Political Pandemic: While Obey Acts, Collins Spins

House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat whose attempt to secure needed funding for pandemic preparedness was blocked earlier this year after Senate Republicans ridiculed the request, says the U.S. remains unprepared to address a serious public health emergency.

So Obey, who has battled Republicans and Democrats in his long struggle to secure adequate resources to prepare for a global pandemic, will try again to secure the needed money.

The determined Democrat is still getting push back. But his mission should be easier, now that a swine flu outbreak that began in Mexico has spread sufficiently so that the World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert level to Phase 4 -- indicating significant increased risk of a pandemic.

With an outbreak now blamed for the deaths of 149 people in Mexico, and spreading sickness to states across the U.S., Obey says: "Whether or not this influenza strain turns out to have pandemic potential, sooner or later some strain will. We are not prepared today. Let's hope we don't need to be."

Obey's right.

According to the a href="http://healthyamericans.org/">Trust for America's Health, which advocates for pandemic preparedness, "State and local officials are the front line responders to outbreaks, yet they have not received any federal funding for pandemic flu preparedness since FY 2006. $350 million is needed annually to adequately maintain state and local pandemic preparedness activities."

But that, say experts, is merely a "baseline," not enough money to do all that would be necessary.

Conscious of the shortfall, and the human and economic threats that extend from it, Obey has been scrambling since last year to get needed money to public-health agencies.

The House stimulus bill, as drafted by the appropriations committee chair in January, included $870 million for advanced biomedical research, development and security initiatives. Of that figure, $420 was specifically targeted for pandemic preparedness.

House Democrats backed the measure.

But then, urged on by Republican strategist Karl Rove, Senate Republicans led by Maine Senator Susan Collins attacked the public-health spending and successfully eliminated it from the Senate version of the stimulus. Collins complained at the time to CNN that: "There's funding to help improve our preparedness for a pandemic flu. There is funding to help improve cyber security. What does that have to do with an economic stimulus package?"

Collins read the stimulus legislation, and the threat, wrong. So, too, did Senate Democratic leaders, who compromised with her wrongheaded demands in order to secure support for a watered-down stimulus plan.

In fact, public health spending of this sort has a lot to do with the economy, as the turbulence seen in global markets since the current swine flu outbreak surfaced late last week in Mexico. Hence The Wall Street Journal headline of Monday evening: "Flu Outbreak Depresses Markets."

On Tuesday morning, CNN International's World Business Report led with he blunt declaration: "Pandemic Equals Economic Pain."

The death toll in Mexico and the spread of the disease in the United States is, of course, the most serious concern.

But the economic instability is no small matter. As Reuters reported Monday night:

Oil prices fell more than 2 percent to close to $50 a barrel as investors feared a new blow to an already fragile global economy if trade flows are curbed and manufacturing is hit.

The MSCI world equity index fell 0.8 percent and U.S. stocks also slipped.

Flu fears hit U.S. airline stocks hard as investors worried that the travel industry would suffer. Shares prices for UAL Corp, the parent of United Airlines, shed 14 percent, while Continental Airlines Inc lost 16 percent.

This is what Obey was anticipating when he determined that the pandemic preparedness money should be included in the stimulus bill. And it is the point that Collins is still missing.

Stung by criticism for her anti-preparedness demagoguery during the stimulus debate, Collins was scrambling Monday.

"There is no evidence that federal efforts to address the swine flu outbreak have been hampered by a lack of funds," claimed a statement from the Maine Republican's office.

But, Collins, as the ranking Republican member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has to be aware of the fears expressed by public health advocates after she and other short-sighted senators of both parties – New York Democrat Charles Schumer referred to the pandemic preparedness money as "porky" – eliminated the funding Obey had written into the stimulus legislation.

"It seems that Congress is turning a blind eye to state and local health preparedness," Dr. Paul Jarris, executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said after the pandemic preparedness money was stripped from the stimulus. "We are extremely concerned about the diminishing funding for state and local preparedness as well as the removal of all funding for pandemic flu, and the decrease in funding for hospital preparedness," Dr. Jarris added. "Along with the state budget cuts, this is a matter of losing the infrastructure created over the past several years."

Collins and her desperate apologists also attempted on Monday – with some success – to peddle the fantasy that the needed money was included in the omnibus appropriations legislation that was approved by Congress a month after the stimulus bill.

"And, in fact, the omnibus appropriations bill that was signed into law in March, less than a month after the stimulus bill, contains $156 million for pandemic influenza research, which is $1.4 million more than the fiscal year 2008 level," claimed Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley.

That sounds good.

Unfortunately, there are three problems with that statement.

First, Collins voted against the omnibus appropriations bill.

Second, $156 million is a far less than the $870 million that Collins led the fight to remove from the stimulus bill.

Three, there is general agreement among public-health advocates that the fiscal year 2008 funding was dramatically insufficient -- to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars -- so employment of the "1.4 million more" line is a particularly offensive.

Collins is spinning, in the worst Washington way.

Obey remains the hero in this fight.

He worked with President Bush -- a good player on these issues -- to fund pandemic preparedness.

He tried, appropriately, to include needed resources in the stimulus bill.

Now, he says, he will attach a request for pandemic preparedness money to upcoming emergency appropriations bills.

"Because we need to become prepared as soon as possible, I intend to again request additional funds in the upcoming supplemental," says the Wisconsin Democrat.

Obey understands something Collins still does not seem to get.

Pandemic preparedness is first and foremost a public health necessity.

But it is, as well, an economic necessity. A vulnerable economy that, hopefully, is struggling toward renewal will not be able to take the hit caused by a flue outbreak that confines workers to their homes, shuts down transportation systems and shutters workplaces.

When Collins ridiculed and attacked the inclusion of pandemic preparedness money in the stimulus bill, she was wrong -- wrong from a public health standpoint and wrong from an economic standpoint.

No amount of spin will change this reality. In fact, the lame defenses mustered by Collins' office compound the wrong, and feed the sense that the senator in more interested in playing politics than living up to her own claim -- made as she was seeking to strip the preparedness funds from the stimulus -- that "everybody in the room is concerned about a pandemic flu."

If that's really the case, Collins should stop spinning and join David Obey in making a commitment to include full funding for pandemic preparedness in the next emergency appropriations bill -- and to rally her fellow Republicans in support of that funding.

Comments (36)

1. Collins will not join with Obey. But she will "obey" the GOP strategists like Rove and Gingrinch, and bow down to Jabba the Rush Limbaugh. She's a token, plain and simple.

   Posted by Greytdog at 04/28/2009 @ 07:18am

2. git 'em nichols! latch on, you pit bull and rip a pound of flesh!

   cause they deserve it.

   the grasshopper party has fiddled us into quite a nasty winter and still fiddles away, it seems, hypnotized by its own siren song...

   time we shaved apes woke up and realized the precarious nature of our existance. the struggle to survive as a species, the most essential of all struggles, hidden to those who have managed to be fortunate enough to have been born and raised in the sheltered womb of wealthy societies, has never ceased to exist. tripping along in merry pop culturally lobotimized ignorance, obsessing with trivialities, lulled into a form of semi-conciousness by those who profit from such states of awareness in others (and their own desires), the legions of marching morons have enabled, through willful ignorance and apathy, three decades of irresponsible leadership, which has encouraged irresponibility on the part of the legions of marching morons.

   the great circlejerk of life!!!

   but just wait til this swine flu hits subsaharan africa...and bangladesh...

   wake up folks! mr. malthus's long delayed vindication (postponed by a myriad of unforseen intervening circumstances) approaches.

   and no matter how bad it gets - thank god or your lucky stars that you live in a wealthy, powerful, citadel.

   seriously...the age of neon trivia is over.

   THE DYSTOPIC FUTURE IS NOW!!!!

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/28/2009 @ 07:43am

3. I know there have been 150 deaths in Mexico, but how would our $900 Million US dollars have affected non-US citizens in a non-US country?

   In the US there have been 50 reported cases of US citizens bein infected.

   One has required hospitalization, and that person has made a full recovery.

   Posted by Darin_the_Big_Fat_Troll at 04/28/2009 @ 06:28am

   the first wave of infections happened in perote, veracruz in february.

   right by the smithfield foods' pig-o-rama....

   people got sick (not super sick) and only one sample was saved (from a small boy).

   this sample was tested this week and was proved to be mr. swiney.

   it's not the first wave of infections that kills.....

   cross your fingers.

   however, cross your fingers is not good public policy, darin.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 08:30am

4. I crawled out of bed for THIS?! ;)

   Posted by snowball666 at 04/28/2009 @ 08:10am | ignore this person | warn this person

   may you live in interesting times!

   do ya have a job? sometimes crawling back into bed aint the worst option...

   ;)

   apologies - i'm currently working on a series of short stories dealing with dystopic, apocalyptic future stuff and get all giddily carried away when the news resembles my manic ramblings...perhaps i overimpute...

   hey man - i never claimed to NOT be a nut...

   MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/28/2009 @ 08:42am

5. "It seems that Congress is turning a blind eye to state and local health preparedness," Dr. Paul Jarris, executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said after the pandemic preparedness money was stripped from the stimulus. "We are extremely concerned about the diminishing funding for state and local preparedness as well as the removal of all funding for pandemic flu, and the decrease in funding for hospital preparedness," Dr. Jarris added. "Along with the state budget cuts, this is a matter of losing the infrastructure created over the past several years."

   Here is a great example of how liberalism has caused even officials who should know better to abandon the constitution to worship at the alter of Federal tax theft. Perhaps the good doctor needs a course in basic constitutional govt and especially the 10th amendment.

   Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 09:09am

6. "New York Democrat Charles Schumer referred to the pandemic preparedness money as "porky" – eliminated the funding Obey had written into the stimulus legislation."

   It seems in typical political spinning, Nichols and the leftists ignore what Nichols himself wrote to focus instead on a liberal Republican RINO.

   So Schumer the liberal Democrat called the funding pork and joined in removing it, but that draws no commentary by our leftists here.

   Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 09:11am

7. Apocalypse is really a 'when', not and 'if', situation these days.

   Posted by snowball666 at 04/28/2009 @ 08:49am | ignore this person | warn this person

   indeed - and as crazy as that sounds its not crazy at all. its inevitable.

   thats why silly ostriches (of the left and right - but more concentrated on the right, i suspect) need to be opposed.

   my ideas of dystopic, apocalyptic future are mixed and complex. it does not necesarily end with a bang but whimpers along for some time...then i obsess with crazy crap like ai singularity, the potential of nano-tech, genetotech...utopic solutions that could bring about dystopic realities...atempts at utopia that result in dystopia...

   not much teribly new, i'm afraid. its all about the characters and how they react/act. a series of normal, average days in the lives of the inhabitants of the dystopic future. and some heroic post apocalyptic poetry...

   it fascinates me the prophetic crescendo of such fiction and film that has "mushroomed" since WW2, with roots going back to pre ww1...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/28/2009 @ 09:11am

8. I recall when President Regan fired the air traffic controllers...it started then....less government is better government. Now, whether it's Katrina victims, peanut butter victims,Ponzi victims...you name it, our government is "better" but are we any better off--NO. PLEASE stop this angry, vindictive,immoral Republican mindset that has systemmatically ruined our country. Readiness for a pandemic? a hurricane? safe air travel? PLEASE, Republicans, leave this country better than you found it. I'm too old now, it's too late for me to make a difference, but you still have a chance!!!

   Posted by MrG at 04/28/2009 @ 09:15am

9. Maybe you should re-read the "nor prohibited by it to the States" part again and then meditate on depraved indifference for awhile.

   Do we need to pass an amendment to get you to be a decent human being, Anti?

   Posted by snowball666 at 04/28/2009 @ 09:19am

   No, you merely make my point. It's a state and local issue, not a Federal issue.

   Asking for our politicians to obey the constitution is hardly inhuman. Or do you think that the constitution is meant to be followed only when it's convenient?

   Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 10:04am

10. Do we need to pass an amen to get you to be a decent human being, Anti?

    (looks like snowman's got <i>your</i> number, antilarry)

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:06am

11. Maybe that's because Collins was the only one we saw doing handwaving maneuvers on TV about it, Anti!

    Posted by snowball666 at 04/28/2009 @ 09:26am

    That still doesn't change the fact that Nichols posts the fact about Schumer but even he only rants about Collins. And the left joins him in doing likewise.

    So, it's obvious then that this is mere political posturing by Nichols and the left.

    Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 10:08am

12. I recall when President Regan fired the air traffic controllers...it started then....less government is better government.

    Posted by MrG at 04/28/2009 @ 09:15am

    actually, i believed mr. carter meddled with the truck rules or something like that....

    how's mrs. g?{:]

    http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/107446

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:09am

13. NICHOLS: In fact, public health spending of this sort has a lot to do with the economy, as the turbulence seen in global markets since the current swine flu outbreak surfaced late last week in Mexico. Hence The Wall Street Journal headline of Monday evening: "Flu Outbreak Depresses Markets."......the economic instability is no small matter. As Reuters reported Monday night:

    Oil prices fell more than 2 percent......

    The MSCI world equity index fell 0.8 percent and U.S. stocks also slipped."

    Mr. Nichols, I must say, your writing successive articles on the funding-that-wasn't, is every bit as KNEE-JERKY as the conclusions by some `market idiots' that the global sky is falling (even further).

    And if the markets end the day up, what do you suppose the `market idiots' would proclaim? That the pandemic is over, at least, for the day? LMAO!

    BTW, Houston had some really heavy rain early this morning.....several cars were submerged w/unknown fatalities.......we could have used some Flood-Prevention Preparedness in Flat Areas Like Houston STIMULUS funding in the Porky Bill.....

    Hey, what about the Tornado Preparedness? or Culex Mosquito Eradication Stimulus Funding? or Gul of Mexico Red Tide Prevention Stimulus Funding? or Save the Sea Turtle before Endemic GW Stimulus Funding? or Area 51 Truth Setting Stimulus?

    HOPE AND CHANGE!

    Posted by Happy at 04/28/2009 @ 10:17am

14. dextibble:

    people used to die when they were 35..

    i figure my son's gonna live to 97...

    (ain't that right, ms. karma?)

    anyhoo,

    people have always thought the end was nigh

    sigh

    (revelations 13:2 beta: <i>and the lord said, "people are nuts, and ye shall feel the wrath of such and such and so forth until all the cool things you see are gone.")

    and they think up crazy ways of self-fulfillment.

    if we can survive black death, white death (mayonnaise) and inglish orthography,

    we can survive all the crazy things that the future thrungs forth.

    until we extinctify like the dinosaurs....

    oops.

    (hmmm, maybe i should start eating bacon again.)

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:18am

15. BTW, Houston had some really heavy rain early this morning.....several cars were submerged w/unknown fatalities.......we could have used some Flood-Prevention Preparedness in Flat Areas Like Houston STIMULUS funding in the Porky Bill.....

    Posted by Happy at 04/28/2009 @ 10:17am

    i'm sure the dead agree.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:20am

16. happy,

    you sound positively jindal.......

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:20am

17. That still doesn't change the fact that Nichols posts the fact about Schumer but even he only rants about Collins. And the left joins him in doing likewise.

    So, it's obvious then that this is mere political posturing by Nichols and the left.

    Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 10:08am

    This is why the divisiveness of our society will get only worse and worse!

    Even w/the Left in control of everything, we've got idiots like Nichols, who will take advantage of ANYTHING crisis-like (or even ordinary non-agreements), and use them for political ends.....

    Like way too many lawyers in our country, we have also produced far too many `journalists' and especially the subset of Political Journalists who are essentially AMBULANCE CHASERS.....forever looking for that one big story while tossing crap everywhere hoping something sticks.

    Pretty damned sickening!

    Posted by Happy at 04/28/2009 @ 10:26am

18. they should've been allocated when the CDC asked for them in FY2008 in the first place.

    Posted by snowball666 at 04/28/2009 @ 10:18am

    "i've got an easier way", he said cheerily.

    then he pasted a clipping from the internets for all too see.

    it went something like this:

    ARMY AWARDS $900 MILLION CONTRACT TO BURLINGTON'S GENERAL DYNAMICS

    . . . Leahy Instrumental In Securing Funds

    (THURSDAY, May 5) – Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced Thursday that General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products of Burlington has been awarded a $900 million contract from the U.S. Department of the Army. The contract, which calls for the production and servicing of the widely used Hydra-70 rocket, is set to run until March of 2011.

    The Hydra-70 rocket, which has seen extensive use in Afghanistan and Iraq, is a flexible and effective weapon that can be deployed from both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. It has become the world's most widely used helicopter-launched weapon system. The Army intended to scale back production of the rocket system in 2003, but Congress, led by Leahy's efforts, was instrumental in reversing the decision, based on its continuing usefulness and proven track record. As a result, funds for fiscal years 2005 through 2009, including the contract awarded to General Dynamics will be allocated to continuing the system's successful run......

    again he reiterated his contention that both "parties" were just cogs in a very icky machine.

    "these folks is nuts!", he blurted.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:27am

19. This is why the divisiveness of our society will get only worse and worse!

    Posted by Happy at 04/28/2009 @ 10:26am

    i thought that was caused by corn and soya.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:28am

20. Some additional perspective.

    According to the CDC, approx 36,000 people die each year from the flu.

    Approx 900,000 die each year from heart disease.

    there are no reported deaths in the US from this current flu strain and less than 200 reported with this flu.

    Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 10:30am

    Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 10:31am

21. the first wave of infections happened in perote, veracruz in february.

    right by the smithfield foods' pig-o-rama....

    people got sick (not super sick) and only one sample was saved (from a small boy).

    this sample was tested this week and was proved to be mr. swiney.

    it's not the first wave of infections that kills..... cross your fingers.

    however, cross your fingers is not good public policy, antilarry.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:43am

22. from qwiki:

    Some scholars have theorized that the flu probably originated in the Far East.

    [9] While historian Alfred Crosby observed that the flu seems to have originated in Kansas, the political scientist Andrew Price-Smith has published data from the Austrian archives suggesting that the influenza had earlier origins, beginning in Austria during the Spring of 1917.

    [10] Popular writer John Barry echoed Crosby in proposing that Haskell County, Kansas was the location of the first outbreak of flu.

    [11] In the United States the disease was first observed at Fort Riley, Kansas, United States, on March 4, 1918,

    [12] and Queens, New York, on March 11, 1918.

    IN AUGUST 1918, A MORE VIRULENT STRAIN APPEARED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN BREST, FRANCE, IN FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE, AND IN THE U.S. AT BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

    The Allies of World War I came to call it the Spanish flu, primarily because the pandemic received greater press attention after it moved from France to Spain in November 1918.

    Spain was not involved in the war and had not imposed wartime censorship.[13]

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:47am

23. larry,

    that's my family's karma, too, you are messing with.

    please be careful.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:48am

24. larry,

    that's my family's karma, too, you are messing with.

    please be careful.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:48am

    What nonsense Frosty, I have no effect on your family. And what happens to your soul is up to only you. The same for your family members. Even you do not determine the future of their souls.

    Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 10:56am

25. This is why the divisiveness of our society will get only worse and worse!

    Posted by Happy at 04/28/2009 @ 10:26am

    i thought that was caused by corn and soya.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:28am

    ????????????????????????????????????????

    How's your thermal signature?

    Posted by Happy at 04/28/2009 @ 11:01am

26. Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 10:18am | ignore this person | warn this person

    i generally share your optimism, but we cannot, at our current tech level, survive anything. a lot, but not anything.

    a major astroid strike, a supervolcanic eruption...perhaps runaway climatic change.

    we possess the means, if directed well, to survive any number of disasters...

    and indeed - every generation has had its "end of the worlders" (great excuse to eat drink and be merry...)

    but science indicates that eventually, one way or another, something horrible WILL happen...

    and of course developping the kind of systems and technologies that might save us would be profitable sans disaster and lead to a better life anyway.

    my goal as a representative of the shaved ape species, is to live forever (as a species, or continuous line of evolving species...)

    i think it is possible, but will require lots of work and entail some scary, close calls.

    science fiction - the science of the future, a groping and cloudy vision of utopia...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/28/2009 @ 11:25am

27. "...Nichols and the left."

    Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 10:08am

    We know that ANTISOCIAL styles himself -- in his own mind and to his own abysmally low standards -- as being some kind of "intellectual" and "scholar". However, his reflexive resort to egregious howlers of hate, dishonesty and bigotry (he won't even say "god" around us, just "G-d") make him what he is. He is another disgruntled rightwing nobody, nursing a lifetime of resentments against everybody & everything.

    But the proof of the pudding is in the tasting. Let's ask The Rev to show us some of the scholarly traits that he attempts to admire in himself thru the alibi of exceptionally low standards. He inserts the word "left" and "leftist" into every sentence he can jam it into, as if he got payment in a promise of whoppee for every such use.

    The Rev must tell us what defines the left and a leftists by using some of the works that someone of the left would recognize as being of its own. Knowledge of Marx & Engels would be the obvious place to start but plenty of others have followed in this tradition.

    And in light of the way The Rev throbs each time the words "left" and "leftist" are excreted by his keyboard, he has called everyone from MASK to Colin Powell a leftist or a Marxist. Let's see who else is on the roster -- and in, The Rev's own words, why any given figure is an ultra-militant of the hardened (neo)Marxist leftist brigades.

    Instructions: Check the name of each confirmed leftist and describe the nature of his/her ideological deviationism:

    __ Rambo

    __ Ronald Reagan

    __ G.H.W. Bush

    __ John Wayne

    __ Rush Pillpopa

    __ Jeanne Kirkpatrick

    __ John Ashcroft

    __ Spiro Agnew

    __ Chuck Norris

    __ Agosto Pinochet

    __ Micheal Savage

    __ D.D. Eisenhower

    Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 04/28/2009 @ 11:58am

28. Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/28/2009 @ 11:25am

    neither utopia nor dystopia, por fa..

    remember "nomad" from "the changeling"?

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 12:19pm

29. neither utopia nor dystopia, por fa..

    remember "nomad" from "the changeling"?

    Posted by frosty zoom at 04/28/2009 @ 12:19pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    the quest for one often results in the other.

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 04/28/2009 @ 12:24pm

30. "So Schumer the liberal Democrat called the funding pork and joined in removing it, but that draws no commentary by our leftists here"

    that's exactly like saying, "pelosi was briefed on the torture program," ergo "torture is ok, then, if pelosi was briefed."

    Posted by darladoon at 04/28/2009 @ 12:27pm

31. "So Schumer the liberal Democrat called the funding pork and joined in removing it, but that draws no commentary by our leftists here"

    that's exactly like saying, "pelosi was briefed on the torture program," ergo "torture is ok, then, if pelosi was briefed."

    Posted by darladoon at 04/28/2009 @ 12:27pm

    Even in the morning your brain is so fried, you cannot perceive the difference.

    It evidently only matters to you that a Republican was against the funding. the fact that a liberal Democrat was against it and worked to see it removed is not a problem solely because Schumer's not a Republican.

    Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 12:53pm

32. antisocialist, you missed the analogy completely.

    Posted by darladoon at 04/28/2009 @ 1:50pm

33. "No amount of spin will change this reality."

    Well, yeah, to those who like to think for themselves; however, too many people get their "thinking" for them by TV and radio. "Malkin's Millions" swallowed. As will "Limbaugh's Dittoheads," "Lou Dobbs' Doobs," "Savage's Savages," etc., etc. As does the entire Conservative "core"

    Don't kid yourself. Think Chris Matthews will cover this correctly? Will Anderson Cooper ever get a grip? What will Dr. Sanjay Gupta say between facials?

    PEOPLE MUST START A WRITING CAMPAIGN AND WRITE CONGRESS!

    Inundate your Senators and Representatives with letters! Don't just post a comment on a blog! Write Congress!

    Posted by Ga at 04/28/2009 @ 6:19pm

34. It evidently only matters to you that a Republican was against the funding. the fact that a liberal Democrat was against it and worked to see it removed is not a problem solely because Schumer's not a Republican.

    Posted by antisocialist at 04/28/2009 @ 12:53pm

    Schumer is *one* "Liberal Democrat."

    What matters is that, as indicated in the article, the Conservative/GOP Leadership under Karl Rove along with *many* Republicans, in Congress and out of it, have all ridiculed Obey.

    So that's how many to one?

    Thanks for playing.

    Posted by Ga at 04/28/2009 @ 6:30pm

35. "No amount of spin will change this reality."

    Well, yeah, to those who like to think for themselves; however, too many people get their "thinking" for them by TV and radio. "Malkin's Millions" swallowed. As will "Limbaugh's Dittoheads," "Lou Dobbs' Doobs," "Savage's Savages," etc., etc. As does the entire Conservative "core"

    Don't kid yourself. Think Chris Matthews will cover this correctly? Will Anderson Cooper ever get a grip? What will Dr. Sanjay Gupta say between facials?

    PEOPLE MUST START A WRITING CAMPAIGN AND WRITE CONGRESS!

    Inundate your Senators and Representatives with letters! Don't just post a comment on a blog! Write Congress!

    Posted by Ga

    There's a new racist screed being offered up by the more reprehensible talking heads on the right....

    Terrorists are using Mexicans to spread deadly swine flu to the US....

    Uber creepy, Michael Savage plainly said "This is a terrorist attack"...

    Loudmouth, Neil Bortz said "What better way to sneak a virus into this country than to give it to Mexicans"....

    Unctuous commentator, Michelle Malkin and batshit insane, Glen Beck both made comments regarding lack of border security.

    Baseless accusations from soulless agitators.

    Posted by koroviev at 04/29/2009 @ 12:34am

36. In re: previous post...

    It's so incredibly offensive to me that Savage, Bortz et al would say things like this.

    The Mexican people are possibly on the threshold of an unimaginable disaster.

    Suffering and death in a sprawling giant like Mexico City could be enormous and all these idiots can do is baselessly demonize Mexicans as Plague mules for terrorists.

    Posted by koroviev at 04/30/2009 @ 12:29am