Pelosi's Response to Republican Crybabies...

Aw, poor babies. The Republicans were loving the beating Democrats took at town hall events in the summer of 2009 over the health care debate. Fast forward to 2011 after the Republicans announced they are going to destroy Medicare and shred Social Security. They now find themselves on the receiving end of the angry town halls. How's that kill Grandma thingy workin' out for ya? They even wrote President Obama a letter begging him to tell the Democrats to stop telling the truth about Republican plans because they're feelings are getting hurt. Obama must've laughed has azz off when he received it! Funny how they feel now that the shoe is on the other foot. Even though we don't know Obama's reaction, we do know Nancy Pelosi's. Below is a letter she sent to the GOP Freshman in Congress. What a great response. Who knew what a cutting sense of humor she has!

MEMORANDUM

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Leader's Press Shop

To: GOP Freshman

Fr: Democratic Leader’s Press Office

Da: May 13, 2011

Re: Facing the Music – Suggested Songs for Your Trip Home

As you go home to face the music of your vote to end Medicare as we know it, we know you’re worried about what your constituents are going to say…for good reason. Here is a suggested playlist for your trip:

Think – Aretha Franklin (1968)

Desperado – Eagles (1982)

Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word – Elton John (1976)

Hard to Say I’m Sorry – Chicago (1982)

I’m Sorry, So Sorry – Brenda Lee (1960)

You Can’t Always Get What You Want – Rolling Stones (1969)

You Got Another Thing Coming – Judas Priest (1982)

Mama Said – The Shirelles (1961)

Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home) – The Impalas (1959)

Cryin’ – Aerosmith (1993)

Who’s Sorry Now? – Connie Francis (1958)

Lost Cause – Beck (2002)

I Learned the Hard Way – Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (2010)

Not Ready To Make Nice – Dixie Chicks (2006)

Bad Day – Daniel Powter (2005)

Troubles – Alicia Keys (2001)

When the music stops, you should try listening to the American people.

Being a Democrat is Like Being a Cubs Fan

Who negotiates like this? Republicans ask for $33B cut in spending and Democrats offer $34B. Then Republicans taste blood and ask for $40B and Democrats say $78B. Now Republicans want $100B and 218 republican votes before a budget can be passed. I'm waiting to see how many Democrats will switch parties to help them out! Did any of the Democrats ever buy a new car or a house? This is NOT how you negotiate. What the hell are Dems doing? Voting for Democrats is like being a Cubs fan. Seriously, as a long suffering Red Sox fan who finally saw the end of the curse in 2004 (otherwise they'd be my example). Let's think about the Cubs. They haven't won the World Series since 1908. Throughout the years, they've had many stars; Rick Santo, Ernie Banks, Roger Hornsby, Ryne Sandberg, Greg Maddux, etc... However, they have the Curse of the Goat, Steve Bartman, the black cat running past the dugout (hogwash, black cats rule), etc... Politically, we have a superstar manager in Barack Obama, solid progressive Senators like Bernie Sanders, Barbara Boxer, Sherrod Brown, Al Franken and Debbie Stabenow. Progressive Congressmen/women such as Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Jan Schakowsky, Anthony Weiner and Dennis Kucinich. Why do I always feel like Ernie Banks? He played for 19 years and never got the prize --- a World Series Ring. We had control of all three branches for two years and what happened? President Bi-Partisan. All he and our Democratic leaders did was capitulate to minority whining and crying. Pelosi failed to pass a 2011 budget late in 2010 so we're facing a government shut-down or the demise of womens health services. Why-oh-why does the party of the people cower when they have every single opportunity to do what the people want by large majorities? The Democrats as a whole are 1980's style Republicans, I begrudgedly get that. I don't know exactly when it happened (I expect it was the Reagan years), but it did. Maybe my wish that out more liberal members can make a difference is a far fetched dream. At this point I just want them to protect what we have already fought for and earned, but I'm not seeing a real fight for it. It's upsetting that our uninformed electorate isn't up in arms. Instead they're worried about who's going to win American Idol or Charlie Sheen's latest antics.

GOP Pushing For IRS Abortion Audits - Seriously

The GOP war on women is getting worse everyday. We now have a bill, that could subject survivors of rape and incest to audits by the Internal Revenue Service, if they choose abortion. Here's how this attack on women would work. The bill, H.R.3, could forbid using tax benefits -- like credits or deductions -- to pay for abortion or health insurance that includes abortion coverage. If a woman who claimed a tax benefit for an abortion service were to be audited, she would have to provide proof that her abortion fell under the rape or incest exception. According to a tax expert, if this bill becomes law, the IRS would have to enforce it. NARAL Pro-Choice America says, "Not only would a woman have to describe her sexual assault to the police, but she could then be forced to relive that horrifying experience with an agent from the IRS." Even more outrageously, the burden of proof would be on the woman to show that her assault was valid. Keep your receipts ladies.

This nonsense gets more outrageous and insulting by the day. Why has a legal medical procedure become fodder in a country that is supposed to separate church and state? Why is there not an outcry across this nation by self-respecting women and progressive men? Are we really that Foxed up? Here's another idea to go hand-in-hand. Every man who uses Viagra or any other ED medication must submit a sample to be stored in a bank for identification. If it is determined that the sample was likely involved in an unintended pregnancy, he would have to prove that he used all precautions necessary to prevent that pregnancy. If he can not prove he used all necessary precautions, any and all tax refunds for the next 18 years go to Planned Parenthood. How does that sound guys?

I have to say, I'm extremely distressed that women like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann who believe in subservience have become icons to many women in this country. They are taking us back to the Phyllis Schlafly time machine where women did what the male controlled society expected them to do. It's a very scary time for young women in this country. I just can't get my head around the notion of looking up to these women who think that looking good for the "men-folk" is good enough to get them by. Why are women like Hillary Clinton, Rachel Maddow, Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman Schultz mocked as less than ideal women? They are actual success stories! I remember when Palin first burst on the scene and watching how some guys were looking at her, talking about her; while they were picturing her as the "dirty librarian who's going to give him a spanking." Meanwhile, conservative women bought the great mom/successful career woman spiel, never mind that her teenage daughter got knocked up under her own roof. These people vote! They couldn't care less that their so-called attractive (very subjective) female and just-like-me (maybe as stupid, not wealth) candidates can't tell the difference between North and South Korea or New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The men care about watching them on the TV machine and fantasizing about what they would do to them if they got them alone and the women think about having coffee and discussing the kids.
Please read more at: Mother Jones: GOP Would Force IRS to Conduct Abortion Audits

KEITH OLBERMANN (10-03-08) DID A HILARIOUS VERBATIM READ OF RICH LOWRY'S COLUMN ABOUT SNOWZILLA'S VP DEBATE PERFORMANCE. FORWARD TO THE 1:33 MARK ON THE VIDEO.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN: OCTOBER 3, 2008.

If all Americans can get health insurance, life as we know it will never be the same...oh, wait

A funny thing happened this morning...the sun rose like it always has, there was no armegeddon overnight and since the religious zealots haven't mentioned anything, I guess it's pretty safe to say that hell didn't freeze over. Why is this so shocking? Because the Health Care Reform bill passed in the Congress last night with a gavel strike by *gasp* Speaker Nancy Pelosi! I've been mostly quiet about this because it's a very complex issue with complicated language, daily changes and with all the posturing from both sides, I wasn't comfortable putting my thoughts on the blog without complete confidence that all my facts were lined up. One thing I am sure about, when private insurance companies start randomly raising rates by as much as 40%, it was clear that the situation needed to be addressed. Today, a list of the top 18 immediate changes were listed on Huffington Post and I think it's important to point them out since Republicans are already promising to repeal this law once they regain power. After reading these new laws, I hope the GOP really is dumb enough to run on that platform. I think it's a bit misleading for them to keep pointing out that 52% of the country is against this bill. Statistically, that might be true, but at least half of those don't think the bill went far enough, not that we didn't want to see changes to the status quo. And because I've listened with interest to Wendell Potter, the former Cigna executive-turned-whistleblower and Dr. Howard Dean who managed to get universal coverage for children in Vermont under his Governorship, that this at least gets our foot in the door I would say our 26% + the already established support from 48% gives the Dems a 74% to 26% advantage!

• Health Insurers cannot deny children health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. A ban on the discrimination in adults will take effect in 2014.

• Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get tax credits covering up to 50% of employee premiums.

• Seniors will get a rebate to fill the so-called "donut hole" in Medicare drug coverage, which severely limits prescription medication coverage expenditures over $2,700. As of next year, 50 percent of the donut hole will be filled.

• The cut-off age for young adults to continue to be covered by their parents' health insurance rises to the age 26.

• Lifetime caps on the amount of insurance an individual can have will be banned. Annual caps will be limited, and banned in 2014.

• A temporary high-risk pool will be set up to cover adults with pre-existing conditions. Health care exchanges will eliminate the program in 2014.

• New plans must cover checkups and other preventative care without co-pays. All plans will be affected by 2018.

• Insurance companies can no longer cut someone when he or she gets sick.

• Insurers must now reveal how much money is spent on overhead.

• Any new plan must now implement an appeals process for coverage determinations and claims.

• New screening procedures will be implemented to help eliminate health insurance fraud and waste.

• Medicare payment protections will be extended to small rural hospitals and other health care facilities that have a small number of Medicare patients.

• Non-profit Blue Cross organizations will be required to maintain a medical loss ratio -- money spent on procedures over money incoming -- of 85 percent or higher to take advantage of IRS tax benefits.

• Chain restaurants will be required to provide a "nutrient content disclosure statement" alongside their items. Expect to see calories listed both on in-store and drive-through menus of fast-food restaurants sometime soon.

• The bill establishes a temporary program for companies that provide early retiree health benefits for those ages 55‐64 in order to help reduce the often-expensive cost of that coverage.

• A two‐year temporary credit (up to a maximum of $1 billion) is in the bill to encourage investment in new therapies for the prevention and treatement of diseases.

• The Secretary of Health and Human Services will set up a new Web site to make it easy for Americans in any state to seek out affordable health insurance options The site will also include helpful information for small businesses.

• A ten percent tax will be imposed on indoor tanning services. This tax, which replaced the proposed tax on cosmetic surgery, would be effective for services on or after July 1, 2010.

I'm pretty sure that last one is the one that really makes orange Minority Speaker John Boehners blood boil. The nerve of those sneaky Democrats sneaking this into a health care reform bill just to spite him!

March 19, 2003 - I Want a 'Do Over'

Right now, if you've been watching the news at all, you're probably knee deep in health care and whip counts and wondering if Speaker Pelosi will have 216 votes by Sunday. However, do you remember what happened seven years ago today? The Bush-Cheney regime launched the war in Iraq! For some reason,the majority of the media doesn't seem to care about it anymore. Quick fyi;one broadcaster hasn't forgotten and asked Nancy Pelosi about it last Thursday. The clip is below. Getting back to my point; Remember how the Bushies acted as though the 'mission' would be a cakewalk? They implied marching into Iraq to do as we please would be as easy as it was to free Kuwait twelve years earlier. A funny thing happened on the way to relabeling the oil fields for BP, Chevron, Exxon, Shell and Texaco -- the Iraqi's fought back! To this day, I find the fact that many U.S. leaders were dumbfounded that insurgency developed amazing. What do they think would happen here if another country invaded us?

Think about all our different missions or at least the one's easily remembered. First we were going there to rid Iraq of WMD (oops),  then it was to end a regime, then to develop a free Iraq, on to training the Iraqi's so they can do the fighting, and after stealing a second election, Bush decided he'd advance the ideal of democracy. Since everything was going so splendidly, we moved on to helping secure the population. I still find it ironic that many of them had 20th century services until we bombed them, now they don't even have running water in many places. Remember how another rationale was that we were going to "fight the terrorists in Iraq so that we wouldn't have to fight them here," in America. Nobody has ever explained why we couldn't keep fighting those terrorists in Afghanistan, where they were! This was arguably the worst decision any American leader has ever made. Historians will sort it out, in textbooks being cooked up by McCarthy-loving dipshits in Texas! Bush, Cheney and Rove will be smiling in approval.

Remember this famous Dubya quote while standing on an aircraft carrier: “On Thursday, I visited the USS Abraham Lincoln, now headed home after the longest carrier deployment in recent history. I delivered good news to the men and women who fought in the cause of freedom: Their mission is complete, and major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” [5/3/03] All these years later, this administration still has supporters even though every reason they used to invade and occupy Iraq has been debunked. Nothing will be learned from these grievous mistakes. The fact that the current administration refuses to investigate these crimes gives me every reason to believe it will happen again.

None of us will forget the tragedy of 9/11/01 when 3000 people died on U.S. soil. As of right now, 4385 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and over 30,000 wounded. And then there's the fact that an estimated 30-40,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the fighting. Can anyone explain to me that attacking a country with no ties to that fateful day and the loss of even more lives than occured that day has justified this invasion?

An interesting article I read today: Full El Al flight took off on 9/11 from JFK to Tel Aviv