Nature's H

We are fans of Bill Maher, always watch on TiVo, 1 of the best. He took about 4 months off so last Friday's show was only his 2nd back in this new season. He is a big animal rights guy, so naturally, he tossed out a comment about Tilikum, the killer whale at Orlando SeaWorld, having killed a beloved trainer. [Gist: 'sad for the death, but that's what happens when a big, wild animal is kept in a tiny pen'; Mom agrees. Because the orca's worth so many millions to SeaWorld, they're not putting it down. Sorry, we were distracted by Olivia Wilde, wow is she amazing looking? Wife agrees]. Just wondering aloud, since Queen of Batshade believes dinosaurs and people co-existed about 4,500-6,000 years ago, isn't it amazing that any humans survived? We didn't have health care then, so we must have been even awesomer, you betcha!


So, Bill, you had the disingenuous conservative on, but you let him get away with the usual pivot on the concept of reconciliation. What was that!? Maybe there aren't enough low-information voters who watch your show, or maybe you didn't have time to hammer this home, but here's the problem: on the radio, TO-DAY, in about a 30-second report from CNN 'headlines' at the top of the hour, the reporter said HCR was a "controversial bill" and that Dems might use an "extraordinary measure" known as budget reconciliation. See what we're up against here? The refs have already been gamed!


Controversial? Only among chickensh-t conservadems and people who actually want to fix 1 of the worst abuses this country has ever known. 37th in the world in health care, but 1/6th of our economy. 45,000 dead every year from lack of insurance. There's no controversy.


Extraordinary? You can't throw a shoe at 1 of the blogs we follow without seeing that 'budget' reconciliation has been used before, and often by corporate-owned, white-haired old dudes with '(R-Insurance Giant)' next to their names. The only extraordinary thing here is watching people try to defend the status quo.


Steve Benen's Political Animal is the real animal worth watching: health reform legislation has already been passed last year in both chambers of Congress! Budget reconciliation can be used on stuff that has to do with the budget. Anyone that says otherwise, even some moron at CNN, should be thrown to the fishes. To borrow from Hulk Hogan, "Whatcha gonna do when the pythons run wild on you brother?!"