Something that gets lost in the news about the unemployed is the fact that much of what used to be the backbone of this nation's economic prowess, the middle class, is now the working poor:
After the Republicans crashed to economy in 2008 one thing became immediately clear. It would not be the folks who can afford it who would pay for the excesses of the last few decades. No, the elitist millionaires in Congress and the White House would make sure they kept their precious tax breaks. Yes, the only group that would be expected to sacrifice just like always would be the working American. Now a new study is out showing just how much they did sacrifice.
One can only hope that Capitol Hill is really ready to grow its heart a few sizes before things get any worse. But if the media and the politicians are unable to even address the issue of Class War honestly, I can't see them actually fixing the problems. Not in the the favor of the average American, for certain.
An early Merry Christmas OR Happy Holidays, if you are so inclined, just in case this is the last post you get to check before you disappear into a pile of wrapping paper, empty bottles and hugs from family and friends.
The Weepies beautiful Christmas song, All That I Want, live in Philly:
I really want for nothing for myself. There are so many things that I want to see changed in the world for the good of everyone. World Peace? Stopping hunger? Ending poverty? Maybe I do want something: Wish me luck on getting those things.
Is there anything in particular you want for yourself or for others this year? Drop it in comment...
The British government -- spurred on by European regulators -- is forcing Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock to sell off parts of their operations. The Europeans are calling for more and smaller banks to increase competition and eliminate the threat posed by banks so large that they must be rescued by taxpayers, no matter how they conducted their business, in order to avoid damaging the global financial system.
The move to downsize some of Britain's largest banks comes as U.S. politicians are debating whether American banks should also be required to shrink. The Obama administration has maintained that large banks should be preserved because they play an important role in the economy and that taxpayers instead should be protected by creating a new system for liquidating large banks that run into problems. But Britain's decision already is being cited by a growing chorus of experts, including prominent bankers and economists, who want the United States to pursue a similar approach.
"We still need to see exactly which parts the [British] banks will need to sell off to judge whether the goal of having smaller banks is really achieved," said Richard Portes, an economics professor at the London Business School. "But there are lessons here for the United States. The supposed economies of scale of massive financial institutions are outweighed by the difficulties in controlling risk inside them."
Hopefully the US will follow suit but I don't expect that since the big banks that failed here still managed to hold on to their biggest asset: The US government.
Poll watchers are expecting the largest election turnout in ever in Bucks County. The poll watchers who expect that are mostly in the Republican Party and we know how many things they’ve gotten right lately.
Today, I will be facing my toughest campaign, if not my first. To be sure I am running unopposed, but unless you or anybody, including myself, come out and votes for me, I cannot move on to the November election when I expect to be running opposed. Some may scoff at the dire need for votes when running unopposed, but those are people who don’t understand the power of write in votes nor the infamous 2000 presidential race when Al Gore ran against pretty much nobody and lost. Let us not let the Middletown Township auditor primary race end up being decided by the Supreme Court. America, nor Middletown Township cannot bear another unnecessary war.And, while my race is obviously the most watched in Middletown Township, I also ask you to consider the other decisions you will be making today and ask you to make the right one.
Those who know me well know that I am a part-time insomniac. At times I can go days without sleeping before I finally burn and crash. Many of the posts I have written were done in the middle of the night and saved to post later. Don't ask me which ones' because I probably won't remember. Now I may be able to tell you why:
You shouldn't stay up all night worrying about it, but a new study has found a connection between a lack of sleep and a biomolecule thought to be important in the development of Alzheimer's disease.
In both humans and mice, levels of a peptide called amyloid-β rise during waking hours and decline during sleep, researchers have found. They also report that sleep-deprived mice are more prone to developing deposits of amyloid-β, called plaques, like those found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Although far from proven, the finding suggests that sleep disorders could be a risk factor for Alzheimer's. On a brighter note, it also hints at new avenues of treatment.
Many lines of evidence suggest that the naturally occurring amyloid-β builds up in the brain over many years in people who develop Alzheimer's disease, beginning long before people show signs of memory loss. But very little is known about what factors might influence levels of the peptide in the brain, says David Holtzman, a neurologist at Washington University in St. Louis in Missouri.
Please remind me if I forget to post this diary...
And enjoy this barenaked lady I found in the bathroom in the middle of the night:
An exclusive interview with Senator Dodd on healthcare, single payer, the public option and a bit about Senator Jeff Merkley's recent statements. Sorry if it is just a wee bit shaky... I am just an amateur. Thanks to the Connecticut State Democratic Party for sneaking me into this event.
I still have a bit over an hour of video from the meeting in Hartford that I wrote about earlier to edit and process. And Yes. The first few seconds of the video is pretty darn emblematic of my skills as an interviewer... BLACKOUT!
A “town hall discussion” on health care reform held at Griffin Hospital Saturday became contentious when advocates of a single-payer health insurance system shouted at U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd to put the plan back “on the table.”
A group of Yale School of Medicine students also challenged Dodd and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, on the issue, but they didn’t repeatedly shout their questions without being called upon. And so, unlike the earlier advocates, they were not taken out of the building by security guards.
At least 200 people jammed the hospital cafeteria for the session, which gave the public a chance to ask questions of not just Dodd and DeLauro, but also Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform.
Some basic and indisputable facts in this debate:
The majority of Americans want a single payer healthcare system.
The majority of Americans are willing to pay more taxes for a single payer healthcare system.
The majority of doctors want a single payer healthcare system.
Special interests and lobbyists are the only ones that are trying to force insurance companies into the middle of the Doctor patient relationship. And politicians are obliging them like their special-interest-life-after-politics-retirement-funds depended on it.
Yeah... We get it. For your viewing pleasure, a series of YouTubes from the event and of others that get it:
singlepayeraction.org 5/16/09 A group of doctors, lawyers, Yale medical students, and universal health care activists called on Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut), Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut), and Obama health care czar Nancy-Ann DeParle to put single payer health insurance back on the policy table.
In a MSNBC appearance moments ago, Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) gave a strong denial that she in any way intervened in the AIPAC case or sought to make a deal to intervene in return for support for her becoming chair of the intel committee.
--David Kurtz
Trying to turn yourself into a victim of illegal spying is not going to change the fact that you are busted.
Also, AIPAC is not an advocacy group. They are a faux political arm spying on our country and helping American neoconservative traitors in a coordinated effort to spread propaganda for a foreign countries' interests.
The indictment of the two senior AIPAC staffers follows the indictment in may of Feith's footpad Larry Franklin. Franklin worked in the Office of Special Plans, run by then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, who reported to then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The OSP functioned as a "shadow" intelligence service on Iraq, and provided much of the information to the White House that was used to justify the American invasion of Iraq. Some wags have called it "Feith-based intelligence", since much of that intelligence and information has now been proven to be utterly false. At the beginning of May, Franklin was arrested by the FBI for the passing of classified documents to two AIPAC staffers, who were then to pass them to Israel. The documents in question concerned Iran.
One of the two newly-indicted AIPACers isn't just anybody. Steve Rosen, 63, is the man who built AIPAC into the $40 million dollar Capitol Hill powerhouse it is today. Buried in a Washington Post profile of AIPAC from May 19 is the skinny on Rosen as the power behind the scenes at AIPAC. Said the Post:
"For more than two decades, Rosen has been a mainstay of AIPAC and the architect of the group's ever-increasing clout. Though Rosen was listed below Executive Director Howard Kohr on AIPAC's organizational chart, people familiar with AIPAC's history say that Kohr is a protege of Rosen's and got that job with his help. Kohr declined to be interviewed about Rosen. 'He [Rosen] is a quiet guy,' said M.J. Rosenberg, director of policy analysis for the Israel Policy Forum, another pro-Israel group, and a former AIPAC employee. 'But everyone knows he's the brains behind the outfit.'"
Now, just what is AIPAC, you may well ask? AIPAC is the enforcer of the knee-jerk support for the Israeli government which characterizes the political and governing classes in this country, -- Israel is the real third rail of American politics: touch it with criticism, no matter how carefully couched, and you die. Both the Democratic and Republican parties fall all over themselves to kiss AIPAC's boots -- because AIPAC and its well-filled war-chest helps make sure they toe the line on Israel, and has been responsible for the defeat of a significant number of politicians over the years who dared to criticize Israeli policies. Earlier this year, AIPAC played a major role in destroying the candidacy of Tim Roemer for chairman of the DNC. There's an in-depth, critical profile of AIPAC by RightWeb's Michael Flynn that gives an in-depth look at AIPAC's arm-and-leg-breaking political style. And the newly indicted Rosen is The Man Behind the Curtain. Even though he formally resigned from AIPAC, the organization is paying his legal bills, and Rosen is still pulling the strings.
The reason for putting some daylight between Rosen and AIPAC is that the puissant political arm-twister is deathly afraid it will be forced to register as a foreign lobby, as the Jewish weeily The Forward reported earlier this year. Americans don't like the sight of their elected officials pocketing campaign cash from foreign governments, and AIPAC fears being forced to register formally as a lobbyist for Israel would thus diminish their clout on Capitol Hill. Bush won't make AIPAC register, and the spinless Democratic Congressional leadership won't lead the charge to make them do so either. But today's indictments of string-puller Rosen and his AIPAC colleague for spying on the U.S. gives progressives who want to see a peaceful, two-state, land-for-peace solution between Israel and Palestine a strategic opening to press loudly for AIPAC's formal shil registration as a shil for the government that built the Israeli Wall of Shame. It's a measure long past due.
Yesterday, the Blogosphere erupted with Jeff Stein's CQ article suggesting that Jane Harman may have interfered in the prosecution of alleged Israeli spies in exchange for a committee chairmanship in the 2006 congress. The information was based upon leaks from wiretaps, according to the CQ article, of a "suspected Israeli agent". Today the NY Times adds new information that should send a chill down everyone's spine. The wiretapped "suspected Israeli agent" was working closely with California Billionaire, Haim Saban, a Major Democratic Donor. This whole affair is starting to smell rotten....
[update] I think that this Think Progress headline says a lot about the stupidity of Harman's position:
Last Friday, the Obama administration released a directive stating that lobbyists “cannot meet or speak with executive branch officials regarding specific stimulus projects or applications.” The head of the American League of Lobbyists is now saying the rule “smacks of segregation, discrimination” and is vowing to “push back” against the rule. The group is keeping “all options open, including litigation.”
After the way they have lobbied politicians for legislation that tore the economy down... All I can say is that they should get out in this great job market they helped create and find some honest work.
India, as a nation, adores Valentine's Day. Indians embrace it as a holiday that goes beyond just being nice to your partner. Everyone – from the coffee guy to the gym receptionist who tried to hand me a red rose – was full of non-lecherous cheer. So I was shocked the next day to find the news awash with stories about far-right Hindu activists – from Shri Ram Sena to Bajrang Dal – who had beaten up unmarried couples and blackened their faces as a mark of shame for celebrating Valentine's Day. Their justification was that the day is a western practice, and promotes "lust not love".
This year, the same groups are out again in force. However, while the Indian government has been slow to act against these self-styled moral police, there's a keen sense that the winds of change are turning against these groups.
For a start, although it is a serious issue, it is hard not to laugh at the blustering of Pramod Mutalik, leader of Shri Ram Sena. Mutalik insists that his men will roam Bangalore armed with video cameras, capturing any unmarried couples found celebrating Valentine's Day and then force them to get married. In response, the brilliantly titled Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women has started a campaign on Facebook – which now has a whopping 28,496 members and counting – that calls on people to send the Sri Ram Sena a pair of pink chaddis (meaning underwear in Hindi) on 14 February as a sign of protest.
But this is very clearly a story about violence and oppression of women, religion and freedom:
A group of reasonably outraged Indians has started a movement to send pink panties (known as chaddis) (and oh how I love that) to the fundie organization. They have a blog and a lovely Facebook group with panties images I'm destined to steal.
I also love that this horrible incident of violence against women can be met with direct action non-violence that gets lots of well-deserved attention. Fundies don't have a chance against activist women with a strong sense of self and humor.
Smart and funny women and men around the globe are coming together and the people who started this have garnered even more attention to this cause than the shocking and violent video ever would ever have.
As for myself? A great excuse to go out and raise a glass of beer (or tea, or fruit juice) is better than the simple reason that I will probably still go out and have that beer.
I am going to send a pink chaddi in to the addy they give at the movement's Blog(Don't expect me to wear them. lol). I figure I will be at Victoria Secrets tomorrow to get something "valentinish" for my wife anyways... A few bucks on panties and postage will be well worth it to show real support for freedom and against senseless violence for people everywhere around the world.
PS. Our good friend L says we should not colour-discriminate. So if you really, really can't send pink chaddis, send those in other colours.
PPS. Both Women and Men are invited to send in their chaddi's/ pictures of chaddi's.
Give the women of the world a very special Valentines gift this year. Give them freedom by lending your voice, and maybe a pair of panties or a picture, to this cause.
"That's all in the past. During this campaign, I have met many supporters of Ned Lamont who now support us."
As ctkeith notes in the diary:
"Jim Amann, like George W Bush, Makes his own Reality"
The Jim Amann for Governor 2010 campaign song:
Just come back where I came from, Looks the same as something's wrong. And all my friends that used to be, Have gone and turned their backs on me. Everyone's got different views, Now I'm all shook up and all confused.
East is West, left is right, Up is down, and black is white, Inside-out, wrong is right, It's back to front and I'm all uptight.
I've just come back from fantasy, Right back to reality. Stayed away too long but now I've found, My world is turning upside-down. I don't fit in but I don't stand out, I should stay cool but want to shout.
East is West, left is right, Up is down, and black is white, Inside-out, wrong is right, It's back to front and I'm all uptight.
No one knows where I come from, (Who the hell are you and what do you want?) You've thrown away all that we had, It's down the drain, it's all gone mad. The word is out, I've seen the sign, So you go your way, I go mine.
East is West, left is right, Up is down, and black is white, Inside-out, wrong is right, It's back to front and I'm all uptight. East is West, left is right, Up is down, and black is white, Inside-out, wrong is right, It's back to front and I'm all uptight (alright). It's back to front and I'm all uptight (alright, alright, alright, alright).
Are you listening? (NO!) Well then, I'll have to do it all over again!
On the first day of a listening tour on health care, an issue pivotal to the new Congress and his own re-election, U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd got an earful Friday.
The first comment came from a furious homeless shelter manager: He and his clients have no coverage, yet insurance giant American International Group got an $85 billion federal loan.
Over 90 minutes, the Democratic senator heard from a string of constituents, who waved their hands, hoping for a chance to describe a struggle to hang onto middle-class lives after losing jobs and affordable health care. A few were angry, others just scared.
On the way out, Dodd embraced one woman who burst into tears as she described losing health coverage for her disabled 2-year-old. Dodd held her until she stopped sobbing.
Dodd says that Tom Daschle, Obama's pick to guide healthcare reform, will be coming to Connecticut to discuss the issue. I say that they better be prepared to get another earful because the incremental changes being proposed will not answer the massive problems we are facing.
Problems like this:
"[the forum] included the president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, a reassuring signal to Connecticut's insurance industry."
Yep! Dodd and Larson think that these people are supposed to be our allies on this issue.
Attorney General Martha Coakley has launched an investigation into whether the state's largest health insurance company and its largest healthcare provider may have illegally colluded to increase the price of health insurance statewide over the last nine years, according to several legal and government sources.
The attorney general sent formal demands for information to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Partners HealthCare late last week, the sources say, calling for a detailed account of their contract negotiations in recent years.
Since 2000, Blue Cross has boosted the rate it pays for medical care by Partners doctors and hospitals by 75 percent, dramatically more than the increases given to most other Massachusetts hospitals. Blue Cross now pays $2 billion a year to Partners, parent company of Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's hospitals.
Why do we put up with this?
I don't want these insurance industries' input into my healthcare in any way, shape or form. This the kind of health care the insurance giants have provided us thus far:
H/t nyceve for the video, where I encourage you to go read the entire piece and watch all the videos:
We all know that during the Bush regime, American citizens never saw the coffins of our fallen heroes coming back from Iraq.
Americans are also shielded from the brutal ugliness of our collapsed healthcare system. The traditional media is ill-informed (what else is new?), and rarely, if ever, give us frank and candid reporting about the grotesque realities of the U.S. healthcare catastrophe. So the BBC picks up the slack.
One last quote from Dodd:
"I hear people talking about a single-payer plan and the like," Dodd said. "That isn't going to happen. It's going to be a combination of public, private."
We already have a failed combination of public and private. We need the proven model of single payer and private practitioners. You want to stay in Congress with these kinds of answers, Senator Dodd?
"That isn't going to happen."
Why not send Senator Dodd a message?
"Single payer IS on the table!"
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd 448 Russell Building | Washington D.C., 20510 Tel: (202) 224-2823 | Fax: (202) 224-1083
Ya might want to mention the problem with his Blue Cross buddies, as well.
"To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high."
It is an inscription on the wall of the dressing room of the Montreal Canadiens and is often used as rallying call for sports teams up north. It is taken from the poem "In Flanders Fields".
You might want to consider carrying a torch on your run, my friend. There is a lot of talk kicking around the news and the Blogs about the historic nature of this day. How this is such a huge positive change. But there is still a lot to do, and a lot of different battles that we all have ahead of us.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. — Lt.-Col. John McCrae
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields
The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders where war casualties had been buried and thus became a symbol of Remembrance Day. The poem is part of Remembrance Day solemnities in Allied countries which contributed troops to World War I, particularly in countries of the British Empire that did so.
The line is appropriate for everyone, liberal activists pushing for change, minorities and Black activists that still have a long way to go... Everyone that has been on the outside looking in at the dismal failures in American politics.
Yeah. I am stoked for change. And I have a dream too.
The real fights are just about to begin and the real challenge is to keep the torch burning as we move forward.
This is the end of the bush years. The worst president in the history of the USA.
The end of the worst government ever to enter into power in Washington, D.C.. Power hungry fools with a reckless disregard for the needs of the people.
The end of the of the neoconservative reign of terror. Modern day Jacobins that use terror to instill fear in the American population.
We have begun the change. And started to live up to the possibilities of so many dreams.
The Bushes Depart | 12:56 p.m. The helicopter steps are folded up. The blade begins to rotate. The Obamas and Bidens are standing still, holding each other’s hands, as they watch the helicopter rev up. We now have lift-off; the Bushes have left the Capitol at 12:55 — almost half an hour ahead of time. The Obamas wave.
The helicopter is swinging out over the Mall first instead of heading directly to Andrews. Surely the Bushes can’t hear the crowd below, but the chant is one that sports fans jeer to the opposing team: “Na Na Na Na/Na Na Na Na/Hey Hey Hey/Good-bye.”
A cheer that started at the old Forum in Montreal. :)
Calling someone a dog and showing them the soles of your shoes - especially up close and personal like - are kind of like ultimate insults in their culture. An Iraqi journalist tosses several insults at Bush on his farewell to Iraq tour:
And ya want your So Called Liberal Media? There it is in Iraq... 99% of our right wing corporate owned and controlled media don't have the balls to editorialize like that. Most of them have problems just telling the plain truth.
I had thought that holding a shoe in the air would be a great at demonstrations. One of those few things that the Preznit’s SS wouldn’t take from you as you enter a place where he is scheduled to mangle the English language.
“Bare your sole for Bush!”
But Laura's idea is much more practical...
A lot of people seem to be thinking the same thing here: "He’s got great reflexes for an old dude."
You would too if your BFF was the shotgun wielding neoconservative cheney. Bush is lucky the irate Iraqi wasn't playing horseshoes with hand grenades...
The truth is that you’re living in a world that no longer exists. I, along with millions of Americans, clearly see the world the way it as — and we embrace what it can be. You, on the other hand, seem incapable of looking for new ideas or moving beyond what worked in the past. […]
This is a movement of the people that you most fear. It’s a movement of progress — and your words on FOX News only show how truly desperate you are to maintain control of a world that is changing before your very eyes.
Last spring my dog Shady and I were walking across the bridge over Pleasure House Creek when I heard a disturbance in the water. I looked down and saw a Great Blue Heron breaking the water's surface. The heron flicked the water from its wings, flapped them, and went flying down the creek about two feet above the surface.
Impressive, I thought. Boy, wouldn't the weapons procurement nimrods at the Pentagon like to get their mitts on technology that could do that?
Thus it was that I reacted with both amusement and horror to an email notice I received in October from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) offering federal grant money for "a feasibility study and experiments to prove out the possibility of making an aircraft that can maneuver underwater."
In other words, DARPA wants to pay someone to come up with a phony baloney argument that says it's possible to make a flying submarine.
Kind of sums up this countries priorities under the last 8 years of failed Neoconservative terrorist stewardship. They live in a drug induced fantasy world - their drug of choice is power - of reckless and senseless stupidity with ideas that are aimlessly leading to nowhere. Idiotic ideas that need to be sunk because they will never fly in the real world. Never mind that they are wasting money on a "solution to problem" that doesn't exist...
