Entries Tagged 'politics' ↓

Glenn Beck’s running ads for his website now that even Fox doesn’t want him. The pitch is, according to his own words, for viewers who a) like their news on TV, b) want the truth, and c) want to get it now. So he suggests that you watch his show (definitely not the truth), on his website (definitely not TV), between 5-7 (definitely not immediately).

He lists three criteria and meets none of them. How is it people ever saw this man as something other than an idiot?

This is a farce of the highest order,provided by Aetna.

If I went in for a physical – a full workup even, if I got a physical, a colonoscopy, a prostate check, and an STD screener and I came out clean, it’s a twenty five dollar office visit, standard rate. But if I have the clap or high cholesterol, it’s a diagnostic test and subject to the full deductible. In fact, I can have LESS tests done. I can just get a physical, but pay more than if I got all those tests and ordered up a physically impossible pap smear to boot because it showed high cholesterol or something that needed treatment. I could spend $500 less in actual money by reducing the number of testing supplies needed and used, but still spend more because of the result.

Now this obviously has one real purpose, and that’s to prevent me from seeking preventative care. It’s to keep me from going even though I should because while I can certainly afford the $25 to keep an eye on things, I can’t afford the full cost. So I can’t take the chance on a physical. And neither can most of the working poor, I’m willing to bet.

So…who’s still actually defending private insurance again? Why haven’t we gone to socialized medicine, where you save money by encouraging prevention and people get the health care they need?

I think this is a topic that really needs explored more. Op ed incoming?

It makes GOP go down a lot smoother. Paul Ryan’s “Obama is evil OMG!” speech, conveniently avoiding letting him actually express his ideas (hint: privatize EVERYTHING), and Michelle Bachmann’s “slightly to the right” crazy performance are much easier on the nerves that way. It doesn’t really help with her apparent insistence we protected the Japanese from incursion in WWII, and saying that Barack Obama failed to talk about a ton of points in the State of the Union address, despite having talked about all her specified points. The fact she was live for a good two minutes before she started giving her speech, of course, just made it better/worse.

I mean really, how often do we watch a congresswoman talk about cupcakes, instruct her staff to bar the door, and adjust her bra? Not very! I’m surprised I didn’t see her spend more time layering on the eyeshadow. I didn’t know the Katherine Harris look was back in.

I’m attempting to introduce this phrase to the political discourse. While he lacks the charisma of your Bachmann, who’s a spectacular moron in her own right, Louie Gohmert seems to take the crazy up to a level even Glenn Beck can’t manage. While plenty of people said letting gays in the military would be bad for it, only Louie came up with terror babies. He actively opposes giving Washington D.C. a representative (afterall, who cares if a city full of poor liberal minorities have taxation without representation?), believes global warming, of course, is a hoax because God wouldn’t do it, has tried to deauthorize funding for key habitats of endangered species…

I think the point is clear.

So when I saw someone on Free Republic declare his pride in having Louie Gohmert as his representative in congress, being the only person to “Stand up against the fag agenda and homofication and destruction of the military by the president’s unconstitutional attempts to control it”, I realized that the Freepers were going, in fact, full Gohmert.

They also clearly have no clue about constitutional powers, but hey, neither does Louie.

Just after Thanksgiving, or as I alternately call it, Manifest Destiny/Don’t Trust Whitey day, Rush Limbaugh suggests Indians should pay reparations because we introduced tobacco to the pilgrims.

You know, he’s got a point. A lot of people have been hurt by tobacco. Big business has been sued for genetically engineering it to make people smoke five packs a day. We should have told them we only smoke ritually on occasion in small amounts.

And they gave us so MUCH. They gave us those wonderful (pox infested) blankets, they showed us new (involuntary) hiking trails, gave us new land (which was worse than the old land they destroyed or took), alcohol(ics, thanks to the addictive and highly toxic nature and our unfamiliarity with booze), and just treated us so damn well and (had un)protected (non-consentual sex with) us. And to me, that means we owe them.

Rush, we’re so sorry you smoke cigars like you do. We’ll take the blame for oxycontin too. And, good friend that you are, if either should kill you, we totally accept responsibility. 100%, full stop.

Nice evil goatee, Tom Coburn. Finally letting the inner you out?

So, John Shadegg, my retiring member in the US House o’ Reppin’, declared today that the spending of money doesn’t drive the economy.

Perhaps the good Representative could explain what DOES, then? Because it seems that whole “market” thing is based on money changing hands, in exchange for goods and services. You know, spending. But no, he says, that’s not it. And that’s why unemployment benefits shouldn’t be extended. Better to give the money to the rich, who hire people. Besides, even if spending DID drive the economy, poor people would just save all their money, not spend it!

Now I know a lot of Republicans are out of touch, and I know Shadegg especially is. As is this whole god damn district, to have voted in Ben Quayle. But this much? So out of touch as to see that the rich NOT hiring people is the reason for unemployment, and to think that people on unemployment, who have no money at this point, CAN save anything? Every single cent of that check goes into the economy immediately. There’s no trickle down delay, there’s no chance for it to be saved, thrown in a bank to gather interest as the rich can do. That’s food.

Even beyond the fact it’s the quickest economic stimulation, it’s a matter of life and death in many cases. Something the “right to life” “compassionate conservative” should consider too, but those are just words, just bullshit. We all know in the end, all he wants is to have more money in his pockets.

I fear when he’s out of congress, many of my days may be spent yelling “FUCK YOU” every time I track him down. And that’s no way to live.

Edit:I feel it’s worth nothing, though I’ve yet to verify, apparently Shadegg failed economics class in college, according to Lawrence O’Donnell. I find this horrifyingly plausible.

Well, President Obama isn’t a secret Muslim anymore. He just expressed admiration for the faiths of India. Well, there’s some Muslims there too. Clearly he’s a polytheist islamist! He’s a Hislim!

At least that’s what Michele Bachmann will say.

Or just didn’t care enough about “It would have been worse” to get out there.

The senate seems to have been held, at least, despite people like Rand Paul and Marco Rubio making their way in, but the House is now deep in Republican territory. Tea Party territory. Ben Quayle territory. Even candidates who want to maintain the “pre-existing condition” definition for domestic abuse.

Well, I guess the next two years won’t do much to restore the budget, provide gays with equality, end the marijuana prohibition, or jobs. I’d like to think people will wise up by 2012, but if they gave the house to Boehner The Orange after he helped lead us to disaster at the starting decade of the millennium, if 8 years weren’t enough to teach them what happens when you believe these people, I’m not sure anything is. Somehow they always manage to convince people that “we’re going to balance the budget, cut spending, restore your civil rights, grow the economy, and protect your freedoms” isn’t bullshit when they say it, despite coming from people who’ve a long track record of doing just the opposite of that.

Sorry, world. I know we promised not to do it again after Bush, but that whole “Citizens United” thing screwed it up pretty bad, huh? Please don’t blame us all personally when we start emigrating en masse.

She was plugging her show at someone else’s rally (shocker, right?), and she made a joke that the producers are already working on a sequel called “Barack Obama’s  Golf Courses” starting around November 2012.

Now if the show is a sequel to the one following HER, does that not imply she’ll be taking his place on them? Am I the only person who thinks that sounded like a Palin-y way to announce her running? Not like anyone really doesn’t expect an egomaniac like her not to (at least people who’re paying attention), but the announcement is a surprise.