These people are like Radio Rwanda – but less subtle.

What is it with all these Nazi references. That’s like the Grand Dragon asserting that the Southern Poverty Law Center wears white sheets and burns crosses.

It seems like a lot of these aarp xenophobes are well read as far as Joe and Adolph are concerned. I guess they don’t like Sedaris.

Did you notice how Philips seemed to be smirking ala Commander Guy TM?

AARP is actually on-board with health care insurance reform.

The right wing takeover of the South, a.k.a. the Southern Strategy, was powered by similar myths, the names have changed but the stories are the same.

But the smirk disappeared when Maddow started pushing him about his funding sources. Has anyone done an analysis of AFP’s IRS reports?

The real gift of the notion/brand of the post-racial presidency for the hate-monger is the freedom to call anyone that acknowledges race, or America’s tortured history regarding race a racist. Without Barrack Sessions never could have gotten away with calling anyone a racist, let alone a Latino chick from the Bronx.

is this one of the koch brothers responsible for the cato institute, bill krystol and just about everything wrong with this country today?

AARP is pushing on this. Got an e-mail from them yesterday. I guess not all the “wrinklies” are out of touch.

Trying to find logic in this is like trying to have a rational conversation with patients in a nuthouse. There is no point in even trying.

That’s what I was afraid of. How so?

Incite fear and anger to maintain financial privilege? How else do you get poor people to deny themselves health care to protect billionaire health insurance CEO’s?

He didn’t do it alone, he has had help from Richard Mellon Scaife and others.

I’m not sure exactly what they’re pushing for, but I know from seeing their stuff lying around the house (my wife signed us up a couple of years ago) that they’re truthful that the status quo is not viable.

I did a piece on these maggots a while ago with the title, “the real force behind the republican party”

I wish someone would do a front page entry at the lake on the koch brothers

Here’s the deal. I’m an AARPer Bizarre. You all know that about me already. First and foremost, remember George Lakoff’s admonition against using the opposition’s frame (meme, whatever). Because when we do, it only serves to underscore it in people’s minds. To this point, the Obama administration has done a masterful job of this, i.e., have not rushed to the ramparts, screaming, “He is not a Nazi, he is not a Nazi!!”

What’s missing here, it seems, is an absolute crush of seniors speaking to the wisdom of living wills. Where are they/we? I have absolutely no idea how to mobilize “my people.” And if AARP is only part way out of the dark side, that’ll be no help at all. Can’t remember what they did a few years ago that made me cancel my membership in a huff.

Are there ads featuring real seniors? Are they featured at town hall meetings (assuming they’re dexterous enough to avoid flying objects and flung poo)?

This really gets my grundies in a bundle. And I’m gonna be out of town (basically in the kinda, sorta wilderness) next week, so I’m useless. Ugh.

I received notice that I qualified for social security disability yesterday… still have to wait 24 months from May 2009 to qualify for Medicare…… I cannot get anyone to answer that question……

WHY do SSDI beneficiaries have to wait 24 months for Medicare when they need Healthcare the most?

It is my employee rate until mid November while my Long term disability runs out and then COBRA. I am trying to get my HR department to “involuntary terminate” so that I qualify for the stimulus package 35% premium reduction for 9 months…… I didn’t ask to get cancer?

tells bold-faced lies about the organization’s Exxon funding.

Why is the health care of US citizens such a concern to Exxon? Do they have so much money they don’t know what to do with it? Must they support any right wing cause whether or not it’s related to their business?

I disagree with AARP most of the time. However, in this instance, I appreciate the fact that they are not trying to scare seniors re health care. They are at least in favor of something needing to be done.
BTW you can get living will forms on the internet very easily. Maybe people would be comfortable with that – some seem to think you have to go to an attorney.

You can bet Rachel will, she’d doesn’t play.

This Nazi rhetoric has got to stop. Republican lawmakers own this. I haven’t heard even one come out and say tone it down. Except for McCain and he was refering to town hall disruptions, not the lies and over the top hate speech. If the Democrats don’t come back and immeditately introduce a resolution to condemn this sort of behavior in the strongest possible terms, then we are doomed as a nation. Get the Repugs on record! If they can’t even get together long enough to condemn dangerous rhetoric and violence, we might as well elect Republicans and get out of politics altogether.

OT Ben Stein just lost his NY Times Business Writer gig. First Cramer then Ben:) Good Times!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..53855.html

Can’t remember what they did a few years ago that made me cancel my membership in a huff.

Could it be when they endorsed the 2005 Medicare drug bill (aka giveaway to BigPharma)?

OT, our BFF Mel Martinez is doing a full Palin with a half-twist.

With Eric Prince in trouble for child prostitution and gun running to Iraq (just who was he selling the guns too and were they used to kill our troops? or did he just make a profit selling guns to our allies? in Iraq, Do we have allies in Iraq?) Well the GOP money men should be hiding right about now.
Eric’s Amway family fortune gives big to all the GOP causes. Getting funding from a child Pimp and gun runner into a war zone where are troops our at is bad.
Democrats should insist that all the cash they got from his family since the start of the war be returned.
Not only from the GOP but all the little GOP groups funding the tea baggers.

Any word on who is replacing him? Do we have another vote for Healthcare? If Gov Charlie gives us that :)
I’m open to dealing with him.

Sorry Gov Crist if he’s smart could get anything from Obama right now but will he deal?

I’m glad I had a chance to talk to my Grandparents whom live in the Great Red State of Kansas. Maybe the fact that my great-grandparent were from Norway gave my family some sort of higher intelligence, because they weren’t believing any of this garbage. Hell, they drive to Mexico to get there prescriptions because even with $4 a gallon gas, it’s cheaper than being raped by big Pharma here in the USA. Yeah for my grandparents, now I need to work on the ones on my mothers side. Sigh!!

The GOP is running against living wills? So if I’m hurt real bad and left brain dead/GOP voter I won’t be able to leave instructions not to pull the plug?
They would want me to sit their unable to move. Unable to talk. Unable to think. But able to feel pain?

I’ve always thought “the final solution” was overrated, anyway. The purpose of that meme was to distract.

Yes because life is sacred, doncha know. Besides that, pain is good for the soul s/

Funny you should say this. I just read a review of “Cold Soul,” a movie opening today, about an actor who decides to get rid of his troublesome soul. Obviously this is not futuristic fiction. Many Republicans are way ahead of him.

just watched the rachel interview. I didn’t see her “rip” him, but she did confront him with a lot of inconvenient facts. He is VERY experienced at countering what she brought up. He didn’t seem rattled at all.

“These kinds of ‘gotcha’ questions are why our side is winning”. sheesh. No if they are winning it’s because they have corporate funding and lie through their pointy teeth.

Can’t find anything yet. HuffPost says Crist will not be appointing himself.

GOP can take anything ANYTHING and turn it into a negative. They are gifted that way.

It used to be noncontroversial and voila! see? there’s evidence that govt wants us to die!

WaPo says this:

Assuming Crist does not name himself, he is likely to appoint a caretaker who will hold the seat until January 2011 but will not seek the full term. The hot name at the moment to fill the slot is former Gov. Bob Martinez, who spent a single term as the state’s chief executive from 1986 to 1990. Other names mentioned include former Sen. Connie Mack and former Secretary of State Jim Smith.

I can’t remember anything
Can’t tell if this is true or dream
Deep down inside I feel the scream
This terrible silence stops it there

Now that the war is through with me
I’m waking up, I cannot see
That there’s not much left of me
Nothing is real but pain now

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god, help me

Back in the womb it’s much too real
In pumps life that I must feel
But can’t look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I’ll live

Fed through the tube that sticks in me
Just like a wartime novelty
Tied to machines that make me be
Cut this life off from me

Hold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please god, wake

http://www.sing365.com/music/l…..8D00339AD7

Partial Metallica lyrics ” One”

Fatalist vs Free Will I see

Crist is not on the Crazy like the other GOPers I think he might want to deal. This is where Rahm should step in.

I’m very much in sympathy because I was in a similar position in 2003. Shortly after I applied for disability due to COPD, I had a heart condition that I thought was just an upper respiratory infection (there was no pain; my symptoms were just shortness of breath and flu-like symptoms) but a trip to the emergency room proved otherwise. The doctors would not let me out of the hospital until I had a quadruple heart bypass. I had no insurance at the time, so thank goodness for ACCCHS, which I filled out paperwork for. They paid the entire bill; it was over $200K for the hospital alone. That was in Feb/Mar. In May I started receiving checks from disability; the amount that I was approved for was too high to continue on ACCCHS (over income–ugh), and I also had the 2 year wait. ACCCHS said that they could only help me again if I ended up with a horrendous hospital bill again, which I did, and ended up on ACCCHS again for an additional 6 months. I can’t remember how I got thru the entire 2 years, but I will guarantee that ACCCHS saved my life. Good luck to you, Katymine. You’ll be in our thoughts and prayers.

From: http://crush.typepad.com (emasculation-blues);
http://apocalypse-blues.typepad.com/:
Ray backed away from his dad’s hospital. His throat had started to get scratchy. He got into his car and drove down the street to the Medicine Shoppe and bought Theraflu. He got hot water at the hospital’s cafeteria and gulped the medicine down. He knew the symptoms arising just as he entered the hospital were no coincidence. His dad was dying and he didn’t want to confront that but had to say good-bye to the old man. He’d gotten sick all his life when he didn’t want to do something—like the time his throat hurt when it was time for Boy Scout’s one-week campout. His old man had volunteered to drive him to the camp site 60 miles away as son as his throat was better—no pressure, just his dad’s good nature. But Ray didn’t want to be away from his parents that long at age 11 with all those strange kids. He was only 11 and had had only one good friend each period of his life. He wasn’t a mixer, thought he could do his own share of bullying. He was happiest just listening to the radio “Mr. Music” was what they called him. He could name a top 40 song after 2 notes.
He stuck to himself, making his own way—much like his dad, who also was withdrawn and had few close friends –probably only his brothers, Ray’s uncles. His dad stayed by him self at the Farmer’s Elevator whre they made fed for cattle. He drove trucks and shoveled vitamins into mixers from 7 am to 5:30 pm each day with half an hour for lunch.
Still, when Ray started to want spending money, his dad wouldn’t give it to him. Ray got a morning paperroute, 6 am, back at 7. Eggs and bacon with lots of salt. Wheaties with a half-inch of sugar. His mother and father were hardworkers. In bad weather, he’d drive Ray through the driving rain or plow through snow drifts before heading to his 7 am job. Ray didn’t have to ask.
Now Ray had to see that gentle, sweet man on his death bed. Ray walked in. His dad raise his only good arm, the left, and raised his left eyebrow and curled the left corner of his mouth. Typical dad. Ray couldn’t tell if he knew he was dying or didn’t. Ray squeezed the oldman’s fingers. His dad curled the left half of his mouth.
“Dad. How are ya?” His father’s stroke had left him paralyzed on the right side and unable to talk. “You’re fine, you old fart!” Ray said. “This will keep you off the streets, outta trouble! I won’t have to arrest you!” His dad’s eyes brightened. Simple jokes for a simple man. That’s all it took. When his dad raised his left arm up and down to show Ray that he was mobile—perhaps to show him that he could rehab his way out of this mess. “Fuck” Ray thought. “I bet no one’s told him that he’s gonna die in a few days. Assholes.” A quick visit with the doctor and his brothers confirmed his suspicion.
He tok his dad’s head in his hands and said “Dad, I want you to know that we love you and we appreciate your bustin your gut for us, to give us the best possible lives. But I want you to know that your very , very, sick. You’ve had a major stroke–that’s why you can’t move or talk. I just wanted you to know” His father’s eyes dimmed, some of the glow was gone. Ray had been right, the old man thought he could rehab his way out if it. Well, now he could get his thoughts together, say his prayers and –perhaps—relax, knowing that worldly struggles were over, and he could see his wife again.
Ray kissed him on the forehead and walked out of the room. He hadn’t been able to say “You’ve only got 4 days to live” but he felt his dad’s death may have more dignity now at least. “He was laying like a fish on a dock, gasping for air,” Ray thought. “My dad—the sweetest guy in the world—doesn’t deserve that” Ray would have killed his dad that same day, but for the anti-euthanasia laws. His living will said “no extraordinary measures” So all they could do was keep a sugar-salt solution in his arm until he starved to death or his congested heart gave out or his clogged arteries in his neck completed the stroke. “Dad loved food” Ray thought. He remembered his dad’s tales of eating 5 eggs and sausages at his grandma’s table. And eating those same eggs and bacon and Wheaties at his wives table. Now his dad would die with less dignity thatn a dog in a field. A farmer would shoot a wounded dying dog right there in the field. But his dad had to starve to death.

Well if you repeat a lie often enough and nobody challenges its then yes you can brain wash people.
We need the Fairness Doctrine back that and some Hate Speech laws in the Media. I want Lou Dobbs, Glen and Rush to argue that what they say is not hate speech and that Nobody is harmed because of what they say.
Plus they never threatened anyone’s life.

yes

Here is a clip of Chris Matthews going after a Freedomworks’ spokesperson and calling him a fraud.

Pretty good stuff.

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2429

If you hang around or work on the edges of health care, you learn very quickly that there are definitely things worse than dying.

exactly duck – you need a powerful fear msg to get people working against their own best interests, like for instance improved health care choices and real freedom of speech. these crazy protesting oldies are not setting a good example for the grandkids.

Thanks for sharing that. Very moving.

By the way, the AARP web site has a one page health care legislation myths item on the left side of their home page that addresses some of the distortions and lies that are being bandied about.

AARP probably was for Medicare D because most seniors have one or more chronic conditions that require high cost medications. I don’t know the details or even the outlines of their support and the general public or legislative debate prior to passage, don’t know if they sought to mandate negotiated drug rates then, I think know that they’ve sought to get that included this time and that they’ve fought the long protected patents on new bionutrition products (which I think Scarecrow recently reported they lost on). I can tell you that I have Medicare D with extra help, because of my very low income, so my generics cost me $2.40 and brand names cost me $6. I don’t know how folks with limited incomes can afford any medications without various forms of “extra help” If you’re not on that kind of help, then by all means go to Costco or Canada or Mexico, knowing that you may be risking contaminated meds. On the other hand, if you’re really, really poor, you can choose between wholesome food and meds, or rent and meds, or, or, or, under the present grossly unregulated realities of “free market” atrocities.

Beyond that, I’m in despair over the recent disclosures and total sell outs by the president and congress.

Blessings to all,

I

go to Costco or Canada or Mexico, knowing that you may be risking contaminated meds

Probably not from any of those places, although I’d prefer Canada to Mexico as a source, simply because it’s safer to go there.