My adventure: waking at 3 am and accidentally pulling out right nephrostomy tube on way for water. While this caused a trifle bit of alarm on my my part (and by trifle I usually mean gargantuan by writing in an understated bit of British irony),
Nevertheless, my fears of rupturing a blood vessel and bleeding out proved unfounded as simply waited in ER with 0 alarm on part of professionals there, had tube replaced in same hole, and got carted home only to find that handset which would not function to call 911 previously because of low battery would not charge. Next when urine collection bag had blood a week later rather than just pure urine, had to crawl to front door to yell to neighbor who goes to work at 5am to make 911, call a fact which will wound me psychologically to the end of my days but hope to recast in more humorous way in my novel as hate to ask for help, even less so in boxers laying with front door ajar.
Once in the ER, quickly got quickly placed into room with 4 bays divided by curtains, a lucky fact for often patients get placed by triage nurses on cots in corridors--or even in winter laid on a floor with blankets but those latter homeless humans who may fake a malady for warmth--because folks come into the ER with myriad of ills which a primary Dr would better treat.
For instance. the gentleman to my immediate left had fainting spells for a couple months, severe headaches, and had fallen down in public even though sober to cause his ER stay, paramedics having strongly suggested he get his health checked. After a probably unnecessary and costly CT scan which showed no problems, the Doctor discussed his extremely high blood pressure with him.
With my own higher than normal pressure, my ears perked up and heard it explained to the in his early 60's gentleman how pernicious the effects could become; heart attacks, strokes, and death.
He had no doctor (or primary physician as we now say).
He had no health insurance.
He received a prescription and referral to the Orange Blossom Family Medical clinic, a government supported medical center for poor humans and working folks who have no insurance from temporary jobs or cannot afford plans offered by their employers. A little googling will show temporary jobs have become the hiring preference for many companies in the United States of Apathy.
This clinic served me well in 2006 when first diagnosed with high blood pressure, and I sadly never could pay $5 copay for the medications. Budget limits and then more cuts prevented them from referring me to specialists required for my care; nephrologist, urologist, and neurologist for starters. Even after deemed eligible for disability and surviving the 2 year waiting period for Medicare and Medicare Advantage, paying $40 copays for specialists still proves difficult and probably impossible were my dad unable to help his 54 year old son with rent.
Obviously if the gentleman with high blood pressure strokes out and has to receive care in an Adult Living Facility paid for by Medicaid, it will cost exponentially more than it would in a humane system where he could see a Dr a couple of times a year and have some sort of social health insurance to afford blood pressure medication.
This then forms the reality of the broken health care system in the richest country in the world, the world of which Willard Mitt Romney has no inkling whatsoever, not even a bit of curiosity nor compassion, nor any clue he should actually inform himself of the life less affluent really live, the reality of the 47% he mocked, the working folk who pay plenty in sales taxes, increased fees for every governement service in cash strapped states, and pay social security and medicare taxes taken from every paycheck they earn.
This amounts to something more than a tragedy, this ideology of death, a genocide which makes my Jesus weep.
Howzabout you?
For whom will you vote?
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Sorry, Lord, for Asking You to Help the Florida Gators
Your Book tells me You love all people: humans good and bad, rich and greedy folks, mean people and poor clowns like myself who revel in their misery, atheists, mormons, and even Republicans and RepubliKKKans.
So You do not play favorites in particular athletic contests or elections but my heart says you enjoy sports, like the miracle Mets or Red Sox wining World Series after down to last strike of last out of at last at dat. Had to feel blessed well exciting, even for You.
Nevertheless, why you got a mad on for my Cubbies?
So You do not play favorites in particular athletic contests or elections but my heart says you enjoy sports, like the miracle Mets or Red Sox wining World Series after down to last strike of last out of at last at dat. Had to feel blessed well exciting, even for You.
Nevertheless, why you got a mad on for my Cubbies?
"Death by Ideology"
Every day in America people die because they lack health insurance and live in a society which evinces no compassion for the less fortunate among us: those who live without shelter, serve your food, market products over the phone to make minimal wages while getting cursed, and maybe even those who work at greeters at big box retail stores.
This happens because alleged humans hold to an idea that everyone has to take care of everything that happens to them, even medical conditions easily treated in other countries with health cares systems based on human decency rather than wringing every dollar possible out of people.
These people, who loudly proclaim themselves Christians, live by ideology unmoored from any bit of reality or any knowledge of how humans with marginal incomes actually live and die ignoring the very words my Jesus said while mouthing their mealy mouthed platitudes.
Fie on thee, ye who proclaim your righteousness.
I sin and sin greatly but at least admit of my mistakes, and when I see you in Hell, Willard, I will laugh.
[Mitt Romney doesn’t see dead people. But that’s only because he doesn’t want to see them; if he did, he’d have to acknowledge the ugly reality of what will happen if he and Paul Ryan get their way on health care.
Last week, speaking to The Columbus Dispatch, Mr. Romney declared that nobody in America dies because he or she is uninsured: “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.” This followed on an earlier remark by Mr. Romney — echoing an infamous statement by none other than George W. Bush — in which he insisted that emergency rooms provide essential health care to the uninsured.
These are remarkable statements. They clearly demonstrate that Mr. Romney has no idea what life (and death) are like for those less fortunate than himself.
Even the idea that everyone gets urgent care when needed from emergency rooms is false. Yes, hospitals are required by law to treat people in dire need, whether or not they can pay. But that care isn’t free — on the contrary, if you go to an emergency room you will be billed, and the size of that bill can be shockingly high. Some people can’t or won’t pay, but fear of huge bills can deter the uninsured from visiting the emergency room even when they should. And sometimes they die as a result.
More important, going to the emergency room when you’re very sick is no substitute for regular care, especially if you have chronic health problems. When such problems are left untreated — as they often are among uninsured Americans — a trip to the emergency room can all too easily come too late to save a life.
So the reality, to which Mr. Romney is somehow blind, is that many people in America really do die every year because they don’t have health insurance.] emphasis added for the clueless and because I want to punch Willard in the nose, ok, strike humourosly with rubber chicken 'cause don't need Secret Service hassle and Jesus abhors violence but did do civil disobedience.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/opinion/krugman-death-by-ideology.html?hp&_r=0
This happens because alleged humans hold to an idea that everyone has to take care of everything that happens to them, even medical conditions easily treated in other countries with health cares systems based on human decency rather than wringing every dollar possible out of people.
These people, who loudly proclaim themselves Christians, live by ideology unmoored from any bit of reality or any knowledge of how humans with marginal incomes actually live and die ignoring the very words my Jesus said while mouthing their mealy mouthed platitudes.
Fie on thee, ye who proclaim your righteousness.
I sin and sin greatly but at least admit of my mistakes, and when I see you in Hell, Willard, I will laugh.
[Mitt Romney doesn’t see dead people. But that’s only because he doesn’t want to see them; if he did, he’d have to acknowledge the ugly reality of what will happen if he and Paul Ryan get their way on health care.
Last week, speaking to The Columbus Dispatch, Mr. Romney declared that nobody in America dies because he or she is uninsured: “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.” This followed on an earlier remark by Mr. Romney — echoing an infamous statement by none other than George W. Bush — in which he insisted that emergency rooms provide essential health care to the uninsured.
These are remarkable statements. They clearly demonstrate that Mr. Romney has no idea what life (and death) are like for those less fortunate than himself.
Even the idea that everyone gets urgent care when needed from emergency rooms is false. Yes, hospitals are required by law to treat people in dire need, whether or not they can pay. But that care isn’t free — on the contrary, if you go to an emergency room you will be billed, and the size of that bill can be shockingly high. Some people can’t or won’t pay, but fear of huge bills can deter the uninsured from visiting the emergency room even when they should. And sometimes they die as a result.
More important, going to the emergency room when you’re very sick is no substitute for regular care, especially if you have chronic health problems. When such problems are left untreated — as they often are among uninsured Americans — a trip to the emergency room can all too easily come too late to save a life.
So the reality, to which Mr. Romney is somehow blind, is that many people in America really do die every year because they don’t have health insurance.] emphasis added for the clueless and because I want to punch Willard in the nose, ok, strike humourosly with rubber chicken 'cause don't need Secret Service hassle and Jesus abhors violence but did do civil disobedience.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/opinion/krugman-death-by-ideology.html?hp&_r=0
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Amazon.com; not quite as evil as I thought
First, support your local independently owned music and book stores. Large companies with mass purchases dictate public taste through virtue of marketing to the masses.
Moms and Pops stores will carry content you will rarely find elsewhere; they deserve our support, and our society needs them like brains need neurons.
My local store lies just out of cheap taxi fare distance but if you come to Orlando visit East West Records. (Yes, nieces, uncle dino still calls all music formats records) where owner Hannah has most amazing breadth of musical knowledge. Plus the shop always supports different charities throughout the year.
If you find you must shop at Amazon, first sign up to downlaod support tool for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, a really brilliant endeavour, to promote good nutritional habits for our children. This puts a little icon thingy on your menu bar. Then when googling for products, results show retailers that contribute part of the purchase price to the charity. This partially provides Amazon good karma to offset the bad of harsh sweatshop conditions at packaging centres and hostility towards unions.
Shameless self promotion: after doing that, please click on Johnny Cash button at top right of my sidebar to make any Amazon purchases. Made $37.52 in 5 years of blogging.
Big Time, baby!
http://poweredby.globalmojo.com/jamieoliversfoodfoundation/#signin
Moms and Pops stores will carry content you will rarely find elsewhere; they deserve our support, and our society needs them like brains need neurons.
My local store lies just out of cheap taxi fare distance but if you come to Orlando visit East West Records. (Yes, nieces, uncle dino still calls all music formats records) where owner Hannah has most amazing breadth of musical knowledge. Plus the shop always supports different charities throughout the year.
If you find you must shop at Amazon, first sign up to downlaod support tool for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, a really brilliant endeavour, to promote good nutritional habits for our children. This puts a little icon thingy on your menu bar. Then when googling for products, results show retailers that contribute part of the purchase price to the charity. This partially provides Amazon good karma to offset the bad of harsh sweatshop conditions at packaging centres and hostility towards unions.
Shameless self promotion: after doing that, please click on Johnny Cash button at top right of my sidebar to make any Amazon purchases. Made $37.52 in 5 years of blogging.
Big Time, baby!
http://poweredby.globalmojo.com/jamieoliversfoodfoundation/#signin
Dinesh D'Souza: How Fallen are the Righteous
This made me laugh. Of course, adultery must count as a lesser sin than being a Kenyan-socialist-Muslim bent on bringing sharia law to the US.
"The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians." H. L. Mencken
The sheer arrogance still astonishes me. See, satire just finds me without even trying.. See also http://empireofdirt77.
http://www.watchfuleye.com/mencken.html
[D’Souza came under fire Tuesday when World magazine revealed that he was engaged to a 29-year-old woman while still married to his wife of 20 years. D’Souza and Denise Odie Joseph allegedly shared a hotel room at a Christian conference in September, and D’Souza introduced her as his fiancee.
It was not immediately clear whether the board’s decision was driven by the allegations of the affair, or by dissatisfaction with D’Souza’s leadership that had been building at the college for months. At the meeting Thursday, Mills did not give details of the board's conversation about D’Souza or give reasons for his departure. Representatives for the college did not respond to requests for comment.
According to several sources at the college, members of the King’s faculty and board alike had grown hostile to D’Souza’s presidency over what they saw as a failure to earn his reported million-dollar salary. D’Souza has spent much of the past few months promoting his documentary, 2016: Obama’s America, and his high profile in the media was seen as rarely benefitting the college. It may even have been seen as a detriment: According to a former staffer familiar with the college’s public relations, King’s employees have been explicitly tasked with disentangling D’Souza’s extracurricular activities from the college’s reputation.]
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/18/dinesh-d-souza-resigns-presidency-of-the-king-s-college.html
It was not immediately clear whether the board’s decision was driven by the allegations of the affair, or by dissatisfaction with D’Souza’s leadership that had been building at the college for months. At the meeting Thursday, Mills did not give details of the board's conversation about D’Souza or give reasons for his departure. Representatives for the college did not respond to requests for comment.
According to several sources at the college, members of the King’s faculty and board alike had grown hostile to D’Souza’s presidency over what they saw as a failure to earn his reported million-dollar salary. D’Souza has spent much of the past few months promoting his documentary, 2016: Obama’s America, and his high profile in the media was seen as rarely benefitting the college. It may even have been seen as a detriment: According to a former staffer familiar with the college’s public relations, King’s employees have been explicitly tasked with disentangling D’Souza’s extracurricular activities from the college’s reputation.]
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/18/dinesh-d-souza-resigns-presidency-of-the-king-s-college.html
Romney's Binder Bullshit
Sorry for swearing, sister who still talks to me, but this has just gotten beyond parody, through absurdity, and into sheer delusional alternate reality.
Willard did not even put together the list of women for consideration of appointment to Massachusetts state offices. A bipartisan group did it
Mitt blatantly lied to the American people.
Unbelievable but typical that a spoiled rich bully brat grows up abusing his position and privilege and continues, as a result of some pathological need for approval (Younger than his three siblings – Margo Lynn, Jane LaFount, and G. Scott – Mitt followed them after a gap of nearly six years), has to lie about every single thing in his life to aggrandize himself.
Kind of ironic the kid who gave swirlies still feels the sting of feeling uncool, perhaps because he couldn't join the jocks on athletic teams at his exclusive boarding school..
["Now one of the reasons I was able to get so many good women to be part of that team was because of our recruiting effort."
Not a true story.
What actually happened was that in 2002 -- prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration -- a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.
They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.
I have written about this before, in various contexts; tonight I've checked with several people directly involved in the MassGAP effort who confirm that this history as I've just presented it is correct -- and that Romney's claim tonight, that he asked for such a study, is false.] emphasis added
http://blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/talkingpolitics/archive/2012/10/16/mind-the-binder.aspx
Link found at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/17/1145627/-About-Mitt-Romney-s-binders-full-of-women-Guess-what-It-s-BS
Willard did not even put together the list of women for consideration of appointment to Massachusetts state offices. A bipartisan group did it
Mitt blatantly lied to the American people.
Unbelievable but typical that a spoiled rich bully brat grows up abusing his position and privilege and continues, as a result of some pathological need for approval (Younger than his three siblings – Margo Lynn, Jane LaFount, and G. Scott – Mitt followed them after a gap of nearly six years), has to lie about every single thing in his life to aggrandize himself.
Kind of ironic the kid who gave swirlies still feels the sting of feeling uncool, perhaps because he couldn't join the jocks on athletic teams at his exclusive boarding school..
["Now one of the reasons I was able to get so many good women to be part of that team was because of our recruiting effort."
Not a true story.
What actually happened was that in 2002 -- prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration -- a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.
They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.
I have written about this before, in various contexts; tonight I've checked with several people directly involved in the MassGAP effort who confirm that this history as I've just presented it is correct -- and that Romney's claim tonight, that he asked for such a study, is false.] emphasis added
http://blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/talkingpolitics/archive/2012/10/16/mind-the-binder.aspx
Link found at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/17/1145627/-About-Mitt-Romney-s-binders-full-of-women-Guess-what-It-s-BS
Definitions
Hypocrite: one who sees the hypocrisy of others.
Cynic: one who sees his own and others' hypocrisy as human foible
Cynic: one who sees his own and others' hypocrisy as human foible
Friday, October 12, 2012
My Quote for the Week
After all this time drinking, figured my liver would kill me, not kidneys. Thought I had a spare.
D. H. Hill 11 October '12
D. H. Hill 11 October '12
:NC state senate candidate wields vaginal probe in campaign ad"
(Updated for grammar and satire)
You go girl!
Even a a 54 year old adolescent male like myself raised in a perniciously patriarchal society realizes it wrongs women to invade their body by order of a government with a vaginal probe a foot long.
Let's first insist on anal probes for right wing elected anal retentive obsessive compulsive politicians, especially those from red states.
Because swing state voters do have more common sense and intelligence than voters in states which stick to straight party voting; ought to reprise my undergraduate political science to examine differences in Senate and President ticket splitting, ie in FL we have smarter voters because Senator Bill Nelson won in 2000 even though President Cheney won a narrow (5-4) election,
Thus in solidly Red states you can find poltroons and buffoons like Todd "Legitimate Rape"Akin and his neighbor legislator dude saying science comes from the Devil and the literal Hell, apparently meaning the Christian construct of the Devil as one antithetical to all that we hold dear, good, and righteous--evidently NOT the Devil strolling through heaven as recounted in the Book of Job.
[Deb Butler in North Carolina is my hero today. What a gutsy sister to tell it like it is!
She picked up a vaginal probe, turned on the teevee cameras, and showed America what Republican men want to do to women.]
You go girl!
Even a a 54 year old adolescent male like myself raised in a perniciously patriarchal society realizes it wrongs women to invade their body by order of a government with a vaginal probe a foot long.
Let's first insist on anal probes for right wing elected anal retentive obsessive compulsive politicians, especially those from red states.
Because swing state voters do have more common sense and intelligence than voters in states which stick to straight party voting; ought to reprise my undergraduate political science to examine differences in Senate and President ticket splitting, ie in FL we have smarter voters because Senator Bill Nelson won in 2000 even though President Cheney won a narrow (5-4) election,
Thus in solidly Red states you can find poltroons and buffoons like Todd "Legitimate Rape"Akin and his neighbor legislator dude saying science comes from the Devil and the literal Hell, apparently meaning the Christian construct of the Devil as one antithetical to all that we hold dear, good, and righteous--evidently NOT the Devil strolling through heaven as recounted in the Book of Job.
[Deb Butler in North Carolina is my hero today. What a gutsy sister to tell it like it is!
Omar Khayyam
Wine, you are my insane sweetheart;
I hit the bottle and have no fear of disgrace. Drink [...]
http://www.juancole.com/2012/10/omar-khayyam-472-wine-you-are-my-insane-sweetheart.html
I hit the bottle and have no fear of disgrace. Drink [...]
http://www.juancole.com/2012/10/omar-khayyam-472-wine-you-are-my-insane-sweetheart.html
Buy Cheaper Wines
[Our senses, and the brain centers that control pleasure, are easily fooled by expectations -- and price.
How do we judge the value of wine? More specifically, what makes one wine better than another? The easy answer is that these value judgments are all in the palate of the beholder. But are the palates of beholders truly their own? Do I really love this Pinot Blanc from the Willamette Valley, or do I love the story my friend tells as he pours it, and the fact that the critic Robert Parker just gave it 92 points?
It’s not just wine. Every subjective experience can be radically improved or ruined by our expectations. The question isn’t whether expectations figure into our individual tastes; it’s how big a role do they play, and how deep must we go once expectations are removed to reach bedrock truths about our likes and dislikes.
People have been drinking wine ever since some lucky farmer accidentally fermented his fruit many thousands of years ago. Yet to most people wine remains something of a mystery. We accept that some bottles will cost five or 10 times as much as the $15 wine we pick up for dinner. We may think we know the difference, but blind taste tests show we often don’t. Wine experts are far from immune to such trickery....] http://www.salon.com/2012/09/30/stop_buying_expensive_wine/
How do we judge the value of wine? More specifically, what makes one wine better than another? The easy answer is that these value judgments are all in the palate of the beholder. But are the palates of beholders truly their own? Do I really love this Pinot Blanc from the Willamette Valley, or do I love the story my friend tells as he pours it, and the fact that the critic Robert Parker just gave it 92 points?
It’s not just wine. Every subjective experience can be radically improved or ruined by our expectations. The question isn’t whether expectations figure into our individual tastes; it’s how big a role do they play, and how deep must we go once expectations are removed to reach bedrock truths about our likes and dislikes.
People have been drinking wine ever since some lucky farmer accidentally fermented his fruit many thousands of years ago. Yet to most people wine remains something of a mystery. We accept that some bottles will cost five or 10 times as much as the $15 wine we pick up for dinner. We may think we know the difference, but blind taste tests show we often don’t. Wine experts are far from immune to such trickery....] http://www.salon.com/2012/09/30/stop_buying_expensive_wine/
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Sun rises in East; Obama to blame for global warming.
Marc Caputo writes for the Miami Herald, and you can count on him to misrepresent and shade things so all news brings criticism of President Obama, one instance form his naked politics blog below along with my comment.
Mr. Caputo seems to come close to admitting the dissembling of the Romney campaign but than illogically compares that to statements from individuals in the administration which state tings differently at different times about the attack on the us consulate in Benghazi.
When events transpire quickly as in military attacks, oinions quickly given give an impression rather than a categorical statement of fact. To pretend otherwise flies in the face of basic logic.
To attack the president through criticism of his administration after the attack-especially by the Republican't representatives in the US House who voted to cut the State Department budget for embassy and consular security--amounts to the most disgusting and unethical partisan bevavior since the era of Senator joe McCarthy.
In times of war, some would call this treason.
This provides another example of the depths the republican't party will go to to win power, power for self aggrandizement and enriching the already wealthy.
[The Tea Party Congress, having, with Paul Ryan’s leadership, deeply cut funds for embassy security, held a hearing on Wednesday on the circumstances of the attack on Sept. 11, 2012, on the US consulate in Benghazi, in which it tried to point fingers at the State Department and the Obama administration.
That’s right, the Republicans cut funds for embassy security, and now are blaming the State Department for laxity.
Aljazeera English reports on the hearing:....
One of the Republican talking points is criticism of Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice and other Obama administration officials for saying that the events on Sept. 11 began with a demonstration outside the consulate against the hate film “The Innocence of the Muslims.”
But the fact is that the Libyan Arabic press initially reported that there was such a demonstration, and Libyan officials in Benghazi said so, as well, and I conveyed these assertions here....
But it is natural that there should have been a fog of war around the attack.... ] emphasis added
http://www.juancole.com/2012/10/the-shameful-politicization-of-the-benghazi-consulate-attack.html
[Gee, congressional Republican'ts dramatically cut the State Department embassy security budget and still blame Obama. About as predictable as seeing a headline on Herald newsletter and knowing it will have Marc Caputo byline. What next? Sun rises in East; Obama to blame for global warming.]
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/10/obama-returns-to-um-for-third-time-but-now-hes-on-defense.html
[Obama’s campaign also noted that, during the debate, Romney misrepresented his healthcare plan by saying it covers pre-existing conditions. It doesn’t.
But after Wednesday’s hearing, Republicans had enough evidence to accuse the president’s administration of concealing information about the Benghazi consulate attacks that killed an American ambassador and three foreign-service workers.]
Mr. Caputo seems to come close to admitting the dissembling of the Romney campaign but than illogically compares that to statements from individuals in the administration which state tings differently at different times about the attack on the us consulate in Benghazi.
When events transpire quickly as in military attacks, oinions quickly given give an impression rather than a categorical statement of fact. To pretend otherwise flies in the face of basic logic.
To attack the president through criticism of his administration after the attack-especially by the Republican't representatives in the US House who voted to cut the State Department budget for embassy and consular security--amounts to the most disgusting and unethical partisan bevavior since the era of Senator joe McCarthy.
In times of war, some would call this treason.
This provides another example of the depths the republican't party will go to to win power, power for self aggrandizement and enriching the already wealthy.
[The Tea Party Congress, having, with Paul Ryan’s leadership, deeply cut funds for embassy security, held a hearing on Wednesday on the circumstances of the attack on Sept. 11, 2012, on the US consulate in Benghazi, in which it tried to point fingers at the State Department and the Obama administration.
That’s right, the Republicans cut funds for embassy security, and now are blaming the State Department for laxity.
Aljazeera English reports on the hearing:....
One of the Republican talking points is criticism of Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice and other Obama administration officials for saying that the events on Sept. 11 began with a demonstration outside the consulate against the hate film “The Innocence of the Muslims.”
But the fact is that the Libyan Arabic press initially reported that there was such a demonstration, and Libyan officials in Benghazi said so, as well, and I conveyed these assertions here....
But it is natural that there should have been a fog of war around the attack.... ] emphasis added
http://www.juancole.com/2012/10/the-shameful-politicization-of-the-benghazi-consulate-attack.html
[Gee, congressional Republican'ts dramatically cut the State Department embassy security budget and still blame Obama. About as predictable as seeing a headline on Herald newsletter and knowing it will have Marc Caputo byline. What next? Sun rises in East; Obama to blame for global warming.]
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/10/obama-returns-to-um-for-third-time-but-now-hes-on-defense.html
[Obama’s campaign also noted that, during the debate, Romney misrepresented his healthcare plan by saying it covers pre-existing conditions. It doesn’t.
But after Wednesday’s hearing, Republicans had enough evidence to accuse the president’s administration of concealing information about the Benghazi consulate attacks that killed an American ambassador and three foreign-service workers.]
Mitt the Mendacious
Can hardly wait for the Vice Presidential debate tonight.
OH screw it, who am I kidding? Debates themselves don't matter; only the following media narrative matters, at least according to the media itself.
Let's see if we can predict headlines for Friday: Biden Combative but Fails to Land Knockout Blow, Ryan Cool under Fire, Ryan Defends Romney Economic plan.
No where in the mainstream media will you read that paul Ryan lied his freakin' ass off, avoided the truth as if it were a leper, and used to smirking grin to conceal the death head visage of the grim reaper lurking in his plans to cut medicaid budgets and give block grants to states to wholly manage the program. That might work in states where legislators have an actual conscience but not in FL where Republican't ideologues put their cut taxes for the rich first and health of citizens last, especially those folks of lower economic class.
Note here lower economic class includes grandparents retired and now working part time (35 hours a week) at Wal Mart which will not provide health insurance for workers even though 6 of the combined Walton progeny make more than the bottom 30% of the US population.
So don't expect any so-called liberal major media (What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News
0 to point out that plans of plucky P90x paul Ryan fail basic arithmetic.
They just don't add up.
You can't drive from New York City to Los Angeles without breaking the speed limit.
You just can't, but otherwise reliable if shallow legitimate news organizations either cannot bring themselves to believe this Republican't presidential ticket has adopted the strategy of the Big Lie: lie often, lie no matter how ridiculous, lie with a straight face, and ridicule those who point out 1 + 1 equals 2 and call them liars.
The campaign employs the Gish Gambit strategy, spewing so many lies in a short time so that no reasonable person can respond to them in a short attention span debate.
[One reason that I criticized Romney's debate performance – though many other Americans, including many Democrats, disagreed with my assessment – was that I felt his lying and his squirrely behavior were more important than Obama's sluggishness. Telling lies while waving your arms shouldn't trump telling the truth in a moderate tone.
Indeed, as a journalist, I simply cannot abide politicians who lie systematically, who don't just trim the truth once in a while but make falsehoods a strategic part of their politics and policies....
Thus, minor threats, like peasant uprisings in Central America, were portrayed as part of a grand Soviet strategy to invade the United States through Texas. The strength of the Soviet Union was itself exaggerated to justify a massive U.S. military build-up. Today's neocons cut their teeth of such distortions and lies.
Post 9/11, with George W. Bush in the White House, this neocon strategy of fear-mongering led the United States into the debacle of the Iraq War (in pursuit of imaginary weapons of mass destruction).
Now, less than a year after U.S. military forces left Iraq - and with a withdrawal from Afghanistan finally underway - the latest polls suggest that the American voters are shifting toward the election of another neocon President who promises more soaring rhetoric about U.S. "exceptionalism" and more interventionism abroad.
It's almost as if many Americans like being lied to.] emphasis added
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/13887-mitt-romney-lies-to-the-world
[One of the problems striking workers cite is the lack of access to full-time working hours, which prevents them from obtaining even the meager health benefits the company offers. The National Consumer’s League (NCL) told Raw Story that Walmart’s refusal to provide those benefits by exploiting part-time labor leads to a number of spillover costs that taxpayers ultimately pick up.
“Many Walmart workers are dependent on public assistance programs due to their low wages and not having access to full time jobs and being denied benefits because they’re not working the number of hours required to get access to those benefits, or the benefits are just so expensive that on their low wages they just can’t afford them,” NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg said in an exclusive interview. “Walmart has a record of even working with employees to sign them up for public assistance programs, which we think is really atrocious.”
She added that Walmart’s position of keeping wages low in order to pass the savings along to consumers doesn’t wash either: “Companies that pay a decent wage and provide benefits to their workers help create a middle class that is able to buy the kinds of products that Walmart sells,” Greenberg explained. “It is actually a plus for companies if they provide fair compensation to workers. It’s also better for consumers when they’re able to actually afford housing, healthcare and have access to benefits of the kind we think Walmart, with all its success and profits, ought to be able to pay workers.”
The famously anti-union retailer, which says it employs more than 2.1 million people, raked in $114.3 billion in revenues during just the second fiscal quarter of 2012, earning a profit of $4.02 billion. Berkeley labor economist Sylvia Allegretto found last year that just six of the Walton family’s richest members have a combined wealth greater than the bottom 30 percent of American earners put together.] emphasis added
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/10/walmart-worker-strikes-go-viral-hitting-28-stores-in-12-states/
OH screw it, who am I kidding? Debates themselves don't matter; only the following media narrative matters, at least according to the media itself.
Let's see if we can predict headlines for Friday: Biden Combative but Fails to Land Knockout Blow, Ryan Cool under Fire, Ryan Defends Romney Economic plan.
No where in the mainstream media will you read that paul Ryan lied his freakin' ass off, avoided the truth as if it were a leper, and used to smirking grin to conceal the death head visage of the grim reaper lurking in his plans to cut medicaid budgets and give block grants to states to wholly manage the program. That might work in states where legislators have an actual conscience but not in FL where Republican't ideologues put their cut taxes for the rich first and health of citizens last, especially those folks of lower economic class.
Note here lower economic class includes grandparents retired and now working part time (35 hours a week) at Wal Mart which will not provide health insurance for workers even though 6 of the combined Walton progeny make more than the bottom 30% of the US population.
So don't expect any so-called liberal major media (What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News
0 to point out that plans of plucky P90x paul Ryan fail basic arithmetic.They just don't add up.
You can't drive from New York City to Los Angeles without breaking the speed limit.
You just can't, but otherwise reliable if shallow legitimate news organizations either cannot bring themselves to believe this Republican't presidential ticket has adopted the strategy of the Big Lie: lie often, lie no matter how ridiculous, lie with a straight face, and ridicule those who point out 1 + 1 equals 2 and call them liars.
The campaign employs the Gish Gambit strategy, spewing so many lies in a short time so that no reasonable person can respond to them in a short attention span debate.
[One reason that I criticized Romney's debate performance – though many other Americans, including many Democrats, disagreed with my assessment – was that I felt his lying and his squirrely behavior were more important than Obama's sluggishness. Telling lies while waving your arms shouldn't trump telling the truth in a moderate tone.
Indeed, as a journalist, I simply cannot abide politicians who lie systematically, who don't just trim the truth once in a while but make falsehoods a strategic part of their politics and policies....
Thus, minor threats, like peasant uprisings in Central America, were portrayed as part of a grand Soviet strategy to invade the United States through Texas. The strength of the Soviet Union was itself exaggerated to justify a massive U.S. military build-up. Today's neocons cut their teeth of such distortions and lies.
Post 9/11, with George W. Bush in the White House, this neocon strategy of fear-mongering led the United States into the debacle of the Iraq War (in pursuit of imaginary weapons of mass destruction).
Now, less than a year after U.S. military forces left Iraq - and with a withdrawal from Afghanistan finally underway - the latest polls suggest that the American voters are shifting toward the election of another neocon President who promises more soaring rhetoric about U.S. "exceptionalism" and more interventionism abroad.
It's almost as if many Americans like being lied to.] emphasis added
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/13887-mitt-romney-lies-to-the-world
[One of the problems striking workers cite is the lack of access to full-time working hours, which prevents them from obtaining even the meager health benefits the company offers. The National Consumer’s League (NCL) told Raw Story that Walmart’s refusal to provide those benefits by exploiting part-time labor leads to a number of spillover costs that taxpayers ultimately pick up.
“Many Walmart workers are dependent on public assistance programs due to their low wages and not having access to full time jobs and being denied benefits because they’re not working the number of hours required to get access to those benefits, or the benefits are just so expensive that on their low wages they just can’t afford them,” NCL Executive Director Sally Greenberg said in an exclusive interview. “Walmart has a record of even working with employees to sign them up for public assistance programs, which we think is really atrocious.”
She added that Walmart’s position of keeping wages low in order to pass the savings along to consumers doesn’t wash either: “Companies that pay a decent wage and provide benefits to their workers help create a middle class that is able to buy the kinds of products that Walmart sells,” Greenberg explained. “It is actually a plus for companies if they provide fair compensation to workers. It’s also better for consumers when they’re able to actually afford housing, healthcare and have access to benefits of the kind we think Walmart, with all its success and profits, ought to be able to pay workers.”
The famously anti-union retailer, which says it employs more than 2.1 million people, raked in $114.3 billion in revenues during just the second fiscal quarter of 2012, earning a profit of $4.02 billion. Berkeley labor economist Sylvia Allegretto found last year that just six of the Walton family’s richest members have a combined wealth greater than the bottom 30 percent of American earners put together.] emphasis added
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/10/walmart-worker-strikes-go-viral-hitting-28-stores-in-12-states/
On Strike, Walmart Edition!
Walmart worker strikes go viral, hitting 28 stores in 12 states (via Raw Story )
Pre-existing Medical Conditions Personal for Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Myself
Testify, sister Wasserman Schultz, Romney blatantly lied:
[At the debate, Mitt Romney looked the American public in the eye and said: "I do have a plan that deals with people with pre-existing conditions. That's part of my health care plan."
His campaign quietly admitted afterwards that, no, it is not, in fact, a part of his health care plan.
As a breast cancer survivor and someone living with a pre-existing condition, this statement was more personally offensive than any of his repeated promises to repeal Obamacare. This kind of say-anything dishonesty is typical from Mitt Romney and the Republicans.
You can do something. Please give $3 or more today to help Democrats set the record straight about Romney and his allies. Voters need to know.
When the other side makes empty, dishonest promises like this one, it's not only the worst kind of politics, it's toying with real people's lives.
As a cancer survivor, I know just how much we used to be at the mercy of insurance providers. Obamacare protects us from unfair practices like lifetime caps on your coverage, denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and being dropped from your policy exactly when you need it most. Mitt Romney will take that all away -- but when he's asked point-blank about it, he won't admit it.
We deserve better. But we need to work harder than ever for it.]
Yes, Debbie and me be friends, really tight. Wonder if I'll hear from her as much after the election? Also funny how all thems asking me for donations have learned to lower their ask to $3 or $5. Do you think thye share notes 'bout little ole me?
[At the debate, Mitt Romney looked the American public in the eye and said: "I do have a plan that deals with people with pre-existing conditions. That's part of my health care plan."
His campaign quietly admitted afterwards that, no, it is not, in fact, a part of his health care plan.
As a breast cancer survivor and someone living with a pre-existing condition, this statement was more personally offensive than any of his repeated promises to repeal Obamacare. This kind of say-anything dishonesty is typical from Mitt Romney and the Republicans.
You can do something. Please give $3 or more today to help Democrats set the record straight about Romney and his allies. Voters need to know.
When the other side makes empty, dishonest promises like this one, it's not only the worst kind of politics, it's toying with real people's lives.
As a cancer survivor, I know just how much we used to be at the mercy of insurance providers. Obamacare protects us from unfair practices like lifetime caps on your coverage, denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and being dropped from your policy exactly when you need it most. Mitt Romney will take that all away -- but when he's asked point-blank about it, he won't admit it.
We deserve better. But we need to work harder than ever for it.]
Yes, Debbie and me be friends, really tight. Wonder if I'll hear from her as much after the election? Also funny how all thems asking me for donations have learned to lower their ask to $3 or $5. Do you think thye share notes 'bout little ole me?
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Willard Lies on Insurance for People with Pre-Existing Conditions
Romney's 'plan" just more of the same, allowing health insurance companies to make huge profits and to discriminate against those with pre-existing conditions.
He would deny life saving care from umna beings whose insurance lapsed or who lost jobs when losing their jobs.
[WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney's plan to help people with pre-existing medical conditions: hang on to your health insurance if you want to be protected.
The GOP presidential candidate wants to help those who maintain continuous coverage, a fraction of a much bigger group of people at risk of getting turned down because of medical problems.
Here's the catch: If you had a significant break in coverage, an insurer still could delve into your health care record, looking for anything – from a bad back to high blood pressure – that foreshadows future claims. They'd be able to turn you down.
That's a contrast to President Barack Obama's health care law, which guarantees that people in poor health can get comprehensive coverage at the same rates everybody else pays, and provides government subsidies to help low- to middle-income households pay premiums.
Starting Jan. 1, 2014, an insurer "may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion," the law says.
Romney is stressing his pre-existing conditions plan as he works to soften his public image in the homestretch of a campaign that has tightened since his strong debate performance versus Obama.
"I do have a plan that deals with people with pre-existing conditions," he said during last week's debate.
The Romney campaign has not spelled out details other than it would help those who have maintained continuous coverage. That would entail incremental changes to insurance laws and regulations, and may or may not whittle down the number of uninsured, 49 million nationally.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/mitt-romney-preexisting-condtions_n_1950661.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
[WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney's plan to help people with pre-existing medical conditions: hang on to your health insurance if you want to be protected.
The GOP presidential candidate wants to help those who maintain continuous coverage, a fraction of a much bigger group of people at risk of getting turned down because of medical problems.
Here's the catch: If you had a significant break in coverage, an insurer still could delve into your health care record, looking for anything – from a bad back to high blood pressure – that foreshadows future claims. They'd be able to turn you down.
That's a contrast to President Barack Obama's health care law, which guarantees that people in poor health can get comprehensive coverage at the same rates everybody else pays, and provides government subsidies to help low- to middle-income households pay premiums.
Starting Jan. 1, 2014, an insurer "may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion," the law says.
Romney is stressing his pre-existing conditions plan as he works to soften his public image in the homestretch of a campaign that has tightened since his strong debate performance versus Obama.
"I do have a plan that deals with people with pre-existing conditions," he said during last week's debate.
The Romney campaign has not spelled out details other than it would help those who have maintained continuous coverage. That would entail incremental changes to insurance laws and regulations, and may or may not whittle down the number of uninsured, 49 million nationally.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/mitt-romney-preexisting-condtions_n_1950661.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Liar, liar, Pants on Fire!
Thank the minor god of irony the discourse on Sunday news talk shows has risen to such an edifying level, raising the whole level of political wisdom in the whole country.
OK, hope this YouTube version works:
[But this is exactly what the Ryan proposal is — turning Medicare from a “defined benefit” into a“defined contribution” plan. Seniors would get a voucher from the federal government that they could use to help pay for a selection of private plans.
Although the Romney/Ryan campaign has shied away from this phrase in favor of the euphemistic “premium support,” Ryan himself has specifically referred to his proposal as a “voucher” program in the past.]
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/10/07/972441/mary-matalin-calls-paul-krugman-a-liar-for-telling-the-truth/
More, more, more facts in one post:
(Crooks and Liars embed won't work; find it on your own.)
[KRUGMAN: Well, but just look at them, then. Because the fact of the matter is, this is actually a fairly typical slow post-financial crisis recovery, which is picking up speed. So although it's terrible -- and I've been bitterly critical of policymakers in general for not doing more -- the fact of the matter is we are clearly now in the upswing, where you can see the beginnings of a turnaround.] emphasis in original
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/mary-matalin-calls-paul-krugman-liar
OK, hope this YouTube version works:
[But this is exactly what the Ryan proposal is — turning Medicare from a “defined benefit” into a“defined contribution” plan. Seniors would get a voucher from the federal government that they could use to help pay for a selection of private plans.
Although the Romney/Ryan campaign has shied away from this phrase in favor of the euphemistic “premium support,” Ryan himself has specifically referred to his proposal as a “voucher” program in the past.]
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/10/07/972441/mary-matalin-calls-paul-krugman-a-liar-for-telling-the-truth/
More, more, more facts in one post:
(Crooks and Liars embed won't work; find it on your own.)
[KRUGMAN: Well, but just look at them, then. Because the fact of the matter is, this is actually a fairly typical slow post-financial crisis recovery, which is picking up speed. So although it's terrible -- and I've been bitterly critical of policymakers in general for not doing more -- the fact of the matter is we are clearly now in the upswing, where you can see the beginnings of a turnaround.] emphasis in original
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/mary-matalin-calls-paul-krugman-liar
Stupid Crook News: Moonshine, drugs, and bombs, oh my!
Why do I publish stories on poor, pitiful humans ensnared in the criminal legal system? Why, as a generally nice and unmean person, di I smirk and chortle at misadventures of these unfortunate souls?
Because for the most of what i post, they brought it upon themselves.
like the guy recently in east Orlando busted with bales of weed at house he rented. The cops asked him if they could search. He, either brain dead or on the worst stupid drug in the world--yes, Virginia, the drugs and alcohol we humans ingest do have the near toxic effect of making us stupid. No one malefactor can fight off a dozen cops--invited the police in to search.
let me repeat this for dramatic and humourous effect; the stupid head LET THE POLICE in to search. That comes from stupid drug or progeny of sibling marriages.
So this unfortunate pair not even that stupid or as accomplished a pair of criminals as others have read about. Why ridicule them/
Because if i were a father, i would hope and pray to have my children, especially a son, would do more with their lies than i'd done with mine, done more to make the world better place rather than just graduating to greater included offenses on the criminal penalties schedule, white collar fraud, at least then if you steal enough while working at a major bank the government will let you off like Angelo Mozillo, the yet to become disgraced ex head of fraudulent lender Countrywide mortgages.
[SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. —
Police said a father and son were arrested Friday after investigators found drugs, moonshine and bomb-making materials in their Oviedo home.
Police raided the Oviedo home of father and son Robert and Matthew McKissic early Friday morning.
Investigators went to the seemingly ordinary home with a search warrant after they got a tip from a neighbor. When they got there, they made a bizarre discovery. They found cocaine and drug paraphernalia used to make crack cocaine, a pipe bomb, other bomb-making materials and even a still used to make the moonshine and 10 gallons of moonshine.] emphasis addded because 10 GALLONS of moonshine, my goddess, you gonna have a partty for a brigade of Marines?
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/father-son-arrested-after-police-find-drugs-moonsh/nSWTs/
Because for the most of what i post, they brought it upon themselves.
like the guy recently in east Orlando busted with bales of weed at house he rented. The cops asked him if they could search. He, either brain dead or on the worst stupid drug in the world--yes, Virginia, the drugs and alcohol we humans ingest do have the near toxic effect of making us stupid. No one malefactor can fight off a dozen cops--invited the police in to search.
let me repeat this for dramatic and humourous effect; the stupid head LET THE POLICE in to search. That comes from stupid drug or progeny of sibling marriages.
So this unfortunate pair not even that stupid or as accomplished a pair of criminals as others have read about. Why ridicule them/
Because if i were a father, i would hope and pray to have my children, especially a son, would do more with their lies than i'd done with mine, done more to make the world better place rather than just graduating to greater included offenses on the criminal penalties schedule, white collar fraud, at least then if you steal enough while working at a major bank the government will let you off like Angelo Mozillo, the yet to become disgraced ex head of fraudulent lender Countrywide mortgages.
[SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. —
Police said a father and son were arrested Friday after investigators found drugs, moonshine and bomb-making materials in their Oviedo home.
Police raided the Oviedo home of father and son Robert and Matthew McKissic early Friday morning.
Investigators went to the seemingly ordinary home with a search warrant after they got a tip from a neighbor. When they got there, they made a bizarre discovery. They found cocaine and drug paraphernalia used to make crack cocaine, a pipe bomb, other bomb-making materials and even a still used to make the moonshine and 10 gallons of moonshine.] emphasis addded because 10 GALLONS of moonshine, my goddess, you gonna have a partty for a brigade of Marines?
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/father-son-arrested-after-police-find-drugs-moonsh/nSWTs/
Monday, October 8, 2012
Driftglass Destroys Carville and Matalin Consultants
my sister who still talks to me thought my posts a little strident, which really hurt my feelings as aiming for absolute vituperation.
She should get a load of Driftglass, from whom I will surely steal some Dick Cheney the undead metaphors in the future.
[If you are unfamiliar with the Carville/Matalin beast that stalks the political world, imagine Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?", with all of that venomous contempt for all living things directed outward.
Legend has it that Carville wanted someone to raise him up a passel of snake-headed swamp babies just like him and Matalin wanted a career for herself that would survive both her face collapsing into a subduction zone between black-market Botox experiments and Jack Nicholson "Joker" cheek implants...and her skill set -- paralyzing small rodents with her voice and swallowing them whole -- losings its curb appeal.
And thus they struck a terrible bargain, and were betrothed (as befits their shared profession) on the grave of Lee Atwater at the stroke of midnight on Asa Earl Carter's birthday, each drinking the defiled blood of a mad dog from the skull of Edward R. Murrow and each offering up their souls to mighty Lucifer in exchange for prosperous careers in defiance of all logic and morality. And since that day their conjoined carcasses have lurched through our political landscape like two drunks veering down the sidewalk, each remaining upright and mobile by leaning against each the other.
Or so legend has it.
On the other hand, a simpler explanation to Mr. Pierce's question may be the simpler explanation that hides behind many of life's mysteries.
Money.
Matalin understood early on that the hate racket is like any other racket, and that our media is so constructed as to let Conservatives get away with all kinds of murder. Armed with these two facts and streamlined by a complete lack of conscience, she has exploited her meager talents and lengthy confidential contact list into a formidable media conglomerate which includes such diverse subsidiaries as flogging HVAC products and medium-priced hooch, sharing a radio microphone with fellow media mogul Arianna Huffington on Air-America-killer Mark Green's horrible, horrible show, and,most importantly getting her own Conservative imprint at Simon & Schuster:]
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/10/today-on-shoddiest-obit.html
Holy branding your politics and making more money than a barrel full of drunken popes, Batman, how can i whore out my political beliefs, since selling my ass ain't miking me no money?
She should get a load of Driftglass, from whom I will surely steal some Dick Cheney the undead metaphors in the future.
[If you are unfamiliar with the Carville/Matalin beast that stalks the political world, imagine Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?", with all of that venomous contempt for all living things directed outward.
Legend has it that Carville wanted someone to raise him up a passel of snake-headed swamp babies just like him and Matalin wanted a career for herself that would survive both her face collapsing into a subduction zone between black-market Botox experiments and Jack Nicholson "Joker" cheek implants...and her skill set -- paralyzing small rodents with her voice and swallowing them whole -- losings its curb appeal.
And thus they struck a terrible bargain, and were betrothed (as befits their shared profession) on the grave of Lee Atwater at the stroke of midnight on Asa Earl Carter's birthday, each drinking the defiled blood of a mad dog from the skull of Edward R. Murrow and each offering up their souls to mighty Lucifer in exchange for prosperous careers in defiance of all logic and morality. And since that day their conjoined carcasses have lurched through our political landscape like two drunks veering down the sidewalk, each remaining upright and mobile by leaning against each the other.
Or so legend has it.
On the other hand, a simpler explanation to Mr. Pierce's question may be the simpler explanation that hides behind many of life's mysteries.
Money.
Matalin understood early on that the hate racket is like any other racket, and that our media is so constructed as to let Conservatives get away with all kinds of murder. Armed with these two facts and streamlined by a complete lack of conscience, she has exploited her meager talents and lengthy confidential contact list into a formidable media conglomerate which includes such diverse subsidiaries as flogging HVAC products and medium-priced hooch, sharing a radio microphone with fellow media mogul Arianna Huffington on Air-America-killer Mark Green's horrible, horrible show, and,most importantly getting her own Conservative imprint at Simon & Schuster:]
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/10/today-on-shoddiest-obit.html
Holy branding your politics and making more money than a barrel full of drunken popes, Batman, how can i whore out my political beliefs, since selling my ass ain't miking me no money?
Quote of the Day
"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."
Harper Lee (b. 1926), U.S. author. Scout, in To Kill a Mockingbird, pt. 1, ch. 2 (1960)
Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/Until_I_feared_I_would_lose_it_I?__utma=1.1686513381.1346621762.1349734636.1349740179.7&__utmb=1.4.9.1349740179&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1346621762.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none)&__utmv=-&__utmk=86932760#j0yyZMOzfWuwAsVm.99
Harper Lee (b. 1926), U.S. author. Scout, in To Kill a Mockingbird, pt. 1, ch. 2 (1960)
Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/Until_I_feared_I_would_lose_it_I?__utma=1.1686513381.1346621762.1349734636.1349740179.7&__utmb=1.4.9.1349740179&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1346621762.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none)&__utmv=-&__utmk=86932760#j0yyZMOzfWuwAsVm.99
Willard Romney Kept Paris Safe for Mormons During Viet Nam War
Mitt Romney served a 2 year mission in Paris starting in 1968, where he proselytized and found time to protest for the American involvement in the Second Indochinese War.
Now this shallow reflection of a man wants to involve the United States of America in another war, this time in Syria.
This pathetic joke of a human who knows nothing about the horror of war and who can barely mouth platitudes of his own party and their attack lines seeks to bluster loudly and wield a big stick..
He wants to send children of others into the way of harm.
Will your own sons serve, Mr. Romney, you chickenhawk bastard?
If as von Clausewitz wrote, war amounts to the continuation of politics by use of force, then it also does not mean the end of politics.
For decision makers in the US to pretend that application of US force through our military can solve political problems of the collection of tribes and ethnicities the western world chooses to call Afghanistan remains the height of hubris and a waste of lives.
Generals establish metric and memes and declare progress in defeating the Taleban--which after all amounts to a religious idea which force of arms cannot defeat--and patrols patrol to no avail or use or utility except to die needlessly.
And Willard Mitt Romney who cannot even face questions from children dares use tthis Afghan misadventure as a political football to bludgeon Mr. Obama with.
Read the letter quoted here, if you dare, from a real soldier, one who served and died to no avail, and remember when Republican't and plutotarch patriots say the US lost Afghanistan because they feel to read much less understand history, to comprehend anything outside their narrow and rigid ideology.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the text of the letter Matthew Sitton sent to U.S. Rep. C.W. "Bill'' Young. It is unedited except for the names of two family members, which were blacked out by Young's office for privacy.
SIR,
Hello my name is SSG Matthew Sitton. I am in the 82{+n}{+d} Airborne Division stationed in Ft. Bragg, NC. I am currently deployed with the 4th Brigade Combat Team in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. I am writing you because I am concerned for the safety of my soldiers. This is my 3{+r}{+d} combat tour to Afghanistan so I have seen the transition in Rules of Engagement and Overall Tactics over the past 6 years.
I am only writing this email because I feel myself and my soldiers are being put into unnecessary positions where harm and danger are imminent. I know the threat of casualties in war and am totally on board with sacrifice for my country, but what I don't agree with is the chain of command making us walk through, for lack of a better term, basically a mine field on a daily basis.
I am in a platoon of 25 soldiers. We are operating at a tempo that is set for a full 35-40 man infantry platoon. We have been mandated to patrol twice daily for 2-4 hours each patrol on top of guarding our FOB and conducting routine maintenance of our equipment. There is no endstate or purpose for the patrols given to us from our higher chain of command, only that we will be out for a certain time standard. I am all for getting on the ground and fighting for my country when I know there is a desired endstate and we have clear guidance of what needs to be done. But when we are told basically to just walk around for a certain amount of time is not sitting well with me.
As a Brigade, we are averaging at a minimum an amputee a day from our soldiers because we are walking around aimlessly through grape rows and compounds that are littered with explosives. Not to mention that the operation tempo that every solider is on leaves little to no time for rest and refit. The moral and alertness levels on our patrol are low and it is causing casualties left and right.
Here is an example of how bad things have gotten. Our small FOB was flooded accidentally by a local early one morning a few days ago. He was watering his fields and the damn he had broke and water came flooding into our Living Area. Since our FOB does not have any portable bathrooms, we had to dig a hole in the ground where soldiers could use the bathroom. That also got flooded and contaminated all the water that later soaked every soldier and his gear. Instead of returning to base and cleaning up, our chain of command was so set on us meeting the brigade commanders 2 patrols a day guidance that they made us move outside the flooded FOB and conduct our patrols soaked in urine.
That is just one single instance of the unsatisfactory situations that our chain of command has put us in. At least three of my soldiers have gotten sick since that incident and taken away from our combat power because of their illness caused by unhealthy conditions.
I understand that as a commander you are to follow the orders of those appointed over you however there needs to be a time where the wellness of your soldiers needs to take priority over walking around in fields for hours a day for no rhyme or reason, but only to meet the Brigade Commanders guidance of you will conduct so many patrols for such an allotted time.
I'm concerned about the well being of my soldiers and have tried to voice my opinion through the proper channels of my own chain of command only to be turned away and told that I need to stop complaining. It is my responsibility to take care of my soldiers and there is only so much I can do with that little bit of Rank I have. My guys would fight by my side and have my back in any condition and I owe it to them to have their best interest in mind. I know they would and I certainly would appreciate it if there was something that you could do to help us out. I just want to return my guys home to their families healthy. I apologize for taking your time like this Sir, and I do appreciate what you do for us. I was told to contact you by my Grand Mother (name blacked out) who said that you had helped her son (my uncle) (name blacked) out many years ago. He also was serving in the military at the time. Thank you again for allowing soldiers like me to voice their opinion. If anything Please Pray for us over hear. God Bless
Very respectfully,
SSG Matthew Sitton]
http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/sep/21/namaino4-staff-sgt-sittons-letter-to-us-rep-young-ar-508176/
found through link from Stay at Home Feminist Mom: http://bettyfokker.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/remembering-matt-sitton/
http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/bill-moyers-honoring-fallen-soldier-s-
Now this shallow reflection of a man wants to involve the United States of America in another war, this time in Syria.
This pathetic joke of a human who knows nothing about the horror of war and who can barely mouth platitudes of his own party and their attack lines seeks to bluster loudly and wield a big stick..
He wants to send children of others into the way of harm.
Will your own sons serve, Mr. Romney, you chickenhawk bastard?
If as von Clausewitz wrote, war amounts to the continuation of politics by use of force, then it also does not mean the end of politics.
For decision makers in the US to pretend that application of US force through our military can solve political problems of the collection of tribes and ethnicities the western world chooses to call Afghanistan remains the height of hubris and a waste of lives.
Generals establish metric and memes and declare progress in defeating the Taleban--which after all amounts to a religious idea which force of arms cannot defeat--and patrols patrol to no avail or use or utility except to die needlessly.
And Willard Mitt Romney who cannot even face questions from children dares use tthis Afghan misadventure as a political football to bludgeon Mr. Obama with.
Read the letter quoted here, if you dare, from a real soldier, one who served and died to no avail, and remember when Republican't and plutotarch patriots say the US lost Afghanistan because they feel to read much less understand history, to comprehend anything outside their narrow and rigid ideology.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the text of the letter Matthew Sitton sent to U.S. Rep. C.W. "Bill'' Young. It is unedited except for the names of two family members, which were blacked out by Young's office for privacy.
SIR,
Hello my name is SSG Matthew Sitton. I am in the 82{+n}{+d} Airborne Division stationed in Ft. Bragg, NC. I am currently deployed with the 4th Brigade Combat Team in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. I am writing you because I am concerned for the safety of my soldiers. This is my 3{+r}{+d} combat tour to Afghanistan so I have seen the transition in Rules of Engagement and Overall Tactics over the past 6 years.
I am only writing this email because I feel myself and my soldiers are being put into unnecessary positions where harm and danger are imminent. I know the threat of casualties in war and am totally on board with sacrifice for my country, but what I don't agree with is the chain of command making us walk through, for lack of a better term, basically a mine field on a daily basis.
I am in a platoon of 25 soldiers. We are operating at a tempo that is set for a full 35-40 man infantry platoon. We have been mandated to patrol twice daily for 2-4 hours each patrol on top of guarding our FOB and conducting routine maintenance of our equipment. There is no endstate or purpose for the patrols given to us from our higher chain of command, only that we will be out for a certain time standard. I am all for getting on the ground and fighting for my country when I know there is a desired endstate and we have clear guidance of what needs to be done. But when we are told basically to just walk around for a certain amount of time is not sitting well with me.
As a Brigade, we are averaging at a minimum an amputee a day from our soldiers because we are walking around aimlessly through grape rows and compounds that are littered with explosives. Not to mention that the operation tempo that every solider is on leaves little to no time for rest and refit. The moral and alertness levels on our patrol are low and it is causing casualties left and right.
Here is an example of how bad things have gotten. Our small FOB was flooded accidentally by a local early one morning a few days ago. He was watering his fields and the damn he had broke and water came flooding into our Living Area. Since our FOB does not have any portable bathrooms, we had to dig a hole in the ground where soldiers could use the bathroom. That also got flooded and contaminated all the water that later soaked every soldier and his gear. Instead of returning to base and cleaning up, our chain of command was so set on us meeting the brigade commanders 2 patrols a day guidance that they made us move outside the flooded FOB and conduct our patrols soaked in urine.
That is just one single instance of the unsatisfactory situations that our chain of command has put us in. At least three of my soldiers have gotten sick since that incident and taken away from our combat power because of their illness caused by unhealthy conditions.
I understand that as a commander you are to follow the orders of those appointed over you however there needs to be a time where the wellness of your soldiers needs to take priority over walking around in fields for hours a day for no rhyme or reason, but only to meet the Brigade Commanders guidance of you will conduct so many patrols for such an allotted time.
I'm concerned about the well being of my soldiers and have tried to voice my opinion through the proper channels of my own chain of command only to be turned away and told that I need to stop complaining. It is my responsibility to take care of my soldiers and there is only so much I can do with that little bit of Rank I have. My guys would fight by my side and have my back in any condition and I owe it to them to have their best interest in mind. I know they would and I certainly would appreciate it if there was something that you could do to help us out. I just want to return my guys home to their families healthy. I apologize for taking your time like this Sir, and I do appreciate what you do for us. I was told to contact you by my Grand Mother (name blacked out) who said that you had helped her son (my uncle) (name blacked) out many years ago. He also was serving in the military at the time. Thank you again for allowing soldiers like me to voice their opinion. If anything Please Pray for us over hear. God Bless
Very respectfully,
SSG Matthew Sitton]
http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/sep/21/namaino4-staff-sgt-sittons-letter-to-us-rep-young-ar-508176/
found through link from Stay at Home Feminist Mom: http://bettyfokker.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/remembering-matt-sitton/
http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/bill-moyers-honoring-fallen-soldier-s-
Celebrate Columbus Day With First Nations Development Institute
Celebrate Columbus Day by giving to indigenous peoples, such as First Americans, victims of historical genocide and still privations of ineffective government: http://www.firstnations.org/.
Romney Honesty
He betrayed his true feelings when he derided 47% of the American people as looking for a handout.
In this, he simply repeated what his republican't base really believes: only the rich deserve tax breaks while the rest of us--who still pay a myriad of taxes: including property, medicare, social security and sales taxes as well as increased fees for everything from drivers' licenses to license plates in states which have had to slash budgets and also find new revenue--can go straight to hell or at least economic purgatory..
[....It seems to me Republicans are not merely opposed to handing out welfare checks so that drug addicts can get their fix. Many of them are also opposed to financial aid for college students. And unemployment insurance. And aid for the elderly. And so on and so forth.
This even as they want to boost military spending, not to get soldiers the kind of medical assistance they deserve, but to purchase a lot of high-tech gizmos which just so happen to be manufactured by corporations that make hefty donations.
Again, give Romney credit. He simply explained where the Republican Party stands.
Now voters have to ask themselves – do I know anyone who benefits from financial aid? Unemployment? Medicaid or Medicare?
Where does Sister Mary Rose fit into all this?
Well, don’t forget, the Republicans were happy a few weeks back when Timothy Cardinal Dolan made an appearance at the Republican convention. It reinforced the notion that the GOP is the party of God, while the Democrats are Godless....
But if the Republicans are so happy to tout themselves as the party of God, they should have some long conversations with the likes of Sister Mary Rose McGeady, and the thousands of religious people like her toiling to make the lives of the miserable and wretched slightly more bearable.
In the Republican universe, Covenant House is an exemplary organization. It is a religious charity that raises its own money, meaning tax money is not required. (Irish American Kevin M. Ryan now runs the organization.)
But Romney, and all the other Christian GOPers, should actually talk to some nuns. Don’t just prop them up and say, “Look, we actually like Catholics now.”
For if you actually talk to those toiling with the impoverished and needy, they will tell you government funds remain vital to helping out not just the poor, but working and middle class Americans.] emphasis added
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/sidewalks/tell-it-to-the-irish-catholic-nuns-mitt-romney---government-funds-vital-to-helping-american-people--171518581.html#ixzz28kKj4Htd
In this, he simply repeated what his republican't base really believes: only the rich deserve tax breaks while the rest of us--who still pay a myriad of taxes: including property, medicare, social security and sales taxes as well as increased fees for everything from drivers' licenses to license plates in states which have had to slash budgets and also find new revenue--can go straight to hell or at least economic purgatory..
[....It seems to me Republicans are not merely opposed to handing out welfare checks so that drug addicts can get their fix. Many of them are also opposed to financial aid for college students. And unemployment insurance. And aid for the elderly. And so on and so forth.
This even as they want to boost military spending, not to get soldiers the kind of medical assistance they deserve, but to purchase a lot of high-tech gizmos which just so happen to be manufactured by corporations that make hefty donations.
Again, give Romney credit. He simply explained where the Republican Party stands.
Now voters have to ask themselves – do I know anyone who benefits from financial aid? Unemployment? Medicaid or Medicare?
Where does Sister Mary Rose fit into all this?
Well, don’t forget, the Republicans were happy a few weeks back when Timothy Cardinal Dolan made an appearance at the Republican convention. It reinforced the notion that the GOP is the party of God, while the Democrats are Godless....
But if the Republicans are so happy to tout themselves as the party of God, they should have some long conversations with the likes of Sister Mary Rose McGeady, and the thousands of religious people like her toiling to make the lives of the miserable and wretched slightly more bearable.
In the Republican universe, Covenant House is an exemplary organization. It is a religious charity that raises its own money, meaning tax money is not required. (Irish American Kevin M. Ryan now runs the organization.)
But Romney, and all the other Christian GOPers, should actually talk to some nuns. Don’t just prop them up and say, “Look, we actually like Catholics now.”
For if you actually talk to those toiling with the impoverished and needy, they will tell you government funds remain vital to helping out not just the poor, but working and middle class Americans.] emphasis added
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/sidewalks/tell-it-to-the-irish-catholic-nuns-mitt-romney---government-funds-vital-to-helping-american-people--171518581.html#ixzz28kKj4Htd
Obama Wins First Debate
That may come as a jarring, even fantastical headline, in this 24 hour news society of instant reaction, analysis, and news "memes" which simply amount to talking points repeated incessantly.
If you read the debate transcript and analyze it for facts--you know, those inconvenient things which taken together amount to truth--Romney lied his ass off. The man wouldn't know the truth if it walked up, sapped him in the face, stole his woman and burned down the house. He finds himself of uttering words which might impede his rise to power, like even admitting a tax cut for rich folks marks the exact thing he has run on for last 8 years, for Athena's sake.
Odd but not entirely surprising it takes a columnist from a foreign paper to realize and write this; the British perhaps treat politics with trifle more skepticism since they have awareness they keep around and pay for an outmoded vestige of the feudal era, the "royal" family.
We in the colonies, the good old US of Irony, have no such awareness of the illusion of moral superiority with which we endow ourselves and our leaders.
[Barack Obama won last night’s debate. Or to be more precise, Mitt Romney lost it.
That’s obviously not the conventional view of the commentators or pollsters, who gave the GOP candidate a clear win. But that doesn’t matter. He still lost.
There are three reasons why Romney experienced a soft implosion of his already tenuous electoral chances. First, there was no “gotcha moment”. Before the debate every political analyst, be they from the Left or Right, agreed that Romney had to land a knockout blow, which he didn’t.
There was no major presidential gaffe. No glancing at watches, sighing or claiming there has never been any soviet domination of eastern Europe....
The second problem for Romney was that while he failed to land a knockout blow, he kept piling into him. He was aggressive, too aggressive.
This is Romney’s greatest weakness as a candidate. He lacks compassion. He comes across as one of those big businessman in old Westerns who turns up at the farm and explains to the widow that he needs to buy her land to make way for his new railroad, and if she knows what’s good for her, she’ll take him up on his kind offer. CNN’s post election poll found that two thirds of those who watched thought Romney put in the most effective performance. But only 46 per cent said they found him more likeable than Obama. Not only did Romney not land the knockout blow, he failed to close the empathy gap.
Finally, Romney has fatally shifted the expectation game. In advance of this debate, he was able to talk down his chances of success. This morning, his supporters are ecstatic – just look at my friend and colleague Tim Stanley’s take on the debate – and working themselves up into a frenzy at yet another ‘game-changing’ moment.
Romney will probably enjoy a small boost in the polls. And then the race will settle back down to where it was, which is a relatively tight national poll margin, but an insurmountable lead for Obama in the battleground states.] emphasis added http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100183875/last-night-mitt-romney-lost-yes-you-read-that-right/
Dang, I gotta start watching Saturday Night Live again. They really highlight Msnbc hyperbole on first debate. They too get caught in the moment and forget even Republican voters have come to find they like or at least benefit financially and personally from portions of the Affordable Care Act.
You see in the abstract, people find it easy to rail against big government and the encroaching socialist state.
Nevertheless when it gives insurance to their children by allowing them to stay on parent's health insurance and also saves lives of those in their family by allowing people with pre-existing medical conditions to even get health insurance coverage.
And Mitt the mendacious flat out lied on this point during the debate.
If you read the debate transcript and analyze it for facts--you know, those inconvenient things which taken together amount to truth--Romney lied his ass off. The man wouldn't know the truth if it walked up, sapped him in the face, stole his woman and burned down the house. He finds himself of uttering words which might impede his rise to power, like even admitting a tax cut for rich folks marks the exact thing he has run on for last 8 years, for Athena's sake.
Odd but not entirely surprising it takes a columnist from a foreign paper to realize and write this; the British perhaps treat politics with trifle more skepticism since they have awareness they keep around and pay for an outmoded vestige of the feudal era, the "royal" family.
We in the colonies, the good old US of Irony, have no such awareness of the illusion of moral superiority with which we endow ourselves and our leaders.
[Barack Obama won last night’s debate. Or to be more precise, Mitt Romney lost it.
That’s obviously not the conventional view of the commentators or pollsters, who gave the GOP candidate a clear win. But that doesn’t matter. He still lost.
There are three reasons why Romney experienced a soft implosion of his already tenuous electoral chances. First, there was no “gotcha moment”. Before the debate every political analyst, be they from the Left or Right, agreed that Romney had to land a knockout blow, which he didn’t.
There was no major presidential gaffe. No glancing at watches, sighing or claiming there has never been any soviet domination of eastern Europe....
The second problem for Romney was that while he failed to land a knockout blow, he kept piling into him. He was aggressive, too aggressive.
This is Romney’s greatest weakness as a candidate. He lacks compassion. He comes across as one of those big businessman in old Westerns who turns up at the farm and explains to the widow that he needs to buy her land to make way for his new railroad, and if she knows what’s good for her, she’ll take him up on his kind offer. CNN’s post election poll found that two thirds of those who watched thought Romney put in the most effective performance. But only 46 per cent said they found him more likeable than Obama. Not only did Romney not land the knockout blow, he failed to close the empathy gap.
Finally, Romney has fatally shifted the expectation game. In advance of this debate, he was able to talk down his chances of success. This morning, his supporters are ecstatic – just look at my friend and colleague Tim Stanley’s take on the debate – and working themselves up into a frenzy at yet another ‘game-changing’ moment.
Romney will probably enjoy a small boost in the polls. And then the race will settle back down to where it was, which is a relatively tight national poll margin, but an insurmountable lead for Obama in the battleground states.] emphasis added http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100183875/last-night-mitt-romney-lost-yes-you-read-that-right/
Dang, I gotta start watching Saturday Night Live again. They really highlight Msnbc hyperbole on first debate. They too get caught in the moment and forget even Republican voters have come to find they like or at least benefit financially and personally from portions of the Affordable Care Act.
You see in the abstract, people find it easy to rail against big government and the encroaching socialist state.
Nevertheless when it gives insurance to their children by allowing them to stay on parent's health insurance and also saves lives of those in their family by allowing people with pre-existing medical conditions to even get health insurance coverage.
And Mitt the mendacious flat out lied on this point during the debate.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Since it's Sunday, Scriptural Socialism
Speak out on behalf of those who have no voice, and defend all those who have been passed over.
- Proverbs 31:8
- Proverbs 31:8
Snow White, Superman and Pinocchio are walking along.
[Snow White, Superman and Pinocchio are walking along.
They see a sign: "Contest for World's Most Beautiful Woman." Snow White goes in, later comes out smiling, wearing a crown.
They walk along and see another sign: "Contest for World's Strongest Man." Superman goes in, later comes out smiling, wearing the belt.
They walk along and see a sign: "Contest for World's Greatest Liar." Pinocchio goes in, later comes out with his head down crying.
"Who the hell is Mitt Romney?" Pinocchio sobs.]
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/04/1139926/-Romney-Won-Using-a-Debate-Technique-Called-the-Gish-Gallop
They see a sign: "Contest for World's Most Beautiful Woman." Snow White goes in, later comes out smiling, wearing a crown.
They walk along and see another sign: "Contest for World's Strongest Man." Superman goes in, later comes out smiling, wearing the belt.
They walk along and see a sign: "Contest for World's Greatest Liar." Pinocchio goes in, later comes out with his head down crying.
"Who the hell is Mitt Romney?" Pinocchio sobs.]
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/04/1139926/-Romney-Won-Using-a-Debate-Technique-Called-the-Gish-Gallop
Juanita Jean on Willard Mitt Romney
"That man is so slick that I have no idea how he keeps his socks up."
http://juanitajean.com/2012/10/05/whats-the-deal-here-spit-ball/
http://juanitajean.com/2012/10/05/whats-the-deal-here-spit-ball/
Paid Medicare and Social Security Taxes Since Age 15
Started work as a busboy 39 years ago and paid Social Security and Medicare taxes for every paycheck made since.
Now on disability for second time in my life after 25 years of work sandwiched in between stints, Paul Ryan calls me a moocher.
Hey, Paul, instead of my taxes going into a lockbox to secure future Social Security benefits, your party spent the money on tax breaks for rich, 2 expensive foreign wars--the 1 in Afghanistan now the longest ever involvement of the United States--and spent ungodly sums on a bloated defense budget and tax breaks for wealthy corporations like Exxon.
Y'all robbed me and now call me a moocher.
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/karoli/paul-ryan-wants-moochers-know-hes-got-your-
Now on disability for second time in my life after 25 years of work sandwiched in between stints, Paul Ryan calls me a moocher.
Hey, Paul, instead of my taxes going into a lockbox to secure future Social Security benefits, your party spent the money on tax breaks for rich, 2 expensive foreign wars--the 1 in Afghanistan now the longest ever involvement of the United States--and spent ungodly sums on a bloated defense budget and tax breaks for wealthy corporations like Exxon.
Y'all robbed me and now call me a moocher.
Well, go do something anatomically impossible to yourself, asshat!
[Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan sincerely believe that people who pay into social insurance for their entire lives and expect to receive the benefit of that compact when eligible are "takers." I wonder if he includes all the zillionaires out there who receive Social Security benefits as "takers," since there is no distinction between those who pay in as rich people and those who pay in as middle class or poor people, after all. Are they takers?]http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/karoli/paul-ryan-wants-moochers-know-hes-got-your-
"Romney's Sick Joke'
As a walking, living, and still breathing pre-existing medical condition struggling to pay specialists copay fees, this scares me a lot, not just for me but for other humans who might suffer as result of Mitt's mendacity and absolute lack of compassion for others.
[“No. 1,” declared Mitt Romney in Wednesday’s debate, “pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan.” No, they aren’t — as Mr. Romney’s own advisers have conceded in the past, and did again after the debate.
Was Mr. Romney lying? Well, either that or he was making what amounts to a sick joke....
So, about that sick joke: What Mr. Romney actually proposes is that Americans with pre-existing conditions who already have health coverage be allowed to keep that coverage even if they lose their job — as long as they keep paying the premiums. As it happens, this is already the law of the land. But it’s not what anyone in real life means by having a health plan that covers pre-existing conditions, because it applies only to those who manage to land a job with health insurance in the first place (and are able to maintain their payments despite losing that job). Did I mention that the number of jobs that come with health insurance has been steadily declining over the past decade?
What Mr. Romney did in the debate, in other words, was, at best, to play a word game with voters, pretending to offer something substantive for the uninsured while actually offering nothing. For all practical purposes, he simply lied about what his policy proposals would do.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/opinion/krugman-romneys-sick-joke.html?hp&_r=0
[“No. 1,” declared Mitt Romney in Wednesday’s debate, “pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan.” No, they aren’t — as Mr. Romney’s own advisers have conceded in the past, and did again after the debate.
Was Mr. Romney lying? Well, either that or he was making what amounts to a sick joke....
So, about that sick joke: What Mr. Romney actually proposes is that Americans with pre-existing conditions who already have health coverage be allowed to keep that coverage even if they lose their job — as long as they keep paying the premiums. As it happens, this is already the law of the land. But it’s not what anyone in real life means by having a health plan that covers pre-existing conditions, because it applies only to those who manage to land a job with health insurance in the first place (and are able to maintain their payments despite losing that job). Did I mention that the number of jobs that come with health insurance has been steadily declining over the past decade?
What Mr. Romney did in the debate, in other words, was, at best, to play a word game with voters, pretending to offer something substantive for the uninsured while actually offering nothing. For all practical purposes, he simply lied about what his policy proposals would do.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/opinion/krugman-romneys-sick-joke.html?hp&_r=0
Ana Sol Allegro Has Problems
only in Forida does the weirdness abound so that a woman with a checkered past and obvious signs of mental imbalance carve out a career as a political consultant. The rules are different here.
It seems Ana Sol Allegro's problems go way beyond current federal and state criminal allegations, including inability to move on from a relationship:
[In January 2007, she was arrested in a dispute with her ex-husband, Moshe Cosicher, at his Tigertail Ave. home in Coconut Grove. They had been divorced for two years, but Alliegro wanted to get remarried, according to reports from Miami police and prosecutors.
“We are going to Vegas,” she told Cosicher, a report said. The report noted that when Cosicher refused, she grabbed a gun, which appeared to be a .45 that she kept at bed side.
She then sat naked at a desk with her leg up and compared the gun to a male sexual organ.
“If you think your [expletive] is powerful (showing the gun), this is mine,” Alliegro told Cosicher, who tried to ignore her by going to make coffee, a report said. Alliegro followed him and told him to sit on the couch.
She fired a round into the ceiling.
“You see. It’s loaded — this is business,” Alliegro allegedly said. He tried to leave.
“She shot at me when I approached the front door (she missed my head by inches),” Cosicher wrote in a police statement. He said he was able to defuse the situation when a contractor, who was performing work for him, happened to call and then stop by.
Cosicher, an architect who had first met Alliegro when she was a secretary years before, gave the statement later in the day, in part because he feared for his family after Alliegro allegedly said “she hated herself and her life and had nothing to lose by taking me and my entire family down with her.”]
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/24/3019360/from-a-shooting-to-shoplifting.html
[She’s a Bonnie without her Clyde, a political operative with a penchant for dating and marrying older men with impressive jobs. Only they end up running for their lives, including former Miami Mayor Joe Carrollo, who begged for a divorce after 83 days.
Now the feds investigating Justin Lamar Sternad’s campaign finances want to talk to Alliegro, but she didn’t show up for her Sept. 6 date.]
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/25/3021035/a-miami-bonnie-without-a-clyde.html#storylink=misearch
Would call her disturbed or unbalanced but which man among us hasn't sat around nekkid comparing his weapon to his gun? My caliber is bigger than yours.
It seems Ana Sol Allegro's problems go way beyond current federal and state criminal allegations, including inability to move on from a relationship:
[In January 2007, she was arrested in a dispute with her ex-husband, Moshe Cosicher, at his Tigertail Ave. home in Coconut Grove. They had been divorced for two years, but Alliegro wanted to get remarried, according to reports from Miami police and prosecutors.
“We are going to Vegas,” she told Cosicher, a report said. The report noted that when Cosicher refused, she grabbed a gun, which appeared to be a .45 that she kept at bed side.
She then sat naked at a desk with her leg up and compared the gun to a male sexual organ.
“If you think your [expletive] is powerful (showing the gun), this is mine,” Alliegro told Cosicher, who tried to ignore her by going to make coffee, a report said. Alliegro followed him and told him to sit on the couch.
She fired a round into the ceiling.
“You see. It’s loaded — this is business,” Alliegro allegedly said. He tried to leave.
“She shot at me when I approached the front door (she missed my head by inches),” Cosicher wrote in a police statement. He said he was able to defuse the situation when a contractor, who was performing work for him, happened to call and then stop by.
Cosicher, an architect who had first met Alliegro when she was a secretary years before, gave the statement later in the day, in part because he feared for his family after Alliegro allegedly said “she hated herself and her life and had nothing to lose by taking me and my entire family down with her.”]
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/24/3019360/from-a-shooting-to-shoplifting.html
[She’s a Bonnie without her Clyde, a political operative with a penchant for dating and marrying older men with impressive jobs. Only they end up running for their lives, including former Miami Mayor Joe Carrollo, who begged for a divorce after 83 days.
Now the feds investigating Justin Lamar Sternad’s campaign finances want to talk to Alliegro, but she didn’t show up for her Sept. 6 date.]
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/25/3021035/a-miami-bonnie-without-a-clyde.html#storylink=misearch
Would call her disturbed or unbalanced but which man among us hasn't sat around nekkid comparing his weapon to his gun? My caliber is bigger than yours.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
Willard Not a Cheater but Liar Still
[So, did Romney push the debate rules by bringing debate instructions on stage with him?
No, his campaign said. Spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the thing Romney pulled out of his pocket was actually a handkerchief.
A separate video has confirmed for many that the item indeed was a handkerchief. Romney is seen wiping his face with it during the closing statements of the debate.]
No, his campaign said. Spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the thing Romney pulled out of his pocket was actually a handkerchief.
A separate video has confirmed for many that the item indeed was a handkerchief. Romney is seen wiping his face with it during the closing statements of the debate.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/05/mitt-romney-handkerchief-cheat-sheet-debate_n_1942790.html
[Pundits from both sides of the aisle have lauded Mitt Romney’s strong debate performance, praising his preparedness and ability to challenge President Obama’s policies and accomplishments. But Romney only accomplished this goal by repeatedly misleading viewers. He spoke for 38 minutes of the 90 minute debate and told at least 27 myths:
1) “[G]et us energy independent, North American energy independent. That creates about 4 million jobs”. Romney’s plan for “energy independence” actually relies heavily on a study that assumes the U.S. continues with fuel efficiency standards set by the Obama administration. For instance, he uses Citigroup research based off the assumption that “‘the United States will continue with strict fuel economy standards that will lower its oil demand.” Since he promises to undo the Obama administration’s new fuel efficiency standards, he would cut oil consumption savings of 2 million barrels per day by 2025....]
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/04/958801/at-last-nights-debate-romney-told-27-myths-in-38-minutes/
[Pundits from both sides of the aisle have lauded Mitt Romney’s strong debate performance, praising his preparedness and ability to challenge President Obama’s policies and accomplishments. But Romney only accomplished this goal by repeatedly misleading viewers. He spoke for 38 minutes of the 90 minute debate and told at least 27 myths:
1) “[G]et us energy independent, North American energy independent. That creates about 4 million jobs”. Romney’s plan for “energy independence” actually relies heavily on a study that assumes the U.S. continues with fuel efficiency standards set by the Obama administration. For instance, he uses Citigroup research based off the assumption that “‘the United States will continue with strict fuel economy standards that will lower its oil demand.” Since he promises to undo the Obama administration’s new fuel efficiency standards, he would cut oil consumption savings of 2 million barrels per day by 2025....]
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/04/958801/at-last-nights-debate-romney-told-27-myths-in-38-minutes/
Liar, Liar Pants on Fire
[Joe Conason watched the presidential candidates' debate this week, and had a reaction I could relate to.
"'It's not easy to debate a liar,' complained an email from one observer of the first presidential debate -- and there was no question about which candidate he meant. Prevarication, falsification, fabrication are all familiar tactics that have been employed by Mitt Romney without much consequence to him ever since he entered public life," Conason wrote.] emphasis added
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/05/14246577-chronicling-mitts-mendacity-vol-xxxvii?lite
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/04/958801/at-last-nights-debate-romney-told-27-myths-in-38-minutes/
"'It's not easy to debate a liar,' complained an email from one observer of the first presidential debate -- and there was no question about which candidate he meant. Prevarication, falsification, fabrication are all familiar tactics that have been employed by Mitt Romney without much consequence to him ever since he entered public life," Conason wrote.] emphasis added
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/10/05/14246577-chronicling-mitts-mendacity-vol-xxxvii?lite
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/04/958801/at-last-nights-debate-romney-told-27-myths-in-38-minutes/
Willard Romney, a Cheater as Well as a Liar?
[Watch the video from the beginning, and keep your eyes on Mitt Romney's right hand as they switch to the camera that's behind the podium, and he reaches into his pocket--retrieving what appears to me to be white note-cards or notebook as he pivots--and quickly tosses it onto the podium. (Both candidates are supplied with blank paper and pens, which you can see are already laid out on both podiums. Bringing in notes of any kind is prohibited by standard presidential debate rules, an example of which can be seen here, on page 4, 5c.)]
http://litbrit.blogspot.com/2012/10/mitt-cheat-busted-in-8-frames.html
http://elections.americablog.com/2012/10/did-romney-sneak-notes-into-the-debate-video.html
http://litbrit.blogspot.com/2012/10/mitt-cheat-busted-in-8-frames.html
http://elections.americablog.com/2012/10/did-romney-sneak-notes-into-the-debate-video.html
Joe Biden: This ain't your daddy's Republican party
[Biden tailored his speech to the student audience with a focus on the Obama administration’s support of education through Pell Grants, as compared to cuts in education budgets he said would result from the budget planned by Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
The Ryan budget would “eviscerate” funding for public education, Biden said.
Biden wove in an attack on Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., through recently publicized remarks from a fundraising event in May, at which Romney said there are 47 percent of Americans “who are dependent on government, who believe they are victims.”
Biden framed the Romney quote, which the crowd booed, as a “bet against the American people,” and responded to the crowd’s reaction with, “I don’t need your boos. I need your help.”
Biden said the quote illustrated that Romney sees America differently than Biden does.
“This is not a country of victims,” Biden said.
“How could he be so profoundly wrong about America? How is that possible?” Biden asked. “Not in my neighborhood. Not where I grew up. Not the people I know.”
Biden went on to say that the Democratic Party does believe in aiding citizens who need help, focusing his examples on education.
“None of us would be standing here today if someone did not reach out and give us a hand in the form of a scholarship or loan,” he said.
Biden also noted the Republican Party’s opposition to gay marriage and women’s reproductive rights, in remarks that drew strong cheers from the primarily student crowd.
According to Biden, the modern Republican Party is more conservative on social issues than it was in the past.
“This is not your father’s Republican Party,” he said.]
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Joe-Biden-This-is-not-your-fathers-Republican-Party---VIDEO-171515091.html#ixzz28RiHQONJ
The Ryan budget would “eviscerate” funding for public education, Biden said.
Biden wove in an attack on Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., through recently publicized remarks from a fundraising event in May, at which Romney said there are 47 percent of Americans “who are dependent on government, who believe they are victims.”
Biden framed the Romney quote, which the crowd booed, as a “bet against the American people,” and responded to the crowd’s reaction with, “I don’t need your boos. I need your help.”
Biden said the quote illustrated that Romney sees America differently than Biden does.
“This is not a country of victims,” Biden said.
“How could he be so profoundly wrong about America? How is that possible?” Biden asked. “Not in my neighborhood. Not where I grew up. Not the people I know.”
Biden went on to say that the Democratic Party does believe in aiding citizens who need help, focusing his examples on education.
“None of us would be standing here today if someone did not reach out and give us a hand in the form of a scholarship or loan,” he said.
Biden also noted the Republican Party’s opposition to gay marriage and women’s reproductive rights, in remarks that drew strong cheers from the primarily student crowd.
According to Biden, the modern Republican Party is more conservative on social issues than it was in the past.
“This is not your father’s Republican Party,” he said.]
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Joe-Biden-This-is-not-your-fathers-Republican-Party---VIDEO-171515091.html#ixzz28RiHQONJ
Hey, Romney, Leave Big Bird Alone!
Sign the petition to support truth, justice, the American Way, and Big Bird: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/439/535/548/?z00m=20422621.
[...Republicans think PBS, and shows like Sesame Street specifically, are indoctrinating American children in liberalism.
Seriously.
That’s why Mitt Romney has joined the Big Bird- bashing brigade. Not for the budget. For the far-right of the party. It’s the same reason Romney has shown a recent interest in Lyme disease. These positions seem obscure until you dig a little deeper and realize that Mitt Romney is actually, once again, playing to the fringes that have taken over the Republican party.
Fortunately, the head of PBS, Paula Kerger, is having none of it. She went on CNN and blasted Romney.
“With the enormous problems facing our country, the fact that we are the focus is just unbelievable to me,” she said. Later, she called it a “stunning moment.”]
http://elections.americablog.com/2012/10/pbs-head-unloads-on-romney.html
[...Republicans think PBS, and shows like Sesame Street specifically, are indoctrinating American children in liberalism.
Seriously.
That’s why Mitt Romney has joined the Big Bird- bashing brigade. Not for the budget. For the far-right of the party. It’s the same reason Romney has shown a recent interest in Lyme disease. These positions seem obscure until you dig a little deeper and realize that Mitt Romney is actually, once again, playing to the fringes that have taken over the Republican party.
Fortunately, the head of PBS, Paula Kerger, is having none of it. She went on CNN and blasted Romney.
“With the enormous problems facing our country, the fact that we are the focus is just unbelievable to me,” she said. Later, she called it a “stunning moment.”]
http://elections.americablog.com/2012/10/pbs-head-unloads-on-romney.html
[The debate itself was clearly the best 90 minutes the Romney folks have had for a very long time.
Yet and yet and yet…Big Bird!
The line had all the sound of a prepared zinger, which, if true, means that someone with access to RomneyBot source code actually thought it was a good idea to personalize their device by cutting the throat of a fictional character beloved by millions. And if it wasn’t rehearsed, that’s in some ways worse. It means Romney revealed just a bit of himself, that gay-bashing bully-mean guy character Ann keeps assuring us doesn’t exist. If offing Big Bird just burbled out of his head and mouth on the spot? Not a pretty window into the notional soul of a man who would be president.
Either way, of course, I’m grateful. Way to douse the glow of your big night, big fella.] emphasis added
Yet and yet and yet…Big Bird!
The line had all the sound of a prepared zinger, which, if true, means that someone with access to RomneyBot source code actually thought it was a good idea to personalize their device by cutting the throat of a fictional character beloved by millions. And if it wasn’t rehearsed, that’s in some ways worse. It means Romney revealed just a bit of himself, that gay-bashing bully-mean guy character Ann keeps assuring us doesn’t exist. If offing Big Bird just burbled out of his head and mouth on the spot? Not a pretty window into the notional soul of a man who would be president.
Either way, of course, I’m grateful. Way to douse the glow of your big night, big fella.] emphasis added
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)