Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

How stupid are these people?

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

So many bastards, so little time.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

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Unspoofable

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Because I have no life, I’m listening to C-Span while playing Dragon Age, and the dumbest man in the House, Mike Pence, just gave what can only be described as the funniest speech I have heard from the well of the House. I seriously hope someone can put the close up on youtube, because it ended with a call to arms, asking the Democrats to take a stand for freedom and to do battle with this bill, and they will go down in history as defenders freedom.

With Allah as my witness, I expected him to yell Wolverines when he finished. And you have to watch his facial expression when he finished speaking. It looked like he was confused or didn’t know what to do next.

*** Update ***

Boehner is now basically reading Betsy McCaughey’s WSJ editorial today. Just clowns.

Reader Interactions

282Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    Wasn’t this the same guy screaming, “I object!” at the top of his lungs when the House Womens’ Caucus was trying to speak? I don’t know why you expected any better. And yeah he should have put the Wolverines cherry on top of all that. Send a tingle right up the conservatives’ legs.

  2. 2.

    Laura W

    I am personally more confused and disconcerted by this Thaddeus man who keeps talking about stuff in the palm of his hand?
    I probably need more wine.
    Can someone let me know when they vote? I’ve got a ton of shit recorded that I am enjoying.
    (Elvis Costello, Curb Ur Enthu, Top Chef Reunion.)

  3. 3.

    cleek

    Spence, and all the rest of the mouth-breather caucus, were elected because their constituents presumably thought they were the best people for the job.

    what does that tell you about the intelligence of their constituents ? it tells me this country is fucked.

  5. 5.

    General Winfield Stuck

    What is the proper penalty for those people?

    They all look that way and can only muster the stalest of winger sloganism and Apple Pie rhetoric. And always, ALWAYS the obligatory “Government Run Health Care” .

    I bet Frank Luntz is home now spanking his monkey senseless.

  10. 10.

    valdivia

    Is the new meme going to be that obama is a loser because the bill will not pass with more than 218 votes? I see ABC is reporting it that way already. ugh. Always good news for Republicans!

  12. 12.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @valdivia:

    Well, of course the media will wank that, it’s what they do. And maybe if we’re real lucky some pundit who didn’t get the “stupid meme” memo will give us the truth.

    Which is, it will be that close because House Dems want to give as many red state members political cover back in their tea bag districts. Standard Fair.

  14. 14.

    jl

    By the gloomy serenity of Crom and his devils, and the Righteous Paw of Doom of Tunch, I do declare I do not have the manly stomach to watch the foolish gibberings of these barbarian reactionaries on my alter of C-Span.

    But, I did take a look at the GOPers interrupting the wimminfolk of our ruling councils, as posted on Yglesias (which I only look at for pics like this). This clip is difficult to believe. The GOPers are acting like rude thugs in a corrupt legislature of a small failed state. Which is out of place here in the USA, for we are on the path to being a large failed state, aren’t we? We should expect more dignified approaches to legislative obstruction.

    I hope this clip provides some good political ad clips to drive more women out of the jaws of the reactionary vote. But maybe the teabaggers’ wimminfolk approve of this kind of treatment, who knows?

    Unbelievable, and very rude, nonsense.

    http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/11/gop-members-shout-down-women-members-of-congress.php

  16. 16.

    Leelee for Obama

    I just fell in love with Ed Markey. Rep. pre-existing cond.-Heart of stone/ kick them in their heart-break your toe!

  17. 17.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    That’s noy to say there are some Blue Dogs who genuinely oppose the PO or other parts of the bill, or it’s cost. But that number probly wouldn’t be more than 20 or so. Dems can lose up to 40 dem votes and still pass the bill. Many of those will be cya votes of nay.

  18. 18.

    demkat620

    Because I have no life either, I saw the Pence speech.

    The sad thing is that he totally believes what he is saying. He really things he is voting for freedom.

  19. 19.

    Leelee for Obama

    @demkat620: Yeah, but Pence also thought the Baghdad Market was just like the Indianapolis Farmer’s Market. Just an unbelievably stupid man.

  21. 21.

    Yutsano

    @valdivia: Personally I could give two figs how many it passes with as long as it gets to 218 yeas. Cause this right here is really the easy part.

  23. 23.

    Leelee for Obama

    @valdivia: And then I had to cheat on Ed Markey, cause Anthony Weiner is too wonderful for words. Democrats want this for YOU!

    Time for a cigarette.

  25. 25.

    jl

    As for killing people, particularly women, nothing beats the US health care system over the past 25 years. The US health care system, made very efficient by GOPer and DLC thought since 1980, brought the life expectancy of women, both at birth and at 65, from among the highest of high income countries, to among the very lowest.

    And the teabaggers have the gall to talk about health reform killing people.

    You can get the data free with a couple of clicks at

    http://www.oecd.org/document/16/0,3343,en_2649_34631_2085200_1_1_1_1,00.html

    Of course, the way the reactionaries debate, the OECD is suddenly no longer a DLC-ish moderate capitalist-friendly, rather bland quant international think tank. It is now a nest of life-hating commies, because… it puts out figgurs they don’t like Also.

  26. 26.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @valdivia:

    bill but it wont matter right?

    Fear of losing the next election trumps any good works and the nightmares of showing up in scandal on You Tube.

  27. 27.

    Max

    I sure hope President McCain is on one of the Sunday shows tomorrow to tell us what this all means.

    /snark

  29. 29.

    jl

    I have been wondering why very very robust public options for flood and crop insurance are OK, but not for health insurance?

    Lieberman loves him some federal flood insurance and crop insurance. He and Collins are sponsoring a congressional study to figure out how to keep it propped up and going.

    The folks who reap the benefits of federal flood and federal crop insurance have a lot scratch to stuff into his pockets, maybe? I would guess that explanation fits with Joe’s principles of good government and the American Way.

  30. 30.

    valdivia

    Hey I only care if this passes once it does we have one less hurdle but it still sticks in my craw that there is never any credit given to the historic accomplishment happening tonight. The spin will be that because they passed it in a squeaker it really means Obama is a one term president. Again I have to say it–ugh.

  31. 31.

    bayville

    This Louie Gohlmert dude ranks pretty high on the Congressional Dim Bulb list.
    He’s night quite Pencean dumb but he’s a comer.

  32. 32.

    Leelee for Obama

    @demkat620: Eric Cantor is just ridiculous. How his parents haven’t beaten him senseless is beyond me.

    Now Gohmert can’t find the official copy of the Bill without a guide-dog. What a ridiculous group of shitheads.

  33. 33.

    demkat620

    Why does TX have so many clowns? I thought the clown college was in FL.

    Louie Gohmert, Tom Delay, Joe Barton, John Cornyn, Governor Goodhair. They seem to have no shaortage down there.

  34. 34.

    bayville

    BTW did Boehner get the Declaration of Independence confused with The Constitution again today? I’ve been watching football.

  38. 38.

    Max

    @valdivia: I agree. Especially those on the left that hate Obama so much that they won’t acknowledge the good that is being done.

    Social security didn’t look a lot like social security when it was passed.

  40. 40.

    Leelee for Obama

    @demkat620: I keep telling you, drinking the water unfiltered is bad for the brain. Apparently, Texans are too rough and tumble to filter the aqua.

    Mel Gibson should sue them for co-opting his best line: Freedom!

  41. 41.

    valdivia

    @Max:

    amen sister. But then again I am an O-bot. :-)

    I thought republicans were too macho to cry? Did Glenda change all this? And weren’t we supposed to find out abotu Bitsy today?

  43. 43.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    My democratic congressman, Glenn Nye is voting no on the health care bill. He may be one of the folks being provided with the political cover to be able to run next year in a pretty Republican district but the fact is, he is going to lose anyway, so he may as well vote for it. The only reason he won in 2008 is because of the increased turnout generated by Obama.

  45. 45.

    Jesse

    Oh, the vote on HCR is tonight? Maybe that would explain the shitter pickup truck that I saw driving around DC today with a massive black wooden placard propped up in the cab that said “OBAMACARE: NO”, with a little square crossed by an “x”.

  48. 48.

    Leelee for Obama

    Ain’t it amazing how the Repubs just now are noticing how many jobs have gone overseas? And which jobs are they talking about the Bill killing-health insurance executives?

    Really, crawl back under their rocks.

  52. 52.

    Malron

    As God is my witness,

    I just heard John Boehner use the word “hyperbull.”

    Either he’s coining a new phrase or he’s tanned so many times his facial skin won’t allow his lips to pronounce the word “hyperbole” correctly.

    And yes, Mike Pence had everything but Lee Greenwood crooning in the background.

  53. 53.

    bayville

    What the hell was Pence talking about?
    Are we sure he showed up at the right debate? This debate is on the healthcare reform bill, not a flag burning amendment, right?

  54. 54.

    jl

    In my cynical moments, I think the cynical wing of the GOP really runs the show. That would be the Norquist school that believes in purposefully squeezing the middle class and ripping them off, so the GOP can ride the waves of resulting resentment, and resulting racist blamegame that certain dupes among the whiter kind of people are prone to.

    If you have a functioning healthcare system, that is one less way to grind the faces of the lower classes (ie, anybody not a millionaire) and take advantage of their resentment whenever the opportunity arises.

    Doesn’t make any difference whether it is functioning private system with appropriate regulation, social insurance, or government single payer, or mixed public private system (like public option). Doesn’t make any difference at all.

    AHIP’s members could earn a respectable living under a Swiss or Netherlands style private system, and (excepting a few of the worst renegade companies among them) they probably can be slowly cajoled into a new way of life.

    Health reform may be a bigger threat to the GOP way of life that it is to AHIP. My cynical side thinks this is very true. That is why the GOP will burn down many bridges and be willing to risk some of their bastians of support (AARP members) to prevent health care reform. Any effective health care reform, as any effective financial reform, threatens their way of life as a going concern, more so than any other in the US right now.

  57. 57.

    Leelee for Obama

    The massive new government plan will need so many people to run it, it’ll probably fix unemployment all by its lonesome. So I just heard from Congressman Fake Tan.

  59. 59.

    Dream On

    At least Boehner didn’t call czars “ka-zars”. Still, I think I saw a hyper-bull in Pamplona once, at the Running of the Bulls.

  62. 62.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @bayville:

    This Louie Gohlmert dude ranks pretty high on the Congressional Dim Bulb list.

    I can’t help it, but every time I see him I laugh a little inside.

  65. 65.

    Leelee for Obama

    @Malron: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

    Parenting lessons. Oh noes, we might actually have parents who know something about what to expect when raising kids, instead of just letting us poor bastards wing it all the time.

  66. 66.

    Max

    Curse you Obama! You made me care about politics and now, I’m sitting at home on a Saturday night, watching fucking Cspan.

    If Hillary had won, I’d be out whoring it up.

    :)

  68. 68.

    tofubo

    if’n anyone’s watching the cincinnati game, best 1/2 from a backup quarterback i’ve ever seen, 333 yds and a 20 point lead

    less funny than c-span, but a good out, nonetheless

  70. 70.

    Laura W

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Elvis Costello & The Imposters on Ovation TV.
    I managed to record this a couple nights ago and am now watching. He opens with Waiting for the End of the World, goes right into Radio Radio, and now Mystery Dance. Yeow. Still to come: Alison, Pump it Up, and three songs with Emmylou (Anne Laurie!) I am so hoping for The Angels Want To Wear My Red Footwear or Watching The Detectives.

    I guess you can catch it again Dec. 19 and 20.
    What a dude that guy is. God of my college years and still making me swoon. I will probably get booed but I am currently enjoying Painted From Memory in the car. His collaboration with Burt Bacharach. Sublime.
    This House is Empty Now.
    I Still Have That Other Girl…

    I would also like to say while I am hear that last week’s Curb Ur Enthu is hysterical.
    The Democrats are trying, and at least they do not kill black swans.

  71. 71.

    Malron

    Hyberbull: a bloviating speech full of obtuse statements and disingenuous claims that can be easily fact checked by a 3rd grader with access to teh Google. See John Boehner.

  72. 72.

    Leelee for Obama

    @Malron: I mentioned in another thread yesterday that they have been seen actually talking out of both sides of their mouths, saying two completely opposite things in a single speech. I think we all just watched it happen.

  75. 75.

    dmsilev

    Thank you all for the running commentary. I just bought a shiny new television, and I’d hate to ruin it on day one by throwing shoes at various GOPpers.

    -dms

  76. 76.

    Dream On

    “Curse you Obama! You made me care about politics and now, I’m sitting at home on a Saturday night, watching fucking Cspan.”
    ————-

    This is so true – what the hell am I doing watching C-Span? Will the distinguished gentleman from Virginia yield his time.

    I know I’ve yielded mine – to C-Span. On Saturday. I am a dork.

  79. 79.

    Jesse

    @bago: Waiting for the vote before I start in.

    Even though I have wanted to drive forks into my eyeballs for several months as the “debate” about HCR unfolded, I feel pretty optimistic about this one. But that could be just the desire to drink talking.

  90. 90.

    Yutsano

    @bago: I dunno, I’ve seen drinking games degenerate into carnal knowledge games in nothing flat. Vodka is powerful stuff man.

  91. 91.

    Leelee for Obama

    @bago: Could never leave a straight-line just hanging out there. It’s a curse I’ve struggled with for years.

  92. 92.

    jl

    @valdivia: Probably so. The Dems, Snow and Collins, even the Blue Dogs are normal middle age and old persons color. But all the reactionaries are bright orange.

    Steve Colbert says we need to go back to the theory of humours to save Glen Beck’s precious bodily internal organs.

    Maybe the orange color is from an overflow of bilious phlegm?

    I couldn’t resist, and turned on C-Span.

    John Dingell (fairly normal old white man color, not bright orange) is up. He started out by taking about ‘facts’ from ‘reports’ and ‘research’. Hmmm… Does he not understand what legislatures making laws for nations are supposed to work?

    Now my C-span is freezing up. I’ll probably turn it off after Dingell is done. I cannot take another round of gunsel punkery like I saw from little Johnny Boner.

  93. 93.

    ds

    How long after the House passes the bill will the media declare health care reform dead because it didn’t attract any Republican votes?

    I give them three minutes.

  97. 97.

    Chad N Freude

    @bayville: He freedom was freedom talking freedom about freedom. Freedom didn’t freedom you freedom listen freedom carefully freedom?

  100. 100.

    jl

    Oops. Drink reminded my it was John Stewart on Daily Show that said we need to go back to theory of humours to save Beck.

  103. 103.

    Chad N Freude

    I was moved by the exploitation of the cancer patient waiting for treatment who fears that government health care would make him wait for treatment.

  104. 104.

    Kitty

    Conservative freedom =
    Staying in hated, dead end job because you need health insurance
    Unable to start your own business because you have pre-exisiting conditions
    Watching loved ones suffer and die because current system withholds life-saving treatment
    Losing home and life savings because of medical bills
    Taking half your prescribed medication to save money
    Joining the military as a last resort to provide insurance for your family
    Just sayin’ Pr*#ks.

  105. 105.

    RandomChick

    So anybody have any info on the abortion amendment? Is this to ban abortions being covered by the exchange member insurance companies?

    Is it expected to pass?

  106. 106.

    mclaren

    Wow, John, you must never have seen Duncan Hunter gibbering and drooling and howling in the middle of the empty chamber on CSPAN-2. Black helicopters. Clinton’s trail of mass murders to cover up his rapes. Vince Foster’s assassination. Security strips in 100 dollar bills. Bar codes as the Mark of the Beast.

    For the ultimate in hilarious lunacy, Duncan Hunter’s diatribes on CSPAN-2 remain the ultimate art form. It just didn’t get any better than that.

    That’s why I get no amusement from all those Glenn Beck excerpts on YouTube. Duncan Hunter did it first, and did it crazier. Once you’ve sipped Dom Perignon, why would you want to swig Ripple?

  107. 107.

    jl

    I say, make little Johnny Bones, King, Pence, all the gulf coast GOP wingnuts denounce federal flood insurance as a totalitarian communifascist threat to our freedoms! And all the midwestern GOPers denounce federal crop insurance. Stand tall in freedom to live and die, win and lose! They should be allowed to make their stand for freedom.

  108. 108.

    Ash

    All these fucking Democrats voting for this abortion amendment need a shotgun stuck up their asses.

    Every single one of them.

  110. 110.

    Dream On

    Watching the Stupak vote totals – so far another case of a Democratic majority giving the minority everything they want. I didn’t realize abortion rights were now a fringe issue.

  112. 112.

    wobblybits

    @RandomChick: It looks as if it is going to pass as an amendment to the bill but it will likely get stripped out when they are in committee w/senate.

  113. 113.

    Chad N Freude

    Once you’ve sipped Dom Perignon, why would you want to swig Ripple?

    Because Dom Perignon is from soshalist France and Ripple is 100% American freedom. SATSQ.

  117. 117.

    RandomChick

    Nevermind about what the amendment is . . . C-SPAN explains, it bars funding. But still, anyone know the chances of passage? I know there are quite a few pro-life dems, but don’t know exactly how many.

  121. 121.

    jl

    @RandomChick: Firedoglake has the blow-by-blow inside politics of the Stupak amendment. I cannot understand it. Stupak says he will vote for reform whether his amendment passes or fails, which provides cover for a confusing melange of congresspersons and removes it for another confusing melange of other congresscritters. Lots of weird ramifications of voting yeah or nay or ‘present’. for both Dems and GOPers. At least three GOPers are voting present, which is Very Important, for reasons I cannot understand.

    Who knows? I have C-span on, but with sound turned of. Not sure what music to play. Beefheart might go well with it. Or Devo. Not sure which.

    No, Devo is only thing that will fit. The irony/commentary mix of Devo will be work simpler, and I am already confused.

  123. 123.

    RandomChick

    Yep, fuckers is the word that came to my mind as well. Isn’t this settled law or something.

    Must have been one of my DFH flashbacks.

  126. 126.

    JK

    @demkat620:

    C-SPAN is great, but the volume of stupidity that’s revealed during their open phone segments is extremely disheartening and demoralizing.

  127. 127.

    Dream On

    Notice that they didn’t have a “voice vote.” I guess Congressional cowards want to sneak their votes in and hope we won’t notice.

  128. 128.

    Jesse

    @mclaren: I remember watching Duncan Hunter late night on CSPAN saying that conditions at Guantanamo couldn’t be nearly as bad as critics alleged, because look here at all the not-bad food that they are given daily! His argument was a fun reductio ad absurdum: how could there be torture when we feed the guys such nice things?

    After the presser was over, he even offered the (very few) people who were in the room to come up and try the Guantanamo food.

    Good times. I didn’t know who Duncan Hunter was before that time, but this stunt seared his name into my memory.

  129. 129.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @bago:

    Yes, but it will likely live a short life until removed in conference. Banning abortions in the insurance exchange pool cause some taxpayer dollar might of paid for it won’t wash in the end. They will have to reach some parsing out language kind of compromise, though I don’t know what it would be.

    This is just to get something passed.

  132. 132.

    Dream On

    So if this approved amendment will eventually be dropped in reconciliation, can we safely say that it is all hyper-bull?

  133. 133.

    Leelee for Obama

    @RandomChick: The Stupak (Stupid?) amendment bars Federal funding for abortions in the HCR bill, which is the Hyde Amendment anyway. It’s cover for the pro-life Dems to appease the Catholic bishops. It will likely be stripped in conference.

  134. 134.

    Chad N Freude

    @mclaren: You mean

    Conservative commentator Ann Coulter and aviation legend Chuck Yeager both endorsed Hunter as their choice for President, but Hunter received little support from the Republican establishment. Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, who was also seeking the Republican nomination for President, stated that Hunter might play a role in a potential Huckabee administration, noting that he is “extraordinarily well qualified to be Secretary of Defense.”[46]
    __
    As the caucus and primary season got underway, Hunter began being excluded from Republican debate forums. On January 7, 2008, he held a press conference where reporters thought he would announce his withdrawal. Instead, he surprised pundits by first lambasting ABC News and Fox News not allowing him to participate in previous days’ televised debates and then declaring that he would not withdraw from the presidential race: “I am not going to let some arrogant knucklehead executive in a glass office 10 stories above a mall in New York City decide the outcome of this election.”[47][48]
    __
    In the Iowa caucuses Hunter finished in seventh place with 524 votes, or one percent of the total. In the New Hampshire primary he finished in seventh and last place again with 1,220 votes, or less than one percent of the total votes cast. In the Wyoming caucuses he had his best showing, coming in third and scoring 1 delegate to the Republican National Convention. However, in the Michigan primary, Hunter once again placed last, coming in eighth behind “Uncommited” (which received 15,000 more votes than Hunter). On the last day of his campaign, Hunter won just two percent of the vote in the Nevada caucuses, and in the South Carolina primary he received only 0.2 percent of the vote, putting him in last place in both states.

    that Duncan Hunter?

  137. 137.

    jl

    Stupak amendment is a bad idea, regardless of what the obscure point of, or political maneuvering behind it is. Waste of time, and pandering to nutcase right to lifers. When they have a vote over funds going for fertility clinics, maybe I will take the question seriously. Not a moment until then, though.

    And b n r p l l s. Don’t forget those. What does an old man need those for? Why aren’t right to lifers and sex-for-making-kids-only crowd upset over naughty p l l s for old dudes?

    I would like to see the reaction of those old orange goats to taking funding away for b n r p l l s.

    (It will be a miracle if this comment escapes moderation.)

  138. 138.

    Dream On

    Can someone fill me in on what the “Boehner Substitute Amendment is”. Sorry if I’m posting a lot…

  140. 140.

    Max

    Is it me or do the Cspan callers that are against HCR sound dumber, I don’t mean the substance of what they are saying (that too), but their actual speech pattern and timber?

    But, then again, I’m an O-bot +2.

  145. 145.

    Chad N Freude

    @jl: This is a great point. I’ve never thought of it before. Although as an old dude with a long form birth cert to prove it, I’m all in favor of government sponsored coverage of age-defying medications.

  148. 148.

    Malron

    Oh fucking kill me now. Eric Cantor is now the last cow on the tracks blocking health reform. Moooooooove, Eric, Mooooooooovee.

  149. 149.

    mcc

    @RandomChick: The Stupak (Stupid?) amendment bars Federal funding for abortions in the HCR bill, which is the Hyde Amendment anyway. It’s cover for the pro-life Dems to appease the Catholic bishops. It will likely be stripped in conference.

    This is not really correct. The Stupak amendment bars you (or your employer) from receiving any insurance subsidies from the government if you choose a health care plan that covers abortion. It’s basically engineering the government to pay people to not have abortions.

    It may well be the case that it will be stripped in conference.

    Boehner is now basically reading Betsy McCaughey’s WSJ editorial today. Just clowns.

    Seems weird to call them clowns at the same time they’re scoring major policy victories on their base’s core issues. If Stupak’s amendment doesn’t get stripped, it would seem to be a demonstration that the conservatives’ clowning is more effective than whatever the progressives are doing.

  152. 152.

    Dream On

    I’m watching this congressional hoe-down on the web – so I’m not blessed to hear C-Span callers. I am playing creepy goth instrumentals on my iTunes everytime the Republicans speak. It creates a nice evil soundtrack.

  154. 154.

    Randy P

    @Malron:

    Can somebody explain what Cantor just did and what the likely effect will be?

    It’s a motion to recommit I gather. What does that mean? Does that mean HCR doesn’t make it out of the sausage factory tonight? Or should I stay up some more?

    I turned the sound off at that point. All I can take is watching the roll call votes, I don’t want to hear their voices.

  156. 156.

    bago

    If your Boehner amendment takes more than 4 hours to vote on, please seek professional help. Seriously, what happened to my feed?

  157. 157.

    Leelee for Obama

    @RandomChick: Getting in his last licks, before the bill is voted on, and likely will pass. The other plain and simple truth is that tort reform won’t save enough money to make it worth taking on the trial lawyers. And my former Senator, Mel Martinez, was a trial lawyer. A pretty successful one, too. Ginny Brown-Waite-witch and liar. Doesn’t she know Halloween was last Saturday?

  158. 158.

    Max

    This Ginny chick is my mom’s rep. My mother, the registered republican who I got to flip to Obama, says she is worthless, but all the retirees with pensions in The Villages love her because she is in their pocket.

  160. 160.

    Ash

    Oh hell, Tim Johnson (D-Ill) was the lone Republican who voted against Boehner’s amendment. That’s the only good thing he’s done in the 8 years or so he’s been my representative.

  161. 161.

    Dream On

    I can see that members are starting to get a little… juiced up and ginned up.

    Late night for them? Sounds like an army of Joe Wilson clones.

  162. 162.

    RandomChick

    Yeah for this dem! Tell them how pathetic this last ditch effort the throw a monkey wrench in really is.

  163. 163.

    Malron

    @Randy P: I’m not sure what “motion to recommit” means, either but it sounds like a last minute plea for tort reform. Of course, you didn’t expect the GOP to say “Damn, you guys got us!” did you?

  165. 165.

    jl

    @Chad N Freude: Thank you for noticing. As a middle age white man, I feel brave taking a stand on the hypocrisy of insurance paying for naughty old goat p l l s while basically telling women to go eat shit and die for pretty much anything women related.

    Remember, these vicious old lizards it is not just against womens’ naughty sexytime. An old GOP jackass basically didn’t want any risk pooling for women’s conditions at all. OK fine, then take out coverage of prostates and men’s naughty bits cancers too.

    They don’t want to cover childbirth, or at least they want to skimp on it.

    They are totally depraved. Seriously dammned depraved and wicked. How can anyone support these vicious nasty old GOP coots?

    But then, I am healthy. I do not have the complexion of a glass of orange soda pop, so it is easy for me to be brave right now about b n r ***s.

  166. 166.

    PeakVT

    Do all these supposedly X-tian Republicans realize they are bearing false witness?

    It would be nice if the FSM were to smite them right now, as they step away from the podium.

  169. 169.

    asiangrrlMN

    @jl: Damn. Fucking. Right. The hypocrisy, it is strong in these asswipes.

    Thank you all for livish blogging the ‘debates’ since I don’t have cable, and I would rather be fucked with a rusty pitchfork a kajillion ways of Sunday than subject myself to that mindfuck.

    Just, did it pass?

  170. 170.

    Malron

    @Randy P: Ahhhhh, it was an attempt to insert a bill in the last minutes before the final vote.

    How much ya wanna bet they try to insert another bill as soon as the Dems shoot this one down?

    Damn, Hoyer was on fire.

  171. 171.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Malron:

    House rules are weird, but I think the motion to recommit is pretty much standard as a last ditch objection to the bill. I think it is resolved with a quick vote to deny.

  173. 173.

    Malron

    Republican motion to recommit: last chance to change the bill before final vote. According to C-Span.

  177. 177.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: If all goes well tonight you may have some competition on that front. And we need to discuss this pitchfork obsession of yours dear, rusty or otherwise.

  178. 178.

    Max

    @bago:

    drink

    Already ahead of you.

    Totally OT, but, my wheaten terrier got groomed today and I have to say, there is nothing prettier than a freshly groomed wheaten.

  179. 179.

    Leelee for Obama

    @jl: This is why I always say that I understand discrimination-I’m so sick of the double-standard on gender-specific medical care. It’s just mean and vicious.

  181. 181.

    Randy P

    I’m watching over at the Great Orange Satan. Lots of knowledgeable folks over there. I gather “motion to recommit” means “send it back to committee, don’t vote on it”.

    I’ve been watching this thing on an MSNBC link that’s embedded in a diary.

    Looks like recommit is going down. So we will get to a vote on the actual bill. Unless there’s another delay tactic they’ve got.

  182. 182.

    bago

    These twatwaffles are only 6 blocks away. I really should go hassle them before my liver gives out.

  183. 183.

    kay

    @mcc:

    The Hyde Amendment is added as a rider each year when Medicaid is funded. The House Amendment language tracks the Hyde Amendment.
    Presumably, they could just add the Hyde Amendment as a rider each year when they fund the proposed health care bill, if this House version doesn’t make it into the actual text.
    I think this is Obama’s argument.
    I’m not seeing how the amendment failing gets you where you want to go.
    You’ll be back at Hyde.
    Hyde only operates on funding through HHS. I don’t know where the funding for the health care bill runs through: I assume HHS, but I don’t know that.
    That’s how I’m reading it, anyway. Please correct me if I’m missing something here.

  186. 186.

    asiangrrlMN

    P.S. I don’t give a flying fuckety-fuck how many votes the bill gets as long as it FUCKING PASSES. As for the “I hate the wimminz who should be forced to breed” amendment, may the proposer of the bill have to spend eternity staring at the insides of his own soul.

  191. 191.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Malron: WEINER!

    @Yutsano: Do not care. He is mine. i can take all and any challengers. As for the rusty pitchfork, yes. It’s my anger and my sexual frustration all rolled up into one.

    @Ash: Damn right!

    Leelee, I am so with you on Ted Kennedy. You can’t rest yet, Teddy. There is still work to be done.

  193. 193.

    Leelee for Obama

    @asiangrrlMN: Hey, grrll! That would only work if they actually had a soul to stare into. Sadly, no.

    Also. If I were younger, I’d give you a run for your money on Congressman Weiner.. And yes, he’s teh hawt, but I love him for his mind!!!!

  202. 202.

    JMY

    If the House bill passes, I don’t want to hear the “oh but the Dems just gave in to the the big insurance giants” bullshit. This is HUGE progress if it does pass.

  204. 204.

    mcc

    @kay: Hi Kay,

    The Hyde Amendment applies to people who receive Medicaid. In other words, people who are receiving medical services paid for directly by the government.

    The Stupak Amendment applies to people who have purchased private health insurance, but who [as part of the new health care bill] the government is paying for part of their health insurance premiums. The Stupak Amendment says that these people may not have abortion coverage from their insurance, regardless of how much or how little aid the government is giving them, regardless of whether (because in some cases the government aid will be paid to the employer, not them) they had a choice in whether or not to accept that aid. In other words, the Stupak amendment does not relate except in a convoluted way to the use of federal funds. It uses a subsidy paid to someone as an excuse to tell that person what kind of private health insurance they may or may not buy.

    It’s difficult of course to say exactly because as far as I have been able to tell all day there is still not actually text for the Stupak amendment available to the public, but this is my understanding based on what has been reported. I am still trying to work out where you

  208. 208.

    bago

    @bago: That was meant to invoke the voice of Shao Kahn from Mortal Kombat, not to indicate that the vote had died. 14 minutes left in the final vote.

  216. 216.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @mcc:

    I thought is would also bar abortions from any insurer in the Health Care Exchange that received subsidies for what ever reason. Glad I’m wrong about that, as it would have about banned all insurance covered abortions.

  225. 225.

    Chad N Freude

    In defense of Eric Cantor, I would like to point out that he said — in public!! — that photographs of the dead at Dachau were — and I quote him exactly — inappropriate!!!

    You have to admire a man who would take such a defiant, outspoken, courageous stand against the base of his own party.

  235. 235.

    bago

    @asiangrrlMN: Hell if I know. I’m working on medical software in DC, watching the health care vote go, and helping to evict a meth dealer from the basement. + not enough.

  248. 248.

    JMY

    Joseph Cao of LA is the lone Republican vote. Which makes since b/c he represents an African American district.

  251. 251.

    mcc

    @General Winfield Stuck: Actually, that also.

    So it turns out you can find all the amendments proposed to this bill (Bachmann submitted 12) at the Rules Committee website here. The amendment text itself, according to the Rules Committee website, is here. The important text, transcribing from the PDF, is:

    (a) IN GENERAL.–No funds authorized or appropriated by this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) may be used to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health care plan that includes coverage of abortion, except in the case where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, or unless the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest.

    That seems pretty comprehensive and it seems to be a concrete expansion beyond what the Hyde Amendment does. Not only may federal funds not be used to pay for an abortion, but in essence federal funds may not be given to anyone who might at some point in future have an abortion (unless elaborate personal financial firewalls– insanely, the rest of the Stupak amendment proposes supplemental abortion insurance— are in place).

  252. 252.

    Chad N Freude

    From C-SPAN:

    One Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA), voted for the bill and 39 Democrats voted against the legislation.

  253. 253.

    SIA aka ScreamingInAtlanta

    I’m watching CSPAN and enjoying watching the repubs body language…huddled in little groups with their arms crossed in front of their chests.

  254. 254.

    kay

    @mcc:

    Hyde would cover what you’re objecting to, as long as the new health care bill is funded through HHS.

    Here’s Hyde:

    None of the funds appropriated under this Act shall be expended for any abortion except when it is made known to the federal entity or official to which funds are appropriated under this Act
    that such procedure is necessary to save the life of the mother or that the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest.

    The emphasis is mine. I don’t know how you partition “none”

    I think the thing turns on whether the new bill is gets funded through HHS. Then Hyde applies, and killing this new amendment will take you right back to Hyde. IMO.

  255. 255.

    mcc

    I wrote a post about the Stupak amendment there which was held for moderation, I assume because I used one link too many. Short version, Mr. Stuck, it turns out you can find the text of the Stupak amendment by going here and looking under “Stupak”. It’s actually much like you said.

  258. 258.

    kay

    @mcc:

    I tried to respond but got moderated.

    I see where you’re drawing a distinction, and it’s completely valid, but I’m just talking about operation. I think Hyde applies, as long as the funding comes through HHS.

    Hyde says “none”.

  269. 269.

    mcc

    @kay: I do see what you mean but I think what it comes down to is, how would the HHS secretary implement the law. It seems extremely unlikely to me that Sebelius would of her own accord take such an expansive interpretation of Hyde. It is altogether possible a court could rule the Hyde amendment implies something like the Stupak amendment, and extremely likely that a future Republican HHS secretary would cite Hyde and follow the Stupak amendment voluntarily, but even if we take an optimistic view of things Stupak if passed would seem to definitely change how this bill would be implemented by the Obama administration and in the long term change the legal footing under which future administrations must implement the bill. No?

  270. 270.

    gwangung

    Wiki war going on, on Joseph Cao’s Wikipedia page. Apparently there was some pretty insulting stuff, but it’s already gone.

    I’ll be very pleasantly surprised if none of the non-wiki stuff is racially tinged.

  274. 274.

    tootiredoftheright

    @kay:

    The thing is private insurance companies cover all sorts of abortions.

    So why shouldn’t medicare or the Health Bill?

    Many of the ones objecting to abortion are on insurance plans that cover abortions. If they so seriously objected to abortion they wouldn’t be on those plans would they?

    After all their premiums are being used to pay for abortions and that was the meat as to why medicare being used to pay for abortions got us the hyde amendment as a comprimise.

  275. 275.

    Wile E. Quixote

    Two Things:

    1) We should find out where Henry Hyde is buried and shit on his grave. Seriously. Henry Hyde’s grave should be desecrated, he was a hateful, hypocritical disgusting old fuck and if there is an afterlife then he’s burning in Hell right now with Satan’s multi-headed cock penetrating his every orifice.

    2) We should primary Stupak in 2010. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I’m going to be called a purity idiot, but so the fuck what. Stupak is a bigoted, worthless hick, he’s just another goddamned DINO like Joe Lieberman and like Lieberman the Democrats would be better off without him.

  276. 276.

    mclaren

    @Chad N Freude: yeah, that Duncan Hunter. The Reptilican congressman from Orange County. The guy who defined “batshit insane” long before anyone ever used the phrase “batshit insane.

    Duncan Hunter was ranting about medicare as a communist conspiracy and fluoridation as an evil plan to sap our capitalist vigor back during the Reagan years. As Yoda would say, “The insanity is strong with this one.”

  277. 277.

    Obama Death Panel Chairman (formerly glocksman)

    @Yutsano:

    Indiana’s Klan history isn’t something this Hoosier is proud of.
    That said, Indiana’s contribution to the preservation of the Union is something I am proud of.

    We aren’t all knuckle dragging troglodytes, you know.

  278. 278.

    prospero

    Dude I was seriously bummed by how terrible Dragon Age was. I mean, wtf. It’s almost like I’m too old to be playing fantasy RPGs or something. But why are video games all so linear and quest-driven these days? Is this how we’re raising kids, to be a bunch of rigidly structured, task oriented automatons who don’t understand the beauty of just wandering around for hours doing nothing in a video game? You can’t just blunder around in the woods racking up XP unless you have some fascist little quest you’ve signed up for? LAME. Also the tag along Randroid is cute for a little while but mostly I just wanted Morrigan to SHUT THE FUCK UP. You just KNOW that smug little harridan sleeps with a copy of Liberal Fascism under her pillow. Oh and some kind of neutered health-care bill passed too, I guess. When radical moderate incrementalists hailed as saviors are the best we get on the soi disant left, it’s a sign that now more than ever we need better video games to ease the pain.

  281. 281.

    Steeplejack

    Just watched the clip of Mike Pence that Rainy Day provided. Two points:

    1. When can we expect Mr. Pence to introduce a bill to unshackle the members of Congress from the chains of their government-run health care?

    2. I was a little surprised to see that the comments on YouTube ran 10-4 against Pence. I assume the demographic there skews young, but I still expected more true believers like the person who wrote: “My freedom is worth more than any amount someone can put on it. I lost family fighting for my freedom. I hope they didn’t die in vain.” At least I think that person is for Pence.

  282. 282.

    stormhit

    @prospero:

    That’s why there’s Fallout or Oblivion for that kind of world. Dragon Age is just a different style of RPG than what you’re looking for.

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