September 30, 2009 – Capitol Hill Blue

A nation dominated by lies, anger & trivial pursuit

September 30, 2009

Listen to any political debate, not only on television and forums but also between our elected representatives and leaders and you quickly realize we have become a society where hyperbole replaces fact and derision supplants discussion.

It’s no longer enough to simply disagree. We must attack the other side with misinformation, distorted facts and outright lies.

President Barack Obama hypes health care horror stories with half-truths. Republicans attack Obama with lies about “death panels.” Words like “Nazi” and “Hitler” and “Socialist” and “traitor” become part of everyday discussion.

We are a nation driven by distrust, distortion and disinformation. Hate, fear and anger replace reason. We cannot debate without losing our tempers and calling people names.

Afghanistan: Forgetting the lessons of Vietnam

September 30, 2009

Anyone who has paid much attention to 20th-century warfare should be getting nervous about Afghanistan. The war there is developing the ominous characteristics of other modern unconventional conflicts. These wars have little in common with traditional ones, the kind where the proper objects of military action are straightforward targets like beachheads and bunkers.

Agencies use tricks to conceal information

September 30, 2009

President Barack Obama’s new standards of openness in the federal government have not trickled down to some of its agencies, where officials have used special statutes inserted into bills to skirt the Freedom of Information Act, open government advocates said Wednesday.

Efforts to strengthen the 42-year-old law “have been hampered by the increasing use of legislative exemptions that are often sneaked into legislation without debate or public scrutiny,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said in remarks prepared for a hearing on the issue.

News organizations and media groups said new legislation was needed to limit the information agencies may keep secret and for how long.

Senate committee rejects public option

September 30, 2009

A Senate panel on Tuesday rejected a government-run “public” insurance option as part of a broad healthcare overhaul, handing insurers an early victory and setting the stage for a long fight over one of the bill’s most contentious issues.

The two votes in the Senate Finance Committee were the first of several battles expected in Congress over a public insurance option, a flashpoint in the raging debate over President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.

The panel’s Democratic chairman, Max Baucus, opposed both amendments and said Democrats could not muster the 60 Senate votes needed to clear Republican procedural hurdles and pass a healthcare reform bill if it includes the public option.

Long, nasty fight looms for health care reform

September 30, 2009

A sweeping health overhaul bill has survived a major challenge from the left, but onslaughts loom from the right on thorny issues including abortion and insurance coverage for illegal immigrants.

Liberal Democrats failed in two efforts Tuesday to include a government-run insurance option in the legislation before the Senate Finance Committee. Finance is the last of five congressional panels completing work on President Barack Obama’s No. 1 domestic priority, a top-to-bottom reshaping of the U.S. health care system to hold down costs and extend coverage to the uninsured.

Day: September 30, 2009

A nation dominated by lies, anger & trivial pursuit

Afghanistan: Forgetting the lessons of Vietnam

Agencies use tricks to conceal information

Senate committee rejects public option

Long, nasty fight looms for health care reform