Weekend

http://samsedershow.com/node/5134

I AM VERY SAD . ALL THE GOOD ONES ARE GOING FASTER THAN THE BAD ONES. FUCK BUSH SENIOR. HE IS PROBABLY MAD AT HIMSELF FOR NOT ARRANGING A TRIFECTA /

For those who like to listen on Saturday's for the new show, I'm running errands and going to meet my granddaughter. I'll finish and upload the show this afternoon/evening.

Priorities!

Welcome back. Kyle Busch is a big whiny baby bitch when he loses. And he often drives for the Mars candy car. As you know, Mars has a famously red bigoted Republican reputation. They kill animals for grins. And he drives a Toyota. How lame is that!

mire.

EEEWWW. "UMT" again. I'm not that ok with it. ; )

(Resume shutting up and catching up.)

That's very Dr. Evil, no?

Kinda Madonna too, I guess.

(OK fer realz this time.)

first of all how can you tell it's a toyota; to me it looks like a candy bar

second, i drove toyotas all my life, except now i have a vw

lol! happy to be back, but a lot of catching up to do

Tribune finalizes sale of
Cubs to Ricketts family
Media conglomerate Tribune Co. announced a definitive agreement Friday to sell all but a 5 percent stake in the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field to the billionaire Ricketts family, capping a tortuous process that began nearly 2 1/2 years ago.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090822/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/us_cubs_sale

toniD's Ya Think?

makes a fine reliable car mire. As a customer, you are probably satisfied.

Now consider where all of those union busting states were during the Auto Rescue debates. You got it! Toyota country.

They wanted GM to fail regardless of the jobs that would be lost. I will never buy a Toyota for me but my daughter got a hand me down Avalon that is a fantastic car as a product. And my third wife got me to give her money for a Toyota Land-cruiser which was a huge gas hog that did keep it's value (I made money on the deal and she used it for 2 years).

A Colorado car dealer got a shock when a man drove in with a trade in the cash-for- clunkers program, a 1985 Maserati BiTurbo.

The car is in almost pristine condition, KUSA-TV, Denver, reported. There are only 18,480 miles on the odometer.

While the Italian sports car stands out among the battered trucks and SUVs other people have brought to Go Subaru in Golden, it qualified under the program. The owner got a $3,500 rebate on a new Subaru Impreza.

Wes Guthrie said the owner complained the Maserati would need work after being driven for 10 minutes. He had been trying to sell it for months and finding no takers.

However impressive it looks, the Maserati is destined for the same place as the other clunkers traded in to Go Subaru. Since the goal of the federal program is to remove gas-guzzling older cars from the roads, the engine will be disabled and the car crushed.

"Its one of those cars where you go, 'Wow, I wish it didn't have to be crushed, but unfortunately it does,'" Guthrie said.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/08/16/Man-trades-in-Maserati-as-clunker...

Iran offers nuclear concessions on eve of crucial meeting
World Focus: Iran
By David Usborne
Saturday, 22 August 2009

Diplomats the United Nations and in Western capitals were cautiously hopeful last night that a new agreement between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran on the oversight of its nuclear facilities may signal the start of a thaw in the long-running confrontation over its enrichment programmes.

Days before the planned release of a new IAEA report that is expected to be highly critical of the Iranian government for failing to co-operate with inspectors, Tehran has made two potentially significant concessions including a green light for them to resume visits to a heavy water reactor near the city of Arak.

Sources in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, also told news agencies that the Iranian authorities simultaneously agreed to amend working practices at its Natanz uranium-enrichment facility to give agency cameras a better view of what is happening on the centrifuge floor where the enrichment happens.

But an official in the Obama administration cautioned against excessive optimism. "Iran is still not in compliance with its IAEA obligations and is not providing... full and comprehensive co-operation," he said, on condition of anonymity.

At a key meeting on 2 September, the US, Britain, France and Germany are expected to urge Russia and China to agree to the possibility of yet another round of stringent UN sanctions. The new report from the IAEA will form the basis of those talks.

President Barack Obama has warned that he expects Iran, which is just coming out of the tumult of its contested presidential elections, to offer evidence by mid-September that it is indeed pursuing enrichment for energy-generating reasons alone, as it claims, and not with weaponisation in mind. If he is not satisfied, he will use a G20 summit in Pittsburgh on 24 September to demand new sanctions. "We must welcome every effort from Iran because we have been asking them to co-operate with the IAEA and they have not been doing so," one European diplomat said of the new gestures. Another diplomatic source was less sure of the significance. "Look at it in context. Iran stonewalls for a year and then allows access right before the IAEA is to issue its report," he said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-offers-nuclear-...

toniD's Ya Think?

Now Streaming Live

http://www.thisishell.net/
http://www.wnur.org/

http://live.wnur.org:8094/listen.pls (mp3 low bandwidth 32kbs)
mms://live.wnur.org:8080/live.wmv (win mediaplayer 128kbs)

and congrats to the granddad and the new audrey baby; she's so cute; she's got such well defined features already, does she look like her sister?

funny how they look like someone in their family on their first day already, although it may soon disappear...

first thing i saw when i looked into my daughter's tiny face thirty two years ago (her birthday was on my birthday by the way!) was a faint semblance of my father and thought oh gosh i hope not, not that he was bad looking but sort of an asshole... anyway, no it turns out she doesn't look like my father at all...

but she must have carried some hidden gene because i thought i detected that same slightly hoggish face feature in my first grandaughter when she was only a few months old... blissfully disappeared forever

sorry mb, i am digressing; your new little grandbaby is precious! and nothing hoggish about her face that's for sure, she's beautiful (i must respectfully disagree with the churchill analogy, i don't see it)

this is a biological imperative so the father will bond...hey she looks "just like Me!"

this is really true

Joe The Nerd: The Man Who Challenged Obama On Health Care

Joe Ferraro was a little anxious when it came his turn to question President Obama about health care reform during Michael Smerconish's call-in interview on Thursday. Obama asked him how he was doing.

"Oh, I'm scared out of my mind talking to you here," said Ferraro. But he quickly got his act together.

"I'm getting a little ticked off that it feels like the knees are buckling a little bit," Ferraro said. "We have overwhelming majorities in both the House and the Senate. And we own the whole shooting match. And I'm just getting...It's very frustrating to watch you try and compromise with these people who aren't willing to compromise with you."

It was the question of the week. It resonated far and wide through the Washington political establishment, the Internet, and the traditional media.

The "knees buckling" line appeared in pretty much every story about the Smerconish interview.

He became something of a hero in the progressive community, where there is a growing disappointment over Obama's buckling.

Obama's wordy response to Ferrarro's question was among the most newsworthy of the day, although he didn't actually address the issue of whether he was actually buckling or not. "I guarantee you, Joe, we are going to get health care reform done," Obama said. "And I know that there are a lot of people out there who have been hand-wringing, and folks in the press are following every little twist and turn of the legislative process. You know, passing a big bill like this is always messy. FDR was called a socialist when he passed Social Security. JFK and Lyndon Johnson, they were both accused of a government takeover of health care when they passed Medicare. This is the process that we go through."

Ferraro is a 48-year-old father of three who lives with his wife and kids in Audubon, Pa., where he goes by "Joe the Nerd." He's in business for himself, fixing computers (hence the "Nerd" title).
Story continues below

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Ferraro said he supported Obama over Hillary Clinton in the primaries particularly because he had more faith in Obama to do something about health care. He said his wife went back to work full-time a year and a half ago so they could have health insurance for their two boys and girl. He's frustrated that the president is being so solicitous of Republicans and conservative Democrats who have no interest in the "public option," a government-run insurance company to compete with private insurers.

"I have nothing but bad things to say right now about any Democrat who goes up against the president," he said. "If you're a liberal pulling this crap, if you're a Blue Dog pulling this crap, get the hell out of the way."

Ferraro wrote a blog post about his experience. He explained why it was hard to hear his voice: "The phone call was a garbled from my own fault. I was soooo incredibly nervous about saying what I felt I needed to say to the President, that I forgot to switch from speaker phone back to the regular handset. That is why my voice was bouncing all over the place."

"This is the biggest chance I've had to scream and bitch and moan ever," Ferraro said. "I'm glad I didn't insult the president."

As for Obama's answer to his question, Ferraro was satisfied.

"I believed the guy," he said.

Here's video of the president taking Ferraro's question:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/21/joe-the-nerd-the-man-who_n_2655...

toniD's Ya Think?

.
Now playing at the
_Roxie Theater_

That's hilarious!

In the words of Police Chief O'Doul, "I'm just speckalatin' about a hypothesis is all". (Miller's Crossing)

I really have no passion invested in these thoughts, cent, and I am a notoriouosly lackluster conspiracy theorist much to the chagrin of one of my closest friends, a tin foil hat afficionado, to be sure. In fact, if I were charged with making one, I would end up with something like a porkpie, rather than something out of the Jetsons.

The way I see it we're all functioning on consipracy theories when it comes to Obama's decisionmaking, including ostensibly Paul Krugman, but also Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald to name other examples of prominent critics both you and I read daily. Everyone wants reassurances and no one is getting them. I see it in the frustration of their words and the WTFs that have been penned minute by minute since the 08 primaries. As to how tin-foil-hatty we all are, well that's subjective, isn't it? Everyone clings to what they believe they have validated with their own powers of observation.

Actually, I am in total agreement with you that I think Obama should be much more forceful in pushing the public option and will probably think the same about a host of other future liberal issues. My fantasy Obama is a fearless firebrand populist on a liberal scorched earth tour. But he's not, and I can disagree with him on how to handle things without begrudging him his own decisionmaking process. I'm not the president; he is. Working myself into a frenzy over his decisions is tantamount to implying that I'd be doing better were I in his shoes and I certainly don't believe that.

We're all simply interpreting a set of behavioral patterns and trying to make sense of the way he has chosen to play the game.

If Obama signs a bill without a public option, I know I will have done what I could and I have already done plenty via educating myself, donating time and money and routinely calling the WH and various pols. I'm not going to wring my hands over every issue. I invest energy, interest and curiosity into politics, not a whole lot of emotion, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to follow it.

"this machine kills fascists"

Montanans Not Backing Baucus' Work On Health Care

Montanans are not terribly keen on the job that home state Senator Max Baucus is doing on health care reform, according to a new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll.

Only 42 percent of Montana residents -- and 34 percent of Democrats -- said they favored the work Baucus had done in shepherding health care legislation through the Senate Finance Committee. Forty-four percent of respondents said they disapproved, according to the poll of more than 600 people in the state.

The results may be partially attributable to Baucus's apparent decision to craft legislation without a public option. Within Montana, 47 percent of the public supports creating a "public health insurance option," while 43 percent oppose it. Looking closer at the numbers, slightly less than one-quarter of Republicans (23 percent) support a public plan. Forty-eight percent of independents and 78 percent of Democrats support the provision.

Baucus' role in overseeing health care reform on the critical Senate Finance Committee has caused a great deal of consternation among progressives. The Montana Democrat has been targeted by ads calling into question the millions of dollars in campaign donations he has received from private insurance and health industry interests. His failure to meet a self-imposed August recess deadline for producing legislation -- and his willingness to negotiate away the public plan -- has only infuriated those Democrats more.

That said, a majority of Montanans continue to view Baucus positively, with 50 percent of the Daily Kos/Research 2000 respondents saying they had a favorable view of the Senator compared to the 42 percent who had an unfavorable view. And while the state's residents are supportive of a public plan, most said that Baucus' stance on the provision won't affect their support of him.

Asked how their votes would be affected if Baucus were to oppose "a public health insurance option," 17 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to vote for the Senator, 22 percent said they would be less likely to vote for him. Sixty-one percent said it would have no effect.

Asked how their votes would be affected if Baucus "joined Republican Senators in filibustering and killing a final health care bill because it had a public health insurance option," 27 percent said they would be less likely to vote for him, 15 percent said they would be more likely to vote for him. Fifty-eight percent said it would have no effect.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/21/montantans-not-backing-ba_n_265...

So if it doesn't effect the majority, what difference does it make? And you wonder why nothing ever changes?

toniD's Ya Think?

And you trust a government that HATES HATES HATES [cuba]
Submitted by Alice on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 12:10am.
==
Is "The Government" a thing that can be anthropomorphized any better than say, "God?"

I see government as an amorphous thing made up of individuals and in a given situation can be effected because of that.

I see a government that has a lot of people that want to normalize relations with Cuba. [and a lot that don't still.]

I want the good old us of a to apologize to the world for letting our fearful white men be in charge for so long.

Vida Guerra is Cuban :)

http://www.speedtv.com/programs/livin-the-low-life/

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

babies always look like dad when they are born
Submitted by mhappenow on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 11:09am.
this is a biological imperative so the father will bond...
-----
...or so the father will admit, "Holy Christ, it's true!"

MONEY AND POLITICS: The End of the Blue Dogs’ Fundraising Boom?
By Josh Israel, Aaron Mehta | August 20, 2009, 1:05 pm

Though the past six months have been financially beneficial to the Blue Dog Coalition, it appears that the Dogs’ fundraising intake has slowed, despite all the attention the coalition has received.

In our report last month, the Center detailed how donations to the Coalition’s PAC had soared as members of the moderate Blue Dog Democrats become a crucial swing vote between Democrats and Republicans. Given all publicity about the Blue Dogs’ new-found power, we thought it would be interesting to look at the recently-released July fundraising numbers for the Blue Dog PAC and see if anything had changed. We were surprised by what we found.

The Blue Dog PAC took in only $27,000 in July, a significant decrease from the record $176,000-a-month-plus average it took in during the first six months of 2009. For comparison, the PAC took in $106,500 in June from other political action committees. As the Blue Dogs exploded to the forefront of the health care debate in July, not a single health care sector political committee donated to the Blue Dog PAC. And despite hefty contributions in previous months from energy companies concerned about the climate change bill, the energy donations also completely dried up in July. Through the first six months of the year, these sectors were the two largest contributors.

What could be causing this drop off in funding? It’s hard to say for sure, but here are a few possibilities: Perhaps with the climate bill out of the way and prospects for speedy action on a major health care overhaul dwindling, these companies feel their work is done. With all the attention the Blue Dogs have generated and the focus on who is funding them, these companies may have decided to lay low for a while. Many of these PACs may have already donated their allotted funds for the year. It’s even possible that the PAC managers were all on vacation for July. According to data from 2006 and 2008, the Blue Dog PAC does appear to have a traditional drop-off in contributions for the month of July, but not nearly at the dramatic level seen this year.

We attempted to ask representatives from Tenet Healthcare Corporation and Pacific Gas and Electric Company, both of whom donated in June of this year but have not yet reached the legal maximum, why they didn’t contribute again in July and whether a drop off in PAC to PAC giving is a common occurrence for this month; neither responded in time for publication. Calls to the spokesperson for the Blue Dog coalition were not returned by press time.

Regardless of the cause of this dip in funds, it will be interesting to track what happens in the coming months. If the PAC giving picks up, it will be business as usual. If this downward trend continues, however, the Blue Dogs might be wondering what they did to end up in the doghouse.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/blog/entry/1620/#When:17:05:06Z

toniD's Ya Think?

.

That's fantastic news. I'm so glad to know Baucus will have a price to pay if it all goes down in flames after the House holds his nether region to the fire.

I am going to do my best to contain my enthusiasm for the race the afternoon. I'm just going to say that I want a repeat of Bristol from 2008. I want to see Carl Edwards spin Kyle Busch out. And crow about it afterwords :)

Budget Buster: Kent Conrad's Long Opposition To The Public Option
Sam Stein and Ryan Grim

Kent Conrad, the Democratic Senator who declared the public health insurance option dead on Sunday, portrays his activism on behalf of health insurance cooperatives as the conscripted service of a pragmatic warrior.

The public option, he has said over and over, just doesn't have the 60 votes he thinks are needed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

The accuracy of that supposed whip-count aside, Conrad's opposition to offering consumers a government-run alternative to private insurance companies goes deeper than political pragmatism.

Though he has refused to take a public position on the matter, in private meetings with colleagues and staff dating back to the beginning of the year, Conrad has repeatedly expressed his opposition to a public option, four top Democratic aides who've sat in meetings with him told the Huffington Post.

Conrad, they say, sees the public option as a dangerous expansion of federal responsibility for health care spending. "His position seems based on ideology more than practicality," said one of the aides.

Without fundamental changes to the health care system, Conrad sees the public option as unable to reduce the cost of health care. The argument by proponents of the public option that a government-run alternative within the insurance market would drive that fundamental change and help push health costs lower apparently doesn't hold any water with him.

Instead, he has presented a vague proposal to create health insurance cooperatives as an alternative.

But if it were up to Conrad, the Senate wouldn't be talking co-ops, public option or health care reform in 2009 at all, the aides say. The focus on health care runs afoul of his singular and career-long devotion to cutting the federal deficit. more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/21/budget-buster-kent-conrad_n_264...

toniD's Ya Think?

Arlen Specter Mocks Town Halls, Viagra, And Sarah Palin In Comedy Routine (VIDEO)

"this machine kills fascists"

Louisiana Dems file ethics complaint against Vitter
@ 10:29 am by Michael O'Brien

The head of the Louisiana Democratic Party filed an ethics complaint against Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) on Friday, accusing Vitter of using his taxpayer-funded town hall meetings as campaign events.

Party chairman Chris Wittington filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee, saying in the sworn statement that shots Vitter had taken at prospective reelection opponent, Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.), as well as the controlled environment of the meetings, had constituted a breach of ethics.

"These comments, and in particular Senator Vitter's repeated attacks on his likely campaign opponent, indicate these events were political and not official in nature," Whittington wrote.

Lawmakers are forbidden from using official funds, bankrolled by taxpayers, for campaign purposes.

"Instead of using town hall meetings to foster a free and open discussion on important issues, Senator Vitter has essentially staged taxpayer-funded campaign events to repeatedly launch misleading attacks on his potential opponent and build his campaign's war chest," said Louisiana Democratic Party Spokesman Kevin Franck. "Once again David Vitter has given into the temptation to cross an ethical and legal boundary."

The complaint could establish an interesting precedent for the heated August town hall meetings, giving pause to any lawmaker who made statements about potential political foes in recent meetings.

http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/08/21/louisiana-dems-file-ethics-co...

toniD's Ya Think?

The California Nurses Association just sent out a press release highlighting new report from the Commonwealth Fund that projects a 94% increase in health insurance premiums by 2020, if effective reforms aren't enacted. From the e-mailed release:

Private insurance premiums for employer-sponsored coverage will rise by 94 percent by 2010, on top of the 119 percent increase since 1999, according to the Commonwealth Fund report. The increases in premiums from 1999 to 2008 were four times greater than the rise in family incomes, even prior to the current recession.

"These findings are merely the shocking state of premiums, not even including a concurrent jump in out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-pays, and other fees. It's no wonder that medical bills now are the leading factor in 62 percent of bankruptcies, and half of American families are rationing medical care because they can't afford it," noted Deborah Burger, RN, co-president of the 86,000-member California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.

Karen Davis from the Commonweath Fund writes:

Health insurance is already becoming unaffordable for families and businesses, with premium inflation outpacing wage increases. Between 1999 and 2008, employer family health insurance premiums rose by 119 percent, while the median family income rose by less than 30 percent. As a result, average family premiums for group policies have risen from 11 percent to 18 percent of median family income. And if Congress fails to pass health reforms that control health care costs, premiums are projected to rise to 24 percent of a family's income by 2020. (Click on image at right to open chart.) In any economic climate, but especially in today’s recession, most families cannot afford to devote a fourth of their income to insurance coverage, nor can businesses afford their share of insurance premiums in addition to raises for employees.

continued>>>

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/22/770519/-The-Cost-of-Not-Havi...

toniD's Ya Think?

I was wondering what kind of a teacher you were. If you don't answer, I'll know to mind my own damn business next time.
; )

Also, WAS that you with the ceiling and wanting the man to make the soup for?

this is the email he'd get.

: ) : ) : ) : ) etc

medical weed. Please feel free to go over and comment on the nonsense. Thanks.

"ZootMantis

Marijuana is VERY bad for you. It will give you pimples on the bottom of your feet and cause terminal masturbation.

If you are in possession of even a small amount of this insidious substance, you should safely rid yourself of it, right now. Send your cannabis to the Zoot Mantis Cannabis Destruction Facility. Me and my staff will quickly and safely guarantee that all marijuana will be properly disposed of in an efficient and completely sanitary fashion."

sleepyheads

David Shiga misses the point while reviewing District 9. The movie isn't supposed to be a sci-fi flick using some of the latest theories of the essence of the physical universe, it's about people and how goofy we all are.

The aliens represent how western cultures often vilify people they don't understand or are ignorant about. The "aliens" are very much like the Vietcong or the Iraqis or the Iranians are to cultures where their language is not English and their customs are not Christian. Duh. The point of using the alien image is to make a culturally generic examination of the psychological manifestations of misunderstandings and how it leads us to hate one another.

Sometimes I wonder if the writers at New Scientist ever dated in High School or hung out with friends their parents disapproved of. I question how often they have crossed a solid yellow or white line on the road. I imagine that they wear paisley nylon shirts with polka-dot polyester pants and white patent leather shoes. I bet they buy Clearasil at wholesale prices.

I am still a registered Dem and I was surprized that "courtney" wanted to see if I would vote for him. Gave me great pleasure to say "abso fucking lutely NOT!

Bloomberg was recently in Astoria; I wanted toi ask where he was when the lights were out. I always send his literature back Return To Sender.....

Yes. The Director is also South African, so there's a little bit about apartheid in there. You're on point, Fernando - as usual.

or hear that Bloomberg said live on the radio yesterday that The CEO's of big Pharma really didn't make that much money and "we shouldn't fixate on going after them "

during a sudden station break Turtlehead said that he looked it up and he back peddled. it was posted yesterday . IF the DEMS don't make a commercial out of it they are missing a great chance to zing him.

I am sure that is why I was called a few minutes ago.

Rich NYC mayor: Drug CEOs
Submitted by toniD on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 5:19pm.

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5132#comment-362414

You may not want to witness this.

I read it - stunning. He's buying another term.

Bloomberg might not be able to do that because he "is trying too hard" and that will work against him.

i already see it.

i think it's annoying a lot of people.

Is this crotch grabbing or nylon shirt having?

I am in no position to judge.

OK, I know its not crotch grabbing.

There are getting to be dozens of these.

pyrael if (we.education != 100) { we.education++; } else { echo 'we don't need education }#songsincode about 3 hours ago from web

metroscapeGuy BRILLIANT -- RT @tiemez while(false){ self.giveYouUp(); self.letYouDown(); self.runAround(); self.desertYou(); } #songsincode about 2 hours ago from web

http://www.ufw.org/s/

I read it in english first then I switch to Spainish. In the modern world I have found a need to a least speak the language of a third of the country.

I really feel for the farm Workers. And the obscene over use of chemicals hurts all of U.S.

http://www.ufw.org/s/_board.php?mode=view&b_code=cre_leg&b_no=4&page=1&f...

The offer still stands to do short translations for any page that doesn't have a human-translated version.

Nice to see you again!

and the abuses they suffered would actually be good for an intermediate Spanish class, in a lotta ways (including informing).

Including the fact that they have Spanish "mistakes".

(right before new thread) and cares:

"My peeps/not my peeps (comedy) principle" was referring to "lesbo" (it was an inside thing, vacilando) not to racist white working-class southerners (as in the song in the YouTube).

I mean, IMO other white folks from the south generally do BETTER comedy/dissing (about) those people than white folks from elsewhere, but I wasn't in that neighborhood.

heh - I always seem to forget that part....

To me politics is all very personal, especially on issues of justice and poverty...I can't help it, it is just the way I am built...

To me it is not simply a game of chess. I admire the skills and strategy and even the intrigue, but I am more concerned with the outcomes...The decisions public servants make, at every level of government, cause real pain and/or relief for people, especially the disenfranchised...

If Obama signs a bill with a mandate and without a public option, that is it with him for me...he will be done in my eyes for the rest of his term in office...and I will definitely not support him in 2012...that is not to say that I will support him even if real reform passes, if there is someone more liberal running, they will probably get my vote.....

Wendell Potter Warns: Co-op Kool-Aid Is Bad for Your Health
Submitted by Wendell Potter on August 21, 2009 - 2:24pm.

I’m beginning to think that the Kool-Aid being served at meetings of the Senate Finance Committee’s soon-to-be infamous Gang of Six is coming from either fantasy land or the health insurance industry.

For those of you who might not be following the sorry machinations of health care reform in the Senate Finance Committee, the Gang of Six is a group of three Democrats and three Republicans hand-picked by Committee Chair Max Baucus, who is one of the three Democrats. The gang meets often, supposedly drafting a bipartisan bill. In reality, if such a bill emerges, it will be a gift to the insurance industry because the gang includes some of the industry’s best friends on Capitol Hill.

Thanks to gang member Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, the gang reportedly is giving serious consideration to replacing the good idea of a public insurance option with an idea that is sheer fantasy: a few nonprofit co-operatives that would be expected to compete with the cartel of giant for-profit insurance companies and “win in the marketplace,” to use a favorite term of my former CEO and cartel heavyweight, H. Edward Hanway.

If you don’t believe anything else I have said or written, please believe this: nonprofit co-operatives don’t stand a snowball’s chance of competing with those big companies and making a whit of a difference in the lives of the 75 million Americans who either have no insurance or have such marginal insurance they might as well have no insurance.

Kool-Aid came to mind as I was reading a story in the Wall Street Journal this week about Conrad’s continuing and naive insistence that co-ops could work. I remembered sitting in a meeting of other insurance company executives a few years ago. A leading advocate of the high-deductible plans the industry is trying to force us all into these days (and out of the plans insurance industry pollsters and politicians say we are all happy with and can stay in--if we wish upon a star), grew so exasperated after failing to convince us that these plans would be good for most Americans, he finally said, “Look, you’re just going to have to drink the Kool-Aid.”

It looks as if the Gang of Six is about to offer its co-op Kool-Aid to the other members of the Senate Finance and to tell them to drink up.

The reality is there has been a tremendous consolidation in the health insurance industry over the past 15 years. A cartel of very large for-profit insurance companies now dominates the industry. One out of every three Americans is enrolled in some kind of plan offered by just seven of those large companies. Almost all metropolitan areas in the country—and states that are more rural than urban— are now dominated by just two or three insurers. It is impossible for even one of the other large insurers to break into a market dominated by its competitors.

Take Philadelphia, where I live and where CIGNA, my former employer is based, as an example. The lion’s share of the insurance market in Philly is controlled by Independence Blue Cross and Aetna. CIGNA would love to be a big player in its own hometown but has never been able to scale up to be a serious competitor. It has some business there but not much compared to Independence and Aetna. If CIGNA can’t overcome the huge barriers to entering that market, a nonprofit co-op wouldn’t have a chance.

Advocates of co-ops point out that they work in a few other segments of the economy, and primarily in a few rural parts of the country, such as in the cranberry and raisin businesses.

Growing cranberries and raisins is a heck of a lot different from providing health care coverage to 50 million Americans who don’t have it because they can’t afford the overpriced policies from Big Insurance—or because they can’t buy coverage at any price because of a “pre-existing condition.”

To be sure, health insurers take every opportunity to badmouth co-ops, saying they are a backdoor to socialized medicine. Their criticism is disingenuous. Secretly, they would love to have a bill that creates co-ops that won’t work instead of a single-payer or public option that has proven successful in other western countries.

prwatch.org

Why I love Britain's socialized healthcare system

As I learned when my newborn daughter was very sick, in U.K. hospitals, people take care of each other

By Stephen Amidon

Aug. 22, 2009 | My eldest daughter had a rough first week. Born after 22 hours of hard labor, her pink skin proceeded to turn an alarming shade of yellow on the second day of her life. It was a bad case of jaundice. She would need to be placed in an incubator, whose ultraviolet light would hopefully clear up the condition. If not, a transfusion would be required. My exhausted wife and I watched in numb horror as our child was encased in the clear plastic box that was to become her crib for the next seven days. What we had hoped would be a straightforward delivery had turned into a nightmare.

Because I am American, and those endless days and nights were spent in a maternity hospital in London, the week that followed has been very much on my mind as I listen to the recent attacks on the British National Health Service. It is a system that I found to be very different from the one currently being described as "evil" and "Orwellian" by politicians and commentators eager to use it as an example of the dark side of public medicine.

I was initially skeptical about the NHS. I’d grown up comfortably in suburban New Jersey; good private healthcare was always immediately available through my father’s insurance. When my English wife became pregnant soon after we settled in London, I was alarmed by the idea of having our first child born in a system I had been told was underfunded, overstressed and inefficient. After all, healthcare in the UK was free. How good could it be? Friends and relatives back in the States were spending thousands to have children. If you get what you pay for, I was about to get a whole lot of nothing.

My first glimpse of our prospective hospital was not promising. It seemed crowded, aging and apparently devoid of the gleaming, beeping equipment I associated with modern medicine. But our neo-natal class actually helped me prepare for the upcoming birth, and the scans we received afforded the same miraculous fetal glimpses we would have gotten back in New Jersey. Come delivery day, an impressive team of midwives, nurses and anesthesiologists attended my wife’s long labor, all of them respecting her request not to opt for a cesarean section. When things got sticky at the end, a senior obstetrician appeared and the monitoring equipment beeped reassuringly.

Directly following the birth, we were taken to a large ward whose 20-odd beds were separated by curtains and changing tables. It was visiting hour; the place was alive with excited relatives, shellshocked fathers and the constant susurrus of hungry new life. That first night, however, the atmosphere grew peaceful. Crying babies were attended immediately by sensibly-shod nurses so that others could sleep. But it was after my daughter began to turn the color of saffron rice that I really began to appreciate the NHS. The moment she showed distress, we were whisked off to a private room, where we were looked after by a no-nonsense pediatrician and the imposing Irish ward sister, or chief nurse, who quickly made it clear to me that my sole useful contribution to the whole process had come nine months earlier. Blood was drawn regularly from our daughter’s tiny heel; test results came back promptly. The meals were surprisingly edible. I even developed a taste for the milky tea brought to me by kind nurses. My only complaints over the following week were that the free cookies in the father’s lounge were always running out. And for some reason the ward sister kept giving me withering looks, no matter how dutifully I attended to my family’s needs.

As my blindfolded daughter slept in the incubator’s eerie violet glow, I would take occasional strolls through the ward. It was the most egalitarian place I had ever seen. The yuppie woman honking into her newfangled cell phone, the young Pakistani mother who always seemed to be surrounded by a half-dozen gift-bearing relations, the self-sufficient older woman desperate to get home to look after her other children -- all of them were cared for in exactly the same manner. Whoever needed help got it. When a terrified Afghani girl arrived, rumored to be only 14 and apparently abandoned by her family, several nurses dropped what they were doing to teach her the rudiments of child care. The rest of the mothers waited patiently until they were finished. Other wards were the same. There was no private wing with champagne service. Everybody was in this together. If you were a woman and you were in labor and you were in our part of London, this is where you came. If things went wrong, skilled doctors appeared with the latest technology. Nobody asked about insurance or co-pays.

This, I learned, is what the NHS is about -- common decency. It is about the shared belief that all the people who live in the United Kingdom constitute a society, and a decent society provides certain necessities for its members. Freedom from hunger is one. Police protection is another. Free healthcare from the cradle to the grave is simply one more item on this list.

Quantcast

I saw this decency at work countless times over the following decade, until my return to the United States. I saw it with the twice-daily home visits by community midwives for the fortnight after each of our newborn children’s release from hospital, and in the vouchers for free milk we were given for those babies. I saw it when our GP paid us a house call early one Sunday morning to treat our son’s spiking fever.

I saw it most clearly, however, in the treatment my in-laws received at the end of their lives. My wife’s father, who suffered from acute myloid dysplasia, spent his last year receiving constant care, including several sprints to the hospital for emergency transfusions, where doctors struggled heroically to keep him alive. His final week was spent in a very comfortable single hospice room whose French doors opened onto a terrace overlooking his beloved Yorkshire moors. When he died, he left us his house, and not a penny of healthcare debt. My mother-in-law, stricken by arthritis, got two artificial hips and two knees from the NHS, and received daily home visits from social workers during the last three years of her life so she would not have to go into a nursing home. Neither of these septuagenarians was working at the time. The amount of money spent on their care must have been staggering. And yet, despite shouldering this yoke of decency, the nation prospered around them. People were buying French wine and German cars and second homes. They were attending Cats and supporting Arsenal and going on holidays in the sun. Sure, people complained about the NHS. But the British complain about everything. Living without a public health system, on the other hand, was unthinkable.

On the day we were finally given the all-clear, there were no papers to sign, no bills to settle. All we had to do was remove our daughter’s blindfold and go. But I felt I had to leave something behind. So I rushed down to the local corner shop and bought several tins of cookies to give the staff who’d looked after us so well. As luck would have it, the Irish ward sister was the only one at the nurse’s station when I arrived. Before I could explain myself, she gave me a tight, approving smile.

"Wondered when you’d start chipping in," she said, returning to her paperwork. "Just leave them in the father’s lounge."

Salon

I'm not going gloom and doom yet, by any means, but I definitely grasp the unjust and retarded implications of passing a bill that mandates helath insurance for all yet foregoes a non-profit public plan.

Again, I can't grasp how monumentally stupid a person Obama would have to be to not realize the intensity and breadth of the blowback that would arise from that situation.

Not only that, but even before the vote, to opt to push the idea of a co-op which is a far more nebulous and arcane concept for politicians to explain and for people to grasp than a public option.

Indeed the ultimate and most sensible plan in lieu of single-payer universal care has to be to ensure a public option that will incrementally point to the obviousness of single-payer universal care.

"this machine kills fascists"

Report Reveals CIA Conducted Mock Executions

A long-awaited report on post-9/11 interrogation tactics will reveal harrowing new details about treatment of suspected terrorists.

By Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Aug 21, 2009 | Updated: 6:58 p.m. ET Aug 21, 2009

A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general to be released next week reveals that CIA interrogators staged mock executions as part of the agency's post-9/11 program to detain and question terror suspects, NEWSWEEK has learned.

According to two sources—one who has read a draft of the paper and one who was briefed on it—the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri's interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up," said one of the sources. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with "imminent death."

The report also says, according to the sources, that a mock execution was staged in a room next to a detainee, during which a gunshot was fired in an effort to make the suspect believe that another prisoner had been killed. The inspector general's report alludes to more than one mock execution.

[...]

Newsweek

how they did in fact have "death panels" to decide who got it, how the panels were openly darwinist and racist and how they were abolished with the establishment of Medicare. I did not know that.

Excellent debunker.

HaHA. Looks like this is the source. (WAPO.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR200908...

Don't think this has been here before...

Dateline Columbus, OH.

Audrey Eileen Hicks departed Grant Hospital at 5 p.m . with Mom and Dad to go home and hook up with big sister Olivia. Met grandfather today and was so impressed she slept though the entire meeting.

Why don't we let the folks buy thier own insurance at a good price? Isn't that the American way? I like the Co-op plan! In the end I think trainee Obama will like it. I think Congress will like it too! Success has 100 parents, failure is an orphan.

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

George W. Bush

Sleepy head... :) (Dormilona.)

Like the gender ambiguous hat but it's really not foolin' anyone.

blow me mullett you pile of putrid pus

The U.S. General Accounting Office produced a report on cooperatives in March 2000 that was mostly sour on the idea. Using five different co-ops as examples, the study concluded that on the key function — lowering the cost of insurance — these non-profit insurance pools came up well short.

"The cooperatives' potential to reduce overall premiums is limited because (1) they lack sufficient leverage as a result of their limited market share; (2) the cooperatives have not been able to produce administrative cost savings for insurers; or (3) their state laws and regulations already restrict to differing degrees the amount insurers can vary the premiums charged different groups purchasing the same health plan."

…

And without a large number of participants, co-ops essentially were subject to the whims of the insurance market, unable to use market influence to get consumers better deals on coverage. "None of the purchasing cooperatives we reviewed had a large enough market share to create bargaining leverage and therefore had a limited ability to significantly increase the percentage of small employers offering coverage in their state," the study found.

Facts a.k.a. Konservative Kryptonite

I knew it was hard, but not like this.
________
In Arkansas, a parent is only eligible for Medicaid if her income is below 17 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) -- $3,112 a year for a family of three. In Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas, a parent of two making more than $5,310/year is ineligible for Medicaid. It's no wonder that, as Martha Heberlein previously noted, 41 percent of parents with incomes below 150 percent FPL are uninsured.

http://www.womenstake.org/2009/08/index.html

As a friend (economics major) was explaining this to me -- We have been watching the subprime mortgags default at a rate of 34 percent, however the subprime mortgages make up a smaller pool than prime mortgages. And now the prime mortgages are seeing defaults of one in eight prime mortgage holders. Like my friend pointed out to me: Since the prime mortgage holders make up a larger pool, it means the number of prime mortgage defaults -- if it continues to rise due to lost jobs and no replacement jobs, etc. -- it could end up being worse. That's what is causing worry.

When Obama was elected liberals made a lot of false assumptions. The biggest, of course, was that change meant a big government public plan. Most libs knew in thier heart that single payer was not going to happen, but Obama along with the libs, misread the American public.

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

George W. Bush

Some of the locals around here seem to think he is ready to bring her on board. I know he has been talking about adding another driver for 2010 and they are insisting her name keeps coming up as being considered but I can't find anything on it to the affirmative....

Have you heard anything?

Gloryoski @6:14

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR200908...

This link was very interesting. Thanks!

Still, what the town hallers don't get is that when US citizens are denied healthcare based on previous conditions or the Ability to Pay, then the Insurance Industry is playing God. Preserving this current system means preserving the insurance corporation middleman who decides the fate of millions....

--------------------------------------

We need Comprehensive Medicare-For-All!

I"d have better luck getting Medicaid! ;-)

forwarded from my next door neighbor. She has no idea of what really is going on and just passes these along to me. I was going to talk to her about it but decided not to because I want to know the garbage going around from the wingers. She and her husband watch Faux News all the time. They are simple people, not to bright, but nice enough. They've been nice to me and helpful. Just brain-washed!

Here's something that caught my eye in the email though...

A good friend who received this email forwarded to me. Unbelievable.

This was sent to me by a friend in Bozeman , MT who was there.

Hello All,

By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Bill and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on.

Snopes says it is undetermined so far and that it comes from Montana Beef

Why did the sender want his/her name deleted?

toniD's Ya Think?

and failing.

It's really just basic blogging etiquette.

Rude Blogger or Blogger Nazi..

NO LINK FOR YOU!

Forest fire out of control near Athens

ATHENS (AFP) – Hundreds of firefighters battled wildfires in Greece and Portugal on Saturday, with scores of homes under threat on the rural outskirts of Athens.

Greek firefighters evacuated a children's summer camp and helped a number of elderly citizens leave their threatened homes near Athens, media reports said, as a huge forest fire burned out of control just outside the capital.

And in Portugal more than 640 firefighters helped by 20 water-bombers fought forest and scrub fires in the north and centre of the country.

The fire northeast of Athens, fueled by strong winds, surged a distance of 30 kilometres (20 miles) towards communities around Mount Penteli, despite the authorities' desperate efforts to erect defences.

And one mayor advised residents to quit the area.

"People should start moving southwards in an orderly fashion, those who stay behind can do so on their own responsibility," Spyros Dardamanis, the mayor of Dionysos, a wooded suburb northeast of Athens, told ANT1 television.

"The mountain is on fire as far as the eye can see, the destruction is unknown," Christos Kleftakis, the community head of neighbouring Rodopoli told Mega channel.

The fire was also burning close to Marathon, one of the agricultural areas feeding the capital and the main source of its water supply.

"Everything will burn down in Marathon tonight if the fire department does not help us," its mayor Spyros Zagaris told ANT1.

Television footage showed a military truck towing away anti-aircraft missiles. A military barracks is located near the area of the fire.

Officials said the flames had already reached at least a dozen homes at Grammatiko, Varnavas and Kalentzi, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Athens.

And Mount Penteli is the last barrier to the furthest reaches of the capital.

"The coming night is expected to be particularly difficult," fire department spokesman Yiannis Kapakis told reporters.

A force of over 200 firefighters has already spent the entire day fighting the fire on several fronts to protect hundreds of rural and summer homes which many residents have refused to abandon despite an evacuation order.

The firefighters faced winds of up to 50 kilometres (30 miles) per hour that regularly changed direction, but then lost the advantage of air support as a fleet of fire-fighting aircraft was withdrawn for the night.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090822/wl_afp/greeceportugalfire_200908222...

And people still seem not to believe in climate change!?!

toniD's Ya Think?

U.S. Shifts, Giving Names of Detainees to the Red Cross
By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON — In a reversal of Pentagon policy, the military for the first time is notifying the International Committee of the Red Cross of the identities of militants who were being held in secret at a camp in Iraq and another in Afghanistan run by United States Special Operations forces, according to three military officials.

The change begins to lift the veil from the American government’s most secretive remaining overseas prisons by allowing the Red Cross to track the custody of dozens of the most dangerous suspected terrorists and foreign fighters plucked off the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is a major advance for the organization in its long fight to gain more information about these detainees. The military had previously insisted that disclosing any details about detainees at the secretive camps could tip off other militants and jeopardize counterterrorism missions.

Detention practices will be in the spotlight this week. The Central Intelligence Agency on Monday is to release a highly critical 2004 report on the agency’s interrogation program by the C.I.A. inspector general.

The long awaited report provides new details about abuses that took place inside the agency’s secret prisons, including C.I.A. officers carrying out mock executions and threatening at least one prisoner with a gun and a power drill.

Also, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is expected to decide in the next several days whether to appoint a criminal prosecutor to investigate the interrogations of suspects accused of being involved in terrorism after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The new Pentagon policy on detainees took effect this month with no public announcement from the military or the Red Cross. It represents another shift in detention policy by the Obama administration, which has already vowed to close the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by next year and is conducting major reviews of the government’s procedures for interrogating and detaining militants.

A spokesman for the Red Cross in Washington, Bernard Barrett, declined to comment on the new notification policy, citing the organization’s longstanding practice of refusing to talk about its discussions with the Defense Department about detention issues.

Unlike the secret prisons run by the C.I.A. that President Obama ordered closed in January, the military continues to operate the Special Operations camps, which it calls temporary screening sites, in Balad, Iraq, and Bagram, Afghanistan.

As many as 30 to 40 foreign prisoners have been held at the camp in Iraq at any given time, military officials said; they did not provide an estimate for the Afghan camp but suggested that the number was smaller.

The Red Cross is allowed access to almost all American military prisons and battlefield detention sites in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the Special Operations camps have been excluded. more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/world/middleeast/23detain.html?_r=1&pa...

toniD's Ya Think?

RNC Chair Michael Steele agrees with attack on GOP Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO): "when stuff gets in the crapper, you gotta clean it out."
by Joe Sudbay (DC) on 8/22/2009 06:26:00 PM

I finally think Michael Steele is right about something and it's good. Via FiredUp Missouri,, the RNC Chair agreed with a vicious -- but, accurate -- attack on GOP Congressman/Senate Candidate Roy Blunt from a conservative radio host in Missouri. Steele, on Blunt: "when stuff gets in the crapper, you gotta clean it out." Audio at link

This is causing an intra-GOP battle. Blunt's former chief of staff, Gregg Hartley, tweeted that "Michael Steele is an idiot" and wants Steele fired. Attacking a GOP Senate candidate should probably be off-limits for the RNC Chair (even if it's true.)

Here's the transcript:

VINCENT JERICHO: “But I’ve also made my career here by challenging Baby Blunt [former Gov. Matt Blunt] and how he just absolutely, ah, betrayed every single Missourian that who worked so hard to get him elected on the ridiculous stand he took where he redefined what cloning is. And this is supposed to be a Republican governor. He’s not governor anymore for good reason.

“His [Matt Blunt’s] daddy [Roy] screwed around with a tobacco lobbyist. Then slips language into the homeland security bill favorable to the tobacco lobbyist. I mean here is a guy that has committed adultery multiple times. Yet he had a senior position, and still does, in the Republican Party. Guys like Papa Blunt make us sick to our stomach. They aren’t conservatives, and they sure don’t reflect moral absolute the way that we expect the Republican Party to stand up. You had the page boy scandal, you had all of that crap, and nobody stands up to it and says, ‘This is crap! What are you doing? [Steele tries to cut in; unintelligible] Behave like a man – not like, not like little boys who are running around with their little toy and can’t behave themselves.”

MICHAEL STEELE: Look, now don’t, don’t – I mean, I agree with you. And when stuff gets in the crapper, you gotta clean it out."

Who can argue with that?

http://www.americablog.com/2009/08/rnc-chair-michael-steele-agrees-with....

toniD's Ya Think?

Real Time: Jeremy Scahill Calls Out Chuck Todd for Calling Torture Investigations "Political Catnip"
By Heather Saturday Aug 22, 2009 4:30pm

Video at link

Chuck Todd got called out on Real Time by Jeremy Scahill for calling investigations into torture "political catnip". Apparently Todd has taken no lessons from his back and forth with Glenn Greenwald on the issue since he was still as defensive as ever when someone with well more than an ounce of journalistic integrity calls him out for his lack of it.

Todd went on Morning Joe defending Cheney, and Glenn Greenwald ripped him for the same thing Scahill took him to task for on Real Time:

NBC's Chuck Todd -- who, remember, is billed as a reporter covering the White House, not a pundit expressing opinions -- was on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Tuesday discussing reports that Eric Holder is likely to appoint a prosecutor to investigate Bush torture crimes. Needless to say, everyone agreed without question that investigations were a ridiculous distraction from what really matters and would be terribly unfair. This, along with Mika Brzezinski and Pat Buchanan, is what Todd argued after he was asked about the Holder story and the Cheney/CIA story (video is below):

Todd: Look, let's take all of these stories in one big thing: really, the only important thing -- the most important thing -- the President has to focus on is getting the public's trust on the economy, and pushing health care. Cheney, the CIA, and in some respects Sotomayor are cable catnip --

Brzezinski: Yep.

Todd: It's news catnip - but they're sort of clouding the two most important issues the President's got to get his arms around this week: winning back trust of the middle on the economy and pushing health care through.

Brzezinski: I would completely agree with you, yet the questions are being raised by news organizations like the New York Times. Pat Buchanan, chime in, because as I've been reporting [sic], and I'll say it for Chuck's benefit here: speaking to a former senior intelligence official yesterday on the phone for quite some time, saying that this program that Cheney was apparently blocking the CIA from giving Congressional intelligence officials information on, was not even a program -- it was not operational -- it was not even at the stage where you would tell Congress about it or talk to high-level administration officials about it.

Is this much ado about nothing to get the attention off what needs to be done?

Buchanan: Well it's exactly what Chuck said, it's a massive distraction . . . . Let me ask Chuck this: it seems to me you got a real problem for the administration if you go forward at Holder's level --

Todd: Right.

Buchanan: and they appoint a Special Counsel, the first thing the CIA guys do is say is: yeah, we did it; we waterboarded them; and here's the authorization from these lawyers who said we could do it --- the lawyers come in and say we were asked for our opinion and Cheney was the guy who asked us, and the President told us to go ahead and do it. Aren't you right into the White House of the Bush administration as soon as you appoint that independent counsel?

Todd: And I think that's why, in the President's gut, he doesn't want to do this. They've made that clear they don't want to do this. I think that's what you see a lot of the West Wing -- they don't want to get into this because of what you're saying.

Ultimately, a lawyer gets paid to not tell you what the law is -- but to interpret the law, to tell you how far you can push things until you cross a line that a judge will say is illegal. That's what lawyers get paid to do: they get paid to interpret the law, and interpret the law in a way that allows you to stretch things.

You are on a slippery slope - this is a very dangerous aspect to go after, because these CIA guys will say, as you said Pat, we got the letter from these lawyers in the Bush Justice Department that said we can do this. You can't suddenly change the law retroactively because there's another interpretation of this. I'm sure there are a legal minds that will fight and say I don't know what I'm talking about here, but it seems to me that's a legal and a political slippery slope.

This is about as typical a discussion as it gets among media stars as to why investigations are so very, very wrong and unfair and unwise. Still, this discussion in particular vividly highlights several important points worth noting about the role of the establishment media.

Todd later tried to defend himself by doing an interview with Glenn as anyone who reads this blog may recall. Todd didn't fare much better with Scahill on Real Time and was making the same sorry arguments that Glenn already ripped him apart on. Heaven forbid that might stop him from doing it again with an audience that probably had no idea what Scahill was talking about.

It's always enjoyable to me watching these beltway bobble heads who are in love with cozying up to power have to answer to someone who is not, and who actually wants some real reporting to take place, and to see how they react. I look forward to reading Glenn Greenwald's response to Todd's statements tonight if he decides it's worth taking the time to write about.

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/real-time-jeremy-scahill-cal...

toniD's Ya Think?

Sorry to be so blunt.

Worst news since July.

For those, and you gloryoski, interested in knowing who is calling the shots on the direction and control of the food supply and access to natural health:

Short video, Dr. Robert Verkerk of Alliance for Natural Health comments on CODEX Alimentarius:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWRxT_6L_pA&feature=related

Article in Caduceus by Dr. Robert Verkerk (covers his concerns and mentions unsubstantiated ones):
http://www.anhcampaign.org/files/090701_Caduceus_Verkerk_article_Codex.p...

Interview with Paul Anthony Taylor:
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/THE_FOUNDATION/formula_as_interview_2...

Crank is a bad influence on all of you boys of the blog!

toniD's Ya Think?

********-----*******

toniD's Ya Think?

Unfortunately the only tracks I live within a few hours drive of are Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond...they all suck in my opinion...

I am more a restrictor plate track kind of guy....

Must be the aggravation of driving in NYC all those years...

user
Maine’s Small Businesses Tell Sen. Snowe They Oppose Mandates Without a Public Option
By: Scarecrow Friday August 21, 2009 5:00 pm

How many times have Republicans lectured us that we shouldn't be imposing unreasonable burdens on small businesses who, they tell us, create 80 percent of the new jobs in America? A zillion?

So what do you think Olympia Snowe thought when representatives of Maine's small business community told their Senator they opposed a mandate on business to purchase insurance for their employees unless there is a public option? HuffPo's Ryan Grim reports:

Snowe met with Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition; Clifford Mohr, president of Group Dynamic Inc.; Greg Dugal, executive director of the Maine Innkeepers Association; Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center; Dean Powers, director of the Maine Small Business Coalition; Richard Grotton, CEO of the Maine Restaurant Association; David Spellman, President of the Pratt Financial Group; and several other lobbyists.

She quizzed the bunch on what they thought of the proposal to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance. She added that she was considering requiring business with more than 50 employees to pay 100 percent of the cost of subsidies for their employees' health insurance.

Small business representatives told Snowe that they were opposed to any mandates that came without a public option and that such an alternative was desperately needed for small business, which can't afford the rising cost of health insurance for their employees. The costs make them unable to compete on a level playing field with bigger companies, which can use their size to leverage lower prices. Lobbyists representing larger corporations took the opposite position.

So, the businesses that Republicans believe create 80 percent of new jobs are against a mandate without a public option, because, it would seem, those businesses believe a public option will give them a more affordable means to meet the mandate. Makes perfect sense.

But their larger competitors don't want their smaller competitors to have a more affordable means to provide health insurance to their employees, because they want to maintain a competitive advantage over the small businesses that create 80 percent of the jobs.

So why isn't Maine's Senator insisting on a public option? Someone needs to ask Snowe whether she supports small businesses and job creation in Maine or, instead, thinks Maine's job-creating businesses should remain at a competitive disadvantage? And she's going to need a better answer than "Chuck Grassley and my party told me it's off the table."

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/7445

toniD's Ya Think?

So Why Aren’t We Organizing a March on Washington for Health Care Reform?
By: sTiVo Saturday August 22, 2009 1:17 pm

I've heard little drips and drabs here and there. Supposedly somebody on Daily Kos is trying to gin up a march, but it wasn't immediately visible, and then there is a group of Mad as Hell Doctors from Portland caravanning down in support of HR 676. Ed Schultz has talked about one. But I don't (yet) see anything definite on a big march.

I know there's a lot of good work going on here and the fundraising done here for the Progressive Dems and the "whipping" being done is excellent and it's a very pleasant surprise to me that we are still alive and kicking. I was happy to contribute to this effort. But shouldn't we also be considering a march?

I read a lot of posts legitimately griping about the role played in this whole mess by Barack Obama, but when it gets down to what to do about it, which it often doesn't, it seems limited to media criticism and sometimes vague talk about Dean in 2012 or something.

2012????? Are are choices really limited to waiting for the next election? Gee, the Right certainly didn't take that path and where has it gotten them? Pretty damned far if you ask me.

Yes, Obama has been a big disappointment, but why are we not thinking of what we can do here and now? He has as much as said "make me do it" and maybe we should take him up on it. If getting bodies into Town Hall meetings has scared crap out of some Congress-critters what effect might a million protestors for our side in Washington have? Could it possibly change the dynamic?

Clearly those who thought Barack Obama would be a progressive Messiah who'd instinctively "had our back" were naively wrong. But do we think this mess is what he really wants? Does that really even matter? Might he at least be malleable from heavier pressure from his left? Maybe that's the truest distinction between the Democratic and Republican parties? I'd like to think that might be true. I don't know if it is, but we'll never know until we make the effort. Endless griping on the internet is ultimately useless. Time to try putting bodies in the Street again.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/7457

Local station WCPT has a show with Dick Kay who's been a political analyst for our local NBC affiliate since I was a young girl, and he was discussing with a caller the March on Washington for Set. 13 that Robert Reich suggested and Daily Kos is pushing. The Caller also mentioned Doctors from Oregon that will travel across country stopping at major cities to talk about and promote Single Payer insurance, Medicare for all, and will end up in Washington on October first at the steps of the Capital to promote Single Payer, picking up people as they go along.

toniD's Ya Think?

Mexican phone company has no wheels. ;-)

You gotta be ancient to get this one.

"You gotta be ancient to get this one."

or a wan guy.....

http://www.bellsouth.com/

10. NHI will reduce liability insurance & workers
compensation costs.

9. NHI will eliminate the cost and headaches of
running a health benefits bureaucracy, annual
negotiations with insurance companies, etc.

8. NHI will eliminate complaints by employees
over rising premiums and co-pays and conflicts with
labor unions over benefit cuts, givebacks, etc.

7. NHI will reduce the incentive to hire part-time
workers and enable them to attract better employees.

6. NHI will curb health-related bankruptcies, reduce health
spending by low-income workers, and free up money
for consumer spending.

5. NHI will reduce the cost of providing health
benefits for those now providing coverage.

4. NHI will eliminate retiree benefit costs for
those with obligations to provide coverage.

3. NHI will eliminate unfair competition from
employers who don’t provide insurance.

2. NHI will reduce absenteeism and produce a
healthier, more productive work force.
And the #1 reason for National Health Insurance
from a business perspective is…

1. NHI will allow health care costs to be
controlled and predictable, eliminating a
major source of business uncertainty and a
barrier to planning.

And, oh yes, it’s the right and moral thing to do.

Dr. Mathias Rath outlines dark history of today's vaccine makers:

http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/THE_FOUNDATION/ghosts_of_auschwitz_20...

"Mad As Hell Doctors" File Formal Request for Meeting with Obama to Discuss a Single-Payer Plan for America

A group of road-tripping Oregon physicians known as the "Mad As Hell Doctors" have filed a formal request with the White House for a meeting with President Obama to discuss the ethical and social imperative of a single payer health system for America.

Portland, Oregon (PRWEB) August 21, 2009 -- Before embarking on their twenty-city, single payer caravan across America, a group of road-tripping Oregon physicians known as the "Mad As Hell Doctors" has filed for an official meeting with President Obama. The meeting is requested to take place after the doctors arrive in Washington, D.C. on October 1, 2009. The agenda contains only one item- single payer health care for America.

In the letter signed by six Oregon physicians, The Mad As Hell Doctors claim that their cross-country caravan from Oregon to Washington D.C. will be historic, especially if President Obama agrees to meet with them on October 1st. The physicians are already confirmed to see their own Senator, Ron Wyden from Oregon, on the same day.

Dr. Joe Eusterman, Mad As Hell Doctor and retired physician from Wilsonville, Oregon feels the meeting could help bring the single payer community to the table again. "A meeting with President Obama to discuss single payer would let the entire single payer nation know that the President hears them. It would also send a clear message that America's doctors are still on their side." more...

http://www.prweb.com/releases/singlepayer/madashelldoctors/prweb2778264....

toniD's Ya Think?

is Adam Klugman, son of Actor Jack Klugman.

Check their site at www.madashelldoctors.com

toniD's Ya Think?

My dad worked for SW Bell. He had a car phone for a while (and 102" whip on the back bumper). When you picked up the phone, the operator spoke Spanish. I don't know why but we thought it was pretty freakin' cool.

I love the short tracks. Sooooo muuuuuch happppens! Go Jimmy Go!!!!

-

The Guns of August
By FRANK RICH

“IT is time to water the tree of liberty” said the sign carried by a gun-toting protester milling outside President Obama’s town-hall meeting in New Hampshire two weeks ago. The Thomas Jefferson quote that inspired this message, of course, said nothing about water: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” That’s the beauty of a gun — you don’t have to spell out the “blood.”

The protester was a nut. America has never had a shortage of them. But what’s Tom Coburn’s excuse? Coburn is a Republican senator from Oklahoma, where 168 people were murdered by right-wing psychopaths who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Their leader, Timothy McVeigh, had the Jefferson quote on his T-shirt when he committed this act of mass murder. Yet last Sunday, when asked by David Gregory on “Meet the Press” if he was troubled by current threats of “violence against the government,” Coburn blamed not the nuts but the government.

“Well, I’m troubled any time when we stop having confidence in our government,” the senator said, “but we’ve earned it.”

Coburn is nothing if not consistent. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, he was part of a House contingent that helped delay and soften an antiterrorism bill. This cohort even tried to strip out a provision blocking domestic fund-raising by foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas. Why? The far right, in league with the National Rifle Association, was angry at the federal government for aggressively policing America’s self-appointed militias. In a 1996 floor speech, Coburn conceded that “terrorism obviously poses a serious threat,” but then went on to explain that the nation had worse threats to worry about: “There is a far greater fear that is present in this country, and that is fear of our own government.” As his remarks on “Meet the Press” last week demonstrated, the subsequent intervention of 9/11 has not changed his worldview.

I have been writing about the simmering undertone of violence in our politics since October, when Sarah Palin, the vice-presidential candidate of a major political party, said nothing to condemn Obama haters shrieking “Treason!,” “Terrorist!” and “Off with his head!” at her rallies. As vacation beckons, I’d like to drop the subject, but the atmosphere keeps getting darker.

Coburn’s implicit rationalization for far-right fanatics bearing arms at presidential events — the government makes them do it! — cannot stand. He’s not a radio or Fox News bloviator paid a fortune to be outrageous; he’s a card-carrying member of the United States Senate. On Monday — the day after he gave a pass to those threatening violence — a dozen provocateurs with guns, at least two of them bearing assault weapons, showed up for Obama’s V.F.W. speech in Phoenix. Within hours, another member of Congress — Phil Gingrey of Georgia — was telling Chris Matthews on MSNBC that as long as brandishing guns is legal, he, too, saw no reason to discourage Americans from showing up armed at public meetings.

In April the Department of Homeland Security issued a report, originally commissioned by the Bush administration, on the rising threat of violent right-wing extremism. It was ridiculed by conservatives, including the Republican chairman, Michael Steele, who called it “the height of insult.” Since then, a neo-Nazi who subscribed to the anti-Obama “birther” movement has murdered a guard at the Holocaust museum in Washington, and an anti-abortion zealot has gunned down a doctor in a church in Wichita, Kan.

This month the Southern Poverty Law Center, the same organization that warned of the alarming rise in extremist groups before the Oklahoma City bombing, issued its own report. A federal law enforcement agent told the center that he hadn’t seen growth this steep among such groups in 10 to 12 years. “All it’s lacking is a spark,” he said.

This uptick in the radical right predates the health care debate that is supposedly inspiring all the gun waving. Nor can this movement be attributed to a stepped-up attack by Democrats on this crowd’s holy Second Amendment. Since taking office, Obama has disappointed gun-control advocates by relegating his campaign pledge to reinstate the ban on assault weapons to the down-low. more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/opinion/23rich.html?partner=rssnyt&emc...

toniD's Ya Think?

Waxman’s Methods
By: emptywheel Saturday August 22, 2009 5:00 pm

In a jello-wrestling match between Rahm Emanuel and Henry Waxman, I think I'd bet on the latter. While Rahm has been frantically and loudly pursuing two opposing strategies--the Messina-Baucus welfare program for the insurance industry hidden under the guise of the public option kabuki, Waxman has been quietly preparing for battle in September. And it sounds like the insurance industry is getting increasingly worried that Waxman will be better prepared than Rahm and his little kabuki dance.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman raised eyebrows this week when he launched a financial probe into the nation's largest insurance companies, which are at the center of the health reform battle.

"Congressional oversight is not a tool that should be used to chill dissent," said AHIP spokesman Robert Zirkelbach. "These investigations are nothing more than politically motivated, taxpayer-financed fishing expeditions designed to intimidate and silence health plans."

Now, I don't for a second think that Waxman can win this on his own, that even armed with the information he's seeking (assuming the insurance industry doesn't stall, which they will) he will be able to silence Baucus and his industry-owned cohort.

But at the very least, what Waxman will succeed in doing is demonstrate that his legislative foes haven't even considered (or, more likely, would like to hide) the business realities of those whose bidding they're doing. You're going to have health insurance executives asking for a huge subsidy at the same time as they cry foul when asked to provide some documents about their business. And those hysterical cries will be pitted against some very rational voices speaking quietly about cost control--precisely what the Blue Dogs and the insurance industry shills claim to be pursuing.

“If we're going to get health costs under control, we need to make sure that our private health insurance dollars are spent as efficiently as possible. That means our premium dollars should be paying hospitals and physicians for providing health care, not wasting resources on administrative bloat,” she said.

Oh, and as I suggested in my earlier post on this, Waxman will just happen to be collecting information that Evan Bayh would rather we didn't have. 

I'm getting a feeling that the untold--and developing--story of this health care debate is that when Waxman was forced to push through an imperfect bill with the Blue Dogs on his committee, when he got stuck in negotiations with Rahm just before the break, he realized he was getting screwed. And, lucky for us, he was in a position to do something about it, to prepare for the fight that will come in September.

emptywheel

Can't obama throw a net on this asshole....? Who's side is he on?

or are you snarking about Waxman?

toniD's Ya Think?

about 10 years ago and listening to him lament how the good old days were long gone and about how many millions they paid Madison Ave to come up with the name Verizon for the GTE Bell Atlantic merger....

I guess I'm getting ancient too....

Waxman just needs a kick in the pants for being such a sucker....

I bet Sam has wet dreams that include Waxman.

Hoping it doesn't wake Nicole.

Some call it recovery

Reading comments, I see that some readers think that by saying that we may be in a recovery by the usual definition, even though jobs are still being lost, I’m either (a) shilling for Obama (b) radically changing my views.

Um, no.

I didn’t invent the standard definitions of recession and recovery. The real problem here is that the standard language doesn’t make much allowance for the kind of gray zone we’re now in; that’s because in the pre-1990 era recessions tended to be V-shaped, so that jobs snapped back as soon as GDP turned around. I don’t think what we’re going through is good news — but GDP is almost surely rising, so the recession, as normally defined, is over.

And the current situation is no better — actually, worse — that I thought it would be when arguing that the Obama economic plan was inadequate. Read this, and bear in mind that the unemployment rate is now 9.4%.

The stimulus has helped, and the conventional recession is over. But the economy is not recovering in the most crucial area, job creation, and the stimulus won’t be enough to restore prosperity.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/some-call-it-recovery/

toniD's Ya Think?

Flickr called 'cowardly' for
taking down Obama joker
Flickr is catching fire for its decision to take down the now-infamous image of Barack Obama photoshopped to look like the joker.

http://www.newser.com/story/67485/flickr-cowardly-for-taking-down-obama-...

toniD's Ya Think?

CIA report to reveal agency conducted mock executions

Update (at bottom): Reporter says revelations coming Monday will be ‘pretty explosive’

The long-delayed release of a CIA inspector general’s report has been scooped by Newsweek, which obtained details from one source who has read a draft of the report and another who was briefed on its contents.

A version of the report with newly declassified details is expected to be released on Monday.

According to Newsweek’s sources, the report will reveal that the CIA interrogators of suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri brandished a gun in front of him in an attempt to make him believe he was going to be shot — thus violating a federal law against threatening a detainee with “imminent death” — and also threatened him with a power drill.

In other cases, mock executions were staged, including one case in which a gun was fired in an adjoining room to make a suspect believe another prisoner had been shot.

The report was commissioned by then-CIA Director George Tenet in 2004, as CIA officials attempted to determine whether the use of “enhanced” interrogation techniques had followed official guidelines. It was shared at the time with the Justice Department and with selected members of the Congressional oversight committees and was shown to the committees as a whole in 2006, but has been kept secret from the public.

The government is now required to turn the report over on Monday as a result of an ACLU Freedom of Information lawsuit. Related documents are to be revealed a week later.

It is not clear to what extent the report will be released intact. Last year, a version was released from which the sections on both waterboarding and the ultimate effectiveness of extreme interrogation techniques had both been redacted. It is expected that the report and other documents will say that the use of extreme interrogation techniques did produce some valid intelligence, further fueling the debate over the use of those techniques.

Attorney General Eric Holder is also expected to announce his decision on a possible investigation into the use of torture under the Bush administration. A group of Republican senators has already sent Holder a letter warning that any investigation “could have a number of serious consequences, not just for the honorable members of the intelligence community, but also for the security of all Americans.”

Update: Reporter says revelations coming Monday will be ‘pretty explosive’

Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff, appearing on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show on Friday night, explained that revelations from the CIA Inspector General’s report will be “pretty explosive,” even though the public version will be significantly redacted.

“About half of the report, I’m told, will still be redacted,” he said. “But, what’s in the half that’s going to be publicly released is going to be pretty explosive.”

The IG report is said to be the most extensive look yet at the Bush administration’s torture programs. RAW STORY will have more details when the report is released to the public.

This video was broadcast by MSNBC on August 21, 2009.

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/22/cia-report-to-reveal-mock-executi...

toniD's Ya Think?

On Donna Edwards back-peddling on the public option....

"Going forward: no matter how much you like people, you can't cut them slack when they send up trial balloons to see if they can get away with a kabuki vote in the House and then cave on the "meaningful" vote after conference. Because it starts an avalanche of people running for the door, now that the arm twisting has begun in earnest, and it threaten to undermine the whole effort."

FDL

YES!!!

Competition lacking among private health insurers

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR (AP) – 12 hours ago

WASHINGTON — One of the most widely accepted arguments against a government medical plan for the middle class is that it would quash competition — just what private insurers seem to be doing themselves in many parts of the U.S.

Several studies show that in lots of places, one or two companies dominate the market. Critics say monopolistic conditions drive up premiums paid by employers and individuals.

For Democrats, the answer is a public plan that would compete with private insurers. Republicans see that as a government power grab. President Barack Obama looks to be trapped in the middle of an argument that could sink his effort to overhaul the health care system.

Even lawmakers opposed to a government plan have problems with the growing clout of the big private companies.

"There is a serious problem with the lack of competition among insurers," said Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the highest-cost states. "The impact on the consumer is significant."

Wellpoint Inc. accounted for 71 percent of the Maine market, while runner-up Aetna had a 12 percent share, according to a 2008 report by the American Medical Association.

Proponents of a government plan say it could restore a competitive balance and lead to lower costs. For one thing, it wouldn't have to turn a profit.

A study by the Urban Institute public policy center estimated that a public plan could save taxpayers from $224 billion to $400 billion over 10 years by lowering the cost of proposed subsidies for the uninsured, while preserving private coverage for most people.

"Right now, there's no incentive for insurers or big hospital groups to negotiate with each other, because they can pass higher payments on through premiums," said economist Linda Blumberg, co-author of the report. "A public plan would have the leverage to set lower payment rates and get providers to participate at those rates."

"The private plans would come back to the providers and say, 'If you don't negotiate with me, you're going to be left with only the public plan.'" Blumberg continued. "Suddenly, you have a very strong economic incentive for them to negotiate."

Insurers contend their industry is extremely competitive, and a public plan is unnecessary. About 1,300 carriers operate across the country, although many only have a small share of the market in their states.

"You can have a very competitive market and still have companies with a high market share," said Alissa Fox, a top Washington lobbyist for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Fox points to the federal employee health program, which also covers members of Congress. It offers a total of more than 260 options and 10 nationwide plans. Despite all the choices, about 60 percent of federal workers pick a Blue Cross plan.

"Insurers need to be of a significant size to best serve their customers and make sure that people get the best value," Fox said. more...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hN0cAfY9X-3PKZFdgeAhiC...

toniD's Ya Think?

the imagination really runs wild....

Ah, so Sam's hot wife is kewl.

But how come couldn't she teach him to say Sotomayor? ; )

NO FUCKIN" WAY!

...of Joker Obama.

MoveOn called traitor for uncontrollable posting of Bush as Hitler.

This is the mentality you get when the media is controlled by myopic Conservatives.

Still to this day they are fucking lying.

MoveOn did not create the ad. It was posted along with thousands of others, probably created by a conservative.

Mark Martin doesn't have a strong restart.

That was a nasty little wreck...

Submitted by toniD on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 8:18pm.
I just got the lobster email Crank was talking about forwarded from my next door neighbor...
...Snopes says it is undetermined so far and that it comes from Montana Beef...
-----
Montana Beef? Save Larry the Lobster from Obama AND give Clarabelle the axe for McDonald's?

All's I know is that I can count on toniD for news-hounding and I can count on me for having my finger on the pulse of Right Wing white, Southern, male madness. (Hoping for a flat-line soon.)
------------------------------
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 8:59pm.
RNC Chair Michael Steele agrees with attack on GOP Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)...
-----
When you see a Herblock political cartoon (may he rest in peace), Blunt is Herblock's archetypal political asshole.
------------------------------
Submitted by cent on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 9:29pm.
...I am more a restrictor plate track kind of guy...
-----
You might be fascinated by real race cars racing on road courses. Elevation changes can be pretty interesting, not to mention turning in more directions than one.

There's a reason behind Juan Paul Montoya kicking NASCAR ass after he learned to drive an overweight pig 'round-and-'round.
------------------------------
Submitted by maggiesboy on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 9:51pm.
My dad worked for SW Bell. He had a car phone for a while (and 102" whip on the back bumper). When you picked up the phone, the operator spoke Spanish. I don't know why but we thought it was pretty freakin' cool.
-----
Lettuce entertain you.

yipee the guy in the candy with piss yellow and shit brown takes it.

Submitted by Fernando on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 11:12pm.
yipee the guy in the candy with piss yellow and shit brown takes it.
-----
Newt Gingrich?

Smoke is playing Frankenstein for a couple more races....

I hope he gets ready in time for the chase....

Crank, I've seen my share of IRL and Champ races...they are fantastic, but I still prefer the pigs. I just am not fond of the NASCAR short tracks....

and btw, Pablito is not all that and a bag of taco chips....yet.

Who Needs the Public Option?

By Uwe Reinhardt
The New York Times
August 21, 2009

Nothing has been quite as riveting in recent media reports as the question of what President Obama and his staff really think…

How did the brouhaha over the choice of a public health plan come about in the first place, when the real issue before us has been helping the millions of currently uninsured, low-income American families gain access to adequate and reliable health insurance?

One would have hoped that the overarching goal of health reform would have been to put in place a reformed health insurance system that can offer Americans the same reliable, permanent, portable and life-cycle health insurance enjoyed by, say, Germans or Canadians or the people of Japan and Taiwan.

As I have argued in earlier posts to this blog, the choice of a public, government-run standard health insurance plan would certainly go a long way toward reaching that, but it is not a necessary condition for doing so. Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland all do offer their citizens permanent, portable and stable financial security in health care without the inclusion of a government-run health plan in the mix. That achievement, however, requires fairly heavy regulation of the industry.

If I had to guess what features really make a public plan so attractive to many Americans, they would probably be the stability, permanence, portability and simplicity that such a public plan could offer. It is these features that make traditional, government-run Medicare so popular with the public.

Herein lies the main challenge facing the private health insurance industry. It must convince the public and the legislators who do not trust it that with the help of government — including a wide set of new government regulations — the industry can transform itself into a structure that can offer Americans the same permanent, reliable, easy-to-understand life-cycle financial security that citizens in other nations take for granted and Americans crave.

Thus, instead of the cliche that a public health plan would lead to a “government takeover of American health care” and thus its demise, the industry would be better advised to put before the public a fully worked out purely private-sector model that truly will offer individuals reliable, life-cycle health insurance with relatively stable premiums, and at premiums that are defensible.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/who-needs-the-public-option...

toniD's Ya Think?

at dawn - Hamilton heads a McLaren one-two (Valencia Spain)
near dusk - Franchitti on Sonoma IndyCar pole (Infineon)

14 to 3 Chargers over AZ at the Half..

I know it's only Pre-Season

But,It's Football Baby ! :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

tomorrow
Submitted by Fernando on Sat, 08/22/2009 - 11:41pm.

*******

For the Open Wheel info..

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

"this machine kills fascists"

August 18, 2009

Leaders on both sides of the aisle try to hammer out an agreement on fucking over Americans

WASHINGTON—After months of committee meetings and hundreds of hours of heated debate, the United States Congress remained deadlocked this week over the best possible way to deny Americans health care.

"Both parties understand that the current system is broken," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday. "But what we can't seem to agree upon is how to best keep it broken, while still ensuring that no elected official takes any political risk whatsoever. It’s a very complicated issue."

"Ultimately, though, it's our responsibility as lawmakers to put these differences aside and focus on refusing Americans the health care they deserve," Pelosi added.

The legislative stalemate largely stems from competing ideologies deeply rooted along party lines. Democrats want to create a government-run system for not providing health care, while Republicans say coverage is best denied by allowing private insurers to make it unaffordable for as many citizens as possible.

"We have over 40 million people without insurance in this country today, and that is unacceptable," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said. "If we would just quit squabbling so much, we could get that number up to 50 or even 100 million. Why, there's no reason we can't work together to deny health care to everyone but the richest 1 percent of the population."

"That's what America is all about," he added.

Con't-The Onion

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

In the first hour, author Andrew Collins will provide details about the system of caves he discovered beneath the Giza Pyramids.

* Then, researcher Jeff Sharlet will discuss the frightening connection between power and fundamentalism in a secretive

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

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

THROW BRICKS

Brick TeeVee goes to Afghanistan!

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5138
AND blogspot
Brick TeeVee goes to Afghanistan!

Haha Da Kid went to the Heaven-n-Hell Tour tonight (Sharon sez they can't be called "Black Sabbath") at Nautica Flats CLE OH (venue controlled by Live Nation along with Blossom Music Center, Tower City Amphitheater and House of Blues Cleveland - see Rolling Stone coverage Politicians Demand Scrutiny of Live Nation-Ticketmaster Merger.)

But you know somehow the SEC will turn a blind eye to all this graft and price-fixing and let this "merger" happen, thus cementing "service fees" and per ticket "venue fees". The CLE OH House of Blues Box Office readily admits they MUST include "venue fees" even when buying tix at their box office (aka ticket purchases NOT on-Line or phone, WHICH ADD more CRAP charges!)

AND it's THE SAME in YOUR CITY, too.

Kill dump site, take lead on water protection

We in the United States often look to our northern neighbour for glimmers of inspiration on matters of social and environmental justice. In your province of Ontario, we have noted with interest your green leadership to close down coal-fired power plants by 2014, bring forward the Greenbelt to combat urban sprawl, pass the Clean Water Act of 2006 and the Places to Grow Act of 2006 to promote local food production, as well as the ambitious discussion you have initiated to launch Ontario toward a zero-waste society.

That is why I was surprised on my recent visit to the beautiful Georgian Bay area to see such grassroots uproar against the impending garbage dump at Site 41 in North Simcoe that would put putrid waste on top of the pristine Alliston aquifer, reputed as one of the cleanest sources of groundwater in the world.

I note that certain authorities have advised the dump can go forward with minimal negative environmental effects. But that is not how many in the community who I met with feel, at all.

When Tiny Township's 2004 Citizen of the Year, senior citizens, and a bright, young, articulate First Nations lady are all hauled off to jail for the "crime" of peacefully standing up for the ecological integrity of their land, eyebrows are legitimately raised.

When 2,500 people gather in Perkinsfield to call for a moratorium on Dump Site 41, there is clearly a vivid perception of a lack of due process.

Given the extraordinary pitch of civic passions the proposed dump has aroused across the local and national spectrum from the Beausoleil First Nation and the Council of Canadians to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and Canadian Association of Retired Persons, along with the manifold readily available alternatives, what is the rush to allow this to be rammed through before the community's intense reservations and zero-waste aspirations can be dutifully addressed?

The proposed Dump Site 41 is thick in history and intrigue going back over 20 years, but as Ontario's Environment Commissioner, Gord Miller, has stated, if the decision were to be taken today, Site 41 would never have been chosen for a dumpsite.

Seldom does a citizenry become so aroused and united over the usually hum-drum aspects of waste management. What an opportunity to tap the reservoirs of aroused civic energy in Simcoe Community to create a model as the leading zero-waste community in North America.

Almost 20 years ago, such a model was proposed by the WHY W. Y. E. Citizen's Group. If the municipal council would support a moratorium on Site 41 on Aug. 25, and combine the directions of this earlier citizen's proposal with the ambitious zero-waste plan presently being carved out by the Ministry of the Environment, Tiny Township would be attracting local, national, and international attention of a totally different nature.

RALPH NADER Washington, D. C.

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1711587

San Diego Derby Dolls vs Bay Area Derby Girls, Toyota Sports Center, El Segundo CA: August 15, 2009

SDDD (Orange): Anna Nuthathang 11 // Aunt Flo 28 // Bo Toxic 619 // Bonnie D. Stroir 26 // Dahmernatrix 505 // Isabelle Ringer 360 // Ivanna S.Pankin 22 // Kiki DiAzz 88 // Kung Pow Tina 7&7 // Lemon Drop 80 // PT Bruiser 760 // Slamurai 7 // Steely Jan 19 // Trish the Dish 99

BADG (Black): belle "right" hooks 1619 // Brawllen Angel 888 // Burly Bot 333 // Demanda Riot 0:00 (HER FACE SCARES ME!) // Friskie Meow 7 // Jane Hammer 777 // Liza Machete 1 // Lusty Malice 4 // Nina Beretta 9mm // Nock Nock 32 // Sassy Slayher 30.06 // Taxi Scab 50c // Velveteen Savage 1618 // Windigo Jones 1491

http://blip.tv/file/2491370 FULL BOUT VIDEO

Demanda Riot

http://www.derbynewsnetwork.com/2009/08/20/16_bay_area_puts_out_14_san_d...

hit each other...she was an LA Derby Girl, prior to being an OC Derby Girl...today was the greatest day.....anyway...I've been hit and hit now...(Plus we had a nice honest, open discussion at dinner...those are always good...)

*sigh*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

How goes it?!

http://strangerdance.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/09-inner-city-blues-...

http://www.krs5rc.com/krs/bands/thegossip/audio/SweetBaby.mp3

http://www.jerom.com/romie/killers/the%20killers%20-%2002%20-%20enterlud...

http://www.jerom.com/romie/killers/the%20killers%20-%2012%20-%20exitlude...

err, for getting hit on. - You can hit me.

http://www.box.net/shared/zj9nrcigcu
TAIN'T NO SIN (TO DANCE AROUND IN YOUR BONES)

http://randypierson.mine.nu/My%20Music/HOLLYWOODUNDEAD/Hollywood%20Undea...

-so you think your gonna hit me
but now i'm gonna hit you back but now I'm gonna hit you back-

It's illogical...like being a fireman, or something...

tell me something..if a person wore legs weights for weeks at practice and then took them off for a bout, would they go faster than normal?

Would it be like hiking and taking off a heavy backpack..?

I mean does it work out mathematically?

nite, Fern and Cranes! xox

Will you and P come and visit us in Mexico from time to time?

We're not there yet - but in time's eventualities -

Hey Alice!

if yer on skates (wheels...) I dunno that they'd be doing much good really. A set of skates with really shit bearings, something that gives pure resistance, might be better?

Either way, you might end up training your brain to balance you at the wrong weight. Make sure you get some rink time w/out the weights to readjust.

Personally, I'd keep the weight training separate from the skate training. Focusing mostly on the leg muscles, both for speed and to keep your center of gravity low. Even when yer hitting someone, most of your power is going to come from your legs anyways.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.vodamusic.com/blog/

By FRANK RICH
Published: August 22, 2009

“IT is time to water the tree of liberty” said the sign carried by a gun-toting protester milling outside President Obama’s town-hall meeting in New Hampshire two weeks ago. The Thomas Jefferson quote that inspired this message, of course, said nothing about water: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” That’s the beauty of a gun — you don’t have to spell out the “blood.”

The protester was a nut. America has never had a shortage of them. But what’s Tom Coburn’s excuse? Coburn is a Republican senator from Oklahoma, where 168 people were murdered by right-wing psychopaths who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Their leader, Timothy McVeigh, had the Jefferson quote on his T-shirt when he committed this act of mass murder. Yet last Sunday, when asked by David Gregory on “Meet the Press” if he was troubled by current threats of “violence against the government,” Coburn blamed not the nuts but the government.

“Well, I’m troubled any time when we stop having confidence in our government,” the senator said, “but we’ve earned it.”

Coburn is nothing if not consistent. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, he was part of a House contingent that helped delay and soften an antiterrorism bill. This cohort even tried to strip out a provision blocking domestic fund-raising by foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas. Why? The far right, in league with the National Rifle Association, was angry at the federal government for aggressively policing America’s self-appointed militias. In a 1996 floor speech, Coburn conceded that “terrorism obviously poses a serious threat,” but then went on to explain that the nation had worse threats to worry about: “There is a far greater fear that is present in this country, and that is fear of our own government.” As his remarks on “Meet the Press” last week demonstrated, the subsequent intervention of 9/11 has not changed his worldview.

Con't..

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/opinion/23rich.html?partner=rssnyt&emc...

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

...and hard to pry away. :):(

:):(

Alice - Baja Sur
Submitted by ellwort on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 4:02am.

*******

U guys be lucky.. :)

I love Baja but,haven't been able to check out Southern Baja..

My family had a house about 8 miles South of Rosarito Beach,BC for about 25 years or more..
Unfortunately,when my Dad got old and wanted sell the house,the asshole land lease owner,wouldn't renew our land lease..
So we got screwed..
The lend lease holder said their family wanted build Condos on the land our house is/was on..
7 years later,still no Condo's..
And,we are not the only ones that this has happened to down there..
I don't know if the Law (That Americans can't own land within 60 miles of the Coast)is the same in Southern Baja or not..
But probably,so please just be careful..
Just trying to be helpful..
You probably know more than me,though.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

Cabo's where all the little kids go - Camp Wannalaya in the spring. We're about seventy miles north of the absolute bottom of the Baja - about at the intersection with the Tropic of Cancer. Desert and fruittrees. If I were as savvy as you, I'd sendja a pitcha here.

Will Stephanopoulos ask McCain about the release of the PanAm bomber?

Washington Journal: 7:30-8:30 Linda Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor and Vaughan Ververs, The Politico. 9:00-10:00 Robert Baer Author, “The Devil We Know” [Iran]. Host: Paul Orgel. journal@c-span.org, http://twitter.com/cspanwj

ABC's This Week: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). "McCain has spent most of the August recess with the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. He tweeted about meeting Moammar Qaddafi in his tent." Roundtable: George Will, David Frum, Paul Krugman, and Robert Reich. contact George

CBS' Face The Nation: Health care - Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Howard Dean. Contact Bob Schieffer

Chris Matthews: Bob Woodward The Washington Post; Tina Brown The Daily Beast; Gloria Borger CNN; Joe Klein TIME. Topics: Can America survive without newspapers? Will online news fill the void? When city papers fold, who's going to watch City Hall? contact Chris

CNN's State of the Union: Afghanistan - Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry (Ret.), the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Plus, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), on health care, and Iraq and Afghanistan. Then in the "Sound of Sunday" [at 11am ET] "two top strategists, Donna Brazile and Bill Bennett, analyze the news made on all the Sunday morning news shows." contact CNN

Fareed Zakaria - GPS: China's Premier Wen Jiabao, repeat interview. Malcolm Gladwell. Contact Fareed at GPS@cnn.com

Fox News Sunday: "Amid charges of 'death panels,' Chris Wallace uncovers explosive new information about a 'death book,' already being used by the Department of Veterans' Affairs." Jim Towey, former director of Bush's White House Faith Based Initiatives. Health care - Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). email fns@foxnews.com

NBC's Meet The Press: Afghanistan - Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry (Ret.), the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Health care - Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY). Roundtable: Tavis Smiley, Joe Scarborough. contact David

Newsmakers: Scott Armstrong, "President & CEO of the Group Health Cooperative explains how a health care cooperative works and the role co-ops might play in a new national health care system, if legislation is passed providing for them." C-SPAN at 10am & 6pm ET

toniD's Ya Think?

Face The Nation
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa,
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
Dr. Howard Dean

Somehow I don't see Sheiffer balancing things out.

My money is still on Dean....

I hope he cleans their clocks.

Maria Barteromo is becoming shrill. Her voice is shrill and I can't listen to her anymore. Like nails on a chalk board.

toniD's Ya Think?

at least that's how it sounds so far. Here's who is on now
Linda Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor and Vaughan Ververs

toniD's Ya Think?

'Any nation as rich as ours ought to guarantee
health coverage for all of its residents'
If nothing is done to slow current trends, the number of people in this country without insurance or with inadequate coverage will continue to spiral upward. That would be a personal tragedy for many and a moral disgrace for the nation. It is also by no means cost-free.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/opinion/23sun1.html?_r=1

The 46 million that is quote for people without insurance, those figures are 2 years old. We have people that have been losing jobs these past 2 years and we are still losing jobs. How many of those people still have insurance?

Those without insurance must be way over 60 million right now. I'd like to see the new numbers!

toniD's Ya Think?

Without reform, health insurance rates to nearly double in 11 years

By Daniel Tencer

Insurance rates will rise 94 percent by 2020 if cost-saving reforms to the US health care system aren’t enacted, a new study from the Commonwealth Institute finds.

The 90-year-old non-profit health care charity released an analysis of health care costs and forecasts that says employer-sponsored family plans will rise from an average cost of $12,298 in 2008 to $23,842 in 2020.

By contrast, the same coverage would have cost around $9,200 in 2003.

“Across the United States, middle-income individuals and families have been los­ing ground as the cost of health insurance continues to rise at a faster rate than incomes,” the report states. “Rising employer insurance premiums have forced many working fami­lies to trade off increases in their wages just to hold onto their health benefits. The expanding share of health insurance premiums paid by workers themselves has also taken a greater cut out of paychecks.”

The Commonwealth Fund’s report continues:

Between 1999 and 2008, employer-sponsored fam­ily health insurance premiums rose by 119 percent nationally, while median family income rose by 29 percent.2 Such a rapid increase in the cost of employer-sponsored health benefits has forced difficult choices at workplaces across the country. Studies indicate that slower growth in wages and lower savings for retirement (worker and employer contributions) have been part of the trade-off to preserve health benefits.3 Despite such trade-offs, the monthly cost of premiums paid by workers and their families is up—consuming an ever-greater share of any wage increases they might receive.

At the state level, premiums have risen rapidly, and far faster than average incomes. In the five years from 2003 to 2008, total premiums for family cover­age under employer-sponsored plans rose a cumulative average of 33 percent. The five-year increase in family premiums ranged from about 25 percent in the three lowest-growth states (Michigan, Texas, and Ohio) to 45 percent in the two highest-growth states (Indiana and North Carolina). Twelve states saw increases of 40 per­cent or more and 36 states saw increases of 30 percent or more—well above the rate of income growth.

The analysis could prove a much-needed talking point for supporters of health care reform.

“The public option isn’t just some kind of political litmus test,” writes blogger mcjoan at Daily Kos. “It’s the last stand for affordable health care in the future. The public option means that American families will not have to pay a quarter of their monthly income on health insurance in ten years. It’s bad enough that we’re now paying 18 percent [of GDP].”

The Commonwealth Report’s numbers “are yet another reminder that genuine healthcare reform, in particular Medicare for all, is the most effective way to rein in costs,” the California Nurses’ Association said in a statement drawing attention to the study.

“These findings are merely the shocking state of premiums, not even including a concurrent jump in out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-pays, and other fees,” said Deborah Burger, co-president of the nurses’ group. “It’s no wonder that medical bills now are the leading factor in 62 percent of bankruptcies, and half of American families are rationing medical care because they can’t afford it.”

“Yet, rather than show any compassion for how their price gouging practices have harmed so many families, the insurance giants are planning to continue to plunder the American people with more huge increases in premium prices,” Burger added.

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/22/insurance-rates-double/

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by ellwort on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 6:10am.
Desert and fruittrees.

*******

Savvy ?
I probably haven't been savvy since my late twenties..Many moons ago..
Because that's when I Married my late Wife..And,I know she didn't marry me for my money..I had none..

Probably the last time I took a picture too,without my sister or someone saying,"Just push down this button",as I try to take a picture of them with their camera..

*Desert and fruittrees.

That sounds really nice & peaceful..
Good for you guys.. :)

Sorry,just when someone posts something about Baja I start babbling about it..I need to start heading down there more..
It's been over a year since I've gone..
I got sick of coming back through the F-ing San Ysidro border crossing & worried about getting shot up by some loco drug warriors down there..

Done babbling now.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

It's written by a doctor with help from a "reformed" lawyer and another pal doctor. He took a break from blogging but is back now because of the health care issue.

Take a look:

http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/2009/08/welcome_back_to_denialism_blog...

It's called denialism blog.

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18764.cfm

--------
http://organicconsumers.org/ACO/index.cfm (Spanish Version)

Every morning you wake up, more and more folks turn against health care reform. Higher taxes, redistribution of wealth, socialism, increased budget deficits, socialised medicine, gosh, what's not to like?

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

George W. Bush

Has Barrack learned his lesson? I bet he has! He can still save himself with strong capitalistic Co-op plan. Congress goes back to work on September 8th. With polls dropping every day, I expect to see a lot more talk about a capitalistic bill.

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

George W. Bush

Submitted by Mullet on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 10:15am.
...redistribution of wealth, socialism...socialised medicine, gosh, what's not to like?
--------
Bogus spin about socialism, for one.

The ghost of Tailgunner Joe sez, "Mullet, I like the way you think!"

Submitted by Mullet on Sun, 08/23/2009 - 10:34am.
Has Barrack learned his lesson? I bet he has! He can still save himself with strong capitalistic Co-op plan.
---------------------
Cooperatives are the antithesis of capitalism.

http://www.answers.com/topic/capitalism

capitalism:
n.
An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.

http://www.answers.com/topic/cooperative

cooperative:
n.
An enterprise or organization that is owned or managed jointly by those who use its facilities or services.
---
Business Encyclopedia: Cooperative

A cooperative (also referred to as a co-op)is a form of business ownership that consists of a group of people who have joined together to perform a business function more efficiently than each individual could do alone. The purpose of a cooperative is not to make a profit for itself, but to improve each member's situation...
---
Political Dictionary: cooperative movement

The idea of replacing economic competition by the mutual cooperation of producers and/or consumers was central to the nineteenth-century socialist tradition, particularly Robert Owen and his followers...
---
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: cooperative

Organization owned by and operated for the benefit of those using its services...
---
Law Encyclopedia: Cooperative

An association or corporation established for the purpose of providing services on a nonprofit basis to its shareholders or members who own and control it...

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5140

It's about time Seder give WaDo his own thread, anyway.

I think he's earned it. :)

"this machine kills fascists"

How Republican's Lowered The Cost of Healtcare for All Americans

Does having only a front and back cover, with no pages in between, really qualify it as a book?

And, if it weren't for creating a place to put praise and rave reviews from other Republicans, would it really need the back cover?

These days, all Republican ideas on a given issue could fit easily on the dustjacket with plenty of room for the artwork.

Hell, you could argue that Ann Coulter's been a dustjacket author for over a decade now.

Every few years she buys a new cocktail dress, takes thirty seconds and flips through the dictionary to find single word and tells her publisher to schedule a photo shoot.

"this machine kills fascists"

Moths deserve a place to live.

Republican's have no ideas, all they can do is criticize whatever Democrats want to do. They live in a cocoon where they only hear their own vapid bullshit 24x7x365 that is grounded in hate, fear and the belief that a few rich and powerful people are better than everyone else including the poor saps in their party who carry the water for them.

You saw above how clueless they were when the Billionaires for Wealthcare showed up at the teabagging event. Beyond fucking clueless. I would laugh but this is serious:

Conservatives are killing our country, literally. Remember the insurance executive who testified before Congress she literally "death paneled" dozens of policyholders because of cost?

I can't do all serious all the time because to treat them seriously lends them credibility. the most ridiculous part of their ridiculousness is that they expect to be taken seriously.

As far as I am concerned they need to be continuously ridiculed because:

a.) Laughter is cathartic

b.) Conservatives have absolutely no weapon against being mocked and in no way are they even close to being able to mock on our level

c.) It will keep people from joining their ranks, lest they fall into the well of ridicule.

"this machine kills fascists"

B.B. King -- Let the Good Times Roll

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujx07TqFLr0

..because they see it on FOXNews, hear it on talk radio and read it on the Internet. The lack of any real counterpoint explicitly implies they are truly brainwashed. Trying to ridicule them with laughter may only drive them further away because it's supporting their stereotype all liberals are elitist snobs.

This is why I want to talk about it on a panel this week. 4 points Bartlett made are valid:

1. The advent of 24 hour news channels killed object journalistic editorializing.

2. FOXNews destroyed all fairness and balance by becoming a mouthpiece for the right.

3. Talk Radio set the foundation

4. The right wing unfiltered internet iced the cake.

Now conservatives can live in an unfiltered world of corporate and political propaganda. It's all they see, therefore it is their reality. Laughing at it might help us but I don't think it will bring the likes of WaDo back to real reality vs the pseudo certainty he's blinded by.

What Bartlett didn't touch on and is most crucial is the effect of media consolidation in destroying political balance.

I know 60th want's to participate this week. toniD is a given cuz now I'm calling the segment "Ya Think". Who else?

Are you gonna put it on the other/new thread too?

I sent you a mail, but it doesn't really say anything. So it almost doesn't warrant saying "check your mail."

To use a hackneyed rhetorical device...

Are you saying there is more than one thread? Multi-threads? But this is a perfectly good thread!

Actually what happend was I wrote that message before I left to go visit today but obviously missed the [Post comment] click and sent it when I got home not stopping to think another thread might have been spawned while I was gone.

Life is just too fucking complicated.

Blowup your TV
Throw away the paper
Move to the country
Build you a home
Plant a little garden
Eat a lot of PEACHES
Try to find Jesus
On your own.

http://samsedershow.com/node/5134

I heard 3 Presidents will be at Kennedy's Funeral today.

Carter, Clinton, and GW. George H W Bush will not be there.

toniD's Ya Think?

Blackwater Founder Accused in Court of Intent to Kill

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 29, 2009

The founder of Blackwater USA deliberately caused the deaths of innocent civilians in a series of shootings in Iraq, attorneys for Iraqis suing the security contractor told a federal judge Friday.

The attorneys singled out Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL who is the company's owner, for blame in the deaths of more than 20 Iraqis between 2005 and 2007. Six former Blackwater guards were criminally charged in 14 of the shootings, and family members and victims' estates sued Prince, Blackwater (now called Xe Services LLC) and a group of related companies.

"The person responsible for these deaths is Mr. Prince,'' Susan L. Burke, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. "He had the intent, he provided the weapons, he provided the instructions, and they were done by his agents and they were war crimes.''

Judge T.S. Ellis III expressed deep skepticism about the claims. "Are you accusing Mr. Prince of saying 'I want our boys to go out and shoot innocent civilians?' '' he asked the attorneys."These are certainly allegations of not engaging in very nice conduct, but where are the elements that meet the elements of murder? I don't have any doubt that you can infer malice. What you can't infer, as far as I can tell, is intent to kill these people.''

Attorneysfor the former Blackwater company denied the allegations at the hearing, which was called to consider their motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Ellis said he would issue a ruling "promptly.''

The hearing -- combative in its words but respectful in tone -- was the latest fallout from Blackwater's controversial actions in Iraq. The North Carolina company, which has provided security under a lucrative State Department contract, has come under scrutiny for a string of incidents in which its heavily armed guards were accused of using excessive force.

The deadliest was a September 2007 shooting in central Baghdad in which Blackwater guards opened fire on Iraqis in a crowded street, killing 17 civilians. The company has said the guards' convoy came under fire. Five former Blackwater guards have been indicted on federal charges in 14 of those shootings. A sixth guard pleaded guilty.

The lawsuit cites that incident and other shootings to accuse the company of "lawless behavior." A consolidation of five earlier lawsuits, it says the company covered up killings and hired known mercenaries. In sworn affidavits recently filed by the plaintiffs' attorneys, two anonymous former Blackwater employees also say -- without citing evidence -- that the company may have conspired to murder witnesses in the criminal probe.

Attorneys for Blackwater say the lawsuit should be dismissed on a variety of legal grounds and that although the deaths were tragic, the guards were closely supervised by U.S. government officials. The allegations "go far beyond describing the harm allegedly suffered by Plaintiffs,'' the Blackwater attorneys wrote in their motion to dismiss. "They include an encyclopedia of vituperative assertions.''

The Blackwater attorneys are also calling on the judge to strike the affidavits from the former employees from the court record, calling them "scandalous and baseless" and designed to get publicity. Ellis has yet to rule on that motion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/28/AR200908...

toniD's Ya Think?

Rain in bean town

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

Iraqi Who Threw Shoe At Bush To Be Released Early: Lawyer »

AP | By SINAN SALAHEDDIN | August 29, 2009 at 09:24 AM

BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi journalist jailed after hurling his shoes at former President George W. Bush will be released next month after his sentence was reduced for good behavior, his lawyer said Saturday.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi's act during Bush's last visit to Iraq as president turned the 30-year-old reporter into a folk hero across the Arab world amid anger over the 2003 invasion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20090829/ml-iraq-shoe-thrower

toniD's Ya Think?

How The Profit-Hungry "Medical-IndustrIal Complex" Hurts Health Care (VIDEO)

"Bill Moyers Journal" aired a new documentary on its show Friday about how the "medical-industrial complex" affects America's health care. Based on the book "Money-Driven Medicine" by Maggie Mahar, the film looks at why our health care costs are so high and yet the care is so often lacking.

Mahar, who has reported on health care for years, explains the situation as follows:

What I learned, during those years, is that in our health care system, profits often trump patients. A great many people are selling and selling hard. By law, for-profit corporations are supposed to put their shareholders' interests first: this means that they must strive to maximize profits. And this goes a long way toward explaining why U.S. healthcare is so expensive.

Watch a clip from the film below. See the whole thing at Bill Moyers Journal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/28/how-the-profit-hungry-med_n_271...

toniD's Ya Think?

Thanks Toni & Dan..

I hope you find a new job soon,Sam..

Hopefully,on Radio or TV..

Were all hoping you do.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

when i was a kid i used to believe the gods were crying when a good man was dead

night....fabulous show.

good morning all!

orrin hatch whom I was about to "mute" when he came on, turned out to be one of the best eulogy; the most boring were biden and john kerry - i had to mute part of them; i kept thinking and hoping that the casket cover would open up - you know, like in the movies - and ted kennedy would wake up and comment on what was being said about him....

it would have been a minor miracle compared to orrin hatch turning into a human being if only for a few minutes

Letterman focused on President Obama's vacation again last night, using the fact that a cantina on Martha's Vineyard has named a drink after the president to mock other politicians. He went on to talk about John McCain's town halls and take a shot at Sarah Palin in the process, calling her "crazy."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/28/letterman-takes-on-bush-m_n_271...

toniD's Ya Think?

michele? could you be a little more specific

Watching the funeral...for a minute there I thought Scarborough and his shitty crew were going to cover it and I was grumbling at Scarborough's using the time to concern troll about how the House Progressives should just get some health care reform passed lest this turn into yet another failed attempt.

"this machine kills fascists"

How bad can Government be ?

Just look at those two slugs..

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

the only missing prez is poppy bush (asshole)

Submitted by mire on Sat, 08/29/2009 - 10:08am.
...i kept...hoping that the casket cover would open up - you know, like in the movies - and ted kennedy would wake up and comment on what was being said about him...
--------
Nosferated.

amazing; it just shows it is possible and how wonderful it would be, when even those beasts republicans turn out to be human, wow

A tale of the unted.

deal with it; ahnold is part of the kennedy family; the puke feeling should be aimed at mary shriver, how could she do it, ewww, bastardize the bloodline

tweety is coming close to saying carter will be the next one to go, talking about how old he's gotten... typical tweety bullshit

psy·cho·path

A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

the gods were crying, mire?

didn't Italy do away with polytheism quite some time ago?

"this machine kills fascists"

looks like a beautiful church, i have never seen it and i have been in boston several times; next time i must make a point to go visit it

kids study mythology in school, it was one of the subjects we studied, we knew all about jupiter and minerva etc

THE SENIOR SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MAINE.... For all the recent talk about trying to strike a "deal" on health care reform, the truth is, the outline of an agreement isn't hard to imagine.

As Kevin Drum noted yesterday, "In theory, a deal should be fairly easy. Keep the insurance reform stuff and the increased subsidies, dump the public option, add in a few other goodies here and there for both sides, and voila. Dinner is served. But who's going to join us at the table? Are there any Republicans left who will vote for any healthcare plan at all, regardless of what is or isn't in it?"

Put aside, at least for now, whether that seems like a worthwhile deal for Democrats, and whether the idea of pursuing a deal has merit. The point is, for all the efforts this year, the barebones of a deal are right in front of lawmakers. Kevin's question, then, deserves an answer: if there are going to be negotiations, who will join reformers at the table?

Eyes turn to the senior senator from Maine.

As Congress prepares to hit the restart button on the health care debate, Senator Olympia J. Snowe does not relish the prospect of becoming a Group of One.

"I certainly hope not," exclaimed Ms. Snowe, about the possibility that she could end up as the sole Republican willing to join Senate Democrats in moving ahead on a broad change in health care.

The arithmetic is obvious. There are three Senate Republicans talking about a bipartisan deal. Two of three -- Iowa's Chuck Grassley and Wyoming's Mike Enzi -- have made it painfully clear that they oppose health care reform. Whether Snowe likes it or not, that leaves a Group of One.

The NYT's Carl Hulse added, "This has given Ms. Snowe a high degree of leverage as Democrats ask, What does Olympia Snowe want?"

To her credit, Snowe is nowhere close to Grassley's and Enzi's position. She believes the status quo really does represent a health care crisis, that the uninsured should be covered, and that those with insurance may not appreciate what's around the corner. "They may say they are satisfied now," Snowe told Hulse, "but it is going to get worse, given the skyrocketing increases that are only going to persist. Something needs to be done to remove the deep anxiety that people find themselves in because of the lack of health insurance."

She even sees the value in a public plan competing with private insurers, though Snowe prefers a "trigger" that would kick in later.

Snowe, in other words, supports some kind of health care reform -- which makes her unique in the Republican caucus. The Gang of Six charade has become farcical. If the goal is to strike a deal, the White House should probably go around it and invite her over for a detailed chat.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019688.php

Dems Eye GOP Senator Snowe For Vote On Health Care »

New York Times | Carl Hulse | August 29, 2009 at 01:10 AM

As Congress prepares to hit the restart button on the health care debate, Senator Olympia J. Snowe does not relish the prospect of becoming a Group of One

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/health/policy/29snowe.html?partner=rss...

toniD's Ya Think?

have you ever read Anne Rice?

"this machine kills fascists"

rules
new
Submitted by mire on Sat, 08/29/2009 - 10:22am.
deal with it
*******

1)He's my Governor,unfortunately..So I say can what I want about him.. :)

They are both just actors,anyhoo..Who like Steroid produced muscles..

2)Watching Tweety ? No can do..

C-Klan is just a few or more channels away.. :)

3)Denial,ain't just a river in Egypt sister ! ;)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

i can't stand her, and fuck the new york times

I did say the only Prez not there would be HW.

Kennedy Funeral
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 08/29/2009 - 9:32am.

I heard 3 Presidents will be at Kennedy's Funeral today.

Carter, Clinton, and GW. George H W Bush will not be there.

toniD's Ya Think?

Son attending is enough, Bush I says

Former President George H. W. Bush, who has enough stamina to sky-dive each year on his birthday, apparently doesn't have the stamina to attend Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) funeral.

The elder Bush's spokesman told the AP Friday that the 43rd president decided not to attend when he learned that his son would be going.

A spokesman for Bush said Friday that he and his wife, Barbara, decided not to attend Kennedy's funeral after learning their son, former President George W. Bush, would attend.

Spokesman Jim McGrath quipped that Bush Sr. feels his son's presence will "amply and well represent" the family at Kennedy's funeral Saturday.

In a statement released following Kennedy's passing, the elder Bush released a statement saying that he "always respected" Kennedy.

"While we didn't see eye-to-eye on many political issues through the years, I always respected his steadfast public service," Bush said in a statement.

Kennedy "was a seminal figure in the United States Senate - a leader who answered the call to duty for some 47 years, and whose death closes a remarkable chapter in that body's history," he added.

Bush released a condolence statement on behalf of him and his son immediately after Kennedy's death. It was part of a stream of fond remembrances issued by Republicans.

All other living presidents -- President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush and President Jimmy Carter -- will be attending.

-John Byrne

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/08/elder-bush-refuses-to-attend-kennedys-f...

toniD's Ya Think?

No..
But,just about every woman I've meet has.. ;)

The movie had good casting,I hear..

Tom Cruz as a gay vampire..Not too much of a stretch for old
Tommy,now was it ?

And,of course that 10% check to those spaceship people..

Ah,Hollyweird !

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

(doing crank job here)

when you say "Carter, Clinton, and GW. George H W Bush will not be there" it means only one thing

and for a while you had me scratching my brain to figure out - if these three were not going, who the three attending would be? serious, I went on and on in my head trying to remember who these other 3 living prezzies could be; i almost doubted that nixon and ford might be dead - maybe the zombies had come back to life just to attend this funeral?

i certainly needed more coffee

Analyst: Kennedy would not have compromised on health care reform
By David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Both Democrats and Republicans have already begun invoking Sen. Ted Kennedy’s name in the battle over health care reform, with Republicans on the Senate Health Committee like John McCain and Orrin Hatch suggesting that Kennedy would have been willing to compromise with them to get a bill through.

However, according to political analyst Lawrence O’Donnell — who was on the staff of the Senate Finance Committee when the Clinton administration tried and failed to pass its own health care reform in 1993-94 — Kennedy was “not an easy compromiser” on the issue of health care.

O’Donnell told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Thursday, “In 1994, I was in the room when [Kennedy] told the president that he believed the strategy should be a Democrats-only strategy and that we should not be trying to reach out and get Republican votes. The Kennedy strategy as enunciated the last time we went through this is exactly what you’ve been hearing from a lot of these sharper critics on the left in the Congress this year.”

McCain claimed on Thursday morning, “There’s been no real negotiations [in the Health Committee]. … No amendments were agreed to of any significance. … That’s not the kind of negotiations that I did with Senator Kennedy.”

O’Donnell, however, pointed out that both McCain and Hatch were on the Health Committee when Senator Kennedy led it in 1993-94, and “neither one of them have ever seriously negotiated with Chairman Kennedy on any of these things.”

“They’ve certainly done business on other subjects,” McDonnell stated. “That’s true. But absolutely never on health care reform. Never.”

“The McCain position,” concluded McDonnell, “is essentially, ‘Sure, if we got some amendments in there to remove all the things Ted Kennedy wanted, then we would have voted for the final product.’”

This video is from MSNBC’s Countdown, broadcast Aug. 27, 2009. at link

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/28/odonnell-kennedy-would-have-suppo...

toniD's Ya Think?

got tired of hearing that silly talk

the casket on the rainy slick pavement and stone steps

The sights and sounds of the event.

Must be a number of portable generators out back to power all the theatrical lights inside.

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

"Sailing on Mya with Vicki at my side and my dogs,
Splash and Sunny, at my feet. And, of course,
a Democrat in the White House and regaining
our majority in the Senate."

-- Teddy, asked what his idea of happiness was, Link

Bartcop

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=lady%20of%20perpetual%...

Ug...respectfully, to all that enjoyed it...the movie was a piece of shit, IMO.

She actually wrote Interview with the Vampire in the early 70s and it was the first adult themed book my mom let me read. I read it when I was 12, right after she finished it.

I'm not much for the later work, but tloved he first three books of the Vampire Chronicles. As I'm sure you know, Rice grew up in and wrote these books from New Orleans.

I thought of her when you made that statement about the Gods crying because it sounded exactly like one of the beautiful anecdotal lines she would have written for one of her characters, and specifically, one of the more ancient vampires who were born during the era of polytheism. She really fleshes out their past lives very well in her books and knows how to lace enchantment into her little religious history lessons.

"this machine kills fascists"

Is it punishment from Comcast for what I said about Fox News?

Sorry about the tin foil hat moment, but it does make you wonder,

toniD's Ya Think?

but now it's a cry me a river scene in the basilica

Sorry..I've just been very snarky lately..

Oh..And,Tweety is just another M$M whore who likes the smell of men or something..
And,likes to hang out with his rich,Rethug friends..
Anyhoo,that's what I've heard.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

yoyoma and placido domingo coming up (that's whom i am really holding out for)

kennedies?

and pour some mead

i said "pour" (it's too early in the morning for otherwise)

caroline looks like vickie

Teddy Dying - Quotes

"This country is now much better off, one less socialist, anti freedom senator."

"Now if we could just talk God into taking Spector, Reid and Pelosi, America would be Eutopia!"

"good riddens"

"I hope God makes him babysit all the aborted children for eternity."

"Ted Kennedy dying has made my day...."

"Good ridencance to a sorry person."

"It's about time, we can only hope Pelosi and Ried will be joining him very soon.
All 3 of them should be buried in Moscow."

-- comments on Sarah Palin's facebook page, Link

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

I thought how much of Jackie I saw in Caroline.

[a short prayer for tD's cable connection.]

Saint Clare of Assisi - Patron Saint of Television

The patron saint of television was a remarkable woman... What? You didn't know there was a patron saint of television? Of course! It's good old St Clare.

She ran away to become a nun as a teenager, and Saint Francis of Assisi became one of her best friends. She founded an order of nuns called the Poor Clares, and used to wake up in the middle of the night to check and see if they were all tucked up in bed.

Before she died in 1253, she became too ill to attend daily mass. As she lay in her bed, she would see visions of the mass on the wall of her cell, just like there was a TV. Pretty cool, huh? St Clare was canonized only two years after her death, in 1255, and her feast day is celebrated on 11 August.

Saint Isidore - Patron Saint of the Internet

Saint Isidore lived in the 6th and 7th Centuries in Spain. He was obviously born into an exceptionally holy family; three of his siblings have also been canonized as saints. As a child, his older brother confined him to a cell as punishment for being a lazy student. Thus isolated, Isidore felt motivated to learn more and more about the outside world. In his later life, he compiled an index of over 1000 manuscripts, and some say he was the originator of 'search terms'. His feast day is on 4 April.

Catholic Online has written a prayer for those using the Internet, asking for St Isidore's intercession:

Almighty and eternal God,
who has created us in Thy image
and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful,
especially in the divine person
of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
grant we beseech Thee that,
through the intercession of Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor,
during our journeys through the Internet
we will direct our hands and eyes
only to that which is pleasing to Thee
and treat with charity and patience
all those souls whom we encounter.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A523405

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

retarded quote from uberdolt Wolf Blitzer:

"I was talking earlier with some friends and I asked, who might emerge as the new Ted Kennedy in the United States Senate? You know who a lot of people think it might be? … That would be Senator McCain."

but the Kos reaction was perfect!

Ways in Which John McCain is like Ted Kennedy

"this machine kills fascists"

Submitted by MMRules on Sat, 08/29/2009 - 11:17am.
------
Apparently the inability to spell riddance is a key indicator of something or other?

*

communion is for those baptised in the church

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

to hear Ave Maria and is now off again. I also heard a little of Placido and Yoyo Ma. The end of it anyway.

Now I'm off to work early today because my boss called yesterday with a special project for me to do and brought in another girl to cover the front desk. It's an excel project, mostly filling in the spread sheet. so I'll be leaving soon and am hoping to catch the Prez's obit later.

Have a great afternoon all.

toniD's Ya Think?

you're missing the heart breaking speeches of the kids and grandkids

Patrick too.. :)

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

"Love in our life is just too valuable
Oh, to feel for even a second without it
But life without death is just impossible
Oh, to realize something is ending within us
Feeling yourself disintegrate"

"this machine kills fascists"

Thunderstorms ?

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

www.marcmaronrules.blogspot.com/

“Eternal Flame (Techno Remix)” by ROLLER GIRL

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