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Stephen Colbert Explains Polls
If I could I would make Colbert’s explanation of polls mandatory for everyone to view. He uses a meat grinder to illustrate the concept. All the information data (meat) is shoved into the meat grinder and packaged into bite sized opinions (sausage links) then fed to the public for consumption. The public then forms new opinions based on the polls they consumed and that data is shoved right back into the meat grinder. In the end what we end up with is one opinion and thus total agreement.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Colbert Repoll – Scott Rasmussen | ||||
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Why No Public Option?
Nancy Pelosi says there will be no public option in the House Bill they are marking up to send back to the Senate. She says this is because the votes in the Senate aren’t there. I am not so sure about that. 41 Senators have signed a letter backing the public option. I’ve heard estimates that possibly up to 52 Senators could support the public option and there’s always Joe Biden to cast a tie-breaking vote.
I don’t understand why Pelosi would not try to add the public option. Can anyone tell me?
I know Grayson in the House and Sanders in the Senate are submitting stand alone public option bills. Is that the thinking? To do the public option separately rather than in a comprehensive reform bill?
I am desperately trying to come up with a reason why Democrats would not push a public option without being cynical. Sadly I am concluding that a majority of Democrats are nearly as much in the tank for the insurance companies as Republicans are. There really is no other good explanation for opposing it.
Do they fear being branded as socialists if they passed a public option? Well, it’s too late for that. Democrats have been branded as socialists even for trying to pass a watered down giveaway to the insurance companies masquerading as healthcare reform.
Behind all this I think really it is Obama who is opposing the public option. I think he is opposing the public option because he cut some deal with the insurance and/or pharmaceutical industries. If Obama pushed for the public option with Pelosi we would get it. But he’s not. In fact he whips Congress against the public option. Why? All I want is the truth.
Is the truth of the matter that a public option would be “too” popular thereby overwhelming the government while putting the insurance companies out of business? Some how I don’t think so because even as it was structured only those without insurance could get the public option and I don’t think it was even going to be available for a couple more years. So nothing was going to happen over night.
I really want to know why the public option is being opposed by the White House and Congress. Anyone have any thoughts? If it was a concession to the insurance industry what are we getting in return? Are they not spending as much money to lobby Congress as they could?
Do Tea Baggers Pledge Allegiance?
I remember not that long ago when right wingers would lose their shit over Obama not wearing a flag lapel pin. They also lost their shit over a picture of Obama reciting the Pledge of Allegiance without his hand over his heart. Turned out to be propaganda bullshit but you get the point.
Yesterday’s right wingers and loyal Bushies are today’s Tea Baggers. They claim to be Uber Patriots and wrap themselves in the American flag. Yet at the same time their movement has also attracted other elements of the right wing fringe such as tenthers and secessionists.
This brings me to my question: Do Tea Baggers Pledge Allegiance to the Flag? Do they realize part of the pledge is to support a nation indivisible as well as a Republic? We all know the Pledge of Allegiance right?
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
If one pledges allegiance then how can one support secession? If one pledges allegiance to this Republic then how can one at the same time want to destroy this Republic as Tea Baggers want to? We are supposed to be indivisible.
At let’s not forget the justice for all part of the pledge. It doesn’t say justice for only Americans. It says for all. This means even the detainees at Gitmo deserve some justice as do all the other suspected and known terrorists we are holding. But time and time again we have heard right wing Tea Baggers decry the prospect of justice for all with those cries chiefly being lead by their De facto leader Dick Cheney.
As I see it Tea Baggers really need to clarify their positions. If they support secession then they really need to drop the American Flag paraphernalia. They also really need to stop reciting the Pledge of Allegiance if one of their stated goals continues to be to destroy the Republic.
Lastly, they need to stop calling themselves Americans. You can’t be an American yet stand against the Republic and the United States at the same time.
Republican Strategy
Republicans are very good at creating win-win situations for themselves. The healthcare issue is no exception to that rule. If you watch just 10 minutes of Fox News at any time during the day you will hear “government takeover of healthcare” (not true), “shove it down our throats” (over one year of debate on healthcare now considered shoving it down our throats), and “the American People don’t want this” (until it is explained to them what this is). Those are the standard talking points which are presented as news on top of the typical “socialized medicine”, “death panels”, and “Obamacare”.
Alright, we get it…Republicans oppose healthcare. They oppose it because politically if healthcare fails they are prepared to launch an offensive branding Obama as a loser for not being able to pass healthcare. On the flip side Republicans are trying to warn Democrats not to vote for healthcare claiming that it will hurt Democrats in November. I really hope Democrats are not taking advice from Republicans on politics. But seeing as how when Republicans say jump Democrats say how high it would not surprise me if some weak kneed Democrats are wavering.
At the same time Republicans are bragging saying if healthcare passes they are going to make repealing healthcare their central platform for re-election. Are you catching all this? How can Republicans possibly lose with this Devil’s Pitchfork 3-pronged strategy?
I do have a question for Republicans though. If passing this healthcare bill will truly be so bad for Americans that they will rise up and vote out the Democrats and vote in Republicans then why not help pass healthcare? Or, at the very least why put up such a strong opposition if passing healthcare will be such a political windfall for Republiacns that they will have majorities in both houses for the next 40 years? Why not let it pass and then hang it like a millstone around Obama’s neck?
To summarize Republican strategy:
1) Do everything and anything possible to defeat healthcare then call Obama a loser for not getting healthcare passed.
2) If healthcare is passed claim it will sink the Democrats forever and ever politically.
3) If healthcare is passed Republicans will make repealing healthcare reform a major part of their party platform thereby sweeping into power in 2010 and 2012.
I wish someone would ask though, if 2) and 3) are true then why don’t Republicans just let healthcare pass? Does it not seem that according to Republicans they have more to gain politically from healthcare passing than if it is defeated? And why do Republicans hyperventilate so much at just the mere prospect of healthcare passing to the point where they are willing to blatantly lie about things so trivial as reconciliation?
I mean it is a matter of fact that reconciliation has been used to pass major pieces of legislation before including the Bush tax cuts, Medicare Part D, and COBRA. It was used 3 times by Republicans under Bush with Cheney casting the 51st vote. Out of the 22 times it’s been used Republicans have used it 17 times. So why are they willing to lie so openly about things that are easily proven false just to prevent healthcare from passing when according to Republicans if it passes it will benefit them politically?
Make Rush Limbaugh Leave The Country – Pass Healthcare
Rush Limbaugh says he will leave the country if the healthcare bill is passed. Great! Even more incentive for everyone to get on board and support the bill! In the ironies of all ironies Limbaugh will flee to Costa Rica which has socialized medicine…out of the frying pan and into the fryer eh Rush?
Think Progress – Limbaugh vows to flee the country if health care passes
If McCain Palin Were Elected There Would Be No Tea Baggers
Every time I hear a right winger go hysterical about “Barack Hussein Obama taking over the country” or “Socialist Obama is using Big Government to get me” I just have to laugh. Where were these people when the Republicans were shoving the Department of Homeland Security down our throats? Where were the limited government Tea Baggers then? Where were the Tea Baggers when Bush was using warrantless wiretapping to spy on Americans, monitor their bank transactions, read their emails, and data mine their internet searches? Where were the Tea Baggers to protest the trillions in wasted spending, trillions added to the National Debt, and Medicare Part D being passed without being paid for?
I’ll tell you where they were – they were cheerleading their boy Bush the whole time. They were telling people like me to STFU. They were calling me a traitor for criticizing President Bush. They were telling me if I had nothing to hide I had nothing to fear. They told me deficits don’t matter. They were telling me Iraq attacked us on 9/11. They were telling me Sadam had WMD.
Yesterday’s Loyal Bushies are today’s Tea Baggers. There’s no difference. The only reason the Tea Bagger movement exists is to try to capitalize on the National Malaise and anti-incumbent mood to ride it back into power. And make no mistake Tea Bagger = Republican. Arizonans think that what, they are going to be electing a “real” “Tea Bagger” in J.D. Hayworth? The dude was in Congress for 12 years! He was there while the National Debt was doubled! And this is supposed to be the Great Tea Bagger revolution by voting in Hayworth? LMFAO! All Hayworth is doing is Tea Bagging the Tea Baggers.
If McCain Palin were in power all these white people who are scared right now would be the quiet little sheep they were during the Bush Administration. They would not give a shit. Hell, as long as a white Republican is President they can pretty much do anything they want. Reagan, Bush Sr, and Bush Jr proved this much.
All you Tea Baggers are stupid ignorant phonies plain and simple. You think advocating for corporations is going to get you better pay? You think “free market capitalism” is going to keep your fire departments in order and your drinking water safe? You think free trade is going to create jobs? You think deregulating the market even further is going to magically help? You think giving even more tax cuts to the wealthy elite is going to stimulate the economy? It hasn’t worked yet! Go ahead, keep working against your best interest morons. We’ll see how you feel when you’re on unemployment and a Republican tries to keep you from getting your check.
And for God’s Sake can you please just for once STOP LYING?!? Obama is an American citizen, there is no “government takeover of healthcare”, Obama is a Christian, and Obama is a capitalist. Give it up already. You are making fools of yourselves.
The Growing Separatists Movements Need Their Own Flag
Turns out the DHS was right…even though Janet Napolitano was skewered for the DHS report that said the United States was experiencing an increase in right wing extremist groups.
You know that’s fine…in America there’s freedom of speech blah blah blah. Carry your Nazi signs and wear your KKK hoods. Rally around the Confederate flag and say all the hateful things you feel. It’s your right as an American.
But one thing I tire of are all these right wingers, tenthers, birthers, and separatists claiming the American Flag. They need to get their own damn flag. Go ahead and hate the government, hate the President, and work to get your State to secede from the Union. Just don’t carry an American Flag and call yourself a “patriot” for doing it.
The first true patriots, the ones that died fighting the British Empire so that we could become an independent nation, fought and died for the United States. They fought and died for the idea that while we were different colonies we were all one country. As such we formed a Federal Government to run this country The symbol of that Federal Government is the Stars and Stripes. Originally it was 13 stars and 13 stripes. It was meant to signify the unification of the States into one country.
As more States were added to the Union we added more stars. The 13 stripes remain to remind us of our colonial beginnings and the original 13 colonies that united to fight against the British. You would think this would be apparent to all Americans. After all, it’s pounded into our soft skulls starting in kindergarten. We all know our history right?
So why do these self proclaimed uber patriots who put themselves out as being more American than the rest of us because they want to break away from the United States still try to claim the Stars and Stripes as their own? They need to get their own damn flag. The American Flag stands for Union, One Country, and the Federal Government. Go ahead and be against the Federal Government just stop hiding behind the American Flag.
Get your own flag and go ahead and get your State to secede from the Union, I really don’t care. Just don’t call yourself American and stop wrapping yourself in the flag. If you are against the Union you are not American. We fought a Civil War already. Do we really need to have another?
Southern Poverty Law Center Report On Increased Right Wing Extremism
Jon Stewart Shreds Fox News Again
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Anchor Management | ||||
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Also, watch Colbert pull an O’Keefe on Hannity
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Tip/Wag – James O’Keefe & Sean Hannity | ||||
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