Republicans Still Blocking 9/11 Responders Health Bill

Republicans in the Senate are still blocking the bill that would provide funds for the health needs of 9/11 responders.

(Above–Smoke as observed from space in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack.)

Republicans have said they are concerned that the bill would add to the deficit. Yet adding to the deficit did not seem to be a concern for Republicans when it came to protecting tax cuts for the most wealthy Americans.

The 9/11 bill will cost $7.4 billion.

The recent tax cut for the wealthy bill that just passed will add $858 billion to the deficit over 10 years.

Republicans care that the wealthy become more powerful and wealthy.

How is it that tax cuts for the rich are okay with many Republicans, but assistance for those who risked their health to help after the destruction of the World Trade Center is not okay?

Mike Huckabee, a former Republican Presidential candidate,  says the 9/11 bill should be passed.

Here is some of what Mr. Huckabee said—

“There are people who need medical care right now, and frankly, the clock is running out on them. Their lives are fading away, even as we sit here talking about it,”

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani also supports the legislation.

Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma has renewed his commitment to not allowing the bill to proceed. Senator Coburn is a doctor.

Senator Coburn says he does not like the process that has been used to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate.

Sure.

How do average working people tolerate these things?

How can any loyal American support Republican actions in this matter?

Was Rudy Giuliani In Lipstick A Pig?—Palin, In Or Out Of Lipstick, Had Women In Wasilla Pay For Rape Kits

The latest fuss over nothing in the campaign to elect a leader for the 300 million people who live in the most powerful nation on Earth is the term “lipstick on a pig.” Senator Barack Obama used the term to express, correctly, that claims of reform from the McCain/Palin ticket are bogus no matter how that campaign attempts to distort the facts.

Above is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in lipstick on Broadway in 1997. He is singing with Julie Andrews. I’d say it is at least piggish to make a career profiting off of September 11, 2001. 

As for Sarah Palin, while she was Mayor of Wasilla women had to pay between $300 and $1,200 for rape kits. ( It was a blogger friend of mine, Op Edna, who uncovered this fact.)

Wasilla is a town of just a few thousand people. The Mayor never took leadership in changing this barbaric policy in this small community. Did she not know or did she not care? Given that the Wasilla police chief was quoted in a newspaper defending the policy, one can assume she knew. 

What was already known about Governor Palin is that she opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest. This position is so extreme that even Cindy McCain opposes Governor Palin’s view.

People can decide for themselves what facts and actions are relevant in this campaign.

Rudy Giuliani—A Throwback To The Cold War And To The Archie Bunker/George Jefferson Days Of Race Relations

A recent Newsweek profile of Rudy Giuliani begins its analysis in the right place.

The profile starts with Mr. Giuliani at an unruly rally of mostly white New York City police in 1992. Many of the officers were drunk and some were shouting racial slurs about then New York City Mayor David Dinkins. Some police officers jumped up and down on cars.

At issue was a demand for a new collective-bargaining agreement, opposition to the establishment of a civilian review board for police and a denial by Mayor Dinkins of a request to allow patrolmen to have 9mm guns.

Mr. Giuliani, who would be elected Mayor the next year against Mr. Dinkins, made a profanity-laced speech to the cops that was harshly critical of Mr. Dinkins. Mayor Dinkins later said that Mr. Giuliani was trying to get “white cops to riot.”  

As Mayor of New York, the Giuliani administration was known for aggressive tactics in policing black sections of New York. This led to, along with many other factors, lower rates of crime in these areas. It also led to incidents of police brutality and to much distrust of Mr. Giuliani among black New Yorkers.

Mr. Giluani’s platform for his Mayoral bid was based upon his his time as a high-ranking Justice Department official in the Reagan Administration and as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Mr. Giulani’s case for the Presidency is based in good degree on the over-hyped claim of claim of leadership after the September 11 attacks and the assertion that this experience makes Mr. Giuliani uniquely able to deal with terror threats. Mr. Giuliani also often talks about shifting people off welfare in New York and his crime fighting as Mayor.   

This law-and-order, tough-on-blacks, tough-on-welfare, national security strategy strikes me as a throwback to a George Wallace or Richard Nixon Southern Strategy campaign.

Mr. Giuliani can’t appeal to the Republican base as a religious conservative. And the Soviets are gone. But he can still take us back to Archie Bunker/George Jefferson days of racial argument and division under the shadow of a threat to our mortal safety. 

Mr. Giuliani is a retro-candidate. He still lives in the old neighborhood in the good old days of clear divisions between America and the Soviet Union before the New York Yankees finally integrated the team. Is it any surprise Mr. Giuliani rooted for the Yankees of Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin instead of the Brooklyn Dodgers of Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella?   

Mr. Giuliani shows again that Republicans and conservatives often seem to need an enemy to oppose and demonize instead of a goal of progress and justice to work together for and achieve.