HorsesAss.Org

Open Thread

by — ,

– Free trees for your yard, Seattle people.

– Who could have predicted?

– It’s funny because the guy died unnecessarily.

– I’m just not really a fan of individual, personality-based explanations for systemic problems like “Democrats caving”. We as a country would be better off if we stopped seeing politicians as leaders so much as ciphers.

– For The Birds.

– Given the violence in the NFL today, I’m always amazed when I read how much worse it was.

– I’ve had better experiences with the police in Belltown.

– Bike Polo.

Comments

  1. 1

    Lame that Bootsy Collins’ nephew died needlessly, but there really are resources for people that can’t afford meds. Which doesn’t mean that we don’t need healthcare reform or that Malkin isn’t hideous, but chances are Kyle Willis could have gotten his meds for free.

  2. 2

    Republican?

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/c.....n-tub.html
    Weatherman Found With Dead Man in Tub
    Brett Cummins, a meteorologist at a news station in Arkansas since 2001, was questioned by police Monday after he awoke in an empty bath tub with the corpse of a dead man wearing a dog collar. When Cummins awoke, he ran out of the bathroom screaming and vomited on the carpet, according to another man who was at the apartment. Christopher Barbour, who lived at the house of the incident, said he, Cummins, and the dead man had partied and used narcotics the night before. Cummins was released after speaking with police

  4. 4

    People kill people with axes, knives, bricks, cars, their bare hands, but if you want to kill 5 people chances are you’ll use a gun.

    MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – A West Virginia man suspected of slaying five people in their rural home before killing himself had spent 14 months behind bars for armed robbery.

    The state Division of Corrections says 22-year-old Shayne Riggleman of Morgantown was sentenced in December 2008 to a prison for young offenders. Corrections spokeswoman Susan Harding said he served his time at the Anthony Correctional Center from January 2009 to March 2010.
    Authorities say Riggleman shot five people to death near Morgantown on Monday, then fled by car. They say he ran down an elderly woman in neighboring Pennsylvania and wounded a gas station attendant as he crossed back through West Virginia before shooting himself to death when a police car pulled him over in Kentucky.
    Investigators have not disclosed a motive for the shootings.
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/n.....50296740/1

  5. 5

    “…but if you want to kill 5 people chances are you’ll use a gun.”

    Or US foreign policy.

  7. 7

    Yet another example of the Obama Civility Movement. Joshua Miller wrote-

    A New York-based video game developer has set his virtual crosshairs on Republican and conservative political figures in a game called “Tea Party Zombies Must Die,” which allows players to indiscriminately slaughter politicians like Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin.
    The gruesome game, created by StarvingEyes Advergaming, is billed as “first-person shooter” featuring “Tea Party zombies” to be targeted with an “arsenal of weapons,” including multiple firearms and a crowbar. Notable politicians depicted in the game include current and previous presidential hopefuls like Palin, Bachmann, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum. Several Fox News personalities are also featured, including Huckabee, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Brit Hume.


    The desperation of the far left is going to turn off the exact people they need to win elections, the unaffiliateds. The only people that love this kind of nasty stuff are already Obama voters. The left has shot themselves in the foot so many times with vulgar, desperate rantings & ravings and over-the-top stuff like this, there isn’t even a stump left. Keep up the hot rhetoric. It will make things worse for the Progressive agenda. What if someone did this with the Democrats and leftist commentators? Could you imagine the outrage. Your silence verifies your concurrence. Anyone outraged by this kind of stuff?

  8. 8

    And why would the Republicans immediately respond to yet another Obama speech immediately anyway? Obama’s proposal will live or die on it’s merit. Just because he now, 32 months into a failed administration, reveals a small part of his grand plan, means little. The House needs to pass Legislation, move it to the Senate and on to Obama. There should soon be a steady stream.

  10. 10

    7. askjudas spews:

    The desperation of the far left is going to turn off the exact people they need to win elections, the unaffiliateds. The only people that love this kind of nasty stuff are already Obama voters. The left has shot themselves in the foot so many times with vulgar, desperate rantings & ravings and over-the-top stuff like this, there isn’t even a stump left. Keep up the hot rhetoric. It will make things worse for the Progressive agenda. What if someone did this with the Democrats and leftist commentators? Could you imagine the outrage. Your silence verifies your concurrence. Anyone outraged by this kind of stuff?

    09/07/2011 at 9:46 am

    Let’s see…let’s say we’ve got a bunch of rethuglicant asshole who want to make it look like Dems as as nasty as they…the rethuglicat assholes are.

    What would be a GREAT way to do it?

    THis will blow up in your face “blind team troll”…

  11. 11

    Tea Party Zombies Must Die
    Sounds like a stupid game. I won’t play it. I’ll even go so far as to condemn it as a nasty game that is in very bad taste.

    However, Typical republican response. One person somewhere does something they don’t like and It’s ALL liberals attacking conservatives and Something must be done!

    But have have one guy take take an gun and actually kill people, and it’s just a lone gunman, and nothing should be done about gun laws.

    So…Video game that didn’t hurt anyone = All liberals want to kill conservatives.

    But…Actual crazy gunman that actually kills people with an AK-47 assault rifle = nothing to see here, move along.

    Conservatives, where is your outrage that this guy was able to get an AK-47? Where is your condemnation of lax gun laws that allowed that!

  12. 12

    @9

    Wow…our favorite failed musician sure is angry today….sounds like a 14 year old throwing a tantrum.

  13. 13

    @11

    Too funny…..within one post, you make the same generalization that you just complained about others making 2 sentences prior.

    Now that takes some talent.

  14. 14

    @13. Thanks. I’m glad you appreciate the DoubleThink required to be like a conservative. It’s Double Plus Good!

  15. 15

    @14. BTW, I await your condemnation of lax gun laws that allowed that gunman to get an AK47.

  16. 16

    http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_1602.....d=fZJuffqC
    Shocker: Power demand from US homes is falling
    NEW YORK (AP) – American homes are more cluttered than ever with devices, and they all need power: Cellphones and iPads that have to be charged, DVRs that run all hours, TVs that light up in high definition.

    But something shocking is happening to demand for electricity in the Age of the Gadget: It’s leveling off.

    Over the next decade, experts expect residential power use to fall, reversing an upward trend that has been almost uninterrupted since Thomas Edison invented the modern light bulb.

    In part it’s because Edison’s light bulb is being replaced by more efficient types of lighting, and electric devices of all kinds are getting much more efficient. But there are other factors.

    Actually it isn’t shocking at all. Everything is getting more efficient and the fertility rate has been on a decline since the early 70’s. Eventually those two things will catch up with and overtake overall population growth and power usage. Seattle’s undergone a huge population boom in the last 20 year, but hardly uses any more electricity then it did 20 year ago.

  17. 17

    Hockey World Mourns Loss Of Entire Team In Air Disaster

    Today is a black day for international hockey. A Russian-built Yak-42 (a 3-engine airliner similar to a Boeing 727) carrying a professional hockey team with players and staff from 10 nations crashed on takeoff, killing nearly everyone on board. Head coach Brad McCrimmon, of Canada, was among those killed.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2.....am_players.

  18. 18

    13. F.U. Manchu spews:

    @11

    Too funny…..within one post, you make the same generalization that you just complained about others making 2 sentences prior.

    Now that takes some talent.

    09/07/2011 at 12:07 pm

    One thing about that emperor max-minidick…

    …he never lets being dumber than a box of rocks get in the way of making comments here.

  20. 20

    Bosses Are Bastards Dep’t

    “The New York Times reports that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was fired by phone while en route to New York from Maine.”

    http://lifeinc.today.com/_news.....r-tactical

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: In this case, it was the boss who got fired, which is why it made the news. Phone firings of flunkies aren’t front page copy.* They’re merely common and tacky. A boss who fires an employee by phone because he doesn’t have the balls to do it in his office is a gutless limpdick. What else can I say?

    Hey, I understand it — bosses are human. They’re greedy, selfish, dishonest, horny, cowardly, and all the rest of what human beings are. We shouldn’t expect them to be superhuman.

    But I don’t understand why we give them special privileges, either. Nobody should fawn over them, because they don’t deserve to be idolized or worshipped. And above all, they should pay the same taxes as the rest of us. After all, they haven’t done anything for this country the rest of us haven’t done. You say they “work hard”? At what? Telling other people to work hard so they don’t have to work at all? We all work hard … when there’s work. And if your rationalization for sucking up to the bosses of the world is that they provide the rest of us with jobs, then my question is, where are the jobs?

    Let bosses fire people by phone if they want to. But let’s stop sucking up to them as if they were gods. Most of them are just ordinary plain vanilla shitheads.

    * Alliteration intentional.

  22. 22

    All eyes are on Europe this week. Here’s why:

    “[T]he … stalemate over Europe’s debt problems threatens to bring on another recession. The crisis in Europe has … slowed the region’s economy to a standstill. …

    “‘It’s a global economy,’ said David Malpass, president of … an economic research firm. … ‘A big chunk of our economy is tied directly into the European economy.’

    “Both economies are suffering from a decade-long borrowing binge that saddled banks with bad loans and governments with costly debt burdens.”

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44.....e_economy/

    Here’s a question for you: Who was in charge of economic policy in the U.S. and Europe for most of the last decade? Conservatives. ‘Nuff said.

  23. 23

    Thank God the Belltown cops are protecting us from foreign hot dogs. No telling what might be in those things. (But whatever it is, it can’t possibly be worse for your health than what comes out of U.S. food processing plants.)

  25. 25

    @7

    I condemn it with the same vehemence as I reserve for the really old Shockwave game, “Slap a Spice Girl.” It similarly backfired as all 423 nerds suddenly felt the oppression of violence against women and started trading “Wannabe.wav” on AOL and made “Spice World” an international box office smash.

    http://www.slapobama.com is a real thing. “How to play: step 1. Slap that nigger.”

  26. 26

    @7 “The desperation of the far left is…”

    Oh, blah, blah, blah. That’s just Klown-speak for “I have nothing fucking original to say”. Dumbfuck Klown.

    “The only people that love this kind of nasty stuff are already Obama voters.”

    Obviously. There’s no way a good Real American Konservative Khristian Klown would play a video game where he could kill his progressive neighbors and other Americans, like Catholics, Mormons and various brown people.

    “What if someone did this with the Democrats and leftist commentators? Could you imagine the outrage. Your silence verifies your concurrence. Anyone outraged by this kind of stuff?”

    Here’s a nice right-wing extremist Christian game for you. It’s been around for years. It’s quite popular with you Dominionist/Reconstructionist types. You can knock yourself out killing Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, brown people and commie-liberal-fascists. And then when someone pulls a tit-for-tat on your hypocritical ass, you can come here and whine like a little bitch. Oh, wait! That’s what you just did.

    http://www.gamespot.com/pc/str.....eview.html

    Try whining someplace where somebody actually gives a flying fuck about what your sorry ass thinks about anything.

  27. 27

    Everything is getting more efficient and the fertility rate has been on a decline since the early 70’s.

    One thing that article leaves out: recession.

    When folks aren’t as prosperous, they conserve more. The cash flows again, they go back to being more profligate.

    However, over time, as technology improves in various places, you tend to need less energy per capita even though in the aggregate it looks like we need more and more.

    I forget how much of humanity has never switched on a light bulb (something like a billion people)? If everyone is to approach a western standard of living then the goal of producing abundant clean energy must always remain a top priority for the human endeavor.

    You all should know by now how I think we should do that.

  28. 28

    @20
    I’m still mysteriously locked out of my Flickr account. I was hoping Bartz’s firing might clear that up. No luck.

    In other fucked up interweb news. Face Book locked me out of my account the other day. They thought it was suspicious that I was logging in from a phone in Washington DC. I was logging in from Puyallup.

  29. 29

    @27

    The third world and the like will need more power, but around here we’re probably at or near peak usage. The question is can we maintain the system we have with people using less of it and the cost of maintaining the system going up?

  30. 30

    This past Friday my wife and I were enjoying what well could be the last summer evening for the year. As we passed the corner of Second Ave and Bell there was the ever present of smell of vender prepared hot dogs, with one cart on the south east corner, one on the south west corner and yet a third on the north east corner, all well-lit and open for business. On the remaining darkened corner there was the ever vigilant drug runner, a couple ladies attempting to sell their services and a package of unknown content being exchanged for a fist full of cash.
    The tranquility of the evening was interrupt as a Seattle patrol cruiser with lights flashing entered the scene. Giving the unsuspecting violator no chance to flee as the officer sprung from his vehicle demanding that the newest interloper to the street vending scene produce the required documentation. The north east and south west corners had long been the territory of Monster Dog. How dare a Japanese usurper attempt to violate the domain so long coveted by the established dog purveyor of the neighborhood? How dare a Japanize American vendor would even attempt to force his interpretation of an American classic on the unsuspecting public? Truly it must be a crime to added seaweed, other unknown vegetables and sauces to a tube of meat products on a Kiser roll.

    That’s what happens when you don’t pay your protection money. Hell, in Naples, they would have beat the guy black and blue and then pissed on him.

  32. 32

    “…bosses…let’s stop sucking up to them as if they were gods. Most of them are just ordinary plain vanilla shitheads.”

    Let’s stop sucking up to politicians, judges, government officials and authority figures in general.

  33. 33

    If you need any proof that some things in this world aren’t explainable by “intelligent design”, look at Michele Malkin.

    Then again, don’t. It’ll turn your head into a giant cow turd.

  34. 34

    @30 In Tunisia they beat up a vegetable cart guy and ignited a revolution that has overthrown three dictators … and counting.

  35. 35

    @32 Most people already have. Private-sector bosses are next. You see, the way revolutions work is, once you start ’em, you can’t stop ’em, they take on a life of their own …

  38. 38

    Is there a bigger bunch of whining, persecution-complex laden babies as the Evangelicals?

    So, it’s not enough that the National Cathedral is ostensibly Christian, it’s not enough that Episcopalian Christianity will be represented. “Hey, Southern Baptists and evangelical Protestants “brand” of Christianity needs to be heard too. We demand to be heard. In fact, it should be an Episcopalian, a Baptist, Fred Phelps, a Protestant, a Rabbi, but only to be smote in the rapture and the Muslims aren’t allowed. This is America damnit. You’re trampling on our Freedom of religion.”

    “We interpret holy scripture differently than you. So you need to bow to our version of worship. You are not holy even though you proclaim to be faithful. We are the guardians of the true religion and we might event kill you if you don’t accept our God.” History of religion repeats.

  39. 39

    @38
    So they’re leaving off the third branch of Abrahamic faith then. American evangelicals have a habit of doing that.

  41. 41

    Isn’t this great?

    Obummer not going to be the speech police for the DUMMOCRAPTS Party.

    Isn’t that special?

    Remember Jan 12 2011 or Aug 19, 2010 Obummer TOTUS speeches?

    After “asking” Americans that we all needed to be: “It’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.” now we have a new “pronouncement” from the Obummer gang!

    The preznit presser man Dan Pfeiffer basically said they don’t care what others say. Obummer is not the speech police. I was told Obummer is the preznit (headless lucy term). Therein is America’s problem. Becuz Obummer is the preznit, Obummer is preznit of all of America, is not just preznit of Conservative America. So the preznit has set himself up for these type of attacks and Obummer can’t complain later.

    Obummer has been political in this jobs activity since January 20, 2009. So now we’re gonna see the “secret key” to create jobs?

    Oh boy this is gonna be fun!

    BTW serial arschloch plagiarizer, the first link is a leftist. The second is a radio station!

    See ya!

  42. 42

    Puddy-
    All the Democrat’s have is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals #13-
    13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In conflict tactics there are certain rules that should be regarded as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and ‘frozen.’…
    “…any target can always say, ‘Why do you center on me when there are others to blame as well?’ When your ‘freeze the target,’ you disregard these [rational but distracting] arguments…. Then, as you zero in and freeze your target and carry out your attack, all the ‘others’ come out of the woodwork very soon. They become visible by their support of the target…’
    “One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other.” (pps.127-134)

  44. 44

    I’m constantly shilling for a low-consumption, high-savings, no-debt, lifestyle. It works for me as a bunny who doesn’t like commuting, being dependent on a boss, or trying to keep up with the Joneses — screw all that!

    This article describes the financial philosophy of a guy whose views are pretty similar to my own, except maybe he’s not the rapacious capitalist that the Republican indoctrination I received in my bunnyhood turned me into. (Old habits die hard.)

    Anyway, this article isn’t very long, and is worth reading.

    http://www.dailyfinance.com/20.....-planning/

  45. 45

    British Troops Inflicted ‘Gratuitous Violence’ On Iraqis

    “An Iraqi man beaten and killed while in the custody of U.K. troops was the victim of ‘an appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence’ and a serious breach of discipline, an investigation found Thursday.

    “Baha Mousa, 26, was working at a hotel … raided by soldiers … in September 2003. He and nine others were taken to a British base where Mousa sustained 93 injuries …. An autopsy said he died of asphyxia, caused by a stress position that soldiers forced him to maintain.

    “William Gage, who chaired the inquiry into the military’s abuse of Iraqi prisoners and Mousa’s death [the incidents] ‘constituted … appalling … gratuitous violence ….’

    “The inquiry, set up by the former Labour government, made 73 recommendations, including a ban on hooding prisoners and forcing them to stand in awkward positions.”

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44....._n_africa/

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: This “Torture Moment,” although executed by allied troops, was made possible by the Republican Party’s military adventurism and utter lack of conscience and human compassion.

  46. 46

    So much for the lying Republicans’ argument that all they (and their allies) did was flush pages of the Koran down the toilet.

    Let’s be clear about this: They kidnapped, tortured, and killed innocent people; and threatened those who exposed their crimes against humanity with death. Anyone who votes for these assholes is complicit in their guilt.

  47. 47

    I thought Mr. Rabbit had a severe lung condition? Good thing he had access to the best health care system in the world, huh? Now he wants to destroy it so 40 million more people get “free” insurance.
    Talk about selfish.

  48. 48

    The pundits’ initial take on last night’s debate was that Michelle Bachmann got her ass kicked six ways back to Sunday; Rick Perry came off looking like a flat-earther; and Romney is the only GOP front-runner who realizes that promising to repeal Social Security doesn’t enhance your electability.

    http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com.....st-in-simi

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: All candidates have debate coaches who work with them on what to say and how to say it. Except Michelle Bachmann, who not only doesn’t have a debate coach, but doesn’t have a campaign manager or deputy campaign manager, either. In fact, with her campaign organizaton gutted by ‘retirements’ and nobody propping her up, it’s painfully evident she doesn’t have much of anything going for her — least of all any native ability of her own.

  51. 51

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/201.....port-case/

    Tea party Rep. wants ex-wife sanctioned in child support case

    By David Edwards

    Thursday, September 8th, 2011 — 12:13 pm 57
    Tags: child support case, republican congressman, unpaid child supportA tea party Republican congressman who reportedly owes over $100,000 in child support has filed a motion to have the court sanction his ex-wife.

    Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) is also asking the court to force former wife Laura Walsh to pay his legal bills.

    In July, court documents showed that Laura Walsh was suing the congressman for more than $117,000 in unpaid child support.

    The lawsuit pointed to a $35,000 loan he personally gave to his campaign, claiming that if he had enough for that, he had enough to help support their 9-year-old child.

    In a possible effort to slow down the case, lawyers for the Illinois Republican asked his ex-wife to provide extensive documentation, including records of her employment, salary, bank statements, tax returns and expense reports. After she failed to provide the documents, Walsh sought to have her sanctioned by the court.

    Jack Coladarci, Laura Walsh’s attorney, told The Sun Times that the move was “harassment.”

    He added that Laura Walsh was under no obligation to produce the records and that the issue should be Walsh not paying his past-due child support.

    Asshole motherfucker.

  52. 52

    http://www.seattlepi.com/local.....159664.php

    State: Regence delayed benefits, took money from non-customers

    By VANESSA HO, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
    Updated 04:34 p.m., Wednesday, September 7, 2011

    State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has accused Regence BlueShield of a series of major failures affecting thousands of consumers, including the deduction of higher-than-approved premiums, lapsing of payment for thousands of claims, and withdrawal of bank funds from people who were not Regence members.

    “The Regence Group needs to gets its act together,” Kreidler said in a statement Wednesday.

    “We’ve seen an ongoing pattern of errors and problems with Regence and its subsidiaries. Many of these problems directly harm consumers and health care providers.”

    The insurance chief’s rebuke came with an order for the company to prepare a corrective plan by the end of the month.

    The allegations stem from the insurance giant’s “SurePay” system, which officials said had suffered a computer malfunction early last month. That resulted in Regence improperly accessing the bank accounts of 6,400 people.

    In some cases, the Portland-based insurance giant deducted higher-than-approved premium amounts, resulting in consumers getting overdraft notices from their bank, officials said.

    In about 200 cases, the system took funds from bank accounts that belonged to non-Regence customers. In some cases, the withdrawals totaled thousands of dollars. Sandi Peck, an Insurance Commissioner’s spokeswoman, said Regence had given routing numbers to the banks, but for accounts that did not correspond with policyholders.

    State officials said the computer failure happened on Aug. 5, but they didn’t learn of it until weeks later, when insurance regulators in Oregon tipped them off. That led to a meeting last week among regulators from the four states where the Regence Group operates.

    YessireeeeeBobby…best in the world.

    Oh fuck yeah.

  53. 53

    @49 Unfortunately, no. Wish we could.

    This new (recycled old?) troll’s meme seems to be that caring about our country’s 59 million uninsured* (he can’t even get the basic data right) is “selfish.” I see your point — it makes you wish we could crate ’em up and ship ’em back to wherever they came from. It would be nice to get a little intellectual challenge on some of these issues, but with this crop of “morans”**, that’s just a pipe dream.

    * http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....0408.shtml

    ** http://s1025.photobucket.com/a.....ter=images

  54. 54

    http://slog.thestranger.com/sl.....ver-please

    Would Someone Please Ask Perry, Bachmann, Santorum, Romney, Palin, and Cain About Kyle Willis and Deamonte Driver, Please?

    Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 8:41 AM

    We’re the greatest, richest, most awesomest country in the whole history of the entire world and we can’t manage to do what every other Western, industrialized, developed country on earth already does: provide health care for all our citizens. So shit like this happens:

    A 24-year-old Cincinnati father died from a tooth infection this week because he couldn’t afford his medication, offering a sobering reminder of the importance of oral health and the number of people without access to dental or health care…. Kyle Willis’ wisdom tooth started hurting two weeks ago. When dentists told him it needed to be pulled, he decided to forgo the procedure, because he was unemployed and had no health insurance. When his face started swelling and his head began to ache, Willis went to the emergency room, where he received prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medications. Willis couldn’t afford both, so he chose the pain medications. The tooth infection spread, causing his brain to swell. He died Tuesday….

    Willis’ story is not unique. In 2007, 12-year-old Deamonte Driver also died when a tooth infection spread to his brain. The Maryland boy underwent two operations and six weeks of hospital care, totaling $250,000. Doctors said a routine $80 tooth extraction could have saved his life. His family was uninsured and had recently lost its Medicaid benefits, keeping Deamonte from having dental surgery.
    I think Justin Bieber said it best:

    “You guys are evil,” he says with a laugh. “Canada’s the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don’t need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you’re broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard’s baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby’s premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home.”

    Republicans oppose a single-payer system because socialism, of course, but some relatively reasonable people I know oppose a single-payer system because why would they want to pay into a system like Canada’s when they’ve never been sick and will never get sick—because they’re immune to all known human ailments and have unbreakable bones—and they have jobs and there’s zero chance that they’ll ever lose their jobs so they’ll go on getting health insurance through their employers forever. What’s in a single-payer system for them?

    Yep…best in the world.

    No poor houses yet, but that’s coming.

  55. 55

    @53,

    With 59 million people in the US without any health care (according to the link), it naturally follows that those affected folks must be extra careful in how they conduct their daily lives. For example, don’t engage in physical activities that might cause injury or disease. No smoking, eat as best as you can, exercise, careful on drug use (especially alcohol), and just be generally carefull. If you haven’t got a pot to piss in, then you don’t have much option other than to be extremely careful.

    That’s my advice to those without insurance. Take it easy and take responsibility for your own health.

  56. 56

    @52 Regence looks like an organization that could use some quality control.

    “computer malfunction … resulted in … improperly accessing the bank accounts of 6,400 people”

    Computer malfunction? That sounds like human error to me. Computers don’t do this sort of thing by themselves; somebody made data input errors.

    “In about 200 cases, the system took funds from bank accounts that belonged to non-Regence customers.”

    Right there, you have 200 cases of negligence per se, and in many of those cases, reversing the bank withdrawals won’t be enough to make the customers whole. Regence should also pay any bounced check fees they incurred. And if someone lost their credit rating because of a bounced mortgage or car payment check, that person needs a lawyer.

  57. 57

    53, 55 — Anyone who’s really really SELFISH should be for universal coverage (and making cheapskates who can afford health insurance carry it) because most of the uninsured are getting health care and the rest of us are paying for it.

  58. 58

    Sounds like some good ole fashioned union thuggery going on in longview…..hitting the news now…….

  61. 61

    @56
    When I had Regence every trip to the doctor was followed up by at least 3 phone calls to Regence to fix their screwups. One time they tried to deny coverage for a tetanus shot claiming it was a “preexisting condition.” When I got them on the phone the first person I talked to would only say that “everything seemed to be coded correctly.” So I hung up. The second person said it was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard of and fixed the problem.

  62. 62

    Woop! Go Mary Verner!

    Office of the Press Secretary

    For Immediate Release September 06, 2011
    President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

    WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

    Eduardo Arriola –Member, Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation
    Sara Aviel– United States Alternate Executive Director, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
    Daniel Becker– Member, Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute
    Mark Francis Brzezinski– Ambassador to Sweden, Department of State
    Dana Bilyeu -Member, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
    Steven H. Cohen – Member, Board of Trustees of the Harry S Truman Scholarship Foundation
    Bert DiClemente -Director, Amtrak Board of Directors
    James Hannah -Member, Board of Directors of the State Justice Institute
    David Jones -Member, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
    Drew R. McCoy – Member, Board of Trustees of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
    Adam Namm -Ambassador to the Republic of Ecuador, Department of State
    Wenona Singel – Member, Advisory Board of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation
    Mary B. Verner – Member, Board of Directors of theNational Institute of Building Sciences

  63. 63

    “…because most of the uninsured are getting health care and the rest of us are paying for it.”

    Yeah, ER care, which is the most expensive care there is. There needs to be a better way to control costs. Right now it’s a feeding frenzy, by the medical profession, the insurance companies and the trial lawyers.

  64. 64

    63. Politically Incorrect spews:

    “…because most of the uninsured are getting health care and the rest of us are paying for it.”

    Yeah, ER care, which is the most expensive care there is. There needs to be a better way to control costs. Right now it’s a feeding frenzy, by the medical profession, the insurance companies and the trial lawyers.

    09/08/2011 at 2:52 pm

    Trial Lawyers???? How so?

  65. 65

    http://www.thestand.org/2011/0.....-so-angry/

    Here’s why Longshore workers are so angry

    By DAVID GROVES The Stand

    LONGVIEW (Sept. 8th) — Violence erupted today in a major labor dispute that has simmered for months at the Port of Longview, leading to work shutdowns at ports up and down the Washington coast. Why are members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) — and their supporters in Washington and Oregon — so upset about a grain terminal that employs just 50 workers?

    Here’s why.

    EGT Development is a joint venture of Japan-based Itochu Corp, South Korea’s STX Pan Ocean and St. Louis-based Bunge North America. Like so many corporations that promise good jobs to get what they want, EGT got a special state tax exemption and a sweetheart lease deal from the Port of Longview to build a $200 million grain terminal there. The government even seized adjacent land for the project. But as soon as the deal’s ink was dry and the ceremonial first shovel of dirt was overturned two years ago, EGT began running the project on the cheap.

    Despite high unemployment in Cowlitz County and the availability of hundreds of skilled union building trades workers, EGT imported the vast majority of its construction crews from low-wage communities out-of-state and did not pay area standard wages, leading to howls from the local labor community.

    After the terminal was built, EGT decided to ignore the Port of Longview’s contract with ILWU Local 21 to hire union labor on its leased site. Instead, the multinational conglomerate hired non-union workers — claiming it would save the company $1 million a year (a figure the company later admitted had been plucked from the sky) — and EGT sued the Port, arguing it was not bound by the contract with the ILWU.

    (h/t The Stranger)

    Read the rest of the story.

    This corporation got huge tax breaks and a sweetheart lease then refuses to hire local workers in a town where unemployment is high.

    Fuck the bastards.

  66. 66

    So rujaxoff is ok with holding seurity guards hostage, threatening police, cutting the breaklines of trains, and general destruction of property .

    Violence is ok as long as its the unions or progressives doing it.

  67. 67

    And the article is wrong. Egt hired workers from a different union…not non union workers….at least that’s what the radio is reporting.

    Violence..its cool when you’re a lefty.

  69. 69

    67. F.U. Manchu spews:

    And the article is wrong. Egt hired workers from a different union…not non union workers….at least that’s what the radio is reporting.

    Violence..its cool when you’re a lefty.

    09/08/2011 at 3:44 pm

    READ IT AGAIN YOU DICK.

    (emperor max-minidick still has trouble with reading comprehension…

    …back to forth grade, buddy.)

  70. 70

    The article says “non-union workers”

    Other news reports say it was “a different union”

    So go fuck yourself you little pussy.

  71. 71

    70. F.U. Manchu spews:

    The article says “non-union workers”

    Other news reports say it was “a different union”

    So go fuck yourself you little pussy.

    09/08/2011 at 3:53 pm

    They were OUT OF STATE workers you fucking fraud.

    You got ripped off by these assholes like we ALL did. The emperor max-minidick and his pretend empire don’t exist in a vacuum. People need MONEY to buy goods and services.

    LOCAL people.

    LOCAL money.

    You’re shitty litle business WILL go under when nobody can buy the shitty lame service you pimp out…and it couldn’t happen too soon for me.

    My god…you supposed “Capitalists” are soooo
    fucking stupid    .

  72. 72

    What I saw said it was feuding between two unions. Which is very stupid.

    Yeah, violence is only OK when it’s being done by the state on behalf of wealthy classes!

  73. 73

    72. Michael spews:

    What I saw said it was feuding between two unions. Which is very stupid.

    Yeah, violence is only OK when it’s being done by the state on behalf of wealthy classes!

    09/08/2011 at 4:13 pm

    It’s not, Michael. It’s a corporation with ZERO accountability to the community going back on their word.

    The State of Washington and the local community bent over for EGT and got fucked in the ass for their trouble.

  74. 74

    @73
    The amount of violence both, real and implied, directed at the working classes by the wealthy classes and the state far outweighs the amount of violence from the working classes directed towards the wealthy classes and the state.

    This looks like a pretty good article. It’s also saying there’s another union involved, but makes it pretty clear that the anger is being directed at EGT.

    http://www.globalpost.com/disp.....l-ilwu-egt

  75. 75

    poor rujax has now been owned for the 478th time by me on this board.

    lets start with the facts:

    Instead, the multinational conglomerate hired non-union workers

    WRONG – it IS a union dispute. EGT hired General Construction, who hired UNION HANDS(Operating Engineers Local 612 I believe) to work at the terminal(the first new grain terminal to open at the US in over 20 years BTW). Rujaxoff and The Stand’s LIE #1

    Rujaxoff and his “source”(insert laughter here),The Stand(which is a POS union publication by the way), said that EGT was using “non-union labor”, WHICH IS FALSE.

    They were OUT OF STATE workers you fucking fraud.

    Local 612 based in SW Wash State, not “out of state workers” like The Stand and Rujaxoff quoted.
    Rujaxoff and The Stand’s LIE #2

    it seems all the lefty publications are repeating the same lie – why is that? out of shitty reporting or on purpose? you decide, but I think we all know.

    The fact is that EGT went to General Construction(and I know several people in their office) because the labor negotiations had stalled, and the longshoremans union started making threats, including death threats, to personnel at EGT.

  76. 76

    Now…lets continue…
    Rujaxoff says:

    09/08/2011 at 3:44 pm

    READ IT AGAIN YOU DICK.

    Maybe its you, who needs to read it again, DICK…and try reading from a reputable source next time you fucking broom pushing loser.

    You’re shitty litle business WILL go under when nobody can buy the shitty lame service you pimp out…and it couldn’t happen too soon for me.

    My god…you supposed “Capitalists” are soooo
    fucking stupid.

    my “shitty little business(actually its three now) are doing quite well, thank you. And I bet I pay my employees more than you make pushing a broom or sorting junk mail at the post office, you forty-something loser.

    you better hope and fucking pray people like me stay in business, because its us that pays for your loser ass to eat have a roof over your head. jealous much? ya, no fucking shit you are jealous. i would be too if i was you. mid forties and making(maybe) $40k a year..wow, what a success story you are. good thing you still have time to cruise the intwarwebs you lazy fuck.

    yep, “we” sure are stupid, arent “we”(my wife is laughing her ass off right now at your post – her first look at HA).

    too funny, even Michael owned your ass on this one, and he was even trying to be nice and not make you look TEH STOOPID.

    its like this: I OWN YOUR ASS. time after time I make you look stupid. you jump when I want you to jump.

    and here is another thing: I dare you…in fact I double dare you motherfucker, to talk the same shit on this board to my face in person at DU. You wont because you are a pussy. So just sit back, and take your ownage like the little piss-ant wannabe that you are.

    btw, you never did tell us, is there a union for failed wannabe musicians? or maybe a union for losers who can never seem to even meet their own constantly lowering expectations from life? shit, you should be a shop steward for both.

    owned. period.

  77. 77

    emperor max-minidick @ 76…

    Have fun going broke in your shitty little “business” when no one can afford the crappy “service” (rim jobs?) you provide.

    …or better yet, some multi-national decides to own whatever market you occupy (shitty rim robs? oooo-that’s a pun!) and cuts prices so far that it forces you out of businesss. Good. I hope it happens tomorrow.

    So this great and noble multi-national lied to the State of Washington and the job starved LOCAL community…and that’s ok with you. What a prick. This is not an “inter-union squabble” this is a calculated effort by a bunch of cynical fucks (like you, clearly) to pit workers against each other…and this is fine, right and moral as far as you are concerned. ONE SICK FUCK you are.

    My sympathy to your wife…must be a real picnic being married with a smug asshole like you.

  79. 79

    76. F.U. Manchu spews:

    and here is another thing: I dare you…in fact I double dare you motherfucker, to talk the same shit on this board to my face in person at DU. You wont because you are a pussy. So just sit back, and take your ownage like the little piss-ant wannabe that you are.

    09/08/2011 at 7:10 pm

    Oh…and here’s another thing you jerk-off piece of shit…were I ever to run into you I’d probably spit in your face.

    There’s nothing admirable about you and your supercilious attitude. You know nothing about me except what’s on this board.

    All I ever do is stick up for regular people. People who have worked hard and played by the rules and have gotten shafted by the unprecidented and immoral transfer of wealth from the middle class to the extremely wealthy.

    Do you know:

    http://www.thomhartmann.com/bl.....-americans

    400 super rich Americans control more wealth in the country than 150 million other Americans

    Submitted by louisehartmann on 11. April 2011 – 9:21

    Even though a government shutdown was averted – working class people will still be screwed over in America. A new report by Wealth for the Common Good shows that the 400 richest people in America – our nation’s oligarchs – have never had it so good and are paying the lowest taxes ever in their lifetimes.

    Those 400 super rich Americans control more wealth in the country than 150 million other Americans, and yet are effectively taxed at a rate of just over 16% while the rest of spay up to 35% plus higher levels of sales, property, and other taxes. To put that in perspective These 400 rich oligarchs effective tax rate has dropped by more than 2/3 since Dwight Eisenhower’s administration – while the rate for working people has nearly doubled. Rich people get a 2/3 tax cut over the last 50 years – working people get screwed with a 100% tax hike.

    To make matters worse – average CEO pay increased dramatically last year – despite an 20% real under- and un-employment rate plaguing the rest of us. And yet – now Congress says they’re gonna pass a budget that cuts federal education, health care, and energy assistance programs for working class Americans while doing nothing to make America’s oligarchs pay their fair share or sacrifice even one damn thing.

    If you do it’s a big so fucking what to you isn’t it?

    So I guess that’s ok with you and your asshole friends. I guess that those 150 MILLION people just needs to suck it up? I guess they got suckered by banks and insurance companies into putting their pension money into stock based investments and lost it all. I guess it’s their fault that they trusted the companies that they put 40 years in with not to steal their pensions and cut their health insurance. I guess it was their fault that banksters drove up the value of housing and then crashed it wiping out equity these poor saps built up over 25-30 years. It’s their fault that the big smart guys like you and your profit obsessed buddies shipped good paying living wage American Jobs out of this country so the CEO’s and the Board Menebers can break millions of dollars in compensation.

    Yeah…those 150 million. What a bunch of suckers.

    So by speaking out for economic and social justice and fairness I’m somehow inferior and defective and (I don’t know where THIS comes from) lazy.

    Just fuck you max. You are wrong. You know it, I know it and everybody here (except the puddypussy who is an ass like you) knows it.

    You don’t “own me” and you never will you morally bankrupt creep.

  80. 80

    Business is great, and will continue to get better.

    Keep on being jealous loser boy……

    Its obvious by your rantings that you are completely clueles when it comes to running anything besides a broom…working for the govt isprobably the only gig you could get.

  81. 81

    80. F.U. Manchu spews:

    Business is great, and will continue to get better.

    Keep on being jealous loser boy……

    Its obvious by your rantings that you are completely clueles when it comes to running anything besides a broom…working for the govt isprobably the only gig you could get.

    09/09/2011 at 11:24 am

    Jealous of what? Sucking rich people’s assholes?

    Right.

  82. 82

    80. F.U. Manchu spews:

    Its obvious by your rantings that you are completely clueles when it comes to running anything besides a broom…working for the govt is probably the only gig you could get.

    09/09/2011 at 11:24 am

    More than a fuck like you deserves to know:

    I ran a business. I built it up from nothing. I employed people. I made payroll. I dealt with direct State of Washington regulation. I paid taxes. I sold that business for a profit.

    Fuck you…again.

  84. 84

    75. F.U. Manchu spews:

    WRONG – it IS a union dispute. EGT hired General Construction, who hired UNION HANDS(Operating Engineers Local 612 I believe) to work at the terminal(the first new grain terminal to open at the US in over 20 years BTW). Rujaxoff and The Stand’s LIE #1

    Rujaxoff and his “source”(insert laughter here),The Stand(which is a POS union publication by the way), said that EGT was using “non-union labor”, WHICH IS FALSE.

    09/08/2011 at 6:56 pm

    http://www.thestand.org/2011/0.....-so-angry/

    Then the company made a surprise announcement that it would hire a unionized subcontractor to run the terminal. EGT signed an agreement with Federal Way-based General Construction Co., a subsidiary of Kiewit, to operate the terminal with union members from the Portland-based International Union of Operating Engineers Local 701.

    The Washington State Labor Council condemned EGT’s attempt to pit union members against each other.</strong>,/blockquote>

    Nothing emperor max-minidick won’t lie about.

    Game-Set-Match, motherfucker.

  85. 85

    @84

    Once again, you just owned yourself! HAHAHAHAHHAH, you dipshit!

    You just PROVED I was right!

    The only thing i got wrong was which union! big deal. HAHAHAHHAHAHHAH

    So what happened to YOUR and YOUR SOURCES statement that it EGT was hiring NON-UNION workers??????

    Oh, and by the way, Local 701 also employs washington hands! HAHHAHAHHAHHHAHHHAH

    The longshoremen used threats(including death threats), so EGT told them to go fuck off! I LOVE IT!

    YOU LOSE!

    you are so stupid, you cant even tell when you own yourself…yes, Im sure you really did run a business…HAHHHAHHAHAHHHAHAH – fuck, you couldnt get hired at 7-11….

    this is some classic shit…lets hope ylbleeder stores it in the datubayze..

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