Bush: "The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies and share in the rights of all humanity. And I say, for the sake of our own security, we must."

Dave: "He went on to point out that the terrorism of a state like Iran..."

So the plan is to install US puppet regimes in the ME headed by Shah of Iran clones.

Yup, that'll work!

Bush: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. Let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.

Dave: "What was surprising to me at this point is how much applause he got from both sides of the hall."

Because our Dave forgot about the Military-Industrial Complex Speech of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

Dave,

America had a role forced on it by the attack on the World Trade Center - in 1993. It ignored that role then and was more forcibly reminded 8 years later. That role was to crush and eradicate the axis of terror spread by the Wahhabi through the madrassas world wide which have been financed out of Riyadh. Saudi Arabia is the apotheosis of the Wahhabi movement, the model for the Moslem Brotherhood, for the Taliban and for other takeover movements that have hijacked Islam. Saudi Arabia is the enemy - not just my enemy but America's. It is the enemy of most Moslems as well, I'll wager, but not being a Moslem myself, I can't say that.

Your president wouldn't dream of touching his employers, Dave.

Dave - please explain how a tax break is going to help workers who don't make enough to pay income tax buy insurance

this: *This is a huge tax break for the middle class and a great incentive for the working poor to get insurance. And for $7500 per person you can get pretty excellent insurance anywhere in the country.* - seems as disingenuous as this section of Bush's speech

Dave

I haven't finished reading your submission. I stopped after the insurance thing..... I'll finish it later.

Why is the insurance proposal a good thing? The rationale is that if you already have good insurance you get rewarded? Why? It's as if, if your coverage sucks, you are irresponsible so you don't get an incentive.

Are Republicans THAT out of touch? The huge problem is for people who are under insured or not insured at all. If you loose a job you have no coverage and no income. Again if you fall in between the cracks with a pre-existing condition, you have no insurance.

Is it me???? How does a tax break for people who are well covered help???

Republicans are so stuck on being right that they are not proposing solutions that are affective for the nation. They are busying themselves by presenting resolutions that amount to smoke and mirrors; no real solutions. After so many years of bashing liberals and projecting their reasonableness and efficiency, when the time came for them to present those more reasonable, better formulated solutions, they crumbled. They actually did NOTHING. They've simply wasted their reign on what they seem to do best, HEAD GAMES.

Why promote health insurance, since nobody WANTS health insurance? What people want is healthcare. Health insurance is just a tollgate on the healthcare road. It's a form of highway robbery, The dream of every monopolist.

Health insurance is an illusion that's been sold to us at every turn of our lives. We've been told that we must have insurance and that we will die if we don't have it, and we will be to blame for our own deaths because of our brazen neglect of this economic artifice.

Commercial health insurance has not served us well. It is too costly: about 30-40% of the premium money is wasted on insurance company financial gambles and excess salaries and options to bums like Bill Frist who are able to get their predations legalized through blatant abuse of their government contacts and manipulation of impotent disorganized customers.

Commercial health insurance degrades our health by changing us from patients into customers. Profit replaces good health as the primary goal of a company that has life and death control over our lives. If it is profitable to push the impoverished customer out onto an ice flow after extracting all his capital with ruinous medical pricing and arbitrary policy interpretations, well that's just too bad for the customer and his family. Next time he should exercise the Free Market choices that he has to make better choices. Meanwhile, he must suffer for his poor choices when he signed that policy. There are Consequences To Choices (unless, of course, you have powerful friends in high places, like Bill Frist). "It's just basic Econ 101" says some twit who never took Econ 101. Survival Of The Fittest! The weak deserve to die! We can't keep everyone healthy, so we must ration healthcare.

So the Health Ins. Cos. have created a wonderful economic climate for themselves: they've created a scarce resource that they control entirely and can charge whatever prices they please and they can renege on their contracts as long as they don't excite rebellion.

They can exclude new competition by bribing politicians with campaign contributions. It's perfectly legal, as we all know. They can control weak individuals who have no individual market power. Have you ever tried to get an insurance company to re-write one of their escape clauses in an insurance policy? Or try to fight an arbitrary change in rules?

And the Healthcare Ins. Cos. don't even carry any risk! They farm out their risk to re-insurance companies that handle bulk risk. Basically, all they do is sell policies, shuffle papers, bribe politicians and government officials, and reap big profits. They've achieved the ideal of modern monopolies: socialize the risk and privatize the profits. They are just over-privileged middlemen.

Bush can huff & puff, & his writers can try to put fine words in his mouth (hoping he can pronounce them properly no doubt), but all of it is nothing but yet another empty BushCo sham, the usual Cheney/Bush bait-n-switch & lies, all boiling down to "stay the course". Consider: a call for a balanced budget from the twit who had singlehandedly brought us to the greatest record deficits in history for the foreseeable future; all of a sudden he's bleeding for those too poor to afford health care, when for the past 6 years he's done his level best to help his corporate buddies maximize their profits by exporting American jobs & profiteering on oil, by trying to forbid poverty-strapped Americans - especially the elderlyh - to try to get drug supplies from Canada where they're less than half the price - the SAME damned drugs sold here - on the grounds that they "might" be adulterated, because his friends in the pharaceutical industry don't like loosing their captive American victims; Wringing his hands that we MUST reduce oil consumption - when he himself has unilaterally done more to subsidize & turn over power & control to the very oil companies than any other executive in history - the same oil companies who met with good ol' Dick Cheney in secret to dictate the US' oil & energy policies; and when he himself spent 6 years sitting with his thumbs up his fake Texas ass refusing point-blank to mandate or even pressure the automotive industry to improve fuel efficiency. Not a word about New Orleans, which is still a wreck, while he pours billions into fixing up Iraq for the towelheads who squat there. Well, I can understand that: why would he want to remind the short-memoried MSM & public that he blew that one big time, literally strumnming for the ultra rich while the poor were drowning, not even arriving until 4 days too late despite knowing what was going on, until someone made it crystal clear to that fuckheaded fool that his political career was about to tank if he didn't get his butt over there.

As someone on another thread said, if you looked closely enough, you could see Cheney's hand up Bush's ass, moving his lips.

George W. Bush will be remembered for his massive & totally unnecessary failures and mistakes. Failures and mistakes totally unnecessary because he never listened, never cared, and never bothered until it was too late or he was forced.

If in 20 years we will be engulfed in a world war of terrorists/muslims against the west, it will be because HE was the one who trespassed beyond understandable revenge pursuing bin Laden, and started a gratuitous, frivolous war for the sake of US oil hegemony over Iraqi oil fields, and his own ego so he could be a War Prez like his daddy. He will be rememered not as a liberator, but as a bloody monster who didn't hestitate to sacrifice American lives for his legacy & his war based on carefully picked-over intelligence, omissions, and outright LIES.

God damn George W. Bush to eternal hell: he has the blood of thousands on his head, his hands, & his soulm, not to mention his oath of office to the US which he violated knowingly & with malice aforethought.

Nancy, a long time ago, someone wrote that you were an atheist. Apparently, from the last paragraph in that sweet missive of yours, you have changed your mind...

You are not the only person who has called for the Eternal to damn Bush and his whole family, for that matter... But, for all that Clinton did for the States (like balancing the budget!) it was Clinton who ignored Osama bin Laden when he first showed up as a threat to your nation.

The developments that led to your country's possible fatal involvement in Iraq and elsewhere in my neck of the woods were in motion when George W. Bush was till pissing away money and relying on the bin Laden family for financial support...

No doubt; but it was George W. Bush - GDGWBTEH - who took this country to war with faked intelligence & lies, for the sake of oil & his towering egotistical desire to be a War Prez.

Atheist? Moi? That's pretty funny, altho from my writings I can see how & why people might be confused. For what it's worth, I detest ORGANIZED religions, for the most part, & those who feel they have a right to oppress everyone else because only theirs is correct. My neighbors are honest-to-God practicing Christians, & I adore them. Canting hypocrites like Falwell, or monsters like that old bastard in Australia, on the other hand, I despise. As for God, IMO God is a tad too high for me to judge or not, nor has s/he/it/they honored me with the secrets of their nature, so I can't presume to speak for God; just issue petitions of my notions of justice & hope lightning strikes, so to speak.

Given the editorials in the major US newspapers as well as in other parts of the world, it's clear that Dave is in a teeny weeny minority of folks who bought the Bush speech. It makes at least this poster feel better to know that said minority is shrinking daily and will soon be invisible to the naked eye.

Now, watch Dave turn that into his usual elitist I am the way the truth and the light mantra(exemplied by his allegiance to white supremacy survivalist ideology and a gun in every pot), so that he comes out looking like the only one smart enough to see The Truth.

Watch him tell us that we aren't QUALIFIED to have an opinion on The Speech (as if it were carved by the cromagnon cretin Bush in stone).

nice to see some sensible coverage of this without the usual mindless bush bashing I see too much of on blogcritics. why is it that the bush haters can only scream slogans without qny original thought.

oh and as for who wants health insurance, I do. because I have more faith in businesses than I do in bureaucratic government.

How incredibly frustrating. I wrong a nice response to a bunch of these comments and it seems to have disappeared.

Dave

Dave

Im almost done reading..... one quarter remaining.

Putting aside the pandering about global climate change and the idea that we can really do anything about it, I rather liked the phrase 'better stewards of the environment.'

Now, what is WRONG with you? Clearly this is a coping mechanism. What ever is unpleasant for you, you choose to ignore.

Who would Bush be pandering to on the issue of Global Warming? The packs of rabid eco-conscious mobs in the Republican party?

Its called making sure that you don't look like an axx when history unfolds. At a time when everyone of significance is highlighting the issue of global warming, for the President of the United States to remain silent and actually skeptical on the matter, it will be perplexing to those who will examine our era in the future. Being thought of as the least "gifted" of all U.S. Presidents, his making this oversight will firmly secure the position of laughingstock of all time. His strong affiliation with the oil industry will also position him as disingenuous, self seeking and willing to sell down the future of the planet for personal, momentary gains; a man who sold himself as a person of strong religious conviction.

THIS statement on climate change is the real contribution to his legacy. He doesn't want to look like a kook, 100yrs from now.

As for the technological advances, they are occurring despite his role. They would take place whether he was there or not. Actually the advances would be further if there were leadership which supported strong progress in this area. These advances are contributions of a number of countries all over the globe, not sure why he would or should get the kudos.

Once again please over look the typos including the transposed words if and when they occur please. I get migraines which last for days...

Please try and concentrate on the brilliance of the idea that is being conveyed. (chuckle)

Your patience is greatly appreciated.

Lumpy

I have more faith in businesses

Why Lumpy?? I realise that its a Republican thing to say and I am convinced that you didn't even think about what you just said. You just said what sounded good.

You have more faith in someone whos goal is to make the most money out of you than someone whose goal is to serve you best?? One would say that you are a sucker and a dumb $#@ if they were rude.

Now please help me understand WHY you have more faith in business in THIS case.

Dave Dave Dave

These included expanding the active duty military by 92,000 members in five years, and the new idea of a Civilian Reserve Corps which would provide backup administrative and technical support to the military, kind of like the military reserve, but for critical non-combat support personnel to free up military personnel for more appropriate work.

The great plan is to send more kids to be killed in a war with a no real strategy and have trained, professional Americans leave their jobs to do the job of military personnel. Who would do their jobs???..... Ahhh outsourcing... perhaps Iraqis for much cheaper?????

Like Lumpy, I trust Bush and Business!!! VIVA BUSINESS!!! Business for President.

Despite all my misgivings about the War on Terror, I still have a feeling which I can't shake that 20 or 30 years from now we're going to be under siege in Fortress America with our rights whittled away and our freedoms circumscribed and our allies gone, saying "Why didn't we listen to Bush? Why didn't the world listen to Bush?

You are so sweet. It's adorable. You believe. That's precious. I bet you make a good spouse. However, DAVE (SIGH) Bush created this situation. Whatever problems we encounter in 20 or 30yrs they will exist because these men created the climate. They chased our allies away. Look around. They dissed the world body and expected that the loading and unloading of a truck would convince heads of state that there were WMDs in Iraq. Do you know just how insulting that was??? Yes it was enough for you because you wanted to believe but these people needed something significant because they understood the ramification of opening up a ME country like we did. The global climate is extremely fragile. Our ineptitude is revealed to the world thus no one feels safe and our credibility and respect is down the tube. Pandora's box is wide open. Be afraid. This fool was messaging the shoulders of a head of state. (snicker) A German of all people. Perhaps a Frenchman or an Italian would have gone with the flow but could you pick a more conservative culture??? (I'm gonna miss the comic relief).

What pray tell do you think he will be right on that we missed????

Also, Chavez, China, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are making love with all of the poor, disenfranchised, mismanaged around the world. They are talking sense. You had better hope that we make some financial investments in struggling countries. Lets grow up on this! You have to pay the cost to be the boss Buddy.

I have diminishing faith in business to perform well, improve service, reduce prices and return decent dividends to investors.

Traditionally, the bad example , the figure of scorn, has been the DMV, but lately I have found it a breeze to repair a car title, payoff a parking ticket, and get a drivers license renewed. By contrast, getting a ticket, changing an itinerary, recovering baggage or straightening out any confusion at an airline has been homicidally maddening for at least 10 years.

I had a problem with medicare a couple months ago and got it fixed rather easily.

The 'private' sector seems to have switched places with the 'public' sector. Public agencies seem to have gotten the message that they better help citizens get their work done or face extinction. By contrast, the 'private' bureacracies have become more insolent and obtuse.

MANDATORY RENEWABLE ENERGY - THE ENERGY EVOLUTION -R11

In order to insure energy and economic independence as well as better economic growth without being blackmailed by foreign countries, our country, the United States of America's Utilization of Energy sources must change.
"Energy drives our entire economy." We must protect it. "Let's face it, without energy the whole economy and economic society we have set up would come to a halt. So you want to have control over such an important resource that you need for your society and your economy." The American way of life is not negotiable.
Our continued dependence on fossil fuels could and will lead to catastrophic consequences.

The federal, state and local government should implement a mandatory renewable energy installation program for residential and commercial property on new construction and remodeling projects with the use of energy efficient material, mechanical systems, appliances, lighting, etc. The source of energy must by renewable energy such as Solar-Photovoltaic, Geothermal, Wind, Biofuels, Ocean-Tidal, etc. including utilizing water from lakes, rivers and oceans to circulate in cooling towers to produce air conditioning and the utilization of proper landscaping to reduce energy consumption. (Sales tax on renewable energy products should be reduced or eliminated)

The implementation of mandatory renewable energy could be done on a gradual scale over the next 10 years. At the end of the 10 year period all construction and energy use in the structures throughout the United States must be 100% powered by renewable energy. (This can be done by amending building code)

In addition, the governments must impose laws, rules and regulations whereby the utility companies must comply with a fair "NET METERING" (the buying of excess generation from the consumer at market price), including the promotion of research and production of "renewable energy technology" with various long term incentives and grants. The various foundations in existence should be used to contribute to this cause.

A mandatory time table should also be established for the automobile industry to gradually produce an automobile powered by renewable energy. The American automobile industry is surely capable of accomplishing this task. As an inducement to buy hybrid automobiles (sales tax should be reduced or eliminated on American manufactured automobiles).

This is a way to expedite our energy independence and economic growth. (This will also create a substantial amount of new jobs). It will take maximum effort and a relentless pursuit of the private, commercial and industrial government sectors commitment to renewable energy - energy generation (wind, solar, hydro, biofuels, geothermal, energy storage (fuel cells, advance batteries), energy infrastructure (management, transmission) and energy efficiency (lighting, sensors, automation, conservation) (rainwater harvesting, water conservation) (energy and natural resources conservation) in order to achieve our energy independence.

"To succeed, you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality."

Jay Draiman, Energy Consultant
Northridge, CA. 91325
Jan. 26, 2007

P.S. I have a very deep belief in America's capabilities. Within the next 10 years we can accomplish our energy independence, if we as a nation truly set our goals to accomplish this.
I happen to believe that we can do it. In another crisis--the one in 1942--President Franklin D. Roosevelt said this country would build 60,000 [50,000] military aircraft. By 1943, production in that program had reached 125,000 aircraft annually. They did it then. We can do it now.
The American people resilience and determination to retain the way of life is unconquerable and we as a nation will succeed in this endeavor of Energy Independence.

Solar energy is the source of all energy on the earth (excepting volcanic geothermal). Wind, wave and fossil fuels all get their energy from the sun. Fossil fuels are only a battery which will eventually run out. The sooner we can exploit all forms of Solar energy (cost effectively or not against dubiously cheap FFs) the better off we will all be. If the battery runs out first, the survivors will all be living like in the 18th century again.

Every new home built should come with a solar package. A 1.5 kW per bedroom is a good rule of thumb. The formula 1.5 X's 5 hrs per day X's 30 days will produce about 225 kWh per bedroom monthly. This peak production period will offset 17 to 2

4 cents per kWh with a potential of $160 per month or about $60,000 over the 30-year mortgage period for a three-bedroom home. It is economically feasible at the current energy price and the interest portion of the loan is deductible. Why not?

Title 24 has been mandated forcing developers to build energy efficient homes. Their bull-headedness put them in that position and now they see that Title 24 works with little added cost. Solar should also be mandated and if the developer designs a home that solar is impossible to do then they should pay an equivalent mitigation fee allowing others to put solar on in place of their negligence. (Installation should be paid "performance based")

Installation of renewable energy and its performance should be paid to the installer and manufacturer based on "performance based" (that means they are held accountable for the performance of the product - that includes the automobile industry). This will gain the trust and confidence of the end-user to proceed with such a project; it will also prove to the public that it is a viable avenue of energy conservation.

Installing renewable energy system on your home or business increases the value of the property and provides a marketing advantage.

Nations of the world should unite and join together in a cohesive effort to develop and implement MANDATORY RENEWABLE ENERGY for the sake of humankind and future generations.


Jay Draiman
Northridge, CA 91325

Now I have way too much to respond to, so I guess I'll gloss over the canned leftist nattering, and pick a few choice bits to comment on.

So the plan is to install US puppet regimes in the ME headed by Shah of Iran clones.

Soungs damned good to me.

Yup, that'll work!

Dave - please explain how a tax break is going to help workers who don't make enough to pay income tax buy insurance

The tax break is aimed at the group who make up the majority of the uninsured in the US, people who earn enough income to almost pay for insurance, but choose instead to allocate that money to something else. If they got a tax break it would effectively increase their disposable income, putting insurance more within their means.

Are Republicans THAT out of touch? The huge problem is for people who are under insured or not insured at all. If you loose a job you have no coverage and no income. Again if you fall in between the cracks with a pre-existing condition, you have no insurance.

These are actually different issues from the one bush was addressing. First off, those who lose jobs have COBRA available, and a tax cut will make it easier to make those COBRA payments. As for those with preexisting conditions, that's a very specific issue which we do need to find a solution to, but it's not the kind of thing to be addressed effectively in something as broad as the SOTU address.
Moving on...

Um, wow. Bliffle REALLY hates the insurance industry. I wonder if he's considered that for every person ill-served by the system there are THOUSANDS who get unexcelled care from our current system. Just like any business it changes and adapts and improves. It doesn't just repeat the same mistakes mindlessly.

You talk about 30-40% waste, but that's the kind of thing which government tolerate and businesses do not. If a business has waste like that it will cease to be competitive and either fail or make changes. The pressure of the marketplace encourages insurance companies to do a better job to attract and hold customers. That means better service at a lower price.

This is NOT an industry which is dominated by monopolies. There are huge numbers of health insurance providers structured in many different ways on different business models, from health care co-ops to HMOs to PPOs to traditional insurance and many hybrids and variants.

The system may have failed Bliffle somewhere along the line, but it's not a failure as a whole.

Ok, I'll stop there for now before I have to read another of Nancy's psychotic anti-bush rages.

Dave

No, I've already said what I had to say. Thanks anyway, though, for offering.

Dave

COBRA lasts for 2 months. It typically takes up to 6months in some cases up to 2yrs in some industries to find employment after a lay off. - out of touch Dave.

There is a horrible lack of efficiency and precision in this party. The heavy reliance on rhetoric and spin has rendered this party which was once known for its nerd-um and hyper attention to detail, impotent.

COBRA lasts for a minimum of 18 months, and under certain circumstances, for 36 months.

When I retired from my first career, I kept my COBRA for 15 months before enrolling in a new plan in my new job.

Thank you for pointing that out, Clavos. Knowing someone who's on COBRA I was going to mention the same thing.

And to clear up another misrepresentation, the BLS reports that the average time between jobs in the US is less than 4 monthsm, rather than the higher figures Zedd suggested. And the times are heavily weighted towards shorter terms so the median is only 7 weeks.

Dave

Dave in number 19 quotes and states: "So the plan is to install US puppet regimes in the ME headed by Shah of Iran clones.

Soungs damned good to me.

Yup, that'll work!

Thus apparently forgetting the lesson that what got the U.S. into trouble in Iran in the first place was replacing a democratically elected president with the Shah about 50 years ago...and the headlines tell us everyday just how well that's worked out.

There is no way Dave is going to convince more than one or two of his usual lambiscones that Bush has been anything other than the WORST president the US has ever had.

I suppose, with the twisted thinking rampant among his 5 supoprters, that's some kind of success.

He DID have some stiff competition: John Adams, Polk, Taft, Harding....maybe even Nixon.

Dave is probably counting on today's advanced surveillance technology, weaponry and torture techniques to avoid a repeat of the Shah's downfall.

I suppose, with the twisted thinking rampant among his 5 supoprters, that's some kind of success.

I think he probably has more than five, but, in any case, that's five more than you have, moonravin'.

"I think he probably has more than five...".

And they should be embarrassed, Clodvos.

Actually, this bird has way more than 5. And if Bush has more than five who are not on the Halliburton payroll or not family members, I would be very surprised.

And since clavos only has Dave, that's a significance different in support--no matter how you slice it.

Significant, sorry.

And since clavos only has Dave

Again, a gross misstatement, but I don't really care if I have ANY support; I'm not running for office, nor am I looking for the approval of others.

Oh?

Could have fooled me.

I believe someone else on this site commented about the fact that your nose was so far up dave's butt that it was visible when he opened his mouth.

Or something like that....

Someone did comment that, bird brain.

But as you yourself once pointed out:

"writing it doesn't make it true."

You're forgetting Barney - I believe that makes 6 suporters.

No. Writing it doesn't make it true in all cases.

In this one, I would say it was a more than accurate decription of what at least this poster has seen of your behavior.

Thanks for quoting me.

Now if you were just open-minded enough to see the substance in what you quote from me I would give you a better prognosis for your academic career at MDCC.

I dunno Clavos - you can count me among the raver's supporters I guess

Glad to hear it troll. Support is important to her.

imo it's a good idea when presented with 'fact' to apply due diligence and look for refutations and substantiating sources

Couldn't agree with you more, troll. If ms raven ever comes up with any facts, I'll do so.

The ONLY thing that is important to me is that folks who write about ANY issue have the skills and the ethical standards to present INFORMATION and REASONED opinion--not unsubtantiated opinion, propaganda and outright lies.

I also do NOT condone or accept plagiarism.

unsubtantiated opinion, propaganda and outright lies.

That describes 98% of the content you've posted so far on BC, moon.

If Clodvos quotes Hugo Chavez as saying,"I am a communist", and calls it a fact, don't waste your time asking him to post a link. It won't happen.

Clavos is giving us a very clear example of his habit of lying and putting unsubstantiated opinion in his most recent posts.


Emry, When pressed he DID put a link to that statement. The problem was that it was a link to another unsubstantiated OPINION piece in the Miami Herald--where the editorial writer had decided to "interpret" Chavez' statement about Twenty First Century Socialism in a completely inaccurate way.

The Miami Herald is no longer a viable source of news. When the management fired several writers who had been receiving money from the US government and the Cubano Mafia to write propagnada instead of newsm there was so much pressure and so many threats made by the Cuban Mafia (and PROBABLY by the US government as well, although I cannot at the moment PROVE that--note the difference between Clavos and me--) that they were forced to hire the jokers back!

I followed that link, Moonraven, and others, but still couldn't find one with Chavez saying, "I am a communist." No use waiting for Clavos to dig one up now.

Chavez' own words, from a Marxist site, In Defence of Marxism:

On Friday Chavez also made clear that "we cannot just talk of a socialist morality, then we would be falling into utopian socialism" which he compared with "platonic love". "Utopian socialism did not offer solutions to the problems, until Karl Marx and Frederick Engels arrived, and they launched the Communist Manifesto and scientific socialism, and started to offer solutions".

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

Chavez never made that statement. That's why you cannot substantiate it.

It's the lack of ethics shown by clavos on this site that I find really unacceptable.

But because this site is for improvisation and basically a venue for folks who couldn't get their stuff in print anywhere else even if they paid someone, any sort of unsubstantiated opinion, lies and propaganda are tolerated here.

As well as fascism, racism, ageism, misogyny, and all the other politically incorrect isms that could possibly come to mind.

This will NOT change, as is evidenced by Dave Nalle--a cartoon character of fascism, racism (white supremacy survivalism), pistolpackin'ism, lies and propaganda--who is the "editor" of the political section; it is also evidenced by the presence of Christopher Rose, whose ageist comments are clearly politically incorrect and who nevertheless is hypocritical here as a moderator.

These kinds of sites are like cancers. If folks do not take a little time every day to bust these folks they will spread and become the norm.

Lies again, Clavos!

You said: "Chavez to World: 'I am a Communist'".

You QUOTED a statement that he did NOT make.

Coming back and telling us that it was your INTERPRETATION, when you put quotation marks around it that we ALL saw, is LYING.

I rest my case.

Clavos will now begin a discussion about ducks. He must be going quackers!

I like ducks. And why does Clavos have to be the one to substantiate that quote? It came from a communist site and we have no reason not to trust communists, right? Sounds like a righteous source.

"And why does Clavos have to be the one to substantiate that quote?"

Ask Clodvos, he posted it.

Clavos

The discussion was about when you loose your job. Cobra lasts for 60 days after that the costs go up tremendously.

Thanks for your input but you missed the thread of the discussion.

I know you feel a great need to come to Dave's defense, you are loyal, but perhaps your eagerness needs to be quailed a bit for the sake of your credibility.

Clavos, Dave

I made a huge mistake and relied on past memory. The option to utilies COBRA is 60 days.

Did you not read the thread, zedd? COBRA is for EVERYONE covered by a group health plan who loses their job, whether involuntarily or voluntarily. Here's a cut-and-paste directly from the BLS website regarding eligibility:

Qualifying Events for Employees:

*

Voluntary or involuntary termination of employment for reasons other than gross misconduct
*

Reduction in the number of hours of employment

Qualifying Events for Spouses:

*

Voluntary or involuntary termination of the covered employee's employment for any reason other than gross misconduct
*

Reduction in the hours worked by the covered employee
*

Covered employee's becoming entitled to Medicare
*

Divorce or legal separation of the covered employee
*

Death of the covered employee

Qualifying Events for Dependent Children:

*

Loss of dependent child status under the plan rules
*

Voluntary or involuntary termination of the covered employee's employment for any reason other than gross misconduct
*

Reduction in the hours worked by the covered employee
*

Covered employee's becoming entitled to Medicare
*

Divorce or legal separation of the covered employee
*

Death of the covered employee

How does a person become eligible for COBRA continuation coverage?
To be eligible for COBRA coverage, you must have been enrolled in your employer's health plan when you worked and the health plan must continue to be in effect for active employees. COBRA continuation coverage is available upon the occurrence of a qualifying event that would, except for the COBRA continuation coverage, cause an individual to lose his or her health care coverage.

Here's another which describes how long it lasts:

COBRA beneficiaries generally are eligible for group coverage during a maximum of 18 months for qualifying events due to employment termination or reduction of hours of work. Certain qualifying events, or a second qualifying event during the initial period of coverage, may permit a beneficiary to receive a maximum of 36 months of coverage.

Coverage begins on the date that coverage would otherwise have been lost by reason of a qualifying event and will end at the end of the maximum period. It may end earlier if:

*

Premiums are not paid on a timely basis
*

The employer ceases to maintain any group health plan
*

After the COBRA election, coverage is obtained with another employer group health plan that does not contain any exclusion or limitation with respect to any pre-existing condition of such beneficiary. However, if other group health coverage is obtained prior to the COBRA election, COBRA coverage may not be discontinued, even if the other coverage continues after the COBRA election.
*

After the COBRA election, a beneficiary becomes entitled to Medicare benefits. However, if Medicare is obtained prior to COBRA election, COBRA coverage may not be discontinued, even if the other coverage continues after the COBRA election.

Although COBRA specifies certain periods of time that continued health coverage must be offered to qualified beneficiaries, COBRA does not prohibit plans from offering continuation health coverage that goes beyond the COBRA periods.

But, of course, there's a loophole:

" ...will end at the end of the maximum period. It may end earlier if: Premiums are not paid on a timely basis"

This is childsplay. Since there is no restriction on premiums just raise them to the sky and wait for the premiums to stop. QED.

Wrong, Bliffle.

The same law restricts the premiums to no more than 102% of whatever they were while the employee was working:

Beneficiaries may be required to pay for COBRA coverage. The premium cannot exceed 102 percent of the cost to the plan for similarly situated individuals who have not incurred a qualifying event, including both the portion paid by employees and any portion paid by the employer before the qualifying event, plus 2 percent for administrative costs.

On another topic from the SOTU, just who is this guy "General Petraeus"?

1-is he the same Petraeus who wrote an article calling for 120,000 new troops for Iraq?

2-is he the same Petraeus who just got a 4th star promotion and said he could do the job with 20,000 troops?

3-if Petraeus is the Moses that God W Bush has ordained to lead us out of the Iraq Desert and the Slough of Despond , why wasn't he canonized 3 years ago and given the job then? One would think we could have saved a lot of angst and a number of lives.

Clavos

Don't be annoying. We were starting to bond. Don't kill it.

The point was about Bush's speech and his ridiculous health care solution. Lets focus.

Smooch!

Moonie, why are you so eager to prove that Chavez is not a communist? Surely communism is a good thing, especially in Latin America, is it not?

Dave

I am not EAGER to do anything.

I am simply pointing out that Clavos lied.

Both of you lie all the time.

I have been very clear that I have no ideological allegiances.

Ideological and religious allegiances are the cause of the despicable state of the planet--and good reasons for our species to become extinct ASAP.

Starting, of course, with you.

Moonraver, you wouldn't know a lie if it bit you on the ass. You're so busy lying to yourself that your perception of reality is distorted.

You need to get over ridiculous beliefs like this:

I have been very clear that I have no ideological allegiances.

which are so obviously untrue before you can start to talk about other peoples 'lies'.

I don't need to get over anything. My perception of reality is better than 20/20.

For that reason I find bombastic and manipulative white supremacist fascists like you, gameboy, to be completely unacceptable.

If you spend your life looking for enemies under your bed, sooner or later you will find them. And not where you expect to.

Denial is to be expected in someons so deeply sunk in delusion. Don't worry about it. Everything will be okay. Go back to reading Noam Chomsky and clutching your security blanket.

Dave

For those who would like to read a VERY ENTERTAINING and no bullshit response to Bush's SOUM, go to zmag.org and click on the znet icon.

Greg Palast is, as always, in great form!

Dave, At least I have the reading skills to understand Chomsky's content.

The Palast piece is titled, appropriately: "Off the Rails"....

LOL Palast. Next you'll be linking us to Juan Cole. Do you have no ability to discern lies from truth when they agree with your politics?

Dave

For starters, homeboy: Would you like to indicate the lies in the piece I recommended?

When you start getting paid to write for The Guardian maybe some people will believe what you write, too....

The Palast piece is titled, appropriately: "Off the Rails"....

So, you DON'T mind journalistic bias and opinion, as long as it agrees with YOUR bias and opinion.

Nothing wrong with that, as long as you're open and honest about it.

Tough for you, I know, but give it the ol' UMass try.

I wrote an article critical of something Palast wrote quite a while ago. I'll see if I can dig it up. For the most part I just ignore Chomsky and Palast and a few others of similar stripe, because they're so far left and so ideologically driven that there's not much point in even wasting time on them. People who believe the tripe they turn out are usually fanatical to the point of religious fervor, completely irrational and not worth talking to.

But I'll read some of Palast's recent columns and see if there's anything which comes close enough to the real world to be worth commenting on beyond just writing "Greg Palast is a fanatic" over and over.

Dave

Looks to me as though Petraeus has sold out his troops for a 4th star and fatter retirement. Watch him join a rightwing thinktank and popup on conservative talk shows after this is all over, and blame Iraq on an insufficiently obedient press (and they were plenty obedient, both NYT and WaPo confessing they stupidly trumpeted the administration propaganda).

When the last helicopter leaves the roof of the Baghdad embassy with a few loyal Iraqis clinging to the runners, Petraeus will be safely in his comfortable stateside home.

The last miserable days of this misbegotten war will provide an opportunity for ambitious warriors to gain promotion with desperate gambles of the lives of troops. The ambitious officers know that it will be many years before they get another opportunity for battlefield promotion. Look for more pitched battles that achieve nothing except enhanced careers for generals.

As testimony look to the final hours of WW1, when the Armistice was signed at 6AM to be halted at 11AM so the poetic expression "the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" would pertain. 2000 allied soldiers died, but Blackjack Pershing and several others made last minute charges to enhance their careers.

It's disgraceful, and Petraeus has revealed his base character by sacrificing his troops for his ambition.

@#68,

I doubt it since, as is customary, he would receive a fourth star upon retirement regardless of whether he had gone to Iraq or not.

They don't give fifth stars that way, so that can't be his motivation.

Bliffle: The ambitious officers know that it will be many years before they get another opportunity for battlefield promotion.

That implies that the U.S. won't be engaging in any significant military operations for a while. Which is perhaps a reasonable assumption given the "Vietnam Syndrome" which made the country so reluctant to risk foreign adventures for a generation.

I don't know whether that's a good thing or not. Does this mean China swallows Taiwan without any response from the "world's policeman"? I wonder what other imperial ambitions China will be free to pursue over the next decade or two.

Look for more pitched battles that achieve nothing except enhanced careers for generals.

If the generals were getting to fight pitched battles they'd be winning them and we'd have killed so many terrorists/insurgents that the situation would be very different now.

The only way that's going to happen is if they get very foolish and overconfident or Iran invades. I still hope that if Iran invaded and this turned into a conventional war the US public and even the democrats would have the sense to send the kind of forces that should have been there in the first place.

But here's the unpleasant truth. You don't really fight terrorists and insurgents with the military. You fight fire with fire and the way to do that is with death squads and torture rooms and other extreme methods of policing. That's something the US is definitely not up for, so unless the Iraqis can develop enough of a spine to take harsh measures in policing their country we're wasting our time.

Dave

Dave Nalle: But here's the unpleasant truth. You don't really fight terrorists and insurgents with the military. You fight fire with fire and the way to do that is with death squads and torture rooms and other extreme methods of policing.

Really? Is that how Timothy McVeigh and Ramzi Yousef were brought to justice? Do tell.

"I still hope that if Iran invaded and this turned into a conventional war the US public and even the democrats would have the sense to send the kind of forces that should have been there in the first place."
- Dave Nalle

I guess it's pretty easy to type brave statements like this, when the writer knows he'll never have to go, and the "kind of forces" he refers to will be SOMEONE ELSE risking life and limb.

Dave,

If you are going to read Palast's recent pieces, you might consider starting with the one I referenced on this thread!

He is over you like ice cream over chickenshit (another saying from my grandmother).

Dave: From one low point to another, he began blathering about how wonderful No Child Left Behind has been, which seemed to please members of Congress, but came as a surprise to those of us out here in the real world watching it fail dramatically as kids waste years of education studying for meaningless tests rather than being taught relevant subject matter in a coherent way.


Heloise: Dave, I know you are a Texan but are you a certified teacher? Do you teach in a Texas public school? Not only do I teach in one, but I teach the kids who failed the TAKS test/science.

One thing many don't observe: why the schools are full of black and brown kids and the teachers are all white? That's the part that is "dramatically failing."

No, teachers DO NOT teach to the damn test. That is actually what is wrong with the schools. NO we don't make them memorize. Again that is what is wrong with schools. Every cotton picking person who says that crap you say is wrongo...because I am teaching kids who failed YES I do teach to the test. I have had a great success rate. I teach them testing strategies. These are what WHITE middle class kids are taught. I teach them to black kids who do not have a clue.

Dave, good article, but you are wrong on this one.

Ted's No Child Left Behind is really NOT the problem. The problem is that it is UNDERfunded. I am not saying throw more money at poor kids. But for this to work we do need more funds. Why? So that we will have more qualified black and Mexican teachers. We are both rare as hen's teeth. Like in the less than one percentage point.

Heloise

Heloise, I was PTA vice president and on the Campus Advisory Commission for my kids schools, plus I taught college and had to deal with kids coming out of our school system. I'll take your word for it that schools are not all teaching to the test in Texas, but they certainly are in other states and they certainly were in my kids school. Whatever they're doing the results are inadequate and No Child Left Behind Didn't make things any better.

BTW, did you enjoy your day off to go protest againtst the vouchers which black and brown children all over the state are begging for to give them a chance at better education?

Dave