I think you all have seen a magician work. It’s slight of hand and Misdirection. You get everyone looking at one thing while you perform the trick in another place. There is some speculation that The Bush Administration used this very practice to manipulate the terror alert levels whenever politically inconveniences occurred. (I’m not going to make the charge that they did, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, but...USA TODAY)
It’s pretty clear that Cheney who is as NeoCon as NeoCons can be is pulling a David Copperfield on all of us. But instead of making a coin disappear or hiding a pigeon, he’s trying to saw the mandate of this administration in half.
If you get a chance to talk with anyone inside the Whitehouse (I have because I’m cool like that) its almost Chinese water torture how they keep repeating the words Healthcare, Energy, Education, Debt Reduction. If you listen to Obama’s Speeches or his Town Halls its Healthcare, Energy, Education, Debt Reduction. Over and Over again. They’re probably saying it their sleep. I think the teachers at Sidwell Friends are tired of hearing about it at the Parent Teacher Conferences. Truly, these are the REAL conversations that I country needs to be having.
I want to go back to something before I start the flame wars a coming. YES we need to have a great discussion on torture. We need to make sure what happened in our name as citizens of the United States of America Never Happens Again. Clinton didn’t resort to torture after 2/26 and Clinton was able to keep the homeland safe from Non Domestic Terrorists . A special prosecutor ( think we could all agree on Pat Fitzgerald) should rut through the insanity quietly, behind the scenes, and actually put "evil doers" behind bars. That would probably serve the country and the international community well.
What is Dick Cheney doing? He’s jumping on the grenade! He’s playing CockBlocker for the Republican Party. The conversation has shifted so drastically that we’re no longer talking about IF we’re getting Healthcare Reform, but now WHAT KIND we’re going to get! That’s a HUGE shift. The country needs serious conversations and more importantly serious LEGISLATION in Healthcare, Energy, Education, and Debt Reduction (oh god, now I’m infected) and how do you stop that from happening? Force the hands of the legislators to use their TIME talking about him instead of talking about helping the American People.
The republicans in congress are toothless old men staring at an ear of corn. They want to bite so bad but it’s futile. They have no power, and after Franken joins, all the compromises that will NEED to be done will all be handled within the Democratic Caucus (damn, Baucus & Bayh).
What do you guys think is the best way to bridge our current system over to a single payer system which will probably occur over the next ten years? There is a bunch of prep work - - [Oh hey, sorry, I thought I would distract you from Torture so we can have a serious discussion about Healthcare or maybe credit card reform, or talk about Hydrogen and Potential Algae and energy systems, maybe we can talk about Means testing Entitlement Reform. I just Pulled the Anti Cheney!!! ]
Oh and about the headline... See, I made you look!