Open Thread: Labels Edition

Well (0.00 / 0)

She did sign that thingamoreother.

What was that again?

---

by: JimC @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 13:46:32 PM CDT

A liberal scorned (4.00 / 1)

Hell hath no fury...

Rep Joe Wilson has Civility Deficiency Syndrome and a Loose Facts Disorder. We need to get him some Public Option quick. Oh, that's right. He already has one.

www.KusterforCongress.com - www.paulhodesforsenate.com
www.nikitsongas.com - www.devalpatrick.com

---

by: Jack Mitchell @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 14:11:04 PM CDT

Oh my n/t (0.00 / 0)

---

by: JimC @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 14:24:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

This is The Real Face of the Republican Party (4.00 / 1)

The old respectable party of Warren Rudman, Walter Petersen, Dwight Eisenhower, etc has become seriously stricken with a very very bad disease.

No'm Sayn?

---

by: BurtCohen @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 17:07:39 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

That would be the disease of their contemporaries (4.00 / 1)

Eisenhower had Joe McCarthy, Peterson had Louis Wyman, Rudman had Mel Thomson.

It's really more the disappearance of the moderates, than a growth in vitriol of the hard right.

---

by: elwood @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 17:57:41 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I read on Nate Silver's blog (0.00 / 0)

she was a sure "yes" vote on the public option. Hmmm

---

by: Jennifer Daler @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 14:33:13 PM CDT

The spectrum in that room (0.00 / 0)

Maybe being NH coy, she can share with the others that, "You can get there from here."

www.KusterforCongress.com - www.paulhodesforsenate.com
www.nikitsongas.com - www.devalpatrick.com

---

by: Jack Mitchell @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 14:43:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Re: Dean's intro note (4.00 / 1)

There was this, as well. Her record since then has been good, but it unsettled some of us when we heard about it.

---

by: JimC @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 15:39:39 PM CDT

Nice Thread! (0.00 / 0)

The Reds will rarely hash it out like this.

Pardon the inference by using the term "Reds." I think Joe Wilson made me want to call my opponents "unAmerican." Oh Noes! I blamed my opponents for my rhetorical device.

Slippery slope. Slippery slope.

www.KusterforCongress.com - www.paulhodesforsenate.com
www.nikitsongas.com - www.devalpatrick.com

---

by: Jack Mitchell @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 15:52:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

$200,000 per word (4.00 / 2)

From an Act Blue e-mail:

Starting at 9:30 last night, you stepped up to say you wouldn't tolerate that sort of disgraceful, boorish behavior in our nation's capitol. For almost 3 hours this morning, you were raising $1,000 a minute for Democrat Rob Miller, Wilson's opponent in 2010. And by mid-afternoon today, you'd hung a $200,000 pricetag on each word of Rep. Wilson's outburst.

Punishment enough!

---

by: JimC @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 15:54:11 PM CDT

Just a start. (0.00 / 0)

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

---

by: Paul Twomey @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 20:10:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Sen. Shaheen firmly and unambiguosuly (4.00 / 5)

said she supports a public option at the Labor Day breakfast.

'Aints no more

---

by: JonnyBBad @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 16:40:46 PM CDT

There's an important point hiding here. (4.00 / 2)

Something about the difference between "pragmatism," "centrism," and "bipartisanship."

Pragmatism jumps onto a public option ASAP. Based on a known and popular program (meaning Medicare), incremental, projected to cost less. What's not to like?

Centrism says what? "Split the difference between single-payer and vouchers"? I don't have any idea where that leads. Maybe those co-ops.

Bipartisanship is... well, I don't know what it is. Pundits think it means Joe Lieberman; Senators rated Teddy as the most bi-partisan.  

---

by: elwood @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 18:04:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

though who knows what will come up for a vote n/t (0.00 / 0)

'Aints no more

---

by: JonnyBBad @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 21:55:52 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

How Obama helps illegals (4.00 / 3)

Let us count the ways....
Obama paves highways for illegals to use.

All those shovel ready projects are for the betterment of America's illegals.

NASA puts satellites into space, so illegals can use GPS and cell phones.

The FDA protects migrant illegals from touching produce with nasty chemicals.

Illegals don't drive clunkers anymore.  

www.KusterforCongress.com - www.paulhodesforsenate.com
www.nikitsongas.com - www.devalpatrick.com

---

by: Jack Mitchell @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 16:43:48 PM CDT

More significantly, the supreme court has already said that the (0.00 / 0)

children of undocumented aliens born in the U.S. are citizens AND are entitled to all the benefits available to persons withing the jurisdiction of the federal government--including education and health care.  That's what really has conservatives up in arms, if only because children are supposed to be subservient to their parents and derive all privilege from them.  Heritage is super important 'cause that's what paternal authority is based on.

If the state provides benefits, who needs the pater?  There's only one thing conservatives care about--THEIR power, both in the present and in the future.

Technically, of course, the children born of non-citizens in this country are Americans according to the Constitution, but that doesn't persuade people who believe that's not how it's supposed to be.  Just as they don't believe that a man whose father was a Kenyan is not supposed to be an American, even though he was born here.  What it's about is the importance of the father.  Ditto for unwed mothers.  They're bad because they haven't been willing to be properly subservient to the father of their child.

How American males got to be so insecure is a puzzlement.  I'm pretty sure the "feminization of American culture" is an early symptom, not a cause.

---

by: hannah @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 18:32:48 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Joe Wilson's racism (0.00 / 0)

Rich Benjamin, Demos Senior Fellow and author of the upcoming book Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America, describes the historical context of Joe Wilson's outburst here.

Once upon a time in Wilson's native South Carolina, the 1950s through the 1970s, whites fled public spaces en masse -- pools, parks, schools, cafeterias -- rather than share those public resources with blacks. This is déjà vu all over again: Latino immigrants are the new blacks. A truculent white minority wants to re-segregate their communities; more, it bashes the publish [sic] sphere and aims to sabotage public spending on the common good, including the president's healthcare plans.

Put bluntly, it is not a coincidence that America's love affair with all-things private -- gated communities, private roads, private parks, private schools, private playgrounds, private hospitals -- heated up during the 1950s as the federal government sought to integrate the nation.

As the U.S. government began helping everyday Americans at unprecedented levels from FDR's New Deal on, immigration has become all the more contentious. Immigration broils as an issue precisely as this nation faces budget deficits and potential cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, the state university systems and so on. Those institutions and services were in their infancy -- or did not even exist -- during the first great wave of immigration, from the 1880s to the 1910s, which brought the Irish and eastern and southern Europeans to our shores.

---

by: peacekeeper @ Fri Sep 11, 2009 at 12:49:23 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Dear Florida lady on Morning Edition - (4.00 / 1)

This morning you were interviewed about the President's speech.

You said that you were generally impressed, and that you were relieved to find out that there are no "death panels" in the health care plan. You added, a bit defensively, that you really don't consider yourself 'stupid,' but after hearing so much about them you really were worried that the government was about to promote early death for seniors.

Your fear was certainly no of being stupid. I grew up in a world where we could expect politicians and TV newsmen to shade things a bit - but if a Vice Presidential nominee stated something as fact, and a major news network kept repeating it, we could believe it was generally true.

So don't feel guilty, in any way!

But if you KEEP listening and believing these liars on Fox News and in the Republican Party leadership without double-checking, I'm sorry. You're stupid.

---

by: elwood @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 18:27:08 PM CDT

We're Number 37! (4.00 / 1)

---

by: susanthe @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 19:36:38 PM CDT

Statement: (4.00 / 1)

SHAHEEN STATEMENT ON MEETING WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA AT THE WHITE HOUSE

(Washington, D.C.) - U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen today released the following statement after meeting with President Obama and moderate Senate Democrats at the White House:

"Our meeting with President Obama was upbeat and thoughtful. We discussed, in detail, the cost of health care reform - both the cost of inaction for families and businesses, and the cost to our nation in terms of long-term spending.  

"The discussion at the White House was positive and productive, and I remain hopeful that we can work together - Democrats and Republicans alike - to achieve this important goal."

---

by: Dean Barker @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 19:46:54 PM CDT

Shaheen and Public Option (4.00 / 4)

I just had lunch today (Friday) with Senator Shaheen and a small group of Cheshire County Democrats. She got some very good and pointed questions from the group about healthcare reform.

Someone from the group presented her with thousands of signatures from New Hampshire residents supporting the concept of public option.

Senator Shaheen was very clear and unambiguous in that she supported a public option and that she was going to do whatever she could to make sure that it was part of the bill that came out of the Senate.

She also said that she was going to follow President Obama's lead on the subject because the only way to pass any kind of health care reform would be to have the Democrats united before the President. So as long as the President doesn't compromise it away, she is totally committed to the concept.

---

by: gradysdad @ Fri Sep 11, 2009 at 13:26:51 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

"before" should be "behind" ! n/t (0.00 / 0)

---

by: gradysdad @ Fri Sep 11, 2009 at 13:28:09 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

What's all this I hear about "Label Sedition" ? (4.00 / 2)

We have too much of this sort of rhetoric! Why when I was a child we only used "sedition" to mean "promoting sedatives!"  

---

by: elwood @ Thu Sep 10, 2009 at 19:49:41 PM CDT

Offered as a mood-changer (0.00 / 0)

---

by: JimC @ Fri Sep 11, 2009 at 12:50:44 PM CDT

Greetings from Austin and the DNC meeting (4.00 / 3)

Hi, everyone! I'm in Austin, Texas with Raymond Buckley, our new at large member Joanne Dowdell, E.D. Mike Brunelle, our second vp Dorothy Solomon and Stan Solomon, and finance committee member Kathy Gillette. DNC rep Peter Burling left this afternoon after our business meeting, but the rest of us are leaving tomorrow.

Everyone here is talking about the importance of getting health care done, it was the major topic. At the general session today, the Ken Burns video that was played at the Ted Kennedy memorial at the Kennedy Library was played.

Last night most of the membership went to the LBJ museum and library. Very moving - a lot about the civil rights movement, and Lady Bird's beautify America program; the exhibit does not ignore Viet Nam, either. LBJ's daughter Lucy spoke to us, and talked about getting health care done.  I picked up a reproduction of the paperweight LBJ had in his office which said, "Can Do" - now who does that remind you all of?

Great to be with all these D's from across the country - lot of curiousity about our '010 senate race, plus our congressional races. As LBJ would say - CAN DO! Or, as President Obama would say - YES WE CAN!

"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

---

by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Fri Sep 11, 2009 at 18:26:22 PM CDT