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Rick Scott's experience overseeing the largest Medicare/Medicaid fraud in the nation's history makes him the perfect candidate to cover up the inevitability of the biggest coastal real estate disaster in the nation's history. Did Floriduh really vote Scott back in?.....Doubt it, I'm sure Crist won, but hey, it's also the state with the biggest election fraud in the nation's history.
Let those Florida ostriches bury their heads in the sand...it makes it so much easier to bite them in their asses.
And Mother Nature will.
Tough question, because they are trying to do both actually, they will obviously do anything, no matter how low, or illegal to screw pesident Obama.
Has Thom heard about Rep. Grayson's plan to shut down the shutdowns?
He's proposed a law that would make a failure to pass a budget default to the old budget for a year, rather than defaulting to no budget.
If Thom takes the position of Sec. of the Treasury, I'll take Sec. of Education & Employment, running a department that's a combination of the Dept. of Education and part of the Dept. of Labor. We need to coordinate these two to have an efficient utilization of our educational capacity, the best workers, and the most fulfilled members of the middle class.
The last thing that Richard Mack said was, please fund me because I was too principled to buy health insurance. Help me!!!!
Wikipedia has a list of oil spills, by rail, pipeline and refinery, which, though titled "Complete", is marked just below as incomplete.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_spills#Complete
Kend, you got my respect for blogging on this site and you're right, everything is "siloized" these days. The conservatives are only talking to other conservatives and the lefties are only talking to other lefties.
It's because of this new technology and media that everything is "subscriber only" instead of mass, free broadcast media, like before. People only talk to people who already agree with them.
There's no community like there was when everybody was reading the same newspapers and magazines, listening to the same radio stations and watching the same TV networks. I don't think you could have a Watergate scandal now like you did then, for example. We don't come together as a community and discuss things and all matters aren't brought to the light of the community like they were. I think there's actually less transparency than there was before.
I was, from the ages of 18-26. By choice. I only got insured at 26 because I married in to it. I had jobs that offered insurance. I just didn't want it. I wanted all cash. I would like for my children to at least have the option when they are that age. It's the lack of choice that is the deal breaker.
Yup. Thom has said that many times. And if states want to do it, then by all means, they should. If a state wants to go single payer, good for them. They should. It would pass easily in some of the bluest states.
Moving things to the federal level is where all of the problems come in. What's the reddest, most anti-Obamacare state in the union? Maybe Wyoming? Why force this on those people, if the vast majority of them don't want it?
Sometimes I wish I were a fictional character. I'd write a much more exciting life for myself. More fast cars and faster women, less of the Sunday night political blogging.
Yes Mark, I will I agree. I could learn a lot from reading up. I have the same problem most of us here have. We read too much of what we want to hear and from who we want to hear it from. That is the main reason I am here on Thoms blog. I get to here from the other side. This blog has changed my mind on both our health care systems. We both have a long way to go. Starting with admitting how much it costs. For example on our gas pumps they show where every cent of a dollar goes. Knowing that the government is taking in half of the profit changes everyone's perspective. I don't know if you seen my post when I mentioned mthe meds I bought in Pheonix where $127.00 US and in Canada they where $22.00 CAN. Wouldn't it be nice to see the breakdown on those meds. Someone is making a shitload. Honestly Mark knowing how much more you pay tells me you have serious problems down there and changed my mind on some portions of your system.
KEND -- Don't forget whatever oil can do hemp can do better. The only reason we are not using hemp is because of the lobbying of the carbor corps.
Obama said that he will either sign or veto Keystone XL depending on whether it will affect the climate crisis adversley or not. It has since been calculated that the burning of tar sands oil produces 10-15% more CO2 than regular oil and will raise the temperature of the planet .05 degrees or more thus it was vetoed. The issue to Obama wasn't safety in transporting it or of spills, it's whether or not to leave oil in the ground.
ChicagoMatt, the "Fuck other people attitude" is readily apparent but the "people who can't get their shit together" implies certain presumptions that just aren't founded. Not taking into account one's own privileged background and starting place is convenient for this.
You'd like to be one of the 45 million uninsured? What about your kids?
You know that ACA was a conservative Heritage Foundation, Richard Nixon, Mitt Romney proposal? The whole idea is one of personal responsibility. It being that the uninsured drive up the cost of healthcare for everyone else (an uncontrovertable fact). Hence the mandate, it "mandates" everyone take responsibility for their own healthcare. That kinda flips around who "can't get their shit together" and who's "dragging down" who, doesn't it?
In any case, single payer would've wiped out your objections. Canada's isn't the only or the best system. In England, France, Germany nobody pays a dime and, therefore, certainly doesn't get bankrupted.
You know Matt, I'm still not convinced you're not an entirely fictional character created in the employ of a PR or lobbying firm.
That's right ChristopherCurrie, even 5 years ago it was calculated that the Republican funding cuts to everything from mosquito control programs to food stamps to public hospitals and health clinics would cause more than a 9/11's worth of American deaths every year. Removing Obamacare subsidies in these states, projected to cause 10,000 deaths, would be more than three 9/11s worth.
But I have a deep, grudging respect for your great, erudite intellectual mastery and finesse, Kend.
;^)
We love your goofy ass, Kend. You came up the hard way and so have lot of worldly knowledge instead of intellectual hot air but I think you might benefit from some reading up and getting informed on issues and things nonetheless.
Take care, buddy.
I hate you, Kend.
And maybe the plague's decimation of the population speeded up, if not entirely created, the need for technological innovation.
Actually, a theory that industrialization brought down capitalism with the beginnings of skilled artisan, small scale, custom manufacture and technological changes necessarily creating a need for a new political, economic and social order is more predominate. The Black Death was a factor in this, the controversy is to how much a factor. Personally, I think it was not the dominant factor and that the process of capitalism supplanting feudalism was already underway before it.
I do not accept, yet perhaps, that the plague caused the rise of cities. That process was already underway in the 1200s in Italian city states, for example.
Thom, I'm sorry to say, not too infrequently gets things wrong. Not, perhaps, too much more than anyone else and certainly not as much as a Limbaugh, Hannity or Fox news personality but nonetheless. It is, in any case, not the dominant theory on the development of capitalism and somewhat historically revisionistic.
The plague may've been a catalyst but the breakdown of feudalism and development of capitalism were already proceeding apace on their own before the plague..
Alice I figured it out. Thanks for those. The fact is moving energy is dangerous but it is well worth the risk. There is no getting around it but what are we willing to give up not to use oil and gas. There would be no paved roads, no plastics, no gas stoves or furnaces, many types of medicine, I could go on and on. The fact is to provide us with anything even close to what our lifestyles are we need oil and gas so why not move it as safe as possible. I can't speak for the pipelines down there but the ones up here are very well marked and would be almost impossible to miss. Dail before you dig is free and used always. Keystone with all the attention it has received would be well marked and monitored. If we are honest with ourselves we are 30 to 50 years away from none fossil fuels use at very least. So in the interm why not get it from your best freinds and neighbours, as safe as possible. At very least just say no and let us move on. It's been over six years now.
Thanks Alice but all I have is my ipad until I get back to work and I can't figure out how I do it on it. Does any one know how to cut and paste on a ipad?
RLT, I understand what is at risk. The Supreme Court will come done on the side of ACA with dissenting opinion giving Republicans a little political red meat. Roberts and Kennedy will rule for the ACA, regardless of the Republican opposition. They have nothing to fear because Supreme Court justices are nearly untouchable. Injustice Thomas is an shining example of corporate activism on the Supreme Court. Injustice Thomas has ruled twice on Monsanto (company he was employed by) cases since being appointed to the Supreme Court - spoiler alert - Thomas ruled in favor of Monsanto both times.
The Republicans are not going to fight against public subsidies to a private industry. A couple justices will take pot shots at the Obama administration for political theater, but ultimately the court will rule to protect the interest of the insurance industry
Barbaric and inhuman is the best two words to describe our healthcare system even with the public "protection" the ACA provides.
Isn't this why healthcare was called the "third rail" of politics? As in, don't touch it...
Even if the ACA survives this court battle, there will be more. It won't ever end. Republican congressmen and women will run against it, and win, for a generation.
Every time a young person is forced to write a check for health insurance, or pay a fine in taxes, even though they don't WANT health insurance, their political views will move to the right.
One of my favorite authors, Dave Barry, once wrote that, "Once you buy a house, be prepared to see your political views pull to the right like a car with a steering problem. You'll begin judging politicians not by their personal lives (so what if he killed someone?), but by their view on taxes (at least he won't raise my property taxes).
It's the same principal with the healthcare mandate.
Take the average early-20-something college student liberal. All bright-eyed and ready to change the world. They want to make a difference. They want to be part of the solution. They want to straighten out everything their parents' generation got wrong.
Now wait about four years, when that student is now in the real world, lucky to be making $30K per year. That's probably divided over two part-time jobs, because employers don't want to hire full-timers, to avoid triggering the ACA employer mandates.
He's thinking of starting a family, maybe buying a house. And here comes this $300/month health insurance bill. He would like to live these early, healthy years without insurance, but it's mandated now. They need his money to pay for the older people in the pool.
Each month, when he sits down to pay his bills, he thinks about what he could do with that insurance premium money. Would he have a house by now? Would he be able to pay down his credit cards? Maybe pay for the wedding his wife really wanted? Who knows?
But one thing's for sure - he will start paying much more attention to policies that affect his bottom line. "Sure, I'm for a woman's right to choose. But I'm even more for my right to choose how I spend my money."
He will also start looking at the people around them - ones that don't work, either by choice or by circumstance. He'll think about all of the other people he knows who spend their time drinking, smoking, and having fun, while he's working extra hard to pay for that mandated health insurance premium.
Then, probably while sitting in traffic on his way to work one morning, it will hit him: Fuck this. Fuck other people. I'm tired of being dragged down by people who can't get their shit together. I'm better off on my own.
He will turn his radio to the local Conservative talk station, and just like that - another Republican is born.
Kend, all ya gotta do is copy those links and paste 'em in that white address bar that appears when you hit the double-tipped expansion arrow at the top right corner of your Safari window and... VOILA!
I do it all the time. Works for me.
The Canadian tar sands will require immense quantities of energy to extract and to process for the pipeline. Where will that energy come from?