McCain on Healthcare...Wow

God forbid I say anything bad about a war hero but can someone quickly develop a script wherein Tim Conway (Dorf) plays McCain?

That guy on Star Trek Voyager who played Tuvok would be a cool Obama.

Overweight Hispanic youths pursue A-rod while while crossing state line with McCain's $5000 health credit....

http://www.oculture.com/2008/06/wind_powered_art.html

my cholesterol has gone from 225 to 164 since i started the raw vegan diet. 3-4 wks

by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship 6/30

...
At a congressional hearing this week, James Hansen, the NASA climate scientist who exactly twenty years ago alerted Congress and the world to the dangers of global warming, compared the chief executives of Big Oil to the tobacco moguls who denied that nicotine is addictive or that there’s a link between smoking and cancer.

Hansen, who the administration has tried again and again to silence, said these barons of black gold should be tried for committing crimes against humanity and nature in opposing efforts to deal with global warming.

Perhaps those sweetheart deals in Iraq should be added to his proposed indictments. They have been purchased at a very high price. Four thousand American soldiers dead, tens of thousands permanently wounded for life, hundreds of thousands of dead and crippled Iraqis plus five million displaced, and a cost that will mount into trillions of dollars. The political analyst Kevin Phillips says America has become little more than an “energy protection force,” doing anything to gain access to expensive fuel without regard to the lives of others or the earth itself. One thinks again of Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. His lust for oil came at the price of his son and his soul.

KO advises Obama

whoa...

Submitted by toniD on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 4:56pm.

The point right now is to win at all costs and clean up later. We would even be saying this had Edwards won on certain issues.

No! This is a real mess this year. This is the worst I've seen in all my life!

And Star Vox, I understand that you were not for Obama but was for Hillary. It would be the same with her. But she would bomb Iran without thinking about it.

This is an ugly world we live in and there is a huge fight brewing. Get ready because you will hate all of them! The US is no longer the power it was. From Reagan on, the repubs have seen to that.

________________________________

For clarification, I did not support Clinton or Obama in the primary. I have never said that I was for Clinton (or Obama).

I believe that I was the first person who posted the Molly Ivins article about not supporting Clinton in the primary election (when Ms. Molly was still with us). However, I did not support Obama either in the primary.

Both Obama and Clinton are centrists and I decided to stay out of the primary battle (although I am on their mailing lists along with every other Democratic candidate who was in the race -- plus some third party candidates). I have not given either Clinton or Obama two cents -- despite daily e-mails and too many phone calls to count (as a voting delegate).

Instead, I repeatedly spoke up about how to defeat the corporate media. Remember those debates?

I spoke up about the sexism/misogyny displayed against Clinton. I spoke up about the racism and religious attacks against Obama. More recently, I have spoken up about the Hillaryization of Michelle Obama by the corporate media.

Generally, I support Media Matters and their campaigns.

For the record, the "corporate media cabal" is for McCain (and the Republicans do have a considerable amount of money to use in the election).

Yes, I have every intention now of voting for Obama in the general election.

I am not surprised that Obama distanced himself from MoveOn.org (although I would have guessed that Obama would have done it in a future debate with McCain when MoveOn was the choice topic of the hour).

I did state earlier that MoveOn.org should not have endorsed Obama in the primary -- since he did not stand up for MoveOn.org in Congress (when even Clinton had enough audacity to stand up for MoveOn.org with her vote). I thought MoveOn.org should have remained more independent and focused on continuing campaigns on various issues (i.e., against war/occupation funding, support universal health care, etc).

My biggest concern now with Obama is that he will choose an anti-choice politician as his VP (from the good ol' boys from the Democratic club). Of course, it could get worse! Obama could choose an anti-choice Republican as his running mate.

I am encouraging people to support state and local progressives. I am concerned that more Blue Dog Democrats are winning in the primaries (and they are raising more money).

Our big progressive victory has been Donna Edwards.

We need more progressives in Congress and I am actively working in this area.

p.s. toniD, I wish you well with your future knee surgery. I have heard glowing reviews and comments from folks who have had the surgery. They are now happy dancing with their new bionic knees. I wish you much happy dancing in the future, Ms. toniD!

http://www.pgpf.org/newsroom/18

If our tax laws merely stay the same from 2006 to 2010, for instance, government revenues would rise by several hundred billion dollars. But guess what? Most of those revenue increases are already committed, mainly to the growing costs of our current health and retirement programs.

It gets worse. In a little more than a decade, we'll likely have around $1 trillion more in annual revenues, yet under current law almost all of that growth will have been pre-allocated without so much as a nod from the existing or future Congresses.

Until those issues are dealt with up front, new promises by our presidential candidates are largely puffs in the wind.

He's also an awesome musician, BTW...

http://yourscene.latimes.com/mycapture/photos/Image.aspx?ImageID=37396&E... russ

_________________________________
http://seniorvirgin.blogspot.com/

Exactly how many companies that George ever manage do any better?

Who didn't expect the great implosion.... But wait, Iran will save the day!

bomb, bomb, bomb...... puke, hurl, vomit.

I'm so fucking pissed at what McLame said in that video. Now I have to dive for links.

Obama on Housing same event:

I'm not sure we want to look back on this election year and say to ourselves, "That's the best that we could do?"
_____________________________
http://seniorvirgin.blogspot.com/

God Bless America
Submitted by dada on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 1:03am.
George Carlin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdR7vVK0o7w

..this is excellent..thanks, dada..

on D.C. Gun Law

Randy Newman-You Can Keep Your Hat On

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Dow and S&P 500 see the biggest losses for the month since the Great Depression despite edging higher Monday.

Gee, I wonder what these two links have in common?

CNN Money & Nov 2005

There was a lockdown this morning at Dominion’s downtown HQ. Four women locked down with lockboxes and a concrete full barrel, while a male climber dangled off a suspension bridge anchored by the barrel. Last week, Virginia’s Air Board voted to permit the Wise County plant and now Earth First and Mountain Justice have responded in kind.
...

with the toxic energy saving lightbulb stuff..but I don't think he is now that I saw that Mr. Poe from Texas talking about the 'energy bill'...

Dems are supposed to represent us, not the mythmakers...
and most U.S. Citizens want OUT of the Middle East wars of aggression. These wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and possibly Iran next, are justified by Bush's "War on Terror' which was born mature from the womb of 9/11/2001. All this death and destruction and war profiteering is based on the 9/11 Myth. This insanity will continue without end if we don't get rid of the 9/11 Myth and replace it with the truth. We must INSIST that the reality of the 9/11 events be revisited and finally investigated honestly and thoroughly.

It appears the Dems are ready to pick up where Bush leaves off and continue this insane 'War on Terror'. The Dems have taken no position that questions the fact that the 9/11 event was TOO MUCH OF A SUCCESS to have been carried out in the way the myth depicts it. The Dems continue to buy the Bush claptrap, complete with its aggressive use of MILITARY forces, never mind that actual terrorist acts are limited to incidents best addressed by law enforcement.

The Dems have big problems. And buying into the 9/11 Myth is the biggest because it is the basis for all that has followed.

Many wild birds are able to imitate the simple ringtones of mobile telephones, German ornithologists report, underscoring the influence of humans on the evolution of birds.

These birds can "sing up to 78 different phrases, and many of the simplest telephone ringtones coincide with them," ornithologist Matthias Werner, of the government's bird protection agency, told Tierramérica.

Impeachment ?

NATIONAL IMPEACHMENT NETWORK ACTION ALERT RE KEY REPS

The first list combines the cosponsors of H. Res. 333/799, cosponsors of H. Res. 1258, and signers of Robert Wexler's letter to John Conyers asking for immediate hearings for Cheney. After each name is "333", "1258", or "W" if they signed on to any of these three. Reps who've done all three are in bold, as they would seem to be the most committed of the lot. At the end are the separate lists for 333, 1258 and Wexler's letter.

LIST OF REPRESENTATIVES SUPPORTING IMPEACHMENT

Con't

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

by digby

I suppose everyone remembers waiting for The Man Called Petraeus to come home from the front and give us all a report on the Grand Surge Campaign of The Great Iraq War. We were told for months in advance that all judgment in Iraq vested in him, The Man who Knew Everything and for whom we must show our Utmost Reverence. He was a General, which according to the gasbags was only slightly less worthy of worship than Jesus and Tim Russert. In fact, when Move-On ran an ad criticizing the General, the senate took up a resolution that called for the body to "strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces." Seventy Five senators voted for it.

The point of that hissy fit wasn't to uphold the honor of General Petraeus or even the armed forces. It was shut down any criticism of the war in Iraq. That's what today's hissy fit against Wes Clark is all about too, with the added bonus of shutting down all criticism of John McCain's truly embarrassing ignorance on foreign policy in general.

Con't

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

http://www.ice.org/unzipped/2003/10/us-A_Tribute_To_James_Ensor.jpg

http://www.apollo13art.com/National/painting1/lectures/images/ensor-mano...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2140/1805528942_b079214b47.jpg

The San Francisco Chronicle has suddenly discovered that the middle class is leaving San Francisco.

http://www.sfbg.com/News/chaunceybailey/
...
Secret video raises questions about bakery leader's role in Bailey killing

This is too bizarre....

Malloy has got something here alright!

Gates is George H.W. Bush's boy, isn't he?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/06/the_obama_left.html
the wimp left, the weird left, and the hard left

--Can we have a do-over?
Submitted by junkered on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 12:54am.

I'm not sure we want to look back on this election year and say to ourselves, "That's the best that we could do?"
_____________________________
http://seniorvirgin.blogspot.com/--

A Pride celebrity grand marshal, she'll be riding on a parade float full of Charo look-alike drag queens, followed by a show at the Herbst Theatre.

Orgy

Reason #20l,376 why internets are better than boob tubes.

:)

Somebody tell Obama!

This from
Jerry Mazza, a freelance writer.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1424.shtml

Among Gates' many offenses mentioned in Parry’s article, perhaps the most pernicious was corrupting the intelligence process itself by politicizing it. That is, turning objective scholarship and truth gathered by loyal analysts into agit-prop that politicians wished to use for their agendas. This legacy, Parry points out, “contributed to the botched CIA’s analysis of Iraqi WMD in 2002, a most formidable failure whose results we are now living with.

In fact at Gates’ confirmation hearings in 1991, ex CIA analysts, most notably Kremlinologist Mel Goodman, came out of the shadows to accuse Gates of politicizing intelligence on his watch as chief and then deputy director of the analytical division.

The former intel officers said with one voice that the “ambitious Gates pressured the CIA’s analytical divison to exaggerate the Soviet menace to fit the ideological perspective of the Reagan administration. Analysts who took a more nuanced view of Soviet power and Moscow’s behavior in the world faced pressure and career reprisals.”

Thus in 1981, Carolyn McGiffert Ekedal of the CIA’s Soviet office was handed the bombshell assignment to gather analysis on the Soviet Union’s alleged support and direction of international terrorism. Parry points out, “Contrary to the desired White House take on Soviet-backed terrorism, Ekedahl said the consensus of the intelligence community was that the Soviets discouraged acts of terrorism by groups getting support from Moscow for practical, not moral, reasons.”

Ekedahl herself said, “We agreed that the Soviets consistently stated, publicly and privately, that they considered international terrorist activities counterproductive and advised groups they supported not to use such tactics. We had hard evidence to support this conclusion.”

Yet Gates raked analysts over the coals, accusing them of trying to “stick our finger in the policy maker’s eye,” Ekedahl testified. Gates, unhappy with the terrorism assessment, put his hand into rewriting the draft “to suggest greater Soviet support for terrorism and the text was altered by pulling up from the annex reports that overstated Soviet involvement.”

In his memoirs, From The Shadows, Gates denied politicizing the CIA’s intelligence product. He admitted only that he was aware of [William] Casey’s “hostile reaction to the analysts’ disagreement with right-wing theories about Soviet-directed terrorism.” In fact, Casey and Gates undermined the whole intelligence process.

As a result, the roof fell in on the analysts who prepared the Soviet-terrorism report. Ekedahl pointed out that many analysts were “replaced by people new to the subject who insisted on language emphasizing Soviet control of international terrorist activities.”

Thus, a war broke out inside the US intelligence community. Some top officials who produced the analysis fought back against Casey’s willingness to tamper with the truth. They warned that politicization would undermine the processes' integrity and “risk policy disasters in the future.” ...

Gates was soon peppering the analytical division with fellow travelers, so to speak. They were known as the “Gates Clones,” according to Parry. Peter Dickson, an analyst who concentrated on proliferation issues said, “One of the things he [Gates] wanted to do . . . was to shake up the DI. He was going to read every paper that came out. What that did was that everybody between the analyst and him had to get involved in the paper to a greater extent because their careers were going to be at stake.”...

Mel Goodman summed up the Gates-Casey offenses to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1991: “the politicization that took place during the Casey-Gates era is directly responsible for the CIA’s loss of its ethical compass and the erosion of its credibility . . . The fact that the CIA missed the most important historical development in its history -- the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the Soviet Union itself -- is due in large measure to the culture and process that Gates established in its directorate.”

ah!

finally home and dinz

and some really good tea and honey!

Greetings!

comp froze up while i was replying to you!

had to reboot.

How are you? this one is ready for a snooze.

this hot weather (86f) just wrings me dry after a day of it.

I'm to have a five thousand dollar tax credit to get health care in a foreign country? That's the solution to our fucked up health care system? What a fucking brilliant plan. Let's have more stupid shit that only benefits the uber rich while bleeding more money out of our country.

So does this cover only War Veterans or all veterans?

At least, it was for me--it only covered 1/3rd of my tuition. I was working two jobs, dealing with my bills and the commute, and I barely made it through a year of school in Chicago. And that was taking only two classes per semester! Good thing I already had a B.A. in English... damn it. Because that sure wasn't worth it.

------------------------------------
http://seniorvirgin.blogspot.com/

It was just passed despite McCain's votes and Bush's vetos...

There was a comment on Olbermann about it helping 'war veterans'...

I was just curious if it will also apply for veterans who do not see combat?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hdj/ -Sara's in England this week; new pics!

We've been in an open war period in the U.S. since 1990.

More info on what eras were/were not wars: http://books.google.com/books?id=J_jepZGFragC&pg=PA248&lpg=PA248&dq=offi...

African Union silent on Mugabe election theft
Chris in Paris · 7/01/2008 02:43:00 AM ET · Link
3 Comments · reddit · FARK · Digg It! ·

Pretty pathetic, but at least they're not giving him a standing ovation this time. It is difficult for the world to take the AU seriously when no one can step up in public and provide valid criticism. No region is perfect but the election fraud and violence was so blatantly obvious, even a lapdog like Thabo Mbeki could not ignore it. Well, if he wasn't hugging Mugabe at the presidential palace, that is. All of this talk about promoting a joint government is ridiculous. Mugabe lost the election and then launched a campaign of extreme violence so who could possibly trust a partnership with him?
African leaders pointedly avoided public criticism of Robert Mugabe yesterday as he arrived in Egypt for a summit expected to press him to negotiate with the opposition that his Zanu-PF party bullied out of last week's election.

The African Union summit allowed the 84-year-old leader to take his seat, despite strong criticism from African election monitors who questioned the legitimacy of Friday's uncontested vote.

Some delegates at the meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh said that in private there was little warmth towards Mugabe; but in public there were no statements condemning the violence that propelled him back into office. A draft of a final communique circulating yesterday called only for dialogue.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/01/zimbabwe

Paulson confirms strong dollar policy
Chris in Paris · 7/01/2008 01:00:00 AM ET · Link
7 Comments · reddit · FARK · Digg It! ·

If only those darned facts didn't get in the way of his story. This administration and its enablers are completely comfortable with distorting the truth regardless of the topic.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/25451746

How's everyone!

I would call the Veterans Admin to see if you qualify for the new benefits. Education, Unemployment and Flood relief.

DOW posts its worst June since the Great Depression
John Aravosis (DC) · 6/30/2008 10:52:00 PM ET · Link

Somebody offer John McCain a donut.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/30/markets/markets_newyork/?postversion=200...

good discussion on Iran with Katrina V. on msnbc

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add...

proof that pat B. is a bafoon

track pad finger shake

wait till you see what it does with july 1

Obama to expand Bush's faith based programs
5 minutes ago
CHICAGO - Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support some ability to hire and fire based on faith.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080701/ap_on_el_pr/obama_faith

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add...

still think Clark would make a good vp

CNN Money & Nov 2005

I posted this last night. A lot of stuff happened in Nov. 2005. Katrina was a growing disaster, Torture became a topic of discussion. The war showed us the failure of the administration.

Similarly there were several MASSIVE volume days on the DOW. The volume for that month is surprising to me. Do you think that much volume looks suspicious under those conditions?

by Andrew Zajac

This can't be good for the campaign of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

The IRS is trying to serve a summons on Swiss bank UBS AG seeking information on U.S. taxpayers who may have used the bank to gin up records to avoid billions in taxes on offshore investments.

Top McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm is vice chairman of UBS' U.S. division which already has drawn unflattering scrutiny for writing off big losses in subprime mortgage-backed securities.

Gramm, the former Texas senator and presidential candidate, was registered to lobby Congress last year on mortgage securities issues on behalf of UBS.

There's no indication that Gramm has any involvement in the tax-avoidance scheme, but his presence in the pilothouse of a global finance company under fire from U.S. regulators is precisely the sort of special interest coziness that McCain insists he represents a break from.

At least five top McCain aides have left the Arizona senator's camp because their lobbying or business involvements were judged to be more than a maverick, tell-it-like-it-is campaign could bear.

The RNC was quick to point out today that Barack Obama has his own ties to UBS in the person of Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS Americas, who is a major fundraiser for the Illinois Democrat.

But Gramm's involvement in problematic economic policy issues benefiting UBS run to more than lobbying in the midst subprime mess. (Gramm successfully advocated defeat of a bill that would have given bankruptcy judges the clout to rewrite mortgage terms to prevent homeowners from losing their houses.)

As a senator he sponsored legislation that knocked down the regulatory wall separating commercial and investment banks, which in the view of some critics exacerbated the mortgage meltdown.

As a UBS lobbyist in Texas, he proposed selling so-called "death bonds", a complex financial product which would have allowed the ailing state teachers retirement system to take out life insurance policies on members and make money if they died prematurely.

Here's a copy of today's Justice Department's announcement of action against UBS:

http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2008/06/feds_seek_t...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YauM5dHLn1s
Banking with hitler

A bit of background on your fav bank to quote BIS.
I saw this last night.

Tomato scare may be mistake
Health officials say other foods could be the source of U.S. salmonella outbreak
By Jonathan D. Rockoff | Sun reporter

A growing number of health officials fear that investigators made a terrible mistake in blaming tomatoes for the sickening of more than 800 Americans, and they increasingly suspect jalapeno peppers, cilantro or some other food commonly found in Mexican restaurants, health officials involved in the investigation say.

The salmonella outbreak should be petering out if contaminated tomatoes were the cause, because tomatoes have a limited shelf life and many consumers have been avoiding them. Yet, the number of reported cases has continued to grow, and investigators have failed to identify the source.

Admission of a mistake, after consumers across the country shunned tomatoes and the food industry lost up to $250 million, could deepen criticism of a government food safety system that has been attacked for failing to prevent illnesses and deaths resulting from the contamination of a string of products, including peanut butter and bagged spinach, in recent years.

"It's bad, and I think everyone will be very apologetic" if it turns out tomatoes weren't the source, said Tim Jones, Tennessee's state epidemiologist, describing himself as "increasingly concerned" about whether tomatoes are to blame.

Failure to find the culprit, a month after authorities warned the nation, reflects the difficulty of tracing the source of microscopic bacteria in widely used food. It also underscores the weaknesses in a government safety net that critics say relies on short-staffed state health departments and turf-conscious federal authorities.

It could still turn out that tainted tomatoes caused the Salmonella saintpaul outbreak, believed to be the largest ever tracked in this country, with 810 people confirmed sick, including 25 in Maryland, as of last week.

On Friday, federal health officials said that investigators continued to find a strong association between tomatoes and the most recent confirmed illnesses. The officials said they were "keeping an open mind" about other possible sources, but other health officials said the hunt for alternate suspects is under way.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.tomato01jul01,0,69072.sto...

By Andrew J. Bacevich
July 1, 2008

FEW AMERICANS, whatever their political persuasion, will mourn George W. Bush's departure from office. Democrats and Republicans alike are counting the days until the inauguration of a new president will wipe the slate clean.

Yet in crucial respects, the Bush era will not end Jan. 20, 2009. The administration's many failures, especially those related to Iraq, mask a considerable legacy. Among other things, the Bush team has accomplished the following:

Defined the contemporary era as an "age of terror" with an open-ended "global war" as the necessary, indeed the only logical, response;

Promulgated and implemented a doctrine of preventive war, thereby creating a far more permissive rationale for employing armed force;

Affirmed - despite the catastrophe of Sept. 11, 2001 - that the primary role of the Department of Defense is not defense, but power projection;

Removed constraints on military spending so that once more, as Ronald Reagan used to declare, "defense is not a budget item";

Enhanced the prerogatives of the imperial presidency on all matters pertaining to national security, effectively eviscerating the system of checks and balances;

Preserved and even expanded the national security state, despite the manifest shortcomings of institutions such as the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff;

Preempted any inclination to question the wisdom of the post-Cold War foreign policy consensus, founded on expectations of a sole superpower exercising "global leadership";

Completed the shift of US strategic priorities away from Europe and toward the Greater Middle East, the defense of Israel having now supplanted the defense of Berlin as the cause to which presidents and would-be presidents ritually declare their fealty.

By almost any measure, this constitutes a record of substantial, if almost entirely malignant, achievement.

Bush's harshest critics, left liberals as well as traditional conservatives, have repeatedly called attention to this record. That criticism has yet to garner mainstream political traction. Throughout the long primary season, even as various contenders in both parties argued endlessly about Iraq, they seemed oblivious to the more fundamental questions raised by the Bush years: whether global war makes sense as an antidote to terror, whether preventive war works, whether the costs of "global leadership" are sustainable, and whether events in Asia rather than the Middle East just might determine the course of the 21st century.

Now only two candidates remain standing. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama both insist that the presidential contest will mark a historic turning point. Yet, absent a willingness to assess in full all that Bush has wrought, the general election won't signify a real break from the past.

The burden of identifying and confronting the Bush legacy necessarily falls on Obama. Although for tactical reasons McCain will distance himself from the president's record, he largely subscribes to the principles informing Bush's post-9/11 policies. McCain's determination to stay the course in Iraq expresses his commitment not simply to the ongoing conflict there, but to the ideas that gave rise to that war in the first place. While McCain may differ with the president on certain particulars, his election will affirm the main thrust of Bush's approach to national security.

More here:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/0...

don't know, i normally look at individual volume from the perspective of comparing it to average volume.

the conventional wisdom is that high volume represents institutions moving in or moving out of the market. i sorta understand the principle but am not convinced.

McConnell: Senate GOP 'won’t be in the majority' next year

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) gave a bleak outlook on the prospects for a Republican-led Senate in 2009.

During an interview with CNN’s Late Edition, McConnell told guest host Candy Crowley that the numbers were not in the GOP’s favor.

“We are not going to be back in the majority in the Senate next year,” said McConnell. “The numbers make that impossible.”

Republicans in the Senate have been gearing up for the elections in November despite grim conditions. Five GOP senators are retiring this year: Sen. Wayne Allard (CO), Sen. John Warner (VA), Sen. Pete Domenici (NM), Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE), and Sen. Larry Craig (ID). Other Republicans are running in competitive elections, such as Norm Coleman (MN), who faces well-known comedian and outspoken Democrat Al Franken in November.

Each party holds the same number of members in the Senate (49-49), but the Democrats hold a slim majority with two independents, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman, caucusing with their party. However, many are predicting that the Democrats could pick up as many as six seats in the fall, giving them a clear majority.

Despite the GOP’s troubles, McConnell remains hopeful about his party’s chances and predicts they will hold most, if not all, of their seats. “I'm optimistic we can stay roughly where we are,” he told Crowley. “We have a robust minority.”

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/29/mcconnell-senate-gop-won...

But Mitch's seat may very well be lost as well. Ditch the Mitch!

We should start another campaign to get Sam back on the radio. Mark Green should not have one moment of peace. None! Ron Kuby is a joke. Bender has no sense of humor. Both are mundane and boring. They belong on NPR where being glib is the norm.

Green is the self-appointed spokesperson for Progressives. When he appears on television as such, we should follow with emails of protest. Green cannot bring in new listeners. He's old with old ideas. We should not stand for what he has done to Sam.

NRA plans $40 million
fall blitz targeting Obama

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The National Rifle Association plans to spend about $40 million on this year’s presidential campaign, with $15 million of that devoted to portraying Barack Obama as a threat to the Second Amendment rights upheld last week by the Supreme Court.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080630/pl_politico/11452;_ylt=ApL5x1p...

Ditch the Mitch!
Submitted by toniD on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 9:19am.
-------

Yep! But, you have to reach deep in the closet and pull him out.

Billy Graham honcho trying to
link Obama to Adolph Hitler

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An email that is credited to Bill Brown, former president of Graham's ministry, is now being circulated by the Christian right. It is a bareknuckled attack on Sen. Barack Obama that -- among other criticisms -- compares Obama's talent for oratory to the Nazi tyrant.

http://thebellwetherdaily.blogspot.com/2008/06/hating-thy-neighbor-retir...

Police say Wash. woman's
baby was cut from womb

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Police said a pregnant woman was killed after being stabbed multiple times in the chest and her nearly full-term baby was cut from her womb. A 23-year-old woman has been arrested.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080701/ap_on_re_us/cut_from_womb;_ylt=AtHZN...

General Motors's stock
skids to 1950s level

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Motors' stock price fell on Monday to levels last seen in 1954, as investors fretted over its falling sales and as some analysts wondered if the iconic US automaker's glory days are in the rearview mirror.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usautostockscompanygm;_ylt=AstXQaP3W76EufF1q...

Their fault! They should have designed a car that ran on alternate fuel back in the 70s when Carter was pushing this!

US, NATO deaths in
Afghanistan pass Iraq toll

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month, a grim milestone capping a run of headline-grabbing insurgent attacks that analysts say underscore the Taliban's growing strength.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080630/ap_on_re_as/afghan_deadly_month;_ylt...

Monday, June 30, 2008

So let me understand this....
...the guy who uses a prostitute and puts his wife at risk for contracting a ...the guy who uses a prostitute and puts his wife at risk for contracting a sexually transmitted disease thinks we should discriminate against against people with HIV?

Is David Vitter trying to go further to the right or what? First, he decides with his cheating friend Larry Craig to co-sponsor the Marriage Protection Amendment and now he is the sole Senator blocking the lifting of the HIV travel ban.

Think Progress on Vitter's move for visitors to the United States. International LGBT gatherings create a sea of paperwork to be granted an exception for visitors. What a mess. Just a dozen countries world wide prohibit those with HIV from entering. They include Lybia, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

Interestingly, the ban on travel for HIV+ people was codified into law and signed by President Bill Clinton. At the time, his Secretary of Health and Human Services was Donna Shalala, herself a closeted lesbian.

http://www.blogactive.com/

up early here, already warming up.

80's and 90's pretty warm for up here.

Starting today! I'm so excited because I got to hear over AM airwaves liberal talk over Dallas. This is big news to us because we lost a lot when we lost Dallas Air America. Even better than that, KMNY is DALLAS NOVAM!!!!

I just feel better knowing they exist under that franchise of talk radio. Their stream should be up Thursday and you will find NEW Liberal talkers. The field just opened up a whole bunch here.

Check them out if you get a chance at:
http://rationalbroadcasting.com/

SAMMY!!!! Look at their line up. Call them and tell them you are publishing a regular show and just sell them one franchise. Sell your own work independently to stations.

Hope you're well today.

It's been cool and beautiful here the last 2 days. Sunny and in the 70s. But it's supposed to warm up today and rain coming again. Of course the rain will be here for my last day of work for awhile, Thursday!

I haven't had to use the air condition the past 3 days and that is a great savings right now. I won't be in my apartment for almost a month after the operation so I will save the AC bill in July also.

The NYT tries to act like a real newspaper

Obama Tries to Answer Questions About Patriotism

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – As the nation prepares to celebrate the Fourth of July, Senator Barack Obama opened a weeklong patriotism tour here on Monday, hoping to explain and define his American ideals to ward off skepticism and answer questions from his critics.
“I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign,” Mr. Obama said, speaking over the applause of several hundred supporters. “And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.”

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/nyt-tries-to-act-like-real-newspaper....

are you fucking serious?
Ha!

Senior Pentagon officials are concerned about the “increasing likelihood” that Israel could carry out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities “before the end of the year, an action that would have enormous security and economic repercussions for the United States and the rest of the world.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/US/story?id=5281043&page=1

mornin T!

still trashed here and working anyway.

definitely make or break it time here...

and am going to get a visa from the german embassy today

Submitted by Lucille on Tue, 07/01/2008 - 10:02am.
--
Yep Luce. Those are not my words. They are from BlogActive. This guy outed Larry Craig long before the foot taping in Minnesota. He has vowed to out all hypocrites.

A former CIA agent contends that CIA officials “ignored evidence that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb.” The agent, who sued the agency in 2004 after being fired, filed a motion on Friday requesting that the government “declassify legal documents describing what he says was a deliberate suppression of findings on Iran that were contrary to agency views at the time.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/30/AR200806...

that looks fantastic. I will have to wait to watch that from home. Thanks for that link. I'm going to cross post it so I can go back to it easily.

Good morning toniD. I hope your day is not as frustrating today, as it was yesterday. When November gets here, just tell me who to vote for because I trust you more than my own self.

Washington Times Calls Out McCain For Lying About Support For 1986 Immigration Legislation
As ThinkProgress noted on Saturday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) made inconsistent immigration pledges in a speech to the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, claiming he would both “secure our borders first” and make comprehensive reform his “top priority”:

– [W]e can and will secure our borders first, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States

– Q: Will comprehensive immigration reform - and not just enforcement - be one of your top policy priorities in your first 100 days in office?
McCAIN: It’ll be my top priority yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

But that wasn’t the only false claim McCain made that day. Yesterday, the Washington Times noted that McCain also claimed he supported the 1986 Immigration Reform Act, legislation long lambasted by conservatives as an “amnesty” bill:

[I]n 1986, we passed a law and said we would secure the borders and gave amnesty to a couple — three million people. I supported that legislation way back then.

Watch it:

In fact, McCain voted against this legislation. As the Times explained, McCain was a vocal opponent of this bill:

The Arizona Republic newspaper in 1986 reported that he had called the bill racist and quoted him as saying the bill’s requirements for employers to verify workers “would institutionalize discrimination.” He said employers would refuse to hire Hispanics to avoid running afoul of the law.

A McCain campaign official said the senator “was referring to his support for a comprehensive solution - going back to that time. He did oppose some provisions and didn’t end up voting for the bill.” As Time Magazine notes today, McCain’s shifting immigration stance, which it calls “confusion,” has been “somewhat intentional on the part of the McCain campaign” in order to woo conservatives and moderates.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/30/mccain-immigration-washington-times/

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/223/index.html
Week of 6.9.06 PBS NOW Special
Who Killed the Electric Car?
In a film that has all the elements of a murder mystery, Paine points the finger at car companies, the oil industry, bad ad campaigns, consumer wariness, and a lack of commitment from the U.S. government.

"[The film] is about why the only kind of cars that we can drive run on oil. And for a while there was a terrific alternative, a pure electric car," Paine said.
[...]

-------
and on Google video,
Who Killed The Electric Car 94 min

GM could have been HUGE.
But cowered in the face of big oil, Andy Card, and corporate profits.

McCain confuses Sudan and Somalia.
John McCain misspoke and confused his African countries while talking to reporters on the Straight Talk Express today. This time, he was bailed out not by Joe Lieberman, but by his close aide Mark Salter. “How can we bring pressure on the government of Somalia?” McCain asked, which prompted Mark Salter to correct him. “Sudan,” Salter said. “Sudan,” McCain repeated. “There’s a realpolitik side of my view of the conduct of American foreign policy.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/30/mccain-confuses-sudan-and-somalia/

Sunni Shia Sudan Somalia...can't keep em straight!

Yes I heard of it. In fact, I watched a vid on it.

Too bad they didn't go with that model back then. We wouldn't have this OIL problem now. But there would be something else.

The Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. criticized the administration for claiming its arguments about a Gitmo detainee should be accepted because they were repeated in three secret documents. The court compared that to the “absurd declaration” of a Lewis Carroll poem: “What I tell you three times is true.” “This comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true,” it said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/washington/01gitmo.html?ref=todayspape...

The ways and means are there for clean energy.
They said the draw back to the EV-1 was the battery.
So an independent business man designed a new battery which would increase the range of the EV-1 to 300 miles. He was pressed to sell his invention.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Ovshinsky
Guess who bought the patent for the future powerhouse of the electric car?

Exxon/Texaco

This same inventor has a a solar film that could be used on any metal roof.
http://smartroofsystems.com/_wsn/page5.html

I see solar funding is being cut.

Will rerun later in the day as well on XM...

203 days left!

Bushism:

"You've also got to measure in order to begin to effect change that's just more--when there's more than talk, there's just actual--a paradigm shift."

Say what?

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/3376#comments

oh lordy toniD you have to see this little angel..he is so so cute, you will fall in love with him too

never thought there was such a word as "break" in your vocab. SJ..

The real trouble with gas vehicles started with Henry Ford. Ford's wife refused to give up her electric car in favor of one of those dirty, noisy vehicles her husband was building. If only Ford had sat down for a moment, looked at the situation and taken a clue from his wife, he could've gone the electric route with the Model T--the best-selling car ever. And you can bet that others would've followed his lead from that point, thus we wouldn't be in the situation that we are now.

Not that big companies have helped the situation at all in the past century, either. GM's dismantling of the streetcars in Detroit, for example: http://www.lovearth.net/gmdeliberatelydestroyed.htm

I was privileged enough to be at the Detroit Auto Show when the EV-1, then called the Impact, premiered there. "The first vehicle that we've been able to run indoors" was part of the pitch as this sleek, silent gray vehicle made slow circles in its display area. Still kicking myself for not holding on to the brochure.

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http://seniorvirgin.blogspot.com/

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