dayman

So do you like the 80/20 rule? Or using Medicare/Medicaid (since they're big spenders) experimentation to accelerate the natural evolution of cost reform in the form of a comprehensive treatment payment system (as opposed pay-per-serivce)?

I can assume that Doc would like you to compare your retirement benefits to those of the most private sector workers though...it is said the new retirement age will be 75 for the majority of public sector workers in the future and 65 for gov't...10 years of your life is worth a hell of a lot. It goes round and round and the "you have this and I have that" won't move us forward IMO.

I can't speak for him but I would assume his angst comes from the politics not the economic theory. And not the politics/passion on the street...but the stonewalling in the house and the bolstering the movement gives to imply that the people (as a whole) approve of that.

Say what you want about Maddow she's no where near as useless as Hannity...Ed is as useless as Hannity. I pulled the story off her show and could easily inform myself more than I am now but "cancer research" is "cancer research." Are you saying the argument was that not all of the research was based in California and that was the winning argument? And this is what multi-national tobacco companies were truly concerned about when they gave nearly $50M to defeat the bill?

Not sure how that works but I'm not expert ... I would assume meidcaid patients are qualified before-hand and sending them bills that aren't paid is a billing problem on your end but I won't assume anything b/c I don't know the specifics on that. And while Medicare patients paid into the system...lets not pretend they paid into what they are getting out...on balance they're every bit as "guilty" according to the sentiment you express.

I'm not necessarily on your side but I'm not on Docs side bashing the programs that his customers use to at least in part pay is wages...that said if you asked me to tell you how much I made I would tell you to go !@#$ yourself.

I personally don't like to talk anything about myself so I totally understand if you decline to answer this...it's probably for the best if you do...but are you a general practitioner and can you quantify the amount of medicare/medicaid business you have as a percentage of your income? I'm not anti-Doctor by any stretch many of my friends are doctors and I'm certainly not anti-capitalism but it's a bit counterintuitive to rail against your patients for sucking of the gov't tit when they're paying you with the money...and perhaps you are in a really affluent area and have a respected/quasi-exclusive/limited practice and take less than most from those programs but that would put you in the minority....if those programs ended...something tells me business would drop...

All the TEA party needs to do is elect people who go to Congress ready to cooperate and learn to compromise an issue without compromising themselves. Until the rhetoric relaxes...they'll be seen as radicals from the 70% of America that would actually like to see the country move in the right direction. Or even just move. Of course, the 15% extremists on either side will prevent that b/c this is the land of the free...most TEA party people should understand that they've gotten a lot of what they wanted...including marginalizing almost everything the President tries to do.

LOL my God

According to the Rachael Maddow show: California is surprisingly the state with the second lowest smoking rate in the nation. Additionally, they have some of the lowest taxes on cigarettes in the nation in part b/c they haven't raised it since the late 90s (tax there is less than 90c a pack national average is $1.5). So they have this vote they just took...$1 and the profits go to cancer research...not the general funds...cancer research. Interestingly enough...it polled (for what it's worth) at 67% FOR the bill in MARCH...MARCH of THIS YEAR. Now here's the interesting part...think a lot of money went into the Wisconsin recall? Scott Walker had a formidable $30Mish breaking state records etc etc...fair enough...hell it was a huge deal for the state after all. Now here's where it gets interesting...Big Tobacco (right after the March poll) rolled out their campaign dropping $46.8M to oppose this bill!!! How did the vote go last night? 49.2% Yes...50.8% No. It's not official yet...but it seems the bill was voted down. Thoughts?

Now now...no need to wage war on the doctors...but no need to believe them when they say they aren't sucking of the government's giant perfect shaped breasts

I think the problem is just that she was emotional, out of control, and crazily couldn't even keep her hands to herself. It's that simple.

This place would destroy Lincoln.

Care to cite something that says we have no intelligence? We seem to know where to blow up #2s fairly consistently....I don't know where it is but some article I think linked form here made a comment about al-Qaeda basically feeling compromised and having not reliable means of communication anymore that they feel safe with...I wouldn't assume capturing and interrogating al-Qeda is basically our primary and sole source of intelligence...

Ya they make a big deal about that on the "Amerian Experience: Clinton" (a good PBS documentary available for free online) .... it's a good sign of his general ability to ...basically talk emotional when someone doesn't really know what's going on lol. But all in all I think it gets elevated a bit more than it should. Either way Clinton was a maniac campaigner one of the most relentless politicians ever.

LOL I'm not trying to read anything into your posts maliciously it's not clear what you are saying. And I'm not suggesting we don't have unique issues like every country. But we can look to ourselves as well as the article does. It's comparing America to...America... Drug convictions went from 15 inmates per 100,000 adults in 1980 to 148 in 1996, an almost tenfold increase. More than half of America's federal inmates today are in prison on drug convictions. In 2009 alone, 1.66 million Americans were arrested on drug charges, more than were arrested on assault or larceny charges. And 4 of 5 of those arrests were simply for possession.

As a Florida voter who will likely vote Obama I feel the same is true of my state. Unlikely Romney loses in Florida although he will not win big. Then again it's still a long way away and I'm basically a Florida Republican in local politics there is no other party in terms of state politics...we're just all Republicans and we fight within that party...yet Obama won the state last election....

Don't hide your anger w/ emoticons OC. Wear it proudly.

I can see the point in media in general clearly and with the show for non-book readers. Totally fair.

LOL my God are you ever NOT angry? Serious question I mean do you have friends?

I'm only commenting to address this. As a huge fan of the series the HBO-ification of that story line was actually different from the book but in a way (as actually happens quite a bit) that ads to the story for book lovers (but no doubt would subtract if the book did not exist). There are many subtle things hinted and hidden in plain sight in the books (including one major spoiler regarding Jon Snow's mom that everyone reading the book now knows despite it not being revealed yet as of book 5)....the books are absolutely glorious in that way and the author makes not effort to spoon feed anything. One such thing was that relationship. There was actually a complex and subtle writing behind that relationship and it was totally ambiguous but totally meant to show it was there and it was "hidden" well from the public but in plain sight if you knew what to look for at the same time. Obviously nothing would be better than having it remain the same in the show but with 10 1 hour episodes it would impossible you have to show it or not on TV...and they showed it. Most book lovers liked that...I understand how it's retarded for viewers but for fans of the series who acknowledge the limitations of the show we like to see affirmation of various subtle things that are argued about on the show...if the author himself wasn't directly involved we would probably all go nuts but it is "canon" in the sense that the author himself is involved. It actually furthers some of the stories in that manner...and this was one such case. And yes obviously the entire thing was handled differently in the book the book is very subtle you basically have to read into many things including that storyline. The same is true of Stannis banging down the red witch...that was ambiguous until the most recent book (book 5) and even then it still remains far from explicit. And in any event as you probably now know that knight is far from gone he'll be central for some time...however I assure you his gay scenes are over so no more worries lol his "love" is gone lol All I'm saying is HBo does what HBO does but in that one specific example and with this particular show a lot of the book fans love seeing certain stuff and that was one of them. Not b/c we love gay stuff...trust me those scenes are awkward as hell to watch...but it's nice to just see things on screen in front of you it adds to the writing really it doesn't distract from it. It's kind of like the answers to an easter egg hunt in the book (but by no means do I mean it isn't in the book this stuff IS IN THE BOOK CLEARLY but not explicitly).

I'm just going to knowingly destroy the topic...break all sense of the topic title and reign hate all over the place lol. Either way maybe (unlikely but maybe) there will be some honest discussion about this speech in retrospect both critical and positive where it is called for (although probably all critical)...lol...just for fun. And I already know exactly what line everyone will talk about but I won't spoil it until the backlash begins... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3uU_mCNcKM&list=FLJcAGGviXfI58PvYeu1JWdA&feature=mh_lolz

True good point. Moving along now...

To each his own to me he's no where near AL/GW nor Jefferson for that matter but that's not a knock I mean that's the top of the top.

No need to get into Reagan there was good and bad with him but I admire him and consider him a great President. That said...minus Roosevelt (who may or may not be on there legitimately) Reagan cannot stand next to the other men on that monument.