Author Archives: John Wallenfeldt

Ellis Weiner: Half-Assed From Whole Foods

A nice point-by-point retort of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s health care talking points. Basically, sure a lot of people are angry, but the guy made some points based on what he thought was good logic.

Challenging that logic with the bright light of reality is what is needed.

Not that voting with our dollars wouldn’t, but it is better for the guy to know why his sales might be down.

Coverage and opinion from The Chicago Tribune, Nashville Scene, AmericaBlog (plus bonus editorial), and BuzzFlash – whoever they are.

About.com is hosting an article concerning the boycott of Whole Foods and here is the Single Payer Action site’s argument for said boycott.

Cenk Uygur: Man with a Gun Near Obama Rally — Hell No!

“Now imagine he was Muslim and waiting for Bush with a gun. What do you think would have happened then?”

Some folks are trying to pooh-pooh away the fact that some anti-American asshat was loitering around President Obama’s town hall today in New Hampshire.

In a church yard. Strapped with a pistol. Holding a sign advocating revolution.

Thankfully, some folks, like Cenk Uygur, is calling it what it is: borderline insurrection. Nip it in the bud. Right now.

UPDATE: He was still selling crazy and trying to dodge responsibility for his words and actions in 2014. Yep, he’s a conservative.

Where Democrats Went Wrong?

I keep reading all these opinion articles on how the President and Democrats in general have “gone wrong” on selling health care reform.

Granted, they’ve been behind the ball on getting people organized on their behalf, but is this really a sin?

Paul Krugman had a good article on this recently.

No, if the Democrats have done something wrong, it is mistaking their opposition as being pro-democracy, pro-America, and pro-progress.

Instead, we have a bunch of racists bleating as loudly as possible to silence public discourse. They parrot soundbites fed to them by corporate lobbyists, fringe hate groups, and even churches. Wait? Wasn’t Luke a discipline of Christ? What gives?

They don’t want debate. They do not even want to have their situation improved, as many of them would if health care reform passes.

No, we have public servants on government health care crying about “death panels” and “forced euthanasia”. We have seniors on Medicare bitching about wanting no socialized medicine. We have veterans venting about not offering services to Americans that THEY ALREADY ENJOY.

So fine, someone should give them the courtesy of appealing to their grievances.

Offer every Republican and Blue Dog the chance to opt out of the health care we give Congressmen and Senators.

Allow every senior the option to opt out of Medicare. Give them a flat check of whatever they contributed over the life of their employment, with no interest, and then tax it. And then, make them sign something that states they will never, ever bitch about needing a hand on pain of a $10,000 fine and 90 days in jail per offense.

And don’t even think of asking for any form of public assistance.

Give the VA folks who hate health reform access to rudimentary checkups and preventative care. And that’s it. Every other vet who gets the point will have vastly improved service as a result of their generosity.

As for Social Security, same concept. Here’s a check for the amount you paid in; no interest, and yes, we’re taking our cut for the taxes. Good luck with your golden years as you are basically kissing our ass goodbye.

In short, stop trying to screw the rest of America because you can’t think beyond your Dittohead talking points.

DownWithTyranny!: Will The Teabagging And Violence Backfire On The Republicans In 2010?

There is a lot of good, honest analysis of the cretins opposing, well, ANYTHING our President is doing, but particularly on health care reform.

In addition, an update to an old anti-Reaganite polemic:

I AM AN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE SHITHEEL

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issed by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it’s valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic and Fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

Sorting out claims about healthcare legislation – Los Angeles Times

How would you like to combat fringe zealot Talibangelical arguments with actual truth. Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times wrote a pretty good article on the subject. I heard him on Here and Now today (link) and it was a lot of useful info.

Even the government is finally figuring out that someone should call out these idiots and have a Reality Check website.

Howard Dean takes on Sarah Palin’s lies.

In the end though, we have to rely on John Stewart and team to truly confront these fools:

Comedy Central video link: Healthier Skelter

Comedy Central video link: Healthier Skelter – Obama Death Panel Debate

House leaders call noisy disruption of healthcare forums ‘un-American’ – Los Angeles Times

Finally, Nancy Pelosi grows a spine and calls out the healthers.

You know, these bastards called anyone against the Iraq War a traitor for not falling in line behind Bush and blindly going to war without at least having a healthy debate as to why we were spending lives and trillions of dollars.

Now? We are looking to improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans and spend trillions to do so and you’d think they’d follow their own meme and just either get in line or out of the way, right? No, they skipped that part. They even skipped the debate part too. They just don’t want to change anything at all.

Obviously they don’t ALL work for the insurance industry. Obviously they are getting just as screwed over as the rest of us.

So what is it? What brings then armed to silence discussion and debate? What causes them to not just interrupt, but impede the course of democracy?

Simple. We have a black President who is using federal dollars to stop corporations from aiding in the deaths of American citizens by weighing human life against profit margins and stock values.

Guess which part of that appeals to the racist core of the GOP?

Fear of Healthcare or Fear of Black People? Introducing the ‘Healthers’

“I think we should come up with a new term for the Healthcare nuts – the ‘Healthers’ in homage to the ‘Birthers’. They are equally as crazy, equally wrong, and at the end of the day, equally racist.”

– Blogger Ben Cohen on the crazy bastards opposing health care reform

A couple of Olbermann gems regarding both the assholes disrupting democracy…and the spineless shitheels who are buckling under to racist dittohead mobs and lobbyist bribes:

Bob Cesca comments on the raving townhall meeting lunatics mentioned above.

Most of these tools are following a corporate lobbyist-written script. More on that here.

At DailyKos, a tongue-in-cheek “surrender” to certain GOP lunatic points, the ones that don’t exist except in their vacant echo chamber skulls.

Check out Howard Dean in this interview on Talk of the Nation.

CNN’s Rick Sanchez is a reckless loon, but he’s OUR reckless loon. Check this out:

Hell, you want to know how much in Bizarro World these “healthers” are? Some asshat “supposedly attacked” at a health care mob rally has a online contribution site to cover his health care costs as he doesn’t have health insurance.