What is happening so that nothing substantial can possibly happen

After a long, healthy absence from ranting into the Ether----the disillusionment and fatalism gets to be a little much ("Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels' hierarchies?)----it's time to check out where I left off...

But first: If you love The Simpsons, don't look at this extremely dismaying piece of information. Bart Simpson's voice just might not be the same afterwards. (Incidentally, the cult of Mithras was big around the time of Rome's collapse. Madonna and faux Kabbalah, anyone?)

Anyways, back to where I left off, the great swindle that is "health care reform." A lot has happened so that nothing substantial, and some things very harmful to us "consumers of health care," can also happen-----possibly.

We'll see.

But...Despite the fact that the general public, along with a 63% majority of doctors, is behind actual, God's-honest health care reform (ie---a choice between a private and public option), Congress is preparing to pass a bill that equates to unequivocal betrayal. Well, that's not exactly true, unless we're talking about the intentions of the Democratic Party because Republicans made it unambiguously clear from the start that they didn't want reform. And here they are again today repeating their intentions to obstruct. Go figure?

Unsurprisingly, the so-called Blue Dogs, the conservative small-state-dominated Group of Six, and Joseph Lieberman are all providing the GOP with a big assist: Not that the White House is flexing any muscle to help pass anything even remotely progressive. On the contrary, true to the argument of the last post, Rahm Emanuel is advising Reid to capitulate to Senator Lieberschmuck. Not only is there not going to be a strong public option, but the latest compromise, a reduction in the age at which people may buy into Medicare, looks D-E-A-D!

Rachel Maddow has an excellent piece on the hypocrisy of Lieberman's current filibuster threat. Mr. Filibuster himself, with his Droopy voice, used to lament the ability of the minority to obstruct the process, even crafting anti-filibuster legislation, only to now employ said weapon to halt reform and protect his insurance lobby paymasters. He is also flipping his position on buying into Medicare earlier, mainly because that proposal is actually possible today, with Democratic majorities in both Houses, and Obama ostensibly at the helm of the Executive (So far though, his strong, posturing rhetoric and lack of any tough regulations on the banks and private health insurers, leads me to believe he's not courageous enough to truly lead, instead of heeding the demands of Big Business, those entities that will determine in which direction corporate money will flow into the next election: power for its own sake apparently, as selling out "health care reform" will be its means).

Lieberman the scape goat? No doubt. I can already see the crocodile tears gushing from the Iron Dome of the White House. And by the way: this kind of filibustering is a new development. We're not even talking about filibustering the passage of a bill; we're talking about filibustering to prohibit a bill from going to the floor for debate. Now that is conviction in Washington that only money could buy. Although, it's not a great precedent to set, allowing this kind of filibustering in a legislative system that is inherently constricted in its ability to pass new laws.

Yes, Lieberman, and the like, will be the convenient excuse for the failure of a substantial bill, even though 81% of Dems want the senator punished. Besides, all the legislation our cynical, nominal representatives have written thus far wouldn't take effect until WAY in the future anyways----2014!* So it's all pipe dreams we're discussing right now: Welcome to mandates, astoundingly high premiums and higher subsidies for private insurance that will continue consolidating the market even further, taking more shares as it shits out its globally-inferior, incomparably expensive health care product onto us all! And if we are lucky: there will be no exceptions on pre-existing conditions. Hooray, the Congress will have finally solved the moral equivalent of making sure cancer patients aren't denied coverage because they once had acne as teenagers! That's categorical imperative for you all right.

*(Coincidentally, 2014 is also when we will first be able to read the 22 million "missing" Bush administration emails, thanks to a two-year legal battle). But, four years is forever politically---plenty of time for a new Congress and/or administration to repeal the tepid, compromise health bill should it even pass).

Lastly, how about this for a excellent illustration of just how endemic the corruption of the conservative, corporate-approved, New Democratic Party is? (Clinton's betrayal on NAFTA and "welfare reform" set an illuminating precedent; the Reagan Revolution and neo-conservatism didn't just change Republican politics). The once-Vice-Presidential hopeful, Senator Evan Bayh (Ind), whose conflict of interests sadly mirror Lieberman's in scope, has a wife who raked in $837,000 while sitting on seven different corporate boards. But that's not it:

"She's on the board of E*Trade Bank, a subsidiary of E*Trade Financial Corp., while her husband sits on the Senate Banking Committee. She is lead director at Emmis Communications Corp., an Indianapolis radio-station operator that published Evan Bayh's 2003 book."

Wait, there's more:

She is a director at Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., "which is part of a medical research partnership awarded a $24.7 million federal grant in May after Evan Bayh and his Indiana colleagues in Congress recommended the group to the National Institutes of Health,'' Bloomberg's Timothy Burger reports.

Too much. Way too much, but it only scratches the surface...

Quick, must watch "Theatre of Gatos" to repair soul...getting...weak...need to see...Gatitos...So Sweetos... No Son...Malditos....