US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

The southern pride thing is complete and totally BS anyways, because before the civil war the wealth distribution in the south (amongst whites) was highly concentrated among the upper class and everyone else was in abject poverty.

had to fix my fixing

blarg

The War to Redistribute the Top 1%'s Wealth

IMO there are tons of things to love and be proud of about the South but not that particular thing.

xpost the deconstructionist line is that that was the North's motivation too, right?

IMO there are tons of things to love and be proud of about the South but not that particular thing.

mmm cornbread

I think we even did a list thread on that! I remember Dan fighting with everyone else about okra c/d.

(things to love about the south that is)

Okra is only C if it's fried.

Tags:

* Michele Bachmann,
* Steve King,
* Ideas

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMBmCdYpnRo

By now, most Americans know the dirty details of Obamacare. It raises taxes. It will force Americans to pay for other people's abortions. It will put the government in charge of more than 18 percent of our private sector economy. It may provide benefits to up to 6.1 million illegal immigrants. It diminishes liberty and gives government more power.

i literally would be cool with all these things

*checks pocket for free insurance card*

you would be cool w/ diminished liberty?

trading freedom for fillings

ok maybe the liberty part wouldnt be so great

It will put the government in charge of more than 18 percent of our private sector economy

Wrong

I like how the main argument against this health care bill is that it will destroy competition because any given government-run plan will clearly be superior to the private plans we already have.

I am still getting over the statistic that health care is 18% of the economy?

Making that argument only illustrates how bad the problem has become

But it doesn't make sense. If financial services was 33% of the economy as of Sept 2008, then... well... what is the rest of the US economy even doing right now

Don't ask

At least 20% is Wal-Mart

So premiums are going to be capped in the public exchanges that are created, but there's nothing in this bill that caps premiums in the private market. Sounds like a good way to indirectly control prices, if the exchanges are strong enough. Hopefully the gov't-run health fearmongering we've been seeing won't enter the permanent market with an unending deluge of anti-exchange ads.

there isn't any government run plan in this bill so WTF are they talking about

I assume they're talking about regulations. which, you know, have completely destroyed America's agriculture, finance, energy, insurance, and construction industries, among others

like did you know the FCC controls the entertainment industry? it's true!

someone's got to--those homosexuals in Hollywood are out of control

Oh shit -- The Corner's page ain't loading. Is this a consequence of government-run health care?

this is your web browser attempting to save you from yourself

hey the internet was subsidized by the government with your tax dollars, so of course it doesn't work

here Al I will step in

Fucking Crazy Bullshit [Mr. Que]

Blah blah blah blah blah blah? Blah blah blah Satanic Obama. Blah blah blah tea party Pelosi treason. Blah Blah blah blah!

Blah blah blah blah blah, no birth certificate, blah blah blah blah, Socialism!

i think right-wing opposition (citizen, pundit, pol, whatever) to HCR comes from three different spots. what % of those opposed belong in each? well, who knows.

* the truly marinated-in-stupidity types who really do think this is the blooming of fascism, raping the productive, controlling your life, exacting third-world revenge on white people, and on and on. people who have lived so long in this kind of rhetorical soup that the old nixonian codes are all that is real anymore. paranoia goes back a long way tho (check this out: http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/5851637/the-unholy-three-threaten-america.thtml). i think this is more than half, at least, of the sentiment and energy behind what we're seeing

* folks who are committed to trimming to dismantling the public sector, either as a principle or a reflex. this covers everyone from the dude flipping bills at a guy with parkinson's disease (see that video?) to guys like reihan salam who just think the current bill will make the US fiscal and economic outlook worse instead of better. a lot of the no-longer-republican suburban dad types, or people who think our HC sucks but are "nervous" about obama's plan fit in here.

* and then, crucially, there a few historically astute and extraordinarily cynical right wingers who know the score: people love medicare, they love medicare part D, they love Social Security. any expansion in the welfare state, especially if it really makes life better, especially if it's cheap and well-designed, will quickly become holy writ in US politics, and the people who built it will have earned a page in the history books. who is this, besides bill kristol? i dunno, but my suspicion is it's every major financial backer of the GOP.

http://bp0.blogger.com/_KVs9dCdKpn4/RXz147gLurI/AAAAAAAAAAg/LGAKmgQYkYo/s320/Dragonheart1.jpg
"A Knight of the Old Nixonian Code...!"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_V9qnSnzZ5PI/SNEwvLqZzUI/AAAAAAAAAPs/w9aODuyeHb0/s400/nixon.jpg

yumz

i do not think that is an actual picture of richard m. nixon.

But you wish it was.

I though Nixon melted in water?

t, anyone?

But you wish it was.

he he!

really, this incredibly revealing video needs to be broadcast coast-to-coast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXsRH73Cnw8&feature=player_embedded

it shows the opposition in an unvarnished -- and very unflattering -- light.

apologies if this was posted upthread. it was new -- and shocking -- to me.

yeah that's the video i'm talking about.

unreal

there are moments where those opposing change reveal their insensitivity and callousness in ways that move the nation to support change. that video felt like such a moment for me.

obv., i can't say if others will see it as i do, but i think that video is a powerful weapon for change-advocates in this final stretch.

(not just "those opposing change," i guess, since one of the moments that occurred to me is the famous "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.... You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" line . . .)

Since they're still railing about gov't controlled health care it really makes me wish there was a fucking public option in this bill. It really doesn't make a difference to these people if it's in or not.

ladies and gentlemen, ilxors, romans, countrymen, we've won this one. we did it. it's a done deal. the democrats did their shitty halfassed best, and here we are. wait wait you say, don't jinx it. how do i know?

A Pyrrhic Passage? [Victor Davis Hanson]

At an outdoor rally today, the president described the health-care debate as a referendum on the “character” of the country, and I do believe he was correct.

The president is pushing legislation that a clear majority of the people dislike, and whose details neither he nor his supporters can explain in simple language. Its ends-justify-the-means passage will require legislative gymnastics that border on the unconstitutional, and in Orwellian fashion are designed to reassure its sheepish supporters that they can appear not to be voting for the bill they vote for. And to achieve a House majority, Obama must offer an array of personal favors, political payoffs, federal stipends, and open threats, which, if done in the private sector, would be actionable acts of felonious bribery or racketeering.

So, yes, this is a reflection about character; and so far the president has throughout this entire shameful process been shown to be utterly wanting on that count, as he misrepresents both the bill’s contents and the opposition to it. All of his “let me be perfectly clear” and “make no mistake about it” and now-tired rhetoric and faux cadences simply cannot change that disturbing reality.

That such chameleon legislation is the work of a supposedly healing, post-partisan, post-ideological politician makes it even more embarrassing. There will be lots of us — Democrats, Republicans, Independents — who simply will not vote this fall for any congressional representative who votes for this tawdry DMV-like take-over of health care.

03/19 03:28 PMShare

that's know i know.

pop champagne.

how do you say "countrymen" in latin?

That guy forgot to include criticism of the ACTUAL CONTENTS OF THE BILL. But hey that seems like a common mistake.

o achieve a House majority, Obama must offer an array of personal favors, political payoffs, federal stipends, and open threats, which, if done in the private sector, would be actionable acts of felonious bribery or racketeering.

I would have thought that of all the Corner-ites, scholar of war Hanson would have savored this.

how do you say "countrymen" in latin?

Cives

So it's "Amici, Romani, Cives"?