It's What You Value
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........George Harrison.......Always a delight. This little swipe at McCartney slips by unnoticed on George's Thirty Three & 1/3.
....WARNING: Political content! You've been warned.
........Joseph Stalin once refered to members of the American Communist party as "usefull idiots". It seems the grassroots "tea pary" tidal wave brewing has found a usefull idiot.
..........These comments offend & insult a great many people.
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MOG it up!
Comments (20)
I guess we have some catching up to do in that department. The offend and insult part that is.
Would those be the same people who believe that Joe Wilson "spoke truth to power"?
Hi Cody. How goes the battle? I really think President Carter's remarks will only further inflame a large & growing segment of the population.
....To be clear. we the people are outraged at run away government spending. The projected deficit is larger than all previous derficits combined!
....The brazen audacity of the government expansion into so many facets of our lives has alarmed even the center-left.
....No more votes on bills that cost trillions but even the senators are not allowed to adequately study.
....& NO GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH-CARE>!!! Period.
....& its really getting ugly. The fuckin race card??? Thats always the ace in the hole, isn't it?
....But there's alot of evidence that suggests that the people have had enough.
....1.5 million people on the Mall last saturday. (yeah, i know...ABC< CBS< & NBC low-balled the numbers. But check out the bbc report on utube, I'm too tired to find it for you,)
Would those be the same people who believe that Joe Wilson "spoke truth to power"?
...well, yes. & while all condemn his forum (time & place) there are alot of people who felt he spoke for them. Thats a problem?
...& i'm happy that he apologized to his fellow congresspeople for his serious breach of protocol....I'm happy that he hasn't apologized for the content of his remarks.
Yes. I believe joe wilson spoke the truth. & i could certainly prove it. As could anyone who chooses to.
Jeff, I'm not sure I get exactly what you're saying here. While I will emphatically agree that those creating and holding some of the signs I saw (particularly the "Obama-Hitler") do more to portray the Tea Party activists as mere radical, redneck agitators, instead of as people that don't like the sharp left turn our nation appears to be being forced into, and are trying to produce a return to the "united States" that the founders of our country envisioned, and produced. Our Federal government is, and has been for quite some time, overstepping it's Constitutional limitations, and we've been sleeping through it. Ben Franklin was asked by a woman what form of government the Continental Congress had come up with. His response was "a Republic...if you can keep it!"
Wake up people....cause we're losing it!
I think Wilson's thing and Carter's thing would both quickly go under the bridge if folks wouldn't keep trying to play out every single occurance and utterance to its political end. But that's the way things go.
I was tired of outrage against Bush and I'm tired of outrage against Obama..you don't (or didn't) like what one was doing and you have to be outraged..c'mon now. I've lost count of the straws breaking camel's backs.
Less face it, some folks want smaller government, some don't. The so-called smaller goverment folks had the ball for 6 years and there wasn't much shrinking going on..I saw no protests. Now all of a sudden we are on the slippery slope to hell by force..not buying it.
This just seems like the permanent election cycle to me.
People voted for change, now they are seeing how hard it is to come by..
OK, let's take the "truth" part of the "speaking truth to power" part of this. If you look at the healthy care bill - as opposed to, say, getting your information from those notoriously relaible sources of information, blogs and viral emails - you will see the following sentence on page 143: "Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States." Gee, that pretty much says to me that illegal immigrants don't qualify under this health care plan. So when the President is accused of lying when he affirms a point that is actually included in the legislation, it would benefit the accuser to actually know what he's talking about. Unless we've reached the point where legislation now means the opposite of the words contained in it.
Also, a small point regarding the size of the crowd. The fiercely partisan Washington Fire Department estimated the crown at between 60,000 and 75,000. The organizers are the ones who have been claiming numbers in excess of a million.
I went to the funeral last weekend of a good friend, the mayor of the town where I grew up. He was pretty much loved by everyone in our town, even those who disagreed pointedly with him, because he was unfailingly fair. In one of the eulogies, a borough council member recalled the mayor's aversion to what he termed "data-free decisions." It also follows that your decisions will be skewed if the data is wrong.
I don't know, Cody...I see a lot of change; none of it good. And how much of Obama's organization is recycled Clintonites?
Seems that old saying applies well here: the more things change, the more they stay the same!
As far as this:"the so-called smaller govt. people had the ball...." is concerned...there is a HUGE difference between the Republicans of the Reagan era and those of today. We've been on the decline(conservatives) at least since Bush 1!
By the way, I agree with you that people are getting way too much mileage out of this. I would not call Joe Wilson a champion of racial justice - his comments about Strom Thurmond's secret out-of-wedlock daughter by a black woman are churlish at best, his support of Confederate flag-wavers highly inappropriate - but what he did was not a felony nor a result of conscious racism. (The unconscious kind, well....) It was, however, not a heroic act either. It was stupid, boorish and factually wrong. And it's over. We've got more important things to think about.
Oh ivy..you and the truth again?
Sorry, man, I've been off my medication....
"Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.
Even this minor restriction on taxpayer largesse to illegals will immediately be overturned by the courts. But the point is: Except for vouchers, the bill does not even pretend to exclude illegals from any part of national health care -- including the taxpayer-funded health insurance plan. Moreover, liberals won't have to wait for some court to find that the words "nothing in this subtitle shall allow" means "this bill allows," because the bill contains no mechanism to ensure that the health care vouchers aren't going to illegal aliens. Nor does the bill prohibit the states from providing taxpayer-funded health care vouchers to illegals. Democrats keep voting down Republican amendments that would insert these restrictions -- just before dashing to a TV studio to denounce anyone who says the health care bill covers illegal aliens. It's as if we have a relative who shows up at every holiday gathering, gets bombed and totals the family car. At the 18th Christmas celebration, he's not only demanding a drink, but also calling us liars for saying he's already totaled 17 family cars. Gimme a gin and tonic and the car keys, you lying racist!
Of course, I trust big Pharma and unregulated big Insurance to look out for me. Jeff, the data tells me that health insurance premiums have increased over a decade at a greater rate than inflation, however measured. (Same true for college tuition.) Experience suggests that health care delivery does not work in its present form and linking coverage to employment is a bad policy. As to illegal aliens and healthcare, the devil is in the details and it may be than the seeming prohibition is not practicable without verification of legal residency by the health care provider. However, from a public health perspective, we are all better off with immunization and oh, say, TB treatment regardless of status. We have had a regime of socialism and public subidy of private losses, and rugged, if not predatory capitalism for the poor (the rest of us) for some time. That will not change immediately. Deficits are a concern, bail outs irritate me too, but while debate may be passionate and we may disagree on specifics, we need to have some grounding in reality.
You make some excellent points Bob of Berkeley, ideas to ponder.
Experience suggests that health care delivery does not work in its present form and linking coverage to employment is a bad policy.
......The philosophical underpinnings of Republican proposals over the last ten years. Allow healthcare to be a consumer driven industry by selective & carefull deregulation to allow for more competition, Delinking healthcare & employment, & perhaps most importantly...serious tort reform.
........These were the ideas of The Bush Administration. They died on the vine as the trial lawyers that inhabit the houses on congress strangled it. It was a bi-partisan murder.
I'm amazed at the seemingly intelligent individuals who are sounding off for government run healthcare. Remember the 400.00 hammers, and 600.00 toilet seats?
They do very little right, and I don't want them meddling in MY healthcare. That's not to even mention the fact that it's already been shown not to work, whioch is why we have wealthy Canadians coming here to have procedures done so they won't friggin' die while waiting for thier name to pop up on some list.
My 84 y.o. father in law would be DEAD today if this system was in place 4 years ago...why should we spend all the money to repair an abdominal aortic aneurism, 45 days of ICU and 5 months of rehab hospital for an 80 y.o. man? I'm glad we did, he's a great man, and he's living a great life!
This government is taking WAAAY more power than "we the people" gave it, and it's going to chew us up as it wants. Be careful what you wish for!
The government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.
Thomas Jefferson
NO GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH-CARE>!!! Period.
I will ask kindly - what is your proposed solution to the ugly mess that health care has become? You are so adamantly against government run care of any ilk - and from my post...
Me: "How do you propose that we ensure health care for everyone in this country?
You:....why on earth should i wish to? I mean, seriously, Why?"
I will ask you again - do you think people are just shit out of luck if they don't happen to work for a company that provides insurance, or they can't afford it on their meager Wal-Mart wages? What do YOU think? How do we fix the system? Or do you seriously believe the system is fine as it is? You're quick to jump on the anti-government bandwagon, but I have yet to see any sort of proposal of solution from you. If you're in support of the current system that's fine, but please provide something in support of that. Do you have a personal experience that causes you to lean in that direction?
I didn't find anything particularly offensive in Jimmy Carter's statements. He pointed out that there are people in this country that believe a black man has no place as president. That can't be argued - there are people that believe this. And his other point is that Joe Wilson broke the protocol rules of elected officials. Is it offensive to point this out? Why are you so offended by this?
Ok Anne. First....The point we agree on. Healthcare COSTS are drving the need for healthcare reform.
It seems our major disagreement lies in how to address & solve the problem.
.......But before we get to that.........By all accounts & from objective observation....the overwhelming majority of the protesters were out there because they are enraged at the current administration's bull-rushing of massive spending bills that no one is given any opportunity to read & digest. The Bush stimulus bail-out of financial institutions started the blood boiling....President NOT BUSH, (our current leader) has already run up larger budget deficits than all previous deficits combined! Cash for clunkers! Madoff is in jail for a similiar scam. & the list goes on & on. People are sick of it. & the numbers grow exponentialy every time a useful idiot plays the race card. It reinforces every negative stereotype in the mind of the bigot, & often lately repules the wavering center.
.....Which brings us to healthcare reform. A vital discussion to have. But truths need to be told. For instance....we are told that 46 million Americans are without health insurence. We are not told, often enough, that a substantial portion of that figure is people who choose not to have health insurence. These are twenty somethings, in the prime of health who decide as a concious choice not to carry health insurence make up the majority of this group. Also included in the 46 milllin are an estimated 13 million undocumented aliens. Many people do not think that people here illegaly should have access to our medical prowess. I do not count myself in this group, but i am not in your group either, Anne. But thats a seperate discussion.
.....There are a great many people throughout our country that do not want taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions. Many prestigious religeous hospitals who do not now offer "reproductive choice" policies would be denied involvement in any program the government oversees.
.....These are some thorny issues that need be resolved & The President has spent all his politcal capital already & his administration's heavy-handed tactics prior to the congresssional recess to attempt to ram this through before September. That was the proverbial straw. A true grassroots movement erupted.
....even now...he wants the money...he'll tell us how its spent later. No Deal!
Next up....what would i do???
Me: "How do you propose that we ensure health care for everyone in this country?
You:....why on earth should i wish to? I mean, seriously, Why?"
....Why do you think its best to shift the responsibilty away from the individual?
Healthcare COSTS are drving the need for healthcare reform.
Yes.
the overwhelming majority of the protesters were out there because they are enraged at the current administration's bull-rushing of massive spending bills that no one is given any opportunity to read & digest.
Could be. As I've been thinking about this, I realize that I have done something that I should have known better about. I let a small number of photos color my judgement of the entire event. The photos that I saw made me very angry. But they were only a percentage of the entire day.
I think we can agree on outrage at the spending by both administrations. I'm not in favor of the massive bailouts, either.
However, I still believe that there is a segment of the population that is horribly racist. I don't think it is wrong for Jimmy Carter to point that out.
We are not told, often enough, that a substantial portion of that figure is people who choose not to have health insurence. These are twenty somethings, in the prime of health who decide as a concious choice not to carry health insurence make up the majority of this group. Also included in the 46 milllin are an estimated 13 million undocumented aliens.
Do you have a source for these numbers?
Many people do not think that people here illegaly should have access to our medical prowess. I do not count myself in this group, but i am not in your group either, Anne. But thats a seperate discussion.
The trouble is, you can't just flat out deny access (most likely in the emergency room) when somebody shows up seriously ill. But what is "my group?" I agree that the number of people here illegally is a huge problem. I don't think they should receive automatic coverage on the taxpayers dime - of course not! I have to say, I can understand the complexities behind why we have so many illegal immigrants. First and foremost, they provide cheap labor. Second the immigration process is onerous and expensive (I have direct experience with this). It is indeed an entirely different conversation.
Abortion is a very thorny issue. I can agree with federal dollars not being allowed for the procedure, but I don't agree with outlawing it completely as some people would do.
....Why do you think its best to shift the responsibilty away from the individual?
I think that this is a rare case when it can be beneficial to shift responsibility away from the individual. When everyone has equal access to at least a bare minimum of health care, that provides a level of security for many people that doesn't exist now. And a healthy populace means a healthy workforce, and more opportunities for people to contribute to our society. I think it's a shame that people have to make career decisions based on whether thay have health care or not - they could be fantastic entrepenuers, but the risk of going without insurance stops many people.
For what it is worth, I love my job AND I am fortunate to have decent insurance. But it hasn't always been that way. There was a time I was without insurance (my job did not cover it, and I could not afford it). I did not choose to go without, it was the necessity of having to pay my rent/food/etc. that kept me from having it. Fortunately nothing major happened to me during that time.
I've been working for the library for almost ten years, and have been lucky to have coverage for myself. However, after I got my library degree I had to decline applying for a substitute position that would have furthered my "career" but ceased my health coverage. That was the sole reason - it boiled down to health coverage.
Health insurance should not be tied to employment.
So the question, I guess, is if there is no government involvement in health care, and it is completely up to the individual, what are those who are unemployed or barely scraping by supposed to do?
What are your suggestions? How would you change from our current system?