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maizenblue commented on the blog post “You Don’t Understand, This Is Amazing”
Thanks for sharing your success story.
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maizenblue commented on the diary post Lindsey Graham Threatens US Default Unless Social Security Cut by Scarecrow.
Thanks for picking up on this and referring us to the article at C & L. I don’t watch Meet the Press anymore or even Chris Matthews and some of the other shows I sometimes watched. All the talk is about the deficit while we have nearly 10% unemployment. They’re just fiddling while Rome is [...]
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maizenblue commented on the diary post Lindsey Graham Threatens US Default Unless Social Security Cut by Scarecrow.
What’s the political strategy behind this? Does the f-ing tea party want cuts to SS and medicare? I don’t think so. Please do not let this be another hostage crisis where we are “forced” to make cuts to please those scary Republicans.
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maizenblue commented on the diary post New Medicare Regulations Empower Patients by BarbaraCoombsLee.
I don’t know if others have had similar experiences, and maybe this is a separate issue from advance directives, but I’ve had experience with doctors pushing DNR for a family member who is not terminally ill (I prefer not to go into details about the family member’s condition). They have a very hard time taking [...]
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maizenblue commented on the blog post In Standoffs with Congress, Presidents Almost Always Win
Giving President Obama the benefit of the doubt, let’s say some of his economic advisors told him it’s not good to raise the millionaires’ taxes in this economy. That was in fact his excuse for not raising the taxes on the millionaires before the expiration date of the Bush tax cuts. Of course, it would have been better if he told us this instead of going into the hostage story. We can handle the truth, if that is the truth.
What worries me most is that payroll tax holiday. I can’t help but see it as a prelude to “reforming” social security. Everything about it, every excuse made, just does not make sense. That it was presented as a Democratic “win” is laughable. Boehner will surely push to make it permanent.
Mitch Daniels had favored a payroll tax holiday in his Republican Economic Plan:
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maizenblue commented on the blog post In Tax-Cut Capitulation, House Democrats Again Redefine Pathetic
Wow, I didn’t know Kucinich voted for the deal. He didn’t even get the ride on Air Force One this time.
Well, there were some who voted against it. DeFazio and the others in the House put up a good fight, but many others caved to pressure. I was happily surprised to see that Carl Levin in the Senate voted against it. He’s very well-respected and not all that liberal, as far as I know.
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maizenblue commented on the diary post The Payroll Tax: Just Another Tax? by Eric Laursen.
Unbelievable. Thank you for keeping us updated. I also just read the politico article you cite. How sad. It is also sad that I’ll bet the WH is putting a lot of effort into how to frame this so as to persuade the American people (especially Democrats) to accept the cuts and say thank you [...]
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maizenblue commented on the diary post Is it Time for Democrats to Fight Obama? by Cenk Uygur.
I totally agree that this bill never would have gotten through with this Congress if we had a Republican President or even a less popular Democratic President.
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maizenblue commented on the blog post Moody’s Swings
Support for your comment:
Unless there are offsetting measures…
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maizenblue commented on the diary post A Sellout (or Three) Too Far? Obama’s 2012 Support Collapsing in Wake of Latest Betrayals by Phoenix Woman.
I’m going to play devil’s advocate here– would things have been much worse under McCain? I can think of one area– we might be at war with Iran. That is a big risk, I grant that, and that would be horrific. But, domestically, could McCain have gotten this tax deal through with a Democratic majority? [...]
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maizenblue commented on the blog post Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Gunning for Austerity
Pete Peterson wrote about Boomers in a 1996 article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/96may/aging/aging.htm
Interesting quotes include:
“[U]nlike the United States…other countries are unencumbered by the illusion that their people have some sort of inalienable right to live the last third of their adult lives in subsidized leisure.”
He really doesn’t like the idea of old people living on the public dole. Why couldn’t they all be billionaires like he is?
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maizenblue commented on the diary post President Obama Gets Leading Proponent of Social Security Privatization and Bubble Economy to Tout Budget Deal by Dean Baker.
Sorry to be off topic, but here’s a Nader article on why Bloomberg can be win the presidency: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-12-09/ralph-nader-21-reasons-michael-bloomberg-can-be-elected-president-in-2012/ I don’t know his positions on all the issues. I never thought I’d consider Bloomberg over a Democrat, but if this all goes down as people imagine in their worst dreams (regarding the tax cuts for [...]
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maizenblue commented on the blog post Bernie Sanders’ Long Speech Raises Attention to Tax Cut Deal
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maizenblue commented on the blog post Late Night: Picked On Bullied Geek Girl Survives, Lives to Tell All
I must have been a very late bloomer or something. I didn’t like elementary school but I loved junior high and high school and did very well in all subjects. Then came college. That’s when I started dating and “dumbed up”. For me it did not have to do with peer pressure, I don’t think. I couldn’t reconcile my dating persona with my competitive overachieving persona. Maybe I was influenced by the media, especially movies where being called “vulnerable” is a good thing for a female character. It’s interesting that when women did not have power in the real world in terms of powerful paying jobs, the screen goddesses were strong women– like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Now that they have powerful jobs, many of the popular actresses only get starring roles while they are very young and not threatening. And they often have childlike personalities on the screen.
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maizenblue commented on the diary post Ralph Nader: I’m Looking for a Primary Challenger for Obama in 2012 by archiebird.
I don’t know about Russ, but I don’t think the Democrats would allow a primary challenge. It is always good to have the threat of such a challenge , however, as, we can only hope, it would cause President Obama to start paying attention to his base instead of the Tea Party/Republicans. I admire Ralph [...]
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maizenblue commented on the diary post Bernie Sanders: “This is an absolute disaster” by Teddy Partridge.
But he did manage to get millions for VT rural health clinics, as you say. Which other progressive got anything for his or her opposition? As far as I know, and I could be wrong, but I don’t think Kucinich got anything (except that Air Force One ride). Perhaps Sanders can make this deal a [...]
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maizenblue commented on the diary post Bernie Sanders: “This is an absolute disaster” by Teddy Partridge.
I just hope the so-called progressive groups don’t change their minds and go after him and threaten to primary him if he does go through with a filibuster.
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maizenblue commented on the blog post The Economics of the Bush Tax Cuts
I used to come to FDL and read a lot of the predictions thinking, “OK, this is the worst case scenario,” but so far it is all coming to pass. After they cut the millionaires’ taxes, deficits will “matter” again. But with tax cuts having been handed out, the “everything” that is left “on the table” in our adult discussion on deficits consists of our entitlements. In this economy, and considering how little people who depend on the entitlements make, any cuts to entitlements to fund the millionaires’ tax breaks would be unconscionable.
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maizenblue commented on the blog post Challenge Obama from the Left in 2012 Not to Save His Presidency — but the Democratic Party Itself
There is no way that a challenge from the left within the Democratic Party will go anywhere. President Obama has high approval among African-Americans. In addition, the last I checked, his numbers were still pretty good with those who call themselves liberals. No one within the Democratic Party has the guts to challenge him.
Nader would have no problem challenging him, but he would get even fewer votes than he did in the previous elections. He wouldn’t even be on anyone’s radar screen.
I thought that an “independent” sort like Bloomberg might make Obama pay more attention to his base, as he and the nutty Republican he will likely run against would have to cede the “middle” to Bloomberg, but I don’t know… Perot did not push Clinton to the left.
In short, I see no answer, no way to turn the Democratic Party around.
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maizenblue commented on the diary post Is Barack Obama Stupid? by Cenk Uygur.
I’m a bit naive about how these things work with respect to the rich and the importance of their campaign contributions. But if I were a rich corporation, would I contribute to the Republicans who will assuredly give me the right breaks but who, if they win, may wind up angering the people and causing [...]
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