September 29, 2009 archive

So you’ve decided to lose your next election. 5 DINO Republocrats who need to be primaried NOW

The vote is in on the Rockefellar Public Option Amendment and it has failed, not because Democrats do not have a majority, but because some Democrats are corrupt shills who hide behind Republicans as an excuse for their own corruption,

    The following Democrats voted against competition, thus ensuring their own defeat in their next primary elections.

NO – Baucus      (BlueCross-MT)

NO – Conrad      (BlueCross-ND)

NO – Lincoln     (BlueCross-AR)

NO – Carper      (BlueCross-DE)

NO – Ben Nelson  (BlueCross-FL)

    Oh, and regarding Bif$%kingyousansh!t, let it be noted that EVERY SINGLE Republican voted NO, including Senate Majority Leader Olympia Snowe.

    Throw down the gauntlet, progressives. The electoral beatings of DINO’s should begin NOW!

And now the Schumer version of the Publiic Option is dead too, only Nelson and Carper voted yea out of the 5 DINO Republicrats, Conrad, Baucus and Lincoln all voted NO.

   They have to go. Simple.

   So, wehn they ask for your vote, money or volunteer work, the best answer we can give them is “Sorry, we just don’t have the votes to get you re-elected, so I am voting NO and primarying your ASS”

   FUCK THESE SENATORS AND THE LOBBYISTS THEY RODE IN ON!!!!!

Four at Four

  1. Spiegel has an interview with Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who says of Afghanistan: ‘This Is No Longer a War of Necessity’. Haass makes some interesting observations, including:

    • “Whoever leaked General McChrystal’s memorandum, acted unfairly and unprofessionally.”

    • “Even if terrorists were to be denied Afghanistan, they could operate out of other countries. We should also reconsider whether what happens in Afghanistan is essential for the future in Pakistan which, frankly, matters more to the United States.”

    • I am no longer sure what happens in Afghanistan is still essential to the war on terrorism. Afghanistan is thus a war of choice — Mr. Obama’s war of choice.

  2. For The Guardian, George Monbiot writes Stop blaming the poor. It’s the very rich who are burning the planet. “It’s no coincidence that most of those who are obsessed with population growth are post-reproductive wealthy white men: it’s about the only environmental issue for which they can’t be blamed.”

    Bbout one sixth of the world’s population is so poor that it produces no significant emissions at all. This is also the group whose growth rate is likely to be highest…

    Many of the emissions for which poorer countries are blamed should in fairness belong to the developed nations…

    While there’s a weak correlation between global warming and population growth, there’s a strong correlation between global warming and wealth… So where are the movements protesting about the stinking rich destroying our living systems? Where is the direct action against super-yachts and private jets? Where’s Class War when you need it?

    It’s time we had the guts to name the problem. It’s not sex; it’s money. It’s not the poor; it’s the rich.

  3. The Washington Post reports the U.S. says the Taliban has a new haven in Pakistan. Anonymous U.S. officials say the Taliban is launching cross-border raids into Afghanistan “from safe havens around the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta”. A “remote and arid Pakistani border region” that Americans “know relatively little about… have no capacity to strike there, and have few windows into the turbulent mix of Pashtun tribal and religious politics”.

    “Our intelligence on Quetta is vastly less. We have no people there, no cross-border operations, no Predators,” said Anne Patterson, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.

    Pakistani officials, for their part, are more concerned about Taliban attacks inside Pakistan than across the border into Afghanistan. “Our concern is whether Pakistan really controls its territory. There are people who do not threaten Pakistan but who are extremely important to us,” Patterson said.

  4. Mother Jones reports on ‘The Case of the Missing Torture Documents‘.

    Classified Bush-era documents on the administration’s controversial interrogation and rendition programs are missing, according to a recent court filing submitted by the Obama Justice Department. But a Justice Department spokeswoman says the documents may not actually be gone; they may never have existed-even though Bush administration records say that they do. Welcome to the Case of the Disappearing Torture Documents. This is more than just a bureaucratic whodunit. There’s a possibility that government officials purposely destroyed records pertaining to detainee abuse.

PLEASE Senators, MAY We Have A Public Option?

Simulposted at Daily Kos

Photobucket

65% of Americans are begging Congress for an inclusive Public Option. The poll question:


Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government-administered health insurance plan like Medicare that would compete with private health insurance plans?

65% favor, and only 26% oppose an inclusive Public Option, a Public Option for ALL Americans.

Our Senators, led by the increasingly execrable Harry Reid are refusing to give us one.

 

The Cost of War: Eyes Wide Open exhibit on the Ellipse, Oct 3 & 4

Cross-posted at Daily Kos, MyDD, and Open Left.

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See below for how you can aid this project.

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On the weekend of October 3rd and 4th, the American Friends Service Committee, and Military Families Speak Out, are sponsoring the Eyes Wide Open exhibit, which will be the first such exhibit showing the cost of war in Afghanistan.

A pair of boots representing each service member who has died as a result of military operations in Afghanistan will be displayed on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., 837 officially identified to date at the Washington Post’s Faces of the Fallen site.  Shoes representing civilian deaths will also be exhibited.

Sen. Dorgan’s big FU to WH/Baucus/PhRMA deal, will introduce Amendment allowing Canadian imports

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    Remember how proud you felt when you heard change meant a 2% deal with big PhRMA to allow Health Care Reform to pass (as if their permission were essential?)

    Well, it looks like someone in the Senate actually wants to fight to help Americans, not help screw them.

    A Senate Democratic leader is hoping to blow up the deal reached between the White House, drug makers and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), by introducing an amendment on the floor to allow prescription drugs to be re-imported from Canada.

    It’s one of the simplest ways to reduce health care costs but was ruled out by the agreement, which limits Big Pharma’s contribution to health care reform to $80 billion over ten years.

 firedoglake.com  

    This is another instance of competition vs massive monopoly that harms people. I’m glad to see someone doing something about it.

    More below the fold

Cop Infiltration FAIL!

Actually, make that EPIC FAIL!

Many of us have seen the rather frightening reports on tear gas and noise generators the cops employed to stop protests during the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. If that didn’t stop the demonstrations, these bozos sure weren’t likely to…

Docudharma Times Tuesday September 29




Tuesday’s Headlines:

The Old Secular Cross?

Army to discharge officer who refused to go to Iraq

Philippines pleads for international help to cope with flood aftermath

India plans all-out attack on Maoists

Germany: Back to party politics

Shoemakers seek protection as retailers call for change in Brussels

Iran defies Western pressure with missile test-firing

Ba’athist rejects Iraq’s bomb claims

Guinean soldiers ‘lost control’

Could Honduras media crackdown backfire?

Abortion Fight Complicates Debate on Health Care



By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: September 28, 2009


WASHINGTON – As if it were not complicated enough, the debate over health care in Congress is becoming a battlefield in the fight over abortion.Abortion opponents in both the House and the Senate are seeking to block the millions of middle- and lower-income people who might receive federal insurance subsidies to help them buy health coverage from using the money on plans that cover abortion. And the abortion opponents are getting enough support from moderate Democrats that both sides say the outcome is too close to call. Opponents of abortion cite as precedent a 30-year-old ban on the use of taxpayer money to pay for elective abortions.

Abortion-rights supporters say such a restriction would all but eliminate from the marketplace private plans that cover the procedure, pushing women who have such coverage to give it up. Nearly half of those with employer-sponsored health plans now have policies that cover abortion, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Giant South African diamond worthy of crown jewels

Gem dug up at historic Cullinan mine weighs 507 carats and is believed to be 19th biggest ever discovered

Graeme Wearden

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 September 2009 10.50 BST


The white diamond, which weighs in at 507.55 carats (101.5 grams), was dug up at the historic Cullinan mine. Petra Diamonds, the AIM-listed company which announced the find this morning, believes it is comparable with the previous huge diamonds that have come out of Cullinan – some of which form part of Britain’s crown jewels.

Petra said that the diamond, which has not yet been named, was found last Thursday. It is thought to be a type II diamond – indicating that it is of particularly high quality – and is currently being examined by experts.

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

A Transition through Poetry XXV

Art Link

Song

I Sing a Song

I sing a song of sadness

Of broken dreams and fear

I sing a song of pain

Of hopelessness and gloom

I sing a song of changes

Of remembrance and rebirth

I sing a song of life

Of exploration and growth

I sing a song of gladness

Of discovery and wonder

I sing a song of joy

Of acceptance and peace

I sing a song

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–October, 1994

Chinese spam? not

If you haven’t checked out fafblog, do. I loves me some fafblog. Those people understand about Chinese spam.

http://fafblog.blogspot.com/

Now, back to more serious stuff. Well no, that’s not right Fafnir is very serious. Go read fafblog. I mean it.

Now, back to the power.

We are the power, the kind gentle power.

The life power, that acknowledges how critical it is to step back from violence.

Yes, we must yell, when it gets that bad.

But mostly we must recreate the world. That’s the only job that makes any difference. We all have to get to get together and recreate the world.

Docudharma people, daily kos people, wild wild left people.

All of us. Everyone everywhere. We have to recreate how we see it, how we work with each other, everything. We have to recreate the world.

People who get into working with this, constitute the future of what we consider to be humanity.

Those who don’t? So sad. Chinese spam.

And now I’m back to fafblog. Fafnir loves them some Chinese spam.

Every time I run into a blog that is all about being hysterically rude and prime funny, I think: “There is hope. There is hope.”

Go read fafblog, peoples. Those people rock.

Late Night Karaoke

Open Thread

Something to consider…

This is original to docudharma.

Obama’s on our side, right?

Well, let’s consider.

Music videos!

Youtubes from people who might be your neighbors. Hell, might be your friends.

This guy isn’t a half bad musician. I like the giant playing cards on the walls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marianne Faithful! Sunny Goodge Street! Turn down volume a bit! Scratchy! Great background instrumental music! Awesome!

This is really nice. It’s not what you think. Keep listening.

This is part I. I’m still working on this.

I gather we can do a couple a day here?

mro

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