Stats

Comments Posted By choicelady

Displaying 5,041 To 5,070 Of 5,146 Comments

The Mind of the Politician

Pepe and Nellie – I agree with Nellie. My faith organization was decisively NO on 8, and we work long and hard for GLBTQ rights. And we recognize how essential it is that CONGRESS and/or the courts weigh in on these two issues. An Executive Order is pretty worthless indeed. Shifting this nation away from the Imperial Presidency is, KQuark, precisely what I also so admire about Obama. We’ve had years of the hare. Chaos has ensued. Now we have the tortise. Slow and steady wins the race.

» Posted By choicelady On December 12, 2009 @ 10:57 am

bitohistory – you obviously know more than a BIT o’history! I tried to make this point, even recalling that the Revolution of 1776 would have been 1773 had the farmers in western areas of the colonies been on board, but they saw no need for three more years!

I greatly resent the idea that if you’re aware of our national tendency to make haste slowly, you’re some kind of sell-out! I am too damned old and have fought too many good fights to be slammed by people who rule from armchairs. And that, I find, is where my critics lie – they have no skin in the game, sacrifice NOTHING, declaim but don’t work for what they believe. So where is their voice telling Obama what to change and how much they want it? Pure lazy.

It’s so easy to criticize, so hard to fight for what your want. But if so-called progressives start pitting themselves against those of us in the trenches, we are doomed.

I SO appreciate the thoughtful assessments of policies and practices I read here. You kept me sane yesterday. Otherwise I might have bitten someone!

Thanks, all!

» Posted By choicelady On December 12, 2009 @ 10:52 am

Obama aside, I have been reasonably impressed with many of the people working on health care in the midst of the greatest hysterical meltdown I can remember seeing since Selma brought out the dogs. My largest fury, however, is not with the RW – I’d expected that – but with the “progressives” who are recapitulating the arrogant elitism (is that redundant?) of 1980 when students, with no skin in the game, refused to vote at all, saying Carter and Reagan were equally awful. Well, not if you were living in poverty, they weren’t. Not if you were Black, they weren’t. Not if you were a union person they weren’t. Not if you were an ordinary shlub trying to have a job they weren’t. Carter sucked. Reagan was evil. BIG difference.

I spent all day yesterday being hijacked into a totally phony “debate” about which was more moral – single payer health coverage or the bills being worked out in Congress. Well, duh. I’ve supported single payer since Hector was a pup, but it’s NOT what’s on the floor. I found myself being labelled as anti-single payer because my work is to help my organization’s members learn to articulate what they believe is the BEST POLICY in any bill we face. So I got to be the straw man for a bunch of wimpy so-called “progressives” who are “too good” to deal with Congress when what is on the floor is not single payer. Well, tell than to my uninsured friends with health problems. Very first thing any plan will do is cover them immediately. So I get to tell THEM that the elitists WITH health coverage are opposing reform because it’s no ideologically pure? Because it’s not – yet – single payer?

We can blame our elected leaders only so far. KevenSeven if you’re in CA, our legislators are roped and hog tied by wave after wave of ill-considered propositions we (some people) voted in in a fit of pique. They did not read them and did not realize that beyond the first three lines lay hideously complicated processes that have rendered the CA legislature absolutely unworkable.

Obama is facing the crisis of legitimacy that the previous Rethug dominated processes have created. This government has been hijacked by RW corporate and religious conservatives, but they do have a presence. He is balancing everyone’s rights, and to do this well takes time. I love seeing Congress finally take the gloves off on the financial sector, and yes, DADT, DOMA, etc. will all have to be changed not by him but by Congress. But he HAS made change.

Too bad the ideological purists on the left are too smug and too vested in complaining to see how far we already have come. Whining progressives may well be why we don’t have more progress. “Too good to get my hands dirty with politics” is a recipe for failure. I’m sick of it and sick of my fomer allies. Progress comes when WE make it. Period.

» Posted By choicelady On December 12, 2009 @ 9:12 am

Embrace Change

Saw Bush on a tape of one of his press conferences – wow. What a smirking, dismissive person he was (and no doubt still IS.) I am horrified to see how used to him I’d become. The change is awesome!

» Posted By choicelady On December 10, 2009 @ 4:06 pm

Hi escribacat – no such luck as an article about it already done. If you’d like ME to do it, I will work on it. He submitted via the first DOJ people just a couple of weeks into office, then under Holder those cases already in the pipeline, never changing one word of what Bush had argued. The progressives went NUTS assuming this meant he AGREED with Bush. Nope. He’s had only one adverse (meaning pro-Bush policy) ruling. He knew what he could do. MUCH faster, the rulings are on Bush policy, very cool. I will see if I can scare up the info. Few people paid any attention other than to whine that he was selling out. Duh.

» Posted By choicelady On December 10, 2009 @ 4:00 pm

It’s designed to make progressive turn on him. There IS such a thing, not sure this is it, but I take him at his word that he’s trying to do right by the gigantic mess Bush left him and us.

And if Bush thought THIS was a “just war”, why did he STOP going after bin Laden when his forces were saying they knew where he WAS? Rumsfeld and the Bush cronies appear not to have wanted to get bin Laden because then they’d have NO “justice” in their “just war” when they so clearly wanted war, no matter what. I will never recover from hearing Bush so blithely dismiss bin Laden saying he did not spend any time thinking about him.

Tell that to over 3000 good people who died on your watch, Mr. B.

» Posted By choicelady On December 10, 2009 @ 3:28 pm

Thank you for such a great post! I could not agree more! And to everyone who noted that we don’t have to agree with every jot and tittle of what he says and does to admire him – you are right (as in correct!) as well. It is nice to have an adult in office, and a man with real character and stability. I do a lot of work on legal issues around torture, and my allies are all screaming that he’s betraying us by submitting the court defense of the Bush administration (already in play) when what he did was brilliant. He got rulings AGAINST the “Bush Doctrine” on virtually every issue. That freed him from RW diatribes AND achieved fast results. Why do so many Americans prefer ideological purity to actual achievement? The man is amazing. I feel secure with him – if worried about his own safety – and am proud to be an American again for the first time in decades. Thank you all for the great comments. It’s nice to be home on the Planet.

» Posted By choicelady On December 10, 2009 @ 1:56 pm

Talking about Not Talking about Not Talking

bitohistory – some of the first cases had indeed to be carried on as Bush entered them. DOJ had no choice, which is something people don’t understand. When, in one case, they elected not to ask for a delay, it was because they KNEW the courts would rule against the Bush doctrine, and they were right. To my knowledge, which is not complete, they have pled the cases just as Bush and company wrote them. All because they could tell that the courts would NOT uphold the Bush doctrine. Brilliant, IMHO.

NOW I’m headed to sleep!

» Posted By choicelady On December 10, 2009 @ 7:54 pm

I will work that up. I’ve not posted before, only replied, but I think – think – I have the hang of it. All your great help has made this less awesome. However, that said, can y’all wait a bit? I’m in the thick of the health care issue for our organization’s members, on the road several days next week trying to stomp down the hysteria bred by Ms. Huff and others, and moving people to speak intelligently about what they want from health reform. In other words, I’m overwhelmed. By the end of next week, I will come up for air, have some time off, and will do this reflection on Obama’s use of Bush court pleadings on torture with and for you.

You all have NO idea how much I love this site! It’s the BEST conversation going on in America, and I trust all of you – what intelligent, kind, thoughtful people! KQuark – thank you for leading me here!

Now I’m off to get ready for bed because I have to get up at 5 am tomorrow to drive four hours in the rain for a 2 hour presentation on health care then drive four hours back again. Also in the rain. Thinking about reading what funny, insighful, awesome things you all have written will carry me down and back. G’night!

» Posted By choicelady On December 10, 2009 @ 7:50 pm

I really want to say ONE thing. This morning, Dec. 10, Huff posted a headline that the public option in health care was RIP with Speaker Pelosi caving. I wrote to her Senior Health Consultant whom I know, and she said NO WAY!!! Not only that, but there was a public press briefing this morning in which Speaker Pelosi said to the media that she had told the Senate, “show me the plan”. She said the House of Representatives is devoted to the public option and would back down IF and ONLY IF there were something as good or better from the Senate and Congressional Budget Office. So – the story was NOT TRUE, and HuffPo totally misrepresented the information. That is serious because it was a total fabrication.

» Posted By choicelady On December 10, 2009 @ 4:33 pm

While I think I agree ( my head is spinning ) because the other blog is what it is, and it’s boring to talk about it, there is an Voldemort-ian quality to She Who Must Not Be Named. I guess I’d prefer NOT to belabor the weirdness over there, but when something egregious occurs, may we discuss it as an issue of free speech, trying to understand the framework, etc? Otherwise it’s giving an awful lot of power to SWMNBN. There are concerns such as this morning’s post that the public option is DOA (it’s not – got that directly from senior health care staff in both the Senate and House) which is very misleading. So can we talk about that?

» Posted By choicelady On December 10, 2009 @ 10:07 am

Touched by an Angel – A Christmas Story

Oh javaz – what a sad, wonderful, hurtful, outstandingly loving story! You WILL find her, but please accept our heartfelt sympathy for your loss. What a mix of feelings you must be having! I’m so sorry this has occurred, and I hope the warmth of love and good memories will help get you through. You deserve that angel in womanly form to also help you get through this sad time. You have our hearts. Thank you for sharing this with all of us!

» Posted By choicelady On December 9, 2009 @ 3:42 pm

Here is a Heartbreaking and Heartwarming Story by Mike Barnicle This Morning

Well done, Feedup! I’m still sorting out whether I even have anything to SAY, never mind the graphics. I’m your admirer!

» Posted By choicelady On December 9, 2009 @ 10:31 am

The straight poop about Canadian health care

Exercise, too, Obama20082012. It really does help! Walking 20 minutes a day is all you need, more if you can.

Also – everybody – eat Promise Control or Benecol. It WORKS to lower cholesterol which has a link to Type 2. I got into some bad habits and refused Lipitor since my system is already screwed up from a sulfa drug – I’m now highly intolerant of foods such as wheat (no bread or pasta or anything GOOD.) Was not about to make it worse with Liptor. So I used these margerine substitutes with plant sterol esters. Lowered my cholesterol SIXTY points in three months. I am not exaggerating. It’s expensive (around $5 per 8 oz container) but think of it as your co-pay. It’s bland but not awful, and it melts nicely so is good on toast, veggies, etc. One tablespoon a day – that’s ALL you need (don’t take more – will give you the runs.) It works, it helps both cholesterol AND some impact on blood sugar. It’s also good for helping to lose weight. It’s the same thing that I think is in Alli, the weight loss drug, but why pay for that – it’s OTC so not covered by insurance either.

Take back your life. NO one needs to be sick from these things. (There are other things you cannot control.) But docs won’t tell you any of this – my doc is fine, but she throws drugs at me, and is NOT happy I can regulate my stats myself. Tough.

» Posted By choicelady On December 8, 2009 @ 8:29 pm

It was once. In CA they did a review of nine insurance plans in c. 2000, and they came up supporting one of the single payer plans as the No. 1 best alternative. THEN they got purchased by UHC, and despite assurances that the people working for Lewin were reputable, we could see the results were skewed in favor of insurance corporations. There are several analyses out there that are outstanding – hard to find them though. Lewin no longer would be one of them.

» Posted By choicelady On December 8, 2009 @ 8:23 pm

Wait times? I needed what one doc told me was ‘life threatening’ surgery for benign ovarian cysts – I waited 3 months. In the US. Another doc told me it was not life threatening, but if it got big enough (one was 2″) it could twist the fallopian tube and BABY look out – it would be excruciating. Nothing bad happened, had the cysts removed, lived life fine for the succeeding 20 years. But don’t tell me US medicine is any better than Canadian.

I am listening to Bernie Sanders on the public option. If the Senate sells out, even if they expand Medicare, they MUST also expand Medicaid to at lest 300-400% of the federal poverty level for people UNDER 55. Why? KQuark reported that the MIT study on the existing plan was do-able financially, but private market plans are the same whether you’re on minimum wage or a hedge fund broker. That’s obscene. We have to have rates pegged to affordable INCOME.

The reluctance to have a public option MAY be grounded in not wanting a new bureaucracy. Fine. Expand Medicare down in age and Medicaid up in eligibility. What we must NOT have is mandates to purchase insurance at market rates – even with subsidies – in the private market. With subsidies, to make it affordable for the government, it will be larded with deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. In Mass. that is $5000 per year per person deductible plus $10,000 out of pocket if you get sick. That’s OUTRAGEOUS! You have two sick people, you’re talking $30K on top of your premiums. That’s not health care – that’s extortion!

We are a weird and disgustingly ignorant nation, even our elected leaders. I WANT a public option that provides affordable coverage for me and my family, and I want it IN both the House and Senate plans NOW. Nothing else will do the job.

» Posted By choicelady On December 8, 2009 @ 8:20 pm

INCREMENATALISM: Grown Up or Beaten Down?

Many thanks HITO – I am one who refuses to bash Obama for being careful, so I get bashed instead. I REALLY respect most of what he’s doing and especially his returning authority to Congress which is precisely what the impatient progressives are mad about. Incrementalism is realistic. Leaps tend to land us in a mess. I’m VERY impulsive and have learned, to my horror, how much I can screw up that way. Slow and steady with a real vision and serious goals are usually the way to get solid and sustainable results. It’s not emotionally as satisfying, but it’s a darned sight more enduring.

I really don’t understand the impatience. One ally told me four months into Obama’s administration that she’d ‘had it” with him, and I was absolutely shocked! How does anyone expect things to get fixed in under a year when they’ve been fermenting for four decades? We say we don’t want an imperial presidency, then decide OOPS yes we do, just so it’s OUR guy with OUR agenda. Problem is, it wouldn’t last. What Obama is building is enduring. I like that.

» Posted By choicelady On December 8, 2009 @ 3:08 pm

Good! Makes you more creative!!!! VERY good post – I have to do a presentation Friday on this very issue, and I’m taking your post with me. I am MOST grateful! You saved me hours of research!!!! :-* (that’s blowing a kiss in thanks to you!)

» Posted By choicelady On December 8, 2009 @ 3:02 pm

I think we have to remember that America and Americans have never been comfortable with radical, sweeping change. Not EVER. It took the farmers of Western MA several years longer to get on board with the Revolution than it did the eastern part of the state.

The issue for me is whether the framework for changes is in place. If that is not there, it will be another decade or two before we will revisit that issue, and in the meantime, vast numbers of people will be given the choice of paying 20% or more of their income or having NO insurance at all. No better than we now are. KQuark noted the MIT study that showed the benefits of the public option – which is NOT OPTIONAL in my humble opinion. Mandates in the private market are obscene since there will be paltry cost control on rates.

I think change is coming, but it really depends on Congress and its leadership. Without that pressure on the Senate trolls, this could be worthless.

But history has shown that we advance incrementally on all matters, and I think it is definitely a good thing to accept reality. Doesn’t mean we don’t WANT dramatic change – some of us are more mature on this issue than others – but that we must pay attention to the society in which we live. Even European nations got their various versions of single payer health care incrementally. It’s the nature of democracy.

» Posted By choicelady On December 8, 2009 @ 2:57 pm

The New Face of the Senate Health Care Bill

OK, KevenSeven – you RESTARTED my heart. We have 55 votes for the public option??? IT LIVES!!! We do NOT need 60 – that’s just to cut off debate, and when the gloves came off last time – implied threats to beat people such as Lieberman back to the committee on tourism to Bora Bora, he and the others caved. We need to keep our eyes on the prize. We need a robust public option – not coops, not triggers, not opt-out, but a real public option. Yes, that CAN and SHOULD include expanding Medicare so that people under 65 may buy in (way cheaper than private market rates.) But if we HAVE 55 votes, then we need party discipline at every stage to cut off debate. Once that’s done, then the NO votes can proceed without harm to passage of the bill.

But it is essential that we fight for a solid public option, not some watered down thing put up to get weak-willed Dems to vote for it. And the House won’t stand for a flabby public option. They will continue to press for what’s good for Americans, and in conference committee, I believe they can prevail.

But reading that there are 55 is the best news I’ve had in a long day of worry – providing the public option is a real one.

I will keep up with you all – I have a call Wed. with Senate staff, and I will post after that’s done. Or at least reply to y’all – still not sure I know how to do my own, and for sure don’t have graphics.

Anyway. Thank you!

» Posted By choicelady On December 7, 2009 @ 8:28 pm

Rashomon: Twelve views of President Obama’s visit to Capitol Hill

He IS scary – he is the leader of the “End Times” notions, so it’s totally clear to me that he would fund her. They’re two of a kind. Since she is on a “book promotion” tour, he probably won’t get in trouble for using charitable funds for this. If anyone determines her work is partisan and political, however, he’s in BIG trouble.

» Posted By choicelady On December 7, 2009 @ 1:53 pm

My one reservation about BBC is their business news. It’s so Margaret Thatcher-ite! When it comes on NPR, I listen to rock music in preference since both our NPR stations carry it at the same times. It’s very distorted and market-oriented, and it continues to propagate the idea that this recession is merely a ‘glitch’ that cannot tolerate government regulation. Otherwise, I think BBC is great. I used to live near the Canadian border and listened to CBC as well as reading Canadian newspapers. LOVED it all and miss the access except online. But I can’t reconcile the pro-market BBC business news with all the rest. Anyone understand that?

» Posted By choicelady On December 7, 2009 @ 9:02 am

Perpetuum Jazzile – Accapella Choir – Ljubljana Slovenia

This is joyous! Any way to tell how many were spontaneous joiners? It’s just something that makes you smile and cheer – how could this not delight everyone unless you are have Grinch or Ebeneezer embedded in your heart. Wonderful!

» Posted By choicelady On December 7, 2009 @ 8:50 am

How wonderful! Thank you, Boomer. In 1996 I had the wonderful experience of meeting a man from Ljubljana – one of the smartest, funniest, and most interesting of human beings, so this is a real gift. This groups is marvelous, and this is a great treat. Many thanks.

» Posted By choicelady On December 7, 2009 @ 8:44 am

A happy turn of events for this greyhound

I tear up every time someone mentions “forever home”. That’s such a wonderful term.

Why are we so cruel to animals – and humans, too? I cannot wrap my mind around people who’d race a dog for money but feed it diseased meat and let it get sick. That’s not even good investment sense. Thank you SO MUCH for being a foster parent to these poor critters. You and boomer and everyone else who takes care of “the last, the least, and the lost” have my undying respect.

» Posted By choicelady On December 6, 2009 @ 1:19 pm

Campaign Finance Reform

I’m confused why you mention the “J Street lobby” which is an American-born effort to end the Muslim-Jewish mideast hostilites. I have a dear friend from CA who was one of the founders. It’s the dead opposite of APIC that is a K Street lobby and tied to Israel and other nations. J Street Lobby (so named because there IS no J Street in Washington DC) is a very positive force for GOOD.

» Posted By choicelady On December 6, 2009 @ 12:49 pm

Solid post Emerald – thank you.

I am deeply worried about what SCOTUS will decide. With corporations being “fictitious persons” it seems to me that the way around this is to limit them to the same maximum (I believe it’s $2500) that any given individual has. Obviously we have set in place loopholes for this with PACs etc., but that at least means Exxon et al. can’t give bundles we human beings cannot donate. I remember several decades ago that the obnoxious Hunt brothers proposed that every individual could VOTE as many times as he or she had dollars in the bank. We’re teetering on the brink. An acquaintance once asked me why he, who was wealthy, could not donate as much as he wanted. I said did that necessarily make him smarter than I? He was taken aback (lucky for me, he thinks I’m smart.) I pointed out that once Donald Trump had tried a brief run at the presidency, and all his mega-bucks showed was how incredibly stupid he was. Did The Donald’s wealth actually improve voters’ options? My acquaintance had to admit it did not.

We revere wealth in ways that are at odds with civic duty and rights. I, for one, am outraged that in many airports first-class passengers have a separate security line. Why? Why does paying more money for your ticket change your relationship to your civic duty? Security screening is something around which we are all equal, is it not?

We have to get over our love affair with money and power. Not sure how to restore sanity, but raising the issue as Emerald has done is a necessary first step.

» Posted By choicelady On December 6, 2009 @ 12:45 pm

OUR 300TH POST!!!

Escribacat broke the barrier and all you give is Cheeze Whiz? Well, come to think of it, it’s more than you get from Huff. Lots more!

» Posted By choicelady On December 6, 2009 @ 1:10 pm

It’s time for Liberals and Democrats to join the Teabaggers

I loved Sarah Vowell’s comment about that when she noted, as one living in NY City, that if NY was America enough for bin Laden, it should be America enough for Palin.

Can’t say it better.

» Posted By choicelady On December 4, 2009 @ 7:04 pm

I’m the same vintage, bitohistory. I agree. I think to understand where we are, we all do need to read Jeff Sharlet’s “The Family” because I believe in my bones that they were behind JFK, MLK,Jr., and RFK to name but a few. That’s certainly not IN the book – but it would explain a whole lot of things. These people want the Sarah’s of the world because they can manipulate her, because by focusing on the small ideological hot button issues she keeps us OFF the big ones such as the imperialist raping and pillaging of developing nations – and our own. She’s their perfect foil.

We do need to understand what people who are on the thin edge see IN her, too. It’s the hope that government would be your friend. She is not the answer, but she appears to be. Read “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis. Demogogues have always been the working person’s best buddy. At the start…

She’s a dangerous person, but I do think she’s venal enough that most people get her selfishness pretty quickly. She cares nothing for her citizens, only for herself, and you can’t keep that hidden forever.

I hope.

» Posted By choicelady On December 4, 2009 @ 7:03 pm