From the party who brought you Willie Horton and 9/11, folks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6vlPTfssEY&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fthinkprogress%2Eorg%2F

Since when is every four-star general an ‘honorable man’ just because he’s a four-star general, in or out of war; and since when does a political organization expressing its opinion constitute ‘treason’? What the hell do you think the military is supposed to fight for if not our rights? Read the Constitution and the military oath of enlistment, Graywolf, if you can get the blinders off your eyes.

One reason that Edwards and Clinton have set up their plans as they have is because they have a shot at getting through Congress which can’t be said for a single-payer or all-Medicare plan. In the Thurs. night PBS debate, not one of the Democratic candidates said they support a single-payer insurance plan, and I’d guess the biggest reason is it has no prayer of passing Congress. We have to get REAL here … would you rather people have NOTHING until you get your ideal plan?

And did you know that Medicare is far from an easy-street plan and that, while seniors love it, it also costs them a pretty penny?

Take one person I know who just signed up. He gets Medicare A free, but it’s extremely limited to hospitalizations and only for a short time. He has to pay $95/month for Medicare B, which helps to cover doctors’ visits, and all laboratory and other tests, as well as physical therapy, walkers, etc. and many other costs. That’s right: Basic Medicare doesn’t cover a PENNY of doctors’ visits, tests, etc. To make up for the huge gap in Medicare A and B coverage, he bought an AARP plan for $146/month.

How does the AARP plan help? If he has an operation, under Medicare A/B, he’d have to fork over $995 before the hospital would admit him. That’s right, under Medicare A, the first $1,000 for hospitalization is up to each senior.

Do you still think Medicare, as it exists, is the simple answer to everyone’s health care coverage?

Then, to get drug coverage, he had to sign up for a Medicare D plan for about $46/month + steep co-pays, and some drugs are not covered at all (on any of the plans). Then there are the donut-hole exemptions in all of the drug plans — and which Hillary Clinton addressed in the PBS debate last Thursday night.

That comes to about $350+/month to get decent coverage under the current system of Medicare.

Imagine that you’re living off Social Security and modest savings, and you have to pay out $350/month to get decent Medicare coverage … or risk having a heart attack or broken hip or something, and having to pay out $1,000 to the hospital off the top.

If you’re hospitalized over 30 days, you have to pay — I forget exactly — about $250/300 PER DAY because Medicare A only covers you for 30 days. And it goes on and on. Medicare is wonderful, but it is extremely LIMITED unless one gets the necessary add-ons.

And do you think a plan that covers all of those necessary add-ons would have a prayer of passing Congress? Think again.

Pretty typical of the no-balls crowd of ex-government pencil-necks who are still whining because Bush didn’t listen to them. Aaaaaaawwwwwww………

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3639624

at around the 18.30 mark:

George Stephanopoulos: Mayor Giuliani also hit you pretty hard for failing early on to condemn that Move-on.org ad which called General Petraeus General Betrayus. Why not speak out earlier?

Hillary Clinton: I don’t condone attacks on any American who has served our country honorably and with dedication the way General Petraeus has. I’ve said over many years how much I admire him, respect him he’s been dealt a difficult hand and you know he’s doing the best job he can under the circumstances. I also don’t condone attacks on great Americans like Max Cleland and John Kerry who’ve also served our country. But this is not a debate about an ad, this is a debate about ending the war in Iraq.

Larry Johnson, September 10: Then we have the fact that Petraeus and company are cherry picking the data and deliberately painting a false, rosy picture that security in Iraq is better and the violence is abating. Dave and his boys achieved this result by excluding car bombs and other sectarian casualties from the calculation.

Me: An honorable man does not cherry-pick data to distort the true picture when our young soldiers are being slaughtered.

Yet Hillary Clinton said it herself today: It’s not about the Move-on ad; Petraeus is an honorable man.

Clinton fails the smell test. She indulges in pander politics.

I doubt I will ever convince the creators of this blog that Senator Clinton is just more of the same old crap the United States has had to endure for the past 20 or 30 years. I trust her as far as I can throw her…and my back would give out before I could even lift her.

To give you an idea of how far this country has drifted into the nutball fringe-right ‘red zone,’ Justice John Paul Stevens was appointed to the Supreme Court by Ford as a conservative Republican — today he is considered one of the most liberal justices on the court.