fucking sarah palin....

I'm so frustrated about the health care debate, or lack thereof. I should say instead that a debate on health care is trying to occur but some loudmouthed, fear mongering, flag-waving nationalists are hijacking the effort.
I follow a few politicos on Twitter and have been keeping up with how their town hall meetings have been going in the last few weeks. It seems to me that the few minutes of outrage (fake or otherwise) is surpassing and overshadowing the progress that is being made during these efforts. Poor Claire McCaskill from Missouri. Prior to her town hall this week I know she was trying to diffuse any possible ruffles by speaking in terms that were extremely inclusive and giving the benefit of the doubt to the rabble rousers. Her efforts were in vain, and the few minutes of turmoil at her meeting were promptly featured on the news. You can feel the frustration in her post to tumblr: "I'm sad that way too much time has been spent on those 3 minutes and not enough time on the other 117minutes."
I think that is how most of us feel. The squeaky wheel needs to shut up. If the squeaky wheel had a valid, logical argument then okay! squeak away, but it doesn't and therefore should be banished to the junkyard. When squeaky wheel has a real squeak it may come back. Okay..done with the wheel analogy.
And then there is Charles Grassley from Iowa who from one side of his face supports and helped craft the bill, and from the other side of his hypocritical face he says this:


He is even using the very words that the president used in his own town hall meeting earlier this week. Unconscionable and reckless.
Grassley's comments came ballsilly (yes I said it) AFTER Obama held his own town hall meeting refuting the "death panel" claims stirred up by that piece of crap that we just can't get off our shoe, Sarah Palin:
"Let me just be specific about some things that I've been hearing lately that we just need to dispose of here. The rumor that's been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for "death panels" that will basically pull the plug on grandma because we've decided that we don't -- it's too expensive to let her live anymore. And there are various -- there are some variations on this theme.
It turns out that I guess this arose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end-of-life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, et cetera. So the intention of the members of Congress was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they're ready, on their own terms. It wasn't forcing anybody to do anything. This is I guess where the rumor came from."

It's times like these that show our intelligence. Dissent is patriotic. Freedom of speech is essential. That speech should however, be informed, intelligent and not based on fear and sour grapes.