Today, I’m signing this reform bill into law on behalf of my mother, who argued with insurance companies even as she battled cancer in her final days.

I’m signing it for Ryan Smith, who’s here today. He runs a small business with five employees. He’s trying to do the right thing, paying half the cost of coverage for his workers. This bill will help him afford that coverage.

I’m signing it for 11-year-old Marcelas Owens, who’s also here. (Applause.) Marcelas lost his mom to an illness. And she didn’t have insurance and couldn’t afford the care that she needed. So in her memory he has told her story across America so that no other children have to go through what his family has experienced. (Applause.)

WATCH THE FULL SPEECH AND THE SIGNING CEREMONY

Civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis was taunted by tea partiers who chanted “nigger” at least 15 times, according to the Associated Press (we are not cleaning up language and using “the N-word” here because it’s really important to understand what was said.) First reported on The Hill blog (no hotbed of left-wing fervor), the stories of Lewis being called “nigger” were confirmed by Lewis spokeswoman Brenda Jones and Democratic Rep. Andre Carson, who was walking with Lewis. “It was like going into the time machine with John Lewis,” said Carson, a former police officer. “He said it reminded him of another time.”

Another Congressional Black Caucus leader, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, was spat upon by protesters. The culprit was arrested, but Cleaver declined to press charges.

House Majority Whip James Clybourn told reporters: “I heard people saying things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus.”

There were many reports that Rep. Barney Frank was called a “faggot” by protesters, but the one I saw personally was by CNN’s Dana Bash, who seemed rattled by the tea party fury. Frank told AP: “It’s a mob mentality that doesn’t work politically.”

Meanwhile, a brick came through the window at Rep. Louise Slaughter’s Niagara Falls office on Saturday (the day she argued for her “Slaughter solution” to pass health care reform, though it was rejected by other Democrats on the House Rules Committee). (Read Full Article at Salon.com)

The incident was spoken of on the House floor by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) who called on Republican lawmakers to condemn the Teabaggers for their overt racism:

Calling an individual or an organization’s motives racist is as taboo as being racist itself. You just don’t go there without proof of such claims. Keith Olbermann was one of the first to call out the Tea Party about their racial overtone, and his statements were met with a lot of push back and denial from the organization and the right in general. They rejected his claims that the Tea Party movement has very few if any non-White members, and the right wing bloggers cried foul for even suggesting that Tea Party protestors are racist. Now given the events of yesterday, Keith Olbermann’s words this past President’s Day have been vindicated:

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A year in the making, the health care legislation is at a critical juncture where every vote counts. With Kucinich being a consistent hold out, firm in his commitment to vote no on any bill that did not include the public option that anyone can participate in, this was a major victory by President Obama who made a campaign style stump speech in Cleveland, OH to rally support for the health care bill. He even pleaded with the people of Cleveland to lean on their representative to support the bill.

Finally, with mounting pressure from his constituents, his Democratic colleagues, and the White House, along with the realization that the final bill will not have the provisions he deemed essential to win his support, Dennis Kucinich conceded. He pledged to vote for the bill, not as a compromise to his principles but as a means to an end – a single payer system:

I want to thank those who support those who supported me personally and politically as I’ve struggled with this decision. And I ask for your continued support in our ongoing efforts to bring about meaningful change. As this bill passes I will renew my efforts to help those state organizations which are aimed at stirring a single payer movement which eliminates the predatory roll of private insurers who make money not providing health care. I’ve taken a detour through supporting this bill. But I know the destination I will continue to lead for as long as it takes for whatever it takes to an America where healthcare will be firmly established as a civil right.

WATCH THE PRESS CONFERENCE:

This is why the news out of the Middle East was especially interesting. Not only did Vice President Biden condemn the announcement by Israel that it will build 1600 additional houses in the contentious area of East Jerusalem, but it was also followed up with a rejection by Secretary of State Clinton, who characterized the timing of the announcement as “insulting”.

This is not the first time the US has pleaded with Israel to halt activities that are antithetical to the peace process. For example in 2005 George W. Bush warned Israel against building 3500 extra homes in a West Bank settlement. And just like in 2005, the criticisms by Secretary Clinton were followed up by reaffirmation of the United States’ strong alliance with Israel. However this is one of those rare moments when the US uses the word “condemn” when speaking of Israel, a word reserved only for her most outspoken critics. Yet given the pattern of objecting without following through with meaningful enforcement, will the US sustain its condemnation of Israel’s expansion of the settlement in East Jerusalem?

VP Joe Biden’s Interview on Al-Jazeera:

But wait. Not so fast! Shouldn’t we be a wee bit curious about this number “73%”? How could these robust debates over the past year survived such a huge opposition? If like me you think something’s just not adding up, well you are right to be suspicious. Here’s where that number comes from:

The number 73% comes from adding the 48% of those polled who want Congress to create a new bill and the 25% who say scrap the bill altogether and stick with the health care system we currently have. The deception lies in lumping nearly half of the population who want to see a new bill with the far lesser group who wants no changes at all. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart calls out Fox News for using polls to manipulate the results:

This is not the first time Fox News has deliberately misrepresented polling results to push a political adgenda. For example, before the invasion of Iraq a poll was released saying that 67% (with a margin of error of plus or minus 3) of Americans support going to war against Iraq only with the support of the UN or international community. The emphasis of the poll was “NO PREEMPTIVE GO AT IT ALONE WAR”. Fox News, however, added the plus three part, shaved off the international support condition part, then every 5-10 minutes on its ticker fed its audience:

70% of Americans support going to war against Iraq

73% of Americans wanting to do away with this health care reform bill disguises the fact that a major part of that number is made up of liberals who want to scrap the bill and start over, not from scratch, but to include a public option. But to leave out that pesky detail only lends credence to the crowd who do not want to see reform if for no other reason but to simply deal President Obama a political defeat. Ironically, adding the 48% to the 25% who wants a similar bill that has already made its way through Congress passed actually means an overwhelming majority of Americans want the health care system reformed, to the tune of 73%!

We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its costs. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Apparently South Dakota did not get the memo that the United States is no longer in the business of sullying the waters of the sound science of hypothesis testing and data analysis with the junk science of political ideology and basic instincts. That is because thanks to a resolution passed by the South Dakota House of Representative, students can now be taught a “balanced teaching on climate change”. Specifically, students can now be taught that global warming can also be caused by “astrological, thermological…dynamics”. Dr. Pat Zimmerman, former Chair of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Atmospheric Science Department, says the legislation brings shame on state of South Dakota:

“These misguided grandstanding efforts exposes the level of ignorance of South Dakota to the rest of the world and it’s an embarrassment,”

Read the entire South Dakota House Resolution (only one page long).

Here is Rachal Maddow’s take on the new legislation:

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Evan Bayh? Good Riddance? My sentiments exactly! “Democratic” Senator Evan Bayh sucker punched his party with a deliberate last minute resignation, denying more progressive Democratic candidates the opportunity to run to replace him in a primary election, and therefore increasing the chance that a Republican can take the Indiana Senate seat. Bill Maher not only calls out Bayh on the hypocrisy of his disingenuous holier than thou resignation speech, but he also sites who he really represents – the corporations.

With the Tea Party Convention just behind us and the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) just under way, the silly season of the Tea Party crowd is in full effect. Pointing out their inconsistencies and hypocrisies is difficult not because of challenges with fact checking but because of shear volume. With so many twisted logics to contend with where do you begin? Well Bill Maher found a good starting point, and that’s in their so called movement for controlling the deficit and the insatiable demands for tax cuts.

Last but definitely not least, President Barack Obama had it coming also. A stalwart supporter of candidate Obama, Maher speaks candidly about the president’s short comings his first year in office to seize the opportunity to pass meaningful health care reform. His main complaint is how he gives up too much ground on his important agendas because of his futile obsession with bipartisanship. I have already made my case against bipartisanship , and if this interview is any indication I believe Bill Maher would agree with me.

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So why are Democrats capitulating to Republicans on passing health care reform when they’ve made it abundantly clear that it is antithetical to their brand name to even be associated with a government bill that interferes with free market economics? One can concede that they are really trying to pitch to the Blue Dog Democrats, the conservative wing of the Democratic Party, but that does not explain why such a concerted effort has been made to make this bill bi-partisan by making a third of it tax cuts, entertaining the idea of selling insurance across state lines, and tort reform.

Democrats need to accept the fact that Republicans want nothing to do with health care reform. They cannot make this any clearer. Yet this obsession for bi-partisanship has created a politically hospitable environment for Republicans to be obstructionists. Not only do they get to offer up amendments, watering down true reform with their own pet projects designed to play to their tax cut and corporate base, they also get to turn around and vote against reform, placating to their Tea Party anti-Obama coalition. While this is a huge disservice to the country, either way Republican politicians win.

With this idea of a health care summit and the presidential Q and A session recently held with Republicans, it appears that President Obama is trying to bring civility back into the public dialogue about reform. While that only plays to his and the country’s advantage, Republicans have a trump card, an anti-government base and a corporate alliance that will fund their bill killing incursion’s up front costs. I say up front because when this is over and the dust settles, the million dollars a day lobbying fee paid by the health care industry to block reform will end up being paid back to them by those very same Tea Party members who protested against change in the form of unreasonable premium heights. A prime example is the fact that Anthem Blue Cross of California just increased their rates by 39 percent. We can expect more of this if the government does not intervene to put the brakes on the out of control free market run of our health care system.

House Republican Leader John Boehner presented a very bold and audacious list of demands for Republican participation in a health care summit, including trashing the entire bill that has passed both chambers of congress and starting over in a bi-partisan fashion without reconciliation (and by bi-partisan he means incorporating all Republican ideas and nixing that of Democrats). Therefore summit or no summit, Democrats should abandon all hope of forging a bi-partisan bill and get on with reform already. What more proof do we need that they are not serious about working together to fix our broken health care system? Asking a Republican to implement a government reform of health care is like asking a tiger to change its stripes.

Politicians like to say that the American people want bi-partisanship in Washington, but if given the choice of both parties coming together to pass a lack lustered bill or nothing at all because they cannot come to an agreement, or one party passing a good health care reform bill without a single vote from the other side, then I think we know which is best for the country.

There are two distinct sides of Jon Stewart. There’s the wittingly humorous fake news anchor that spends a considerable amount of time making fun of main stream media and the political establishments of our time. Then there’s the astutely masterful hard nose interviewer who has taken to task those who would use their position as a news pundit or a politician for taking themselves instead of the people and our democracy seriously, calling them out in a manner worthy of an investigative journalist.

Jon Stewart is the Tiger Woods of politics. He has taken something mind numbingly boring and tedious to the average person, interesting mostly to the well connected, sophisticated crowd and made it cool for everybody. Watching the news and keeping up with current affairs use to be for nerds and their parents. Now Stewart like Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report has merged it into pop culture, truly taking the acutely important issues coming out of Washington, DC and beyond as well as how they are covered in the media to a mainstream audience. No wonder he has been named the most trusted news caster, seriously.

Unlike his uncensored counterpart Bill Maher who not only is an interviewer but also often lends himself to being interviewed, Jon Stewart rarely gives interviews. But after seeing this interview with Bill O’Reilly, we definitely know it’s not because he’s uncomfortable in that position or because he cannot think on his feet enough to articulate the issues without aid and preparation from his brilliant writing staff. Watch as he discusses everything from the Obama presidency to Fox News to trying terrorists in civilian courts.

Highlights from the Jon Stewart Interview with Bill O’Reilly:

“Here’s what Fox has done through their cyclonic perpetual emotion machine that is a twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. They’ve taken reasonable concerns about this president and this economy and turned it into a full fledge panic attack about the next coming of Chairman Mao. Why is that the narrative of your network?”

“Not articulating clearly enough where he wants to move legislatively allowing different narratives to take hold, a narrative that may eminate from a news organization of this ilk”

“Once you allow a vacuum of power what will assume power in Washington are special interests and lobbyists. If you allow too much nick picking on the edges of legislation it will be necessarily turned into a type of lobbyist gruel.”

“Here’s what we can’t do. Our strategy for battling terrorist can’t be that you overthrow governments and then you make the United States military commit 150,000 troops to those lands until they can somehow stabilize the governments long enough so that you can prevent ten people from plotting destruction in a basement.”

Watch either the three part highlights or the entire fourty-two minute interview below:
Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3

Full Interview

In what can only be described as an unprecedented move, President Obama, only days after his first State of the Union address, makes his second town hall meeting since Wednesday’s speech to a different type of town hall. Unlike the one in Tampa, Florida only twenty-four ours prior, this one held in Baltimore was not just your typical citizens mixed with supporters and skeptics alike. This group instead was comprised COMPLETELY of House Republicans.

In an arena packed with his fiercest political adversaries, the president was tasked with trying to bring civility to the political discourse that has taken over the process, of convincing the same group that offered him zero votes on his first budget, that their political gamesmanship was severely obstructing progress in accomplishing important agendas for the American people. In short, he had to make the satisfaction of passing meaningful legislation such as health care and financial reform more appealing than handing the Obama administration political defeat for the sake of GOP’s short term gain. Perhaps one of the most notable moments used to accomplish this was by reminding them that using the intense rhetoric to describe health care reform, all the ones made famous by the infamous posters displayed during the Tea Party rallys, only boxes Republican lawmakers into a corner. It forces them to either reject his good ideas (bad for the people yet politically popular) or accept his proposals, a turn off for their base as they look like they are in alliance with the Stalinist grandma killer. Brilliant move!

WATCH the introduction and the question and answer videos below:

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

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