Paul Krugman: These People are Unappeasable
By Heather Saturday Aug 15, 2009 10:00am
Paul Krugman appeared on MSNBC to discuss his latest op-ed Republican Death Trip. Paul reiterates some of the points he made in his article.
Krugman: The way I look at it, these people are unappeaseable. It's not really about what it's ostensibly about. It's not actually about the end of life provisions. It's not about the specifics in the bill. They're just going to grab onto anything and try to turn some it into something awful. So they saw this. It seemed to have something to do with end of life and so they said, you know, death panels. It's not about the substance, and that you can't actually satisfy the crazies by offering substantive concessions. What they hate is the whole idea of any kind of health reform and more broadly what they hate is the whole idea of Democrats actually, you know, holding the White House.
Harwood: Interesting point Paul and I've got to tell you one White House official told me today, our problem right now is if we tell some of the Republican opponents in the Senate you can have everything you want in the bill, they still won't vote for it. So...
Krugman: That's right.
So why are they still reaching out to them? From the article:
The question now is how Mr. Obama will deal with the death of his postpartisan dream.
So far, at least, the Obama administration’s response to the outpouring of hate on the right has had a deer-in-the-headlights quality. It’s as if officials still can’t wrap their minds around the fact that things like this can happen to people who aren’t named Clinton, as if they keep expecting the nonsense to just go away.
What, then, should Mr. Obama do? It would certainly help if he gave clearer and more concise explanations of his health care plan. To be fair, he’s gotten much better at that over the past couple of weeks.
What’s still missing, however, is a sense of passion and outrage — passion for the goal of ensuring that every American gets the health care he or she needs, outrage at the lies and fear-mongering that are being used to block that goal.
So can Mr. Obama, who can be so eloquent when delivering a message of uplift, rise to the challenge of unreasoning, unappeasable opposition? Only time will tell.
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Why? Why? Why?
What the hell is up with Obama and this stupid stupid stupid idiotic bipartisan bullcrap??? Has nobody told the man that the election was over months ago, and hey, he won?
When Obama stood on stage and spoke of his "good friend" Chuck Grassley the same day Grassley was talking about killing grandma, I knew we were fucked. How can O be so damn gulible?
Obama is weak... Looks as if Obama will kiss a... republicans and blue dogs , to pass a health bill no matter what it contains..
I have been sick about Obama and the democrats every since their give our tax money to the Criminal banks with no OVERSIGHT.. Especially after hearing that the U.S. treasury has already gave them trillions of dollars which they the treasury did not have to explain to tell Americans about...
The Obama as President is not the same Obama with his campaign promises which I voted , funded and supported for the office of president..
The health package has turn into a health empire give a way...
What is so .... hard about including every American that wishes to join the Medicare program?? First the Global health Empire will not allow this to happen and .....the elected representatives would lose their political funds from the Health Empire..
Baucus , blue dogs and other takers of the health Empire funds,,, already have a huge advantage on any other candidate that would wish to run against them in their bid for reelection...
Not only did Emanuel support , fund and help republicans win on the democrat ticket,,, Obama and Emanuel are now telling us not to advertize against their deceit in destroying the public option and arrogantly telling us to go to h... when it came to even putting the single tax payer on the table...
Personal I do not believe half of the democrats are democrats but as the blue dogs are republicans in sheep clothing..
Some of the blue dogs even supported as Emanuel republicans in prior elections.. Some said they could not support Obama over McCain and Palin...
You see now what the democrats as well as the Republicans do not want to stop are their funds from the lobbyist and other methods of receiving these funds from Global Giants.. This is why neither party will bring that up for a vote and if so would certainly be defeated..
and real healthcare reform are done.
Honestly, I think it'll take firehoses and prybars to get the corruption out of the capital.
It would take a nukaler strike, an air drop of a trillion fire ants and an IRS investigation in the Cayman Islands to get even one repug concerned. Dangling a wad of money in front of their eyes is better than Viagra to a modern wig wearin' Pug.
We need national campaign finance reform before we can even think about getting straight talking politicians that speak for their real constituents.
in your post describes the corporate megalomaniacs who are entrenched in their love of the almightly dollar and the illusory power they attach to amassed wealth. Democrat and Republican alike--if they "do" anything to upset the apple cart we call capitalism, all hell will break loose (at least, in their universe).
Past time to identify the individual human faces of the "corporations" who are pulling out all stops to quash universal health care. Past time for those of us who earn a pittance to understand that the elusive wealth carrot is not going to magically drop into our laps just because we work hard and spend frugally.
The change we need is far more extensive than universal health care. The socio-cultural shift we're experiencing has just begun, and will continue to challenge us on levels we cannot begin to imagine.
I remain confident we can weather this as we evolve into something more than we are at present. I wish we could do so without all the fear, resentment, and hate.
I agree that the president should forget about sharing ideas with those on the right. I am opposed to this bs,,,as I want single payer. But at least this is a step forward rather then sitting on one's hands. Governance is about compromise as I am told. The handlers up in DC are not about compromise. Only power. And keeping it.
The President has a means of ramrodding things,,,, he should use that power before he gets corrupted more than he is.
House of Reps:
Enrolled Dems: 256 minus 52 Blue Dogs= 202 Dem votes.
Enrolled GOP: 178 plus 52 Blue Dogs=230 GOP votes.
...a good number of spineless yellow dogs.
Yellow Dogs are just white dogs with incontinence problems.
They need to be marginalized. The end.
It's like people that think the earth is flat. Screw them, they are nuts.
Let the adults do what needs to be done and just plain leave the fruitcakes out of the "discussion". They can stand on the street and hold their grammatically challenged signs. Fuck off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YpTVK9JI7o
Morans???? Just checking
Maybe Obama is what Hillary stated in the campaign race for the democratic primary..
A person with JUST a speech...
When it comes to actually doing what you promises , he falls on his a..
Obama's got a sore spot somewhere and somebody's going to hit it and when they do, Mt Vesuvius and Mount St. Helens will be envious.
Obama's no Jimmy Carter.
What is that
A Windsor knot?
Krugman is a cousin, 9th removed, of the Brit Royals, too?????
Actually the royal family's last name before WWI was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, but then King George V changed it to the current Windsor.
it?
Good to know. Were they originally from Golgotha ?!?
I'm not sure of all these small German States, there was no Germany as we know it until the 1870's.
But wasn't Golgotha another name for Calvary?
Unfortunately for Jesus the Calvary never showed unless you count:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_12E1EN6fs&fe...
Monty Python and the lads are not still doing what they did best...what a plethora of material is available today!
Yah, Golgatha was Calvary - figured Queen Lizzie (or one of her ancestors) might have been there to watch. #:)
I remember seeing a painting of the crucifixion from around the 15th century, where the artist painted Dracula into the crowd watching approvingly.
a rational conversation with some one who does not what to listen to you.
"Never argue with an idiot, they bring you down to their level and beat you with experience"
this was always what I disliked most about him. He reminds me of the "Student of Hegel" professor I had in PolSci.... always arguing for rational thought.
but this "rational" world only exists in the class room.
the other side could care less about rational thought. they will go lower than anyone would/will dare to go. you cant win. and no amount of prepared, non-confrontational, safe, speeches will save him/us from the lunatic fringe on the right.
Its the same crazies that thought Clinton killed Vince Foster, or the people that said there were crack pipes on the presidential christmas tree.
these people have never left. and Obama as much as I love the guy, does not seem prepared to address them head on.
I do not profess myself to having higher intellect. But when I engage conversation with someone who I can identify as not so sharp,,,,,I reach down to the bottom of the barrel. I go lower than them. I will allow them a false sense of empowerment over me. Then I slowly raise the bar so slowly that they never see it hit them. The other people participating with me most often defer and let this rogue know-it-all fall on his sword. Then he walks off muttering,,,"I need a new beer."
Sold out to the Corporations
Amy Goodman with RN here
Amy Goodman is interviewing Ralph Nader.
He offers solutions.
Your statement is confused.
What you are offering is an 10¢ aluminum coin for $5.
Ralph Nader says what I knew all along.
Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones here
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank. One of the travesties they previously came up with was Bill Clinton's Welfare Reform. How has that been working out?
I hate to say it, but it needs to be said. We're fucked. Lawmakers from Obama on down are bought and paid for by lobbyists, two of the biggest being the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. We are not going to get meaningful health care EVER.
Please.
best hemmed in and unwilling to fight for what the majority of Americans want. On the other hand, the trappings and rewards of power in this country are pretty great. Why worry about the little people when you know you and yours will be taken care of for life? I believe I've heard the same sentiment expressed by certain Rockefellers... .
he wouldn't be traveling all over the country trying to explain what the problem with our present health insurance situation is and that the government option is crucial to its solution.
I don't think this man is worried about him or his being taken care of for life. He could easily have been a top flight corporate lawyer and made millions, but instead he chose to try to effect change for the betterment of our fellow countrymen. This choice was made with full knowledge it could well end up costing him his life.
Obama's not writing the bill.
$19 mil in campaign contributions from the insurance companies doesn't count?
he wouldn't have tried to change a thing. The Repuglic*nts certainly wouldn't be pushing for any change in the staus quo.
Pushing for and actually achieving are two different things. The jury is still out. That's the best I can say.
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com...
In this clip, about 4½ minutes in, Obama's campaign donations are discussed. Apparently, the largest sector was the financial/insurance sector. We've seen the purchased result - maintenance of the "too big to fail" corporation, and health care "reform" written by the insurance companies.
The clip is about the financial meltdown, only relevant to this thread on the matter of campaign donations.
"The Family" less than 100 pages into it and I can agree. Hate so say it,,, but it is us against them. And sorry to say, but the gun nuts and everyone else that is maybe your social/political/ economic enemy will be a comrade against the real problem. And that is people that think they have the right to rule the world.
Is without doubt,what is missing in elected Democrats.
They should be seething with righteous indignation and fury,yet they continue to pander to whats left of the GOP,which amounts to a coterie of subnormal hard right mutants undeserving of even a shred of serious consideration.The Dems should bring the hammer down on these losers HARD.
...Obama's economic policies are wrong?
.
But he also said it wasn't enough, more stimulus is needed, and should've been done in the first place, because it'll be harder to get people to go along on a later attempt.
SMART (or civil, or bipartisan) figures that STUPID wants to not be stupid. That there are avenues through which Stupid can be educated, uplifted, and welcomed into the Smart community.
The truth is STUPID (or civil, or bipartisan) doesn't want anything to do with SMART. They're happy being Stupid, they've been stupid all their lives, their parents and grandparents were stupid, and they're homeschooling their kids to be stupid, because that's the true legacy of the White Christian Nation.
SMART can never fix STUPID. STUPID has to want to ... wait for it ... CHANGE.
then you are the stupid one. Try to fix that.
has a favorite saying (which I've adopted):
'Ya' Kaint Fix Stoopid!!!"
I'm going to try this again, with the codicil UP FRONT that I am not bragging! Please just consider the following:
I have an IQ that places me in the top 1% of all those who've been administered a standardized IQ test. Despite efforts to "dumb down" my vocabulary, eliminate my spontaneous regurgitations of arcane minutiae, and minimize any other factors that might expose my unusual intellect, I am continuously villified by those among us whose self-identity is somehow threatened by my 'intelligence' and their own self-perceived lack thereof. Often, such sad individuals overtly derogate intelligence, as though being dumb is the coolest thing on the planet.
If one considers this condundrum from a macro-level perspective, some key issues become salient:
--our species (evolutionarily speaking) is in its emotional and spiritual adolescence, with an inordinate fascination with sex, drugs and all things that directly feed our massive adolescent ego.
--those most likely to respond in the manner you've described herein above are incredibly fearful AND ignorant (often incapable of the simplest faith in their own religious constructs!).
--those who are least likely to respond in the manner you've described herein above will inevitably pursue whatever path results in evolutionary progress. I call these individuals the "points of light" that keep us centered when the darkness of this evolutionary abyss threatens to overwhelm (I'm sensing a growing collectivity of these specific individuals, fwiw).
Whinging about those among us who are the most fearful, and the most hate-filled, and the most resentful will do nothing to forward our species. Whinging reveals a "can't see the forest for the trees" glitch in one's macro perspective. Sometimes, it's easy to get mired in that space, because change is oh so challenging. And, the darkness of hate and fear can be oh so tiresome.
This point in our species' evolutionary history is amazing! And, when we figure out how to make this next quantum leap in our spiritual and emotional evolution, I'm confident we'll be able to celebrate with humor and no small measure of aplomb.
In the meantime, I hope we can stop blaming and shaming ourselves and each other. Consider this the next time you sit down to a plate of bipartisan red herrings. What might happen if you refuse to partake?
Whinging about those among us...
__________________________________________
So do you prefer Band on the Run or Someone's Knocking At My Door?
is such a good outlet, isn't it?
I prefer jazz (Charles Mingus, Joe Sample, Herbie Hancock, etc.), and classic rock (Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, etc.).
Actually, I listen to just about everything that isn't hate-filled or misogynistic. My students have turned me on to Good Charlotte, NIN, and several other contemporary artists.
.
Lots of people who regularly post on C&l probably have IQ's that tested as high or higher than yours (I know I do!!) and we're pretty much aware of the evolutionary shortcomings of our species.
And, GHWB already copyrighted the 'Thousand points of light' bit,
but he had no measure of humor or aplomb....and his cretin son, Dubya, reminds me just a little of you.
But, thanks for your erudite contribution to the conversation.
how lovely! Thank you for reinforcing my point!
I put the word intelligence in quotes for a reason. Smart and stupid are such relative terms. Frankly, who cares if there are "lots of people" with high IQs? And, if "we're pretty much aware" of the evolutionary shortcomings of our species, why are we wasting our collective energies whinging about the 'dolts' Krugman asserts are 'unappeasable'?
Sigh... I wish our species could stop conflating intelligence with hierarchy. But, that's the impatient part of me--wanting to rush through the evolutionary process like I have a scintilla of control over the matter. lol
Thanks again for your rather predictable, but appreciated post.
...smart and stupid are relative -- regardless of IQ tests.
So, why even mention your codpiece...er, codicil?
"I have an IQ that places me in the top 1% of all those who've been administered a standardized IQ test."
"Please, step away from the bipartisan red herrings."
I regret that my post of my personal experience of what Shadowgm described has gotten your wee panties in a twist.
Let go your resentment. It's really not that important.
Why are you so negative? Why are you even remotely concerned with my post? I wonder why you feel the need to denigrate me for posting about my experiences as an individual with an unusual intellect. And, I chose to bastardize the term 'codicil' because another of my posts about this topic was misinterpreted as 'bragging' (which completely makes my point in a reverse logic kinda way).
Most importantly, what's so bad about pacifism? We have to live with these individuals everyone seems so intent on lambasting (one of my five sisters, one of my brothers-in-law, and several of my aunts and uncles are hard core Republicans with 'wingnut' tendencies--should I denigrate them for their personal beliefs?).
I wonder if you are really as negative as you seem...
as the process that allegedly measures them has been so thoroughly discredited. Or should I say, "whinging" about their IQ's. There's that damn American feeling of superiority again. Oh, and thank you for your rather trite and unhelpful input regarding the political and social division in this country. Your esoteric drivel is still just drivel. BTW, what is your IQ. I have a pool going?
Couldn't even try for a little humor?
Feeling a wee bit defensive?
Here's the irony: I do not think my unusual intellect makes me 'superior' to anyone. In fact, it took me a very long time to understand that insecure people tend to have a defensive, judgmental attitude about unusual intellects--as though someone else's unusual intellect somehow makes them less than. How sad is that?
Now, I'm finding that some people with unusual intellects tend to have a defensive, judgmental attitude about someone else's unusual intellect. Wow. Is it that hierarchy thing again? What makes my post herein above "bragging"? Why is it verboten to post an observation about one's personal experiences of others' negative reactions to said 'unusual intellect'?
With regards to your pool, why don't you encourage all the participants (...one?) to contribute their money to Truthout, or some other worthy cause? Besides, you know those silly IQ tests are vastly overrated.
"(W)hy are we wasting our collective energies whinging about the 'dolts' Krugman asserts are 'unappeasable'?"
_______________________________________________________________
Because some are heavily armed?
I'm sure the intelligentsia of Germany thought the Nazis, and particularly the SA (Sturmabteilung) were uneducated goons not worthy of concern.
On the macro-level, the situation worked itself out with their defeat at the end of WWII, but look at the damage they wrought before then.
Additionally, macro-level analysis seems to presume omniscience as well as pretension.
rather than whinging about them, why not take a page out of Steinem's book (Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions), and write five letters a week to any groups or organizations that promote these threatening behaviors?
Given the ever-increasing role of the internet, I'm sure many believe that emails serve a similar purpose. However, the internet seduces so many of us to devolve into mouthy slacktivists (tyvm, Barbara Mikkelson, for that most appropriate term).
Additionally, every single post on this blog is simply mental masturbation. Assigning pretension to such posts suggest to me that you're hung up on hierarchy.
As to presuming 'omniscience' -- can't we have a good debate on this blog without casting those aspersions? My observations are no more and no less than anyone else's. As I've said for the past thirty plus years, "We're all bozos on this bus!" (and, tyvm, Firesign Theater, for that oh-so-appropriate quote).
Isn't the "adolescent" status merely the normative standard for the species, before the full development of cerebral capacities?
In other words, the "adolescent" standard is roughly synonymous with the "lizard brain" that links so many several species, whereas the cerebral tends toward the self-delusional in the individual, and group-think in the collective.
I remember saying something similar about the adolescent status of humanity when I was 15, and even there it's essentially watered down Freudianism passing itself off as sociological commentary rather than psychoanalytical.
Intelligence Quotient tests are themselves based on a normative scale of dichotomous nature, whereas you're "smart" v "not smart." But they measure such things as spatial relationships, which admittedly I have difficulty with. No one is sure whether the tests really measure memory, ability to learn, processing speed, the ability to apply learning, or simply a good education which is often based on social class. They don't even attempt to measure creativity, which besides its artistic implications, is what in my opinion really separates one from the common herd, the ability to think not in preset pathways, but to go outside them.
IQ tests do measure problem solving, but that's problem solving in the logical way, where admittedly I'm also weak, because it was later found that I'm right-brained, which causes me to approach life in a more gestaltic manner rather than analytical. Teachers have told me although they've never believed the expression, my eyes seem to literally light-up when I seize a new idea. Solutions come to me not as if they were the solutions to mathematical formulæ, but often seem full-blown, like Athena's birth when Zeus's headache was cured by Hephaestus's axe stroke.
Give me BC powders any day.
The IQ tests are a holdover of the earlier progressive period of roughly 1900-1910 which tended to be elitist, and was a period when the mentally retarded and the emotionally/mentally disturbed were sterilized. This was the milieu Ayn Rand came from, although her publication history came later, ironically with the simultaneous rise of the Nazis. But then I always preferred Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf and Narcissus and Goldmund.
What makes people "stupid" is excessive-malleability, hence the expressions of molding people, and the common clay. This is the reptilian brain of the hippocampus of the limbic system running berserk, particularly in looking for an alpha-figure to not only tell them what to do, but what to think. One could liken it to False Consciousness and the Stockholm Syndrome.
Sorry for any boo-boo's but I just woke up, and I don't feel like proof-reading. And likely the thread is already dead.
Exactly what I was thinking, due to my "unusual intelligence" that I must try to keep hidden from others, lest they discriminate against me...LOL!!
I came back here this a/m/ specifically to see if you would respond the "horse's ass" (according to Savannah),
and you did not disappoint.!!!!
I was giddy last night, because I'd had been sick all day, and it was lifting.
I work in a small office, and my bosses talk too much, too loud, with excessive loud laughter and pointless hyperactivity, and they don't know or realize that has a tendency to fry my nervous system.
This happened on Friday, and I ended up having to go to the nurses station for a couple of Tylenols, and the receptionist who knew me said I looked real white.
I was still sick from that yesterday.
Sooooooooo laughing over here! The C&L regulars seldom disappoint, and you've gone above and beyond!
I despise hierarchy, and I find it sad that people conflate hierarchy with 'intelligence' (and, I dearly love contemporary studies that show that nearly all study participants who take untimed 'IQ' tests score in the near genius range!). I've posted here before that some of my most erudite friends would not score well on these highly subjective tests, and I don't personally believe that my unusual intellect sets me 'above' (or below) anyone else.
Sad that so many feel the need to vilify anyone who shares a personal observation about intellect.
BTW, I am a mixed media artist, and I prefer making art to posting on these threads, so I just now saw all these bashing posts from Amitola and Savannah. What a sad waste of energy and time.
Hope you are feeling better.
:-o
mean "horse's ass" in French?
Because I have no reason as yet to doubt you.
It's one thing to have a high IQ and be considered very intelligent.
It's a whole different story to have common sense and be considered smart.
No offense meant by this .
Are you responding to my post, shark?
If so, please note that my post in response to Shadowgm is only a description of my personal experience of having an unusual intellect and having first hand experiences with the unfortunate reactions of those Krugman calls 'the unappeasable' and those Shadowgm calls 'stupid.' I am confident that many of the activists that post herein have similar experiences, but why denigrate me for sharing my own? Because acknowledging one's own 'intelligence' is somehow wrong?
And, do you think that my assertions about fear and resentment and ignorance are off the mark?
I don't think people who self identify as 'stupid' are opposed to being smart. I think they're opposed to feeling 'less than.' And, I stand by my assertion that they are fearful and ignorant.
Apparently, a few people who self-identify as 'intelligent' are also opposed to feeling less than. Sad that my personal observations are perceived as threatening to anyone.
that someone with an intellect as 'unusual' as yours would be able to ascertain which post Muddy was responding to.
And, any underwear I may or may not wear could not ever be as twisted as your 'perceptions' of your very own self.
TTFN and please work on your whinging, it's downright annoying.
is such an ugly trait.
And I do not partake in either. One is because I am married. You need to smoke weed and get laid.
You don't get laid?
Man does he hit the nail on the head when he's talking about them being un-appeasable.
That's one of the hardest things about growing up. You start from a position of being a teenager and thinking you know it all... and that as a consequence, you can and will win every argument you will ever have. Slowly, through life experience, the reality sets in that, even if you are right, there are people out there (a LOT of people) who are absolutely incapable of ever being reasonable or being fair-minded. And so you have to accept, as a matter of survival, that there are situations in life where you just cannot win, and the only thing that will happen by engaging with someone or something is that you will be driven crazy. Some people figure that out quickly, and just walk away from the idiots and never think about them again in their lives.. and some stubborn people like me have to learn it over and over through bad experiences.
The republican party right now is that crazy, unreasonable, un-appeasable person in the life of the Democratic party. And somehow a lot of people IN the Democratic party seem to be unwilling to accept that and deal with it as an unalterable fact of life.
Make yourself out to be more screwed in the head than them. They think they are sane. then start nailing them with reason. After awhile,,, they become mutes.
Ralph Nader: "Now Make Me Do It"
I'm sorry, but, I thought this months ago, even before the healthcare debate. I think the underlying with the base is race, and I think the GOP is using this to inject fear and racial animosity into the picture for one goal; stop Obama. Period. They don't care how it's done, as evidenced by the crazy things we are seeing today, but the GOP know that their base will grab onto whatever they claim and use it to rationalize their opposition to the Obama admin. The sooner the admin grasps this concept and operates accordingly, the better off we all will be. I what reality do people literally believe things that recently were subjects of movie scripts? There is no reasoning with them, it's obvious that GOP lawmakers would rather appease their base by going along with these things, etc., etc. Ignorance is the new vogue in the GOP, and they don't care. Not one bit.
So I think that, if Obama is as astute as we think he is, he would see the GOP for what they are in this game; a literal enemy that he needs to protect America from, because if they have their way, their scorched earth policy will affect us all. If they care nothing for healthcare, what else do you think they'd sacrifice in the name of power???
Do not look at corporate power over everything. Keep laundering money for them.
I've said it before, I am sure I would have more in common with aliens, should I meet up with them, than "humans" of the Repuke base.
When will the Democrats adopt Republican Party Leader Limbaugh's idea of bipartisanship?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OrDo0K3VFc
Perhaps the strategy is to let these idiots punch themselves out. Congress is on recess, after all. Obama plays chess,and these twits play checkers. Hopefully when it comes down to crunch time, all the "unappeasable" get handed their asses.
The majority of people want reform. If we end up with a shit sandwich, it's not going to be pretty.
I've asked a few associates
Admittedly not a scientific survey
But like I expected no one is following the health care story, town hall "protests" et al.
Because it hit me earlier in the week. This is the slowest time of the political year which is August, the Congress and the Supreme Court are in recess
And Antonin Scalia is skulking by the swingsets, beating up Stephen Breyer for milk money.
He's such a rascal.
.
The obvious finally hit me.
the more bread you make,,,,,, the less shit you have to eat
some one is saying it, to hell with them, they are nuts, you can't have bipartisanship with these people, so to hell with them.
... obvious in McCaim's vote on Justice Sotomayor:
She was "inspiring and compelling, an excellent resume and an inspiring life story, but that was not enough for a lifetime of service on the SC.
Dragging fish from the sea with nets and shooting wolves from airplanes though qualifies you to be POTUS.
stop making things up
in September.
Nobody for President: I'm with you.
The Republicans arguments are for crazy people.
Glenn beck and Rushbo is running the party.
As soon as they get the Health care Bill passed the Special Prosecutor will be announced.
Then the GOP will be left with defending the Bush Admin for the 2010 elections.
No one will remember this month.
Prosecutor will be announced." You mean after the statute of limitations has run out?
ON!
but I finished it, to reflect what most of those town hall cretins are really protesting:
... about the Republicans (crazies): "more broadly what they hate is the whole idea of Democrats actually, you know, holding the White House"...and allowing it to be occupied by a black man.
And the ones that don't like him can grab on to the idea that he is frightening and will do something to harm them. The frightening black man idea is what rush, beck and all are playing to. They know these people and how to use them, they are after all the base of the republican party.
He starts off a scary black man than then they toss in something pretend like "death panels". You can almost hear beck saying, I told you so.
If they wanted to hear what the president wants in the heath reform bill they would listen, but they don't give a damn what's in it they just want that man out of the white house.
Each day they continue this childish act makes them look more and more crazy. I think more people are seeing this than are seeing a black man in the white house.
it is all about the "Archie Bunker" attitude.
Try
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7H5uLw92mc&fe...
Obama has been a sell-out since even before coming into office. The FISA vote, the refusal to investigate/prosecute torture and war crimes of the bush administration, none of the promised transparency, and on and on.
And now we find out about backroom deals with drug companies basically protecting their profits. and this is the vaunted healthcare reform we are supposed to get behind?
Could not agree more.
"Oh, but he's pragmatic!"
"He's trying to reach across the aisle!"
No, he's a sellout plain and simple. We got screwed. Again.
I tend to like pragmatism, as long as it's result oriented
But too often it's another word for mind-numbingly slow incrementalism
Like bipartisanism is another word for spreading the blame.
if things didn't go as planned or work out the way they thought they would.
“(T)he mobs and their mentality, for want of a better word, that have almost completely dominated the national debate over health care tend to resemble in their collective mindless mania that obstreperous Rottweiler, one who’s barely worth the trouble he causes but still loved by the family, acting out when he recognizes the all-too familiar route and realizes that Daddy’s driving him to the vet.”
Obama has been reported to have said, “The President has told visitors, ...that he would rather have 70 votes in the Senate for a bill that gives him 85 percent of what he wants rather than a 100 percent satisfactory bill that passes 52-48.”
I never did believe in the purity of Obama's intentions regarding this "bipartisanship", particularly with this health care bill. It's been an excuse to have the health corporations write the bill. Besides, "bipartisanship" implies two differing sides. The false dichotomy we've been having goes hand in hand with a false bipartisanship. Take the gang of 6 in the Senate that's shaping the legislation there. Is there really a difference between the lobbied Max Baucus (D-Montana), versus the flip-flopper, Chuck Grassley¹ (R-Iowa) who supported the "death panels" before he opposed them? Maybe real bipartisanship would be to reconcile the views of Baucus with those of Kucinich?
What I'm seeing out of this government is a joke, and a farce. Hopefully, it's also an eye-opener for people, because our health care issues are a symptom of a greater disease, which is government corruption - government for sale.
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¹ "So either Republicans were for death panels in 2003 before turning against them now--or they're lying about end-of-life counseling in order to frighten the bejeezus out of their fellow citizens and defeat health reform by any means necessary. Which is it, Mr. Grassley ("Yea," 2003)?"
Take off his 'Mission: Impossible-esqe mask' revealing to all he's really a white guy. All the nuts, teabaggers, birthers, deathers, etc... will say "Well we still don't like your politics, but I guess you're alright. Lets go home people and see whats on tee-vee!"
maybe obama was given the same advice jackie robinson got his first year,to turn the other cheek. after his first year, the muzzle was taken off and robinson then became one of the most intimidating and confrontational players of his time. it is now time for obama to take off the muzzle, because these bastards on the right are nothing but wimps that will cowar at the site of an intimidating black man.
this might be a reason.
http://www.progressive.org/wx081209.html
"So far, at least, the Obama administration’s response to the outpouring of hate on the right has had a deer-in-the-headlights quality." Even that is unhelpful. If only it were solely from the right. There are a whole lot of desperate Americans coalescing into a mob _directed_ by the right within the moral vacuum the Democrats have created by being business-as-usual corporate "centrist" Democrats (TM).
If the Obama administration doesn't grow a pair and give the nation a clearly _defined_ and genuinely new vision that is sustainable, bright, and promising, the mob will swallow the fantasies the Neocons give them by default. I wouldn't think the Democratic leadership would want to be on the receiving end of that explosion. What seemed like a Democratic victory for a generation could come to be seen as wildly swinging volatility on the descent to chaos.
Krugman is 100% correct, Republican don't want to work together...no matter what, the repugs will settle for nothing less then total power. The repugs do not support any part of American life, they only support their corporate masters.
And the Dems keep proving that they are too cowardly to stand up to big business and the anti-american repuglicans. If the Democrats would come out and show America the simple facts that the repugs stand in the way of average American's health care, education, unemployment insurance, pensions, and show how they stand firmly against peace and freedom. except that I'm not sure enough of America would care and the repugs would go on the way they always have.
These idiots would be just happy with a dictator like Bush/Cheney and screw America, we don't count to them anyway. And the ignorant citizens who follow this party and/or don't pay attention so they never get angry enough to stand up for what is right allow them to continue their anti-America game plan. The majority of this country simply rolls over for the conservobots. Probably because they are so loud and I'm sure it's just to get them to shut up but that only works until they need to cause or oversee their next disaster and they start the noise machine back up again.
Fuck the republicans and I'm getting a little sick of the Dems, if they can't stand up to these criminals with a bulletproof (more or less) majority, then they never will stand up for anything and don't deserve to hold office any more then the repugs do.
majority. See my post at 12:04 above.
If the Republicans are unappeasable-- and that's right, they are unappeasable-- then for God's sake, why don't the Dems just go for straight-out REAL single-payer health care for all now!!!?
Oh, that's right. I forgot.
Because the Democratic Party is ALSO bought by the US insurance industry. Right.
... at the debates, I heard Obama say that he would cover the uninsured, and pay for it by budget cuts elsewhere in the federal budget. While I've seen clips on the net elsewhere where Obama yaps about single payer, he was *not* endorsing it when I was watching him during the campaign.
And also, paying for the uninsured by cutting costs elsewhere implies that there would be no meaningful cost relief. You know, and I know that we could cover the uninsured and pay for it through cost reductions, either by enacting single payer, or copying one of these hybrid systems used in other industrial countries.
I'm seeing about what I expected to see. Better Supreme Court nominees and better economic policy. And better foreign policy. But not an end to government for sale.
When it comes to foreign policy and economic policy, I'm not seeing change. We are still spending way beyond our means and we are still waging 2 wars overseas and continue to meddle in the affairs of other nations.
This universal healcare "debate" is merely a distraction from the ugly truth that things haven't changed that much, if at all. And why would they have changed? We largely have the same group of people in washington and they are being courted by the same lobbyists and special interests.
In the foreign policy, we have pressed the "reset" button with Russia. Beats the Republican approach. Also, Obama's foreign policy speech in Egypt was brilliant. It may have influenced the Lebanese elections.
Economically, McCain was essentially endorsing the Hoover approach, which was to let the marketplace sort out the winners and losers. While we don't know yet whether the Obama approach will pan out in the long run, there's no sense in trying an approach that has failed in the past.
As far as the wars are concerned, I'd like to see a 2 year plan for Afghanistan instead of Obama's 10 year plan. Bush did kind of lock in the Iraq schedule before leaving.
As far as living within our means, that is a failing of the American people themselves, at least as much as Washington. We (not me) supported a war in Iraq, yet, we didn't pay for it. I wanted a $1/gallon gas tax to pay for it. We see the data on "free" trade that says we're being handed our shirt, yet we continue to support it on ideological grounds. Economic ideology is dangerous - if economic policy isn't supported by data, it's the wrong policy. Economic ideology is lazy, because the ideologue doesn't concern themselves with the data. Since free trade, our economy has relied on a Nasdaq bubble, then a real estate bubble, and now a federal borrowing bubble. We're going to try to foist it off on other countries, but it remains to be seen how successful that will be.
In the last general election, we didn't have a choice on free trade. We had a choice between free and freer ideologues. But, the fact that we're even having a health debate is a change. Under McCain, the health debate would have been a choice between the status quo and this.
Ok, on foreign policy, we've changed our retoric to be less beligerent. But we are still DOING the same things. We are still in Iraq. We are still in Afganistan and are even increasing our troop levels over there. We still are fighting the "War on Terror"... a war that is designed to never end.
Influencing the elections of other countries really doesn't sound like something that we should be doing. Helping ensure that the elections are truely free and fair? Sure. Influencing the outcome? No.
And our economic policy has NOT changed. Under GWB we gave large sums of money to entities that made really really stupid decisions. Under Obama, the same is being done. How is that change? The worst possible thing you could do is to give a bunch of money to someone that made really dumb decisions with the money that they had. You are actually encouraging stupidity!
Under GWB we spent way beyond our means. Under Obama we continue to spend way beyond our means. This is a major problem. Guess what happens when other countries won't finance our reckless spending anymore? Well, we either are forced to make drastic cuts to all sorts of politically touchy programs or we start printing more money (debasing the currency). Which do you think congress will do? LOL! Yeah... Unless we get some real change, we are headed towards hyperinflation.
Free trade was sold to the American public as a good thing. "Hey, you'll be able to pay less for all the things you buy. Yeah!" Of course, they left out the part about all your manufacturing jobs are going to be shipped overseas because Union workers are paid too much. The large corporations were the ones that benefited and continue to benefit.
Change? Yeah... not so much.
Your name...so familiar....
found something..This article .."The last tango: enron and bush" by Tim Wheeler/PWW
http://www.cpusa.org/article/view/348/
it says,
"New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman compared the Enron Crisis to the meltdown of the so-called "asian-tiger" economies four years ago, calling it "crony-capitalism." But Krugman revealed in an earlier column that enron paid him $50,000 to serve on an 'advisory committee." Krugman lamely claimed the body "did nothing." He's wrong.
This was part of Enron's efforts to infiltrate and silence the corporate media."
I found that on the above article, by Tim Wheeler...if you want to check it out, be my guest..
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