The summary un-upholding of Obamacare was the conservative wet dream. So what happens to a rage boner deferred, exactly? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or does it log on to mittromney.com for the sweet release of spending Obama away? Mitt’s next FEC filing will show the latter to indubitably be the case!
Thank someone at the Hill for receiving these Romney fundraising emails over there so we don’t have to receive them over here:
Romney’s staff began the fundraising drive in reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Obama’s healthcare reform law, telling supporters in an email “the stakes couldn’t be higher” in November.
“Today, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. But regardless of what the Court said about the constitutionality of the law, Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I’m President, the bad news of Obamacare will be over,” Romney wrote in the email.
According to campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul, the campaign has raised $2 million since the announcement was made at 10 a.m. Thursday morning. Saturday is the deadline for second-quarter fundraising.
Sadly, 2 million Confederate dollars do not appear to be enough to retain Msr. Romney’s services exclusively. (You know how CEOs be.) For that privilege, be prepared to cough up, (In Multiples of £17,000 Only, Please), some cold hard sterling:
[T]he former Massachusetts governor will attend a private fund-raising dinner in London next month.
The price of invitations dwarfs the amounts paid for such fund-raisers in British politics. Each guest must pay between $25,000 (£17,000) and $75,0000 (£50,000) for a seat at the dinner, which will be hosted by Bob Diamond, the chief executive of Barclays.
And here, you spiteful libs, is your damn figleaf:
Guests at the dinner, which will take place at an unspecified venue in central London, have been told that they must provide a copy of an American passport.
Okay, but what if they already defected to Canada to escape SOCIALISM? [The Hill; Telegraph]
{ 291 comments }
Make the stakes higher!
These stakes are the right height, my friend.
the stakes are the right height.
i mean it.
I'll bring the hammers.
Don't forget the siver cross, okay?
Srsly. And a bag of garlic.
“Today, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. But regardless of what the Court said about the constitutionality of the law, Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I’m President, the bad news of Obamacare will be over,” Romney wrote in the email.
If I was an optimist, I'd guess that Romney would do away with the "bad news" of Obamacare, the requirement that most of us go to private insurers, the lack of any cost caps on premiums, the lack of a public option. But I'm a pessimist, so I'm always pleased with outcomes.
Yes, do away with it so that we could return to the Wild West.
At least now we get to do the dueling indoors, which is not a distinction without a difference.
This whole debate reminds me of this Onion article.
In his speech, Romney said he'd do away with Obamacare and then listed a whole series of health care related things he'd institute, all of which are in Obamacare of course.
It's really kind of crazy to watch their reaction. The reason Obama was able to do a plan is that the Republicans don't have a health care plan. It's part of what helped Obama beat McCain because they don't have a unified plan for health care because, quite frankly, they don't think it's a problem. To them, everything was working just fine.
It's why it confuses me so many pundits, this morning, are talking about how the Republicans can run against the "Obama health care tax." First and foremost, this was about extending access. You can't even begin to address rising costs until you get as many folks in the system as possible. These idiots think that they can simply yell "tax hike" and make everyone forget about the entire issue of health care.
They don't have a plan, and its apparent in their weak-assed response and counter-punch.
Wow, giving money to an incredibly rich man already given hundreds of millions in the hope he will prevent the poorest and most unfortunate of our country to obtain the care that would either prolong their lives or make it more tolerable.
That's fucking pathetic. I hope all of you assholes develop a disease that makes you do one thing the rest of your lives: realize what you've done and recognize your ignorance.
Problem is that being a thoughtless, heartless and gigantic asshole is a pre-existing condition, but not fatal… most of the time.
Statistically, there is a marked predisposition to pitchfork-induced trauma.
Alas, the one disease you can always count on rich people to be immune to is self-awareness. Those who come down with it are immediately ostracized from the country club and exposed to the stilted derision of their peers until they get the fuck over it.
Mitt is raising money by saying that he will take away health care from the young, the poor, and the underemployed. The man is an absolute turd in life's punch bowl who makes Ebenezer Scrooge look like Mother Theresa.
The biggest irony being all those US citizens at the London fundraiser, after maintaining residency in London for a mere 6 months, qualify for the UK's free national health care.
Or they can go to the hospital earlier and get care for free because it is impossible to find a cashier or payment window anywhere in the building and 99% of the people work in the UK's national health care program wouldn't even think or be bothered to ask them whether or not they are residents. Because that would be rude and it just so hard for Brits to conceptualize that someone may actually need to pay for what everyone else in the country gets for free.
i always contend the richest dude on the plane is the most qualified to be the pilot.
And the helmsman in the lifeboat.
Bill Gates? He'd be looking for the control-alt-delete keys for the economy.
BSOD = Billionaires Stoked for Obamacare's Destruction
So, Romney is raising money from Conservatives by promising to overturn health care modeled after his own plan, which he said was a model for the entire country.
Wouldn't he be better off just demanding money from the rubes under threat that he will outsource their citizenship to India if they don't give him money? At least then he would be consistent.
He's saving that to use for his second term.
Wouldn't he be better off just demanding money from the rubes
When the Walton clan has more cash than 100 million American rubes put together, the obvious thing for Mitt to do is suck Walton dick. The savings on postage alone would make his Bain Capital buddies proud.
Donors must provide "a copy of an American passport…"
"Don't worry fellas, *WINK* I gotta guy out front with a passport and a Xerox machine!"
"Don't worry fellas, *WINK* I'm friends with the guy who owns Xerox!"
Too much to hope that it wouild be an Arizona State Trooper, huh?
Send me money, so I can run for president, so that if elected, I can repeal law that I created so that I could run for president.
I think I'm getting the hang of this thing.
Starfanglednut 2016!
I'd vote for her!
You could be her running mate!
A chicken in every pot!
Pot for every chicken!
Pot!
A dog on every roof! Woof!
Po' li'l puppies don't deserve to be treated that way, N.
Congrats on your p-ness!
Möbius-Dick; or The Wail, by Starfangled Nutville.
"A Klein bottle in every Klein bottle"
Starspanglednut Long
"It is a Willard, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."
- Winstarfangled Churchnut
Stuffed into an unwilling vagina.
" So what happens to a rage boner deferred, exactly?"
Blue balls? But seriously, there is no better fund raising thing than to not give the Teapublicans their way about something as unimportant as this. If you really want to open their wallets, threaten their right to corporation peoplehood.
"Blue balls?"
In other words, "maybe it just sags, like a heavy load…or does it explode?"
For an in vogue view of the ways of White folks, one need look no further than the Renaissance work of a homosexual person of color whose last name was an apropos homophone of "hues".
I thought the Romney (R-money) clan (wink wink) only dealt in pesos.
Where was his dad born? Someplace named after a tiny dog?
Lhasa?
Pluto?
Oh yeah, Romney? Well, my tallest finger would like to give you a standing ovation.
I wish the medical waste laws had permitted you to keep your uterus so you could slap Mittens up side of the head with it. How are you feeling these days?
I feel super great Flaming! I made the mistake of joining a forum "HysterSisters" before the surgery. They want you to come back day after day, week after week and months after your surgery and post in their forums. They slam me with email to come and tell how I feel. I never posted there and I refuse to be around women who are bitching years later.
Was it hot at your house today? It hit 103 here.
It only got up to 97 here today before some clouds came in and cooled it off a little.
Barb, that's great, because your tallest finger is just the right height.
Thanks for the morning smile, Negropolis!
So if you have a pre-existing condition or a chronic illness with a lifetime limit on benefits, Willard is going to hold you down and cut off your coverage.
…and afterward, he won't remember doing so. But he'll regret if anyone is offended.
That'll teach the rest of us to have queer RomneyCare.
WIN
Ya know, 20 years from now when everyone is enrolled in this new health care plan and they're glad they are…. the republicans are going to be really, really pissed off at whoever decided that calling it Obamacare was a good idea for winning elections.
I was thinking the same thing just this morning. That calling it "Obamacare" was supposed to be an insult, but it actually has good PR – Obama Cares is the message. We'll turn their pissy propaganda into lemonade yet.
In a decade, you'll have oldz unironically yelling "keep your stinking government hands off my affordable health insurance"! at conservative rallies at the mall, hosted by the genetically engineered spawn of Beck and Limbaugh.
I think I saw that movie.
"Get off my virtual lawn!!!!"
If my rascal doesn't fly by then I am going to be pissed!
Too late! I'm pretty sure the genetically engineered spawn of Beck and Limbaugh was engineered by Jeebus about 3.8 billion years ago. It's commonly known as primordial ooze.
You layin' that evolooshen-y science-y shit on evuhbuddy agin, pdog?
True story: I was gassing up at the Conoco station this morning, and some cute young Jehovah's Witness woman came up to me at the pump and offered me a magazine with a bunch of dinosaurs on the cover and something about evolution. I said, "Sure", but I haven't read it yet. Saving the lolz for later.
In 20 years in typical Republican fashion, they'll be saying that they were the ones that put it into effect, because they came up with the idea.
Screen cuts to Obama shaking hands with and hugging Americans in hospital beds and people who've lost their hair to chemo.
Obama's voiceover begins: Mitt Romney and other out of touch fat cat Republicans like to belittle my health care reform bill by calling it Obamacare. But instead of the insult they intend, I find "Obamacare" to be a compliment. They are right. I am Barack Obama and I do care.
Best. Political. Ad. Ever.
Bumper Sticker – Obama Cares
How the fuck is getting more people life saving healthcare bad medicine?
Getting more poor, blah, and ghey people live saving healthcare. I mean, Duh.
More healthy poors and blacks = more Democratic voters? He didn't say for whom it was bad medicine.
I have been particularly amazed at the "now there will be more people at the doctor's office" claims. Because it was OK for those people to lie in misery at home until desperation caused them to visit an ER, running up a bill that many of them would never be able to pay.
The mean-spirited heartlessness of some of these people is simply astounding. They have no ability to understand or empathize with the suffering of other living creatures.
Yes, and what would really be best is if they just died in misery without bothering the decent folk.
Not good enough. We must figure out a way to increase their suffering.
Yes, doctors offices should be quiet rooms…
It's bad medicine, because some overpriced insurance company CEOS have to give up one of their boats or vacation villas. Duh.
Or their solid-gold commodes. Didn't some Wall St. schlub get him one a those?
So Mitt is going to a foreign country to bow down to their (actual) leader and apologize for America?
A foreign country with…. socialized medicine!!
{dun dun DUN}
Why doesn't he just threaten to hold them down and cut their hair?
What, free government-provided haircuts? Not with my tax money, goddamn it!
See, Obama hasn't done anything to address the COSTS of haircuts.
Mittens has always been at war with Romney.
mitt romney is a war of the roses all by himself.
Naw, just Richard III
Richard III Libel!! Try Henry VII instead.
OK, you got me. I was lazily alluding to Shakespeare's portrait of Richard III, when of course that distorted representation was geared to please the Tudor at the top, and in reality Richard III was not that bad.
I should have known I couldn't sneak something like that by this crowd.
"[T]he former Massachusetts governor will attend a private fund-raising dinner in London next month."
So, RMoney's going to a country with socialized medicine to raise money for a campaign in this country that is now based on repealing healthcare for all.
Oops.
Well, I hope a few of the socialized waiters working the fund raising will be adding a litttle extra spice to his meal, if ya knows what I mean.
I suspects I do, dear. And if I was there, I'd insist on pitching in.
Ewwww…
the campaign has raised $2 million since the announcement was made at 10 a.m. Thursday morning.
That's it? A measly $2 million piasters over a law that changes the US into Canada so completely that wingnuts are going to flee to Canada to escape it?
$2 mil wouldn't even cover Ann's dressage bill for the year, what with vets and insurance and stable fees.
I don't think the original tea party consisted of such cheapskates.
"$2 mil wouldn't even cover Ann's dressage bill for the year, what with vets and insurance and stable fees."
And don't forget the horse tranks. Those are darned expensive!
And those out-of-court settlements for massively doping horses to conceal injuries can really add up!
I understand Ann gives that horse almost as much medication as most Utah housewives.
We made our bus monitor eat deodorant and she has more money than that now.
Only slightly OT:
It's wonderful to see a smile on Hopey's face, and teh wonkette is faaabulous today!
You are such a sweetheart, really. Yes, it's a good day all over the land.
Aww, thanks Z. You're a sweetie too. And it is a good day.
Jesus fucking Christ, if the Democrats don't run an ad slamming Mitt Romney as the first presidential candidate in history* to host a fundraiser in another country THEY.DESERVE.TO.LOSE!!!!!
*I'm not a presidential historian, but I can't imagine that any other previous candidate has. That said, regardless of the "veracity" of the claim, I'm sure there's enough to it truth to go around.
I'm sure that Obama had at least a dozen fund raisers in Kenya. Or at least so I'm told.
When your campaign is funded by the KGB you don't need to bother with fundraisers.
In Russia, campaign finance you!
It's just Small Town America lending Romney a hand.
London's a small town, right?
Really, really small. I don't know what the fuss is about.
If the article is to be believed, there was a fund raiser for Barry held in London back in the day, but he didn't attend. I don't know if that matters or not.
first thing i thought.
the fuck romney campaign? are you even TRYING to pretend it's not all about rich fucking global bankers?
Who else is there?
I'm sure that the President has held a fund raiser or two in Hawaii. Everyone knows that's a foreign country.
For what it is worth, I gave to Obama today. I figure he definitely deserves it on this, if for no other reason than the Conservative talking class is going Michele Bachmann levels of insane today.
If only the Tea Partiers could see the irony in Romney raising millions from ex-pats in London. But then they'd have to understand what the original Tea Party was about.
Some of these ex-pats go back quite a few generations. Maybe Mitt is really running for viceroy.
It had something to do with Paul Revere ringing his bell and shooting his warning shots and red coats and Injuns and shit.
PROVIDE ME SERVICES
And so we shall, at least if you're in Seattle this Saturday, June 30th, at the Latona Pub starting at 6:30. Our beloved Editrix has sent wee gifties and a pithy salute for all that attend. Be there, or be square.
Gifties??? And a pithy salute? (Is it the middle finger?)
Wee gifts? A pithy salute? Do you have a lisp, by chance?
I am pretty sure I will be there. I am just trying to decide whether or not I want to take the torturous 2.5 hour round trip bus ride or be a responsible, sober adult and drive. Hmmmm. You will be able to recognize me by my hoodie and my skullfucking.
Guests at the dinner, which will take place at an unspecified venue in central London, have been told that they must provide a copy of an American passport.
Long form birth certificate or GTFO.
Really. Why should the requirements be any different for THEM?
I understand this fund raiser is hosted by a Nigerian Prince who was driven out of his country and after having a copy of your passport and birth certificate he will be able to reclaim the fortune his god father (a former US Governor) deposited in the Cayman Islands.
Bob Diamond? Fancy!
I bet they have salad forks.
I still prefer People vs. Larry Flynt
the dinner…will be hosted by Bob Diamond, the chief executive of Barclays
Oh really? How very interesting…
Barclays Settles Regulators’ Claims Over Manipulation of Key Rates
On Wednesday, Barclays agreed to pay $450 million to resolve accusations that it had tried to manipulate rates to benefit the bank’s own bottom line. At the height of the financial crisis, regulators say, the big British bank reported bogus figures that in some cases had influenced a benchmark for student loans, credit cards and mortgages.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/barclays-s…
With that kind of item on his resume, Diamond should be running for Governor of some state …
Alright, you sort of beat me, but here is another Bob Diamond scandal:
UK banks face new scandal; Barclays boss in peril
(Reuters) – Britain will expose on Friday a second scandal involving the country's banks in as many days, as Barclays boss Bob Diamond clings to his job after regulators slapped a record fine on the lender for rigging interest rates.
Bob may not be hosting that dinner after all.
After seeing your article, I got curious and checked. Yes, Diamond *was* born in the US (or, at least, he claims to be…) Isn't that right, Wikipedia?
Bob Diamond was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on July 27, 1951. One of nine children, Diamond grew up in an American family of Irish-Catholic values. His parents – Anne and Robert Edward Senior, were both teachers and second-generation Scottish and Irish immigrants.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you make the mistake of voting for Mittens, meet your new Treasury Secretary…
…shudder…
"Diamond grew up in an American family of Irish-Catholic values."
Not merely "an Irish-Catholic American family" — they have to mention "values"!!??
Can't imagine who's been editing this article. These fuckers don't evern pretend to be subtle, do they?
Irish-Catholic values? Born in Massachusetts? So, he's a drunk and a fornicator, from a wealthy family of former rum-runners?
And this super rich banker dude's name is "Diamond". Diamond, for fuck's sake! It's like we're living in a comic book.
Romney will fight Obamacare over there, so we don't have to fight it here!!!
Also from the fundraising e-mail:
And you know he means it 'cuz of all the specifics he's provided.
Could these buzzards be any more morally bankrupt? (Oh, wait, it's only June…)
Talk about unclear on a concept. A lot of teatards and freepers are in a foaming fit right now and threatening to move to Canada. Apparently they think it's the perfect place to go if you're against "socialized medicine".
I know, I know. Frying pan/Fire, but I don't care enough to explain the errors of their logic to them.
They (teatards, etc.) need to rethink their plan. Perhaps moving to Yemen or Somalia would be better in terms of their beliefs. Besides, I doubt that many Canadians will stand on the other side of the line with open arms and shouts of joy.
Up until relatively recently, when people called Republicans "racists", I'd think to myself, "Yeah, maybe some of them, but that's an over-generalization." But now the only thing I can think of to explain Republcans/Conservatives/TeaRetards' "logic" is plain and simple racism. We can dress it up a little and call it "White Nationalism", but let's call a spade a spade. You know they will.
So that's why teatards weakly and pathetically threaten to move to every western nation with socialized medicine — they're racist idiots — almost every single one of them. If this had been Mittens "White Like Me" Romney's presidential healthcare plan, it would've been all, "Hey! Kill Them FreeRidin' Hobo Scums! Attaboy! Reagan!" But it's not Prez Whitemale. It's Blacky McKenyanBirf. Since they can't admit that they hate black folk running things (outside of Quiet Rooms®), they'll have to say a whole bunch other stupid shit instead. And boy is it stooooooopid.
"So that's why teatards weakly and pathetically threaten to move to every western nation with socialized medicine"
That'd be every country but the US.
If you, as (I presume) a citizen of the US unfortunately gets sick in the UK or France or Germany, you get treated as if you were a citizen. No cocking around with insurance cards, not fucking about with travel insurance – you just get treated.
That's what I'm used to and I fucking laugh at US "healthcare". If you're rich, you're cool, if you're poor … well, die in the street. That ain't a good thing.
edit: The ACA is a *GREAT* thing for the US
"Blacky McKenyanbirf"…awesome.
yeah like canada would have them.
I'm sure the concept that any place on earth would NOT welcome them with open arms has never entered their tiny minds.
If money = free speech, then what does make a prostitute???
Splattered listener?
Family friendly recreation?
An Independent Contractor?
CRE! (Hugs the CREature) You're back!
Thanks MB!
You're one of the Good Clowns.
Don't worry, sweetie. The day after the elections, I'm puttin on my Weedlord Bonerhitler av and PAR-TAY in teh streets! We'll put your coulrophobia to bed if it's the last thing we do.
A man date?
I've notice that most US Congresspersons speak freely.
Chuck Todd?
Oops, sorry. Thought you said "Presstitute".
Hitler?
A bond spread?
Expensive speech?
A sounding board?
A politician minus the apperance of holding to social mores?
A promiscuous financial advisor?
The next vice president of the United States?
"Guests at the dinner, which will take place at an unspecified venue in central London, have been told that they must provide a copy of an American passport."
Oh fer Chrissake, Mittens! Here's what's going to happen: Prince Bandar shows up, says "Here's my American passport!" Drops a Bank of America Cheque on the table for $50 mil, steps back and smiles.
Funny thing is, Post Citizens United that's all perfectly legal and we aren't even allowed to ask where the money came from. Hell, Robert Mugabe, Sun Myung Moon, Joseph Kony and the ruling Junta of Myanmar could all chip in too. Why the hell not? Money is Speech and Constitutionally protected, now. As Scalia said: "More speech is good."
It's not as if they might want anything for their investment. Right?
But at least the Supremes promised us that none of that stuff you mentioned counts as corruption or the appearance thereof. So don't worry!
"Move along, move along. Nothing to see here. Ignore that man with a checkbook behind the curtain."
Hmmmm… Scalia seems to have conveniently ignored that "More speech is good." principle when he voted that states couldn't give candidates money to partially equalize immense contributions and Citizens United "independent expenditures" to their opponents. (Arizona Free Enterprise Club Freedom PAC versus Arizona – a much more outrageous decision even than Citizens United IMO.)
"Why, that's right! Hey, Tony, explain that rationale, eh?"
Tony: "Because SHUT UP, that's why!"
There was also that unpleasantness with the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" T-shirt kid but, hey, he was only a high schooler and probably a Liberal so he don't get no ESTINKIN' Free Speech.
I thought Sun Myaung Moon *was* chipping in by way of that pathetic rag, the Washington Times?
And no, businesspeople are notorious for giving money away and never, ever expecting anything in return. The very idea!
Actually, the thought of the uber-rich being shaken down for their pocket change ($50 mil) for a hopeless cause is sorta appealing.
How I love the groans of agony in the morning as their assets get nationalized and they get sent to Arizona tent camps for sedition and treason. Even more fun than simmering teatards in a vat of boiling Kool-aid.
[this pleasant fantasy brought to you via alcohol...probably...]
Finally, a use for Arizona.
"It's not as if they might want anything for their investment. Right?"
Now you don't suppose that there's any quid for the quo??
I went over to check out a couple of my teatard "friends" walls on Facebook tonight, for lolz, and teh stoopid is northing short of amazing. My favorite was the friend of a "friend" stating: "On that note, I'm moving back to Japan. I've had it. I'm done with this habitual liar Obama." Of course, I go to the Wiki and find this:
"Since 1961 Japan has provided universal health coverage, which allows virtually all access to preventive, curative and rehabilitative services at an affordable cost.[1]
All residents of Japan are required by the law to have health insurance coverage. People without insurance through employers can participate in a national health insurance program administered by local governments."
Sadly, for some reason, I was unable to post a comment. Damn!
When you're able to comment again pdog, have some fun with them. Suggest Israel.
You need to "Like" the assholes temporarily in order to comment. Unlike them immediately afterwards.
Your Faceplant friend is moving back to Japan?
He is a Japanese citizen?
He was here on what kind of visa?
That visa is current and up to date?
I dunno, it was the friend of a friend. She did have a Japanese name.
Do you know who else solicited the United Kingdom for funds to unseat the President of the United States?
Maybe they can refloat the Alabama while they're in the area, give it another go.
Prescott Bush? Amirite?
What did I win?
Aaron Burr?
President Jefferson
Beauregard SessionsDavis?"I know that one! I know that one!"
–Zombie Neville Chamberlain
It's not proper healthcare, but I am stunned, stunned, that this decision comes out in the favour of my beloved adopted country's citizens.
A big fucking deal.
Daft spelling habits be damned, you will always be my brother from another Queen Mother, Fukui-san.
I'm getting really tired of these wingnuts threatening to move to Canada. We have enough of those sort already, mostly in the House of Commons, and we DON'T WANT ANY MORE!!
These are people who get smoke coming out of their ears with outrage when they're asked to "Press one for English, two for Spanish". The fact that a candidate would be ruled out as a prospective Prime Minister if he wasn't sufficiently fluent in French to debate all other party leaders on TV would send them scurrying back as fast as they came over.
"Scurrying" is right. Like cockroaches.
Be sure to rally your fellow Canadians against these lackwits, my friend. Not that I want them over here, but I wouldn't want to inflict them on decent Canadians, either. Perhaps on armed kif-smoking Afghanis.
Well with all of the War of 1812 Bicentennial stuff going on, maybe when they see the re-enactors with their muskets when they cross the border, they'll turn tail and flee.
They'll be helpless against Canada's secret weapon: Teenage girls with cows!
^^ POLITE ^^ teenage girls with cows. Their flabber will be multiply gasted.
Wasn't there a scene like that in Missouri Breaks? Oh, no, that was the Mounties riding to the rescue. Boy are the wingnuts in for a surprise.
Don't y'all have some underdeveloped Natural Gas Fields that could use some of these frackers? You don't need to give 'em citizenship, just a work visa.
And if you can also arrange for their absentee ballots to get delayed past Election Day, that would be much appreciated…
And if you can also arrange for their absentee ballots to get delayed past Election Day, that would be much appreciated…
Postes Canada Post will be happy to oblige. [That is not a joke.]
Edit: This isn't just a generic – Post office awful, hawhaw remark. Because I have experienced an exceptionally efficient, well-run, Post Office in my stays in various places in the world. The United States Postal Service. Why there are so many people in this country who don't realize how good they have it, and even are trying to destroy it, is a mystery to me. Mere human science cannot explain it.
I worked in the post office before being drafted. Although I can tell many stories of classic slackers, by far the overwhelming majority were dedicated to the basic concept of providing an important, necessary service to the country.
I find it ironic that one of the most egregious slackers was a self inflated moma's boy who after using a post office granted disability to get classified disabled for the draft, got into college, graduated and eventually the Lyndon LaRouche candidate for Governor of New Jersey. That campaign was discovered to be soliciting donations using credit cards and after the first donation was approved they would wait a few weeks and submit another. When that was objected to by the card holder, the campaign got to use the money for about two months before it was reversed from their account. This established a classic Ponzi Scheme which, of course, collapsed soon after the election. Our candidate fled the state and, I understand, is still on the lam.
As for all of those who did their job in a dedicated, day after day, come hell or high water performance – Eric will be coming by to drop the mail in my box and it is raining at about 1/2 inch an hour. Yet he will trudge on by and do his job even though he knows it will be dropped in the recycling bin just inside the door. Me, I ain't going out to get that junk until the storm is over.
Wait, I get it. This is just like those party boats that rich people charter, and then sail out to international waters, where they do all their sexcrime.
Only, with politics!
Mr. Lucky! One of the oft-forgotten Cary Grant as scoundrel turned good guy to save his country movies.
I know "independent" is mostly just another word for "conservative" but surely at least some of them scratch their heads and furrow their brows in an attempt to understand how the guy claiming to be the white knight against Obamacare is the same guy who laid the blueprint for it.
It was the Republican counterpoint to Hillarycare nearly twenty years ago. It's a Heritage Foundation idea. Republican from pillar to post.
Naturally, since the blah is in the white house they'll lie and dissemble, but the ACA is fundamentally a "free-market solution"
I'm under the impression that "Independent" literally means they don't know which party the president belongs to. I know several people like this in my extended family – they honestly have to GUESS which party the president is in, but they'll be at the polls every 4 years, idiotically filling in circles.
"Independent" is also just another word for "Can't think way out of wet paper bag and too lazy to try so make it a smug fashion statement."
"Independent" means "I'm crazy as fuck, but not so crazy that I don't know what is socially unacceptable to say in public." That's the biggest group of independents, anyway, conservaties with a conscience or afraid of appearing crazy. A much smaller group of them are truly apolitical dolts, who mean well but generally don't know shit.
My wife is that last category. Drives me bug fuck crazy.
When I used to work the polls and my wife and son do so now, the number of people who thought they could come in to vote in NJ 'party specific' primaries was always surprising. One guy earlier in the month told my son that not being permitted to vote was another case of Obama Tyranny. He was an independent and NJ's rules have changed so that he could declare a party affiliation right on the spot and vote in the primary for that party.
Since he is a contributor to the local Republican party he declared he was a Republican and then was shocked he could not 'vote against that Muslim tyrant Obama.'
I am opposed to almost every 'voter ID' law the Republicans have passed as being easily manipulated to disenfranchise voters but some of these bozos …
Having a 17,000 pound a plate fundraiser in a country ruled by a hereditary monarch — and Mitt continues riding that in-touch-with-the-common-man juggernaut that he's so well known for. If this keeps up, he'll be King Willard of LIchtenstein in no time.
with the head of a bank.
Poor Lichtenstein. I guess we'll have to make reparations to them, but it'll be worth it.
A 17,000 pound a plate fund raiser – Chris Christie is heading out on the first C-141.
This is depressing. Instead let's laugh at Jean Schmidt cheering when she thought the mandate was struck down:
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news/48002584
Hey, I just posted and un-posted this same video here. I cannot stop watching Jean Jean the Dancing Machine Schmidt. Priceless.
Oh, how I love today…so very, very much…
Just think of the excruciating anguish she must be suffering right now! I do love these feel-good stories.
Oh yes it is now on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-XsUQHzMCI
"Yes! YES!!! The American people get fucked yet again!!!!!"
oh wait. they don't.
I'm holding out for the video of her finding out that it in fact wasn't struck down.
That'll probably be one of those YouTube videos that you have to pledge that you're 18 before they'll let you watch it.
Is there such a thing as a meta-meme?
OBAMNEYCARE!
"a rage boner deferred"
I really need to find a way to use this phrase in an everyday conversation.
Shouldn't be too hard.
I think – no, I know – I love you.
Aww, you're too kind. But I like it.
What level on the Mohel Scale of Bonner Hardness?
Rage Boner = Cuts Glass
Rage Boner Deferred = Cuts Check (to Mittens)
Oh god, "rage-boner" fits even better into Langston Hughes' poem than the original subject (dream).
Well, *I* donated… to Obama and the DSCC.
Will the Queen give him money from the drug trade she runs? The LaRouchies must be going wild about this.
I do miss those loons … I'm sure they're going nuts, but it's impossible for them to get attention when the mainstream GOP has seized control of the crazy train.
Have a drink, Mitt. You silly pussy.
Nice that the chairman of Barclay's, one of the few international banks in the same incompetence/corruption league as J.P. Morgan, is running the fundraiser.
today i dedicated my yoga practice to john roberts and made a donation to president barack hussein obama.
I donated illegally via a proxy.
Could this be the same Bob diamond that Atrios mentioned today?
It might be.
One and the same.
Banks should only have to apologize in quiet rooms where no one can hear.
Yes it is.
…he said the time for apologies from banks was over.
That's British Bankster, which translated into American would be, "Fuck you, we made a shitload of money and we're not sorry in the least."
I love how Romney can only go so far with his criticism. ObamaCare son of RomneyCare was upheld, and there ain't a damn narrative that will give him the advantage of this or any other ruling.
Eat it, Willard.
Got to say, I was kind of surprised by the ruling. I wasn't expecting the doom-and-gloom ruling where the entire thing was struck down (though, held it as a realistic possibility), but I didn't exactly see Roberts being the one siding with the left half of the court. Meh. You take the votes where you get them; doesn't change the fact that Roberts is still Mr. Citizens United. In a perfect world, there would be no surprise given that what Roberts upheld was a conservative policy.
Yeah, I was dazed — pleasantly dazed this morning. I had full intention of being glued to NPR all morning, but I got super busy and finally got a minute to smoke my ObamaCare brand Cancer Stick in my car, turned the radio on, and heard 'Breaking: ACA upheld, Roberts the swing vote'. It made me feel good, even if it was so strange as to cause me to wonder what the other versions of earthlings are going through on their respective planes of existence or alternative universes.
Still, he's a Plutocrats' Plutocrat of a judge. If he didn't fear armed rebellion and guillotines just a li'l less, he woulda said "Fuck ya, Kochistan, I got mine."
I've concluded that the difference between Roberts and the other conservatard justices is that he's crazy like a fox instead of just stone fuck crazy. Obamacare is a victory for the American people AND the insurance companies, and he sees the insurance companies victory part. Besides, this is the "Roberts Court", he being the Chief Justice, and he knows that 40 years down the line, when people are scratching their heads at what a lame Supreme Court this was, the one thing that will always appear in the conversation is "the Roberts' Court". I mean, do you remember who was on the Warren Court besides Earl Warren? Wait, don't answer that – as a Wonketeer, you probably do.
This.
If Obama had a fundraiser on foreign soil, I'm sure the Romney campaign would treat it completely fairly.
FoxNation would accidentally change "London" to "Kenya".
If Murdoch had his way, he'd return British rule to Kenya.
You mean like this?
Newly posted at teabagger central, but you know the comments will be spectacular. (The fact that Mitt's planned shindig will raise more cash from six plates than the entire Obama dinner will be a point of pride, not outrage.)
Hmmm… no comments yet …. might be worth the trouble to seed that item with some teabagger bait, for the lulz.
you know fuck republicans and the horse they waterboarded to ride in on.
they are just the worst losers. and they are just the worst winners. today a 30 year old idea that they originated and long championed was held to be constitutional by a conservative supreme court.
now they're all moving to canada and talking second amendment and wailing and gnashing of hooverounds.
how did half the country become a mashup of eric cartman and a 14 year old girl?
"gnashing of hoverounds" is the best thing I've read all day.
edit: next to "ACA Upheld by Roberts, Conservatard Crybabbys Cry and Cry Some More" (paraphrasing).
"…fuck republicans and the horse they waterboarded to ride in on."
Today is a great day for making words sounds more gooder.
"…fuck republicans and the horse they waterboarded to ride in on."
Ah! Good one!
[ Though the disputed folio line
"...fuck Republicans and the tax-deductible horse they shot full of drugs to be able to daintily prance in on." also has its defenders]
yes but the folio has 'Fucke Fepublicanes' and the folio technique teaches us to always pay attention to capitalization (and variant spelling but here i defer to the arden which tells me Fepublicanes will never be noticed in performance*).
* (this is lifted straight from the arden notes on comedy of errors which blows if you're trying to stage it. which i would also not recommend.)
Hooray to this ambiguous victory for whatever group actually can claim victory in regards to the generality of this proposed tentative invitation to more overreaching ambiguity! There is finally indefinite resolve to questions that have yet to be defined and may or may not have answers. Let us rejoice and/or spur defiance in support and/or disgust, depending on however the hell the ruling can exactly be interpreted, which it cannot be, if at all, ever.
You're wrong. The ruling can be exactly interpreted and it was. But, you can keep concern trolling it; you just have to do a better job of it.
If only on political grounds, I'm glad for the ruling. Someday, we'll get real health care reform. Until that day, that'll do, pig. That'll do.
Like Mitt doesn't rake in $2 million every day?
He doesn't make very much money, TribecaMike.
He's unemployed!
Oh, I forgot that he wasn't effected by the Lilly Ledbetter Act. My bad.
OMG the stakes couldn't be higher! Teh poors are on the verge of acces to health care! JERLWEJWL:EJR:WLJWEJR!!!!!! I'm drunk. What's happening?
Holy crap. 61,000+ comments over on HuffPo.
Now Arianna can finally afford that sixth palazzo she's been dreaming about.
Who?
This is such a brilliant move by the stoopid party. Really, make the centerpiece of your campaign opposition to a policy identical to one your own candidate developed as governor of Massachusetts. Any one of those facts being enough to make teatards heads 'splode.
No snark, but you just have to shake your head in wonder at these people giving money to a man who would buy and offshore them in a heartbeat. And it's over something that Rmoney actually instituted the last time he held elected office. And then these same people "threaten" to emigrate to countries with, unbelievably, universal health insurance. The cognitive dissonance is strong on this one.
Gay workplaces are verboten!
The major stake in the heart of HillaryCare was the abuse of the term Single Payer. It was implied falsely that Single Payer meant more government taxes taken from your pay check and from the olds (ergo the commercials with the old couple wondering how they will be able to eat after HillaryCare is passed). Within ten years, about 75% of the health care insurance providers were farming their billing out to one company (run by the same bozo that ran Travelers into the ground). That business model has changed but it still remains that Single Payer was not meant to be the government but only a system whereby resources would be accumulated to rise to the best economies of scale to pay the bills.
In the ACA that effort is to be closely examined so that the 20% to 30% overhead in paying the bill is brought more into line with the 8% to 10% overhead experienced by small office health care providers who are too small to have their billing farmed out.
Every teabagger who is scare mongering about this should be asked; "If government involvement is so bad and will be so cost prohibitive why do you receive so many solicitations for 'no cost, no limit' health insurance alternatives to Medicare?" Because the amount the government sends them as your portion of projected Medicare expenses is financially attractive when you sign the waiver to submitting your bills to Medicare.
Yeah, try asking that question of a teabagger. The vacant stare will only get more vacant.
If it don't fit on a bumper sticker, you can forget about it.
Back when I actually had to know these amounts for a job I had with the ‘outhouse counsel’ of an insurance company (and twenty years ago), the actuaries were predicting about $2,450 in costs per year per policy holder who took the waiver but were receiving $350 a month from Medicare (my memory is not precise). So they were getting a clear $1,000 per policy holder per year profit. (Twenty years ago) And, this is why I had to know it, the company in reference had exceeded the 20% overhead they were permitted to charge based on their ‘good faith’ projection of their yearly costs per policy holder. And yearly costs included administrative costs which is why the rush to someone else processing the Medicare, Medigap and what is now called Medicare Advantage billing was so active. Bush under his big deal prescription drug bill for seniors also gave great administrative costs recover plus semi-annual costs reeve to Medicare Advantage policy originators. We as aging fux about to be run over by the great mandella of Republican policy programs, will never benefit from Bush’s Medicare Modernization Act as much as the drug companies and the health insurance company providers.
At least run of the mill Republicans have been gracious in defeat.
Checking passports is a cute bit of theater, for consumption by red-state rubes.
A London dinner hosted by Diamond has about as much social cachet as a New York dinner hosted by Bernie Madoff. In reality, Mitt need not worry about anybody but filthy rich Americans showing up at the door.
(For those reading the linked article, "City" is Brit-speak for London's financial center, roughly equivalent to our use of "Wall Street".)
You know, I switched over to Morning Joe this morning because I'm a sucker for punishment, and the talking point was another "This is good news for John McCain". Somehow, because Roberts ruled the penalty is technically a tax, it was better that the Republicans lost than won. I know that either side was going to spin a loss, but WTF ar they smoking?
Ignorance is an early morning Studio 3A at Rock Center.
To prepare for the shitstorm of teabagging one should look briefly at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_health… from Wikipedia. It seems fairly fact based and shows that the ACA is not even closely as universally applied as Romneycare.
It also quotes the Boston Globe as stating that after five years the program has performed as well or better than expected, but a conservative think tank, Beacon Hill Institute claims a drastic increase in 'health care spending' Of course you blooming teabagging idiots – thousand of people in Massachusetts are now getting primary care and procedures they would have died for before 2006.
Hey, I know "Citizen United" and all but WTF? RMoney can't even wait for foreign money to be filtered into his campaign through some US Corporate contribution, he is just cold going to the source?
Where is his next Campaign dinner, Peking?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but wouldn't the Limeys be better off investing that money in some desperately needed dental work?
Apparently Mitt's grand idea is to replace Obamacare with Romenycare without paying for it.
"which will be hosted by Bob Diamond, the chief executive of Barclays"
assuming he's not in jail, of course
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/29/barclays-…
O my my.
Was it hard to get?
I have cursed at the tomb of Henry VII, in Westminster Abbey. It was immensely satisfying and I am not quite sure why a verger did not throw me out.
I don't know, darlz. Is that a Thurber dog?
While The Thurb was a huge influence in my life, that was a sketch I made on my new iPad. You like?
You are very talented, Gemini…
It's beautiful. I had no idea you were an artist of such talent. How are the puppers, by the bye?
Thank you so much scvirg. Once in a while something will just work out – in drawing and politics.
Diego has multiple myeloma, but we don't know where. Shittysue is mad at me because I'm temporarily fostering another dog while owner is away on vaccay. We've had horrible heat wave and nasty fires, but we are safe and the swamp cooler is keeping us comfy. Thanks for asking. And Los Gatos?
Hugs to Diego. My little old man-cat is going by inches before my eyes. Nothing to be done except keep feeding him and loving him till the end. Love breaks all hearts, I'm afraid.
I'm sorry. Hugs to you and Little Old Man-cat. This aging shit sucks. All we have in the end is love, when fortunate.
If there were a gawd he would let our animal friends live as long as we do.
:(
Sorry to hear that. Why, WHY, don't pets have human lifespans?
It's so difficult and painful, and staying loving through it all is the hardest part. Aging isn't for wimps. Still, he's enjoying his life, what's for me to kvetch.
True. The hardest part of loving this small life is losing them over and over again.
Thank you for the kind thought. Mister Bandicoot is happy with his kitty lifespan, though. It is the humans who mourn. As far as he's concerned, the sun shines as sweet and warm upon him as it did when he was little, and he knows wherever he turns his tired old head, loving hands will rest on it and caress it with so much warmth and affection. He is loved, and it is good, even if my heart is breaking each minute.
More good news.
Both Henry and Catherine came down with The Sweating Sickness a few years after the first epidemic which some historians believe killed hundreds of thousands in weeks. Catherine, amazingly, survived. There are records describing it but reliability is not good and in the post Lister era in medicine, there has been no known reoccurrence since the middle of the 17th century. Although most of the documentation comes from the Parliamentary Papers, one usually finds current histories say Henry died of tuberculous. Since I am recalling this from my "Making of Modern Britain" courses of forty years ago, what is the current take on it.
The fact that whole families could catch the disease and die off in hours is somewhat fascinating.
Can't sleep, clowns will eat me…
Not sure which Henry that is but it's not the VII. He was married to Elizabeth, poor woman, who had to put up with a miserly, grasping, conniving little shit of a husband. Oh, and she also had to put up with being the mother of Henry VIII.
I think that may be my mistake as I now can’t recall whether he actually married Catherine or just planned to after Arthur died. I can’t find my keys either.
Henry VIII did marry Catherine – the marriage and (or so Henry's camp claimed, not implausibly) consummation joining Arthur to Catherine was the major plank in Henry's petition for annulment, based on the biblical passage forbidding someone to marry a dead brother's widow.
My mistake was that I remembered it as Catherine marrying Henry VII a few years before he died. Since then (a few hours ago) I looked up the Wikipedia entries and plan to read them in more depth when my mind is more tolerant of boring. And I still can’t find my keys and have to go out soon.
You are so right, it is hard. But kvetch away. I'll listen. And understand.
Whatever you do – don't look under the bed.
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