Evolution of Consciousness

Pornography can be difficult to define, but as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously stated in his 1964 decision, “I know it when I see it.”

The campaign flyers of Congressman Mike Thompson pass the test. If your mailbox is like mine, we’ve been carpet-bombed with the stuff lately. There’s a photo of Mike in a classroom, clicking a mouse to fix education; wearing a vest, outside, to save the environment; taking scissors to a credit card to balance the budget; donning a hardhat to resuscitate industry (it’s amazing how hackneyed these political poses have become — if governing involved nothing more than set design, we’d be in great shape). By the time his I-support-the-troops circular arrived I found myself anticipating scenes of Mikey throwing himself on a live grenade or holding up the severed head of bin Laden.

Mike Thompson isn’t saving or fixing anything. He’s an entrenched politician of the worst kind, an errand boy for the ruling class, a self-described Blue Dog who gets “fiscally responsible” whenever some public benefit like healthcare or education gets discussed, but has no problem with the astronomical costs of all the excess weaponry and warring this country propagates on the planet. All you need to know about Mike is that he voted to condemn the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, a commendable effort to investigate Israeli warcrimes. This, to me, is real obscenity.

It is an embarrassment that Mike Thompson has been our congressman the past dozen years. Contrast that bland ignominy with Mendocino County passing the nation’s first complete ban on GMOs in 2004, something to truly be proud of. So here’s a voting tip for next week: just think of Mike Thompson as a genetically modified organism, long pickled in a foul brine of alcohol and corruption, something to be avoided.

The sad fact is, barring a miracle of the first magnitude (something akin to Mother Theresa rising from the dead to slap the glass of chardonnay from Mike’s mitt), he’s going to be re-elected. California’s First Congressional District is gerrymandered for Democratic dominance, such that the Republicans don’t even really try. There is no Regressive challenging Mike in the polls, so there is no lesser-of-two-evils dilemma here. Simply put, Thompson doesn’t “need” your vote.

The Press Democrat did a good job of presenting the candidates’ statements online. Read through them, it’s quite illuminating and quickly becomes clear that Carol Wolman is the only one anchored in reality. Mediocre middle managers like Mike Thompson are driving this country into a wall. Fox News Kool-Aid drinkers, like Hanks and Rodrigues, suggest jumping off a cliff instead. Neither option is desirable. We need to stop, take a breath, and go in an entirely new direction. A sensible direction. A humane direction. Carol Wolman understands that. Let’s start sending people like Carol to the Hill instead.

Remember that holiday pounding Israel gave Gaza last winter, taking advantage of the last dark days of the Bush Administration?

Well, in April of this year the United Nations initiated an independent investigation into violations of humanitarian law, and by September that fact finding mission was reporting “strong evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity” and calling for an “end to impunity.” Sounds good, right? Wrong…

Last Tuesday, the House of Representatives took time out of their “busy” schedule to vote on a bill titled “Calling on the President and the Secretary of State to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of the ‘Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’ in multilateral fora.” (Turns out “fora” is the latin plural of “forum.”) I think a better name would have been “Hear No Evil, See No Evil” (the accompanying graphic could be two of the three monkeys, since “Speak No Evil” remains on vacation).

The billed passed easily, 344 yeas (yeah, Mike Thompson voted “yea”) to 36 nays. “Impunity” has nothing to fear with this mob at the helm. Here’s what Congressman Kucinich had to say, just before the vote, “Because if this Congress votes to condemn a report it has not read, concerning events it has totally ignored, about violations of law of which it is unaware, it will have brought shame to this great institution.” Mission accomplished.

What can we do about all this nonsense? Let’s start by prying Barnacle Mike out of our congressional seat (California’s First District). Until we start sending representatives to Washington to represent our interests, nothing will get better.

I’d like to elaborate on something I wrote last week: for years, polls have reported that a majority of Americans want National Health Insurance in this country (like Medicare for All). 2009 was supposed to be the year that Washington finally addressed the issue. So what happened? The influence of big money in Washington completely perverted and derailed the effort. We the People are just not being represented in Washington anymore, only money is.

There are some minor exceptions. In the Senate, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) proposed a single-payer bill (S.703). Thus far, no other senator has bothered to cosponsor this bill. On the House side, John Conyers (D-MI) put up H.R.676, which has a total of 86 cosponsors (see thomas.loc.gov for the list). So that’s a total of 87 representatives and one senator on our side, and 99 senators and 348 representatives against us.

What to do? Vote accordingly. Elections are coming up next year. If your congresspeople aren’t behind either of these bills, tell them they will lose your vote. For example, those of us along California’s northern coast will be asked to re-elect Representative Mike Thompson and Senator Barbara Boxer in November of 2010. Both have chosen to represent the insurance industry in this fight. Tell them if they don’t switch sides, pronto, they will lose your vote. 

Then, keep your promise. Don’t be a no show, that doesn’t help. Instead, vote Independent: not republican, not democrat, but for some third party candidate. The time has come to abandon the two major political parties in this country, as they abandoned us a long time ago. It’s time for the people to rise up and take this country back. Vote Independent.

I had dinner with our representative, Mike Thompson, last night (July 11). An intimate affair with a hundred others.

The good news is that Single Payer advocates showed up in force. There were activists outside with flyers and placards, and many more paid their way inside. I think Mike knew we were coming, as he closed his speech with a big healthcare-reform finish. Then he opened up the Q and A session. The subject of Single Payer dominated that last half hour, and everyone that spoke was for it.

Mike’s rhetorical tautology against Single Payer is that we just can’t have it. (What that really means is that he is unwilling to take on one of his primary donors, the medical industrial complex.) He’s just another off-the-table democrat. One of Mike’s favorite excuses is the mythical American unicorn who “likes his healthcare plan” and is “terrified of change.” Mike is terribly concerned about this person, and doesn’t want to scare him.

Look, we can always find some kook out there who believes anything, but should we base our public policy decisions on the fears of the most uninformed and ignorant among us? Non-kooks would say no. The real reason Mike keeps trotting out this aberration is it is about all the industry has left to fight with. Imaginary fear. This unicorn is the 2009 version of Harry and Louise.

The bad news is that Mike Thompson was pretty much as expected, a career politician who has become comfortable in his position. Let’s just say this blue dog spends a lot of time curled up by the fire, at the feet of Master. 

The most disappointing aspect of the evening, for me, was the high level of prevarication that is tolerated in such a forum. The whopper of the evening was when Mike told us that money has absolutely no effect on legislators. Imagine that! “Attention, lobbyists and PACs, your money has no effect on Mike Thompson and friends. Attention, Health Insurance Industry, your $1.4 million spent every day is being wasted. Go home. Your money is no good here.” 

Folks, I’m here to report that Mike Thompson isn’t about to represent us in congress. He has other priorities. Twelve years of this is enough. We need to find another representative come 2010. Preferably, a progressive independent. Anyone out there?

P.S. It’s a shame Christina Aanestad wasn’t available to cover the event. It was a real public disservice to dismiss such a competent local reporter. Here’s an example: Christina’s report of Mike’s previous appearance at a local business luncheon (last month) caught some of his reactions to the Single Payer protest outside the venue. One of his statements was (paraphrase), “Look, there’s only twenty people out there, and the numbers go way down from there.” At Mike’s dinner, last night, he told the crowd he never said that. It would be harder to refute that if Christina hadn’t recorded it.

Congressman Mike Thompson attended a business luncheon in Fort Bragg a week ago Friday. About twenty healthcare activists stood outside with placards, encouraging drivers to honk for Single Payer. Christina Aanestad, from KZYX radio, covered the event. I happened to catch her report the following Tuesday.

Mike Thompson’s basic response to the question of why he refuses to support Single Payer was that there are just too many Americans out there who love their health insurance and are terrified of change. Huh? Who are these people? Where are they? (Dick Cheney’s man-sized safe comes to mind.) The truth is they don’t exist, at least not in the vast numbers that Mike is suggesting. This inane excuse is nothing more than a sound bite cooked up by the insurance industry.

Another talking point the spinmeisters came up with was the phrase “quality, affordable health care.” It doesn’t really mean anything, but they found, through focus groups, that some voters salivate when they hear these words. So any time you hear a politician or pundit use the phrase “quality, affordable health care” you know they are on the industry payroll.

They have also co-opted the term “universal healthcare.” It used to mean everyone is covered, but the industry (and their shills) now use it to mean that government will force everyone to buy health insurance from the for-profit outfits that have wrought this crisis.

Note to Mike: when people use the term “crisis,” that means something is wrong. Polls in the real world, where many of us live, indicate a solid majority (more than 60%) of Americans support Single Payer, with a similar percentage of physicians and nurses concurring.

Congressman Mike, on the other hand, dismissed the twenty folks that appeared in the middle of a workday to stand along Highway One promoting healthcare for all. He said something like, “Look, there’s only twenty people out there, and the numbers go way down from there.” (Sweet Jesus, give me the strength….)

Petra was right, Mike Thompson is an embarrassment. As Mike rambled on, he started doin’ that pseudo folksy shtick that Republicans “flat out” perfected during the Bush era, where they start droppin’ their g’s (providin’, payin’). Apparently, this makes voters want to have a beer with you. It is all so stupid it makes you want to cry. 

With Democrats like this who needs Republicans?

It’s time to give Mike an ultimatum: either co-sponsor HR 676 (Single Payer) or lose our vote. That’s all the leverage we have with this guy. He’s coming up for re-election next year, and the medical industrial complex is already busy featherin’ his nest (see opensecrets.org). Twelve years of non-representation is enough.