Comment / By Rose / Sept. 3, 2009, 9:27 a.m.

Seems to be something missing from this story. Especially in italics at the end.

Comment / By Jeffry Fick / Sept. 4, 2009, 2:35 a.m.

Good thing no one got their finger bitten off at the Fortuna meeting, as at the Thousand Oaks town hall meeting…had that happened, the only doctor there would have been demanding a cash payment to treat the victim. Dr. Rigney feels that medical treatment is a “privilege”. I imagine that he has the right to feel as he does, but, in my opinion, a healer heals, regardless of pay, because he feels a duty to use his training and skills to relieve suffering. I realize that medical school is expensive, and a doctor has a right to expect a decent living, but my impression is that he doesn’t see patients, he sees dollar signs. That’s exactly why we need health care reform. Doctors and insurance companies are gutting people financially with no regard for anything but profit. If money is the bottom line, why get into the business of healing; just cut through the red tape, and go right into stockbroking. I can trust a stockbroker to be more interested in a financial bottom line, I don’t want to think my doctor cares more about money than saving lives and alleviating suffering. Everything I see about Teabaggers reinforces my perception of them as having contempt for those who weren’t born into as much money as they were.

Comment / By Rose / Sept. 5, 2009, 12:06 a.m.

Disclosure, Bob.

Comment / By Tim / Sept. 6, 2009, 9:39 a.m.

It really isn’t about health care is it? It’s about fears that women will have choices, guns will be restricted, the President (by encouraging school children to do well in school) will send subliminal messages to make our children “little socialists” and that Nancy Pelosi is now the new antichrist. Excuse me for a moment, I need to adjust my lapel pin flag. There, that’s better, I feel like a patriot now. Geez, it’s a scary world with all those terrorist democrats around!

Comment / By Rose / Sept. 7, 2009, 7:57 a.m.

No, Tim. It is about worthless Senators and Congressmen who vote in massive spending programs without reading the bill they are voting on, without knowing what they are voting for, without input, discussion, evaluation or any of the normal checks and balances that make our system work.

It is about trying to ram this thing through before Congress went on Recess, so that no one could stop or think, or even read it. That didn’t happen, so those Congressmen, LIKE THOMPSON, who intended to vote for it have now been FORCED by those evil right-wingers to actually act like statesmen and do their job. The have been forced, and dragged kicking and screaming to have to THINK about what they were planning to do, to answer questions, and to have the discussion they had intended to avoid.

That’s what it is about - and their little scheme turns out to have a whole lot of problems, not the least of which is no tort reform.

Don’t you worry, Tim, our system does work, because when the politicians are out of whack, the people have the right to call them to the table.

That’s what’s happening here, and the legislators are screaming like stuck pigs, demeaning the people they represent who have called them to answer. You may not like it, but the system is working, even if the Legislators are not.

(and Bob - disclosure…italics…at the end of the article… too late to correct last week’s hard copy… fix it now. Hank?)

Comment / By Tim / Sept. 8, 2009, 8:54 a.m.

There’s something happening here What it is ain’t exactly clear There’s someone named Rose over there Telling me I got to beware I think it’s time you stop, Rose, what’s that sound Everybody look Rose’ going down There’s battle lines being drawn Nobody’s right if Rose’s wrong Free thinkers speaking their minds Getting so much resistance from behind I think it’s time you stop, Rose, what’s that sound Everybody look Rose’ going down What a field-day for the right A thousand birthers in the night Singing songs and carrying signs Mostly say, hooray for our side It’s time you stop, Rose, what’s that sound Everybody look Rose’ going down Paranoia strikes deep Into the right it will creep It starts when you’re always afraid Step out of line, ‘Bama come and take you away You better stop, right, what’s that sound Everybody look Rose’ going down

Comment / By Rose / Sept. 8, 2009, 12:17 p.m.

C’mon, Bob.

Maybe poor Tim can explain - If the urgency to pass the medical care legislation was to deal with a problem immediately, then why postpone the date when the legislation goes into effect for years— more specifically, until the year after the next Presidential election?… (not me asking, it’s a quote from Thomas Sowell.

Comment / By Tim / Sept. 8, 2009, 6:50 p.m.

Crap Rose, leave me out of your sordid birther comment. It’s all about defeating anything Obama sponsors with you blathering birther idiots. Did you take your kids out of school today so they wouldn’t become indoctrinated little socialists? Oh, forgot, Fields Landing doesn’t have a high school.

Comment / By Rose / Sept. 9, 2009, 7:17 a.m.

Maybe Tim can tell us whether Mike Thompson was going to vote for this turkey with these provisions in it… heck, maybe he even knows how one would qualify for “Affordability Credits.” Think it means how much you paid in? Or - the opposite?

*Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and “other information as is prescribed by” regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for “affordability credits.”

Section 245(b)(2)(A) says the IRS must divulge tax return details — there’s no specified limit on what’s available or unavailable — to the Health Choices Commissioner. The purpose, again, is to verify “affordability credits.”

Section 1801(a) says that the Social Security Administration can obtain tax return data on anyone who may be eligible for a “low-income prescription drug subsidy” but has not applied for it.

…say good-bye to privacy from the federal government. It was fun while it lasted for 233 years.” …* CBS News - Democratic Health Care Bill Divulges IRS Tax Data

Don’t you worry, Tim, luckily there are people asking questions, and working to protect you.

Comment / By Tim / Sept. 9, 2009, 3:52 p.m.

Geez Rose, you know what it does to me when you quote sections… stop! I can’t take it - Nancy Pelosi is the antichrist, remember?

Comment / By Tim / Sept. 9, 2009, 6:52 p.m.

From the President’s Speech tonight: “…But what we have also seen in these last months is the same partisan spectacle that only hardens the disdain many Americans have toward their own government. Instead of honest debate, we have seen scare tactics. Some have dug into unyielding ideological camps that offer no hope of compromise. Too many have used this as an opportunity to score short-term political points, even if it robs the country of our opportunity to solve a long-term challenge. And out of this blizzard of charges and counter-charges, confusion has reigned…” Today’s Republican Goober All Stars: Leading off we have Southern California Assemblyman Mike Duvall (R). Duvall today resigned after he was recorded bragging about sex prior to a committee meeting. Duvall, 54, could be heard boasting about having sex with female lobbyists. He was removed from two key leadership posts and faced an ethics investigation.

Batting second, here’s some info on the Congressman who heckled President Obama during his speech, calling Obama a liar: Wikipedia wrote Addison Graves Wilson, Sr., usually known as Faggy Joe Wilson (born July 31, 1947) is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of South Carolina, currently representing the state’s 2nd congressional district (map), in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district is based in the state capital, Columbia, and stretches to the resort towns of Beaufort and Hilton Head Island.

These are today’s Republican Tea Bag All Stars people…

I refer readers back to my post #4. Tea Baggers would have you believe they are concerned about health care. Let’s not bullshit thinking America. It’s all about Obama.

Comment / By Tim / Sept. 9, 2009, 10:05 p.m.

Holy Crap - How could I have forgotten the captain of the Repbulican Tea Bag All Stars - Faggy Wilson’s Fellow South Carolinian, Gov Mark Wilson (R)? He of the Argentina mango fandango love connection???

Comment / By Rose / Sept. 10, 2009, 9:24 a.m.

The facts are going to kill you every time, Tim, no matter how many times you invoke teabagging-expert-Anderson-Cooper’s terminology.

Obama lied to you. Lies by omission, perhaps, by saying there is no provision in the bill saying it WILL pay for illegal immigrants. That may be a grain of truth, but the FACT is, he is NOT telling you the actual truth: H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on noncitzens*CRS (Congressional Research Office) reports do not get released to the public. CRS offers private analysis to members of Congress on request, but rarely do they see the light of day. However, David Freddoso got his hands on a copy of the 11-page analysis, “Treatment of Non-Citizens in HR3200″ late last night, and confirmed Tapscott’s reading: In its subsection on health insurance subsidies (known as “affordability credits”), HR 3200 does state, “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.” That would seem to solve the problem, but it’s more rhetoric than reality. The bill contains no verification requirement or enforcement process for citizenship or legal residency, as exists for other federal benefit programs. The only verification required for the subsidies pertains to family income. Beyond that, as the CRS report notes, everything is left in the hands of the Health Choices Commissioner.

House Democrats defeated all attempts in committee to add an enforcement mechanism that would require proof of citizenship or legal residency for those getting subsidies.*

Thinking people, rational people, can see the difference, Tim. Some, like you, are deliberately obtuse. But even you must see that there are still many questions to be addressed.

Lying about it isn’t helping.

And what is “the Health Choices Commissioner” - and what are “affordability credits?”

Comment / By Tim / Sept. 10, 2009, 11:37 a.m.

OK Rose, sorry. It’s clear you’re on to our plot to plant subliminal messages into the minds of our schoolchildren so that they might grow up to become little socialists. You know the part where the President advised children to do their best in school? Well, I helped the administration plant the real message. It’s hidden between the words “in” and “school.” Don’t look back now because it’s microscopic and I don’t think you can see it without a mag-electron super duper microscope. Since it’s all gonna come out now thanks to your super sluething I’ll share the subliminal message to you. It says: “Kids - do what I say. Go like sheep into my government farm collectives where I will gather you and your family together to share in the bounties of the land equally. Dress the same every day so you don’t stand out from the crowd. Burn private business and shop in government-sponsored businesses ONLY”

There. Our secret is out. You got us socialist health care reformers this time Rose.

Comment / By Rose / Sept. 10, 2009, 11:17 p.m.

Tim, we can agree on one thing, You do need healthcare.

And you still haven’t addressed a single issue. You’ve been influenced, perhaps, by Bob’s highly biased coverage, missing a disclaimer at the end.

Comment / By Fortunan / Sept. 15, 2009, 3:43 p.m.

Who’s Amy Wahlberg?

Comment / By Thirdeye / Sept. 15, 2009, 7:36 p.m.

I want to be teabagged by Rose.

Comment / By Rose / Sept. 16, 2009, 9:49 a.m.

THANK YOU, Bob and Hank.

Comment / By unanonymous / Sept. 20, 2009, 6:03 p.m.

so bob uses wife to get his quote in the story…….lies about it, according to the apology in next issue, on purpose. Is he still working there or is this the type of journalism the ncj conducts? Next we’ll hear they are not journalists but entertainers. nice.

Comment / By unanonymous / Sept. 22, 2009, 7:30 a.m.

no comment? I hear crickets…..