Camel54's Comments (454)

“Great piece. Although I don't like anything resembling a legitimizing of tea partiers--they are ignorant loud-mouths being led around by liars and criminals. They believe any insanity that is sent to them in ghastly, misspelled emails written in all caps with the grammar of a 2nd grader. Just because some liberals may share a goal with them from time to time does not in any way make them kindred spirits.

Looking at the larger picture, will killing the bill and forcing another decade and a half of waiting for another chance be good or bad for 2010 or 2012? And I understand you're saying what difference does it make who's in charge when both parties are ending up in the same place, but I have to point out the $600 million Obama just sent to clinics around the country--those types of funds dried up under Bush and many, many clinics serving the poor shut down. Would SCHIP be law? Bush vetoed it if you recall. Would the VA funding be working properly for the first time?

Okay, the big things are not going the way we want them. I agree. I hate the bill as it is. But there are so many little things that are actually benefiting people as a result of Democrats being in charge. So the question remains, is it worth losing that control and returning to what many progressives seem to have forgotten was a far worse 8 years.”

“Not everything. The VA budget law passed last month was terrific. The $600 million for health clinics across the country announced last week is tremendous. The broadband access expansion to rural and low-income areas is wonderful for small businesses in small towns not to mention great for individuals. These are not insignificant and should not be lumped in with "everything else," which I realize does indeed contain some very disappointing moves from the white house. Still, credit where it is due.”

“A valid argument, but history suggests it does work to establish a foundation and then build on it over time. You're right that the dems are an undisciplined, disparate group of primadonas, but once the MSM has moved on, and the republicans are fighting something else with their Lie Machine, slipping amendments on to other bills becomes easier.”

“Ben Nelson voted for an omnibus spending bill this past Saturday night and that bill had all abortion language stripped from it. This is not a moral issue for this hypocrite or he would have voted against the omnibus as well.

He is grandstanding for a little attention. Email him. Call him. Tell him your money will work for his opponents just as well as insurance company money works for him.

http://bennelson.senate.gov/email-issues.cfm”

“It seems like for casual texting, this would not work very well since everything is abbreviated and reconfigured for speed-- "u r a h8r" Swype would freak out on that and pop up boxes asking what you meant for every word.

However, for taking notes or jotting down work ideas, writing ideas, responding to professional communications through text or email when you don't want to look like a 13-year-old girl, Swype seems to have a very nice advantage. It doesn't seem revolutionary, but I'd certainly try it as long as I wasn't restricted to only using Swype and could choose to use txt speak when I wanted.”

“Perhaps you missed the part about the Komen Foundation supporting legislation that makes the cancer drugs too expensive for poor or middle-class people. Perhaps you missed the point that they are using the money to develop drugs for treatment rather than doing research for the cause of the disease. Perhaps you missed the part about how the wife is essentially being used as a money funnel for a man who is deliberately killing legislation that could help eliminate up to 40,000 unnecessary deaths a year in this country.

Is it wrong to hurt a politician who is a willing participant in killing 40,000 people every year?”

“Let him keep his posts if he survives a cage match with all of the uninsured who are suffering, losing their houses, losing their children's financial security, or losing their lives.

I don't think any senate punishment is enough. This man is an accessory to murder as are all who actively work to prevent Americans from receiving health care.”

“I have to reiterate what others are pointing out, it is not the final answer, no, it is the beginning of the change to a system that will work. And it WILL cover millions more who currently do not have coverage even if it does not cover all yet.

When you see how hard a battle it has been just to get this far even with these tiny corrections to our health care miseries, do yo think for one second trying to push single payer through would have even gotten out of the gate? In fact, it has been attempted many times by a senator here or a congress person there and it never even starts. The journey of 1000 miles does not begin with the entire journey. It begins with the first step.”

“I think it's funny that so many commenters here are mocking the guy who spotted this as though it was some idiotic thing he did when commenters themselves live to tell bloggers and other authors what is wrong with their stories. It's just a fluff piece because it's fun to spot inconsistencies. Does it really need to be a big gripe fest?”

“Actually, panty hose were around in the 50's in an earlier design. It was only today's modern design that became prevalent during the 60's. And of course before that there were silk or rayon stockings that rose high enough to contend with elevated hemlines of the era.

Yes, I just checked wikipedia to get all that. I would never have known any of that.”

“Wow, histrionic much?

I'm not sure which candidate you were watching, but during the campaign he never said he was for ending the war in Afghanistan. No, he in fact said we took our eye off the ball by not focusing on Afghanistan. He also said that he believed the 2nd amendment to be a personal liberty. Some of us never deluded ourselves into thinking Obama was a liberal. He never was. I voted for him anyway. Even though I knew he was middle-of-the road, I voted for him. I did so because I knew I wouldn't agree with him much of the time, but he has the right intellect for the office. We liberals tend to get too caught up in believing if a politician isn't as far left as us, he's a sell-out, he's been changed by fame and by power. Like somehow we are just as informed as the man at the center of 10,000 delicate and horrific problems.

You say you'd rather be writing poetry than waxing melodramatic about politics. Did it ever cross your mind, even for a moment that maybe the president would rather be able to do one thing but is cornered by circumstances into making hard, undesirable choices as well? You don't have to like the choice. I don't either. But I'm not foolish enough to think he's extending a war because he got famous.”

“It's ridiculous to say he should lose his job for this. He wasn't exposing students to anything vulgar. No, he absolutely shouldn't have used the school's computer just like none of the people who read HuffPo EVER use their work computers for anything other than work. Students in today's schools use profanity around teachers and even directly verbally abuse teachers and nothing happens to them. If the school does punish them, you had better believe their parents are up at the school the next day making threats. And yet a teacher does something tasteless and that's it, career's over.

Should we really be so quick to judge? We don't know anything about this teacher or how effective he may be at his job. But more importantly, you can only pronounce judgment if you have never done a single inappropriate thing at work--never used profanity, never taken a secret smoke break, never told a dirty joke, never used company equipment for personal use.”

“Great answer!”

“I too am planning to do the high temp turkey and adding a very spicy sausage to my stuffing. My brother did sausage stuffing last year it was like being born again. I've never cared too much for it until then. I'm thinking andouille. We'll see.

Planning to do a spaghetti squash casserole as well. Super easy. All times are approx.
Spag. squash cut in half place cut side down in 1 in. of water. Bake for an hour at 350.
Scrape the flesh of the squash with a fork, it comes out in noodle like strands. Let the strands drain while you prepare a lasagna like casserole.
Sour cream, ricotta (or cottage) cheese, 1 egg, garlic powder (or fresh minced), sprinkle of oregano, basil, the usual. Try adding some chopped spinach and nutmeg for some zest. I like to sprinkle feta in there as well. Marinara with or without meat--ground italian sausage is best but ground beef or turkey or TVP all work great, cheddar and/or mozzarella cheese. Be creative.
Since you don't have to layer, just mix all the ingredients together, add the squash noodles, add to a casserole dish (heavily buttered to prevent sticking), top with cheeze, bake uncovered at 375 for 45 min. Broil the top at the end if you like some color in your cheese.”

“Regarding the post, I agree.

Regarding Mr. Englund, I am huge fan. The first Nightmare scared me to death. I didn't sleep a wink that night, and I remember it so vividly. I own a copy of it to this day just because it was the movie the sealed my love of horror. I even made my own Freddy glove cut from sheet metal when I was in Jr. High. I'm sorry this comment turned into fan gushing, but I had make it clear I love this guy.”

“No one is saying the recession is over. The only claim being made here is that this is a good sign of heading toward recovery. You see, recovery and heading toward recovery are not the same thing.

I always enjoy how you right wingers like to say, "Throwing money at a problem doesn't fix it." It's such a clever little bit of nonsense. When your car breaks down or your HVAC unit dies or your water heater explodes, how do you fix them? Do you build the parts yourself from elements you, yourself mine from the earth? No, you buy parts and you pay for labor. Sometimes, spending money is exactly how you fix a problem. The issue really isn't to spend or not to spend--that's a child's mentality trying to grasp grown-up problems. The issue is how to spend. That's where earnest debate lies.”

“"...the fraud ridden clunker debacle tanked..."

What are you talking about? It tanked because it was used in such massive amounts that had to be expanded? Government spending is the last resort when consumers are not or cannot spend. There's nothing unusual or fraudulent or PR driven about that.”

“Again, I agree with the spirit of this article, but until the public is forced to see public school as a privilege and discipline can dampen the extreme offenders, how can we implement this?”

“While I agree with the spirit of this article, it is fantasy land. NCLB imposes hundreds of skills that must be mastered in 180 days. How in God's name do you manage learning at a students own pace when you know that you will lose your job if you don't cram all these skills into the year? You are making the huge assumption that all kids care about learning. They don't. Their parents don't. In fact, when you try to offer too many of these kids freedoms, they abuse them and when you try to manage your classroom, discipline the worst offenders to regain control, their parents are naturally up at the school in heartbeat cursing the teacher and threatening to sue or go to director of schools and have that teacher's job. This is the reality of schools today. If you lay your hand on a child's shoulder to talk to them as a friend, they scream at you, "You're not allowed to touch me!" They lie and claim you shoved them, and you have to rely on school cameras to prove you are innocent because your word as an educated adult isn't enough. And keep your good-old-days nonsense to yourself--in years past, teachers frequently had too much authority and gave harsh disciplines and were not legally accountable to prove why a child failed or passed, which allowed favoritism, racism, sexism, athleticism, you name it.”

“The ER is absolutely not an option for primary care. First of all there is the danger to the individual. If you go to the ER wanting a physical or general care, they will send you on your way. They don't have to provide primary care services to you. They are required to provide emergency care. So then you only see a physician when you have an emergency? Brilliant. That's a recipe for a long life. Second, doing that is what clogs the ERs around the country and causes those with actual life-threatening emergencies to suffer more than they should have or end up dying as a result of someone with the sniffles using ER services. Third, the rest of us end up paying for your ER visit anyway in our order of magnitude increases in insurance and hospital care. Inappropriate ER visits is one of the biggest problems in health care today. As long as the rest of the public is paying for that care anyway, why not just provide it through public services so those without insurance have access to primary care.

Medicaid, though, is a better option because that may help you actually see an internist to handle your ongoing health care needs. I agree the health dept. is a good place to start. Local clinics frequently provide referrals to care providers after a brief screening. Those options are FAR better than the ER.”

“To be fair, proc, we're not the ones painting the president to look like Hitler or The Joker or calling him muslim or calling him the Antichrist. We're the side that has been presenting bills and creating policy while all we're getting from Republicans is no! No! No! They call us socialists, communists, Nazis, the Gestapo, unpatriotic. They accuse us of hating America and wanting to destroy it because we believe everyone deserves to actually stay alive. They accuse us of setting up death panels to kill the elderly and kill veterans and yet the president just signed into law a major advancement in VA funding--something Bush, for all his troop loving rhetoric couldn't manage. Tea parties, nonsensical loud noises to disrupt town halls, how are these things debate? How does that advance the general welfare of anyone in this country?”

“You're right. When the government ran the armies that won WWI and WWII, they didn't do that right. When they created the space program and put a man on the moon and then developed advanced microchips, plastics, medicines as a result of studies conducted in the gov't run space program, they didn't do that right. When they developed the atomic bomb, they must have done something wrong there too. When the gov't created the interstate hwy system, they did it wrong. When they established and have run the post office for more than two centuries, boy was that a doozy. When the VA treated my mom for cancer and gave her as good, if not better care than she had received elsewhere, all I could think was how the government just can't do anything right.”

“Is it really a victory when an organization who deals only in lies and not actual news is defended by the idiots who work in the other conventional wisdom, if-it-bleeds-it-leads organizations? How is that freedom. I suspect you would not feel the same way if Fox was telling old people you were out to kill them. Or if Fox was telling people you broke the law by allowing a statutory rape to go unreported when that is a complete falsehood.”

“You do realize that National Socialism (the Nazis) and Communism were at war with each other in WWII, right. They're not the same thing. Not even close.

I have nothing against Ron Paul particularly, but if it were up to him, you would not have the Internet b/c that was developed with public funds. You would not have roads to drive on b/c they are built and maintained with public funds--the constitution set that up when they created the postal service. Would you get rid of the post office as well? Would you eat food or take medicine that was not produced under guidelines from the very socialistic FDA? We have had public programs created for the common good since the creation of this country. Now, suddenly, because a Democrat is in office, you people want to start with your nonsense about socialism. Learn first, talk later.”

“What would you do if someone you knew came into your house every day, talked to you and then went out and told people utter lies about what you had said and how you lived? Would you say, "Oh well, that's freedom of speech for you." What if they recorded you and then edited the recording so you said the message became the very opposite of what you said? Would you not try to defend yourself? Would you keep inviting them into your home?

You've tried calling him Hitler. You've tried calling him a socialist, a NAZI, a communist, the Joker and none of that has really gained traction. Now you're trying to call him Nixon, a hated Republican of all things. I guess give it your best shot. Maybe this one will work out for you guys.”