Disqus - Latest Comments for Slamfu

Re: Is the Stimulus Working?

Dr_J — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:59:36 -0000

I think you're confusing TARP with the stimulus.

Re: The Town Where “Death Panels” Started

Slamfu — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:40:11 -0000

This death panel bs is so typical of conservative PR machines. Take a decent idea(end of life planning in this case), strip it of all context, take the worst possible interpretation of whats left and present that to the public as an example of liberal ideology. I swear every regular FOX news listener I know is convinced there will literally be a group of gov't functionaries deciding your fate if "Obamacare" gets pushed through. The right does this with great frequency and with more gusto than the left by far.

Re: Is the Stimulus Working?

Slamfu — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:20:37 -0000

Well, considering our financial institutions were hair's breadth away from going insolvent and they are still around I would say its working. I mean, a depression was looming there, our banks almost went out. So yea, I would say its pretty obvious its working.

Re: Coming Consensus on Afghanistan

Slamfu — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:56:21 -0000

Well unlike Iraq, this country actually was tied into the GWOT and was the training ground for Al-Queda. Now that Pakistan is finally putting pressure on the tribes from their side, we need to maintain the pressure from our side. Giving up now when we are finally able to devote the resources that were being uselessly tied up in Iraq seems like a bad idea.

Re: Sarah Palin’s Imagery Management Is About To Get Harder

Slamfu — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:19:22 -0000

This is news? Someone beating up on Sarah Palin again, oh joy.

Re: Obama’s Health Care Reform Will Decimate Our Population

Slamfu — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:29:42 -0000

In Elroy's defence there was so much repetitive drivel it was sorta hard to make it all the way to the bottom.

Re: The Truth About Charles Grassley (and Health-Care Reform)

vey9 — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:27:10 -0000

"My god, can you imagine what would have happened if the SS money had been put on the stock market."

Well, some stockbrokers I knew at the time thought it was a swell idea.

Re: The Truth About Charles Grassley (and Health-Care Reform)

Slamfu — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:17:02 -0000

My god, can you imagine what would have happened if the SS money had been put on the stock market. I'd actually kinda forgotten about that. The Dems should be touting that as a major victory if they were the ones that stoopped it. .

Re: Why Americans are Up in Arms (Guest Voice)

Slamfu — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:08:24 -0000

Zzzzz, you just don't get it. Sure, Bush might have been abolishing habeus corpus and spying on us with gov't resources and no warrants, but Obama is trying to give us free healthcare! Surely you can see the difference, the clear and present danger that Obama presents to the founding principles of this country. Obama = Hitler. There, I said it.

Re: Harry Reid in Local Feud

Slamfu — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:13:11 -0000

Good, Harry Reid is a jackass. While I thought Bush and his crew were just short of criminally negligent in the running of this nation for 8 years, I knew as much as I liked Obama the dems would only screw up in different, hopefully less destructive and less expensives ways. And I've known for years that the dem who would most likely be out in front doing his best to drop the ball would be Harry Reid.

Re: Arizona Pastor Repeats Wish For Barack Obama’s Death

Slamfu — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:08:18 -0000

How big is this guy's following? Maybe he's a crackpot and maybe he's got a 10,000 strong flock. Knowing the uber conservatives that lap up this kind of thing it could be a sizable group that listens to him. I used to thing Mike Savage and Rush were too far out there to be taken seriously and yet they have huge followings.

Re: The Moral Question (Guest Voice)

Slamfu — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:43:29 -0000

Putting it in terms like "is killing one to save many worth it" is wrong. First, we are not talking about apples here, and second, you are not even stating what is you are in fact trading. Its not the life of one killer for the life of x amount of innocents. What are are trading is your ideals, for an unsure payoff. My understanding is we as a nation put those ideals forward because they are the greater good. That in fact those ideas are more important that the lives that would be saved preventing a bomb going off on a subway car. Ideals are what separate us from the bad guys. They are hard to live by if they are worthy, that's why they are referred to as noble ideals instead of ignoble ones. The idea of noble is one of sacrifice and burden.

Fear is what happens when you realize you might die now, and all of a sudden you have an out by forsaking those ideals. Especially when the cost is so cheap, the life and comfort of a proven killer in exchange for the hopeful insurance of my own life and comfort. Even though it is the act itself that needs to be considered not the relative worth of the person its being done to. Because, we have always seen in history the act will be applied eventually to the innocent as well as the guilty. So what you need to ask yourself is not is it worth it to do this to a killer to save lives, but is it worth it to torture one of my own loved ones to do save these lives. If you think it is still worth the sacrifice, then perhaps you are right.

Re: Why are Jews liberals?

Slamfu — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:38:05 -0000

They are liberals I believe because the core of the conservative ideal is for a white christian America. You can hear it every time Hannity, Rush, Coulter, talk about minorities, immigrants or folk with a different religion. Its the fear of losing what they consider to be their rightful place in the world. That their way of things must not only be considered equal it must be dominant or it is under attack and in danger. That's why the liberals will always have the larger share of the demographics in all non white, non christian groups.

Re: G.W. Bush: The Real Jimmy Doolitle of ‘Nam?

RememebrNovember — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:23:24 -0000

haha,Yeah, would be funny if John Adams, when pressed failed to remember signing off on teh Constitution. Considering I was a freshman in college at the time, I am grateful I can remember that far back. Mostly I just remember drooling over Fawn Hall, and laughing at the fact that John Poindexter looked like a "poindexter". For the rest of us, it's called history.

@ Father TIme, I was under the impression GWB skipped out of ANG early ( thus not having enough air time) to go work on someone's campaign.

@DLS- Given the fact that our nation is one of the most industrially developed and least "green" I think it is imperative we get on the stick vis a vis global climate change. Global Warming is a misnomer- it doesn't neccessarily mean your particular area is getting hotter. There's 58 million square miles of this planet affected, hence "Global". You think our setting off tons of nukes in the 40s and 50s , along with Russia and CHina had no cumulative effect,along with the polution? There's an area in the Pacific Ocean that is the equivalent ofa landfill, plastic junk that's just floating around killing wildlife.

Re: Rhetoric Is Now Dangerously Beneath Contempt

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:33:43 -0000

Well, buchanans "We Need 'Rough Men' at the CIA" sounds a lot like the grandmother eating one.

Re: Bernanke Does A Cheney

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:23:07 -0000

Transparency anyone? Jesus I thought we were going to get some with a new president.

Re: We Are A Culture Of Liars

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:20:24 -0000

What I never understood is public acceptance of lies, how as long as they are stuck to they are truth, a joke almost. The example of the tobacco company was a great one. Everyone knew nicotine was addictive, but i wasn't until the companies themselves admitted it was that they were liable. Bill Clinton "Didn't inhale", I mean give me a break. But until the lie is owned up to, it is in every measurable way and for all intents and purposes, the truth. Its really a weird phenomenon.

Re: Health Reform is Not the End of America as We Know It

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:25:42 -0000

I got your Social Security fix, its easy and fun! START HAVING BABIES PEOPLE!! Oh, and make sure they get an education and jobs.

Re: G.W. Bush: The Real Jimmy Doolitle of ‘Nam?

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:07:17 -0000

Thats hardly fair expecting someone to remember something from decades past. But that's why they make you sign a document, so no one has to wonder.

Re: G.W. Bush: The Real Jimmy Doolitle of ‘Nam?

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:04:18 -0000

Flipping their respective VN war records was perhaps the greatest PR accomplishment of all time. It was a testament to the gullibility of the American public and what you can do by repeating absolute BS long enough and loud enough.

Bush dodged combat via connections, Kerry actually served in combat, was shot at and killed people, end of story. There is no right or left side to this, that's what happened.

Re: What Secrets Lie Behind Redacted Portions of CIA Report?

Slamfu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:39:28 -0000

Gotta wonder the the point is of the FOIA sometimes. We can't tell you we did that because its really, really bad and um, would compromise national security, yea, thats it.

Re: Health Reform is Not the End of America as We Know It

Dr_J — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:39:55 -0000

"The AMA decides how many types of how many of each specialty they will allow into a field every year. This is their mechanism to keep salaries up. They are the ones in effect who are rationing healthcare."

An excellent point. The accreditation path for nurses is likewise narrow and steep, thanks to the tireless lobbying efforts of nurses' unions eager to reduce competition and preserve their six-figure salaries. "Nurse shortage? We've heard ugly rumors, but there never seems to be any at our union meetings."

The solution is not less private enterprise but more. The AMA and the unions and Enron have all gotten away with their protectionist maneuvering thanks to the gullability or collusion of regulators. Those private groups correctly identify the government with its power to regulate as the vulnerability in the system, the single point of failure, and they take advantage of it.

A competitive market, though, has no single point of failure, no single body lobbyists can bamboozle. No company (or union) can exact too sweet a deal, because the next one will undercut them. We desperately need more competition in all areas of health care.

Re: Health Reform is Not the End of America as We Know It

denisedh — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:04:16 -0000

Slamfu, this is so true. I work in the public healthcare section, at a public hospital largely supported by state taxpayers, providing services to mostly indigent patients. We recently hired then fired a CEO who had spent their entire career in the private healthcare sector. The CEO appalled our facility by abusing resources (state vehicles, housing, etc.), and at some point I realized his sense of entitlement was related to the fact that in the private sector, the company could write off all those expenses. Ironically, there is more accountability in our system, expenses must be justified as whether they benefit patients and the state as a whole...

Re: Health Reform is Not the End of America as We Know It

casualobserver — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:57:33 -0000

Slam, I don't think we agree often, but I do agree with you on the cost side of healthcare.

And the lack of Demcare actually addressing it head-on, as opposed to offering a) believe us, it will lower costs, b) hey, we'll find "savings and efficiencies" in Medicare, c), hey, we'll eliminate private sector profits and advertising costs (which comprise somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5% of annual US healthcare costs.....meaning your cost will go up only 7.5% per year as opposed to 7.8%).

I don't think Rush Limbaugh's radio show cost Obama and Demcare 20 support points. I think the more people hear details, the more they realize this is more about expansion of the cost pool and doing very little for the costs they are now already paying.

But the Dems are content to simply proselytize about their greater moral virtue while public support sinks lower and lower.

Re: Health Reform is Not the End of America as We Know It

Slamfu — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:27:49 -0000

"Except that costs are skyrocketing in all the government run programs as well as in the private non-profit medical sector. How do you explain that?"

Because they are all buying from the same trough. And those programs are getting gouged from the private sector as well. Basic fact is prices are rising way faster than inflation and everyone just accepts it. No one want to take a look at the industry to fix things. For instance, the AMA decides how many types of how many of each specialty they will allow into a field every year. This is their mechanism to keep salaries up. They are the ones in effect who are rationing healthcare. As well as say Pfizer, who sells pills here for $25 that they sell to countries like France, with its socialized medicine and consquent purchasing power, for $6. Why? Because the system is currently structured in a way that this price fixing can go on and most people will never notice. They will simply look at the rising costs and shrug their shoulders as if nothing can be done.