The REAL Death Machine: Republican "Health Care" Policies for the Elderly

Jacob Weisberg tells the truth here and has the hard numbers to back it up. I found these arguments devastating:

...GOP policies promote death for senior citizens with more modest incomes. Take the conservative push to privatize Social Security, which George W. Bush proposed and failed to get Congress to pass in 2005. Social Security has driven life expectancy up and death rates down since it was instituted. It has an especially pronounced impact on suicide rates for the elderly, which have declined 56 percent since 1930. Had Bush prevailed, we would now be undoing income security for the elderly. Those who gambled on the stock market and lost would be less able to afford medicine, food, and heating for their homes. In aggregate, they'd presumably die younger and commit suicide more often.

Republicans continue working to shorten and sadden the lives of the elderly in more oblique ways, too. One of President Obama's first official acts was to reverse Bush's executive order limiting government funding for stem-cell research, which remains the most promising avenue for new treatments of diseases that afflict the aged, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Clean-air legislation, which the Republicans defeated in 2002, has the potential to save 23,000 lives per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Many of those victims are elderly people, who suffer disproportionately from cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses exacerbated by air pollution. Because emissions of carbon monoxide and such are merely a contributing factor, you can't name the individuals who have died because of this policy choice. But there are tens of thousands of people who would still be elderly today if Republicans didn't value the rights and campaign contributions of polluters more highly than their lives.

So why are the Republicans helping to kill off their most reliable voters? Because there's more money and power to be gained in doing so than in adopting policies that help extend life spans. In a way, it makes a sort of grim sense.

Of course, the Mafia uses the same kind of reasoning, too.

Dick Morris, Buffoon Extraordinaire

If there is a person who combines lying and imbecility better than noted sucker of prostitute toes Dick Morris, I don't of know of him. Morris's political analyses are so laughably bad that it amazes me that anyone pays attention to him (so of course he's on Fox "News" all the time). Now he's giving investment advice based on blatant falsehoods. My only hope is that large numbers of right-wing idiots lose a lot of money on Morris's advice, thus inflicting a blow on right wing fund raising from which it may never recover.

Right Wing Fanatic Says Obama is HOPING FOR a Terrorist Attack on the U.S.

This particular piece of slime is named Michael Scheuer.

He's also calling the President a traitor.

Naturally, it was all presented on Pravda--er, I mean, Fox "News".

Remember folks. I know I'm a broken record on this, but remember:

They will tell any lie, and they will descend to any depths.

Period.

Inside the Right Wing Insane Asylum: Glenn Beck Through the Looking Glass

Now he claims that President Obama is assembling a Nazi SS-style organization.

This from the same man who claims that FEMA is planning to put us all in camps!

As a commenter in this link put it in response to someone who said Beck is going to hurt someone some day, I hope it's himself.

On the Passing of Ted Kennedy

Edward M. Kennedy did as much to promote the well-being of ordinary Americans as any Senator who ever lived. Every major civil rights, health care, and labor bill had his influence. Being the scion of a rich and powerful family, it would have been easy for him to simply fritter his life away, but he chose a life in politics instead. He was one of those all-too-rare wealthy people who genuinely cared about the poor and the disadvantaged. And bringing health care to all Americans was his life's passion. Yes, I am mindful of his flaws and his sins--the young woman who is dead because of him, the drinking, the convoluted private life. But he was more than the sum of his shortcomings. To him public service was a true calling, and the welfare of the forgotten in our country was never far from his mind.

I think what struck me the most, among all the statements issued on his passing, was this one:

I was terribly saddened to hear of the death of Ted Kennedy tonight.
Given our political differences, people are sometimes surprised by how close Ronnie and I have been to the Kennedy family. But Ronnie and Ted could always find common ground, and they had great respect for one another. In recent years, Ted and I found our common ground in stem cell research, and I considered him an ally and a dear friend. I will miss him.

My heart goes out to Vicki and the entire Kennedy family.

--Nancy Reagan

Yes, he will be missed. He had friends across the political spectrum, something not many can say. It seems that just about everyone who knew him liked him and had fond memories of him. And to his family, he was the heart and soul.

An era is closing now, the era of the Kennedy brothers in political life. Either John, Robert, or Edward has been in office from January 1947 until this evening. The impact of these brothers on America has been huge. Ted Kennedy will be ranked with Henry Clay and Daniel Webster as one of the greatest members of the United States Senate. My sympathies go out to his family and his multitude of friends.

Goodbye, Ted. And thank you for everything.

Inside the Right Wing Insane Asylum, Part 9,721

Their lunacy and their stupidity are becoming so toxic to me that I almost can't stand it. They're getting bent out of shape about an idea originally started by W, for God's sake!

Right Wing Psychotic Bachmann Urges Prayer and Fasting to Defeat Health Care Reform

The story is here. Yes, she's PRAYING that our system that kills thousands of people per year through neglect and condemns countless people to needless, terrible suffering will continue unchanged. And this sick, delusional pseudo-Christian apparently believes this idiocy.

From Matthew 25:

34“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ [Emphasis added]

37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Maybe Michele skipped that part.

Yes, Bush Was Bin-Laden's Candidate

The details are supplied by Robert Parry, here.

This is the Most Violently Repressed Homosexual on Earth

I couldn't stomach more than a little bit of this sick, screwed-up clown's bullshit, but man oh man, does he want to have sex with other men. Anyone who shouts "faggot" as much as this pathetic loser isn't trying to convince other people--he's trying to convince himself. Oh, and he's also asking God to kill President Obama.

And you want me to compromise with people like that?

Again--There is NO LIE THESE PEOPLE WILL NOT TELL

Now Fox "News" is telling the damned, stinking lie that President Obama is urging veterans to end their own lives.

How can our country survive when one of its major political parties, speaking through its chief propaganda mouthpiece, is committed to the purveying of outright, systematic falsehoods, all done in the service of destroying any meaningful reform?

The REAL Death Panels--and How the Federal Government Stopped Them

The story is right here.

States Whose People Are Most in Need Tend to Believe Right-Wing Lies the Most

It's just pathetic.

STATES WITH THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGES OF UNINSURED PEOPLE

Texas - 27 percent *
New Mexico --- 25.6 percent
Mississippi - 24 percent *
Louisiana - 22.4 percent *
Nevada - 22.2 percent
Oklahoma - 22.2 percent *
California - 21 percent
Wyoming - 20.7 percent *
Florida - 20.7 percent
Georgia - 20.7 percent *
South Carolina - 20.4 percent *
Montana - 20.3 percent *
Alaska -- 20.2 percent *
Arkansas - 20.1 percent *
Colorado - 20 percent
Oregon - 19.4 percent
West Virginia - 19.3 percent *
North Carolina - 19.3 percent
Idaho - 18.8 percent *
Utah - 18.1 percent *
Kentucky - 17.9 percent *
Tennessee - 17.8 percent *
Nebraska - 17.7 percent*
Alabama - 17.2 percent *
Missouri - 17.1 percent *

*=Voted Republican in the last election.  Yes, that's 18 out of 25.

The Power of Lies

When you have a huge, lying, right-wing propaganda apparatus blasting out falsehoods 24/7, this is what happens.

We have some of the stupidest, most gullible, most credulous people on the entire planet Earth.

This country is screwed. 

Offered Without Comment

The Onion speaks the truth here.

Barney Frank Shows How to Do It

And he slaps down vile right-wing garbage at a town hall:

Again: Why Paul Krugman is Such a Voice of Sanity

He explains the true nature of President Obama's proposed health care reform here. And he once again skewers right-wing nonsense. Excerpt:

It was the blooper heard round the world. In an editorial denouncing Democratic health reform plans, Investor’s Business Daily tried to frighten its readers by declaring that in Britain, where the government runs health care, the handicapped physicist Stephen Hawking “wouldn’t have a chance,” because the National Health Service would consider his life “essentially worthless.”

Professor Hawking, who was born in Britain, has lived there all his life, and has been well cared for by the National Health Service, was not amused.

Besides being vile and stupid, however, the editorial was beside the point. Investor’s Business Daily would like you to believe that Obamacare would turn America into Britain — or, rather, a dystopian fantasy version of Britain. The screamers on talk radio and Fox News would have you believe that the plan is to turn America into the Soviet Union. But the truth is that the plans on the table would, roughly speaking, turn America into Switzerland — which may be occupied by lederhosen-wearing holey-cheese eaters, but wasn’t a socialist hellhole the last time I looked.

Heh heh. Read the whole thing.

Nailing the History of Right-Wing Insanity

Rick Perlstein does it again, right here. Key excerpt:

In the early 1950s, Republicans referred to the presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman as "20 years of treason" and accused the men who led the fight against fascism of deliberately surrendering the free world to communism. Mainline Protestants published a new translation of the Bible in the 1950s that properly rendered the Greek as connoting a more ambiguous theological status for the Virgin Mary; right-wingers attributed that to, yes, the hand of Soviet agents. And Vice President Richard Nixon claimed that the new Republicans arriving in the White House "found in the files a blueprint for socializing America."

When John F. Kennedy entered the White House, his proposals to anchor America's nuclear defense in intercontinental ballistic missiles -- instead of long-range bombers -- and form closer ties with Eastern Bloc outliers such as Yugoslavia were taken as evidence that the young president was secretly disarming the United States. Thousands of delegates from 90 cities packed a National Indignation Convention in Dallas, a 1961 version of today's tea parties; a keynote speaker turned to the master of ceremonies after his introduction and remarked as the audience roared: "Tom Anderson here has turned moderate! All he wants to do is impeach [Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl] Warren. I'm for hanging him!"

Before the "black helicopters" of the 1990s, there were right-wingers claiming access to secret documents from the 1920s proving that the entire concept of a "civil rights movement" had been hatched in the Soviet Union; when the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act was introduced, one frequently read in the South that it would "enslave" whites. And back before there were Bolsheviks to blame, paranoids didn't lack for subversives -- anti-Catholic conspiracy theorists even had their own powerful political party in the 1840s and '50s.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: from demanding that slavery be perpetuated in the new United States to Jim Crow to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and mass lynching to hysterical, screaming accusations of "Marxist" and "Socialist" (along with "patriotic" calls for secession and civil war) hurled against President Obama, political insanity in America's history has leaned heavily rightward. Yes, there were and are Leftist lunatics as well, but their numbers and influence have been dwarfed by those of the Right Wing lunatics throughout our history.  The Radical Right screams "Communism!" whenever they come across an idea or policy that they don't comprehend; that's why they do it a lot.

Yes! More Like This, Mr. President!

Something You Need to Consider

Did the system throw the average person overboard starting in the 1970s?



Further data may be found here.

A Conservative Economist Tells the TRUTH About the Economy

From Bruce Bartlett here. Excerpts:

 Consider these comparisons between Bush and Clinton:

• Between the fourth quarter of 1992 and the fourth quarter of 2000, real GDP grew 34.7 percent. Between the fourth quarter of 2000 and the fourth quarter of 2008, it grew 15.9 percent, less than half as much.

• Between the fourth quarter of 1992 and the fourth quarter of 2000, real gross private domestic investment almost doubled. By the fourth quarter of 2008, real investment was 6.5 percent lower than it was when Bush was elected.

• Between December 1992 and December 2000, payroll employment increased by more than 23 million jobs, an increase of 21.1 percent. Between December 2000 and December 2008, it rose by a little more than 2.5 million, an increase of 1.9 percent. In short, about 10 percent as many jobs were created on Bush’s watch as were created on Clinton’s.

• During the Bush years, conservative economists often dismissed the dismal performance of the economy by pointing to a rising stock market. But the stock market was lackluster during the Bush years, especially compared to the previous eight. Between December 1992 and December 2000, the S&P 500 Index more than doubled. Between December 2000 and December 2008, it fell 34 percent. People would have been better off putting all their investments into cash under a mattress the day Bush took office.

• Finally, conservatives have an absurdly unjustified view that Republicans have a better record on federal finances. It is well-known that Clinton left office with a budget surplus and Bush left with the largest deficit in history. Less well-known is Clinton’s cutting of spending on his watch, reducing federal outlays from 22.1 percent of GDP to 18.4 percent of GDP. Bush, by contrast, increased spending to 20.9 percent of GDP. Clinton abolished a federal entitlement program, Welfare, for the first time in American history, while Bush established a new one for prescription drugs.

As they say in Blogdom, read the whole thing.

President Obama, PLEASE Stop Trying to Negotiate With These People!

Chuck Grassley signs on to the Deather idiocy.

Mr. President, Grassley, Enzi, McConnell, and all the rest of the hard-core conservatives have no intention whatsoever of dealing with you in good faith. They want to kill all health care reform and deal you a political blow. Ram it through on reconciliation if you have to (50 votes+Biden), but PLEASE stop thinking these people are interested in "bipartisanship". They aren't.

They're just trying to screw you. And if that means screwing the American people along with you, they'll do it without batting an eyelash.

Inside the "Birther" Insane Asylum

You'll need to be strong to read this.

Worst Health Care in America? Oklahoma. Most Fanatically Republican? Oklahoma

And it's no coincidence. Read the stats on Oklahoma's miserable, 50th out of 50 health care system. And then read the quotes from Oklahoma's demented right-wing politicians railing against President Obama's reforms.

Oklahomans would benefit more than any other state's residents  from an improvement of the health care system, and the vast majority of these people despise the president who's trying to give it to them!!

It's quite an accomplishment when you convince people to vote against their own lives.

(Hat Tip: Bartcop)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Nailing Right-Wing Republican LIES About Health Care

Steven Pearlstein does an admirable job here. Excerpt:

The Republican lies about the economics of health reform are also heavily laced with hypocrisy.

While holding themselves out as paragons of fiscal rectitude, Republicans grandstand against just about every idea to reduce the amount of health care people consume or the prices paid to health-care providers -- the only two ways I can think of to credibly bring health spending under control.

When Democrats, for example, propose to fund research to give doctors, patients and health plans better information on what works and what doesn't, Republicans sense a sinister plot to have the government decide what treatments you will get. By the same wacko-logic, a proposal that Medicare pay for counseling on end-of-life care is transformed into a secret plan for mass euthanasia of the elderly.

Read the whole very convincing thing.

The REAL "Death Panel": Palin's INCOMPETENCE

The story, from July when Palin was still governor, is right here. Excerpts:

State programs intended to help disabled and elderly Alaskans with daily life -- taking a bath, eating dinner, getting to the bathroom -- are so poorly managed, the state cannot assure the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to serve, a new federal review found.

The situation is so bad the federal government has forbidden the state to sign up new people until the state makes necessary improvements.

No other state in the nation is under such a moratorium, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
[Emphasis added.]

In the meantime, frail and vulnerable Alaskans who desperately need the help are struggling. One elderly woman is stuck in a nursing home, for lack of care at home. Another woman, suffering from chronic pain and fatigue, said she's so weak, she often can't even pop dinner into the microwave.

The moratorium is expected to last four or five months. State officials estimate about 1,000 Alaskans will be affected.

A particularly alarming finding concerns deaths of adults in the programs. In one 2 1/2 year stretch, 227 adults already getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs. Another 27 died waiting for their initial assessment, to see if they qualified for help.

Sarah the Pathological Liar needs to be called on this BIG TIME. It's time to destroy this idiot's political career and reputation once and for all. She's a malicious, ultra-right wing clown. No wonder the Republican "base" loves her so much.

A Salon Reader Answers Palin's "Death Panel" Damned Lie

From a forum yesterday:

Speaking as one who lost a beloved spouse to cancer, while having to fight Aetna every inch of the way for the most basic coverage even after having contributed to its massive profits for years, there is no more effective Death Panel than an insurance company. They literally sent me around in circles time after time, demanding additional copies of "reports" they already had, and in general delaying, stalling and refusing payment until I threatened to sue them and turned them in to regulators.

They know that most people won't go that far, especially when they are desperately trying to care for a terminally ill family member, so with every denial and delay, they make a little more money to blow in the financial markets, which is really their core business.

Death panel? They couldn't wait for my spouse to die, because then their obligations would be over.

Ssarah Palin, I presume, has government coverage, at least when she was in government. I want to see what happens to her coverage now. I suggest she entrust the "care" of little Trig to Aetna.

"The Me-First, Screw-Everyone-Else Crowd"

It's a thing of beauty from David Sirota right here. Excerpts:

What they will scream: But the rich still "pay close to 60 percent of this nation's taxes!"

What you should say: Such statistics refer only to the federal income tax. When considering all of "this nation's taxes" including payroll, state and local levies, the top 5 percent pay just 38.5 percent of the taxes.

What they will scream: But 38.5 percent is disproportionately high! See? You've proved that the rich "contribute more than their share" of taxes!

What you should say: Actually, they are paying almost exactly "their share." According to the data, the wealthiest 5 percent of America pays 38.5 percent of the total taxes precisely because they make just about that share -- a whopping 36.5 percent! -- of total national income. Asking these folks to pay slightly more in taxes -- and still less than they did during the go-go 1990s -- is hardly extreme.

Read the whole thing, my friends.

Hey Palin, You Lying Scumbag

It's INSURANCE COMPANIES that cut off Down Syndrome children from coverage for having a "pre-existing condition".

If a Democratic former vice presidential candidate had told a lie as monstrous as the one Palin told when she asserted that Obama would simply allow Down Syndrome children to die, the conventional media would be screeching about it 24/7. But when it's a Republican peddling this filth, it doesn't seem to get much coverage.

Funny how that always seems to work out.

Good Saturday Reading

From Phil Nugent, right here. Nugent, a native of Mississippi, writes wonderfully and powerfully (among many other worthwhile things) about the sick connection between the Republican Party and the South:

Mississippi is a beautiful place, where the trees are greener than in Yellowstone Park and the air fresher and better for the lungs than whatever they're breathing in Valhalla itself. I can't get along with hardly anybody there, but that's my problem and it's not the point anyhow. The point is that on early fall nights, when the humidity has all but evaporated but it's still pleasingly warm and I can sit on my grandmother's front lawn at night and look up and count the stars, I feel at home. It is not a feeling that I have ever had, for so much as a second, any place else, and because I haven't been to Mississippi since 2004, just before my grandmother died, I haven't felt it in a long time, and I miss it. And if I should never happen to feel it again for the rest of my life, I will blame the Republican party, which I hate with the intensity of a thousand suns, for having worked so hard to make the South a beautiful, wonderful place where Stupid is far too widely accepted as the natural order of things and events that set off jubilation in every civilized corner of the world, such as the election of Barack Obama, set off confusion and panic and a rush to the gun shop to stock up.

As they say in the Blog Biz, read the whole thing.

More Reaction to Lying Right-Wing Psychotic Palin

From Karen Tumulty, right here.

Let me reiterate: Palin has accused President Obama of wanting to kill Down Syndrome babies. This is the most sickening, monstrous lie I have ever heard in American politics. Palin is either lying, in which case she is evil beyond comprehension, or she's a paranoid schizophrenic who needs to be labeled as such.

Period.

Lying, Sick, Twisted Palin Heads Into Insane Asylum Territory

She's claiming the Obama health reform plan will be used to kill special needs children.

PALIN IS EITHER A PSYCHOTIC OR A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR.

No other possibilities exist.

This is the Most Brilliant Item from The Onion I Have Ever Seen.

It's right here.

Just freaking incredible.

The Sterling Citizen Organizing the Anti-Health Care Reform Effort

Right-Wing Storm Trooper THREATENS DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN'S LIFE

Details can be found here.

This is how far the radical Right is going, folks.

Happy 48th Birthday, Mr. President!!

Thank you for all you're doing for America!

Watch the Radical Right's ORGANIZED, SCRIPTED Scumbags in Action

And as Rep. Doggett says here, they don't just want to stop the health care reform that the VAST MAJORITY of Americans want. These right-wing psychopaths want to see SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE DESTROYED AS WELL.

Democrats, Independents, and fair-minded Republicans--PUSH BACK AGAINST THESE FANATICAL BROWNSHIRT IDIOTS.

Right Wing Thugs Continue to Disrupt Town Halls and Suppress Free Speech

Details are here.

Oh, and by the way, mainstream media, especially CBS, which is trying to pass these protests off as legitimate "grassroots anger":

THESE "PROTESTS" ARE ORGANIZED, DELIBERATE ASSAULTS ON THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS, PAID FOR BY RIGHT-WING ANTI-HEALTH REFORM INTERESTS. 

The cretins disrupting these meetings are simply bused in TEA BAGGERS and BIRTHERS. Their tactics would make a Storm Trooper from the 1930s happy.

The police need to be at these meetings, and if necessary, the cops need to CRACK SOME HEADS.

President Obama Tells the TRUTH About His Proposals

Boehner Endorses Right-Wing Storm Trooper-Brown Shirt Tactics

Details can be found here.

Anyone who thinks these conservative Republican congressional leaders believe in democracy or free speech is a fool.

And speaking of free speech, is Boehner still a weeping drunk, or has he cleaned up his act?

Let's Be Absolutely Clear About Right Wing Republican Lies

Steve Benen tells the truth here:


When House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) says reform "may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia," is that true? No, he's lying. When Rick Santorum says the House reform bill "is very specific that private insurance would be ended," is that true? No, he's lying, too. When House Republican Caucus Chairman Mike Pence says refom "will literally cost nearly a trillion dollars in higher taxes," is that true? No, he's lying, too. When President Obama hedges on a possible, hypothetical outcome involving how insurers might respond to an improved system, is he lying? Not really, no.

In other words, Benen is calling bullshit on attempts by some observers to say that everyone is spinning in the health care debate.

No, everyone is not "spinning".

The Republicans are simply flat-out lying.  Period.

Another Right-Wing DAMNED LIE: "Kill Granny"

The radical Right scum are spreading the DESPICABLE LIE that President Obama's health care bill carries a provision that will force elderly people to end their lives at a certain point. The President's proposal CONTAINS NOTHING OF THE SORT. It is a filthy lie being spread by psychopaths like Randall Terry and the whole network of right-wing hate radio. Read the details for yourself before you think my anger is over the top.

To hell with these people. I mean, to hell with them.