We’re all used to the viral nature of the Internet. Usually we associate it with a “viral video”, some fixture on YouTube that either moves the heart or the funny bone. Every now and then the Net goes viral in a more meaningful way.
Such is the case today as CNN journalist Veronica De La Cruz takes her desperate case to the Internet and more specifically to Twitter. Her 27 year old brother, Eric will die soon if he does not receive a heart transplant. He is encountering all of the obstacles that this richest country on the face of the Earth can throw at him: government red tape that keeps him off the transplant list and an insurance company that won’t pay for pre-existing conditions. His case is a dead-on-target text book case for why we need health care reform in this country. He cannot afford to wait until President Barack Obama does something about it. He needs help now. And for those who think having a celebrity sister does you much good, think again. The call to help has gone out on Twitter and is spreading like wildfire.
So, I’m stepping away from politics for this moment to ask my readers for help. If you can donate even a dollar towards Eric’s care, please do so. If you can write to Harry Reid and tell him to get moving, please do so. You can do both of these things here.
And you know what? Now that I think of it, I’m NOT going to step away from politics. We’ve seen the political activism of the Tea Parties. Let’s turn some of that activism toward getting the less fortunate among us the help they need. We live in an age where we CAN make a difference. Harry Reid’s got thousands of e-mails pouring into his office right now to intervene on behalf of this young man’s life. If we stand up and act on behalf of all the Eric’s in this country, we can make a change.
It’s up to you whether you want to sit around and gripe about your punching bag of the moment, whether it be Dick Cheney, Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi or whether you want to make positive change in peoples lives.
Today, decide to make a difference this one time!
THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Respectfully,
Rutherford
Rutherford Lawson's Bar & Grill 
how much did you donate?
Actually DR, that’s none of your business. I DID donate. Do the math, if millions get on board and donate a buck, it adds up.
Do it or don’t. Up to you.
i just wanted to know so that i could double it.
and by the way, I will donate 100 bucks to the cause if you make official your charity donations over the last decade, per year.
official, notarized and public…lets see it you cheap SOB.
I’m just being stupid, my apologies. I will go give 2 bucks.
I guess my point is that those people at the Tea Party probably are some of the most charitable people in the nation. They are the people who give to charity.
I find Liberals to be the CHEAPEST turds I’ve ever met. A stereotype, no doubt. But I swear they are the cheapest tippers, the worst for buying a round yet always the first to bum a smoke.
Actually, let me take that back. Black people are the worst tippers on Earth.
Dead Rabbit, I’m glad you had fun with the post. I haven’t been ignoring you … simply doing other stuff tonight.
Well, I took care in the post to make no implication that any particular group was uncharitable. Although now that you bring it up, the central issues of the Tea Parties did seem self-focused. How is Obama gonna screw me over? How is Obama gonna screw my kids over (by the debt being passed on), etc.
Still, I have NO evidence whatsoever to say which political persuasions are more charitable. I fully agree with what has been pointed out elsewhere on this blog that religious groups are some of the most charitable groups in existence.
As for tipping (LOL) I can only speak for this black man. I tip 20% regardless of quality of service. I figure these folks make crappy wages to begin with, need all the tips they can get and if they did give me lousy service, they may simply have been having a bad day.
I’m starting to pick up a pattern with Rutherford. A dispute in this nation comes to light. Rutherford makes the talk show rounds on the boob tube and cherry picks things that fit his preconceived paradigm. So far, no problem. We all do that to an extent. Where Rutherford goes wrong is when he starts to confuse opinion as fact.
Case in point: Waterboarding.
Rutherford suspiciously became an expert on waterboarding within 2 hours. Again, I want to reiterate. I can respect someone who is against it and have some reservations myself. However, the main crux of Rutherford’s argument was that it didn’t work.
It’s become pretty clear now that not only is it effective, it kicked ass. Could something more sweet tasting to the left’s refined palate have done the job? Maybe. My gut tells me no, but I’m no expert in this field.
Interestingly, President Transparent is willing to let all the beans out about waterboarding except the results. The CIA tells us it was very, very effective. How effective? Did it save a thousand lives? 100,000?
In reality, Obama probably can’t release the truth. It may compromise operatives in the field. So, maybe he should have left all of this like he originally did 3 Sundays ago: in the past.
These possibly unanswerable questions are pertinent to having the proper debate. Rutherford likes to brag he sees things in shades of grey. Surely, then, one would think Rutherford would take things like mass murder in consideration
when discussing waterboarding. And don’t let Rutherford judge the kind of info we reaped from waterboarding like he has done a few blogs ago. Unless Rutherford has a Top Secret clearance with “Need to Know” status, he doesn’t know shit as I don’t know shit.
One thing is for sure. Waterboarding is a tough one. Just like Gitmo. Obama has hurt us in the way he’s handled this stuff, no matter what your take on Gitmo and waterboarding is. He has politicized what should have been a quiet decision by our President. This shouldn’t have ever become the orgy it now is. It hasn’t even worked out to be expedient for Obama. Nobody is happy. Not the left, who found out that their representatives were in on it. Not the far left who will never get to see President Bush behind bars. Not the right who see it as the which hunt it has become. Not the CIA who has been thrown in the middle of this while operatives around the world are putting their lives at risk as we speak. Not the cowardly Democratic party who wrote President Bush a blank check with trembling hands as we all awaited round 2 of 9/11.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJsSb4qtILhg&refer=worldwide
can someone explain this to me. TWILIGHT ZONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rabbit,
Rutherford I don’t find a bad guy, might even like him in real love, but is without doubt a rank propagandist. You’ve got him nailed about making the talk show circuit, and then parroting back what fits his model (I hate the word paradigm – long story). He’ll cherry pick facts to boost his argument, while conveniently ignoring those that don’t.
Have you noticed that after all the bad mouthing of the way George Bush conducted the war, our new President has for all practical purposes continued along the same path? All the blustering on the campaign trail now long gone with reality setting in. And not a complaint to be heard from “R”.
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To show you how egregious Obama’s lies are, and to point out how insane Democrats like Rutherford are to an idea of a party without principle simply because of their continual chase of the false utopia, consider this:
Obama’s biggest hammer in the campaign was the burgeoning deficit that George Bush had accumulated – a legitimate argument and one I believe eventually won him the election with the economy tanking. Then once elected, Obama quadrupled the deficit in less than 50 days. His excuse? To save the world from our financial troubles.
Two days ago, Obama makes this statement:
“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”
Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.”
You tell me Rabbit. How does this differ from burning down the crowded arena on Saturday, then coming out on Monday to warn the American public of the dangers of fire?
Literally, we are seeing a rudderless leadership that will lie and twist facts to remain in power at any cost – even if means the destruction of our country.
There is no doubt now in my mind Democrats want to adopt the failed policies of Western Europe – and I say this truthfully, adopt the failed policies of Marxism. Their sole purpose is to remain in power at all costs – no matter who or how many get hurt.
:LOL:
Not love – life. Queer, I ain’t.
Tex, that speech you are referring to blows my mind. Even my wife almost fell off the couch. I simply can’t believe he said that stuff and acted like he was serious.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen irony on that level before in my life.
I swear to God the first time I saw it I thought it was some kind of computer generated joke or something.
By the way, I use the word “paradigm” to make the Rabbit sound smart. I first encountered when reading those post modernist ass clowns from France. Come to find out, they use the word to just sound smart too. So I said, hell, I’ll start using it too.
I plan on working in the word “dialectic” soon, too. Keep an eye out for it. I’m gonna drop that bomb when the Rabbit really needs to sound smart.
Also be on the look out for the word “dichotomy”
I didn’t realize Obama has changed his mind on Gitmo. Wow. 180. Military tribunals are back on the table. LOL.
Real life is a bitch.
I read Code Pink is trying to decide when to officially designate Obama as a war criminal.
“The bottom line is that the worst of the worst at Gitmo are not comic book villains with secret super powers. The worst of the worst are common thugs who need to be tried in a real courtroom and tossed in the nearest legitimate prison.” -rutherford
You would think a blog is in the works lambasting Obama right now for his obvious disagreement with your stance.
Aw shucks … and I was beginning to get that Tex Taylor Tingle down my leg! 👿 🙂
Rabbit, nothing flatters me more than seeing me quoted from an earlier post! You’ve scored lots of points here. 🙂
Sorry to disappoint you and Tex but there isn’t a lot of inconsistency here. Obama objected to the military tribunals as they were conducted under Bush. He’s changing the rules. So these are not your Bush’s tribunals.
As for real life being a bitch, well I said this either on this blog or perhaps on another one (they muddle in my mind sometimes): Obama will wrestle with reality vs idealism throughout the next 4 to 8 years. What will bother you and absolutely frustrate the crap out of liberals is that Obama deliberates in public. He states the “ideal” publicly, gets the left all excited, consults with advisers better versed than he, and then alters his position to fit the realities.
What I personally love about this is that it makes it difficult for you guys to peg him as an ultra-liberal. The truth is he considers all sides and often moderates his position. Instead of celebrating the fact that your President is not an ideologue and that he adapts his position to best suit the Nation’s good, you guys whine and moan, call him a hypocrite, etc, etc.
Sorry guys but Barack Obama is not going to be the predictable far-left commie that you’ve been looking forward to throwing rocks at. Continue having fun screaming at the wall guys.
Now let’s discuss my method of analysis. First, I double checked my About page to make sure I had not mislead anyone into believing I was a journalist or a reporter. So, yes I form my opinions from what I see on TV and what I read. Maybe in another life I’ll pound the pavement interviewing the newsmakers but for now I write social commentary and opinion. It ain’t “reportage” and I never pretended it was.
Rabbit, please tell me what’s more credible? You choose to believe in all these sealed memos that no one in the press has read that supposedly prove how effective water boarding is while I choose to believe THE interrogator of Abu Zubaydah who says the man gave up KSM under normal interrogation and then completely clammed up when he was waterboarded. I’m sorry dude but there is CONCRETE evidence this does not work.
On top of that, any gains that might have been made by water boarding, if I were to concede these, could very possibly have been gotten without waterboarding. So it comes down to principle. Do we torture or don’t we? For you guys who criticize me for always seeing grey, you’re awfully fuzzy on this one. Shouldn’t this be black or white? We torture or we don’t. What’s your answer?
Finally, let’s talk about Obama and the debt. Again, you guys have the hardest time with someone who friggin THINKS! If Obama said that debt is nothing to worry about, you’d call him a fool. Why can’t you guys understand the difference between short term and long term planning.
The house is on fire but you don’t want to put the fire out because of all the water damage that will result. It’s absolutely nuts. You fix the current problem and then you take measures to reverse the side-effects (in this case, debt) caused by the solution. It’s not rocket science.
“Finally, let’s talk about Obama and the debt. Again, you guys have the hardest time with someone who friggin THINKS!”
The guy cant put a few sentences together without a teleprompter.
Bring it on! Nothing like paradigm, dialectic and dichotomy to spice things up a bit. Please whatever you do don’t say “meme”. That one drives me nuts. 🙂
Elric, you really need to give that one a rest. Even some of Obama’s harshest critics admit the man is smart. Move beyond the teleprompter and deal with the substance.
Substance? The man is nothing but platitudes. Sorry but “Yes We Can” doesnt cut it.
OK He is smart, what was his GPA at Harvard?
So, Rutherford, Obama was talking about the long term and the economic yoke he and Bush have trampled this country with is SHORT TERM?????
Short term?
Do you have any idea the ramifications of what has happened since October?
Short term?
Rutherford is just parroting the liberal MEME that circulates through the PuffHO circles. 😮
But in this case, I’ve got to agree with “R”. Meme almost sounds like baby’s first word, or the Sound of Music. I think I’ll grant “R”‘s request and refrain from that one too.
Please name me one other president whose grades we’ve wanted so badly to see. It’s total BS and quite frankly it does make me think that those clamoring for transcripts cannot believe that a black man can become president in this country without all sorts of affirmative action going on.
Again, stick to substance. The GPA attack is a foolish waste of time.
Rabbit, I wasn’t a big fan of the bailouts either but the fact is that the steps taken by Bush and then followed up by Obama are short term. I don’t see how you get around that.
If you can point me to the example where Obama states that his long term goal is for us to drown in debt, please do so.