MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Obama style...

Hallelujah!

Like a lot of Canadians, I've been following the political goings on south of the border pretty closely. I feel strongly about healthcare for all. The campaign in the US against universal healthcare clearly illustrates several points. One, that people can be talked into or out of almost anything when bombarded with daily misinformation and propaganda, a la Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman and their friends at FoxNews. Second, most people who oppose healthcare for all, already have it for themselves and their families. 'We've got our's' so you and your children are on your own. It speaks volumes about their world view. 'You've had arthritis? Your child has had cancer/diabetes/acid reflux? Well, that's a pre-existing condition - no health insurance for you!' Which leads to the saddest point - that most of the opponents of healthcare do not care about their fellow man, as long as they are taken care of themselves. How un-Christianlike, for a a group that largely identifies itself as Christian. I'm not particularly religious, but I respect much of what the bible says. Christians who are against health reform should consider the following inconvenient verse...

Deuteronomy 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.

I've discussed this at length with people who oppose universal healthcare, and their argument boils down to money. It will cost too much. Well, the American insurance companies make billions of dollars in profits. Billions. In. Profits. That may be a moral stomach turner for some, but it's a fact they are not going to part with that money and will (and have) spent millions if not billions lobbying in Washington to protect their profits.

Following the passing of health insurance reform last week (called Obamacare from the fair and balanced right) the airwaves were bombarded with anger, vitriol and violent language unlike anything I've ever heard. After everything that has happened south of the border over the last decade, it's mind-boggling. Remember what the right did to the Dixie Chicks in 2003, because Natalie Maines said they were embarrassed George Bush was a fellow Texan at a concert in London on the eve of the Iraq War? Think about what they endured for years after that for ONE REMARK made off the cuff, and then listen to the hate, fear, lies and spewed by Hannity, Beck, Palin, Limbaugh, etc, etc. These people have a strong following; thus we have the tea partiers. Remember when anyone who dared speak about against the Iraq War debacle was accused of being unpatriotic and vilified as hating America?? I guess criticizing the president is only okay if the republicans don't get their way.

Last weekend, I received an email from one of the American political blogs I follow. I read lots of political blogs, from both the right and left. This one did not come with an author named, so I will just pass it on. Consider this a love letter to the tea baggers...

We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, Now you get mad?

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and
appointed a President.

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate
energy policy.

You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn't get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.

You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn't get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.

You didn't get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You didn't get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans...oh hell no.