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Reactionary commentators are famous for making up bullshit ideas designed to scare ignorant people. The American right has the trademark on this particular ploy as they fight to remain the last industrialized country without Universal Health care.
I bet they have contests to see how many poor people they can bamboozle to fight against their own best interests…
This snippet gleaned from the Raw Story comment section illustrates what happens when someone calls conservative/reactionary commentators on their babblative bullshit.
“I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: You want to see a death panel, Mr. Halperin?
I’ll show you a letter on Anthem Blue Cross stationery I got back when Bush was still president and Obamacare was still Newt Gingrich’s plan that never happened.
It says “denial of benefits” on it, but what it is, when the only thing keeping you alive is a very expensive feeding tube, is a letter from a private, employer-provided insurance company’s Death Panel.
My doctor had no input in the decision. The experts providing care had no input in the decision. Just the insurance company’s reviewer, who decided that the continuing care was “not medically necessary”. Which, in context, was a euphemism for “You are too expensive to keep alive. Please die.” And if I hadn’t had enough money in the bank to deal with it myself, I would not be typing this today.
There’s your death panel, you ignorant shill. They exist. Private insurance companies have had them for years. Get sick enough, and if you’re unlucky, you might just hear from one. It isn’t fun. Oh, and you want to know what’s really funny? If I hadn’t been able to afford care by bleeding away my life savings, my other alternative would have been to move to Japan—where they have universal, government-supplied health care.”
So, conseradrones explain to me why you’re not raising holy hell over how private death panels (the insurance companies) are killing Americans.
Fiscal conservatives give me a headache at the best of times. Having them opine about how availability of birth control is going to drive up costs and make every one sad, well…makes me sad. It would be nice, for once, if our conservative friends would base their opinion on something more than a dogmatic adherence to free-market wisdom. The air out here in empirical evidence land isn’t so bad, honest.
The christian majority continues to whinge about being oppressed. Tough beans theocrats – the law, for once, has women’s back on this issue. So when you see the christian whinge starting as illustrated below, you also have the answer to their false claim of being persecuted.
Other than libertarian or misogynistic concerns, both that are as useless as pants on on giraffe, I don’t see what the problem is. Women win, their partners win and society wins.
‘Nuff said.
Strike that. Give us your perimeter fences, surveillance drones and border guards.
“U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law a bill to improve security at his country’s border with Mexico.
The $600-million US measure will pay for the hiring of 1,000 new Border Patrol agents and the purchase of new communications gear — including surveillance drones.”
I guess the poor and tired masses need to go to a different country as the US is plum full up.
“But his administration has come under fire from many Republicans for not doing enough to prevent huge of numbers of Mexicans from illegally crossing the border into the U.S. The issue seems likely to play prominently in this fall’s mid-term elections.
The controversy over how best to deal with Mexican migrants came to wide public attention earlier this year, when Arizona passed a controversial law that required law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of anyone they reasonably suspect of being an illegal immigrant.”
Past the glaring police-state provisions that were once part of the Arizona bill, Obama guessed he would have to do something to support the xenophobic undercurrent that swirls in the southern states. As the article says, mid term elections are coming, which I guess is code for pandering to the Republicans and putting ones own liberal democratic base into a deeper category of “ignore”.
I hypothesize that his move will only further alienate the people who elected Obama as president and will make the US electoral choice of the lesser of two evils a closer call.
“On Wednesday, Florida lawmakers introduced their own immigration bill that would require immigrants to carry valid documentation or be jailed for up to 20 days.”
Well, I guess Arizona cannot have all the authoritarian fun. :/
Twisty, from the blog I Blame the Patriarchy opines on the recent passage of the healthcare bill in the US with the Stupack amendment:
“What I’m getting at is this: my lack of surprise at this Stupak shit proceeds from irrefutable evidence that state ownership of women is among the most beloved of our violent culture’s violent traditions. Social conservatives appear to believe that God made patriarchy in his own image, and that he will withdraw his complimentary concierge services and cancel Christmas, NASCAR, and life everlasting if the state stops oppressing women for even one second. So-called progressives just want uninterrupted access to pussy.”
I lack the the colourful verbiage that Twisty uses, but in this quote she deftly describes the atrocious nature of this particular amendment.
Abortion is not a crime in Canada. Abortion is under siege by anti-choice zealots, par for the course, but a good portion Canadian women have access to reproductive health services.
A woman’s right to make reproductive decisions is foundational in women being recognized as autonomous beings. It is paramount that we keep abortion, safe, legal, and accessible in Canada.
As far as I am concerned the Stupak Amendment is one compromise too far.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
Whinge: How does forcing employers to give out abortifacients and not giving them a choice mean these people are being Pro-Choice and giving them a choice? Also these people claim to want to keep the government out of people’s bedrooms despite forcing businesses to give out items like birth control pills and IUDs that are used in the bedroom
The Answer: The First Amendment says my employer cannot force me to live according to my employer’s religion if it conflicts with my own. That means my employer cannot use a religious reason to deny me any part of health care under law. “Obamacare” closes the loophole that allowed a pro-life employer to deny me birth control, a privilege no other religious belief has ever been afforded anyway – a Jehovah’s Witness employer never could deny me a blood transfusion and a Christian Scientist employer could never deny me health insurance in the first place. You are claiming a special privilege that no other religious employer has ever had, the “right” to force your religion on another person, and whining that you’re being persecuted when you’re being stopped from violating other people’s First Amendment rights.