Thanks Cenk!

...do so well. Thanks for a great evening, Sam!

Send Cenk some love for bringing Sammy on - here.

regarding fleas, we live at about a mile high so we have no fleas. I don't know if it is the altitude or the dry air. I sure don't miss those little buggers.

Great to hear you again when you had the elbow room to really do what you do.

Very good shows as usual,Sam..

Thanks.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

Maybe Sammy Cam can come back with a totally Sam Seder Show on line. And charge for it!

toniD's Ya Think?

please pass on to the responsible party how totally lame it was to ban me yesterday....

Also...why don't you just do what he does, Sam Seder?

Thu Aug 20, 2009 at 11:46:01 PDT

Simulposted at Daily Kos

Hey Mr. Senior Anonymous Source, YES the Left is digging in on Health Care and the Public Option and you would be wise to take notice. Even that President BO guy, after all, said that HCR must contain the PO or we will all be SOL PDQ!

In addition, I would like to give you a bit of a refresher course on the sagacity and veracity of The Left of The Left in the (no doubt vain) hope that you will actually stop IGNORING The Left of The Left and start listening to them. For one simple, non-politically calculating reason.....The Left of The Left are almost always right!

It is okay, you and the rest of the Moderates, Centrists, and DLC/Establishment Dems don't have to acknowledge or even associate with The Left of The Left and get Left of The Left cooties all over you shiny suit. We know you despise us and treat us like the rented mule of the Democratic Party....beating us mercilessly while we do the hard work on the ground and make up the donations you don't get from your Very Serious Corporate Buddies. (You know, all those small donations that got Obama elected and stuff) We don't need to be wined and dined. We just want you to LISTEN.

And we don't need credit either (though it would be nice!) we are used to you stealing our ideas and claiming them for your own.

buhdydharma :: The Left of The Left is Right!
But please do remember, as you make your capitulatory concessions to your enemies on the Right while ignoring and reviling your FRIENDS on The Left of The Left, that The Left of The Left were the ones that came up with virtually the entire Democratic Agenda!!!!

In fact you could say (but you won't!) that The Left of The Left came up with modern democracy itself!

Some of what follows may be stretching a bit....but I hereby present for your consideration the following items:

First of all, to get the ball rolling, Jesus was a Hippie. He was The Left of The Left. He preached Peace and Love and fed the poor, healed the sick.... and believed in Single Payer! (Monotheism joke, sorry!) Since our whole society is (allegedly) based on his values, you might wanna think about that!

Second, The Left of The Left brought us The Enlightenment and the scientific method....the OTHER foundation of our society, iirc.

Next The Left of The Left, natural born rebels that we are, brought us the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights (Check Google, you will find reference to these things I speak of there.)

Then came Abolition, a definitely Left of The Left idea, what with that whole justice equality and love for your fellow man no matter what color he is deal. People as property? That is the Republican (and don't give me that Lincoln was a Republican crap, he would roll over in his grave!) wet dream!

Next, The Labor Movement came from The Left of The Left. As the bumper sticker says, sorta...If you enjoy weekends, thank The Left of The Left. If you are against Child Labor, thank The Left of The Left. Yeah, they were called Commies and Socialists too, remember? Oh wait that;s RIGHT, they WERE Commies and Socialists, before the Repubs made those into BAD things.

Women's Suffrage? Yup...The Left of The Left.

The New Deal? You betcha, wink! They are STILL calling FDR a Socialist Commie too. Even though he 'stole' (was smart enough to steal!) all of the ideas of the New deal from The Left of The Left, even though he was an entrenched Ruling Class dude. But when the shit hit the fan he was smart enough to know that the ideas of The Left of The Left were the way to go.

I believe The New Deal is on teh Google too, look it up. Study it. It works. And it came from The Left of The Left.

The Left of The Left ended the McCarthy and HUAC witch hunts.

The Left of The Left brought us the ideas of the Great Society too. Not to mention the Civil Rights Movement, that worked so well that we now have an African American President. Who has studiously ignored The Left of The Left on your advice Mr. Senior Anonymous Source. Well until the Centrist post partisan approach to HCR is getting trounced by the Right Wing Noise Machine....NOW he is starting to reach out to us....against your advice I am sure, Mr. Senior Anonymous Source. So let me try to bypass you here...

Hey Barack! Remember us, The Left of The Left? WE were the ones in the streets fighting for your right to become President!!!

The Left of The Left KNEW that the Imperialism of the Vietnam War was Just. Plain. Wrong. and was instrumental in ending that debacle that killed over two million people.

As we, The Left of The Left, tried to stop the tragedy of the Iraq War....and were ignored by the Moderates, Centrists, and DLC/Establishment Dems. Good job guys! Don't you EVER get tired of being wrong???

Affirmative Action? The Left of The Left.

Consumer Protection against stuff like putting lead in paint and toys and brought you life saving seat belts and stuff? Yeah that horrible The Left of The Left villain Ralph Nader.

Women's Liberation? The Left of The Left.

LGBT equality? The Left of The Left.

The Environmental Movement that had the foresight to start trying to save our planet for your children back in the 70's? The Left of The Left.

And those are just the highlights of what the Dirty Fucking Hippies of The Left of The Left have contributed to the world we live in today.

The Left of The Left are the Keepers of Democratic and Progressive Values and Principles, Mr. Senior Anonymous Source, and all you Moderates, Centrists, and DLC/Establishment Dems.

We are your conscience.

We are where your ideals and ideas come from.

We are also your political foot soldiers, without whom you would NOT win elections. We are your base. Not the Corporations that fund your campaigns....us.

And YOU work for US.

For now. 2010 is right around the corner.

YOU GUYS and your advice to the President to be wishy washy on the Public Option to appease your sworn enemies on the Right and ignore your base have lost The Pres 10 points in the polls and THIRTY points on the generic Public Option Polling. YOU GUYS, you capitulating calculating Centrist hacks, fucked that up but good, again.

YOU GUYS are wrong....and The Left of the Left is, once again, right.

Because even though in the quest for some imaginary deal with your enemies (which was, if I may say so, Fucking Stupid, Mr. Senior Anonymous Source) you are willing to, once again, sell out your base...The People, once again, agree with The Left of the Left:

Just 34% of voters nationwide support the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats if the so-called "public option" is removed. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 57% oppose the plan if it doesn't include a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private insurers.

We ARE The People that this government is supposed to be by, for and of.

And we are....once again.....right.

You are used to ignoring and reviling The Left of The Left, you take us for granted and ridicule us and sell us out at the drop of a hat.

But things have Changed, Mr. Senior Anonymous Source.

We will NOT be ignored any longer. We had a bad stretch under Bush, and we are fed up, pissed and yes, angry.

But we are BACK.

The Left of The Left is here to stay. And we are increasingly organized and increasingly Yelling Louder.

Ignore us at your political peril, Rahm Mr. Senior Anonymous Source.

http://www.docudharma.com/diary/15548/the-left-of-the-left-is-right

New Film About the History of the Modern Environmental Movement

http://www.archive.org/download/DailyDigest-082009/2009_08_20_stone.mp3

A new documentary by Robert Stone, traces the history of the modern environmental movement through the lives of nine pioneering Americans. Titled Earth Days, the film reaches as far back as the post-war America of the 1950s, the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s seminal book Silent Spring, and the first ever Earth Day marked in 1970. With vintage footage and stunning visual panoramas, Earth Days follows the vision and fate of people like one-time Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall, futurist Steward Brand, former Congressman Pete McCloskey, non-profit leader Hunter Lovins. It highlights the successes but also the failures of the movement. The New York Times reviewed Earth Days, calling it a “beautifully composed tribute to visionary thinking and political ingenuity, a timeline of peaks and valleys stretching from the early initiatives of the 1950s to the legislative successes of the ’70s.”
...

http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=9575

Crank is that pic your actual puppy?
Submitted by mhappenow on Thu, 08/20/2009 - 11:22pm.
----
No but the picture I posted of the youngest-looking puppy could be mistaken in a lineup for one of the actual puppies when they first arrived.

His brother looked the same except brown instead of black and was somewhat larger and healthier and more robust.

I suspect that they will be the same size as adults, whatever size that happens to be. The smaller puppy showed signs of being the runt who was last to feed and nurtured-by-chance into submissiveness. After a couple of weeks here with plenty of good chow, he learned to sucker punch his brother. Eventually his kick-yer-ass brother learned that wrasslin' from the bottom is as much fun as wrasslin' from the top.

The smaller puppy mastered defensive moves (hip-checks, whirls and jujitsu-style backwards somersaults) before he learned to attack. When he learned to attack, his bully big brother was caught without any defensive skills in his toolbox.

It was fun watching the puppy who never won learn to change the rules while the puppy who never lost learned how a banzai on the blind-side feels.

Not that I'd ever go there again, unless you host..
new
Submitted by Alice on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 12:07am.
*******

Banned at TYT yesterday ?

I missed it..You Rabble Rouser You ! ;)

Sorry but,it's kinda funny..Maybe not,sorry.. :)

**

You like Tiny Tim,right ?

CHAOS KILLED THE DINOSAURS: TINY TIM

http://www.theratcatchers.com/2009/08/chaos-killed-dinosaurs-tiny-tim_20...

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

www.bartcop.com

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

-Why ? Did you get Banned at TYT yesterday ?-

*shrugs*

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

http://www.bartcop.com/proud-liberal.htm

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

Helped make it possible for them to stay home, without pay.

(See how I can look at the bright side...)

They suck..I've noticed that a lot of things suck, haven't you?

What doesn't suck is the question now really...

that's funny....

Claiming rules have been broken while the rules remain unclear, and more in the service of torture...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/20/AR200908...

[excerpt]
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 21, 2009

The Justice Department recently questioned military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay about whether photographs of CIA personnel, including covert officers, were unlawfully provided to detainees charged with organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

...

If proved, the allegations would highlight how aggressively both military lawyers and their allies in the human rights community are moving to shed light on the CIA's interrogation practices and defend their clients. Defense attorneys, however, described the investigation as an attempt by the government to intimidate them into not exposing what happened to their clients.

When contacted about the investigation, the ACLU declined to discuss specifics.

"We are confident that no laws or regulations have been broken as we investigated the circumstances of the torture of our clients and as we have vigorously defended our clients' interests," said Anthony D. Romero, the group's executive director. "Rather than investigate the CIA officials who undertook the torture, they are now investigating the military lawyers who have courageously stepped up to defend these clients in these sham proceedings."

It is unclear whether the military lawyers under investigation identified the CIA personnel in the photographs to the al-Qaeda suspects or simply asked the detainees whether they had ever seen them. It is also unclear whether the inquiry involves violations of federal statutes prohibiting the identification of covert CIA officers or violations of military commission rules governing the disclosure of classified information, including to the defendants.

[end excerpt]

Submitted by SEDER on Thu, 08/20/2009 - 10:52pm.

I agree with the caller AND you.

Fuck the obese bastards who made their beds a long time ago. No one should pay for them.

People who opposed the Iraq war should have had the option not to pay for it. I can see it now: "YOU'RE SO UNAMERICAN!"
"That's nice. Oh, look who has a new car.... Of course, I'm not gonna deface it with those tacky 'support our troops' stickers. Later, suckers."

"SLEEP TIGHT, BATSHIT."
-Bill Maher to 9/11 nut
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

torn out on DN the other day, or recently? Do you listen to or watch that show? Anyway..I heard it and now I can't find it. And I forget when it was..had to be the last 7 days I think...Grossed me out.

He was a protester there, from the election.

Great to hear you back on the airwaves. It's nice to see you still have the radio chops, even after all this time.

The diarrhea line will always be a classic.

More please!

Paraffin candles a cancer risk
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8211543.stm

Where's the government been on this Mad Cow problem?

Long article with lots of links about MadCow/BSE(BovineSpongioformEncephalitis/CreutzfeldtJacobsDisease(CJD)/prion disease and detection of its resurfacing....

http://www.examiner.com/x-7160-Sacramento-Nutrition-Examiner~y2009m8d20-...

[excerpt]

CJD found in recalled blood donations from USA & BSE untested meat got into food supply in UK

August 20, 12:56 PMSacramento Nutrition Examiner
Anne Hart

...

Why are untested donated blood products and/or cattle being exported? In the USA, the FDA recent noted there were numerous recent blood recalls of donated blood headed for humans, due to the risk of variant CJD (Jacob-Creutzfeldt disease).

Read the books, Dying for a Hamburger: Modern Meat Processing and the Epidemic of Alzheimer's Disease by MD Murray Waldman and Marjorie Lamb (Hardcover - Jun 30, 2005) or Brain Trust: The Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer's Disease by Colm A. Kelleher (Hardcover - Oct 19, 2004). Also see: Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat (Contemporary Issues ([person id=3881]Prometheus[/person])) by Steve F. Sapontzis (Paperback - May 2004).

...

The recalled blood products or meat for food consumption, also recalled all had possible ties to contamination with prion diseases, CJD or BSE. Blood donations and food safety are top priorities. Why are untested products escaping in the first place, and how often are they being recalled because of infection with prion, brain-wasting diseases that are always fatal?

In the UK, according to the article, "Individual Reports of BSE Control Breaches 2009, at the UK's Food Standards Agency site, three cattle from the same herd as a BSE (mad cow disease)-infected cow have entered the food chain.

...

[continued below]

{excerpt continued]

,,,

Are cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob increasing? Scientists would like it to be mandatory that all human and animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy diseases, of all phenotypes, of all ages, in every state and internationally to be reported.

See the blog on Monitoring the Occurrance of Emerging Forms of CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob) Disease. Also see the research study, Neurology 2003;60:176-181 © 2003 American Academy of Neurology. The big issue to research is whether a person coming down in middle age or younger with a rare brain disease similar to mad cow disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (which always is fatal) has been caused by eating animal protein in the past or recently.

...

What can consumers do when in the US too few cattle are tested for BSE? If you don't test; you won't find. What do you think readers, should it be mandatory in the US for industry to test 100% of cattle for BSE? And who'll pay for it? Check out the BSE Information site and read the article, "Prevention and Control."

People whose parent(s) or children have come down with rare brain diseases when family history shows that family members for generations back never had a history of these type of diseases are curious. They wonder whether or not the fact that prion diseases lay dorment for so many years is why industry gets away with never admitting there is little to no connection of something in industry to human illness. The family members think that industry will never admit it.

[end excerpt]

Lower-ranking chimpanzees, new research suggests, know how to bargain with their superiors to achieve a fairer split of food. - NewScientist

You can get bipartisanship deals out of chimps.

Author and researcher Jeff Sharlet will discuss the frightening connection between power and fundamentalism in a secretive cult called "The Family", that teaches Washington lawmakers that people chosen for leadership are above morality.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2009/08/22

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

I know I'm going to regret the loss of sleep. We have had one doozy of an electrical storm. It started almost 3 hours ago. It's like war of the worlds over here. Awesome and terrifying.

cool. just as long as its not so close that you can hear the crackle and smell ozone.

?
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5130#comment-362239

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbenet

Stiglitz Says Dollar's Role as Store of Value Is `Questionable,' Has Risk
The dollar’s role as a good store of value is “questionable” and the currency has a high degree of risk, said Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a4QMMa4gnquY

U.S. Economy Stops Shrinking, Heads for Expansion, Coincident Index Shows
In another sign the worst of the U.S. recession is over, a gauge of current conditions showed the economy steadied last month.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a.afLJ63HKCY

toniD's Ya Think?

Public health plan idea followed unlikely path
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar, Associated Press Writer Fri Aug 21, 3:42 am ET

WASHINGTON – It started out with a couple of liberal policy wonks. One on each coast.

Along the way, Elizabeth Edwards — sensitized by her own experiences as a cancer patient — helped propel it into presidential politics during her husband's campaign.

The idea of a government medical plan to compete with private insurance might have been just a footnote in an academic paper. Instead it has followed an unlikely path to center stage in the national health care debate. Many Democrats insist any legislation must include a public option, while nearly all Republicans are against it. President Barack Obama seems uncomfortably stuck in the middle.

A look at the roots of the idea shows that the policy experts who proposed early versions believed the government plan would become one of the largest insurers in the country. But Obama and other candidates saw it as a compromise between rival Democratic factions. One side wants Medicare-for-all, while the other prefers to subsidize coverage through private insurance plans — as Massachusetts has done. The debate within the party still rages, with Obama in the crossfire.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was the first Democratic presidential candidate to propose a public option as part of his health care plan, unveiled in 2007. Behind the scenes, his wife, Elizabeth, was a strong advocate of his decision.

In an interview, Elizabeth Edwards said that as the daughter of a Navy captain, she grew up with government health care and found it dependable. Later in life, her sojourn in the medical world as a breast cancer patient opened her eyes to the travails of people who had no insurance, or whose coverage turned out to be unreliable.

"I met people who were constantly coming up against one problem or another," Edwards said. "Even people like me, who have health care, know someone who has been through some misery because they couldn't afford the health care they needed."

Before the 2008 presidential campaign, chances were slim that lawmakers one day would consider government coverage for middle-class workers and their families. Liberals had talked for years about expanding Medicare to cover not just seniors, but all Americans. That's all it seemed to be — talk.

Then in 2001, political scientist Jacob Hacker proposed a plan he called "Medicare Plus." Employers could choose either to offer private insurance or pay a payroll tax to finance coverage for their employees through a health plan modeled on Medicare. Hacker, now at Yale University, retooled his proposal early in 2007 as the presidential campaign geared up. It caught on with core Democratic constituencies.

"The unions fell in love with Jacob's idea," said health economist Len Nichols of the New America Foundation.

Hacker said he wanted to bridge the gap between Democrats who supported a single payer plan like Medicare-for-all and those who wanted to preserve the employer coverage that has served most Americans for a half century.

"I tried to provide a case for seeing common ground between those two positions," Hacker said. "There's certainly a strong political argument that single payer is not feasible. Threatening (employer) coverage is a political nonstarter, and moving all health care spending onto the public budget is virtually impossible in the current fiscal climate."

Nonetheless, he said estimates showed his public plan would end up covering about half of workers and their families — gaining a powerful position in the market.

On the other side of the country, a Berkeley health policy professor had come up with the idea of a head-to-head competition between a government plan and private plans. Helen Halpin proposed such a scheme in 2002 for California, a state with a history of failed attempts to remake its health care system. The following year, she retooled the plan as a national proposal.

Called the CHOICE Option, Halpin's plan would let people decide whether they wanted government coverage or a private plan. more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090821/ap_on_re_us/us_health_overhaul_publi...

toniD's Ya Think?

A Little More Heat, Please

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, August 21, 2009

Here's the least surprising news of the week: Americans are souring on the Democratic Party. The wonder is that it's taken so long for public opinion to curdle. There's nothing agreeable about watching a determined attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

A poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center reports that just 49 percent of respondents have a favorable view of the Democrats, compared with 62 percent in January and 59 percent in April. This doesn't mean, though, that Americans look any more kindly upon the Republican Party -- favorability for the GOP has been steady at 40 percent throughout the year, according to Pew.

What it does mean, however, is that Republican efforts to obstruct, delay, confuse, stall, distort and otherwise impede the reform agenda that Americans voted for last November have had measurable success. And it means that Democrats, having been given a mandate -- one as comprehensive as either party is likely to enjoy in this era of red-vs.-blue polarization -- don't really know how to use it.

That the Democratic Party is no paragon of organization and discipline is almost axiomatic. That's not the problem. The Pew poll suggests that the Democrats' weakness is neither strategic nor tactical but emotional. To quote the poet William Butler Yeats: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."

There's not enough passion on the Democratic side, not enough heat. There's some radiating from the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, too little emanating from the Democratic majority in the Senate, and not nearly enough coming from President Obama. Republicans, by contrast, have little going for them except passion -- but they're using it to impressive effect.

Step back from the health-care debate for a moment and survey the landscape. Democrats are within sight of a goal that has fired the party's dreams for half a century. They have the power to enact meaningful reform. Polls show that Americans are hungry for reform. The solid wall of opposition once presented by big business has crumbled. Even the insurance companies and Big Pharma are ready to deal. Yet somehow we've gotten sidetracked onto an argument about "death panels," while a provision that many advocates believe is central to effective reform -- a government-run, public health insurance plan -- is suddenly in doubt.

How could this happen? The Pew survey suggests, basically, that Republicans are more passionate about the health-care issue than Democrats.

According to Pew, those who would be "pleased" if health-care reforms proposed by Obama and Congress are enacted outnumber those who would be "disappointed." But when you look at those who feel most passionately about the issue, just 15 percent say they would be "very happy" if the reforms go through, while 18 percent say they would be "angry." Among Republicans, a full 38 percent would be angry if health-care reform finally passes -- but among Democrats, just 13 percent would be angered if it doesn't.

It's hard to argue that anger, per se, is something we need more of in American politics. But passion -- which sometimes, yes, finds expression in anger -- is a powerful and legitimate tool. Health-care reform is something the Democratic Party has been trying to achieve since the Truman administration, and only 13 percent of Democrats would be angry if it fails? Only 27 percent of Democrats would be "very happy" if reform passes, according to Pew, while 42 percent could only bestir themselves to feel "pleased" that the grail long sought by the most beloved Democrat of all, ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, has finally been attained?

One reason for this imbalance of passion about health-care reform, I believe, is that there is no single piece of legislation around which Democrats -- and others who see the need for reform -- can rally. But it's impossible to deny that the Republican strategy of generating anger and fear has also been a major factor.

Where are the millions who so passionately chanted "Yes, we can!" at Obama's campaign rallies? Where are the legions who cried tears of joy on election night and tears of pride on Inauguration Day? Is Sarah Palin now the only politician capable of inspiring "passionate intensity"?

Democratic leaders should stop backpedaling, stop apologizing and show their followers -- by words and deeds -- that the principle of universal health care is worth fighting for. They should even allow themselves to raise their voices at times -- not motivated by anger but by conviction.

Passion finds expression in anger, but also in hope. Democrats knew and felt that during the campaign. If they forget it, they might as well also forget about achieving the kind of fundamental change that the country sorely needs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/20/AR200908...

toniD's Ya Think?

Obama’s Trust Problem
By PAUL KRUGMAN

According to news reports, the Obama administration — which seemed, over the weekend, to be backing away from the “public option” for health insurance — is shocked and surprised at the furious reaction from progressives.

Well, I’m shocked and surprised at their shock and surprise.

A backlash in the progressive base — which pushed President Obama over the top in the Democratic primary and played a major role in his general election victory — has been building for months. The fight over the public option involves real policy substance, but it’s also a proxy for broader questions about the president’s priorities and overall approach.

The idea of letting individuals buy insurance from a government-run plan was introduced in 2007 by Jacob Hacker of Yale, was picked up by John Edwards during the Democratic primary, and became part of the original Obama health care plan.

One purpose of the public option is to save money. Experience with Medicare suggests that a government-run plan would have lower costs than private insurers; in addition, it would introduce more competition and keep premiums down.

And let’s be clear: the supposed alternative, nonprofit co-ops, is a sham. That’s not just my opinion; it’s what the market says: stocks of health insurance companies soared on news that the Gang of Six senators trying to negotiate a bipartisan approach to health reform were dropping the public plan. Clearly, investors believe that co-ops would offer little real competition to private insurers.

Also, and importantly, the public option offered a way to reconcile differing views among Democrats. Until the idea of the public option came along, a significant faction within the party rejected anything short of true single-payer, Medicare-for-all reform, viewing anything less as perpetuating the flaws of our current system. The public option, which would force insurance companies to prove their usefulness or fade away, settled some of those qualms.

That said, it’s possible to have universal coverage without a public option — several European nations do it — and some who want a public option might be willing to forgo it if they had confidence in the overall health care strategy. Unfortunately, the president’s behavior in office has undermined that confidence.

On the issue of health care itself, the inspiring figure progressives thought they had elected comes across, far too often, as a dry technocrat who talks of “bending the curve” but has only recently begun to make the moral case for reform. Mr. Obama’s explanations of his plan have gotten clearer, but he still seems unable to settle on a simple, pithy formula; his speeches and op-eds still read as if they were written by a committee.

Meanwhile, on such fraught questions as torture and indefinite detention, the president has dismayed progressives with his reluctance to challenge or change Bush administration policy.

And then there’s the matter of the banks.

I don’t know if administration officials realize just how much damage they’ve done themselves with their kid-gloves treatment of the financial industry, just how badly the spectacle of government supported institutions paying giant bonuses is playing. But I’ve had many conversations with people who voted for Mr. Obama, yet dismiss the stimulus as a total waste of money. When I press them, it turns out that they’re really angry about the bailouts rather than the stimulus — but that’s a distinction lost on most voters.

So there’s a growing sense among progressives that they have, as my colleague Frank Rich suggests, been punked. And that’s why the mixed signals on the public option created such an uproar.

Now, politics is the art of the possible. Mr. Obama was never going to get everything his supporters wanted.

But there’s a point at which realism shades over into weakness, and progressives increasingly feel that the administration is on the wrong side of that line. It seems as if there is nothing Republicans can do that will draw an administration rebuke: Senator Charles E. Grassley feeds the death panel smear, warning that reform will “pull the plug on grandma,” and two days later the White House declares that it’s still committed to working with him.

It’s hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Obama has wasted months trying to appease people who can’t be appeased, and who take every concession as a sign that he can be rolled.

Indeed, no sooner were there reports that the administration might accept co-ops as an alternative to the public option than G.O.P. leaders announced that co-ops, too, were unacceptable.

So progressives are now in revolt. Mr. Obama took their trust for granted, and in the process lost it. And now he needs to win it back.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/opinion/21krugman.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&p...

toniD's Ya Think?

So how's this test working out so far? Looks like the majority of folks ain't too happy. We still don't know to pay for any of this. We don't even have a reliable count of the uninsured. The Senate doesn't have the votes to pass a complete bill.

You know what? It might be a better idea just to try to get the uninsured out of the emergency room and into the free clinic. Let the lefty doctors work there for half pay.
The nurses can be volunteers and we can have folks take a number like they do at the donut shop.

Canada's system is breaking down. Medicare is plagued with cost over-runs. The V.A. system is notoriously bad. So it looks like the only thing that has been accomplished so far is shine the light-of-day on another liberal bad idea.

"I believe all these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world."

George W. Bush

Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall
By DAVID LEONHARDT and GERALDINE FABRIKANT

The rich have been getting richer for so long that the trend has come to seem almost permanent.

They began to pull away from everyone else in the 1970s. By 2006, income was more concentrated at the top than it had been since the late 1920s. The recent news about resurgent Wall Street pay has seemed to suggest that not even the Great Recession could reverse the rise in income inequality.

But economists say — and data is beginning to show — that a significant change may in fact be under way. The rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer. And many may not return to their old levels of wealth and income anytime soon.

For every investment banker whose pay has recovered to its prerecession levels, there are several who have lost their jobs — as well as many wealthy investors who have lost millions. As a result, economists and other analysts say, a 30-year period in which the super-rich became both wealthier and more numerous may now be ending.

The relative struggles of the rich may elicit little sympathy from less well-off families who are dealing with the effects of the worst recession in a generation. But the change does raise several broader economic questions. Among them is whether harder times for the rich will ultimately benefit the middle class and the poor, given that the huge recent increase in top incomes coincided with slow income growth for almost every other group. In blunter terms, the question is whether the better metaphor for the economy is a rising tide that can lift all boats — or a zero-sum game.

Just how much poorer the rich will become remains unclear. It will be determined by, among other things, whether the stock market continues its recent rally and what new laws Congress passes in the wake of the financial crisis. At the very least, though, the rich seem unlikely to return to the trajectory they were on.

Last year, the number of Americans with a net worth of at least $30 million dropped 24 percent, according to CapGemini and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. Monthly income from stock dividends, which is concentrated among the affluent, has fallen more than 20 percent since last summer, the biggest such decline since the government began keeping records in 1959.

Bill Gates, Warren E. Buffett, the heirs to the Wal-Mart Stores fortune and the founders of Google each lost billions last year, according to Forbes magazine. In one stark example, John McAfee, an entrepreneur who founded the antivirus software company that bears his name, is now worth about $4 million, from a peak of more than $100 million. Mr. McAfee will soon auction off his last big property because he needs cash to pay his bills after having been caught off guard by the simultaneous crash in real estate and stocks.

“I had no clue,” he said, “that there would be this tandem collapse.”

Some of the clearest signs of the reversal of fortunes can be found in data on spending by the wealthy. An index that tracks the price of art, the Mei Moses index, has dropped 32 percent in the last six months. The New York Yankees failed to sell many of the most expensive tickets in their new stadium and had to drop the price. In one ZIP code in Vail, Colo., only five homes sold for more than $2 million in the first half of this year, down from 34 in the first half of 2007, according to MDA Dataquick. In Bronxville, an affluent New York suburb, the decline was to two, from 17, according to Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

“We had a period of roughly 50 years, from 1929 to 1979, when the income distribution tended to flatten,” said Neal Soss, the chief economist at Credit Suisse. “Since the early ’80s, incomes have tended to get less equal. And I think we’ve entered a phase now where society will move to a more equal distribution.”

No More ’50s and ’60s more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequality.html?par...

toniD's Ya Think?

Beautiful job Sammy. I too miss hearing you do what you do so well. I hope Cenk has you fill in as host on a regular basis.

"Meet The Press" Draws Most Viewers Since April On Maddow's Debut Appearance

"Meet the Press" had its highest total viewer delivery since April this past Sunday, averaging 3,359,000 total viewers for David Gregory's most convincing victory in months.

ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" — which was guest-hosted by Jake tapper while Stephanopoulos was on vacation — averaged 2,470,000 total viewers for a distant second place, while CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer averaged 2,447,000 total viewers and FOX's "FOX News Sunday" averaged 1,207,000 total viewers.

Sunday's "Meet the Press" featured Rachel Maddow's debut on the show; she appeared with former House Majority Leader Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) for an in-depth look at the health care debate.

"Meet the Press" hasn't seen an audience as large as Sunday's since April 19, when it featured Larry Summers and averaged 3,439,000 total viewers.

Perhaps more importantly, though, it hasn't had as decisive a victory over its chief competitors — ABC's "This Week," which recently topped it for the first time since 1999, and CBS' "Face the Nation" — since the spring.

Sunday's "Meet the Press" topped "This Week" by 36% (889,000 viewers), Gregory's strongest victory over "This Week" since March 22; and it beat "Face the Nation" by 37% (912,000 viewers), Gregory's strongest victory over "Face the Nation" since May 17.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/20/meet-the-press-draws-most_n_264...

toniD's Ya Think?

"And let’s be clear: the supposed alternative, nonprofit co-ops, is a sham. That’s not just my opinion; it’s what the market says: stocks of health insurance companies soared on news that the Gang of Six senators trying to negotiate a bipartisan approach to health reform were dropping the public plan. Clearly, investors believe that co-ops would offer little real competition to private insurers.

Also, and importantly, the public option offered a way to reconcile differing views among Democrats. Until the idea of the public option came along, a significant faction within the party rejected anything short of true single-payer, Medicare-for-all reform, viewing anything less as perpetuating the flaws of our current system. The public option, which would force insurance companies to prove their usefulness or fade away, settled some of those qualms.

That said, it’s possible to have universal coverage without a public option — several European nations do it — and some who want a public option might be willing to forgo it if they had confidence in the overall health care strategy. Unfortunately, the president’s behavior in office has undermined that confidence."

Thanks for that toniD...for a moment I thought my ability to comprehend spoken language had been damaged by all the mercury laden fish I've been eating...

Nice to know I am not losing my mind.....for now at least.

The sad thing is, if the public option is left out, it will be the Progressives who are blamed for the bill's failure.....

Sanders/Dean 2012.....

A very Happy Bidet....

Rachel Maddow will be the Meet The Press moderator!

At least she does her homework and asks the hard questions.

toniD's Ya Think?

bloggerbuds. Left of the Left - great work!! And Boddhisatva vow was very nice too. Great clip from our Sam.

thanks for the beastie boys....good Buddhist young men

Trainee Obama is building a new and even stronger Republican party. Poll figures don't lie. Obama is on the way down and conservatives in both parties are on the way up. And who would have though all of this could happen in only 6 short months? And what caused this shift away from the democrats? Health Care! Sometimes you have to work and work, sometimes you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and sometimes you get a leg-up! Thank you Trainee Obama! Who would have thought you would be so kind.

"I believe all these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world."

George W. Bush

The new spot from Americans United for Change turns the "death panel" rhetoric on its head, pointing to insurance companies as the real source of rationing.

It'll run on D.C. cable and CNN and MSNBC nationally.

By Ben Smith 08:10 AM

toniD's Ya Think?

yes, and thanks for all of the presents folks.

The storms have finally passed. I have to work urgently now because I must tempt fate. I should remember to put on my best underwear in case I pass out.

Bloggers: Take A $300,000 Victory Lap
By: Jane Hamsher Thursday August 20, 2009 10:04 pm

We just crossed the $300,000 mark in our effort to thank the progressive members of Congress who signed the August 19 letter, pledging to vote against any health care bill that does not have a public plan.

I just want to take a moment to thank those who have been so supportive of the public plan whip effort all along, which culminated in this amazing achievement. The network of blogs and bloggers carrying the message into their districts weren't A-list bloggers for the most part, but their ability to reach into the back yards of their progressive representatives has been absolutely vital. They did it when it was hard, when it wasn't popular, when it didn't have a lot of heat behind it, just because it was the right thing to do. And we couldn't have done it without them.

Those who helped create a climate of consistent pressure that led directly to the August 19 letter include blogs like Burnt Orange Report, Dirigo Blue, Left Wing Cracker, Southern Beale, Fired Up Missouri, Rikyrah, Left In the West, Delaware Liberal, Square State Project (Zappatero -- you're the bomb), Hillbilly Report, Texas Kaos, DownWithTyranny, AmericaBlog, Talk Left, Glenn Greenwald, Loaded Orygun, Pennsylvania for Change, Delaware Way, Boztopia, Griper News, Pinko Magazine, Progress Illinois, Bob Fertik, David Swanson, Cedwyn, Pronin2 (Mr. Rapid Response), McJoan, Chris Bowers, Kagro X, NotLarrySabato, Green Mountain Daily, Buckeye State Blog, Michigan Liberal, Blue Hampshire, Blue Jersey, MN Progressive Project, D-Day, Gort42, the always wonderful MyLeftNutmeg, and of course Slink, NYCeve & Mike Stark. These are just a few of the blogs and bloggers that deserve thanks, and we'll be putting up a more permanent repository of names & thank-yous in the next few days.

To all of you who pitched in when it really mattered, take a bow, you did this. You kept the momentum going when it was really, really important. We cannot thank you enough for your continued support.

If I've missed anyone who helped to pressure members of Congress as part of the whip count effort, leave links in the comments and I'll catch you in the next round. This is the result of your hard work -- so take a victory lap.

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/08/20/bloggers-take-a-300000-vi...

toniD's Ya Think?

Well, to me, anyway. :)

Obama And The Public Option - Setting The Record Straight

All opinionating, hope and cynicism aside, there can be no argument as to the necessity of the "5 points" in the conclusion.

"this machine kills fascists"

John Yettaw is the American who swam to the home of Aung San Suu Kyi. He is now back home in Falcon, Missouri which is little more than a post office in a dead town.

The following link is the story (in text) from the Springfield, Missouri NPR station:

http://www.ksmu.org/content/view/5020/66/

"If Stephen Hawking Lived in England" and Other Great Points the Left Doesn't Want You to Know

by Jennifer Epps | August 21, 2009 - 1:30am

Fellow Patriots,

Here are some important things to keep in mind when those blood-suckers from the left try to spread their lies about health care!! Print this out so you can bring it to a town hall.

1.) If Stephen Hawking lived in England, he’d be left to die. Thank God he’s safe at the University of Cambridge in Massachusetts.

2.) If the government was capable of ensuring health care for seniors, they would have done it decades ago.

3.) If we didn’t have a free enterprise health care system in America, then we would not be able to achieve all those advances in medicine funded by the National Institutes of Health.

4.) When the people of oppressed countries like Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Israel, Australia and New Zealand finally get democracy, they can vote out their socialized health care systems.

5.) England’s capital is the ultimate proof that national health care kills free enterprise. That’s why London has no stock exchange, no banking district, no tabloid newspapers, no big musicals, and no expensive real estate.

6.) Even the World Health Organization agrees that “America has the best health care system in the world”; the WHO ranks the American health care system at the very top part of its list, right after the first part where 36 other countries rank higher.

7.) Free enterprise is the greatest system ever invented and government can’t even come close. What else but private industry could have split the atom, or gotten a man on the moon?

8.) If you drove 100 miles on the interstate freeway you still couldn’t come up with one good thing that government has done.

9.) I’m writing an urgent letter to my Senator about the health-care issue. I’m explaining how the government never does anything right. I’m sure the Post Office will deliver it in a day or so.

10.) The last thing anyone needs is a government official getting involved with health. I look after my own health. For example, I always make sure I eat at restaurants rated “A” in the window.

11.) I really resent the government thinking I need any assistance from them. I buy my FDA-approved medication on my own.

12.) If health care were available to all at government expense, people would over-consume, using it when they don’t really need it. As in the common phrase: “It’s Saturday night, honey. Would you rather go to a movie, or shall we have our gallstones removed?”

13.) For some reason, the lunatic left can’t understand that the most important thing in health care is consumer choice. When you’re in a car accident and you’ve lost pints and pints of blood, what you really want to do is to sit down, think over how much you want to spend and where, and comparison-shop. And if you happen to choose an incompetent surgeon, well, he damn well won’t get your business next time, will he?

*****

I say let the moonbats and their communist pinko illegal alien president install their socialistic nazi government programs. When they fail, like social security and medicare did, WE, the righteous rulers of America, will be there to show the American Patriots the path to salvation!!!

"basically being willing to accept any interpretation of the administration's position the AP, NYT, WP, or Politico tells them."

My opinions are formed by observation of what I see, not what people tell me.....

more left bashing self deluded excuse making IMO. Not you, him/her.

show me da money.....

Submitted by cent on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:25am.
...show me da money...
------

52wk Range: 6.60 - 493.60
Real-Time: 33.82 up 1.52 (4.71%) 10:29AM ET

Submitted by ¢ on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:11am.

*******

It looked like troll spew at a quick glance..

My brain can't handle irony this early in the AM..
That's my excuse & I'm stickin to it.. ;)

Again,sorry..

I need more coffee.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

Top Anti-Health Care Reform Group Teaming Up With…Michele Bachmann!

If you’re running an anti-reform group and are trying to persuade the public that you represent mainstream views on health care, it’s probably not a great idea to join forces with a public official who called for a probe of anti-American members of Congress and has claimed Obamacare is a secret plot to turn America into Castro’s Cuba.

Yet Americans for Prosperity, the well-funded group that’s spending millions of dollars to sink health care reform, is teaming up with none other than GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann.

The group is set to hold a teletownhall tonight with Bachmann and Senator Jim DeMint, Americans for Prosperity spokesperson Amy Menefee confirms to our reporter, Amanda Erickson. The purpose: To buck up the anti-reform troops and let them know what’s happening in Congress.

Bachmann has called on the media to do a “penetrating exposee” into members of Congress to determine whether they’re “pro America or anti America.” More recently she said Obamacare is designed to “make us like Havana in 1959, when Castro came in.”

Bachmann, needless to say, has also endorsed the “death panel” madness.

A top anti-reform group is featuring Bachmann and the Senator who said health care failure will be Obama’s “Waterloo” as its two primary spokespeople at an event? That’ll undoubtedly juice the right wing base, but the pro-reform camp is likely to jump on the use of the duo as proof of the anti-reform movement’s true ideological colors.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republicans/top-anti-health-car...

toniD's Ya Think?

August 12, 2009, 6:01 PM
Stephen Hawking Defends Care in Britain
By BERNIE BECKER
The physicist Stephen Hawking is defending Britain’s National Health Service after an editorial in Investor’s Business Daily said Mr. Hawking “wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K.,” where the health service would have deemed his life “essentially worthless.”

The problem with the editorial, of course, is that Dr. Hawking, the author of “A Brief History of Time,” is very much a Briton — born in Oxford and currently a professor at the University of Cambridge.

The publication’s mistake, which came in an editorial titled “How House Bill Runs Over Grandma,” has since been corrected. But on a larger level, the snafu also shows how quickly rationing, particularly at the end of life, has become a focus of the health care reform debate.

Dr. Hawking — who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Wednesday — responded to the editorial this week, telling The Guardian newspaper, “I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the N.H.S. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.”

Read More...

________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

Obama Supporter Confronts President: Your “Knees Are Buckling”

One other interesting moment from the radio appearance President Obama just wrapped up: A caller who said he was a strong supporter confronted him with surprisingly harsh criticism, asking whether he’s tough enough to deal with GOP obstructionism.

Here’s what the caller said, per the White House transcript:

I’m getting a little ticked off that it feels like the knees are buckling a little bit. You have an overwhelming majority in both the House and the Senate, and you own the whole shooting match. And I’m just not getting — it’s very frustrating to watch you try and compromise with a lot of these people who aren’t willing to compromise with you.

Lot of folks have wanted to tell the President that for some time, and it was interesting to hear someone do it. Obama answered by vowing that health care reform would pass, and as I noted below, he did acknowledge that the GOP wants him to fail:

I would love to have more Republicans engaged and involved in this process. I think early on a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, look, let’s not give them a victory and maybe we can have a replay of 1993-94 when Clinton came in; he failed on health care and then we won in the midterm elections and we got the majority. And I think there’s some folks who are taking a page out of that playbook.

Obama, in other words, implicitly agreed with the caller’s claim that the GOP opposition isn’t willing to compromise. But then Obama added that he wants to give Chuck Grassley and Mike Enzi a “chance” because they’ve been “working constructively.”

Which might not do much to reassure the caller (or anyone else) worried about the sturdiness of Obama’s knees right now.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/obama-supporter-confro...

toniD's Ya Think?

It's always a pleasure to wait out the, "I hope I'm wrong but..." crowd.

The money will come, just like it did last November.

Oddly enough, to me right now it feels just like it did around then.

"this machine kills fascists"

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

is all three kinds of crazy.

Perhaps crazier than Palin.

Go ahead Republicants, team up with her!

________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

Thanks for that Crank...

Next time I am in NYC I'll remember to drive past AIG World Headquarters so I can wave hello to it.....

It's Viva, Ya Moron !
Submitted by MMRules on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:35am.
------
Check the box next to E: All of the above.

¢ tore WaDo a giant one :)

"this machine kills fascists"

I hope your doing ok..

So true about Bachmann.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

on last night

August 20, 2009
Guest(s): Betsy McCaughey
A Taliban threat causes low voter turnout in Afghanistan's election. Americans turn in their Ford Explorers, and banks profit from overdraft fees. Betsy McCaughey explains why Obama's health care bill is dangerous.

If you didn't see it, watch it here:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/246932/thu-august-20-2009-bets...

toniD's Ya Think?

They like to call Obama a Nazi, which would be hilarious if it wasn't so vile. But it was the Nazis who saw the sick and disabled as less than them, and killed them en masse along with Jewish people, gay people, "communists", and any other nonwhite minority they could get their hands on.

Our current system is closer to Nazism than anything Obama has proposed. But I guess it's the old Karl Rove tactic of accusing your opponent of having your own weaknesses, even if it is obviously not true.

I imagine the neoNazis are having fits with Obama being compared to Hilter, their hero. The very idea that Obama would be compared to Hilter is an insult to their core. HAHAHA! Stupid Nazis!

________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

You might wanna reread that post MMR
Submitted by 60th Street on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:44am.

*******

Crap !
I'll be right back..

He/she still mis-spelled viva..

I was just joking..That's the ticket ! :)

D'Oh !

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

It seems its going to take he whole workweek for me to recover from a treatment on Monday.

I just hope that the next pair of drugs they give me wont be as bad. They tell me it won't be.

But I'm running out of sick days very quickly. And I had to loan my mother some money. Both my mother and brother are struggling financially. She hates to ask me for money. I don't mind helping her but I guess it makes her feel bad.

________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

like all communications, it helps if people are speaking the same language. ;)

.

np rules.... you were all over that "troll" and ready to roll his ass....that is good enough for me. :)

Does DeLay's Angry Quadriplegic Town Hall Protesters Tale Add Up?
By Justin Elliott - August 20, 2009, 4:25PM
Last night on Hardball, Chris Matthews asked an exuberant Tom DeLay about the Tea Party/Birther agitation bubbling up around the country.

DeLay gave this response, which piqued our interest:

Chris, you shouldn't be surprised about this. This has been going on forever. When I did my town hall meetings, I'll never forget one back in the '80s -- on health care, by the way. They brought in quadriplegics on gurneys and dumped them on the floor in front of my podium. I mean, this is not new. What's new is, the people that came into disrupt my town meetings, we just let them go on because it usually turned off the people that were there. What's happening here is the American people are on their side.

Wild stuff. Sounds like the town hall protest of the decade -- but did it actually happen?

Here at TPMmuckraker, we scoured news archives for such an incident -- and called around, including to DeLay's spokeswoman, who has not responded to questions about the episode.

Then we got a look at a May 1996 article from the Houston Chronicle about a series of protests by the disabilities advocacy group ADAPT, brought to our attention by Democratic consultant Peter Lindstrom.

It begins like this:

"Groups of protesters, most of them in wheelchairs, barricaded two local political offices Tuesday to demand changes in the way disabled people receive care in America. ... A second group of about 150 ADAPT supporters blockaded and occupied U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's office in Sugar Land [Texas], until DeLay agreed to meet with them. "

And continues:

"Tuesday's protesters narrowly escaped arrest by Stafford police when DeLay, who is in Washington, D.C., agreed to meet with them next month."

Huh. And here, again, is what DeLay told Chris Matthews:

"When I did my town hall meetings, I'll never forget one back in the '80s -- on health care, by the way. They brought in quadriplegics on gurneys and dumped them on the floor in front of my podium."

Time tinges everyone's memories; but this seems like a bit of a stretch.

Is it possible that DeLay is thinking of the ADAPT episode -- and just replacing 90s with 80s, district office with health care town hall, protesters in wheelchairs with quadriplegics dumped from gurneys, and not-having-been-there-at-all with seeing it unfold in front of his podium?

Perhaps DeLay's story would have a little more credibility if he could simply produce its birth certificate.

Late Update: Two reporters who've covered DeLay extensively over the years say the quadriplegic story is new to them.

Video at link
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/did_delays_angry_quadr...

toniD's Ya Think?

Im ok
new
Submitted by Meg on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:53am
*******
Do you have any type of Catastrophic Assistance help through your work ?

We did at my old job..I had to use it when I got hurt at work..It was a big help..

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

Feliz Cumpleanos!!

Don't forget to look for the new sign! Whatever it is today!. ;)

"this machine kills fascists"

I kind of miraculously bought a cancer policy a few months before I was diagnosed. So Im ok financially for now.

________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

Submitted by cent on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 11:06am

Unfortunately,I've had alot of practice here,over time..

It's not as bad as it use to be,thank goodness..
Now we just have OCD War Pig,mostly..

But,thanks Coach.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

see youse later.

Catastrophic help
new
Submitted by Meg on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 11:19am.
I kind of miraculously bought a cancer policy
*******

Do you have a Union at work ?

They can be a great help too..

Plus,the Family Leave Act..
Although you don't get paid,it can help you if you run out of sick days..
And,keep you from getting fired..If it gets to that..
But,talk to your Union if you have one..
They know all that stuff.. :)

Keep Hanging In There,Meg ! :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

:-<

Does anyone know if either show is available for audio download?

I so do love that sport.

In a way, I kind of feel bad for ol' WaDo sometimes these days. Hearing him talk of recapturing the NeoCon glory days this morning on the "heels" of this:

That and him admitting that he takes numbers at the donut shop after all that yammering on about his cycling prowess, well...

"this machine kills fascists"

I do have a union. One of those evil teacher's unions no less. Half the reason I joined was to aggravate the anti-education Republicans.

________________________________

Meg - Dirty Hippie Spicy Mustard-Eating Liberal

Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday — a move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the government's grueling battle against drug traffickers. - RAW

A new reason to celebrate today. I really need to hurry up and retire. Ya'll come down now ya' here!!!

Cheers!

"this machine kills fascists"

I am trying to find the true origin of or a debunking of the legitimacy of an email circulating that is signed "Kathy Bozeman, Montana."

It begins like this:
---
Hello All,

By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Bill and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you...
---
and the email includes this bee-yoot:
---
...This same morning someone called into the radio from the local UPS branch and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama...
---
(How does he stay so skinny? Probably skips the butter. But I digress.)

I have searched my little engine off trying to locate the story behind this email but have not found anything beyond its posting on several Right Wing websites.

If anyone can suggest better keywords for a search or a website (I already looked at Snopes and Media Matters) where viral emails are tracked, please do so.

You can read the entire "Kathy Bozeman, Montana" email at the following link, among other places:

http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/showthread.php?p=698433

my search found reprints or variations of the kathy bozeman letter. whats remarkable is the number of people that are related to her as in "my cousin", "a close friend", blah blah blah.

i'm surprised they left out the part of how they used old faithful to steam them.

Nice present from the federales. please don't ever retire from your blog work.

Kathy In Bozeman News Network.

She's a trusted news source from all the way back to yesterday.

Just as wingnutty, though... (great comments, too, of course)

I love Obama panic almost as much as rolling trolls!!

Of course you need a LOT of lobster to feed the busloads of ACORN and SEIU plants!! And, they demand nothing but the best!!!! Fuck all that proletarian USDA Grade AAAA+ American beef!!!!

Oh, and keep the USDA(CORN) out of my AAA+++ beef!!!!!!11!!

"this machine kills fascists"

Sign the petition to the House: Stay firm on your pledge for the public option !

FDL Action.

After two months of your hard work, 65 members House drew a line in the sand: no public option, no health care reform. You responded by raising more than $175,000 for those members in less than 48 hours.

It's a great start, but it's just the beginning. We need to make sure these 65 members hold firm. We've shown them we have their backs. Now they need to get ours.

I'm starting a petition to the House to keep their pledge to support only a public option in both the House bill AND the conference bill.

I'm going to be in DC next month. If we can reach 25,000 signatures, Jane Hamsher and I will be there to hand-deliver the petition to the House when they return to take up health care.

Add your name to our petition to members of Congress who pledged to support only a strong public option.

www.firedoglake.com/

( Look for this:FDL HEALTH CARE CENTRAL
on the upper right side of their Homepage..
It will take you to the Petition..

The direct link won't let me erase my info..
So,I'm giving you the round about link..

If you have any questions,ask Crank.. ;-) )

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

"this machine kills fascists"

http://blackandwhiteisgray.net/?p=2399

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/08/21/People-do-walk-in-circles-whe...

People really do walk in circles when they don't have visual cues to tell them where to head, scientists in Germany said.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tubingen examined the routes of people who walked for several hours in Tunisia's Sahara desert and Germany's Bienwald forest.

Using global positioning systems to record the trajectories, scientists found the walkers were only able to keep to a straight path when the moon or sun was visible. As soon as the moon or sun disappeared behind clouds, the participants began walking in circles without knowing it, researcher Jan Souman said in a release Friday.

Walking in circles is caused by small random errors in brain sensory signals, Max Planck researcher Marc Ernst said.

"Even though people may be convinced that they are walking in a straight line, their perception is not always reliable," Ernst said.

---This explains my circlular logic---

I found one by "Sue", not Kathy
Submitted by 60th Street on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 12:26pm.
------
Ooooh, I like Sue better than Kathy. It's a verb! And Sue writes a lot like Kathy does. (Exactly like Kathy does...it must be that monkeys and typewriters thing again?)

I hope to see another iteration from Prudence Bozeman, Montana. At least there'd be some wry irony in the signature.

"Climate change deniers: where do the toxins

released into the air go? Outer space?

-- The Angry Liberal, Link

BartCop.com

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

.

Some People Say News Network

Crank here's one that says it's phoney
Submitted by toniD on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 12:41pm.
--------
I found that site earlier while I was bumbling around on the net. The writer assumes that the email is a scam (as do I) but there is no proof.

Surely there is a hacker-staffed website that backtracks viral emails to their first ISP? Or maybe a torturer-staffed website that waterboards shitheads until they admit to making this stuff up even if they didn't?

How come my credit card number can be stolen but Kathy in Bozeman can't be depantsed?

oh the spsnn- good ole Fox...

People do walk in circles when lost
Submitted by taozen on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 12:41pm.
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/08/21/People-do-walk-in-circles-whe...

People really do walk in circles when they don't have visual cues to tell them where to head, scientists in Germany said.

*******

If we take up Fernando's offer to visit him in Old Mexico,now.. ;-)

Viva La Mota.. ;)

Been there done that.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

Key Senators Discuss Trimming Health Bill
President Calls Public Option a 'Good Idea' but Not Essential to Reform Effort

By Lori Montgomery and Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 21, 2009

Senate health-care negotiators agreed late Thursday to ignore the increasingly strident rhetoric from Republican and Democratic leaders and to keep working toward a bill that can win broad support from the rank-and-file in both parties, according to sources familiar with the talks.

In a conference call, the three Democratic and three Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee agreed to redouble their efforts to craft a less costly alternative to the trillion-dollar initiatives so far put forward in Congress. They discussed the possibility of also reining in the scope of their package, the sources said.

The senators rejected the idea of imposing a deadline on their negotiations, and they agreed to talk again Sept. 4 -- four days before lawmakers are scheduled to return to Washington from their August break. The consensus, one participant said, was "to take your time to get it right."

In a written statement released after the approximately 90-minute teleconference, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the finance panel, said the group had "a productive conversation" and that they "remain committed to continuing our path toward a bipartisan health-care reform bill."

"Our discussion included an increased emphasis on affordability and reducing costs, and our efforts moving forward will reflect that focus," he said.

Before leaving for the month-long recess, Baucus had pegged the cost of the negotiators' ideas at less than $900 billion over the next decade. Thursday's discussions focused on driving that cost lower, the sources said.

The senators also shared tales from their home states, where some lawmakers have been besieged by protesters angry about a potential government takeover of the nation's health-care system. more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/20/AR200908...

toniD's Ya Think?

You would think that word processors would have made a difference.

"this machine kills fascists"

I love this
Submitted by 60th Street on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 12:33pm

*******

Too funny,60th.. :)

**

He should be in jail still..
Unfortunately,money makes the world go round..

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

*

Link

Excerpt:
The Obama White House got caught napping as the paranoid train left the station once again. Presidential aides told reporters
that the barrage of falsehoods and insane Nazi talk "had caught them off guard and forced them to begin an August counteroffensive."

So where were these geniuses back when Clinton was being called a drug smuggler and mass murderer? When militiamen spotted
U.N. "black helicopters" over Western skies? When thousands hoarded food and water in advance of the imaginary Y2K catastrophe?

Conservatives determined to prevent Obama from succeeding understand that their best chance is to frighten poorly informed voters
historically susceptible to conspiracy theories – particularly in rural states far from centers of power.

Too often, the Democratic response goes something like this: "The claims can be debunked a million times and it would make not one
bit of difference to them. They hate President Obama, most of them are racists, and they are out to destroy him. They are irrational
(barely) human beings with no conscience."

Persuasive, don't you think? OK, so I took that from a fellow on my Facebook page. It's sadly typical. For a generation now,
the well-organized and lavishly funded right-wing noise machine has dominated American political debate with poisonous nonsense
like McCaughey's, with little effective pushback.

To the extent Democrats resist, it's mainly on Web sites like the invaluable Media Matters for America. What's needed, however,
is a strong counter-narrative informing voters that they're being had: conned, tricked and manipulated by, yes, New York, Washington
and Hollywood "media elites" who lie for money. Vulgar? You bet. It's called "populism," and it once dominated the very states
where talk-radio bombast now holds sway.

No, the argument can't be won overnight. On the other hand, it can't be won at all by calling people stupid racists.

www.bartcop.com

**

*Even though most of them are..

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

O'Reilly rebuts Stewart's claim that Fox News has turned liberal
On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart and his staff compiled a pretty amazing takedown of Fox News, branding the network as "the new liberals." Bill O'Reilly was not pleased by this, so he offered a rebuttal.

http://gawker.com/5342231/oreilly-jon-stewarts-just-dancing-down-the-lib...

toniD's Ya Think?

It's one week. But Bus's month long vacations during 2 wars and Hurricane were okay?

Holiday unlikely to be restful for President Obama
By Patricia Zengerle Patricia Zengerle 1 hr 38 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – His healthcare reform plan is stumbling, the economy is still sputtering and violence is up in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who would not want a break?

President Barack Obama is officially taking one next week when he heads to Martha's Vineyard. But a long "to do" list -- two wars, worldwide recession and a host of legislative battles in store when he gets back, most notably the struggle over reforming the U.S. health system -- will make it hard for him to relax and disconnect.

Some critics have questioned whether the president should take a vacation at all, especially given the country's stubborn economic problems and the vehemence of opposition to the $1 trillion healthcare plan.

Others have slammed him for heading to a Massachusetts resort island known as a haven for the rich and famous.

Supporters counter he will be gone for only a week, will never be far from the issues -- and will likely speak out while away.

"The American people are looking to you, Mr. President. They'll follow your lead," said Robert Guttman, director of the center on politics and foreign relations at Johns Hopkins University. "Why not lead them to the places that need your help the most, instead of to an already financially stable and prosperous New England island? America's heartland is calling, Mr. President, won't you answer their call?" he wrote on the liberal Huffington Post website.

The administration says Obama is doing only what other presidents, and many other Americans, do: taking a needed break during a busy year in a place that suits his family. The White House stresses that Obama is footing the bill himself -- estimated at $25,000 or more -- for the 28-acre (11-hectare) Blue Heron farm he is renting for the August 23-30 trip.

AS LONG AS THERE'S NO DISASTER

Officials have said Obama planned to spend much of his time relaxing with his family. But he will keep the healthcare message moving while he is away, spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

"Obviously, we'll have some scheduling updates for you throughout the week on events that may or may not be added on healthcare," Gibbs said this week.

Obama has said he does not think the public will begrudge him the time off with his daughters, despite the bad economy.

Historians note that every U.S. president wants to leave Washington for at least some time in the steamy month of August and say Obama is spending far less time away than most of his recent predecessors, who would leave the White House for weeks in the summer.

The public usually doesn't balk if the vacations are not too long and if the president is not on holiday when there is a natural disaster. President George W. Bush was often assailed by critics for long stays at his Texas ranch, and never more so than when he was seen as remaining there too long after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Presidents never actually leave their jobs, and travel with big entourages of staff, security and the press, noted Stephen Hess, a former presidential adviser now at the Brookings Institution in Washington. more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090821/pl_nm/us_obama_vacation/print

toniD's Ya Think?

Krugman actually buying that Obama believes Republicans want to work with him.

and

Krugman readers actually buying that Krugman believes that Obama believes Republicans want to work with him.

Sure makes for fun reading though! All the comments too! :)

"this machine kills fascists"

DeMint And Bachmann Call On States To Collectively Fight ObamaCare If Passed
Eric Kleefeld | August 21, 2009, 12:34PM

Here's another fun detail from last night's Americans For Prosperity teletown hall, which featured Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN). Both politicians said that if a health care bill passes, it should be actively fought and resisted through a collective effort of conservative governors.

A caller asked DeMint what the states could do in order to stop unconstitutional action by the federal government on health care. DeMint replied, "I think the key to pushing back against the federal government is some governors and state legislators who champion individual freedom."

DeMint said he would love to see states go to court to invoke the Tenth Amendment: "If we had some states come together and say the only way to save this country is to push back." He also added: "I think you'll see some states say no more, we're not going down with the federal government."

A few minutes later, Bachmann commented on this possibility as well, noting that the efforts of some Republican governors to reject stimulus money failed in large part because they were too isolated from one another. A collective action, on the other hand, would stand a much greater chance of success.

"We'd have to see some fairly revolutionary action taken by the these states, and it's question of whether these governors would do that," said Bachmann. She added that she doesn't want to see it actually come to that -- the key is for conservatives to organize now and stop a government takeover of health care from occurring in the first place.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/demint-and-bachmann-call-on-s...

Nullification RX

Nullification, the constitutional theory that states can block enforcement of federal laws they find objectionable, was crackpot from the start and hasn't been seriously entertained anywhere in the county since the Civil War (with the exception of feigned attempts in the South during the Civil Right Era). Nullification, to give you a thumbnail idea, is sort of like secession a la carte.

But Jim DeMint and Michelle Bachmann are now saying that Tea Party-loving states around the country should band together to block enforcement or implementation of health care reform if the federal government passes it.

Should be interesting.

--Josh Marshall

toniD's Ya Think?

Idaho GOP leader, Wells Fargo contractor, pulls .357 Magnum on delinquent homeowner

The Republican Party chairman of Boise County in Idaho was arrested Thursday for aggravated assault after he pulled a gun on a man whose house he was photographing.

Charles McAffee, 33, was among Idaho's anti-tax tea-party activists, and is a member of the Idaho Republican Party Central Committee. He was arrested after pulling a handgun on a homeowner whose mortgage his employer sought to photograph for being delinquent. His employer is a contractor for Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo called McAffee's behavior "horrific and absolutely inexcusable." Via AP:

According to police in the Boise suburb of Meridian, resident Robert Lutes called officers just before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to report McAffee had pointed a .357 Magnum handgun at him during a verbal confrontation. McAffee acknowledged he pointed the gun at Lutes, according to the police account.

"I'm unarmed, I'm an old man," Lutes, 51, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I'm trying to find out why he's taking pictures of my house. I said, 'Knock on my door, let me know what you want.' Then, I think he's reaching for his business card and he pulls out a concealed weapon and I think he's going to blow my head off."

Idaho's Republican Party told the Associated Press the arrest of one of its leaders was a "personal matter."

"It's not a party matter," Jonathan Parker, state GOP director in Boise, told AP.

One of McAffee's supporters said the homeowner's account was false:

"McAffee brandished the weapon to de-escalate the conflict," he asserted.

Yes, you read that right: he pulled a gun to de-escalate the conflict.

-John Byrne

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/08/idaho-gop-leader-tea-party-arrested/

toniD's Ya Think?

Rove op-ed reveals he had inside information about probe
By Larisa Alexandrovna

Lawyer declines to say how he found out accuser didn’t talk to Justice Department

Karl Rove’s latest attempt to proclaim his innocence and demand apologies from those who have accused him of being behind the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman may backfire if it turns out that Rove was improperly receiving inside information after leaving his position as Deputy White House Chief of Staff.

“For more than two years,” Rove writes in the Wall Street Journal, “House Judiciary Committee Democrats and the New York Times editorial board have argued that I personally arranged for Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman to be prosecuted in 2004 for corruption and ordered the removal of eight U.S. attorneys in 2006 for failing to investigate Democrats. The Washington Post editorial board also echoed this last charge. The Times and the Post have published a combined 18 editorials on these issues, which were also catnip to House Judiciary Committee Democrats.”

Rove then goes on to attack Dana Jill Simpson, an Alabama Republican lawyer turned whistleblower who has linked him to the Siegelman prosecution. In doing so, however, he raises serious questions of impropriety by revealing that he has received confidential information from both the House Judiciary Committee and the Department of Justice.

“Committee staff confided to me that they considered her an unreliable witness,” Rove says of Simpson. “I also understand that Mr. Siegelman and Ms. Simpson refused to cooperate with the Justice Department’s review of his claim of political persecution, while I willingly gave sworn testimony.”
Simpson’s allegations

Simpson — who worked for then-Republican Congressman Bob Riley as an opposition researcher during his successful 2002 campaign to unseat then-Governor Don Siegelman — alleged in a 2007 affidavit that Riley’s campaign staff had used unscrupulous means to force Siegelman not to contest the outcome of the election and also stated that “Karl” had taken a personal interest in the matter.

In even more explosive testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Simpson further described a conference call during which Riley campaign advisor Bill Canary said that “Rove had spoken with the Department of Justice” about “pursuing” Siegelman and advised Riley’s staff “not to worry about Don Siegelman” because “‘his girls’ would take care of” the governor. more...

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/20/rove-op-ed-reveals-he-had-inside-...

toniD's Ya Think?

By Felisa Cardona
The Denver Post
POSTED: 08/20/2009 09:44:48 AM MDT
UPDATED: 08/20/2009 01:37:35 PM MDT

Eight people who were arrested on the second day of the Democratic National Convention during a mass protest filed a lawsuit against the City and County of Denver last night alleging wrongful arrest.

The plaintiffs who filed their case in Denver District Court - are represented by lawyers for the ACLU of Colorado and include a legal observer for the People's Law Project, a journalist, students documenting the protest and onlookers along 15th Street and Cleveland Place on Aug. 25.

In addition, the lawsuit is seeking class-action status for nearly 100 people who were held at a special jail, dubbed "Gitmo on the Platte" and claim they were denied access to attorneys who came to provide advice.

Denver police have said they were trying to control the crowd moving from Civic Center. The officers testified in court that they had intelligence that anarchists planned to gather in the park, then move toward the 16th Street Mall to wreak havoc at delegate hotels and other businesses. The activists had posted that plan on a publicly available website. more...

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_13168203?source=rss

toniD's Ya Think?

Olympia Snowe reverses herself on co ops & admits public option not on the table

Olympia Snowe reverses herself on co ops and admits public option not on the table in Senate Finance Committee
By John Amato Friday Aug 21, 2009 11:03am

Olympia Snowe admitted to Andrea Mitchell that the Senate Finance Committee is not even considering a public option in their bill and never had it on the table. She said that the skyrocketing costs of health care are paramount to their bill which is why they are ogling co opts.

Mitchell: So bottom lines, Nancy Pelosi says that they will not produce anything that does not include a public option. Do you see any way that the gang of six will come out of the Finance Committee with a public option?

Snowe: No, I don't. We have not had the public option on the table. It's been co ops and addressing affordability and availability and plans through the exchange and those are the challenges we're wrestling with to insure that there are basic plans to offer Americans.

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/olympia-snowe-admits-public-option-...

toniD's Ya Think?

Everything I'm posting just depresses me now.

toniD's Ya Think?

there was "Freedom of Speech" in America. Sheesh.

Love the Michael Moore trailer!!! I saw a trailer for that film, too - might have been a different one, though.

nice slip there with the health "coopts..." nailed it!!!

for the posts.. :)

Depressing as they are..

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

Why the Gang of Six is Deciding Health Care for Three Hundred Million of Us

Last night, the so-called "gang of six" -- three Republican and three Democratic senators on the Senate Finance Committee -- met by conference call and, according to Senator Max Baucus, the committee's chair, reaffirmed their commitment "toward a bipartisan health-care reform bill" (read: less coverage and no public insurance option). The Washington Post reports that the senators shared tales from their home states, where some have been besieged by protesters angry about a potential government takeover of the nation's health care system.

It's come down to these six senators. The House has reported a bill as has another Senate committee, but all eyes are fixed on Senate Finance -- and on these three Dems and three Republicans, in particular. But who, exactly, anointed these six to decide the fate of the nation's health care?

I don't get it. Of the three Republicans in the gang, the senior senator is Charles Grassley. In recent weeks Grassley has refused to debunk the rumor that the House's health-care bill will spawn "death panels," empowered to decide whether the sick and old get to live or die. At an Iowa town meeting last Tuesday Grassley called the President and Speaker Nancy Pelosi "intellectually dishonest" for claiming the opposite. On Thursday Grassley told the Washington Post that Congress should scale back its efforts to overhaul health care in the wake of intense anger at town hall meetings. But -- wait -- the anger is largely about distortions such as the "death panels" that Grassley refuses to debunk.

This week on Fox News Grassley termed the House bill "the Pelosi Bill," and called it "a government takeover of heath care, exploding the deficit because it's not paid for and it's got high taxes in it."

I really don't get it. We have a Democratic president in the White House. Democrats control sixty votes in the Senate, enough to overcome a filibuster. It is possible to pass health care legislation through the Senate with 51 votes (that's what George W. Bush did with his tax cut plan). Democrats control the House. The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is a tough lady. She has said there will be no health care reform bill without a public option.

So why does the fate of health care rest in Grassley's hands?

It's not even as if the gang represents America. The three Dems on the gang are from Montana, New Mexico, and North Dakota -- states that together account for just over 1 percent of Americans. The three Republicans are from Maine, Wyoming, and Iowa, which together account for 1.6 percent of the American population.

So, I repeat: Why has it come down to these six? Who anointed them? Apparently, the White House. At least that's what I'm repeatedly being told by sources both on the Hill and in the Administration. "The Finance Committee is where the action is. They'll tee-up the final bill," says someone who should know.

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-gang-of-six-is-deciding-heal...

toniD's Ya Think?

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/21/texas-history-gingrich/

The Texas State Board of Education review committee is preparing to vote on a draft of proposed standards for history textbooks. Noting that the draft has “nothing about liberals,” the Houston Chronicle reported:

The first draft for proposed standards in United States History Studies Since Reconstruction says students should be expected “to identify significant conservative advocacy organizations and individuals, such as Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly and the Moral Majority.” [...] Others have proposed adding talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the National Rifle Association.

===

the long term impact of this is that texas sets the direction for other states because of the sheer number of textbooks that they buy.
The 15-member committee, stacked with 10 Republicans, is expected to vote along party lines. Earlier this year, a panel of right-wing “experts” produced a report urging the committee to remove biographies of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Stephen F. Austin, César Chávez, and instead add history about the “motivational role the Bible and the Christian faith played in the settling of the original colonies.”

UPDATE: A Flurry Of Crazies About To Hit Against The Public Option!
by slinkerwink
Fri Aug 21, 2009 at 07:19:45 AM PDT

I wrote a few days ago about why regional co-operatives aren't an acceptable alternative to the public option. The reason I'm focusing on this today is because we need to keep on going to these Democratic townhalls to tell our Democratic Members of Congress why regional co-operatives don't work, and why they're an unacceptable alternative to the public option!

And the other side is going to show upbecause they're scared that we're winning on this fight for the public option as an essential part of health care legislation. It makes me smile when I read how Rick Scott, with the anti-health care organization, Conservatives for Patients Rights, is scared shitless that the public option isn't dead and that it's still very much alive.

Here's his frightened memo to his mouthbreathers below:

“Rumors of the death of the public option have been greatly exaggerated,” reads the memo, which is likely to be taken by liberal groups pushing for the public option as a sign that they need to redouble their fundraising and organizing efforts.

CPR’s memo confirms explicitly that the group will work to foment opposition to the public option at town halls. “It is critical that we stay focused on the public option and not become mired in sideshows or discussions of the public option under any other name,” it says. “We must continue to encourage people to attend town hall forums and other public events to stay focused on stopping the public option.”“To paraphrase the President’s Chief of Staff, `there is opportunity in quagmire,’ and until President Obama admits it’s off the table, or a bill is passed with it removed, our primary goal is to stop the public option cold.”

And here's their new TV ad against the public option: at link

After all, when we've raised over $300,000for the public option in the past three days, the momentum for the public option is growing, and we've got over 5,000 donors which is unbelievable! Just a few days ago, it was declared dead, on life support, or thrown off the table, but thanks to the hard work of you guys, it's still very much alive and kicking.

When we pull together as a community in support of progressive legislation, there is no limit to what we can do! However, we still need to stay focused and not be knocked off message or be distracted from the action items we need to do. more....

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/21/770343/-UPDATE:-A-Flurry-Of-...!

toniD's Ya Think?

scare people and how they use Obamacare. We have to know this to fight this.

Obamacare could cost you $4,000 a year
If the public insurance option is dropped, that's likely to leave many employees with a big bill for their coverage.

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- This is the third installment in a series of health-care columns by Fortune's Shawn Tully.

Now that it's highly possible that the Obama administration will drop the requirement for a public-insurance option from its health-care agenda, it's enlightening to examine what the remaining plan means for most Americans.

If the public option had evolved into a program resembling Medicare for most working Americans --what Conservatives feared and many Democrats wanted -- it might have provided rich coverage, at bargain premiums, for people with moderate incomes.

That won't happen with the proposed alternative, medical co-ops, because they won't pack nearly the purchasing power of a government-run plan to push down prices. Nor will the co-ops get the government subsidies that would likely radically lower premiums under a public option, just as they do under Medicare.

So let's dissect Obamacare by the numbers, assuming that Americans will not have the choice of a public option. The question is basic: Would middle-class Americans be better off with their existing plans or under the new regime? To answer that question, I'll estimate what most middle-class employees pay today for coverage, and what they're destined to pay if Obamacare becomes law.

The conclusion is shocking. Middle- and upper-middle class Americans could face an enormous increase in their premiums. The hit could easily approach $4,000 for someone earning less than $90,000 -- or more than double that increase as soon as the worker's pay hits six figures. That's because Obama's plan would collect hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes at the expense of medium earners, and re-channel the money into subsidies for the uninsured, low-income earners, and union retirees over age 55.

And those big new taxes would pay for gold-plated plans that would become required coverage for everyone, whether they like it or not. "This is a tax game designed to squeeze money out of the middle class," says Joseph Antos, a health-care economist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Let's take a specific example, illustrating the added costs to middle-class families. I'll take the numbers from the plan Obama strongly favors, the House bill H.R. 3200, approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee. I'm going to make a big but reasonable assumption: America's employers will choose to drop their coverage for employees. That's an option granted them under the legislation. more...

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/20/news/economy/health_care_reform_middle_c...

toniD's Ya Think?

Have a great evening all.

toniD's Ya Think?

This week, is having Joe Scarborough and Tavis Smiley talking about health care.

If you can keep from watching it this week it will help Rachel's viewership on MTP high and show the station that she can draw.

toniD's Ya Think?

Bernie Sanders, Jane Hamshire...

If you can get a podcast I would recommend it.

toniD's Ya Think?

Steny Hoyer: “Public Option May Have to Go” for Health Bill Passage
By: slinkerwink Friday August 21, 2009 12:15 pm
Steny Hoyer

via HCEL

Steny Hoyer, patron saint of the Blue Dog Democrats, just got off a conference call with reporters in which he said that in order for the health bill to pass the House of Representatives, that the public option would be tossed overboard as an essential part of the package.

Hoyer (D-Md.) emphasized his support for a public option in a teleconference call with reporters, but also said he wants to ensure Congress sends a bill to the president.

“I’m for a public option, but I’m also for passing a bill,” he said. Democrats believe the public option is necessary, he said, “but we’ll have to see.”

He added that there are many other important parts of healthcare legislation approved by three committees in the House.

This directly goes against why Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in San Francisco about needing the public option in the House bill in order for it to pass the House of Representatives:

There's no way I can pass a bill in the House of Representatives without a public option.”

It's why we've been working so hard here at Firedoglake to hold our progressive block in the House of Representatives to stand firm on the public option and to get them to refuse to vote for any bill, including the conference report, that doesn't have a strong, robust public option in it.

This is also a clear signal from Steny Hoyer to the Blue Dog Caucus in the House to get them to block the passage of the bill in order to strip out the public option. Then comes the question: Will the White House let the Blue Dog Democrats do this or will they go after the Progressives in the House to support the bill's passage without a public option in it? more...

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/08/21/steny-hoyer-says-public-o...

toniD's Ya Think?

Stocks zoom as Bernanke says
economy near recovery
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said what investors wanted to hear, that the economy is indeed on the verge of recovery, and they responded with a rally that sent the major indexes to new highs for the year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wall_street

toniD's Ya Think?

For those of us with a low opinion of liberal ideas, Obama's health care melt-down comes as no surprise. Universal health care is a great in theory if you were starting from scratch. Problem is Trainee Obama is trying to changes horses in mid-stream. This great country is built on the capitalistic system. Millions of folks make a good living working for the health care and insurance industries. The vast majority have already taken care of thier health care needs under the capitalistic system.

Now the trainee wants to look after the minority who have not bothered or are unable to buy insurance. And to do that he wants to upset the apple cart the 80% who don't have a problem. So how does Obama get out of this mess? The best way is just to address the minority who are out in the cold. Maybe he could find a way to fund something like that!

"I believe all these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world."

George W. Bush

Rich NYC mayor: Drug CEOs don't make much money

SARA KUGLER
AP Features

Aug 21, 2009 12:41 EST

Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies and their chief executives on Friday, declaring that they "don't make a lot of money" and shouldn't be scapegoats in the health care debate.

The mayor — and wealthiest person in New York City with a fortune estimated at $16.5 billion — made the comments on his radio show Friday during a discussion about health care.

"You know, last time I checked, pharmaceutical companies don't make a lot of money, their executives don't make a lot of money — not that they couldn't be better," Bloomberg said.

Pharmaceutical CEOs are known to make millions, with generous salaries, stock options and other perks.

Abbott Laboratories Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Miles White's compensation was $25.3 million in 2008. The North Chicago, Ill.-based company saw profit rising 35 percent to $4.88 billion.

Merck & Co.'s chief executive, Richard T. Clark, received a $17.3 million compensation package for 2008. The company's profit more than doubled to $7.8 billion.

The mayor, a Republican-turned-independent who already has spent more than $36 million on his re-election campaign this year, often battles criticism that he is out of touch with regular people. He built his fortune after founding the financial information company that bears his name.

Earlier this year he declared "we love the rich people" while arguing against raising taxes on the wealthy, and said recently that President Barack Obama, who earns $400,000 a year and has made millions from book sales, "doesn't get paid that much" and is "on a budget" like millions of Americans.

Portraying Bloomberg as out of touch is a tactic often used by the Democratic frontrunner in the race, City Comptroller William Thompson Jr.

Thompson's campaign said in a statement Friday that Bloomberg "needs a dose of reality."

"Once again, Mike proves that he just doesn't get it," the statement said.

It was clear that Bloomberg or one of his aides realized his gaffe while he was still on the air Friday.

The mayor, who has sought to cast himself as a financial and business expert, came back from a break and said he had looked up the pay of some pharmaceutical executives.

"Some of them are making a decent amount, more than a decent amount of money," he said.

Either way, Bloomberg said, it doesn't solve anything to beat up on pharmaceutical companies while trying to come up with health care solutions.

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/21/bloomberg-drug-ceos-dont-make-muc...

Mayor Bloomberg, everything is relative, they may not make as much as you, but....

toniD's Ya Think?

AZ pastor's sermons seek death for gays
'Country run by faggots'; Barney Frank 'pedophile'; 'God hates Obama.'

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12591/

toniD's Ya Think?

Tavis Subprime Smiley on, I think Dr. Maddow is gonna have to be SOL. Couldn't miss THAT.

Off to work

toniD's Ya Think?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2 U ......
HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2 U ......
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR
NANDO - -
HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2 U!

Hope u r having a great day :)

AZ pastor's sermons seek
new
Submitted by toniD on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 5:20pm.
AZ pastor's sermons seek death for gays
'Country run by faggots'; Barney Frank 'pedophile'; 'God hates Obama.'

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12591/

toniD's Ya Think?

Yeah, that Krugman can be such an idiot....

Here's a couple more absurdities from some other not to bright people...

Now more than ever, bipartisanship is for suckers
Republicans want Obama to fail. He needs to stop seeking consensus, because it makes him look weak

By Joe Conason

How tough is our president?
Obama may be incapable of being combative. But can't he say unequivocally what he does and does not want?

By Robert Reich

Maybe those financial types are just to concretely grounded....no imagination....

This whole "chess master" stance reminds me of a quote from A Fish Called Wanda....

Otto: "It's a smoke screen?" Wendy: "What?" Otto: "Double bluff…Look, you obviously don't know anything about intelligence work lady…It's an XK Red 27 technique."

I just finished some wireless work for a large local car dealership, and their lots were PACKED with old cars, trucks and vans with the words "CASH FOR CLUNKERS" scrawled across the windshield.....for everyone of those, a new car has rolled off their lot.

I am pleased to say, the fairly conservative IT guys I work with down there were cautiously optimistic, reluctantly, about the positive affect the stim is having on the economy.....at least in their industry.....

absurdities from some other not to bright people...

Published on Friday, August 21, 2009 by Salon.com
Has Obama Lost the Trust of Progressives, as Krugman Says?

by Glenn Greenwald

.......More than any betrayal on a specific issue, it is Obama's seeming eagerness to serve the interests of those who have "run Washington for far too long" -- not as a result of what he has failed to accomplish, but as a result of what he has affirmatively embraced -- that is causing what Krugman today describes as a loss of trust in Obama from those who once trusted him most. This approach is not only producing heinous outcomes, but is politically self-destructive as well. In a superb post the other day, Digby recounted what fueled the Naderite movement in 2000 and warns, presciently I think, that the willingness of Obama/Emanuel so blatantly to disappoint those to whom they promised so much (especially young and first-time voters who were most vulnerable to Obama's transformative fairy dust) will lead them either to support a third party or turn off from politics altogether:....
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/21-14

Submitted by toniD on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 8:12am.
Obama’s Trust Problem
By PAUL KRUGMAN

According to news reports, the Obama administration — which seemed, over the weekend, to be backing away from the “public option” for health insurance — is shocked and surprised at the furious reaction from progressives.

Well, I’m shocked and surprised at their shock and surprise.

[No need to be shocked and surprised. It appears to be business as usual: The Oligarchy and their Transnationals are playing "Good Cop, Bad Cop" with us. After Obama's purposely limited effectiveness as "Good Cop", they'll give us another dose of "Bad Cop" (probably as bad as the Bushes, because I don't see any promising Reps out there being groomed, do you?]

A backlash in the progressive base — which pushed President Obama over the top in the Democratic primary and played a major role in his general election victory — has been building for months. The fight over the public option involves real policy substance, but it’s also a proxy for broader questions about the president’s priorities and overall approach.

[They've got progressives where they WANT them -- fighting for the weak fallback position instead of for single payer. It is a coup for them; it allows them to call the "public option" a Left position when it NEVER was a Left position!]

The idea of letting individuals buy insurance from a government-run plan was introduced in 2007 by Jacob Hacker of Yale, was picked up by John Edwards during the Democratic primary, and became part of the original Obama health care plan.

One purpose of the public option is to save money. Experience with Medicare suggests that a government-run plan would have lower costs than private insurers; in addition, it would introduce more competition and keep premiums down.

And let’s be clear: the supposed alternative, nonprofit co-ops, is a sham. That’s not just my opinion; it’s what the market says: stocks of health insurance companies soared on news that the Gang of Six senators trying to negotiate a bipartisan approach to health reform were dropping the public plan. Clearly, investors believe that co-ops would offer little real competition to private insurers.

[Now that they can smear the public option as a Left plan, the co-op can be sold as a compromise position.]

(continued)

Also, and importantly, the public option offered a way to reconcile differing views among Democrats. Until the idea of the public option came along, a significant faction within the party rejected anything short of true single-payer, Medicare-for-all reform, viewing anything less as perpetuating the flaws of our current system. The public option, which would force insurance companies to prove their usefulness or fade away, settled some of those qualms.

That said, it’s possible to have universal coverage without a public option — several European nations do it — and some who want a public option might be willing to forgo it if they had confidence in the overall health care strategy. Unfortunately, the president’s behavior in office has undermined that confidence.

On the issue of health care itself, the inspiring figure progressives thought they had elected comes across, far too often, as a dry technocrat who talks of “bending the curve” but has only recently begun to make the moral case for reform. Mr. Obama’s explanations of his plan have gotten clearer, but he still seems unable to settle on a simple, pithy formula; his speeches and op-eds still read as if they were written by a committee.

Meanwhile, on such fraught questions as torture and indefinite detention, the president has dismayed progressives with his reluctance to challenge or change Bush administration policy.

[VERY happy Oligarchs counting their war profits and anticipating new dominions.]

And then there’s the matter of the banks.

I don’t know if administration officials realize just how much damage they’ve done themselves with their kid-gloves treatment of the financial industry, just how badly the spectacle of government supported institutions paying giant bonuses is playing. But I’ve had many conversations with people who voted for Mr. Obama, yet dismiss the stimulus as a total waste of money. When I press them, it turns out that they’re really angry about the bailouts rather than the stimulus — but that’s a distinction lost on most voters.

[Damage? But they are following instructions. Damage with voters? As long as the hackable voting and vote tabulator machine problem is not solved, the voting process can be manipulated.]

So there’s a growing sense among progressives that they have, as my colleague Frank Rich suggests, been punked. And that’s why the mixed signals on the public option created such an uproar.

[At this point, one could ask, Can push-overs (as in sentimentalists perhaps) be punked or just duped?]

Now, politics is the art of the possible. Mr. Obama was never going to get everything his supporters wanted.

But there’s a point at which realism shades over into weakness, and progressives increasingly feel that the administration is on the wrong side of that line. It seems as if there is nothing Republicans can do that will draw an administration rebuke: Senator Charles E. Grassley feeds the death panel smear, warning that reform will “pull the plug on grandma,” and two days later the White House declares that it’s still committed to working with him.

It’s hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Obama has wasted months trying to appease people who can’t be appeased, and who take every concession as a sign that he can be rolled.

[Obama rolled? Instead, can it be that we are watching the political equivalent of TV Wrestling?]

Indeed, no sooner were there reports that the administration might accept co-ops as an alternative to the public option than G.O.P. leaders announced that co-ops, too, were unacceptable.

[But the scenario hasn't played to the finish yet. This could be their act of largesse to the Dems -- the Co-Op Compromise!]

So progressives are now in revolt. Mr. Obama took their trust for granted, and in the process lost it. And now he needs to win it back.

[Sorry, but I just don't think the Oligarchy/Transnationals care if progressives break away from Dems. If progressives plit from Obama and start creating a labor party and a socialist party and pumping up the Green Party, it will be just fine for them, because a weakened Dem Party will make it that much easier to bring in the Bad Cop Reps next time.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/opinion/21krugman.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&p...

===========

Sorry about this. (Maybe it was Mike Malloy's extraordinary rants the last couple nights that are the reason I can't jump into the same old same old today.) Usually I'm in awe of Krugman, but today his words didn't seem anchored in the real actions of these politicians and those who pay their ways.

I've this feeling today that any Administration that can CONTINUE the same practices as the Bush Cabal and at the same time expect us to believe a thorough housecleaning is occurring -- well, it goes beyond hypocrisy and straight into duplicity. Well, there you have it.

"Across the board, the drops among Obama and the Democratic Party have come not from the loyal opposition, nor have they come from dismayed Independents.

They have come from Democrats.

A cursory look at the graph for Obama's favorability, broken down by party, shows that after a long period of relative stability among Democrats, there was a sharp drop this week . . . Anyone who thinks the protracted arguments over health care aren't frustrating the Democratic base need look no further. A ten-point dip in net favorability, in a single week, is a pretty solid statement."

After all, what the hell do THEY know anyway....?
(Caution:This vehicle stops suddenly....My snark will end abruptly and without warning.....Please do not tailgate)

Count on it nora...that is and has always been their weakness (reference every single time they've lost since the beginning of recorded history)...

Ron Paul will be attacking from the far right and should pull at least as many votes from the rethugs as any lefty contender pulls from obama...worst case is obama moves left to pick up progressives......

An Awesome Diary!
Submitted by 60th Street on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:02am.
Well, to me, anyway. :)

Obama And The Public Option - Setting The Record Straight

All opinionating, hope and cynicism aside, there can be no argument as to the necessity of the "5 points" in the conclusion.

========================

Submit a plan more cost-effective than the public option?

Submit the Single Payer savings analysis! It shows ingle Payer is more cost-effective than the public option, right?

But, dang. Sorry. I forgot. Single Payer Advocates aren't allowed to submit a thing.

Thom Hartmann

8 more Here _

Yes, because that's exactly what I said...

zooooooooom!

lol!

"this machine kills fascists"

MOSTLY CRAPPY BOOKS
SEX, CELEBRITY, TRUE CRIME, SLEAZE, VINTAGE, TRASH, EXPLOITATION...

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2007

Celebrity: Wonder Bread and Ecstasy: The Life & Death of Joey Stefano

(Charles Isherwood, Alyson Publications, 1996)
Isherwood might have the vocabulary, but oddly enough, considering the subject matter, his book remains oddly superficial. Despite its 200+ pages, the reader learns little about the actual inner-mechanics of once famed and now mostly forgotten gay porn star (and bottom) Joey Stefano, born Nicholas Iacona on New Year’s Day 1968. Isherwood cops out early and, in the books first chapter writes, “As befits a legendary beauty, the early days of Joey Stefano are somewhat shrouded in obscurity.”

which is even harder to believe....

Respectfully 60th, please feel free to expound......you are among friends and I am straining to understand this from your viewpoint....

to vote for authorization of force, (killing Iraqi civilians)...even after they knew the truer truth, what did they do? No really..tell me if they did anything b/c I forgot...And to boot, this alleged mythical "anti-war" party had but one elected official, Barbara Lee of Oakland, CA say NO to that bullshit..Just one...That's why 99.9% of the dems in congress at that time are also responsible for the state of the world today...

This is what I'm thinking about as I watch Slacker Uprising...

was going to write...you're much more kind than I feel right now...good for you, jack! :)

Something's got to crack this left right lib con dem rep head banging...

...

What about the Osama video right before the '04 election?

By John Amato

http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/tom-ridge-admits-terror-alerts-were...

http://videos.ifcfilms.com/unreasonableman/trailer.html

Kyle Busch, who was too busy to go to the Obama speech honoring NASCAR is having a tough day.

Most of the body of his car has been stripped off. He's looking pretty bad limping around the small track at Bristol. Karma can be a cruel bitch.

It's Harvick in front and Carl Edwards who has recently caught my attention as a solid enough driver to respect.

bump.

bump.

amen.

bump.

get the f out of my way. bump.

Submitted by Mullet on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 5:16pm.
For those of us with a low opinion of liberal ideas, Obama's health care melt-down comes as no surprise. Universal health care is a great in theory if you were starting from scratch. Problem is Trainee Obama is trying to changes horses in mid-stream. This great country is built on the capitalistic system. Millions of folks make a good living working for the health care and insurance industries. The vast majority have already taken care of thier health care needs under the capitalistic system.

Now the trainee wants to look after the minority who have not bothered or are unable to buy insurance. And to do that he wants to upset the apple cart the 80% who don't have a problem. So how does Obama get out of this mess? The best way is just to address the minority who are out in the cold. Maybe he could find a way to fund something like that!
----------------------------
This series of illogical conclusions is child's play to refute for many of the members of the three-digit I.Q. club, but since having a cup capable of being filled to the three-digit level is not a right but blind, genetic luck, I'm gonna keep it down to a child's play level.

First, the "surprise" inherent in altering a societal status quo affecting every citizen in a nation, and in altering a huge chunk of the national economy, is no surprise to anyone giving it a shot. No revolutionary change is a piece of cake to sell to the citizenry.

That's why gigantic shifts in the status quo are the Third Rail of politics. No politician wants to assume the risk to his/her reelection or to campaign monies acquired from entities that are vehemently opposed to making yesterday's way-of-doing-business different from tomorrow's.

No politician is self-served by supporting legislation that addresses the future of the United States beyond the next election cycle or of supporting legislation that alters the existing profit structure for one or more capitalist entity.

If you, War Dog, don't understand this principle of American political science (and of international political science as well), then you will be surprised every time.

Second, universal health care is "great in theory if you were starting from scratch" because the primary extant examples sprang forth in nations in the aftermath of a crushing world war that altered their economies to scratch status.

If the U.S. had spread the Veterans Administration health system across the board following WWII (by including the citizenry who put their lives on hold in the war effort just a certainly as military personnel did), or if the U.S. had instituted Medicare twenty-five years earlier than 1966 and had included everyone, you wouldn't be complaining about universal health care today anymore than you complain about the Interstate Highway System today.

But you knew the above. You conceded that "starting from scratch" is easy while scrapping a White Elephant in favor of something completely new is difficult. There are entrenched interests that are not enamored with the idea of being buried in their trenches.

You know this yet you cast blame on Obama who is sufficiently gutsy to take-on a difficult and politically risky task. Today's "from scratch" economy and today's political atmosphere is as ripe for health care reform as it ever will be. Obama knows it. Every political scientist worth his/her analytic skills knows it. I know it. toniD knows it. cent knows it. General Motors and Ford know it.

You seem to have overslept the clarion call?

Third, the United States came into existence because a few people decided to "start from scratch." They thought long and hard. They debated with one another. They had no constituency meddling with their ideas to muck up the works (like, for instance, slaves) and, lucky for us, they gave their "from scratch" effort as much consideration as they could afford it at the time.

So, yes, "from scratch" is a luxury for anyone trying to abandon a system that isn't functioning for the greater good and to begin a revolutionary one created from the lessons learned from the past. It's a fuck-of-a-lot easier when a handful of "Founding Fathers" are calling the shots.
---
To recap thus far: 1.) Political motivations have timelines far short of the common welfare. 2.) Anything is easier to implement from the ashes of chaos. 3.) Big Ideas come to fruition from revolutionary-minded people who have the common welfare in mind and who are not encumbered by a bevy of small-minded and self-serving people and entities.
---
Fourth, "changing horses in mid-stream [sic]" is a revolutionary solution when your horse has drowned. Actually it's not revolutionary at all unless you intend to drown with your dead horse.

French ally: "General Washington, your horse has drowned!"

General Washington: "Come closer, that I might ride with you on your mount."

[Add somber piccolos for effect.]

Fifth (and the biggest clinker in the Conservative mindset), "...to look after the minority who have not bothered or are unable to buy insurance. And to do that he wants to upset the apple cart the [sic] 80% who don't have a problem..." is rife with stupidness.

The "minority" are a tax on your health care. There is no other, no more succinct way to state it. You ALREADY pay cash into a fund that supports emergency rooms and tobacco sales and breaded chicken swimming in a giant, corporate fry-o-later. Americans who cannot afford to buy health care are not to be blamed for staffing the fry-o-later at McDonalds unless you are willing to banish all low-paying jobs.

Furthermore (and more important than the network of low-paying American jobs), the idiotic notion that all people choose to be smart or stupid, or that all people choose to be educated or ignorant, or that all people choose to have or not have motivation to function as you prescribe within the systems of a society that they did not create, or that all people can be athletically-inclined and in perfect health if only they had the gumption, is beyond stupid.

It is self-righteous, sanctimonious bullshit. It is Calvin's "Protestant work ethic" writ large. Even Calvin contradicted himself by believing in fatalistic determinism while condemning anyone who couldn't cut the destiny mustard.

The "bootstraps" ideology has no relationship whatsoever with the teachings of the Christ, or of any other respected religious icon for that matter. We must, because there is no other evidence, stipulate that some people are born into this world with less luck than other people, whether it be mental capacity luck or physical capacity luck or the unexpected onset of pancreatic cancer or morbid obesity or crappy parents or nurture in a neo-nazi or chinatown environment. We are not dealt the same cards and most of us are not playing the game with a full deck.

To place a value judgement on one person for his/her lack of ability or luck or motivation is to place a value judgement on each person. If this were valid, I would blame War Dog for choosing to have a two-digit I.Q. I would blame War Dog for choosing to believe that being lucky is a sign of "bootstrap" diligence.

Anyone (anyone not sporting a two-digit I.Q. and and a willful penchant for ignorance) who supports "capitalism" as an -ism knows that an impoverished group within the population is inevitable. Each member of the impoverished group has a different set of gawd-given tools and happenstance circumstances. If you KNOW that the group will exist no-the-fuck-matter what, then you KNOW that the group exists for a myriad of reasons beyond your control despite your most opportunity-offering efforts.

Either you acknowledge the inevitability of an ever-present impoverished class or you pretend that everyone can equally finance themselves via their own capabilities. If you believe that everyone can equally finance their own needs, then you believe that everyone can be financially equal.

There's a book or two about financial equality. You should give them a gander some time.

(Hint: They are not about capitalism because they begin from the premise that not all people have the ability to be financially equal.)

If you, War Dog, believe that all people can be financially equal, then you are a Commie.

August 16, 2009 - 1:00pm — Bibliofuture

Former Army reservist Lynndie England, a symbol of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, was set to discuss her biography Friday at the Library of Congress as part of a veterans forum on Capitol Hill, but her lecture was canceled after several staff workers received threats, according to the Associated Press.

http://www.popdecay.com/2009/08/library-of-congress-staff-target-of-thre...

- in District 9.

Submitted by Alice on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 9:36pm.
...Something's got to crack this left right lib con dem rep head banging...
------
I really, really like the cadence of this sentence and its consonant staccato, not to mention its sentiment.

I feel a rock-and-roll chorus coming on. (Where's dada when you need him?)

Just like I don't buy that Obama has forsaken progressives in order to court Republicans and ConservaDems, I don't buy that Krugman believes Obama has been so enthralled with the golden fleece of biparitsanship that he has wilfully forsaken common sense and taken liberals for granted.

Both men are way too smart to truly believe either of those scenarios.

Krugman is playing his part. Not that he's in cahoots with the WH, rather, he's saying what he needs to say, both because Obama has chosen to play politics the way he has and because Krugman is a good progressive. Maybe it's frustrating for him, or, maybe in the time spent with Obama he got some inside scoop or just a good gauge of the man, I dunno, but, either way Krugman has to do what Krugman has to do: Be Krugman.

I don't think there's any twelve-dimensional chess going on here at all. It's simple poker, actually, which requires skill despite the element of chance. Keep it close to the vest, be observant, and keep everyone addled and guessing until you make your play. Hopefully, after all that thinking and calculation, it'll be a smart play. If it isn't, well, Obama will have to accept the consequences and the weight of having let a great many people down, possibly sunk his presidency and and probably fucked the health care system a helluva lot more than it already is. Not only that, but a rousing chorus of "we told you so's" from all sides, for a political eternity. His credibility might very well end up irrevocably shot, as well as people's trust in his capabilities.

Obama knows he's a target by default and he's choosing to remain aloof and making aloof decisions, much to the anger of a lot of people all across the political spectrum: progressives, independents, and retarded wingnuts.

In his articles Krugman is doing exactly as Krugman should, which is his best play. Be the motherfucker that lets Obama know exactly what Progressives think of him at all times, unmercifully, as are many good Progressive writers. Hopefully, it will keep Obama thoughtful, honest and on his toes to help him calclate correctly.

I simply don't buy a scenario where Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate, actually takes seriously a leak from "anonymous White House aides" reinjecting ridiculously loaded terms and phrases like "Waterloo" or "left of the left", or statements like "Obama will toss the public option" floated through two superficial dolts like Marc Ambinder or Ceci Connolly.

It's simply absurd in my mind that Krugman is that dumb.

"this machine kills fascists"

Malloy is doing?

----

I mean, it's a little shallow for this part of the thread. I do have three digits and all but...

It's really bothering me.

...

thunderstorm
wind rain lightning thunder
yard stuff is blowing around right now

~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbenet

Submitted by 60th Street on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 10:57pm.
...Hopefully, it will keep Obama thoughtful, honest and on his toes to help him calclate correctly...
------
calclate: To think like a U.C. alumnus.

socalclate: Either to really, really think like a U.C. alumnus or to think like a U.C.L.A. alumnus.

...
For months, former vice president Dick Cheney has called for these documents to be released. However, a person familiar with the contents of the documents says that they contain material that both opponents and supporters of Bush administration tactics can use to bolster their case.
...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/213188

Black Site in Lithuania?

By Britta Sandberg

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,644183,00.html

That was a masterful takedown!

Your response to WaDo wasn't bad either.

(rimshot)

"this machine kills fascists"

The death toll from US missile strikes in a tribal belt of the troubled northwest Pakistan has risen to twelve after more bodies were pulled from rubbles, officials say.

Initial reports indicated that three people were killed in the attack near Miran Shan, capital of North Waziristan tribal district.

"A missile hit a house at 3:50 am (2150 GMT Thursday). It was a drone attack. The missile targeted a house in Dandey Darpa Khel," a Pakistani security official was quoted as saying.

Later, security sources confirmed that the buildings were badly damaged and so far more than a dozen bodies had been recovered from rubbles.

The death toll is expected to rise as some of the wounded are said to be in serious condition.

Witness said the tribesmen were using tractors to remove the debris.

The air strikes allegedly target militants, but Pakistani media outlets say only 10 out of the 60 raids have managed to target militant hideouts.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=104097&sectionid=351020401

kill kill kill..

and the entire lying sack of shit government is pacifying or something?

The U.S. military says four American soldiers in Iraq have been charged with cruelty and maltreatment of soldiers in their platoon.

In a statement released Friday, the military says charges were filed Wednesday against the four soldiers serving with Multi-National Division-South.

The statement identified the four men as Sgt. Enoch Chatman, Staff Sgt. Bob Clements, Sgt. Jarrett Taylor and Spc. Daniel Weber of the 13th Calvary Regiment from Fort Bliss, Texas.

It says the men are charged with multiple counts of cruelty and maltreatment.

The statement does not provide any details nor does it say when the allegations took place.

...ok. Over it.

Wowza!

Such an asshole!

Criticism from the trephinated.

We have hit bottom.

I'll rejoice the day money doesn't talk in politics, and can go to much more worthwhile causes, but, until then, this is fucking kicks ass!

"You people are absolutely amazing. Give you a little idea like handing out Carrots instead of Sticks, and what do you do with it?

You heard me right: the $347,000 and counting you've raised for signatories on behalf of the public option has absolutely dwarfed the money used to buy off the Blue Dogs--to tune of $5,341 per progressive member from you, versus $4,401 from the anti-reform industries per Blue Dog. That's amazing."

"this machine kills fascists"

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-august-19-2009/fox-news--the-new-l...

but I won't ....

-the $347,000 and counting you've raised for signatories on behalf of the public option has absolutely dwarfed the money used to buy off the Blue Dogs-

It's a lot more expensive to market shit cakes instead of Honey Crisp apples and expect them to sell equally.

Plus, Congress is full of easy cheap whores.

(cough)...

"this machine kills fascists"

this way...

Fernando, hope your birthday day was specatcular!

toniD's Ya Think?

did you write that?

Or did you donate?

Alice made me her bitch. I fell a few times. Got more than I deserve, that's for sure.

but I praised it profusely...

and, I donated

(twice)

"this machine kills fascists"

August 21, 2009

THE JOURNAL presents CRITICAL CONDITION, a documentary in which ordinary hard-working Americans tell their stories of battling critical illnesses without health insurance. They discover that being uninsured can cost them their jobs, health, homes, savings, and even their lives.

The country spends more than $2 trillion a year — over $6,000 per person — on health care, yet is the only major industrial nation without universal coverage. Between 45 and 47 million Americans live without health insurance, and 80 percent of them are from working families who either cannot afford insurance premiums or lose their insurance exactly when they need it most: when they fall ill and can no longer work. America ranks 24th in life expectancy, 28th in preventing infant mortality and 19th in halting preventable deaths.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08212009/profile.html

p.s. this is not a problem in Cuba....They actually think that smart and healthy is good.

Obama’s Travails Among Rank And File Dems Give Harry Reid Big Opportunity

It’s worth noting that widespread disappointment with President Obama among rank and file Democrats for his conciliatory posture towards the GOP and “centrist” Congressional Dems presents a big political opportunity for Harry Reid. No idea if he’ll seize it, but it’s there.

Reid has a chance to emerge as a hero to Democrats who want action at a time when they’re sorely in need of one. If he makes good on his threat to get health reform through the Senate via “reconciliation,” rolling over “centrist” Dems, it would resonate strongly with those on the left who blame current Dem leaders — Obama included — for stubbornly refusing to acknowledge the GOP’s desire to scuttle reform at all costs.

Consider today’s news. Paul Krugman’s column today claims there’s been a real shift in liberal opinion about the President. Progressives, he says, feel “punked” by the public option snafu, which is a “proxy for broader questions about the president’s priorities.”

Meanwhile, the three Dem Senators on the Senate Finance committee are ignoring Reid’s threat entirely as they cheerfully lumber forward with efforts to reach a bipartisan deal. This comes after Chuck Grassley claimed, incredibly, that the town hall outbursts have persuaded him a scaled down effort is needed — raising questions about whether these Dems are so consumed with playing bipartisan kingmakers that they’ve lost touch with reality.

I don’t want to overstate the possibility that Reid will make good on his threat. He’s made cautious noises about the public option. For a “former boxer,” he’s been known to flinch on occasion. It’s also unclear how it would affect his reelection chances. But with next year’s Netroots Nation being held in his homestate, there’s an opportunity here to seize.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/bipartisanship/obamas-travails-on-left...

toniD's Ya Think?

Cuba. Don't tell me they love the people and hate the govt of Cuba..they use the people here and in Cuba to create situations in which they can feel superior to Cuba...and do everything they can to keep the good being done there away from us..

Yeah..I'd vote for one of them...NOT.

yer darn right you 'got' on this birthday...that is so ...a cool birthday thing...

Journalism

I get the live teevee is difficult and even the best most well-informed host can't always succeed in correcting a full of shit guest, but that's entirely different from making the argument that it isn't even her job.

I sent a couple of those viewer e-mails to Winslow seeking a response. Those e-mails, some of which are printed below, focused especially on two things that Armey said: "If you're over 65 years old in America today, you have no choice but to be in Medicare. Even if you want out of Medicare, you have to forfeit your Social Security to get out of it . . . That's pretty heavy-handed, and people fear that."

Those who wrote said Armey was not speaking the truth, and frankly I thought it sounded strange as well and so I sent them along to Winslow seeking a response. Because The NewsHour presents a full hour of news five nights a week it, naturally, provokes a lot of commentary from viewers. In my experience, Winslow has always been a solid responder — candid and tough-minded. But this time she sent only a terse note, along with a link to the transcript that readers can check:

"Here's the transcript of last night's discussion. Seems to me the guests were asked to rebut one another. Judy was the moderator, not the judge. Check out http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec09/health_08-13.html."

Woodruff did, indeed, turn to her other guest and ask, "What about this charge?" But Kirsch responded in a way that didn't answer those specific assertions raised by Armey and the discussion moved on to other points. So Armey's points about Medicare and Social Security benefits were left hanging out there, viewers wrote to challenge them and The NewsHour wasn't going to clear the air. Armey made much the same charge on NBC's Meet the Press program last Sunday and it also went largely unchallenged.

In a perfect world the host of the NewsHour would see that her job is to make sure, as much as possible, viewers have accurate information. In an imperfect world I get that it isn't always going to happen that way, though with clearly false statements as opposed to subtler ones you would hope that it would be a priority.

To address the actual factual issue: Yes, it isn't entirely simple to withdraw from Medicare A even though you can, but more to the point almost no one would consider doing so because for most people it is absolutely free and being enrolled doesn't stop you from having supplemental insurance.

-Atrios 18:29

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/08/journalism_21.html

toniD's Ya Think?

...is tearing it up on Real Time

Target: Chuck Todd

Awesome!

"this machine kills fascists"

as long as there are cartoons that I enjoy I will be excited when I see one I love...

Maybe we can both grow up, but we don't want to...

He is I.F. Stone & George Seldes, with the censored reporter from Nagasaki - all in one...

Too bad I don't pay that horrible medium premium anymore or I could see it...

Submitted by 60th Street on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 11:26pm.
-----
I am beyond shit-full of the canard that all men are created equal or that all men, once created equal, have equal happenstances through which to excel in whatever area some idiot prescribes that any man should excel.

If a Down Syndrome citizen should be afforded recognition for being different, then an 80 I.Q. citizen should be afforded consideration for being different.

If we recognize that a person who is genetically skinny and agile can easily climb around on roofs in the hot sun, then a genetically heavy and klutzy person should be recognized as incapable of performing the same.

If we recognize that a good-looking and articulate person can wait tables anywhere in the country, then we must recognize that a homely and stuttering person is incapable of performing the same.

The list of different people is endless but the list of job opportunities and pay scales is not.

The people who "game the welfare system" are inconsequential when compared to the real-world talents and opportunities available (and not available) to the differing citizens in the workforce pool. I never met a slacker who wouldn't work hard at something s/he enjoyed doing, had a talent for, and paid well.

I am a lot smarter than War Dog. I was born with the ability. I don't pass judgement on War Dog for not having the same ability that I was given because I didn't do anything whatsoever to receive the ability. There are no "bootstraps" involved.

If we both climb on bicycles tomorrow morning, War Dog will ride a lot farther and faster than I will. I have lousy knees that I have been working-around for decades. I didn't do anything to receive lousy knees and War Dog didn't do anything to have knees that are wonderful. There are no "bootstraps" involved.

There is a tendency in humans to identify other people as "lesser" because "I went the extra mile to be better."

It's bullshit. I bumbled along through life just like War Dog did. I'm smarter. He has better knees. I was unwilling to be a slave to the same machinery every day and he was unwilling to take a chance on something new.

If I discover that I have an inoperable brain tumor growing even as I write and that War Dog has pancreatic cancer growing even as I write, neither of us made our own beds.

His attitude is ordinary, self-aggrandizing foolishness that makes him feel better about himself.

It's that fucking simple.

And, by the way, I would seriously consider swapping my ability to easily spell "mnemonic" for better knees...or for an innate ability to comprehend complex mathematical concepts...or for the quick-study ability to learn to speak foreign languages.

We ain't born equal and it only gets less equal after our birthdays.

Larissa Alexandrova says there are 1,000 political prosecutions (like the Gov. Siegelman miscarriage of justice) and nothing is being done to sort it out???

Did I hear that right?

?

What?

pardon?

New scene.

A daylight shot of a yellow taxi driving down the street, then inside to the back seat of the taxi -- Simon, the Englishman that Elaine met on her trip is riding with her.

Elaine: So the trip was good?

Simon: Yes (nice English accent) Apart from that, dreadful airline food. It tends to reek havoc with my stomach.

Elaine: You know I, I have to say, I've never admitted this to anyone, but um, I kind of like airline food. (leans in and laughs, flirting with him)

Simon: That's probably because of ... [muttering]

Elaine: What?

Simon: What?

Elaine: Yeah, what?

Simon: [sighs]

Elaine: What?

Simon: Where I come from, we don't say “What?” It's proper to say “Pardon?”

Elaine: Huh. [muttering -- sounds like “this should be interesting”]

Simon: Pardon?

Elaine: Nothing.

http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheSoup.html

Are you writing here to make yourself feel worse about yourself?

on the Thom Hartmann show today, that an unregulated financial system is true anarchy. Lawless and do what they want.

I think it was John Nichols from the Nation

toniD's Ya Think?

And,I thought Tiny Tim would calm the woman.. ;-)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

I have lost much monetary assets in a very short time...

At least as far as my salary....And now there have been donations made and "accounting errors" that have allowed some relief workers to come back..like GM today..

I was so mad they would hire people back and not give us our salary back first...! That is probably selfish of me..but I think and feel it. So then I re-read the union agreement made and it basically says that the county will THINK about discussing getting our pay back, IF the union agrees that we pay our own retirement accounts...which I guess the county has been paying..So us paying for that, is going to negate putting our pay back to what it was...I haven't actually done the math...but it seems unfair off the line already...

I'm sorry...

The girl can't help it by Little Richard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=memh_V_qH3U

Like Toni said after posting a bunch of articles today,
'I have to stop posting now..All these stories are making me depressed'..

There is enough bad news around today to drive any lefty nuts..

Ya just have to roll with the punches & keep fighting..
Take breaks when you can..
Kind of Like roller derby..

Sorry,about the BS at work..
Work can always find ways to fill up any one's BS quota fast..
Hang in there.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

Ex-Armey aide indicted in Abramoff probe

Horace Cooper, 44, a former aide to Rep. Dick Armey (R-Texas), was indicted Friday on five felony counts in the investigation stemming from D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The indictment alleges that Cooper took from Abramoff and his associates more than $5,000 in tickets to sporting events and concerts between 1998 and 2001 while working for Armey. Between 2001 and 2005, while working as chief of staff at the Voice of America and in a later job at the Labor Department, Cooper took another $9,000 in tickets from Abramoff's team, the indictment claims.

Cooper was also regularly "comped" at Abramoff's restaurant, Signatures, the Justice Department claims. When getting a free meal, sometimes Cooper would pay for a soft drink on a credit card making "it appear that he had paid for his Signatures meals and drinks when actually he did not," the indictment says.

Prosecutors contend that in exchange for the largesse, Cooper used his influence to help Abramoff get federal funds from the Department of State and to help an Abramoff colleague trying to resolve a wage-and-hour investigation at Labor. In one e-mail, Cooper allegedly offered to "fix" problems related to the inquiry. Cooper "concealed" the gifts from Abramoff on personal financial disclosures filed with the government, the indictment says.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/0809/ExArmey_aide_indicted_in...

Former Dick Armey Aide Indicted in Abramoff Probe

A long-time aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey was indicted today for taking thousands of dollars worth of gifts from jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

According to the indictment filed today at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Horace Cooper received more than $14,000 dollars worth of gifts, including high priced sports and concert tickets, in return for assisting Abramoff’s firm on various matters.

Cooper is now known as an author and conservative commentator who has spent time as a visiting law professor at George Mason University. He worked under Armey from 1994 until 2001, becoming a senior aide and counsel. In 2001, he became chief of staff at Voice of America, where, according to indictment, he helped on of Abramoff’s clients win a project worth $10-to-$15 million.

He later became chief of staff at the Employment Standards Administration of the Department of Labor. There, the indictment alleges that he looked into ways an attorney who was investigating another Abramoff client could be removed from the case.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/08/21

toniD's Ya Think?

Betsy McCaughey — an outspoken proponent of the myth that Democrats’ health care reform proposals will lead to the creation of “death panels,” as well as a former lieutenant governor of New York and adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute — has stepped down from her position as a director of Cantel Medical Corp., which bills itself as a “leading provider of infection prevention and control products in the healthcare market.”

From a press release:

CANTEL MEDICAL CORP. (NYSE: CMN – News) announced that on August 20, 2009 it received a letter of resignation from Ms. Elizabeth McCaughey as a director of the Company. Ms. McCaughey, who had served as a director since 2005, stated that she was resigning to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest during the national debate over healthcare reform.

McCaughey found herself the subject of widespread ridicule after an appearance on “The Daily Show” Thursday, during which host Jon Stewart aggressively challenged her positions on health care reform.

http://washingtonindependent.com/56008/death-panel-myth-creator-betsy-mc...

toniD's Ya Think?

-he was unwilling to take a chance on something new. -
Submitted by Alice on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 12:39am.
What?
-----
He spent every work day in the same print shop.
---------------------------------
-makes him feel better about himself-
Submitted by Alice on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 12:41am.
Are you writing here to make yourself feel worse about yourself?
-----
Do you really want to do this? If you want to take me on for some reason, put it together and give it your best.

I don't think that's what you want: I think you want to take hit-and-run potshots from a safe distance.

But if you really, really want to see what you can do...if you want to put it to the test, go for it. I don't want to be goaded into playing your game by your rules but I'm not going to be your silent pincushion, either.

Because this sounds like a new book...

Your Silent Pincushion
by Danielle Steel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYm_iBxtbX0

Unemployment in California hits post-World War II high
The state's rate jumps to 11.9% in July as the U.S. rate declines to 9.4%. Job losses have an outsize effect on Latinos in the state as work in the construction and hospitality sectors vanishes.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-caljobs22-2009aug22,0,6343107.stor...

toniD's Ya Think?

Ex-Armey aide indicted in
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 1:09am.
Ex-Armey aide indicted in Abramoff probe

*******

the Feds turning Horace on him..It can happen..Fingers crossed..Four Leaf Clover..Rabbit's Foot time.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

Submitted by MMRules on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 4:48am.

Author and researcher Jeff Sharlet will discuss the frightening connection between power and fundamentalism in

a secretive cult called "The Family", that teaches Washington lawmakers that people chosen for leadership are above morality.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2009/08/22

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5041.shtml

[excerpt]

Khalid Bin Mahfouz dies of heart attack
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Aug 21, 2009, 00:21

(WMR) -- The Saudi newspaper, Asharq Alawsat, is reporting from Jeddah that Saudi billionaire banker Khalid Bin Mahfouz, the controversial former director of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia and someone who was often accused of being linked to financial support to groups associated with “Al Qaeda” -- with Mahfouz’s legal team carrying out rapid lawsuit action mainly in London against transgressing journalists -- died this past Saturday from a sudden heart attack at his home in Jeddah.

Arab Newson, August 18, reported: “Recently Bin Mahfouz cleared his name from accusations he was funding terrorism through the Blessed Relief charity of the Muwafaq Foundation, an organization devoted to famine relief.”

On September 21, 2005, WMR reported, “In 1992, according to The Houston Chronicle, George W. Bush’s friend James Bath was investigated by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) and the FBI. Investigators suspected Saudi investors who worked with Bath of illegally trying to influence U.S. policy during the Reagan and Bush I administrations. Bath invested Saudi money in Arbusto ’70 Ltd., Arbusto ’80 Ltd., and Bush Exploration Co. (which later morphed into Harken Energy Corp., which included George W. Bush as its director). After Desert Storm, Harken was granted lucrative off-shore drilling rights by Bahrain, a Desert Storm coalition partner. One of the other shareholders of Harken, along with Bush, was Saudi businessman Abdullah Taha Bakhsh. According to the Chronicle, Bath, who was a sole agent of Salem Bin Laden [older brother of Osama Bin Laden], was also the sole director of Skyway Aircraft Leasing Corp., one of the affiliates of Skyways International. Bath established four corporate entities with the name “Skyway” and the firm that incorporated the corporate contrivances in the Cayman Islands for Bath was the same one that established a Cayman-based money laundering front company for Oliver North in the Iran-contra scandal. In 1977, Bath bought Houston Gulf Airport on behalf of Salem Bin Laden. Skyway Aircraft Leasing Corporation was, according to the Chronicle, owned by Khalid Bin Mahfouz, a major shareholder in the defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), a major money laundering activity for George H. W. Bush’s Iran-contra caper. Bin Mahfouz was also the owner of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia.”

...

The sudden death of Bin Mahfouz comes after reports that Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States and someone so close to the Bush family he has been called “Bandar Bush,” was placed under house arrest after a failed coup against Saudi King Abdullah. The report on Bandar’s arrest came from a Saudi opposition movement, the Islamic Reform Movement.

The reported arrest of Bandar and the sudden death of Mahfouz not only marks the loss of Bush family influence in Saudi Arabia, but removes from the scene two individuals who constantly threatened lawsuits against journalists who attempted to delve into the murky business dealings between two influential Saudis and America’s most influential political dynasty.

[end excerpt]

Wtf are y'all doing?

Wtf are we doing?

The other person involved knows who "we" is. (Not you baby...)

"The news" plus...full moon?

(Nope, we're in the middle...)

Usually I understand this stuff. Usually this is the kind of stuff I understand. I may not LIKE it, but I understand it.

MMR, toniD...you are making sense as usual. Thank you. Thank you for making sense. Thank you for making sense.

Fernando, you are not making sense, mostly, as usual. But in a mostly good way. Thank you. Thank you for being as usual. And happy birthday.

Sorry if this was posted before..
**
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Aug 12, 2009, 00:23

(WMR) -- WMR previously reported that Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a close ally of President Barack Obama and his chief of staff, former Representative Rahm Emanuel, who, like Schakowsky, represented a Chicago district, was sexually blackmailed by a lesbian prostitute who worked for the American Turkish Council (ATC).

The ATC and its affiliated Turkish government lobbying organizations were cited by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds in her deposition in an Ohio Election Commission complaint filed by Representative Jean Schmidt (R-OH) against her 2008 opponent, David Krikorian, over statements by Krikorian that Schmidt received financial support from the Turkish lobby in the United States. Edmonds was subpoenaed for a deposition in the case in support of Krikorian’s allegations that the Turkish Lobby has wielded tremendous influence over U.S. policymakers like Schmidt in Congress. After raising objections to Edmonds’s testimony, pursuant to a state secret gag order imposed by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, neither the Justice Department nor the FBI moved to block Edmonds’s statements at her deposition on August 8 in Washington, DC.

WMR has received additional confirmation from a high-level congressional source that Schakowsky regularly engaged in a lesbian sexual tryst at a Washington, DC, townhouse with a female employee of the ATC. WMR previously reported that law enforcement sources told us that the tryst location was bugged by a Turkish surveillance team that recorded the encounters. The recordings were later used to blackmail Schakowsky into backing away from supporting Armenian genocide resolution initiatives in the House. The surveillance operation was so complex, a second surveillance team monitored the primary team to ensure the bugging devices were properly installed before what the FBI called the “hooking process” commenced.

WMR has obtained from a law enforcement source the first name of the ATC employee but we are withholding it from release to protect the privacy of someone who may have been forced into the prostitution situation by Turkish intelligence officers.

Con't..

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5007.shtml

(*Peter B Collins had Sibel Edmonds on his last Podcast as a Co-Host..A real good show..)

www.peterbcollins.com/

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

Too close to home some of it. Sorry.

I'll shut up here until I'm back on my game, such as it is.

http://agriculturesociety.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/american-dietetic-ass...

[excerpt]

American Dietetic Association Refuses to Acknowledge Benefits of Organic Food
August 11, 2009 ·

...

...The American Dietetic Association is one of the primary organizations relied on by the public for sources of health and nutrition. For decades, the ADA has provided a wealth of information about these topics. Unfortunately, they have been guilty of releasing much incorrect information, much to the detriment of the masses. As with many topics on nutrition, they have taken a stand about organic food, and it is this:

Findings by its Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group which reveal that plants grown in organic systems contain higher levels of nutrients and an organic diet avoids the serious health risks associated with pesticide exposure.

If you visit their web site, you will find a definitive statement claiming that “no scientific evidence shows that these foods are healthier or safer than conventionally grown foods.”

Unfortunately when agencies like the ADA who are followed so closely by individuals, health centers and organizations, physicians, and other entities recommend information to the public of this nature, many don’t realize the harmful effects their guidelines have on general health. By failing to support this important information, the ADA is undermining one of the best ways we as a civilization have of combating degenerative illness and disease, as well as degradation to our environment and economy. According to the Journal of Applied Nutrition, across the board, organic foods are superior in nutritional content and contain less toxic materials than conventionally grown foods.

But it doesn’t stop there.

The ADA also refuses to acknowledge the dangers of chemical ingredients and the genetic engineering of foods grown and sold on the market. It is interesting to note that this organization is a non-profit with a healthy donor list comprised of many influential and powerful corporations and individuals including, but not limited to, the following (with donation amounts listed for 2008):

Pepsi Co ($25,000 to $49,000)
Cargill ($10,000 to $24,000)
General Mills ($100,000 in 2008)
McCormick & Company ($5,000 to $9,999)
ConAgra ($5,000 to $9,999)
The National Cattleman’s Beef Association ($10,000 to $24,000)
National Dairy Council ($10,000 to $24,000)
Unilever Best Foods ($1,000 to $1,999)
Each of these corporations are well-known and documented to produce industrial food in the form of meat or dairy products, grains, and many packaged, processed foods containing toxins and chemicals found to cause health problems when consumed by human beings. One great source of information for this is the movie Food, Inc. Also, visit the Organic Consumer’s Association for reliable information about the effects of Monsanto’s product, Roundup. Sustainable Table has reliable data and sources detailing the dangers of pesticides and other harmful chemicals that are used in every aspect of our food system from meat to dairy to grains to soy to produce.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR200908...

[excerpt]

White House Objects to Poster That Invokes Obama Children

Jasmine Messiah, 8, says her Florida school doesn't offer vegan or vegetarian options for lunch. (Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine)

The posters went up last week, 14 in Union Station. On each of the large displays, a thought bubble rises up from a picture of a beautiful 8-year-old: "President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I?"

A Washington nonprofit that advocates nutrition-policy reform paid $20,000 to get its message across and carefully maneuvered Metro's tangle of regulations to display its posters. Metro gave it a go -- but the White House did not, according to the group. Within 24 hours of the signs' appearance, the White House asked the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to take down the ads, which feature Jasmine Messiah, a vegetarian who attends a Miami-Dade County public school that, she says, offers no vegetarian or vegan lunch options.

The Physicians Committee has declined to take down the posters.

[end excerpt]

I wanted to bring this to your attention.

Bristol did not disappoint last night during the Nationwide race. This particular event shows what happens when you decide to ignore common sense and decide not to attend President Obama's attempt to honor the NASCAR franchise.

Although the the origins of some of man's worst plagues are unknown, you can bet that Kyle Busch invented the dry vagina.

http://www.lafn.org/gvdc/Natl_Debt_Chart.html

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday announced four more bank failures, including a Texas bank with total assets of about $13 billion, pushing this year's tally up to 81.

Guaranty Bank of Austin, Texas became the 81st bank failure of 2009 after it was closed by Office of Thrift Supervision, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver, the federal agency said late Friday.

===

another way to look at it is about every 3 days a bank fails somewhere in the u.s.

watched both videos in sequence as I am trying hard to catch up on lost blog time...

so...

the scientific mri of coitus and fernando's nascar clips blended in my mind and made for a weird visual combo

dry vagina, wonder if maybe the road was slippery over there on the nascar track?

nando! sorry, but i just do not understand this nascar thing but what i gather from your comments, kyle bush got fucked? good, with a last name like that, and he does look like a republican asshole, if he is indeed the one i think he is (from watching the vid) because truth be told with those uniforms and all the junk on their clothing it's rally hard to know who's who, why don't they just wear a clearly visible and legible name tag?

back home today and catching up - lots to do, phone calls and stuff, but first... the gym to get my lazy muscles back into some shape

how was da beach

i'll probably post some youtubes and pics for you guys soon

...and it is getting worse. Now, other, independent parties are passive conspirators in this charade. This is a slippery slope of assumptions piled on top of assumption...without a shred of fact or proof to back it up.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good conspiracy, and I am one who believes all things are possible until they aren't, just know you are slipping into tin-foil hat territory here.

Next time you feel the impulse to kick a truther in the nuts, or slam someone elses conspiracies proposals, just remember what you are proposing here, and maybe cut them some slack.

FWIW, in the end, I STILL hope you are right....but, unfortunately, the only way we will ever really know for sure is if Obama signs a bill without a public option. Which we both hope never happens.

http://www.angelcityjazz.com/artists/larry_goldings_trio

(To hear the audio click on to Angel city radio and look for the artist)

these guys are good friends and if you are in L.A check them out.

Some ("lesbo" : P ) girls wrote a song about it. : P

Even if you don't want to hear it, here it is:

It's the "my peeps/not my peeps" principle. Only the real pros should fuck around with it...Just sayin'....

Maybe I'll go preform it down ta teh Applebee's tomorrow evenin'

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5134#comment-362543

woops!

I didn't know Sam Seder before to see him on TYT. I really enjoyed his show, and I hope we'll see him again and more often on TYT.

nice work! locks of love hair donation locks of love participating salons