Show a Spine-Pick Up Support

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Shoulda Let Ben Go

One of the reasons I shake my head in disgust at the idiotic “teabaggers” is that so many of them are crying about SOCIALISM!!! Every time the Government proposes anything, a gaggle of them are rounded up by Dick Armey and deployed to whatever venue Armey wants them in to cry about the SOCIALIST President and his SOCIALISM agenda.

Here’s the thing, you ignorant fucking cretins; there’s been a very visible socialism practiced in this country for the better part of the last 30 years: socialism for the rich. Government policies, especially under the moronic monkey, have been set up to transfer as much wealth to the rich as the Government can help the rich round up. Thanks to these de facto socialist policies, a few billionaires own most of the damn country-and they’re stealing even MORE of it while you idiots sit around misspelling your signs, waiting for Dick Armey to tell you where to go next.

The poster boy for this socialism is none other then Ben Bernanke, who was basically given carte blanch by BUSH to throw as much taxpayer money as he could get his hands on to the banker/gamblers who’d blown as much depositor money as they could get THEIR hands on. In that regard, Bernanke was highly successful, scaring the Congress with his “too big to fail” tales into allowing him to rifle the American taxpayer’s pockets at will. There is no question, of course, about whether or not Ben did a good job; the fatcat bankers padding their salaries with bonuses they rewarded themselves for being so incompetent is all the proof you need of just how successful Ben has been. Hell, they’ve even got the stones to piss and moan about proposed new regulations of their activities, less than 2 years after they lost everything they laid down at the damn betting window!

I believed then, and I believe now, that bailing out the bankers was a mistake. They aren’t lending any money, the economy is still nosediving, and taxpayers are still going to lose a bundle on the bailouts without getting anything for the economy in return. It would have been better to find a way to insulate depositors while taking the shirts off the backs of these greedy morons, but our Government doesn’t work that way. Instead, as always, we lost OUR shirts.

While Bernanke couldn’t have rigged the game entirely on his own, he is a fitting symbol of everything that’s gone wrong in the finance system, and the President could have made an excellent case for his mantra of “change” by cutting Bernanke loose. What he’s doing instead makes no political sense, and I’m having a hard time with finding any economic sense in it as well. On this one, narrow issue, the teabaggers and I are on common ground. I’m just here based on logic and facts, instead of hysteria.

Ben should have been cut loose. No doubt about it. This is hardly change I can believe in.

President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats scrambled to drum up backing for Bernanke after a Republican won a stunning upset in a Massachusetts Senate race last week, largely because of voter anger about the economy.

Bernanke was in jeopardy of becoming the fall guy, and sudden doubts about his confirmation roiled financial markets. But a push by the White House and Senate allies slowly coaxed undecided senators into the Fed chairman’s column.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid set a vote for Thursday to try to end a procedural roadblock put in place by Bernanke opponents.

Both Democrats and Republicans believe Bernanke now has the 60 votes to needed to overcome the hurdle, which would pave the way for a final confirmation vote, perhaps also on Thursday.

The votes will come with time running out for Bernanke, whose first four-year term as Fed chief expires on Sunday. Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn was poised to take the reins of the central bank if needed.

While the decision to move to a vote suggests Bernanke now has enough support, he looks certain to draw a record number of no votes for a nominee tapped to head the central bank.

A Reuters poll found 47 senators ready to back Bernanke, with 19 standing in opposition. Thirty-four senators were undecided.

Bernanke’s confirmation had seemed assured until the Massachusetts election reshaped the political calculus.

Public ire at the financial bailouts the Fed helped lead even as the unemployment rate was climbing into in double digits has made a potent political brew for senators facing re-election in November and undercut Bernanke’s support.

When the Senate takes up the nomination, there will be an hour of debate before the procedural vote. Clearing that hurdle would pave the way for up to 30 hours of further debate before a final vote.

Bernanke actively sought to salvage his nomination in meetings with senators, but on Tuesday he turned from politics to policy, opening a long-planned two-day meeting of Fed officials to plot interest-rate strategy.

While Bernanke, who was first named to the Fed chairmanship by President George W. Bush, has been credited with capably steering the economy through the worst financial storm in decades, he is under fire for the Fed’s hands-off regulatory and easy money policies that preceded the meltdown.

“Politicians are casting around for a boogeyman that they can point a finger at,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Securities in Stamford, Connecticut.

“The timing of Bernanke’s reappointment vote could not have come at a worse time.”

Now the teabaggers won’t remember it, because they never remember anything they aren’t told to remember. But you and I, we know what the root causes of the Republican Depression of 2008 are, and we know that Ben has his fingerprints all over it. He rightly deserves both condemnation and punishment. Instead, he gets another term.

I’m sorry-this makes no sense at all. Not to me.

Crossposted at Reconstitution 2.0

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What If There Was a Public Option?

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End This

It’s past time that the wholly-owned whores LIEberman and Ben(edict) Nelson were prevented from doing the bidding of their health insurer Johns anymore.

The reconciliation process exists, and it was used to subsidize the offshoring of millions of American jobs. You can’t tell me that if it can be used for something like that, we can’t go ahead and use it for health reform-something that might actually BENEFIT Americans, for a change.

Is it any wonder Americans have become disillusioned with the health reform process? Whores like LIEberman, Nelson, and Baucus water it down to a point where it is almost meaningless-and then LIEberman more or less says that the only “reform” he’s willing to support is NO REFORM AT ALL.

Reid, and the President, need to get this the hell over with. Let these whores cry to their Johns about how badly they’ve been wronged.

Dashing the hopes of Democratic lawmakers Sunday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman signaled he would oppose a health care bill that includes a proposal to expand Medicare to people as young as 55.

The independent Connecticut senator has told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, that he would vote against the Medicare at 55 proposal. He also said he would oppose cloture and work with the GOP if it ends up in the final version of the bill, two Democratic sources told CNN Sunday.

Unanimous Republican opposition so far means Senate Democrats need all 60 votes in their caucus, which includes Lieberman, to pass the sweeping bill.

Earlier, on the CBS program “Face the Nation,” Lieberman and moderate Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska cited necessary changes to the bill before they would vote for it.

Lieberman outlined steps that he said would ensure the bill passes the Senate with support from Democrats and some Republicans. Forget about the government-run public health insurance option, Lieberman said, as well as the Medicare measure that was proposed last week as part of a package of alternatives to the public option.

Forget about ANYTHING that might cut into the profits of health insurers (and not coincidentally, his wife’s employment and his own campaign contributions.) Right, Joe?

It is past time this righteous little shitbag got his mouth shut for him. Not only does the Senate need to use reconciliation to finish the health reform process, they need to send Holy Joe over to his pals in the Rushpubliscum caucus. Somebody, grow a fucking SPINE, for Dog’s sake.

Crossposted at Reconstitution.

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The Big O’s speechifying on Afghanistan

Where do you think his speech was on the Bullshit Meter? Off the fucking charts.

Well, what did you think of his plan man? Same shit, different President.

Did ya think he sold it to the majority of Americans? Oh hell no.

Do ya think it’s a war worth fighting for another eight fucking years? Not only no but fuck no.

Do ya think he sounded like an eloquent used car salesman who is trying like hell to sell ya a piece of shit yet he makes it sound like the best deal out there? Yep, that sums it up.

I know he told us that he would continue to fight this war, but for the love of Buddha..why prop up another fucked up regime with billions borrowed from China? Don’t ask me I am just a pissed off voter..nothing more and nothing less. And there are millions just like me, Dems, Repubs and Indy’s alike.

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Resisting the “Judas Cow”

Those of you who have lived with, or worked around cattle will recognize the term “Judas Cow” immediately. For those of you who may not have had the pleasure, let me take a moment to explain it to you.

In any grouping of cattle, be it 10 cattle or 100 cattle, 4 or 5 of those cattle will always move to the front of the pack, and the rest of of those cattle will always fall towards the back of the pack. The easy way to get cattle to march obediently into the trailer that will take them to the slaughterhouse is to identify those who always go out in front, and move THEM to the trailer first.

The cattle that are always in the front of the pack are known to cowboys the world over as “Judas Cows.” During any roundup of any size, anywhere, the Judas Cows (or cow,in some cases) will be identified and controlled, because the only ones you need to control are the Judas Cows. The rest of the herd will move compliantly along with their leaders to wherever you want them to go.

I am not a cow, of course. But I have lived and worked with many of them. And I can tell you that if left alone, you will be able to tell even in the pasture which cows are to be your “Judas Cows,” because the rest of the herd will soon enough always be behind the first one, or the first few. When the first one moves, the rest of them move. Individual cows do not do anything on their own; they make every single move they make based on what the Judas Cow (or cows) does. I have no way of divining the thought processes of a cow; all I can attest to is what I’ve seen. And what I’ve seen leads me to believe that the herd places a lot of trust in the Judas Cow, and will follow it into almost any situation anywhere, regardless of how reticent the individual cows may be on their own.

In this country, about 1 in 4 of us seems to have adopted the same kind of mentality that a herd of cattle adopts collectively. For 1 in 4 of us, there is no individual thinking, no attempt to navigate to anywhere on our own. Like the cattle in the herd, they simply wait for the Judas Cow to make his or her move, and they blindly follow along. Never mind that these herds have been led to an economic and fiscal slaughterhouse time after time; they continue to wait for the movement of the Judas Cow, and they go along. Back to the slaughterhouse, over and over again.

Back to a constant drop in their standards of living.

Back to warmongering for no reason other than the fattening of a few wallets.

Back to ever-lower wages, and ever-higher unemployment.

Back to the days of serfdom.

I will say here that while most of the “herd” seems to blindly follow the dictates of people like Caribou Barbie and the fat dope addict down in Florida, I don’t believe that it is only right wingers who can be led by a Judas Cow to the slaughterhouse. I am dismayed to see, in commentary after commentary, people excusing the present Administration’s failures when it comes to things like giving gay American citizens the rights that our Constitution guarantees them, or this Administration’s continuation of disastrous Chimpy policies in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, or this Administration’s failures to use the mandate it was given to affect real changes in our healthcare system, or this Administration’s defense in the courts of Chimpy’s assaults on our Constitution.”There is so much to do!”  is always the refrain. “Give him time!”

I’m sorry, but that sounds an awful lot like those “corners” we kept turning in Iraq. If I was unable to excuse the disasters of the previous Administration, I’d be a hypocrite to turn a blind eye to the continuation of those disastrous policies under this Administration, and I won’t do that. The facts, unpleasant as they might be for some to accept, are still facts.

-Reconciliation could get us a feasible health reform policy, as well as do away with the Chimpy-era tax rules that allow American corporations to pay no taxes on their foreign profits, and write off the cost of moving a facility from America to China, or Vietnam.

-One executive order could get rid of DADT once and for all in our Armed Forces.

-Instead of having to constantly beg from our Beijing bankers, there is little doubt that Congress could be persuaded to return our tax rates to the levels they were at in the Clinton era, which would erase a lot of the deficit, AND convince those who lend us money that we’ve finally become serious about plugging the holes in the Federal budget. What is required here is a President who is willing to lead, and ignore the howling from the right, rather than a President that seems intent on placating the people who have gotten us into all of these messes.

I am increasingly convinced that we have exchanged one Judas Cow for another one, and I’m not going up the ramp into the trailer. Nobody should. Whether you’re left, right, center, or all over the charts, you must recognize things that are good, and have no tolerance for those that are bad. If this President continues to take us up the ramp into the trailer, then it is on us to refuse to walk up the ramp. This President must be made to realize that there are very serious consequences for refusing to rock the boat. The Congressional leadership must be made aware of this as well.

If we don’t do this, we’re just going to get the sledgehammer from a donkey, rather than an elephant. There is nothing, anywhere, that says that this President can’t be dethroned without throwing the country back to another Rushpubliscum Judas Cow. All it takes from us is a real willingness to step off the ramp.

Crossposted at Reconstitution.

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Does this outfit make me look dumb and ineffective?

The Big O™ is now giving up on his position that Israel should cease building more homes and settlements on Palestinian land, asking both sides to come back to the table and discuss.

Yeah right jackass, like that is going to change anything Israel does regarding the Palestinian’s right to live and exist like humans on their own land.

The NYT sums up The Big O’s new position this way:

Rather, Mr. Obama, unable to extract that concession from Israel or other confidence-building moves from Arab states, seems intent to press Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate all the difficult issues between them toward a final deal that has eluded negotiators, and bedeviled American presidents, since President Jimmy Carter brokered a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979.

The pivot toward tackling issues that include the status of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the borders of a future Palestinian state greatly increases the stakes for an administration that has found even small advances to be beyond reach. It also risks making Mr. Obama appear ineffective in having not gained a tangible early goal of his Middle East policy.

The last sentence really chaps my ass as it’s so friggin obvious to me. Ineffective, thy name is Barack Obama.

Obama has changed his ‘position’ so many times on so many issues he and we should all have a nasty friggin case of whiplash at this point. In fact, I am hardpressed to name one thing The Big O has steadfastly maintained his position on since we the people elected him last November.

Oh wait..I got one!

Afghanistan.

If you, m’dear reader, have another, please by all means..leave it in the comment section ok? I would love to have something positive to cheer about these days.

In the meantime, enjoy Will Ferrel’s new Funny or Die video on health insurance reform.

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September 7-14, a very big week . . .

It began with Labor Day. To be sure, the week felt markedly like a transitional one.  During the week President Obama spent a great deal of time at the podium, making a number of very significant speeches.  NASA watched over its STS-128 mission and released a number of spectacular images on Wednesday from the newly refurbished Hubble telescope.  On Friday, the anniversary of 9/11/01, the President and First Lady spent time giving service to the community, as did thousands of people across the nation marking a National Day of Service.  The week’s news was full of stories about the politics of health care reform in a Congress now back to work, opinion about the growing divide amongst the electorate, and uneasy reports about the future of the war in Afghanistan, as well as the future of the U.S. space program.

What has changed, if anything? There is a bigger divide between members of the two major parties, evident in the behavior of Republicans during the President’s speech Wednesday evening to a joint session of Congress.  There seems to be growing opposition among many Americans, as well as rank and file  Democrats, to the war in Afghanistan and its climbing casualty figures.  This may have caused President Obama to say in his 9/11 speech at the Pentagon that he does not want Americans to forget the true nature of al-Qaeda, reports Scott Wilson of the Washington Post.

Opposition to health care reform has now grown to the point that organizers were able to stage a 9/12 march on Washington.  Tens of thousands (according to the Washington Post estimate) of a loosely organized coalition of conservative “tea party” protesters marched on the nation’s capitol Saturday.  Jeff Zeleny of the NYT, summarized the tone:

Their anger stretched well beyond the health care legislation moving through Congress, with shouts of support for gun rights, lower taxes and a smaller government. But as they sang verse after verse of patriotic hymns like “God Bless America,” sharp words of profane and political criticism were aimed at Mr. Obama and Congress.

At the same time a crowd of over 10,000 people came to enthusiastically stand and cheer at President Obama’s health care rally at Minneapolis’ Target arena.  The President told the crowd that now is the time for action and warned against the scare tactics being employed by the opposition, reports Reuters.

What has stayed the same? A year later, little has changed on Wall Street, according to  the New York Times‘ Alex Berenson.  Big banks have not really restructured, financial stocks are on the rise, complex derivatives remain in play, few hedge funds have closed and executives are still pulling down huge bonuses.  For instance, “30,000 Goldman Sachs employees will earn an average of $70,000 this year.”  Worst of all the Obama administration’s proposed regulatory changes have gone nowhere in Congress.  And the passage of time decreases the chances of significant crisis-driven reform.

The space shuttle Discovery completed another highly successful mission to resupply the International Space Station Friday, landing safely at Edwards AFB in California after battling bad weather in Florida for a couple of days.  To quote Reuters:

Discovery had carried more than 7.5 tons of food, laboratory equipment, science experiments, spare parts, a new treadmill and crew quarters for the space station. The outpost is a $100 billion project involving 16 nations, which is nearing completion after more than a decade of construction.

NASA is turning over crew transport to the station to Russia, at a cost of about $50 million per seat, as it begins phasing out the shuttle. The space agency is also considering hiring U.S. commercial firms to ferry its astronauts. . . NASA has six flights remaining to finish outfitting the station and then plans to move on with development of a capsule and rocket that could ferry crews to the moon. Barack Obama considers the results of a study that has determined NASA’s lunar ambitions exceed its budget by about $3 billion a year.

What could change – “Humans aren’t going to Mars — or anywhere else — without more money,” is the story from Wired-Science (9/8/09).  Another headline, “Panel’s report threatens NASA’s mission,” comes from The Hill (9/10/09) via Twitter.  The article opens:

A report suggesting that NASA’s space travel goals are too ambitious for its budget is imperiling efforts by Florida and Texas lawmakers to win more money for the agency’s budget.

“The full Final Report is still being prepared and will be released when complete”  is also via Twitter from NASA_HSF, the U.S.  Human Space Flight Committee.  Look for it to be released in early October.

What will not change is the mainstream media’s fascination with conflict, who is winning or losing, with outrageousness and with the mistaken idea that any old lie is merely the other side’s point of view.  The week of September 7-14 saw President Obama seeming to regain his stride and the right-wing crazies more determined than ever to keep him off stride.  The election in Afghanistan remains undecided and more and more war casualties occur.  Nor has the President decided the future of the U.S. space program.  Congress has its hands full with health care reform, and has no time (nor perhaps the stomach) for financial regulatory reform.  Maybe it would be a good idea for everybody to take an occasional day off and catch their breath.

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I voted for change, not political correctness

Obama just finished his speechifying for the carpetbaggers on Wall St. I found myself watching the speech and muttering to myself how full of bat guano he was.

He reminds me of all the other enablers in the House and Senate. They refuse to go for the jugular when it comes to important issues, they want all the Senators and House Rep’s to join in a kumbaya moment.

That ain’t gonna happen. The Blue Dogs have their own agenda and the Rethugs definitely have theirs. Neither of those two groups want to be seen agreeing with or supporting the Obama administration’s agenda.

How will anything get done without the support of the Blue Dogs? Short answer: Nothing will.

Yet The Big O and his administration are still pandering to both groups.

Where is Lyndon Johnson when you need him? Johnson was able to push through massive social programs and civil rights bills that virtually no one south of the Mason-Dixon line ever wanted to see enacted.

Now, before anyone gets their panties in a wad, I realize LBJ wasn’t an angel. He approved the wiretapping of MLK, and his Vietnam War build-up among other things, keep me from suggesting sainthood for him. His years in congress helped him craft all the alliances he needed to push through his Great Society.

Evidently Obama doesn’t have any such alliances.

So what does Obama have that will enable him to make all the changes he promised during the campaign?

That isn’t a rhetorical question..I really don’t know what Obama has or doesn’t have regarding political capital.

I just see him as another lame-ass politician that talks a good game but when it comes to actually doing anything major…he is lost in the wilderness of DC. He might be as pissed off as I am regarding the lack of balls our Congress critters seem to have. But he doesn’t seem to be doing anything about these ball-less fuckers.

And that frustrates the shit out of me.

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The Power Of The People

How It Can Bring Down A Demagogue & How It Can Make Our Public Servants Listen To Us In Terms Of Health Care Reform

The twenty-four hour period immediately following President Obama’s address before Congress on September 10 produced a graphic demonstration of the power of the people. During the president’s address something previously unheard of occurred when South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson in an act of overt boorishness, heckled the president and called out the president as a liar. Ironic that this tool of the right wing extreme chose to act out right when the president was debunking the claims of the real liars who, despite the documented facts, continue to try to spread the lie that one of the objectives of the proposed health care initiative would be to euthanize (i.e. kill) elderly Americans.

joe Wilson, through his ignorant political posturing has just put Rob Miller, his Democratic opponent in the 2008 election, and his opponent in the 2010 election on the map, as a nationally known and well funded, viable candidate who could tip over Wilson’s apple cart. In this last twenty-four hour period, the netroots of the Democratic party (via ActBlue) have raised approximately $697,000 in donations for the Miller campaign, from 19,018 Americans disgusted with the fear and ignorance that the Republican party continuously tries to foist off on the public. This is a great example of the power of the people when they want to be heard.

If you were outraged by Joe Wilson’s outburst, consider kicking in a few dollars to help unseat Joe Wilson by donating via ActBlue.

Another way of demonstrating your power is to tell your representatives in Congress what you think about health care reform. While we know that politicians of all political stripes seem to act as pawns of the moneyed special interests, they are also more fearful of the voting public, when it, the public, is able to form cohesive blocks of voters with common interests. This is a crucial time in our history, we have a chance to use our government and its resources to enact and execute policy that will serve all of the people in the delivery of something as basic to human rights, as the opportunity to have a long and thriving life.

Now is the time to speak and be heard by your representatives in Congress by emailing, writing or calling them. Congress.org has made the process of communicating directly with your representatives very easy. A link on their home page will enable you to identify your elected officials, find their contact information, and send them an email, or a letter, or get you their phone number.

I sent the following to my two Senators and Congressman today:

It is imperative that this Congress pass health care reform, that includes a public option; we can no longer allow vested commercial interests to dictate the availability of health care to our citizens. What might be passed now is only the beginning of real health care reform which must include changing the way we train our medical professionals and how they practice medicine and how they are given incentives.

Meaningful health care reform is more than wrangling the greedy insurance companies and profit driven pharmaceutical and medical testing and medical device industries. Meaningful health care reform is changing the paradigm so that delivery of health care is no longer a corporate profit center, but a manifestation of the intellect, decency and survival instinct of the human species.

I wrote summary of an insightful article by Atul Gawande about how mainstream, for profit, medical services are delivered today as opposed to how they are delivered using the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, etc. models. If you have not seen the original New Yorker article, you might consider reading my summary: “Health Care Reform: More Than Insurance“.

I am a senior citizen, a veteran, a voter and a taxpayer, and this is what I want to see from my representatives in government, nothing less than what is provided to citizens of other democratic industrialized nations.

Feel free to copy and use any of this, or write your own message from your heart and send it to your members of Congress. We do have the power to influence the outcome of this critical national issue, let’s not let the opportunity pass us by.

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What do you mean it’s not monday?

It’s Tuesday, I know..but it feels like a Monday.

The Big O indoctrinates the kiddies today! Oh goodie! Whilst all the ringwing nutters in the country are screaming that our socialist Pres is trying to recruit for his Hitler Youth group, the Christian Science Monitor calls his speech..

Bland.

That’s right, its fucking bland. The CSM says this:

To succeed in school and in life, you should:

a. work hard

b. set goals for yourself

c. take responsibility for your own actions

d. all of the above

The correct answer is “d,” of course. But every American kid knows that already.

And that’s the real problem with the president’s message, which will be broadcast live on the White House website and on C-SPAN: It’s bland, neutral, and mind-numbingly obvious. You can’t even imagine a cogent objection to it.

Of course, that hasn’t stopped GOP firebrands from trying. In the blogosphere, especially, Republicans have charged that Mr. Obama’s speech will indoctrinate students with his supposedly “socialist” views. Across the country, parents have demanded that schools obtain their permission before showing Obama’s speech to their children; others have announced that they will simply keep their kids home today.

But there’s nothing socialist – or even partisan – about Obama’s speech. If you think otherwise, go online and read the text of the speech or the White House’s suggested classroom activities to accompany it. One exercise asks children to make a poster of their goals; another instructs each student to “brainstorm” about what qualities promote personal success. Not a word about Obama’s positions on healthcare, taxes, or anything else.

Shit, no socialism? No partisanship? WTF Obama???? You are missing a grand opportunity Mr. President. sigh…

Yet the nutters are foaming at the mouth. Thank the fucking media for all that publicity you freaks. If it wasn’t for the media..you assholes would be relegated to the circular file on this topic.

Which is where all you fuckwits belong. The speech will be on Cspan at high noon.

In other news..of the nutter variety..Alternet has a good read up. The title?

10 of the Most Obscenely Stupid Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories and Attacks Against the President.

Great title, piqued my interest don’t ya know? The following one really set me howling:

Obama’s Nefarious Plan for the Nation’s Genitals

When news leaked of a CDC report recommending that boys be circumcised as a preventative measure against HIV infection, right-winger conspiracy theorists began to fret that the federal government would mandate circumcision.

Since Patrick Henry isn’t around, it was up to Rush Limbaugh to sound the rallying cry against tyranny: “Leave our penises alone, too, Obama!” roared Limbaugh in a July 24 radio broadcast.

The next day, while discussing an unrelated dispute with Jay-Z, the talk show host said, “I would remind the rapper Jay Z; Mr. Z, it is President Obama who wants mandated circumcision. We had that yesterday. That means if we need to save our penises from anybody, it’s Obama.”

Needless to say, Obama had nothing to do with the CDC report, and doesn’t appear to have ever publicly uttered the word “circumcision.” Nor did he recommend the CDC promote circumcision.

None of this, of course, discouraged Limbaugh from running with the best metaphor for white male anxiety about a loss of power and masculinity in the age of Obama, ever.

Good lord, help those that can’t keep themselves from being idiots of the highest order..please. They are embarassing us around the world. They are making us all look like loonies. Please lord get these assholes to a shrink..or just take them ‘home’ with you ok?

Thanks!

Sanitarium II by =aR-Ka on deviantART

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It’s just downhill from here right?

My day started way-too-friggin-early for starters..4:45am to be exact. I don’t remember what woke me up, but it was probably related to a cat..I would bet the Ball n’ Chains™ life on it.

After bending over roughly 25 times to slop the hogs, meaning I feed, medicate and water all indoor and outdoor critters, my back was already highly pissed at me and was screaming like a banshee. At 7:45am no less!

Then I sat down to ye olde laptop and saw that Sirens Chronicles was having issues..mainly something I did yesterday, which the fucking admin panel told me to do..had unintended consequences. It made my database manager plug-in non-functional.

This is a very important plug-in. As shitty as my host provider is, I usually have to repair the database at least 4 mornings a week. Some fucking autostart program they run hoses the shit out of Siren’s front page..deleting all content. It only takes me a minute to repair the db, but I have to stop what I am doing every morning around 8:30am, go check the site to see if yes..once again all content as disappeared. Fucking hosting company can kiss my hairy ass one of these days. Twice even…

Next on the morning agenda: reading a few of the 400 emails I get daily. Most are from news agency’s around the globe and those are where I get the majority of my information. I eventually get to our MSM, but they are way down the fucking list..believe me.

I was happy to see that martial law had not been imposed by Obama overnight, after all the horseshit the extreme rightwing nutters are pulling lately. You know..the fuckwits bringing guns to townhalls, the smackdowns on defenseless elderly people at townhalls, sick batshit bastards screaming down wheelchair-bound women that just want to ask some questions about healthcare at some townhall and my personal favorite- Obama speaking at schools means he is recruiting for his Hitler Youth Groups…you know, the usual shit lately that the entire-fucking-world is seeing on YouTube or reading in their newspapers and then saying:

What in the blue-fucking-hell is wrong with those friggin Americans? Is there something in their water for christ’s sake?

Then, the BnC™ came in and told me he ‘broke’ something on my car. I kept my temper down, deep down and inquired as to what exactly had he ‘broken’.

I sent his ass to the dealership to get it fixed. That is why I have a damn extended service contract on that cunt-haired GM vehicle that I bought shortly before they quit making them.

He is back and he even got the car washed for me..probably a peace offering.

Is is happy hour somewhere in the world? Cuz I will be glad to be on the same timezone they are at this point.

Oh holy shit..Pat Buchanan wrote what about Hitler? Is he losing his marbles already? MSNBC must be loving the controversy or they would send his nutter ass packing. Oh Sweet-friggin-jaysus, MSNBC is promoting his column according to TPMuckraker.

Good thing Skyy vodka was on sale this week..and I have two gallons of cranberry juice..real juice, not that shit they call Cranberry cocktail for me. The real stuff. Thank Buddha!

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Segmented representation on health care reform

Legislators are generally beholden to a number of constituencies, including just plain  citizens.  But far too often loyalties lie with other segments of constituents, such as lobbyists, party and other special interests.  Thus my  interests go unrepresented unless I belong to a special interest group.  In the case of health care reform legislation, my Republican senators and Republican U.S. Representative ignore my needs.  The Democratic Party, my party is split into liberals and conservatives.  I often feel left out of the Blue Dogs’ stance.  I cannot afford a lobbyist.  But I do belong to some special interest groups:  Democracy for America, Organizing for America, Social Workers, and the AARP.  And I am a part of the liberal blogosphere community.

So who will represent me in this? All my special interest groups are doing a good job so far, but their power is limited.  For example, DFA’s Howard Dean has been unflagging in his optimism regarding the future of truly comprehensive health care reform that includes a public option.  But he is not in the inner circle of legislative power.  Thank goodness, however, he has been seen smiling and firmly pro-reform on several TV news shows recently including Rachel Maddow on the night of August 20.  Rachel’s tweet cited a recent poll supporting the public option that Dean referenced during his interview.

The group at the fulcrum of change right now numbers 6. The only committee with work left to do is the Senate Finance Committee.  What they are considering is some sort of nonprofit cooperative as the public option. The six “negotiators” plan to meet occasionally during the recess.  And these senators represent only a very small number of the American people.  Following are the 2008 estimated state population figures along with the percentage of the total U.S. population (source Wikipedia).  The senators include:

• Finance CommitteeChairman Max Baucus (D-Montana, Est. pop: 967,440 – .31%)
• Charles Grassley (R-Iowa, Est. pop: 3,002,555 -.98%)
• Mike Enzi (R-Wyo, Est. pop: 532,668 – .17%)
• Olympia Snowe (R-Maine, Est. pop: 1,316,456 – .43%
• Kent Conrad (D-N.Dakota, Est. pop: 641,481 – .21%)
• Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mex., Est. pop: 1,984,356 – .64%).

These figures  total only 8,444,956 people or 2.74% of the total estimated population of the entire United States and its territories.  By sheer force of numbers, not to mention politics, there is no way these six could be considered to be representative of all of us or our wishes.  First I do not live in any of these states and second,  nor does 97.26% of the rest of you.

The House of Representatives’ position right now is the closest match to my own views on what reform should look like. Here, courtesy of Michael J.W. Stickings’ tweet, is a Bloomberg story on what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning when Congress comes back into session.  To quote: “U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she won’t be able to pass health-care legislation in her chamber if the measure doesn’t include a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers.”

So now we wait for Congress to come back in session.  We wait for the next report of a disrupted town-hall meeting.  We wait for President Obama’s next speech to clear up misrepresentations put out by other special interest groups.  We wait for Labor Day.  And we wait to see what the Senate leadership will decide about legislative tactics that will get us health care reform without the Republicans participating.  How about a cool drink while we wait?

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Katrina-lest we forget..

The fourth anniversary of Katrina making landfall was today. The horror stories are still fresh in my mind, and most likely will visit me during the night when I sleep tonight.

The gulf coast still has not recovered. The people of the gulf coast still have not recovered.

The Big O says he will go to NOLA sometime this year. He marked the anniversary by talking briefly about the horror of Katrina on his weekly address. He mentioned how his administration is trying to retool the programs that were designed to help the survivors of Katrina. Eleven members of his administration have gone to the region.

He then changed the subject and talked about the H1N1 flu virus.

Lest we forget, the toll on human life following Katrina’s landfall was:

1,836 confirmed deaths, Between 135 and 705 never found and presumed dead depending on which report you read/believe.

The vast majority of the missing and presumed dead are African-American. Hundreds of Thousands were affected and will never be the same.

We should never forget the ravages of the gulf coast after Katrina or let it ever happen again…on our watch.

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Are Tea Party Protesters Racist?

(Image from Dr. David McKalip, Florida Tea Party and Town Hall Protest organizer, founder of “Doctors For Patient Freedom” and “Cut Taxes Now,” and speaker at several GOP “virtual town halls,” sent last week to the Google Tea Party listserv marked “Funny stuff:”)

One of the debates I have been hearing in the background as the Tea Party folks disrupt the town hall meetings about health care is the opinion that the dissent is racist. Hearing it being compared to Goebbels suppression of political discussion in 1930’s Germany are surfacing. People are saying the right wing wouldn’t be so up in arms about policy if our president had a pure Euro-American white heritige. Folks are calling the “teabaggers” (I prefer to call them teabaggee’s) racist. It may be partly true.

What I am going to tell here is filled with an offensive racist term so if you are too sensitive please quit reading and hold your comments as I am just quoting others.

While this is by no means an attempt to lump all of the groups together or label any individuals, I saw first hand Saturday who and what is running the “Tea Party” yellathons in southeastern New Mexico today.
While in KFC enjoying my weekly grease fix 8 people came in and pushed a table next to the booth that joined to the booth I was sitting at. Two of the men went to the counter to order while the rest of the group spread out papers and folders around the two tables. One of the guys looked familiar to me and I tentatively ID’d him as B. W.,an organizer of the Roswell Tea Party folks/rally’s.
Conversation was lively as their plans for the upcoming Alamogordo and Las Cruces Town Hall meetings was getting them all riled up.
The chicken came to the table (only one of the 8 was having grilled..the rest fried. I will get to the point of this menu observation soon) While they all dug in conversation at their table waned. We were 9 of the 18 white and Latino customers in the place (14 white 4 hispanic I counted a minute later. I will also address why this is important as my story goes along).
The roar of a Road King and the humming of a V Star soon came through the windows as two riders stopped for lunch. As the riders dismounted and removed their helmets one of the folks at the adjoining table loudly announced they were black. The one that looked and acted like B. W. said…and I quote, “Figures, niggers coming to get fried chicken.”. (seems there were already 18 non “niggers” in the place when the 2 men came)
Others chimed in with one woman even cat calling to the girl working at the counter, “I didn’t know you started serving watermelon.”.
The term “nigger” was used by these folks even as the men came in and placed their order. I assumed their racist talk would bring wrath from the men but instead they ignored it, eating their small meals of grilled chicken breasts (not fried as the racist right wing fanatics had predicted…and were eating themselves) green beans and potatoes. The talk at the organizing table slowly turned back to planning the shoutdowns and I continued reading my newspaper.
As the riders got up and started to put their protective jackets back on the big guy who rode the Yamaha stepped over to their table.
“Uh-Oh”, I thought.
The huge man loomed over the suddenly nervous group of white Republicans and said, “God bless all of you”. and walked out to his ride.

After the bikers left there was a much more subdued return to their plans for the meetings.

Thats who are organizing here. Probably in many other locations in the country as well.
No wonder I can’t attempt to see things their way.

cross posted at http://alientrucker.com/

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