September 2009 Archives

I'm having a moment of cognitive dissonance here and I'm hoping someone can help me get my mind straight. In the outbreak of protests that have been popping up all over cable news, I keep hearing from the teabaggers, the healthcare reform opponents and my Libertarian friends variations on this argument: Government never works, and because government never works, we can't allow a public option to compete against private insurance companies.

It's no huge surprise that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's largest corporate interest group, is fighting any congressional attempts to pass legislation that would address the looming climate change disaster, but the chamber's fanaticism is even starting to drive away some of its major backers in the energy sector.

The Georgia Supreme Court just issued a unanimous decision that says the state can continue to use electronic touchscreen voting machines in elections and rejects the argument that these machines are unconstitutional because they can be fraudulently manipulated. The high court's ruling was logical, rational and intelligently reasoned -- which means we can look forward to hearing more tiresome rants that the justices are now part of the "conspiracy" to steal elections in Georgia.

When he spoke to the U.N. General Assembly this week, President Barack Obama accomplished in one sentence what the New York Times has been unable to do for six years: refer to the practices used during the Bush administration to interrogate terrorism suspects as "torture."

Here's a nice bit of circular reasoning for you: my colleague Jim "The Chief" Galloway of the Journal-Constitution wrote a blog post Wednesday morning on the rumor that the College Football Hall of Fame will relocate from South Bend, Ind., to Atlanta.

U.S. Rep. John Linder is among those who are making the early prediction that Republicans will win back their majority in the House of Representatives because of voter opposition to the healthcare reform plan being pushed by President Barack Obama and the Democrats.

Right-wing talkmaster Neal Boortz soon enters the hallowed ranks of the national Radio Hall of Fame, which is quite an accomplishment for the Atlantan who makes quite a lot of money from his nationally syndicated talk show.

Republican activists have been trying for years to take down ACORN, and it's not difficult to figure out why. The community service organization has been effective in registering blacks, Latinos and persons from low-income areas to vote -- the kinds of people who are more likely to vote for Democrats. ACORN's emphasis on helping folks whose skin is of the non-caucasian variety also makes the organization a perfect target for race-baiters like Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz, and Glenn Beck.

We should all give thanks to U.S. District Judge Clay D. Land of Columbus for showing that there are still a few sane people left in the United States.

It's a familiar complaint that the political dialogue in this country has become much coarser and less civil in recent years, a complaint that certainly has some validity. On the other hand, with politicians feeling less restrained about what they can say in public these days, we also have a situation where we are hearing more honest and open comments.

President Barack Obama's speech on healthcare last week obviously stirred up some strong feelings among Republicans, most notably from South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson who shouted, "You lie!" as Obama was making the accurate and truthful statement that undocumented immigrants would not receive healthcare benefits under the proposed plan.

A majority of Georgia's congressmen will tell you that they oppose the health insurance reform bill moving through Congress because it's a "government-funded" healthcare plan that will crowd out the "private" insurers who have done such a great job of covering America's citizens (if you can overlook the 46 million or so who are uninsured).

One thing you've got to say for Sen. Saxby Chambliss -- he really believes in upholding the traditional Southern values. If by traditional values, you mean whipping uppity negroes to within an inch of their lives so that they know their place.

It was Will Rogers who is credited with saying, "We have the best Congress money can buy," and the passage of time has shown us that Will was, sadly, all too accurate in his assessment.

New York Times reporter Charlie Savage writes that Attorney General Eric Holder plans to revamp the Justice Department's civil rights division so that the division actually does weird things like enforce the country's civil rights laws. How quaint.