I heard an opinion on the radio the other day that made me want to reconsider this blog. When I started it I thought maybe I’d get arguments, differing opinions, discussion or maybe even agreement.
Politics puts me into a rage or, at best, total despair. We live in a world where something as obvious as healthcare needing to be fixed has been totally politicized. It’s obvious that the people making money on this ridiculous system have orchestrated its persistence. We’re all left thinking it’s beyond fixing. These people are just too powerful.
What I heard on the radio was a new slant on blaming the media. It’s the opinion media. It’s Rush, Glenn Beck, and people like me with blogs. This stuff is just polarizing. Everyone has to join a camp and nothing can get done.
Anyone besides me want to slap Lieberman? How’s that for being rational. I just can’t do it. Maybe we should all just shut up!
The radio show was talking about a fact check site I hadn’t heard of. It’s Politifact and they’re more fun than fact check. They’re doing “Lie of the Year” awards. Sarah Palin’s Death Panels made #1.
Check it out.
1 comment:
It is a most useful tactic of any camp to take the truth and twist it just enough to further it's own agenda. It would be a rare person who would want to read through that bill, and who could feel confident they were interpreting it correctly. What's most interesting to me is that while it's true that the bill would simply allow for medicare payment (currently it is not paid) for end of life counseling, politicians (like Gingrich and Pelosi) know that legislation enacted is subject to interpretation by the judiciary branch. So, technically, you could foresee that a loophole is created which could result in pro-euthanasia counseling. Unfortunately problems like this result in a grinding halt of the process, a demoralizing build up of paranoia, and more polticizing of the isuue. While I don't believe health care is a right, I do believe it's the right thing to do. The answer I think should come from a consortia of health care providers and administrators, social program administrators, and a serious bipartisan federal finance comittee. If we are going to do this let's do it right. In the meantime, give medicaid a bigger budget and raise the qualifying income levels, and encourage corporations to set up funds for sick workers. I think the fact that they have rushed this bill has turned off the majority of the populace, more than any one ethical objection. By the way, the St. Petersburg Times is regarded as one of the nation's best papers, I'll definitely be making use of them for political fact checking, thanks for clueing us in Dave. ( I heard about that paper in the book "All over but for the shoutin'" one of my favorite books. )
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