ATTN: Sarah Palin
If you are out there somewhere reading the Congressional Budget Office's preliminary analysis of the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill (and, really, aren't we all?), I am sure you have already noticed an intriguing line-item under SUBTITLE I-MATERNAL, INFANT AND EARLY CHILDHOOD VISITATION.
It says "Assisted Suicide."
Have we finally found where they have hidden the Death Panels?
Actually, I am told that refers to the budgetary impact ($0) of an Orrin Hatch amendment, adopted by the committee, that would prohibit money from being used for assisted suicide. But CBO might want to be a little more careful about how they label these things. This is how misunderstandings get started.
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1
Ok so the CBO should consider the Sarah Palin factor when writing their reports from now on. My how far we have come.
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1.1
Don't you think this is exactly the kind of thing that all those people who showed up at Town Halls quoting page numbers from the House bill would seize upon?
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1.2
KT-Seriously, people will sieze upon and misquote anything they choose to. How many times have I personally misunderstood one your posts? I don't think it would be fair to you to have to blog or write a story and have to be overly concerned with how dense I can be at times.
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How many times have people taken the bible out of context? Should the bible be rewritten to compensate...Wait some one is alreay working on that. -
1.3
Who needs facts (or slivers of facts) when you have an imagination?
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1.4
Don't you think this is exactly the kind of thing that all those people who showed up at Town Halls quoting page numbers from the House bill would seize upon?
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Only if you let them. -
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1.6
Wow, huge slam against imagination out of nowhere!
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1.7
darius: that is sort of the point of this post.
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Wow. I thought this was just a blog. Isn't that ironic?
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2
KT, give Sarah time; she'll be going rouge on this soon after wrapping up her book. But what's with the subtitle's headline listing only maternal / infant / child stuff and then also listing death panels / suicides, elder justice (is this seniors' revenge against insurance cos. for denied claims?), and …abstinence ed? Is this kinda opposite of maternal stuff, albeit ineffective. (where's Amy for her thoughts here?) The hand of Hatch here (talk to the hand)? Is this all a mislabeling / did they forget to separate maternal / infant stuff from adult stuff?
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3
We know that most publications write so that a fourth grader can understand. It's time to stop dumbing down language for the Sarah Palin's of the country. It's time for the media to step up.
Karen you are wrong on this point.-
3.1
Maybe Palin will explain the bill to Conyers who with 2 days and 4 lawyers still won't know what he read.
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4
Thomas Frank in the WSJ discussing economist James K. Galbraith's book, "The Predator State"
"Mr. Galbraith's point was the opposite: That government becomes a 'predator' when it adopts the agenda of the private sector, when it comes under the control of business interests. According to Mr. Galbraith's book, these interests seek to 'control the state partly in order to prevent the assertion of public purpose and partly to poach on the lines of activity that past public purpose has established...."
"The 'predator state' describes what happens when chicken coops are given over to foxes,' Mr. Galbraith continued. 'When consumer protection, worker protection, environmental protection, and policing against fraud are handed over to lobbyists. And when health care is run for the benefit of private insurance companies, whose business model . . . is to target coverage on the healthy and delay payments to the sick....'"
"However, it is easy to see how a 'public option' might be transformed into another opportunity for predation. With a little George W. Bush-era ingenuity, some future administration might decide to install insurance lobbyists at its helm. Future Congresses might require that its duties should be contracted out to existing insurance companies and then sign away their own power to supervise those companies' behavior."
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5
This is how misunderstandings get started.
You're assuming that "death panels" was a misunderstanding, which is, um, charitable.
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6
I sense an upcoming subject of one of Palin's legendary Facebook communiques,
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7
Sarah can read? oh sorry, was that mean? my bad.
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7.1
Sarah is very well read. She reads coffee cups and every newspaper out there.
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8
HA. I get the impression Palin does not need any basis for her hysteria. She wants to be in the news for the most part so anything goes.
LM
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9
IF this bill passes, then I am writing to Hatch to call him the biggest idiot in Congress.
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IF this bill passes, assisted suicide should be paid for because we will not be able to afford all the increases of pass throughs the DME's and Hospitals will now charge because of the new taxes they will pay to support this bills "neutral budget", we will simply not be able to afford to live.-
9.1
Surely paid-for assisted suicide would require more funds, and therefore more new taxes and so forth rusty? A vicious circle indeed...
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10
No, Betsy McCaughey is how misunderstandings get started.
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10.1
Exactly. That's where the moral culpability lies. If someone commits murder with a stapler, the stapler manufacturer isn't to blame.
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11
Interesting. We have a President who in front of the entire Congress and America said illegals would not be covered.
Is he a liar? Does he have a wild imagination or is he Palin in drag?
And isn't he the same guy who said he didn't really know Bill Ayers but somehow he is the guy who wrote Obama's book. Can't except much from a "C" student at Columbia, I guess.
The arrogance and hypocrisy of you guys is mind-boggling. The biggest liars are here- you keep lying to yourselves.
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12
Paging ACORN?
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Senate loosens ban on offshore companies with federal contracts
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A spending bill moving through the Senate would limit a ban on federal contracts for companies that put most of their operations outside the U.S. for tax purposes.
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Language in the Senate financial services and general government appropriations bill would loosen a prohibition first instituted in the 2002 Homeland Security Act.
,The ban applies to so-called “inverted” companies and is meant to ease trade tension in the wake of “Buy American” provisions in the $787 billion stimulus package that prohibited funds from going to foreign companies.
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The Senate bill alters the ban by adding language that states the ban “shall not apply to the extent that it is inconsistent with United States obligations under an international agreement.”
.The language was lobbied for by business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and is similar to language included in the stimulus bill.
.“We don't want to be violating trade agreements,” said Chris Braddock, the Chamber's senior director of antitrust. “That's kind of the genesis of it.”
,The proposed language comes after the Obama administration slapped tariffs on Chinese tires imported into the United States. The Chinese government has responded by vowing to look into prices of U.S. poultry sold in China.
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The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has criticized the proposed limit as a “big corporate loophole” that would cost taxpayers billions.
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But on the bright side no illegal aliens or poor people will get any of this money.
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http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/61925-senate-loosens-ban-on-companies-with-offshore-businesses -
13
Ain't this whole Health Care Bill thing a laff riot?
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Meanwhile, the rich stay healthy and the sick stay poor.-
13.1
Yeah, you really want to LOMFL, you know to the pt. that you spot your knickers or pass wind!?
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Read Greg Sargent (link)
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Which inspired Jane Hamsher to recap thusly:
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•Progressives have to suck up tax credits in the stimulus bill that did no good because Grassley, who didn't vote for the bill, wanted them
•Progressives have to suck it up and vote for war funding they pledged to vote against so Blue Dogs will have cover voting for the $108 billion European bank bailout that progressives don't want either
•Progressives have to suck it up and give the Blue Dogs everything they want on the big coal bailout bill, then vote for it because the Blue Dogs don't want to
•Progressives have to suck it up and give in to Mike Ross after he holds the health care bill "hostage" for 10 days, claiming his cuts will make the bill more "fiscally responsible." CBO later tells Pelosi that Ross's changes on Medicare rates add $85 billion in costs to the bill.
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I mean, JFC, is it any wonder that Gallup's latest looks like this (link)? I mean, can I hear from any dems who watched SNL's take on el presidente and weren't wetting themselves with, like, laughter!?
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But really, isn't the real question here what Sarah Palin thinks? -
13.2
Stop it! You guys have me rolling on the floor tonight.
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14
This is how misunderstandings get started.
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Misunderstandings, Karen? Are you sure you don't mean, "intentional lies deliberately crafted to perpetuate the monstrously oppressive system that kills and bankrupts thousands of Americans each and every year"?
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Because that sounds a little more accurate.-
14.1
People, people, people:
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Are you really going to make me have to explain *ironic* again?
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I believe I have made myself pretty clear on the whole Death Panel thing in the past, most recently here:
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http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/09/27/latest-lie-death-panels-by-proxy/ -
14.2
KT-Please, Please, Please explain "ironic" again. Wait, let me put on my snuggie though........................... Okay ready.
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14.3
gunny: that was very *ironic.* you are finally getting into the spirit.
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14.4
gunny: except you need to use little asterisks, not quotes. that makes it more *ironic*
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14.5
(1) I am not sure you are using the word 'irony' correctly. Do you mean sarcasm, perhaps?
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(2) Perhaps I feel the time has passed for using ever-so-subtle irony. Perhaps I would like to see more forceful condemnations of certain forms of behavior.
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(3) We are living in a political environment where lies are fabricated out of whole cloth, people ignore reams of evidence, and conservative bloggers are taken in by a practical joke courtesy of Bill Ayers:
http://washingtonindependent.com/62842/which-bloggers-feel-for-the-bill-ayers-prank
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It is in no way unbelievable that opponents of HCR will seize upon that title and use it to shoot down the bill, which is why I view this:
But CBO might want to be a little more careful about how they label these things. This is how misunderstandings get started.
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as a straightforward statement from you, KT. -
14.6
KT KT KT
Riddle me this: Why is what Sarah Palin (rightist, ignorant loon) thinks at all relevant in this debate, even as the butt of village ridicule? And why is anyone left of Ezra Klein not relevant? I mean, if you're talking about her, with whatever wink/shark tone, doesn't that mean she's being taken more seriously than the likes of Amy Goodman, Jane Hamsher (i.e. intelligent human beings)? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but links to these committed, brilliant progressives are never seen here (in your narrative-driving forum)?
I mean, please, if you could condescend to explain these complexities to us, the ignorant rabble.
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14.7
Ah, Cliff, the line between *irony* and sarcasm is thin indeed. This began the other day with Gunny chastising me over my use of Obamacare.
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Also, please see my earlier posts on Death Panels. -
14.8
KT-I do really appreciate you, your hard work doing a tough, tough job and the fact that you don't just out and out dismiss the stupid that all of us might tend to show from time to time. And there is nothing "ironic" about that.
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14.9
But to call these "death panels by proxy" is simply fear-mongering.
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Hmmm, yes, you certainly are hitting them hard there.
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Watch out, Betsy McCaughy, or else Karen Tumulty will become mildly upset with you. -
14.10
I don't have those ass things on my keyboard. Do have the quotas though.
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15
Does this link mean that the Senate can by pass the House leaving them the option for an up and down vote on the Senate bill?
What do you all think of Harry's rules?
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15.1
Caro:
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He's bypassing the House only in a technical sense. The fact is, this is one where the House doesn't want to get out in front of the Senate (fear of getting "BTU'ed," which I believe you and I have discussed here in the comments section before) so they are complicit in allowing him to add it to an unrelated bill, rather than making them vote first.
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John Dickerson has a great analysis here:
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http://www.slate.com/id/2231640/ -
15.2
Thank you Karen, but does that mean all the good things I like about the House bill will not be included?
I do not like very much about what is in the Senate bills.
Thank you for the link I will go look at it. -
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16
BTW, commenters: As I was writing my story for tomorrow about the CBO report, I came across this old story I wrote the for LA Times back in 1994. Which raises the question -- How old AM I? This is scary:
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http://articles.latimes.com/1994-02-13/news/mn-22467_1_health-care-
16.1
Short answer: Old
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Hey, you asked.
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What'll be really (keeping with the thread's themes) funny/ironic will be when you can revisit this blog post in 2024, you know, when present legislation, in its sheer awesomity, has been in place for a while.
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Of course, by then Tweets will be considered long-form journalism. We'll all be communicating via a complicated series of winks and eyelash batting, likely via little chips inserted in our eyes. One can only hope we'll be in the midst of machine-assisted REM sleep. Calgon take us away. Now, who's f'ing old? -
16.2
Is this an opportunity to poke fun or a contest KT?
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16.3
Please don't make fun of us *old* folks. We're aware that we have more years behind us than in front of us. My MIL won't tell me how old she is, so I guess I'm going to have to cut one of her legs off and count the rings.
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17
ATTN: Time magazine:
Does anyone, other than the most stupid of the stupid, not recognize Time magazine as anything other than a leftist political advocacy group?
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18
And have I mentioned that I'm a bit cranky? 100mph typhoon winds kept me awake all night. Plus is morning lessons were cancelled.
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18.1
Ki o tsukete kudasai JC-san. 160 kph winds are never fun (unless you're weird like me and can sleep through that kind of stuff) hopefully all is well and there wasn't too much damage. It could be worse: the other half could have her water break right now!
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19
Who is this Sarah Palin? Does she hold some public office? Or is she like Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity who use their mouths in ways not intended by God?
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19.1
Sarah is like Limbaugh but with slightly larger breasts.
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19.2
Perhaps, but Karl Rove's triple D siege cannons outshine them all.
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I mean, you just know Jeff Gannon was hired on for his motorboating skills.
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20
A little OT, but Levi has apparently agreed to appear nude in Playgirl. For those who wondered what Bristol ever saw in him, I guess they'll find out.
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21
Will they airbrush the bulletholes left by his former would-be mother - in - law or will they just leave them as a testament to the positive benefits of abstention?
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22
OK, so it's *ironic* that one of our two political parties uses a combination of lies, stupidity, demagoguery, fear-mongering, paranoic delusions, and slander to win political points.
It's also *ironic* that the other political party is in the grip of a small wing of fiscal "conservatives" aka recipients of bribes from industry.
But I'm still in my stupid naive way confused why the public option, which is *supported by most citizens* and *supported by most doctors* and *seems to work in countries that have functioning health care systems* (not counting countries with S----- P---- which we're not supposed to talk about), cannot be enacted.
Yes, I understand that Democrats still lack the mandated super-duper majority of 85 votes including at least 3 Republican votes, which the Founders so wisely wrote into the Constitution.
And I also understand the Obama is against the public option and in our system of government the executive branch writes all legislation.
But I've been looking for a *policy* reason. And yes, I also understand that We Don't Do Policy in this country because that's boring and socialistic.
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22.1
Which is very much the same way your opposition believes Dems get into office.
"And I also understand the Obama is against the public option and in our system of government the executive branch writes all legislation."
#1 Obama CLAIMS he is against the public option after campaigning FOR it for years. Which is to be believed? What he said before when nobody was watching his every word, or what he says now to try to make his previous stances disappear.
#2 The executive branch writes all legislation??? Really??? Try a civics lesson to avoid mistakes like this.
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22.2
xxception, I was trying out some of that *irony* I've been hearing about.
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23
1.5darius: that is sort of the point of this post.
Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/10/07/attn-sarah-palin/#comments#ixzz0TLT9qbBS
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The point of this post is to deny conservatives their voice if you don't agree with what they said? -
24
I'm fairly sure that even if CBO perfectly explained what it's for Sarah would get it wrong.
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24.1
Just as I'm sure the Dems would manipulate and lie about it to make it seem as if it were a good deal whether it was or not. Either that or denigrate it's opponents so that they may in turn refuse to even take their ideas into consideration. You know, much like Dems, including KT, try to do with the protestors at the town hall meetings. If that isn't the case, KT, why haven't you treated SEICU members that show up for the town hall meetings the same way you have the conservative protestors? Or Moveon or CodePink?
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25
Two wrong doesn't make one right. False equivalence sucks. I personally don't think things like 'death panels' are valid intellectual ideas. It sounds scary. People like Sarah, or anyone that re-brands anything to sound scary isn't really looking for a rational argument. They're not looking to highlight facts or debate the 'meaning' of 'death panels'. They're looking for a collective pants dump. And suckers fell for it. Sarah represents the idea of what a good conservative should be; not the intellectual argument of what it means and their principled values. It's a caricature and simplistic view as the gun tooting, flag wrapped, Christian, Family valued straight American. You sure have them on the left but lately it's only on the right that the essential argument about something as vital as healthcare and what role the government have in it needs to be dumbed down so irrational people don't get it ‘wrong'. It's quite revealing when people who oppose something with absolutely no contributing arguments for or against have to invent controversy in order to point at something ‘sinister'. I mean, how are you and I going to be able to get an informed view of what's drafted in our name and will effect our future if it becomes a mud wrestling match about ‘what if's' and the stuff that's not there? Maybe you don't care. Maybe you're calculating on it being used to scare grandma so whatever you don't like never happens – but I have a feeling that what you're doing is instead stripping anything meaningful out of it so in the end it does exactly what you don't want and worse; give more of your and my money to the industry directly effected. I know. It's not about the intellectual argument. It's about dems, KT and liberals and whatever. Well enjoy shooting yourself in the @ss because it's going to happen and whatever happens is going to be watered down and wasteful because half of the argument didn't want an intellectual debate.
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25.1
Sorry, this is the first time I ever posted in a blog that didn't automatically add paragraph breaks
Two wrong doesn't make one right. False equivalence sucks. I personally don't think things like 'death panels' are valid intellectual ideas. It sounds scary. People like Sarah, or anyone that re-brands anything to sound scary isn't really looking for a rational argument. They're not looking to highlight facts or debate the 'meaning' of 'death panels'. They're looking for a collective pants dump. And suckers fell for it.
Sarah represents the idea of what a good conservative should be; not the intellectual argument of what it means and their principled values. It's a caricature and simplistic view as the gun tooting, flag wrapped, Christian, Family valued straight American. You sure have them on the left but lately it's only on the right that the essential argument about something as vital as healthcare and what role the government have in it needs to be dumbed down so irrational people don't get it ‘wrong'.
It's quite revealing when people who oppose something with absolutely no contributing arguments for or against have to invent controversy in order to point at something ‘sinister'. I mean, how are you and I going to be able to get an informed view of what's drafted in our name and will effect our future if it becomes a mud wrestling match about ‘what if's' and the stuff that's not there? Maybe you don't care. Maybe you're calculating on it being used to scare grandma so whatever you don't like never happens – but I have a feeling that what you're doing is instead stripping anything meaningful out of it so in the end it does exactly what you don't want and worse; give more of your and my money to the industry directly effected.
I know. It's not about the intellectual argument. It's about dems, KT and liberals and whatever. Well enjoy shooting yourself in the @ss because it's going to happen and whatever happens is going to be watered down and wasteful because half of the argument didn't want an intellectual debate. -
25.2
Do you feel the same way about Dems claiming Repubs want old people to die?
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25.3
Yeah, i have a problem with intentional political distortions regardless of party. however, since the Ds have come up with some ideas, however half-baked and half-witted they may be, i give them credit for trying. The Rs have sat on their rears and thrown hissy fits and done nothing. A bad ideas vs no idea at all. At least the bad idea gives us something to work with.
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