Why do you think Sarah Palin knows more about health care than you? She doesn't.
Why do you believe Dick Morris when he says old people will be harmed by Obama's health plan? Why don't you find out for whom he lobbies?
Why don't you connect the fact that insurance companies sponsor Sean Hannity's show and draw an obvious conclusion?
Why aren't you appalled at the number of people who have died because insurance companies have turned down applicants for surgery and treatment? It is in the tens of thousands.
Why is it okay to scream and yell at meetings. Why isn't it all right to behave in a way a polite child would behave?
Why should I care if the guy from Montana who questioned Obama is a proud member of the NRA? Why? Is the NRA going to pay his medical bills when his gun accidentally goes off?
Why doesn't anybody ask Sam Wurzelberger what credentials he brings to the table to speak to anybody about anything? Is baldness a qualification for expertese?
Why can't Palin name anyone who is a member of a death panel? Is it the same reason she can't name the newspapers she reads?
Why does Brian Kilmeade of "Fox and Friends" think that 44 is twice as much as 29? Is he ever embarrassed?
Why does Rush Limbaugh lie when he says he never said "death panel",that he was only quoting Palin. That is a lie. Why does he lie? Why does he think his listeners are stupid?
Who do the town hall shouters want their country back from?
|
|
Right Wing Rhetoric on Health Care: A Page from Last Century's Playbook
These days, Rush Limbaugh's talk compares Obama to Hitler, health care to Nazi Germany, Democrats to socialists. He has excited well organized followers to take...
|
|
|
With Obama In Office, Fox News Finds Its Stride
NEW YORK (Associated Press) - South Carolina Republican Bob Inglis, frustrated by a restive crowd at a recent forum to discuss health care reform, suggested...
|
|
|
Begala Rips Palin: She's "About Half A Whack Job" And A "Flaky Intellectual Lightweight" (VIDEO)
Paul Begala and Newt Gingrich have decidedly different views on whether former Governor Sarah Palin can make a political comback. Gingrich outlined his strategy for...
|
|
|
Obama Administration vs. Fox News: Real Fight Or Publicity Stunt?
Fox News -- particularly O'Reilly -- have always been quite savvy at "punching up" -- that is, targeting entities that are well above their accepted...
|
|
|
Sarah Palin Claims Victory On Death Panels: "Gratified"
Sarah Palin crowed Friday over news that the Senate Finance Committee will leave end-of-life care out of its health care legislation. "I join millions of...
|
|
|
Obama "Reality Check" Website Launched To Debunk Health Reform Myths
WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday turned to its favorite tool – the Internet – to bolster President Barack Obama's push for health care...
|
|
|
AP Fact Check: No 'Death Panel' In Health Care Bill
WASHINGTON — Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin says the health care overhaul bill would set up a "death panel." Federal bureaucrats would play...
|
|
|
Jon Stewart Vs. Town Hall Crazies (VIDEO)
If you're taking a break from crazy this August and refuse to watch cable news, you may have missed some town hall kerfuffles lead by...
|
|
|
White House Frustrated, Confused By Palin, Limbaugh And Hannity
Senior White House aides expressed utter bewilderment and a bit of frustration on Monday with criticism of their health care agenda from conservative figures --...
|
|
|
Gingrich Defends Palin's Obama "Death Panel" Claim
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich defended the bizarre claim by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin that the president's health care plan would result in a...
|
|
|
Limbaugh: "Adolf Hitler, Like Barack Obama, Ruled By Dictate" (AUDIO)
Rush Limbaugh continues to put the Republican Party's leaders in very awkward situations with his controversial, often explosive, remarks. Only a week ago Republican Rep....
|
|
|
Limbaugh: I Get High Ratings From 'Being Positive' (VIDEO)
On Fox News last night, Rush Limbaugh noted Aug. 1 marks his 21st anniversary of being on air. When host Greta Van Susteren asked him...
|
|
Adam Green: Newt Gingrich's Health Care Strategy in 1994: "Bipartisanship"
History repeats itself, and Democrat after Democrat seems intent on playing right into the hands of Gingrich and other reform opponents.
|
|
Peter A. Ubel: Hitler's Testicles and Palin's Death Panels
Having heard Palin's rumor countless times now, casual observers of politics (a.k.a. the majority of the American public) will come to believe that the rumor is true.
|
|
Michael Shermer: The Case for Libertarianism
Anyone who follows politics knows the standard stereotype of what liberals think of conservatives, and what conservatives think of liberals. They both have an element of truth.
|
|
Blaise Nutter: Axelrod's White House Email: Truth and Myths, All Mixed Up
2008: Obama's team was frequently praised for keeping on message, and keeping that message consistent and professional. Now, they display an inability to craft a clear, concise message.
|
|
Sandy Maisel: Reclaiming Control of the Health Care Debate
The Obama administration needs to recall why he appealed to so many people early in the presidential campaign.
|
|
Henry Blodget: News Corp Should Fire Glenn Beck
It's no surprise that advertisers are running for the hills after Beck's idiotic remarks about President Obama. Fox should now take the appropriate step and fire him.
|
|
Michael B. Laskoff: Comedy Central Saves America with Intelligent Satire
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert pass themselves off as comedians, but they are really the most influential satirists of the day: they inform and illuminate through ridicule.
|
|
Chip Berlet: Barney Frank Slams LaRouchite Fascism at Healthcare Meeting
When a woman castigating Barney Frank held up a sign comparing President Obama to Hitler, Frank did the right thing, asking: "On what planet do you spend most of your time?"
|
|
Andy Ostroy: Sarah Palin's "Death Panel" Mantra: Like it or Not, this Woman's Influence on the National Stage is Now Crystal Clear
It took Palin just three weeks into 'retirement' to prove that when it comes to major domestic policy, she is going to be right smack in the middle of it all.
|
|
Bill Shireman: No One Wants to Talk About Their Idiots
We need a third political movement in this country -- not today's ideological right or left, who pander to idiots, but a group of radical centrists who step past their initial ignorance, fear, and prejudice, and actually think through solutions to our problems, borrowing ideas from all sides.
|
|
Jonathan Tasini: Why Is Rush Limbaugh Attacking Me?
Thank you, Rush Limbaugh -- it's an honor to be attacked by you. When Rush attacks people who are trying to spread some honest truth...
|
|
Christina Bellantoni: Daily Show's John Oliver rips Limbaugh, Beck, Blitzer and (possibly) Olbermann
First published at WashingtonTimes.com The Daily Show's John Oliver was a top attraction today at the Campus Progress conference in D.C. Right before he...
|
|
Jeffrey Shaffer: The Iraq War: Too Important for Town Halls?
If major issues affecting the populace for decades require a thorough national discussion, how come there were no town hall meetings back in 2003 to debate the wisdom of invading Iraq?
|
|
Josh Horwitz: Handguns and Health Care Reform
Exhortations to take armed political action against Obama reflect a deeply developed ideology that has been actively promoted by gun lobby groups for 30 years.
|
|
Adele Stan: Forget Glenn Beck: The Problem is Murdoch
Color of Change has done a remarkable thing: One by one, they have moved Beck's advertisers to pull their ads, the latest being Walmart. No small feat. But I'm not sure how much Beck's bosses really care.
|
|
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: "Is Obama a Socialist?"
The slew of anti-Obama slanders from the right has forced much of the mainstream media (who should know better) to spend time and coverage refuting false claims. This just ends up giving credence to the silly charges.
|
|
Charles Warner: O'Reilly, Beck, Olbermann and Maddow: Venomous Snakes?
No one wants to watch normal, well-adjusted, happy, rational, reasonable people on TV; they're boring -- like C-SPAN or the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS.
|
|
Michael Seitzman: My Nazi Can Beat Up Your Nazi
It's not okay to throw the word "Nazi" around unless you're talking about actual Nazis. It's definitely not okay to use it in a health care debate.
|
|
Frances Moore Lappe: Lying with Alinsky: Don't Let the Far Right Malign "Community Organizing"
Republican anti-reform organizers miss Saul Alinsky's core principles: The point of community organizing is to build the power of regular citizens to gain a seat at the negotiating table.
|
|
Howard Schweber: Universal Single-Payer Shamanistic Death Panels
So there's nothing new about Mediscare-style arguments, rambunctious and easily manipulated populists, or Astroturf-style mobilizations. But there is something about this debate that feels different, and more intense.
|
|
Steve Young: Why O'Reilly Was Wrong and Bernie Was Right About Me...And Both Were Wrong About the Philadelphia Inquirer
If O'Reilly The Journalist had done his real journalist due diligence he would have found out that his "...you don't hear both sides in the Philadelphia Inquirer" is an out and out lie.
|
|
Joseph A. Palermo: Health-Care Reform was the Key Issue in the 2008 Campaign...What Happened?
For some, the system works best when elites make the most fundamental decisions for our society, unencumbered by the trappings of "democracy", and when the population is depoliticized, misinformed, or both.
|
|
Robert Creamer: "Death Panel" Scare Tactic May Backfire on Republicans
"Death panels" are made up out of whole cloth by people who specialize in generating fear to protect wealthy special interests -- in this case the health insurance industry.
|
|
Neil McCarthy: The Dog Days of August
In this potential summer of his discontent, Obama is running into the same buzz saw that killed health care reform in the last Democratic Administration.
|
|
Laura Chapin: Plumbing, Discrimination, and Health Insurance Rates
Why do we need health care reform with a public option? Because one of the last bastions of legal discrimination against women is the individual health care market.
|
|
Kay Hanley: Lies and Damned Lies
When was the last time Rush Limbaugh quit smoking cigars, ran a marathon and ate nothing but fish? Oh, wait. He doesn't need to. He's rich and has health insurance he's not in danger of losing.
|
|
Linda Milazzo: Don Lemon & CNN: No to "Real Americans," Yes to Real Journalism!
Can anyone tell me of any wall to wall on-site coverage of peace movement events over the past six years where the corporate press offered extensive air-time to listen to progressive leaders? I don't recall that ever happening. Do you?
|
|
Rabbi Abraham Cooper: Injecting 'Nazi' Into Debate Is Bad for the Health of America's Democracy'
Rabbi Marvin Hier: "We demean ourselves and everything that America stands for when we compare either Democrats or Republicans to the Nazi Third Reich."
|
|
Dean Baker: Governor Palin's Crazed Health Care Rant: Blame the Washington Post
The media have the time and the resources to know that when opponents of President Obama's plan talk about rationing, they are not telling the truth.
|
|
MOMocrats: Fox News' Sly Distortion Of Obama On Gas Prices
FOX Watch: MOMocrat Jaelithe throws a wrench into the typical Fox News spin cycle, reporting on a sly distortion of a statement made by Barack Obama on the high price of gas.
|
|
Ariel Gonzalez: What Sarah Palin and Other Patriotic Traitors Think About Health Care Reform: "Soylent Green Is People!"
When I call Sarah Palin a patriotic traitor, I'm not equating her with Benedict Arnold, Vidkun Quisling, or Kim Philby. I have no reason to doubt that she loves the United States.
|
|
Jonathan Richards: Death Panel
The political cartoonist takes on Sarah Palin and 'death panels.'
|
|
Wayne Besen: Republican Mobs Stirrng The Pot Until It Boils Over
Americans are human beings, just like everyone else. The notion that what we say does not matter "because it could never happen here" is jingoistic foolishness.
|
|
Eric Boehlert: Limbaugh Yells "Nazi" (And The Press Yawns)
Despite the fact that Limbaugh is continuing to compare the Obama White House and the Democratic Party with Nazis, many in the media don't consider it newsworthy and haven't condemned it.
|
|
Daniel Denvir: Why Bad Healthcare Policy Makes For Bad Politics, Too
We should be willing to compromise, but the absence of a public option would be pure capitulation.
|
|
Sue Wilson: Talk Radio Rules Blue Dog States
22 percent of Americans get their news from talk radio, and conservative talkers, like Hannity and Limbaugh, have been lying to their listeners about what's in the health care bill.
|
|
Francine Hardaway: Health Care Ruckus Drives Financial Collapse out of the Headlines
Let's put our eye back on the ball. Focus on ourselves. Let the banks fail, but the people succeed. Survive the re-set in the economy, which I believe is permanent, by getting in shape.
|
|
Hale "Bonddad" Stewart: Why End of Life Counseling Is Imperative
For loved ones, end of life planning makes one of the most difficult times that much easier to deal with. Instead of helping families plan for this, we are getting fear mongering and stupidity.
|
|
Jane Hamsher: Democrats Don't Let Democrats Do Fox: Why Did Hillary Clinton Accept Fox Debate?
Fox is not a news outlet, it's an openly partisan opinion factory and the Democrats should not be legitimizing them, as Hillary Clinton's campaign did today.
|
|
Howard Dean: The Media's Treatment of Palin's Outrageous "Death Panel" Claims
There is no truth now, nor has there ever been any truth to the idea that the government encourages euthanasia or infanticide. The media gives this claim credibility simply by repeating it.
|
|
The Progress Report: Hoping Obama Fails
The nation's health and the health of the economy will rest not on the needs of the American people, but on conservatives' own selfish desire to see Obama fail.
|
|
Taylor Marsh: The Divider
Sarah Palin doesn't care about dividing America, because in the world from where she hails Palin already sees America divided. It's also in her interest to keep it that way.
|
|
Rick Horowitz: "Death Panels": The Circles of Sarah Palin
Does this sound like the Sarah Palin we've come to know and love?
|
|
Carol Smaldino: Bullies Delight in Town Hall and Center
We have witnessed a spate of violent bullying and psychological assault, moods of hostility and derision which have stooped to levels that defy any clear intention to act for the greater good.
|
|
Scott Swenson: Far-Right Fearmongering on Death is Nothing New
Why is it that in life's most personal and private moments--sexuality, conception, birth and the dying process--the party that says it governs least always governs most?
|
|
Rick Horowitz: Health Care Debate: Beware of Foreign Objects
If the Angrys could just settle on one country to hold up as their agreed-upon despicable example, we could finally have a coherent conversation about things
|
|
Harry Fuller: Republicans and Their Healthcare Hypocrisy
In their wildest dreams the Republicans cannot imagine people hating healthcare that is no longer only for the rich and the well-employed, courtesy of the insurance industry.
|
|
Andy Borowitz: In Move to Appease Critics, Obama Promises to Extend Health Care Coverage to Morons
Facing opposition to his health care reform proposals, President Barack Obama has decided to reach out to a key demographic: morons.
|
|
Etan Thomas: Not New Rules But New Questions
How can anyone be in favor of a health care system in which the patients are treated according to the amount of coverage their insurance company provides?
|
|
Michael Roth: Cockeyed Optimism is Better Than Cynicism
What makes Limbaugh's or Palin's call to right-wing shock troops any more cynical than the emails I get almost every morning from team Obama? Is cynicism merely in the eye of the beholder?
|
|
Art Levine: Will GOP Mobs Disrupt Obama's Town Hall Today? New Right-Wing Conference Vows "War" on Reform
With Obama scheduled to promote health insurance reform at a town hall meeting, both the network of lobbyist-fueled "tea-party" activists and progressives are ramping up their organizing.
|
|
Michael Winship: The Gorilla Dust of Health Care
What's interesting about the health care hullabaloo is that there appears to be an emerging backlash from some of the more reasoned thinkers of the conservative movement.
|
|
Jim Watkins: Rage against Reform Won't Stop It
The people trying to disrupt these town hall meetings are throwing a wrench into the workings of democracy.
|
|
Dan Sweeney: Embracing the Crazy
Birthers: the people who believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, or Indonesia, or Mars, or the Seventh Ring of Hell.
|
|
John Geyman: Fiscal Conservatism and Health Care Reform: a Bipartisan No-Brainer?
Why this incredible disconnect among our elected representatives shaping the future of one-sixth of our economy and future health care of all 310 million of us?
|
|
Robert J. Elisberg: Sarah Palin Outdoes Herself
The person who has demanded that her children be off limits, while parading them around, just used her Down Syndrome baby as another circus prop by writing for a national audience how he could be killed by the government.
|
|
Lincoln Mitchell: Fearing Government Involvement in Health Care
Before we collectively start quaking in fear of a government takeover of health care it might make sense to slow down and consider that a fair amount of our health care system already has strong government involvement.
|
|
Rabbi Jennifer Krause: For Heaven's Sake, See the Movie!
If only what's happening right now in the Land of the Free were a movie, we could dab the cold sweat from our collective brow, walk out of the theater, and into a reality that isn't nearly as frightening.
|
|
Mira Veda: Sarah Palin: The Britney Spears of Politics
Palin's ability to rile the public and the media because of her sexuality is fascinating to me.
|
|
Kathleen Reardon: The "Death Panel" Already Exists!
When acutely and chronically ill people are unable to purchase medicine because of exorbitant prices, pharmaceutical death panels have spoken.
|
|
Bill Mann: Here's How You Can Strike Back Against Right-Wing Cable, Radio
We should talk about pulling local radio-station licenses, plus other effective and practical measures of attacking the real problem -- the right-wing media malice machine.
|
|
Robert S. McElvaine: "The Dang 'O' Ate My Baby!"
Was Palin part of the rightwing lie-in on health care, or was she simply repeating the lies others were saying, having foolishly believed information being spread by totally unreliable sources?
|
|
Lennard Davis: Stop Using People with Disabilities as the Poster Children for the Republican Attack on Healthcare
This rhetorical concern for the disabled is fascinating coming from the right, which has routinely worked against extending accommodations for them under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
|
|
D. Brad Wright: Let the States Decide: Proposing an Optional Public Option for Health Reform
Is there any way to make the public plan option more palatable to the public? I believe there is.
|
|
John Geyman: Exchanges, Co-Ops and Cop-Outs on Health Care Reform
If enacted, exchanges and co-ops offering a small public option will only raise hopes for reform that will never come, and are therefore a cop-out for those shaping this year's reform attempt.
|
|
John R. Bohrer: Sarah Palin Spits on the Legacy of Eunice Shriver
Palin's vile claim that mentally challenged children would be murdered by the American government is not only ludicrous, it is a disgusting insult to Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
|
|
Lennard Davis: Hey Sarah Palin! Why Not Actually Read Dr. Emanuel's article on rationing limited resources?
While Sarah Palin may not like the idea that any citizen should be denied health care, how would she suggest we distribute the precious few kidneys available to a long list of people on dialysis?
|
|
David Vines: The Healthcare Goldfish
Like keeping new goldfish in their bag, conservatives illogically terrified of change will need to get acclimated to the new healthcare system.
|
|
Thom Hartmann: Dear President Obama: A Modest Medicare Proposal
Most of us will do damn near anything to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs who are running our current insurance programs. Sign me up!
|
|
Jim Lichtman: Hate Speech
Apparently, executives at Fox do not know the difference between opinion and hate speech.
|
|
Zack Cooper: English Healthcare in the US Reform Debate: Setting the Record Straight
There have been a host of rumors about the English National Health Service, ranging from the benign to the outright asinine. All these rumors are false.
|
|
Reese Schonfeld: Health care and the Ratings
These ratings suggest that popular support for the health care bill is waning.
|
|
Bob Cesca: If You Don't Want the Public Option, Get the Hell Out of the Way
If certain wingnuts and Republicans don't want affordable, guaranteed health insurance, then they don't have to sign up. They're welcome to continue to defiantly roll the dice with their private plans.
|
|
Bryant Welch: Why Obama Had to Have Been Born in Kenya
We need to harness the uncertainty and confusion in this country for constructive purposes, exposing the puppeteers of the far right and the corporate interests that are behind them.
|
|
Jesse Larner: How Not to Do Healthcare Reform
In making the rich and employers pay for his pathetic "public option" in an essentially private system, Obama completely fails to understand that health care risks, costs, and benefits should be socialized.
|
That won't be necessary, because the NRA will provide firearms safety training to anyone who needs it, helping to ensure that his gun won't accidentally go off.
Guns don't just "go off" by themselves. The only way they fire when you don't want them to is when the trigger is pulled due to improper handling. The way to deal with that is the same way to deal with every other potentially dangerous product in life: get proper training and develop safe habits.
Is the American Automobile Association going to pay the medical bills for someone injured in a traffic accident?
Is the National Beer Wholesalers Association going to pay the medical bills for someone injured by a drunk driver?
Is the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association going to pay the medical bills for someone injured in a plane crash?
Of course, none of them, including the NRA, will or should. What a stupid question.
airline organizations does not sanction flying in planes that will kill people.
the NRA has a leader who sees nothing wrong with selling weapons to people on an FBI watch list. get it?
In addition, the majority of law enforcement officers in this country receive their firearms training from NRA certified instructors.
“The NRA has a leader who sees nothing wrong with selling weapons to people on an FBI watch list. get it?”
So do you believe that you should lose a constitutional right because some nameless government bureaucrat places you on a list with no due process of law and no process to have your name removed form it? You know Dick Nixon would have loved that one. Get it?
*(people who pay attention and aren't being manipulated by the right-wing lie machine)
IS there an Obama 'Death Book?'
IS Obama trying to pull the plug on Veterans?
I thought all that Churchin' was supposed to give people consciences?
Where is the OUTRAGE? Enough of these side issues. Look at what is really happening. They have cloaked their campaign in grass roots looks and hit gold when the "anti-that not white guy in the White House" group took their chance to spout off. These guys with guns care nothing about health care. They want white supremacy.
We need to go back to a civil discussion of the problems caused by the greed of the Health Care Industry.
The public health insurance option is the heart of health care reform and right now it's under serious attack.
Even some members of the administration are pushing President Obama to give in to conservatives and drop it: one senior White House adviser told The Washington Post, "I don't understand how [the public option] has become the measure of whether what we achieve is health-care reform."1
This unnamed source apparently doesn't understand that the public option is the key to lowering health care costs and expanding coverage.
But there is a group of progressives in Washington who DO understand. Sixty House Democrats have signed a written pledge to not vote for health care reform unless it includes a robust public option.2 That's more than enough to block a bill without the public option.
These representatives are already facing pressure to back down, but if we stand strong with them, we'll send a clear signal that the heart of reform can't be compromised away. Can you make a contribution to the progressives in Congress who are standing tall for the public option? Clicking the link below will take you to ActBlue, where you can donate.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51789&id=16918-9193653-lMdAxQx&t=3
you should try having a conscience. don't cost nothing.
You are paying for these people's care already. You pay because the hospitals and emergency rooms pass the costs of uninsured off to the insured in the form of higher overall costs. You pay for the loss of productivity in the economy when people do not get early treatment and require extensive and expensive additional sick time. You pay because the uninsured are ususally less healthy and therefore less productive.
Of course, there is the moralistic reasons for paying for other's healthcare. It's the right thing to do. Do you WANT to let people become bankrupt, suffer, and die needlessly?
Finally, why the frack not?. If you are a mid-level earner, you will probably not pay much more than a couple hundred bucks a year in extra costs. That's still a whole lot less than most folks spend on booze. Is having an extra handle or two of gin more important than stabilizing a poor kid's asthma?
Sh*t, this I-got-mine-ism is really starting to irk me.
-*Zortag*-
And while on the subject of mine-ism, that other frequently heard whine, "I want my country back!" REALLY bugs me, because it's not THEIR country any more than it is MINE. I was born here. I pay taxes (a lot of them). I have a birth certificate. It's my country. And they can't have "their" 1950s McCarthy-era country "back" because it's not COMING back!