DU named on AARP chat board

[GinaMaria]

http://community.aarp.org/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=rp-legislative&msg=1833.1&ctx=16384

[RobertSeattle]

1. Funny

I like how the poster makes a bad thing of posting as "Guest" while he/she posts as a "Guest". Can you say Hip Hip Oh Crite?

[xultar]

2. Yup you guys behave the Blue Hairs are watching. My Mom is a Blue Hair

and she's down with the whole thing. She dropped her membership today.

GO MOM GO!

And when I become a BLUE HAIR which isn't far away. If they pull that crap with me I'll drop'em too!

[asjr]

8. aarp

I got out of AARP several years ago. The leadership sucks!

[Warpy]

10. Same here

I posted today that the lousy organization has been screwing baby boomers along with the rest of the corporate culture they're defending, and that they can go whistle for most of us. It's been a completely useless organization ever since it became a GOP front. To hell with them!

[liberalhistorian]

22. SAME HERE!

My very proudly and staunchly liberal mom has been a member for more than ten years, and very angrily cancelled her membership yesterday because she was so disgusted with AARP.

First she's getting screwed royally by the State Teachers Retirement System (Ohio) and may have to end up paying more than three-quarters of her retirement pension just to keep her health insurance thanks to the mismanagement of the fund by the repukes and repigs in charge, who were having lavish parties and buying fancy artwork at the retiree's expense, now even AARP is turning repuke and she won't stand for it.

Many of her retired friends feel the same way and want to have a "cutting up AARP membership cards" party. So I say to these wrongheaded, misinformed, ignorant repukes posting against us on the AARP board to shove THAT up their ass, and they know what to do with it after that!

[Rose Siding]

3. That just crazy

They claim DU has "organized" an attack, but all that's linked is an AARP remark! One person in the thread tells about calling but actually DOES seem to be a member, not any faker.

So... A warning about someone trying to bully and scare old people and take away their HC "choice". Hmmm..now who has ever done *that* before?

[nolabels]

20. DU has "organized" an attack

We are going to laugh them out of the house LOL

[Atman]

4. The most salient point...

Frankly, I was surprised...that board is virtually unanimously opposed to the AARP's stance...the only post in favor was the one that started the thread, wherein the poster claimed that everyone elses posts were fakes from DU. Sheesh! Talk about cognitive dissonance!

Anyway...here is the best post to sum up the whole debate...

=========

From today's Washington Post:

"How do you know this bill is such a great deal for the drug companies and HMOs? On word of an agreement last week, share prices of drug stocks soared."

=========

[loudnclear]

5. Has AARP gone mad? By 2006, when this goes into effect, 40% of the

target population will be dead!

[shirlden]

7. GEEEEEZZZZ!!!!!

I hope not.......I'm the target population




:hi:

[shirlden]

6. I have been trolling the aarp

boards for two days. Saw that post about DU. The best part was that a couple of 'blue hairs' came over and read the thread and said they saw nothing wrong with it and did not need anyone to sway their opinion. They were quite capable of making up their own minds. Another thread was started by an obvious freeper and they didn't care for him/her either. I have had a couple of posts deleted,especially when I posted a story (true) about AARP lying to me.

Go Blue Hairs

:yourock:

[oasis]

26. "Crossfire" covering Jacko as important vote looms over the medicare issue

[Cocoa]

9. the AARP got booed by their own members

at the AARP-sponsored forum yesterday on C-span, one of the dems mentioned the AARP's decision, and the room instantly erupted in some of the most heartfelt boos I've heard in a long time.

I don't think DU bullying is THAT effective. :-)

[GinaMaria]

12. agree

I hope the aarp members that wandered over to DU because of that thread, feel supported. It's time for new leadership over there or time for some of those angry seniors to start their own organization. One that will actually support seniors and their issues. Hope DU ended up with some new members because of this. Some of the posts about the bush admin from aarp members were angry and very well informed imo. refreshing.

Seems like the gop is rapidly loosing this demographic.

[Terwilliger]

11. Quite a lot of hatred for the AARP endorsement of this bill

could their action end the AARP?

[prolesunited]

13. Here's a "curious" linkage

as posted by Oaf Of Office
 
Head Of AARP Wrote Preface To Gingrich Book On Healthcare

Seniors and Democrats were stunned when the AARP announced its support of the Trojan Horse Republican Medicare bill.

The AARP message board is burning up with rage against the AARP and its CEO, William D. Novelli, the former public relations whiz kid. Seniors appear to be canceling their memberships and calling for heads to roll at AARP headquarters.

But Novelli defiantly dismissed membership outrage at his alliance with the Republicans, who see the proposed Medicare bill as the first step in the privatization and dismantling of the senior health insurance program.

In response to Senator Tom Daschle's tart prediction that he would face a revolt within his organization over this bill, Novelli said, "There's not going to be a revolt within AARP. There's going to be a problem if Congress fails to pass this legislation."

Mr. Novelli claims he has his AARP seniors in the bag for the GOP. But is being an enthusiastic supporter of Newt Gingrich's wing nut healthcare plan for America doing the best for seniors?

Novelli is such a fan of Gingrich that he wrote a preface to Newt's babbling right wing treatise on how to destroy the healthcare safety net for seniors and other Americans: "Saving Lives & Saving Money." This is what Novelli said in praise of Gingrich's book:

http://www.buzzflash.com/buzzscripts/buzz.dll/quote

[oasis]

23. AARP head Novelli praises Gingrich who said "Let Medicare die on the vine"

:wtf:

[madrchsod]

14. dam i posted yesterday

and did`nt think of mentioning du..now that was pretty stupid. i`ll have to do that later....

[dbt]

15. Hello, AARP members!

Welcome to Democratic Underground, a place where we have been discussing, for some time now, how your organization has sold out to the corporations over this "health" bill.

We are proud and humble to have our proud but humble webshite mentioned on yours! You will find us to be a nest of (mostly) cheerful malcontents who are dedicated to opposing King George in every way we can Imagine.

Take your shoes off, set a spell. Y'all come back now, y'hear?

Your Fiend,
:evilgrin:
dbt

[drfemoe]

16. They have been sold out

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/11/17/national1558EST0675.DTL

snip ...
"When GOP strategists prepared mock television commercials on Social Security -- another issue of concern to senior citizens -- they found that invoking the name of AARP was a particularly potent weapon for the Democrats.

"AARP is a dangerous adversary in this debate," one memo said. "They have greater credibility than any entity on this issue and are not viewed as partisan." " end snip ...

All that credibility and political clout, flushed down the :hurts:

[grasswire]

17. on CNBC this morning...

....the anchors were trying to characterize AARP as a Democrat-leaning organization. Nuts! How could 35 million seniors in the country's most comfortable generation be left-leaning? They questioned the intentions of unhappy AARP-ers, saying it was more about politics than substance.

[drfemoe]

18. It IS about politics

duh .. "enron economics" .. the rich get richer politics.

[Cocoa]

19. how long before they start smearing seniors as a group?

If this controversy within AARP seriously jeopardizes the legislation, will they start releasing polls showing that old people like Saddam Hussein?

[BiggJawn]

28. No, they will saying that old people "suck up" too many...

..."scarce" resources, like healthcare, food, living space ("Lebensraum") oxygen...

NOW...I KNOW why I have been seeing these ads on TV for the past week telling us that Evan Bayh supports this pig. My question is, WHO is paying for the spots?

Why would the ReTHUGlicans be trying to torpedo Evan? He's the best friend Eli Lilly has in Washington....

[johnfunk]

21. God Bless the Blue State Blue Hairs!

They're rebelling against AARP's ex-Gingrich-toadie leader and his support for the GOP-PhRMA-Insurance-Lobbywhore Medicare "reform!"

There's nothing more fun than watching septaugenarian women beat the Bushit out of a shill for the Republican Party.

[oasis]

24. dinnertime kick......medicare future more important than Jacko

[Terwilliger]

25. I'll keek it too

[Myra]

31. Bump

I think the AARP forum could benefit from our input.
Who couldn't?! :)

Wow, that William Novelli, head of the AARP is some
kinda bastard. He helped kill Clinton's health
care plan with the infamous Harry and Louise ads
according to Joe Conason.

[bobbieinok]

27. Seniors have been the enemy for some time.

Young adults have been constantly told they're paying for seniors to live well but will never see any social security for themselves.

Parents have been constantly told that the federal govt cannot adequately fund education because seniors are so loud and demanding about their retirement.

The 'pit groups with little power against each other' stratgy cranked up big time after the Reagan crew gained control of the message and language in 1980.

[Wonk]

29. gevernment? what they are up too? Written like a true freeper. nt

[SoCalDem]

33. They probably think we are "series" and will cause a "hugh" problem

for them :)..

Silly freepers.. one of these days you would think that they would vote their own interests..:(

[Oracle]

30. The Senate...the last chance? Fucking Bush wants it passed for...

obvious reasons...as if he doing something for the people...election 2004

AARP 800 424-3410 call, looks like on Monday (closed for the weekend, make a note.)

[ninkasi]

32. I count myself as blessed...

but have been adamantly opposed to this legislation. If the worst case scenerio happened, and my prescription meds cost more than I could afford, I have four wonderful, loving grown children, who have all told me on numerous occasions that they would love to have me living with them.

I am also lucky enough to have two loving neices, and a grown granddauther who have made the same offer. Not everybody has the support of a close family, like I do. We have to fight for the rights and dignity of the worst off among us before we can claim any moral high ground, or call ourselves truly civilized. The fact that my needs might be provided for is meaningless to me, unless everybody elses needs are provided for, as well.