I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Kam, I agree. I feel sorry for the true conservatives...wait, no I don't - they let the monster out of the cage. Now we all have to deal with the consequences of the TPGOP.

I think it is hysterical that the baggers are whining and shrieking that the healthcare exchanges aren't working -- because they are so popular the websites keep crashing.  Guess they never had trouble their first day at work, did they? 

What awful people they are.  Rooting for the country to fail because they hate poor people and the black man in the White House.  The opposite of patriots - they hate this country and want it to fail. 

No, Donna, I don't feel the least bit sorry for so-called "true" conservatives.  They wanted to win so badly that they made a deal with the crazy, and they are getting what they so richly deserve.  Unfortunately the rest of us have to live with the consequences until they consume themselves.

I guess turning children with cancer away from NIH clinical trials isn't really turning them away - it is just making them more self-reliant.  Or some other soulless, evil excuse.

Since it’s so popular now days to trash government and government employees, I’d like to share my recent experience.

I called Social Security last week to report the death of my DH who was receiving SS benefits.  I expected them to just take the information and send me forms.  What I got instead was immediate and informative counseling to make sure I was aware of all benefits I might be entitled to.  I also got an offer to schedule a telephone application through my local SS office.  I accepted and a 9:00 am Monday time was set.  Promptly at 9:00 am the call came in.  Another efficient and caring employee took my application information, answered all my questions, and even waited patiently while I dug out some info I didn’t expect they would need.  Since my situation is a little unusual (an offset for my Civil Service annuity is involved) he said he would do the research needed and the computations and call me back that afternoon with the results.  He called back with my benefit info as promised and is sending me the application to review.  I’m to attach the documents they need from me and return it all directly to him in the envelope they will provide.    Efficient, caring, informative, and helpful … how evil of them.

These people were not doing any special favors for me … they don’t know me from Adam.  This is just what they do … walk people through this at a difficult time in their lives.  It is just another example of why I get all ballistic when I hear people spouting crap like ‘furlough them all, they don’t do anything anyway’. 

On a personal level, this rightwing temper tantrum which has shut down the government is likely to delay my payments.  It’s OK for me because I can cover a dry spell … but a lot of people in my situation can’t.   Holding the citizens of this country hostage … knowing that many will be badly hurt by your actions … in a desperate attempt to try to circumvent a law that has been passed by Congress and signed by the President in accordance with our Constitution is my definition of evil.

It pleases me to know that the ACA exchange sites had very heavy traffic today.  Lots of people are finding out that they are finally going to be able to get affordable health insurance coverage.       

I don't think any of these vets will be voting Republican....even if the Repubs "helped" them.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/oct/01/honor-flight-vets-escorted-barricaded-wwii-memoria/

IMO the Republicans who know that this is stupid and harmful to the country and still do nothing to stop it except squeak a tiny bit like little mice are cowards.  They are too afraid to stand up to the crazies because they understand all too well just how crazy they are ... and fear what kind of craziness might be unleashed on them  Cowards.

I'm doing OK Kam ... thanks for the hugs.

People have been flocking to get information from the exchanges.  The genie that the TPers were desperate to keep in the bottle is out.  I've seen several comments from people who have noted that the exchange rates are cheaper and have better coverage than the plans they currently have through their employers.  It's amazing what real competition ... putting rate and benefit info right out there to be compared ... can do.   

Love Rep Louise Slaughter!  She is the ranking Dem on the House Rules Committee.  I just finished watching two interviews on RM.  The first one, a Republican Congressman, Rep Scott Rigell (R) Virginia who claimed he hoped the shutdown stops tomorrow, complained about the gerrymandered districts (i.e. gridlock), disputed there are 80 (R) members who want a shutdown, doesn't want to advance the ACA, BUT claims he doesn't think it is worth stopping government by using a CR to make policy (emphasis).  Says we should stop where we are now and go fund the government <<< SOUNDS GOOD, RIGHT?

Then Rep Louise Slaughter comes on with her very warm southern accent, though a Rep from New York.  "All of this is about stopping 30 million from getting healthcare." RM talks about her interview with Rep Scott Rigell, how he thinks more R's will come around and support a clean CR.  Rep Slaughter goes "Nooooo, noooo" with a sly smile.  She then explained how they're trying to change a rule again so they can get out of this fight with Senate of only offering ammendements and forcing the Senate into cloture again, so they need 60 votes. "They were gleeful last night at shutting down the house.  They will continue doing it.  They're enjoying themselves.  I don't believe anymore that there is some wild-eyed group over there making Republicans do what they don't want to do.  We've got to disabuse ourselves of that.  Whatever they may say about it, they vote for this stuff.  The first time they had a break, Peter King thought he had 25 and I think he had 2.  I've been around here too long.... what they're afraid of is the success of Obamacare.  When 7.5 million people want to find out what it's all about, it looks pretty good to me."

You were so right Libby - can't believe what you hear out of the mouths that protest so much from the Republican side.  Probably saving their own skin in tight districts.  They're still voting with their majority.

In the meantime, their other fake charade.  Notice all of the white guys appointed by Cantor for the fake conference. Louise's comment "Do they ever learn anything?":

We could paste Eric Cantor's face on Miley Cyrus's body and show him twerking it up on the House floor.

RR, the sad part is we don't need Photoshop or dubbing - the regressives say and do stupid and evil things all the time. They frequently say (in front of cameras and mics, even) how their "voter ID" laws will prevent women, minorities, old people and students from voting because they really don't want "those people" voting (some idiot in TX, I believe). And then there was the jaw-dropping video of Rick "Frothy" Santorum calling President Obama the "n" word. And Satan Cheney telling Sen. Leahy to go eff himself. We can't make up the kind of crap they spew themselves.



And, of course, the run-of-the-mill regressives don't believe the evidence anyway. Having the reasoning skills of an eggplant makes it hard to understand how badly their corporate masters are playing them.

E, now I need to scrub my brain.

RL, true. If we truly had a liberal media their goose would have been cooked long ago. If a Democrat does something stupid it's all over all the media. If a Republican does something horrific it gets very little mention by most media and Faux News puts a D up by his name.

This is one of the most reasonable things I've read.

New York Times
October 1, 2013
Our Democracy Is at Stake
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

This time is different. What is at stake in this government shutdown forced by a radical Tea Party minority is nothing less than the principle upon which our democracy is based: majority rule. President Obama must not give in to this hostage taking — not just because Obamacare is at stake, but because the future of how we govern ourselves is at stake.

What we’re seeing here is how three structural changes that have been building in American politics have now, together, reached a tipping point — creating a world in which a small minority in Congress can not only hold up their own party but the whole government. And this is the really scary part: The lawmakers doing this can do so with high confidence that they personally will not be politically punished, and may, in fact, be rewarded. When extremists feel that insulated from playing by the traditional rules of our system, if we do not defend those rules — namely majority rule and the fact that if you don’t like a policy passed by Congress, signed by the president and affirmed by the Supreme Court then you have to go out and win an election to overturn it; you can’t just put a fiscal gun to the country’s head — then our democracy is imperiled.

This danger was neatly captured by Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, when he wrote on Tuesday about the 11th-hour debate in Congress to avert the shutdown. Noting a shameful statement by Speaker John Boehner, Milbank wrote: “Democrats howled about ‘extortion’ and ‘hostage taking,’ which Boehner seemed to confirm when he came to the floor and offered: ‘All the Senate has to do is say ‘yes,’ and the government is funded tomorrow.’ It was the legislative equivalent of saying, ‘Give me the money and nobody gets hurt.’ ”

“Give me the money and nobody gets hurt.” How did we get here? First, by taking gerrymandering to a new level. The political analyst Charlie Cook, writing in The National Journal on March 16, noted that the 2010 election gave Republican state legislatures around the country unprecedented power to redraw political boundaries, which they used to create even more “safe, lily-white” Republican strongholds that are, in effect, an “alternative universe” to the country’s diverse reality.

“Between 2000 and 2010, the non-Hispanic white share of the population fell from 69 percent to 64 percent,” wrote Cook. “But after the post-census redistricting and the 2012 elections, the non-Hispanic white share of the average Republican House district jumped from 73 percent to 75 percent, and the average Democratic House district declined from 52 percent white to 51 percent white. In other words, while the country continues to grow more racially diverse, the average Republican district continues to get even whiter.”

According to Cook, the number of strongly Democratic districts decreased from 144 before redistricting to 136 afterward. The number of strongly Republican districts increased from 175 to 183. “When one party starts out with 47 more very strong districts than the other,” said Cook, “the numbers suggest that the fix is in for any election featuring a fairly neutral environment. Republicans would need to mess up pretty badly to lose their House majority in the near future.” In other words, there is  little risk of political punishment for the Tea Party members now holding the country hostage.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s inane Citizens United decision allowed a single donor, Sheldon Adelson, to create his own alternative universe. He was able to contribute so much money to support Newt Gingrich’s candidacy that Gingrich was able to stay in the Republican presidential primary race longer than he would have under sane campaign finance rules. As a result, Gingrich was able to pull the G.O.P.’s leading candidate, Mitt Romney, farther to the right longer, making it harder for him to garner centrist votes. Last month, for the first time ever in Colorado, two state senators who voted for universal background checks on gun purchases lost their seats in a recall election engineered by gun extremists and reportedly financed with some $400,000 from the National Rifle Association. You’re elected, you vote your conscience on a narrow issue, but now determined opponents don’t have to wait for the next election. With enough money, they can get rid of you in weeks.

Finally, the rise of a separate G.O.P. (and a liberal) media universe — from talk-radio hosts, to Web sites to Fox News — has created another gravity-free zone, where there is no punishment for extreme behavior, but there’s 1,000 lashes on Twitter if you deviate from the hard-line and great coverage to those who are most extreme. When politicians only operate inside these bubbles, they lose the habit of persuasion and opt only for coercion. After all, they must be right. Rush Limbaugh told them so.        

These “legal” structural changes in money, media and redistricting are not going away. They are superempowering small political movements to act in extreme ways without consequences and thereby stymie majority rule. If democracy means anything, it means that, if you are outvoted, you accept the results and prepare for the next election. Republicans are refusing to do that. It shows contempt for the democratic process.

President Obama is not defending health care. He’s defending the health of our democracy. Every American who cherishes that should stand with him.