Pelosi Whines at Lincoln, Ross, Rest of America

The gauntlet. She has been thrown.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was outlining her August plan of attack yesterday. I read via Politico about her mounting frustrations with the Senate's health care plan, specifically with the amount of sweet time taken by the Finance Committee, on which Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., sits.

“Frankly I had hoped we had seen more from the Senate Finance Committee so we could have a little better idea on where we might find common ground,” the speaker said. “What do they call themselves?” she laughed of the Senate “We’re the hot cup of coffee and they’re the saucer. They’re really doing the saucer thing to the hilt. They are cooling off this coffee to the nth degree.”

Good one and zing.

In recent interviews, Sen. Lincoln and others on the Finance Committee, the Senate in general, all three committees of the House working on health care legislation, the House in general, and nearly everyone you talk to says that while the pre-August recess deadline would have been nice, it's better to slow this sucker down a little bit to make sure they get this thing right. After all, what's being proposed is one of the biggest overhauls in public policy ever. It could use a couple of second thoughts, most would agree, before pulling the trigger.

One sort of local yokel angle that I was looking for but seemed to have missed is where the Speaker discusses her own "saucer," to use her really dumb metaphor: Blue Dogs in the House, who completely wrecked her agenda from flying at breakneck speeds.

Like Mikey Ross (insert haircut joke), who has been the leader in saying very little and getting a lot of pub in return. "Hey, let's slow this down," and the ensuing spectacle.

Marion Berry even threw himself into the fireworks, although it can probably just be chalked up to a copycat move to bolster the necessary conservative bonafides of an Arkansas elected official. Berry apparently dressed down some of President Obama's senior officials - including David Axelrod - and repeatedly referred to Obama as "your president," which is to say, not his president, and maybe not even the first district's President.

But there's nary a mention of them in this rundown, maybe I should just read another article. I'm guessing that Pelosi is assuming that all or most of these Blue Dogs will fall in line and vote for it after little to no changes or a lot of changes are made and then subsequently amended at 3 AM or something like that.

One thing in all this mire is certain: No one likes Nancy Pelosi. Her polling numbers are awful, awful, dreadful, and awful. Sarah Palin doesn't envy her. Yikes. Pelosi comes across as divisive and stubborn, and is unfortunately becoming the focus of an increasing amount of distrust in the policies. People may not turn on Obama, he's so popular and cool, but they'll certainly skewer Pelosi.

Public Option vs. the Field

Pretty good write-up here from Politico, nailing down the nuts and bolts of what they call the final piece of the health care puzzle, namely the public option that Obama specifically stipulated he would like to see in the bill but is causing many moderate Democrats to balk.

Politically, it's a problem of rhetoric, which is, as I stated in the previous post, is ironic, as the best quality of our new President is, admitted by both sides, his soaring rhetoric.

Had this public option been called anything else less-socialist-sounding, moderate Democrats could have had this sucker sent through with little to know problem. Call it a "due service," or a "personal medical option," something other than public, which connotes the socialist-stigma that the President already is having to deal with from his critics.

But I guess you gotta give it to the President: At least he took the honest road and called the spade a spade. It is what it is. Being what it is, he may not get it. The public option, that is.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln has said that she prefers a cooperative rather than a public option, saying that there is a grave concern of the government usurping the abilities of a private industry to make money fairly. The problem is that big businesses in the private industry are easy targets, and everybody already assumes and believes wholeheartedly that they are crooks.

If the health care industry were run on the backs of "mom and pop" type family doctors and such, it'd be a different story.

This debate is about helping out the 47 million who don't have health coverage without pulling the legs out from under everyone else. Obama said that the only reason he wants the government to be a competitor in the public sector is to keep everyone in that business honest. Lincoln said that they're looking into the needs that the private sector either can't or has yet to provide.

It will be a matter of convincing everyone, i.e. voters, if there's any other way. Well, I say voters. Vocal, interested constituents at this point. Although with the way candidates are piling up against our own Senator Lincoln, it's campaign season year round.

"This (Card Check) Thing Is Dead" - Sen. Pryor aide

Stand corrected, aides to Sens. Lincoln and Pryor. Remember! Senator Lincoln is all that stands between crooked Wall Street and a diversely populated cardboard box plant; Between the mafia and children eating breakfast cereal.

And here I was thinking that this card check thing really was dead. Color me a dunce. Hat tip to Kinky Kinkade for the flyer, and another for winning the caption contest. I was worried I'd have to give myself a prize.

American Epidemic: PIRATES

Forget the economy. Health care reform is negligible. We've got bigger fish to fry.

Who in the Wide World of Sports would have thought Pirates would be a problem for the Obama administration to face?

Handling a kajillion dollar deficit, facing the worst economic climate since the Depression, and overcoming partisan polarity that is simply unprecedented isn't enough for Obama to inherit, sayeth the Gods. Let's throw pirates in there too.

(Slaps forehead.)

LaborLady Strikes Washington!

Just a quick note that we here in Arkansas aren't the only ones getting fired up over this whole Card Check business.

As you can clearly see, this woman (Yes, this is a woman) has been driven quite mad by the entire thing.

In all actuality, Arkansas is being shoved into the national spotlight for reasons more interesting than former state representatives procreating at questionably and forehead-slappingly high levels.

The Wall Street Cardboard Scrawl is reporting that Lincoln and Pryor, a cajun, and a man with an unfortunately difficult name may be the fab four that bring this EFCA bill down.

The only reason I find this mildly entertaining is that it takes my mind off of the harrowing economy, and there's nothing better than watching a politician dangle in the wake of re-election, a la Lincoln. We'll see how it all pans out.

Whatever, I'm over it.

Oh, I Thought Your Seat Belt Wasn't On...What's In the Trunk?

A bill is currently advancing through the Arkansas Legislature that irks me on various levels for varying reasons.

Senate Bill 78 would make the act of not wearing a seat belt a primary offense, meaning that they can be pulled over for that reason and that reason alone. Right now, one can only be given a ticket if they are already pulled over and have previously failed to click it.

So if I'm flying down I-30 headed to God's Country, Saline County, Arkansas at about 73 miles per hour, and a police officer sees that my seat belt is not fastened, bingo. I'm pulled over and may be issued a ticket, if the officer claims that I, indeed, was not wearing the seat belt that I indeed fasten every time I drive, mostly out of sheer reflex — my father was and is still a stern advocate of buckling up. And he's a rather large fellow who could crush most men, and most certainly a growing boy, with his bare hands.

My first point of ire was the same as Senate Minority Leader Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith. “How are you going to be able to enforce this law?”

State Police Director Col. Winford E. Phillips, speaking for SB 78, said very plainly that an officer would have to see the violation first, and if he cannot see that the seat belt is being worn, he (or she, ahthankyou) has no reason to stop the car.

How is an officer supposed to be able to hawkeye a driver's left shoulder to determine whether or not they're wearing a seat belt? It just doesn't seem feasible unless one is in a congested area, like downtown or something.

But I'm rather concerned with that other point: The reason.

An officer must have good cause or reason to pull someone over. You swerved, you sped, you tossed your slushie cup, what have you. Police officers have a lot of latitude to say whether or not someone has done these things, and understandably so. There's no telling how many lives have been saved by officers getting swerving drunks off the road and in jail where they belong.

But might law enforcement officers be granted undue latitude with this law? It's based, after all, with what they perceive, not an act that might be verified by any other number of means, like a swerving man might knock over a trash can, or pop a curb or something. With this, it's mere appearance; it looks like that guy might not be wearing a seat belt, and the sirens blare.

Many will be quick to jump this commentary as that of an anarchical alarmist — someone who is ever-fearing the heavy hand of the Man, and swift to accuse police of brutality, racism, and any other vice that seems often contrary to common sense. That is not the case. I know many, many police officers and many, many of them are fine upstanding individuals who would never dare to do such things.

But why bring up the question? Why even allow the idea in people's minds? I asked a colleague of mine one time whether or not he thought Hillary Clinton's being married to Bill, who went around collecting money from other nations for his charitable fund, created a conflict of interest. He replied that in actuality no, it didn't matter but that that didn't matter; there was a newfound reason to be suspicious.

I don't think that police will be more inclined to do dastardly deeds, but I'd rather them not be under more scrutiny therein.

And how many more lives are saved by pulling over numerous people who may in fact be wearing their seat belts? How many people swerving drunkenly, undetected by police officers who have someone pulled over because of their safety belt? There are a gamut of questions that would need to be rectified.

I don't think I'll have to spend too much time thinking about it. I believe police do — and rightfully so — have bigger fish to fry.

R & R: See You Monday, Folks

I'm taking some much needed R & R for an extended weekend in Sunny Chicago, IL...as opposed to the other Chicago.

The low is supposed to be -236 degrees and the high, so says Weather.com, is going to near -112 degrees. I've been investing heavily in long johns and beards as to battle the chilling cold; we'll see how I fare.

Anywho, I'll be back to my regular posting on Monday, and who knows what that may bring. Maybe I'll go to the Capitol and bait recently-smoking-stomping Rep. Gaskill with the ole cigarette on a string gag. Maybe I'll write nasty notes from Sanders to Brummett and vice versa, and watch as hilarity ensues.

What with all of the rest and relaxation I'll be having, I'm sure to think of something good.

BlagOusted: To Pick Up Office Belongings Later, Has No Friends

"So yeah, I'm just going to go ahead and get out of here, there is a back door, right?...Yeah, Terry, just put all that stuff in one of those paper crates and ship 'em to the Misses." - Rod the Retahd Blagojevich

Impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich was removed from office forcibly and violently today in a spectacle that many called "The Most Terrific and Vicious Physical Beating of All-Mankind."

Blagojevich rambled incoherently for an hour and a half prior to the beating. He then was informed that he had absolutely no friends whatsoever, being ousted 59 - 0, with constituents' taunting emails and text messages being scrolled across a projected screen.

Blagojevich was left to get the remaining Far Side desk calenders and paperweights from his office at a later date, and then was pumbled by Chicago gangsters "Moose" and "Rocco."