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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / Country First!

Country First!

by John Cole|  March 22, 20103:20 pm| 264 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Mainstream Media's McCain Mancrush

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Mean old man McCain has a sad:

Democrats shouldn’t expect much cooperation from Republicans the rest of this year, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned Monday.

McCain and another Republican senator decried the effect health reform legislation has had on the Senate, a day after the House passed the upper chamber’s bill.

GOP senators emerged Monday to caution that the health debate had taken a toll on the institution, warning of little work between parties the rest of this year.

“There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,” McCain said during an interview Monday on an Arizona radio affiliate. “They have poisoned the well in what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.”

Oh no! Not obstructionism! They wouldn’t dare try that!

What is amazing is that a Senator is openly saying “Fuck the nation’s business, we’re a bunch of kids,” and no one in the media will point out how worthless and childish the Republicans are. Even worse, no one is even surprised.

*** Update ***

My, my my. Seems like a big win and the Democrats have grown a pair. Check out this from Harry Reid:

Washington, DC—Spokesman for Nevada Senator Harry Reid, Jim Manley, released the following statement today regarding Senator McCain’s comment pledging no cooperation from Republicans for the rest of the year:

“For someone who campaigned on ‘Country First’ and claims to take great pride in bipartisanship, it’s absolutely bizarre for Senator McCain to tell the American people he is going to take his ball and go home until the next election. He must be living in some parallel universe because the fact is, with very few exceptions, we’ve gotten very little cooperation from Senate Republicans in recent years.

“At a time when our economy is suffering and we’re fighting two wars, the American people need Senator McCain and his fellow Republicans to start working with us to confront the challenges facing our country—not reiterating their constant opposition to helping working families when they need it most.”

They even threw the “Country First!” stuff in his face. I think I need a cigarette.

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Reader Interactions

264Comments

  1. 1.

    Erik Vanderhoff

    March 22, 2010 at 3:24 pm

    Sooo… in other words, McCain is threatening that the Senate will run in the exact same fashion that it has for the entirety of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010.

    Yeah, master of the bleeding obvious, he is.

  2. 2.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    March 22, 2010 at 3:24 pm

    Democrats shouldn’t expect much cooperation from Republicans the rest of this year, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned Monday.

    Ah the good ole Republican Alternate Universe. Exactly when, over the *last* year, have the Repups been cooperative?

    Of course Senate Dems always believe their buds on the opposite side of the aisle have been cooperative. But it’s hard to be objective, or alert, when you’re lying on the floor with a dozen shivs stuck in your back.

  3. 3.

    Maude

    March 22, 2010 at 3:25 pm

    Great picture. Did he stamp his wittle footie?

  4. 4.

    scav

    March 22, 2010 at 3:25 pm

    sigh. What if they throw an obstruction and no one notices the difference?

  5. 5.

    geg6

    March 22, 2010 at 3:25 pm

    You wouldn’t expect the media to point out any possible childishness to President McCain, would you? Not when he was the only politician any of the Big Three morning shows saw fit to interview about the big health care reform doings! How can we ever move ahead without knowing what, exactly, President McCain thinks about it!

    Seriously, I saw the first half hours of both the Today Show and GMA. And McCain was the only actual politician interviewed on either network. And what he had to do with what happened yesterday, no one ever explained.

  6. 6.

    Some Guy

    March 22, 2010 at 3:26 pm

    The most idle threat so far. “We’ll do what lead to health care passing as it did.” Great. Status quo politics. Scary. Really. Shaking in my boots.

    Anyone remember the Simpsons when Homer is the last employee to have not received employee of the month and Mr. Burns gives the award to an inanimate metal rod? Homer throws a classic Homer rage fit and yells, “I’ll show you inanimate!” and then stands still while the sun goes down. Everyone leaves and he is alone.

    That is McCain, that is the contemporary Republican party. Alone in the dark, paralyzed by pointless, stupid anger.

  7. 7.

    Mary G

    March 22, 2010 at 3:26 pm

    It’s like a degenerate gambler who’s lost the rent in a poker game and decides the best solution is to double down with the grocery money. And just as likely to work.

  8. 8.

    LarsThorwald

    March 22, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    Even worse, David Fucking Gregory will have this asshole on five more times before the end of the year.

  9. 9.

    MikeJ

    March 22, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    @Some Guy: Carbon rod.

  10. 10.

    Colette

    March 22, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    Portrait of an Elderly Bricklayer, Anonymous, 2010.

  11. 11.

    Citizen_X

    March 22, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    So, do people think there is any chance of any success for these supposed state lawsuits against the healthcare plan?

  12. 12.

    Arclite

    March 22, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    Democrats shouldn’t expect much cooperation from Republicans the rest of this year, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned Monday.

    And this is different from the past year how exactly?

    UPDATE: Haha, same as comments 1 & 2. Oh, well. Stating the obvious I suppose.

  13. 13.

    John Cole

    March 22, 2010 at 3:28 pm

    @LarsThorwald: Just tweeted that for you…

  14. 14.

    MikeJ

    March 22, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    Love that update. Winning feels good, doesn’t it fellow Dems? Let’s do it more, and then you can publicly laugh at Republicans more often.

  15. 15.

    flukebucket

    March 22, 2010 at 3:29 pm

    @LarsThorwald:

    Even worse, David Fucking Gregory will have this asshole on five more times before the end of the year.

    Shit. He will be on five more times before the end of June.

  16. 16.

    cleek

    March 22, 2010 at 3:30 pm

    “They have poisoned the well in what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.”

    wouldn’t it be great if the press unpacked that sentence and explained exactly how the bill was created, debated and finally, passed ? and then did the same with any other bill ?

    i’d love to see how hard they’d have to work to find differences.

  17. 17.

    GReynoldsCT00

    March 22, 2010 at 3:30 pm

    About time! More of this please

  18. 18.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 3:30 pm

    People can go on to live useful and productive lives in public service after losing a huge race – John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore.

    Not John McCain or Sarah Palin, apparently, but people have done that.

  19. 19.

    Brian J

    March 22, 2010 at 3:30 pm

    Wait a minute, where am I? Who is this guy calling himself Harry Reid?

  20. 20.

    r€nato

    March 22, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    I almost want JD Hayworth to win, just to watch the McCain meltdown.

  21. 21.

    Jim C.

    March 22, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    I’m starting to reevaluate Senator Reid just a little bit. When you get right down to it, when it mattered most…on the biggest bill in decades in the Senate…he managed to get ALL SIXTY egos on board.

  22. 22.

    Chris

    March 22, 2010 at 3:33 pm

    Shorter John McCain: Get off my lawn!

  23. 23.

    r€nato

    March 22, 2010 at 3:33 pm

    “We passed HCR without a single GOP vote” sounds like a mighty fine campaign slogan to me.

  24. 24.

    ChrisZ

    March 22, 2010 at 3:33 pm

    Doesn’t “poisoning the well” mean something entirely different than how McCain is using it? Or is there more than one meaning to that phrase?

  25. 25.

    Bubblegum Tate

    March 22, 2010 at 3:33 pm

    @Brian J:

    I’m wondering exactly the same thing. The press release is credited to Harry Reid, yet it sounds like it was done by some sort of vertebrate. Whaaaaaaaa?

  26. 26.

    sparky

    March 22, 2010 at 3:33 pm

    meh. with Obama for the most part running pretty hard for the right (with the possible exception of health care, but the jury is out on that one), what do actual Rs (not caricatures) have left to do other than obstructionism? dumb of him to say it so bluntly, though. guess someone forgot to tell him not to repeat the flash cards aloud.

  27. 27.

    Skepticat

    March 22, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    I want to hear more like Senator Reid’s comments. Better late than never that they be called on this horse hockey.

  28. 28.

    Keith G

    March 22, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    @geg6:

    I saw the first half hours of both the Today Show and GMA. And McCain was the only actual politician interviewed on either network. And what he had to do with what happened yesterday, no one ever explained.

    Maybe its true that the MSM are closet Dems (yeah right). I mean, the GOP wins nothing by having this increasingly irrelevant bag o’ angry Mc bones as their media (lumpy) face.

    I used to get angry, but now I realize what a service this silly old man is doing for Democrats every where.

    Country First, Mc Fuck!!

  29. 29.

    Brian J

    March 22, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    @r€nato:

    Yes, yes it does. “Without a single Republican vote” needs to be burned into the brains of every voter in this country.

  30. 30.

    Sentient Puddle

    March 22, 2010 at 3:35 pm

    @Jim C.: And he had zero margin for error.

    Yeah, looking back, I think we were too hard on the guy. He had an impossible job.

  31. 31.

    Ailuridae

    March 22, 2010 at 3:35 pm

    @kay:

    You’re ignoring something that those three legislators all have in common that McCain doesn’t share…

  32. 32.

    catclub

    March 22, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    Notice though that it was Harry Reid’s spokesman who released a statement.

    1. Not Harry Reid at the microphone.

    2.Not even the spokesman at the microphone for the TV’s.

    Still committed to the ‘comity’ of the Senate.

    Get him in front of a camera and microphone and then
    I will be impressed.

  33. 33.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    March 22, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    Really it is just coming right out and admitting that the merits of a given bill have nothing to do with it, it’s just pure open and admitted revenge.

    Which makes a lie of the claim that voting against this one was based on anything but politics either.

    I thought Reich had the best take so far: As important as it is, it’s basically a pretty conservative piece of legislation, the idea that it’s far-left so shlizm is simply absurd. And they know this, of course.

    If anyone really paid attention to what McCain just said, they would too. Watch David Gregory dance right past it though.

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 22, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    “They have poisoned the well in what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.”

    The man who brought Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber to the national stage, who agreed with the Wassilla Grifta about ‘death panels’ has the gall to talk about “poisoning the well”? What a dick. I have no hopes of anyone not on MSNBC of pointing this out, but it would be great if some other Dem followed up on Reid’s lead and did so.

  35. 35.

    The Raven

    March 22, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    “Democrats have grown a pair”

    Nah. The sick and the weak are the easiest living food.

  36. 36.

    Morbo

    March 22, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    @r€nato: It’s untrue though. They got a single vote throughout this entire process (Joseph Cao).

  37. 37.

    Paul L.

    March 22, 2010 at 3:39 pm

    “You know, I think that you are investing in a culture that I am not interested in. And you should go your way,”

  38. 38.

    Ash Can

    March 22, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    “There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year”

    Oh noez! Whatever will the Dems do if the Republicans withhold all that productivity cooperation they’ve been giving the Dems??

    Stir a little Metamucil into your orange juice, gramps. You’ll be fine in the morning.

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 22, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim: Watch David Gregory dance right past it though.

    If David Gregory had a brain, he’d take it out and play with it.

  40. 40.

    Redshift

    March 22, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    @Citizen_X: No, not a chance. A couple of days ago, State Wingnut Cuccinelli couldn’t even say what the basis of his challenge would be, and on local news today, he was emphasizing that he’s defending the anti-mandate law the stupid legislature passed (rather than that he was attacking some great evil.) I take that as a hint that even he knows he’s not going to win — but it’ll be great for his wingnut cred anyway.

  41. 41.

    John Cole

    March 22, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    @Morbo: Actually, without a single Republican vote is in fact true. The Senate Bill got not one Republican vote in either the House or Senate. Cao voted for a bill that went nowhere.

    HCR was passed without a single Republican vote.

  42. 42.

    mapaghimagsik

    March 22, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    I’ve been trying to console my Republican friends. “Yes, its difficult when a bill passes you don’t support, but — NOM NOM NOM YOUR TEARS ARE SO GOOD CRY SOME MORE NOM NOM NOM”

    I am bipartisan fail.

  43. 43.

    Kyle

    March 22, 2010 at 3:41 pm

    “For someone who campaigned on ‘Country First’ and claims to take great pride in bipartisanship, it’s absolutely bizarre for Senator McCain to tell the American people he is going to take his ball and go home until the next election. He must be living in some parallel universe because the fact is, with very few exceptions, we’ve gotten very little cooperation from Senate Republicans in recent years”.

    Never thought I’d say this in relation to a Harry Reid quote, but “Fuckin’ A”.

  44. 44.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 3:41 pm

    @Ailuridae:

    Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, I could even compare McCain unfavorably to Joe Lieberman as far as “losing with grace”, and that’s saying something.

    I am seeing a pattern here.

    You could knock me over with a feather.

  45. 45.

    Punchy

    March 22, 2010 at 3:42 pm

    To just admit to blatant and wanton obstructionism is stunning. Insane, really.

  46. 46.

    JCT

    March 22, 2010 at 3:42 pm

    Hey, Johnny — after you run back home to AZ with your tail between your legs and your bottom lip quivering, don’t forget to refund your employers (taxpayers) for your paycheck that you are refusing to earn.

    To think that this profound loser/idiot was the republican nominee for President. It just boggles the mind.

  47. 47.

    Mike G

    March 22, 2010 at 3:43 pm

    Even worse, David Fucking Gregory will have this asshole on five more times before the end of the year month.

    Fixed.

  48. 48.

    Uli Kunkel

    March 22, 2010 at 3:43 pm

    This reminds of the “war” that pundits declared Obama was going to regret when he said mean things about Fox News. Yeah, because up till then, Fox was pulling its punches.

    Then there was this thumb-sucker in the NYT:

    But there is no doubt that in the course of this debate, Mr. Obama has lost something — and lost it for good. Gone is the promise on which he rode to victory less than a year and a half ago — the promise of a “postpartisan” Washington in which rationality and calm discourse replaced partisan bickering.

    Yeah, Obama promised to keep the GOP from acting like idiots, and he broke his promise! (clutches pearls)

  49. 49.

    MikeTheZ

    March 22, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    I think Harry Reid is getting jealous of all the NANCY SMASH love. And I like it.

  50. 50.

    cleek

    March 22, 2010 at 3:44 pm

    looks like McCain needs some prunes. sounds like it, too.

  51. 51.

    Robin G.

    March 22, 2010 at 3:45 pm

    Harry, that was hawt.

  52. 52.

    Bob K

    March 22, 2010 at 3:46 pm

    “Country First?” How about another fine GOP mantra –
    “Support Our Troops!”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/19/hannitys-freedom-concerts_n_505294.html

  53. 53.

    Sentient Puddle

    March 22, 2010 at 3:46 pm

    @mapaghimagsik: I’m not bothering. My friends who are like that are falling back to teh stupid rhetoric again. For instance, this Facebook exchange:

    Friend: I am appalled! They should at least be forced into the same insurance they forced upon us!
    Me: They are. Section 1312.
    Friend: Doesn’t read that way to me. [Citing of part II that doesn’t have anything to do with the issue]
    Me: Uh…part I, the one you skipped over, spells it out in plain, unambiguous English.

    Can’t wait to see where this goes…

  54. 54.

    Jim C.

    March 22, 2010 at 3:47 pm

    @mapaghimagsik

    Indeed. I’ve had a hard time restraining my own gloating. This is such a cathartic moment for liberals in this country it’s almost orgasmic. **** it. It IS orgasmic. Some of us younger types have been waiting our entire freaking lives for something like this.

  55. 55.

    goblue72

    March 22, 2010 at 3:48 pm

    Harry’s probably taken a look at his latest re-elect poll numbers and figured “i’m pretty much complete toast come November, what the eff do I got to lose at this point?”

  56. 56.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    March 22, 2010 at 3:49 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    If David Gregory had a brain, he’d take it out and play with it.

    Actually if you just read the transcript from this guy, he does stuff like that all the time.

    Eric Cantor turned into a lizard a few weeks ago, right in the middle of the show.

    I don’t even bother to go watch the videos of the Sunday shows anymore, this is so much better.

  57. 57.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 22, 2010 at 3:49 pm

    I is on Ur Tee Vee making funny faces

  58. 58.

    Redshift

    March 22, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    @Punchy: Mitch McConnell was admitting it in an interview even before this vote. We were watching the vote last night with a friend who’s a solid Democrat, but less politically involved than us, and she just could not understand how a leader who openly admits that his plan is to oppose everything for political gain, regardless of the merits and regardless of harm to the country (as well as all those who support him in that effort) are ever elected to anything.

    Frankly, I find it hard to believe myself.

  59. 59.

    New Yorker

    March 22, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    It’s appropriate for the bitterist old white guy in the Senate to be the face of a party that is basically nothing but bitter old white men at this point. By the time Obama leaves office, the entire GOP will either be dead or in a nursing home.

  60. 60.

    slag

    March 22, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    They even threw the “Country First!” stuff in his face.

    About damn time. I really hope the Dems make the most out of the momentum that they have going. Of course, there’s very little in their recent history to suggest that they would do such a thing.

    But then, there’s very little in their recent history to suggest that they would stick together well enough to pass major legislation over the shrieking heads of their Republican colleagues either.

  61. 61.

    Mark S.

    March 22, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    @Citizen_X:

    So, do people think there is any chance of any success for these supposed state lawsuits against the healthcare plan?

    Not much. The state sovereignty and interstate commerce claims sound mostly like horseshit to me. I think the strongest argument would be the individual mandate, but I don’t see why these states’ atty generals would have standing to sue on that. From a WaPo chat with some law professor:

    Princeton, N.J.: A Professor Jost of Washington and Lee Law School was on C-SPAN this morning. He claims the states have no standing in this issue. He also says that since the individual mandate does not go into effect for 4 years, nobody has any standing until then.

    PS I’m not saying I think the individual mandate is unconstitutional, just that I think it’s the strongest argument.

  62. 62.

    MikeTheZ

    March 22, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    @Redshift: MSNBC had a mention of what grounds he’s challenging the bill on: something about the interstate commerce clause (which won’t work) and the fact that VA has a law on the books saying the Federal Govt can’t do what they did (which, of course, is what the 9th Amendment is all about). So really all they’ll do is waste taxpayer money, Just like the salaries of the Republicans in congress.

  63. 63.

    Malron aka eclecticbrotha

    March 22, 2010 at 3:52 pm

    I’m sure this pun has to have been used by now but I’ve been Massa-bating ever since we reached 219 last night.

  64. 64.

    Redshift

    March 22, 2010 at 3:55 pm

    @goblue72: Not to mention that his best chance for reelection is if he can stir up the teabaggers enough that they run their own candidate.

  65. 65.

    Jenn

    March 22, 2010 at 3:56 pm

    Go Harry!

    Wow, we sure got lucky when McCain lost, even more than I’d imagined at the time. I knew he had a reputation for a bad temper, but I had no idea that he would be this much of a childish, petulant, sore loser. During his concession speech, I had such high hopes that he would actually, you know, put country first. And, yeah, Kay, I’d agree — McCain is far worse than Lieberman, and that really is saying something.

  66. 66.

    John O

    March 22, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    Boy, would this be a good time to go after Big Bank, hard.

    Let’s watch the GOP climb back in bed with their Wall St. masters (sadly, with some Dem help) and teabag heads will blow all over the country, and then maybe both bases will be “demoralized.”

    It just seems like perfect timing to me.

  67. 67.

    MikeJ

    March 22, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    @Redshift: I thought they already had one. I seem to remember the Republicans trying to say that the the guy wasn’t a real teabagger.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    March 22, 2010 at 3:58 pm

    this is SO not a surprise.

  69. 69.

    freelancer

    March 22, 2010 at 3:58 pm

    @mapaghimagsik:

    I posted this clip last night, but it is just too awesome.

    http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/104191

  70. 70.

    Ailuridae

    March 22, 2010 at 3:58 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    This. Even in the weird left-right calculation that leads to the American center this is a centrist, technocratic approach to HCR. What I think the Republicans realized early on was that they could run against HCR by basically uniting in the Senate against the bill and allowing their side to be argued by the most Conservative members of the Democratic caucus. If Republicans had been willing participants and this bill had garnered 75-80 votes it would be fundamentally no different than the bill that passed the House yesterday.

  71. 71.

    licensed to kill time

    March 22, 2010 at 3:59 pm

    Poor poor McGrumpy, so bittercling and haz a mad
    Gonna take hiz ball, go home tell Ma
    not play no moah take that !

    Bet ObamaRahm quakin’ in they boots.

  72. 72.

    geg6

    March 22, 2010 at 3:59 pm

    OT, but the asshole screaming “Baby Killer” at Stupak decided to out himself. And surprise, surprise…he’s a Texan:

    http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/03/baby-killer-shout-came-from-re.html

  73. 73.

    Da Bomb

    March 22, 2010 at 4:00 pm

    Speaking about being angry, here’s a nice tweet that Agent Orange posted:

    From John “Oompa Loompa” Boehner’s twitter:

    So this is how Soviet America begins. The Dems are the REDS — the real Americans are the WHITES.

    http://smoothlikeremy.blogspot.com/2010/03/complete-and-total-lack-of-self.html

  74. 74.

    J.W. Hamner

    March 22, 2010 at 4:00 pm

    @Mark S.:

    I’m not saying I think the individual mandate is unconstitutional, just that I think it’s the strongest argument.

    My understanding is that they structured it like a tax, so it’s hard to see how you can constitutionally challenge Congress’s right to levy taxes… but who knows.

  75. 75.

    Jenn

    March 22, 2010 at 4:00 pm

    Actually, you know, I’m reminded that it doesn’t really matter if the Republicans cooperate or not — after all, isn’t it supposed to be Armageddon now?

  76. 76.

    Sentient Puddle

    March 22, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    @MikeTheZ:

    MSNBC had a mention of what grounds he’s challenging the bill on: something about the interstate commerce clause (which won’t work)

    WTF? The interstate commerce clause is what they’re planning on using? Not only would the judge laugh it out of court, but the defense would go up to the attorneys general afterward and say “Hey, thanks for handling our side of the case!”

    Are these the kind of people we’re elevating to attorney general these days? People who read “Congress has the authority to regulate commerce between states,” and interprets it to mean that congress can’t regulate commerce between states? Jesus fuck.

  77. 77.

    Redshift

    March 22, 2010 at 4:03 pm

    @MikeJ: I’m unclear whether he’s a definite candidate, and whether he’ll actually stay in the race if so. (I thought the GOP attack was as much about whether his party is real as about him personally.) In any case, his candidacy is apparently shaky enough that few polls are including him, so I think the point is still valid. (Though of course, getting the ‘baggers to support him is more about getting them mad at the Republicans than at Reid, but still.)

  78. 78.

    dr. bloor

    March 22, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    @Jenn:

    Actually, you know, I’m reminded that it doesn’t really matter if the Republicans cooperate or not—after all, isn’t it supposed to be Armageddon now?

    Sure looks like President McCain is fixin’ to drop a nuclear bomb there…

  79. 79.

    rob!

    March 22, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    John Cole-

    How DARE you use that picture of McCain, since everyone knows it refers to the Public Option!

  80. 80.

    kdaug

    March 22, 2010 at 4:05 pm

    @r€nato:

    I almost want JD Hayworth to win, just to watch JD’s meltdown

  81. 81.

    FormerSwingVoter

    March 22, 2010 at 4:05 pm

    Um, I don’t think Republicans understand how threats” work. “Don’t do that thing, or we will keep doing what we’ve been doing and were going to keep doing anyway” is not particularly compelling.

  82. 82.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 4:05 pm

    @Jenn:

    They’re all like that. Romney says Obama has “violated his oath to the country”. He’s the moderate, rational Republican.

    It’s going to be as crazy as when they lost the last time, in 2008.

    They’re whipping each other into a spit-flecked frenzy.

  83. 83.

    ChrisZ

    March 22, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    @rob!:

    I lol’ed

  84. 84.

    PeakVT

    March 22, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    “There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,” McCain said

    That’s good to hear. Now we won’t have to wait for President Snowe and President Collins to weigh in on each bill.

  85. 85.

    Da Bomb

    March 22, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    O/T: Howard Fine is an idiot too:

    The list of winners and losers only begins with the president. Here is my sense of who they are, in both political and real-life terms.

    WINNERS

    Obama: He staked everything on this and, like the long distance runners from his fatherland, he made it (barely) across the finish line.

    http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archiv…

  86. 86.

    fourlegsgood

    March 22, 2010 at 4:06 pm

    This day just keeps getting better. FRAWSOME!!!!

  87. 87.

    gypsy howell

    March 22, 2010 at 4:07 pm

    We need a new tag — “No Country For Old Men”

  88. 88.

    Scott

    March 22, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    @Da Bomb: Pretty sure that a Fake Boehner… His whole stream reads like parody…

  89. 89.

    stuckinred

    March 22, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    The Georgia Legislature is hard at it!

  90. 90.

    joes527

    March 22, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    @Da Bomb: Dude. That is the fake John Boener’s twitter feed.

    The real one is here: http://twitter.com/JOHNBOEHNER

    Yeah, the fake one is more entertaining.

  91. 91.

    MikeTheZ

    March 22, 2010 at 4:09 pm

    @Sentient Puddle: The second part, about arguing that a state law supersedes federal law should get him disbarred, IMHO.

  92. 92.

    Redshift

    March 22, 2010 at 4:09 pm

    @Sentient Puddle:

    Are these the kind of people we’re elevating to attorney general these days? People who read “Congress has the authority to regulate commerce between states,” and interprets it to mean that congress can’t regulate commerce between states? Jesus fuck.

    I suspect that all Cuccinelli knows about the Constitution is what the Bible tells him it says.

    Unlike Gov. Bob McDonnell, Cooch didn’t even try to hide his wingnut views behind a fake moderate facade when he was running. Virginia voters are idiots sometimes.

  93. 93.

    Da Bomb

    March 22, 2010 at 4:12 pm

    @joes527: Gotcha. It just sounds so similar to something he would say.

  94. 94.

    Redshift

    March 22, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    @kay:

    They’re all like that. Romney says Obama has “violated his oath to the country”. He’s the moderate, rational Republican.

    Well, sort of. Remember, Romney is whatever it’s most convenient to be at any moment. He’s arguably the most shameless flip-flopper of our time.

  95. 95.

    arguingwithsignposts

    March 22, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    @Da Bomb: Wow, I’m amazed Fineman doubled down on that simile. He used that last night. I assume he thought it was some form of trenchant political thought. If the vote had failed, maybe he’d have compared the preznit thusly, “like the suicide bombers of his Muslim heritage, Obama blew up at the last minute.”

    Douche.

  96. 96.

    freelancer

    March 22, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    @gypsy howell:

    [snort]

    erm, This.

    Does that make Obama, Javier Bardem?

    @rob!:

    I’m not farmaliyar with this meme. Anyone care to edify me?

  97. 97.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    March 22, 2010 at 4:15 pm

    Well, one thing I guess:

    “The merits of any given bill don’t matter. If the Democrats propose it, we’re against it”

    At least we’ve got them saying it right out loud now.

  98. 98.

    Peter J

    March 22, 2010 at 4:15 pm

    Seems like a big win and the Democrats have grown a pair.

    Not sure what happened, but it also seems that McCain has lost one of his.

    For someone who campaigned on ‘Country First’ and claims to take great pride in bipartisanship, it’s absolutely bizarre for Senator McCain to tell the American people he is going to take his ball and go home until the next election.

  99. 99.

    aimai

    March 22, 2010 at 4:17 pm

    @gypsy howell:

    Seconded. “No Country For Old Men” as long as McCain is alive and interfering with politics. A definite must as a tag.

    aimai

  100. 100.

    Bob K

    March 22, 2010 at 4:19 pm

    I wish this would happen to more reich wing blowhards when they travel overseas. Kind of remind them there are consequences for yelling “Fire” in a movie theater.

    http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/22/canada-coulter/

  101. 101.

    LD50

    March 22, 2010 at 4:23 pm

    @Redshift:

    Mitch McConnell was admitting it in an interview even before this vote. We were watching the vote last night with a friend who’s a solid Democrat, but less politically involved than us, and she just could not understand how a leader who openly admits that his plan is to oppose everything for political gain, regardless of the merits and regardless of harm to the country (as well as all those who support him in that effort) are ever elected to anything.

    It speaks volumes that even us DFH’s no longer see anything particularly surprising in this state of affairs.

  102. 102.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    March 22, 2010 at 4:23 pm

    Calamity Jane in on Ratigan saying that forcing a mandate on people may have made them say racist and gay slurs in DC. The wingnut (Jason Sekulo) on with her agrees.

    Calamity Jane is shrill, just like the wingnuts.

  103. 103.

    geg6

    March 22, 2010 at 4:24 pm

    @freelancer:

    I’m not farmaliyar with this meme. Anyone care to edify me?

    https://balloon-juice.com/2010/03/22/once-more-with-feeling-2/

  104. 104.

    boognish

    March 22, 2010 at 4:25 pm

    @rob!:

    win, epic

  105. 105.

    Comrade Kevin

    March 22, 2010 at 4:27 pm

    @joes527: Apparently, he has two of them, there’s also: http://twitter.com/Gopleader

  106. 106.

    LD50

    March 22, 2010 at 4:30 pm

    @Da Bomb:

    From John “Oompa Loompa” Boehner’s twitter:
    So this is how Soviet America begins. The Dems are the REDS —the real Americans are the WHITES.

    So where does that leave the ORANGES, like John?

  107. 107.

    Ailuridae

    March 22, 2010 at 4:31 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):

    Republicans can’t be shrill

  108. 108.

    mcc

    March 22, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):

    Calamity Jane in on Ratigan saying that forcing a mandate on people may have made them say racist and gay slurs in DC.

    Really? For serious?

    Hamsher and Devin Nunes, standing together.

  109. 109.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 22, 2010 at 4:33 pm

    No one can hope to imagine, or maybe some can, just how magnificently tasty are John McCain’s tears. I save them to sprinkle on my Wheaties every morn and at night they sweeten my Obot toddy.

    Yes We Did. true dat

  110. 110.

    JM

    March 22, 2010 at 4:34 pm

    John McCain has lived like a kept woman since the Nixon administration. The last honest day’s work he did was filming propaganda for the VC against his own country.

  111. 111.

    Da Bomb

    March 22, 2010 at 4:37 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: They never cease to amaze me.

    As Oliver Willis said, “They are who we thought they were”

    @rob!: That was filled with win!

  112. 112.

    freelancer

    March 22, 2010 at 4:38 pm

    @geg6:

    No, I saw that too. Was it about last summer and progressives guffawing about the 11-D chess wrt the PO?

  113. 113.

    Da Bomb

    March 22, 2010 at 4:40 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck: HA-HA!!

  114. 114.

    Quicksand

    March 22, 2010 at 4:42 pm

    [email protected]:

    Doesn’t “poisoning the well” mean something entirely different than how McCain is using it? Or is there more than one meaning to that phrase?

    It means exactly what McCain thinks it means. Just ask Armando.

  115. 115.

    D.N. Nation

    March 22, 2010 at 4:42 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: For what it’s worth, vile wingnut cartoonist Michael Ramirez (I’m refusing to link…it was on Investors’ Business Daily, if you’re curious) shat out a Democrats-equal-suicide-bombers ‘toon last week. Ridiculous.

  116. 116.

    Tonal Crow

    March 22, 2010 at 4:44 pm

    Harry Reid…kicking ass? What happened last night?

  117. 117.

    Truth or Scare

    March 22, 2010 at 4:44 pm

    I’ll argue again for a ‘Hippies for Hayworth’ effort. As a practical matter I didn’t expect any difference in their future votes, and now President McCain has confirmed this himself. We might as well donate a few dollars to encourage Hayworth to let his freak flag fly and enlighten the masses who haven’t yet caught on to the extent of the GOP freakshow. Per RedState, Hayworth has signed some kind of pledge to repeal HCR — it will be so sweet to watch the GOP running on taking insurance away from the kids and dumping people with preexisting conditions back off the health care rolls. Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease … good times ahead!

  118. 118.

    maye

    March 22, 2010 at 4:44 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): wow. now she’s making excuses for racist slurs? how far can she descend?

  119. 119.

    Violet

    March 22, 2010 at 4:51 pm

    @MikeTheZ:

    MSNBC had a mention of what grounds he’s challenging the bill on: something about the interstate commerce clause (which won’t work)

    Aren’t these the same people that said selling health insurance across state lines would solve all our problems? Logic fail.

  120. 120.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    March 22, 2010 at 4:57 pm

    @mcc:

    Serious as a heart attack. The winger was patting Jane on the head (verbally of course) and saying what great progressives Jane and the people over at FDL are. Oh, and that they agree with him and other wingers that the bill is a disaster. It was a mutual reacharound right there on MSNBC. Seeing and hearing Jane excuse the teabagger bullshit in DC as people being justifiably upset at the bill sure as hell puts a spin on it that I wasn’t expecting from her.

    Calamity Jane is no progressive, she’s in this for her own fame. It’s clear that she doesn’t give a shit about anything else.

  121. 121.

    The Dude Abides

    March 22, 2010 at 4:58 pm

    I submitted the Hill article to Digg with this comment:
    “The Dems shouldn’t expect cooperation from the GOP the rest of the year, said Sen. John McCain. The cranky old man, who never spoke in 2008 about being a POW and has been the opposite of bipartisan for the past two years, then yelled “Get off my lawn!” before wandering out of camera view, entering a closet, and needing help to get back out.”

    I encourage others to go to this link and comment.
    http://digg.com/politics/McCain_Don_t_expect_GOP_cooperation_the_rest_of_this_year

  122. 122.

    Southern Beale

    March 22, 2010 at 4:59 pm

    ZOMG. No cooperation from the GOP for the rest of the year. I cannot imagine what that would look like.

    [/sarcasm]

  123. 123.

    Mnemosyne

    March 22, 2010 at 5:01 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    “The merits of any given bill don’t matter. If the Democrats propose it, we’re against it”

    Groucho beat them to it.

    (There are explicitly partisan versions of this on YouTube, too, but I like the original.)

  124. 124.

    Michael

    March 22, 2010 at 5:02 pm

    To Arms! To Arms!

    The fatassed pastyfaced losers at Heritage (these being the sort of fat kids who always got picked last at dodgeball) are upset.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU7-G50Xvus&feature=player_embedded

  125. 125.

    bemused

    March 22, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    @rob!:
    Good one! ‘Refer to the public option’ should be a lexicon candidate, imo.

  126. 126.

    Brian J

    March 22, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    @Sentient Puddle:

    Do judges ever literally laugh at people in court? The only time I remember hearing this happen–and who knows if it was true, because I wasn’t there–was when Bill O’Reilly tried to sue Al Franken for something. I’d really like to have them tape this if it does indeed happen.

  127. 127.

    Fester Addams

    March 22, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    Ha! Reid’s office is trying to kill him by inducing an aneurysm?

  128. 128.

    kuvasz

    March 22, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    Mccain is just blowing smoke, as soon as he wins his primary he will reach across the aisle.

  129. 129.

    Zuzu's Petals

    March 22, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    @Brian J:

    I know! I feel slightly faint.

  130. 130.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):

    I told you. They’re going to get invited on for the sole purpose of trashing the bill.

    “Even liberals hate it” It’s exactly what happened with stimulus.

    While simultaneously claiming they’re advocating for improvements.

  131. 131.

    priscianus jr

    March 22, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    On Obama’s margin of victory in the popular vote. A lot of Republicans call it “narrow.” Here’s the truth.
    Of the 47 presidential elections that have been held since 1824 (when records of popular vote began to be kept), Obama’s victory margin of 7.3% ranks 26th, or just slightly below the mean, which was George H.W. Bush’s 7.8%.
    Obama’s margin of victory was more than three times that of G.W. Bush in 2004. Whereas the victory margin figure (popular vote) for Obama was 7.3%, the figure for Bush in 2004 was 2.4%. (As we know, Bush in 2000 did not even win the popular vote.)

  132. 132.

    Martian Buddy

    March 22, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    “The merits of any given bill don’t matter. If the Democrats propose it, we’re against it”

    Please, please, please let the GOP be this stupid. Please let them mindlessly oppose everything, regardless of public support. We could possibly even increase our majorities if they’re that fucking dumb.

  133. 133.

    jl

    March 22, 2010 at 5:15 pm

    DougJ spoofing himself again.

    I see. Now that when DougJ gets sick, he can get treated, in a swank private suite with 71 blonde bombshell Swedish nurses on my taxpayer dime in this new totalitarian social theft of my hard earned dollars medical system, he decides to take up smoking.

    ’tis the end of the Republick.

    Everything will fall apart into a heap of dystopian rotting decay and deprivation the second Barry Hussein signs that bill. You watch. The sun will be blotted out.

    Biden will all make us all run in chains behind steam trains, just to savor making us all miserable.

    Alas, alas, we heroic producers of wealth are all undone!

  134. 134.

    Rommie

    March 22, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    Ugh at the concern trolling, but if, if, the Supreme Court actually takes one of these lawsuits into deliberation, all bets are off. Logic and the Supreme Court don’t mix when there are 5 “Heroes of America” potentially waiting to put their stamp in the history books. I think Kennedy is capable of going there.

    Hail Mary passes always make me nervous as the team with the lead, so you might chalk this up to the paranoia of an Emotionally Damaged Lions Fan, and I wouldn’t disagree.

  135. 135.

    freelancer

    March 22, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    OT- I joked in an earlier thread that:

    HCR is Conservative 9/11, the squeakquel.

    Evidently, I shouldn’t be making light of their trauma. Many of them are obviously suffering from PTSD (via Think Progress):

    Right-wing radio host Neal Boortz tweeted that “Nancy Pelosi will be grinning and laughing” following the health care vote, which “will do more damage than 9/11.”
    …
    Conservative talker Rush Limbaugh said on his show this morning that America is now “hanging by a thread” and that “our freedom has been assaulted.”

    I’m such an insensitive jerk.

  136. 136.

    RareSanity

    March 22, 2010 at 5:19 pm

    @Da Bomb:

    As Oliver Willis said, “They are who we thought they were”

    I’m sorry Mr. Willis is a fine writer. However, the credit for that line should go to Dennis Green.

    Plus, his original version is much funnier…

  137. 137.

    YellowJournalism

    March 22, 2010 at 5:20 pm

    Temp-Tweety on Hardball is interviewing Stupak right now. Stupak says he talked to Randy Neugebaeur about the “baby killer” outburst, and Neugebaeur told Stupak that the insult wasn’t meant for him.

    “Oh no, I didn’t mean YOU. I meant some other guy who aligned with the pro-HCR Democrats who was speaking at the time in front of the entire House. No, though, not you.”

    “Oh, they only threw things, shouted racist and homophobic slurs, and spit on people because they’re really mad.”

    “The Democrats and liberals did it first.”

    I’ve heard better excuses from a five-year-old. In fact, over my years working with children, the strategy is usually to discuss how the insult hurts others, how the child would feel if the insult/assault/etc. were directed toward them, and how to properly express their feelings. And no matter what feelings were behind their actions and comments, those children were given punishments, told that what they did was wrong, and were warned to never do it again. Perhaps someone needs to do this with the Republicans and their supporters. “Randy Neugebaeur, you will apologize to your friends and then sit in time-out until you learn to make better choices.”

    Someone call Supernanny to the House and the Senate!

  138. 138.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 5:22 pm

    Rep Gingry (R-GA) was just on Hardball saying, ” We have to be very careful of what we say…” in reference to “You lie,” and “Baby killer.” and the protesters outside. Note – what we say versus what we think…

  139. 139.

    bemused

    March 22, 2010 at 5:23 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
    Wow, just wow. That’s sickening.

  140. 140.

    ryeland

    March 22, 2010 at 5:24 pm

    Hamsher has gone full-metal wingnut. Here’s the quote from Ratigan:

    It was reprehensible. It was definitely the ugly side of populism. As someone who was an anti-war activist when the Iraq war broke out. I remember being upset when they would take one or two pictures or one or two people who were saying out of line things and try to paint the entire movement with it. But this actually really scares me. I wonder if we have not underestimated the rage that is going to spill over in really ugly ways because we’re mandating people to pay 8% of their income for a product they don’t want to a company they don’t trust or face 2.5% of their income being seized by the IRS in fines. I think that we’re going to have seriously problems with it on down the line.

  141. 141.

    Sasha

    March 22, 2010 at 5:25 pm

    Barack Obama: Like a yellow sun to Democrats, like a red sun to Republicans.

    Obama in Metropolis, IL.

  142. 142.

    RareSanity

    March 22, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):

    Apparently she is now ready to cash in her wingnut welfare chips and take her show on the road.

    The payoff to be a DFH is nothing compared to the wingnut media circuit.

  143. 143.

    Martin

    March 22, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    I should note that yesterday, to commemorate the last dying breath of a once great nation, my teaparty neighbors had a ‘Tree of Liberty’ tree planting ceremony in their front yard, complete with Gadsden Flag color guard. I was tempted to send my kids out there to join in with the make-believe. I could have had my daughter set up her stuffies to represent the founders and other great Americans and my son could have pretended to shoot them with his Lego space mega-hippie battle health-care medical laser. ‘Pew pew pew! Take that patriotic cancer cells!’ The thought passed my mind when I realized that they were probably armed at that moment.

    This evening, I’ll make a special point to tank up the dog and let him give it a good watering.

  144. 144.

    Dollared

    March 22, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    @ the Raven

    Nah. The sick and the weak are the easiest living food.

    Thanks. Words to live by. Of all the gloating I have indulged in over the last 20 hours, reading those ten words were the most satisfying moment.

  145. 145.

    Tenzil Kem

    March 22, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    If Hayworth were to be nominated, is there a halfway decent Democrat who could run against him?

  146. 146.

    WereBear

    March 22, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    @Ailuridae: That’s an intriguing thought. But the Republicans cannot be seen as having anything in common with Democrats, which is what backed them into the absurd corner it is.

    We should advocate more about maintaining proper ethics, and get the Republicans to denounce ethics.

  147. 147.

    Sentient Puddle

    March 22, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    @Brian J: The case was actually Fox News suing Franken, with Fox claiming that using “Fair and Balanced” as part of a subtitle on his book was copyright infringement. Though yes, some speculate O’Reilly was the big driver in getting Fox to move forward with the lawsuit.

    Anyway, I can’t find anything to suggest that the presiding judge literally laughed at the case, it was clear that he thought that Fox was wasting time, and asked questions that prompted laughter from the spectators (“Do you think that the reasonable consumer would believe, seeing the word lie above Mr. O’Reilly’s face, that Mr. O’Reilly or Fox were endorsing this book?”).

    So I suppose the correct term isn’t “laughing it out of court,” but rather “mocking it out of court in a sarcastic manner such as to provide entertainment for everyone but the plaintiffs and so that the judge doesn’t feel like the lawsuit was a complete waste of time.”

  148. 148.

    Anya

    March 22, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    OT: via Ezra Klein, the headlines across the country. Many newpapers went with picure of Pelosi and gange’s walk with 1965 Medicare gavel from the march to the vote http://benwikler.com/healthvictory.html

  149. 149.

    KDP

    March 22, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    @geg6: And this:

    http://www.rumproast.com/index.php/site/comments/comment_of_the_day5/

  150. 150.

    Martin

    March 22, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    @Southern Beale: Well, my lifelong dream to see nickels redesigned to have bees on them has been dashed yet again. And what the fuck am I supposed to do with all of these belt onions?

  151. 151.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 22, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    @kay:

    People can go on to live useful and productive lives in public service after losing a huge race – John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore.

    @kay:

    Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, I could even compare McCain unfavorably to Joe Lieberman as far as “losing with grace”, and that’s saying something.

    To which lists may I add Jimmy Carter, one of our great national treasures.

    ETA: And while not what I’d call a national treasure, George H. W. Bush at least was fairly graceful in defeat.

  152. 152.

    ADS

    March 22, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    A bit OT, but I just discovered this:

    Pennsylvania Attorney General Corbett will file lawsuit to block health care reform legislation

    HARRRISBURG — Attorney General Tom Corbett today said that he will file a lawsuit to protect the citizens of Pennsylvania whose rights will be violated when the health care reform legislation, passed last night by the U.S. House of Representatives, is signed into law by President Obama.

    Corbett said that he believes the courts will find the health care reform legislation unconstitutional.

    Corbett said he is discussing legal strategy with attorneys general from Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan, Texas, Utah, Washington, North Dakota and South Dakota and Virginia.

    His office request that you note any objections to this crap in writing via e-mail: [email protected]

  153. 153.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 22, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    The wingnut whine is deep and loud out there today. A body can hardly keep from giggling at their thrashing to and fro and spittle flecked threats ranging from signing petitions to civil war. It is the sound of a dying mindset that has been dying for a long time, but in between with spurts of life, followed by abject failure and the continuing death spiral. And it has caused this country great harm as with Reaganomics the past 30 years.

    It is the myth of the Perfect American, that never gets sick, broke, nor victim of circumstance. Romanticized in movies and novels from a time when there were a lot fewer of us, lesser technology, and lesser knowledge in general. The John Wayne icon of the self sufficient American tower of strength that never needs help nor compassion, an apparition of American Exceptionalism, that has fogged the reality that we are no more, or less, human than any other human on this earth, but we are industrious and blessed with natural resources like few other peoples.

    This myth that has been fiercely promoted and defended by the conservative mindset contains faulty premise toward one lie after another, and caused us to sell our souls more than once to act out this image of infallibility wrongly married to the notion of doing good and being noble, see Iraq and Vietnam.

    But the underbelly of this beast is riddled with greed, avarice and hypocrisy that has in the case of health care been turned over to the light of day where the disinfectant of sunlight will further expose the lie of faux individuality. It is a lie that sees 50,000 Americans a year die needlessly because they can’t get decent Health Care.

    When this bill goes into effect fully, and even partially, it will begin to change the paradigm of past denials by the general populace, whereas a kind of forced subservience has been the norm for so long. The problem, or one big one, for people accepting the truth they are being swindled, is the fact that out of 80 percent of those who have had health care insurance privately, at any one point in time, only a small fraction of those face severe illness or injury and have to enter the killing zone of the American health insurance industry. And suffer the fate of greedy people with no rules to contain their greed, greed that kills prematurely and increases suffering of those afflicted. The other 70 percent see this happen to their neighbors and friends, but the status quo of powerlessness creates some powerful denial, that it won’t happen to them.

    This is one big reason behind the fears and gullibility the greedy wingnuts keep their marks in line with, and easily swayed by their lies that democrats want to kill granny and you, and why it has been so hard to rally support among the public, over the many times reform has been attempted.

    Lots of mistakes were made, for sure, and what passed was short of the ultimate mark to finally reign in this greed, but it was a lot more than liberal critics admit. It is a progressive flag planted in to center of capitalist governance mentality the wingnuts worship, and they will not be able to remove it, and over time prevent more flags being planted.

    And all the while, the masses will become empowered to expect justice because it is now attainable in a fairly big dose, or what Obama called a patient bill of rights on steroids, that will break the denial of those who haven’t become sick yet and thus victimized when they thought they were covered. This is how social change happens, rarely, if ever, all at once. It is true progressivism that by it’s nature is never the perfect.

    I wonder what Abe Lincoln would have thought of this bill, or Mark Twain, or anyone who lived during the time our wingnuts tell us of the self sufficient rugged individualistic Perfect American able to do everything self sufficiently.

    I bet they would vote for it. Yes siree.

  154. 154.

    WereBear

    March 22, 2010 at 5:36 pm

    @kay: Good Heavens, we’ve moved up a level here, because now we are generating our own turncoats.

  155. 155.

    ADS

    March 22, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    @ADS:
    Sorry — that last sentence was mine, not part of the news release….

  156. 156.

    Joseph Nobles

    March 22, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    Re: Reid not speaking in front of cameras.

    He is still dealing with the aftermath of his family’s car accident, you know…

  157. 157.

    mcc

    March 22, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    @ADS: I am cheerful about this, courts demand specificity. You can’t do vague innuendo in a court brief. Filing suit is going to force them to say exactly what they consider unconstitutional about the bill.

  158. 158.

    Zuzu's Petals

    March 22, 2010 at 5:39 pm

    @Mark S.:

    I hope most of ’em have more common sense than that idiot Cuccinelli:

    “If a person decides not to buy health insurance, that person by definition is not engaging in commerce,” Cuccinelli said in recorded comments. “If you are not engaging in commerce, how can the federal government regulate you?”

    Seems just the other day he was embarrassing himself by his ignorance of basic tenets of law.

  159. 159.

    arguingwithsignposts

    March 22, 2010 at 5:39 pm

    @ADS:

    HARRRISBURG —Attorney General Tom Corbett today said that he will file a lawsuit to protect the citizens of Pennsylvania whose rights will be violated when the health care reform legislation, passed last night by the U.S. House of Representatives, is signed into law by President Obama.
    __
    Corbett said that he believes the courts will find the health care reform legislation unconstitutional.

    You know, I asked this about another issue recently (the Nobel Prize charity contributions), but don’t these people think that there have been lawyers crawling all over this bill for the last few months trying to make sure it would pass constitutional muster?

    Not saying, given the rightwing gasbags on the SCOTUS, that it wouldn’t have a potential to be overturned, but I’d think the POTUS and Nancy Smash! would have covered those bases as tightly as possible.

  160. 160.

    patroclus

    March 22, 2010 at 5:39 pm

    I think rob is right – John clearly, unequivocably, and without a shred of doubt, posted this picture in order to refer to the public option. Armando was SO convincing on the other thread that it must be so.

  161. 161.

    Honus

    March 22, 2010 at 5:41 pm

    @John O: I agree, Boner has already as much as said that he’s in the pocket of Big Bank, urging them to stand up to those “little punk staffers” and “you’re gonna kill granny” resonates with people a lot more than “we’ll have to spend so much complying with regulations we won’t have any money to lend” It also doesn’t look to have much traction in the wake of those huge bonuses. Even though they’re masters of orwellian terminology, I think it’ll be much harder to put a populist face on support for the billionaire banksters. The teapartiers would look incredibly hypocritical and transparent if they suddenly started protesting financial regulation, and without them, these guys have nothing anymore.
    Then again, it was surreal to see them mobilize people to loudly and violently protest for their insurance company’s right to screw them.

  162. 162.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 22, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    I adore the Bobblespeak Translations. Was it you who started posting them every week? It’s especially fun when Gregory fluffs his hair, or when one of the guessts says stuff like “Calm down Fluffy” or “Fluffy you are an idiot.”

    We have Bobo, Chunky Bobo, Modo, Tweety, etc. — let’s start adding Fluffy to the list of nicknames for loathesome Villagers.

  163. 163.

    Little Dreamer

    March 22, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    @kuvasz:

    What makes you assume he’s going to win? Hayworth is giving him a good run for his money right now. He’s changing his moderate stances to appeal to the wingnuts who are flocking to support his primary challenger.

  164. 164.

    Brian J

    March 22, 2010 at 5:49 pm

    @Sentient Puddle:

    Thanks for the info.

    Are you a lawyer? If so, on a scale of 1-10, how irritated are judges when lawyers bring bullshit suits to court?

  165. 165.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 5:50 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I just think they’re looking at it wrong. The question isn’t “does the federal government have the power to force you to buy a health insurance policy?”

    It’s “does the federal government have the power to levy a health insurance tax?”

    They cannot force anyone to do anything, They can levy a tax. And that’s what they plan to do.

  166. 166.

    gypsy howell

    March 22, 2010 at 5:50 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    Corbett is running for governor of Pennsyltucky. He’s trying to polish his Teabagger creds.

    Sadly, for those of us in the “Pennsy” part of Pennsyltucky, he could win. Or at least he’s ahead in the polls at the moment.

  167. 167.

    Corner Stone

    March 22, 2010 at 5:55 pm

    @JM:

    The last honest day’s work he did was filming propaganda for the VC against his own country.

    Mother frackin’ ouch.

  168. 168.

    Mnemosyne

    March 22, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    @Anya:

    WTF was up with the San Francisco Examiner? Even the small-town papers were able to work in a headline above the fold.

  169. 169.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    The Supremes would have to be very careful about taxes meant to enforce an action – the Machine Gun Tax Stamp hangs on that concept. You have to have the tax stamp with a machine gun and getting the stamp involves criteria and expenses most won’t or can’t meet. I’m a strong 2nd A guy, but I’m also not a fan of general possession of spray and pray weapons.

    No, dammit, what is called an assault rifle is not a machine gun.

  170. 170.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    In other words, I think they’ll approach it from the other direction: there’s a health insurance tax.
    To avoid the health insurance tax, provide proof of coverage.
    I don’t know that any court will say they can’t tax.

  171. 171.

    geg6

    March 22, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    ADS @152: Yeah, Tom Corbett, the great PA AG who is too incompetent to get get convictions of state lawmakers literally caught with their hands in the tax payers’ cookie jar. Go ahead, Corbett. Your polling in the gov’s race is heading in the wrong direction against a huge Dem field, so suck up to the Teabaggers. That’ll work out just fine. All of the O-bots in Pittsburgh and Philly will looooooove that. Try to win the state without either city. Good luck with that, dude.

  172. 172.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    March 22, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    @kay:

    I knew Calamity Jane Hamster would be on anywhere she could to trash the bill passage but I never expected to hear her excuse the teabaggers shouting “nigger”, “faggot” and doing other objectionable acts just because they were being forced into a health care mandate. If anyone can get a clip of this they will hear a hell of a lot more than I am relating here. I was busy at the time and just want to relate what I know I heard; her excusing the despicable acts of the teabaggers and the wingnut praising her for her standing up to supporters of the bill. She will use anything to justify her position on HRC, even the reprehensible acts of others. She embraces Norquist and now she excuses the reprehensible acts of the teabaggers in DC.

    Absolutely disgusting.

    @ryeland:

    Thanks for digging that quote up! The whole segment is pretty bad and I hope someone gets the video up online. It has to be seen to be believed.

  173. 173.

    Anya

    March 22, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    @Mnemosyne: You would think they would be proud of their hometown girl like the Chicago papers showcased the president. I guess the passage of HCR was not significant to them.

  174. 174.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    March 22, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, I started dribbling them here now and then, once I discovered that site I had to share.

    One of the best lines from this week:

    Gregory: I’m stunned that the Teabaggers are
    racist, homophobic lunatics

    Boehner: let’s not let a few bad apples take away from the fact that Obama is an African witch doctor who wants to kill your white grandmother

  175. 175.

    Little Dreamer

    March 22, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    WTF was up with the San Francisco Examiner? Even the small-town papers were able to work in a headline above the fold.

    Especially considering that it wasn’t after 10 pm when the bill passed in SF – I agree, WTF?

    The papers I delivered this morning arrived later than usual, but, we at least had a very interesting headline (and front page coverage that tried to address both sides of the issue).

    It’s hard to imagine how late the papers came out this morning on the east coast, but, they still managed to get the story on the front page.

  176. 176.

    :Libertini

    March 22, 2010 at 6:11 pm

    @Citizen_X: I notice the article about these lawsuits features Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbot, recipient of a huge settlement for an accident that left him wheelchair bound. Abbott is now a major champion for tort reform.

    I’m so glad he uses his $300,000 a year to HELP people.

  177. 177.

    The Populist

    March 22, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    Time to call the Waaaaambulance for old man McCain.

    Gee, why don’t these elitist asswipes admit that this is the best thing EVER for them. After all, they want Obama finished and they want to hurt Americans in order to convince them that the GOP is the only political party equipped to manage America.

    Argh…fuck them.

  178. 178.

    The Populist

    March 22, 2010 at 6:18 pm

    Talk about irony…the party of tort reform and “constructionist” judicial members is suing every chance they get to overturn HCR. Yep, the irony is quite smelly right now.

    They can’t win, so they abuse the courts to make up for their impotence at the ballot box.

  179. 179.

    Chuck

    March 22, 2010 at 6:19 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Hell, even George W. Bush is at least maintaining some decorum by way of keeping his big yap shut. Of course he’s got the Cheney clan to do all the talking, but at least he’s not adding to it.

  180. 180.

    very reverend crimson fire of compassion

    March 22, 2010 at 6:19 pm

    @JM:

    The last honest day’s work he did was filming propaganda for the VC against his own country.

    Daaayumn!

  181. 181.

    The Populist

    March 22, 2010 at 6:19 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    While he’s at it, why not sue to close out Medicare, Social Security, Welfare and any other accepted form of s-lism in this country? I mean, c’mon, the PA AG is out to “protect” his citizenry right?

    These dumbasses just don’t see how stupid they are.

  182. 182.

    Da Bomb

    March 22, 2010 at 6:19 pm

    @RareSanity: Thanks for the lesson.

    I watched the clip, funny as hell.

  183. 183.

    Chuck

    March 22, 2010 at 6:21 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    #154 <== THIS. THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS. A HOJILLION TIMES THIS.

  184. 184.

    The Populist

    March 22, 2010 at 6:21 pm

    @freelancer:

    Somebody should ask the fallen firefighters and families of 9/11 victims how this equates to 9/11. Let’s get him in front of a room of these folks and let them have at it.

    Boortz and his ilk just continue to prove how insane these asswipes are.

  185. 185.

    The Populist

    March 22, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    @MikeTheZ:

    I hope the Supremes do not get involved here. Bet your last dollar they will make up something in order for HCR to be judged unconstitutional.

    If they do it, I expect they should also overturn Social Security, Medicare and other government safety nets. When Grandma doesn’t get her check, we can point at the GOP AGs and the GOP activist supreme court and let her know who is taking away her benefits.

  186. 186.

    FWIW

    March 22, 2010 at 6:24 pm

    @kay:
    Pa. AG Corbett should be prepared to explain in the court why the federal government’s imposition of the FICA tax to fund Medicare and the fed’s requirement for wage contributions to the Social Security pension fund are NOT subject to the same Constitutional challenge. Or maybe he believes that they are and that will be his Step Two.

  187. 187.

    liberty60

    March 22, 2010 at 6:26 pm

    See, if McCain were a DFH, a million mullet-headed clingers would be mailing him cans of stewed prunes about now.

  188. 188.

    Anya

    March 22, 2010 at 6:26 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): I guess racism and homophobia are so insignificant compared to her vendetta. I checked FDL last night and she was posting furiously that the president sold-out the pro-choice movement.

  189. 189.

    AnneS

    March 22, 2010 at 6:26 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:
    Thanks for that pep talk. I was just furious when I read about it.

    I also heard that Virginia has indicated that the mandate violates the state’s commerce laws….

    le sigh.

  190. 190.

    WereBear

    March 22, 2010 at 6:27 pm

    @:Libertini:
    W
    T
    F

    There just are no words.

  191. 191.

    The Populist

    March 22, 2010 at 6:36 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck: Amen brother.

    These people truly believe that one day they can be rich too. Many are undereducated and like to talk about fairness yet they need to look around a little harder at life. Why should people suffer in the richest democracy on earth? I could quote a section of Matthew from the Bible, but won’t.

    Take Texas (please), I was there recently and it’s amazing how hard that state will fall when the pollution and overuse of resources start to take their toll. Will these people be singing a different tune then? It’s inbred into their thinking. They feel liberals are evil because of abortion, guns and god. They feel they will beat them by out-breeding them (thus straining resources both financially and environmentally).

    They feel their version of Christianity is the way the founding fathers meant for things to be. The problem is none of them read or research, they get their info from corporatists like Limpbaugh and Beck and say AMEN! to them.

    Some of it is based in jealousy. They think their small towns are exempt from the problems of the world but it’s just not factual. They think that nothing should ever be handed out until the next flood or tornado strikes and our tax dollars (and charity) still wind up helping them. What if the charity stopped? Using their logic and belief system, handouts are for lazy asses, right? So one could be cold hearted and say “ENOUGH” the next time somebody who lives in a hurricane area has their house and property destroyed YET AGAIN.

    See, I am not like them…many of us aren’t. I will still give because it’s the right thing to do. My belief system is based on treating others how I would want to be treated. As much as I despise their worldview, I can’t watch people suffer.

    I guess that seperates them from me. I guess that makes me elitist in their eyes. In my eyes it makes me very American in the truest sense.

    Hate, jealousy, greed are something that will always be with us. But I will say this…I still say if they want a balanced budget and such, they’d better be ready for the pain. Closed bases, lower social security payments, less economic opportunities will be the norm if they don’t wake up and start questioning the status quo they so defend with such vitriol and spite.

  192. 192.

    patroclus

    March 22, 2010 at 6:36 pm

    The Chicago papers showcase President Obama every chance they get (because it has been demonstrated over and over that every time they have his picture on the front page, they VASTLY increase sales). In fact, the Sun-Times used to have a sports column entitled “All Barack Obama all the time” and in really small print it explained that it would run “until such time as people stop buying newspapers with his picture on them which I hope never happens…)”

  193. 193.

    MattR

    March 22, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    @Anya: I spent about 10 minutes on the phone with my aunt earlier today trying to explain the hatred for Jane and convince her that people were not overstating things. After we got off the phone, my aunt caught that interview on Ratigan and called me back to say “I get it now”

  194. 194.

    Quicksand

    March 22, 2010 at 6:43 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    WTF was up with the San Francisco Examiner? Even the small-town papers were able to work in a headline above the fold.

    You mean, the Examiner that endorsed McCain/Palin for the general election? The Examiner that gets delivered for free to the Bay Area because people won’t pay for it?

    Gee, I dunno.

  195. 195.

    henk

    March 22, 2010 at 6:43 pm

    Well now that he’s said it out right, maybe President Obama should take the hint and quit trying to work with these assholes. That’s exactly why this thing took so long, now they are stating what should have been obvious. Take them at their word.

  196. 196.

    maus

    March 22, 2010 at 6:45 pm

    @JM:

    John McCain has lived like a kept woman since the Nixon administration. The last honest day’s work he did was filming propaganda for the VC against his own country.

    Sorry, but even housewives don’t live with that sort of entitlement, unless you’re getting into “real housewives of blah blah” sort of reality TV drek.

  197. 197.

    The Populist

    March 22, 2010 at 6:45 pm

    @henk:

    Not only that but hold them out as destructive a-holes come November.

    Most average people will continue to wake up realizing the world is not over. It’s time for the Dems to go Grayson on the GOP’s butt.

  198. 198.

    CalD

    March 22, 2010 at 6:46 pm

    For the record, Reid says stuff like this all the time. He’s rather well known for his bluntness, which can often rise to the level of cringeworthy. Probably goes over better in the soft light of the afterglow from a major legislative win.

  199. 199.

    The Populist

    March 22, 2010 at 6:47 pm

    Need I remind the right that NIXON had a much more liberal version of health care he was going to push before Watergate destroyed him?

    Nixon=conservative.

    So basically if Bush had done this type of thing, they’d all be screaming happy days I guess.

    Yep. These people are nuts.

  200. 200.

    tyrese

    March 22, 2010 at 6:48 pm

    like i said this morning. anybody who thinks Reid is a weakling can suck a big fat one.

  201. 201.

    ADS

    March 22, 2010 at 6:48 pm

    @liberty60:
    See, if McCain were a DFH, a million mullet-headed clingers would be mailing him cans of stewed prunes about now.

    Awesome.

  202. 202.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    March 22, 2010 at 6:49 pm

    @Anya:

    Yes, also I read how much Obama hates women (according to FDL) last night. I think Hanoi Jane is pretty apt but Calamity Hanoi Jane fits quite well too. Jane has to save her bacon and hitching up with the teabaggers is her next gravy train. She probably sees all of the money that the right milks from their brain-dead victims supporters and she wants a slice of that pie. She has pretty much pissed off the sane left and they don’t want to have anything to do with her.

    So she has to double down on the wingnut crazy now, to go “full-metal” as someone else here said, to save her bacon.

    @MattR:

    It was quite the scene, that’s for damned sure. I hope someone gets a clip of it up soon. I am sure that other people will be interested to see Jane wrap her arms around and embrace the crazy.

  203. 203.

    tyrese

    March 22, 2010 at 6:49 pm

    Need I remind the right that NIXON had a much more liberal version of health care he was going to push before Watergate destroyed him?

    You don’t need to remind me. Every single republican president in my lifetime would be called a RINO if he were around today.

    Because the GOP has become a bunch of radical idiots.

  204. 204.

    ADS

    March 22, 2010 at 6:50 pm

    @maus:
    This has been said before, but I keep thinking about it.

    When has John McCain not had government provided health insurance?

    Lousy hypocrite.

  205. 205.

    Mnemosyne

    March 22, 2010 at 6:52 pm

    @Anya:

    You would think they would be proud of their hometown girl like the Chicago papers showcased the president. I guess the passage of HCR was not significant to them.

    The funny part was that every other California newspaper featured it, usually with a picture of Pelosi. That includes the small city papers like the Modesto Bee. It was just that one SF newspaper. I’m assuming it’s a Murdoch paper, but I don’t really know.

  206. 206.

    gwangung

    March 22, 2010 at 6:54 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): Yes, also I read how much Obama hates women (according to FDL) last night. I think Hanoi Jane is pretty apt but Calamity Hanoi Jane fits quite well too. Jane has to save her bacon and hitching up with the teabaggers is her next gravy train. She probably sees all of the money that the right milks from their brain-dead victims supporters and she wants a slice of that pie. She has pretty much pissed off the sane left and they don’t want to have anything to do with her. So she has to double down on the wingnut crazy now, to go “full-metal” as someone else here said, to save her bacon.

    Huh.

    I would have thought there would have been space for Jane, before today, to be contrite, shut the hell up and rehabilitate herself, if she was patient.

    After today, though? No way.

  207. 207.

    arguingwithsignposts

    March 22, 2010 at 6:56 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
    Yes, also I read how much Obama hates women (according to FDL) last night.
    Yes, that’s why he signed that dreaded Ledbetter (sp?) pay equity act! Misogynist!

  208. 208.

    Mnemosyne

    March 22, 2010 at 6:58 pm

    @maus:

    Sorry, but even housewives don’t live with that sort of entitlement, unless you’re getting into “real housewives of blah blah” sort of reality TV drek.

    A “kept woman” is usually a mistress, not a housewife. IOW, it’s a nice way of saying “whore.”

  209. 209.

    Julia Grey

    March 22, 2010 at 7:05 pm

    my teaparty neighbors had a ‘Tree of Liberty’ tree planting ceremony in their front yard

    I suppose it’s too much to hope that they’re going to open their veins to water it?

  210. 210.

    path

    March 22, 2010 at 7:09 pm

    I never bothered to call any of my congresspeople regarding the health care bill, but now that my states (WA) attorney general has decided to throw his lot in with the teabaggers I’ve emailed and called already today.

    Go figure.

  211. 211.

    Origuy

    March 22, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    @Mnemosyne: The San Francisco Examiner is a shadow of its former Hearst self. It focuses on local news and entertainment, and lots of ads. I think more people read the Pennysaver than those who get it (free).
    Edit: The online edition has an op-ed in today. Headline: Examiner Editorial: Democrats tell American people to drop dead.

  212. 212.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    March 22, 2010 at 7:22 pm

    @gwangung:

    Calamity Hanoi Jane was nice enough to put the video online for us! I knew to look there first because the first person to be promoting Jane is Jane herself. Go figure. Be sure to listen to how the wingnut piggybacks on Jane’s bullshit and uses it as cover for the teabaggers. Yes, she will embrace shit. She is more than happy to roll around in it too.

    Jane is all about Jane.

    Edit:

    A teabagging truther praises Jane on her Youtube page:

    I like what Jane said in this interview.
     
    Bottom line is that a few idiots that showed up at a Tea Party shouting racial comments DOES NOT mean the whole movement is RACIST!
     
    I am a truther that cares about people.
     
    Even the ones that disagree with me.
     
    Color is definately NOT an issue with me and I know there are lots of people out there that feel the same way.

    Way to go Jane. Fuck you.

  213. 213.

    MattR

    March 22, 2010 at 7:25 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): And apparently Jane is on CNN now, but I don’t have the stomach to change the channel.

  214. 214.

    Anya

    March 22, 2010 at 7:25 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): I read the EO and all I could see is what everyone’s been saying these past weeks. It was all a face saving nothing for Stupac. Everyone gets that but calamity Jane wants her wedge issue. But how can she be a friend of the teabaggers when she’s using women and choice in the same sentence.

  215. 215.

    auntieeminaz

    March 22, 2010 at 7:28 pm

    @Tenzil Kem: Yes. Rodney Glassman, the vice mayor of Tucson. It’s not official but he does have an exploratory committee. He’s 32 and has even written a children’s book.

  216. 216.

    Propagandee

    March 22, 2010 at 7:30 pm

    They even threw the “Country First!” stuff in his face. I think I need a cigarette.

    I think I need a cigarette too.

    And I don’t even smoke.

  217. 217.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    March 22, 2010 at 7:36 pm

    @Anya:

    Yes, it was a nothingburger to allow Stupak to save face. No problem in understanding that at all. You are right, Jane needs her ‘issue’ to go forward with. She needs to find ways to justify her outrage and keep her supporters rolling in red meat. What is really funny is that the red meat has already been digested and expelled by Jane.

    She does it just for them.

  218. 218.

    Mnemosyne

    March 22, 2010 at 7:39 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):
    @Anya:

    Unfortunately, I’ve run into a few otherwise sensible people at other websites who completely bought the line of bullshit about the EO being the Worst Thing Evah for women and so therefore the whole project should have been scrapped. It was more than a little frustrating to deal with.

  219. 219.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 7:45 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):

    I find it amazing that a person who went on a two year slash and burn attack because Rahm Emanual called her “a retard” (accurately, as it turns out) doesn’t object to tea baggers calling black Democrats “niggers”.

    Someone should clue Hamsher in on something. Black people are the Democratic Party. They’re not an interest group. They’re part and parcel of every leadership group in every state Party, and have been for forty years. They’ve been working at this A LOT longer than she has.

    It’s generous of her to excuse the tea baggers for their blatant and disgusting racial slurs. But, then, those slurs will never be directed at Hamsher.

  220. 220.

    stuckinred

    March 22, 2010 at 7:50 pm

    I spent almost 5 years at FDL as a regular and I am really glad to find this site. She’s got a cult of personality going on over there and I’m glad to be out.

  221. 221.

    Martian Buddy

    March 22, 2010 at 7:54 pm

    @Mnemosyne: The funny thing is that Malkin’s readers were able to read the EO last night and correctly determine that Stupak had given up his vote for essentially nothing. It’s a sad state of affairs when the delusional nutjobs are seeing things more clearly than the reasonable people.

  222. 222.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 7:57 pm

    @kay:

    those slurs will never be directed at Hamsher.

    Well not those specifically, but I can think of a couple that she’d find real offensive…
    I’ll just not state them.
    (Construction and all that, you know)

  223. 223.

    The Populist

    March 22, 2010 at 8:00 pm

    @kay:

    Excellent points Kay.

  224. 224.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    March 22, 2010 at 8:03 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    What’s really funny is that the PUMA nuthouse, Confluence, had a post up last night by Head PUMA Riverdaughter. She blames Hamsher for the EO because she didn’t support Hillary during the rules process at the end of the primary.

    Talk about a circle jerk.

  225. 225.

    John McCain

    March 22, 2010 at 8:05 pm

    This time we mean it! No more passing the salt in the Senate cafeteria.

  226. 226.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 8:05 pm

    @Chuck Butcher:

    Come on. This whole story has been about the disrespect show Hamsher by various Obama officials. A black Democrat gets demeaned and defamed and she’s chalking it up to anger at the health care mandate?

    The whole premise doesn’t even make sense. If people were going to hate the mandate, they were going to hate the mandate.

    The people in your town would make this huge distinction between public and private? They would hate the current mandate, but be okay with a mandate if there was a public option insurance entity?

    They wouldn’t make any distinction between a mandated purchase from Anthem or a mandated purchase from Public Option Corp.

    Her whole argument is dishonest.

    We’re mandated to purchase auto insurance here, and people bitch about it. They wouldn’t be any happier about it if I told them they were paying into a public car insurance plan. They wouldn’t care.

  227. 227.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    March 22, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    @The Populist:

    Agreed. On target Kay, if it doesn’t affect Jane then it’s ok with her. I heard what she said on Ratigan and it came through loud and clear. Anything is excusable when she can find some way to mesh it with her bullshit. She is no friend of the left, no fucking way.

    She is a friend of Jane Hamsher. If anything, she is a libertarian.

    End of story.

  228. 228.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 8:16 pm

    @DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal):

    What did she think the Pelosi walk was about yesterday? It was about solidarity. They weren’t heading out to make friends with the tea baggers, and address their bogus mandate concerns.

    They were presenting a united front.

  229. 229.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    @kay:
    Maybe a missing word would relax you a little

    couple that she’d find real offensive

    … about her…

    Seems like between the block quote and the statement you had to work pretty hard to think I was referring to some one other than Hamsher.

  230. 230.

    The Populist

    March 22, 2010 at 8:24 pm

    Went to twitter today to read the lunatic fringe. My brain hurts :(

    Seriously, I’ve never read a scarier bunch of nutjobs in my life. Egged on by the GOP crazies like Bachmann and many others, these idiots act like the world just came to an end.

    Sheesh, if that is the case why are they still here (Left Behind joke).

  231. 231.

    Martian Buddy

    March 22, 2010 at 8:36 pm

    @The Populist: Someone over at Freeperville was saying that extending health care access to millions of Americans made them feel “worse than 9/11” yesterday. The WHARRGARBL over the bill is just all kinds of fucked up.

  232. 232.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 8:37 pm

    @kay:

    The people in your town would make this huge distinction between public and private? They would hate the current mandate, but be okay with a mandate if there was a public option insurance entity?
    They wouldn’t make any distinction between a mandated purchase from Anthem or a mandated purchase from Public Option Corp.

    You’re pretty sure of things I’m not sure you know shit about. Selling a product like this bill can involve degrees. I have to sell large ticket expenses to people and something like, say, a new roof isn’t exactly the sort of thing you really really want, anyhow. Please yourself with your little rant, the bill is what it is and selling it will hinge on that, not what could have been.

  233. 233.

    mslarry

    March 22, 2010 at 8:42 pm

    For the love of God Grumpy pants McCain it’s not a THREAT if you’ve already done it. Sheesh… What an ass. Also. Too.

  234. 234.

    Mnemosyne

    March 22, 2010 at 8:47 pm

    @Chuck Butcher:

    Kay does have a point, though. I’m also in a state where you are mandated to purchase car insurance from a private, usually for-profit, company. So there is a precedent for telling people that they’re required to purchase something from a private company. I suppose the argument would be that there’s an escape clause with car insurance (no car, no need to buy car insurance) that there wouldn’t be with healthcare.

  235. 235.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 8:51 pm

    @Mnemosyne:
    kay is referring to whether they care or not – not the philosophy of car insurance. I think I do understand the point in mandates, but thanks anyhow.
    I figure kay wanted to start a food fight about Jane, so what? I have managed to avoid being very impressed by kay anyhow. Somehow “left” is stupidly supposed to mean Hamsher.

  236. 236.

    Elie

    March 22, 2010 at 8:59 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    I was in Vietnam for 2 1/2 wks — a socialist country (ironic) still struggling its way into the first world. Some care is free, but definitely not equitably distributed

    My husband and I met a young couple from Holland — he an oncologist (cancer specialist) and she a nurse specializing in paliative care.

    They are part of a project to help the Vietnamese begin treating their citizens who have cancer. Right now, if you have cancer in Vietnam, and can afford it, you go to Hong Kong or elsewhere for treatment. Otherwise, you get palliative care – whic is pain and comfort management and basic support — not trying to cure anything.

    The young doc described wards with three cancer patients in one bed. I think that most Americans, and westerners in general would find this appalling, though I dont think those who oppose health care reform understand that this differs from the current practice here in the US only by degree and that we have enough wealth to have room for more charity and some government assistance. But the concept is the same as the opponents to reform argued — you get care if and when you can afford it and even if you can afford it, it might still put you in the poorhouse but we accept that.

    Without changing our health care system, although obviously we are not quite as anguished as the Vietnamese, the opponents to health care expansion for the most Americans, were advocating for retaining a system that only takes care of those who can afford the care — even the most advanced care may be out of reach to even some then and that others without the ability to pay then either rely on charity or do without. Is this kind of Darwinism what they term as self sufficiency?

    I watched the tea baggers, so many of them white middle and lower class people who are struggling and afraid and I just hope so much that some day they will be able to stop being angry and love themselves and this country enough to understand why this is such a critical improvement. That in this country we will not have to get used to the pain of seeing that kind of suffering for our citizens…

  237. 237.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 22, 2010 at 9:04 pm

    With my limited knowledge on the wonk of HCR, I think we should have had at least a seed of a PO in place to build on because as I said from the beginning, and still believe, a robust PO non profit government run program is the only way to bring down costs drastically to where it can mediate the extra profits from a mandate into some kind of healthy balance.

    Ezra and some others feel the regulatory framework in the senate bill will go aways in bending down the cost curve, and was made much better for cost control by Obama at the last minute in the recon. package that will go even farther to that ends.

    I’m not sure it will be enough, and if the industry loopholes the new regs, or if otherwise costs continue to rise, then the bill will need to be amended. And amending an existing bill is way way easier to sell and pass than starting over from scratch. And the bottom line for me from the beginning was will it at least cover the now uninsured, and protect those already with insurance, and the bill now does that.

    There was going to have to be a mandate no matter, for even requiring the industry to stop it’s rescission and taking on those with pre existing conditions, to keep them from becoming economically unsound. Though where the line is for decent profit, and exorbitant profit will have to be monitored and the regs enforced. It won’t be perfect, and it will be an interesting outcome between pissing off young voters with a mandate, and pleasing older ones with more security. Younger voters tend not to vote as much, so there is that.

  238. 238.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 22, 2010 at 9:11 pm

    @Elie: My guess is we caused a lot of cancer in Vietnam with Agent Orange and we ought to make amends for that, or try to.

  239. 239.

    Mike G

    March 22, 2010 at 9:30 pm

    Someone over at Freeperville was saying that extending health care access to millions of Americans made them feel “worse than 9/11” yesterday.

    Don’t you remember the HORROR when Osama Bin Laden extended health coverage to millions of Americans?

  240. 240.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 9:31 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    I think we should have had at least a seed of a PO in place to build on

    I’m afraid all we’ve managed to do in respect to costs is to air the tires up without bothering to patch them. That matter to the side, I don’t think Democrats have much alternative to running on the bill, selling it rather than defending it. They could try something else, but I think the results would be bad. In the face of conventional wisdom, if the economy recovers noticably and the (D)s run intelligently, I think they could hold their numbers or gain. That assumes the Rs continue their slide into wingnuttery.

  241. 241.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 22, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    @Chuck Butcher: I disagree, but we shall see.

    edit- though I am sure they will lose seats, almost always the case for the first mid term of a new presnit. Lot of moving parts this time though, so it’s hard to gauge what will happen. But if the economy is still bad, then it will be bad for dems. That’s what people care about most right now.

  242. 242.

    Elie

    March 22, 2010 at 9:34 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    No doubt.

    I dont know enough about our continued financial support —

    On the positive side, it is now a young nation filled with energy and love of family. We had a fabulous time and enjoyed it from north to south. (My favorite was the mountain town of Sa Pa where many of the ethnic minorities of Vietnam, the Hmong and Red Zhao and others live)

    They seem indifferent to Americans — neither hot nor cold — though I am told for many years the North Vietnamese were quite expressive in their anger towards us. The youth seem to be turned elsewhere

    It blew my mind to see the old B 52 bomb craters still deep enough to swallow a small house….just so much blew my mind actually…but then it was always ok to watch the rice blow in the wind and to have a Bia Hai (light alcohol beer) on the street in little cafes and watch/feel their energy too

  243. 243.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 9:56 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    I disagree

    Disagree what? Re: cost curve cutting or running on the bill or maybe holding or taking seats or just all of it? Or are you just being disagreeable? Not up to your usual standards, though possibly an improvement over “blow it out your ass”

  244. 244.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 22, 2010 at 10:01 pm

    @Chuck Butcher: Should have made that clearer what I was referring to.

    I disagree that dems passing this HCR bill will cause them catastrophe in November. Other things might, but I don’t think that will. But I could be wrong, and we shall see.

    And I see you didn’t exactly say that they would, so I misread, I think.

  245. 245.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 10:05 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:
    Getting in a big fucking rush to call me out, eh? That’s pretty damn difficult to “misread.” Maybe you need to start a new handle, this persona is starting to get pretty senile.

  246. 246.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 22, 2010 at 10:09 pm

    @Chuck Butcher:

    Getting in a big fucking rush to call me out, eh?

    Calling you out would sound a lot different than “disagree”. Geesh. If you’re trying to start a fight over nonsense, I’m just not interested. Think what you want.

  247. 247.

    Mnemosyne

    March 22, 2010 at 10:14 pm

    @Chuck Butcher:

    kay is referring to whether they care or not – not the philosophy of car insurance. I think I do understand the point in mandates, but thanks anyhow.

    Huh? I didn’t say anything about the philosophy of car insurance or the point of mandates. I said that it’s ridiculous for people to scream about how it’s unprecedented for Americans to be required by law to pay their money to private, for-profit companies, because most states already require you to pay money to private, for-profit companies if you want to drive a car.

    I’ve read my previous comment over three times and I still can’t figure out where you got any kind of “philosophy” out of it when I was specifically talking about existing law in most states.

  248. 248.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 22, 2010 at 10:18 pm

    Maybe you need to start a new handle, this persona is starting to get pretty senile.

    You need to get a grip dude. Really.

  249. 249.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 10:38 pm

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    get a grip dude

    I argued with somebody who’d agreed with me? Grip yourself, dumbass.

  250. 250.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 10:46 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    I said that it’s ridiculous for people to scream about how it’s unprecedented for Americans to be required by law to pay their money to private

    There might just be a selling point difference when the option is to buy from people you’ve just whacked for being rip off m-fkrs. But you know better so please yourself. I said quite clearly that it was a moot point but you want to go on and on about somebody else with a reading disability. You follow right on behind a post of mine stating that the Dems should run on the the thing versus defending it and start in on my ass? Be as stupid as you like – you and the Corporal.

  251. 251.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 10:52 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    I was really saying that the car insurance mandate pisses people off and I don’t think purchasing insurance and making a payment to an insurance company run by a public exchange board rather than a corporate board would make a bit of difference. They’d still be making a payment every month and sending it away in a windowed envelope.

    If they resented the mandate, they’d resent the mandate, not the company.

    I know it’s not a perfect comparison, because it’s state law, for one thing (as you know, states have more leeway than the feds) and cars are (theoretically) optional, although in rural areas, if you want to work, they’re really not optional.

    But I was really comparing purchasing insurance, which no one is thrilled about doing, whomever is the recipient of the payment.

  252. 252.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 22, 2010 at 10:53 pm

    @Chuck Butcher: Oh, just fuck off. It is hard enough to read your half baked drivel and decipher what you’re actually saying. Maybe the umpteen times in the recent past you have screamed dems are going to be destroyed at the ballot box for passing this bill did cause me to interpret wrongly. Though I am not at all sure you weren’t saying the same thing tonight in the smarmy prose you inflict. but admitted I might have misread it and if the term “disagree” inflames your neverending butthurt, then you are likely on the wrong blog.

  253. 253.

    kay

    March 22, 2010 at 10:56 pm

    @Chuck Butcher:

    And I misunderstood your comment about the tea baggers. I thought you were defending Hamsher’s excuses for them, and you weren’t.

    I apologize. I didn’t read the comment carefully.

  254. 254.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 22, 2010 at 11:44 pm

    @kay:
    OK, no prob.

  255. 255.

    Radha

    March 23, 2010 at 12:36 am

    I forget which channel and who the interviewer was, but in response to a string of recent reprehensible behavior by the Rethugs, Steny Hoyer said [paraphrasing] that theirs was more suited to the sand lot than…!

  256. 256.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 23, 2010 at 4:47 am

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:
    I just happen to think you’re disagreeable for the sake of it. As for butthurt, you spend a lot of words on it, maybe you should take the stick out of your ass.

    I said what the GOP play would be and to be ready to defend against it. Further thought and seeing what was out there convinced me that defense won’t work, that actual salemanship would be the best bet. No, I don’t like this bill much – but for completely different reasons than the GOP. And I sure don’t like the GOP so doing the best possible with this thing is best from my point of view.

    If you want to apologize do that instead of some weasel shit and I’ll just say ok rather than poke at your easily poked self.

  257. 257.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 23, 2010 at 9:33 am

    @Chuck Butcher:

    my easily poked self”

    Yea right. You are not at all well, my man.

  258. 258.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 23, 2010 at 9:57 am

    You follow right on behind a post of mine stating that the Dems should run on the the thing versus defending it and start in on my ass? Be as stupid as you like – you and the Corporal.

    We think dems can and should “run” on it and be proud of what they accomplished. Your whiny butthurt self doesn’t apparently. And why I disagreed in the first place, when I should have just said you’re stupid precious ass was wrong as usual. Won’t happen again.

  259. 259.

    Chuck Butcher

    March 23, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    Ass,
    you quote me saying run on it rather than defend and tell me I didn’t.

    run, you know, run for election?

    “run on it” is a bit different from “run away from it” but you want to disagree…

    You are particularly pathetic

  260. 260.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 23, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    @Chuck Butcher:

    That matter to the side, I don’t think Democrats have much alternative to running on the bill, selling it rather than defending it

    Get your shit together Butcher. Or saddle up with the other butthurt pony wranglers.

  261. 261.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    March 23, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    @Chuck Butcher: How bout we kill this thread. I’m an ass and so are you? So it’s a draw. Otherwise people will talk about why two idiots are flaming each other on a long dead thread. The truth is, I just don’t understand your writing of what you are trying to say. Prolly a fault on my part, and will make a serious effort to ignore you, so long as you ignore me. Deal?

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