Palin’s Pavlovian Response to House Health Care Passage

I spent a lot of time in a small Alaskan church.  I’m glad I did.  It helps me interpret Palin’s evangelical dog whistles.

The title: “The Pelosi Bill Was Rammed Through on Saturday, But Sunday’s Coming.”

Seems harmless to a casual reader, but to the evangelicals? Instant salivation.  During sermons about the crucifixion, a typical preacher line goes, “Friday was a dark, dark day, but Sunday’s coming.”  Answered with many “Amens.” So, Nancy Pelosi just killed Jesus, and Sarah is going to resurrect him?

Is she equating the health care bill to the crucifixion, and the conservative comeback as the resurrection? Really? Go on, Sister Sarah, tell us how how the GOP is going to forgive us for all our sins and give us eternal life.  The same GOP whose logo has inverted satanic stars.  Anyone with half a wit of faith would call you on your blasphemy.

“We’ve got to hold on to hope, and we’ve got to fight hard because Congressional action tonight just put America on a path toward an unrecognizable country. “

UNRECOGNIZABLE?   From what? A country that lies its way into wars? A country that tortures? A country that transports prisoners to other countries for torture? A country that wiretaps its own citizens? A country that neglects its veterans; poor and sick? A country that sides with corporations over its people? A country that looks away from evidence of environmental decay?

Well, I’m fine with becoming something other than the country you recognize.

”The same government leaders that got us into the mortgage business and the car business are now getting us into the health care business.”

The reason for the bailouts in the first place, Sarah, is because decades of Republican deregulation left no one minding the store.  Former President Bush, by the way, pushed through the first bailout, and it was Bush whose 2004 campaign sought to lower barriers for home ownership!  What about the same government that employs Blackwater XE over our military? What about our justice system being for sale to the highest bidding private prisons?  All your honking about privatizing goods and services is a little late.

”Despite Americans’ decisive message last Tuesday that they reject the troubling path this country has been taking, Speaker Pelosi has broken her own promises of transparency to ram a health “care” bill through the House of Representatives just before midnight. Why did she push the 2,000 page bill this weekend? Was she perhaps afraid to give her peers and the constituents for whom she works the chance to actually read this monstrous bill carefully, if at all? Was she concerned that Americans might really digest the details of a bill that the Wall Street Journal has called “the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced”? “

Oh, yes, last Tuesday’s decisive message that said, “Hey, Bill Owens, you’re in!  First Democrat elected to NY House District#23 since the Civil War!  Now go vote an “Aye” on the health care bill?”  Right, that one.  Betcha wish you had that $25,000 back about now.  And the WSJ? Wow, you mean Rupert Murdoch’s paper? Oh…it’s…getting…clearer.  On another note, the WSJ, last year, said you were a terrible candidate in a piece called, “Palin Failin’”…so I guess they are right some of the time.

”This out-of-control bureaucratic mess will be disastrous for our economy, our small businesses, and our personal liberty. It will slam businesses at a time when we are at double-digit unemployment rates – the highest we’ve seen in a quarter of a century. This massive new bureaucracy will cost us and our children money we don’t have. It will rob Americans of more of our freedom and further hamper the free market.”

Lady, you think the free market is eBay.  Your party deregulated that free market into such a predicament there isn’t a coupon to save it.  Check out the Gramm Leach Bliley Act, also known as the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act.  Gramm, Leach and Bliley were the trio of Republicans back in 1999 that were just swamped with constituent phone calls demanding they do something about those pesky bank regulations that prohibited the merger of investment banks with commercial banks and insurance companies.  You can use the “googles”.  Thank your lucky stars Charlie Gibson didn’t ask you about that!

”Make no mistake: we’re on course to have government commandeer one-sixth of our economy. The people who gave us Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now want to run our health care. Think about that.”

Yes indeed.  The people that gave us Fannie and Freddie; hmmm…that would be your former running mate, John McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis.  Davis headed the Homeownership Alliance, a mortgage industry lobbying group formed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Under Davis, the Alliance’s primary goal was to step-up the number of mortgages granted-setting the table for the the mortgage crisis.  And yes, health care is kind of a big deal.  We get that.

”All of us who value the sanctity of life are grateful for the success of the pro-life majority in the House this evening in its battle against federal funding of abortion in this bill, but it’s ironic because we were promised that abortion wasn’t covered in the bill to begin with. Our healthy distrust of these government leaders made us look deeper into the bill because unfortunately we knew better than to trust what they were saying. The victory tonight to amend the bill and eliminate that federal funding for abortion was great – because abortion is not health care. Now we can only hope that Rep. Stupak’s amendment will hold in the final bill, though the Democratic leadership has already refused to promise that it won’t be scrapped later.”

“…us who value the sanctity of life…” Are you out of your mind?  You don’t even value a wolf running from a plane.  You don’t value a young girl who has been raped.  You want the death penalty and cry for more war.  You wouldn’t know the sanctity of life if it dropped dead in your lap.

”We had been told there were no “death panels” in the bill either. But look closely at the provision mandating bureaucratic panels that will be calling the shots regarding who will receive government health care.”

Alaskans are still waiting for your explanation of the death panels under your aborted watch as governor.  There are still over two-hundred dead who weren’t granted health care they were qualified for because of your negligence.  Your legacy is “death panels” to some Alaskan families, and not because you spouted the phrase a few minutes before Charles Grassley.

”Look closely at provisions addressing illegal aliens’ health care coverage too.”

I wonder where Lazarus lived…

”Those of us who love freedom and believe in open and transparent government can only be dismayed by midnight action on a Saturday. Speaker Pelosi’s promise that Americans would have 72 hours to read the final bill before the vote was just another one of the D.C. establishment’s too-common political ploys. It’s broken promises like this that turn people off to politics and leave them disillusioned about the future of their country.”

Hey, WE ALL LOVE FREEDOM.  Freedom from crazy is what I’d like right now.  Transparent? You couldn’t be transparent in a Saran Wrap bikini. Open? Well, you’re open for business and that’s about it. You are rich to call Pelosi on a broken promise…you said you’d be governor and you quit.  Again, I thank you for breaking a promise.

”But despite this late-night maneuvering, many of us were paying close attention tonight. We’ll keep paying close attention. We need to let our legislators in Washington know that they still represent us, and that the majority of Americans are not in favor of the “reform” they are pushing. After all, this is still a country “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” We will make our voices heard. It’s on to the Senate now. Our legislators can listen now, or they can hear us in 2010. It’s their choice.”

The majority of Americans did not vote for you.  The majority of Americans want reform.  Our voices are being heard.  In 2010, 2012, or any other 20…you will not be our choice.