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December 09, 2013 06:07 AM UTC

Monday Open Thread

  • 29 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

"Politics would be a helluva good business if it weren't for the goddamned people."

–Richard M. Nixon 

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29 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread”

    1. That, of course, depends upon your definition of "access."  I suspect, given the link, that your definition is pretty elitist. I have been with Kaiser for several years. It has provided my employees and me exceptional access to basic medical care. But, I don't get access to the best hospitals in the country. This has nothing to do with ObamaCare. 

      I have been among the first to assert that ObamaCare is a clusterf#$k. Its Rube Goldbergian design was destined to create problems. Despite all the promises and hype, it was and remains primarily a bailout program for an insurance industry which was on the verge of a collapse that would have rivaled that of the banking industry in 2007 –  2008. What we really need is Medicare for all.

    2. Plenty of insurers, most notably HMOs and PPOs, don't cover or cover at a very reduced rate outside of their network. HMOs also most often require going through a gatekeeper before seeing any specialist and their priority is preventing visits to specialists as much as possible. And of course by refusing to cover those with pre-existing conditions or who have become unprofitable they reduce access more severely than anything that could possibly result from the reforms contained in ACA. Next.

      That said I agree with Colin Powell that only universal single payer will give all Americans the quality of health care that he has enjoyed all of his adult life through the through the public single payer plan connected with his military service. I join him, that radical old commie, in calling for just such a plan.

    3. Elliot, a link posted on the this blog "does not mean access" (given that I will either have to subscribe or register in order to read your enlightening article).  

      This is obviously something that I will now be holding against the President . . .  a Romney Administration would have ensured my unrestricted, free access to the Financial Times?!?!?

      Nothing like a complete logic fail as the very first post of a new week . . .

  2. Oh no, it's all Obama's fault.  Before Obamacare any American could just walk right off the street inot the very best private cancer hostpital, for instance, and voila!  Be cured!  There were no PPOs or other insurance hassles, before Obamacare. 

  3. Update on talk radio and the cake case fire – 

    Target:  Democrats in Colorado-the "out of control" marxist, etc..legislature that was out of control and needs to be replaced in 2014.  

    Slogan: "Cake case " Christian baker refused to decorate a wedding cake for a gay couple. The couple filed a complaint with the AG and an administrative judge ruled in the couples' favor on Friday and ordered the baker to decorate the cake or face stiff fines.

    Fire:  The issue is Colorado's public accommodation law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, among other criteria. Talk radio is firing up the base on this issue….It has many facets.  On talk radio, the issue is framed: "Can the government force someone to act against his/her religious beliefs?"   So, people can be inflamed against the government. People don't have to say that they are anti-gay; they can feel that they are defending one person's religious beliefs.   It folds into the "War on Christians.

    It can also be used by Rand Paul's supporters to support his contention that the rights of private property to discriminate supercede the laws against discrimination in public accommodation laws. Paul is in the top five of potential republican candidates for 2016. There is also the strategy of forcing the issue to ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

     

    1. Rightie talk radio supports the baker. Thanks for the update on this shocking piece of news. Without your faithful daily hours of monitoring, who here would have had any idea what position rightie talkers might take or that they would attempt to use this against Dems? Except for, I don't know, everybody? Including those who who never listen to talk radio?

    2. It can also be used by Rand Paul's supporters to support his contention that the rights of private property to discriminate supercede the laws against discrimination in public accommodation laws

      This was decided long ago…see: George Wallace…see: Lester Maddox

      1. You are absolutely right, DC.  But, laws can be overturned.  Supreme Court make-up can change.  This argument about private property rights was being pushed as a talking point on talk radio, today.  

          1. Remember how confident we all felt that the voter suppression laws would not pass muster when the Supreme Court reviewed them? Remember how we all "knew" that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 would stand? Remember how last Spring, SCOTUS struck down the most important part of the Voting Rights Act and Texas's law stood? 

            I don't know what action can be taken…however, it ups the ante on control of the Senate in 2014.  

            Angry people vote in mid-terms.  Complacent people don't.  NOW, people do any of you get this?????

            Tie a yellow ribbion 'round that old hard hat.

  4. Easy, BC. Dwyer performs a public service for those of us living in TP land. We get a heads-up on the blather that's consuming what passes for most people's thought'' around here without having to listen to it ourselves.

     

    1. Still contend that if it really represented most people's thought we wouldn't have President Obama winning Colorado, a Dem majority in the state legislature, two Dem Senators, a Dem Governor, etc. 

      My point is that while being aware that their are other forces out there is fine, we certainly are aware and making so much more than necessary of their power, which is clearly past its zenith, is no less silly than believing that we have them completely licked. 

      I don't need anyone to perform the service of lecturing me over everything they say on an almost hourly basis every day. Way too much pearl clutching hysteria for my taste.

      2. I didn't say it was most people's thought, BC, I said it passed for thought where I live, which is Mesa County. It's on the Western Slope. To ignore a good part of the state, i.e. rural areas, is the attitude that led to the legislative recalls. The worm always turns in politics. I don't like the selfish I got mine, screw you'' attitude of the TPers any more than you do, but they exist. If you don't want to hear it, then don't read what dwyer posts.

        1. Sorry I misunderstood what you meant by "We get a heads-up on the blather that's consuming what passes for most people's thought'' around here without having to listen to it ourselves"

  5. " No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.  People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

    – Nelson Mandela –

    Have a great day polsters.

      2. Curiously, Daft, I had never seen South Pacific the first time I heard that song. It was a tag on an album by a Canadian band called Chilliwack that was popular for a short time in the late 70s. 

        And it is true. 

  6. GOP's Minority Outreach Plan — Get a white racist rich guy to speak at a gathering in a city with  83% minority population, at a gathering targeting minorities.

    Result:  the audience consisting of mostly whites show up to hear the message:

    Paul has been trying to do more minority outreach in recent months. In April, Paul spoke at the historically black Howard University, becoming the first Republican elected official to speak on campus in years.

    Still, he continues to generate skepticism, in part due to his criticism of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In 2010, he said, "I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant, but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership."

    On Sunday, Paul said he opposed extending long-term unemployment benefits, because doing so would be a "disservice" to workers. African-Americans have consistently had a significantly higher unemployment rate than whites.

    Somehow, it doesn't seem the GOP has yet to get a clue.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/rand-paul-african-american_n_4409356.html

  7. More on the GOP cluelessness front — Virginia Republicans think all is well with their party, despite losing to Dems in the last two election cycles.  As long as they're happy, I'm happy too 😉

    HOT SPRINGS, Va. — Virginia Republicans suffered a drubbing last month, losing all three statewide races (though a recount is impending in one). A year earlier, it was pretty much the same story as Mitt Romney got swamped and the party unexpectedly lost ground in the Senate.

    But to hear GOP leaders in this once reliably red state tell it, this is no time to panic. No hint of discouragement is betrayed. Just as many party activists insisted after Romney’s loss, key figures here said that their shortcomings are cosmetic — that the problem is largely about campaign mechanics and how the conservative message is being delivered, not the message itself.

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/virginia-republicans-100845.html#ixzz2n1cm57Cz

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