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Uploaded: Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 6:56 PM

Sign language
Supporters of changing the national health care system rally in south Palo Alto Wednesday

by Veronica Weber
Palo Alto Online Staff

Posted by PAmoderate, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 2, 2009 at 10:11 pm

MoveOn.org? Talk about Astroturf....

Posted by anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Sep 2, 2009 at 11:30 pm

Sorry I missed this, I would like to show support.

A moderate does not talk like that by the way.

Posted by Perspective, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 3, 2009 at 6:24 am

Amazing how when independent, taxpaying over 50 folks show up to town halls, we are nazis, thugs, and "organized"...but somehow professionally made signs organized and paid for by Soros/Moveon, handed out to people who may or may not be paid to stand there and "protest"......THAT is simply community organizing at its finest!

I wonder how many of our tax dollars went to this? Given ACORN and Union s get millions of our tax dollars, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to find some serial numbers from tax dollars here somewhere.

Posted by health reform now, a resident of another community, on Sep 3, 2009 at 7:28 am

Thanks to all who held signs in support of health reform. We have 45 million people without health insurance, and medical costs (even for the insured!) are so high that they account for 62% of bankrupcies. We need health reform including the option of a public plan like Medicare.

Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 3, 2009 at 7:41 am

Things were quite here compared with a health care rally in Ventura County.

At a rally there last night an Obama supporter bit the finger off a 65-year-old man who disagreed with the Obama plan.

Posted by maguro_01, a resident of Mountain View, on Sep 3, 2009 at 7:49 am

"Amazing how when independent, taxpaying over 50 folks show up to town halls, we are nazis, thugs, and "organized"...but somehow professionally made signs organized and paid for by Soros/Moveon, handed out to people who may or may not be paid to stand there and "protest"...."

Those over 50 folks are garbage in the job market mostly because of our present health care/insurance system. And the noisy ones at the famous meetings are suspect because they are apparently choosing to have their care and lifespans determined by an insurance company computer, probably offshore. The politicians now decrying "death panels" are nearly all on record as supporting the exact same concept as recently as this past July. The CIA World Factbook ranks the US as number 50 in lifespan Web Link . One can quibble somewhat but it does show that single payer systems definitely aren't gassing Granny or putting Grandpa in the catfood.

The reason we are unlikely to see substantive changes should give us all pause, whichever side we're on. That reason is the pay to play system of Washington. There's little real debate because lobbyists are buying Congress again. Financial sector reform isn't happening for the same reason, though their lobbying money seems to have come from the public funds intended to save them from outright failure. Medical care and finance will take 1/4 US GDP in a year or so which is not sustainable especially since the national bar tab is reaching its limits.

Remember the story about the scorpian granted a ride over the river by the turtle? He first said he wouldn't sting the turtle thus drowning them both. But he did anyway and explained that it was his nature. That's Wall Street/finance. Derivatives are still there, fake ratings are still there, and now supercomputers connected directly to the stock markets are doing half the trading volume. It isn't unlikely that the trading algorithms will show pathological interaction one fine day because pathological interaction is the idea in the first place. It's just a matter of time. And there may not be enough money in the world to save it again or the world may essentially put the US in receivership instead of throwing good money after bad. The US with an economy may have been number one and all that. The US broke and borrowing is your gambling addict uncle coming back broke yet again from Las Vegas.

That party is over and should never have been. Pay to play Washington and state capitals are burying us. We have Jefferson's Wall between church and state, but inexplicably no wall between politicians and money - a Constitutional birth defect. This dire problem does give us something in common when it seems nothing else does.

Posted by GS, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Sep 3, 2009 at 8:35 am

We need more than more than the option of a public plan. Single-payer would be good, but failing that we need to turn all health-care insurers into non-profits.

Pick a model (Japan, Germany, England, Canada, etc.): they're all much better than what we have here.

Posted by PAModerate, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 3, 2009 at 11:11 am

"A moderate does not talk like that by the way."

Yes we do, especially if we've been accused in this manner of being organized. I'm not, and I'm against this pig.

As for "health reform now" comments (or should I just say dubious talking points), is the issue insurance or health care? People without insurance get healthcare all the time -- they go to the ERs of county hospitals and they get served and a lot of them don't pay. So, let's be clear on what the real issue is.

As for 62% of bankruptcies, that's hilarious. That number is so bogus -- if you believe that, I have a unicorn I can sell you.

If the real issue is that healthcare costs are too high, ironically the best way to cut costs is to *eliminate all healthcare insurance*. Insurance is the reason why healthcare costs are so high.

Posted by P.A. Native, a resident of Mountain View, on Sep 3, 2009 at 4:28 pm

The man who had his finger bitten off in Thousand Oaks last night did disagree with Obama. So much so that he repeatedly punched a health care reform supporter in the face until he fell to the curb. At that point the man jumped on top of the Obama supporter and put him in a headlock/choke grab. It was at that point that the man's finger was bitten off by the victim. He then got his finger re-attached, using his Medicare coverage to do so.

Don't you just hate full context!