Bill Maher to Democrats: “'Stand Your Ground' on Obamacare”

Democratic strategists have been saying this for the last few months:  Don't hide under your desk and pretend the Obamacare rollout wasn't a disaster and that there aren't millions of Americans who are pissed off and worried about their future health care.  The Affordable Care Act — i.e. Obamacare — will be the dominant political issue between now and November.  Whichever party does a better job of getting out in front of this issue and framing the debate will be the party that prevails in November.  (And no, it's not a done deal that the Senate will go Republican.)

Bill Maher has this advice for Democrats:

“Stand your ground.  When a Tea Partier says, ‘Obamacare is a government takeover,’ say, ‘I wish — because that would mean Medicare for all.’”

He pointed out that most Americans are in favor of expanding Medicare and Medicaid, and agree that insurance companies should NOT be allowed to turn people down because of a pre-existing condition; and that Democrats haven't capitalized on this:

“No wonder the Republicans have such an easy time selling their argument about Obamacare — which is basically, ‘Hey, we tried it, it was a big failure.’  How about volleying that one back with, ‘What? We’re still signing people up for Christ’s sakes, how can we even know if it’s a failure? What we do know is that Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum think it will kill their children. No, you guys are thinking of assault rifles.’”

He also had some good things to say about Jimmy Carter, whose “failed presidency” is still talked about by the Far Right:

“Failed by whose standards?  We may not have had a great economy in the ’70s, but I’ll tell you something else we didn’t have — a war.  Obama’s supposed to be an environmentalist — he should be inspired by the president who put solar panels on the White House roof, not the president who came after him and tore them down because he thought the Sun was interfering with Nancy’s astrology.”

Jimmy Carter Nails the Bush Administration

Jimmy Carter enraged the knuckledragging community yesterday by criticizing Bush, his puppetmaster and Iraqmire. He only said what seventy percent of the country is already thinking.

Regarding Dick Cheney, he said: “He's a militant who avoided any service of his own in the military and he has been most forceful in the last 10 years or more in fulfilling some of his more ancient commitments that the United States has a right to inject its power through military means in other parts of the world…You know he's been a disaster for our country. I think he's been overly persuasive on President George Bush, and quite often he's prevailed.”

He also said the U.S. tortures prisoners in violation of International Law and that Bush makes up his own definition of torture.

Carter himself was an inept president, but compared to the imbecile currently blighting the White House…

They're All Ganging Up on the Worst President Ever

The word is spreading. George W. Bush is the worst fuckup in American history. Period. Jimmy Carter got lots of publicity the other day for calling the Bush Administration “the worst in history.” He said “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history. The overt reversal of America’s basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me.”

He also condemned Bush’s faith-based initiatives. “The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion. As a traditional Baptist, I’ve always believed in separation of church and state and honored that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one.”

Regarding Iraqmire, Carter said “We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered. But that’s been a radical departure from all previous administration policies.”

Some of our allies aren't quite as kind and gentle as Carter was. On the 4-year anniversary of Mission Accomplished Day, the Edmonton Sun slammed Bush’s ridiculous “Mission Accomplished” flightsuit stunt:

“Four years later, more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers are dead, and some 24,000 wounded. Bush administration claims that Iraq harboured weapons of mass destruction have been revealed as outright lies, swallowed unquestioningly by the media. The war costs U.S. taxpayers $200 million a day and $1 trillion so far. And terrorism, in Iraq and around the world, is fueled like never before by propaganda and the impression Americans are occupiers not liberators, bullies not saviours.”

In Argentina a newspaper editorial said:

“Bush is the only U.S. commander-in-chief to have initiated one war, only to have lost three. He never managed to catch bin Laden nor destroy al-Qaeda; he failed to defeat terrorism; he wasted the political capital awarded him by September 11th; and public opinion has come to detest him. The nation, once indulgent of his lies — lethal lies for over 3,000 of its own sons and daughters — no longer believes him. No U.S. President has ever harmed his country as much.”

And that’s not all. In Pakistan, the PakTribune said:

“Thanks to the murderous fools in the current US administration, civil life in Iraq, now at the 'point of no return,' is teetering at the edge of total anarchy. As an accompanying fallout, along with an estimated million dead Iraqis, a morally, financially and diplomatically bankrupt America, the inept charlatans have also successfully managed to thoroughly radicalize the whole region. From Sudan to Pakistan and beyond, the ranks of America haters now stand swollen like never before. The recruiters for suicide brigades now drool non-stop with glee at the long cues of raging applicants outside their murky caves.”

Ouch! And these are our allies (a category which has been steadily shrinking). God knows what the people who hate us must be thinking.

Jimmy Carter, when he was condemning Bush, also slammed Tony Blair for being one of Bush’s skankiest bitches. He said “And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world.”

Blair might have a chance to redeem his skanky reputation. There's a chance he’ll replace Wolfowitz at the World Bank. This could be a new beginning for him.

Yo, Tony: If George W. Bush approaches you again, tighten your sphincter muscles.

Nancy Pelosi: Jeopardizing the Peace Process?

Nancy Pelosi sure did push some buttons with her famous trip to Syria. Bush doesn’t want ANY outside interference in his plan (whatever the Hell that is) for the Middle East. Hey, things are going great over there; let’s not jeopardize anything.

Now if any Republicans want to go to Syria, that’s cool. But Democrats — stay the F%$#!#$!! out! And this includes any Democratic ex-president who might have an excellent track record for peace agreements.

Jimmy Carter was ordered by Bush not to go to Syria. He said: “I have known President Bashar al-Assad since he was a college student, and I thought it might be helpful if I went and urged him to support the peace process in the Middle East. But for the only time in my life as a former president, I was ordered by the White House not to go.”

That’s sort of like Barry Bonds offering to help a Little League player with his batting stance — and getting told to F%$#!##!! off.

Now, thousands of rightwing bloggers have dutifully followed their Master’s Orders to display that picture of Nancy Pelosi wearing a head scarf when she was in Syria. For them, here's a little primer from the “DUUUHHH!!!” category:

Most Moslems are offended by the sight of any exposed body part, including long hair. Most women have their hair covered. Pelosi was just following the motto of “when you're in Rome…” More American travelers should be this perceptive about following local customs.

Wearing a head scarf in Syria is no different than being in Japan and taking your shoes off before entering someone’s house. You don’t wear revealing clothing when you're in church, and you don’t walk around most Moslem countries with your long hair flowing.

Understand now?