Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

So, two weeks ago, we all got the happy joyous news that religious leaders were banding together to make health care reform a reality. And I'm sure some people were overjoyed because finally the right didn't have the lock on the religious folks. But we just waited for the other shoe to drop, because we knew this was coming:

First up from the God Machine this week is a new push from evangelical religious groups to kill health care reform.

Conservative Christian groups on Wednesday (Aug. 26) ramped up opposition to health care reform, saying the current system "has problems" but "it is working."

Members of the newly formed Freedom Federation, comprised of some of the largest conservative religious groups in the country, say they oppose taxpayer-supported abortion, rationed health care for the elderly and government control of personal health decisions.

Mathew Staver, who heads the legal group Liberty Counsel and is dean at Liberty University's law school, said the group agrees on certain core values.

And nothing, apparently, says "Christian values" to these groups and leaders like opposing the protections health care reform would provide to tens of millions of American families.

Note the tired reliance on debunked talking points, the single-minded antipathy to personal health decisions (i.e., abortion), and the propensity for sticking their fingers in their ears and screaming "LA LA LA LA CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA" when confronted with evidence that the current system is unsustainable. Classic fucking fundie. They make me wish Jesus were real and the Second Coming were happening this week, just so I could see the look on the poor bastard's face when he sees what a good portion of his followers have got up to in his absence.

Talk about priceless.

Elsewhere, Harry Reid must be feeling the scorching heat of a bunch of angry liberals, because he decided to explain that he's after bipartisan agreement because Dems "only have 60 votes on paper." He then helpfully explained that Kennedy is dead (thanks, Harry, we hadn't noticed), and Sen. Byrd's not voting much lately, blah blah blah. All true. Which is why I'm going to say this clearly, simply, and in large font:

THEN MAKE THE CONS FILIBUSTER THE GOD DAMNED HEALTH CARE REFORM LEGISLATION.

I mean actually filibuster, not threaten a filibuster. I want to see fat old men with Cadillac health care plans fight against the H.E.L.P. Committee's bill by engaging in a full-on filibuster. I want this plastered all over CSPAN:

Preparations for a traditional filibuster can be very elaborate. Sometimes cots are brought into the hallways or cloakrooms for senators to sleep on. While in a filibuster the senator talking must remain in the same spot and is only allowed to filibuster twice in a legislative day. A legislative day lasts until the debate is adjourned, which can take days. According to Newsweek:

They used to call it 'taking to the diaper,' a phrase that referred to the preparation undertaken by a prudent senator before an extended filibuster. Strom Thurmond visited a steam room before his filibuster in order to dehydrate himself so he could drink without urinating. An aide stood by in the cloakroom with a pail in case of emergency.^[10]

Put them through this. Make them into a circus. And show the American people what length these fuckers will go to in order to deny them meaningful health care reform.

That's what you do when you "only have 60 votes on paper," you dumbshit.

Let's see how seriously people take, oh, say, Sen. Enzi's garbage arguments when he's forced to make them wearing a diaper or pissing into a pail.

Grow a fucking pair, Harry. And that goes double for the President (h/t):

There’s this fear that Barack Obama will become the Grover Cleveland of this era – Grover Cleveland was a good man, but he became a conservative Democratic President because he didn’t fight the powerful interests – people say Obama should be FDR – I’d much rather see him be Theodore Roosevelt --– Teddy Roosevelt loved to fight – … I think if Obama fought instead of really finessed it so much . . . I think it would change the atmosphere.

Roar, godsdamnit.