Democratic Congressman John Murtha of  Johnstown,Pennsylvania, age 77, has just passed away early this afternoon in Arlington, VA, following complications from gall bladder surgery he had earlier.                    

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

Murtha, a Vietnam era Marine veteran who was recently best known for being one of the first more “establishment type” Democrats to have enough cajones to criticize President George W. Bush on his Iraq war policy.  Murtha was Chairman of the House Appropriations Sub Committee on Defense.  He served in Congress from 1974 to 2010.  In November of 2005, Murtha, who had visited many injured troops at Bethesda’s military hospital, whose suffering made a deep impression on him, submitted a resolution in Congress calling for the redeployment of US troops in Iraq.

“The United States cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq, militarily. It is time to bring them home. ”

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J…     This statement set off a MSM Faux Outrage Conservative Shitstorm, and helped push some of the nation out of its complacent stupor on Bush’s war in the Middle East.

Altho Murtha was pro- life, he came at it from a respectable viewpoint, in that he was politically liberal on many other issues such as labor and civil rights. Considering his district was conservative western Pennsylvania, which can be been rather “redneck” (Murtha himself used that gloriously un P.C. term to describe some of the less than socially progressive attitudes of some of his district’s residents), he was a leader.  

Murtha is survived by his wife, Joyce, and 3 children, John, Patrick, and Donna, and 3 grandchildren.  

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. And may you find yourself in heaven, 5 minutes before the Devil knows you’re gone.  RIP, John Murtha

(AP/Huffington Post) — SHAHI KOTO, Pakistan – A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers and partly destroyed a girls’ school in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday in an attack that drew attention to a little-publicized American military training mission in the al-Qaida and Taliban heartland.

They were the first known U.S. military fatalities in Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions near the Afghan border and a major victory for militants who have been hit hard by a surge of U.S. missile strikes and a major Pakistani army offensive.

The blast also killed three schoolgirls and a Pakistani soldier who was traveling with the Americans. Two more U.S. soldiers were wounded, along with more than 100 other people, mostly students at the school, officials said.

The day after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech to Congress, the conservaDems intent on bailing out the health insurance industry are happy to hear that House Speaker Pelosi say that:

“I think that the President’s, not only his appeal to pass it but his explanation to the American people as to what the possibilities were was a very powerful statement that will be helpful to us,” Pelosi said.

/snip

“You go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll poll vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed for the American people.”

– from Greg Sargent’s Plumline

http://theplumline.whorunsgov….

Pelosi and her House are allegedly attempting to do a run around of the “60 vote Senate supermajority needed to block a filibuster” problem, by passing a House version of “side car reconciliation” to the bill first before signing off on the Senate’s version of a “health insurance reform” bill.  There is no timetable, other than they have a year to contemplate how to do this before the proto legislation already passed, expires.  

Now that the “Plouffe You, You Dirty Effing Bedwetter Brigade”  has taken over the public communications again for the Obama administration, we are treated to the Trial Balloon of the State of the Union address, which says the President wants a 3 year spending freeze which would exempt the Pentagon, Veterans affairs, and Homeland Security.  Of course, the senior Administration official spoke anonymously.

link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

I don’t think this is a good idea.

So just after 5 pm here on the Left Coast, I get this email:

Subject: We Want Our Money Back

From: “Vice President Joe Biden”

To:  (my name, aka “Sucker”)

Yesterday, President Obama announced our proposed Financial Crisis Responsibility

Fee on the country’s largest banks:

“My commitment is to recover every single dime the American people are owed. And my

determination to achieve this goal is only heightened when I see reports of massive

profits and obscene bonuses at some of the very firms who owe their continued

existence to the American people…  We want our money back, and we’re going to get

it.”

The fee would recover every penny loaned to Wall Street during the financial crisis

and stop the reckless abuses and excesses that nearly caused the collapse of our

financial system in the first place.

But the banking industry — among the most powerful lobbies in Washington — is

already launching attacks to stop Congress from enacting the proposal.

Barack and I aren’t backing down. But to win, we’ll need the American people to add

their voice right away.

Thankfully, OFA supporters are already signing on to a bold statement of support:

“We want our money back — and we stand with President Obama to make sure we get

it.” You can add your name by clicking here:

http://my.barackobama.com/Banks3

The proposal is expected to recoup billions from the big banks, most of it from the

ten largest. As the President said, “If these companies are in good enough shape to

afford massive bonuses, they are surely in good enough shape to afford paying back

every penny to taxpayers.”

There is much more work to do to reform the financial system and create a new era of

accountability. But the Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee is a crucial step. And

with the banks already working to tear it down, I hope that I can count on you to

speak out to show that Americans stand with us as we take them on.

Click here to add your name to the statement:

http://my.barackobama.com/Banks3

Change isn’t easy, but it’s certainly worth fighting for. I’m glad you’re in this

fight with us.

Thank you for making it possible,

Vice President Joe Biden

Please donate: https://donate.barackobama.com…

The MSM has duly taken note that the North Carolina legal firm of Moore & Van Allen is doing work for “AQAH,”  aka  “Americans for Quality Affordable Healthcare,”  which is anything but, as it’s fighting to kill the reform legislation,  but its spokesperson refuses to name the clients who have hired them.  In the ways of the MSM, the search engine is broken… or lacks motivation.  We do have confirmed sightings in NV, ME, and LA.  It was named as Republican astroturf in a front page post at GOS, a start, but didn’t go any further.

It’s going to be the same special interests, just using more identity masks.

Nevada, Maine, Louisiana.    

First thing that makes me think of is the Tea Party Patriots doing their tour bus routine with the Russo Marsh/Move America Forward Republican PR firm, because that PAC did a bunch of anti Harry Reid advertising this summer and toured thru Nevada doing teaparty rallies  (which the FEC is all over their butts for with that filing of Our Country Deserves Better PAC  ). And Prop 8 money from Utah and CA was recently in Maine, letting the 2 moderate lady Republican Senators, Snowe & Collins, know that the Tea Party apparatus was gearing up for Maine 2010.  Louisiana, that’s easy, Sen. Landrieu is on the Republican’s list of mostly likely to be swingable, and she’s also a top recipient of Dem Senate Campaign Committee funding. Louisiana is an oil state.

We’re going to go do some deep sea exploring.  

Most of us, I suspect, go through our lives with this niggling little feeling of “if only” we had our act together, we could really do something with it.  Or do something better.  If only we were more organized, had more energy, better tools and gidgets, or had taken a different course of study, or if our parents didn’t hate us, or if we hadn’t gotten sick, or if the car hadn’t come over the center line….

Other times, like a Phoenix, we arise from what should have just been one flat out disaster that we should not, no way, no how, have survived, and yet we did, leaving us puzzled as to why.  We had a chainsaw and gas when the tree hit the car, we trusted our instincts, our tracking skill, and our horse and found the trail back, we came up to the edge of the cliff and… didn’t fall off, the seat belt held and the embankment wasn’t too steep, the life jacket worked and somebody pulled us out.  Or we pulled them out.  We traded for firewood and didn’t freeze to death.  We found a job or received a gift unexpectedly, just in time.  We were in the depths, and bounced just so, and came back up gasping.

And still, have this little insecurity. It could be better, right?  We got through the week, clawing, kicking, and screaming, resigned to just surviving the dreadful thing…  the ogre bosses, the obligations, the whiny relatives,  the disappointments, the crazy destructiveness of our political system, waking up at 4am exhausted, now,not having to do that soul killing monotony for a day … What if…