Obama wants to kill your grandma and other stories.

Republicans are very sore losers. After eight years of having the run of the farm, the prospects of not having the juice to get their way has sent many of them tearfully running for their assault weapons.

Read a great quote from a right wing crazy last week about the liberty tree needing to be watered with a little blood now and again for the republic to flourish.

I think that it's time for a little history lesson - election's have consequences, kids. You lost. I for one, would hop on board that reconciliation train and not get off until we run out of track. The republicans had no qualms about using it during their tenure at the helm. (See my April 25 blog here) Orrin Hatch, Judd Gregg and John Kyl think it would be very bad form to do so.

They want to see a bipartisan approach to health reform. Really? Where have you guys been the last eight years and how come we never saw you take a crack at it? The insurance and medical industry have their hands a little too deep in your skivvies playing pocket pool to offer up anything meaningful? The temptation for the GOP to score quick political points with their base is too great now for them to be honest partners in any real solutions to the problems that face our nation.

Now we all should remember the last time Obama fell for the old let's be bipartisan line, not one republican vote did he receive, if my memory serves me correctly. This is rebranding time in the great GOP, and the opposition party is trying to fool you once again into thinking it is the party of fiscal restraint. Time to tap the groundswell of looneys who have been showing up at these manufactured town hall events to drown out the politicians and throw around the dreaded s word, socialism.

When you had the reins of power, it was your way or the highway but now it's time to share, I get it. I saw that John McCain was shouted down the other night when he tried to defend his president to a town hall type assemblage of wackos. The right feeds these people at their own peril. I predict that they come back to haunt them in a very negative way. The lunatic tiger fringe ends up devouring it's own master.

The favorite target of the right, Ted Kennedy, died last night. A guy who gave his all for education and healthcare reform and saw two brothers gunned down trying to lead this nation, always seemed to get an unfair rap to me. He wasn't the first politician that liked to take a nip. He was dogged by the Kopechne incident throughout his life and pretty viciously. But he still tried to do what he thought best for his country and for the common man. I m sure that Rush Limbaugh will be positively giddy tomorrow. I saw that Sarah Palin made a statement on Kennedy's passing and thought her temerity to even voice an opinion on the matter galling, given the weight of her intellectual gifts.

A public health care option is just that an option, no one is forcing you to leave your private coverage. No death camps for the elderly or the infirm. (Remember Wild in the Streets, the sixties movie where everybody over 30 got sent to the camps?) I have to believe that abortion politics are one of the underlying stealth narratives in this debate, that the pro-life movement is aghast that they could be subsidizing abortion or contraception. But isn't it a bit odd that a subject so seemingly innocuous and universally benefitting as health care can become so polarizing and divisive? I think it's a mere prologue to enormous battles ahead on every issue.

America is in two pitched camps and we are in the midst of a civil war. We have stopped speaking to each other and every utterance by the enemy is suspect. Any olive branch passed is now a sign of weakness or an opportunity to capitalize and make political points at the opposition's expense. This is truly an ugly time in our nation's history.

I hate to play the blame card but I hold Bush/Cheney responsible for this division. Both Clinton and the good first President Bush managed to implement bipartisan legislation during their tenure. The faith based, Rovian far right vision of america, the Gingrich/Delay contract on America that jammed it's 51% of the vote down the american's throat, sowed the seeds for partisan rancor and cultural alienation that will be reaped for the foreseeable future.