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February 14, 2014 11:13 PM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 101 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

"People always overdo the matter when they attempt deception."

–Charles Dudley Warner

Comments

101 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread

  1. That little story AC was quoting yesterday about the poor woman who died because she didn't get her health insurance in time? Seems pretty bogus to me. I know that it's on every single freaking right wing blog. Doesn't make it true.

    It started out on Anne Coulter's program. One of Anne Coulter's twitter followers is Melanie Graham, supposedly "Julie" Graham's sister. Melanie and Doug F. Graham, a former speechwriter/media rep for Elaine Chao and several conservative Congresspeople, both posted the identical story.

    Only problem: there is no "Julie" obituary. There is no death notice. There is no "survived by……" for any Julie Graham, nor for Julianne Stovall. Not in Bakersfield, CA,  not in LA where Melanie lives, not in Washington, DC,  not in Maryland where Douglas lives, not in Clifton, Fairfax County, Virginia.

    There is a Julianne Stovall, who is a sister of Douglas F. Graham, and she appears to be very much alive.  So the story is bunk. You're welcome.  Dont come around here guilt tripping people with crap stories Anne Coulter and her cronies dreamed up.

     

    1. good god, you are good.  As much as I appreciate your factual follow-up, I am beginning to think your talents are being wasted with the likes of us…..where is Media Matters? and Huffington Post?

      1. Thanks, dwyer. I am applying for those researcher jobs, but they tend to think that they need fresh-faced poli sci majors for that work.  Parents who have spent years stalking their errant teenage progeny are much better detectives.wink

        1. If you're applying for researcher jobs, then you better make darn sure your facts are right!  Do you want to tell Julianne Graham Stovall's 4 children, aged 23-13, that their mother isn't dead?  How about her husband of 25 years, John?  If she's not dead, why was there a memorial held at St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Clifton, VA on Feb. 12?  Julianne did indeed pass away on 2/1 from sepsis because of an infected gall bladder that appears to have perforated, after the insurance she'd paid for years was cancelled on her because it wasn't "good" enough! (Didn't provide maternity care for a 55 y/o Catholic woman, I'm assuming.  I didn't have the opportunity to ask her). As for no obit, there are several reasons that may be so.  Her husband and children may have decided to not post one, the Washington Post may be running behind (which often happens with obits), or her family may have decided that those who NEEDED to know were informed by word of mouth.  I CAN send the copy of a Facebook message her daughter sent to me, if you are still doubting the death of my friend, or you can search for her Facebook page, since it's still up and isn't private. 

          I miss her greatly.  She and I worked together at a business in Alexandria, VA for almost 30 years.  ClubTwitty is right, something stinks like a turd, but it's the pile of falsehoods you stated as "fact" in your research!

            1. CT,  Stop being a jerk. MamaJ admits her mistake.  Be a man.  Admit yours.  Robin lost a friend. You don't need to keep being a jerk.  Admit it.  You made a mistake.  I bet you will feel better.

          1. Robin,

            Yes, I found the same information you cited, and posted a correction yesterday,  that Ms. Stovall had indeed passed away.  When I researched, I found family members that were grieving for Ms. Stovall.

            I still don't know why the senior family members felt that it was more important to exploit her death on all of the right wing websites, blaming "Obamacare", than to do what normal people do, which is grieve privately.

            I'm sorry for the loss of your friend.

          2. Fact. It wasn't ACA that killed her. ACA didn't force her to go without coverage. She chose to. She also could always have gone to the ER, the option you people are always reminding us is a perfectly good one for the uninsured. 

            People have always had to change policies for all kinds reasons, including getting canceled, losing a job or having a policy discontinued. Rates have always changed. Before ACA there were far fewer options for getting it fixed without any break in coverage. If you had a pre-existing condition and lost a policy you often couldn't get coverage again at all. The meme that there is something new and different about the possibility of having to change or adjust or pay a different amount for plans or experience lapse in coverage is transparently false on its face.

            She had choices. Her free choices based on her own judgement didn't work out well for her. That's very sad for her and her family but I thought you folks were all about how it isn't the Nanny State's role to protect anyone from the consequences of their free choices and also that healthcare is not a right. So now it is and because she chose not retain coverage it's ACA's fault? You can't have this stuff both ways.

            Healthcare ought to be a basic human right and we ought to have universal single payer health care like the rest of the civilized 21st century world but I doubt that's what you're saying here.  What about the tragedy of all the lower and middle income people and families who have suffered similar losses because they really couldn't get coverage? Or is it only a tragedy when it happens to a relatively affluent white family and even if they could have avoided it but chose not to?

            1. My original point about the troll you are not (indirectly) responding to with this comment (because you would not do that) was that it was a POS for turning a tragedy into a political game and making a very spurious link not only to Obamacare but specifially to Mr. Udall.  That, of course, is the most odious and odoriferous type of chickenshit troll behavior, for which said POS has not offered any reasoning other than his vain hope that Ken Buck will defeat Mr. Udall.  

              1. My response is to RobinM48 whom I do not yet know to be a troll. It's a direct response to Robin in Robin's reply box. if Robin proves to be not just someone with whom I disagree but a sure enugh troll I will stop responding.  

          3. It's unfortunate that your friend died. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

            That being said….

            Knowing someone who died doesn't give you the right to misconstrue facts to suit your own personal political agenda.  A claim of grief does not make your statements beyond contestation, or give more weight to your assumptions. No one has to accept your spin on the situation, or your misinterpretation of facts, just because you say you're in pain.  For some, her death seems like an convenient tool to bludgeon others into accepting false assertions. That's sad, on so many levels. 

            Again, it's unfortunate that your friend died; but no one has to listen to unmitigated bullshit because of it. 

    2. Politifact says PantsOnFire
      http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/feb/05/ann-coulter/ann-coulter-says-friends-sister-died/

      Coulter said a friend’s sister "died from Obamacare" because she was "thrown off her insurance plan, you know Blue Shield completely just pulled out of California."

      We're not fact-checking whether someone died. We're looking at the circumstances Coulter presented.

      Blue Shield did not pull out of California, and the company did not leave people without insurance. In fact, customers were allowed to keep their existing insurance plans through March. If the basic facts of Coulter’s story are accurate, the woman in question elected to drop insurance coverage.

      Whatever the story of Blue Shield, saying someone died "from Obamacare" is incendiary and grossly misleading.

      Coulter’s claim rates Pants on Fire.

      1. Thanks to you and everyone who has exposed this story for the trash it is. Coulter is an evil hatemonger. She has managed to make a lucrative career out of being  repugnant, repulsive and ethics free. Just like Rush Limbaugh. 

        1. “I'm a Christian first, and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it. You know who else was kind of "divisive" in terms of challenging the status quo and the powers-that-be of his day? Jesus Christ.”

          ~Ann Coulter, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans

          So there ya go…she's just like Jesus.  The one that's mean-spirited and bigoted.

          1. Yep, that explains it.  Unfortunately, the Republican Party has been hijacked by a bunch of venomous snakes with no desire to make a better world for those yet to come.  Their only goal to take whatever they can grab for themselves in the here and now.

            But the Tea Party now has twisted the GOP into a deadly embrace of its own tail, injecting deadly poison into what remains of a once proud political party,

            We can only hope that after the GOP's ultimate demise, a heathier, wiser political party will rise from the ashes and once again take its place guiding our nation towards a better future.

              1. Wow!  Thanks for sharing that.  I hadn't seen that show, much less that perfect characterization of what the Tea Party is all about summarized in less that 4 minutes.

                I just hope real Republicans (like my wife) succeed in taking back their party one day soon.

  2. We fought a Revolution in 1776 so that the President didn't become a monarch and couldn't just unilaterally decide I am going to ignore the law.  Barack Obama April 20, 2008

    1. Who was it that promised to start issuing executive orders to change the implementation of Obamacare as soon as he took office? That would be Mitt Romney. Remember how up in arms Republicans were about THAT?!

      1. "Arguing with idiots is like playing chess with a pigeon…no matter how good you are the bird is going to shit on the board and strut around like it won anyway."

    2. Well, that didn't take long . . . you went from "possibly interesting viewpoint or two," to "just another shill," to "outright liar," to "fucking waste of time" here.  And, in what? — less than 30 days?  That may be a new record timewise, but you finally got to where you had to go eventually, anyway!

      My suggestion to everyone one else — just Ignore this dick from now on.

      1. I try to think the best of everyone, assume good intent, and treat people civilly, until / if they prove me wrong. Usually that works out well – sometimes it doesn't. 

        It pissed me off that AC  was trying to manipulate people's emotions, with the "dead sister" story,  and using pols as a resource & secondary forum for his work on CPP, and then moved into active trolling and taking over threads.

         

          1. Then he just started insulting everyone that questioned the story and called BS on it (until MJ killed it dead, then he just moved on).  Adults and humans with integrity would acknowledge the mistake.  Cretin is too good a word, IMO. 

            1. Being insulted implies that the person doing the insulting has some credibility.  How can anyone possibly be insulted by AC?  Ignore him and he'll eventually go away.  CT, you've been here enough even-numbered years to know that they come and they go but they never stay.

  3. Michelle was not around for Valentine's Day and Barack had some time on his hands so he spent some time on his computer.  One thing led to another and viola, direct from the NSA, here is a screen shot of his screen:

    1. So Dems vote for Dem legislation. Big deal. And WTF does keeping your doctor have to do with anything. Have you ever changed insurance or bought private insurance? Nobody ever had any guarantee that a new plan would be one in which their doctor participated. Just like nobody ever had any guarantee the plan they liked would always be available, they wouldn't get dropped, the price wouldn't change or anything else you might dream up as an objection to ACA.  More evidence of how much nothing you've got.

    2. Since Obama doesn't have a vote in the US House or Senate, I am not sure how it is that anyone on that list could have voted with him at all, much less at such a high rate. 

    1. AC is some kind of administrator on Colorado Peak Politics. Everything he posts here, gets posted there at approximately the same time. And, even though CPP no longer allows comments on their regular site (because they're big babies and cowards who can't take honest debate), their Facebook site still allows comments.

      1. I noticed the same thing.  Same quality too.  Same total right-wing bullshit with no accountability, caught out in a lie (almost every article) they just move on to the next.  Wow, can you imagine having so little respect for yourself?  I can't.  

        1. That's why A.C. is trolling – desperately trying to get traffic to CPP.

          Sorry, Carnegie, not happening. I suggest you read up the history of the actual A.C.

          Fascinating read though.

            1. At one time they had in-line comments, like here, rather than requiring people to have/use a FaceBook account.  Too many people were posting facts I think, which CO Peak Politics could not withstand.   

      2. I think you're right MJ.

        The way he moves from one debunked story to the next "brewing controversy" is in lockstep with those frauds at CPP.

        I think the scary scenario would be that he's doing it on his own. No reward? No compensation? The implications of that possibility are down right CREEPY!

         

      3. So he's used to the kind of drone members who just accept stuff made up out of whole cloth without question.  No need for anything facty to establish credibility. They'll be believe anything from Borg spin central. Got it.

    1. You're right, and thanks for the link. Since AC has now proved himself/herself to be a bona fide troll, I recommend moving quickly to the "shunning" phase to deal with him/her.

      My takeaway is "Don't teach the trolls to do html".

      1. I'm curious how much his benefactors pay him. You would think a paid professional could come up with something more effective than the childish tripe he obviously spends so much time bringing to these pages.

        I'm a little insulted that the best they can assign to us is an idiot like AC. Personally, I think we have earned a slightly higher degree of trollsmanship…(did I just make up a word?)

              1. BTW, the best indication that our resident troll is a (meagerly) paid flack and not motivated for altruistic reasons is the fact that his contract doesn't include overtime for working weekends and holidays.

                ArapaGOP and N3B flamed out.  AC seems to circling the drain too.  But given the material they have to work with, is it any wonder?

        1. I seriously doubt he's a paid troll. He may indeed be in some position at CPP, but the level of stupidity, denial, and self-satisfied ignorance points to someone who geniunely thinks he's striking a blow for Freedom, Justice, and Baby Jesus by coming here and teaching them Libs a lesson. 

          1. I was just going on the large amount of time he spends here. Either a basement dweller with a screw loose, or a paid troll with a screw loose.

            One way or the other, psychiatric help is warranted.

            1. I'm inclind to agree with both of you. AC seems to have access to the latest right wing flavor of the day, he gets it up fast, and as somebody pointed out, moves to the next faux outrage the minute MJ55 calls him out on and debunks the bogus "Obama killed my sister"  story or he's held to a source on "335,000", which he can't provide, or JBJK16 face slaps him for his "king" tantrum.

              Seems to me there has to be a reason he keeps coming up with stuff that resonates in the bubble but is easily shot down by fact checking. By all reasonable conclusion, he should have headed for the hills when MJ exposd the phony death story, but since he didn't, both Duke's rationale the guy needs help AND Curmudgeon's hunch he's invested somewhere make sense.

              The anger, the mean, snotty, snarky and nasty behavior, the sense of conserve entitlement seem to indicate he does belong to a right wing site or that he's a staffer for somebody like caldara's scam.

              I doubt it's caldara, as he never gets "libertarianie", but somebody.

              I don't think CPP is a stretch. At all. In fact, just might be a bullseye.

              But he does elicit reaction here. Sure it's scorn, ridicule, scoldings, lectures, and disgust over his outright dishonesty, but he does get attention. 

              But….he is a tool. In the literal way.

                1. Which would lead us back to the really creepy scenario………..the one where a loony radical right wing guy obsessively posts easily debunked stuff because he has nothing else to do.

                  Yuck!

        2. He doesn't need anything more than childish tripe for Peak and just sends us the same. His type just assumes everybody, right, left or center is equally stupid and easily manipulated. And I agree with shunning. This latest solid info from mama and CT will finally break me of my inability to resist responding once and for all. Buh-bye, AC.

              1. Count me in.  As someone raised by the old-style Repubs and a Republican myself for 32 years I can say with all sincerity that it deeply saddens me that folks like AC are given the right to call themselves "Republicans".  They aren't. They smear the good name and lives of many Republicans I grew up with who would have nothing to do with this style of politics – and continue to be held hostage by these trolls

                The Republicans of yester-year, the Bev Bledsoes, Fred Andersons and Bud Moellenbergs are but a fading memory.  Titans in the legislature who were responsible, respected and had the best interests of the state always on their mind. 

                Jeff Rice of the Sterling Journal-Advocate sums it up best:

                These men were giants compared to the ideologically toxic mental midgets the party is producing today. Brophy's un-endorsement of Tancredo reads like a children's book titled "The Pot Calls the Kettle Black." I quote Brophy, again from Bartel's article: "Tancredo cannot win state-wide, and I think he hurts the GOP brand. He makes it harder for everyone else to win close elections. No one who anticipates a close race wants Tancredo at the top of the ticket."

                Brophy is delusional if he thinks three-fourths of Coloradoans don't see him the same way. The only part of Colorado Brophy is remotely qualified to be governor of is the eastern third, and even then he'd be politically and ideologically at odds with about half of everybody north of Highway 34.

          1. Perhaps a hefty penalty, like a $100 contribution to the CO Dems for each of AC's assertions proven wrong.  We could use David as our Politifact referee.  He's enough of a passive/aggressive to serve as a neutral observer.

            I really appreciate the fact checking done by mama, BC and Pols.  Too bad it doesn't get the same coverage as the lies.

        3. Trollsmanship; I like that, Duke! In our household we play with words a lot. We also have a big old unabridged dictionary on a stand in the living room. But that word belongs in the Urban Dictionary. You ought to submit it. 

          1. I'm glad that everyone is with the de-trollifying program!

            But Elliott's not a troll..he definitely has his own agenda, but he's not a troll.

            On the politifact fact checker for the "dead sister in California" story – I saw that, and it's a valid point that those insurors didn't pull out of CA, so the story fails that fact check, too.

            But my research indicates that Doug Graham's sister, Julianne, lives in Virginia. Anyhoo, carry on, y'all.
            cool

  4. Really interesting – The French way of cancer treatment

     How could a public hospital in Paris possibly improve on Sloan Kettering’s cancer treatment?

    After all, people come from the all over the world for treatment at Sloan Kettering. My mother and I don’t even speak French. How could we speak to nurses or doctors and help my father? How would we call a taxi or communicate with a pharmacy?

      1. The English system is way different from the French system. Way worse. However, when I lived in France, the one visit I made to the French doctor, and I was fluent in French, was not fun at all and uninspiring.  He didn't know what to do with my American insurance card, so he just didn't charge me, which was nice, since he refused to help with my complaints as well.  Luckily a French friend told me to go a pharmacy where the pharmacist diagnosed me and told me what to buy.

         

        My landlady's great niece had the stomach flu and the doctor made a house call, but told her she had either a liver crisis or a crisis of faith (foie vs foi, homophones).  Nothing helpful.  So we did it the American way, sips of water, then the BRAT diet.  The family kept going on and on about American ingenuity, when it was just common sense.

        Of course, this was years ago, when I was in college, so things might have improved.  But I was unimpressed.

            1. I only say that because I've heard stories from several people in recent years who had wonderful experiences with French healthcare.  I think in the increasingly distant past US care was higher quality and less waiting even for the average person but that's changed a whole lot in the past several decades. Bet you're not that decrepit at all.wink

  5. Does Congressman Coffman support an increase in the minimum wage?  If so, will he sign a discharge petition calling for a vote on raising the minimum wage?

    How will CD6 voters be informed of his position on the minimum wage increase?

    1. He won't and CD-6 voters are informed via Romanoff. And then Romanoff coasts to victory via the utter mental stupidity of Coffmann and the rest of the Colorado Tea Sputter.

       

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