SEDER V MARON 12 noon Today

ready to go.....

Clarke: Charlie Black Basically Said To Terrorists, ‘Yes You Can Manipulate Our Politics, Come And Do It’

THINK PROGRESS

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) distanced himself from chief strategist Charlie Black’s comments that a terrorist attack would be a “big advantage” to the McCain campaign. “If he said that, and I do not know the context, I strenuously disagree,” McCain told reporters.

Later in the day on MSNBC, former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke told Keith Olbermann that if McCain was serious in his outrage, he should fire Black immediately. He also criticized Black for basically encouraging terrorists such as Osama bin Laden to manipulate American politics:

CLARKE: Well, Charlie Black knows a lot about politics but he doesn’t know much about terrorism. If he did, he would know that Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and all the al Qaeda leadership, watch U.S. politics very closely. We’ve even had cases where in interviews, bin Laden quoted opinion polls from European public opinion polls.

So, yes, they understand that they can manipulate politics as they tried to in the Spanish election with the attacks there. And to say, “Yes, you can manipulate our politics, come and do it,” is an invitation that the McCain campaign shouldn’t be anywhere near.

VIDEO

Free Democracy

Morris and his wife Ester went to the state fair every year, and every year Morris would say,
'Ester, I'd like to ride in that helicopter.

'Esther always replied, 'I know Morris, but that helicopter ride is fifty dollars, and fifty dollars is fifty dollars'

One year Esther and Morris went to the fair, and Morris said,
'Esther, I'm 85 years old. If I don't ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance.'

To this, Esther replied, 'Morris that helicopter ride is fifty dollars, and fifty dollars is fifty dollars.'

The pilot overheard the couple and said, 'Folks I'll make you a deal. I'll take the both of you for a ride.
If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and not say a word, I won't charge you!
But if you say one word, it's fifty dollars.'

Morris and Esther agreed and up they went. The pilot did all kinds of fancy maneuvers,
but not a word was heard. He did his daredevil tricks over and over again, but still not a word.

When they landed, the pilot turned to Morris and said,
'By golly, I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn't. I'm impressed!'

Morris replied, 'Well to tell you the truth, I almost said something when Ester fell out,
but you know, fifty dollars is fifty dollars!'

MSNBC - Mark Murray

With so much attention on Obama's reversal on public financing, liberal bloggers like Arianna Huffington and Josh Marshall have wondered why McCain's own apparent flip flop on the subject hasn't received as much scrutiny.

Well, the Democratic National Committee is trying to change that by filing a lawsuit in US District Court in DC to force the Federal Election Commission to investigate McCain's decision to opt in the public matching funds system for the primaries, secure a loan based on those public funds, and then withdraw from the system after becoming the GOP front-runner. McCain, though, never actually received those public funds before opting out.

"The chairman of the FEC," the lawsuit states, "has already advised Sen. McCain that he is not free to withdraw unilaterally from his agreement with the FEC and to ignore the legal requirements of the Matching Payments Act, without the FEC's approval. Yet Sen. McCain cannot obtain such approval, because he already violated a key condition for dispensing with the Agreement by which he entered the matching funds program: he has pledged matching funds as collateral for a loan to his campaign."

Had McCain not opted out of the matching funds program, he would be limited in how much he can raise and spend up until the GOP convention -- which would put him at an enormous disadvantage against Obama's fundraising machine.

Republican National Committee chief counsel Sean Cairncross issued this statement in response to the DNC's lawsuit: "The law states that a candidate must actually receive public funds to be subject to the primary campaign spending limit. The McCain campaign never received any primary matching funds, and the campaign’s lending bank has made clear that no entitlements to public funds were used as collateral to secure any loan. The DNC should spend more time explaining why its candidate broke his word to the American people on public financing and less time on reckless lawsuits. We are confident the FEC will throw this meritless complaint out and that the court will recognize it as a waste of judicial resources.”

A one-liner from comedian Marv Welch's "Here's Looking Up Your Glass" album: "I knew a guy who couldn't spell. He spent all night in a warehouse."

Submitted by SEDER on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 11:18am.
...soon we will be more regular!
------
(Currently operating on the ex-lax model.)

I stood outside a wealthy John McCain fundraiser in Santa Barbara yesterday with a sign. There weren't many others because it was last minute, so half were Ron Paul supporters. Even though a lot of the people in the neighborhood were really thumbs up for us, there was this one lady who went into a big 'get off my lawn!!' routine which I got on film. The clip doesn't even capture the whole thing where she was saying we were violating private property by standing there at the curb and that we need to go ask the neighbors for permission to stand on their sidewalk, but because they're at work, that means we'd better just leave

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/06/23/18510646.php

my lunch hour, I can close door, pretend I'm not in the office, make sure the earphone is secured to mute all the excitement

at work - oh well, can't have everything

Made it back from western mass with some new chickens and less a kid or two!! Yay camp!

Melina
www.RIPCoco.com
www.BrilliantatBreakfast.blogspot.com
www.SweetJesusIHateChrisMatthews.blogspot.com

Submitted by Melina on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 11:50am.
Made it back from western mass with some new chickens and less a kid or two!!
------
Melina = horsetrader par excellance.

Bangladesh, the most crowded nation on earth, is set to disappear under the waves by the end of this century — and we will be to blame. Johann Hari took a journey to see for himself how western profligacy and indifference have sealed the fate of 150 million people went to see for himself the spreading misery and destruction as the ocean reclaims the land on which so many millions depend.

This spring, I took a month-long road trip across a country that we — you, me and everyone we know — are killing.

One day, not long into my journey, I travelled over tiny ridges and groaning bridges on the back of a motorbike to reach the remote village of Munshigonj. The surviving villagers — gaunt, creased people — were sitting by a stagnant pond. They told me, slowly, what we have done to them.

Ten years ago, the village began to die. First, many of the trees turned a strange brownish-yellow colour and rotted. Then the rice paddies stopped growing and festered in the water. Then the fish floated to the surface of the rivers, gasping. Then many of the animals began to die. Then many of the children began to die.

The waters flowing through Munshigonj — which had once been sweet and clear and teeming with life — had turned salty and dead.

Arita Rani, a 25-year-old, sat looking at the salt water, swaddled in a blue sari and her grief. "We couldn't drink the water from the river, because it was suddenly full of salt and made us sick," she said. "So I had to give my children water from this pond. I knew it was a bad idea. People wash in this pond. It's dirty. So we all got dysentery." She keeps staring at its surface. "I have had it for 10 years now. You feel weak all the time, and you have terrible stomach pains. You need to run to the toilet 10 times a day. My boy Shupria was seven and he had this for his whole life. He was so weak, and kept getting coughs and fevers. And then one morning..."

Her mother interrupted the trailing silence. "He died," she said. Now Arita's surviving three-year-old, Ashik, is sick, too. He is sprawled on his back on the floor. He keeps collapsing; his eyes are watery and distant. His distended stomach feels like a balloon pumped full of water. "Why did this happen?" Arita asked.

It is happening because of us. Every flight, every hamburger, every coal power plant, ends here, with this. Bangladesh is a flat, low-lying land made of silt, squeezed in between the melting mountains of the Himalayas and the rising seas of the Bay of Bengal. As the world warms, the sea is swelling — and wiping Bangladesh off the map.

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/commentary/37457

Melina: "What'll you give for my nine-year-old?"

Horsetrader: "Seven chickens."

Melina: "He's mute."

Horsetrader: "Eleven chickens!"

sam & marc

http://www.smackchannel.com/sidebyside_viewer_samseder_secure.swf

resizable

..lurking in the shadows at lunchtime..

___
bluerootsradio

.

Hope you had a good evening.

..and I'm totally dragging ass today.

How are you doin'??

___
bluerootsradio

call the obama campaign and tell them you will not support obama if he won't filibuster

otherwise his words about hope for change are just words

NuLoMan

Thanks for that "Pilot Season" link. I did try it but it required UseNet and I won't give them my credit card #.

I hate it when I found out about something I was not aware of and decide I really want it and then get denied. Yo soy un Americano!

Maybe I'll just drive over to Archive.org and beat on their door.

Dobson accuses Obama of 'distorting' Bible

Top headline for AOL news....

They both did!

Sound goes out for Marc Pretty consistantly about 40 min in.
why?

I think this is some kind of "Meta-comedy" "Andy Kaufman-esque" bit!

..a gif for every reason and season!

;-)

___
bluerootsradio

Let's admit it to ourselves.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

So is it supposed to be pronounced RUE-zah-velt or ROH-zah-velt?

And while I'm asking, is it supposed to be pronounced E-rack or e-RACK or EYE-rack or eye-RACK?

Then there's eye-RAN and eye-ran and E-ran and e-RAN and e-RON.

This random pronunciation stuff drives me nuts. How did Roosevelt pronounce his own name and why don't we take his fucking word for it?

I'm speechless.

(mark your calendar)

Christiane Amanpour, whose father is iranian, said on the daily show that it is pronounced EE-rak.

It's a pale substitute for a daily radio show unfortunately.

Pretty good today. Carlin wouldn't dig it.

funny and enlightening loved the confused special guest

here.

I believe in having 2 dishwashers. I only have one but I want two and I want to get rid of all my cabinets.

Do it SAM.

I will send you money for a regular show. Enough to buy some proprietary seeds for you garden, anyway.

I think Obamas gonna sweep...republicans just have no choice
If someone isnt gonna vote for Obama, whats the choice? Just not vote for president and vote the other seats?

Melina
www.RIPCoco.com
www.BrilliantatBreakfast.blogspot.com
www.SweetJesusIHateChrisMatthews.blogspot.com

Great Idea! one for clean dishes, and one for dirty dishes!

Sorry about the Usenet BS. I didn't try to load it because I have no clue what to do with a .bin file.

That was the ONLY hit I could find.
NBC/Universal must have pulled it from everywhere.

Marc should call Sears every week and have Art stop by and do a guest segment. :)

Id like the show twice or 3 times per week...or how about every day? I wonder how much that would cost?

Melina
www.RIPCoco.com
www.BrilliantatBreakfast.blogspot.com
www.SweetJesusIHateChrisMatthews.blogspot.com

does anyone know anything about him? Hopefully Mark Green is out of day to day operations, as he stayed on temporarily, I think...

Melina
www.RIPCoco.com
www.BrilliantatBreakfast.blogspot.com
www.SweetJesusIHateChrisMatthews.blogspot.com

Fine show today guys. Perhaps Marc is working on Art a little bit as we speak, the "man in a cage" bit is hard to argue with in the end.

And I really enjoyed Marc today which I hadn't too much in the past.

And they were both right on the money. People have to get into politics this time. They have to really see what is happening. This, believe it or not, is worse than the 60s and the Viet Nam War issue because the repubs were allowed to insert themselves and big business further into the government policies.

I hate what is happening to this country now!

select 6(other) and then leave a message..then they tell you they are not taking messages and then select rep.

I told the woman that if Obama votes for the Fisa bill without filibuster I will no longer send him money. She said that they are getting lots of calls about this. so call already:

(866) 675-2008

Sam made an interesting and frightening point about the repubs. impeaching Obama on this very issue. If that kinda shit starts happening, I am moving to Denmark with my whole family....

Submitted by Jeffinator on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 12:58pm.
Christiane Amanpour, whose father is iranian, said on the daily show that it is pronounced EE-rak.
-----
Amanpour is as good a source as any. I'll stick with E-rack until I learn different.
-----------------------
Seder v. Maron executed its first Man-On-The-Street interview.

Except the Man-On-The-Street was in the kitchen. And Art wasn't a random choice. He was the only person available for an interview in the kitchen.

Note to Maron: Usually a guy wearing a robins-egg blue cotton shirt has his first name on his pocket.

The young turks do a daily show, for 2 hrs and they are able to do it financed by subscribers and some internet advertising, in spite of being let go by AAR.

I think Sammy is way better than Cenk.

Submitted by pbtrue1 on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 12:57pm.
I'm speechless.

(mark your calendar)

___
bluerootsradio ;-)

My sister lives in Denmark, along with many other relatives of mine. They are not without their own problems, I have to say.

Thom is doing his show from Copenhagen all this week.

Bill Clinton offers support to Obama By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 24 minutes ago

Former President Clinton said through a spokesman Tuesday that he is committed to helping Barack Obama become president, his first comments in support of his wife's former rival since their primary ended three weeks ago.

Relations between the last Democratic president and the candidate who wants to be the next one are frosty — they still haven't spoken in the aftermath of the heated campaign. But Bill Clinton extended an offer to help in a one-sentence statement from spokesman Matt McKenna.

"President Clinton is obviously committed to doing whatever he can and is asked to do to ensure Senator Obama is the next president of the United States," McKenna said.

It's not clear what Obama might ask him to do. The campaign wasn't specific when asked.

"A unified Democratic Party is going to be a powerful force for change this year and we're confident President Clinton will play a big role in that," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

Bill Clinton will not be attending the unity rally between the two former rivals Friday in New Hampshire. McKenna said the former president is in Europe this week to celebrate Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday, give speeches and work for the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke Sunday and talked about Obama connecting with the former president sometime in the future, Burton said.

Bill Clinton was an outspoken critic of Obama during the primary race. He said Obama's opposition to the Iraq war was a "fairy tale" and raised questions about whether the first-term Illinois senator had the experience to lead the country. During one debate Obama snapped at Hillary Clinton, "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes."

President Clinton has been the most valuable personality in the Democratic Party, but his angry outbursts while campaigning for his wife tarnished his image. Obama prizes a tightly controlled image and lack of drama in his campaign, which are not President Clinton's hallmarks.

Half of respondents to an AP-Yahoo News poll conducted in mid-June viewed Bill Clinton favorably. But he took a hit among those who said they had a "very favorable" opinion of Clinton, dropping from 25 percent in December before the primary voting began to 16 percent in June. Still, the former president is one of the most popular figures in public life and he drew large, enthusiastic crowds when campaigning for his wife.

Democratic consultant Mark Kornblau said the benefits of having Bill Clinton's help outweigh the negatives for Obama. He said Clinton could travel to economically struggling states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan and talk about the prosperity under his presidency and promote Obama's vision.

"He can connect in parts of the country where Senator Obama may need some help, like the Rust Belt, and it will help in further unifying the primary after a fractious primary," said Kornblau, who was a spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. "The downside, as we saw in the primary, is that it's a little roll of the dice. But I think it's worth the risk."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080624/ap_on_el_pr/obama_president_clinton_...

listening now. There are problems everywhere. The gov there likes Bush! gak...

i heard sam say it but didn't understand the logic.

my understanding is that if Obama rolls over on this fisa bill he will be guilty of the same crimes that Bush is guilty of. The repugs definitely won't have impeachment off the table because they impeach over fucking lying about blow jobs. I am so pissed at the dems about this. Where are our principles.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hdj/

Got a Flickr account? I wanna see pictures of Nippon!

I would support kicking anyone stupid enough to bring this unconstitutional abomination out of office. This FISA bill is an outrage.

and Colorado!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Many more states to come!

The La Riva/Puryear PSL Presidential Campaign is proud to announce that we have achieved ballot status in Arkansas, Vermont and Colorado! We are also in the final stages for ballot status in Utah, Florida, New Jersey and Iowa. Over the next two months, we will be working to gain ballot access in many additional states, including Washington state, New York, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, California and other states.

Please make an urgently needed donation to help us get on the ballot in states across the country!

...

Tuesday, June 24, 2008
By: Matt Murray

Two Muslim women attending a June 18 Barack Obama rally in Detroit were barred from seats behind the podium for wearing head scarves. Obama campaign volunteers told the women that due to the "sensitive political climate" they could not be seated directly behind the candidate or in front of television cameras.

Take a bite out of crime, vote third party.... -McGruff

doesn't this really fall into a lose lose situation?

lets face it, there's nobody whose electable that is a pillar of character.

that were not allowed on stsage behind Obama was done by a staff member. There are other Obama events that were shown that Muslim women were seated on stage behind Obama. This was discussed on Olbermann and he had video of past events.

Thanks.. :)

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

Advice for the next president
By RUSS FEINGOLD

Posted: June 21, 2008
An inaugural address, set against the stately backdrop of the U.S. Capitol, is always a stirring moment, history in the making. Some of our country’s most soaring rhetoric has come from presidents who seized this moment to remind us, in good times and in bad, of the extraordinary strength of our nation and its people.

All presidents have uttered the same oath of office, but after that, their remarks on Inauguration Day have been as different as the eras in which they lived. Sadness permeated Abraham Lincoln’s second address near the close of the Civil War; Franklin Roosevelt rallied Americans, in the depths of the Great Depression, by telling them that they had nothing to fear but fear itself; and John Kennedy famously exhorted his fellow Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

Some might say it’s too soon to think about our nation’s next inaugural address. After all, we don’t yet know who will deliver it. But that’s just the point — no matter who delivers that address, there are some things that must be said, and some commitments that must be made to the American people.

When the next president approaches the podium in January, he inevitably will have ideas about how to address the nation’s problems and how to move this country forward. But while an inaugural address is a moment to look ahead, whoever is elected in November will have to acknowledge what has come before. That’s because the next president won’t be following on the heels of just any administration; he will arrive in the wake of a series of historic abuses of executive power.

Again and again, the current administration has grabbed for power by ignoring or misinterpreting the law. When the president claimed that he could wiretap innocent Americans without a warrant, he asserted one of the most intrusive government powers imaginable. Just as jarring was the administration’s contempt for the fundamental principle of habeas corpus, which the Supreme Court rebuked in its recent decision supporting Guantanamo detainees’ right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. The administration also has found other ways around the law, including its improper use of signing statements.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=764403

And,maybe allow McSame to stuff The Supreme Court with

More Neo-Scum's..
A Great Idea.. Not !

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

Tuesday 06/24/2008 - 2:00 PM
2141
Rayburn House Office Building
Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights,
and Civil Liberties

Meeting to consider: A Resolution authorizing the Chairman to issue a subpoena
to compel the testimony of Douglas Feith; and Subcommitee Markup of: H.R. 3189,
the “National Security Letters Reform Act of 2007”

A Meeting to consider: A Resolution authorizing the Chairman to issue a
subpoena to compel the testimony of Douglas Feith; and
Subcommittee Markup of:
H.R. 3189, the “National Security Letters Reform Act of 2007”

By Direction of the Chairman

I can't watch where I am at. Did they subpoena Doug?

Leipzig, Germany - A solar power plant described by its operators as the biggest in the world began generating electricity at the site of a former East German air base on Sunday. Built on a surface area equivalent to 200 soccer pitches, the solar park will be capable of feeding 40 megawatts into the power grid when fully operational in 2009.

In the start-up phase, the 130-million-euro (201 million dollars) plant it will have a capacity of 24 megawatts, according to the Juwi group, which operates the installation.

The Waldpolenz Solar Park, located east of Leipzig, uses state-of-the-art thin film technology. Some 550,000 thin-film modules will be used, of which 350,000 have already been installed.

The direct current produced in the photovoltaic solar modules will be converted into alternating current and fed completely into the power grid.

After just a year the solar power station will have produced the energy needed to build it, according to the Juwi group.

The eastern part of Germany is one of the forerunners of solar energy in the country. Three of the world's 50 biggest solar parks are located near Leipzig.

A solar plant due to be completed in California by 2011 will have a capacity of 80 megawatts - double that of Waldpolenz.

Missed the show....VOD Please !
Submitted by MMRules on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 2:15pm.
--------
Synopsis:

A wary appliance technician reinforced the existence of political skepticism rampant among American voters.

"Art" fixed Maron's dishwasher in eight seconds and gently broke the news to Maron: Operator Error.

Maron accepted his own ignorance graciously, mostly because Art called McCain a war monger.

My guess is that Art saw Marc's long hair, heard Marc talking to Sam, and played him like a fiddle.

You can't have a successful career entering the homes of strangers every day unless you know how to keep 'em happy.

Emanuel Asks McCain to 'Clarify' Stance on Great Lakes Oil Drilling
By Michael D. Shear
Democrats are not about to let Sen. John McCain's support for offshore oil drilling go unnoticed.

In a letter to McCain, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Chicago asks McCain to "clarify" his position on drilling in the Great Lakes, which, Emanuel points out, are bordered by "Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin."

"As you are undoubtedly aware, in 2005 a bipartisan majority in Congress enacted a permanent ban on drilling for oil and gas in the Great Lakes," Emanuel wrote. "Drilling in the Great Lakes would adversely affect millions of Americans in the eight states that border these lakes, further endanger the ecological web and threaten the beauty of our shores."

He continues: "Seeing as you signed a pledge to preserve and restore the Great Lakes during your primary campaign, I hope your newfound stance on offshore drilling will not be followed by support for drilling in the Great Lakes."

McCain's position on drilling is actually to lift the federal ban, giving states the right to do what they want. Presumably, the states around the Great Lakes are not likely to drill anytime soon. But that is a distinction that Emanuel ignores in the letter.

In an interview, Emanuel said that he listed the states that surround the Great Lakes because "I just want to help, in case geography wasn't where he got an 'A.'" He said that 30 million people get their drinking water from the Great Lakes, and said that public
opinion is firmly against drilling.

Despite the ban on drilling in the Great Lakes, Canada allows drilling from its beaches into the oil reserves under the lakes, he said.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/20/emanuel_asks_mccain_...

for even letting the first FISA bill out of the Senate. What a spineless POS.

Video from ABC News: Elizabeth Edwards 'Backing Obama'

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5224125

I don't understand what the rush is to pass this FISA bill now. Why don't they extend it again and vote in 2009?
They would have the benefit of more Dems in office and hopefully a Dem president.

It's these Blue Dog Dems and the horrid leadership we have in the Senate and Congress.

Mitch McConnell's Senate Seat Now In Jeopardy

While much of the media and political world has been focused on the race for the White House, another contest with leadership implications is quietly gaining steam on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was never expected to be challenged for his seat. A four-term incumbent from a deeply red state, his favorability ratings in Kentucky have stayed steadily over the 50 percent mark for much of the past year. But with the rapid disintegration of the Republican brand and with several self-made political missteps, McConnell now finds himself drawn into an electoral match-up once deemed an afterthought. A recent Survey USA poll had him beating his challenger Bruce Lunsford by a scant four percentage points: 50 percent to 46 percent.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/23/mitch-mcconnells-senate-s_n_108...

...it was just something that popped in my brain..I'm not really concerned with how you all vote...it's all good with me...

I suspect Barack knows that if he doesn't provide cover for the other crooks in the congress and this isn't taken care of now that he fears the consequences later.

It will be hard for him to make a compromises as a President. He should realize that the moment to stop making compromises was when he embraced the activist base of the Democratic party.

He needs to figure it out or pay highly if he does the wrong thing now.

How turncoat Hoyer
got the FISA deal done

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sen. Russ Feingold called the House bill a capitulation. Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald called Hoyer an 'evil, craven enabler of the Bush administration.'

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11292.html

Bigger tax write-off ready for high-cost fuel By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jun 23, 5:15 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service, citing the drain that high gas prices are having on people's finances, said Monday it is raising the automobile mileage rate that businesses and others can claim.

The tax agency said the optional standard rate to calculate deductible operating costs for business vehicles will rise from 50.5 cents a mile to 58.5 cents for the final six months of 2008.

That rate also applies to businesses and others entitled to depreciation allowances that operate automobiles for charitable, medical or moving purposes.

"Rising gas prices are having a major impact on individual Americans," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. "Given the increase in prices, the IRS is adjusting the standard mileage rates to better reflect the real cost of operating an automobile."

Shulman, in an interview, said the agency has been keeping an eye on gas prices since 2005 when there was a spike in prices following Hurricane Katrina. He said officials wanted to get the guidance out on the new rate so businesses can do midyear adjustments on July 1.

The IRS said it was also changing the rate for computing deductible medical or moving expenses from 19 cents to 27 cents a mile for the final six months of the year. That applies to individuals not entitled to depreciation allowances.

Congress must enact legislation to change the rate for providing services for charitable organizations, so that will stay at 14 cents a mile.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/irs_mileage;_ylt=A...

Consumer confidence falls to 16-year low.
U.S. consumer confidence this month “to its lowest in 16 years as high inflation continued to sap confidence and pushed expectations for the future to a record low.” The index measured consumers’ moods at 50.4 in June, lower than Wall Street economists’ expectations and less than half of what it was last July. (HT: Atrios)

http://www.cnbc.com/id/25347277

Submitted by toniD on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 3:26pm.
Consumer confidence falls to 16-year low.
---------
I have lost my confidence in the consumer confidence index.

with ONE meat ball!!!

House passes bill stopping Medicare cut for doctors By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 14 minutes ago

Doctors have less than a week to go before the federal government starts paying them 10.6 percent less when they treat Medicare patients.

With that in mind, the House overwhelmingly passed legislation Tuesday that would void the cut and pay for it by trimming payments to private health insurers.

The legislation passed despite a veto threat by President Bush and protests from the insurance industry. The vote was 355-59. The bill had broad support from doctors, hospitals and pharmacists. A vote against the measure would have risked alienating those important constituencies just as lawmakers get ready to break for the July 4th recess.

Now, the job of avoiding a pay cut for doctors falls to the Senate, where lawmakers were working behind the scenes Tuesday to craft a compromise that would gain the administration's support, or generate enough votes to overcome a veto.

Some 600,000 doctors care for Medicare patients. Payment rates are set to drop by 10.6 percent on July 1 as a result of a formula that calls for cuts when spending exceeds established goals. Avoiding the cuts has become an annual event for Congress, but finding the money invariably requires trimming payments to other health care providers.

Democrats this year have focused on taking the money from the Medicare Advantage program, which lets the elderly and disabled get their health benefits through a private insurer rather than through traditional Medicare.

Democratic lawmakers say the government's payments to the insurers are overly generous, but the administration and supporters in Congress say the payments translate into lower monthly premiums for Medicare Advantage participants or extra services such as vision and dental care. Under the bill passed Tuesday, insurers would lose nearly $14 billion over five years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080624/ap_on_go_co/congress_medicare&printe...

I just audibly yawned big time with a mic stuck to my face in a teleconference and I wasn't on mute. Damn it, damn it, damn it....

His lawyer said Feith changed his mind when he learned that Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, an aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, would also testify. - RAW

Feith subpoena is on.

The Big Let Down

Obama Scolds Black Fathers, Gets Bounce in Polls

By ISHMAEL REED

It’s obvious by now that Barack Obama is treating black Americans like one treats a demented uncle, brought out from his room to be ridiculed and scolded before company from time to time, the old Clinton Sistah Souljah strategy borrowed from Clinton’s first presidential campaign when he traveled the country criticizing the personal morality of blacks and wooing white voters by objecting to what he considered anti -white lyrics sung by rapper Sistah Souljah.

As in Clinton’s case, Obama’s June 14th finger wagging at black men was a case of pandering to white conservative voters. This follows a pattern of using public perceptions of black men fanned by the media and Hollywood to win political favor. Bush One and his sleazy cohorts won votes by depicting black men as dangerous. After the Willie Horton ad, featuring a black rapist, was aired, support for Bush soared to 20% among southern white males, according to Willie Brown, former San Francisco mayor. Obama, by depicting them as irresponsible, saw his poll numbers climb to a 15% lead over McCain, according to a Newsweek poll. With his speech, he received a bounce in the polls that was denied to him after he gained the democrat nomination. He also enjoyed the bounce in the polls from Pennsylvania and Ohio.

According to pundits, the reason he lost these states during the primary was because he couldn’t bowl His Father’s Day speech was meant to show white conservative males that he wouldn’t cater to “special interests” groups, blacks in this case. This was the consensus of those who appeared on MSNBC and other opinion venues of the segregated media on 6/16/2008 even the progressive ones. (Segregated? Not quite. The two percent of African Americans who support Bush all seem to have jobs as...
www.counterpunch.org
*TLL*

I'm not voting against what I don't want - I'm voting for what I do want...that was my big revelation while I ate my lunch today... :)

Many progressives will argue that Obama, having raised huge amounts from small contributors, is akin to getting public financing, which liberates the candidate from dependence on corporate support. Yet just the opposite is happening. In the three weeks since Hillary Clinton fell upon her sword, Obama has lurched far to the right. Consider:

- Obama announced a new financial team of supply-side economists led by Jason Furman, famous for declaring that it would be "damaging to working people" if Wal-Mart were to raise its wages and benefits. Obama had recently criticized Clinton for serving on the Wal-Mart board, declaring, "I won't shop there." In the Audacity of Hope, he sympathized with “Wal-Mart associates who hold their breath every single month in the hope they’ll have enough money to support their children.”

-When questioned in a Fortune interview about his promise to renegotiate NAFTA to protect workers and the environment, Obama replied, "Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified."

- In a close congressional primary race in Georgia, Obama endorsed a troglodyte incumbent – a “Bush enabler” – over an exemplary progressive insurgent.

- In a speech to the Israeli lobby, he moved to the right of Israel’s government by ruling out negotiations with Hamas. A day earlier, Obama had told Cuban exile groups that he would only sit down with Raul Castro if the exiles had a seat at the table, a precondition that Cuba will never agree to.

- Obama refused to criticize recent Israeli war maneuvers and accompanying threats to launch massive air attacks on Iran. He failed to even urge restraint.

- Just as a move was growing in the Senate to strip the House-passed Telecom bill of its immunity provisions, Obama declared his support for the House version. Obama's opposition to immunity had been our best hope to learn whose phones and emails had been wiretapped by the Bush administration, and to punish those Telecom companies that assisted this massive criminal enterprise.

Is he lost to us? Was he ever ours to lose?

Progressives were all too eager to overlook the warning signs in Obama's brief career, his support for the Patriot Act, for nuclear power, his vote against limiting credit card interest to 30%, his calls for increased defense spending, and his equivocation on full withdrawal from Iraq. These decisions were mere matters of political expediency, we were assured, not to be taken seriously.

Yet how can political expediency explain Obama's retreat on NAFTA? Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania are all in play - how many of those voters have been broken on the wheel of NAFTA? Those who contend that the real Obama will suddenly emerge after the election to overturn an imperial foreign policy and to bring justice to the home front, might be advised not to hold their breath.

Obama desperately needs pressure from the left, and he is amenable to pressure. Once we on the left agree that this analysis is correct, then we must choose the correct strategy.
GREGORY KAFOURY

Anybody hear Cindy Sheehan on Malloy's show last night? She is well aware of the treachery of the Democrats. She said Democrats treated her as an enemy for her criticisms and actions against Democrats. She seems to have escaped the demonization by the liberals that Nader is subject to.
The current FISA capitulation is a clue of what is in store for us if Obama wins. Can't we see this?
**TLL*

http://www.cindyforcongress.org/

*TLL*

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregpalast/2604976223/sizes/l/
Greg Palast

i've been following the local newspaper blog lately and its a mixed to far right crowd for the most part. out of the blue (and this is the big duh) it occurred to me how important the success of the republicans is dependent on having a demon.

all of these conservatives are writing in and saying how obama is going to do this and obama is going to do that. he's going to take your 401K and give it the poor people. he's going to raise your taxes and give it to the poor people. he's going to do something to hard working people and give it to lazy people. blah blah blah. now you know the people writing this fluff aren't all millionaires. most of them probably don't even own a business. and yet they identify with the republican party because they have been convinced that somewhere out there an undeserving soul is going to take something away from them.

whats funny is that its a really sick pyramid. as you get more personal wealth, you are constantly hit with a stick that some less deserving person is going to take it all away from you and after all nobody has worked harder than you, right?

so there's my big duh moment.

is now LIVE!

:)

is that just me?

New Thread !

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

duh
new
Submitted by dan on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 5:24pm.

That was a perceptive rant. My hunch is that this sort of warped attitude is limited to a few souls. But cynics from many quarters want us to believe that it is more widespread. "Can't trust the masses, so you better trust we, the elite." I wonder how big this "siding with your worst oppressor" phenomenon was during the New Deal era. Ever listen to William Burroughs spoken word on this? "He was a fascist who specialized in Roosevelt jokes."
(I heard someone say recently that "LaBamba [sic] will send your tax dollars to Africa".)*TLL*

It's still better if McSame wins !

Show me a 3rd party candidate for President that can actually win ?

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

Lighten up, MM...I know how you feel about it...
Submitted by Alice on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 2:59pm.
...it was just something that popped in my brain
*******
Me too.. :)

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

Hope everyone is well. I started to listen to the VOD but I had to stop so I could listen to Rachel and blog and do anything else. Thanks Sam and Marc! I will continue to listen after Rachel's various rants, or I have no more attention span as I am multi-tasking right now. Good god this world really is getting out of hand!

I was searching for spoken word of Burroughs's on anti-Roosevelt sentiment. Didn't look hard enough, but I found this:
Warped Populism
by Elaine Wolff, editor, parallax views
February 15, 2001

It's hardly news that the coalition that brought George W. Bush to power in
the 2000 presidential election includes heavy representation by far right organizations with agendas to dismantle the gains of the civil rights movement over the past forty years, as well as impede any further
improvement in social or economic equality by the working poor, feminists,
gays and lesbians, immigrants or people of color. Unclear to many of us, however, is the roots of this coalition in the right-wing populism of George Wallace, who launched two unsuccessful presidential bids, as well as the remnants of Goldwater Republicans and evangelical Carter Democrats. The political influence exerted by these groups since Reagan's election was also responsible in large part for that public travesty known as "welfare reform" an attack primarily directed at women and children of color living well below the poverty line. To this day, many of us on the left are still shocked that the largest rollback of public assistance in the history of the U.S. was passed under a Democratic president. Politicians in both parties successfully created and preyed upon middle class fears that a large, idle underclass was the parasite that threatened their prosperity - during the largest economic boom in history.

The truth, as author Matthew Lyons notes, is that the Reagan revolution
"involved a massive redistribution of wealth from working-class and
middle-class people into the coffers of the wealthy," while the
lowest-income Americans are worse off in absolute and relative terms than
they were twenty years ago, as reported by Brookings Institution economist
Gary Burtless. How were the architects of the welfare reform movement so
successful?
In their new book, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort,
Lyons and co-author Chip Berlet shed some much-needed light on the power behind the New Right coalition and its firm foundation in American history. Berlet and Lyons caution the reader that racism and scape-goating, far from fringe elements in our society, have been a key ingredient in the
development of our nation from the very beginning because they speak to the human temptation to find an easy target rather than challenge the larger
social and economic structures that create inequality.
Berlet began our interview by defining "populism."

Berlet: Populism is a style of banding together to challenge some kind of
elite system or group. It can move to the left or the right; it can be very
democratic in terms of involving people in the political system or it can
be very profoundly demonizing or scapegoating.

Wolff: Matthew, do you want to define "right-wing?" I think it's a term
that is used very loosely, especially on the left.

Lyons: "Right-wing" is defined in opposition to something else as we use
the term. We see right-wing populist movements as involving a backlash
against social change movements, progressive political movements,
revolution and reform. One of the key things about populism in general is
it involves some kind of attack on elites or groups that are perceived as
elite. In the case of right-wing populism, rather than looking at the
actual structures and positions of power and domination in society, it
involves focusing on scapegoats, which can mean certain prominent
individuals or groups who hold a certain amount of power, or focusing on
groups that really don't hold much power at all in the larger scheme of
things, but who become a lightning rod for people's resentments about very
real disempowerment that they experience. Historically, this has included
attacks on people of color, immigrants, gays and lesbians, women workers,
poor people, a lot of different groups depending on the specific movement.
It's this combination of a distorted anti-elitism as an attack upward, so
to speak, and then this attack downward against oppressed groups that we
see as characteristic of right-wing populism...
TLL*

Thank you very much for this information.
I like this site.

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