The lying, self-absorbed little death panel-monger is at it again. She really should stick to posing for coloring books:
Speaking to a fund-raising banquet of Wisconsin Right to Life, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee asserted that if policy-makers don’t believe a child in the womb is valuable, then “perhaps the same mind-set applies to other persons.”
“What may they feel about an elderly person who doesn’t have a whole lot of productive years left,” Palin asked an audience of about 5,000 who paid $30 each to hear her speak in an airplane hangar-like exhibition hall at the Wisconsin state fairgrounds just outside of Milwaukee. “In order to save government money, government health care has to be rationed… [so] than this elderly person that perhaps could be seen as costing taxpayers to pay for a non-productive life? Do you think our elderly will be first in line for limited health care?
“And what about the child who perhaps isn’t deemed normal or perfect per someone’s subjective measure of their use or questionable purpose in the eyes of a panel of bureaucrats making our healthcare decisions for us,” she continued.
Palin did not expressly raise the prospect of government-mandated “death panels” to determine who lives or dies – the incendiary and inaccurate charge she made over the summer about Democratic health care plans—but repeatedly suggested that liberal social policies could lead to de facto euthanasia.
Speaking of euthanizing... How about ending her-- well, it's no longer a career... but whatever it is, it needs to be rationed and then death-paneled.
See what they're learning from Joe "You lie!" Wilson? These are the polite little foot soldiers who the Rushpublic punditiots refer to as "average people who are concerned". Yeah, right:
At a health care rally at a Maryland university, a protester began shouting, prompting boos and President Obama to pause. The man apparently yelled "Obama you're a liar. Obama, your health care kills children. Abortion is murder."
I'll do my best to take my award-winning, patent-pending, internationally acclaimed quick notes. I'LL BE UPDATING, RE-POSTING AS HE SPEAKS.
Here's Prez O:
Packed house, huge cheers.
Are you fired up? [nice]
Crowd chanting "Yes we can!" They are going crazy!
You may have been watching So You Think You Can Dance, don't know if you caught it on TV, but the other night I gave a speech to Congress about health care. [HUGE CHEERS] I can already see this crowd is a lot more fun. [huge cheers]
I went to speak on behalf of American people. I ran for prez because it was time for a govt. to make possible the dreams of middle class Americans. ... that understands the quiet struggles...
Health care is one of those struggles... These aren't people, contrary to what you've heard, who are deep in poverty... these are people who are working every day, middle class Americans [applause]. ... Maybe you've been denied... due to previous condition... In the last 12 mos, 6 million more lost their insurance... Today more disturbing news: Nearly half of all Amer's under 65 will lost their coverage at some pt. over the next 10 years!
We gotta do something. [huge applause] Because it can happen to anyone.
But it doesn't stop w/ the uninsured. If you lose/change jobs or have to move... or if you're dropped/watered down coverage... just when you need it. Or paid premiums, but company wouldn't cover the full cost for care. [telling personal stories...]
Nobody should be treated that way in the U.S., that'll change this year. [HUGE APPLAUSE]
It's been a century since Teddy Roosevelt tried to get reform.. we can't sustain it any longer.
If we do nothing, your premiums will rise faster than your wages. Businesses will close down, fewer will open in first place. We'll be spending more than Medicare/caid than every program combined. Not an option. I may not be first, but I'll be last to take up hcr. [HUGE APPLAUSE] We'll get it done this year.
Good news: We're closer now than ever. Solid agreement on 80%, that's never happened before.
Coalition of drs, nurses, hospitals, sr's groups, even drug companies. They know it won't be stopped, want to be on board.
Partisan spectacle now... Scare tactics v. honest debate. Score short term political points instead of solving longterm challenges. THE TIME FOR BICKERING IS OVER, time for games is past... time for action, time to deliver on health care for every American. [HUGE APPLAUSE, YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN]
A lot of misinformation out there. I want you to know about the plan, so when you talk to your friends, you can say, here's what's going on.
More security, stability for those w/ insur, and provide insur. for those who don't. Slow the growth of health care costs for families, businesses, govt. If you have insurance, NOTHING IN THIS PLAN WILL REQUIRE YOU OR EMPLOYER TO CHANGE COVERAGE OR DOCTOR. Repeats it.
What it will do is make it work better for you. Against law to deny coverage for preexisting conditions [HUGE APPLAUSE]... or get dropped when you get sick, or water it down... or place some arbitrary cap....We will place a limit on charges for out of pocket expenses. Nobody should go broke because they got sick. [HUGE APPLAUSE]
Insur. co's must cover routine check ups, preventive care, mammograms, colonscopies, etc. [HUGE APPLAUSE]
With no insurance? You can get covered. Affordably. NOT by some govt. takeover, but w/ a marketplace where indivs' and sm. businesses can shop for a plan. One big group of uninsured Amer's can drive down costs [CO-OPS... UH OH] You should get the same deal that members of Congress get. [HUGE APPLAUSE]
If you STILL can't afford, we'd provide you/sm. bus. owners tax credits. In the first few years to set up the exchange, you need immediate help, those w/ preexisting conditions... there will be coverage.
One option, ONE... most who offer coverage will be private.. one should be PUBLIC INSURANCE OPTION [HUGE APPLAUSE]. I want to be clear: It would only be AN OPTION. Nobody is forced to choose it, nobody w/ insur. would be affected by it. It would keep pressure on private insurance.
Same as private v. public colleges, universities. Same should be true of health care.
I'm open to different ideas, but I won't back down from basic principle of providing a choice. I'll make sure no govt or insur. bureaucrat gets between you and coverage you need.
How to pay for it? Legit concern. We inherited some big deficits/debts, and have big econ. crisis. We need control of our federal budget. First, I WILL NOT SIGN A PLAN THAT ADDS ONE DIME TO DEFICITS, NOW OR IN FUTURE, NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTS.
Iraq War, tax cuts were what I was faced with. I won't make those same mistakes when it comes to hcr.
Next: Savings within existing system, money that's wasted, abuse... Drs, nurses determined that there's waste, not must me. Same with Medicare/caid. Distortions cleared up: WE HAVE STOOD UP FOR SR'S NOT HAVING TO STRUGGLE WITH MEDICAL BILLS. THAT IS THE ESSENCE OF MEDICARE, IT REMAINS A SACRED TRUST. Not one dollar of Medicare fund will be used, we will not be lowering benefits for srs. We will eliminate $$ of waste and fraud, and subsidies to insurance co's.
Next: Create independent commissions of medical experts, to ensure srs. will have Medicare. We can use savings for prescription drug costs. So don't pay attention to scary stories of how your benefits will be cut. The ones who accuse are the ones who have talked about cutting Medicare in the past.
Making Medicare more efficient helps reduce costs elsewhere. Look at Mayo Clinic and what id does. We want to help country learn from Mayo. That'll save everyone $.
Reduce infection rates, teach drs. how to work together... take fewer tests, email to all the drs. Common sense solutions.
Plan: Ideas from both parties... seek common ground in weeks ahead. I'll listen to serious proposals, but I WILL NOT WASTE TIME TO THOSE WHO THINK IT'S GOOD POLITICS TO KILL HEALTH CARE [HUGE APPLAUSE]. I'M NOT GONNA ALLOW SPECIAL INTERESTS TO USE SAME OLD TACTICS, ALLOW PEOPLE TO MISREPRESENT MY CLAIMS, OR ACCEPT THE STATUS QUO.
We are closer than ever before. This is the hard part, when special interests want to bring me down, scare, intimidate you... so I need your help. [applause]
Pundits say maybe you're doing too much. Pushing too far, too fast. [crowd: noooo] I never said change would be easy. When FDR intro'ed Soc. Security [boos?] they called it socialism. But sr's. decided protection was worth fighting for. When Medicare was intro'd, they said, gov't. takeover, but imagine what sr's. would go thru now w/o Medicare.
I've always believed change comes from the bottom up, begins with you, sharing your stories, fighting for something better. That's what's happening right now. [crowd's going wild, yes we can]
I asked if you were fired up [crowd goes nuts], some have heard that story. [He retells it]
There you go. : )
One voice can make a difference. Fired up? Ready to go? They can't stop us, let's go get this done!
The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) is backing out of holding its mid-winter conference in South Carolina after one of its U.S. representatives accused President Barack Obama of lying during the president's congressional address on health care.
"Rep. [Joe] Wilson's remarks were racist, disrespectful and a disingenuous violation -- not only of President Obama -- but to the institution of the presidency and only solidified our position and the importance in not spending Black dollars where Black people are not respected," NNPA Chairman Danny J. Bakewell Sr. said in a statement.
[N]ew reports have the Dems and particularly Speaker Pelosi telling Wilson that he must either apologize to the House or face a censure motion. On a strictly political calculus, it's a little hard to figure. When someone is doing so much to damage themselves and their party, generally you try not to get in their way. The key, however, seems to be Wilson's increasingly unrepentant attitude over the last two days and his refusal to go down to the well of the House and apologize to the body for his actions. [...]
Given how many the tea-bagging right has rallied around Wilson, I don't think many House Republicans want to have that vote. They don't want to vote to censure him. On the other hand, voting in support of him would be a little troubling for a lot of voters too.
In fact, the White House is more than ready to brush aside the most infamous protestor of all: Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who yelled at the President during his televised address. “I think this is a pimple on the ass of progress,” said the senior adviser.
See? That is one more example of how the Obama White House is more honest than BushCo was. See, all it takes is being a little pro-active.
Clearly, the White House is feeling confident in the aftermath of last Wednesday’s big speech. And they got some good news in the immediate aftermath. They had seen some slippage among seniors and independents over the summer. But on Thursday, the AARP released a poll which offered some comfort. The poll, conducted immediately after the speech, showed 72 per cent of independents over the age of 45 saying that some of their concerns were addressed by the speech, with 63 per cent saying they were “more supportive” of his proposals. Those findings were broadly in line with a CNN poll after the speech showing a 14-point rise in support for Obama’s plans among those who watched the address, with 67 per cent of all voters backing the president’s plans. Such instapolls don’t necessarily portend a longer-term rise in Obama’s ratings, but they sure beat the alternative.
How ironic that a popular pimple eradicator is called the Proactiv solution.
You've gotcher birthers, yer deathers, yer tenthers. Now you've gotcher mouthers:
Oh yeah? Well Joe the Mouther didn't make over $765,460 (doesn't include other fundraising efforts) like his opponent Rob Miller, now did he?
Less than a day after Rep. Joe Wilson formally apologized to President Obama over his "you lie" outburst, a campaign aide confirms to CNN the South Carolina Republican has raised "more than $200,000″ in the wake of the now-infamous moment.
Way to go, Rushpublics! Give your hard-earned unemployment checks to a guy who disrespects the highest office in the land, tries to sabotage genuine efforts to save lives and repair our badly damaged health care system, and so much more.
News of that cash haul comes after Wilson directly asked in a Web video for campaign cash to fend off attacks from political opponents and said he's standing by his opposition to Democratic efforts at health care reform.
Why, you can see how much his sincere apology means right here:
"On these issues, I will not be muzzled, I will speak up and speak loudly against this risky plan," Wilson said in a YouTube video released Thursday evening. "The supporters of the government takeover of health care and the liberals who want to give health care to illegals are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly conceived plan."
Who, again, used what, again, as an excuse to distract? Who, again, is a big fat liar? Oh, right, that would be you, Joe the MoutherFoxer.
Despite his impassioned and compassionate speech of Wednesday night, Barack Obama needs to understand that Joe Wilson is the disease for which democracy does not have insurance to cure.
Let me start with this fairly assured speculation: Wilson's outburst was designed by the GOP corporate PR fronts to distract media coverage following Obama's cogent and compelling remarks to Congress. [...]
In the summer of our healthcare reform discontent, Wilson's unprecedented assault on the dignity of the American presidency was part of a long-line of PR stunts to create chaos out of the effort to insure the health of most Americans [...] then the shocking outburst of Joe Wilson, which he apparently shouted twice. [...]
In the Bush Administration, if a Democrat had done that he would have been expelled from Congress. [...]
Until the Democrats start understanding the importance of theater, emotion, and corporate ownership of the media, they are sailing upwind even though the majority of Americans are on their side on almost all progressive issues.
Until the Democrats have a media strategy and ownership epiphany, Joe Wilson is the disease for which democracy does not have insurance to cure.
In a Special Comment, Countdown’s Keith Olbermann calls out South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson not just for his shameful incivility in interrupting President Obama’s health care speech before Congress but for being so glaringly, stupidly, publicly wrong.
If anyone consistently displays "bad form" it's Steele. Let's see, which party celebrated Ted Kennedy's death? Would you consider that bad form, Mr. Steele?
When President Obama read the Kennedy letter, it was beautiful, touching, meaningful, and apt. And does the RNC chair really think Mrs. Kennedy didn't know what was coming? Are we supposed to believe she didn't give her approval ahead of time?
"I'm sorry, but I just felt a bit unnerved by it, in the sense he just passed... His wife was still clearly emotional. I just thought that was bad form."
-- RNC Chairman Michael Steele, in an interview with the Washington Times, criticizing President Obama's reference to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's personal letter to him in his speech last night.
He has the unmitigated gall to disrespect the President of the United States during a vital address; he calls Barack Obama a liar; he disrupts, in a most disturbing way, a major event in front of the whole world... and laughably begs for cover?
From Hannity?
And anyone else who would be idiotic enough to respond?
"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." After all the rhetoric is put aside, one principle ran through President Obama’s speech tonight: that increased government involvement in health care can solve its problems.
But that wasn't enough for Barbie, nosireebob. Grab the kids, pour yourself a tall cool one, take in a pizza! It's Facebook Time!
Many Americans fundamentally disagree with this idea. We know from long experience that the creation of a massive new bureaucracy will not provide us with “more stability and security,” but just the opposite. It's hard to believe the President when he says that this time he and his team of bureaucrats have finally figured out how to do things right if only we’ll take them at their word.
Our objections to the Democrats’ health care proposals are not mere “bickering” or “games.” They are not an attempt to “score short term political points.” And it’s hard to listen to the President lecture us not to use “scare tactics” when in the next breath he says that “more will die” if his proposals do not pass.
In his speech the President directly responded to concerns I’ve raised about unelected bureaucrats being given power to make decisions affecting life or death health care matters. He called these concerns “bogus,” “irresponsible,” and “a lie” -- so much for civility. After all the name-calling, though, what he did not do is respond to the arguments we’ve made, arguments even some of his own supporters have agreed have merit.
In fact, after promising to “make sure that no government bureaucrat .... gets between you and the health care you need,” the President repeated his call for an Independent Medicare Advisory Council -- an unelected, largely unaccountable group of bureaucrats charged with containing Medicare costs. He did not disavow his own statement that such a group, working outside of “normal political channels,” should guide decisions regarding that “huge driver of cost ... the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives....” He did not disavow the statements of his health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, and continuing to pay his salary with taxpayer dollars proves a commitment to his beliefs. The President can keep making unsupported assertions, but until he directly responds to the arguments I’ve made, I’m going to call him out too.
It was heartening to hear the President finally recognize that tort reform is an important part of any solution. But this concession shouldn’t lead us to take our eye off the ball: the Democrats’ proposals will not reduce costs, and they will not deliver better health care. It’s this kind of “healthy skepticism of government” that truly reflects a “concern and regard for the plight of others.” We can’t wait to hear the details on that; we look forward to working with you on tort reform.
Finally, President Obama delivered an offhand applause line tonight about the cost of the War on Terror. As we approach the anniversary of the September 11th attacks and honor those who died that day and those who have died since in the War on Terror, in order to secure our freedoms, we need to remember their sacrifices and not demonize them as having had too high a price tag.
Remember, Mr. President, elected officials work for the people. Forcing a conclusion in order to claim a “victory” is not healthy for our country. We hear you say government isn’t always the answer; now hear us -- that’s what we’ve been saying all along.
- Sarah Palin
Smorgasbord time. Feel free to pick out anything you want and have a field day.
The air is so thick with hypocrisy that I can hardly breathe, and if I go on, I may sound uncivil. We wouldn't want that, now would we?
Joe Wilson's "You lie!" outburst was disturbing and way over the line. Now we see rudeness Exhibit B: Rep. John Shimkus. He couldn't wait it out for a few more measly minutes? If this is what happens when he gets frustrated, how effective a representative could he possibly be? A toddler would have acted more maturely.
The behavior of both of these brats is unAmerican and unacceptable. President Obama's health care address was important, to say the very least, and deserved attention from everyone in Congress, whether the mood struck them or not.
Prez O should show this guy what it's like and turn on his heel and walk away the next time Shimkus needs some urgent face time.
Rep. John Shimkus, a Republican from Illinois, walked out.
"Congressman Shimkus was frustrated that the president was not offering any new ground and left with just minutes remaining in the speech,'' spokesman Steven Tomaszewski said today in response to our question about the late-speech walk-out.
"Regardless of the words the president used, the tone did not bring Republicans on board,'' the congressman's spokesman said. "As George Stephanopoulos said, 'He was right on the edge of anger,' and as Rachel Maddow said, 'I think liberals will be happy.'"
This is a more adult response than Shimkus and Wilson had.
The DCCC reported Thursday afternoon that Miller's new post-speech total had risen to $400,000, via 11,000 individual contributions.
See, this is what happens when someone acts so contemptuous, so infantile, so hostile that he can't keep his big, fat, loud, cavernous, windbaggy mouth shut for a few minutes. Not even for the president of the United States.
What happened to all that harrrrumphing and phony outrage the Rushpublics spat at us for 8 years about saying even one critical word about a war president? Or any (Rushpublic) president?
What about respecting the office, even while disagreeing with the man who holds it? How small can one sick insolent schmuck of a person [sic] be?
See, Eric, there are these newfangled things called cameras. They freeze action so that we can remember things that people do. Those are called photographs.
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