Samalabear's Comments (723)

“I just want to thank you for this blog. I will not be getting the H1N1 vaccine -- no way, no how. I haven't had a flu shot in many, many years. In fact, I only got the regular flu shot for three years after suffering a couple of bad flues. If I didn't get the flu, I used to suffer very bad colds -- and a lot of them.

Then I got off Paxil and went into severe withdrawal. I had to change a lot of things in my life and I also had to reverse the damage of Paxil. My diet had become very bad on this drug. I craved all the wrong things, as well as alcohol (I'm not a drinker). But now I had a severely damaged nervous system, drug-induced severe depression, anxiety and I suffered akathesia for over a year, with the first three of those months being the most dangerous (seriously suicidal).

There are many things I did to help heal, but what you describe in this article is exactly the type of program that was recommended on antidepressants.com. One of the most amazing benefits of this plan for the immune system was that in spite of the hell I was going through I did not add to it by becoming ill with a cold or the flu, and nasty, heavy colds used to be standard procedure for me. All I can say is that it works.”

“You need to read about FDR and the New Deal. And read about Hoover, because that's who Obama seems to be channeling these days.”

“I'm sorry, but I know Samantha a lot better than you do. I first used the Aspen on her before her present companion was living with her. Smokey did not come home with me intentionally as a companion for Sam. It was an emergency situation, and I simply had no other place to put him than with Sam, as he was terrified of the dogs. When Sam does not have Aspen for a few weeks she goes into the old behaviors.
And, no, I don't tense, fearing that Sam will go back to her old behaviors, when I give her the Aspen. When it comes to cats I have a great deal of experience -- years and years of all different types and personalities.”

“I've used Bach's Flower Remedy Aspen on my grey kitty Sam. She is shy, terrified of other animals and sensitive to negatives atmospheres -- of which we have a somewhat severe one going on right now with my son and his addiction. I became interested in Bach's because I was using stress remedy and their sleep aid to help with the massive damage Paxil did to my psyche and my central nervous system. So I looked up what might work for Sam and Aspen fit the bill. After a week on Aspen she was no longer hiding and trembling under the bed and has another another cat as her companion. If she's off the Aspen for more than a couple of months, however, she starts to slide back into her old fears.

And no, animals don't respond to placebos because you don't usually show an animal a pill and say this is going to make you feel better. I am sold on this stuff.

I also swear by Boiron's product for flu, Ossicillium. Amazing stuff. The version for colds I used earlier last month and it was -- to put it mildly -- amazing. My sinuses were totally clear -- and stayed clear -- within two days. I caught the cold at the very beginning. And, believe me, I have been known to really suffer with my colds, especially the congestion.”

“I agree. We should convene a summit to study the matter of the twelve.”

“If people bothered to read the bill for this, H.R. 676, then their questions would be answered. It's not like it's not available. This late in the game, with so many months having past, if people are concerned about health care they should have been doing the research, like the rest of us. Instead they make statements about the Medicare program as it is now. In H.R. 676 just about everything is covered, including dental and vision care, two things that are not always covered in employer-provided health care and not at all if you try to get health insurance on your own.

But, again, this what google is for. All of the information is out there. Baseline simply explained it in shorter terms. Other commenters have over the month listed all the benefits of the Medicare for All bill, and the fact that there are no deductibles and no co-pays, not to mention that you have real choice -- any doctor, any hospital. What's not to like?”

“I love Marketplace. They have been doing a much, much better job than NPR on this issue, which has mainly sucked up to the status quo and their corporate sponsors. Marketplace, of course, is not part of NPR.

Not to mention $66,000 for a family of four is scraping by in areas like I live in the Northeast, and they could probably not even afford the $525 a month. It's tough when you realize that a family of four in Canada pays around $100 a month and none of the paperwork and no crazy co-pays or deductibles. It is amazing that anybody would want to keep this horrible system we have in place. It makes no sense. But then the self-centeredness of a large cadre of Americans is, well, uniquely American.”

“Second that.”

“Faved.”

“Excellent. Very few people know about what exactly Obama did in his "community­-organizer­" capacity, as it's been romanticized, like he's this great champion of the poor. He reminds me of a pretty version of Al Sharpton, a person who also used a "man of the community" image to bring prestige and wealth to himself.”

“Hindsight is 20/20 but I believe this was Obama's -- and you can add Michelle in there, too -- plan all along. It's about power, money and making history. Screw the people. We'll see what happens with Afghanistan and Iraq, as he's already shown is final stance on health care. By the end of the year maybe we'll start to see his "popularity" ratings -- based on his being such a nice guy -- start to tumble. They're only at 50% now. He's lost the support of the true progressives. The next wave to drop their support will be the progressives who say "I like Obama, but I wish he would _____________". The only ones who will be left are the true Obama-bots, those who follow Obama and who equate disagreeing with him a lack of patriotism or a hatred for America. Bush had this type of following, too, for more than four years, and then Katrina hit and that was pretty much the "wake-up" call. I know my son was able to freely wear his "Bush No. 1 Terrorist" tee shirt and indeed people wanted to know where to get one -- a 180-degree turnaround from 2004, when he purchased the darn thing.”

“Totally agree, as an American.”

“Unfortunately that "Obama base" is badly fractured. You're going have to get a lot of the still-starry-eyed Obamabots to see reality. Have you ever read the forums at Organizing America? Gees, I refused to post there after reading what they did to one person who dared question The Great Obama.

But I agree he's losing a lot. Repubs and Dems and Indies voted for Obama and he is losing among all three groups -- by how much I don't know. His popularity is down to 50% and that 50% has a lot to do his "being a nice guy." At what point do Americans start to say nice guys don't espouse the bad policies of the previous guy, nor when they refuse to come out swinging for what the majority of Americans want -- real health care reform, to mention one policy. Obama did not even try on this one -- not for single payer, nor for a strong public option.”

“With purpose and forethought I avoided Rachel Maddow's show when House bill passed. I knew that her statement would be identical or close to the one attributed to her in this article. I am a big Rachel Maddow fan, as is this author, but this ... It's sad that I knew this was going to be the predictable response. Time to Rachel to get Bernie Sanders back on and set things straight.

Listen to Bernie Sanders Unfiltered:

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/media/view/?id=68767dea-2b4f-4c76-8a6a-3172a42a6333

While you're on Bernie's site there is a petition to sign for his Too Big to Fail is Too Big to Exist" bill:

http://sanders.senate.gov/petition/?uid=c53f1aca-5881-403e-928b-a25980cb4e0c”

“EbonBear, our government is failing us miserably. This bill that has passed the House is a nightmare. Simply put, neither Obama nor our Congress is listening to us. And we don't have to reinvent the wheel, you're right. We already have an example of single-payer to build on, our Medicare (Canada) and our Veteran's Administration (NHS example). The polls show overwhelming support for an expansion of Medicare as the PO. This would eventually lead us to single payer -- and this the rub. The powers-to-be from the WH on down do not want this to happen. They want to keep the status quo.

It's a sad state of affairs.”

“I just tried to explain this to an Obamabot who told another commenter to "stop waiting for the government to rescue you." The guy didn't even say he was specifically unemployed, simply was upset about the job-loss numbers. The government engineered this loss through many mechanisms, not the least of which was Wall Street. Neither party has been pro-worker in a long time. It's all been about the bottom lines on Wall Street.”

“I really enjoyed reading this. Accountability, yes, it would be nice to see that.”

“Meaningful health care reform would have been critical to job growth. Unfortunately the current bill will not do it. Meaningful health care reform would have been the separation of health insurance from employers.

That being said, I urge people, if you have HBO, to watch Schematta: From Rags to Riches to Rags. You'll once again be screaming about NAFTA and outsourcing, and wonder why nothing is being done about this -- or whether anything will. My bet is that Obama will do nothing in this area. He's not going to ruffle Indian or Chinese feathers. This documentary is about the fashion industry, a/k/a the garment industry and it's decimation. It's not a fluff story.

Pay special attention to Wall Street connection and how it destroyed this industry in this country, as it has so many others. It's all about the bottom line. One designer in the program said people should pay attention because soon it will be white collar jobs that are being outsource. I laughed because, sadly, that has been going on for a few years, too.”

“Ditto on Obama and ditto on the MSM. There have been large progressive marches, demonstrations, arrests, and lord knows what else, just on health care. I'll still go back to the Mad As Hell Doctors tour. Obama held his Rose Garden event with handpicked AMA-type docs, handed out the white coats and had a pretty photo op with polite clapping. Outside the gates, relegated to an area where the cameras would not be were the Mad As Hell Doctors, who had petitioned Obama twice for an audience. One of them did get into the Rose Garden event, but I don't believe he was allowed to speak.

People have short memories of the many shut-outs and slap-downs of progressives in the health care debate, on the economy, the wars and now climate change, too. And most of this has come from the WH.

Let's stop calling people like Baucus and the rest of the Blue Dogs, including Rahm and Obama, centrists. They are corporatists and they are loyal to their corporate masters first.”

“A lot of these "little things" are what people forget, but many of us were listening, because they mean something. It was rather stunning. A short while after this I recall equally-disparaging remarks regarding "bloggers". That town hall meeting was a stinger, though, being dismissed as crazy internet people.”

“And for a minute I thought you were being critical LOL.”

“Mr. Bill, as you like to call him, was kicked off ABC because of his criticism of the Bush Administration, as did others. Remember the Dixie Chicks? Yes, you sound just like a Bushie. Follow the Fearless Leader, do not criticize, or you lose your show or your livelihood, go back to your little cubicle and be quiet.

Rahm and Obama have already more than once told the progressives to be quiet and not to rock the boat during this HC debate. Sorry, but a citizen's right to speak out and criticize is right of democracy. It's the only way we move forward.

People became afraid to speak out during the Bush Administration. I don't want to see this happen during the Obama Administration, although there is still way too much fear of the government in this country.”

“Spot on.”

“Hasn't done anything? Oh, he's doing plenty. He's about to sign a HC bill that will sell us all out to the private insurance industry. It's not that he's not doing anything, he's just not siding with the people on what he's doing. On health care reform he just doesn't seem to care what the people want.

Health care reform is not about whining. Do you and your fellow Obama apologists not understand how completely vital this issue is? Obama has given virtually no leadership in this fight at all. No one asked him to take up HC this year, anyway. This is Obama and Rahm who decided this. This is a mess.

As far as the wars, I'll tell you what, all it took for me was looking at the pictures of dead and maimed young children from our drone attacks, a practice that I really thought would change fairly early on with Obama. These attacks were really heating up and getting a lot of attention in the last few months of Bush. This is not about whining and a I-want-it-now attitude. A real leader bent on change would have been condemning this activity. But, whatever ... It's not your life or your family that's in danger, is it? Let's see how many more innocents we can kill in three more years, shall we? There's no rush. Obama's playing chess, don't you know?”

“I second this. This current bill is atrocious and I am really hoping that if it is not changed the Progressive Dems get the moxie to sink it, as they promised if it did not contain THE REAL PUBLIC OPTION, as DP just mentioned.

This bill is the gift to the insurance companies and it will continue to kill people and ruin them financially. I heard about the "insurance exchange" last night on Marketplace. What a joke!”