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Topic: Healthcare Debate (was: Quesada apologizes) (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Jodi Moisan
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Posted: 19 February 2010 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | 1  

  I want a Mike O'Brien podcast!

It would just be him shitting verbally all over people who have tried to be nice to him and throwing insults to those that don't fall lockstep with him. I'll pass we have enough angry white men on the airwaves.

Joe they already look at him as a hero type, look for Joe Stack in the facebook search, there is even a Joe for president one.


Edited by Jodi Moisan on 19 February 2010 at 10:04pm
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Matthew McCallum
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Posted: 19 February 2010 at 11:35pm | IP Logged | 2  

Jodi,

Worry not about the Mike O'Brien podcast. We'll make you part of the program for balance. The pair of you would be like Pat Buchanan and Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group, only unlike Eleanor we'd actually let you get a word in edgewise, let you finish your thoughts and treat you with respect.

I may not agree with much of what Mike writes, and it may be blunt and harsh, but it is also impassioned. In an era of apathy, defeatism and word-watching handwringing political correctness his posts have a real authenticity to them. This is a guy who cares. It may be in an awkward, fumbling kind of way, but he CARES.

As Ted Solotaroff, the legendary editor and founder of the New American Review, wrote:

"Writing itself, if not misunderstood and abused, becomes a way of empowering the writing self. It converts anger and disappointment into deliberate and durable aggression, the writer's main source of energy. It converts sorrow and self-pity into empathy, the writer's main means of relating to otherness. Similarly, his wounded innocence turns into irony, his silliness into wit, his guilt into judgment, his oddness into originality, his perverseness into his stinger."

May we all write long and well enough to reach that end.


Edited by Matthew McCallum on 19 February 2010 at 11:36pm
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Mike O'Brien
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Posted: 20 February 2010 at 12:36am | IP Logged | 3  

Funny you should ask, Matthew - I've spent the last year working on a podcast, though it's not a political one.

I'd be nervous about self-promoting here, but just to answer the question - it's a scipted show - like the Mercury Theatre, if you will forgive the comparison. 

6 episodes, and I've got the basic vocal tracks recorded, and am currently in the process of editing and adding music and effects.  It features the vocal talent of the JBF's own Tim O'Neill and Matt Reed among many others.

I'm pretty excited to get it going - looking forward to being done with these and starting on the next set of episodes.  The second season if you will.

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Arc Carlton
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Posted: 20 February 2010 at 11:57am | IP Logged | 4  

I have officially disgusted the far right and the far left on this thread, my work here is done. ;0)

____________________________

And I'm sure that wasn't easy, right Jodi?

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James Malone
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Posted: 20 February 2010 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | 5  

Here is what to beware of about our political party... the spin...

Obama may be correct that he didn't raise tax rates.

However, if you eliminate tax exemptions to my AGI then I pay the same RATE as last year on a higher taxable income.

Quoting the tax brackets is meaningless, and it is used to distract us. 10%, 15%, 25%, whatever.

I am more concerned with the elimination of EXEMPTIONS that will result in taking 10% of a HIGHER NUMBER!!

But they will be truthful when stating they "haven't increased tax rates"

Nope, they just reduced exemptions. There is open legislation that will reduce education credit, mortgage interest deduction, pretax childcare, health premiums and other flex spending accounts.

That "15%" might not change, but your taxable income sure as hell might!

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Matthew McCallum
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Posted: 20 February 2010 at 1:36pm | IP Logged | 6  

Mike,

Your "Mercury Theatre" podcast project sounds fascinating. Please indulge a further request of shameless self-promotion. Are they stand-alone episodes (six separate, distinct plays from the same troop of actors), or a series of continuing characters?
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Mike O'Brien
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Posted: 20 February 2010 at 2:38pm | IP Logged | 7  

Matthew - it's a repeating story - 6 episodes of the adventures of certain characters.  I'm hesitant about getting too deep into the details for a number of rasons but the bottom line is that it's a hard-boiled detective show that's played for laughs.

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Matthew McCallum
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Posted: 20 February 2010 at 2:47pm | IP Logged | 8  

Shan't probe any more. When you said Mercury Theatre it made me wonder if it was a troop or a continuity. Good luck on the project. I'd love to hear it when it's ready to air. And if you ever need a writer for Season Two...

Edited by Matthew McCallum on 20 February 2010 at 2:47pm
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Randy Lahey
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Posted: 20 February 2010 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | 9  

I think the teabaggers are a joke, they have been manipulated by the Right to further the Right's agenda.  I think there is a part of teabagger movement that are regular people geniunely concerned about government spending, and they don't realize they are being used.  I think those same people would have felt the same when Bush was spending money like crazy, except I don't think they were paying attention.  I don't think they were purposely ignoring it, but for a lot of Bush's term, the economy was good.  Once the recession started, people cared about money more.  If the recession never hit, I don't think the tea bagger movement would be as big and would be deemed much more trivial.

I don't fit in with either the Democrats or Republicans.  I believed in the smallest goverment possible, government should do roads, education and health care, that's basically it (with a few more exceptions).  In Canada I would be considered a righty since I am against most social programs.  In the USA I would be considered a lefty for wanting the goverment to handle health care.  Its funny how the same beliefs are looked at so differently depending which side of the border you are on.

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Randy Lahey
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Posted: 20 February 2010 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | 10  

It would just be him shitting verbally all over people who have tried to be nice to him and throwing insults to those that don't fall lockstep with him. I'll pass we have enough angry white men on the airwaves.

**********

I couldn't agree more.  Mike is the same as Limbaugh/Beck/Hannity, rude and disrespectful to anyone that doesn't share his view points (and sometimes to people that do share his viewpoints).  In one of Michael Moore's books (I think stupid white men or downsize this), he said the Democrats were worse than Republicans.  He said you know what you get with Republicans, while Democrats claimed to be all these good things, helping people etc, yet at the end of the day Democrats were the same as Republicans.  Republicans were better than Democrats because at least they were honest about what they were. 



Edited by Randy Lahey on 20 February 2010 at 5:54pm
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Matthew McCallum
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Posted: 20 February 2010 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | 11  

Republicans were better than Democrats because at least they were honest about what they were.

Neither side is being honest in this whole business, Randy. That's the problem. Politicians either side of the aisle spend wildly because we the people are willing to be bought and we the people keep our hands out for the government cheque, rebate, tax credit, program, whatever.

How do we expect the system to change -- how could anyone expect Obama to bring his promised change to Washington -- when we ourselves are unwilling to change our behaviours which perpetuate the system?
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Randy Lahey
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Posted: 20 February 2010 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | 12  

Mattew, those were Moores comments, not mine, and they were written like 10 years ago.  I agree with your response. 
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