Sens. Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Blanche Lincoln, Bill Nelson, & Tom Carper Are Shills For The Health Insurance Industry

I know we wanted more transparency in government, but this is ridiculous.

Yesterday in the Senate Finance Committtee Democratic Senators Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Blanche Lincoln, Bill Nelson, and Tom Carper all voted against Sen. Rockefeller's "public option" amendment to health care reform.

Don't the "fearful five" know that the American people can see right through them?

This group of Senators don't care one iota for the health and well-being of their constituents. All they care about is the health and well-being of their health insurance industry campaign donors, and the health and well-being of their own pocketbooks.

A Revamped Website

Recently, I took down my old website and put up a new one in its place. Check it out when you get a chance. I did it myself. http://www.joshhaden.com.

Republicans Are Hijacking Patriotism From The Patriotic, And Democrats Are Letting Them Get Away With It.

We all know that Republicans will lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want.

Its not that Republicans don't know lying, cheating, and stealing are wrong; its that, in their view, lying, cheating, and stealing are justified if it results in them retaining their power, or, even better, broadening it. Doing so, in their eyes, better secures our "free" society.

Republicans believe that, since man is inherently evil, its better to enslave the (evil) majority to ensure that the good who can rule best (Republicans) are able to survive. This signals a major difference, some would say, the major difference, between the worldview of Democrats, who believe that man is inherently good, and that the enslavement of anyone, even Republicans, does nothing to promote the goal of a peaceful and sustainable world.

So, everyone, including Republicans, know that Republicans are liars, cheaters, and stealers, and know that Republicans are able to justify this fact to themselves by convincing themselves the end justifies the means. This shouldn't be surprising to anyone.

When Sen. Lindsay Graham goes on national television and says that "Americans don't support Obama's healthcare proposals," I know exactly what he's saying.

He's not saying that all Americans oppose Obama's healthcare proposals. He knows the majority of Americans actually support Obama's healthcare proposals. However, by saying "Americans don't support Obama's healthcare proposals" he's achieving the dual result of accusing those who do support Obama's healthcare proposals of being un-American, and thus, unpatriotic; and, on the other hand, helping to create, or insinuate, an anti-Obama healthcare plan atmosphere in general, hopefully inculcating in the minds of those who may be on the fence about Obama's healthcare proposals that they should be against them after all, because anything else would be un-American, and thus, unpatriotic. Sen. Lindsay Graham, is, after all, a Republican, all-knowing and all-powerful.

I would just like to say that I support Obama's healthcare plan if it contains language permitting free universal healthcare, and I'm an American. So I just proved Sen. Lindsay Graham wrong. I'm an American, and I support Obama.

Will someone please explain to me what is so American about letting a human being die because they don't have access to healthcare?

Will someone please explain to me what is so American about caring more for the survival of health insurance companies than the survival of human beings?

Will someone please explain to me what is so un-American about believing that America should care about the well-being of all its citizens, not just some of them? That if one human being suffers, then we all suffer?

Will someone please explain to me what is so un-American about the belief that every American should have access to healthcare, even if they don't have the money to pay for it?

Feel free to respond, especially you anonymous Republicans out there! :) Hint: democracy and capitalism are not the same thing.

Time to Get Real About the ACORN "Controversy"--and Republican Double Standards

Check out this great article from the Huffington Post, the title says it all.

Spain 7" Release Date & A Gig

Our good friends at Acuarela Discos will be releasing Spain's new 7" "I'm Still Free" b/w "Hang Your Head Down Low" on Dec. 15, 2009.

To celebrate we'll be playing at Spaceland in Los Angeles on Dec. 19. Hope you can make it!

The Left Should Reclaim 'Freedom'

Found this great article today while perusing my blog subscription feeds.

Conservatives Say It's Their Turn For Empowerment?

I suppose it remains to be seen if Rep. Joe Wilson's "emotional" heckling of the President, and the conservative opposition to real health care reform, is rooted in racism (also, here), but nobody, conservatives and Republicans (is there a difference?) included, can deny that the conservative movement and the Republican worldview in general is historically rooted in the racism, sexism, homophobia, bigotry, intolerance, and hatred of anyone who thinks and/or looks different than they do, experienced in America during the last 200+ years.

If the conservatives and Republicans could have their way, slavery would still be legal, people who aren't white would have to sit at the back of buses, wouldn't be able share drinking fountains with white people, and wouldn't be able to eat at certain restaurants, people who have political beliefs on the left end of the spectrum wouldn't be able to find work, women wouldn't be able to vote, and gays and lesbians wouldn't be able to marry (ooops, still working on that last one).

Conservative Americans have a lot to thank American liberals for, but when it comes to defending their stance against many of President Obama's ideas, conservatives will always have to contend with the history of intolerance perpetuated, historically, by themselves.