Joe The Plumber: I'd "Beat The Livin' Tar Out Of" People Like Pelosi
Appearing at the RightOnline summit, a right-wing counterpart to Netroots Nation, Samuel Joseph "Joe The Plumber" Wurzelbacher said that Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats are the sort of people he would "beat livin' tar out of" for spending too much money and ridiculing protestors:
"So, when Pelosi and all those others talk about it bein' un-American and disrespectful, I tell ya what: I respect nobody who lies to me and manipulates me and takes my money, puts my children in debt -- they want me to be respectful towards 'em? Please," said Mr. The Plumber. "You know, I'm not the most civilized person. Those kind of people, I usually took behind the woodshed and just beat the livin' tar out of 'em. I don't like being lied to. I hate being lied to, and Americans are gettin' tired of it."
(Via Think Progress.)
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Let this be the first and only response to a statement like that. It's just a diversion to throw us off our game.
August 17, 2009 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh for chrissakes.
We've got people carrying guns to meet with their congresscritters and the president, and now this. Keep it up, GOP - that's a helluva base you've got. Way to stay classy.
(And I've gotta say that the open-mouthed picture of Palin in the TPM ad on this page just seals the deal. Complete with red-white-and-blue moose pin.)
August 17, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dear Joe,
Name your place and time.
August 17, 2009 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nancy will rip his tiny balls off.
August 18, 2009 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and real cool beating up a woman and all. Pussy.
August 17, 2009 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
no brain, no class, no real job, no look - congrats dude, you're a true survivor.
August 17, 2009 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hate this situation.
We all do realize that when - not if - the Democrats fuck up electorally, that this is the wing of the Republican Party that will inherit the reins of this country. Gun-toters, woman-beaters, and psychopaths, all of them. There are no moderates left in the GOP. Right now, all the moderates are in the Democratic Party working to derail it from the inside.
August 17, 2009 6:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't agree. If health reform were a national referendum it would be passed handily. If the electorate has changed since November, that change is miniscule. Right wing propaganda is making you think otherwise and it's right-wing propaganda that's making people turn on the President before a health care bill has been written or passed.
August 17, 2009 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hope you're right, but what do you think about the white house abandoning the public option? Co-ops? The insurance companies' wet dreams! A win-win for them. Tell me we will get the public option. Please!
August 17, 2009 6:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
The White House hasn't abandoned the public option. For the WH to abandon the PO would be political suicide. If they didn't want to take responsibilty for it being in the bill, The President would blame it on Congress and sign the bill as "the best reform we could get out of the legislature" at the time. Doesn't make sense.
August 17, 2009 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
From Huffington Post:
And from Huffpo again:
If you can get something hopeful out of all that, I'm all ears!
August 17, 2009 7:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Prof. Jost in Prescription in Aug.17, NYT:
Q.
So what we’re talking about are insurance co-ops that would function as insurers themselves?
A.
The argument I make is that it’s really hard to start an insurance company. You don’t just get a bunch of people together and say, “We’re going to start an insurance co-op.” The biggest problem is coming up with a network. You have to find doctors and hospitals and negotiate contracts. Most are already locked up by the dominant insurers. They’re not going to give you — a tiny co-op — a better deal. That’s assuming they’ll deal with you at all. The alternative would be to rent a network, but you’re basically buying your product from your competitor. There’s no way you’ll get a good deal there, either.
Q.
What are some of other challenges in setting up a co-op?
A.
You need to establish a brand identity, figure out how to handle claims, develop actuarial expertise, establish reserves, meet state licensing requirements and solvency requirements.
Q.
Does it improve competition in any way?
A.
What you have in the United States now is concentration of insurance markets. You hear this stuff about 1,300 insurers in the United States and all this competition. But just try to get more than one of them to bid on your contract for a health plan in the Shenandoah, where I am. One insurer controls 87 percent of the market in Harrisonburg, Va. That’s true in many places. The idea that there are 1,300 insurers and that we have access to all of them is like saying there are 10,000 produce stands in U.S. If there’s only one within 10 miles of where you live, that’s the one you have access to.
Health insurance is very local. It’s very hard to break into an insurance market. The thought that you’ll have a few businessmen get together and set up a co-op that will compete with Aetna or Cigna is just dreaming. It’s not going to happen.
August 17, 2009 9:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
co-ops are cop-outs.
They won't work, and that is why the insurance industry is so proud of themselves. Health INSURANCE reform will fail because they deemed it so, and it was an impossible goal.
It should have been HEALTH CARE REFORM.
August 17, 2009 9:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I prefer the term "health insurance reform." The primary thing that we are reforming is the payment mechanism, not health care itself (after all, we have "the best health care in the world," as long as you can afford it).
People are emotionally attached to their "health care", i.e. their familiar doctors, hospitals, etc. Nobody is much emotionally attached to their insurance companies. I think this really should have been the emphasis all along.
August 18, 2009 8:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
We most certainly do not have the best health care in the world. We have a higher infant mortality rate, and worse outcomes on other evaluated fields than 36 other countries; we are right between Costa Rica and Slovenia. We manage our flu season through "clinics" at grocery stores and pharmacies. Contraceptive devices are 10 times more expensive here than in other countries, and so are abortions.
We need health care reform, Virginia. Trust me. We do.
August 18, 2009 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
You missed my point. It doesn't matter what the electorate thinks, or thinks it thinks - what I'm saying is that the Republican Party as it is now composed ideologically and practically speaking is what you see and hear from this far right. And that in an electoral system where people have only 2 choices*, if they are disgruntled with one of them (as they were in '06 and '08) they will choose the other.
Well, if the Dems fuck up now, "hope and change" is going to come from the Party of Not-Joe the Not-Plumber and Sarah Fucking Palin. Maybe not in 2010, but eventually. The Barbarians are At The Gate.
* This should not be taken as a plea for that always longed-for "third-party". There will never be a viable third party in the United States until we switch to a more parliamentary system of government. Which of course is to say, never.
August 17, 2009 10:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Except we all know what really happens "behind the woodshed" Joe. You're not fooling anyone. Be careful Joe, I hear Pelosi is a wild one, ever see that movie Teeth?
August 17, 2009 6:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
.... 90 guns for every 100 folks in this nation.
I guess we have the faith not of a mustard seed, but of a 44 magnum.
What a Christian nation indeed!
August 17, 2009 6:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've given up on wishing for sane Republicans. At this point, i'd settle for Republican with a sense of irony and a modicum of self-awareness.
August 17, 2009 7:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Kleefeld him!
August 17, 2009 7:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's see: I think I need a ringside seat.
Joe says that: I tell ya what: I respect nobody who lies to me and manipulates me and takes my money, puts my children in debt -- they want me to be respectful towards 'em? Please," said Mr. The Plumber. "You know, I'm not the most civilized person. Those kind of people, I usually took behind the woodshed and just beat the livin' tar out of 'em. I don't like being lied to. I hate being lied to, and Americans are gettin' tired of it."
Can I sell tickets to the match when Joe and W. square up behind the barn?
August 17, 2009 9:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I usually refer to people like that as "keyboard warriors". "Joe" wasn't behind a keyboard, but he sure said it only in a safe, wingnutosterone dripping place.
August 18, 2009 12:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've given up on wishing for sane Republicans. At this point, i'd settle for Republican with a sense of irony and a modicum of self-awareness.
August 18, 2009 8:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why do people always insist on trying to stretch their 15 minutes into 20?
Joe, I've got news for you - a good patsy never knows it's him.
August 18, 2009 9:31 AM | Reply | Permalink