No dispute at all Mike. I was just asking a simple question. And J, kenneth is on his own. I have no dealings with him. But I am not the one you want to start anything with. I have done nothing to you and I expect the same respect.

Turkey
I did not know I was being questioned but here is the answer as I know it.

The Annenberg Foundation is a private family foundation that provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally. The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in 1994 to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels.

The APPC(Factcheck.org) accepts NO funding from business corporations, labor unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals. It is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation.

The charity of the late publisher Walter Annenberg. was a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and get funding from the Annenberg Foundation, created by Walter Annenberg in 1989.

Now, in a six degrees of Kevin Bacon sort of way, Obama did context a board for a Chicago proposal to the Annenberg Foundation was the 1988 decentralization of the city's public schools by the Republican-controlled Illinois legislature, a response to frustration over years of teachers' strikes, low achievement, and bureaucratic failure. ... The proposal was backed by letters of support to the Annenberg Foundation from Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar, a Republican, local education school deans, the superintendent of the Chicago public schools, and the heads of local foundations.
Among the mainstream Chicago luminaries on Obama's board was Arnold R. Weber, a former president of Northwestern University, who in 1971 was appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon as executive director of the Cost of Living Council and who later was tapped by Republican President Ronald Reagan to serve on an emergency labor board. More recently, Weber has given $1,500 to John McCain's presidential campaign this year.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/163396/page/7

Factcheck.org is used by all the major news media, both political parties, and was used exclusively in the 2008 election without anyone being suspicion of its bias or conflict of interest…

Now perhaps you can produce a credible source to dispute my posting.

Well, it sure seemed like you tried to make one because of the fact it had nothing to do with the question that was posed to Mike.

That's right, I didn't stutter. I asked a simple question but instead of an answer, you reply with a half hearted, lame, I guess that was supossed to be an insult. Like I said I could care less about any of those over blown jackass's. I am not a republican, democrat, liberal or conservitive. I listen to all the elections before I make my desicion. So, all your little comments..i.e. Liar, rush this, shawn that..have absolutly no effect on me. You can play your little childish games with somebody else.

You act like that is supossed to bother me? I could care less about him. All they do is rant and rave about useless facts, like alot of people in here. My statement had nothing to do with Rush or Shawn or any of those overblown gum flapping air heads, so why would you feel the need to try to resort to the insults of a child? I asked a simple question that I have heard numerous times about Obama being on the board of factchecker.org.

Doesn't Obama sit on the board of Factcheck.org?

Legion357
You ask a very good question, but I cannot give you a specific answer but yes the government does provide Congress, the administration, and all Federal employees excellent Health Care benefits, that’s why I laugh every time I hear a Republican legislator talk about the evils of government healthcare.

Democrats who followed the democratic primary election heard a lot about Health Care Reform because it was one of the main issues that was debated. Hillary Clinton had the original template, John Edwards had a slightly different version and so did Barack Obama.; after the election Barack Obama incorporated Hillary’s employer and individual mandates penalty. During the primaries Barack Obama just wanted to ensure all the children, as you well know the party changed his mind. In all reality, the president is at the mercy of his party and, proving that the separation of powers really worked. He has learned that the healthcare lobbyist has a stranglehold on Washington. The healthcare issue is so complex that the lobbyists have control of this issue. Poll numbers for Health Care reform have trended down dramatically because of the demonization and complexity. I think you will get your wish, if we have any Health Care reform at all, it will be a water -downed version. The poor and unemployed do not have a lobbyist group to work for them.

J - you leave me no choice.....the correct term, as taught to me by my mama way before you were born, is "I couldn't care less". That implies bottom of the barrel "do not care" (Insult 101 material). To say "I could care less", implies that you do care somewhat, which unless I miss my guess, is not what you intended. At any rate, as you say regarding your convictions, and as do a lot of us, you march to the beat of a different drummer. Nothing wrong with that.

BigJ: "I use to be called sweets, handsome, and the like by old women"........
I wonder if any of them have read your numerous comments here tonight accusing folks of a big fat lie" , "you are lying", and generally in disagreement with about 90% of every post you comment on.

But then I also wonder if that goddam Lincoln advertisement that covers up what I am trying to type is somehow directed to piss off just me or just you, or if every other person posting is equally as aggravated by this commercial laden site as I am..........

you just have to keep the faith that the democrats and those pervert republicans do what's right for this great country of our's!

Ok Mike,

The non-postal government private insurance plan pays 65% of the premiums for FORMER employees out of the stimulus plan, that begs the question
"What percentage of current government agency employees health care is paid by us, the tax payers?"

Is it 70%? 75%? or more? A much better deal than any person working for a non-governmental company receives.

I guess that explains where some of the stimulus money has gone. True it expanded unemployment benefits for the tax payers, also for the federal employees who also had 65% of their health care paid, a little extra bonus for working, FORMERLY, for a government agency. But then again, it did save some of the private insurance company s employees their job,in a way job creation I guess.

My point is, is that the government provides it s own agency employees with a very nice health care plan at a very affordable cost to the employees, current or former.

But yet the huge push to change the rules for private or publicly traded businesses who offer private insurance plans, (just like the government does for it s own employees).

Let me ask this, you have provided links to the complete health care reform bill and you seem to know what is in it, so will the government change their employees health care plans?
OR will they continue to offer excellent plans to current or former employees at a 35% or less employee contribution?

lol...The democratic party is not what it use to be for all-....They swept the last two elections with a diverse demographic.

The GOP is a southern regional party.
Look at the make-up of the republican party at the next presidential conventions..Just like it was in the 50s.

See BigJ
..#1 Cataahula is qutoing Glenn Beck and you know how reliable he is..lol
...#2 Obama called the waitress "sweetie" and he apologized.ooooh bad president..lol

The rest is just an excuse to pull out the reverse race card...Pretty pathetic.

Got to go.

BigJ

After the election, I decided not to engage anymore, besides the right-wing blogs are usually outdated and most are just cut & paste paranoid material….The comment section is mostly gibberish, the kind of stuff you can hear 24/7 on right-wing hate radio.

Hello BigJ
Turkey also posted a cut& paste from a right-wing blog on Obama's so-called 6 months of mistakes ,word for word, without so much as a credit to the website.

Mike,

I don’t suckle on the teat of either political party and am not persuaded or impressed by political pong. Can you explain in detail to folks like me who don’t have burdensome, objectivity-destroying allegiances how nationalized heath care will benefit America in the long term? Will we be healthier in 50 years because of it or in spite of it? Will it be more successful that other government ventures into health care? And please don’t overlook how our government fails at nearly EVERYTHING it ever does on a national scale. Please present other instances of how government intervention lowered the cost or improved the quality of a service or product. Also, take a moment to consider the ways government already intervenes in our health care system and ponder the impact.

I’ll get you started:
- HMO Act of 1973 (created those horrible HMOs)
- Non-negotiable Medicare prescription drug plan (maximum cost boondoggle!)
- Medicare & Medicaid (10s of trillions in unfunded liabilities)

Now consider the culture our welfare system has created. Instead of being a safety net, it’s an inescapable black hole. Plus, the GAO projects Social Security to be a $40-50T liability. When will the experiment with my grandkids’ futures end?!

What’s keeping our current health care system from operating in and benefitting from a true free market, like for instance, the MP3 player, computer or cell phone markets? In most other free markets open to competition, prices go down and quality increases over time. (We haven’t had a true free market in decades, but there’s still enough competition to partially simulate market forces.)

Please try to convince me that central planning works, and leave out all the emotional talking points. Talk to me like I’m Murray Rothbard.

Oh, one more question: How long will I have to wait for surgery to repair the sphincters that have been annihilated by the taxman?

Turkey said” he was on record on CNN talking about charging our soldiers for their health care. When the point was made that these people have volenteared to fight and die for their country he stated " that's just it, they volenteared, nobody made them join".

This is what that Factcheck.org had to say about that chain e-mail you are quoting.

This chain e-mail contains fabricated quotes and misrepresents a budget idea that the White House scrapped.

We've received many copies and variations of this e-mail in the past few weeks.
Made-up Quotes

To start, the e-mail's anonymous author offers no evidence to substantiate the disparaging remarks about veterans that he or she attributes to President Obama. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor told us that "these quotes are fabricated."

Our own research backs that up. We searched news databases and turned up no news organization that has ever quoted

Legion357
I am stumped; you compared the stimulus (which is temporary and has a dollar limit) to the current health care reform bill…. The stimulus also provided for food stamps and extended unemployment benefits but I just can’t see how you trying to tie this all together.

Help me out.

Alton
Interesting reply…. I can respect your support for a single party platform, but I will stick with the Democrats for my own personal reasons…. No right or wrong, we’re just stating the facts.

You can download a healthcare plan (in PDF format) to your computer and just use search features and scroll down a page you want to print out. The bill will not be voted on until October, so you have plenty of time to read a draft form.

You would know better about the quality of care of the VA, but I know many who do not have any problems with their VA or Medicare. Let’s leave at that for now.

I was not setting up a classification but writing a “matter of fact” statement, when I mention about being in your right mind. Allow me to clarify.

Hector DeAses wrote a nice column in today’s Victoria Advocate describing the role of Congress, the president, the lobbyist, and the corporations. We have not passed any major legislation in the last 40 years, but the president is more of a beggar than a main player in this healthcare reform bill. Max Baucus is the Senate Committee Chairman, who will have the final say on this bill. The separation of powers gave the committee chairman that right. As you well know the house will pass their version in the senate will pass theirs before the administration will have any input. It’s all about the votes.

The chain e-mail was distributed and used twice in the local blogs that stated that the recent hate crime legislation had a clause protecting pedophiles. The email was debunked.

I have followed Barack Obama for over two years, and I have not found not one single shred of evidence of racism, such as testimony from colleagues in Illinois or Washington, DC. It’s the totality of the person..IMO.

Is your president a racist? Yes, and he has proven that over and over again with his associations and actions. His health care issues are out of control, he was on record on CNN talking about charging our soldiers for their health care. When the point was made that these people have volenteared to fight and die for their country he stated " that's just it, they volenteared, nobody made them join". Then they are going to try to fine people without health care, if they don't have the money for health care then how are they suppossed to pay the fine? He has put his foot in his mouth way to many times already. In the past 6 months he has run this country into the dirt to just about anybody that would listen to him. He is a socialist that is trying to turn this country into a socialist country. Granted I voted for Bush both terms and the second term....well lets just say it wasn't his brightest moment, but come on, when you start out your term like BO has....that's just rediculous. I havent heard anything about the child molestors yet so I'll leave that one alone.

Comment was removed because the contents of the above writings are nothing more than left wing propaganda..

I am in my "right" mind, my brain has not "left" my body, so my answer is YES.

This comment was removed by the user.

About the term fear. I support the statement of Thomas Jefferson, "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.

For years I was one of those "Blue Dog" Democrats, I even ran for office as a Democrat along with Pete Geren in 1990's. Some of the "Blue Dogs", like myself, wanted to be part of solution within the party, but were wanted only wanted for votes, fundraisers and etc. left the party. I am my own person; my principles do not change due to treats or pressure. Each individual has to live with his or her choices. I don't see myself coming back into fold "

The Republican Party has moved in a similar direction with moderates within their party. I believe that is why you still see their low survey numbers.

For these reasons I no longer support a single party platform.

Personally at this point I could care less if Obama was born in this country or elsewhere. This issue is like closing the gate after the cows are out. What is done is done.

The on-line copy of the healthcare bill is almost impossible to download and print the 1017 page document. It over heats most home laser printers or requires numerous expensive ink cartilages.

Your ending questions are interesting.
1. Does anyone believe that any political party would write legislation to harm the elderly?
Why do you feel the elderly will be treated any different then veterans have been treated? The federal government continues to reduce healthcare benefits for our military, their family, and veterans. And the elderly on Medicare have seen consistent reduction in available healthcare under the Medicare program.

Protect child molesters? Guess I am out of the loop on this issue. I don't know what you are talking about.

That the President of the United States is a racist? Even with his pass associations, writings, and speeches that indicated he had race issues; I had given President Obama a pass on this issue--- until this latest issue. Yes, I believe he is a racist.

But I guess that puts me outside of your in "their right mind" classification.

What I read of the House Medical Bill, it sure gives the President of the United States almost absolute control over the medical care process. He/she will appoint directly or indirectly the individuals that direct the program without them being approved by Congress or any other Congressional oversight.

Could there be a reason?

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, enacted February 17, 2009, provides a new health insurance opportunity for former employees who were or are involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008, and December 31, 2009.
Under this new law, former Federal employees may request premium assistance for their temporary continuation of coverage (TCC) under the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program. Premium assistance means your former agency will make a Government contribution of 65 percent of the TCC premiums for your FEHB plan enrollment.

Non-Postal Premium Rates for the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
Texas Humana Health Plan of Texas

Standard Family
UR5

395.19 Total Bi-weekly premium
296.39 Government pays
98.80 Employee pays
5.50 Change in employee payment

856.25 Total monthly premium
642.19 Government pays
214.06 Employee pays
11.92 Change in employee payment

What a sweet deal, and this is for former employees. How many NEW federal employees will be hired to administer
the proposed Health Care reform? But gee, they won't have to use the "Public Option" or pay a fine for not having
health care........because, CURRENT OR FORMER, they will already have a sweetheart health care plan.

http://www.opm.gov/INSURE/HEALTH/

To much diversity, plain and simple.