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Comments Posted By Firbolg

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Outrage Manufacturing, Inc.

I realize I have kicked a hornet’s nest here and apologize to all.
I knew that this site was a refuge for many of the progressive left HP posters (myself included) that were increasingly fed up with the bias and censoring even before the sellout to AOL.
I had hoped that others like myself who supported Obama initially and had honestly tracked and assessed his behavior since would, like me, at least admit to some disappointment and would be open to two-sided debate.
As I have a similar backlash on another thread, I will stay away.
However I would suggest you follow both the composition and performance of the super committee against two issues already on the way before the year-end; the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the next SGR vote on Medicare rates for physicians. I believe Congress and the Administration will follow the same path as when they conflated the debt ceiling and deficit reduction to the detriment of both and the American people even though for the Bush tax cuts the Democrats hold the hostage (tax cuts) this time.

» Posted By Firbolg On August 5, 2011 @ 5:42 pm

I also have been here before the site was launched – whatever that has to do with anything. And I always make a clear distinction between “stupid” (which I did not use) and “ignorance.” The latter can be willful or due to circumstances beyond the person’s control.

With regard to my post, I believe in the principle of equifinality – in popular idiom, “that there is more than one way to skin a cat”. It is clear to me for reasons that should be obvious if you research the issue that both sides of the aisle in Congress are targeting Medicare and Social Welfare as a significant plank in the debt reduction edifice. The rules of the “super committee’ are just another path to that goal. By permitting Medicare to be cut whether the committee agrees or not, they have guaranteed a “lose-lose” situation for what are supposed to be Democratic Party principles. I also believe they did this in collusion and with “malice aforethought”.

» Posted By Firbolg On August 5, 2011 @ 5:01 pm

To coin a phrase “I am therefore I think.” So that is the default for all posters, hopefully.
Links – sure, no problem.

http://improvehealthcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/IHC-PPACA-Case-2010-final.pdf
Page 7.

http://www.aapsonline.org/fraud/medfraud.htm
Second main heading.

http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2011/08/02/there-will-be-blood-on-the-floor-on-november-23rd/
Paragraph 9 plus others.

And if you want to see why I believe any remaining Obama supporter is deluded, set two hours aside and watch
http://metanoia-films.org/compilations.php

» Posted By Firbolg On August 5, 2011 @ 3:41 pm

The “Super Committee” is an abdication of power by the Democrats who have turned into abject appeasers, lead by the Appeaser in Chief, the president. They get away with it because any remaining Obama supporters are like flounder – both eyes on the same side of their head.
“…Medicare benefits are exempted…”
Yes, Adlib, you’re right the are exempted.
But payments to Medicare providers will be cut. Existing Medicare rates are already helping the “get rid of Medicare” job done slowly but surely – not as fast, perhaps, as the united parties of the United States for Wealthy Americans want but making progress every day. Further cuts will be just what the doctors and other providers ordered to allow them to drop more Medicare patients. This is like saying there will be no restriction on Americans using their cars, but gas will be increased to $50 a gallon and all roads will have toll gates.
Want to bet when the next time Medicare rates come up under Paygo the issue will be taken hostage by the GOP and the Democrats will rush to their lockers for white flags again?

» Posted By Firbolg On August 5, 2011 @ 12:00 pm

The President Who Isn’t

Apologies, Adlib.
I thought I was still on a thread and responding to “Choicelady” above. Also I was referring to Obama’s speech – not to what anyone wrote when I mentioned “new members”. I think we have run out of space and far from common ground on this thread so let’s just agree to differ.

» Posted By Firbolg On July 28, 2011 @ 4:31 pm

I thought that as a lobbyist you would have a deeper understanding of spin. I would be surprised if any voter went to the polls to deliberately elect a “divided government”. That result is due to our simplistic and corrupt political system but Obama’s genius is to make it appear the voters’ fault and have everyone swallow that whole – apparently including you. Saying this in the context of belittling the “new members of Congress” (or did you miss that as well?) clearly was no accident. The subtitles to what he said are “if you don’t vote for incumbents and the status quo you deserve what you get”.
Also your description is of a follower and not a leader and very clearly applies to Obama. Martin Luther King was a leader; he stood against the flow and paid for it – but the nation benefited. Obama tries to appease everyone from the well intentioned to be trusted to the torturer to be shunned but particularly the elite who are already stuffing his election coffers. He follows fanatics to the brink of the deep hole they dug for themselves to plead and cajole and offer them concessions that hurt the tolerant and disadvantaged. Please – give us a least one statesman every 8 years or so.

» Posted By Firbolg On July 28, 2011 @ 12:57 pm

In his speech the other day Obama said “Americans voted for divided government, not for a dysfunctional government”. This is typical of his mastery of newspeak which, I have to admit, took me in during the presidential campaign. I have become sadder and wiser since experiencing his total behavior, not just his clever rhetoric. I now understand that his “…clinging to guns and religion…” remark and his praise for Reagan was the real Obama.
In Francis Fukuyama’s new book “The Origins of Political Order” he writes “left to their own devices, elites tend to increase the size of their (wealth), and in the face of this, rulers have two choices. They can side with the peasantry and use state power to promote reform…or the rulers can side with the aristocracy and use state power to reinforce the hold of local oligarchs over their peasants.” I believe Obama came to this T junction during the campaign and turned hard right and has not looked back ever since.
I believe the president should be the middleman between the electorate and the other arms of government. His job is not always to “go with the flow” but often to oppose it. Sometimes, as was the case with LBJ who, like Obama took over and augmented an unpopular, atrocity plagued and pointless war, it meant sacrificing another term even though he did a statesman’s job in persisting with civil rights and Medicare. Obama should do the right thing for the country and follow LBJ’s example.

» Posted By Firbolg On July 28, 2011 @ 10:41 am

I also believe Carter was correct. I live in a red district in Southern California and the remarks I hear and mass circulation emails that are passed on from neighbors validate Carter. And its not just Obama, it is also Mrs. Obama.
That being said, I think all three presidents you mention plus the one in the middle, GWB, have been a disaster for ordianry Americans. My mantra is “Clinton set us up, Bush ran amok and Obama say’s “go suck.” The debt/deficit manufactured crisis is just another smokescreen behind which the less fortunate and seniors will have their pockets picked again. Just as in the MMA under Bush and Obama’s Affordable Healthcare – or should that be wealthcare – Act. Add the ongoing occupations and related slaughter of innocents in the perpetual wars, loss of constitutional protections and surrender to business and special interest money and you have the picture.

» Posted By Firbolg On July 27, 2011 @ 10:23 pm

We Are Morally Bound to Take Care of Each Other

“The social and its most significant embodiment – the welfare state – is now viewed as an albatross around the neck of neoliberal notions of accumulation (as opposed to “progress”). Society has become hyper-individualized, trapped by the lure of material success and stripped of any obligation to the other.”
In other words, we have become like the corproations that own our lives.

» Posted By Firbolg On July 9, 2011 @ 4:40 pm

AARP celebrates by launching new insurance policies.

» Posted By Firbolg On July 9, 2011 @ 4:38 pm

An Ill-advised Rant on the Nature of Arguments

Like you, Caru, I am also Irish. I agree with everything in your post.
I believe that, for the Irish, debate is a sport much like chess to the Russians.
The advantage is that, unlike chess, we don’t need to carry around boards and pieces!
Whether you call it argument or debate, provided it is carried out intellectually with passion and not anger, and with an open mind it is always enjoyable, and very often enlightening.
To me winning or losing comes in second to having a good debate and I will often preferred to join in on the “weaker” side to test my debating mettle.

» Posted By Firbolg On February 27, 2011 @ 6:43 pm

An Avatar by Any Other Name

Much appreciated.

» Posted By Firbolg On February 18, 2011 @ 12:33 pm

I see an avatar as and asexual logo. I chose my username to reflect my Irish connections and my avatar because it was (a) memorable and (b) I thought, cute.
My avatar problem is different. I have been unable to navigate the convoluted process to upload my avatar to this blog. PlanetPOV’s help function sent me to several other sites where their online tech support took refuge behind IT jargon to disguise the fact they couldn’t help. It seems I may have used different usernames – and maybe even different e-mail addresses – in the past on sites that are affiliated with WordPress.com or WordPress.org (who I’m told are not related) and no one has the wit or the will to unscramble this for me.

» Posted By Firbolg On February 18, 2011 @ 11:45 am