1 think Michelle Obama was vindicated again.

I'm not defending the right wing crazies but some of the tricks they learned from our left wing loons:

http://www.thomasalbert.com/politics/protest/...
http://www.thomasalbert.com/politics/protest/...
http://www.thomasalbert.com/politics/protest/...
http://www.thomasalbert.com/politics/protest/...

Those are just from one protest. Sure, we were protesting a war and the imminent catastrophy it created and that is much more noble than protesting healthcare for the less fortunate in our society which is outright ignorant or sociopathic, and we may not have had the violence, but we had plenty of crazies anyway. Just wanted to bring some perspective to our outrage on the left.

Some if not most of these town hall meetings look like a scene from a Monty Python movie or skit.

2. Conservative or Bourgeois Socialism
A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of redressing social grievances in order to secure the continued existence of bourgeois society.

...on the propaganda network or the right wing radio talk shows....NEVER!

THIS is the problem folks. We have a "propaganda machine" going right now in this country, run by the neocons, evangelical "nut cakes", the special interests (eg gun rights, separatists, anti-abortion/gays, etc.) and the big corporations - insurance industry, pharma-industries, banks, BIG money. We have not "information", but "propaganda" of lies and scare tactics that are keeping America DUMB!

President Obama needs to keep talking...over and over and over again; but never underestimate the power of the propaganda machine in this country. Some people....MANY people refuse to hear anything but the propaganda, and they shut off any other sources that conflict with their twisted logic and bull shit that is stuffed between their ears. I know...I have brothers and sisters that FIT THE BILL. Dumb asses....ignorant morons that WANT TO BE ignorant.

We are a country of morons, and we have little to be proud of when it comes to our citizens.

speaking the truth to the sheeple... hopefully they'll listen up!

1) For decades liberals have been mocking mainstream Americans for their perceived intellectual shortcomings and treating any concern that goes against liberal preferences as ignorant, racist, misogynistic, etc when we could have been explaining to them what good libearlism does for them and how Republicans have been kissing their asses but fucking them blind.
2) There is nothing whatsoever to stop President Obama from making a prime-time televised address esplaining where he stands and how opponents of healthcare have been deliberately lying in an effort ot confuse and frighten the public and explain to the nation the real choices that we face. Nothing, that is, except his own apparant lack of leadership. And a bunch of piss-ant town halls aren't going to do it.

If we don't communicate, people can't know.

Ed: "this is not a country we should be proud of right now"

When should we have been proud of this country? When we elected Nixon, Reagan and George W Bush twice?

... as the Right disrupts Town Meetings.

It is now the day after Senator Benjamin Cardin's Town Hall meeting in Hagerstown, MD, and I have had plenty of time to see what the local papers and television news have covered on it... plus I spent some time looking into the web sites of organizations that pushed attendees to the meeting (like Resistnet.com) and the prearranged instructions they put out to make sure nothing was reasonably discussed.

And this is what amazes me the most: a couple of hundred people who are my age or older who came to protest the benefits which, for the most part, would serve them well and which they actually need. Thinking back to where this kind of behavior, in which ordinary citizens are convinced to work against themselves, started... the incoming of Ronald Reagan 40 years ago... I am as confused now as I was then. How do middle-class and lower-middle-class individuals justify campaigning for the things that make their own lives worse?

Before the coming of Reagan, things were paid for with taxes on income... including a substantial amount by the income of the upper classes, banks and investments were Federally regulated so that things weren't stolen from individual Americans and trade unions protected so many people... defended their lives and investments, made sure they got into colleges, etc. Then, with the progress of years, administrations and changing controls in Congresses during times of Republican domination, regulations were removed one by one until banks and insurance companies could set up investments that crewed the public in favor of gross profit margins for a very few individuals, unions were squeezed out... beginning with the air traffic controllers, 401k plans were substituted for strong and subsidized retirement plans, and slowly but surely the middle classes sank lower and lower in the overall economy.

Until we got to where we are now... the money that had been built up in Social Security was grabbed and payed out... and substituted with outrageous credit statements... by people like George W. Bush, the cost of health plans like Blue Cross... once a public service non-profit changed into a profit making Insurance company... rising faster than the amount of money people were earning until insurance costs took up 1/3 of extremely high medical bills, and our National Debt grew to unbelievable numbers leaving the current administration in a situation where, in order to eventually reduce it, it needed to be increased now in order to keep functioning until laws and regulations could be changed.

But those Insurance companies and others, represented by growing numbers of lobbyists... many former Congressfolk who had long ago realized what side of the bread was buttered... who could spend 1 and 1/3 million bucks a day to make ordinary people get scared to death of "socialism" and "federal control of their lives" and any other lie they could put out... these creatures of Reagan's previous revolution were ready to work as hard as possible to make sure the 1% OR SO OF UPPER-CLASS FOLKS kept their income and rest of us gladly gave them the opportunity.

After all, if we kept things the same, someday we would all be rich and benefit from this kind of life. We would all be in the .02% of citizens who didn't lose money on State Lotteries. We would maintain our belief in American Success.

So now, at a Town Hall meeting like the one I went to yesterday in Hagerstown, where Cardin was screamed at about a bill that hadn't even been written yet, and people believed that their grandparents were going to be put up in front of "death panels" who would notify them that the end had come, I could see the Triumph of the Right and could only hope that the Left would wise up to their majority and screw the idea of bipartisanship ( a joke which the Republicans have made their strongest moves with ), that they would start the march back to the normalcy of Government given us by FDR and Harry Truman and, yes, even Eisenhower ... who no longer seems like a Republican a all, and JFK and LBJ.

There is a slim chance that we can get there and health Care is the test. It has been the test since Truman tried to get it. It has been the test since Johnson kept the Right from killing Medicare. And it is the test today.

The question is: Will we pass?

Yesterday's coverage of Cardin Town Hall at: Under The LobsterScope

on Dylan Ratigan's show and Hardball (w/ Lawrence O'Donnell yesterday) they show themselves to be exactly that - cretins!

Ratigan 'interviewed' the older guy who was screaming in Specter's face the day before - he could barely speak in a sentence and just wanted to read his list of 'points'. He had no thoughts of his own and could not answer even simple questions about what he knew about the issues and why he was protesting.

Same thing for the woman who said, "I don't want this country turning into Russia..." Lawrence asked her simple, pertinent questions - she could only answer with TV sound bites, repeating Repug talking points. I doubt she could find Russia on a map.

Clearly, the people being bussed to these town halls have no clue - just heads filled with right-wing crap. Course, we knew that...

>> UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What it says is, as a 74-year-old man, if
>> you develop cancer, we're pretty much going to write you off.
Oh Odin! if there was only a cure for ignorance.
This is exactly what the insurance companies are doing now!
THEY have long had "death panels" and they are driven by the good old US "Money is god and capitalism is its religion" profit motive. Let people die so we can make more $$$.

The insurance companies have "death boards of directors" or "death boards" or my favorite so far "murder boards." Let people die so we can make more $$$.

Don't allow them to let people die so they can make more $$$.

Ask these people:
Have you ever had a claim denied? Know a friend who has?
Have you or anyone you know been denied or had coverage terminated?
Have you or anyone you know tried to pay for COBRA while unemployed? (I'm doing that now, and thank Barry, it's < $400 rather that > $1.5K.)
How many of your claims are messed up somehow so you need to go thru hoops to get paid? How often are your payouts less than you expected? Now, how often do they ever make a mistake in your favor? Never? Simple statistics says if these are random "mistakes" then 50% should be in your favor, and 50% in theirs. They are taking you money, denying you your rights and making themselves and their investors richER. Look at the profits. They come from YOU. The worse they treat you, the better they do profit-wise.

In short, how often does your current insurance hose you? Even if the gov't program was as bad, at least it would be cheaper.

Always follow the money. Does a "mistakenly" denied claim help them? Have you ever said, ah it's only $XXX, it's not worth the fight. That's why so many "mistakes" are made. But if YOU make a mistake, like a late or incorrect payment, WHAM! No mercy.

This is yet another problem that would not exist if we had true campaign finance reform. No contributions from insurance companies, no favor$ from the scum they help to elect.

Help me. I'm looking for a major problem in the US that CAN'T be blamed on special interests and their donations/purchases to/of "elected" officials. The only set of things I can think of are states' interests. And many of those are driven by special interests in the states.
If you look at the problems that are cause by special interests, then campaign refinance reform is the only way to fix it. Currently only special special interests can afford to get a candidate national exposure. And only those candidates can get elected. And, as Boss Tweed said, "I don't care who does the voting as long as I get to do the nominating."
I we can only choose from the special interests' candidates, then nothing much can be done.
I realize there are some candidates who get financing other ways. But there are so many purchased tools that they must fight that, again, our interests are rarely defended.

Human citizens over corporate citizens.

E Pleb Neesta
GODISNOWHERE
Blessed are the cheese makers.

Well, that just the kind of Philistine pig-ignorance I've come to expect from you non creative garbage! Not giving a tinker's cuss for the struggling artist!

;-)

I like many have concerns about "Universal" or "Government" Health Care. We already have a shortage of health care providers. More restrictions and guidelines will only worsen this situation and serve as a disincentive for those contemplating a health care career. Government health care is an oxymoron. I would be more willing to support it if it were truly universal. Many of those with reservations like myself would be more open to it if a resolution was passed requiring all government employees and elected officials at all levels to abandon their current plans and become participants in the new universal health plan.

from these people!"

Ed, Ed.

These people ARE the Republican party.

THAT is why the "party" won't distance itself from them.

They THINK they're the base, but they're not. The CORPORATIONS are the Republican's BASE, and these are their dupes.