Brit Hume went on air on the Factor recently and said that Tiger Woods should be convert to Christianity to deal with his problems. To the right wing readers, this is the perfect example showing how far right FOX News is and why they do not get it that people are pist off with them…

Before I go on further, I would have to declare that I am an Asian American, am born a Buddhist though I do not practice it much. I am taking what Brit Hume say very personally and am rather pist off that he can get away with it as though it is okay. I also never knew that Tiger Woods is a Buddhist.

Firstly, I really think that Brit Hume should go and read up about Buddhism more. Forgiveness is part of Karma. It is called Metta. That is why Buddhists do not seek revenge, we let Karma do that. Forgiving and forgetting is part of our religion.

I really take offense to the words of Brit Hume who claimed that if you do wrong, you can just convert to Christianity and all would be well. He should have also noted that Tiger Woods was also a Buddhist when he won major after major.

Other races and religion really do not like it when you guys do that. The other religious group that does this a lot are the Muslims. Both often say, “ Islam/Christianity is the true religion,” or “Only Christians/Muslims would go to heaven.”

Why can’t they be like the the Jews? Both Islam and Christianity originate from Judaism and have Jewish Prophets in their religion, so why can’t they live their own life like the Jews do. The Jews do not come up to people and force their ideologies and religion on others.

I am not saying that all Christians are like that. A vast majority in fact are okay. They do not preach. But it is the leaders like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and now Brit Hume that really has this condescending message of Christian superiority.

The next point is this : How in the blue world is FOX News oblivious to the message? Should Brit Hume be fired or at least suspended for saying things like that? Why O’Reilly did you not cut his microphone off this time or screaming your head off? The answer is very simple, it is because they are from the right wing, so they would not get it.

Now you know why the Republican party have few non-White supporters? They are oblivious to the sensitivities of other colors and faiths. A normal station like PBS or CNN would have definitely taken action against their staff if they had said something half as bad as Brit Hume said.

Can you imagine if a Muslim were to come out and say that all would be okay if Governor Sanford converted to Islam? Wait a minute is that what Osama Bin Laden always told President Bush? What if a Hindu were to tell Governor Elliot Spitzer that all would be okay if he converted to Hinduism?

Come on man! We are living in America, a melting pot, a secular nation where we do not care what you believe in or the color of your skin. Please have some sensitivities to one another…

The first half came to an end. The President called for a break and all went away. The President was very good in thwarting away the Republicans’ point after point, like a good keeper guarding his post. But it was bound to crumble and it nearly did, till a Republican made a serious blunder…

There were a slight delay because there was a vote in the House of Representatives. When it began, everything seemed to go back to normal. The Republicans carried on pounding. After the break they concentrated on the mandate. Surprisingly, later on, the unelected leader of the progressives, Governor Howard Dean said that this is okay with the Republicans!

There was a hint of a Democratic fight when one of the politicians (sorry I cannot remember the name) came up with the idea of a rope. He said that cutting the bill in parts was as good as throwing a 10-yard rope to a shipwreck victim 50 yards away.

But he was immediately followed by Senator Chuck Grassley, who was vicious. Man, he tore the Democrats apart. He went through some grievances of his constituents. This was almost like an art as he did it without really crossing the line. Here I thought the Democrats were done. Even the President seemed to be going to crack at anytime.

Then came House Minority leader John Boehner. If he saw the exchange between Dylan Ratigan and Representative Joe Wilson, he would have know never to make the claim that the US has the best health-care in the world. He would never have said that the US healthcare system just needs tweaking and not overhaul. He would have not cooked up that the bill is going to fund abortion, nor exaggerate the effects of tort reform. After him, it was downhill all the way. The Republican body language would tell you that.

After a light slap on Leader Boehner’s ridiculous comments, Senator Dick Durban became of the first in line to tear the Republicans apart. He slammed the point of tort reform, saying that it would save $55 billion in 10 years, considered minimal savings in a system that costs $2.5 trillion yearly. He ridiculed the ridiculed the plan for having a plan that only covers 3 million people. He also made the pint about the need of a mandate, as it would increase the pool of people which would drive healthcare costs down.

It was very clear that a comeback was in sight. Even Senator McCain, who made one of the best points in the first half, made an error when it comes to reconciliation. He claimed that the public was not in favor. I felt that that was weak-sauce as people really do not care how you get it done as long as it is beneficial.

Senator John Barosso then had a touching story to tell. He said that all doctors were given a stethoscope. It was to listen for medical matters, but also used to listen. However, he too was one of the bumbling Republicans when he claimed that there should only be catastrophic only plans. He even said that Congress should have that plan and that people should eat less, not smoke or drink.

After being slammed by the President, Senator Henry Waxman ran him down. Amongst the Democrats, he was the toughest Senator. He slammed Senator Barosso by asking him what made him think that people would be able to afford for catastrophic only healthcare. He also rebutted Republicans claim that very little people wanted the Democratic healthcare by saying less people wanted their plan.

The next prominent moment happened when Senator Roskam delivered a very frank exchange with the President. I do agree with him that the session was was out to get the Republicans’ votes rather than work with them. He also made the defense of the fact that the Republican plan only covers 3 million by saying that covering 3 million people well was better than covering 30 million more expensively.

Senator Chris Dodd too put on strong points after this. He was nonsensical in the first “half.” I do agree with him that coverage of Americans were crucial, not having so many people being left uninsured.

The most mean person in the room had to be Leader Nancy Pelosi. The Republicans met their tough match! She was the most damning. She tore apart all the fallacies of the Republican but even this partisan wing-nut still paid homage to Senator Tom Coburn’s ideas.

What is sad though was that it took 7 ½ hours for the public option to be mentioned. No one else dared to mention it. And did it have to be Leader Pelosi to mention it? Come on.

President Obama then delivered the closing arguments, after which he shook the hands of Leaders McConnell and Boehner. Leader Boehner was visibly down, he could tell he was beat. Overall, I think the Democrats looked better on television and President Obama really showed his brilliance and mettle, but the “Man of the Match” was Senator Coburn.

What a debate! It is because of things like this that we do politics, events that make us do this work despite the little money we earn. For the first time, I was made to watch the debate with the rest of the ST team, and the 7 hours was worth it.

For the first time, the debate was very clean, civil. There were no unnecessary distractions. Characters shone through and others faltered. If ever people want an introduction to what the parties are about, tell them to watch the clips of this mammoth health-care session.

The only disappointment that initially pist me off was with Senate leaders, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. They had terrible body language and were behaving like 10 year old girls not talking to each other. Leader McConnell was sitting with his arms folded and Leader Reid had the stench of arrogance.

Because of them, I thought it was going to be ugly. How wrong I was! This session had the notion of a sporting event. The first half was exclusively Republican. All the Democrats did was to say, “We agree on this and that.” They were spineless and pathetic.

A character who really stole the “first half” was Senator Tom Coburn. I have been told by some member of the team that he was a wing-nut from the right, but that was not how he came off at all. This guy oozed sincerity, something nobody else in the room had. He was passionate and very real. He reminds me of people like Representatives Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, whose politics we do not agree with but we respect their sincerity in service to our country.

Senator John McCain deserves very special mention for his substantial input. He pointed out the flaw that there were many “special deals” in the Senate bill which had little or nothing to do with healthcare. The Democrats were caught with their pants down here.

I saw Representative Eric Cantor perform today, and he was outstanding. He was cool calm and even though we heard all the points being recycled, one could still be impressed with the way that Representative Cantor made his case. Mark my words, this guy is headed for bigger things. Senator McCain made a huge mistake not giving him the VP nomination.

The star of the Democrats was the President. He was the only one that actually put up a fight against the Republican arguments. I liked some of his logic. For example he rebutted the Republican talking point of regulation driving the cost of things up by saying that we could make food significantly cheaper, if we get rid of the meat inspectors. But would you want that? That was well done.

In the first half, the Republicans were very strong in their arguments, but they just could not kill the argument. The reason was that they kept hovering back to talking points which were obviously planned and lacked substance. They kept on harping about the mandate without going for the jugular early. They spoiled their arguments by keep on mentioning things like ,” The American people do not want this bill” and kept complaining about the bill being over 2000 pages long.

President Obama was enough to hold the Republicans off. The only one that he could not beat was the amazing Senator Coburn, so he absorbed some of Senator Coburn’s ideas. The attacks from the Republicans were relentless and they came thick and fast. The first half for the Democrats was so bad that VP Biden intervened in frustration, stating that the ideas weren’t that different, but the approach was.

So what would happen in the Second half? It was something that we would have to watch to believe. All this was thanks to a blunder from a very senior Republican, which game the Democrats with the ammo to attack….

For more, read the 2nd half!

This is a continuation of the last posting. This is basically the positives of President Obama’s healthcare bill, which is not much. However, there are some silver linings with the most important being the Health Insurance Exchange…

The Health Insurance exchange, such a simple idea and it is something that really makes protesting it very hard. It is basically a stock exchange like list where people can view the health insurance for what they are. You can see which insurance plan has the best premiums or coverage.

Even some right wing observers, most notably Bill O’Reilly , has supported this exchange. We know it would work as it works like a stock exchange and stock exchanges work! It is an outstanding way to get insurance companies to compete.

Again going back to the simple basics is great. Updating and simplifying the process would result in less paperwork which would translate to lower costs. It is sad though to think that it actually takes a President to fix this kinds of problems. Also, I do not know how much money would be saved.

Giving credits to small businesses also make a lot of sense to me. It is these guys that are the cornerstone of our economy and yet when they are often lagging behind when it comes to healthcare. They often pay more for the same kind of coverages as compared to unions and especially corporations.

The mandate is very acceptable. For people that do not qualify for the tax-filling threshold, they are not obliged to buy the plan. So this would really keep many people happy. The young also are not obliged to buy health insurance, what this means is that health insurance cost for us would be significantly lower.

Other than these few points there was nothing out there that was really catching out eyes. The Senate Plan is weak, and the President’s input did not help at all. Overall, I would not support this bill as there are just not enough cost-cutting measures.

To make matters worse, there would be just too many excuses for insurance companies to raise premiums. It has been an utter disappointment. The best hope is that with the threat of reconciliation, the public option comes into the mix. Because Congress does not bother considering other cost-cutting measures and there is still a 2:1 popular support in favor of it…

Okay this is something that is not being detected by most Americans, neither do our pathetic media. One of the most repeated things that President Obama mentions is that there is going to be no more being denied due to pre-existing conditions. Well that is not exactly true…

The 11 page proposal by President Obama which is actually a tweak of the Senate Bill, does clearly mention that CHILDREN can’t be denied healthcare because of a pre-existing condition, but the language is not so clear when it comes to adults, teenagers and seniors. It could have been very easily expanded to all classes, but simple-lettered, strong-armed laws were only available for children.

What this means is that there is going to be a minefield of legal loopholes that lawyers can exploit. Why can’t it be simply put that pre-existing condition discrimination is illegal? It was simple enough to be done for kids, so why not the rest of us? Why put in complicated measures that, with the benefit of a doubt, is meant to simply prevent and not end pre-existing condition discrimination?

In my opinion, I think it is because President Obama along with his Democrats, along with the Republicans are all sucked into this hole of lobbyists corruption. It is with lobbyist money that our politicians are being elected. That system has to change, but let me ramble about that another day.

Now on to some terms.. oh where do I start! Firstly the cost controlling factor. The only thing that they have done is say that the government now can somewhat regulate increase in interest premiums. And even for this, it is for companies that take part in the exchange. I am just not comfortable with the government coming in telling businesses how much to charge…

Where is the public option? Where is the competition? None, nothing, zero! We all have got to buy the bill but there is absolutely no measure to increase competition other than the exchange. Added to that, insurance companies now got to deal with half baked pre-existing conditions legislation, are forced to enrollee’s dependent children till the age of 26, offer preventive care and immunizations at no cost, etc… Do you know what all this would equate to Insurance companies : excuse for higher premiums!

President Obama also promised in his campaign that citizens should have the same healthcare as any member of Congress. Not really the case. Whilst this is not a lie; it sure is a misrepresentation of a promise! You see, we are not going to get the healthcare that Congress enjoys right now, but Congress would be forced to buy from the exchange, so they would be getting the healthcare that we would with the passing of this bill!

I get why young people, those who earn less and those with religious objections are exempted from buying health insurance but why is it that the Indians? I do get that we are living on their land and enjoying their fruits, but come on! If it is good for us, it is good for them!

Another thing is regarding the claim that they would increase revenue by closing the loopholes, but how exactly is not being mentioned in the text. Can the President please care to explain of this during his showdown on Thursday?

I would discuss the positives of this plan tomorrow, but I can tell you that is sure is shorter than this one!