MadPoet

Sorry

2010-05-20T11:36:00.000-04:00

Haven't been updating the blog as much. Been hanging out on Facebook with old friends. I have blocked some of the folks from here so don't even try.

2010-05-08T12:38:00.000-04:00

2010-05-05T14:53:00.000-04:00

"Can you imagine, if what's going on with the tea party rallies, if they were a group of black people,waving guns, coming up armed, talking about how you might have to take matters into your own hands if the government doesn't do what you want, you think the reaction in this country would be similar to what it is now?"
-- Bill Maher, telling the truth again,

40 Years Ago Today May 4, 1970 Kent State Shootings

2010-05-04T19:31:00.001-04:00

It saddens me that there are people that think the murders at Kent State and Jackson State were justified. Don't believe me? Follow the link to this video. Edward R Murrow once said "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it."

2010-05-03T21:38:00.000-04:00

2010-04-30T02:09:00.000-04:00

Why Aren’t Tea Partiers Protesting Arizona’s Big Government Overreach On Immigration?

2010-04-28T11:21:00.000-04:00

From Think Progress

Tea Party activists go out of their way to insist that they’re not partisan, racist, or filled with hate; they’re just patriots who want to stop a “socialist” government machine from controlling their daily lives.

The new immigration law in Arizona should be ripe for the Tea Parties to take up. SB-1070 is the “broadest and strictest immigration measure in generations,” giving police unprecedented power to detain anyone they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant and making “the failure to carry immigration documents a crime.” Even traditionally far-right figures like former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee have worried that the law might lead to racial profiling abuses by the government.

But as the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson notes, this Tea Party support hasn’t materialized:

Activists for Latino and immigrant rights — and supporters of sane governance — held weekend rallies denouncing the new law and vowing to do everything they can to overturn it. But where was the Tea Party crowd? Isn’t the whole premise of the Tea Party movement that overreaching government poses a grave threat to individual freedom?It seems to me that a law allowing individuals to be detained and interrogated on a whim — and requiring legal residents to carry identification documents, as in a police state — would send the Tea Partyers into apoplexy. Or is there some kind of exception if the people whose freedoms are being taken away happen to have brown skin and might speak Spanish?

Not only are Tea Partiers not speaking out against SB-1070, they’re actively supporting it. The Arizona Tea Party Network called on its members to support Brewer’s big government. In fact, the sponsor of SB-1070 is state Sen. Russell Pearce (R), a Tea Party backer.

According to a new survey directed by University of Washington political scientist Christopher Parker, white Tea Partiers tend to be “predisposed to intolerance,” pointing to a possible reason the movement has been reluctant to join with immigration reform activists:

For instance, the Tea Party, the grassroots movement committed to reining in what they perceive as big government, and fiscal irresponsibility, also appear predisposed to intolerance. Approximately 45% of Whites either strongly or somewhat approve of the movement. Of those, only 35% believe Blacks to be hardworking, only 45 % believe Blacks are intelligent, and only 41% think that Blacks are trustworthy.Perceptions of Latinos aren’t much different. While 54% of White Tea Party supporters believe Latinos to be hardworking, only 44% think them intelligent, and even fewer, 42% of Tea Party supporters believe Latinos to be trustworthy. When it comes to gays and lesbians, White Tea Party supporters also hold negative attitudes. Only 36% think gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to adopt children, and just 17% are in favor of same-sex marriage.

Also, if Tea Partiers really do feel like they’ve been taxed enough already, they should support immigration reform. As Andrea Nill has reported, “In January, the Immigration Policy Center and the Center for American Progress found that legalizing undocumented immigrants through comprehensive immigration reform would generate $4.5 to $5.4 billion in additional net tax revenue within three years. The study predicted that ultimately the benefits of immigration reform would go beyond pure tax revenue and would yield at least $1.5 trillion in cumulative U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years.”

2010-04-26T17:44:00.002-04:00

2010-04-21T07:57:00.002-04:00

2010-04-21T07:56:00.002-04:00

Crosby shares goal-scoring title

2010-04-11T23:04:00.000-04:00

2010-04-10T23:18:00.002-04:00

In an interview last night, President Obama responded to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s criticism of his nuclear weapons policy, saying, “the last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues” “If the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff are comfortable with it, I’m probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin,” said Obama.

In West Virginia, Coal Miners' Slaughter

2010-04-10T23:09:00.000-04:00

by: Michael Winship, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: ChuckHolton, designshard)

The high cost of energy in America was paid in human lives this week, with the deaths of more than two dozen miners in a massive explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia. It's the worst mine disaster in a quarter of a century.

Upper Big Branch is owned by Massey Energy Company, which operates 47 mines in central Appalachia. According to the Los Angeles Times, it employs nearly 6,000 and in 2009 reported revenues of $2.3 billion, with a net income of $104.4 million.

At the center of this week's catastrophe is Massey's president and CEO Don Blankenship, a man so reviled nowadays he had to be escorted away by police when he and other company officials tried to address a group of distraught family and friends outside the Upper Big Branch mine in the early morning hours after the explosion. The crowd hurled invective - and a chair.

Blankenship hates unions (Upper Big Branch is a non-union mine), thinks global warming is a figment of our imaginations and that those who do believe in climate change are crazy; supports destructive, mountain-top-removal mining; serves on the board of the conservative, free market U.S. Chamber of Commerce and now, lucky us, shares his pearls of right-wing wisdom via Twitter. "America doesn't need Green jobs," he tweeted pithily last month, "but Red, White, & Blue ones." David Roberts of the environmental magazine Grist described him as "the scariest polluter in the U.S. ...The guy is evil and I don't use that word lightly."

Just one example of Massey Energy's earlier history of environmental malfeasance was described in a May 2003 issue of Forbes Magazine: "In October 2000 the floor of a 72-acre wastewater reservoir built above an abandoned mine in Kentucky collapsed, sending black sludge through the mine and out into a tributary of the Big Sandy River. The sludge killed fish and plants for 36 miles downstream. Water supplies were shut down in several towns for a month. In total, 230 million gallons spilled out, 20 times the volume of the crude oil from the Exxon Valdez. Lawns nearby were covered in as much as 7 feet of muck...

"... The reservoir had shown signs of leaking right before the accident and Massey failed to report that fact to regulators as required, according to the U.S. Mine Safety & Health Administration. The cleanup has cost $58 million so far."

This week's Upper Big Branch mine disaster is the latest in a string of environmental and safety-related calamities linked to Massey and Blankenship. In 2008, the company paid a $20 million fine to the Environmental Protection Agency, and that same year, a Massey subsidiary, the Aracoma Coal Company, pled guilty to safety violations and agreed to $4.2 million in civil penalties and criminal fines connected to the 2006 deaths of two miners in a fire.

According to The New York Times, "After the fire broke out, the two miners found themselves unable to escape, partly because the company had removed some ventilation controls inside the mine. The workers died of suffocation. Federal prosecutors at the time called it the largest such settlement in the history of the coal industry."

The Upper Big Branch mine has a long history of violations. Last month alone it was cited by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration for 53 safety violations, many of them for inadequate venting of dust and methane and improperly maintained escape passages. Last year, the Times reports, "the number of citations against the mine more than doubled, to over 500, from 2008, and the penalties proposed against the mine more than tripled, to $897,325." So far, only $168,393 of those fines have been paid.

Blankenship's response? "Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process," he told a radio interviewer. West Virginia and federal laws were toughened after the Sago mine disaster in 2006 that killed 12 men. But as the number of safety citations has increased, so, too, has the number of appeals by the mining companies, and while that long bureaucratic process unfolds, it's business as usual.

Blankenship and Massey Energy play our political system like a country fiddle, a system corrupted by money and influence. A certified public accountant (he's actually in the national CPA hall of fame - I'm not kidding), Blankenship apparently sees the world as one big balance sheet, with human life an expendable commodity and - especially if they're judges or other officials - something to be bought and sold. The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics says that since 1990, those associated with Massey and its political action committee have given more than $300,000 in campaign contributions to federal candidates. And in 2006, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Blankenship spent more than $100,000 trying to elect pro-business candidates to the West Virginia state legislature.

But it's in the courthouse that Blankenship has really tried to spread the wealth. In 2008, photos were published of him wining and dining West Virginia Supreme Court Justice "Spike" Maynard along the Riviera. They were popping corks in Monaco as Massey Energy was before the court appealing a $50 million judgment that had been won by smaller mining companies charging Massey with fraud. Subsequently, Maynard recused himself from the case and was defeated for re-election. Now he's running for Congress.

Blankenship had better luck when he went on the offensive against West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Justice Warren McGraw, creating a PAC called "And for the Sake of the Kids." He contributed $3 million and created campaign ads described by USA Today as "venomous." They made particular hay with a case in which Justice McGraw was part of a majority that voted to free a mentally disturbed child molester, who got a job as a school janitor.

McGraw was defeated by Blankenship's candidate, Brent Benjamin. When the appeal of the $50 million came before the court, ABC News reports, "Justice Benjamin refused to recuse himself from the case and twice provided the deciding vote in Massey's favor. The jury verdict against Massey was overturned."

So egregious were Benjamin's actions that even the current United States Supreme Court, so heavily pro-business in its recent decision-making, was appalled. It ruled that the judge and Blankenship were out of line. Even so - and even with Benjamin finally recusing himself - on a third vote, Massey again won its appeal.

When you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. Meanwhile, miners working for Massey Energy and Blankenship continue to risk their lives deep below the earth, digging out the fuel that helps keep our lights burning at the price of never knowing if the tiniest of sparks will ignite the next fatal explosion.

Now and Then - Not much difference

2010-04-10T09:21:00.000-04:00

2010-04-10T09:16:00.002-04:00

2010-04-08T17:51:00.001-04:00

2010-04-06T17:45:00.003-04:00

Death, Lies and Videotape

2010-04-06T17:37:00.000-04:00

[Caution: graphic video not suitable for work or children. Full-length version here.]

from crooks and liars

By nonny mouse

On the fifth of April, WikiLeaks released a classified US military video from an Apache helicopter gunship as it killed over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad in 2007, including two Reuters new staff, as well as seriously wounding two young children. One of the journalists, gravely wounded in the attack, was then shot in a second barrage as he tried to crawl away, and his body run over by a Humvee. Since the attack, Reuters had been attempting to obtain this video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success. Now it is public for the first time.
Wikileak’s organisers were given the footage by an unnamed source, which they then decrypted and posted on-line. So far, the Pentagon has had no response. The high-quality video, according to BBC’s Adam Brookes in Washington, appears to be authentic, and includes the recording of the pilot’s radio transmission and troops on the ground. Wikileaks has also published a statement from Reuters news editor-in-chief David Schlessinger saying that the video was ‘graphic evidence of the dangers involved in war journalism and the tragedies that can result’.
Wikileaks has complained of surveillance and harassment by the US and other governments, primarily for their role in leaking documents on sensitive subjects, from the assassination of human rights lawyers in Nairobi, photos of murders committed in Tibet followed by a mass attack on Swedish servers by Chinese computers in retaliation, threats by the head of Germany’s BNP of prosecution over a report of CIA involvement in Kosovo,and more. This tiny blogsite, which won Amnesty International’s 2009 media award, is nearly broke and has depended on donations from human rights groups, journalists, technology experts and simply concerned individuals for survival, a ludicrous game of David and Goliath of the internet.
But it seems someone within the DoD or US Army Counterintelligence or CIA or somewhere still believes in the public’s right to know what our elected government is up to. According to documents leaked to Wikileaks, even our own government has conspired to shut down the organization, including exposing sources and identifying whistleblowers and retaliating by termination of employment, criminal prosecution, defamation of the organization to weaken its credibility. The lessons of Valerie Plame and the Freedom of Information Act be damned.
Be warned. This video is not for the faint-hearted. I watched the whole thing. It made me feel ill, but I watched it all. It's the least I could do for those people who lost their lives. At one point you can even see one of the men from the van trying to rescue the wounded journalist looking up at the helicopter, he knew it was there. He knew what he was risking, and tried to help anyway. The bravery of that man is astounding. And he died. If it were left up to our own government, he would have died without you or I or anyone else ever knowing, our ignorance the biggest weapon in any military arsenal. If this ungodly, horrible war is ever to end, it is not only the public’s right to know what we have done and are still doing in Iraq, and Afghanistan, it is our responsibility to demand to know.
What truly bothers me is the absolute callousness of the conversation going on in the Apache helicopter. Beyond the 'fucking prick' and the 'bastards' comments, it's the laughter, particularly during the shooting as if it's all just a video game, cheering each other on as the wounded journalist crawls on the ground, willing him to reach for a ‘weapon’ so they can shoot him again, laughing when his body is run over by a military truck. The comment when the crew realized children have been wounded was shocking: ‘Well, it’s their own fault for bringing their kids to a battle.'
Bringing their kids to a battle? Those children live there! This wasn't a 'battlefield' - it was just an ordinary neighbourhood that got pasted by an American helicopter, twice. We brought the war to them. Where the hell were the kids supposed to have been? Loma Linda? Ann Arbor? Tampa?
Continue reading »

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T10:57:00.000-04:00

Large Hadron Collider A Success—And We're Still Alive! (We Think)

2010-03-30T09:14:00.002-04:00

The scientists at CERN momentarily forgot how to speak like, well, scientists, and got a little carried away on Twitter after they successfully saw particle collisions for the first time. [CERN] <-click on this link for video
from Gizmodo

More from AP

The world's largest atom smasher has set a record for high-energy collisions by crashing two proton beams at three times more force than ever before.

The $10 billion Large Hadron Collider directed the beams into each other Tuesday as part of its ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces.

The collisions start a new era of science for researchers working on the machine below the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

Scientists at a control room at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, broke into applause when the first successful collisions were recorded. Their colleagues from around the world were tuning in by remote links.

2010-03-30T09:01:00.002-04:00

Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.
Saul Alinsky

Lou Reed - Dirty Boulevard

2010-03-29T20:54:00.000-04:00

2010-03-29T20:33:00.002-04:00

2010-03-27T20:04:00.001-04:00

Sara Palin "Real Americans cling to their religion and guns"
Wolf "I guess I'm not a Real American"

Update Going Green

2010-03-27T12:18:00.005-04:00

I've had the Surge for a week now and it works great. It adds a little weight to the Ipod Touch but fits comfortly in your hand. There haven't been that many sunny days so it takes a while to get a full solar charge. It doesn't take long to get charged when hooked upto my PC using the supplied USB cable. No problems sincing to Itunes. Only problem is that the hole for the auto out plug is too small. Works only with my earbuds but not with my earphones or external speaker. No problem when using Bluetooth or WiFi, in fact I am posting this using the Blogger app over WiFi. My rating for the Surge is 4 stars out of 5 cause the phone plug hole is too small.

Quinnipiac poll on Tea Parties confirms yet again that they are arch-conservatives

2010-03-27T11:14:00.001-04:00

By John Amato crooks and liars

My inbox is a full-time job all of its own, but I do get a lot of useful information passed on to me. Quinnipiac released a new poll about the Tea Party movement and the results are everything C&L has been saying about them.

Looking at voters who consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement:
74 percent are Republicans or independent voters leaning Republican;
16 percent are Democrats or independent voters leaning Democratic;
5 percent are solidly independent;
45 percent are men;
55 percent are women;
88 percent are white;
77 percent voted for Sen. John McCain in 2008;
15 percent voted for President Barack Obama.
A total of 19 percent of American voters trust government to do the right thing "almost all of the time" or "most of the time," compared to only 4 percent of Tea Party members.
While only 33 percent of all voters have a favorable opinion of Sarah Palin, 72 percent of Tea Party members have a favorable opinion of her.

The Teabaggers are essentially an extension of the conservative movement -- only, Fox News needed to tap into the body politic as far right as they could go to energize it. And in that Ailes-directed task, they were very successful. I laugh when I hear the MSM try to explain them to their audiences. They refuse to tell the truth about them in any detail or even admit the fact that they were cultivated with great care by Fox News.

And if you hear people trying to tell you that they are angry Independent voters, well, use this poll, our articles and, of course, Digby.

The Hard Core Right

In case anyone's still thinking that the teabaggers are "independent" middle of the road types who disdain both the right and the left equally,this new Quinnipiac Poll should finally put that to rest.
Ed Kilgore summarizes:
...the Tea Party folk [are] basically, very conservative Republicans determined to pressure the GOP to move to the right or suffer the consequences--in other words, a radicalized GOP base.
The alternative explanation has been that the Tea Partiers represent independent voters who are fed up with government and will join with Republicans to create a stable majority in this "center-right nation" if and only if Republicans stop talking about cultural issues and focus on lower taxes, smaller government and the economy. Nothing in the Quinnipiac poll supports that proposition. On question after question, self-identified Tea Partiers (13% of the total sample) are much closer in their views to self-identified Republicans than to self-identified independents. Most notably, the approval/disapproval rating for the Republican Party is 60/20 among Tea Partiers and 28/42 among indies. Among those voting in 2008, Tea Partiers went for McCain by a margin of 77/15; indies split down the middle (going for McCain 46/42). Tea Partiers have a favorable view of Sarah Palin by a 72/14 margin (significantly higher than among Republicans), while indies have an unfavorable view of her by a 49/34 margin. Tea Partiers self-identify as Republicans or Republican-leaners by a 74/16 margin. These are not the same people by any stretch of the imagination.
The poll doesn't ask enough questions to get at the details of Tea Party ideology, but it also doesn't supply any ammunition to the common perception that Tea Partiers are libertarians at heart, and/or that they are displacing the Christian Right within the conservative coalition. Actually, 21% of self-identified white "born-again" evangelicals consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement, well above the 13% figure for all voters. And the the two categories of voters share a rare positive attachment to Sarah Palin (white "born-agains" approve of her by a 55/29 margin, Tea Partiers by a 72/14 margin).
At some point, the more questionable assumptions that pundits are making about the Tea Folk--they are right-trending independents, they are hostile to the Christian Right--need to yield to empirical evidence. Now would be a good time to start.
Considering the media just figured out that some of the opposition to the bill over the past few months was from liberals who wanted a public option or single payer, I'm not holding my breath on that.
But it really doesn't take a poll to see that these tea partiers are ill-informed, Beck watching right wingers. All you have to do is read their signs and listen to what they say. They are the hardcore GOP base. And they are very, very sore losers. It's one of their defining characteristics.

The media will fight this fairly accurate assessment of them tooth and nail, but they'll see starting in the 2010 midterms if the teabaggers are a real third party. Sarah Palin and Karl Rove have been begging the Tea Partiers not to form their own party, but I really doubt they need them for that. There will be a few groups that break off and do their own thing, but if I had to put a number on it, then I'd say about 88% of them will join the GOP in the end.

My Ipod Touch

2010-03-27T01:31:00.003-04:00

I've had my ITouch for a few years and I love it. As of this moment it has 628 songs, 4 Videos and 161 Apps with 1.1 GB left over in it's 16 GB Memory. I have AirStash a Wireless Pocketable Media Server on Pre-order and that will add up to 32 gigs. This little machine is a great portable computer as well as a cool game machine.

Here are some of the Apps and Games I like.

Every ITouch comes with these basic Apps.

Apples Safari Web Browser - I've tried other browsers but so far Safari is the best

An E-mail Program for multi accounts - Google, AOL, Hotmail on mine

Calendar

Clock

Contact List that can be used with e-mail and Apps

Stocks

YouTube

Maps

Voice Memos - You need earbuds with a mic

Notepad

Calculator

Weather - I use The Weather Channels App instead

Itunes

App Store

Settings

Photos - for got to tell yins I have 470 photos

Video

My favorite Apps

Twitter - Twittelator - I've tried most of them but this one is the best for me

WiFi Get Plus - Finds Hot Spots

Bing - The MS search app

Taptu - Another search app

MySpace - Better than the one on my Blackberry but not as good as

Facebook - Great Free App

iGift4u - Add on for FB Lets you update staus, has quotes, jokes, news, Youtube plus more

Live Cams

PA Traffic Cams

Google Earth

Google App - does everything google

Skype - Voice or txt only

Meebo - all txt chat programs in one

NASA

Kindle - Yeah I use it a lot to read my Kindle books

Wikipedia

Pandora - net radio

IMDB

Amazon

Yahoo -everything Yahoo

White House - yeah The Pres. loves the net

Quakewatch

NPR News

Call tacker

Those are just a few of the apps I like

Games and other stuff

Flick Fishing

Flick Bowling

IBeer

Zippo Lighter

Atomic Fart

Ask Ozzy

Family Guy

Avatar

Star Trek

Sims 3

C64 - Commodore C64 Emulator - waiting for Elite to come out for it

Snood

Doodle Jump

Scoops

Myst

6 diff car racing games

Bejeweled 2

4 diff pinball games, I like The Deep

FaceFighter put your own pics and fight them (bush is cool)

NCCA Live - all the games live

LED Football

4 diff snowboard games - Shaun White is best but no 1/2 pipe

Madden NFL 2010

Tiger Woods

3 diff poker games, play the same one I play on FB

3 Tarot, 1 Rune, 1 IChing and 2 horoscope apps

6 music apps Rock Band and Metalica Taptap used the most

2 Bird Watching apps

Plus many more

I am often asked When are you gonna get an IPad. My answer for now Never! Why? Because 1. you never by the 1st version of any high tech gadget. 2. Pissed at Steve Jobs for causing the price of e-books to go up. 3. Waiting for version 4 ( I have V2) of The Touch.

2010-03-27T01:18:00.002-04:00

Republicans Block Bills Ensuring Continuation Of Military Health Care

2010-03-27T00:55:00.001-04:00

From ThinkProgress

As ThinkProgress reported earlier today, some military families have been concerned about how the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will affect their health care. Fears about the legislation have been fueled, in part, by lawmakers like Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA), who has claimed that “now their programs are going to beadministered like welfare programs, rather than earned military benefits.”

There is another piece of misinformation floating around that’s important to clear up. The new law has an individual responsibility requirement, meaning that every person must have health coverage (or receive an affordability waiver), otherwise he/she will be subjected to a fee. The Affordable Care Act doesn’t explicitly state that TRICARE — the military’s health program — will meet the individual responsibility requirement. So on Saturday, lawmakers — out of an abundance of caution — passed separate legislation affirming that TRICARE will not be affected. As House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) stated when the legislation was unanimously approved:

While beneficiaries of these programs will already meet the minimum requirements for individual health insurance and will not be required to purchase additional coverage, the TRICARE Affirmation Act would provide clarification by changing the tax code to state it in law.

In the Senate, Jim Webb (D-VA) has introduced a companion bill to Skelton’s, and Daniel Akaka (D-HI) has put forth similar legislation on a related matter. Last night, Webb asked for unanimous consent to approve both measures. While Akaka’s would have to head back to the House for a vote, Webb’s — which has attracted six Republican co-sponsors — could go straight to the President for his signature, since the House already passed the Skelton bill. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) objected, however, saying that Republicans wanted them attached to the reconciliation bill as an amendment sponsored by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), which would then have to go back to the House:

WEBB: Mr. President, I would suggest to my colleague from North Carolina and to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that if you really want to fix this problem, we can fix it right now and we should fix it right now.We should not allow this issue to be tied up in the separate melodrama of the moment here. [...]
COBURN: We’ve got this — we got this a minute and a half ago to see the language. You have an amendment on the floor that actually accomplishes everything you want to do, and why are we doing this? Because you don’t want to mess up a package that’s clean. It has every application, the Burr amendment, to this. With that and the fact that this is exactly the kind of shenanigans the American people don’t want, I object.
WEBB: Let the American people understand the Republicans objected to a matter that could have been fixed by law tomorrow.

Webb brought his legislation up on the floor again today, around 4:30 p.m., saying that he would be working with Republicans to “attempt to clear these today.”

Republicans had been trying to attach all sorts of “poison pill” amendments to delay the reconciliation legislation, including one to ban all federal funding for the group ACORN, which has already announced that it is shutting down. Since their attempt failed, and the reconciliation bill is already back in the House, the TRICARE legislation needs to pass the Senate as a stand-alone bill, as Webb had tried to do yesterday.

Even though Bilbray and all other House Republicans voted for this measure, they’re now trying to argue that it doesn’t go far enough. Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) has another piece of legislation on the issue, which has attracted 32 co-sponsors — all Republicans. Bilbray spokesman Fritz Chaleff wrote to ThinkProgress that Skelton’s legislation says only that “TRICARE meets the minimal standards of coverage,” while the GOP bill “carves out TRICARE from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” However, Democratic aides on Capitol Hill told ThinkProgress that the the Skelton legislation is more than sufficient and the other bill is political grandstanding.

Everyone from military and veterans organizations to the chairs of relevant House committees to Veterans Affairs officials have confirmed that TRICARE will not be affected by the new health care law.

GOP lawmaker shrieks ‘baby killer’ at pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak.

2010-03-21T23:57:00.002-04:00

Stop the hate!

When House Republicans tried to use a motion to recommit to send the reconciliation package of health reforms back to committee to essentially kill the bill, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) gave a passionate speech urging his colleagues not to fall for the ploy. Stupak said that Democrats have moved a pro-life bill in every way, by restricting taxpayer funds to abortion and by providing millions of Americans will quality health insurance. However, CNN is reporting that as Stupak gave his speech, a Republican lawmaker yelled “baby killer” at him. Murmurs were heard from the Democratic side of the aisle, and a Democratic lawmaker shouted “who said that?” No Republican answered.

CNN’s David Gergen observed that Republicans had joined rowdy, and at times vulgar, tea party protesters all weekend in rallying against the bill. He warned that the heavy influence of the tea parties, Rush Limbaugh, and other extreme right-wing voices is dangerous for the Republicans politically.

Tea Baggers Call Congressmen "Nrs" and "Fts" At HCR Protest. Hate Rules The Day

2010-03-20T21:42:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Crooks and Liars

By John Amato

The tea party crowd have a hard time controlling their hate and racism and it was on display big time today.
The Hill:
Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) claimed Saturday that health care protesters at the Capitol directed racial epithets at Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) as he walked outside.
Carson, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus along with Lewis, told The Hill that protesters called Lewis the N-word.
Tea Party protesters held a rally outside the Capitol on Saturday, which included speeches by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and actor Jon Voight, and then proceeded into the halls to lobby members at the 11th hour.
Lewis was one of the leaders of the civil rights movement alongside Martin Luther King. Jr. Asked if racial epithets were yelled at him, Lewis responded, "Yes but it's OK. I've heard this before in the 60s. A lot of this is just downright hate."
Many of these people were hiding in the shadows until FOX News promoted the tea party movement. They aren't just a sliver of the make-up of the crowds. They ARE the crowds. And it's not limited to name-calling either. A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn said that protestors spat on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. HuffPo got a statement from Clyburn:
Clyburn was downright incredulous, saying he had not witnessed such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.
"It was absolutely shocking to me," Clyburn told the Huffington Post. "Last Monday, this past Monday, I stayed home to meet on the campus of Claflin University where fifty years ago as of last Monday... I led the first demonstrations in South Carolina, the sit ins... And quite frankly I heard some things today I have not heard since that day. I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus."
"It doesn't make me nervous as all," the congressman said, when asked how the mob-like atmosphere made him feel. "In fact, as I said to one heckler, I am the hardest person in the world to intimidate, so they better go somewhere else."
Asked if he wanted an apology from the group of Republican lawmakers who had addressed the crowd and, in many ways, played on their worst fears of health care legislation, the Democratic Party, and the president, Clyburn replied:
"A lot of us have been saying for a long time that much of this, much of this is not about health care a all. And I think a lot of those people today demonstrated that this is not about health care... it is about trying to extend a basic fundamental right to people who are less powerful."
And if that's not disgusting enough, Barney Frank was called a "f****t," today too.
Gay.AmericaBlog:
Everything you needed to know about this hateful movement is expressed in this one story. It wasn't just one bigot. The entire crowd of teabaggers erupted in laughter. Hell of a movement Dick Armey has created - after all, he called Barney Frank the same thing, "fag," back in the 90s.
Rep. Barney Frank got an uglier version of the treatment. Just after Frank rounded a corner to leave the building, an older protestor yelled "Barney, you f****t." The surrounding crowd of protestors then erupted in laughter.
At one point, Capitol police officer threatened to throw a group of protestors out of the building but that only seemed to inflame them more; and apparently none were ejected.
Meanwhile the gun freak teabaggers are threatening to shoot people if health care is passed.
Tea Party activists have gathered on Capitol Hill today for a “Code Red” rallyagainst health care reform. Speakers at the event included Republican Reps. Steve King (IA), Michele Bachmann (MN), and Mike Pence (IN). The gathering was organized by Tea Party Profiteer organizations like FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity. ThinkProgress attended today’s rally and spotted a sign threatening violence if health care passes. The sign reads: “Warning: If Brown can’t stop it, a Browning can,” referring to Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and a Browning firearm
Just wait. We will see violence like our generation hasn't seen in many a decade. Anyone thinking of joining up with them go right ahead at your own risk. They will never sign on to anything that is remotely liberal. Ever.
And yet A READER has the BALLS to call ME a HATER! - WOLF

Going Green

2010-03-20T02:46:00.004-04:00

With NOVOTHINK’s hybrid solar charger case, you can now powerup your iPod literally anywhere under the sun. Our solar panel technology enables you to be part of the solar energy solution.

A few years ago a friend of mine gave me an Ipod Touch. It's a great machine. It not only plays music and videos but lets me get on the web with some great apps for Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. When at home I use a small program on my laptop called Connectify (Windows 7 only) to make my Dell Mini 10 into a hotspot. When I'm out and about I use an App to find the nearest WIFI hotspot and there are a lot of them.

I just got this solar charger for it and it seems to be working great. I'll update yins after I've had more time with it. Probably post to the blog with an App.

Yes I Hate Bigotry, Racism and Brainwashing!

2010-03-20T01:58:00.007-04:00

Wow you have a deep seated hate for fox news.This hatred may be a detrament to you. Fox is the most watch news programw on cable. Why let these fools upset you so .How dose what they say and do stop you from loving the creator and being of sevice to youe fellow man - anonymous

As the old saying goes; If 6000 people jumped off a bridge would you follow? Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters, you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Bob Dylan said that. Anger is a Gift - 1st heard that from RATM. The only thing that upsets me readers are that people can't think for themselves anymore. I'm done with service to my fellow man, time for me now - Thats advice from a friend when I retired. My advice to you - Get a damm spell checker. As for your creator, I love both mine and thats between me, Her and Him.

As John Lennon once said All I Want is the TRUTH!

StopBeck.com is a nonpartisan effort focused on holding Glenn Beck accountable for preying on racial anxieties, employing vitriolic rhetoric and disseminating distortions. Our purpose is to urge sponsors to stop supporting Glenn Beck’s brand of hate with advertising dollars.

StopBeck began on July 2, 2009. It was and remains primarily a Twitter effort. From - @stopBeck

So far Beck has lost 120 Advertisers

Nonsensical tirades that prey on racial anxieties, like the one Glenn Beck delivered on March 9 about the census underscore part of the reason why 119 advertisers fled his show and why the broadcast of his show in the UK has been without any advertisers for over a month now.

Glenn Beck urged people not to fill out the race question on the Census because it’s an attempt to increase modern day slavery (emphasis added):

He also trashed Woody Guthrie as well as his song This is Your Land.

From News Hounds

Beck Smears 11Year Old For Speaking Out For Health Care Reform

Reported by Ellen - Wed 2:35 PM

As Media Matters noted, Glenn Beck was just one of several right-wingers who attacked 11 year-old Marcelas Owens and his family after he spoke at a press conference with Senate Democrats in support of health care reform. But unlike Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin or NewsBusters, Beck works for a news operation that could have investigated the inflammatory “questions” Beck raised about Owens’ mother’s death after losing her health insurance. But even if Owens had been a complete fraud (and Beck never offered any real evidence that anything Owens said had been untrue), it says a lot more about Beck and Co. that they would seize upon attacking a child and the family of a dead woman rather then focusing on advocating against health care reform on the merits. So who’s really exploiting whom?

Fox Nation Discussion Advocates Armed Revolution. Is That Not Treason?

Fox Nation, the website that boasts about its goal of "strengthening our diverse society by striving for unity," has nevertheless allowed in its moderated comments a prolonged, open discussion about armed revolution. It's impossible to believe that the Fox Nation editor, Jesse Watters (the ambush guy) didn't know something like this would come up when he posted the inflammatory article, Rep. King Calls For Revolution In The Streets. Its first sentence is, "Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is calling for a new procedural solution to stop the health care bill: Have an angry mob of citizens storm Washington and prevent Congress from acting, in imitation of the Velvet Revolution that overthrew communist rule in Czechoslovakia!" Yet while one commenter complained about hus comments being blocked (shown in the last screen grab), we found at least 7 in favor of armed revolution. Each were posted more than 24 hours ago - more than enough time for any moderator to consider and remove any material deemed inappropriate. Is this not treason?

Hannity’s Bigoted Pal Says He’s Changing The Name Of The White House To “Big Mama’s House”

Reported by Ellen - Sat 1:24 AM

Sean Hannity welcomed back his bigoted pal, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, last night (3/19/10). You probably recall that Peterson is the African American who can’t seem to face a Fox News camera without accusing other African Americans of racism. In some of his noteworthy prior appearances, he characterized “most blacks” in Tennessee as racists and, in a later appearance announced, “I think we all agree that Barack Obama was elected mostly by black racists and white guilty people.” Despite such inflammatory, anti-African American rhetoric, Peterson keeps getting invited back. Last night, Peterson topped off a slew of racially-tinged, anti-Obama rhetoric by declaring, "I have changed the White House from being the White House to Big Mama’s House." Kudos to Professor Caroline Heldman for calling him on his racist remark.

Bill O’Reilly Advances Christian Right Attack On Girl Scouts & Planned Parenthood

Reported by Priscilla - Fri 1:07 PM

It’s no secret that the Christian right does not like Planned Parenthood and because they don’t like Planned Parenthood, they aren’t too happy about the Girl Scouts. In 2004, a Girl Scout troop ,in Texas, was attacked by members of the American Taliban (whoops, conservative Christians) because the local groups had given a “woman of distinction award” to a Planned Parenthood executive. Pro-Life Waco was also pissed because the Girl Scout organization had, for years, endorsed a Planned Parenthood sex ed program in which boys and girls were taught about (gasp) homosexuality. A call for a boycott of Girl Scout Cookies was declared. It’s 2010 and the Girls Scouts are, again, in the crossfire of far right Christians who are making a scurrilous and unsubstantiated accusation against the Girl Scouts. So are we surprised that this would be a subject for Bill O’Reilly who, like his religious fellow travelers, isn’t a fan of Planned Parenthood? But in advancing the unsubstantiated smear of Planned Parenthood, he’s also advancing a smear of the Girl Scouts and that’s not very nice!

Fox News Uses Sex To Race Bait

Reported by Ellen - March 11, 2010

If Fox Nation's recent headline, "Study: White People Have Less Sex" wasn't a deliberate attempt to race bait, then why did it allow the blatantly racist comments on its moderated threads? Screen grabs of some of the bigotry that "civil," "tolerant" Fox Nation deems appropraite after the jump. (H/T phourdythrea.blogspot.com)

2010-03-20T01:58:00.002-04:00

2010-03-20T01:58:00.001-04:00

2010-03-20T01:58:00.000-04:00

Not only Me!

2010-03-20T01:36:00.002-04:00

so you say but you have been wrong alot.Yeah A Sadam and his sons were better right - anonymous

Iraq War = Horrible Mistake.

So says Republican Member of Congress Dana Rohrabacher (via the Cato Institute):

In a Thursday panel at Cato on conservatism and war, U.S. Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) and John Duncan (R-Tenn.) revealed that the vast majority of GOP members of Congress now think it was wrong for the U.S. to invade Iraq in 2003.

Rohrabacher (who voted for Authorization to use Military Force in 2002) is even quoted as saying:

I will say that the decision to go in, in retrospect, almost all of us think that was a horrible mistake.

Their party is still filled with birther/tenther crazies, but at least some of them now recognize that the war in Iraq was a. horrible. mistake.

Will they be apologizing anytime soon to the 4300+ families of the servicemen and women who died for their horrible mistake?

Will dubya?

Of course not.

from 2politicaljunkies

Iraq: Thousands Dead, $747.3 Billion Spent And Not Any Safer

2010-03-20T00:00:00.000-04:00

2010-03-17T13:28:00.000-04:00

2010-03-17T13:24:00.001-04:00

Write Your Rep NOW for Health Care Reform

2010-03-15T17:10:00.003-04:00

Final March for Health Reform: Write a Letter to Congres Click on this link, only takes a few minutes

my.barackobama.com

With everything on the line and so little time left, we have to bring our voice to Congress through every possible channel. So today, OFA supporters are taking the next step in the Final March for Reform: Writing to Congress.

If I could have afforded health care while I was working I wouldn't be as Sick as I am now.

REMEMBERING THE 'MURTHQUAKE'

2010-02-08T23:19:00.003-05:00

When John Murtha Stood Up To Oppose The War In Iraq

On a Personal note: I spent some time with John in Johnstown PA back in the 80s when the steel mills were closing. Arlen Spector and John Murtha were the Only Politicians that tried to do something about it.

Virginia GOP Mocks Epic Snow Storm As ‘12 Inches Of Global Warming’

2010-02-06T18:29:00.002-05:00

From Think Progress

Record snowfall is now falling in the Washington D.C.-Baltimore region, with accumulation expected to shatter the 1922 Washington record of 28 inches and the 1993 Baltimore record of 26.8 inches of snow. The storm is leaving destruction in its wake, with tornado watches in Florida and ice storms expected in North Carolina. In Virginia, towns are struggling to decide how to pay for snow removal, as their budgets have been blown through by previous storms.

In response, the Virginia Republican Party has ads that mock Rep. Rick Boucher and Rep. Tom Periello — both Democrats in conservative districts who support climate legislation — because they “think global warming is a serious problem for Virginia…so serious they voted to kill tens of thousands of Virginia jobs just to stop it.” The ad “features images of falling snow, stuck cars, and weathermen,” and urges viewers to call the congressmen “and tell them how much global warming you get this weekend”:

Call Boucher and Perriello and tell them how much global warming you get this weekend. Maybe they’ll come help you shovel.

Watch it:

In reality, catastrophic “snowpocalypse” and “snowmageddon” events are exactly what scientists have been warning would hit Virginians because of global warming, in part because warmer air can hold more water. As National Wildlife Federation climate scientist Amanda Staudt notes, winter storms are getting fiercer even as the season gets warmer:

– Wintertime temperatures have been increasing across the northern United States. Since the 1970s, December-February temperature increases have ranged from 1 to 2 degrees in the Pacific Northwest to about 4 degrees in the Northeast to more than 6 degrees in Alaska.
– Winters are getting shorter, too. Spring arrives 10-14 days earlier than it did just 20 years ago.
– Global warming is bringing a clear trend toward heavier precipitation events. Many areas are seeing bigger and more intense snowstorms, especially in the upper Midwest and Northeast.
– Global warming is shifting storm tracks northward. Areas from the Dakotas eastward to northern Michigan have seen a trend toward more heavy snowfall season.

In other news, this past month of January was the warmest on record for the planet.

Tea Bagging for Jesus

2010-02-06T18:04:00.000-05:00

By Jon Perr

As a quick glance at the video tape makes clear, the supposed Tea Party movement is simply a continuation of the right-wing's failed 2008 presidential campaign by other means. (Senator Jim Demint (R-SC) spoke for Sarah Palin, John Cornyn, Michele Bachmann and countless others when he insisted, "We need to stop looking at the tea parties as separate from the Republican party.") But as the sessions by Pastor Rick Scarborough and Judge Roy Moore at today's National Tea Party Convention show, the assembled Birthers, Birchers, Deathers and Deniers have seamlessly embraced the extremist religious right agenda. They are Tea Bagging for Jesus and they are in your face about it.

On that point, Pastor Scarborough is unapologetic. The Vision America founder and face of the "War on Christians" conference, Scarborough told MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell Friday that he considered the event his organization sponsored "a good investment."

And Michelle Goldberg wrote in the American Prospect, what Rick Scarborough is investing in is new adherents to his particularly draconian right-wing vision:

In 2002, he left his post as pastor of Pearland First Baptist Church to form Vision America, a group dedicated to organizing "patriot pastors" for political action. That year, Falwell identified him as one of the new leaders of the Christian right. The author of books like In Defense of ... Mixing Church and State and the pithier Liberalism Kills Kids, Scarborough spent the Bush years organizing conferences that brought together conservative Republicans with preachers and activists working for the imposition of biblical law.

Among Pastor Scarborough's closest allies has been the disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom Delay. At his 2006 War on Christians conference, Scarborough defended His Hammer:

"I believe the most damaging thing that Tom DeLay has done in his life is take his faith seriously into public office, which made him a target for all those who despise the cause of Christ."

As the indicted Delay left the stage, Scarborough urged him to "keep your eyes on Jesus" and informed the audience that "God always does his best work after a crucifixion."

While Rick Scarborough was scheduled to host a Friday session titled, "Why Christians Must Engage," at Thursday evening's Tea Party kick-off he conducted the "Organized Prayer Session for the convention & our nation." As Time described it:

By the end of the night, much of the room knelt in prayer - one of the pastors, Rick Scarborough, went after homosexuals several times to choruses of amens -- before watching a Tea Party video.

Then there's Republican candidate for governor and former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Judge Roy Moore.

Former that is, because an Alabama ethics panel removed Moore from his position in November 2003 after he refused a mandate to remove a 10 Commandments monument from his courthouse rotunda. In response, as the New York Times recalled, Moore was unrepentant:

Moreover, Judge Thompson said, "the chief justice showed no signs of contrition for his actions."

Indeed, just minutes later, Mr. Moore strode out of the courthouse into a crush of his supporters and announced, "I have absolutely no regrets."

"We fought a good fight," he said. ''We kept the faith. But the battle is not over. The battle to acknowledge God is about to rage across the country."

And to be sure, Moore continues to wage that battle. In addition to his campaigns for office, Judge Moore is an outspoken supporter of Senator Richard Shelby's jaw-dropping "Constitution Restoration Act," which:

"...aims to reinforce states rights by clarifying that the Supreme Court and district courts do not have jurisdiction to hear cases brought against a federal, state or local government or officer for acknowledging God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government."

And so it goes. Echoing Republican talking points from the 2008 campaign, failed GOP White House hopeful Tom Tancredo told the Tea Party faithful gathered in Nashville that Barack Obama is a "socialist." Tancredo also fired up the crowd, "You have launched the counter-revolution." Of course, the extremist right-wing counter-revolution urged by reactionaries like Rick Scarborough and Roy Moore has been underway for years. The Lord's Tea Baggers may now have a bigger stage, but they are delighting the same eager faces.

(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)

State of Emergency - 2ft of Snow in Pittsburgh

2010-02-06T10:53:00.004-05:00

Pictures by Wolf

GOP Budget Proposes to Ration Medicare, Privatize Social Security

2010-02-05T23:03:00.002-05:00

The GOP can Kiss My retired ASS!!!! - Wolf

By Jon Perr

Throughout the bitter debate over health care reform, talking points about "rationing" and "cuts to Medicare" have been the twin pillars of Republican fear mongering. For example, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in June warned of reform that "denies, delays, or rations health care," only to falsely charge weeks later that Democrats "are going to pay for this plan by cutting Medicare, that is cutting seniors." But with the publication of theRepublican "shadow" budget by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the GOP is now proposing exactly what just weeks ago it claimed to decry: rationing Medicare:

Last year, 137 House Republicans voted to convert the Medicare program that provides 46 million Americans with health insurance into a system of vouchers. (In September, Sarah Palin penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed which similarly called for "providing Medicare recipients with vouchers that allow them to purchase their own coverage.") Now, as Ezra Klein, Matthew Yglesias and TPM all noted, the GOP's Paul Ryan is making the privatization of Medicare the centerpiece of a new Republican deficit reduction gambit.

Of course, because the value of Ryan's vouchers fails to keep up with the out-of-control rise in premiums in the private health insurance market, America's elderly would be forced to pay more out of pocket or accept less coverage. The Washington Post's Klein described the inexorable Republican rationing of Medicare which would then ensue:

The proposal would shift risk from the federal government to seniors themselves. The money seniors would get to buy their own policies would grow more slowly than their health-care costs, and more slowly than their expected Medicare benefits, which means that they'd need to either cut back on how comprehensive their insurance is or how much health-care they purchase. Exacerbating the situation -- and this is important -- Medicare currently pays providers less and works more efficiently than private insurers, so seniors trying to purchase a plan equivalent to Medicare would pay more for it on the private market.

It's hard, given the constraints of our current debate, to call something "rationing" without being accused of slurring it. But this is rationing, and that's not a slur. This is the government capping its payments and moderating their growth in such a way that many seniors will not get the care they need.

On Tuesday, Ryan acknowledged as much.

Sadly for the Republican brain trust, he failed to follow the script that only Democratic reforms lead to "health care denied, delayed and rationed."

"Rationing happens today! The question is who will do it? The government? Or you, your doctor and your family?"

Of course, Ryan left out the real culprit - the private insurance market. But with 50 million uninsured, another 25 million underinsured, one in five American postponing needed care and medical costs driving over 60% of personal bankruptcies, Congressman Ryan is surely right that "rationing happens today."

But the Republican plan to "slash and privatize" hardly ends there. Despite insistence by the Republican leadership that the party is not officially advocating it, the Ryan alternative budget follows Rep. Jeb Hensarling's announced desire to privatize Medicare. As TPM documented:

Rep. Paul Ryan, (R-WI) the ranking Republican on the budget committee, recently detailed the Republican plan for Social Security that preserves the existing program for those 55 or older. For younger people the plan "offers the option of investing over one-third of their current Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts, similar to the Thrift Savings Plan available to federal employees."

If that sounds vaguely familiar, it should. After all, George W. Bush's disastrous drive to privatize Social Security helped undermine his presidency. Now, in the wake of a Wall Street meltdown that evaporated the retirement savings for countless thousands of Americans, the Republican wunderkind Ryan is calling for an encore.

In Paul Ryan's defense, his so-called "A Roadmap for America's Future" was scored by the Congressional Budget Office as erasing the long-term deficit entirely, and produce surpluses by 2080 (!). While the Post's Klein stated, "I wouldn't balance the budget in anything like the way Ryan proposes," he also admitted:

"The audacity is breathtaking. But it is also impressive."

Audacious, indeed. After months of scaring the American people into believing that President Obama and the Democrats would ration health care and gut Medicare, Paul Ryan's Republican Party now proposes to do both.

(This piece also appears at Perrspectives. For a look back at the hilarious April Fool's Day unveiling of Ryan's 2009 budget "marketing document," visit here.)

UPDATE: In the latest pathetic twist in the Republican budget saga, House Minority Leader John Boehner is now trying to distance himself from Paul Ryan's document. Claiming "it's his," Boehner nevertheless replied "Off the top of my head, I couldn't tell you" when asked what in it he disagrees with.

If this storyline sounds familiar, it should. Boehner did the same thing last year after presenting Ryan's "The Republican Road to Recovery" with great fanfare:

"Two nights ago, the president said we haven't seen a budget yet of the Republicans. Well, it's not true, because here it is Mr. President."

For more, visit the American Road Map web site athttp://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/

Howard Zinn: "On Human Nature and Aggression."

2010-01-29T02:04:00.001-05:00

R.I.P. Howard

2010-01-29T01:57:00.001-05:00

Fox News Turned Its Back On Haiti Benefit Concert

2010-01-25T10:09:00.001-05:00

Fox News was the only news network and almost the only network, period, not to air the Hope for Haiti telethon tonight. Instead, it chose to air The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity in full. Hannity didn't even discus Haiti. According to MTV, the sponsor of the telethon, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox (broadcasting), CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino and Canadian networks, including CBC Television, CTV, Global Television and MuchMusic were to broadcast the fundraiser, as would BET International, CNN International, National Geographic and MTV Networks International.

From News Hounds

2010-01-22T21:03:00.000-05:00

A Year Of Opposition: Fox News' War On The White House

2010-01-20T12:56:00.000-05:00

R.I.P. Kate McGarrigle - Heart Like a Wheel

2010-01-20T04:45:00.000-05:00

The Real Face of the Devil by nonny mouse

2010-01-20T04:38:00.002-05:00

The banality of evil, coined by Hannah Arendt about Adolf Eichmann, applies not to sociopaths or cartoon moustache twirling villains, but rather ordinary people who accepted the principles of a morally corrupt regime without question and convinced themselves that gassing millions of people and shoving the bodies into ovens was perfectly normal behavior. Even… morally righteous.

But those people are a thing of the past. Could never happen here. People can’t be dragged down into that darkness again. Yet when I listen to Pat Robertson speaking, a shiver of unease slices up my spine. To Pat Robertson, the catastrophe in Haiti is a direct result of the Haitians who made a ‘pact with the devil’ hundreds of years ago to get rid of the French.

Pat Robertson has at best a tenuous grasp of history, or he simply doesn’t like the idea of uppity black folk, or both. For Pat Robertson, the Haitian Revolution had nothing to do with African slaves revolting against one of the most hellish slave colonies ever to have existed, overthrowing their French oppressors and establishing the first black republic in the world. The poverty in Haiti is completely unrelated to the economic blockades and imposed reparations crippling the country for centuries – imposed by God-fearing Christians of Europe and the United States.

No, Pat Robertson apparently believes that Haiti was ‘under the heel of the French, ah, Napoleon the Third and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact with the devil. They said, we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story!’

Why let pesky facts such as Napoleon the Third wasn’t even born until four years after the Haitian Revolution and the establishment of an independent Haiti stand in the way of a ‘true story’? He then compounds his demonstration of colossal ignorance and bigotry by a comparison of ‘desperately poor’ Haiti and the Dominican Republic, ‘prosperous, healthy, full of resorts…’ The Spanish colonized the Dominican Republic which tried to gain independence in 1821, but was invaded and occupied by Haitian military for the next twenty three years, and has suffered its own bloody history of tyrannical rulers and political upheaval. But, hey! It’s got resorts on it, the sort favoured by fat, rich, white men with pockets full of viagra.

It would be laughable, if it weren’t so sinister. He’s smart enough to know he’s stepped in the merde big time, and is backpedalling furiously, if somewhat lamely. Well, ya see, Pat was misunderstood, Chris Roslin, Spokesman for CBN on his website is insisting; it’s all because of this guy called Boukman Dutty who presided over a voodoo ceremony at Bois Caiman in 1791, where Haitian slave ‘made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. This history, combined with the horrible state of the country, has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed. Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath…’

Oh, Chris. You’re really not helping the man any. ‘Countless scholars?’ Name one. Preferably one who’s graduated from somewhere a bit more highly regarded for intellectual rigour and impartiality than Regent University, which apparently doesn’t actually have a History department. But of course, Pat Robertson’s perception of voodoo has its basis more in old Boris Karloff films than any comprehensive anthropological studies. Which apparently Regent doesn’t offer, either. (Regent does offer an MBA specializing in marketing and business programmes as well as animation, cinema-television, theatre and media studies along with its primary theological degrees. None of these, however, would I consider as a basis of expertise in history for those ‘countless’ scholars). But then, this is a man who believes yoga is evil. Yup, you read that correctly – yoga.

Our Kid has written an excellent post on her academic blog, which goes into far more detail of the ambulatory ignorant ignominy that is Pat Robertson. At the risk of being accused of nepotism, check it out anyway – it’s a good compendium of Robertson’s demented declarations over the years – from his blaming 9/11 on pagans, feminists, the ACLU, and homosexuals who made God mad. Everyone except Muslim terrorists using planes as a political method to protest American policy in the Middle East. Katrina was the fault of abortionists and Ellen Degeneres. Not a hurricane. Sharon’s stroke and Rabin’s assassination, that’s the UN and Europe’s fault for arguing with Israel, which for some reason pissed off God… the logic behind I’m starting to have trouble following; you’d think a hurricane or an earthquake would knock over the UN building if God were that cheesed off.

And the just penalty for those of any religion except the true word of God According To Pat Robertson? Death.

Now, the rest of it I can laugh about, it’s too ludicrous to take too seriously. But we’ve seen what happens when those with the ear of the gullible and the fanatic preach intolerance. And those who pray for death as a fitting punishment for those of any religion but the ‘true faith’ cannot stand back and claim their hands are clean and their conscience clear. They cannot preach bigotry and fanaticism and buy their way out with ‘humanitarian aid’ for the suffering – aid shackled to condemnation is not ‘humanitarian.’ They cannot be excused for being ‘delusional’ or ‘uncompromising’ or ‘pious’ or ‘misunderstood.’ Religion is not an excuse to give up one’s humanity, any more than National Socialism was. Those who preach death and intolerance in the name of God – anybody’s God – are no better than those who egged on the suicide terrorists who slammed planes full of innocent people into buildings.

Haiti has been devastated by an earthquake. Not the hand the God, not the wrath the devil. New Zealand also lives in an earthquake zone – it could have been us instead. It could have California. It could have been Japan. It could have been Iran. It could have been anyone. That’s the thing about earthquakes – it’s just a disinterested shifting of geological tectonic plates that doesn’t give a damn who’s living on the fragile crust above.

But I say unto you, verily, we have seen the face of the devil. He’s peering out of the eyes and talking out of the mouth of a banal, old, white guy raking in millions of dollars from the loyal benighted fans of a televangelist talk show and preaching hatred and bigotry and death and calling it God’s love.

If the devil exists, he’s not in Haiti.

From Crooks and Liars

Thinking of Judy

2010-01-17T22:30:00.003-05:00

Forgive me Judy, I need a hug now that your gone.

I heard Judy Chamberlin speak in 1986 at an Alternatives Conference in South Carolina. It was my first Alternatives Con and I was almost overcome by the amount of survivors/mental patients/ex-patients that attended. 1,600 of us.

I was one of the small group of P.M.C.A. members that were there. Luckily Janet Foner was there to give us the scoop on who was who and who did what. After hearing Judy speak I asked Janet to introduce me to Judy. When I approached Judy later that night I tried to give Judy a warm friendly hug. I made a big mistake. She blew me off saying "please don't do that, it's not your fault, I don't do hugs." I found out later from Janet that Judy was so badly abused during her time in the mental health system she couldn't stand being touched by strangers.

That seemed very weird to me at the time because I once did three days in a seclusion room for hugging a friend who was having a bad day when we were on the tenth floor of WPIC. They called it sexual stimulation.

Some of Judy's Accomplishments and Awards.

Her book and some of her Ideas helped Jack Barry and myself found WellSpring Drop-In Center.

Psychiatric Survivor - Judi is a psychiatric survivor and a long-time activist in the survivor/consumer/ex-patient movement. She is a co-founder of the Ruby Rogers Advocacy and Drop-In Center, a self-help center run by and for people who have received psychiatric services, and she is a staff associate with the National Empowerment Center. Judi has been a devotedNARPA member since the organization's earliest days.

Author - Judi is the author of On Our Own: Patient Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System, which was originally published in 1978 and has recently been republished in Britain and Italy. She has also written numerous articles about the movement, self-help and patients' rights.

Consultant - Judi is currently affiliated with the Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation where she directs a research project on user-run self-help services. She is also on the staff at the National Empowerment Center.

Activist - Judi is a long-time board member of NARPA and the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems (NAPAS). Other boards and committees on which she serves include: the Massachusetts Mental Health State Planning Council; the Disability Law Center Governing Board; the Coalition for the Legal Rights of People with Disabilities; and the Consumer/Survivor Mental Health Research and Policy Work Group.

Speaker/Lecturer - Judi has spoken at conferences and meetings throughout the U.S. and has appeared on many radio and television programs such as Oprah, Sally-Jessy Raphael andGeraldo, discussing the topics of self-help and patients' rights. Her international appearances include Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Sweden, Holland, Portugal, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Awards - In 1992, Judi was awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the President of the United States by the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. She also received the David J. Vail National Advocacy Award and the 1995 Pike Prize, which honors those who have given outstanding service to people with disabilities.

Here is a little song that Janet Foner taught us a long time ago.

The Hug song

I wanna hug when you say hello
I wanna hug when it's time to go
I wanna hug because everyone knows
Hugging is good for you
I wanna hug, it's a wonderful feeling
Wanna hug, it helps with (it's part of) the healing
Wanna hug, because hugging feels
Like a natural thing to do

Doctor Dan, he's a friendly man, big and round like a bear
He hugs his friends, they hug him - any time, anywhere
Now the patients came for therapy to drive their blues away
And sooner or later they would feel better when they heard Dan say

When the boss of the hospital heard about this he was most annoyed
He said, Hugging is sexual sublimation - according to Doctor Freud
You can hide them, you can keep them down you can calm them with your drugs
You can slap them, zap them with electric shocks, but you can't give them a hug

He said, Now Dan you'll have to go, this behaviour is no good
Any deviation from the medical practice could easily get us sued
Now Dan doesn't feel too bad for himself, in fact he's kind of proud
But he's sorry for the folks who are locked away where hugging's not allow

Judy's blog Life as a Hospice Patient

Sad news: Judi Chamberlin, mad movement leader, dies at 65

2010-01-17T14:53:00.001-05:00

Dear MindFreedom News list,

I received sad news this morning from several good friends of long-
time mad movement activist Judi Chamberlin in Massachusetts.

I'm sorry to provide this news to you all by e-mail, but last night
Judi died at the age of 65. I send my support to Judi's relatives and
friends, and everyone who admired and loved her.

Many were aware that she was in hospice for some time. True to the
amazing passionate and practical person she was, Judi had a hospice
activist blog you can find via Google at:

Judi Chamberlin hospice blog

Judi has been a good personal friend of mine since we met in Mental
Patients Liberation Front in 1976, and she has been a unifying leader
with so many organizations in our mad movement, including for many
years on the board of directors of MindFreedom International.

Judi has sometimes been called the "grandmother" of the mad movement,
beginning with her pioneering work for empowering alternatives for
mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors with her book "On
Our Own: Patient Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health
System" (1978).

I'm sure there will be information and remembrances soon about this
remarkable heroine and human being. While she was alive, Judi's
friends and relatives held a celebration of her life this past 20
August 2009.

When we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. on his holiday tomorrow, 18
January 2010, let's also remember all late leaders for a nonviolent
revolution in all justice movements, including Judi Chamberlin.

MAD PRIDE, JUDI, MAD PRIDE!

In support,

David W. Oaks, Executive Director
MindFreedom International
454 Willamette, Suite 216 - POB 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA

web: http://www.mindfreedom.org
email: oaks@mindfreedom.org
office phone: (541) 345-9106 fax: (480) 287-8833
member services toll free in USA: 1-877-MAD-PRID[e] or 1-877-623-7743

Unite for a Nonviolent Revolution in Mental Health.

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."
- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Satan's Letter to Pat

2010-01-15T16:52:00.002-05:00

From Daily Kos

Dear Pat Robertson,

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher.

The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake.

Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.

You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best, Satan

- LILY COYLE, MINNEAPOLIS

1 Million Meals For Haiti

2010-01-15T16:40:00.000-05:00

In the United States, hundreds of volunteers will be working through the weekend to prepare and package one million ready to eat meals to send to Haiti.

They will be diligently working from 12 noon – 10 pm Friday and 8 am – 8 pm Saturday at the El Dorado Convention Center in El Dorado, Kansas, to support Salvation Army relief efforts in Haiti.

These meals , courtesty of Numana Inc. (http://www.numanainc.com/), consist of rice, soy protein, freeze-dried vegetables and vitamins and can be cooked in boiling water. The one million meals will total more than 150,000 pounds once boxed! An additional 285,000 meals, also prepared by Numana Inc., are currently awaiting shipment from Des Moines, Iowa.

No time-table has been set for the delivery of the meals, but The Salvation Army is currently coordinating with other agencies to get these supplies where they are needed.

Thank you to Numana Inc., and all our volunteers who are working so hard to help make this possible!

For more information on what The Salvation Army is doing in Haiti, visit our national website atwww.salvationarmyusa.org, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

You can also donate directly to the Haiti relief effort:
• Online Credit Card Contributions or PayPal
• Text ‘HAITI’ to 52000
• Call 1-800-SAL-ARMY
• Mail a check or money order to:
The Salvation Army World Service Office
International Disaster Relief Fund
PO Box 630728
Baltimore, MD 21263-0728
*Please note that your donation is for Haiti Earthquake relief*

Rage Against The Machine-Freedom Live

2010-01-15T16:10:00.000-05:00

Rage Against The Machine / No Shelter

2010-01-15T16:07:00.000-05:00

THE NIGHTWATCHMAN (Tom Morello) "Road I Must Travel"

2010-01-15T15:51:00.000-05:00

Tony Norman - What the devil's up with Pat Robertson?

2010-01-15T15:18:00.001-05:00

By Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

During Wednesday's "The 700 Club," religious broadcaster Pat Robertson took the teachable moment provided by the tragedy in Haiti to school Kristi Watts, his African-American co-host, on the origin of that nation's chronic and cyclical misery.

"Something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about," the faith healer, false prophet and former business partner of African despots Charles Taylor and Mobutu Sese Seko said during his program's disaster relief fundraiser.

"They were under the heel of the French, you know, Napoleon III and, whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the [French].' True story," Mr. Robertson said with an inappropriate smile.

Meanwhile, Ms. Watts nodded like she's done a thousand times before. As long as their checks continue to clear, no one at "The 700 Club" is in a hurry to challenge the boss' grip on reality.

"And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal,'" the broadcaster said with the confidence of a man who refuses to recognize a fairy tale when he hears it. "The Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other."

This Faustian version of the Haitian revolution isn't documented in any history book, but the legend of Jean-Jacques Dessalines' pact with Satan initiated on Aug. 14, 1791, is a popular folk tale.

That Haitian legend involving Satan and voodoo rituals has about as much historical credibility as Yankee tall tales about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, or of Davy Crockett climbing rays of frozen sunlight to liberate the world from the coldest winter ever. So, why is a prominent American religious broadcaster quoting an urban myth as historical gospel?

When Ms. Watts looks back on that broadcast many years from now, she'll kick herself for not saying the things that would occur to any sentient person being confronted with such nonsense on live TV.

Instead of nodding her head, Kristi Watts should have taken the lead in an interrogation along these lines:

KW: Is the devil racist on top of everything else, Pat? Why do Haitians have to pay for their liberation in ways the American colonists who revolted against Britain didn't? We don't have this litany of disasters.

PR: The devil isn't racist, Kristi. That's crazy talk. Satan is a liar and a schemer, but he isn't racist. We can't throw around charges that aren't merited by the metaphysical facts. [He giggles uncontrollably.]

KW: I'm just saying -- American colonists were under the heel of the British, too. They had few resources with which to fight the greatest nautical and military power on Earth, yet they won. How do we know that the Founding Fathers didn't swear a pact with the devil, too?

PR: Because, Kristi, America was founded as a Christian nation. No voodoo was used. The founders treated their slaves compassionately, so there was no need for satanic revolts. Jesus gave America the Constitution, its wise gun laws and righteous men to lead it. Jesus loves America above all other nations.

KW: Didn't you and Rev. Jerry Falwell once say that 9/11 was God's punishment on this country for harboring abortionists and tolerating feminism and the homosexual agenda?

PR: Actually, Jerry said all that. I just nodded my head like an idiot.

KW: What about Hurricane Katrina? Didn't you once prophesy that the destruction of huge swaths of New Orleans was a manifestation of God's wrath?

PR: God moves in mysterious ways, Kristi. Even I can't explain all of the Lord's actions, though I do better than most. But you're missing the point...

KW: Isn't it arrogant for anyone, especially a guy with as dicey a record of predicting the future as you, to say anything about why God allows human suffering on such a massive scale?

PR: I detect a devil in you, young lady. The spirit of dissension is inhabiting your bones. Stand still so I can cast this demon out of you before it carries your soul to hell.

KW: [laughs] And you have the nerve to talk about Haitian voodoo? Please! You need an exorcist and a psychiatrist, Pat Robertson.

Tony Norman can be reached at tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631.

2010-01-15T15:09:00.001-05:00

Rush Limbaugh and his ilk watch the coverage of the overwhelming devastation in Haiti and see minorities. The rest of humanity watches and see people.

Teddy Pendergrass - Close The Door

2010-01-14T23:34:00.000-05:00

2010-01-14T21:53:00.000-05:00

Blackberry Addiction

2010-01-13T22:14:00.003-05:00

I got my BlackBerry Curve 8520 six months ago. Main reason is because I don't like those touch key pads like the ones on the Iphone and other newer cellphones. Big fingers like mine have problems with those little touch keys, found that out on my Itouch 16.

So, after these wonderful six months with the Curve I found that I am a BlackBerry Addict.

I got sucked in so easy, even after being drug free (except a little weed now and then since 82).

After I finished reading Under The Dome on my Kindle ( Kindle Addiction is bad as well) I decided to do something about it. Found this book CRACKBERRY: Trule Tales of BlackBerry Use and Abuse! Hopefully I will be free soon :)

Punxsutawney Phil Is Going To Text His Prediction This Year

2010-01-13T22:03:00.002-05:00

I know there is a tradition to uphold, and I enjoyed the movie, but groundhog texting? Do they even have thumbs?

Of course, the idea is to get the word out to the millions of crazy people out there that rely on a talking groundhog to predict the weather. If you are one of those people, text "Groundhog" to 247365. You will receive a reply on February 2nd. And, the good news is that Phil is fluent in both "groundhog-ese" and English, so you will have no problem absorbing his wisdom.

From Gizmodo.com

Does Phil really use an Iphone? Blackberrys are better ;) - wolf

2010-01-12T09:45:00.001-05:00

AT LEAST SOMEONE IS HAPPY -Penguins at the Pgh Zoo

2010-01-08T20:36:00.001-05:00

Red State Update Prays For Tiger Woods

2010-01-08T15:01:00.001-05:00

Rise of the New McCarthyism

2010-01-06T12:14:00.003-05:00

From People For The American Way

How Right Wing Extremists Try to Paralyze Government Through Ideological Smears and Baseless Attacks

On December 2, 1954, the U.S. Senate voted to censure Sen. Joseph McCarthy, bringing to an end four years of political intimidation and character assassination so ferocious that McCarthy’s name is still synonymous with a particularly destructive form of demagoguery.

McCarthy’s campaign against supposedly widespread communist infiltration of the U.S. government brought down sitting Senators and intimidated even President Eisenhower (who loathed McCarthy) and his advisors. McCarthy’s campaign was boosted by conservative think tanks, media figures, and clergy, and abetted for years by the unwillingness of most of his colleagues to stand up against his false charges and clear abuses of power.

McCarthy launched his campaign with a speech on February 9, 1950, in West Virginia, claiming to have a list of 205 people in the State Department known to be members of the Communist Party. He made similar claims, with shifting numbers, many times. McCarthy’s charges were inflammatory and false, and often sufficiently vague to resist any fact-checking. But his bluster and manipulation of the era’s fear of global communism allowed him to build power while destroying lives and careers.
McCarthy was eventually undone by his overreaching attacks on the U.S. Army; the televised Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954 finally exposed him to a wide audience as a malicious and irresponsible bully. A crucial moment in his reversal of fortune took place when the Army’s chief counsel Joseph Welch, responding to attacks on a young lawyer, put McCarthy in his place, saying, "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
Today, Joseph McCarthy’s ideological heirs in the Republican Party and right-wing media are using the language and tactics of McCarthy to stir fears that the nation is being destroyed by enemies from within. Republican Members of Congress and other GOP officials have not shown Welch’s concern for decency; instead they frequently act as an “amen chorus” to the far right’s demagogues or stay silent, hoping to reap political gain from the attacks on President Obama, administration officials and nominees, congressional democrats, and even military leaders.
Journalist Haynes Johnson, author of The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism, writes:
The shame of the Senate, especially the shame of its leaders and moderates on both sides of the aisle, was expressed by historian Robert Griffith when he wrote that McCarthy’s victories were made possible “only by the unwillingness of moderates to take a stand that might expose them to obloquy.” Perhaps, Griffith added, “this was the key to McCarthy’s continued power – not the ranting of demagogues, but the fear and irresolution of honorable men.”
Among McCarthy’s targets was President Harry Truman, whom he called a “dangerous liberal,” and the Democratic Party, of which he said during the 1952 campaign:
The Democratic label is now the property of men who have been unwilling to recognize evil or who bent to whispered pleas from the lips of traitors….
In fact, McCarthy was fond of referring to the “Democrat Party” – using the term as a slur. The refusal to use the correct term “Democratic Party” was so associated with McCarthy that it went out of style for decades, but the rhetorical tactic has been resurrected and embraced by the Karl Rove-Newt Gingrich-Frank Luntz Republican Party of today.
McCarthy tactics then and now
From 1953 to 1955, McCarthy held 117 hearings and even more closed-door interrogations, witch hunts for subversives that thrived on guilt by association: someone had worked for a union, dates a communist, been in a book club that read a book by Marx. Author Johnson writes that reviewing the transcripts of those sessions made it clear that McCarthy, in addition to guilt by association and character assassination, was engaged in an “obsessive hunt for homosexuals,” hounded writers, artists, and composers, attacked the reputations of military leaders.
Today’s McCarthyism has many faces and voices, including the household names of right-wing cable television, a plethora of radio hosts, Religious Right leaders, right-wing organizations and the bogus “grassroots” campaigns they generate – and Members of Congress and other Republican Party officials. Together they engage in character assassination and challenge the loyalty and patriotism of their targets.
Fox's Glenn Beck, who reaches millions of Americans with his televised tirades, has become an almost cartoonish McCarthy clone, with his guilt-by-association charts supposedly detailing the communist connections of White House officials.
Dangerous “elites” subverting the national interest
McCarthy inflamed fears that the nation was being destroyed by enemies from within:
The reason we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because the enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who had all the benefits that the wealthiest nation on earth has had to offer – the finest homes, the finest college educations, and the finest jobs in Government (and the private sector) we can give.
Sound familiar? The attack on sinister Ivy League-educated elites is one of the essential rhetorical tools of far-right pundits and Republican politicians like Sarah Palin. The most surreal example was Ivy-educated, investment banker, millionaire, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney railing against “eastern elites” at the 2008 Republican National Convention.
Republican smear campaigns often make use of this “elites vs. real Americans” theme. Here’s Curt Levey of the Committee for Justice, speaking to senators about then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court:
Remember the values of the regular folks who sent you to Washington. Don’t vote for a Supreme Court nominee whose values are closer to those of the intellectual elite than to those of your constituents.
McCarthy routinely accused his opponents of subverting the national interest. Typical was his characterization of Truman’s Secretary of State Dean Acheson as someone “who steadfastly serves the interests of nations other than his own.”
That’s a staple of right-wing rhetoric today. Sen. Inhofe criticized President Obama’s speech in the Middle East by saying “I just don’t know whose side he’s on.” Earlier this year, Sen. Mitch McConnell slammed President Obama’s plans to close Guantanamo, saying that it was “to make us popular in Europe.” And Religious Right godfather James Dobson said at this year’s Council for National Policy gathering, “our president seems to believe in peace through appeasement” and compared him to Neville Chamberlain. “We’re in greater danger right now than at any time since the civil war,” said Dobson.
These characterizations have extended to a number of Obama administration executive and judicial branch nominees. For example, Dawn Johnsen, a widely respected legal scholar whose nomination to the Office of Legal Counsel has been held up for almost a year in spite of bipartisan support from the legal community and her home state senators, has infuriated right-wing pundits and politicians for her outspoken criticism of Bush administration efforts to legally justify torture. For taking a strong rule-of-law stance, she has been pilloried as an enemy of America’s national security. National Review’s Andrew McCarthy, for example, calls her a “radical’s radical.”
Another target is Judge Edward Chen, who has been nominated to a seat on the Northern District of California. The right-wing Washington Times editorial page opened its hatchet job on Chen with the sentence, "Another day, another Obama nominee who doesn't appear to love America." For its 'evidence,' the editorial cites comments Chen made in the wake of the 9-11 attacks worrying about potential recriminations for Muslim Americans.
Communism, Socialism, “Obamunism”
McCarthy frightened many Americans with charges that the government was infested with communist sympathizers. His current-day acolytes have made charges long considered beyond the pale of political discourse – comparisons of President Obama and other administration officials with tyrannical figures like Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Chairman Mao – so frequently that they are losing their shock value. Former and likely future presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is among many who have called Obama a socialist, and said of the Obama budget, “Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff.”
The same is true of charges that the Obama administration and congressional democratic leaders are communists, socialists, and/or fascists bent on destroying capitalism and the market economy and imposing a socialist dictatorship in America. Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia has compared Obama to Hitler, called Obama and Democratic congressional leaders a “socialistic elite” and warned that they’re planning to create a pretext to declaring martial law. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) warned of 17 socialists in Congress. Rep. Michele Bachmann has called the health care reform bill “the crown jewel of socialism.” The Traditional Values Coalition has warned that “Obamunism must be stopped.”
Van Jones, founder of Color of Change and a leading advocate of using “green” technologies to bring jobs to de-industrialized American cities, resigned from his position as a White House advisor after a fierce campaign against him by right-wing pundits who denounced him as a communist.Jones’ resignation was like blood in the water to Glenn Beck and others who have launched a series of smear campaigns against Obama administration officials and nominees.
Among the most recent targets is presidential advisor Valerie Jarrett, a longtime associate of the president’s. A group calling itself Americans for Limited Government has launched a campaign against her, claiming that her role is “to enforce Barack Obama’s will inside and outside the Obama White House” and saying:
A radical leftist with a ruthless agenda, she is the Obama advisor most responsible both for originating and orchestrating his most egregious attempts to impose a socialist regime upon the American people.
Former Senator Rick Santorum has accused the Obama administration and its allies of being so committed to imposing socialism in America that they are scheming to destroy churches and families:
Santorum said that the left's policies, especially those policies aggressively set forward by the Obama administration, target the family and Christian churches for "destruction," because these institutions provide local social networks and support for individuals that take away the need for total dependence on central government. To eliminate these social networks means the triumph of socialism, and that means attacking marriage and Christian churches.
"There will be an assault on the institution of marriage," Santorum promised his audience. "Why? Because the left knows that they can't really have government come in and take control of everything unless they destroy the family. Unless you destroy the family and destroy the Church they cannot ultimately be successful in getting socialism to be accepted in this country and that's what their objective is."
Guilt by Association
McCarthy was a master of guilt by association, smearing individuals as enemies of the country based on any association however indirect or tenuous, with a suspect organization, newspaper or other publication, labor union, or individual. Criticism of McCarthy’s tactics was itself evidence: his targets included not only communists, pro-communists, and former communists, but also “anti-anti-communists.”
Today’s McCarthyite right abounds with guilt-by-association attacks. In fact Glenn Beck has made a sort of art form out of them.
After right-wing activists engineered a public humiliation of the group ACORN, right-wing leaders have tried to use any relationship with the organization’s decades of organizing on behalf of poor people as a disqualification for public service. Attacks on widely respected judicial nominee David Hamilton treated his one-month job as a canvasser for ACORN thirty years ago when he was 22 years old as if it had constituted a major portion of his career. Upstate New York Republican Deidre Scozzafava, whose candidacy in a special congressional election was derailed by a revolt led by national right-wing leaders, was criticized by Human Events this way:
State Assemblywoman Deidre “Dede” Scozzafava, the New York House candidate has been re-elected several times on the ballot line of the Empire State’s far-left Working Families Party, one of whose co-founders is ACORN.
And this fall, four Republican Members of Congress launched a witch hunt against Muslim interns on Capitol Hill, warning that they may be “spies.” The interns-as-spies media scare and the role of Republican members of Congress in fanning it drew a strong rebuke from Democratic Reps. Michael Honda (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), chairs of the Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Black Caucus, and the Hispanic Caucus, respectively.
An “obsessive hunt for homosexuals”
McCarthy and his subcommittee’s investigator Roy Cohn did not only target people for destruction based on alleged communist sympathies; they also hunted for homosexuals in government service. In a striking parallel, right-wing leaders, dismayed and outraged by growing public support for legal equality for LGBT Americans, have used public debates over marriage equality to attack gay people as enemies of faith, family, and freedom, and they are engaged in ongoing smear campaigns against openly gay Obama administration officials and nominees.
Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, is an openly gay man who has long been an advocate for making public schools safe spaces for all students, including gay students. That’s been enough to make him the target of a sustained smear campaign from the right, complete with bogus guilt-by-association charges. Sean Hannity and others have attacked Jennings for saying in a speech that he was inspired by Harry Hay, who is widely considered to be among the founders of the gay-rights movement and was not, as Jennings’ critics have implied, a member of NAMBLA. Equating gay-rights advocates with pedophiles is an extremely unsavory and long-discredited right-wing tactic that has made a recent comeback on the McCarthyite right. Among the many charges against Jennings is that he encouraged a gay teenager who confided in him to be careful if he were to become sexually active. Anti-gay Rep. Steve King released a letter signed by 53 other Republican members alleging that Jennings had “ignored the sex abuse of a child” as a teacher, long after the allegations had been debunked and a week after Fox News had acknowledged that the “child” in the case was a teenager of legal age.
Chai Feldblum, a legal scholar who has been nominated to serve as a commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, is facing an onslaught from the far right. Typical is this broadside from National Organization for Marriage Chairman Robert George:
Feldblum intends to use her position of influence as EEOC commissioner to force private institutions to follow her radical vision of society, through the enforcement of aggressive and intrusive employment non-discrimination laws.

Attacks on military leaders
McCarthy attacked Gen. George Marshall, Truman’s Secretary of Defense, for being engaged in a “great conspiracy, a conspiracy on a scale so immense as to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man. A conspiracy of infamy so black that, when it is finally exposed, its principles shall be forever deserving of the maledictions of all honest men.”
What is the objective of the great conspiracy? I think it is clear from what has occurred and is now occurring: to diminish the United States in world affairs, to weaken us militarily, to confuse our spirit with talk of surrender in the Far East and to impair our will to resist evil.
Earlier this year, journalist Greg Sargent, reviewing attacks by GOP leaders on Obama administration national security policies, such as the closing of the detention facility in Guantanamo, that are supported by a number of former Republican national security officials and military officials, concluded:
It’s a clear sign that Obama’s national security positions (for good or for ill) are squarely in the mainstream of the D.C. Defense establishment. And it shows that the GOP’s need to attack those positions has forced Republican officials outside that mainstream, isolating them further and putting them at odds with its onetime allies in that establishment.
Pennsylvania Rep. Daryl Metcalfe recently demonstrated that he has perfected the new McCarthyism by blasting veterans who disagree with his opposition to climate change legislation as traitors.
“As a veteran, I believe that any veteran lending their name, to promote the leftist propaganda of global warming and climate change, in an effort to control more of the wealth created in our economy, through cap and tax type policies, all in the name of national security, is a traitor to the oath he or she took to defend the Constitution of our great nation!” Mr. Metcalfe’s email reads. “Remember Benedict Arnold before giving credibility to a veteran who uses their service as a means to promote a leftist agenda. Drill Baby Drill!!!”
Where it all leads
Haynes Johnson reports that Harry Truman spoke against “lies and slander” by “scaremongers and hatemongers” in a 1951 speech:
Character assassination is their stock in trade. Guilt by association is their motto. They have created such a wave of fear and uncertainty that their attacks upon our liberties go almost unchallenged. Many people are growing frightened – and frightened people panic.
It is clear that right-wing operatives, including the well-heeled forces behind “grassroots” uprisings against health care reform, are all about sowing fear – fear about the Obama administration, fear about his “socialist” agenda, fear about the supposed march from liberty to tyranny.
Even at the height of McCarthy’s power, some of his Republican colleagues, people like Maine Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, were willing to criticize his destructive campaign. Today, most GOP officials, when not actively participating in the fearmongering, are welcoming it as a means, they hope, of returning to power in 2010 and 2012. They are seemingly unconcerned about the destructive consequences of their fearmongering and the panic, potentially violent, it may encourage.

Obama Administration Hits Back At Cheney HARD

2009-12-31T01:27:00.000-05:00

The Same Old Washington Blame Game

Posted by Dan Pfeiffer on December 30, 2009 at 03:34 PM EST

There has been a lot of discussion online and in the mainstream media about our response to various critics of the President, specifically former Vice President Cheney, who have been coming out of the woodwork since the incident on Christmas Day. I think we all agree that there should be honest debate about these issues, but it is telling that Vice President Cheney and others seem to be more focused on criticizing the Administration than condemning the attackers. Unfortunately too many are engaged in the typical Washington game of pointing fingers and making political hay, instead of working together to find solutions to make our country safer.

First, it’s important that the substantive context be clear: for seven years after 9/11, while our national security was overwhelmingly focused on Iraq – a country that had no al Qaeda presence before our invasion – Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda's leadership was able to set up camp in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they continued to plot attacks against the United States. Meanwhile, al Qaeda also regenerated in places like Yemen and Somalia, establishing new safe-havens that have grown over a period of years. It was President Obama who finally implemented a strategy of winding down the war in Iraq, and actually focusing our resources on the war against al Qaeda – more than doubling our troops in Afghanistan, and building partnerships to target al Qaeda’s safe-havens in Yemen and Somalia. And in less than one year, we have already seen many al Qaeda leaders taken out, our alliances strengthened, and the pressure on al Qaeda increased worldwide.

To put it simply: this President is not interested in bellicose rhetoric, he is focused on action. Seven years of bellicose rhetoric failed to reduce the threat from al Qaeda and succeeded in dividing this country. And it seems strangely off-key now, at a time when our country is under attack, for the architect of those policies to be attacking the President.

Second, the former Vice President makes the clearly untrue claim that the President – who is this nation’s Commander-in-Chief – needs to realize we are at War. I don’t think anyone realizes this very hard reality more than President Obama. In his inaugural, the President said “our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred.” In a recent speech, Assistant to the President for Terrorism and Homeland Security John Brennan said “Instead, as the president has made clear, we are at war with al-Qaida, which attacked us on 9/11 and killed 3,000 people. We are at war with its violent extremist allies who seek to carry on al-Qaida’s murderous agenda. These are the terrorists we will destroy; these are the extremists we will defeat.” At West Point, the President told the nation why it was “in our vital national interest” to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to fight the war in Afghanistan, adding that as Commander in Chief, “I see firsthand the terrible wages of war.” And at Oslo, in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, the President said, “We are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land.”

There are numerous other such public statements that explicitly state we are at war. The difference is this: President Obama doesn’t need to beat his chest to prove it, and – unlike the last Administration – we are not at war with a tactic (“terrorism”), we at war with something that is tangible: al Qaeda and its violent extremist allies. And we will prosecute that war as long as the American people are endangered.

Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director

One Year Later, Palestinians Live in Rubble While Israel Blocks Aid

2009-12-29T01:25:00.003-05:00

From Crooks & Liars

One year after Israel launched its three-week offensive in Gaza that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and damaged or destroyed over 50,000 homes in a campaign aimed at stopping Hamas rocket fire, the survivors are still living in rubble. And it is not for want of money that thousands of residents of the coastal enclave remain homeless this winter: Moved by the plight of Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians who were already reeling from a two-and-a-half year economic siege imposed by Israel with help from Egypt and the U.S. even before Israel's air and ground assault had begun, international donors earlier this year pledged over $4.5 billion to repair war damages. But that aid has failed to reach Gaza, according to Palestinians and relief agencies who accuse Israel of imposing Kafkaesque rules that bar entry to vital reconstruction materials and items as bizarre as glass, most schoolbooks, honey and family-sized tubs of margarine.

Says Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations' Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), "Because the Israelis are not allowing in any reconstruction material, that $4.5 billion is just a paper figure." With over 80% of Gazans now surviving on humanitarian handouts from UNRWA, Gunness adds,"Palestinians are becoming more desperate and more extreme."

Relief officials estimate that Gaza needs 40,000 tons of cement and 25,000 tons of iron to start repairing the homes, hospitals, schools and shops destroyed during Israel's offensive. But so far, according to GISHA, an Israeli legal rights group, the Israelis have allowed only 19 trucks carrying construction material into Gaza since the war ended last January. "You could say that Israel has bombed Gaza back into the mud age," says UNRWA's Gunness, "because that's what they're building their houses out of now — mud."

Without parts to replace machinery damaged in the war, 97% of Gaza's factories have shut down, raising unemployment to over 43%. With scarce sources of income, many Gazans would probably starve if not for food handouts from the U.N. and other agencies. Over 40,000 Gazans have no electricity, 10,000 have no running water in their homes, and because Israel bans entry of the spare parts needed to run its sewage treatment plant, every day 87 million liters of sewage is dumped into the Mediterranean (which washes up on Israel's beaches, too.)

Although the international community occasionally protests Gaza's ongoing tragedy, so far no real pressure has been applied on Israel to loosen its stranglehold. One senior official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government recently confided to a U.N. colleague that Israel's goal for Gaza was: "No development, no prosperity, no humanitarian crisis." The U.N. official interpreted that to mean that Israel would provide Gaza with an intravenous drip of relief to keep its 1.5 million inhabitants alive, but just barely, in hopes that the people would overthrow the Hamas government they voted into power in the last Palestinian elections. But that hasn't happened yet, nor is it likely to; Hamas smuggles arms, money and supplies into Gaza through tunnels from Egypt, and, increasingly, joining the militants has become the only source of a monthly wage for young males. In the meantime, said John Ging, UNRWA's chief officer in Gaza, the Israeli siege is "facilitating the destruction of a civilized society." Before the siege Palestinians in Gaza prided themselves on the excellence of their schools and industriousness of their workforce, many of whom, in more peaceful times, found jobs across the fence in Israel.

2009-12-21T08:07:00.000-05:00

The Christians and the Pagans - Dar Williams

2009-12-11T11:07:00.000-05:00

Thank you for your service

2009-12-04T19:00:00.000-05:00

What does service mean these days, and how do you show genuine respect in these polarized political times?

by ginmar

"Thank you for your service."

If you're a soldier, you get this all the time. Sometimes it's a blatant dodge; I've had conservatives trot this out after bashing me, as if trying to cover their asses for treatment that they dish out only to liberals. (Conservatives also invariably try and separate you from the group, another sure sign that they're up to no good.) But soldiers are sacrosanct, so even while they disrespect liberal soldiers and the very notion that there can be liberal soldiers, they feel some twinge of...something. Not guilt, because there's no such thing as guilt to people as sublimely untroubled as this, but maybe fear of exposure. I mean, if people really are so grateful for soldiers' service, why was John Kerry hung out to dry when his opponents were so obviously biased, untruthful, and sloppy?

Service is an interesting conundrum politically, because the service rates of conservatives and liberals differ so markedly, and because talking the talk as a substitute for walking the walk is harder and harder these days, with the internet serving as a kind of user-friendly archeolgical dig. Bill Clinton didn't want to serve in Viet Nam, and got ridiculed for it: George W. Bush avoided service by means that remain mysterious to this day, and don't you dare apply to his service the same vicious tactics that were used on a genuine hero like Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. More to the point, Kerry quietly and honorably---along with the late Teddy Kennedy---went to every funeral of every Massachusetts soldier who fell during the Bush administration.

Bush never went to a single one.

Soldiers, you see, have this thing about other soldiers. I served with too many soldiers---white, black, yellow, red, gay, straight, married, divorced, conservative and liberal----who found out that when the shit hit the fan all that demographic stuff didn't matter nearly as much as the fact as you had a buddy by your side, experiencing the same hell. And maybe you wouldn't be buddies in the real world back home without the military, but once you go through it, it's the rare battle buddy indeed that turns their back on those they served with. And, yes, that includes conservatives, for the most part, because again---real life has a tendency to temper those black-and-white opinions. If the other soldier who saves your ass is gay or Muslim, it might just give you pause about making that gay or Middle Eastern joke. And expecting that of your fellow soldiers gives you an idea of how the military's training doesn't make the troops into quite the cold-blooded killers of popular myth and movie. Like or not, you go through a war and come home and it's that type of honor that you find lacking in civilian life. Only your buddies can provide it, whatever they are.

People looking into the military with an agenda know this, of course. They know this just as surely as they know that if they put black and white guys together in stressful times, barriers are going to fall and friendships are going to form, just as if you put men and women together under a good commander you'll see the same thing. Ironically, the military--this machine of war---does an awful lot to promote friendship at least in the ranks, and if only we could bottle it and spread it around. Familiarity doesn't breed contempt; it breeds compassion.

Yet fewer and fewer Americans know anybody who's in the military these days. Immigrants have always seen the deal that the military offers and seized it, while native born Americans seem a bit squeamish about the notion that they dirty their hands with hard unglamorous labor.

The public suspects what we do, but it also fears it. That fear is fed by movies that depict the satire or savagery of war, but find it hard to show the true measure of, say, what you'd call in civilian terms---supervisors or bosses. I've never had civilian bosses as good as I've had high-ranking souls in the Army treat me, and being respected gets to be addictive after a while. It also tends to make you perform at a higher level as well. You can't fake that kind of regard, and soldiers are used to a level of comeraderie that most civilians don't ever get to see.

So the public looks in and doesn't know what to make of all the conflicting stories, and we've moved on from the times when there was a soldier in every family. Nowadays, we have an all-volunteer service, which means people want to be there, often out of need. What often happens is that we join for one need and find another. The allure of brother- or sister-hood is extremely powerful once you get a taste of it.

When I went to Basic Training, I was the second-oldest female there and something of an object of curiosity amongst the teens who formed the majority of my platoon. Our drills were all male so there was quite the interesting clash of gender roles and resistance for a while. Sexism does work for some women, as long as they're willing to sacrifice a true connection with other women and men. (If you want to see real hatred of men, go check out conservative women. If you're not a six-foot-tall macho man who kills and skins deer with your bare hands and disdains diaper changing, you're not a man to the likes of Phyllis Schlafly, etc, etc.,)

You can't really connect to other people if you think of them in terms of, say, checklists of items that they have to fulfill, and so when at Basic a young female soldier propositioned another drill from another company via mash note, I expected to see her ripped apart by the drill as a disobedient soldier at best. She was my battle buddy, and so I was present there in the office as a witness to the sort of meeting occasioned in so many different ways by the very gender roles I was only mistily aware of at the time.

My drills were a short, red-faced redneck who bluntly had identified himself as a former drinker, a genial Hispanic NCO who was the most relaxed of the three, and a black NCO who managed to be both a dandy---at FTX, no less---and yet a stern taskmaster as well. Conducting the meeting that day in the office was the first drill, a man who I had not yet had time to assess, but by that time I'd had plenty of experience with men in the real world and knew what to expect when the subject was, say, sex and women. Or so I thought.

The drill showed the private the note and asked her gently if she'd written it---something that had been quite clearly forbidden during orientation. (One of the things that shocked me during the initial briefings was seeing men discuss, say, menstruation and sexual desires in a stressful environment and how to handle both. I wasn't used to what I'd call regular guys treating such things---and by extension, women---in such a matter-of-fact, non slut-shaming kind of way.)

When she admitted that she'd written it, the drill squared his shoulders and looked from me to her, then fixed on her. "Private, I want to ask you something, and I want you to be honest. I'm tryin' to help you here. All right?" All of this was said, by the way, in the deepest cracker accent possible, a roller coaster of luxurious cadences that would have led a biased viewer to a rather negative view of the speaker. If so, they'd be wrong.

"Private, have you been messed with before you came here?"

To make a long story short, she had, and the drill got her counseling while obeying the regulations. It's that kind of imagination and compassion that make you bond with your fellow soldiers, and it's that kind of thing that is glaringly missing from when conservatives talk about John Kerry or some other liberal soldier. It's been missing from far too many interactions that I personally have had with various entities from the VA, yet repeatedly when I've talked to even the lowliest civilian pencil pusher from the Army I've been driven nearly to the point of tears by the compassion. Who's serving whom here?

"Thank you for your service."

Well, um....You know, some of us want to serve, to do good things for others anonymously, to be part of a cause, and those who serve alongside us are often the most sincere in their respect. Those who've been through the shit of course know what it's like, so it's glaring and obvious when the phrase is used in the manner of, "No offense, but...." or "I'm not blaming the victim, but...."

What one might run up against while using the phrase is the frank discomfort of many on the receiving end. The military is not a monolith, and so some soldiers admit frankly they didn't so much serve as hang out, chill, and pass the time. They might not want to pretend otherwise. Do we judge the service level and proportion our gratitude? Or do we offer the same thing to one and all? Is that appropriate? Who asks? Who answers? How, in the end, do we honor those who serve?

I don't know how to answer that, because I've only got vague feelings of discomfort with the phrase to offer---and the far firmer opinion that people who really are grateful for service don't act the way conservatives have acted toward liberal service members. It seems to me that people are often deeply uncomfortable with the idea that soldiers---whether they be Pat Tillman or Lyndie England---come from the same towns and communities as the rest of the population, and that when we do extraordinary things one has to ask why others do not come from those same small towns and pick up the load as well. People respect soldiers uneasily, often, and, and as long as that unease exists, so, too, will ignorance about what we do, how we really do it, and what it does to us.

Maybe, just maybe, the way to respect someone's service is to find a new phrase for every soldier, to spare a moment of one's day in thinking up a conversation that doesn't include any one-size-fits-all phrases. Maybe the best way to respect us is to ask how our day's going, what it consists of, and what we need. Those who serve, it turns out, might one day need that favor returned. When you say, "Thank you for your service," It's almost, in some hands, like a tip on a check in a restaurant. And we all know about bad tippers, right? Do we get to make demands? Do we get to set the rate? What's the going rate on respect?

And that, it turns out, is one of the few services that cannot be done for you. You have to come to that answer on your own. All I can do is point out that respect is evident, as noted above, amongst service members. Beyond that, it's up to you.

2009-11-18T08:21:00.001-05:00

Dithering

2009-11-18T08:10:00.002-05:00

by BarbinMD

For the past several weeks, the usual suspects have been attacking President Obama for not making a decision on troop levels in Afghanistan quickly enough for their warmongering taste. And despite the fact that whatever the ultimate decision is, additional troops won't be deployed until next spring, they continue to insist that a decision must be made now.

Here are just a few examples from the WMD-mushroom cloud-cakewalk-in-Iraq crowd: we have the "dithering" Dick Cheney suddenly concerned about our troops being in danger, John "President Wannabe" McCain still wanting tobomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb something, and Charles Krauthammerwho has taken it upon himself to decide how a president must act -- which would presumably fall somewhere between himself and Attila the Hun.

And in a class(less) by himself is Bill Kristol, the lead cheerleader for the war in Iraq, who unbelievably says:

... what the White House thinks in the sense that they think it's an excrutiating decision, it's very tough. I think that's pathetic ... why is this a tough call?

Why is this a tough call? As we have learned over the past six years, there are thousands of reasons.

2,266 Veterans Died In 2008 Because They Were Uninsured

2009-11-11T18:54:00.000-05:00

The Huffington Post | Elyse Siegel

According to a study released by the Harvard Medical School, 2,266 veterans under the age of 65 died last year as a result of not having health insurance. Researchers emphasize that "that figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001."

The 1.46 million working-age veterans that did not have health insurance last year all experienced reduced access to care as a consequence, leading to "six preventable deaths a day."

Like other uninsured Americans, most uninsured vets are working people -- too poor to afford private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VA care," said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a professor at Harvard Medical School. [...]

Dr. David Himmelstein, the co-author of the report and associate professor of medicine at Harvard, commented, "On this Veterans Day we should not only honor the nearly 500 soldiers who have died this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also the more than 2,200 veterans who were killed by our broken health insurance system. That's six preventable deaths a day."

The study's authors warn that the health care legislation "would do virtually nothing for the uninsured until 2013" and would "leave at least 17 million uninsured over the long run when reform kicks in," leaving many veterans still without care.

Tom Coburn Continues To Oppose Funding For Wounded Veterans And Their Families

2009-11-11T18:43:00.000-05:00

by BarbinMD

Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 10:22:03 AM PST

On a day set aside to honor all military veterans, let's take a moment to remember Tom Coburn (R-OK) -- no, not for his military service, because hereally lucked out on the draft lottery in 1969 -- but for his one-man roadblockagainst:

... assistance to caregivers of veterans, to improve the provision of health care to veterans, and for other purposes.

... otherwise known as the Caregiver and Veterans Services Act of 2009, that can't get to the Senate floor because of the hold placed on the bill by Coburn.

Because while Coburn may wave a flag and have a properly pinned lapel when it suits him, he's not interested in the pleas from:

The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, AmVets, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Blinded Veterans Association, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vietnam Veterans of America, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and Jewish War Veterans, plus the Military Officers Association of America, National Military Family Association and Wounded Warrior Project.

... to get this bill passed, even though:

Thousands of disabled veterans with serious medical conditions and the family members who care for them are counting on this additional support. [...]
Steve Robertson, legislative director for The American Legion, said delaying the bill hurts families caring for severely wounded combat veterans who would benefit from the stipends, health care, counseling and respite care that would be provided to caregivers in the bill.
“For a lot of family caregivers, delay is costing them their jobs and their savings. It’s having a big impact,” he said.

So, what is Coburn's objection to the bill? He hates "the idea of creating new benefits without paying for them" and wants the funding to come out of the economic stimulus money.

Yesterday, Harry Reid (D-NV) called Coburn's stance "illogical" given that he never raised any objections "when we were spending a trillion dollars on the war in Iraq."

Which is a good point. One that Reid should make while making a motion to proceed to consideration of the bill, forcing Coburn to publicly filibuster against benefits for veterans, rather than continuing to allow him to hide like a coward behind his anonymous hold.

Update: From a VoteVets.org press release:

Over 13,000 petition signatures, raised in a matter of less than a week, were delivered to Senator Tom Coburn, calling on him to end his hold on a veterans spending bill. The petition, sponsored by VoteVets.org and retired General Wesley Clark's “Securing America,” calls on Coburn to end his hold on S. 1963, "The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009."
We the undersigned call on you to stop this disgraceful move of holding up some very important veteran legislation, S. 1963, "The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009." While this is a legal move, we think it is morally wrong for you to hold up any veterans benefits during a time when our men and women in uniform are giving so much to our country.
You are denying veterans a myriad of benefits and services ...
Now is not the time to play petty political games with our veterans. What you are doing is shameful, and those of us who are veterans and support veterans will not stand for it.

Outrage! GOP won't join in Ft. Hood moment of silence!

2009-11-11T18:41:00.000-05:00

by David Waldman

Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 12:50:04 PM PST

When Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) convened a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development yesterday, he asked everyone to join him in a moment of silence for the victims of the Ft. Hood shootings, and not a single Republican would join him!

Of course, that's probably because there wasn't a single Republican in attendance. (Gee, maybe I should have gone with that as a headline. Darn it all, it's Fox's world, we just live in it!)

And why wasn't there a single Republican in attendance, as near as I can make out at any point, throughout the two hours during which the committee sat?

Probably because of the subject of the hearing: "Ending Veterans' Homelessness."

Republicans, we know from Bill O'Reilly, do not believe there is such a thing as a homeless veteran. So they won't sit still for a hearing on something as absurd as that, nevermind that it was the day before Veterans' Day.

Watch the archived footage of the hearing for yourself, and see if you can spot so much as a scrap of paper on the table where the Republicans are supposed to be.

Little Steven - "Leonard Peltier"

2009-11-11T09:29:00.000-05:00

Pennsylvania state lawmaker: Veterans who support climate change legislation are ‘traitors.’

2009-10-20T18:21:00.002-04:00

I don't like being called Traitor or the rest of what this guy stands for. Dump State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe

From Think Progress

A coalition of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, under the name Operation Free, is on a 21-state bus tour to alert the public about the dangers of global warming and itsthreat to national security. Upon hearing about the group’s visit to Pennsylvania, State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R) blasted the veterans as “traitors” and compared them to Benedict Arnold:

“As a veteran, I believe that any veteran lending their name, to promote the leftist propaganda of global warming and climate change, in an effort to control more of the wealth created in our economy, through cap and tax type policies, all in the name of national security, is a traitor to the oath he or she took to defend the Constitution of our great nation!” Mr. Metcalfe’s email reads. “Remember Benedict Arnold before giving credibility to a veteran who uses their service as a means to promote a leftist agenda. Drill Baby Drill!!!”
Rep. Metcalfe, who served in the U.S. Army from 1980-84, today defended the remarks, saying that “if the type of policies that an individual promotes undermines the Constitution and the law of the land in our country, then they are not patriots.”

Global warming is inextricably linked to national security, with the potential to “aggravate existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions” around the world, which “could increase the pool of potential recruits into terrorist activity.” In the past, Metcalfe has refused to support Domestic Violence Awareness month in Pennsylvania because the resolution referenced domestic abuse suffered by men, which Metcalfe interpreted as part of a “homosexual agenda.” He also opposed a vote to “honor the 60th anniversary of a Muslim group in the state, because ‘Muslims don’t recognize Jesus Christ as God.’”

Reconsider Columbus Day

2009-10-12T05:40:00.001-04:00

Black NFL Players ‘Wouldn’t Play’ For Limbaugh’s Team: ‘He’s A Jerk’

2009-10-09T13:57:00.002-04:00

from Think Progress

Earlier this week, the media reported that hate radio host Rush Limbaugh is involved in a bid to purchase the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams franchise. Many sports media figures lambasted the idea of Limbaugh owning an NFL team, with one writer saying it “would definitely hurt” the Rams while another said his “head exploded after hearing this Limbaugh news” because he is “a pungent bowl of stark raving bigoted lunacy.”

Now, the players themselves are piling on. Specifically, many African-American players have explicitly stated that they would never play for a team that Rush Limbaugh owns. “All I know is from the last comment I heard, he said in (President) Obama’s America, white kids are getting beat up on the bus while black kids are chanting ‘right on,’” New York Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka told the New York Daily News, adding, “I don’t want anything to do with a team that he has any part of.” Other black players expressed similar sentiments:

[New York Jets linebacker Bart] Scott says players remember what Limbaugh said [about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donavan McNabb], and adds that the NFL would be wise not to allow the nationally syndicated host into the league.
“It’s an oxymoron that he criticized Donovan McNabb,” Scott said. “A lot of us took it as more of a racial-type thing. I can only imagine how his players would feel. I know I wouldn’t want to play for him. He’s a jerk. He’s an —. What he said (about McNabb) was inappropriate and insensitive, totally off-base. He could offer me whatever he wanted, I wouldn’t play for him. … I wouldn’t play for Rush Limbaugh. My principles are greater and I can’t be bought.”

Indeed, as CNN reported at the time, ESPN fired Limbaugh from Sunday NFL Countdown for “his statement that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.” But, of course, Limbaugh has a long sordid history with making racist remarks. Some of his more recent lowlights:

– “Look, let me put it to you this way: The NFL all too often looks like agame between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
– “We need segregated buses. … This is Obama’s America.”
– “President Obama is black. And I think he’s got a chip on his shoulder.”
– Democrats are interested in Darfur to secure black “voting bloc.”
– “Minorities never do anything for which they have to apologize.”
– Obama’s nomination for president “goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy.”
– Obama is a “halfrican-American.”

Advising the NFL to block Limbaugh’s pursuit of an NFL franchise, St. Louis Dispatch sports columnist Bryan Burwell wrote recently, “Dancing with Limbaugh is like dancing with a snake. Eventually, the snake will bite you. That’s his nature.”

RNC Hates America, DNC Calls Them On It

2009-10-09T11:24:00.002-04:00

By BarbinMD via Daily Kos

The Republican National Committee, still giddy over America losing its bid to host the 2016 Olympics, had this to say about the President of the United States being award the Nobel Peace Prize:

The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights. One thing is certain – President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action.

Actually, the real question Americans are asking is, "Why do Republicans hate America?" Or as the Democratic National Committee put it:

The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists — the Taliban and Hamas this morning — in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize — an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride — unless of course you are the Republican Party. The 2009 version of the Republican Party has no boundaries, has no shame and has proved that they will put politics above patriotism at every turn. It’s no wonder only 20 percent of Americans admit to being Republicans anymore – it’s an embarrassing label to claim.

Democracy 101: Pittsburgh G20 Protests and the Police Occupation of Pitt University

2009-10-07T15:09:00.001-04:00

Made in Pittsburgh within five days of the G20 summit by a team from Pittsburgh Indymedia, Twin Cities Indymedia, Chicago Indymedia, Glassbead Collective, and Mobile Broadcast News, a new documentary: "Democracy 101 (Rough Cut)". Democracy 101 is a look at the policing and pattern of issues that arise during National Special Security Events. Made with footage from the recent repression of dissent in Pittsburgh, salvaged from the broken cameras, stolen video and arrested reporters, and independent journalists from around the country.

EIGHT YEARS OF WAR / EIGHT YEARS OF PROTESTS

2009-10-07T09:24:00.001-04:00

Something is Wrong in America

2009-10-05T11:41:00.000-04:00

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Melissa Etheridge & Joss Stone

2009-10-05T09:48:00.003-04:00

My Chemical Romance - Desolation Row Dedicated to all the Pitt Student Protesters

2009-10-01T20:56:00.002-04:00

Oxfam International activists, including one posing as US President Barack Obama stage a mock football game in Pittsburgh Steelers colors

2009-09-25T11:51:00.002-04:00

Protesters Come to Oakland UNV Pitt News

2009-09-25T11:47:00.003-04:00

G20 Riot Police Trap U of Pittsburgh Students on a Staircase and Tear Gas/Pepper Spray Them

2009-09-25T11:27:00.000-04:00

Another "Free Tibet" photo by kdkaradio

2009-09-25T11:20:00.001-04:00

Unions Demands Jobs to Quell Recession Pic by Mojustice

2009-09-25T10:57:00.003-04:00

Police clash with protesters, students in Oakland

2009-09-25T10:53:00.004-04:00

LMFAO

2009-09-25T10:19:00.003-04:00

For folks that don't get it, Pirates set the record this year for most consecutive losing seasons

(Caution LOUD!) Sound Weapons used on American Citizens G20 Protests

2009-09-25T10:15:00.000-04:00

Rubber Bullets by PG Admin5

2009-09-25T07:20:00.000-04:00

This says it all

2009-09-24T22:31:00.002-04:00

Click for larger image

MadPoet

Sorry

40 Years Ago Today May 4, 1970 Kent State Shootings

Why Aren’t Tea Partiers Protesting Arizona’s Big Government Overreach On Immigration?

Crosby shares goal-scoring title

In West Virginia, Coal Miners' Slaughter

Now and Then - Not much difference

Death, Lies and Videotape

Happy Easter

Large Hadron Collider A Success—And We're Still Alive! (We Think)

Lou Reed - Dirty Boulevard

Update Going Green

Quinnipiac poll on Tea Parties confirms yet again that they are arch-conservatives

My Ipod Touch

Republicans Block Bills Ensuring Continuation Of Military Health Care

GOP lawmaker shrieks ‘baby killer’ at pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak.

Tea Baggers Call Congressmen "N****rs" and "F****ts" At HCR Protest. Hate Rules The Day

Going Green

Yes I Hate Bigotry, Racism and Brainwashing!

Beck Smears 11Year Old For Speaking Out For Health Care Reform

Reported by Ellen - Wed 2:35 PM

Fox Nation Discussion Advocates Armed Revolution. Is That Not Treason?

Hannity’s Bigoted Pal Says He’s Changing The Name Of The White House To “Big Mama’s House”

Reported by Ellen - Sat 1:24 AM

Bill O’Reilly Advances Christian Right Attack On Girl Scouts & Planned Parenthood

Reported by Priscilla - Fri 1:07 PM

Fox News Uses Sex To Race Bait

Reported by Ellen - March 11, 2010

Not only Me!

Iraq War = Horrible Mistake.

Iraq: Thousands Dead, $747.3 Billion Spent And Not Any Safer

Write Your Rep NOW for Health Care Reform

REMEMBERING THE 'MURTHQUAKE'

When John Murtha Stood Up To Oppose The War In Iraq

Virginia GOP Mocks Epic Snow Storm As ‘12 Inches Of Global Warming’

Tea Bagging for Jesus

State of Emergency - 2ft of Snow in Pittsburgh

GOP Budget Proposes to Ration Medicare, Privatize Social Security

Howard Zinn: "On Human Nature and Aggression."

Fox News Turned Its Back On Haiti Benefit Concert

A Year Of Opposition: Fox News' War On The White House

R.I.P. Kate McGarrigle - Heart Like a Wheel

The Real Face of the Devil by nonny mouse

Thinking of Judy

Sad news: Judi Chamberlin, mad movement leader, dies at 65

Satan's Letter to Pat

1 Million Meals For Haiti

Rage Against The Machine-Freedom Live

Rage Against The Machine / No Shelter

THE NIGHTWATCHMAN (Tom Morello) "Road I Must Travel"

Tony Norman - What the devil's up with Pat Robertson?

Teddy Pendergrass - Close The Door

Blackberry Addiction

Punxsutawney Phil Is Going To Text His Prediction This Year

AT LEAST SOMEONE IS HAPPY -Penguins at the Pgh Zoo

Red State Update Prays For Tiger Woods

Rise of the New McCarthyism

Obama Administration Hits Back At Cheney HARD

One Year Later, Palestinians Live in Rubble While Israel Blocks Aid

The Christians and the Pagans - Dar Williams

Thank you for your service

by ginmar

Dithering

by BarbinMD

2,266 Veterans Died In 2008 Because They Were Uninsured

Tom Coburn Continues To Oppose Funding For Wounded Veterans And Their Families

by BarbinMD

Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 10:22:03 AM PST

Outrage! GOP won't join in Ft. Hood moment of silence!

by David Waldman

Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 12:50:04 PM PST

Little Steven - "Leonard Peltier"

Pennsylvania state lawmaker: Veterans who support climate change legislation are ‘traitors.’

Reconsider Columbus Day

Black NFL Players ‘Wouldn’t Play’ For Limbaugh’s Team: ‘He’s A Jerk’

RNC Hates America, DNC Calls Them On It

Democracy 101: Pittsburgh G20 Protests and the Police Occupation of Pitt University

EIGHT YEARS OF WAR / EIGHT YEARS OF PROTESTS

Something is Wrong in America

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Melissa Etheridge & Joss Stone

Tea Baggers Call Congressmen "Nrs" and "Fts" At HCR Protest. Hate Rules The Day