The Observation Deck

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... f-me/8088/

I vowed not to do this anymore, but this is too good. Money quote:

"Some people think that what unites the Tea Party Patriots is simple racism. I doubt that. But the Tea Party movement is not the solution to what ails America. It is an illustration of what ails America. Not because it is right-wing or because it is sometimes susceptible to crazed conspiracy theories, and not because of racism, but because of the movement’s self-indulgent premise that none of our challenges and difficulties are our own fault."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37631.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-20/stop-blaming-bush/

Nope, nothing's ever our own fault. There's always someone else to blame.

But it is fun to blame bush. He all but destroyed this country.

Anyway. I wanted to make one quick point.... If the tea party folks ever want to be taken seriously they need to do two things. March on washington and demand a stop to out of control defense spending. Second. Please stop letting Sarah Palin talk! For one she is not very good at it. And every time she opens her mouth she just dumbs down whatever intelligent point the tea party people may have. I direct your attention to the link below, apparently from palin's tweet page. I am glad she is no an expert on oil rig safety...

http://i.imgur.com/g9aFw.png

Also, how is the effort to free Ohioans from the clutches of the Healthcare mandate? Yes that is a loaded question...

http://www.ohiolibertycouncil.org/

Here is the Truth: We are way behind. We have no money. Our original strategy isn’t working. It appears we will not capture the required signatures before the end of June.

Yeah, yeah. Both sides do a lot of finger pointing, and the left does its share. And Obama's harping on the past administration is bad form, graceless, and bad politics.

But i think this is really trivializing the point of Michael Kinsley's column, if you read it (or his book from the late 90s "Big Babies.")

His point is not about fingerpointing onn the right or the left, or by particular politicians, but about the fact that hte American people, of all persuasions, like to castigate "Washington" or "the government" or whatever for a dire situation that is largely their---our--own fault.

Conservatives are fond of saying Americans dont like big government. As a sentiment it may be sort of on target, but as a factual matter, its not. Americans DO like big government. Where was the Tea Party when a conservative administration passed the largest expansion of government entitlements since medicare with the prescription drug act????? It simply will not do to blame that on "Washington" or some vague boogeyman called "the government". The prescription drug act was passed because there was a widespread demand adcross the political spectrum, and mainly from older folks (who are not necessarily in the lib/dem profile) for relief from the high cost of prescriptioon drugs.

How it would be paid for, or what it would do the national bottom line, or to our children's debt load wasnt part of the picture.

Americans DO like big government. What they dont like is paying for it. Demanding things you wont pay for isnt a liberal trait or a conservative trait--its a childish trait and suggests we cant govern ourselves or deal with the large challenges that WE have created for ourselves. Thats Kinsley's point.

Obama has every right to blame Bush for the financial situation we are in. We all know that he was given an administration that was fiscally sound and blew it out.

Also, about entitlements. Specifically the prescription drug care through Medicare. Bush demanded that there be no negotiation with drug companies like Medicaid does. One of the more stupid things he did. Talk about budget busting.

While I waited for my Social Security Disability to be approved I had Medicaid. I was very very sick and Medicaid covered everything.

After a year of being on the Medicare prescription drug care, which I had to pay a small premium for and a small co-pay out of my much less than $1,000.00 monthly income, I got a printout of my Medicaid prescription and my year to date prescriptions. The difference in the amounts for the drugs was astounding. With Medicaid paying for over 17 prescriptions, total cost for a year was 1/3 of what Medicare paid for 10 ( I was able to drop a couple by working hard on my health once I was able). How does that make any sense?

Seriously, you need to look under the covers to see what's really in that bed.