire Republican Party remaining in Congress.

But the vast majority of the American people have seen enough of negativity and hate as the results of the last two national elections clearly show.

During the 2008 presidential debates even an intellectual disagreement with McCain voiced and generalized by Obama as reflecting badly on McCain would result in focus groups effectively booing the statement because it came across as bordering on the mean-spirited side of the spectrum.

'Tell what you're for; not what the other guy is,' is the effective sentiment.

The GOP Southern Strategy is on its death bed though no complete victory is ever achieved. As the Clarance Darrow-inspired character in Inherit the Wind reminds us, "...fanaticism and ignorance (are) forever busy, and (need) feeding."

The attacks will still come, the vote suppression will continue [right here in Wisconsin as J.B. Van Hollen fights to cover his political behind in his losing quest], but in today's political culture here's a bet that those rightwingers still launching their hate-tipped cultural missiles will be perceived by the American people as merely making fun of themselves.

And that goes double for Milwaukee police detective Michael Sandvick; you blow-hard whack!

- via mal contends

Supreme Court Piece Gets Revealing Angry Response

The following text (in two e-mails) below was received from timkisting@aol.com, commenting on a brief analysis (SC Decision Striking Down Gun Control Is Fine with This Progressive) on the Supreme Court decision, District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290), that was picked up in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on Sunday.

Well, let's hope this guy, timkisting@aol.com, doesn't own a gun.

The ad hominem attempt (below among many) to insult by raising the possibility of my being a "fag" merits a reply: Being gay is okay. As is working for the people residing in "Milwaukee's ghetto population".

Thanks for reading, timkisting@aol.com.

But perhaps, you ought to consider a change of vocation, like training pit bulls or reviving the KKK as a bulwark against "Milwaukee's ghetto population" and its "fag" sympathizers. I bet that would pay well.

Your (sic) an idiot, you rip the US Supreme Court because it has a conservative bent. You liberal cut and run coward cockroaches are the ones that are the most partisan, corrupt losers of our day. You whine when conservatives expect YOU to work rather to live off government handouts living out of mommy and daddy's basement. President Bushes (sic) greatest legacy, will be Roberts and Alito, which will alter correctly and fix the liberal blunders of past courts. Now if we can only get rid of Stevens and Ginsburg. McCain will do that in the next 4 years. Before you cry out in rage, saying Barrack Hussein Nobama will win! LMAO 20-30% of democrats like my mother and father WILL NOT vote for Hussein and WILL vote for McCain. Older Americans will vote for the war hero over the admitted crack smoking Muslim Manchurian candidate put up by the liberals. It will be 58-42% win for McCain, as Obama will not win 1 southern state and will lose Ohio and Pennsylvania badly. The liberals will cry out in disbelief, claiming fraud and other sore loser talking points. LMAO, and for you fat fuck liberal cockroach, BUSH and CHENEY will never be impeached much less removed as they have done nothing wrong. In fact moonbat liberal loser, lets take a vote now. In the senate you wouldn't get 15 votes to impeach and in the House you would not get even a 100 votes. Get ready for at least 8 more years of republicans in the White House, GUARANTEED!!!!!!! I will put up my salary which I am pretty sure is 5-6 times what yours is to make the bet?

PS (sic) Calling yourself "progressive" is a way to hide your self loathing, self realization that being a liberal is wrong and self hating. GET a JOB become Republican, start liking yourself again, or commit suicide, either way, your loss would be no big deal

Don't read your blog, did you cry like a whiny fag bitch, when Gableman kicked "Loophole" Louie Butlers (sic) ass in that last election? Giving Wisconsin a conservative edge, negating our dumgass (sic) loser Govenor (sic). By the way, outside the Peoples Republic of Madison, and Milwaukee's ghetto population, this state is predominately a conservative state.

Update: Come on liberal cockroach, respond to anything that I said, but like a typical liberal cockroach, when confronted directly with their lies and slander, they scurry back under the rock from which they came. Devoid of ANY original thought, unless given to them from moveon.org.

Our Children Are Not Cannon Fodder for John McCain

From MoveOn

Petraeus Will Say 'No Decision' as Americans Say 'No War'

According to the New York Times, the long-anticipated Patraeus report will say that we need to wait again to decide whether we can begin massive redeployment of American forces, bringing the bulk of the troops home.

"The top American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, has recommended that decisions on the contentious issue of reducing the main body of the American troops in Iraq be put off for six months, American officials said Sunday," reads the NYT piece written by Michael R. Gordon.

The White House-crafted Patraeus report comes as polls show most Americans, most Iraqis and the Democratic presidential contenders are calling for withdrawal.

See the The DC Establishment vs American Public Opinion by Glenn Greenwald for an extended discussion of the anti-democratic nature of Bush's failed efforts to convince the public of its latest, new-and-improved enterprise in Iraq.

Writes Greenwald:

The Washington Establishment has spent the last several months glorifying Gen. David Petraeus, imposing the consensus that The Surge is Succeeding, and most importantly of all, ensuring that President Bush will not be compelled to withdraw troops from Iraq for the remainder of his presidency. The P.R. campaign to persuade the country that the Surge is Succeeding has been as intense and potent as any P.R. campaign since the one that justified the invasion itself. While this campaign has worked wonders with our gullible media stars and Democratic Congressional leadership, it has failed completely with the American people.

Petraeus was never going to author an intellectually honest report anyway. He was the main act of the continuing deadly dog and pony show that Bush and Co put on in Iraq, casuing 1,000s more to die for the lie that is Iraq.

The PR managers just want to be able to say next year during the campaign some version that that it (Iraq) wasn't their fault, they are bringing the (some) troops home, the politicians blew it and Bush just listened to the Generals in the field.

A strong majority of the American population is not buying the latest act, polls show.

So, Petraeus will dishonor and despoil his career, betraying his own troops and the American public for a PR stunt that won't work anyway.

MoveOn ask: General Petraeus or General Betray Us?

Bush has a way of doing that to men and women with honorable careers prior to their service under Bush; just ask US Atty Stephen Biskupic, and any number of administration personnel.

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