Way too close to the truth to work as humor.

Howard Dean is first.

John Edwards has dedicated his campaign to couples that choose between heat, food, and medication. and knows who is to blame, we the people, because we have let it happen. let Washington be taken over by special interests. Dennis Kucinich has put a fix into the hopper as well. But it is us who must make it happen.

Phil,

The story didn't make me laugh either. What I found interesting is that somebody thought this couple's situation was humorous. When something like this becomes a joke in the marketing place of ideas that should be viewed as BIG awake up call but it's not. Folks make a joke about it so they don't have to change. The Right-wing has been very good at making a laughing stock out of the values of the Progressive Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party for years and the some of Democratic Party's DC insiders do too.

When a Democratic candidate or politician comes to my state and more importantly to my area of the state (which most of the time they do not), do they open their events up to everybody or do they come to only to raise money? Do their political operatives arrange their speaking engagements only for the powers brokers? Is the price on the ticket so high that the average American would need to for go paying their mortgage for a month or two in order to attend the cocktail party just to hear them speak in person? Do they forget about calling the local Democratic Party's volunteer activists and their volunteer grassroots campaigners? This is what Mr. Edwards' Californian campaign staffers did to him in my area. It was wrong. I took a lot of heat from the local Union folks and the Democratic Party's grassroots for it too. I asked them not to do it that way but they refused to listen. When political operatives do that kind of stuff to their own candidate just to put money in their own pockets I find their choices despicable. I don't blame candidate. That attitude is just how the Hacks in this state do business. They care more about themselves than about their candidate winning, the Democratic party or their country. That is the problem with political operatives they're always looking for their next gig. They're in the business for the money and that is it. They're addicted to gambling. They need to be reformed or at least be required to make their resumes available to the public because most of the time they don't win. They play a lot of political card games with other people's money and most of time they lose the election. But they do some how manage to walk away from the gaming table with a lot of money in their own pockets that garnered from a lot of good and well intentioned folks.

pockets that garnered s/b pockets that they garnered

Susan

They all have to raise money so I arrange for two events. A high ticket private reception and a low dollar event. One of the reasons I back Edwards is his public finance stand which he took out of principle. The larger picture is why does all that money have to be raised and you have identified the problem.

On the other hand I see dozens of idealistic young people working for the various candidates and they have student loans to pay off and need a paycheck.

Phil,

I changed the title of the post a little and then added a question for the readers to answer. Your comment gave me the idea.

---

These are not college students who are do this kind of stuff. These are seasoned political operatives with a lot of connections. They have been in the business for years. It amazes me how they manage to stay in the business at all when they don't seem to be able to win an election. They will go from one campaign to the next and nothing ever changes. Some even go from a Democratic campaign to a Republican one. It's considered normal. Go figure.

5.  Yes, it's that pattern which has led me to conclude that "failure by design" doesn't just apply to cars and toasters.  Failure provides an immediate incentive to "try again."  Sucess, on the other hand, is a dead end.  And certainly, campaigns that don't succeed are more numerous than those that do.  So, they're a move reliable source of income.

I've even gotten to the point of deciding that "profit" is a prescription for low quality and failure.  Yes, low quality will depress repeat custom, but it increases custom for supposed competitors who are part of a monopolistic industry.  

Which is why need to argue that not-for-profit is a prerequisite for improving the QUALITY of health care.  If the quality of health care is increased, then the need for it will decrease.  Now, that latter phenomenon is another argument for removing increasing profits from the equation.  We certainly don't want to penalize high quality providers by reducing their income when they do good.  But, the first argument is most important.  To promote high quality, profit needs to be removed as a criterion.

Many of our economic models are flawed because of the false assumptions about human behavior they bring to the table.  Our political system is being undermined by the false assumption that man is by nature evil, aggressive and unco-operative.  This assumption not only justifies coercion, but provides a facile explanation for the small percentage of people who are aggressive on the wholesale level. 

Susan

Thanks for welcoming me to DFA yesterday.  Really it should be welcome back as I was around when it was Dean for America.  I guess I only get motivated to discuss politics inside a year before  Presidential elections shame on me.

 

How to win the debate -- it seems to me the Republican argument for national healthcare is one of the best (they just choose to ignore it).  Employer based health insurance is killing our competitive edge in global business.  Small businesses are dropping coverage and making employees take a bigger share of the expense every year.  Big corps. like GM are trying to jettison their h/c and pension responsibilities because their products are at a pricing disadvantage compared to those of companies in countries with universal h/c.  The plummeting dollar has helped that a little but for how long?  To be competitive in the world business has got to shed health care and the only logical substitute models are the people themselves or the government.  Either way the shift can be the opportunity to move to universal coverage.

 

Randall 

7.

Randall Drew
Sun, 12/16/07

Welcome home.

Glad to see you're back for the holidays. It's going to be a jolly good time.

I entered an online contest with the small business I am starting, which will soon be a BIG business by the way! Please take 2 mins. of your time to watch my video entry.  If you like it, please sign up to be able to post a comment and enter how many stars you think I deserve.  The grand prize is for $40k in cash and $10k in software and consulting services! 

Please feel free to forward this e-mail to as many people you feel may be interested in it.  The more people to sign up and vote, the  better my chances of winning!

Here is the link with the video....just click on it or cut and paste it in to the address bar, if it does not load....

http://IWillJustStart.com/contest?id=3545

Thank you and wish me luck!

Peace,Ryan Payne
owner/founder
The Energy Drink Outlet
P.O. Box 10749
South Lake Tahoe, CA  96158

If you are tired of the same old DNC, DLC, DSCC, DCCC raming their candidates, agenda, time table and high ticket prices down your throats then I suggest supporting Kucnich.  He is the only representative of "the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party."  The only way to change politics is by changing politics.  We need to get money out of politics.  Kucinich practices what he preaches.  No one in the race is consistent as  or has walked the talk and has been right on all of the issues.  If you agree with him as 31% of DFA does and 41% of PDA and 75% of the Independent Voters Straw Poll and over 200,000 of the Institute for Public Accountability has found in their on-line questionnaire of matching principles of candidates and individuals has shown.  If you are progressive, why aren't you supporting him?

The Funniest Joke In The World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjbYNgIi5...