I need a GPS locator for my ass

[Are_grits_groceries]

because I've been all over the map about this HCR bill.

I say pass it BECAUSE it's not about health care reform, and it never was for the GOP, LIEberman and whoever else.

It's about power and control or the appearance of such. The Rethugs don't want anything passed because they don't
want to have to face the Teaminters with anything on the President's desk. The Teapissers don't care about the nuances of the 'pubic option' as they immortalized it or the Medicare buy-in.

A bill could be passed entitled health care reform with one provision that changed the name of a building, and the Teamuggers would scream like a stuck pig. The Rethugs are terrified of them because even the nuttiest are being primaried by people that I thought were extinct.

That's my location now.

[cliffordu]

1. yep - I haven't been this -uh- unstable since before I found

Lamictal....

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. I'm on it so

I need to up the dose.

[cliffordu]

3. Don't go over 400mg a day -

At least that's what I heard....

[Are_grits_groceries]

4. I couldn't afford to. nt

[gratuitous]

5. I hear ya

But I also remember when "don't ask, don't tell" was instituted as a halfway measure toward allowing gay people to serve openly in the military. At the time, the Nitwit Brigade got discombobulated to imagine fairies and dykes in their beloved Corps (or whatever). Quite a few folks thought it was a good step in the right direction, and that more would be coming soon.

Well, the Nitwits have gotten used to DADT. But we haven't taken even one baby step further in the right direction on that account. Similarly, we could get a half-assed "reform" package passed with the understanding that we'd fix it later. But it often happens that once the half-assed measure gets enacted, it might as well be set in concrete forever. "We already dealt with that issue!" "It's too soon." "It's too late." "Shoulda done that then." "Can't do it now." "I was against the first bill, and only voted for it because I was told that's all that would happen, you buncha liars!" Mix and match.

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. I know.

I'll be back in an hour with some other reasoned position. I am going to have multiple personalities before this is over.

[AspenRose]

6. You aren't the only one

[On the Road]

8. Me, Too

I'm normally on the more centrist side of things here, but I'm appalled at how much was given away for no good cause, and how poor the current bill is. It really shows how hard it is to find a good system that's not single payer.

Part of it is a mindset. Hardball politics are necessary to pass something this contentious, and part of that mindset is brinksmanship and being willing to risk the whole bill over getting what you want. In bargaining terms, being desperate for some kind of agreement regardless of terms allows a tough negotiator to walk all over you. I think that's what happened here.

Woodrow Wilson was no desperate for an agreement of the League of Nations that he allowed Britain and France to run wild with their demands in the treaty of Versailles, destabilizing Europe for the next couple of decades. (Sigmund Freud claimed he had a mental breakdown at the negotiations.) And the results were ineffective and he never fulfilled his original vision.

I liked Obama, but preferred John Edwards's line that you can't negotiate issues like this, you have to use your political power to take them.