The Doctor will see you now.

The health care debate is heating up. I must say that regardless of your position on this issue, it is a nice debate to be having for once. It's a break from the 'how much torture is too much' debate, or the 'I know the WMDs got around here somewhere' debate. It is a debate being lead by someone who can complete a sentence, and when Obama speaks about health care you get the feeling that he knows what he's saying. That in itself is a breath of fresh air. Also, it's about something that genuinely effects the quality of life for millions of Americans.

As one of the 40 million uninsured in this country, I have been following the debate with a degree of interest. The single payer system, which is used across much of Europe and Canada, seems to be off the table at this point. The private insurance companies simply have too much power in Washington, D.C. and those in Congress are too cowardice to bite the hand that feeds them. So what will most likely happen is we will get a bill that props up the private insurance companies by subsidizing policies for those that cannot afford it on their own. The insurance companies win and we will continue to waste billions of dollars in administrative costs. Even those insured will be at the mercy of what their insurance company will decide to cover.

This is not actual health care reform. It might be considered health care 'improvement'. A single payer system, where everyone pays to a single entity, usually the government, for a standard of health care, is what we need in this country. That is actual reform that would cover everyone. You get sick, you go to the doctor, you get your prescription, it costs you nothing above what you have already paid in taxes, and you go home. Is it socialized medicine? Yep. It is. Just like our socialized education system, police forces, public transportation systems, and postal service.

The larger question posed in this health care debate is whether or not a basic standard of health care is a right that comes with being an American citizen. At some point in history we as a people decided that education fell into this category. President Carter created the Department of Education to help regulate the basic standard of education that every child, even those of undocumented immigrants, would receive. Not every public school is up to the same standard and our education system has its share of problems, but every child has access to a teacher and a classroom. They can learn to read and write and think for themselves.

Imagine if you will what our country would look like if you had to purchase private insurance so that your child could go to school. It would insure generational poverty and create a caste system that would manifest all sorts of social issues between classes. Your parent's can't pay now, then you miss out the foundational building blocks of success that could help you rise above your situation in the future. This is what our health care system looks like from my perspective at the bottom.

All this talk of reform, however, has awakened the conservative scare machine. They have taken a momentary break from eating Sarah Palin's pussy to paint for us the horrific picture of what an America with a single payer health care system would look like. I find it hard to believe that anyone listens to these guys anymore, but apparently their message of fear still resonates with many people. There is no example of health care tales gone wrong in other countries that they have not incorporated into their talking points. "A guy I know in Canada had to wait two months for gall bladder surgery," they say. "He almost died." Well, that may be true, but 40 million of us in this country are not going to be having any gall bladder surgery, and we might actually die.

Even with a single payer system that covers every American, private health insurance is not going away. This is the other big conservative lie. They claim that it will stifle competition in the industry and hand us and our health over to the evil government. What they fail to mention is that there are plenty of private companies that compete just fine with the U.S. government. Take UPS, FedEx, private schools, taxi cabs, and a wide variety of security services that successfully compete with their 'socialized' counterparts as some examples. There will always be the wealthy that will purchase their own insurance to received this, that, or the other service not covered in the public plan. And there will be plenty of private insurance companies happy to take their money and provide them coverage for their boob job, chin lift, late term abortion, and lasik eye surgery.

I guess as a person that currently does not have access to health care through no fault of my own, I tire of these Republican talking points. They see Obama's commitment to reforming health care as an Achilles heal they can attempt to exploit. Senator Jim DeMint, a Republican from the south, said last week that "If we are able to stop Obama on this...it will break him." And that about sums up the debate. While Obama works diligently to bring the type of reform the American people voted for last year, the Republicans are going to do their best to stand in the way, make him look unable to lead in this arena, and then use it against him three years from now. This is not a debate about which reform is best. It is between doing something and doing nothing. If I am wrong in understanding the dialogue this way it is because the Republicans are not letting the American people in on their excellent ideas to reform the health care system. I can only assume it's because they don't have any.

Whether or not you agree wholeheartedly with any of the bills that are making their way through Congress at the moment, I have to hand it to the president for placing health care reform at the top of his domestic agenda. He has learned from the mistakes of the failed attempt in 1993, and has a comfortable relationship with our Democratic congress. And maybe....just maybe, I'll be able to go to the doctor some day. What a thought.

Hundred Day Assesment

Today is Barack Obama's 100th day as President of the United States. Much has been accomplished in a short time, and the era of Bush seems like such a distant past. President Obama has ordered the closing of Guantanamo Bay, banned the practice of water boarding (torture), passed a much needed stimulus bill against the will of the vocal minority, and rallied moderates to secure a filibuster-proof senate. He also has completely changed the tone of the presidency from a secretive office full of backroom meetings and lobbyist handjobs, to a more open sense of governance. Obama, to date, has held more press conferences and made more public appearances than Bush did in his entire first term. You remember, the term where we were attacked by terrorists and started two wars.

It is clear that Obama is interested in bringing the American people along on his presidential journey. He wants to be clear about his agenda and get it across to people that feel left out of the fold in American Politics. He has made appearances on the Tonight Show and ESPN to reach out to an audience that may not be inclined to watch a press conference or read a policy report but that certainly have a stake in the success of his platform. You don't have to agree with him, but most of the country does, and at least you can't criticize him for being inaccessible or clandestine.

The shell of the Republican Party that is left after the 2008 election is in a state of sad disarray. They had been downgraded to a regional party, namely the South, where most of the stupid people live. In search for leadership, they have handed the party over to the Rush Limbaughs and Glenn Becks of the world. Sure, they have an audience. Limbaugh boasts an audience of about 15 million listeners a week. It sounds like a lot, but to put it in perspective it is only 13% of the people that voted in the last presidential election. With 13% of the electorate at your beck and call you can stage a lot of "teabagging" protests. You can also bitch and moan on Fox News, badmouth the president, and rant about how we are becoming a "socialist nation," but you can't win elections. That 13-20% percent of the electorate represents the far right wing of the party that has taken over and dominated the GOP over the last three months. Like moderate Muslims trapped by Taliban leadership, moderate Republicans have no voice, although they exist in larger number than you would expect.

It feels like George W. Bush is light years away. He bought a mansion in Dallas and rode off into the sunset. Good for him. He is doing and acting exactly the way a wildly unpopular ex president should. He is working on his memoirs, which should be out as soon as he can figure out how to spin it into something positive.

Other former elected leaders are not extending us this courtesy. Dick Cheney has been quite vocal about certain national security policy changes. Seriously, who the fuck cares what the most unpopular vice president thinks about anything? Does the right wing think that by parading Cheney around the different news shows criticizing the Obama administration that they are going to make any converts? It's about as effective as the Britney Spears instructional video Secrets to a Happy Marriage and Effective Child Rearing. This is what Cheney has to offer the country.

When I was growing up my father's favorite response to inquiry was "No." That is because "no" is easy. It requires little effort to vocalize and can be said in a variety of ways without offering an alternative. The Republican Party has become the party of "no". No health care, Nobama, no taxes, no gay marriage, no reproductive rights, no economic stimulus, and no fun. Ever. But also no definable alternative that has a chance in hell of becoming a reality in the current political climate, either.

Obama has just completed a stellar first 100 days in the White House. However, the hard work will continue for the next 1,360 days left in the first term of his presidency. The Republican Party better get on board and start the work of the minority party. This means that you work toward concessions that you can live with within a larger policy agenda that you don't necessarily like. You lost the election. Suck it up and move forward with a positive outlook. Senator Specter defected yesterday and he might not be the last. The 2010 midterm election campaigning and posturing is going to begin in about six months, and you don't want to be the party of "no" against a majority whose president has a 68% approval rating. Show us that you would like to win some elections again.

Underestimating Large Groups of Stupid People

The conservative movement has run into some semantic issues recently that I feel a duty to point out and correct.

When I plop my balls in your mouth, or brush them against your chin, or bounce them ever so slightly atop your forehead, I am "teabagging" you. It is a sexual act that only a man can perform on another person. Nothing else. However, the new wave of conservatives protesting the president's new tax code are using the term to refer to sending him tea bags in the mail as a symbolic act of solidarity with the Boston Tea Party-ers.

To all you conservatives out there participating in such "tea parties" on April 15th, please stop saying that you are "teabagging" the White House. It's actually quite funny and a bit clever, but us liberals have serious questions about your sanity and intelligence and we don't know whether to laugh with you (for coming up with a Daily Show style pun) or laugh at you (because you have no idea what "teabagging" actually refers to).

I tend to gravitate towards the latter response and here's why: major GOP party leaders are using the term, as well as all the pundits on Fox News. When I heard Ann Coulter talking about "teabagging" the president I had two thoughts: 1)anatomically impossible, and 2) I hope that my parents aren't talking to all of their friends about how they just can't wait to teabag President Obama. I actually sent them this email today due to my concern:

Hope you guys had a nice Easter. I got your little package in the mail yesterday. The pictures are super cute. I'll scan them into my facebook when I get a chance.

Also, I don't know if you guys have any plans to attend one of these infamous "tea parties" I keep hearing Fox News talk about on April 15th, but if you do please refrain from using the term "teabagging" to refer to them. "Teabagging" is the slang term used for when you put your scrotum on someone's face. Always has been and always will be. When I heard Ann Coulter say that she was going to "teabag" the White House I was concerned that perhaps you might be going around talking about "teabagging" the President. Yikes.

Just looking out for ya,

Andrew

I do my duty to my family, what can I say.

However, regardless of whether or not Ann Coulter and Greta Van Susteren plan on filling Obama's mouth with their huge teabags, there is a larger, historical issue here. Any student of history knows that the Boston Tea Party of 1773 was an event planned by revolutionary colonists to spur a violent response by the British and to protest the idea of "taxation without representation" in regards to the Crown's exorbitant tariff placed on tea in the colonies. Rather than return the tea to Britain, which other colonies had done, the Bostonians chose to destroy the tea in the ocean. Great Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, which essentially closed commerce in Boston harbor and prompted the convening of the First Continental Congress. The congress passed a series of provisions that demanded certain legislative action by the British and blah, blah, blah, the Revolutionary War started.

The parallels with the current tea parties, which Republicans think are so clever, pretty much stop with dumping tea into the water. However the act of protest at the Boston Tea Party was that the tea was never paid for. That was the revolutionary act. That was what made the British so angry. The only creatures getting angry here are the fish, who's palates are not yet refined enough to appreciate Lipton's brew. Are you beginning to understand why we think you're with stupid?

The other order of semantic business refers to my last blog post and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). Apparently many, many people have weighed in on their fear-fuck-fest ad that is all over the internet and on the tele in certain inbred communities. In response to all the negative attention, the NOM has announced a new initiative called "Two Million for Marriage." But, in order to connect with the texting, twittering, facebooking, culture out there, NOM has shortened the name of the program to the text friendly 2M4M.

Please google "M4M." I don't expect straight people to really know what it means, but I do expect for the National Organization for Marriage to know their enemy. At least know what you think is so intolerable. Please open wide while I drop my balls in your mouth. I like them gently sucked and generously licked. And a little ass play never hurt anyone, either.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

As I sit down to write this, Barack Obama has been President-elect for three days now.

The American people did it! We looked past the fear the Republicans tried to spoon feed us over the last few weeks of the campaign and elected our first African-American President. The Republican party that George W. Bush ran into the ground over the last four years is going to have to find a new soul or pass away into history. The significance of this moment has not been lost on the media or the country at large.

I was overcome with emotion when I saw the great black icons of this nation burst into tears talking about what this moment means to them. For a people that has had to fight so hard for so much, the validation of what happened on Tuesday night will never be forgotten. The power of that moment will be with us forever. Two little black girls, that fifty years ago would not have been able to share the same water fountain with whites, will grow up in the White House. This makes me smile. Whoopi Goldberg said it was as if she could finally put her suitcase down. Welcome to our country.

While it is important to acknowledge the decades long battle of the civil rights movement culminating in the election of President Obama, the fact that he is black does not change the fact that our country has serious issues to face. I, like most of the people that voted for Obama, did so not because or in spite of his color, but because we believed that he is the man best equipped to deal with the problems we face as a nation. He will be tested and judged just as harshly for his missteps as for he triumphs over the next four years. He has the opportunity to rise to the occasion, and I believe that he will. The next few weeks will be very telling as he addresses the nation several times, puts together his transition team, and the portrait of an Obama Administration begins to take focus.

All of this excitement and sense of accomplishment is slightly overshadowed in my mind by something else that happened on Tuesday evening. As black people marveled at an event they never thought would happen in their lifetimes, gays and lesbians were reminded that they are still second class citizens in the eyes of the majority of the country. These issues are two sides of the same coin. With the passing of Proposition 8 in California, Proposition 102 in Arizona, Initiative 1 in Arkansas, and Amendment 2 in Florida, the struggle for gay equality took a hit.

In California, the Mormon church, a group that previously was so nationally hated that they had to escape to their own state, poured millions of dollars into the campaign to take away the marriage rights of gay and lesbians. Now, the irony of the Mormon church protecting "traditional marriage" is obvious. It has only been recently that the Mormon church has understood marriage to be between one man and one woman, and it was indeed their polygamist view of marriage that caused them all the persecution in the first place.

The other group that voted overwhelmingly to ban gay marriage in California is African-Americans. Again, the irony is clear. The civil rights movement as it applies to blacks marked a great victory this week. A victory that is shared and celebrated by the whole country regardless of race. Simultaneously, this same movement for equality suffered a setback in the same evening and serves as a warning to anyone that thinks our work is over. It is hard to explain this reaction from a group of people that also had to work so hard to receive full inclusion into our society.

From a personal standpoint, it is hard to not let a setback like this get to me. I think of my friends that have been married in California over the last few months, and my heart breaks for them to think that as quickly as it was given it has been taken away. I think of how I was raised to despise my sexuality, and constantly reinforced with the idea that gay people were perverts, freaks, and second class citizens. I think of the moment I decided that I could not live a lie anymore regardless of what the consequences were for coming out. In large part, it is this struggle that I carry with me, that will forever be a part of me, that allows me such empathy with the black community as they watch one of their own take the reigns of the country. It is exciting, it is a huge victory, and an even larger validation of the black community as valuable members of our society.

Several people called me up to offer their condolences regarding the gay marriage bans that passed this week. However, it is not just a chap on my ass, but on the ass of the entire country. As long as there is still a group of people in America that is denied their civil rights, the full potential of our country will never be realized.

It also needs to be noted that this gay marriage issue is not like many other issues in politics. There is a clear right and a clear wrong. One side is struggling for their rights to be fully included in society. The success of something like this matters deeply to them, and has very real effects in their every day lives. And what of those that voted for the ban? They go about their daily lives and probably don't think about it again. In fact, I am sure that their vote came out of such unconsciousness that the harm it caused a group of people that has known nothing but struggle for inclusion in society is completely lost on them.

However, there is reason for hope. This is what this whole election season has been about, we want to have a renewed sense of hope. Proposition 8 passed by the slimmest of margins. It indicates progress. There will be another vote. And another. And another. Until we win. Public opinion is changing, and the manufactured fear that comes with an issue like gay marriage will continue to dissipate. The churches that fought so hard for this ban will not go unpunished. Perhaps they won this round, but what has been said cannot be taken back. They have shown their cards, their true character, and where does that leave them in ten years? Twenty years? When 52% of the electorate is no longer on their side?

You reap what you sow. And you don't want to fuck with gay people. Many of us have been through too much in our personal lives to be intimated by religious fanatics and intolerance. This gay is never going to sit down and shut up. I will see gay marriage in my lifetime. I will see more and more gay elected officials in my lifetime. I will see a gay Speaker of House, and maybe someday even a gay president. And I will see the day when gay is not even an issue anymore. Just a boring fact about someone's personal life.

Yes, We Can

I simply cannot pass up the opportunity to express with what joy I received the news of Barack's solid victory in South Carolina. This victory was in no way similar to Hillary's marginal wins in New Hampshire and Nevada. No, this was a 28 point victory. Voters from each demographic came out to vote for him 2 to 1 against the other candidates. I can only hope that this trend carries over into Super Tuesday on February 5th.

Barack Obama is a figure that America hardly recognizes anymore. The eloquent prose with which Obama projects his message fall on ears that have not heard such things since my parents were small children. There has never in my lifetime been a man with so much political potential, charisma, charm, or vision. I truly feel excited about the prospect of voting for him, in a way I have not felt about anyone I have voted for in the past.

This country is a dry, parched wasteland after the last seven years of Bush Administration policies. We are more divided than ever, more hateful than ever, more violent and fearful than ever, and along comes a ray of hope.

I grew up in a world where things were impossible. It was impossible have a black man, or a woman, become president. It was impossible to be honest about who you really were on the inside. It was impossible to question whether what you were being taught was the truth. It was impossible to stand up against the status quo, to create a new order. Fear controlled and consumed me. Kept me silent. Kept me invisible.

Yet, here is a man that tells me, "Yes we can." It is a simple, yet profound message that stirs the inner longings of the human spirit. We need to recognize the opportunity we have, as Americans, displayed before our eyes. There will be other chances, but let's take this chance. Let's realize Dr. King's dream. Let's carry on the tradition set by the great presidents and civil rights leaders of our history. Let's unite to elect a man who is hungry and passionate about leading us in a new direction. Someone who inspires us. Someone who gives us something to be proud of. Don't do it for the children. Do it for yourself.