It's never too late!

"...While the rise of the tea party movement demonstrates the rift between the conservative grassroots and the Republican Party, the health care debate has revealed the fault lines within the Democrats’ center-left coalition, pitting liberal and progressive activists against the party establishment... Reading these developments together, it is clear that the primary antagonism structuring our political landscape is not between conservatives and liberals, or between the Democratic and Republican Parties, but rather between the people of the United States – conservatives, libertarians, liberals and progressives – and the Democratic-Republican political establishment..." -- via Independent Political Report, 12/21/09

Golly. ( Excuse me while I recover my jaw from the floor. )

Oh, but that's absurd. IPR is crawling with minor-league parties and we all know that minor-league parties eat weird food and smell funny. If you touch one, your hand will turn gangrenous and fall off! Ewwww...

What you really wanted to hear about was the holidays, yes? I got socks and mr_xeno got kitchen stuff (most of the booty in question was U.S.-made, FWIW) and we drank Bloody Marys and lived happily ever after-- until the next election. There. All better now?

"...In the year since the last election the president has made concession after concession to drug and insurance companies, to private health care providers and their lobbyists. The White House, establishment Democrats and their echo chambers in the corporate media and even on the internet have worked hard to suppress voices advocating the simple, practical and elegant solution of single payer Medicare For All, which is still favored in polls by a substantial majority of Americans..." -- Bruce A. Dixon at Black Agenda Report, 11/4/09

The rest is here. I've been generally grateful for BAR's stalwart coverage of this farce, at a time when there's little connected with "healthcare" that requires any link-up with the word "grateful."

The only people who could possibly be surprised that poor women got yet another slap in the face from the "public servants" who brought us welfare "reform" in the 1990s are people who aren't smart enough to tie their own shoes unassisted.

But remember: if you don't like this plan, you're an icky evil Right-winger who watches FOX! Just like anyone who didn't like the war on the last go-round was an icky terrorist-hugging smelly hippie! Wheeee!!

Dear Megalocorp HMO and/or Private Insurer Corporate Slimeball Pig-Dogs,

Thanks for being there. I see that your ongoing snog-fest with the good-looking stooge that everyone around here voted for except me just isn't enough. No, it's very important that you also continue to provide lousy service, while keeping me so deep in Debtor's Hell that I can't even access those lousy services most of the time.

The final cherry on the ever-flowing garbage sundae, though, is the patronizing radio and mass transit ads you continue to run gently suggesting to me that if I just threw out the bacon and took more walks, I'd be transported to a magical happy land where I'd never, ever get sick. Oh, Thank You. Really. How much do these obnoxious and unnecessary lectures cost on a yearly basis? What percentage of them are purchased with my damn money? Seriously. Just do me a favor and eat a fist, all right?

( Stab them, nab them, cab them, grab them... )

I'm so glad that we could have this little chat. Now shut up and go away.

Sincerely,

ms_xeno

...courtesy of Mike Flugennock.

Larger version via *Stop Me*

The last few weeks have been but the first wave of force-feeding, towards the cultivation of the perfect Prog-flavored pate'. Gulp every bit of hi-grade Goose Chow in the tube, my friends. Then take a deep breath and gulp some more. After all, it's what you wanted. ;)

Happy New Year !