August 14, 2009, Freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength
It does seem "disingenuous" for Republicans, such as House Minority Leader John Boehnert to rail against "death panels" in the Obama/Democratic health care reform package when they are similar to something he himself voted for way back in 2003. Admittedly, in 2003, we were still in the pendency of Newt Gingrich's thousand year twelve year reich, but it wasn't that long ago, and if the government funding counseling the terminally ill on "end of life services" is o.k. then, it should be o.k. now.
Frankly, I despise the "town hall format"-- the horrible "permanent campaign" more or less perfected by President Bill Clinton to "bring the message directly to the people"... Bush used it for his loyal minions, and now Obama is using it, and is, evidently, complaining about the media seizing on its own creation, the paid thugs who are disrupting yon "town hall meetings." Well, Barack played the media beautifully to get elected, managing to deflect many criticism of his campaign often by charging racism... but, alas, Barack, you're no longer going against the inept Hillary Clinton (i.e., a feckless, disorganized DEMOCRAT)... right now, you're talking about taking on the very order of the universe, the very power of nature, in short, klepto-capitalism itself in our neo-Victorian proto-fascist era, as expemplified by large health insurers, pharmaceutical companies and their corporate media allies who have the money and are willing to spend it, if necessary on paid thugs willing to do nothing short of threaten the President of the United States himself.
Oh, and Mr. President, you can count amongst those you are up against... as usual... key members of your own party.
I recently observed that playing with our new kittens seemed far more appealing than blogging, especially about the so-called health care "debate" that, in fact, just seems to be a vehicle for unleashing forces of thuggery and intimidation. I have continued to try to assist Candace in battling official thuggery and intimidation as practiced against the innocent men who have been languishing in maximum security confinement at the hands of the United States military for no reason for nearly eight years, and I go on with the interviews... but somehow, playing with the kittens seems the best use of my time.
We are living in dark times, plagued, fueled and driven by quite wilful, inflicted ignorance, and a coddled populace willing to be misled by their natural enemies. Perhaps its because my leisure reading these days is by Charles Dickens that one can see the antecedents of our current circumstance: debtor's prisons, long sentences (or the death penalty) for minor transgressions, general misery for the working man and woman (and their children, of course), terms of indenture that were virtually slavery. And yet, many people believe they are sympathetic to the views of the paid thugs disrupting the (loathsome) "town hall meetings," notwithstanding that those thugs are paid by the very "insurers" who oppress them, by denying coverage for "pre-existing conditions," making many policies unaffordable, abandoning coverage if you actually get sick, not paying for whatever it is they were supposed to cover in the first place, and of course, making you an indentured servant to your current job lest you lose your insurance, whatever it is. This is nothing short of a regression to Victorian times by other means... and yet, as Thomas Frank would observe, it seems the urban rioters are protesting for more rights for the aristocracy.
And my college classmate the President thinks that by acting as an autocrat in the area he does control (let's face it: Guantanamo, and the rest of it, could be ended by his pen-stroke, would he have the courage to execute such a pen-stroke)... he thinks he is somehow scoring points... but all he's doing is closing the circle of brutality... a circle that, as noted, probably thinks nothing of turning itself on him.
F*** it. I'm going to play with the kittens, now. I urge you to do something similarly life-affirming. I'll be back if I have anything interesting to say. Until then, this has been... "Freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength."