James Carville spoke what most of us were already thinking about Glenn Beck.

“I think he’s nuts, OK?,” the outspoken Democratic strategist said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“Just out-and-out nuts. And I also think that he’s a blatant hypocrite,” Carville said. “Here’s somebody that sits on his show … weeping about how much he loves America and … and then he’s absolutely giddy when his country doesn’t get the Olympics. And this is — I’ll tell you another thing about Glenn Beck. He wouldn’t know the difference between a football, a bat and a hockey court. This guy is not — he’s just all — he’s just all weeping.”

Well, Glenn does Tweet about cartoons predicting the future 50 years ago. And he sees Satanic references on the buildings at Rockefeller Center. Nuts? How about insane!  C’mon Glenn, “Cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good. When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.”

And the levee broke for the right last November.

He has suggested, among other things, that President Barack Obama’s health care reform agenda is a means by which Obama can effect reparations for slavery. He also warns against indoctrination of children by the AmeriCorps program. Oh, and he called the President a racist. What was it when he was making fun of an Asian-American caller on the Glenn and Pat Show? A joke I guess.

But I guess we can feel sorry for Glenn though. He did spend most of the ’80s and ’90s in a drug- and alcohol-induced haze after all.

Time Magazine describes Beck as “a gifted storyteller with a knack for stitching seemingly unrelated data points into possible conspiracies”, proclaiming that he has “emerged as a virtuoso on the strings” of Conservative’s discontent … mining the timeless theme of the corrupt Them thwarting a virtuous Us.”

My guess, and it’s just a guess, is that he is crazy for the purest of reasons…Money.

In June, estimators at Forbes magazine pegged Beck’s earnings over the previous 12 months at $23 million.

Now that makes me weepy…

Obama repudiates race as main cause of health care criticism. In several interviews at the White House on Friday, President Obama said that he did not believe his race was the cause of criticism leveled at his administration in the debate over health care, and that he thinks the cause was a sense of suspicion and distrust many Americans have in their government.

President Obama told CNN:

Are there people out there who don’t like me because of race? I’m sure there are. That’s not the overriding issue here.”

He also said that he did not agree with former President Jimmy Carter’s claim that racism was stoking the opposition to his administration. He described himself as just the latest in a line of presidents whose motives had been questioned because they were trying to enact major change.

Ouch! Smack down ole’ Jimmy! The President also said “race is such a volatile issue in this society” that he conceded it had become difficult for people to tell whether it was simply a backdrop of the current political discussion or “a predominant factor.”

“Now there are some who are, setting aside the issue of race, actually I think are more passionate about the idea of whether government can do anything right,” he told ABC News. “And I think that that’s probably the biggest driver of some of the vitriol.”

Bingo. True leadership is not about bending the curve to make it look like you are right. True leadership is working towards actually making things right. We as a nation ought to be thankful we have a President that gives thoughtful pause to the decisions he makes on a daily basis. These decisions will impact us for a long time.

We rightly have a cynical and suspicious eye on the government at large. As we have seen over decades, people in high positions are capable of very destructive actions and decisions. Whether it is orchestrating a break in to dig up dirt on the opposition, or bending the intelligence to fit the “end goal”, this hateful, mean spirited venom that is being spewed is just stirring up the hornets nest for the sake of stirring it up. The completely untrue and false crap that is being distributed by the likes of Glenn Beck is of course just that. Crap. If you have a true disagreement with the policy, fine. State it clearly and accurately, and back it up with facts. Not with that drivel about secretly “communist” and “fascist” art buried into the exterior design program of Rockefeller Center.

Well, in spite of “You Lie” Joe Wilson, and the tea parties, and the raucous town hall meetings, the Gang of Six in the Senate seems to be finally getting down to business on health care reform.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus says:

As senators on and off the committee, [including] Republicans, begin to know more about all of this, their comfort level is starting to come up a bit. I do believe that in the end we will have some significant bipartisan support.”

The group of three Democratic and three Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee — are realizing “there’s much to agree on,” Baucus said.

Now that’s a far cry from “You Lie”, now isn’t it. Even Iowa GOP Sen. Charles Grassley, one of the gang of “Pull the plug on Grandma”, said he wanted to see the overall price lowered in light of skyrocketing federal budget deficits (reasonable argument), and indicated that there were “five to six unresolved issues” but expressed some optimism that they could be overcome.

Last week, President Obama delivered a speech to Congress outlining a proposal similar to the measure being negotiated by the Gang of Six. Sounds like the President got his point across to them. Of course, he didn’t convince “You Lie” Wilson, but then again, he is a gang of one right now.

Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota said that The Finance Committee bill as currently drafted would cost roughly $880 billion over 10 years and be fully funded and also said it would not add to the federal deficit.

He  also said he was “confident we’re bending the cost curve in the right way.”

Now that’s negotiating. William Shatner would be proud.

Mulligan!

Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, called for restarting the health care debate instead of proceeding with policies he claimed were opposed by the majority of the country.

What? Opposed by a majority of what country? Spain? Read the polls Mr. Boustany.

Most Americans wanted to hear the president tell Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid and the rest of Congress that it’s time to start over on a common-sense, bipartisan plan focused on lowering the cost of health care while improving quality.”

OK, define common sense. Kill the death panel provision? Take out providing  health care to all the illegal Canadians living here? But, why stop there? Why not just make health insurance available only to those who have donated to a FudPublican political campaign and call it a day. The rest of us could just go die on the hospital floor while they try to figure out where they can send us. Oh, wait, that’s already happening.

Common sense would dictate having thoughtful, intense yet respectful debate of the issues at hand.

Yelling “You Lie” in the middle of a Presidential address to a joint session of Congress is not my idea of common sense.

Keeping the “birther” movement alive at every chance you get is not my idea of common sense.

Sending out mailers that the Obama health reform plan will pay for sex change operations is not my idea of common sense.

It’s all FUD, plain and simple. FudPublicans have made an art of spewing FUD, and they wont stop anytime soon.

So, Mr. President, stay the course. Don’t let them wear you down. That’s all they have. They lost the last election…badly.

And when you call them out for distorting the facts, as they will most certainly continue to do, give them the map of the Appalachian Trail. We wouldn’t want to see anyone getting lost and ending up in, oh I don’t know, Argentina?

Update – Oh, and President Obama has accepted Joe Wilson’s apology…

Rudy Ruiz writes today on CNN.com a reasoned commentary regarding the whack jobs out there trying to make the President’s speech to school children today a message of fear and indoctrination.

He makes 3 solid points:

• That we should listen respectfully to others. Doing so, we might realize that we can appreciate certain aspects of a person while disagreeing with others, and that partial differences of opinion needn’t always spur absolute rejection.

• That we should respect the president because, even if we didn’t vote for him, we’re still one nation.

• That we should give our president an opportunity to lead by example.

The FUDPublican’s who are going to DEFCON 1 and trying to make this speech about something it’s not should learn to pick their battles. That kind of rhetoric continues to marginalize the republican party. In a time when we need strong leadership and calm, thoughtful debate on the critical issues we face today, this crap being thrown around, calling a speech to stay in school and learn political indoctrination (just to provide a distraction) is what could be called Un-American.

Remember Joe McCarthy? Using wild eyed pistol waving tactics to ruin people’s lives by calling them out as Communists? He died at 48, from hepatitis (most likely fueled by alcoholism), censured by the Senate.

I couldn’t agree with Mr. Ruiz more. A little respect goes a long way. And for those FUDPublican’s out there making this crap up, be careful of the stones you throw. Glass houses are fragile.

And as far as Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty saying the speech could cause first-day “disruption”, no Governor…you are the disruption.

And what did he say in his speech?

Word on the street is that the White House is working on its own version now of health care reform. I guess they have figured out that Congress won’t get it done. Keep pushing. This has been going on since the days of Harry Truman. He tried both a public option and senior health care (later passed as Medicare) and every president (with the exception of Eisenhower and Reagan) since has tried to get health care reform passed, to no avail.

This is the time. With costs spiraling, and profits soaring, it’s time to finally bring it all back to reality.

People are dying, literally dying, every day for health care reform. Just make it happen.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/04/obama.health.care/index.html

Well, well. Isn’t it interesting to see how the good and honorable Senator McCain reacted to unruly town hall folks. I have to hand it to him, when that woman in Minnesota made the “Arab” comment about then Candidate Obama, he politely yet firmly told her it wasn’t so.

And, in this town hall setting, trying to get out amongst the voters to have a reasonable debate, he again stands up for what is right, and evicts those who just want to be disruptive.

I very much respect that in Senator McCain. I may not agree with all of his policies and statements, but he certainly handles these off the wall extremely uninformed/malcontents/disruptive people with an even hand of “not here, thank you”.  I commend the good Senator for that.

All we ask for is a forum for reasonable debate. we may ultimately agree to disagree, but let’s go have a beer afterward.

See Rush, this is how it’s done.

Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy died late Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after a battle with brain cancer. Born in 1932, he was 77. “We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” a family statement said.

Senator Kennedy will be sorely missed. He was a class act and a consummate politician. One from the old school.

Read all about him here…

And here…

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge says he was able to fend off the administration’s effort to raise the security threat level prior to the 2004 elections. Sound familiar? That Secretary Ridge stood up to the pressure, and later gave up the post because of it, it a testament to his character.

An election-eve drama was being played out at the highest levels of our government” after Osama bin Laden released a pre-election message critical of President George W. Bush, he writes in his new book, “The Test of Our Times.”

The idea that an attack might take place had been discussed, he says. “But at this point there was nothing to indicate a specific threat and no reason to cause undue public alarm. … It also seemed possible to me and to others around the table that something could be afoot other than simple concern about the country’s safety.”

He is a Republican I could vote for. Fair minded, wants to do the right thing, and is willing to engage is serious and thoughtful debate. However, he didn’t fold under what must had been tremendous pressure. Can you imagine having to battle the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld on this? He could probably take Ashcroft with one hand tied behind his back, but taking on Evil Dick and his cronies would have been no small feat.

And of course he is getting slammed…

Maybe Secretary Ridge will run for President one day. I would certainly consider voting for him…

Of course, there is always the other side…

And on the other side of the other side…

And more from the left of the other side…

And then there is the eerie time line of alerts and (unfavorable) news stories about the administration.

With the Republicans throwing up roadblocks at every turn to stop health care reform, the White House is doing the right thing. Go ahead and ram it through. If the Republican leadership can’t come to the table to negotiate in good faith, then it is them that will lose the battle. But, in the process, they will try any tactic in the book to have it fail and to blame the administration for failure.

Fear mongering, misinformation, outright lies…does this sound familiar? Maybe has an Iraq feel to it? The RepubFud’s are experts at crafting the fear message. Read up on the Medicare debate from the Reagan days. Man, elephants do have a good memory!

This quote is right on from a White House adviser telling CNN that “If we have to push it through this way, no one is going to remember how messy it was. “At the end of the day, they’ll remember we got health care reform done. A win is a win.”

Indeed, a win is a win. Keep pushing. Americans are “dying” for health care reform…Daily.

Falsehoods galore… And the President tries to address those…

And here is a glossary of terms…

And Obama is also calling to a higher power…

And higher…

You go Mr. President…