This really is pathetic. I am beginning to think more and more that the government in the United States is not a representative democracy, but a chrysoaristocracy/chrysocracy/plutocracy, or in other simple words, government by the wealthy for the wealthy. Just think about it for a moment. Who usually wins the elections? The people with the most money. How are congressmen influenced on particular issues? Money from lobbying groups. Who wouldn't take hundreds of thousands of dollars to just say two or three letters? (yes/no)

With such great importance (around 20% of GDP), I do not think this is something that we can or should push through very fast. Obama wants to push it through imo because he knows that this is probably the only time he can do it with great majorities in both houses. Come next election, I don't see the senate with more than a 55-45 majority and about a 30 seat majority in the house of representatives for the democrats. I could be wrong, that is just my opinion. Without a 60 vote majority, Obama has no prayer of getting the health reform through. It's pretty sad too. I wish Republicans would stop saying no to everything and come up with their own solutions. And this is coming from a Republican myself.

I believe that it has lost some value here in America. African Americans can't continue to complain and make excuses for not giving themselves better lives. Even though I may disagree with most (if not all) of Mr. Obama's views, I admire him for how he overcame so much adversity to get to where he is today. If he can get through that much adversity and become president of the United States, I think the sky is the limit for African Americans. Granted, he is a gifted individual, but that does not mean that any other person of color could not do the same thing he did if they put their hearts and minds to it.

Just wondering...

why ;) do ;) you ;) keep ;) putting ;) these ;) stupid ;) smileys ;) after ;) every ;) phrase ;) you ;) make ;) ?

Abel didn't have anything coming to him. It wasn't his fault that he did what God asked of him and Cain didn't.

CAIN killed Abel because he was jealous that Abel was blessed by God for his offering to him yet he was spited for what he offered. Abel offered God several of his best lambs, while Cain only offered something that was obviously not the best of his crops.

btw, what in the world are you talking about with Cain and Abel being gay? Where did you come up with that idea? Genesis 4:17: "Then Cain's wife became pregnant.." Who is wife was I have no clue, my guesses are that either Adam and Eve's offspring may have married each other (incest) or God made more women.

1. Black stick figures are still popular

2. When Muslim fertility rates go down soon, the person who put all the time into this video will be screwed

Why not just make them do jobs that average Americans won't do while they are in jail? Illegal immigration solved. :)

Of course the US is too big to fail. We are the fourth largest exporter in the world.1 There are also a lot of countries that hold our debt, so if we failed all of that debt couldn't be payed off, leading to a global recession or even depression.2 I doubt we are going to pay it off anyways, but foreign countries are making a killing off of interest :).

1. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2078rank.html

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Foreign_Holders_of_United_States_Treasury_Securities-percent_share.gif

I think the fatter you get, the lazier you get, but I didn't think they would do a study on intelligence and obesity. I don't think it could be definitively proved though, due to the possibility of an obese person having a fair amount of intelligence. Just because you are fat doesn't mean you are dumb, although you probably make some dumb decisions to get fat...

I find it strange though what happened to all of the Kennedy's over the years. I mean, not many of them died in their sleep, did they? Assassinations, cancer, plane crashes, etc. Something bad happened to most of them, so it is leading me to believe more and more that there is some type of curse or something put on them, although I can't prove it or anything.

No, no. You are way off. This is the song that inspired Obama:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G9Gtqwz3Ik&feature;=PlayList&p;=A222ACA60006DAF0&index;=0&playnext;=1

By the way, what is it with you and and that woman Joe? This is the second straight video you've shown from her...

I'm not a racist, but that was pretty funny. I have another person, and I am sure you guys would NEVER be able to guess who he or she is... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nxjbCFBg7g

Lets see here...

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According to dictionary.com,

dog- a domesticated canid (any animal of the dog family Canidae, including the wolves, jackals, hyenas, coyotes, foxes, and domestic dogs)

men- plural of man (an adult male person, as distinguished from a boy or a woman)

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Based on these definitions and after countless hours of debate, I have concluded that men are not dogs, that is, in the literal sense. :)

Yes, if I had a wife and she was pregnant. :)

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No one on this site has come up with a legitimate reason,

I'll take a stab at it ;)

Why we do not need a public option:

1. How are you going to pay for the estimated $1.6 trillion system without raising taxes? Employer benefit taxes, higher payroll taxes, taxes on soft drinks and alcohol, a VAT tax, or another income-tax hike for successful earners will bring down the economy in one way or another.

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2. The free lunch syndrome- removes incentives for competition (in the tax code there is an exemption from the income tax if you have employer-provided health care) and cost control because we are paying for health care with someone else's money, in this case the govt. A govt-backed insurance system will intensify this syndrome.

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3. Medicare and Medicaid are lurching toward financial disaster and they are both gov't run, what's not to think the same will happen with a gov't backed insurance system?

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4. There are other options out there such as a co-op and a voucher system. No one has seen either though in a bill, so its really hard to argue for or against these.

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5. The public option opens the door that leads to a single payer system. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ-6ebku3_E)

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6. Democrats are being pushed into it by unions:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/18/labor-warns-dems-well-sit_n_262232.html

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7. The government has shown that they will spend much more than they make and businesses cannot do that. The added expense of continually borrowing from other countries will make the 'public option' cost more than it originally seems down the road.

I'll stop there for now, I have about 3 more but i'm still researching.

No, I was already against health care reform before the video. We need health insurance reform, and what is being proposed in Congress to not address this issue squarely.

This is an issue of the insurance companies vs. citizens.

There is a difference between health CARE reform and health INSURANCE reform. What you are talking about is health insurance reform, which I am in favor of also. We don't need to drastically change our health care as they are proposing in Congress, it is unnecessary. All we need is some strong health insurance reform and we will be right near the top as far as the quality of health care is concerned.

I think the one thing you are missing joe is that anyone can play golf. You don't have to be athletic to play. You can be as fat as John Daly or as skinny as Charles Howell. You see professionals in basketball, baseball, and football with all their big muscles and ripped bodies, and then you turn it to golf and see people who look like average joe's (no pun intended), I mean other than tiger that is.

You always take my sarcasm to new dimensions, don't you?

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Okay, you want to play it that way, then so be it. :)

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Since you didn't define reading, I define it as the interpretation of written language through the use of vision. According to this definition, blind people cannot read. End of story. Thank you.

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That came from my head. You can't force a religion down someone's throat, you can't force gays to be straight, and so on. Stop taking my sarcasm to new dimensions. :)

Hmmm, when Bush had policies out there, people called him every name you could think of. Now that Obama has policies and people are calling him names, you all of the sudden take offense? Give me a break. Allowing Bush bashing but not Obama bashing, right....

You can't prove that all the people that attend meetings are conservatives, so why are you setting up a straw man? Old people reading the bill currently out there realize that the bill is going to cut half of their medicare, so they are angry about it and want to make it known. I'm not going to deny that there are a decent amount of conservatives out there, but to say that everyone protesting is conservative is impossible to prove. There are still people out there that are racist and will always be there, republican, democrat, or independent, and you can't do anything about that. Also, I want to know your arguments for how our military 'sucks'. What proof do you have to back this claim up?

Tell me this, how do blind people read? Thank you. Some people may feel that reading is not important. Some would rather be deadbeats in life than to read and become educated. That is up to them. You can't force anyone to read.

It is much safer. Can you tell people off in a classroom without any repercussions? You could yell at your computer and not have any repercussions as well. You are much safer behind a screen name on a computer than in a classroom.

Wow, that does sound pretty cool. :)

But if they have a mansion though, don't you think they will have enough money to pick it up and move it to higher ground?

I'm good at swimming if that helps any.