The other Glenn talks tea

From Glenn Greenwald:

Far more interesting than Beck himself is the increasingly futile effort to classify the protest movement to which he has connected himself. Here, too, confusion reigns. In part, this is due to the fact that these “tea party” and “9/12” protests are composed of factions with wildly divergent views about most everything. From paleoconservatives to Ron-Paul-libertarians to LaRouchians to Confederacy-loving, race-driven Southerners to Christianist social conservatives to single-issue fanatics (abortion, guns, gays) to standard Limbaugh-following, Bush-loving Republicans, these protests are an incoherent mishmash without any cohesive view other than: “Barack Obama is bad.” There are unquestionably some highly noxious elements in these groups, but they are far from homogeneous. Many of these people despised the Bush-led GOP and many of them loved it.

Add to all of that the fact that this anti-Obama sentiment is being exploited by run-of-the-mill GOP operatives who have no objective other than to undermine Democrats and return the Republicans to power — manifestly not the goal of many of the protesters — and it’s impossible to define what this movement is or what is driving it. In many ways, its leadership (both organizationally and in the media) is fundamentally at odds with the participants. How can people who cheered on the Bush/Cheney administration and who want to re-install GOP leaders in power (i.e., Fox News, Limbaugh, the right-wing blogosphere, GOP House members) possibly make common cause in any coherent way with those who are in favor of limited federal government power, reduced debt, privacy, and Constitutional protections — all the things on which the GOP relentlessly waged war for years? In one important sense, the “tea party” movement is similar to the Obama campaign for “change”: it stays sufficiently vague and unspecific to enable everyone to read into what they want, so that people with fundamentally irreconcilable views believe they’re part of the same movement.

Too many lefty opponents of Obama are supporting the tea party movement under the theory that “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  These people are not our friends, and the correct adage is “If you lie down with dogs you wake up with fleas .”

At the Tea Party Express website you will see that the events are sponsored by Free Republic, Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks and other conservative groups. The events are advertised on conservative blogs and FOX News, and their speakers include Ann Coulter.

The Tea Party Express “delegation” includes:

Lew Uhler
Chairman, National Tax-Limitation Committee PAC

(Uhler is a former advisor to Ronald Reagan and according to Sourcewatch NTLC is an ally of the tobacco industry in fighting cigarette taxes)

Deborah Johns and Mark Williams
Vice Chairmen, Our Country Deserves Better PAC

(OCDB was formed in July 2008 to oppose Barack Obama and endorsed Republican Jim Tedisco in the special election to replace Kirsten Gillibrand.  According to Sourcewatch “officers of the Our Country Deserves Better PAC overlap extensively with current and former leaders of the pro-war organization Move America Forward” MAF is “headed by California Republican activists, talk show hosts and staff members of the public relations firm Russo Marsh & Rogers, which has strong ties to the Republican Party. PR professional Sal Russo is the chief strategist for MAF. It is a conservative 501c3 not-for-profit organization formed in early 2004 by Howard Kaloogian and “acclaimed radio and television personality” Melanie Morgan (formerly of KSFO 560 AM — San Francisco).”)

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“By their works ye shall know them”

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It’s enough to make anyone grumpy

I no longer remember to which kind blog I owe the enormous boon of finding Dr. Grumpy. At least once a day, sometimes oftener, his comments on life, neurology, and everything are laugh out loud funny. Today he’s on about insurance companies (go read the whole thing, it’s impossible to do it justice) and he manages to make even that funny. He needs to start a blog on death and taxes.

Doctor Grumpy in the House: Annie’s Song

If you don’t want bureaucrats between you and your doctor- TOO BAD. They’ve been there for years. THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO DON’T HAVE THIS PROBLEM ARE PAYING CASH FOR EVERYTHING! …

So what happens to you the way it works NOW, with your non-government insurance?

You come to me for some neurological issue, which requires further work-up. So I order, say, an MRI and MRA of your head.

Annie gets the order, and calls Bozo Insurance, Inc. (BII) to schedule it. BII refuses, saying they want more information. So they fax us a 5 page “pre-auth” form, which Annie spends 20 minutes filling out and faxes back. Then they say the form wasn’t enough, and they also want copies of your office notes, so we send those, too (yup, when you joined BII you agreed that they can read your medical records).

[A] few days go by. BII will claim they never got our fax. Or that we filled the form out wrong. Or that they don’t cover Capricorns when the moon is in Pisces. And we don’t know this until Annie calls back after a few days, because they’re hoping we forgot about it.

Eventually they’ll deny the whole thing, on the grounds that you don’t meet criteria for an MRI and MRA. …

[T]hey tell me I can appeal this via “peer-to-peer” review. Which means I need to personally call their “physician reviewer” to argue with them as to why I want the study.

So, during my insanely busy day at the office I have to call them. I’m promptly put on hold for 10 minutes, before finally reaching the reviewer. This person is a doctor- but NOT necessarily in my specialty. [And so it goes. Dr. Grumpy is an artist, so the story has an ending, but in the real world there is none. It just goes on and on.] …

So how did I get on this tangent? Because yesterday I was walking by Annie’s office, and heard her losing it over the speaker phone. And, as always, she was totally awesome.

Annie: “I’m calling because you people denied an MRI on a stroke patient?”

Pinhead: “Before we discuss this, I have to inform you that this is a recorded line.”

Annie: “Oh, good, hopefully someone will actually be listening to me then. Thus far it hasn’t happened.”

Pinhead: “Let me look up the tracking number… Okay. I have to inform you that we are unable to approve this study. Your doctor will need to make a peer-to-peer call.”

Annie: “Oh, now THAT’s a surprise.”

Pinhead: “What do you mean?”

Annie: “Is this line really being recorded?”

Pinhead: “Yes. It’s to improve customer satisfaction.”

Annie: “Oh, goody, because I’m sure not satisfied, and neither is the doctor, or the patient. Your company, and whoever is listening, never approves anything. In fact I can say that 100% of the time you require peer-to-peer review.”

Pinhead: “We do this to save our customers money on unnecessary testing.”

It goes downhill from there, but at least you’re laughing all the way. That’s also not like real life.

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New word – “beck”

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From SEK at The Edge of the American West:

beck v. trans. beck-ing, beck-ed, to be baselessly attacked by an idiot with a megaphone, then have those accusations alter your life for the worse because it’s politically expedient for your spineless superiors to demote or fire you

SEK predicts Yosi Sergant from the NEA will be the next Obama adminstration official to be becked. He also details the ridiculous hypocrisy in the latest conservative attacks on the National Endowment for the Arts:

Wait wait wait—I thought conservatives were upset because the White House created an office, installed it five federal agencies, then used them to fund a clearly partisan policy agenda to the tune of $2.2 billion. You mean to tell me all those links are about an August 10th conference call that tried to wrangle up support for the current President’s National Day of Service—a call in which not one cent of the NEA’s $155 million budget was dispensed or even offered?

Egalia at Tennessee Guerrilla Women has more on that topic:

Republican scandal-monger Andrew Breitbart (who has an, um, revealing obsession with all things BIG), creator of the BIG Government and BIG Hollywood websites, claims that the White House is soliciting partisan art via the NEA. By partisan, Andrew “BIG” Breitbart appears to have in mind art that promotes public service, or art about controversial subjects such as access to education and health care. Breitbart claims to have obtained a tape of an “explosive!” conference call in which progressive artists allegedly conspire with the White House on the subject of creating progressive art. Shocking, I know. And FDR is rolling over in his undoubtedly progressively partisan grave.

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WPA Art

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People need to wake up and smell the coffee. This isn’t just another right-wing attack on Obama, it’s part of an all-out war on liberalism.  I know some of you chortle with glee seeing Obama getting treated like a piñata, but you need to understand:

RIGHT-WINGERS LIKE GLENN BECK AND ANDREW BRIETBART ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS!

We cannot afford to spend the next 3 1/2 years sitting passively while watching the wingnuts undermine, dismantle and destroy every liberal/progressive program, policy and idea.  Clapping and cheering for those same wingnuts just because Obama is being discomfited in the process is short-sighted and stupid.

Nor can we rely on our DINOcrat POTUS to defend all the progress made since the New Deal.  He is a Quisling who will  let anyone or anything be becked to satisfy his compulsive need for “post-partisan” affection (and donations) from the disciples of Ronnie Raygun.

Quit worrying about the tender feelings of the teabaggers and stop looking for commies under your bed.  Call, write and/or visit your congresscritter and tell them how you feel.  Send letters to the editor of your local birdcage liner.  Go out in the street and bang pots and pans.  Go to the window and yell that you’re mad as hell and aren’t gonna take it anymore.

Most importantly, TURN OFF FOX NEWS!

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