August 2009 archive

NOLA BLOGGERS ANNUAL RISING TIDE 4 CONFERENCE ART FOR 2009 (t-shirts available):

NAKED SOUL PLEA

Show us you got some soul and come to New Orleans for the Katrina Anniversary, show us you understand and know how to gain strength from us so that everyone else will know they can also gain strength from us we are a part of America.

Not just to remember but to remember in the way New Orleans should be remembered, deserves to be remembered, deserves to be remembered, deserves to be remembered, as you would remember someone you loved being wronged and because you loved them you’d need to help them heal, help them heal, and it would heal you too

America’s soul is locked up by some big ogre, like fairy tale princess chained to rocks with big orcs and one eyed monsters and she cries out so the hero must break those chains, America’s soul cries out and we are the heroes who will break those chains if you only remember us, remember us as we deserve to be remembered, as a loved one, as part of your family.

Remember the dead, remember the living, remember the kindness and the cruelty, the joy and pain, remember the great city of New Orleans and care as she rises up again with every fiber of her being, not just a geography of land and water but a people and a culture and not let her be invisible from the rest of her neighbors, remember the family crying around the world for the great city of New Orleans, remember her as she deserves to be remembered.

That’s what an anniversary is for.  Come to New Orleans, please.  It would be good for all our souls.

Crossposted at Dailykos

Today President Obama spoke at the VFW convention in Phoenix, Arizona.   He highlighted the need to continue the fight in Afghanistan against those would like to bring back the Taliban as rulers of that war-torn country.

Afghanistan, as we all know, is the cradle of the Taliban whom gave shelter to Osama bin Laden during the 1990s and up through the attacks on September 11th, 2001.  

Many of us felt a personal connection to those attacks for a variety of reasons.  We may have lost someone in one of those flights, in the World Trade Center towers, or one of the many rescue and police personnel who died as a result of those towers collapsing.  

More importantly, President Obama was speaking before an organization that is held in high esteem by US servicemen and women across the globe.

More below the fold…

It been so long since a general strike has happened in the US, I better post some background from the wikipedia entry …

A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants. It is also characterized by participation of workers in a multitude of workplaces, and tends to involve entire communities. The general strike has waxed and waned in popularity since the mid-19th century, and has characterized many historically important strikes.

August 17, 2009

The Honorable Kathleen Sebe1ius

Secretary, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Secretary Sebelius,

We write to you concerning your recent comments about the public option in health insurance refonn.

We stand in strong opposition to your statement that the public option is “not the essential element” of comprehensive reform. The opportunity to improve access to healthcare is a onetime opportunity. Americans deserve reform that is real-not smoke and mirrors. We cannot rely solely on the insurance companies’ good faith efforts to provide for our constituents. A robust public option is essential, if we are to ensure that all Americans can receive healthcare that is accessible, guaranteed and of high-quality.

To take the public option off the table would be a grave error; passage in the House of  Representatives depends upon inclusion of it.

We have attached, for your review, a letter from 60 Members of Congress who are firm in their Position that any legislation that moves forward through both chambers, and into a final proposal for the President’s signature, MUST contain a public option.

Sincerely,

Raul Grijalva

Co-Chair

Congressional Progressive Caucus Lynn Woolsey

Co-Chair

Congressional Progressive Caucus Barbara Lee

Co-Chair

Congressional Black Caucus

http://campaignsilo.firedoglak…

Pass it on to Obama.  

(“TRUE BLOOD” SPOILER ALERT)

When True Blood started, I quickly tuned in to the way they were using discrimination against vampires as a metaphor for our society’s attitudes towards gays- (even “God hates fangs”, during the opening credits)- most obviously in the evangelical Christian movement’s overt and hypocritical hate-mongering. But the show is about more than that, now. It’s really exploring our entire societal approach to sexuality and love. As a friend just pointed out, we even find Eric intriguing and exciting, even after we saw him mercilessly torture the wonderful Lafayette. So, what does that say about us, and our own, perhaps latent, sado/masochistic tendencies? Even Bill, with his tortured conscience, can be nakedly vicious. He hates that part of himself, but it’s still there, and when it serves his purposes, he uses it. But it’s much more than any of this.

1. McClatchy reports June’s record ocean warmth worries fishermen and environmentalists. “Ocean surface temperatures around the world were the warmest on record for the month of June, according to federal scientists, though they caution that one month doesn’t necessarily imply global warming… Some scientists think that the rising temperatures hint at broader changes, perhaps resulting from global climate change. Environmentalists and fishermen are wary of what it may mean.”

2. The NY Times reports More U.S. troops are sought for Iraq. Gen. Ray Odierno, the commanding general of American forces in Iraq, has requested more U.S. troops for northern Iraq to help smooth the working of Kurdish and Iraqi forces. “Tensions between the Iraqi Army and the Kurdish militia, known as pesh merga, have kept them from working together, and as a result Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has been able to launch devastating attacks on small villages not controlled by either side”.

3. The Hill reports President Obama picks a fight with the left on health reform. “In backing away from its support for a public option in healthcare reform, the Obama administration is picking a fight with the liberal wing of the Democratic party.”

   “Liberal Democrats have insisted a public insurance option is necessary to ensure competition for private insurers. Just this week, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean predicted there could be Democratic primary challenges if a healthcare bill without a public option is approved by Congress.”

   The NY Times reports the ‘public option’ health plan may be dropped. Howard Dean “said on Monday that he saw a public plan as inextricably linked to a health overhaul.” “I don’t think it can pass without the public option,” he said.

   “You can’t have reform without a public option. If you really want to fix the health-care system, you’ve got to give the public the choice of having such an option,” he said.

   The LA Times reports White House says public healthcare option not ‘essential’.

   Both Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Sunday talk shows that a government insurance option was not essential — one day after President Obama himself said as much…

   Sebelius told CNN’s “State of the Union” that a public option is “not the essential element” of healthcare overhaul, but that lowering insurance costs and preventing insurers from dumping customers for preexisting conditions or for exceeding coverage caps are must-haves.

   “I think there will be a competitor to private insurers,” she said. “That’s really the essential part, is you don’t turn over the whole new marketplace to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing.”

   Gibbs agreed, describing the “bottom line” for the president: “What we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market.”

   Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports there are Six lobbyists per lawmaker work on health overhaul. 3,300 lobbyists, six for each of the 535 members of the House and Senate, are influencing the debate on healthcare overhaul. That is “three times the number of people registered to lobby on defense” and more are signing up each day.

   “These groups spent $263.4 million on lobbying during the first six months of 2009, drugmakers alone spent $134.5 million, 64 percent more than the next biggest spenders, oil and gas companies.”

4. McClatchy reports a Notorious Afghan warlord returns to help Karzai. Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Afghan warlord who allegedly allowed the murder of thousands of Afghan prisoners and destroying evidence of their mass graves has returned to Afghanistan from Turkey to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s re-election campaign. “His support could be key to Karzai’s chances of securing more than 50 percent of the vote”.

   Meanwhile, the NY Times reports Threats by the Taliban may sway the vote in Afghanistan. The Taliban has promised “anyone caught voting in the presidential election will have his finger – the one inked for the ballot – cut off… The possibility of large-scale nonparticipation by the country’s Pashtuns is casting a cloud over the Afghan presidential election”.

   The Guardian reports the UK Minister of Defense claims the Afghanistan war winnable despite growing death toll of British soldiers. “The war in Afghanistan is ‘winnable’, the defence secretary, Bob Ainsworth, insisted today, as new figures showed that more British soldiers have been injured in the country this year than in the whole of 2008.”