#77772 by Kramerguy
Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:08 pm
Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:08 pm
Someone on a blog posted this rant, and I just felt inspired to share it, it mirrors my feelings, beliefs, dis-beliefs, etc.. have a read, feel free to debate any points made in it-
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I'd respect Obama a lot more is he would just come out and tell us all the unvarnished, blunt truth----that as President, aside from his powers as Commander-in-Chief, he is quite powerless to get anything done of any substance in terms of healthcare, jobs, foreclosures, the economy, sending jobs overseas, immigration policy, education, etc.
And I'm not so sure he is really Commander-in-Chief. It seems as if the Commanders on the ground are calling the shots, not Obama.
Corporations run the nation. Money equals power. Those who have the most money to throw at Congressmen, Senators and Presidential candidates, get the legislation they need to enrich themselves to the tune of millions and billions.
Also, attacking another nation is the "war business". It generates revenue and profits, quarterly results, equity, assets, dividends, etc. So, in effect, Obama, and any President is the CEO of the War Corporation (especially since so much of war has now been outsourced to sub-contractors).
I think Obama CAN have a lot of power, but he chooses not too, for reasons that are hazy to figure out.
He's definitely not a George Washington who put his own life on the line over and over, and then as President, reluctantly served, only to help establish the nation.
He's definitely not a Abraham Lincoln, who led a simple life and endured many more hardships and personal sufferings than Obama ever has.
He's definitely not an FDR, nor an LBJ (excluding LBJ's Vietnam debacle).
We've been proposing single payer universal healthcare since Teddy Roosevelt. To see Obama elected on the basis that he was the most liberal Senator in the Senate and one who would likely push for a single payer plan (even though he never really admitted he would), and now to see him waffling about a "public option" is quite disheartening.
Afterall, if not now------when? Is not 50 million to 70 million with no heatlh insurance enough? Is not 22,000 deaths due to insurance denials or insurance obstacles to coverage, not enough deaths?
Premiums at $500 a month, and $1200 a month, and $1800 a month, and $2000 a month, not enough to take form ordinary folks salaries?
Is not 750,000 bankruptcies for medical bills a year not enough?
Is spending $3 trillion on the Iraq debacle not shocking enough?
Does it not perturb Obama that we are still spending $15 billion on destroying Iraq? And having young Americans die for basically no good reason?
I may be wrong but he seems to be turing his back on the very people that voted for him, and those 2 million who weeps and cried with joy at his inauguration.
Rather than a call to greatness with great visions of what American can be and should be and a determination on his part to make it so, he seems to be cozying up to the very crowd that wants him to fail, and to the Corporations that just want to continue to milk the system dry, at the expense of consumers, workers, taxpayers and the common man.
I dont know what a human life is worth, or what a perfect heatlh system should cost the nation, but I do know that spending $3 trillion on trying to fight a non-war in Iraq that was started on lies, deceit and deception on the part of pres Bush, is absurd, and a disgrace.
I do know that throwing $800 billion at Wall Street Banks to unfreeze the credit markets which to this day are still frozen, has turned out to be a sham. Those CEO's should be living in the backs of their cars, not in million dollar mansions, after destroying their companies.
If all the waste and killing and destruction and devastation and injuries and disabilities that $3 trillion bought us in Iraq, then a few trillion over ten years to have every man, woman, and child in America to have free healthcare for life (paid for with a fair and equitable general tax on all individuals and businesses) would seem like a freakin' bargain.
In one week we give almost a trillion to Wall Steet for "credit problems"; but we cant muster the will to spend a trillion over ten years to give 300 million people, full coverage health care.
I dont really give a sh*t anymore what single payer healthcare costs. Let's get it first, and then figure out how much it will cost. Thats how we launch and authorize and fight wars. We do it first. Then we just hide the final bill in a mishmash of off-budget expenditures paid for with borrowed money from China.
I'm getting nauseous again.
Every freakin' problem we have seems to have to have a solution that requires a 1000 page piece of legislation. Who the hell sits down and writes 1000 pages? Who are these people? Where is the writing done? Who dictates it? Who makes up the exact words? I'd love to see the real process of how 1000 pages comes together that is apparentl written by 100 Senators and 450 Congressmen and the Fortune 500 represented by about 35,000 lobbyists. Oh yes, and the many hundreds or even thousands of Congressional Staff writers. Who does all this writing, and typing, and editing, and sticking in their own pet phrases, and sentences, and words that result in tens of billions of dollars teetering on the edge of knife, falling one way or the other way.
Apparently, the simple "non-negotiation" clause that declared that the Federal Government couldnt negotiate drug prices for volume discounts for taxpayers in the Medicare system, was passed by those Republican scoundrels n the dark of night, purposely excluding any Democrats. The total cost was estimated to be a windfall revenue of $750 billion over 10 years for the drug companies, over and above their regular outrageous prices. This is OUR Government at work.
I hate to even call it our Government because I dont consider it our Government. I consider it a bunch of crooks, liars, thieves, con men, opportunists, bigoted white men, elitists who can't relate to anyone not making over a million a year, heirs to great family fortunes, and assorted snakeoil salemen, along with phony religious fanatics and hipocrits.
In my mind, I try to always remember that this is not really our Government. It might as well be the Mafia or Cosa Nostra. It's corrupt to the bone, and life means nothing. Even murder mean nothing, which is what Iraq has come to symbolize----just pure murder to keep the war machine profitable.
For the life of me, I dont know why we need 25,000 nuclear bombs and why they just arent dismantled and discarded for the most part over about a six month period. No one even knows how much it costs to maintain them because it apparently is not in the regular defense budget.
Do ya think we'll ever get someone who really levels with us? And someone who has a fierce "fire in the belly" to accomplish grand and magnificent visions for the future.
The solutions to all our problems are quite simple. They just need a leader.
----------------------
I'd respect Obama a lot more is he would just come out and tell us all the unvarnished, blunt truth----that as President, aside from his powers as Commander-in-Chief, he is quite powerless to get anything done of any substance in terms of healthcare, jobs, foreclosures, the economy, sending jobs overseas, immigration policy, education, etc.
And I'm not so sure he is really Commander-in-Chief. It seems as if the Commanders on the ground are calling the shots, not Obama.
Corporations run the nation. Money equals power. Those who have the most money to throw at Congressmen, Senators and Presidential candidates, get the legislation they need to enrich themselves to the tune of millions and billions.
Also, attacking another nation is the "war business". It generates revenue and profits, quarterly results, equity, assets, dividends, etc. So, in effect, Obama, and any President is the CEO of the War Corporation (especially since so much of war has now been outsourced to sub-contractors).
I think Obama CAN have a lot of power, but he chooses not too, for reasons that are hazy to figure out.
He's definitely not a George Washington who put his own life on the line over and over, and then as President, reluctantly served, only to help establish the nation.
He's definitely not a Abraham Lincoln, who led a simple life and endured many more hardships and personal sufferings than Obama ever has.
He's definitely not an FDR, nor an LBJ (excluding LBJ's Vietnam debacle).
We've been proposing single payer universal healthcare since Teddy Roosevelt. To see Obama elected on the basis that he was the most liberal Senator in the Senate and one who would likely push for a single payer plan (even though he never really admitted he would), and now to see him waffling about a "public option" is quite disheartening.
Afterall, if not now------when? Is not 50 million to 70 million with no heatlh insurance enough? Is not 22,000 deaths due to insurance denials or insurance obstacles to coverage, not enough deaths?
Premiums at $500 a month, and $1200 a month, and $1800 a month, and $2000 a month, not enough to take form ordinary folks salaries?
Is not 750,000 bankruptcies for medical bills a year not enough?
Is spending $3 trillion on the Iraq debacle not shocking enough?
Does it not perturb Obama that we are still spending $15 billion on destroying Iraq? And having young Americans die for basically no good reason?
I may be wrong but he seems to be turing his back on the very people that voted for him, and those 2 million who weeps and cried with joy at his inauguration.
Rather than a call to greatness with great visions of what American can be and should be and a determination on his part to make it so, he seems to be cozying up to the very crowd that wants him to fail, and to the Corporations that just want to continue to milk the system dry, at the expense of consumers, workers, taxpayers and the common man.
I dont know what a human life is worth, or what a perfect heatlh system should cost the nation, but I do know that spending $3 trillion on trying to fight a non-war in Iraq that was started on lies, deceit and deception on the part of pres Bush, is absurd, and a disgrace.
I do know that throwing $800 billion at Wall Street Banks to unfreeze the credit markets which to this day are still frozen, has turned out to be a sham. Those CEO's should be living in the backs of their cars, not in million dollar mansions, after destroying their companies.
If all the waste and killing and destruction and devastation and injuries and disabilities that $3 trillion bought us in Iraq, then a few trillion over ten years to have every man, woman, and child in America to have free healthcare for life (paid for with a fair and equitable general tax on all individuals and businesses) would seem like a freakin' bargain.
In one week we give almost a trillion to Wall Steet for "credit problems"; but we cant muster the will to spend a trillion over ten years to give 300 million people, full coverage health care.
I dont really give a sh*t anymore what single payer healthcare costs. Let's get it first, and then figure out how much it will cost. Thats how we launch and authorize and fight wars. We do it first. Then we just hide the final bill in a mishmash of off-budget expenditures paid for with borrowed money from China.
I'm getting nauseous again.
Every freakin' problem we have seems to have to have a solution that requires a 1000 page piece of legislation. Who the hell sits down and writes 1000 pages? Who are these people? Where is the writing done? Who dictates it? Who makes up the exact words? I'd love to see the real process of how 1000 pages comes together that is apparentl written by 100 Senators and 450 Congressmen and the Fortune 500 represented by about 35,000 lobbyists. Oh yes, and the many hundreds or even thousands of Congressional Staff writers. Who does all this writing, and typing, and editing, and sticking in their own pet phrases, and sentences, and words that result in tens of billions of dollars teetering on the edge of knife, falling one way or the other way.
Apparently, the simple "non-negotiation" clause that declared that the Federal Government couldnt negotiate drug prices for volume discounts for taxpayers in the Medicare system, was passed by those Republican scoundrels n the dark of night, purposely excluding any Democrats. The total cost was estimated to be a windfall revenue of $750 billion over 10 years for the drug companies, over and above their regular outrageous prices. This is OUR Government at work.
I hate to even call it our Government because I dont consider it our Government. I consider it a bunch of crooks, liars, thieves, con men, opportunists, bigoted white men, elitists who can't relate to anyone not making over a million a year, heirs to great family fortunes, and assorted snakeoil salemen, along with phony religious fanatics and hipocrits.
In my mind, I try to always remember that this is not really our Government. It might as well be the Mafia or Cosa Nostra. It's corrupt to the bone, and life means nothing. Even murder mean nothing, which is what Iraq has come to symbolize----just pure murder to keep the war machine profitable.
For the life of me, I dont know why we need 25,000 nuclear bombs and why they just arent dismantled and discarded for the most part over about a six month period. No one even knows how much it costs to maintain them because it apparently is not in the regular defense budget.
Do ya think we'll ever get someone who really levels with us? And someone who has a fierce "fire in the belly" to accomplish grand and magnificent visions for the future.
The solutions to all our problems are quite simple. They just need a leader.
