Night Bird's Fountain

In remembrance of Barbi

2011-01-20T07:29:00.013-05:00

Our dear talented friend and editor/blogger, Barbi, passed away in October and is sorely missed by us and by the readers of this blog. Here are some thoughts for and about Barbi from some of us who knew and loved her.

From Beth in New York:

Raising a glass to Barbi! A person who was always there for us all during those tough times when our country was under siege back in 2004. Barbi embraced nature and shared her love of it with us, with pictures of Northern Michigan.

Barbi took over the blog full time when I was not allowed to blog anymore while working for the government in 2007. She did a great job!! She managed the trolls that would lurk.

I will never forget the late nights when we would all blog with Barbi; Jen sharing music and teaching us html, Greg from New Yawk sharing those obscure scenarios, the Rev from NC talking about daisy dukes, Cin from Cali coming into the conversation late and trying to catch up, Rick filling us in on the events in Tennessee, Maura from "The Fat Lady Signs" sharing her ever impressive posts, The Heretick from Utah popping in to leave a link to a post he did, Pam from CT informing us of the Connecticut Senate Race (remember Ned vs Joemomentum), BB from Mass, helping us through the laws being passed back then, George on the road in his camper and his dogs, Paul (in VA) always responding to the right wing attacks, and Dellberto taken under the wing of Barbi - Mom and Son. There are so many people whose lives were touched by Barbi.

We are still a group that stays in touch and we miss Barbi but know she is at peace in the Spirit World embracing nature.

From Cin in California:

Dearest Barbi:

We met during a special time. The old KA gang shared some great times that I will never forget. I will always remember the laughs, tears and your spirit and determination.
Rest In Peace, Dearest Barbi

From Greg G. in New York:

In those days right before and after Kerry lost in '04 I was looking for something to do with my sense of despair and anger. I stumbled onto the DNC blog and found a group of funny, warm folks to share hopes and nightmares with and I met Barbara. We collaborated on some writing and she liked my jokes. Over the years I discovered that a person’s essence is just as easily revealed over the internet as it is when holed up during a snowstorm in some mid-west road house filled with strangers who as they relax into their rum and cokes slowly ease into sharing their life stories. But I wish I had sat next to her on bar stools in such a dive just once in this lifetime.

From Jenny in Ohio:

Thank you, dear Barbi, for being a good friend. You're a generous, fun lady and there are so many memories I have of you that I know will stay with me forever. I wish we had had a chance to meet face to face, but our spirits met and that is a blessing. I remember fondly your pride in your Scottish heritage and this seemed an appropriate tribute for you...

My Heart is ravisht with delight,
when thee I think upon;
All Grief and Sorrow takes the flight,
and speedily is gone;
The bright resemblance of thy Face,
so fills this, Heart of mine;
That Force nor Fate can me displease,
for Old long syne.

Rev. James (and Robert) in North Carolina:

Barbi was a strong advocate for Rob and me. She and I exchanged quite a few emails. Her warmth, humor, and strong sense of fair play were such light in this often terrible and dark world. She is sorely missed.

From Tony D. in Minneapolis

What I remember most of Barbi was her passion and the collection of interests she both nurtured and found nurturing - from nature and gardening, to Scottish History and heritage, to ships however small or grand the quarterdeck. The passion informed her writing and posts and when you thought she might have exhausted her knowledge or interest in a subject a response to one of your comments let you know there was more to enjoy if you cared.

A Seafarer's Prayer (Sung by Lisa Thiel)

O may the winds be fair and the Great Sea be calm,
May we follow our course surely from Dark until Dawn,
With the Bright Stars above us and the Great Sea below
And the Graces around us wherever we go.
Oh, we call on the winds to be ally and friends
And to carry us through until journey's end.
Oh, we call on the winds for their help and their aid,
To carry us out and over the waves.

(If you have something you'd like to share here, please contact us at donkeyodatgmaildotcom. and we will add it to this post. If you'd rather just leave something in the comments, that is fine too! Thank you! )

Another Crazy

2010-08-23T16:57:00.003-04:00

The RNC's very own Kim Lehman refused to read the President's lips:

"Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith."

http://iowaindependent.com/41729/lehman-believes-obama-is-a-muslim

Persistently Crazy

2010-08-07T15:48:00.001-04:00

Birther wacko refuses to give up the crazy...

Birther Queen Tries To Fight $20K Fine At Supreme Court

If you say nothing else about Orly Taitz, say she is persistent.

Taitz, birther lawyer extraordinaire, last month tried to fight a $20,000 fine by appealing to the Supreme Court. Justice Clarence Thomas denied her appeal.

So this week, she re-filed the appeal, this time directing it to Justice Samuel Alito instead.

You lost, Orly. Now pay up.

GOP Denying Aid For Heroes

2010-07-30T21:32:00.005-04:00

I just don't understand these people:

GOP opposes medical funding for 9/11 victims

We're left with Republicans, in an election year, taking a bold stand against funding for medical care for 9/11 heroes.

Amazing.

Rep. Anthony Weiner doesn't understand them either:

Anthony Weiner's Spitting Mad Rant Against Republicans On The House Floor

The House was debating a bill last night that would provide up to $7.4 billion in health care aid to rescue and recovery workers who have faced health problems since their work in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The bill ultimately failed to get the needed two-thirds majority, 255-159, and Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was not happy about it. Not one bit.

I'd say he was really ticked.

A Reminder

2010-07-29T08:35:00.001-04:00

To be a Liberal, as John F. Kennedy said in 1960:

This is my political credo:

I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves.

I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind. I do not believe in a superstate. I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well. But I believe in a government which acts, which exercises its full powers and full responsibilities. Government is an art and a precious obligation; and when it has a job to do, I believe it should do it. And this requires not only great ends but that we propose concrete means of achieving them.

Our responsibility is not discharged by announcement of virtuous ends. Our responsibility is to achieve these objectives with social invention, with political skill, and executive vigor. I believe for these reasons that liberalism is our best and only hope in the world today. For the liberal society is a free society, and it is at the same time and for that reason a strong society. Its strength is drawn from the will of free people committed to great ends and peacefully striving to meet them.

"I think it is our task to re-create the same atmosphere in our own time."

Additional Afghanistan War Funding Passed

2010-07-27T22:20:00.003-04:00

Congress has passed another supplemental funding bill for the Afghanistan war:

The Senate version of the supplemental appropriations bill, including $37 billion for the continuation of the war in Afghanistan, has been passed by the House, by a vote of 308-114.

_ _ _

BILL TITLE: Making emergency supplemental appropriations for disaster relief and summer jobs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.

ROLL CALL #474

H R 4899

Yeas - 308
Nays - 114
NV - 10

Obama Signs Unemployment Bill

2010-07-23T02:20:00.001-04:00

The unemployment extension bill has finally been passed, and signed by President Obama.

Checks Are Coming: Obama Signs Unemployment Bill

Checks coming soon: Obama signs hard-fought extension of long-term jobless benefits

Federal checks could begin flowing again as early as next week to millions of jobless people who lost up to seven weeks of unemployment benefits in a congressional standoff.

President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law a restoration of benefits for people who have been out of work for six months or more. Congress approved the measure earlier in the day. [...]

At stake are up to 73 weeks of federally financed benefits for people who have exhausted their 26 weeks of state jobless benefits. About half of the approximately 5 million people in the program have had their benefits cut off since its authorization expired June 2.

They are eligible for lump-sum retroactive payments that are typically delivered directly to their bank accounts or credited to state-issued debit cards.

Breitbart: Pants On Fire

2010-07-21T00:40:00.003-04:00

Breitbart spews BS. Again.

White House, You Were Punked By Andrew Breitbart:

Sherrod belonged to an organization set up during the civil rights era specifically to help black farmers. So, yes, she had some reservations the first time she was approached for help by a white farmer. Then she sent him to a white lawyer for help, because she thought the white lawyer would help one of his own kind. But she learned an important lesson that day: When you're poor, no one wants to help you, no matter your race!

Because the entire point of Sherrod's story was to illustrate how her eyes were opened to that fact, she went on in her speech to explain that she "eventually worked with the man over a two-year period to help ward off foreclosure of his farm and ... eventually became friends with him and his wife."

This has been corroborated by the actual discriminated-against white people in question.

But that part isn't in the clip that Breitbart posted.

WATCH: Full Video Of Sherrod's Speech [43:15]

White farmers at the center of Shirley Sherrod controversy: ‘No way in the world’ she is a racist.

More Context On How Shirley Sherrod Became The Latest Right Wing Media Victim

NAACP president: "We were snookered" by Fox and Breitbart

Andrew Breitbart is a Liar. Let's Not Forget That One.

Elephant Poo Déjà Vu

2010-07-15T21:15:00.002-04:00

Hasn't this country already suffered enough harm from their crap?

Seeing the Elephant

William Rivers Pitt:

The Republican Party has become a preposterous farce, dominated by the likes of Sarah Palin and Michael Steele. The Tea Party movement is basically nothing more than a Trojan Horse filled with hard-core GOP base members whose views on everything from religion to the constitution to freedom of choice is not shared by roughly 75% of the general population.

They are the Taliban of American Christianity, and the only reason they have gotten so much ink is because the national press corps likes to take the easy way out whenever possible. Add to this the fact that the Tea Party has shot the GOP in the foot several times already by running off electable Republicans and nominating the cast from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. [...]

If people need a reminder, one is readily available. We are, of course, in the middle of a gut-twisting recession that a lot of smart people believe is about to get worse again. The response of the GOP and the far right, of course, is to offer up a repackaged version of trickle-down Reaganomics that would, if enacted, char the economy to cinders. Not to worry, because the very rich would get theirs, but the rest of us would wind up standing in soup lines and selling apples to stay alive.

If people need a specific reminder, they can look to the obnoxious drama that has been unfolding in congress over the last several weeks. Democrats in the Senate have been trying to extend unemployment benefits to millions of Americans who desperately need help. Senate Republicans have filibustered the extension of these benefits at every turn, insisting that these benefits be paid for by either tax hikes or spending cuts. This view is shared by virtually every Republican in the Senate.

But wait, there's a solution right in front of them: the bloated, unaffordable Bush-era tax cuts for rich people are about to expire, and the GOP is in a tizzy. Democrats want to keep those tax cuts in place only for people making up to $200,000-$250,000 a year, and dump the tax cuts for anyone making more. This would generate billions in revenue that could pay for, among other things, extending unemployment benefits for Americans who have been screwed out of their jobs and homes by Bush-era economic policies.

But no, says the GOP, we have to keep those tax cuts as they are. Their desire to make sure unemployment benefits are paid for does not extend to making sure these Bushian tax cuts are paid for. If Senate Republicans get their way, the unemployed will get screwed and the super-wealthy will keep getting pornographically huge slices of revenue we absolutely cannot afford to give them. As it stands, the GOP's filibuster of these benefits is already screwing the people, and if the Republicans were in the majority, well, we've read this script before.

Been there. Done that. Didn't work.

Happy Fourth

2010-07-04T02:00:00.002-04:00

Freedom!

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

~George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
"Maxims: Liberty and Equality," 1905

Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

~Louis D. Brandeis

Crazy Train

2010-07-03T00:20:00.002-04:00

They just keep on keeping on. Month after month, week after week, day after day, the crazy train keeps on rolling along.

I Timed It: One Can say "The GOP Is Nuts" At Least Fifteen Times in Thirty Seconds

Fri, 07/02/2010

"What is, Because one can be boundlessly crazy and not pay a price for it?"

Ding-ding-ding.

"Alex, I'll take 'Republican Antics' again, since all the correct question-answers in this category appear to be identical."

That seems to be the best and notionally shortest response to Chris Matthews' and Eugene Robinson's co-bewilderment last night, as they sat and pondered why, for heaven's sake why, Republican pols and their ideological allies persist in ratcheting up the lunacy. [...]

What, again, was your question, Messrs. Matthews and Robinson? Something about why Republican pols are behaving like unmedicated lunatics? Because one can be boundlessly crazy -- or at the very least reflect the otherworldly views of the boundlessly crazy -- and not pay a price for it. [...]

And we'll stay on this downward trajectory, right up to a replanted lunatic majority in Congress -- with subpoena power, no less -- until Democrats nationalize the election with one simple but endlessly repeated observation, floating superimposed over Barton, Boehner & Co. insights: The GOP is nuts.

RIP, Senator Byrd

2010-06-28T06:45:00.001-04:00

Senator Robert Byrd Dies at 92

For more than a third of its 144-year existence, the state of West Virginia was represented in the U.S. Senate by one man: Robert C. Byrd. So encompassing was Byrd's 50 years of service in the Senate and so encyclopedic his institutional knowledge that by the time he died early Monday morning, he had become not just the political personification of West Virginia in the nation's capital, but the embodiment and ambassador of the Senate itself to the rest of the country. Byrd was admitted to hospital last week for dehydration, and his condition worsened over the weekend as he became critically ill. Twice its majority leader, a master of its all-powerful rules and a fierce defender of its prerogatives, Byrd was as much a part of the place as the wooden desks, steep-sloped galleries and soaring speeches that filled it. Byrd was 92.

Apology

2010-06-24T19:20:00.001-04:00

The Gulf of Mexico got in BP's way?

John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune

"How Republicans Would Govern"

Gary Varvel, Indianapolis Star-News

How about apologizing for the BP gusher of lies?

Not long ago, BP joined the other oil companies in greenwashing their image by making it appear that they were developing clean energy, when all they were really doing was going for broke in pursuing the last drops of oil in places that it was so dangerous to drill in, we are still left with the possibility that the floor of the Gulf of Mexico may blow up and it will become literally a sea of oil.

All you need to know about Tony Hayward is that he believes PR can save BP from prosecution for criminal malfeasance.

Oil Slick Dickitude

2010-06-12T17:35:00.002-04:00

BP tries to create its own reality.

video: Olbermann: BP Starting To Sound Like Baghdad Bob

The protestations of foreign oil giant BP about their efforts to contain their cataclysmic oil disaster have become increasingly divorced from reality. [...]

Featured in the montage are BP CEO Tony Hayward, COO Doug Suttles, and managing director Bob Dudley, the men running the disastrous response to their company’s catastrophe.

And they're not very good at it.

BP’s failures made worse by PR mistakes

BP is already fighting an oil gusher it can't contain and watching its mighty market value wither away. Its own bumbling public-relations efforts are making a big mess worse.

Not only has it made a series of gaffes — none greater than the CEO's complaint that "I'd like my life back" — the company hasn't even followed its own internal guidelines for damage control after a spill.

Executives have quibbled about the existence of undersea plumes of oil, downplayed the potential damage early in the crisis and made far-too-optimistic predictions for when the spill could be stopped. BP's steadiest public presence has been the ever-present live TV shot of the untamed gusher.

As you can see.

WKRG News (Mobile/Pensacola) Live Stream

Will the BP Fiasco Change U.S. Politics? Don't Bet on It

This is a constant drumbeat, but think about it: Isn't it remarkable how transcendentally awful BP's approach to the Gulf disaster has been? At each and every turn, with the stakes impossibly high, BP has always chosen to do the wrong thing. There's the substance -- having no emergency worst-case contingency plans for a blowout, disingenuously refusing to estimate the amount of oil flowing. There's the politics and image stuff, including CEO Tony Hayward's lies and self-pity and the platoons of lawyers and PR people trying to keep cleanup workers silent and choke off media attention. It's been an awesome display of every kind of 21st century corporate dick-itude. [...]

Meanwhile, the cult of the free market, which too often means letting big business do what it wants, retained a powerful hold on U.S. politics. We're still learning all the ways in which the Bush administration pulled out all the political and regulatory stops for big oil and other energy industries, which led to a culture of lax oversight and technological corner-cutting in a high-risk activity.

Now: When disaster struck, it quickly became obvious that all the green stuff was just for show. Where it counted, BP had not been green at all, but murky brown. Today, with the Gulf of Mexico getting more fouled by the hour and the eyes of the world riveted on its every move (the one time you really, really want to get corporate PR right) BP has demonstrated it cares more about covering its own arse than doing the right thing.

Fail.

How big is the BP oil disaster?

2010-06-05T15:07:00.008-04:00

How big is BP's disaster? Pretty darned big. For some size perspective, check out: If it was my home.

How far might the oil slick spread?

The National Center for Atmospheric Research, which does a lot of computer modeling of the air and oceans, has put together a simulation of where the oil from the Deepwater Horizon might go over the next hundred days. In a word: far.

Here is a live feed, courtesy of PBS:

Photos: Gulf Oil Spill: Animals In Peril

Thank Someone Today

2010-05-31T00:05:00.002-04:00

Memorial Day

~Cy Warman

Gather the garlands rare to-day,
Snow-white roses and roses red;
Gather the fairest flowers of May,
Heap them up on the graves of clay,
Gladden the graves of the noble dead.

Pile them high as the soldiers were
Piled on the field when they fought and fell;
They will rejoice in their new place there
To-day, as they walk where the fragrant air
Is sweet with the scent of asphodel.

Many a time, I've heard it said,
They fell so thick where the battles were,
Their hot blood rippled, and, running red,
Ran out like a rill from the drifted dead
Staining the heath and the daisies there,

This day the friends of the soldiers keep,
And they will keep it through all the years,
To the silent city where soldiers sleep
Will come with flowers, to watch and weep
And water the garlands with their tears.

Kwame Kilpatrick Sentenced For Parole Violation

2010-05-25T11:30:00.002-04:00

Some people learn the hard way:

Ex-Detroit Mayor Gets 18 Months To Five Years In Prison For Violating Probation

Disgraced ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced today to 18 months to five years in prison for violating his probation by not disclosing assets as required under a plea deal.

Judge David Groner slammed Kilpatrick in court today, saying that "your testimony in this court amounted to perjury" and that "the initial 120 days incarceration did nothing to rehabilitate you."

"Probation is no longer an option," Groner said. "That ship has sailed."

TPMmuckraker's full coverage of Kilpatrick is available here.

Senate Passes Financial Reform

2010-05-20T23:14:00.006-04:00

Today, the Senate passed H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 by a 59 to 39 vote.

The bill, as amended: "calls for new ways to watch for risks in the financial system and makes it easier to liquidate large failing financial firms. It also writes new rules for complex securities blamed for helping precipitate the 2008 economic crisis, and it creates a new consumer protection agency."

The House passed its version of the bill on December 11, 2009, by a 223-202 vote.

The Senate bill will now have to be merged with the House version before going on to the President's desk for signing into law.

GOP: Bad Drivers

2010-05-16T01:07:00.001-04:00

Bad driving isn't the only problem the GOP has. Refusing to admit and accept responsibility, and working towards fixing what they've messed up are more problems they won't work on.

Remarks by The President at DCCC Dinner

St. Regis Hotel
New York, New York
May 13, 2010

"After they drove the car into the ditch, made it as difficult as possible for us to pull it back, now they want the keys back.

"NO!

"You can't drive. We don't want to have to go back into the ditch. We just got the car out."

Obama: GOP Drove The Country Into A Ditch. 'Now They Want The Keys Back'

tpmtv

"...it would have been nice to get a little help from the other side of the aisle, just once in a while. You would have thought at a time of historic crisis that Republican leaders would have been more willing to help us find a way out of this mess -- particularly since they created the mess."

Audit The Fed

2010-05-12T00:05:00.001-04:00

Tuesday, S.Amdt. 3738, Bernie Sanders' Amendment to S. 3217 (Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010), was passed by the Senate in a 96 — 0 vote.

Release: Senate Approves Fed Audit Sanders Amendment to End Fed Secrecy Passes

In a major victory for transparency at the Federal Reserve, the Senate today passed an amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to audit the Fed and make the central bank reveal which banks received more than $2 trillion in emergency aid during the financial crisis.

“The Fed can no longer operate in virtual secrecy,” said Sanders (I-Vt.).

Under his amendment, the Government Accountability Office would conduct a top-to-bottom audit of all emergency actions by the Fed since the start of the financial crisis in 2007. The non-partisan research arm of Congress specifically would be directed to investigate apparent conflicts of interest involving the Fed and CEOs of the largest financial institutions in the country.

In addition to the audit, the Fed for the first time would have to reveal by Dec. 1, 2010, the identities of banks and other financial institutions that took more than $2 trillion in nearly zero-interest loans.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke repeatedly refused to tell Sanders and others the names of the banks which took the loans.

“Let's be clear,” Sanders said. “When trillions of dollars of taxpayer money are being lent out to the largest financial institutions in this country, the American people have a right to know who received that money and what they did with it. We also need to know what possible conflicts of interest exist involving the heads of large financial institutions who sat in the room helping to make those decisions.”

The Rachel Maddow Show, hosted by Chris Hayes, Washington editor for The Nation:

Senate embraces 'audit the Fed'

May 11: Senator Bernie Sanders explains the scope and expected outcome of his "audit the Fed" amendment which passed the Senate Tuesday in a 96-0 vote. (8:35)

Senate Votes 96-0 to Audit Fed

"We are on the verge of lifting the veil of secrecy on perhaps the most important government agency in the United States of America,” said amendment sponsor Sen. Bernard Sanders, Ind.-Vt., "an agency which has control and spends trillions of dollars. They do it behind closed doors." [. . .]

The audit is the Senate's latest change to legislation that would overhaul the nation's financial regulatory system, making it easier for the government to break up ailing banks and provide a strong, independent consumer agency to help people with credit questions and problems.

The Senate debate is in its second week, with Democratic leaders hoping for a final vote later this week. Still to come are disputes over how to deal with derivatives, the exotic financial instruments that helped spur the 2008 economic collapse, as well as questions about how to deal with government-sponsored mortgage finance titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If the Senate passes the legislation, next it will have to be reconciled with a similar bill that the House of Representatives passed last year, with final compromise terms then having to pass both houses of Congress before President Barack Obama could sign it into law.

FCC: Third Way On Net Neutrality

2010-05-07T00:40:00.001-04:00

FCC statement on 'third way' for broadband

May 6, 2010

THE THIRD WAY:
A NARROWLY TAILORED BROADBAND FRAMEWORK

Chairman Julius Genachowski
Federal Communications Commission

FCC says it has compromise on key broadband rules

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday that his agency has crafted a compromise in how it regulates high-speed Internet access: It will apply only narrow rules to broadband companies. [...]

So now Genachowski is seeking to redefine broadband as a telecommunications service subject to "common carrier" obligations to treat all traffic equally. Similar rules apply to other networks that serve the public, including roads, electrical grids and telephone lines. But Genachowski said he will refrain from imposing more burdensome mandates that also apply to traditional telecom companies. For instance he would avoid requiring the broadband companies to share their networks with competitors.

The proposal is intended to strike a balance that can satisfy both Internet service providers that oppose new regulations and public interest groups that are demanding greater consumer protections. FCC officials stressed that they intend to regulate only Internet connections, not the online services flowing through them.

FCC to Restore Authority Over Net Neutrality, Broadband Service: Netroots Backlash Cited

The "third way" plan, designed to appease Net Neutrality advocates - while not completely enraging the phone and cable companies - is good in some areas, and bad in others.

It will enable the FCC to enact many important provisions of their celebrated National Broadband Plan, including Net Neutrality and modifying government subsidy of Internet services. However, the new plan explicitly states that the FCC will not try to advance policies that promote more competition and affordability. Genachowski will use a technical process called "forbearance" to strip some of the agency's authority.

FCC seeking to apply narrow rules to broadband

The head of the Federal Communications Commission is pledging to apply only narrow regulations to high-speed Internet access to ensure the agency has adequate authority to govern broadband providers without adopting heavy-handed rules.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Thursday that the commission will seek to regulate broadband connections as a telecommunications service subject to "common carrier" obligations to treat all traffic equally. But it will refrain from imposing other burdensome obligations.

Update: FCC plans 'third way' to address 'Comcast dilemma,' net neutrality

In regulator-speak, Genachowski's plan says that broadband transmission will be reclassified as a "Title II" service - a telecommunications service of the type subject to close oversight since the FCC was established in the 1930s. Under the Bush administration, the FCC declared broadband offerings to be "Title I" data service, subject to much looser regulation. [ ...]

He says that the new rules would apply only to "the transmission component of broadband access service," and that the FCC will formally promise stay away from rules "that are unnecessary and inappropriate for broadband access service."

In other words, Genachowski is trying to thread a needle. He wants to make plain to the public that regulators can and will enforce reasonable net-neutrality principals against network owners who want to manage the broadband Internet like a private toll road, potentially favoring some people's or companies' traffic over others' in ways that distort the market. At the same time, he wants to signal businesses and entrepreneurs that the FCC will stay away from needless interference in a technology that has been a tremendous engine for growth.

To that end, the Genachowski-led commission also plans to push forward with its visionary National Broadband Plan, which sees wired and wireless broadband networks as the railroad, highway, and telephone networks of the 21st century: essential public services - whoever owns and operates them - that don't just connect the country but that will provide a framework for robust economic growth in the decades ahead. (It's not clear yet whether today's framework will directly affect wireless carriers.)

Ernie Harwell, The Voice Of Tiger Baseball

2010-05-05T18:30:00.000-04:00

On September 16, 2009, only a few weeks after being diagnosed with cancer, Ernie Harwell, the broadcasting Voice of the Detroit Tigers for 42 years, gave his farewell to fans:

Ernie Harwell: Tigers legend, Michigan's beloved son

You know how you can tell when a person is from Michigan? If you ask them where they’re from, they’ll hold up their hand, like it was a map of the state, and point to their home town.

But today, you won’t have to ask anything. It should be easy to spot Michiganders, because they’ll be crying.

Ernie Harwell, the broadcasting voice of the Detroit Tigers for more than 40 years, passed away on Tuesday, at the age of 92. As many in the state have noted, Mr. Harwell quite possibly was the most beloved Michigander of all time.

Ernie Harwell: The Definition of Baseball

The world is a little less gracious, a little less gentlemanly tonight. Legendary broadcaster Ernie Harwell is gone, probably talking with baseball fans in heaven above in that beautiful, courtly manner of his, and the voice of our game is momentarily silenced and forever changed.

If Michigan summers could talk, they would sound like Ernie Harwell: Relentlessly sunny and optimistic. I wrote those words last September after one of the greatest baseball voices of our time went public with his battle with cancer and, on this sad evening, I can't say it better than that.
. . .
Meantime, as we observe a moment of silence, I'll leave you with Ernie's beautiful "definition of baseball", as he put it, from the end of his Hall of Fame speech in 1981. Those of you who read this blog regularly or semi-regularly know my affinity for picking out a Rock 'N' Roll Lyric of the Day. Well, today, this is it, and it is perfect:

Good bye, Ernie. Thank you, and God bless you.

Piles Of Crap

2010-04-28T21:50:00.000-04:00

Senate Subcommittee Investigating Financial Crisis Releases Documents on Role of Investment Banks

April 24, 2010

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released several exhibits that will be among those discussed on Tuesday at the fourth of its hearings on the causes and consequences of the financial crisis.

The exhibits are available at this link.

Using Goldman Sachs as a case study, the April 27 hearing will focus on the role of investment banks in contributing to the worst U.S. economic crisis since the 1930s, resulting in the foreclosure of millions of homes, the shuttering of businesses, and the loss of millions of American jobs. The Subcommittee, whose Chairman is Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and whose Ranking Republican is Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has conducted a nearly year and a half investigation into the 2008 financial crisis.

“Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs were not simply market-makers, they were self-interested promoters of risky and complicated financial schemes that helped trigger the crisis,” said Sen. Levin. “They bundled toxic mortgages into complex financial instruments, got the credit rating agencies to label them as AAA securities, and sold them to investors, magnifying and spreading risk throughout the financial system, and all too often betting against the instruments they sold and profiting at the expense of their clients.” The 2009 Goldman Sachs annual report stated that the firm “did not generate enormous net revenues by betting against residential related products.” Levin said, “These e-mails show that, in fact, Goldman made a lot of money by betting against the mortgage market.”

Goldman Executives: "No Regrets" for Deals That Accelerated Crisis

One of the testier exchanges thus far was between Sparks of Goldman and Levin. It surrounded one of the offshore deals Goldman peddled called "Timberwolf," which included securities backed by subprime mortgages that were most at risk if the housing market dropped.

Goldman documents show that the firm's sales force was told to make selling Timberwolf a priority. In 2007, Goldman sold about $300 million of Timberwolf securities to a hedge fund that collapsed later that year. A senior Goldman executive later described the deal as follows: "boy that timeberwof (sic) deal was one shitty deal." According to the subcommittee, 94 percent of the securities in the deal were from other offshore deals.

The hearing room then erupted in laughter — low titters at first, and then bigger laughs — as Levin repeatedly asked Sparks about the "shitty" deal and the e-mail.

Levin asked: Did you tell your clients that "this was a shitty deal?"

"Your top priority was to sell that shitty deal."

"Should Goldman be trying to sell a shitty deal?"

Levin later grilled Viniar about the e-mails or comments in which Goldman employees referred to specific deals as "crap" or "shitty" or "junk." What did he think about such disparaging comments — and how would clients feel about them? Levin asked.

MSNBC video [5:58]

Levin grills Wall Street execs

April 27: Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mi., quotes from an email as he repeatedly refers to "a shitty deal" while grilling bank executives during a hearing on Goldman Sachs' activities during the housing crisis.

Is Goldman Sorry It Sold A Security One Employee Described as #$%&*?

Throughout the hearing, Levin kept returning to the argument that Goldman should have told clients its opinion of the security. Goldman should also have told clients if it stood to profit if the security performed poorly, Levin suggested.

The Goldman execs basically disagreed with Levin. They argued that when Goldman sold mortgage securities, it was not acting as an adviser to clients. Instead, they said, the company's role was to sell clients whatever they wanted to buy.

"The investors that we're dealing with on the long side, or on the short side, know what they want to acquire," CEO Lloyd Blankfein said. "I don't think our clients care, or that they should care," what Goldman's opinion is, he said.

It went back and forth like this for hours this afternoon, with variations on the theme. But there was one break in the monotony. It came when Levin was questioning David Viniar, Goldman's CFO:

LEVIN: And when you heard that your employees, in these e-mails, when looking at these deals said, God, what a s***y deal, God what a piece of crap -- when you hear your own employees or read about those in the e-mails, do you feel anything?

VINIAR: I think that's very unfortunate to have on e-mail.

'God, What a Piece ofCrap'

Viniar's answer told us all we need to know about the banal but profound immorality of Goldman's business culture: "I think that's very unfortunate to have on e-mail."

A flabbergasted Levin cut in with "On e-mail? How about feeling that way?" and Viniar, apparently moved by jeers of ridicule from the audience, conceded "I think it is very unfortunate for anyone to have said that in any form." Pressed further by Levin asking, "How about to believe that and sell them?" the CFO finally conceded, "I think that's unfortunate as well." To which Levin responded, "That's what you should have started with."

But Goldman's executives didn't start with any such moral qualms or end with them, as was made clear in the testimony of Goldman Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein that followed. Blankfein basically pleaded ignorance about the company's scams, making it clear that offering the details of such products was below his pay scale. That would be $68 million in 2007, the highest in Wall Street history, when Goldman's bets against its customers paid off so handsomely. What was clear is that his job was to ensure the company's immense year-end profitability with no questions asked about the methods used. "I did not know" he replied when asked about the details of the company's trades, and at another point he added, "We're not that smart." Then there was "I don't have any knowledge" on selling short, and finally, "We did not know what subsequently occurred in the housing market."

The Senate tries to get the bankers to admit they sold America a pile of crap.

The question at the center of Tuesday's Senate hearing on the role of investment banks in the financial crisis: Are Goldman Sachs bankers criminals or merely a big bunch of jerks?

Put another way: Did the employees of Goldman Sachs deliberately mislead investors by failing to disclose that one of the people creating a certain mortgage-backed security was also betting against it, as a new lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges? Or did they simply recommend mortgage-backed securities to investors, then turn around and bet against them—essentially betting against their own investors?

Investment Banks And The Financial Crisis, Directors
C-Span, Apr 27, 2010: Senate Committee Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs

Related:
Computerized Front-Running: Another Goldman-Dominated Fraud

Also called High Frequency Trading (HFT) or "black box trading," automated program trading uses high-speed computers governed by complex algorithms (instructions to the computer) to analyze data and transact orders in massive quantities at very high speeds. Like the poker player peeking in a mirror to see his opponent's cards, HFT allows the program trader to peek at major incoming orders and jump in front of them to skim profits off the top. Note that these large institutional orders are our money - our pension funds, mutual funds, and 401Ks.

When "market making" (matching buyers with sellers) was done strictly by human brokers on the floor of the stock exchange, manipulations and front-running were considered an acceptable (if morally dubious) price to pay for continuously "liquid" markets. But front-running by computer, using complex trading programs, is an entirely different species of fraud. A minor flaw in the system has morphed into a monster.

Happy Birthday, Hubble

2010-04-24T22:47:00.006-04:00

"Here's looking at you, kid."

Eye Of Heaven (MyCn18)

Happy birthday to the Hubble Telescope

The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990. NASA says the best is yet to come.

The Hubble Space Telescope launched on April 24, 1990 with a flawed mirror, but survived for two decades in large part because of five repair missions by space shuttle astronauts. Its cosmic gaze has led to breakthrough discoveries about the universe and embedded stunning views of the cosmos in the hearts and minds of the public.

"Hubble has done all those things and become an icon of science because it can produce glorious images," said Rick Fienberg, an astronomer and press officer of the American Astronomical Society.

But there's bigger and better science yet to come.

Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543)

Earth Day 2010

2010-04-22T10:55:00.002-04:00

I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours.

~Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

It is our collective and individual responsibility to protect and nurture the global family, to support its weaker members and to preserve and tend to the environment in which we all live.

~Dalai Lama

Limbaugh Logic... Or Lack Thereof

2010-04-17T22:55:00.004-04:00

God is sooooooo angry because the United States passed Health Care Reform that He decided to smite Iceland with an erupting volcano?

Limbaugh: "God may have replied" to passage of health care reform with volcano eruption in Iceland

He rammed healthcare down our throats and now we have a huge MFING problem on our hands with this volcano!!

RUSH LIMBAUGH: You know, a couple of days after the health care bill had been signed into law Obama ran around all over the country saying, "Hey, you know, I'm looking around. The earth hadn't opened up. There's no Armageddon out there. The birds are still chirping." I think the earth has opened up. God may have replied. This volcano in Iceland has grounded more airplanes -- airspace has more affected -- than even after 9/11 because of this plume, because of this ash cloud over Northern and Western Europe. At the Paris airport they're telling people to head to the train station to catch trains out of France, and when people get to the train station they're telling people, "There aren't any seats until at least April 22nd," basically a week from now. It's got everybody in a shutdown. Earth has opened up. I don't know whether it's a rebirth or Armageddon. Hopefully it's a rebirth, God speaking.

WTF?

The Battle Of Culloden Moor, 254 Years Ago Today

2010-04-16T23:10:00.002-04:00

1746 - Battle Of Culloden

Culloden Moor, known then as Drummossie Muir, was the site of the last pitched battle on the British mainland on 16 April 1746.

The Jacobites were pulling back into the Highlands, ending their siege of Stirling as they headed for Inverness.

Ghosts of Culloden... can you hear them...?

It was called the Rising of the Forty an' Five. In 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart undertook to retake the throne of England for his Father, James II of England. Prince Charlie was called the Young Pretender, because he was in line for the throne if he were successful in his effort. [...]

It was on this day in 1746. 254 years ago on a cold and windswept moor near Inverness, Scotland. A haunted place known as Culloden Moor. A field that, like other killing fields, shall live forever in legend and tears. And infamy. It is a story of heroes and of cold blooded brutality.

Ghosts of Culloden ~ Isla Grant

Slaughter of the Wounded; The Cruel Aftermath

Notwithstanding the massacres which were committed immediately after the battle, a considerable number of wounded Highlanders still survived, some of whom had taken refuge in a few cottages adjoining the field of battle, while others lay scattered among the neighbouring inclosures. Many of these men might have recovered if ordinary attention had been paid to them; but the stern duke, considering that those who had risen in rebellion against his father were not entitled to the rights of humanity, entirely neglected them. But, barbarous as such conduct was, it was only the prelude to enormities of a still more revolting description.

1746 - Highland Dress Proscription Act

Following the Jacobite defeat at Culloden, the last pitched battle on British soil, Prince Charles fled to South Uist then eventually across to France.

His supporters who remained suffered terribly from ‘Butcher Cumberland’ and his medieval reprisals. To further punish Scotland, Parliament issued imperious Acts to destroy the clans, their identities and economic structures.

New laws imposed abolished heritable jurisdictions, claimed estates for the crown, banned the playing of bagpipes, the wearing of tartans and Highland dress for all except government troops, and restricted the possession of weapons.

After Culloden

The absolute will of the Scottish lairds was to be replaced by the execution of the king's laws. Legislation of 1746 and 1747 was passed to weaken the independence of the Highlands. Public executions of those loyal to the Jacobite cause impressed upon the Scottish people the need to toe the line.

The lands of the Jacobite chiefs were forfeited and a determined effort was made to end the clan system once and for all. Yet, as more than one historian has pointed out, the great lords on the fringes of the Highlands such as Argyll, Montrose, Gordon, Atholl and others lost their baronial rights, in the more remote regions, the power of the chiefs had been patriarchal rather than feudal, personal rather than legal and territorial. It was the inexorable advance of a money economy into the Highlands that followed the rebellion, and not the effects of any royal statute that finally ended their supremacy.

The Disarming Act of 1746 forbade the carrying and concealing of arms, made broadsword illegal and the search for them legal. The wearing of Highland clothes or plaid was prohibited to all except serving soldiers of the Crown. Another act was passed to suppress nonjuring, meeting houses, considered "seminaries of Jacobitism" and "nurseries and schools" of rebellion.

Idiot Air Waves

2010-04-14T11:05:00.001-04:00

Why are stupid and uninformed people paid enormous amounts of money to act like ignorant buffoons and pollute the radio air waves?

Uninformed Limbaugh Wonders ‘Where Was The Union’ At Non-Union Mine Disaster

Last Friday, Rush Limbaugh asked why a coal miner union didn’t protect the 29 miners who were killed when Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, WV, exploded under unsafe conditions:
Was there no union responsibility for improving mine safety? Where was the union here? Where was the union? The union is generally holding these companies up demanding all kinds of safety. Why were these miners continuing to work in what apparently was an unsafe atmosphere?
Listen here

In fact, the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) “tried three times to organize the Upper Big Branch mine, but even with getting nearly 70 percent of workers to sign cards saying they wanted to vote for a union, Blankenship personally met with workers to threaten them with closing down the mine and losing their jobs if they voted for a union.”

Blankenship rose in Massey’s ranks by breaking its union mines in the 1980s. Blankenship said then that busting unions is “invaluable” to profits, as non-union companies can “sell coal cheaper and drive union coal out of business.”

Jeebus, Rush. Aren't there any news sources on your planet?

Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Limbaugh oblivious on miners' union fact

April 13: Keith Olbermann points out that Worst Person in the World, Rush Limbaugh, tried to blame the miners' union for the West Virginia mine explosion, completely oblivious to the fact that the mining company kept the union out.

I think Keith has accurately diagnosed the problem. Again.

No Miracles

2010-04-10T20:14:00.003-04:00

People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad.

~Marcel Proust

4 Missing W.Va. Miners Found Dead

Rescue workers located four bodies deep in a West Virginia coal mine, dashing any faint hopes of finding more survivors of a deadly explosion that has claimed 29 lives, the worst U.S. mining disaster in a generation.

Officials announced the grim discovery at the Upper Big Branch Mine early Saturday, after first notifying family members.

"We did not receive the miracle that we prayed for," Gov. Joe Manchin said. "So this journey has ended and now the healing will start."

Until late Friday, officials had held out a slim chance that four missing miners may have made it to an underground refuge chamber which held enough oxygen and water to survive for four days.

"None of the chambers had been deployed and none of our miners suffered," Manchin said.

Mine rescue effort turns to recovery

President Barack Obama said Saturday that steps must be taken to make sure such an explosion does not happen again.

"We cannot bring back the men we lost," he said in a statement. "What we can do, in their memory, is thoroughly investigate this tragedy and demand accountability."

Deadly Record: Massey’s Mine In Montcoal Has Been Cited For Over 3,000 Violations, Over $2.2 Million In Fines

This deadly mine has been cited for over 3,000 violations by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), 638 since 2009:

Since 1995, Massey’s Upper Big Branch-South Mine has been cited for 3,007 safety violations. Massey is contesting 353 violations, and 127 are delinquent. [MSHA]

Massey is contesting over a third (34.7%) of the 516 safety citations the Upper Big Branch-South Mine received in 2009, its greatest count in the last 15 years. [MSHA]

In March 2010, 53 new safety citations were issued for Massey’s Upper Big Branch-South Mine, including violations of its mine ventilation plan. [MSHA]
. . .
Massey is now contesting $1,128,833 in fines for safety violations at the deadly Upper Big Branch-South Mine, with a further $246,320 in delinquent fines:

Over $2.2 million in fines have been assessed against Massey’s Upper Big Branch-South Mine since 1995, with $791,327 paid. Massey is contesting $1,128,833 in fines. Massey’s delinquent fines total $246,320. [MSHA]

Massey is contesting $251,613 in fines for citations for Upper Big Branch-South Mine’s ventilation plan. [MSHA]
. . .
Massey’s corrupt CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce board member Don Blankenship, has previously told employees that it was more important to “run coal” than follow safety regulations.

In 2002, President George W. Bush “named former Massey Energy official Stanley Suboleski to the MSHA review commission that decides all legal matters under the Federal Mine Act,” and cut 170 positions from MSHA. Bush’s MSHA chief, Dick Stickler, was a former manager of Beth Energy mines, which “incurred injury rates double the national average.”

The Politics of Life and Death in West Virginia

In the wake of the Massey Energy tragedy that killed 29 coal miners in West Virginia, there appear to be two steps that could improve worker safety there. First, as the mine accident record of the last decade suggests, join a union. Second, put Democrats in the White House to reverse the GOP's nationwide gutting of federal regulation and oversight. Sadly, both trends in West Virginia have been moving the opposite direction.

Worker Safety Call Out

2010-04-08T23:41:00.003-04:00

Thank goodness there are a few responsible people willing to call something out for what it is. And what this is, is a call out to right-wing BS.

For any of those who may have a real conscience, consider this as a call out. For any of those who don't, consider this as contempt for your lack of morals...

Ed Schultz, April 7, 2010 transcript excerpt:

SCHULTZ: It’s going to take a miracle for rescuers to get to the four trapped West Virginia miners and get them out alive. That mining company had thousands of safety violations over the years. This has me convinced that we need an investigation into criminal negligence. I’ve got a commentary next here on MSNBC.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCHULTZ: Rescue crews were not able to rescue and resume the search. Methane gas levels underground are still too high. Crews continue to drill holes to ventilate the area and hopefully restart the search. Meanwhile, the Labor Department is launching a special investigation into safety conditions at the mine, and they should.

“The Charleston Daily Mail” reports that the mine has had 3,000 safety violations in the past 15 years. It was cited as recently as last month for improper ventilation. Last night United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard told me the mine would have been much safer if workers had been unionized.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEO GERARD, PRESIDENT, UNITED STEELWORKERS: The CEO of Massey promotes himself as a union buster. He promotes himself as having a record of fighting unions wherever they show up in his workplace. If he spent as much time helping the workers get a union, helping us then clean up his workplaces, we wouldn’t have these fatalities and he wouldn’t have these fines.

SCHULTZ: Mr. Gerard, are you willing to say tonight that if these workers had been members of a union, this would not have happened?

GERARD: I can absolutely say that if these members had been member of a union, they would have had the right to refuse unsafe work in our collective agreements and they would have been able to refuse that work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: And I have to tell it like it is tonight, folks. This is all about the man, the man in the front office who took home over $19 million in income in 2008. This is about the man having his foot right on the neck of the middle class, having his foot right on the neck of those mine workers.

In an economically depressed area of West Virginia where there is no economic development, this is what they do. And in the midst of all of that, without regulation, they’re allowed to abuse workers. You see, because if they don’t go down in that hole they lose their job. And all these right wingers in this country who are attacking the middle class and attacking labor in this country, you need to go to these funerals because there’s going to be 25 of them and maybe more. We don’t know what’s going to happen to the other four. It doesn’t look real good at this hour.

But here’s the point. Unions not only — this is just — I can’t believe we’re having this discussion in this country as if we have to vilify collective bargaining, where a family can be protected from dangers in the workplace and there won’t be the man on the neck of that worker, the neck of that family and those kids who are now missing a loved one.

Criminal negligence, homicide, you name it. The Congress has to get into this once and for all. President Obama, you need to get involved in this.

This is what the Employee Free Choice Act is all about. Where there’s not going to be intimidation, where there’s not going to be retribution against employees who just think about organizing in the workplace because they’d like to go down into a workplace where they’re not going to lose their lives. Where it will just increase the safety in their area. Is that asking too much? Is it all for the dollar bill in America? This is morally wrong. There is absolutely no difference between what these guys did in the front office at this Massey Energy Company than what these guys did down the street on Wall Street to folks who were ripped off. This is a matter of life and death. That’s what this is.

And you know what we’re going to do right now as Americans? We’re all going to sit at the dinner tables tonight and we’re going to ask ourselves, what are we going to do about it? And so when I see these rallies out there with Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann and they claim to be for the working folk of America, show me.

Have the guts to stand up for these families that are now in tragic loss. Show me, you Republicans, show me you care. Show Americans that you have a heart and you have a soul and that you don’t despise American workers who just want a fair shake in the workplace. I’m really biting my tongue right now.

Sometimes I wish I was on HBO, but this is where I belong, and I started this show a year ago to fight for the middle class and now we have some dead people on our hands. And now we have Republicans who are saying that, well, the Employee Free Choice Act is not the right thing to do. We have the United States Chamber of Commerce throwing lobbyists and millions of dollars against those families who would like to have a chance to get some protection in the workplace.

Do you believe that this company was genuinely addressing the safety violations? No. I could go on for hours, but this is where we stand in America. It’s an ideological divide. Some people care about the working folk of America. And some people flat-out don’t give a damn. I don’t think Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, I don’t think they give a damn.

I couldn’t support a Republican right now if you cremated me with them. I couldn’t warm up to a Republican if you cremated me with them right now.

They are against the middle class in this country.

Mine deaths spark criticism of operator's record

Mine owner ran up serious violations

Mine cited for broken fresh-air system

Extracting coal remains a dangerous proposition. Could more labor unions help?

Want Safer Mines? Unionize Them

Without the big move to non-union operations that has been plaguing the coal industry for more than two decades, there's a good possibility that 25 dead and four missing miners in West Virginia tonight would be sitting down to dinner with their families instead of being mourned by them.

For those in peril in the dark...

The CEO of Massey Energy is Don Blankenship. The same Don Blankenship who invented a scandal and funded it to the tune of $3 million to run one one state supreme court judge out of office for the crime of siding with workers. The same Blankenship who was photographed cavorting along the French Riveria with another justice while his company had a $77 million case before the court. The same Don Blankenship who regularly condemns the whole idea of environmental protection, saying that global warming does not exist and that asking people to conserve is tantamount to communism. The same Blankenship and the same Massey that last year was convicted of massive and systematic age discrimination. The same Blankenship and the same Massey who were ordered to pay $30 million in environmental damages after running up fines that actually topped $2.5 billion.

Most critically this is the same Blankenship and the same Massey who lost miners as recently as 2006 due to lack of safety equipment. At the end of that case, the widows of the dead men refused to accept the settlement, stating that it was clear that the company executives had placed profit ahead of safety. [...]

Whatever happens, let's not forget that without constant attention and championing of the cause of safety, it's all too easy for any company to forget that these are men and women in their charge, not just corporate assets.

Blankenship's Bloody Coal Mine: A Deluge of Violations

Over $2.2 million in fines have been assessed against Massey’s Upper Big Branch-South Mine since 1995, with $791,327 paid. Massey is contesting $1,128,833 in fines. Massey’s delinquent fines total $246,320. [MSHA]

Massey is contesting $251,613 in fines for citations for Upper Big Branch-South Mine’s ventilation plan. [MSHA]

Compare those fines to coal mine owner Don Blankenship's compensation package of $19.7 million in 2008. He could pay those assessments out of the change in his sock drawer. He fights them and runs a delinquent account instead.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T00:34:00.004-04:00

Happy Spring and Happy Easter!

If spring came but once a century instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Easter morn with lilies fair
Fills the church with perfumes rare,
As their clouds of incense rise,
Sweetest offerings to the skies.
Stately lilies pure and white
Flooding darkness with their light,
Bloom and sorrow drifts away,
On this holy hallow'd day.
Easter Lilies bending low
in the golden afterglow,
Bear a message from the sod
To the heavenly towers of God.

~Louise Lewin Matthews

When will we listen?

2010-04-03T02:00:00.006-04:00

I am reminded of that anonymous quote: "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." It's not really Déjà Vu, all over, again... is it?

Something to think about:

We Still Don’t Hear Him

Bob Herbert, NYT:

“I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight,” said the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “because my conscience leaves me no other choice.”

This was on the evening of April 4, 1967, almost exactly 43 years ago. Dr. King told the more than 3,000 people who had crowded into Riverside Church that silence in the face of the horror that was taking place in Vietnam amounted to a “betrayal.”

He spoke of both the carnage in the war zone and the toll the war was taking here in the United States. The speech comes to mind now for two reasons: A Tavis Smiley documentary currently airing on PBS revisits the controversy set off by Dr. King’s indictment of “the madness of Vietnam.” And recent news reports show ever-increasing evidence that we have ensnared ourselves in a mad and tragic venture in Afghanistan.

Dr. King spoke of how, in Vietnam, the United States increased its commitment of troops “in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support.”

It’s strange, indeed, to read those words more than four decades later as we are increasing our commitment of troops in Afghanistan to fight in support of Hamid Karzai, who remains in power after an election that the world knows was riddled with fraud and whose government is one of the most corrupt and inept on the planet. [...]

His bold stand seems all the more striking in today’s atmosphere, in which moral courage among the very prominent — the kind of courage that carries real risk — seems mostly to have disappeared.

More than 4,000 Americans have died in Iraq and more than 1,000 in Afghanistan, where the Obama administration has chosen to escalate rather than to begin a careful withdrawal. Those two wars, as the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and his colleague Linda Bilmes have told us, will ultimately cost us more than $3 trillion.

And yet the voices in search of peace, in search of an end to the “madness,” in search of the nation-building so desperately needed here in the United States, are feeble indeed.

Dr. King would be assassinated exactly one year (almost to the hour) after his great speech at Riverside Church. It’s the same terrible fate that awaits some of the American forces, most of them very young, that we continue to send into the quagmire in Afghanistan.

“I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.”

~Dwight D. Eisenhower

President Obama Signs Reconciliation Act

2010-03-30T19:36:00.006-04:00

Senate bill H R 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was passed on March 21, 2010 and signed into law on March 23, 2010.

Today, President Obama signed into law H R 4872, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which was passed by Congress on March 25, 2010.

From the White House:

"A Great Battle Pitting the Interests of the Banks and Financial Institutions Against the Interests of Students"

Today at Northern Virginia Community College, President Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, the last step on health reform that provided fixes for some elements and which improved upon the core health reforms by increasing tax credits for the middle class, investing in community health centers, and strengthening efforts to fight waste and fraud. [...]

For a long time, our student loan system has worked for banks and financial institutions. Today, we’re finally making our student loan system work for students and our families. But we’re also doing something more.

From the moment I was sworn into office, I’ve spoken about the urgent need for us to lay a new foundation for our economy and for our future. And two pillars of that foundation are health care and education, and each has long suffered from problems that we chose to kick down the road.

With the bill I signed last week, we finally undertook meaningful reform of our health care system. With this bill, and other steps we’ve pursued over the last year, we are finally undertaking meaningful reform in our higher education system. So this week, we can rightly say the foundation on which America’s future will be built is stronger than it was one year ago.

President Obama Signs Historic Health Care and Education Legislation

This historic law:
Invests more than $40 billion in Pell Grants to ensure that all eligible students receive an award and that these awards are increased in future years to help keep pace with the rising cost of college. These investments, coupled with the funding provided in the Recovery Act and the President’s first two budgets, will more than double the total amount of funding available for Pell Grants since President Obama took office.
Ensures that Americans can afford their student loan payments by expanding the existing income-based student loan repayment program. New borrowers who assume loans after July 1, 2014, will be able to cap their student loan repayments at 10 percent of their discretionary income and, if they keep up with their payments over time, will have the balance forgiven after 20 years.
Includes $2 billion over four years for community colleges to develop, improve, and provide education and career training programs.

Making Higher Education More Affordable

This legislation means $40 billion more dollars in the Pell Grant program to ensure that eligible students receive an award, and that awards increase to keep pace with rising tuition. And a $2 billion investment over four years for community colleges to develop, improve, and provide education and career training programs. Students will be able to choose to limit their student loan payments to 10% of their income, with any remaining balance forgiven after 20 years. And public service workers can have their loans forgiven after 10 years.

Because special interests have been benefiting from taxpayer subsidies for too long, we’re cutting out the middlemen by ending government subsidies currently given to banks and other financial institutions that make guaranteed federal student loans. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, ending these wasteful subsidies will free up nearly $68 billion for college affordability and deficit reduction over the next 11 years. So these investments are not only paid for, but they’ll reduce the deficit in the long run.

Because of the legislation enacted today, we’re finally undertaking meaningful reform to our education system and making college more affordable and accessible.

For more information on these federal student aid programs, please go to www.studentaid.ed.gov, or call 1-800-4FED-AID.

Remarks by the President and Dr. Jill Biden at Signing of Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act

Reconciliation Passed

2010-03-25T22:05:00.002-04:00

H R 4872, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, has been passed in the Senate by a 56 — 43 vote, and has been passed in the House by a 220— 207 vote.

This will now go to President Obama for signing.

HCR Signed

2010-03-23T20:54:00.010-04:00

“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on,

Vicki Kennedy, wife of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, gives President Barack Obama a "TEDSTRONG" bracelet, which shows support for cancer advocacy, in the Blue Room of the White House prior to the signing ceremony for the health insurance reform bill, March 23, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

“the cause endures, the hope still lives,

President Barack Obama's signature on the health insurance reform bill at the White House, March 23, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

“and the dream shall never die.”

~Senator Edward M. Kennedy - August 12, 1980

Health Care Reform Passes

2010-03-22T00:18:00.003-04:00

Late Sunday evening, by a 219 — 212 vote, the House passed Senate bill H R 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

By a 220 — 211 vote, the House also passed H R 4872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Cosmic Rosebud

2010-03-18T23:14:00.005-04:00

“The universe is full of magical things
patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”
~Eden Phillpotts, A Shadow Passes

WISE telescope captures space 'rose'

NASA's new infrared telescope has produced another stunning image of newly born stars emerging from dusty clouds.

NASA released the image of the "cosmic rosebud" Wednesday, showing stars in the Berkeley 59 cluster, about 3,300 light years from Earth.

The false colours in the image are meant to represent different wavelengths of infrared light captured by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, satellite.

The blue dots to the right of centre of the image represent stars that are just a few million years old, very young on the scale of lifetimes of stars. The red glow surrounding the stars is dust in the nebula heated by the stars.

The green material is essentially ash, chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are the result of combustion. The material is found on Earth in such places as fireplaces, barbecue pits and exhaust pipes.

The blue stars around the edges of the image are stars from our own Milky Way galaxy.

The gas and dust in this nebula have been blown outward by a supernova, giving it a flower-like shape.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Theodore C. Olbermann, 1929-2010

2010-03-15T15:05:00.000-04:00

Theodore C. Olbermann, the father of Keith Olbermann, died March 12, 2010 at age 80.

Keith writes:

My Dad was predeceased last year by my mother, Marie, his wife of nearly 60 years. He died peacefully after a long fight against the complications that ensued after successful colon surgery last September at the New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center. My sister Jenna and I were at his side, and I was reading him his favorite James Thurber short stories, as he left us.

. . .
He was my inspiration, and will always remain so. His bravery these last six months cannot be measured. He is as much my hero now, as he was when I was five years old.

Pass. The. Damn. Bill.

2010-03-10T22:50:00.003-05:00

The Ed Schultz Show:

Do-or-die time for health reform

15:19

March 10: Msnbc’s Ed Shultz talks to Leslie Boyd and Heather Mroz, two women who testified on Capitol Hill about how they have suffered in the hands of insurance companies.

Pass. The. Damn. Bill.

Jobless Benefits Extended

2010-03-02T11:55:00.005-05:00

Tuesday evening, the Temporary Extension Act of 2010, H. R. 4691, which includes in its provisions the the extending of unemployment and COBRA benefits, pay for Medicare doctors, funding for federal highway project programs and rural satellite TV, was passed in the Senate by a 78 - 10 vote.

Senate Votes Unemployment Benefits, Highway Funds

Senate approves extended unemployment benefits, highway money after Bunning backs down

Antitrust Exemption Repealed; Jobs Bill Passed

2010-02-24T23:40:00.000-05:00

House votes to kill antitrust exemption for health insurers:

The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to repeal the antitrust exemption currently granted to health insurance companies.

The vote was 406-19 to repeal the exemption, which has been in place since the end of World War II. The 19 who voted against the repeal are Republicans.

Liberal Democrats have said a repeal would help inject competition into the health care industry while reducing consumer costs.

House Roll Call vote: a resolution — H RES 1098 — to restore the application of the Federal antitrust laws to the business of health insurance.

H. RES. 1098

Resolved, That upon the adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the House the bill (H.R. 4626) to restore the application of the Federal antitrust laws to the business of health insurance to protect competition and consumers.

Jobs Bill Passes in Senate:

Companies that hire the unemployed would claim new tax breaks under a jobs-promoting bill the Senate passed Wednesday, delivering President Barack Obama and Democrats a much-needed victory.

The 70-28 vote sends the bill back to the House, which passed a far more costly measure in December.

Senate Roll Call vote: H.R. 2847 — “the Jobs Bill” (Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act)

H.R.2847

Pursuant to H.Res. 976, the House modified the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Act, 2010, H.R. 2847, substituting the "Jobs for Main Street Act, 2010" as Division A of the Act and the "Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2009" as Division B.

Health Care Reform: Almost There?

2010-02-23T23:55:00.007-05:00

Rachel Maddow announces the results [video - 6:13] of The Filibuster Challenge, renaming the filibuster to 'The Tarantino,' because it kills bills.

From the transcript for The Rachel Maddow Show of February 22, 2010:

Health care home stretch:

Democrats cannot wait until the filibuster is dead to move forward on health reform. They have to move health reform in a way that just gets around the problem.

And that’s what the White House started to do today: President Obama introducing his proposal to move health reform forward. It consists of minor tweaks to the Senate version of the bill that are specifically designed to allow Democrats to bypass the Republican filibuster and pass health reform with a simple majority vote in the Senate.

And here’s the funny thing about President Obama’s proposal. On the front page at Politico.com today, it was the screaming headline, “The Obama Plan.” And it had this picture of a giant stack of paper next to the president.

I have no idea what is in that stack of paper, but I can tell you tonight, it is not the health reform proposal that President Obama released today — unless it’s like 1,000 copies of that proposal. Because if you want to see what President Obama introduced today, it's this.

It’s 11 pages. That’s it. Eleven pages that consist of minor tweaks of what’s already been passed by the Senate.

It’s not starting over as Politico.com might have you believe. It’s finishing up. And this is important in terms of understanding where we are in this process.

This is what already passed the House. This guy, this one.

This one passed the House, right? Two thousand and sixteen pages. It passed way back in November.

By a 220 - 215 vote, the House of Representatives has passed H.R.3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

This is what‘s already passed the Senate, about 2,409 pages.

This passed on Christmas Eve.

By a 60 - 39 vote, the Senate passed H.R. 3590, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as Amended

These have already passed their respective chambers of Congress — House, Senate. And the way it works, as we all know from “Schoolhouse Rock” is that if two different versions pass two different houses, they have to be merged and then that merged version has to get passed again.

But because of the Tarantino, because Republicans filibuster everything, because Republicans are filibustering health reform, Democrats have to come up with something that reconciles these two bills that can avoid that Republican filibuster. And this is what does that.

This is the view of the White House. This is what the president thinks could be done. This is what remains to be done according to the White House. It’s 11 pages.

The President’s Proposal.

This is not a new proposal. It doesn’t replace everything that’s been done. So feel free to ignore Politico.com on this or any other issue. Their front page all day has been visually misinforming you on what they call “The Obama Plan.” Nothing that looks like that can also look like this, unless it‘s printed really, really big.

Republicans have thought that they killed health reform but they didn’t. It’s passed the House. It’s passed the Senate. And now, it’s very much alive. There are only 11 pages to go.

We’re almost done.

Pushing For The Public Option

2010-02-17T23:20:00.002-05:00

Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) has written a letter to Harry Reid — co-signed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) — stating, in part:

We respectfully ask that you bring for a vote before the full Senate a public health insurance option under budget reconciliation rules.

There are four fundamental reasons why we support this approach – its potential for billions of dollars in cost savings; the growing need to increase competition and lower costs for the consumer; the history of using reconciliation for significant pieces of health care legislation; and the continued public support for a public option.
A Public Option Is an Important Tool for Restoring Fiscal Discipline...

A Public Option Would Provide Americans with a Low-Cost Alternative and Improve Market Competitiveness...

There is a history of using reconciliation for significant pieces of health care legislation...

There is strong public support for a public option, across party lines...

So far, a total of 11 Senators and 119 House members have signed on.

Contact your Congress critters in the Senate and the House and push!

Push!

PUSH!

Lawrence, Oh!

2010-02-13T21:10:00.001-05:00

GOP Stimulus Hypocrites

2010-02-10T20:20:00.001-05:00

This one great video that is well worth watching. Rachel blasts the Republicans for their outrageous hypocrisy and calls them out, for what they are: raving hypocrites.

Rachel Maddow Calls Out Republican Stimulus Hypocrites

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow calls out the numerous Republican hypocrites who "trashed the stimulus, and voted against it," and then exploited it by bragging to their constituents how great this money would be for jobs and economic development in their communities. [ 10:09 ]

From the February 9th, 2010 transcript for The Rachel Maddow Show:

Even the president has called out Republicans for attending ribbon cuttings for stimulus-funded projects that they voted against. The White House has put some of the documentation of Republican hypocrisy on this in writing.

None of this is a secret, which is the most important thing to understand about it. Republicans right now do not care about policy. By which I mean, they will not vote for things that even they admit are good policies.

On policy terms, they have been caught bragging on the stimulus as good policy. I have no doubt that some of them think that health reform is good policy. We know they think things like a deficit commission or cap and trade or pay-go are good policy because they‘re on the record supporting them.

But they‘re not going to vote for them because - screw policy. Screw what even they believe is good for the country. Screw what even they believe is good for their own districts. They are not voting yes for even things that they agree with, for anything substantive.

They are not going to vote yes for anything substantive that this president supports. It‘s not going to happen. You‘re not going to earn Republican votes for a second stimulus, for example, by pointing out it‘s good policy that creates jobs. We know they already know that.

They concede that in their home districts and they are still not voting for it. And they are unembarrassed about this fact. They are not embarrassed. Charging them with hypocrisy, appealing to their better, more practical, more what‘s-best-for-the-country patriotic angels is like trying to teach your dog to drive.

It wastes a lot of time. It won‘t work. And ultimately the dog comes out of the exercise less embarrassed for failing than you do for trying. Grow up, Democrats. Face the music. Do it alone. You‘re the majority. Kill the filibuster if they won‘t let you use that majority. The country needs you to.

Teeing off on Tebow

2010-02-06T00:21:00.002-05:00

(subtitle: Theismann vs. Heisman)

For a guy whose stock has fallen off the table in the NFL draft, former Heismann winner Tim Tebow is sure getting more buzz ahead of he Super Bowl than, say Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, the quarterbacks who are actually in the game. Tebow has not yet played even a single down in the NFL and at least one former quarterback and respected commentator thinks he should keep it that way.

Tebow, who is the son of missionaries and grew up in a very fundamentalist household, is well known for wearing his Christianity on his sleeve (well actually wearing it on his face, writing Bible verses on his cheeks before every game.)

This week there is a big brouhaha over CBS' decision to air an anti-abortion ad featuring Tebow and his mother (who refused the advice of doctors to get an abortion because of her health and had him anyway) during the Super Bowl. Last year CBS said they would start allowing more controversial ads during the Super Bowl, but then they turned around and refused to allow an ad from ManCrunch, a gay dating organization. So apparently their newfound tolerance in advertising only works one way. CBS then got in even deeper when they kept changing their story on the ManCrunch ad. First they said ad space was sold out for the Super Bowl. Then when it was shown that the ManCrunch ad had been submitted to them before some ads that were approved, they questioned whether the company could pay for the ad. When it was shown that they could and had the money available, CBS had to say it was about 'standards.' OK, at least they admit they have more than one set of standards.

There are of course those who claim that the real reason for the controversy over Tebow is his Christianity. But that is ridiculous. Lots of NFL players are Christians and quite open about it. You don't see for example, anything but praise for Drew Brees, a Christian quarterback who actually should be getting more attention before the Super Bowl than Tebow (I mean, like, Brees will actually be PLAYING Sunday, shouldn't that count for something?) Rather, it almost seems as if Tebow is hogging all the attention by putting his personal views on abortion ahead of the game itself, and whether he deserves that criticism or not has now become a punching bag for CBS' hypocritical position on accepting ads.

A bigger problem for Tebow is that even well ahead of draft day he's getting a reception from the NFL that is downright frosty. For starters, scouts have said that he doesn't have the skills to play in the NFL and downgraded his status to a third or fourth round pick at best.

Then, following rumors that the Jacksonville Jaguars might use their first round pick on Tebow (he played at the University of Florida and the Jags attendance is about what you'd expect for an expansion team that has worn out its welcome and is the least competitive team in what might be the NFL's toughest division,) a Jags player, and more specifically an offensive lineman unloaded on Tebow.

according to the Florida Times-Union:

[Offensive lineman Uche] Nwaneri posted on the Jaguars’ Web site that, while cashing a check, a bank teller started talking about how Tebow will save the Jaguars.

So Nwaneri posted his five points on Tebow, with capital letters:

"1. He can't throw, PERIOD.

2. He can't read any coverage other than probably cover 2 or man.

3. The QB Wildcat WILL NOT WORK IN THIS LEAGUE. PERIOD.

4. He doesn’t know how to take a snap from center.

5. HE CAN’T THROW, and that’s really something you either have or not."

Keep in mind that this is from one of the men who is supposed to put his body on the line to protect the quarterback from the Elvis Dumervils and the Dwight Freeneys of the NFL. In fact, he faces Freeney twice a year and wants to feel confident that the guy he's protecting is worth the beating his body takes keeping guys like that out of the backfield every week.

You can hear the frustration in Nwaneri's post. One of the few perks that come with losing is that your team gets a better position in the draft, which in theory should translate to better players. But if his team reaches up to burn their first round pick on a guy who they could probably get in the third round, his frustration would be justified. The idea that Tebow would put fans in the seats is ridiculous. He might for a few games, and as the columnist of the linked article points out,

even if Nwaneri and the legions of critics are right that Tebow is bound for NFL flopdom, I guarantee thousands of Georgia fans would be willing to make the drive down to the site of so many Cocktail Party aggravations for the sole purpose of watching their former tormenter operate behind a line that might not feel much like blocking for him.

Well, there is that. But if Jacksonville owner Wayne Weaver is serious about attendance then he should be serious about using his first round and subsequent picks to put together a team that will win games, not bring out legions of anti-Tebow fans who will enjoy it every time Freeney or some other NFL Defensive nightmare blasts through the line and delivers a crunching hit on Tebow.

Nwaneri's comments are downright tame compared to the broadside delivered by a former NFL great. Former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann, who was known as a gentleman in the broadcast booth during an eighteen year stint with ESPN because he is loathe to criticize other players (and recognizing from personal experience what they risk every time they take the field,) said that Tebow should retire before draft day and not even try playing in the NFL.

Via Pro Football Talk, Theismann explained why:

"Rock star status preserved," Theismann said.

"Obviously at Florida they don't teach throwing the football," Theismann opined in explaining that Tebow's mechanics are "poor." Theismann also said that Urban Meyer and his staff have "no clue" regarding the process for preparing a quarterback to play "at the next level."

Retire now advises Joe, so at least he can still claim that he was too good for the NFL instead of too awful. Ouch, that one's gotta sting.

Of course the former Heisman winner will enter the draft, and if he's lucky even get drafted way ahead of where he should be by Jacksonville. And, give him a chance-- a lot of good players have been drafted low and turned out to be better than the scouts predicted (don't forget that Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, who led the Cowboys to the playoffs this year and played in the pro bowl wasn't even drafted at all in 2003.)

But from day one, the spotlight will be burning hot on Tebow. And he'll need to bear up a lot better than he did when he lost to Alabama in the SEC championship game (hint: in the NFL men don't cry when they lose-- add 'crybaby' to the list of insults and ephithets Tebow will hear every time he goes on the road.) And despite what anyone may say, it will burn hot on him because he's invited it.

Class Session: GOP Retreat

2010-02-01T17:26:00.003-05:00

Here is another video source for the President's Q & A session at the Republican Retreat last Friday, at YouTube: An Open Discussion Across the Aisle. (One hour, seven minutes, 16 seconds)

Steve Benen:

Republicans thought they were throwing their toughest pitches, and Obama -- with no notes, no teleprompter, and no foreknowledge -- just kept knocking 'em out of the park.

Schooled

William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t:

. . .On Friday, Mr. Obama presented himself before a collection of some 140 Republican members of Congress and, not to put too fine a point on it, bounced them individually and collectively off all four walls in the room.

How wide a swath did the president cut through the Republicans at that Friday meeting? On Saturday afternoon, MSNBC canceled a scheduled afternoon showing of something titled "Death in the Hollywood Hills" to rebroadcast the Obama-GOP collision. For a major cable network to drop a show about gossipy Hollywood homicides in favor of - gasp! - actual substantive news programming means something truly incredible took place in that room.

It did indeed. [...]

One by one, Republican members of Congress stood before Mr. Obama and took their best shots. One by one, he sent them packing with a smile on his face and the facts on his side. One of the most revealing exchanges took place when GOP Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) tried to take the president to task for refusing to support an across-the-board tax cut, and for the massive cascade of job losses that hit the nation last winter. Mr. Obama reminded Pence that the job losses he spoke of took place before he took office, and before any of his programs had been implemented. He excoriated Pence and a number of his Republican brethren for attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies celebrating programs created by the stimulus package they had voted against. He concluded by telling Pence, "I'm going to want to take a look at your math," because Pence's support for massive tax cuts, a spending freeze and a balanced budget all at the same time basically makes no sense whatsoever.

Perhaps, the most revealing aspect of this event came after the deal had gone down. The Republicans in that room were made to look so foolish in the face of this president that a number of them later stated bluntly that it was a mistake to have allowed cameras into the room. Fox News saw how badly those GOP Congress people were being thrashed and cut away from their broadcast of the event a full 20 minutes before it was over, choosing instead to flood their studio with critics of Obama to try and mitigate the damage.

And that, in a nutshell, is the present reality of this Republican Party. When allowed to freely bloviate into the yawning void of modern political journalism, the GOP can score points easily. They are the undisputed world heavyweight champions of the sound bite stab below the fifth rib, and their talents in this regard are fortified by their uncanny ability to have no fealty to the truth whatsoever. When confronted by someone armed to the teeth with the facts, someone who can articulate those facts clearly and completely in front of a battery of cameras broadcasting his words to a national audience on every network, they folded like wet napkins. [...]

Republicans, For Lunch

2010-01-30T15:30:00.007-05:00

Republicans retreat, from President Obama.

...the President did something unusual in American politics – initiated an open dialogue with members of the opposite party. Visiting the House Republican retreat, he took questions on anything they wanted to talk about. He heard them out, acknowledged where they were right, and gave a genuine explanation where he felt they were wrong.

Remarks by the President at GOP House Issues Conference

Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel
Baltimore, Maryland — January 29, 2010

Excerpts from speech:

Part of the reason I accepted your invitation to come here was because I wanted to speak with all of you, and not just to all of you. So I’m looking forward to taking your questions and having a real conversation in a few moments. And I hope that the conversation we begin here doesn’t end here; that we can continue our dialogue in the days ahead. It’s important to me that we do so. It’s important to you, I think, that we do so. But most importantly, it’s important to the American people that we do so.

- - - - -
But I don’t believe that the American people want us to focus on our job security. They want us to focus on their job security. I don’t think they want more gridlock. I don’t think they want more partisanship. I don’t think they want more obstruction. They didn’t send us to Washington to fight each other in some sort of political steel-cage match to see who comes out alive. That’s not what they want. They sent us to Washington to work together, to get things done, and to solve the problems that they’re grappling with every single day.

- - - - -
Now, here’s the point. These are serious times, and what’s required by all of us — Democrats and Republicans — is to do what’s right for our country, even if it’s not always what’s best for our politics. I know it may be heresy to say this, but there are things more important than good poll numbers. And on this no one can accuse me of not living by my principles. A middle class that’s back on its feet, an economy that lifts everybody up, an America that’s ascendant in the world — that’s more important than winning an election. Our future shouldn’t be shaped by what’s best for our politics; our politics should be shaped by what’s best for our future.

- - - - -
Bipartisanship — not for its own sake but to solve problems — that’s what our constituents, the American people, need from us right now. All of us then have a choice to make. We have to choose whether we’re going to be politicians first or partners for progress; whether we’re going to put success at the polls ahead of the lasting success we can achieve together for America. Just think about it for a while. We don’t have to put it up for a vote today.

Transcript

Video

Senate Confirms Bernanke

2010-01-28T17:55:00.004-05:00

This afternoon, the Senate confirmed Ben Bernanke to a second four year term as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in a 70-30 vote.

Bernanke Confirmed for Second Term at Fed

Despite Bipartisan Criticism, Senate Votes to Give Ben Bernanke Second Term as Chairman of Federal Reserve

Bernanke's confirmation comes as Congress is writing an overhaul of financial regulations aimed at avoiding another financial crisis. The chairman has had to defend the Fed against efforts to diminish its authority.

A House bill would remove its power to oversee consumer protections and would subject it to a sweeping congressional audit. A Senate bill seeks to create a separate consumer entity as well, and would create a single banking regulator that would also strip the Fed of its supervision of bank holding companies.

Bernanke has admitted making mistakes - including underestimating the threat of a booming housing market that eventually went bust and the resulting fallout to the economy. But he insist he has the tools, the know-how and the political backbone to safely steer the recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s. The biggest challenge facing Bernanke this year: deciding when and how to reverse course and boost interest rates to sop up the unprecedented money pumped out during the crisis. That's important to prevent an outbreak of inflation.

Let's get it done.

2010-01-28T00:33:00.004-05:00

American jobs, deficit economy, financial reform, education, smart energy, health care... all that and more need sound solutions.

Let's get it done.

From some on the right, I expect we'll hear a different argument, that if we just make fewer investments in our people, extend tax cuts, including those for the wealthier Americans, eliminate more regulations, maintain the status quo on health care, our deficits will go away.

The problem is, that's what we did for eight years.

That's what helped us into this crisis. It's what helped lead to these deficits. We can't do it again. Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it's time to try something new. Let's invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt. Let's meet our responsibility to the citizens who sent us here. Let's try common sense, a novel concept.

~President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address

Transcript at White House.gov

Video [ 71:53 ] at MSNBC

Happy Birthday, Rabbie Burns

2010-01-25T23:51:00.005-05:00

Scotland's favorite son

Robert Burns

25 January 1759 - 21 July 1796

O, my luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
O, I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

Get busy.

2010-01-20T19:25:00.000-05:00

President Obama: We Lost Touch with American People Last Year

The president said he made a mistake in assuming that if he focused on policy decisions, the American people would understand the reasoning behind them.

"That I do think is a mistake of mine," Obama said. "I think the assumption was if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on this provision or that law or if we're making a good rational decision here, then people will get it."

Instead, the president said the American people ended up with a "feeling of remoteness and detachment" from the policymakers in Washington who are making big decisions. [...]

No kidding. So, get busy and start paying attention to the people.

And, how about grabbing your own dang mop while you're at it?

The Massachusetts Lesson: Go Populist Now

The Obama White House needs to show, quickly and forcefully, with concrete, bold and visible action, that it stands with the working people of America. Here's a symbolic but smart start: jettison those on the White House economic team whose slow, timid response to the crisis of unemployment and to Wall Street's obscene excesses helped create the conditions for the Tea Party's inchoate right-wing populism.

Leadership on pro-democracy reforms are also desperately needed to end the corruption of our politics and to stanch the corporate money flooding and deforming of our democracy. Connect the dots for people: explain how needed reforms are gutted when both parties succumb to the pervasive corruption of our money politics. If the GOP's obstructionism has a silver lining, it is in exposing how an anti-democratic, super-majority filibuster has essentially made our system dysfunctional. There is fertile ground on which to rally people in a transpartisan political reform movement.

Massachusetts offers another lesson: Obama's decision to demobilize his base in 2009 in favor of an insider approach to governing was a big mistake. I'm not a political strategist, but I don't know how you win elections by failing to rouse people who've worked hardest at the grassroots to get you elected? It is time to re-mobilize the base.

And here's a no-brainer: Isn't it time to give up on that faith in genteel post-partisanship when the GOP knifes you at every turn? Nice isn't going create more jobs or get health care reform. [...]

Get tough, get bold, kiss "post-partisanship" goodbye and fight hard for jobs and a just economy of shared prosperity. And put yourself squarely back on the side of working people.

Texting Haiti Donations

2010-01-16T08:00:00.004-05:00

Donating via text message

Text HAITI to 90999 -- American Red Cross
Donates $10
Text HAITI to 25383 -- International Rescue Committee
Donates $5
Text HAITI to 52000 -- Salvation Army
Donates $10
Text YELE to 501501 -- Yéle [Wyclef Jean's grassroots org]
Donates $5
Text HAITI to 864833 -- The United Way
Donates $5
Text CERF to 90999 -- The United Nations Foundation
Donates $5
Text DISASTER to 90999 -- Compassion International
Text HAITI to 20222 -- The Clinton Foundation
Donates $10

Beware of bogus online ‘help’ for Haiti

If you want to donate money, consider known and reliable charities

The Ed Schultz Show:

We have the power to make it right

Jan. 16, 2010 - ( :48 )

Help Needed After Haiti Earthquake

2010-01-13T04:19:00.011-05:00

Please send them a little help.

The Haitian capital was largely destroyed in the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in more than 200 years.

The quake had a magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was followed by numerous aftershocks, one with magnitude 5.9, the USGS reported. [...]

How you can help:

A list of charitable organizations active in Haiti
Action Against Hunger
American Red Cross
American Jewish World Service
AmeriCares
Beyond Borders
CARE
Catholic Relief Services
Childcare Worldwide
Direct Relief International
Doctors Without Borders
Feed My Starving Children
Friends of WFP
Haitian Health Foundation
Hope for Haiti
International Medical Corps
International Relief Teams
Medical Teams International
Meds and Food for Kids
Mercy Corps
Operation USA
Oxfam
Partners in Health
Samaritan's Purse
Save the Children
UNICEF
World Concern
World Vision
Yele Haiti
Wyclef Jean's grassroots org
Text Yele to 501 501 to donate $5 via your cellphone
The United States State Department Operations Center on Tuesday opened a number for Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti. Due to heavy volume, some callers may receive a recording. "Our embassy is still in the early stages of contacting American citizens through our Warden Network," the U.S. State Department said in a statement. "Communications are very difficult within Haiti at this time."

The number for Americans who are looking for information about family members in Haiti is 1-888-407-4747.

For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

UPDATE:

Beware of scams seeking to take exploit this disaster.

Matalin, Perino and Giuliani: Damn Lies

2010-01-09T18:25:00.003-05:00

Where is the media responsibility and accountability?

It's bad enough that Dana Perino and Mary Matalin spewed their BS lies about history without getting called to task at the time, but it was way over the top when "Mr. Noun, verb, 9-11" misspoke on Good Morning America:

Mr. 9/11 Gets Amnesia: 'We Had No Domestic Attacks Under Bush; We've Had One Under Obama'

TPM video clip

No domestic attacks under Bush...

OMG.

Laurence O'Donnell, sitting in for Keith Olbermann on Countdown, has a problem with all that:

GOP spreads terror lies

Jan. 8: One day after President Barack Obama calls for unity in the fight against al-Qaida, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani exhibits a greater willingness to parrot talking points from the Republican Party. The Nation’s Chris Hayes discusses.

Video - 9:17

As does Rachel Maddow, who joins in with her take:

Giuliani: a noun, a verb and no clue

Jan. 8: Rachel Maddow, despite going out of her way to give Rudy Giuliani the benefit of the doubt, is unable to find a way to interpret his answer in an ABC News interview that doesn't make him a cynical liar.

Video - 7:36

A Failure To Communicate

2010-01-05T22:40:00.002-05:00

President Obama spoke today about the intelligence failures after meeting with different agency heads.

"The Urgency of Getting This Right"

Jesse Lee, The White House Blog:

This afternoon the President met with relevant agency heads to discuss the ongoing reviews of the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day and move forward on rectifying the problems that were exhibited that day. Afterwards he spoke to the press and the American people about what he and his Administration is doing to keep America safe:

The bottom line is this: The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack. But our intelligence community failed to connect those dots, which would have placed the suspect on the "no fly" list.

In other words, this was not a failure to collect intelligence; it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had. The information was there. Agencies and analysts who needed it had access to it. And our professionals were trained to look for it and to bring it all together.

Now, I will accept that intelligence, by its nature, is imperfect, but it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analyzed or fully leveraged. That's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it. Time and again, we've learned that quickly piecing together information and taking swift action is critical to staying one step ahead of a nimble adversary.

So we have to do better -- and we will do better. And we have to do it quickly. American lives are on the line. So I made it clear today to my team: I want our initial reviews completed this week. I want specific recommendations for corrective actions to fix what went wrong. I want those reforms implemented immediately, so that this doesn't happen again and so we can prevent future attacks. And I know that every member of my team that I met with today understands the urgency of getting this right. And I appreciate that each of them took responsibility for the shortfalls within their own agencies.

For the full transcript and video, go to the White House blog link.

Playing Pity Party Politcs

2010-01-04T22:15:00.003-05:00

Former Blue Dog Democrat, hypocrite, self-serving opportunist and party switcher Rep. Parker Griffith, who once described himself as a "life-long Democrat" who believes in "health care for all of the citizens," and voted against the House’s health care bill in November, the stimulus package and major energy legislation, now has staffing problems.

Nearly every staff member of Representative Parker Griffith’s office tendered their resignation this morning in response to his recent decision to change party membership.

Joining Wheeler in departing from Griffith’s staff were: Megan Swearingen (Legislative Director), Brian Greer (Senior Legislative Assistant), Will Crain (Legislative Assistant), Sean Magers (Press Secretary), Arinze Ifekauche (Legislative Correspondent), Chase Chesser (Legislative Correspondent), Mary Lou Hughston (Staff Assistant), Dr. Anjali Shah Kastorf (Congressional Fellow), Leslee Oden (Congressional Fellow), and Andrew Menefee (Intern). The staff members waited until they could return to Washington to resign. Last month, Griffith’s campaign consulting team announced they had terminated their relationship with Griffith.

All but one of the Washington staffers for Rep. Parker Griffith resigned on Monday in protest of the Alabama congressman's decision to switch from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

In a sharply worded statement, Griffith's former chief of staff, Sharon Wheeler, called the freshman congressman's switch a "mistake" that goes against the interests of his district, which relies heavily on federal funding for defense and aerospace jobs.

"We cannot in good conscience continue working for him," Wheeler said.

The reaction of Rep. Griffith?

"It is an unfortunate fact that any time a change like this occurs partisanship becomes an issue as it has in this case," Griffith said.

WTF?

Happy 2010!

2009-12-31T23:10:00.012-05:00

Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.
~Oprah Winfrey

Auld Lang Syne (most sung song of the world)

Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy, Happy New Year, everybody.
~Phyllis McGinley

Confirm Errol Southers, NOW!

2009-12-29T18:35:00.001-05:00

Last week's attack on a Detroit-bound flight that originated in the Netherlands (and was thankfully stopped in progress by quick-reacting passengers) could have, as we have been told ad nauseum, been prevented by better communication between American and Dutch authorities.

A month ago Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father told the American consulate that his son had taken up with radical Islamists. The Homeland Security Department did what they should have done and placed him on a terrorist watch list, meaning that he would be subjected to additional security measures if he tried to board a plane. Only the TSA didn't communicate with the Dutch authorities, who failed to detect explosive material on Abdulmutallab when he passed through a security inspection in Amsterdam.

Why didn't the TSA do it's job? MAYBE BECAUSE THERE IS NO ONE AT THE HELM? That's right, the position of TSA director is vacant.

There is a nominee, and a counter-terrorism expert at that. The person the Obama administration nominated for the job is Errol Southers, who is eminently qualified to deal with terrorism, as a former special agent with the FBI, the Los Angeles airport assistant chief for security and intelligence, the associate director of the University of Southern California's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events and most recently the deputy director of homeland security for the state of California.

Two Senate committees have already approved Southers by a bipartisan vote. This should be a no-brainer.

Enter DeMint, one of the most combatative conservatives in the Senate. He has single-handedly blocked the nomination over the specific issue of preventing TSA workers from exercising their right to vote on whether they want to be represented by a collective bargaining agreement.

So thanks to DeMint, instead of having a highly qualified expert on terrorism running the TSA, someone who certainly would have attended to the detail of letting the Dutch know who they should pay closer attention to during an inspection, we instead have a vacancy in this critical position.

Thankfully, no one lost their life in this attack. But had 279 passengers and crew in the plane, and perhaps hundreds more on the ground died in the attack, it would be fair to ask whether Jim DeMint was at fault.

The Senate should vote to confirm Errol Southers IMMEDIATELY!

Fancies

2009-12-24T16:55:00.002-05:00

When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow,
We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago.
And etched on vacant places,
Are half forgotten faces
Of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know –
When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow.

When hanging up the holly or mistletoe, I wis
Each heart recalls some folly that lit the world with bliss.
Not all the seers and sages
With wisdom of the ages
Can give the mind such pleasure as memories of that kiss
When hanging up the holly or mistletoe, I wis.

~Ella Wheeler Wilcox,
CHRISTMAS FANCIES

Merry Christmas.

Modern Christmas Tale

2009-12-20T23:01:00.004-05:00

Congress, pass real health care reform.

Jobs For Main Street

2009-12-17T21:48:00.001-05:00

In a 217 to 212 vote Wednesday evening, the House passed the Jobs for Main Street Act (H.R. 2847) "to create or save jobs here at home with targeted investments ($75 billion) for highways and transit, school renovation, hiring teachers, police, and firefighters, small business, job training and affordable housing – key drivers of economic growth that have the most bang for the buck. These investments are fully paid for by redirecting TARP funds from Wall Street to Main Street."

Deficit Economy

2009-12-16T22:15:00.006-05:00

Despite Republican claims otherwise, a new analysis released today by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that Bush-era policies are what caused our economic downturn and huge deficit.

The Source of the Deficit Mess

Steve Benen, Washington Monthly:

Republican lawmakers and far-right activists have suddenly discovered, after eight years of dramatic fiscal irresponsibility, that they care deeply about deficit reduction again. Worse, they're absolutely convinced that President Obama and those free-spending Democrats are responsible, putting a terrible burden on future generations.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report today, analyzing the existing deficit in detail, and what factors created it. Here's hoping Republicans and Teabaggers are paying attention. [...]

This isn't just about pointing fingers for self-satisfaction or partisan vanity. It's important for the public to realize who's responsible, in large part because it's important for the public to weigh policymakers' credibility. If GOP lawmakers embraced policies that are almost entirely responsible for the deficit those same lawmakers are now complaining about, it's a relevant detail.

And on a related note, for those who believe deficit reduction must be a top national priority -- a group that's apparently pretty large -- it's important to recognize which party's proposals are effective in improving, or not, the fiscal landscape.

President Obama will deserve plenty of blame over the course of his presidency, but holding him responsible for getting us into this budgetary mess doesn't make sense.

President Obama Largely Inherited Today’s Huge Deficits

Economic Downturn, Financial Rescues, and Bush-Era Policies Drive the Numbers

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

Special Series: Economic Recovery Watch

Some critics charge that the new policies pursued by President Obama and the 111th Congress generated the huge federal budget deficits that the nation now faces. In fact, the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the economic downturn together explain virtually the entire deficit over the next ten years (see Figure 1).

The deficit for fiscal 2009 was $1.4 trillion and, at an estimated 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), was the largest deficit relative to the size of the economy since the end of World War II. Under current policies, deficits will likely exceed $1 trillion in 2010 and 2011 and remain near that figure thereafter.

The events and policies that have pushed deficits to astronomical levels in the near term, however, were largely outside the new Administration’s control. If not for the tax cuts enacted during the Presidency of George W. Bush that Congress did not pay for, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that began during that period, and the effects of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression (including the cost of steps necessary to combat it), we would not be facing these huge deficits in the near term.

While President Obama inherited a bad fiscal legacy, that does not diminish his responsibility to propose policies to address our fiscal imbalance and put the weight of his office behind them. Although policymakers should not tighten fiscal policy in the near term while the economy remains fragile, they and the nation at large must come to grips with the nation’s deficit problem. But we should all recognize how we got where we are today.

continue reading...

Analysis Behind and Beyond Government Economic Reporting

See the charts at Shadow Government Statistics:

Inflation, Money Supply, GDP, Unemployment and the Dollar

Financial Reform Bill

2009-12-13T12:50:00.003-05:00

On Friday, December 11, the House passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (HR 4173), a bill to overhaul and reform financial regulations.

A short summary of the bill's provisions can be read at the Reuters Factbox.

From Speaker.gov:

For eight years, President Bush and his Republican allies ignored growing risks in the financial markets as Wall Street and big banks exploited loopholes and harmed America’s families and small businesses. Their failure to regulate financial markets and control these risks left Wall Street and the big banks to gamble with our money, which compromised our future, our savings, and the American Dream. We know what happened: the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Wall Street reform is the next critical step to create jobs and grow the economy. As we rebuild our economy, we must put in place common-sense rules to ensure big banks and Wall Street can't jeopardize our recovery and hurt hard-working families and small businesses once again. Wall Street may be bouncing back, but we know from experience that left to their own devices they’re not going to police themselves.

On December 11th, the House passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (HR 4173) by a vote of 223-202. This comprehensive financial regulation reform bill will enact common-sense reforms including ending bailouts by helping ensure taxpayers are never again on the hook for Wall Street’s risky behavior and bad bets; protecting families’ retirement funds, college savings, and homes and businesses’ financial futures from unnecessary risk by Wall Street lenders and speculators and high-paid corporate executives; protecting consumers from predatory lending abuses, fine print, and industry gimmicks; and finally bringing transparency and accountability to a financial system that has run amok.

More information:

Bill Summary

Bill Highlights

Full bill text

Summary of Title I - Financial Stability Improvement Act

Summary of Title II—Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act

Summary of Title III—Over-the-Counter Derivatives Markets Act

Summary of Title IV—Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act

Summary of Title V—Capital Markets

Summary of Title VI—Federal Insurance Office

Myths vs. Facts

Big Eddie: To Senators Deciding Health Care

2009-12-11T18:20:00.001-05:00

Big Eddie challenges Senators to get out and see the real people who are affected by lack of health care.

Senators Should Visit a Free Health Care Clinic to Really See the America They Represent... and Deny

Ed Schultz:

On Thursday, I hosted my MSNBC "Ed Show" from the Kansas City Convention Center. There have been few days in my thirty year broadcasting career that have moved me as much as this experience did. I saw the real America. In the middle of the country, two thousand miles from the beltway, I witnessed middle class Americans standing in line for hours waiting to see a doctor. Some had not seen a doctor in years. They have jobs, some working two jobs, but can't afford the cost of insurance and basically are on the GOP plan: pray you don't get sick.

The stories were gut wrenching. I couldn't help but think this is where the Senate needs to do their business. Do it right in front of the eyes of the people in their own country who are struggling to make ends meet and live in dignity. The Senate should do business in front of the families that have played by the rules and have been dealt a personal set back for one reason or another. Have the guts to tell these people to their face that they aren't worthy of health care because they don't have money. They may see these faces briefly on the campaign trail, but they make no decisions in front of them when they are standing in line in pain, in agony and in desperate need.

America has a heartless side to it as well. That is demonstrated when U.S. Senators put the God Almighty Dollar in front of people who put them in office. How any law maker could deny full access and full health care coverage is beyond me. Senators who put themselves ahead of the people and who have been spoiled by the Washington good life have lost their soul and what it means to be an American. We throw billions of dollars at wars, often without hesitation, but some in the Congress are willing to treat humans in their own country like a piece of machinery that can be left in a junk yard.

My God, what has happened to America ?

In the arena of despair and need, I saw first hand the best of America. Over 1600 volunteers and more than 600 medical personnel and fifty five doctors willing to take the personal time and care about this crisis. Care about their fellow countryman and neighbor. Heroes, that's what they are. Not selfish lawmakers who have best health care in the world. These were real heroes who hoped for a better America and were willing to take the time to do their part. The National Association of Free Clinics and the people who work in this organization are the best of the best. They should be doing the voting, making the policy and writing the rules. Not heartless self indulged Senators who we have been trusted to be the care takers of our country.

I beg the Senate: please make the correct decision for this country and pass the torch to a new generation with compassion and moral compass with a health care bill that never falls short of any need for any American.

---

The Ed Show @ MSNBC

12-10-09 video: Free health clinic arrives in Kansas City

Failures Want To Finish The Fail

2009-12-08T15:30:00.000-05:00

Senator Orrin Hatch admits that the GOP incompetence failed this country for years, and they damn near destroyed this country in the process. His solution to all the problems we now face because of that incompetence is to (are you kidding me?) let them finish the job!

Orrin Hatch: New GOP Majority the Solution to Republican Failures

Perrspectives:

From 2001 through 2008, what Thomas Frank deemed the Republican "wrecking crew" essentially demolished U.S. prosperity and the American dream. For the eight years George W. Bush presided in the White House and the six that the GOP controlled Congress, Republican stewardship produced endless budget deficits, a massive tax windfall for wealthy Americans, an unnecessary war in Iraq, sharp increases in poverty and those without health insurance and, of course, the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression. But as Utah Senator Orrin Hatch announced Monday, the solution to the problem of Republican mismanagement is to return the GOP to the majority.

Appearing on the Fox Business channel, Senator Hatch assured host Alexis Glick that the prescription for the malignant cancers caused by the GOP was to introduce more Republican carcinogens into the American body politic...

Oh, and tax cuts.

Of course, Hatch's comical call for a new Republican majority comes just one month after he warned about a future with Congress in Democratic hands. As he made clear, the GOP is worried not that Obama's health care initiatives might fail, but that they might succeed.

Yeah, doing something good that could actually be to the benefit of the people is such a terrible thing, in Batsh*t Crazy GNOP world.

Republican Clown Car Fail

2009-12-04T15:50:00.001-05:00

When Republicans try to pull off stunts and fall out of the clown car, they might end up getting run over:

Coburn/Vitter plan goes awry

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and David Vitter (R-La.) no doubt thought they were being clever. They crafted an amendment that would force members of Congress to get their coverage through a public insurance plan, if the public option were included as part of health care reform. If it's good enough for American consumers, it should be good enough for their elected representatives, right?

They had no idea how much Democrats agreed with the sentiment.

As we talked about this morning, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) not only loved the idea, he wanted to join the right-wing senators as a co-sponsor on their amendment. When they refused -- this was supposed to be a conservative stunt, not a real idea -- Brown used procedural tactics to make himself a co-sponsor of the Coburn/Vitter measure, whether they like it or not.

Then, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said she, too, wanted to join. Soon after, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) endorsed the Coburn/Vitter amendment and also asked to be a co-sponsor. [...]

The fun part of this is that it's a stunt gone awry. Coburn and Vitter were probably whispering to themselves, "We'll show them." It didn't occur to them that Democrats would call their bluff.

Heh.

Bernanke Nomination On Hold

2009-12-02T23:25:00.003-05:00

On Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 10:00 AM, the Senate Banking Committee will meet in OPEN SESSION to conduct a hearing on the nomination of The Honorable Ben S. Bernanke to be Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.Hearings are webcast live at: http://banking.senate.gov.

Bernanke Hearing: Taxpayers Deserve Answers

U.S. PIRG Statement on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Confirmation

December 2 - "Chairman Bernanke needs to answer serious questions about his advice and actions leading up to, during and in the aftermath of the financial meltdown. Taxpayers can't afford another undetected housing bubble. Businesses can't afford another lending freeze. None of the unprecedented actions taken by the Federal Reserve have led to more jobs and financial security for families. And without meaningful transparency, no one knows exactly what he's done.

"In addition, the Fed's new claims that it's a born-again consumer advocate and bubble-fighter are just claims. Congress needs to enact legislation to protect consumers, prevent systemic risk and to audit and democratize the Federal Reserve."

Senator opposes Fed chief Bernanke renomination

Senator Bernie Sanders said on Sunday he will not vote to reconfirm Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve, in a preview of the rough treatment Bernanke may get this week on Capitol Hill.

From the Press Release: Sanders Puts Hold on Bernanke

December 2, 2009

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today placed a hold on the nomination of Ben Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

“The American people overwhelmingly voted last year for a change in our national priorities to put the interests of ordinary people ahead of the greed of Wall Street and the wealthy few,” Sanders said. “What the American people did not bargain for was another four years for one of the key architects of the Bush economy.”

As head of the central bank since 2006, Bernanke could have demanded that Wall Street provide adequate credit to small and medium-sized businesses to create decent-paying jobs in a productive economy, but he did not.

He could have insisted that large bailed-out banks end the usurious practice of charging interest rates of 30 percent or more on credit cards, but he did not.

He could have broken up too-big-to-fail financial institutions that took Federal Reserve assistance, but he did not.

He could have revealed which banks took more than $2 trillion in taxpayer-backed secret loans, but he did not.

“The American people want a new direction on Wall Street and at the Fed. They do not want as chairman someone who has been part of the problem and who has been responsible for many of the enormous difficulties that we are now experiencing,” Sanders said. “It’s time for a change at the Fed.”

No More, Mr. President.

2009-12-01T02:05:00.008-05:00

President Barack Obama will try to sell his reasons to the American public tonight for adding 30,000 more troops, at a estimated cost of $1 million per year for each additional soldier sent, as part of a new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. Yet another mess left to the new administration when the last administration took their eye off the ball when they had the chance to get Osama bin Laden, according to the Tora Bora Report to the members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Some of us aren't buying it so easily:

Olbermann on Afghanistan: Get out now

Nov. 30: In a Special Comment, Countdown’s Keith Olbermann argues that in the face political and financial opportunism, not to mention outright lies about the war in Afghanistan, and the stark historical warning represented by Vietnam, President Obama should make the change he promised during his campaign and pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. 9:15

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

With tens of thousands of Americans dying yearly from lack of adequate health care and millions still going without health care, the Republicans are all too eager to let the country know just exactly where their priorities are:

Conservative Senators Embrace Putting Off Health Care For Americans In Favor Of Escalation In Afghanistan

Both a troop escalation and health care reform carry significant price tags — roughly $100 billion and $80-$100 billion a year respectively. (It should be noted that health care reform, unlike a troop surge, would cut the deficit.)

When it comes to these two debates, hawkish senators have laid out their priorities. They are more than willing to fund a risky troop surge that is increasingly opposed by both Americans and Afghans, yet remain stalwart opponents of health care reform that could save the lives of the 45,000 Americans who die every year because they lack access to health care. [...]

As the number of Americans on food stamps rises to an all-time high, the unemployment rate hits double-digits, and Americans continue to perish due to lack of health coverage, how can these senators justify draining funding from crucial domestic programs to pay for an escalation of the war in Afghanistan?

"The patience ends, Mr. President. We cannot afford this war."

Bring our troops home. Now.

Pennsylvania college wrong to single out fat students for mandatory course

2009-12-01T02:04:00.000-05:00

Lincoln College, an historically African-American college in Pennsylvania, has announced that any student must past a BMI (body-mass index) test in order to graduate. If according to the BMI, the student is 'obese,' then the student must go through a fitness course before graduating, and if they fail to finish the fitness course then they don't get a diploma.

I don't even know where to begin pointing out how stupid this is.

First, it is insulting to people who are, after all, adults. A college is in the business of providing education. It's not up to them to be the fitness czar for their students. And frankly this could be humiliating for a lot of people.

Second, BMI is a single number which in fact does not measure very well what kind of shape a person is in. I guarantee you that the majority of players in the NFL have a BMI which would classify them as 'obese,' but they are not out of shape at all.

Third, the presumption here is that if a person is overweight then it is a fitness issue. But it may not be. It might be an issue involving metabolism, disease or genetics. There are a lot of reasons why people are overweight, and in some cases exercise might even make things worse (such as if the person has a disease which also puts stress on their heart.)

Fourth, if we do this then how far does this go? Will they require that smokers go through a smoking cessation course before they can graduate? If someone gets a parking violation on campus will they have to go to driving school? If someone studies a lot will they be required to attend a course on stress release? Will joggers have to take a course on proper podiatric care? Are they going to make students provide proof that they have gotten all their prescriptions filled? I mean, there are a lot of ways people can risk their health, and once you begin with this you may be opening a Pandora's box. Keep in mind too that this is a college that is making this requirement, not even a health agency (though I'd be against it if it were a health agency too.)

I understand that obesity is a problem, especially in the African-American community which this college serves but if the people in charge of the college want to do someting about it how about providing more physical education or nutrition courses and information that will be available to all students, but mandatory for none?

Thanks Giving 2009

2009-11-26T05:40:00.002-05:00

As we express our gratitude,
we must never forget
that the highest appreciation
is not to utter words,
but to live by them.

~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

GOP Purity?

2009-11-25T02:15:00.001-05:00

The GOP is sending around a resolution outlining 10 Reagan principles that they want potential candidates to abide by or else the RNC will not endorse or financially assist that candidate. So, how would Reagan do on that purity test? Not so well:

From Countdown with Keith Olbermann:

Conservatives take loyalty oath

Nov. 23: Republican National Committee members are being asked to adhere to, and distribute, a ten point purity checklist to make sure they’re right-wing enough. Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis discusses. 5:28

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Health Care Bill Moves Forward

2009-11-21T22:20:00.000-05:00

This evening, the Senate voted 60-39 on the (cloture) Motion to Proceed to the consideration of H.R. 3590 [pdf], the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Floor Schedule:

Monday, Nov 30, 2009

2:00 p.m.: Convene and begin a period of morning business.

Thereafter, resume consideration of H.R.3590, regarding health care reform.

Countdown: Health Care

2009-11-17T15:40:00.003-05:00

While the obstructionists continue to play their games and block the passage of health care reform, people continue to suffer, and more will die.

Countdown with Keith Olberman

Transcript: Monday, November 16

The health debate continues…

Nov. 16: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., talks about the Republicans delay tactics to prevent health reform from being passed before the new year. Video: 7:35

Health reform’s human stories

Nov. 16: Countdown’s Keith Olbermann reads an account by producer Rich Stockwell of the free health clinic held in New Orleans over the weekend, in which over 1,000 people attended. Video 6:10

'Countdown' senior producer Rich Stockwell shares his experience attending the free health clinic by the Association of Free Clinics in New Orleans on Saturday.

From the transcript:

Health reform’s human stories

After watching for hours as the patients moved through the clinic, it was hard to believe that I was in America.

Eighty-three percent of the patients they see are employed, they are not accepting other government help on a large scale, not "welfare queens" as some would like to have us believe. They are tax-paying, good, upstanding citizens who are trying to make it and give their kids a better life just like you and me.

Ninety percent of the patients who came through Saturday's clinic had two or more diagnoses.

Eighty-two percent had a life-threatening condition such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or hypertension. They are victims of a system built with corporate profits at its center, which long ago forgot the moral imperative that should drive us to show compassion to our fellow men and women. [...]

Politicians continue to tell us we are the most compassionate and caring people, and clearly we have done much good in the world. I left the event overwhelmed by the hard work and dedication of the volunteers, doctors, nurses, other medical professionals, as well as ordinary citizens who came to help. I am left with one overwhelming question: what does it say about us as a nation of people who can live in a country so rich and yet allow this to continue?

National Association of Free Clinics

Sen. Tom Coburn Doesn't Support Our Troops

2009-11-13T23:55:00.007-05:00

Sen. Tom Coburn, (R-Okla.) is blocking passage of a health bill that will give help to our veterans and their families:

Tom Coburn Continues To Oppose Funding For Wounded Veterans And Their Families

Because while Coburn may wave a flag and have a properly pinned lapel when it suits him, he's not interested in the pleas from:

The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, AmVets, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Blinded Veterans Association, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vietnam Veterans of America, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and Jewish War Veterans, plus the Military Officers Association of America, National Military Family Association and Wounded Warrior Project.

... to get this bill passed, even though:

Thousands of disabled veterans with serious medical conditions and the family members who care for them are counting on this additional support.

Veterans Urge Coburn to Lift Hold on Vets Health Bill

We the undersigned call on you to stop this disgraceful move of holding up some very important veteran legislation, S. 1963, "The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009." While this is a legal move, we think it is morally wrong for you to hold up any veterans benefits during a time when our men and women in uniform are giving so much to our country.

You are denying veterans a myriad of benefits and services. One of these benefits is caregiver assistance to our most wounded veterans. Severely injured veterans often need assistance to do some of the smallest tasks, and generally family members often putting quite the strain on those family members do that assistance. This bill will provide much needed relief for those caregivers by allowing for family caregiver assistance and lodging and food assistance for attending caregivers.

You are blocking some benefits specifically for women veterans. Title 2 of this bill deals with issues like Military Sexual Trauma, women-specific health care matters, and newborn health issues.

Other aid in the bill concerns rural veteran health care issues, mental health care matters and programs to help ease the burden of veteran homelessness. You are blocking that too.

Now is not the time to play petty political games with our veterans. What you are doing is shameful, and those of us who are veterans and support veterans will not stand for it.

S. 1963, The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009

A Backwards Move In Health Care

2009-11-10T18:20:00.001-05:00

The Stupak amendment should have never been allowed to be introduced in the House, and it should never be allowed into the final Health Care bill, as it would overwrite already existing laws in order to restrict the legal right of choice even more. The Hyde Amendment already restricts Federal funds for abortion. Shame on those who still aim to have further dominance over women and their bodies and limit their access to medical insurance coverage. Especially those "elites" who think they are "specially chosen" and can dictate rules that they don't always follow themselves.

Why The Stupak Amendment Is A Monumental Setback For Abortion Access

Wonk Room, Think Progress:

If you thought that just because abortion is a constitutional right and part of basic reproductive health care it would be available in the reformed health insurance market known as the Exchange, think again. The Stupak Amendment, passed Saturday night by the House of Representatives after a compromise deal fell apart, potentially goes farther than any other federal law to restrict women’s access to abortion.

The claim that it only bars federal funding for abortions is simply false. Here’s what the Stupak Amendment does:
It effectively bans coverage for most abortions from all public and private health plans in the Exchange...
It includes only extremely narrow exceptions...
It allows for a useless abortion “rider”...
It allows for discrimination against abortion providers...

Will the Stupak Amendment Force Women Who've Miscarried to Lose Insurance Coverage?

I think so.

Robin Marty, RH Reality Check:

This weekend, a group of male pro-life Democrats gambled with women's health, and women lost. By broadly writing in that insurers can chose whether or not to cover "abortion services," pro-life amendments don't just affect their intended victims -- women seeking a way out of an unwanted or medically harmful pregnancy. They also affect another group of victims -- women whose pregnancies have already ended but have not yet miscarried.

- - - - -
Hospitals and doctors in general do not have terminology to classify a difference between the termination of a live pregnancy and one in which the fetus has already died. To them, a D&C is a D&C, regardless of the state of the "conception materials" removed.

Who Subsidizes Abortion?

Eyal Press, The Notion:

As is now widely known, added to the health care reform bill just passed by the House of Representatives was a provision barring access to abortion called the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. Passed with the support of sixty-four Democrats, Stupak-Pitts doesn't merely prohibit coverage of abortion in a public option. It also forbids women who receive a federal subsidy from purchasing any health insurance plan that covers the procedure, even if the abortion is paid out of a separate pool of private premium dollars (for all the background and details, see my colleague Emily Douglas' post).

If this highly regressive amendment makes its way into the legislation that Barack Obama eventually signs, millions of less affluent women who obtain access to affordable health insurance will thus join the ranks of low-income women on Medicaid, most of whom live in states that don't cover abortion procedures. The two-tiered system that dictates who in America has "choice" (more privileged women do, less affluent women do not) will be further entrenched.

But if the social consequences of Stupak-Pitts are clear, the logic is not. Supporters of the provision evidently want to assure taxpayers that they will not be forced to subsidize abortion in any way. But if they are serious about this, why haven't they drawn up an amendment abolishing tax breaks for employer-sponsored health insurance? As Jonathan Cohn has pointed out, this is by far the largest subsidy in health care policy today. (It is also a regressive subsidy, but that's another story.) If the employer-sponsored insurance that a worker gets happens to cover abortion – which, in roughly half the cases, it does – than that taxpayer already subsidizes abortion.

The purists who don't want any of their dollars to subsidize abortion have another problem. As Amy Sullivan of Time has observed, plenty of pro-life people likely have no idea whether their private health insurance plans include abortion services (in which case their premiums indirectly fund the procedure). The same goes for pro-life organizations. Sullivan did a bit of digging and found out that Focus on the Family provides its employees insurance through Principal, a company that -- you guessed it -- covers abortion procedures.

The Price of Health Reform: Abortion Rights?

Why Bart Stupak's last-minute amendment to the health care bill is even more radical than you think.

By Rachel Morris, MoJo:

The Stupak amendment mandates that no federal funds can be used to pay for an abortion or "cover any part of any health plan" that includes coverage of an abortion, except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger or the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.

The first part of the amendment isn't new. The 1976 Hyde Amendment already prevents the use of federal dollars to pay for most abortions. Where pro-lifers won big was on the second part, which could significantly limit the availability of private insurance plans that cover the procedure.

That’s because Stupak’s amendment doesn’t just apply to the public option—the lower-cost plan to be offered by the government. The House health care bill will also provide subsidies to help people and small businesses purchase plans on an exchange. This represents a lucrative new market for insurers: anyone earning less than $88,000 for a family of four qualifies for assistance, as well as certain small companies. But to gain access to these new customers, insurers will have to drop abortion coverage from their plans.

This is About One More Burden for Women Navigating the Health Care System

C and L, VideoCafe:

Dr. Nancy Snyderman sums up how a lot of us feel about this absolutely horrid Stupak amendment. No, it's not fair and it is outrageous. It's bad enough we've got one party that wants to keep women living in the 1950's. We don't need two. And we don't need the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops writing legislation for Democrats.

Catholic Bishops Call the Shots on Health Care Reform

James Ridgeway, MoJo:

We now know that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which in the end run reports to Rome, was involved in the crafting and promotion of the Stupak Amendment, the provision that transformed a tepid health care victory for the Democrats into a serious loss for women’s reproductive rights. Hard as it is to believe, this sober conclave seems to have outstripped even the screaming fundamentalist Protestants in wielding influence over Congressional policymaking in this instance.

The Stupak Amendment was promulgated by a devout Catholic Democrat from Michigan, who is now being celebrated as a pro-life hero. He and 63 other Democrats insisted on the anti-choice measure, under threat of crushing the whole bill, and they reportedly worked with the USCCB to come up with "acceptable" language for the amendment. The bishops apparently had a direct line to the Repubican leadership, as well: According to Politico, "Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called Republican leader John Boehner to make sure the GOP didn’t play any games with the Stupak (abortion) amendment, sources said.”

The Rachel Maddow Show: Bart Stupak's C-Street Gang

C and L, VideoCafe

Rachel Maddow runs down the list for us of C-Street family members who also voted for Bart Stupak’s anti-abortion amendment yesterday. Nothing like having what amounts to a secretive religious cult making health care policy for women in the United States. As Rachel noted that list includes:

Rep. Bart Stupak D-MI
Rep. Joe Pitts R-PA
Rep. Ike Skelton D-MO
Rep. Mike McIntyre D-NC
Rep. John Tanner D-TN
Rep. Lincoln Davis D-TN
Rep. Dan Boren D-OK
Rep. Heath Shuler D-NC

Jeff Sharlet joined Rachel to discuss The C-Street Family's ever growing influence within the Democratic Party.

What's Really Pissing Me Off

Meteor Blades, DailyKos:

"Irrational." "Hypersensitive." "Overreacting." "Hysterical."

Women recognize these words all too well. They're put-downs many of them have had thrown at them all their lives anytime they raise issues about their treatment in relationships, school, the workplace or society at large.

These words and others of similar ilk have found their way into diaries and comments here at Daily Kos yesterday and today around the abomination known as the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. Calm down, little lady, is the tone. Get real. Be adults. Doncha know how politics really works?

Pffffffft.

Many of these sexist critiques are then followed up by a distortion of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment itself, all of which amounts to the view that this is no big deal, that it does nothing more than the Hyde Amendment, the sexist, classist abomination that has been on the books in one form or another since 1976. In fact, as mcjoan pointed out earlier today, the Stupak-Pitts coathanger amendment goes a good deal further than Hyde.

So besides engaging in put-downs, the patronizers have it dead wrong. This isn't a tempest in a teapot. It matters. And it matters big time, as at least 40 members of Congress led by Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette have made pretty damn clear. If the Democratic leadership doesn't come to grips with this, they're heading the party for big trouble next November, an election month that already may be a difficult time for the party given the state of an economy that may be getting better on paper but is, at best, many months away from even beginning to trickle down to where people actually live their lives.

- - - - -
Over the decades, while engaging in a campaign of intimidation, harassment and murder, the anti-abortion movement has managed, nibble by nibble, to get ever-more restrictive legislation into place. Ultimately, the right of affluent women to obtain an abortion hasn't been much affected - except in the case of late-term procedures. But affluent women always had options even when abortion was illegal in every state. They could fly to Puerto Rico or Japan and get a safe abortion there without having to risk potentially lethal chemicals or abortions at the hands of unlicensed doctors or other providers operating on somebody's kitchen table in less than sterile conditions.

Thanks to Hyde, low-income women in most states are still at a disadvantage when it comes to getting an abortion. Stupak-Pitts, if it survives the conference process, will not only reinforce this classist attack on women, it will also broaden it.

Being ferociously opposed to it is, therefore, not irrational or hypersensitive or over-reactive. It's called standing up for progressive values.

Health Care Bill Passes In House

2009-11-07T23:53:00.005-05:00

By a 220 - 215 vote, the House of Representatives has passed H.R.3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

Tancredo Pwned

2009-11-06T23:55:00.008-05:00

Okay, I admit it. I had to laugh while watching The Ed Show. The MSNBC video is here. [ 7:27 ]

Tom Tancredo walks off the set of The Ed Show after Markos calls him out as a chickenhawk

C and L:

Tom Tancredo stormed off the set of the Ed Show when he was debating health care with Markos Moulitsas. Poor baby.

It all started when Tancredo started trash-talking the Veterans Administration, at which point Markos brought up his chickenhawk past. He got angry and tried the standard conservative whine, realized he was better quitting while he was behind, and then stormed off. [...]

Too many of these cowards discuss our troops when they themselves refused to serve when they had the chance. Here's Jed Lewison:
A few minutes ago on The Ed Show, Tom Tancredo tried to make the case against government health care by claiming that the Veterans Administration is unpopular with U.S. military veterans. The only problem for him was that he was up against Markos... who is one of those veterans, unlike Tancredo, a pro-Vietnam War chickenhawk who got a 1-Y deferment.

When Markos pointed out that Tancredo was (a) wrong about the Veterans Administration and (b) not qualified to speak for veterans, Tancredo exploded in anger, demanding an apology. Markos did not oblige, and Tancredo stormed off the set.

Galbraith Interview

2009-11-04T19:24:00.003-05:00

Bill Moyers interviews James K. Galbraith, son of John Kenneth Galbraith, about the economic downturn that the Bush administration and its minions knew was happening and chose to ignore.

From the transcript:

Bill Moyers: Suppose that your father were around today, and '08 had happened, the Great Collapse. Do you think he might have said, "Aha. Told you so?"

James Galbraith: He did say, "I told you so," in this book, in--

Bill Moyers: THE GREAT CRASH?

James Galbraith: --in THE GREAT CRASH. He talked about the conditions under which it would recur, and he said, "No one can doubt that the American people remain susceptible to the speculative mood, to the conviction that enterprise can be attended by unlimited rewards in which they, individually, were meant to share. A rising market can still bring the reality of riches. The government preventatives and controls are ready. In the hands of a determined government, their efficacy cannot be doubted. There are, however, a hundred reasons why a government will determine not to use them."

And that's the point about the crisis, is that it could have been prevented. The people in authority two, three, five years ago, knew how to prevent it. They chose not to act, because they were getting a political and an economic benefit out of the speculative explosion that was occurring.

Bill Moyers: You mean, the people who could have prevented the dam from breaking were too busy fishing above it, and reaping big rewards to want to fix the crack in it?

James Galbraith: Sure. The Federal Reserve, in particular, knew that the dam was cracking. Alan Greenspan, I think, almost surely knew this, and chose to wait until it had washed away.

* * * * *

Bill Moyers: I want to show you something that resonates with what you're saying. I've been looking at it for a while now. It's an excerpt from a speech that Franklin Delano Roosevelt made in 1944, in the midst of war, a speech that not many people have seen, but take a look at this excerpt.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: In our day certain economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. A second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, or race, or creed. Among these are: The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines throughout the nation. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation. The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living. The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom, freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.

The right of every family to a decent home. The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment. The right to a good education. All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward in the implementation of these rights to new goals of human happiness and well-being. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.

Bill Moyers: What do you think about, listening to that?

James Galbraith: It's wonderful. It's splendid. It defined what we should have achieved in the last 50 years and in many ways, what we still need to achieve.

It's a test. It's a test for the country as a whole, as to whether we have the capacity to state and pursue a truly public purpose. We've come through a generation where we have really denied the existence of a common good or a public purpose. And I think we've recognized that that path leads to collapse, the collapse that we've seen. And that the way out is to somehow reestablish for ourselves this vision of what we really could be.

PBS video here.

Conservatives could still pull the chair out from under Republican opportunity

2009-11-02T00:08:00.002-05:00

We've been hearing for weeks about how the sour economy, slow recovery and historical factors (such as that the incumbent President's party nearly always loses seats in the midterm elections) all portend doom for the Democrats.

While I would suggest that I expect things to be better next year than they are today and that these predictions are both premature and likely overstated,

a prerequisite for losing is that you have to have an opponent that can put a team on the field to beat you.

That wouldn't be the Republican party, apparently.

Last year after the election some pundits made the prediction that the GOP would degenerate into an increasingly more and more extreme right-wing minority whose pursuit of ideological purity would cause it to leave the universe of rational discourse at record speed.

Since then we've heard more about how poised the GOP was for success, including by recruiting moderate candidates to run for the Senate like Mark Kirk in Illinois, Charlie Crist in Florida and Mike Castle in Delaware. But the truth is that the underlying rift between conservatives and moderates remains, and it appears that the conservative base is so intent on purifying the party at all costs that they seem ready to turn whatever chance the GOP has of winning next year into a chance to make heads roll-- Republican heads.

This week we saw a prime example of that. Republican Dede Scozzafava, whose voting record overall is slightly to the right of the rest of the New York legislative delegation but who had angered conservatives by backing same-sex marriage and abortion rights and-- horror of horrors-- President Obama's stimulus plan (which given the magnitude of state budget problems I bet she's not the only legislator who actually had to write up a budget who was grateful for the help from the stimulus)-- was running for election to a vacant house district in heavily Republican upstate New York. I say was-- because she withdrew yesterday as out of state conservatives dumped huge amounts of money into the state in support of Doug Hoffman, the candidate of the New York Conservative party. A Sarah Palin endorsement of Hoffman was followed in short order by a number of other far right figures. Glenn Beck even went so far as to say during an interview with Hoffman on his show that Scozzafava is a follower of Karl Marx.

A Marxist? So now according to these wingnuts even a standard conservative Republican is a Marxist. No wonder that Scozzafava endorsed Democrat Bill Owens a day after dropping out (undoubtedly misinterpreted by the far right as proof that they were right about her all along.) I mean, when did a GOP legislator with a solid record of fiscal conservatism suddenly transform into a Marxist? Does the right even know what a 'Marxist' actually is, or is it just a cheap name to throw around?

It gets worse. They've organized their own national campaign, "Remove the RINO's" and are dedicated to running conservative challengers against insufficiently conservative Republicans (a 'RINO' is a 'Republican in name only,' what the far right likes to call Republicans who are are not conservative enough.) They already induced Arlen Specter to switch parties, and intend to defeat all three of the above named GOP Senate recruits (Kirk, Crist and Castle) in primaries next year. Never mind that Kirk and Castle are about the only Republicans who might be able to win the Senate seats in Illinois and Delaware, two solidly Democratic states, or that Crist, a popular Governor could easily keep the Florida Senate seat in GOP hands, according to the paragons of the far right, they must be punished for their sins and they will go down in primaries. The funding behind this effort comes from organizations like the Club for Growth, which has been pushing for doctrinaire conservatives for a long time. What is new is the organization on the internet, talk radio and twitter that has allowed these zealous 'keepers of the faith' to find and network with each other to produce a potent political force.

What they do not understand is that while I'm sure that everyone at their tea bag rally probably agrees with them, their viewpoints are way out of the mainstream and reflect the views of fewer and fewer Americans all the time. If they drum every Republican they can find who ever makes less than a perfectly conservative vote out of the party (and rock-solid conservatives like Richard Lugar and both the Diaz-Balart brothers are on their hit list) they may eventually achieve the 'pure' party they crave-- and when they want to go someplace they can fit everyone onto a bus.

House minority leader John Boehner also bears a little of the responsibility for empowering this monster. By insisting that 100% of the house Republicans vote against high profile Obama-backed initiatives like the stimulus and health care, Boehner has, without winning the vote, sent a message to these wingnuts that no heresy can be tolerated, and therefore one could see this coming-- it is only a short jump to the idea that heretics must be burnt. According to the far right they are doing Boehner (who had endorsed Scozzafava) a favor by protecting him from having a Marxist in his caucus who would have voted for the stimulus. Oh, my.

Imagine Senate Republican campaign chair John Cornyn pulling his hair out on the day of the Florida Senate primary, when his prize recruit, Charlie Crist, is defeated by Marco Rubio, a conservative who at best would be a long shot to hold the seat in a general election, or when Kirk or Castle lose their primaries to little-known conservatives who have little or no chance of winning the general election. Well, don't imagine it for too long, because for Republicans this scenario is coming closer to becoming a reality.

Maybe some of the underlying factors next year are working against Democrats but if Republicans keep shooting each other in the back before the election Democrats could still come out of it looking pretty good anyway.

Wet Chilly Autumn

2009-10-31T17:05:00.004-04:00

After summer was over
we knew winter would come:
we knew silence would wait,
tall, patient calm.
~William Stafford, Tragic Song

I saw old autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like silence, listening
To silence.
~Thomas Hood

Governor's races show Democrats are better off being Democrats

2009-10-28T17:11:00.005-04:00

Democratic strategist Bob Shrum has a point.

He's not just talking about the upcoming gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, but he's drawing a critically important contrast.

In Virginia, polls showed Democrat Creigh Deeds in a close race with Republican Bob McDonnell during July and early August, while in New Jersey Republican Chris Christie was as much as fifteen points ahead of incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine at about the same time.

Today the situation is reversed. In Virginia it is Deeds who appears headed for a big loss, while Corzine has now drawn even or possibly even slightly ahead depending on which poll you look at.

Keep in mind of course that these two races have historically gone against the party in power in the White House so in both cases the Democrats are running against history and the cyclical nature of politics.

That said, there is a big difference between the races and even allowing for factors like that Deeds is a poor campaigner and in New Jersey an independent appears to be drawing more votes from Christie than from Corzine, Shrum hits the nail on the head when he points out the biggest difference between the races.

Criegh Deeds has tried to run as a 'Republican light,' alternatively saying he supports some Democratic principles but then distancing himself from them, most recently the idea of a public option on health care-- going so far as to say that if there is an 'opt-out' provision and he is Governor he might exercise it on behalf of his state.

As Shrum points out, this is a poor strategy:

Blue Dog Democrats who abandoned Bill Clinton on health care in 1994 were conspicuous among the casualties of that November's congressional elections. Their flight from Clinton alienated Democrats without placating other voters. Just ask Sen. David McCurdy of Oklahoma or Sen. Jim Cooper of Tennessee.

Oops, they're not senators. Both were favorites who lost their respective races after calculated decisions to turn away from Clintoncare. If they had stayed the course, they might not have won; but in 1994, they and others proved that apostasy is not the path to victory. (McCurdy now runs a trade association. Cooper is back in Congress after eight years in the wilderness.)

The truth is, that conservative voters in Virginia are probably going to vote for McDonnell anyway. Even Deeds' erstwhile supporters on the right turned their back on him when he needed them the most. For example, Deeds supports gun rights. This cost him directly, being cited by former Governor Douglas Wilder as the primary reason he could not endorse Deeds even after a personal appeal from President Obama. What about the NRA, which has supported Deeds in the past, most notably in his primary victory over Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran earlier this year? Well, the NRA endorsed McDonnell. Now, I'm a Democrat in support of gun rights myself and I don't fault Deeds for taking this stance if he honestly agrees with me, but any Democrat who relies on the NRA for support is a fool because they are clearly 'fair-weather friends' who will abandon said Democrat when he or she gets into a tough race against a pro-gun Republican. Running this year as a conservative Democrat will not win votes from conservatives who will still vote Republican, but it may prevent liberals, who see no good reason to vote for a Creigh Deeds from even bothering to vote at all (which will also hurt Democrats in down-ballot races.)

Deeds paradoxically asked the same President he has not pledged to support on important issues to come and campaign for him. President Obama did, appearing in Newport News and Hampton Roads in southeastern Virginia. In fact, that may be the only part of Virginia where Deeds will get even close to the percentages and turnout numbers he would need to win.

In contrast, Corzine has embraced the Obama agenda, especially on health care and has done everything he can to appeal to liberals in his state. Now, granted New Jersey is a much more liberal state than Virginia (though that was true this summer too when Christie was still way up in the polls.) According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, though Corzine's favorability/unfavorability rating is still negative, he has improved it significantly over the past couple of months. In other words, a Democrat campaigning on Democratic themes has come back from way down. Corzine could still lose of course, but the comeback is nonetheless significant. Unlike Deeds, he's not shied away from the President and has been very openly grateful for the President campaigning for him.

The bottom line is that a Democrat campaigning as an independent and running away from his party's themes has gone from even in the polls to fifteen points down, while a Democrat campaigning as a Democrat has gone from fifteen points down to even.

That should send a strong message to Democrats in Washington about what works and what does not.

Public Option and Ironic Hypocrisy

2009-10-25T19:22:00.003-04:00

They've got theirs, but don't want you to have yours?

Anthony Weiner Points Out the Hypocrisy of Members of Congress on Medicare but Against the Public Option

Video Cafe, C and L:

From Think Progress: Rep. Weiner Identifies 55 Republicans On Medicare Who ‘Steadfastly Oppose’ The Public Option
Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) office today released an internal study showing that 151 members of Congress “currently receive government-funded; government-administered single-payer health care — Medicare.” Of those 151 members, 55 are Republicans who also happen to be “steadfastly opposed [to] other Americans getting the public option, like the one they have chosen.”
Rep. Weiner talked explained why his office released that study on C-SPAN's Washington Journal.
Well it’s more kind of another way of looking at this debate, this discussion about the public option, to put it in focus. We went, just out of curiosity, looked at how many members of Congress get the public option. And I know a lot of people have said, “Well under the new bill, how many of you members of Congress would choose the public option?”

Well there already is one; it’s called Medicare. And we found that 55 Republicans and 151 members of Congress are on Medicare right now. So they’re already getting the same type of public option that we’d like people who are without insurance to be able to get. And I guess the purpose of this list was to kind of point out some of the hypocrisy of this debate.

You have members of Congress thumping their chest how they’re against government health care, against government control of health care, socialized medicine and yet when it’s time for them to accept Medicare, they’re like, ‘Sign me up!’

“No government run health care. And keep your hands off my Medicare!”

Pffft.

Keep It Lit

2009-10-22T22:55:00.001-04:00

Keep their feet to the fire and keep that fire burning:

Is It Possible The Insurance Companies Stepped On Their Wangers?

Hmmmmm. It appears that the worm may be turning... Seriously, did the insurance companies step on their wangers?

A few days ago the public option was on life supports, seemingly just days, or moments away from time of death being called.

Then the insurance companies produced a quick "study" that turned out to be cooked, threatened to raise everyone's health care premiums if the public option passed, and now all of a sudden I'm hearing optimism about the public option surviving everywhere I turn. [...]

Is it possible? Did they over play their hand and start a bit of a backlash?

Nate Silver at 538.com did a little "10 reasons" thing on the 20th on why the public option is probably gaining momentum...#1 being:

1. The tireless, and occasionally tiresome, advocacy on behalf of liberal bloggers and interest groups for the public option. Whatever you think of their tactics -- I haven't always agreed with them -- the sheer amount of focus and energy expended on their behalf has been very important, keeping the issue alive in the public debate.

Woohoo! That's us, huh???

Specter: 'We Have 60 Votes Without Sen. Snowe'

Appearing on MSNBC tonight, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) asserted that the Democrats have the votes to break an expected Republican filibuster on health care -- with or without Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME).

"We have 60 votes without Sen. Snowe, so we can still invoke cloture and move to a vote on the public option," he said.

A View On Health Care

2009-10-19T19:05:00.001-04:00

A great opinion, from a valued commenter and fellow blogger:

All the national polls and the People's House want a Medicare-type option for everyone. It's time for the Senate and our Majority Leader to represent the people instead of special business interests.

The Constitution begins "We the people of the United States" not We the Special Interests of the United States. The Senate is becoming the House of Lords that our Founder's rebelled against.

The Old Boys Club must not be allowed to ignore the people who gave them power with parliamentary tricks like filibusters and other delaying tactics. Bills are suppose to be passed on a simple majority with an up and down vote. The Senate was not given any special privileges in the Constitution.

If this stalling and obstruction continues, the people have a right, no a duty, to make the Senate as irrelevant as the British people made the House of Lords. A majority is 51...always has been and always will be. It's simple mathematics and common sense.

Enough with the diversions and stalling. The Senate is causing gridlock while this country is in dire straights. Either these old men need to start doing their job or they should be stripped of their power.

If they kill the health care reform bill, We the people of the United States have the option of convening a Constitutional Convention and that's exactly what we should do if this body continues to ignore the will of the people and their responsibility to solve problems when it is necessary...not when they or the special business interests decide they should be addressed.

It's time to pass a health care bill that gives our people affordable, available options including a Medicare one that our seniors now enjoy. It's not only what the majority of people want, it's necessary to save our economy and the "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" that this country fought for.

The Senators must give us ALL the health care options that the Senators now enjoy or they need to lose their power. Enough with the Country Club conservatives and their friends on our side of the aisle.

~SandyH

Out of the mouth of a babe

2009-10-15T18:02:00.000-04:00

President Obama held a town hall format meeting today at the University of New Orleans. After entertaining several questions from adults, nine year old Terrance Scott got a chance to ask a question.

Terrance's question: "Why do people hate you?"

I thought the President did a pretty good job of answering the question, explaining that a lot of it is just politics and that there are also some people who are frustrated about the economy, losing their homes, losing their jobs, losing their health insurance, etc.

Of course there are still those who just plain hate the President too, and we all know that. Apparently so does the next generation of America's children.

The "world's greatest health care system" and Winslow hospital are failing my daughter.

2009-10-14T19:16:00.005-04:00

My 13 year old went to Winslow hospital on Monday because she is experiencing flu-like symptoms.

Did they actually bother to test her? No.

They said that the CDC has told them not to bother with the blood work but that people should 'assume' it is the swine flu and drink plenty of fluids.

Did they admit her? No.

They said she should just stay home and sent her away.

Did they give her any medicine? No.

What happened to all that Tamiflu that was supposed to be being stockpiled for when people actually need it? I know that Senator Collins cut the pandemic preparedness funding out of the stimulus, but the least they could do would be to give her a prescription that we could shop around for it.

They told her to follow up with her doctor. But the doctor's office is overwhelmed, and they can't get her in until Thursday.

So is what they told her to do working? No.

Despite taking tylenol and ibuprofen, her fever has gone up, last night it was at 103 degrees. This morning she was coughing and having trouble just breathing.

So this is how the World's Best Health Care System is supposed to function (and by the way, we DO have health insurance) ???

Crazy Lady Taitz

2009-10-13T23:55:00.004-04:00

Birther wingnut Orly Taitz has gone off the deep end. Again. Judge Land has sanctioned her with a $20,000 fine, and she says she's not paying.

TPM has more on the ever evolving story, here:

Judgment Day: Birther Taitz Fined $20,000 For Misconduct

Finally fed up with Orly Taitz's repeated frivolous and conspiracy-ridden filings in a Birther lawsuit, the judge in the case has fined the crusading attorney $20,000.

...and here:

Orly Taitz Responds To Judge's $20k Fine: Shove It!

Still defiant after months of legal wrangling and, by our count, three written denunciations by federal district court Judge Clay Land, Taitz said she had absolutely no plans to pay the $20,000 fine.

Wacko doesn't even begin to describe it.

Support a Natalie's law provision in health care legislation

2009-10-08T23:43:00.003-04:00

Remember Natalie Sarkisyan? If the name rings a bell, it should. Natalie was a seventeen year old girl who needed a liver transplant. Only when they finally found a donor her parent's insurance company, CIGNA, which provided full coverage through her father's insurance refused to pay. After a lot of bad press they relented nine days later but by the time the procedure was performed, Sarkisyan was literally hours away from death and did not survive.

Her parents went to court to sue CIGNA for damage caused by the company's denial of their daughter's transplant. The court threw out the complaint, not because they hadn't caused her death but because of a 1987 Supreme Court decision that prevents victims from suing over coverage decisions. The decision relates to 1974's Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, which governs employee retirement funds and benefit plans.

So last year Natalie's parents, Hilda and Krikor Sarkisyan went to CIGNA's corporate headquarters on October 29, 2008 to ask for an apology. What they got was a front man who came out and told them that he was very sorry but that the company would not even offer them an apology, and further that the CEO or anyone involved with the decision would not come out and talk to them. Not that they didn't see someone higher up, of course. What they got was the man upstairs throwing them 'the bird.'

Hilda and Krikor Sarkisyan are not giving up in trying to change things though.

The catalyst for this came not only in the judge being forced by the 1987 court decision to have to dismiss Natalie's wrongful death suit, but also from CIGNA's official press release after this.

"Cigna said the dismissal of the wrongful-death case in April showed that the court "agreed with our position that the Sarkisyans' claims regarding Cigna's decision making were without merit."

In fact, the court did not consider the merits of the family's wrongful-death claims. Instead, it decided those claims could not be heard.

Not heard because of the Supreme Court decision!! If it were based solely on the merits of the case then it could be heard. The pure and unadulterated arrogance and contempt on display CIGNA, knowing very well that they have nothing to fear if they do kill someone, is stunning.

The Sarkisyans have proposed 'Natalie's law,' whereby Congress would put in place a mechanism by which insurance companies like CIGNA will be held accountable (even if it is by fines rather than by direct compensation to victims or their families) for injuries or death that it can be proven was caused by withholding payment for a procedure.

According to the linked article, at least one CIGNA employee did have a conscience and quit his job so he could stand with the Sarkisyans:

"ERISA is a license to kill," Glovsky said. "The companies know that they can deny treatment with the sick or dead member having virtually no recourse."

Wendell Potter, a Cigna spokesman who quit after handling the publicity surrounding the Sarkisyan case, agreed.

"HMOs and insurers are largely free to deny access to care without fear of reprisal or financial consequences," Potter said in a speech to the Civil Justice Foundation in San Francisco.

Right now, as Congress debates health care overhaul it is time to undo the disastrous ERISA provision. The truth is that tort reform is long overdue-- instead of aiming lawsuits at doctors whose hands may well be tied by the knowlege that some procedures will likely be denied even if they ask for them, maybe the truth is that it is the insurers who should be included in these suits.

Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog sent a letter to key congressional leaders urging them to undo the ERISA ruling, and group President Jamie Court said Nataline's case shows why such a move is crucial to any healthcare reform.

"If the insurer decides they don't want to pay for the treatment because they can save a lot of money, there is not a dime available in damages if the person dies or is injured," Court said. "It's cheaper to kill you. If you die, you can't go to court.

Keith's Health Care Reform Special Comment

2009-10-07T23:55:00.000-04:00

If you missed Keith Olbermann's extended Special Comment on Healthcare Reform this evening, DarkSyde over at KOS has posted all five MSNBC videos.

Here's the transcript:

Health care reform: Saving American lives

Keith Olbermann on what really matters when it comes to health reform

No Backing Down

2009-10-02T01:55:00.004-04:00

We need to have many more Democrats standing up and using their spines, like Rep. Alan Grayson has done:

Rep. Alan Grayson discusses the Republican health care plan and GOP charges about him with Ed Schultz on Oct 1, 2009.

8:08

For Shame

2009-09-30T00:14:00.002-04:00

Max Baucus screws over millions of America people, while taking millions from the insurance industry.

What a ~~guy~~ buy.

Jon Kyl thinks insurance shouldn't cover maternity care

2009-09-25T21:28:00.000-04:00

Hat tip to Rum, Romanism and Rebellion: And they wonder why they have a gender gap

This is our very own Senator from Arizona and the Senate Republican whip, complaining that his insurance plan (which he is part of a pool that includes females) covers maternity.

Is it any wonder, when Republicans keep electing chauvinists like Senator Kyl to their leadership, why women have voted more and more heavily Democratic over the years?

I hope he will write a thank you letter to female members of his insurance pool next time he gets a prostate exam.

Men who are not police force a protester into a car and drive off in Pittsburgh

2009-09-25T00:45:00.005-04:00

These are not police. They are wearing camouflage, NOT police uniforms. The vehicle that this protester is wrestled into (without being read any rights or any other statements) is NOT a police car.

There were certainly scuffles between police and protesters around the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh today but this 'arrest' (I don't know if you could call it that) is something new, something sinister.

Paramilitary squads now operating openly in the United States. Keep in mind that in other countries in the not-so-distant past, paramilitary squads did things the police could not do, including torture, murder and 'disappear' people.

I don't know if this was a leftist or a rightist protester, nor do I know who sent out the goon squad or what their agenda is. It doesn't matter. If they can do this to him, they can do it to you or to me.

UPDATE: Some chatter around the internet suggests that these MAY be members of the Pennsylvania National Guard. If they are and are operating under federal authority then that would be a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of federal troops (including federalized national guard) to conduct police operations within the United States. If they are national guard troops and if they were operating under the direction of Governor Ed Rendell then they have the legal right to act, but the method of arrest in which the protester was not read his rights and was wrestled into a car which then departed for an undisclosed location is still of questionable legality.

They don't call it, 'Cracker Barrel' for nothing.

2009-09-24T04:05:00.006-04:00

Tasha Hill, a black woman and an army reservist was leaving a Cracker Barrel restaurant in suburban Atlanta when Troy Dale West almost smacked her seven year old daughter with a door.

She told him that she did not appreciate his action, and he responded by beating her badly, using the 'n' word and the 'b' word repeatedly as he pounded her with closed fists.

What is amazing is that there were a fairly large number of customers outside but not one bothered to intervene (though they did tell the police what they saw.)

What is even more amazing and disturbing was the tenor of the interview that Hill and her lawyer got from CNN. They were repeatedly asked whether she 'provoked' the attack.

Provoked??!

Excuse me, but how the heck could she have 'provoked' this attack? Although Hill says that all she did was tell him bluntly that she did not appreciate the way he nearly slammed the door on her daughter, it really doesn't matter what she said. Nothing she COULD have said (though witnesses said she didn't say or do anything 'provocative') could possibly justify a brutal assault that still has her nursing bruises a week after the attack. It's that simple. He has no right to physically assault her no matter what she said to him. what is disgusting is that she and her lawyer were even asked if she 'provoked' him. I guess since the victim is a black woman and the perpetrator is a white man the white men doing the interview simply assume that he must have been 'provoked.' It's an outrage that anyone even has to ask about this. I'm not sure that we shouldn't just retire the term, at least when talking about human beings (yeah, you can 'provoke' an animal to attack but humans are supposed to be more highly evolved than animals, though maybe not in Mr. West's case.)

Beyond this, there is something more that is troubling about this as well. It's that the restaurant where this happened was a Cracker Barrel. In this case the restaurant clearly bears no responsibility for Mr. West's actions although the people who failed to intervene were presumably customers on their way in or out. But Cracker Barrel does have a disturbing recent history of racism. Even into the twenty-first century they have practiced de facto segregation such as forcing black customers to sit in the smoking section (including those black customers who don't smoke.) Even Chris Rock's mother has experienced racist treatment at a Cracker Barrel, only three years ago.

So it may well be that there is an undercurrent to this attack: Troy West represents exactly the demographic that Cracker Barrel seeks to attract. Keep in mind that even the name is vaguely racist. "Crackers" (derived from 'whip-crackers,' a term that hearkens back to the worst memories of slavery) were the young southern men who during the worst of the Jim Crow days would keep blacks 'in their place.' Generally this meant through fear and intimidation but often included violence, beatings and even murder.

Victims Of Health Care Reform?

2009-09-23T01:25:00.002-04:00

Will Ferrell and Move On join up for this new video about the "victims" of health care reform:

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

And if you believe those CEOs are "victims", then I've got a bridge you may be interested in.

Yippee! We're Number 37!

2009-09-19T21:55:00.000-04:00

Doesn't that make you feel good? [*/snark*]

Wing Nut Short Term Memory

2009-09-18T23:25:00.005-04:00

You have to wonder where these screechers were during the eight years of the Bush administration.

Dancing With The Czars:

Richard Nixon had 'em, Ronald Reagan had 'em and George H. W. Bush had 'em, too.

So... Why are "czars" (advisors) now a problem?

Because the right-wing lunatic fringe is trying to make crazy main stream?

Baucus plan may fail in committee; reconciliation more likely

2009-09-16T12:55:00.002-04:00

The last Republican who was working with Max Baucus on his vain attempt at producing a bipartisan bill in his Senate Finance committee, Olympia Snowe of Maine, has apparently given up on supporting Baucus' plan.

As I pointed out the other day, the Baucus plan is a bad one, featuring mandates that would drive up the cost of health care for poor people (and not enough offsetting tax credits, even for those who could afford to pay insurance premiums upfront in exchange for a tax credit next year.)

Snowe cited that objection (making her more reasonable on that point than Max Baucus) and also how the plan to tax expensive health plans would probably cost many of her constituents in Maine where insurance is already among the most expensive in the nation.

The Baucus plan also has no government option, which caused one of the committee's liberals, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) to say he won't support it. If the rest of the liberal Democrats on the committee follow Rockefeller's lead then Baucus may suffer the embarrassment of having delayed work on health care reform for months while chasing a compromise only to see it fail in his own committee, done in by a coalition of Republicans and liberal Democrats.

The truth is that Baucus' vision of a bipartisan bill was an illusion from the beginning. That became clear during the recess, when the other two Republicans that Baucus had been negotiating with, Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) both made it clear that they were against reform, including the bill that Baucus was supposedly working with them on. In contrast to Grassley and Enzi, who I believe simply strung things out as part of a GOP grand strategy to delay, deflate and defeat any significant health care reform bill (which we know very well they've been angling for all along, as Jim DeMint made clear a couple of months ago,) I think that Snowe was probably sincere, but she can't support the Baucus bill for the same reason I don't support it. If you're going to force people to buy health insurance then you have to help people who can't afford it pay for it up front, period.

What this does mean is that whatever goes to the floor of the Senate will probably much more resemble the bill that came out of the Health, Education and Labor Committee several weeks ago. That bill does include a Government option.

Because it does a handful of Democrats (Baucus, Kent Conrad, the two Nelsons, Evan Bayh, Mary Landreau and possibly independent Joe Lieberman) have expressed some doubts about whether they will support such a bill. Because the death of Ted Kennedy leaves Democrats with one less vote than needed to break a filibuster even if they do get all their members to sign on to something, it seems likely that Harry Reid will resort to reconciliation. Reconciliation is a parliamentary tactic that will mean that only 51 Senators will be needed to pass a bill, and a clause in a bill passed earlier this year gives Reid the option to use it after October 15 to pass a health reform bill. Republicans did the same thing in 2001 in order to push through the Bush tax cuts without having to break a filibuster.

And really, there is no reason anymore not to use reconciliation. GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell says it would amount to a 'declaration of war,' and that the Senate GOP would do everything they could to block health care and the rest of the Obama agenda. And if McConnell and his caucus had done anything less than that since the President has taken office that threat might have to be taken seriously. But whether it is declared or not, McConnell and the rest of the Republicans in Congress have already been marching in lockstep against the Obama agenda, they have already bottled up virtually all of Obama's judicial appointments and many other appointments and they have already signaled their intent do everything they can to delay, disrupt and obstruct the President's agenda. Health care reform was supposed to be 'Waterloo,' remember? So the Republicans have already been fighting a scorched earth, take no prisoners kind of war against the Democratic agenda. So WHY NOT use reconciliation? Max Baucus is learning the hard way that there can be no compromise with this crew, so if he's smart he'll realize that the only way forward is to reconnect with his fellow Democrats.

If nothing else though, the apparent failure of the Baucus attempt should make it clear to everyone that any appeal to bipartisanship is folly, and it will take a long time to revive it. Four committees (three in the house, one in the Senate) got a bill out of committee before the August recess with party line Democratic votes. In contrast to that in the Finance Committee, the Democratic leadership (Baucus and Conrad) led a serious attempt at bipartisanship, and it's taken much longer and now they may not even get any bill out at all.

Just write that down and pull it out next time some Republican complains about 'cramming something down their throats.' Because using the muscle of the majority to cram stuff down the GOP's throat is about the only thing that works anymore.

Sigh.

2009-09-13T15:36:00.003-04:00

The disconnect from reality is stunning, isn't it?