Simmons Running Senate Ads

Considering Simmons is running neck and neck with Linda McMahon in the primaries even after he dropped out of the race. Why not? From The Day:

Rob Simmons, who halted his campaign for the Republican Senate nomination after losing the party endorsement to former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, will begin airing TV ads urging voters to "look at the issues" before voting in the Aug. 10 primary.

In a press release on Wednesday, Simmons said he would spend some of his remaining campaign funds on the TV spots.

"For the past two months, I have been travelling the state supporting my fellow Republican candidates," Simmons said. "Everywhere I go people ask me if I am still running for the U.S. Senate. My response has been 'I'm still on the ballot.'"

But his numbers are still as dismal as McMahon's are up when stacked up against any of the Democratic party candidates.  You would think, for that reason alone, that Linda McMahon would be happy to have a reason to argue issues with someone during the primary season? But no... She's as pissed as a wrestler after too many steroid shots.

The Breitbart version of this story featured a badly edited video of disgruntled former WWE wrestlers calling McMahon a racist steroid pusher and photos of Simmons in a headlock while teabagging her.

I don't have that video... But I do have this one:

Premature Ejaculatory Praise Of Tiny Comical Release

I think TPM's Megan Carpentier may have captured the essence of this funny and tiny problem for teabagger redux - "Microman" - in her last paragraph:

Wurzelbacher describes Microman as "frustrated" and "one of us" in the same press release. One wonders how many other Tea Party members, already frustrated with being called teabaggers, would get behind a movement to rebrand them as "Micromen" with as much enthusiasm as Wurzelbacher.

And so their own witless self-parody continues needing very little help from the opposition...

Two Polls and Two Really Bad Jokes

Poll 1.


Research 2000 just pretty much confirmed the state of the Connecticut Senate race between Blumenthal and McMahon:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/24-26. Likely voters. MoE 4% (1/11-13 results)

Dick Blumenthal (D) 52 (56)
Linda McMahon (R) 33 (34)

It'd been a while since we polled Connecticut, and quite frankly, I didn't expect to ever come back to this Senate race (the governor's race is another story, and a race for another day to poll).

Poll 2.

These numbers are pretty darn close to where Quinnipiac had them yesterday:

May 27, 2010 - Blumenthal Pins McMahon By 25 Points In Connecticut, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Most Voters Say Vietnam Issue Doesn't Impact Vote


Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal leads former wrestling executive Linda McMahon 56 - 31 percent in the U.S. Senate race and tops the Republican candidate by large margins on every character measure, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Joke 1.

I blogged about that Vietnam issue being a pile of hooey, having been planted in the media by McMahon and hopelessly being flung around like poop in the right wing blogosphere and media in a desperate attempt to make a non-story into anything they can over at Connecticut Political Reporter. Probably because the joke of a corporatist media would really love to turn this smackdown of a Senate race into a horse race that they want and need to sell papers:

Despite "supposedly" putting his own foot in his mouth last week, Dick Blumenthal still manages to put a good old fashioned WWE Smackdown on Linda McMahon, where Blumenthal keeps a formidable lead, 56-31, over McMahon in the most recent Quinnipiac polling.

Proving that this was the non-story that it really should have been from the start, regardless of the GOP's McMahon planting it, the NY Times doing a bang up job of corporatist stenography for the GOP and right wing Bloggers desperately trying to make more of it than was ever going to be worth.

When McMahon tries to float one we will flush it...

 In the media you will find that they repeat the same thing about this story yet is a taken from a video that is purposely taken out of context by McMahon and the media can't even bother to fact check it a bit before they go with it....

Joke 2. (And this is a long running joke)

Rasmussen does its nuttiest best to give the right wing something to latch onto:

18 MAY 2010
CT-SEN
Blumenthal D 48.0%, McMahon R 45.0%
Sample:
MoE: 500
4.5
Population: Likely Voters

What planet are they polling likely voters on? Is there some hidden Republican Connecticut on a propaganda producing Perelandra that we don't know about?

This is expected of Rasmussen as they are purely a propaganda arm of the GOP and they always produce polls that are so far out of whack with reality for months leading up to primaries and elections, which the corporate media slurps up like a Jeff Gannon kneeling in front of George W Bush passing this disease (and others) off to readers as "news",  and then suddenly, magically, weeks before an election their numbers start to reflect the real numbers of a race.

Rasmussen followed their typical propaganda pattern when they were constatntly predicting that there would be a "President McCain" coupled with a "GOP gaining in the House"... Right up until a few weeks before the election when it became clear they would be so far out of touch with reality at the end of it. And it is like they don't think people will notice this?

For example, from February to April of 2008, Rasmussen showed John McCain leading by an average of 2.6%. Meanwhile, every other poll of likely voters during that time period showed Barack Obama with a 2.6% lead. So from February to April, there was a 5.2% gap between Rasmussen and everybody else.


From September through election day, however, the gap was significantly smaller. The average Rasmussen poll taken during that time showed Obama leading by 3.8% while the average of all other polls of likely voters showed Obama leading by 5.8%, resulting in a gap of 2%.

So in the early months of 2008, the gap between Rasmussen and everybody else was 5.6% compared with 2% late in the cycle. Another important point here is that early in the cycle, Rasmussen's polling accounted for a far larger share of overall polling, meaning that their results played a more important role in shaping horse race narratives in the early stages of the campaign than they did in the latter stages of the campaign.

They are clearly trying to drive a republican narrative and it shows. Some earlier Rasmussen jokes being compiled by Nate Silver:

Here are the results of statewide polling in the 2000 Presidential Election. Although the pollster ratings will eventually involve some fancier math, the numbers you see below are as simple as it gets: I've simply looked at the average error of the last poll issued by each pollster in each state in terms of projecting the margin between Bush and Gore. (A cut-off is established 21 days prior to the election.)





While 2000 was generally a fairly rough year for pollsters, who had to deal with an unenthusiastic electorate, some third-party challengers, and some late-breaking developments like Bush's DUI charge, Rasmussen was the worst of the lot, missing by an average of 5.7 points. They also called 7 states wrong.** Some of this was the result of bias, as they were 3.5 points too high on Bush's margin in the states they surveyed, on average.

If I were a betting man, and I am not, I could see setting up a pool picking the date when Rasmussen starts to reflect reality in the CT-SEN race OR any other race for that matter. They really are that predictable.

An old empty bottle brewed in New Milford showing how out of touch Rasmussen was (looks like pure propaganda to me) during the healthcare reform debate. Just look at the pic to see clearly how out of whack their numbers are:

All you need to know about healthcare polls:

For now...

The right wing keeps trying to push a Rasmussen poll with bad numbers in it for Obama, the public option and for single payer. I dealt with the single payer numbers and public option numbers a little bit (and other interesting things, to me, at least?) at ePluribus Media a couple of days ago and most of the Blogosphere has seen the numbers for Obama start to rise again. Much of these numbers have all been noted to follow the start of of pressure from teabagging. Briefly numbers across the board dropped... But as people began to realize all of the things the birthers/.deathers/teabaggers were saying were as crazy as the things many of them were doing the numbers for those issues and Obama re-solidified. While pollster.com dealt with many of the numbers in a different way, I just want to show you the picture they put together of what I am talking about:


Yes, this one picture deals with the public option but is easily applicable across the board on almost any issue. And I am not even going to get in to the well known right wing bias of Rasmussen, nor their incredibly ridiculous outlier numbers in previous polls. Just remember that they are the one polling outfit that was predicting major leads for the GOP House early into the last election cycle and have, over time, taken a serious beating from many poll savvy people over many of their crazy outliers and polls bordering on the edge of push polls.

Anyways... Some in the media and the right wing are ignoring recent polls and quoting old stuff and even taking stuff out way out of context in order to fit their talking points and narratives. How the heck can any person call Obama and his policies in trouble when he has approval ratings over 50% in 48 of the 50 states? And an Obama 63% approval rate across the entire country?

6 months in we are talking uber popular, both in Obama's leadership and in many of his policies. If anything, the numbers inside the polls, overall and IMHO, show that the solutions they are seeing are not liberal enough for them.
And we can thank the raging, lying loonies on the right wing for helping to solidify those numbers.

While I am certain that many of the people with more experience in reading into polls will have more important things to say about it all, people like the number crunchers at dKos or Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com, but really, and let us be honest here: If a picture is worth a thousand words, that one up there speaks volumes.

Dudchik: News Aggregator or the Big CON?

Most "news aggregators" are meant to misinform. This is even truer when they are run by ideologues and propagandists more interested in hyper-partisan talking points than reality.

In order to be shocked by this I would need to be licking the inside of a light-bulb socket. If anyone else is shocked by this perhaps they should be licking the inside of light-bulb socket? This kind of stupid should hurt. Might just realign their synapses in a functioning manner so they can begin using the basic skill of critical thinking.

Sadly, aggregators like that are the first bastion of the lazy journalists as evidenced by the fact that too many of them seem to think Drudge is a legitimate source, as well, and repeat the same mistake of leaving their browser open on it all day long waiting for their next big news story and expecting a different result than the last time they did that.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel Maddow's piece continues on and expands on the brigade of right wing GOP talking pointy heads concerning their fake "ACORN" and "Climategate" scandals and a litany of stupid regardless of the issues below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Offshore Drilling? WTF OBAMA???

And before any negotiations on a bill for the milk starts some dumbasses have already given away the entire cow. Good luck with that.



We have already seen what your administration's extraordinary leadership skill got us in enhancement of health insurance for profit reform.

A little reading lesson to enhance your political skills since your administration seems to be just a little wet behind the ears when it comes to dealing with the GOP.

Eric Cantor: "Dem Thugs Did This To Me!"

From Jed Lewison:

It's clear from the Richmond police statement that Cantor's office was not directly targeted. Rather, an office that he has used in the past (but not his main campaign office) was randomly struck by a bullet that had been fired into the sky.


I'm not minimizing the dangers of randomly shooting bullets into the air, but for Eric Cantor to describe this as an attack targeting his campaign office is supremely dishonest, an obvious attempt to deflect attention from Republican Party's violent and extreme rhetoric in recent days.


Next thing you know, Cantor will be claiming a backwards B was carved in his face.

Shorter Eric Cantor:  

"Dem Thugs Did This To Me!"

Actually, Mr. No, I am a little "i" indy. :)

Be Careful What You Bargain For...

“We need to stop looking at the tea parties as separate from the Republican party, If we do that, we can stand up and create the biggest tent of all.”
- Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)

Via BarbinMD, we catch a glimpse into the mind of a "Man of Faith" and Tea Party leader:

But that's not just your typical, nameless, racist teabagger, that's the face of Dale Robertson, the head of teaparty.org., and the man who is devoted to "developing strategy to bring the Republic back under the control of ‘We The People.’"

“We love the tea party movement. We know the tea party movement is a group of people that Republicans are going to have to actively work with them and get them involved in their campaigns, and we have to have an agenda that brings them to our side.”
- NRCC's Guy Harrison


"Well, it’s embrace the tea party movement with full arms and hold as many open forums as they possibly can to bring people in and listen to them because the leadership right now is truly coming from the tea party movement because it is disaffected Democrats, Independents, Republicans. It’s really people who love the country and who brace what ultimately has been the mission statement of the Republican Party. If you look at the two parties, Democrat and Republican, there’s no question that the heartbeat of the tea party movement would be more in line with the mission state of the Republican party certainly than that of the Democrat party. So if the Republican Party is wise, they will allow themselves to be re-defined by the tea party movement. And I hope that that will be the case."
- Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R- MN)

Ok GOP... You can drag them under your tent because we will never want them on the left. Take all their money too, since that is what all you really want them for. They are and always have been yours since the days the GOP opened their arms to the bigoted Dixiecrats, anyways....

Who the heck is Barry Cafero?

Via ctblogger:

I know it's early to be making this call but I'm almost certain no one topping this comment today:

It's ok that Larry Cafero doesn't know my name. Over the course of the next year, he'll quickly realize that Connecticut voters don't know his, either.

-Connecticut Democratic Party Communications Director Colleen Flanagan

This comment from Flanagan was made in light of a cheap shot from House Minority Leader Larry Cafero's in which he purposely mispronounced her name "Kathleen" (even after being corrected by a reporter.

After being told that the Democratic Party's spokeswoman's first name was Colleen, Cafero said, "I wouldn't know Kathleen Flanagan if she bumped into me on the street."

State Rep. Cafero's latest hissy-hit has to do with the disclosure Thursday that he used his staff to set-up a meeting with The Norwalk Hour to announce that he's running for governor and that the newspaper would embargo the announcement.

Here's the email sent by Cafero's press secretary Patrick O'Neil.

"Larry, we're all set with The Hour," O'Neil's message said. "They'll have the editorial board and a writer waiting for you at 10 a.m. They've agreed to the embargo and were much appreciative of the advance notice and exclusive interview. Jared Ferrari, the managing editor, will be coordinating the deal."

All I know for sure is that if his name is Barry we should be demanding to see his birth certificate - teabaging rules dictate that he can't be 'Murikan - and the rest of the emails in his government account to see if he has been using it for other nefarious reasons because that would be the only sane reaction to this news.

We might want to see his psychological evaluation scores, as well, regardless of whom he thinks he is.

Is Little Green Footballs a Communist Blog now?

"The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes,
and off the cliff. I won’t be going over the cliff with them."


From LGF's Charles Johnson:

Why I Parted Ways With The Right

1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.)

2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)

3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism (see: Operation Rescue, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)

There are 7 more reasons, among the listed ones, for why you might have to call him a liberal/communist/socialist/etc. Blogger now. And, obviously, he is not the brightest bulb in the Blogosphere if it took him this long to figure it out, but among the right wing? About as close to a luminary as they had. And holy frick! He slams the door in every other right wing pundit's and Blogger's face as he leaves. I am just getting some disinfectant ready before I peek at the comment threads over there. ;)

I hope they don't mind the new communist logo I made for them. Just wondering if I should have changed it to a Russian football? (A soccer ball)

Free Marketeers Against Healthcare? Go Galt and take your communist influence with you...

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, …”

I assume they were not discussing welfare payments for high ranking military officers when they mention "promote the general welfare". And the 16th amendment allows for the government to tax for the purposes of promoting the general welfare.

16th Amendment

“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”

There are numerous other mentions in The Constitution supporting their right to tax you for whatever they deem is for the good of the nation. 

And not just to "promote the general welfare" but to "provide" it, as well:

Article 1 Section 8

"Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States;"

It is safe to say that keeping Americans healthy would be providing for the general welfare of the United States. You may not like it. But that is The Constitution.


As for healthcare being a right? Article 25, section 1 of the Declaration of Human Rights:

“Article 25  Section 1

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care [...]”

Signed by the President of the United States of America and ratified by Congress, healthcare is a right in the USA.

The basis of the Declaration of Human rights was not meant to be an enforceable treaty, but it was to be a recognized document to give legal definitions to generalized ideas like freedom and rights around the world. Things that had, up until then, not really been legally defined have been since that time.

You can and should thank Eleanor Roosevelt for her small part in all of that.

For those of you that screech "free markets" extremism and falsely tout The Constitution, threatening to "Go Galt"? None of this infringes on your rights to pursue “Life, Liberty and Happiness” unless your definition of those things are having a few more bucks so the poor can die of illness. If you think those things than you are an extremist because nothing in The Constitution guarantees you those things as a "right". And, in fact, the legal definitions could not support your extremist misconceptions.

Even Adam Smith, the “father of modern economics”, recognized that a capitalist society based on free markets would cease to function if there were no taxes, wage controls and strong social safety nets to balance the free markets. From his wiki:

“One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Adam Smith is widely cited as the father of modern economics.

[...]

Smith has been celebrated by advocates of free market policies as the founder of free market economics, a view reflected in the naming of bodies such as the Adam Smith Institute, Adam Smith Society and the Australian Adam Smith Club, and in terms such as the Adam Smith necktie.

Alan Greenspan argues that, while Smith did not coin the term laissez-faire, "it was left to Adam Smith to identify the more-general set of principles that brought conceptual clarity to the seeming chaos of market transactions". Greenspan continues that The Wealth of Nations was "one of the great achievements in human intellectual history". P. J. O'Rourke describes Adam Smith as the "founder of free market economics".

However, other writers have argued that Smith's support for laissez-faire has been overstated. Herbert Stein wrote that the people who "wear an Adam Smith necktie" do it to "make a statement of their devotion to the idea of free markets and limited government", and that this misrepresents Smith's ideas. Stein writes that Smith "was not pure or doctrinaire about this idea. He viewed government intervention in the market with great skepticism ... yet he was prepared to accept or propose qualifications to that policy in the specific cases where he judged that their net effect would be beneficial and would not undermine the basically free character of the system. He did not wear the Adam Smith necktie." In Stein's reading, The Wealth of Nations could justify the Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, mandatory employer health benefits, environmentalism, and "discriminatory taxation to deter improper or luxurious behavior"."

I have not bolded any particular part since his entire wiki page is worth the read. Go read it all since…

You’ll also find that Adam Smith, the original free marketeer that founded the line of thought free market extremists screech about in the USA today was also one of the strong influences on communist theories.

Classical economists presented variations on Smith, termed the 'labour theory of value', later Marxian economics descends from classical economics also using Smith's labour theories in part. The first volume of Karl Marx's major work, Capital, was published in German in 1867. In it, Marx focused on the labour theory of value and what he considered to be the exploitation of labour by capital. The labour theory of value held that the value of a thing was determined by the labor that went into its production. This contrasts with the modern understanding of mainstream economics, that the value of a thing is determined by what one is willing to give up to obtain the thing. Smith is often cited not only as the conceptual builder of free markets in capitalism but also as a main contributor to communist theory, via his influence on Marx.

Yeah, Karl Marx loved him some free marketeer.


So, if you're against healthcare reform for all of the really stupid reasons? The reasons that are not there in The Constitution and the reasons that don't work in a balanced free market and the reasons that are so extremist they are actually going against The Constitution and the laws of the United States of America:

Please, feel free to "Go Galt" and take all of your communist influence with you.

Gov. Rell: "The Computer Ate My Homework!"

When you read stuff like this you really don't have to wonder if Dautrich focus group tested this message before she sent it out:

A review of documents provided by the university to The Day also shows that the governor's office did not fully comply with previous requests for public records, leaving out a handful of e-mail responses from Moody to Dautrich, including a message that thanks the professor for his help in crafting Rell's budget speech.

Harris declined to comment on any of the new findings in the UConn documents, but said in an interview this week that the Moody e-mails had been withheld from a reporter inadvertently because the governor's staff had not correctly used the "Find" function in the Outlook e-mail program when complying with The Day's records request.

 1st thing: Harris, she wasn't complying with The Day's record request. You know... Kind of like what happens in a "cover-up". A really big part of this story.  

2nd thing: Was Dautrich Rell's equivalent of Bush's Brain? Because her excuse is what I might expect to hear from a child. Her messaging is all over the place without his focus group tested waste of taxpayers' money asshattery.

Rell's politics and policies were always marginal. Now her excuses for them are too.

Boehner at CPAC calling all of Obama's Policies Socialist

Flushing out Boehner's lie on Meet the Press and a David Gregory that doesn't follow politics well enough to be able to call him out on the obvious:



Boehner is no different then any other Bircher whackjob.

Healy Is Still Fat, Drunk and Stupid

Seriously, Healy, is this really a great way for you to to continue to go through life?

"Let this be a warning to those who think they can roll the American people and get away it. Exhibit A is the quick destruction of ACORN - Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - after several videos showed their members setting up prostitution ring and one member bragging how she shot her husband dead without anyone knowing about it - until she told the tale on tape."

If the pitiful head Connecticut Republican mobile liquor sponge would turn off Glen Beck and the FOX noise for a few minutes he might begin to realize how much of a joke he really is.

I can't do anything about your being fat and drunk, Healy, but here is some Kryptonite for your stupid:

Here’s what ACORN says:

When the actors approached Ms. Kaelke with their provocative costuming and outlandish scenario, she could not take them seriously. So she met their outrageousness with her own personal style of outrageousness. She matched their false scenario with her own false scenarios.

“They were not believable”, said Ms. Kaelke of the two actors. “Somewhat entertaining, but they weren’t even good actors. I didn’t know what to make of them. They were clearly playing with me. I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me. Like Stephan Colbert does – saying the most outrageous things with a straight face.” While her sense of humor might not be funny to many people, the fact is that she spun false scenario after false scenario and the videographer ate them up.

For example, in response to the set-up by the filmmakers in which they say they are trying get the young woman away from her abusive pimp, she responds that she was abused by her former husband as well (true) and that she shot and killed him (false). He is very much alive and living near Barstow, CA.

However, this is taken as the gospel truth, not just in the film itself, but also by several “news” personalities, indicating that no journalistic standards were applied to making the video or vetting it for broadcast.

And here’s a report from the San Bernadino police department:

An undercover video reportedly filmed in the San Bernardino office for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was recently released on the Internet. The film depicts a worker talking about her past involvement in prostitution and the alleged self- defense killing of her former husband.

The San Bernardino Police Department is investigating the claims made regarding
the homicide. From the initial investigation conducted, the claims do not appear to be factual. Investigators have been in contact with the involved party’s known former husbands, who are alive and well.

Of course when the video popped, righties didn’t apply their b.s.-filters and like when Cheney said Iraq would greet us as liberators, just assumed all was as it appeared.

Yet again... Joke is you.

Healy is, still, clearly "Fat, drunk and stupid"  if he thinks anyone is buying the Republican snake oil he sells.

McMahon and Schiff Add Names to #CTGOPBattleRoyale

Via tparty at MLN:

This morning, proud non-voter Peter Schiff officially entered the ring of the 2010 #CTGOPbattleroyale. This is the man about whom Stuart Rothenberg wrote earlier this year that he saw:

"...no evidence that he understands how to talk to voters who have the kinds of problems that average Americans in Connecticut face each and every day, no evidence that he'd be effective in the Senate and no evidence that he has even the vaguest idea how to put together a campaign"

But while Schiff will have tens of millions to spend savaging the Republican party, he may actually be late to the main event: Linda McMahon vs. Rob Simmons, which now appears to be a rematch of an under-the-radar fight the two had in 2006.
In late September 2006, as then-Congressman Rob Simmons was busy trying to fend off Joe Courtney in the closing weeks of what turned out to be an historically close election in eastern Connecticut, Greenwich multimillionaire McMahon from the other side of the state contributed $10,000 to the DCCC to help give Simmons that final push off the ledge:

McMahon, Linda E.
Greenwich, CT 06831
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE (D)
$10,000
primary 09/29/06

Here is Linda McMahon's unofficial announcement:

GOP Recreating Another Donut Hole?

Only this time they want to make the entire health system a nightmare of junk choices... Call it a donut hole in a pastry puff.

Republicans talk in circles to justify subsidizing junk for-profit plans putting your healthcare in the hands of, for the most part, foreign corporations:

The argument is this: after the employer exclusion is repealed, employers will convert the money they spend on your health care benefits into higher wages and you’ll be able to use that increase and the ($2,290 per individual or $5,710 per family) refundable tax credit to purchase health care coverage in the new State Health Insurance Exchanges or the existing individual market.

Since everyone would have “universal access” to coverage, greater government involvement in health care would be counterproductive. Government rots the system, and Americans know this, they argue:

In solving our health care crisis, Americans already know that government will not work…Patients should be able to choose from a variety of private insurance plans. The Federal government would run a health care system — or a public plan option — with the compassion of the IRS, the efficiency of the post office, and the incompetence of Katrina.

Therefore, greater government involvement must not only be avoided, but existing government involvement should be phased out. Low-income families with dependent children should shift out of Medicaid and into “higher quality private plans through direct assistance that will be coupled with a tax credit.” Medicare Advantage — the program that contracts with private insurers — should be “reformed” and possibly expanded.

But today, the Commonwealth Fund released a new survey indicating that “elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported greater overall satisfaction with their health coverage, better access to care, and fewer problems paying medical bills than people covered by employer-sponsored plans.” “The findings bolster the argument that offering a public insurance plan similar to Medicare to the under-65 population has the potential to improve access and reduce costs,” the organization concluded:

- Medicare beneficiaries report easier access to physicians. Ten percent of Medicare beneficiaries’ physicians did not accept their insurance, compared with 17 percent of respondents with employer-sponsored plans.

- Medicare beneficiaries are less likely to report not getting needed services. Twelve percent of elderly Medicare beneficiaries reported going without care, such as prescribed medications or recommended tests, because of cost restraints. Of individuals with employer-based plans, 26 percent reported experiencing these cost/access issues.

- Medicare beneficiaries are sicker and poorer but report fewer medical bill problems.

Medicare beneficiaries were less likely to report a medical bill problem than those covered by employer plans.

Within our hybrid public-private system of coverage, public plans compliment private insurers — providing services to vulnerable populations more efficiently. Today, talk of “government-takeover” conjures up images of health care rationing in Great Britain or Canada. If, however, Democrats are able to shift the frame of reference to an expansion and improvement of Medicare, then they may very well win this debate.

The overcomplicated answers republicans try to offer are simply a distraction from the really easy, inexpensive solutions that Americans want. It would be too easy and make too much sense to simply open up Medicare to anyone that wanted it. An even more common sense solution would be a single payer solution.

You know? The government pays the bill for healthcare, nothing more and nothing less from Uncle Sam, and everything else is between you and your doctor.

No insurance companies to mess it up by denying you care, or offering so many different levels of care from the poor man's death plan to the elites Cadillac plan (generally reserved for politicians), or making a 30% cut from your paycheck to buy a new yacht for their CEOs - the very people that caused this healthcare disaster.

Just you, your doctor, making medical decisions... And a medical bill that you (and any company you work for) never have to see again for the rest of your life.

Some basic and indisputable facts in this debate:

• The majority of Americans want a single payer healthcare system.
• The majority of Americans are willing to pay more taxes for a single payer healthcare system.
• The majority of doctors want a single payer healthcare system.

Special interests and lobbyists are the only ones that are trying to force insurance companies into the middle of the Doctor patient relationship. And politicians are obliging them like their special-interest-life-after-politics-retirement-funds depended on it.

Some resources from 1Payer.net:

Join Us Now, It's Free!

Join us in making Medicare For All a reality. Sign up to receive important information and alerts. Help spread the word about Medicare For All -- full health care access with free choice of doctor, no deductibles, no pr...

Read more...

Join the March on Washington

Join us in a 'CyberMarch' on Washington on May 30, 2009. We want Medicare for All -- health care for every American! Sign Up today and choose your avatar who will go to Washington for you on May 30. Your avatar will j...

Read more...

Call the White House

It's more important than ever. Tell the White House to support a Single Payer National Health Plan.

1-800-578-4171

Send Your Free Fax

Choose from the following list to send your free fax to congress members:

• Let Everyone in on Healthcare Reform

• Don't Believe the Lies

• Improve and Expand Medicare

• Stop Obstructing Health Care Reform
• E-Fax Your Own Story

Senator Arlen Specter Dumps the GOP

Holy Crap! Senator Arlen Specter dumps the GOP for the Democratic party:

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter shocked the political world Tuesday by jumping from the GOP to the Democratic Party – likely handing President Obama an EZ-Pass to drive his agenda on Capitol Hill.

The sudden move, coming as the veteran lawmaker already faces a fierce 2010 primary challenge from the right in the Keystone State, all but gives Democrats and Obama a roadblock-free Senate, putting them on the cusp of a 60-vote majority.

"I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans," Specter announced on his campaign Web site.

I really thought he would become an independent...

[update] Via William K. Wolfrum, The batshit loopy GOP base lays its cards on the table:

From Twitter, Erick Erickson of Red State - which is truly the base of the GOP these days - had this to say about Arlen Specter’s move to the Democratic Party:

Guess now that Larry Craig is gone & Specter realized there was no teabagging at the #teaparty, he had to go Dem for Frank to fondle him.

Today’s conservatives - if someone upsets you, call them gay.

Truly dealing from the bottom of the deck on a sinking ship of fools...

Glen "The Stewardess" Beck

David Waldman at dKos provides the paraphrased transcription of the most recent Glen Beck nutjobbery:

Blaming TV or radio hosts for the nutjob who killed three Pittsburgh police officers over the weekend is like blaming a flight attendant after a terrorist takes down a plane. In other words: Giving passengers a safety talk to prepare them for a worst-case scenario doesn't mean you are responsible should a terrorist make that worst-case scenario happen.

One person is providing important information. The other is a nutjob who would've acted no matter what.

Listen, Glen, and listen well...

The day I hear stewardesses calling on militant nutjobs to unfasten their seatbelts and prepare to rush the cockpit with their utility knifes in the upright position as part of their safety blurb is the day your most recent wingnutism will make sense when compared to your "grab yer guns before Obama does and surround them!" idiocy.

Video below:

Will the GOP upChuck on Norris support?

Here we have the GOP's favorite far right wingnut Chucky Norris discussing his wish to destroy America with dreams of a Texas secession where he can reign supreme because he didn't get his way in the last elections with FOX news lunatic, Glen Beck, trying to start a wingnut revolution:

On Glenn Beck's radio show last week, I quipped in response to our wayward federal government, "I may run for president of Texas."

That need may be a reality sooner than we think. (...snip...)

How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution? We the people have the authority according to America's Declaration of Independence, which states:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

When I appeared on Glenn Beck's radio show, he told me that someone had asked him, "Do you really believe that there is going to be trouble in the future?" And he answered, "If this country starts to spiral out of control and Mexico melts down or whatever, if it really starts to spiral out of control, before America allows a country to become a totalitarian country (which it would have under I think the Republicans as well in this situation; they were taking us to the same place, just slower), Americans won't stand for it. There will be parts of the country that will rise up." Then Glenn asked me and his listening audience, "And where's that going to come from?" He answered his own question, "Texas, it's going to come from Texas. Do you agree with that Chuck?" I replied, "Oh yeah!" Definitely.

...snip...

For those losing hope, and others wanting to rekindle the patriotic fires of early America, I encourage you to join Fox News' Glenn Beck, me and millions of people across the country in the live telecast, "We Surround Them,"

Certainly explaining why Chucky was so fond of secessionist Sarah Palin...

When I heard Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was McCain's choice, I knew she was a woman whom Americans could support and trust.

Will Palin renounce him and his lunatic call for secession? This is a woman who has secessionist issues of her own and still has aspirations to be the president. (Maybe president of Alaska?) But you have to remember that her and her families involvement in AKIP is about secession through a vote, not with some call for a violent revolution.

Although, some of her connections to far right wing secessionists are also tied into people with racist/conspiracist whack job extraordinaire Mark Chryson and other crazy militia type ties like "Black Helicopter Steve" Stoll:

During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin's campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.

Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution's language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as "Black Helicopter Steve," to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. "Every time I showed up her door was open," said Chryson. "And that policy continued when she became governor."

...snip...

After intense evangelizing by Chryson and his allies, they claimed Palin as a convert. "When she started taking her job seriously," Chryson said, "the people who put her in as the rubber stamp found out the hard way that she was not going to go their way." In 1994, Sarah Palin attended the AIP's statewide convention. In 1995, her husband, Todd, changed his voter registration to AIP. Except for an interruption of a few months, he would remain registered was an AIP member until 2002, when he changed his registration to undeclared.

...snip...

Clark pointed to Palin's political career as the model of a successful infiltration. "There's a lot of talk of her moving up," Clark said of Palin. "She was a member [of the AIP] when she was mayor of a small town, that was a nonpartisan job. But to get along and to go along she switched to the Republican Party … She is pretty well sympathetic because of her membership."

Much like the loony secessionist Sarah Palin in Alaska, Norris is a crazed wingnut that has always been treated as a mainstream representative of the GOP...

1. Chuck Norris roundhouses GOP presidential campaign

   Dec 8, 2007 ... Chuck Norris roundhouses. GOP presidential campaign. Surge of national support for Huckabee triggered by WND column endorsement ...
   www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59090 - 38k - Cached - Similar pages -

2. Chuck Norris Boosts Huckabee | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 ...

   Chuck and Huck: GOP's Delta Force? Now that the Gipper is gone and Charlton Heston is in his 80s, Chuck Norris has emerged as a dream celebrity 'get' on the ...
   www.newsweek.com/id/73272 - 70k - Cached - Similar pages -

3. Chuck Norris (I) - Biography

   A website known as "Chuck Norris Facts" has been created as a parody of his career. ....GOP candidate can be dissected to a point that he is railed for ...
   www.imdb.com/name/nm0001569/bio - 49k - Any Cached - Similar pages -

4. Video results for chuck norris, gop

   Mike Huckabee Ad: "Chuck Norris Approved" 1 min www.youtube.com

   Republican Debate OVER: Where is Chuck Norris? 34 sec www.youtube.com

5. Washington Wire - WSJ.com : Alaska GOP Touts Chuck Norris's ...

   Oct 7, 2008 ... Brad Haynes reports on the 2008 election. A few facts: Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open. Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one ...
   blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/07/alaska-gop-touts-chuck-norriss-endorsement-of-don-young/ - 178k - Cached - Similar pages -

6. GOP's Mike Huckabee campaigns with Chuck Norris in Huntsville ...

   GOP's Mike Huckabee campaigns with Chuck Norris in Huntsville S. Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visits ...
   videos.al.com/birmingham-news/2008/02/gops_mike_huckabee_campaigns_w.html - 38k - Cached - Similar pages -

7. Hotline - Chuck Norris' Tears Could Heal GOP Rift; Too Bad He ...

   Jan 13, 2009 ... Chuck Norris' Tears Could Heal GOP Rift; Too Bad He Doesn't Cry. Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009. Large GOP donors are "having to choose" between Gov ...
   nationaljournal.com/hotline/hl_20090113_4120.php - 32k - Cached - Similar pages -

8. CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive ...

   Obvisouly all those cuts in education by the GoP have made a difference over .... Go Chuck Norris…I love finding out whose a republican in Hollywood…there ...
   politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/10/22/martial-arts-tv-star-picks-presidential-candidate/ - 327k - Cached - Similar pages -

9. Chuck Norris Pictures - CNN And YouTube Host GOP Presidential ...

   Actor Chuck Norris sits in the audience during the CNN-YouTube Presidential Debate at the Mahaffey Theater at the Progress Energy Center for the Arts ...
   www.zimbio.com/pictures/aHV7U6TlYFj/CNN+YouTube+Host+GOP+Presidential+Debate/4oP2iirr8Vo/Chuck+Norris - 17k - Cached - Similar pages -

10. Chuck Norris - the GOP's Oprah - The Daily Breeze

    Chuck Norris - the GOP.
    www.dailybreeze.com/ci_7748032 - 49k - Cached - Similar pages -

Right now, the FOX news sponsored group "We surround them" has not only exposed, yet again, their true allegiance to Republican rule for ever but, also, the violent underbelly of supporters amongst their viewership willing to fall in line for a war against the USA, with literal calls to arms by some of the most extremist Americans:

The call by some right wing leaders for rebellion and for the military to refuse the commander in chief’s orders is joined by Chuck Norris who claims that thousands of right wing cell groups have organized and are ready for a second American Revolution. (snip) Norris claims that; “Thousands of cell groups will be united around the country in solidarity over the concerns for our nation.” The right wing cells will meet during a live telecast, "We Surround Them," on Friday March 13 at 5 p.m.

Which the rest of the lunatic fringe right wing is already quite willing to do:

Norris and Beck are not the only crazies. Watch this video by a group called "Restore the Republic" calling for soldiers and law enforcement to not only to disobey President Obama but to be prepared to arrest and detain federal officials.

The lit match has always been there in the heart of the crazed GOP and these fanatics are trying to lead their allies into a pool of gasoline, dragging the entire USA into the fire with them.

Will the GOP stand by and watch their own side ignite a war on the USA?

Will Huckabee renounce him? John McCain, whom Norris eventually stood beside? How about WorldNetDaily? Will they renounce these calls to violence? Townhall? The Alaskan GOP and Rep. Don Young? Will Ron Paul, a guy he told conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was "the only guy he trusts" in politics kick Norris to the curb?

And How about FOX news? Will they fire Glen Beck and renounce these lunatic calls for a treasonous movement to begin their violence against the USA?

I doubt it because these people are just sick. All of them. Hate, lies, violence and tearing down our own government is all they know.

So much for the Obama citizenship conspiracy nuts.

Throwing out the lunatic conservative fringes' lawsuit, U.S. District Judge James Robertson is going to decide how to penalize them for wasting everyone's time:

Robertson ordered plaintiff's attorney John Hemenway of Colorado Springs, Colo., to show why he hasn't violated court rules barring frivolous and harassing cases and shouldn't have to pay Obama's attorney, Bob Bauer, for his time arguing that the case should be thrown out.

If justice had any sense of humor with a serious twist of irony the judge would sentence these idiots to jail time in Kenya or, maybe, just take away all of their citizenships.

Republicans are Failing their Constituents

Given that 30 out of the top 50 (60%) districts in trouble with foreclosures (34 out of the top 56 listed - 60.7%) are in Republican controlled turf, you might think Republicans would be working harder to save these homes in their own districts.

Republicans failing to fight for saving these homes are failing their constituents. Minority districts or not, and for the most part they are not, every home that goes under affects everyone living in that district.

Never mind the fact that Republicans are, in large part, responsible for this problem in the first place because of their "L'aissez faire" free-market-run-amok policies.

The Center for Responsible Lending, whose work I cited the other day in looking at the number of projected home foreclosures in 2009 by Congressional District, has come out with a revised set of numbers.

And those revisions are... substantial. Both in terms of the numbers of foreclosures predicted, and in terms of where those foreclosures fall. It really changes the picture on both counts.

The REVISED top 56

Yet again, Republicans seem more interested in obstructing any and all remedies proposed by the majority than, you know, actually doing something. Instead, what do we hear from the right wingnut idiot factor?

Republicans on Capitol Hill are on the warpath about a bill that would allow bankruptcy judges change mortgages to help homeowners stay in their houses.

The Democratic-controlled House is scheduled to vote today on the measure, which would let judges reduce the principal owed, cut the interest rate, or extend the length of the loan.

House GOP leader John Boehner's office calls the legislation a "textbook example" of why Americans are increasingly fed up by the series of bailouts and rescues coming out of Washington.

Americans are fed up with you, Boehner. Yes, we hate the bailouts that you and the GOP are largely responsible for necessitating. There are so many reasons why Americans think more of communist China than Republicans right now:

USA Today/Gallup Poll. Feb. 20-22, 2009. N=1,013 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Republicans in Congress are handling their job?"

Approve 36%--56% Disapprove

Gallup Poll. Feb. 9-12, 2009. N=1,022 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.

"Next, I'd like your overall opinion of some foreign countries. Is your overall opinion of [see below] very favorable, mostly favorable, mostly unfavorable, or very unfavorable?"

China: Favorable 41%--51% Unfavorable

Tell Boehner that what we want right now is for republicans to, you know, do something other than just obstruct and bloviate the nation into more failure. And they can shut up about "Socialist Obama policies" since Americans clearly prefer communists over the GOP.