Monday, July 27, 2009

Health Care -- We're Screwed

HuffPo is reporting from AP:

After weeks of secretive talks, a bipartisan group in the Senate edged closer Monday to a health care compromise that omits a requirement for businesses to offer coverage to their workers and lacks a government insurance option that President Barack Obama favors, according to numerous officials.


Why am I not surprised. Rat bastards.

"Bat-Shit Crazy" Congressmen

Congressional Representatives have been revealed aligning themselves with the screwball loonies who apparently believe that Obama is not actually an American citizen and may even be a Jihadist Manchurian Candidate. From a piece at HuffPo:

Folks, this is what it has come to. The most powerful people in the world -- nationally elected legislators responsible for setting policy for the most powerful country on earth -- are lining up with cuckoo-bat-shit-crazy elements of the lunatic fringe.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Afghan is Just Another War on Drugs

You think the War on Drugs in the U.S. is stupid? Even more stupid is fighting it overseas with American troops at enormous expense in dollars and lives. From a NYT report on HuffPo:

All told, Western troops have died in greater numbers in Helmand this month than in any other province in Afghanistan over a similar period since the 2001 invasion.

It is unclear whether the level of casualties will remain this high. But the Taliban can ill afford to lose the Helmand River Valley, a strip of land made arable by a network of canals that nourish the nation’s center for poppy growing.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Health Care Reform Not Looking Good

Check out Bill Moyers piece at Common Dreams.
Here's part of it.
Here's what Beck said on his television show Monday, July 20: "I'm telling you, this guy is dangerous. He's never lost before. He won't understand... like, 'Who are you to question me?' I mean, this guy is practically an imperial President now. When he starts to lose and people start to question him and push him back against the wall, he's not gonna know how to react."

Write your Congress rep. Lobby for HR676

Gotta go.

Friday, July 24, 2009

In the Movie About Senator Harry Reid



Woody Allen will play him.

Contact Members of the Senate Finance Committee

Latest word is they will not be reporting out a Public Option. Many of us were willing to settle for that instead of a Single Payer System. Now they want to take a Public Option away. Contact each and every one. Tell them we want at least a Public Option.

Marijuana Reform Ad that Some California TV Stations Won't Play

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"Sacramento says huge cuts to schools, health care, and police are inevitable due to the state's budget crisis. Even the state's parks could be closed. But the governor and the legislature are ignoring millions of Californians who want to pay taxes. We're marijuana consumers. Instead of being treated like criminals for using a substance safer than alcohol, we want to pay our fair share. Taxes from California's marijuana industry could pay the salaries of 20,000 teachers. Isn't it time?"


Marijuana Policy Project

CALL HARRY REID

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has decided the Senate doesn't need to vote on healthcare until after the August recess. This tactic plays right into the hands of Republicans who want to delay and destroy Obama's healthcare plan. Call or fax. As I am writing this, I am on hold to his office.

Washington DC
522 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3542
Fax: 202-224-7327
Toll Free for Nevadans:
1-866-SEN-REID (736-7343)

OK, I got through on the phone. Was on hold only a few minutes. Then I faxed Harry Reid's office with essentially the same message I gave the staffer on the phone:

TO SENATOR HARRY REID, VOTE NOW – DO NOT DELAY ON HEALTHCARE.
Senator, your decision to delay the vote on healthcare reform plays right into the hands of Republicans who want to delay and destroy Obama's healthcare plan.

To hell with the Republicans. You have the votes to approve major reform. Seize the opportunity, vote a bill out and take a giant step toward joining the rest of the civilized world with a decent healthcare program for Americans.


And then I sent a second fax:

TO SENATOR HARRY REID, VOTE NOW – DO NOT DELAY ON HEALTHCARE.

Millions of us want a Single Payer Health Care Plan. At least a strong public option should be in the Senate bill.

Your decision to delay the vote on healthcare reform plays right into the hands of Republicans who want to delay and destroy Obama's healthcare plan.

To hell with the Republicans. Let’s have a vote. Now.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

G. Gordon Liddy Has Finally Lost it.

Liddy, the former Watergate criminal who served 4 and a half years in prison for his part in the Nixon burglary and coverup, has now proven he has completely gone over the edge. He is one of a gang of idiots trying to prove that President Obama was born outside the United States of America.


Liddy's appearance on Tweety Bird's Hardball was just embarrassing. If you watched the video you know what I mean.

Lou Dobbs on CNN has also taken up with the birthers.


My comment: I have an idea. How about that Obama isn't yet 35 years old? How do we know he's 35, a constitutional requirement to be president. And how do we know he's really a male, which after all was the criteria for voting when the Constitution was enacted in 1789.

Does Obama own property? There's another requirement for voting and holding office at the time the Constitution was enacted.

Fianally, he's black. Well that disqualifies him right there. He can't be president. The Founding Fathers never envisioned a black president. He should be arrested immediatly and sent back to Kenya.

A Letter I Recently Wrote
to a Los Angeles Times Columnist

Mr. Goldberg,

Your columns are so inspirational and so refreshing. I am so pleased to read your comments from a Republican perspective. I, too am a proud Republican.

I am proud that our Republican president, George W. Bush went to war in Iraq to avenge 9/11. I am so proud that his CIA people built secret prisons and tortured those Islamo-fascists who attacked the Twin Towers. I am proud that our Republican president had the fortitude to ignore the Constitution and wiretap millions of Americans. If you don't have anything to hide, there's no problem.

I am proud to be in the same political party with deep thinkers like Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck and Sarah Palin. And I am proud to be joining hands with those who would accept the lies of Charles Darwin instead of the Truth of God's Bible.

I am proud that we Republicans have kept millions of embryos out of the hands of scientists who would use their stem cells to do medical research. I am so proud that we defend marriage by denying it to homosexuals and keeping them in their place. And I am proud of the men who have shown women their place as well, by working to outlaw all abortions.

And I can't close without hoping you will write a piece soon attacking organized labor. If someone doesn't like a job, they can just quit. Labor unions and Communists are all the same to me.

Mr. Goldberg, keep up the good work. Every column you write shows the world what Republicans are made of.

Regards,
RN

Los Angeles

Harry Reid Should Face a Shit Storm

Harry Reid is going to let the Senate go on recess without a vote on health care? WTF? This just plays into the hands of Republicans who have stated clearly their tactic is to stall and stall until health care reform dies. Is Harry Reid STUPID? Has he been PAID OFF? What is wrong with this man? What has he been SMOKING?

And what about the public option? Is it going to be part of the mix or not in the Senate version? I am very unclear where the public option is in the House. Obama didn't mention it at all last night until a Clevelnad Plain Dealer reporter brought it up.

Harry Reid should be getting letters and phone calls from all three of my readers. He's going to get some advice from me.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

NIXON'S the ONE!

Here is an audio recording I picked up years ago. Don't know exactly where it came from or how it came to be available. But it is obviously authentic. It is a Nixon campaign song, at 4:03, it probably never aired because it was too long as a radio spot. Why it was made I cannot guess. But here it is, NIXON's THE ONE! (Turn your audio way up.)

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Funding Healthcare

How about funding health care with the savings we could have by eliminating the War on Drugs? State and Federal agencies spend at least $50 billion a year on this failed war, which is really a war on Americans. And the bloated Defense Department budget == $515 billion. WHat are you most afraid of -- a Jihadist attack on your house or a shopping mall or lung cancer or a heart attack? It's the latter two that scare me. So why are we spending so much on "defense"? And by the way, how does a fancy weapons system deter a Jihadist terrorist, anyway. It's all just so stupid.

Spend the money on health care.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

No End to Drug War This Year
Ballot Proposal on the Way

From the Atlantic:

Marijuana has generated some headlines in California this week, with a report that a state legislature proposal to legalize and tax it could bring in $1.4 billion for the state, and a proposal from an LA councilwoman to tax medical marijuana. But while reformers have seen the profile of medical marijuana and overall pot legalization raised in 2009, they don't expect the California measure to pass this year


The Legalization ballot proposal will probably be presented to the voters next year. Look for it to pass.

Also, look for a piece by Walter Cronkite suggesting that the War on Drugs is as big a failure as the War in Vietman

Super Snack Suggestion

Crunchy peanut butter on raw cauliflower. Use only an all natural peanut butter like Laura Scudders or the Whole Foods brand, the kind that is not hydrogenated. You have to mix the oil into the peanut butter right after you open it.

Never, ever under any circumstances eat Jif or Skippy. Those brands use partially hydrogenated vegetable oil to keep the oil from separating and give it a longer shelf life. Plus sugar. Peanut butter with hydrogenated oil is junk, it is a trans fat, it is poison and it will clog your arteries.

In my opinion, any parent who feeds Skippy or Jif to their kid should be arrested and charged with child endangerment.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

OH NO! Weinermobile Crashes into House


It happened in Racine Wisconsin.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Quote of the Day from Digby's Hullabaloo

Digby on her Web site Hullabaloo, writing about the cost of war and the cost of health care.

I honestly don't recall even the mildest objections to the costs of Bush's programs coming from the same timorous Democrats who are now threatening to block health reform because they are expensive. But then, among our vaunted centrists and conservatives, cutting taxes or embarking on a useless waste of lives by violent means always seem to take precedence over making anyone's life better.

Glen Beck Loses it On the Air

Right wing radio wacko Glenn Beck was on the phone with a listener who confused him with facts about the health care debate. He finally lost it. Here's the audio.

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One, Two, Three What Are We Fightin' For


Obama's war in Iran and now in Afghanistan is so foolish.
I wonder why he thinks it will be any different from Vietnam or what the British or Russians or even Ghengis Khan experienced in Afghanistan. This old song by Country Joe keeps running thru my head.

well it's one, two three what are we fightin' for
well i don't give a damn, next stop is vietnam
well it's five six seven open up the pearly gates
ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die.


Just substitute "Afghanistan" for Vietnam in the second line. Or "the war in Iran". They even rhyme

The photo is from
BagNewsNotes

Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Best Piece I have Read
on the Goldman Sachs Stickup

By Matt Taibbi at True / Slant. Here is the beginning of the piece.

So what’s wrong with Goldman posting $3.44 billion in second-quarter profits, what’s wrong with the company so far earmarking $11.4 billion in compensation for its employees? What’s wrong is that this is not free-market earnings but an almost pure state subsidy.

Last year, when Hank Paulson told us all that the planet would explode if we didn’t fork over a gazillion dollars to Wall Street immediately, the entire rationale not only for TARP but for the whole galaxy of lesser-known state crutches and safety nets quietly ushered in later on was that Wall Street, once rescued, would pump money back into the economy, create jobs, and initiate a widespread recovery. This, we were told, was the reason we needed to pilfer massive amounts of middle-class tax revenue and hand it over to the same guys who had just blown up the financial world. We’d save their asses, they’d save ours. That was the deal.

It turned out not to happen that way. We constructed this massive bailout infrastructure, and instead of pumping that free money back into the economy, the banks instead simply hoarded it and ate it on the spot, converting it into bonuses.


Here is another choice quote from the piece:

Taken altogether, what all of this means is that Goldman’s profit announcement is a giant “fuck you” to the rest of the country.


I would post a shot of some filthy pigs here, labeled Goldman Sachs, except it would be an insult to the pigs.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Lunch

This time of year a cheddar cheese sandwich with mayonnaise and a lot of lettuce is a good lunch choice. On wheat bread. I like that Cabot Extra Sharp they make in Vermont.With an ice cold beer.

Never use Wonder Bread. Do they still make that? I remember Wonder Bread was good for wadding up and cleaning paintings.

Prisoners per Capita


Part of a graph showing the number of people in prison in most countries in the world. The longest bar represents number of prisoners in the U.S. The graph is from Nation Masters.com.

We have 715 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. Cuba is close to the bottom with ZERO.

Health Care Costs Per Capita


Part of a graph from Nation Master.com. The longest bar represents health care expenses for the U.S. Is this a great country or what?

The Five Funniest Movies Ever

Without doubt:

• My Cousin Vinnie
• Airplane
• The Bank Dick with W.C. Fields
• This is Spinal Tap
• and that one where Stan Laurel visits Ollie in the hospital.

These are the five funniest movies ever made.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

House Health Care Reform Released -- Looks Good

A columnist at The New Republic writes:

• Generous subisidies, available to people making up to 400 percent of the poverty line.
• Expansion of Medicaid to cover people making less than 133 percent of the poverty line
• The Congressional Budget Office score? Their initial estimates have it covering 94 percent of people living here and 97 percent of legal immigrants, for net outlays of just over $1 trillion over ten years.


And those are just three of the positive items in the House Bill just released. For the whole piece, go here.

Obama's Birth Certificate

Some idiot U.S. Army Major is refusing to go to Afghanistan because, he says, Obama isn't a U.S. Citizen. And an equally moronic Georgia Judge is letting the case go forward. Story here

Photo of Birth Certificate which takes about ten seconds to find on Google Images, here.

Major Stefan Frederick Cook. What a wimp. In my day, guys avoided military service by burning their draft cards and going to jail or Canada. Not some cooked up crap about a president's birth ceetificate.

Aaron Burr

Gore Vidal's book about Aaron Burr is fascinating. I have learned that Martin Van Buren (8th president) may have been Burr's son. Also that Jefferson favored democracy only for small farmers with slaves, not for Indians, or women, and certainly not for slaves. And he died a pauper. Washington was an imperious, pompous fat man during his presidency, always poor and his first act in office as president was to ask for an advance on his salary.

Peanut Butter and Mayonnaise

Peanut butter sandwiches should always be made on whole wheat bread. Never use Jif or one of those horrible homogenized peanut butters. Lauara Scudders Crunchy is best. Put peanut butter on one slice, mayonnaise or even Miracle Whip on the other. Put lettuce in between. Lots of fresh lettuce. Or cornichon (gherkin) pickles. Or both.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Bill Moyers Interview With a Former Health Insurance Executive


Wendell Potter was the top PR guy for Cigna. He quit in disgust. Go see the interview at this link.