Senate Dems To The Rescue

Political Cartoon is by Nate Beeler in the Washington Examiner.

The Real Meaning Of Christmas ?

Blueberry over at Texas Oasis has discovered what has to be the weirdest christmas display of the year. The display, in Nipomo (California), shows a dead Santa Claus spread out on the ground. Standing above him and wielding a shotgun is Jesus, as though he had just shot the jolly old elf. On the pickup behind Jesus is a dead Rudolph tied to the front of the truck.

The man who built the display, Ron Lake, says the display is a humorous attempt to get at the commercialism of christmas and show the holiday is about Jesus and not Santa. Somehow I think he has also missed the point of christmas. Back when I was a christian, I was taught it was to season of hope and love. Even a "mythical" murder doesn't seem to convey the same sentiment.

There is a school bus stop just outside the fence to this property, and that has Lake's neighbors upset. They don't think the display is appropriate for a place where children gather, and they are trying to get him to take down the display.

Lake says, "You can tell your kids and make it as if there's a Santa Claus, and let them believe all that, but you can't explain these things or ignore this thing. I don't get it." Surely he's smarter than that. Is he really trying to equate the gentle and happy story of Santa Claus with his display depicting a murder of two characters beloved by children?

This is a free country and Lake has his right to put up the display, but I have to think the display is in very poor taste.

Non-Profit

Political Cartoon is by Mike Keefe in The Denver Post.

The Real War On Christmas

From the great Alaskan blog The Immoral Minority.

Shami Names New Campaign Director

Farouk Shami is the Houston businessman who is running for governor. He is opposing Houston Mayor Bill White in the Democratic primary. He has already registered for a place on the Democratic Party ballot, and now it looks like he's getting serious about his campaign.

On Monday, Shami announced that he has put his campaign staff in place. Leading the campaign will be his new campaign director -- Vince Liebowitz (pictured above). Although this is Vince's first time as campaign director for a gubernatorial candidate, he does have experience in state-wide races.

Vince had served as the communications and policy director for Hank Gilbert, while Mr. Gilbert was in the governor's race earlier this year. He has also served as campaign director for Dale Henry, when Mr. Henry ran for Railroad Commissioner in 2008. In addition, he has served on the staff of several other candidates.

I think Vince Liebowitz will make an excellent campaign director for Mr. Shami, and if Shami is really willing to spend the millions he says he will spend, this could make him a very formidable candidate.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I must say that I know Vince. I like and respect him very much and consider him to be a friend. His blog, Capitol Annex, is listed in my blogroll.)

Under The Mistletoe

Political Cartoon is by Jeff Darcy in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

Health Care Bill Rises In Popularity

Sunday night, the Senate had it's first cloture vote toward final passage of the new health care reform bill. There are still several votes to go, and it'll probably take a few more days, but it looks like nothing can stop the bill from passing now. For those of us who think the bill doesn't go nearly far enough toward reforming the current system, our only hope now rests with the committee that will reconcile the Senate and House versions of the bill.

But it does look like the Senate's probable passage of it's bill has increased support for that bill. On December 2-3, a CNN/Opinion Research poll showed the bill only had the support of 36% of the American people. CNN released a new poll yesterday that showed support for the bill had risen to 42%. That's a six point rise in popularity. I suspect it comes from progressives who have given up and decided something is better than nothing.

That still leaves 56% of the American people that are opposed to the Senate version of the bill for one reason or another. I guess the other 2% just don't care what happens -- they must have lots of money and great insurance. Otherwise, I don't see how they could not care.

That 56% who are opposed might make it look like the Republicans are right, and that people think the bill is too liberal (or socialist). But that is just not true. Only 40% think the bill is too liberal.

The other 16% of those opposed to the bill think just the opposite -- that the bill is not liberal enough. These are progressives, like myself, who were severely disappointed when the Republicans and blue dogs ripped the public insurance option out of the bill.

These progressives would have liked to go to a single-payer system of health insurance, but were willing to settle for creation of a public option to compete with private insurance and drive down costs for everyone. The loss of both single-payer and a public option signaled a failure for real reform.

If the public option cannot be revived in the bill's final form, it will be very hard for Democrats to re-energize that 16% of the population -- which they must do before the 2010 elections.

(NOTE -- the above chart shows health care spending as a percentage of GDP)

Lieberman - Cure For Optimism

Political Cartoon is by Ed Stein at edsteinink.com.

"Grumpy" People Are Better Thinkers

It looks like there may be some hope for us grumpy people after all. Most people tend to think happy carefree people have all the advantages in life, but an Australian psychologist has shown that may not be true at all.

Professor Joe Forgas (University of New South Wales) has done some experiments, and he believes that while happy people do possess more creativity, grumpy people are less gullible and better critical thinkers. Forgas says this is because of the way the brain "promotes information processing strategies."

According to the BBC, Forgas "asked volunteers to watch different films and dwell on positive or negative events in their lives, designed to put them in either a good or bad mood. Next he asked them to take part in a series of tasks, including judging the truth of urban myths and providing eyewitness accounts of events. Those in a bad mood outperformed those who were jolly -- they made fewer mistakes and were better communicators."

Forgas said, "Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental short-cuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world." He went on to say a "mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style."

So before you make fun of us grumpy people in the future, remember that we're probably out-thinking you. In fact, it may be the critical thinking that's feeding our grumpiness.

P.S. -- You ornery kids get off my lawn!!

Just Not Listening

Political Cartoon is by John Cole in The Scranton Times.

Which Two Are Alike ?

I have shamelessly stolen this from that inimitable simian Dr. Zaius of Zaius Nation. It's amazing how the right-wing neocon fundamentalists and the right-wing islamic fundamentalists agree about everything except which religion they would like to force on the rest of us. I'm proud that my beliefs are all in the liberal column. How about you?

ISSUE...........................LIBERALS.......OSAMA.......NEOCONS

Abortion........................favors...............opposes.......opposes

Prayer in School...........opposes...........favors...........favors

Sep. Church-State........favors...............opposes.......opposes

Censorship....................opposes...........favors...........favors

Pre-emptive Attack.....opposes...........favors...........favors

Scripture Interp...........not literal........literal...........literal

Women's Rights...........favors...............opposes.......opposes

Evolution......................accepts.............rejects..........rejects

Iraq Invasion................opposed...........favored........favored

United Nations............supports..........opposes........opposes

Gay Rights....................favors...............opposes........opposes

Contraceptives.............favors..............opposes.........opposes

Sex Education..............favors...............opposes........opposes

Dissent=Disloyalty.....disagrees.........agrees...........agrees

Torture.........................opposes............favors...........favors

Death Penalty..............opposes............favors...........favors

Execute Mentally Ill...opposes............favors...........favors

Execute Children........opposes.............favors...........favors

Detain w/o Trial.........opposes............favors...........favors

Gifts Of The Three Unwise Men

Political Cartoon is by David Horsey in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Atheistmas Traditions

Found at the blog of Big Fat Whale.

Health Bill Won't Help In Next Election

The Democrats are on the verge of passing what I will jokingly refer to as a health care reform bill. I say that because all the real reform has been removed from it, and all that is left is some minor tinkering with the current health care system. The Democrats, who had promised us real health care reform during the campaign leading up to the last election, have let the Republicans and some blue dogs rip the heart out of the bill.

Although what is left is really not worth voting for, and actually would make things worse than they are now (not to mention providing private insurance with a gigantic payday), Democrats seem to think that if they don't pass it they will be hurt in the next election. So they are going to bite the bullet, pass this monstrosity and try to convince voters that they have actually reformed something.

That makes me sad, because it means that the Democrats have joined the Republicans in thinking the voters are stupid and easily fooled. They are not. The voters can recognize this bill for the failure that it truly is.

The popularity of Democrats in Congress has been falling, but passing this bill will not help that -- in fact, it will further hurt the Democrats chances in 2010. Voters do not like the Republicans and their objection to health care reform at every turn. But they are even more angered by the Democrats failure to fight tooth and nail for the reform that was promised.

If the Democrats had fought hard and been defeated, the voters would understand (and probably would have sent some more Democrats to Congress to help). But how can anyone respect a party that makes a promise and then will not fight to keep that promise? This is why the Democrats were removed from power last time -- because the public saw them as gutless wimps that were too timid to fight for their beliefs and ideals.

The Democrats are making the same mistake again. As long as they're too spineless to fight for what they promised, there is no reason to vote for them. Democrats seem to think voters will vote for them just because they are not Republicans, and that is a big mistake. Given a choice between a fighter they do not agree with and a wimp they do agree with, most voters will vote for the fighter. No one wants to be ruled by a party of wimps.

Knuckling under to your political opponents will do nothing except get those opponents elected, and that seems to be exactly what the Democrats are trying to do. I have never voted for a Republican in my entire life, but I have voted for a third party or independent from time to time, when I was too disgusted with the wimps and blue dogs offered by the Democrats.

I am fast reaching that point again. Unless the Democrats can show me they have a backbone and are willing to fight for progressive ideals, I will have to assume they are the party of wimps and blue dogs and either find a third party or stay home in 2010.

Passing this terrible health care bill, and then lying and telling me it's real health care reform will not get my vote. Americans have been put in a bad situation -- they have a choice between the Party of "No" and the Party of "Can't". Neither is acceptable.