Sunday, April 3, 2011
Politics The Republicans come for Medicare
Posted by Max Brantley on Sun, Apr 3, 2011 at 8:02 AM
The current debate over federal budget cutting is only a prelude to a much bigger fight — the House Republicans' leadership plan to target Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This was a subject no Republican candidate wanted to touch in the campaign season. Now they think they have a mandate to rip the safety net asunder. It will be accompanied by their plan to make permanent favorable tax rates for millionaires. It could be a defining debate for the ages.
Speaking of...
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The Republican third way — magic?
May 3, 2012I've made a little fun of the obviousness of news stories quoting Gov. Mike Beebe as saying there are two options to meet the expected huge increase in Medicaid costs — cut services or raise money (either by taxes or taking it from somewhere else, growth in existing revenue streams to begin with). /more/
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Tuesday night line
May 1, 2012The open line includes items on a stranded bear with a Twitter feed and the state's Medicaid money problem. /more/
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Obamacare saves seniors billions in drug costs
May 1, 2012Another inconvenient fact about Obamacare: In the first two years after “Obamacare” was signed, Medicare reforms in the law saved seniors a total of $3.4 billion in prescription drug costs by bridging a coverage gap, according to official figures. /more/
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Arkansas teacher in D.C. to advocate for Medicaid
March 28, 2012Little Rock teacher speaks at a D.C. rally in support of Medicaid. /more/
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Bill Clinton joins Children's Hospital's 100th
March 5, 2012Arkansas Children's Hospital, marking its 100th birthday today with an event including former President Bill Clinton among the speakers, said it had raised $100 million already toward a $160 milion goal to apply to pediatric care, research, education and prevention. /more/
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Bid to earmark surplus fails in Joint Budget
February 28, 2012Lot of debate, but, as expected, Gov. Mike Beebe got his way. An effort in Joint Budget today to earmark part of the state's surplus for future Medicaid spending failed. /more/
- More »
Comments (45)
Showing 1-45 of 45
GE profits 26 Billion in this country and pays no repeat NO taxes.
Why you say want the repubs fight and close the loop holes that allow this or are they afraid or being compensated somehow for looking the other way?
These re pubs figh tooth and nail to benefit corporate and the rich and famous at our expense forget what might happen to them in the future. If for instance they fail to impress or get accepted not fired by these big wigs they will die in poverty with the rest of us.
To be fair most don't realize or are to stupid to understand they are being used.
like
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"This was a subject no Republican candidate wanted to touch in the campaign season."
Are you f'ing kidding me? During the campaign and ever since, Republicans have been talking about reforming Social Security and Medicare until they're blue in the face. The Republican leadership has been literally begging Obama to work with them on a solution, but he's decided his political survival is more important than the country's fiscal future.
I'm a pretty moderate guy, but even I recognize that one has to be completely delusional to deny that our present entitlement system is unsustainable -- or to claim that the GOP kept quiet about this during the election.
"GE profits 26 Billion in this country and pays no repeat NO taxes."
It's called "crony capitalism," and it's becoming quite a cottage industry in the current administration. See GM.
Let there be no doubt. It is not the Republican politicians who are being played for fools, for all that they are being used as the tools of the aristocracy to shrink the size of government and thereby transfer even more power to the Kochs and Stephenses.
The Judas goat does not get eaten, only the sheep who follow him.
One need not take more than a casual sincere look at Democrats to know this is not a fight... A fight requires two opposing sides. This is collusion to take us the rest of the way into third world criminal status (we are already there or on the precipice on so many levels). GOPers may lead the rhetoric way, but D's are quite willing and eager to get there too.
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."
..H.L. Mencken
Just cannot wait until my neighbors, Medicare Conservatives, discover what their party has in store for them. They don't have a clue.
Inkling, I followed last year's election. I heard nothing from T'baggers about cutting Medicare, Social Security in any of those heated debates. Mostly it was a generic
"cut the spending." I will accept any evidence you have to offer that ANY Republican candidate ran on a platform which openly called for cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Anything?
All I heard from Boozman was about 'Social Security needs to be protected.' About the same line from Boss Womack. They know Medicare Conservatives are a large component of their base.
If they cut people on Medicare, it will be their last time. You think Nov was a sweep. Wait until 2012 and the tide that came in will go out in fury. The only thing that's saving their hypocritical asses now is Demos stupidity for not taking back the mantle as the Party of Medicare and Social Security, which it rightfully is.
Republicans are taking on AARP, they had AARP in a Ways and Means Committee hearing
last Friday trying to strip them of their 501(c)(3) status.
What they're doing with the largest retiree group in the nation is playing leap frog
with a Unicorn, in simple terms, they will get one first leap.
An entitlement that I would like to see cut is the entitlement of taxpayers with adjusted gross income of more than $375,000 to have their investment income taxed at a maximum 15 percent instead of their marginal rate 35 percent for "earned" and other non-investment income. That's giving them a $200 entitlement for every $1000 of long-term capital gains and "qualified" dividends they get.
And, yes, I think we might deny GE, Wal-Mart, Exxon-Mobile, et. al., the entitlement to have hundreds of thousands of troops in trillions of dollars worth of bases and fleets all around the world in the interest of "stability," using not taxes that these investor-owned corporations pay to finance their empire, but money borrowed from China.
Inkling,
"Entitlement" is a tricky thing. There are some folks, like me, who have paid U.S. taxes and into SS system for more than a half-century. And then, there are those who have recently arrived (or have been non-contributors for a lifetime) who also extend the hand of want. SS and Medicare should be earned, not merely needed.
Elwood, your H. L. Mencken post reminds me of the lead paragraph in a Salon piece:
"There's a joke making the rounds and it goes like this: Big Business, a Tea Partier and Organized Labor are sitting around a table. A dozen cookies arrive on a plate. Big Business takes 11 of them and says to the Tea Partier, 'Pssst! That union guy is trying to steal your cookie!'"
http://www.salon.com/news/economics/index.…
Expecting Louie to understand and differentiate between assorted purposes of SS.... such as those individuals who need it as a sort of disability insurance or children who lose a parent etc... which they/we all paid for... is like asking Louie to understand there is no such thing as clean coal or that no new coal power will ever run through his meter unless he moves to Texas.
From the article:
House Democrats, who are preparing an alternative budget, say the Republican approach would cut off aid to some of the neediest Americans and shortchange education programs vital to staying economically competitive.
“It seems to be the same old, same old,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the Budget Committee. “It is going to be continued big tax breaks for millionaires and big corporate special interests like oil companies and deep cuts in education for kids and health care for seniors.”
“How you get your deficit reduction is important,” Mr. Van Hollen added.
When is Big Business - and I mean trillion dollar business, not the small business owner - going to be taxed like we are?
It is a fight for the ages, Max, but not how you mean it. It's a fight between between adults (e.g., Paul Ryan) and demagogic children (e.g., you, Paul Krugman, elward, Michael Moore, Chuck Schumer, probably President Obama as well.) For years the public has not been willing to have this conversation and has punished anyone who tried to address the fundamental problems.
The children are the ones who ignore the problems and rage uncontrollably about GE, Koch Brothers, seniors eating dog food, the GOP killing kids with some budget cut, and so on. It's easy to be a child. You just keep writing stuff like this and pound on the adults who are out there making the tough choices right now.
My formative consciousness of American Politics came in 1995 when the Republicans took over Congress. Gingrich and Dole lost the messaging war to Bill Clinton and the Unions in 1996 because try went to the air characterizing a reducation in the rate of growth of Medicare as a "cut" that would require seniors to eat dog food. That approach carried the day and the lesson learned is that the American Public incentivizes childish game-playing more than mature, level-headed decisions that make hard choices.
That really is the question and the game. Is the American Public ready to stop incentivizing people who think like you do and have an adult conversation about the Federal Budget and the direction we are headed? Looks like your side (Team Irresponsible) is already in Spring Training mode working out the new "Seniors Eating Dogfood" messaging for a new generation.
Coled, there is enough money in the Social Security "trust" fund to pay out 100% of benefits until 2037. Even with no changes in SS, there would be enough money to pay out at 75%. Minor tweaking will solve the SS problem. Medicare is another story. I believe President Obama took on health care reform right out of the gate because if we don't control health care costs, they will eat us alive. My 96 year old mother-in-law fell and broke her hip in a nursing home. They took her to the hospital and did hip replacement surgery. Thankfully she never woke up from the surgery and died 2 days later. That's just insanity to put a 96 year old through major surgery with no hope of going through rehab even if she hadn't died. My own mother was on a hospice program for the last 10 months of her life. The last four months were with me and my family. I had a hard time explaining to Mom's fundamentalist, Republican family in Oklahoma, that yes, we did let her die. She had a couple of transfusions in that four month period and when the last one didn't work, we stopped any treatment except for pain. She had pretty decent quality of life until her last 2 weeks, and she died peacefully in our home with her grandchildren at her side. My Mom's treatment costs were probably less in that 10 month period than was spent on my mother-in-law in 3 days. These are the kind of questions that need to be asked with out the right wing freak out over "death panels" and "letting grandma die".
Seems to me the Republicans are all acting like children on the important issues...
Ahhhhhahahaha!
The term 'adults' being paired with 'republicans' in the same sentence.
Ahhhhhahahaha!
If co led really believes Paul Ryan is an adult, no amount of meaningful dialogue can counteract the Kool-Aid co led has swallowed.
Re Social Security- had the amount of income subject to Social Security tax been indexed for inflation, it would be solvent for as far as the eye could see. But it was not. The easy solution to make Social Security solvent for many, many decades is simple- increase the amount of income that is subject to the Social Security tax from the current $106,800 to $180,000 and index the amount for inflation. Robert Reich explains it better than I can:
http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion…
This is one more major problem former Fed chair and Republican Alan Greenspan left for others to deal with. What a master of the economy!
Last year was the first year in Social Security's 76 year history that it failed to take in more than it paid out in a single year. It has built up a large surplus of money to pay current and future recipients. So how is that again that any sane person would claim that Social Security is responsible for our budget problems?
The Koch brothers will be fine...period. They each are sitting on 21 billion and ya just can't hurt people with that kind of cash. They'll be fine no matter who wins in 2012 or 2016 or 2020....they should and probably only worry about the Grim Reaper. The Kochs will be just fine....period.
They've rolled the dice and spent a tiny fraction of their wealth to buy off and create a bunch of Tea Baggers who like Tampons will be used once and then discarded. One must wonder if all these Republican governors who will be SO one termers got paid to take the dive or are just that stupid. To look and listen to them implies they are just that stupid, but who cares, the key words are one termers. Scat you assholes.
The "Bought in Congress" might be a little harder, but even a lot of them will go away in the next election because even the few responsible Repubs left on earth are turning against them because they broke the Butt Sex Rule.
What is that you may ask, (though I doubt it)? Most men know when you enter a relationship with a woman, at some point, when you think the moment is right, you will bring up butt sex.
A smart man will pay very close attention to the female's reaction. If the lady makes a face like a bulldog eating a wasp and starts screaming bloody murder, a smart man will shut up and never mention it again. This relationship has a good chance of lasting forever.
But these assholes that excite co led aren't smart. As their poll numbers drop and protest crowds grow larger they continue to try to cut the safety nets that most people will have to fall on at some point in their lives. I can promise their relationship with the majority of the voters will not survive. They will be cleaned out by the self-cleaning oven of regained good sense at the voting booth. Suck on some American history and you'll see this process work over and over and over.
The Business-Rich, my name for em, want to cement their takeover of America. They're so close to achieving that dream Republicans have dreamed since they were Whigs. The Kochs, Waltons, Stephens and others are singing "Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down", at the top of their lungs. It is up to us to make sure they don't make that final goal.
Ignorant voters put the Koch Tea Baggers in office and while in office the Tea Baggers will foul as many nests as they can for the benefit of their corporate owners. But if we can hold on until 2012, in NotFDR-Obama's 2nd term everything will start looking better and like the old Dixiecrat Party, it will be 20 years before the bad guys make another organized run at it. Bad brain wiring...that's what it is.....bad brain wiring.
In 2012 we need to become Un-Tea ted! They swept in big time and they are going to be swept out just as fast.
Eh most Americans won't even know this fight is occurring.
Don't expect the Democrats to put up too much of a fight.
I do believe costs need to be cut in terms of Medicare, but I think there are ways to do it without shafting most patients. For example, my husband has had several serious illnesses over the past few years "necessitating" multiple CT scans. Every doctor he went to wanted his own scan done. I finally started asking whether or not one done two months previously would do and arranging that he have access to it. To this point, I have stopped three scans.
I also nixed on two occasions, not without an argument with his surgeons, a week or more in hospital based rehab. Having been through this with my father, I knew hubby would progress much better at home. As a plus, though not something that had anything to do with my stand, the cost savings for Medicare was substantial.
Then there were weeks of home health nurses whose primary duty was to monitor hubby's blood oxygen levels. The nurses generally weren't necessary, but the pulse ox (a machine to measure oxygen levels and as easy to use as taking one's blood pressure at the drug store) was. The nurse did check on him daily, but left the machine for us to use for monitor oxygen levels during exercise. We could easily have bought our own pulse ox within days with the money Medicare paid for home health, but the machine wasn't covered and the nurse was.
In my case, my doctor pushed for a mammogram, a colonoscopy and a bone density scan -- just to check. And me with a $500 "allowance" for wellness. Being somewhat familiar with my options, I had the mammogram and agreed to an occult blood test rather than a colonoscopy. The bone density test I deemed unnecessary a) because my lifestyle likely precludes significant bone loss at this point and b) because I have no intention of taking bisphosphonates -- ever.
Under Medicare -- which I get later this year -- I would not have had to pay a single penny for these tests as long as I had supplemental insurance.
But the onus for economical medical decisions should not be entirely up to the patient or family. Doctors need to step up and present alternatives. I've discovered mine does when I balk. For example, would I have that occult blood test or would I take a supplement to address any possible bone loss? I would prefer to hear these options first rather than as a seeming last ditch effort and only if I know just enough to question him.
Max- it can't be a defining debate for the ages. The repubs can barely string two opinions together let alone any supporting facts. I think we should coin a new phrase describing the malady affecting modern repubs, Right Wing Tourettes maybe?
Also, while on the subject of death with dignity. There are people in the back wards of long term care facilities who have been in a coma for years, and their families will not sign a "Do not resuscitate" order. Look at what happened with Terry Schiavo and the BS the small government repubs went through. Small government is for thee, big business, but not for me.
>>The children are the ones who ignore the problems and rage uncontrollably about GE, Koch Brothers, seniors eating dog food, <<
Adult children are the ones who think you can have a great time at Disney World and not have to pay for it.
They had their Disneyland for 8 years.
Now the tab is due. First you bailed out the banker-criminals to the tune of $800bn PLUS, $2 Trn from Feds.
That was after you assumed you could get something for Nothing with
MEDICARE ADVANTAGE and MEDICARE PART D.
Both programs are nothing but Republican irresponsibility. Entirely too expensive and
NO WAY TO PAY FOR EITHER, while cutting taxes on the richest people in the land and
STARTING TWO WARS.
There's still $56 TRILLION in worthless credit default obligations floating around as a result of UNregulated financial markets. The Adult Children in the Republican Party are still refusing to regulate the market like imprudent teens who think they should be able to do as they damn well please without responsibility and without consequences.
We've all been co_loned by 8 years of Adult Children running the nation.
.
"What we learned under Reagan is that deficits don't matter."
V-P Dick Cheney, 2003.
.
I am not exaggerating: EVERY SINGLE RESULT that comes up when you google "What we learned under Reagan is that deficits don't matter" is to YOU elwood.
Do you just have that written into a copypasta notepad file that you go to anytime someone wants to talk about the terrible shape of the Federal budget?
Oct 11, 2010
Sept 3, 2010
Mar 30, 2011
Mar 13, 2010
Mar 11, 2010
Jul 19, 2010
Jan 3, 2010
Apr 19, 2009
and so on.
At what point in your life did you become a incorrigable partisan who seemingly sits at home all day on social security posting literally the same garbage over and over again? It is all just a game to you? That's cool if it is, but you should be upfront about it. But if you're being totally real then while I admittedly don't know your life situation, but I am being as sincere is I can possibly be when I say: This is sad and you should stop right now and ask someone who loves you for help.
Thank you, Outlier, for bringing "death panels" into this conversation. Funny that was THE idea to hear at any Republican get together over the last year or two when then president and the Democrats fought to get something -- anything? -- approximating universal health care adopted. (Note that I did say approximating.)
Now? Hey, let's turn Medicare over to the states and let them administer it!
Uh, yeah, let's do that. Let's let our Arkansas legislators have an hand in it. Talk about death panels. We're not talking about an elderly person here and there now. We're talking about defunding an entire department that dares to try to set up a workable and cost effective plan.
And how about Arizona's troubled Medicaid program with all its cuts and proposed fees for some recipients?
What about the likely differences, as in Medicaid, in between state run Medicare programs? Why should I not have access to, say, a knee or hip replacement just because I live in Arkansas or Louisiana rather than Illinois or Michigan? What about those folks whose major medical care often takes place in an adjoining state like many people in east and southeast Arkansas?
Yeah, let's set it up a program so future Medicare recipients can buy medical insurance on the open private market so that 30% of their premiums fund the insurance company's "overhead" rather than 5% or 6% overhead Medicare now has. This makes sense? Provide GOVERNMENT payments to Medicare recipients so they can buy a policy that has 30% or so factored into its cost rather than 5%?
No, we ALL, patients and family alike, need that discussion with our doctors that the "death panels" charge grew out of. Sorry, but we can't afford to fund a $98,000 single cancer treatment which might add at most four months to our lives. We don't need that newly manufactured $1,200 drug treatment (down to about $600 after some irate discussion last I heard) to stabilize a pregnancy at risk for early labor when the same medication was previously formulated in some pharmacies and available for $10 to $15.
We all need to think about Daddy and his barely working heart valve, deemed inoperable some time ago because of other medical problems, when we shunt him from doctor to doctor seeking eye surgery, particularly if the eye surgery has an iffy prognosis.
We need to keep our big mouths shut if a cancer patient decides to forgo a treatment that may give her a few more weeks -- hellish weeks given the side effects of the treatment.
Those are the discussions we need to be having. Better WE have them than some for profit insurance company underwriters. Do I think we are capable of doing that? A small fraction of us perhaps, but overall? Sadly, no.
Try "Reagan deficits don't matter", co led. Run to the bathroom first, then grab a snack and get comfy in front of your computer 'cause you got a lot of stuff to wade through. See you in a few days.
Folks, y'all can't state facts to a paid GOP Troll and expect a real rebuttal. When these conservatrolls can't handle the truth then they meltdown and resort to name calling, etc no matter if its economics, social issues, culture, or God forbid "inside baseball" of local media.
Doigotta: Do you understand the difference between a deficit and a debt?
Deficits may matter under certain circumstances. Those circumstances are currently not present. The problem today is our national debt, the unprecedented rapid rate at which we are accumulating it (i.e., the deficit), and the implications all that is going to have on our coutry going forward.
But there is a larger issue here about this quote. Why does anyone care about a contextless quote attributed to Dick Cheney around 2004 about how a politician in the 80s handed deficits that a the very was was 212 billion dollars (current deficit 1,500 billion dollars)? The man could just be wrong. He could be referring to something like they don't matter "politically." We don't know and it doesn't have anything to do with the current issue at hand here in 2011.
Trotting out this quote everytime you see someone argue for austerity is a non sequitur.
Deficits may NOT matter under certain circumstances.*
Also: Paid GOP troll? Now who's making stuff up, LinCo? You are basically caught dead-to-rights being a drama-queen hypocrite on the Finne/Audas issue and so now I'm a paid GOP troll? Just nut up, take your medicine, and own your fail. We all get schooled from time to time on internet chat boards, but how we deal with and learn from it is what defines us. I'm willing to give you a mulligan but not if you're going to double-down like that.
Beebe Dem is like an Obama Dem, let the republicans insert a ring in the proverbial nose... then compromise - give republicans, both parties paymasters most if not more than what they paid for...
On gas drilling, coal, nuclear, charter schools, health care, hwy, appointing people without conflict of interest to all sorts of oversight capacities, dedicating tax revenue to privateers, raising taxes on the poor far more than a nice but now meaningless, all leading to feeding the corporate rich beast far more than establishing a term on his own of what common good might be and trying to lead towards it.
Neither Beebe or Obama consider teabaggers an adversary... they consider them a godsend who must be helped.
Another county heard from.
Right on time we have our "both parties are the same" I-once-read-the-forward-to-a-Howard-Zinn-book-now-I-know-the-truth-about-the-American-Political-System pseduo-intellectual entry for the day on the US Fiscal Crisis.
It is known fact that GOP operatives have been paid to infiltrate left of center blogs and message boards. Typical Republican guilty response when caught: Attack the messenger and feign outrage.
Coled, you really act like a horses ass (notice I didn't say you are one, just that you act like one). Argue your points with facts and logic. Convince me, if you can. Mostly your comments don't bring much to the discussion. Since you want to discuss economics, which of the major schools of economics do you subscribe to, and why?
Even if I grant you that this occurs, what evidence do you have that I'm being paid to do this? Simply because you can't conceive of a world where someone would write the things I do without being paid to do it? That's sad, too.
If you can stand the cognitive dissonance without incurring a brain hemorrage, why don't you go back and read some of my archive. I can't imagine anyone paying for most of the things I say here.
LinCo, I have no serious beef with you. You seem nice enough and aren't a really terrible offender here. I'm sure you have people who love and respect you and that if I knew you in person I'd like you. But you keep randomly running afoul of me here and I end up hammering you pretty hard. I think I've made my points moving forward I'm just going to leave you to your own devices. Take care.
Home Economics.
(I'm a big believer that oleo should NEVER be substituted for butter.)
'At what point in your life did you become a incorrigable, extremist Republican who seemingly sits at home all day on the Koch Payroll posting literally the same garbage over and over again and expecting anyone to believe you? '
"What we learned under Reagan is that deficits don't matter."
V-P Dick Cheney, 2003.
There's one more your google-AT search. Actually, blogger Cato, the historian, introduced me to the phrase.
Now tell us why you completely AVOIDED addressing my comments about the Adult Children who think we can visit Disney World continuously and not pay for it as evidenced by the legislation-programs examples I provided?
For some context on when Darth Cheney made the comments about "deficits don't matter" it was during a period when Bush's first Sec of Treasury, Paul O'Neill, was trying to talk sense to those in a meeting about cutting taxes, entering wars and creating two HUGE programs with guaranteed deficits exceeding ONE TRILLION in ten years.
Naturally Cheney and Bush had the Republican response for Secretary O'Neill.
They fired him. Fiscal and regulatory responsibility didn't matter either.
So now, attack me and my lifestyle but don't try to respond to the points I raised.
You'll lose. Scratch that one..you lost with your personal attack which is what all scoundrels must resort.
http://www.moronail.net/images/stories/dg_…
.
Here's another should any paid operative be searching tomorrow and attempt to discredit anyone based upon frequency of use of a real quote from a real Republican hero.
"What we learned under Reagan is that deficits don't matter."
V-P Dick Cheney, 2003.
eLwood, He'll be gone for a while. He's probably on Wikipedia right now looking up the Keynesian vs the Austrian school of economics. Or maybe he's one of those who uses Conservapedia instead---can't clutter up your mind with facts, you know. Also I take offense at his dig at Howard Zinn. Most of us aren't fit to carry Zinn's coat for him, and that is especially true of coled.
Oh I welcome colon_ed back, anytime. You know they love to come here. It's open. Max has created the most popular political news blog in the entire state. Registration is simple and UNlike rightwing blogs your comments are not held and edited.
Progressive Arkansas in Ft Smith has kicked me off their FaceBook page. I could counter their arguments with links. Believe me, there's nothing conventionally progressive about them.
So, what the colons of Arkansas find here is an open blog with few restrictions. Max will (and should) come down heavy on anyone who tells lies about what their policies/practices are. Ask colon_ed about that one. Boss Brantley axed some wingnut who wanted to go into detail about specific homosexual practices. 'Liz Bein?'
'Harry Dique' disappeared. Act Max shut down exactly on election eve last Nov. If you were paying attention most of them went home at 5:PM. I suppose colon_ed and a few others have to do overtime. Ambitious types.
Shirley, I'm not the only one to notice an exit of rightwingers since Nov last year.
I learned via the local Tea Party of a workshop early last year in Okla on how to infiltrate political or social blogs and shape political messages. Yours truly with a local Green fully intended to attend. We sent our registration but alas, I was hit with a lung infection and we didn't go. The other fellow was rehabing from a broken leg and couldn't drive. But, we know they're doing it. However I regret not getting first hand experience, and some pics to go with it. I would have been infiltrating a session on infiltrating. Nice. Open societies are fun for everyone.
I'd love to, but I told Chuck and Dave specifically that political economy agitprop on ArkBlog was Estrada's job.
Tea Party needs to get off Caffeine and try Crack Cocaine if it is serious
http://bit.ly/CrackCocaine
Progressive Arkansas is one to watch. They're the perfect example of the old Republican trick of naming yourself for exactly the opposite of what you are. They're Flat Taxers turned Tea Baggers. The danger in them is that they're young and have money. Wonder how much of it is Koch & Walton Foundation money?
One of the leaders of Arkansas Progressives employes Mexican workers but purports to want fences around all our borders and all of them sent back home to Mexico. He also moans and bitches about people on the government tit yet is growing his wealth by building HUD duplexes all over my neighborhood. Is that not the government tit...big time?
Their bottom line is a near criminal desire for pure profit, no taxes, no oversight, starvation wages for working folks, and a wonderful life for themselves in a gated community. All that sounds pretty Rapture-y to me and more like something you'd see in Disneyland, not in real life. Congratulations, eLwood for being banned from their web site! Good job!
PS the Arkansas Progressive leader I'm talking about threw a 2 year old's tantrum a couple of weeks ago and exited the Fort Baptist Planning Commission.....and those who aren't doubled over laughing are celebrating his exit with gusto. Let that be a lesson...never allow a person with the mind of a 2 year old to sit on any governmental board. Scat you little creep!
Um, "Keep your stinking government hands off my Medicare" ?
Turns out the Republican budget and not the Affordable Health Care Act is the real threat to Medicare.
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