kemstone's Comments (91)

“Yes, yes, and YES!”

“You may have coined a new term! From now on, whenever a senator threatens to filibuster something and it's clearly for self-indulgent reasons, we can say he is "Jujyfruiting" the legislation.”

“What makes you believe that legalizing drugs would turn us "into a nation of legalized junkies"? I've never known anyone for whom the legal status of drugs has actually determined whether or not they use them. People who don't use drugs do so out of their INNER moral sentiments, not EXTERNALLY imposed government law. People who do use drugs just don't share that moral sentiment, and don't give a damn about the law.”

“I am 1000% in favor of this idea. In addition to all those societal benefits you mentioned, people could finally have tens of thousands of works of brilliant LITERATURE at their fingertips! I for one am salivating at the prospect. As an American living abroad, English books are hard to come by, and the only ones offered are usually political biographies or Dan Brown-type best-sellers. I can't get anything GOOD to read, and it boggles my mind that with all of the millions and millions of gigabytes of useless information on the internet, there is STILL practically nowhere to go if you want to read a good history book, biography, or classic novel!”

“Oh terragazelle60, why did you have to go and write that second paragraph? I was cheering you on for the whole first paragraph--facts! Cold hard facts! Keep on beating the drum of the truth, the undeniable truth that you spoke of here and maybe, just maybe, a few of them will move ever so slightly back from the right-wing fringe without even noticing. How can they possibly deny that the bailouts began under Bush and that the Republicans did massive harm to future generations by starting two unnecessary wars and giving massive tax cuts to the already wealthy? On these points, on these FACTS, we should all agree.

But then you go and launch the ad hominem, attack these right-wingers for being mindless drones brainwashed by Fox News and you lose them completely, because none of them will assent to that and then they'll just ignore the facts you've presented. Please keep up the truth-telling but try and resist the temptation to attack your political opponents. You won't change any minds that way.”

“This is exactly right. It's too bad the president doesn't have someone like Drew Westen on his messaging team. Selling health care reform to the people of the united states should be like selling food to a starving man, but somehow the president has botched it completely. We can only hope he's finally wising up enough to make a strong case Wednesday night.”

“As much as I understand this sentiment and am tempted to agree with it, I just don't see the rhetoric coming from Obama as that of someone truly committed to real, meaningful health-care reform. The system is so downright outrageous both economically and MORALLY that the argument for reform is incredibly easy to make. Talk about recission and people getting denied for pre-existing conditions, about people who are insured but who are forced to pick up 25% of the bill for treatment and wind up bankrupt anyway. The case can be made so easily but Obama isn't making it--just offering platitudes about controlling costs and empty metaphors about health-care reform being a "belt" and a public option its "suspenders".

Of course he can't make congress do anything, but he can make a much stronger case to the American people, to whom congressmen are accountable. If the economic need and moral imperative of strong health care reform were as clear to the people as Obama could make it, congressmen would have no choice but to support reform or face certain electoral defeat in 2010.”

“I completely understand the sentiment, but voting republican won't help. Of course we don't want to reward Obama or the democrats for selling us out to big industry, but that doesn't mean we should reward the republicans for fighting on behalf of big industry the whole time.”

“Advocating justice in unhelpful? His point is that some things are more important than politics, so if holding the former president and vice president accountable for war crimes and re-establishing America's moral standing in the world causes Obama to lose re-election (and I don't accept the conventional wisdom that it would) then so be it.

I don't understand you people who say that the left should just shut up about its less politically popular ideals. If nobody is going to exert that pressure from the left, then the debate will continue exclusively on the right's terms.”

“You nailed it. I've been astounded by how handily the democrats are managing to screw this up, when the argument for health care reform is so unbelievably easy to make. If Obama would just offer ONE single personal horror story about private insurance instead of spouting this crap about belts and suspenders, it would be a step in the right direction. The need for reform is so overwhelmingly obvious and the case to be made for it is SO EASY TO MAKE that the only reason I can think of as to why the democrats aren't making it is that they don't WANT real reform. They just want to make it seem to the American people that they gave it their best shot. Well, the American people can tell that they haven't given it their best shot at all, and sadly the result is that there are going to be a lot more republicans in congress in 2011.”

“I read all of Johann's posts and I think this is one of his best. He touches on all of the major right-wing myths out there, and makes an excellent point that most of these people don't acknowledge facts, but accept what they're told purely on the basis of faith.”

“Yeah, Obama is totally taking over. The auto industry, the banks, and now health care.

What kind of bizzaro-world are these people living in? Obama = Hitler? Obama is too timid to even repeal DADT, to impose real regulations on Wall Street, or to draw a line in the sand regarding a public health care option. It just doesn't make sense that anyone can see this guy as some sort of all-powerful demagogue who wields control over every aspect of society when he can't even control the debate over his own policy proposals.”

“As many others in this thread have written, you've expressed quite perfectly what we on the left have been feeling. Obama was hoisted to the presidency on the backs of progressives in this country who believed that he represented the only real chance for actual change in this country--not just "baby steps" but the actual enormous change that this country needs. But now it seems "Change we can believe in" is taking on a different meaning--Beliving in Barack Obama's promise of change is becoming more like believing in Santa Claus.

I sincerely hope Obama has got someone on his staff who reads these kinds of articles and the comments posted on them, and that he finally understands that to be an effective leader he has to fight on behalf of his base, rather than appease the opposition with compromises that get the American people NOTHING in return.”

“That was Senator Anthony Weiner of New York, and not a single republican voted to repeal socialized medicine. It completely exposed their hypocrisy but for some reason it was barely reported and therefore ineffective.”

“I understand the sentiment, but we don't need more than a year to get a clear picture of what kind of president he'll be, and it's turning out to be not at all what we expected. We wanted a LEADER who would call on popular support to put pressure on institutions to make the necessary changes. Instead we've just got a moderator and an appeaser who makes back-room deals and will negotiate away just about anything for the sake of getting something, anything, even something totally ineffective, to pass.

It's not like once the current band-aid legislation passes he'll revisit the issue next year and make it stronger--this is his only shot and he's blowing it big time.”

“Haha. Obviously YOU aren't influenced at all by emotion...”

“I disagree. He went into this with huge Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and overwhelming popular support from the public. He could have been a LEADER and called on the people who got him elected to stand up and make their voices heard, putting pressure on the Blue Dogs not to compromise away our only shot at real reform. Instead, he's spent this entire process making back-room deals and barely making more than a half-hearted attempt to explain to people what real reform would look like and why it's so desperately needed.

I believed that if any president could possibly get it done, it was Obama. But he's made demonstrable errors in his handling of this issue and proven himself an ineffective leader. Many will suffer and some will die because he failed to stand up and fight for them.”

“Oh, it's a FACT, is it? I suppose you have proof or even a shred of evidence that it was a planted question. Of course, I'm not saying I have any evidence that it WASN'T planted, but you ought to recognize when you're basing something on intuition rather than actual knowledge.”

“The posters are free speech and I don't have a problem with them. I think they're more of a display of the artist's ignorance than an indictment of Obama--the Joker was an ANARCHIST. The artist clearly doesn't know the difference between SOCIALISM and ANARCHISM.”

“Lee, I think it's great what you're doing and I've enjoyed watching your videos on Cesca's blog all week, and I think you did a good job on the issue on your radio show.

It hadn't really occurred to me that the mainstream media wasn't going to treat this issue with the intense and heated focus it deserves, but you're absolutely right that a lot of their revenue comes from Big Health in much the same way as congress--it's corruption that's hiding out in the open.

There's not much I can do from overseas, but I really wish I was seeing people marching around in Washington holding signs saying, "Healthcare reform without a public option is not reform." I want wall-to-wall media coverage of this and a little less Mark Sanford and Michael Jackson. Where is the grassroots pressure? This is a HUGE issue--the future of out society, not to mention the health and even the LIVES of the American people are at stake! If traditional media won't cover it, now is the time to put New Media to the test and see just how effective we can be. Keep on fighting the good fight.”

“I completely and totally agree with every single thing EXCEPT the main point of your argument. I was cheering you on for all the stuff about Obama's chronic pragmatism and how he really needs to stop moving towards the "mushy middle" on every single situation. Bill Maher made the point really well when he said we don't have a left and a right party in this country--we have a center-right party and a crazy party. Anything between center-right and crazy is either ineffective or counter-productive.

That said, while it would be enormously emotionally gratifying for those of us in the West to hear the president offer up some of his inspiring rhetoric on behalf of the opposition, that is exactly what the Ayatollah and his supporters want right now. They're just waiting with their fingers crossed for that sound-bite that they can play over and over again to prove their claim that anyone who is with the protesters is with the Americans, the Great Satan. The absolute worst thing the American president can do for the protesters is offer them strong vocal support.

Neda's death continues to haunt me and I'm glad it's been such a wake-up call to the world. If we don't want her death to be in vain, we have to stay out of it.”

“Exactly.”

“Thank you, Lee! Excellent point.

I often wonder what would have happened if the Iraqi people had been Twittering and YouTubing during "shock and awe" or our subsequent invasion. We're more than willing to cast shame on foreign governments when they commit brutal acts against innocent people, but we're reluctant or unwilling to recognize that we have plenty to be ashamed of as well.”

“I've been fascinated (and horrified) by what we've seen happening in Iran. The death of Neda in particular has really hit home the horrifying reality of what would, without the benefit of new media, have just been an abstract and distant event to most Westerners.

I'm not sure if it's frowned upon to post a link to my own website here on HuffPo, but I've written a few pieces about Iran I'd like to share, which explore what I believe to be the significance of new media and the unprecedented way in which the world is witnessing this uprising--live as it happens from the perspective of those who are participating. This event is not just significant in Iran's history, but in all of HUMAN history.

I'd love to hear the thoughts of anyone who might be interested, so go to http://kemstone.com/Journal/homepage-index.php (you may need to hit 'refresh') and leave a comment in any of my three Iran entries. WARNING: my latest post contains the profoundly disturbing images of Neda's death.”

“This liveblog is more significant than I think anyone realises right now. The way we're getting our information about this event--from the actual people on the ground as it happens--is nearly unprecedented in the history of mankind. Could this be a sign that a fundamental paradigm shift in the unfolding of world history is under way?

For anyone interested in one person's thoughts about this situation and it's broader significance for the future of humanity as a whole, you are welcome to read the essay I posted about it on my online journal.

http://kemstone.com/Journal/

I welcome your comments, but please don't attack me with "why should anyone care what YOU have to say?" kinds of criticism. I know I'm not an expert--I just have some big ideas that I'd like to spread as widely as possible throughout the human collective consciousness.”