blaze's Comments (17)

“So I assume that you are against the creation of a Labor party that includes all of the ideals of the Progressives and, supposedly, the Democratic Party. The only difference being that the Labor party actually fights for those ideals.”

“With this bill, we are forced to give taxpayer money to Corporate profit. 31 million new customers for those that profit from illness.
Sure the bill restricts that profit to 10%, but where does it say in the Constitution that American Citizens are NOT ALLOWED to create the largest possible non-profit insurance pool? This legislation enshrines the profit motive for health care.
America the Crass. America the hard hearted. America.. where we find profit in everything.
When we pay $7500 per customer and every other nation pays $2500.. then there is something wrong and this bill will not change that.”

“So racism in America boils down to Liberals wanting to see racism.
How many times have you been associated with monkeys daffey? How many racist jokes have been thrown your way? I'm not sure you're qualified to make your statement.
It's amazing to me how many Republicans (not that you necessarily are, daffey) claim complete innocence to racism when I remember the Righty blogs pushing "The Bell Curve" on their sites. "The Bell Curve" argues that blacks just aren't as smart as whites.... that's their real problem.
My John Bircher father gave that book to all his sons one Christmas. He doesn't think he's a racist either because he's nice when he meets a black person. However, in the big picture, he's trying to prove to his sons that "they just aren't as smart as us".”

“The public option is not yet dead and even Howard Dean says that there is much to like about the plan even without a public option. That said, LET US HAVE A PUBLIC OPTION!”

“Again, like the Republicans always say, the uninsured really do have health care because they can always go to the emergency room. So, that 40 million you are talking about are flooding our ER's where the cost is quadruple. They are already in the system, it's not like they have been waiting for the all clear.
The savings that Obama claims will be recognized when that 40 million can see a GP rather than an ER doctor.
Social Security, Medicare, the Post Office, the VA...
If you want to see a system RIFE with fraud and abuse, check out the Insurance companies. Google the multitude of fines levied at them for fraud and abuse. Check out the 22% increase in premiums they are telling us they will levee this year. Budgets are easily handled if you can raise revenues by 22% on a whim.”

“Yeah, but the CBO said that with Clinton's surplus, the DEBT would be eliminated by 2008. Candidate Al Gore pledged to continue to buy down the debt and then put the surplus into a "lockbox" to "shore up Medicare and Social Security". Don't you think Americans would feel much better if Medicare and Social Security were secured for their futures? Doesn't Clinton/Gore get any credit for the amazing economies of the 90's? The middle class has never been so vibrant as during the Clinton years.
Instead, within months, Bush had eliminated that surplus and then tripled our national debt. The Bush administration were out front in their deregulation of the banking and energy industries that directly led to our "near depression". I realize that Clinton signed a deregulating bill, but it was a 2004 move by the Republican SEC commissioner Chris Cox that reduced the amount of security needed by brokerage houses and raised their debt ceilings, thus allowing them to deal with credit swaps and other hybrid vehicles that was the real culprit.
The same Republicans who declared their desire to "make government so small that you can drown it in a bathtub" ran the government so poorly that they now claim that they were right all along when they say "the government is the problem".
It really seems to me that the absolute disaster of the Bush presidency has been glossed over and forgotten by the US media. Where are the post-Bush analyses?”

“Where does it say in the Constitution that, in order to bow to the altar of Capitalism, a majority of United States Citizens is not allowed to form the largest possible NON-PROFIT insurance pool to pay for their health care?
The teabaggers are demanding that we all pay exorbitant profits to Insurance Corporations in order to get health care. If patients don't want to continue to add to their $60 billion a year profit margin, then they're called Un-American.
This demand for profits is just as onerous as any Stamp Tax. King George is in the board room and is truly frightened of an inspired, free populous that says, "WE CAN DO HEALTH CARE BETTER FOR LESS."”

“How many of that 70% are on Medicare?
Just because they are happy with their current health care doesn't mean they won't be happy with health care for all.”

“To quote the prophet Isaiah, "Take counsel together and it shall come to nought." What a sad, sad, cynical statement. And what a sad state for Christians who have such devotion to their prophets.
What is happening in DC is not "counseling together", rather it is obfuscating, vascilating and outright lying. Counseling together implies good will and an intention toward an agreed end. The problem here is that there is no agreed end.
Single payer is absolutely the only way to go. The reason everything is going to be so expensive is that we are protecting insurance companies' profits (not prophets). People complain of $600 billion dollars cost in 10 years. Well that is exactly what insurance companies' PROFITS will be over that same year.”

“When a document is archived like Obama's birth certificate was in 2001, you cannot see an original, you can only see copies. The original is now in electronic form.”

“Proletarian101, you misunderstand.
It's not that we are saying the pundits are murdering extremists or grouping them with murderous extremists. It's that we are saying those pundits speak directly to murdering extremists and fan the flames of their extremism.
Non-violence is not exactly a right-wing appeal. In fact, the Right-wingers that I know mock non-violent attitudes and speech. I remember when they passed around an e-mail explaining how members of the Right should walk up to a pacifist and "punch them in the face... and then do it again."
Conservatives, as a movement, should try some self-awareness. That is the only way that they will realize that they are flaming murderous intent.”

“I've never seen the press lie down with anyone as much as they did George Bush and yet you never really mention him by name. The kowtowing to Bush may not be in the same celeb type vein as the coverage of Obama, but it was worse, because he was unquestioned in his blind surge until waaaaayyyy too late.

You made the best critique of your editorial yourself when you said, (very insightfully) "Blah Blah".”

“Remember Florida in 2000. The RNC was in court defending their workers for completeing incomplete registration forms themselves. The court decided to count the votes anyway because they actually care about the political opinion of Americans and wouldn't disqualify the most important right of a citizen.”

“To claim that Bill Clinton did not speak directly to the "everyman/woman" is revisionist history as disingenuous as any we see from Republicans.
I think the Democratic Party needs to revisit "parliamentary" politics. It does us no good to "reinvent" the party every four years.
When we see great minds and great leaders like Bill Clinton and Al Gore make the case for Democrats, it shows that the Party is healthy.
Remember.. Bill Clinton has already done what Barack Obama wants to do... and he did it with a Republican Congress.”

“I agree completely. She was the best choice for Dems, but lost and now she is expected to jump through very narrow hoops to please the vultures that hang on her every word... and now even parse her intonation and body language.
It was very refreshing to finally see someone give props to the best President in my lifetime. For obvious reasons, Obama could/would not trumpet the gains of the Clinton administration, rather they denigrated it as much as possible. It's too bad Bill's wife had to be the one to mention the Dems' greatest champion of the last 30 years. Imagine if the Pugs had ignored Ronald Reagan in a quest to "reinvent" the party every four years. It was that Party consistency that gave the Republicans the momentum that they gained these last several years. If it wasn't for Bill Clinton, we would have had Republican Presidents for the last 26 years... longer than many of Barack's supporters have been alive.
Hillary made it very clear that we need Obama to win this election and I agree with her. I will support Barack because he is the Democratic nominee, not because he is the best choice for the Party (note that Hillary voted against telecom immunity while Barack caved and supported it).
If Hillary didn't kowtow quite enough for Mr. Kaus, that's his problem.”

“Does the air smell sweeter with your nose so high up there?”

“"Buddhism is supposed to be about stopping suffering". Where did you learn that?
Buddhism teaches that life is suffering and they teach one to be determined to face it with eyes and mind open.
The Dalai Lama does not preach vegetarianism. Buddhists do not define what a person can or cannot do - even to eating meat.
The first point in this list of seven would read more clearly if, instead of saying they give more than they take, one said that seva (selfless service) is a spiritual practice of the Buddhists (as well as Hindus)”