One thing all of these conservative pundits have in common is the art of whining. They bang the table, rundown democrats, and make lots of noise, while completely defying logic. But what are they up to, really?

I have several theories, and all of them are sinister.

Could it be they want to dismantle all of our social safety nets: social security, healthcare reforms, workers compensation insurance, and others, in order to help some entity at the top achieve ultimate power? This is not as farfetched as it sounds when you consider the work, time, and money they have spent creating hysteria in their followers.

Possibly there is some deeply religious, fanatical, and cataclysmic futuristic point of view. It's possible the top of their hierarchy believes we are faced with an "end times" scenario. This could explain why these destructive pundits are so hell-bent on swaying their followers. Certainly, their level of fanaticism is inappropriate, and out of context, with the social and funding problems we Americans are facing. They are blatantly overreacting to the point of ridicule. Psychologically this would fit with a groupthink that believes passionately in "end of times" events: food shortages, civil unrest, world wars, disease, etc.

Sadly, these Fox News maniacs have millions of hapless followers and believers. It doesn't matter to the entranced populace what the ultimate outcome; they haven't thought out of the box yet. Surely, they are slowly becoming suspicious of the motives behind this radical, table pounding, hysteria.

Whatever the case, the millions of followers are simply being used to garner strength for the earliest stages of their sinister plan. At some point they will be completely dumped...the "end times" cataclysmic event.

I am kind of old, and very well traveled, (at least around North America) and I believe our country will survive if we defeat this selfish right wing extremism. I am not a liberal, and I have worked extremely hard in a male dominated industry for nearly my entire life. I subscribe to many of these right wing philosophies: welfare reform, education, religion, border security, etc. However, I am sickened by the selfish "party of no" of late. I find them completely destructive, cold hearted, and unChristian.

Something BIG is up. Something sinister.

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Yesterday I arrived in California to some beautiful weather, and truly friendly and helpful people. I love it out here, and if I was wealthy, I would live somewhere around Santa Barbara. Today I am in Castaic, located just north of Los Angeles on I-5. If you have ever visited Castaic in the past, then you already know how truck friendly it is. Of course, it has a large population now, and lots of new housing. Some of the newer locals wish the trucks would all go away, forgetting how much money is spent in town by drivers buying everything from fuel to Starbuck's coffee.

The Country Girl Bar is rather famous, and has a huge parking lot for trucks. MIke's restaurant still offers delicious Mexican Food, truck parking, and ice cold beer. Lake Hughes, with its beautiful park and trail, is within walking distance from the stores and strip malls. In the spring, the wildflowers blossom all over the hills. Winters are mild with beautiful palms, warm breezes, and garden boxes.

But, like most places I visit, the people are what make the trip. In Castaic, they are friendly, helpful, and fun. If you are ever north of Los Angeles, take the Lake Hughes exit. You will love it too.

 Sarah Palin, and the Fox News crowd, are vigorously defending her use of the crosshair targets on the US congressional map. They are claiming that because similar graphics have been used before by the opposing party, she has nothing to regret. If she was truly a serious presidential contender, then why would she have put this rubbish in the public eye?

When she first posted the map, and started making comments like "lock and load" and "reload" in conjunction with the graphic itself, she was asked to remove it from the public forum. Even then the map with its violent imagery created a controversy. She refused to take it down until the day of the Tucson murders.

Tonight she is on the Hannity Show quoting from the Bible, and claiming no responsibility for the violence in Tucson. My point is, it doesn't matter. She should be horrified, grief stricken, and remorseful. I see none of this in Palin. She has no empathy, and no regret.

 It doesn't matter how many crosshair maps the democrats have posted online...this is the one that counted. This is the one that everyone was looking at and talking about for months leading up to the election. It was very disturbing from the beginning.

In her written video statement on her Facebook page, Palin even had the bad taste to compare her gaffe and the consequences (the crosshair map and resulting fallout) to a blood libel. Her words were ugly and hollow, without meaning or sincerity.

She would have been better off to have said something like, "O my God, I can't believe I put that trash on the internet, and now this terrible thing has happened. I am horrified, and now I can't sleep anymore. I hope to God my actions were not the trigger that pushed this deranged man over the edge!"

Most of us are not blaming Palin for the mass murder in Tucson. We are simply stunned by her completely unconscious innerself. Nothing seems to invoke her pity or passion...she has to be asleep inside.

 If I had put that map up for the world to see, and then something like this had happened, I would never get over the grief or regret. Would you?

She should apologize.

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Someone from Sealy, Texas, sent me a hateful message on my email about my liberal ways and how healthcare reform will "bankrupt" America. First of all, I am not a liberal; I actually fall in the crack somewhere between highly conservative and mildly neutral. The point is, I have had the odd opportunity to live under both socialized medicine and the American system, and I have an educated opinion. I wouldn't normally take Obama's side on anything, and I personally feel like he dropped the ball on healthcare reform to save his own skin. He didn't take reform far enough.

Americans who live under the current system are not free. They have no choice in who insures them; many are forced to hang onto jobs they don't want just to stay insured. Take myself for example: if I was to take a "normal job" in the trucking industry, then I would have to work for a company whose mission and management I personally disagree with. Large trucking companies generally hire unsafe and inexperienced drivers, and put them in uncomfortable, ugly, equipment; however, they do offer insurance.  I support small business, and I have always worked for family-oriented trucking companies. The largest company I worked for had only 60 trucks. They did not offer health insurance.

If you move to another employer in this country, you will be uninsured for 90 days unless you have the means to pay the full price of your previous coverage. Most of us simply don't make that kind of money. 

Constitutional or not, we all have a duty to pay for some kind of decent health insurance coverage. It is wrong for society to pay the healthcare costs of someone who has the opportunity and means, but still refuses to buy insurance. Reform will mandate that all persons be covered...insurance companies will be forced to finally face honest competition. We will have more health insurance choices.

Everyone has to pitch in if we are going to do this without a public option.

We are the only modernized industrial country in the world that expects our hardworking people to rely on a jar on top of a cash register, or fund raisers, to pay for a health crisis. Glenn Beck, and other insurance company shills, would ask us all to rely on the charity of our fellow American when we are facing a cataclysmic healthcare event. Charity is demeaning; no one wants to accept charity. In a circular way, the cold-hearted health insurance company is stealing from the jar on top of the cash register. They want the status quo....change will result in a lower profit margin.

If we let them repeal healthcare reform, then to hell with dignity!

I have been listening to Glenn Beck morning and night since that deranged man shot up the "Congress in the Corner" event in Tucson. I am starting to worry; Beck sounds more fanatical than ever. I like Beck, but now I am beginning to understand what it is about him that worries the left. He does sound rather hateful in tone, and he seems overly emotional about healthcare. First of all, healthcare reform is not socialized medicine. Since I have had the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of socialized medicine while living in Canada, I can tell you for sure that what we are getting in the USA is not the same thing. To equate the two is a darn lie, and I am ultra tired of hearing all of the fabrications.

Beck, and the rest of the Palin Fox News crew, are paid to derail the Patient's Bill of Rights, and the upcoming healthcare reforms. This is why they are so fanatical. I honestly believe they will receive a huge payday if repeal is successful. 

Whatever the case, people on every side of the political spectrum felt offended by the crosshairs on Palin's tacky little map. She was asked months ago to remove that rubbish from the public eye; she refused. Now the ultra right wing, holier than thou, thuggy, Palin group has been forced to a nasty awakening: even democrats bleed red.

I believe the Fox group has cast a pall over our nation. I have listened to their words, the tone, and the usage. I have felt offended, and sometimes frightened by their hateful rhetoric. What they are doing is similar to gossip and personal attacks. They have literally "ganged up" on issues and individuals in order to derail healthcare reforms. They have not dealt with the facts; they have simply used emotion. They cast logic and science to the wind...math is meaningless. They will say, or do, literally anything to stop healthcare reform. Why?

Members of the Republican Party are in emergency talks today on Cspan, asking the house to take a vote next week to repeal the country's new healthcare reforms. Once again, instead of focusing on economic recovery and job creation, our government leaders are having arguments in defense of "big insurance." 

Any politician willing to jerk the rug out from under citizens who were counting on these reforms to protect them and their families should be willing to completely cancel his/her health insurance. Why should American taxpayers pay these selfish people who sit up there on their fine rear ends, and make the ridiculous, self righteous, and illogical claim that those who are sick are "personally irresponsible" to enjoy what I now believe in the future will be the "privilege" of health insurance coverage? And if in our rich country health insurance is a privilege, then it is one they do not deserve.

For the first time Americans can enjoy some consumer protections from insurance company "death panels." If the Republican Party gets its way, then we will all be returned to the status quo: no consumer protections, donut hole for senior prescriptions, lifetime limits, uncovered children, the quality of life issues associated with preexisting conditions, escalating costs, depending on charity, and the burdensome costs of screening and testing that ultimately save taxpayer dollars.

The Republicans want us all to believe they are willing to repeal our new healthcare reform bill, and then they will replace it with something better. For six years, while Bush was in office, they had an opportunity to create change. They did absolutely nothing in the name of healthcare while insurance companies, and greedy Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) profiteered off of the misery of taxpaying Americans.

When a family has exhausted its entire life's accumulation of property on healthcare costs, after insurance has underpaid their bill or canceled their policy, then these people file bankruptcy and use our tax money to continue treatments. We are giving a free ride so healthcare entities can profit up to 120 percent per quarter. We are not giving to the sick American who has lost everything in the midst of a personal health crisis; we are funding the super rich insurance company that no longer wants to meet its obligation.

I feel sorry for Americans gullible enough to believe the Republicans fallacious argument in favor of big insurance. 

Without any concrete plan whatsoever, the Republican Party simply wants to repeal healthcare reform and replace it with nothing. They label healthcare an "entitlement" while they themselves use the poshest of lifetime federal coverage to protect themselves. Under the new healthcare reforms Americans would be buying from pools. I do not call that an "entitlement." What the members of the Republican Party enjoy is a tax funded healthcare policy entitlement. If they want to repeal these new consumer protections, then they should forfeit their own.

My kid opened his first savings account today. He has been hoarding his lawn mowing money, birthday money, his Christmas money, and any spare change he could find, in a faux leather chain drive wallet embossed with the skull and bones. He plans on buying a car when he "gets big" and getting a job at Sonic where he can roller skate his way to riches. He's onto something; he already has more money than I do, and when you compute my worth minus my debt, he is flusher than me and the average taxpaying adult.

via www.elleckert.com

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