The NYT piece about Gruber is amazing. A big part of why we’re in this mess is his ego.

So do you support the Blunt Amendment, which would allow employers to opt out of providing any medical service they had moral objections to or is it just the slut pills you think should get an exemption?

Also, you’re required to have liability insurance, to cover damages to others, not to have full coverage for yourself. Another key difference is auto insurance, whether strictly liability or full coverage, is purely catastrophic. You can’t use it for routine maintenance or to fix manufacturing defects of your vehicle. And the older you and your car get, the lower your premiums are. Auto and health insurance are both called insurance but the similarity ends there. They work almost exactly the opposite from each other.

Thank you, Jon! People keep making the adverse selection death spiral argument for the mandate: “OMG people will wait until they’re sick to buy insurance unless there’s a mandate OMG!!!”. But 85% of the country is covered, and at least half of them are on private group or employer-based plans. Most of the people currently covered are not at death’s door so it’s likely that they are covered because the coverage offered to them is a smoking deal. When I worked at a large corporation that offered both a generous health plan and a robust 401K/profit sharing/stock participation plan I saw a large number of the young invincibles opt out of the investment stuff because they’d rather have the money in their pockets. But no one opted out of the health insurance, because it was excellent and heavily subsidized.

And mulps, maybe you could explain this whole “maintaining the fight in good and bad times” thing to the Keep The Powder DryTM crowd. Because I sure as shit didn’t see that fight when Sec. Sebelius overruled science to keep Plan B off the shelves for young girls and Pres. Obama agreed with her. What the ever loving fuck did that do besides give legitimacy to anti-choice authoritarians? When the Dems cede yet more ground to the anti-contraception Bishops I’m sure you’ll be right there to lecture us progressives on how we need to think of the long war. Funny, but the Republicans whose battle skills you have so much respect for don’t seem to give a damn inch on this issue. They’re full speed ahead on the Personhood At Conception Crusade.

Where the FUCK were the Dem generals while those of us in the hinterlands were fighting off the Teabag Tory onslaught? They set up weak ass “health care rallies” here in AZ in 2009 where they told single payer advocates to put their signs down because “we don’t want people to think we’re for a ‘government takeover of health care!” Which we got accused of ANYWAY, complete with “death panels” Then in 2010 we were called retards and whiners and druggies because we weren’t clapping hard enough for a 3000 page ‘signature’ health care bill with no public option and an unpopular as fuck mandate. Oh yeah, and sky high unemployment.

Also, here in AZ we Dems trying desperately to hold onto Congressional seats and save our state exec and lege seats from teabagger wackaloons in the midst of the SB1070 shitstorm are at fault because we weren’t big enough cheerleaders for Pres. Obama. Perhaps you should take that up with the AZ Dem state party chair at the time, who wrote an Op-Ed to the Arizona Republic begging voters not to take their anger at Obama out on down ticket Democratic candidates just prior to the election. He must be a fair weather mock battle warrior too.

And back again… We absolutely HAD to pass the tax cut extension (and add a trillion to the deficit) but then we HAD to pivot to deficit reduction. Sorry, poor people, gotta cut your heating oil assistance!

Not to mention mandated customers and a guaranteed profit (MLR ratio = costs plus no bid contract).

Chicago Board of Traders also think the strippers really like them.

Obama’s not the only one extrapolating his own family experience onto everyone else. I’m seeing numerous comments from self-described liberals expressing reservations about underage girls getting EC without their parents’ knowledge because they’re parents and they’d want to know what they’re daughters are doing. Well, that’s nice and all but maybe they should try and look beyond the end of their own nose and think about the 13 year old who faces getting honor killed if she doesn’t take something to prevent a potential pregnancy immediately and confidentially. I simply can’t believe that there are progressives who would make a girl in a precarious position go through a dangerous and scary ordeal to get EC because their egos would be bruised because their own daughters are having sex and using contraception without their knowledge. I expect this from right wingers, who would sooner see a girl dead than not punished for being sexual but not progressives. You want your kids to talk to you then be a parent who deserves it. You don’t own your kids.

Not any of that lengthy response had anything to do with what I said, which is that Deaniac and other Obama loyalists are blaming liberal critics of the President for the losses in 2010, with no evidence whatsoever to back it up. I bet if you walked up to 100 random strangers in a typical mall in the U.S. you’d be hard pressed to find one who could ID Jane Hamsher. I don’t know why millions of low info Dem voters sat out the 2010 election and neither do you or Deaniac but I think it’s a safer bet that an incompetent message and GOTV strategy by the Dem establishment was more of a factor than whiny pony liberals grousing about GITMO.

Deaniac83 needs to put up some evidence for his claims or STFU. And OFA staffers definitely have better things to do than pass his stupid rants about professional leftists and Paul Krugman around. They have to persuade a whole lot of 2008 voters and then some to put Obama back in office. They’re not going to do it jerking off to Firebagger porn all day.

Being a little oblivious and comfortable in your privilege aren’t you? Not to mention not real up on the whole ‘income inequality’ thing. Millions of Americans aren’t facing dire penury in their old age because of bad investment choices. It’s because the .01% is robbing them in their working years.

Deaniac has repeatedly accused liberal critics of Pres. Obama of costing Dems the 2010 elections, with no evidence to back it up. He is certainly entitled to his opinion but not his facts. If he could prove somehow that while the WH and the entire Dem establishment were helpless in the face of the teabagger onslaught, a handful of disgruntled hippies on MSNBC and the blogosphere persuaded millions of low info Dem voters to sit out the election to stick it to Obama (who was not even on the ballot) that would be noteworthy. It would also call into question the wisdom of people like you and him acting so contemptuous to such a powerful group of people with such an ability to impact electoral results. Because from where I sit it looks like blame shifting and scapegoating.

And guys deserve the child support payments and condoms and the pullout method being all that’s available for protection for relegating choice to a fluffy little ladies auxiliary issue.

And that breadwinner’s kids can go ahead and suffer for his mistakes too because your entitlement to cheap fast food trumps them.