Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee rebuffed two amendments to include the public option in its health care reform bill. The first amendment, offered by Jay Rockefeller went down 15-8.  Chuck Schumer’s amendment failed to pass by a 13-10 vote.

So what now?

If you don’t think you can stomach it, this 44 minute piece reveals:

• Glenn Beck never went to college
• Glenn Beck is a self-professed Populist.
• Glenn Beck claims he becoming more Libertarian everyday.
• Glenn Beck is an alcoholic (recovering) and blames his earlier socially liberal views on his alcoholism.
• Glenn Beck supports gay marriage.
• Glenn Beck thinks abortion should be illegal.
• Glenn Beck collects flags.  But does not support a ban on flag burning.
• Glenn Beck says he is not a conspiracy theorist
• Glenn Beck is a Mormon
• Glenn Beck’s father was a baker
• Glenn Beck’s mother committed suicide when he was 13, which he calls “the motivating factor of the first half of my life”
• Glenn Beck says he would have preferred Hillary Clinton was elected President and may have voted for her against John McCain.
• Glenn Beck thinks John McCain would have been worse for the country than Obama
• Glenn Beck likes Sarah Palin

Or you can just watch it:

Watch CBS Videos Online

“Beck, squeezes maximum profit from a relatively small, deeply invested audience…The more the host is criticized, the more committed the original audience becomes.”   Can’t bring yourself to read the article?  Then read the reviews on the link below…

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/17/glenn-beck-on-time-magazi_n_290168.html

Glenn Beck On TIME Magazine Cover: Is The “Mad Man” Bad For America?.

Warning, what you will see in this video includes predominantly white, overweight, ignorant Americans who attended the Glenn Beck 9/12 Tea Party protest in Washington D.C. this past weekend.

To these people, Communism, Fascism and Socialism are pretty much the same thing. (6:01)

To these people, the Bible says that Barack Obama’s name means “Antichrist”. (4:51)

To these people, Obama is giving land to Czars. (7:41)

To these people, Obama is a Muslim. (4:22)

YouTube – 9.12 DC TEA PARTY – MARCH FOOTAGE WITH INTERVIEWS.

They later corrected the error, noting  that it might be used to by liberals to “discredit the undeniably massive turnout”.

She’s right to be worried — it absolutely will be used that way. If you don’t want to be discredited, then don’t tell a ridiculous (and easily disprovable) lie.

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Size Matters; So Do Lies.

Help spread the word…

How to Solve Heath Care in America – It could be that simple

I know this seems redundant, but this one has it’s own webpage and I spent like 30 minutes working on this video so I figured it deserved a second posting

Please repost the link:  http://www.itcouldbethatsimple.com

My simple 2-minute how-to video on how to solve the health care crisis in America. Feel free to forward this to your representatives and tell them you think they’ve been working too hard.

YouTube – How to Solve the Health Care Crisis in America.

YouTube – Barney Frank Confronts Woman At Townhall Comparing Obama To Hitler.

Hard on the heels of the health care protests, another “citizen” movement has “spontaneously”  ignited…this one fueled by Oil companies whose bottom line is threatened by proposed legislation that would set limits on emissions of heat-trapping gases.

While polls show that a majority of Americans support efforts to tackle climate change, Big Oil is manufacturing outrage and disappointment by sponsoring rallies in cities in southern oil-producing states, bussing company employees to eat hot dogs, listen to high school marching bands and show their bestest angryface on Fox News.

One oil exec even went so far as to defend the use of busses, saying “If we all drove in cars, it wouldn’t look good.”

In related and yet equally disturbing news, a  pro-coal industry group is being investigated for sending fake letters to members of congress, posing as the NAACP and Hispanic organizations, opposing new climate change laws.  Nice work.

The House bill seeks to reduce greenhouse gases in the United States by 83 percent by 2050.

via Oil Companies Back Public Protests of Greenhouse Gas Bill – NYTimes.com.

I’ve been spending a lot of time criticizing the critics of health care insurance reform lately and even dismissed a long time friend over his callous attitude towards a very sensitive topic.

Last night I found myself actually saying things like “I’m not really this liberal.”  And I’m not…fiscally I’ve typically sided much more with conservatives than democrats (it’s the religious right I tend to disagree with most).  I donate to the CATO institute.  I’ve read everything Ayn Rand’s ever written, and even met my (now ex) wife at an Ayn Rand conference.

I welcome debate, when it’s debate…informed,  reasoned…even passionate.  But when debate gets drowned out by noise, lies, fear mongering and screams, I have no tolerance.   I hear Palin scream “death panels” and I feel obligated to point as big of a digital finger as I can at her and  scream back, “MORON!”.

But there are reasonable arguments against the proposed health care reform.  Personally I’d like to see a  system that greatly reduces the financial incentives for insurance and drug companies to prey on sick people.  I’d like a system that can’t exclude anyone and doesn’t drop you in the event a serious illness.  Basically I want a system like our roads, our fire departments, or our public parks:  safe, efficient, affordable and always there.  Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like that’s what we’re getting.

According to Bob Herbert, “With the public pretty well confused about what is going on, we’re headed — at best — toward changes that will result in a lot more people getting covered, but that will not control exploding health care costs and will leave industry leaders feeling like they’vehit the jackpot.”

Read his whole not-so-happy column here:  Op-Ed Columnist – This Is Reform? – NYTimes.com.