Special Report: Alice in Teabag-istan
Teabaggers are on the move, led by the usual suspects: Michael P. Leahy, Tom Whitmore, Judson Phillips, and social media maven Christina Botteri. They even have marching orders to chant while they pack their signs, their video cameras and their astroturf before coming to Washington DC to "defeat Obamacare".
Their Take the Town Halls to Washington website is full of rile-em-up, send-em-out rhetoric fit for bluedog and teabagger alike:
The idea is to bring a tea party town hall to the 66 members of the House of Representatives whose support of Obamacare is wavering. We want to let them know there is only one vote their constituents will support: No on Obamacare. We are asking local tea party activists to travel to Washington during this period, and make sure that each of these 66 members is reminded every day that if they fail to vote against Obamacare, they will be voted out of office in November.
Except for this: There aren't 66 undecided votes in the House right now. Not even close. (AOL News' full list of undecided Democrats)
One of the more interesting, but somewhat bizarre moments in the call came when Dr. Milton Wolf came on the line as their very special guest. The person speaking on the call as Dr. Wolf claims to be President Obama's second cousin (see genealogy here), which of course somehow qualifies him to be a featured "special guest" on this phone call.
He didn't say all that much, other than to spout the usual teabagger talking points which you can also find on his Floyd Brown clone of a website.
Dr. Wolf's presence was ostensibly to bolster the troops, and fire up the flames of patriot wars on Washington, or something. Being a specialist and all, Dr. Wolf has a special antipathy for those beneath him, sneering at the idea of health care reform as a "middle class entitlement that won't end". I call it access to health care, but for Dr. Wolf, it plays better as a socialist plot engineered by his second cousin, once removed.
I recorded the entire call. Most of it was details about flights, hotels and the like. One key excerpt is the Wolf/Leahy conversation and QA session, excerpted below. I loved his accusation that his beloved cousin will take us from "the cradle of freedom into the cauldron of socialism...", which of course is that ugly 'government takeover of health care.' Dr. Wolf fervently believes it will be a 'middle class entitlement.' I think that more or less tells us where Dr. Wolf stands.
Unremarkably, Michael Steele and the RNC are throwing their full weight behind the effort, serving up some Michelle Bachmann with a side of Demint and a Blackburn chaser for the tea party.
Between repeated warnings about "lefties infiltrating the call", there were the usual mundane questions about signage, travel plans, and where the "war rooms" would be. Pointed instructions about social media, twitter takedowns, calls to representatives out of individuals' districts and admonitions to shoot video of everything in hopes of getting that juicy tidbit comprised the majority of the call.
For me, this was the bottom line: health care reform is going to pass whether they like it or not. They understand that this is their last stand, and are deeply fearful that Nancy Pelosi will "ram it through" on Thursday of this week. Underneath the false bravado, there is a strain of elitism, fear, and disdain for anyone suffering from lack of access to health care. They wrap it up in fishy-smelling paper with liberty written on the label, but the stink comes out anyway.
Here, then, are the juiciest excerpts along with the complete call. I was recording from Skype and the call was jammed, so some of the audio isn't great, but you'll get the idea.
Michael P. Leahy, Milton Wolf, MD, including QA session
Teabaggers' social media marching orders
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Well if they are marching to DC to defeat Obama care, doesn't that put us in agreement with them? At least on this issue? The consensus of an earlier post today was hard pressed to find anything good about his health proposals.
...if discrimination doesn't end and we don't state as a country that access to health care is a value we uphold, the terrorists win.
gotcha.
Don't worry curtilingus...(I'm a terrist too)
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
I know the bill is weak and it is a big win for health care insurers but it would also be a big win for the Obstructionists. If it is passed that will mean 31 million more people will have health insurance and medicaid will be expanded. The government will give millions of people subsidies to pay for their health care as well.
Now if this fails to pass the losses to the sociopath will explode, in fact Congress becoming Republican led is a real possibility. I think that would be a disaster for the country, yes even more so than having the wimpy Democrats in the majority. If this bill the progressives will at least have their foot in the door for improvement of health care down the road. Without passing the bill Republicans will have the upper hand to make a barbaric actions on health care especially with Medicare and Medicaid. Keep in mind Obama is talking about $1 trillion dollars over 10 years, the military probably spends about $1 trillion a year. No I can't support fighting this bill if it would mean giving health care to people who don't have it and if the bill is killed who knows if they will ever get health care! To fight against this bill is as smart as shooting yourself in the foot the way humble economically white people vote for the Republicans.
It could also verify the Republican position that socialize medicine does not work. Remember the the Republican motto is govt doesn't work, there fore they make sure that govt are run very badly, and push for the privatize role.
That why I think it should not pass, and stop negotiating with the Republican for a bad bill, and just put up a good run and really ram it down their throat and see it work, just like we did with the Marshall plan after WWII, Both Japan and Germany are better off when Democrats fix it!
It won't happen if this fails. Period. Full stop.
I don't see much of any improvement for the life of the people until we get lobbyist out of govt and election reform. The more we try for any social reform the deeper we get in the wrong direction.
Until we fix that, we are only just digging a deeper hole.
There's no incentive for the legislature to change the rules that keep them in office (and provide them with jobs after office--see Chris Dodd).
I also watch Bill Moyers
I am on the fence with this, the bill stinks but letting it go is a risk.
We had 8 years of Bush in order to get a democrats, and end up with a bluedog instead. The media pick our candidates and it went with the corporate favorite. As Bill Moyers point out the money led both party to the control of the corporate interest. Without a fair election, the people tend to revolt violently. The one reason why we have election to have small mini gentle revolution. , that we can all live with.
How long do you think people will demand change under unfair election process? 50 years?
In 2004 and 2008. Where's the outcry?
Where are the changes to our electoral system?
Hell, even McCain Feingold--one measly measure to curtail corporate influence on elections--has been scaled back by SCOTUS.
If you think we're going to work harder with a passed bill, you haven't been paying attention for the last 10 years.
What I don't understand is why we got such a stinker.
This is such a horrible bill... a version of Mitt Romney's MA health insurance plan. If there's no "out" (the Kucinich amendment) to allow states to enact single payer, the bad will this will create will more than outweight the smack in the face that Obama would get by not having a bill passed.
This same POS concept was floated during Bill's tenure. I suppose that if a valid concept for both covering people and reducing costs without basically making us slaves to insurance companies were floated (hint, hint, HR 676), it would have a good chance of passing. Passing a harmful half-assed bill will be just as detrimental in the long run as the short-term political damage.
The problem really is whether or not Obama *deserves* a second chance with health insurance reform. I"m thinking not. Pharma deals, single payer off the table ... All we need is a few more wars and an inability to articulate and you've got GWB redux.
I voted for him, but I'm sure as hell not giving a vote to someone who would sell us all out to pharma and the insurance lobby. Not again.
until costs are contained, no reform will work, so this bill will ultimately fail, thereby blowing the chance for real reform.
this country has been running from the meaning of the implied social contract since reagan,
i truly believe the time is now.
there are other things at play, such as the citizens united decision, if the loyal left does not draw a line in the sand before that money hits the next election cycle, katy bar the door
The CBO will argue that point with you.
It's not as much as it could be with a true single payer system, but you are being blind to what this bill will do and how popular it will be with Americans.
That's why the Republicans are fighting it so.
To push for election reform for the remaining 3 years, and then get relected to pass health care.
Use the health care reform as a way to find obstruction and slowly break down the obstruction to keep going forward.
Obama loses this, there's no chance in hell he will be able to effect any kind of change anywhere--not to election reform, not to curb lobbyist influence, nowhere.
Obama loses this, he is effectually a political eunuch. Because you can't reward obstructionism by letting this bill die and think that somehow you'll be able to lessen it.
My sister is really smart and political and someone I respect, and I respect you Nicole, and I was honest that I'm in the fence about this. I ask my sister where she is at on this and this is what she says,
" I come from an approach from years of working with social workers. A social worker is trained that, when the family is dysfunctional, you never know what will work but you do know it will not become functional until you start to interrupt the current system. You do that by trying everything you can, changing it up wherever you can, until something finally gives. And sometimes it makes things worse, but it may need to for awhile in order to finally get better. Like a drunk hitting rock bottom. Generally some are hurt and some are helped, but until you have something, you can’t tweak it to make it better. And no perfect bill ever get passed in Congress; Congress is much too messy."
We have a current health care that hit rock bottom and we need to change the current system till something works.
I'm sick of legislation that's "good enough".
This certainly isn't. We supposedly had a mandate to change things, and ended up revisiting a Clinton-era aborted attempt to subsidize the health insurance cartel. What the hell is wrong with this place?
The bill pares back Medicare - and saves money that way.
Individuals' costs, i.e., insurance premiums, co-pays, etc., are not controlled.
if it passes the democrats will lose seats in the house and senate. Not likely. They wouldn't be fighting so hard to make it fail if that was the case because they want nothing more than the democrats to lose seats. They want the power back and if it passes they know the're sunk. People will view them as the obstructionists they are. Passing the health care reform bill will open the door to make improvements in the future and possible single payer. That is the real reason the regressives are afraid.
I understand the desire for a better system.
But we have to get what we can get, stake it firmly in the ground and then keep fighting for more.
What you get here is, frankly, screwed. Want to grab that, even if it is all you can get?
insurance that they cannot afford, so tax payers will pay for it. In other words, Medicaid will be expanded, but the private insurance companies will get a cut that they are not getting now. There will be no caps on premiums. Pre-existing illnesses will not be used to prevent anyone from being forced to buy insurance they can't afford, but there will be nothing to stop the insurance companies from dropping people when they get sick while they have insurance. I guess they will just have to keep looking for another insurance company to let them enroll in another plan while they pay the fine for not having any insurance. BTW, where does the money from the fines go? Anyone know? The insurance companies are supposed to make sure that 85% of the money they collect as premiums goes toward "health care." What exactly is "health care?" Is it defined specifically any where? Who gets to define it? You ask, "...who knows if they (the 31 million w/o insurance now) will ever get health care? Good question. Except for being mandated to pay for health insurance, who knows if that will actually lead to any actual health care. If you think getting a foot in the door is a good thing, be careful they don't slam the door on it.
karoli you made no reference to the fact the bill contains little meaningful reform or coverage. Please read the thread from a couple of hours ago. This bill is a disaster.
or the devil and the deep blue sea, whichever you prefer.
hey, there is no problem with access to health care in this country, if you can afford it.
this health care plan is the exact reason why i have never called myself a liberal, and much prefer the term radical, as proud socialist helen keller said:
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar"
this health care bill does nothing to shift the basic dynamic of the health insurance industry in this country. obama gave away the right to negotiate drug prices right from the gitgo, in a secret deal with pharma. the author of the bill, an assistant to max baucus, used to work for wellpoint. this is a bad bill, which leaves insurers raking in huge profits on the backs of american working people.
Ha! The Islamic terrorists already won. Their Christanic terrorist colleagues surrendered without a fight, committing "USA PATRIOT Act" against us and handing their Islamic colleagues everything they prayed at Allah for.
Anyone that thinks we do not need health care reform,
ANY health care reform, has a screw loose.
The military, the Veterans Administration, Medi-care, Medi-caid,
Hawaii, and Mass. all have some form of socialized medicine,
as well as Canada and the rest of the civilized world,
what in the hellll is wrong with you republiCON's
Oh I want it charly. This bill doesn't give us health care reform. Billions of dollars of subsidies to the health insurance industry and no assurances for consumers, expanded coverage but still many left with out insurance.
The financial system needed reform too but it did not happen. What did happen will make it worse.
You don't want to make the problem worse, do you?
...as if they haven't been receiving billions of subsidies for years and years from corporations in the form in deductible premiums for employee benefits.
The reasoning defies logic. If this is such a gift to insurers, why on earth would they fight it tooth and nail, and continue to fight it? And why on earth wouldn't you let them suck up all those people they've turned away, not to mention forcing insurers NOT to cap benefits payable.
Teabaggers want no reform. Purists want THEIR reform. What both are going to get is what we've got: middle ground.
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/dr-mar...
that demotion
you mention canada, and the rest of the world, here is a link which addresses your point
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sicka...
once you go to the website, and watch this program, you will see the proposed bill has none, absolutely none, of the features of successful plans from around the world.
put it plainly, profits trump people, and the profits are given, no, mandated, to roll into insurco coffers under this plan.
profits are held sacred, and if you dare say insurance should be non-profit, well then you are a red, a socialist, to which i reply - you got that right.
We don't have an infrastructure for that right now, because we can't get MEDICARE reforms passed if everyone's fighting this bill. there are HUGE reforms to Medicare in it. HUGE. They lay a foundation to expand it. Right now, that would be an unmitigated disaster.
(you are terrist)
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
may i have another?
you have to disagree with Obama again...
(just say you hate the patriot act or something)
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
That's a red herring and unworthy of you.
I'm no Obama-bot. I'm a realist.
Tossing it aside means that 30 million Americans will remain uninsured and that 45K who die each year because they are uninsured will continue to rise.
Because I promise you, this chance won't happen again for another generation.
How many years was Edward Kennedy trying to get a bill to the table. For over 100 years presidents have been trying to get a healthcare bill passed to no success. This is a chance to get the door open.
All republicans, libertarians, and constituionalists... (and half to two thirds of the democrats) ...don't like the bill...
(not much of a chance) ...if you ask me.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
about 58% who don't like some parts of the bill but there is a larger percentage that want reform and this is aa start.
of course "EVERERYONE" wants healthcare to be cheaper...!
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
This bill is a good enough start to be vote worthy.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
It would be a shame if their bus broke down.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Total shame.
NOBODY 2012
Maybe there are a lot of undecided republicans we don't know about?
I wonder how long this traveling freak show is going to go on? I was just reading about Rush raising hell because he has to turn off his outside beachfront lights during sea turtle nesting season and then I come here and read about these knot heads. Jesus, when did crazy become the new cool.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
It's insane but it'll go on as long as the media reports them like they're a legit wing of the RNC. Of course, the RNC thinks they are...they're just the 'activist wing'.
Mainstream reporting of these folks has begun on the premise that they're legit. To me, that's one of the greatest travesties of all.
Timed to intersect the arrival of the tea bag circus. Maybe somebody will get video of them screaming at sick people waiting in line.
Now that is a damn good idea. Show these nutty fools what the truth is. Crazy fuckers. Too fucking dumb to know that Dick Armey and his sleazy overlords are using their dumbasses.
That's why I love YouTube. It shows animals for what they are. I can picture the hundreds of teabaggers, with TERRIBLY misspelled signs, heckling the sick and needy. Because that's what Jesus would do.
NOBODY 2012
They should do that for every nutbagger rally, and the nutbaggers would all be outnumbered like 50 to 1 or greater too.
The baggers however are more prone to violence though, but being outnumbered they would probably be on the recieving end, guns or not (inner city people pack heat too).
When angry, count four, when very angry, swear.
-Mark Twain-
the significance of being 2nd or 3rd cousins has to do with anything. I have over 60 1st cousins and I couldn't tell you how many 2nd and 3rd cousins and that's just on my mother's side. They have nothing to do with how I make my decisions.
If I wanted to, I could drag out my family history showing my 2nd cousinship with Hubert Humphrey. BFD. That was part of what made it so funny...the guy is just a teabagger whose family lines intersect with the President's. Last time I looked politics wasn't genetic, but there seemed to be sort of an implied conclusion that the white relatives aren't quite in lockstep with the African-American relatives. When you hear the clip, you hear a certain air of...superiority.
This says it as well as I could:
"If nothing is done, the number of uninsured people — 46 million in 2008 — is sure to spike upward as rising medical costs and soaring premiums make policies less affordable and employers continue to drop coverage to save money.
"The Congressional Budget Office projects 54 million uninsured people in 2019; the actuary for the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects 57 million.
"It should be no surprise that people without insurance often postpone needed care, and many get much sicker as a result. That is morally unsustainable. It is also fiscally unsustainable for safety net hospitals — which foist much of the cost on the American taxpayer when the uninsured end up in the emergency room. As the number of uninsured rises, that bill will rise.
"The Senate’s reform bill would reduce the number of uninsured by an estimated 31 million in 2019."
From Committee on Education & Labor http://edlabor.house.gov/blog/2010/03/news-of...
~
Corruption favors the wealthy.
. . . and try to give the Democrats the distraction they need to portray this corporate giveaway as "reform."
Let me guess, they'll make ridiculous arguments like "killing grandma" and "socialist fascism" and the MSM will pretend that these are the reasons people don't want this plan.
The Administration will get another chance to pretend that wild-eyed teabaggers who don't understand that Medicare is government health care are their only opposition. The lack of a meaningful public option or realistic cost controls will be subsumed by Obama looking strong and saying that he doesn't want to kill grandma.
We've seen this before.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
The republicans and the tea baggers just don't want this President to make the first step in healthcare since forever. They fear this bill, whenever it gets finally written, will be something positive for the country and they know if that happens, no one is going to pay any attention to them going forward. This is much more about Dick Armey and his gang than it is about these people and their rants and raves.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Should really take the time to read all 2000 pages. I have. You all focus on one section out of nine, and out of that, hyperfocus on one subsection called a public option.
The true reforms for consumers: ending discrimination, establishing a pathway to paying for medical bills, and ending lifetime caps.
The true reform of health care delivery is not in the individual market; it's the Medicare reforms. If you folks want single payer, the pathway there is to clean up Medicare, get rid of the pork payments for Medicare Advantage, smooth out provider payments, and re-lubricate the machinery. THEN you will have a foundation for single payer advocacy. To say this is not reform is to turn a blind eye to every provision that doesn't directly affect you. To work to defeat it guarantees no possibility of moving forward to more meaningful and efficient methods of delivery.
Be careful what you wish for.
would guarantee no future reforms, when costs shoot through the ceiling, the repubs will crow about obamas budget busting health plan, and they will be right.
look at what works everywhere else around the world, it is not a mystery, until you take the profit out of it, costs will continue to escalate.
It shouldn't be, but it is.
We can't even get our own party to line up for the public option.
Ideally, we should be talking single payer. But we're far from an ideal country.
We have to take this victory--as weak tea as it is--and push for more. Think of all the outrageous obstacles the Republicans put in place for Medicare. Now they wouldn't dare touch it.
Either a realistic public option or Medicare for All poll through the roof. Either is a political gold mine.
It is not the Republicans we need to fight. The fact of the matter is the White House and the Democrats are against these proposals. Either could be enacted with 50 plus Joe in the Senate and overwhelmingly in the House.
But the Democrats oppose them, and they've been paid handsomely to do so..
Corruption favors the wealthy.
It's not what polls.
The Iraq War polled overwhelmingly bad, didn't get us out.
The surge in Afghanistan polled poorly, still didn't keep Obama from going for it.
Again, you can stomp your feet and put down purity lines in the sand, but you're not dealing with the reality of the way Washington is right now.
I believe in pragmatism.
. . . but the reality of the way Washington works right now is that the Democrats have taken millions and millions of dollars in bribe money and we must therefore pass the bill that was written by the industry.
I won't stomp my feet. That would be silly.
But the Dems are going to take a bath on this in November. That's the political reality. Moreover, they know it, and they're probably going to do it anyway.
Money talks.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
no, politically possible.
Yes, you'll get no argument from me that Washington is a fucked up, corrupt and deceitful system divorced from reality and the needs of most Americans.
I don't think the Dems will take a bath on this. But if they do, you'll get your wish, because the Republicans will just repeal everything and we'll all be fucked over again, with no chance of a better bill for at least another generation.
. . . by taking the issue off the table for a very long time.
In elections this fall and in 2012, every politician has the easy excuse of avoiding the issue because "we need to see how well the new plan works."
Of course the new plan does nothing meaningful till 2014. A few years later, when the plan does nothing more than radically increase Industry profit, we get to start again from square one facing an industry that has grown even stronger in the meantime.
Defeat this bill, and the issue remains on the table and everyone running this fall had better address it.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Defeat this bill and focus on limiting lobbying efforts and campaign finance reform. Only then will we be able to get any meaningful reform passed over any industry, be it health care, the financial system or the legal system.
That's the primary problem with this bill. It became tainted by un-equal influence from the wrong people (health corps) Until we get that fixed. Every successive bill will be just as flawed.
Defeat this bill and you will see more people add to the ranks of the 30 million uninsured the bill would cover.
Defeat this bill and you will see more people add to the ranks of the 45K who die each year because they are uninsured.
Defeat this bill and give Republicans the win they want/need/will exploit to regain the majority--and then watch how deficit spending concerns will fly out the window. Watch any chance of health care reform wither and die for a generation.
Yes, the system is flawed. Yes, lobbyists and corporations are getting a weighted influence in Congress. You are simply a pie-eyed optimist if you think that will change any time soon.
We have to dance with those that brung us. If we don't, we can wait until we have a new dance partner, but I think it's unrealistic to think that will be anytime soon.
Are all those people's lives worth it for your purity? How is this stance any different from Republicans: "do it my way or don't do it at all". Don't get me wrong, your way IS my way too. But we must be realistic and realize that we won't get the best plan because there are far too many people who don't see it the way we do.
. . . that those 45,000 people will die each of the next three years.
Two can play that game. This bill does nothing to save the uninsured for years.
You think this is a "purity" game for me, Nicole? Or for the majority of this country that does not want this bill?
The "do it my way or don't do it at all" stance is the Obama talking point you've been using this entire thread. "Pass the bill written by the insurance companies or we won't get anything."
And I have no problem being realistic. Realistically, the only reason a meaningful public option or single payer cannot be passed is because of Democratic opposition.
First they use the lie that 60 votes were needed in the Senate; then, after the Dems had 60 votes, they rotated Lieberman and Nelson and Lincoln to be the excuse of the day; now, when they have to admit that reconciliation is a perfectly valid route, they have no excuses left yet still whine that it just can't be done.
Why? Because the Democrats oppose health care reform.
Barack Obama: Single payer is "neither practical nor realistic."
That was an out and out lie, and he knows it. So please understand that while I can believe my way might be your way, I know for a fact that it is not Obama's way and he is willing to use falsehoods (not to mention have people arrested) to keep it from happening or even being seriously discussed.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
The bill doesn't address the important issues. Prescription drug costs are not regulated (ask someone paying 900+$ a month on Medicare how well that works for them, I know a few), the insurance industry is barely kept under control (premiums *will* become unaffordable, but we'll be forced to pay them via the mandate), and competition via a "public option" or medicare buy-in.
Pharma reform would solve the first one, single payer the remainder. This bill is legislative reacharounds for large companies, pure and simple. The health insurance industry needs to be drowned in its own bathwater.
Too bad our legislature is too spineless to do it.
and the bill will probably pass, when i look at the money in politics, and realize there will soon be more, i think it all the more important for democrats to insist on results from our elected officials.
will guarantee future reforms. You just have to look at what this bill does from the insurance companies point of view. This is toxic to them.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Tons of new customers, no price ceilings. Yeah, I can see how that's horrible for them.
If there's a limit on overhead, you best believe that "overhead" will be calculated differently. These people make money off of human suffering and misery, there should not be quarter given to them.
Yes there is. Millions will not be able to afford these increases. Few can now. The ceiling is affordability. Because the people who can't afford it, and that is fast approaching an absolute majority will vote to get it. And no one will be able to stop them.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
And I've watched as people have been dropping from middle class to poor over the last few years. I think this is more of that "redistribution of wealth stuff" in the upward direction.
But the people will sit with their thumbs up their butts watching television and eating McDonalds, being too amused to death to care about their own lives or futures.
A little less than half the voters in the 2000 and 2004 elections voted for a steaming turd of a president with no qualifications who spoke like the village idiot.
We apparently can be sold *anything* as long as we're told that not having it will be bad for us.
I didn't hear anyone saying they wouldn't reelect their representative or senator unless they voted for banking reform during the last election cycle.... Again, you're overestimating how much the average American cares about what happens to them. Just as long as their taxes don't go up, they'll eat chocolate frosted turds.
chocolate.
These Reublican domestic terrorist loons hate our country so much, why are they still here? Why do they stay and shit on our country when they should pack the fuck up and move to Iran where their theofascist ideologies are more in keeping with their own?
We can always repeal it, like the Republicans insinuate.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
To complete the picture of total ignorance and bias this group should be led by Sara Palin!
I bet she'll show up for this one like she did for CPAC. Over the weekend she was speaking at some pro-life gathering and she defended her notes on her palm by saying that God did it too, he wrote on his palms too. She had some bible verse as her proof.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Dear Patriotic American,
THE DAY WE HAVE ALL PRAYED WOULD NEVER HAPPEN --- IS NOW HERE!!
What was hinted might happen . . . . . will happen this week!
OBAMACARE will be voted on this week---with only 51 votes needed!
This is URGENT! This is the saddest day in our entire political process!
Many patriotic leaders, including myself, were skeptical when Barack Hussein Obama called for a "bipartisan healthcare reform summit" with Republicans scheduled for this coming Thursday. What would ever make one think that a person with such a socialist agenda would include Republican ideas in their healthcare strategy?
Gary G. Kreep
Executive Director
Republican Majority Campaign
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Gary G. Kreep
Executive Director
Republican Majority Campaign
Good luck with that, Gary.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
I'm skeptical whenever an informal newsletter uses Obama's middle name.
Fuck all, the connotations of being somehow connected to Saddam Hussein... It's a dumbshit stupid, stupid thing to imply, but somehow it has almost become accepted to do it.
The guy is indeed a milquetoast, but he's not a Muslim anything (as if that were a bad thing, racist morons) and definitely isn't a socialist (if that were a bad thing, capitalism leg humpers).
I'm not a big fan of the billion dollar health insurance company handjob that's being touted as health care reform myself. But I'll be damned if I will march with the teabaggers. So my question is, where the hell is the response by those left of center? Why are there no counter marches? Are we all just sitting at home whining in blogs like the Glen Becks and Rush Limbaughs and Robert Gibbs all claim?
Why the hell are the rest of us not marching on Washington with packets of Folgers to toss them onto the steps of the capitol building? (the metaphor being both 'wake up and smell the coffee' and 'we could replace you with Folgers and nobody would notice').
Almost half a million people marched on NYC in the lead up to Bush invading Iraq and it was largely ignore by the media. O'Reilly called them loons. Bush called them 'A focus group'. Yet twenty thousand angry, bible thumping racist neo-cons who can barely spell Socialist let alone know what was one is can show up with AR-15's* and it's 24-7 Tebagapolooza coverage on every network and Fox News dressed up in cheerleader outfits riling up the crouds. The fact that Obama won by almost 10 million votes doesn't mater. The fact that the Republicans were booted out on their ass in three straight elections doesn't matter. What matters is that an actual focus group of idiots lead by demagogues and corporations have their panties in a wad about the government getting involved in their medicare and sociofacsiticcommunisticos.... and THEY are effectively writing policy for the remaining 306,986,550 of us who aren't wholly owned by ExxonMobile, Goldman Sachs and CIGNA.
The problem is with all of us sitting on our duff and not rebutting these idiots with counter marches every time they open their mouths, is that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. In case you haven't noticed, the Democrats knees are shaking and they're shaking because all they are seeing is the wingnuts everywhere they turn.
I'm not saying you have to support the Dems. You don't. Personally I'm fed up with my only choices being cowards and crooks (and NO I'm not voting for Ron Paul so don't email me). What I'm saying is, somebody needs to lead a few hundred thousand people down to the Mall with some signs to tell our 'representatives' what to do. If the only people doing it are the idiots who think Obama's raising their taxes, stealing their guns, and is a secret Muslim Jihadist born in Kenya then we're all going to lose.
I'm sorry to say, peeps, but it's not enough to sit around blogging anymore. Really it wasn't enough when GWB was having AT&T listening in on your phone conversations either. But now that the Dems are in charge, and we face the possibility of President Gingrich and Vice President Palin - we really need do more than just type and complain. Calling, faxing and emailing those nitwits on Capitol Hill isn't doing it either.
Crooks and Liars, DailyKOS, HuffPo and the rest can all use the medium they are most famous for to organize thousands of people to march on DC. Throw in a few calls to Maddow, Shultz, and Olbermann and perhaps that might be enough to move the stone against the tide. Right now? We're sinking because Obama still wants to play nicey nice and nothing will change until the Left stands up.
* And of course the irony of 'Free Speech Zones' and that people got arrested at Bush speeches for wearing the wrong t-shirts (Just ask Republican Congressman Don Young's Wife) is lost upon them as they call Obama fascist and wave around their loaded guns. Actual violations of the First Amendment they don't care about - imaginary ones created by Beckistanians though are obviously more important.
(you will just get labeled as a racist teabagger)
...or maybe even a "terrist"
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
I'm practically to the left of Lenin on this particular issue, and I think I agree with him.
Forcing payments to the insurance industry in the name of the "free market" is a very bad idea. As Colbert pointed out, if they were really serious about reform, they would have been discussing a single payer bill.
Until then, we wait until PA floats a good bill, then wait for every other state to adopt one out of envy.
reverse psychology
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Weirdly enough, certain concepts when taken far enough are virtually indistinguishable from satire. I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea.
Lame...you've done it before
The tea-baggers are emptily emulating the great civil rights demonstrations of the past that were truly spontaneous
And not astroturf.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Or did we forget the Bush area reports on home grown extremism?. The wingers all got the vapors when Bush (not Obama) created a report outing them but nobody gave a damn when he did the same thing about people on the left - nobody in the media even batted an eye.
And the fact still remains that were Obama fascist (or any kind of negative-ist) like they are calling him, they wouldn't be able to run around at his speeches with loaded rifles and pistols. Bush's handlers wouldn't have allowed that to happened - hell anyone who disagreed with him were put in fenced 'Free Speech Zones' a mile or more away from where Bush would be. I would have loved to have seen what would have happened if someone showed up with a gun.
Are all the teabaggers racist? I hope not. But the amount of rhetoric that comes out of that group which all boils down to "He's not one of ours and oh yeah he's black" is staggering.
All that nonsense is really doing is concealing the truly egregious things that Obama actually IS doing with a bunch of fluffy nonsense out of wingnut fevered dreams. I'm willing to accept Hawaii's word that Obama's a natural born citizen (more so than McCain), what I'm not willing to accept is his cloture vote on whether or not AT&T et all should get off scot free for violating the law because the President told them to. Or that the US Government should have sovereign immunity from lawsuits. Or that the oversight of the courts over prisoners should be transfered to a group hand picked by the President and unanswerable to the people. Or the fact that Bushies very seriously violated the law by torturing people and have yet to even get a slap on the wrist.
All of those things were brought force by the Obama administration yet they are drowned out by the 'ZOMG HE'S A SOCIALIST FROM KENYA' nitwits.
* And correction, it was Bill Young's (R-FL) wife Beverly who got arrested at the same time as Cindy Sheehan because she was wearing an unwelcome t-shirt. Don Young is a completely different Congressman.
The teabaggers chant should sound something like the following exapmles:
"We're the American middle class and We Don't Deserve Shit!"
Or
"What Do We Want? Nothing! When Do We Want It? We're Already Getting it"
or maybe even something simple like:
"Jesus wouldn't help you either!!!"
Alice X - Chomsky Nader?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
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