Easy to reconcile

majority rule or up and down vote, these are the terms I have mostly heard used when the republicans are in power; it's only when the dems wanna do it that they use "reconciliation" and they try to turn it into a dirty word

and the media - while in this video acknowledge the truth - mostly snyde along with their "shove it down the throat" or "swallow" and other crappy expressions

Apple admits using child labour

Apple has admitted that child labour was used at the factories that build its computers, iPods and mobile phones.

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Published: 12:21PM GMT 27 Feb 2010

At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple.

The company did not name the offending factories, or say where they were based, but the majority of its goods are assembled in China.

GPS-enabled mobile phones may herald a wave of businesses

Apple also has factories working for it in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, the Czech Republic and the United States.

Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. "In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment," Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.

Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories that abuse workers and where conditions are poor. Last week, it emerged that 62 workers at a factory that manufactures products for Apple and Nokia had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause muscular degeneration and blur eyesight. Apple has not commented on the problems at the plant, which is run by Wintek, in the Chinese city of Suzhou.

A spokesman for Wintek said that "almost all" of the affected workers were back at work, but that some remained in hospital. Wintek said n-hexane was commonly used in the technology industry, and that problems had arisen because some areas of the factory were not ventilated properly.

Last year, an employee at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that is one of Apple's biggest suppliers, committed suicide after being accused of stealing a prototype for the iPhone.

Sun Danyong, 25, was a university graduate working in the logistics department when the prototype went missing. An investigation revealed that the factory's security staff had beaten him, and he subsequently jumped to his death from the 12th floor of his apartment building.

Foxconn runs a number of super-factories in the south of China, some of which employ as many as 300,000 workers and form self-contained cities, complete with banks, post offices and basketball courts.

It has been accused, however, of treating its employees extremely harshly. China Labor Watch, a New York-based NGO, accused Foxconn of having an "inhumane and militant" management, which neglects basic human rights. Foxconn's management were not available for comment.

In its report, Apple revealed the sweatshop conditions inside the factories it uses. Apple admitted that at least 55 of the 102 factories that produce its goods were ignoring Apple's rule that staff cannot work more than 60 hours a week.

The technology company's own guidelines are already in breach of China's widely-ignored labour law, which sets out a maximum 49-hour week for workers.

Apple also said that one of its factories had repeatedly falsified its records in order to conceal the fact that it was using child labour and working its staff endlessly.

"When we investigated, we uncovered records and conducted worker interviews that revealed excessive working hours and seven days of continuous work," Apple said, adding that it had terminated all contracts with the factory.

Only 65 per cent of the factories were paying their staff the correct wages and benefits, and Apple found 24 factories where workers had not even been paid China's minimum wage of around 800 yuan (Pounds76) a month.

Meanwhile, only 61 per cent of Apple's suppliers were following regulations to prevent injuries in the workplace and a mere 57 per cent had the correct environmental permits to operate.

The high environmental cost of Apple's products was revealed when three factories were discovered to be shipping hazardous waste to unqualified disposal companies.

Apple said it had required the factories to "perform immediate inspections of their wastewater discharge systems" and hire an independent environmental consultant to prevent future violations.

However, Apple has not stopped using the factories.

Telegraph

A preemptive observation...any argument that justifies this as an "unfortunate byproduct" of the Capitalist system is an argument against Capitalism itself....

Time for United States to Join the Mine Ban Treaty

Author(s): Chayer Amelie . Monday 01 March 2010

Press release - For immediate release

Geneva, 1 March 2010 -- Eleven years after the Mine Ban Treaty became binding international law, activists worldwide are stepping up their call on the United States to join.

The U.S. announced last November that it had initiated a review of its landmine policy. Members of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) are visiting dozens of U.S. embassies worldwide on the 1 March anniversary to urge the U.S. to decide to join the Mine Ban Treaty without further delay.

"We are glad that the U.S. has decided to take a fresh look at its stance on banning antipersonnel mines," said Sylvie Brigot, Executive Director of the ICBL. "During the policy review process, it is crucial that decision-makers listen to the voices of landmine survivors and mine-affected communities."

The United States has not used antipersonnel mines since 1991, has had an export ban in place since 1992, and has not produced since 1997.

"The human cost of landmines far outweighs their military utility. An overwhelming majority of states have formally recognized this," said Zach Hudson, coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines. "The national security argument does not stand. Surely if we have been able to defend our country for the last 19 years without using landmines, we have already found alternative solutions."

The United States participated in an official Mine Ban Treaty meeting as an observer for the first time at the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World, in December 2009. It is the world's largest individual contributor for mine action and victim assistance programs, and it should match its financial commitment with a political commitment to end the threat of the use of landmines.

[...]

Link

Well, Mr. President...just who are we...?

Apple admits using child
Submitted by cent on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 2:56pm.

"a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment"

----
Always fucking shit up for the transnational corps and besmirching their good names.

with some of what he writes in his things...

I got no problem with anything that he wrote in that thing

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/ralph_nader_was_right_about_barack_...

cent put on the last thread. Letter perfect.

Except maybe if it's gonna be Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney it could be together, not separate this time, eh? Just a thought.

(But that's not really Hedges' lookout at this point.)

SFOAN

just considering buying a mac for the first time in my life...

Leave no one behind
By Nick Egnatz
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Mar 1, 2010, 00:20

Socialism at its heart is simply the commitment not to leave any member of society behind. Laid bare, capitalism allows the strongest and most conniving to leave the maximum number of their fellow citizens not just behind, but battered and broken.

Think of the warm fuzzy feeling you may have experienced when you first heard about the commitment of our soldiers to leave no one behind when we sent them into battle. That’s analogous to socialism. Now think about the death and destruction that these same soldiers are sent to deliver to fellow human beings that never lifted a finger against the U.S. until we invaded their countries. That’s closer to capitalism; only in capitalism the soldiers also kill each other, in addition to the enemy.

It is cruelly ironic that a country which takes such great pride in being a predominately Christian nation has at its core an economic system which is the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus.

Also ironic is the fact that a nation which revels in the belief that these same soldiers that are being sent halfway around the world to wreak the mayhem of U.S. Empire, are doing so purportedly to protect our freedoms. Yet the very freedom of speech, they are allegedly protecting, does not allow for the public airing of a rational debate on the pros and cons of socialism and capitalism.

With corporate media, government propaganda and both political parties owing allegiance to the altar of American capitalism, the only hopes for change are nonviolent mobilization and demands made from outside the elite-controlled electoral process.

con't

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5633.shtml

no bill better than a weak bill

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/opinion/01krugman.html

he could have been talking about the health care bill as well imo

How the Public Option Would Likely Get a Vote During Reconciliation

""

"this machine kills fascists"

Quote for Today (Smart People Will get the Point)

"The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold strugges, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute and above all new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1965

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&fo...

Time to overcome again. What do you think?
(Don't even think about it Crank!!!)

toniD's Ya Think?

I attended a small meeting today at my Congressman's office,Congressman Gary Peters of Michigan's 9th Congressional District. There were several people in the room that had been unemployed for quite a long time. The woman in the video, Pat Narrin, has been unemployed for a year and a half. Her daughter is underemployed working part time as a waitress. What really hit me though is the fact that Pat has a friend that was also unemployed and so distraught he committed suicide recently. Pat has a message for Senator Bunning about his holding up the Senate's approval of an extension of unemployment benefits. For the rest of the story visit

http://therochestercitizen.com/viewnews.php?newsid=40&id=1

Here's the video and she is much nicer than I would be!!!

toniD's Ya Think?

Unemployment Benefits Run Out For Some In Ky.

YouTube Embedding disabled by request

Go here to watch the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QDKMnYc4_s&feature=player_embedded

toniD's Ya Think?

IAEA chief accuses Iran of non-cooperation Updated at 3:38 AM

Source: AFP

The new chief of the UN atomic watchdog, Yukiya Amano, accused Iran on Monday of not cooperating sufficiently with an investigation into its contested nuclear activities.

In an opening address to an International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors meeting, Amano said a UN-brokered deal to supply Iran with fuel for a nuclear research reactor was still on table.
...
Diplomats close to the IAEA said the board meeting was unlikely to censure the Islamic republic over its contested nuclear work this time, since the body passed a resolution against Iran in November.
...
Diplomats say that even so-called Non-Aligned countries on the IAEA board are increasingly frustrated at Iran's refusal to sign up to a nuclear fuel deal that would have helped appease fears about its atomic activities.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hWu9YRN7TjBQ3rhH-08ul...

toniD's Ya Think?

US security contractors survive, UK firms pack up (Pakistan) Updated at 3:59 PM

Source: Dawn PK

ISLAMABAD: Several US contractors who have been at the centre of a controversy over presence of foreign security companies in the country appear to have survived, while the British firms have left.

There has been a recent onslaught of reports in the national media about the presence of foreign security contractors, particularly Blackwater/Xe.

The survival of the US firms, including Catalyst Services considered by many as front organisations of Blackwater/Xe and the Dyncorp, continues to pose a challenge to the country’s law-enforcement agencies who fear that these entities may be part of an attempt to establish what they call a parallel security and intelligence network.

According to an official report, other US security firms in Pakistan are Sallyport Global Services, having a security contract with an embassy in Islamabad, and RSM Consulting.

However, all British companies have packed up and left the country.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspa...

toniD's Ya Think?

Danish NATO destroyer sinks pirate mothership off Somalia

Source: MSNBC

BRUSSELS - NATO says one of its destroyers has sunk a pirate mothership in the Indian off the Somali coast.

A statement said the Danish warship HDMS Absalon disrupted a pirate operation by "scuttling" a pirate skiff, one of the large boats Somali gangs use to transport attack teams to hunting areas far off the coast.

NATO anti-piracy spokeswoman Shona Lowe said the action occurred in the Somali Basin, a term the alliance uses to denote the Indian Ocean rather than the adjacent Gulf of Aden where most pirate attacks take place.

Lowe said she could not immediately provide further details on the incident.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35643878

toniD's Ya Think?

Some businesses declare law no longer applies to them, regulators say

updated 4:46 a.m. CT, Mon., March. 1, 2010
Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators.

As a result, some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising.

Companies that have spilled oil, carcinogens and dangerous bacteria into lakes, rivers and other waters are not being prosecuted, according to Environmental Protection Agency regulators working on those cases, who estimate that more than 1,500 major pollution investigations have been discontinued or shelved in the last four years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35639472/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times

Maybe if their own children were poisoned by this pollution
they would do something about it. Like the Brockovitch movie where she pours water for the lawyers from the Energy company she wants to sue. She said the water is from their polluted reservoir. I'd like to serve their families that water!

toniD's Ya Think?

30! Five More Democrats--Including Durbin--Say They Support a Public Option Through Reconciliation

Edited on Mon Mar-01-10 10:50 AM by FourScore
Source: TPMDC

Five leading Democrats--including Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin--have publicly announced that they will vote for a public option if it's offered up during the budget reconciliation process, where legislation can pass with a majority vote.

"Sen. Durbin has long been a supporter of the public option," reads a statement from Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker to the progressive groups Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, and Credo. "I don't know whether the votes exist in the Senate right now, but if the House version of the public option came up for a vote in reconciliation Sen. Durbin would vote yes."

Similar statements were also issued from four other senators: Patty Murray (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

To be clear, these are not signatories to a letter--circulated by the three groups--advocating the public-option-through-reconciliation strategy. PCCC co-founder Adam Green put it this way: "We're accepting clear statements that if the public option comes up for a vote, they would vote yes. We're debunking what Gibbs said last week, that the votes don't exist -- they do...we'll prove it..."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/30-five-more-democrats--inclu...

toniD's Ya Think?

Senate impasse puts federal employees out of work

Source: AP

By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press Writer Joan Lowy, Associated Press Writer – Mon Mar 1, 12:03 am ET

WASHINGTON – Two thousand federal transportation workers will be furloughed without pay on Monday, and the Obama administration said they have a Kentucky senator to blame for it.

Federal reimbursements to states for highway programs will also be halted, the Transportation Department said in a statement late Sunday. The reimbursements amount to about $190 million a day, according to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The furloughs and freeze on payments were the result of a decision last week by Republican Sen. Jim Bunning to block passage of legislation that would have extended federal highway and transit programs, the department said. Those programs expired at midnight Sunday.

The extension of transportation programs was part of a larger package of government programs that also expired Sunday, including unemployment benefits for about 400,000 Americans.

Bunning objected to the $10 billion measure, saying it would add to the budget deficit. He didn't immediately respond to a request Sunday for comment.

The impasse has provided the administration with an opening to excoriate Republicans for allowing popular programs to run out, even if only for a short time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100301/ap_on_bi_ge/us_transportation_furlou...

toniD's Ya Think?

If you think you can control the workings down to the employee level of any internal or external shop from the corporate offices of any company the size of Apple or Nike or any other multinational based on company policy, you have little or no understanding of how business works today. It's not like a corner store.

Luxor was wonderful
new
Submitted by jbenet on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 11:18am.

I want to go back.

R BUTT BUDDIES -

What a bunch of asshats

r u watching C-Span??

What's going on at the span?

toniD's Ya Think?

Kyl lying while he is on the Senate floor??
WHY???

Wrong....I understand it all too well...if you think you can do nothing about it, it is you who have no understanding of business or marketing...

Holding the companies directly and publicly accountable, (exposing, attacking, and embarrassing them) for their labor and environmental abuses is how you effect change...making excuses for them is complicity and only enables the status quo...

As usual you are pushing in the wrong direction....

You've got Bunning & Kyl just spouting
"their" crap about how Obama is NOT going
to create any new jobs, how they gave the Dems
a chance to pay for 3 weeks of unemployment
thru some stupid plan using money that wasn't going
to be used until 2012. They r NOT making
sense (@ least to me)

What amazes me is that they (republickthugs) r so gaddamn
worried about paying for unemploymnet for people, where
were they when Bush & Cheney & all those fucks (excuse my
language toni) when they were spending ALL that MONEY
on the MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX???? WHERE WERE THEY?
Now there worried. DOuble talk sob's

The Jobs Bill was already passed. This bill is not a jobs bill!

toniD's Ya Think?

is saying that "unemployment benefits does not supply jobs,"
really you shit head, what r these folks going to do
as far as getting money Kyl??? Where do they get money
from?? Rob a bank? A grocery store? What the hell r these
idiots thinking.
I am so pissed right now - the people in Washington have NO worries @ all - they know where theer next meal is coming
from. It is because of the LAST administration that WE r in this MESS.
KYL is now saying that the Health Care Bill is a job killer.

is on the floor now.

but you are correct that we are to hold them accountable. And here is the important part for you to understand - the corporate responsibility is to find mechanisms to correct them and move forward. Not just to fire everyone.

So in like 96 when Nike addressed the labor issue, they tightened controls. Case closed.

Your earlier response because later in 2009 I applauded their progress on the environmental front shows how obtuse you were.

Companies and people are never perfect. All you can hope for is for them to aim to improve.

NY D.A. Clears Brooklyn ACORN: 'No Criminality Found'

From Kings County, New York District Attorney Joe Hynes just now::
On Sept. 15, 2009, my office began an investigation into possible criminality on the part of three ACORN employees. The three had been secretly videotaped by two people posing as a pimp and prostitute, who came to ACORN’S Brooklyn office, seeking advice about how to purchase a house with money generated by their ‘business.’ The ‘couple’ later made the recording public. That investigation is now concluded and no criminality has been found.

Well, what a stunner. Still no retraction from you, New York Times? Will you even bother to report this news this time, after failing to report that former MA Attorney General Scott Harshbarger found the same months ago, as did the Congressional Research Service, even as you continued mis-reporting the ACORN "pimp" hoax ever since?

UPDATED Law enforcement source: "They edited the tape to meet their agenda"...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7721

Related at The BRAD BLOG earlier today
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: 'Andy Breitbart Explains It All For You' - Disturbing Admissions, Manic Responses to the ACORN Video 'Pimp' Hoax
On-the-record answers at CPAC, that the corporate media couldn't be bothered to get themselves before misreporting the story...
FULL STORY, EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7719

toniD's Ya Think?

"We can't continue to spend like we r spending"
Sen. Jeff Sessions

By DIANA JOHNSTONE

For Europe’s poorest countries, European Union membership has long held out the promise of tranquil prosperity. The current Greek financial crisis ought to dispel some of their illusions.

There are two strikingly significant levels to the current crisis. While primarily economic, the European Economic Community also claims to be a community, based on solidarity -- the sisterhood of nations and brotherhood of peoples. However, the economic deficit is nothing compared to the human deficit it exposes.

To put it simply, the Greek crisis shows what happens when a weak member of this Union is in trouble. It is the same as what happens on the world scale, where there is no such morally pretentious union perpetually congratulating itself on its devotion to human rights. The economically strong protect their own interests at the expense of the economically weak.
http://www.counterpunch.org/johnstone03012010.html

OGDEN -- Hazardous material crews were called to an Internal Revenue Service building at 1973 Rulon White Boulevard this morning.

Security guards did not allow entrance to the building and declined to answer questions.

At least three pieces of equipment from the Ogden Fire Department is on the scene.

A spokeswoman for the FBI said the bureau is investigating.

This story will be updated when more information is available.

http://www.standard.net/topics/business/2010/03/01/haz-mat-crews-called-...

Update:

Hazmat crews respond to Utah IRS office
Two people removed on stretchers; decontamination showers deployed

OGDEN, Utah - Hazardous materials crews and the FBI were on the scene Monday at the IRS building in Ogden, Utah, where several people were subjected to decontamination showers.

Two people were taken out of the building on stretchers for "medical emergencies,” but their conditions “do not appear to be related to this incident,” said the the FBI, which is leading the investigation.” It released no further details.

The IRS confirmed that “an unknown substance” was discovered but also gave no further details. Local news reports suggested that a suspicious white powder may have been found in mail delivered to the facility.
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here

Initial reports said the buiding was in Farr West, a small community near Ogden, but the IRS specified that the incident took place at the IRS campus on Rulon White Boulevard in Ogden, about 30 miles from Salt Lake City.

The incident began about 12:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. ET) Monday, 11 days after a Texas man embroiled in a years-long dispute with the IRS crashed his small plane into the agency’s complex in Austin, Texas.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35650018/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

toniD's Ya Think?

and NO Nike DID NOT eliminate their abusive practices...they are still getting complaints about labor abuses while raking in record profits, so I will not just let them off the hook...

I don't have to applaud ANYONE for "cleaning up their act" fernando...only hammer them for taking advantage of people to make a fortune...

hope has nothing to do with it...

"plain and stubborn"...right...just keep telling yourself that...what ever helps you rationalize your life...

what you call hammering I call making a fool of yourself.

People read over the top narrow minded critisims and just think what a bunch of flakes. I don't want to have any part of that nonsense.

Now if you want to have a rational conversation about the inflamitory headline and look at the devestating health and safety hazards for all of the employees, that's a different subject.

I saw the article you referenced last night and felt like the real danger was in the exposure to those chemicals for anyone of any age.

Bunning Objects to Extending Unemployment Insurance AGAIN (VIDEO)

Source: Huffington Post

Sen. Jim Bunning continues to object to extending unemployment benefits. On Monday, the Kentucky Republican once again prevented a vote on a bill that would extend eligibility for enhanced unemployment benefits and subsidized health insurance for laid-off workers by 30 days.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) asked for unanimous consent to move forward with the bill. If Congress fails to pass an extension, the National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.2 million people will lose their benefits in March.

"Six times last week, Democrats asked to extend their unemployment benefits for a short time while they work on a longer extension," Reid said. "Six times, Republicans said no. They didn't just say no to us, that is members of the Senate. They said no to their families in their own states and all our states count on us to act when we need action. They count on us to respond in the event of an emergency. This is an emergency. The Republicans in the Senate are standing between these families and the help they need while these benefits expire and expired."

Make it seven. After Reid spoke, Bunning raised his objection and blamed the Democrats for failing to extend benefits with an earlier bill that Reid scrapped. He repeated his insistence that the Senate not add an additional $10 billion to the deficit. . .

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/bunning-objects-to-extend_n_481...

Bunning took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to complain that by having to defend his Scroogeosity, he was missing a basketball game between the University of Kentucky and the University of South Carolina, and it was REALLY important because Kentucky's only loss this year was to the Gamecocks, and now he was really steamed because he had to miss the game over something ridiculous like people keeping food on the table (my words, not his).

That's right, a seventy-eight year old man who DID NOT ATTEND THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY got all pissy about missing this game like some bratty freshman being punished for breaking curfew.

Guess what?

The day after this gall inducing statement was uttered, Kentucky lost. They lost to the University of Tennessee 74-65. I sure hope Bunning got a chance to see that one. Go Vols!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-greenfield/kentucky-wildcat-karma_b_47...

toniD's Ya Think?

Mac - wtf is going on with using kids?? I guess you can't
have "oversight" of everything - but wouldn't you hire
people that you would think would try & curb that kind of unethical behavior. I have never owned my own company, so
I really am just giving my own opinion. You have to really
keep up on that type of thing - make frequent visits to
factories, unannounced visits. At the same time you have to have a group of folks that you eeally can trust. That is
probably really hard to find in the business world (just from what I've seen & read)
Other countries have different standards to.

when you do, you look worse than the fool...you look like everything I stand against....

If you don't want to argue, then do us both a favor and just scroll my posts...but to expect me to agree with your arcane view of the planet or to bend to your insulting of my intelligence when I disagree with the stupid retrograde garbage you spew is a waste of your time...

just leave me alone...

Negative Approval in the Purple States
Tom Jensen notes that President Obama "now has a negative approval rating in every state he flipped from the Bush column to his in 2008. In each of those places his level of support is now in the 44-46% range. It's probably a good thing he doesn't have to run for reelection this year. He can only hope things start turning around for him once the midterms are in the rear view mirror, much as they did for Bill Clinton."

http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/03/obamas-drop.html

toniD's Ya Think?

is getting really old...spelling, or even changing a word or two I understand...but you have this habit of adding sentences that change the context of the entire post AFTER someone has already replied...it is a shitty thing to do.

1) I never referenced you cent, until you brought me up.
2) I also remember when my daugter asked me to help her find a job when she was 13. I told her it wasn't legal for her to work until she was 16 then but would be happy to buy her what she wanted. She squinted her eyes at me and said, I don't want you to know how I spend my money. At first I was suspicious, but really she was just being independant and responsible. She got a job the day she turned 16 but she also tried to get one every day until then too.
3) English is my second language. Sometimes my whole sentences need to be re-arranged. Please be patient. Or not.

is KICKING ASS on the Senate floor right now

someone from espn magazine just wrote to say they want to do a feature my league in their mag!!! No derby girls are around so I gotta share with someone before I bust! :)

I have no time to back read this pig lately....

Just color me bad (timing)

...
Equipped with remote and deadly technologies like drones flying over Pakistan and Afghanistan by operators in Nevada, many civilians have been slain, including those in wedding parties and homes. Still, it is taking 15,000 soldiers (U.S. and Afghan) with the most modern armaments to deal with three hundred Taliban fighters in Marja who with many other Afghans, for various motivations, want us out of their country. Former Marine Combat Captain Matthew Hoh described these reasons in his detailed resignation letter last fall.

Mr. Obama’s national security advisor, Ret. General James Jones estimated that there are about 100 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan with the rest migrating to other countries. And one might add, those whose migrate are increasing their numbers because they cast themselves as fighting to expel the foreign invaders.

So many capable observers have made this point: occupation by our military fuels insurgencies and creates the conditions for more recruits and more mayhem. Even Bush’s military and national security people have made this point.

The American people must realize that their reckless government and corporate contractors are banking lots of revenge among the occupied regions that may come back to haunt. We have much more to lose by flouting international law than the suicidal terrorists reacting to what they believe is the West’s state terrorism against their people and the West’s historical backing of dictatorships which oppress their own population.

American was not designed for Kings and their runaway military pursuits. How tragic that we have now come to this entrenched imperium so loathed by the founding fathers and so forewarned by George Washington’s enduring farewell address.

Where are “We the People”?

http://www.counterpunch.org/nader03012010.html

ESL, give me a break... I've heard you speak...English is more MY second language than yours, so cut the shit, okay?

are you really comparing part time off the books work at the local market to Sweatshops? ...and you impugn MY intellect? Nice try...

there's always time for good news!

toniD's Ya Think?

I won't pretend to speak for cent but I read it and am delighted for you. I hope it brings cent joy too.

When you say Shelly does it sound like Chally? That's how my Nona said it...she was from Durango, MX

Very COOL!!!

Better get those interview skills honed....you gonna be a star some day. :)

*

...like I said...hope has nothing to do with it.

extreme over exposure online that I can do for the league since I'm just that kinda chick...I mean how else would espn know about us? I can't imagine...

*

And I just want to say to M the AC that if I didn't write it, I meant to write about the coolness of his screenplay...those things are so stealthy cuz you don't want anyone to steal it that I maybe decided not ask about it..but I was thinking it..

What's it about M the AC? Generally speaking

hahahahaha! I wish you were right about that cent. Although you are correct about my accent, rather than Alice. I think in Spanish and translate most of the time.

I can't even do a good pretend Cholo accent. My brothers won't let me forget it either. But really, I'm wired straight up Mexican forced to assimilate.

As far as sweat shops go, I do agree they exist and are wrong. But how hard we work and what conditions are acceptable are both culturally subjective, and difficult to oversee. That's why trade law is the answer. I try to avoid going mass-critical implosion on the subject unless I understand all of the details precisely. Neither of us have those.

Bunning Objects to Extending
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 5:28pm.

Bunning Objects to Extending Unemployment Insurance AGAIN (VIDEO)

Biden Rules
For Republicans hoping that the Senate parliamentarian might derail Democratic plans to use budget reconciliation to pass health care reform, former Senate Parliamentarian Robert Dove told MSNBC that Vice President Joe Biden, who also functions as the president of the Senate, can override the parliamentarian when it comes to what qualifies under reconciliation.

Said Dove: "The parliamentarian only can advise. It is the vice president who rules."

Not since Hubert Humphrey, Dove noted, has there been a vice president played such a powerful role.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/01/biden_rules.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Moore Says Wife Could Run for His Seat
Rep. Dennis Moore (D-KS), who is retiring from Congress, hinted over the weekend that his wife, Stephene, was a potential Democratic candidate, the Kansas City Star reports.

He told fellow Democrats at a luncheon to "stay tuned."

Moore has won six straight elections in a highly Republican district.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/02/27/1778654/as-ohara-drops-out-of-race-...

toniD's Ya Think?

Reid Catches a Break on Health Care
Today's resignation of Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) essentially gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an extra vote to help her push health care reform bill through the House.

Now, with Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) facing a primary challenge from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is virtually guaranteed to have her vote -- assuming she still wants to be a senator -- as he tries to push the health care bill through the reconciliation process in the Senate.

It's not a bad start to the week for Democrats.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/01/reid_catches_a_break_on_hea...

toniD's Ya Think?

than I think they are!

Thompson Gets Serious About Feingold Challenge
Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) "is securing financial pledges and ramping up his outreach to longtime political aides in preparation" for a possible challenge to Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), Politico reports.

"Thompson has alerted his Washington-based law firm of his moves and is contacting key clients about the prospect of challenging Feingold, the most tangible signals yet that he's seriously exploring a 2010 campaign."

toniD's Ya Think?

Close Race for Senate in Indiana
A new DailyKos/Research 2000 poll in Indiana finds Dan Coats (R) barely edging Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 37% to 36%.

The poll also shows John Hostettler (R) leading Ellsworth by a larger margin, 40% to 34%.

With Rep. Baron Hill (D) taking himself out of the race over the weekend, Ellsworth is almost certainly the Democratic candidate.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/01/close_race_for_senate_in_in...

toniD's Ya Think?

Kent Conrad Rips Media: Yes, We Can Do Reform Via Reconciliation

In an interview with me just now, Senator Kent Conrad tore into the media for repeatedly botching its reporting on reconciliation, and confirmed that in his view, the current plan being entertained by Obama and Dems to pass reform via that tactic can, in fact, be made to work.

Conrad, the budget committee chair, also offered his most detailed explanation yet for why the House must pass the Senate bill first, before the Senate passes its reconciliation fix.

Conrad caused a big stir yesterday by saying: “Reconciliation cannot be used to pass comprehensive health care reform.” This was widely interpreted as claiming that the Dem way forward is a non-starter.

But Conrad patiently explained that the media interpretation of his comments is wrong. He was merely saying reconciliation would not be used to pass a comprehensive bill, and would only be used to pass the sidecar fix, which he said is workable, depending on what’s in it.

“Reporters don’t seem to be able to get this straight,” Conrad said, hitting the “misreporting” he said is widespread. “Comprehensive health care reform will not work through reconciliation. But if the House passes the Senate bill, and wants certain things improved on, like affordability, the Medicaid provisions, how much of Medicaid expenses are paid for by the Federal government, that is something that could be done through reconciliation.”

“A sidecar would be a good candidate for reconciliation depending on what’s in it,” Conrad said, adding that he didn’t think fixes to abortion or immigration provions would likely work, something that could create obstacles to passing the Senate bill in the House.

Conrad also explained in new detail why he believes that the House must pass the Senate bill first, a view that has been denounced by some critics who want the Senate to pass its fix before the House acts.

Conrad said that under Congressional rules, for a reconciliation fix to be “scored,” it’s not necessary that it become law, but it is necessary for it to have passed both houses of Congress before getting fixed. “For the scoring to change it has to have passed Congress, and that means both houses,” he said.

“The only thing that works here is the House has to pass the Senate bill,” Conrad continued. “Then the House can initiate a reconciliation measure that would deal with a limited number of issues that score for budget purposes.” After that, the Senate would pass the same reconciliation fix, Conrad explained, because even on the fix itself the House must go first because the lower chamber must initiate “revenue bills.”

Got that? It does look like this is how it’s all going to go down.

*********************************

Update: John Boehner spokesman Michael Steel emails a response:

“The American people have already rejected Washington Democrats’ trillion-dollar government takeover of health care stuffed with tax hikes, Medicare cuts, and special-interest giveaways. They have been crystal clear and loud as a buzzsaw on this issue. Trying to jam their latest job-killing backroom deal through Congress using this procedural trick would be a serious mistake.”

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/kent-conrad-rips-media-yes...

toniD's Ya Think?

Buffett: I Would Scrap Health Care Bill, But It’s Better Than The Status Quo

Billionaire Warren Buffett weighed in on the health care debate this morning, and his comments are beginning to get chewed over by the major news orgs.

The early initial interpretations of Buffett’s comments are along the lines of this write-up in Politico, which said that Buffett’s comments were “not something that President Obama would want to hear” and would be “repeatedly” cited by critics.

And it’s true that Buffett said that he’d be in favor of scrapping the bill and starting again. “We have a health system that, in terms of cost, is really out of control,” Buffett said. “Unfortunately, we came up with a bill that really doesn’t attack the cost situation that much and we have to have a fundamental change.”

But it’s worth watching the video of the interview, and if you do, you’ll see that Buffett also said he would prefer the Senate bill to the status quo:

“If it was a choice today between plan A, which is what we’ve got, or plan B, which is … the Senate bill, I would vote for the Senate bill. But I would much rather see a plan C that really attacks costs. And I think that’s what the American public wants to see…

“If the only choice I had in the world was the present system or the present bill, I’d take the bill.”

Given the respect Buffett commands in the financial universe, his comments are obviously not helpful to the reform cause. But given that in the real world, the choice is between the present bill and the status quo, his assertions are perhaps not as bad for reform proponents as they first appeared.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/buffett-i-would-scrap-...

toniD's Ya Think?

House Democrats May Switch Health Care Votes

WASHINGTON — Ten House Democrats indicated in an Associated Press survey Monday they have not ruled out switching their "no" votes to "yes" on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, brightening the party's hopes in the face of unyielding Republican opposition.

The White House tried to smooth the way for them, showing its own openness to changes in the landmark legislation and making a point of saying the administration is not using parliamentary tricks or loopholes to find the needed support.

Democratic leaders have strongly signaled they will use a process known as "budget reconciliation" to try to push part of the package through the Senate without allowing Republicans to talk it to death with filibusters. The road could be even more difficult in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi is struggling to secure enough Democratic votes for approval, thus the effort to attract former foes.

The White House said Obama will outline his final "way forward" in a Washington speech Wednesday, and he is expected to embrace a handful of Republican ideas for making health care more efficient.

Few in Washington think those gestures will be enough to persuade a single House or Senate Republican to embrace the legislation. But they could give wavering Democrats political cover by showing the party has been willing to compromise, ammunition against campaign accusations this fall that they rammed the bill through Congress with no regard for other views.

The proposal would impose new restrictions on insurance companies and order health insurance coverage for as many as 30 million Americans who now lack it, among many other changes.

Persuading lawmakers to change their votes is a tough sell. Elected officials are loath to vote two ways on a controversial issue, feeling such a switch draws more resentment than support overall. Democratic leaders stress that the legislative package soon to reach the House will be less expensive than the one that passed in November and will contain no government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers.

They hope those changes will give additional cover to party moderates thinking of switching from no to yes.

In interviews with the AP, at least 10 of the 39 Democrats – or their spokesmen – either declined to state their positions or said they were undecided about the revised legislation, making them likely targets for intense wooing by Pelosi and Obama. Three of them – Brian Baird of Washington, Bart Gordon of Tennessee and John Tanner of Tennessee – are not seeking re-election this fall.
Story continues below

The others are Rick Boucher of Virginia, Suzanne Kosmas of Florida, Frank Kratovil of Maryland, Michael McMahon of New York, Walt Minnick of Idaho, Scott Murphy of New York and Glenn Nye of Virginia. Several lawmakers' offices did not reply to the AP queries.

Both parties have used the "reconciliation" strategy to pass big bills before, but Republicans call the health care push an unwarranted departure from standard practices.

Top Democrats are reminding colleagues and voters at home that the Senate already has passed its version of the health care bill on Christmas Eve with a super-majority of 60 votes, which squelched a GOP filibuster without resorting to reconciliation rules. The new plan calls for the House to pass that same bill and send it to Obama for his signature.

But that is contingent on a Senate promise to make several subsequent changes. Those would have to be approved under the special budget reconciliation rules, because Democrats now control only 59 of the Senate's 100 votes – one shy of the number needed to stop a bill-killing filibuster.

Democratic leaders have asked colleagues not to use the term "reconciliation" but instead to refer to the process as "majority vote," said Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa. They also are frequently using the term "up or down vote."

The political math in the House is daunting.

The House version of health care passed 220-215 in November, with 39 Democrats voting against it. Since then, defections, resignations and a death have taken away yes votes.

With four House seats now vacant, Pelosi would need 216 votes to approve the Senate-passed version, which replaces the jettisoned House bill. That's exactly the number she has now if no other members switch their votes.

But many lawmakers expect further defections, especially members who oppose legalized abortion and feel the Senate language is too permissive in regulating federal funds for those operations.

For every yes vote that switches to no, Pelosi and the White House must persuade one of the 39 Democrats who voted "nay" in November to switch to yes.

Obama's announcement on Wednesday is expected to be a freshened blueprint of what he wants to see in a final health care bill, updated with ideas that at least have the fingerprints of Republicans.

The plan will replace the one Obama posted one week ago, but will not be written in legislative language.

Obama's move underscores his ever-growing role in shaping what he hopes will be a far-reaching revision to the nation's health care system, a goal that has eluded other presidents dating to Theodore Roosevelt.

Politically, it would also allow him to say that he was listening to Republicans at his ballyhooed bipartisan summit last week and that he has since responded by including more areas of common ground.

But Republicans have shown no sign of backing his proposal no matter how it is changed.

Obama also will outline how he wants the process to unfold in Congress. Officials signaled it will involve Senate reconciliation rules unless there's a stunning last-minute overture from Republicans.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would not confirm that plan Monday. But he repeated that health care deserves an up-or-down vote and that Republicans have used reconciliation on major legislation.

When asked if the public cares about legislative process, Gibbs said: "I think the American people care about what's in the bill."

Since Thursday's summit, Obama has been involved in a series of meetings in which the new White House proposal is being shaped.

Gibbs said Obama has worked to get votes in every round of the health care debate. "I don't doubt that he will ... do the same thing this time to get the votes necessary to pass health care," Gibbs said.

Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House's second-ranking Republican, made it clear that Republicans see a Democrats-only bill as an election-year issue.

"If Speaker Pelosi rams through this bill," he said this weekend, Democrats "will lose their majority in Congress in November."

Meanwhile Monday, Obama's argument that private insurance plans serving one-fourth of Medicare recipients are significantly overpaid got support from a report to Congress by nonpartisan technical advisers. Democrats have targeted Medicare Advantage plans for a big chunk of the cuts that would free funds to cover the uninsured.

The report by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission found that last year Medicare spent about $14 billion more for seniors enrolled in private plans than would have been the case if those beneficiaries had stayed in the traditional program. One consequence was that all Medicare recipients _whether in private plans or the traditional program_ ended up paying an additional $3.35 a month in premiums to cover the costs.

The Senate health care bill that Obama supports would replace the current payment formula for the private plans with an approach based on competitive bidding.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/white-house-health-care-vote_n_...

toniD's Ya Think?

I just read what you wrote about my daughter working off the books. That's just not true cent.

You are the one who insults and impunes. You know no shame or dignity.

...and once again you are insulting me by implying I don't and am flying off the handle...but once again it is you missing the point...this is all well thought out and calculated fern, not random fire-breathing...

it is not about locals accepting slave wages and slaughterhouse working conditions...it is about whether or not WE will accept corporations exploiting those circumstances and support them by letting them make making a fortune by profiting in the billions from human misery...

I do get it fern. I just do not agree with it. you think it is okay, I do not.

I had my first fulltime job when I was 15, it was in a factory and it was illegal, but it was for minimum wage, in a safe working environment, and I was not forced to work more than 40 hours a week, or live in a putrid cubicle 100 feet from my work space.

If we do not hammer the high profile multi-billion dollar companies we catch breaking the rules, the million others we don't catch never even get noticed...it is the companies we hound that end up pointing fingers at the others and demanding they be held to the same standard to keep them from gaining competitive edge...

Everytime a Nike or an Apple, or a Cisco, or some other huge company gets nailed exploiting their workers, directly or by sub-contract, they need to be eviscerated and humiliated in the media to get them to change the way they do business or risk losing market share or having their image besmirched...the large corporations are really the only ones that can handle that kind of hit without folding....

we can not just turn a blind eye, and even though exposure keeps it in the faces of our Government, our Trade reps can't or won't do shit, so in the end it is up to the workers rights groups and the consumers to apply the pressure...eventually, the companies themselves start pushing for institutional/legislative changes to keep their competitors from gaining cost advantage through continued exploitation...it is an inside out approach...

you see fern, it's not personal...it's business...this is how it is done...

...and big business has all the help it needs fern, without us cheering them on...

I HAVE UR COPY of this Kewl song btw of the info u gave. btw ;)!

dumb ass shit wipe fuck tard.

The Raging Septuagenarian
Taking on the Times, Google, and, in a sense, his own children, Rupert Murdoch is not going gently into the night.

On Saturday, January 9, Rupert Murdoch was on his Boeing 737 returning to New York from a business trip to Los Angeles when he learned that the New York Times had just posted a long profile of Fox News chief Roger Ailes on its website, one that he knew was going to cause a giant headache.

Earlier that morning, Murdoch’s son-in-law Matthew Freud, the London PR executive who’s married to his daughter Elisabeth, had sent an e-mail to Murdoch’s BlackBerry (Murdoch only recently began using e-mail himself). “I’ve given a quote to the New York Times, and you’re probably not going to like it,” Freud wrote.

The quote lived up to its advance billing—and quite a bit more. “I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’s horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to,” Freud, the great-grandson of Sigmund, had told the paper. Certainly there was personal animus in the remark; in the left-of-center London social circles where Freud and Elisabeth operated, Fox is particularly loathed.

But the quote was also a salvo in a battle that had been raging around Murdoch for years. Is Fox News a disreputable cash cow, its reported $700 million in profit something to be tolerated with a held nose? Or is it central to the News Corp. mission? And questions like these lead directly to others: Who is Rupert Murdoch, really? And what does he want now?

As always, these questions do not lend themselves to simple answers. The News Corp. patriarch turns 79 years old on March 11. The younger generation—Prudence, 51; Elisabeth, 41; Lachlan, 38; James, 37—is no longer that young. Three of its members are accomplished businesspeople in their own right. And they, along with senior News Corp. executives, have been working toward the day when Rupert is no longer making the decisions. They are trying to shape and define his legacy, sometimes editing out parts, like Roger Ailes and Fox News, that offend their sensibilities, while trying to position the company for a future that looks very different from the present. But the problem with these efforts is that Rupert Murdoch is not going anywhere. If anything, he’s been more active than ever, raging at his adversaries with the vigor of a man half his age. Over the last several months, he’s been waging a very public war with Google, trying to bend the freewheeling web according to his own rules. He successfully fought Time Warner to get the cable giant to cough up millions to broadcast his Fox affiliates. And he’s rebuilding The Wall Street Journal with an eye on destroying the New York Times, one of the most ancient of his enemies.

For Murdoch, these conflicts amount to holy missions. While others may see him as an opportunistic predator, ready to lay waste to whatever falls under his gaze, Murdoch sees himself as a moralist, the enemy of entrenched, arbitrary power. (Indeed, many of his newspaper wars, from the Times of London vs. the Daily Telegraph to the New York Post vs. the Daily News, have been financial debacles for both parties involved.) Google and the Times may be on opposite ends of the media spectrum, but they share an arrogance about their place in the world. And Murdoch, from the beginning, has found purpose in teaching such institutions hard lessons. Many see his pursuit of the Times as an irrational atavism, a figment of his past. Yet if the Times is going to fall, he wants not only to hasten its destruction but also to be there to dance on the rubble.

When Murdoch landed in New York around 2 p.m., he called his chief spokesperson, Teri Everett. A release went out saying that “Matthew Freud’s opinions are his own and in no way reflect the views of Rupert Murdoch, who is proud of Roger Ailes and Fox News.” He spent much of the weekend at his apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue—Laurance Rockefeller’s former triplex, which he and his wife, Wendi, had purchased for $44 million in 2005. All things considered, there was much to be pleased about. 20th Century Fox’s Avatar was on track to earn $2 billion, which would make it the highest-grossing film of all time. He had survived a crippling media recession and was licking his chops at the prospect of launching a good old-fashioned newspaper war. And yet the Freud quote was still gnawing at him. “Here he is at the height of his powers, and all anyone wants to talk about is this one quote. He finds that incredibly frustrating,” a senior News Corp. executive recently recalled. more...

http://nymag.com/news/media/64305/

toniD's Ya Think?

Submitted by toniD on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 5:35pm.
President Obama "now has a negative approval rating in every state he flipped from the Bush
--------

Duh! Who's surprised? It's been 7 months of kissing the ass of Teabaggers and the GOP- by the MSM. The posters that depicted Obama as Hitler, a pimp, Witch Doctor,etc., hurt Obama more than the Teabaggers. Why do you think they never showed the protesters against Bush?

I didn't realize "asshole" was your native tongue....

You see, I knew if I explained it to you rationally you would react that way...

...but it's all good. I like it better this way...most of the time I can barely tolerate your epic hypocrisy, and now I don't have to deal with your stupid ass at all.

The New York Post reports that former Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN), who had been mulling a run for Senate in New York against appointed Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, has decided not to run.

"I heard from Harold Ford and he has decided not to run," said Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who had previously indicated that he could have supported Ford. Lopez continued: "After giving it considerable thought and talking it over with his wife, he reached the conclusion that he would not be running, although he said he would like to remain active in the Democratic Party here."

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/report-harold-ford-not-...

Crowd Heckles Harold Ford Jr. On Gay Marriage Stance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB_4AQ0arpI

I like you both but can't take this Alpha Male fighting any more. Just agree to disagree and step back and don't get personal. We have bigger fish to fry!!

toniD's Ya Think?

I'm done...promise.

GOP Sen. Kyl: Unemployment Benefits Make People Not Want To Get A Job

A debate on the Senate floor Monday over unemployment compensation crystallized, at least for a moment, the divide between the two parties in Washington.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting "because people are being paid even though they're not working."

Unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work," Kyl said during debate over whether unemployment insurance and other benefits that expired amid GOP objections Sunday should be extended.

"I'm sure most of them would like work and probably have tried to seek it, but you can't argue that it's a job enhancer. If anything, as I said, it's a disincentive. And the same thing with the COBRA extension and the other extensions here," said Kyl.

Unemployment benefits are generally so small that much of it is often used to pay for COBRA health insurance, even when subsidized. The size of the benefits does not generally cover the cost of living and it would be hard to find a single person who would prefer unemployment to having a job so that they could get subsidized COBRA.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), about as far from a populist as can be found in the Democratic Party, appeared surprised at Kyl's claim.
Story continues below

"The Senator from Arizona argues that unemployment insurance is a disincentive to jobs. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't know anybody who's out of work and is receiving some unemployment insurance believes that that payment is sufficient not to find a job. The payments are so much lower than any salary or wage would be, it's just ridiculous. I might add, there are five unemployed Americans today for every job opening in the economy," said Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee. "People are looking for work. They're not unemployed because of choice."

He added that Kyl's economic argument was flawed, as well. Unemployment benefits do create jobs because the recipients cycle the money through the economy. He cited a Congressional Budget Office analysis that said the Gross Domestic Product grew $1.90 for every dollar the federal government paid out.

Baucus, ever the bipartisan, gave Kyl a chance to take his accusation back.

"I don't know if the senator really meant this, but he certainly strongly implied, in fact, I took him to mean that unemployment insurance is a disincentive for people to look for work," said Baucus.

Kyl asked to clarify. "My colleague quoted me correctly -- almost correctly," he said. "I said, it's not a job creator. If anything, it could be argued that it is a disincentive for work, because people are being paid even though they're not working. I certainly did not say, and would never imply, that the reason people don't have jobs is because they're not looking for them. Now, it is true that a lot of Americans have gotten so tired of looking for jobs or -- or believe that they're not gong to find them, that they have stopped looking."

Still, Kyl concluded by standing by his statement.

"What I said is true and if my colleague could find a source that says it's not true, then please show me. But providing unemployment benefits does not create jobs," he said, though Baucus had already directed him to the CBO analysis.

Kyl could also consult economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "It puts money into people's pockets and they spend almost all of it. That creates jobs," he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/gop-sen-kyl-unemployment_n_4815...

toniD's Ya Think?

Top Treasury Official Leaves For Lobbying Firm

Just as Congress enters the final stretch of the financial regulatory reform effort, one of the Treasury Department's leading liaisons to the Hill, Damon Munchus, is bailing out to go work for a financial services lobbying and consulting firm.

Munchus was one of Treasury's chief negotiators with the House Financial Services Committee.

"This is not a mid-season trade in the NBA, where players just change jerseys and play the same way," said Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), a member of the committee. "There should be at least some kind of cooling off period."

When he joined the Obama administration, Munchus -- like all other appointees -- signed an agreement not to lobby the administration for two years after leaving the government.

But the pledge says nothing about lobbying Congress, which is absolutely part of what Munchus will do for his new employer, The Cypress Group.

"Damon Munchus signed the Obama Administration's ethics pledge, and he is committed to fulfilling it," said Ben Dupuy, a partner at Cypress.

Cypress is a five-year-old firm that specializes in telling banks and other investors what Treasury is up to and how they can best use that information to cash in. At the same time, a Cypress division is registered as a lobbyist on bank issues -- a kind of dual role that leaves it simultaneously telling clients how to exploit Treasury regulations and market-interventions, while lobbying for or against those regulations and interventions. It also does its own investing.

Munchus worked in the Office of Legislative Affairs, which deals directly with the Hill. His position as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Banking and Finance gave him intimate knowledge not just of the process but of key lawmakers -- what they privately support what they secretly need; what they detest; and what makes them tick.

That's invaluable information to investors. Munchus couldn't be reached for comment.

The ability of Wall Street to lure staffers into high-paying lobbying and consulting jobs has a corrosive effect on the legislative process, as staffers start doing the banks' bidding even before a payday, in the hopes of getting one someday. Moves like Munchus's only increase that incentive.

"You've got to wonder how much of a fight administration lobbyists are putting up against people they see as their future employers," Miller said.

The Cypress Group lobbies on behalf some of the very firms Munchus dealt with at Treasury, including Citigroup, which is partly owned by taxpayers; some of the regional Federal Home Loan Banks; Wells Fargo; U.S. Bank; taxpayer-owned Freddie Mac; the biggest bank in the country, Bank of America; credit card giant Capital One; and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a trade group representing derivatives dealers and traders.

The firm has lobbied federal agencies and Congress on tax issues, bank regulation and taxpayers' bailout of Wall Street, among other topics. Its lobbying efforts have netted the firm nearly $5.5 million since 2005, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

With the acquisition of Munchus, Cypress can now boast to employ high-level officials from four straight Treasury Secretaries.

Cypress advises hedge funds, private equity firms, and venture capitalists. According to the firm's website, Cypress also has helped clients buy bank assets, a booming business given the nearly 200 banks that have failed over the past two years. "We facilitate meetings with key officials in Congress, federal agencies, and state governments, tailoring our message and tactics for each relationship and encounter," the firm says.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/top-treasury-official-lea_n_481...

toniD's Ya Think?

To your rooms boys, to your rooms. No TV, telephone or internet for you tonight.

Mom always liked me best!

Bill Halter Running For Arkansas Senate: Progressive Democrat To Challenge Blanche Lincoln »

March 1, 2010 at 07:51 PM

Updates below.

Conservative Democrat Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), whose obstinacy during the health care reform process was so frustrating to the progressive community, is officially getting a primary challenge.

On Monday morning, Arkansas lieutenant governor, Bill Halter, announced that he would launch a campaign to dislodge Lincoln from her Senate seat. He cited a need to focus on middle class issues, take on Wall Street, and fight back against special interests.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/bill-halter-arkansas-senate_n_4...

Progressive Challenger To Sen. Blanche Lincoln Raises $500,000 In Seven Hours

toniD's Ya Think?

Businesses Can Now Legally Pressure Workers on Political Issues?

Suppose your boss held a meeting at work and told you and your fellow employees, "We need you to vote for John McCain for President because Barack Obama isn't good for us."

1) Say, "What do you mean by 'us'?"
2) Snap to attention, salute smartly, and shout, "Yes Boss!"
3) Say "Isn't this against the law? I want to consult my attorney."
4) Say, "Does this mean that I have to quit canvassing for Obama?"
5) Pull a Norma Rae

While all of these answers are appropriate, depending on your perspective (we especially like #1 and #5), #3 is problematic. That is because it is one of the most overlooked, but highly possible results of the Citizens United decision that overturned the federal law restricting corporate expenditures on political campaigns.

The court ruled that corporations can use their unmatched wealth to overwhelm other participants in public debate and make elected officials even more indebted to big business than they already are.

But another problem has gone largely unnoticed. Employers can also use their financial power to pressure employees vote the way the company wants. This is already standard practice in union organizing campaigns. Employers hold a "captive audience" meeting which workers are required to attend. At this meeting, the company presents a stew of well-polished anti-union arguments and threatens (subtly or not) to close the company if the workers vote for the union. The union is not allowed to attend and has no comparable ability to tell workers the other side. Management closely monitors who speaks, who asks questions, and who exhibits pro-union sensibilities for later retribution.

This tactic is extremely effective. Even though workers in unionized companies make more money, have better benefits, and are protected from arbitrary termination, in about half of the elections the majority of workers vote against having a union. What makes this even more "impressive" is that before the election is held, in most instances a majority of employees have signed cards expressing a desire for a union. Sadly, the National Labor Relations Act permits this abuse.

This tactic is rarely used by employers on political issues. It's not because they don't want to. Employers are much better off when pro-business candidates (usually Republicans) win elections. Getting rank and file workers, a majority of who usually vote Democratic, to change their vote would change the outcome of a great many elections. They wouldn't have to convince [that] many workers since most elections are decided by a narrow margin of 10% or less. Winning by 51% to 49% is common. With elections so close, it doesn't take much to change the outcome.

The reason employers haven't been ramming their political views down workers' throats is that they weren't sure it was legal. There isn't any law against it. But corporate lawyers are extremely risk averse and want to avoid litigation. If they give the green light to action that ends up in court, the company will probably get another lawyer. Better to play it safe. Only rogue employers like Wal-Mart are famous for forcing their political views on workers, but the Citizens United case may change that. The court has announced with trumpets blaring that corporations have free speech rights just like real people and they will nullify any law that restricts corporate advocacy.

And if corporations are real people, they're salivating. Their attorneys may well tell employers that they can force workers to attend meetings and subject them to the same spiel of half-truths and threats that they use to fight unions. What's worse, it will be even more effective. Federal law protects a worker who speaks up in favor of a union once the meeting is over. It's a violation of the National Labor Relations Act to fire someone for advocating a union. This is existing law, even though the penalties are peanuts, and they come years later so they don't stop workers from getting fired every day.

However there is no law preventing employers from firing workers who oppose the bosses' political views. The First Amendment guarantees that the government cannot deprive a person of freedom of speech; it doesn't stop a private employer from violating workers' rights. Even refusing to hire someone because of their race wasn't illegal until Congress said so in 1964. That was after the watershed 1964 election, and was hard fought even then.

But this is 2010, and Congress has not passed a law preventing employers from firing workers because of their political views. Only five state legislatures have passed such legislation. This means that in 45 states employers can legally fire workers who don't give answer #2. This authority makes employers' ability to change workers' votes even greater than in a union election.

Congress is currently working on legislation to address problems caused by the Citizens United decision. It's critical that the legislation not only restores campaign finance reform but also prohibit employers from attempting to dictate the political views of their employees. The power that employers already have over their employees has been drastically expanded by Justices Alito, Kennedy and their allies on the Supreme Court. Congress must restore our rights as citizens not to have our political rights -- or our political choices -- determined by those who employ us. That's what we mean by "us."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-j-wilson/businesses-can-now-legall...

toniD's Ya Think?

.

yes, I edited that out cent. Because being mean hurts me more than you.

The authors' The Real News interview Part I & II
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/03/01
or
therealnews.com

Mr Fish

stop.

This has gotten to personal on both sides. Stop it now and agree to disagree on your original disagreement.

No more here. Quit hurting each other. Please!!

toniD's Ya Think?

with all due respect.

just let it be.

The Supreme Court will hear the oral arguments in the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago on Tuesday. Their ruling will have implications for the future of second amendment rights as well as the relationship between constitutional protections and local laws.

At issue, according to the ScotusWiki summary of the case is "whether the Second Amendment is incorporated into the Due Process Clause or the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment so as to be applicable to the States, thereby invalidating ordinances prohibiting possession of handguns in the home."

Translation: Until this point, the Second Amendment has explicitly applied only to the federal government and areas under its jurisdiction -- such as the District of Columbia -- and not individual states.

This has allowed states and cities to pass different limitations on the possession and purchase of firearms. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Second Amendment advocates in this case, which now includes representatives of the National Rifle Association, their finding may eliminate a state's power to infringe upon now-nationally applicable Constitutionally protected rights. Though the right to bear arms is specifically at issue in this case, some believe that the findings may have future ramifications for additional rights of citizenship such as health care or housing.

In 2008, the Supreme Court addressed a similar case in District of Columbia v. Heller, but because Washinton D.C. isn't a state, the eventual ruling -- which found the city's gun ban unconstitutional -- didn't extend to the broader issue of state powers with regard to the Second Amendment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/supreme-court-second-amen_n_480...

toniD's Ya Think?

Can’t We All Just Get Along? No

Posted on Mar 1, 2010

By E.J. Dionne

The word partisanship is typically accompanied by the word mindless. That’s not simply insulting to partisans; it’s also untrue.

If we learn nothing else in 2010, can we please finally acknowledge that our partisan divisions are about authentic principles that lead to very different approaches to governing?

Last week’s health care summit was a daylong seminar that should make it impossible for anyone to pretend otherwise. But before we get to that, let’s examine the Senate debate over whether to extend unemployment insurance coverage. The matter is rather urgent for jobless workers because 1.1 million of them are scheduled to lose their benefits this month, and 2.7 million are slated to lose them by April.

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., has put a hold on the extension bill, but one of the key reasons the measure is blocked is the effort of Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to use it as a way of forcing a cut in the estate tax. Kyl is essentially leveraging the unemployed to get a deal on estate tax relief that would cost $138 billion over the next decade, according to estimates by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The estate tax has already been cut sharply, so the reduction Kyl is pushing along with Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., would affect the estates of fewer than three out of every 1,000 people who die, according to the Tax Policy Center.

The proposal helps estates worth more than $7 million in the case of couples. I guess struggling millionaires deserve the same empathy we feel for those without a job.

[...]

The point is not that Republicans are heartless and Democrats are compassionate. It’s that Democrats on the whole believe in using government to correct the inequities and inefficiencies the market creates, while Republicans on the whole think market outcomes are almost always better than anything government can produce.

That’s not cheap partisanship. It’s a fundamental divide. The paradox is that our understanding of politics would be more realistic if we were less cynical and came to see the battle for what it really is.

TruthDig

and the same not caring causes other people suffering, it's time to look in the mirror and ask yourself: To harm or not to harm? That is the question. That really is the only question.

It applies to yourself as well as this dysfunctional extended family.

Do the right thing.

There's too much suffering in this world as it is, we don't need any more.

Cent, Crank Bait, & Fernando....I also like you both.
I Love the debate, BUT can not stand name calling amongst you DEMs.

{Cent did Champion me once against CB & Fernando's onslaught of their wrongness towards what I had said...}

This just shows me in a NUTSHELL they, Cent & Fernando, are trying to communicate, yet they do not know the "type" of language.

FERNANDO is a Centrist Dem, & CENT is a wee bit more liberal.

Now let me "dig" from my MANY files the following:

I personally think that things are so heinous , that

DEMS & "dems" and "grns" are turning on each other!

As I said I see this place as a "Think Tank", thus "questions about each others behaviour and actions" exists and should be "debated" - with no name calling...
save that for the rethugs. :D Mwah HaHa

To me it goes as simple as this question...
"Has anyone taken over the Canadian Embassey Yet or has done more...?
I & the ones I led, did around the mid 80's {4 Wolves}. {Yes, arrests occured.} {I took Sodium Pentathol. I don't lie & I can prove!}
The reason I proclaim the above is to say THERE ARE
M A N Y TO THE LEFT OF ME = that is to say WE ALL are different degress of DEMS.

The reason Cent's & Fernando's ?DEBATE? is so very important is that, that is what is happening amongst DEMS/dems nationally i.e. "macrocosm" compared to Sederville's "microcosm".
IMHO

...thus let's talk here, then go out {via e-mail to physical protests} and try to "change the face of Arrakis".
IMHO

Interesting!

Chilean Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days

The Feb. 27 magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have shortened the length of each Earth day.

JPL research scientist Richard Gross computed how Earth's rotation should have changed as a result of the Feb. 27 quake. Using a complex model, he and fellow scientists came up with a preliminary calculation that the quake should have shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).

Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis. Gross calculates the quake should have moved Earth's figure axis (the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). Earth’s figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet).

By comparison, Gross said the same model estimated the 2004 magnitude 9.1 Sumatran earthquake should have shortened the length of day by 6.8 microseconds and shifted Earth's axis by 2.32 milliarcseconds (about 7 centimeters, or 2.76 inches).

Gross said that even though the Chilean earthquake is much smaller than the Sumatran quake, it is predicted to have changed the position of the figure axis by a bit more for two reasons. First, unlike the 2004 Sumatran earthquake, which was located near the equator, the 2010 Chilean earthquake was located in Earth's mid-latitudes, which makes it more effective in shifting Earth's figure axis. Second, the fault responsible for the 2010 Chiliean earthquake dips into Earth at a slightly steeper angle than does the fault responsible for the 2004 Sumatran earthquake. This makes the Chile fault more effective in moving Earth's mass vertically and hence more effective in shifting Earth's figure axis.

Gross said the Chile predictions will likely change as data on the quake are further refined.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth-20100301.html

toniD's Ya Think?

but I'm not a centrist.

I am a far left wing loon in my neck of the woods.

For the record I love but often disrespect cent. Not proud of it.

But cent doesn't get to call when we are done. Reason takes measure.

Here, in Dallas, we have blind faithful. cent has eyes. GOD BLESS CENT! In his neck of the woods even. Where eyes are rare, he sees injustice. Most are just blind "faithful".

So what? There's drama? pffft.

I hope to have a beer with that fucker one day. I just wish we could come together about working on trade law together. Not sure why that would be a problem. Should we call mhappenow?

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5669#comment-398200

Democrat Challenges the Senator From Wal-Mart

Posted on Mar 1, 2010

One of the Senate’s most conservative Democrats now faces a primary challenge on her left flank. Blanche Lincoln, who betrayed the unions that had supported her and who had bitterly fought off a public option in health care reform, was already headed for a tough race.

The White House has tried to block challengers, ostensibly to strengthen Democratic incumbents going into the midterm elections. But the president’s unconditional support may have helped open the way for these conservative legislators to throw sugar in his gas tank.

As David Sirota wrote in a September 2009 column: “Without vigorous primaries forcing Democratic legislators to face Democratic voters, those legislators feel free to defy the president’s Democratic agenda.” —PZS

[...]

TruthDig

Although methinks Sirota has probably had a change of mind regarding just how Liberal Obama's "Democratic" agenda truly is...

Goldman Board Rejects Shareholder Demands on Pay

NEW YORK - Goldman Sachs Group Inc's (GS.N) board has rejected demands from shareholders that the firm investigate recent compensation awards, recoup excessive compensation and reform pay practices.

Wall Street's dominant bank, criticized for paying billions of dollars in bonuses soon after the taxpayer bailout of the banking industry, reported the board's decision in a regulatory filing on Monday.

Goldman reported the shareholder demands last year and said at the time that its board was considering them. The firm did not name the shareholders who made the demands.

Goldman could not be immediately reached for comment.

Goldman reported a record profit in 2009 and was on pace to pay more than $20 billion in compensation heading into the fourth quarter. But facing public ire, it capped compensation expenses at $16.2 billion for the year.

The firm also paid its top 30 executives all-stock bonuses rather than cash.

Even though Goldman outperformed its biggest rivals in 2009, Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein received a stock bonus valued at $8.9 million, roughly half of what JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) chief Jamie Dimon received.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/01-6

toniD's Ya Think?

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is considering a challenge to Sen. Joe Lieberman, The Hill reports. Multiple Connecticut Democrats told the paper that Blumenthal has "begun informing influential members of the state's political class that he will prepare for a run against Lieberman." - HuffPo

Catholic Charities to drop health coverage of spouses of newlyweds, new hires

Source: Washington Post

One day before same-sex marriage becomes legal in the District, Catholic Charities will modify its health coverage for employees so that all spouses of newlyweds and new hires will not be covered.

A memo notified staff members Monday of the imminent change.

Spouses of current employees will continue to have health coverage, the memo said. But by making the policy effective Tuesday, the charity will not have to extend benefits to anyone who legally weds one of its gay employees.

Wednesday is the first day when same-sex couples can take out marriage licenses in the city. . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/01/AR201003...

toniD's Ya Think?

happening here......

what is sad mhappenow? The quake? Tsunami? War? Health care? Slavery?

agreed. If you mean that it's sad that it went personal, then I doubly agree.

they wish to ostracize gays SO MUCH that they choose to deny ALL spouses across the board, even Catholics' spouses?

Am I reading that correctly?

famin, drought, glacial breakdowns, acid oceans, and ocean current breakdowns. Left out solar storms, web and power outages, the plauge, and locus of course.

it's a miracle life even exists.

GRITtv revamped the website. Much improved I must say...

http://grittv.org

See for yourself. You have to reregister fyi.

Submitted by toniD on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 6:41pm.
Reid Catches a Break on Health Care
Today's resignation of Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) essentially gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an extra vote to help her push health care reform bill through the House.

Now, with Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) facing a primary challenge from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is virtually guaranteed to have her vote -- assuming she still wants to be a senator -- as he tries to push the health care bill through the reconciliation process in the Senate.

It's not a bad start to the week for Democrats.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/01/reid_catches_a_break_on_hea...

==================

Thanks, toniD.

I like good news, every morsel of it I can find....

I just need more to sustain me, like the expectation of a banquet of challenging and winning Progressive candidates taking Congressional seats.

Still, this will do for the time-being.

anytime the Catholics can deny women exclusively.

Christians are bigots. Starts with how they treat females.

Update: plus demonizing gay's. That's like the bonus plan.

See Ya

The AFL-CIO switches its support from Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) to her new primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter -- and backs it up with a pledge of a $3 million independent expenditure.

--David Kurtz

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/afl-cio-backs-halter-in-arkan...

toniD's Ya Think?

Not A Game
user-pic
By John Kerry - March 1, 2010, 6:08PM

Too often, the way it's played and the way it's reported, Americans might think everything that happens in Washington is a game.

But look, this is anything but a game. The business before the Senate is literally life and death on many issues, and the parliamentary tricks to delay and obstruct the basic workings of our government have real-world consequences.

What am I talking about? Start with the latest example: one Senator's effort to delay the votes on some critically-needed legislation for Americans out of work and hurting in our economy.

A lot of people today are clicking on this news story about Senator Bunning.

Political theater? Much more than that. Here's what's at stake: 2000 federal highway workers were furloughed this morning, losing the pay that their families depend on and halting work on critical national infrastructure. Nearly 1.2 million could lose their unemployment benefits without an extension of that program, pulling away a critical financial lifeline.

This has to end.

In the last Congress, the Republican minority more than doubled the previous record for filibusters, and they are on a pace to challenge or surpass that "accomplishment" this Congress as well. And filibusters are only the most obvious part of it. (TPM put together a great chart on filibusters which you can see here.)

On issue after issue, votes large and small, the strategy from the GOP at the highest levels has been the same: exploiting every Senate rule, playing every trick to try to slow things down. They put holds on bills that later pass by 90 votes, filibuster things they later vote for, block things they previously proposed. They used the filibuster to shoot down a debt commission that they themselves called on President Obama to implement! They block completely uncontroversial nominees and cause days of delays on the most critical of legislation. They even stalled on money for our troops last year, just to try to delay debate on health care reform.

It doesn't have to be this way. There are good Senators on both sides of the aisle. Last week, five Republican Senators (including Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and I don't care about party label, I call it the way I see it - Scott cast the right vote for Massachusetts there) joined with Democrats to break a GOP filibuster to pass a jobs bill helping small businesses hire in this tough economy. Senator Lindsay Graham and I are working hard together to develop a bill on energy and global climate change.

But as long as the GOP leadership continues with the scorched-earth campaign, it will be tough to get done the things we know we need to do.

We need this to end. Debate big differences. Disagree. Use the filibuster when big matters of principle hang in the balance - and sometimes they do. But at the end of the day, Washington has to function - people are counting on it. When it comes to unemployment insurance for workers who have been laid-off through no fault of their own, stop playing games immediately, allow a vote, and then get to work trying to solve some problems, not playing tricks with the Senate rules. The framers invested the minority with rights to protect the Senate - not to destroy it.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/01/not_a_game/

toniD's Ya Think?

...then take this Alpha Female's belief...!
Submitted by Ms_Anthrope on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 9:22pm.
Cent, Crank Bait, & Fernando....I also like you both.
I Love the debate, BUT can not stand name calling amongst you DEMs.

...
I personally think that things are so heinous , that

DEMS & "dems" and "grns" are turning on each other!

As I said I see this place as a "Think Tank", thus "questions about each others behaviour and actions" exists and should be "debated" - with no name calling...
save that for the rethugs. :D Mwah HaHa
....
===========================

From my current reading, I'm sensing these clashes go beyond daily political categories and rather are a symptom of differences in worldview based on which 'paradigm' each considers inviolate or feasible.

Either way -- Current Political Groupings or Paradigm Clashes -- I agree whole-heartedly with you, Ms_A, that we at this blog are a microcosm of the process.

Thank you nora.

Not paying the doctors for Medicare and Medicaid (and then paying them 22% less for work done prior to that new draconian underpayment kicking in) -- GRRRRRR.

What the Hades are the saving the money for? MORE DRONES and DRONE MUNITIONS with which to kill Aghan civilians?

DISGUSTING.

Every penny they plan to save on domestic programs is just money saved for use in keeping the Military Industrial Complex and Perpetual War going in high gear.

oh well, there's consequences for posting this;

For quite awhile now, the political streams have been flooded with the ever increasing wail of the progressive Democrats. The weeping and gnashing of teeth by peace and justice groups, unions, focus groups, Democratic Party blogs and liberal/left journals has become deafening: What happened, why didn't we get what we voted for on November 4, 2008?

These progressive Democrats organized, campaigned and voted for a progressive agenda and go--drum roll--nothing. That's right, nothing. For the past year, their party has controlled both houses of Congess and the presidency. For three years, their party has enjoyed majority power in the House. What the progressive Democrats got out of all that: absolutely nothing.

They voted for peace, and they got war--expanded into Pakistan and Yemen with escalation in Afghanistan and continuing occupation in Iraq. They voted for health care reform, and they got Big Pharma's Frankenstein. They voted for reining in Wall Street, and the got multiple bailouts and fat bonuses on Wall Street and ever increasing foreclosures and evictions on Main Street and Back Street. They voted for jobs, and they got spiraling unemployment. Bring back Habeas Corpus? Nah. Close Guantanamo? Nix. Stop torture? Nein. Fair union organizing in the work place? Tax breaks for he rest of us? Mortgage relief? You gotta be kidding.

In all their caterwauling about this deteriorating situation, do the progressive Democrats have any suggestions for turning these policies 180 degrees around? Yes, they do! Send an email. Sign an online petition. Write a letter to your representative in Congress. Tell your neighbors how unhappy you are. Wow, with this kind of muscle, the new dawn will soon be breaking!

One progressive pundit even offered up "don't mourn, organize," the immortal words of the IWW martyr, Joe Hill. The problem with that suggeston is that
most of us have neither the time nor the skills to organize anything much past our own personal lives.

The real problem is--and always will be--that the Democrats In Charge (DIC) of the Democratic Party (the Clinton wing and its corporate backers) don't give a damn about the opinions or values of the progressive Democrats because the rightwing DIC knows that the progressive Democrats will always vote for them, regardless of the actual DIC policies. Come election time, the DIC publicity apparatus will trot out all that scary stuff about the Republicans again, and the progressives will line up like bobbleheads on a dashboard and cast delusionary votes for the same people who gave us NAFTA and the WTO, took away welfare for the poor, dismantled Glass Stegall and equal time in broadcasting, expanded the prison system, and conducted the horific sanctions on Iraq.
http://www.counterpunch.org/santina02262010.html

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5688#comment-398137
Submitted by smcgee43 on Mon, 03/01/2010 - 5:04pm.
I am so pissed right now - the people in Washington have NO worries @ all - they know where their next meal is coming

...only for one day, there could be an organized protest to that effect.

I thought the area of regulation was one of the few rays of hope in the Obama Administration's actions lately.

Doesn't look like the Roberts Supreme Court will allow it....EPA Clean Water Act at least to be bound in the duct tape of litigation....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/supreme-court-restricts-c_n_480...

[excerpt]

Supreme Court Restricts Clean Water Act, Blocking EPA

The New York Times:

Thousands of the nation's largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act's reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators.
[end excerpt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/us/01water.html?th&emc=th

[excerpt]
As a result, some businesses are declaring that the law no longer applies to them. And pollution rates are rising.

Companies that have spilled oil, carcinogens and dangerous bacteria into lakes, rivers and other waters are not being prosecuted, according to Environmental Protection Agency regulators working on those cases, who estimate that more than 1,500 major pollution investigations have been discontinued or shelved in the last four years.

The Clean Water Act was intended to end dangerous water pollution by regulating every major polluter. But today, regulators may be unable to prosecute as many as half of the nation’s largest known polluters because officials lack jurisdiction or because proving jurisdiction would be overwhelmingly difficult or time consuming, according to midlevel officials.

“We are, in essence, shutting down our Clean Water programs in some states,” said Douglas F. Mundrick, an E.P.A. lawyer in Atlanta. “This is a huge step backward. When companies figure out the cops can’t operate, they start remembering how much cheaper it is to just dump stuff in a nearby creek.”

“This is a huge deal,” James M. Tierney, the New York State assistant commissioner for water resources, said of the new constraints. “There are whole watersheds that feed into New York’s drinking water supply that are, as of now, unprotected.”

The court rulings causing these problems focused on language in the Clean Water Act that limited it to “the discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters” of the United States. For decades, “navigable waters” was broadly interpreted by regulators to include many large wetlands and streams that connected to major rivers.

But the two decisions suggested that waterways that are entirely within one state, creeks that sometimes go dry, and lakes unconnected to larger water systems may not be “navigable waters” and are therefore not covered by the act — even though pollution from such waterways can make its way into sources of drinking water.

Some argue that such decisions help limit overreaching regulatory efforts.

“There is no doubt in my mind that when Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972 they intended it to have broad regulatory reach, but they did not intend it to be unlimited,” said Don Parrish, the American Farm Bureau Federation’s senior director of regulatory relations, who has lobbied on Clean Water issues.

But for E.P.A. and state regulators, the decisions have created widespread uncertainty. The court did not define which waterways are regulated, and judicial districts have interpreted the court’s decisions differently. As regulators have struggled to guess how various courts will rule, some E.P.A. lawyers have established unwritten internal guidelines to avoid cases in which proving jurisdiction is too difficult, according to interviews with more than two dozen current and former E.P.A. officials.

The decisions “reduce E.P.A.’s ability to do what the law intends — to protect water quality, the environment and public health,” wrote Peter S. Silva, the E.P.A.’s assistant administrator for the Office of Water, in response to questions.
...
[end excerpt]

A place for you to give your all regarding "conspiracy" stuff.

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5677#comments

From that NYTimes story about the EPA not being able to enact the Clean Water Act --

>>“If you can get Glenn Beck to say that government storm troopers are going to invade your property, farmers in the Midwest will light up their congressmen’s switchboards,” said the coalition member, who asked not to be identified because he thought his descriptions would anger other coalition participants. Mr. Beck, a conservative commentator on Fox News, spoke at length against the Clean Water Restoration Act in December. <<

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8542285.stm
[excerpt]
Netherlands gay protest over Catholic communion snub

Hundreds of gay protesters descended on Sunday Mass in Sint-Jan church
Hundreds of Dutch activists have walked out of a Mass in protest at a Roman Catholic policy of denying communion to practising homosexuals.

On this occasion, the church, in 's-Hertogenbosch, had already decided not to serve communion, so the protesters left, shouting and singing.

The dispute began earlier this month when a priest in a nearby town refused communion to an openly gay man.

The Netherlands was the first country to introduce gay marriage in 2001.

Most Dutch people support gay rights, but the Roman Catholic Church teaches that homosexual activity is sinful.

This dispute began during Dutch carnival celebrations earlier in February, when the man chosen to be carnival prince in nearby Reusel was refused communion because of his open homosexuality.

The refusal offended many in the local community.

The Sint-Jan church in the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, also known as Den Bosch, was prepared for the protest and so decided not to give out Holy Communion during Sunday Mass.

...
[end excerpt]

Millions of us there yelling
"Were mad as HELL & were not
gonna take it anymore"

so not only is the Supreme Court going to screw
up D.C. (like it isn't already)it's going to
screw everything & everybody!
ASSHATS (that's my new naughty word)

Franken has taken on both a public and private role of liberal agitator. - RollCall

inflammatory headline?
Carter to Introduce Third Resolution to Strip Rangel’s Gavel

CREW Calls on President and Members of Congress Not To Attend Shadowy Fellowship Foundation's National Prayer Breakfast

On February 1st, CREW sent a letter to the president and congressional leadership urging a boycott of the February 4th National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. While the annual breakfast appears to be an official government event, in fact, it is a meeting and recruiting event for the shadowy Fellowship Foundation.
The Fellowship, also known as "The Family," is a secretive religious organization with strong ties to unethical members of Congress who have resided and sought refuge in its infamous C Street House and acts as an evangelizing shadow State Department. Fellowship members in Uganda have even been involved in drafting legislation calling for the death penalty for gays.
By attending the prayer breakfast, President Obama and members of Congress gave legitimacy to this secretive cult - the leader of which once praised the organizing abilities of Osama bin Laden and Adolf Hitler.
On the day before the breakfast, CREW sent a letter to the chairman and CEO of C-SPAN, urging the network not to broadcast the event or at least provide viewers with context and background information about its sponsor. While no government officials heeded CREW's call for a boycott, President Obama used the occasion to repudiate the Ugandan legislation in his remarks. Further, while C-SPAN broadcasted the breakfast, the network did identify The Fellowship as the organizer and explained it was not an official government event.

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/44038

Wild horses and burros living on public lands in the West are under siege. Unfortunately, the agency enforced to protect them, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is to blame.
At the behest of cattle ranchers and others who want to the horses removed for their own private gain, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the BLM have declared war on these animals, savagely rounding them up by the tens of thousands. Those horses and burros who manage to survive the roundups are forced to spend the rest of their lives in BLM "holding pens," or worse yet, wind up in slaughterhouses where they are butchered for their meat.
Wild horses and burros must be respected - not captured, not corralled and not sold to be slaughtered.

Please sign our petition demanding that Secretary Salazar end the roundup of wild horses and burros.
Public lands are not the private domain of those who seek to exploit them for their own use. They belong to everyone. We have a right to demand that wild horses remain on public lands, free from intrusion and capture.
The indelible spirit of wild horses and burros has become a part of our psyche. Please help us insure that they stay on our public lands, without human interference.
With more terrifying roundups already scheduled, it is imperative that we take action now.

Tell Secretary Salazar to end the capture and slaughter of wild horses and burros and allow them to remain free on our public lands.

http://www.change.org/friendsofanimals/actions/view/end_the_roundup_of_w...

that Ken Salazar is a RANCHER - case closed as to why
he is on the republickthugs side as far as the environment
goes. Obama has been a disappointment in this area BIG
time.

Follow up
Submitted by Fernando on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 12:19am.

Throughout history, horses have been trusted companions and a significant part of American culture--yet they haven't always been treated with the kindness they deserve. March 1st has been designated as National Horse Protection Day, a time to not only honor these majestic creatures, but to act against the abuse, neglect, homelessness and slaughter that they have sadly suffered.
Sign The Petition!A carriage ride through New York City's Central Park is a romantic time-honored tradition, but what many passengers don't know is that these working horses are often subjected to inadequate food, care, and living conditions. Sign our Help Protect the Working Horses of New York City petition today and urge NYC Council members to oppose a bill that puts the health and safety of these carriage horses at risk.
Though Americans do not eat horsemeat, each year more than 100,000 American horses are shipped to Canada or Mexico to be cruelly slaughtered for sale in the European and Asian markets. Ask President Obama to urge Congress to support the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act: Click here to learn more and to add your name to the list of thousands of animal advocates who've joined together to stop horse slaughter.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/campaign.faces?siteId=3&c...

:(
...New York Horses need our help to ~
Submitted by smcgee43 on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 12:37am.
Throughout history, horses have been trusted companions and a significant part of American culture--yet they haven't always been treated with the kindness they deserve. March 1st has been designated as National Horse Protection Day, a time to not only honor these majestic creatures, but to act against the abuse, neglect, homelessness and slaughter that they have sadly suffered.
Sign The Petition!
*** ***

to see what condition my condition was in...
shithouse!
but!...
Sometimes
when this place gets kind of empty - I think about
the loveless fascination...
And its something quite peculiar
Something that's shimmering and white
that leads you here
despite your destination
Under the milky way tonight ♪

He just had I guy on saying that the reason the
cities & the State's are going broke is because

of Public Unions..WTF ?

Nothing about the country Funding 2 Wars..
And,Tax Cuts,Tax Cuts,Tax Cuts..

I'm really starting to hate this guy..

He has Jerome Corsi on all the friggin time..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Corsi

And,he's friends with Glenn Asshat Beck..

Art,why did you have to give your show to this butthead ?

Thanks..Just had to Vent abit.. :)

*Oh I forgot to mention..

That the first time I got on old George's ass
was when I saw a post on the C2C website saying how great
the Teabaggers were and promoting Teabagger Rallies..
Eck !

**

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

MMRules

Some of them had pooped right in front of some mail boxes! Really, no shit!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/nevadas-wild-horses-an-endangered-speci...

Then less than a mile from this nitrogen rich and somewhat aromatic postal encounter were about 20 pelicans soaring in a V formation that turned into an arabesque spiral as they rode a thermal towards Pyramid Lake.

Ono ? ;)

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

MMRules

what fucking idiots the dutch are
derr!
the church isn't allowed to give shit to gays
in fact, they're supposed to kill them
(it's not rocket science)

but they're not robinson crusoe
faggots (i think that's the correct term) who want to be christians are pissing in the wind
it's as foolish as jews wanting hitler to love them

so, smite them oh lord
smite them not for being gay
but for being retards
and smite nando, too
for not knowing the difference between little richard & jerry lee lewis
that's what's destroying america...
people don't know their rock'n'roll
nor the conditions that led to it's creation
the christians initially tried to demonize it
but when they realised they were pissing in the wind
they incoporated it into their daily lives
so smite them too
oh lord
for you are evil and man-made
despite gospel music & religious icons made in your honour
for they are beautiful

she's so incredibly raptuous, so heavenly
i'd kinda feel guilty doing that thing
with the hand...
so i'll spare the rod

Did you see that post I did awhile back,

with some songs by The Saints ?

Probably not..

It was while you were out making your nest egg..

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

MMRules

Subject: Public Unions

You just had I guy on saying that the reason the

Cities & the State's are going broke is because

of Public Unions..WTF ?

Nothing about the country Funding 2 Wars..

And,Tax Cuts,Tax Cuts,Tax Cuts..

Pathetic George..Why don't U keep your Voo Doo economics Off the show ?

And,If I have to hear that Hack Jerome Corsi again,

Bye,Bye Streamlink !

Please come back Art..

Your show has gone to a Teabagger..

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

MMRules

;)

here's a good one to counter the incrementalists:

"There is nothing more dangerous than to leap a chasm in two jumps."

As quoted in Design for Power: The Struggle for the World (1941) by Frederick Lewis Schuman, p. 200; This is the earliest citation yet found for this or similar statements which have been attributed to David Lloyd George, as well as to Benjamin Disraeli, (etc)

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Lloyd_George

repeat it over & over again
until it drives them mad...

"yes, but there is nothing more dangerous than to leap a chasm in two jumps."

"shut up! shut up! you've already told me that a thousand times"

"yes, but did you know that there is nothing more dangerous than to leap a chasm in two jumps - that's the point i'm labouring to make here & that i'll keep making because i can't emphasize it enough... should i write it down for you"

"ahhhhhhh! ok, ok, you can have single payer, public option, whatever... just stfu"

"thanks"

met up with some mates at a pub & the saints were playing
and after the show we went & bought some sly grog
(after hours liquor - it was back in the early 80's before 24 hour outlets)
4 guys arm in arm in a circle in a lounge, dancing the night away to ac/dc & rose tattoo
not harming anyone
nor gay
(just drunk)

they called me pope innocent
i didn't know getting it in the ass from a guy was gay!
when i found out... omg! (puke)
and so i abandoned that life style

: )

rows yer boat.. :)

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

MMRules

**

'I Thought This Was Love, But This Ain't Casablanca'

http://licorice-pizza.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-thought-this-was-love-but-t...

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

MMRules

did you confuse the saints with the church (under the milky way)
ala, nando - confusing little richard & jerry lee

You said awhile back that you

liked The Saints & they are from Aussieland..

Brother,give me a little credit will ya..

:)

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

MMRules

this story is about 2 months old a related story popped up on google news today:

Ireland passes Blasphemy Law

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/02/AR201001...

LONDON -- Atheists in Ireland are risking possible prosecution with an audacious online challenge to the country's new blasphemy law.

Under the law, which went into effect Friday, a person can be found guilty of blasphemy if "he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion."

The penalty is a fine of up to 25,000 euros, or more than $35,000.

How did credit checks for jobs become legal at all?
by Chris in Paris on 3/02/2010 03:55:00 AM
It's a positive sign to see that many states are making changes to the law but how did this ever happen in the first place? Everyone knows about how quickly a health situation can destroy the life savings of Americans so why should credit checks have anything to do with applying for a job? Perhaps there are some specific exceptions but as a general rule, it's nonsense.

Wisconsin state Rep. Kim Hixson drafted a bill in his state shortly after hearing from Terry Becker, an auto mechanic who struggled to find work.

Becker said it all started with medical bills that piled up when his now 10-year-old son began having seizures as a toddler. In the first year alone, Becker ran up $25,000 in medical debt.

Over 4 1/2 months, he was turned down for at least eight positions for which he had authorized the employer to conduct a credit check, Becker said. He said one potential employer told him, "If your credit is bad, then you'll steal from me."

"I was in a deep depression. I had lost a business, I was behind on my bills and I was unable to get a job," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100301/ap_on_bi_ge/us_banning_credit_checks

toniD's Ya Think?

Al Franken's Radio show: secret tape of the hunting trip Scalia had with Cheney -- April 13, 2004

toniD's Ya Think?

China eyes perks
of an ice-free Arctic
While scientists sound the alarm about melting ice, some are quietly looking for ways to cash in.

http://l.yimg.com/a/i/ww/news/2010/03/01/030110ice.jpg

toniD's Ya Think?

Where Will Harold Ford Take His
Travelling Politics Show Next?

Harold Ford: Out. It is with great sadness we report that mediocre rich Tennessee person Harold Ford has pre-dropped out of the New York Senate race. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...

http://gawker.com/5483264/where-will-harold-ford-take-his-travelling-pol...

toniD's Ya Think?

kyl has stated that unemployment benefits are a disincentive to work. after all, its so much easier to sit around and starve then it is to find a job.

if thats true, then can't the same argument be made for tax cuts for the rich. wouldn't raising their taxes be an incentive for them to work harder?

Specter Pushes Ahead of Toomey
A new Quinnipiac poll in Pennsylvania finds Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has retaken the lead over challenger Pat Toomey (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 49% to 42%.

In the Democratic primary, Specter is crushing challenger Joe Sestak (D), 53% to 29%.

Said pollster Peter Brown: "Sen. Arlen Specter seems to be having a good winter politically. He is back ahead of Republican Pat Toomey after having been essentially tied with him since last summer, and there remains no evidence that his primary challenger, Congressman Joe Sestak, has made much progress as we get within three months of the May primary."

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1284.xml?ReleaseID=1428&What=&strArea=;&strTi...

toniD's Ya Think?

Reischauer Would Back Health Care Bill
Ezra Klein spoke with former CBO Director Robert Reischauer about President Obama's health care reform bill.

Reischauer -- "one of the CBO's most revered former directors, in no small part because his relentlessly honest cost estimates helped doom Bill Clinton's bill in 1994," as the New York Times noted at the time -- said he would actually vote for this bill if he were a member of Congress.

While it isn't perfect, he noted "it at least has the prospect for creating a platform over which more significant and far-reaching cost containment can be enacted."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/paul_ryan_and_the_tr...

toniD's Ya Think?

GOP Set to Triple Filibuster Record

How bad is GOP obstructionism in the Senate? Republican senators are on pace to more than triple the previous record for uses of a filibuster in a Congress. In 2009, there were a record 112 cloture votes (the number of cloture votes is how you measure the use of filibusters). So far in 2010, there have already been more than 40 cloture votes. The previous record was in 1995-1996, when the Republican-controlled Senate required 50 cloture votes.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/partnersfeed/?cid=cs:cheatsheet9&f=http%3A%...

toniD's Ya Think?

insurance. His name is Howard Rosen from the Peterson Institute for Int'l Econmics. He show this as a web site:

http://www.iie.com/

Take a look and see what you think.

toniD's Ya Think?

China eyes perks of an
Submitted by toniD on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 8:04am.
China eyes perks
of an ice-free Arctic
While scientists sound the alarm about melting ice, some are quietly looking for ways to cash in.

http://l.yimg.com/a/i/ww/news/2010/03/01/030110ice.jpg

toniD's Ya Think?
*** ***

I have been worried WTF is America going to do regarding the dept to China and China's ZILLION {hyperbole Crank B...(hug hug kiss kiss even although...? ;)} ... ABUSES!

I was so upset again CONFIRMING CHINA'S ABUSES, I accidently kicked me off this site.

what did he have to say about unemployment?

China's Lending Activities and the US Debt

Simon Johnson — February 26, 2010

China is the largest holder of official foreign currency reserves in the world, currently estimated to be worth around $2.4 trillion. It is in the interests of both the United States and global economic prosperity that China discontinues its massive currency intervention. This intervention is a breach of China’s international commitments as a member of the International Monetary Fund and constitutes a form of unfair trade practice. If China were to end its intervention, the renminbi would likely appreciate substantially by 20–40 percent. The primary effect would be an effective depreciation of the US dollar against the Chinese renminbi, which would help expand US exports and aid the process of recovery.

The question is how best to press China to revalue its currency. Given the failure of the existing multilateral mechanisms at the IMF, the United States should take this issue to the G-20. The most plausible proposal is to expand the mandate of the World Trade Organization in assessing exchange rate manipulation on the same basis as it deals with unfair trade. While such a rearrangement of responsibilities would take some years, concrete moves in this direction would concentrate the minds of the Chinese authorities in a potentially constructive manner.

http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/paper.cfm?ResearchID=1502

toniD's Ya Think?

i hate her

saying that senator bunning may have a point because of the deficit crap and the rest of the morning joe assholes continuing to repeat that obama should be partisan - hey jerks, you can't be partisan by yourself, by definition, you need the other side to cooperate - i have no patience with these fools, and joan walsh had to fight to get a sensible word in...

i don't generally watch the show but this morning i happened to be there as i was looking for a weather channel

weather has been horrific yesterday, approaching disaster status almost, heavy rain and wind together with low temperatures, we lost power and i ran into several flooded areas as i was coming back from the dentist and i had had the bright (NOT) idea to stop at the supermarket to buy some groceries.... have you ever shopped in hurricane like conditions? i don't think i'll ever try that again

it was awful, got soaked and frozen and power went out exactly as i was stepping inside my house loaded with groceries which i had to unload in the dark fishing around for candles to light with damp matches, in the meanwhile water was pouring inside the house from the open door - left open to facilitate my several trips from the car - so i couldn't really tell whether the pools of water which had collected on my floor were due to my entrance or were there before from the wind pushing the rain under the front door which isn't sealed all that well - probably both

was without power for most of the night, grateful that it came back this morning. now going to work in a very gloomy and dark tuesday - still very cold

good news is that the tomatoes i planted over the weekend are holding out despite the great floods...

And it does help the economy because all that money is put into the economy when it is spent.

He also said that there will be a new number of unemployed on Friday that the markets work off of but that doesn't show the long term unemployed which is now at 30 million. And the under employed. And how important a jobs initiative should be.

I think we need a new WPO like FDR did. And very much need to change our trade policies. And need to tax people that outsource jobs. If you tax the companies that outsource, it takes away the incentive to outsource. We also need price freezes here to balance the lower salaries people are getting. These are just common sense things that the Big Money people are fighting.

toniD's Ya Think?

if they taxed the uber rich 90% on over 3 mill things would be so much better.

Stupid rules of thumb in the senate...Conrad just endorsed it....grrrrrr

Here is a good historical perspective on the issue:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add...

Re: "Raise Income taxes, Not GST," by Jonathan Kesselman (Feb. 24).

When former U.S. President Bill Clinton entered the White House, his first act was to raise taxes on wealthy Americans (people earning more than $250,000 a year) to stem a runaway budget deficit left behind by the earlier administration. Clinton's tax-hike on the wealthy, denounced by right-wing Republicans as "a passport to recession," balanced the budget, produced a surplus, lowered the long-term interest rate and triggered the longest economic boom in recent history. His successor, President George W. Bush, squandered the surplus by his staggering $1.67-trillion tax cut, producing a massive $400-billion deficit.

Calling Bush's tax cut a "Tax Fraud," the Washington Post editorialized on May 26, 2001: "A tax cut that large strips the government of the resources it will need to meet its obligations — shore up Social Security and Medicare, beef up defence, pay for the rest of the services, from highways to Head Start, that the public has rightly come to expect. The benefit of the cut will go mainly to the better-off."

This is why many moderate Republican governors, defying the ideological orthodoxy of their party, have been raising taxes to pay for essential public services.

"Pure conservatism means lean and responsible government, not mean and irresponsible government," said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (also a candidate for the Republican nomination for 2008 presidential race), who reluctantly raised taxes to pay for essential public services. After first cutting taxes and spending, Mr. Huckabee eventually found that his state's spending obligations were rising for education, health care and law-enforcement. He says this prompted him to raise taxes.

And Huckabee is not alone. Ohio Gov. Bob Taft raised taxes to the tune of $2.9-billion over two years. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn pushed through an $836-million tax increase. In fact, more than half of the nation's 28 Republican governors have raised taxes. These conservative governors say that fiscal responsibility and a commitment to maintain adequate funding for such essential public services as health care and education made their decision to increase taxes necessary.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper should also follow in the footsteps of Mr. Clinton and raise taxes on wealthy Canadians (earning more than $250,000 a year) to balance the budget without compromising funding for health care, education and defence. This will be also politically astute as the rich and wealthy constitute only 2% of the population and cannot threaten electorally. Prof. Kesselman is absolutely right when he says: "Simultaneously, federal marginal tax rates — which currently top out at 29% for taxable incomes over $127,000 — could be raised to 32% above $175,000 and 35% above $250,000."

Why the rich? Because they have benefited immensely during the boom and from bailout during recession.

http://www.kelowna.com/2010/03/02/tax-the-rich-to-kill-the-deficit/

I bought the line for not doing it last year when the financial crisis was a spiral and there were so many unknowns. But I don't understand how any deficit reductions will happen unless we go back to how taxes were at when Reagan or Clinton left office.

Wasn't Reagan's tax increase even greater than Clinton's?

when we had a true middle class. Not sure about the details of the mini raises of Clinton and Reagan...

It would certainly fix the problem but I'm not sure how long it would take for the multinationals to go elsewhere.

Is Obama Still Listening to Rahm?
The Washington Post today runs a front-page story suggesting that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and other top White House advisers don't agree on basic strategy.

"In the search for what has gone wrong, influential Democrats are -- in unusually frank terms -- blaming Obama and his closest campaign aides for not listening to Emanuel."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/01/AR201003...

First Read: "Of course, internal dissent can be a good thing. But what may irritate the president and the campaign-era brain trust is what this Post story implies: Rahm shared his personal dissent on KSM and health care with others outside "the family." Remember, we never saw these types of stories about Team Obama during the presidential campaign; it was something we expected from Teams Clinton and McCain. Then again, Rahm was never part of that Obama campaign team; he cut his teeth in the Clinton era, when that president seemed to handle or even embrace the public dissent. What the president and other White House staffers might find particularly frustrating is that -- regardless whether this perception is true or not -- they can't make a chief of staff change right now. Emanuel is too important in getting health-care done."

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/03/02/2216417.aspx

toniD's Ya Think?

He's a heartless asshole!

toniD's Ya Think?

is to immediately pass tax increases on the rich, reinstate the death tax, eliminate corporate tax loopholes and raise import tariffs. that should easily pay for things and then some.

Bunning Complicates Republican Strategy
Sen. Jim Bunning's (R-KY) "unilateral decision to block an extension of federally funded unemployment benefits and other popular provisions has united Democrats and sent Republicans hiding from the political backlash," Politico reports.

"Making matters worse for the GOP: Bunning is opposing the $10 billion aid package on the grounds that it isn't paid for -- effectively forcing his Republican colleagues to join him or risk undercutting their own efforts to make Democrats' deficit spending a centerpiece of their 2010 campaign."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/33735.html

toniD's Ya Think?

Spineless. He's being too nice!

Paygo has nothing to do with emergency measures!

Susan Collins (R)of Maine objected to what Bunning is doing and asked Reid to end this.
Re: MSNBC

toniD's Ya Think?

fried fish, i can smell it already and it's making me hungry

what you cooking, toni?

;-)

I like the new bill about lowering the corp tax rate but eliminating loopholes...Weiden and Gregg

Tom Toles is worth a thousand words

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/tom_toles_is_worth_a...

toniD's Ya Think?

But I think I'm going to get some Smelt.

From Wiki:

Smelts – more precisely freshwater smelts or typical smelts to distinguish them from the related Argentinidae, Bathylagidae and Retropinnidae – are a family of small fish, Osmeridae, found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They are common in the North American Great Lakes, and in the lakes and seas of the northern part of Europe, and run in large schools along the coastline during their spring migration to their spawning streams. The Delta Smelt, Hypomesus transpacificus is found in the Sacramento Delta of California, and is an endangered species.

It is one of the few fish that sportsmen are allowed to net, using dip nets, either along the coastline or in the streams. Some sportsmen also ice fish for smelt. Smelt are often fried and eaten whole.

toniD's Ya Think?

just seems to go down and stay down.

mhappenow - I agree about that. When we had 50's era taxes, the richest were encouraged to reinvest as opposed to hoard wealth in financial instruments.

It's Rahm's White House and everyone else works for him, including Obama
by Joe Sudbay (DC) on 3/02/2010 09:48:00 AM
Rahm Emanuel is continuing his p.r. offensive in the Washington Post today with a front-page article proclaiming him to be the smartest person in the White House. If only Obama had the sense to listen to Rahm, all would be good in the world.

Rahm must think he's in trouble if his people are pushing out these kinds of stories. Almost the exact same story was written by Dana Milbank just a week or so ago (meaning, someone is pushing these stories out there). Everyone else in the White House, including the President, should be really worried that the Chief of Staff is trying to convince the world that he is smarter than the President, and it's all the President's fault for not listening to Rahm:

Rahm Emanuel is officially a Washington caricature. He's the town's resident leviathan, a bullying, bruising White House chief of staff who is a prime target for the failings of the Obama administration.

But a contrarian narrative is emerging: Emanuel is a force of political reason within the White House and could have helped the administration avoid its current bind if the president had heeded his advice on some of the most sensitive subjects of the year: health-care reform, jobs and trying alleged terrorists in civilian courts.

It is a view propounded by lawmakers and early supporters of President Obama who are frustrated because they think the administration has gone for the perfect at the expense of the plausible. They believe Emanuel, the town's leading purveyor of four-letter words, a former Israeli army volunteer and a product of a famously argumentative family, was not aggressive enough in trying to persuade a singularly self-assured president and a coterie of true-believer advisers that "change you can believe in" is best pursued through accomplishments you can pass.

No thought, of course, is given to the idea of passing legislation that will actually work. What if politicians on the Hill, and in the White House, actually pursued accomplishments upon which they campaigned, too? What a concept.

This is one of my favorite passages:

When it came time for the economic stimulus plan, Emanuel -- arguing that "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste" -- was the White House's point man in the Senate. There, too, he valued the plausible over the perfect.

Snowe said he was "responsive" to her interest in removing $100 billion in spending from the stimulus bill. "He understood it operationally and legislatively, what needed to be accomplished, and was very straightforward," she said.

At the time, the President's approval rating was soaring and the economy was on the brink of collapse. Everyone was talking about another Great Depression, and economist were saying we needed $2 trillion in stimulus spending. The President's own chair of his Council of Economic Advisers said we needed $1.2 trillion. So Emanuel's first instinct was to compromise and go for less (less than what was needed to avert a Depression and keep unemployment far below 10%). If he were the hard-ass we'd all been led to believe he was, Emanuel would have sent Obama to Maine to campaign for the strongest bill possible, in order to get Snowe's and Collin's votes. That's what a real tough Chief of Staff would have done, instead of caving as quickly as possible on the medicine needed to save the country from economic collapse. Emanuel made Obama look weak right off the bat -- and the Republicans saw it immediately.

This p.r. offensive is offensive. Rahm is making himself more important than the President and it's making Obama look bad. If I understand the role of the President's Chief of Staff, making the boss look weak and a bad decision-maker isn't part of the job. Any Chief of Staff who does that shouldn't keep his job.

http://www.americablog.com/2010/03/its-rahms-white-house-and-everyone-el...

toniD's Ya Think?

i fry them in flour and pretend they're sardines

i also like the smelt roe at the sushi place

Unless the whole notion of reforming the tax system is strangled in its cradle, which is doubtful, municipal-market participants should treat this as serious business. - Bloomberg

By Christine Lepisto, TreeHugger

Genetically Modified Foods

Although the E.U. is continuously coming under attack for policies banning GM foods, the community is highly suspicious of genetically modified foods, and the agro-industrial pressures that drive their use. The problem with GM foods is that there is simply not sufficient research and understanding to inform good public policy. In spite of widespread GM use without apparent negative impacts in other countries, the recent public reaction to trans-fats are reason enough to support a precautionary principle for the food supply chain.

Pesticides in Your Food

The E.U. has acted against the worst pesticides typically found as residuals in the food chain. A ban on 22 pesticides was passed at the E.U. level, and is pending approval by the Member States. Critics claim the ban will raise prices and may harm malaria control, but advocates of the ban say action must be taken against the pesticides which are known to cause harm to health and nevertheless consistently found in studies of food consumption.

Bovine Growth Hormone

This drug, known as rBGH for short, is not allowed in Europe. In contrast, U.S. citizens struggle even for laws that allow hormone-free labeling so that consumers have a choice. This should be an easy black-and-white decision for all regulators and any corporation that is really concerned about sustainability: give consumers the information. We deserve control over our food choice.

Chlorinated Chickens

Amid cries that eating American chickens would degrade European citizens to the status of guinea pigs, the E.U. continued a ban on chickens washed in chlorine. The ban effectively prevents all import of chickens from the U.S. into Europe. If chicken chlorination is “totally absurd” and “outrageous” for Europeans, what does that mean for Americans?

..more..

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/7-foods-banned-in-europe-still-availabl...

toniD's Ya Think?

Scheme

By JOSEPH PLAMBECK
Federal prosecutors in New Jersey said on Monday that four men operating under the name Wiseguy Tickets had broken into online sites, buying more than one million tickets to some of the country’s most popular musical and sporting events and then reselling them for more than $25 million in profit.

In its 43-count indictment, the prosecutors say the men built a computer network that created thousands of fake accounts and built a program that could outsmart the ticketing software that creates oddly shaped letters intended to require human verification.

The events affected by the scheme cut across a wide swath of the entertainment business, from Hannah Montana concerts to Broadway shows and New York Yankees playoff games. The verification systems of many major online ticket vendors, including Ticketmaster, Telecharge and Major League Baseball, were breached.

The company would search only for those seats that they believed could be sold for a premium, sometimes at more than $1,000 over face value.

“At a time when the Internet has brought convenience and fairness to the ticket marketplace, these defendants gamed the system with a sophisticated fraud operation that generated over $25 million in illicit profits,” Paul J. Fishman, a United States attorney, said in a statement.

Three of the indicted men, Kenneth Lowson, 40, Kristofer Kirsch, 37, and Joel Stevenson, 37, surrendered on Monday. Mr. Lowson is being held until his lawyers can present a bail package to the court, while Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Kirsch were released on bail.

The fourth man, Faisal Nahdi, 36, is out of the country and arrangements are being made for his surrender, according to the United States attorney’s office.

As early as 2005, Ticketmaster, now part of Live Nation Entertainment, contacted Wiseguy about improper ticket buying. In 2008, Ticketmaster contacted the companies hosting Wiseguy’s computers in an effort to stop the use of the automated programs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/technology/02ticket.html?th&emc=th

do you guys remember my new orleans foggy pictures? beautiful!

Today i find this in the italian newspaper. Foggy pictures of Rome

http://roma.repubblica.it/multimedia/home/23348067

Anti-Government Groups Show Surge, Watchdog Warns

Source: AOL news

The number of American anti-government militia and "patriot" groups, largely dormant since their heyday in the mid-1990s, mushroomed at an "astonishing" rate last year, raising "grave concern" about the potential for future domestic terrorism, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The nonprofit civil rights organization, which tracks the hate movement and anti-government groups, counted 512 militias and related groups in 2009, up from 149 groups the year before. And, it said, the movement has added a layer of racism largely absent a decade ago.

At the same time, the organization has observed a spike in what it calls "nativist extremist groups," defined as those that "confront or harass suspected immigrants," to 309 groups last year, up from 173 the year before.

Hate groups also grew slightly, from 926 to 932, continuing what the SPLC said was a trend that began around 2000, and rising 54 percent in the decade. The growth was "driven largely by an angry backlash against nonwhite immigration and, starting in the last year of that period, the economic meltdown and the climb to power of an African-American president."

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/anti-government-groups-show-astoni...

toniD's Ya Think?

when the fog was very thick. Of course it was worse in Venice because of the water, but I loved it there. Milan, not so much. Loved Rome and Florence also.

Hope I can travel again some day.

toniD's Ya Think?

won't surprise those of you who know my photographic taste

The European Commission has cleared the way for a genetically modified potato to be grown in the EU - only the second GM product it has allowed.

The starch of the Amflora potato can be utilised for industrial uses like making paper, and for animal feed - but not for human consumption.

Environmental groups have strongly opposed the introduction of GM crops.

But the Commission insisted its decision was based on "a considerable volume of sound science".

Planting this spring

The Amflora variety, developed by German chemical and biotechnology firm BASF, has been a political hot potato for seven years.

BASF applied to grow it in Sweden in 2003. Sweden agreed but was obliged to seek EU permission.

The Council of ministers - the committee of national governments - has been unable to agree a decision, passing the issue back into the hands of the Commission.

Even though it has now been cleared, individual countries still have the right to decide whether it should be grown on their territory.

The potato is expected to be planted in the Czech Republic and Germany this spring, and Sweden and the Netherlands in following years.

The only other GM product currently grown commercially in the EU is Monsanto's MON 810 maize, which was cleared back in 1998.

It is grown in five countries - Spain, the Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal and Slovakia.

On Tuesday, the EU Commission also allowed three GM maize products to be placed on the European market, though not grown in Europe.

'Bad day'

Some countries remain firmly opposed to the cultivation of GM crops, arguing that they could eventually reduce biodiversity and natural resistance to pests and disease, and that it is very hard to stop them cross-pollinating with non-GM crops.

Italy said it objected to the Commission's decision.

German Green MEP Martin Hausling said it "flies in the face of the 70% of consumers who are against GM food".

"This is a bad day for European citizens and the environment," Friends of the Earth told the AFP news agency.

It said the Amflora potato "carries a controversial antibiotic resistant gene which it cannot be guaranteed will not enter the food chain".

The Commission said it was imposing strict conditions on the cultivation of Amflora to address some of the environmental concerns.

For instance, the potato "will be cultivated and harvested before it produces seeds".

It said growing this form of potato "helps to optimise the production process and to save raw materials, energy, water and oil based chemicals".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8545503.stm

was gorgeous, like a dream, so beautiful that i didn't even mind the cold and damp

funny, was i just thinking about it yesterday as i was copiing with new orleans' horrific conditions and reflecting on how this otherwise beautiful city turns ugly and dingy under cloudy skies, then i thought, it's probably true of all cities, then i remembered Venice and oh no, not true. That may also be not true of Amsterdam or other cities that have beautiful riverfronts and canals, not sure

anyway

me too Toni i would like to travel again, but not in today's airflight conditions; if i had the time i would like travel by ocean freighter

LONDON, March 2 (UPI) -- More intelligent children may be more likely to grow up to be liberals, a researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests.

Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist, says "evolutionarily novel" preferences and values are those that humans are not biologically designed to have and our ancestors probably did not possess. In contrast, those that our ancestors had for millions of years are "evolutionarily familiar."

Kanazawa argues that humans are evolutionarily designed to be conservative, caring mostly about their family and friends, and being liberal -- caring about an indefinite number of genetically unrelated strangers one has never meet or interacted with -- is evolutionarily novel.

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health support Kanazawa's hypothesis. Young adults who subjectively identify themselves as "very liberal" have an average IQ of 106 during adolescence while those who identify themselves as "very conservative" have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence, Kanazawa says.

Young adults who identify themselves as "not at all religious" have an average IQ of 103 during adolescence, while those who identify themselves as "very religious" have an average IQ of 97 during adolescence, Kanazawa says.

The preference for sexual exclusivity correlated with higher intelligence, the study says.

The findings are published in the journal Social Psychology Quarterly.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2010/03/02/Higher-IQ-linked-to-liberalism...

It's beautiful, of cours, like a painting, but if you look at the path in the middle, it looks, for me anyway, like a ghostly dog with a pointy nose sitting there. Does anyone else see it?

toniD's Ya Think?

just because i like that bridge

because i like that park (the tall pine trees)

WASHINGTON, March 2 (UPI) -- A U.S. move toward more nuclear energy could be hampered by opposition from big-business customers who don't want to foot the bill for costly projects.

With most banks and investors unwilling to finance the high-risk, multibillion-dollar costs of nuclear reactors, utility companies have gotten the OK from some legislatures and regulators to charge customers for construction while the reactors are being built, The Washington Post reports.

That's a new twist in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, where utilities expect the financing method to save a few billion dollars for each reactor. In most other states, utilities must wait until plants are operating before raising rates.

"We tell people it's like paying off the interest on your credit card as you go along, rather than letting it compound," said Suzanne Grant, a spokeswoman for Progress Energy, which has customers in the Carolinas and Florida.

Big-business customers and other electricity users, however, say the utilities are shifting the projects' risks to them, and consumer and environmental groups have been fighting the state laws and higher rates.

"It's a terrible idea," said Jim Clarkson, a consultant with Resource Supply Management, a Georgia firm that advises companies on reducing electricity use. "We've had decades of subsidies for nuclear plants and all sorts of preferential treatment. They still require loan guarantees because the smart money won't touch them."

The backlash threatens President Barack Obama's efforts to increase the use of nuclear power amid growing concerns about global warming.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2010/03/02/Customers-oppose-costly-nuke...

i don't see it, toni

It's time to help in Chile just like we're doing in Haiti!!! SMS text “CHILE” to 25383 to donate $10 to Habitat for Humanity SMS text “CHILE” to 20222 to donate $10 to World Vision SMS text “REBUILD” to 50555 to donate $10 to Operation USA SMS text “YOUTH” to 20222 to donate $10 to UNICEF

Cast raises money for real 'Stand and Deliver' math teacher's fight with cancer

Cast members from the 1988 film Stand and Deliver are raising money to help cover medical costs for Jaime Escalante, the beloved high school math teacher in the film, who is battling cancer.

Edward James Olmos, who played Escalante in the movie about a barrio teacher in Los Angeles who created a nationally acclaimed calculus program, is behind the fundraising effort.

"The genius that he awakened in the 'unteachable' commanded the attention of the entire world," Olmos says on his website.

He said 79-year-old Escalante has run out of money to pay his medical bills.

"I have been moved to tears to hear of the circumstances of this great man and am calling for a last National Understanding of his selfless contributions to making a difference in this world," Olmos writes.

Escalante, who was born in Bolivia, taught at Garfield High School in Los Angeles in the 1960s where he turned groups of down-and-out inner city kids into calculus champs.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/03/cast-rai...

toniD's Ya Think?

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE PLAN: Delivering for you: 5 days a week

The U.S. Postal Service will move this month toward reducing mail delivery from six days a week to five, a change Postmaster General John Potter has said is critical to reducing the agency's massive debt.

Potter said Monday he'll submit a formal request by the end of this month to the Postal Regulatory Commission, which must issue an advisory opinion on any change in mail service that would have national impact.

Once Potter makes the request, the commission plans to hold public hearings around the nation and seek expert testimony. Even if the commission approves the dropped day, the Postal Service also needs congressional consent: Federal law requires six-day delivery.

Potter is to release the details today of a $4.8-million study that projects how steeply mail volume will fall and how deeply the Postal Service will be in debt by 2020. The Postal Service already has borrowed $10 billion from the U.S. Treasury. Potter said it expects to borrow another $3 billion this year, leaving it just $2 billion under the $15-billion cap set by Congress.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100302/NEWS07/3020328/1001/NEWS/Nation/wo...

toniD's Ya Think?

Is Obama Already a Lame Duck?

By STEWART J. LAWRENCE

Barack Obama's presidency is barely a year old, and the November mid-term elections are still nine months away. Yet despite the brave face worn by the White House in recent weeks, Democrats are facing a disaster of mounting proportions. If current trends hold, they may well lose control of the House of Representatives – a stunning collapse given their current 40 vote lead. Even worse, what seemed like a near-impossibility just a month ago - a GOP reconquest of the Senate – has become increasingly "thinkable” also. Political handicapper Charlie Cook, not one for wild-eyed predictions, has identified 11 Democratic Senate seats Republicans might win based on current polling. If they win at least 10, and also retain control of their current 41 Senate seats, which seems likely, the Senate is theirs.

The White House, still obsessed with its manifestly unpopular health care reform bill, is in a state of political denial so deep that not even Senator Evan Bayh's (D-IN) shocking retirement two weeks ago – following similar announcements by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) in recent months - has managed to pierce its defensive wall.

A growing number of critics are urging Obama to fire his top staff, including White House advisor Rahm Emmanuel, whom they blame for the health care debacle, and DNC chief Tim Kaine, who funded the Democrats’ failed election campaigns in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Those failures have allowed Republicans to regain the political initiative, and have caused deep disenchantment among House Democrats who must now face the music with voters. All 435 House seats are in contention this fall, but at least 100 seats held by Democratic incumbents are considered “competitive,” sources say.
http://www.counterpunch.org/lawrence03022010.html

By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Consumer advocates filed a class-action suit against Anthem Blue Cross on Monday, accusing California's largest for-profit health insurer of illegally using drastic rate hikes to force customers into inferior health plans.
The suit comes two days before top executives from several major U.S. health insurers, including Anthem's parent company, WellPoint Inc. , were to meet in Washington with Obama administration officials to discuss escalating premiums.
Anthem's plan to boost its individual premiums by as much as 39 percent has spawned inquiries by state regulators and congressional committees. The White House and Democrats on Capitol Hill also have seized on Anthem's proposed rate hikes in seeking to bolster support for a renewed drive to overhaul the nation's health care system.
The lawsuit in California claims Anthem violated state law by closing certain blocks of its individual health plans to new members without offering comparable coverage to policyholders who opted to remain.
Over time, the pool of older, sicker customers who choose to stay end up trapped in the closed policies, prevented by pre-existing medical conditions from finding affordable plans elsewhere and subjected to rising rates until finally forced to accept lesser insurance or to drop coverage altogether. If they do switch, it is often to plans with fewer benefits, higher deductibles or both, the suit says.
'GUN TO OUR HEADS'
"Blue Cross has a gun to our heads," Mary Feller of San Rafael, Calif., one of the named plaintiffs in the suit filed in Ventura County Superior Court by the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog on behalf of policyholders.
"We could either stay with our old coverage or switch to a new policy with much lower benefits. What Blue Cross did not tell us was that staying with our better policy would mean a 39 percent rate increase," Feller said in a statement announcing the class-action complaint.
There was no immediate comment from the insurance company, or from the state Department of Managed Health Care, which regulates Anthem Blue Cross policies. But industry executives have said climbing premiums reflect soaring medical costs.
Since 1993 California law has required insurers to protect individual policyholders from being caught in circumstances the industry refers to as a "death spiral," the suit says.
Insurers must either offer customers of closed plans a comparable alternative or pool the risk of those individuals with customers in policies that remain open in order to minimize their premium hikes, the suit says.
About 800,000 Californians hold health insurance policies with Anthem Blue Cross, accounting for the biggest share of some 2 million people with individual coverage in the state, said Jerry Flanagan, health care policy director for Consumer Watchdog.
By comparison, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) make up the bulk of California health plans, covering some 21 million patients. But individual policies are often the only option for those who are self-employed or do not receive health care coverage through their jobs.
The lawsuit, Feller and Freed vs. Anthem Blue Cross, Case No. 56-2010-00368587-CU-BT-SIM, seeks unspecified restitution for the plaintiffs and a court order barring future alleged violations of the state health and safety code.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6212ZO20100302

in the mists & most important Golden Gate Park & especially SF, in The Mists.
...yet there is FOG everywhere in my Northern CA, which is NOW AFFECTED by Global Warming.
:(

by Evelyn Pringle, health freedom writer

(NaturalNews) In the first Paxil birth defect trial that resulted in a $2.5 million verdict against GlaxoSmithKline in October 2009, the infant, Lyam Kilker, was born with three heart defects; an atrial septal defect, a ventricular septal defect, and an interrupted aortic arch, after his mother took Paxil while pregnant.

Pregnant women cannot participate in clinical trials on drugs due to the risk of harm to the fetus. But after a drug has been on the market for a while, epidemiology studies can review the medical records of women who have taken a new drug while pregnant and the records of women who were not exposed to the drug while pregnant and compare the outcomes of the infants.

The plaintiff's experts, Doctors Ra-id Abdulla, David Healy, Shira Kramer and Suzanne Parisian, all testified that they believed Paxil (paroxetine) caused Lyam's defects, based in part, on the scientific literature on studies available on Paxil to date.

article continues
http://www.naturalnews.com/z028279_Paxil_birth_defects.html

Stupak Tries To Torpedo Momentum On Health Care Bill
By: David Dayen Tuesday March 2, 2010 7:03 am

With the health care vote taking shape in the House, Bart Stupak is waging a last-ditch campaign to stop it – and extending beyond his objection to the abortion funding language.

Barack Obama will make a speech tomorrow laying out the way forward on health care. It’s widely expected that he will endorse a reconciliation sidecar approach to pass what amounts to the Senate bill with a series of fixes outlined in his white paper on the subject. The process would begin with the House passing the Senate bill the week of March 19. The House would then pass a reconciliation bill and send it to the Senate the week of March 26. The timing is designed to stop Republicans from an endless series of amendments, which would eat into their Easter recess. I don’t think this will stop them, but some rulings from the chair calling non-germane amendments dilatory and out of order presumably would.

This is an extremely rough outline – we don’t know the substance of the sidecar bill. But procedurally, it does look like the House would go first, passing the Senate bill before the changes come into play (it would then be held and not signed into law without the changes). It’s unclear what kind of collateral House Democrats would need from the Senate – a signed pledge, a televised statement, who knows – before feeling free to pass their bill.

You can tell that the House is gearing up to pass something with respect to health care, because the Democratic media shop has floated to the AP some names of possible vote-switchers on the bill, which would be needed to move forward.

Ten House Democrats indicated in an Associated Press survey Monday they have not ruled out switching their “no” votes to “yes” on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, brightening the party’s hopes in the face of unyielding Republican opposition.
The White House tried to smooth the way for them, showing its own openness to changes in the landmark legislation and making a point of saying the administration is not using parliamentary tricks or loopholes to find the needed support [...]

In interviews with the AP, at least 10 of the 39 Democrats — or their spokesmen — either declined to state their positions or said they were undecided about the revised legislation, making them likely targets for intense wooing by Pelosi and Obama. Three of them — Brian Baird of Washington, Bart Gordon of Tennessee and John Tanner of Tennessee — are not seeking re-election this fall.

The others are Rick Boucher of Virginia, Suzanne Kosmas of Florida, Frank Kratovil of Maryland, Michael McMahon of New York, Walt Minnick of Idaho, Scott Murphy of New York and Glenn Nye of Virginia. Several lawmakers’ offices did not reply to the AP queries.

You can even see a messaging strategy, with “up or down vote” and “majority rule” replacing “reconciliation” in the lexicon.

Campaign Diaries has the definitive rundown of the whip count, which I’ve been tracking for some time and will continue to do as we near a vote. But I do want to say one thing to those who claim that Nancy Pelosi has special powers, and that she doesn’t lose a vote in the House ever, which has been floated by commentators and members of Congress alike. Let’s be clear about this – Pelosi DID lose the vote in November. She won final passage of the health care bill, but if she had her way, the Stupak amendment would never have gotten a vote. She ignored and ignored Stupak for several months, hopeful that she could round up enough votes for the bill without him. And ultimately, she was unsuccessful, forced to roll back women’s rights as a consequence of passing health care reform.

Now, she doesn’t have that out. The Nelson amendment governs the abortion language in the Senate bill, and as changing that through reconciliation is unlikely to pass the Byrd rule, basically that cannot be changed. Which means she will have to find 216 votes (see here for why that number has changed) without Stupak. more...

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/03/02/stupak-tries-to-torpedo-momentum-...

toniD's Ya Think?

the new orleans floods from yesterday's downpours

http://crooksandliars.com/

Jim Bunning's hold is also killing "flood insurance"
By John Amato Tuesday Mar 02, 2010 8:00am Senator Jim Bunning's hold was unconscionable on some many levels, but now we find out that it's also causing damage to many homeowners as well.

Consumer Reports:

Will you be able to get insurance for your flooded basement this spring when snows start to thaw?

At this very moment, the National Flood Insurance Program, the government-run program that provides most flood insurance for residents and businesses nationwide, is officially out of money. Funding for the program ran out last night. The House Financial Services Committee voted to extend the program through March 31. But in the Senate Banking Committee, an extension of funding for flood insurance and several other, more prominent programs, was blocked today by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., who said they would add to the deficit.

Here's what the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the flood program, said today:

Authorization for the National Flood Insurance Program expired February 28, 2010. If reauthorization takes place after this date, policies that are already in the process of being issued or renewed will be issued when Congress re-authorizes the National Flood Insurance Program. Payments for claims on existing policies will not be impacted; such policies will continue uninterrupted.

In all likelihood, a bill will be passed to extend the coverage and make it retroactive to Feb. 28th, says John Priple, vice-president of government affairs for the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America. In the intervening days, however, you won't be able to buy flood insurance.

Conservatives are a funny breed. When one of their own is in office, the deficit suddenly isn't an issue.

Rand Paul, the son of the original Paul, is holding a fundraiser in support of Bunning.

Republican Rand Paul’s campaign for the U.S. Senate will hold a rally at 3 p.m. Tuesday in front of U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning’s Lexington office to support Bunning’s blockage of unemployment and health care benefits for over 1 million jobless Americans, including 119,230 Kentuckians.

David Adams, campaign manager for Paul, said Monday he will be representing Paul at the rally.

These are the people who want to invade DC and only make it worse for American families

The Filibuster That Dare Not Speak Its Name

It's become clear over the last 24 hours or so that Sen. Bunning (R-KY) isn't really alone in his filibuster that's triggering all these Medicare and Unemployment insurance cuts. He's being actively assisted or at least encouraged by a number of his Republican colleagues. But in a lot of press reports, not only are reporters unwilling to call it a filibuster, they don't even mention Bunning's name. It's just "senate gridlock."

Some of this has to do with the fact that even a few days in a lot Democrats seem bizarrely eager to keep this whole thing a secret. But it's really a press failure. Can you let me know when you see examples of the use of this phrase or other efforts to obscure what's going on here?

--Josh Marshall

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/03/the_filibuster_that_da...

toniD's Ya Think?

has links to the john birch society on his web site:

http://www.ronpaul.com/category/rand-paul/

john birch society was a cosponsor of the recent cpac convention.

Who's Hurt Most? Bunning's Filibuster Affects More Than 400,000
Christina Bellantoni | March 2, 2010, 9:26AM

The Department of Labor calculates that 400,000 people will lose unemployment benefits if the Senate isn't able to break Sen. Jim Bunning's blockade of a measure that would extend the benefits.

The Labor tally says Bunning has "blocked the process each time" and Secretary Hilda Solis complained that "[t]he consequences of partisan obstructionism could not be clearer."

"If the extension is not approved immediately, millions of Americans could lose the safety net programs they deserve and desperately need," she said.

The White House sent the state-by-state totals to regional reporters last night. Bunning's Kentucky is at the low end, with 4,300 people affected. Florida has one of the higher totals of 49,000, as a result of Congress not extending jobless benefits.

Here's the Labor Department's tally of the projected number of people losing their unemployment insurance by state for the week ending March 13:

Alabama 3,600 -- Alaska 0 -- Arizona 8,300 -- Arkansas 5,200

California 0 -- Colorado 9,000 -- Connecticut 0

District of Columbia 600 -- Delaware 2,100

Florida 49,600

Georgia 41,000

Hawaii 1,600

Idaho 0 -- Illinois 28,200 -- Indiana 16,100 -- Iowa 4,600

Kansas 0 - -Kentucky 4,300

Louisiana 4,300

Maine 2,200 -- Maryland 4,700 -- Massachusetts 0 -- Michigan 0 -- Minnesota 0 -- Mississippi 2,700 -- Missouri 8,700 -- Montana 0

Nebraska 1,300 -- Nevada 0 -- New Hampshire 0 -- New Jersey 0 -- New Mexico 0 -- New York 54,300 -- North Carolina 0 -- North Dakota 500

Ohio 16,200 -- Oklahoma 4,600 -- Oregon 0

Pennsylvania 0 -- Puerto Rico 0

Rhode Island 0

South Carolina 14,400 -- South Dakota 300

Tennessee 7,500 -- Texas 27,400

Utah 2,700

Vermont 0 -- Virgin Islands 100 -- Virginia 10,700

Washington 0 -- Wisconsin 0 -- West Virginia 2,600 -- Wyoming 900

From the release:

If Emergency Unemployment Compensation and full federal funding for the Extended Benefit program are not extended, 400,000 Americans will lose unemployment benefits during the first weeks in March. By May, nearly 3 million people could be left without these benefits. Furthermore, if the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act subsidy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is not extended, thousands of families will lose access to affordable health care.

If the extension is not approved, an estimated 500,000 workers who lose their jobs will be ineligible for subsidies to cover the cost of health care over this month. Over the rest of 2010, an estimated 5 million workers will be ineligible for the Recovery Act COBRA subsidy that covers 65 percent of the cost of coverage. Without this assistance, many of these families will be forced to join the ranks of the uninsured.

...

Without an extension, the number of Americans who lose unemployment insurance benefits will increase to 1.5 million within a month. Within two months, nearly 3 million Americans will have lost their benefits. Even if Congress acts down the road to retroactively reinstate UI benefits, a gap in the program forces administrative burdens onto states, which may cause significant delays in getting checks to unemployed individuals.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/labor-depts-solis-deplores-bu...

toniD's Ya Think?

They were planted after "the timber industry" had taken much of The Redwoods, especially at Pacific Coast. Monterey Pines only last about 50 years(confirmed via a tree surgeon) ...so if large the odds are they are "dieing" to fall. AT LEAST 85% PLUS damages UP & DOWN ALL The West Coast {up to Canada's borders down to Mexico's borders} to buidings (hmmm) to homes & streets & land...were CAUSED BY MONTEREY PINES ... in WINDS & STORMS
..which were reported, a few years ago. Then I had to replace my "old Montery Pines" with just a few "baby Redwoods" (but kept a few pine cones to take seeds oneday-for certain reasons). (Using Monterey Pine stump to meditate upon...staring at new "baby/now wee juvenile-ish" Redwood").
{BBL;}

EASTER IS THE NEW THANKSGIVING.... Those who've followed the debate over health care reform for a while have probably noticed that deadlines haven't always been met. President Obama, you may recall, wanted to see the House and Senate pass their bills before their August recess last year.

For a while, there was talk of getting reform done by Thanksgiving. Then Christmas. The State of the Union was considered a backstop, too, right before the unpleasantness in Massachusetts.

With health care reform back on the front burner, Jonathan Cohn notes today that a schedule is starting to come together, and citing reporting from Inside Health Policy's Julian Pecquet and Amy Lotven, it looks completion by Easter is the new goal.

The gist is pretty simple: The House takes up the Senate bill and passed it by March 19. A few days later it passes a reconciliation bill and sends it over to the Senate, which starts the voting process on March 26.

It's a "process" because, even though the reconciliation process limits debate to 20 hours, it doesn't limit amendments. And Republicans have warned they plan to introduce an amendment, forcing Democrats to take difficult votes, for as long as they can.

Of course, the Senate is scheduled to take a two-week break for Easter and Passover. Republicans won't be able to literally filibuster the budget fix, but there's talk of them offering literally hundreds of meaningless amendments, just to bring the legislative process to a halt. In this case, however, if Democratic leaders can stick to this schedule, delays will only interfere with a planned recess -- which even Republicans will want to take advantage of.

With this in mind, the timeline seems quite sound. Now all Dems have to do is figure out how to secure a House majority for the Senate bill, agree to the terms of a House-Senate compromise, get that compromise through the House, bring that identical compromise to the Senate floor, and pass it before Congress' spring break begins.

Piece of cake, right?

For what it's worth, the timeline reform proponents are eyeing is consistent with Republicans' expectations, too. This morning, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) told Fox News he, too, expects final votes on health care immediately before the Easter/Passover recess.

We should know more tomorrow, after President Obama's presentation on the way forward. Stay tuned.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_03/022660.php

toniD's Ya Think?

...I am sure, with the corporate media's help, Americans, who don't know any better, will.

"Rogue" Republican Bunning places a hold on the bill that affects the extension of unemployment benefits and government workers.

Republicans' feeling the heat, despite trying to portray Bunning as an eccentric, decry his actions, and send out their usual "Tool," seemingly safe from any repercussions, Maine Senator Susan Collins, since the alternate Maine Senator Olympis Snow was up last.

How long is the Maine constituency, let alone, American citizens going to put up with this? What dupes!

Republicans rip on Bunning
By: Meredith Shiner and Manu Raju
March 2, 2010 10:45 AM EST

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) is losing Republican support for his single-handed decision to prevent a critical aid package from landing on President Barack Obama’s desk, with Republicans fearing the political backlash from the lapse of unemployment benefits, health care coverage, highway funding and Medicare reimbursement fees for doctors.

On the floor Tuesday morning, Sen. Susan Collins became the first Senate Republican to forcefully criticize Bunning, urging the retiring Kentucky Republican to put aside an objection that has dominated the news since he waged a lonely fight against the measure last Thursday.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/33758.html

REED WAS LET OUT OF THE PENALTY BOX?.... Wait a second. Ralph Reed believes he can show his face in public again? He thinks, after having disgraced himself, he should serve in Congress?

Sources close to Ralph Reed tell The Brody File that the former Executive Director of the Christian Coalition is "seriously" considering running for Congress in Georgia. According to one well-placed source, Reed has talked to key grassroots leaders and local elected officials in Gwinnett county and other parts of the district, but has not made a decision yet.

Eighteen-year veteran Congressman Rep. John Linder announced over the weekend that he's retiring. This seat is in a big time Republican district in the Atlanta suburbs. Reed would be positioned well.

The report comes from radical TV preacher Pat Robertson's "news" network, which presumably would be in a position to know about Reed's plans.

Now, Reed has tried electoral politics since his involvement in the Abramoff scandal -- he ran for lieutenant governor in Georgia in 2006. Republican primary voters wanted nothing to do with him, and Reed, despite being the one-time favorite, lost the race by double digits.

But now the right-wing hatchet man apparently believes he's spend enough time in the penalty box.

While Reed ponders his future, let's take a quick stroll down memory lane. After all, some of Reed's more colorful and entertaining exploits happened fairly recently.
Continue reading...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_03/022658.php

toniD's Ya Think?

"The older you get the more you realize that there are no countries. There are just corporations.
Well, there are no indie films. There are only studio films.
There was a time when there were indies, but those days are long gone."

-Kevin Smith on L.A.'s KROQ this morning

"You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us"
-Radiohead.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Two Key Senators Lend Backing To Filibuster Reform Effort

Could the Jim Bunning hold on jobless aid — one of the most glaring examples of Senate procedural obstructionism this year — provide a boost to efforts to reform the filibuster?

In the halls of the Capitol just now, two key Senators voiced strong support for fixing the filibuster, suggesting that the Bunning mess could end up giving this fledgling movement more momentum.

The two Senators — Sherrod Brown and Bernie Sanders — also expressed support for the filibuster reform proposal recently unveiled by Senator Tom Harkin.

“We [should] consider certainly some level of filibuster reform,” Senator Brown told a handful of reporters outside a presser about Bunning. “Maybe getting rid of the motion to proceed, which is one more complicating slowdown step.”

When I asked if he would support the Harkin effort, Brown said: “Yes, probably. It’s clear to me it’s not working. We need to make some changes — maybe comprehensive changes in the rules.”

Separately, Sanders told me in the Senate hallway that he’s “absolutely on board” with filibuster reform. “We’ve gotta reform it,” Sanders said. “The present situation leads to dysfunctionality.”

“I may well support the Harkin effort,” Sanders added. “But if not that, some other effort.”

No question — such efforts face a steep uphill climb, to put it mildly. But among Senate Dems in the Capitol, there’s a palpable sense that the Bunning showdown — initiated by a single Senator, easy to grasp, impacting thousands — has moved the debate into new territory. There seems to be a real sense among Dems here that the present system is simply no longer tenable.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republicans/two-key-senators-le...

toniD's Ya Think?

Lefty Groups Planning Massive Research Dig On GOP Stimulus “Hypocrisy”

One of the more interesting Beltway developments in recent years has been the growth of a kind of research strike force aparatus on the left that — while publicly kept at arm’s length by the White House — clearly helps to shape the narrative and drive the Obama/Dem agenda.

Now three of the most prominent groups — the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Media Matters Action Network, and Americans United For Change — are plotting a massive new research push designed to drive the storyline that Republicans are hypocrites on the stimulus.

The groups are planning to blitz a whole series of Federal agencies with Freedom of Information Act requests designed to ferret out which Republican officials across the country made private requests for funding under the Recovery Act. Among the targeted agencies: The Departments of Education, Justice, Defense, and Housing & Urban Development.

The goal: To highlight GOP officials who opposed the Recovery Act but are now enjoying the successes of the stimulus in their states and districts. “We will keep hammering at Republican hypocrisy until they publicly admit what we all know: the Recovery Act is working,” says MMAN spokesman Chris Harris.

While there’s no evidence that this is being coordinated with the White House, this message is clearly going to be central to the administration’s political strategy in the 2010 elections, and they will benefit from any findings the groups produce.

To be sure, Republicans dismiss this whole strategy as little more than a joke, predicting it won’t have any impact in any local races. And some in the traditional media will dismiss the group’s research as partisan and, therefore, tainted.

But the new and fractured media landscape does make it easier for such groups to help shape the narrative and drive the conversation.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/stimulus-package/lefty-groups-planning...

toniD's Ya Think?

Orrin Hatch Rewrites History Of His Own Voting Record On Reconciliation

As you’ve heard, Senator Orrin Hatch published a long article in today’s Washington Post warning that if Dems pass health reform via reconciliation, it will pose a dire threat to our fragile experiment in democracy.

In composing this treatise, Hatch naturally faced a problem: How to address the numerous times he voted for reconciliation measures himself? His solution: He simply omitted all mention of his numerous votes for reconciliation measures that passed by a simple majority.

Here’s the entire portion where Hatch deals with his own record on reconciliation:

Both parties have used the process, but only when the bills in question stuck close to dealing with the budget. In instances in which other substantive legislation was included, the legislation had significant bipartisan support. For example, Congress used reconciliation to carry welfare reform in 1996, which ultimately passed with 78 votes. And when reconciliation was used to create the Children’s Health Insurance Program that I authored with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 1997, the program got 85 votes and served as the glue to passing the first balanced budget in 40 years.

As you can see, in this passage Hatch only mentioned the reconciliation votes for measures that passed by huge majorities. But here are the votes he didn’t bother mentioning:

* Hatch voted for the 2001 Bush tax cuts, which passed by a simple majority (58-33) via reconciliation.

* Hatch voted for the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, accelerating the Bush tax cuts and adding new ones, which passed by a simple majority via reconciliation — 50-50 in the Senate with Dick Cheney casting the tiebreaking vote.

* Hatch voted for the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act, reducing Medicaid spending and allowing parents of disabled children to buy into Medicaid, which passed by a simple majority (52-47) via reconciliation.

* Hatch voted for the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, extending the Bush tax cuts for some tax brackets, which passed by a simple majority (54-44) via reconciliation.

It’s one thing to argue, as Hatch and many others have, that previous reconciliation votes were somehow different from the vote Dems are preparing. It’s taking things to a whole new level to completely omit any mention of a whole series of votes you took because they inconveniently reveal that your entire argument is bogus.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republicans/orrin-hatch-rewrite...

toniD's Ya Think?

Rand Paul, the son of the original Paul
Submitted by dan on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 12:48pm.
has links to the john birch society on his web site:

http://www.ronpaul.com/category/rand-paul/

john birch society was a cosponsor of the recent cpac convention.
*** ***

BRAVO Dan for showing others "The Light" of Truth.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-01-townhangingon_N.htm?se=ya...

Disturbing.

"You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us"
-Radiohead.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

Submitted by dan on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 12:48pm.
has links to the john birch society on his web site
---------

Apparently the apple didn't fall far from Paul's racist family tree.

Remember these quotes from Papa Ron?

“I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.” Paul was referring to Washington DC, which is heavily populated by African Americans."

“We don’t think a child of 13 should be held responsible as a man of 23,” he once wrote. “That’s true for most people, but black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such”

“We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers.”

con't

http://www.thedailybackground.com/2007/06/04/racism-in-ron-pauls-past-wr...

Let me cut through the bullshit and write it for you, Hal:

I would have lost... badly.
The End

"The notion that liberals didn't accept me is wrong."
lol
You fucking liar. Liberals couldn't detest you more.

"You look so tired-unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us"
-Radiohead.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

for thousands of people, does that mean that we will get a drop in the unemployment rate since these people aren't getting counted anymore?

===

btw, whats this bull about sos clinton bringing a planeload of satellite phones to chile?

one of my team mate's husband is losing his unemployment....

that heavy metal dude pic yesterday was funny.. :)

It is so easy to look around at life and assume that life needs fixing to make it right. We don't have to go much farther than the evening news to notice what's wrong with the world: the violence, hunger, corruption, environmental issues and so on. We want to do something to be a part of the solution, rather than a part of the problem, whether it is through outer social action, through financial support good organizations or through working on ourselves. We notice so little change from our actions and wonder what else can be done. We pray, we meditate, we wonder...

The orientation of seeing a world that needs fixing to be the "right" world can actually be deconstructed if we are willing to explore that. The beginning point is in the realization that we are thinking that we know what a "right" world would look like. We think that rape and murder and awful things like that can obviously be known to be "wrong" and a "right" world would not contain things like that. But look again at the way that we know this... what is it based on? Do we really have the big picture, or are we making judgments about right and wrong based on our own personal tendency to want to avoid pain and move towards pleasure? Of course we want to avoid pain and wishing that others avoid pain too is just an extension of our own preferences to include the world. In a way, if my neighbor is hurting, I am hurting with him or her. We are all in this together.

But if we look at our own lives with honesty and open-mindedness, is it clear that avoidance of pain is the "right" thing for us personally? Have pain and suffering played a role in our lives that in hindsight we respect? Most often the answer is yes. If we look deeply into the painful points in our history, these are the growing points, the places where new energy and new life has had an opportunity to enter our lives because the old patterns have been destroyed or disrupted by some loss, accident, crime or sickness. These things make us move on, even if it is through touching into the depths of despair.

Meanwhile life just is what it is. Without our having decided that it is supposed to look a certain way, or end up a certain way, it just is what it is. Not only that but also, it just ends up the way it ends up. Far from being the invitation to idleness that this may initially seem (but really is not at all) the above are just plain statements of what is so, at least before our judging/thinking minds get started. When I look into this it seems clear that we really don't know what should or shouldn't be happening in ourselves or in the world. Just because we may feel a dark emotion and start behaving badly towards our loved ones, do we know that this is "wrong"? Do we actually know that we are a bad person because this has occurred? Could the experience instead be looked at as developmentally necessary, helpful and illuminating? Could this alternate perspective actually be a way out of the endless repetition of our patterns?

Do we know for sure that the car accident or the crime in today's news should not have happened? The latest war casualties? Although mind will claim to be sure that these things are wrong, are we certain that they really are? Are we certain that something critical won't be changed by this "bad" happening that will make all the difference in some significant "good" happening later that we care even more about? Do we know for sure that the critical world situation (being a threat to our survival as a species) is not exactly the circumstance that will motivate a positive response that otherwise would not have been dreamed of?

Accepting our own not-knowing gives us entry into a new relationship with the world and with our own selves. If we don't spend all of our energies resisting what is, we can open up a deeper relationship to it. Our own dark feelings become pointers into whatever in us is still needing to be awakened. The negative situations in the world become as important a part of things as the positives, maybe more, as we accept them as having a part to play.

Without resisting what is, we are able to connect more fully with ourselves and our world, and through this deeper contact we are nourished. While mind was busy resisting the "wrongness" in ourselves and our world, our heart connection was jammed-up with judgment. Through acceptance of what is, we can begin to feel more deeply and be nourished not only by the positive happenings in ourselves and in life, but also by the negatives. They are also being welcomed in our open-heartedness, and through this welcoming we are able to thrive in the world as it is, rather than starve in a mentally constructed world of lack and disconnection.

What could be a more perfect example of thriving on what is, than the summer flowers.

What better example of us each doing our own part and tending to our own blossoming without judgment about whether it is "right" or "wrong" or if its going to end well or not. The flowers all just end up on the compost heap and back into the soil!

Sure, ok, they don't have these minds to contend with, it's true, so maybe its totally easy for them. But they show up in our gardens and homes as an example of the extraordinary yet fleeting beauty that we experience in this thing called life, and how little we need to refer to our ideas about right and wrong or good or bad to come to blossom in a totally unique, natural and easeful way. We draw nourishment from the ground of all that has come and gone before us into our own expression of who we are, and then let that go back again to the ground. Just the way it is.

© 2007 Alice Gardner

Alice Gardner is author of the new title: Life Beyond Belief, Everyday Living as Spiritual Practice, available at www.awakepublishing.com, Amazon.com and through Ingram. You are invited to also visit www.wideawakeliving.com, a sister website written by Alice as a support and inspiration for spiritual awakening no matter what your tradition. Alice also offers mentoring services by telephone. More information is available at www.wideawakeliving.com.

I just told a conservative buddy of mine who is currently unemployed about Jim Bunning's fillibuster. Boy is he pissed off.

There were to many zeros and the other numbers seemed low.

toniD's Ya Think?

http://www.samsedershow.com/comment/reply/5691#comment-form

yet, somehow, totally awesome, to battle Republicans with their own talking points. :)

"this machine kills fascists"