So much for the theory that it’s just a bunch of Firebaggers liberals that are dissatisfied with the Affordable [sic] Care Act.

I thought O’s healthcare plan was the center piece for his reelection strategy:)

“My health care plan entire political strategy is just like the one my Republican opponent passed”..

There, fixed it for ya.

A possible silver lining for the White House that could depress turnout for Willard is that Republican voters don’t yet realize just how similar RomneyCare is to the Affordable Care Act.

Explain please Mitt has now changed his mind so if Mitt is the Nominee that places Mitt at best as equal to Obama.
Mitt has changed his mind on healthcare so he will get some votes but nobody trusts Mitt views on any issues.
Obama however has to defend his plan…without our help I can’t sell crap.

Kind of hard to Obama to run for re-election bragging that he ripped off the opposition and he think it makes him awesome.

You gotta give the man credit, he doesn’t run away from a challenge.

Dammit.

If the GOP does focus on healthcare we get what we want Mitt can attack O’s plan and we can point out that America pays more to insure some people than other countries pay to insure everyone.
American healthcare is so bad that illegal immigrants without healthcare live longer than Whites with healthcare.

the mortality rates of first-generation immigrants are consistently better than that of U.S.-born Hispanics. But he said the difference between these groups is seldom statistically significant.

In 2007, the Public Policy Institute of California found that the average lifespan of a Hispanic man in that state is 77.5 years, compared to 75.5 among white males and 68.6 among black males. The lifespan of Hispanic men was topped only by Asian men, whose average lifespan came in at 80.4.

In 2008, the National Center for Health Statistics released a study showing that the overall mortality rate for Hispanics in 2006 was 550 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to 778 for whites, and 1,001 for blacks.

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/editors_picks/2009/7/7/the_hispanic_paradox_us_hispanics_live.htm

http://my.firedoglake.com/thingscomeundone/2011/01/16/the-hispanic-paradox-is-greater-than-we-think/

It’s darn hard to believe a Congress that has put cuts in Medicare and Medicaid on the table has any intention of providing a decent healhcare system to the rest of Americans.

In related news, 52% of Democrats favor the Affordable Care Act only because 97% of Republicans oppose it.

Obama put Medicare eligibility age on the table. I guess he figured we’d believe that there is an abundant supply of affordable health care policies for 70 year olds.

We cannot trust them. Over 90% of Americans have figured this out. Unfortunately, we don’t know what to do about it.

Obama’s scurrilous actions and proposals regarding health care have really cut those Democrats running for Congress and locally off at the knees. They have nothing of real merit to run on.

The Supreme Court is going to give the Health Care Act a decent burial, hopefully before the election. If it weren’t for the economy, this would be Obama’s biggest self-forced fuck-up. As it is, it’s a close race. Thinking about our conversation yesterday with Glenn Greenwald, I’m now persuaded that he simply can’t handle conflict. I had a chairman who was like that. He always went after his supporters, because our support for him meant he faced little or no opposition even on policies we deeply opposed. That’s why Obama has been brutal to the left. Had the Left opposed him earlier, we might not have been witness to such a disaster. This is what comes of giving a loser the benefit of the doubt. I’m one of those who gave him that benefit, and I deeply regret it. We should have gotten more information on how he reacts in the crunch. He folds.

Overall, it’s 38% for, 51% against, and that’s roughly held steady for two years (RCP ave).

So if the Dem number ‘slipped’ it couldn’t have been much.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/obama_and_democrats_health_care_plan-1130.html

I prefer to call that train wreck of a law the Rube Goldberg Health Insurance “Reform” Act of 2010. Truth in labeling.

1. the medicaid expansion will likely never happen- and if it does, it will be at the expense of the erosion of the last vestiges that Medicaid can be called a health ‘care’ program. It is already in its last gasps now (see CA cuts for the biggest, most progressive state in the union for most recent evidence).

2. all that will remain is the $400 billion (low end estimate) of direct subsidies to largest private health insurers —

3. Turning United health care, wellpoint, aetna, cigna into the new Halliburtons of health care is now the BEST CASE SCENARIO!

4. Dems would never have supported this law if Republicans tried to pass it– we need to ‘give up the ghost’ (to turn a Halloween phrase) and demand that the progressive caucus get behind repeal.

5. one more note- the 2014 timeline was ALWAYS A RUSE!!!! Bothers me when progressives lament the delayed timeline — you are being used as a tool.

One of the most pathetic aspects of the drawn-out struggle to pass this turkey of a law involved Howard Dean, who meekly went along with the party mandarins–the same people who ran him out of Washington on a rail–and begged progressives to support the law.

All true.

Whenm Obama/Rahm got in, they kicked Dean out of the DNC and dismantled his 50 state strategy. Watching him suck up to Obama was painful.

And the long (and I mean long) drawn out process was really painful to watch, much like the BS debt deal which was as long and as painful. Seems to be a pattern with Obama.

Can’t handle conflict? O is lead around by his nose by the PTB, Wall Street, The MIC.

There is no choice where O is concerned. It’s all for them.

Anything that resembles averting controversy is a ruse.

Why does spending trillions on wars not conflict with Public Interest (The Common Good)?

People who claim that they were fooled by Obama weren’t paying attention three years ago.
Black Agenda Report, May 7, 2008

Running to the Right: Barack Obama and the DLC Strategy

DLC endorsement is the gold standard of political reliability for Wall Street, Big Energy, Big Pharma, insurance, the airlines and more. Though candidates normally undergo extensive questioning and interviews before DLC endorsement, Obama insisted the blessing of these corporate special interests had been bestowed on him without these formalities and without his advance knowledge, and formally disassociated himself from the DLC. But like Hillary Clinton, and every front running Democrat since Michale Dukakis in 1988, Barack Obama’s campaign has adopted the classic right wing DLC strategy.
[snip]
When he does speak, it won’t be good news. Republicans are sure to escalate their demands, insisting that Barack Obama denounce a list of black and progressive organizations, activities, beliefs and individuals to retain his share of their base. And as long as Obama is wedded to the DLC strategy, he will eagerly comply.

If there was an actual mass-based progressive movement in the US, operating on the ground and independent of political parties and campaigns, it might have a prayer of holding Barack Obama accountable. But there isn’t.

BT, I think one of the oddities of our culture is that there is at least one characteristic which from time to time, however infrequently, shares both sides of the ideological divide. It would be libertarianism.

A lot of folks don’t like to be told by gov’t what they as individuals must do. The rest of what they believe may be left, right, or somewhere else, disagreeable or not.

The mandate is a repugnant target of opportunity for libertarians, and it infects the entire ACA regime. So much the better that it has brought together some, who disagree on most else, but coincidentally agree on at least this issue.

news report:

Obama team accuses Romney of flip-flopping.
“Mitt Romney continues to have 75 percent, 80 percent of his party looking somewhere else,” said top Obama adviser David Plouffe.

“You look at issue after issue after issue he’s moved all over the place,” added Plouffe, who appeared on NBC’S “Meet the Press.” “I can tell you one thing working a few steps down from the president, what you need in that office is conviction. You need to have a true compass. And you’ve got to be willing to make tough calls. And you get the sense with Mitt Romney that, you know, if he thought it was good to say the sky was green and the grass was blue, to win an election, he’d say it.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

Ladies and gentlemen (Plouffe take note), here’s a real flip-flopper.

I’m convinced what Michael Moore said recently. The thugs are not really all fired up about this election.That’s why there are so many crazy asses running. They figure they already have their candidate: Zero, Or words to that effect. So why worry about the small shit?

Of course, he really doesn’t care. Why should he? He’s just going to be running against another thug anyway.

I would guess that Obama never had to throw a punch, wrestle a bully to the ground, probably never set a hard screen on the basketball court, or blocked out somebody larger to get a rebound. He’s probably the last person one would want to hold up their position in a negotiation. I’ve read that he attended elite private schools throughout his whole life, including childhood. He is what I would call a “coaster.” Not a fighter. As we know now, he has little conviction. His campaign was a massive deception perpetrated on the populace. He believed none of the populist message he delivered, and he only delivered the populist talking points when he was down in the polls. Probably the only positive in the whole fiasco, is that progressives have learned that their next candidate will have to be a bonafide fighter, with a real track record. Elizabeth Warren comes to mind.
I will take this election season off, no donations to anyone, no work for anyone. I think most progressives will too. We should direct our energies to being in the streets with the others, that’s the only place change will come from.

You know I don’t think the supremees will bury it. There’s too many new customers out there for that. But why worry about it? It is likely Zero will be reelected anyway. Who else you gonna vote for?

Well, they say 70% if the left still support him. Warren? Not so much but let’s see how she does in MA first.

Fuck the 2016 cycle. Warren for President 2012 (if only!). Christ, for that matter, bring in the second or third string. Hillary in 2012. Anyone but Obamm LLC, or GOP wankers.

I think that it’s been solidly established that it doesn’t matter who #1 is if democracy has broken down, if the media is ineffective, if the congress is a doormat, and if money rules politics. The more we elevate the importance of the president and idolize the Decider the more autocratic they become. Suppose we said: Elect whomever you want, we’ll take a more active interest and thereby have more influence than the PTB on what he’ll do.

Years ago people had high hopes for television. It was going to enable people to be well-informed and make them better citizens. And then Newton Minow, in his first major speech as FCC chairman in 1961 said: “Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.”

Recently the internet has shown promise of improving the democratic process. But while we can certainly vent more, and we can filter the bullshit out of government pronouncements, we also have supposedly industry leaders like DKos only being an agent for a political party. Kos: — “Remember that ultimately, this is a site about the Democratic Party and elections. I’ll be looking for people who get that we’re building a movement and can help further that goal.”

So is blogville also a vast wasteland, simply a distraction?

Suppose there were a council of internet bloggers who got together and decided this: We will do what Obama promised to do in his campaign but didn’t do. That will include, among other things, government transparency.

Obama ’08:

Open Up Government to its Citizens: The Bush Administration has been one of the most secretive, closed administrations in American history. Our nation’s progress has been stifled by a system corrupted by millions of lobbying dollars contributed to political campaigns, the revolving door between government and industry, and privileged access to inside information—all of which have led to policies that favor the few against the public interest. An Obama presidency will use cutting-edge technologies to reverse this dynamic, creating a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America’s citizens. Technology-enabled citizen participation has already produced ideas driving Obama’s campaign and its vision for how technology can help connect government to its citizens and engage citizens in a democracy. Barack Obama will use the most current technological tools available to make government less beholden to special interest groups and lobbyists and promote citizen participation in government decision-making.

Personally I think this makes more sense than endless verbiage on Bank of America’s debit card fees and the income divide, but that’s just me. I consider those issues to be distractions from the issues I listed above which concern government.

Warren’s a good egg who’ll get my vote. Still I can’t imagine she’ll be happy awhile after a win, if she does.

Candidate Obama on healthcare mandates:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoSnqofelsQ

I think now would be a marvelous time to introduce “none of the above” as a ballot choice.

Very, very good!

It seems Richard Pryor had the right idea.