Matthew Yglesias » Scenes From a Tea Party

Nov 5th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

Scenes From a Tea Party

My colleague Lee Fang grabbed this shot at today’s Michele Bachman Tea Party:

In detail:

There are all kinds of nutty people in the world, but these kinds of things are the wages of a conservative leadership and media that’s consistently tried to drum-up opposition to health care reform not by opposing things that are actually in the bill, but with demagogic opposition to completely fabricated provisions.

Comments
191

191 Responses to “Scenes From a Tea Party”

Marshall Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Hmmm, I wonder if Foxman and friends will condemn these facile comparisons to the Holocaust.
Jimm Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
That’s just offensive, and truly disgusting.

I’m not surprised.
Al Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Yeah, because the left wing never compared Bush or the Republicans to Hitler or Nazis. Never happened.
pseudonymous in nc Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Al is just phoning it in these days. Sad.
brewmn Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
“Yeah, because the left wing never compared Bush or the Republicans to Hitler or Nazis. Never happened.”

Well, the comparison of someone who fabricated a pretext for war against a country that had done nothing to the US or ite interests, instituted a policy of torture and domestic surveillance, and generally arrogated a near-dictatorial level of power to himself has a lot more in common with the Big H than wanting to make health care available to everybody.

In other words, the Bush to Hitler comparison makes sense; the Health Care to Nazi comparison doesn’t. Is that really so hard to undertsand?
Why oh why Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Al, the difference is that the Bush administration 1. was a far-right radical regime 2. broke the law and ignored the Constitution 3. killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world 4. bombed and invaded a country in an illegal war based on lies 5. tortured to death hundreds of prisoners

That’s a rather different basis for a comparison to nazis (although I would say ‘fascism’ is a better one) than, hum, health care pseudo-reform.
Not as Stupid as Will Allen Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Hm…what kind of total fucking moron thinks that providing healthcare to everyone is on par with an unprovoked assault on innocent people?

See, nitwit, Bush actually invaded a nation under false pretenses; Obama is trying to get people healthcare. One of those is like Hitler, the other is not.

It may have been an exaggeration to compare Bush with Hitler, but Bush actually committed war crimes you monstrous asshole.
elle loco Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Aw, heck–now you guys are giving Al his own special tea party. Y’all are like Wile E. Coyote! You know, if Al doesn’t find that image offensive in this context, [FILL IN BLANK]. But above all, don’t waste a single breath on him.
Al Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Obama is a war criminal. He has locked up prisoners at Gitmo. Used illegal drone attacks on civilians. Continued extraordinary rendition to torture prisoners. Continued to claim state secrets. Continued signing statements. Supported the continuation of the Patriot Act. Obama is no better than Bush.
M Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Dear god, that is revolting.
Christopher Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I don’t mind the occasional Hitler analogy if there’s some kind of actual comparison. But this poster tells me that “giving people money to buy health insurance is like sending them to the gas chamber.” What the hell does that even mean?
max Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Yeah, because the left wing never compared Bush or the Republicans to Hitler or Nazis. Never happened.

That’s OK! Hitler never demagogued incessantly about completely fabricated events and incidents, did he?

max
['Wait...']
Frugalchariot Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Horrible is too gentle a word to describe this outrage, this disparagement of millions of dead for nothing other than the sick hope of political gain. The Republican Party should be authoritatively disbanded. The level to which it’s sunk is beneath the cellar of an overloaded outhouse.

I wish I had the words to say what I really mean.
anon Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t a bunch of lunatics who just showed up. A sitting member of Congress is leading and organizing this event.

And that, uh, there are members of Congress and Congressional staffers whose family members actually died in the Holocaust. That pile of dead bodies could include their family members.

It’s just disgusting, and a sign of how unhinged the mainstream Republican party has become.
kafka Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
“…not by opposing things that are actually in the bill…”

Well, OK then…..

FROM: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/lessons-from-letterman-in_b_325557.html

“…the White House promised Big Pharma, big insurance, and the American Medical Association the moral equivalent of what Joel Halderman allegedly demanded of David Letterman: hush money. The groups agreed to stay silent or even be supportive of healthcare reform, as long as they were paid off. ..

Big Pharma is on the road to getting its deal: not only 25 to 30 million more paying customers, but also a continued ban on Medicare using its bargaining clout to reduce drug prices, a bar on genetic drug manufacturers introducing similar biologic drugs until the originals have been on the market at least twelve years…

Big insurance is well on the way to getting what it wants: 25 to 30 million more paying customers (many of them young and healthy), a requirement that almost all businesses “pay or play,” and no competition from a public option….

Doctors (that is, the American Medical Association) are on the way to getting what they want: Instead of a temporary patch on scheduled decreases in Medicare reimbursements to them, a permanent fix that would change the reimbursement formula altogether and reward them $240 billion over the next ten years.”
—————————————-
Ha ha ha…

Enjoy Tauzincare bumpkins as Obama ra(h)ms the bill up your ass..
Why oh why Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I wonder if many of those lunatics are the kind of people against abortion rights, who always exploit the pictures of dead babies to advance their “cause”. Perhaps that explains why using this horrible picture doesn’t shock these folks.
ksmiami Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Most of the people in this picture are on that socialistic medicine program called Medicare too! These people are just sooo angry and really effin insane. This is why Fox has to go under; they yell fire in a crowded theatre or Death Panel in a teabag.

Just nuts! Currently, medical expenses are eating at least 9% of GDP all told and will go to 20% without government intervention. But wave the foam finger USA USA – We’re number 27!
j r Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
matt,

how can you read your own comments section and not become clinically depressed?
Greg Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Hmmm, I wonder if Foxman and friends will condemn these facile comparisons to the Holocaust.

Ok, probably the only group that votes Democrat more consistently than Jews are Blacks.

So why the fuck isn’t every rabbi, lawyer, and financier screaming bloody murder at this bullshit?
John Emerson Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
That goes beyond nutty. It’s disgusting several different ways. If these people were really “real Americans” this country would be doomed.

I really think that to be effective, our responses to this kind of thing have to be appropriately loud and harsh. Subtle irony and civil disagreement don;t get through to a lot of people. There needs to be a counterattack.

There won’t be, though, because we liberals are civilized folk who are above that.
Don Williams Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
1) Kafka’s got a point. We have heard about nothing but healthcare over the past year. But that is healthcare reform without the ..er..reform. Unless you call stealing $500 Billion out of Medicare “reform”.

2) The healthcare debate seems mainly guided by the need to divert our attention from other matters:

a) $24 Trillion financial bailout that has lifted Goldman Sachs’ share price from $52 a share to around $180 a share but which has left 17 million Americans unemployed and the perps are not only not in jail but are not even indicted.

And what happened to that Financial regulation reform, by the way?

b) Plus Obama and the Democrats have done NOTHING to fix the malign influence of Big Money and its right wing propaganda machine that is destroying this country. No campaign finance reform. No moves to restore the Fairness Doctrine or do ANYTHING to restore fair debate in this country. NO criticism whosoever of Fox News and of the Republicans as they lie to this country. Instead, a desire to collaborate with malign right wing agendas, rather than than challenge them.

3) In short, we have the same government in this country that ran the Soviet Union into the ground. A small, deeply corrupt oligarchy that grabs all the wealth, which drives down living standards for the common citizens, and which allows the herd to vote for either of two choices for forms sake — with the votes being meaningless since both choices are always coopted into maintaining the status quo for the oligarchy.
Steve Lichtenstein Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Some people read the word socialism and go to NAZI’s or Communism without knowing what they really were. The socialist party for example in NAZI was in actuality a Facist Government and England it is democratic. Obviously Communism as practiced by the Soviet Union was also Facist. In both cases they were Right Wing by definition of facism. Teabaggers are trying revisionist history as usual to make you think both regimes were headed by liberals. If they weren’t so serious it would be laughable.

Also as a Jew I am sick and tired of comparisons to acts that destroyed my relatives. Yet no one seems to care in the media. This is why as Elie Wiesel said we can never forget.
John Emerson Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Matt doesn’t read his own comments section. But except for Al’s most comments so far are better than usual.

I was going to say, for decades the conservatives have been relying on disinformation and demagoguery to get their programs through, and it was sure to end upo this way.

Individual conservatives can be civil, intelligent people but most of them know that they can’t win with honesty, so in the end they collaborate with this kind of nastiness.

After all, ACORN! WARD CHURCHILL! MONICA LEWINSKY!
Njorl Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Obama is a war criminal.

Really?

He has locked up prisoners at Gitmo.

Not a warcrime in and of itself.

Used illegal drone attacks on civilians.

He has used drone attacks on enemies who use civilians as shields. This can be a warcrime, but it is not always a warcrime.

Continued extraordinary rendition to torture prisoners.

This is false. He has continued rendition, not extraordinary rendition. Rendition is the capture and transfer of an individual to either our own or another country’s justice system. It has problems, such as accepting doubtful promises to refrain from torture from countries with poor human rights records, but it isn’t inherently a warcrime. Extraordinary rendition has been banned. That is a practice in which an individual is captured, and disappeared. They might be kept in a secret prison or delivered to a foreign government to be held secretly. If you want to call Bill Clinton a war criminal over this, you’d have better ground to stand on, but you have no case against Obama.

Continued to claim state secrets. Continued signing statements. Supported the continuation of the Patriot Act.

None of these are war crimes even in the most elaborate interpretations. The problem with state secrets and signing statements lies in how they are used, not in their existance. While I don’t like the patriot act, I don’t see how it is a war crime.

Obama is no better than Bush.

Just give up.
Issac Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
My grandfather was murdered at Dachau. How dare these sick fuckers cheapen his death for political gain. I hope the Jewish community sends a strong message to the GOP by NEVER voting for a Republican again. Joe Lieberman, you are a traitor for siding with these lunatics.
Sahu Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Steve,

While you are correct that the tea-baggers are engaging in revisionist history, you should be more careful with your specifics. Stalinist Russia was totalitarian, not fascist–i.e., it was a government in which the state had unlimited control over all aspects of life, but that government was, in Marxist terminology “the dictatorship of the proletariat.” The Nazi regime was both fascist and totalitarian, because it was an all-encompassing government consisting of an unholy alliance between right-wing ultra-nationalists and the corporate elites.

There’s an argument to be made that the extreme ends of the political spectrum tend to converge methodologically, thus creating more of a ideological circle, rather than the more traditional continuum model, but it is incorrect to say that both Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany were “Right Wing.” To do so is to be just as guilty of revisionism as the tea-baggers.
Esmasmacho Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I thought liberals had a higher IQ than that being demonstrated here. Enough of the “Yeah but Bush…yadda yadda yadda” WAAAA!!. I don’t want my healthcare taken from me. The obomination wants to FORCE US to use their healthcare plan. Yeah let’s get the uninsured insured. One issue at a time.
Julie Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
That image is so incredibly horrific. How dare the right wing teabaggers use such an horrific image that was a result of millions being starved, murdered and tortured to justify their own lies about health care reform. How dare the right wing whack jobs use victims of Nazism and Fascism to make excuses for their own ignorance and negligence of our own people in this country. Their acts are so twisted it’s disgusting.
Sahu Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
That distinction, btw, between totalitarianism and fascism is why Jonah Goldberg is not just wrong to talk of “liberal fascism,” but just flat-out nonsensical.

Such a formulation is the equivalent of saying “2+2=Fish.”
Eric U. Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I remember when the media had vapors for a week after someone submitted a video comparing Bush to Hitler to a contest held by Move On. As soon as Move On became aware of this video, it was gone. They still took criticism from the members of the Democratic party. That’s as close as the Democratic Party got to comparing Bush to Hitler. There has been no renouncing of these Obama/Hitler comparisons by the Republican Party. It’s reprehensible, but what should anyone expect of today’s Republican Party?
Anita Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Hey, there is a up side to these photos – they can’t parade them around and the next day deny the Holocaust. Well, they can, and they probably will . . .
lolwut Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Don’t these people have jobs?
ark Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Check out the crapppy hair piece on that one guy in the front!!
ajw93 Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I saw this, and gasped loud enough to attract the attention of co-workers.

Disgusting.
AorporateCmerica Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
The old white powerbrokers who are bought and paid for by the insurance companies are exploiting their poor supporters to rally against their own self interests.

SUPPORT HEALTHCARE REFORM NOW!

CONSUMER OPTION FOR ALL!
Tinare Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Just when you think people can’t be any crazier, they go and double-down. Absolutely appaling. And half the people in the crowd are the ones that want the government out of their Medicare.
uh Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
LOL they found the one black guy in the GOP to lead their decidedly un-Christian invocation.
Njorl Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Unless you call stealing $500 Billion out of Medicare “reform”.

So Don, by “stealing”, you mean refusing to pay for unnecessary treatment that reduces the well being of our senior citizens and increases overall health care costs for everyone, right?
tomemos Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
“Ok, probably the only group that votes Democrat more consistently than Jews are Blacks. So why the fuck isn’t every rabbi, lawyer, and financier screaming bloody murder at this bullshit?”

Nice!! Now do stereotype jobs for the blacks and the Mexicans. Come on, I know you can!
TXProgressive Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
And we’re supposed to take these people seriously?
Manu Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
“….”
that is the deafening sound of ADL, AIPAC, Kristol, Holy Joe and all the other Jewish belles âmes‘ silence.
rea Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Remember, remember, the 5th of November,
Teabaggers, treason and plot . . .
Sailboy Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Please, someone help me here: the tea party republicans want fiscal responsibility, yet both of the last two Republicans (Reagan and Bush) doubled the deficit. Bush not only doubled the deficit but actually managed to spend the $900 billion (year 2010) dollar annual surplus left by the Clinton administration. So why do they think republicans are good for the economy? Over the course of 8 years Bush created just over 4 million new jobs, Clinton created over 25 million jobs in the same time frame. So why do the tea party republicans want a republican in office, is it to save this country from the last republicans mess?

So let’s talk fiscal responsibility:

The republicans want to continue spending $30-$40 billion a month on death and destruction in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and yet are unwilling to pay $10 billion a month here at home saving lives and building resources to make sure each and every American has affordable heal insurance. I just don’t get it.

And let’s talk about freedom and terrorism:

Why is it that when Osama Bin Laden invaded America because he perceived America to be a threat to the Islamic world, we called him a terrorist? But when America invaded Iraq because we perceived Iraq to be a threat to America we called ourselves liberators? This double standard is perpetrated by the belief we are a superior nation, and our freedoms are the only freedoms that matter in the world and that all people should live by our selfish standards. I think we fail to realize we are all children of the same creator.
TXProgressive Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Esmasmacho Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I thought liberals had a higher IQ than that being demonstrated here. Enough of the “Yeah but Bush…yadda yadda yadda” WAAAA!!. I don’t want my healthcare taken from me. The obomination wants to FORCE US to use their healthcare plan. Yeah let’s get the uninsured insured. One issue at a time.

–
Esmasmacho it seems that you’re the one with the obvious IQ problem. If you could pause for one minute and see through your raging delusional nonsensical vitriol, no one is threatening to take your healthcare away – and if you believe that, you’re a gullible lemming. Also no one want to “FORCE US” to use their plan. Use that outstanding IQ of your and do some research, unless you enjoy embarrassing yourself this way. If you’re going to throw stones, at least do it armed with facts, not phony fux talking points. I’m guessing that the wingnuts are armed with the same faulty info as Esmasmacho here is – why else would they be stupid enough to protest against their own best interests. Lemmings.
Kevin Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised if these pictures were shown at one of our numerous skinhead parades we have in Moscow. Thanks teabags, you just gave support and validiy to some very dangerous movements.
Chris_ Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
What I want to know is, who prints this stuff? The local Kinkos?
Tom Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Obammy is NOT trying to get health care for everyone, that doesn’t fit his agenda. The purpose of all this “health care” is to reduce the population of the US by free, maybe mandatory abortions and limiting treatment for seniors so they die faster. This leaves only healthy childless working people to generate taxes for him to steal for his friends while limiting costs for medical care, retirements and welfare. It’s simple once you see the big picture.
CKZ Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
OK. So the holocaust imagery is appalling, but people, this is exactly why they do it! To get everyone in a tizzy talking about it. Ever heard the adage “even bad press is better than no press”? Talk about the issues, and if you are so damn incensed do something about it other than complain amongst yourselves! Call your congress people. Hell, call Bachmann’s office and rail at her. The problem with the dems (and I’m one of them) is that they have no balls. They spent the first 6 months after the election expecting the Republicans to play nice, while all the Repubs just got nastier and kept flipping them the bird at every chance. And they were shocked, Shocked, that they weren’t being civilized and giving the Dems their turn. Then they spent the next six months trying to figure out what the hell to do now that they realized that the Repubs aren’t just well intentioned people under the politics. Use your power, dammit, if there is anything the Repubs got really good at in the last 8 years, it was rangling the outlyers and not letting the fringe stand in the way of the agenda. The Dems have to stop playing nice, even with their own party. Civility and Gentlemanly politics has gone the way of the broadcast news hour. We may lament it, but it’s time to move on and wield the power that people like me worked so hard to give you last year.
Robert Emory Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Sinclair Lewis nailed it: “When fascism comes to America, it will be a bible wrapped in a flag.”

I encourage the teabaggers (and yes I use that name — it is a political reference, not a sexual one – get help with your penis obessions) – I encourage the teabaggers to do this type of thing as much as possible. We independants, leftists, humanists, Christians and democrats appreciate the alienation of the center beyond what words can convey in terms of gratitute for your ignorance, arrogance, self-rightousness, aggression and delusional rants. Keep up the self-destructive behavior and thanks in advance for the gains we’ll make in 2010. NY23 was just a tast of things to come.
Alberta Treadway Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
People seem confused! Where is the Hallacaust of 1945, as these signs of the tea baggers seem to implicate? Some don’t want Tax’s EVER! This small group doesn’t even have (1)agenda!
Canadian Paul Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
As a citizen of Canada, one of those evil countries with national health care, I find this insulting and offensive. As a citizen of the world, I also find the use of such imagery to be equally offensive.
tomemos Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
“Obammy…”

Huh? You’ve lost me. Is it from “mommy,” or “nanny?” Or “mammy,” to make it more racist? Or what?

“… is NOT trying to get health care for everyone, that doesn’t fit his agenda. The purpose of all this “health care” is to reduce the population of the US by free, maybe mandatory abortions and limiting treatment for seniors so they die faster. This leaves only healthy childless working people to generate taxes for him to steal for his friends while limiting costs for medical care, retirements and welfare.”

And now, the punchline!

“It’s simple once you see the big picture.”

*standing ovation*
CKZ Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Oh, and Tom, you might want to get your medication checked.
An Outhouse Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Don’t these people have jobs?
Hector Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Re: Yeah, because the left wing never compared Bush or the Republicans to Hitler or Nazis. Never happened.

Fool, there were only a few people who compared Bush to Hitler (which is also, btw, pretty dumb) and none of them was anywhere near the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

The tea-bagger, “National Socialist Health Care” freaks are, on the other hand, bought and paid for by the Republican Party, which endorses and propagates their lies.
chris_in_chicago Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I don’t think Tom is serious, is he? thats really disturbing.
sailboy, don williams, good thoughts.
Don Williams Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Re Njorl at 38: “So Don, by “stealing”, you mean refusing to pay for unnecessary treatment that reduces the well being of our senior citizens and increases overall health care costs for everyone, right?”
————-
Nah — I call it stealing when you take $500 Billion out of workers Medicare accounts — instead of raising taxes on the Superich. But then if you did that, Obama might not get $700 Million in donations when he runs for reelection, hein?

By definition, a Medicare which is $32 TRILLION in the hole HAS no savings. Reducing costs by $500 Billion –even if it’s possible without cutting actual benefits to seniors — merely means that the hole is slightly less deep –not that it is a well from which others can dip.

Especially since Medicare’s situation is even worse. IT’s $3 Trillion in alleged “assets” are merely George W Bush’s IOUS that are worthless if we don’t cough up the taxes to redeem them.
They represent the REAL money that Bush stole out of Medicare –with the help of Blue Dog Democrats — and gave to the Superrich in 2001.

All of which makes me wonder if the REAL purpose of “healthcare reform” is to impose cuts in medical care that let Democrats slide out of past promises they made to the elderly.
Adrienne Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I just returned from the rally early and didn’t see this sign. A liberal on Twitter asked me about it.

In a crowd of thousands (my estimate there were about 10,000 people there ), there are always fringe lunatics. Both the left and right have them.

I am a staunch conservative opposed to this bill and find this sign completely out of line. However, this in no way represents even a fraction of the people there. The vast majority are normal, hard-working Americans who are pissed off at their government and President Obama.

This sign in no way represents conservatives, Tea Party participants or the people attending the House Call rally.
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Who Am I?

* I was born in one country, raised in another. My father was born in another country. I was not his only child. He fathered several children with numerous women.

* I became very close to my mother, as my father showed no interest in me. My mother died at an early age from cancer.

* Later in life, questions arose over my real name.

* My birth records were sketchy and no one was able to produce a legitimate, reliable birth certificate.

* I grew up practicing one faith but converted to Christianity, as it was widely accepted in my country, but I practiced non-traditional beliefs & didn’t follow Christianity, except in the public eye under scrutiny.

* I worked and lived among lower-class people as a young adult, disguising myself as someone who really cared about them.

* That was before I decided it was time to get serious about my life and I embarked on a new career.

* I wrote a book about my struggles growing up. It was clear to those who read my memoirs that I had difficulties accepting that my father abandoned me as a child.

* I became active in local politics in my 30’s then with help behind the scenes, I literally burst onto the scene as a candidate for national office in my 40s. They said I had a golden tongue and could talk anyone into anything. That reinforced my conceit.

* I had a virtually non-existent resume, little work history, and no experience in leading a single organization. Yet I was a powerful speaker and citizens were drawn to me as though I were a magnet and they were small roofing tacks.

* I drew incredibly large crowds during my public appearances. This bolstered my ego.

* At first, my political campaign focused on my country’s foreign policy. I was very critical of my country in the last war and seized every opportunity to bash my country..

* But what launched my rise to national prominence were my views on the country’s economy. I pretended to have a really good plan on how we could do better and every poor person would be fed & housed for free.

* I knew which group was responsible for getting us into this mess. It was the free market, banks & corporations. I decided to start making citizens hate them and if they were envious of others who did well, the plan was clinched tight.

* I called mine “A People’s Campaign” and that sounded good to all people.

* I was the surprise candidate because I emerged from outside the traditional path of politics & was able to gain widespread popular support.

* I knew that, if I merely offered the people ‘hope’ , together we could change our country and the world.

* So, I started to make my speeches sound like they were on behalf of the downtrodden, poor, ignorant to include “persecuted minorities” like the Jews. My true views were not widely known & I needed to keep them unknown, until after I became my nation’s leader.

* I had to carefully guard reality, as anybody could have easily found out what I really believed, if they had simply read my writings and examined those people I associated with.

* I’m glad they didn’t. Then I became the most powerful man in the world. And the world learned the truth.

*Who am I?*

ADOLF HITLER

WHO WERE YOU THINKING OF ?

Scary isn’t it? `
daveNYC Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
The purpose of all this “health care” is to reduce the population of the US by free, maybe mandatory abortions and limiting treatment for seniors so they die faster.

See that’s just stupid. You make the people will have to pay for their mandatory abortions, that way the money rolls in that much faster.

Don’t these people have jobs?

A lot of those folks look like they’re getting Social Security and Medicare.
m Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
They don’t believe those things. The claims are loyalty tests. If you’re one of them, then you smile and up the ante. Pointing out that they’re morons means you aren’t one of them, and you’ll get a taste of the crazy yourself.

If any of them, even for a moment, feared that the left of the U.S. was going to run an extermination program, they’d be so quiet you would forget that they had ever been there. Instead they write books about why the left is composed of a bunch of sissies.
ROB JONES Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
You libs and your complaints. These are real Americans willing to peacefully protest against Your messiah’s march to socialism! The comparisons to National socialism are scairy. I view Obama as more of a Stalinist not a Hitler. They both set records in murdering those who rejected their individual socialistic ideals. I thank God that we still have the most powerful tool in politics THE VOTE! I promise you libs we will vote our asses off to get rid of this Socialist revolution! GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Zach Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
In all fairness the 10-year CBO score for an anti-right-wing pogram is very good.
Anthony Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Scary isn’t it? `

nope. The comparison is really tortured. Mein Kampf was a political manifesto outlining Hitler’s racist theories and vision for the German people. It was about his “struggles growing up”, and it certainly wasn’t a meditation on race and belonging, as Obama’s book was. Every one of those supposed parallels falls apart. Easily.
Anthony Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
You libs and your complaints.

Who are these “libs”? Right wingers rant about them all the time, but I am at a loss.
Anthony Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
* So, I started to make my speeches sound like they were on behalf of the downtrodden, poor, ignorant to include “persecuted minorities” like the Jews. My true views were not widely known & I needed to keep them unknown, until after I became my nation’s leader.

Uh…Hitler made his speeches sound like they were “on behalf” of minorities like Jews? Have you ever read Hitler’s speeches? Or Mein Kampf? He was pretty upfront about how he felt about minorities like Jews. Also, most of these comparisons are to things that Obama simply hasn’t done. This is really really stupid.
wiley Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
So what was Hitler’s sign?
Brian R Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Typical Left, still talking about Bush. I thought you guys would like Bush because he and Oboma are so alike (Socialists.) Taking one sign out of hundreds and trying to say that all at the rally agree with it is kooky(no common sense ie.The Left). It comes down to people on the left who are lazy and irresponsable and want us who work to pay their way thru life (entitlement slobs) and the majority of us who belive that our Elitists in Washington are out of control and we are T.axed E.noufgh A.llready!
TRIATHLON Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
STEP’IN AND A FETCH’EN

[HOW HIGH?]

Now an article caught our eye the other day, well not so much the article which was great in itself but a picture in the article, by Gregor Peter Schmitz in Washington, D. C., (WWW.SPIEGEL.DE), Special: Transatlantic Relations, Think Tank’s Trans-Atlantic Advice, Europe Must Stop “Fetichizing” American Relationship, posted [11/02/2009]. Now there is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, and the native American in me still believes that a picture captures part of your soul, much like the picture of Doran Gray, but be that as it may, here were from left to right as viewed [UK] Prime Minister Brown, The Media Messiah Imperial President the lead, French President Sarkozy, and last but not least Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, doing what we [Independent Tea-party, Tea-Baggers], call Step’in and a Fetch’en, which pretty much means dancing to the “Pipers Tune”. The caption under the photograph/picture, read When America says jump, Europe asks how high? But a new study says the European Union must stop taking such a submissive attitude toward it’s trans-Atlantic ally,[end quote].

[UP THEIRS]

Now, as an [Independent Tea-Party, Tea-bagger], exception is taken to the idea that “When America says jump”, and Gregor needs to get out of the American-Israeli Empire, and come out into Tea-bagger country, were not the one’s asking Europe to jump, an were having the same problems with the Empire as anyone else on our shared common globe, we no more want to be cookie cutter, cut outs, Clinton type clones step’in and a Fetch’en for the Empire than anyone else, think [Ruby Ridge-Waco & Oklahoma City], the Empire doesn’t speak for us [Independent Tea-Party, Tea-Baggers], they see the world as Black and White, and only their way or the highway, The Media Messiah Imperial President, Bill and Hill are the perfect example of what the Community of World Citizens are expected to act, look, and think like, and the (DC/544) will enact laws to ensure that happens. We Tea-baggers when told to jump, jump up on one foot and plant the other up their back-sides and they don’t even have to ask just how high up it went, it’s up theirs.

[DO YOU WANT TO PLAY THE SUBMISSIVE?]

Now, Greg short for Gregor, also said that Europeans should stop taking a submissive attitude towards the [EMPIRE], Gee! Do you think? It’s the [21st] Century, it is the century of the Dreamers, Thinkers and Workers of [This Century], and the question that those Dreamers, Thinkers, and Workers of the [21st] Century, have to ask themselves are they going to be cookie cutter clones of the perfect Community of Citizens, as defined by the [DC/544], or is it time that the Era of the American-Israeli Empire [END], that the Wars of Resources and Markets End, that the thousand of troops of Empire Occupation on European soil End, and isn’t it time for the “PRIME DIRECTIVE” the policy of non-interference, observe but do not interact unless asked to do so. Isn’t it time for nations to respect the national boarders of the others, and not take it upon themselves to determine what is culturally correct, or religiously acceptable, does the community of world citizens want to be clones of Hillary Diane Rodham-Clinton, her way or the highway, or Bill Clinton, sticking his finger in your face and flat being a liar, liar, pants on fire, who doesn’t know what the meaning of Is, [IS]. Greg we Tea-baggers have run the [DC/544] out of town-hall meeting on a rail, so maybe you boys in Europe should put a little backbone [ram-rod up their back-sides] in your leadership vice letting them get back rubs and learn Step’in and Fetch’en from “em” short for them, do ya/you think, its time to take the knee pads off.

HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN
Nine Universal Health Care Supporters Arrested At Lieberman’s Office « 44-Diaries Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
[...] source: Yglesias [...]
m Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
You should have been more responsible and stayed in school, Brian.
Aqua Regia Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
It’s always fascinating when this blog gets linked to RedState or Malkin or whatever. I am offended by this poster sign, not so much by how horribly inappropriate it is, but it makes no sense. Hitler was a right-wing extremist mass-murdering fuckhead, so right-wing extremists use his actions to condemn Obama? They should be showing pictures of death camps from left-wing mass murdering fuckheads like Stalin, or even Cambodia would be more appropriate. Dachau doesn’t even make sense in this context.
tomemos Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
“I thought you guys would like Bush because he and Oboma are so alike (Socialists.)”

Love. It.
Njorl Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Nah — I call it stealing when you take $500 Billion out of workers Medicare accounts

Oh, I see. You’re one of those people who think the government should be keeping piles of $100 bills in vaults for the Social Security and Medicare trust funds instead of issuing those funds bonds. I got news for you. If a US government bond is worthless, so is a $100 bill.

— instead of raising taxes on the Superich.

I see no reason why that can’t be done as well.

By definition, a Medicare which is $32 TRILLION in the hole HAS no savings.

Medicare is not $32 trillion in the hole. That number comes from assuming current medicare laws and health care cost trends into infinity. The medicare commission is required to assume that by law. Fairly small adjustments can change that $32 Trillion into a zero. Infinite amounts of time are like that. We can achieve those changes if we free MedPAC from congressional control.
tomemos Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I think that the comment by DAS above is either not really by him, or it’s a different DAS, or else he forgot to put a “Isn’t this crazy” part at the end. The DAS I’ve seen around here is annoying about Israel but by no means crazy.
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Anthony,

The parallels do not fall apart, they hold. The difference is that you choose to disregard them. Liberalism is a mental disorder because the truth, as black or white, cannot be distorted into the spectral brush you would rather paint Obama’s history in. Read the book “The Death of Right and Wrong” by Tami Bruce. Democrat, past president of the National Organization of Woman, Lesbian, and committed liberal. Here it from one of your own, who saw the light, and couldn’t “spin” it any longer. It’s all about “moral relativism” and double standards. Reality check for you. Are you up to it though, that is the real question?

DAS
El Cid Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
The protesters and their sign are correct. Mild reforms of insurance regulations combined with partial government subsidies and a possible federal insurance program is exactly like herding millions of Jews into industrially designed and run death camps.

Who could miss the similarity? That’s why all of Europe is, right now, a complete pile of death camps. Western Europe — Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and so on and so forth — have universal health care plans which means that the moment your airplane touches down, all you see is dead, charred bodies, stacks of Jews and Roma and homosexuals and Communists, burning in trenches.
Brian R Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
M, You have hurt my feelings. Why do you hide? I think it’s because you cant add anything to the conversation. Its hard to debate when you use your emotions instead of facts to make your decisions on what kind of political leaders you will support.
tomemos Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
“I had to carefully guard reality, as anybody could have easily found out what I really believed, if they had simply read my writings and examined those people I associated with.”

Well, this is contradictory on its face. How did Hitler “guard reality” (what does that even mean)? Mein Kampf said exactly what he planned to do and didn’t differ from his public political stance at all.

And yes, I urge right-wingers to do a careful comparison of Mein Kampf and The Audacity of Hope to learn the difference between an advocacy of fascism and an advocacy of center-left politics.
Christopher Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
The parallels do not fall apart, they hold.

Even if they do, so what? Obama’s real name could be Hadolph Bitler and it still would be irrelevant.
tomemos Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Okay, that’s a different DAS. Hey, DAS, it’s been pointed out several times in this thread that Hitler never ever presented a more moderate or kind face to the world, as you claim that he did (and Obama is supposedly doing). Care to respond?
m Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Maybe you should learn how to write, Brian, so you won’t look like such a primary school dropout.
305 Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
This is not discourse, this is disgusting.

Is this the freedom we are supposed to be savoring and celebrating in this country? The freedom to be ignorant and filled with such hatred that history, truth, fact, respect and decency no longer matter?
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Hitler was a narcisistic sociopathic, that lead his people blindly off a cliff, and got them to not only look away from the slight of hand, but deny it. Got a great lesson from a German foreign exchange student we had last year about how Germans really feel about their history and Hitler. They would unring the bell if they could. Which is why Angela Merkel is fighting desperately to move Germany towards a center-right country, favoring small business development, cutting taxes, and privitizing healthcare.

DAS
El Cid Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
If all Adolph Hitler had to mark him to history was vague things about vanity, self-absorption, stirring speeches, etc., he simply wouldn’t matter.

Anybody who thinks Obama is like Hitler is just a god-damned fucking retard. Period. There’s nothing there. No substance. Nothing.

But I do urge you to keep it up. March around every town with OBAMA = HITLER signs. Paint Glenn Beck slogans on your eyelids. Learn how to control pyramid powers and teach your children the secret Masonic codes hidden on the dollar bill. Whatever.
tomemos Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
“Got a great lesson from a German foreign exchange student we had last year about how Germans really feel about their history and Hitler. They would unring the bell if they could.”

No way! What an insight! That certainly clashes with what I had always assumed, which is that Hitler’s statue is at the top of the Brandenburg Gate and German schoolchildren get his birthday off from school.

“Which is why Angela Merkel is fighting desperately to move Germany towards a center-right country, favoring small business development, cutting taxes, and privitizing healthcare.”

There’s a movie in there somewhere. “It’s only been sixty years since the Nazis fell from power, and Germany is at a crossroads. Will it suddenly, for no reason, revert to fascism? One center-right German politician is fighting desperately to save it from that fate, by reducing the top marginal tax rate and government health care funding. But will she be…too late??”
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Whatever! Really? How very mature of you. Liberal often resort to the Alinsky method: “Identify, polarize, demonize” when their argument nold no water. Way to go, Saul would be proud of you! Patriot right?

DAS
Mat Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
The images that these protestors are carrying have me speechless. I am just sitting with my mouth hanging open speechless. Completely lost as to how to respond to this level of ignorance and mass confusion amongst the protestors. Groupthink appears to be the disease of the “Republican Party.” I am scratching my head. It happened in Germany and fitting I guess that they chose this image. Absurd as it might be – appropriate for them. What other image could be more representative of Groupthink? Speechless.
High Drama in Washington « Sola Dei Gloria Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
[...] At noon, NBC News reported police estimated that there were 3,000 to 3,500 protesters. Matthew Yglesias has some pictures. [...]
Karl Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Just another follower of Michele Bachmann–like this one who showed up at a Michele Bachmann-led hate rally at the Minnesota State Capitol a few years ago:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/31862777_89b3bfe886.jpg
Njorl Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I am a staunch conservative opposed to this bill and find this sign completely out of line. However, this in no way represents even a fraction of the people there. The vast majority are normal, hard-working Americans who are pissed off at their government and President Obama.

Adrienne,
Do you have any argument to back up your assertion that those people holding up that sign are not representitive. Just looking at the conservative response in this thread leads me to believe otherwise.
They’re packed pretty tightly there, do you think there is anyone in the few yards around them telling them what a disgusting sign they are carrying?

I tend to think that you have your ratio backwards. At these rallies, the nuts are the majority.
RalfW Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
This thoroughly debases the agonizing history of Jews and others who were slaughtered. Bachmann should be (but I’m sure isn’t) deeply ashamed.

Tarryl Clark for 6th!!
m Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
DAS, can you project HD video too?

If you want to make a rigorous argument of some sort, then feel free. Making a lot of stupid assertions and then projecting your own behavior onto others is not an writing argument. Compare any proof from any book by Arnol’d to what you write, then get back to me.
TRIATHLON Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
ANTI-TEA-BAGGERS & JEWS

Now, all you anti-tea-baggers are right we don’t have an agenda [1] one its only the Dumb Democratics and the Crooked Republicans that have agendas and they are called party planks, you none [TBAM] Take Back America Moverment types like paying a tax here a tax there, here a tax there a tax everywhere a tax, and then your party boys loose billions of dollars of your tax money and can’t find it. Your always looking for pie in the sky, someone to hold you up and wipe your nose from the minute they slap your behind to the day they put the coins for the boatman on your eyes. We Independents just want them to take care of business acording to how their told and not as they feel. Flat Tax, would be acceptable a LOW ONE, and no other tax period.

Now, for you Jews, you boys need to get real, the minute you say Jew your Anti-Jew. Well for us now Jews it looks like you boys are having a problem of deciding just were your loyality is, The Empire or Israel, or the American-Israeli Empire, this time next year in Israel Jerusalem is no longer just something you have to pray it can be done, but it seems those [JAPS] Jewish American Princess have other ideas, this summer in the Hamptons and winter in Miami.(AIPAC/AZC)says to the [544/DC] group jump, and you bet they ask how high. You have a [SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP] wink, wink, with the boys and your sounding like your being shipped East,and up the smoke stacks. You have a Mossad Agent as the Chief of Staff in Rahm.

You Jews have a real problem now, the Empire is going to fall by [2020] max, and this was the last country in the world that would protect and defend you, or make Israel a [Special Relationship] country, do you remain here, or go to Israel, when the Empire Falls, what will the new North American Continent look like, what will its feeling towards Jews be.

When BiBi says jump do you ask how high as a non-Israeli Jew, or are you pragmatic, and start asking questions about how it effects you as a non-Israeli Jew. Thank God I’m not Gentile, Take God I’m Not a Woman, sound familiar from morning prayers, or is it Thank-God I’m not an Israeli Jew, and Thank-God for Women.

Shouldn’t you Jews be asking yourself who you are, the Protocals of the Elders of Zion have what application now, to you as non-Israeli Jews or does it. Do you need both a Jewish Name and a non-Jewish name, we could ask the same of Muslims.

Do you have our backs or will you stab us in the back for the sake of Israel. It would be nice to have you make a choice are you J-Street Jews [Shimist or what type of Jew.

HERCULE TRIATHLON SAVINIEN
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
M,

Your comment makes absolutely no sense. Be literate if you think your commentary is worthy of a response.

DAS
esmasmacho Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
TXProgressive Says:
–
Esmasmacho it seems that you’re the one with the obvious IQ problem. If you could pause for one minute and see through your raging delusional nonsensical vitriol, no one is threatening to take your healthcare away – and if you believe that, you’re a gullible lemming. Also no one want to “FORCE US” to use their plan. Use that outstanding IQ of your and do some research, unless you enjoy embarrassing yourself this way. If you’re going to throw stones, at least do it armed with facts, not phony fux talking points. I’m guessing that the wingnuts are armed with the same faulty info as Esmasmacho here is – why else would they be stupid enough to protest against their own best interests. Lemmings.

Thanks TX that was an enlightening response. Unfortunately you yourself failed to cite any facts that you were whining about my not wielding. My post wasn’t long enough to qualify as raging delusional nonsensical vitriol. Sounds like you’ve been storing up some over-the-top-rage/drama.

obomination has stated that they support a single payor system-this bill is a move in that direction. Pelosi promotes her plan as one for all Americans. I already have a decent healthcare plan, do you?

As an independent, I don’t embrace extreme left/right values. You’re naive if you think the government is capable of running a healthcare system. Equally naive if you think we can afford it. The evidence speaks for itself. It’s not complicated or do I need to hog more space to splain to you?
Chris- The Fold Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
What a bunch of sick people.

I briefly compare the Dem and Repub bills here. Essentially the Republican bill absolutely guarantees we will be back 5 years from now doing HCR all over again.
m Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
DAS, you ought to learn what constitutes a sound argument before claiming to have made one. You should also wait a few posts before criticizing your own rhetorical style, should you expect anyone to not see what you did there.
polaron Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
This is just incredible. If such a thing was to be done here in Germany I couldn’t even begin to imagine what the consequences would be. In any case, somebody should send this to a German news agency and generate a bit of a good old-fashioned international incident.
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Volume 56, Number 12 · July 16, 2009
Holocaust: The Ignored Reality
By Timothy Snyder

Fact: Hitler, like Stalin, was responsible for the deaths of German citizens (Stalin: 30 million Russians)the exact number is still a matter of debate. What is not debatable is that those citizens were not Jews. They did share the mindset of the Third Reich, and were “processed” accordingly. Whereas I do not ascribe to the use of such photos at a rally OF ANY KIND, what you cannot determine is that those are desecrated Jewish remains. I do not believe that Obama has a “Final Solution” mentality towards this country. What is true though is that he is willing to dissolve our sovereignty and relinquish it to the UN, and make us a subservient nation to the “New World Order.” The upcoming Copenhagen Treaty, in December is proof of that. Attaching the “Carbon Debt” of the developed world to the US alone, and relegating us giving the UN $71B a year for the next 70 years, for the development of third world countries, is without a doubt a global form of “redistribution of wealth.”

Apolitical response:

China, India Cancel Out Copenhagen
Climate change: With less than two months to go before
the big Copenhagen Conference on global warming,
two major nations have said “no thanks’ to the nogrowth
agenda. For that reason alone, so should we.
Following a deal signed late Thursday between China and
India, anything we might agree to do in Copenhagen is likely
moot anyway. The two mega-nations – which together account
for nearly a third of the world’s population – said they won’t
go along with a new climate treaty being drafted in Copenhagen to
replace the Kyoto protocol that expires in 2012.
They’re basically saying no to anything that forces them to impose
mandatory limits on their output of greenhouse gas emissions.
Other developing nations, including Mexico, Brazil and South Africa,
will reject any growth-killing proposals as well.
Any possible “deal’: was already in trouble. Three weeks ago, the
Group of 77 developing nations met in Thailand to discuss what
they wanted to do about global warming. Their answer: nothing.
William ‘Hawkins, writing in the American Thinker, quotes a
piece in China’s Science Times journal that sums up how China -
and other developing nations – feel:
“Why do the developed countries put an arguable scientific problem
on the international negotiations table?” the article’s author,
Wang Jin, asks. “The real intention is not for the global temperature
increase, but for the restriction of the economic development of the
developing countries.” ,
They see clearly what the rest of us seem to miss – that, for all its
bad science, the Copenhagen Conference is about the world’s Lilliputians
tying down its Gullivers, not about global warming at all.
So, thanks to China and India, Copenhagen is dead – just as Kyoto
was when it was signed in 1992, though no one knew it at the time.
Without them, no global treaty on climate change will be workable.
The two nations are not only the world’s most populous (with, together,
more than 2 billion people), they are also the fastest-growingmajor
countries. China is now the world’s NO.1 emitter of greenhouse
gases, and India is catchingup fast.
Even with their participation, Copenhagen should have been a
non-starter for the U.s. Indeed, the main reason for the greenhouse
gas deal, all but admitted to by its major participants, is to cripple
the U.S. economy – the most successful economy in the world.
True enough, as green critics keep saying, we produce nearly20%
of the world’s C02 and other greenhouse gases with just 5% of the
world’s population. But our GDP of roughly $14 trillion is nearly
25% of the world’s total- in line with our gas output.
We provide jobs and consumption not just for Americans, but for
tens of millions of people overseas whose livelihoods depend on satisfying
the massive American market.
In case you’re still worried about warming, stop. Since 1998, the
data show global temperatures have fallen. The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change says this can’t be happening. None of the
!pcC’s models shows a possibility of rising C02 output and decliningtemperature.
But even Paul Hudson, the pro-warming-theory BBC climate correspondent,
recently had to admit: “For the last II years, we have
not observed any increase in global temperatures. And our climate
models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide,
the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued
to rise,”
Yet, the !PCC estimates that “remediation” of the warming trend
will cost about 1.7%of world GDP. In the U.S., that’s about $240 billion
a year. For the entire world, it’s about $1 trillion a year- or $71
trillion over the next 70 years or so.
Proposals to slash C02 won’t work anyway. Department ofEnergy
estimates indicate that 97% of all C02 emissions would continue
even ifhumans didn’t exist.
Even so, climatologist Chip Knappenberger estimates that laws
like the recent Waxman-Markey bill would, if fully enacted, reduce
future warming by just 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2100 – not enough
even to measure accurately.
Can the world really afford to give up $71 trillion in the coming decades
to solve a phantom problem?
Given the shoddiness of the science behind warming claims and
the refusal of the biggest C02 emitters to play along with the climate
change sham, it would be economically ruinous for the U.S. to
do anything other than wish the rest of the world a nice day, and go
about our business.

Investor’s Business Daily October 26, 2009

DAS
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
M,

Way out of your league. Come back after you finish your GED.
DAS
m Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
None of those protesters cares what anyone in Germany thinks. These comparisons happen all of the time when fringe political groups want attention. Don’t you recall the 2003 PETA campaign?
m Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
DAS, where may I find your CV?
El Cid Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Liberal often resort to the Alinsky method: “Identify, polarize, demonize” when their argument nold no water. Way to go, Saul would be proud of you! Patriot right?

OMG! Someone mentioned Saul Alinsky! Our secret is out! By mentioning the name of our Dear Leader, our underground mystic Hitler power is threatened! Run!
El Cid Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I do not believe that Obama has a “Final Solution” mentality towards this country. What is true though is that he is willing to dissolve our sovereignty and relinquish it to the UN, and make us a subservient nation to the “New World Order.”

And soon we’ll be using the Amero on the NAFTA Super Highway — of Death !!!
Bruce Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I was at the event today. I purposely looked for objectionable signs, etc. I did not see this sign and saw no other signs that were objectionable. I looked as far as I could see ahead of me, behind me, to the left, and to the right. I looked on my way walking in and walking out. If this sign was even there, this picture was truly cherry picked for the purpose of painting all rally attendeders as disgusting freaks. Basically, the signs I saw all said essentially the same thing: “No Obamacare” and “Say no to socialism.” I saw a very well-behaved crowd while I was there (12-1pm). Also, for what it’s worth, I tried to do a semi-accurate estimate of the number of attendees. I stood near the back and counted as best I could to the front of the crowd (the hill slopes up to the Capitol). I counted 92. Then I stood on a metal bridge they had to let people over a wall and counted as best I could to get the number of people across at the middle of the crowd to average out the width of the crowd. I counted about 180. That would give you about 16,560. Not a bad size crowd.
Tea Party protest sign compares health reform to Nazi Germany | Raw Story Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
[...] Matthew Yglesias commented: "There are all kinds of nutty people in the world, but these kinds of things are the wages of a [...]
justin Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
So funny, you guys are just as crazy as those right wing conspiracy theorists.I don’t understand how you think you are any different….
ice9 Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Bruce, I take you at your word on not seeing this sign. Either it wasn’t there, or it was. Let’s leave “it’s a fake” for another time, and assume for the sake of discussion that the photo is genuine and the sign was there. For our information, can you give us your opinion of the sign, what it means, what it represents, and how it reflects on the anti-health care movement? For example, would you give us your opinion of the emotional argument and of the claim the sign makes independent of the emotional argument?
SteveCan Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
“There are all kinds of nutty people in the world (you’d know), but these kinds of things are the wages of a conservative leadership and media that’s consistently tried to drum-up opposition to health care reform not by opposing things that are actually in the bill (increased deficits and increased taxes of course are), but with demagogic (ooh ooh) opposition to completely fabricated provisions (says you from the whacked out left).”

All together now …

Barack Obscene Obama

mmmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmm
AdamHermosaBeach Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
This is one of the worst, most offensive things I’ve ever seen an American do. Sure exploit the image of murdered Jews because whose going to care surely not the white Anglo Saxon Protestants that make up the Republican party. These people have no shame. I will never vote for a single republican that doesn’t disavow this type analogy. I assure you I will be emailing this image to every Jew and republican I know making it known that this is what the republican party stands for.
Greg Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Comparing reform to the practices of USSR wouldn’t exactly work either.

I lost a ton of my family in the Holomodor, so I’m not exactly eager to compare it to middle aged people getting flu shots.
heedless Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I suppose this will get lost in the noise of the (much more fun) argument over whether OBAMA = HITLER!!!!, but isn’t this just the usual batchit crazy you get at any big political rally?

I seem to remember a sign at one of the anit-war rallies: “We support our troops when they SHOOT their officers”. It made the rounds of rightwing blogs (even Sully got in on the action) and was held up as irrefutable proof that the anti-war people were really just anti-American scum.

Obviously the great majority of the protesters were nothing of the sort, and the same is true here. This is just as much a genuine popular movement as the anti-war protests, and should be accorded the same level of respect. It won’t, because partisan cheer-leading is much more fun than rational thought, but it should.
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
M

BA in Biology, minors in Mathematics and Chemistry, Dental Degree, Medical Degree, One year of general surgery, three years of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, One year of Anesthesia: 14 years of advanced education. Trumps your pending GED every day of the week.

DAS
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
M,

Bachelor’s degree in Biology, with minors in Mathematics and Chemistry, Medical Degree, Dental Degree, One year of General Surgery, Three years of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, One year of Anesthesia: trumps your pending GED every day of the week.

DAS
becca Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Having talked to a few people who are teabag party attendees, I am always amazed at how ill informed they are. They think rescissions are illegal and all would be solved if medical malpractice suits were illegal. They think there are charities just waiting to help the uninsured middle class. They think we have the best doctoring in the whole wide world.

If gullibility was a terminal illness, these clowns would be goners. These are the folks of Goebbels’ wet dreams. They are ideologically blinkered fools and the world would be a far better place without their brand of neo-fascist hooliganism, Godwin’s Law be damned.

And, as far as Obama having socialistic inclinations, he’s sure hiding it from us out-in-the-open Social Democrats. We think of him as a Corporate Stooge.
Buzz79 Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
DAS,

So you are a batshit insane medical doctor. The doctor part doesn’t change the batshit insane part even a little.
Sans Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Thinkprogress certainly don’t mind an implausible lie:
“It’s unclear whether this sign is one of the many being handed out”

Really, because considering it’s the one poster rather that one copy of the hundreds of identical ones on display, you would think nothing could be any clearer.

It’s unclear whether the cameraman who took this photo stepped on any babies in order to do so. You know, if the lack of stepped on babies isn’t a consideration.
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Buzz,

Very impressive commentary. And your contribution to the world is?

DAS
live Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Man, this thread has brought out the nuts. You know it’s wacky when Triathlon’s posts don’t even stand out as particularly weird.
m Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
DAS, I don’t think you read the comment correctly. I want to read your CV. I don’t know where you live, but in the civilized world that would include where you studied, when you studied, your work history, your publication history, and so on. If I wanted to play “the unverified claims game” I would go back to reading your other comments or watch some clips of Orly Taitz.

I hold degrees in mathematics and physics, and I finished my graduate studies when I was eighteen. I’m not that interested in comparing my e-penis with yours, but given that you seemingly don’t understand how to formulate an argument (rather than make various inane assertions) you should probably go around telling people you clean hotel rooms for a living.

As an exercise, diagram one argument that you have made here so that everyone can see it. I might need to “see how it is done” for my pending GED examination that you keep talking about.
Bruce Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Ice9 … I am happy to say, I am clueless about what the person is trying to say. It is not productive to say Obama is Hitler or Bush is Hitler. It is just bad propoganda.
Paulina Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
And they wonder why the rest of the world is rather happy to see there were enough sane Americans left to elect a civilised and decent fellow like Mr. Obama…
El Cid Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Orly Taitz is a dentist, no?
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Mathematics and physics are both extrapolations of application. Finishing at the age of eighteen, does not make you well socialized, which is clearly the case. So let’s make it easier for you.

Are you a socialist (Y) (N) which means choose one.

Do you believe that healthcare “reform” as spelled out prior to today, can be accomplished without increasing taxes? (Y) (N) again, choose one

Does “global warming” exist on the scale that Professor Al Gore describes it? (Y) (N) (repeat as above)

Is dissent gauranteed by the first ammendment? (Y) (N)

Is healtcare a right for everyone that lives in this country?
(Y) (N)

The Obama Administtration is as “open and transparent” and “ethical” as he campaigned on. (Y) (N)

Let’s set the bar easy for you here. Only looking for yes or no.

DAS

DAS
wiley Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
And you will use the answers to prove that Obama is like Hitler?
Chris Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Comparing xyz to Hitler and Nazis is standard operating procedure for “real media” like Olbermann and PETA.

Don’t recall much whining for Matt about that. Wonder why? But damn, some random sign at a protest? Zounds!
steve Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
I find it funny that out of the thousands of people thousands of signs, thousands of possible picture opportunities, that you would choose this picture. I mean, wow you could not be more rediculously foolish if it was tatooed across your head. Fact is these are real patriots who dont want a bankrupting force-fed government run healthcare. We want reform, but we dont want reform that will bankrupt us, and we dont want it forced on us. GET REAL STUPID LIBERALS!!!
m Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Mathematics and physics are both extrapolations of application.

Do they speak English in What?

Finishing at the age of eighteen, does not make you well socialized, which is clearly the case.

Well I am glad that we agree that I am well-socialized.

So let’s make it easier for you.

Alternatively you may go back, take the “polarizing” and “demonizing” gibberish that passes for cogent thought in your addled brain, and convert it into a well-supported argument and then pat yourself on the back for meeting your own expectations.

Are you a socialist (Y) (N) which means choose one.

*plonk*
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
M,

Let’s set the bar low for you here. All I am looking for is yes or no. Agreed? Let’s begin:

Are you a Socialist? (Y) (N) oh, just choose one!

In an economic recession, does higher tax rates bring about economic resolution? Again (y) (N)

Has Barrack Hussein Obama been as “open and transparent” and run the most “ethical” administration the office has ever seen? Only one (Y) (N)

Is everyone that resides in this country “entitled” or have the right to healthcare? Repeat (Y) (N)

Green house gasses have caused “global warming” on the scale that Professor Al Gore has described? Last one (Y) (N)

Again, no diatribe, just list a number, followed by a letter (Y) or (N). This should make the transition into setting up an “argument” a little simpler to follow.

DAS
Becky Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
@brewmn
There is a HUGE difference between comparing a president to Hitler, and co-opting the imagery of the holocaust for political games.

As the grand-daughter of holocaust survivors I am DEEPLY offended by the use of these images in such a flippant manner. Did these protesters ever stop to think of the hurt and they are inflicting on the families of Holocaust victims? I can guarantee you that no survivor would authorize or condone the use of this image to support the protesters’ cause.

My grandfather NARROWLY escaped a similar death in Auschwitz. These images are my legacy, and I take personal offense at the way that they are lightly thrown about. A picture says a thousand words, and the way that these protesters use this picture says that they have no compassion, no empathy, and certainly no concern for the health and welfare of others.
foodchain11 Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Maybe these rightie tighties should be sent to Sesame Street to learn: “Which of these things is different?” H-Bush starts 2 wars, Obama trying to fix the mess; H-Bush ruins economy (remember the barrels of German $$?), Obama fixing his mess; H-Bush tortures against Geneva rules (which we agreed to), Obama trying to fix mess; H-Bush wanted the “cream of the crop” to rule (essence of trickle down), Obama trying to help middle class; H-Bush ignored dying people in New Orleans, Obama trying to get health care. It just boggles the mind that these people are so angry they cannot see.
Anthony Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
The parallels do not fall apart, they hold. The difference is that you choose to disregard them. Liberalism is a mental disorder because the truth, as black or white, cannot be distorted into the spectral brush you would rather paint Obama’s history in. Read the book “The Death of Right and Wrong” by Tami Bruce. Democrat, past president of the National Organization of Woman, Lesbian, and committed liberal. Here it from one of your own, who saw the light, and couldn’t “spin” it any longer. It’s all about “moral relativism” and double standards. Reality check for you. Are you up to it though, that is the real question?

Uh…the parallels don’t hold because most of what you said about Hitler doesn’t really describe him, and the parts that do don’t describe Obama at all. This is very simple, really.
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
M,

As suspected, you cannot even answer a simple question. And you are not well “socialized.” Study harder for that GED. Better luch next time.

DAS
Fencedude Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I’m not m, but DAS’s survey looks fun. Lets give it a go!

Are you a Socialist? (Y) (N) oh, just choose one!

Well, this is personal to each person, but I’ll say Y, just to piss you off.

In an economic recession, does higher tax rates bring about economic resolution? Again (y) (N)

Higher government spending, which may require an increase in taxes, so…what the hell, Y

Has Barrack Hussein Obama been as “open and transparent” and run the most “ethical” administration the office has ever seen? Only one (Y) (N)

Y…compared to recent history.

Is everyone that resides in this country “entitled” or have the right to healthcare? Repeat (Y) (N)

Absolutely Y

Green house gasses have caused “global warming” on the scale that Professor Al Gore has described? Last one (Y) (N)

Incontrovertibly Y

Now that the survey has been answered in the way to provide you the maximum reason to flip the fuck out, I do hope you won’t disappoint.
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Anthony,

Parallel: Webster Dictionary

par·al·lel (pr-ll)
adj.
1. Being an equal distance apart everywhere: dancers in two parallel rows. See Usage Note at absolute.
2. Mathematics
a. Of, relating to, or designating two or more straight coplanar lines that do not intersect.
b. Of, relating to, or designating two or more planes that do not intersect.
c. Of, relating to, or designating a line and a plane that do not intersect.
d. Of, relating to, or designating curves or surfaces everywhere equidistant.
3.
a. Having comparable parts, analogous aspects, or readily recognized similarities: the parallel lives of two contemporaries.
b. Having the same tendency or direction: parallel motives and aims.
4. Grammar Having identical or equivalent syntactic constructions in corresponding clauses or phrases.

Refer to 3a.

Hope this helps you going forward.

DAS
Anthony Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
I’ll bite as well:

Are you a Socialist? (Y) (N) oh, just choose one!

N

In an economic recession, does higher tax rates bring about economic resolution? Again (y) (N)

Stupidly phrased question, but the answer is closer to Y

Has Barrack Hussein Obama been as “open and transparent” and run the most “ethical” administration the office has ever seen? Only one (Y) (N)

“Ever” is a silly thing to compare. Lincoln was pretty damn ethical. But compared to liars and war criminals like Nixon, Reagan, Bush 43, yes, it’s refreshingly open and unimpeachably (heh) ethical.

Is everyone that resides in this country “entitled” or have the right to healthcare? Repeat (Y) (N)

Y, and why is “entitled” in quotations. I think we are entitled, because it is a right, but I don’t know if we are “entitled”.

Green house gasses have caused “global warming” on the scale that Professor Al Gore has described? Last one (Y) (N)

N. It’s probably on a greater scale than Gore has described.
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Fencedude,

Very shallow. Not even a puddle.

DAS
wiley Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Two people have answered you. Where is the stunning analysis? Is it as deep as your “Who am I?”? Anymore campfire stories in the Lincoln/Kennedy vein?
Anthony Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
par·al·lel (pr-ll)

Look, you posted a bunch of stuff about Hitler, with the idea that we’d think you were talking about Obama, to demonstrate these “scary” parallels.

They do not hold, because you are saying things about Hitler that do not describe Hitler. The definition of parallel doesn’t matter, because the “facts” you describe about Hitler–like how he disguised his speeches so that they sounded like they were “on behalf” on minorities like Jews–are just not true. And they aren’t parallels to Obama.
Anthony Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
It’s like if I said, “I ran a campaign on a slogan of Yes We Can, who am I?” and the answer was “Hitler…surprised? Scary isn’t it.” Well, since Hitler didn’t actually do that, the parallel to Obama doesn’t hold, and it’s not scary. That is how obviously false most of the things you think soudn like Obama but are “really” Hitler are. And the few things that do describe Hitler don’t describe Obama at all. They’re not parallel. Really, German history is something I know pretty well.
DAS Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Anthony,

On #2, higher taxes, please google “laffer curve” which describes the effect that higher taxes has on economic recovery via revenues generated. Suggest Stephen Moore’s book “The end of prosperity”

#3 The word “ever” is exactly the word used by BHO during his campaign speeches. His words not mine.

#4 Please show me where in the constitution, bill of rights, or declaration of independence, that healthcare is a “right.”

#5 Correct

DAS

Now why couldn’t M get this far?
El Cid Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
On #2, higher taxes, please google “laffer curve” which describes the effect that higher taxes has on economic recovery via revenues generated.

Really? Napkin theories now?
Anthony Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
DAS, I don’t think you think I’m correct on #5. I’m saying that global warming caused by greenhouse gases is *worse* than Al Gore has described. You, presumably, deny global warming and don’t think it’s a problem.
Fencedude Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
On #2, higher taxes, please google “laffer curve” which describes the effect that higher taxes has on economic recovery via revenues generated. Suggest Stephen Moore’s book “The end of prosperity”

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Masterful trolling good sir!
Popeye Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Google the Laffer curve yourself, DAS. All the Laffer curve says is that tax cuts *could* possibly increase government revenues under certain conditions. It doesn’t say that those conditions actually hold right now. In fact, virtually all economic research indicates that the Bush tax cuts, for example, reduced government revenues.

It’s weird, because your attitude indicates that you know something that entitles you to lecture other people, but the actual content of what you’re saying indicates that you’re a moron right-wing nut who reads books by moron right-wing nuts and doesn’t understand the difference between propaganda and scholarship.

Very strange indeed.
wiley Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Two political candidates talking about change during an economic crisis. Wow. What are the odds? Sends chills up my spine. Spooky-boo.
tag and track Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
I have to hand it to Bachman and the teabaggers. I didn’t think they would figure it out once Obama shaved his mustache and starting eating meat again. Wonder how long it will be until the teabags realize they are being bombarded with Technetium-99m every time they have their rallies?
El Cid Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
By the way, another important principle of the American Constitution is that if there are a few loud jackasses screaming that what you’re trying to do is EVIL and SOCIALIST, it means that you have to give up what you’re doing and go along with the shouty people, because they say they’re for FREEEDUM and stuff.
Drasties - Dutch on the World - World on the Dutch Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
[...] see? next to the american flag! [...]
an older doc Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
So, DAS, keep getting kicked out of residencies? Never quite managed to finish up? Professionalism problems get you down, eh?

(I think I recognize your trajectory — it’s a small world.)
mofo Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Ahhhh……the Best Friends of us Jews, cheapening the Holocaust yet again………But they looooove Israel, or so my wingnut sister says…….but only until the Rapture, sez I, and so on & on.

But this really pisses me off. Where oh where is the publicly-visible Jewish Leader to denounce this garbage, and to shame Cantor & Co. Eric & Joe & whoever else should be upbraided at synagogue asap……..but I ain’t holding my breath…….someone from the Holocaust Museum shoulda gone over to those holding this obscenity and…….
Dave Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
You people are idiots for several reasons. The main reason being that you associate one sign with an entire group of people. You obviously will never get it…you will never understand what made this country the greatest nation the world has ever seen. You will never understand what was sacrificed for our freedoms and what our freedoms truly are. Lets change the fundamentals of America to reflect the failed European socialist countries that you think are so cool and hip. P.S. Hitler wasn’t a right winger idiots, he was a total government control, socialist dictator, pretty much the furthest you can get from “right wing”.
E. Floyd Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 1:48 am
Haha the troll cited the Laffer curve . . .

Troll: while I’m sure it is absolutely no use trying to reason with you, for my own satisfaction I’m going to point out that 1) the last administration is the one that wanted warrantless domestic surveillance, 2) the last administration is the one that wanted to use military forces to make domestic arrests, 3) the last administration is the one that created a new and useless federal agency called . . . (drumroll please) . . . the department of homeland security.
But these are just superficial parallels to [ totalitarian regimes ], you might say. OK, let’s get to the more fundamental ones. The tea-bag-birther-Republican movement has no substance beyond propaganda and image-formation based on appeals to vague nationalistic impulses, fear, and personality-cults (Regan, W., Palin, Limbaugh) reinforced through purging anyone who isn’t marching in lockstep. To the extent that it interferes with the above, the law is just something to get around.
But you, if I had to guess, you have managed to ignore this. You might stand to lose money if healthcare reform gets passed. Or you’re involved in a malpractice suit. Either way, I’m willing to bet that if you were a good surgeon you wouldn’t have the time to be trolling around, or you wouldn’t even want to . . . reminding me that I need to quit giving in and clicking the “comments” button, even when they break 100. Then, maybe, no NYT every 30 minutes. Baby steps . . .
LaFollette Progressive Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 1:49 am
I must admit that Dave’s plaintive wailing warmed the cockles of my dark socialist heart with sweet, sweet schadenfreude. It must pain you so very much to see your vapid, romantic storybook America get mugged by reality. Poor dim bastard.

On the other hand, there really isn’t anything funny about the tea party cult. They have completely detached themselves from planet earth, and chosen to live in a self-flattering mythos where Europe is a failed socialist dystopia, where Hitler was a Leftist, where lack of access to affordable health care is one of the fundamental values that America is built on, where our forefathers fought and died to protect the right of profiteering middlemen to raise the cost of health care by 30%, and where a modest, industry-friendly, not-particularly-progressive insurance reform bill is tantamount to Nazi dictatorship.

At some point, these brainwashed dipshits are going to stop howling in impotent rage and start killing people.
Mat Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 3:00 am
Mofo, They are stunned and speechless as many of us are. What do you say to this ignorance? What could possibly be said or done to correct such ignorance? Perhaps many Germans were asking the same questions in the late 30’s. What do you do with this Right-Wing Party that has become so beeezarrre and strange, however, now mainstream on Television? Here in the United States of America?

Makes me question everything. Maybe that is what Obama was thinking when he took office? What would ol’ Abe say?
Rashtrakut » Blog Archive » Seen at the Republican “press conference” before the capitol today Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 4:02 am
[...] rallies this year (without any challenge from any Republican officials present). Matt Yglesias is right. These are the wages of a conservative leadership and media that’s consistently tried to drum-up [...]
hum Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Re DAS at 142:

#4 Please show me where in the constitution, bill of rights, or declaration of independence, that healthcare is a “right.”

“AMENDMENT IX to the Constitution of the United States:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

DAS is a frickin whackjob, mildly entertaining version.
Oof Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 6:10 am
America is a country in which there can be little hope when something like this can happen. It is unfortunate, considering the serious challenges the world is facing. Things fall apart. The center cannot hold.
Oof Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 6:11 am
And also, it´s not the words “socialist” or “healthcare” that relate to the awful picture. It´s the word “national.” Ask a German.
Oof Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 6:17 am
Hi Dave,

It is America that is failing (especially in education, a suspicion of which this awful picture is confirmation), not Europe.

Look at Europe – did you know that Germany exports as much stuff as China? Maybe you noticed that it was the right-wing financial policies of the 90s that caused the crisis? Maybe you also noticed that Europe is managing significantly better in this crisis, and is, indeed, only dragged down by the Americans and British?

Or maybe you just don’t know shit. Alright, so let’s condemn that which we do not understand! Right????

Europe is the greatest civilization on the earth today, and you don’t even know it.
Karl Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 7:07 am
The US Code of Conduct can be summed up as “I got mine, so F*ck You”. And Americans just flat out HATE other Americans. It is all HATE HATE HATE, all the time.
Don Williams Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Re DAS at 142: “#4 Please show me where in the constitution, bill of rights, or declaration of independence, that healthcare is a “right.”
—————-
1) Well, it’s in the Declaration of Independence,actually:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness”
—-
2) Plus there is the Second Amendment, of course. Which ensures that we have guns so that we can exterminate the whores of the Rich when their numbers becomes excessive.
DASisawhackjob Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 10:11 am
DAS you must have typing dyslexia.

You got the letters all backwards.

SAD
DAS Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Hum/DW

DW is correct in the document, but not in the interpretation. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are allowed for by our founding fathers, but nowhere does it infer that our founders were going to provide those services for the people. They are merely available.

DW,

Clearly you are not a Patriot, one whom would uphold the Constitution. YOu are a Statist, one that would “undo” the Constitution, and replace it with what, a National/Social system which would guarantee the citizen’s opression by a government? Not for “of, by, and for the people” it seems.

Hum,

Demonize. Congratulations, you’re an Alinsky graduate. So why form a rational thought when you can only provocate.

DAS
Oof Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Hi DAS,

Europe is a good example of how you can have social services without the fascism you are promising will come.

Not only is Europe providing these services right now, but they have a public that is far more educated and politically concerned than what exists in America, they have much higher voter turnout…

If you go to the extreme left, you have something like fascism. If you go to the extreme right, you again have something like fascism. It’s not that what you say isn’t possible, it’s just highly unlikely.

It’s not your job to run around trying to prevent the people from getting from their government what they want – it’s to make sure those changes are instituted without leading to problems you would describe.
hum Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Hum,

Demonize. Congratulations, you’re an Alinsky graduate. So why form a rational thought when you can only provocate.

I note that you don’t address the constitutional point I made in response to your query about rights.
College Frat Boy » Matthew Yglesias » Scenes From a Tea Party Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
[...] post is from here. Visit the link to read more.Al, the difference is that the Bush administration 1. was a far-right [...]
Ted Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
“It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t a bunch of lunatics who just showed up. A sitting member of Congress is leading and organizing this event.”
Proof positive that election of Ms. MIchelle Bachman to Congress is no guarantee of her being more smart than a wooden fence post.
Ted Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
“DW is correct in the document, but not in the interpretation. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are allowed for by our founding fathers, but nowhere does it infer that our founders were going to provide those services for the people. They are merely available.”
Available to each of us? Well, no, not to some of us. But insurance execs. earning millions of dollars each, each year, while denying coverage to anyone with anything expensive, much more resemble those we revolted against, than those who did the revolting. How it is that letting people die is supposed to resemble life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness escapes me.
dave Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
That’s incredible. If you think Europe is so awesome, why don’t you go live there? Why sit here in the U.S. and bitch about it? If I lived in Europe and hated the style of government, I would pack up and come to America just like thousands of Europeans do every year. Oh socialist healthcare is so great…have you ever seen an Englishmans teeth? Good freakin god!
You probably think I’m an uneducated, uncultured, brainwashed asshole. I don’t really care what you think. But, if you sat beside me at a bar, I can tell you that you would probably like me. I’m a musician,(no, I’m not the bassist in a church band)I like all forms of music and I’m pretty good at making it. I like art and I make beer and wine. Not your typical “right wing extremist”.
As far as this sign is concerned, yeah, it’s over the top. Its too much of a stretch to try figure out what it is implying, therefore…ineffective. But, another thing to consider is, that was the nicest and best produced sign there yesterday. So, I wonder was it really created by and carried by a legitimate “tea partier”. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was an attempt by an outsider to discredit the movement.
Oh yeah…trying to place Hitler as a right winger really shows how you’ve been misled.
Aqua Regia Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Oh socialist healthcare is so great…have you ever seen an Englishmans teeth? Good freakin god!
You probably think I’m an uneducated, uncultured, brainwashed asshole.

I do think you are uneducated, uncultured and brainwashed, since there are private dentists in the UK.

Oh yeah…trying to place Hitler as a right winger really shows how you’ve been misled.

Sorry, no.
Matthew Yglesias » Cantor vs Limbaugh, Nazi Analogies Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
[...] wonder if that applies to members of the conservative grassroots who analogize health care reform to concentration camps? There’s research which indicates that diverse groups make better decisions than homogeneous [...]
digg » Blog Archive » Roundup: Calling Health Reform the "Greatest Threat to Freedom" Boehner Leads Circus on the Hill Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
[...] Blogger Matthew Yglesias commented: [...]
dave Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
As far as the englishmans teeth…nice sense of humor jackass. I’m done.

P.S. Sorry, but YES. Look into it. Oh, he was religious, so he was a right winger? There are no religious left wingers? I don’t believe in god and I consider myself a conservative. Piss off you twat.
DAS Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Hum,

Yours: “I note that you don’t address the constitutional point I made in response to your query about rights.”

Nothing that you presented has any bearing on the argument that healthcare is guaranteed under the constitution.

Yours: “Second Amendment, of course. Which ensures that we have guns so that we can exterminate the whores of the Rich when their numbers becomes excessive.”

Exterminate the rich? Really? Hasn’t the capitalist environment given you every opportunity for you to succeed/excel on your own such that you reach your own level of success? It has been right in front of you all the time. If you did not reach for and hence grab the brass ring, who’s fault is that? Is is society’s fault that you did not reach your goal, or your fault for not setting/reaching for it yourself? At some point you have to be accountable for your own actions or the lack thereof. Redistribution of wealth is not accountability, it is government sponsored theft.

DAS
DAS Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Oof,

Yours: “It’s not your job to run around trying to prevent the people from getting from their government what they want – it’s to make sure those changes are instituted without leading to problems you would describe.”

We have a series of checks and balances to make sure that we do exactly that. It’s called Democracy. I would encourage you to google Thomas Jefferson quotes, and review one of our founding father’s own thoughts about the involvement of government in our lives. They are educational.

As to healthcare, let me ask you this: Do you believe in rationing of healthcare based on concept of “QARY” (quality adjusted remaining years)?

DAS
DAS Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Ted,

Yours: “But insurance execs. earning millions of dollars each, each year, while denying coverage to anyone with anything expensive, much more resemble those we revolted against, than those who did the revolting. How it is that letting people die is supposed to resemble life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness escapes me.”

Do you believe/accept that there will be rationing of healthcare on a much larger scale if the proposed healthcare bills pass? Yes or no.

Second: What do you think the average profit is for a health insurance company? Here I am looking for a number.

DAS
GOP must condemn ‘indecent, disgusting’ tea party signs « BaptistPlanet Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
[...] Council to GOP: Condemn those Nov. 5 Capitol Hill “Tea Party” Holocaust imagery/anti-Semitism signs: Today’s G.O.P. “Tea Party” on Capitol Hill opposing health insurance reform invoked [...]
Pollard-Crabill Post Mortem « Fred2Blue Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
[...] to Capitol Hill with open arms. (A particularly shocking scene from that protest can be found here. As a Jew and an American, it just makes me fucking [...]
MPATL Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
These people are filled with hate, intolerance and are beyond sick. That they are comfortable being this disrespectful of the attempted genocide of an entire people is stunning. Top Republican leaders signed autographs and exchanged hugs and kisses with this poster as a backdrop. I can guarantee you they WILL NOT condemn this. Because in their hearts this is who they are.
castironstrawbreaker Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Amazing and typical using dead people to further a cause that tries to prevent the very picture they present. All those that spoke at the gathering are at the level of the Joe Wilson’s of South Carolina. I’m sending my contribution to the DNC.
Armchairrealist.com — Blog — Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [100] -- Whigging Out Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
[...] on the stage and speaking from the podium. A photo of what I’m talking about is available at ThinkProgress, I should add. This should be used by any Democrat debating healthcare reform this weekend with any [...]
Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [100] — Whigging Out | Obama Biden White House Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
[...] on the stage and speaking from the podium. A photo of what I’m talking about is available at ThinkProgress, I should add. This should be used by any Democrat debating healthcare reform this weekend with any [...]
Bob Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
That picture of bodies was in poor taste. Healthcare is not a right! Better heathcare cost for everyone would be fabulous. Spending another TRILLION dollars and putting our country into more debt would be stupid, let us just make small changes to get closer to something we can all agree on. Bankrupting our USA and losing our freedom of choice is a horrible thought. Don’t mortgage off my children and grandchildrens future!
Aqua Regia Says:
November 7th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Well then Bob, I assume you must be a great supporter of this bill, since it decreases the deficit by 104 billion dollars, according to the CBO. I am really glad that you are judging the legislation by such progressive criteria.

Link: http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10688/hr3962Rangel.pdf

Seriously, if you actually care about the deficit, and are not just a raging hypocrite, you would support this. The bill actually decreases the deficit… unless you would accuse the CBO of lying?
Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [100] — Whigging Out | Loans in Says:
November 7th, 2009 at 1:59 am
[...] on the stage and speaking from the podium. A photo of what I’m talking about is available at ThinkProgress, I should add. This should be used by any Democrat debating healthcare reform this weekend with any [...]
Bob Says:
November 7th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Spending another TRILLION dollars is not saving 104 billion dollars. I do not want us to pay for everyones healthcare – it is not a right! It is our right to have freedom of choice and we will lose freedom if they pass the current legistration, I pay for my own healthcare and would like to see it afordable but don’t think you and I should pay for each others. If the government paying for healthcare means that we will be paying for it, the government does not pay for anything. I guess in a way the government does pay, We are the government.
me Says:
November 7th, 2009 at 9:08 am
WTF is wrong with you people?
On to the Next One « Call and Response Says:
November 8th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
[...] I suspect that silly season will move into the stretch run now. Hopefully, no one will do something nonsensical and compare health care reform to the Holocaust. Wait, that already happened. [...]
American Street » Blog Archive » How Many Must Die Before We’re Scared Into A Murderous Outrage? Says:
November 12th, 2009 at 6:53 am
[...] Internal suspicions may grow and damage our military’s cohesiveness. And then there’s these people, eager to risk fomenting an insurrection to regain political [...]

Matt Yglesias

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