Robert Ariail for December 10, 2013

Sorry. It’s working. Unless this was drawn three weeks ago, it’s woefully out of date.

The maintenance budget for the bus comes from Congress and between the Senate and HoR, services have been drastically reduced. The way DC is failing to function, it’s amazing the wheels are still on and that the ‘driver’ is able to roll his window down in order to look at the problem.The sad thing is the number of people who take joy in seeing the ‘enemy’ party having troubles. Whether or not the Dems or Repubs created their own problems or had those inflicted on them, when one of our neighbors is brought to ruin, it does effect us all. Failure to accept that makes the concept of a “United States of America” a sad joke. If “freedom and justice for all” actually means freedoms and justice for ME, then we are not the Americans Washington hoped we would be and we dishonor the memory of those who fought and died from Concord, to Gettysburg, to Normandy in order to keep us free AND United in the idea that “all men are created equal”.Respectfully,C.

Yet another Mission Accomplished for the Republicans.

Just wait a couple of weeks the bus is going to explode in flames….

Obama should have known better than to use a transmission that was made in China or some other communist country…

Huh. Sounds like a load of crap.

Not sure the man of whom you refer, Mr. Snare, however, in regard to the ACA, Enoki was kind enough to email me his healthcare proposal and while he’s not had time yet to respond to a couple of questions I asked, I found his idea very worthy. I do disagree that Dems are far in left field, despite the claims of the right… I heard a man describe Dems as Reagan republicans and republicans as to the right of Pat Robertson. Not his exact words, but more complimentary.The base is embracing extremists because the USA in which they were born is changing faster than they want and they are not seeing improvements to their quality of life or the life of their loved ones coming from the actions/inactions of the other side. They want secure jobs, good schools, safe roads, and low crime. The politicians, media pundits, and 24 hour news outlets focus only on those issues that most divide Americans and in doing so, cause the things upon which we do agree to be set aside. Some of them come to forums like this to read what neighbors are saying and in doing so, find delight in words with which they agree, or pain in words they find unnecessarily hurtful. Feeling helpless and ineffectual, the moderates, unrepresented by the Congress in power, don’t go to the polls to vote while the extremists and desperate on both sides are whipped into a frenzy to vote or watch the USA collapse under the weight of fascism/socialism… depending on what side you see the threat coming from.Ironically, the threat is coming from free market capitalism with more and more jobs going to automation and/or overseas and fewer and fewer jobs paying living wages. People scream at ‘takers’ who won’t get off their butts and work, but Congress isn’t doing what the CEOs say Congress must do in order for them to make long term hiring and investment goals.We embrace the choices we are given out of fear and self interest, and in most cases, just stay at home and watch our nation divide and weaken.Thank God for reality TV?You asked, I hope I provided a possible answer.Respectfully,C.

Obama is driving not me…

Funny how O and the Dems straight out lied about Obamacare being good for everybody.I can keep my same plan? Lie.It’s going to SAVE the average family $2500 a year? Lie.It will be as easy as Amazon to sign up? Lie.You will have more choices in plans and doctors? Lie.It will not cost taxpayers a cent? Lie.Why didn’t they just come out and say “We’re gonna create the biggest entitlement program in history and it will be called Healthcare Welfare. It’s gonna cost most of you a whole lot more money, you’ll pay a lot more out of pocket, you can’t keep your plan, it will kill full-time jobs, but it will help about 5% of the population!”I wonder why they didn’t???

ACA is working just fine. Even with deliberate sabotage. What do you call someone who willfully sets about to thwart the proper working of a federal program designed to help millions of Americans? A terrorist? No, close though. A House Republican.

What’s your plan, Harley?The easiest one is telling hospitals they no longer have to provide treatment unless payment is guaranteed. Otherwise, we are still ALL paying too much for healthcare, including the insurance companies, and the costs are only going to climb.So other than telling all of us who want to see our fellow citizens protected that we’re stupid followers of compulsive liar, what is your plan? I know there are better ideas out there, but people like me are willing to experiment and work with others to find those best ideas.All you ever do is attack the president, his ideas, and the people who want to see something good they think might help the nation. A majority of those kind of people elected this president twice.You just want him to die and vanish, but after that, what happens to healthcare? What plan do YOU offer?And if all you’re going to do is go off on another insult rant, know this, I don’t talk to your friend Debt Free/Ima anymore because he’s just an insult monger and hater. I have read one kind sentence from that person in two years. I thought you might be an American, but apparently, you’re Republican first, nation second. If you can’t respect the idea, respect the ideal.I do wish there was a ‘block’ function, like in some games where you can make the comments of people who are insulting, vulgar, or simply spamming invisible.You are not as correct in your statements as you want to be, and you have no respect for the comments or sources of people who do not support your ‘side’.If you’re not helping to put out the fire, then you’re helping the arsonists.Regretfully,C.

“I guess you agree ACA is going to be worse than the sign up problems. Another Obama success.”I can’t tell if my post went over your head, or if you’re just trying to reframe it fit your partisan agenda.

ACA, despite the GOP’s best efforts and the absurd collusion by commentators and, even, cartoonists…is doing just fine.

Keep watching….

Lol………….. So many “doctors” posting here. I should be ConserveGov M.D.So far 90% of the people that signed up for ObamaCare are Medicaidenrollees. Not the people that were supposed to use the “exchanges” to PURCHASE health insurance.The CBO says because of ObamaCare the spending on Medicaid will double!It really is HEALTHCARE WELFARE!So all those people

I tried to load your link on Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox and none brought it up.It sounds like you are anti tax and that is your platform. Dems tax the most so you hate them and their supporters the most. What services should a gov’t perform? Who should pay for keeping Americans safe when private companies won’t? Are you an anarchist?No one likes it when a reply reaches back into history to bring up the fact that other presidents lied and the results of those lies. But I am not totally convinced Mr. Obama lied, he has not shown himself to be a hands on President and willing to trust his friends to do what they say they’ll do. I believe Mr. Bush made the same mistake with Cheney and Rumsfeld. But at least Mr. Bush had an opposition party that went along with some of his policies. The Republicans since 2009 have worked tirelessly to block nearly every thing the first black President has done. Like white politicians who wanted to pull the plug on the Tuskegee Airmen before they proved they could succeed, there are a lot of people who WANT and DEMAND that this president fail. And their willing to take the country down with him, as long as it proves their point.You may not be a republican, but you an angry and intolerant person. You never blame the right for any of the nation’s problems and attack anyone who does even when they link the Republicans own words or news reports from Fox confirming what was said or done.It would be interesting to see the USA made in your image.I wonder if you would like it.I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t.Good bye, Harleyquinn.C.

Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Churchill,As a 55 year old white man born in Louisiana and who spent summers as a child in a small Mississippi town, I saw the difference between how black men on military bases where my father was stationed were treated from black men in the south. There is a long list of circumstantial evidence supporting my “race card.” There is a longer list of actual evidence of hate supporting it.It saddens me to have had to make this example, but despite two centuries of two party rule, it has only been since 2009 that the parties have locked up and become as hateful in their interactions. Since our history is full of moments where the minority was at odds with the majority, I keep looking for reasons why these men who are educated and well spoken enough to get elected have chosen this presidency to rebel against.And tell me, why is it “playing the race card” if I make the comparison I make, but its not playing the race card for conservatives to attack minorities? I don’t bring up race very often, but the Tuskegee Airmen were in my area a few months ago and I saw similarities. And sadly, reading in other forums and listening to people since Mr. Obama became president, I know his race is a factor, I just don’t know how large.Lkewis, I believe the President lied about a lot of things, but I don’t know how much is lies and how much is his willingness to let his “trusted circle of friends” take care of things while he gave speeches everywhere. I think he was overoptimistic and failed to reach across the aisle sufficiently, though having seen the video of Mr Boehnor saying he got 98% of what he wanted, he was happy, back in 2010, I have to wonder if mr. Obama just didn’t want to be humiliated again.I’ve not seen his policies given a real chance so I don’t know if they would have worked or not. I can look at past policies of other presidencies and because those presidents were given a chance to screw up, or succeed, know what the result is. Mr. McConnall declared immediately after the election that the goal of Republicans was to keep Mr. Obama from being a two term president.Again, I’m sorry to have disappointed you, I wish there was no evidence of race involved, but just last night at a restaurant, I heard a man use the N word talking about the president. As I replied to Harley, I had that in my mind a long with the things I heard him say after I started listening to him.I wish there were no race card and it was only his policies, but I do believe it is a factor.And no, I never thought Obamacare anything but putting the ACA on the man who pushed for it.Thank you for expressing your anger with me so well. I welcome you to contact me at sanesaint@hotmail.com if you ever wish to talk outside of the sandbox.I still respect you and have benefited from our exchanges.Sincerely,C.

Perhaps you should volunteer at one of the places where people go to find work, Gore Bane. The people coming out of college or being laid off from jobs that are being outsourced or automated are pretty high. CEOs have told congress what they need to do in order for them to make long term hiring and innovation goals, but Congress is too busy running for 2014 seats to worry about the American people. Apparently, neither party can help the American people unless they hold an overwhelming majority in both houses.I know too many people working at service jobs because they can’t get work in their fields. They don’t want dream jobs they just want jobs they give them a chance to dream of something better.Thank you for your reply. It lacks the anger I’ve drawn recently from others.Respectfully,C.

Harley, I really don’t think we have too much to talk about. You have your own set of truths and I am obviously too blind and stupid to convey my set of truths as the facts I see them to be.Benghazi was the tragic result of a an Ambassador deciding to hold some sort of meeting at a really insecure location. The video and date were coincidences that were set aside as facts came out. It’s a tragedy where many assumptions were made. From assuming that location was a good place for Amb Stevens to go, to sending Susan Rice out to blame videos and dates, it was mishandled. I can cite a lot of history since 1950 where things have been mishandled under Dems and Repubs.I addressed my use of the “Race Card” in my reply to Churchillwasright. As I told him, I wish I had no reason to even think that way.Politicians lie. Mr. Obama is a politician. I do not believe he has been lying to the degree you want to believe he has, but it may be worse to take my view that instead of being a liar, he has been negligent in supervising the people he trusted to implement his plans. He has been extremely negligent in reaching out to Republicans more visibly. I can give a long list of my disappointments with him, but as far as policy goes… I don’t really know as I believe Republicans have worked very hard to block everything he’s tried to do and Democrats sabotaged things in a different way by fighting with Repubs and chasing the money instead of the president’s goals.Your last reply shows why I feel it is useless for us to talk anymore….I said.“You never blame the right for any of the nation’s problems and attack anyone who does even when they link the Republicans own words or news reports from Fox confirming what was said or done.”You said, “now it is Fox’s doing?” What does that mean? If Fox records a person saying something wrong and the link is provided, it’s on the record, it’s not a “doing”. If you are going to purposely twist my words, why should I make the effort.I am a blind liar and deluded obamabot. I’m a stooge for the left and nothing I say can be trusted or believed by right thinking people like you. Ignore me. Flag me.Have a good Christmas, Harleyquinn, and a happy and safe New Year.C.

Harley, out of the 7 million needed to sign up for Obamacare, they are currently 800k short according to NPR and two other sources.It is STILL a flawed plan with MANY problems. It is also better than no plan at all. The ER Tax is too expensive and our two party system is too interested in its own superiority to work together and create a long term idea. I BLAME BOTH PARTIES DAILY…. you only blame one.Harley, I truly do not wish to set you aside as I have a few others in this forum, but you have to actually talk to me and not just accuse me.I have invited others to contact me at sanesaint@hotmail.com so we can talk without the time table set by gocomics and it’s artists. If you intend to rant and rave, don’t bother. I’ll block you as I have the other three who wrote to me in order to troll me. But if you actually want a conversation, please consider creating a new email address with which you can conduct such conversations without fear of some sort of sick reprisals.Harleyquinn was a woman who went insane and fell in love with a sociopath/psychopath. You are neither. There is a line between us… how far on the other side of that line do each of us stand?I am truly curious.Are you?Respectfully, but with finality,C.

Learned this morning that I misunderstood the story on NPR. While the numbers of people applying at the ACA have increased, it has a LONG way to go from 7 mill, much more than 800k. My apologies for that error.@ Gore Bane - I meant no disrespect when I suggested you help out at job search locations. In the comment to which I replied, you inferred there were many jobs out there and if you know where these are, you would benefit many with your knowledge and advice. The fact that you can give this advice from years of experience makes you an even more valuable resource to people looking for work. I actually agree with this last reply of yours in its entirety. I would like to see Congress take the advice of the CEOs who told them what was needed in order for our top “job creators” to start investing in hiring, infrastructure improvement, and innovations within their companies. btw… Granny didn’t sell eggs, but she traded the jellies, jams and vegetables she canned for eggs, milk, and meats from her neighbors. Grampa said for a person to get ahead in life, they had to use wit. W.I.T. It meant, Whatever It Takes.Social programs cannot be a solution, but they can be a help. I was on food stamps for 8 months during Carter administrations financial crisis, but when I wasn’t washing windows, doing yard work, or Whatever It Took to keep my wife in college and us in an apartment, I was at the Employment Office and then would park at the local industrial parks and walk to every building to either fill out an application, or let them know I was still interested.It does sometimes take work to find work.Thank you for your reply and for your service to our neighbors. God knows they need it.Respectfully,C.

Your system in America uses up 18% of GDP vs 10.5% for the rest of the G8 who cover everyone with their health insurance plans. That is an extra $800B a year that goes to the one percent. It is no wonder that Republicans oppose the ACA. They are not going to crap in their rice bowl.