How it came to be

As far as Health Care is concerned, the House was to be the easy lift. It will be in the Senate that we will have to do the heavy lifting. Republicans all stand in opposition with conservative Democrats joining in obstruction. And we have Joe Lieberman blocking any progressive public options. So is it better to agree to a Republican based bill, or to kill the whole thing and try again another day?

hint: sir robin is the dems...the dragon is the health insurance lobby...the minstrels is us....

I believe so
new
Submitted by smcgee43 on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 12:27am.

I'll listen to the pod at Le Show tonight or tomorrow..
It's the same thing,right ?

Think About Financing Anti-Abortion Activists?

Interesting list here:

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/11/07/i-wonder-what-bart-stupaks-d...

I'm not going to apologize if this has been posted already, because some things are worth repeating.

I just put Harry & Le Show on my iTunes..
He wasn't on iTunes before..
Thanks for reminding me about him & his show..
I haven't remembered to listen to him in a while..
And,he's a fav of mine,too.. :)

Too many podcasts,not enough time.. :(

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

MMRules

Repost for the Halibut.. ;) Groan..

Sumitted by MMRules on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 12:13am.
**
What Stupid (Stupak) and Pitts are Trying to do

is Ridiculous and Totally Unacceptable ! !

Doesn't Any of the Democrat Leadership in Congress Know What They Are Doing ?

60th's Link

**

**

Maddow: Democratic women will REVOLT over Stupak-Pitts if it is not removed in Conference

Link

**

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

MMRules

Just another Wingnut Hypocrite..

**

Christian darling caught on nasty, nasty sex tape

Link

Excerpt:

Carrie Prejean demanded more than a million dollars in settlement negotiations with Miss California Pageant officials
-- that is, until the lawyer for the Pageant showed Carrie an XXX home video of her handiwork.

The video the lawyer showed Carrie is extremely graphic and has never been released publicly.
We've seen the tape - let's just say, and Carrie has a promising solo career. ha ha

We're told it took about 15 seconds for Carrie to jettison her demand and essentially walk away with nothing.

*
I've heard that the Miss California Pageant officials want their breast implants back.

Sounds like a job for the Repo man.

www.bartcop.com
www.allhatnocattle.com

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

MMRules

-

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

MMRules

Oh Please let it be so !

**

The Daily Beast

by Benjamin Sarlin

The far right’s star House member just hit the headlines with a rowdy health-care rally on Capitol Hill. Benjamin Sarlin reports on the Democrats lining up in Minnesota to send Michele Bachmann into early retirement.

Michele Bachmann took her paranoid campaign against the White House to new heights on Thursday, leading a mass protest inside the Capitol itself that led to multiple arrests. Antics like these have made her one of the breakout stars of the Republican Party in the Obama era, drawing praise from Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and even George Will. But her stunts have also made what is otherwise a relatively safe Republican seat potentially vulnerable to Democratic takeover.

Her bid for reelection to a third term is still a year away. But two credible challengers have already emerged to vie for the Democratic nomination: physician Maureen Reed and State Senator Tarryl Clark. Both are making Bachmann's extremist rhetoric the centerpieces of their campaigns.

“I think that elected officials have a high responsibility to dial down anger and to dial down fear,” said physician Maureen Reed, one of Bachman’s two Democratic challengers. “People don’t problem-solve very well when they’re really mad and really scared.”

Con't..

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-06/bringing-down-...

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

MMRules

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

MMRules

They are available as soon as I upload them on Sunday night. Even tho iTunes may not have updated the listing "in the store" all you need to do is go to your iTunes app, right click on Ya Think? and tell it to update. It will go search for the file and because it's there you will get the upload.

You can always get it "on demad" by going to bluerootsradio.com and clicking on the Podcast page. To play the podcast click on the title of the episode, the icon for the episode or click More...just below the description. This will bring up a player embedded in the bottom of the icon.

Katrina on now. And They have played clips from Rachel on MTP

toniD's Ya Think?

On the Stupak amendment. The democratic women are all up in arms about losing reproductive rights.

toniD's Ya Think?

Paranoia Strikes Deep
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Last Thursday there was a rally outside the U.S. Capitol to protest pending health care legislation, featuring the kinds of things we’ve grown accustomed to, including large signs showing piles of bodies at Dachau with the caption “National Socialist Healthcare.” It was grotesque — and it was also ominous. For what we may be seeing is America starting to be Californiafied.

The key thing to understand about that rally is that it wasn’t a fringe event. It was sponsored by the House Republican leadership — in fact, it was officially billed as a G.O.P. press conference. Senior lawmakers were in attendance, and apparently had no problem with the tone of the proceedings.

True, Eric Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican, offered some mild criticism after the fact. But the operative word is “mild.” The signs were “inappropriate,” said his spokesman, and the use of Hitler comparisons by such people as Rush Limbaugh, said Mr. Cantor, “conjures up images that frankly are not, I think, very helpful.”

What all this shows is that the G.O.P. has been taken over by the people it used to exploit.

The state of mind visible at recent right-wing demonstrations is nothing new. Back in 1964 the historian Richard Hofstadter published an essay titled, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” which reads as if it were based on today’s headlines: Americans on the far right, he wrote, feel that “America has been largely taken away from them and their kind, though they are determined to try to repossess it and to prevent the final destructive act of subversion.” Sound familiar?

But while the paranoid style isn’t new, its role within the G.O.P. is.

When Hofstadter wrote, the right wing felt dispossessed because it was rejected by both major parties. That changed with the rise of Ronald Reagan: Republican politicians began to win elections in part by catering to the passions of the angry right.

Until recently, however, that catering mostly took the form of empty symbolism. Once elections were won, the issues that fired up the base almost always took a back seat to the economic concerns of the elite. Thus in 2004 George W. Bush ran on antiterrorism and “values,” only to announce, as soon as the election was behind him, that his first priority was changing Social Security.

But something snapped last year. Conservatives had long believed that history was on their side, so the G.O.P. establishment could, in effect, urge hard-right activists to wait just a little longer: once the party consolidated its hold on power, they’d get what they wanted. After the Democratic sweep, however, extremists could no longer be fobbed off with promises of future glory.

Furthermore, the loss of both Congress and the White House left a power vacuum in a party accustomed to top-down management. At this point Newt Gingrich is what passes for a sober, reasonable elder statesman of the G.O.P. And he has no authority: Republican voters ignored his call to support a relatively moderate, electable candidate in New York’s special Congressional election.

Real power in the party rests, instead, with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (who at this point is more a media figure than a conventional politician). Because these people aren’t interested in actually governing, they feed the base’s frenzy instead of trying to curb or channel it. So all the old restraints are gone.

In the short run, this may help Democrats, as it did in that New York race. But maybe not: elections aren’t necessarily won by the candidate with the most rational argument. They’re often determined, instead, by events and economic conditions.

In fact, the party of Limbaugh and Beck could well make major gains in the midterm elections. The Obama administration’s job-creation efforts have fallen short, so that unemployment is likely to stay disastrously high through next year and beyond. The banker-friendly bailout of Wall Street has angered voters, and might even let Republicans claim the mantle of economic populism. Conservatives may not have better ideas, but voters might support them out of sheer frustration.

And if Tea Party Republicans do win big next year, what has already happened in California could happen at the national level. In California, the G.O.P. has essentially shrunk down to a rump party with no interest in actually governing — but that rump remains big enough to prevent anyone else from dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis. If this happens to America as a whole, as it all too easily could, the country could become effectively ungovernable in the midst of an ongoing economic disaster.

The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/opinion/09krugman.html?_r=1&partner=rs...

Krugman put to words my thoughts and fears.
Are the crazy wingers taking over? Why was this allowed to get so out of hand? What do we have to do to stop this now?

toniD's Ya Think?

On Election Day, a win for government

By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Monday, November 9, 2009

Here's a story you may have missed because it flies in the face of the dreary conventional wisdom: When advocates of public programs take on the right-wing anti-government crowd directly, the government-haters lose.

This is what happened in two statewide referendums last week that got buried under all of the attention paid to the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey. In Maine, voters rejected a tax-limitation measure by a walloping 60 percent to 40 percent. In Washington state, a similar measure went down, 57 percent to 43 percent.

They lost in part because opponents of the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights measures (known as TABOR) did something that happens too rarely in the national debate: They made a case for what government does, why it's important and why cutbacks in public services can be harmful to citizens and the common good.

The idea that most voters hate government has an outsize influence on the thinking of both parties. Republicans try to exploit this feeling; Democrats try to get around it.

Only rarely do those who believe in active government take the argument head-on and insist that many of the things government does are necessary and, yes, good. The media almost never discuss what the sweeping dismantling of public services inherent in the rhetoric of the anti-government movement would mean in practice. It's far easier to replay footage from a few tea-party rallies over and over, and discuss some vague "mood" in the electorate.

But in Maine and Washington, the voters knew they didn't have the luxury of expressing a mood. They faced up to how limiting future tax revenue would affect the things they expect government to do. And opponents of the TABOR measures brought that idea home in straightforward terms.

In Maine, one ad featured several taxpayers warning about what less government would mean in practice: "Our school budgets have already been cut. This would mean even less money for our classrooms. . . . Community health centers could be cut. People rely on them, especially now." A sympathetic-looking man then appeared on the screen to add: "My wife relies on our home nurse visits. What will we do?"

Nor was the anti-TABOR campaign confined to what individuals get out of government. Another ad highlighted the larger social and economic impact of public education. "Without strong public schools, our kids won't be prepared for good jobs," the announcer said. "Maine's future could be in doubt."

In Washington state -- where tax limitation was opposed by leading moderate Republicans, including former governor Dan Evans and former senator Slade Gorton -- the No campaign offered a cross-generational message, focusing on cuts in both school budgets and home care for seniors.

Opposition to these measures went well beyond the ranks of ideological liberals. Recall that on the same day that Maine rejected TABOR, it also rejected gay marriage. In Lewiston, a socially conservative working-class city, 59 percent voted against gay marriage -- but 58 percent also opposed TABOR. more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/08/AR200911...

toniD's Ya Think?

Lieberman declares Ft Hood shooting an Islamic terrorist act with no conclusive proof
by John Aravosis (DC) on 11/08/2009 10:59:00 PM
We have no idea what happened yet. But Joe Lieberman is already on FOX feeding hatred of Muslims, and national hysteria to boot. The man is an idiot. And he's sounding a bit of a bigot too.

Sen. Joe Lieberman called the Fort Hood massacre an act of "Islamist extremism" - even as top Army brass warned Sunday against guessing at a motive, fearing backlash against Muslim soldiers.

"There are very, very strong warning signs here that Dr. Hasan had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act," Lieberman (I-Conn) told Fox News on Sunday.

"If the reports that we're receiving of various statements he made, acts he took are valid, he had turned to Islamist extremism."

We don't know yet what happened. It's incredibly irresponsible of Lieberman to feed this story, knowing full well that it fuels hatred against Muslims, and Arabs. Then again, perhaps that's his intent.

http://www.americablog.com/2009/11/lieberman-declares-ft-hood-shooting.h...

We must join others in demanding that Lieberman loses his chair on Committee. Email, call or write Reid. Lieberman has to go!

toniD's Ya Think?

toniD's Ya Think?

A Stupak amendment of our own
by: Chris Bowers
Sun Nov 08, 2009 at 17:00

Last night, 23 Democrats voted against providing 36 million Americans with health insurance while reducing the deficit, but in favor of the Stupak amendment to restrict reproductive rights for low-income women. Those 23 Democrats are:

Jason Altmire (PA-4); Bobby Bright (AL-2); John Barrow (GA-12); John Boccieri (OH-16); Dan Boren (OK-2); Ben Chandler (KY-6); Travis Childers (MS-1); Artur Davis (AL-7); Lincoln Davis (TN-4); Bart Gordon; Parker Griffith (AL-5); Tim Holden (PA-17); Jim Marshall (GA-8); Jim Matheson (UT-2); Mike McIntyre (NC-7); Charlie Melancon (LA-3); Collin Peterson (MN-7); Mike Ross (AR-4); Heath Shuler (NC-11); Ike Skelton (MO-4); John Tanner (TN-8); Gene Taylor (MS-4); Harry Teague (NM-2)

In 2008, more than $1 out of every $12 the DCCC spent on electing Democratic House members went to electing one of these Democrats. Based on expenditure reports compiled by Swing State Project, here are the details:

* Voted to restrict reproductive rights, but voted against the stimulus, the budget, climate change legislation, and health care reform
Bright: $1,231,976.45
Griffith: $1,076,369.58
Total: $2,308,346.03, or $0.030 of every $1.00 the DCCC used on independent expenditures.

* Voted to restrict reproductive rights, but voted against the budget, climate change legislation, and health care reform
Childers: $296,766.97
Total: $2,605,113.00, or $0.034 of every $1.00 the DCCC used on independent expenditures.

* Voted to restrict reproductive rights, but voted against health care reform
Boccieri: $2,461,828.65
Teague: $1,535,780.01
Total: $6,602,721.66, or $0.086 of every $1.00 the DCCC used on independent expenditures.

These Democratic members of Congress are a net drag on progressive efforts. Not only do they vote to pass regressive legislation, and not only to they vote against any meaningful progressive legislation, but they vacuum up Democratic money in the process.

It does not matter that these members of Congress are from supposedly conservative districts. What matters is that your money is being spent to elect these people to Congress.

If you donate to the DCCC, then your money is being spent to restrict reproductive rights for low-income women, and against health care reform. In 2010, an even larger percentage of DCCC money is likely to be spent defending the 23 Democrats who voted against health care reform, but who voted in favor of restricting reproductive rights for low-income women.

If Republicans held those seats, there would absolutely be no difference in the outcome of legislation in the House. However, at least more Democratic money would be spent on more progressive candidates. Giving to these candidates is worse than a waste of money--it actually has a net negative effect on progressivism.

It is time for progressives to pass a Stupak amendment of our own. We need to stop giving money to organizations that spend money on John Boccieri, Bobby Bright, Travis Childers, Parker Griffith, and Harry Teague. We are better off without spending a single dime on most, if not all, of these 23 Democrats.

http://www.openleft.com/diary/15926/a-stupak-amendment-of-our-own

toniD's Ya Think?

Unemployment is over 10 percent; economic insecurity is profound; we have been occupying two deeply Muslim countries for eight years with no end in sight; we are grappling with massive debt and an attempt to provide some basic health insurance for the working poor. There are perfectly reasonable and important debates to have about all this - whether this is the time to expand health insurance, whether we should have done it years ago, whether a public option is a good thing, whether Medicare can be cut enough to save enough to make this affordable. But the Republican right has not engaged such a debate in a meaningful way. And yesterday, the House GOP leadership gave their blessing to a raggedy bunch of extreme anti-government fanatics whose rally contained the following elements:
The angry folks at the protest -- which attracted several thousand conservatives -- held up signs with messages of hate: "Get the Red Out of the White House," "Waterboard Congress," "Ken-ya Trust Obama?" One called the president a "Traitor to the U.S. Constitution." Another sign showed pictures of dead bodies at the Dachau concentration camp and compared health care reform to the Holocaust. A different placard depicted Obama as Sambo. Yes, Sambo. Another read, "Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds" -- a reference to the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory holding that one evil Jewish family has manipulated events around the globe for decades.
This kind of rhetoric - on the same day that the Fort Hood massacre took place - is gasoline on a fire of atavistic hate. Someone in the GOP leadership needs to call it out - before its logic propels us toward more violence and social division.
This kind of rhetoric is simply unacceptable for a major political party to institutionally embrace in a civil democracy:
Boehner, for one, declared that the health care bill is the "greatest threat to freedom that I have seen." That's some statement ... And at one point during the rally -- call it a Bachmannalia -- when John Ratzenberger, a.k.a Cliff Clavin from "Cheers," claimed that the Democrats were turning the United States into a land of European socialism, the audience shouted, "Nazis, Nazis." No Republican legislator left the stage in protest. Boehner and his fellow GOP leaders should be asked how they feel about mounting a rally that attracted intense hate-mongering.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/11/the-right-a...

Jobless Recovery

If you are looking for an economic recovery you can believe in, the October employment report is not for you.

After contracting for a year and a half, the economy grew in the quarter that ended in September, driven largely by federal stimulus. But government spending, as large and as necessary as it has been, has not been enough to revive hiring.

Unemployment surged from 9.8 percent in September to 10.2 percent last month, its highest level since 1983. At the same time, the economy lost 190,000 more jobs. That means employers have eliminated 7.3 million positions since the recession began in December 2007.

As dreadful as they are, the headline numbers understate the severity of the problem. They also obscure an even grimmer fact: Unless there is more government support, it will take several years of robust economic growth — by no means a sure thing — to recoup the jobs that have been lost.

The unemployment rate includes only jobless people who have looked for work in the past four weeks. The underemployment rate — which also includes jobless workers who have not recently looked for work and part-timers who need full-time work — reached 17.5 percent in October. And the long-term unemployment rate — the share of the unemployed population out of work for more than six months — also continues to set records. It is now 35.6 percent.

The official job-loss data also fail to take note of 2.8 million additional jobs needed to absorb new workers who have joined the labor force during the recession. When those missing jobs are added to the official total, the economy comes up short by 10.1 million jobs.

Taken together, the numbers paint this stark picture: At no time in post-World War II America has it been more difficult to find a job, to plan for the future, or — for tens of millions of Americans — to merely get by.

At a recent meeting at the White House to discuss job creation, President Obama said that “bold, innovative action,” would be needed — from the administration, Congress and the private sector — to undo the devastation in the labor market. Americans are waiting for Mr. Obama to lead the way.

There were good ideas floated at the White House meeting, including bolstered federal support for efforts to retrofit and weatherize homes and public buildings. There was also talk of using government money to establishing a so-called infrastructure bank that would issue bonds to help finance big construction projects.

The country also needs a program that would create jobs for teenagers — ages 16 to 19 — whose unemployment rate is currently a record 27.6 percent. Deep and prolonged unemployment among the young is especially worrisome. It means they do not have a chance, and may never get the chance, to acquire needed skills, permanently hobbling their earnings potential.

We know that more stimulus spending and government programs are a fraught topic. But they are exactly what the country needs. It may be the only way to prevent a renewed downturn. And the only way to create the jobs needed to put Americans back to work. Those are the essential — and missing — ingredients of a sustained recovery.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/opinion/08sun1.html?ref=todayspaper&pa...

toniD's Ya Think?

He's talking against tax cuts. He said in our economy we can't afford tax cuts.

He's against a second stimulus though.

Bruce Bartlett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Bruce Bartlett (b. October 11, 1951, in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is a historian who turned to writing about supply-side economics. He was a domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and was a treasury official under President George H.W. Bush.

But he seems to be going against alot of the republican thought.

toniD's Ya Think?

Tax cuts are a form of Government spending.

From Wiki:

In August 2009, Bartlett wrote a piece for the Daily Beast in which he attributed the recession of 2009 to George Bush and Republicans, whose policies he claimed resulted in an inferior record of economic performance to those of President Clinton.[10] In the same editorial, Bartlett wrote that instead of enacting meaningful healthcare reform, President Bush pushed through a costly Medicare drug plan by personally exerting pressure on reluctant conservatives to vote for the program. Bartlett claimed that because reforming Medicare is an important part of getting health costs under control generally, Bush could have used the opportunity to develop a comprehensive health-reform plan and that "[b]y not doing so, he left his party with nothing to offer as an alternative to the Obama plan."[11] Bartlett concluded:

"Until conservatives once again hold Republicans to the same standard they hold Democrats, they will have no credibility and deserve no respect. They can start building some by admitting to themselves that Bush caused many of the problems they are protesting."[12]

In Bartlett's latest book, The New American Economy:The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward, he goes back to the economic roots of Impostor and abandons the conservative dogma in favor of a policy strongly based on what’s worked in the past. Bartlett explains what went wrong with Reaganomics and what the Obama Administration is doing to fix it.

toniD's Ya Think?

Next Battle for Health Care
by Matthew Yglesias

Obama and the Democrats won a huge victory in the House, but a minefield awaits in the Senate—and it has nothing to do with the public option.

The health-care reform bill that passed the House of Representatives late Saturday night is far from a perfect bill. In fact, the over-the-top rhetoric of the Republican opposition (Rep. Mike Pence went so far during the debate as to claim that passage would represent a repudiation of the American Revolution) tended to obscure the fact that it’s a relatively modest measure that would leave most people’s health care basically the same. Still, it represents a titanic step forward. Many presidents, from Harry Truman to Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton, have sought to create a universal health-care system in the United States. None of them have so much as persuaded Congress to bring a bill to the floor for a vote. Saturday night, one house of Congress not only voted, it voted yes.

Nevertheless, health-care reform is hardly out of the woods. Several months ago, after all, the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, Henry Waxman’s historic cap and trade bill that would, if signed into law, be the most important piece of environmental legislation in the history of the world. But of course it hasn’t been signed into law. Instead, we’re waiting to see what the United States Senate will do.

With health care, it seems fairly likely that the Senate will, in the end, pass a comprehensive reform measure. But even if that happens, Democratic leaders will then face the challenging task of reconciling the House and Senate versions of health-care legislation. The sticking point here is not likely to be the much-hyped debate over the creation of a “public option” but rather the banal issue of revenue. Both the House and the Senate leadership are determined to finance health-care reform in a fiscally responsible, deficit-reducing way. That means a combination of savings from Medicare and new taxes. Hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes—the inevitable fly in the ointment of any big new liberal idea.

And the House and Senate ideas about where to get the money are extremely different. The House bill raises the funds, in essence, by soaking the rich—imposing a 5.4 percent tax on the incomes of individuals earning in excess of $500,000 or couples earning more than $1 million. The Senate’s approach is quite different. Right now, income that’s received in the form of employer-sponsored health insurance, unlike other kinds of fringe benefits your employer might give you, doesn’t count as income for tax purposes. The Senate would phase that tax exemption out over time, initially by subjecting rare, high-value, so-called Cadillac plans to taxation. In other words, the relatively small number of Americans who have health plans worth more than $8,000 for an individual or $21,000 for a family would need to pay taxes on their health insurance. But those thresholds would be indexed to the rate of overall inflation, not to the rate at which health-care costs grow, meaning that more and more people could be affected over time.

The virtue of the House’s approach is that it’s egalitarian, and it sticks to the president’s campaign promise to eschew any form of tax increase on the middle class. The Senate idea is also egalitarian overall—most of the people with extremely valuable insurance plans are people with high incomes. But it would bite some middle-class families in the short run, and a larger swath of the middle class in the long run. This is actually also the virtue of the plan. Most economists believe that the tax exemption for health insurance distorts decision-making and drives up health-care costs.
more...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-08/next-battle-fo...

toniD's Ya Think?

yes the usual spineless "compromise," and even then - only 1 rethug in the House voted for the bill. Those blew dawgs had better watch their backs is all I have to say.

The Myth of the Wall's Fall

by Peter Beinart

The Berlin Wall, toppled 20 years ago today, was brought down by Ronald Reagan's hawkish stand, right? Peter Beinart explodes conventional wisdom—crediting Reagan's dovish side instead.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-08/the-myth-of-th...

toniD's Ya Think?

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* smcgee43

Those blew dawgs had better watch their backs is all I have to say.

What up ?

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

MMRules

No I'm not talking about a picnic.

An argument for a big tent party I heard this morning on the Bill Press Show by a Democrat is that the Dem party is a Big
Tent party and accepts moderates and rigt now the Repubs are getting rid of their moderates.

If the moderates, which are a minority of the party are going to effect what the majority of the party can do as far as what the majority of the people want, then that is a great reason for another party. Even on the truly Liberal side, there are moderate liberals to balance the party of going too far left.

What say you?

toniD's Ya Think?

We are in the middle of another one of those shifts in ideology in the parties. All the moderates in the repo party are going into the dems. All that is left are the john bircher types. they will be marginalized perhaps with a new name and all the "moderates" will rush back into the repo party. I hope Lie man and Stupid go with them!

That is my take on it.

I'm kinda crabby today.
I don't know why.
The littlest things r bothering me.
This 2 shall pass.

How r u doin??

nad the m$m is promoting the myth 20 years later that Reagan was responsible "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall..."
I was so sick.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has charged three detained U.S. citizens with espionage, the official IRNA news agency quoted a judiciary official as saying on Monday.

The three were held after they strayed into Iran from northern Iraq at the end of July.

"We believe strongly that there is no evidence to support any charge whatsoever," U.S. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton said on a visit to Berlin on Monday.

The three, Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27, crossed into Iran from Iraq and their families say they strayed across the border accidentally.

"The three are charged with espionage. Investigations continue into the three detained Americans in Iran," Tehran general prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told IRNA.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested in an interview with the American television network NBC in September that the Americans' release might be linked to the release of Iranian diplomats he said were being held by U.S. troops in Iraq.

Under Iran's Islamic sharia law, espionage is punishable by death.

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/iran-charges-americans-espionage/

toniD's Ya Think?

Prosecutor reveals how world’s largest drug company broke the law

By Ron Brynaert

Bloomberg news reports on why the acting U.S. attorney in Boston is blasting a top pharmaceutical company for engaging in "clearly criminal" actions.

"Prosecutor Michael Loucks remembers clearly when lawyers for Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drug company, looked across the table and promised it wouldn’t break the law again," David Evans writes for Bloomberg.

It was January 2004, and the attorneys were negotiating in a conference room on the ninth floor of the federal courthouse in Boston, where Loucks was head of the health-care fraud unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. One of Pfizer’s units had been pushing doctors to prescribe an epilepsy drug called Neurontin for uses the Food and Drug Administration had never approved.

In the agreement the lawyers eventually hammered out, the Pfizer unit, Warner-Lambert, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of marketing a drug for unapproved uses.

New York-based Pfizer agreed to pay $430 million in criminal fines and civil penalties, and the company’s lawyers assured Loucks and three other prosecutors that Pfizer and its units would stop promoting drugs for unauthorized purposes

What Loucks, who’s now acting U.S. attorney in Boston, didn’t know until years later was that Pfizer managers were breaking that pledge not to practice so-called off-label marketing even before the ink was dry on their plea.

Loucks tells Bloomberg news, "At the very same time Pfizer was in our office negotiating and resolving the allegations of criminal conduct in 2004, Pfizer was itself in its other operations violating those very same laws."

"They’ve repeatedly marketed drugs for things they knew they couldn’t demonstrate efficacy for," Loucks added. "That’s clearly criminal.”

Pfizer agreed in September to pay out a record 2.3 billion dollars to settle a high-profile fraud case, pleading guilty to a criminal charge for marketing its painkiller Bextra illegally.

The settlement by the world's biggest drugmaker was trumpeted as a major victory by President Barack Obama's administration in its efforts to cut down fraud as part of a major overhaul of America's health care system.

Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a press conference to announce the settlement, which will end criminal and civil proceedings against Pfizer over the allegations it illegally marketed drugs for off-label purposes.

"This historic settlement will return nearly one billion dollars to Medicare, Medicaid, and other government insurance programs, securing their future for the Americans who depend on these programs," she said in a statement.

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/prosecutor-reveals-worlds-largest-drug-compa...

toniD's Ya Think?

Harminder is here helping me get stuff done in the house.

toniD's Ya Think?

Ten Sensible Policies That Will Never Happen

Healthcare reform moved closer over the weekend. Unbelievably it's taken decades to get to this point. Here are ten other policies that are equally sensible but would take similar efforts to pass because people are stupid.

* Ban all guns, except rifles and shotguns.
* Enforce the separation of church and state.
* Which would lead to the legalization of gay marriage, and also probably abortion.
* Publicly finance all politics.
* Ban advertising by pharmaceutical companies. (Partly so the song 'viva Viagra' no longer gets stuck in my head, causing much embarrassment when I walk around singing it.)
* Government subsidised journalism. (Anyone who doesn't agree should stop reading anything that originated with, or is on, the BBC.)
* Significant government support for the arts.
* Strip Sheriff Joe Arpaio of all powers. Immediately. (As the beginning of prison reform.)
* Legalise illegal immigrants.
* Legalise drugs. (The Economist has the best argument for this here, if you subscribe. That you can read at this odd site here if you don't.)

Further suggestions welcomed, for when I become a benevolent dictator.

Send an email to Ravi Somaiya, the author of this post, at ravi@gawker.com.

http://gawker.com/5400142/ten-sensible-policies-that-will-never-happen

toniD's Ya Think?

of the 2008 Democratic Party Platform

"The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman’s decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre- and post-natal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs."

Absolutely NO funding to the DNC and the DCCC as long as it allows these votes to chip away at Roe v. Wade. People need to fund future candidates directly. I don't care HOW symbolic the vote, the more mileage anti-choice Democrats get from being allowed to voice their opposition to womens' reproductive rights, the more emboldened the religious patriarchy will become.

What happened this weekend was a Democrat sponsoring an amendment to a bill directly opposing the Democratic Party Platform.

Stupak MUST go. The party can be a big tent, but reversing course on abortion rights is flat out anti-party. If they are going to allow this, they need to change the platform and deal with the consequences when women and pro-choice people leave it in droves.

"this machine kills fascists"

Goldman's Blankfein is
'doing God's work'
Lloyd Blankfein likes to say he's "attained perfection," a plausible-sounding assertion now that Goldman Sachs has repaid its TARP funds and is dishing out mammoth bonuses.

http://www.newser.com/story/73560/goldmans-blankfein-is-doing-gods-work....

toniD's Ya Think?

Pro Abortion instead of Pro Family Planning. Overall the amount of abortions that happen, and it is legalized, is not that much when you measure it against our total population.

It is the birth control pills and the morning after pill that is causing more stir from the wingers.

They use the term abortion to cover it all and we have to change it to Pro Family Planning.

toniD's Ya Think?

Citigroup Asset Guarantees May Cost U.S. Taxpayers as Unemployment Rises
U.S. taxpayers may have to share in the losses on $301 billion of Citigroup Inc. loans and securities covered by federal guarantees after unemployment reached a 26-year high, according to the Congressional panel overseeing bank-bailout programs.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=amaExH0Y2liI

-----

Stocks Advance After G-20 Nations Maintain Stimulus Steps; Citigroup Rises

U.S. stock-index futures advanced, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may rise for a sixth day, after the Group of 20 nations agreed to maintain stimulus efforts and metals prices rallied.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aFJcbt52lZpQ

toniD's Ya Think?

G-20 Splits on Tobin Tax, Signals Banks Must Foot Bill of Future Bailouts
Group of 20 governments signaled banks will be forced to cover a greater cost of future bailouts even as they split over whether that should be achieved by taxing financial trading.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aQ0W.WWrmghk

toniD's Ya Think?

The catholic church has an effective political arm.

Maybe it's time they loose their tax status.

==
<< Mark 8:36 >>
New International Version (©1984)
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

International Standard Version (©2008)
What profit will a person have if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
What good does it do for people to win the whole world yet lose their lives?

King James Bible
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

American King James Version
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

American Standard Version
For what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?

Bible in Basic English
What profit has a man if he gets all the world with the loss of his life?

Douay-Rheims Bible
For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?

Darby Bible Translation
For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?

English Revised Version
For what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?

Webster's Bible Translation
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul:

Weymouth New Testament
Why, what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?

World English Bible
For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?

Young's Literal Translation
for what shall it profit a man, if he may gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?
http://bible.cc/mark/8-36.htm
=====================
What is God saying? If the Bible is the unerring word of God (you know GOD the MAN in the white robe, lives in the clouds and everywhere else in the universe.) Is it 'soul' or 'life?' Are those two the same?

If the church is concerned with profit, maybe they should STFU or pay their fair share of taxes. If the church wants to affect and be part of worldly politics in a proactive manner, then the monies they collect are of the world and subject to tax.

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

Abortion an obstacle to health-care bill

Some Democrats vow to block final passage if amendment stays

By Alec MacGillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 9, 2009

...............

But abortion-rights supporters are vowing to strip the amendment out, as the focus turns to the Senate and the conference committee that would resolve differences between the two bills.

Although House liberals voted for the bill with the amendment to keep the process moving forward, Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.) said she has collected more than 40 signatures from House Democrats vowing to oppose any final bill that includes the amendment -- enough to block passage.

"There's going to be a firestorm here," DeGette said. "Women are going to realize that a Democratic-controlled House has passed legislation that would prohibit women paying for abortions with their own funds. . . . We're not going to let this into law."

.............. Obama left the abortion issue unmentioned Sunday when he appeared in the White House Rose Garden to give brief remarks congratulating the House on its "courageous" passage of the bill............................

The abortion debate in the House has centered on how to put the bill in compliance with the ban on taxpayer funding for abortions. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) proposed that a government-run plan and private plans offered in the new marketplace for people without employer-based coverage could offer abortion coverage but that payments for abortions would come out of premiums, not the government subsidies for those who need help buying coverage.

Antiabortion groups argued that such a segregation of funds would be a mere accounting gimmick. After a compromise foundered, the amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) emerged as the leading alternative, with the strong backing of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The amendment would prohibit abortion coverage in the government-run plan and any private plan on the new marketplace that accepts people who are using government subsidies to buy coverage.

Under that language, abortion coverage would be unavailable not only to working-class women buying coverage with government subsidies, but probably also to women buying coverage on the new marketplace without federal assistance. The amendment suggests that women could buy separate "riders" covering abortions, but abortion-rights supporters say it is offensive to require a separate purchase for coverage of a medical procedure that for most women is unexpected.

....................But Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL-Pro Choice America, said that although the vote was "extremely disappointing and outrageous," the "fight isn't over." DeGette said she remains hopeful that the amendment will be dropped as more Democrats who voted for it -- and their constituents -- realize it goes beyond the status quo of limiting federal funding for abortions. Some of those House Democrats are not against abortion rights, just against federal funding, and she surmised that they may have misunderstood the amendment. She said her House allies have requested a meeting with Obama, saying they "need him to back us up" after lying low on the issue.

"This would be the greatest restriction on a woman's right to get an abortion with her own money in our lifetime," she said. "The stakes could not be higher."...............

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/08/AR200911...

toniD's Ya Think?

on Democracy Now today.

"this machine kills fascists"

"stupro", the italian word for rape

i'll watch it tonight

The mushroom cloud Bush and Condi were really envisioning was the mushrooming profits from the Afghanistan drug trade they helped create, perhaps? Aside from the Central Asian pipeline, the securing of Iraqi oil fields for Oil Thief Corportions, and that disappearing pallet of 9 billion$ in cash, this was probably the biggest Middle East success Dubya was always referring to when he proudly repeated over and over that things were proceeding as planned. Poppy Bush must be proud. The Bush Crime Family must be stronger than ever.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091102_opium_rape_and_the_american...
[excerpt]

“Afghanistan, after eight years of occupation, has become a world center for drugs,” Joya told me. “The drug lords are the only ones with power. How can you expect these people to stop the planting of opium and halt the drug trade? How is it that the Taliban when they were in power destroyed the opium production and a superpower not only cannot destroy the opium production but allows it to increase? And while all this goes on, those who support the war talk to you about women’s rights. We do not have human rights now in most provinces. It is as easy to kill a woman in my country as it is to kill a bird. In some big cities like Kabul, some women have access to jobs and education, but in most of the country the situation for women is hell. Rape, kidnapping and domestic violence are increasing. These fundamentalists during the so-called free elections made a misogynist law against Shia women in Afghanistan. This law has even been signed by Hamid Karzai. All these crimes are happening under the name of democracy.”

[end excerpt]

No, not under here

Maybe he's over there?

No, not over there either.

Has anyone seen Fernando?

i would imagine that is unconstitutional as well

did you see his facebook pic at the wedding of his friend

i thought we had settled on the pro choice terminology; how did that get scrapped?

me two, I have two little wombs to worry about and fight for, (they're so cute, my two grandbabies), even though my abortive (oops, i meant reproductive) life span is over

back to work

(those beans and rice were yummy!)

Prosecutor reveals how
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 11:06am.
Prosecutor reveals how world’s largest drug company broke the law
===============================

Or the cost of doing crime. With Pfizer I guess it's interchangeable!

Amazing. Thanks for this post, toniD.

Even the stuff Pfizer and other drug companies do within the law I disagree with. But this just proves that Pfizer doesn't have an honest bone in its corporate body.

I say, when a corporation is a repeat offender, they should lose some privileges: Like the ability to settle out of court. Let them be convicted EVERY time!

now, go back to work!

Obtained: In Letter To Pelosi, 41 House Dems Pledge To Vote Against Bill With Anti-Abortion Amendment

In a move that will intensify the coming war over how to treat abortion in the health care bill, more than three dozen House Dems have signed a letter to Nancy Pelosi firmly pledging to vote against the bill if it contains an anti-abortion amendment.

A source sends over a working copy of the letter without the signatories, and the source says it currently bears the signatures of 41 House Dems. They’re all vowing to vote No on a bill if it contains the Stupak amendment — enough to sink the bill:

As Members of Congress we believe that women should have access to a full range of reproductive health care. Health care reform must not be misused as an opportunity to restrict women’s access to reproductive health services.

The Stupak-Pitts amendment to H.R. 3962, The Affordable Healthcare for America Act, represents an unprecedented and unacceptable restriction on women’s ability to access the full range of reproductive health services to which they are lawfully entitled. We will not vote for a conference report that contains language that restricts women’s right to choose any further than current law.

That’s unequivocal, with no wiggle room. The Washington Post reported this morning that Rep. Diana DeGette had collected 40 signatures vowing a No vote, without noting the language of their vow or how this would be communicated.

Now we know — at least 41 House Dems are writing directly to Pelosi, telling her that they will not vote for anything “that contains language that restricts women’s right to choose any further than current law.”

I’m told that the letter is still being circulated for even more signatures, and I’ll bring you a list of signatories when I have it.

The Stupak amendment, of course, would sharply curtail the availability of abortions, which many insurance plans now offer, and was added in order to win the support of moderate Dems. That pro-choice Democrats are now drawing such a sharp line against the amendment will make the politics considerably more difficult going forward.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/obtained-in-letter-to-pelo...

toniD's Ya Think?

Huckabee: “Attractive” Sarah Palin Snubbed Me

A fun nugget from Ben Smith’s interview with Mike Huckabee hints at some serious resentment smoldering between him and Sarah Palin, the two leading conservative standard bearers heading into the 2012 GOP primary:

“Some of the people who had excoriated me and really been very dismissive of me for views that I had taken, and labeled me anything from a populist to an ignoramus — the same people have been very defensive [of] and laudatory to Sarah Palin,” Huckabee noted, adding that he’d invited her to appear on his weekly Fox show but “could never get any contact.”

“I’m glad she’s getting the props — I know I’m not nearly as attractive,” he said with a guileless grin.

Huckabee seems to be smarting over Palin’s refusal to answer his invitation to appear on his show, and while that could reflect her displeasure with someone daring to cut in on her base, it’s more likely a reflection of Palin’s staff being a disaster.

Huckabee, meanwhile, is pretty open about his disdain for, and resentment of, Palin’s successful appeal to conservatives, which he dismisses as superficial and rooted in her looks.

Huckabee and Palin may be natural competitors for the GOP base. A recent Gallup poll found that while Palin is hugely popular among Republicans with a 72% approval rating, Huckabee is the runner-up among 2012 hopefuls, with a 59% approval among the same voters.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/huckabee-attractive-s...

toniD's Ya Think?

The Dems have allowed the Roe V Wade to be called
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 11:47am.
Pro Abortion instead of Pro Family Planning. Overall the amount of abortions that happen, and it is legalized, is not that much when you measure it against our total population.

It is the birth control pills and the morning after pill that is causing more stir from the wingers.

They use the term abortion to cover it all and we have to change it to Pro Family Planning.
========================

Well said!

It's time to leap all the way over the Dominionists who want women to be chattel -- and get a bill out there for REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS! The Domionists have funded these anti-abortion freakshows long enough. Stop worrying about a mere lucky ruling like Roe v Wade being the only thing a woman and her doctor have between them and the Dominionists!

We need clear concise guarantees of reproductive rights.

stoopid stuprator stupak doesn't give a fart if his amendment sinks the bill; all these closet republicans do not really want to pass any health bill anyway, because they don't want to jeopardize their cozy relationship with the corporate-religious system

Ft. Hood Shooter Hasan AWAKE and TALKING

SAN ANTONIO — A U.S. Army hospital spokesman says the man suspected in a deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, is conscious and able to talk.

Dewey Mitchell, a spokesman at Brooke Army Medical Center, says Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan remains in stable condition. Mitchell says Hasan has been awake and able to talk since he was taken off a ventilator Saturday.

Hasan is at Brooke Medical Center in San Antonio, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Hood.

Authorities say the 39-year-old Hasan opened fire at a processing center Thursday at Fort Hood, the country's largest military installation. Thirteen people were killed and 29 were wounded.

The rampage ended when civilian police shot Hasan.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) – A U.S. Army spokesman says the man suspected in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood is in critical but stable condition at Texas hospital.

Col. John Rossi told Fox News early Monday that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's condition has not changed since he was taken off a ventilator Saturday.

Hasan is at Brooke Medical Center in San Antonio, about 150 miles southwest of Fort Hood.

Authorities say the 39-year-old Hasan opened fire at a processing center Thursday at Fort Hood, the country's largest military installation. Thirteen people were killed and 29 were wounded.

The shooting spree ended when a civilian police officer shot Hasan.

Rossi says the center remains a crime scene, but that the base is "working on healing."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/ft-hood-shooter-awake-and_n_350...

toniD's Ya Think?

I'm here, just being quiet. A little bit of shame remains over the amount of fun I had this weekend. Prolly shouldn't talk about it.

You may not want anyone to know I blog with you.

Murdoch May Block Google Searches Entirely From His Newspaper Sites »

Guardian | Bobbie Johnson, San Francisco | November 9, 2009 at 08:18 AM

Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google's search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online.

In an interview with Sky News Australia, the mogul said that newspapers in his media empire -- including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal -- would consider blocking Google entirely once they had enacted plans to charge people for reading their stories on the web.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/09/murdoch-google

toniD's Ya Think?

GE, Comcast Agree: NBC Valued At $30 Billion »

Reuters | November 9, 2009 at 10:34 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Electric Co. and Comcast Corp have agreed on a valuation of around $30 billion for a joint venture between NBC Universal and Comcast, ironing out what has been a key obstacle in talks so far, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSTRE5A801F20091109

toniD's Ya Think?

- Wiki

Berlin Wall anniversary: A magical night that changed the world
Twenty years ago today the Berlin Wall fell - and for a few heady days Germans partied as never before. Adrian Bridge was there.

By Adrian Bridge
Published: 7:06AM GMT 09 Nov 2009

...
There was a hum all right: the hum of unbridled joy; of brave new beginnings; of human reconnection and reconciliation; of hope. Here in the place that had seen, and unleashed, such misery on the world in the 20th century, the wheel had come full circle. The Hum of History had returned to Berlin. And for once the sound was a happy one.

“Wind of Change” by Scorpions
http://www.the-scorpions.com/english/

http://www.playlist.com
==
The is a piece of the wall at the Regan Library and I've always thought that the 'graffiti' looked too new, like it had been applied to cover up or make the piece look better.

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

Dems blast Sessions women-to-smokers comparison

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), the head of the Republicans campaign committee, caused a stir at last night's Rules Committee meeting when he suggested that treating female-related health conditions was comparable to insurance-company imposed restrictions on smokers.

"Why should a woman pay more than a man?" asked New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone, according to the Courthouse News Service.

"Well, we're all different," Sessions explained. "Why should a smoker pay more?" he said before interrupted.

That prompted major pushback from Democrats, who say that it proves that House Republicans don't care about working-class women.

“The NRCC and extreme right wing of the Republican Party are totally out of step with women," said Jennifer Crider, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"First, the NRCC says that a man ought to put the first woman Speaker of the House ‘in her place.' ...I don't know what's scarier, whether NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions actually believes women are second class citizens or whether he believes it's political beneficial for the NRCC to say so."

Posted by Glenn Thrush 03:34 PM

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1109/Dems_blast_Sessions_women...

toniD's Ya Think?

Reuters
Health companies see relief in U.S. Senate bill
Mon Nov 9, 2009 12:49pm EST

...
Investors took the House vote in stride, with expectations growing that a final measure could be delayed until next year.

"The Senate remains very unlikely to pass any bill containing an unbridled public plan that potentially could ultimately threaten significant price deflation for US sales," said Morgan Stanley pharmaceutical analyst Andrew Baum.

"We continue to feel very comfortable with our projection that any eventual healthcare reform is likely relatively benign to the pharmaceutical part of the healthcare value chain," Baum said in a note to clients.
...
Industry has blasted the House bill and vowed to fight for changes.

Angela Braly, chief executive of insurer Wellpoint (WLP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said the House had been widely expected to pass a bill with a public plan option -- but she now sees a battle ahead in the Senate.

"I do think there is an expectation that the process in the Senate will be a fulsome one and there will be a great discussion about the true impact of these reforms," she told the Reuters Health Summit in New York.
...
"We are still hopeful that before the curtain comes down on health care reform, the Senate will seriously consider the impact any final legislation will have on U.S. jobs and innovation," said Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Senior Vice President Ken Johnson.

"In the end, we believe that thoughtful leaders will step up and recognize the overriding importance of striking the right balance," he said in a statement.

Still, if House Democrats are successful in pressing their case, insurers could see their margins squeezed.

"If they can put through some kind of public option where they can drive down prices (or) control prices that would obviously cut into the profit margins of certain firms," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. in San Francisco.
...
"We have long anticipated that Obama was willing to sign virtually any version of health reform that he could spin as a victory and that he would have to intervene to get liberal members to compromise on cornerstone issues," Kim Monk, a healthcare analyst at Capital Alpha Partners in Washington, said in a research note.
==
fulsome

Main Entry: ful·some
Pronunciation: \ˈfu̇l-səm\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English fulsom copious, cloying, from full + -som -some
Date: 13th century

1 a : characterized by abundance : copious describes in fulsome detail — G. N. Shuster fulsome bird life. The feeder overcrowded — Maxine Kumin b : generous in amount, extent, or spirit the passengers were fulsome in praise of the plane's crew — Don Oliver a fulsome victory for the far left — Bruce Rothwell the greetings have been fulsome, the farewells tender — Simon Gray c : being full and well developed she was in generally fulsome, limpid voice — Thor Eckert, Jr.
2 : aesthetically, morally, or generally offensive fulsome lies and nauseous flattery — William Congreve the devil take thee for a…fulsome rogue — George Villiers
3 : exceeding the bounds of good taste : overdone the fulsome chromium glitter of the escalators dominating the central hall — Lewis Mumford
4 : excessively complimentary or flattering : effusive an admiration whose extent I did not express, lest I be thought fulsome — A. J. Liebling

— ful·some·ly adverb

— ful·some·ness noun
usage The senses shown above are the chief living senses of fulsome. Sense 2, which was a generalized term of disparagement in the late 17th century, is the least common of these. Fulsome became a point of dispute when sense 1, thought to be obsolete in the 19th century, began to be revived in the 20th. The dispute was exacerbated by the fact that the large dictionaries of the first half of the century missed the beginnings of the revival. Sense 1 has not only been revived but has spread in its application and continues to do so. The chief danger for the user of fulsome is ambiguity. Unless the context is made very clear, the reader or hearer cannot be sure whether such an expression as “fulsome praise” is meant in sense 1b or in sense 4.

Are you telling me he's in jail?

Weiner Takes Lieberman On For "Audacity" Of Filibuster (VIDEO)

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) took on Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on "Morning Joe" Monday, chastising the former Democrat for pledging to join a filibuster against health care reform if it contains a public option.

"It's inconsistent with common sense to say I oppose something that will hold down costs for the taxpayers and residents of Connecticut," Weiner said. "The insurance industry is a powerful force in Washington and so is the status quo, but the audacity to saying, and I think he backed away from it, 'I will not permit a vote on the concept?' Let's let the majority decide this issue."

Weiner offered to debate the senator, saying "If you want to bring Lieberman here, I think that I can talk him into it."

Lieberman said he felt compelled to oppose the public option because it would increase the deficit. But every analysis of the plan has concluded that it would actually reduce the deficit. The senator has not elaborated on where he got his information.

Video at link

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/weiner-takes-lieberman-on_n_350...

toniD's Ya Think?

Dems Challenge Theme That Health Care Vote Makes Members Vulnerable »

November 9, 2009 at 01:21 PM

Democrats are unhappy and a bit worried about a theme developing in the mainstream press that the House's vote on health care legislation puts dozens of the party's members in electoral vulnerability.

In the days since the House of Representatives passed legislation by a 220 to 215 vote, a slew of stories have emerged -- fed by an aggressive posture from the Republican Party -- that supporting members now find themselves in hot water. more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/dems-challenge-theme-that_n_350...

toniD's Ya Think?

Westboro Baptist Church Protests Outside Obama Girls' School »

The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner | November 9, 2009 at 11:47 AM

Westboro Baptist Church, a hate group that travels around the country holding anti-gay rallies, protested outside the school attended by President Obama's children on Monday morning.

The "church," run by Fred Phelps and composed largely of his extensive family, is known for staging its events for maximum publicity and controversy. In the past, members have demonstrated outside troops' funerals. Recently they have been targeting Jewish temples. Now they're aiming their vitriol at Washington-area schools -- including Sidwell Friends,...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/westboro-baptist-church-p_n_350...

toniD's Ya Think?

Justice Department Takes On Fraudster Defense Contractor

Your "This Day In Government Contractor Abuses" comes via Spencer Ackerman, who flags this release from the U.S. Department of Justice:

The United States has filed a lawsuit against Kaman Dayron Inc., alleging that the Orlando, Fla., defense contractor violated the False Claims Act by knowingly substituting non-conforming parts in fuzes (sophisticated ignition devices incorporating mechanical and/or electronic components) supplied to the military for use in "bunker buster" bombs, the Justice Department announced today. The suit was filed today in U.S. District Court in Orlando.

The allegations relate to FMU-143 fuzes for use in hard target penetration warheads, colloquially referred to as "bunker buster" bombs. The government alleges that Kaman Dayron knowingly substituted non-conforming bellows motors for the specified parts in three lots of fuzes supplied to the military, and that the non-conforming parts could cause the fuzes to fire prematurely, creating a hazard for military personnel and causing misfires of the warheads. The military discovered the parts substitution and has quarantined the defective fuzes.

It's a good thing that the Department of Justice is taking this matter seriously, given the extreme limitations of a Congress that only tends to give themselves broad oversight power over contractors by accident. Of course, the real bad news is that because these defective fuses weren't developed by the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, the media is likely to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the matter.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/justice-department-takes_n_3507...

RELATED:
What Kind Of Psychopath Sells Faulty Fuses To The Military? [Attackerman]

http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2009/11/09/what-kind-of-psychopath-se...

toniD's Ya Think?

per slinkerwink

"President Obama has promised to remove the Stupak amendment from the bill in conference.

Representatives on Capitol Hill such as Diana DeGette have created their own block of members against any final conference bill that would have the Stupak amendment.

Mention this in your calls to congresspeople.
Obama wants it out. Progressive congresspeople want it out. You want it out.

"this machine kills fascists"

I will have to paddle up stream and see this picture before I commit to anything.

what a name association!!

Club For Growth: Challening Cao In GOP Primary 'Would Be A Waste Of Money' For His District
Eric Kleefeld | November 9, 2009, 1:21PM

Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA)

Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) may have an interesting built-in line of defense against Republicans who would want to seek retribution over his vote for the health care bill: His overwhelmingly Democratic district.

I asked Club For Growth executive director David Keating, whose group has often supported insurgent conservatives -- Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, Stephen Laffey and Doug Hoffman, just to name a few -- whether the group might support a primary against Cao. "Our PAC doesn't plan on backing any primary challengers to him," said Keating, "because it would be a waste of money, probably, for the general election."

Cao's district, centered around New Orleans, voted 75%-23% for Barack Obama in November 2008, by far the most Democratic district to be currently represented by a Republican. Cao won a shocking 50%-47% victory in a specially scheduled December election (due to hurricane damage) against Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who was then under indictment and was later convicted on corruption charges. more...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/club-for-growth-challening-ca...

toniD's Ya Think?

"Pro-Choice" McCaskill Could Support Stupak Coathanger Amendment
by mcjoan
Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 11:36:03 AM PST

Claire McCaskill needs to read the Stupak-Pitts amendment.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe", McCaskill was asked whether an amendment added by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) to the House's legislation would be too bitter a pill to pass the Senate.

"I am not sure that it is," replied the Missouri Democrat. "Obviously, I have been a pro-choice candidate for my entire political career, and obviously there is controversy always surrounding this issue. But we are talking about whether or not people that get public money can buy an insurance policy that has a coverage for abortion. And that is not the majority of America. The majority of America is not going to be getting subsidies from the government...."

That's a rather simplified view of what this amendment actually does, although it's quite handy to keep parroting the Blue Dog line that this is really nothing more than Hyde.

McCaskill also needs to talk with her pro-choice colleagues in the House who take a far less sanguine view of this legislation. In a letter to Nancy Pelosi, a draft of which was provided to Greg Sargent, 41 House Democrats are pledging to vote against a final bill if it contains this amendment.

A source sends over a working copy of the letter without the signatories, and a source says it currently bears the signatures of 41 House Dems. They’re all vowing to vote No on a bill if it contains the Stupak amendment — enough to sink the bill:

As members of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, we believe that women should have access to a full range of reproductive health care. Health care reform must not be misused as an opportunity to restrict women’s access to reproductive health services.

The Stupak-Pitts amendment to H.R. 3962, The Affordable Healthcare for America Act, represents an unprecedented and unacceptable restriction on women’s ability to access the full range of reproductive health servicesto which they are lawfully entitled. We will not vote for a conference report that contains language that restricts women’s right to choose any further than current law.

That’s unequivocal, with no wiggle room. The Washington Post reported this morning that Rep. Diana DeGette had collected 40 signatures vowing a No vote, without noting the language of their vow or how this would be communicated.

Lest you question to productivity of any group drawing a line in the sand over must-pass legislation, consider that the public option would have been dead months ago had not the Progressive Block done the same. This is a critical bargaining position, and members have to show that they are willing to walk away over these deal-breakers. That's how Coathanger Stupak got this amendment into the bill in the first place.

Harry Reid needs to take this threat just as seriously as Nancy Pelosi does, and keep this amendment (which Ben Nelson and Bob Casey are already working on) out of the Senate bill.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/11/9/802553/-Pro-Choice-McCaskill...

toniD's Ya Think?

mb, you need to go check his facebook page; somebody tagged him

i'm not sure he'd like it for me to post his picture, right fernando? although he looks pretty happy there

he got democratic votes because no dem in nola could vote for jefferson the crook and dems will let him know they're happy with him, I will (I must remember to contact him)

;)

And now, a word from the sponsors...

http://theinvisibleagent.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/viceroy-cigarette.j...

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/ModernMechanix/4-1932/cigarette_hat....
*************************

"searching though a hadbag for her fags?" WTF?

has headlines praising Stupak for his great effort to save the unborn. Have to read that one later. Much later

Educate her

Office of Senator Claire McCaskill
United States Senate
Hart Senate Office Building, SH-717
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-6154
(202) 228-6326
http://mccaskill.senate.gov/contact/

"this machine kills fascists"

For we are everywhere.

American University professor James Thurber ate crow Friday, calling the decision to run an ad in Roll Call supporting Jack Bonner, who has been mired in a Congressional investigation into forged constituent letters, an error.

“It was a mistake to run an ad in Roll Call this week to thank an adjunct professor and long-time colleague who is involved in a political controversy, and to name individuals in the ad without their approval,” Thurber said in a written statement late last week. “This was a lapse in judgment on my part and I certainly would not do this again.” - RollCall

Sponsoring Bonner, always a risky proposition.

Sign it and push it!

Don't Ask, Don't Give

"Joe and I are launching today a donor boycott of the DNC. The boycott is cosponsored by Daily Kos, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, Andy Towle and Michael Goff of Towle Road, Paul Sousa (Founder of Equal Rep in Boston), Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler (ED of the Equality Campaign, Inc.), Bil Browning for the Bilerico Project, and soon others."

"this machine kills fascists"

Dow ends up 204 at 10,227, its highest finish since 2008 as sliding dollar lifts market

NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average stormed to its highest level in more than a year Monday as a falling dollar boosted prices for commodities including gold and oil. Stocks also jumped as investors grew more confident that governments around the world will keep interest rates low to help the global economy.

Energy and materials stocks led the market. The major indexes rose 2 percent and the Dow jumped 200 points for the second time in three days and reached its highest level in 13 months.

News that the Group of 20 countries will keep their economic stimulus measures in place signaled to investors that rates will remain low. With U.S. rates near zero, the G-20 news lessened demand for the dollar.

Even as investors are waiting for more signs that the economy is recovering, they've been focusing on the dollar's moves when they make their buy and sell decisions. Investors around the world see the dollar as weaker than other currencies, and so they're using it for what's known as "carry trade," to finance purchases of investments in other countries. That trend takes the dollar down further when those purchases are made.

But some analysts are questioning the stock market's moves given the still-weak economy, and warn that stocks and other investments could suffer big losses if the dollar were to turn higher.

"It feels like it's on fumes," said Sean Simko, head of fixed income management at SEI Investments in Oaks, Pa., referring to the market's advance. "Although fundamentals are catching up, they're not caught up."

He said the dollar's drop and the current surge in stocks and commodities are making it hard for investors to get a clear picture of how fast the economy is rebounding. more...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-wall-street,0,7695507.s...

toniD's Ya Think?

Rep. Wasserman Schultz: Republicans Are Giving Women A ‘Back Of The Hand Treatment’

This morning, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) participated on a conference call with the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Judy Feder to discuss Republican efforts to shut out women’s issues in the health reform debate. Feder noted that in 2006, nine Senate Republicans voted to explicitly kill a proposal that would have ensured that insurance companies cannot use domestic violence as a pretext for denying coverage to women. The two went on to discuss how, as the House vote drew near, Republican lawmakers’ disregard for the interests of women became more apparent.

In the House Rules Committee the Friday before the vote, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), who is also the chief recruiter for Republican House campaigns in 2010, justified the practice of insurance companies discriminating against women by comparing gender differences to smokers and non-smokers. The next day — on Saturday morning — Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) and several of his GOP colleagues shouted down congresswomen making 1-minute speeches on the importance of health reform for women. Wasserman Schultz denounced the interruption tactics and Sessions’ comparison of women to smokers as the “Republicans’ back of the hand treatment to women”:

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I’m pleased to have an opportunity to express and underscore my concerns of essentially what amounts to the Republicans’ back of the hand treatment to women, issues that are important to women, particularly women’s health. We already have had a clear sense that Republicans were opposed to our efforts to advance women’s health interests. Now we know we know they’re opposed to letting women voice opinions on health care as well.
<...>
My colleague Pete Sessions actually compared women to smokers and suggested women, like smokers, have to pay more for insurance just by the accident of our ability to get pregnant.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/09/pregnant-women-smokers-comparison

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by toniD on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 1:09pm.
Murdoch May Block Google Searches Entirely From His Newspaper Sites
-------

No problem. We'll simply block Fox from our televisions. As a matter of fact, it's already blocked from mine.

Conyers to Obama: Get tough over health care
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Veteran U.S. Rep. John Conyers is urging President Barack Obama to get tough with those senators he says are standing in the way of passing legislation designed to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

The Detroit Democrat said today “the president could take a few pages from Lyndon Johnson’s book ... and start knocking heads together.”

Conyers spoke to reporters in Detroit before heading into a fund-raiser featuring Vice President Joe Biden.

The House passed the far-reaching health care legislation late Saturday night. The 220-215 vote cleared the way for the Senate to begin its debate.

http://freep.com/article/20091109/NEWS15/91109027/1319/Conyers-to-Obama-...

toniD's Ya Think?

Advanta Files for Protection, Bank May Face Takeover

Source: bloomberg

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Advanta Corp., the small-business credit-card issuer that cut off almost 1 million accounts as defaults soared, filed for bankruptcy and said its undercapitalized banking unit may be turned over to regulators.

The lender sought court protection from creditors because Advanta won’t be able to meet its obligations even with almost $100 million in cash and equivalents on hand, the Spring House, Pennsylvania-based company said yesterday in a statement. While the firm’s bank isn’t covered by the filing, the unit may be put into a receivership run by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the statement said.

“The economic debacle over the last two years devastated Advanta’s small-business customers and Advanta itself,” Chief Executive Officer Dennis Alter said in the statement. He’s waiving his salary and bonus, the statement said.

Advanta, the 15th-biggest card issuer by purchase volume last year, is the industry’s biggest to fail since the recession began. The company said in August it would dismiss about half the staff, leaving fewer than 200, after write-offs more than doubled in June to 56.95 percent. That was five times the industry average as measured by Fitch Ratings for that month, when write-offs at all card companies climbed to 10.79 percent.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGn6SxlHfgwE&pos=7

toniD's Ya Think?

Rep. Diane Degette (D-CO01) - A principled objection to the Stupak Amendment

toniD's Ya Think?

This is the kind of story that makes you wonder about the basic goodness of people.

A group of past and present University of Sydney students set up a ''pro-rape'' page in the sports and recreation section on Facebook, describing themselves as ''anti-consent''.
The male students, mostly from the elite, all-male St Paul's College, initially ensured the ''Define Statutory'' group had an open, public profile, and proudly displayed their membership on their personal Facebook pages.

Both the commander of the NSW Police sex crimes unit and the head of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre condemned the site, describing it as ''grooming perpetrators of sexual violence''.

And people have the nerve to argue rape culture doesn't exist...

Outside of the general horribleness of this story, Hortense at Jezebel asks a really great question: Why would Facebook allow this group to exist for so long?

This is a social networking site that refuses to let women post pictures of themselves breastfeeding, mind you, but it's okay to make a "hilarious" pro-rape group in the "Sports and Recreation" category? The group was public, by the way, accessible to anyone and visible to all. Interesting, isn't it, that in the eyes of Facebook, a woman shouldn't be allowed to show her breasts while feeding her child, but it's perfectly acceptable for men to make a highly public "sport" out of rape.

con't

http://www.feministing.com/archives/018795.html

Senator Reid will include an anti-abortion amendment in final Senate healthcare bill

Edited on Mon Nov-09-09 04:59 PM by Better Believe It
Reid will likely include anti-abortion provision
Politico
November 09, 2009

Harry Reid spokesman Jim Manley signals that the senate majority leader will include a Stupak-like amendment in the final bill he is crafting. He emails:

"Senator Reid opposes abortion except in the cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. Passing comprehensive health reform and improving access to health care will likely go a long way towards reducing the rate of unintended pregnancies and the resulting abortions.

I expect that any bill that Senator Reid brings to the floor will ensure that no federal funds are used for abortion and that the conscience rights of providers and health care facilities like Catholic Hospitals are protected."

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/1109/Reid_will_likely_include_antiabor...

toniD's Ya Think?

Israeli prime minister calls for peace talks (AP) "- 58 minutes ago"

AP - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called for an immediate resumption of peace talks with Palestinians and pledged more steps to improve economic conditions in Palestinian areas. more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091109/ap_on_go_ot/us_us_mideast

toniD's Ya Think?

Abortion could roil
Senate health care debate
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said Monday it's unlikely he could support a bill that doesn't clearly prohibit federal dollars from going to pay for abortions. His spokesman said Nelson is weighing options, including offering an amendment that's similar to the one passed by the House

LINK

toniD's Ya Think?

HuffPost's Real Misery Index: Nearly One In Six Americans Are Jobless Or Underemployed

The rise in unemployment continues to devastate Americans, according to the latest update of the Huffington Post Real Misery Index.

The index rose to 32.9 after peaking at 32.3 in August, largely due to the increase in the U6 unemployment rate, which tracks part-time workers looking for full-time employment and those who've given up looking for work. Almost one in six Americans are jobless or underemployed and the economy has lost 7.3 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, according to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The index would be even higher were it not for a few bright spots in the economy, such as no annual percent increase in food and beverage prices and a slight uptick in housing prices.

The states with the highest underemployment rates through the third quarter of this year were Michigan (20.9 percent), Oregon (20.1 percent), California (19.6 percent) and South Carolina (18.4 percent).

And the numbers threaten to go higher with some economists predicting a 13% unemployment rate -- a post-World War II high -- in the aftermath of the recession.

"This is going to be the mother of all jobless recoveries," David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates told Bloomberg Radio on Monday morning.

Another major factor in the index's increase was a rise in the number of households receiving food stamps, which soared 24% percent compared to the previous year. Recently, some major retailers, such as Costco, announced that they would start accepting food stamps due to increased demand.

"Certainly this economy was a wake-up call," Costco CFO Richard Galanti recently told investors. "It is not just very low-end economic strata that are using these (who) typically don't have purchasing power."

To formulate our index, which provides a better snapshot of the economy than the often-criticized misery index (inflation added to unemployment), we used a more accurate unemployment statistic (the U6 formulation), with the inflation rate for three essentials (food and beverages, gas, medical costs), and year-over-year percent changes in credit card delinquencies, housing prices, food stamp participation, and home equity loan deficiencies. We gave equal weight to the broad unemployment numbers and the combination of the other seven metrics (with housing prices having an inverse relationship to the index).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/huffposts-real-misery-ind_n_351...

toniD's Ya Think?

Murdoch May Block Google Searches Entirely From His Newspaper Sites »
Guardian | Bobbie Johnson, San Francisco | November 9, 2009 at 08:18 AM
Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google's search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online.
http://samsedershow.com/node/5469#comment-380532

...anyone would would miss 'em. I'd say things are looking up.

Ladies First

It was 1984. Ronald Reagan was running for reelection and Phyllis Schlafly—conservative gadfly, ardent foe of the Equal Rights Amend­ment, and self-identified “little homemaker”—was presiding over a fashion show at the Republican National Convention in the sweltering heat of a Dallas August. As a giant eagle ice sculpture dripped water off its tail feathers, Mrs. Jack Kemp, Mrs. Trent Lott, and Mrs. Jesse Helms sidled down the runway in furs and jeweled gowns to the cheers of 1,300 Republican women. The announcer then displayed a three-foot pachyderm made of mink, cooing, “For those of you who think you have every kind of elephant.”

A scene like this doesn’t need much help parodying itself. But Schlafly had a little boost from some of her most dedicated “followers”: the Ladies Against Women (LAW). Outside the fashion show, a group of ruffled, frilled, and flounced women (and a few men) in white gloves and pillbox hats passed out a Consciousness-Lowering Manifesto that, as the Washington Post reported, included such action items as “Restore virginity as a high-school graduation requirement” and “Eliminate the gender gap by repealing the Ladies’ Vote (Babies, Not Ballots).” LAW welcomed new recruits, but only if they brought pink permission slips signed by their husbands.

con't

http://www.bitchmagazine.org/

Obama On Abortion Amendment: Don't Want To Change "Status Quo" (VIDEO)
Sam Stein -re ABC News

UPDATE: In an interview with ABC News' Jake Tapper President Obama said he did not support any change in current abortion laws through the health care bill -- a implicit rebuke to the House for passing an amendment that could considerably restrict women's access to abortions. The president said that he doesn't want to change "the status quo" one way or another.

TAPPER: Here's a question a lot of Senate Democrats want to know. You said, when you gave your joint address to Congress, that under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions. This amendment passed Saturday night which not only prohibits abortion coverage in the public option, but also prohibits women who receive subsidies from taking out plans that -- that provide abortion coverage. Does that meet the promise that you set out or does it over reach, does it go too far?

OBAMA: You know, I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill. And we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions. And I want to make sure that the provision that emerges meets that test -- that we are not in some way sneaking in funding for abortions, but, on the other hand, that we're not restricting women's insurance choices, because one of the pledges I made in that same speech was to say that if you're happy and satisfied with the insurance that you have, that it's not going to change. So, you know, this is going to be a complex set of negotiations. I'm confident that we can actually arrive at this place where neither side feels that it's being betrayed. But it's going to take some time.

TAPPER: Do you think that amendment is status quo or does it lean a little bit in one direction or the other?

OBAMA: I think that there are strong feelings on both sides. And what that tells me is that there needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we're not changing the status quo. And that's the goal. The goal here is to make sure that people who have health insurance have greater stability and security, people who don't have health insurance get the ability to buy it affordably and that we're driving down costs.

And, you know, I think everybody understands that there's going to be work to be done on the Senate side. It's not going to match up perfectly with the House side. But obviously, it was a historic night for the House. We've never been this far. And I'm very confident that my colleagues in the Senate are going to say to themselves that we've got to get this done.

Watch: at link
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/gibbs-wont-offer-position_n_351...

Original story at link

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by toniD on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 5:56pm.
Senator Reid will include an anti-abortion amendment in final Senate healthcare bill
---

I wouldn't expect anything less from a Mormon, closet queen.

Intense Review Is Expected for NBC Deal
By BRIAN STELTER

The Center for Digital Democracy, a public interest group, has already called the potential union of Comcast and NBC Universal “the equivalent of Godzilla swallowing Rockefeller Center.”

Clearly, some media reform advocates are girding for a fight.

Comcast’s plan to gain control of NBC Universal, which is expected to be announced in the weeks ahead, barring any unforeseen developments, is likely to be the first major test of the Obama administration’s media regulators. Given its scope, analysts and public interest groups anticipate that the deal will undergo intense government scrutiny.

Comcast and General Electric, which owns 80 percent of NBC Universal, are close to a deal that would give Comcast a stake of about 51 percent in NBC, people close to the deal have said. The programming arms of both companies could be spun out into a separate venture, according to those people.

The venture would create a media behemoth. Comcast is the biggest cable system operator in the United States. NBC Universal owns broadcast networks and a portfolio of popular cable channels.

Bernstein Research has estimated that the combined entity “would be calling the shots for one out of every five viewing hours in the United States.”

Outlets controlled by Comcast, however, would still represent only a small fraction of the channels on most customers’ lineups.

One prominent progressive group with a history of opposing media mergers, Free Press, has flagged the combination as being “bad for the public interest.” The Center for Digital Democracy told Broadcasting & Cable magazine last month that the deal would be “a political test for the Obama team.”

As a candidate, President Obama called for closer inspection of media mergers and said Bush-era media consolidation had diminished the diversity of information available to TV viewers.

Josh Silver, the executive director of Free Press, asked, “Is the Obama administration going to make good on the pledges to support media diversity?”

Most of the regulatory experts interviewed last week said they foresaw the deal being approved, but perhaps only with significant conditions attached, as in the News Corporation’s deal for DirecTV in 2003.

Rebecca Arbogast, a managing director at Stifel Nicolaus, a financial services firm that prepared an analysis of the deal last month, said, “They’d take a long and very close look at it.” But, she said, despite the proposed company’s prospective size, “when you sit down and ask yourself, ‘What precisely would be the competitive risks?,’ it has, at least so far, been a bit challenging to think of why the government would view this as being anticompetitive in ways that could not be addressed through conditions, and block it.”

Comcast and NBC Universal executives have not commented publicly, but both companies say privately that they expect approval to take up to a year.

The Federal Communications Commission will be expected to review the deal, but the extent of government regulatory authority is unclear because the terms of the deal itself are unclear.

In part, government action may hinge on whether Comcast intends to sell NBC Universal’s 33 owned-and-operated television stations, 16 of which are NBC affiliates and 17 of which are Telemundo affiliates. The F.C.C. oversees transfers of station licenses. The commission declined to comment last week.

In addition to the F.C.C., the Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission will also be expected to study the antitrust implications of the deal. The agencies declined to comment.

A crucial concern of public interest groups is so-called vertical integration. By bringing together the makers of programs and the distributors of those programs, the owner could make access to its programming more difficult for its rivals, some interest groups say. Conceivably, they say, Comcast could block its competitors’ access to NBC’s prime-time shows and local newscasts.

“Comcast will use it for competitive advantage, and it will raise costs across the board,” Mr. Silver said.

Issues of vertical integration have been fairly loosely regulated in recent years, Ms. Arbogast said, but Obama administration officials have said they will look more closely at them.

Similar concerns about vertical integration arose when the News Corporation bought a controlling stake in the parent company of DirecTV, the satellite TV distributor, in 2003. In that case, the F.C.C. imposed rules about carriage of the Fox network and required baseball-style arbitration of disputes over the carriage of sports networks. News Corporation divested itself of its stake in DirecTV last year. Many experts say those conditions could be a blueprint for decisions about Comcast and NBC Universal.

Of most concern to groups like the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm, is the impact the deal could have on the nascent Internet video distribution market. The movement of consumers to the Internet for TV and film viewing threatens the business models of companies like Comcast. With the NBC deal, Comcast would gain a stake of about 30 percent in Hulu, a popular video Web site. The company could push to “have it transformed into a very different type of service,” possibly limiting access to free TV episodes, said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, the project’s president.

Already, however, executives at other Hulu stakeholders have indicated they foresee a subscription model in the site’s future.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/business/media/09comcast.html?_r=1&par...

toniD's Ya Think?

No to single-payer, yes to prayer?
By Missy Comley Beattie
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Nov 9, 2009, 00:15

A recent Los Angeles Times article by Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger detailed a provision to the healthcare Band-Aid, one introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch and supported by other congressional luminaries like Sen. John Kerry, which “requires insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.”

After reading this, I immediately began to excavate for information about the Church of Christ, Scientist, whose name seems more than a little oxymoronic. According to the site beliefnet.com, “suffering is a false belief” that originates in the mind. “Physicians are not viewed antagonistically; but their methods are seen as ineffective because they treat disease as originating in the body rather than mind.”

Hamburger and Geiger quoted Christian Science Church official Phil Davis who said that ‘prayer treatment was an effective alternative to conventional healthcare.’

Remember, now, that both Kerry and Hatch -- in fact, all members of Congress -- benefit from socialized medicine, the very best our tax dollars can purchase. Those we elect to represent our interests pay a very small amount for our largesse, a pittance compared to what we ordinaries are forced to spend on outrageous premiums and high co-pays. Family members of the power wielders are covered, too, and pre-existing conditions are not denied.

con't

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5240.shtml

http://www.seattlepi.com/dayart/20091106/cartoon20091106.jpg
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Into Health Care Bill

By: David Dayen Monday November 9, 2009 2:01 pm

Aides in the Senate leadership expect a version of the Stupak amendment to be debated in the Senate, but only as an amendment, not embedded into the bill being merged by Harry Reid.

Amendments on the floor of the House of Representatives typically require a simple majority to pass. Because of the cloture rule, amendments in the Senate often require 60 votes to break a filibuster. It has always been likely that 60 votes would be needed for all amendments on the Senate floor. That was confirmed to me a month ago.

So if the Stupak amendment isn’t included in the merged bill from Harry Reid’s office, it would, in all likelihood, need 60 votes. And it’s very likely that it would have to be inserted through an amendment.

This is true because Reid is blending the bills, not creating new policy. He didn’t include the repeal of the insurance industry’s anti-trust exemption, for example, even though he strongly supports the provision, because it didn’t appear in the bills from the Senate HELP Committee or the Senate Finance Committee. The Stupak amendment language didn’t appear in either or those committees either. In fact, the Senate Finance Committee rejected an amendment similar to the Stupak language during their markup. Kent Conrad was the only Democrat to vote for it, and Olympia Snowe voted against it. The Senate HELP Committee did the same, with only Bob Casey crossing party lines. So there is very little opportunity for Reid to insert language rejected by both panels, barring something extraordinary.

A Senate leadership aide confirmed to me that they “expect” an amendment similar to Stupak on the Senate floor. That means they do not expect it to be embedded in the bill.

It is unclear whether there are 60 votes in the US Senate to restrict choice. In the Senate Finance and Senate HELP Committees, only Bob Casey (D-PA) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) voted for Stupak amendment language, and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) voted against it. Between those two committees, you can count 24 no votes.

...more

11/9/09 8:00pm EST

It can be heard through the main site www.thereasonist.com

or through Blogtalkradio www.blogtalkradio.com/thereasonist

MSNBC anchor in Twitter fight with anti-gay church that picketed Obama kids’ school

The Westboro Baptist Church is telling the Obama daughters that God is their "enemy."

The Kansas-based far-right church known for its outrageous choices of protest venues picketed outside the private school attended by first daughters Sasha and Malia Obama on Monday morning, and in the process got embroiled in an angry war of words with an MSNBC anchor.

"God is your enemy," read one sign at the event outside of Sidwell Friends School, as captured in a photo by Megan Phelps-Roper, granddaughter of church founder Fred Phelps.

The church is known for its signature protest sign that reads "God hates fags."

MSNBC anchor David Shuster described Monday's Westboro church protest as "beyond the pale."

"Hopefully, some of the more rational conservatives/Republicans will condemn this stuff today," he wrote on his Twitter account.

Most conservative and Republican politicians have long worked to distance themselves from the group, not least because of its practice of picketing the funerals of US troops. But Shuster's Tweet set off an argument between the MSNBC reporter and Phelps-Roper.

"Don't forget our Tuesday Sidwell picket," Phelps-Roper Tweeted at Shuster, in reference to the group's plans to picket the school again. "Put away your idols and obey God!"

"Go ahead," Shuster Tweeted back at Phelps-Roper. "Show the entire world the vile, crude, and disgusting protest you put on this [morning] at the Obama kids' school."

As Amanda Terkel notes at ThinkProgress, the church has a long and colorful history of picketing their extreme views at inappropriate locations, including the funerals of homosexuals who died from AIDS or anti-gay violence.

In 2006, the group's decision to picket the funerals of the victims of the Sago Mine disaster caused widespread outrage, and some politicians even contemplated banning funeral protests as a result.

The group was banned from entering Canada in 2008 to hold a protest at the funeral of a man killed on a Greyhound bus in a random act of violence that shocked the country. Less than a year later, Westboro Baptist Church members were barred from entering Britain for a protest against a play being put on by a gay youth group.

As Terkel notes, this isn't the first time that an activist group has used the Obama girls' school as a setting for political exposition. In September, the group Operation Rescue held a protest outside Sidwell Friends where they reportedly displayed pictures of fetuses.

"Showing pictures of fetuses to young children will surely convince Malia and Sasha to be anti-choice, and warm hearts everywhere," liberal Fox News commentator Alan Colmes quipped at the time.

Washington Post reporter Michael Birnbaum described the protest as "tiny," though his Tweets on the subject were later removed.

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/westboro-sasha-malia/

toniD's Ya Think?

Worldwide poll: Vast majority say capitalism not working

Dissatisfaction with capitalism is widespread around the globe 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall that heralded the demise of European communism, a poll released Monday showed.

Only 11 percent of people surveyed across 27 countries thought free market capitalism is working well, while nearly a quarter -- 23 percent -- said the system is "fatally flawed." A bare majority, 51 percent, believed its problems can be solved with more regulation and reform, the poll said.

In only the United States (25 percent) and Pakistan (21 percent), did more than one in five people agree that capitalism works well in its current form, the poll conducted for BBC World said.

The survey of 29,033 adults comes after the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression and amid celebrations of the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which abruptly ended the Cold War.

And it reflects growing concerns among the public and politicians that the world's economic system has failed to live up to its promises. In Europe's post-communist eastern bloc, where residents have lived through both communism and capitalism, a poll released last week suggested capitalism is losing favor with the public. more...

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/survey-capitalism-not-working/

toniD's Ya Think?

Will things change because of this?
new
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 1:21pm.
GE, Comcast Agree: NBC Valued At $30 Billion »

Reuters | November 9, 2009 at 10:34 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Electric Co. and Comcast Corp have agreed on a valuation of around $30 billion for a joint venture between NBC Universal and Comcast, ironing out what has been a key obstacle in talks so far, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSTRE5A801F20091109
=================

If it means more consolidation, it is NOT good.

Six Smart Progressive Complaints About House Health Bill
posted by John Nichols on 11/09/2009 @ 10:23am

The Affordable Health Care for America Act was approved by the U.S. House Saturday night with overwhelming support from progressive Democrats who serve in the chamber and from a president who was nominated and elected with the enthusiastic support of progressive voters.

But that does not mean that informed and engaged progressives are entirely enthusiastic about the measure.
In fact, some are openly and explicitly opposed to it -- among them former Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and CPC member Eric Massa, D-New York, both of whom broke with the majority of their fellow Democrats to vote "no" when the House approved the measure by a narrow 220-215 vote Saturday.

How can this be?

Isn't this a fight between Democrats and Republicans?

Between reforming liberals and tea-party conservatives?

How can there possible be any subtlety or nuance to this debate?

Well, of course, the debate over this 1,900-page behemoth of a bill is more complicated than the easy spin of political insiders -- and media cheering sections -- would have Americans believe.

Key interest groups, such as the National Organization for Women, and key congressmen who have been long-term supporters of reform, such as single-payer backers Massa and Kucinich, argue that the bill is not the cure for what ails the U.S. health care system.

Indeed, they suggest, the bill as it is currently constructed could make a bad situation worse.

Many sincere progressives in the House, and outside of it, chose to back the bill as the best that could be gotten. Others supported it on the theory that flaws could be fixed in the Senate and in the reconciliation of the House and Senate bills.

But those repairs will only be made if activists are conscious of what ails this bill.

For that reason, even supporters of the House legislation would be wise to consider the criticisms of it by groups that advocate for the rights of women, patient advocates, unions and some of the most progressive members of the House.

Here are six smart progressive complaints about the House bill:

1. FROM THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN: "This Bill Obliterates Women's Fundamental Right to Choose"
The House of Representatives has dealt the worst blow to women's fundamental right to self-determination in order to buy a few votes for reform of the profit-driven health insurance industry. We must protect the rights we fought for in Roe v. Wade. We cannot and will not support a health care bill that strips millions of women of their existing access to abortion.

Birth control and abortion are integral aspects of women's health care needs. Health care reform should not be a vehicle to obliterate a woman's fundamental right to choose.

The Stupak Amendment (to the House bill, which was approved and attached on Saturday) goes far beyond the abusive Hyde Amendment, which has denied federal funding of abortion since 1976. The Stupak Amendment, if incorporated into the final version of health insurance reform legislation, will:

• Prevent women receiving tax subsidies from using their own money to purchase private insurance that covers abortion;

• Prevent women participating in the public health insurance exchange, administered by private insurance companies, from using 100 percent of their own money to purchase private insurance that covers abortion;

• Prevent low-income women from accessing abortion entirely, in many cases.

NOW calls on the Senate to pass a health care bill that respects women's constitutionally protected right to abortion and calls on President Obama to refuse to sign any health care bill that restricts women's access to affordable, quality reproductive health care.

2. FROM THE CALIFORNIA NURSES ASSOCIATION: This Bill Fails to Control Costs
While the current bills will provide limited assistance for some, the inconvenient truth is they fall far short in effective controls on skyrocketing insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital costs, do little to stop insurance companies from denying needed medical care recommended by doctors, and provide little relief for Americans with employer-sponsored insurance worried about health security for themselves and their families.

3. FROM CONGRESSMAN ERIC MASSA: "This Bill Will Enshrine in Law the Monopolistic Powers of the Private Health Insurance Industry"

At the highest level, this bill will enshrine in law the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry, period. There's really no other way to look at it. I believe the private health insurance industry is part of the problem.

This bill also, I believe, fails to address the fundamental question before the American people, and that is how do we control the costs of health care. It does not address interstate portability, as Medicare does. It does not address real medical malpractice insurance reform. It does not address the incredible waste and fraud that are currently in the system.

4. FROM PLANNED PARENTHOOD'S CECILE RICHARDS: This Bill Embraces Religious-Right Extremes

It is extremely unfortunate that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and anti-choice opponents were able to hijack the health care reform bill in their dedicated attempt to ban all legal abortion In the United States.

Most telling is the fact that the vast majority of members of the House who supported the Stupak/Pitts amendment in today's vote do not support HR 3962, revealing their true motive, which is to kill the health care reform bill.
These single-issue advocates simply used health care reform to advance their extreme, ideological agenda at the expense of tens of millions of women.

5. FROM CONGRESSMAN DENNIS KUCINICH,: This Bill Worries About the Health of Wall Street, Not America

We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system.

Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem, not the solution. They are driving up the cost of health care. Because their massive bureaucracy avoids paying bills so effectively, they force hospitals and doctors to hire their own bureaucracy to fight the insurance companies to avoid getting stuck with an unfair share of the bills. The result is that since 1970, the number of physicians has increased by less than 200% while the number of administrators has increased by 3000 percent. It is no wonder that 31 cents of every health care dollar goes to administrative costs, not toward providing care. Even those with insurance are at risk. The single biggest cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. is health insurance policies that do not cover you when you get sick.

But instead of working toward the elimination of for-profit insurance, H.R. 3962 would put the government in the role of accelerating the privatization of health care. In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high, which will result in at least $70 billion in new annual revenue, much of which is coming from taxpayers. This inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher profits for insurance companies - a bailout under a blue cross.

By incurring only a new requirement to cover pre-existing conditions, a weakened public option, and a few other important but limited concessions, the health insurance companies are getting quite a deal. The Center for American Progress' blog, Think Progress, states, 'since the President signaled that he is backing away from the public option, health insurance stocks have been on the rise.'

Similarly, healthcare stocks rallied when Senator Max Baucus introduced a bill without a public option. Bloomberg reports that Curtis Lane, a prominent health industry investor, predicted a few weeks ago that 'money will start flowing in again' to health insurance stocks after passage of the legislation. Investors.com last month reported that pharmacy benefit managers share prices are hitting all-time highs, with the only industry worry that the Administration would reverse its decision not to negotiate Medicare Part D drug prices, leaving in place a Bush Administration policy.

During the debate, when the interests of insurance companies would have been effectively challenged, that challenge was turned back. The 'robust public option' which would have offered a modicum of competition to a monopolistic industry was whittled down from an initial potential enrollment of 129 million Americans to 6 million.

An amendment which would have protected the rights of states to pursue single-payer health care was stripped from the bill at the request of the Administration. Looking ahead, we cringe at the prospect of even greater favors for insurance companies.

Recent rises in unemployment indicate a widening separation between the finance economy and the real economy. The finance economy considers the health of Wall Street, rising corporate profits, and banks' hoarding of cash, much of it from taxpayers, as sign of an economic recovery. However in the real economy - in which most Americans live - the recession is not over. Rising unemployment, business failures, bankruptcies and foreclosures are still hammering Main Street.

This health care bill continues the redistribution of wealth to Wall Street at the expense of America's manufacturing and service economies which suffer from costs other countries do not have to bear, especially the cost of health care. America continues to stand out among all industrialized nations for its privatized health care system. As a result, we are less competitive in steel, automotive, aerospace and shipping while other countries subsidize their exports in these areas through socializing the cost of health care.

Notwithstanding the fate of H.R. 3962, America will someday come to recognize the broad social and economic benefits of a not-for-profit, single-payer health care system, which is good for the American people and good for America's businesses, with of course the notable exceptions being insurance and pharmaceuticals.

6. FROM "SICKO'S" DONNA SMITH: The Bill Does Not Cure What Ails Us
Passing a healthcare reform bill that does not provide me with better access to care or protection from bankruptcy and financial ruin is not what I asked you all to do. Stripping away all reference to a progressively financed, single standard of high quality healthcare for all – also known as single-payer -- is done only to more deeply ensconce the deep pocketed interests in healthcare: the private, for-profit insurance giants, the big pharmaceuticals, the medical equipment companies, the hospital corporations and all the other making huge profits as thousands die needless deaths.

Healthcare is a basic human right. Granting that right is not something to be calculated differently in swing Congressional districts, off-year election strategy or second-Presidential term planning. It is your (members of Congress') duty to me, to my fellow citizens and to your nation.

And (members of Congress) are marching away from reality when you think all the hard-working people who counted on you to make this a better healthcare system will not notice when you deliver insurance purchase mandates and a corporate bail-out that will dwarf the Wall Street trillions you've already justified.

Watch Smith's video: "American Sickos: Will the Current Bills Help? No"

http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/24691402

Follow Smith's organizing for real reform at the website of Progressive Democrats of America. She is the national co-chair of PDA's Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/494236/six_smart_progressive_comp...

I posted this in my Open Mic, would appreciate reading what "Ya Think?" (if I can borrow the phrase-Thanks in advance, toniD, presumably.)

Submitted by edna ellen poe on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 6:20pm.
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 5:56pm.
Senator Reid will include an anti-abortion amendment in final Senate healthcare bill
---

I wouldn't expect anything less from a Mormon, closet queen.

-----------------------------
=============================

I haven't read it anywhere, but if Mormons were considered/called a subset of the Dominionists, I would find that appropriate.

Thanks, I watched the first half.

3 of my favorites: Amy Jane and Dennis.

The world needs more Kucinich.

Maybe I'll buy a dvd of todays

and support the show.

.
.
.
_ _ _
brr

I wouldn't expect anything less from a Mormon, closet queen.

Seeing some talk about this.

I have taped them since 1986 until they became available at http://www.audible.com for free. Harry gives a number of other sources at the end of each show. http://www.harryshearer.com/

The iTunes dl sucks big time because they strip the music out but the music might not matter much to a lot of you.

This is ONE of the most disgusting things I heard Christians doing... (even compared to death treats 2 some in PAST) - Adults vs Children!:
Westboro Baptist Church Protests Outside Obama Girls' Schools

If one is still a Christian, CONTACT your minister & DEMAND them to take ACTION SUPPORTING OUR TRUE PRESIDENT, President Obama not the LIEING bush, BUT Support President OBAMA {not some yucky bush type of actions} thus SUPPORT most of PRESIDENT Obama's actions!

beauty :D
;) ATT & 2 Be Back Later ... *poof*

What ever happened to “Commie”?

A curious fact — one that I can attest to based on my own inbox, and is also borne out by more general observation — is that “Nazi” is the preferred term of abuse from today’s right wing. We get signs saying “Obama=Hitler”, not Obama=Stalin. I get mail calling me a “dirty Nazi scumbag”, not a Commie or pinko.

What’s going on? It really doesn’t fit, as far as I can tell — and bear in mind the long-running love affair of the National Review with Francisco Franco. You’d really think critics of Comrade President Obama would prefer the Soviet comparison.

So is it that given the way Communism fell, not with a bang but with a whimper, it just doesn’t seem menacing enough? Is it the fact that Communism has just sort of faded from consciousness, while war movies keep the image of the evil sneering Nazi alive?

Inquiring minds want to know.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/what-ever-happened-to-commie...

toniD's Ya Think?

I'm sick of hearing this health care "reform" package called a realization of FDR's vision. Surely FDR would turn in his grave. FDR called the profiteers by the term "economic royalists". I doubt that FDR would've spent time figuring out how to give "economic royalists" MORE and MORE profits with only minor limits! Sheesh.

FDR got nowhere. I would guess he would be relieved that something was done. Lot's more to do though.

they strip the music out but the music might not matter much to a lot of you.

looking good in those wedding party pictures
my man. :)

I think this one is hilarious. Chuck thinks he's all gangsta.

I've listened almost every weekend since the late '80's at 6pm CT sundays 7.415 MHz WBCQ
Monticcello Maine.
and more reciently at 10pm on wbez 91.5 chicago.

I havn't recorded "Le-Show", however I have about
400 audio cassette recordings of the "Steve Dahl & Garry Meier" radio shows (Chicago) aprox 1981-1988 and many times they interviewed Harry , or spoken well of him.
I have 16 listings or times where Harry was spoken to, or about.

.
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_ _ _
brr

1083 | brl vod | WTF

From what Rachel reported tonight, Several Dems are a part of the C Street group and they all signed on to the Stupeck/Pitt
Amendment.

Infiltrating?

toniD's Ya Think?

I believe they call it indoctrinating. What's the diff between C Street and the Moonies?

Republican interests often buy Democrats when they think their primary winner is weak.

they need a DSMIV category for religious fundamentalists. I am really pissed about this Stupidpak thing and how it is spreading. Reagan never should have closed down all the mental facilities. Now they are in congress and making millions as well!

gggrrrrrrrrrrr

Yep! It's true!!

"this machine kills fascists"

"Harry Reid: Float like Barney Fife,
sting like Aunt Bea."

-- Every Democrat with open eyes, Link

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

MMRules

a minority party? Let's count.

Libertarians
Tea Baggers

Lots to say about the meltdown, the inadequate fix, and the continuance of inadequate fixes...

She's written a book titled "It Takes a Pillage".

http://www.nomiprins.com/

[excerpt]

It Takes a Pillage
Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses
and Backroom Deals from
Washington to Wall Street

"Having been at Goldman Sachs, Nomi Prins knows how to read spreadsheets, knows the people, and knows Wall Street's games. Nomi knows and now Nomi tells." Jim Hightower, Author, Swim Against the Current

“ A lively account of the Wall Street machinations and Washington deregulation that led up to the economic crisis.” Dean Baker, Co-Director Center for Economic and Policy Research

[end excerpt]

She went to The Family events for over 15 years.

Sorry,if posted before..

**

Obama himself has weighed into the Stupak amendment debacle. He just gave an interview to ABC News and stated that he is against the language of the Stupak amendment.

Con't

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

MMRules

http://www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/news/20091021/no-benefit-to-co...

List of prominent Family members

This is a partial member list focusing on well-known and influential members of the Family.
[edit] Members currently in the US Congress

Name Position Notoriety
Sam Brownback[1][80] Sen. (R-KS) Chair of Senate Values Action Team
James Inhofe[1][80] Sen. (R-OK)
Jim DeMint[1][80] Sen. (R-SC) Chairman of Steering Committee
Chuck Grassley[80] Sen. (R-IA) Former Chairman of Finance Committee
Richard Lugar[4] Sen. (R-IN) Former Chairman, Foreign Relations Committee
John Ensign[1][80] Sen. (R-NV) Involved in sex scandal
Tom Coburn[1][80] Sen. (R-OK)
Mark Pryor[1][80] Sen. (D-AR)
Bill Nelson[1][80] Sen. (D-FL)
John Thune[80] Sen. (R-SD)
Mike Enzi[80] Sen. (R-WY)
Joe Pitts[1][80] Rep. (R-PA) Chair of House Values Action Team; Member Committees on Energy & Commerce, Sec. & Coop in Europe
Todd Tiahrt[81] Rep. (R-KS)
Frank Wolf[24] Rep. (R-VA) Member of House Appropriations Panel[1]
Zach Wamp[1][24] Rep. (R-TN)
Mike McIntyre[24] Rep.(D-NC)
Bart Stupak[1] Rep. (D-MI) Author of the Stupak Amendment for the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" that would ban federal funding for abortions.
Michael F. Doyle[1] Rep. (D-PA)
Heath Shuler[1] Rep.(D-NC)
Jerry Moran[1] Rep. (R-KA)
[edit]

Members currently serving as state governors
Name Position Notoriety
Mark Sanford[68] Gov. (R-SC) Involved in sex scandal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_%28Christian_political_organizat...

Current Family members formerly serving in the executive branch
Name Position Notoriety
John Ashcroft[82] Attorney General AG under G.W. Bush; Also Sen. (R-MO), Member CNP

Dan Quayle[83] Vice President Also former Sen. (R-IN)

James Baker[4] Secretary of State Served under G.H.W. Bush

Robert "Bud" McFarlane[84] National Security Adviser Iran-Contra conspirator; served under Reagan

Ed Meese[85] Attorney General Served under Reagan; also Member CNP

Charles Colson[86] Special Counsel Watergate conspirator; served under Nixon

Melvin Laird[24] Secretary of Defense Persuaded Ford to Pardon Nixon[24]

Historical members

The following Family members are all deceased.

Name Position Notoriety
Richard C. Halverson[1] US Senate chaplain "[O]ne of the first to join the Fellowship under found Abraham Vereide in the 1950s."[1]

Richard Nixon[84] US President Joined Family after presidency[84]

Gerald R. Ford[89] US President Pardoned Richard Nixon; also Member CFR

Strom Thurmond[24] Sen. (R-SC) opponent of civil rights

Herman Talmadge[24] Sen. (D-GA) opponent of civil rights
John C. Stennis[4] Sen. (D-MS) opponent of civil rights

Absalom Willis Robertson[24] Sen. (D-VA) Father of Pat Robertson

Arthur F. Burns[89] Chief of Federal Reserve Served under Nixon

Frank Carlson[90] Sen. (R-KS) Kingmaker for Eisenhower

Harold K. Johnson[91] Gen., Chief of Staff of the Army

More at link above

toniD's Ya Think?

It’s time to stop using the Dominionist/Rightwing meme of abortion this and abortion that.

The Far Right really does want to stop more than abortion — as the Bush Years proved with life-damaging Abstinence Only school curriculum and prohibitions of condoms/family planning from foreign aid, etc.

So let’s get tough and stop using their attempted guilt word of choice, “abortion”. Leap right over it and use REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS instead!

Then the topic leaves the sexist, beat-up-on-women-only dimension of the issue and puts it square in the entire population too — because both WOMEN AND MEN have a right to plan their lives and families and reproductive behavior without religious authoritarian Dominionist interference.

It's pretty fucking cramped underneath this bus, what with 50% of Americans down here!"

"this machine kills fascists"

Hence the DLC. Bought and sold.

AMERICAN SPEEDBUMP!!!!!!

I keep forgetting to check WebMD.

I have to keep up om info about my disease.

toniD's Ya Think?

Every one of us is precious in the cosmic perspective. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. ~ Carl Sagan

...pressin' against mah sacroiliac? :))~

"this machine kills fascists"

40,000
CBS: Obama To Send 'A Lot More Troops... Plans To Keep A Large Force There Long Term'

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/09/world/main5592551.shtml

Adviser: 'You Could Have 200,000 Troops There And Afghanistan Will Swallow Them Up'

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,659903,00.html

toniD's Ya Think?

I'm just tryin' to move away from-a this here catalytic converter...it be hotter than a beyotch.

McCaskill Opposes Adding Stupak Amendment To Senate Bill
Sam Stein

Less than a day after saying the Senate could live with a health care amendment that greatly restricted a woman's access to abortion in the private insurance market, Sen. Claire McCaskill, (D-MO) announced she opposed such an amendment.

The Senator, on her twitter page, said that she objected to the language offered to the House health care bill by Sen. Bart Stupak (D-Mich). "[I] Don't think we should change current law which is no public $ for abortions, but amndmt goes too far limitng [sic] private funds too," her tweet read.

McCaskill is a pro-choice lawmaker from a generally toss-up political state. So her support for a Senate variation to the Stupak amendment would have given it a major boost. Already, other socially conservative Democratic lawmakers have hinted that they would back such a provision or even introduce it themselves.

During an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Monday, McCaskill said she didn't think such an effort would be a bitter pill in the health care reform debate.

"I am not sure that it is," she said. "Obviously, I have been a pro-choice candidate for my entire political career, and obviously there is controversy always surrounding this issue. But we are talking about whether or not people that get public money can buy an insurance policy that has a coverage for abortion. And that is not the majority of America. The majority of America is not going to be getting subsidies from the government...."

That remark, of course, didn't approach the question of whether McCaskill herself would support the amendment if introduced. So her tweet isn't, necessarily, contradictory. It just suggests that adding Stupak-like language to the Senate bill is more of an uphill climb than it seemed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/mccaskill-opposes-adding_n_3516...

toniD's Ya Think?

eya fer, what's the link to the wedding pix?

i went to your site but could'nt find the right planet.

"Steve Dahl & Garry Meier" radio shows (Chicago) aprox 1981-1988

Not bad ....

[Do I sense a trend here?]

Apple rejects app because of politician caricatures
http://www.macworld.com/article/143734/caricature_rejection.html
""
...
Tom Richmond, an artist for MAD Magazine, reports on his blog that Apple rejected Bobble Rep, an app that he and entrepreneur Ray Griggs dreamed up. The app is meant to include a database of every member of Congress, representatives and senators alike, which you can use to find your reps by zip code or from your GPS location. For each representative, the app showed an address, phone number, Web contact form—any and every possible means to reach out and touch your rep, metaphorically speaking.

Rather than use stock images of each representative, Tom hand-drew caricatures for each one. It's those caricatures that Apple apparently considers "content that ridicules public figures," a violation of Section 3.3.14 of the iPhone developer agreement, and a reason that Apple's previously cited for rejecting apps that poke fun at politicians. The app also lets you bobble the rep's head, either by touch or by shaking the iPhone. (Sounds cathartic, right? Maybe they can make a sequel to the app that features the heads of App Store reviewers.)
~`ordinary's just not good enough today - olp`~
Jamesbenet

This is a great read!

Success in Afghanistan is measured in Washington by the ability to create an indigenous army that will battle the Taliban, provide security and stability for Afghan civilians and remain loyal to the puppet government of Hamid Karzai. A similar task eluded the Red Army, although the Soviets spent a decade attempting to pacify the country. It eluded the British a century earlier. And the United States, too, will fail.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091109_afghanistans_sham_army/

“When I arrived in theater, one of the things I was shocked to see was how many civilians were there,” the U.S. officer said. “Americans and foreign nationals from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia were holding jobs in great numbers in Kabul. There are a ton of corporations in Afghanistan performing labor that was once exclusively in the realm of the military. If you’re a [military] cook, someone from Kellogg Brown & Root has taken your spot. If you’re a logistician or military adviser, someone from MPRI, Military Professional Resources Inc., will probably take over your job soon. If you’re a technician or a mechanic, there are civilians from Harris Corp. and other companies there who are taking over more and more of your responsibilities.”

In Japan, over 20,000 protesters gathered on the island of Okinawa on Sunday to rally against a plan for the US Marines to build another permanent base off the coast of Okinawa. The US operates more than a dozen US military bases all over the Japanese island, which has been described as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier.” President Barack Obama will be visiting Japan later this week.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/9/headlines#10

They are on Facebook.

from my buddy Scott who showed up for the midnight release of Modern Warfare from Activision. He said there are 200 people there waiting to buy.

Not a depression era sighting but depressing all the same.

whatever that is.

when i first saw facebook i realised that it would scatter information compared to sites like this one or individual websites. ie the web version of divide and conquer, a reduction to access in it's way. i tend to avoid "trendy" but i can see where it's attractive to some. it reminds me of the period in automotive styling when more chrome was the corporate "sell".

i gave up on "web diversity" and invoked the KISS principle for my own stylistic approach.

Right. Did anyone feel the irony?

9 to 10 November 1938 the 71st Anniversary of Kristallnacht
Literally "Crystal night" or the Night of Broken Glass was an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht
99 Jews were murdered and 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and placed in concentration camps. 267 synagogues were destroyed and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked. This was done by the Hitler Youth, Gestapo, SS and SA.[2] Kristallnacht also served as a pretext and a means for the wholesale confiscation of firearms from German Jews.[3]

[2] Now we have Beck, Hannity, Lumbago, fauxnews and the lot promoting the same bigotry and disinformation, the New Brown Shirts

0 missed it but Big Dog was there.
Clinton joins dignitaries in Germany to commemorate fall of Berlin Wall

To the disappointment of German leaders, President Barack Obama did not attend but made a video statement, introduced by Clinton. "Let us never forget Nov. 9, 1989, nor the sacrifices that made it possible," Obama said. He added that "there could be no clearer rebuke of tyranny, there could be no stronger affirmation of freedom," than the sight of people tearing down the wall.

~snip~
But many Russians remain divided on the closing chapter of the Cold War, during which the Soviet empire collapsed, and in particular over the question of whether Western powers have kept their promises in the negotiations that led to the reunification of Germany.

In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Medvedev said: "After the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact, we were hoping for a higher degree of integration. But what have we received? None of the things that we were assured, namely that NATO would not expand endlessly eastwards and our interests would be continuously taken into consideration."

He continued, "NATO remains a military bloc whose missiles are pointed towards Russian territory."

Wes Clark tells about "the things that we were assured" at UCLA last week (FHA):
Wes at UCLA Part 1: On the Collapse of Communism & the Price of Honesty
Wes at UCLA Part 2: On the Collapse of Communism & the size of NATO

I was sure he was headed straight to stardom.

I think this so-called "health care reform" eerily is like the "bankruptcy reform" we were sold a few years ago, made wholly from the same mold:
Support and LEGALIZE Corporate Extortion from The People (and our tax $$$)

Yeah Then Senator Biden ($-DE) was ALL FOR IT! Remember??

Heck you could go back all the way to the NAFTA Vote!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nafta
"...with much consternation and emotional discussion the House of Representatives approved NAFTA on November 17, 1993, by a vote of 234 to 200. Remarkably, the agreement's supporters included 132 Republicans and only 102 Democrats."

Wie gehts comrades!

JIM NAILS IT: when i first saw facebook i realised that it would scatter information compared to sites like this one or individual websites. ie the web version of divide and conquer, a reduction to access in it's way.

It does lend itself to "canned" short messages the populace gleans from Corporate Media and amplifies it like an echo chamber, yes?

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
- Joseph Goebbels

"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."
- Mark Twain (attributed)

BUT then there's THIS!
CIA Invests in Software Firm Monitoring Blogs, Twitter

Wired magazine has revealed the investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency has invested in a software firm called Visible Technologies that specializes in monitoring social media sites, including blogs, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. Wired reporter Noah Shachtman writes, “America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates—even check out your book reviews on Amazon.” [includes rush transcript]

Nice.

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

MMRules

Krugman
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/what-ever-happened-to-commie...

Submitted by toniD on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 9:52pm.

What ever happened to “Commie”?

A curious fact ... is that “Nazi” is the preferred term of abuse from today’s right wing. We get signs saying “Obama=Hitler”, not Obama=Stalin. I get mail calling me a “dirty Nazi scumbag”, not a Commie or pinko.

What’s going on? It really doesn’t fit, as far as I can tell — and bear in mind the long-running love affair of the National Review with Francisco Franco. You’d really think critics of Comrade President Obama would prefer the Soviet comparison ...

______________

Prolly would prefer "commie" to "Nazi" methinks (which is why "socialist" etc. were bludgeoned for so long during the campaign trail), but paraphrasing The Donald (no, the other one): "You go to war not w/the slogans you want, but the slogans you can."

Get the sense the whole "socialism" and "Marxist" bedwetter tack didn't stick b/c times is tough all over and a whole lotta folks looks around 'n sez: "Hey, how'z bout's we get us some a that socialism."

"Commies" tain't scarin' the ignorant rubes nomores. No basis a reference. Too many reactionary assholes died off carrying the commie slur to their graves and it's done nothing but confuse the reflexive lizard brain.

imo

Plus projection is always the last refuge of scoundrels.

(Been outta the loop. How do, toni?)

↓

↓

Did you ever see their live Tv Show "It's Too Early"
Mon-Fri. 7: - 9: am on UHF Tv-66
(May 16 - June 10 1983)

or attend any live stage shows? :

:)

up at 2 AM with the doggers growling and barking.

that got us up in time for the SKUNK smell (or possibly a cat that had been freshly skunked out) to waft thru the bedroom.

just on line for a few to checkout de-skunking technique as i'm sure either Ruzz or Jaxxor will get dosed if it's still around when the go out for their morning pee.

personally i would'nt mind giving one a home if they were'nt so smelly.

life is good and full of suprises...

A Word, Mr. President
By BOB HERBERT

If I were a close adviser of President Obama’s, I would say to him, “Mr. President, you have two urgent and overwhelming tasks in front of you: to put Americans trapped in this terrible employment crisis back to work and to put the brakes on your potentially disastrous plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan.”

Reforming the chaotic and unfair health care system in the U.S. is an important issue. But in terms of pressing national priorities, the most important are the need to find solutions to a catastrophic employment environment that is devastating American families and to end the folly of an 8-year-old war that is both extremely debilitating and ultimately unwinnable.

We have spent the better part of a year locked in a tedious and unenlightening debate over health care while the jobless rate has steadily surged. It’s now at 10.2 percent. Families struggling with job losses, home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies are falling out of the middle class like fruit through the bottom of a rotten basket. The jobless rate for men 16 years old and over is 11.4 percent. For blacks, it’s a back-breaking 15.7 percent.

We need to readjust our focus. We’re worried about Kabul when Detroit has gone down for the count.

I would tell the president that more and more Americans are questioning his priorities, including millions who went to the mat for him in last year’s election. The biggest issue by far for most Americans is employment. The lack of jobs is fueling the nervousness, anxiety and full-blown anger that are becoming increasingly evident in the public at large.

Last Friday, a huge crowd of fans marched in a ticker-tape parade in downtown Manhattan to celebrate the Yankees’ World Series championship. More than once, as the fans passed through the financial district, the crowd erupted in rhythmic, echoing chants of “Wall Street sucks! Wall Street sucks!”

I would tell the president that the feeling is widespread that his administration went too far with its bailouts of the financial industry, sending not just a badly needed lifeline but also unwarranted windfalls to the miscreants who nearly wrecked the entire economy. The government got very little in return. The perception now is that Wall Street is doing just fine while working people, whose taxes financed the bailouts, are walking the plank to economic oblivion.

I would also tell him that rebuilding the economy in a way that allows working Americans to flourish will require a sustained monumental effort, not just bits and pieces of legislation here and there. But such an effort will never get off the ground, will never have any chance of reaching critical mass and actually succeeding, as long as we insist on feeding young, healthy American men and women and endless American dollars into the relentless meat grinders of Afghanistan and Iraq.

We learned in the 1960s, when Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was trumped by Vietnam, that nation-building here at home is incompatible with the demands of war. We’ve managed to keep the worst of the carnage — and the staggering costs — of Iraq and Afghanistan well out of the sight of most Americans, so the full extent of the terrible price we are paying is not widely understood.

The ultimate financial costs will be counted in the trillions. If you were to take a walk around one of the many military medical centers, like Landstuhl in Germany or Walter Reed in Washington, your heart would break at the sight of the heroic young men and women who have lost limbs (frequently more than one) or who are blind or paralyzed or horribly burned. Hundreds of thousands have suffered psychological wounds. Many have contemplated or tried suicide, and far too many have succeeded.

“Mr. President,” I would say, “we’ll never be right as a nation as long as we allow this to continue.”

The possibility of more troops for the war in Afghanistan was discussed Sunday on “Meet the Press.” Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania noted candidly that “our troops are tired and worn out.” More than 85 percent of the men and women in the Pennsylvania National Guard have already served in Iraq or Afghanistan. “Many of them have gone three or four times and they’re wasted,” said Mr. Rendell.

More troops? “Where are we going to find these troops?” the governor asked. “That’s what I want somebody to tell me.”

While we’re preparing to pour more resources into Afghanistan, the Economic Policy Institute is telling us that one in five American children is living in poverty, that nearly 35 percent of African-American children are living in poverty, and that the unemployment crisis is pushing us toward a point in the coming years where more than half of all black children in this country will be poor.

“Mr. President,” I would say, “we need your help.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/opinion/10herbert.html?_r=1&partner=rs...

toniD's Ya Think?

AP: Bill Clinton To Speak To Democratic Senators About Health Bill

WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton plans to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to discuss health care legislation with Senate Democrats.

Officials says the former president is scheduled to speak during the Democrats' weekly caucus. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity late Monday because they were not authorized to discuss the former president's schedule.

As president, Clinton tried but failed to revamp the nation's health care system. The defeat contributed to the Republican takeover of the House and Senate in the 1994 midterm elections.

President Barack Obama's health care initiative is facing high hurdles in the Senate as Democrats debate a public insurance option and other contentious proposals. The House passed its health care bill last weekend.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/bill-clinton-to-speak-to_n_3518...

toniD's Ya Think?

"What I do is dilute some dishsoap by mixing it with water... any kind is fine. I use an empty milk jug or shampoo bottle from the recycling to make it easy to saturate the coat quickly and thoroughly. I dont measure but I would guess about 1/2 cup per gallon... I then add a good amount of salt into the diluted soap, about 1/4 to 1/2 cup per gallon. I shake well and let it sit for 10 minutes or longer, the longer it sits, the stronger it gets... then I get the dog wet and apply the soap/salt solution, saturating the skin and coat completely. After the dog soaks, I rinse thoroughly, and the odor is gone."

(predust them with baking soda)

Energy agency warns of falling investment
GREG KELLER | November 10, 2009 07:24 AM EST | AP

PARIS — The global financial crisis has led to a dangerous drop in energy investment around the world which could choke off the nascent economic recovery, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.

The warning from the Paris-based agency comes just a month ahead of the major UN climate conference in Copenhagen, where world leaders hope to agree on so-called climate finance to help developing countries cut emissions by switching from fossil fuels to cleaner energy such as wind and solar.

The EU has said that there should be a euro100 billion ($150 billion) annual package of public and private finance by 2020 to help poorer nations develop green industries and adapt to climate change.

The IEA, a policy adviser to 28 mostly industrialized oil-consuming nations, estimates that the financial and economic crisis is responsible for a $90 billion drop in global oil and gas investment this year, a 19 percent cut from 2008.

"Falling energy investment will have far-reaching and, depending on how governments respond, potentially serious consequences for energy security, climate change and energy poverty," the IEA said in its annual World Energy Outlook report.

The resulting drop in oil and electricity supplies could "undermine the sustainability of the economic recovery," the IEA warned.

Investment in renewable energy sources has been particularly hard hit, falling by about one-fifth in 2009 compared to a year earlier. Without the stimulus plans enacted by governments in response to the crisis, renewable energy investments would have fallen 30 percent this year, the IEA said.

"The financial crisis has cast a shadow over whether all the energy investment needed to meet growing energy needs can be mobilized," the IEA warned.

The agency estimates that $1.1 trillion needs to be invested annually from now until 2030, for a total of $26 trillion, just to meet energy demand on current growth trends.

Should governments adopt plans to limit greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million of CO2 equivalent, an additional $10.5 trillion needs to be invested over that time period, the IEA said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20091110/iea-world-energy-outlo...

toniD's Ya Think?

Roller coaster going down....

The Dems' Smart Abortion Move

by Peter Beinart

House Democrats were right to sacrifice abortion rights to get health care passed. Peter Beinart on why that strategic tradeoff can save the bill—and the party’s future.

The House’s passage of health-care reform is the clearest sign yet that the Democratic Party is, once again, for better and for worse, a big tent. By essentially sacrificing abortion and immigrant rights to get conservative Democrats to vote for expanded health care coverage, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi restored the old order within the party—an order that had helped Democrats establish dominance on Capitol Hill for decades. Today, to a degree we haven’t seen in a long time, the Democratic Party is about economic protection first, and cultural freedom second. Her action was a long time in coming.

Once upon a time, the Democratic Party was a big tent—a big, ugly, tent. In Congress, liberals coexisted with all manner of racists, nativists, misogynists and morons. “History shows that nations composed of a mongrel race lose their strength and become weak, lazy and indifferent,” declared Georgia Democratic Senator Herman Talmadge in 1955, in a statement that placed him firmly in the mainstream among Southern Democrats at the time. In 1964, less than two-thirds of the Democrats in Congress voted for the Civil Rights Act.

Yet it was that big, ugly Democratic Party that from Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson pushed through Social Security, the Wagner Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Food Stamps, Head Start, Medicare and Medicaid (with a little help from the then-extant progressive wing of the GOP). Some of the Democratic bigots opposed these economic reforms, to be sure. But others backed them; they genuinely wanted to curb the savagery and chaos of unfettered capitalism. They just wanted to preserve white, male supremacy too.

This was the devil’s pact that defined the Democratic Party from the 1930s until the 1960s, until the civil rights and women’s movement forced party leaders to choose. They reluctantly chose racial and gender equality, and so the racists and the misogynists drifted away. The Democratic Party became culturally liberal: pro-affirmative action, pro-choice, and smaller, since the old racists and sexists, now repackaged as racial and sexual conservatives, flocked to the GOP. Starting in 1968, Democrats began consistently losing the presidency. And in 1994, the realignment finally trickled down to the House of Representatives, and the Democrats lost that, too.

So Democrats accommodated themselves to a different kind of devil’s pact. Ideologically, the party was now more pure. But politically, it lacked the power to carry on FDR and LBJ’s work, or even preserve their gains. In the 1970s and 1980s, the liberals who ran the national party imposed a series of litmus tests that alienated cultural conservatives, even those who might have supported greater regulation of the market and greater protections for the poor. And, in so doing, they kept the tent small—small but comfortable, almost pristine. more...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-10/the-dems-smart...

toniD's Ya Think?

Americans Divided on Health Care Legislation
Gallup: "Americans are evenly split on the potential impact of new health care legislation, should it ultimately be passed into law. Forty-one percent say a new health care bill would make the U.S. health care system better in the long run, while 40% say it would make things worse."

http://www.gallup.com/poll/124202/No-Clear-Mandate-Americans-Healthcare-...

toniD's Ya Think?

Health Care Vote Becomes Issue in Senate Race
In an interview on WTKK-FM this morning, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) said this morning that she would have voted against the House health care bill because it includes a provision restricting federal funding for providers of abortion services.

The Boston Globe notes her position "opens up a potentially major fissure in the U.S. Senate race, with Coakley now on the opposite side of the issue from rival Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA), who voted in favor of the plan. Though Capuano voted against the so-called Stupak-Pitts amendment restricting abortion coverage, he voted in favor of the bill."

"Capuano, giddy over a discernible difference with the presumptive front-runner, called Coakley's comment 'manna from heaven.'"

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/11/09/health_care_vote_becomes_is...

toniD's Ya Think?

mild dishwater soap, hydrogen peroxide,
water - & I think something else
to get skunkie smell off of a pup.
I have only had 1 pup get sprayed.
That is all I want to get sprayed,
pain in the old butt.

for skunk problems.

http://www.humboldt.edu/~wfw2/deodorize.shtml

The computer says :not so good though:

My father suggested adding vodka to the mixture. He said some quasi scientific reason but I think he was just trying to make a party out of it.

Xenophobia is a seminal delusion. Acceptance of interdependence makes fearing difference null and void. Aversion is a poison. Compassion!

I have a meeting with the general manager of Americom broadcasting this afternoon. Wish me luck!

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/11/10/Penile-tissue-implants-deemed...

, N.C., Nov. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they have been able to grow new penile tissue in labs and implant it into rabbits to restore their sexual function.

Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, says the technique could has the potential to be used to treat severe erectile dysfunction in men, Healthday News reported Tuesday.

"We were able to show the tissue was able to integrate and function in the long term, which means we can start planning clinical applications (in humans)," Atala told Healthday. "Our hope is to be able to treat patients with many conditions, including congenital abnormalities of the penis, traumatic injuries, penile cancer and severe cases of erectile dysfunction that don't benefit from drug treatments."

The news service said the result of the study was published in the Nov. 9 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Atala said the implanted penile tissue reconstituted itself when implanted into rabbits, forming new blood vessel structures necessary for erections while nerves from the existing tissue integrated themselves into the new tissue.

another day....

what the hell does he know? He's not a democrat

remember he was a bush hawk on the iraq war, a neo-con then you could rightly call him

then when it was obvious to everyone that the iraq venture was a total failure he morphed into a neo-liberal, same diff, same shit

he's an asshole, i never liked him; i don't take seriously anything he writes and as expected, this piece is a piece of shit

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/11/10/Study-finds-how-to-stop-some-...

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y., Nov. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they might have found a way to stop the growth of certain aggressive tumors for which there are currently no treatments.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory researchers in New York say more than half of human cancers have mutations that disable a gene called p53. When cells lose that gene, tumors grow aggressively. But a research team led by Associate Professor Alea Mills says it's discovered a way of stopping the growth of such cancers.

The scientists said their technique involves turning up the production of TAp63 proteins, which make up one class of proteins produced by the p63 gene. The TAp63 proteins completely blocked tumor initiation by inducing senescence, a state of growth arrest in which tumor cells are still metabolically alive, but fail to divide.

The scientists said they also discovered that by increasing the levels of TAp63 in cells that did not have p53, they blocked the progression of established tumors in mice.

"We were very excited to see that TAp63 shuts down cancer completely independently of p53," Mills said. "This means that we now have a way of attacking cancers that have damaged p53, which are very difficult to treat in the clinic."

The study appears in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

passed on yesterday after a 12 year battle with breast cancer.Roberta ( age 53) had the pleasure of raising two college age women. Money was an issue and she was unable to add Nutrition or other modalities to her regime. I will be silent for a while trying to digest all the failures of our modern society.

According to Amy Goodman, a chemical concoction that smelled of feces and rotten corpses, was used by Israeli troops yesterday to repel Palestinian protesters who had hung a banner on the Israeli separation wall that divides much of the region. The banner was commemorating the fall of the Berlin wall and read, "No matter how tall all walls must fall".
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/9/headlines

Submitted by taozen on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 10:18am.
passed on yesterday after a 12 year battle with breast cancer.
------

So sorry to hear that taozen. It's so distressing when a sister, in the prime of her life, is struck down by this disease.

My sympathies to the family and you.

Submitted by mire on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 10:05am.
what the hell does he know? He's not a democrat
---

You're right. I never cared for that little, snarky bitch either.

.

I Think The Word Is "Tailwind"

"Today in fun word choice, from Politico: "Few political observers or elected officials doubt that an energized GOP has a headwind at its back."

Perhaps not using "tailwind" was intentional: The GOP boldly striding into the future butt first? Facing a fierce headwind, the GOP simply turned around and pretended the wind was at its back? The interpretational possibilities are endless."

"this machine kills fascists"

Boxer: Senate Has Votes To Block Stupak Amendment
Sam Stein

With Reporting By Ryan Grim

One of Congress's foremost champions of abortion rights said on Monday that the Senate did not have the votes to add a more restrictive anti-abortion amendment to health care reform legislation.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that 60 votes would be needed to strip the current health care bill of its abortion-related language and replace it with a version resembling that passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday. And, in an interview with the Huffington Post, the California Democrat predicted that pro-choice forces in the Senate would keep that from happening.

"If someone wants to offer this very radical amendment, which would really tear apart [a decades-long] compromise, then I think at that point they would need to have 60 votes to do it," Boxer said. "And I believe in our Senate we can hold it."

"It is a much more pro-choice Senate than it has been in a long time," she added. "And it is much more pro-choice than the House."

Boxer's reading of the political landscape might seem like the hopeful spin of an abortion-rights defender. But it was seconded by a far less pro-choice lawmaker, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.)

"It would have to be added," sad the Montana Democrat of an amendment that mirrored that offered Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) in the House. "I doubt it could pass."

Speaking days after House Democrats helped pass the Stupak provision -- which would greatly restrict private insurers from covering abortion -- Boxer and Baucus's proclamations are undoubtedly music to the ears of pro-choice activists. President Obama, likewise, stressed during an interview with ABC News Monday night that he would like to see the Stupak amendment changed before a final version of health care legislation is produced.

In making her argument, Boxer described the provision as inherently prejudiced, as well as bad policy and unfair politics. The Stupak amendment, she said, would deny women access to "a legal medical procedure" even if she agrees to pay for it with private funds (a supplemental policy would have to be purchased to cover abortion).
Story continues below

"It's bad enough on the first count, but on the second count it seems to me very unfair and very discriminatory," she said. "I don't see them picking out anything that a man relies on, any kind of procedure that a man relies on. This is very discriminatory towards women."

She noted that it was predominantly men who were making these policy decisions.

"In all my years in politics, this is what it's been like," Boxer said. "This is the way it is. It always amazes me. The leading voices always, since I've been in Congress, have always been males. And that is one of the reasons why I think it is so important to have more women. Not that every woman is pro-choice. It is not true. But most of the women are."

"And so when I see man after man come down there I just feel, in my heart our of hearts: Why don't you trust women to make this decision? We are deserving of your trust," the senator added.

Currently, the Senate bill's language would allow for insurers participating in a health care exchange to cover abortions so long as they ensured that federal funds are not used to pay for the procedure. An amendment similar to Stupaks' effort -- which was offered by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) -- had already been voted down in the Senate Finance Committee.

To re-introduce such a provision, Boxer said, 60 senators would be required to cut off debate on the floor. And the votes for that, she said, likely won't materialize.

"If they try to add the language we would try to stop them," she said. "If somebody wants to take it out they are going to need 60 votes to take it out... And my view is that we do have the numbers."

Boxer is slated to meet on Tuesday with Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) as well as other Democratic women in the Senate to discuss the topic of abortion vis-à-vis health care reform.

"When we sat down to do health care, I thought there was an understanding that we would be abortion-neutral," she said. "In other words we wouldn't change anything on abortion; that federal funds couldn't be used but of course private funds could as long as this was legal. And Roe v. Wade is the law of the land."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/boxer-senate-has-votes-to_n_352...

toniD's Ya Think?

Economic downturn appears to be cause of newspaper shake-up
By Frank Ahrens and Howard Kurtz
Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Three top executives at the Washington Times were ousted Monday in a top-level shake-up prompted by the ongoing economic crisis.

Times president and publisher Thomas P. McDevitt, chief financial officer Keith Cooperrider and chairman Dong Moon Joo were "relieved of their duties," according to a statement from the newspaper. Former Times vice chairman Jonathan Slevin was named acting president and publisher. The other positions have yet to be filled.

"Our assessment team looks forward to emerging with a market-based plan that supports the sustainability of The Washington Times and advances the Times' role as an important source of news and opinion for readers who value a diversity of information and analysis," Slevin said in the statement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/09/AR200911...

Idaho GOP leader Hall fired as deputy prosecutor, quits national committee after stalking conviction

Blake Hall, a leading figure in Idaho and national politics for 25 years, was fired Monday as a deputy prosecuting attorney in eastern Idaho and has resigned from the Republican National Committee.

Hall, a former member of the state Board of Education, pleaded guilty Friday to stalking a former girlfriend and is serving a 15-day jail sentence. He also was sentenced to a year of supervised probation. A six-month jail sentence was suspended.

Idaho Falls police reported that witnesses said Hall disposed of used condoms on the lawn of the woman's house. Nineteen condoms were turned over to police, collected on 10 different dates, according to a police report. Both Hall and his lawyer acknowledged the condoms belonged to him, according to a police report.

Also, between March and August, Hall repeatedly followed the woman to restaurants, the movies and her home, and he ignored her repeated requests that he leave her alone, according to police and court records.

The victim testified Friday that Hall once followed her to a Walmart and took her car keys and would not return them until she agreed to "hear him out" concerning her marriage, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported.

"I was so tired of being victimized," the woman said. "It is unimaginable that a 56-year-old would be so deviant."

Bonneville County Prosecutor Dane Watkins Jr. told the Idaho Statesman on Monday that he met with Hall for about an hour at the jail Monday and fired him as the county's chief civil attorney.

That's a job Hall had held since 1983. Hel was paid $59,800 a year to advise the county commissioners and handle other noncriminal matters.

"The bottom line is he just couldn't work for the county, representing the county's interests, when he was being supervised on a criminal conviction," Watkins told the Idaho Statesman. "He was a member of the prosecutor's office, and every day we make decisions that relate to this very thing. I just didn't think it was appropriate to preserve that relationship." more...

http://www.idahostatesman.com/newsupdates/story/966677.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by mhappenow on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 10:36am.
so good to have you back here edna....missed you!
----

Ah shucks M'hap. I luv ya.

Submitted by toniD on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 11:00am.
These GOP men are sick SOBs
-----
Show me a person with a fanatical religious and political ideology, and I'll show you a major freak.

Bill Clinton to address Senate Democrats on health care

(CNN) -- CNN has learned from two senior Democratic sources that former President Bill Clinton will attend the Senate Democrats' weekly luncheon Tuesday to address the caucus about health care.

A notice obtained by CNN went out to Senate Democrats saying, "All Senators should be aware that former President Clinton will be making a presentation on Health Care at tomorrow's caucus lunch. Senator Reid has requested that all Democratic Senators attend."

A constant refrain from Democratic leaders is that wavering Democrats must heed what they say is a lesson of the Clinton administration: fail to pass a health care reform bill, and congressional Democrats will suffer on Election Day.

With this visit at a critical time for health care in the Senate, the former president will be able to deliver that message in person.

Democrats in the House of Representatives approved a health care bill over the weekend.

con't

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/09/bill.clinton.health.care.senate/i...

you can email me thru my website. I would love to know how things are going for you....I don't have your email so .......

Nov 9, 2009 9:59 pm US/Eastern Family Of Boy Killed By Uzi Sues Gun Show

Christopher Bizilj, 8, accidentally shot himself in the head at a gun show in Westfield, Mass., on Oct. 26, 2008, while shooting an Uzi for the first time at a gun show.

The family of an 8-year-old boy who fatally shot himself at a gun show in western Massachusetts say the Uzi submachine gun jammed twice before he lost control of the weapon and fired into his head.

The family of Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn. says in a civil lawsuit filed Friday that a 15-year-old instructor who cleared the gun and handed it back to the victim failed to provide proper guidance.

The lawsuit targets owners of a gun club where the fair was held, promoters of the event and those who supplied the weapon and ammunition. They could not be reached for comment after business hours Monday.

Bizilj shot himself at the Westfield Sportsman's Club in October 2008.

con't

http://wbztv.com/local/Christopher.Bizilj.death.2.1302267.html

breaking up the oligarchs...

http://sanders.senate.gov/polls

As far as abortions are concerned. They want women not to have an abortion. I think we should attach an amendment that the sperm donor should have to financially support the baby the rest of his life and that same sperm donor will have his name published and on a registry, just like a sex offender, if he should not make his monthly payment, including insurance for the child. That same sperm donor should have to set up a trust fund for said child and pay for college. If this doesn't happen, that sperm donor should have a jail sentence.

toniD's Ya Think?

breaking up the oligarchs...

http://sanders.senate.gov/polls

That paper has never made a profit since the Moonies bought it .... why worry about it now.

Free Democracy

Vandals shoot Jacksonville farmer's cows, mutilate one

A Jacksonville rancher says he is shocked by the weekend shooting of three of his pregnant cows, including one that was mutilated by the side of the road after being dragged a half mile.

"They did take a hindquarter off the one they wasted," Tim Hunter said.

Hunter said the cows were shot at about 2 a.m. near Hunter's ranch off Highway 238 as they were lying next to their feed bunks.

Neighbors heard the shots, but didn't think much of it because it was at the end of deer season, Hunter said.

Hunter estimated the cows' value at about $3,600. The cows would have calved in February. The Hunters have 130 pregnant cows on their ranch.

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091109/NEWS07/91...

encouraging news

Google says Murdoch
stories can be taken off
Google said on Tuesday, in response to threats by Rupert Murdoch to ban the search engine from listing content from his news empire, that any company could ask to have stories taken off.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20091110/tc_afp/australiausmediainternetn...

toniD's Ya Think?

Google said on Tuesday, in response to threats by Rupert Murdoch to ban the search engine from listing content from his news empire, that any company could ask to have stories taken off.

In an interview in his native Australia, Murdoch accused Google of stealing stories from News Corp. newspapers for the Google News service, and said he might ban them once he introduces charges for the papers' online editions.

Google said it was up to individual news organisations to decide whether they wanted their stories listed on Google News, and there were "simple technical standards" that would remove them if they wished.........

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Google_says_Murdoch_stories_can_be__1110200...

Maybe the drones can also collect evidence of the looting of Somalia's fisheries.

Drones scour the sea for pirates
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8352631.stm

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

The Blue Dogs Have To Much Power In The House Of Representatives! Congresswoman Waters

toniD's Ya Think?

Wish me luck!

edna - it is great to have u back! :)

I HATE Re-pub-lick-thugs.

Boxer: Senate Has Votes To Block Stupak Amendment - GOOD

Submitted by mhappenow on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 11:29am.
you can email me thru my website
------

M'hap, I sent you an email.

Sen. Tom Coburn stands by effort to delay bill for disabled vets Updated at 11:55 AM

Source: newsOK

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Coburn continued Monday to block a bill providing new health care services for veterans, despite strong backing of the bill from veterans two days before the national holiday in their honor.

Coburn, who is single-handedly preventing the bill from passing the Senate, said Monday that the bill would add an estimated $3.7 billion to the deficit over five years and that lawmakers had made no effort to find corresponding cuts in other programs. Moreover, he said, the bill’s assistance for caregivers for disabled vets only applies to veterans from the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

...

But Coburn said he has offered a number of programs that could be cut to help pay for the new benefits — including subsidies to cotton producers who store their crops under a federal loan program and subsidies to air carriers who provide service to some small communities.

Coburn said veterans had shown great courage in their jobs defending the country and that lawmakers should show courage in their jobs by cutting some old programs to pay for new ones, rather than passing the debt on to future generations.

"There’s no question we do want to do the right things for our veterans,” Coburn said. "But there has to come a time when we are forced to make the hard choices.”

http://www.newsok.com/sen.-tom-coburn-stands-by-effort-to-delay-bill-for...

toniD's Ya Think?

Turkey to announce PKK peace plan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8352934.stm

It is thought to include restoring Kurdish place names, some education in the Kurdish language, and more freedom to use Kurdish in election campaigns.

Some 40,000 people have been killed in the 25-year Kurdish fight for autonomy.
...
Last month Turkey's government was caught off guard when a group of PKK fighters crossed the border from Iraq and announced they wanted to lay down their arms.

They were not prosecuted as previous returnees have been, but the euphoric welcome they received from thousands of local Kurds provoked a nationalist backlash.

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

Submitted by Kevin © on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 12:12pm.
In an interview in his native Australia, Murdoch accused Google of stealing stories from News Corp.
------

Could this old man be smoking crack?

Halliburton, KBR named in suit over 'burn pits' Updated at 11:55 AM

Source: Houston Chron/AP

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A pair of Kentucky men who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are suing two U.S. military contractors and accusing the companies of exposing them to toxic fumes and ash from “burn pits.”

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Louisville on Monday by former Air Force Sgt. Sean Alexander Stough of Stanton and Charles Hicks of Bellevue. It accuses Houston-based Halliburton Co. and KBR Inc. of burning everything from human remains to tires in open air pits, exposing everyone nearby to toxic ash and fumes.

KBR spokeswoman Heather Brown said the company denies the allegations and follows military regulations on the disposal of waste.

Halliburton didn’t immediately return a call for comment on Tuesday.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6712873.html

toniD's Ya Think?

>>Vandals shoot Jacksonville farmer's cows, mutilate one

I bet people are blaming Obama.

This exact sort of thing happened when Hitler gave Germany nationalized health-care.

It goes hand in glove...
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Plant experts unveil DNA barcode
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8346635.stm

...
"Barcoding is a tool to identify species faster, more cheaply and more precisely than traditional methods, " explained Patricia Escalante, head of the zoology department at Mexico's National University (UNAM), which is hosting the gathering.
...
Researchers have been able to use this technique to identify animal species since 2003. But, until now, the system has not worked for plant species.
...
The technology would also allow species to be identified from a fragment of material.

Illegally harvested timber is often processed into furniture before being shipped overseas, making it very difficult to assess the origin of the wood.

However, identifying the timber's "DNA barcode" would quickly reveal whether the wood was sourced from a legitimate source.

As part of the International Barcode of Life Project, scientists hope that five million specimens from 500,000 species will be catalogued in the next five years.

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

>>"Barcoding is a tool to identify species faster, more cheaply and more precisely than traditional methods, "

Sounds like a great idea!

I'll take one of those barcode-readers with me if I ever need to buy some marijuana (I could get sick and need the medicine...)

I'll never get stuck with a $35 bag of oregano again!
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Narrow, Surprising Victory in Seattle Mayor’s Race

Source: NY Times

SEATTLE — A former Sierra Club leader who rode his bicycle to campaign events and relied heavily on volunteer support claimed a narrow and surprising victory on Monday in the race for mayor of this environmentally friendly city.

“You cared, you believed, and we’ve got a lot more work to do,” Mike McGinn told supporters after the city’s mail-in election showed him winning 51 percent of the vote, by a margin of 4,939 votes out of about 190,000 cast in the mayor’s race.

He was met by the same chant he heard on the campaign trail: “We like Mike!”

* * *

Mr. McGinn, who was outspent more than 3 to 1 and did not receive endorsements from major political and business leaders, defeated Joe Mallahan, a vice president with T-Mobile who contributed more than $200,000 to his own campaign.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/us/10seattle.html

He beat out the big money, big business campaign. A good poster boy for Campaign Finance Reform.

toniD's Ya Think?

Insurance? I don't need no stinking insurance.

Report: 237 millionaires in Congress
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29235.html
Talk about bad timing.

As Washington reels from the news of 10.2 percent unemployment, the Center for Responsive Politics is out with a new report describing the wealth of members of Congress.

Among the highlights: Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That’s 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall.

CRP says California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is the richest lawmaker on Capitol Hill, with a net worth estimated at about $251 million. Next in line: Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), worth about $244.7 million; Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth about $214.5 million; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), worth about $209.7 million; and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), worth about $208.8 million.

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

MoveOn Threatens to Push Primary Opponents to Dems Voting Against Health Plan
[oops fox news - don't want to link anybody to mister murdoch]

A civil war is threatening to erupt within the Democratic Party as liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org looks to punish moderate [word used over and over by M$M - a moderate democrat is a republican] Democrats opposed to the sweeping health care overhaul proposed by party leaders.

MoveOn has reportedly raised more than $3.5 million in contributions to fund primary challenges against "any Democratic senator who blocks an up-or-down vote on health care reform with a public option," according to an e-mail sent to group members on Thursday.

The e-mail warned that any Democratic House member who joins Republicans to filibuster the health care reform measure will "face an enormous backlash from the grassroots."

The group also highlights a letter from Democracy for America, the nation's largest progressive political action founded by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, which urges Senate Democrats to strip committee chairmanship from "any Democrat who filibusters health care."

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

Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower

Source: The Guardian

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organisation's latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow – which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies.

In particular they question the prediction in the last World Economic Outlook, believed to be repeated again this year, that oil production can be raised from its current level of 83m barrels a day to 105m barrels. External critics have frequently argued that this cannot be substantiated by firm evidence and say the world has already passed its peak in oil production.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/peak-oil-international...

toniD's Ya Think?

Olbermann: Murdoch "Worst Person" For Using Fox News As Vendetta Machine (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/olbermann-murdoch-worst-p_n_348...
...
Earlier this week, on News Corp's earnings call, Murdoch responded to a question about the broken MSNBC-Fox News truce by saying, "We didn't started this abuse, which we thought went way beyond. Finally, we had to allow people to retaliate. When they stop, we'll stop."
...
When O'Reilly spent hour after hour reporting fabricating stories about GE parts allegedly, possibly, maybe--well, I read some graffiti about it--in roadside bombs, he was not doing so because the story was true or Americans were in danger or just to fulfill any premise of journalism. He did it because Rupert Murdoch had agreed to, in Murdoch's own words, allow people to retaliate.

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

Betting Against Obama Health Care Increases as Time Grows Short
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aSkKYFb.82VM

By Ryan J. Donmoyer and Kristin Jensen

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Insurers such as WellPoint Inc. and Blue Cross Blue Shield and drugmakers are redoubling their efforts to fight proposals to overhaul the U.S health-care system, adding another obstacle as legislative hurdles mount.

The insurers oppose competition from a new government-run program that’s included in both the House and Senate plans. The trade group representing drugmakers such as Pfizer Inc. says a House provision to allow the government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare would cost tens of thousands of jobs.

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

RI bishop, Rep. Kennedy delay meeting
Planned to discuss dispute over abortion
(snip)
The Democratic Congressman has said he did not intend to slight the church and added the issue facing Congress is "access to health care and nothing else."

[Bishop] Tobin questioned in a public letter Monday whether Kennedy fulfills the requirements of being a Catholic...

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/local_ap_providence_bishop_thoma...

Dodd's Banking Bill Takes The Fed Down A Notch Or Two: HELP US DIG THROUGH IT
Shahien Nasiripour and Ryan Grim

Scroll down to see how you can help HuffPost dig through Dodd's new bill.

"This is not a time for timidity," Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said Tuesday as he unveiled what he called a "sweeping, bold, comprehensive, long overdue" restructuring of the financial regulatory regime - one that, unlike competing proposals, limits rather than expands the powers of the Federal Reserve.

Specifically, Dodd's bill takes away the Fed's regulatory power in some key areas. "I really want the Federal Reserve to get back to its core enterprises," Dodd said. "We saw over the last number of years when they took on consumer protection responsibilities and the regulation of bank holding companies, it was an abysmal failure. So the idea that we're going to go back and expand those roles and functions at the expense of the vitality of the core functions that they're designed to perform is going in the wrong way."

The bill would also end the practice of allowing banks to select the directors of the regional Federal Reserve banks. That was a last-minute addition that came after the committee's top Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, told HuffPost he wanted to end the conflict of interest.

Dodd's bill is comprehensive, coming in at over 1,000 pages and tackling topics from derivatives reform to consumer financial protection.

Dodd said the bill would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to regulate such things as credit cards and home mortgages. Banks that are "too big to fail" would, as a final resort, be required to reduce their size and consequently the risk they pose to the financial structure if regulators demanded it. A single banking regulator would be created from the patchwork system that currently allows banks to shop for the fattest and laziest cop.

The bill would create a single bank regulator, responsible for all of the nation's 8,200 banks. The plan takes bank supervision away from the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the 50 state banking supervisors, and combines the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (which regulates national banks like Citibank and Bank of America) and Office of Thrift Supervision (which regulated failed lenders Washington Mutual and IndyMac) to create this new agency. Thrifts -- banks that concentrate their lending in home mortgages -- would be eliminated, and forced to become banks. This is something Dodd has been talking about for some time, and it's different than the proposals put forward by Rep. Barney Frank's House Financial Services Committee and the White House.

The bill also creates a national insurance regulator -- something that's always been the province of the 50 states.
Story continues below

Nearly all derivatives would be traded over an exchange with no exemptions for major end users. It expands regulation of payday lenders, hedge funds and dealers in asset-backed securities.

Ratings agencies would be required to increase transparency and be held accountable for blowing calls.

Dealers of mortgage-backed securities would be required to keep some "skin in the game" - in other words, they'd have to retain some ownership of a product they sell, in order to remove the incentive for them to unload garbage on unsuspecting investors.

Finally, the bill gives shareholders greater say over the operation of a financial institution as well as the compensation of its executives.

"If we don't' reform the system, sure as shooting, another crisis will happen, and happen soon," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who joined Dodd at a press conference.

Schumer emphasized that the bill would allow the Securities and Exchange Commission to keep the fees it collects so that it isn't chronically under-funded.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) described the current situation as unsustainable and responsible for last year's crisis. "Every single element of this system fell short," he said.

Dodd said that despite removing a fair amount of regulatory authority from the Federal Reserve, the bill shouldn't be seen as a criticism of Chairman Ben Bernanke himself. "This is not about ego," he said. "It's about putting together an architecture that works." more....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/dodds-proposed-financial_n_3522...

toniD's Ya Think?

i so agree mire

Protesters Return To Lieberman's Office, Five Arrested

Protesters returned to the office of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on Tuesday, staging a theatrical demonstration and urging the senator to stop taking money from health insurance corporations. Five demonstrators were arrested after spreading fake dollar bills throughout the building showing Lieberman's face and the words "Insurance Money Kills Democracy."

Lieberman has stated that he would help to filibuster any bill that included a government-run public option.

About a dozen demonstrators came to the Senate's Hart office building in the morning and asked Lieberman's aides to bring him out to pledge to stop accepting campaign contributions from insurance companies. Lieberman had left his office a matter of minutes before the protesters arrived, on his way to a Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing.

After being denied a meeting with the senator, one protester pulled out a cardboard cutout of Lieberman's face and marched throughout the building, pretending to return insurance company contributions. She scattered fake money in the hallways and into the building's large foyer. "I've had a change of heart," she yelled, "Senator Lieberman's giving the money back; he doesn't need it anymore!"

She then went back to the office, and joined other demonstrators who refused to move until they were granted an audience with the legislator. Capitol police were at the office within minutes, and five protesters were arrested as they sang songs about universal health care and accused Lieberman of selling out his constituents.

Among the arrested was Sam Pullen, 31, who said that his mother was denied a lifesaving bone marrow transplant by an insurance company. Pullen was previously arrested during a sit-in at the Los Angeles office of Blue Cross.

"I think that he heard our message loud and clear that he should stop taking insurance money donations," said Lacey MacAuley, spokeswomen for Mobilization for Healthcare for All. "The days are numbered that senators are going to be able to keep on accepting large donations from insurance companies at the same time that those insurance companies are sitting there denying people care."

During the last election cycle, Lieberman accepted over $730,000 from the insurance industry, according for the Center for Responsive Politics.

Last week nine protesters were arrested during a sit-in at the senator's office. Two of them are still in custody after refusing to cooperate with police until they are granted an audience with Lieberman. One, Kai Newkirk, is also on a hunger strike until Lieberman meets with him.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/protesters-return-to-lieb_n_352...

toniD's Ya Think?

Anita Dunn Stepping Down As White House Communications Director

WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday shook-up its communications team, with Anita Dunn stepping down and an aide taking over President Barack Obama's vaunted messaging machine.

Dan Pfeiffer will become White House communications director and Dunn will became an outside adviser to Obama's White House, officials said. They expect the full transition to take place before the end of the year.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel decisions that had not yet been announced.

Dunn, a seasoned political operative, advised Obama's presidential bid and helped shape its outreach efforts to female voters. She initially refused to move to the White House, saying she wanted to spend time with her family. But when the White House's first communications director, Ellen Moran, stepped down to take a job at the Commerce Department, Dunn came aboard on an interim basis.

Since moving to the West Wing, she has been a fierce defender for the administration, a top target of conservative commentators and led a fight with Fox News.

"The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party," Dunn said last month. "And it is not ideological... what I think is fair to say about Fox, and the way we view it, is that it is more of a wing of the Republican Party."

Pfeiffer is similarly aggressive in his defense of Obama, a position he occupied during the campaign. He rose from traveling press secretary to the communications director for the campaign and later transition. A loyal Democratic communications operative, Pfeiffer previously worked for Vice President Al Gore, former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana.

Obama and other administration officials initially considered Pfeiffer for the top communications job but instead brought in Moran and Dunn – both women – a communications and press operation that is otherwise heavy on males.

The personnel changes were first reported on The Washington Post's Web site.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/anita-dunn-stepping-down-_n_352...

toniD's Ya Think?

another notch in glenn becks gun.

That is shocking violence. It makes no sense. It serves no purpose. Why, oh why don't these people know any better than to behave that way. Tragically, Glenn Beck wasn't standing in front of the pregnant cow.

Good to see you here. Getting slow.

Of course the news isn't that great or as fast as it has been lately.

Abita Dunn. Yes, that's what I thought. There's not a real reason why she left or was let go in that article. Another anon person.

toniD's Ya Think?

things have been busy lately. i would imagine that rahm has as much to do with anita's departure as beck does. it wouldn't surprise me if he is fox'es deep throat.

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5473#comment-380700

pretty much sums it all up...
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."