How can anybody know what's at the core of any political movement when all we get in the media is propaganda? On the rare occasion that I watch TV news, I think that the country has gone insane. Then, I look around my community and notice that TV news isn't reflective of ANYBODY in the real world. It's a complete and total fiction. It's theater disguised as news.

Here's an experiment for the readers: watch 10 minutes of Fox News, paying close attention to separating the facts from the editorial rhetoric, then switch to CNN (or re-read this article), looking for the same things. Most people find it very easy to spot the propaganda in a source they disagree with, but have a very hard time spotting the propaganda in sources they agree with.

The news media has degenerated to the point that it is little more than a verbal version of All-Star Wrestling, and the author bears his share of culpability. Don't be proud of "taking off the gloves;" be ashamed. Or, take the gloves off completely: refer to Democrats as the party of Klansman Robert Byrd. Refer to the Clintons as "those people who use the n-word all the time." At least be fair.

Keep the gloves off!

Nail on the head, Will. As usual. @Erich... were you born an asshole, or did you have to go to a Trollish work study program?

William is just saying things as they should be said, not beating around the bush.

Thanks William for doing so.

Just turning the other check to counter this just won't cut it.

America is currently on the slippery slope leading to fascism. The next step for Huckabee will be concentration camps and gas chambers for the final endlösung.

I will go on record and say I have no problem with Mr. Pitt's vitriol. Matter of fact, someone needs to step up and light a fire under the asses of anti-right people (notice I didn't say left), and you won't get that by being cool about it. For some, yeah it may turn them away. Probably because they have a weak stomach because they are being challenge

in some way. But for others, it's galvanization. And what the anti-right crowd needs is galvanizing, because that's the only precursor to action.

It is astonishing that a country such as this one that evolved in part out if the best traditions of the Enlightenment should produce foolish and ill-informed people in such numbers to aspire to high office. WPR is right to denounce them. They reveal what so-called 'compassionate conservatism' only thinly disguises. At the base of the conservative philosophy is a ruthless social Darwinism.Survive who can. It runs counter to every proclamation Republicans make about being Christian because what they really care about is 'success', which normally means money, and that means 'money from myself and a few friends'. The intellectual content of the 'event' that WPR describes is so close to zero that any sensible person should ignore the ravings of the speakers. Those present do not care about this country. I'm not sure that Obama does consistently either. Still to choose between Obama and these scatterbrained and emotionally unbalanced people is a no-brainer. Grit your teeeth and vote for Obama in spite of what Ralph Nader and disillusioned pundits say.

WPR is right to take these foolish people 'seriously' but there's a way to transmute personal criticism into genera commentarl and he doesn't always find it. But his concerns are very well-founded and he should go on being tough lest we be borught down by people who should never hold power, such as Bush, Cheney and all that neo-con klatch who have done such damage to all of us. I suggest we don't even use the names of the Tea Partiers. Maybe with luck they will just go away if we decide not to mention them. It's the best favor we can do the country.

I say bring it on - let's expose the hateful party of "No', and the trickle-down rubbish they have been peddling for decades -- all it ever did under Reagan & Bush was to triple the annual deficit & enrich the fat cats, who give to both lobbyists and the GOP (and you can buy the Supreme Court).
I am very frustrated with Obama's post-partisan cool - imagine allowing the Republicans to control the narrative -- are "we" too cool for school? I feel abandoned as I work my toes off to elect Dems in a Red state!
That abdication on our message has not only fostered a rising Tea Party but a depressed progressive movement. Why has the admin been surprised that the supine media docilely give the TP so much press? They sure have the Koch Bros. $$ behind them.
Do we have anyone to speak for us in the public arena?

Mr. Pitt, change nothing. Republicans want to do away with laws and regulations that protect consumers from cancers and workers from accidents. But, when those consumers and workers become sick and injured because of the lack of regulations or laws, those same republicans don't want them to be able to get well either. Keep the hot coals to the republicans feet Mr. Pitt.

Amen Mr. Pitt! I always look forward to your pieces because you so skillfully voice my anger and frustration.

Thank you, sir. Fantastic article! I was not aware of Huckabee's burnt-down house comments, but I'm glad to know someone is addressing them. Keep up the good work!

I get what Huckabee was saying. But, the Health Insurance industry does not fit the free market model. It needs to either be non-profit, or universal paid for with taxes. I prefer the latter.

you go, buddy.

The problem with insuring sick people is that it costs
insurance companies money. Actually, any well person has a chance of getting sick, and so is risky.

Insuring dead people against illness is clearly the way to go, since they don't suffer from illnesses at all.

Mike Huckabee might want to refine his message:
public health care for the dead - only the dead.

If you don't have health care, don't worry. Eventually you will.

I LOVE your tone and would be sorry to see it change. I agree with you and thank you for your particular insight to so much of the yuk which fills our lives these days.

As an outsider (I'm English) I don't share the view of many correspondents that Obama has been a failure. It seems clear to me that he is facing up to a vicious and well-funded campaign from the Right to discredit him, and it's disappointing to me that progressives are joining in with the campaign. The fact that not a single initiative he's proposed has been supported by a single Republican indicates that this isn't a question of reason, but of kneejerk, partisan reactions: he's a Democrat (and black too!) so he has to be brought down.

Given that climate, I think his performance so far has shown about as much courage as you could reasonably expect. He's facing a whole system that is dysfunctional and his room for manoeuvre is severely limited. I feel that, instead of attacking him, progressive Americans should be trying to discredit his enemies. The biggest difference between conservatives and progressives in America is that conservatives bury their differences and co-operate while progressives argue among themselves and risk ending up collaborating with the conservatives.

Two points:

1. The majority of us are one job loss away from the potential of being a "burned down house". If your COBRA expires, or, more likely, you can't afford it, you are finished.

2. The answer to "anonymous" above who wonders why anyone would buy insurance before they get sick ? Like the answer to most other questions about our health care system: Single Payer. Everybody pays, everybody benefits. California is trying to install such a system. The rest of the industrialized world already have them.

Keep on keeping on!

Mr. Pitt, please continue to blast the "sick bastards" at every opportunity. Republicans who taut themselves as Christians (and that covers most of them) don't know the meaning of the word. Christian hypocrites is what they are. So, by all means, keep up the good work.

This is particularly weird considering that Huckabee has diabetes.

Keep up the good fight Mr. Pitt. We're not going to win this fight until we are as angry as they are. The Brownshirts in Germany and the window-pounding repuglican screamers in Florida 2000 were a minority but they were loud, forceful, determined and willing to go all out. Until we fight fire with fire we will continue to dissolve into a balkanized fear-ridden corporate state. We are a majority, but our pride in being 'reasonable' is killing us.

The rhetoric of this movement is alarming. Chris Hedges' recent book "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America" is right on target. This is a rapidly evolving social and political movement with all of the classic characteristics of fascism. I have interacted with members of this movement, and I know they have nothing but contempt for non-members. There is no dialog, no mutual respect, no trust, no recognition of non-members as moral human beings. With state power, they would doubtless discipline and punish entire segments of our population. They are capable of bringing widespread suffering into the world.

I can't help but wonder if Supreme Court Justice Roberts feels like a burned down house since he has a seizure disorder.

Anyone who wants to defend these rotten *I got mine, I want yours and by the way FOAD* subhumans known as tea party and republican, might as well face it, they are fools. Things have such a way of biting us in the butt.

Just recently I saw two people get their come-upins. I still believe in Karma.

What can one expect from a man who allowed his kid to cruelly murder a harmless dog?

Thank you Mr. Pitt...the attack on "value's" is affecting/effecting most, it not all, social constructs; such as social security, unemployment insurance and as pointed out, health insurance...I think I'll gather up a thick stack of community mental health org's. business cards and the next time I personally hear someone speak to me about "social conservatism" hand them a card and ask them to seek help; we must continue to show compassion, are we not?

It is not just Mike Huckabee's philosophy for members of the 70% Majority Common Population who get sick to just die without medical assistance to deter or eliminate the sickness, it is the whole Republican Party, as well as their Tea Party.

Reading about Huckabee's rant, I couldn't help but think of the Dick, Cheney.
By current insurance company standards, he would have been denied insurance upon being elected to Congress, having had his first (of 5) heart attacks at age 37.
He is only alive today by virtue of being insured (by us, the taxpayers). By rights, he should be dead. He's a burned down house, and I for one, never had any use for him.

It never ceases to amaze me that it has taken this long for...what...some Americans to see what has been happening for decades. Here's some suggestions for those that popped out recently. 1)Get rid of your Tv or at the least cancel cable/dish. 2)Cease and desist patronizing corporate establishments(do your best). 3)Dramatically alter your life to a more sustainable lifestyle. 4)Research, research, research. 5)Support hackers. /b/ is just getting warmed up. Good day.

Huckabee has, indeed, hit a new low. Perhaps he needs to go back and read With this whole group, their arrogance is only exceeded by their ignorance.

I think the Rev. Huckabee needs to re-read Matthew 25:31-46.

Rep. Alan Grayson has it right. The Republi-WON'T's health Care Plan is this: DON'T GET SICK!!! and if you DO? DIE QUICKLY!!! ANY American who votes for a regressive Republi-WON'T in November is at risk of shooting himself in the foot. The only ones who will be able to get Medical help will be the VERY RICH. Ignorance is bliss for these "Know Nothing" Imbeciles who latch on to the "Tea Party" propaganda like it was Manna from Heaven. Beware, all you Mad Hatters, it'll be "OFF with your Head", if you vote the dull and ignorant into positions of power. Don't say you weren't warned.

Of course it's a failed business model to insure burned buildings -- that's why we should have adopted single-payer healthcare years ago and gotten it out of the place of employment and away from profit-making insurance companies. Healthcare is a human right - not a commercial commodity. Now we have businessmen and values voters making our healthcare decisions -- incredible! When will people wake up and fight to make capitalism work for people and not the other way around? William, I value your thoughts. We need people like you who tell it like it is.

Will- Please, please,PLEASE keep up your raging comments.

My brother, on Medicaid because he can no longer work and afford insurance, is dying from melanoma. His Medicaid has been canceled 7 times over the course of his treatments for no explainable reason and each time they tell him "OOPS, but don't worry it's all straightened out." Picture a man barely able to stand waiting on line for four or five hours to get help paid for with taxes he contributed to all his life. We are convinced they are waiting for him to give up so they can get him out of the way...one less good for nothing to help. We need a better way to help those that need care.

Heaven help us. Huckabee, the Repubs and all their ilk are a disgrace. Where is the compassion for our fellow human beings. These people think they are true Christians and patriots???? Don't make me laugh!

Bring back Pre-Existing conditions:
Vote Republican.

I always read Pitt before anyone and not because he's the lead article on Truthout, which he deserves. He exposes the right wing villains for exactly what they are in much the same way that Ed Schultz does on his cable show. We need reporters and commentators who have the passion and emotionality to get people riled as well they should be. You're one of my heroes, Pitt, and keep telling it like it is.

THE REPUGS ARE MOST DEFINITELY SICK BASTARDS. We all really need to put gloves on because the Sick Bastards are so nasty and despicable they should be shipped to a cage where they belong. Do not mitigate your thoughts and feelings, WRP, it's why we love you.

A fan,

Leslie

Thank you, anonymous English outsider! I agree whole-heartedly with your comments. Rise up, Progressives and fight and stop throwing mud on Obama, dammit.

It's high time for anger. So go to it, Will Pitt. There's plenty of insane, unfocused anger on the right; it’s about time reasonable, rational, intelligent people got angry right back.

Who among us isn't fed up to here with rightwingers demonizing "liberal," which simply means (according to those godless liberals, George and Charles Merriam and Noah Webster) "open-minded."

Anyone with an ounce of gray matter who's been following the war on "liberal" since Karl Rove got his first big job spinning the 1972 Nixon campaign knows that most people who sympathize with but can’t define the Tea Party platform, and who clamor to "take our country back," and who think Obama is a Kenyan socialist with Muslim/Communist sympathies, and who idolize crackpots like Sarah Palin and Rand Paul, and who eschew their Republican roots (Barry Goldwater was pro-choice and hated religious fundamentalism) deserve all the anger, vitriol and outrage we can muster. They refuse to engage in meaningful discourse, or even agree to disagree. That’s what decent Americans used to do. They have no ideas for making things better. They have no respect for anybody. But they're very good at name-calling and fomenting false outrage. They call themselves patriots (the last refuge of a scoundrel, according to Samuel Johnson in 1775), and they've shown us time after time that they don't really give a damn about other Americans or even their own country. So it's high time the gloves came off!

We used to be a fairly civil society. But make no mistake about this: Democrats didn't start this fight. It's been a concerted, well-funded effort by a few, very cynical powerbrokers, scooping up an astonishingly dense and naive lunatic fringe along the way, to demonize anything that smacks of open-mindedness. They don’t want open-minded population. They want an uneducated population that marches in lockstep, like the brownshirts of the Third Reich. Goebbels is dancing in his grave.
Remember Hillary Clinton being derided for her comment about the "vast, rightwing conspiracy?” Would that we had listened.

The open-minded half of the political spectrum has been systematically dismantled over the years under our very noses; undercut by an ultra-wealthy, astonishingly greedy, totally corrupt few and the lunatic fringe they've brought out of the woodwork to do their bidding. We didn’t want to believe it — it couldn’t happen here in the good old Land of the Free.

But we still have one very powerful weapon left in our arsenal. Laugh if you will, but if we don't get out in droves and VOTE in November, we might as well kiss the United States of America good-bye.

Worried about "big government?" Concerned about "losing our precious freedoms?" Wish we'd stop sending our youth off to die in pointless wars? Don't understand why huge, global corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes like you and I do? If Republicans win big in November, we'll have more than a tea party to contend with. It will be "welcome to 1933 Germany" time.

So keep on keeping on, Will Pitt. Get angry. And all of us had better get off our duffs in November and VOTE THESE SICK BASTARDS DOWN!

Beyond lack of empathy . . . failure of imagination? lack of information? How many realize that the "pre-existing condition" for which they or their loved one could be denied may not be cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's, MS, or another serious condition. Mine, according to the panel to whom I appealed, was a combination of having been treated for a urinary tract infection and for a slightly ruptured disk within the previous 36 months. (And turning 55, I suspect.)

Fortunately, my state has a health plan through which I can't be denied insurance as long as I can pay for it . . . at a rate much lower than I would have paid for the same policy on the open market, as it has turned out . . .

Re the "bemoaning" directed at your writing; that is the problem William. The Brie eating, wine-sipping, Birkenstock wearing lefties, always "turn the other cheek;" whichever cheek it mat be.
They have no guts, there is no fire down below.

You know that as well as I, one need look no further to the pack of gutless wonders who are in charge?

Be as harsh as you can be when writing about the wing nuts William, it is always a pleasure to read. If the gutless wonders who call themselves progressive have a tsk, tsk, problem then you should write harshly about them also...someone needs to slap the dog**** out of them.

But then, it matters not, you ain't going to change it. The system needs to implode William, then perhaps we can rebuild it without politicians and their minions.

To 'Outsider " English: No I am not a Republican - least you think this is a partisan issue. FACT is the President promised during campaign that should we get the White House/Congress/ Senate then we could think of SINGLE PAYER.

He never intended a Medicare for all. The Insurance - Hospitals - Big Pharma (Dr. Emanuel etc) WROTE this bill and delivered it to Lott and gang (Lott now admits he 'never read it". Here's what MOST people to this day have NO idea of concerning this BILL / really Medicaid on steroids. It is VERY doubtful given the MILLIONS more that (ha) anybody with pre-existing conditions will receive care. You see - you may have a CARD saying you're 'covered' - SO WHAT!!

Many doctors and hospitals are now re-doing their policies and will 'no longer accept Medicaid or Medicare'....You'll want to READ of how (SECRETLY) much of this bill was by STEALTH inserted in STIMULUS BILL: NOT REPORTED

http://gnosticliberationfront.com/sausage_making__culture_of_corr.htm

As for Huckabee - what a joke. He's (for $$) visited Israel many times (speeches etc). As a MINISTER - never once has he visited or spoke about the horrific suffering of the Palestinians - NEVER.

As for insurance he's always been on the Gov Teat or Mega Corporate coverage - even for his FAT operation (shutting off stomach!). He might want to deal with his SON and his killing of dogs (hanging) before he speaks of VALUES to the rest of us. JM

This is a new low, even for the "wingnuts." We are inching closer and closer to the day when the United States becomes the Corporate States and we all watch Rollerball to distract us from the reality that used to be the "greatest country on Earth." How long before they start turning our bodies into Soylent Green?

I'm fighting with my health insurance company right now over a simple procedure that they so far refuse to cover. And I'm supposed to have "the second best employer health insurance policy in town!" Yet they don't want to pay the $800 it cost to fix my 3-year-old's teeth.

You can't take a 3-year-old to the dentist, shoot her up with Novocain, drill and cap. You have to take her to the hospital, have her put under general anesthesia, and do the work.

I know they are already refusing to insure/cover major illnesses because of genetic heredity. How long before that means that they're going to look up my dental records, find out that I wore braces when I was a kid, and then deny my child dental coverage because of a "pre-existing condition?"

When the revolution comes, I truly wonder who will be the first up against the wall.

I'm surprised that Huckabee and his minions didn't mention women who have been a victim of domestic violence and who are, many times considered to have a pre-existing condition after the first claim.

The Huffington Post has had several reports on this subject. You can find the current information at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/14/when-getting-beaten-by-yo_n_286029.html

The states that still allow that discrimination are: Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Getting out of an abusive relationship is difficult at best and, many times, it is also dangerous. Maintaining the right to health insurance should be the LAST thing that a woman has to worry about. I know -- I've been there.

Mr. Pitt -- stay exactly like you are. I look forward to your columns. Someone has to tell it like it is. Most of the media won't so we need writers like you to give us the straight talk. I look forward to your columns.

I'm sorry about your wife's MS -- it's a nasty thing to have. I also have a chronic disease and I can finally get the care I need -- I have Medicare now.

Give 'Em Hell WRP!

It is extremely saddening for me that we, as a nation, have been reduced to to the level of junior high school name calling in our political rhetoric. That it has happened is fact. I believe that fire must be met with fire. Trying to reason with unreasoning attack is folly. So I applaud you Mr. Pitt. Would that I had your bully pulpit, then the world would hear some "shrill" outpourings.

The really sad part is that the "Tea Party patriots" are being played by the "Big Boys" for all they are worth. Never have so many acted so contrary to their self interests. The uber opportunist Sarah Palin, who pushes herself on the ignorant electorate by displaying her daughter on DWTS, advises her contemporaries to speak only through the propaganda bull horn of Fox News. What further evidence of ignorance is required?

"OpenSeason"-a to-kill-hunting-term is what the insurance companies call the time period in which they compete for your business !!

Your anger is well deserved and welcomed. Would only the Democrats respond to the hateful lunatic fringes we would be a better place to live.

Newt Gingrich is truly a very hateful person with a great deal of street sense that plays well to the hard right. It is a shame that the hard right does not fact check statements like Mr. Huckabee's comment on pre-existing conditions. It is not a free ride for the unfortunate of us who have pre-existing conditions. Insurers can and will charge up to 30% more for our premiums. Lets face it what person over 60 does not have a pre-existing condition.

We live in interesting times when anti masturbating Witch can win the Republican primary. Barry Goldwater would not recognize Gingrich's brand of hateful politics.

Why is it that the Republicans are more concerned with the corporate insurance company's welfare that that of United States citizens in general and our returning soldiers in particular (so many will now have pre-existing conditions fighting for the very corporate interests that will deny them health insurance).

"So under your scenario, why
Wed, 09/22/2010 - 19:43 — Anonymous (not verified)

So under your scenario, why should anyone purchase health insurance until they are diagnosed with a medical issue? Wouldn't that leave the insurance industry with only sick people that can't pay the premiums? Sounds like a failed business model to me.

How does your juvenile rant address that Pitt?"

Universal health insurance. You get the insurance when you are born. Period. Use the tax dollars you spend converting other nations and other cultures into the image of America. Oh yeah. Socialism. Well then, lets democratize capitalism and the military/industrial complex. Jeez.

Wake 'em UP Will!!!!
Been reading Pitt for many years. He's a good writer and clearly getting better these last few weeks. It's quite obvious that facts mean little and their delivery convince few unless matched with personal wit, experience, and passion. I am so grateful to have Pitt fully enraged and exposing these hypocrites for what they are. Thanks and KEEP IT UP!

This could of been a well written article, though sadly it centers on a premise that is taken totally out of context. Mr. Huckabee was quite obviously making a less then sub-par joke. If you wanted to flame him you could of made light of his pathetic sense of humor. You instead chose to fabricate news in hopes of inciting division among Americans. Perhaps with a little bit of integrity you might be able to make a career out of this writing thing...

A relentlessly stupid number of "Go Pitt" comments. Insurance companies are going right the mess of Obummer's legislative victory! Today! In the news! as We speak! (F$%k you Max Baucus)
Liberals are truly hopeless, your military is slaughtering women and children overseas and your're thinking that we've saving muslim women from wearing burkas.

Pitt is goddamn idiot, nearly as shallow and stupid as the "enemy" insurance companies built in loop holes since the Democrats simply had them write the f$#$%king legislation in the first place!

This is a systemic problem that doesn't start in the Republican party. That's just the political mouthpiece. That mouthpiece is scary successful and why wouldn't it be? In the hospital today I heard someone blame her situation on Obama. People are angry and they love listening to other angry people, they're spoiling to be part of a mob. And the Tea Party's the mob, man. Everyone knows it's all cool to lose your mind when your mad and just not going to take it anymore! They're it. The darling of the political mouthpiece. It's smoke and mirrors. What's the root of the systemic problem?

If more people would say--LOUDLY-- what you said, WRP, we wouldn't be heading back toward the Dark Ages. People are not to be treated as inanimate objects (houses)--we must treat each other as we ourselves would wish to be treated. Yep, the old Golden Rule, or just plain human kindness, That's what the No-ers have forgotten.

And as for all the people banging on Obama, remember the opposition he's had to deal with and how they've hampered every single one of his efforts. I just hope he holds up!

WRP is an oasis of sanity, lucidity and reason in a desert of hatred, greed and stupidity. Hope your gloves stay off.

William, your detractors remind me of some teachers I had in school, many years ago, who chided anyone who was so crass as to display anger -- I believe the phrase was something to the effect that anger puts people off, makes them defensive, and less likely to listen to or see your point of view. While that may very well be true, it is essentially irrelevant, as most of the stuff we get from others that we get angry about is, in THEIR lexicon, non-negotiable. So "putting them off" matters not; making them defensive is wholly desirable; and they're not gonna listen to/see our point of view anyway.

To Anonymous @01:05 9/23: Your lame critique is a great example of both crippled sarcasm and namby-pamby wishy-washy pathetic distortion of both the article and reality. Go peddle your pap somewhere else. It is completely telling that people like this avoid posting under their own name.

Will, keep telling it like it is, and if some wimp gets offended, tough bahooties. Don't put gloves back on, and don't rein-in your wrath. The targets well deserve any vehement dirt that can be dished!

I'd love to have a medical exam on Huckabee and see his pre-existing conditions, because everyone has some inclination that can be identified by insurance companies. Are people really stupid enough in this country to think this won't affect them?

Do you think there's a finite amount of outrage in the human brain? Sometimes I hope so, but mostly, I hope not... because comments such as Mr. Huckabee's must be met with outrage.

According to Mr. Huckabee's faith, all human beings have a pre-existing condition: original sin.

Guess that means we're all out of luck - oh, wait: there's a clause in his religion that if you can find Jesus, you're saved. Kind of like someone with congenital diseases finding an insurance carrier that must cover them, eh?

Don't lose your outrage, Will... just think about taking it and focusing like a laser on the things that absolutely MUST be said to counter these despicable lies and more despicable people who speak them.

They really don't think anyone up there is judging them, do they? Boy, are they in for a surprise.

A clenched-fist salute to Mr. Pitt for awakening to the neo-Nazi threat implicit in the national shift to the extreme Right.
 
Now all Mr. Pitt need do is come to full recognition that our so-called "bipartisan politics" -- the apparent clash between Democrats and Republicans -- is merely the Ruling Class version of the good-cop/bad-cop routine applied to governance. 

Beneath their rhetorical smokescreens, each party is equally committed to fascism and the ultimate subjugation of the United States into the  de facto Fourth Reich. That's why in my own writing I increasingly jeer the two parties as "DemocRats" and "GOPorkers."

Meanwhile Huckabee's call for genocidal abandonment of those of us who are chronically ill is merely the logical extension of Christian doctrine -- that sickness is divine punishment for sin. 

Nor is such a Final Solution really new. Albeit in somewhat more euphemistic form, it is already in place against lower-income seniors and disabled people -- this via Obamacare's methodical war on Medicare Advantage. 

Contrary to the propaganda generated by Barack the Betrayer and his henchmen, Medicare Advantage is the only way lower-income people can circumvent the murderously high gatekeeper fees of so-called "Traditional Medicare." 

The latter, as I know from bitter firsthand experience (I am elderly, disabled and terminally ill) is in truth nothing more than a health-care subsidy for the rich. 

To see a doctor under "Traditional Medicare" requires a co-payment as high as $375. To see a doctor under Medicare Advantage requires a co-pay of no more than $15 or $20. 

Thus the DemocRats' destruction of Medicare Advantage will subject me and everyone like me to the same burnt-house abandonment Huckabee the GOPorker now proposes for anyone befallen by seriously illness -- that is, anyone of us implicitly on god's enemies list.

This is indeed war -- class war of the most blatant sort, religious war as well. 

Hence I applaud Mr. Pitt's defiance of the whiners and snivelers -- the sour defeat-mongers who have for too many years fatally compromised the U.S. Left by their outrageous spinelessness. 
What is needed now is anger, solidarity and militance -- qualities you Mr. Pitt are at last helping build. 
 

THANK YOU MR. PITT for being here!

Mike Huckabee: shoot the wounded.

Any follower of Jesus of Nazareth, any honest and humble Christian knows ALL people are God's children, whether they are poor, or sick or ignorant or healthy. God's children are our neighbors and are not to be equated with empty damaged houses or any other non-living thing. Mike Huckabee cannot a very good Christian, if he claims to be one, by his own words. His expressed thoughts in that public speech run opposite to the Lord's own words, as recorded in the Gospel message of love and service to the poor, the sick and, yes, even love for the sinner.

William, I've criticized your writing for sinking into sentimentalist slop, but I am totally with you on these righties being sick bastards. Huckabee leading the pack in their collective mental illness. This character, as governor, let a serial rapist and murderer out of prison as revenge on Bill Clinton, a lunatic who then went on to savagely rape and murder a woman again, while her child was in the bedroom. All while spouting his Jesus hypocrisy and proving once again, how corrupt religion is, and usually has been. They are savages, along with Phyllis Schafly.

I'm very sorry to read about your wife.

The thing that concerns me most, is that these people become the Democrats' excuse to get reelected when the Democrats are sold out to the health insurance companies.

continued

Right Tone For The Times. THANK YOU! Playing nice with the sick bastards does not work. They are in lockstep until they can "take over," in the name of Republican Corporatism, and God help the American people once they do. I keep thinking of the dystopian movies like RollerBall and Soylent Green, where nations have ceased to exist, and people live in territories held by corporations. Drowning government in a bathtub and privatizing (corporatizing) everything are worse than cancers, people who should be sounding alarms don't bother, and the phrases catch on. PLEASE keep fighting them with every precise and scathing word at your disposal. I had not read your editorials for at least a year, until a friend sent me this one, and I will be reading here again. Don't give up, and don't appease -- they would never reciprocate. And good luck to you and your wife, I have two friends with MS. 'Way too mysterious, as diseases go.

Great article. I and so many others are beyond outrage anymore. I'm so tired of taking the high road. Bush et company totally cured me of attempting civilized dialog with republican/christian ideologues who have been saturated with Fox's "news". They've shown us they are goons and thugs and did nothing to "restore dignity" to the office of President.. I think of Chris Hedges where he says, and I badly paraphrase here, the republicans accuse people of doing either what they are doing or what they have done. Huckabee sounds to me as though he is actually advocating for the death panels they had made people so afraid Obama and the Democrats would impose when he rails against pre-existing coverage. Hell, WE ARE ALL LIVING ON BORROWED TIME EVERYTHING IS PREEXISTING! And still like zombies, people will follow them. I just don't get it. The stupid remarks by the party's "stars" guised as some sort of party platform, would be hilarious if it wasn't so dangerous for the country.

Thank you!!! I don't know how else we're going to defeat the insanity taking over this country if we don't get angry and vindictive!!!

Splendidly angry article. Keep the gloves off.

Has anyone else noticed the low quality of trolls showing up in this thread? It's downright embarassing how dumb and empty of relevant thought they are. One brave anonymous soul thought he had skewered W. Pitts by asking what's to stop people from never buying insurance until they get sick. HAA!! He's so bloody ignorant he doesn't even know about the mandate. Please find some better trolls. It'll spruce up the humor level too, as the sad clowns in this thread are way too pathetic to evoke any real comic relief.

In a time when Glenn Greenwald--generally (and crazily) regarded as an arch-leftist--spends much of his time playing footsie with the execrable Ron Paul, and draws his vocabulary ("tribalism") from Ayn Rand, is it any wonder that the actual Left is as chimerical to most people as the rhinoceros was to Europe during the Dark Ages?

The Left has been "tempering its extremism" and rolling over for the Right for so long that nobody now has any idea what the Left is (or was).

Hence the comedian Jon Stewart's rally against "extremism" on both sides.

The TeaParty is just a special case of Republican galloping KuKluxism, which gets more and more murderous the more it closes in on the dictatorship that is now within its scaly grasp.

The Left must move left.

In the meantime, buy weapons and form groups for self-defense.

Mike Huckabee is human garbage.

As an American living in Europe I definitely agree with the UK view of Obama's problems. I feel he is doing his best and has been trying to work in a bipartisan fashion. Hopefully, he will give up trying to work with Republicans and Democrats will pull together with him to keep control of the House and Senate.

I know about preexisting conditions--my husband had a spinal injury at 16 and was self-employed. The injury caused a slight paralysis from the knees down, but his only medical bills for 35 years were for a check-up once a year and a couple of sinus infections. He was insured in a group plan in his profession, but in the 1980's when his insurance increased to $750 per month (just for him) we had to give it up. He never collected a cent from the insurance companies.

Tone down your attacks??????????????

You should be putting more gasoline on the fire.

Kudos to you! I suggest you not only keep the gloves off but sharpen your tongue while you are at it. The republiKKKans have no shame screaming out their lies and racist sentiments. It is time for Liberals to stand toe to toe with these racist bastards and nail their sorry asses to the evil, Conservative wall they have built all around the brains of the sheep that swallow their poison.
Please do not let up on these ignorant, foul racist bastards. It is time for justice and truth to do battle with the limbaughs of the world. I say, if they shout, shout louder. Liberals need to stop being so "nice". Force these republiKKKan assholes to confront their lies and apologize for them.
You can't get too tough for me...keep it up. Oh, and remember that the personal is political.

To quote Malcolm X, "There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." Keep the gloves off, Mr. Pitt -- we need your voice of truth and reason now, more than ever!

William, these people simply ain't "Christians" -- they're something else -- but whatever it is, it just ain't Christian.

Thank you! I don't believe in being other than civil and rational to this kind of talk. Anyone standing on the sidelines whining about "respectful dialogue" or even politeness is not getting it.

Respect is earned and people who have no respect for the lives of others don't get it back. Polite behavior isn't standing around screaming at the top of your lungs about things you nothing because you're unhappy with your own life.

Call them out now before they take our country away. Good on you!

Mr Pitt,

I totally agree with your stance! My conservative brother is a moderate, yet when he speaks sometimes about politics it's as if he's parroting Fox News. "News" is of course a lie, it's opinion. Constantly.

I find that the enigma is that CG Jung warned in 1947 that America could go the way of Weimar Germany and be over run by the extreme Right- in league with Krupp and other corporations, including Ford and IBM - but, Huckabee and Koch Industries are a speaker and the financiers here. Americans must unite to protect our freedoms, our liberty, our lives!

As both my brother and I are diabetics one can only wonder at the prospect that a number of these wing-nuts will join the 23 million other diabetics in the USA because of our failed preventive medical system. Our for-profit, racist, and discriminatory medical venders must be eliminated!

The majority of modern nations restrict for-profit medicine. The Swiss actually voted out American style medical insurance! And that was promoted by Swiss conservatives. Teddy Roosevelt tried to advance universal American health care!

One must recall that Hoover claimed " American children will pay for our deficit for years, " yet the Second World War eliminated that debt. The Right didn't want reform of Child Labor either, or labor unions, or regulation of the banks that caused the Great Depression. Living on the edge of bubbles is like compulsive gamblers with a nation's fate, our "free enterprise system," in their greedy grasp.

The Right talks about religion, talks about no taxes [ unless they can finagle a government contract or two, talks about immigrants - the Know Nothings hated Roman Catholics, the nativists hated the Irish, George Washington hated the Germans! The extreme seems to be built of 'primitive thinkers', people unaware of the riches all our people bring to America! Ethnic enclaves tend to integrate here, not stay as 'oddity.'

Time, even time will end this insanity! In the meantime, fight the Right, think ethically, assist the ill, the poor, the hungry, the unemployed!

Thank you!

I'm so glad you wrote about this in the way that you did. I almost stopped breathing when I heard Huckabee's remarks. The Tea Party has, indeed, sunk to a new low. The gays, the Muslims, the unemployed and, now, the sick. Hard to believe they can go any lower. Thank you for taking them to task. Keep the gloves on!!!