William K. Wolfrum's picture

    Five Easy steps to become a Great American Patriot!

    Today, you can’t walk down the street without being ideologically undressed by an American Patriot. The streets and roads are chock-full of good, hard-working Americans who want their country back from those that stole it from them.

    But just being an American Patriot isn’t enough these days. Today, we need LEADERS. We need GREAT American Patriots that not only understand the incalculable importance of writing in all caps, but also understand that this is a time of action.

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    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Persecution Politics: Glenn Beck, the Man With the Crazy Plan

    You may have heard about Glenn Beck's recent paranoid accusations, but if you are a drive-by voyeur of right-wing hysterics, you might not appreciate the method behind the madness. Relying on out-of-context quotes, tenuous associations, and giant leaps of speculation, Beck has meticulously pieced together the most elaborate, nefarious government conspiracy in the history of cable news. His argument consists of four primary elements:

    Part 1: The Czars

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    DF's picture

    How Important is the Public Option?

    There's been much made over the presence or absence of a public option in whatever healthcare bill finally ends up emerging from Washington.  Proponents regard it as the raison d'être in the battle to reform America's healthcare system, noting that it's a far cry from a true, single-payer system.  Opponents have responded by doing everything from branding it socialist to brandishing guns to drawing Hitler's moustache on Obama.  That's cool.  As a buddy of mine recently remarked, "I used to do that in my middle school textbooks."  Did Hitler ever make tepid overtures to being open to

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    Larry Jankens's picture

    Why Healthcare Is NOT a Right

    According to the internet Gods (Wikipedia) a constitutional right is defined as: a freedom granted by a government's constitution (on the national or sub-national level), and may not be legally denied.

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    Orlando's picture

    Death Panels: Republicans Find Yet Another Way to Disrespect Americans

    For me, this summer started with my mother's death. It's ending with daily reminders of just how far some will go to prevent benefit to the many at the expense of profit to the few.

    For months, Republicans have been saying anything they think will elicit fear, a powerful agent against change. Creating fear and confusion is the swiftest way to get people to act against their own interests. But, as usual, the fear and confusion they seek to sow is dishonest, disingenuous, and disrespectful.

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    acanuck's picture

    What will we do for the next three weeks?

    Compare and contrast.

    Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter (whose job it is to enact legislation): "I have a fundamental problem with any 1,000-page bills."

    The Daily Show's Jon Stewart (whose job it is to make us laugh): "I've read the bill."

    DF's picture

    Burning Question: Where is Harry Reid?

    He's the Senate majority leader.  He's up for re-election next year.  He also might as well be a ghost in the healthcare debate.

    Where is this dude?

    We've got a tiny cabal of Senators from states with a collective population smaller than Los Angeles gumming up the works in the Place Where Legislation Goes To Die.  Where is the majority leader in all of this?  Shouldn't we be seeing a united front here?  Pelosi, Reid and Obama all on the same page, all getting the message out?

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    Yell Tort Reform to prevent socialism

    The town halls are all the rage nowadays, now that people are bringing weapons to them and healthcare is assumed to be synonymous with Socialism.

    I remember the days when the Iraq war was still important and you couldn’t drag or pay the community to these things in any significant numbers, and there was always a seat. A friend of mine you know as DF on some of them bloggin’ sites people are reading nowadays for their crazy ideas, and I went to the recent Dan Lungren Town Hall in Citrus Heights with the intention of getting into a fake fight about Socialism and platitude.

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    DF's picture

    Joe Scarborough Dumbfounded by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY)

    I'm loving Rep. Weiner on this issue.  Straight and to the point, he asks a subsequently stunned Joe Scarborough what value health insurance companies are adding to the equation.  Watch (awesomeness occurs at the 5:00 mark, culminating in a lovely pregnant pause at around 5:30):

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    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Persecution Politics: Illegals to Steal Grandma's Heath Care

    Last week, I wrote about Glenn Beck's paranoid theory that Obama's health care plan would covertly deliver slavery reparations by redistributing health care to African Americans. It turns out that black people aren't the only undeserving minorities after grandma's health care. Filling in for Rush Limbaugh, Mark Steyn of the National Review earned his airtime by inventing a whole new health care persecution fantasy:

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    DF's picture

    A Word About Guns

    When I first heard reports of the armed man outside of Obama's townhall in Portsmouth, NH, I had a feeling that we would see an escalation of this behavior.  Today there were estimated to be a dozen armed outside of his appearance in Arizona.

    It's a tricky situation.  Technically, these people are acting within their rights.  Realistically, they're bringing loaded weapons to incredibly tense gatherings.  As the tension and the number of weapons increases, so does the chance that something unwarranted occurs.

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    Orlando's picture

    If Only Democrats Had the Courage of Their Convictions

    A long time ago, I worked on a statewide political campaign for fifteen months. It’s hard work for very little pay and it requires an intense level of commitment.

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    DF's picture

    A 9/11 Every Two Months

    That's what we have in America today in terms of the casualties caused by our corrupt insurance regime.  About 18,000 deaths occur annually in America due to lack of health insurance.  That's 1,500 deaths per month, or a casualty total equalling all of the casualties of September 11th, 2001, every two months.

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    Deadman's picture

    Twist and Shout: Why the Politics of Rage Makes Me Want to Cry

    "...it is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"

    I was livid when I first saw video from the health care town hall meeting that took place last week in my hometown St. Louis.  I had already seen enough similar footage from other cities, but the fact that these were in some ways 'my folk' infuriated me.

    Ignorant rednecks, I thought, the whole lot of them.

    DF's picture

    Tips for Right-wing Nutbars: Watch Colbert

    Last night, Ann Coulter was a guest on Hannity.  During her appearance, in typical Coulter fashion, she made the over-the-top claim that she was just fine with "death panels", which in her interpretation sound more like execution panels, so long as she was a panel member.  Oh, and she apparently has a list of people she'd like to kill, Zeke Emanuel being among them.  Watch:

     

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    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Persecution Politics: Slavery Reparations and "Health Redistribution"

    Yesterday, I blogged about Sarah Palin's fear of "death panels" (which sounds like some kind of Indiana Jones booby trap, you know the kind that always impale his intemperate Indian/Arab assistants). In the post, I quoted from the Christian Anti-Defamation Committee website which in turn quoted from an Investors Business Daily editorial. Did you know that the IBD is a hotbed of right wing paranoia?

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    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Persecution Politics: Death Panels

    Credit where credit's due: Sarah Palin knows how to capture headlines. She also knows how to speak the language of America's most persecuted demographic: white Christian conservatives. Many in her audience believe in a secret plot by liberals to enact a radical secular agenda, and they view all progressive policies through the lens of this alleged conspiracy.

    Sarah Palin on the health care plan:

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    Deadman's picture

    Obama Health Care Town Hall: When Change Meets Shout

    Obama is about to hold his first town hall meeting to help sell his health care reform plan. Will it be a more controlled affair than the disasters that have taken place in other similar meetings throughout this great nation of ours?

    When I saw what happened in my own hometown city of St. Louis last week, where protesters shouted down a town hall meeting being held by Russ Carnahan, it made me sick. You can't even hear the politicians talk, and the shouters from the audience are just as incomprehensible. It ended in arrests and scuffles.

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