A Nation of Dumbasses
Birthplace of our President. Really, no kidding.
According to a new Public Policy Poll, 10% of Americans either believe Hawaii is not part of the United States or are unsure about it. (See, Q4 on Page 2 of release.) Jesus H. Limping Christ on a Fucking Raft! We deserve whatever awful fate awaits us. Perhaps the swine flus will kill off a lot of stupid people and ultimately save us from ourselves. One can only hope.
The Prez and some Lady Flyers
WASP pilot Bernice Falk Haydu pulls back the chair of President Barack Obama after signing S.614, a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots, in the Oval Office Wednesday, July 1, 2009. At far left is WASP pilot Elaine Danforth Harmon, and at right is Lorraine H. Rodgers. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) is at right in green. Current US Air Force pilots are in the background. Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) was established during World War II, and from 1942 to 1943, more than a thousand women joined, flying sixty million miles of non-combat military missions. Of the women who received their wings as Women Airforce Service Pilots, approximately 300 are living today. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Why we MUST have a public option
FDR
President Obama has the opportunity to reshape our society in the same way that FDR did in the 1930’s.
Unbridled capitalism has clearly failed. The rest of the world has moved beyond us to the detriment of our great mantra – “Competition”. What cripples American business is that they cannot compete with foreign companies that do not have to pay staggering health care costs to private insurance companies in order to cover their workers. And, cover them they must, if they want to retain the best workers possible, after all, they have to compete in the US labor markets as well.
I am a government worker and, as such, I have a “Cadillac” private plan – Blue Cross. But, only because I work for an entity with 7,000 employees and an Insurance Office to intercede in beefs over coverage, am I fairly satisfied. I am sure if I was working in a small law firm, if I had coverage at all, I would be subject to the whims of the coverage thugs at the insurance company.
Medicare has consistently had a 3% rate for administrative costs. My best guess, from reading a lot, is that private health care companies have a 15 – 20% administrative cost. Think about that.
The argument against a public option is that it will result in rationing. Have you dealt with a private health plan lately? I have. If they do not engage in rationing, I’ll kiss your ass in Marshall Fields’ window at high noon. Covered drugs vs. uncovered drugs? HA! That’s just the beginning.
The other argument is that WE – those of us with private plans – would be paying more out of our pocket to cover the people in the public option plan. WE already are. Most of the people who would fit into the public plan are now waiting until they are deathly ill and then seek treatment in an emergency room and the charges are astronomical. They do not pay the bill. The hospital writes this off as uncollectible and passes that loss off to US in the form of higher rates to our private insurance companies.
The snake is eating its own tail.
First Dad takes some time out for his girls – instead of screwing around on his wife with some chippie in Argentina, like some people we know
President Barack Obama pushes daughters Malia and Sasha at the unveiling of swing-set on South Lawn outside Oval Office, March 4, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
What more do they want him to say?
President Obama.
The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost. I’ve made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is not interfering with Iran’s affairs. But we must also bear witness to the courage and the dignity of the Iranian people and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore the violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place. This is what we’ve witnessed. We’ve seen the timeless dignity of tens of thousands of Iranians marching in silence. We’ve seen people of all ages risk everything to insist that their votes are counted and that their voices are heard. Above all, we’ve seen courageous women stand up to the brutality and threats, and we’ve experienced the searing image of a woman bleeding to death on the streets. While this loss is raw and extraordinarily painful, we also know this: those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.
President Barack Obama, speaking today at the White House.
The End of Empire – The BRIC is hitting the fan, folks!
Children playing with stacks of cash in Weimar Germany.
Stop reading right now unless you are prepared to be massively depressed. Our empire has fallen. We are now, officially, the Romans. In a stunning, devastating piece at TruthDig, Chris Hedges puts together the cataclysmic chain of events to come that many of us have struggled to round up and articulate since September of 2007. It took a year after that for the situation to get so bad, on September 21, 2008, that the Congressional leadership was called together by the Fed and Treasury and told without a massive cash infusion of tax dollars the whole rotten movie set that was our economy was going to fall on top of us. Riot, mayhem, violence and disintegration were sure to follow. Out of that meeting was born TARP, TALF, AIG, GM, the stimulus package, etc.
The whole piece is a must read, but some snippets after the jump will curl your hair.
Paying Their Respects
President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama (l) and Malia Obama watch as Sasha Obama lights a candle in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, June 6, 2009. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)
Good Old Fashioned Politics – Kissing Babies
President lifts up child of Embassy Staffer in Paris
Bill Hits the Nail Right on the Head
Embittered.
From
the Los Angeles Times
Opinion
The GOP: divorced from reality
The Republican base is behaving like a guy who just got dumped by his wife.
By Bill Maher
April 24, 2009
If conservatives don’t want to be seen as bitter people who cling to their guns and religion and anti-immigrant sentiments, they should stop being bitter and clinging to their guns, religion and anti-immigrant sentiments.
It’s been a week now, and I still don’t know what those “tea bag” protests were about. I saw signs protesting abortion, illegal immigrants, the bank bailout and that gay guy who’s going to win “American Idol.” But it wasn’t tax day that made them crazy; it was election day. Because that’s when Republicans became what they fear most: a minority.
Politics Bag – 04/20/09
- Queen of the Teabaggers
- Matt Taibbi has some great questions for the teabaggers who are on his ass about his fantasy of teabagging Michele Malkin. I must say he has greater courage than I, who cannot imagine getting the jewels anywhere in proximity to the fangs of the Thalidomide Blogger.
Politics Bag – 04/14/09
- Is NY next?
- Wonkette perceives “Balkanization” in the Teabagger movement.
- NY Guv to push same-sex marriage bill in Lege.
- MN Court declares Franken winner. Coleman to appeal – natch.
- Bernie Sanders tells Alabama McCarthyite to put up or shut up.
- The Party of No stumbles in PR efforts.
- Spanish Court plans to move ahead with torture indictments against Bush Admin officials.
Piracy Update
- They could be keel-hauled, too.
- President’s role detailed in effort to free pirate hostage.
- Congressman’s plane under mortar rounds and gunfire from Somali rebels.
- Snipers take down 3 pirates to rescue captain – firing 3 perfect shots at a small lifeboat 25 yards away at night and from the stern of a ship on rolling waters.
- Pirates vow revenge for the killings. Under admiralty law, custom and usage pirates may be summarily executed by hanging aboard ship.
Day Old Bread – Odds and Ends – 04/09/09
- Coming soon to a legislature near you.
- REAL U.S. unemployment @ 15.6%. Maybe. (This is not one of my tin-foil hat sites, either.)
- The Country loves Our Barry, isn’t buying GOPers bullshit.
- The troops were digging on him too. He rocked the casbah!
- Vermont Lege makes it legal - over GOP Guv’s veto.
- It’s ain’t over till its over – the Depression, that is.
Politics Bag – 04/09/09
- Get on board, Comrade, we’re ALL Socialists now!
- The left is pressuring the center on health care.
- Even Republicans want Normie Coleman to call it quits.
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