The worst thing about death panels: it’s so much harder to get out of them compared with, say, jury duty. Nobody wants to be the one guy missing when they hold a vote.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Impressively dumb. Congratulations.
A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
No one could have predicted…
We still have time to mess this up!
All your base are belong to Tunch.
The revolution will be supervised.
When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.
When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.
It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.
Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.
Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.
Consistently wrong since 2002
Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.
We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.
Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?
Usually wrong but never in doubt
Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.
Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.
And we’re all out of bubblegum.
This fight is for everything.
It’s the corruption, stupid.
Optimism opens the door to great things.
… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact
tripletee
The new Senior Euthanization Center in my city put up a big banner yesterday that read “Grannies Check In, But They Don’t Check Out.”
I thought that was a little tasteless, personally.
RedKitten
Bad: I have got a seriously nasty cold and feel like microwaved shit. Sam has that cold too.
Good: my mom is here for three days and has been taking care of us. Yay for moms when you’re sick!
Great: And she’s taking me shopping tomorrow for new work clothes. And tonight she’s making us a big honkin’ mess of ribs.
I love my mommy.
stevie314159
Especially if the rest of the panel decides to vote on you.
Dollared
News flash: USA Today says now health care supported 49%/opposed 40%
Do you think Obama and the leadership have a bit of credibility with the Blue Dogs today?
freelancer
Anybody hear from BHF? How was work today?
Corner Stone
@tripletee: I thought it was damned odd that they just started construction on a new IHOP next door to the assisted care facility when we already have one a couple blocks away…
srv
Iggy gives up stage diving because nobody knows they’re supposed to catch.
Fergus Wooster
@RedKitten: Oh no. Sorry to hear. The only thing worse than suctioning baby snot is doing so when coping with your own sickness.
Glad to hear your mom’s there. Soup time!
EvolutionaryDesign
Anyone playing FFXIII? Graphics are outstanding, and the story is shaping up to be a nice allegory for a totalitarian state and the relative definitions of terrorism.
licensed to kill time
Sunday morning I saw 4 of those large white cranes down on the beach at low tide, the kind that are about 4 feet tall. They were standing on rocks and well, craning their necks peering through the water looking for fish. I took it as a good omen for the HCR vote later that night.
This morning I looked for them again and saw a lone crane sailing low over the water. Just as I was thinking “Ah, Nature, beauteous Nature” it let loose a 3 foot stream of white poo splatter that made me really glad it was over the ocean and not over my head.
Hey, OT, right?
Zifnab
First they came for the Medicare, and we did nothing…
cleek
@srv:
it’s the end of an era
Zifnab
@EvolutionaryDesign: I’m just starting disc 2 and am happy to see the plot and the dialogue have picked up a pace. With all the mixed reviews, I was really worried, but it’s shaping up to be on par with 9 and 12. Not overly thrilled with the combat system, though.
Martin
@EvolutionaryDesign: So, it’s about HCR? Don’t need that in video-game form.
Robin G.
@EvolutionaryDesign: Love. A chocobo chick! In his fro!
Lost my job today. Will have time to finish the game.
geg6
Reposting from the last thread…
Hey Tim! Lookie this!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10081/1044816-455.stm
I’m trying to find out how to contact him. I’ll go all out for him (just like I did for Jason Altmire at one time), even if it’s a losing cause because it’s so close to the primary. But fuck it. Gotta start somewhere.
tripletee
@Corner Stone:
I’d recommend staying away from the Soylent Green Breakfast Platter.
dmsilev
People were asking the other day about pictures from my train trip. I’m (slowly) putting them online; you can see the first three here. First picture is early evening rolling past Puget Sound. The other two are the next morning, near Glacier National Park.
Edit: The people you see reflected in the third photo were, swear to God, talking about health care reform and how Kucinich was right about everything.
-dms
kay
@Dollared:
I think Republicans saw the poll, because they changed the droning chant from “repeal” to “repeal and replace”. They are so quick off the mark with slogans, it’s amazing.
Can you imagine? They think people want to spend next year on this too. Just kill me now, if we have to debate health care again. I’m willingly appear in front of death panel rather than listen to Max Baucus again.
dr. bloor
@tripletee:
I think the income potential for euthanizing booths at carnivals is tremendous. Particularly if you dressed’em up like Obama, who many seem convinced is the antichrist.
demo woman
@Robin G.: Sorry. There seems to be more and more stories like this. Fingers crossed that something good comes your way soon.
SGEW
Cripes, I’m sorry Robin. That’s a bag full of suck. Condolences.
Sentient Puddle
@Robin G.:
Always look on the bright side!
OK but f’real, I’m sorry to hear that mate.
JGabriel
A Good First Step:
.
Elizabelle
Daily Kaplan update: my FAVORITE Washington Post photo caption in many a moon.
Photo of John Boehner, with Eric Cantor, Jon Kyl, John Cornyn and other worthies in the background on Capitol Hill:
Online, included with Steve Pearlstein’s column, worth a read, as always with Pearlstein
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010031805315.html
geg6
@Robin G.:
Damn. Sorry about that Robin. I’ll be sending vibes that you find employment soon.
Gym Rat
I really want to run a dagger right through the Repubs heart. If Obama gets another big win before November I really believe we could gain seats in an off year election or at least hold our ground. The next big issue is financial reform. The Repubs have laid down their marker — no cooperation with Obama. They are also going to get in bed with Wall Street. That’s a great strategy — get on the side that nearly drove the world into a depression.
I’d wheel out Paul Volcker to sell this. He doesn’t have the baggage of Summers and Geithner. I would really like to see Neal Cavuto and Larry Kudlow discuss financial reform with Volcker. Cavuto would be peeing in his pants and Kudlow would have to snort four lines before that interview.
The debate between Volcker and McCain would be priceless.
Fergus Wooster
Three days now I’ve been drunk on wingnut tears.
And on this third day, the insurance company picked up my daughter’s entera pump. No more tube-feeding, ever fucking again.
Methinks I’ll be chasing my wingut tears with some bubbly tonight.
@Gym Rat: I would pay good money to see Volcker send McCain into apoplexy. Something like that scene in Scanners. . . .
Punchy
I’m pissed TDS is off this week, cuz I expected JS last nite to gloat like a muthafucker, had he been live. Alas….
True to form, I readz on the tubez that Senate Republicans are going to scapegoat THEIR OWN APPOINTED parlimentarian (sp?) when Senate Dems ram this throbbing hunk of thick recon bill meat down their throats…
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@JGabriel: Was going to post this, but you already did. The winger claim that people hate this bill meme is going extinct, like the Dodo bird, and Mitch “the bitch” Mcconnell’s chin. teehee
EvolutionaryDesign
@Robin G.: Bummer – good luck to quickly finding a new job. But I am slightly envious of your “free” time…
General Egali Tarian Stuck
More Armageddon for wingnuts
JGabriel
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
It’s so heartening, from a progressive (and American!) point of view, to read that 48% of the country, a plurality that’s damn close to a majority, wants to see even more health care reform.
.
EvolutionaryDesign
@Zifnab: Nice. I am WAY behind (by my standards). Also glad to hear you comparing it to 9 – LOVED that one. Also, too, I think the fight system is a far cry from the glory days of menu-driven combat, but it has its nuances that allow for some cool strategery.
soonergrunt
@RedKitten:
Well, you’re Canadian, so your Mommy is all you have when you have cancer, (or so I’m told by a guy with an Alabama accent who knows everything here) so good on ya that it’s only a cold!
@Robin G.: I’ll add you to the good thoughts/prayers list. I hit my last day at work on Friday. I just got off a call with my boss. I may be able to stay with the company, but I’ll have to move to either Florida or Georgia or California if I do. Right now is not a good time for the son with Asperger’s Syndrome to move out of his high school, and the wife wants to vest in her pension plan (having been called back to her job after being furloughed for a year herself) so I will be a geographical batchelor as we used to say in the Army. If I get one of the positions, that is.
licensed to kill time
@kay:
It’s as if they think that all there is to governing is sloganeering. They want to shrink government down to fit on a bumper sticker, job done!
SpotWeld
I wonder if there will ever be a professional wrestler who takes up the moniker “death panel”… he can swing an oak plank around and point at his opponent threateningly while calculating the audience votes…
Palin can even be his ring-girl
Tony J
Speaking of Death Panels, this is a taste of what your average, mainstream conservative thinks from over at the American Conservative.
“Health care reform will also hurt many people since it is all about increased government power over the domestic population and ultimately is about denying health care to those who no longer serve the soshulist (sic) hive; the old, the infirm, the unborn, yes the weak and innocent will be killed here as well. The welfare/warfare state exploits and hurts everyone except of course the ruling elite.
LOL. Then this,
“Obamacare shreds the Constitution every bit as much as the so called Patriot Act. Big Government Left and Big Government Right are mirror images of each other like Tolkein’s Two Towers, Barad-Dur and Isengard or Fascism and Marxisim, two evil poles grimacing at each other over the wasteland populated by a ruined race of Orc slaves.”
Obviously I give the guy props for the LOTR reference, but that’s a fucking crazy world-view they’ve got going over there. Now, thanks be to the FSM, they can finally afford to get some treatment for it.
Tonal Crow
@Dollared: But but but but if Democrats stand for Democratic principles, the GOP’ll eat our lunch!
Pasquinade
http://twitter.com/cryptonomicon2
Randy P
@tripletee:
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House, the euthanasia center was called an “Ethical Suicide Parlor”. They located them next to Howard Johnson’s, and you could get anything you wanted from HoJo’s as a last meal.
Works for me.
Too bad most of the HoJo’s are gone. Maybe this could bring them back.
SpotWeld
This blog post (from over at TPM) needs to be shared around!!
Butch
I’ve been remodeling the living room and if I could get a death panel in maple or walnut it would look great on the fireplace.
Corner Stone
@soonergrunt:
Jackpot!
jrosen
I just found this at Powerline:
“At least since the conclusion of the Civil War, the Democrats’ war on freedom has never been more brazen. Indeed, there is a tie that binds the Democratic Party of the antebellum era with today’s Democratic Party:
‘It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, “You work and toil and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.” No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.’
Abraham Lincoln said that, on more than one occasion, and he knew what he was talking about. ”
No mention of the fact that Ol’ Abe was referring to slavery. When will this sort of delusional spewing be recognized as a bona fide mental disorder?
Tim F.
@jrosen: Take it as progress that Powerline used Democratic as an adjective.
The Grand Panjandrum
@kay:
Heh. Put Max and a few of his Republican buddies on that death panel and you be might be damn near immortal.
freelancer
@Tim F.:
Just a fluke from the blood vessel that burst in their limbic system.
Garrigus Carraig
I guess I’ll download AdBlock Plus on this work computer I’ll be at for another week, so I don’t have to cover up that damned Curvy ad every time.
Ominira
I’m waiting to see whether I get called up for jury duty & the only bright spot is the man snoring loudly in the waiting room and making everyone giggle until he wakes up & we pretend we weren’t laughing at him. I’m having middle school flashbacks.
Robin G
@demo woman: @SGEW: @Sentient Puddle: @geg6: @EvolutionaryDesign: @soonergrunt: Thanks, guys. It helps that this wasn’t really a surprise (have suspected the business was going under for several months), but it’s still going to involve a lot of ramen noodles in the next several months.
SiubhanDuinne
@RedKitten:
And SamKitten loves his mommy.
RK, earlier today on another thread you posted the most gorgeous, brilliant, well-reasoned defence of socialized medicine I have ever seen. Seriously. I printed it out, gave copies to some colleagues/friends, and am going to laminate one to carry around with me in case I forget any of your arguments. “It’s not a threat to freedom — it enables freedom.” Stunning and wonderful. Thank you.
SiubhanDuinne
@Robin G.:
I’m really sorry to hear that, Robin. Good thoughts to you.
SiubhanDuinne
@SpotWeld:
Wow! That’s a thing of beauty, that is! Thanks for the link.
(BTW, have you ever in your life seen as many embedded links as in that article? Would take from now til election day to follow them all.)
freelancer
@SiubhanDuinne:
Could you link to it? I’d like to take a look at it.
SiubhanDuinne
@freelancer:
Oh shit. I’ve never quite figured out how to do that. But I can paste it into this post, and I can tell you that it appears in the thread entitled “Extremists” by mistermix (6:52 a.m.) and that RedKitten’s post was #35 at 8:04 a.m.
Here’s what she had to say:
You know, that’s one thing that I just do NOT understand—this contention that socialized medicine destroys freedom.
I live in a country that has had universal healthcare since before I was born.
And yet, I am still free. I’m free to come and go as I please, to pursue (or not) whatever religion I wish. I’m free to marry whomever I wish, and to pursue whatever career I wish. I’m free to start a business, drive a car, fly a plane and drink in public.
I’m free to speak out against my government without fear of recourse. I’m free to vote my conscience. I’m free to wear whatever I like. I’m free to raise my children in the manner that I see fit.
The way I see it is this: I am MORE free than people living in countries without that social safety net. Having universal healthcare allows me the freedom to not have to stay in a shitty job just because it has good health insurance. It allows me the freedom to consider starting my own business, because I know that I have health insurance regardless. It allows me the freedom to make decisions regarding medical treatment for me and my family, without having to worry about how the hell I’m going to pay the bills.
Socialized medicine has given me GREATER freedom than a lot of Americans have. It’s not a threat to freedom—it enables freedom.
freelancer
@SiubhanDuinne:
Not if I have anything to say about it.
asiangrrlMN
@Robin G.: Oh, shit. That’s sucky sucky sucky. Major good vibes headed your way. At least the Twins re-signed Mauer, amirite?
@soonergrunt: Good lord. That’s sucky, too. I hope you get a position, but having to be away from your family? That’s brutal.
@RedKitten: Aw, poor RedKitten and SamKitten. I’m glad GrandmaKitten is there to take care of you guys for a few days!
gary
Max baucus is a Socialist in step with Barack Obama and the other socialists who have lied to the American people to take office but now go against the will of the people.
Here in Montana, Baucus trys to act like he is a true Montanan. Yet a true Montanan would never vote to ruin the inherent freedom of the individual. By not standing up to Obama and the Marxist agenda, Max Baucus is killing small business and the future of our children.
How is he killing our future?
THE MAX BAUCUS HEALTHCARE PORTA-POTTY BILL, festering away with disease and stink and bile, Baucus’ virulent tax bacteria waiting to crawl out of his healthcare Porta-Potty sewer hole, up into our most vulnerable parts.
MAX BAUCUS and fellow Montana Socialist JON TESTER are screwing the voters over with their healthcare fiasco, and now the voters are supposed to forget all about their healthcare vote against Montana kids and focus on other business, like we are too stupid to see Baucus’ real agenda, like we will divert our attention from the real problem—Max Baucus—and this will save his sold-out soul from defeat in the next election.
Yeah, MAX, you sold out our kids, and Montanans are so stupid they will now divert their senses from the stinking healthcare Porta-Potty you are tipping over in the laps of our children’s future.
Metaphorically, it is as though you are sticking a hunting knife in our backs and telling us to ignore it and go back to work, like we won’t feel anything is wrong as you drain our blood away.
You think you can get reelected in the next election?
Like we are supposed to forget about the fatal stab you are giving our children’s future?
MAX SOCIALIST BAUCUS, WE ARE GOING TO VOTE YOU OUT OF OFFICE.
We are going to put YOU and the idiots who work for you out of work and send you straight to the unemployment lines where you are sending our children. We are going to take YOUR PAYCHECKS away because we don’t want to give you our tax money to stab us in the back and dump your bait and switch bile on our kids anymore.
We’ll look the other way and forget about the Porta-Potty mess you are dumping all over us, the knife you are sticking in our backs. You bet.
Max the Socialist, you are taking our money NOW to pay a debt for things you stole long ago. You want my kids’ money to fund a system that does not work. This is the old way of business in Washington, but when it comes to transforming our country into your socialist utopia, this old way does not work.
You are reforming nothing with your “healthcare reform.” You are stealing our money to pay for your crap legislation. You aren’t from Montana. You sold us out. You are big sky garbage.
We are on to you and we will not forget.
Here in Montana, you are Big Sky Scum