Sadly, the whole episode leaves a bad taste in the collective mouth of the country. The "debate" consisted mostly of a partisan shouting match between party spokesmorons and hired-hand political consultants coupled to a parallel bizillion dollar media campaign paid for almost entirely by self-interested corporate shit-weasels.
And while it is my personal belief that the pro-health reform side was both more intelligent and more honest in making their case I, for one, would not be inclined to bestow good sportsmanship medals on any of the players. Except maybe the President.
Indeed it is clear that the American people remain confused about the whole matter - which is entirely understandable given that the anti-reform camp's message, in particular, was so extreme that it was often hard to believe that the Republicans and Democrats were even talking about the same bill.
Today's New York Times article reiterated the bipolar aspect to the discussion.
According to various Democrats:
- “This is the Civil Rights Act of the 21st century...” proclaimed the number 3 Democrat in the House.
- “We pushed back on the undue influence of special interests,” President. Obama said. “We didn’t give in to mistrust or to cynicism or to fear. Instead, we proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things.” “This isn’t radical reform,” he added, “but it is major reform.”
- Speaker Pelosi said: “After a year of debate and hearing the calls of millions of Americans, we have come to this historic moment. Today we have the opportunity to complete the great unfinished business of our society and pass health insurance reform for all Americans that is a right and not a privilege.”
Meanwhile seemingly in a parallel universe, but actually just a few steps away, the Republicans' take was just a tad different:
- Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, denounced the bill as “a fiscal Frankenstein.”
- Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida, called it “a decisive step in the weakening of the United States.”
- Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, said it was “one of the most offensive pieces of social engineering legislation in the history of the United States.”
- The House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, said lawmakers were defying the wishes of their constituents. “The American people are angry,” Mr. Boehner said. “This body moves forward against their will. Shame on us.”
Perhaps. But it's a long time until November. And once the dust settles I'm not so sure that I would want to base my campaign on a promise to take health care away from 30 million of my fellow citizens. We shall see...
In other news, it was an outdoorsy weekend. Lots of sunshine. On Saturday Doug, Alison, Joan and I walked around the Dredge Lake area and yesterday morning I had a nice walk out North Douglas at Fish Creek. I was sporting my bird lens on my camera - but there was nobody home. A few ducks on the wetlands in front of Fish Creek.
The only tweety bird action was at my apartment. I had just got home from my Saturday walk and was enjoying the sun on my deck when this bad boy showed up...
A Dark-Eyed Junco stops by my deck to pay his respects.
As mentioned previously, Friday evening I attended a cocktail party at Thelma Cutlers. It was quite fun. Saturday evening was sushi appetizer followed by Chinese entree at the Canton House with Alison and Dougie. And last evening I met my daughters' good pal, Kira Kiel, for pizza at the Island Pub.
Kira is off on a European vacation this evening. She'll be spending most of her time in Ireland with a friend from Juneau who is attending school there - with a couple of weeks in Italy as well. Amanda will be staying in Kira's apartment when she comes to Juneau in April and my assignment was to get the key and otherwise get those arrangements squared-away. Mission accomplished.
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