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And I heard that 1/4 of Republicans think Obama is the anti christ. What is that? Up to two people now?
An economic argument was made during the 19th Century that continued the practice of slavery until it was eventually settled by war. There were good arguments that said slavery needed to continue to maintain the economic health of this new nation…
Those who voted to continue that practice… were on the wrong side of history.
Likewise, during your very lifetime, arguments were made not to enfranchise descendants of slaves with laws protecting their Constitutional rights… Economic arguments again were made that helping the bottom tier of our population would bankrupt this nation, and cause required governmental intervention in schools and other institutions to enforce the Civil Rights Act… Those who opposed the Civil Rights Act, ….. were on the wrong side of history.
During your tenure in Congress, a funding bill was brought to Congress under the Clinton Administration that increased the rates of taxes… It passed the Senate by the one vote of the Vice President… As a result, our nation saw it budget balanced for the first time in anyone’s lifetime. The greatest economic boom in our lifetimes occurred as as result of that bill.
Those who opposed it, were on the wrong side of history…
Your own party, voted to do away with that tax increase, and move this nation to deficit spending once again. It was passed by the one vote of the Vice President, and subsequent economic decline, destroyed our nation… All those savings from no taxes, were wiped out by deregulated hedge funds. Today WE are all worse off.
Those who supported the Bush tax cuts, were on the wrong side of history….
Mike Castle, you are up for a tight election.
No insurance companies will vote for you; only real human beings, all who are subject to health insurance are allowed to cast a vote. A no vote against this bill, as you can plainly see from outside the beltway, does nothing to outlaw pre-existing conditions, does nothing to prevent the dropping of patients who become too expensive, does nothing to limit the changing of rates and reimbursements with no warning.
You are in a tight spot..Mike Castle. You have to choose between today and tomorrow. The question of how you vote, will determine how you will be remembered, by your family, your friends, you acquaintances.
Your vote today may make you tomorrow’s Judas? (That is actually a fitting metaphor.) Do you wish to be seen as a temporary hero, held up by the corporate insurance establishment for doing the “right” thing, then lambasted for as long as your name has life? Or will you choose to pierce through a brief spat of negativity from people who don’t matter much, and have thy name inspire millions for years to come…
What side of history, Mike Castle, will you choose to be on?
Judas actions were predetermined. Your’s do not have to be… You are treading the same line as he. Everything you have done up to this point, will be eclipsed by how you vote today.
Do you take the buzzer shot? …… Or pass?
A couple of exciting trends:
Medicare costs drop.
Medicaid and CHIP increase
State’s Portion of Medicaid and CHIP increase
Out of Pocket Decreases
Employer Sponsored Insurance Decreases: our products are more competitive overseas.
Other Private Health Insurance Drops
Percent of GDP devoted to Health Care climbs 0.1%.
34,000,000 more Americans are insured.
Bottom line:
34,000,000 additional Americans receive insurance at a marginal increase of 0.1%.
Democrats win where Republicans failed.
The chief executive of the Catholic Health Association, Carol Keehan, wrote on the group’s Web site that although the legislation isn’t perfect, it represents a “major first step” toward covering all Americans and would make “great improvements” for millions of people.
And the freaks are scared…
I was shocked when it was brought to my attention, really. This is a rather eventful pivot point.
The Catholic Church, through this venue, has decided that more good, will come about from President Obama’s Healthcare Reform, than harm.. The Catholic Church. has come out in favor of Obama’s Healthcare Reform Plan…
Why?
Because it helps people. It helps people get well. It helps people stay well. It helps drop costs down so more people can be treated…
The compassion and hope that this bill provides is so great, that the Catholic Church is willing to look the other way on the abortion planks… That shows you just how good this bill is seen to be by the Catholic Church… Who in their lifetimes would think the Catholic Church would look the other way on abortion? But Obama’s healthcare reform bill is so good, so helpful, such a wonderful piece of legislation, that the Catholic Church simply cannot dismiss it.. In fact, the Catholic Church wants this bill to go through so badly, that it supports it, despite some qualms over abortion planks that may or may not be added…. Who would have ever thought they’d see the day!
If it is good for the Catholic Church, by default, it must be good for all Americans…. (You don’t have to sell me)… Since looking at facts, I’ve been saying that for little over a year now… But some people need selling, and now, this group of Catholic hospitals, has decided that better health care for all Americans, is indeed a worthy cause to get behind…
The radicals of the Right to Life movement, differ with the mainstream element of their church. Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life, poo-poo’d the segregation of funds called for in the Senate bill as a bookkeeping trick. His group has bluffed it will count any vote for the House bill as support for taxpayer-funded abortion. “No Catholic hospital executive has ever turned out hundreds of volunteers to man the phone banks or walk the precincts for an endangered congressman or his challenger,” Johnson shrieked in response to the hospital group’s announcement.
I am grateful the Catholic Church is supporting Obama’s version of Healthcare Reform.
Now, if we can only get them to excommunicate all those Republicans who won’t support it….
After all, anyone who opposes legislation that represents a “major first step” toward covering all Americans and would make “great improvements” for millions of people, deserves to go to hell.
Some of you may remember this blog from the last election cycle…It was well received. It is written by two septuagenarians and neither pull any punches…
The Elephant in the Room is a Kangaroo….
Margaret, I really do like this President. He is young and smart… and I think he is trying his best under bad circumstances to do the right thing and create change for good. Not easy these days… Sort of like your convincing Howard that seeing a doctor annually at his age is still preventative medicine. You’ve both got a tough sales job ahead of you.
I really do appreciate his trying to reach across the aisle – as they say – and get Republicans to work towards bipartisanship. But honey, that dog just don’t hunt. Trying to reach bipartisanship with this particular Republican Party will probably achieve bipolarism instead of bipartisanship.
Harsh? Well yes maybe I am being a bit harsh. Part of the problem? Well maybe that too. After all bipartisanship requires a little give and take from both sides. So who am I to suggest that the problem is mainly with the Republicans?
Good questions all of them – particularly because I was the one who asked them. You know me, Margaret. I’m always trying to play both sides of the same issue. Well what do you expect from a woman who invented the all pie diet?
To all my Republican readers out there – I have had quite enough of your nonsense.
Your party gave us Sarah Palin and George W. Bush – dumb and dumber. He’s the guy whose mission still isn’t accomplished and she’s the gal who couldn’t handle being governor of one of our least populous states. Even the “professional” wrestler was able to finish the job in Minnesota.
Your party had an issue with President Obama telling school children to stay in school and study hard. I guess a black man can’t be trusted with your children regardless of his credentials. And your party decided the tradition of separating church and state had an expiration date. You love the constitution but you seem to pick through that document the same way you pick through the Bible – with all the effectiveness of eating corn on the cob through a picket fence.
We are actively involved in two wars, but you just can’t understand why the deficit is so big? Regardless of what you have been told, every time a bomb is dropped, an angel does not get her wings. Hint: Defense spending represents almost one quarter of all federal spending.
Today’s Republican Party has an issue with abortion, but then fights against healthcare reform knowing full well that more than 9 million children lack health insurance. A stretch argument to be sure, but then again 18 19 Children and Counting is a big hit.
My party at least recognizes the need for increased access to birth control. Your party is pro-life right up until they cut the cord and then you turn your attention to electing judges who promote shortening the waiting time on death row.
And for Pete’s sake your party has an issue with gay people, but you gladly send your straight children to war while telling gays they cannot serve. This one, more than any other, has me scratching my head. Aren’ t you just delaying their eventual trip to Hell?
You actually have Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck as your spokesmen. Rush Limbaugh? Are you serious? Even the NFL didn’t want Limbaugh. And Beck… Glenn Beck? When people use the expression ”nuttier than a fruitcake” Glenn Beck is the main ingredient.
The Republican Party of yesteryear was respectable. You were all about a small government that carried a big stick. Now you are just despicable. You used to be the Party of Lincoln and now – honest to God – you make Archie Bunker look progressive.
If it wasn’t for Fox News you would be irrelevent. That’s right. You have become a party that owes its entire existence to a cable news channel owned by an Aussie. Your mascot should be a kangaroo instead of an elephant. After all, the last guy you sent to the White House arrived there thanks to a kangaroo court ruling rather than an election. He then spent the next 8 years bringing our nation to its knees. How about sitting down and shutting your damn pie holes long enough to see if the guy in office now can actually clean up your mess. Honestly, you are embarrassing yourself.
Look. My party has problems too. It’s biggest problem might be in attempting to please everyone, the Democratic Party seems to please no one. But diversity of opinions is something I am willing to work through. Bigotry and ignorance is not. I mean it. Really.
Courtesy of Margaret & Helen
After seeing this video, there is unequivocally, absolutely no reason to have Mike Castle as our Senator…. What are we getting?
Nothing? How lame. If this is the choice he makes for his commercials, how good will his choices be if elected Senator?
Photo courtesy of the wonderful Iris Arenson Fuller
This holiday has now become a tradition here.. I was just reminiscing how recently the last posting of it was… this has been a very fast year….
I’d say more, but I’ve got to eat some pie…..
That, my friends is probably the best way I can think to celebrate Pi day….
Best thing that ever happened to Castle is having Christine throw her hat in the ring… On the morning after the September Primary, News Journal readers will see the headline:
Castle Conquerors Christine.
If they read the small print down far enough and have good eyes, they just might see that Castle’s next opponent will be some Democrat by the name of Chris Coons.
But most average voters will not know who Mike Castle is running against, until, …. say the second to the last week in October. Oh, they’ll remember Mike from elections before, but with two weeks to go, they’ll just be beginning to figure out who this Chris Coons guy thinks he is….
On a graph, ranging from Liberal to Crackpot, one can see where the positioning is going on….
Liberal (left)…………………………………………………………………Conservative (right)
………………………………Chris Coons ………….., Mike Castle………………….Christine
Solely because of the primary, Castle will appear to be the more central of all three candidates. Like the wild card teams of the playoff’s, Mike Castle will appear to have one win already under his belt while his challenger had a bye week to rest up, drink champagne, and play in the media spotlight. The challenge is for Chris Coons to become a household word on that day (after the primaries) when Castle’s results get published…
If you haven’t followed closely, the local media is pushing for Castle… Which means … if you want change, Mike Castle is exactly the person you do not want to vote for…
If you like inaction, people who say one thing and vote another, and prefer someone who sells Delaware out in a heartbeat to the whims of the National Republican Party, then Mike Castle is your man…
Which is why, it is up to us, not Chris Coons, to make the case that Mike Castle is despite being a nice guy, just not the right leader or Senator we need to represent us at this moment. If you have ever heard Chris Coons speak, you know he is the future of Delaware. Running New Castle County, is a thankless job… especially during a time of financial collapse. But for 10 years, Chris Coons has done just that… While Mike Castle was wandering the halls of Congress sort of like Spinal Tap lost in the labyrinth of passageways underneath their venue, Chris Coons was getting things done with less…
Sometimes you have not to look at what was accomplished, but at how much was accomplished out of nothing… and that will probably be the legacy of Chris Coons during this decade.
Chris Coons built something out of shrinking revenues.. .. Mike gave us quarters...
It would be a shame if Delawareans were to err and put the wrong person in office for six whole years…. Especially when we need something done… Some people look at the whole picture, and work hard to give us a change in our variety. Others look at the backs of coins, and give us variety in our change….
Hube…
If government entities were all supposed to allow guns on their premises, then why do we spend so much money at every governmental building to insure that no firearms enter that very building?
Because those inside do not want to get shot… 
If that is good enough for the General Assembly located in Legislative Hall, it is good enough for residents of Public Housing.
The NRA has threatened the four public housing authorities of Delaware with lawsuits if they do not rescind their bans on guns… (The News Journal)
What that means, … is that if the three “other” public housing authorities, The Wilmington Housing Authority, The Delaware State Housing Authority, and The Dover Housing Authority, all fail to cave in like the yellow bellied, weak knee’d Newark Public Housing Authority, and pull the ban from out of their rules and regulations, a moribund solicitor in the full employment of the NRA will park his car in the union built garage, step out, lock his vehicle, go into the courthouse, pass through the security frisking, and file a few papers… It doesn’t cost the NRA a penny… His parking ticket even gets validated!
On the other hand, upon getting these letters, the Housing Authorities, each have to contact their defense attorneys, who upon picking up the phone, begin their billing their client $300 an hour (loosely translates into $5 a minute, or 8.3 cents a second) .. Just the attorney’s initial outbust… “THEY DID WHAT!!! ” costs the Housing Authority 16.6 cents! For another 16.6 cents, the attorney could feign hearing loss, ”WHAT DID THEY DO, AGAIN?”
Bottom line, filing costs the NRA nothing, and costs taxpayers tremendous amounts of money… The only way for taxpayers to win, is to call the NRA’s bluff and force the cases into court, and make the case that each lawsuit is proven to be frivolous, and then require repayment of all attorney’s fees for the defense, as well as any damages that can be found to pile on… If it costs the NRA their money, … money that their members obviously don’t spend on fashion, then these silly things the NRA does, will go away…
But what if… hmmm… what if…. ahhhh… there was some way to cost the NRA something each time they “threatened to file a lawsuit” …. Maybe something that was beyond the law…. hmmm…
Let’s say a European was contracted to “ice” some of their high ranking officers, or even better, hit ‘em where it hurts… their families.. I wonder what would happen if we woke up tomorrow and saw this “just out of random” headline, Christopher Cox, 11250 Waples Mill Road , Fairfax, Virginia, was killed by unknown gunman… Walking out to get his mail, he never returned. Family found him dead by bullet to back of head”. If you are resourceful enough, you can guess exactly where the gunmen hid while waiting for his arrival….
Or how about this headline…. Funeral services for the child of John Hohenwarter were held privately in a closed session; the public was not invited nor allowed to attend….
Or how about seeing this in the news… Andrew Jennison is still listed as a missing person… Anyone with knowledge of or a recent siting, is urged to call their local authorities with any information… He was last seen leaving his house for work at his usual time, but never showed up at his employers. He was first reported missing last Monday…
Now each of these persons was licensed to carry a concealed weapon… (They also were all licensed to do something else)…. But in each of these cases, their faith in their right to carry a gun, was just that. faith. Effective? That I think would be up for debate.
That is how you take the fight to the NRA. Make them live in with the same stresses and fears that those living in public housing face everyday. Make them look over their shoulders every minute of their existence. Make them fear for their lives, because somewhere out there there’s a crazy…. someone who wants to kill them, who has a gun and you know, thanks to the NRA, there is nothing anyone can do about it…
At least, with the current ban in place, if Christopher Cox tells me he is going to blow my head off tomorrow because of something my kid said to his, I can call the housing authority and say, “Hello? Christopher Cox has a gun in his room… He threatened me with it today!” and sometime before tomorrow, police will arrive and comb over the apartment. Who knows, if they find it, I might live to see a couple more sunsets than I could have otherwise… That would be nice. But.. if the gun ban is removed, and under the same scenario I call up, I get this answer: ”oh .. no crime has been committed yet. If he, by chance, uses it on you, give us a call then, and we well knock on his door and discuss that matter with him. Goodbye.”
So you see, as thinking men and women, if we have no other option but to live in public housing, then, we should be the ones worried about our rules and regulations pertaining to our own safety. Not someone listing their address at 11250 Waples Mill Road , Fairfax, Virginia. Like what do they know…
If the case goes to court… here is how it plays out. Their side pulls out the second amendment. The defense pulls out the Declaration of Independence.
All men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
These three rights are the only ones endowed by man’s Creator. The rest come from men.. If men choose to protect their lives and liberties over those of owning a gun, it is their choice. They are free to do so. It is perfectly within every American’s God given right to ban the use of guns on his property if he so desires.. That.. is what America is all about…
The Housing Authorities have every right to maintain the safety of their confines in anyway they see fit. If enforcing a gun ban protects citizen’s lives, then they have every right to do just that… Every innkeeper is allowed to make rules for his tenants. After all, it is his property.
Every householder or property owner is allowed to make rules and regulations pertaining to the use of his property. ”Follow these rules or get out”… Hell, every parent of teenagers has had to use that line once in a while to keep the peace. That is the American way. To sit in some cubicle far, far away talking smack, and having tons of tax payers money being spent on a frivalous lawsuit, is not the American way. For one, it is too cowardly to be considered American. For two, it goes against the doctrine that a man’s home is his castle… For three, removing the only protection those tenants of these domiclies have against gun violence from getting out of control, should be downright criminal.
The three remaining housing authorities need to take action and sue the three NRA lobbyists registered within the state of Delaware personally for all the cost they are placing on our strained finances. Make those individuals who are responsible for all NRA actions in this state, on the hook for the financial consequences of their action..
Take the fight to them. You have the best case. And yes I do this for fun…. I’ll waive the fee.
