Pro vs Con: A Look At Health Care

If government can run health care so well, why is Medicare going bankrupt? Medicare has worked for 40 years. But the price pressures driving up costs in the private health care system affect Medicare as well. Medicare actually has lower overhead than private health insurance. And if we design a comprehensive program to cover all Americans, we can save $1 trillion over the next 10 years. That will get health care costs under control and stabilize Medicare. more pro vs con >>

George Will: High Paid Idiot

The majority of Americans are better off now than they were in 2000/2001?

Really?

How about my fellow rednecks? Are you all better of financially? Even if you bring home more money, are you still better off?

George Will, the right-wing financial “genius” says that you are simply misinformed. That you don’t really know any better.

So let me ask you, are you the out-of-touch one, or is it Willy?

Psychopaths: Bush and Most Republicans

B’Man: As if I had to explain this to anyone, now we have research and documented proof that Bush and most Republicans (which includes ALL ReTHUGlicans) are psychopaths (and I would argue narcissists, as well):

Textbook descriptions of George Bush reveal psychopathy, and much worse.

by Ed Martin

The research of Dr. Hervey Cleckley and Dr. Robert Hare exploring the personality and character traits of psychopaths, when applied to George Bush, shows that Bush fits exactly the profile they developed for the psychopath. Demographis show that Republicanism is much worse than psychopathy.

An excerpt from the book Blood Relations, by Eric Konigsberg, about his great-uncle Harold, a convicted murder:

Hervey Cleckley in his book, The Mask of Sanity, describes the psychopath as a certain type of cruel manipulator whose harmful actions are accompanied by an absence of delusion. The psychopath, he wrote, “does not hear voices. In theory, he can foresee the consequences of injudicious or antisocial acts.” A psychopath is a person who knows full well the difference between right and wrong and yet, without compunction, chooses to do wrong. Checkley cited the protagonist of The Incredible Charlie Carewe, a novel by Mary Astor, as a quintessential psychopath. “Charlie is a genius in reverse with dangerous charm. Sisters lie for him, parents defend him, friends obey him. While calmly and casually, Charlie Carewe literally gets away with murder.”

George Bush has calmly, casually and gleefully murdered a million innocent Iraqis. So far, he’s gotten away with it.

Robert Hare got first hand experience with psychopaths while working at a prison near Vancouver. Hare describes one inmate as having a winning personality, and he used it to test the limits of what Hare would do on his behalf. He lied endlessly, lazily, about everything, and it disturbed him not a whit whenever something in his file contradicted one of his lies.

Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, says of the psychopath, “Typically the way a person like this maintains an inflated view of the self is by devaluing other people, taking advantage of them. If you look at the trail of a psychopath, you will see it littered with wounded, angry people.”

Yes, better than 70% of the people in the United States alone, not counting more than 20 million people in Iraq and an untold number in the rest of the world are wounded and angry.

George Bush uses a derogatory nickname for just about everyone around him. Turdblossom. He also uses the diminutive to belittle. Brownie for a grown man.

Hare developed a system of identification for psychopaths that includes various personality and character traits:

Glibness/superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, cunning/manipulative, lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect, callous/lack of empathy, failure to accept responsibility for own actions, parasitic lifestyle, lack of realistic, long-term goals, irresponsibility, criminal versatility.

I don’t have to list examples of Bush’s actions and behavior for you to match them up with the above list, but let’s take one, failure to accept responsibility for own actions. When Bush was asked if he had ever made any mistakes, he replied that he couldn’t think of any. That’s just one. Another is parasitic lifestyle. Bush has lived off of relatives, friends and the government all of his life. He now lives in government provided housing and receives government provided funds to live on. Perfect examples. The rest fit just as well.

Some more character traits of the psychopath that fit George Bush perfectly:

Uses defense mechanism of projection, blaming others for own faults, impervious to anxiety, depression, unremorseful, lack of self insight, no self humor, can’t stand to be the butt of jokes, uses neologisms, makes up strange new words, lack of probity, courtesy, doesn’t tolerate society’s niceties or obligations, does not learn from mistakes, tends to think in concrete black or white terms.

That last one is the same as Bush’s “You’re either with us or you’re against us.” Another perfect example.

From the inordinately high number of Republicans who exhibit some or all of these psychopathic traits, such as Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Rove, Addington, Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz, Pearle and Feith, to name just a few, and those such as Cunningham, Abramoff and others who are in prison for their psychopathic acts, we would have to think that either psychopaths naturally became Republicans or that Republicans, for some abnormal reason, admire and elevate psychopathic behavior as the highest ideal to be emulated.

Normal distribution would show the rate of psychopaths born to be evenly distributed among the population. But, as we have seen, there is an abnormal nimber of psychopaths among Republicans. There just can’t be that many more psychopaths born to Republicans than to anyone else. It has to be learned behavior by people brought up as Republicans. Their immersion in Republican culture and society naturally warps their minds and leads them to think that psychopathy is normal, ordinary behavior. They’ve been taught that way of thinking as the highest ideal and that it is the only way to deal with the world.

The proof for this is the fact that Republicans agree with and support the leading psychopath of the nation, George Bush. We could deal with and accept this had they come by their psychopathy naturally. But, this adoption of psychopathy as a lifestyle, from the learned behavior of the psychopathy of Republicanism unnaturally increases the number of psychopaths to unacceptable, unnatural levels.

There is one advantage to us for this increase in psychopaths above the expected number among Republicans. Since we now know that the preponderance of psychopaths are Republicans, when they reveal themselves as Republicans, its much easier to identify the psychopaths among us, to be forewarned, and be prepared to take defensive action.

Ed Martin is an unindicted curmudgeon. He is not a Democrat, Republican, conservative, liberal, deist, atheist, or a member of any -ism.

h/t

http://www.opednews.com

If You Are a “Liberal”, You MUST Be a “Fruitcake”

Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded,” says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, “The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.” “Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave.”…… Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by the two major candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination can only be understood as a psychological disorder.

Hell, I knew I was crazy, but I’m glad I have this doctor to finally call it out. With America’s greatest health-care in the world, wonder why we are just figuring this out?

What is hilarious on its face is that he is suggesting that Obama and Clinton are “liberals”. Just how far to the right does one have to be to consider them liberal?

But, the good doctor does explain, in some detail, the issues that liberals force on others:

Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:

• creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;
• satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;
• augmenting primitive feelings of envy;
• rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.

How far removed from reality… or how deep in “their” pockets must one be to believe this shit? I love the way that Sybil Sage from DivineCaroline addressed this:

Dr. Lyle Rossiter, a psychologist who’s practiced for thirty-five years, in a book titled, The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness, maintains that liberalism is a psychological disorder. He asserts that liberals, “rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave.”

Does Dr. Rossiter accept medical insurance? Oh, maybe it’s not an issue since most Americans can’t afford it. Liberals are nuts?!!

He characterizes the liberal agenda as preying on weakness and insecurities in the population by “rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.”

Has Dr. Rossiter treated any of Americans who feel we’d been tricked into going to war by an administration with its own agenda? Liberals are nuts?!!

Rossiter characterizes modern liberals as “whining about imaginary villains,” depicting them as neurotic. Were we not told by Bush & co., “You’re either with us or against us?” Wasn’t this conservative government repeatedly insisting they’ve been saving us from being attacked? Liberals are nuts?!!

His premise is that caring about others is infantilizing. If liberal can be seen as a psychological disturbance, would not the conservative agenda qualify as narcissistic? And if liberals are nuts, perhaps it’s a response to conservative policies.

That last sentence explains me, to a “T”. How can anyone, irregardless of ideology, embrace the agenda of these neocon tools have screwed us?

I once called myself “conservative”, but if it means being one of these monsters we call the Bush Admin or resembling them in any way, then please, for God’s sake, call me a liberal.

I will PROUDLY wear that over the idiocy that is now equated with being a conservative.

Buh-Bye PawPaw Fred Thompson

I looked at the contribution page for the presidential candidates at www.opensecrets.organd saw that Tennesseans have given PawPaw Fred more money than any other candidate (strangely, Edwards was second over even other Republican candidates).

Today we learn that Grandad may be leaving the race… so much for the Republican Party’s “Saviour”. Wonder if God has now moved the mantle over to “Pastor Huck”?

Since I reside in Tennessee, I feel like I am at liberty to say, “Good Riddance, you untalented old actor senatorman.” I hope you do endorse McCain (who may be old enough to be PawPaw Fred’s Grandpa), simply to insure that the anti-Iraq Invasion contingent in America (somewhere around 70+%) will do everything possible to keep that war-mongering imbecile out of office.

From Politico.com this article http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7682.html suggests that Fred may pull out and back Senator McMilitaryCain.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Several Republican officials close to Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign said they expect the candidate will drop out of the race within days if he finishes poorly in Thursday’s Iowa caucus.

Thompson’s campaign, which last spring and summer was generating fevered anticipation in the media and with some Republican activists, has never ignited nationally, and there are no signs of a late spark happening here in Iowa, where even a third-place finish is far from assured.

This reality—combined with a fundraising drought—left well-connected friends and advisers of Thompson Wednesday evening predicting that he will pull the plug on hype and hope before the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary.

Thompson’s departure could shake up the race more than his continued presence. Friends and advisers said they have long considered it likely that if the lobbyist-actor is forced from the race he would endorse John McCain his former Senate colleague who lately has been staging a political revival in New Hampshire.

“Without a solid third-place finish, there’s no point in going on,” a Thompson adviser said Wednesday. “It was an honorable race, and he turned out to be a good candidate. The moment had just passed.”

A Thompson campaign source said there is “a strong likelihood” that if Thompson comes in a distant third in Iowa, with less than 15 percent of the vote, he would drop out soon—most likely before this weekend’s New Hampshire presidential debates…

(more at link)

Personally, I believe that his candidacy was doomed from the beginning. Conservatives knew then what they know now, they are going to lose the next presidential election (and even much more seats in Congress). They keep hoping for a “Saviour”, but that pig (the ideology of Big Money) is so ugly, no amount of makeup and fine clothes can make Americans want to take it out anymore.

Take a hint, “conservatives”, stand up for what you really believe in and DISOWN those idiots that you allowed to hijack your respectable ideology. You have been made guilty by association, but deservedly so… you have gone along in total submission. Now, even the real ideology is becomming more insignificant because the fools associated with you have tainted your vision.

UPDATED 1-11-08:

“Dr.” Knox Pooley (how amazingly similar his real life is to his Hollywood personna) is determined to hang on like a bad actor on Emergency. Give up the ghost, dude, before it becomes impossible to cover those age spots with makeup.

Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/index.html 

h/t to Glenn Greenwald’s Blog where he goes into detailed explanations and shows a few more charts expressing the over-reaching military industrial complex’s role in our failing economy.

He also points out what I have been saying for quite some time, Hillary, Barack, and John all support this monster. Every ReTHUGlican candidate supports this failing drain on America. There are very few who have stood up against it… Dennis Kucinich being the loudest and most CORRECT to date.

Too bad America is obviously too blind (or stupid?) to realize it.

Wonder why you can’t afford healthcare?

Wonder why the rest of the world hates us?

Wonder why America is in the f*cked up shape its in?

A country cannot sustain itself from War and war profiteering. A country cannot be held as a shining example of freedom and hope when everything it does thwarts that very view. A country cannot survive on being a Military Industrial Complex. Every empire to date has fallen for this very reason.

We will be no different.

Do you see a problem with the above chart? I do. I see that we are spending far more of MY tax dollar to fund idiotic war and unwarranted weapons development. I see that even with a good chunk going to healthcare, my care is getting worse every day. Insurance companies are driving every decision regarding health and Weapons Builders are driving the military decisions.

The problem is that everything is profit driven and has nothing (or little) to do with actual health or sound military.

But Good Ole Bubba down here in Mississippi wants a Republican in office because everyone knows they are fiscally sound and “Men of God” and that we need protection from those that come from 3rd world countries and “rogue states”.

The US military budget was almost 29 times as large as the combined spending of the six “rogue” states (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria) who spent $14.65 billion.

 We are supposed to be scared of these countries. Does anyone seriously doubt our ability to wipe any of these off the map? All of them at one swift bombing run?

I am sick to death of people acting like the scared little sheep the government wants us to act like. I am a southern man and don’t know a single soul who would not fight for his rights and freedoms or to protect his family and friends from aggressors. Why is it that we have allowed this neocon agenda to run us so scared? To change WHAT we are inside?

(Excuse me while I go puke!)

Yee-Haw! My Vote Cancels Out Y’alls

 Original article found here:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33878?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

By Duane Bickels
January 21, 2004

Well, damn, man, it’s pretty soon gonna be president election time again, and that means we gotta start thinkin’ about who’s gonna be the one we want to be president. That’s some important stuff, who’s president, because whoever’s president will be in charge of the whole dang shootin’ match. And, if y’all are like me, you know America’s president needs to be the kind of old boy who, in the first place, kicks him some damn ass, and in the second place, don’t listen to all that bitchin’ about how he shouldn’t be kickin’ so much ass. And, if you ain’t like me, guess what? My vote cancels out y’all’s!

Now, you probably waste a whole lotta good-fishin’ Saturdays readin’ yourself the papers, watchin’ all the talk on the TV, and sittin’ around thinkin’ real hard about which way you gonna vote. Well, it’s a real shame, then, ain’t it, that all that time you spend in real careful considerin’ don’t count for nothin’, once my vote runs y’all’s right off the road.

Shoot, neighbor, if there’s one type’a guy you don’t want in charge, it’s some damn weaklin’ in the White House what won’t kick enough ass. Bush, that guy we got now, he kicked him some ass in that old desert. And Bush’s daddy? He kicked him some ass, too. Reagan? Kicked all the ass he could, and some they said he shouldn’t! But Clinton? Barely no ass-kickin’ at all. Just got his ol’ joint tugged by a fat girl, and hell, I could do that down by the Dew Drop Inn off I-78. What’s the damn use of bein’ the Commander-Chief if that’s all you’re gonna do? Face it, bein’ president is a job of work for ass-kickers, and if you say otherwise, hell, I got a vote here what totally negates yours.

So maybe you ain’t a patriot like I am. Now, when I say patriot, I’m talkin’ about most of our athletes, country-music stars, and guys like me what agree with them. So, say you ain’t a patriot, and you’re fixin’ to vote up a candidate what’s some limpo what’ll give in to the crybaby liberals, the damn screechin’ women, the commies at the United Nations, and the other America-haters. Fine by me! I got a vote here that does just as much good as yours, and mine’s marked “No Limpos!”

Or say you wanna take away the money we need for our Army tanks and rifles and fightin’ planes what let us keep our eternal vigilance of freedom by invadin’ other countries. And say you want to give it to the damn schoolteachers, which let me tell you never done old Duane any damn good, and still, they most times drive a newer car than I do. I learned all I got from my daddy—another guy without any fancy book smarts, by the way. If he didn’t need them books, then why do anybody else? Well, hey, I might not be educated, but I do got me a big ol’ flag, $300 from the government, and a president that, like I told you before, kicked him some ass. It’s things like that what make me happy my vote gonna meet y’all’s toe-to-toe and take it down!

Plus, what’s more, I got to see Saddam get his ass throwed in jail. That’s a big ol’ switch-a-dilly from a few years ago, when Saddam was runnin’ around free while Duane was in the tank, let me tell you.

So maybe you think what we got here is one a them Mexican pissin’ matches, what with my vote and your vote both bein’ worth the exact same. But I tell you what! There’s all the guys workin’ down here at the budget-transmission shop with me, and the guys at the body shop across the way, and the car-battery dismantlin’ yard. Plus, there’s all our pals at the Dew Drop off 78, and all our other pals at the County Dragaway, and our big ol’ families, and our wives, for those what have ‘em. Read me? In this next election, whenever they set it to come around, we gonna go up agin’ all you guys at the coffee shop and the library. Now, if you ain’t noticed, we got a lot more parkin’ lot space down at the racetrack and the Farm & Fleet store than y’all do out in front of your bookstores and muffin shops. All of us add up real quick, and our votes do a damn bunch more than just cancel out all y’all’s!

Shit, somehow we do it ever’ time we need to keep the damn school board from gettin’ uppity on us.

So hey, man, have fun readin’ up and debatin’ and thinkin’ on what you gonna mark down on your votin’ papers this year. Duane ain’t thought too much yet about which way his vote’s gonna go. But somethin’ tells me, friend, it ain’t gonna be the same as y’alls!

Presidential Candidates: Take Note

This is what a true patriot and hero has to say about war. There is but one candidate today that embodies this man’s ideology more closely than anyone else’s.

Help me make America what it once was… honorable and known for peace and integrity. We can be strong and peaceful. Somehow America has been duped into believing that strength is obtained and recognized ONLY through aggression and war.

Our past 40 years history disproves such an idiotic notion.

Vote Dennis Kucinich for President of these United States of America!

Strength Through Peace!

(And a little healthcare to boot)

1st Dennis… Now Ron

How obvious can they get? I rant and rave about the MSM, especially TV, and its influence on America’s psyche. Somehow they have been able to infiltrate deep enough that most Americans are obliviously ignorant that the Big Money owners of those companies are forming your opinion for you (at least trying).

The Des Moines Register first found that Dennis didn’t have a storefront campaign office and said that this is reason enough to exclude Dennis from the debate… except they then asked that maniac Alan Keyes to join then, altho he has no storefront office in Iowa, but even more atrocious to their reasoning, his NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS address is a PO Box.

We MUST stand up, people. If we want to save our wonderful country from the influences of Big Money (who could care less about you and I), we MUST do something.

I will not likely vote for Ron because he truly is a conservative. So much so that his ideas will take away as many social programs as possible, which we cannot allow at this point in time. He doesn’t believe in evolution and has had a racist background. Even though much better than any other Republican candidate, Ron is NOT what is best for this country right now. 

From boston.com

Paul: Fox News is ’scared of me’

By James Pindell December 29, 2007 01:40 PM

PLAISTOW, N.H. — Ron Paul said the decision to exclude him from a debate on Fox News Sunday the weekend before the New Hampshire Primary is proof that the network “is scared” of him.

“They are scared of me and don’t want my message to get out, but it will,” Paul said in an interview at a diner here. “They are propagandists for this war and I challenge them on the notion that they are conservative.”

Paul’s staff said they are beginning to plan a rally that will take place at the same time the 90-minute debate will air on television. It will be taped at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown.

“They will not win this skirmish,” he promised.

The Fox debate occurs less than 24 hours after two back to back Republican and Democratic debates on the same campus sponsored by ABC News, WMUR-TV and the social networking website Facebook.

Paul, the Republican Texas Congressman, was wrapping up his final day of campaigning in New Hampshire until the Iowa Caucuses on Thursday.

He spent much of the day campaigning at diners in Manchester and Plaistow and downtown walks in Derry and Exeter.

BuelahMan Endorses Dennis Kucinich

BuelahMan endorses the only REAL candidate looking after the working man’s best interests… Dennis Kucinich. 

Are You An Independent Voter?

Being from a small town in Tennessee, I meet a lot of good ole “country folk”. Most of these people are hard working, family loving, and as nationalistic/patriotic as can come. They mainly seem to be members of the Republican Party, as well.

Lately, tho, I have found that this stronghold of Republican followers are dwindling. It is like a massive cut on the head… bleeds like hell and can be scary. I over heard a finely dressed lady speak to a man in the grocery store on Christmas Eve and she said something to the effect that she didn’t understand why people were so upset with the government (that it was a ”democrat party” conspiracy, etc). That when she was young, they had nothing and the government didn’t help (hello TVA, Medicare, etc). The man saw me as I walked by (I had my Kucinich cap on), nodded, then turned back to her with a very odd look in his eye.

I didn’t want to eavesdrop (but I just had to know how he would respond) so I hesitated at the fruit rollup section (as if I would actually eat some of that crap) and he said, “well, I’m an Independent”.

He looked up at me and I smiled, looked them both over and said, “Did you know that Dennis Kucinich won an Independent Primary online poll by vast margins? He actually wins virtually all the online polls.”

“But he’s a Democrat”, she said.

I said, “So? I prefer the right man for the job and not another lying , law-breaking Money Man like Bush. We can’t afford any more corrupt Republican leaders, after what the past 7 years have given us.”

The guy smiled so big I thought his mouth would break. The woman, not so much. Maybe it was her gaudy diamond necklace or the overbearing weight of her health insurance costs that disables this facial phenomena in Republican women.

From The Kucinich Campaign:

Keep the Truth Rolling

It’s the final stretch in New Hampshire and thanks to your continued support Dennis is now able to kick off a state tour in his new campaign bus to bring his message of truth to the American people.
 
Having just come in first by a wide margin in an independent voter’s poll (www.independentprimary.com) the momentum for Dennis is building. Your support has been amazing. Between the matching funds drive and the Dec. 15th initiative we have raised over a million dollars.There are two weeks left until the primary. We need your help to raise an additional $500,000 by December 31st. This will help our campaign reach $2 million for the quarter. It will enable us to get the message out in critical areas of New Hampshire as well as buy TV, radio and newspaper ads and keep our green tour bus going.Click here to keep the bus rolling and defending our freedom.

People know the Kucinich difference.

While other candidates put forth their vague plans and continue their double-speak on the issues, Dennis is a straight talker. He has clearly defined solutions that will:

• Bring healthcare to all Americans with NO premiums, NO deductible or co-pays while letting us see any doctor we want - without the mandatory insurance that the other candidates try to trick the American people into buying under the guise of health insurance for all.
• Create more jobs by ending NAFTA.
• Putting an end to the War in Iraq and reinvesting those valuable resources into our infrastructure and education for all.

The tide is turning in our favor and now the bus is rolling.

Click here to help us win New Hampshire.
 
Every dollar you contribute brings us all closer to a healthier and more secure future.
 
America has a brand new day ahead of her and it is because of you. Dennis will bring back peace and honor to our country.
 
Thanks for all your support of this important campaign! Together we will win this race. Together we will get our country back!
 
In Peace,
The Kucinich Campaign