The Honorable Racebaiter And Jerk, Jay Rockefeller
“It’s very important to take a long view at what’s going on here. And I’ll be able to dig up some emails that make part of the Affordable Care Act that doesn’t look good, especially from people who have made up their mind that they don’t want it to work. Because they don’t like the president, maybe he’s of the wrong color. Something of that sort.I’ve seen a lot of that and I know a lot of that to be true. It’s not something you’re meant to talk about in public, but it’s something I’m talking about in public because that is very true.”
—- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), once again playing the race-card (he’s done it before) to impugn the motives of opponents of the Affordable Care Act and other Obama policy initiatives.
How low, lazy, irresponsible, despicable, and cowardly.
You know, if I didn’t want Obamacare to work, I’d make the law inexcusably convoluted and complex. I think I’d also make it dependent on forcing healthy young people to sign up for it rather than paying a cheaper tax, and make sure the President lies about how it will affect Americans who were satisfied with their doctors and health care plans. I’d hand the design of the crucial website off to a company that has already proved itself incompetent, and rush it into operation before it was ready to function properly. I know I’d hold nobody accountable for all the screw-ups, and if I was the one who had my name on it, I’d exercise no oversight or management while the provisions of the endlessly complicated program that I made my top legislative priority were being bungled and botched at all levels. That should do it.
So, based on Sen.Rockefeller’s reasoning, Democrats, the Obama administration and the President himself don’t like the President, and think he’s “of the wrong color.”
There is no false accusation, no dirty tactic, no divisive rhetoric, no insulting rationalization, that these shameless hacks will not stoop to using in order to avoid confronting their own accountability.
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Facts: Politico 1, 2
Ethics Alarms 
It’s worse than that, Jack. I hear from enough progressives to know that the silly sonsofbitches actually believe this nonsense.
The random progressive you run into on the street might believe it, but the progressive politicians are just using it because the random progressive on the street does believe it. Similar to Republican politicians who pretend to be conservative because there are still random conservatives on the street who believe Republican politicians are conservative.
wyogranny, I’m quite certain there are people in the halls of power who are every bit as cynical as you say. There are others who frankly just plain aren’t very smart.
Our Secretary of State, a former Senator himself, comes leaping to mind.
And some of ’em are just batshit crazy. The Senate Majority Leader and the House Minority Leader come bo mind.
Whether cynical or stupid or batshit crazy these are the people who got elected. A republic can’t sustain itself with this kind of “leadership” and a democracy shouldn’t.
I’d like to elect people who have a healthy fear and respect for the people they’re supposed to serve. But, people like that don’t run for public office. Or, if they do, they lose their taste for it after the first wallow with the media.
Couldn’t agree with you more, wyogranny. Well said.
Well, to be fair, believing that is arguably less idiotic than not recognizing how astonishingly weak, incompetent, careless, reckless, inept and dishonest this President is, and how arrogant he is anyway.
Take “The Honorable” off his title and substitute “weasel”.
That was irony. Also, you can’t replace an adjective with a noun…
Weasely? Weaserable?
If the Honorable Senator from West Virginia were a Weasley, he’d have red hair and possibly a broken wand.
–Dwayne
Try “Rodential”.
To paraphrase the Internet, Senator, “proof or it didn’t happen.”
There is no proof, because it didn’t. He’s just a liar.
This clearly was not good propaganda to the contrary, it would entrench opposition to the law.
http://www.stentorian.com/propagan.html
Jack,
The irritating thing about Lefties when they make this kind of commentary is this line:
“…I’ve seen a lot of that and I know a lot of that to be true. It’s not something you’re meant to talk about in public, but it’s something I’m talking about in public because that is very true.”
They immediately set themselves up like some sort of brave go against the man, hey-I’m-a-hero-and-risking-alot, by mentioning that Republicans oppose this Democrat, and free-market types oppose this socialist, and right-wingers oppose this leftist because he’s black. OOOOH so brave!!! such a possible martyr.
Douche.
I wrestled with myself, and won, to avoid pronouncing the Senator as asshole. But this isn’t name calling, it it? What other description can there be for a Senator who would say something like this?
Did I cross a line?
I’m just sick of the pretend-ville these people live in.
Do they really think they live in a land where mass media will crush them for standing up for the poor black president? Where pop culture will crucify them for accusing right wingers of racism?
Idiots.
I’ve seen them actually make the claim (about going up against the media), and I’m also dying to know if they really believe this. So many logical conundrums, like supposedly standing for “diversity” and multiculturalism, yet doing their best to establish a homogeneity of thought. Such brave pioneers.
I’m always fascinated with people arguing that the ACA can only work if young, healthy people sign up. Why yes — that’s how ALL insurance works. There needs to be enough premiums from people who won’t make claims to pay for the people who will make claims. If you didn’t want that set up, then the Republicans shouldn’t have insisted on that little detail. Yes, that makes the plan more expensive and no, we didn’t need to set it up that way. Maybe we should have established a monarchy and just hoped for a benevolent one every 50 years or so. We already have the pieces in place — we just need Lords Lockheed, General Dynamics, and Halliburton to agree to send troops whenever there is a conflict. And the Bushes and Clintons need to marry each other to establish the first royal line.
Being intentionally obtuse, I see. People sign up for regular insurance because they see it in their best interests. This scheme requires young people to do it who DON’T see it in their best interests, and as a group, are correct.
You see, we agree. Setting the ACA up this way was stupid.
You’re right; if it weren’t for that little detail, this thing would be the 8th wonder of the world.
1: We already have our monarch.
2: How, exactly, does having more contributing members who are much less likely to drain from the program make it MORE expensive? (must be that new Common Core math)?
3: What are YOU rambling about?
2. The insurance aspect is completely unnecessary. It’s an entire industry (billions of dollars) designed to set premiums and adjudicate claims. It’s a middle man that does nothing except add to the cost.
Beth, All middle men add to the costs whether it’s health insurance, car insurance, crop insurance or a distributor of some consumer or intermediate good. For the value received they negotiate the price we must pay to the provider. The settle claims based on the policy contract and prevent the policy holder from obtaining services until he or she saves enough money to pay the provider that wants payment at the time of service. My insurance company negotiated a price of $635.00 for an MRI that I recently had to undergo, yet without insurance I would have been legally obligated to pay $2561.00. Why do we not ask the question how can the provider set a price that low for me – the insured – while basically gouging the uninsured?
Using your rationale that middlemen are unnecessary, then we should also do away with organized labor. The only difference is that they negotiate with the buyer of labor instead of the seller of services. They standardized work rules – read equal treatment – standardize wage rates, and intervene on behalf of the paying member when a dispute arises.
You can argue whether they are insurance companies are overcompensated for the value received; and maybe some key executives are. But I can make the same claim for doctors, lawyers, computer scientists, government workers, and others that “I think” make too much. But lets be truthful, most have operating margins of 20% or less. This means that after they pay for everyone’s claims they have 20 cents out of every dollar in revenue to pay for all the fixed overhead. That is far less than typical operating margin for most professionals that do not need special equipment. It does not matter who does the processing of claims we still need workers to process the claims, buildings in which to house them, utilities to run the lights and HVAV, mountains of paper to document everything, postage, taxes and shareholder dividends. All that is done with 20 cents or less out of you premium dollar. Maybe it can be done for less but I am not their cost accountant.
Want to hold down costs? make the insured more responsible for their own minor illness and accident costs. Once they begin to spend their money they are less likely to want a doctor or ER for merely the sniffles or a cut finger.
If the insurance company is unnecessary then with what do you suggest we replace it. Should we just let the market determine the equilibrium price and quantity for coronary disease or cancer treatments? If we do, providers will lower the prices but our life expectancies are sure to drop as well.
Please do not say a single payer government system because that is just another third party payer with its own infrastructure costs; another insurance company just a different name. They will dictate prices paid to providers, set premiums, and determine what will or will not be provided (see Medicaid and Medicare). A monopoly insurance firm, either private or government run is not in the consumer’s best interest.
Bingo. And should have been in every one of the ACA arguments since they began.
I did not argue that “all” middlemen are unnecessary — only here. I won’t defend the ACA because it is a crappy Act, but single payer is the way to go. There would be no premiums. There would be — this is the cost of every treatment. Anything above or in addition to that could be paid by private additional insurance — like France.
What was the purpose of the last half of that rant? I know you aren’t a conspiracist.
Why is liberal sarcasm always mistaken for ranting on this blog?
Gee, I dunno—why did you mistake my neutral sarcasm as “rambling”?
I wanted to poke the bear a bit. And it always amuses me that you cast yourself as a neutral.
Because in my experience, liberals are more likely to be insane than sarcastic, even if they say it was sarcasm after the fact.
Effective sarcasm is eloquently involved with the piece, utilizing clue phrases that allow it to stand out as apparent. It typically doesn’t take the form of often-utilized liberal memes that are taken quite seriously by more liberals than would make them outlier beliefs.
Even more importantly, the humor-less liberals, as a species, are not often observed in nature to employ sarcasm or any other form of humor, so it’s quite unexpected when one does so, especially outside their native habitat.
HALLIBURTON!!!
Few of you will remember this, but I called this a long time ago: I said that when the going got really tough — and it is, with Obamacare, Beghazi, the Veterans Administration, NSA, the IRS, and now outing a IN-COUNTRY CIA operative — supporters would pull out the only thing left to defend this Administration… the race card. Moronic as it is, I knew they’d do it when they got desperate enough, which they clearly are now. Blacks comprise around 15% (or perhaps a bit more) of the U.S. population: they didn’t elect Obama, whites (still the vast majority) did. Amazingly, TWICE. So one simply can’t say that rampant racism is ruining all of the Obama Administration’s initiatives. The initiatives themselves — and the people running them, and Obama’s sycophants and the liberal press — are.
I didn’t vote for Obama but sincerely hoped he would be a good and effective president. Crossing the Rubicon of having a black president was a vital step forward in the history of this nation: as or more more vital, was having an honest, effective, engaged one, who was able to actually lead, and project the power and ideals of the United States across the world.
Well, we know he hasn’t done any of these things. Everything is ideology. And I for one just hope we make it through to the next election.
Meantime, the RACE CARD (as, again, I am proud I predicted) is the cheapest, lowest, and MOST DESPERATE excuse available now. Good luck with that one, Bub. I think we’re ready for it. Just as we just won’t buy the “blame Bush” scenario any longer. Here’s an idea: Why not admit to mistakes? Try to correct them? Do what you say you will do?
Impossible with this crowd. Cross your fingers, people. As Bette Davis so famously said in “All About Eve” — “We’re in for a bumpy ride.”
How is having a black president a vital step?
Having effective leaders, ideally non partisan, as president, EACH time is a vital step. If that guy/gal is purple who cares. If the next 50 presidents are all descendants of Hmong immigrants but meet the criteria above, who cares if they are Hmong?
They’re good people, too. They were once free and allies against communism… until the Democrats stabbed them in the back, along nwith the rest of South Vietnam.
Why won’t they admit their mistakes, and why do they continue to rely on the race card? Well first of all, they are tacticians. You keep setting yourself up for failure every time you continue to expect honest, rational dialogue with these people. Don’t feel bad, I do it too. Deeper, though, is the projection neurosis at work. By and large, they seem to be a group who are led around by their emotions, and no matter how much we insist that we see through this sort of manipulation, they can’t comprehend the logical mind, and thus dismiss this insistence as a tactic of our own. If you sincerely want to gain some insight into this, I highly recommend “The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness” by Lyle Rossiter, M.D. It’s a bit dry and pedantic (it’s actually intended to be a rigorous analysis, worthy of peer-reviewed status), but it makes a pretty strong case for its premise.
I’ve read some of that essay, Joe. He points out the particulars of what is self-evident per real world experience. Leftists are not only nuts, but are willing to throw away every decent facet of human society (America’s, in particular) in order to facilitate their fantasy universe and their lust for power over others. I don’t laugh at Rockefeller and those like them. No matter how ridiculous their pronouncements, they’re still as dangerous as snakes.
You know…. I don’t know if this angle has been explored before, but we’ve talked about Michael Sam and the NFL before, and he was compared to Jackie Robinson. First openly gay player in the NFL, first black player in baseball…. The difference was that Jackie Robinson was talented enough that there was no question that he belonged there. We compared the need for ‘firsts’ like those two to play Ceasar’s wife, to be above reproach.
I wonder if some of the desperation in the left’s defense of Obama is attempting to paint Obama that way, not necessarily because they believe what they’re saying, but because an absolutely dismal black president undercuts future black hopefuls. Colin Powel would have made a better first, I think.
Here: https://ethicsalarms.com/2013/09/06/ethics-quiz-playing-follow-the-leader/ I also alluded to the failed racial trailblazer more recently, here: https://ethicsalarms.com/2014/05/22/president-obamas-epic-tragic-incompetence-a-review/
Senator Jay Rockefeller and his ilk…the poor bastards (“tpb”)…
I alluded to what *I* mean by tpb in my comment in an earlier thread on this blog:
https://ethicsalarms.com/2014/05/14/ethics-quiz-if-there-is-going-to-be-a-racial-double-standard-for-bigoted-statements-can-we-please-at-least-know-what-it-is/
My pity – a verifiably weak, ephemeral, half-intellectual, half-emotional state of mind – is the ONLY thing that remains standing between tpb and my psychopathic, genocidal rage. Perfect targets for terrorism and suffering of mass casualties: tpb. For example, the next White House Correspondents’ Dinner had best reserve every other seat for a fully equipped, on-alert SWAT professional. Surely, I am not the only one out here like this; no doubt, “I” am legion; I can only speak for myself and of my pity for tpb, “So far, so good.” If *I* am that close to snapping, who else – who can’t even spell “ethics,” maybe thinking that it’s spelled with an x – is already plotting, teaming-up even, to do a “tolerance demonstration” for tpb?
Hey, more Obamacare news: http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/27/obamacare-to-fine-companies-that-give-workers-money-to-buy-their-own-health-insurance-plans/
Apparently, the IRS will punish employers who give their workers enough money to afford alternative health plans.
So, how despicable is this administration? Ugh.
So despicable that this doesn’t raise the needle on my “yechh!-o-meter” a silly millimeter.
Indeed. Interestingly, my initial reaction was to think, “It took them this long to go about doing this?”