idrankwhat

reinforce my position truth be damned Just thought I'd inject a little accuracy Oh, and to answer your user name, I think it was koolaid. Yes, it did reinforce my position. That's what most postings in a forum are for. There are plenty of other examples I could provide to further reinforce my position (and there are plenty of posts that you could provide to bolster your position) but I thought I'd try to stick to the OP's question. And yes, there are "koolaid" drinkers out there however I'd argue that they are the one's carrying the "Beck for President" signs. Also, since you bring it up, my user name is based off of one of the lesser known quotes of Socrates. (Note to self: Doubtful that "Palin 2012" voters will get that joke)

Sure, go right ahead if you like. Byrd's quote was how old? I'm sure if you go back even further it will be easier to find what you're looking for. I tried to keep mine limited to those who are currently the mouth pieces for the Republican party. They're flinging the shit and now whipping out the crocodile tears when people point out that they smell bad. By the way, got any more from Belafonte? That as a good one. Couldn't have hit it more squarely on the head although I wouldn't necessarily qualify it as racist. Bush/Cheney was color blind when it came to dealing with uppity servants. Not only did they throw them out to pasture but they often tried to geld them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wVZJdBCQxY

I can't say that I agree with you. Clicky

There are certainly some right-wing bigots. And there are also certainly some left-wing bigots too. The problem is when someone takes the bigoted actions of a few individuals, and tries to brand an entire class of people as bigots. That's where they go wrong. And that gets back to that issue of facts and logic that I was talking about before. People who make wholesale statements about entire classes of people based upon a few examples, are themselves bigots. Is everyone sitting down? I'll wait......... John, I agree 100% with your above statement.

As the father of two wonderful half-honky/quarter-southern european/quarter-south asian children, I'd say "no".

Maybe it's because the right keeps letting the wrong people speak for them. You know, like: George "Macaca" Allen Glen "Obama is a racist with a deep seated hatred of white people" Beck Sean "Do the Obama's have a race problem of their own" Hannity Rush ""In Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering." and "the way to get promoted in the Barack Obama administration" is by hating white people." Limbaugh

A lil' linguistical analysis - neat. Thanks for going back to the primary document. /Marg Interesting, if you go to the primary document in its entirety it turns out that the subsection presented earlier for review is a nicely representative sample. Full analysis of the speech finds the ratio of "you/yourself" to "I" to be 3.29:1. I'm so used to cherry picking of data in the forum. This is a pleasant surprise.

If it's a contest, then then "you" wins. He said "you" 10 times and if you count "your" and "yourself" it's 17 total. That's almost 3:1 for "you" over "I" in the battle of the pronouns

Not from me you wouldn't. The war started there, progressed well for a bit, then was practically abandoned in favor of sending an exponentially larger number of resources to an elective/premeditated war. Now it's smoldered into a much more serious problem. Abandoning that reality is not really an option. In so many ways were are much worse off than we were 8 years ago. It's going to take a while to fix the mess. I may not agree with some of the tactics of the Afghan campaign but I think quitting is a recipe for disaster. What I don't understand is why the Republicans completely abandoned the near decade long chant about the "war on terrrrr". Now that someone with a "D" is in charge they want to "cut and run". They also spout the necessity to work hard for what you want, get an education, be responsible and civically active, but when Obama wants to use those terms they lock their kids at home and grab pitchforks and torches. This is a sad period in American history. I've had enough for a while. Going to throw myself out of a plane.

I agree, but the lobbyists will never let that happen.

You know, protecting them from scary things, like facts and other viewpoints. Best to keep them home where it's safe and not expose them to anything that might make them think on their own. [/stir pot]

What is this "original agenda" that you keep referring to? How did the changes impact the content of the intended message? And I'm not about to tell you how to raise your kids but don't you think that they would be better served by hearing the actual message and then discussing it with you afterward?

That last one is a good question. So is "why are some people so ignorant they think they can borrow their way out of debt?" How would you feel if that one was fed to your children at their school? I wouldn't expect either of those questions to be "fed to your children". I'd expect that sort of question to come back from a child after those topics were raised in discussion. My first reaction would be "wow, that's great that you guys are even talking about economics and the environment." Then I'd say, "calling them "ignorant" is inappropriate in respectful discourse. "Misguided" or "short sighted" might be a better term although I'm going to be hard pressed to prove my point. Part of our economic crisis was caused by wealthy and politically connected individuals who used their influence to borrow 30 times the worth of their institutions, and consequently, profited enormously despite their failed policies. So it can be done. You just need to decide for yourself if you think it's appropriate."

Absolutely. Maybe people should wait to find out what the delivered message is before they start fear mongering. But then again, if the intended goal is to promote divisiveness and to ensure that Obama fails at absolutely any effort, then waiting to hear what he actually says may be counterproductive. Best to put the straw man out there and set it afire.

Did you read any of the links I posted from the dept. of education regarding the content of the message and the suggested participation exercises? Menu of Classroom Activities President Obama’s Address to Students Across America (PreK-6) Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education September 8, 2009 Before the Speech · Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama. Teachers could motivate students by asking the following questions: Who is the President of the United States? What do you think it takes to be president? To whom do you think the president is going to be speaking? Why do you think he wants to speak to you? What do you think he will say to you? · Teachers can ask students to imagine that they are delivering a speech to all of the students in the United States. If you were the president, what would you tell students? What can students do to help in our schools? Teachers can chart ideas about what students would say. · Why is it important that we listen to the president and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important? During the Speech · As the president speaks, teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful. Students could use a note-taking graphic organizer such as a “cluster web;” or, students could record their thoughts on sticky notes. Younger children could draw pictures and write as appropriate. As students listen to the speech, they could think about the following: What is the president trying to tell me? What is the president asking me to do? What new ideas and actions is the president challenging me to think about? · Students could record important parts of the speech where the president is asking them to do something. Students might think about the following: What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people? · Students could record questions they have while he is speaking and then discuss them after the speech. Younger children may need to dictate their questions. After the Speech · Teachers could ask students to share the ideas they recorded, exchange sticky notes, or place notes on a butcher-paper poster in the classroom to discuss main ideas from the speech, such as citizenship, personal responsibility, and civic duty. · Students could discuss their responses to the following questions: What do you think the president wants us to do? Does the speech make you want to do anything? Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us? What would you like to tell the president? Extension of the Speech Teachers could extend learning by having students: · Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted in quadrants, puzzle pieces, or trails marked with the following labels: personal, academic, community, and country. Each area could be labeled with three steps for achieving goals in that area. It might make sense to focus first on personal and academic goals so that community and country goals can be more readily created. · Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals. Teachers would collect and redistribute these letters at an appropriate later date to enable students to monitor their progress. · Write goals on colored index cards or precut designs to post around the classroom. · Interview one another and share goals with the class to create a supportive community. · Participate in school-wide incentive programs or contests for those students who achieve their goals. · Write about their goals in a variety of genres, such as poems, songs, and personal essays. · Create artistic projects based on the themes of their goals. · Graph individual progress toward goals. Where's the problem? Menu of Classroom Activities President Obama’s Address to Students Across America (Grades 7-12) Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education September 8, 2009 Before the Speech · Conduct a “quick write” or “think/pair/share” activity with students. (In the latter activity, students spend a few minutes thinking and writing about the question. Next, each student is paired with another student to discuss. Finally, the students share their ideas with the class as a whole). Teachers may choose to ask the following questions: What ideas do we associate with the words “responsibility,” “persistence,” and “goals?” How would we define each term? Teachers then may choose to create a web diagram of student ideas for each of the words. · Have students participate in a “quick write” or brainstorming activity. Teachers may ask students: What are your strengths? What do you think makes you successful as a student and as a person? · Teachers may engage students in short readings. Teachers may post in large print around the classroom notable quotes excerpted from President Obama’s speeches on education. Teachers might ask students to think alone, compare ideas with a partner, or share their thoughts with the class. Teachers could ask students to think about the following: What are our interpretations of these excerpts? Based on these excerpts, what can we infer that the president believes is important in order to be educationally successful? · Create a “concept web.” Teachers may ask students to think of the following: Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us? What might he say? Do you remember any other historic moments when the president spoke to the nation? What was the impact? After brainstorming answers to these questions, students could create a “cause-and-effect” graphic organizer. During the Speech · Teachers might conduct a “listening with purpose” exercise based on the following ideas: personal responsibility, goals, and persistence. Teachers might ask pairs of students to create a word bank at the top of a notes page that has been divided into two columns. On the right-hand side, students could take notes (trying to capture direct quotations or main ideas) while President Obama talks about personal responsibility, goals, or persistence. At the end of the speech, students could write the corresponding terms from the word bank in the left-hand column, to increase retention and deepen their understanding of an important aspect of the speech. · Teachers might conduct a “listening with purpose” exercise based on the themes of inspiration and challenges. Using a similar double-column notes page as the one described above, teachers could focus students on quotations that either propose a specific challenge to them or that inspire them in some meaningful way. Students could do this activity individually, in pairs, or in groups. Transition/Quick Review · Teachers could ask students to look over their notes and collaborate in pairs or small groups. Teachers might circulate and ask students questions, such as: What more could we add to our notes? What are the most important words in the speech? What title would you give the speech? What is the thesis of the speech? After the Speech Guided Discussion: · What resonated with you from President Obama’s speech? What lines or phrases do you remember? · Whom is President Obama addressing? How do you know? Describe his audience. · We heard President Obama mention the importance of personal responsibility. In your life, who exemplifies this kind of responsibility? How? Give examples. · How are the individuals in this classroom similar? How is each student different? · Suppose President Obama were to give another speech about being educationally successful. To whom would he speak? Why? What would the president say? · What are the three most important words in the speech? Rank them. · Is President Obama inspiring you to do anything? Is he challenging you to do anything? · What do you believe are the challenges of your generation? · How can you be a part of addressing these challenges? Video Project: · Teachers could encourage students to participate in the U.S. Department of Education’s “I Am What I Learn” video contest. On September 8, the Department of Education will invite students age 13 and older to submit a video no longer than two minutes in length, explaining why education is important and how education will help them achieve their dreams. Teachers are welcome to incorporate the same or a similar video project into a classroom assignment. More details will be released via www.ed.gov. Transition/Quick Review · Teachers could introduce goal-setting activities in the following way to make the most of extension activities: “When you set a goal, you envision a target that you are going to reach over time. Goals are best when they are “Challenging,” “Attainable,” and “Needed” (CAN). For example, a good goal might be: ‘I want to boost my average grade by one letter grade this year so I can show colleges that I am prepared.’ But, every good goal also needs steps that guide the way. These steps keep you on track toward achieving your goal. For example, my first step might be improving in all of my subjects by one letter grade. My second step might be completing 100-percent of my homework in all of my classes during the first week of school. My third step might be taking an extra hour to study for all of my tests during each marking period. My fourth step might be attending a tutoring session or getting an adult to help me whenever I do not understand something. My last step might be the most important: asking an adult in my life to check on me often to make sure that I am completing each of my steps. Your steps should add up to your goal. If they don’t, that’s okay; we fix them until they do! Let’s hear another example of an academic goal for the year and decide what steps would help to achieve that goal… Now I want you to write your personal academic goal for this year and the steps that you will take to achieve it. We can revise our steps each marking period to make sure we are on track.” Extension of the Speech Teachers could extend learning by having students: · Create decorated goals and steps on material that is the size of an index card. The index cards could be formatted as an inviting graphic organizer with a space for the goal at the top and several steps in the remaining space. Cards could be hung in the classroom to create a culture of goal setting, persistence, and success, and for the purpose of periodic review. (See the “Example Handout” section.) · Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted in quadrants, puzzle pieces, or trails marked as steps. These also could be hung around the room, to be reviewed periodically and to create a classroom culture of goal setting and for the purpose of periodic review. · Interview and share their goals with one another and the class, establishing community support for their goals. · Create incentives or contests for achieving their personal goals. · Write about goals and the steps to achieve them in a variety of genres such as poems, songs, or personal essays. · Create artistic representations of goals and the steps to achieve them. Where's the problem? You ARE what you learn.

That last one is a good question.

That's a great idea. We should all try it. Letter from Secretary Duncan Pre K through 6 activities Grades 7-12 activitites I gave it a quick read. Missed the part that hacks like Malkin seem to fear. Unless of course the thoughtful exchange of ideas on education and personal responsibility are something to fear, in which case, I can see why she and the "new media" might feel threatened.

The intent of Obama's speech is to "challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning," F'n "socialist". I wonder if they would allow their kids to listen to that drivel if Glen Beck was giving a post speech rebuttal. I'm a Virginian and I'm only half joking As for Marc's previous hypothetical questions from the kids, I think that if Obama was able to get kids asking questions about the health care, education and pollution it would be a great thing. It beats the heck out of talking about Power Rangers or Hannah Montana. That's got me thinking, I'm willing to bet that Power Rangers, Hannah Montana and elevated mercury levels in our kids' food have very similar impacts on cognitive development.

Some employees on the last load of a nice weekend. Clicky

Any chance that you can crop out the left 80% of shot #4, enlarge, and post again? I think it needs more scrutiny.

Sorry for the format of the reply but I'm running short on time today so...... "The top priority of for-profit companies is to drive up the value of their stock. Stocks fluctuate based on companies' quarterly reports, which are discussed every three months in conference calls with investors and analysts. On these calls, Wall Street investors and analysts look for two key figures: earnings per share and the medical-loss ratio, or medical "benefit ratio," as the industry now terms it. That is the ratio between what the company actually pays out in claims and what it has left over to cover sales, marketing, underwriting and other administrative expenses and, of course, profits. To win the favor of powerful analysts, for-profit insurers must prove that they made more money during the previous quarter than a year earlier and that the portion of the premium going to medical costs is falling. Even very profitable companies can see sharp declines in stock prices moments after admitting they've failed to trim medical costs. I have seen an insurer's stock price fall 20 percent or more in a single day after executives disclosed that the company had to spend a slightly higher percentage of premiums on medical claims during the quarter than it did during a previous period. The smoking gun was the company's first-quarter medical loss ratio, which had increased from 77.9% to 79.4% a year later. To help meet Wall Street's relentless profit expectations, insurers routinely dump policyholders who are less profitable or who get sick. Insurers have several ways to cull the sick from their rolls. One is policy rescission. They look carefully to see if a sick policyholder may have omitted a minor illness, a pre-existing condition, when applying for coverage, and then they use that as justification to cancel the policy, even if the enrollee has never missed a premium payment. Asked directly about this practice just last week in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers refused to end the practice of cancelling policies for sick enrollees. Why? Because dumping a small number of enrollees can have a big effect on the bottom line. Ten percent of the population accounts for two-thirds of all health care spending. The Energy and Commerce Committee's investigation into three insurers found that they canceled the coverage of roughly 20,000 people in a five-year period, allowing the companies to avoid paying $300 million in claims. They also dump small businesses whose employees' medical claims exceed what insurance underwriters expected. All it takes is one illness or accident among employees at a small business to prompt an insurance company to hike the next year's premiums so high that the employer has to cut benefits, shop for another carrier, or stop offering coverage altogether — leaving workers uninsured. The practice is known in the industry as "purging." The purging of less profitable accounts through intentionally unrealistic rate increases helps explain why the number of small businesses offering coverage to their employees has fallen from 61 percent to 38 percent since 1993, according to the National Small Business Association. Once an insurer purges a business, there are often no other viable choices in the health insurance market because of rampant industry consolidation. An account purge so eye-popping that it caught the attention of reporters occurred in October 2006 when CIGNA notified the Entertainment Industry Group Insurance Trust that many of the Trust's members in California and New Jersey would have to pay more than some of them earned in a year if they wanted to continue their coverage. The rate increase CIGNA planned to implement, according to USA Today, would have meant that some family-plan premiums would exceed $44,000 a year. CIGNA gave the enrollees less than three months to pay the new premiums or go elsewhere." http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/potter_testimony.html

I'd like to think that localized generation and storage is the wave of the future, so yes. I don't know if this battery technology is the best answer but I'm no battery expert. I think that right now lithium polymer batteries are on the rise. If they're the type that I think they are I've even seen applications where they can be recharged using those stray EM waves that we're constantly bombarded with. Next to the sun, useless EM radiation is in never ending abundance! Imagine, having FOX "news" run your computer without you even having to tune it in

There's very little truth and it stemmed from the section that allowed for Drs to discuss end of life issues with their patients. It was deliberately spun dishonestly. But it makes for an inflammatory headline and that's what's important. [Reply] Yes. And mega-million dollar fines and judgments are bad for business. As risk-pooling and risk-averse entities, they'll pay the $2 million monitoring and care for an insured instead of risking a $20 million civil judgment. But if you purge 20,000 people over a five year period you can avoid $300,000,000 in payouts for claims. At that point $20M simply becomes a cost of doing business. It's like the Bank of America bailout. You get billions in aid, payout a few billion in bonuses and then get fined 33 million. Big deal. I do fear it. When PhRMA alone is spending $3M/week lobbying Congress, I fear what will come out of it. I don't like this bill as I think that single payer should have had its day in committee. But I do think that passage of a bill with a public option is likely better than the status quo. And the opponents aren't saying anything other than " death panels" and "euthanasia" and telling stories about about denials. There is little to no honest discussion of actual issues. Partly because it would bore the hell out of people when what they really want in their "news" is entertainment. Yea, that could be scary, especially if the system were set up under the executive branch like the EPA. I'd like to hope that the system would be set up with a few more degrees of separation.

What is it about you guys and this argument tactic? I provided specific evidence to prove that the media is NOT listening yet you continue to propagate known lies