So why not have another SCHIP vote this fall? This is short-attention-span-America, after all. Surely in between the long debates the GOP will get on "drill-here-drill-now" there would be time for a few quick steps on SCHIP: Gavel the House and Senate into session to pass the bill and send it to Bush for another veto. Schedule a veto override vote in both Houses of Congress. Make more ads when the veto override fails. Maybe even make an ad that excoriates the GOP standard bearer for voting against kids, or (much more likely) skipping the vote completely!
Or has Rahm Emanuel counted the votes? Is he worried that GOP ‘critters who voted to sustain the President’s veto last time might not do so in the heat of the fall campaign? Is he worried that a few Democratic challengers might lose a talking point against a rubber stamp GOP who turns on the President? Is he sacrificing needy children’s health insurance because he’d rather campaign on the GOP’s unwillingness to override the veto than see SCHIP actually pass?
And how many kids will go without health insurance this winter because of this craven political calculus?
{YouTube from Rachel Maddow’s inaugural show courtesy of hidnusr}
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@#$%$#@ about says it all
Apparently this do-nothing Congress is running on their strength.
Why do Ds still call it SCHIP instead of Meds for Kids?
Makes no sense at all. This is an immensely popular program here in Montana where many people work two or more jobs and many do not have health insurance. I am pretty sure it is equally popular in many other red states which tend to be similarly impoverished. Holding that vote right before the election would be a classic red to blue move.
Digg it.
yea and LET McDUMMY vote against it again
And all those Rethug Congress critters up for re-election. They are already on shaky ground and this could pull the rug right out from under them.
Democrats seem genetically incapable of understanding politics.
teddy!
Yeah! And one more thing, when Palin keeps harping on Obama’s “present” votes – why doesn’t Obama campaign put together a little slide with number of votes McCain skipped and some specifics about which ones (like Veterans GI bill that he opposed for example).
yea and LET McDUMMY vote against it again
I *believe* that last time around, he simply didn’t vote at all….
And Rachel doles out the punishment the Democrats so richly deserve.
Hi, Teddy!
Heck, let McCain show up and vote against it.
It is a potential club with which to whup Republicans leading into the election that Dems are voluntarily taking off the table. Saying they are their own worst enemy is too kind. If Dems had a two thirds majority in both the House and Senate they still wouldn’t have achieved parity with the Republicans.
Makes you worry, no? Is there a leader in the democratic party?
shameful
Our state calls it Kids Care….. have heard Kids First….. several different names for the state version of SCHIP….. I love that combination of Kids First and Kids Care…… because we do……
genetic pre-disposition is such a liberal construct
the republican explanation is divine right
Night all.
i am really looking forward to having rahm run opposed
his mere existence makes me feel like i need a bath
I don’t understand it either. I did hear, however that there will be another Lily Ledbetter vote. Is that true?
night eCAHN
I just sent the following email to Reid and Pelosi (Fucking idiot fuckwits):
…and to add to our political misery…Obama was on KO for part 2 of his interview. Still sounding professorial with no zingers. (And there were plenty of opportunities)
Well done. “Fucking idiot fuckwits” wasn’t your subject line by any chance?
Out there in the real world, has anyone noticed any disenchantment with Palin since she’s been shown to be a liar?
The GOP is stuck on this one. They killed SCHIP once, and that’s already on the record. If they kill it again, Democrats will run ads to nail them to the wall on this from now to the election.
But the alternative is Rahm’s nightmare: the GOP caves, and Democratic challengers are forced to use that flip flop against the GOP incumbents (”they only care about the poor when their own jobs are threatened”). Meanwhile, poor families get health insurance for their kids.
Rahm, really. You need to get better nightmares than that, or you’re never going to get any sympathy from anyone.
Yeah. Great point.
nite ,nite…..
g’nite ecahn
Well done. “Fucking idiot fuckwits” wasn’t your subject line by any chance?
Hopefully, the subject line was “About my campaign contribution…”
I don’t get out there in the real world much. I think everyone I know, with the exception of some of my relatives, is a Democrat.
Great breakdown about why this so ‘looking glass’ stuff.
No, I decided that it might be more effective if I was moderately polite and somebody actually read it.
my eyes are tired too …have we made any progress peeps…the economy is scaring me……..see yall in the am
To be fair, the sort of folks who are enchanted with her are unlikely to be swayed by events in the real world. Maybe if they all received postcards from Jeebus saying they shouldn’t vote for her it would have some effect…
Did I tell you I found a store that has wine from Crete?
Sure makes things easier to deal with right now…… nice red wine from Creta co-op at Sita….
Rahm needs to spend more time with his family. A lot more time. In an undisclosed location in another county.
Night eCahn.
Obama picks up four key Minnesota business leaders’ endorsements, reports the Strib.
plus Robert Pohlad, whose family owns the Minnesota Twins [Go, Twins!]
and:
Anybody else thinkin’ these endorsements against McCain-Palin/for Obama are going to start lookin’ like Glaciers Calvin’ Justice, The Sequel?
g’nite sadly
g’nite sadly yes.
I’m out too, see y’all.
Night Sadly and RF.
g’nite ratfood
They started opening Obama Campaign offices here in Arizona…. today they opened one in Phoenix and working on Tucson and Flagstaff….. we are taking it to the man…. except he should retire to Sun City ……
Me, too. Goodnight everyone.
Night solai.
g’nite solai
lol! good one… that was deserved subtext…
Hell yes! I’m still hoping for an endorsement from Colin Powell! (Not saying that he holds any weight with us, but it could count.)
Listening to hogwash on Anderson Cooper. Joe Biden says Republicans should support stem cell research; the McPalin campaign spins it as a personal attack on Sarah Palin and her family re: her “special needs” child
You are not allowed to say anything that could possibly, in any wingnut’s wildest imagination, be construed as criticism of Sarah Palin. Whether it is or not.
Same rule has applied to John McCain for quite a while…
Nighters, folks.
I’ll check. i think he voted against it.
Night Loo Hoo.
Just so he doesn’t go to Bullhead City…where all good North Dakotan go to snowbird dance….
the r’s don’t like having their tactics used against them. they are trying to shield her but, unfortunate for them, the media sharks smell blood in the water and their shield aint gonna hold.
OT:
“LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles is using some urban bleat to combat urban blight.
The city has brought in a herd of 100 goats to clear the thick and tangled weeds from a hillside lot next to the historic Angels Flight railway.
Leaders of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency which brought in the animals say the goats are cheaper and more environmentally friendly than humans with gas-powered machines.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/bre…..ck_check=1
I love our economy.
“Agency head Cecilia Estolano says the South African Boer goats are being rented for $3,000. “
Where am I?????
Hey Dr. Dick
But as I sit here today
Many mile’s I am away
From the place I rode my pony
Through the draw
I swore I had read someplace that was the state song (you corrected me on that) or was proposed or something. So i checked it out. “Oklahoma Hills” by Woody Guthrie is the official folk song of the Great State of Oklahoma. (They have an official children’s song, too. But I forget what it is.
McPalin also attacked Obama’s use of the old cliche “lipstick on a pig” as a personal attack on Sarah Palin because she is a woman
He wasn’t even talking about Palin. Give me a break.
And the folks on TV give air time to this nonsense.
Why would anybody advocate flushing away little embroyos instead of trying to use them to save someone’s life?
a quick fyi
Indictment: Heather Wilson’s Office Tied to Abramoff
By Zachary Roth – September 9, 2008, 1:15PM
The Abramoff corruption probe has already snared one GOP Congressman, Bob Ney, and implicated a few more, most prominently Rep. John Doolittle of California. But could there be another to add to the list: Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico?
I saw the headline several days ago that the Dems weren’t going to force a vote on this.
Then I saw one today about how they were going to manage to get a vote on off-shore drilled.
What a bunch of shameless tools. And fearful ones, too.
You are not allowed to say anything that could possibly, in any wingnut’s wildest imagination, be construed as criticism of Sarah Palin.
So, just how is “lipstick on a pig” a slight to Mrs. Palin?
Sometimes, they just make it too easy.
gotta link for that sadly?
I sure hope you are right about that, Suzanne…
David Gergen just said “Every day that it is about Sarah Palin is a good day for the McCain campaign” or words to that effect
Well, it’s ABOUT Sarah Palin because that’s how the media reports it…
THE think that really ticked me off today was Megan McCain today….. her comment on the Today Show where HER family is the ONLY one who understands war…… OMG what a self centered B*tch…… understand WAR?
I have two parents who served in WWII…. My father fought and was wounded in the Battle of Tarawa…. My mothers brother flew missions in the Pacific, Korea and medivac in Vietnam….. Two cousins fought in Vietnam….. Lots of other cousins who served in WWII….. I lived with the effects of war as a child….. the PTSD …. the wounds that caused life long disability for my father….. My sister and ex were Vietnam Vets….. I’m ONE family…. there are millions of other family’s who knows and understands war…… again…. what a self centered B*itch…..
I was wrong and … who? was right. McFucktard did not vote on SCHIP.
Either because they are incredibly deluded and not reality-based, or because they want to cynically exploit the issure for political gain
just another thing David Gergen will later have to explain why he got it wrong.
G’night pups….
The Okies have and “official state” just about anything you can imagine. Nothing the lege likes better than wasting the people’s time and money on stupid bullshit like that rather than actually taking care of business. Hell, they did not get around to repealing prohibition until 1959.
me too neuro.
i want them to examine and report the truth – if dangling some sarah bait in front of them gets them back into the habit, hell yeah, i want a forking feeding frenzy going on – reporting the truth.
yep.
Unbelievable. SCHIP pissed me off. That was almost do-able and in the current climate might be. Maybe not. A few of the people who voted against it are retiring so they don’t give a shit. They’ll vote against it again. They should have a vote any way. And fuck drilling.
Black man calls white woman a pig in lipstick. Uppity.
he’s not shown up at his day job in a looong time – but no one ever seems to mention that in their coverage of the campaign.
but–but–but– her daddy was a POW, haven’t you heard?
and that makes him entitled to be president
g’nite ps
the South African Boer goats are being rented for $3,000. “
Where am I?????
Shoot, state employees could have done that for minimum wage….
And it entirely ignores McCrazyOldBastard’s use of the same phrase in regard to Hillary’s health care plan during the primaries.
Pretty soon it will be…”
People(might mean the Palins) needstem cell studies(might mean something) to help savefamilies(might mean the Palin family) from devastating illnesses that affectpeople(the Palins) of all means. It is theonly hope(God is the only hope) forprogress(might mess up the rapture) for millions ofgenetically and otherly affected individuals(peoples of the world…off the table) to have ameans of cure(interferes with the rapture) for theirailments(God’s will).Hope the goats are fenced in so the coyotes don’t get the little rascals.
Because they are fundie fuckwits. Consistency and reason are not their strong points.
really? 1959??!!!! we just had a dust up in FL last legislative session about the state song. state is beyond broke. no money at all. and they were fighting over the state song and license plates.the sttae song is Swanee River (Old Folks at Home). The chorus makes reference to “darkies” and for some reason, some people took offense.
i was thinking the same thing. service my ass.
who? was right. McFucktard did not vote on SCHIP.
hiya.
it was jayt @ 11. mccain didn’t show up for schip vote.
“Hope the goats are fenced in so the
coyotes(pitbulls with lipstick) don’t get the little rascals.”Heh.
Even if it’s another day about Palin being a liar? That’s good?
lipstick on a pig upstairs
IOKIYJM
He is servicing America the way a stallion services a mare (well, if it is a really small, wrinkled old impotent stallion).
“Hope the goats are fenced in so the coyotes (pitbulls with lipstick) don’t get the little rascals.”
Actually, Los Angeles has major infestations of both coyotes *and* “pitbulls with lipstick”.
Tough town.
Family friend…. when we lived in Wickenberg AZ….. he owned the western clothing store…. He was a POW in the Pacific during WWII….. we used to go into the store on the way home from school because they had monkeys…. Hey it was before 1965 and that was neat for kids to see and feed them…… There were days or even weeks the store was closed. My father said that he needed time to himself….. that we needed to wait for him to “get over it again”…..
How does McCain handle his PTSD?
Does he need time away?
These are questions that NEED to be asked…..
Hey, come on up here. We gots bears and pumas wandering through town, especially this time of year.
my 86 is the same time. i was gonna give ya credit.
Rahm do that? Nah, he’s the least cynical Democrat in the history of the US House, isn’t he….?
OT – about to collapse from emotional exhaustion. Progressive Alaska made Time Magazine’s on-line edition today. Wish they had spelled my name right, though.
Excellent question.
Come on, ET. You don’t really expect anyone at Time to be able to spell, do you?
If I had a glass of that wine I would go put on “Shirley Valentine” my favorite escape movie, and put this worrisome worrisome election out of my mind for a little while.
Incumbent Republicans like Ric Keller and Tom Feeney would for SCHIP this time to save their own hides. Dubya will not veto. Bill would pass. Republicans will proclaim that the bill was their snowflake baby. The MSM will swear to it. Kids get Health Insurance. Democrats get egg on their faces.
hilarious
I sent them a nice e-mail about nine hours ago, asking for a correction. We’ll see. I’m headed upatairs.
Thank you Teddy.
Just to give another perspective, children’s groups are largely pleased that congressional leadership is not pushing for a vote in September.
First and foremost, children’s groups really didn’t much like last year’s SCHIP bill that came out of the conference committee, as it was written largely by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA). The legislation throws currently covered parents off of coverage (people have largely missed this rather significant provision in the bill), covered fewer than 4 million of the 9 million uninsured children in this nation, maintained a bar on LEGAL immigrant children from seeking health coverage for five years, maintained some bureaucratic enrollment barriers to enrollment of low-income children through what the Republicans call citizenship documentation that has disproportionately hurt African-American kids from getting enrolled, and created what could be a devastating cliff in 2013 when the program would be underfunded by over $10 billion annually.
Thus, children’s groups largely opposed pushing the legislation again just 50 days before the election because children and their low-income parents would undoubtedly fare much better with a rewrite of the Republican-drafted legislation in the next Congress and Administration. The difference could mean billions of dollars and expanded coverage for millions of children without forcing their parents off of coverage.
Second, the SCHIP bill will cost $1.6 billion more this year than last because you are looking at a 2009-2013 budget window instead of 2008-2012. Thus, additional budgetary offices beyond the tobacco tax would be needed just to pass the “not so great” bill. Thus, it will be far from simple and give the appearance of an expansion of SCHIP that isn’t.
Third, passing the legislation locks in the lack of coverage of legal immigrant children (even those with cancer or some other life-threatening illness!) for five long years, locks in place a “not so great” citizenship documentation compromise that most negatively impacts African-Americans and children, and creates long-term problems for other needed changes to the SCHIP bill.
Fourth, why would Democrats agree to throw off parents of the low-income SCHIP kids, as the bill Bush vetoed did, to only start pushing to add them back into coverage in January? That seems a bit odd and forces creating the need to add adults back in and immigration as key issues for children’s groups as part of national health reform. Health reform already faces an enormous uphill battle without those two added burdens.
And last, for all these reasons, it more-and-more seems like such a lose-lose for children and Democrats.
For example, if it passes, we shortchange children by billions of what they could get with a new president and Congress. It also deprives Democrats of a powerful issue in the presidential, Senate, and House races across the country. Every single day I see a House or Senate candidate bashing their opponent on the SCHIP vote, but passage would take that away.
On the other hand, if it fails, it is another blow to children’s health issues compared to Medicare, which got prescription drugs in 2003 and a presidential veto override from Congress for Medicare physician payments this past summer. In fact, 114 Members of Congress voted for Medicare prescription drugs but repreatedly voted against SCHIP (McCain actually voted against both).
Instead, another vote would only further politicizes health policy and children’s issues. Although it would raise attention to the issue, many pundits will note the politicization of the issue as it has already been vetoed by Bush twice before. As for those that voted against SCHIP, those votes against have already been cast mutiple times so this offer nothing new for proponents of children’s health if it fails for a 3rd time.
What seems missing is not another vote but a lack of focus on this point of departure between Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin by the Obama Campaign (Obama and Biden voted for SCHIP and McCain voted against it; Alaska has one of the lowest coverage rates in the country, ranks 49th in child mortality, and Palin ignored her own health commission’s recommendation that the State should use its oil revenue surplus to expand coverage to children). Great ads are being run by candidates for office across this country on the issue but we barely hear a word on it from the Obama Campaign despite the overwhelming public support for the issue, particularly among women voters from polling by two Republican pollsters (see http://www.firstfocus.net/pages/3488/).
Palin said a McCain-Palin White House would be a great place for children with special needs. Currently, the evidence on how their health care needs would be addressed seems quite the opposite.