Displaying 9,511 To 9,540 Of 9,743 Comments It’s Getting Ugly Out There Folks These are the nutters we are dealing with these days.
» Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 15, 2009 @ 2:22 pm Journalistic Integrity: IS the truth really out there? TD a good example of the modern media for you. Kaiser Group came out with a study that healthcare costs would grow about 5% a year. Obviously a very conservative number but much higher than wage increases. The point is what is the media focusing on again today BS like Kanye West being called a jackass by the president, Joe Wilson’s censure and Faux News is busy lying about teabagger crowd sizes. Of course stories that would actually help real healthcare reform pass are pushed to the bottom. http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3311963 » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 15, 2009 @ 7:06 pm TD you should read this analysis on healthcare costs by the Commonwealth Fund which is a real nonpartisan group. They did the numbers on the growth in healthcare costs and Bill Moyers was even a little on the low side of costs but much closer then what the media has been reporting. As someone who studied business early in my college career you have to remember 6.5% compounds every year so in no time costs will double again like they have in less than the last ten years. How universal healthcare lowers costs. http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Fund-Reports/2009/Jun/Fork-in-the-Road.aspx With no universal healthcare costs will rise 6.5% If you don’t think 1.3% is much it’s about $2 trillion dollars over 10 years. Moreover insurance rates will go DOWN 25% with a strong public option. I know the numbers for single payer would be even lower. Single payer would probably cut the cost of heatlhcare at least in half if not more. But I do understand the political realities as well and too many people against their own interests are afraid of single payer now. But that’s why we must have a public option to prove single payer works. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 15, 2009 @ 1:36 pm Excellent compilation TD Moyers is one of the true voices of sanity in our insane media environment. The sad part is he can be only because he’s works in public television. I should comment on our so-called left leaning media as well. Of course I prefer commentators like Shultz, Olberman and Maddow on MSNBC because they all have a personal progressive slant. But in many ways they are just as bad feeding the derisive memes of the MSM. They focus on the partisan battles instead of the truth and advocacy of progressive ideas. For example the only time Olberman and Maddow specifically talk about healthcare is when they see some kind of faux outrage regarding the healthcare horse race rather than talking sanely about the issues. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 15, 2009 @ 12:33 pm I almost use HP just to contact the friendly people I have associated with over the last couple of years rather than a serious blog any more. Their policies of censoring words and limiting comments to 250 words is too stifling for me to express myself. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 15, 2009 @ 1:39 pm You are absolutely right. I’ve been posting allot less on HP in particular for that reason. We are empowering them. DailyKOS is still good but I hate their colors and comment system. Fivethirtyeight with Nate Silver always has a balanced and technical view of things that I love. Thinkprogress is also pretty good. Just last night someone on HP posted and I agree that one of the reasons HP is popular is because it has a much better comment system then most sites, especially DailyKOS and Fivethirtyeight for example. It shows what big corporate money can do. I think the WordPress comment system is one of the best too BTW. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 15, 2009 @ 11:49 am Yep those are the only people you can really “trust” and it’s a sad testament to the demise of the fourth estate that two get their points through with comedy and parody. Bill Moyers is about the only source of domestic straight honest news. I watch BBC America News which is a quasi-foreign news broadcast without the spin of American news. I wish I got CNN International. Kalima says they are excellent covering world news events. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 15, 2009 @ 11:41 am Yup the ridiculousness of the MSM which very much includes commercial blogs like HP jump the shark every day no matter what the reality of that day brings. A. Huffington actually said the president did not understand how to get regulatory changes on Wall Street because he changed the words in his address from “fight” to “resist”. Her minions all nodded in agreement with her adolescent logic like she was some adroit Nobel winning economist. Of course even simple logic begged the question. Did President Obama understand what he was up against BEFORE he made the final edit to his speech? » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 15, 2009 @ 12:17 am That’s ridiculous because as many people as possible should feel privileged to read inspiring stories like Q’s. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 13, 2009 @ 2:04 pm Read My Lips: No Pubic Option! Like Shakespeare said ‘an asshole by any other name’. Well actually I kind of just made that up. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 12, 2009 @ 9:05 pm Great article. You really hit the nail on the head. The hate, illogic, hypocrisy, savagery and ignorance of these people has no bounds whatsoever. After the first teabagger rallies a responsible conservative said all the anger directed at President Obama was directed at the wrong person. He said it was Bush that broke every tenant of fiscal discipline and he was 100% correct. The worst part is these people are suppose to be “populists” but it’s corporate Faux News and corporations lobbyists that set up these demonstrations now. Let’s face it the main reason driving this hatred is racism pure and simple. 90% of the signs have nothing to do about healthcare or spending, they are about hate. The only saving grace is this hate is making the teabag movement more and more a fringe movement. At first there were some more moderate populists in the movement and even some on the left in the movement but not now. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 12, 2009 @ 4:42 pm This country really does some amazing things sometimes. We should not underestimate the amazing things we’ve done in the past that should make us proud. We were the only country so far to land mankind on the moon. We are the only democracy to vote a minority to the highest office in the land as progressive as we think Europe is they have never done that. I just watched a documentary last night about April 1865, the end of the civil war, if it was not for great men like Lincoln, Lee, Grant, Sherman and Johnston to end the war in a civil manner the war would have lasted years longer and the nation would be worse off for it. Yes these men believed and fought “hard war” but once the Union had won they believed in “easy peace”. The documentary ended up with a story I never heard before about a former slave coming up to communion in a mostly white church from his coloured section in the back. The church was silent and no one quite knew when to do save for this old many with silver hair and beard who kneels next to that man for communion whose name was Robert E. Lee. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 12, 2009 @ 5:02 pm You should really post this every anniversary of 911. I know I bookmarked it to read it again. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 12, 2009 @ 4:45 pm Wow Q that was an incredibly moving true story. Thanks so much for sharing it with us. You folks that were there and reacted in the truly compassionate and heroic way you did will never be forgotten. About the only good thing that has lasted since 911 is the fact how at least for a while this nation came together under crisis. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 12, 2009 @ 11:54 am Republicans: Why do you deserve my vote? I have not voted for a Republic in over two decades and will probably never vote Republic gain. I also think a vote for a third party that can’t win is a Republic vote. Yeah that leaves me voting for the lesser of two evils sometimes but that’s always better than voting for people I know will NEVER represent my interests. You are so right about Dems and expectations. Republicans promise nothing so when they don’t deliver it really does not matter to their constituents. Delivering tax cuts is easy because it’s always popular in the short run. Dems will never fulfill all there promises but they do fulfill some and that’s allot better than zero. The fact is we need a Democrat majority for a while to shift the country back to center left like the greatest generation was. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 11, 2009 @ 10:39 pm My wife said something very similar today. To me patriotic African Americans are some of the most patriotic people because of this country’s history. Like I said in another post we also do live up to our promise sometimes as well and the election of President Obama shows that. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 13, 2009 @ 2:01 pm Yup crocks like “American Exceptionalism” are excuses by right wingers to make exceptions to our rule of laws like justifying torture. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 12, 2009 @ 5:13 pm “if you are » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 11, 2009 @ 12:09 pm The other thing that always gets me is thinking about the deaths of all the first responders because they actually went into the buildings to save people. Having grown up in NJ watching the NY news almost every night because my parents had it on, NY firefighters were my true heroes growing up. To hear that hundreds were snuffed out in an instant still gets me chocked up. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 11, 2009 @ 12:59 pm Great piece thanks for sharing. Before I moved down south I worked in Newark, NJ. It was a difficult time in my life because I was in a bad marriage at the time and bad job. On of my few points of solace during the day was driving down RT 22 or I 78 and seeing the Manhattan skyline with the twin towers right in front of me. On some days seeing that skyline was the high point of my day. Sure they were only two buildings but they also were symbols of America’s standing in the world at one time. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 11, 2009 @ 11:26 am They can do as many derivatives as they want as long as the underlying loans are sound. It was derivatizing weak loans to make them appear secure that was the bottom line problem. But again the most progressive thing the president is asking for, the financial consumer protection agency progressives are ignoring because of the prompted outrage. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 12, 2009 @ 9:39 pm Hey AdLib saw a post from you at the Huffy loony bin. The fact is 911 and the Wall Street banking crisis have one thing in common. Both will never happen again in our lifetimes the same way, far from it because knowledge of what happened in the for place was the corrrection needed. Never again are passengers or crew going to let terrorist take control of a jumbo jet. Hell even the last group of hijackers found that out. Also never again are agencies going to be that separated and dysfunctional even without creation of the DHS. There may be other smaller attacks but nothing like 911. Just like with Wall Street never are so many people or businesses going to get loans that cannot afford those loans and that’s even before setting new regulations. So never will we see a bubble like the one we saw. People are saving more money and paying down debt instead. In both cases the enforcers were in place but just did not act. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 11, 2009 @ 11:59 pm Wow Nellie that was awesome. I really missed your insight. Never have the “should of beens” ever been so painful to imagine. The whole adolescent contrarianism, whatever Clinton did was bad, Bush ushered in early in his presidency was the reason 911 happened. People forget Bush just the day before 911 asked congress to cut the terrorism budget in HALF. That’s why I’m glad President Obama did not summarily end everything Bush did though he is still slowly and properly dismantling everything Bush did wrong. I’ve shared a couple stories today I have not shared since 911 because in many ways it’s still too painful to think of that day. But still my biggest frustration comes from what could have been if we had a real leader at the time. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 11, 2009 @ 2:15 pm Excellent and oh so true post AdLib. Nothing got better after 911 and the terrorists did indeed win. I think the collapse of the financial systme also proved the terrorists right that we have a wholly corrupt system since deregulation. The far worst part is we could have been better off now, much better off. We did have the support of almost the entire world and Bush blew that in his his war of lies. We could have had national unity if we really had a unifying president as well. The bottom line is ground zero is still a big hole, we have less freedom, our system is more corrupt and we have the Afghanistan War that should be over by now. It will take decades to fix everything that Bush broke after this horrible day eight years ago. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 11, 2009 @ 11:20 am So I guess this means Van Jones gets his job back now, right? I was upset and my wife was even more upset. Time after time right wingers show the president just that added amount of disrespect that can mean nothing but they resent his ethnic origins. It’s so obvious and sooooooooo wrong. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 10, 2009 @ 5:41 pm You can gouge me with overdraft fees, but please don’t give me health insurance! Unfortunately too many conservatives I’m talking about are in the Democratic Party. Democrats in wolves clothing I think of them as. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 11, 2009 @ 12:26 am At this point I hope it’s even formed in the first place. Of course conservatives and the chamber of commerce is fighting it’s creation. They still firmly believe in deregulation and want to fight regulations, especially regulations that help people at any cost. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 10, 2009 @ 9:46 pm I am remiss for not saying great article and welcome initially. I think you have allot of insight. There are only a few types of Republicans these days. Republicans that are rich or think they are going to be rich some day the latter is the Joe the Plumber idiot that votes against his own interests. The third type is the social conservative that does not vote on their logical self interests but on their “beliefs” even though the family values Republicans have been exposed as well. This does not preclude the existence of many corporate Dems that are Dems in wolve’s clothing. The best part of the regulations the white house has put together is a financial consumer protection agency that would be put together to curb the very abuses you are talking about with proper legislation. Unfortunately too many progressive are still reeling from the bailouts that they refuse to focus support even on good advances in regulations. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 10, 2009 @ 9:08 pm We have to stop giving the banks the much of the power they have. Individuals really can do something to extract banks from their lives in many ways. Every car loan I get through a credit union. I did my mortgage with a credit union but they sold it to citi. My main account is with an investment account with minimal fees and have replaced my credit cards with debit cards so I never pay bank interest or credit card fees. People are starting to make changes that will curb bankers greed but it won » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 10, 2009 @ 7:54 pm It’s time: I need YOU, WE need US Done. Thanks for the link. I’ll probably update my post with the links to contact the white house, congress and sign petitions. We must all act all the time. We sent about a dozen emails to the white house before the speech and I think with the thousands of others the white house got it helped define what the president wants with healthcare reform more definitely. » Posted By KQµårk 死神 On September 10, 2009 @ 2:44 pmComments Posted By KQµårk 死神
With only private universal healthcare costs will rise 5.8%
With universal healthcare with public option costs will rise 5.6%
With universal healthcare with public option and Medicare limits costs will rise 5.2%
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