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New York, 10:03 AM
Sat Nov 28
15 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/10/09
"Screw the police!" is the right reaction, yes?
08/10/09
Never mind understanding the content for now.
08/10/09
08/10/09
More and more, this stupid debate seems to have devolved into, "I've got mine. Fuck the rest of you bitches." While a bunch of insurance companies siphon trillions of dollars from the GDP (and from our entrepreneurial competitiveness) just to keep their shareholders sharting into silk.
Yeah. That works.
08/10/09
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08/10/09
Bottom line: this goof ball had options. Whether he foolishly didn't make health insurance a financial priority or really couldn't afford any of of those options would be the first question I'd ask him.
We need a health care reform that mandates some form of basic coverage to be in place; and for those who truly cannot afford it, have that paid for by the gov't. Show me a plan that actually does that and I am in.
08/10/09
I agree that there should be mandates. But there should also be a public option so that Wall Street speculators don't set the cost of coverage.
I also think people who are receiving Medicare need to shut up and count their blessings.
(BTW, I assume that the new new law enacted for the more newly unemployed than me?)
08/10/09
I understand what you are saying about the public option. I'm just concerned that it would drive the insurance companies out of business because of financial requirements that they have and the gov't doesn't - reserves are case in point.
The Medicare recipients really just like what they have and don't want it to change. I get it -- it works for them. There is some fear mongering going on about the "death panels;" but I think they are just worried about care being rationed and they being at the bottom of the waiting list. I think that may be a valid worry with the proposed legislation.
I just want them to do it right. Take a deep breath, figure out the best way and roll it out and work out the kinks before you put the whole country on it.
08/10/09
08/10/09
I know my answer is pat and simplistic, but I hate to do a massive overhaul which may make sense from a short term perspective, but not a long term one.
08/10/09
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08/10/09
Moreover, the proposed legislation isn't designed to cover all who are uninsured. If it did that, I suspect you'd have more people agreeing to this bill - like me for instance. I would certainly be more open to this bill if it actually did what it set out to do -- cover all Americans. It doesn't.
08/10/09
08/10/09
This guy is not simply "against the Dem's proposed plan" and does not just "not have health insurance".
The very point of this article is that this whole load of crap does *not* in fact, have anything to do with the health care reform debate, and that's exactly what the problem is.
08/10/09
08/10/09
But at least you're not asking people for handouts at a anti-socialism rally.
08/10/09
I disagree with you that this isn't a battle against socialized medicine. I'll grant to you that the proposed plan isn't socialized medicine per se, but it is on that path and that is my concern.
People yammer on that you will be able to keep your health insurance if you like it. Well, that may be true if the insurance companies stay in business. I believe the proposed plan will drive many of them out of business. Profit margins aside, insurance companies are required to have 'reserves' for future/unexpected claims -- something our government clearly doesn't do for either Medicaid or Medicare.
However, as I stated before, my biggest issue with this plan is that it doesn't achieve what it sets out to do: provide a basic plan for everyone. I'd prefer it if it just covered all of the uninsured, but it doesn't even do that.
I'm not against healthcare reform - I'm just against this piece of legislation. We need reform. I want a plan that mandates some sort of basic policy minimums for all and pays for those who cannot truly afford it.
08/10/09
08/10/09
08/10/09
Show me a plan with mandates for basic coverage and a plan to pay for that safety net if you cannot afford it. Show me a plan that actually covers all the uninsured. Show me a plan that won't potentially put insurers out of business. Show me a plan that increases the number of primary care providers (MDs, PAs and Nurse Practioners) before we flood an already stressed system with millions more patients.
I just think this plan is change for change's sake. Let's do it right. Let's not make a shitty situation worse.
08/10/09
If you look at everything that's been said about this health care plan by conservatives...it's always a gross inaccuracy. And what's bothering me more is that this administration is just taking it. They need to let some attack dogs off the fucking chain and take the fight to opposition. Emanuel on Glen Beck, Obama on O'Reilly, Biden on...well let's keep him on deck.
Come one people! If this shit doesn't pass now, it never will.
08/10/09
Then every once in a while one would look at me gobsmacked and say (think shock with a redneck accent): "Whut... you mean socialized medicine?!?!"
Yeah, fucktard the socialized medicine that would be paying for your $20,000 surgery.
I wanted to get a bumpersticker that said: "Healthcare for all (except ignorant Republicans)".
08/10/09
08/11/09
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08/10/09
Black man gets knocked over by union thugs looking to silence him for his (probably not even) political views and is on the receiving end of racist attacks from a fellow black man = not worthy of a post. Black man turns out not to have insurance and becomes card in the deck of Gawker author looking to score political points rather than just post interesting content = news.
I think I have the formula down.
If you bothered to watch any interviews with this guy, you might have noticed that he doesn't take a stance on the President's health care plan. Gladney was an unemployed guy looking to make some cash selling flags and knic-knaks to protesters at a town hall event. He's more a glowing example of the failed stimulus package than anything.
But, honestly, how dare the American people differ from the President in their views on health care. Let's take every radical example against this growing group and paint them as uniformed lunatics who don't deserve to be heard. Sounds like a plan.
08/10/09
08/10/09
As far as dissent from any side, I welcome it. Please, bring your INFORMED opinions and your protests. We need those things to keep democracy alive in this country. However, when people like Sarah Palin are spreading lies about health care reform (death panels? DEATH PANELS?) and there are commercials talking about how Obama wants seniors to die, then, yes, I do feel it's fair to categorize the other side as a bunch of uniformed nut jobs.
08/10/09
08/10/09
"Kenneth Gladney, 38, a conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with "Don't tread on me" printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room at St. John's Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was awaiting treatment for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack.
"It just seems there's no freedom of speech without being attacked," he said."
Probably just some more racists.
08/10/09
Aside from the protesters identifying him as being with them. Are they being dishonest about that or are you? He was at the SEIU protest over the weekend, in a wheelchair, though he looked fine in the video. Again, who is being dishonest here?
I can't wait to see a anti-health care reform mob member show up with a backwards B on their face.
Most importantly, he wasn't assaulted at all, as the video clearly shows. He stumbled or was knocked into because there was a cluster of people trying to occupy the same space at the same time.
Beyond that, the fact that he was just trying to sell things to get by, pulling himself up by his boot straps, and now can't afford the bills resulting from the injury incurred should be evidence that even the industrious folks capitalizing on idiotic rebellion (revolution?) can't hack it and have to turn to socialism!
Oh that poor black socialist has turned even the most zealous of what ever you idiots are, into bleeding heart socialist liberals too!
If you mob idiots help him HE WILL NEVER LEARN and will, in the immortal words of Johnny Rebel, be lookin' for a handout.
08/10/09
The point is, were this story to have been about a black man rallying for universal health care and were that man assaulted and taunted with racially charged insults, it would have been a much bigger story. But it didn't play out quite like that... so the push is on to demonize him and discredit him at every opportunity. All for attempting to sell some stupid flags at some stupid event.
Just a few years back, Democrats (see: Nancy Pelosi and others) were insisting that dissent was the highest form of patriotism. They were pushing for protests and disturbances at Social Security reform events across this country. As a result, people showed up, were heard, and the reform movement was quashed. They had every right to do this and I applaud them for being successful.
Why should the newest batch of protesters be treated any differently? Are they not just as patriotic by definition? Or, because you disagree with them this time around, should they be shunned, labeled as idiots (or in your case, terrorists) and pushed out of the political debate entirely?
What could possibly go wrong with thinking like that leading the way?
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