I recently saw a lecture on local cable by Professor Richard Wolfe at Smith College.  Professor Wolfe is an economist and he outlined the very clearly the mess we are in and how we got into it, not in revelatory news items of the the financial scandal but in sequentially explained economic forces dating back to 1820. 
One interestin item was that from 1820 to 1970, the average income of US workers grew each decade.  Then in 1970 it stopped growing and has never returned to growth.
With the current health insurance fiasco coupled with Medicare Part D, which disallows bargaining with the drug companies for better prices, together with the Wall Street Grand Larceny of last Fall, will mark the end of the United States as we knew it.
This country will be brought down by a small group of sociopathic, manipulative greedheads and a passel of shitheads.

Kath Cantrella—Thats about right…can I come live there?

Not insane so much as brain washed to believe in the boogie man of their fears. Even thought the “death panels” are right their in the hospitals or board rooms making those decisions right now for them. Mind-fucked to the point of self destructive idiocy.

You know, I got off, went to brush my teeth, and was thinking—Nader is right, so why cant he win? Kucinich is right, so why isnt he in the WH? Well, everyone knows why, even though they are both right on the ‘wars”, military spending, health care, education, etc, they cant win because most of you were blinded by Obama’s athleticism, good looks and preacher cadence that made you believe, like you did as a child, that you were “goin’ to heaven’”!!

Arent you glad we have someone now who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you’ll look forward to the trip?

“What has stopped us is the failure of our leadership, the smallness of our politics, the ease with which we’re distracted by the petty and trivial, our avoidance of tough decisions, our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of rolling up our sleeves and building a working consensus to tackling big problems.”

Barack Obama from his “Why I’m Running” speech 2/10/07

Nader is good on this and always has been

Please, peeps, explain to me how you can have a “public option” snd single payer?? Single payer   means ONE payer—usually the govt!!! The drs still perform the work, the govt taxes us and the govt pays the drs…very egalitarian, and, apparently un-Merkin.

Most EU countries allow people to buy private plans on the side—only about 6% do..In the Netherland, their is private insurance , but it is very heavily regulated.

We are offered none of this

“public option” could be any mish mash of bullshit that the Blue Dogs drag the gutless Dems into. Why not just throw everyone who cant afford it in to Medicaid (thats what it will become anyway)and FUND IT! for a change.

The GOP already resisted a clause that Senators could even JOIN the public plan if they wanted to!

Senators who will not participate in their own insurance , until every Merkin is covered should be supported: Sanders and Brown (anyone else anyone know of?) Also, Rep Kucinich. The rest are jut blowing it out their ass.

From Socialist Worker:

“..Already the voices of “realism” and “moderation,” starting with former President Bill Clinton’s address to the liberal Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh last week, are urging liberals to accept a much less ambitious bill than they had hoped for. But people who want genuine health care reform should ask themselves if a bill written to placate the health insurers, the pharmaceutical manufacturers and hospitals deserves any support at all…”

Its alot like 16th Century England, it seems to me, where you pay the executioner extra to cut off your head quickly rather than slowly…I DO NOT WANT TO PAY THEM TO KILL MORE PEOPLE!!

http://socialistworker.org/2009/08/18/how-the-democrats-sold-out-health-care

As Lance Selfa says, IT IS BI-Partisan (or tri-partisan) Dems, Gop vs the Merkin people! (or tri—partisan—INsurance industry , GOP and Dems vs USANs.

The entire civilized world watches the Merkin idiots in amazement…

Thank you, T.L. Caswell for the list of the usual suspects and the amounts they received from the health insurance conglomerate.  It is an eye opener.  With the amounts listed of any of the criminals (accepting a bribe), I think I could retire.
But, alas, I think that this is just another manipulation.  Frank Luntz appeared on Fox News and he is constantly doing quasi-studies on American focus group reactions. That along with the Business Week report that the insurance companies have won already, it seems clear to me that the US voters have been steered and corraled into a position where they will gladly accept anything that the government, business, and media have decided.

Single-payer was not even allowed into the health care legislation discussions because it was too ‘radical’. It would actually have moved health care out of the hands of the ‘for-profit’ to the ‘non-profit’ where it belongs.

Now the public plan option (the only hope of keeping insurance companies competitive) is dropped because “...there is not enough votes in the senate, there never was”.

What happened to the Barrack Obama who changed the world with ‘Yes we can!’?

A clear message of hope from the white house would have rallied the proponents (70% at the beginning of this mess) for insurance reform.

Instead of letting the minor details of as yet unfinished legislation dominate the media (death-clause comes to mind) demanding a public option as non-negotiable would have steamrolled the fruitcakes disrupting town hall meetings that give greedy fence-sitting senators an excuse to vote no to the only ‘reform’ in this whole debate.

I feel an overwhelming sense of betrayal.

I have been reading about the “healthcare INSURANCE REFORM” that is before the Congress. I talk with people and even those supposedly “in the know” can’t tell the difference between the “public option” and “single payer” systems. There are NO definitions upon which people rely in order to “discuss” this issue. Without a clear understanding of the “terms” being used to “describe” each part of “healthcare INSURANCE REFORM,” there can be absolutely NO communication, no agreement, - nothing!

While some of you feel that the “public” and “single-payer” options are “minimal” at best, these are actually the BEST that can be done to take the whole idea of “profit” derived from the illness of others out of healthcare and healthcare insurance altogether. How barbaric is that? There would be no CAPS! There would be no money exchanged in the “temples” of health in this country ever again! We would have “healthcare INSURANCE REFORM” such that we could become the envy of the very nations we now envy for having such a system for decades!

Yes, write and call your Senators, Congresspersons, the President—everyone that you can—and DEMAND three things so that “healthcare INSURANCE REFORM” will be successful in this country:

1. Public option, AND
2. Single payer option, AND
3. The mandate to be able to negotiate prescrition drug prices the same way as current for-profit insurance companies/groups and the Medicare system do now.

Spread the word. Learn the terms. Know what you are talking about - don’t just rely on the words of “someone else.” Take any and all action to this end for “healthcare INSURANCE REFORM.”

Dropping the public option is bad for patients but good for health providers and insurance companies because the government can contract for lower fees than the other insurers.
As an American living in Norway I have had some experience with both insurance and socialized systems. The American system is much faster, and for me, cheaper. In Norway I pay a yearly fee of about $1200 and a co-payment of about $20 for every primary care visit and about $40 for specialists. The treatments seem to be quite thorough, but there are usually months between appointments for extra tests and specialist exams. In the U.S. Medicare A fees were paid while I worked. Medicare B is about $1200 a year. Then my previous employer pays for an additional Blue Shield plan that pays a little, when it pays.
Yesterday I checked on what my insurances have paid. I find that my combined insurances pay about 12 to 40% of what the doctors and hospitals billed—but I owe nothing more. Medicare and the insurance companies have contracted for lesser fees than the doctors bill. Then I found that the doctors and hospitals pad their bills so that they end up with a fair return. But people without insurance are stuck with the whole amount. This isn’t fair.
My doctor in the U.S. has stopped taking new Medicare patients. We need to arrive at fair rates for all. When my doctor has spent 8 to 10 years of training it seems that he or she is entitled to a minimum of $200,000 a year of net profit. It seems that our top students, after ten years of education and training, should be able to earn in a lifetime what a professional athlete or film star earns in a year. But then being entertained is much more important than our health. Free enterprise is fine for entertainers, but is seemingly limited for health professionals. (Let’s not even think about the worth of top notch teachers and professors—they don’t entertain enough! But that’s another letter!!)
I found some interesting observations on the problem in Book 4 of the free ebook series”And Gulliver Returns” –In Search of Utopia—at http://andgulliverreturns.info

re: Night-Gaunt

Thank you for the Nader.org link. I too have always thought that if President Obama was actually serious about health care, one of the first people he should have met with was Dr. Sydney Wolfe, who is quite familiar with corporate fraud and abuse, especially from the pharmaceutical industry, as revealed in his outstanding work with associates from Public Citizen Health Group and their important periodical WORST PILLS, BEST PILLS. The fact that President Obama never mentions their work on behalf of everyone reveals what a corporate mind set has been embedded in his presidency.

The scariest thing about this whole charade: the initial package of ‘reforms’, which in any negotiations are supposed to be way beyond what you are willing to ultimately settle for, were so meager and corporate-friendly to begin with. The scary part: the health insurance industry flexed its muscle despite the modest effect the ‘reforms’ would have had on their bottom line. The blue dogs and the repubs will no doubt compromise away the $10K annual out-of-pocket cap. What a farce!

You can try RobertinWestbury but remember how the previous administration laughed at the idea of being popular or that some of them was pissed off? Go ahead but understand just how insulated the Ultimate Executive Office (UEO) is these days from popular sentiments. I would like to see him change his course, one he knew he would be going on from the beginning.

Once you start looking at the gov’t as a continuity of a single theocratic corporate regime then the pieces will make sense. We are still a republic nominally, but are in transition to another form of gov’t and it is cruel and powerful and regimented and pitiless. We may not even get a flag change out of it. It may just look too much like what we have now only without being able to openly disagree as we still can for the moment.

“nothing but a bunch of hacks… ALL of them…”—Keepyourheadown

There you go blaming all of them when the few who are still in gov’t fight a losing battle out numbered. Like Kucinich, Feingold & Conyors or do they count in your all or nothing mentality?

http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/2134-Now-Make-Me-Do-It.html

Next time don’t put it in brackets and quotes and it will automatically come up as a url that is active.

“Do Obama’s detractors HONESTLY believe that McCain would be “better” ??  Get a life - ask for a REAL one this time.”—Hulk2008

Talking about a leading question! No one has that I know of other than Repubs. The problem is that Obama is still giving it to us only with lubricant instead of dry with McCain. So it doesn’t hurt quite as much. Also the ultra-right never left the building, just changed clothes, signs and some faces but the loan sharks still cruise the bloody water.

We won’t have a chance with Nader or McKinney or anyone else until the whole system is changed and until then we are prisoners to the two-headed party system as written by them.

This the the “freedom” that passes for freedom in our country.

The Obama Administration is the only one that has a chance of getting this through now. I am disheartened by this article as I had a higher opinion of President Obama. However, he is a politician. With that said, he does seem to understand the plight of the people—-he actually has to given his background. I have not lost hope, however, that he will come through and we will get at least some reform. Will it be perfect? No. But basically anything is better than what we have now, and we can continue to push in the future. Insurance for everyone! Good medical care for everyone! This is a necessity, not some looney request. http://www.dimequecrees.com

Do Obama’s detractors HONESTLY believe that McCain would be “better” ??  Get a life - ask for a REAL one this time. 
    The righties will continue to call all the shots ..... after all, they have the most money.  2010 will be a quick pendulum swing back to the ultra-right.  The only way the Dems gained seats was to get very-conservative “Dem” candidates. 
    Hillary would have fared no better .... at least now we get to listen to some left-wing rhetoric once in a while ..... until 2010, that is.

NYCartist, thank you for the link to the site. The specific link to the article is

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22319

By the way, I admired your posts on Common Dreams which I saw from the archives when I was introduced to that site by my remote friend, JWVerez of CD. He told me a lot about you. I wish you lots of luck out there despite our country sinking into more health care hell.

As ardee pointed out, the 70% who want Single Payer, i.e., a national health service, were completely ignored. It is like the scene in Sicko where a man needs to have all his fingers reattached after a horrible accident. An operation of twenty four hours was required to save his hand, which was successfully performed. Can you imagine if they needed insurance company approval for each one of those fingers?
The brutality of the American-for-profit system reveals that humane is just a savage euphemism for those with the money.
President Obama reveals who really runs this country. His impotent call for bipartisanship is so sad and lame. Perhaps he should research President Johnson, who was able to get Medicare put through in the first place. Instead of trying to emulate JFK, he should start thinking about LBJ, and ask: What would Lyndon do?
Johnson despite being reviled by the left for Vietnam, which he inherited and escalated (why does that sound familiar?) was also known as a master of the Senate. If there was a particular piece of legislation he wanted passed, Johnson started getting his way, by having the lawmakers “peckers in his back pocket”.
Forget all that JFK Oliver Stone idolatry. If you want something done in the political arena, that last thing you want is “a nice guy”. A tough bastard is what is required for the job.

Excellent article on Obama by Paul Street on Znet:
“Frank Rich, Obama and the Corporate ‘punking’ of America”, Aug. 15, 2009 http://www.zcommunications.org/znet

Covers all aspects, beautifully written, easy read.

Obama isn’t caving, he is using special smart strategy to outwit the Republicans! Don’t you know Obama has a secret plan, he has the Republicans right where he wants them! You just wait and see—it has only been 6, er, 8, ah 2 years, you have to give him a chance! You angry Leftists don’t understand that this is a right-wing country and Obama is president of all the people. What’s that you say, Obama won the election and the Democrats have majorities in the House and Senate, and when polled on the issues, the majority of Americans are aligned with progressive views? You can’t expect change overnight, change must be incremental. We must support our president by not being critical. We must stand behind him and not hold him to account otherwise you are a Republican.

I would like to remind everyone that there will be an upcoming vote for single payer. Ralph Nader wrote an article on Saturday reminding us and giving us directions to bug our Congress critter:

http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/2134-Now-Make-Me-Do-It.html

I would like to remind everyone that a vote for HR 676 is coming up soon. Ralph Nader had this to say:

[url=“http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/2134-Now-Make-Me-Do-It.html”]
“It is up to the people of our country to “make him do it” whether this year or next. A mere one million immediate calls to members of Congress by one million assertive citizens will start sobering up these legislators who think they can get away with another sale of our public trust.

The Congressional switchboard is 202-224-3121. The full Medicare, single payer bill (backed by nearly ninety legislators) is H.R. 676. The go-to citizen group for your sustained engagement is singlepayeraction.org. The rest is up to you, the majority, who want to put the people first.”[/url]

This has to be a record.
No other POTUS with so much momentum, mandate and majority has slid this far, this fast.
  He done lost the farm with nothing left to squander.

So they keep crossing off the benefits of the bill:  assistance for low-income workers, a public option, universal coverage.  What exactly is left?  Mandates backed by a regressive payroll tax and subsidies for the insurers and pharma!  HR 3200 wasn’t great to begin with, but now its just a nightmare that needs to be stopped.

From the beginning ‘single payer’ has been off the table, in an early agreement with insurance and pharma. Despite the fact that national polls show 70% of Americans believe single payer to be the way to go our govt never considered it at all.

I urge those who have not watched the current incarnation of the “Rachel Maddow Show” to do so. She absolutely blasts Obama and the Democrats, and deservedly so!

A sixty seat majority in the House and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, yet eh GOP is leading the debate and the contents of the bill…..nice job Democrats.

Comment quotes:
“Obama with his almost 1.5 million take, is no exception, but instead, is a prime example of the pay for influence system that is alive and well in Washington.

That is negotiations 101”

In an attempt to seriously engage the premise, the reality… as it stands.  Think.

There was this story, NYT:
“The White House agreed to limit the drug makers’ contribution to the cost of the overhaul to $80 billion over 10 years in exchange for the industry’s political support. The industry eventually committed to spend as much as $150 million on advertising in support of the proposals— a major salvo in the political battle heating up this fall.”

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: (A contemplating Pres. Obama)......Well….. anyway, in regards to that… well…. well… I was thinking about Caldwell’s assertion, “The champ of the list, by far, is from neither the Senate nor the House, but rather the executive branch—one Barack Obama, at $1,427,180.”  Hmmmm,,,,,

Sure… I can entertain that…but..but…. they agreed to an $80 BILLION “CONTRIBUTION”—well that’s only big pharma (but, like I said, I could get more) and all “I” got was a measley 1.5 million…. hmmmm…. mmmmm…..

Is this a “make or break me moment”?

Hmmmm…....mmmm….. they’re spinnin’ all that rotten shit….. propaganda, really.

I am The Pres. of the United States of America.....

How much of that 80 Billion will “I” get….. zero….  certainly, they did give me that 1.5 Mil., they did…...... ........ 

So…. here I sit.

I was thinking about that thing Caldwell wrote, “But what flesh-and-bone human being would not at least be influenced by such largesse?”

Funny….. there’s largesse… and then there’s $$$LARGESSE$$$.  Is this “largess”....?

I am, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA….. so certainly I have to constrain myself, allow many things to “roll off me” so to speak,..... and I do, I take that very seriously, very seriously….

However, I am President of the United States of America, Commander in Chief…. and no one else is….I am.  So, NOW how much is $1.5 million?..... (end of experiment)

ERGO, I say we thank our lucky fuckin’ stars.

By KDelphi, August 18 at 2:12 am
““bullshit you fuckin bastard samosamo.
**************************************

you crap fucking son of a bitch, I VOTED NADER!!! YOU BASTARD!!!! My reps voted your shit fuck way of NO PUBLIC HEALTHCARE!  And there is on one voting or pursing my way on healthcare because it is all based on corporate shit which you assume I represent.

So, have it your way but my senators and reprepesentative are no friends of mine. I WANT SINGLE PAYER HEALTHE CARE, I NEED IT and I damn sure don’t need your fucked up opinions about my needs and wants.

Just another way of the common way of being jumped around to BS way of thinking.

peterjkraus—Y’know, I have been doing this for decades, long before I knew it would affect me so personally…I have lost clients, family members and , possibly, self to this greedy, uncivilized “heatlh care ’ insdustry. There is not a Senator or Rep, who will take my calls, that does not know how I feel. There is not a newspaper that is within my state that doesnt know.

Progressives has made it perfeclty clear—the public option was suppsed to be the ‘compromise”—it just keep getting harder and harder to defend. Now, it is , quite literally, nothing.
How about the Democrats just do the right thing for a fricking change??

Oh, I know why—-never mind.

I applaud everyone who voted for Obama—-except that you just encourazge Dems to be samosamo..thanks. Feelin good about it these days?

Don’t do your venting here…. vent at your Senator’s or Congressperson’s office. Write the White House, write your local paper, write your Mom, for chrissake. Get the word out that we need a Public Option, that without one, there’s no reform taking place.

And ..... I applaud everyone who voted for Nader or the Greens or did not vote, but your wasted vote just encouraged the Blue Dogs and the Republicans.

“This partial list of those who received industry contributions is not presented to suggest that any of the congressional members have been “bought” by the health insurance industry.”

Why not? If the shoe fits…?

“But what flesh-and-bone human being would not at least be influenced by such largesse?”

Ralph Nader
Dennis Kucinich
John Conyers

What a HUGE surprise out of Corporate Obama!! (not)

“This partial list of those who received industry contributions is not presented to suggest that any of the congressional members have been “bought” by the health insurance industry…”“

Even this plan with a so-called “public option” was reform for suckers only—-every civilized country in the world does it. If we dont its only because of one thing—corporate, bought and paid for, Democrats.

WTF not??!! They ARE!!
Cowards all.

The minute I heard that HR 676 was not even on the table, and, that Rep Conyers had to plead with Obama to even be in on the hearing, I knew we wouldnt get reform

Hell, I knew it during the campaign. Obama is full of it, as are all the Dems—historic opportunity lost.

If they wanted it, they would vote it int. Its very simple.

At least, PLEASE—stop making excuses for them!! Just admit that you are covered with private insurance or Medicare and that you dont give a rat’s ass.

BEEEEEP! Why bother with beeping, since what’s new? One could beep 24/7/365/decade/century.

The President—pictured here staged like one of Liebowitz’s store-dummy clients just beyond what appears ole secret, oval-off! door—evidently has a secret of his own. Like he has concerning Afghanistan, where no set of neophytes ever gained so much as a foothold before people who for centuries have endured not simply poverty, but poverty under geographical and weather conditions not even Russian Bear could endure, let alone Brits who set forth from merely drizzly/foggy, largely flat isles. “Enemy” even better-armed by us.

The President is portrayed looking just swell, or just swelling, with arms folded across his chest in standard authoritarian pose. That kid who made that poster of Obama’s mug for Obama’s campaign had nothing on this here pic showing off the CIC now in possession of only power that matters. Not that he has much idea what to do with it. (Which is both good thing and bad thing, either way mostly another topic.)

The President has offered up a plan for healthcare “reform” that was all along no more than “cosmetic,” fairly ironically in light of the issue. But of course it’s not about healthcare delivery as it’s about the APPEARANCE of reform. Whether Obama or, say, Grassley. Both intent on power unto perpetuity—in or outta official office.

I can’t recall when government acted on behalf of other than investor class since at least 45 years back. There’s been effort to dismantle government, by both liars party (overt) and by cowards party (covert/DLC). Both parties aided and abetted in crime by mega-media, regardless of to which party any particular one in media is belonging/beholden. Media’s real business is infantilization (“news,” Dancing With Stars, Idol, breast worship, drug-pushing, whatnot, religious TV too pushing a very special high). It then follows not surprisingly that infantilized folk vote the mercilessly infantile into public office. Infants once in office then easily pacified by sponsors of infantile by means of insertion of lollipops and bundling up in blankeys.

Which is not to say elected infants aren’t bad seeds. They are an intensely murderous lot of manipulative bad seeds, most particularly when privileges gained upon selection might be taken away from co-dependent-on big dough-infants officials. Big dough back at ‘em, as even more infantile what with never having had to lift proverbial finger except for middle one in saluting remainder of humanity. Both sets of spoiled infants reliant on infantilized consumers/voters. Who, were they more adult, might otherwise general strike for higher wages and salaries. Like adult labor used to do, albeit at some risk to their bodily persons.

As in the case of racism, classicism too has been papered over, driven underground.

Now, we infants are forever being instructed as to how we should write to infantile reps concerning any concerns. Whereupon we might receive in return infantile excuses for doing just about nothing except for revered banking and insurance scammers along with defense-contractors. The latter being yet more murderously infantile, though even so well-known to selected infants to be manufactures of lollipops and blankeys necessary to infants in order to feel (national security-wise) snug as blood-sucker bedbug. 

As for any potential outlay for any collective ant-hill purposes, future larva are—“’Scuse me!”—invariably referenced insofar as they might be “burdened unfairly” with taking up slack in their turn. Never before has humanity witnessed such loving concern for posterity.

Never were so many unborn shown so much self-sacrificing deference by so few extent infants in American power, everyone of them a blowhard con-artist kid more trapped in murderously infantile free-market ideology than ever was hapless Monica Lewinsky in a blue dress.

“It is possible that the public option will arise, Lazarus-like, but the United States of 2009 is likely to turn out to be a land of Mammon, not miracles.”

I believe this is possible too.  Today I sent a very strongly worded email to the White House…  not that I harbor any fantasies that Obama will see it, but they do tally for him the number of emails for or against something.  If enough people send hotly worded emails to the White House, that could have an affect. The web address is: 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

if anyone else wants to.

Far more important is the letter Rep., Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y sent Obama telling him if the public option is dropped, he and 100 others in the House would not vote for whatever bill eventually emerges.  And of the 100, 57 signed the letter with him. 

In the last 24 hours, Pelosi and Howard Dean have both stated without the public option there is no real reform, and no need to proceed. 

And Rachel Maddow has really provided good coverage on this and exposed the lobbyist groups that are organizing and funding the deathers who scream at town hall meetings. She has also pushed the idea that conceding the main parts of healtcare reform to only get 2 or 3 Republican votes is not ‘bipartisan’ and the president and Democrats need to push a bill through without them. 

Tonight she revealed that Max Baucus in November said the public option was indispensible to health care reform and had to be a part of the effort.  She asked ‘what changed’ between November and now?  And it seems to be the blue dogs are obsessed with this being bipartisan so that in the next election they can say both parties voted for this if there is a political backlash to it. 

In my email I told them Obama needed to grow a pair and do some Lyndon Johnson like arm twisting.. 

I believe that in September, when it is apparent that no Republicans will vote for any bill with any concessions, they will resurrect the public option and attempt to force it through. 

Remember, all 3 bills in the House contain the public option.  Whatever bill they eventually pass there will have it.  It is in the Senate where they are leaning at leaving it out.  Whatever bill they pass there will not have it.  Then they have to negotiate a final bill from those two and both sides then vote again on it.  The House negotiators will hopefully stand their ground, and it will be kept in. 

We’ll see.

Maybe as you say they haven’t been bought. Rented by the hour does come to mind. Wish they has published phone numbers on the list.
Write you congressman and your senator and demand a public option.

I knew that Obama was tepid, at best, on including a public option with health care reform—or, I should say, “health insurance reform.” I hope people wake up now—I took note when Obama voted to give the telecom companies immunity with his vote on the FISA bill. In addition, I didn’t support escalating the war in Afghanistan. Therefore, I voted for Ralph Nader.

I agree with the following:

“I have always felt that the public option was a ruse by the Obama campaign and now administration, why else would you enter a bargaining position with the least you can do. Any experienced organizer, union representative, business negotiator knows you put the ideal on the table and in this case it would have been Single Payer and then you fight for it. That is negotiations 101.”—GI Resister

Did you notice that although the stock market tumbled today, health care stocks were up? I wonder why?!? The industry CEOs and other executives are salivating!

Just that partial list of the bribe money given to those congressionals WE elected is more than enough to see how broken our government is with what is an actual demize of the democracy when lobbyists can bribe the people WE elect to drop what would benefit the people the most to ensure that the evil corporate america gets more of the pie.

Until the pipeline of corporations to lobbyists to OUR elected congressionals is broken and stopped, you can bet there is nothing left for the people to look for from our government except more traitorous dealings with corporate america.

I would say a total stop payment of taxes would be something to consider, it’s our money and if we don’t like what criminals the lobbyists and the people we elect to collude to misuse that money, just stop giving it to them.

I voted for Obama because he offered hope that we could end the long Republican nightmare.  So far, that nightmare has continued unabated.  I am very frustrated that when the Democrats are given power over the Senate and the House and the Presidency, they still cannot do anything to end the nightmare.

I did not vote for Obama so that he could give me a tax cut.  I voted for him because I thought he could end the pointless wars, close our gulags, and make healthcare a right for all.

So far, he has done none of these things because he has mistaken the Republicans as Americans.  They are not Americans, they are Capitalists who spout Patriotism and Religiousity as a diversion to mask their greed and hatred.

The Democrats are playing a dangerous game. I will give them some more time to “come around” to their senses, but if they don’t, the Green Party is looking better all the time.

I have always felt that the public option was a ruse by the Obama campaign and now administration, why else would you enter a bargaining position with the least you can do. Any experienced organizer, union representative, business negotiator knows you put the ideal on the table and in this case it would have been Single Payer and then you fight for it. That is negotiations 101. With the mandate Obama had in his campaign this would have been a winner out of the box. If Senate and House of Representatives put up opposition to Single Payer, they would have negotiated to a Medicare for All or Public Option.

Funny I was just reading a book by Gerald Rosen “Cold Eye, Warm Heart” a memoir where he noticed that the handle on his toilet was the same shape as the handle in his voting machine. I get this image that the whole electoral process is nothing but an ass wiping process and the ballots nothing but toilet paper.

We have to stop wasting time with these clowns and draw up our own ballot and run a national initiative to amend the constitution that healthcare is a right of all our citizens, and must be nationalized.

We need to begin to impeach all the opposition legislators to Single Payer, these are all the same weasles that continue to send our men and women to war, and then turn their back on them when they return.

These are not patriots but traitors, who have sold out to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Stop wiping your asses and start kicking some.

Obama’s promises for change were total bull. He’s a hack, just like the rest of them. He’s so republican I’m just gonna start calling him George Bush III. I now believe that he never had any intention of fighting for the Public. He’s simply lining his pockets like the rest of them. Why don’t we voters start our own lobby group? If enough of us chipped in, we may be able to afford our own politicians.

Well even those doe eyed Obama Fans amongst us should realize by now that we have been sold out.  The truck loads of cash that the politicians get from the Insurance and Pharmaceutical Corporate interests, assures that their interests and profits will prevail over ours.  Obama with his almost 1.5 million take, is no exception, but instead, is a prime example of the pay for influence system that is alive and well in Washington.  Until we sever the money conduit from Corporations to Politicians we stand no chance of having a government that is concerned about “We The People”
  They only need us the day we vote and they need the money from the Corporate Vampires that prey on us, every day.  They have become addicted to the money like an opiate drug. 
    At the last election I proudly voted for Ralph Nader and was chastise soundly by Obama voters for “throwing away my vote”.  I say to you now that you were the one who gave your vote away,... to the Corporate owned slime that now runs the country.

This just highlights the real nature of the Democratic party.  They are not a real alternative party; they are the left wing of the capitalist party.  Their job is to hold down what passes for the left in the US against more radical ideas, siphon votes from the left, and maintain the system until the Republicans can come back in power.  The Democrats are a fake opposition, never actually intending to represent working people but only using the rhetoric to get elected, only to jettison the left when they’re in power.  We need a real working class political party with principles.

I’ve got a couple thoth in the safe, you know - in case a buss hits me, do you think that would by me a couple seconds of my congressman’s time? Long enough for him to tell me the system can’t be changed? Would that be money well spent?

Why is the Obama administration getting so panicky over the “public option”? It is the key to true health care reform in this country. They are letting a small minority of protestors 99% of whom did not even vote for Obama drive the discussion based on emotion rather than facts. Many town halls have been very well run with little to no conflict yet the media has not even bothered to comment on them. The media is causing a lot of damage here by ramping up the rhetoric and making it look worse than it is. By and large the people at these protests are the same ones who were so worked up at the McCain/Palin rallies. If I were Obama I would totally ignore them and just work closely with Pelosi and Reid to make health care happen when Congress convenes next month. These town halls were really a massive waste of time and just gave the minority party regulars a chance to vent and display their massive ignorance. But Democrats should have forseen this since the Republican pulled this same trick back in 1993. To let a bunch of “Blue Dog” Democrats convene town halls without a good game plan was asinine. Interesting to note how Republican’s decry “populism” when it impacts them on Wall Street but love it when “populism” is used against Democrats. Obama should stay the course and get his Democratic house in order next month. He has shown that when he uses his bully pulpit he is very effective and can turn puplic opinion around.  He needs to keep it up and get the Republican’s back on the defensive.