Readers' Comments

Sadly, that $50 or $100 won't cover even the cost of a band - aid with today's insurance coverage. The good news for you is that you can keep your existing insurance plan. All you have to do is keep bending over and say " can I have more sir " (oh yeah and keep paying those ever increasing insurance premiums). Get a clue!!!!

The fact that the MEK is a terrorist organization, that sided with Saddam Hussein against Iran during the Iran-Iraq War, that it was responsible for the worst atrocities of the Islamic revolution, and not only supported the US embassy hostage-taking but also opposed their release, is all well-known and cannot ever be undone by MEK propaganda. And, even Human Rights Watch acknowledges that the MEK tortures and abuses its own members.

Read the FBI and Senator McCain's statements on the MEK:
http://www.iranaffairs.com/iran_affairs/2009/11/the-mko-mek-pmoi-facts.html

Read the Human Rights Watch report on the MEK:
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/mena/iran0505/

Don't call to cancel. Calls are easily forgotten or ignored. Send a letter (keeping a copy) and if there is no response by the next month's bill send another. Back those up with calls and the appropriate indignation at being ignored.

all we have done is followed some misguided guides who cant be trusted the solders or anyone have a brain to understand right or wrong wot they do is for money. It is time to throw these rich misguided people out of the power and let the civillians rule .no bush no blair no obama no army just one power civillian power civiliian leaders civillian rule .had enough of these corupted soldier mps leaders who only destroy for money power fame and pleasure . Thats the truth.they all soldiers politicians leaders should pay for all theyve done .u guys watch my is gonna be reality and that us civillians will come united and give u wot u deserve civillians of the world united coming united. If u do the crime u do the time law is equall for all even for solders cause they have a brain to judge between right and wrong.wot they do for money for pleasure for own ego all should be put to trail.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
-Napoleon Bonaparte.

By that he sees history as lies. Don't worry buddies, this happens everywhere.

Here's the thing: truth is not a competition.

And that is what Richard Berman's work is about. Outcompeting truth. It doesn't matter what is true, what matters is what most people believe. And Richard Berman makes a lot of money propping up others who make a lot of money from people who 1) don't care what the truth is because they're ignorant of it yet, and 2) don't care what the truth is if their truth is keeping them comfortable, and 3) need to subscribe to "free speech" and ideology, because, after all, truth is a marketplace that depends only how many people believe something.

Somewhere in American history someone confused many values that are older than time and subordinated them to a very foggy concept of "freedom," branded it as American and anything else as un-American, and thus linked it to a machine that subsequently only works to enslave almost everybody. One might as well throw oneself against the gears and the levers. Richard Berman just wants to operate them.

Perhaps you think the Congressional Budget Office is lying? Do you want to believe a political group's grandstanding, or try to base your philosophy on the best non-partison information available? The best bi-partisan government organization to judge this is the CBO. If you don't trust their forecasts, you have a chip on your shoulder. This bill will save hundreds of billions of dollars in the first ten years, and over a trillion in year 20. To do nothing allows the deficit to be continually hit by our broken system, year after year.

You are part of the problem. You belong to the group on the side of the status quo, which is allowing 45,000 per year die because they don't have insurance. FACT.

This bill, while not perfect, saves lives and HELPS the federal deficit. The bill must pass now, or the chance to reform the health insurance industry will be gone for many years to come. You better wake up. You are not immune from a health catastophy and bankruptcy. Unless you are one of the rich guys that doesn't want the middle class to have a fair chance in life.

Ever hear of the 10th Amendment - The one in our constitution that protects States' Rights. You see, unlike banks and credit unions, payday lenders are already transparent in their transactions and heavily regulated in 34 states.

Of course, the purpose of the proposed CFPA was supposed to be to protect the nation and all of its citizens from the forces that have cost millions their homes, tens of millions - their jobs and almost all of us, part of our savings and investments in the future.

Yet, you would rather target payday loans, used by 19 million Americans annually and with a consumer satisfaction rate in the 90s...And, an industry that hasn't been offered or taken any government handouts.

The arguments are made that short-term loans can be made at 36% APR to those with at-risk credit...yet no one has found a model that works without significant subsidies. That's right....the Military, state employees in Pennsylvania, etc.... Those programs are taxpayer subsidized. Goodwill, a non-profit charity tried to offer a $9.99 per $100, one month loan, by the way, that's 120% APR, and couldn't make it work. Some banks are succeeding at this model, because they offer this product through their ATM machines at no additional costs and require direct deposit, so they avoid any risk of loan default. That's convenient! Of course, when your account is automatically debited, you may get hit with the overdraft protection "loan" you were attempting to avoid in the first place!

How about those golden children credit unions.... Sure, they offer flex-payment credit lines, but guess what they charge for overdraft protection "loans?" Wait...they don't call them loans, so they don't have to comply with the same rules payday lenders do....

Payday loans are continually vilified by the media when they are 1/5 the cost of bank and credit union alternatives! That's right...1/5th.

The average payday loan has a fee of about $15 per $100 borrowed for two weeks. That's $0.15 per $1.00 borrowed.

By contrast, the average bank and credit union overdraft protection "LOAN" (FDIC research) has a fee of $27 + per $36 borrowed for 3 or 4 days. That's $0.75 per $1.00 borrowed.

In some cases, banks charge up to $40 per overdraft check and after 4 days, charge an additional $8 per day. In this case, the fees on a $100, two-week "overdraft protection LOAN" from a bank equal $128. That's $1.28 per $1.00 borrowed.

It is critical that the community has a voice in public debate, but make sure it is the CUSTOMER'S, not the "self-proclaimed consumer advocates" and media, often funded by banks and credit union, who are being heard!

Link to voices of actual payday customers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Iy-Z0WPQA

if the right insists on politicizing eduction, school boards may find themselves defending more lawsuits, which can be expensive. the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania, spent no small amount of money defending the teaching of creationism in its public schools.

Why does everyone feel the need to constantly spin things for their own side. Is it really so hard for Texas to get a non-biased group together to study this issue? This is the third article I have read on this Texas issue.

Hey Texas, you are being a little TOO right wing on this issue. The whole country is watching you, we see what you are doing.

"Texas" is a flavor. I'd suggest that the faster they spice up their education system, the faster will be the decay, right? Even in the best case, our public education system amounts to little more than nationalistic brainwashing. Any challenging intellectual stimulation was removed long ago, if it ever existed in the first instance.

A person isn't going to learn anything meaningful in a Texas OR New York public school, so why not let them be colorful? Can you really get worked up about this?

Like all things "public" in America, education is an industry segment - in this case book publishing. Publishers just want to sell books - - any kind of book to anyone. School systems are the buyers, and whatever the buyer wants, they'll get. If humans are going to stop educating themselves when the graduate high school or college, the species is doomed anyway. So what if the Texans will die embracing Phyllis Schafly, or McCarthy?

Go, Lisa! Anon is just another right wing troll, who has a job keeping 'orthodoxy' safe on the ever erasable internet. We know they're lying, they know they're lying, and they know that we know they're lying. Then they proudly lie, telling us 'I have MY version of reality, reality be damned!' The repugs are against an educated population, 'cos it interferes with repug power and profit. Anything they can do, to short circuit education or throw a monkey wrench into the works, they will do. And if they can steal some taxpayer money while promoting nazi know nothing ideology - like Lamar Alexander does with Whittle / Channel 1; or Neil and Bar bush do with Excite; or text publishers do with 'Intelligent Design' in Kansas, Dover, PA, or Texas - well, that's just a little lagnaippe for them, just an added bonus on top of their primary goal of destroying public education and crushing the unionized intelligensia who toil to help young Americans become smarter.