Health Care Debate between Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart

What Do People Mean When They Say "I Want My Country Back"

There is a buzz phrase coming from tea baggers, birthers, deathers and right wing people who are raising a ruckus at Town Halls dealing with President OBama's Health Care Reform. I will now translate what people mean when they say "I want my country back". "I Want My Country Back" means: 1) All immigrants from Mexico, Latin America, Central American Countries, Asian countries should be deported immediately! 2) Black people can remain athletes and musical entertainers. They cannot be presidents or in any position of political power. Once that they are done playing their professional sports and entertaining us with music and dancing, they must go home to their neighborhoods and not return to all white places until they come to clean, cook, entertain or play sports. 3) Black entertainers can only perform jazz, blues, pop and easy listening R & B, Motown hits and early 70's R&B. Hip Hop will be banned. 4) All none English speaking people should be placed in language assimilation camps until they speak English. 5) All movies, television and Broadway shows should have 99% Caucasian casts and White Christian American themes. Black and of color people should be reserved for token roles that reinforce racial and ethnic stereotypes. Caricatured blacks, Asians and other minorities should be encouraged in all movies, television and Broadway shows. 6) Gay people must go back into their closets or else be sent to assimilation camps to be reprogrammed back into white, Christian, heterosexual society. 7) All Gay, Lesbian and transgender people who have children will have their children placed in new foster homes of proper white, fundamentalist Christian familes. Children of mixed races will be appropriately placed in fundamentalist Christian homes of their none white heritage race. 8) Racial profiling will be made legal and encouraged. 9) Hate crimes laws will be reversed. 10) Gay bashing, non Christian grave and temple desecration and lynching will be made legal and encouraged. 11) Politically correct terms will be made illegal. Offensive Racial and sexual epithets will be encouraged. 12) Anti Semitism will be encouraged and made legal. 13) Abortion will be made illegal except for wealthy women who can discretely arrange them with their private physicians for a "DnC" meaning dusting and cleaning. DnC's will be paid for by top insurance companies. DnC is a code word for abortion rights for privileged white women. Poor women can arrange back alley abortions at their own risks. However if they are discovered they and their abortionists will be sentenced to immediate execution. 14) Racial segregation will become a new law. White children will get better educations in general, especially if they are wealthy. Middleclass white students will receive mediocre educations with no art history, music clubs or classes. Poor whites will receive little education and be sent to work by age 12. Creationism will be the only history and science allowed to be taught in schools.The newest and best books will be available in order of income to white children. 15) Child labor laws will be revered. Poor children will be encouraged to work at their earliest possible age with no legalized work shifts. 16) Women and African Americans will lose voter rights. 17) Women's salaries will be reversed to pre 1973 inequality. Girls will be taught in the virtues of being home makers. 18) Non white members of the Supreme Court and female justices will be fired and replaced by white evangelical Christian male justices. 19) America will then be back to the country that all tea baggers, birthers, deathers, white Christian conservatives and right wingnuts want. These are the people that hate President OBama's election. For such people it simply feels wrong to have a black man in the white house, they cannot wrap their head's around the concept of a black man who is educated. Even though American once belonged to Native American Indians, the America that most uneducated white Christian Conservatives want back is a White Evangelical Christian America. Can they "have their country back"? Thank God this will be very unlikely as American will continue to evolve as a nation of freedom of speech, religious freedom and a land where human rights will prevail. In 2042 Caucasian people will become a minority, however American will become a nation of multi-cultural and multiracial people. Educated Americans will continue to fight for the greater humanitarian good of our country. At the end of the day America will continue to grow as a wonderful country based upon inclusion and equality. One day we will look back at these town halls and the disruptive, misinformed people "who want their country back". They are the shameful remnants of an America that was once was unenlightened about racial, religious and gender equality. Posted by Razoretta *************************************************************************************** Listen to my news Podcast http://RonMills.us/news Visit My Social Media Blog http://ronmills.us/ Visit me on twitter http://Twitter.com/RainbowUSA Visit Me On Face Book http://RonMills.us/facebook My Biz on Twitter http://Twitter.com/theRbuzz

Research 2000 Poll Obama's Approval rating down 2 points

Research 2000, Adults MoE 2%, Aug 17, 2009 - Aug 20, 2009 (last week's results in parentheses) Full Crosstabs FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE DON'T KNOW NET CHANGE PRESIDENT OBAMA 58 (60) 38 (36) 4 (4) -4 PELOSI: 34 (36) 57 (56) 9 (8) -3 REID: 33 (34) 56 (55) 11 (11) -2 McCONNELL: 17 (16) 65 (66) 18 (18) 2 BOEHNER: 13 (11) 65 (66) 22 (23) 3 CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: 41 (43) 53 (51) 6 (6) -4 CONGRESSIONAL GOPS: 12 (10) 75 (76) 13 (14) 3 DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 44 (45) 49 (48) 7 (7) -2 REPUBLICAN PARTY: 18 (17) 72 (74) 10 (9) 3 Listen to my news Podcast http://RonMills.us/news Visit My Social Media Blog http://ronmills.us/ Visit me on twitter http://Twitter.com/RainbowUSA Visit Me On Face Book http://RonMills.us/facebook My Biz on Twitter http://Twitter.com/theRbuzz

7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat

7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat First: The teabaggers must not win this one. Back in elementary school, most of us learned that when a bully learns that intimidation and threats work, he'll will keep doing more of it. In fact, the longer he goes without comeuppance, the bolder and badder he becomes, and the harder it is to make him stop. Every success teaches him something new about how to use terror for maximum effect and tempts him to push the envelope and see what else he can get away with. Do nothing, and he'll soon take over the whole playground. And it happens like this for bullies in groups, too. Living in a fascist regime is just living in a town dominated by the Mob, a street gang, the KKK, or a corrupt sheriff. It only takes a small handful of thugs to terrorize people into giving up their civil rights, abandoning democracy and doing what they're told, just so they can keep their jobs, windows and families intact. The main imperative in life becomes staying off the goons' radar. All the enforcers need to do is make an horrific example out of one or two troublemakers every now and then -- and the resulting fear will keep everybody else quietly in line. Conservatives have tried to subdue other Americans this way for centuries, so there's nothing new going on here. And this is the way they've always done it: they used race (and yes, the birthers and anti-health care rioters are, at root, all about race) and economic calamity to whip up a posse of terrified, well-armed vigilantes, and then turned them loose on society to "enforce order." Given their colossal investment in organizing and indoctinating the teabaggers, we'd be stupid to believe that this is all going to go away when Congress returns to Washington in September. Having had a taste of power and publicity, these newly empowered mobs are very likely to stick around town and see what else they can do to keep the muck stirred up. Our choice now is stark: knock them back while they're still new, small and not yet entrenched; or deal with them later, when they've got some real power to fight back with, and the cost to all of us will be so much higher. Second: Think nationally, fight locally. The conservatives are running this effort as a national campaign -- but that's not where the real fight is. The terror that fuels fascism is always intensely, intimately local in scale. Fascist goon squads always recruit from the neighborhood -- they're built on people you know. Since that's where they start, that's where they have to be stopped. This is why all the best tactics involve community-level action. The high-level fight in Congress and the media is already under way, and the Democratic leadership is fighting it with unusual elan. But anybody who sits this one out because they assume that the folks in D.C. have it all handled for them shouldn't be surprised when they start getting "special treatment" from longtime neighbors, or discover that they can't park their car downtown any more without having it vandalized. That's just the next baby step up from where we are now; and in some places, it's already started to happen. Winning this means getting out there and defending our community's standards and boundaries now, while they're still there to be defended. Third: Brush up on our nonviolent resistance -- but leave the heavy lifting and rough enforcement to the cops. It's true that the only way to stop a bully is to stand up to them. But there are ways to stand up to them that don't involve getting down to the eye-for-an-eye level. Back home, we had a saying: "Never mudwrestle a pig. You will lose, and the pig enjoys it." If we meet thuggery with thuggery, we will lose, because they're just plain better at it. And make no mistake: they will enjoy it. Right now, the right wing is looking -- hard -- to make the case that they're the innocent victim and the left instigated this whole thing. This quote from religious right organizer Gary Bauer is typical of the genre: My fear, given the stakes and emotions on both sides, is that union thugs, ACORN activists and left-wing anarchists (who ransacked the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul during last year's Republican National Convention) will turn violent, and innocent people will get hurt. If that happens, the radical left will bear the responsibility for demonizing free speech. The Nazis used this kind of victim-blaming to tremendous effect as they built up their party. We must not -- must not -- give our proto-brownshirts any basis to make the same kind of argument. (Of course, the absence of evidence will only drive them to make up fake victims; but then we get to call them out as whining liars with a big fat persecution complex, which is always a fun way to spend a news cycle or two.) It's about the moral high ground, people. Any choices we make must be consistent with our own values, or we betray both ourselves and the country. Standing up for health care reform is important; but before that, the country needs to see us standing up for civil discourse and the right to democratic free speech. Since we're defending the rule of law, our best tactic is to use that law. You have a right to attend a public meeting and speak your mind in a civil, respectful manner. You do not have a right to be disruptive or deprive other people of their right to be heard. And most jurisdictions have laws about disturbing the peace and creating a public nuisance -- laws, let's not forget, that the Bush regime didn't hesitate to stretch until the elastic gave out against people who merely showed up at meetings with the wrong bumper stickers or T-shirts. Since we're not Bush goons, we can't go around arresting people who haven't yet broken any laws. But when people -- from either side -- cross that line, it's time for the cops and prosecutors to make the point for us: bullying people in a public meeting (or anywhere else) is illegal and will not be tolerated in this county. Fourth: We need to make absolutely sure that the media get the story right. The teabaggers would run out of power with the flick of a switch if the media would just turn off their cameras. But the cold reality is that this kind of drama is a real ratings-booster. It would be like telling lions to lay off that elephant carcass. Left alone, the media (local news in particular) will turn these people into cultural heroes. They couldn't turn their backs on this if the republic depended on it. Since we can't beat 'em, we'll have to join 'em. The best cure for bad speech is always more speech. This means bringing cameras and documenting everything, getting it up on YouTube, and blogging it. It also means coordinating rapid-response letterwriting to the local paper and keeping down-home reporters well-fed every single day with some new theme that reinforces the idea of concerned nonpartisan citizens trying to keep control over their democratic discourse in the face of organized thugs. Since the media are watching, let's make sure they see it all. Fifth: Support legislators who don't show fear. The Democratic Party seems to be playing this just right (so far). The leadership has made it known that these noisy, scary people don't represent the 73 percent of Americans who support health care reform. The GOP is running the risk of being marginalized as not only the Party of No, but the Party of Moonbat Crazy. If you've never attended a public meeting in your life, August 2009 is the month you need to start. Your congressperson's Web site probably lists a schedule, or at least a number you can call to inquire. But that's just a first step. Do more. Write. Call. Find out where your local congressional office is, and just drop by when you're in the neighborhood. Tell the staff how you feel -- about health care reform, about the teabaggers, about your legislator's brave stance in the face of this. If they're showing stress, encourage them to stand firm. A constituent in the office counts for thousands writing e-mails, so an in-person visit is 15 minutes incredibly well spent. One visit or call is good. More is better. Put it in your schedule to contact your representatives at least once a week for the duration, and make sure they're not buckling under the pressure. Sixth: Shut down the hate talkers. In most parts of the country, the teabaggers are coming straight out of right-wing talk-radio audiences. For hours every day, they're mainlining raw emotion and toxic misinformation. They're going put your kids before "death panels!" They're going to kill your granny! You're going to have to call the White House to get a bone set! You'll be a Real American Hero if you get out there and join the "resistance!" Cutting off this endless torrent of lies, fearmongering and validation will go a long way toward powering down the whole movement. (Conversely, what happens when these kinds of radio instigators are left to spin it all the way out to the end can be summed up in two words: Radio Rwanda.) The basic recipe: Record their shows. Take notes of anything they say that is intimidating, threatening, or aimed at inciting violence against a named target. And while you're at it, note every single advertiser they have. Then write a polite letter the CEOs of the sponsoring companies. Throw them some choice quotes from these shows and ask them if this is the kind of thing they want their product associated with. (Point out that if their own employees said things like this at work, they'd be fired on the spot.) Often, the CEO has no clue that any of this is happening and will pull the ads as soon as she finds out what's being done in her name. This has worked extremely well -- and quickly -- at both the local and national level. Finally: Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Even if we succeed this time, let's not kid ourselves that this is over. The conservatives are investing a lot of money and effort to build a mass movement that is explicitly aimed at destroying a Democratic government -- and if we learned anything from the Clinton years, it's that they're not going to let up for a second as long as the Democrats are in control. This is our new reality -- and it comes straight out of Hitler's playbook (check out Chapter 6 of Mein Kampf). Their intention is to keep the outrage junkies high by giving them a never-ending supply of new, made-up reasons to act out. When the birth certificate fracas cools, they're standing by with "death panels." When that one's run its course, there will be something else -- over and over, every few weeks, for as long as the Dems rule. Which means that even if we win this round, we can't stand down. We're going to be pushing back against these bullies, over and over, for the next three to seven years. There are only two outcomes here. Either we get very good at spotting and stopping these attempts at a brownshirt takeover the minute they crop up; or they're going to get very good at public intimidation and keep ratcheting it up further toward outright violence and goon rule. That's how it's going to be for the rest of this administration. The sooner we resign ourselves to the zero-sum nature of this fight, the sooner we can get on with getting good at it. Posted by: Sara Robinson Listen to my news Podcast http://RonMills.us/news Visit My Social Media Blog http://ronmills.us/ Visit me on twitter http://Twitter.com/RainbowUSA Visit Me On Face Book  http://RonMills.us/facebook My Biz on Twitter http://Twitter.com/theRbuzz

Rahm didn't count on you

Help us reach 25,000 petition signatures: House progressives need to keep the pledge for a strong public option. When Congress returns to work on health care next month, Jane Hamsher and nyceve will be there to deliver the petition. Click here to add your name to our petition. After two months of your hard work, 65 members House drew a line in the sand: no public option, no health care reform. You responded by raising more than $175,000 for those members in less than 48 hours. It's a great start, but it's just the beginning. We need to make sure these 65 members hold firm. We've shown them we have their backs. Now they need to get ours. I'm starting a petition to the House to keep their pledge to support only a public option in both the House bill AND the conference bill. I'm going to be in DC next month. If we can reach 25,000 signatures, Jane Hamsher and I will be there to hand-deliver the petition to the House when they return to take up health care. Click here to add your name to our petition to members of Congress who pledged to support only a strong public option. Members of the House who took this pledge will be under insane pressure from Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the Obama Administration to cave for an insurance industry bailout. Rahm's plan all along has been to trade away the public option. But Rahm didn't count on you. Now that we've shown progressives in the House it's possible to stick together, it will be our job to make sure these members hold the line on a strong public option. Let's be clear: these members need to hold the line on two votes. Once when the House passes its own bill, and again on the conference bill that's combined with the Senate's version. Anything less is a vote for an insurance industry bailout. Help us reach 25,000 signatures on our petition to House progressives. You can make sure that progressives keep the pledge to only vote for a strong public option. Click here to add your name to our petition: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/keepthepledge Thanks so much for your help. I hope we can get to 25,000 signatures so I can deliver the petition with Jane next month. Best, Eve Gittelson (nyceve) Listen to my news Podcast http://RonMills.us/news Visit My Social Media Blog http://ronmills.us/ Visit me on twitter http://Twitter.com/RainbowUSA Visit Me On Face Book http://RonMills.us/facebook My Biz on Twitter http://Twitter.com/theRbuzz

The Blue Dog Coalition

Contact these members of Congress and urge them to support the public plan option! These are the Democrats holding us back from the best health care plan possible. Key people to contact - view the entire list of the 56 Blue Dog Democrats here! Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA-03), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications Rep. Heath Shuler (NC-11), Blue Dog Whip Rep. Mike Ross (AR-04) The List of Democratic Senators not directly supporting the public plan health care option Call and email them, telling them to support President Obama's public plan option! ********************************************************************* Listen to my news Podcast http://RonMills.us/news Visit My Social Media Blog http://ronmills.us/ Visit me on twitter http://Twitter.com/RainbowUSA Visit Me On Face Book http://RonMills.us/facebook My Biz on Twitter http://Twitter.com/theRbuzz

Changing Hearts & Minds With Social Media

Changing Hearts & Minds With Social Media Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and other social networking sites allow users to spread information quickly. So how does GLAAD use the Internet to highlight stories and get members involved? GLAAD's Director of Online Media Justin Cole cuts through the jargon and explains how you can get involved by simply pressing a few buttons on your computer. Follow GLAAD on Twitter Register for free at the new www.glaad.org to help GLAAD fight defamation Visit glaadBLOG for daily breaking news Join GLAAD's groups on Facebook Official group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=10132006109 Listen to my news Podcast http://RonMills.us/news Visit My Social Media Blog http://ronmills.us/ Visit me on twitter http://Twitter.com/RainbowUSA Visit Me On Face Book http://RonMills.us/facebook My Biz on Twitter http://Twitter.com/theRbuzz

The GOP's Appeal to White Trash Voters

I mean "Birthers" The appeal of the anti-Obama agenda has proven to be particularly strong among whites of low and moderate incomes. The Pew Center, tracking evaluations of Obama's job performance, found in a July 30 report that there "has been essentially no shift in opinion among affluent whites [but] among whites with annual family incomes of less than $75,000, Obama's approval ratings have declined substantially (from 57% in June to 47% today). Assessments of Obama's performance remain high among African Americans (85%)." ABC News polling similarly found in late June that the possible costs to consumers of cap-and-trade legislation "are particularly important to less well-off Americans. Among those making less than $50,000 a year, support for regulating greenhouse gas emissions drops by 17 points (from 75 percent to a still-majority 58 percent) if it raises prices; support if it costs $10 a month is 49 percent; and at $25, just 35 percent." The trend lines reported by Gallup are perhaps the most striking: At the start of this year, during late January, Gallup found that Obama's job approval ratings stood at 63 percent among whites, 86 percent among African Americans, and 74 percent among Hispanics. In the Gallup survey taken in late July, Obama had gained 9 points among blacks, reaching 95 percent job approval, and was holding his own among Hispanics, dropping a statistically insignificant 2 points to 72 percent. Among white respondents, however, he had dropped 16 points to 47 percent. These findings are reinforced by recent trend lines emerging in the Wall Street Journal/NBC polling series. In that series, the decline has been sharpest among white men, whose approval-disapproval ratio fell by 27 points, from 50-36 to 40-53. Source: huffingtonpost.com Listen to my news Podcast http://RonMills.us/news Visit My Social Media Blog http://ronmills.us/ Visit me on twitter http://Twitter.com/RainbowUSA Visit Me On Face Book http://RonMills.us/facebook My Biz on Twitter http://Twitter.com/theRbuzz

GOP Advocates Gerrymandering

Governors Races are Where the Action Is, GOP Advocates Gerrymandering: "Forget about the lopsided House and the 60-seat Senate; the real races to watch in 2010 could have nothing to do with federal government. This cycle's 39 gubernatorial races are shaping up to be where much of the action is, with as many as half of them potentially switching parties and at least 19 open seats…Throw in the fact that, for the first time in 20 years, the races are being held immediately before the redistricting process, and the environment is shaping up to be nearly unprecedented." Later in the story, GOP operatives say they need to win governorships to take back Congress and the White House.  Read more here. Listen to my news Podcast http://RonMills.us/news Visit My Social Media Blog http://ronmills.us/ Visit me on twitter http://Twitter.com/RainbowUSA Visit Me On Face Book  http://RonMills.us/facebook My Biz on Twitter http://Twitter.com/theRbuzz