Hope vs Failure: Is There Anything We Can Do As Citizens, Short Of Going Out On The Streets Like The Iranian Patriots?
By Howie Klein Thursday Jun 18, 2009 6:08pmThe DCCC sent out an exceptionally well-done clip today pointing to the difference between Obama's vision of Hope and the Republican vision of failure. Please take a look at it. There's no doubt that the Republicans are on a mission to not just obstruct, but to undermine-- everything, from health care reform to the economic recovery and even to the safety of the nation itself. The clip puts forth a strong message, a compelling message. But it just isn't bipartisan enough. After all, it isn't only Republicans who want the single most important piece of Obama's change agenda-- substantive health care reform-- to fail. Plenty of Democrats get the exact same huge handouts from the exact same Medical-Industrial Complex and Big Insurance lobbyists and CEOs. And they will do anything to prevent single payer health care from passing-- or even being brought into the discussion!
I've got the full story up at DownWithTyranny, but John called from the airport and asked me to remind everyone to please consider helping out with the Blue America initiative to save the public option. As John keeps pointing out, health care reform isn't really a Republican vs Democratic issue; it's an issue for the welfare of all American families-- which is why a staggering 83% of Americans want the public option.
Blue America has launched this new campaign to persuade senators who routinely take a great deal of money from Big Insurance to work for their constituents, not for their campaign contributors. We are working with Brave New Films to put together a series of TV commercials that we will start running next month in Arkansas, home of two anti-reform Democrats, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. Please read more about the plan-- and consider helping us put it into effect-- here at our Blue America page.
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Tweet him loudly and proudly.
Ok, that was just a lazy f***t.
You could give everyone free healthcare and it wouldn't matter. Until American people get off the blogs and couch and take care of there bodies the point will be moot. The 1.5 Trillion price tag is way below, baby boomers retires and americans getting fatter will triple the cost.
We need to completely private system which forces people to take care of themselves, eat right, work out, etc.
Freebies will bankrupt this country, which it already is doing a la social programs..
Healthy people get sick and fall down stairs, too. So please. Back away from the usual "blame the patient" thing we hear way too often from the Right. The notion that fat people are lazy and sick people just eat too much junk food is dismissive.
And by the way, we aren't being bankrupted by social programs. Last I checked we had two wars, tax cuts for the rich, and a crashing housing market, among many, many other things that people smarter than me can list, which have done a real bang-up job of cranking the deficit up to nnnniiice respectable level without the help of "social programs".
we will all get sick and eventually die. It's depressing, but it's a fact of life. All of us will need accessible, timely healthcare at some point. There are people in every society who, through no fault of their own, are unable "to take care of themselves, eat right, work out, etc.", you know.
Accessible universal healthcare should be a basic right for all Americans, whoever they are.
(edit: this was meant to go under Backtrack's comment, not Bonkers')
Also want to point out that Bush was the only president who did not raise taxes during a time of war. The problems we have now are a direct result of what his administration did and did not do.
Not only did Bush not raise taxes, he is the only leader in world history to actually cut taxes during a time of war. Remarkable. Is it any wonder our economy is collapsing.
lessening the cost. And your "blame the victim" rant has already been run on this site several times. It didn't fly then and won't now. Fox Nation misses you. Yawn!
There is no free lunch and there are Fat Cats.
The Oligarchs are cleaning up with their obscene profit motive, made all the more lucrative by denying health care. Their profits for you life.
They send their kids to the best schools by letting YOU die on the curb outside of the hospital.
The Owners!
The American Dream, you have to be asleep to believe it.
or rich as Cresus.
little you know. I'm a nurse and recently took care of someone who had a stroke. This patient didn't smoke, didn't drink, ran every day and ate special grains that he ordered. He still had a stoke. I have seen the fattest, most poorly nourished people soldier on while people who had the smallest amount of stroke risk possible have a brain bleed.
If you hate social programs, then perhaps you should stay off of those interstate highways, paved roads in general, resolve never to call the police or fire department if needed, stay out of national parks, etc.
You SO stole my follow-up! I will throw in "and don't use OUR postal service" and leave the rest at:
+1!
Got to add the postal service to my ever expanding list.
a common national defense, an independent judiciary, FAA, Coast Guard, public schools, subsidies to college education, FEMA, in fact...everything.
The only acts of government which aren't acts of social responsibility, socialism if you will, are acts of tyranny, oppression and predation upon the citizens.
Kick "Backtrack's" in his no doubt thin athletic ass.
Backtrack: What is your income, what type of insurance do YOU have, what does it cost? What's the deductible (mine is $2,000)? How often do you see a doctor? Do you attribute your (assumed) good health to exercise, proper diet and so on, or have you just lucked out genetically and through mild life experiences?
Be HONEST.
Dead on. I always tell the story of a case I worked on a few years ago. I actually saw a 10-year-old child reach his lifetime $1 million coverage limit. I always ask people that want to jaw about "the government taking their money for lazy people," just what they would have told this kid's parents. In this case, the parents both worked, had paid taxes and were very much involved in trying to keep their child in medical coverage. Unfortunately for them he had a chronic, genetic condition that could be managed, but never cured. I ask them what these parents could do, what's the answer for them? It usually shuts them up.
We are all just a breath away from the situation I saw above. For profit health coverage does not work for those covered, just those selling and managing the coverage.
then deny your social security checks after you retire there, backtrack...I guaran-DAMN-tee ya, you'll like social programs then!
It is constant WAR, Graft, and Stupefying Corruption at the highest levels of Government & Business: THAT IS WHAT HAS ALREADY BANKRUPTED OUR COUNTRY!
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare are small potatoes compared to Haliburton/Cheney/Wall Street/Banks.
But Wall Street and all of it's Bought Politicians want MORE MORE MORE. They WANT IT ALL.
More money, more power, more control of information and education. They want to create a Feudal/Fascist system where they are the elite, the Aristocracy to put shame to all Prior Aristocracies in the History of Earth.
They're out to destroy the "middle class". An unhealthy, malnourished, uneducated, superstitious (religous) and SCARED underclass is exactly what they want: SERVANTS, SHARE-CROPPERS, PEASANTS: SLAVES.
sitting on your ass blogging and all??!! Shouldn't you be out jogging instead of blogging??
And, while your at it take your buds El Rushbo, Rove and Orally and Huckabee (caught him on TDS tonight - he's packing on the lard again)
they could all stand to get in shape.
Some of what you say has merit...except for your last two sentences...
Those are wrong.
Backtrack your little butt back to the REICHWINGNUTTERS. We don't want your 'opinions' here. Too overcooked, overstupid, backward, thuggish, etc.
These are the people who need to see both sides of an argument. That is the problem. People arn't connecting the dots. They don't (or refuse) to see all the dots. We need pragmatic disscussion of all the topics. Bring on your rational arguments, let's talk about them.
I disagree, this is not a particularly good piece in that it's just a "poor me, those mean Republicans are just really mean". Big fucking deal, we already know that.
So what ideas are we espousing that they're shooting down? And don't bother telling me here in the comments, I already know - those ideas should be in the message that is broadcast.
Stop being victims, be the aggressor.
are repug lite.
who are they to criticize when they serve their corporate masters and the bankers with all the zeal and corruption of a Repug?
and Obama, Prince of Platitudes is bipartisaning us into extinction.
DCCC is about electing Democrats, the same Democrats that are scuttling single payer. I want Obama to do what he said he would do!
I quote..."I happen to be a proponent of single payer coverage"
-Obama
Here is the full quote made by Obama to the AFL-CIO in 2003:
“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program.” (applause) “I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”
Hmmm...Democrats have taken back the White House, Democrats have taken back the Senate, and Democrats have taken back the House. President Obama, please define the differences between a public option and single payer option since you appear to only mention the public option today whereas you said single payer during your campaign. In explaining, what is the cost/benefits analysis of each?
imbibing with friends...what if Obama's waiting for Franken to be seated before he starts getting aggressive with pushing through with some of his campaign promises?
Ya never know...it could happen.
83% of Americans would want single payer if they weren't being MISLED into thinking that this 'Public Option' is something akin to it.
Hooey
The public option is a sham.
Single payer is the only way.
h/t to MountainMan23 here
Single Payer v. Public Option Chart here.
Oh by the way this is already a done deal. Congressional public mark up is a formality.
They are bought and paid for behind closed doors.
Is exactly what we need to do, we have to get out in the streets and push back big, big time, who can organize this, I'll contribute and organize. Stop talking about, what do we have to do, we/you/me do what we have done, go out in the street and campaign, people, faces a clear majority needs to twitter a spot and show up and keep showing up all over America, BIG TIME
The Representatives will only respond to threats to their jobs, either by not getting Lobbyist cash or votes. You can't control the Lobbyist cash.
But you CAN control the votes.
What it's going to take is a strike on the National Mall, a Million Man March demanding Rule of Law and Single Payer, and that's just not going to happen.
After all, don't want to miss American Gladiators or whatever pap is on the TeeVee.
The girls of Charm School with Ricki Lake were fighting again.
(you are so right about the money. It might even be nearly hopeless. Our politicians are by and large bought and paid for. It explains a LOT of apparently baffling, insane behavior and reasoning that flies in the face of logic)
They *will* respond to mass protests, as those protests would be a signal that they aren't going to get re-elected unless they listen to what the public wants.
It was not supposed to be a reply to the message it is a reply to, I pushed the wrong link to add a not-reply message.
Demonstrations for Single Payer Public Paid Medical Care, AND while we're at it, demonstrate for PUBLIC FUNDING OF ALL ELECTIONS.
Let's make some noise. Are Americans going to let the Iranian people show them how democracy works. Power never relinquishes its grasp, you have to take power back.
I live in Minnesota, and I am willing to contribute and organize here.
The establishment has new puppet but one day Americans will go Iranian.
When they spew greed is good, that time is coming closer.
The "public option" is dead. Not gonna happen. The Rightwing is going into massive disinformation overdrive mode over it (and ANY Obama health care plan in general) and the Dems are already caving.
IF there is a health care plan that passes it will be so watered down and ineffective that both the Republicans and Democrats will be able to declare victory. And we know what that means: We lose.
... certainly not with 70+% of the public wanting a public option available.
It seems to me that what's missing is literal public protest over the watering down of reform.
I think I'm getting the picture now: health care reform is nothing but a scam being run by the misleadership of both parties.
Republicans will kill it and say, "See, we killed it. We stopped Obama. Vote Republican!" Democrats will aid and abet, then say, "See, those evil Republicans killed it--won't you please contribute to our party?"
The insurance industry, the AMA, the pharmaceutical industry, the for-profit hospitals, they'll all be happy and funnel the campaign contributions to their respective incumbents.
Meanwhile, we still have millions uninsured, and those who have it will have their claims denied while their premiums go up. A scam.
It's been said repeatedly that Obama will not be able to enact change alone, that he'll need to be pushed by the citizenry, that he can be a facilitator rather than a roadblock, like Bush was.
So why do we think we don't have to "hit the streets"? Isn't it likely that our not being in the streets is exactly why we continually get what we don't want?
The "fire Letterman" crowd hit the streets for a stupid political stunt by Palin. What happened to the concerned large crowds of progressives fighting for social justice and basic human rights? The Bush years of harassment are over.
and Twitter and iphones & their knockoffs, it won't be so easy for The Establishment Corporate Media to ignore & cover up what the People are saying.
The "fire Letterman" crowd is 15 assholes underwritten by an ultra-conservative and broadcast by a sympathetic media. The corporate media stifles the progressive voice.
The people need to understand they have to become the media. The protests in Iran continue to grow in numbers despite their media being shutdown and/or censored.
Their is a tremendous feeling of empowerment and accomplishment when one actually participates in a protest. I get sick at my stomach when I look back at the history of this country and the protests against the Viet Nam war. My generation has yet to take over the reigns.
Short Of Going Out On The Streets?
No.
I have got serious Protest Envy...these DC insiders just are not getting the message.
OK, so what's it going to take? I would have thought people in this country would have been angry enough to protest after Bush invaded Iraq--and at several other points during his misguided administration. But apparently not.
What needs to happen to actually make us wake up and say, "Enough of this crap. We pay your salaries. You people work for us, and you're not acting in our best interests."
Thing about protesting, though--it's a long haul. Doing it once doesn't even get anyone's attention. It's got to be loud and sustained. I don't think Americans have the attention span (or means) to go to DC and keep the pressure on the way it's being applied in Tehran. We're not hungry enough. Most wouldn't be willing to take time off work (if they're even employed) to march down Main Street in their home towns. Those in power in both our government and the corporations know this. Americans can't be bothered...and it will be our undoing. It already is.
it's got to be nation-wide.
Anybody here know how to go about organizing such a thing?
unless we take away the couches and teevees.
Hate to sound so cynical and negative this mornin...but hey...that's what's on my mind today.
Hope for the closing of Guantanamo Bay? NOPE
Hope for banning illegal wiretapping? NOPE
Hope for the end of the wars? NOPE
Hope for the end of secret prisons? NOPE
Hope for the end of torture? NOPE
Hope for halting the plutocracy and bailing out the banksters? NOPE
Hope for transparency? NOPE
Hope for Change you can believe in?
Change you can believe in and Hope, are just Orwellian mantras that will never come true. New boss, same as the old boss.
>Hope for the Gay/Lesbian Community? NOPE
>Hope for a humane National Health care program? NOPE
>Hope for our children of a future without crushing debt? Nope
>Hope that we can stay in our homes? NOPE
>Hope for our children for a college education that doesn't drive the entire family into crushing debt? NOPE
>Hope that our children have a viable future in this country? NOPE
>Hope for retirement? NOPE
>Screwed by our own government? YEP
*
.
Hope for an Administration to come along and close Gitmo...
Hope for an Administration to come along and end Fourth Amendment violations...
Hope for an Administration to come along and put an end to illegal wars and occupations...
Hope for an Administration to come along and end secret prisons, renditions and TORTURE...
Hope for an Administration to come along and provide true transparency...
Hope for an Administration to come along and recognize strength through equality...
Hope for an Administration to come along and see the benefits of single payer health care...
Hope for an Administration to come along and take action about climate issues...
Hope for an Administration to come along and believe in a Government Of, For, and By The People, instead of the corporations of America...
... But I can still HOPE, NO?
.
They only want public option because they don't know what it is. It's NOT single payer.
Public Option isn't good enough. I wouldn't give a cent to save it.
*
Agreed. It is a managed network plan that just happens to work better because they can't screw Uncle Sam. You and me they can gleefully screw.
obama has sold out the people who voted for him.
everything he said was a lie.
if you go to the streets they'll shoot you down like dogs.
..but, they're outnumbered, and many of those who would be assigned the roll of shooters would likely refuse to pull the triggers.
I don't think they'd SHOOT us down, unless the crowd was destroying shit.
They damn sure will intimidate, harass and arrest as many as possible.
But come on...as bad a rep as the cops have....they ain't gonna start shooting protesters for no reason.
And I was think about this last night...if it DOES come down to massive protests...the shit-stirrin anarchists MUST be weeded out!
They're the ones that make the authorities go all militant on the protesters! If they're not planted there BY the PtB to begin with.
NO throwing rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails or ANYTHING like that!
Any and all future protests must be peaceful in order to be taken seriously.
The Iraninan People are doin it right, from what I can tell, judging from the teevee news coverage...but who knows what's really happening there except for the Iranians?
to sell out your more radical members because the cops wrongly use them to crack down on you, and then expect that all will go well after that?
divide and conquer is their strategy, what's yours?
I went to the protest of the GOP Convention in St. Paul. It was alarming to see how antagonistic the riot police were to groups wearing bandanas to hide their identities. During the protest everything was actually peaceful; however, all it takes is one or two bad incidents for security to release the dogs. What happened were small groups of those in bandanas broke off from the protest and vandalized a store front not even on the protest route. Then, those vandals were chased back into the protest route.
Why couldn't the people who want to protest, organize their own kind of checks and monitoring to help keep those who just want to cause mischief and derail the whole movement. Protesters must have a no tolerance policy to actions that break the law or unnecessarily provoke the police for any reason. Often times, I would see young kids with bandanas just stand in the street and refuse to move even though they were outside of the protest route. The riot police would stand there just like you see the Buckingham Palace guards do, and some people would walk up close to them making faces and saying shit to them. This behavior was reinforced because people marching by would laugh, etc.
Let's face it, there are always going to be people who push the envelope and get a little excited at times. However, protesters must start taking a more active role in denouncing anyone they see around them that unnecessarily provokes a response from authroities. It is not uncommon for those who oppose the protest to infiltrate the protest causing trouble in an attempt to discredit and disrupt the process.
There is no question that authroities have used excessive force and are the ones breaking the law, we just need to minimize this as much as possible. There was one protest in Iran where security forces started to approach the march and everyone just sat down and remained silent. The security forces stopped advancing.
The CIA etc, has many ways to control and manage the situation. Same thing is done around the world. Send in some paid stooges to vandalize and provoke a response. The law and order groups (people who think they are republicans) and the media are all up in arms demanding the gov crack down. They have no idea what's going on.
are getting 20% more paying customers. Just what are they giving up in return? A commitment to cut overall costs? An end to 30% administrative costs? An end to prior condition restrictions, recission,...?
There is no other way, but to have Massive Street Protest, use every possible current tool, Twitter, Facebook, Iphones, the 75% plus American people must show the Elected officials, this is going to cost them.
None of them is listening to the people, as a matter of fact, their purposely lying to us saying more people are saying they don't want a public option, that is a lie and they refuse to come before us again, after 3/4 of the American people told them they wanted the SINGLE PAYER, PUBLIC OPTION when they were on their listening tours.
Write them again, call them again, demonstrate... in the streets, write the Newspapers... call the Media... write the Networks... cover every base, leave no future vote unturned, let them know this will cost them at the next election.
Organize and turn out in the streets... NOW, or let the bought and paid elected representatives win, make them losers for the treacheries and tone deafness, to the truth we voted for.
it might just take the organization skills of some of the elected representatives who have remained steadfastly true to their service to pull off organizing something like this. I'm thinking along the lines of Kucinich.
C&L needs to host a intertubes brainstorming session, calling on anybody with experience (anti-Vietnam war protest organizing veterans and the like) to start organizing massive nationwide protests. It could go viral on the intertubes.
Seems to me the people who are against health care reform are the ones with either a great govt. plan or the ones with no financial problems. Elected officials or talking heads are heard, the average working family is not.
Will we get literally millions out in the streets? Doubt it. This is a big country. What would be even 10% of working America? 15-20 million people mobilized? Mobilized to do what? We tried working within the system last year and where's our universal health care?
If we did mobilize a vast number of people, they would do something stupid like mingle around waving signs on a Saturday afternoon in their free time when it doesn't do a damn thing.
The harsh truth is that most people are slaves to their jobs. Either to their next paycheck or to their health care (which says something about how health care is used as a weapon and why universal health care is not for Americans). A perfect situation for a dictatorship with an angry but cowed and stable population. People aren't walking off their jobs to block the streets around government any time soon because they are too fearful, or _incapable_, of causing real trouble. Admit it. America has become a master/slave state. Look at how Congress totally ignores the will of the people. Why is that surprising? How do you expect your masters to treat you? How are you capable of responding against them as a slave?
I've been watching BFM TV from Paris on internet stream for a couple years now. It's heartening on the surface to see them out protesting in the thousands or even hundreds of thousands in ways that sometimes do disrupt business but from what I gather their jobs are still moving to Asia too. Just more slowly.
So is there anything we can do to change our current economic power structure short of revolution or collapse? Doubt it. I'm not betting on the American people revolting for many reasons, so we can all enjoy riding out the collapse as our culture rots and we let China become the paradigm for future humanity.
The country is bankrupt, and its leadership is apparently incapable of changing anything except for more of the same. Increased military budget and guns in federal parks. No closing of any of the hundreds of military bases around the world, and carry on with excessive spending on a regressive healthcare system.
Is there anything we can do? Absolutely. Opt out of private insurance. Refuse to pay exorbitant premiums for restricted coverage ("networks" and fine print restrictions that justify denial of service) and the enormous profit and overhead of these soulless corporate thieves.
When enough people stop paying the for-profit system will collapse of its own dead weight and the government will be free to step in and mandate that we all buy private insurance. Then we can all stop paying taxes ...
on unarmed citizens.
Then the state starts to lose legitimacy.
The whole issue is that of 'legitimacy.'
Withdraw the consent of the governed, and the regime either collapses or goes murderously ballistic, and in either case it loses (eventually), as long as the "people" resist.
But yes, in order to really change the status quo, somebody's gotta put their bodies on the line...
Nagahapun in the lazy, obese, complacent, complaint USofA...
P.S.: I already gave my body to the cause, 40 years ago, when i gor stomped by police horses, gassed, hassled, rousted, busted, and attacked by the bared-bayonets of the NM National Guard...
Your turn...
You may well be right Woody...
But maybe it won't have to come to that point here...maybe...
.
We will not be able to overcome the corporate state because they controll the media. Look what happened to Ron Paul, Howard Dean, Ross Perot etc.... The media crushed them. We will not get true representation until we have runoff elections. Then people will vote their first choice the first time, not "I must vote for (fill in name) so (fill in name) dosn't get in. This is how the CIA throws elections in other nations (that don't have runoffs). They did it in the Philipines time and again electing Marcos. They would dilute a stronger opposition candidate by funding a third candidate, sucking votes away from the condender. The Repugs gave money to the Ralph Nader campaign to suck votes away from Al Gores campaign. This is just one of many ways they controll elections. We must demand runoff elections. We might have elected Ross Perot and would not owe 10 trillion dollars (and 300 billion in interest a year) now. Just a thought.
WE CONTROL THE MEDIA
We control the media every time we send a monthly check to PAY TV.
Stop paying the bastards by the millions and THEY GO BROKE.
Then we can buy up the media at a discount and put OUR MESSAGE ON IT.
The DCCC
is an arm of the CORPORATIONS.
One of the biggest problems facing Iranian and U.S. relations, is that under the Bush administration we looked at Iran as monolithic. Everyone is radical and backward. we are seeing that couldn't be further from the truth.
Dr. Brzezinski, on Morning Joe, does a great job debunking this false representation of Iranian society.
A must watch clip.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=1853
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