More lies from the lying liars who tell them

Some time ago, now Senator Al Franken wrote a book called Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. I read the book, and found it to be a lousy read as petty, spiteful, and true. You may not agree with his politics or his style, but the one thing you can say about Senator Franken is that he has always valued the truth. On the other hand, I don’t know why anyone actually believes Fox News at all. Because they and their chief liar Bill O’Reilly are at it again! This time, it’s a railroad job against Senator Coburn, who had the audacity to call my Congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi, a nice lady, and who said, when talking abut the insane notion of putting people in prison for buying insurance, that “The intention is not to put anybody in jail. That makes for good TV news on FOX but that isn’t the intention.”

Bill O’Reilly can’t have that, so he claimed, “We researched on Fox News if anybody had ever said you’re going to jail if you don’t buy health insurance. Nobody’s ever said it.” Guess what? The New York Times did some investigating and found at least six instances where someone on Fox News did say it.

When reporter at the New York Times was caught some months ago for plagiarizing, he was forced to resign and the entire newspaper was shamed. Not so for Fox when they just make stuff up, as apparently they have no shame! And so I think they deserve a new name: The Republican Liars Network (RCN). Not all Republicans are liars, and not all liars are Republicans, but those who choose to believe what they know to be lies, aren’t much better than the liars themselves, especially when they act on that information in the voting booth.

All I can ask is please, Senator Franken, don’t update your book. There’s just too much material.

Cynicism at its worst: A Republican healthcare plan

AP reports that Representative John Boehner is touting the Republican healhcare plan, and that it is in some ways better than the Democratic plans. The laugh is that every resident of the United States is living the Republican healthcare plan right now. The Republicans had 12 years to offer a healthcare plan, and while they did create a drug plan for Medicare, that was only an earlier cynical attempt to stave off more sweeping legislation, that will actually make a difference to the 46 million people who have no coverage.

You don’t get to cry about other peoples’ ideas when you’ve been given an opportunity to test your own and chose not to. That’s called taking pot shots, which is what the Republicans and the WSJ have been doing.

SCHIPP: More dumb Republican politics

Over the last year, healthcare for poor people took a beating as State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIPP) lapsed, and Congress was unable to override a Bush Administration veto – twice. A smaller version of the bill was signed, but now President Obama has promised to sign the original bill, expanding coverage for poor children from 7 million to 11 million people. Here is a lesson in politics: recognize the reality of a situation. Had Republicans understood the implications of the oncoming beating that Senator McCain was about to receive, perhaps they would have comrpomised with Democrats.

Now Republicans are attempting to stand in the way on new ground: they want children of illegal immigrants not to be covered, even if they are American citizens. Putting aside the constitutionality of it, the point of SCHIPP and programs like it is to provide for preventative care so that those children can do what they’re supposed to do – learn and grow – instead of becoming a burden on society by ending up in an emergency rooom, where astronomically higher expenses must be absorbed by society. At the same time those children end up out of school, and their parents (illegal or legal) either become a burden, or at the very least, can contribute less to our economy.

More dumb opposition. I say, mow ’em over, President Obama.