Clay Bennett by Clay Bennett

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  1. secondson

    secondson said, 3 months ago

    Once again we have the cartoonist taking loosely related issues, stringing them together and attempting to portray opposition as a bunch of lunatics. How pathetic. Whats not being noted here is that many of the people who are the most voiciferous in their opposition voted for BHO. I found it hilarious that the guy (a registered democrat) who called Steny Hoyer a liar pointed out that BHO took six months to pick a dog for his family, but he expected health insurance reform to pass as quickly as they could push it through.

  2. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    The far righties will concoct any lie, ignore any fact, stretch any boogieman, with the assistance of the GOP, to avoid change to the status quo despite the fact the people they are supposed to represent overwhelmingly support reform

  3. KarlOSMArkSimOS

    KarlOSMArkSimOS said, 3 months ago

    GOP are egg sucking freedom and liberty lovers. Socialism is where it’s at. I love my big government and it loves me. Yeah for the Great Once. I love Obomunism.

  4. fennec

    fennec said, 3 months ago

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/06/AR2009080603854.html
    I wasn’t going to post this link, but the postings here have convinced me that it is a good thing to do. Pearlstein is usually very nonpartisan, and that is what is stunning about his comments here.

  5. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    fennec, thanks for the link, I hadn’t read that. For those who would dismiss it out of hand because it’s from “leftist mainstream media,” please read it first.

    It has factual information on elements of various plans.

  6. kreole

    kreole said, 3 months ago

    (1) Health care reform is needed.
    (2) A health care reform bill was introduced.
    (3) The health care bill needs to be read, and then voted on.
    (4) The health care bill has not been read yet (too long), so congress wants to pass it and figure it out later.

    There’s a nut missing for this bolt…..

  7. michael

    michaelGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    “Once again we have the cartoonist taking loosely related issues, stringing them together and attempting to portray opposition as a bunch of lunatics.”

    Have you actually heard transcripts of the mobs at these town halls? They’re spouting stuff they read in chain emails being sent around with wacky stuff like the healthcare reform is going to cover illegal aliens or even force you to euthanize the elderly! Its exactly like the cartoon!

    Certainly there are valid disagreements to be made with the various health care reform bills floating around congress; the problem is the people at the town halls don’t seem to be familiar with them.

  8. HUMPHRIES

    HUMPHRIESGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    fennec, I wish you could see some of the international coverageon the “town hall” meetings. An individual can see for themselves that there is “no” meeting with an exchange of dialogue but a simple shout down with no purpose other than to shut down proceedings.

  9. ezdeb

    ezdeb said, 3 months ago

    Here’s the irony. Take a look at Norman Rockwell’s painting “The Four Freedoms”. For ANandy, here’s the link, since you won’t extend your fingers any more than you have to in order to inform yourself:

    http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/at0058a.5s.jpg

    See the “freedom of speech” one? This is what right wingers (not all republicans, just those like ANandy, gnw, hq, etc) THINK they are doing in town hall meetings. This is what really happens:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/06/tampa-town-hall-on-healthn253478.html

    Freedom of speech means just that, wingers. It means allowing speech, not just your own. Sheesh. NOTJUSTYOUROWN!

  10. dsped

    dspedGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    I have to wonder how many of these town hall disruptors and their supporters are the same folks that howl that “the left wants to ban free speech” whenever a right-wing speaker is disrupted at a college or somesuch.

  11. hlp54

    hlp54 said, 3 months ago

    They can only send protesters (urged on by Limbaugh etc.) because they don’t have a plan. They had 8 years to fix health care but preferred to enrich themselves. Now they don’t even want anyone to listen or be able to ask questions and can only spread lies.

  12. xanderdrax

    xanderdrax said, 3 months ago

    70% of this country wants the government to stay OUT of health care. We don’t want this. Meanwhile, in two years we have gone from record employment to record unemployment and BHO is doing nothing about that. The idiots taking over the town hall meetings are the ones standing on the podiums, not the ones in the audience.

  13. comsymp

    comsymp said, 3 months ago

    secondson wrote, “Once again we have the cartoonist taking loosely related issues, stringing them together and attempting to portray opposition as a bunch of lunatics.”

    It doesn’t take a cartoonist to make these folks look like a bunch of lunatics. They seem to do a good job of that on their own.

    As for the loosely related issues- Bennett seems to have included the issues that these yahoos are bringing up at the town hall meetings (minus the fluoridation issue, that is). They bring up socialism, Obamacare and communism, the birth certificate (non) issue, and euthanasia apparently being a policy under the government option.

    These folks ARE lunatics! They are angry to the point of irrationality, and they are motivated (or manipulated) to the point of behaving violently (one congressman has already received death threats).

    I have no problem with these people showing up at the meetings, but civility is the least we should expect from them. That, unfortunately, is NOT part of their strategy. Their purpose is not to further the debate, but to squelch it.

    But I guess when you’re in the minority, an open debate only exposes that. And I suppose if you lack a convincing argument, you have to resort to a loud one.

  14. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    dzped, I just watched a report on O’Reilly that compared the disruptive shoutdowns at these twon hall meetings to anti-war demonstrations back in the late 60s over Vietnam war. But the visuals actually showed a peaceful march … remember how the “flower children” used to go up to police, national guard, etc., and give them a flower?

    Shouting down a speaker and preventing anyone at all from talking is not free speech, it is preventing any speech at all other than one’s own. Mob rule.

  15. ezdeb

    ezdeb said, 3 months ago

    Xander:

    “70% of this country wants the government to stay OUT of health care.” I dunno, Xander. I think you are quoting Rasmussen. You didn’t provide a link, but that’s my guess. Remember Rasmussen as the survey that asks questions like “Do you think Obama is a socialist or just an uppity negro?” I’m exaggerating here, but not by much.

    I think the polls will shift wildly, xander, based on how the questions are framed, and one must really be careful about how the demographics are represented by the surveyer. It doesn’t take me long to find a cbs poll directly refuting your, um, statistic.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/19/opinion/polls/main5098517.shtml

    You yourself don’t want it. Don’t think you speak for America.

  16. dtroutma

    dtroutma said, 3 months ago

    believe– I came back from ‘Nam in 67, got out in 69, went back to college. I attended several anti-war rallies, as an actual veteran with a somewhat “different” point of view, I spoke and people listened, from both sides. The signs were there, the opposing voices heard each other out.. This was in “red neck” Orange county, and “Tricky Dick” was president.

    The “radical right” of today cannot be compared to protests of the past, from EITHER side in America’s past. They CAN be properly compared to the hysteria of the third reich, and it IS disturbing. Yes, left wingers today can also be unreasonable, but it is nothing compared to the “Rovebots”, who want nothing to do with reading or understanding what they object to and protest, like well, the Constitution. It is interesting that during the LAST ADMINISTRATION, a survey found that nearly 70% of the “right wingers” would NOT ACCEPT that very same Constitution. They didn’t even recognize the words.

  17. churchillwasright

    churchillwasright said, 3 months ago

    BCS: You are attempting to equate this:

    http://tinyurl.com/mwj3hg

    http://tinyurl.com/n77mf3

    http://tinyurl.com/ncuyvc

    http://tinyurl.com/nbu7nf

    With this?:

    http://tinyurl.com/lcsypm

    Give me a break!

  18. olfart

    olfart said, 3 months ago

    comsymp;
    Don’t rule out the fluoridation issue. It is still controversial in East Tennessee.

  19. HUMPHRIES

    HUMPHRIESGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    Xander… Give Paul krugman’s article a read, day or two ago in the NY Times, He doesn’t make accuations but names characters and institutions. PS Wow Pres Obama has managed to cram two years of his term in to eight months, busy man.

  20. HUMPHRIES

    HUMPHRIESGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    Churchy, you’re off track, like a good little publian. I’ve watched several clips of different “townhall meetings” and what you’re trying to present jus ain’t so.

  21. Thinqriticlee

    ThinqriticleeGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    First time in this forum. Hold the applause, please. This number Xander points to–70% ? Like Humphries, I don’t know where he gets it but it’s hard to imagine it’s any source with an ounce of credibility.

    I think a key point is made in Krugman’s recent column: “There was a telling incident at a town hall held by Representative Gene Green, D-Tex. An activist turned to his fellow attendees and asked if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Nearly all did. Then Representative Green asked how many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their hands.”

  22. Thinqriticlee

    ThinqriticleeGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    Something else, just basic musing and a little research:

    So we’re dealing with an incredible degree of ignorance in this country and those people are being manipulated by a handful of political opportunists in the pay of major insurance companies or other For-Profit organizations. There’s been plenty of discussion of this (latter) in recent days.

    How many uninsured in the country? What are we up to 45 million? 50 million? How many Medicare recipients? According to the AARP it’s about 44 million.

    http://www.aarp.org/research/ppi/health-care/health-costs/articles/fs149_medicare.html

    So together the two groups constitute roughly a third of the population. I think it is safe to assume that the bulk of both groups like the idea some sort of government involvement in health care, but maybe not. But then you have the rest of the population. In a country that voted for Obama are you going to suggest that none of those people are interested in the government inserting itself into the problem? I don’t think so.

    The battle goes on and the bad guys appear to be winning–again.

  23. DrCanuck

    DrCanuck said, 3 months ago

    Obama, as a strategy for passing his health care system, should stand up and say, “You all don’t want government run health care? OK, we’re canceling Medicare and Medicade tomorrow. You’re all on your own now.”

    Do you think he’d change anyone’s mind?

  24. deadheadzan

    deadheadzanGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    Ask anyone “do you have health insurance and how much does it cost?” Some will say my employer but heaven help me if I loose my job. some will say I am self employed and the premiums are killing me. I , myself, have medicare for about $98 per month plus a supplemental for $35 a month.

  25. nomad2112

    nomad2112 said, 3 months ago

    Sorry Doc but, I don’t think Medicare and Medicade equates to a government run health care system. I’m fairly sure that it just pays for treatment without any serious meddling.

  26. DrCanuck

    DrCanuck said, 3 months ago

    Would someone else please explain things to nomad? I wouldn’t know where to begin.

  27. ahab

    ahabGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    Lost cause Doc. I’m sorry, but the folks who would have voted Bush a third term
    don’t want Obama to have anything. They even want the country to fail so they can say I told you so. Nomad, talk to your doctor and ask him how he feels about Medicade. The number of poor lost souls with no health care are exploding in this “Christian” country. The Mahatma was right.

  28. ezdeb

    ezdeb said, 3 months ago

    I started a post to explain to Norman. Twice. I can’t get past the “it just pays for treatment without any serious meddling”, so it can’t be, like, gov’t run or something, cuz it’s not currently evil. See? I’m about to try to start again, but it’s gettin’ late.

    I need to go rest up for my lazy day tomorrow. I have to get my meth-induced sleep so I can shuffle off to the post office in my stolen car and pick up my welfare check. Then I go to the bank and cash it and then as i spend it on my acrylic nails, I need energy left to think of ways to annoy good, Christian, hardworking pink people like gnw, who’s working his 3rd job tonight so I can (giggle!) get my abortion next month. Sweet to be a liberal!

    Thanks, suckers!

  29. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    deadhead, Good lord, where on earth did you find a Medicare supplemental for $35/mo.! Do you also purchase Part D, the prescription coverage?

  30. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    nomad, Medicare is run exactly like a public option would be run. The federal government sets medicare reimbursement rates, determines which services are covered and which are not. It hires a third party contractor to administer claims and payments. That is the same system being proposed for a public option.

    It’s ironic that people who receive medicare are so frightened of the notion of a public option, because they in effect currently have the same thing.

    The discussion of a federal govt. public option is being twisted by some to conjure up images of physicians being government employees. That’s not true. That would be nationalized healthcare, as in England.

  31. 4uk4ata

    4uk4ata said, 3 months ago

    Does anyone have links actual transcripts (not videos, if possible) where people in the crowd try to silence the speakers, btw? I find it a bit hard to imagine.

  32. Thinqriticlee

    ThinqriticleeGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    4uk4ata..you find it HARD to imgaine?? Wait a minute..I trust you’ve seen everything from the Elian Gonzalez hysteria, to the Terry Schaivo incident, to the “pro-life” nutcases like Terry Randall, to the Birthers, to the Tea Baggers, to the French/Freedom Fries crowd, etc —and I trust you have had plenty of exposure to O’Reailly, Hannity, and Limbaugh, etc,–the people who drive that sort of insanity (to line their own pockets, of course, but we won’t go there now) and you cannot imagine such a thing?? And why is it that video doesn’t provide proof? Doesn’t your TV or computer have sound and vision? Do you need a court reporter or stenographer at every one of these town hall meetings to glean what is going on? Time for a common sense check.

  33. 4uk4ata

    4uk4ata said, 3 months ago

    Hey, a few nutcases here and there, sure. The same stuff happening throughout the US is a bit much, though. I can believe that it happens somewhere, just expect it to be a little blown out of proportion in the media. As much as I prefer it to be otherwise, there are hacks on both sides.

    As for why I would prefer no video, simple - bandwidth issues.

  34. ezdeb

    ezdeb said, 3 months ago

    4uk, it’s really hard to provide a useful text transcript of a shouting match, because if three people are talking at once, the transcript (if it’s accurate), can only say “talk garbled” or “several voices with phrases like “obama says” and ….my rights”. It’s not very useful. Besides, if a congressperson says “Let me address the question…” He may not be talking to the last person who asked a question. Without seeing him point to someone or look at someone, it’s hard.

    Much different than an interview or conversation.

    Hope that doesn’t sound patronizing.

  35. believecommonsense

    believecommonsenseGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    4uk4ata, without being able to link you to video clips, there’s no way to convey the width and depth of what’s happened at many town hall meetings to discuss healthcare. And there can be no “transcript” because turns into people shouting and ranting all at the same time. So no way to provide you the evidence you seem to need.

    Unfortunately those who came to these meetings wanting to ask questions and have a discourse were prevented from doing so because of the organized disruption.

  36. Justice22

    Justice22 said, 3 months ago

    Unfortunately, too many people cannot think for themselves and because they can’t they don’t want others to make educated decisions. They then follow the “rabble (which they are) rousers” in disrupting the normal discourse of our government.

  37. deadheadzan

    deadheadzanGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    bcs- my medicare supplement is security blue basic, the more expensive plans run around $100 extra and $150 extra per month. I do get my discount on prescriptions. This is in western Pa.