mizerello's Comments (499)

“While I don't wish ill on Limbaugh--unlike the man himself who spends most of his radio show wishing ill on anyone who disagrees with him--I must say honestly that I also don't care whether he is sick or not. I simply don't believe he deserves my contempt or my concern.”

“Of all the ridiculous aspects of the Senate's reform bill, the one that simply defies all logic is waiting until 2014 to implement what little bit of reform there is in the bill. Where do these "strategists" in the Democratic party come from because, for the most part, they're clueless. When they appear on political cable programs, they allow the right wing pundits to speak over them and usually have a less than cogent argument to make. With the mess that GW and the Republican congress have left us,both with their so-called war on terror and with our economy, the Democrats have more than enough ammunition and yet they consistently rely on petty and childish web ads or, when they discover a nerve in the American public, they over play their hands to the degree that you end up being disgusted with them. They run away from the "tax and spend" moniker instead of laughing at the media pundits who throw it at them--they allow them to get away with suggesting that the party that allowed the worst terrorist incident in our history to occur is somehow better at security and they seemingly go along with the suggestion that the Rethugs are fiscal conservatives. Harry Reid is incompetent and has allowed his GOP counterpart to run the show. They will lose the next election because they are completely out of touch and don't know how to play hardball.”

“I'd watch it again as well. While Rachel would be the first to describe herself or her political views as liberal, she doesn't give anyone a free ride. Her interview with candidate Obama was a real interview with tough questions. She's decent, she doesn't do the gotcha bull and she does her homework. She will never be selected to host however because she's a woman, she's gay and she's an outspoken LIBERAL--the dirtiest word in main stream media, thanks to Grover Norquist and the rest of the right wing echo chamber.”

“They use fact checking organizations (when they even bother to actually do fact checking) because they can then say "so and so says that what you say is perhaps not entirely true...yadi yadi yadi ya." God forbid that they hold the feet of our politicians and leaders to the fire themselves, after all, they're all good buddies now. I used to watch the Sunday shows. I never watch them anymore because they're a waste of my time. I know that the "stars" who now host the shows don't want to rock the boat and that their main goal in life is to prove that they are not part of the "liberal media." And so we get shows loaded with right wing pundits who say ridiculous things that are then not countered by the hosts. The Republicans had control of congress from 1994 until 2007. The media personalities who people the news landscape today grew up under these people and they cow tow to them. I always find it interesting to watch them interview people who have been weakened by scandal etc. They go after them the way they should go after everyone in the political establishment. The sad truth is that until they smell blood, they're not willing to do their jobs.”

“Isn't interesting that the Wall Street Journal and CNBC et. al are now finding every opportunity to cast Madoff in as bad a light as possible (well deserved I might add)? When it would have counted, say fifteen years ago when they all knew that something was amiss but didn't want to rock the boat, they refused to speak truth to power. Now that he's powerless, it's easy for them--a bit like what happened when the entire main stream media laid down and let the Bush admin. roll right over them with their wars of "necessity." I won't read anything the WSJ publishes and I don't watch CNBC because they're nothing but apologists for the corporations who've brought this country to its knees.”

“I don't like Emanuel. Never have.When Obama chose him as Chief of Staff, I lost a little hope. Obama has not done all the things I wanted him to do. He has done things I didn't want him to do. I don't have the same sense of hope nor do I have the same faith I had in him on election day. However, I do think those of us on the left have to realize that he inherited an incredible mess from both GW and from years of rule in Congress by the radical right. Thanks to Rahm's work while in Congress, we now have many DINO's in congress and they have to be on board to get anything done. Effective management of any of our many problems is going to be very difficult--something the right is banking on. I don't like that there is no public option in the Senate bill. I lobbied my own congressional reps hard to include a real public option. Now that we have a bill, however, I firmly believe we need to move ahead.

And frankly, the idea that Jane would even sit in the same room with Grover Norquist, a man who's been at the center of the destruction of what makes our country so great, disgusts me. He's a f@scist in the true sense of the word and Jane lost a fan by allying herself with this man.”

“What site have you been on? Between the n@sty and ins@ne comments made by the right and the outr@ged comments made on the left, Obama can't win. And, I might add that unlike the sites you and people like you inhabit, this site actually publishes your comments. Sites on the right operate under the GW Bush mandate--you know, the one...posters need to sign loyalty oaths and fawn all over Sarah Palin in order to get their "views" posted. And, by the way, I know being literate doesn't matter to you people but you might use spell check next time you post:

Repremanded? Hypocrsy? I would suggest you check your dictionary next time you try for s@rc@sm--it might work more effectively for you.”

“And we're supposed to believe in a man who chose Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential candidate? Talk about political expediency.”

“Finally, I would suggest to the media who have fallen hook, line and sinker for the right wing rhetoric as far as the liberals don't know how to handle national security and are weak on defense...perhaps you should stop spouting old wives tales and start telling the apparently many among us who don't seem to have any understanding of our history how we really got to where we are in Afghanistan and Iraq. For "my friends on the right" who love to point fingers on the Huff...maybe you should review your history folks. Osama bin Laden is basically a creation of your side. Reagan and Bush 1 supported him financially and with weapons for years during the 80's. He received billions of our tax dollars courtesy of your hero Mr. Reagan not to mention many of those same missile launchers the Taliban are now using against us. Saddam was close friends with the Reagan administration. He was also supported financially and even provided with some of those WMD you all were so convinced he had including mustard gas. There are some interesting photos of Rumsfeld and Bush's daddy buddying up with the Husseins in those history books you all despise. The moral of this story? When you conduct foreign policy in a knee jerk manner, you get Afghanistan, Al Qaeda and Iraq.”

“Second comment--frankly, those that got us into this debacle--the right wing, have no business saying anything about either Iraq or Afghanistan. The fact they have the gall to actually suggest that by taking several weeks to evaluate his options, Obama was "dithering" are the same people who sent our troops into two wars with absolutely no preparation and no end game. As someone with family who've been directly impacted by this decision--a little bit of dithering was called for. As far as I'm concerned, the Republicans and the right wing echo chamber should be ridiculed and even sent into Iraq and Afghanistan to supplement the troops....and while they're at it, the richest among them should also be footing the bill for this fools errand we find ourselves stuck in. The tax breaks that were given to Bush's buds at the top--they should have been ended the day Obama took office. The same Republicans who kept telling us that we shouldn't worry about deficits are now suddenly concerned--we can't afford health care for the sickest and poorest among us but we can afford to waste billions of dollars in two failed wars.”

“First, the fact that Obama has decided to concentrate on Afghanistan should come of no surprise to anyone who actually listened to what he said during the campaign. He said he thought that the Iraq War was a mistake but that Afghanistan was a war of necessity--not just last August but all through his campaign. It was one of the things I most disagreed with him during the campaign. This utter dismay and surprise by so many on the left that he is doing what he said he would do is a bit disingenuous. While I too would prefer to hear that we are pulling out of both Iraq and Afghanistan now, reasonable people have to realize that even if we were to start leaving today, it will take years to actually withdraw completely from both countries. And that folks, is what happens when you have a President who used the presidency to settle some old personal scores and enrich his buddies and a Congress and Media who went right along with him, giving us, the American people a bill that will take a generation to pay. And Rose and Carpenter were right there in the trenches with Mr. Bush, so frankly, I don't really care what either has to say.”

“What planet do you live on? When asked whether we need health care reform, no matter what poll, including Republican polls, the majority of Americans say yes. If the questions are manipul@ted by the right wing polling organizations you seem to be basing your "facts" on, then of course the numbers will also be skewed. If all MSM does is show your kind screaming about f@scism at Town Halls (when you don't have a clue what the word means) then, people less interested in politics are going to start believing the right wing echo chamber. The one thing I would say the right wing does well is manipulate the media. And because they're better at it than the Dems, it's highly likely that we all will continue to be held prisoner by our insurance companies. I would like to know why you are all so up in arms about the government making decisions about coverage when no matter what insurance policy you have now, some bean counter at your insurance company is deciding what procedure you can have and whether or not to continue covering you should you get sick.”

“I believe it was Nixon who opened up relations with China. And George Bush Sr. made strong relations with China a central part of his administration. It was Reagan and Bush who supplied Bin Laden with billions of dollars of MY tax dollars and gave Saddam Hussein mustard gas and other wonderful weapons of mass destruction. GW Bush kissed and held hands with the Saudis and his family has a long and very lucrative relationship with the Saudi royals and with the Bin Laden family. Since your party seems to love communists and dictators I would invite you to move to China where pollution from lack of any regulation should delight your kind.”

“go away.”

“Actually, it was the right wing that pretty much destroyed our government. They put party h@cks into all of the typically non-political, bureaucratic positions including the SS and we now have a government that will take years to recover. The Justice Dept. is full of lightweight evangelicals with degrees from universities no one's ever heard of but they all signed loyalty oaths to President Bush. You people have effectively done what you've talked about doing for years--you've almost destroyed our government and while I'm sure you'll come back with some p!thy comment, you and yours are always the first ones to cry for help when some major dis@ster occurs. I would also remind you all that the worst terrorist act that ever occurred in this country occurred on your watch--you had the Presidency, the House and the Senate. And how did you respond? You sent my brothers and sister in law into a country that had nothing to do with the @tt@ck. Wow, I felt so much s@fer under the administration that went on vacation during every major cat@strophe that occurred on their "watch."”

“Go away. You and your kind are not welcome here.”

“It's not NBC we should be writing to. We should be writing to our Congressional Reps and asking them what's going on with the Secret Service. There have been way too many mistakes since this President assumed office and since the Republicans are working so hard to incite their lun@tic fr!nge, the Secret Service had better get their you know what together. If you don't want to contact your Congressional Rep., then contact the GOP and ask them why they're encouraging their cr@zies with their thousands of conspir@cy theories? Contacting NBC will only encourage them to produce more of this g@rbage.”

“You're thinking what I'm thinking as well about the enemieeez within...I have to disagree with you though about being rest assured that those responsible will be exposed. Nothing ever seems to happen to the guys at the top in either the Secret Service or the Defense Dept. with these constant failures. The Republicans have so effectively taken over these departments that they protect their own, one failure after another. I guarantee you that no-one in charge at the Secret Service will be asked to leave. I'll say it again, isn't it funny that the Secret Service hauled away people protesting Bush at his various public events, including people who had the gall to wear anti-Bush tees, but the lunatic fringe of the right wing are allowed to congregate outside of Obama's town halls. You have to ask who's in charge and what's their political affiliation?”

“These constant breaches of security make me wonder about whether or not the Secret Service is allowing politics to overshadow their jobs? The Secret Service hauled off people who wore anti-Bush tee shirts but they allow gun toters to be 500 feet from this President? How many security breaches are there going to be, starting from problems with security during the inaugural activities to this state dinner? By politicizing everything, the Republicans have turned the armed forces and most of any of this country's law enforcement related bureaus and departments into political arms for their party. Someone's head should roll for this latest debacle. The top echelons of our Armed Forces, FBI, Secret Service and NSA should be fired if they are actively involved in any political party. All we have to do is look at the Air Force Academy in Colorado for another example of how far the right wing has entrenched itself into our security establishment. If you want to get along there you are required to attend an extremely right wing, evangelical mega-church. Those who don't are ostracized. And we all wonder why we have failure after failure, at the top, in our military and intelligence apparatus. And, when these pasty faced Generals or Dept. heads screw up, who pays? Somebody way down on the totem pole that's who.”

“The techniques used on this show with regard to exercise and the way contestants are pushed makes me wonder if they are being forced to sign away any rights to talk about physical harm they may have experienced either during the show or years later. Exercise, when done appropriately, is the only way to lose weight and keep it off. The way the trainers on this show abuse the contestants verbally and push them physically disgusts me. I would bet my next month's salary that many of the former contestants suffer knee problems and back problems from the style of exercise they're pushed to do. And, it is just a matter of time before we hear of a contestant dying from a heart attack. There are healthy and effective ways to exercise for the morbidly obese. Jillian and her male counterpart do not engage in these methods. They simply use the same exercises that they use on physically fit people.”

“So basically what she's saying is that they weren't "watching" when 911 happened? September 11, 2001...as I recall, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney were our President and Vice President. They were briefed, from all accounts, in a much more serious way than usual, about the threat of Al Qaeda by Clinton officials. They weren't interested. They were too busy figuring out how they could take over Iraq for their corporate buddies. They were too busy dismantling our economy and our government. Today, their ideologues fill many of the typically non-partisan bureaucratic positions. Just look at the Justice Dept. They were in charge during what we hope will be the worst terrorist attack in this country and while I don't agree with the 911 conspiracy folks, I do believe that, like Katrina, it happened out of pure incompetence. If history books are still being written by historians interested in facts, the Bush administration will go down as one of the worst in our history...or so, we can hope.”

“That's the truth...until we publicly fund elections and stop allowing any contributions from corporations and citizens, it's going to get worse. At this point, House members start fund raising from the day they're elected and Senators start a few weeks in. And worse yet, it seems that a majority of their staff go from congress to lobbying firms and back again. The only other option would be to simply make it against the law for anyone serving in Congress and their staff to ever work in any capacity for public relations or lobbying firms. Then maybe, we'd get people who actually want to serve the public interest instead of taking advantage of it. It's the same for both parties, as you said, and, like you, I too believe that if nothing is done, our country may not survive.”

“This article is an example of what's different between us and them. We don't defend the indefensible like Faux News or Townhall. If you look at the people who are often the hardest on the left, it is members of the so-called liberal media--the Huff Po's and the Rachel Maddows and yes, even the Keith Olbermann's who take issue with people like Daschle and point out their hypocrisy. The right marches in lock step--their politicians have better "family values, morals...they represent the real America." I've got news for those of you on the right who are pointing fingers...if you think Daschle is b@d, let me introduce you to some of your finest. They make him look like a kid. Sadly, as several other posters have already pointed out, there is very little difference now between one side or the other today. They are interested in two things, it would seem...money and power.”

“I'm going to miss him and his voice in the morning. He's the quintessential news guy--just the facts, thank you ma'am. He will be missed.”

“I'll wait and see what Cantwell actually DOES in the end with regard to this problem. She's disappointed me consistently and that quiet steadfastness that Kuttner celebrates in his piece often translates to sitting on the fence or at the very least not stepping forward until she sees where the winds are blowing. During the hoo hah over health insurance reform, she's basically been a fence sitter. She seemed to be against any real health care reform until polls came out in Washington suggesting that reform was popular here. I am proud to be represented by two women in this state but frankly I haven't seen much willingness on the part of either Cantwell or Murray to take stands on issues that are contentious. The financial mess is perfect for Cantwell....everyone's mad at Wall Street and most people agree that regulation is the answer. It's a no lose situation for her with regard to her constituents. It's when taking a stand on something might actually impact her next election that she always seems to back down. I guess I should just be glad that, for once, she seems to be doing something worthwhile.”