Daily Topics Blog - Wednesday December 16th 2009
By Louise
Hour One: Healthcare: First they came for the Banksters....
Hour Two: Dan and Thom debate the healthcare debacle - Dan Gainor of the Business and Media Institute www.businessandmedia.org
Hour Three: Howard Dean www.democracyforamerica.com is here - Kill the Bill!
Comments
#2
I hear Dan Gainor speaking for the Cons (clothed as a Free Marketer) saying we shouldn't fiddle with health care reform because the industry is 16-percent of our national product.
There wasn't that kind of concern when the Cons were pushing NAFTA at the expense of 30-percent of the economy known as manufacturing.
We're down to manufacturing being 8-percent of the economy with the slack taken up by fees paid gangsters in banks, health care industries -- the backbone of the Cons.
#3
The problem with the conference solution is the DEMs do not have the stomach to actually solve anything.
#4
@ Ames: Ditto with Richard L Adlof.....I'm digging holes and piling the twigs and branches over them....I'm lobbing grenades and molatov cocktails into the enemy camp....I'm trying to mobilize the troops and build consensus amongst the
righteous and true...I don't sulk...I get even....and then reflect and repent.
#5
If this is the Bill the White House wanted, I begin to wonder which side of the Chess Board they're playing for up there.
#6
Supposition: President Obama is enacting the third term of the Bush-Cheney Adminstration.
Someone . . . anyone (please) disprove the supposition.
#7
@mstaggerlee,
thanks for the grace and humor.
and i actually agree with your prescription.
yes, the bill is disappointing in many ways but the mandate is the one provision the tilts the balance, making the bill awful, imho.
i was surprised that no one was able to strip it via amendment.
does anyone know if an amendment to do so was proposed and then failed?
but i've also thought that republicans were simply laying back, waiting for dems to pass the law with the mandate, to give them a golden club to use against dems in 2010. they will bludgeon dems with that particular provision and the best thing to do, in order to make the bill palatable is to strip the mandate.
unfortunately, it appears that keeping it in is part of the deal obama has made with the insurance industry.
we shall see....
#8
@NelsNelsen: Please see my post above recorded at 10:12 AM.
#9
@Richard L Adlof, I can't disagree. It seems that since our country has two political parties dragging it in the same direction, all we really have is one party with two faces.
#10
Inquiry: Was installing Joe Biden as Vice President the way to silence him? Biden was a defining voice. Yes, foot in mouth occasionally . . . But loud and liberal in general.
I know that Dean was yanked outta the leadership of the DNC and replaced with Kaine as leader of DLC . . . Ooops . . . DNC . . . just for that reason.
#11
Richard,
Obama has a history of sidelining his critics (look at the Repug. who is now the U.S. Ambassador to China.)
You are exactly right. (And I am spitting mad!)
#12
I have sent more emails to the White House today than in the last month.
#13
#14
#15
RASTA! You're back! Please leave.
#16
#17
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power conceded nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
Frederick Douglass
#18
s.b. "Power concedes nothing..."
#19
So, fellow Progressive Thinkers, it is time to be doers again for 2010. This time we must research our candidates and make them pledge to support the "progressive agenda." We need doers not dreamers. We need women and men of integrety and we must be willing to support them from where ever we live; you know a dollar here and a dollar there. There are more of us than they would like to believe. We will soon take another hit when the Supreme Court hands down the ruling that will almost complete the humanization of the multi-national corporations. When this happens our dollars will mean absolutely nothing against the currency of the Saudi's, the Asian consortiums and the Chinese, specifically. How much do you think their candidates will garner? We have much work to do! Cry foul today, but get out to work in movement politics tomorrow. I am an old soldier, for real, and have faced greater odds than these and prevailed. Hope still remains!
#20
week2late (Sam),
Please talk more about the greater odds you have faced. (I think that's why I like the "Kill Bill" movies --- they show victory despite impossible odds (in a quirky and cartoony way...)
#21
Let me tell you this story about me...1999 flu shot...a bazaar reaction that left me paralyzed from the chest down to my feet. I could have died but I did not want to. My lung function was greatly compromised, but with determination I made my respirations an active task and not a passive bodily function such as it is. I stayed awake for three days concentrating on my breathing...not willing to give up and be placed on a ventilator. The paralysis began to receed and my breathing became more easy...from there it took me 18 months to learn to walk again without assistance. I have not had a complete recovery for I still go to physical therapy 3 X a week. I do this to keep myself out of a wheelchair. My nature is to never give up...to keep fighting...to never lose hope for a better tomorrow. The war stories are to painful to talk about, but I am alive and still fighting. I have a better sense of who I am over these last 61 years. I said it before and I will say it again..HOPE STILL REMAINS.. You must never give up or give in...or settle for!!!
#22
week2late (Sam),
Thank you so much for the generous spirit that allowed you to share your struggle. I take it to heart and bless you for it. I send you love and thanks.
#23
It is a cherished gift that you give to me...Thank you
#24
"In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties." Henri-Frederic Amiel
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
At Mondragon - both the mountain and the cooperative city - in Spain (written about in "Threshold" book)
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"Beneath the success and rise of American enterprise is an untold history that is antithetical to every value Americans hold dear. This is a seminal work, a godsend really, a clear message to every citizen about the need to reform our country, laws, and companies."
From Cracking the Code:
"Thom Hartmann ought to be bronzed. His new book sets off from the same high plane as the last and offers explicit tools and how-to advice that will allow you to see, hear, and feel propaganda when it's directed at you and use the same techniques to refute it. His book would make a deaf-mute a better communicator. I want him on my reading table every day, and if you try one of his books, so will you."
From Cracking the Code:
"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
Re Tim Fullerton
Thom, why oh why can’t/won’t progressives get organized and flex our muscles like the ‘Tea Baggers’ etc.
Great Idea!