On the floor of Congress late last night..Rep Grayson bitchslaps the Rethugs. Bravo dude!
The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday rejected by 15 to 8 a "public option," or government-run health insurance plan — the first significant setback for the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.Want to know which Democrat's fucked us? Here they are:
Five Democrats joined all 10 Republicans in opposing the plan, suggesting that more trouble lies ahead when the House of Representatives and full Senate consider the legislation in mid-to-late-October. Four committees, three in the House and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, previously had backed the government-run option.
Democratic opponents of a public option cited a variety of reasons for their opposition, including concerns about the impact of a public plan on rural areas and its ultimate cost. Democrats opposed to a public option were Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., Tom Carper, D-Del., Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.Fucking DINO's. Punk ass bitches. Newsweek's take on today's bullshit:
The committee then voted on a similar, if slightly less liberal, amendment offered by Chuck Schumer of New York. It was shot down 13-10 with two Democrats, Nelson and Carper, switching their positions.
Prospects for a public option aren't entirely dead. There's still the possibility of a public-option trigger that Olympia Snowe, who voted against Rockerfeller today, has expressed support for. It has yet to be discussed by the Finance Committee.
Ortega Goes Rambo on ReaganThose are just my picks from their top ten. Read all of them here. It does include the winner from the USSR when Kruschev banged his shoe on the podium:
Year: 1987
Quote: "Before consulting the hotheads who present various military options such as a military invasion: remember, President Reagan, Rambo only exists in the movies.''
Impact: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega used the platform of the U.N. to assail U.S policy in Central America, particularly the financing of the Contra rebels and supporting the Somoza dictatorship, which Ortega said "bled the Nicaraguan people dry." The angry speech prompted a walkout from the U.S. delegation. "The people of Nicaragua may have to sit and listen to him, but I don't," said then U.S. Ambassador Vernon Walters.
Chavez Sniffs out a Sinner
Year: 2006
Quote: "The devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulfur still."
Impact: Venezuela's theatrical president, Hugo Chavez, has always loved the spotlight that the General Assembly provides and it was never more in evidence than when, with a flourish, he compared U.S. president, George W. Bush, to Satan. Chavez also began his regular habit of using his speeches to plug books by prominent leftists authors, when he held up a book by U.S. professor Noam Chomsky. Chavez referred to this famous moment in his speech this year, saying that it "no longer smells like sulfur" now that Barack Obama is president.
Bashir Denies a Genocide
Year: 2006
Quote: "The picture that volunteer organizations try to give in order to solicit more assistance and more aid, have given a negative result."
Impact: At the 2006 speech, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir claimed that the ongoing slaughter in Darfur, which then President George W. Bush had recently referred to as "genocide," was in fact a scheme cooked up by Western aid organizations to solicit funding. On the sidelines of the meeting, Bashir went further, blaming Israel and Zionist organizations for spreading lies in order to weaken the Sudanese government. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made this claim as well.
Year: 1960So we do have competition in the idiocy department. Gotta love it! ;p
Quote: "Mr. President, call that toady of American imperialism to order."
Impact: Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev provided one of the cold war's most iconic moments when, in an attempt to silence a Filipino delegate who was railing against Soviet imperialism, he issued the above epithet, removed his shoe, and began banging it on the table. The gesture has become a classic example of overheated rhetoric, but it shouldn't have been all that surprising coming from the man who coined the phrase, "we will bury you."
A short excerpt below:
Then he begs for money. Marvelous stuff right? Below is where he is running this horseshit:
Chattanoga, TN
Memphis, TN
Shreveport, LA
Springfield, MO
Abilene, TX
Lubbock, TX
Macon, GA
Savannah, GA
Huntsville, AL
Jacksonville, FL
Tallahasseee, FL
Thank You TPM for this gem.
Batshit-crazy Bachmann was a rockstar at the Value Voters Conference last week.
After the speech, Bachmann had only a few minutes to sign autographs and collect a stack of CDs and books from fans who’d followed her into the lobby. I caught up to her as she headed outside and asked if she had any response to the murder of a Kentucky census worker, having noticed that the Census, a constant target for Bachmann, did not figure into her speech. Bachmann recoiled a little at the question and turned to enter her limo.
These details were provided by an individual that found the body. From a local tv channel:
A coroner says the word "Fed" appeared to be written with a felt-tip pen on a U.S. census worker found dead in eastern Kentucky.And they still refuse to call it murder.
Clay County Coroner Jim Trosper confirmed the detail Friday, but would not elaborate.
The body of Bill Sparkman was found hanging from a tree September 12, in Daniel Boone National Forest.
Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, one of the witnesses who found the part-time census worker's body hanging in a Kentucky cemetery, says the man was naked, and his hands and feet were bound with duct tape.
Thursday night Kentucky State Police said the preliminary cause of death was asphyxiation.
"Detectives are still conducting the investigation," said KSP Trooper Don Trosper. "They are working on it daily to try to ascertain what exactly occurred."
Janeane Garofalo explains the rightwing psyche for our education and titillation. It's an oldie but a goodie folks..enjoy!
I have, on several occasions over the last couple of years, taken on the nutters with regard to ACORN. I am sick of having to explain how ACORN actually alerted the state and county registrars with regard to the phony voter registrations or how they were the first to sound the alarm over predatory loan practices. I am fucking tired of having to explain that they have natural enemies like big business and the Republican party because of all the good they do for people on the bottom rungs of life and how the vast majority of people they register vote Democratic.
Now, it's all fucking coming back to roost..the blatant bullshit attacks on ACORN.
But this time around..the MSM is helping the fuckwits destroy ACORN with their lies.
Rachel Maddow tonight had an excellent section on ACORN and the fuckery perpetrated by the Rethugs and their big business cronies to bring ACORN down. It's also about the MSM and how they willingly helped these fuckwits destroy a group that has spent decades helping the poor and working poor.
Using the controversy over the community group ACORN, this study illustrates the way that the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. We describe how opinion entrepreneurs (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, the conservative echo chamber orchestrated its anti‐ACORN campaign in 2008, the McCain‐Palin campaign picked it up, and the mainstream media reported its allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively littleknown community organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82% of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN.
• Although ACORN is involved in many community activities around the country, including efforts to improve housing, wages, access to credit, and public education, the dominant story frame about ACORN was “voter fraud.” The “voter fraud” frame appeared in 55% of the 647 news stories about the community organization in 15 mainstream news organizations during 2007 and 2008. The news media stories about ACORN were overwhelmingly negative, reporting allegations by Republicans and
conservatives.
• In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN:
76% of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud
8.7% involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN
7.9% of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering
Democrats
3.1% involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal
• The mainstream news media failed to fact‐check persistent allegations of “voter fraud” despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media also failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:
82.8% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare (only 17.2% did mention it)
80.3% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required to do by law
85.1% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems
95.8% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of “voter fraud” to dampen voting by low‐income and minority Americans, including the firing of U.S. Attorneys who refused to cooperate with the politicization of voter fraud accusations – firings that ultimately led to the 4 resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
61.4% of the stories about ACORN’s alleged involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN “scandal”
47.8% of the news stories about ACORN in October 2008 linked the organization to candidate Barack Obama, most of them seeking to discredit him and his campaign through guilt‐by‐association.
• The media bias against ACORN was evident not only in its focus on allegations of voter fraud but also in the language used to describe ACORN, such as leftist, left‐wing, front (for Democrats), radical, activist, political, militant, and socialist.
• The attacks on ACORN originated with business groups and political groups that opposed ACORN’s organizing work around living wages, predatory lending, and registration of low‐income and minority voters. These groups created frames to discredit ACORN that were utilized by conservative ”opinion entrepreneurs” within the conservative “echo chamber” – publications, TV and radio talk shows, blogs and websites, think tanks, and columnists – to test, refine, and circulate narrative frames
about ACORN. These conservative “opinion entrepreneurs” were successful in injecting their perspective on ACORN into the mainstream media.
• Perhaps the peak moment in the attack on ACORN occurred at the presidential debate between Obama and McCain on Oct. 15, 2008. Although not asked a question about ACORN, McCain injected the issue on his own, saying: “We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama’s relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.“
Clearly this statement was newsworthy. This study reveals, however, that
opinion entrepreneurs, the conservative echo chamber, and the mainstream media had laid the groundwork for McCain’s attack on ACORN.
• Local newspapers, which were more likely to verify the actual voting conditions of county election boards, were much less susceptible to the politicized “voter fraud” frame than the national news media.
Glen Beck on the Census:
There are tons of videos up showing the rightwing nutters freaking out on the census.
Good read up at HuffPo on the rightwing nutters and their paranoia of the Federal Government.
I own every piece of recorded music for only one artist. That is saying alot m'dear reader as music is one of the top three loves of my life.
That artist is Joe Bonamassa.
In May of this year, he played the Royal Albert Hall for consecutive nights. Eric Clapton played RAH with him. That should tell you all you need to know if you love the blues and all great blues players that are still alive and kicking...er, playing.
Smokin' Joe has released a dvd of his RAH performances.
If you have two brain cells to rub together, you will buy and/or rent this dvd and watch/listen to it.
Britan's Independant has a review up of his performance at that hallowed venue.
I partook of a little herb and will now commence watching one of the blues best and brightest perform.
Fuck politics today. Twice even. ;)
The Big O™ is now giving up on his position that Israel should cease building more homes and settlements on Palestinian land, asking both sides to come back to the table and discuss.
Yeah right jackass, like that is going to change anything Israel does regarding the Palestinian’s right to live and exist like humans on their own land.
The NYT sums up The Big O’s new position this way:
Rather, Mr. Obama, unable to extract that concession from Israel or other confidence-building moves from Arab states, seems intent to press Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate all the difficult issues between them toward a final deal that has eluded negotiators, and bedeviled American presidents, since President Jimmy Carter brokered a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979.
The pivot toward tackling issues that include the status of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the borders of a future Palestinian state greatly increases the stakes for an administration that has found even small advances to be beyond reach. It also risks making Mr. Obama appear ineffective in having not gained a tangible early goal of his Middle East policy.
The last sentence really chaps my ass as it’s so friggin obvious to me. Ineffective, thy name is Barack Obama.
Obama has changed his ‘position’ so many times on so many issues he and we should all have a nasty friggin case of whiplash at this point. In fact, I am hardpressed to name one thing The Big O has steadfastly maintained his position on since we the people elected him last November.
Oh wait..I got one!
Afghanistan.
If you, m’dear reader, have another, please by all means..leave it in the comment section ok? I would love to have something positive to cheer about these days.
In the meantime, enjoy Will Ferrel’s new Funny or Die video on health insurance reform.But I really cared about Sox, I guess you could say I fell in love with him. He was born under one of the houses across the street about 9 months ago. He was the only one of the litter that sought human contact. His brothers and sisters would never allow me to touch them. Sox sought me out and demanded attention.
I gave him that and made sure he always had something to eat and water to drink. He moved into our backyard about four months ago. He had his own little bush he lived under and when the weather was bad, he would sleep in the cat house my son built a few years ago for me.
He was so sweet, always craving a stroke or a pat on his beautiful little gray tabby head. He was a lover and he would talk to me.
So when I saw him dragging his back legs tonite, trying to get to his safe place under his favorite bush, I screamed bloody murder and ran to him.
I gently scooped him up and put him in a box. His pain was obvious in his eyes and his constant moaning ripped me apart.
We raced him to the emergency vet across town. I sat in the back seat with him, trying to comfort him. He didn't try to get up, he just laid there looking at me as I cried and talked to him.
We figured he was hit by a car but the vet said she didn't think so, that he had fallen from a high place. That was when I thought of the roof, and how he would run around up there, chasing birds.
She said he would be paralyzed and would never have control of his bodily functions. They gave him a shot to dull the pain while I paced around the tiny examination room trying to make up my mind on what to do. The vet refused to tell me what to do, she said it was my decision.
But I knew what I had to do. I sent the Ball n' Chain out to the waiting room as I cradled his beautiful head in my hands and told him goodbye. The vet gave him the shot and he was gone in the blink of an eye.
So I closed both his eyes and then picked him up and held him for what seemed like an eternity, sobbing into his still warm little body. I told him I was sorry I let him down. I was sorry I didn't bring him into the house to become a house cat like he so wanted to be. If I brought every single abandoned kitteh into the house, the county would lock me up in the nut ward. He seemed to adapt to being an outdoor cat, but last week we talked about bringing him in. We had the certificate to get him neutered...now I will use it on another of the 15 or so cats we feed and watch over. Bless the Cat People for all the free neuter and spay certificates they have given us over the years. If it wasn't for them, there would be 50 cats to feed outside instead of 15.
I will miss Sox so damn bad. I will miss him showing up every morning and evening at the back door precisely at 7am and 7pm, meowing for his special treat of canned cat food. I will miss him winding his body around my legs and his talking to me as I feed him and all the others that don't belong to anyone or were tossed away like a piece of garbage by some ignorant asshole that refuses to get their pets spayed or neutered.
Damn it hurts. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. It never stops hurting, there will always be another Sox as long as there are people who refuse to be responsible pet owners.
Rest in peace little man and know that you were loved the short time you were on this earth.
The continuing saga of California's massively overcrowded prisons hit's a new low this week. SCOTUS refused to hear Cali's request to stay the order issued by a federal panel of Judge's recently. From Jurist:
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation issued a plan Friday to reduce prison overcrowding as orderedby a special panel of federal judges in August, but the plan falls short of the order's requirements. According to the CDCR, the plan could reduce the overcrowding rate from 190 percent to 155 percent in the next three years. This falls short of the federal court order requiring a reduction to 137.5 percent, or a release of nearly 43,000 inmates from the state's 33 prison facilities, in the next two years. The plan provides various ways of reducing the overcrowding rate including transferring more prisoners to out-of-state prisons, GPS monitoring of inmates who violate parole, commuting sentences of inmates who are eligible for deportation, and building new facilities or converting unused space. It is not clear what action the court will take against the CDCR for failing to meet its mandate, but options include holding Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in contempt of court or instituting its own plan. With its filing of the plan, the CDCR also said that is was not abandoning its appeal of the special panel's ruling to the US Supreme Court.Like rats in a cage, the inmates of California's prison system are stacked in every available space throughout the state's prisons. The inevitable will occur, just like when too many rats live in one cage.
Last week, the Supreme Court denied California's request to stay the court order temporarily. The special panel's ruling was the result of a lawsuit brought by two inmates against the state's prison system, alleging that the overcrowding had resulted in a failure to provide adequate physical and mental health care, depriving them of their constitutional rights. The prison system in the state was originally built to handle around 80,000 prisoners, and it is estimated that there are currently 168,000 inmates being held in those facilities.
I know..this isn't news, but for the love of Buddha..wtf is this bitch pushing? Watch the video below and then tell me what you think she is selling.
Watch the video here on my video page.
Courtesy of The Ed Show. Michelle evidently loves the shit out of the corporatocracy. She tries to spin it, but she is such a lousy speaker, she hurts her cause.
Which makes me smile. Bachmann the batshit crazy neocon. Do they cringe whenever she grabs a microphone? I would hope so..
First off, you can read the 223 page bill here.
Below is Anthony Weiner on Countdown last night, discussing the horseshit bill coming out of the Senate Finance Committee.
Rep Weiner is a truly wonderful progressive member of the House. I want this man to run for President..seriously.
In this NYT article, three economists grade the Finance committee bill. One is Dean Baker, who I read regularly.
None of the three give Baucus's bill a passing grade.
Heavy sigh my friend..heavy-fucking sigh..
Obama just finished his speechifying for the carpetbaggers on Wall St. I found myself watching the speech and muttering to myself how full of bat guano he was.
He reminds me of all the other enablers in the House and Senate. They refuse to go for the jugular when it comes to important issues, they want all the Senators and House Rep's to join in a kumbaya moment.
That ain't gonna happen. The Blue Dogs have their own agenda and the Rethugs definitely have theirs. Neither of those two groups want to be seen agreeing with or supporting the Obama administration's agenda.
How will anything get done without the support of the Blue Dogs? Short answer: Nothing will.
Yet The Big O and his administration are still pandering to both groups.
Where is Lyndon Johnson when you need him? Johnson was able to push through massive social programs and civil rights bills that virtually no one south of the Mason-Dixon line ever wanted to see enacted.
Now, before anyone gets their panties in a wad, I realize LBJ wasn't an angel. He approved the wiretapping of MLK, and his Vietnam War build-up among other things, keep me from suggesting sainthood for him. His years in congress helped him craft all the alliances he needed to push through his Great Society.
Evidently Obama doesn't have any such alliances.
So what does Obama have that will enable him to make all the changes he promised during the campaign?
That isn't a rhetorical question..I really don't know what Obama has or doesn't have regarding political capital.
I just see him as another lame-ass politician that talks a good game but when it comes to actually doing anything major...he is lost in the wilderness of DC. He might be as pissed off as I am regarding the lack of balls our Congress critters seem to have. But he doesn't seem to be doing anything about these ball-less fuckers.
And that frustrates the shit out of me.
It has been a long time coming, but there is now a final ruling on Cali's huge overcrowded prisons. From Jurist:
The US Supreme Court on Friday effectively required California to carry out a lower court's order and come up with a plan to reduce the number of inmates in its prisons. In a brief order, the Court said that it would not stay an earlier order by a special federal court panel compelling California to create a plan that will reduce the state's overcrowding from its current level of 190 percent of maximum capacity to a more manageable 137.5 percent. The Supreme Court, however, noted that California was only appealing its need to create a plan to reduce prison overcrowding and that, ultimately, the Supreme Court would have a say in the special panel's final order for the California prison system.
In its earlier order, the lower court noted that that due to extremely poor medical care, one inmate was "dying needlessly every six or seven days." In August 2008, California's court-appointed prison medical overseer J.Clark Kelso asked the court to force the state to add 8 billion dollars over the next five years to bring prison healthcare to constitutionally acceptable standards. In response to a 2006 order to reduce overcrowding, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the transfer of some prisoners out-of-state. (emphasis mine)
Since 1990, the prison population has increased by 73 percent – nearly three times faster than the general adult population. California prisons currently hold about 171,000 adults; approximately 616 per 100,000 adults in California are in state prison. California ranks 17th among all states for incarceration rates.
California on the other hand is going in the opposite direction. They have eliminated drug treatment programs, sex offender counseling and virtually every program which prepares inmates to live healthy, productive lives after they are released. These cuts allow the prisons to keep the maximum number of inmates incarcerated, but with no programs to occupy their time productively. Why? It certainly isn't making us safer.
I still can not get the pictures out of my mind, even after all the years that have passed.
The second plane. The twin towers, falling one by one. The people standing in windows trying to summon up the courage to jump to their deaths. The horror and pain on the faces of people standing in NYC streets watching it all unfold live in front of them. I can still see it all in my minds eye like it was yesterday.
A friend has his wedding anniversary today. Another friends birthday is today.
This has to be the shittiest day of the year to have something to celebrate. No one ever feels like celebrating anything today.
I wonder if those raw, horrible feelings of helplessness and horror will ever leave me. I know it won't for those that lost loved ones, friends or co-workers. I feel for the folks that live in NYC or work there. Their nightmares must be unimaginable.
My heart goes out to all of them. I wish for them personal peace of mind.
I just want this day to be over. Every year, I want it to fly by in seconds instead of hours.
But it never does.
The majority of Dem's in the Senate don't give a shit what is IN the healthcare bill, they just want to pass A BILL. Nan Pelosi is on the same fucking page in the House of Rep's. And if Rahm speaks for the Pres, Obama doesn't give a rat's ass what is in it either.
It's Tuesday, I know..but it feels like a Monday.
The Big O indoctrinates the kiddies today! Oh goodie! Whilst all the ringwing nutters in the country are screaming that our socialist Pres is trying to recruit for his Hitler Youth group, the Christian Science Monitor calls his speech..
Bland.
To succeed in school and in life, you should:
a. work hard
b. set goals for yourself
c. take responsibility for your own actions
d. all of the above
The correct answer is "d," of course. But every American kid knows that already.
And that's the real problem with the president's message, which will be broadcast live on the White House website and on C-SPAN: It's bland, neutral, and mind-numbingly obvious. You can't even imagine a cogent objection to it.
Of course, that hasn't stopped GOP firebrands from trying. In the blogosphere, especially, Republicans have charged that Mr. Obama's speech will indoctrinate students with his supposedly "socialist" views. Across the country, parents have demanded that schools obtain their permission before showing Obama's speech to their children; others have announced that they will simply keep their kids home today.
But there's nothing socialist – or even partisan – about Obama's speech. If you think otherwise, go online and read the text of the speech or the White House's suggested classroom activities to accompany it. One exercise asks children to make a poster of their goals; another instructs each student to "brainstorm" about what qualities promote personal success. Not a word about Obama's positions on healthcare, taxes, or anything else.
10 of the Most Obscenely Stupid Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories and Attacks Against the President.
Obama's Nefarious Plan for the Nation's Genitals
When news leaked of a CDC report recommending that boys be circumcised as a preventative measure against HIV infection, right-winger conspiracy theorists began to fret that the federal government would mandate circumcision.
Since Patrick Henry isn’t around, it was up to Rush Limbaugh to sound the rallying cry against tyranny: "Leave our penises alone, too, Obama!" roared Limbaugh in a July 24 radio broadcast.
The next day, while discussing an unrelated dispute with Jay-Z, the talk show host said, "I would remind the rapper Jay Z; Mr. Z, it is President Obama who wants mandated circumcision. We had that yesterday. That means if we need to save our penises from anybody, it's Obama."
Needless to say, Obama had nothing to do with the CDC report, and doesn't appear to have ever publicly uttered the word "circumcision." Nor did he recommend the CDC promote circumcision.
None of this, of course, discouraged Limbaugh from running with the best metaphor for white male anxiety about a loss of power and masculinity in the age of Obama, ever.
The base of my post is filched from Robert Reich's blog post up today. I never miss a post and I read them over and over again. I use his posts to strengthen my arguments when talking to folks that do not see things as I do, or sadly..buy into the rightwing nutjobs fearmongering.
Labor Day 2009. It's a sad labor day if you go by 'the numbers' of those out of work and/or struggling to make ends meet because they are underemployed. From Mr. Reich's blogpost on the subject:
The latest employment figures (released this morning) show job losses continuing to grow. According to the payroll survey, job losses are increasing more slowly than in previous months. According to the household survey, they're accelerating -- from 9.4 percent of the workforce in July to 9.7 percent in August. Bottom line: almost one out of six Americans who need a full-time job either can't find one or is working part-time. Meanwhile, wage growth among people who have jobs has just about stopped. The Economic Policy Institute reports that between 2006 and 2008, wages grew at an annualized rate of 4.0%; by contrast, over the past three months annual wage growth has plummeted to just 0.7%. At the same time, furloughs -- requiring workers to take unpaid vacations -- are on the rise: recent surveys show 17% of companies imposing them. More than 20% of companies have suspended their contributions to 401(k)s and similar pension plans.
So why isn't the media screaming? Partly because these job and wage losses are not, for the most part, falling on the segment of our population most visible to the media. They're falling overwhelmingly on the middle class and the poor. Unemployment among those who have been in the top 10 percent of earnings is closer to 5 percent, and their earnings continue to climb -- although, to be sure, much more slowly than before the meltdown. It's much the same with health-care and pension benefits. Among people under 65 who are in the bottom 20% of incomes, only 21.9% have employer-sponsored health insurance -- if they have a job at all. Half of all people nearing retirement age have a 401(k) balance of less than $40,000.(emphasis mine of course)
This logic is morally and economically indefensible. If we've learned anything from the Great Recession-Mini Depression of the last 18 months, it's that the skewing of income and wealth to the top has made our economy far less stable. When the majority of middle-class and poor Americans are either losing their jobs or feel threatened by job loss, and when those who still have jobs are experiencing flat or declining wages, there's simply no way to get the economy back on track. The track we were on -- featuring stagnant median wages, widening inequality, and job insecurity -- got us into this mess in the first place.
Saw this over at Bob's. It spoke to me, sort of.
For the funny factor, the below video is priceless..Rachel and the Gonzo Opera! Love it!
First, the best video to date on kittehs, bar none!
Ok, now for today's pictorial of the kittehs in repose.
Sweetie kicking back and NOT looking pissed off for a change. His fur coat looks so nice at it's current length. I wish it would stop growing.but of course it won't. He is afterall a Persian.
Spanky relaxing on top, PeeWee relaxing underneath. It's hard to see PeeWee but he is snoozing and refused to sit up for the taking of this photo. Get a load of Spanky's tail..it's one helluva fuzzy friggin tail wouldn't you say?
Scooter is just big-boned ya know.. ;)He was funny as hell whilst bitchslapping the idiot Beck. Watch:
My day started way-too-friggin-early for starters..4:45am to be exact. I don't remember what woke me up, but it was probably related to a cat..I would bet the Ball n' Chains™ life on it.
After bending over roughly 25 times to slop the hogs, meaning I feed, medicate and water all indoor and outdoor critters, my back was already highly pissed at me and was screaming like a banshee. At 7:45am no less!
Then I sat down to ye olde laptop and saw that Sirens Chronicles was having issues..mainly something I did yesterday, which the fucking admin panel told me to do..had unintended consequences. It made my database manager plug-in non-functional.
This is a very important plug-in. As shitty as my host provider is, I usually have to repair the database at least 4 mornings a week. Some fucking autostart program they run hoses the shit out of Siren's front page..deleting all content. It only takes me a minute to repair the db, but I have to stop what I am doing every morning around 8:30am, go check the site to see if yes..once again all content as disappeared. Fucking hosting company can kiss my hairy ass one of these days. Twice even...
Next on the morning agenda: reading a few of the 400 emails I get daily. Most are from news agency's around the globe and those are where I get the majority of my information. I eventually get to our MSM, but they are way down the fucking list..believe me.
I was happy to see that martial law had not been imposed by Obama overnight, after all the horseshit the extreme rightwing nutters are pulling lately. You know..the fuckwits bringing guns to townhalls, the smackdowns on defenseless elderly people at townhalls, sick batshit bastards screaming down wheelchair-bound women that just want to ask some questions about healthcare at some townhall and my personal favorite- Obama speaking at schools means he is recruiting for his Hitler Youth Groups...you know, the usual shit lately that the entire-fucking-world is seeing on YouTube or reading in their newspapers and then saying:
What in the blue-fucking-hell is wrong with those friggin Americans? Is there something in their water for christ's sake?
If this doesn't tell you what ignorant bags of batshit are on the anti-healthcare reform bandwagon...I don't know what the hell will. From the RawStory link:
A 65-year-old man cheering healthcare reform in Miami was punched in the face and knocked to the ground by an opponent of a public health plan, according to a reporter at the scene. The rally took place outside a Great Miami Chamber of Commerce event where Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL - below right) was speaking.
"Luis Perrero of Coral Gables was standing among about 40 Democratic activists and union workers when a man in a Ford pick-up truck pulled up to the rally at Jungle Island and began arguing with the crowd," the Herald's Tolouse Oloronippa blogged Wednesday. "The man, who only gave his first name as Raul, said Perrero called him a Spanish curse word. He punched Perrero in the face. Perrero fell to the ground and lay motionless for a few minutes."
Sweet-friggin-Jaysus-in-a-speedo..wtf? Punching out an old man for crying out loud? Way to go, you worthless asshole!
The extreme nutters are coming out of the woodwork over the healthcare debate. We can blame Chuck the fuck Grassley and just about every other Rethug or Blue Dog for this violent bullshit.
They are feeding it, and the 'rightwing terrorists' are doing their part evidently. The 65 yo victim had this to say:
"I'm amazed the way this has become such a politicized issue,'' Perrero said, while still sitting on the ground but sitting up. "It shows that people who are against the public option will resort to anything, including battery on a senior citizen to prevent healthcare reform.''
Sadly, I am not amazed. I expect it to get much worse. The Big O however will speak to the idiots in Congress Sept 9th. Can't wait for this newest bullshit session. What do you want to bet he drops the Public Option? Any takers on that bet?
WAIT!!!! There is more. From C&L this video of the nutters shouting down a woman in a wheelchair at another townhall. Disgusting morons really take the cake.
| Can there be any room for a centrist at a health care reform town hall meeting |
First, a documentary on what Texaco/Chevron has done to the people and the land in South America. It really needs to be seen, and this trailer gives you a look into the dark, dastardly souls of the Oil Industry. It's called.."CRUDE".
The following video is not for people that get squeamish. It is brutal. I have it up only to inform as to what is done in our name to keep the price of egg's cheap. I won't even tell you what it did to me, all I am going to say is there are alternative methods of euthanizing living creatures. I don't care if the price of eggs doubled, there are alternatives you sons of bitches.
This next video will hopefully make you laugh, its true but the delivery of their message is great!
Finally, something beautifully breathtaking from Ken Burns. His newest documentary, National Parks, will show on PBS sometime in mid-Sept in sections. This is a 25 minute long preview..and its fucking awesome. It will hopefully heal the horror you experienced if you watched videos number one and/or two in this post.
George Will said what?
Seriously..was he under the influence of psychotropic medications? Better yet, was he drunk or stoned?
A Politico article calls him..lol..the elite conservative commentator. I know many on the edge of the rightwing fringe think of ole George as elite..but not in the same way I think of the word elite. ;)
George thinks Afghanistan doesn't matter, that is why he wants us out of there. His reasons..sigh..are vastly different than mine in most respects. From his own piehole:
“[F]orces should be substantially reduced to serve a comprehensively revised policy: America should do only what can be done from offshore, using intelligence, drones, cruise missiles, airstrikes and small, potent special forces units, concentrating on the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, a nation that actually matters,”Pakistan has nukes, and yes that country is an important part of the puzzle in the region. But so is Afghanistan. I despise Karzai with a white hot hate reserved for child molesters. Afghanistan has a nation will never prosper with Karzai's disgusting persona at the helm. I think we should work towards burying that bag of batshit...in his own feces.
Even though violence exploded across Iraq after, and partly because of, three elections, Afghanistan's recent elections were called "crucial." To what? They came, they went, they altered no fundamentals, all of which militate against American "success," whatever that might mean. Creation of an effective central government? Afghanistan has never had one. U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry hopes for a "renewal of trust" of the Afghan people in the government, but the Economist describes President Hamid Karzai's government -- his vice presidential running mate is a drug trafficker -- as so "inept, corrupt and predatory" that people sometimes yearn for restoration of the warlords, "who were less venal and less brutal than Mr. Karzai's lot."
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This is 626% MORE than other websites who took this test.
