It’s been a little over a week since the “you didn’t build it” corpse was stood up on its feet, pumped full of meth and set forth on an unsuspecting punditry. Even the “both sides” AP went as far as it could calling it bullshit, so I don’t think it’s been adopted by the mainstream, and with other news eclipsing it, it probably won’t get past the 24/7 political cycle. I could well be wrong about that, because I saw two things I wouldn’t have predicted about a simple out-of-context quote that was easily clarified by Obama.
First, I read a local conservative blog that’s usually not insane–the guy running it is more Buckley than Bachmann–and I was surprised at the fervor with which he and another of his co-bloggers picked this one up. Like most conservatives, they’ll play reasonable until the last month or so of the election cycle, but when it comes down to the nut cutting, as Dick Nixon would say, they’ll push whatever bullshit comes down from the top if they think it will help them win. I wasn’t expecting them to be on election footing in July, which I took mainly as an indicator that they’re desperate about Romney’s chances. Even so, I can’t imagine what they’ll be pimping in a couple of months if this nothingburger got them so worked up.
I also wouldn’t have predicted that the publisher of the Wall Street Journal would have tried to argue that the Internet was the product of private enterprise (here’s the context and a debunking). Every “what’s the Internet” story of the dot-com era had a boilerplate section explaining how the Internet began as a government-sponsored project research network. Yet here’s the Fox News crowd trying to convince us that the Internet is the product of some latter-day Alexander Graham Bell. That’s just a non-starter, but it’s a non-starter out of the mouth of someone whose newspaper has been publishing the opposite for more than twenty years.
Put together, this whole thing was just a test of the Fox Emergency Broadcast System. It was only a test, and I don’t think it was successful, but I wonder if I’m wrong, and I wonder what’s coming next.
Napoleon
Johnson was the one who use to use the “nut cutting” phrase (maybe Tricky Dick did as well, but I know it was a fav of LBJ’s).
karen
I totally plan on DVRing every show I plan to watch from August to the election. I’m in Maryland and Virginia is a swing state so I figure we’ll get slammed with ads. We’re already beginning to be.
Litlebritdifrnt
Of course no one seems to bother mentioning the fact that the three small business peeps that the Romney campaign rounded up to screech how they and they alone built their businesses are all sucking heavily on the government teet. How inept is his campaign that they couldn’t find small business people who don’t depend on government loans and contracts? Don’t they do ANY research?
Hal
The whole story has gone belly up. The guy in the Romney add and his 1 million dollars worth of support from the evil big Government took the wind out of those sails. Not to mention the fact that Romney’s disingenuousness is so transparent he has a very hard time carrying out any political attacks that stick.
Also, has anyone seen any Romney bumper stickers? Yesterday I saw yet another nobama (so clever), but I realized that while I had seen a handful of those, I’ve only seen one Romney sticker.
c u n d gulag
What’s coming next?
No more “blah” people accidents, or dog whistles.
Sometime right before, right after, or even AT, the Republican Convention. some Republican politician or pundit will slip, and say “The N-word.”
Hell, Rick Santorum barely stopped himself in the primaries.
They’ve got nothing to sell, except racist, misogynist, xenophobic, and/or homophobic, wedge issues and hatred.
Of course, it’s not like that hasn’t been successful before.
But at least they used to cover it with the patina of “Compassionate Conservative.”
Now, compassion’s out, and the id has been set free.
The Conservatives have let loose their Tea-enstein Monster, and now can’t control it.
mistermix
@Hal: I’ve seen one, on a Prius.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
It is a test, but their gauging who heads for the bunkers and who pushes back. As long as the latter group is larger than the former, they won’t do it too often.
schrodinger's cat
Andrew Sullivan was concern trolling about Obama’s statement, I just don’t see why it is such a big deal. It seems like a manufactured scandal to me.
Boudica
@Hal: I saw one Romney bumper sticker last week on vacation in Maine.
I live in Texas and have yet to see a Romney one here. (I did see several Nobama/Keep the change ones in Maine…)
Boudica
@Boudica: I take it back…I saw the Romney one on the Mass Pike.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Hal: None to report in Raleigh NC and surrounding counties, not even in the heart of Renee Ellmers Country.
kd bart
I often wonder what color the sky is in the Conservative version of reality? I imagine it’s a pasty white.
Ash Can
I think there’s a lot to the desperation angle. Maybe these guys figure that, at this rate, they need to take what they can get and squeeze it for all the mileage they can, because Obama’s so competent that there’s no way of knowing when, or if, they’ll get anything else that they can work with. Their candidate is a dud, their party is a fucking insane asylum, their big Citizens United coup isn’t coming close to burying Obama and the Dems like they thought it would, and at this point all they have to hang their hopes on is preventing massive numbers of their fellow Americans from voting. Sucks to be them.
kd bart
Go to a private airport. I’m sure most of the Gulfstreams are plastered with Romney bumper stickers.
Cassidy
@mistermix: Even shitheads like fuel efficiency.
NO one’s voting for Rmoney. They’re voting against the blah guy.
Schlemizel
But you are missing the most important fact – reality to the wingnuts is exactly what FAUX News says it is. SO when they say the Intertubes was invented and built by private enterprise that is reality for the wingnuts. Offering evidence that it was built on the backs of the American tax payer and for the benefit of the DoD just convinces them more that it was all privately done.
Litlebritdifrnt
I haven’t seen any Romney stickers here in Eastern NC. Most of the stickers I see are old McCain/Palin stickers, which always makes me chuckle.
MattF
Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I think the vacuity and flat-out dishonesty of the Romney campaign will backfire. Not immediately, and not even for most of the low-info voters– but the small number of actual undecideds will eventually sense the unnerving similarity between Romney ads and Mattress Discounter ads– they sound great, but there’s always a catch.
ChrisNYC
I’ll go further and say that the Obama campaign has been able to use this for benefit. That 30 second response ad with Obama talking to the camera, which most of the pundits took as “oooh he’s on defense” plays really differently to me.
First, he’s there, speaking directly to voters, something that the AWOL GOP candidate is unable to do. Second, he’s basically saying, again, “You just can’t trust this Romney guy.” Given Obama’s trustworthiness and honesty ratings, I’m guessing the ad works as an effective compare and contrast. Third, he makes the substantive argument, which people agree with. The ad’s playing in swing states.
This is something the Obama campaign really excels at. Taking a nominally damaging event and effectively using the attention.
Steve
Like I said all along, “you didn’t build that” was an exact replay of the “spread the wealth around” episode from the 2008 campaign, starring Joe the Plumber. The base was convinced that one would turn the election, too.
MattMinus
@c u n d gulag:
While it’s fun to think this, and they do step right up to the line with stuff like “anglo-saxon heritage” and “food stamp president”, there’s just no way.
I can only imagine two remotely possible scenarios under which this happens:
1) Some congressman who represents the reddest of red districts just goes completely off the reservation and follows it with the “Yeah, I said it, I’m done being bullied by the liberal media and decency and morality” shtick.
2)It’s done tactically. Let’s say Mitt goes halfway over the line with a dog whistle. I can imagine a planned ni(clang)so that Mitt can fly into high dudgeon repudiation mode.
I don’t think it will be a slip up if it happens. I’ve had a chance to spend some time around upper class republican folks, and they have a lot of ways of saying deeply racist shit without ever saying the words. I think it’s a combination of they’re too poisonous if you get caught and that “those” words are for poor rednecks.
In the corporate environment, for example, I’ve found “playa” is a preferred substitute. You get a fig leaf of plausible deniability, but everyone knows what you’re saying.
negative 1
That’s kind of the thing — they don’t have much ammo left. The problem for them is that they’ve done nothing but negative campaigning for 4 years, so ‘outrage’ just sounds like speech at this point and they’ve already exausted most other arguments.
If you do nothing but yell at a dog, he’s going to think that’s how you talk.
MomSense
@Boudica
Just out of curiosity, where in Maine did you see the Romney sticker?
I live in Maine where it seems drivers of big, inefficient, older pick ups like the Nobama stickers.
cmorenc
@Hal:
There are FAR more people who still have Obama/Biden 2008 stickers on their car than people with Romney stickers on their car. What’s more interesting, however is that there are FAR more people who still have McCain/Palin stickers on their car from 2008 than people with Romney stickers on their car (though quite a bit fewer than the number still having Obama 2008 stickers)…and the few cars I’ve seen with Romney stickers have invariably been very upscale, oversized cars (except for one jeep I saw while driving on I-70 through Glenwood Springs in Colorado…but I live in North Carolina). Even in South Carolina when I’ve been to the Myrtle Beach area, I have not seen a single Romney sticker on a car so far, though I’m sure there are a handful somewhere.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@kd bart:
Pyrovision.
Schlemizel
@MattMinus:
This exactly. Buckley was the master of this concept. He knew “his people” wanted to say the word but couldn’t because it was so impolite. He supported the racist thinking but pioneered ways to say so without using the language of the KKK. That was the first great divide in the GOP.
RC
I have noticed a sudden push back in the comments section of various non-partisan sites. I like Bloomberg for business news. In the last several weeks op/eds that are remotely anti Romney have been flooded with pro-Romney comments, and they attack the writer. The numbers and intensity are off the chart. I almost suspected a paid response, but maybe it is really a form of early desperation.
Woody
@Schlemizel:
Agreed. This lie isn’t for the reality-based folks, but as Hymn 703 in the political Church of Fox/GOP. It is done for the same reason Coca-Cola still advertises – to reinforce the fervor of the faithful.
And it will, of course, achieve zombie status.
cmorenc
@mistermix:
What I’m optimistically hoping we’ll get to witness on election night is the same pleasure we got in 2008, which is temporarily watching Fox around 11pm EST (when polls close on the West Coast and they can announce projections) and watch the faces of Fox Broadcasters and Pundits as they announce that Obama’s won re-election, and then try to analyze the result. That was really delicious back in 2008, but it will be even sweeter this time around.
Kane
The American Entrepreneur – YOU DID BUILD IT!
That is written on the front page of the Romney website. They are going all in with it.
NotMax
@RC
That’s the playbook: always attack the writer and never confront the prose.
NotMax
@RC
That’s the playbook: always attack the writer and never confront the prose.
SteveinSC
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I was just back from Durham. Romney, one sticker I think and plenty of Obama 2012’s, but then again the RTI area is the only literate part of NC. South Carolina on the other hand has no literate part. Slightly OT, I stayed near a God’s-Chicken-Fil-a. And lo and behold these godly job creators were forcing some other Christians/Gentiles to repave their parking lot on God’s holy day, Sunday. Is it not that God sayeth “shutting down on a work day is more sinful than sodomy, since thy profits decreaseth which is against thy protestant work ethic commandments?”
General Stuck
I commented this yesterday, how the right wing noise machine shock troops are forming straight lines to march to whatever the days utter bullshit comes out of the Romney campaign. And when you think about it, what the hell else they gonna do. It’s not like they respect the truth for truth sake.
Their entire strategy to throw out the Kenyan usurper, seems based on the proposition that unlimited campaign cash can buy them whatever favor from voters that is needed to get one more vote than Obama for a win. And if they get caught in a lie, then buy some more ads to start another line of bullshit. It doesn’t seem like any way to run a campaign, but in the CU world, who really knows for sure.
But it is nice to see a dem candidate sling the shit back in their faces without reverence for disrupting the wingnut reliance on constructing narratives of crappola to win elections. And it makes them even crazier to not have their massive sense of entitlement respected, nor even acknowledged by a mere democrat.
Rob in Buffalo
Mistermix, I know you’re from the Rochester NY area; what is this local non-insane conservative blog? I vaguely remember one Rochester area conservative blogger who, if not insane, was a HUGE dick and AFAIK still is, but I can’t remember the name. I hope it’s not that guy to whom you referred.
Mike in NC
That’s a keeper.
I saw one Rmoney bumper sticker on an SUV in the parking lot at work. It replaced the previous Herman Cain bumper sticker and is surrounded by assorted NRA, anti-abortion, and sundry other wingnut stickers.
Anya
@MattMinus: is “playa” the same as Andrew Cuomo’s “shuck and jive”?
flukebucket
Here in North Georgia it is not safe to put an Obama sticker on your vehicle because somebody will key your car but I don’t see any Romney stickers either. Just the old and worn out McCain/Palin stickers from time to time and I too always chuckle a little bit when I see the folks occupying the vehicle.
Always old and as white as snow with a look on their faces as if they smell shit. The GOP youth vote. LOL!!
JPL
@Mike in NC: NRA and anti-abortion stickers on the same car says a lot about the current repubs.
Walker
@cmorenc:
I call BS.
No one willingly goes to Myrtle Beach.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@SteveinSC: Well, there is Boone, but it’s kind of hard to see, surrounded by all that Foxx territory. But I’m not even seeing them in the area around Campbell University, well outside of the literate area.
amk
OT – Talk about corporate democracy
Facebook, Google, Amazon and eBay are joining forces to lobby and “educate” the US government on internet issues.
The Internet Association, as the group will be known, will launch in September and operate out of Washington, handling political and regulatory issues.
Both Google and Facebook currently spend large amounts of money on political lobbying.
Lobbying is a big industry in the US, with an estimated $3.3bn spent trying to influence lawmakers last year.
Redshift
Here in Northern Virginia, I’ve seen a few Romney stickers, but they’re still way outnumbered by faded McCain stickers, and somewhat outnumbered by anti-Obama stickers.
I know it’s been discussed here before, but the thing is unintentionally brilliant about the Obama logo is that since it’s a letter instead of a separate logo, it’s incorporated into all of the anti-Obama material, and since it’s so distinctive, you recognize the logo first and can’t read the message until you’re much closer. A local congressman talked recently about how much advertising one bumper sticker is worth — stupid wingnuts don’t get that they’re providing free advertising for Obama.
jwb
@Hal, @mistermix: I’ve seen one as well, also on a Prius.
Mike in NC
Willard’s people are probably still charging $20 a pop for them. They may drop the price after Tampa.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Walker:
Sure they do. It’s a popular shopping destination.
Also a favorite of motorcycle clubs.
Walker
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
In eastern NC it is also the subject of much mockery.
jwb
@Ash Can: I think the test was more successful than it might seem. Sure, the MSM didn’t fully take it up—though CNN and at least one other outlet did broadcast the edited footage as though that was Obama’s point. More importantly, it kept the Obama team occupied and Bain and the tax returns off the screens for almost a week.
japa21
It is ineteresting the amount of time they are putting into this one comment at a time when most people still aren’t paying attention. All this does is give Obama’s team plenty of time to do the contracsting and to push the accuracy of hsi statement by simply slightly rephrasing it as more people are paying attention. Then if they try to use it again in the month before the election it comes off as a lie, because people have heard Obama say what he really truly means many times.
On the other hand, I have yet to see the Obama campaign really go after the Romney gaffes: “Corporations are people too, my friend” or “I like to fire people” or hitting on the FP mistakes like still calling Russia the Soviet Union, etc.
I expect those to come out later when Romney doesn’t have the time, nor in his case, the agility, to bounce back. All he can do is whine when that happens, which reduces him further in much of the public’s eyes. Additionally, that is when even more attacks on the Republican members of Congress will take place. I expect to see a lot of Obama/Dem candidate joint rallies.
cmorenc
@Walker:
I’ve been to MB recently only because I own a house in Sunset Beach, NC, the last beach in N.C. before reaching South Carolina, and I ventured down there one day to browse in the mega-golf stores. However, there’s light-years difference between Sunset Beach (still a true low-key family beach town entirely comprised of two-story single-family cottages, no high-rise condos or honky-tonk) and Myrtle Beach, which isn’t called the “Redneck Riviera” for nothing.
Redshift
We got our second mailing from Romney yesterday. I don’t know about this one yet, but the first one went to, among others, a number of state Democratic officials, one of whom posted a scan with the caption “The first rule of politics is that your campaign is only as good as your list…”
In this mailing, like the first, the highlighted tag line is “We believe in America.” Apparently, that’s what they’re going with. I suppose it’s somewhat clever in that it’s a bland whitebread statement for a bland whitebread candidate, but conceals an implied “and the other guys don’t” to appeal to wingnut hatred.
But the text begins with “I believe we have a sacred duty to restore the promise of America,” which to me sounds like it comes from someone with a lot of focus groups and not much intelligence or creativity. And I really wonder how that one is going to play. “Sacred” is clearly dog-whistle to the religious base, but isn’t it also likely to remind people to think about Mitt’s religion?
NotMax
Let’s see what the Mystic Crystal Cube of Prognostication® says.
Obama Responsible For Drought
Obama To Job Creators: This Is A Stick-up
A bit early yet for Obama Wasting Taxpayer Money Campaigning
Keep an eye out for Fewer Gold Medals Under Obama
Obama Made My Soufflé Fall, however, just ain’t gonna fly.
CardinalRed
I’ve been to Myrtle a couple times…..yep shopping and golf..and I don’t golf.
redshirt
I can’t believe there’s a spit flecked Wingnut working at my company, but his car certainly bears the marks: Tons of anti-Obama bumper stickers. Plus a new shiny “Romney12” sticker.
I can’t wait to see his despondent face come post election.
Argon
Heh. Won’t Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn be surprised to learn that? Tim Berners-Lee might have something to say too.
satanicpanic
I have only seen a handful of Romney stickers. Something I love to point out when trolling around the Internet- they may hate Obama, but they don’t love their own guy either.
SteveinSC
@cmorenc: I used to have a house in Holden Beach, my cousin had one at Sunset Beach. Way different in NC v. SC. Myrtle Beach used to be like NC beaches: live oaks, smallish beach houses, lots of side of the road seafood places, (e.g. Murrell’s Inlet.) Now it is a hideous mess.
Second that.
MattF
Also, wrt Xerox PARC– they did, in fact, invent lots of things (though not TCP/IP), and then dropped the technical ball on all of them in a truly legendary fashion. The story of Xerox PARC is actually a lesson in how the MBAs don’t know how to promote technical innovation– and giving them credit for ‘inventing’ the Internet is just adding insult to injury.
Culture of Truth
No one willingly goes to Myrtle Beach
Sure they do. Maybe not twice…
xian
@schrodinger’s cat: no, it worried me because it resonated. i suspect he meant to say “you didn’t build that all by yourself.”
Gypsy howell
@mistermix:
Ditto, on a suburu for Pete’s sakes.
They’re showing up on your standard winger vehicles (pick ups, large SUVs ) too around here in SE PA. There’s a still a Paulite hold-out around the corner with multiple big yard signs as well.
The Moar You Know
Seen two out here in SoCal. As always, Republican stickers appear on shitty, beat up old cars here in SoCal. You see the Dem stickers more often than anywhere else on Lexus SUVs.
The guy I see on the freeway most every day with the McCain/Palin sticker on his car – the one where he cut off the “McCain” part – always makes me howl with laughter. No Romney sticker on his car! I suspect there never will be.
Several other people have mentioned the Prius with GOP stickers phenomenon. Here I’d say that GOP Prius owners outnumber Dem Prius owners at least 3 to 1, based on sticker content. What is that about?
AliceBlue
I’ve seen one Romney yard sign in my area in Georgia. No Romney bumper stickers and not even many anti-Obama bumper stickers. Lots of McCain-Palin and even a few faded out “W” ones though.
redshirt
@The Moar You Know: Dissonance knows no car brand. I always chuckle when a NOMABA driver is not in an American car. It’s perfect.
redbeardjim
@cmorenc: My family used to go to Sunset Beach for a week’s vacation in the summer. Love that place. Has the new bridge led to more development?
And yeah, Myrtle’s a hole. Some fun stuff when I was a kid, but even back then I was terrified by how people drove.
zattarra
@Hal: None in Southeast Michigan. Starting to see Obama ones though.
Cassidy
I’ve seen a few, but it’s mostly the Nobama ones and a lot of Paul here in N. Florida.
But, my absolute favorites are the gun stickers. I was behind this one guy in traffic this morning and he had a couple of tough guy gun stickers “Criminals like unarmed victims”, “protected by S&W”, etc. As I got up next to him, I noticed he was younger (mid to late 20’s) and in a Navy uniform. My first thoughts were that he definitely joined after the wars started, he wants you to know he’s a tough guy with guns, but he was too chickenshit to go into the Army or marines and be a combat arms guy? These people blow my mind.
karen
They’ve made “You didn’t build that” their centerpiece of the Romney campaign. I think I read, earlier this week, that there would be 24 “You didn’t build that” events going on in the country at the same time. That’s a campaign who believes that they’ve found the magic beans.
I think that Romney may, dare I say it, use the word “color” in a sentence. Or one of his surrogate ilk.
Lee
North Texas here (very wingnut red).
McCain/Palin stickers still outnumber Romney stickers. My guess is that the wingnuts are praying that by some miracle Romney does not get the nomination.
one two seven
A former co-worker on Facebook who never posts anything at all, political or not, popped up in my news feed with a long rant against Obama on “you didn’t build that” – I don’t know that its “working”, but its definitely getting the base fired up. Probably in the same way that the tire pressure “energy policy” did in 2008.
Matt McIrvin
DARPA (sometimes ARPA, creator of ARPANET) is a Defense Department agency. Military stuff doesn’t count as government; it’s got a special magic exception from wingnut hate.
Roy G.
The smackdown about who really invented the internet shows the gulf between fantasy and reality; big WSJ editor Gordon Crovitz pulls a column out of his ass, then is promptly struck down by the guy he quoted in his article, who really did write the book about PARC.
Any Wikipedia editors here? I’d suggest making an addition to Crovitz’s page about this incident, and put a dent in his shiny PR.
Matt McIrvin
To be fair about the Romney stickers, we’ll probably see more of them after the R convention (the “McCain/Palin” stickers from 2008 obviously are post-convention, since the choice of Palin was announced then).
You naturally wouldn’t see so many of them during the primary campaign, given how it played out, with Romney as the default choice after all the wingnut standard-bearers flamed out.
I’m surprised by the number of specifically Obama 2012 bumper stickers I have seen, though, even around here.
Matt McIrvin
There was the tagline from Marshall Coleman’s ads against Doug Wilder in 1989: “Is that the kind of man we want for governor?”
Joey Maloney
@cmorenc:
The Florida Panhandle coast is going to sue for trademark infringement. And they’re ready to stand their ground, itellyouwhut.
yopd1
@Argon: Vint Cerf was not amused. His quote:
Larv
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
That’s a little harsh. I’d go so far as to call Buies Creek semi-literate. It’s not like it’s Dunn or Coats. But I can’t say I’m surprised they’re not on the Romney bandwagon. I’m sure that’ll change once they start hearing favorable coverage of Rmoney’s Olympic dressage horse. Right?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Walker:
That, too.
I know people who go there willingly for a girls shopping weekend or because that’s where a club has always had its annual get together. Even they mock the people who think it’s a great vacation spot. But they still go.
Mike G
More like the Fox Egregious Bullshit System.
Force-feeding corporate-convenient lies to the human-foie-gras rubes of America since 1996.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Larv: LOL
Campbell is the closest thing to a landmark I could come up with. (Still, it’s a Baptist college. It’s not going to do much to raise the average reading comprehension in the area.) I was thinking Harnett County in general, especially Dunn and Coats.
SmallAxe
They are definitely running with the “you didn’t build that” meme, had some great banter on Facebook with members of my clan from the financial industry. Two nights in a row of John Stewart and Lewis Black blasting the meme is good for the cause though. They are definitely smelling desperate to me.
Also on the bumper stickers, I’m in Northern VA too surrounded by Bushies and I haven’t seen a single Romney sticker in my neiborhood. About to dust off my Veterans for O 2008 yard sign soon. I have seen Allen for Senate stickers though, Maccaca lives!
SmallAxe
They are definitely running with the “you didn’t build that” meme, had some great banter on Facebook with members of my clan from the financial industry. Two nights in a row of John Stewart and Lewis Black blasting the meme is good for the cause though. They are definitely smelling desperate to me.
Also on the bumper stickers, I’m in Northern VA too surrounded by Bushies and I haven’t seen a single Romney sticker in my neiborhood. About to dust off my Veterans for O 2008 yard sign soon. I have seen Allen for Senate stickers though, Maccaca lives!
SmallAxe
They are definitely running with the “you didn’t build that” meme, had some great banter on Facebook with members of my clan from the financial industry. Two nights in a row of John Stewart and Lewis Black blasting the meme is good for the cause though. They are definitely smelling desperate to me.
Also on the bumper stickers, I’m in Northern VA too surrounded by Bushies and I haven’t seen a single Romney sticker in my neiborhood. About to dust off my Veterans for O 2008 yard sign soon. I have seen Allen for Senate stickers though, Maccaca lives!
jacksmith
“Give me Liberty, or Give me Death!” – Patrick Henry
What a brilliant ruling by the United States Supreme Court on the affordable health care act (Obamacare). Stunningly brilliant in my humble opinion. I could not have ask for a better ruling on a potentially catastrophic healthcare act than We The People Of The United States received from our Supreme Court.
If the court had upheld the constitutionality of the individual mandate under the commerce clause it would have meant the catastrophic loss of the most precious thing we own. Our individual liberty. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Supreme Court.
There is no mandate to buy private for-profit health insurance. There is only a nominal tax on income eligible individuals who don’t have health insurance. This is a HUGE! difference. And I suspect that tax may be subject to constitutional challenge as it ripens.
This is a critically important distinction. Because under the commerce clause individuals would have been compelled to support the most costly, dangerous, unethical, morally repugnant, and defective type of health insurance you can have. For-profit health insurance, and the for-profit proxies called private non-profits and co-ops.
Equally impressive in the courts ruling was the majorities willingness to throw out the whole law if the court could not find a way to sever the individual mandate under the commerce clause from the rest of the act. Bravo! Supreme Court.
Thanks to the Supreme Court we now have an opportunity to fix our healthcare crisis the right way. Without the obscene delusion that Washington can get away with forcing Americans to buy a costly, dangerous and highly defective private product (for-profit health insurance).
During the passage of ACA/Obamacare some politicians said that the ACA was better than nothing. But the truth was that until the Supreme Court fixed it the ACA/Obamacare was worse than nothing at all. It would have meant the catastrophic loss of your precious liberty for the false promise and illusion of healthcare security under the deadly and costly for-profit healthcare system that dominates American healthcare.
As everyone knows now. The fix for our healthcare crisis is a single payer system (Medicare for all) like the rest of the developed world has. Or a robust Public Option choice available to everyone on day one that can quickly lead to a single payer system.
We still have a healthcare crisis in America. With hundreds of thousands dieing needlessly every year in America. And a for-profit medical industrial complex that threatens the security and health of the entire world. The ACA/Obamacare will not fix that.
The for-profit medical industrial complex has already attacked the world with H1N1 killing thousands, and injuring millions. And more attacks are planned for profit, and to feed their greed.
To all of you who have fought so hard to do the kind and right thing for your fellow human beings at a time of our greatest needs I applaud you. Be proud of your-self.
God Bless You my fellow human beings. I’m proud to be one of you. You did good.
See you on the battle field.
Sincerely
jacksmith – WorkingClass :-)
Lex
One of the local wackaloons posted something similar today on the local RWNJ website. The low levels of self-awareness are simply stunning.