biabouman41's Comments (112)

“I agree that we need to make sure our voices are heard and not be drowned out by a few loud mouths on the right. The President , however, has to make sure that he does not undercut us in order to placate the far right lunatics.”

“If the opposition decides to filibuster the Senate leadership needs to let them talk till they are blue in the face, wear themselves out, then proceed to vote. Do not automatically give in because they say they are going to obstruct. Stick with it until they give in. If they want to talk for a week, two weeks, let them. It will become clearer to the public who opposes reform.”

“The Catholic Church has little moral authority. So many years of excusing their preists for raping boys in their churches, covering it up, paying hush money, now they tell us they have found morality! Let them tell that to the millions and millions of lives they have destroyed They have now inserted themselves in the health care debate to destroy it. Why is anyone listening to them?

Time for the Catholic Church to take a long hundred year walk into the wildernes to cleanse themselves.”

“Progressives, having been out of power so long have become impatient and want everything to work now and perfectly. The problem with the Obama administration is mostly one of our perceptions. I agree with some of the complaints, like Larry Summers and leadership on the public option. But most of it is our own impatience. It makes sense, for example that in a difficult economy the administration reduces the burden on small businesses. Hence their attempt to minimize, temporarily, I hope, the effects of Sarbannes-Oxley. But so many progressives put that dogma veil on, and just oppose the effort.
This points up what the real problem might be: failure of the Obama administration to let its base know what they are thinking. They are not communicating with their base. And we are getting the wrong perceptions. But perceptions have consequences. If a foreign power thinks that the manner in which the administration "negotiates" with the Republicans on health care is an indication of how soft they are that will lead a foreign power to make the wrong choice and we will end up in war on account of erroneous perceptions.
So the Administration has a problem with how they are perceived.”

“The Obama administration is currently talking about retrofitting homes throughout the country to save on energy consumption and utilize green sources of energy. But that effort will have a major problem finding engineers to manage this endeavor, We do not have anyway close to what we need in educated or even trained personnel. The Solar industry in China and the IT industry in India both have an excess of trained engineers, much more than they can absorb. So they will continue to dominate those industries. They can pay a fraction of what an American engineer will accept.

But we have ourselves to blame. You would think after the enslavement of African-Americans that when they were freed, proper thinking people will set out to educate them. No, instead every effort was made to deny them education. And that effort continues up to today. Not only is that shameful, it is also stupid. 10-12% of our country are sidelined and many from those preferred groups were square pegs in round holes. Of course that idea of not educating a segment of the population has extended to Latinos. So now we have 25% of our country not fully participating in moving us forward.

Today, spending on public schools must be equalized. Some children cannot be preferred over others and then expect to compete in a free and open world economy. We should expect that wages will continue to decline and unemployment will not sink much below 8%. We screwed ourselves.”

“How is it that after all of the discussions which have taken place over the public option that it is a secret that most of the proposals from Congress will exclude most citizens from the public option?

Employees covered by their employers will NOT be eligible to apply for the public option. How can this be right?

The public option needs to be available to everyone for it to be meaningful. Instead Congress is in the process of gutting the public option. They are planning to placate us by providing the public option but only in name. This is very disappointing that the Democratic Party can get into this fraud.”

“What do you know of the use of aloe for intestinal health?I use aloe about once a week and believe it has been helpful in minimizing my intestinal problems.
I use it about once a week, eating the raw aloe after placing it in the fridge for 30 minutes to erase the bitter taste.
Is anyone familiar with the consumption of aloe??”

“People need a dose of reality. A solid 50% or more of Obama's support comes from Hispanics and African-Americans among whom there is scant support for expanded gay rights. They will not accept Gay marriage as a right. They expect that individual Gay people should be respected like anyone else. But to shove a new concept of Gay marriage down their throat won't work.”

“The NOBEL committee has done this to aggravate the right wing. So don't you take it personal.”

“NEWSFLASH, NEWSFLASH, not really:
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE TALIBAN CONDEMNS OBAMA FOR RECEIVING THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE.”

“The best report I have seen says the bill will cost about 44 cents per household and that is before the BENEFITS are accounted for.”

“Not true. Fox has been losing money over the last year or so.”

“Iran is an old culture, one that has only defended itself in wars, not start them. Israel on the other hand is a new culture that is unstable and has initiated wars. Israel has refused to let in IAEA inspectors and likely has something to hide. The US also has initiated wars and is currently showing the instability of a young nation.

The simple thing to me is that a comprehensive peace in the area, including the Palestinians and nuclear arms of all nations in the area is the only reasonable way froward.

Frothing at the mouth about the aggressive Iranians won't make it so. We need reality based actions or we will continually go over these same hassles, time after time.”

“In respect to the Public Option, I see nothing in any of the bills passed or proposed that limits the number of Americans who can sign up, to 10%. How many will sign up? No one knows.

To say it will do little for those who do not have the Public option is to misunderstand the issue. This is like saying the majority of Americans do not shop at Wal-Marts so it has no effect on prices they pay at stores.”

“The question is: how do we fight misinformation. The issue of "Death Panels" is a good example of how we Progressives could have fought a better fight. Instead of going defensive and we should have pointed out that it is the Insurance companies which do have "Death Panels". They do have panels which make determination on a case by case basis which claims for treatment to outright deny and which to delay until it is too late for the patient. The patient dies, they do not have to pay. How many times have we heard of someone who applied to their Insurance for a bone marrow transplant coverage or a kidney transplant ordered by their doctor only to have the insurance company delay and delay and delay, then after months of this process to say "yes", but by then it is too late for the patient. She/he dies and they wash their hands of it and move on to the next patient. Insurance companies operate death panels. It is deliberate.

Also we can be sure that when their apologists, the Republican Party begin to attack Progressives on a particular principle it is because they know they and their friends are vulnerable on that particular point. So when they are attacking, instead of being defensive, we need to figure out what they are trying to hide. And it almost always is the same point of ethics they are trying to camouflage. Find the chink in their atmour and attack it.”

“All of the misinformation that keeps floating around! That is because Democrats do not know how to fight back. The notion of government "Death Panels" is a clear case in point. No sense saying there is no government death panel, instead point to the fact that the Insurance companies do have death panels.

Insurance companies do have their panels which make assessment of how long a patient will live if they are denied coverage for treatment. They do know that if they deny someone who needs a bone marrow transplant for 3- 4 months then agrees to cover the treatments at the last minute that expired 3-4 months is a death sentence for that patient. They do it all the time. It is intentional. And no one, no one points it out.

Republicans and their friends generally accuse their opponents of the very things they are most guilty of doing. So the first thing to do is not to be defensive, but seek out the chink in their armour.”

“The most intriguing part of this to me is the private school saying that the FIVE YEAR OLD Ethiopian children are not suited to the schools high standard. Apparently they made a decision that because of the color of their skin they are not capable of learning like other children. It is not that they have an entrance exam for 5 year olds, they just make the assumption that their skin color precludes them from learning. Amazing, but not surprising. That is exactly what goes on unabated in the good old USA everyday. Children are excluded from proper schools before they get started. Then the racists feel justified when these kids cannot pass exams after being forced to attend the worst quality schools.”

“21% agree with Wilson. 21% oppose health care reform. 21% think that President Obama is not American. 21% belive health care reform includes a death panel. 21% are excessively loud and want to deny us our government of choice.

We won't let it happen.”

“Somehow, we the citizens of the USA have got to come up with a model of how to ensure that our Congressional representatives do represent us. I am unsure what that model will look like but we have to be offering alternatives. Obviously, how they raise monies is of importance and now we hear the the Supreme Court is poised to gut McCain-Fei­ngold.What models are available worldwide?

A functioning news media is or should be an important part of the mix, Unfortunately that have divirted us into momentary emotional items. They constanly tug at our emotions and make no effort to actually investigate anything. How do we deal with this?

Do we need to get a mandatory list of all the people to whom our representative talk or any contacts of staff and family with lobbyists or regular citizens. Would that help?

I am not satisfied with any of these suggestions but we have to start somewhere.”

“The writer of this piece might have been surprised, but I was not. Knowing that this man is from South Carolina makes sense. Both North and South Carolina were on par in many respects about 25 years ago. Then the people of North Carolina got serious, got some good quality people in State government, got themselves good leadership. They paid attention to the bad school system in North Carolina, vastly improved education. Naked racism was no longer an acceptable way to get elected in NC. Bit by bit NC moved forward.

SC on the other hand cannot give up racism and it's the only thing representatives of SC need to get elected to office. As a matter of fact that is why George W Bush used racism to its utmost in the SC primary against McCain in 2000. They knew the people of SC were ignorant ant racist tactics will succeed. And it did.The people of SC have not demanded more of their representatives so they have schools that are falling apart throughout the State, high rate of illiteracy and pernicious racism, they cannot catch up to their sister to the North. They end up with Sandford for Governor and a Strom Thurmond re-elected ad infinitum only because he said he was more racist than the next guy. Of course, he was exposed as having fathered a Black daughter.

SC need to wake up: Elect only people of high principle. A racist is not a highly principled person.”

“I once had a dog that when strangers came to my yard he will run and hide, trembling in absolute fear, but if that stranger showed some fear my dog will yap at his heals and may even get in a bite or two.

By resigning under pressure he energises the lunatic fringe. And they will be a constant thorn in the heal of the Administration. If he blind-sided the White House, then I could understand. If not it is an error. The mangy, half-dead right wing dogs will keep yapping.”

“He got WAL-MART to support health care reform!”

“It is not what I want him to say but what I want him to do. I want him to bring Grssley to the podium and slap him silly for taking the country on this fraudulent escapade. Then take Baucus and Conrad up next and slap them around too for allowing it.”

“When I started supporting Obama for President, I had no certainty that he would win. But (1) I knew we had a good candidate (2) we knew that the country needed his policies and(3) I knew we would work hard for his election. Now, it is time that those aound the President: (a) recognise that a public option is the right policy and (b) we wiill fight with you when you (and the President) show the will.

Do not break our spirit by not fighting for what you know to be right. Fight hard for a strong pubic option and even if you fail we will know you put your all into this fight. As such we will continue to support you win or lose.

But failure to struggle will destroy our morale.”

“Can Congress counter punch by requiring majority vote of shareholders to approve donations to political parties or PACs by corporations?

After all it is our money.”