Manscape

I don't know how the new stadium, team and such will have an impact on the typical Harrisonian (besides more traffic duing ingress and egress......not a factor of local happiness, certainly)........ But I certainly shock at the cost of one little can of the Red Bull product. What the heck is IN THERE that costs so much? What's up with these gouge-priced energy drinks? Is it the natural market expansion of the bottled water craze? Bottled water has been debunked as no better (and sometimes POOR) an alternative to ordinary tap water, and sold in leaching plastic bottles. Now, energy drinks abound........sold in such volume that sports teams get formed as company ornaments, amazing. With the legacy of soccer as one indisputable pillar of pride in Harrison, I wish the Harrison Red Bulls soccer team great success and hope the citizens of town unite and soon profit from the entire endeavor. When I was a Harrisonian (leaving about the end of the Twin Trees era), a professional soccer stadium in Harrison would have been a wild fantasy of another energy drink excess......beer consumption.

When you want it done.......give it to a BUSY MAN.......President BARACK OBAMA!! You SEETHE, Tumor4u!! SPLENDID! Hey DEADENDER!!..... Didn't I read in the forum that you were incessantly predicting President Rudy Guilliani? heheheheheheheheheheheh!!!!

I hate (no I dun!) to urinate on the Tumor4u, but.....WATCH THIS!!!...... Hey Mr. Gobbledygook? The Five Pillars of Obama's Foreign Policy By Michael Scherer / Washington Monday, Jul. 13, 2009 The introductory phase of Barack Obama's foreign policy ambitions concluded on July 11 before the Ghanaian Parliament, when a solo trombonist sounded a few ceremonial notes. Obama had just finished his fourth major address on international affairs in as many months, and a few hours later, he would depart home to Washington from his fourth overseas trip. All the i's had been dotted and the t's crossed. In sometimes exhaustive, often repetitive detail, Obama has now traveled the world, from Riyadh to Cairo and from London to Moscow — he plans to travel to China and other parts of Asia in the fall — offering up his international vision, a hodgepodge of classic realpolitik, diplomatic determination, community-organizer idealism and charismatic leadership. He has presented what he hopes will become a new public identity for the U.S., less global leader than global facilitator, less savior than responsible partner. The effect of this change in tone, style and message will not be known for some time. What's more, it can be difficult to measure results in international affairs — to say conclusively, for instance, that Russia's cooperation on nuclear-weapon reductions could not have happened under the Administration of President John McCain or that the willingness of China to increase pressure on North Korea is anything more than a response to the rogue nation's increasing belligerence. (See pictures of Obama's meeting with the Pope.) What is known now, however, is the outline of Obama's operating philosophy of world affairs, a set of principles and assumptions that were only hinted at during the protracted presidential campaign. So what is the new Obama Doctrine? Here are five of its central pillars: 1. Biography Matters During the campaign, Obama told American voters that his election as the first black President of goatherd ancestry and foreign upbringing could itself change geopolitical dynamics. Since his election, he has been working hard to make good on that promise, aggressively marketing his background. In Africa, he spoke about the colonialist mistreatment his Kenyan grandfather faced, and in Cairo he talked about his childhood in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. He presents himself internationally as he does domestically, as an embodiment of meritocratic achievement that can happen in free and open societies. "I have the blood of Africa within me," he said in Ghana. "And my family's own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story." His message was hard to miss: If I can do it, so can you. It was a message targeted directly at the people of the world, not their governments. 2. If It's Good for the South Side, It's Good for the World Nothing has been more central to the President's foreign policy approach than the theoretical lessons he learned as a community organizer in Chicago: listen to different views, understand the various motivations and then focus on the commonalities, not the differences. He repeats these refrains everywhere he goes. "The United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences," Obama said last week, shortly after meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in the Kremlin. At an April press conference in Trinidad, the President elaborated on his thinking, describing the more collaborative approach to diplomacy as one that can clear away "old preconceptions or ideological dogmas." "Countries are going to have interests," he said, sounding very much the community-organizing theorist. "And changes in foreign policy approaches by my Administration aren't suddenly going to make all those interests that may diverge from ours disappear. What it does mean, though, is at the margins, they are more likely to want to cooperate than not cooperate." 3. Pragmatism Should Often Trump Idealism Compared with the relatively Panglossian vision of George W. Bush, who sought to remake whole parts of the world under the banner of American moral authority, Obama brings a more conservative, cynical view to the question of when nations should act on idealistic impulses. At a press conference on Friday, the President was asked how he resolves the theoretical conflict between respecting state sovereignty and intervening in defense of the universal rights of oppressed people. "The threshold at which international intervention is appropriate I think has to be very high," Obama said. "There has to be strong international outrage at what's taking place. It's not always going to be a neat decision." The same pragmatism is evident in Obama's negotiating approach. As a rule, he has sworn off the Bush practice of punishing foreign misbehavior by cutting off diplomatic ties or threatening an end to direct conversation. Weeks after the bloody crackdowns began in Iran, the President says he still hopes the nation's leaders will meet with him at the negotiating table before September to discuss Iran's nuclear program. 4. America Is One of Many Nations The U.S. continues to boast the largest, most powerful military in the world and a gross domestic product nearly twice as large as the next biggest national economy, China. But Obama has made a point of noting, stop after stop, that America's fate is tied to that of developing nations. He also says repeatedly that despite America's commitment to open societies with democratic governance, the U.S. will not seek to impose its views or form of governance on other countries. In Strasbourg, France, in April, Obama described this view, asserting that it takes nothing away from America's extraordinary position in the world to say that the U.S. will not always lead. "The fact that I am very proud of my country — and I think that we've got a whole lot to offer the world — does not lessen my interest in recognizing the value and wonderful qualities of other countries," he said, "or recognizing that we're not always going to be right, or that other people may have good ideas, or that in order for us to work collectively, all parties have to compromise, and that includes us." 5. Young People Matter As President, Obama has adopted the mantle of chief youth inspirer. At almost every stop, Obama makes an appeal to young people, often addressing them directly through television cameras. "You get to decide what comes next. You get to choose where change will take us," he said in Moscow. "In places like Ghana, young people make up over half of the population," Obama said on his African stop. "The world will be what you make of it." The same refrain was repeated in Cairo and is a feature of his rhetoric elsewhere. As politics, addressing the youth is a well-worn trope. But for Obama it points to a bigger hope: that the change he speaks about will ultimately be generational, and therefore more lasting. Hey Tumor4u! What was the George Custer Bush Doctrine? Maybe you can QUOTE SARAH PALIN for that summary, eh deadender???

.............duh............

Tumor4u.....you do serve a useful purpose. Your are a messageboard specimen of American political obsolescence and buffoonery.....our very own anonymous punching bag! Shameless to the point of magnificence and cult imbibed like a zombie......YOU, Tumor! You wag your tongue in text, flitting to and fro with childish spite and stupid precast conclusions for events yet to pass, always hairtrigger for President Barack Obama's demise, which would apparently drive you to a christian orgasm! Naughty Tumor4u......but you are what you are and thoroughly exposed every day your shit is read on here. Now....Bush the dim earned his sordid reputation with great merit, disappointing huge numbers of Americans (and our allies) along the way who gave him every chance, myself included.....and he was perhaps the BIGGEST factor in Barack Obama's election to POTUS....... But the perverse evolution of the GOP is larger than the two bizarre terms of one silver spooned cowardly imbecile and you deadenders are not going to have an easy time of it in years to come. Your screw-ball party is fronted by rabid fearmongering and twisting statement driven profiteers and yes.......the bleeding jeezer parade! The names are sick American standards now....repeat after me....Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter, Cheney, Krystal, Rove, Beck, Steele, Palin, Bachmann.... ....names that invoke fear and despair and confusion (which is real good for the Jesus business!)...... Tumor4u, I know you can't embrace the positive momentum that America's good fortune realizes since Obama got the Nobel prize, nor can you respect the independent decision making from people who run the Nobel show without YOUR approval...... .....and you Tumor4u, I imagine, cringe with every sign of improvement in America under the Obama leadership. Think of it this way, Tumor......you are safe to hiss and twist from your anonymous hole on KOTW converting no one to your dead party instead.....helping to dispatch it! Thanks deadender!! Peace! (Nobel style)

..................."THE NOBEL PRIZE COMMITTEE IS A BUNCH OF COMMUNISTS!!!!" ..........right Tumor4U??...........heheheheheheh!! (congrats Barry........now cut the US military in half.......pull the US taxpayer gravytrain from apartheid Israel.......and let's get this nation fixed! )

Sir, I think you're POSTING on it. Now, don't let up.

........and another meaningless, clog-the-board, mosquito-bite topic crafted by Tumor4U.......dies.

Tumor..........get a peep, deadender: Editorial - by Fred E. Foldvary, Senior Editor for The Progress Report Roving Wiretaps To "rove" means to wander from place to place, with no particular destination. A "roving wiretap" is a tap on any telephone that a suspect uses, roving from one telephone to another, with no particular locational target. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation is now authorized to engage in roving wiretaps without having to get approval by a court. The FBI obtained this power in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal 1999, H.R. 3694. The roving wiretap provisions are in section 604, "Wire and Electronic Communications Interception Requirements." (See www.cdt.org/legislation/calea/roving.html by the Center for Democracy and Technology; info@cdt.org). With the power provided by this 1999 Act, the FBI may now tap your telephone to listen to and record your calls, without having to get a court warrant, even if they are not investigating you. If they suspect that someone you know, such as a friend, relative, or business contact, is using your telephone for illegal activities, they may tap your phone. The FBI may tap any phone the suspect uses or even just possible has access to, such as when he visits your house. This applies to faxes and computer messages also. On February 4, 1999, Eric Holder, deputy attorney general of the U.S. defended this expanded FBI power in an article "Only Necessary Wiretaps" in the Washington Post, p. A26. Nat Hentoff in his January 2 column "Raid on Rights" wrote that roving wiretaps were an expansion of federal power, but Holder replied that such taps have been legal since 1986! It's no comfort to learn that the FBI has already been rovingly tapping telephones. But Holder agrees that the 1999 law expanded the scope of the roving taps. The 1986 law required that the suspect was changing phones with the intent of escaping surveillance. Now, the FBI only needs to show that the suspect's actions have the effect of thwarting the snooping. This expansion of wiretap authority needs to be seen in the context of ever-increasing government intrusion into privacy, liberty, and private property. U.S. Representative Bob Barr of Georgia exposed a plan by the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain massive new enforcement powers (www.house.gov/barr/p_doj.html) without any hearings or debate. Among the powers sought by the Department of Justice in 1998 were: an expansion of the definition of terrorism to include domestic crimes having no relationship to terrorism; the power to seize commercial transportation assets; expanded wiretap authority to allow greater use of roving wiretaps and wiretaps without any court authority; enlarged asset forfeiture (confiscation) in both criminal and civil matters; the establishment of a permanent FBI police force; allowing more military involvement in domestic law enforcement; authority to force telephone and internet companies to divulge information on their customers. Barr stated that these proposals "represent a sneak attack on the most cherished principles of our democracy. If they become a part of our law, freedom and privacy in America will be permanently and severely diminished." Even if the intent of these powers is to catch criminals, there are no real constraints on government using these powers on the innocent and to confiscate the property of those who are only suspected of violating laws or who only have innocent connections to those who are engaged in crime. If the legitimate function of government is to protect property rights, it should be clear that the U.S. government has turned this upside down and is violating property rights to a greater degree than all the criminals. When the people's representatives hand over such powers to the law enforcers, they turn government itself into the chief criminal. http://www.progress.org/fold79.htm Why do dummies who complain about DISTRUSTING HUGE GOVERNMENT always: 1- Gleefully encourage ANYTHING the pentagon wants to do in the world and spend on itself? 2- Support every fricken government intrusion on privacy that comes down the pike? All the rabid godshit, maybe?

Taking US leadership and "homeland security" (SAVE THE MOTHERLAND!! HEIL!!) a step more: Nothing the US military has done in Iraq had anything to do with breaking up this plot. Now if you want to consider what the US military has done in Iraq (and so very many other places) to INSPIRE this plot......

Tumor, why are you spamming the board blindly elevating these corrosive media freaks that you so adore? (because you ADORE them!) They represent the worst of America....war, greed, intimidation, hypocrisy, smug cruelty, godshit and all the attendant paranoia of such human toxicity and this is what you emulate. Try to pry away from the television for a change and go take a nice walk in the crisp Autumn air...like say...inbetween the left and middle lanes on I-280? (just kidding deadender! what would KOTW do without our tumor punching bag? )

Wow..........sounds like Vietnam time all over again............simply amazing! But living long does reveal some understanding about how the system works.........like the Federal Reserve Bank and how they LOVE expanding the national debt........and habitually going to war is the ideal way to do it. (just give our mesmerized American TV audience a stream of patriotic slogans and prancing Victoria's Secret-clad cheerleaders and we'll invade ANYBODY! OO-RAH!!) The Federal Reserve Bank operates with some mysteriously free reign since they began in 1913. Why? http://www.ronpaul.com/on-the-issues/audit...eserve-hr-1207/

Until the nation rises DEMANDING to punish these parasites (AND the recently busted Hudson county elected crooks, et al) with consequences that will actually MEAN SOMETHING, the calculating fox will hold no fear of ripping into the hen house, party affiliation notwithstanding.......... But hey.......what can you expect from a nation that re-elected Bush and honors the death of an indefinitely entrenched senator, silver-spooned and Chivas Regaled, who's privilege allowed him to let a woman drown while he ran to hide and formulate his excuses without a tad of the punishment you or I would have received for doing the same thing.......... Do you use Vaseline when you honor your leaders or do you like it dry, tight and abrasive? (question is NOT posed to "ko" particularly)

FIX NOOSE????? COMPLETE THE DEFEAT OF THE DEADENDERS!!!!!

TOOBUS!! THEY NEEDS...............BONUSES!!!!!!!! As vets await checks, VA workers get $24M bonuses By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON – Outside the Veterans Affairs Department, severely wounded veterans have faced financial hardship waiting for their first disability payment. Inside, money has been flowing in the form of $24 million in bonuses. In scathing reports this week, the VA's inspector general said thousands of technology office employees at the VA received the bonuses over a two-year period, some under questionable circumstances. It also detailed abuses ranging from nepotism to an inappropriate relationship between two VA employees. The inspector general accused one recently retired VA official of acting "as if she was given a blank checkbook" as awards and bonuses were distributed to employees of the Office of Information and Technology in 2007 and 2008. In some cases the justification for the bonuses was inadequate or questionable, the IG said. The official, Jennifer S. Duncan, also engaged in nepotism and got $60,000 in bonuses herself, the IG said. In addition, managers improperly authorized college tuition payments for VA employees, some of whom were Duncan's family members and friends. That cost taxpayers nearly $140,000. Separately, a technology office employee became involved in an "inappropriate personal relationship" with a high-level VA official. The technology office employee flew 22 times from Florida to Washington, where the VA official lived. That travel cost $37,000. The details on the alleged improprieties were in two IG reports issued this week. VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts said the agency was extremely concerned about the IG's findings and would pursue a thorough review. "VA does not condone misconduct by its employees and will take the appropriate correction action for those who violate VA policy," Roberts said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. On Friday, Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said if the allegations are found to be true, individuals involved should lose their jobs, and legal action should be taken. "America's veterans served their nation honorably and with no expectations of reward," Davis said in an e-mail. "It should not be too much to ask for that same level of commitment from government employees, too." And Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the top Republican on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, said Congress should investigate. The number of claims the VA needs to process has escalated, and the Information and Technology Office has a critical role in improving the technological infrastructure to handle the increase. President Barack Obama has said creating a seamless transition for records between the Pentagon and the VA could help eliminate a backlog that has left some veterans waiting months for a disability check. Much of the IG's focus was on Duncan, the former executive assistant to the ex-assistant secretary for information and technology, Robert Howard. In one situation, a part-time intern with connections to Duncan was allowed to convert to a full-time paid position even though the individual was working a part-time schedule 500 miles away at college, the IG said. "We have never known of any other new VA employee provided such favorable treatment," the IG said. The individual's name and relationship to Duncan was blacked out, as were many other names in the reports. Investigators recommended that the employees who received the college money pay it back. The largest amount awarded was $33,000. In addition to Duncan, three other high-level employees received $73,000, $58,000 and $59,000 in bonuses in 2007 and 2008, the IG said. In 2007 alone, 4,700 employees were awarded bonuses, on average $2,500 each. Some employees were given cash awards for services that were supposedly provided before the employees started working at VA, the IG said. A man who answered the phone at Duncan's residence in Rehoboth Beach, Del., said she was not available, and he said not to call back. The IG also found that Katherine Adair Martinez, deputy assistant secretary for information protection and risk management in the Office of Information and Technology, misused her position, abused her authority and engaged in prohibited personnel practices when she influenced a VA contractor and later VA subordinates to employ a friend. The IG also said Martinez "took advantage of an inappropriate personal relationship" with Howard to transfer her job to Florida. In the nine months after she moved, the IG said Martinez traveled to Washington 22 times "to accomplish tasks that she could easily do from Florida." The relationship between Martinez and Howard started in April 2007 and continued several months after Howard left the VA in January of this year, the IG said. Roberts' e-mail did not address a request from the AP to speak with Martinez. Howard could not be immediately located for comment. Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer, top Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, urged quick action to fix the problems. "VA must appoint honorable individuals to these critical positions," he said. The VA has faced criticism before in its awarding of bonuses. In 2007, the AP reported that the then-VA secretary had approved a generous package of more than $3.8 million in bonus payments in 2006, citing a need to retain longtime VA executives. http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?n...le&sid=8339

COMPLETE THE DEFEAT OF THE DEADENDERS!!!

TOOBUS!!!! But you would triple the budget of the U.S. military and the CIA and give them free reign to do as they please? YOU BETCHA!!!!!

Deadenders would prefer national collapse when their glutonous and jingoistic hands are off the tiller. They have some bleeding jeezee sophistry about armageddon. It's all part of their fearshit. The CULT of FEAR. BOO!!!!!

The blinders are worn by the dittohead deadenders......the FEAR cult. Cut the U.S. military in half (Obama has begun his opposition to the "blank check" mentality of the killers in pentagon, but not as FAST as I'd like to see it!).........death and the obscene profits from it under the "rockets red glare" rhetoric has gone the way of the slide rule......are you a deadender? Healthcare is a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT.........since when? Since I and many others declared it so........critical mass is here bubsy......try and stop it. You, guest (who the puck are all these guests?) are duplicitous because you cite excessive spending upon Obama as if that imbecile Bush and his GOP goon predecessors didn't run up the national debt to record levels. Go look it up.......the national debt since Raygun the falseman......along the lines of repubs and dems and see who wins the bang. Gonna start "trillioning" Obama like a good widdle swiftboater? Sorry.....the additional zeros were coming no matter the administration and thank the law of political gravity that Americans were not so stupid to reward another republican administration after the Bush trainwreck! In addition, you Obama detractors are cowardly liars. Obama inherited an epic mess from the worst American leader since and before George Custer........yet listening to you MOOKS, you'd have it known that Obama is a Muslim, a foreigner and singlehandedly responsible for the shithole the nation is in. Your hypocrisy and cowardice stinks all the way through my Internet service........ The economy is always driven by pyschology, debt notwithstanding.......would you applaud a posting that said that the latest housing figures dropped into the abyss? With Obama as president, I'd wager that'd give you a deadender's erection. Sorry to remind you the DOW is on the march UPWARDS.......boo fricken hoo, fearmonger...... You are your cult are dinosaurs.......and we got your stinking numbers marked in neon yellow, stroonce. Your fearmongering and your war machine and your friggin' holy bibicular have done enough damage to the nation and the world......get out of the way, deadender......your thinking is poisonous to mankind.

Defeat the deadender FEAR cult.....KEEP IT UP, BABY..... WASHINGTON – Consumer sentiment rose more than expected in August and expectations hit the highest level since the recession began, indications that Americans' pessimism about the economy may be lifting. The housing sector also showed signs of life as a national measure of home prices posted its first quarterly increase in three years. The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday its Consumer Confidence index rose to 54.1 from an upwardly revised 47.4 in July. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a slight increase to 47.5. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090825/ap_on_...e/us_economy_11

It's time to recognize the prime danger to the very survival of the United States comes from those that habitually assert to define who's a "REAL AMERICAN"......... http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2009/08/the-...ng-grandma.html The Entertainment Value of Snuffing Grandma A nation of children roots for the Mafia By Joe Bageant Every day I get letters asking me to weigh in on the healthcare fracas. As if a redneck writer armed with a keyboard, a pack of smokes and all the misinformation and vitriol available on the Internet could contribute anything to the crap storm already in progress. Besides that, my unreasoned but noisy take on this issue is often about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. None of which has ever stopped me from making a fool of myself in the past. So here goes. There ain't any healthcare debate going on, Bubba. What is going on are mob negotiations about insurance, and which mob gets the biggest chunk of the dough, be it our taxpayer dough or the geet that isn't in ole Jim's impoverished purse. The hoo-ha is about the insurance racket, not the delivery of healthcare to human beings. It's simply another form of extorting the people regarding a fundamental need -- health. Unfortunately, the people have been mesmerized by our theater state's purposefully distracting and dramatic media productions for so long they've been mutated toward helplessness. Consequently, they are incapable of asking themselves a simple question: If insurance corporation profits are one third of the cost of healthcare, and all insurance corporations do is deliver our money to healthcare providers for us (or actually, do everything in their power to keep the money for themselves), why do we need insurance companies at all? Answer: Because Wall Street gets a big piece of the action. And nobody messes with the Wall Street Mob (as the bailout extortion money proved). Better (and worse) presidents have tried. Some made a genuine effort to push it through Congress. Others expressed the desire publicly, but after getting privately muscled by the healthcare industry, decided to back off from the idea. For instance: Franklin Roosevelt wanted universal healthcare. Harry Truman wanted universal healthcare. Dwight Eisenhower wanted universal healthcare. Richard Nixon wanted universal healthcare. Lyndon Johnson wanted universal healthcare. Bill Clinton wanted -- well we can't definitely say because he made sure that if the issue blew up on him, which it did, Hillary would be left holding the turd. Is it any wonder that woman gets so snappy at the slightest provocation? First getting left to hold the bag on healthcare, then the spots on that blue dress. So why did American liberals believe Obama would bring home the healthcare bacon? Because they live in an ideological cupcake land. It's a big neighborhood, a very special place where "Your vote is important," and "by electing the right candidate, you can change our beloved nation." Most of America lives in that neighborhood, even though they've never personally met. It's a place where the shrubbery and flowerbeds of such things as "values" and "hope" bloom. Hope that our desires coupled with the efforts of a good and decent president can affect "change." Evidently these voters never heard the old adage, "Hope in one hand and piss in the other, and see which one fills up first." The slaughter of the innocents by the healthcare lobby has pretty much extinguished the political usefulness of the word hope. Nobody, especially Obama, uses it now. The first on-stage scuffle of the Obama administration, government assured healthcare, quickly settled down into the accustomed scenario of very rich and powerful people in expensive suits "finding middle ground," otherwise known as the status quo. Single payer healthcare soon became "a consumer government alternative to private insurance," and is now "a system of health cooperatives. Next comes "slightly better health insurance (but not medical services) than before, from the same insurance companies but at twice the price; don't worry though, we're increasing your tax load so you can afford it." The televised screaming matches, having served their purpose, are over now. The presidency and the nation have settled back into the normalcy of the officially sanctioned state consciousness and its curious non-language, one modified and shaped daily by corporate and government symbiosis. Over generations we've come to internalize this imagistic language, which is quite theatrical when heated up for public consumption and dully bureaucratic when attention is to be avoided. But always it is void of content and any sort of truth. In the corporately managed theater state, it's not whether a thing is true that matters, but how it sounds and looks and what you call it. Call end of life counseling a "death panel," and you've just turned mercy and choice into one more Great Satan. In the end though, healthcare American style comes down to the preferences of two elite castes, Congress and corporate powers, neither of which can exist without the other. Corporations need the government to sanction their methods of extracting wealth from the public. Congress needs corporations to finance its campaign chariot races. Right now members of Congress have an excellent chance of putting the arm on healthcare industry lobbyist for some real cash: Senator Smedley Heathwood: "Oh, I dunno, I'm sort of liking Obama's alternative." Godzilla Healthcare Inc.: "Here, take this suitcase full of gold bullion, call me if you run short. And remember, we've got that ‘Life is a pre-existing condition' bill coming up in the Senate soon." Siamese twins, joined at the hip, they share the same goal, preservation of control -- the government's social control and the corporations' economic control. And you cannot have one without the other. Obama got elected on hope of reform, despite that one cannot reform a mafia, only pay increased extortion moneys. He's fortunate that it was not a genuine demand for reform, just hope. We're fortunate we did not demand reform because we're not going to get it. Obama doesn't have to reform the healthcare industry mob. All he has to do is look like he took a shot at it, and hope it's convincing enough. What we've seen is probably his best shot, too. Why not? There is always the off chance it might work, in which case his "presidential legacy" would be assured. And if it doesn't, well, the serious progressives who are screeching mad at him now will still have to vote for him as the incumbent in 2012. Or learn to love somebody like Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum (take your pick) or some as-yet-unknown the GOP drags out from under the hen house and ballyhoos as a "new face." Luckily, Dick Cheney is out of the question, barring a coup by the far right wing of the schizophrenic GOP. But still, after Palin, one shudders at the prospects. Whatever happens, we will not see Congress stand up against the extortion of its people by the healthcare industry. We will not see even the most ordinary kind of healthcare declared as a human right, as it is in so many other nations. We will see, however, greater access to the public treasury by the insurance corporations. Every nation in the world is now party to at least one treaty that addresses health as a human right, including the conditions necessary for the delivery of health services. Healthcare is a right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hell, even Saddam Hussein provided healthcare. That Americans cannot grasp this fundamental aspect of human rights (but then we cannot even get child nutrition, or limiting the number of times you can taser an old lady in an airport, out of the starting gate) and join the civilized world and assure its people of such things is testimony. Testimony that we live in a vacuum exclusive of the accepted standard of mercy and decency common to civilized democratic nations elsewhere. Testimony that even we the citizenry would rather maintain and spread lies than accept truths such as most people in countries with universal healthcare would not ever give it up in favor of the U.S. system. Most of all though, it is testimony that we live under an induced mass hallucination where spectacle replaces fact, information and common sense. In place of actionable information, we are served up screaming red faces -- angry mobs manufactured for TV protesting "government interference in the people's healthcare choices." One must wonder what inchoate anger is really being tapped by the organizers of these strange "citizen protests." As usual, the straw boogeyman of socialism is once more invoked. "Oh my god! I'll have to give up my $1,100 a month insurance bill, which only pays 80% of my insurance costs AFTER I pay the initial $5,000 of those costs! If that ain't Joe Stalin all over again, I don't know what is!" We get the false media drama of "death panels." And being captives of spectacle and hyperbole, we friggin love it. The idea of death panels plays to our childish attraction to the extreme and entertaining. Killing Grandma is far more entertaining to our imaginations than say, guaranteed access to chest screens and blood pressure medicine. Two generations into this national infantilization, it's now the only national life we know -- the ideological spectacle made real. To steal a page from Guy Debord, society has become ideology. We live in an antidialectical false consciousness, imposed at every moment on everyday life as spectacle. We are held in thrall. Our faculty of ordinary encounter has been systematically broken down. In its place we now have our unique social hallucination. Never do we encounter anything directly, yet we get the illusion of encounter. This includes encounter with each other. Anyone who lives in meatspace with his or her fellow Americans could not deny 57 million of them health. In this society no one is any longer capable of recognizing anyone else. Instead, we see others as the screamers at the town hall meetings, or as communists who want to give free healthcare to illegals and establish death panels. Or as Christian fundamentalists, or as liberals or conservatives. Or as celebrities or as nobodies. But most importantly, whenever we must reach any significant agreement as human beings, whether it be about something as globally insignificant as U.S. domestic policy (we are only 6% of the world population, and though it hasn't soaked in yet to most Americans, we're also broke and owe the Chinese loan shark a wad) or as significant as global warming, we immediately cede the field to ideology. We simply don't know how to do anything else. Ideology has utterly triumphed. It has separated us from ourselves and built itself a home inside our consciousness, from whence it operates now as our reality. There is no going back, only forward. Given that we are a nation of children who prefer to close our eyes and make a hopeful wish with Tinkerbelle, rather than give hope the piss test, then let us hope to high hell. We may as well go for broke. So let us hope that, in going forward, new and unforeseen developments in the national consciousness occur. Developments that offer an escape from this one so deeply colonized by the corpo-political machinery we created -- and which in turn recreated us. One that will break us loose from enthrallment. Maybe collision with a giant asteroid. Or that Garth Brooks will be barred from making a fifth comeback tour. That's one hope. A consciousness shattering event by American standards. Another hope is for an absolute and total collapse of the system. At this point, I'll take what I can get.

June 4, 2009, 2:36 pm Medical Bills Cause Most Bankruptcies By Tara Parker-Pope Nearly two out of three bankruptcies stem from medical bills, and even people with health insurance face financial disaster if they experience a serious illness, a new study shows. The study data, published online Thursday in The American Journal of Medicine, likely understate the full scope of the problem because the data were collected before the current economic crisis. In 2007, medical problems contributed to 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies. Between 2001 and 2007, the proportion of all bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by about 50 percent. “The U.S. health care financing system is broken, and not only for the poor and uninsured,” the study authors wrote. “Middle-class families frequently collapse under the strain of a health care system that treats physical wounds, but often inflicts fiscal ones.” The data on medical bankruptcy, compiled by researchers at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University, is based on a survey of 2,314 randomly selected bankruptcy filers during early 2007. Among families who were bankrupted by illness, those with private insurance reported average medical bills of $17,749 compared to those who were uninsured, who faced an average of $26,971 in medical costs. Those who had health insurance but lost it in the course of their illness reported average medical bills of $22,568. Hospital costs accounted for about half the expenses (48 percent), followed by prescription drugs (18.6 percent), doctor’s bills (15.1 percent) and insurance premiums (4.1 percent). Medical equipment and nursing home care rounded out the list. The health problems that left patients with the highest out-of-pocket expenses were ranked as follows: Neurologic (i.e., multiple sclerosis): $34,167 Diabetes: $26,971 Injuries: 25,096 Stroke: $23,380 Mental illnesses: $23,178 Heart disease: $21,955 http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/m...t-bankruptcies/ .............."enough said" patriot deadender?........or shall I continue your forum thrashing by citing the bloatedly corrupt cult that the U.S. military is via the V-22 Osprey boondoggle as the flagship example? hmmmmmmmmmm? (psssssssttttttt, deadender patriotic? As far as all those evil terrorists you keep seeing in your cornflakes.....there are some mighty impressive psychotropic drugs available to make them ALL GO AWAY.....if you can afford the prescription!)

Nothing in the article is an endorsement of the U.S. system of healthcare (are you surprised?). They are looking to Europe for examples (are you surprised?) to reform upon....... Your assignment is to rent/borrow Michael Moore's "Sicko" to get a gander about what's wrong with the American healthcare system and to get a clue on how other nations do it.......bear in mind the parasitic profiteers in America that want nothing to change (are you surprised?). Insurance company policies are fine for house fires and auto accidents but have no place in healthcare, NONE. The money that is generated in the business of sickness and injury and FITNESS in all societies should remain between the patient and healthcare providers and their hands-on support staff, not RATIONING and PARASITIC insurance companies who have gotten into the picture through perverse capitalistic evolution while Americans were busy watching Ed Sullivan. Lastly, purchasing health insurance coverage in America is purchasing a "blind item".......no one, no where without the HUGE mechanism of actuarial computation and pertinent statistics can determine what healthcare plan is better than another relative to the premium payment.......insurance reps cling to a favorite policy to sell and promote THAT one for best commissions and to avoid the confusion of "too much choice" for buyers that are mere babes in the woods.....I challenge you to SHOP for healthcare coverage WITHOUT engaging in a dialogue with the insurance reps that sounds like Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" routine.........it is pure lunacy and the ultimate ruse that people think they know what they're getting! Does it trouble anyone but me that a typical doctor's office has a TEAM of billing/insurance people? Does it create a moment of critical reflection when you stop to understand that the US healthcare system is so ridiculous that an entire dicipline of trained individuals exists in the endeavor of "medical billing"? What a waste of human life and for what? Profiteering upon tragedy.........(the same artificial industry of specialists exists in the cruel IRS tax circus we also have yoked upon us). There is only ONE health care plan that must exist.......a PROPER one for every human being.......one that is universally (hope that word dun scare yee) simplified for all to understand, one that profits those that inject needles, cut flesh and clean bedpans and NOT scumbags in insurance towers, and one that bankrupts NO PATIENT.....because how can healing and fitness be optimized when the instant anxiety of medical bills under the present US system is so often worse than the issue of your health disorder? How do we pay for it? We begin by cutting the U.S. military in half......which will STILL allow the clowns in the pentagon to bully the world.......and don't forget all the money saved for the only meaningful principals (patients and healers/necessary staff) in this issue when insurance companies are kicked to the gutter........ Trust me.....the money is there but EXPECT those that steal it to object VEHEMENTLY. (are you surprised?) Lastly......for those of you that want to undermine my Michael Moore "Sicko" assignment by "swiftboating" him......the people in the film are real.......their experiences EXIST despite your vile disdain for Michael Moore.......

Toobus look........ Every one of these names you identify emblem precisely the epic mess America has become. Quotations from every one of them are magnificently abundant as indications of their smug elitism, self-serving gluttony, bold lies creative and not, cowardice, hypocrisy, crimes against mankind and the environment of our shrinking planet. This collection of bellowing, educated ghouls you arbitrarily cite to defend and promote in response to a thoughtful humanistic posting is another nugget of evidence that your place here on KOTW is that of a forum punching bag. Thank you for prompting me to keep active in this venue. I like to keep in shape.