To solve our nation’s problems, we will need to do what our nation does best: innovate. Some may say that our politics cannot possibly become more polarized. But they’re small-minded. There’s a whole new frontier of polarization. And it is being explored by men of groundbreaking new ideas. Men like state Rep. Leo Berman of Texas, who wants to charge any person who tries to implement the 2010 health care reform law in his state with a felony and put them behind bars. “Thomas Jefferson believed in nullification. I believe in nullification and I just wanted to try it,” Berman, the Thomas Edison of being an awful human being, said. There is nothing right with America that cannot be cured by what is wrong with America.
Berman said, “I don’t think it’s extreme at all. I think it’s more extreme for Texans who have to pay $27 billion to put over 2 million illegal aliens on Medicaid. That’s what’s extreme,” Berman said.
Getting this bill passed in Austin could be a tough sell. “I think it could pass because we have a big majority of Republicans in the house. The hold-up would be in the Senate,” Berman said.
But, he still feels compelled to try. “I’m worried for Texas,” he said.
Yes, let’s round up federal employees, put them in jail, and let the sick people they trying to help just die or whatever. That’s something we can all get behind, because it speaks to our values. Obamacare proves the president is morally weak. [Tyler Morning Telegraph]
{ 168 comments }
He's old and white, therefore he's right.
Is he related to the Bushes?
He's old and white, therefore he's right.
Don't forget teh stoopid. That is really the key. Well, white too.
Oh, and rich. Rich peepuls don't need the health care plans. Oh. and he's an elected offishul, so he's already on a public option, too.
Don't mess with Texas.
When are they going to secede again?
Not soon enough
Was it neccessary to invent Texas to store cretin/pig hybrids, or did it just spring into existence fully formed and stocked with w**kers?
I'm 'worried' for TexASS too, worried they WON'T secede (hell, can't we pay them to leave?)
Put me down for $20.
Maybe China will take Texas in exchange for our IOUs.
Is nullification what Tom Jefferson did to Sally Hemmings?
I thought that was gentrification.
He gentrified her which led to his nullification. Then he had to rest for 15 or 20 minutes before gentrifying her again.
Too soon?
He's worried for Texas. We're all pretty fucking worried about Texas as well.
Screw that. I'm worried for Austin. The rest of the state can be annexed back to Mexico as far as I'm concerned.
You know, if we work it right, we can get the Texas legislature to gerrymander themselves right out of the Union.
Here's another idea: we declare Texas an Economic Exclusive Zone, add in illegal drugs to the marine uses allowed, and then gift the zone to Mexico. All the drug cartels can then move to Tejas, where the houses are nicer, and there are lots of empty ones left over from the mortgage crisis.
maybe Tom Delay can do that for us, from JAIL! (in between his hourly rapings?)
If he really was serious, he would propose testicular electrocution for all Federal Workers. That is what the Founding Fathers believed in!
I'm worried for Texas, too, because Texans keep electing heartless assholes like this.
I'm worried for Texas, too, because Texans keep electing
Texansheartless assholes like this.Nice!
I love it that the mainstream media feels absolutely no need to fact check anything a politician says in an interview. I mean, seriously. he could be like: "I think it's more extreme that the health care bill requires Americans to prostitute their own children to crack addicts" and the papers would report the statement verbatim and leave it at that.
He left out the part about that statistic being the projected cost of Medicaid for illegals over the next 270,000 years. You don't want your statistics to be too confusing for Texans.
I think Berman should find each and every Texan who has to "pay $27 billion to put over 2 million illegal aliens on Medicaid" and get their feedback. A listening tour, if you will.
I already sent my check for $27 billion in to the federal government – was I not supposed to?
There is no journalism anymore- there are information amalgamators. There are very few editors and the media prefers to rush crap onto TV, on radio or into print(or internet) before checking. That way. no one gets the information out before them- if it is wrong- as it so often is these days, they just put out a correction that no one sees or hears.
98.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
We report, you fuck-off.
But, but every story/fact has two equal and valid sides. Fair and balanced, y'all. Fair and balanced! Didn't you hear me? FAIR AND BALANCED!
Mr. Berman? Anderson Cooper wants to speak with you.. again.
Cooper v. Berman is the new Cooper v. Aaron.
Gee, when you put it that way, it sounds so reasonable. Hell, yes, lets pass this thang!
I take it that under this law, people who commit Medicare fraud like Rick Scott will be awarded the Texas Medal of Honor?
Only if its in the Billions of dollars range.
…or at least made an honorary Texan?
Some awesome public restroom poet years ago informed me that "buns a-flexin'" rhymed with "Texan"…
I believe it's a felony to use "Texas" and "Honor" in the same phrase.
Wait a minute, I thought Rick Perry all seceded Texas from us. Of course they wouldn't be implementing the U.S.'s healthcare laws… they have their own!
Their healthcare plan will be "we don't care about your health".
Nullification was settled way before the South attacked Fort Sumter and got beat down.
Seriously referring to nullification as a valid legal reasoning makes zero sense.
You have to cut him a little slack given he was actually a politician during the time you referenced.
(He's old.)
Dey wuz jes defendin' der propertay!
Just like everything else this hateful, vindictive, lying, dolt says.
A stunning combination of mind-staggering stupidity, and cretinous viciousness.
Sorry, just snarked out. Something about the banality of evil as seen on his vacuous face.
I know TJ said a lot of shit but definitely didn't believe in it by the time he made the Louisiana Purchase, the Supreme Court slapped it down in McCulloch v. Maryland in 1802 or so, and Andy Jackson basically promised to dickslap to death the whiny Northerners who were pissed off about tarriff and excise tax issues when he was in office. But like a bad tuna salad sandwich, this stupid idea keeps rearing its head, especially now when white southerners are feeling all nostalgia like for the good oflf days when they could shoot uppity black people.
How and when did "nullification" go from being some dumb, obscure historical idea I wrote about in a college term paper to a serious modern legal argument?
Who says its a serious modern legal argument? That guy? I don't think he counts.
I think that the morons in the tricorn hats might have something to do with it.
This man's creativity is inspiring. I plan on instituting a policy in my office that forbids state or federal law enforcement personnel from taking any action against staff (i.e., myself). I think that's ironclad.
Indubitably!
Representative Berman is that fine fellow who tried to toss the sitting Hebrew Tejas House Speaker Joe Straus. Brer Berman failed, but with Rethugs now having 642% of the Tejas House seats, Berman should waltz-over Straus. Yee-hah, Tejas once again showin' Amerika how to jump off a cliff.
What a pussy. If he was really tough, he'd make getting sick in Texas a felony and throw their sallow, sickly asses in jail for being a drain on the system.
Isn't "sane part of Texas" similar to "cooler part of hell"?
"let the sick people they trying to help just die or whatever."
And no doubt the invisible hand of the free market will come up with a solution for how to dispose of all the corpses piled up willy-nilly outside the emergency rooms and doc-in-the-boxes across the length and breadth of the state.
Throw out your dead…
Bring out yer dead! I haul 'em away in my cart for a farthing!
Two words – Soylent Green.
Although it might be Soylent Brown.
Texas' many faith healers will cure them instead!
So will Berman start by going after the insurance companies for offering coverage to children of insurance holders up to 26 years old, and for not denying insurance to people with pre-existing conditions? It figures that if someone were to go after big industry for not being sufficiently heartless, it would be a Texan.
"I believe in nullification and I just wanted to try it,”
That's a line a twelve year old uses when he is caught huffing paint–Hey, I just wanted to try it.
I love how every night Olbermann is having actual Arizoniacs sentenced to die by Jan Brewer's death panels. And by "love" I mean that it's tawdry and manipulative, and attempts to use our natural sympathy for our fellow humans to influence our decisions about policy.
I only wish a few Repubes could watch.
They watch Fuxz, Beck, 'n Rushbo. It is a 21st century spin on Plato's Allegory of the Cave, 'ceptin' the teatarded inmates flat refuse to step into the light. The say it hurtz their Is.
A comment from the story….Let's stay focused on the issue at hand, which is a bill the government is trying to ram down our throats. We'll all end up paying dearly for it if it continues on its path.
More throat ramming. I wonder how much the GOP pays to have that phrase show up on every. single. story. about health care reform?
Well, they are fond of that throat ramming. Just ask Larry Craig.
You were a little faster. Now I must hate you.
Most in the GOP have spent many happy moments fantasizing about a beautiful college boy in an SS uniform ramming his huge throbbing health care reform down their throats.
Oh, so that's what the kids are calling it these days. "Health care." Though, in Texas, they probably call it "Faith Healing" or the "Laying on of Hands."
Probably less than they pay rentboys to actually ram it down their throats.
Usually the party doing the ramming pays and the party with the throat provides the service. That's just free market common sense!
I asked Michael Steele, and he says they've spent about $4 million so far…
Come on! Universal health care has only been discussed for the past 50 yrs or so. What was the freakin RUSH?!!
To: William Tecumseh Sherman
From: X111
subj:Texas
Please come back and burn the fucking thing to the ground
I have no further use for it
Before the War Sherman was sent to serve in Texas. "All Texas lacks is water and good society," he was told.
WTS answered "That's all Hell needs."
Hurrah! Hurrah! We'll sing the Jubilee!
Hurrah! Hurrah! Your medication's free!
You know, reliable sources have told him all about the mountains of headless corpses piled up like snowdrifts in Arizona. He just wants to make sure those criminal browns (filthy animals, really) and their socialist abetters stay the hell out of Texas. Is it a crime to love Texas too much?
The real extremism is asking taxpayers to pay $5000 billion zillion dollars to keep those headless corpses on medicare!
Yes, the way he does it. A sex crime, in fact.
Gen. Phil Sheridan once said "If I owned all of Texas and half of hell I would lease out Texas and live in hell". That's just as true today as it was 150 years ago.
This fucking country is doomed.
Just stack up the sick & already dead from lack of health care – WAH LA! Border fence completed – and at NO cost to the Merikkkan taxpayers!
Jailing people doesn't cost taxpayers anything.
Half prisons, half tax cuts. You just found the magic deficit-reduction compromise!
Yeah, and let's put people who want to get free medical care in jail; where, by law, they get free medical care and meds. Don't you admire how thoroughly these asshats think things out?
That's some of that kompassionate konservatism that's become all the rage. This guy's dream solution fits nicely with V572962…'s characterization of a kompassionate konservative:
someone who doesn't want the government to interfere with their right to interfere with other peoples' rights. Shorter: he's a douchebag.
Well why not? Apparently intelligent thought is already illegal. Half of the comments after the article agree with him.
Napalm Texas , now (including my town Austin, fuck it).
Meh. Losing Austin is a small price to pay.
elpinche gets the Silver Star for calling Napalm on his own position. Good luck, soldier! They're coming in fast and hot!
I'm a giver what can I say…just in time xmas!
That's one way to get out of having to buy presents.
i'll bet he's a christian.
Yeppers. According to Wikipeedia he's an Episcopenguin – one of the frozen few.
the depth of their willingness and ability to follow the tenants of their religion and care for the widow and the orphan and the stranger in their midst and love others as they love their god never ceases to amaze me.
But you see, that only applies to individuals. Teabag Jeebus only cares that individuals feed the hungry, clothe the naked (or fine them heavily), and comfort the afflicted. Teabag Jeebus thinks that it's evil for the government to do that, because Teabag Jeebus doesn't like Big Government.
Oh, and individuals don't have to if they think that the hungry, naked, or afflicted might be lazy.
or the wrong color, or speakers of the wrong language, or followers of the wrong creed. in any of which cases they are de facto lazy, or worse. they are not of the body, and are to be beaten in the streets with sticks and stones. for this is america, land of stoned beaters.
Of course he is. We need to coin a new phrase for these faux-Christians. ChINOs?
chris-NO!s
I like it! Has a nice ring to it.
Yeah, that's defs catchy and info-packed! "He's not Christian, he's Chris-NO!"
like silver bells. muffled by the cries of children.
I bet Jesus would disagree.
Probably an Usher or Deacon too, I'll bet. Such a nice man. Oooops, got to go, just threw up in my own mouth.
Getting this bill passed in Austin could be a tough sell.
Another tough sell? My bill to make it a crime to be an asshole like State Rep. Leo Berman. It's a pity, because mine would actually help people. If I were a TX state rep., that is.
Maybe he could "ram it down their throats"… I'm sure anything Obama can do, he can do better.
Which other parts ass-clown? Concentration camps for all the 26 years olds on mom's insurance plan?
Jesus these shriveled old useless right-wing wack-a-doodles around here can't stop grousing about the immigants.
Hey Congressman Dick Slap, reach deep into your pocket and pull out a penny between the lint balls.
Hold it up.
See that.
One of those pennies goes to an "illegal" for every $100,000 we spend on blowing up the brown people who aren't living inside our borders.
Be careful what you ask him to pull out from between his lint balls. We are talking about a politician, after all.
Texas is a beautiful state. The people of Texas, hit and miss.
At least Texas isn't South Carolina. All the hate, no reason for being here.
Don't they have some pretty fountains or something? Or is that North Carolina? I've never been to either.
so proud of the politicians in my state…so, so proud…*sigh*
At least Texas politicians dance with the one what brung 'em. Then there's Joe "Mentum" Lieberman (
DR-CT)Actually, if their Southern Baptist, which many of them probably are, they don't dance at all.
I imagine Berman is rather upset with Senator Sanders right about now, then.
Uhhhh… Ever heard of the Supremacy Clause? The Teatards love them some constitution, until they don't.
If you're not talking about the pedophile that slides down their chimney once a year, then no, they have not.
I am no longer interested in listening to the stupids like this man this week. I'm off to listen to Bernie Sanders filibuster. He's telling the truth. That hasn't happened in the senate chamber in a while.
We received our insurance renewal package at work yesterday, with a letter from the owner bemoaning the fact that the rules that will be taking place in 2011 from the HCR Bill has resulted in massive premium increases for the company. But in the goodness of his hearts, he has personally negotiated with the insurance company and we will be paying less per week for our insurance premiums.
Think I'll drive over to his house after work and kiss his feet for his immense benevolence, then kick him in the nutsack and ask where the last three years of raises are at.
Do you work for my company? This year my insurance went from virtually free to $3700. Also, what is this "raise" of which you speak?
Leo Berman — sounds suspiciously like "Lieberman" — representin' the South for the party of "Whoaaaa" and can probably smell, if not see, Chavez's Arepera sin palace from Smith County.
The irony, of course, is that those people will probably have better healthcare *in* prison than the average uninsured Texan.
Free shiv and penis injections too!
I spent 5 years in Austin and thought it was paradise , I also thought the rest of Texas was unbelievably vile. I see nothing has changed in 15 years.
Come back and visit some time – we could use some classing-up in the state.
So, Texas is definitely a NO BJ Zone where Lizz is concerned, except for parts of Austin?
While in Austin, did you ever leave the house? Just asking.
As part of our creeping end-of-weimar American experience, we are now approaching the moment where the political opposition is to be incarcerated.
We all know what comes next.
At least in prison you have a motivated populace that can act in unison for a cause. The present state of our populace is shameful, lardass morons glued to the tube when not working thankless jobs for heartless companiesl
Is Butt Sex a felony in Texas?
if not, this is a Good Day for Butt Sex …
In Texas
Pleeze spells it buttsecks. Thanx.
It's not (yet).
I re-post this from the Texas GOP platform 2010:
"We oppose the legalization of sodomy. We demand that Congress exercise its authority granted by the U.S. Constitution to withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy."
Somewhere else they say sodomy includes oral and anal sex. That's how they want to protect your freedom from tyranny…in your bedroom.
This brings up one of my favorite Molly Ivins stories. She was in the gallery when one of the TX representatives introduced a bill outlawing sodomy. The bill passed, of course, and the sponsor and one of his henchmen met on the floor and did the hand-shaking, back-slapping man-bonding. Molly: “Whereupon, the Speaker had to send the sergeant-at-arms over to reprimand them both, because under the new law, it’s illegal for a prick to touch an asshole in the state. ”
(quote from an "In Memoriam" essay by Matthew Rothschild. http://www.progressive.org/node/4490
Thank you for that. I still miss Molly Ivins.
A guy named Berman is trying to overthrow the Jew in charge? Sounds awfully gefilte fishy.
Is that Chris Berman, will he be rumbling, stumbling, fumbling his way to the Texas Legislature with the guys who want to get rid of the Joo speaker? Yep, I will never go back to Texas ever again.
He may be a Joo, but if he is, he hates it, and you too, for bringing it up.
$27 billion for 2 million illegal aliens. That works out to roughly $13,500 per Mescan. That number seems kind of low, doesn't it?
That's another problem. The cheaper public insurance option would drive private insurers out of business at those prices!
Wouldn't it be easier and more economical just to send sick people to prison?
No, they're all in the Texas Legislature.
Timing is everything in real life.
Here's this idiot trying to bring up a argument that was settled with at least 620,000 human lives.
And at the same time we have the idiots who want to "celebrate" the Civil War:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101210/ap_on_re_us/u...
I was a nine-year old boy in 1960. My Great Aunt (and she was a great aunt!) told me "Study the Civil War – but don't celebrate it." Words of wisdom back then – and still just as true today. You betcha!
Does this affect my ability to access medical marijuana in California? No?
Carry on then.
Everythings bigger in Texas, except for human brains.
And hearts.
Yeah, it's what the founding fathers said: Deny me healthcare or give me death.
Or something principled like that.
I'm wondering if leathal injection or firing squad (legal in TX, right?) is more humane for the guilty souls who attempt to help a suffering human. What's the most painful?
"So, what are ya in for?"
"Triple homocide. You?"
"I tried to heal the sick even though they couldn't pay."
"You evil bastard."
And littering.
<moves away on bench>
You know, I'd like to propose a new fiscally-responsible state law for Texas: no healthcare for state workers or politicians. If anyone is sucking the tate of the state, its them.
So Dr. Kevorkian would be sort of a hero in Texas, as long as he charged cash money and not the gubbmint health coupons.
What this nation needs is bigger bootstraps, not more government-mandated healthcare, dammit! PULL YOURSELVES UP, YOU LAZY SHIFTABOUTS!!1!one!!
I love the innovation in putting the word 'one' in the !!!!s – it brings new life to that. Or have I been away too long?
I haven't seen it around in a while. I think ShortsX3 used to use it.
First, must have boots.
Didn't you get 40 lagers and a boot as part of the emancipation of '08? The rest of us did.
Lagers, no. The boot? Up my ass a few times, didn't take, though.
I always tell teabaggers that when I hear that ridiculous phrase. Yeah, you have to have boots, first.
Ranks right up there with another of their favs: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” These motherfuckers don't realize most of us can't afford a fucking boat and, in fact, we're working our asses off just treading water.
Any time a Southern Banana Republican talks about increasing jail population, there is always a chance of him speaking on behalf of private prisons. They did it already in Arizona while drafting their new immigration law: http://blog.lawinfo.com/2010/10/29/private-prison...
Pobre Tejas, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de Estados Unidos.
Texas really needs to step up executing their retards.
Just fucking secede already, you pussies. Hear that Gov. Goodhair? Declaration of Texas Independence or you're a lily-livered, peacenik socialist hippie gay lesbian. Just go, no one would fight to keep you…and take Oklahoma with you.
"I believe in making Texans look like racist, stupid assholes and I just wanted to try it,”
/fixed
You know what you get in prison? Single payer, government-funded healthcare. For free.
What's the difference between Cheerios and the Texas Longhorns?
The Cheerios are in a bowl.
Thomas Jefferson believed in separation of church and state, and so do I.
To solve our nation’s problems, we will need to do what our nation does best:
innovateimprison.When will be able to imprison guys like this for being an asshole. I think it should be a felony with no chance of parole.
Leo Berman, eh? That sounds awfully Jewy, and in Texas, no less…
Why do so many of these numbnuts look alike? Are these real people or is there a secret Asshole Clone Project run out of the Heritage Foundation or some such?
Hey, Mexico! There has been a terrible mistake! You can have Texas back!
By expressly working to limit access to health insurance — the reform was to healh insurance, not health care itself — the Texas legislature would force people to choose between treatment and money. As noble as that sounds, many uninsured forego treatment. And they die younger than the insured. In Palin's formulation, that would make the Texas legislature a Death Panel.
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