There are some things that go beyond the pale

Since TPM has found the douchebag who released the pic I figure I might as well address it, too.

I'm deeply offended by this picture.

I seriously questioned myself about this, but I thought, "you know, this has to be addressed because this is so unfuckingbelievable that such blatant racism is pouring out of the Republican party's machine."

So, we had this debate, and finally, Scot, my coworker dropped the bomb...and what a beautiful bomb it was...so here, with his permission...I post for your enjoyment...

"It's interesting that we trust the government with guns, tanks, fighter jets, stealth bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and nuclear weapons but we don't trust them to run healthcare better than a bunch of corporations who have a profit motive in denying your healthcare benefits.

The oft-repeated refrain "you don't want a bunch of government bureaucrats making decisions about your healthcare coverage, do you?" seems to leave out the current reality that we have a bunch of bureaucrats working for FOR-PROFIT healthcare companies doing that already.

As Charles P. Pierce has pointed out:

"1) Any theory is valid if it moves units,

2) anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough,

3) fact is that which enough people believe; truth is measured by how fervently they believe it."

My how the Republican idiot squawk box is effective.

I suppose using a blatantly racist image juxtaposed with a hammer and sickle is good proof of that.

Besides, isn't socialized medical care better than none at all?

If we think of Medicare as a model of an OPTIONAL government run program, consider these survey results:
22 percent of the privately insured people found that their plan did not pay for care that they thought was covered, compared to 9 percent of elderly Medicare beneficiaries
9 percent of the privately insured people had difficulty getting a referral to a specialist, compared to 2 percent of elderly Medicare beneficiaries
Medicare beneficiaries were one-third as likely to report access problems such as not visiting a doctor when needed, not getting recommended specialist care, skipping recommended test or follow-up as those covered by employer plans.
Medicare beneficiaries were twice as likely to be very confident in their ability to get care in the future as those covered by employer plans.
33 percent of privately insured people were unable to pay their bills or had been contacted by a collection agency, compared to 18 percent of elderly Medicare beneficiaries.

Yeah, it would really suck to have the government make healthcare more affordable, more reliable and more accountable to consumers.

I can see why people are so mad at Obama.

--Scott"