Morning Open Thread
Good morning.
President Barack Obama meets in the Oval Office with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who recently returned from Afghanistan. Photo by Pete Souza.
Comments (91) «
Leave it to Palin, to think so highly of herself, that she thinks THEY should pay her, instead of the other way around!!!!
Iowa GOP-ers wince at Palin fee
A conservative Iowa group’s effort to lure Sarah Palin to its banquet next month has had an unintended effect: Rather than exciting conservatives about the prospect of a visit from the former Alaska governor, the group’s plan to raise a six-figure sum to bring her to the state has GOP activists recoiling at the thought of paying to land a politician's speaking appearance.
The Iowa Family Policy Center’s effort to cobble together $100,000 for Palin would represent a striking departure from customary practice in the first-in-the-nation state, these Republicans say, noting that a generation of White House hopefuls has paid their own way to boost their party and presidential ambitions.
Were Palin to appear in Iowa on November 21st, it would mark her first trip back to the state since she spoke to a handful of rallies there last fall as the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee. She would offer powerful counter-programming to another major political event that night: The Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner with Vice-President Joe Biden as the headliner.
But representatives from other Iowa-based political advocacy groups said they would never consider shelling out money for what many politicians see as a privilege: the opportunity to speak to a room full of sure-fire caucus-goers who often serve as precinct captains and can be instrumental to a presidential candidate’s success.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091029/pl_politico/28873
ooops, didn't realize that Sandy had posted the Palin fee article on the last page.
But it deserves to be posted again........
What a difference between Bushie and Obama !
the Chimp killed them, didn't give a shit ---they were just collateral damage !
Obama honors fallen Americans at Dover
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. – Standing in the pre-dawn darkness, President Barack Obama saw the real cost of the war in Afghanistan: The Americans who return in flag-covered cases while much of the nation sleeps in peace.
In a midnight dash to this Delaware base, where U.S. forces killed overseas come home, Obama honored the return of 18 fallen Americans Thursday. All were killed in Afghanistan this week, a brutal stretch that turned October into the most deadly month for U.S. troops since the war began.
The dramatic image of a president on the tarmac was a portrait not witnessed in years. Former President George W. Bush spent lots of time with grieving military families but never went to Dover to meet the remains coming off the cargo plane. Obama did so with the weight of knowing he may soon send more troops off to war.
For all the talk of his potential troop increase — maybe 40,000, maybe some other large figure — Obama got a grim reminder of the number that counts: one.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama_fallen_soldiers
this picture brought tears to my eyes. Every day of the total 26 months my brother was in Vietnam, I visualized his coming home this way!
anybody watch Rachel Maddow last night?
She EXPLAINED why Lieberloser is against any Public option.
Seems his little wife is on the BOD at one of the large Insurance companies, and he has had over $2 donated to him by them!!!! Of COURSE the cheap prick does not want any competition for them.
Same with Evan Bayh, who is saying he will not vote for it. Wife on Wellpoint board and they own a ton of stock in it.
On Monday when Reid came out and announced Public Option, the Stocks of Health Insurance companies fell BIG TIME. When Lieberman and Bayh came out and said they would not vote, they went back up.
What a stinking dirty way to be a Representative for your Constituents----by your wallet !
Politicians
Jesus never ruled using political power.
But Politicians try to rule using hiS name
Forming a blackwateR religioN for wars
That hiS justice denies Due Process protection
Abdicates Human and Civil Rights equality
Into a Country Club being as Supreme Judges.
Washington Tory Fraternity of Abu Ghraib values,
God still sees the Holocaust tears of a Christain nation,
Where Protestants did what Catholics did what Jews
Did what Muslims did - persecute God’s divine children
That one must be one color, creed, nation - master race
Enslaving whole segments, without any Scales of Justice.
History has shown the power to divide nations into failure.
Those pit bulls elements using pure destruction of hate’s venom,
Vicious attack mongrels that lynch our family values of love.
Using a Savage Nation philosophy of bigoted segregated America,
Where nations can be conquered from within, surrendering rights
To those that want to be masters in redefining God Bless America.
The American Politician has turned into a blight of infidelity
To their “We the people” employer need for concrete accountability.
They have turned the Paramount Truth into political WMD Lies
Prefabrication where the Patriot Act covers up criminal indiscretions,
Having turned The Scales of Justice backward to Inquisition’s Injustice
Where the main element that failed America - are All its politicians.
(False political religion = goD, hiS, religioN)
A real religion are individual faiths united in a greater love of diversity.
Here is the gist of Nancy Pelosi's Press Conference:
Starting immediately upon ELECTED PRESIDENT OBAMA'S signature:
Close the Medicare "doughnut hole" so senior citizens can't be gouged for everything they own while waiting for the calander to run out until the next year.
Instantly open coverage for 36 million people who have been dropped or never signed up due to cost.
Public Option IS IN! No cuts, no watering down.
NO PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS denials.
NO "recission" allowed.
It will immediately cover 96% of those without health insurance.
Now it goes to the House floor where it will pass, and then on the the Conference Committee.
I heard a Congressman this morning say that it could be finalized by next Thursday of Friday, and if it isn't Speaker Pelosi will order that they work through the weekend until or the vote happens, whichever happens first.
ewww, Dufus still nasty this morning. What's the matter Dufus, that part time job getting to you, or is your wife pretending she is asleep when you toss your obese self down next to her? Whatever it is, You should do something about it.
I pray that President Obama can create those dreams inside children that keeps them from being politicians that failed America since Reagan in areas like Education, Retirements, Keogh's, Social Security, and those Redefinition of John Yoo destruction of Due Process and Civil Liberties in abdicating the History and Heritage of this countries reasons to exist on birthright owners and never as Washington slaves under Military Tribunals.
Hypertension Cruise
Arteries restrictions of rotating weather veins
Circulation, evolution from a womb of creation,
Embryo stretching skin into skeletal time’s reign,
Youth spring evolving into winter aging sensations.
Circulation of blood pressure heartbeats hypertension
Weight of accumulating years clogging on tissue residue
Reign down arms and legs moving fingers and toes tension,
American dream evaporating hopes generating those blues.
Sensations riding those BP storming wave rough impressions
That build up the duress fighting for self survival medication
The Vietnam - Corporate - Political Termination Great Depression
Graduating into Vietnam conflict of endless
Post Traumatic Stress Deterioration.
(Of Washington Politician Hypertension Cruises
Saying dreams must fail America’s future.)
Change: Penetrations riding those BP storming wave rough impressions
Are you going to send ACORN in to do the vote counting ???
8CactusDanny on October 29, 2009 at 11:33 AM
That's probably who (Fox) will blame it on after it passes.
CitiBank says it sent emails to me that I never received on Hotmail, where is Microsoft delivery Post Office guarantee. I do not even have any filter on from my side. Can someone in Washington find out why email is not being delivered in the United States? I guess with our government now, they will choose for you what you receive. I wonder if they have the VA blocked for appointments? How do you complain to about email service?
poor childish immature, sexless Thomasss.
So jealous of everyone here!
run along now Thomassss, try and find a job.
And next time, keep your nose clean so you are not caught again! Not that that wasn't satisfying---turning you in!
Another one for the Republican Wall of Perversion and Shame. Trying to pretend they have such Family values, takes it toll !
South Carolina state attorney caught with stripper in graveyard
18 yr old prostitute, sex toys, viagra? Can ANY Republican men get it up without help?
CactusDanny on October 29, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Gee dufus dan,with half your party supporting third conservative party candidates and only 20% of people identifying themselves as republicans how many elections do you think the conservatives will win?
CitiBank says it sent emails to me that I never received on Hotmail, where is Microsoft delivery Post Office guarantee. I do not even have any filter on from my side. Can someone in Washington find out why email is not being delivered in the United States? I guess with our government now, they will choose for you what you receive. I wonder if they have the VA blocked for appointments? How do you complain to about email service?
First of all, did Citibank confirm what the address they were using was spelled correctly?
Did it go into your Deleted or Blocked email baskets as being diagnosed as Spam?
There are no guarantees on email, especially when you use an outside service, like AOL, hotmail, gmail, etc. There is no one to complain to that I know of. the gov has nothing to do with Internet services.
You know, these guys sit there and look right into the camera with their hypocrisy and lies.
"The revolving door of radicals coming into the Obama administration continues to spin. Now, the latest Obama nominee to draw fire is Judge Edward Chen. ... Judge Chen should not be confirmed by the U.S. Senate."
-- Fox News' Sean Hannity, 10/27/09, arguing that Chen's personal views disqualify him from the bench
VERSUS
"The reason that the Senate has advice and consent and it doesn't include an ideological litmus test is because the nominees' personal opinions are irrelevant, as they're supposed to set those aside and rule as a matter of law."
-- Hannity, 6/28/01
Liberian study finds US rubber company polluting
MONROVIA, Liberia, – Liberia's government says waste products from the American-owned Firestone Rubber Plantation Company are polluting nearby creeks.
Firestone spokesman Rufus Karmoh said Thursday that Firestone will continue to work with the country's Environmental Protection Agency to address the recommendations in the government's report. He declined to comment further.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091029/ap_on_re_af/af_liberia_pollution_study
The company is now American owned but owned by the Japanese;
About Bridgestone Americas, Inc.
Bridgestone Americas’ corporate family (BSA) traces its roots to the establishment of The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company in August 1900. It was then that 31-year-old Harvey S. Firestone (1868-1938) started tire production with 12 employees in Akron, Ohio.
On the other side of the globe in 1931, Shojiro Ishibashi (1885-1976) created Bridgestone Tire Company Ltd. (later renamed Bridgestone Corporation). He fashioned the company name by reversing the English translation of his own: “Ishibashi,” which literally means “stone bridge” in Japanese.
So it is not an American company that is polluting but a Japanese one.
Fox News (Sen. McCarty News) of intimidation using WMD falsification of prefabrication to destroy the Truth in there Dark Age Political Religious Inquisition persecution of Holocaust projections of what America's needs in its extreme right wing Conservative World War II using hate news indoctrination to divide nations.
Conservatives out number liberals 2 to 1 in this country.
Liberals are on their way out, Democrat or republican.
Get use to it.
22
CactusDanny on October 29, 2009 at 01:48 PM
There are religious Conservatives and political Conservatives. Religious Conservative and Liberals do unite together for the American dream. It is the political Conservatives that are on their way out, for even Jesus said he would never be a politician. Name me a Politician that follows His footsteps that uses His God Given Gifts of Liberal compassion for all of humanity.
each day things get a little better with obama in office. suddenly the plight of the abused american worker matters!!
John Sweeney, 75, who headed the AFL-CIO for 14 years before stepping aside last month, says he was invited to the White House once during Bush’s eight years in office. That was at the request of visiting Pope Benedict XVI, he says. The AFL- CIO is the nation’s largest union group.from reuters;
‘Wandering in Wilderness’
Richard Trumka, 60, Sweeney’s successor, says he meets monthly with Obama, and that union representatives have “daily contacts throughout the administration.” Obama officials visit with labor leaders “frequently,” White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
“After eight years wandering in the wilderness, unions have unprecedented access to the White House, and early directives and appointments have been encouraging for them,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor relations professor at the University of California at Berkley.
gee obama's economic team is bringing the gdp back from the depths the bushies had sunk it to....
Peaceman, Any American polled that claims he is more Conservative than Liberal is one who is easily fooled.
they look at the eight years of Bush, 15 years of Republian majority, but they still say Yes, they want less government, and don't realize that bush was a Conservative who GREW this government hugely.
They say they would like to see unions have less influence, YET they do not understand without unions, they would not have the Group benefits, the pensions, the 8 hour work day that they have.
They say less gun control. but not one of them ever asked a Cop what HE thinks about having some controls on WHO can buy a gun, and the type of guns and ammunition that can be purchased.
they say that they want the Gov to promote Traditional values ------YET they watched the most corrupt, criminal, Perverted group of Republicans in History, the last 8 years.
They are truly the uninformed, who have no idea what a Conservative vs a Liberal even is ! Neither does Dufus Dan . Limbaugh told Dufus to sign up as a Dem, so he could vote for Hillary, so he did.
Dufus is about as much a Democrat as Karl rove!
What you have in Washington D.C. right now, are not saints, but endless sinners of infidelity to this country's needs. God there is no Santa Clause of Real Change in Washington's God Bless Made in America future dreams, just Grinch and Scrooge Republicans and some Democrats that say America must fail it Tiny Tim children futures.
a couple of tidbits:
1)-Over 70% of our National Debt was created by just 3 Republican presidents.
Go ahead, get out your calculator and add up debt by president/party. Apparently the party that claims fiscally responsibility thinks it's ok to borrow massive amounts of money from foreign countries like China. Consider that we spend hundreds of billions of dollars in interest payments on this debt each year. That means more and more of your hard earned money is going to make interest only payments on what is basically a Giant National Credit Card. Not to mention the fact our debt/deficits are largely behind the weakness of our dollar, which in turns makes gas more expensive and creates other serious problems.
If you want to learn more about the National Debt, check out these links:
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock /
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...
http://zfacts.com/p/447.html (A running clock with the cost of the war)
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/business...
2)-According to new research from Larry Bartels out of Princeton, real middle class wage growth is double when a Democrat is president compared to when a Republican is president.
"...Even more remarkable, the real incomes of working-poor families...grew six times as fast when Democrats held the White House. Only the incomes of affluent families were relatively impervious to partisan politics, growing robustly under Democrats and Republicans alike...": http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/magazine/27wwln-ideal...
Here is a short summary of this research: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008...
3)-90% of Americans would pay less taxes under Obama's proposed tax plan compared to McCain's.
This is according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Institute as reported by CNN: http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/11/news/economy/candidates...
People making under $112,000 a year in individual (not household) income would pay less taxes under Obama's plan.
By contrast, John McCain's tax cuts mostly benefit the top 10% of Americans. Under McCain's plan, people making over 2.9 million dollars in individual annual income would get almost a million dollar tax break.
Conclusion: Countless millions of Americans vote Republican because they believe they'll pay less taxes and that they'll have their money spent more responsibly. As you can see, those beliefs are directly contradicted by the facts. Of course we can choose to ignore the facts and instead focus on which candidate is wearing a flag pin (you ever notice that Hillary and McCain don't wear them? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi5nbZvS9cg ) but I think we're a smarter country than that.
The American Chamber of Commerce Political Party that uses a non-profit IRS declaration to promote a 100% Republican agenda. That they have become a puppet of Republican policy that uses money to oppose Democratic candidates, and things like Global warming without credentials. There Republican political agenda must change to the original pre Bush promotion of business, not politics of being non profit.
President Obama needs to make his decision on troop strength in Afghanistan and soon. He must put all the troops General McChrystal is asking for. And more if necessary.
We need to unleash the dogs of hell on these terrorists. We can no longer afford to pussyfoot around with lightly manned patrols and unarmored vehicles. Now is the time to drive deep into their territory and force them into tighter and tighter confines where we can bomb the living hell out of them.
There is no such thing as fighting less that fully, no such thing as fighting in a more dignified manner. We have the best Air Force in the world and the most powerful bombs known to man. We need to bomb and bomb and bomb.
NO, assanine, another Great Democrat who liks FACTS ! This came out right before the election, and I kept it, because it makes a LIAR out of you!!! and makes you look so so foolish when you call yourself a Democrat.
JFK was one of the Greatest Liberals, too bad his term ended too quickly:
"What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
But first, I would like to say what I understand the word "Liberal" to mean and explain in the process why I consider myself to be a "Liberal," and what it means in the presidential election of 1960.
I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves.
I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind. I do not believe in a superstate. I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well. But I believe in a government which acts, which exercises its full powers and full responsibilities. Government is an art and a precious obligation; and when it has a job to do, I believe it should do it. And this requires not only great ends but that we propose concrete means of achieving them.
Our responsibility is not discharged by announcement of virtuous ends. Our responsibility is to achieve these objectives with social invention, with political skill, and executive vigor. I believe for these reasons that liberalism is our best and only hope in the world today. For the liberal society is a free society, and it is at the same time and for that reason a strong society. Its strength is drawn from the will of free people committed to great ends and peacefully striving to meet them. Only liberalism, in short, can repair our national power, restore our national purpose, and liberate our national energies. And the only basic issue in the 1960 campaign is whether our government will fall in a conservative rut and die there, or whether we will move ahead in the liberal spirit of daring, of breaking new ground, of doing in our generation what Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson did in their time of influence and responsibility.
Our liberalism has its roots in our diverse origins. Most of us are descended from that segment of the American population which was once called an immigrant minority. Today, along with our children and grandchildren, we do not feel minor. We feel proud of our origins and we are not second to any group in our sense of national purpose. For many years New York represented the new frontier to all those who came from the ends of the earth to find new opportunity and new freedom, generations of men and women who fled from the despotism of the czars, the horrors of the Nazis, the tyranny of hunger, who came here to the new frontier in the State of New York. These men and women, a living cross section of American history, indeed, a cross section of the entire world's history of pain and hope, made of this city not only a new world of opportunity, but a new world of the spirit as well.
Many of these same immigrant families produced the pioneers and builders of the American labor movement. They are the men who sweated in our shops, who struggled to create a union, and who were driven by longing for education for their children and for the children's development. They went to night schools; they built their own future, their union's future, and their country's future, brick by brick, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, and now in their children's time, suburb by suburb.
Tonight we salute George Meany as a symbol of that struggle and as a reminder that the fight to eliminate poverty and human exploitation is a fight that goes on in our day. But in 1960 the cause of liberalism cannot content itself with carrying on the fight for human justice and economic liberalism here at home. For here and around the world the fear of war hangs over us every morning and every night. It lies, expressed or silent, in the minds of every American. We cannot banish it by repeating that we are economically first or that we are militarily first, for saying so doesn't make it so. More will be needed than goodwill missions or talking back to Soviet politicians or increasing the tempo of the arms race. More will be needed than good intentions, for we know where that paving leads.
This is an important election -- in many ways as important as any this century -- and I think that the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party here in New York, and those who believe in progress all over the United States, should be associated with us in this great effort. The reason that Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson had influence abroad, and the United States in their time had it, was because they moved this country here at home, because they stood for something here in the United States, for expanding the benefits of our society to our own people, and the people around the world looked to us as a symbol of hope.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/35_kennedy/psources/ps_nyliberal.html
You see, Dufus, you are no Liberal, and No Democrat ! Some day you will understand that.
I tried to add all Yahoo and Hotmail to the Hotmail safe list and it refused. I hate that people that email me say they cannot get through. How can you go to events when they email you and it disappears. Citibank sends me emails of payments that are never delivered, so I can store them.
Congress we need a Ben Franklin Email System with Constitutional guarantees and protections. We must be able to send something to Congress, Newspapers, lawyers, and family without NSA, or Conservative Patriot Act filters. I need to receive email about events and meetings and not just phishing spams winning millions. Try emailing me at davelyoung1 at any email service and it will say I do not exist or will deliver it to nowhere. Just put test in the message.
States have reported using stimulus money to create or save more than 388,000 jobs so far this year, buttressing the Obama administration's claim that the $787 billion plan has had a significant impact on the economy.That total, based on a USA TODAY review of reports from 33 states and Puerto Rico, includes teachers, construction workers, and others whose jobs were funded by stimulus money awarded to states. The administration plans Friday to release reports from all 50 states, providing the broadest accounting yet of the stimulus plan's impact.
.
Early reports: Job gains signal stimulus impact
41CactusDanny on October 29, 2009 at 02:45 PM
You call yourself a Democrat?You should join the conservative party it fits you!
JFK's major accomlishments in his brief 2 years in office: Don't sound very Conservative to me!
Like I said before, most of these Pretend Conservatives don't even understand the difference!!!!
"President Kennedy's economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II. He also took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation.
Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a group of Cuban exiles to invade Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro. The invasion was a failure. In 1962 the Russians began to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered in October of 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. With the world on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to remove the missiles. Kennedy asserted that both the Russians and Americans had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and the arms race. To this end his administration negotiated the test ban treaty of 1963.
In his inaugural address he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens, famously saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." He also asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the "common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself." In closing, he expanded on his desire for greater internationalism: "Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you."[29]
As one of his first presidential acts, Kennedy asked Congress to create the Peace Corps.[2] Through this program, Americans volunteer to help underdeveloped nations in areas such as education, farming, health care, and construction.
Fueling the debate are statements made by Kennedy and Johnson's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara that Kennedy was strongly considering pulling out of Vietnam after the 1964 election.
In the film "The Fog of War", not only does McNamara say this, but a tape recording of Lyndon Johnson confirms that Kennedy was planning to withdraw from Vietnam, a position Johnson states he strongly disapproved of.[40] Additional evidence is Kennedy's National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, dated October 11, 1963, which ordered withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of 1963.[41]
Kennedy called his domestic program the "New Frontier". It ambitiously promised federal funding for education, medical care for the elderly, economic aid to rural regions, and government intervention to halt the recession. Kennedy also promised an end to racial discrimination. In 1963, he proposed a tax reform which included income tax cuts, but this was not passed by Congress until 1964, after his death. Few of Kennedy's major programs passed Congress during his lifetime, although, under his successor Johnson, Congress did vote them through in 1964–65.
After an appointment Tuesday that high pressure sent me to the ER and an overnight stay. I walked from the hospital to the VA yesterday for meds and a woman helped get meds and made some appointments. I called today and found the only thing listed is for a month from now on the 27th. There is an EKG test and first eval appointment.
I was at the VA over a months !/2 ago, and never received high pressure medicine with a elevated BP condition. I come in Tuesday for depression evaluation and they find a critical BP problem that sends me by ambulance to the ER to lower my blood pressure with medication that they initiated, not the VA. In fact the prescription for BP an depression was by DCH, not the VA.
SO I get out of the hospital after they send me there, refused to give me a ride back to my car at the VA. I walked three miles to try to get there before the pharmacy closed. At first they refuse the meds, until a doctor intervenes and helps a Vet. She schedules appointments for next week and I call back today to find the appointment is a month away.
I guess it would have been sooner if I had died. I just thought the VA would want to see someone they send to the ER sooner than that. Maybe I needed a "W" monogram for quicker Tory service.
WASHINGTON (AP) - After months of struggle, House Democrats rolled out sweeping legislation Thursday to extend health care coverage to millions who lack it and create a new option of government-run insurance. A vote is likely next week on the plan largely tailored to President Barack Obama's liking.
Speaking on the steps of the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress was at a "historic moment" with lawmakers "on the cusp of delivering on the promise of making affordable, quality health insurance available to every American."
Officials said the measure, once fully phased-in over several years, would extend coverage to 96 percent of Americans. Its principal mechanism for universal coverage is creation of a new government-regulated insurance "exchange" where private companies would sell policies in competition with the government. Federal subsidies would be available to millions of lower-income individuals and families to help them afford the policies, and to small businesses as an incentive to offer coverage to their workers.
Large firms would be required to cover workers, and most individuals would be required to carry insurance.
The ceremony marked a pivotal moment in the Democrats' yearlong attempt to answer Obama's call for legislation to remake the nation's health care system by extending insurance, ending industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions, and slowing the growth of medical spending nationwide...
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9BKTGK80&show_article=1
Mr. President, 1900+ pages is too much. This should've been accomplished by opening Medicare to everyone, enacting a 5%, or more, millionaire's tax to pay for it, and making it illegal for a doctor to refuse service to Medicare patients. It really was that simple Mr. President but you allowed the Congress to make this exponentially more complicated than it had to be. It had better work, Mr. President. Your second term depends on it.
Economy grows at best pace in 2 years
Third-quarter GDP reading shows growth at 3.5 percent pace
WASHINGTON (AP)- The U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years, fueled by government-supported spending on cars and homes. It's the strongest signal yet that the economy has entered a new, though fragile, phase of recovery and that the worst recession since the 1930s has ended.President Barack Obama hailed the data, saying the country has "come a long way" since early this year.
In remarks prepared for a small business group, Obama said he believes the new figures are "an affirmation that this recession is abating and the steps we've taken have made a difference." The economy had shrunk by 6.4 percent in the first quarter.
The president cautioned, however, that "we have a long way to go to fully restore our economy."...
...The much-awaited turnaround reported Thursday by the Commerce Department ended the streak of four straight quarters of contracting economic activity, the first time that's happened on records dating to 1947.
It also marked the first increase since the spring of 2008, when the economy experienced a short-lived uptick in growth.
The third-quarter's performance — the strongest since right before the country fell into recession in December 2007 — was slightly better than the 3.3 percent growth rate economists expected...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33529806/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/
Though the ARRA should've diverted more funding to rebuilding the infrastructure, it is good to see we're coming out of the second Bush 43 recession. Once again, we Democrats have repaired failed conservative policies and the economy is pointed in the right direction. Anyone dumb enough to vote for a conservative again should have their head examined.
Brutal ruling quashes birthers' suit
A federal judge in California has issued a brutal ruling dismissing a closely-watched "birthers'" lawsuit challenging President's Barack Obama's qualifications to be president.In a 30-page ruling issued Thursday morning, Judge David Carter used unusually withering language to throw out the suit prominent birthers' attorney Orly Taitz brought on behalf of a variety of military personnel and some third-party presidential and vice presidential candidates, such as Alan Keyes.
Carter, a Clinton appointee who sits in Orange County, attacked the motives of the military plaintiffs, suggesting they were simple trying to avoid duty in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. "This Court will not interfere in internal military affairs nor be used as a tool by military officers to avoid deployment. The Court has a word for such a refusal to follow the orders of the President of the United States, but it will leave the issue to the military to resolve," the judge wrote.
Keyes and the other candidates also got the back of the hand from Carter as he discussed whether any of the plaintiffs could show the individualized harm needed to pursue the suit. "Plaintiffs received only four-hundredth of one percent of the vote. The Court may have already met this entire group of voters at the hearings on this matter," the judge scoffed.
Ultimately, Carter found that while he might have had power to consider the suit before Obama's inauguration, the court could not do so now.
"There is a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue of the removal of a sitting president to a coordinate political department–the Legislative branch," the judge wrote. "There may very well be a legitimate role for the judiciary to interpret whether the natural born citizen requirement has been satisfied in the case of a presidential candidate who has not already won the election and taken office. However, on the day that President Obama took the presidential oath and was sworn in, he became President of the United States. Any removal of him from the presidency must be accomplished through the Constitution’s mechanisms for the removal of a President....The process for removal of a sitting president–removal for any reason–is within the province of Congress, not the courts."
The birthers make a variety of claims about Obama, the chief one being that he was born in Kenya and that his Hawaiian birth certificate is a forgery, notwithstanding contemporary birth notices in Hawaiian newspapers.
The case Carter dismissed today had garnered considerable publicity, but similar efforts by Taitz and others have been thrown out by a variety of judges, often on similar grounds. One in New Jersey was dismissed just last week. And Taitz is facing $20,000 in sanctions for her actions in another case in Georgia.
http://www.politico.com/pdf/PPM145_birtherrlg.pdf
While I haven't read too many judicial rulings over the years, this is undoubtedly once of the biggest judicial slapdowns I've ever seen. Orly Taitz and her band of whacko misfits ought to the message after this ruling but, they won't. They'll keep filing filing frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit until finally, some judge, will have the sense to have her, and her crony's law licenses revoked. But let them rant, fellow Democrats. The public is finally seeing these Republicans for what they really are; a bunch of misguided sore losers who screw up everything while in power and who try waste judicial and legislative time while out of power.
Passports linked to 9/11 found along Afghan border
By NAHAL TOOSI
SHERWANGAI, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani soldiers battling their way into a Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border have found passports that may be linked to 9/11 suspects.They say they seized the passports from hideouts that militants fled before the army launched a ground offensive nearly two weeks ago into South Waziristan.
One of the passports is German, belonging to a man by the name of Said Bahaji. That matches the name of a man who lived in Hamburg and is believed to have fled Germany shortly before the 9/11 attacks.
Another passport, from Spain, is under the name of Raquel Burgos Garcia. A woman with the same name is reportedly married to an alleged al-Qaida member suspected in both the 9/11 attacks and the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091029/D9BKVH9O0.html
The more I think about it, the more I believe it may be a good idea to give the Indians a green light in dealing with the Pakistanis once and for all especially now since there is a link to Pakistan for the 11SEP01 attacks here and the fact it was the Pakistanis who attacked Mumbai last year.
Pakistan is the most dangerous place on the planet. Their nuclear arsenal cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of terrorists and their government is not doing enough to stop these terrorists. Furthermore, the Pakistanis have not done nearly enough to help in the capture of Al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders and their own intelligence service may be complicit in aiding said terrorists. India would be well served to eliminate this threat through whatever means necessary.
49
BobVADemocratHawk on October 29, 2009 at 04:33 PM
Bob, that 1,900 pages is the "Legislative Language" that the Pugs were trying to have read aloud as a stall tactic.
"Legislative Language" is the legalese nuts and bolts of EVERY existing Law and Clause that will be modified with the passage of the new Bill.
It looks something like this...
Section II: Payments and Reimbursements
Pursuant to Section IV of USCFR Title IX Remuneration and Reciprocation, sub-section (g), Page27, paragraph 3, line 4, change the word "shall" to "will".
Section 4 of "Applicability and Institution of Initial Claim Verification" add paragraph:
This section in no way supercedes nor diminishes statutory regulation as enumerated in Section XVIIIn Title XXII of USCFR Page 15, Paragraph 8, lines 21 through 56, extant.
Under heading of "Elligbility" in Section XIII, Paragraph 2, lines 3, insert the phrase "Any and All" between the words "Shall cover" and "Person", change "person" to "persons".
Blah blah blah...
By the time it gets out of all the Committees and is marked up it will be in plain English with a FAQ page or pages that will be only a smattering of pages that anyone can read.
What is posted on line now is still the working draft with all the particulars included. The actual thing wouldn't have to contain word for word verbatim references to already existing Law.
Financial overhaul bill gets wary reception
Oct 29 05:47 PM US/EasternBy JIM KUHNHENN and ANNE FLAHERTY
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) - An Obama administration plan to dissolve large, struggling financial firms rather than bail them out is encountering Republican resistance, Democratic doubts and only qualified support from regulators.
At a House Financial Services hearing Thursday, lawmakers from both parties worried that the proposal would give regulators and the executive branch unprecedented power."I'm not a man that fears this administration or you," Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. "But I do fear the accumulation of power exercised by someone in the future that can be extraordinary."
Others argue that by singling out financial firms important to the economy, the government could inevitably set itself up to bail them out, and that even dismantling rather than rescuing them would take taxpayer money.
"Apparently, the `too big to fail' model is too hard to kill," quipped Republican Rep. Ed Royce of California.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., called the bill "TARP on steroids," referring to the government's $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund.
"You've got permanent, unlimited bailout authority," he told Geithner.
Geithner disagreed...
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9BL0QMO2&show_article=1&catnum=0
There is a better way to do this. Enact legislation that will hold corporate officers criminally liable, with significant jail sentences, for those individuals whose abject failure and incompetence leads to business failures on the scale of Lehamn Brothers or AIG. If a CEO knows his arse will end up locked away for twenty years for running his compnay into the ground on shaky or shady business dealings, he'll be far less likely to do such.
lieberloser is toast if the votes against the public option. His constituents should start a recall immediately and force him out of the senate.
He is not fit to even breathe the same air as decent Americans. Why doesn't he move to Israel. He would most likely be welcome there since he will no longer be welcome here.
What a phony bastard.
What a phony bastard.
55johhne on October 29, 2009 at 06:16 PM
Evening Johhne, that asshole puts me to sleep just listening to him drag out his words.
AL GORE, was dumb picking him for VP. it cost him the election. Just as dumb as McNuts picking, Fallin!
Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo on October 29, 2009 at 06:06 PM
I hopwe you're correct, Doo-Bee. Otherwise, we're going to have to hire that speed reader again to read the bill. ;-)
The fastest way to get rid of Liebermud is for ELECTED PRESIDENT OBAMA to name him Ambassador to Israel; the ONLY job he has EVER wanted. Then fire his sorry ass a year later when he starts running his own Foreign Policy (which he WILL do, and which will be grounds for Treason).
The Pug Governor of CT recently signed the Legislation which changed the law so now it is up to a Special Election rather than the Gov to decide the replacement.
Send his ass over there, fire his ass and his Health Insurance and Pharma lobbyists will cut his bitch lobbyist off the payroll too. Then they can both go to work for AIPAC on THEIR dime, and not the taxpayers.
Fuck him.
Pallin, is nothing but a Gold Digging, Republician bitch. All she is interested in is MONEY.
Levi needs to come clean about Pallin, before she accumulates million's and knocks, him off.
No doubt in my mind she would knock anybody off that got in her way. The money hungry she beast.
Good night fellow Americans. Keep the Faith and keep the faith. Yes we can, yes we will, and yes we did!
...For all those whose cares have been our concern; the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
Good evening, everyone.
I played hokey today and saw the Michael Jackson film. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I probably would never have been able to afford to see this concert for the price of a matinee movie ticket. And I most certainly would never have been able to catch the essence of what his work was all about by sitting way far up in the cheap seats.
The lyrics to this song particularly grabbed me. I don't know if this is an older song, but it now speaks directly to me. It's what the Republicans have done to the middle class in this country, namely found a way to treat us all the same way they have always treated poor blacks...like none of us matter.
MICHAEL JACKSON LYRICS
They Don't Care About Us"
Skin head, dead head
Everybody gone bad
Situation, aggravation
Everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news
Everybody dog food
Bang bang, shot dead
Everybody's gone mad
All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us
All I wanna say is that
They don't really care about us
...You know I do really hate to say it
The government don't wanna see
But if Roosevelt was livin'
He wouldn't let this be, no, no...
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/michaeljackson/theydontcareaboutus.html
There is a reason why artists like Mozart, Van Gogh, and Bach were such crazy bastards. They couldn't understand Man's inhumanity to Man and sought a way to express their outrage and somehow make sense of it all.
There are some who inspire and then there are those that act. Nobody can make change happen alone. The struggle will go on as long as there are even a few people who have the courage to acknowledge the truth and fight together to change what’s wrong. This is our charge as Democrats.
But you first have to stand up for yourself and demand to be treated with respect and dignity. I don't care if the Republicans don't care about us. Collectively we can make a difference despite them.
We will ensure that affordable, easily accessible health care coverage becomes the law of the land...with or without Lieberman or Snowe. It would be nice if the conservatives would decide not to opt out of the human race, but I’m not holding my breath waiting...another four years!
Democrats will not be moved on this issue.
No way. No how. No more of this obstruction and gridlock.
Congress must restore the dignity of every man, woman, and child in America so they can bear their physical and mental sufferings without begging for help. As we say in church, “Lord, hear our prayer.”
As we say on the street, "Try to ignore us."
Goodnight Sandy,
Just try to ignore us and see what happens as a result. Something extremely unpleasant will happen to all republicans. We will take their ill gotten gains they received from the insurance lobbyists and slap the republicans and the lobbyists in prison on corruption charges just like we did madoff.
Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo on October 29, 2009 at 07:24 PM
DPD.
I hear what you are saying. But wouldn't it be more effective to shame him instead of rewarding him for behaving badly?
Where are the people he worked with in the South back during the civil rights era? Let them call him out. Let those that survived the Holocaust call him out for his lack of humanity.
Let's all start calling him out.
He's lost his way and must be shocked into realizing it. Maybe Sarah Silverman can get the The Great Schlep back in gear among the Jewish American community?
The Republicans want Waterloo? Let's give them High Noon instead. Let's make this filibuster their worst nightmare...right up there behind seeing a black man elected president.
I'm going to watch the ballgame. Hope tonight isn't as one-sided as what happened last night.
Good night, all.
Michael Jack_son, have they even buried that stiff yet?
I don't know why anybody would want to go see that pedophile, little lone pay good money for it.
If someone sent me 10000 free tickets, i would have a wiener roast with them.
That stupid ass drug addict, pervert, pedophile, got exactly what he deserved.
Now we got a bunch of Pallin, Gold Diggers, getting rich off of that puke.
Red_dog before you make another stupid post, that health care will not pass.
You need to sit back and watch, how the govt. works. Senator Bayh from Indiana is already taking back water.
Danny just sit back and watch this bill get passed. You'll probably learn something about how legislation, works.
Danny one thing you can bet on, when it passes, it will not be Vetoed, hope you understand thats.
Dan, have you not figured out yet it don't make any difference what the people what. Its what the lesislative process does that counts. People have very little say so on this bill. Don't you Get THat?
Dan none of them stupid polls, means, shit from shinola. Its, what the congreessmen, and senators do that matters, screw all them slanted polls.
How NAZI of you.
72CactusDanny on October 29, 2009 at 08:38 PM
If you can't stand the truth, then get out of the fire, the kitchen is on fire. And the Dems, is going to burn you all to the ground.
Red_dog before you make another stupid post, that health care will not pass.
You need to sit back and watch, how the govt. works. Senator Bayh from Indiana is already taking back water.
Danny just sit back and watch this bill get passed. You'll probably learn something about how legislation, works.
Danny one thing you can bet on, when it passes, it will not be Vetoed, hope you understand thats.
Red_dog before you make another stupid post, that health care will not pass.
You need to sit back and watch, how the govt. works. Senator Bayh from Indiana is already taking back water.
Danny just sit back and watch this bill get passed. You'll probably learn something about how legislation, works.
Danny one thing you can bet on, when it passes, it will not be Vetoed, hope you understand thats.
Them polls don't matter,
Hahahahahaha...
2010, 2012, Obama care gone, before it starts in 2013.
73CactusDanny on October 29, 2009 at 08:41 PM
==============================================================
Thats right danny they don't matter in the least, the only thing that matters is the congreessemen, and women, and the Senators, men and women! Its what they do, not what the tea baggers, and birthers, what. Or what the Gold Diggin Pallin whats!!!!
SIT Back Dannny and watch what a real legislative process is all about it will be over in the next 4 weeks. And WE WILL HAVE A BILL, PUT IT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT.
McPrank: 4 Utah teens cited for McDonald's rap
SALT LAKE CITY – A rap by four teenagers at a McDonald's has gotten them a bad rap in one Utah city. The teens were cited by American Fork police earlier this week for disorderly conduct after they rapped their order at a McDonald's drive-through.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091029/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_mcdonald_s_rap
Wow, they went looking for these kids like real criminals to then cite them.
I guess in Utah Rap does not have Free Speech rights.
dEMS WE GOT SENATOR bAYE TAKING BACK WATER.
sO WHO IS LEFT , NELSON, lOSERLIPS, AND Snowe, I think we can make them a offer they can't refues.I think there is another asshat from arkansas, holding out. sounds like a good job for BILL AND HILLIARY CLINTON.
La-Z-Boy from drunk driving case to be auctioned
DULUTH, Minn. – A motorized La-Z-Boy used by a man who pleaded guilty to driving it drunk is going up for auction. But police said interested bidders need to keep it off the streets. The chair, powered by a lawnmower engine, comes equipped with a stereo, cup holders and lights.
Police in Proctor, in northern Minnesota, are putting the seized chair up for auction on eBay on Thursday. The proceeds will go to the police, state and the prosecuting attorney.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091030/ap_on_re_us/us_lounge_chair_drunk_driving
So the police confiscate private property and sell it for police projects without judicial oversight. So the proceeds go will go to the police, state and the prosecuting attorney without any judicial accounting. This sets up a terrible abuse of power like in Texas where motorists money and items are confisfacted. Does not all property need to be listed so that we can have a concrete accounting of it.
I know that the money will not go for court costs, for they will add the cost for the auction to fill the coffers with un-budgeted windfalls.
It seems the police is selling the chair before the trial, it seems they want to make money on it for themselves rather than keep it for evidence. Does not the police need a release form from the courts? Does not property confiscated have judicial oversight?
Chassie,
There is no arguing with pissant trolls. They will be taught a lesson.
Them polls don't matter,
Hahahahahaha...
2010, 2012, Obama care gone, before it starts in 2013.
73CactusDanny on October 29, 2009 at 08:41 PM
==============================================================
Thats right danny they don't matter in the least, the only thing that matters is the congreessemen, and women, and the Senators, men and women! Its what they do, not what the tea baggers, and birthers, what. Or what the Gold Diggin Pallin whats!!!!
SIT Back Dannny and watch what a real legislative process is all about it will be over in the next 4 weeks. And WE WILL HAVE A BILL, PUT IT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT. Look at these good looking dems, Danny. scroll righ on down the page, when youi get to the bottom click on the slid. show
palin is a lying piece of dogshit. She isn't worth the skin wasted on her pissant body.
I hear Ya JOHHNNE, however i was just trying to educated them the way the legislative process works. They don't even know. Sen Bayh from Indiana need to just go ahead and vote for the bill, he has got over 50,0000 fro well point for
comapaigning And on top of that Bayn's wife sittes on the board of directors, at Wellpoint between the 2 of them they got wellpoint stock out the ass. And johhee Wellpoint, just reported a block bucster quarter. Go Figure!
Qestion, what channel is the baseball game on, i can't find it. Is it on pay for view, i dont' haave pay for view.
Confidential House report reveals details of investigations into lawmakers, aides
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102904597.html?referrer=email
It is time to get the Republican and Democrat slime out of Washington.
Let us hear all 30 to 40 names to out, now.
We need to get rid of those secretive meetings that defraud our government.
We also need to look into deal making at state level, where the Alabama Governor circumvented sunshine laws in secret University of Alabama dealings that is transferring state land and moving over 500 jobs "At Will" of the Governor. This sweetheart deal for U of A will cost Alabama taxpayers a lot in the end from income and money needed to replace Bryce Hospital, a mental hospital.
88johhne on October 29, 2009 at 09:40 PM
Johhne we need to tie her up face down, in several FIREANT BEDS, in a coumple of hours shewouldn' have and skin, or eyeyballs, left
And if that don't work Johnne, i go a couple of Hornets Nests, that is always mad, the would put welps from one end of her to the other.
H
Just dropping by...
The teabaggers, Palin, and the old Republican geezers in the Senate have done such a great job of imitating every single incompetent, dumb thing Bush did or said in the last eight years that the American public isn't going to stand for anything less than an up-and-down vote on this health care coverage reform bill.
So let the filibuster begin. It's going to end ugly for the Republicans. The Party of No will come across like Scrooge right before Christmas. I like it.
The MSM will prominently highlight The Twelve Days of Christmas with the Republican Singing Senators harmonizing as they serenade the uninsured with a festive "No, No, No, No...No, No, No, No."
They could even bring back Ashcroft, Craig, Lott, and Jeffords just in case anyone has forgotten their long careers of denying working Americans basic affordable health care.
Let the GOP Christmases of the Past, Present, and Future haunt the Republicans all the way to a comparison of the uninsured being turned away at the hospital by insurance companies in just the same way the Lord's mother was treated at His birth by the inn keepers.
Lieberman wants to act like THAT kind of insurance company middle man during the Christmas season? He's going to have a Dickens of a time explaining to the Jewish community why he's acting so uncharitable at Hanukkah. Once you become a Republican you forget your heritage?
Here is the new strategy Jim Wallis of Sojourners Magazine suggests for Afghanistan:
Afghanistan: A Whole New Approach
by Jim Wallis 10-29-2009
...We should know by now, and most of those on the ground in places like Afghanistan do, that what re-builds a broken nation; inspires confidence, trust, and hope among its people; and most effectively undermines terrorism is an old and proven idea -- massive humanitarian assistance and sustainable economic development. And it costs less -- far less -- than continued war.
Perhaps this was best put by Richard Stearns, the U.S. president of World Vision, at a recent meeting of President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in Washington, D.C., when he said, “The best face of America for the world is a baseball hat and not a helmet.”
Many of us have advised the president that the people who know places like Afghanistan the best are neither the military nor the private contractors who increasingly dominate U.S. foreign policy in war-torn regions. Rather they are the NGOs doing relief and development work who have been there for years, have become quite indigenous, and are much more trusted by the people of the country than are the U.S. military or their mercenary friends.
So here is the new approach. Lead with what works -- development. Yes, effective development needs security, and when you massively intervene in a country as much as the U.S. has in Afghanistan, you can’t responsibly just walk away -- as has tragically happened to this country too many times before. But we should lead with development now, and only provide the security necessary to protect the strategic rebuilding of the country that is urgently needed -- and that kind of security might better attract the international involvement we so desperately need in Afghanistan, even from Arab and Muslim countries.
And here is an idea of how to do that. Bring to the White House the international organizations who know Afghanistan well because they have been there so long -- such as World Vision, Mercy Corps, Catholic Relief Services, Oxfam, Tearfund, Christian Aid, Church World Service -- and many others. Ask them what U.S. policy would best work, and what kind of security they would need to really do the kind of development in Afghanistan that is most needed...
The conversation is much too narrow right now on Pennsylvania Avenue and at the U. S. Congress. It’s time for a deeper look and a whole new approach. Stupid people might call that dithering; smart people would call it discernment.
http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/29/afghanistan-a-whole-new-approach/#disqus_thread
Surviving the Media Circus, Without Becoming the Clown
Barry Levinson
October 29, 2009
In 1959, JFK wrote an article in TV Guide talking about the influence of television on politics:
Television is a medium that lends itself to manipulation, exploitation, and gimmicks. Political campaigns can actually be taken over by the public relations experts, who tell a candidate not only how to use TV, what to say, what to stand for, and what kind of person to be.
I mention this quote in Poliwood, and covered the subject in Wag the Dog, which was not just an exploration of what happens when Washington exploits Hollywood's talent for selling fantasies, but ultimately its Machiavellian code of conduct in the area of messaging and public relations. Communication -- the ability to connect and manipulate -- is perhaps the most interesting part of politics we can observe, and the most frightening. JFK warned us, but no one listened.
When I arrived in Denver at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, I was amazed at the media spectacle of it all. We live in an age where television dominates our reality, and particularly our political reality. Everything has been turned into entertainment. Why does politics have to be entertaining? Because it has to be. Because it's on television all the time. If it's not entertaining, we turn it off. So the result is the media takes national issues and makes them our entertainment. Everything must garner some acceptable rating. Ratings represent money and that bottom line is the holy grail, which should surprise no one. Politics today is increasingly driven on conflict as the news uses entertainment techniques founded on conflict. Polarization is ideal to exploit for conflict...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-levinson/surviving-the-media-circu_b_337656.html
He's a dinosaur that even the other Republicans feel has gotten high from breathing in fossil fuel fumes way too much.
A senator in a hostile climate
By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
It must be very lonely being the last flat-earther.
Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, committed climate-change denier, found himself in just such a position Tuesday morning as the Senate environment committee, on which he is the ranking Republican, took up legislation on global warming. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was in talks with Democrats over a compromise bill -- the traitor! And as Inhofe listened, fellow Republicans on the committee -- turncoats! -- made it clear that they no longer share, if they ever did, Inhofe's view that man-made global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."
"Eleven academies in industrialized countries say that climate change is real; humans have caused most of the recent warming," admitted Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). "If fire chiefs of the same reputation told me my house was about to burn down, I'd buy some fire insurance."
An oil-state senator, David Vitter (R-La), said that he, too, wants to "get us beyond high-carbon fuels" and "focus on conservation, nuclear, natural gas and new technologies like electric cars." And an industrial-state senator, George Voinovich (R-Ohio), acknowledged that climate change "is a serious and complex issue that deserves our full attention." ...
Agitated, his utterances disjointed, Inhofe went on: "Now, I also was -- was kind of -- I don't want any of the media to think just because I had to sit here and listen to our good friend Senator Kerry for 28 minutes, that I don't have responses to everything he said."
Nobody doubted that Inhofe had a response. The doubt was whether the response would make any sense.
The bottom line: Most voters will be paying higher premiums for years before they see any benefits. That could spell serious trouble for Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections.
Are health insurance companies too big to fail? They sure are acting like it, trying to blackmail the country with their threats. If they were individuals instead of corporations, we'd call them bullies - heartless bullies. And look how they begin to weep and wail at the thought of a little healthy competition. Like all bullies, they are cowards. They can't stand the idea of an honest fight. The deck has to be stacked in their favor. Well, the party is over, folks. The people have spoken.
Economy is kick-started, but can it motor ahead?
By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Over the past year, the U.S. government has thrown almost every tool at its disposal toward making the economy grow again. And it has worked, at least for now.
The trillion-dollar question for the economy now is: What will happen when those government supports are gone? While the government has successfully jump-started the U.S. economy, there are emerging signs that its engine still isn't running very well, and may even sputter out.
The government has deployed about half of $787 billion in spending and tax cuts that were part of its stimulus package...
How about appropriating some public works projects that get people currently on unemployment working in their communities on civic projects as well as infrastructure till the rest of the stimulus kicks in?
It would give people hope and also help others in need in our communities.
New Jersey Police: Reports Like Lou Dobbs’ ‘Not At All Uncommon’ During Hunting Season
Several media sources have reported that shots were fired at the residence of CNN’s Lou Dobbs. While Dobbs and his anti-immigrant supports were quick to jump to conclusions about the motive of the shooting, Sgt. Stephen Jones confirmed to ThinkProgress this morning that the New Jersey State Police are stilling “looking at all the possibilities” and that a hunting-related accident has not been ruled out.
Sgt. Jones, a spokesperson for the New Jersey State Police, confirmed that a bullet was found which struck the siding of Dobbs’ house. However, he pointed out that Dobbs’ residence is located in a “very rural” area. “With hunting season starting up,” such incidents are “not at all uncommon,” Jones told us.
Nonetheless, anti-immigrant groups are already claiming that “the lies and hate coming from these radical pro-illegal alien groups is now manifesting in the form of gunfire.” Dobbs was quick to start pointing fingers at Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera and “ethnocentric interest groups” for “creating an atmosphere” that led to a shot being fired at his house:
I’m thinking about these lies, that I wasn’t going to respond to — but Geraldo now has just pushed it over. I gotta tell you the lies of the ethnocentric interest groups like LULAC, La Raza, MALDEF, America’s Voice — funded basically by George Soros — all attacking me because as they put it, or as Geraldo put it I’m the only thing standing between those open borders and unconditional amnesty for illegal immigrants. So they want to destroy me and they’re taking their best shot at it believe me…They’ve created an atmosphere and they’ve been unrelenting in their propaganda.
It’s became a part of a way of life: the anger, the hate, the vitriol. But it’s taken a different tone. They threaten my wife. They’ve now fired a shot at my house…My wife and I have now been shot at, my driver, my house has been shot and hit…I’m not in the mood to put up with little fools like Geraldo Rivera...
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/29/lou-dobbs-shots-fired/
His driver? My goodness. Someone shot at Dobbs' servant? I'm outraged. Yeah, sure.
I know that those Faux News people have been known to go to great lengths to "ambush" unsuspecting media targets, but I doubt Geraldo would go anywhere near someplace that Scalia and particularly Dick Cheney might be hunting.
Have the police ruled out Cheney? He might have taken his daughter out to practice and she "sort of missed her target" like they did on promoting torture?
Besides, who would waste ammo on Dobbs. He shots himself in the foot all by himself almost nightly.
CactusDanny on October 30, 2009 at 12:17 AM
I don't believe I've heard about any no-bid contracts which as we know is the only way Republicans operate when wasting public funds. Are you afraid that Democrats might "privatize" the GOP numbers racket?
Perish the thought that someone else might horn in on your action.
As the kids say: Duh....
It's not nice for Coulter to publicly criticize Palin. I see literary jealousy at work here. Coulter has always been the only conservative hate book maven. Now she has competition.
Duh?
tylinCA on October 30, 2009 at 12:05 AM
tylin,
Before the election, the sky was the limit for insurance companies profits. Nobody in the GOP would challenge them. None of them "wanted" to challenge them especially Lieberman.
Conservatives can only succeed when there is a monopoly. They are indeed afraid of competition. You have to have brains and innovative ideas to survive in a marketplace that suddenly has a level playing field.
The public was not expecting lower premiums and co-pays from the industry. We are accustomed to their double digit profits and rate hikes cutting into our standard of living...and not liking them lording it over us.
Besides, if they can't live on a 2% profit margin like the rest of consumer goods and services, they really shouldn't be in business at all. I'm not frightened by any threats of higher prices. It will be delightful if we see even a little easing of hikes because of a threat of a public option alternative.
Only Birthers and teabaggers expected their rates to stay the same.
Well, it seems all quiet on the troll front, so I'm going to call it a day.
Good night, all.
Ethics panel starts probes of 2 Dems, gets hacked
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091030/ap_on_go_co/us_waters_ethics
We need to clean Congress of those that abuse their power.
BONER (R)IS A LYING SACK OF LIQUID CRAP! WHERE ARE HIS IDEAS?
I'LL TELL YOU! THE FLAMING ASSHOLE DOESN'T HAVE
ANY! ALL HE DOES IS BITCH AND MOAN ABOUT OUR IDEAS AND NANCY PELOSI SHOULD TELL HIM SO IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS. TELL THAT FLAMING ASSHOLE TO SHUT THE FUCK UP, SHOVE HIS "PLAN" UP HIS ASS AND SIT DOWN!
I AM SICK OF THIS FUQING PUKE AND HIS BULLSHIT!!
HE WAS SENT TO THE CONGRESS BY HIS CONSTITUENTS TO DO A JOB! HE IS DOING HIS JOB FOR THE INSURANCE COMPANIES AND NOT HIS CONSTIITUENTS!
HE PULLED THIS SHIT WITH THE CAP AND TRADE BILL AND SOME OTHERS, BITCHING ABOUT 1,000 PAGES THAT WE THE DEMOCRATS HAVEN'T READ AND YATAYATAYATA.
JUST TELL THIS LOSER TO SHUT THE FUQ UP!!!!!
I HAVE HAD IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
117Cleveland on October 30, 2009 at 05:13 AM
You have alot of nerve to talk about arrogance when you supported "the decider",talk about arrogance,he would not listen TO ANY BODY, he got his instruction from god!remind you of anybody? like David koresh,Jim Jones,just another religious nutcase!
wouldn't you know that an old fool like Stevieboy, who never had a REAL job in his life, would fall for Ann Coulter's lies about Group Insurance premiums paid with pre-tax dollars!
Stevieboy, NO BODY must make up this difference! How about us making up the difference of those Tax cuts Bush gave millionaires??? Surely that must make a guy like you who is lucky if he makes $8000 a year Ticked Off !
And No Employer who wants the Best employees, cuts salary to make up for these prmiums----Employees are attracted to the MONEY ! To remain competitive, Employers must meet the Market going rate !
Stupid, Stupid, Stevie. Falls for this trash.
The Repugs Love Poll numbers so much, let them chew on this one:
Palin's Book Soars on Inflated Sales Receipts, But Her Poll Numbers Are Nosediving
As BuzzFlash editor Mark Karlin pointed out last week, Palin is selling her new book, Going Rogue: An American Life at a whopping 69 percent discount, even though it won't be officially released until mid-November. As a veteran of both the right-wing industrial complex and the book-selling industry, he notes that giving it away is a classic strategy to appear more popular than you are. It's easy to have a best seller, in other words, when your product is always on sale.
As of Thursday afternoon the book was still available for pre-sale at Amazon.com for $9. If you pair it with Glenn Beck's new tome, Arguing With Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government as Amazon suggests, you could be eligible for FREE super saver shipping! Whoopie! Or, you can get a membership to Newsmax with this special Palin book deal, which markets itself as "much cheaper than Amazon" (using the full price of "almost $29" to make $10.92 cheaper than $9.
Of course, the memoir's impending release has sparked some unwanted parody.
One example is the work of husband-and-wife team Julie Sigwart (also an IT consultant to BuzzFlash, in interest of full disclosure) and Michael Stinson. Their version, titled Going Rouge – The Sarah Palin Rogue Coloring & Activity Book. While it may cost a little bit more at $12, it comes with the assurance that "Sarah didn’t write this book either." There are a couple of pages available online, but my favorite is the word find where guesses at Palin's running mate in 2012 are hidden. Among them: baby Jesus, Tina Fey and Joe the Plumber.
What is not a mystery, however, is her resume. And so far, that's not doing her any favors with the American people either. A CNN poll released Wednesday reveals that 71 percent of respondents do not think Palin is qualified to be president. Even among Republicans she doesn't fare too well, with nearly half agreeing with the characterization of Palin as unqualified for the job.
NOW FOR YOU ITTY BITTY PRETEND MEN HERE, WHO THINK IT IS JUST US THAT IS PICKING ON SARAH, NOTE!!!!! 71% think she is a JOKE!
the other 29% of idiots like you !!!!!
Did anyone catch Jane Hamsher of FDL on Rachel last night! I LMAO at her description of what is going on with Joe and Bayh, etc. Comparing them to a beauty pageant, with Joe taking his top off to get attention!
you can view it here if you missed it:
I shall wait impatiently for THIS to come out.
"But Palin has already gotten someone to blackmail her. Her grandson's father Levi Johnston reappeared on national television to say he has "things that can, you know -- that would get her in trouble, and could hurt her. Will hurt her." Johnston seems to be saving up for the right moment, however. So, those "things" will remain a mystery, probably until Johnston gets a good offer.
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