Hardball: Lawrence O'Donnell Exposes Clueless Town Hall Protester
By Logan Murphy Thursday Aug 13, 2009 12:00pm
Lawrence O'Donnell filled in for Chris Matthews on Hardball Wednesday, and somehow managed to avoid savaging clueless town hall protester, Katy Abram. Abram went on a moronic tirade at Senator Arlen Specter's town hall meeting on Tuesday, telling him she was afraid that America was turning into Russia and that he had awakened a sleeping giant.
This wasn't like shooting fish in a barrel, it was like shooting the broad side of a barn with a bazooka -- at point blank range. O'Donnell toys with Abram, and you can tell he just wants to cut loose. Granted, Abram isn't a professional pundit, but when questioned it became clear that she is the poster child for the entire undereducated, under-informed mob that make up the right wing town hall protesters.
When asked about taxes, Katy admits that she has no idea how much money she and her husband make. When asked about Socialist programs like medicare and social security, she had this to say:
...You know, yeah, I mean, there are programs in place that the founders did not want to have here. I know there are people out there that can't afford health insurance, that can't afford a lot of different things, and, you know, with the founders, they thought and hoped that the goodness of the people would allow the people to take care of those who are doing without. And I know that may seem naive in today's, you know, world...
Okay...umm...so she's against a public option that would allow the goodness of the people help those who are doing without? There are many more displays of stunning ignorance in this segment, feel free to document them in the comments.
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this is the stupidest country on earth.
democracy is dead because a black man was elected.
I wouldn't look too fondly on the founders. They were okay with black people being slaves. It took a civil war to change that. It took nearly 100 years more to legislate equality when the kindness of the American people failed to make it happen. Now a black president has created a backlash towards black people by 30% of Americans.
of the founding fathers knew slavery was evil.
One thing to know it is evil...it's another thing to leave it as your legacy. If John Hancock was alive today I would take him to the river and drown him for his lack of foresight.
John Hancock were alive today, he'd see we have a 'negro' President, and realize just how wrong and gross was his tolerance of slavery.
from his lucrative insurance profits.
Many of the founding fathers knew slavery was evil.
They all knew it was evil but felt they had to compromise on the subject of slavery in order to bring South Carolina and Georgia into the union. They also agreed to no export tariffs on goods to appease the southern agricultural states as well.
+1
All interested parties needed to be on board with the revolution. To suggest otherwise is naive.
The many founding fathers who opposed slavery went along with it because the Southern guys wouldn't back the Declaration of Independence unless slavery was kept. And they needed a united front against England.
But this woman is worse than naive. She is ignorant of how changing times call for changing measures. How can she possibly want a repeal of Medicare and Social Security when her own parents are approaching retiremen age? Of course, maybe they are millionaires who can afford to pay out of pocket for whatever medical problems may come their way. But Mrs. Abram, 45 MILLION people have no health insurance! How can all these people possibly rely on the kindness of strangers? By turning to a government run system that guarantees they can! I'm sorry, there are no medical missions in the US except in a few desperately poor areas and no volunteers to perform needed surgeries.
Great point. This woman wants to bring the country back to the time of slavery! She does not know what she is talking about!
Slavery, women as chattel, child labor, Native American genocide, wanton habitat destruction, massive species extinction, aggressive wars of expansion, domination of neighboring countries, and the primacy of the protestant Christian landed white male.
I didn't hear a single reference to race. Isn't it possible she is just a bit nervous because of the general uncertainty of the times? I believe that is the greater possibility.
In his August 13, 2009 post, The Daily Howler's Bob Somerby described O'Donnell's interview performance perfectly:
And as Somerby pointed out, Abram was correct about Obama once touting a preference for a single payer system and O'Donnell wrong. Instead of trying to make her look like an idiot, perhaps Larry should have questioned her about the politics of feeling dispossed from power -- something liberals used to do quite well.
As Somerby says, this is why we lose.
I believe that lately the progressives have had their brilliant asses handed to them because they are too busy wonking and snarking to get a message across that average busy working Americans can relate to. I agree with health care available for all, but unless the progressives figure out how to sell it with a unified voice that people that are not policy junkies can understand, this self righteous indignation is unproductive.
In addition, I am very disappointed with Mr. Murphy's headline. This woman at least had the stones to get on national TV and admit that there were inconsistencies in her viewpoint. Very few of these comments posted under false names display much more logic or maturity than the lady interviewed.
Thank god that screechy Matthews didn't handle this one. Lawrence O'Donnell was very good at showing the rest of America how to hold a mature conversation with someone you do not agree with. American culture is changing quickly, and everyone better learn how to hold a conversation with our fellow Americans without trashing their intelligence and character before this all blows up in our faces.
Yes, Odonnell did a great job of interviewing Katy Abram, and today he did an even better job of interviewing Texas Congressman Culberson, and refusing to let Culberson spin away. He insistd that Culberson answer the questions that he had put to Abram, except that Culberson was expected to be able to take the heat better.
However, mark my words, Abram will be the next Joe the Plumber. She will be trotted out at every opportunity and she will start bringing in a fair amount of money for appearances and even a book. In terms of hitting a vein of gold, she ain't dumb.
"In one way, it’s odd to think that we liberals may get our keisters kicked again. It’s odd because our side is so brilliant, while the other side is such a gang of laughable wing-nuts. We liberals love to point this out, often failing to ask ourselves how it is that the gang of nuts keep beating the gang that’s so brilliant." - Thats the funniest thing I have read in a long time. Liberals THINK they are brilliant, but everything proves them wrong, got a college degree? Thats doesn't make you brilliant..it could be you just had enough money and/or time. You must be able to apply your "brilliance" to the problems at hand, which liberals (assuming there are some brilliant ones out there) just can't do...and then they ponder why their brilliance doesn't work...it's like saying "Well dang I don't understand it, we could have won the game but the other team was better and scored more points than us...I just can't figure it out."
Liberals are sore losers and even "sorer" winners...
I've always been taught that it is very hard to fight stupidity and that is very true. Imagine how hard it is when you have to fight stupid and ignorace. As the for the statement reader. When I saw her reading from the paper her statement, I assumed she was a plant with something written for her . Again "It's better to be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. We could use her as the poster child for that age old saying.
as long as the mainstream media and right-wing talk radio are permitted to boldly lie, misrepresent and carry ads which are clearly lies -- as long as our elected officials are able to lie, swerve and manipulate we're in trouble.
THAT is where the problem lies. the media if honest and not tools of the corporations would call BS instead of giving credence to "death panel" BS, etc it would be over.
personally, i say: capital punishment for "news" organizations, politicians, CEO's and pundits who intentionally mislead the public.
Lawrence could have also suggested that womens rights be repealed, because the founders didn't think women capable of intelligent thought... :]
But she's too dumb to even understand that! Wow.
We enjoyed Lawrence O'Donnell's 'grilling' of these throwbacks. MSNBC is to be commended for Lawrence's questioning and we look forward to more MSNBC questioning!
is one thing that cannot be laid at Obama's feet. I know liberal/progressives have a lot to complain about, but Democracy being dead preceded Obama by about 60 years. Yet, on the other hand, I lay a lot of the blame on Obama for betraying those who got him elected in order to be President of those who did not.
1. Haters, angry, white, bible thumping, war loving, anti white people, anti minority, KKK lite, Sean hannity, Fox news and Ann Coulter loving people.
2. The decent Americans.
The problem with America are the angry white haters, who love to spend $billions on a wasteful war so long as it kills them Ahrabs. But wont want to allow 37 million un insured Americans to pool together to buy insurance which would eventually help the US economy.
These same racists use illegal labor every day when they make illegals clean their toilets, pick their fruit and vegetables, clean their homes, mow their yards, build their houses, repair their freeways, clean their dirty dishes and clothes, but these evil Americans want to deny healthcare to the same people they use. I wish all 12 million illegals would some day move to another country or something and i would love to watch America come to a dead stop and become a filthy backward country. That would teach these haters a good lesson.
When she was on fox, she said she didn't hear half of what specter said to her because she was so upset. She didn't hear half of it and probably couldn't understand the other half. If I were her today I would be volunteering to face the "death panels.
she's from Id10t America
thanks for that link, was very good.
and she's SO ANGRY about it!
has another take worth considering on this interview.
It is the Special Report half way down. http://www.dailyhowler.com/
That's because her and the masses are SO stupid .......
Watch the video...I mean c'mon...she sounded worse than a 2 year old.
She had a tantrum and did everything but stamp her feet.
Waaaah...I want I want I want...without understanding what she has, what was being discussed. Someone said the word...infantilized...in this thread. That is totally correct.
This woman shouldn't be changing diapers, she should be wearing them.
Funny!
the entire right wing is having a temper tantrum, stamping their feet, screaming and pitching a fit and threatening worse. If they could stand back a second and get a look at themselves, they'd die of shame, but it's not likely to ever happen. The ability to look at something from the outside implies that there is an outside to look from and with this lot, nothing exists but themselves.
Isn't the real question why the media gives those who lost the election so much play? Why are these people on TV is the real question.
Indeed, though I think 2 is a bit generous.
Though I do believe she is representative of the masses.
Before she gets changes to anything,she needs to needs to know her tax bracket. How can you complain about being taxed when you don't even know the amount of your income. How are you running a business and you don't know if you are in the red or black. Where did they find this chick. They should have vetted her before they stuck that piece of paper in her hand. She didn't hear and couldn't understand because she did not know what to expect for a comment in which she had no input. The kind that's always out there working against their own self interest. This people at these townhall meetings remind me of the same people who used to be out there when we were in civil rights protests. I keep wondering when they will ever wake up.
Why do they put these brain cell challenged morons on the air and then bite their tongues to keep from challenging their idiotic mumblings and rantings?
These feeble minded Joe The Plumber wannabes should be relentlessly hounded to produce some kind of verifiable evidence or data that backs up their assertions.
..get off the interview circuit!
Good for Lawrence O'Donnell. Not enough of this type of interviewing is happening in the media right now. I guess misinformation is more entertaining than reality.
Most of what he was saying went right over her head and he knew exactly what he was doing. It was like watching a polite cat play with a mouse.
I felt sorry for her and so did O'Donnell, you could just tell. He could have made her cry and then been trashed by the Right
.
He has a heart unlike somebody like Bill O'Reilly who has ridiculed a man who lost his father on 9/11.
No one held a gun to her head and made her go on the show. If she was smart she would have refused the invitation. Better to be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and prove it.
Jefferson's expression doesn't seem to apply any more, does it?
Why would you feel sorry for her? She is an idiot and could be one of the people holding up a Nazi or racist sign!
A complete moron. These people have trashed this country, by voting for Bush and standing in the way of progress.
He's a gentleman. He let her just keep digging.
Because it is precisely like shooting fish in a barrel.
She doesn't strike me as a bad person,just a terribly uninformed one whose passions have been inflamed by a network of deeply evil greed heads who readily twist people minds to the point they are voting against their own best interests.
Lawrence handled this perfectly.
She admitted that Americans being murdered on 9/11 and Americans and Iraqis being murdered in the Iraq war, and Americans having their children taken away from them and having their families ripped apart by the Iraq war were not "priorities" in HER life.
Why?
Because she was getting married and having children. She was having children so she didn't care about other Americans losing theirs in a pointless war.
The founding fathers thought people would take care of each other? If that's the case, then you are spitting on their graves, lady.
When she said: "It's normal for the US to be at war"
Babe that's exactly the POWER of the MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. Somehow they scare us to suck our TAX Dollars...And that is normal...
I agree, to an extent.
I also think she is a lot more knowledgeable than she pretends to be.
Witness, during the interview she says more than once -- and also said at the town hall -- that she never paid attention to politics, that it's mostly over her head, nothing that ever aroused her passions. Lawrence tries to call her out on that last point, bringing up 9/11 and the Iraq War, but she dances around it. Pleading ignorance is a good way to dodge tough questions.
But watch the part at the tail end of the interview when Lawrence's politeness has won her confidence and puts her at ease. She remarks that she is staying at a friend's house whose political views are at the opposite end of the spectrum from her own. She says words to the effect of "I don't know how many thousands of political discussions we've had over the years."
That would contradict the role of the political naif she tries to play up to that point.
It takes a very wily person to act the fool (see Osborne, Ozzy).
I heard the very same revealing moment, when she admitted to lying about her lack of political awareness, which begs the next question: why should we then believe anything else that she said? While I am no fan of O'Donnell, he at least did his job which was to ask questions that revealed her bias.
LOL!
...for O'Donnell to ask: Since she wanted to go back to the original intent of the founding fathers then that would null and void the 19th Admendment taking away her and all women's right to vote.
Then O'Donnell could have gone farther and said that the founders considered women the property of a husband, any money she made was not hers but instead belonged to her husband, and if something happened to her marriage she would have no right to her children. In other words, women had no rights and from what she said she would be OK with that.
She is a completely ignorant woman.
into the cold light of day.
..expect from the media! Maybe they're afraid of rush too?
I saw this last night. One thing all these astroturfer "firebrands" have in common is that their outrage is always read from a script. Watch the next screechy tirade at a town hall meeting and look for the script in their hands as they read it.
THAT'S why they always have papers in their hands! Thanks for confirming this for me.
Yes, I noticed that she had papers in her hand when she was talking to Spector. She really doesn't seem like the kind of person who would independently think of the metaphor "You have awakened a sleeping giant."
"...you know, with the founders, they thought and hoped that the goodness of the people would allow the people to take care of those who are doing without."
That's socialism. She is the Queen of Idiots. I watched this more than once for the comedy aspect. I am so glad O'Donnell held his tongue.
I hope her friends and family have the resources to pay for it out of the goodness of their hearts.
she was just blind with ignorance and spouting sean hannity lines.
"...you know, with the founders, they thought and hoped that the goodness of the people would allow the people to take care of those who are doing without."
Yet, her bitching rant boils down her basic desire to NOT want to help anyone other than herself.
Typical Republicanism: say one thing - but do the opposite.
The comedic aspect is well worth sitting through this shit more than once.
Savannah43 writes of Katy Abram: "She is the Queen of Idiots."
NO-O-O-O! Sarah Palin is Queen of the Idiots!
I wish O'Donnell had spoken up and slapped her in the face with her own Socialism.
Somehow I knew before the interview even began that this worthless fool was another opinionated NON-WORKING stay-at-home shop-at-walmart GOPer wife. What a shock that she would bitch about taxes which she doesn't pay, while her husband deducts her and all her little brats on the income tax.
These people make me sick, because what they really believe is that they're the only people who work and pay taxes, and everyone else is a lazy welfare queen looking for another freebie from that negro in the Whitehouse.
You know what honey, if you don't work, and you don't pay taxes, then SHUT THE F*** UP ABOUT "SOCIALISM" and how much you hate paying for other people's health care. Because right now, this NON-HOMEOWNING, UNMARRIED, CHILDLESS man is paying the full shot for all of Reagan's mistakes, plus Bush 1 and Dummya 2 and all their idiotic policies and wars, while you catch a break from the government so you can pay your mortgage and raise more little morons who'll probably catch GOPer disease from you.
/Okay, rage off.
.
"Diary of a Rugged Individual with a Vagina"???
You are da man!
I am intrigued by your ideas...how can I subscribe to your newsletter?
.....do to combat people of her ilk? I think the organizers of these protests are laying the foundation so Obama will not be re-elected. This woman and her family would benefit from a single payer plan but she either acts or really does not know what is best for her. How do we confront these town hallers and get them to hear the right information? They are really harming Obama!
Education, education, education! HeadStart, secular pre-school, adequate funding for public schools!
... stupidity is incurable.
Bill,
Best post in a long time!
"while you catch a break from the government so you can pay your mortgage and raise more little morons who'll probably catch GOPer disease from you!"
Raise more little morons. Perfect.
This is the absolute best comment I've read on the entire issue! I would encourage you to go to a town hall meeting and cause a scene so that you could be interviewed the next day and read this on national television. If you don't have a blog you need one!
You know Bill, you don't have to throw "negro" in there just to make the people you're mimicking look even worse. If you're not responding to someone saying it, there's no real good reason to say it.
I swear half the commentators on here who think they're standing up against racism by calling everyone else racist and putting nasty words in people's mouths, are more bigoted than most of the people they're calling out. That doesn't necessarily apply to you Bill, I'm just sayin...
Great post, Bill!!
Maybe she should take a time machine back to 1776. It was so great back then.
These imbeciles think that the world began with the writing of the U.S. Constitution. They have no concept of the history and the thinking that led the founders to create that great document. If you tried to explain the ideas of natural rights to these fools, they'd shout you down and call you a socialist traitor or some such drivel. Thomas Jefferson would be stunned silent by their hatred, ignorance and malice.
if you brought up any of that stuff to them, they would have the look of a stunned goldfish. (Apologies to P.G. Woodouse.)
Wodehouse was very apolitical, so much so that after he was captured and interned by the Nazis- he didn't know that he might want to leave France as the Wermacht was approaching- Wodehouse was duped into making Nazi propaganda broadcasts aimed at the then neutral USA. Only reason Wodehouse wasn't imprisoned post-war was because George Orwell, amongst others, convinced MI5 that Wodehouse was a very naive man.
Always enjoyable to read anything about P.G. Woodhouse.
Why bother? She seems quite adept at channeling "the Founders" to suit her twisted views.
Hey Bill Lumbergh. Spot fucking ON.
I gotta give her credit, she didn't say "and such as" a single time.
Wars are so every day and boring that she's just not into those.
POP,
Did that not sound like a prole right out of 1984? "We've ALWAYS been at war..."
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick.
She was such an idiot. Blathering about how she was so busy getting married, having kids, etc to pay attention to wars. Hey idiot woman, what if the war goes on for 18 more years and your kids get sent to fight in these wars and get killed?
I cannot suffer these fools who never pay attention to what is going on in the country and the world until they perceive that it impacts them financially.
I guess she was too busy as a stay at home wal-mart shopping GOPer wife (sorry I had to borrow that from a previous poster) while her dominating "plants his seed" every now and then to spawn another child. Why worry about wars and military contractors profiting off the wars funded by tax payer dollars?
Does she send her kids to public school? That is socialism. The "Founding Fathers" never put public schools or any education in the constitution.
Does she drive on public roads? That is socialism. The "Founding Fathers" never put public roads in the constitution.
I could go on and on, but this idiot woman makes my brain hurt.
Still yet to meet someone from the US who is capable of explaining socialism, it's women like that which is dragging the country down.
"Still yet to meet someone from the US who is capable of explaining socialism, it's women like that which is dragging the country down."
I agree, except I would substitute "people" for "women".
I have an acquaintance who keeps ranting and raving about socialist Obama turning us into a socialist country. I sent him this link to this article by Billy Wharton, editor of "The Socialist, entitled "Obama's No Socialist. I Should Know." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/... What did he do? He did what most of the willfully ignorant do, he dismissed it and continued his rant against the socialist in the White house! As my mother was fond of saying, "There are none so blind as those who will not see."
Indeed, "people" opposed to "women" for general comment. I wasn't attempting to be sexist.
It was just in reference to that video.
card -carrying socialist. Literally, I have a card stating my membership of the Scottish Socialist Party. I am American through and through and I knew from the jump that Obama was neither a progressive or a socialist. I guffaw loudly when people, no, assholes go on about the supposed liberal, socialist, Obama. I'm like, is that Bizzaro Obama?
Anywho, I happen to live in a country with socialized health care. It isn't perfect, but it works. Like this woman, I have kids too-- in fact, my youngest is 18 days old. I got the CHOICE to have him at home or a number of NHS hopsitals. I CHOSE to have him at home. I had good care from a number of experienced midwives and unlike my American counterparts, I had no silly invasive examinations. (When I had my first, I told some of the midwives what the examinations were like in America and they couldn't believe all of the needless shit they do there.) I had my first one in the hospital, that I CHOSE and it was 3 years old and thorougly modern. I also CHOSE to leave after 2 days; I could have stayed longer. I bet she didn't get the choice to do that, hubby's insurance wouldn't paid.
I am off work on maternity leave. I am CHOOSING to stay at home until February. The reason? My job pays me my full salary for 4 months and then I get the statutory state rate. In all, I can take up to a year off, with the last 13 weeks unpaid. Oh, and every woman who works, regardless of income is eligble.
The midwives visited me until my baby was 10 days old and then I was discharged to a Community Health Vistor (she's a nurse and former midwife) who will look after my baby until he is 5. She came by my house the other day and did all of the baby paperwork and health checks. She also checked to see that I was coping well with a newborn, that I wasn't depressed and that breastfeeding is going well. She left me all of the information for community resources and stuff like baby massage lessons and playgroups. Now, who's system sounds better-- this very socialist way of doing things, or her beloved "free-choice" in the USA? I lived the USA's health system for the first 24 years of my life. I can say I like what I have much better now.
You have obviously been inflicted by the blight that exists outside of the US ;) ......... awareness ....... which allows you some insight as to what it actually is.
And Medicaid. At least it's Democratic Socialism as applied in the 27 nations of the European Union. Communist policies have been spotty: the NY Times reports that only now China is trying to spread universal health care into rural areas.
I missed that. (And I read 1984 and watched the movie)
I watched the whole exchange and couldn't believe what I was hearing. Her answers were laughable and scripted and it proved again the complete ignorance and lack of education these Right Wing-NutO morons have. They just follow the script they're handed and spew shit that they don't know anything about.
As are the masses ........
What an ignorant bit*h. The haves don't take care of the have nots they never did! That's the whole problem. I'd like to know how much she has shelled out to help the unfortunate this year. Her answer would be "well I pay taxes" and in the same breath she whines WHAAAAA! I don't want to pay taxes. Screw them all, they're to stupid to be citizens.
at 2:10 of the video she admits she has no idea what her family income is because "my husband handles all of that". So in other words, she's surviving on the skills and hard work of her husband. It's called familial socialism honey.
Jeebus I hate these drooling bimbo GOPers.
They're probably on Public assistance.
"...maybe I'm not that smart." Enough said. They should have cut her mic right then and gone back to talking about Brad Pitt running for Mayor of New Orleans.
Why are there absolutely no discussion on any of these networks with actual real healthcare experts? healthcare economists..? maybe the healtchare experts actually involved in writing the bills....
Why don't these networks do specials on what the problems are in the U.S., how big they are and the various potential solutions... maybe even what other countries are doing.
Instead we spend time listening to these idiots...
...bankruptcy.
that if they weren't taxed in order to make Medicare, Social Security, welfare, etc. available for themselves and others, that they would instead donate to charities to help the less fortunate (they just don't want to be "forced" to help others). However, these bastards are fooling no one, certainly not me, it'll be a cold day in hell before they lift their wallets to help someone else. I'm not buying this stupid woman's bullshit either.
..the only thing they really have is Tax Cuts, Tax Cuts and more Tax Cuts, mostly for the wealthy with the idea, misguided idea, that they'll put that money back into the economy. It makes me laugh to think they really believe that in light of the state of the economy and current unemployment numbers.
wealthy don't. But any attempts at logic would be completely wasted on these people-like cyphers.
It reminds me of when Spain was plundering the Aztec empire on the night of La Noche Triste, where they literally drowned from the weight of the gold they were stealing. The GOP base is sort of doing it to themselves right now, figuratively...
I've read Libertarian material, and they espouse a similar belief. That if we just abolished the IRS and taxes, suddenly everyone would be giving 10X more to charity or whatever.
WHATEVER.
and maybe Katy's husband will tell her what he really makes and how much he spends on the strippers at the local club where he spends most of his time because he can't stand her stupidity and that gaggle of kids drives him crazy.
Apparently they're also mad as hell that the government would "force" them to give up their $5,000 deductible for an insurance plan that would cover nearly all of their expenses. This woman is very pleased that her family's medical bills might go over $5,000 this year so she can finally collect something on that insurance she's been paying for all these years.
If that's not the very definition of stupid, I don't know what is. It's beyond stupid into another stratosphere.
she doesn't know what they earn? Yeah, sure, she knows that $5,000 is the magic number for the itemized deduction, but she doesn't know what they earn? She's so full of shit.
That's $5,000 on top of the premiums she paying into her health insurance plan.
I've always thought purpose of Insurance was to keep you from going broke, not to insure that you do go broke.
She was not into politics for the last 35 years until Obama became President...hmmm. Is it me or the racists are coming out of the woodworks? I guess it takes a black man to wake up a "sleeping giant".
I don't believe all these protestors are simply racists, but the fact that Obama is black (well, technically, he's half black and half white) certainly doesn't endear him to people like Katy Abram.
your disbelief does not make it go away. the woman takes her imagined lie as truth, can't remember even a context for the alleged Obama promise.
I think she may have been referring to an Obama quote about single payer healthcare. Search this site for Bill Moyers.
He did say single payer is good but first we have to take back the white house and congress.
SIGH.
I wonder if she voted in the last election. I wish he would have asked her if she could name the vice president. Followed by, who is buried in Grant's tomb.
she let's her husband do all the thinking.
He takes care of the adult stuff. She has the kids, shops and well does whatever it is she does. I wonder what she reads.
.
subscribes to - like forbes, gunz-n-ammo and the latest sunday comics.
She reads Anne Coulter books, Mein Kampf, and the Bible with all of the "be kind to the poor" socialist rhetoric excised by a "Christian" group.
Maybe "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"? The previous president found it to be very good reading. Or "My Pet Goat". It was SO engrossing President George couldn't tear his eyes from it even as the country was under attack.
...except to remember that time years before Obama was president when she was following his career closely enough to remember him saying that in 5 years we'd be on a single-payer system.
Here you can see the difference between liberal and conservative media. If she had been a liberal on Hannity or O'Reilly's show they would have screamed at her and called her every insult that could get past the censors. On MSNBC she was treated with kid gloves since it was recognized she's not a professional mouthpiece for conservative ideology.
I'm thinking she only got her news from Fox but hopefully this will give her something to think about.
Keep in mind, these people are the GOP base. Obama and Dems have to understand you can't negotiate with these people. There is no common ground.
The fact that Grassley is co-writing the Senate bill on health care reform is incredibly naive, stupid politics on the part of Obama. Grassley is one of the "deathers".
.
And the worse part is, there are many mor sheep out there just like her.
Funny, when he asked her if she had a conversation with her parents about them refusing medicare, she said they didn't talk about politics. Her parents are probably smart and don't want to be reminded how stupid their daughter remains.
who complained about his wife incessantly. he said her parents were so admiring of him and insisted she treat him like a king. Then they got married. suddenly all bets were off. she wanted none of the external responsibilities and left them all to him. she was happy raising the kids and managing the house. Since he was a control freak, it really worked out, but he continues to complain that she doesn't think the way he thinks she should think.
All that was to say that she was useful and now she is exposed. Thankfully, Lawrence was kind to her.
But she is a tool, even if a possibly well-meaning but certainly not well-informed one.
I got to hand it to Mr. O'Donnell.
This is the way to conduct a civil discourse. I think when calmly faced with reasonable questions from the left, the Tea Baggers have to stop shouting and start thinking.
If we can all work harder to calmly focus on reality I think we all might get somewhere.
Kudos to Mr. O'Donnell for modeling civility on national television. (though I wish he had let her know that the Founders intended for the Constitution to be amended from time to time...)
if she knew THIS:
I read today that story had been debunked. Now if I only had a clue where I read it.
huffpo has had a few people on it. even though I'm only partially sold on the source, rahm and the DLC / DSCC / DCCC leave no coin for the 'common good' after they negotiate, as they are corporatists. I'm very interested in the debunkers' version if you can remember it.
This just in, and just as relevant:
SADDAM IS DEAD...or...
JET LANDS IN HUDSON RIVER...
/snark
She just screamed her face off at a Senator at a public event then went on television and basically admitted she has no real knowledge of what she is talking about.
Pure ignorance. Who the heck does this woman think she is?
Whenever conservatives say that the only role of government is war, excuse me, "defense", I point out the Preamble to the Constitution:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
There it is, promote the general welfare, right after defense but before securing liberty. A mandate to do what is good for the people. A mandate for an activist government.
What part of "welfare" don't they understand?
..to a republican or conservative, it means doing the bidding of some special interest group, lobbyist or rush.
Hey, the "it's not in the Constitution" argument is, of course, easily refuted. What we need to say is that health care is an issue that concerns the national self-interest. Is it in our economic, cultural/moral self-interest to continue to do things the way we are and to continue to have so many vulnerable people - including children. Is it in our national self-interest?
That's a question that is implied in all kinds of legislation that affects all Americans, and which isn't specifically mentioned in the Constitution.
Furthermore, any Consitutional scholar and historian will tell you that the Founding Fathers never intended the Constitution to be interpreted solely by the words in it.
I think this "not in the Constitution" crap comes on the one hand form loony libertarians and on the other hand from Fundamentalists who think nothing is real if it isn't literally in the Bible.
.
Sola Scriptura as applied to the Constitution.
while ignoring the word 'general' in front of it.
But I suppose the founders didn't understand the English language, what with being from England and all...
/snark...
She thought he was a sidekick of General Washington.
Spelled like that it sounds like Washington dallied with the camp followers.
is better than a socialist one! I believe that's called snark...
Furthermore, any Consitutional scholar and historian will tell you that the Founding Fathers never intended the Constitution to be interpreted solely by the words in it.
They purposely left things ambiguous and open to interpretation mostly to avoid stepping on the toes of the Founding Fathers who were not in agreement with the majority. They figured the more distasteful things could be kicked down the road a few decades and not be their problem anymore.
..."promote the general welfare" to the Republicans supposedly means keep the government small, yet "arms" in the 2nd Amendment means assault weapons and rocket launchers. You can't fix stupid!
Hey, if you want to call a republican stupid, call them out on the stuff they actually do believe and do... you don't need to make stuff up.
I don't think I've ever heard republicans saying the "promote the general welfare" clause means keep the government small.
I've also not heard them demanding the right to have rocket launchers.
As you stated, the general welfare clause is in the preamble. You should also notice that the preamble is not where the constitution enumerates the actual powers of government.
You might also want to look up the definition of the word general. General does not mean a specific sub group of people.
Republicans won't be swayed by viewing this...it's their BASE! But hopefully this kind of exposure will
strike home to Independents. Reminding them that the alternative to the Democrats is more of the party of the ignorants (and the more rabid element, the Screamers).
I hope so, but I also think that these Independents are by no means a homogenous group. In fact about half of them are lapsed Republicans just itching for a reason to become Republican again. Then you have the loony libertarians...some of whom fortunately still see the GOP as the main threat to their social liberties...And finally, about a third are "true independents". These are the people we must have.
I caught the last part of her interveiw, including the part about the founding fathers and their desires. How the hell does she know what they wanted? Nobody knows what they intended. We can only assume and at best that would only be a guess.
I was struck at how unimformed she seemed. Way in over her head and O'Donnell took it easy on her.
the same way that people purport to know what Jesus would do or what God wants.
tell us how healthcare reform would be against the constitution.
...really, who put you up to this, lady?
I really do love O'Donnell...he is a no shit takin mofo!!!
a great fill-in host the next time KO is not on. They'll need a new one now that Wolffe is persona non-grata. O'Donnell is very sharp and quick witted and he doesn't back down from ANYONE.
but I really had to sympathize with Kathy Abrams here. Not because I agreed, but OMG, have you been to school in the past decade or two? Unless you are 'elite' or simply lucky, you never have been challenged or expected to think. Look, guys, Don't blame Kathy. Blame her D O Ed back in the day. Blame the talk show people she seems to listen to.
For God's sake, Kathy, get a life! Take an interest in your family income. Take an interest in what your insurance covers. Find out what your options are when (I hope to God not) you are diagnosed with breast cancer and your insurance company finds you misspelled 'Kathy' as 'Katy'.
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