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debbie.wonderkitty
08/11/2008
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wh - sorry, but your comment is total BS. Firstly, the 2000 and 2004 elections were both STOLEN in multiple ways: bad electronic voting machines that were easily hacked, not enough machines in areas that were primarily Democrats, lots of shenanigans like the phone bank incident in new england, purging voter rolls of valid voters, etc. Then we had the supreme court appt King George in 2000.
We did NOT get what we voted for.
Bush is a CRIMINAL. He ginned up information to take us to war in Iraq. It's an illegal war/occupation. They outed a CIA agent - grounds for treason. He was directly complicit in that action. Telling his staff not to appear before congress for subpoenas. There are so many ways that this man is a criminal it's not even funny. If we DON'T follow through with impeachment, it sets a bad precedent for future presidential activity. In fact, it has been stated (and I agree) that Nixon should never have been pardoned. It set the groundwork for this sh*tty administration we now have. This man and his cronies all think they are above the law. Politicizing the justice department - against civil service laws. Illegal wire tapping. Oh there are so many I don't even know where to start. Kucinich raised 35 (THIRTY-FIVE) areas where this administration has been criminal. I suggest we investigate it or bear the consequences of even worse administrations going forward.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/19/2008
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Wow. She really has no shame. I hope Cindy Sheehan kicks her ass out of office. This pandering is obnoxious as hell.
So, on the one hand we have Gore telling us we are doomed unless we get good leadership and on the other we have crappy leaders refusing to do what they need to do to move the country in the right direction. All our ills will be fixed by Barack Obama though, right? (*shaking head*)
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/18/2008
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You folks are giving Pelosi a lot of credit. How are we supposed to interpret her stating "impeachment is off the table" as soon as she assumed the speaker of the house role? Why on earth would she make such a statement unless she is somehow complicit in Bush's crimes and she knows that digging under the covers is going to net more than just the Bush clan?
Seriously. There is no other way to look at it. Continuously burying Kucinich's articles of impeachment--try #3 now. And threatening Conyers if he begins investigations?
90% of those in office wouldn't know the right thing if it hit them on the head.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/18/2008
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No offense, but why do we need to assure Pelosi of anything? She should be assuring US that she is intending to do the job she was elected to do, by US. Technically, we are her employer. Her salary is paid with taxpayer dollars. If about 90% of the people in government today worked in the private sector, they would have been fired for cause by now.
Why do elected officials always seem to get a free pass? The problem is we aren't paying NEARLY enough attention to what these people do in office. When it comes time for elections people often just go off sound bites on television commercials and never bother to do any of their own research. Likely, most of the people here on this board are an exception. But the majority of people out there don't watch what their politicians are doing and are dreadfully misinformed by the media.
So, again, why do we need to assure Pelosi that we are on her side? In 2006, we voted in a majority of Democrats who didn't do what they said they would do on our behalf. It's gotten so bad that I have officially changed parties and don't plan to vote for a candidate of either major party this presidential election. It's been said by many others that the Democrats can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and I believe this is the truth.
The only folks I see doing a damned thing in office are people like Kucinich, Waxman, Wexler and Feingold. For the most part, my local congressman is voting okay, but I disagree with him on a few bills here and there and he seems to discount my concerns on those bills altogether or makes it seem like those concerns are ludicrous. Example: the Homegrown Terrorism bill. That is awful legislation. To me, it's just like the McCarthy era all over again. He thinks that is an exaggeration, but all one needs to do is read it to see how vaguely defined terms are and what a can of worms it will be.
The moral of the story is PAY ATTENTION. Sign up for opencongress.org, megavote, etc. Watch how your local politician votes. And when it comes to people in leadership positions like Pelosi, if you're not one of her constituents and she doesn't put actions behind her words, then help her competition.
I'm sick of giving these politicians one chance after another and them not doing a damn thing they say they will. There are plenty of others out there willing to make a positive difference. I have no mercy for the likes of her.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/17/2008
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NPR has been broadcasting a very interesting series about health care systems in other countries. This morning, they were in the Netherlands. Here, they found that:
1) There are 24 hour clinics available for people to visit on off-hours, instead of having to go to the emergency room for all ills when it isn't necessary. They found this drastically reduces costs.
2) It is actually cheaper to provide on-call doctors who make HOUSE CALLS for those people who are too ill to come to the clinics. A physician's aid will field the phone calls and discuss with the patient what their symptoms are and whether they should come to the clinic or have the doctor come visit or wait until morning. If it is deemed necessary to have a doctor see them, they will send one to their house where the doctor will determine if their illness can be addressed directly by that doctor or if the patient should be admitted to the hospital. During the shift that they were embedded with this particular doctor only one of 10 patients seen required hospital admittance.
3) a database of all the patient's health issues is accessible by these doctors on call so that they can treat the patients appropriately.
4) All health care is covered through universal single-payer health care systems.
HERE, we would have had probably all 10 people visiting an emergency room where the doctors are not familiar with the patient's medical history, the patient will wait in the waiting room sometimes for many hours, doctors are more expensive because they are dealing with trauma cases and there aren't always appropriate facilities to handle all of the people, especially in large cities.
No one in the Netherlands will ever go bankrupt due to illness. Whereas HERE people can fall into debt paying for sub-par health care EVEN WHEN THEY ARE COVERED BY PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE. Because most people get health care via their employers, should they be unfortunate enough to be too ill to continue working, they could LOSE their coverage just when they need it most.
I am not holding my breath that the Democrats will address this issue. They've not shown that they have enough backbone to be leaders on anything these days.
This is just one of many reasons that my vote is going to Nader this year.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/17/2008
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Technically, we don't currently have a democracy, we have a republic (or a representative democracy). Senator Gravel formed the National Initiative with a number of legal scholars who determined that it is legally viable to enact this legislation to allow the people to have more of a voice in how they are governed.
Our form of government was initially created to have checks and balances so that no branch of government would become all powerful. Unfortunately, DIRECTLY because of people like Nancy Pelosi, those checks & balances are not being utilized and the executive branch continues to warp our government to the point that we are on our way to becoming a fascist dictatorship.
Now, most of congress is only looking out for corporate best interests. Everyone seems to have bought into Reagan's trickle-down economics but those of us waiting for the trickle are well-aware that this form of economics DOES NOT WORK. Every time our government has attempted to deregulate an industry it has had disastrous consequences: airlines, energy, communications, banking/brokerage... We are not blind. It is time that our representatives be reminded of the fact that they represent US and not corporations. Corporations should not be considered as persons, but more and more that is what our government is doing.
We have seen in recent weeks and months how our tax money is being misused to bail out corporations that have been irresponsible, but when many of us request that the government help out INDIVIDUALS who are in trouble, the government turns a blind eye.
Now, with the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac debacle, we have a pseudo government agency that uses OUR TAX MONEY to fund home loans, cooks the books, pays its executives far more than they are worth while the companies are losing money and then when they get into too much difficulty, the government YET AGAIN funnels OUR TAX MONEY into this agency to bail it out. Republicans constantly speak about responsibility and rugged individualism, but they are the first ones with their hands out for tax payer dollars as long as it goes to corporations.
The National Initiative is the only thing that will fix this. We need to take power over our own government.
As has been stated many other places: "People should not fear their government, their government should fear the people."
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/17/2008
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bojo1235 - There is wording in the National Initiative to prevent unconstitutional laws from being created. It has to go through the same vetting process as any law that congress creates, where the judicial branch can strike it down if it is unconstitutional.
Keep in mind that there are 24 states today that have ballot initiative processes. If laws are unconstitutional, they get rejected at the state supreme court level. This would be very similar in process.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/16/2008
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Or better yet, let's replace ALL the Democrats except the ones that truly represent us (i.e. Kucinich, Wexler, Waxman, Feingold) with third party candidates. It's time to do some house-cleaning. Some elected officials need to be looking for a new job.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/16/2008
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Wow. If this is true, it is absolutely disgusting. What kind of leaders have we elected. I would ask that everyone reading these boards do their due diligence before granting your vote to ANY elected officials. Make sure that they have integrity and can be trusted and have MORALS. Don't believe the republicans when they say they are the party of family values. Does this kind of treatment of children jive with family values? Absolutely sickening. I am completely ashamed of my government.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/15/2008
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I wish that the folks at Qwest would start a lawsuit claiming discrimination against them for refusing to be a part of the illegal wire tapping program. Why should their competitors be able to get out of all of these court cases? Qwest had government contracts taken away from them for not participating.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/15/2008
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This president clearly is one of the slimiest individuals ever to hold a public office. NOTHING being reported surprises me anymore. It is clear that this president is an elitist and he has complete disdain for the unclean masses. If Pelosi doesn't start impeachment hearings soon it will just set the precedent that everything this idiot and his incompetent administration have done are acceptable and no one will ever be held accountable in such an office again. They never should have pardoned Nixon. Just a further bad precedent that being a lying, cheating miscreant is acceptable in politics.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/14/2008
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Just to clarify, this goes way beyond the ability to make our own decisions. This is ultimately about population control. They want to control our food supply. The FDA has already passed a number of things to become CODEX compliant, including irradiating certain foods. The fact that most people in congress don't even know about CODEX ALIMENTARIUS is frightening enough. But this is strictly a TRADE law. It is intended to enable the further growth of agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, health care industry, etc. They all will benefit by putting these into place because they want to remove all natural health care from our grasp. Things that work without side effects, because they cannot be patented. It's all about greed. And I would venture to say a large number of members in congress have conflicts of interest when it comes to things like this.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/14/2008
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sundance521 - I do understand how you feel, but I am tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. I don't consider it a matter of being idealistic. I think Obama is only slightly better than McCain. Honestly, they're both fairly bad. McCain is a repeat of Bush. Obama is already backpeddling on nearly everything he ran on in the primaries and he isn't even officially the nominee yet. I don't trust either one of them. They'll both end up being bad for the country in the long run. I don't like to vote just along party lines. I did that in 2004 because I felt as you did. The Democrats wanted a majority in congress and they got it. They haven't done ANY of the things they said they would: we're still in Iraq, health care is worse than ever, our economy is a shambles. I don't blame them for all of it. But the bi-partisanship continues to whose benefit? Certainly not ours. They lost me when they refused to stand behind Kucinich and Gravel. I got tired of them calling and asking me for money and none of them even knew who Gravel was. Someone who did more for progressive values than most of the jokers in congress today. It got so bad that he left the party. He's disgusted with them and so am I. Now that Gravel is no longer in the running, Nader is the only choice for me. Nader also FULLY supports the National Initiative. He's the only one with the guts to support it. He's got my vote 100%. The Democrats and Republicans are two heads of the same beast now. Just look at this board. Look at the vitriol. People are ANGRY. Our representatives no longer represent us.
At the very least, even if you still want to vote for Obama, please look into voting for the National Initiative. www.ni4d.us. It might just be the only way we can save this country.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/14/2008
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It gets no attention because Democrats are just as much in the pocket of large corporations as republicans these days. Vote third party. We need to end this bi-partisan crap that keeps hurting the average American. Vote Nader. He supports this FULLY. Obama does NOT. Obama will subsidize the insurance companies (with our tax dollars). Don't they get enough already?
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/14/2008
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There are only a few Democrats who seem to support universal single-payer health care. And the presidential nominee is NOT one of them. His plan is to subsidize insurance companies. Kucinich and Gravel both supported universal single-payer. Congress won't do a damn thing about this. Health care is to the Democrats as Abortion is to the right-wing republicans. They will both use these as carrots to get their constituents to the polls each year but neither will follow through. It's time to vote third party. Nader supports universal single payer.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/14/2008
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It's obvious there are a lot of unhappy constituents. And it's clear that our representative government has stopped working. Please help enact the National Initiative. It's the only way our government will ever get fixed appropriately. The people need to take some power back from the government. www.ni4d.us
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/14/2008
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What we need is to stop relying on congress to do the right thing and enact the National Initiative. ALL of us need to vote for this. www.ni4d.us. PLEASE investigate this great piece of legislation and help enact it.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/14/2008
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Don't look to the Democrats for help on this. They won't do a damn thing about it. Obama and Clinton BOTH have health insurance plans that amount to subsidizing the insurance companies. What we need is UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH INSURANCE. Kucinich and Gravel proposed this. Nader proposes this. So, in my book, at this time, Nader is the only choice. I think we need to get rid of the health insurance companies altogether. They are only looking for ways not to pay for health care and maximize their profits. We need a system where profit is not a factor in our health. It shouldn't be. And the Republicans are only worse.
Nader is the ONLY choice now.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/14/2008
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Again, the Democrats and Republicans both are not going to fix this problem from within. They have no incentive to. What we need is the National Initiative. Let the PEOPLE have the power to make legislation and impeach people from office. Then we'll see how much partisan politics will remain. www.ni4d.us. I'm 100% sure that Pelosi won't support the National Initiative either. Nor will most of the rest of the politicians in office today. They are all FAR too cozy in their current positions. It's time to give more power to the people so we can move this country in the right direction.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/12/2008
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I think we already are a banana republic. It's probably too late to save us from that fate. Ours is worse than most cause we have too much money & power. The entire world is not safe from us anymore.
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debbie.wonderkitty
07/12/2008
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It's a great idea, but we know that the Democrats will never go along with this. Not when they are still trying to exclude third party candidates from ballot access. Shameful.
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