And You Wonder Why the Left is Angry?

dday and I share a sentiment:

I think every post I write gets me angrier and angrier, so I may need to take a time out. But first:

Max Baucus spoke at the Academy Health National Policy Conference today. His first words were:

The 19th Century British philosopher Herbert Spencer wrote: “The preservation of health is a duty.”

I believe that this Congress has a duty to reform health care.

And he continued, "this morning, I’d like to spend some time talking about the potential obstacles we may face as we move forward – and the reasons why those barriers can be overcome." So his talk was a kind of analysis, setting out the barriers and how they can be surmounted.

The Washington Times watched that performance, listened to it, and wrote this.

A key Senate Democrat charged with overseeing his party's swift push for universal health care indicated on Tuesday that reform may have to wait until next year, as other priorities related to the economy and wars take precedent.

"Why might reform not happen this year? As is often the case, the new administration and the new Congress face competing priorities," said Sen. Max Baucus, Montana Democrat and Senate Finance Committee chairman, at a health policy conference in Washington hosted by AcademyHealth and Health Affairs magazine. "These priorities compete for time on the agenda and attention in the press and in public."

"The president's dance card is indeed full," he added.

Seriously, shoot me in the face.

If you read nothing else today, pop an extra dose of blood pressure meds and go finish dday's post.

I've been getting steadily more steamed. A democracy is nominally run by its citizens. To make good decisions, you need good info. And this is the kind of codswallop we're fed. Anyone wonder why I get my news from the blogs rather than the MSM? I'm going to need that gun when dday's done with it.

I'd boycott the networks, but I don't watch teevee anymore anyway, so it's a rather empty gesture. I can't watch. Not even when Obama's on trying to correct all of the bullshit they've spewed:

But this is good stuff from the Prez. More like it, please:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, Charlie, if you take a look at the bill, the fact is, there are no earmarks in this bill, which, by the way, some of the critics can't claim for legislation they've voted for over the last eight years. There's no earmarks in it. We've made sure that there aren't individual pork projects in there.

The criticisms have generally been around some policy initiatives that were placed in the bill that I think are actually good policy, but some people may say is not going to actually stimulate jobs quickly enough. I think that there's legitimate room for working through those issues over the next several weeks to make sure that we get the best possible bill. But here's the thing that I think we have to understand. The economy is in desperate straits. What I won't do is adopt the same economic theories that helped land us in the worst economy since the Great Depression. What I will do is work with anybody of good faith to make sure that we can come up with the best possible package to not only create jobs and provide support to families, but also to lay the groundwork for long-term economic growth.

CHARLES GIBSON: CBO says only 25 percent of this bill would get to people within a year. [Memo to Charlie: that's been debunked, you dumbshit. Don't make me come over there with the Smack-o-Matic 3000.] Republicans now say it needs to be more stimulative, there needs to be more money on infrastructure, there needs to be more tax cuts, there needs to be more help for homeowners, maybe even guaranteeing 4, 4.5 percent mortgages. [Memo to Charlie ctd.: Cons are saying all sorts of shit trying to excuse themselves for not voting for the stimulus, and you've already repeated it endlessly. Be a fucking reporter for once and note they were against help for homeowners way before they were for it, and just voted down more infrastructure spending. If you can't fact check, STFU.]

Would you accept those things?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, keep in mind, for example, some want to put more infrastructure in the bill, and they're also complaining that it doesn't spin out fast enough. In some cases, there are contradictions there. I mean, we may want to spend on a whole bunch of great infrastructure, but it may take seven or eight years to do it, in which case we're vulnerable for the criticism that it's not spinning out fast enough. I think that in a package of this sort, that has to go to Congress with 535 opinions, at least, then there's going to be some give and take.

What I've said is that any good idea thrown out there to improve this legislation I'm for. But I want to be absolutely clear here that the overwhelming bulk of the package is sound, is designed to put people back to work, help states that are in desperate straits, help families who are losing jobs and health care, and it's designed to make sure that we've got green energy jobs for the future. In fact, most of the programs that have been criticized as part of this package amount to less than one percent of the overall package. And it makes for good copy, but here's the thing -- we can't afford to play the usual politics at a time when the economy continues to worsen.

I wonder what it's going to take to get that through the Cons' thick skulls? We already paddled them soundly, not once but twice, at the polls. What more does it take to make them grow the fuck up and start acting like responsible adults? How, in fact, do you play ball with tantrum-throwing toddlers who take their ball and go home when they don't get their way?

And what is it going to take to break the media of the habit of being stenographers for the Cons? Do we need to add a remedial training program to the stimulus that will send these fake journalists back to school so they can learn to be the real thing? I'm not even sure it's an educational issue - I think they know they're supposed to fact-check, but they're too addicted to Con bullshit to stop swallowing it. Which, I suppose, makes this more of a heath-care issue. We need to stage an intervention. Get those media clowns into detox, stat.

This is why the left seems so angry, folks. Ten metric tons of dumbfuckery dumped on one's head on an hourly basis while you have nothing but a dessert spoon to shovel it off with rather has that effect.