Surferpags and the News

Michael Winship looks at Ted Kennedy and health care reform; Iranian opposition rises again; Robert Reich warns against Washington insiders' conventional wisdom; Afghanistan violence increasing; mourning for Ted Kennedy stretches from Cape Cod across the nation; right-wing conspiracy memes get more outrageous; wildfires in California put state on edge; Biloxi residents feeling the pain of Katrina; and more ...

Saturday 29 August 2009

Michael Winship | Even Camelot Needed Health Care
http://www.truthout.org/082909A?n
Michael Winship, Truthout: "The first time I ever heard the dreaded phrase 'socialized medicine' was during John F. Kennedy's presidency, when the GOP fought his administration's attempts at health care reform. And during his own, all too brief presidential campaign in 1968, when Bobby Kennedy told audiences that decent medical care should not be a luxury of the rich, he quoted Aristotle: 'If we believe men have any personal rights at all, then they must have an absolute moral right to such a measure of good health as society can provide.'"

The Iranian Opposition's Second Life
http://www.truthout.org/082909B?n
Max Burns, Foreign Policy In Focus: "In a nation with a frighteningly effective intelligence service, Supreme Leader Khamenei was entirely unaware of this protest because it took place in cyberspace."

Robert Reich | Beware Authoritative "Inside Washington" Sources
http://www.truthout.org/082909C?n
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "Washington, DC is an echo chamber in which anyone who sounds authoritative repeats the conventional authoritative wisdom about the 'consensus' of inside opinion, which they've heard from someone else who sounds equally authoritative, who of course has heard it from another authoritative source. Follow the trail to its start and you often find an obscure congressional or White House staffer who has seen some half-assed poll number or briefing memo, but seeking to feel important hypes it to a media personality or lobbyist who, desperate to sound authoritative, pronounces it as truth."

August Deadliest Month for US in Afghanistan
http://www.truthout.org/082909D?n
Robert H. Reid, The Associated Press: "An American service member died Friday when his vehicle struck a bomb in eastern Afghanistan, making August the deadliest month for US forces in the nearly eight-year war."

Political Luminaries Pay Tribute to Kennedy
http://www.truthout.org/082909E?n
Bob Salsberg and Denise Lavoie, The Associated Press: "In death as in life, Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy on Friday brought together political rivals - this time to celebrate his ferocious sense of humor and unwavering dedication to family and country."

Secret Camps and Guillotines? Groups Make Birthers Look Sane
http://www.truthout.org/082909F?n
Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers: "Is the federal government building secret camps to lock up people who criticize President Barack Obama? Will it truck off young people to camps to brainwash them into liking Obama's agenda? Are government officials planning to replicate the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, using the guillotine to silence their domestic enemies? No. The charges, of course, are not true."

California Firefighters Wage Fierce Wildfire Battles
http://www.truthout.org/082909G?n
Christina Hoag, The Associated Press: "Firefighters beat back flames licking at ocean-view estates Friday, while another wildfire raged through a dry forest above Los Angeles' foothill suburbs. Residents nervously watched aircraft drop loads of water and retardant on nearby blazing slopes."

Clientele On the Rise at Biloxi Soup Kitchen
http://www.truthout.org/082909H?n
Debra Alban, CNN: "Biloxi was one of the cities that Katrina hit hardest. And though the city has made progress rebuilding, the 26-year-old kitchen has seen steady increases in clients each year since the storm. With few residents in the city shortly after Katrina, there was little activity. But the kitchen reports serving 55,281 meals in 2007, 64,825 meals in 2008 and 38,877 in the first seven months of 2009."

Browse our continually updating front page at truthout.org

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Michael Paganini on October 8, 2009 at 9:14pm: History of Wind power 101

Part 1 - Early History Through 1875

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Figure 1a. Maximum efficiency
of a "drag" device is obtained
when the collector is pushed
away from the wind, as is a
simple, drag-type sail boat. In
this Persian panemone design,
the rotor can only harvest half
of the wind striking the collection
area. The panemone is one of
the least efficient, but most
commonly reinvented (and
patented) wind turbine concepts.

Wind Power's Beginnings
(1000 B.C. - 1300 A.D.)
The history of wind power shows a general evolution from the use of simple, light devices driven by aerodynamic drag forces; to heavy, material-intensive drag devices; to the increased use of light, material-efficient aerodynamic lift devices in the modern era. But it shouldn't be imagined that aerodynamic lift (the force that makes airplanes fly) is a modern concept that was unknown to the ancients. The earliest known use of wind power, of course, is the sail boat, and this technology had an important impact on the later development of sail-type windmills. Ancient sailors understood lift and used it every day, even though they didn't have the physics to explain how or why it worked.

The first windmills were developed to automate the tasks of grain-grinding and water-pumping and the earliest-known design is the vertical axis system developed in Persia about 500-900 A.D. The first use was apparently water pumping, but the exact method of water transport is not known because no drawings or designs -- only verbal accounts -- are available. The first known documented design is also of a Persian windmill, this one with vertical sails made of bundles of reeds or wood which were attached to the central vertical shaft by horizontal struts (see Figure 1a). A 19th Century American approximation of this panemone device is shown at the left (Figure 1b).

Grain grinding was the first documented wind mill application and was very straightforward. The grinding stone was affixed to the same vertical shaft. The mill machinery was commonly enclosed in a building, which also featured a wall or shield to block the incoming wind from slowing the side of the drag-type rotor that advanced toward the wind.

Vertical-axis windmills were also used in China, which is often claimed as their birthplace. While the belief that the windmill was invented in China more than 2000 years ago is widespread and may be accurate, the earliest actual documentation of a Chinese windmill was in 1219 A.D. by the Chinese statesman Yehlu Chhu-Tshai. Here also, the primary applications were apparently grain grinding and water pumping.

Figure 1b. A 19th-century American knock-off of the Persian panemone that probably made a wonderful clothes dryer.

Figure 2. Water Pumping Sailwing Machines on the Island of Crete

One of the most scenic and successful applications of windpower (and one that still exists), is the extensive use of water pumping machines on the island of Crete. Here, literally hundreds of sail-rotor windmills pump water for crops and livestock.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Figure 3. An early sail-wing horizontal-axis mill on the Mediterranean coast.

Windmills in the Western World
(1300 - 1875 A.D.)
The first windmills to appear in western Europe were of the horizontal-axis configuration. The reason for the sudden evolution from the vertical-axis Persian design approach is unknown, but the fact that European water wheels also had a horizontal-axis configuration -- and apparently served as the technological model for the early windmills -- may provide part of the answer. Another reason may have been the higher structural efficiency of drag-type horizontal machines over drag-type vertical machines, which (remember) lose up to half of their rotor collection area due to shielding requirements. The first illustrations (1270 A.D.) show a four- bladed mill mounted on a central post (thus, a "postmill") which was already fairly technologically advanced relative to the Persian mills. These mills used wooden cog-and-ring gears to translate the motion of the horizontal shaft to vertical movement to turn a grindstone. This gear was apparently adapted for use on post mills from the horizontal-axis water wheel developed by Vitruvius.

As early as 1390, the Dutch set out to refine the tower mill design, which had appeared somewhat earlier along the Mediterranean Sea (Figure 3, above left). The Dutch essentially affixed the standard post mill to the top of a multi-story tower, with separate floors devoted to grinding grain, removing chaff, storing grain, and (on the bottom) living quarters for the windsmith and his family. Both the post mill and the later tower mill design had to be oriented into the wind manually, by pushing a large lever at the back of the mill. Optimizing windmill energy and power output and protecting the mill from damage by furling the rotor sails during storms were among the windsmith's primary jobs.

Figure 4. An operating Dutch windmill (1994) that features leading edge airfoil sections (at top right). The mechanism used to turn the rotor into the wind and the windows of the first-floor living quarters are easily seen.
A primary improvement of the European mills was their designer's use of sails that generated aerodynamic lift (see Figure 4 at the left). This feature provided improved rotor efficiency compared with the Persian mills by allowing an increase in rotor speed, which also allowed for superior grinding and pumping action.
The process of perfecting the windmill sail, making incremental improvements in efficiency, took 500 years. By the time the process was completed, windmill sails had all the major features recognized by modern designers as being crucial to the performance of modern wind turbine blades, including 1) camber along the leading edge, 2) placement of the blade spar at the quarter chord position (25% of the way back from the leading edge toward the trailing edge), 3) center of gravity at the same 1/4 chord position, and 4) nonlinear twist of the blade from root to tip (Drees, 1977). Some models also featured aerodynamic brakes, spoilers, and flaps. The machine shown in Figure 4 (which was operating with two of its buddies pumping water about one meter up from one irrigation pond to another in the Netherlands in 1994) features leading edge airfoil sections.

These mills were the "electrical motor" of pre-industrial Europe. Applications were diverse, ranging from the common waterwell, irrigation, or drainage pumping using a scoop wheel (single or tandem), grain-grinding (again, using single or multiple stones), saw-milling of timber, and the processing of other commodities such as spices, cocoa, paints and dyes, and tobacco.

While continuing well into the 19th century, the use of large tower mills declined with the increased use of steam engines. The next spurt of wind power development occurred many thousands of miles to the west.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Figure 5. A steel-bladed water pumping windmill in the American Midwest (late 1800's)
Role of Smaller Systems
For hundreds of years, the most important application of windmills at the subsistence level has been mechanical water pumping using relatively small systems with rotor diameters of one to several meters. These systems were perfected in the United States during the19th century, beginning with the Halladay windmill in 1854, and continuing to the Aermotor and Dempster designs, which are still in use today.

The first mills had four paddle-like wooden blades. They were followed by mills with thin wooden slats nailed to wooden rims. Most of these mills had tails to orient them into the wind, but some were weather-vaning mills that operated downwind of the tower. Speed control of some models was provided by hinging sections of blades, so that they would fold back like an umbrella in high winds, an action which reduced the rotor capture area to reduce thrust. The most important refinement of the American fan-type windmill was the development of steel blades in 1870 (Figure 5). Steel blades could be made lighter and worked into more efficient shapes. They worked so well, in fact, that their high speed required a reduction (slow-down) gear to turn the standard reciprocal pumps at the required speed.

Between 1850 and 1970, over six million mostly small (1 horsepower or less) mechanical output wind machines were installed in the U.S. alone. The primary use was water-pumping and the main applications were stock watering and farm home water needs. Very large windmills, with rotors up to 18 meters in diameter, were used to pump water for the steam railroad trains that provided the primary source of commercial transportation in areas where there were no navigable rivers.

In the late 19th century, the successful "American" multi-blade windmill design was used in the first large windmill to generate electricity.

NEXT: 20th Century Developments

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back to Contents | NEXT | Government Role | Recent Developments | The Future

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jeffrey Michael Paganini on October 8, 2009 at 10:17pm: * News »
* Washington
* The Oval: Tracking the Obama Presidency
* USA TODAY On Politics

USA TODAY featured video
Play Video
Play Video
Unusual fees
Little-known airline fees that could drain your wallet.
Play Video
Play Video
Taking flight
Women practice, push for ski jump event for Olympics.
Play Video
Play Video
Levi Johnston
Father of Sarah Palin's grandchild to pose for Playgirl.
More: Video
Senate committee sets vote on health care
Updated 10h 24m ago | Comments 2,263 | Recommend 32 E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this

* Share
* Yahoo! Buzz
* Add to Mixx
* Facebook
* Twitter

*
More
o Fark
o Digg
o Reddit
o MySpace
o StumbleUpon
o Propeller
o LinkedIn

* Subscribe
* myYahoo
* iGoogle

*
More
o Netvibes
o myAOL

*

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders on Thursday announced a climactic Finance Committee vote next week on health care legislation, even as Democrats and Republicans kept feuding over its cost and breadth of coverage.

Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Finance Committee will vote Tuesday on a 10-year, $829-billion proposal that would expand coverage to 94% of eligible Americans—while reducing the federal deficit. A positive cost report on the legislation Wednesday from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office marked a turning point for its main author, Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Immediately after announcing plans for the vote, Reid, D-Nev., tore into Republicans on Thursday, saying they have no health plan of their own to offer and are only trying to obstruct.

"There are still those who consider this a zero-sum game, and will only declare victory if President Obama concedes defeat," Reid said. "Let me be clear: Just as Democrats believe in ensuring quality, affordable care for every American citizens, we believe equally as strongly that this country has no place for those who wish for it or its leaders to fail."

He accused Republicans of following a strategy of "distortion, distractions and deception," and challenged them to be "productive partners rather than partisan protesters"

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky wasted no time in responding.

He dismissed the good news on costs and coverage as "irrelevant," saying Democrats would pump up the Baucus bill as it proceeds through Congress. "The bill ... will never see the light of day," McConnell promised.

"What matters is that the final bill will cost about $1 trillion, vastly expand the role of government in people's health care decisions—and limit choice," he added.

McConnell said Republicans have offered plenty of ideas, but they have been ignored by Democrats infatuated with the notion that they are about to make history.

"Listening to the proponents of the administration's health care plan, you get the sense that they're more concerned about their legacies than what the American people actually want," McConnell said. "Here's an idea: how about asking the American people what they want instead?"

Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief over the positive news on the Baucus plan, but that doesn't mean the proposal has no problems.

The middle-of-the-road plan still leaves about 25 million people uninsured when fully phased in, in 2019. Of those, nearly 17 million would be U.S. citizens or legal residents. Nearly 50 million U.S. residents now lack coverage. Absent any change, the budget office projected that would grow to 54 million in 2019.

Republicans — with the exception of Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe— panned the Finance Committee effort. In recent days prominent Republicans in and out of government have spoken out in favor of the overall goal of a health care overhaul along the lines of the Finance Committee plan, but without specifically endorsing it. That may provide some cover for Snowe, if she decides to vote for the bill Tuesday.

Finance is the fifth and last of the congressional panels to debate health care. The Baucus plan has a decided centrist flavor, shunning any provision for the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry. That provision, strongly favored by many Democrats and just as strongly opposed by Republicans, is still alive in proposed House versions of the legislation.

The Finance Committee bill does not require businesses to offer coverage to their workers, either, although large firms that do not would be required to offset the cost of any government subsidies going to those employees.

While generally positive about the legislation's effects, the budget office report contained important caveats.

One noted that the estimate does not include the costs of proposed payment increases for doctors serving Medicare patients, roughly $200 billion through 2019. Additionally, a so-called fail-safe mechanism to hold spending in line could result in cuts as large as 15% in federal subsidies designed to help the poor afford insurance, CBO said.

Beginning in 2013, Americans would be required to get health insurance, through an employer or a government program or by buying it themselves. Failure to obey the requirement would result in penalties of up to $750 per family.

The plan would set up a new insurance marketplace for consumers to compare and shop for a plan. Federal subsidies would be provided to millions of individuals and families to help defray the cost of coverage that would otherwise be out of their reach. The alternative to government-sold health care, a proposal for nonprofit co-ops that would compete with private companies, was judged largely ineffective by budget officials. Such arrangements "seem unlikely to establish a significant medical presence in many areas of the country," they wrote.

The legislation also would ban current insurance industry practices that deny coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and restrict companies' ability to charge vastly higher premiums on the basis of age, gender or other factors.

The measure would be paid for through a variety of tax increases and spending cuts, including savings of hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, the federal health care program for seniors.

Democratic leaders are hoping to hold votes on health care on the floor of the House and Senate within a few weeks.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You might be interested in:

* Senators spar on health bill's effect on seniors (USATODAY.com in News)
* Overhaul proposal would omit key Dem. provisions (USATODAY.com in News)
* Sen. Snowe targeted in health care ad (USATODAY.com in On Politics)
* Senate panel rejects abortion-insurance mandate (USATODAY.com in On Deadline)

Yahoo! Buzz Mixx

Posted 13h 25m ago
Updated 10h 24m ago
E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this
To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.
Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
Post this comment to Facebook?
Comments: (2,263)
Showing: New: Most recommended!

User Image
Sniper-Fire (3 friends, send message) wrote: 3m ago
User Image
brody (0 friends, send message) wrote: 3m ago

Sniper-Fire (3 friends, send message) wrote:4m ago
brody (0 friends, send message) wrote: 7m ago

Sniper-Fire (3 friends, send message) wrote:1m ago
User Image
brody (0 friends, send message) wrote: 4m ago

Two of the world's shortest lists:

1. Countries that have an American-style health care system.

2. Countries that plan to adopt an American-style health care system.

======================

They wouldn't want to invest for our people like we do. For example, the USA conducts 82% of the World's biotechnology research.

The American healthcare system is the single greatest secular contributor to the well-being of mankind in the history of the world.

People like you hate it.
====================

I wonder why people like you aren't aware we spend twice as much per capita on health care as citizens of other developed countries yet have somewhat shorter life expectancies.

====================

Tell me, dumb@ss.

I haven't made fun of you in a long time.
-----------------------------

I know. But your favorite activities, eating boogers and spankin the monkey, leave you with so little time.
==========================

As usual, you are completely unarmed.

Recommend | Report Abuse
User Image
PhatDoung (21 friends, send message) wrote: 4m ago
Jason1953 (149 friends, send message) wrote: 2m ago
PhatDoung (21 friends, send message) wrote: 6m ago

Jason1953 (149 friends, send message) wrote: 2m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 1m ago
Jason1953 (147 friends, send message) wrote: 3m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 4m ago
No public option

As thorough a defeat politically as ever I have witnessed
===============================================& amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; br /> Quite the contrary. The majority of us want a public option. It is the politicians in the hands of the health care industry that do not. Our Congress is owned by the health care industry. Bought and secured by them.

+++++++++++++++++++++

The majority of us?

Who's that?
================================================ ==
The majority of Americans. You neanderthal neocons are a small minority, and thanfully so.
================================================ ======
Per the latest Zogby, Gallup and Rasmussen polls the public overwhelmingly does not support the public option. Just ask and I'll provide you links.
================================================ ======
55% support a public option.
------------------------------------------------ ---------
Per whom huffington post? Just ask and I'll provide you links to real polls.

Recommend | Report Abuse
User Image
Bobby74 (1 friends, send message) wrote: 4m ago
Its just like talk radio..................The libs cant do it oa their own so they need the govts. help!

Recommend | Report Abuse
User Image
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 5m ago
Jason1953 (149 friends, send message) wrote: 2m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 3m ago
Jason1953 (149 friends, send message) wrote: <1m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 2m ago
Jason1953 (147 friends, send message) wrote: 1m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 1m ago
Jason1953 (147 friends, send message) wrote: 3m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 4m ago
No public option

As thorough a defeat politically as ever I have witnessed
===============================================& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; br /> Quite the contrary. The majority of us want a public option. It is the politicians in the hands of the health care industry that do not. Our Congress is owned by the health care industry. Bought and secured by them.

+++++++++++++++++++++

The majority of us?

Who's that?
================================================ ==
The majority of Americans. You neanderthal neocons are a small minority, and thanfully so.

+++++++++++++++++++++

How do you pay?

The question no Lib can possiblty answer, and the end of all debate

Next
============================================== No reform will cost even more. Therefore, we need reform.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

All union workers get minimum wage

OKAY?
========================================
You first.

++++++++++++++++++++++=

Sorry, try again

Recommend | Report Abuse
User Image
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 6m ago
Hilarious

Bankruptcy staring them in the face they get all quiet

Trillions, unpayable

Before Obama

What have you done?

Recommend | Report Abuse
User Image
Jason1953 (149 friends, send message) wrote: 8m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 3m ago
Jason1953 (149 friends, send message) wrote: <1m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 2m ago
Jason1953 (147 friends, send message) wrote: 1m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 1m ago
Jason1953 (147 friends, send message) wrote: 3m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 4m ago
No public option

As thorough a defeat politically as ever I have witnessed
===============================================& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; br /> Quite the contrary. The majority of us want a public option. It is the politicians in the hands of the health care industry that do not. Our Congress is owned by the health care industry. Bought and secured by them.

+++++++++++++++++++++

The majority of us?

Who's that?
================================================ ==
The majority of Americans. You neanderthal neocons are a small minority, and thanfully so.

+++++++++++++++++++++

How do you pay?

The question no Lib can possiblty answer, and the end of all debate

Next
============================================== No reform will cost even more. Therefore, we need reform.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

All union workers get minimum wage

OKAY?
========================================
You first.

Recommend | Report Abuse
User Image
brody (0 friends, send message) wrote: 8m ago

Sniper-Fire (3 friends, send message) wrote:4m ago
brody (0 friends, send message) wrote: 7m ago

Sniper-Fire (3 friends, send message) wrote:1m ago
User Image
brody (0 friends, send message) wrote: 4m ago

Two of the world's shortest lists:

1. Countries that have an American-style health care system.

2. Countries that plan to adopt an American-style health care system.

======================

They wouldn't want to invest for our people like we do. For example, the USA conducts 82% of the World's biotechnology research.

The American healthcare system is the single greatest secular contributor to the well-being of mankind in the history of the world.

People like you hate it.
====================

I wonder why people like you aren't aware we spend twice as much per capita on health care as citizens of other developed countries yet have somewhat shorter life expectancies.

====================

Tell me, dumb@ss.

I haven't made fun of you in a long time.
-----------------------------

I know. But your favorite activities, eating boogers and spankin the monkey, leave you with so little time.

Recommend | Report Abuse
User Image
Bobby74 (1 friends, send message) wrote: 8m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 2m ago
Jason1953 (147 friends, send message) wrote: 1m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 1m ago
Jason1953 (147 friends, send message) wrote: 3m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 4m ago
No public option

As thorough a defeat politically as ever I have witnessed
===============================================& amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; br /> Quite the contrary. The majority of us want a public option. It is the politicians in the hands of the health care industry that do not. Our Congress is owned by the health care industry. Bought and secured by them.

+++++++++++++++++++++

The majority of us?

================================================

Like I want my doctors office flooded with welfare recipients and ambulance chasers!

Recommend | Report Abuse
User Image
Jason1953 (149 friends, send message) wrote: 8m ago
PhatDoung (21 friends, send message) wrote: 6m ago

Jason1953 (149 friends, send message) wrote: 2m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 1m ago
Jason1953 (147 friends, send message) wrote: 3m ago
spendthekidsaway (0 friends, send message) wrote: 4m ago
No public option

As thorough a defeat politically as ever I have witnessed
===============================================& amp; amp; amp; lt; br /> Quite the contrary. The majority of us want a public option. It is the politicians in the hands of the health care industry that do not. Our Congress is owned by the health care industry. Bought and secured by them.

+++++++++++++++++++++

The majority of us?

Who's that?
================================================ ==
The majority of Americans. You neanderthal neocons are a small minority, and thanfully so.
================================================ ======
Per the latest Zogby, Gallup and Rasmussen polls the public overwhelmingly does not support the public option. Just ask and I'll provide you links.
================================================ ======
55% support a public option.

Recommend | Report Abuse
More comments on this story: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Newspaper Home Delivery - Subscribe Today
Home • News • Travel • Money • Sports • Life • Tech • Weather
About USATODAY.com: Site Map | FAQ | Contact Us | Jobs with Us | Terms of Service
Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Right | Advertise | Press Room | Media Lounge | Reprints and Permissions
News Your Way: Mobile News | Email News | Add USATODAY.com RSS feeds | Podcasts | Widgets
Partners: USA WEEKEND | Sports Weekly | Education | Space.com
Copyright 2009 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Become a member of the USA TODAY community now! User Image
Log in | Become a member What's this?
Report item as: (required) X
Comment: (optional); ▶ Reply to This