Single Payer comes to Vermont

Vermont is one step-closer to becoming the first state to set up a truly universal, single-payer health care system. The Vermont Senate passed the new healthcare bill yesterday – following in the footsteps of the state House that passed the bill last month. Now – it just needs to be signed into law by Governor Peter Shumlin who’s already expressed his support for the measure. There IS one last step though – Vermont would need to secure a waiver to opt out of Obamacare in order to build its own healthcare system.

A handful of lawmakers have introduced legislation to allow states – in particular Vermont – to drop out of Obamacare if they prove they can cover just as many people with insurance as the law would have without adding to the deficit. But surprise, surprise, Republicans don’t like the idea. That’s right – after bashing Obamacare for 2 years – they don’t want to let states drop out of it. What happened to their whole “state’s rights” platform – does that only apply to stuff like abortion and gay marriage – and not to giving people free healthcare? The truth is – Republicans are trembling at thought of Vermont having a single-payer healthcare system to serve as a model for other states. Canada’s single-payer healthcare system started in just one province – Saskatchewan – and then spread across the country because people in other provinces demanded it.

Republicans fear that the same thing is likely to happen in the United States and they’ll do anything they can to stop it in Vermont. They don’t care about sick people – they care about profits for their buddies – the millionaire private health insurance executives.

Comments

gerald's picture
gerald 11 years 47 weeks ago
#1

@Palindromedary, dianhow, Barilman, and 2950-10k, I saw your comments on April 25 and 26, 2011 and I commented on them late April 26 or early 27, 2011. My comments to you are on Thom’s April 26, 2011 blog.

We are in battles against Satan's disciples who talk about family values and all the time these devils are laughing at family values. Here is one example. Let us eliminate child labor laws and have children work and not pursue an education. If you want to lose freedom, you must put a blanket over education. I say horse pucky to that Nazi idea. I truly BELIEVE THAT THE UNITED STATES OF MORTAL SIN IS THE ANTI-CHRIST!!!!!

America’s DNA is a perfect match with Nazi Germany. America is truly Nazi America.

The American flag symbolizes who we are. The colors of our flag are red, white, and blue. Red signifies fascist-Nazis, evil, wicked, and Satan’s disciples (politicians and non-politicians). White is for freedom, human rights, and independence. Blue is for patriotism, love, mercy, forgiveness, Jesus’ words from the New Testament of the Holy Bible, compassion, connection, sympathy, the common good, and our brothers’ keeper. Blue and white reflect also that we are made to the image and likeness of God. Blue and white’s goal is to strive in doing good works for our country and the world.

gerald's picture
gerald 11 years 47 weeks ago
#2

Obama releases his birth certificate but the birthers will say that the certificate is forged.

gerald's picture
gerald 11 years 47 weeks ago
#4

Here are two reasons why fascist-Nazis will always win the majority.

Our voting machines are rigged in total favor for fascist-Nazis.

Florida has passed a bill that would curtail voter registrations and making it next to impossible for low-income persons, students, and racial minorities from voting. Florida is definitely a Nazi-controlled state where Satan’s disciples prevail over the citizens. There should be minimal doubt that Nazi America has more disciples wearing brown shirts and jackboots. These devils are truly Nazis who prowl the fifty states seeking the ruin of souls.

DRichards's picture
DRichards 11 years 47 weeks ago
#5

Homeless woman due in court on charges she illegally enrolled son in CT school

A homeless Connecticut woman is due in court Wednesday on charges she illegally enrolled her son in a Norwalk school - a polarizing case that sparked national debate.

Tanya McDowell, 33, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of larceny and conspiracy to commit larceny for stealing $15,686 - the estimated value of her son's education. The 6-year-old boy was enrolled at Norwalk's Brookside Elementary School between January and McDowell's April 14 arrest.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/04/26/2011-04-26_homeless_...

If convicted at least she will a roof over her head and 3 meals a day... This is not only insane, but heartless!

gerald's picture
gerald 11 years 47 weeks ago
#6

Thom had a woman on his show who believes woman should stay home as homemakers. I agree but in our country two incomes are necessary for a family to survive. This necessity started with Reagan’s tinkle on me economics. IF OUR FASCIST CEOS PAID MEN MORE MONEY, THEIR WIVES COULD REMAIN IN THE HOME.

iamfreespirited's picture
iamfreespirited 11 years 47 weeks ago
#7

Good for you Vermonters! I hope that single payer health care spreads like a fast moving good virus across america. Then the for-profit health insurance companies won't have a vested interest in making sure we stay sick and get sicker. How can they continuously "predict" that the health industry will expand rapidly in the near future, are they psychic? What do they know about it that they are not telling us?

Natural health alternatives must also be included in the single payer coverage. Many illnesses such as lupus, chronic chemical sickness and other auto-immune diseases respond much better to natural healing methods than western drug-based symptom treatment. Paying out of pocket for natural health practitioners, therapies and herbs gets expensive very quickly.

iamfreespirited's picture
iamfreespirited 11 years 47 weeks ago
#8

This story is appalling. Let's shame that school board and administrators into dropping the charges.

dianhow 11 years 47 weeks ago
#9

Well of course baggers say its phony. Obama should have kept ignoring them Not worth his or our time. .

dianhow 11 years 47 weeks ago
#10

Women who stay at home for years have no recourse- safety net if the marriage ends - or husband gets sick or dies .She becomes helpless Its grand for moms to be home with kids, but not as simple as some make it sound. I sat for my grandson when my daughter got a job when he was 7 SO child & mom had best of both worlds. I stayed home till my kids were older, then became a Realtor . But without my husbands support I could not have done so .If I was a single, divorced mom..I'd be up a creek .

dianhow 11 years 47 weeks ago
#11

what fascists what Nazi's ? What I see is greedy corps / billionaires / lobbyists who will do say or anything to get and stay in power. Lie cheat smear steal whatever it takes NO morals Just Dollar signs

dnarnadem 11 years 47 weeks ago
#12

I hate to tell you - but that is what Facsism is and how the Nazi's co-opted it. Same thing today but have different names. It is still Corporate Facism and the Neo-conservative Religious right hate machine have co-opted it in modern form.

2950-10K's picture
2950-10K 11 years 47 weeks ago
#13

Go Vermont, you could be the first state to catch up with the rest of the world regarding health insurance reform, because you're exercising EXCEPTIONALISM on a state's level. What a bold display of true representative government! I can't wait to watch the republican hypocrites make a mockery out of their "states rights" platform now. The dominos are set to fall! Vermont will secure the waiver! Twist some arms Bernie!

Maybe I'm being fussy, but I call this HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM. The term Obamacare is a slick spin by mass media to divert attention away from the real problem which was HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES NEEDING REFORM. Even if administered by the state, it's still a form of Health Insurance....WITHOUT the CEO and BANKSTER parasites. It's a fine example of functional democracy.

2950-10K's picture
2950-10K 11 years 47 weeks ago
#14

We must all thank Nicole Sanders. Yesterday she stood up for truth and the outcome was telling of the tyrannical path the corp. sponsored republican/tea party is taking us down. Can you say Germany 1930's! What's next, gas chambers for constituents asking their teabag reps. legitimate questions? The media will ignore this huge story. Imagine if Limpbawl had this happen to him at a townhall meeting?

You go Daughters of Liberty!

gerald's picture
gerald 11 years 47 weeks ago
#15

@ dianhow, very good ideas and thoughts to have us think! Post #10 or 11!

gerald's picture
gerald 11 years 47 weeks ago
#16

@dianhow, I know that my words do not sit well with you but I believe "to thy ownself be true." A man must do what a man must do.

Our electronic voting machines are rigged to keep Satan’s disciples in the majority forever. Florida’s bill will also keep Satan’s disciples in the majority forever.

Florida has passed a bill that would curtail voter registrations and making it next to impossible for low-income persons, students, and racial minorities from voting. Florida is definitely a Nazi-controlled state where Satan’s disciples prevail over the citizens. There should be minimal doubt that Nazi America has more disciples wearing brown shirts and jackboots. These devils are truly Nazis who prowl the fifty states seeking the ruin of souls.

Supreme Court decisions are favoring American corporations, the American rich, and transnational corporations. Corporations are protected from any legal relief for individuals. In Nazi America the Supreme Court is ruling that corporations can have death panel laboratories to kill off the human population from the United States to all the countries on our planet. American corporations have embraced Leo Strauss’ theory for the Project for the Next American Century. Leo Strauss has said that planet, Earth, can only sustain 500 million people. That means 6.5 billion persons will have their lives terminated. Nazi Germany had death panel laboratories and now Nazi America is emulating and completing the reduction in human population for planet, Earth.

Yes, Hitler was a monster. The United States of Mortal Sin has replaced Hitler and our nation is now the Anti-Christ. My words may sound harsh but the human population in the world is battling for survival from our evil country. We are in an endless life and death struggle against our Satan’s disciples who prowl the earth seeking the damnation of souls.

gerald's picture
gerald 11 years 47 weeks ago
#17

Shades of the Third Reich that really is the Fourth Reich's spewing!!!

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff349.html

dnarnadem 11 years 47 weeks ago
#18

This is what the Modern American/Trans-national Corporate Propaganda Machine looks like – an almost direct use of what that arch Nazi propagandist Goebbels used to mentally brainwash a whole German Nation into a fascist war-mongering genocidal killing machine! Can’t happen here? Think again. Carefully read the principles below, and unless you are totally clueless or already one of these propagandists, these are the very same tactics that Karl Rove, the Corporate Conglomerates and all those right wing Think Tanks and media outlets are using today to brainwash the American Public today!

Knowledge is Power! If the American people can come to realize how they are being manipulated and brainwashed by corporate elites, Corporate Media, Political conservative groups, religious fundamentalists, then the better they can fight this insidious contagion! Learn it and question everything! Clue – when EVERY member of a certain Political party or a Religious group is repeating VERBATIM what everyone else is saying in different mediums, then you know it is scripted and propaganda. When “Buzz” words they are using suddenly change because they are having a “Boomerang” effect against the messenger, then this is propaganda. When Paul Ryan’s End Medicare Plan and lower taxes for the Rich, become “Vouchers” and “Creating Jobs”, then that is propaganda. Already the right wing money machine is gearing up to the tune of Millions of $$$ to propagandize this lie and lies in a media blitz of monumental proportions! Stay tuned – you may be seeing 1000s of these ads and millions of robo-calls soon!

The following list below can be found at:

http://thepropagandaproject.wordpress.com/goebbels%E2%80%99s-principles/

Summarized by Leonard W. Doob in his essay, Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda

PRINCIPLE 1: PROPAGANDISTS MUST HAVE ACCESS TO INTELLIGENCE CONCERNING EVENTS AND PUBLIC OPINION

PRINCIPLE 2: PROPAGANDA MUST BE PLANNED AND EXECUTED BY ONLY ONE AUTHORITY – (Like Karl Rove!)

PRINCIPLE 3: THE PROPAGANDA CONSEQUENCES OF AN ACTION MUST BE CONSIDERED IN PLANNING THAT ACTION

PRINCIPLE 4: PROPAGANDA MUST AFFECT THE ENEMY’S POLICY AND ACTION – (The concerted attack against Obamas’ Healthcare plan for example!)

PRINCIPLE 5: DECLASSIFIED, OPERATIONAL INFORMATION MUST BE AVAILABLE TO IMPLEMENT A PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN

PRINCIPLE 6: TO BE PERCEIVED, PROPAGANDA MUST EVOKE THE INTEREST OF AN AUDIENCE AND MUST BE TRANSMITTED THROUGH AN ATTENTION-GETTING COMMUNICATIONS MEDIUM – (Fox Noise for example! – Like Obama wasn’t born in America!)

PRINCIPLE 7: CREDIBILITY ALONE MUST DETERMINE WHETHER PROPAGANDA OUTPUT SHOULD BE TRUE OR FALSE

PRINCIPLE 8: THE PURPOSE, CONTENT, AND EFFECTIVENESS OF ENEMY PROPAGANDA; THE STRENGTH AND EFFECTS OF AN EXPOSE; AND THE NATURE OF CURRENT PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS DETERMINE WHETHER ENEMY PROPAGANDA SHOULD BE IGNORED OR REFUTED

PRINCIPLE 9: CREDIBILITY, INTELLIGENCE, AND THE POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATING DETERMINE WHETHER PROPAGANDA MATERIALS SHOULD BE CENSORED

PRINCIPLE 10: MATERIAL FROM ENEMY PROPAGANDA MAY BE UTILIZED IN OPERATIONS WHEN IT HELPS DIMINISH THAT ENEMY’S PRESTIGE OR LENDS SUPPORT TO THE PROPAGANDIST’S OWN OBJECTIVE

PRINCIPLE 11: BLACK RATHER THAN WHITE PROPAGANDA MUST BE EMPLOYED WHEN THE LATTER IS LESS CREDIBLE OR PRODUCES UNDESIRABLE EFFECTS

PRINCIPLE 12: PROPAGANDA MAY BE FACILITATED BY LEADERS WITH PRESTIGE – Senators, former senators and Presidents, Media Giants, etc)

PRINCIPLE 13: PROPAGANDA MUST BE CAREFULLY TIMED

PRINCIPLE 14: PROPAGANDA MUST LABEL EVENTS AND PEOPLE WITH DISTINCTIVE PHRASES OR SLOGANS – {This one is key! A. They must invoke desired responses which the audience possesses (like Welfare Queens – Sharia Law!!). B. They must be capable of being easily learned – (Obamacare!). C. They must be utilized again and again – (repeated infinitum on our media stations!). D. They must be boomerang-proof – they can’t go back and hurt the original messenger).

PRINCIPLE 15: PROPAGANDA TO THE HOME FRONT MUST PREVENT THE RAISING OF FALSE HOPES WHICH CAN BE BLASTED BY FUTURE EVENTS

PRINCIPLE 16: PROPAGANDA TO THE HOME FRONT MUST CREATE AN OPTIMUM ANXIETY LEVEL – (Al Qaeda or Terrorists, or Black Panthers, for Example)

PRINCIPLE 17: PROPAGANDA TO THE HOME FRONT MUST DIMINISH THE IMPACT OF FRUSTRATION

PRINCIPLE 18: PROPAGANDA MUST FACILITATE THE DISPLACEMENT OF AGGRESSON BY SPECIFYING THE TARGETS FOR HATRED – this one is self-explanatory!

PRINCIPLE 19: PROPAGANDA CANNOT IMMEDIATELY AFFECT STRONG COUNTER-TENDENCIES; INSTEAD IT MUST OFFER SOME FORM OF ACTION OR DIVERSION, OR BOTH – another self-explanatory! Our Country is going to pot, but discuss only the birther issue or the royal wedding in England!

Palindromedary's picture
Palindromedary 11 years 47 weeks ago
#19

I suspect that the whole birther issue was done, despite that they knew the truth anyway (or not), for the purpose of propaganda to keep peoples attention away from those things that really matter...like the criminal activities of their puppetmasters, the banksters, corporateers, and Wall Streeters. Anything, no matter how ridiculous, is acceptable to them for that reason. The one thing they don't want us to concentrate on is their criminal misdeeds and treasonous actions against the rest of us. It works because the news media laps it up and that's all we hear about in the news....over and over again..like they are brain washng us to pay attention to ridiculous sh!t. But I rarely pay much attention to the major news media and never watch Fox Noise. The news I tend to favor comes from "alternative" news sources such as FSTV, Thom Hartmann, and from select sources on the internet.

I did catch a flyer on one news channel, however, as my eye caught the banner flying across the bottom of my TV...something about Wall Mart complaining that it's customers could no long afford to shop there anymore because they were running out of money. Maybe the wealthy can shop there and keep them in business so no Chinese worker will lose out on the good life. And by the time our banks sucker them into a credit trap of a mortgage they'll regret capitalism even more than many Americans. That's what happened in Russia, Latvia, most of Europe, Greece, Iceland........

Now, I hear, Trump has switched his attack to the legitimacy of Obama's education....grades...etc. Yes, these people can be pretty disgusting and unrelenting. That they are laughing stocks to most intelligent people is besides the point...when the whole reason is to "wag the dog" in distracting us on the real and really important issues.

I am not happy with Obama's performance because he is either complicit with our enemies or he is letting our enemies push us around...maybe because he has no other choice...I don't know...I suspect that if Obama really fought for us hard enough...as he said he would....then the neocons/neoliberals would find yet another patsy to take the blame for yet another assassination.

Palindromedary's picture
Palindromedary 11 years 47 weeks ago
#20

"Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have."
-- Richard Salent, Former President CBS News.

"News is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising".
former NBC news President Rubin Frank

Asked to give a toast before the prestigious New York Press Club in 1880, John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff at the New York Times, made this candid confession [it's worth noting that Swinton was called "The Dean of His Profession" by other newsmen, who admired him greatly]:

" There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job.

If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell the country for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting
an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes. "

---http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/LIE/lie.html

Palindromedary's picture
Palindromedary 11 years 47 weeks ago
#21

I'm routing for Vermont! And hope they set the good example for all other states to follow. It is about time the damn death-panels-for-profit healthscare insurance companies got shut down and run out of town...tarred and feathered....better yet...roll out the guillotines! The Republicans screeched inanely about "government death panels" but the real death panels, the insurance companies, murdered more people than anyone really knows. But the loved ones know.

U.S. Citizen's picture
U.S. Citizen 11 years 47 weeks ago
#22

They may be fascist but not necessarily Nazi.

U.S. Citizen's picture
U.S. Citizen 11 years 47 weeks ago
#23

Let's be clear. It's not just the Republicorps that don't want single payer. The majority of the Corporcrats are also against it. Remember, Obama's back room deals regarding gov't negotiation with the drug companies and eliminating the faux public option, let alone eliminating Medicare for All. Both parties are going against the wishes of the people and putting corporate interests over the public good.

Palindromedary's picture
Palindromedary 11 years 47 weeks ago
#24

Evidently, Obama's own law school professor thinks Obama didn't learn much about the constitution or law.

"More than 250 of America's most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his "degrading and inhumane conditions" are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture.

The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America's foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.

Tribe joined the Obama administration last year as a legal adviser in the justice department, a post he held until three months ago.

He told the Guardian he signed the letter because Manning appeared to have been treated in a way that "is not only shameful but unconstitutional" as he awaits court martial in Quantico marine base in Virginia.

Tribe is the second senior figure with links to the Obama administration to break ranks over Manning. Last month, PJ Crowley resigned as state department spokesman after deriding the Pentagon's handling of Manning as "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid".

The intervention of Tribe and hundreds of other legal scholars is a huge embarrassment to Obama, who was a professor of constitutional law in Chicago. Obama made respect for the rule of law a cornerstone of his administration, promising when he first entered the White House in 2009 to end the excesses of the Bush administration's war on terrorism."

It's time we all "broke ranks" with Obama as he is obviously just another criminal and a big, big mistake!

--http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20110411045515731

Palindromedary's picture
Palindromedary 11 years 47 weeks ago
#25

@US Citizen:
You are right, of course, both the Democrats and the Republicans are toadies and useful idiots for the corporations. It's time we stopped thinking that the Democrats are going to start truly representing the people. There are very few Democrats that care about the people...all they care about is helping to delude the people they pretend to represent. And Obama is right there at the top of that ponzi scheme of corruption and lies. If there was ever a case for "taxation without representation" it is now. And since it is more than obvious that the Republicans represent the rich we need to get rid of all the scum and pestilential rats who, themselves, live high off the hog and have excellent tax-paid health care while they vote against good affordable and honest healthcare for everyone else...instead voting for a forced-pay crap-sandwich that they shove down our throats and will continue to enrich the healthscare insurance racket. I'd rather be forced to pay a government-run healthcare system than a profit maximizer system that has death panels for profit and rich CEOs raking in millions of blood-money dollars.

dnarnadem 11 years 47 weeks ago
#26

"I suspect that the whole birther issue was done, despite that they knew the truth anyway (or not), for the purpose of propaganda to keep peoples attention away from those things that really matter.."

You need a receptive audience to sell this LIE! So the tea-baggers and the Birthers are a receptive Racist audience.

dnarnadem 11 years 47 weeks ago
#27

"They may be fascist but not necessarily Nazi."

Not yet anyways. Don't forget, the corporate fascists in Germany opened up the way for the Nazi's, not the other way around. If the modern day corporate fascists succeed at destroying our Democratic state, they will be paving the way for something that may turn out way worst then the Nazis!

Palindromedary's picture
Palindromedary 11 years 47 weeks ago
#28

@dnarnadem:
I agree with both of your last entries. Yes, the dummies, and most probably a large number of them were/are racists, may have believed in the right-wing propaganda but it also resulted in diverting attention away from the real issues...like unemployment, the economy, and our criminal wars in the middle east.

If it looks like a fascist, smells like a fascist, and acts like a fascist...it is probably a fascist..and you are right that it took corporations and other top business people to get Hitler into power. And I believe you are right that it could very well turn out to be worse than the Nazis....the Nazis only had IBM cards and tabulators(from IBM) to keep tabs on it's people and the dissenters. Our government(and I should qualify that to say that government in itself is not bad and even necessary...it is the government that is controlled by big business and wealthy interests against the people) has the internet and social media monitoring data collection programs. They have had, for many years now, a program called Echelon that uses dictionary computers that listen for certain words that are either typed or spoken on a phone..cell or land. They even monitor not only the words and what is said but how it is said. They have facial expression analysis and I wouldn't doubt that they are working on being able to monitor one's thoughts from a distance. The have devices that can see through walls. They have "crowd control" devices that can either pierce our ear drums or fry our brains with microwaves. Of course, you probably already know about that and that they are gathering all kinds of information about each of us...what we say...how we say it....and in some instances watch us from pin hole cameras that they choose to secretly install in our homes in order to monitor what we do. I know it sounds like paranoia....but it is not paranoia if it is true. It sounds crazy but it is not...it is frightfully true. Yes, it could be a thousand time worse than the NAZIs. And remember the terminalogy that Papa Bush used..."thousand points of light" sounds an awful lot like "thousand years reich". I know about the Bush family association with Hitler. I know how some of our corporations and banks had collaborated with the enemy. They still do...problem is that they are now in control over our lives and our deaths.

dnarnadem 11 years 47 weeks ago
#29

All governments lie to its people to in one degree or other. They have to as this is human nature and political expediency.

But there is a continuum from Bad to Good. There are BAD Dictatorships and there are GOOD Democracies. And in between there are many varieties. The question is – which one does any reasonable human being want to live under. In theory and in actuality, most do want to life under a GOOD and a FAIR Democracy. As far as I know, no people want to live under a suppressive Dictatorship willingly. In fact that is why suppressive dictatorships exist – to suppress the majority of the people. Dictatorships are by necessity police states where the few control the many, at times very oppressively.

Today, in America, you are seeing where the few corporate elites and rabid ideologues are trying to turn our Democracy into a Dictatorship. And they are selling this to the American people who believe this LIE and support them! I for one would rather have a GOOD democracy with the minimum of lies, than a Dictatorship who controls every aspect of my life, down to what religion I should join, along the MANY Big Lies they are spewing!

BAD governments LIE and they lie Big! If you have a populace who are suppressed by this BAD government and do not have the means to question and check this BAD government, then they are screwed! Until the next BIG revolution that is.

America is NOT in a good place today. It can go both ways. It can tip towards the Dictatorship and the oppressive (As is being drawn out in the Republican States as I write this), or it can tip back to a more Just and Fair Democracy where the people still have a voice in their government and can check Government Lies and their excesses. This is really happening today. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence and not blinded by racial, religious or political prejudices, can see this very plainly.

Wake up America! And Quickly!

gurjeet 11 years 47 weeks ago
#30

GO VERMONT............YOU WILL BE THE TORCH BEARER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AS FOR OBAMA'S BIRTH OR EDUCATION RECORDS.......................CAN ANYONE OF THE REPUBLICAN RASCALS PRODUCE THEIR EDUCATION RECORDS? MOST OF THEM WILL BE ASHAMED OF BRINGING THIS UP

AND YES I AGREE THEY WILL DO WHATEVER,HOWEVER RIDICULOUS IT MAY BE, TO SWITCH OUR ATTENTION FROM THE MAJOR ISSUES BUT THEY ARE FORGETTING .........THE GIANT IS WAKING UP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dnarnadem 11 years 47 weeks ago
#31

See what I mean!

PRINCIPLE 12: PROPAGANDA MAY BE FACILITATED BY LEADERS WITH PRESTIGE – here we see the “Experts” being used to denigrate Obama.

PRINCIPLE 10: MATERIAL FROM ENEMY PROPAGANDA MAY BE UTILIZED IN OPERATIONS WHEN IT HELPS DIMINISH THAT ENEMY’S PRESTIGE OR LENDS SUPPORT TO THE PROPAGANDIST’S OWN OBJECTIVE – Obama does not deserve to be president because all he achieved was by way of Affirmation Action! He was at most a below standard student! Hogwash!

PRINCIPLE 18: PROPAGANDA MUST FACILITATE THE DISPLACEMENT OF AGGRESSON BY SPECIFYING THE TARGETS FOR HATRED – 50-60 per cent of Americans are Racist. The message is Obama is a Black Man who is not an American, and by the way got elected President by way of his being a C (if that) student who got to Columbia and Harvard University by way of Affirmative Action! Double Hogwash!

This will never end! The Racist will never accept the fact that a Black Man can accomplish what Obama did. What gets me is why so many of these Racists don’t out and out say what they really want to say instead of all this BS they are spewing! Man up folks!

UPDATE: I just learn that a Republican legislator from the great State of Oklahoma, which has just voted on a bill to eliminate Affirmative Action, stated on the house floor that "Blacks" and "Women" do NOT work as hard as "White" folk and why their jails are full of "Black" people! She said this LIVE, on the legislative floor, while the camera was running! So it is not hearsay. Here is a Republican legislator who is spewing Racist beliefs and passing bills that reflect that belief. The Republican party should be ashamed of themselves. But maybe shame is not part of their makeup or character.

That Rep is Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City. And I would wager that there are MANY Republicans who share this very same Racist mentality. We are not going forward, we are going backward!

dnarnadem 11 years 47 weeks ago
#32

I posted this 2 days ago - BEFORE Pres Obama provided his birth certificate! No Response. No nothing! Come on, all you Obama haters on this blog, what about all this Incipient Racism you bring forward and fail to discuss? Now that the birth certificate has been put to rest, the carnival barker racist Trump now is questioning his educational achievements! This is RACISM folks and it needs to be discussed for what it is! Enough of this hiding behind Religion and Ideology and Politics to post all this incipient racist garbage. The Neo-Conservatives are Racists. The Republican Party is now the Racist Party. Stop hiding behind Religion and Ideology and Politics. Say what you really feel. And please stop using the excuse that all of this is nothing more than race baiting! This whole discussion of this birther issue is so racist that you can drive a Mach Truck thru it! It has also been co-opted by the corporate fascists and the monied interests and fox noise as a political tool to brainwash white middle class America. This whole birther issue REEKS of racism! Let’s call it for what it is.

UPDATE: I just learn that a Republican legislator from the great State of Oklahoma, which has just voted on a bill to eliminate Affirmative Action, stated on the house floor that "Blacks" and "Women" do NOT work as hard as "White" folk and why their jails are full of "Black" people! She said this LIVE, on the legislative floor, while the camera was running! So it is not hearsay. Here is a Republican legislator who is spewing Racist beliefs and passing bills that reflect that belief. The Republican party should be ashamed of themselves. But maybe shame is not part of their makeup or character.

That Rep is Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City. And I would wager that there are MANY Republicans who share this very same Racist mentality. We are not going forward, we are going backward!

I believe most everyone

I believe most everyone misses the point here. This is not about money. This is about ideology.

Privatize the schools so you can bring in Religion. Privatize the schools so you can bring in Creationism and stop teaching Evolution. Privatize the schools so you can teach the "White" kids Religion and Creationism and Anti-abortion. Privatize the schools so you can "Dumb" down everyone else who is NOT White, assuming they will be taught at all!

This is a recipe in the making for disaster for Democracy as we know it.

The neo-cons know what they are doing. This is time worn Racism and Fascism. This is no different than what happened in the South after the American Civil War. The south did not want the freed slaves to have education. So they burned the schools down and lynched the Teachers. In no way were the white southern post-slave owners going to allow "Black Folk" to get an education.

This process is still on-going. It is no accident that most of this ideology derives from the South and gets a lot of Southern support. But the disease has spread nationwide - Racism has no borders in America. America was not ready for a “Black” President, supposedly, more so for the rabid “White” racist. This was evident after Obama’s election, and now so evident that most don’t even try to hide it anymore. These latter day modern-day post-slave racists DO NOT WANT OBAMA to succeed! You see, every supposed “White” bastion of superiority has been destroyed and BESTED by what the white man had stated the freed slave could never do. But one. And that was the Presidency. Ever ask yourself about the Birther movement? This is nothing more than delegitimizing your enemy, to make him insignificant, to make him other.

For Obama to succeed with anything, would destroy the Racists belief that a black man cannot succeed at anything a white man can, especially a President. For Obama to succeed, where a super white low IQ previous president from the south did not, would be cataclysmic for the neo-con ideology and white racist belief. So they do not want him to succeed at anything, even if it means the destruction of our Nation.

Even now, today, a full 160 years after the Civil War, the South (Texas, Arizona, Mississippi, etc) talk of succeeding from the United States. The south still venerates the Civil War and re-enact it every year. They espouse the Rebel flag like it was some sort of religious icon. They lost the Civil War, but they have never lost their believe that a “Black Person” is inferior to a White Person. After all, they were slaves!

So this whole education thing, this privatization, is code for white supremacist indoctrination; Code for getting Religion into the schools; Code for propping up the White Race and marginalizing the non-white and everyone else; Code for propping up a new fascist state.

This is all this is. And it must be stopped at all costs. If we want to save Democracy for future generations.

Laird8's picture
Laird8 11 years 47 weeks ago
#33

I all starts with a new non corporate party as outlined in Nader's new book Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us. A must read and if followed most other problems will be saved. Nader.org for more info.

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