What kind of dysfunctional democracy do we have [...]]]> Last November, America said a resounding NO to Republican ideas and a full-throated YES to change, including a new and sensible health care system. By what tortured logic, then, is the committee drafting new health legislation composed of an EQUAL number of Democrats and Republicans?

What kind of dysfunctional democracy do we have when the shape of that legislation rests in the hands of six senators from some of the smallest states in the Union? When passage of this vital measure is in the hands of just ONE of those senators — Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine – OLYMPIA SNOWE, for God’s sake!

No wonder Americans are taking to the streets. What’s puzzling is why even more of us aren’t storming the barricades to protest this insult to our intelligence and the violation of our public will.

Lord knows we need to reform our broken health care system. But to put the task in the hands of senators who are beholden to the very institutions we’re trying to reform is both futile and idiotic.

There will be no reform of this or any other aspect of our society until there is federal funding of all elections and we have removed the corrupting influence of campaign contributions from our political life.

Group 1:The Right Wing of the GOP (McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, Grassley, et al) that has spread misinformation and sown fear in the hearts of their constituents, aided and abetted by Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck and [...]]]> If Health Care Reform dies in Congress, its blood will be on the hands of two groups of people and one individual:

Group 1:The Right Wing of the GOP (McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, Grassley, et al) that has spread misinformation and sown fear in the hearts of their constituents, aided and abetted by Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck and other Conservative commentators who are producing more heat than light.

Group 2: The ignorant, uninformed and gullible Americans who swallow those lies and distortions because they don’t have the information or the intelligence to challenge them and separate fact from fiction.

The Individual: President Obama, who won a resounding electoral victory in November…whose party controls the House and Senate and who has (HAD) the support of the overwhelming majority of citizens to bring about the change he promised during the campaign.

If he fails to use that mandate, he will have blown a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring about the kind of progressive change the country elected him to accomplish.
He should remind the GOP that he won and they lost, and that it’s now time for them to get out of the way.

During last year’s primary, I had doubts about Obama’s willingness to fight for what he believed in, and often thought he could use some of Hillary’s toughness.

Now, during this crucial health care battle, I find myself wishing that he could borrow a pair of balls from his Secretary of State.

Not content to have precipitated the current economic crisis with their disgraced supply-side, trickle-down tax cuts obsession, Republicans are pushing the same proposals to fix the economy that created the mess in the first [...]]]> Once again, the Neanderthals in the Republican party are wielding their ideological wrecking ball against the foundations of the American economy.

Not content to have precipitated the current economic crisis with their disgraced supply-side, trickle-down tax cuts obsession, Republicans are pushing the same proposals to fix the economy that created the mess in the first place.

Why anyone — least of all a president who received a huge popular mandate just 90 days ago to abandon those policies — would even LISTEN to Republican ideas about how to stimulate the economy – defies logic. To sacrifice an effective rescue plan on the chimerical altar of “bipartisanship” is at once infuriating and insane.

Republicans have absolutely NO credibility on economic matters. This is the same gang of know-nothings who never opposed any of George W. Bush’s massive spending and tax cut bills that created the current crisis.

Obama should remind them of that, tell them that he’s pushing through a bill heavy in spending and job creation with a minimum of tax cuts, then DARE them to oppose it with a filibuster.

It’s time to call the Republicans’ bluff

Sixty-one years ago, I saw Jack Roosevelt Robinson become the first black man to walk on big-league grass, and it made me proud not only [...]]]> One of the benefits of having lived seven decades is that I’ve been witness to events that were not only personally thrilling, but that were memorable and historic for our country.

Sixty-one years ago, I saw Jack Roosevelt Robinson become the first black man to walk on big-league grass, and it made me proud not only to be a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, but to be an American.

In all the years since, I’ve been unable to reflect on that powerful moment without suppressing a lump in my throat or wiping a tear from my eye.

Some months ago, I saw Barack Obama claim the nomination of his party as President.
Once again, that lump appeared (and the tear, too) and I again felt enormous pride in my country.

Tonight, I’m looking forward to the next chapter in this stirring American saga and to experiencing that feeling again.

But the statewide survey of 550 registered voters has one very surprising finding: 23 percent of Texans are convinced that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Obama [...]]]> A University of Texas poll to be released today shows Republican presidential candidate John McCain and GOP Sen. John Cornyn leading by comfortable margins in Texas, as expected.

But the statewide survey of 550 registered voters has one very surprising finding:

23 percent of Texans are convinced that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Obama is a Christian who was embroiled in a controversy earlier this year about his two-decade membership in Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Yet just 45 percent of those polled identified the Illinois senator as a Protestant.

The Texas numbers are unusual because most national polls show that just 5 to 10 percent of Americans still believe Obama is a Muslim —

less than half the number of Texans who buy into the debunked theories.

Texas has never been mistaken for the western headquarters of MENSA. And voters in any number of other states would probably — and sadly — produce the same poll results.

After two years of campaigning, and extensive coverage by national and local media, it’s stunning — and embarrassing — that one in four of the people polled still hold this view.

Anyone still think they should be permitted to vote?

The way you’ve done it — behind my back — reminds me of that [...]]]> “Senator, you’ve spent the last month making accusations about me that you know are false. You’ve been lying about my record, my position on the issues and about the people I’ve associated with…all in an effort to scare the American people.

The way you’ve done it — behind my back — reminds me of that classic American figure – the schoolyard bully.

We’ve all had someone like that in our lives at one time – you know, the obnoxious kid who strutted around trying to intimidate the other students by telling lies about them and trying to show how tough he was. And he got away with it until someone stood up to him and said, I dare you to say that to my face.

That’s when the bully caved in. He didn’t have the courage to look the other kids in the eye and tell those lies.

Senator, you never tire of telling us how brave you are. Well, here’s your chance to prove it. I’m challenging you to say directly to me now what you’ve been saying to everyone else. That I’m dangerous. That I’m not patriotic. That I support terrorists.

Here’s your chance, Senator. America is waiting.”

When you say, “I’m John McCain and I approve this message,” you are saying it’s okay to distort the facts, lie about my record and question my patriotism.

What you fail to understand [...]]]> Senator, all Americans – Republicans and Democrats alike – honor your military service.
But we do not honor the way you are running this campaign.

When you say, “I’m John McCain and I approve this message,” you are saying it’s okay to distort the facts, lie about my record and question my patriotism.

What you fail to understand is that your military service doesn’t give you exclusive rights to be called a Patriot. What you fail to acknowledge is that I love this country as much as you do, and I resent it when you question my patriotism.

The John McCain we once knew would never have made such a despicable and desperate charge.

That John McCain would have known that such statements by anyone – but especially from the candidate who had promised to run an honorable campaign – were beyond the bounds of decency.

That John McCain would not have approved such deliberate lies.

I knew that John McCain, and Senator, you’re no John McCain.

“While watching the Sarah Palin interview with Charlie Gibson Thursday night, and the coverage of the Palin phenomenon in general, I’ve gotten the scary feeling, for the first time in my life, that dimwittedness is not just on the march in the U.S., but that it might [...]]]> She’s Not Ready
By BOB HERBERT
Published: September 12, 2008

“While watching the Sarah Palin interview with Charlie Gibson Thursday night, and the coverage of the Palin phenomenon in general, I’ve gotten the scary feeling, for the first time in my life, that dimwittedness is not just on the march in the U.S., but that it might actually prevail.

How is it that this woman could have been selected to be the vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket? How is it that so much of the mainstream media has dropped all pretense of seriousness to hop aboard the bandwagon and go along for the giddy ride?

For those who haven’t noticed, we’re electing a president and vice president, not selecting a winner on “American Idol.”

Ms. Palin may be a perfectly competent and reasonably intelligent woman (however troubling her views on evolution and global warming may be), but she is not ready to be vice president.

With most candidates for high public office, the question is whether one agrees with them on the major issues of the day. With Ms. Palin, it’s not about agreeing or disagreeing. She doesn’t appear to understand some of the most important issues.

“Do you believe in the Bush doctrine?” Mr. Gibson asked during the interview. Ms. Palin looked like an unprepared student who wanted nothing so much as to escape this encounter with the school principal.

Clueless, she asked, “In what respect, Charlie?”

“Well, what do you interpret it to be?” said Mr. Gibson.

“His worldview?” asked Ms. Palin.

Later, in the spin zones of cable TV, commentators repeatedly made the point that there are probably very few voters — some specifically mentioned “hockey moms” — who could explain the Bush doctrine. But that’s exactly the reason we have such long and intense campaigns. You want to find the individuals who best understand these issues, who will address them in sophisticated and creative ways that enhance the well-being of the nation.

The Bush doctrine, which flung open the doors to the catastrophe in Iraq, was such a fundamental aspect of the administration’s foreign policy that it staggers the imagination that we could have someone no further than a whisper away from the White House who doesn’t even know what it is.

You can’t imagine that John McCain or Barack Obama or Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton or Joe Lieberman would not know what the Bush doctrine is. But Sarah Palin? Absolutely clueless.

Ms. Palin’s problem is not that she was mayor of a small town or has only been in the Alaska governor’s office a short while. Her problem (and now ours) is that she is not well versed on the critical matters confronting the country at one of the most crucial turning points in its history.

The economy is in a tailspin. The financial sector is lurching about on rubbery legs. We’re mired in self-defeating energy policies. We’re at war. And we are still vulnerable to the very real threat of international terrorism.

With all of that and more being the case, how can it be a good idea to set in motion the possibility that Americans might wake up one morning to find that Sarah Palin is president?

I feel for Ms. Palin’s son who has been shipped off to the war in Iraq. But at his deployment ceremony, which was on the same day as the Charlie Gibson interview, Sept. 11, she told the audience of soldiers that they would be fighting “the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”

Was she deliberately falsifying history, or does she still not know that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?

To burnish the foreign policy credentials of a vice presidential candidate who never even had a passport until last year, the Republicans have been touting Alaska’s proximity to Russia. (Imagine the derisive laughter in conservative circles if the Democrats had tried such nonsense.) So Mr. Gibson asked Ms. Palin, “What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?”

She said, “They’re our next-door neighbors. And you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska. From an island in Alaska.”

Mr. Gibson tried again. “But what insight does that give you,” he asked, “into what they’re doing in Georgia?”

John McCain, who is shameless about promoting himself as America’s ultimate patriot, put the best interests of the nation aside in making his incredibly reckless choice of a running mate. But there is a profound double standard in this country. The likes of John McCain and George W. Bush can do the craziest, most irresponsible things imaginable, and it only seems to help them politically.”

Bob Herbert has it right: We should be afraid. VERY afraid.