REPUBLICONS and CHRISTIE TOO LIE!

Quote from Huffington: 

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) said Monday he has no regrets that he decided against setting up a state health care exchange under the Affordable Care Act, saying he's glad the program's "failure" is not his responsibility.

"This is just an awful law that made no sense. I’m glad that the train wreck’s not mine, it’s his,” Christie said in an interview with NJ 101.5, referring to President Barack Obama. “It’s a train wreck that anyone who has managed anything ever in their lives could have seen coming.”

So what's new? Republicrats LIE and they LIE ALL the time. The goal for progressives is to CALL THEM OUT AND YES, MR. PRESIDENT, CALL REPUBLICONS OUT for their lies. Obamacare as the president said it would, is beginning to WORK and it is working well especially in states that already have healthcare exchanges set up like California, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Vermont (a state beginning to set up single payer because of the passage of the ACA.)  

One MUST scream over their lies and this tub of lies CHRISTIE. His state is NOT in goodshape.  Why? Because he is a Republican austerity humanoid. As long as he gets his state salary and as long as he has health care for his weight surgery courtesy of NJ taxpayers then he can call health care a "train wreck" and get away with it.   And "train wreck," well, it sounds so terrible but good for Repubicon LIE purposes.

STOP lying Gov. Christie!   IF you run for president you WILL get scrutiny so in reality I am going to sit back and enjoy the show IF he runs!!!

IT'S NEAR THANKSGIVING AND PEOPLE ARE BUSY BUT ONE MUST NEVER FORGET WHAT HAPPENS WHEN REPUBLICANS TAKE OFFICE.  HORROR STORIES HAPPEN.  JUST LOOK AT STATES LIKE FLORIDA, MICHIGAN, MAINE, ETC. WHERE REPUBLCRAT STATE LEGISLATURES HAVE RUN ROUGHSHOD OVER PEOPLE.  MORAL OF THIS STORY: GET OUT THERE IN RAIN, SNOW, SLEET, HAIL AND SUN TO GET THIS MESSAGE OUT. REPUBLIRATS MUST BE ELECTORALLY CRUSHED ALL OVER THE NATION!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND AFTER THE 2014 ELECTIONS, IF DEMS SWEEP, IT WILL BE THE SWEETEST THANKSGIVING OF ALL!!

Freezing Denver -- Patriotic Pats!!

Globe Caption: "Patriots stun Broncos in OT after historic rally!!"

Off the top -- good title for opinion posting that is fast and good grammar ignored!

For those who like football and even those who don't. 

GREATEST freezing cold game in the history of the world!!!!   WOW and me of little faith turned it off because I get too emotional over anything New England or Boston.  Don't ask me why I have no idea except I love my state and city so the sports teams are emblematic of that.

Kept checking intermittently online and then holy cow they tied it.  Still to nervous to watch, came back later and WOW a win....after down the entire first half and too make the win sweeter -- sorry Wes Welker cuz he's a good guy with talent but -- he (and others) booted the fair catch from a Pat's score.  Patriots then pounce on a loose ball and chalk up a field goal score by Gostkowski win for the Pats Boys.  

GREATEST game I did but did not see.   Thanks Pats what a joy!!

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/11/25/patriots-stun-broncos-overtime/1My4HShtC3MyND89gerHQI/story.html

Day of Tragedy Day of Hope

It is the 50th anniversary of the November 22, 1963 assassination of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, the nation's first Catholic president. The event is indelibly etched in my mind, of course, as it is etched when I witnessed the first African American 44th President of the United States, Barack H. Obama take his oath of office. I think not only of the stark differences between the events because of their different historical eras but I also think about the stark similarities of them too. Both, it can, I think, be correctly said, were two nation-altering events.

My father, the political force in my family, was until his own death, a Republican. He supported Richard Nixon in the 1960 election and because he did so did I. I even pasted a "Nixon/Lodge" bumper sticker on my three-ring school binder. When Kennedy won the 1960 presidency I was disappointed my guy, -- my father's guy -- Nixon, lost. It is hard to imagine that time in those ever-so-innocent days that I, a passionately pugnacious Democrat, now, could ever have supported Nixon then. I excused this later. If Hillary Clinton could be a "Goldwater Girl" in 1964 then I could be for Nixon in 1960. The times and we were different then. My innocence, later, would disintegrate as a desert mirage.

I was 15 years old in 1963, a freshman in high school. I remember the November 22nd moment to this 2013 day. I was getting out of high school at 2:00 p.m. I remember a young man running in the corridor of the one-floor Framingham South High School saying the president had been shot. I was incredulous and thought it was a cruel joke. Later, getting into my post-polio special needs school bus I asked my driver, Mrs. Zink, if it was true. She had the radio on as the fateful news assaulted our ears. We, like most, were aghast and thought it impossible. We both sat there in tomb-like silence.

As a youth I had never been witness to great national tragedy or even special leadership. I had never known the Great Depression, I had not known FDR, Winston Churchill, nor had I ever heard of the New Deal, bread lines, dust bowls and, thankfully, I did not experience the Holocaust of Europe nor any of World War II. When a young black girl in my class said she could never be elected a class officer because she was black I looked at her as if she said the earth were made of plastic. Surely, she was wrong. No, alas, she was not wrong. She was exactly right but I did not understand that then. I -- a white young woman -- felt infinitely safe, free and untouched by politically violent events until the first one that touched me and so many others that fateful November day.

My innocence running parallel to the nation's innocence was lost that day. I would experience many more national tragedies since and my politics would be shaped by them. I began to sit permanently on the left side of the political spectrum as the tragedies of succeeding eras would be many and extreme -- Vietnam, the assassination of Martin Luther King, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the siege of civil rights era -- a siege that consumed Emmitt Till, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, three civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner murdered for registering black voters in Mississippi and three young girls Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombed by vicious Klu Klux Klan racists – a national hangover from the Civil War era. And of course there would be more violence inflicted on 26 children victims of Newtown gun violence to 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, other wars too numerous to mention and body bags too numerous to count.

President John Kennedy in 1960 was, during our age of national innocence, our national hope. Three years later he was a nation's tragedy. We would never be a nation at peace for very long again. Never would I question that to be black in this nation is infinitely more difficult than to be born white. Never would I NOT question a nation's foreign policy and its devastating consequences.

In our time the 2008 election of our first African American president rekindled that same hope I had before November 22, 1963, the day of ended innocence. The election of the 44th president of the United States is filled, though, with conflicts and a great divide testing our national endurance. Perhaps, we have always been divided but that young innocent girl in 1963 never felt it until things changed from hope to tragedy by a ne’er-do-well in Dallas.

Barack Obama was my hope in 2008 and remains so now despite his enemies' goal of destruction, obstruction, interposition and nullification that my young eyes never knew was part of our national complexion since its beginning. But hope, as the cliché says, springs eternal and is part of our national complexion too.
As the late Senator from Massachusetts, Teddy Kennedy, brother of the slain president so appropriately said:

For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die

KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE HELP ELECT DEMOCRATS IN 2014 THROUGHOUT THE NATION; HELP ELECT DEMOCRATS IN STATE HOUSES ACROSS THE NATION AND FINALLY IN 2016 LET'S KEEP THE PRESIDENCY AND MAKE CHRIS CHRISTIE (IF THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE) IRRELEVANT!!

FILIBUSTER BUSTED!!! FINALLY :)

FINALLY FINALLY, RULES OF Filibuster CHANGED.  See link here or below!!!! 

Thank GOD. WE will NEVER live to regret this. This should have been done MONTHS AND 

MONTHS AGO. These Republicrat malevolent treasonous turncoats on Democracy, a plague 

on you as you try so very hard in every racist way possible to sink our president. You are 

DISGUSTING and you deserve every single loss you WILL get. 

AND you WON'T get away with your voter suppression tactics either no matter how hard 

you try or how many Koch  billions you spend. MONEY is NOT everything and election after 

election, the hundreds of millions of Adelson, Koch and Rove, et al monies will NOT 

matter. 

Republicans are losing the demographics and they know it. You will be not on the ash bin of 

history but on the  graveyard of parties past that did nothing to help the nation! 

Republicans are a DONE DEAL and they know it hence the illegalities they pull to win 

elections by fraud as they cannot win in any other way!

Today is a GOOD day!  

NOW THIS MAKES IT MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER TO IN 2014 THROW THESE REPULSIVE REPUGLICANS OUT!!  GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO USE A SLED TO GET THERE DO IT.  DEMOCRATS ALL THE WAY IN 2014 AND JUST PRAY THAT OUR STRONG HILLARY CAN GET IT DONE AND WIN THE PRESIDENCY IN 2016!  ONWARD!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

If you cannot see the pasted story below then try clicking here or the link 

:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/19/1256749/-Obamacare-enrollments-surging-HealthCare-gov-working-better?detail=email#

PLEASE pass this on as some insurance co's are making it difficult for enrollees

so they can sell them expensive insurance and we know how obnoxious Republican governors and

state legislatures can be as they try like hell to subvert anything Obama!!!

TUE NOV 19, 2013 AT 09:32 AM PST

Obamacare enrollments surging, HealthCare.gov working better

byJoan McCarterFollow

 
 
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This should be the day's leading Obamacare news: enrollements across the country are surging,coming in ahead of projections in states across the country.

"What we are seeing is incredible momentum," said Peter Lee, director of Covered California, the nation's largest state insurance marketplace, which accounted for a third of all enrollments nationally in October. California—which enrolled about 31,000 people in health plans last month—nearly doubled that in the first two weeks of this month.

Several other states, including Connecticut and Kentucky, are outpacing their enrollment estimates, even as states that depend on the federal website lag far behind. In Minnesota, enrollment in the second half of October ran at triple the rate of the first half, officials said. Washington state is also on track to easily exceed its October enrollment figure, officials said.

Enrollments are moving at a faster clip than during October in these, despite the fact that some people are confused by the problems the federal site has had, not sure if the sites in their own states are working. Covered California's director said that the state has had to change its marketing to remind people that the state site wasn't the same as the federal site, and was working just fine.

Unfortunately, so far enrollments on the federal site are still lagging. For example, just  2,991 people in Texas were able to complete enrollment in October, fewer than Kentucky, which has a sixth of Texas' population. But there's better news on the federal site front today, as well. HealthCare.gov is now working for 90 percent of users who have tried again to sign up. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated reporters Monday with the news that the site was functioning better, and that it had sent out 275,000 emails to people who had started to create accounts, but couldn't get through the process. CMS says that 90 percent of those people who tried again got all the way through the process. 

So far in November, 50,000 people have selected a plan in the federal site, up from 27,000 for the entire month of October.

Many people are likely still in window-shopping mode, and enrollments should pick up even more—both on the state sites and the federal site—in the last week or two before the December 15 deadline for insurance to be in place on January 1, and then again in February and March before the final deadline.The Massachusetts experience provides the best model for enrollment patterns, and in the first four months of enrollment just about one-fifth of the uninsured population enrolled.

The people will come. They're not freaked out over what most people perceive as inevitable: a problematic new government program. They're not abandoning support for the program in droves. They're not calling for an end to the program. They're patient enough to give it time to work, even if Republicans and the traditional media are not.

ORIGINALLY POSTED TO JOAN MCCARTER ON TUE NOV 19, 2013 AT 09:32 AM PST.

ALSO REPUBLISHED BY DAILY KOS.

Ayn Rand’s vision of idiocy: Understanding the realmakers and takers

Sorry, but making a profit off something that's useless to society is not morally superior to helping others

SEAN MCELWEE

 
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TOPICS: AYN RAND, POOR, ATLAS SHRUGGED, LIBERTARIANISM, WALMART, WALTON, BILL GATES, EDITOR'S PICKS, THE RIGHT, ECONOMICS, BUSINESS NEWS, POLITICS NEWS

(Credit: Benjamin Wheelock/Salon/AP/Phil Long)

For those who haven’t had the great misfortune of reading “Atlas Shrugged,” the book is premised on the idea that if the world’s “creative leaders,” businessmen, innovators, artists (i.e., the “makers”) went on strike, our entire society would collapse. These strikers hide out in a utopian compound in the mountains of Colorado while the rest of us despondently wail and gnash our teeth and beg for them to once again bestow their creativity upon us.

The book mirrors in many ways the more lefty “Elysium,” where to escape the environmental degradation they have wrought, the wealthiest go off to form their own society in the sky. The rest of the human population remains mired in slum-like conditions, because the only thing standing between humanity and savagery is Bill Gates. But have no fear! Rather than collectively solving our problems, humanity needs a salvific “Jesus” in the form of (who else?) Matt Damon to make us citizens of Elysium and thereby save humanity. These two, very disparate tales of woe both have common elements (what I will call the “Randian vision”): society relies on the wealthy; collective action through government is either meaningless or detrimental; and a few individuals (“great men”) should be the center of social change and innovation. But all of these assumptions are false.

The appeal of the Randian vision to today’s wealthy is obvious: it puts them back at the center of economic life. They long ago realized that rather than being the beneficent “makers” they had always imagined themselves to be, they were the parasitical “takers” they so despised. Their wealth, which was once a symbol that God praised their work, became an instrument for social change (Carnegie, Rockefeller) and eventually good in itself (Gates, Jobs). Social Darwinism, the idea that the economy is a “survival of the fittest” competition where the superior end up on top, exults the businessman as superior and deserving. But as Henry George noted of Herbert Spencer (the founder of Social Darwinism): “Mr. Spencer is like one who might insist that each should swim for himself in crossing a river, ignoring the fact that some had been artificially provided with corks and other artificially loaded with lead.” F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thorstein Veblen ridiculed the idea that the wealthy were in any way superior. Social Darwinism has resurged in conservative thought, supplementing the Randian vision to fortify a social order in which a minuscule proportion of society reaps its rewards.

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Because the wealthy are no longer willing to use their wealth for good, they have decided to glorify the wealth itself as good, thus, Harry Bingswanger writes in Forbes,

Imagine the effect on our culture, particularly on the young, if the kind of fame and adulation bathing Lady Gaga attached to the more notable achievements of say, Warren Buffett. Or if the moral praise showered on Mother Teresa went to someone like Lloyd Blankfein, who, in guiding Goldman Sachs toward billions in profits, has done infinitely more for mankind. (Since profit is the market value of the product minus the market value of factors used, profit represents the value created.)

Here we see the Randian vision in all its idiotic glory. If you could make a profit by pressing puppies into coffee, you deserve more moral praise than someone who dedicates their life to the poor. As E.F. Schumacher observed about capitalism, “Call a thing immoral or ugly, soul-destroying or a degradation to man, a peril to the peace of the world or to the well-being of future generations: as long as you have not shown it to be ‘uneconomic’ [unprofitable] you have not really questioned its right to exist, grow, and prosper.” To justify their wealth, the titans of industry must make themselves the center of economic progress and society, but the dirty little secret is that they aren’t; they’re just along for the ride. As Richard Hofstadter observed about American capitalism, “Once great men created fortunes; today a great system creates fortunate men.”

This observation fits with the facts: William Baumol found in the 1960s that 90 percent of the United States’ GDP today is due to innovations since 1870. Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simonestimates that a flat tax of 90% of income is justifiable because “social capital” accounts for 90% of income in developed countries. The Human Genome Project cost the government $3.8 billion but generated $796 billion in economic gains. The project is expected to bring about returns of 140 to 1 to the public. Research by Kenneth Flam finds that, “eighteen of the twenty five most important breakthroughs in computer technology between 1950 and 1962 were funded by the government, and in many cases the first buyer of the technology was also the government.” The Randian vision praises hedge fund managers, even though most hedge funds underperform the market. Social Darwinism praises the CEO even though the most highly-paid CEOs are often unsuccessful and many companies run fine without them. Society praises Zuckerberg, Brin and Dorsey, but it was DARPA that made their coding possible. Much of the research the government pursues isn’t profitable enough to merit the attention of private companies, or is simply too risky. Private space flight is only imaginable because the government went there first.

It seems almost axiomatic that no good person has ever done something great merely for a profit. They seek something more important than material possession. So why should we fear if the wealthiest left us? I would fear for the world if the empathetic, the intelligent, the compassionate, the fearless and the creative left us. We don’t celebrate these virtues unless they somehow lead to monetary gain, but often they don’t. Norman Borlaug, father of the “Green Revolution” that by some estimates saved 1 billion people from starvation and who was hailed as“… a towering scientist whose work rivals that of the 20th century’s other great scientific benefactors of humankind,” didn’t work for money; he worked to help people. A Dallas Observer story about him noted that he,  “rarely indulged in the comforts of the industrialized West for any extended period of time. His choice has been to immerse himself in locales where people stare death in the face every day.” When a reporter saw Mother Teresa helping a disfigured leper, he said to her, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.” Mother Theresa said, “Neither would I.”

The Walton family heirs, whose fortune relies entirely on predation — of labor, of the environment, of government, of small business — controls more wealth than the poorest 40 million Americans. Imagine what we could do with that fortune if they left. For all the credit Bill Gates gets, it may be worth wondering, as Peter Singer did, if he has given enough:

Gates may have given away nearly $30 billion, but that still leaves him sitting at the top of the Forbes list of the richest Americans, with $53 billion. His 66,000-square-foot high-tech lakeside estate near Seattle is reportedly worth more than $100 million. Property taxes are about $1 million. Among his possessions is the Leicester Codex, the only handwritten book by Leonardo da Vinci still in private hands, for which he paid $30.8 million in 1994. Has Bill Gates done enough? More pointedly, you might ask: if he really believes that all lives have equal value, what is he doing living in such an expensive house and owning a Leonardo Codex? Are there no more lives that could be saved by living more modestly and adding the money thus saved to the amount he has already given?

If Gates donated all $53 billion to foreign humanitarian aid, it would be double what the U.S. government gives yearly ($23 billion in 2013). Imagine the good we could do with the fortunes of the rich, who have only amassed the wealth because of the infrastructure developed by society. Innovators regularly rely on government and academic funding for projects that corporations don’t think will be profitable (according to Singer, “less than 10 percent of the world’s health research budget is spent on combating conditions that account for 90 percent of the global burden of disease”). The arts are largely supported by public funding, not private donations. And many businesses are less self-sufficient than they imagine, requiring bailouts and competition between states to support them. Many corporations, like Walmart, dump poor employees on to government largess rather than pay them enough to feed themselves. And who builds the roads and takes out the garbage?

Were the richest .01% to venture out and form their own society, the rest of us would not devolve into violent conflict; rather, without the expensive burden of the wealthy tapeworms siphoning our common wealth, we could begin to solve our problems. So to the rich who threaten to leave New York, I say, “go.” If the rich somehow manage to form their own planet, we can start fixing the problems on ours. We are the makers, they are the takers.

Sean McElwee is a writer and researcher of public policy. His writing may be viewed at seanamcelwee.com. Follow him on Twitter at @seanmcelwee.MORE SEAN MCELWEE.

We Will Not Falter and Will Not Fail: Meet and Greet the 5th Congressional District candidate

Even though I know many who receive this opinion have no interest in our 5th Congressional district replacing former Rep. Ed Markey who as you know is now our Senator. I still, however, think it important to spread the thoughts contained within this opinion.

Yesterday I attended a Meet and Greet fundraiser in Framingham with supporters of Katherine Clark, candidate for Congressional representative from the 5th District of Massachusetts. The most important thing I observed about this meet and greet opportunity was Democrats from many towns including Framingham coming together in support of our Democratic candidate for the 5th Congressional district. We are UNIFIED and should be. In the final analysis I believe the Democratic Party means something good and something humane as it is a Party with the character of inclusiveness. I believe Katherine Clark embodies that spirit. That is why I am a Democrat and that is why I am in full support of Katherine Clark.

I believe Katherine Clark was attending an event in Framingham to reach out to the inhabitants of a town whose importance many of those who live here sometimes do not realize. We are a large population, diverse and multifaceted. The opportunities to thrive here are endless and the positive aura we exude cannot be underestimated. We are a SOLIDLY Democratic district and I am proud to say I, all of my life, have lived in it.

I think Katherine Clark was forthcoming, articulate and possesses the correct values -- the values of the Democratic Party. She assured me she will work to implement them and I believe her. She will, I think, make a fine Democratic member of the House of Representatives.

I urge ALL of you in the 5th Congressional to vote on December 10, 2013 and fill in the box for Katherine Clark, Democrat! We are in the Democratic Party UNIFIED behind our president and behind our Democratic candidates. I wish Katherine Clark the best of luck and I will work for her election. I have confidence she will win on December 10, 2013.

THOSE FROM THE 5TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT IN MASSACHUSETTS DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE ON DECEMBER 10, 2013 BECAUSE YOUR LIFE AND OUR NATION'S LIFE DEPENDS UPON IT. IT WILL BE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT VOTES YOU TAKE BECAUSE WE MUST ULTIMATELY TURN THE CONGRESSIONAL HOUSE MAJORITY DEMOCRATIC BLUE, KEEP THE SENATE AND TURN STATE HOUSES ALL OVER THE NATION DEMOCRATIC TOO IN THE ALL-IMPORTANT ELECTION OF 2014.
ANYTHING ELSE IS UNACCEPTABLE! STAY STRONG AND STAY UNITED. IT IS ONLY THEN THAT WE CAN DEFEAT THE REPUBLICAN FORCES OF HATE. IF WE STAND TOGETHER I BELIEVE WE WILL NOT FALTER AND WE WILL NOT FAIL!

The Enemy Within

We have seen the enemy and it is part of us. I am sad to say, it is the Republican Party billionaire corporate monied-saturated immoral mendacious malcontents and their side car of racist hate mongers the Tea Baggers. We as Democrats no matter our faults are INFINITELY more progressive and humane than these racist excuses for humanity who want to bring down our president. They could not do it legally through the electoral process so they gerrymandered state districts and took over state houses all over the nation to inflict their fraud and voter suppression on the poor, on the powerless, on women, on the elderly and on the disabled. It did NOT work nationally in 2012 and we MUST at all costs stop them from using the Affordable Care Act as the only weapon they have left because as Minority leader McConnell said his one goal is to defeat the president.

There will always be another way to try to destroy the president. First it was Eric Holder and Fast and Furious utter nonsense that went nowhere because it was about nothing, then it was trumped up Benghazi faux anger with Daryl Issa the despicable and his faux hearings and now it is health care. What else?

We as loyal Democrats and all other true patriotic persons MUST in 2014 take back the House. This obstructionism and nullification with Confederate, Birchers, gun nuts and Klu Klux Klan sympathizers finding home in the Republican Party MUST be stopped.

The country's demographics are changing and the right wing odious peddlers of hate know it. Rightwing extremism went down in Virginia as the Democrats SWEPT a 2013 election. It must go down all over the nation as well.We must not let them win. NEVER turn our backs on our president who has been besieged by the legions of hate.

I believe stunning and crushing victory over the Republican Party in November, 2014 WILL take place if we people of good will ensure that it does!