How many times are you gonna get punked?

Seriously.  How much can you take?  I got punked again too when I lined up behind Chris Dodd after he put a hold on telecom amnesty and promised to filibuster-it seemed so principled to LEAD NOW!-then he failed to show up for the vote on Mukasey.  So much for the “gravitas appeal.”  Punked again.  Dodd’s dad, the Nuremburg prosecutor, must be especially proud that his own son can’t take a stand on torture.  I guess that leaves me with flying saucer boy.  Dodd wasn’t alone, of course.  Most of the rest of you fuckers got punked too. 

It’s like watching unbelievably cruel parents playing a game of keep away with their toddler’s favorite toy.  Daddy waves the toy enticingly, and just when the child toddles up to Daddy, both them smiling joyously, Daddy throws the toy behind his back to Mommy, and comes up with astonishingly empty hands.  The child can’t find the toy until Mommy waves the toy and smiles, Come and get it!  The game is endlessly cruel, because the toddler simply can’t understand that punking even exists, much less that Mommy and Daddy would play such a game.  He simply hasn’t yet reached that cognitive stage, and remains forever vulnerable until he does.  Sure, he may eventually get mad out of sheer frustration, but he simply doesn’t have those cognitive brackets yet that can embrace “punking.”  Both Republicans and Democrats deserve points for the sheer hilarity of mastering this same game on adults who presumably do have the cognitive brackets to know that two can play at that game.

I think Chris Floyd says it best about the Mukasey nomination:

Here are a few profiles in courage for you.

  On the nomination of Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General of the United States:

  Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY: did not vote.
  Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill: did not vote.
  Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn: did not vote.
  Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del: did not vote.

  There you have it. The only four Democratic senators who did not vote on the nomination of Mukasey – and the legitimization of torture and presidential tyranny it represents – were the four Democratic senators seeking the presidency.

  Draw your own conclusions on the implications of these absences, and what they portend for the possibilities of genuine reform should any of these worthy paladins win the White House.

It’s not about Republicans and Democrats.  Never has been.  It is about the Constitution.  Period.

I can think of one way to stop this without even worse outcomes.

Here’s your mission, should you accept it. To help me and rusty1776 complete DocuDharma’s version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”

rusty provided the impetus for the idea and i started it with:

On the first day of Christmas, my country gave to me a president free of party affiliation . . .

then rusty added the next five days (and they are fabulous)…

On the second day of Christmas, my country gave to me Bush’s resignation, and a president free of party affiliation . . .

On the third day of Christmas, my country gave to me, reconciliation, Bush’s resignation, and a president free of party affiliation . . .

On the fourth day of Christmas, my country gave to me, Netroots celebration, reconciliation, Bush’s resignation, and a president free of party affiliation . . .

On the fifth day of Christmas, my country gave to me, a Docudharma nation, Netroots celebration, reconciliation, Bush’s resignation, and a president free of party affiliation . . .

On the sixth day of Christmas, my country gave to me, a psychiatric evaluation, a Docudharma nation, Netroots celebration, reconciliation, Bush’s resignation, and a president free of party affiliation . . .

That’s my wish list for the first six days of Christmas.

Please forward to Santa.

He’s in Gitmo right now, but they still let him read his mail in between waterboardings. 

————————-

don’t rec the pony party, but this one will be back with the final song version. maybe we’ll shop it around to the Daly Show or convince Stephen to sing song it.

Updating this with a great comment from Alma

I’m tired of the media, and parties telling us (4.00 / 1)

who is electable.  It’s time we told them who is electible, and acceptable, to us.  It’s time to move the party to the left and the best way to do that is for the far left (Me & many here, I think), to go even farther if possible, as loudly as we can. 

I really can’t take it anymore. All this hooting and hollering about how the Dems are capitulators. I mean Congress overrode Bush’s veto of a water projects bill… and although it’s the first time they’ve done it in almost seven years, still it’s something isn’t it? No? You think maybe there could be more…

Hell yes. I have to tell you I have felt so empty and flat since it became clear that Democrats don’t really exist. It was like coping with the overwhelming concept that there is no Santa Claus… or that maybe heaven doesn’t even exist. Crushing.

Well rage and rant all you want. Here’s a course of action, should any of the netroots really have any balls:

GET BEHIND A CANDIDATE LIKE KUCINICH. That’s right kos, buhdy, MSOC, digby, et al. Go ahead. Do something totally ballsy. Put it all on the line. It’s time to flex some muscle, that is if we really have any. But pissing and moaning about the Dems is NOT my idea of doing something. In response to Armando’s Netroots Identity Crisis: Act 2:

No, Major Danby, we are NOT Harry Reid. We are the Left flank of the Democratic Party. And when the Left flank of the Party dedicates itself to rationalizing capitulation (whatever its merits in a specific instance for the people doing the capitulating) then you become nothing but an enabling arm of the Beltway Dems.

As far as i can tell, there is no left flank of the Democratic Party, much less a Democratic Party.

It’s Political Party Major and Political Party Minor. And the only difference I can discern is that the Minor Party is more willing to invest a teeny tiny amount of our taxes into programs that may actually benefit us (but really just to pacify us)

This is all ridiculous.

You want to make some waves? how about all the lefty blogs start shouting in unison support of Kucinich. I can’t think of a more out-of-the beltway figure to scare the bejesus out ALL the politicians

We have power in the netroots? We’re the left flank? Then let’s rock this fucking boat

Otherwise, we are the ones capitulating. It’s time for us to make a stand.

Some news and your afternoon Open Thread.

1. The Los Angeles Times reports that one of California’s largest Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders. “One of the state’s largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved. Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed.”

2. The Seattle Times reports that a Federal judge ruled druggists may withhold “morning-after” pill. “A federal judge has suspended controversial [Washington] state rules requiring pharmacies to dispense so-called ‘Plan B’ emergency contraceptives, saying the rules appear to unconstitutionally violate pharmacists’ freedom of religion. The rules appear to force pharmacists to choose between their own religious beliefs and their livelihood, Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the U.S. District Court in Tacoma wrote Thursday.” Leighton was nominated by George W. Bush in 2002 and was confirmed by the voice vote in the Senate.

3. The New York Times reports the U.S. releases nine Iranians in Iraq.

   Nine Iranians held on suspicion of aiding insurgents were released from American custody in Baghdad early today, according to the United States military.

   Two of the freed men were among five Iranians arrested in January during a nighttime raid on an Iranian diplomatic office in the northern city of Erbil, an act that further strained the increasingly fraught relations between the United States and Iran. At the time, the military accused the five Iranians of working with anticoalition Shiite extremist groups, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later said that… Bush had authorized that and other raids because the military believed sophisticated bombs were flowing into Iraq from Iran…

   In a news release, the American military said that after careful reviews, the nine men were no longer considered security threats and had no further intelligence value. The men were expected to journey back to Iran late Friday, Mr. Qumi said. Their release came at a time when American forces are freeing increasing numbers of detainees.

4. McClatchy Newspapers report Justice Department returns to enforcing voter laws. “The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is reversing course and has begun taking steps to enforce a 1993 law that’s intended to make it easier for poor minorities to register to vote. The division, which has come under attack for allegedly pursuing policies aimed at suppressing the votes of Democratic-leaning minorities, has demanded that 18 states provide evidence that they’re complying with the National Voter Registration Act. If it is fully pursued, this new action will represent the first significant return to traditional enforcement of voting-rights laws since a scandal erupted earlier this year over the alleged politicization of the Justice Department.”

There’s TWO bonus stories below the fold — one about the Yellowstone Super Volcano another about shortages in wind power. So blow on down below the fold…

5. National Geographic News reports Yellowstone Is Rising on Swollen “Supervolcano”. ” Yellowstone National Park is rising. Its central region, called the Yellowstone caldera, has been moving upward since mid-2004 at a rate of up to three inches (seven centimeters) a year—more than three times faster than has ever been measured. The surface is inflating like a bellows due to an infusion of magma about 6 miles (10 kilometers) underground, according to a new study published in… the journal Science.” The Washington Post adds As Yellowstone bubbles, experts are calm. “‘There’s no evidence of eruption,’ said Robert B. Smith, a University of Utah geophysicist and co-author of a new report on Yellowstone’s unusual behavior, published today in the journal Science. The park’s recent rise is ‘just part of the natural process.'”

6. The Oregonian reports Wind demands dwarf supply. “West Coast utilities and independent power producers are locked in a land rush to secure the best wind sites and the power they produce. Coupled with a worldwide shortage of turbines and a falling dollar, the resulting scarcity is driving up the cost of wind power — a burden that electricity ratepayers ultimately will shoulder… Experts are already questioning whether the West Coast states’ progressively higher mandates will outstrip the region’s potential supply of green power or its ability to move that power around the electrical grid… Renewables advocates reject any notion of a shortage. They claim there are adequate projects in the pipeline to meet early targets and plenty more to tap if big players get moving. If wave, tidal, geothermal and solar technologies mature, they could be big contributors as well.”

So, what else is happening? Have a great weekend everyone. I’ll be back again with the news on Monday.

As if there had ever been reason for doubt, a new study confirm what we all already knew: abstinence-only doesn’t work.

From the Associated Press:

Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies.

“At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners” among teenagers, the study concluded.

The study was released by the non-partisan, reality-based National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having “positive outcomes” including teenagers “delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use.”

Pseudo-religious pseudo-morality doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. Treating people like responsible adults does. It is illogical to presume that teenagers will not be regularly thinking about sex and accessing websites like www hdtubemovies xxx as part of their sexual curiosity. There are some parents who have even thought about using something like a tpe sex doll to teach their children about sex, however, it was argued against doing this since kids might develop the wrong idea about sex.

The study debunked the following claims by abstinence-only advocates:

-that sex ed promotes promiscuity

-that sex ed leads to kids trying sex sooner, and participating in it more often

-that it confuses kids

Of course, what really leads kids to try sex is hormones. Teaching them that what their bodies are telling them is bad doesn’t work. Their bodies know better. What does work is teaching them how to approach their sexuality responsibly. Even the porn stars on fuckvideos xxx act responsibly and wear condoms and that should be taught to these teens. It’s not difficult to teach safe sex. Of course, our medievalist government wants to suppress sex at all costs, even if it means promoting policies that are counter-productive.

And speaking of costs, there’s a bill now before Congress that would spend $141,000,000 for community-based, abstinence-only sex education. That’s $4,000,000 more than Bush requested. Because with all the problems in the world, there’s no better way to burn our tax dollars than on ill-conceived attempts at sexual repression.

(more)

As James Wagoner, President of Advocates for Youth, a Washington-based non-profit that focuses on adolescent reproductive and sexual health, recently wrote, on the Huffington Post:

Late last week, the Democratic controlled Labor HHS Appropriations Conference Committee endorsed a record $141 million dollar budget for community-based abstinence-only-until-marriage programs which prohibit information about condoms and birth control.

The record-level increase, pushed by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI), flies in the face of a congressionally mandated evaluation showing that abstinence-only programs have “no impact on adolescent behavior.” Astonishingly, the windfall was larger than what President Bush had been able to obtain from the prior conservative, Republican-controlled Congress!

In one outrageous move, the Democrats managed to put the health and safety of millions of young people at risk, promote programs that spread ignorance in the era of AIDS, and slap their party’s brand on one of the biggest ideological boondoggles in recent congressional history. Over $1.5 billion dollars have been spent over the last decade on programs that simply do not work!
(emphasis his)

The Kaiser Network has this update:

A House-Senate conference committee on Thursday approved a fiscal year 2008 appropriations measure that would include a $27.8 million increase in funding of abstinence education programs, CQ Today reports. The legislation combines a Labor-HHS-Education spending bill (HR 3043) with a spending bill for the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction (HR 2642) (Wayne, CQ Today, 11/1).

The Senate version would have cut the abstinence only garbage by some $28,000,000, but even that wasn’t acceptable. The conference committee went with the House version. Contact your Congressional representatives and tell them to kill this absurdity. It’s time this country grew up and stopped taking a Beavis and Butthead approach to sexuality.

The magnificent Guttmacher Institute has a page full of sober-minded resources.

Penned in 1956:

The party’s over
It’s time to call it a day
They’ve burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away
It’s time to wind up the masquerade
Just make your mind up the piper must be paid

The party’s over
The candles flicker and dim
You danced and dreamed through the night
It seemed to be right just being with him
Now you must wake up, all dreams must end
Take off your makeup, the party’s over
It’s all over, my friend

This best sums up my feelings about the rest of my life as an American.

It’s ok. The more people realize the coming sacrifice to right the wrongs of ceeding our freedom to ANY government…….the quicker the healing can begin. We have been asked to pay the price and we cannot turn our backs on it or no one will survive. For all of America’s faults we are a nation of very strong and smart people. The world really does need us……the used to be us of many yeats ago.

So buckle up my friends. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Via zuky, I journeyed over to ultrabrown, where this video protest song caught my eye and ear.

The juxtaposition of comedy, biting commentary and tragic footage strikes home.

Ah, American moral leadership.  Did we ever have it?  Or is it, as in our own individual lives, moments of clarity and humanity, moments where we are our best selves but then we go back to our emotional conflicts, neuroses, fears, and can’t really look in the mirror and call ourselves heros?

I like this video because, as good agitprop should, it makes me look at reality with a different view.

And without further ado:

Whaddya think?

UPDATE Here’s a link to the performer, by Kannada singer B. Jayashree— now when I look at the pic there, this woman looks a lot older than the one in the video, so I could be entirely wrong about this — tho I don’t think I am.  How’s that for not making sense?  wOO hOO!