Congress can’t implement private systems. I don’t know the perfect word, but the best I could come up with is that it’s an oxymoron. The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacles are a perfect example of why it doesn’t work.

“What is the important difference between our Americans who were intentionally killed by terrorists and our Americans who were intentionally killed by Iraqi insurgents and Afghan tribesmen?”

The ones killed on 9/11 didn’t know they were in a war and didn’t have a chance to fight back. The troops, who probably enlisted after 9/11, knew what they were getting into and went voluntarily. Plus their sacrifice has given us two strategic advantages, which I think validate their loss.
1: We haven’t caught Bin Laden, but we have sent him into hiding and made it impossible for him to continue to operate and attack us with impunity, which is just as important to me as catching him would have been. I think everyone can agree that even if Bin Laden had been killed or captured early on, without the change we have wrought on the world through the GWOT, that Al Qaeda would have just picked a new leader and continued its war on America with impunity.
2. By invading Iraq we set all these muslim terrorists and would be terrorists into such a frenzy over our occupation of a muslim country that their rage has been immutably focused on Iraq. They are compelled by their religion to attack us in Iraq, where they must fight our Soldiers and Marines, which is better than than them coming here and attacking civilians. So I’m sure some fence riding muslims have flipped the switch and become terrorists, ergo we are ‘creating more terrorists’. However they are irresistibly driven to fight us in Iraq. Whereas pre 9-11 there were very few actual terrorists, but we didn’t know where they would be or what they were going to attack. Since we are in a war with them and they will attack us, I’d rather it be in Iraq.

“So now that a candidate ran, promised medical coverage for everyone, got elected by a wide margin, and is trying to deliver, it is unbecoming for Conservatives to call him a nazi.”

I would oppose any health care reform, but I think we can all agree that the promises he made don’t particularly resemble the health care bills in congress. In fact many of the provisions he lambasted McCain and Hillary for supporting are in the bills now.

I agree that nazi is a loaded word, and it is unbecoming to use it as an ad hominem attack. However, this health care bill will result in care being rationed and people literally being killed by the government. Even if it’s not in the form of a “death panel”, there will be a regulation, a committee, or an actuary table or chart somewhere that states that some medicine or procedures are too expensive for the government to pay for, and that in those cases care will be denied. And insomuch as the most likely victims will be senior citizens, coincidentally the generation that fought the nazis, then not only is this health care reform going to single out and kill a particular group, just like the nazis did, but it will also unfortunately be targeting the same people that the nazis wanted to kill so many years ago. It’s just too much. So I think some of us, not me mind you, but others can be forgiven for trotting out the old “n’ word.

“Well, I mean, the nazis gave free medical treatment to their injured veterans too.”

This is a tradition that in my amateur mind goes back to Napoleon transforming ‘L’Hotel des Invalides’ into a place of honor. It is our country’s duty and on our honor that we provide care to our veterans, and we have been doing it since before there were Nazis. To the extent that the government fails at this task is a great dishonor. I think the bureacratic aspects of the VA suck, but I am certain that the doctors and those who actually give care to the veterans provide the best care in the world. This of course goes on a sliding scale depending on how close the care the VA is giving is to the true mission of the VA. When we think VA, we’re thinking guys missing arms and legs. I honestly believe that amputees and people in other such horrible conditions resulting from being wounded are receiving some of the finest care available. When you wander off down the trail towards, say, getting an annual colonoscopy because you receive all of your care from the VA, well I guess you end up with AIDS.

People don’t demonstrate their lack of racism by hiring people from various backgrounds. Don’t know whether you are that easily fooled or believe that we are. People demonstrate their good character by making decisions based on others’ qualifications for a position, period. It is impossible to know what criteria people use to make every decision they do. That is one reason why hiring discrimination lawsuits are difficult to win (but this has little to do with how often they’re settled out of court, another matter entirely.

Bill Clinton attempted to use the argument that we just differ on how to solve problems, but it is more fundamental than that. We believe in liberty and personal freedom. We refute the lie that the gift and blessing of parenthood is a punishment or curse and that the unborn are more akin to disease than actual human beings. We think life is worth living, even though it can be really difficult because of war or violence or any other setback. We see the cult of victimhood (identity politics) for what it really is: foolish pride that foments anger, bitterness and personal destruction.

You don’t get to control the language that others use. If you don’t like the discussion, take it elsewhere.

The E.P.A. is the very model of good intentions, unforeseen consequences. The E.P.A. is one of the most powerful bureaucracies around, with the power to tie people up in costly proceedings and keep them from being able to build what they want using their own money on their own property. I met Edward Nixon once, and he admitted that as a geologist, it was he that encouraged his brother to start the E.P.A., but he didn’t foresee it becoming what it is today. A great cautionary tale for anyone advocating a government solution to most “problems”–when the government is involved, anticipate that the “cure” might be worse than the disease.

Lastly, Jasper, remember what Gerald Ford said, “a government big enough to give you everything you need is big enough to take it all away.”

If people want to call Bush a “Nazi”, let them out their own stupidity. Personally I see more Mugabe in Obama than Hitler, but that’s not much of an upgrade.

you are wise to not call Obamy a Nazi. Libwits are sticklers for words, and they can prove that since the Nazi party was disbanded in 1945, that it’s impossible for Obamy to have been a Nazi member. They win that argument hands-down.

But the fact that there are dozens of parallels between the Fascists in power in Washington and the methods of the Nazis is indisputable.

The proper way to phrase it is to call Obamy a Nazi wannabe.

Yes, they are brave and loyal for going there and, yes, they have done a lot of good for the Iraqi people. But they were misused and their trust was violated by their leaders.”

And thus, the best choice our president and his administration can make, is to pull out altogether and watch as all the work done by our soldiers goes down the drain. For the record, I didn’t want our forces going into Iraq at all but since that’s where they went, I had to say, “Well, let’s get the job done, get them to have a safe, secure, self-run country without the interference of tribal influences and their centuries of prejudice taking over” I felt it was a long shot and I also knew deep down that it would take decades.

But I also instinctively knew that if we pulled out, that Iraq would go back into civil/tribal warfare and that Iran would feed weapons to the side it wanted to win. There’s a LOT more background that goes back a century…but for now that’s the sense of it.

I get sick of people saying “I support the troops” when, in fact, they don’t. There used to be an expression in this country called “all in” coined from gambling, if you will. Few seem to know what it means anymore.

Instead, what we have is the liberals who scream bloody murder about places like Mogadishu and the atrocities committed there and yell and scream “DO SOMETHING!” Yet the very second US troops touch the ground, the SAME liberals scream “foul”.

An interesting point has been repeatedly made on this blog about NOW and other women’s rights groups and how they condemn the war in Iraq. Yet….previously, when Saddam Hussein was in power, they screamed bloody murder about the atrocities against women in that same nation and (yup, you guessedit) “DO SOMETHING!”. So Bush tried to “do something” and not alone, mind you, but with a HUGE (you talk about huge margins?) margin of support from the democrats in Congress, with Hitlery Clinton at the front of the line saying how necessary it was to go get rid of Hussein. Later, she claimed coercion and that they were all fed a pack of lies from Bush on the intel of WMD. Geez, pot meet kettle.

And….boo freakin hoo also. The US military went there with very clear objectives…right wrong or indifferent…and they were meeting those objectives and establishing the peace and for THE FIRST TIME in the history of that region, ALL FACTIONS AND RELIGIONS had the same rights as everyone else.

Yet, self-proclaimed do-gooder intellectuals here in the US somehow saw this as a bad thing?

But now it all becomes a moot point as the Shiites, the Sunni and all the other factions retrograde back to doing what they do best: Hating and killing one another. It’s going to return to a thug-run dictatorship like all the other muslim nations in the region.

The mind boggles.

Where is your concern for those? Why aren’t you clamoring for them to have the finest equipment, health care, etc, to have memorial bios on the nightly news?

Why did newspapers suddenly lose interest in the death toll after Obama took office? Especially with a sharp increase in the death toll in Afghanistan and what about the situation in Iraq with a sharp increase in sectarian violence? Where is Reid proclaiming it’s a civil war?

There are any number of solutions. Ending community rating and allowing consumers to buy insurance across state lines would encourage competition and lower prices. For folks with type 1, etc., I would rather see the Federal government give these folks vouchers to help pay for private insurance than attempt to run a health program for them. For a small percentage of people, medical costs for themselves or their family can eclipse what they are able to make, even if they have excellent jobs. These people’s needs can be addressed without destroying the entire system. However, to think that the only way to fix things is to allow the government to take EVERYTHING over displays the stunning lack of creativity and curiosity that marks pretty much all liberal-left policy ideas.

I do not understand your think about gubmit. I suggest you go to the library and check out Obama’s dreams and see all the “n” words he uses, all the quotes of making black people talk like their ignorant when ever they say anything or hold a conversation. He puts himself in a much higher league than all the other black people in Dreams, and that is far more intelligent then they are. He hates white people too. Obama is the one racist. He makes fun of ignorant black people in his book, and hates white people because of their skin. Obama is a bitter, whiny, angry, piece of nothing, who’s a good con. So, FO.

You beg the question when you say: ‘…Republicans had eight years to fix health care…’ That statement presumes that health care is broken/needs to be fixed. The majority of Americans are satisfied with their coverage, ergo, your false premise is nonsensical…

Please, take a class in logic or critical thinking/analysis at a local college or university. It will help you out tremendously. Not saying it will change your politics, per se, but it will provide a rational foundation for your comments, which you are so sadly lacking

The office, of course. But he is turning it into a sham. Stick around and read the articles here that come up for awhile, without posting any comment. (not that I’m trying to demand that you don’t). But I hung around here, reading, learning for about a year before saying a word.

You will find articles here not posted by the mainstream media, the fawning worshippers of everything Obama. He is not my idea of a president and simply because he was elected doesn’t make him right. He abused his office from the very start. Demanding and scolding people during his campaign that “You can’t just run your thermostats up to 80 degrees and expect the rest of the country to pay for it” and not but weeks later, that’s exactly what he did in the oval office. He criticized private business leaders for flying to DC in their private jets, admittedly to ask for money, but then..he jets all over the world to apologize for the US…is that the thing a president who is respectful if the nation’s people would do? Additionally, he flew to Chicago not once but TWICE on a play-date with wifey-poo.

Read what he says…then what he does. And even more, read how he lies and lies and lies. He DOES NOT have your best interests at heart. Read more and listen carefully, as I suspect you do and you will. He’s a snake in the grass.

I am one who personally detests politics. Perhaps it’s a necessary evil but there are limits to how a politician operates. To say, “I will prohibit lobbyists from being in my cabinet” and then turns around and brings three of them on board.

To say in 2006, during a union meeting, “I am a proponent of the single-payer system for healthcare” and then two weeks ago saying, “I have never said I was in favor of the single-payer system”.

And those are just a few. There are more lies he’s told than perhaps any politician in history….

So I ask you, as a critical thinker, would you buy a used car from this guy? If no, then how can you expect him to respectfully operate as chief executive of the US.

By the way, Since WWII, on two presidents have NEVER served in the US military. Clinton and….Obama.

Listen to his words. Watch his body language. Remember, he’s educated as a lawyer who tend to make things sound good. Or, more accurately, sound in a way given to persuade the listener.