By the that much...

This is a political post.

Well damn.

219 - 212.

It's like the score to one of those old time NBA Allstar games where nobody played defense and just came in the arena and shot the ball with reckless abandon. And so, as it turns out, after some all night hardball politicking....the Obama presidency gets new life.

How he probably looked afterwards...

And all it took was to raise the anger and vitriol of the latent racist and homophobes that populate the Republican party. When people feel comfortable using the N-word to congressmen, we have a much, much deeper issue. At least this week they didn't raise the subtle specter of the something being ramming down anyone's throat, I mean, what with a black president and all and the imagery I'm sure they were trying to conjure up. Although I'm not too certain they didn't actually raise the interest of a few of their own closeted members.

And they did it without a single Republican vote. Which just bodes ill for way too many reasons. I realize the people on the other side of the aisle are assholes, but if that wasn't a metaphorical finger of biblical proportions I don't know what was.

What I really find hard to believe is that I live in a country where people feel its okay to let people die in the streets, which is what the opponents of Healthcare reform were really arguing for. I've heard the discussions of some of those opposed to Healthcare, that the individual should be responsible enough to carry insurance on their own and etc, and the selling them insurance after the auto accident metaphor. And they would have merit if the average American could buy insurance like buying a hamburger, or if the going rate was $50 or so a month. But for the average working American whose job doesn't supply health insurance, the choice is usually between eating now and paying for health coverage for the future. I've heard of premiums on family packages as high as $800 a month. Eating or Insurance. Is that really the American dream?

The really sad part is, those protesters didn't realize that they already live in the world they cry they don't want to live in, that they're already paying for the insured through higher premiums based upon higher fees charged by hospitals to treat the uninsured by law that they cannot turn away. The current legislation makes everyone chip in, which is just...I dunno, crazy talk. Almost comical screams for fiscal responsibility, I mean, as long as it isn't for something I'd like to spend the money on, like defense or that plant that will make jobs in my district. That insurance companies were planning to drop unprofitable customers to raise the bottom line - now that is REAL death panel - should have been unsettling, but it wasn't for the ones blinded by unfounded rage.

It's strange, this plan just might even help some of them.

And if helping the person who just spit in your eye - literally - isn't American, I don't know what is.