Starting at the 4:40 mark….

This is what writer, Matt Taibbi, said about the exchange in the above video….

You basically have a whole panel of CNBC goons pooh-poohing the idea that predatory lending took place, setting up the inevitable revisionist history that the 2008 crash was caused by individual homeowners borrowing beyond their means.

My favorite part of this comes roughly at the six-minute mark. Tavakoli has just deftly explained how a lot of the predatory practices worked — people with limited financial literacy were presented with long and complicated mortgage deals, and told they would have a fixed payment in perpetuity or a guaranteed re-finance, or were nailed by fraudulent appraisals. Then she mentioned the big one, the fact that investment banks then took all these mortgages and with eyes wide open securitized them and sold them off as worthy investments to suckers on the other end of the chain.

While she’s saying all this stuff, Santelli, who is one of the fathers of the Tea Party movement, is shaking his head furiously, video-scoffing at everything she’s saying. When he finally does get a chance to speak, this is what he says:

"Here’s my problem with this. It takes two to tango. You can’t cheat an honest man."

You can’t cheat an honest man? What the f*ck does that mean?

"You can't cheat an honest man?" ……I'm with Taibbi…..what the f*ck DOES that mean?

I bring this up not because I get to copy and paste portions of an article with the f-word in it……you know, as fun as that is. Here's the reason this is important….Taibbi continues….

This whole scene sort of encapsulates what’s wrong with the Tea Party movement. The movement, and let’s admit this, has some of its roots in legitimate grievances about government waste and some not-entirely-inaccurate observations about what’s left of the American welfare state. Of course what resonates most with the suburban whites who mostly make up the Tea Party are stories about minorities and immigrants using section 8 housing, food stamps, Medicaid, TANF and other programs, with the Obama stimulus being for them a symbol of this ongoing government largess. The heat of the Tea Party movement comes from the racial frustrations that actually exist out there, in the real world outside New York and LA, as urban expansion and immigration increasingly throw white and nonwhite communities together, with white Tea Party types more and more often blowing gaskets over increased crime rates, declining school standards, and mislaid or wasted tax revenue.

That this perception that minorities are the prime or sole consumers of government entitlement programs is absurdly inaccurate — white people, for instance, are overwhelmingly the largest nonelderly recipients of Medicaid, making up 42.8% of the program’s rolls nationwide, compared to 22.2% for blacks and 27.9% for Hispanics — is beside the point. The point is that the Tea Party is built largely on this narrative of “personal responsibility,” where the central demons are unwed black and Hispanic mothers and absent black and Hispanic fathers, who are, let’s face it, not uncommon characters in the American melodrama.

…the Tea Party movement contains a lot of people who are far more impressed by what they can see with their own eyes than with what, for instance, they read about. I’ve been to Tea Party events where global warming was dismissed by speakers who, without irony, pointed to the fact that there was snow on the ground outside. And while very few people have ever actually seen a CDO manager or a Countrywide executive, or were aware if it when they saw them, the Tea Party folks sure as hell have seen who their neighbors in foreclosure are.

The Fox/CNBC types have very cannily latched on this narrative to rewrite the history of the financial crisis. They know that Tea Partiers will go for any narrative that puts blame on poor (and especially poor minority) homeowners, because the idea of poor blacks and Hispanics borrowing beyond their means fits seamlessly with their world view.

All of what Taibbi says here is exactly right……all of it…..and you get the bad words as an extra special bonus.

The Tea Parties have had a whiff of racism surrounding them since they began….the audiences are 99% white, most of their complaints have to do with rejecting the leadership of Ameria's first black president…..and their unanimous hatred of Obama's stimulus bill in March, 2009 was primarily because some of the allocated funding paid for continuing government programs…..which Baggers perceive as giveaways, primarily to darker skinned Americans.

I know that many will disagree with Taibbi's assessment, insisting instead, that the Baggers only concern, cross their Tea Bags and pinky swear, is out of control government spending.

As we'll see, if and when immigration reform takes center stage again, the Tea Party movement is basically motivated by a, 'we're the diminishing white majority and we don't like it', philosophy.

The only thing worse than that philosophy is the utterly despicable exploitation of the mostly-white Baggers by the slimiest, most dishonest, Rick Santelli-like, amoral, carnival barkers a rotted and corrupt financial industry can buy.

What did Pope Benedict know and when did he know it?

From Reuters…

One of Pope Benedict's ceremonial ushers and a member of an elite choir in St Peter's Basilica have been implicated in a gay prostitution ring, in the latest sexual scandal to taint the Vatican.

Ghinedu Ehiem, a Nigerian, was dismissed by the Vatican on Wednesday from the Giulia Choir after his name appeared in transcripts of police wiretaps, published by an Italian newspaper, in an unrelated Italian investigation.

Balducci is also a member of an elite group called "Gentlemen of His Holiness," ushers who are called to serve in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace on major occasions such as when the pope receives heads of state or presides at big events.

"Gentlemen of His Holiness" carried the coffin of the late Pope John Paul at his funeral in 2005.

Excerpts of the wiretaps and police documents published in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica showed that Ehiem, 40, had been in regular contact with Balducci before Balducci's arrest last month and the subject of their conversation was gay sex.

A police document prepared for magistrates and published in part by La Repubblica said Balducci was in contact with Ehiem and an Italian who were part of what the police called "an organized network … to abet male prostitution."
……

Wiretap transcripts published by La Repubblica showed that among the men Ehiem allegedly procured for Balducci were seminarians. In one, Balducci is quoted as asking Ehiem: "At what time does he have to return to the seminary?"

The BBC reports….

The case has made front-page news in the Italian media.

The transcripts suggest that Mr Ehiem procured at least 10 contacts for Mr Balducci, including a male model and a rugby player.

The question now is: who inside the Vatican knew about this and who inside the Vatican was participating in this "organized network" of "male prostitution?"

The BBC says Pope Benedict XVI…."was aware of the matter." That doesn't tell us much. Some are asking the question, 'What did the Pope know, and when did he know it?' Indeed.

To add a bit of perspective to this ugly story from inside the Vatican, I think it's important to consider the American Catholic Church's response recently after Washington D.C began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples….

Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, facing a new District of Columbia law mandating health coverage for partners of gay employees in agencies that take taxpayer dollars, has decided to drop coverage for all spouses of Catholic Charities employees rather than be forced to insure same-sex couples.

Catholic Charities, not acting very charitably, but instead, vindictively, ended all spousal health coverage, rather than cover gay spouses. Some charitable organization, huh?

Cutting all Catholic Charity employees' spouses, gay or straight, from the roles of health coverage isn't the only vindictive action the Catholic Church has taken recently in their crusade of hate against the gay…..

The announcement follows last month's decision by Catholic Charities to end its longstanding foster care and adoption program because the new statute would have compelled the agency to place children with qualified gay applicants.

These two examples of Catholic Church bigotry towards 'the gay' is made all the more toxic in light of the uncovering of the Vatican's own gay prostitution ring.

Don't forget….Religion poisons everything. In this case, Catholic religious teachings have led directly to open discrimination and actions of bitterness and hate towards our "fellow man"….and, at the same time that close associate "gentlemen" to the Pope inside the Vatican were operating an organized male prostitution service.

This story's poison is especially potent.

This Guardian article is also worth reading on this topic.

Also relevant here is my February blog reviewing Benedict's version of condom reliability as it relates to the spreading of HIV-AIDS.

Story of this Wisconsin billboard here.

By definition, in modern America, if a Democrat has been elected president……impeachment is the response. It all started in earnest with the nationally embarassing "birther" folks….Palin, Partiers, and the Fox Propagandists who love them, have successfully convinced over half of all Republican voters that Obama, really, is not one of us.

The only resolution to the Obama "problem", at least for bizarro conservatives, is impeachment. No reason will be necessary, just as there was no reason for the Clinton impeachment.

Everything we've witnessed from our hopelessly corrupt corporate media industry since Obama became president has been for the purpose of returning GOP tax-cutters-for-the-wealthiest back to Congressional power. The drooling by the likes of Wolf Blitzer, Chris Matthews, Anyone at Fox, et.al……drooling that has gone on every day since January 20, 2009…..is all over hope of a GOP comeback.

If that comeback emerges, it will be accompanied with full metal jacket Villager assistance, just like in the 90's. If the GOP reclaims the House, Senate or both this November……can there really be any doubt that everything will be on the table…..including impeachment?

Obama has been president for less than 13 months. Already, American idiots are paying for billboard ads calling for Obama's impeachment.

Frank Luntz, GOP "word consultant", looking like he's squeezing out another loaf of deception.

For many years now, Republicans haven't had any new policy ideas to offer to the American people. By definition, conservatism is against change…unless it's regressive (good old days and all that)…..so no new ideas coming from Republicans is to be expected. It's in the GOP DNA.

How can Republicans get away with politically battling without any new policy ideas Americans might embrace?

Deception and disinformation…..and when even that's not enough…..Republicans are encouraged to just lie about stuff.

We witnessed this dynamic during the health care reform "debate."

Here's the repellent Frank Luntz, GOP word-guru…..explaining how GOP deception and disinformation would play out in the health care back and forth….

Q: Is it a correct description of the president’s plans for reform?

Luntz: We don’t know what he is proposing. We want to avoid “a Washington takeover.”

Q: But that’s not at issue. What the Democrats want is for everyone to be able to choose between their old, private health-insurance plan and an all-new, public health-insurance option.

Luntz: I’m not a policy person. I’m a language person.

Translation: It doesn't matter what Obama or congressional Democrats proposed to reform health care…..the reform would be labeled by Republicans as "a Washington takeover".

And so it was. Luntz's "language" lesson worked it's way through the rotted and decomposed corpse we still call the American mainstream media. Tea Partiers, unhinged and incoherent…yet passionate about disliking Obama as president…..carried the "language" forward. Result? No health care reform has been passed. Luntz, Republicans, Big Insurance, Big Pharma win again…..by deception and lies….Americans lose.

But what of the veracity of the GOP talking point that Obama and the Democrats were proposing a "Washington takeover"?

Doesn't matter, policy is not my concern, said Luntz…..I'm hired to deceive people with "language."

I bring this up because fat-Frank is at it again, working with Republicans and the Banksters-Who-Ate-America to deceive voters into believing the lie that if Washington regulates Banksters, Armeggedon (or something bad) will result. Why? Because….yep, you guessed it…..government was responsible for America's financial collapse.

Huffington Post…

"If there is one thing we can all agree on, it's that the bad decisions and harmful policies by Washington bureaucrats that in many ways led to the economic crash must never be repeated," Luntz wrote. "This is your critical advantage. Washington's incompetence is the common ground on which you can build support."

"Public outrage about the bailout of banks and Wall Street is a simmering time bomb set to go off on Election Day," Luntz wrote. "Frankly, the single best way to kill any legislation is to link it to the Big Bank Bailout."

Think about what Luntz is saying. New legislation to rein in some of Wall Street's unregulated gambling schemes, the vortex of why the economy fell apart….or a new federal agency to protect consumers from the same types of trick loans which helped inflate a housing bubble…..can be defeated by Republicans by repeatedly chanting the words "Big Bank Bailout." Not because new government regulation of the Banksters wouldn't help prevent another future government bailout of same…..but because Americans recoil negatively at the words "Bank Bailout."

Luntz's deception business treats the American people like plantlife who automatically and mindlessly respond to sunlight….or in this case, lack of sunlight. Cattle easily fooled into going into the slaughter yard pen.

Personally, I dislike Frank Luntz, and have for years. He represents everything that is wrong with American politics.

But there's method and purpose in Luntz's word madness….

Think Progress

Luntz, who gained national recognition for his role in shaping the buzzword-heavy Contract for America with Newt Gingrich in 1994, has built a sizable business selling his messaging advice to both corporations and Republican campaigns.

Who might some of those "corporations" be that Luntz works for….

– Luntz client Ameriquest Mortgages: The proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) would eliminate predatory mortgages. Ameriquest, America’s “sub-prime leader,” has been prosecuted by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal for inflating property values so borrowers could get bigger loans, imposing upfront fees without reducing interest rates as promised, and intentionally deceiving lenders with hidden penalties and interest rates on final loan documents.

– Luntz clients Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns: Under proposed financial reform, big banks, like Luntz clients Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns, would face a new structure designed to police financial products, prohibit predatory ones, and require clear forms and disclosures. The CFPA would also help regulate hidden bank fees and other bank abuses.

– Luntz client American Express: The CFPA would regulate the credit card industry, preventing predatory interest rates and fees.

Just as Betsy McCoy deceived and lied about health care reform because she was being paid by Big Insurance and Big Pharma…..so too Frank Luntz with the Banksters.

The crucial question now for Americans is….can corporate and GOP-paid "language" deceivers and liars fool most of the people most of the time?

I'm thinking, and especially so since the Rogue Supremes went down on Big Corporations, that the answer is….yes.

It is said that even a blind pig stumbles onto the occasional acorn under a tree. Maybe…..however, the unknown author of that line probably couldn't have imagined the likes of the blind American power pigs we would be dealing with in the 21st century.

On December 12th, I blogged about how corporate-whore media propaganda works now in America. In that post I recapped the comic book plot of ACORN entrappers, Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe. The heavily edited entrapment video ran 24/7 on FOX, who then pressured fellow corporate-whore media outlets to join in or be called "liberal"…….which prompted mainstream Villagers to eagerly join in the Fox-initiated partisan caper.

Then those two very, very, solemn and deliberative bodies we call the House and Senate voted almost unanimously to defund ACORN in one of the most audacious circle jerk, knee-jerks I've ever witnessed. President Obama, like his predecessor did in the truly embarassing Schiavo saga, rushed to sign the knee jerkers defunding of ACORN bill.

In that blog I mentioned the report by former Massachusetts Attorney General, Scott Harshbarger, who concluded that ….."we did not find a pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff…."

That blog post generated a lot of interest. Many conservative readers still insisted, report or no, that ACORN was a criminal organization….or worse.

Now, via The Nation, comes this from the NY Times…

The controversial community organizing group Acorn has not broken any laws in the last five years, according to a Congressional Research Service report released Tuesday (Dec. 22) evening.

..[..]..

….the Departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development, have awarded money to the group 48 times since 2005. But, in none of those instances did Acorn violate the terms of their funding, the report said.

Now we have two reports stating that ACORN has done nothing wrong….not just in the wingnut-sting saga…..but in anything they've been involved with…THE LAST 5 YEARS.

What I hadn't known previously was how high the blind power pigs had piled on ACORN…..

Acorn has been the subject of scores of investigations—a total of 46 inquiries by federal, state, and local agencies, including the FBI and the Treasury Department, and five by Congress as of October 2009, according to the report.

That paragraph burns my derrierre.

FORTY SIX inquiries.

Do you know how many inquiries or investigations are going on over never-before-ordered-by-a-president-and-clearly-illegal…..torture techniques instituted under Bush-Cheney?

ONE.

That one Eric Holder-approved investigation is only looking at whether or not CIA employees EXCEEDED the Bush-Cheney ordered, John Yoo written, Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (torture made to sound like it's not). Included in the behavior not being investigated at all are such things as waterboarding, walling, deprivation (sleep, temperature), and placing detainees in coffin sized boxes. Can't investigate, can't go after anyone who used those torture techniques……only torture which EXCEEDED those already-illegal torture techniques, can be investigated.

I mention Holder's so-called investigation into torture not because it's an outlier when it comes to how America 'works' now…..but because it has become the rule. Think I'm joking? Go read this…..then tell me what you think.

What is America's new rule? The powerful and connected are above the law, never to be held accountable when they willfully and unquestionably violate American laws, (with the exception of any and all Democratic Presidents) while the non-powerful and not-connected must be investigated repeatedly, maligned, villified and slandered….even when they've done nothing wrong.

I confess, this is not an entirely new rule…..to be fair, let's just call in 'enhanced.'

Now I have a special treat for my conservative friends…..not only did the Congressional investigation find no impropriety in ACORN's use of federal funds…..they also found….

…no instances of individuals allegedly registered to vote improperly by ACORN "attempting to vote at the polls."

Imagine that. For the past 18 months, or so, FOX and it's propagandistic Fiends have been convincing viewers that next to Bin Laden…..ACORN is America's worst enemy. Voter fraud charges have been flying all over hell, along with charges of stealing this and that election, singlehandedly and corruptly putting Obama in the White House and everything short of being responsible for manufacturing the H1N1 virus.

"no instances" where "Mickey Mouse" tried to vote were discovered. Imagine that. But the damage has been done….AND THAT WAS THE POINT from the start…..

"But what was so insidious is–once your name has been attached to a bill in Congress and you have been singled out as suspect, whether you get the federal funds or not, now you have driven away private foundation funding. That is the true harm because we have been singled out for infamy", quoting ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis.

Our American political and media rulers can't find it in themselves to "single out for infamy" those powerful enough to order the illegal and brutal torture of detainees. Our blind power-pig rulers haven't found one reason to hold conspiring, thieving banksters accountable for their evil deeds which have wrecked millions of Americans economic lives, setting the entire nation back 10 years. Those same patriotic, power-pigs….blind as bats…..couldn't stumble around enough to find the Cheney fraudsters responsible for the deaths of some 4400 U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

But those same rulers can sure as hell destroy the not-so-powerful who haven't done a damn thing wrong…..can't they?

Good 2007 Fox article about the U.S. State Dept. granting immunity to Blackwater killers.

State Department officials have reportedly granted several Blackwater employees immunity from prosecution in its case of last month's deadly shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians,

…one source indicated the Department of Justice and the FBI feel hamstrung by the immunity grant, which blocked the FBI investigative team in Baghdad from collecting essential information from those allegedly involved in the shootings.

Senior federal law enforcement officials confirm that an FBI investigative team returned home Monday to Washington, D.C., from Baghdad. The team had been trying to collect evidence in the Sept. 16 embassy convoy shooting, and was not able to collect statements from Blackwater employees who were given immunity.

"Once you give immunity, you can't take it away," a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press.

The Reverend gave his cynical take on October 30, 2007

…for a few years of the Iraq quagmire I thought we weren't going to be successful in spreading the American brand of democracy, that the Relevent One had promised, to all those Iraqis living on top of all our oil.

But now, with another stroke of genuis from a White House full of Einstein types, in granting immunity to Blackwater mass murderers over in Iraq, I can almost guarantee that American democracy will now catch on like wildfire.

Then, last week, the AP reported….

The case against the five men fell apart because, after the shooting, the State Department ordered the guards to explain what happened. In exchange for those statements, the State Department promised the statements would not be used in a criminal case. Such limited immunity deals are common in police departments so officers involved in shootings cannot hold up internal investigations by refusing to cooperate.

Because of the immunity deal, prosecutors had to build their case without those statements, a high legal hurdle that Urbina said the Justice Department failed to clear. Prosecutors read those statements, reviewed them in the investigation and used them to question witnesses and get search warrants, Urbina said. Key witnesses also reviewed the statements and the grand jury heard evidence that had been tainted by those statements, the judge said.

The Justice Department set up a process to avoid those problems, but Urbina said lead prosecutor Ken Kohl and others "purposefully flouted the advice" of senior Justice Department officials telling them not to use the statements.

I wonder why Ken Kohl "purposefully flouted the advice" of senior DOJ officials…..don't you?

What seems clear, at least to me, is that Condi Rice's State Department decision to demand statements from Blackwater guards while simultaneously granting them immunity, was strategic. As it proved out, Rice's decision actually led to the case being dismissed on a "technicality." Not that the Blackwater killers aren't guilty, they most certainly are.

My question about this ruling, even as foul as it is….is this: President Obama has told the American people that pictures of American abuse of detainees in Iraq cannot be made public, can't be seen, for fear that they would further inflame Iraqi and Muslim hatred against America in general, and our troops, in particular. Releasing those pictures to the public would, as George W. Bush said about keeping everything secret, "endanger our troops."

Shouldn't the federal judicial ruling which dismissed charges against Blackwater mass killers of innocent Iraqis have been kept secret? Shouldn't some kind of gag order against releasing this "state secret" information been given? Because, obviously, this piece of information, just like the information that could be revealed in those taboo pictures, will inflame Iraqi and Muslim sentiments against the U.S…….right? And doesn't that "endanger our troops?"

Iraqis are angry…..

Iraq expressed anger on Friday with a U.S. federal court ruling that threw out all charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of gunning down Iraqi civilians in 2007.

The ruling was “unjust and unacceptable” Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement,….

There were a quarter of a million Google sources pertaining to the Blackwater case dismissal……I mean, when is enough, enough? How long will the U.S. "free press" continue to recklessly endanger our U.S. military personnel by reporting on stuff?

Lots of lists are being written about the decade that's ending tonight. The aughts, the decade has been officially labeled.

Should be called the ought-nots.

My favorite list is entitled "The top ten worst things about the Bush decade." Many readers, I'm just so certain, will enjoy reading Juan Cole's list.

Here's Cole's #1 top worst thing about the Bush decade…..

1. The constitutional coup of 2000, in which Bush was declared the winner of an election he had lost, with the deployment of the most ugly racial and other low tricks in the ballot counting and the intervention of a partisan and far right-wing Supreme Court (itself drawn from or serving the oligarchs), and which gave us the worst president in the history of the union, who proceeded to drive the country off a cliff for the succeeding 8 years. And that is because he was not our president, but theirs.

Throughout Juan Cole's other 9 top worst things about the Bush decade, he defines who the "theirs" are in that last line. The oligarchs who run our country.

An oligarchy is…."a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few."

Those same oligarchs make appearances in each and every one of Cole's "top ten worst things about the Bush decade."

Conservatives believe these oligarchs are intellectualized, liberal prima donnas seeking to bring down America anyway they can through "socializing" all aspects of the national economy.

Liberals understand that, if the money is followed, the American oligarchs are easily identified. They are those who bring tax rates on the wealthy down to historically low levels. They are those who conjured up the Enron's and the WorldComs and the Dotcom bubble, the deregulation of finance, the mortgage crisis, the bank and insurance failures….and benefitted from all of it.

Oligarchs are those who defend and encourage national spending of $1 trillion annually to fuel the military industrial complex, a danger long ago warned about by a Republican president.

Oligarchs are those who work together to prop up and expand health insurance and pharmaceutical companies' profits through legislation favorable to Wall Street. They are those who protect and defend the profits of energy companies, resisting every attempt to move away from carbon dependency.

Oligarchs are everywhere present when it comes to defending and protecting huge tele-communications corporations….helping to deregulate everything, so that consumers pay even more while being sedated by the "competition is god" nursery rhyme.

And don't get me started on the incestuous relationship the U.S Treasury and the FED has going with their Siamese twin oligarch, Goldman Sachs. I might have to use cuss words…and then where would we be?

Read Cole's list.

I will be tending to a family funeral for the next two days, but will then be back with my version of 2009's biggest story.

The last two mornings my Roadrunner has been working like an old Ford with a bad carburetur……every time I would try to save my work, it was lost. Lots of very vulgar words were spoken.

If you didn't see Keith Olbermann's special comment last night urging Congress and the president to scrap the current rubbish known as the Senate health care reform bill…..you should.

On Tuesday, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean had this to say about the reform bill coming out of the Senate…..

"This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill."

Yesterday, Dean continued doing something that Villagers and corporately compromised politicians detest….speak the truth on teevee….

"This is a bigger bailout for the insurance industry than AIG," former Democratic National Committee chairman and medical doctor Howard Dean told "Good Morning America's" George Stephanopoulos today. "A very small number of people are going to get any insurance at all, until 2014, if the bill works.

"This is an insurance company's dream, this bill," Dean continued. "This is the Washington scramble, and I think it's ill-advised."

..{..}..

"We've gotten to this stage … in Washington where passing any bill is a victory, and that's the problem," Dean said. "Decisions are being made about the long-term future of this country for short-term political reasons, and that's never a good sign."

"at this point, the bill does more harm than good."

"I've been involved in this all along. I put up with a lot of stuff I didn't like because I thought at the end of the day what was good about the bill outweighed what's bad about the bill," Dean said. "I don't believe that anymore."

Every word Doctor Dean said is 100% truth.

The response from Democratic Senators and the White House?
Slam Howard Dean.

The most common Democratic rebuttal to Howard Dean sounded like this….

"I disagree with Howard Dean," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Tuesday in an interview with ABC News. "Howard Dean is a medical doctor. He has to know what it will mean when 30 million Americans are finally going to have health insurance, that peace of mind and protection for the first time in their lives. For many of them, that is a dramatic step forward."

Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) took it a step further….

"It's nonsense and it's irresponsible and coming from him as a physician, it's stunning," Rockefeller said during an appearance on MSNBC.

Robert Gibbs used mockery to diminish Dean's accurate statements…

"I would ask Dr. Dean, how better do you address those who don't have insurance: passing a bill that will cover 30 million who don't currently have it or killing the bill?" he added. "I don't think any rational person would say killing the bill makes a whole lot of sense at this point."

The number one Democrat, President Obama, waxed all Bushian….

“If we don't pass it, here's the guarantee….your premiums will go up, your employers are going to load up more costs on you,” he said. “Potentially they're going to drop your coverage, because they just can't afford an increase of 25 percent, 30 percent in terms of the costs of providing health care to employees each and every year. “

The president said that the costs of Medicare and Medicaid are on an “unsustainable” trajectory and if there is no action taken to bring them down, “the federal government will go bankrupt.”

Because Barack Obama wanted to create the perception that he was a bipartisan leader, early in the process he sucked up to GOP Senators like Grassley (R-KS), Enzi (R-WY) and Snowe (R-ME)…..whose intent from the beginning was to prevent anything from being passed. Obama did not insist that Congress stay in session back in August…no sense of urgency coming out of the White House then.

Obama campaigned stating that he preferred a public option to help drive down insurance prices. He campaigned against Hillary's mandate for everyone to buy insurance. Now he's against the former and for the latter. Obama tells us that if nothing is passed, insurance premiums will go up…..when the health insurance industry has already stated that costs would go up regardless.

The President uses Bush/Cheney-style scare tactics for political purposes. He has failed to lead in this long drawn out debate. Obama has shirked his duty to get rough with corporately-compromised Senators and House members. Repeatedly, he has failed to instruct Congress on what he would and would not accept. Only the strong survive in today's American political arena and in the health care reform "debate", Obama has not been strong.

Now, political perception is all that matters to Obama. Having allowed the process to be strung out so long….only now is there a genuine sense of urgency coming from the White House.

Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have the right idea….table this Christmas present to Big Insurance and Big Pharma….and go the route of reconciliation where 51 votes are all that are required to pass genuine health care reform for the American people.

If the Republicans. and the Village that loves them, don't like it and throw a fit…..they can go pound salt.

UPDATE: Just in case the Democratic plan hasn't angered progressives enough….Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) wants to insure that he has control over women's uteruses before he lends his support….

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said on Thursday won't vote for the Senate's healthcare bill unless further changes are made.

Nelson said that modifcations to the bill, including provisions to curtail federal support for plans covering abortion, are needed to win his vote.

UPDATE 2: Must read….

UPDATE 3: Glennzilla has zeroed in on the real issue. Take the time, it's worth it.

The Obama White House and Congressional Democrats are hurriedly wrapping the huge Christmas present they're preparing to give to their bestest friends forever….for-profit coporate health care insurers.

Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff, is doing most of the holiday wrapping this year….

Obama administration officials were not pleased when word leaked out earlier today that the White House was leaning on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to cut a deal with Joe Lieberman on a public option alternative–and they gave their counterparts on the other end of Pennsylvania Ave. an earful about it. But in the end, sources are unanimous: The White House wants Reid to hand Joe Lieberman the farm.

Emanuel didn't just leave it to Reid to find a solution. Emanuel specifically suggested Reid give Lieberman the concessions he seeks on issues like the Medicare buy-in and triggers.

"It was all about 'do what you've got to do to get it done. Drop whatever you've got to drop to get it done," the aide said. All of Emanuel's prescriptions, the source said, were aimed at appeasing Lieberman–not twisting his arm.

Think about that. "Drop whatever you've got to drop to get it done."

To get what done? Certainly not real national health care reform. That's not what's getting done. More likely, what Rahmbo was referring to as "it", is the sweetheart deal corporately-compromised Democrats are preparing to hand over to big health insurance and big pharmaceutical. Have a jolly old corporate Christmas, huh?

Joe Lieberman, the most vile, obnoxious, full-of-himself, bastard Senator ever to foul the air of Congress, is paying the Democrats back for their kind gestures towards him after he was booted into Independent status in Connecticut. Just the kind of prickish fellow that Joe is. If you recall, Unholy Joe lost the Democratic primary in his home state in 2006. With the help of many Republican voters, however, the Unholy One returned to the Senate, only this time as an Independent.

Joementum campaigned for McCain/Palin in 2008, and was a featured speaker at the RNC last fall. That wasn't enough for lily-livered, Slinky spined, Senate Democrats to strip the Unholy One of his committee chairmanship or to bar Joseph and his Many-Colored-Turncoat from caucusing with the Democrats.

At this point, Rahm and Barack simply want to pass anything they can claim is health care reform. 60 Senate votes are needed. UnHoly Joe first threatened to filibuster any public option….so majority, yet cowardly, Senate Democrats gave Joe what he wanted. No public option. Now Joe will filibuster any expansion of Medicare for 55-64 year olds…..and so Rahm and Barack pressured Harry Reid yesterday to give The UnHoly One what he wanted. No Medicare expansion.

Now with no public option and no Medicare expansion, "it", as Rahm referred to the health care reform bill…..is only a windfall of mandated new customers with tax dollars in hand to give to for-profit insurance corporations. That may have been Rahm and Obama's plan from the beginning.

Yes, more Americans will have health insurance as a result of this awful piece of corporate-friendly garbage. But prices will rise steadily above the rate of inflation, taking more of everyone's yearly budgets while enriching the insurers beyond anything they've ever dreamed.

"Drop whatever you've got to drop to get it done." Now we know what "it" is. "It" is simply more of what we've witnessed over the last 20 years. Elected officials framing and passing new laws that primarily benefit America's largest for-profit corporations.

During Bush/Cheney it was the Medicare Plan D program which benefitted pharmaceutical and insurance corporations while tricking seniors with "donut holes" and mind-boggling-yet-oddly-similar-looking "choices."

Now it's the Appease Joe Lieberman For The Sake Of Health Insurers Bill.

Here's the question for today. If Republicans were in the majority and passing a health care reform bill (think Plan D), how would the legislation look any different from what Democrats are about to vote on in the Senate? Other than the fact that Democrats are insisting on not increasing the deficit with this new corporate giveaway….I can't think of one issue theoretical majority Republicans would have changed.

Rahm and Barack, as Karl Rove did before them, think they know how to hold a permanent political majority in American halls of power. Co-opt corporate money. Do whatever huge monied interests want you to do so that those corporate interests will continue to finance your national political party.

Karl Rove was wrong then…..Rahm and Barack are wrong now. But either way…Americans are the ones still getting lumps of coal in their Christmas stockings.

Now it's getting embarassing.

As I predicted, the Senate has jettisoned the public health insurance option……not that this is a surprise in any way. Many Senators work directly for big medical-pharma-insurance corporations who pay for their elections. Nothing personal against those Americans who need health insurance, mind you……it's just not in their corporate clients' interest……profits and so forth.

The misdirection play that Senate Democrats are running right now to provide cover for canning the public option is called "Medicare buy-in". Yeah, we lost the public option, but we're going to get Medicare eligibility at 55 as a tradeoff…and maybe we can get more poor folks on Medicaid too…….so we're, you know, getting something.

Horsepucky.

If you are between the ages of 55 and 64, don't call Medicare just quite yet…..

Negotiators are considering limiting consumers to those who would qualify for high-risk insurance pools already set up under the Senate’s health care legislation. This would mean primarily those who have been uninsured for a certain amount of time, have a history of poor health or are unable to get insurance because of a preexisting condition.

It's all misdirection and cover for passing an exclusively health insurance favoring piece of legislation. Without a public option there are NO cost controls…none. For-profit health insurers will reap a new customer bonanza without any future cost constraints. Pharma doesn't have to do any negotiating with government over price. Insurers can charge as much as three times more for higher risk customers. When a country permits its largest corporations to virtually bribe its Senators….this is all we can expect to get in return.

Now that President Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) has won the day,….the public option having been kicked to the curb as he wished,….ole' Kent's new job,…. as he tirelessly works for those who put him where he is today,… is to come up with some even better ideas for helping his clients deal with this nonsense about Medicare for 55-64 year olds. Not so fast, says President Conrad…..

“from a national perspective, you’d have to be concerned about the effect on the national pool,” referring to the concern that the 55 to 64 year old population added to the Medicare pool tends to be a sicker population. When asked how he’d resolve these issues, Conrad said that he’d propose having the Medicare buy-in be treated as “a separate pool” that could have negotiated rates, rather than those set by the existing Medicare program.

Kent forgot to mention how allowing 55 and over to buy-in to Medicare would be yet another windfall for his clients, big medical and big insurance. 55-64 year olds are a very unprofitable age demographic of health insurance customers. Maybe, those unprofitable customers can be pawned off on the government, hell…..leaving insurers with only the most profitable age demographic customers from which they can reap well-deserved higher profits from all those millions of new customers they will be fleecing serving. Well, hell yes.

But what if Medicare gets so big, momentum will be created to allow Medicare for all? Then what?

President Senator Kent Conrad is the Senate's Duracel Bunny, always going. Conrad wants any new Medicare wannabes 55-64 kept in their own, you know, smaller pool. Not much volume clout that way….and therefore, not a threat to pricing supports. Doesn't allow for Medicare-for-all momentum to build. Keep them separate from Medicare. Damn good job Kent. It looks like you're worth every penny of what those silly regular folks call, you know, bribes.

So, misdirection and bribes it is…but wait….there's more…

This afternoon, Jay Rockefeller said that the new proposal to expand Medicaid coverage for those who are 133% to 150% above the federal poverty line was dropped during a meeting of key legislators this morning. “I was sad this morning,” Rockefeller told me and a few other reporters. “We walked in, and it was 133[%] to 140[%], then it’s staying at 133… So we didn’t get anything.”

No Medicaid expansion either. No sense in giving poor working Americans any false hopes about their chances for getting health coverage. What was it? 24 hours? As the misdirection play worked out, very short-attention span Americans heard that Democrats dropped the public option but were going to get Medicare for more Americans and Medicaid for more Americans in return. Today, no Medicaid expansion…and limited, watered down Medicare for 55 -64 year olds…..which won't be affordable anyway.

That's what those warrior Senate Democrats pounded out in negotiations. Such brave warriors we have……we should all be oh-so-grateful for our brave and selfless conservative Senate Democrats.

They're fighting you for you.