Cornyn and Hutchison hypocritical as usual

While Senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, complain about the Obama administration and Democratic controlled Congress spending on the stimulus, the budget and potentially on health care reform their votes in favor of building seven more F-22 fighters for $1.75 billion are hypocritical in the extreme. Republicans including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Senators John McCain and John Kyl among others agreed that the F-22 was unnecessary and an inappropriate expenditure. Fortunately the vote to kill the F-22 was truly bi-partisan with 42 Democrats, 15 Republicans and 1 independent; unlike some other legislation lately which had only token Republican support.

Our senators claim to make their votes based on what’s good for Texas and the country but how is building a cold war era fighter that can’t be flown near an aircraft carrier and hasn’t been used in combat over Baghdad because its super-sensitive electronics can’t deal with the mass of radio signals good for the country?

I’ve heard some Republicans say they voted for the F-22 to save jobs; but their party generally claims, quite loudly, that government spending doesn’t create jobs, so which is it? There are plenty of worthwhile projects that $1,750,000,000 could fund including bridge repairs, building schools, green energy and energy efficiency projects that would pay dividends for all of us for years to come.

What bible are they studying?

I find the current debate about health care reform fascinating as it relates to religion and the Republican party and the contradictions therein. Specifically Republicans and Libertarians of all stripes complain that health care is not a right and therefore should not be in anyway run by or paid for by the government, yet most of these very folks at least claim to be pious Christians.

I’m not sure which bible the folks arguing against the “public option” or single-payer health care studied, but in my 12 years of Catholic education I was taught Christian charity, love thy neighbor and that feeding the poor and healing the sick were the attributes of a true Christian. I doubt anyone would call Catholicism a liberal faith given the Church’s stand on abortion and gay marriage so I don’t see where its teachings can be said to be a liberal.

So the question is what have others learned from their religious education that causes them to favor withholding medical care from folks too poor to pay for it? What bible are they studying? In mine when Jesus healed the sick he didn’t ask for a co-pay. I don’t think Sister Agnes, my elementary school principal, would approve of what these folks have taken away from their bibles.

Every day we hear the same health care myths from politicians and industry alike, but what are the facts?

Myth - The U.S. has the finest health care in the world.
Fact - If that were so we wouldn’t rank 24th in life expectancy according to the World Health Organization. "Basically, you die earlier and spend more time disabled if you’re an American rather than a member of most other advanced countries," according to Christopher Murray, M.D., Ph.D., Director of WHO's Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy.

Myth - We don’t want a government run health care system like Canada where it takes a year to get a hip replacement.
Fact - Some hospitals in some provinces do take that long but many if not most don’t. We don’t really know for sure how long it takes in the U.S. since there is no standard for nor central collection point for this data. But let’s assume that as the opposition to health care reform claims hip replacements only have waiting lists of six weeks in the U.S., guess who pays for the vast majority, none other than Medicare the federally run single payer system.

Myth – If we have government run health care then health care will be rationed.
Fact – Health care is rationed now in the U.S. to a much greater degree than any other developed country.

Myth – Government run health care won’t let you choose your doctors.
Fact – Private insurance companies don’t let you choose your doctor, if the doctor you wish to see isn’t in your network, either you don’t see them or you pay the bill yourself.

Myth – Government run health care will tell your doctors which medications they can prescribe.
Fact – Private insurance already tells your doctors which medications they can prescribe by limiting what they will pay for or how high your co-pay will be.

Our country is endangered by neo-Nazi infilitrators in our armed forces

July 12, 2009

The Honorable Henry Cuellar
336 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
phone: 202-225-1640
fax: 202-225-1641

Dear Congressman Cuellar,
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports a continuing surge in racial extremists infiltrating our military. It’s imperative that our armed forces are not inadvertently training future domestic terrorists. We must not wait for another terrorist action like the Oklahoma City bombing by Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh to wake up to the fact that a rising number of bad apples have joined the U.S. military for this express purpose.

What I find truly disconcerting is that the Pentagon appears to consider homosexuals who serve honorably more of a threat to the good order of the military than neo-Nazis who reject our Constitution's most cherished principles. While the military has discharged more than 12,500 service members because of their alleged homosexuality since 1994, it has refused to adopt a true "zero tolerance" policy when it comes to extremists in the military.

There is no place for neo-Nazis in our military as they endanger their unit members as well as those of us at home when they return. The overwhelming majority of our courageous men and women in uniform reject extremism and are dedicated to our nation's highest ideals. We owe it to them — and to the American public — to ensure that the ranks are as free of extremists as possible.

I urge you to support an immediate investigation of the military’s induction standards and push for adoption of a “zero tolerance” policy regarding extremists of any type.
Sincerely,

Support S 696 to end mountain top removal

Senator John Cornyn
517 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Main: 202-224-2934
Fax: 202-228-2856

Dear Senator Cornyn,

I am writing to urge you to support the bill to end Mountain Top Removal called the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696) and co-sponsored by your colleague Lamar Alexander.

Mountaintop mining is one of the most destructive practices which has already destroyed some of America's most beautiful and ecologically significant regions. We must put an end to this mining method that has buried more than a thousand miles of streams before there is nothing left to protect.

No one should have the right to destroy streams that provide drinking water for others downstream by polluting that water with toxic minerals unearthed by mountain top removal. It’s past time to put an end to this horrible practice, please sign on as a co-sponsor to this important legislation.

Sincerely,

Today, June 17th, fourteen progressive activists from various parts of Guadalupe County representing Moveon.org met today with Mark Gonzales of Congressman Henry Cuellar’s staff to deliver a letter and supporting documents urging the Congressman to work to strengthen the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

We gathered to show our support for a stronger clean energy bill. Mr. Gonzales promised to pass our request to the Congressman. I asked him to please have the Congressman get back to us on our request and he promised would. I reminded Mr. Gonzales that this was our third visit about this issue and it should be taken as a measure of our commitment to this issue and we wanted to see real action on our agenda. We won’t really know if we have had any impact for some time to come so we’ll have to maintain pressure by continuing to contact Congressman Cuellar. I urge you to call Congressman Cuellar by phone or mail.

The Honorable Henry Cuellar
336 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
phone: 202-225-1640
fax: 202-225-1641

Republican hypocrisy knows no limits

Republican hypocrisy knows no limits, Nevada Senator John Ensign who called for President Bill Clinton to resign over the Monica Lewinsky affair has now admitted to an affair with a campaign staffer but he hasn’t offered to resign. Has he had a change of heart about appropriate post scandal behavior for elected officials or does he believe he’s above such considerations?

Republicans in Congress claim they won’t vote for the Iraq War supplemental bill because they don’t trust President Obama to make good on his promise not to release torture photos. When Democrats had enough spine to vote against Iraq War supplemental bills during the Bush administration they met a storm of claims that they were against the troops. So doesn’t that make the Republicans against the troops?

When Democrats in the Senate threatened to filibuster Supreme Court nominees Republicans claimed that they should show deference to the president now that Republicans are in the minority they threaten to filibuster Supreme Court nominee Judge Sotomayor. How is a democratic president’s nominee any different from a republican president’s nominee?