ITEM: I play the character dissatisfied leftist in the above
cartoon. Related toon:
American Extremists at Corrente, which won't allow me to register and
comment even though I agree with them completely. Thanks fellas...
ITEM: Speaking of dissatisfied leftists,
Jane Hamsher got arrested, but was then released while protesting something
called the Tar Sands pipeline which admittedly I do not know a lot of about. I'm
more concerned that fracking will destroy the Pennsylvania water table. The
president will probably make the wrong choice on this issue. Read more stuff
here and
here about the tar sands pipeline.
ITEM: This was written
by Ian Welsh awhile ago. Still seems true. I posted the whole thing. Its
that good and that true. Here's more horrible news about the future from Ian.
He's not prolific but when he does sit down and write something it matters.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the
equation, throwing youngsters into prison for very minor crimes is a mistake.
It will harden them, and connect them. This is especially true in British
prisons, because British prisoners are a hardened bunch of criminals. But it
is a mistake no matter where, because in America and Britain, having ever be
thrown in jail means your life is over. Every decent job does a criminal
record check, and if you have a criminal record, you will never ever have a
good job again. At that point you might as well become a criminal, and why
not a revolutionary?
Which leads to the crackdown on
hackers. Throwing young, bright, technically savvy young adults in with the
criminal element is, again, a mistake. The rise of the surveillance state
means that tech savvy is going to become very important to anyone who doesn’t
want to live by what might be called “Society’s new rules”. And the young
hackers have a revolutionary mindset. The combination of men with nothing to
lose, with men who have tech skills and believe society is corrupt and needs
to be brought down, will be explosive. And since the biometric security state
will be done on the cheap, by the sort of incompetents who run the current
wars and the current security apparatus, there will be plenty of cracks in the
system to exploit.
Likewise the increase in punitive
sentences is a mistake, pure and simple, because it means people have less to
lose. If a relatively minor crime gets you in for years, and destroys your
life, many will make the calculation that they might as well fight, might as
well use violent force, rather than be taken.
Meanwhile the ranks of the permanently
unemployed will swell. At this point companies simply don’t want to hire
anyone who has been unemployed for longer than about 3 months, and have a
strong preference for the currently employed. If you don’t find a new job in 3
months, you are probably never going to have a good job again. The data is
clear on this, what is also clear is that the developed world has made a hard
turn for austerity, one which will do damage for years to come. A decade is
modestly optimistic.
This will increase social disorder, of
course, and our lords and masters and the remnants of the middle and working
class who scream “they’re criminals, pure and simple”, will double down on
repression, again and again.
This is, of course, a big mistake.
It may turn into a relatively stable solution set in some countries, but
they won’t be places you want to live unless you have the morals of
totalitarian, and in others it will lead to revolutions, while in others it
will lead to outright failed states. We can hope that a few will turn aside
from this path. So far in Europe only one country has, Iceland.
1. Invest in America's infrastructure.
2. Create 21st Century energy jobs. We need more Green jobs in America.
3. Invest in public education.
4. Medicare for all.
5. Make work pay.
6. Secure Social Security.
7. Return to fairer tax rates.
8. Tax wall street.
9. End wars and invest at home.
10. Restore, protect and renew democracy.
Aug. 2
ITEM: Sorry for the long delay. The debt
ceiling deal is so horrible that I don't even know where to begin.
Bad optics.
Bad policy.Bad
president (When you score this much for the opposing team I begin to think
that you're on the other side).
These are things I've been linking to.
ITEM: I called Mike Doyle's Office and told him to vote no on
the debt deal. MoveOn agrees.: I called up Mike Doyle's ...
http://bit.ly/ni6DLa
(By the way, thank you Mike Doyle. He voted against it.
Unfortunately, as we've begun to watch these guys, he made a no vote which meant
nothing. You get the impression that if the dems needed his vote they probably
would have gotten it. See: "Rotating Villains".)
I had been working two jobs but the site updates everyday
because of the twitter feed. I'm also constantly adding videos to the Acid Jazz
Channel. So between 5000 vids on the channel and the twitter feed where I've
also been updating the site has been active. But I'm wondering if anyone
actually noticed. I should probably move the twitter feed to the center of the
page. Its also cool that the Acid Jazz Channel has 16 fans! However, I have
noticed that most people's computers are too slow to actually enjoy the channel.
You need a decent machine to watch this channel. Handhelds, average or below
average cell phones (Like my Net 10 cheapie where I can barely access the
Internet...) or older laptops simply can't reproduce it. But technology is
getting better...
ITEM:...Even though we seem to be moving toward some awful
Handmaiden's Tale/1984 bleakness. Our leaders will keep on talking about their
"Love of America" while turning our country into some kind of Third World
hellhole for actual Americans. They, especially those fake patriotic
republicans, should say "I love America but I really hate Americans and I want
to create the world envisioned in this
Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon."
Speaking of which: Here are the petitions you can sign against
that
awful debt limit deal that the president is pushing. It's complete
capitulation again. I'm beginning to wish Obama would just switch parties and be
done with it. Then, who knows, we can get somebody who likes the New Deal/Great
Society programs to run as a democrat or something crazy like that...Or what
Eli, our very own Multi Medium guy Eli over at Firedoglake,
has
said:
FDR
told his base, “I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it,” while
saying of the corporate right, “I welcome their hatred.” Obama has done the
exact reverse.
Here's where you can tell the president or what's left of
democratic leadership in the house (Did the president want to lose the house so
he could fold more easily?) to not give into the hostage takers:
This is actually pretty impressive from Jane and the gang.
They're hinting toward a third party, especially since a lot of dems will fold
on this one. Here's the pledge they want you to take:
The war on our social safety
net is now fully underway.
President Obama is offering
cuts to Social Security benefits in exchange for GOP support for tax hikes.
Democrats in the Senate and Congress will likely be forced to walk the plank
and support those cuts, despite being deeply unpopular.
We refuse to sit by and
watch the political classes get away with making cuts to Social Security.
Firedoglake will make it as painful as possible for any politician from any
party to participate in this wholesale looting of the public sphere.
Join us
in demanding absolutely NO CUTS to social safety net programs like Medicare
and Social Security.
I even got something from the state local of
Action United (Psst: this is ACORN reformed.). But would calling the
president even help? I doubt it. He's had Paul Krugman to dinner and he ignored
him.
June 24
Been tired and busy. Here's the last several
things I posted on Facebook:
Pennsylvania Teacher Starts 100-Mile-Run To Protest ‘Catastrophic’ Education
Cuts I've been knocking on doors and reading up on this issue. It's true.
How can we be number one at anything if we don't have a population that has
critical thinking skills? It's as if our Galtian Overlords, so to speak, are
using "Idiocracy" as a blueprint for the American future...
Fight the three
strikes rule. Looks like this will just be done unilaterally by private
companies. Does this include wi fi spots? Related: The
Software Kings are the true meritocracy. I can only hope that they've bought
off enough congresspeople.
June 17
ITEM: Obviously I hope everyone is noticing
that I'm updating links daily from The Philip Shropshire Daily. The only problem
is that I can't figure out how to bias the daily with my own stuff, when I write
some stuff anyway.
Anywayz: two items that are connected. First up
is this completely true Tom the Dancing Bug toon. Our evil Lassiter like ruling
elites have determined that the slums of India and Latin America are something
worth striving for.
Below that is a two minute economics lesson
from Robert Reich as to how they're accomplishing that toon.
(hat tip Maria from 2 political junkies for the Reich vid...)
What should have been published June 7th
ITEM: Been busy working two jobs. Am very
tired. Now down to just five days a week. Feel refreshed.
Above: A shot of a very tall hill in Wilkinsburg, heavily altered with
Paint.net. Below: Very conscious video by Jasiri X, who has been doing a number
of news and music vids that deserve more comment when I have more time. But
definitely in the spirit of Public Enemy and the late Gil Scott Heron. Just for
the record, I don't think "America's Most Livable City" is meant as a direct
slight to the city's urban poor but good vid nonetheless...as I noted on
Facebook this feels more like a newscast than some music vid.
ITEM: I've been publishing over at Greater Good, Twitter and
Facebook and forgetting to publish here. My bad as they say.
ITEM: Cool animated gif from
Tom Moody above. Yet another really cool Ian Murphy video where he talks to
Tea Partiers, always looking out for rich folks. Win or lose the Green Party
should hire Ian on as their head of marketing. I'm almost certain they don't
have that department or anybody running it right now.
ITEM: Something nice about baseball especially since I hate
the modern day pirates, or at least I hate their ownership. The Pirates are
designed to lose but make money for the owners. A nice illustration as to what's
wrong with American Capitalism: most everybody loses except that guy at the
top. I wish we had soccer rules that demoted low performing teams to another
league. More about this graphic novel
here and
here.
Late Nite March 23
ITEM: New toon by radical girly voiced
Stephanie McMillan. I suggested on Facebook that this should be called "fascist
polluter chutzpah".
Assorted links from my assorted blogs, crosspostings, twitter
thingie..
So, the fantasy here–and we have quite a few
trust me–is that somebody from the Hollywood Left gets fed up with the
corporatist Democrats (like, say, Matt Damon) finds this site and throws a bunch
of money our way so that we can recreate American Coming Together or ACT. The
difference this time is that its not run by a billionaire but someone who
doesn’t have health insurance and uses (and needs) public transit. I won’t give
up after one election cycle. But where would the money go? And how much would
do, exactly, how much?
Well, the theory here is very simple. We
believe that the two parties are hopelessly corrupt–with one brazen extreme
openly fascist party (The GOP) vs. a more subtle corporate party (The Dems)–that
essentially answer to the same sleazy corporate backers. This is why we got Mitt
Romney’s healthcare bill as opposed to something that could have worked like
single payer. This from the so called “opposition party”. Just for the record,
and as someone who voted for Barack Obama, I feel that I’ve been betrayed on
just about every issue of import. I wanted FDR, instead I got Hoover. I wanted
an expansion of the Internet and net neutrality, instead I got possible felony
convictions for streaming or cool things that the Internet can do. I wanted
peace, instead…well, you get the picture. Money has essentially brought (bought)
us two republican parties. The president isn’t stupid. He’s bought off by the
same people who bought the republicans. He might have even thrown the last
election cycle in order to give the GOP overwhelming control of redistricting
for the next 10 years. He may have wanted a republican house. Why would a
democrat want that? Answer: He would want that if he was funded by GOP money.
Unconsciously or more likely very consciously this proves the Washington
Generals theory of the Democratic Party.
The only way to change that is to get people
who aren’t a part of the duopoly and are effective hard negotiators–unlike the
president–into the halls of power. The party that came closest to doing that
during the last election cycle was the Green Party. The Green Party got 60
members on the congressional ballot to contest house races and there were
several senate races where they had an opportunity such as Arkansas and South
Carolina. The Democratic Party couldn’t even claim those seats would be spoiled
because their nominees had no chance whatsoever. Remember Alvin Green?
ITEM: For daily links please check out my
twitter feeds on the right.
March 12
ITEM: World class toon by Tom the Dancing Bug.
A riff on "when the military needs bake sales" theme. Also a direct but no doubt
fair use lift of Marvel's
Counter
Earth/High Evolutionary mythology.
ITEM: My progressive openly gay cousin, Leonce Gaiter, seems
to have put out (or is writing) a stunning 3rd novel which seems to be about
vigilante blacks and American Indians teaming up against the white man and his
imperialist land grab. Or as I wrote on Facebook: "Deadwood meets Avatar", or at
least that's how I want the movie version to look. It's called "Terror and
Retribution". There's even this nice promotional Ken Burns style youtube video
to go along with it. Read
all about it.
ITEM:Pro choice march this
afternoon. Sign the petition if you can't attend.More
here.
ITEM:Sugary pop confection
Justin Bieber calls US Healthcare system evil and he's right!More
here.
Feb. 16
ITEM:Behold. I have incorporated
a public 527. This non profit, as I've designed it, can do pretty much anything
(within the law of course...)...It can be a canvass. It can start companies. It
can replace ACORN. Nuff said. Here are the public interest goals of the non
profit.
The primary public
interest purpose of The Greater Good Coalition (GGC) is to help the American
public better understand and change the policies that affect their lives by
using whatever means necessary including, but not limited to, cell phones,
internet tools, old fashioned door knocking (canvassing), fliers and petition
campaigns that can result in the greatest good for the greatest in number (My
definition of "Progressive"). These local, state and federal policies include,
but are not limited to (includes all policies that affect the greater good),
unemployment and jobs policy (international job killing trade deals like NAFTA
and CAFTA), tax policy, environmental policy, election fairness, election
integrity, voter access, net neutrality, college debt forgiveness, consumer
protection, affordable health care, big telecom/cable issues, the off-shoring of
jobs and affordable and accessible public transit. As a general rule, we also
support any policy that gets us closer to living like a citizen of France or
Norway (as of 2010) and working to defeat any policy that gets us closer to the
vast unemployment and misery of the majority population of Mexico (as of 2010)
or some other Third World plutocracy. This primary purpose will be articulated
by an online paper/website presence. (http://greatergoodcoalition.blogspot.com/
initially but this might change! It will certainly be expanded.)
The second public
interest purpose of the Greater Good Coalition is non partisan voter education,
registration and get out the voter activities in conjunction with elections.
The third public interest
purpose of the Greater Good Coalition is finding and identifying candidates
throughout the United States that are most supportive of our progressive public
interest positions. (See primary purpose.)
The fourth public
interest purpose of the Greater Good Coalition will be to seek out and create
better non profit models for newspapers, journals of criticism, fiction and
original businesses virtual and otherwise that can be started by citizens of
limited means (defined as making less than a living wage).
We'll see what I can do with this tool...
What Should Have Been Published Several Days Ago but I've Been
Busy (Remember: I sometimes post early at Mirror Universe)
ITEM: "Polyatheism" just means there are lots of gods that you don't believe
in and rightfully so. Richard Dawkins explainsthis
concept here very well. Just to go over this: most of us don't believe in
Neptune or Thor or Wotan (Wotan?) or Heracles or Apollo. And thank god we don't
have to. Just take it one God further...
ITEM: Some of the posts that you see on Mirror Universe are compensated.
They're actually not badly done and they do pay some bills around here. I will,
however, put the mark of "Payd" in order to show that the post is not purely
altruistic in intent.
Feb. 5
ITEM: Today is Rosa Parks' birthday. This gives me an excuse
to run this toon called "Frank Miller's Rosa Parks, which features a slightly
less nonviolent Rosa Parks:
Speaking of cool internet art as propaganda, there's this
incisive piece by Micah Wright concerning corporate media vs. Internet Media.
Internet media, or at least some of it, is independent and can freely criticize
corporations and the politicians that they won (which includes the President)
and therefore better.
And this is the bottom line on the prohibition of drugs. You
don't support it unless you support the creation of criminal cartels. I wish
President Obama would get this. On the other hand, if you look at his treatment
ofbanking
swindlersit is consistent.
Jan. 25
(Crossposted from the Greater Good Coalition
Blog)
I've been watching for the last hour and it features Dean Baker, great
progressive economist who, along with people like Krugman and Stiglitz, kind of
inform my world view. It also features Tim Carney, who is that rare libertarian
who criticizes the role of money in politics and how it benefits big business at
the expense of small businesses.
ITEM:Hour long piece by John
Perkins on how our foreign policy really works.
What Should Have Been Published Jan. 18
ITEM: More mourning for Trish Keenan of Broadcast.
Without delving too deeply I feel it's important to make a small
reference to Trish's own very physical song writing process which unconsciously
resembled an Ester Krumbachová backdrop or something from an alternative
Canadian school room. Without knowing it she was also a conceptual visual expert
working and arranging her words in Sister Corita Kent's doppelganger print
workshop.
A few times over the years, Trish sent me demos of new album
tracks asking for a critical opinion. Naturally they ticked all the right
boxes but also put all sorts of new boxes on the matrix. Personally I was
flattered that she valued my taste in records although I felt totally unworthy
to judge the mighty Broadcast (I felt the same way when I remixed The
Booklovers in 1999 - mission impossible) I suppose I'm trying to illustrate
her humble nature towards their own music. The fact that they were probably
the ONLY band I've ever known to sound even better than their vintage
influences is maybe something I should have told her, but she was never
digging for compliments.
I've actually posted and made more amateur vids of Broadcast
than possibly any other person alive (Seehereandhere.).
I happened to have a copy of the only video that Trish Keenan ever directed and
starred in, which was done to her song "Black Cat". So I reuploadedthat.
I also downloaded her last known recording with Prefuse 73, also a star of "The
Acid Jazz Channel", and made a videofor
that. I also made an older video for "Man is not a Bird", but instead of
uploading that to Youtube I used it as a background to create a newer and
better, or just "busier", version of "Man is not a Bird". My vid making skillz
have improved somewhat due to having better computers and better vid making
software. Or you can judge for yourself. The old versionis
here. New version is below:
Bonus: As some people who knew Trish Keenan have
remarked upon, she was actually trying her hand at fiction writing. Here's herone
short story that you can find online. I hear she was a fan of HG Wells
(Actually, a lot of the people who do futuristic music are science fiction fans
of some sort or another. Wayne Shorter and John McLaughlin are science fiction
readers. Chick Corea believes in a religioncreated
by science fictionnot to mention
all the Star Trek references from Return to Forever (Vulcan
Worlds anyone?)....).Verdict:Not
great but passable. I would describe it as a kind of low key surrealism. She
would have gotten better had she had more time.Bonus
insight:The alt rock n roll icon
who should spend a year writing a novel is probably Robyn Hitchcock, whose prose
is continuously abstract. He's already been published in a science fiction
anthology...
Jan. 14
ITEM: Terrible way to start the morning: Trish
Keenan, of Broadcast, one of my favorite artists and one of my favorite bands,
passed away this morning from complications of pneumonia.
She
did leave behind, as one writer put it at her web forum, a large amount of
stunning work. Broadcast is one of the reasons that I started the Acid Jazz
Channel. I wanted to showcase bands that I thought were producing really good
work but weren't getting any airplay or videoplay. I've never seen a Broadcast
video on MTV for example. But we will always have her music to remember her
with.
"Trish Keenan, of the band Broadcast, died this morning of pneumonia following
a swine flu infection.
I first discovered Broadcast around 1997, and their
HA HA SOUND remains one of my favourite albums. Their 2009 collaboration with
The Focus Group, WITCH CULTS OF THE RADIO AGE, was barely off my playlists for
a year. Keenan described that record to Joe Stannard in THE WIRE like this:
“I’d like people to enjoy the album as a Hammer horror dream collage
where Broadcast play the role of the guest band at the mansion drug party by
night, and a science worshipping Eloi possessed by 3/4 rhythms by day, all
headed by the Focus Group leader who lays down sonic laws that break through
the corrective systems of timing and keys.”
She was an artist and channeller of the authentic British strangeness, a
medium singing the glossolalia of radiophonic culture. I’m saddened and not a
little horrified by her passing, and the cone of silence it leaves in the
world."
Jan. 9, 2011
Your Sunday Atheist Toon
ITEM:Your
Sunday Atheism toon.
ITEM:Three disturbing
stories about air and water pollution, especially Pennsylvania drinking water:
ITEM: This is my new and slightly more intimidating Facebook icon. More
intimidating than "Franklin" from Peanuts anywayz. "Count on it Overseer...!"
Related:New site, for
me anyway, from a guy who also used to shop at Copacetic and Eide's comics
in the 70s and 80s apparently. More Related:With "Sabre"
the writer wanted to create a superhero who looked like Jimi Hendrix. You be the
judge.
What should have been published Dec. 22
ITEM: I had posted this to Mirror Universe last Friday but forgot to put it
here. This cartoon, created by someone who hangs out at Firedoglake, perfectly
explains the progressive dissatisfaction with Obama.
What should have been published Sunday Dec.
20
ITEM: I highly recommend all of the videos produced by the Thinking Atheist.
Dec. 12
Item: Yet
another Jesus and Mo' toon about the founder of the Mormons or the Church of
Latter Day Saints. Related: Comedian David Cross refers to Mormonism as
the Scientology of its day. One of the reasons why Mitt Romney lost the GOP
nomination for president is that the Republican base just couldn't buy his
religion. And while I very seldom agree with the GOP's retrograde base about
anything I see their point here. Mormonism would seem to suggest a radically
different conception of Christianity and the fact that the founder of the
religion was a thrice convicted fraudster tells you that this was made up.
Mormonism is kind of a hustle, just like all religion. More Related: Mitt
Romney's failed presidential run is why
you're seeing these PR "I'm a Mormon" ads.Related to More Related:
There is an "I'm an Ex
Mormon campaign" at Youtube as well.
The New
Messengers. The new backgrounds at blogger make those sites more
interesting.
Dec. 5
ITEM: The
last three Jesus and Mo's have been about the founder of Mormonism Joseph
Smith, a thrice convicted fraudster who found the con that would stick:
Religion. Related: I
posted this on prominent atheist Sam Harris' Facebook page because we're
tight. He's researching using increased funding for education so that people
could, presumably, rely on will power and reason to solve their problems instead
of prayer. I wrote about possible detours and problems with that approach.
ITEM: When you combine this story about a cutting edge engine
that
can get you to Mars in 39 days and a possible breathable
atmosphere on the
Saturn moon of Rhea...well, I think we can all start making plans. Um, how
breathable is that air on Rhea? Wouldn't you get irradiated? Could you live a
couple of hours?
Late Night Nov. 17th
ITEM: I am currently reading an online graphic novel called "Tinkerers"
by acclaimed science fiction writer David Brin. Its futuristic theme is
supposed to be about "what happened to American manufacturing?". I'm guessing
the answer that David will give has something to do with reawakening the
individual's gumption and so forth. As someone who's been watching American
industrial policy for the last 30 years I can assure you that this has more to
do with the
choices made by the investor class than what individuals do, the Internet
notwithstanding. Related: Have I mentioned that we're trying to ruin the
Internet? World's greatest growth engine? (Here
and here.) I guess we don't want
the Facebooks or the Googles to succeed unless the Right gatekeepers have
approved of their disruptive technologies. More Related: Or unless they
become Narcs.
Late Night Nov. 10
Item: Another shot at fifth avenue at night.
What Should Have Been Published Nov. 5 Here (Was
published over at Mirror Universe)
I’m not that surprised by Keith Olbermann’s suspension. I also wouldn’t be
surprised if Olbermann’s suspension turned into a termination. Its
Phil Donahue all over again. However, that might not be such a bad thing
if Olbermann, Ratigan, Donahue, Maddow, Cenk, and Ed Shultz were to start
their own online news channel. The most successful people on the Internet
are television personalities anyway. They would also be free not to adhere
to some brain dead objectivity standard in a world where Fox News openly
endorses the openly fascist Republican Party (Old
fashioned jack booted fascists by the way.) Keith Olbermann could also
lead the online television efforts of, say, a Firedoglake…more on that
thought later…
Even if Keith were to survive this latest hit I can’t imagine him and the
rest of the progressive anchor team
surviving Comcast and the new ownership. I think tweety and the Last
Word guy will be fine. This brings me to an important point I’ve always
wanted to make but lacked a proper opportunity: Chomsky and Herman’s
Propaganda Model. Or this is why no liberals are ever ever allowed on your
television.
ITEM: More shots around Pittsburgh. The above is
Donna's School of Dance in
Murrysville. Leftover shots from my brief photo gig. Below: I've decided to
make this my hobby now. But I probably need a better camera. That's a shot from
Craig St. in Oakland which I edited with GIMP for Windows.
And: This is around the corner from the last shot. This is
Fifth Avenue.
ITEM: I don't know why Eli isn't proclaiming his Open Fear
about my Peter Parker like photog gifts. That might be because he's a slightly
better photographer (see
here) who uses one of
them fancy dan cameras. Or it might be the shoes. Related: First late
Friday night cat blogging here of Miss Selina Kyle:
ITEM: I think the Green Party should go all in for their
senate candidates in Arkansas and South Carolina. The Dems have nothing there
(Greene and Lincoln or the Dumb and the Corrupt) so no one can accuse the Greens
of being spoilers. They should attempt to raise a million each for both of them
and run ads the final 10 days. Or my new organization can do it if they lack the
organization to do it or more importantly, if the Green Party refuses to even
ask for the money you need to compete and win.
Hey, I can at least ask to do it. More on this later:
Oct. 13
ITEM: More extra photos from this freelance pic gig I'm doing.
Shot around the Pittsburgh area. These would all be good places to shoot
"Justified", FX's modern western series. I know they shot some in Kittaning...
Oct. 10
ITEM: Took a freelance job doing photos for what I hope will
be a couple of months. How does it look? Watch out Mark Southers and Eli. I'm
comin'...hard.
Oct 5 PST
ITEM: I just haven't felt like doing a lot of writing lately.
Before the Internet I could do that for long periods of time and nobody noticed
because often times between publishing something would take long periods of
time. Now its different. I've also been on the net just not here, again. I
update and add vids to my website. I've also been trying to figure out how to
use twitter and facebook more effectively. Anywayz. More links up soon.
ITEM: These are sites that I've been looking at and learning
from. I've also added them to my top left as must reads:
Yes, I've come to the conclusion that we need a viable third
party, or as the old Will Rogers joke goes: I'd be happy with a second party.
But it can't be a party of spoilers and jerks that hands the reins over to the
Pat Toomeys and Sharon Angles of this world. They have to be viable runs. And if
I've said it once I've said it a thousand times: At the national level you need
to raise about $250000 for a house run, about 2 million for a senate run. This
won't guarantee you victory and in fact these are minimum numbers. Various
outlines
of how this works here.
ITEM: Justice for Jordan Miles Rally & March Saturday afternoon at 2 PM at
the corner of Tioga and Rosedale.
Quick outline:
aturday, September 18, 2010 @ 2 pm - Justice for Jordan Miles Rally & March
(The Corner of Tioga &
Rosedale) Join the Alliance for Police Accountability to demand: Prosecution
of Richard Ewing, David Sisak and Michael Saldutte! End police brutality and
racial profiling! Community control of the police force!
Click here for more details. For more information: bsfish27@aol.com or
412-628-5849
Well, for a long time, nothing had happened since the last
story had been printed on August 3rd. I figured out that they had figured out
that they didn't have much of a case of forcing a tenant to pay for the
landlord's property upkeep. I might also note that they probably also figured
out that they could still use that law to intimidate more gullible people who
can't research case law. If that ordinance were to ever be used against me, then
I would kill it. Fair enough.
That changed last Wednesday morning Sept. 8, between 11:30 and
11:45 AM, when Mr. Frank approached me while driving a white City of Wilkinsburg
vehicle and started shouting at me from his driver's window. I think I gave him
an acknowledgement of sorts and walked away from him. Afterall, I tend to think
that he's a jerk and not the brightest opponent I've encountered. So, and this
is where it gets interesting. This nutjob follows me down the left
side of the street for an entire block, occasionally yelling inanities and odd
requests. (Would you give this guy a copy of your lease without a court order?)
There was also this odd complaint about his bosses asking him questions about
this particular case. Well, I would hope so. I reminded him, as I was striding
away from this fruit loop, that I didn't go to his house and threaten him on his
porch. Then the street ends at Wood so he can't stalk me anymore on a two way
street so he jumps out of his car and calls me: "a lazy fat bastard." I then
responded "Hey, can I quote you on that you fuckin' moron?"
His response sounded to me like he didn't care which is just
fine because I was going to quote him anyway. Its okay I checked with my
imaginary rich white male editor. He has my back
unlike other editors I've had.
Now yesterday afternoon I spoke to Wilkinsburg Fire Chief Owen
McAfee, who is supposed to be Frank's "boss" (Does he have one? I mean, really.)
and I asked him is that the sort of behavior that he encourages in his code
enforcers? And if it is can I please work for him because that sounds like a
very cool job.
To McAfee's credit he said "No." Now, I have to complete the
complaint form for the Wilkinsburg Borough Manager Marla Marcinko, which should
be delivered by tomorrow. But will Jim Frank receive any punishment at all for
this? By the way, I put this into the very big box I call "Things white folks
get away with at work that I could never get away with." Stay tuned...
Related: One odd thing about this: as soon as Jim
finished describing me, inaccurately as I have noted in the past that I'm
Forest Whitaker Ghost Dog fit, another white guy drove up right beside him.
I have to admit that he looked more intimidating than Frank, who looks to be
near death and as you can imagine I certainly wish him well. This other guy was
the kind of guy you would cast in a Sons of Anarchy episode. He was a bald guy,
tattoos on both of his forearms, drove a
brown pickup of some kind. Let me guess: Frank provokes me, for after all we
are all violent negroes who can't control our tempers, and this guy just happens
to come along and what, shoots me..? Frank claims to the police. "Tragic
officers jus' tragic. This big negro starts to strangling me fer no good reason
as I was just minding my business trailing him down the street in my car and
yellin' obscenities at him out the winda'...good thing my friend came along and
shot him six times. Yep what luck.. Self defense all the way officers. Self
Defense."
Ha ha ha. Nah. My speculation sounds far fetched. I would say
that other guy arriving then and there was 99 percent coincidence. However, its
that other one percent that nags at me...well,
ready when you are. Hurm. More Related: If ever attacked, then I
would vigorously
defend
myself.
Sept. 8 PST
ITEM:Local hippy trippy band
that I like called the Van Allen Belt. I'm thinking about seeing them live. I
could be their African American fan.
ITEM: I'm currently watching High, a documentary about
the American war on Marijuana. I hear
its number one on Hulu. Prohibition didn't work by the way. Just for the
record: I don't use drugs myself. I just don't think you should get locked up
for grass anymore than I think that cigarette users or drinkers should be locked
up for their vices. Call me a radical. Besides, I don't need drugs. I've got the
Acid Jazz channel. Related:
More marijuana docs here. I highly recommend "The Union" if you can get it
to load. More Related:
Support Firedoglake's "Just Say Now" campaign. It might be the only good
news that Progressives get this November. Too bad Barbara Boxer, a "democrat",
is pro prohibition. I can sort of see that politically but sometimes you just
need to do the right thing. Not that the democratic party has done that of late.
ITEM: How not to get the base hot bothered and excited
Part One.
Here's parts
two and
three. You could do part 25 if you wanted to...It's not just one issue. I
feel betrayed by this administration on a multitude of issues as a
progressive...Related: I like Obama's attack on Boehner and the horrors
of a "Let's apologize to BP" GOP house but Jon Walker's
so what point is on the mark...
Sept. 6
Sept. 8 PST
ITEM:Local hippy trippy band
that I like called the Van Allen Belt. I'm thinking about seeing them live. I
could be their African American fan.
ITEM: I'm currently watching High, a documentary about
the American war on Marijuana. I hear
its number one on Hulu. Prohibition didn't work by the way. Just for the
record: I don't use drugs myself. I just don't think you should get locked up
for grass anymore than I think that cigarette users or drinkers should be locked
up for their vices. Call me a radical. Besides, I don't need drugs. I've got the
Acid Jazz channel. Related:
More marijuana docs here. I highly recommend "The Union" if you can get it
to load. More Related:
Support Firedoglake's "Just Say Now" campaign. It might be the only good
news that Progressives get this November. Too bad Barbara Boxer, a "democrat",
is pro prohibition. I can sort of see that politically but sometimes you just
need to do the right thing. Not that the democratic party has done that of late.
ITEM: How not to get the base hot bothered and excited
Part One.
Here's parts
two and
three. You could do part 25 if you wanted to...It's not just one issue. I
feel betrayed by this administration on a multitude of issues as a
progressive...Related: I like Obama's attack on Boehner and the horrors
of a "Let's apologize to BP" GOP house but Jon Walker's
so what point is on the mark...
Sept. 6
ITEM: I highly recommend this special format edition
comic, which features 60s criminal Parker. He's not a nice man. He once shot a
double crossing fat dame in the back as she was running away. I might be giving
away the ending but its not the story its the art. Just gorgeous to look at.
Love this special format. Only 2 bucks. Highly recommended.
Background from IDW
publishing here.Related: I also enjoyed the first two issues of
Strange Science Fantasy by
phenom Scott Morse. I was more blown away, again, by the art rather than the
story. The visuals are a perfect mind-meld of Eisner technique and Kirby vision.
Not well written, however. Felt poetic though. Could you do an
adaptation of Ribofunk or any
Greg
Egan short story?
ITEM: I have been blown away
by the art of James Stokoe in Orc Stain. Feels like Paul Pope in that the
art is mind-blowing but the writing isn't that good, or relatable. Please do
something with Moore or Ellis. Characters feel more like impressionistic drug
induced sketches than actual people. On the other hand, I try to buy everything
that Pope does as well. Nice to see that Heavy Metal still has an influence on
the Young People. This guy is
drenched in the blood lines of Drulliet. Related: Here's a bit of
Drulliet.
ITEM: I'm going to run these links separately at Mirror
Universe but as a bunch over here. Still working on my career path strategies
post Examiner.
I'm probably going to permalink these as well when I get the
time.
Above:
Great
comics that never happened. Below: And here's another episode of Lucky Ducky
called Deficit Hawk Down. A brief preview and a riddle: Are republicans for
deficit reduction even when it comes to taxes for the rich? Oh its a conundrum.
I've been watching a lot of television
lately, which is a good way to put off Ken Macleod books I should be finishing.
Just short impressions:
True Blood: I don't think that the Oregon Vampire Rights Amendment is
going to pass. I still think that our real world
Just Say Now Marijuana legalization campaign has a shot, even though the
Mormons and Barack Obama will probably be on the other side. I guess I should
passively hope that a marijuana supporter won't fly into some Christian
Broadcasting station and kill someone on camera by plunging a hand through the
poor guy's chest and then snarl something about "eating your children". That
wouldn't be helpful to the anti prohibition efforts I would think.
Burn Notice
and
Covert Affairs: I find these shows very entertaining. But, for the most
part, we're the bad guys. We usually
murder
Democrats and replace them with Dictators. If you watch Burn Notice, then
you'll understand why I think Simon would be the agent in good standing and
Michael, who "helps" people, would be the one sent to some off the books black
prison site. On the other hand, perhaps that's why Michael got burned: refused
to assassinate Chavez. Related: Too poor for cable? I might be in that
category myself soon. You can watch both of these shows online.
Related: Okay, you are too lazy to
have read the Nation or the Progressive or Mother Jones for the last 28 years to
know how evil our foreign policy is abroad. Can you watch a video? Try
this one or
this one or
this one. I'll embed
these over at Mirror Universe when I get a chance.
ITEM: Let's all say a non denominational atheist prayer for the
late Abbey Lincoln. Here's my fave Youtube vid of her with Max Roach. Check
out the last notes here and that wonderful expression on her face:
ITEM: I'm still trying to figure out the transition away from
Examiner.com. The Examiner is a part of something called a "Content Farm",
which you can read about
here and
here. Content farms don't pay much but if you like to write and don't need
to make a lot of money they're fine.
For the next month or so, I'm going to focus on Mirror
Universe and here, with an effort to revive the Red Light District. That portion
of my website still makes money even though I haven't updated it in over six
months...so I guess that tells me something. Let's see how hard I can work...
--stories in the series and not just the third. That would
have made sense.
And now that I no longer work for the examiner I can state
this: some of the worst writing I had ever seen is
printed at Examiner.com. You can definitely apply
Sturgeon's law to that
particular enterprise. There are some good writers at the Examiner but its
very rare that you find an actual "story" of any kind. The only reason I didn't
mention it before is that I thought it was bad form and an obvious misplacement
of loyalty: Never badmouth a brand that you're a part of. (Although I was about
to ask. Some of the Examiner.com
occult/paranormal/religious stuff was just too good to pass up at my atheism
post...)
By the way, I lost all three of my posts not just the title of
Progressive Examiner, but also the elections 2010 post and the Atheism post
which I had finally figured out how to localize. Stay classy Jessica. What's
also funny: the work I did on the
Jim Frank stories was the most reporting and "work" that I did since
arriving there. I actually had to do "things" in order to write those stories. I
had to research the case law. I had to talk to two reps at the Allegheny County
DA's office. I had to look over Wilkinsburg city ordinances. Most times, I'm
just reworking press releases. This is why when people talk about the "dignity
of work" my eyes glaze over in disbelief. If you have a choice between a "job"
at the examiner-- or some other non union no rights private sector job--or
unemployment benefits, then take the unemployment benefits. You can rely on
those. You can't rely on many private sector jobs. There's an essay there
someplace. Long live the 99ers....
More on this later. Oh one more thing:
ITEM: I spoke to high placed sources within the Wilkinsburg
city government (sounds way more official than I ran into Jim Frank's boss at
the Wilkinsburg Farmer's Market....) and it looks like Jim has taken a leave of
absence due to "health concerns". Here's a speculative opinion: Jim Frank would
still be on the job and healthy if I hadn't written
this or
this or this. This
is why the powerful hate the modern Internet. It allows little people like
myself to fight back on an enormous world stage. I have much more power as an
online writer than I ever had as a reporter. The powerful
hate this as well.
Luckily, the current Internet allows for little people and the
super hackers behind Wikileaks to fight back.
ITEM: Unfortunately, this is why people
are trying to kill the current Internet, or the only show I like that has
managed to stay on the air for more than 13 years. Its gets better every year.
This all ends if network neutrality ends. An Internet like cable tv would be a
very mediocre Internet. It would also be controlled entirely by Fox News types
which is why when Democrats like Chaka Fattah and Alan Grayson back the telcos
against net neutrality it makes me want to tear my hair out.
You know I can't say I have much respect for the Tea Party and
their openly racist fellow travelers. But there is a kernel of truth to some of
the arguments that they make against the evils of big government. I agree with
McGovern that the only thing that can countervail Big Business is Big
Government, although I would be interested in his opinion when Big Business
essentially owns Big Government. I am horrified about the relationship that BP
has with our current government. And that has to change.
However, there is some truth to the idea that government
officials, pretty much with a casual malicious glee, can pretty much ruin your
life if they decide to enforce rules that you've never heard of before or if you
tell them that their interpretation of the law is wrong and that both contract
law and settled state law overrides the Wilkinsburg ordinance.
I'll give you a personal story of how this works. Several months ago Wilkinsburg
code enforcer Jim Frank had told me that I needed to cut the lawn. I told him
that I was a renter and that cutting the lawn was my landlord's responsibility.
I mean, I'll take out the garbage, clean up loose trash and in the winter I'll
even remove the snow. But as a renter, for over 26 years even going back to
college and through several towns, I've never had to cut the lawn and my current
lease is very clear that lawn care isn't one of my responsibilities. I might
also mention that I hadn't been approached about the lawn the previous several
years that I had lived here, which makes me think that there might be some
outside forces at work. (I've
made enemies, powerful....) My money is on the rich landlord right across
from me or it might be the black church...Who knows. I will destroy you all.
By the way, for all you legal beagles out there, landlord-tenant contracts are
considered mostly contracts of adhesion. That's a fancy way of saying that as an
average tenant that you don't have much say over the average landlord contract.
You usually have to take it as is. What this also means is that if there's a
laundry list of responsibilities within the lease agreement then that's all
there is. The landlord can't later say "Oh, and I wanted him to cut the lawn as
well..." The landlord gets one shot at the apple because they're considered the
powerful person in this relationship. I'm also sure the code enforcement officer
can't say it after several years especially as a Third Party without standing,
and super especially after ignoring the problem for the previous three
summers....
Now, and this was either Friday morning of last week or Monday morning of this
week, he knocks on my door again. He gives me the same spiel and I tell him that
I am within the law of my signed lease (and also, as I discovered later, well
within the law of the state's Landlord Tenant Law, which trumps local
ordinances, especially if they're in conflict and I'm talking to you Miss or
Mrs. Wilkinsburg Borough Solicitor Pat McGrail...) and this is where it gets
interesting. I don't mind him for doing his job. He certainly has a right to
point out what the code is. What he doesn't get to do is play favorites or make
it very clear that if I don't cut the lawn he's going to look for code
violations in order to evict me. Now, I don't remember the exact sequence or
words spoken in the next minute afterward but then he pointed out that he
thought he was pretty sure that a cable going to the upstairs was a violation
(what he didn't know is that it wasn't plugged in and that I've received no
complaints from my landlord since moving here in 2007.). Then that devolved into
we'll talk about this in a week. And then, after that, and I took this to be a
threat he said, and I quote: "I'm going to getcha out of here."
So let's review. The penalty for not cutting my lawn is a citation and maybe a
fine if I don't obey the citation. There's also penalties for having a cord run
up to the upstairs. I don't know I guess I'll find out. I don't think there's
anything in the Wilkinsburg book of code, that I have since browsed through and
made some copies of, that declares that Wilkinsburg Code enforcer (much
like Al Capone enforcer Frank Nitti) Jim Frank has the right to threaten and
blackmail me with eviction if I don't cut my landlord's lawn, in accordance with
the original intent of my own lease. I felt like that some poor shop owner being
told about "consequences" and "We
wouldn't want anything to 'appen to your nice military base now would we?"
if I didn't pay the mob's protection money.
Well, Jim, I'm not paying you the racket money. I didn't run from the Klan and I
don't run from the gang leader who lives four or five doors down from me. Take
your best shot.
I'll see you in a court, probably as both a defendant and a plaintiff. I'm
filing a criminal charge of extortion and blackmail against you in the next ten
days. Civil claims will probably follow. I can write my own briefs. Sometimes I
even win.
I'll see you in court. I'm also going to send this to the Wilkinsburg Solicitor
tonight by way of her website.
Respectfully but without fear,
Philip Shropshire
www.threeriversonline.com
Related: Just for the record, there are some intelligent and law abiding
solutions to the lawn problem, as opposed to blackmailing me with eviction if I
don't cut my landlord's lawn or manicure her toes or whatever.
First, there's the perfectly legal one: Wilkinsburg can cut the grass and cite
my landlord for the expenses and send her the bill, which is perfectly legal
under state law. Yeah I know Jim said he couldn't find her even though I have
her email address and phone number but tough luck. This is her property. I'm not
liable for that BP spill, either.
Two,
Wilkinsburg has a Weed and Seed program. I would have no problem if someone
came over and cut stuff and planted pretty flowers, not only in the front, but
also the backyard. I'm sure my landlord wouldn't mind, especially if it got her
out of yet another fine and citation/arrest warrant. I'll email the coordinator
right after having a chat with the DA about the wonderful tactics of Wilkinsburg
Code Enforcer Jim Frank...
Three, or the city could just pay me a hundred bucks to cut the lawn twice a
summer. (By the way, it would probably cost no more than 100 bucks, each time,
to do that. Or I could find somebody through Craigslist. I might note that there
have been almost a record number of demolitions in Wilkinsburg over the last
three months. Each one costs, I believe, around 13 thousand dollars each at
least--I'm guessing this is stimulus money. You would think they would have the
money to cut the landlord's lawn...)
I know these are all civilized and imaginative solutions and not nearly as much
fun as threatening to break my knees if I don't pay Fat Tony the weekly
"tribute" money but that's just how I roll.
More Related: Just to end with this government thing: when you see government
abuse by arrogant government officials for god's sake write about it. Bring
their evil into the light of day. That's the one major weak link with "Evil Big
Guvmint" types. You can at least vote these guys out, for now anyway. You'll
never have a say over what multinationals like BP do.
I just wanted to say a few words in passing about the very
interesting Harvey Pekar, who passed away several days ago.
One: I don't think the autobiographical comic is for everyone. He spawned a lot
of imitators who I thought were just way too young to do those kinds of
autobiographical comics and proved that the boring daily routine of life was in
fact that and wouldn't necessarily transform into something artistic just
because it was illustrated by Robert Crumb.
Two: I also didn't share his hatred of genre. I always thought that superhero or
speculative fiction could be just as interesting as realism. I remember in an
interview that he had a problem with
MAUS for those very reasons and I just thought that he had missed the point
about what art was about. Hey, you can make the Germans into vicious dogs
because the medium allows for that kind of interpretation. I might also note
that Alan Moore, the world's greatest writer, has made great political
statements by way of fiction. I mean, I don't see all
those
anonymous (scourage of scientology) posters wearing Harvey Pekar masks,
although that would be disturbing as well.
Three: One of the things that I really liked about him personally--I felt so-so
about his comics even though I bought many of them--is that he was definitely of
the progressive, left of center kind of type. His last few books would be of
interest to many arty progressive people. I have two of them and I'll probably
go out and buy the Beats as a homage.
Here are the covers of those books:
I found this to be a pretty good history of this very radical
group, the likes of which have not been seen for quite some time. That's
probably because most of the people who go to college these days are from the
ruling classes and they stay "radical" for about a semester or two. Its really a
collection of personal histories 1 to 15 pages long told from the point of view
of surviving organizers. You can sort of see the seeds of ACORN and other groups
in how these students organized and what they fought for.
I also enjoyed this and who better to adapt the stories of the
common everyday working stiff than Pekar
Harvey didn't write all of these portraits but I'll pick it up just the same.
Four: If you didn't go watch the movie based on Harvey's life or if you've
never read his work and you had only one youtube video to distill the man down
to his essence, then it would have to be this one:
There are a number of really striking images that have come out of the BP
environmental disaster, probably the only good or creative thing to come
out of that disaster. I have used some of the more entertaining
ones--while commenting on Pittsburgh, state and national races-- here and
here.
What should have been published June 18
ITEM: Another great EC artist died over the last week or so:
The Great Al Williamson. He could do anything really and I particularly liked
his lines in black and white. You just felt you were entering a lush fully
realized alternate world, usually with barbarians and space ships somehow
involved. As per usual, you can find the best roundups
over at the Comic Reporter...how does that guy make a living? He seems to do
comics stuff fulltime. Trust fund? Lottery winner? Those are my future plans...
ITEM: Speaking of cartoonists, Stephanie McMillan, most
radical daily strip cartoonist ever, is doing a long
form story about activists who get arrested. I think its been the same
storyline for the last two weeks now.
ITEM: Sorry for the long delay in posting. I've been having
some health problems, nothing too dire, but its changed my diet and changed my
energy levels. I used to have all the energy I needed to do whatever I wanted
but as I push 50 I find that's no longer the case. I suppose I could go the Phil
K Dick route and just take all the pills and energy supplements, legal and
illegal, and write at a high rate. Dick died at 48 I think So that's not a good
plan. Warren Ellis, another prolific writer, takes all kinds of drugs and
whatnot and he does great work. But I'd be shocked if he made it past 50 as
well. I have to totally recondition my body to do things without the copious
amounts of sugar and caffeine that I've been dumping into my maw ever since
college.
So, give me a few months to try other avenues, like exercise
and diet. That's the slow way, but its also the best way.
And now I'm tired. But I should be posting something
tomorrow...
ITEM: Usually when I do these obituaries of great pulp artists
I make the presumption that most people haven't seen or heard of their work.
This is not the case with the great Frank Frazetta. I think, as a perpetual
fanboy, that he was one of the greatest artists of the last century. He was
great at everything he did. As per usual, The Comic Book Reporter
has
the best round up. You can also find a lot of Frazetta art in the Red Light
District.
May 7
Related News Tweets of Interest:
Daily tracking poll shows Joe Sestak and Arlen
Specter are tied at 43% apiece. It's now "on".. -
http://tinyurl.com/2unmj97
Feel the Real Joementum. Specter's 20+ lead fades to
4 points over Sestak with 2 weeks left. -
http://tinyurl.com/3xvlx3m
Bangladeshi sweatshop workers will be speaking before City Council at 1 pm
today and 7 pm tonight at the August Wilson Center. Slave labor is the dirty
shameful secret behind a lot of multinational wealth. Its a secret that needs
to be let out.
Here's the press release I received from Celeste Taylor and
the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop movement:
Join us for the "Sweatshop Workers Speak Out" Speaking Tour
ITEM: You can now find Ruben Bolling, one of the best
cartoonists ever,
over at Boing
Boing. New comic features the recurring character of Godman. Here's a clue
about this week's meaning: Billy Billings is the Pope. Let me repeat this: Billy
Billings is the Pope. And send money to Billy Billings...you don't want to burn
in Hell do ya'?
And here's the new GOP symbol. Personally I wouldn't want an
elephant's junk in my face but you know these Republican strippers...:(stolen
from Crooks and Liars...)
April 9th
ITEM: Obviously, I'm getting bad at updating the old
homestead even though I've written plenty at my above posts. I think the only
solution is keeping one computer available where I do nothing but update this
site.
ITEM: You know usually I hate the Young People and I hate
their music. But I like the whole idea of Janelle Monae. She does have the
offputting
Big
Boy Icon/Astro Boy hairdo but she's clearly talented. Its like Fishbone had a
daughter. She's also consciously science fictional, as seen by her appearance
in Stargate Universe of all places. I just never heard a song of hers that
caught my fancy. Until now. I really love this video. It also has a nice
science-fictional feel to it.
ITEM: I guess I need to comment on the healthcare bill.
There's seems to be a split on the left with MoveOn, Chris Bowers, Daily Kos (Markos
anyway. Not sure about the others on the Kos FrontPage...McJoan is okay with
reproductive rights curtailment..?) and others wanting to just pass the damn
bill.
Firedoglake,
David Sirota and
Norman Solomon have come out against the bill.
I'm going to have to go with the Kill the Bill crowd. I can't
get over those mandates. You will have to buy insurance or face a fine with IRS
enforcement. This is much worse than just a fine. If you miss a hearing on your
"fine", then a judge can order an arrest warrant for you. Yes, I've learned this
from experience. I believe this was a 16 year old rent bill that wasn't worth
more than 200 bucks. Try using that math with hospital bills that can hit 10
grand with just one emergency visit. Try imagining what kinds of people will be
hit hardest with this kind of enforcement: poor blacks and lower class whites in
all probability of which I am one of the former.
I also can't agree with the "we'll fix it later" crowd. The
same president and congress that brought us this bill are going to make it
better? Why can't they make it better now? Are we really that naive? Its more
than likely that the good parts of the bill will be bargained away, especially
if republicans take back either chamber in the years to come.
I also don't think this problem can be solved with "better
democrats" . The Democratic Party has proven itself not only worthless in terms
of progressive goals of making our harsh and mean-spirited society even slightly
better, but they're outwardly hostile to progressives within the party. I think
I put it this way at
Firedoglake:
Misconception 4: Progressives can only win within the Democratic
Party.
Jon, go reread your own work. Or read Glenn on civil liberties. Or
read Jane’s recent comments on the choice issue. We need to leverage our
position with viable third party runs. This is what Rahm meant when he
said don’t worry about the left and how fucking retarded we are.
This is a really a combined sentence. He really meant “Progressives
are fucking retarded because they’ll vote democrat no matter what evil
policies we pass.” Frankly, if this is his thinking, he’s completely
correct. I mean, your position is “Screw me hard and dry, Rahm and Barry.
I’ll vote democrat anyway and criticize the SEIU if they look for a way
out…”
One more point: I don't think it will be the end of the world
if this particular healthcare bill doesn't pass. I really think the thing that
will kill the dems in 2010 and 2012 will be the jobs issue. Of course, President
Obama compromised on this as well. We needed a 2.5 trillion dollar job stimulus
and he gave us a quarter of that, and half of that was tax cuts. Then again,
rich people like high unemployment. It puts the screws on the working classes.
You can't leave your crappy job, ever.
Penny Pritzker, must be so pleased. She's also against EFCA too, who knew.
Pritzker is a hotel magnate who has lots of crappy jobs to fill which means high
unemployment is just grand.
Related
ITEM: As a way out of the wonderful choice of choosing between the
straight up hard right fascist republican party and the center right Democratic
Party
(which passes right wing legislation that Republicans can only
dream of like NAFTA or this mandated healthcare bill...), I've finally started a
blog called The 5/25 Third Party Plan. Uh, I just need 35 million dollars to
make it work. Didn't say it would be easy.
I'm going to write a much more detailed
outline on what the 5/25 plan is when I have a little bit more time. But this
is the short version:
Progressives have been locked out of the debate. We have no place in the
Republican Party and the Democratic establishment views the progressive left
with what can almost be described as outright hostility, with Rahm Emanuel
saying that "we're fucking retards" and "don't worry about the left". And
here's the thing: I'm convinced that he might be right because he's convinced
that we simply don't have the stones or the moxie to run independent or third
party campaigns. Let's prove him wrong about that.
My theory is that we can create viable third party runs because of what we've
seen in a number of fund raising attempts by Alan Grayson, Bill Halter and
others. We're not running "symbolically". We're running to win.
What do we need to win. We don't need to win every seat everywhere. We're
looking for enough seats to create a real progressive block that isn't
answerable to the DNC and won't be threatened by Rahm in the shower. A bloc
where every member has signed a contract not to work for corporate lobbies
after they leave congress. Yes, this bloc would have to be chosen very
carefully. Not saying this is going to be easy by the way. (And yes, we would
sue if they breach any element of the contract. No more toothless pledges...)
As I've said about a thousand times online at various places, we need to
initially shoot for 5 senate seats and 25 house seats. In order to run a
viable third party independent campaign you need to raise at least 300000
dollars for a house campaign and 2 million dollars for a senate campaign.
I'll write more on this later.
March 18
ITEM: Will start updating this site more. Just being lazy. Doing Examiner
stuff.
March 7
ITEM: I've been busy at this Examiner thing. I've actually been
writing a lot for them and being very lazy about cross posting. That should
change in the next week.
ITEM: This is some art by the late science fiction artist
Robert McCall.Related: There's a very good chance that a science fiction film will win
for best Oscar today. I think the only picture that could beat "Avatar" would be
"The Hurt Locker", which is a very good and realistic movie. However, I actually
think Avatar is a more radical and daring film than the Hurt Locker. Cameron's
movie actually goes to the ethics of why you kill. Nobody does that in the Hurt
Locker. Those guys just follow orders. They'll kill whoever you tell them to
point a gun at. Probably Americans. You just have to ask as we've seen Post
Katrina...
My only two Oscar picks, completely irrational. There's no math involved.
This is what I want.
Best Picture: Avatar
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow. I actually don't think the Hurt Locker is her
best movie. I like her genre movies like "Near Dark" and "Strange Days" much
more. I think this would be more like a career Oscar.
For everything else I gots nothing.
Feb. 22 PST
ITEM: Here's a
must see political ad from Joe Sestak. It captures what a lot of us are
thinking about Obama's endorsement of Arlen Specter, or the 60th vote that we
don't need anymore.
ITEM: The system crashed yesterday but we're sort of back up. On the
other hand, I had to delete a lot of items anyway so I guess this takes care of
that. All of these stories are archived over at the Examiner and Mirror Universe
anyway. Mirror Universe will probably last forever or as long as Google. You be
the judge. I need to start moving the Examiner articles around a bit...
I watched all four of the remaining Democratic Party
nominees debate last night at the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit 2010. The
debaters included Allegheny County Commissioner Dan Onorato, Montgomery County
Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty and Pennsylvania
Auditor General Jack Wagner.
ITEM: Will start updating this site more. Just being lazy. Doing Examiner
stuff.
March 7
ITEM: I've been busy at this Examiner thing. I've actually been
writing a lot for them and being very lazy about cross posting. That should
change in the next week.
ITEM: This is some art by the late science fiction artist
Robert McCall.Related: There's a very good chance that a science fiction film will win
for best Oscar today. I think the only picture that could beat "Avatar" would be
"The Hurt Locker", which is a very good and realistic movie. However, I actually
think Avatar is a more radical and daring film than the Hurt Locker. Cameron's
movie actually goes to the ethics of why you kill. Nobody does that in the Hurt
Locker. Those guys just follow orders. They'll kill whoever you tell them to
point a gun at. Probably Americans. You just have to ask as we've seen Post
Katrina...
My only two Oscar picks, completely irrational. There's no math involved.
This is what I want.
Best Picture: Avatar
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow. I actually don't think the Hurt Locker is her
best movie. I like her genre movies like "Near Dark" and "Strange Days" much
more. I think this would be more like a career Oscar.
For everything else I gots nothing.
Feb. 22 PST
ITEM: Here's a
must see political ad from Joe Sestak. It captures what a lot of us are
thinking about Obama's endorsement of Arlen Specter, or the 60th vote that we
don't need anymore.
Feb. 17th PST
ITEM: The system crashed yesterday but we're sort of back up. On the
other hand, I had to delete a lot of items anyway so I guess this takes care of
that. All of these stories are archived over at the Examiner and Mirror Universe
anyway. Mirror Universe will probably last forever or as long as Google. You be
the judge. I need to start moving the Examiner articles around a bit...
Feb 12
Feb 12
ITEM:
Promotional ads for Star Wars planets. I hear its a dry Hellish planet where
the sand gets everywhere full of tiny masked red eyed aboriginals who would rape
and kill your mother. Sounds nice right about now.
ITEM: Stephanie McMillan
likes Avatar and she's doing some
toons about the greatest pro environment at any cost anti imperialism propaganda
movie featuring blue aliens ever.
I�ve been considering posting more at length about it,
but meanwhile, in brief:
It�s got some significant problems (�white-man-saves-the-day� plot,
stereotyping indigenous people, sexism and so forth), but it�s the only
major Hollywood film promoting the basic message that capitalism/imperialism
is omnicidal and we need to fight and defeat it to save the planet. So my
overall feeling about the film is that it�s WONDERFUL! I think it�s
helping open the eyes of (and hopefully inspiring) millions of people. Yay
Avatar!
What do you think of it?
Now, I tried to answer her on her site
but it looks like my answer was rejected. I can't tell if it was a technical
thing (too long probably..) or if there was something truly offensive about
my answer. Anyway, I saved my answer because you would be surprised how
often I've been censored even at liberal websites. In fact, if I put some
work into an answer I just routinely save it. I suppose
I might
get "disemvoweled". Yes I was the first. So here's what I thought of
Avatar:
Oh, definitely one of
the most subversive films as propaganda that I've ever seen. It also
does something that effective propaganda has to do: it has to be good
art first. I've seen it twice. The second time I saw it in 3D and it was
a just a beautiful artificial world. I understand that people have
gotten depressed after seeing it. That's exactly the reaction that blind
people get when their sight is regained. How could something so
beautiful been denied to me for so long?
I'm not that upset about the white man saves the day problem because I
really would like that message to stick. There should have been more
conscientious objectors to the Iraq War. If this movie turns on a light
then more power to it. And you know one reason why slavery ended and the
fight for women's suffrage was won was that there were some decent white
men out there. I say this as an African American male...I didn't see the
sexism. Lots of strong female characters in that movie. Where did you
see it?
I also thought it was cool that the leaders didn't think nonviolence was
the way to go. I think that's the conclusion that your characters, and
perhaps yourself, have come to. There's just a point where talking about
change and working within the two business party system isn't going to
get it done.
I do think that the movie ripped off one of the greatest anti
imperialism novellas of all time: Ursula Leguin's "The Word for World is
Forest". It was meant to be a metaphor for the Vietnam War. I don't
think there were any helpful white men in that story and the natives
were pretty ruthless. I think the first thing they did was slaughter all
the human women...I think you'd like that story a lot.
So, overall, "Yay" for me to. I'm curious about the future of the big
blue aliens though. It seems to me that they have to master technology
in order to fight off the Earth invasion. They can't stay "native". One
of the cool things about the story, and I guess the Earth analogy would
be destruction of rainforest life might be depriving us of cancer
fighting compounds, is that the uploading is more valuable than the
mineral. I don't think there's anything on Earth that would do that.
Uploading would mean a kind of eternal life. Very Battlestar Galactica.
They say they'll be a sequel within four years. Will definitely check
that out...
More Related: Why I think
Stephanie McMillan would find empathy with the Navi blowin' up the man...
Feb 8th
ITEM: You can buy that from Warren Ellis. You can look
for it by using the magic thing known as the Google. Just a personal
observation: if you have lived in the Before Internet (BI) times as I have, then
these technologies are like some magical power. I can also testify that the
Internet has been a valuable tool in some disputes that I've had. Never pick a
fight with a guy who buys his ink by the pixel...
Feb. 3rd
ITEM: I attended the
PA Progressive Summit held in
Harrisburg over the weekend. I was quite surprised that I made the trip. It
was somewhat unexpected. It was also much more of a big to do than I expected.
It was just as polished as Netroots Nation. It also made one of the mistakes of
Netroots Nation by putting too many interesting panels side by side. One way
Netroots Nation made up for that
is they filmed a lot of those
sessions. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case at the first PA Progressive
Summit. I would hope that they do tape those sessions the next year.
I've written a number of stories at my
Examiner post, and still have a few more to file, about the event. I also
reviewed both the senate and governor's debate. Only Democrats showed up. I'm
reprinting those reviews here:
You can watch the entirety
of the debate on PCN here. It does require you to poke around some though.
Its probably worth the effort.
The PA Progressive
Summit 2010 was held in Harrisburg Jan. 29 through Jan. 30,
more information here. The "debate" between House Rep. Joe Sestak and
current Democratic Party Sen. Arlen Specter was held Saturday night.
Here are my random impressions, more or less.
One: It wasn't really a debate between the candidates,
but a moderated session where Joe Sestak appeared first and then answered
questions from the audience. Then Joe left the stage and Arlen Specter,
choosing to stand perhaps to show his "vitality", also answered questions for
about 45 minutes. Verdict: points to Specter. And: who designed this format?
What Sestak should want is face to face encounters with Specter, who at times,
looked to be a very old man. This format didn't allow for contrast or even
intelligent follow up questions. Its quite clear that Joe would have had some
followup questions.
Two: Keep in mind that I endorse Joe Sestak. Joe Sestak
is relatively young and, so far, the most progressive legislator/former
admiral I have ever seen. There are few issues that I disagree with when it
comes to Joe Sestak and I'm assuming that's he's getting very good advice from
Chris Bowers of Open Left , who's been advising him. So if its a close call I
would probably say Joe Sestak. Unfortunately, because of the format, this
seemed to be more of a personality contest. I think Specter wins that
confrontation every time. He came off warm and gracious. By the way, just a
personal note of observation learned from watching senators closely for about
30 years: Senators tend to be superior politicians and generally very
likeable. They have to have a talent for making you like them even when
they're acting against your interests. (Former
Senator Barack Obama is exhibit A. and more on that Republican smackdown
later...)
Three: Labor
has always been in the tank for Arlen Specter. I first heard rumors back in
the 80s that Specter had essentially bought off Labor's leadership. When I
worked for America Coming Together in 2004 we were downstairs from Joe
Hoeffel, who was running against Arlen Specter for that senate seat. For some
reason, it never occurred t our organization to support Joe Hoeffel, who was
better and still remains better on almost all progressive issues, especially
labor's. Just to recap: America Coming Together was pretty much run by the
American labor movement. I suppose it could have been an ethnic decision. Both
Andy Stern (SEIU reps were operating out of our office...) and George Soros
are Jewish. That's not a good reason to base your political decision making
on. I imagine that's why labor's power seems to be in a permanent decline. I
mean, Obama didn't support the African American governor of New York just
because he was African American. Then again, perhaps that's just a reflection
of how weak African American political power is compared to Jewish American
political power. For the record, Barack Obama is supporting Arlen Spector in
the Democratic primary for senate. In a wishful way, I'd like to think that he
would do the same for David Patterson if he was a senator and he needed a 60th
vote. Yet a small yet insistent voice in my gut tells me "No he wouldn't."
Four: Light of hope: there haven't been a lot of labor
endorsements for Specter. Of course, Joe Sestak needs more than just labor not
endorsing Specter. Joe Sestak needs labor's enthusiastic backing. Rendell and
Obama have sown up most of the establishment Democratic Party endorsements for
Specter.
This is a long list. Labor can't sit this one out. I'm trying to imagine
how Sestak could match Specter's ground game without an enthusiastic labor
base and my imagination fails. I say that as an
aspiring science fiction writer. Let's hope that Sestak doesn't get the
2004 Joe Hoeffel treatment from the American labor movement.
Five: Here's some advice for Joe Sestak: if and when he
gets an opportunity to debate Specter he needs to politely but insistently
question him on his positions. I thought Specter had two bad moments during
the debate where he played the decent elder
statesman
of stature. Someone had asked him a legitimate question about his record and
he showed, I thought, a disturbing flash of anger that reminded me of
Montgomery Burns of Simpson's fame. It just seemed quite unseemly. That wasn't
a guy who would get my vote, at least for 10 seconds anyway. For the record, I
also thought Specter's 2nd worst moment was when he danced around ending the
filibuster in the senate. It was clear that he hadn't an answer or more than
likely didn't want to end the Senate's powergrab supermajority. He should have
said either yes or no. He kind of danced around and didn't really answer the
guy's question. Here's a question for Sestak: "Would Specter support the
nuclear option in the senate if it meant passing a public health care plan
that had a public option? Or any other meaningful legislation?"
Six: I don't care if Specter gets a zillion
endorsements. A Specter vs. Toomey race means an unenthusiastic democratic
base vs. a justifiablly enthused republican base. I just don't see an old and
tired Arlen Specter beating Pat Toomey in the general election. And now
Specter's vote doesn't seem to be as important.
Important Update: For New
Vid Adds Go Here
and Here (Widescreen!) Got tired of looking for
new videos. Note to Atrios: the kewl kids
aren't creating old fashioned MP3 lists. They're creating their own
television channels. I told you I'd have my vengeance Reginald Hudlin. Newest
version of the Anti Bet on J/Anti Tony Mowad jazz channel. Actually, it's more
than just acid jazz. There's straight ahead and a few rock tunes thrown in for
good measure. Plus toons and politics. This is set on random play so every time
you refresh the 8023035050210602100 4500 or so vids
appear in a different order. You shall rue the day that you crossed me
Reginald Hudlin. And Goddamn you
Reginald Hudlin. Goddamn you and
BET on J to Hell. More legal update: This is actually more of a search
engine (me plus the tech). All of these vids are available on the public
youtubes (or have been publicly available) and such. Vids that are copyright
violations are often taken down. More Update: Fullscreen function fully enabled.
ON the bottom right corner that's the box that's furthest to the left.
ITEM: I attended the
PA Progressive Summit held in
Harrisburg over the weekend. I was quite surprised that I made the trip. It
was somewhat unexpected. It was also much more of a big to do than I expected.
It was just as polished as Netroots Nation. It also made one of the mistakes of
Netroots Nation by putting too many interesting panels side by side. One way
Netroots Nation made up for that
is they filmed a lot of those
sessions. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case at the first PA Progressive
Summit. I would hope that they do tape those sessions the next year.
I've written a number of stories at my
Examiner post, and still have a few more to file, about the event. I also
reviewed both the senate and governor's debate. Only Democrats showed up. I'm
reprinting those reviews here:
You can watch the entirety
of the debate on PCN here. It does require you to poke around some though.
Its probably worth the effort.
The PA Progressive
Summit 2010 was held in Harrisburg Jan. 29 through Jan. 30,
more information here. The "debate" between House Rep. Joe Sestak and
current Democratic Party Sen. Arlen Specter was held Saturday night.
Here are my random impressions, more or less.
One: It wasn't really a debate between the candidates,
but a moderated session where Joe Sestak appeared first and then answered
questions from the audience. Then Joe left the stage and Arlen Specter,
choosing to stand perhaps to show his "vitality", also answered questions for
about 45 minutes. Verdict: points to Specter. And: who designed this format?
What Sestak should want is face to face encounters with Specter, who at times,
looked to be a very old man. This format didn't allow for contrast or even
intelligent follow up questions. Its quite clear that Joe would have had some
followup questions.
Two: Keep in mind that I endorse Joe Sestak. Joe Sestak
is relatively young and, so far, the most progressive legislator/former
admiral I have ever seen. There are few issues that I disagree with when it
comes to Joe Sestak and I'm assuming that's he's getting very good advice from
Chris Bowers of Open Left , who's been advising him. So if its a close call I
would probably say Joe Sestak. Unfortunately, because of the format, this
seemed to be more of a personality contest. I think Specter wins that
confrontation every time. He came off warm and gracious. By the way, just a
personal note of observation learned from watching senators closely for about
30 years: Senators tend to be superior politicians and generally very
likeable. They have to have a talent for making you like them even when
they're acting against your interests. (Former
Senator Barack Obama is exhibit A. and more on that Republican smackdown
later...)
Three: Labor
has always been in the tank for Arlen Specter. I first heard rumors back in
the 80s that Specter had essentially bought off Labor's leadership. When I
worked for America Coming Together in 2004 we were downstairs from Joe
Hoeffel, who was running against Arlen Specter for that senate seat. For some
reason, it never occurred t our organization to support Joe Hoeffel, who was
better and still remains better on almost all progressive issues, especially
labor's. Just to recap: America Coming Together was pretty much run by the
American labor movement. I suppose it could have been an ethnic decision. Both
Andy Stern (SEIU reps were operating out of our office...) and George Soros
are Jewish. That's not a good reason to base your political decision making
on. I imagine that's why labor's power seems to be in a permanent decline. I
mean, Obama didn't support the African American governor of New York just
because he was African American. Then again, perhaps that's just a reflection
of how weak African American political power is compared to Jewish American
political power. For the record, Barack Obama is supporting Arlen Spector in
the Democratic primary for senate. In a wishful way, I'd like to think that he
would do the same for David Patterson if he was a senator and he needed a 60th
vote. Yet a small yet insistent voice in my gut tells me "No he wouldn't."
Four: Light of hope: there haven't been a lot of labor
endorsements for Specter. Of course, Joe Sestak needs more than just labor not
endorsing Specter. Joe Sestak needs labor's enthusiastic backing. Rendell and
Obama have sown up most of the establishment Democratic Party endorsements for
Specter.
This is a long list. Labor can't sit this one out. I'm trying to imagine
how Sestak could match Specter's ground game without an enthusiastic labor
base and my imagination fails. I say that as an
aspiring science fiction writer. Let's hope that Sestak doesn't get the
2004 Joe Hoeffel treatment from the American labor movement.
Five: Here's some advice for Joe Sestak: if and when he
gets an opportunity to debate Specter he needs to politely but insistently
question him on his positions. I thought Specter had two bad moments during
the debate where he played the decent elder
statesman
of stature. Someone had asked him a legitimate question about his record and
he showed, I thought, a disturbing flash of anger that reminded me of
Montgomery Burns of Simpson's fame. It just seemed quite unseemly. That wasn't
a guy who would get my vote, at least for 10 seconds anyway. For the record, I
also thought Specter's 2nd worst moment was when he danced around ending the
filibuster in the senate. It was clear that he hadn't an answer or more than
likely didn't want to end the Senate's powergrab supermajority. He should have
said either yes or no. He kind of danced around and didn't really answer the
guy's question. Here's a question for Sestak: "Would Specter support the
nuclear option in the senate if it meant passing a public health care plan
that had a public option? Or any other meaningful legislation?"
Six: I don't care if Specter gets a zillion
endorsements. A Specter vs. Toomey race means an unenthusiastic democratic
base vs. a justifiablly enthused republican base. I just don't see an old and
tired Arlen Specter beating Pat Toomey in the general election. And now
Specter's vote doesn't seem to be as important.
I watched all four of the remaining Democratic Party
nominees debate last night at the Pennsylvania Progressive Summit 2010. The
debaters included Allegheny County Commissioner Dan Onorato, Montgomery County
Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty and Pennsylvania
Auditor General Jack Wagner.
Quick Impressions
I think Onorato will probably win it because he's
raised the most money, a whopping 8 million dollars. That's just the way it
is in our very corrupt country. There's no Santa Claus, either. I don't
think anybody else is even close. The only other number that I've even seen
is Joe Hoeffel's, which is about a measley 400000. Despite this, I have to
say that the best informed of the candidates on policy issues seemed to be
Dan Onorato. I like, and this is very important to me after watching the
Dems in action at the national level over the last 8 months or so, Hoeffel
the most but I just don't think you can pull off a victory when you're being
outspent 20 to 1.
Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty, who seems like a
likeable guy with a likeable family (and lots of 'em. Six kids I think...)
just didn't look ready for primetime as a professional political speaker.
Politicians have to speak well, especially if they're being outspent by a
zillion dollars. He also had the worst moment of the night when answering a
question about Marijuana legalization. First, he said, and I'm paraphrasing,
that he would continue to lock people up for the crime. But he also spoke
about the "Drug Menace" and seemed to imply that Crack and Heroin and
Marijuana were somehow equal things when in fact they're clearly not. No one
is arguing that Crack has medicinal value.And the more he spoke about how
evil the evil drugs were, kind of like that "Drugs are bad mmmmkay" guy on
South Park, the audience started to reply with boos and some low level
hissing. I just don't see him winning the nomination.
Wagner had the second worst moment of the night when
he danced around a question by Planned Parenthood. The question made a lot
of sense and kind of went like this: if Roe v Wade is overturned (kind of
likely since they just overturned much older 100 year precedent in that
gawdawful Citizen United corporations are people too case...) would he veto
the likely bill that would arrive at has desk criminalizing abortion and
subsequently women and their lawbreaker doctors. He simply didn't give a
straight answer. He should have said that when the Pennsylvania legislature
gives him a law that will recriminalize abortion in the state that he would
sign it, and probably sign it proudly. He's a longtime pro lifer. Not this
evasive nonsense about supporting the current law and nebulous talk about
protecting the "children". Disgraceful. Related: Both
Chelsa Wagner and her husband Khari "Mr. Mom" Mosley were there as well. I
dropped lit for Ms. Wagner and I'm very proud of her sensational work as a
state rep. I've known Khari for years and respect his politics. But, if they
weren't related to Jack Wagner by blood and/or marriage there is no way that
they would be supporting his campaign. It would be either Onorato of Hoeffel
as the imaginary diety is my witness.
Even though I mentioned the inevitability of an
Onorato win in a bad way, I don't think Onorato would be a bad governor. In
fact, I think he would be a pretty good governor. It would probably be a
continuation of the Ed Rendell regime, which wasn't bad. We just have to
watch out to make sure that Dan doesn't try to sell our state highways to
rich folks.
I'll have more later since I'm attending the summit.
ITEM: The music channel has stopped
playing by itself which is nice. However, its clear now that people hadn't
noticed it before and refused to make that effort to hit that play button. I'll
probably keep it off but I might turn on the auto play sporadically just so that
people know that its there. Oh well. I know one thing for sure: It's definitely
better than any corporate music channel that I've seen. Of course, I'm competing
with
Jersey Shore so there's not much competition....MTVU, or MTVUniversity I
think, makes me think I must really hate college kids. Or I hate the college
kids who watch this station. Or I hate college kids that watch pretty much the
same videos that I see on VH-1...Its clear that they're not playing the best
music, but the best music that Viacom happens to own.
Here's a new vid at my station. I'll take
it over Lady Gaga anyday...
Added a new video to The Acid Jazz Channel
"broadcast and the focus group "the be lonely,dashing home""
http://bit.ly/5c0zox
First, she gives us some very interesting history on Haiti by
way of a toon:
She's also doing Youtube videos. Stephanie, to my mind's eye,
is a real bomb throwing radical doing cartoon strips. I think, like a lot of
intelligent people, she's come to the conclusion that there's not much you can
do to change things within the system. Check out this video and notice the
pickaxe and the rifle in the background...I think she's trying to tell me
something...By the way, she has a wonderful girly sing song voice which would be
perfect for comedy and that would not immediately tip you off that she's arguing
for a violent overthrow of the state but there you go...Better keep a watch on
Stephanie. I have a feeling a few people are...
Related: Here she is
calling for revolution...I think. Is there a sign up page? An app mayhap?
Who do we kill and where do we begin?..these decisions are hard.
And
I've been writing these things over at the Examiner:
I'm just quoting the people I agree with.
Obviously, I don't think people hate the Democrats because they did too much.
I think people are frustrated that the Obama administration did too little.
There's also polling
that supports that. Look, no matter what Obama apologists Booman
(primary) or Oliver Willis (secondary) say the Democratic Party base can't get
excited about a government that bails out Wall Street, cuts clearly corrupt
backroom deals or mandates me to buy crappy insurance products, with civil
penalties named now and probably criminal penalties later.
I really think that the only way that Obama
can save democratic majorities and his presidency is to use the nuclear option
in the senate, even if its just for a year. He should give himself a 51 vote
majority for a year and then the president should have that same majority for
at least one year after each presidential election. I mean, if Obama wants to
win. I have my doubts. I have aired my belief that there's something to the
Washington Generals theory of the Democratic Party.
And that needs to be followed up by any
other changes that makes stalling a bill a bad notion. Frankly, I don't have
the faith that the Democratic Party will do this under its current leadership.
They don't have the stones for it. More on this later.
ITEM: The channel above is automatically turning on and
I hate that. That's because I always hate it when I go to a site and I'm hit
with noise. On the other hand, hits are up but I don't know why. I'll let it
ride for a day or two...
A liberal group is stepping up its
offensive against White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, urging its members
to sign a pledge claiming they will not to support the former Illinois
congressman if he ever runs for public office again.
The Progressive Change Campaign
Committee launched a television ad in December questioning Emanuel's handling
of the health care issue.
On Monday, the PCCC initiated a
pledge campaign in response to a January 12
New York Times article that detailed how Emanuel met with Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid and helped broker the decision to abandon a public option in
order to garner the support of Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman. The
Connecticut senator had just gone on a Sunday morning talk show to announce he
would not vote for the Democrat's health care bill, and thus, could not be
counted as Reid's 60th vote. The PCCC said Emanuel "undermine[d] progressives
behind the scenes."
"There's nobody in Washington,
D.C. who caves at the slightest hint of a fight with corporate interests more
than Rahm Emanuel," PCCC co-founder Adam Green said in a statement. "We're
making clear to Rahm that when he undermines progressives and the overwhelming
will of the American people on issues like the public option, he will pay a
political price back home."
The pledge Web site says the
PCCC's goal is 1000 signatures; as of Monday afternoon, about 950 PCCC members
had signed the pledge, and the group planned an
online ad
campaign in Illinois to boost awareness of the campaign.
Here's the pledge:
Sign the pledge sending this message to Rahm Emanuel:
"I will not support Rahm Emanuel in any future election for
Congress, Mayor of Chicago, Governor, or other office. He sold us out on
the public option and is a weak Democrat who caves instead of fighting
conservatives and corporate power. We won't forget the choices you've
made, Rahm."
Joseph Lieberman, the independent Connecticut senator, had announced on
CBS�s �Face the Nation� that he would not support the Senate health care
plan, which meant that Reid did not have the 60 votes he needed [for a
public option compromise]... �He double-crossed me,� Reid said stiffly,
associates later recounted. �Let�s not do what he wants..."
Rahm Emanuel, the president�s chief of
staff, arrived at Reid�s office not long afterward � casually dressed, a
cup of coffee in one hand � and after a brisk meeting, a decision was
reached: Reid would abandon his compromise, which was intended to appease
proponents of a government-run health insurance plan.
I definitely signed. But I sorta have mixed feelings.
What Should Have Been Published Jan. 18
I've been busy with my other responsibilities netwise. Here
are those links now:
Quick point here: its not just that the first Bush was better, but where's
Jimmy Carter? I hope it wasn't
something Jimmy
Carter said about Israel,
Rahm...
This actually came from CBS and it asks a good question: Why so much money
for Israel and Egypt and so little for Haiti, one of the poorest nations on the
planet?
This is sort of connected to
what I wrote here. You should be able to help people--without the bribe of
mystical heavens or the threat of Venus hot Hells--simply because its the right
thing to do. You should also be able to do it without the help of Radical Cleric
Pat Robertson's minions or anyone like him.
Stand aside puny mortals! I am now the official Pittsburgh
Atheism Examiner. I can now spread my Unbelief on a daily basis. And this shall
I do! So sez Thor (!)...or myself, whatever.
While channel surfing I noticed Radical Cleric Pat Robertson asking for money
for Haitian victims of the hurricane earthquake. I interpret
this to mean that there is a God of Shameless Audacity that watches over us
all, albeit somewhat malevolently. Why would I give my money to some jerk who
answers to Pat Robertson? How will that work on the ground with Pat's no doubt
equally sensitive minions? "Uh, yeah I suppose I could give you much needed
food water and medical supplies as long as you renounce your voodoo paganish
ways and show regret at fighting against enslavement 200 years ago...signed
with your blood and let's face it you've got plenty of that gushing out of
you...did I mention that I speak for the Lord?"
As luck would have it
online left
wing rag Alternet suggested another way to support Haiti in its time of need.
The group is called Americares.
Here's the appeal I got. The line that struck me is that for every 10
dollars you send you get $350 dollars in aid. I dipped into the Shropshire
Estate Fortune and kicked in 20 bucks.
What Alternet said:
Dear Philip,
AmeriCares has been on the ground in
Haiti since 1984. Over
the years, they've provided more than $145 million worth of
medical aid and humanitan assistance in that country. This is why
AlterNet, from our earned advertising revenue in 2009, has made a donation
to AmeriCares' relief efforts in Haiti. We hope you can join us
in making a contribution, even a small one.
In this case every dollar literally helps save lives.
Related: The
National Atheism Examiner points out that you can also give to Doctors
Without Borders, which is a completely secular organization you can give your
money to. More from that article:
The Freedom From Religion
Foundation made a donation to Doctors Without Borders
Haiti Earthquake Response Thursday for its Haiti relief, following the 7.0
earthquake that hit Haiti this week�the largest earthquake on that besieged
island state in 200 years causing untold misery.
Doctors Without Borders has doctors in Haiti now and has favorable ratings
as an entirely secular charity.
"There are many secular charities that serve needy people regardless of
religion, and whose purposes are to help, not to proselytize, and which do
not conduct charitable actions to promote religion," noted Foundation
co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor. "The Foundation encourages its members to
donate to Doctors Without Borders or high-rated secular charities with
actions already ongoing in Haiti."
Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor praised the decision of Pres.
Barack Obama for not repeating the mistake of the preceding administration
after Hurricane Katrina. After that disaster, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency prominently listed Operation Blessing, an evangelical
Christian charity founded by Rev. Pat Robertson. Religious charities had
overwhelmingly dominated FEMA's list of recommended charities, which the
Foundation had protested in 2005.
The White House website simply recommends the (secular) Red Cross and U.S.
AID, and FEMA recommends the Red Cross.
One of the reasons I turned from religion is that I just got a bad vibe from
too many of the people who make up the clergy. Prime example number one would
have to be Pat Robertson. Here's a guy who never has a bad thing to say about
just any junta in recent memory. And while the world looks in horror at what's
happening in Haiti
Radical Cleric Pat Robertson finds a way to blame its citizens for an
earthquake. No, really. That's what he said.
Here's his quote from the
Christian Scientist Monitor (Look, their reporting is decent. There's no
evidence that its anywhere near the Washington "Moonie" Times
where editors have to publicly proclaim their love of Christ and/or the
paper's owner...):
Mr. Robertson�s theory that Haitian slaves made a �pact with
the devil� 200 years ago in order to free themselves from the hated
clutches of Napoleon Bonaparte's regime � resulting in a curse that led to
the destruction of much of Port-au-Prince and a massive loss of life in
Tuesday's earthquake � got the usual chuckles of disbelief among local
intelligentsia about American culture.
Haiti's people, and this is the kind of history that probably isn't taught
a lot in our schools, was the first group of slaves to win their independence
from slavery. We think this is why Pat Robertson thinks their cursed, because
according to Radical Christian Clerics like Pat, slaves should be happy being
slaves. I might add,
that
according to Sam Harris, you could easily make the assumption that
Christianity favors slavery. Yet another reason to reject Christianity. If you
read the rest of that Christian Science Monitor story you'll find that Pat
gets his history wrong as well. Big shock there.
Remember: Pat Robertson also openly called for the
assassination of Hugo Chavez. I guess he was looking for an Angel of Death.
Here's the pertinent Youtube clip:
What's the difference befween a corporate dem and a republican? Apparently,
they speak better while they're screwing you. Not much else. I guess they'll be
better on the courts, unless he cuts a deal with somebody rich. Very
discouraging.
Anyway, there are numerous rebutalls to Obama's "I never campaigned on the
public option" lie.
Here's a
Daily Kos piece which lists, I think, about 10 times where he has publicly
said that he supports the public option.
Two quick examples:
Announcement for President, February 10,
2007
When I am president, I will sign a
universal health care law by the end of my first term. My plan will cover the
uninsured by letting people buy into the same kind of health care plan that
members of Congress give themselves.
Remarks to the California State
Democratic Convention, May 02, 2007
The very first promise I made on this
campaign was that as president, I will sign a universal health care plan into
law by the end of my first term in office. Today I want to lay out the details
of that plan - a plan that not only guarantees coverage for every American, but
also brings down the cost of health care and reduces every family's premiums by
as much as $2500.
If you are one of the 45 million
Americans who don't have health insurance, you will have it after this plan
becomes law. No one will be turned away because of a preexisting condition or
illness. Everyone will be able buy into a new health insurance plan that's
similar to the one that every federal employee - from a postal worker in Iowa to
a Congressman in Washington - currently has for themselves. It will cover all
essential medical services, including preventive, maternity, disease management,
and mental health care.
If you cannot afford this insurance, you
will receive a subsidy to pay for it... If you change jobs, your insurance will
go with you... If you want more choices, you will also have the option of
purchasing a number of affordable private plans that have similar benefits and
standards for quality and efficiency.
So, to sum up, we don't ask that the president be the reincarnation of Huey
Newton, but it would be nice if he kept his word and somewhat modest campaign
promises.
If you want to read reasons as to why President Obama lied when he said he
didn't campaign on the public option you
can read my post here or you
can read Jane Hamsher here. But what if you can't read? I feel your pain.
Can you at least watch this Bold Progressives ad? It's easy and fun.
I'm very disappointed in the health care reform bill that's been defanged by
Joe Lieberman. I'll be writing about that later. But I think the problem is
how the democrats have negotiated from the start.
You have to come to the
conclusion that DNC leaders are either incompetent or stupid, or totally
bought off in order to look incompetent and stupid. I'm going with the third
option: totally bought off in order to look incompetent and stupid.
Right now, this bill has little reform and forces you to buy health
insurance just like car insurance. You'll be able to get out of car insurance
but everybody has a body. And who's the enforcer? The IRS. Not good. I'm with
Howard Dean: kill the bill, at least the senate version.
ITEM: This is from the evolved
Jorn Barger's
weblog, a term that he coined but got no money for, which uses a new Google
tool called Google Reader. It's a Sunday toon from what looks to be a lame
newspaper strip that I would otherwise never read. Here it is or definition of a
conservative:
You know what's funny about this? I know a lot of
conservative republicans who don't own jack. They're laid off, they don't have
health care, they have bad sales jobs that they have to fight to keep...The
genius of the American propaganda model is that everyone shares the worldview of
the ruling classes even when its clear that you're not a member of the ruling
classes and that a lot of these policies hurt you. Let's hear it for Proles who
favor cutting the capital gains tax...
Dec. 6
Your Sunday Atheism Links
First up: Jesus and Mo.
This cartoon, and I say this rarely,
has
been confirmed by a recent study. Turns out that your personal beliefs
about the reality of the world and your God's tend to coincide. It's not luck.
Over three months in 2006, as her five children grew more
emaciated and listless by the day, Estelle Walker made no move to find a
job, no effort to scrounge up a meal, her kids told a jury yesterday.
"We were supposed to wait for God to provide," said Walker's
oldest daughter, now 21. "And that's what we did."
At one point, the daughter said, she and her siblings went 11
days without food. When police were at last summoned to the Sussex County
cabin by neighbors, investigators found the children so malnourished they
had difficulty talking.
You would think that after watching her own children waste away
for months, she'd realize that god will not provide. Never has and
never will.
Three: One reason why the mean ol' New Atheists are popular is that
they're very good debaters. They're very good with this whole reason in
argument thing. Take a look at this debate between Christopher Hitchens and
Stephen Fry and representatives of the Catholic Church. What's remarkable is
that they were polling this very literate audience and the more the Catholic
reps spoke the more people they lost. I must confess that I find 99 percent of
the debates between the New Atheists and religious people to go this way.
However, this is the first time I've seen polling to confirm it.
Watch the entirety of the debate here.
Jane Hamsher is raising money to run ads in Harry Reids home state. I think
I've got an extra 10 bucks laying around. Here's what she sent me:
Hi Philip -
I need your help right now - word on the Hill is that
Harry Reid is trying to cut a deal for triggers. We need to immediately raise
money to make a big move against Harry Reid in his home state of Nevada.
Can you please donate $25 or more right now?
http://www.actblue.com/page/reconciliation?refcode=email1203
It's all on Harry Reid if the public option is killed. He has
the power to make sure it passes using reconciliation for majority rule. If
he takes out the public option, it's because he's too weak to stand up to the
insurance companies. More than 33,000 of you signed our petition urging Reid
to use reconciliation to pas the public option, raising over $15,000 to keep
the fight going.
We're almost halfway there, and time is running out.
Help us tell Harry Reid that if he can't get corrupt Democrats in line, he
needs to pass a public option with a simple, majority vote. Please contribute
now to make this message heard in
Nevada. Click here:
ITEM: Jane Hamsher, who has been critical of groups
like NARAL/Planned Parenthood for being ineffective on the choice issue and
included in what she has termed as the Veal Pen, has started her own
group to lobby against the Bart Stupak amendment in the health care debate.
Specifically: the proposed senate version of the Bart Stupak amendment. I wish
her luck.
Things I published over as the Progressive Examiner:
ITEM: This is another case of the Colbert show actually doing
comedy about a pretty important topic that respectable corporate media never
gets around to. This documentary is about how schools--I'm guessing mostly
public schools--are
being turned into prisons. This isn't exactly a new line of thought but its
the kind of forbidden thought that you are never, and I mean just about ever,
taught in schools. There's a whole school of criticism concerning the schools
that you will never be taught, unless, and this is a stretch, you're in
education. If you want to do something dangerous that the Man doesn't want you
to know or understand, read up on John Holt, Ivan Illich and Paul Goodman. Eye
opening stuff. You can also buy this film as a
DVD, which it looks like I"m
going to do.
ITEM: I finally got Atrios to give me a link. You know
how? I paid for it...I bought a dirt cheap 50 dollar classified ad. Related:
I finally got a girl to have "sexual relations" with me. You know how?
Finish the joke yourself...Also Related: You can find the High Class
(pronounce it like your fave Sopranos or Goodfellas character)
+porn here. It's meant to highlight
artistic porn. Honest. You can find a widescreen version of
the Acid Jazz channel here and new vids here.
Sign the petition and send a coat hanger to formerly pro choice dems like
Jason Altmire who voted for the Bart Stupak-Pitts amendment. Although, to be
fair, Jason Altmire didn't support that amendment out of any kind of principle.
Certainly not. Afterall, he voted against the final bill anyway and his
reasoning for doing so outlined in a recent Post Gazette editorial is, well,
silly ass. No. Jason Altmire voted for the Stupak-Pitts amendment and voted
against the final health care bill anyway. He voted for the amendment as a
poison pill which may yet do its dirty work. Shame on you Jason. Shame.
Sign this petition and send a coat hanger to the
20 formerly pro-choice Democrats -- all men -- who voted to pass the Stupak
Amendment.
"We know what happens when women are denied access to reproductive health
care including abortion. And we can't go back to an era of coat hangers and
back alley abortions. Reconsider your vote on the Stupak amendment. Tell
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that the
final health care bill that emerges from the conference committee can't turn
the clock back on women's rights."
ITEM: Agent Ska, my fake virtual girlfriend,
nearly
died several days ago which would no doubt put a bit of a damper on the much
utilized fantasy life. "Where is the Agent Ska?" exclaimed mostly nude 90's
Bjork who was adorned with but a sock, looking worriedly toward public option
Heather Graham in her
Rollergirl garb..."I-I've got some bad news girls who are figments of my
imagination...."
You know, I really don't think Agent Ska thought to think how
her early death would affect me. Meeeeeee....On a serious note, when she said
she was afraid of driving because of her epileptic seizures sometime ago I
thought she was being a pussy. Now, not so much. Frankly, she's very lucky. If
that happens out on the highway she's gone. She really can't drive in a society
that kind of forces you to drive. She has to live in cities with decent public
transit systems. She always has to rely on a friend for a ride. Of course, it
helps being a pretty girl... It affects what kind of jobs you can take. I had to
drive in order to do my last blue collar job. My heart goes out to her and I
hope she gets better. I offer you the video above, where you look like the lead
singer if you would just change your hair, as a get well gift. Related:
She could also pass for
Kaki King but again with the hair...
I'm Sure That Will Help
Yes, Senate procedures suck but those procedures are put in place by...
senators. I really don't think a bunch of progressives screaming at senators
to change their own procedures
is going to help.
They should be changed, and the day some senators start talking about changing
them I'll be happy to support that, but the names of those senators are?
First, we should take every opportunity we can to piss upon the arcane senate
rules that essentially allow a minority of senators to control the entirety of
what the country wants. This "minority" filibuster only seems to work for
republicans and entrenched financial interests. I'm still waiting for forty
senators who will filibuster on behalf of poor kids growing up in poverty. I
want to see angry wizened senate white faces with fists clenched in the air
demanding that 1 percent of the military budget go to capped 12 kid class sizes,
a mac laptop for every student and the rest for performance enhanced teacher
bonuses or "this filibuster will not yield"! Yeah, right. I'll wait a long
time.
Two, the problem isn't just that they won't change dodgy procedural rules
that give them veto power over majority needs and wants, its that they won't do
what they need to do within the rules they have to get things accomplished. If
it takes reconciliation to get a senate health care through the US Senate then
goddamn let's use reconciliation. It should never be taken off the table. They
could change the filibuster rule with a simple 51 vote rule. They wouldn't even
have to make it permanent. It could be the Senate Majority leader's discretion
and you could even limit it to three times a year for minor things like major
presidential initiatives on health, jobs, and climate. Hey, the republicans
could do it to they would just have to work toward regaining their majority by
not deciding to be openly hostile of blacks, Latinos, women with brains, poor
white folks or all the minorities that make up the majority of the country. You
should probably change the rules completely when it comes to court and
presidential appointments.
You want the names of the 51? How about 51 dem senators who actually want to
see progress on issues of health, jobs and climate and would like to maintain
their house and senate majorities indefinitely.
ITEM: One very good health care reform from MoveOn on triggers and
another anti Jason Altmire ad that I watched on television. It was apparently
funded by a group called " republicans for the environment". Now, this might be
a bad thing in that republicans aren't environmentalists (Former Republican
congresswoman Melissa Hart wouldn't have voted any differently.) and, assuming
Machiavellian intent, they might be pleased to use legitimate reasons to get
Altmire out of the way.
Here's the MoveOn ad on triggers. I had the cold last week or was it a
mutated version of the Swine Flu that will kill everyone within minutes of
exposure...Not sure because I have no health insurance and couldn't afford to
see a doctor. I could be the last man on Earth...
You can watch the
Republican hit ad here. You know what's worse: They're right about oily
Jason. He voted against Cap and Trade too.
Nov. 20
Random Thoughts
ITEM: I think that California students are right to be upset
over their tuition being hiked by 30 percent. They would be stupid if they
weren't. Likewise, local students should be pissed off that Pittsburgh's
incompetent and unimaginative Mayor wants to tax them. On the other hand, why
don't students vote more? I've always been puzzled why students don't take more
of an interest in city and state elections. If you combine the students of CMU,
the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University, then you could probably
choose, at least, who the next mayor of Pittsburgh is going to be. You could
also choose, probably, some of the city and county council seats as well. What's
that old Ralph Nader speech line? If you don't act on politics then politics
will act on you. I would like to think that tuition hikes in California and
Pittsburgh might spur students to do some acting on their own. On the other
other hand, I remember what it was like as a student trying to get students to
think politically, about anything. It was really hard. It was like "schooling"
was never actually supposed to affect the real world. Plus, I think, and this is
normal, they were more preoccupied with social stuff and college and weren't
interested in, you know, the outside world in a constructive way. I don't even
know how you would organize students politically. The truth of the matter is
that students are all over the map politically or they're trying to figure it
out. Then there's the fact that, now, anyway, if you're in college and you can
comfortably afford it you're probably the son and daughter of republicans. That
means that you're really not into activism: You identify with the man because
you've been raised by the man.
ITEM: If you're a Muslim American and you're angry about the
American war effort in Iraq (not so much Afghanistan) then you know what that
makes you? A sane Muslim American psychologist. The war in Iraq was and is evil.
We murdered up to a million people and beyond and we took their stuff. It was a
mugging of another country's natural resources. Likewise, if the country had
been named, say, Ireland, and we had murdered a million or more of their
citizens for spurious and transparently self interested reasons
(something like T.
Boone Pickens would articulate...), American Irish people would have the
right to be upset. Really they would. In fact, Irish Americans would be doing a
lot more than sending money to the IRA, they would be starting local chapters.
And I wouldn't think they were crazy although it might make my public transit
trips more exciting than I would like.
ITEM: I was going to write about how a local entrepreneur
wanted to start another black radio station but he withdrew his bid. Frankly,
Eddie Edwards or his sons, could do it much more cheaply and a lot better if
they just did it online. You could also do more channels. You could even do
something like the Acid Jazz channel but with local content.
Nov.18
ITEM: I never read the book but I did see the movie and I'm
ashamed of my gender. Thank you very much Robert Duvall. (More
covers here.)
I'm pretty sure that Margaret Atwood was talking about this
guy:
ITEM: I just heard a review of the new Prisoner on AMC
(Sunday night I think) on NPR and the guy gave it a thumbs down. He was
comparing it to the old show though. I liked the old show but I don't revere it.
It's not Star Trek, or as I call those shows, with the possible exception of
"Voyager", The Sacred Texts of Star Trek. I'll give it a try and I'll probably
try Syfy's reworking of Alice in
Wonderland (Also Sunday), which looks like the same reworking they
did of The Wizard of Oz, which is to
reimagine these texts with science fictional themes. For example, I think that
the Tin Man had an artificial heart. Oh, and if you're interested in this kind
of thing, Thomas M. Disch was a great science fiction
writer who committed suicide
during the last year or so. He was sick but he essentially outlived his
money. He might still be writing if he was a citizen of France or Canada, in
case you're wondering why I harp on this health care thing so much. And if
you're really really interested in this kind of thing try to find a copy of
Barry Malzberg's "Engines of the Night", which features a lot of essays that
kind of tell that you shouldn't write science fiction for a living. I might look
for it at Eides before
buying it at Amazon's for 62 cents.
ITEM: Speaking of why I harp so much on this health
care thing: former (current?) health insurance lobbyist Jason Altmire has to go.
One Political Junkie
seems to think so as well. Altmire responded by saying he
voted it against because of "cost". This is so transparent and facile a lie
that an editorial cartoon can debunk it: (from Open Left)
Related: Keep in mind that Jason, and the other blue
dogs, went for negotiated rates as opposed to Medicare plus 5 percent, which the
CBO said would result in more overall cost savings. Jason Altmire is an
insurance industry whore plain and simple. But, as Maria asks, who would run
against him? Is Georgia Berner the answer? I don't know. Is anyone else on deck?
More related: I'll be running the following MoveOn video at the Acid Jazz
Channel, like, 80 million times:
Nov. 10
ITEM: Just a nice piece of art that I found. Welcome to your
world...at least in this country.
What Should Have Been Published November 8th
ITEM: My provider has finally finished moving my site to a new
server which is why I haven't been able to post for the last seven days or so,
at least not here. There are a number of posts over at Mirror Universe and at
the Pittsburgh Progressive Examiner. Regular postings, including updating my
semi porn page, will resume later on November 9th.
October 27
ITEM: Sorry for the long hiatus here. I temporarily redirected
to Mirror Universe but decided that I didn't like it. I can still post here. I
just have to skimp on the pics which I hate. Hostway tech support hasn't
contacted me in four days. I've been with them since 1997. I guess they're
pushing me. Anyway, I've been posting
a lot
here and in other places. We should be back up to several posts a week here
as soon as the account limits are expanded
ITEM: Here's something I posted over at my Progressive Examiner gig.
Luke Ravenstahl is an uninspiring hack although he has managed to stay out of
jail on corruption charges, which has surprised me, he's at heart a machine guy
with no real vision for the city. Kevin Acklin, whose personal story is
interesting, just decided that he's no longer a republican and is now an
independent? That's like deciding you're no longer fighting for the South a year
before the Civil War ends. Your timing just seems suspicious. Acklin should have
just said he couldn't win as a Republican in town. I will confess this though:
Acklin would probably be a better mayor than Luke Ravenstahl. I hate admitting
that because I truly hate the Republican Party and anybody involved with such a
fascist party ("Oh, I resigned from the American Nazi Party and all their
horrible Santorum-like party candidates I endorsed. All better now.") but Acklin
is clearly better and smarter than Luke. But then again who isn't.
I think Franco Dok Harris is the ony reasonable choice. We need some new
blood. I also think, on paper, that Dok Harris is the
best qualified person to be the Mayor of Pittsburgh. You might argue that
he's inexperienced but they're all young and inexperienced.
Dok Harris has also produced superior television ads. Here's a really hard
hitting ad that he's produced. I don't know if he has enough money to put them
on air anyplace. This ad also showcases a rare moment of anger from Presiden
Barack Obama at the end. I guess I would like to know the context of that.
You can catch two of the ads that
I liked here. You can catch three of Dok Harris' ads above at the Acid Jazz
Channel.
ITEM: We're actually winning on the public option. I don't believe it. And we
may have Harry Reid to thank for it. I can't believe that either. If this all
pans out, then we should remember this during what looks to be Harry's tough
reelection campaign.
I think its because of ads like the one above. Remember: the pro public
option campaign is mostly if not entirely fueled by the Internet. How powerful
has the Internet grown?
We're beating the corporate media which didn't lobby for the public option
and the right wing corporate media which was openly hostile to it. We're
winning. I still can't believe. The best wrap ups are from
Chris Bowers and
Mike Lux
from Open Left.
Keep in mind that if you don't have a public option, then there is nothing in
the four or five bills in congress that will keep costs down. Nothing. No hard
limit on costs anyplace I can see. But you would have to buy it! This would doom
the Democratic Party for a generation. Remember: the IRS would be the enforcer.
That means fines or at worst jail time! Think about that. Frankly, we would need
a no vote on reform without the public option from the progressive caucus just
to preserve the DNC
I'm tired of all these fundraising e-mails from the DSCC, the DNC,
and the DCCC blaming Republicans. The Republicans are NOT
the ones to blame. Democrats like these below are
the ones to blame. They're the ones that've been watering down the bill,
voted against a public option, and allowed the Baucus bill to be a
mandated bailout of private insurers.
ITEM: You can watch a
preview of this here. People,
okay Oliver Willis, think that a Superman type person roaming around might
be nice but it would be completely fraking frightening. Related: When I
have time I'm going to write reviews of the two Dark Superman comics out right
now, the Mighty
and Irredeemable.
They're both very
disturbing.
ITEM: I gots nothing on the G20. For the record, I don't think
these kinds of protests have actually changed policy though I do think dressing
in black and V for Vendetta masks is kinda cool.
September 19, 2009
ITEM: Yeah, right. France, maybe. How about total replacement
loser proles. I should have posted these labor posters I found on labor day but
I was busy or distracted or both. They're part of a new book called "Agitate!
Educate! Organize! American Labor Posters". They have a decent political
message and they're pretty too.
And one groovy one that I think was made during the 60s:
ITEM: I really think that Joe Sestak should hire Lee
Stranahan. He's doing the best pro health care reform ads in the country. This
would create two public goods: I'm assuming that Joe Sestak offers his employees
health care and it would give Joe Sestak the best attack ad viral video maker in
the country. Here he calls out on the President on the public option. For the
record: I don't think he's going to get a 100 dollars for his IPOD.
ITEM: You can't really stop Slinkerwink. You can only contain
her. I'm
going to repeat what I said over at my Progressive Examiner column about her
and Jane Hamsher: One more thing: if through some miracle we get decent
health care reform despite the millions being spent by the insurance lobby, then
you need to thank Jane Hamsher and Slinkerwink. They did the hard fighting, the
hard organizing and the public whip counts. Don't thank your dead tree
newspapers, afterall, they were "objective". They would be equally "objective"
on the issue of Nazi death camps and the Civil War (Slavery: Good or Bad? We
just don't know and we can't make a call. It would upset too many of our
advertisers...)
Anywayz, it looks like Slinkerwink is mirroring the MoveOn
campaign of some weeks ago but it has much better specificity about refusing a
triggerless public option. Its just as moving and they name the names of the
evil insurers. And many are mentioned let me tell you.
You
can watch all of them here. Here's several more:
Here's one that mentions an evil insurer by name: AETNA. I
mean, when President Obama mentioned that these guys were just trying to make a
buck...I really wish he could make note of the fact that when your business
practices murder people that this should be an unacceptable form of
capitalism...Shouldn't it?
And here's another person that the teabaggers would boo at a
public forum.
And I like justifiably angry psychotic dude. I can relate.
ITEM:
Yes I've been a lazy blogger, even though I comment on other websites and still
churn away over at my Progressive Examiner gig. To make up for it, here's me
liveblogging the president's speech tonight. One word for the president as one
of his punching bag "progressive" critics: The only replacement I would accept
for the public option would be medicare for all because that would actually
bring down costs.
Before the speech, a number of falsehoods
by the Corporate Press on CBS.
One, we have the votes to pass the bill
with reconciliation. Two, deficit spending shouldn't be an issue. We always
find the money to kill people. We can find money to help people. Three, Katie
doesn't acknowledge that the summer recess was fueled by insurance industry
antics and propaganda. The Death Panels are nonsense. However, the mandatory
payment and subsequent fines if you don't buy in do have fascist elements to
them.
Oh well. Let's hear the speech. Wait,
still hasn't started...more corporate media slant: reconciliation isn't the
nuclear option, getting rid of the filibuster is the nuclear option...still
waiting. I hope they're right that Nancy Pelosi stands tall. Not a lot of
people have faith in a strong progressive block.
Okay its 8:11 and speechifying time.
Wait...just the president talking and gladhanding. Looks like Bob S. is
describing "The Reality of Things". Katie not adding much analysis. Still no
speechifying...Time 8:15 and the Prez has taken the podium...
Starts out with the heavy burden he's had
to bear when his administration started..."won't let up until Americans who
seek jobs can find them". Uproarius standing applause. He'll need a second
stimulus for that. We'll see...
Says he's pulled the economy back from
brink, not according to Atrios...he needs a second stimulus. Really he does...
Okay, now he's talking about health care.
Says he's determined to be the last president to take up the cause of
healthcare. Hope that's a good thing. Goes into history of health care reform.
Alerts us to nepotism within the Dingell political dynasty...okay, he's making
good arguments. Stressing middle class people, not those scary poor black
folks. That's good politically let's be honest...."only democracy on earth,
only wealthy nation, that allows such hardship for its people". All good
points, especially the part about how it can happen to anyone. Makes sense to
me....more insurance company nightmare stuff at 22 minutes in. Jesse Jackson
Jr. looks credibly concerned...
He's hitting the cost issue now. Everybody
knows these things...his solutions? Still waiting...."our healthcare problem
is our deficit problem". Well, you could cut defense spending or fed
bailouts...no? "Those on the left" uh oh that's a bad sign. Oh good, he's
using single payer as the far left crazy time argument. Thanks.Makes the
argument of building on what works while keeping those evil insurance industry
death panel goons in the game. Not convincing. Says we're close to a possible
solution. I can feel the tension building. Bad move when he talks about big
pharma is eager to change without mentioning those close door meetings...Now
he's criticizing the FUD fear uncertainty and doubt..."Now is the season for
change". We'll see.
His plan will meet three basic goals: more
security for those who have it, coverage for those who don't and slow down
costs. A plan that asks everybody to take responsibility...that translates
into fines and mandatory buy in. He's repeating talking points about his plan.
Hope he's right. Talks about getting rid of losing coverage without a
preexisting condition...but in exchange for what? Mandatory buy in that I
can't afford? "No one should go broke because they get sick". Amen. Routine
check ups should be covered. We'll see. If you don't have health
insurance...okay, he's explaining the new insurance exchange. Okay, he's not
saying the public option by name but he is shaming congress about their
incredible health care plan...just the exchange, will take effect in four
years? Immediately offer help for catastrophic care? Still no mention of the
public option uh oh, looks like he's about to make the arguments for mandatory
buy ins at 8:35. Jesus. This still sends a chill down my spine.Small
businesses would be exempt. Oh that's nice.
At 8:37 he addresses "bogus claims" such
as death panels. He calls it a lie. But the mandatory buy ins...that's what's
scary.
Oh jesus. No federal money would fund
abortion...that could kill the bill. You would be intermingling federal funds
with private dollars. You could kill choice that way...good lord.
Actually, insurance companies do it
because they are bad people! People who kill you for profit are bad people.
Really they are. He doesn't want to kill the insurance industry, he just wants
to make them accountable.
Finally, at 8:41 he mentions the public
option! But he also describes the shortcomings. You won't be able to get out
of your crappy private insurance plan....and you'll have to pay for it! How
much? Who knows. He's reminding progressives of stuff. I don't need the
reminders. The pubic option as you've designed it is way too weak. "We will
provide you with a choice". You know, I would accept Medicare for all as a
replacement for the public option.
Blames the republicans on the deficit.
That's true. No limits on money to kill people...now he's speaking directly to
seniors.Seniors have nothing to fear afterall they vote....momentarily
distracted by Oudin US Open match...she lost the first set again...back to
speechifying...
Oh great at 8:52 he embraces medical
malpractice malarkey. He wants to move forward on, what, letting doctors kill
me without legal consequences...? Thank gawd for trial lawyers I sez...Okay,
here's his plan again at 8:54, says he's open to real ideas. "Won't waste time
with people who thinks its better to kill this bill for political reasons."
"Won't accept status quo. Not now." That mandatory buy in is worse than the
status quo....I don't like mandatory auto insurance. I'm alone in the world on
this but that's how I feel.
Finishes with late Ted Kennedy's letter.
Oh this is good. He's using Ted Kennedy to shame republlican senators McCain,
Hatch and Grassley. I'm still stuck on this mandatory buy in. It just can't go
beyond three percent of gross income for people under 30 or the dems will lose
people under 30 like, forever....
Ok. He left on a strong note.
Inspirational. He gives great speeches. We'll see.
Okay corporate spin: We can't get the
public option says Bob. Here's our position if you can't get the public option
you can't solve the problem of high insurance costs. Nothing else works,
except medicare for all. That's it.
Republican response? Who cares. Well,
let's hear it. Oh he's concerned about deficit spending and the jobless
recovery...did he vote for the stimulus that would have provided jobs? Gawd I
hate the republicans. Lies about evil big guvmint healthcare....hate these
guys. Now you're concerned about deficits and medicare costs? Kill me
now...spout on corporate lackey....Oh, the doctor blames poor lifestyle
choices. Frak you man. Frak you. Junk lawsuits...you mean where you can kill
me with impunity...? Thanks doctor pal. The republican spokesman is a
doctor...what ker razy Tom Coburn wasn't available....and its over. Not very
convincing. No one should buy this deficit double think stuff.
ITEM: I've been listening to NPR for
the last several hours and I had no idea how many important laws that Sen. Ted
Kennedy had passed. In fact, I just learned that he was the one that created
damages for victims of employment discrimination. Of course, I'm beginning to
think that employment discrimination should carry criminal penalties but I
appreciate the possibility of a significant money settlement as well. Thank you
Ted. I also hope the Senate uses this sad event to pass meaningful healthcare
reform. That would be healthcare reform with a strong public option that limited
payroll deductions to 5 to 7 percent (for anyone under 30 certainly...we want to
keep the youth vote, right?"), as opposed to making you pay upwards of 18
percent of your salary for a kind of junk 20000 dollar deductible insurance
plan. Let's not do the latter.
Here's Sen. Kennedy on health care reform
several years ago. Ha. "Everyone in Pennsylvania." Go get 'em Ted.
President Obama has made this statement.
The best eulogy I've read is from the
Booman
Tribune's Steven D. who quotes house favorite Robert Reich.
There will be a lot of
hateful glee expressed on the right wing blogs today regarding Ted
Kennedy's death. If not from the owners and front page writers on those
blogs, than from most of those who post their vile comments there about the
news that Ted Kennedy has died. They will make much of the scandals that
dogged his life, and how his brand of liberalism was outdated and dangerous,
and that while never wishing anyone ill (no, they would never do that, would
they) the country is better off now that he is dead. A very few, like
Nancy Reagan, who worked with Senator Kennedy in the fight for stem cell
research, will be gracious and generous, but they will be in the minority.
This is hardly unexpected. Ted Kennedy became a polarizing figure, and
a particular bogeyman among the right. If not for his brothers' horrific
assassinations, I doubt he would have felt compelled to expend the energy to
remain in the Senate all these years. He was a deeply flawed individual,
like most of us, and, in truth, he was likely not prepared to assume the
mantle of a powerful political faction when his brother Robert was gunned
down in 1968 while running for President. We will never truly know what
those two ghastly events did to change him both for better and worse,
throughout his life. But I would not have wished such a fate on anyone.
In response to what is likely to be a raucous litany by the
hatemongers that make up the right wing media circus of all his many sins,
let me leave you with
these
words by Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, and
a man who knew Ted Kennedy far better than most of us who are not members of
his immediate family, regarding Ted Kennedy's legacy of service to his
country:
Most Americans will never know how many things Ted Kennedy did to
make their lives better, how many things he prevented that would have hurt
them, and how tenaciously he fought on their behalf. In 1969, for example,
he introduced a bill in the Senate calling for universal health insurance,
and then, for the next forty years, pushed and prodded colleagues and
presidents to get on with it. If and when we ever achieve that goal it
will be in no small measure due to the dedication and perseverance of this
one remarkable man. We owe it to him and his memory to do it soon and do
it well.
Imagine, forty years of fighting for universal health care coverage
for all. Coverage for everyone regardless of whether they were white or
black, poor or rich, blue collar or white collar, young or old, healthy (at
the moment) or desperately ill. Forty years of perseverance in the face of
constant defeats and disappointments. Let us make his final achievement the
accomplishment of this worthy goal he set for America some forty years ago.
August 25
MoveOn Starts A Brilliant
Campaign on Behalf of Healthcare Reform
ITEM: This is simply a brilliant photo campaign started by
MoveOn. Here's the letter I received:
Dear MoveOn member,
Every day we hear new arguments that America should just put offhealth
care reform.
But
millions of Americans can't afford to wait.Like
Joe B., a MoveOn member whose family is facing over $20,000 in costs for their
autistic son's treatment because hisinsurance
companywon't cover what the
doctor prescribed. And Nicole T.'s mother, who lost herinsurance
coverageafter being
diagnosed with cancer.
With just 14 days until Congress heads back to D.C. to vote on health care, we
need to bring thehealth
care debateback to what
matters.
To do that, we're launching"We
Can't Afford to Wait,"a
photo petition to remind Congress of the real lives at stake.Will
you join the photo petition today by submitting a picture of yourself holding
up a sign showing why you or someone you love can't afford to wait?
Submitting a photo is really easy, and we provide step-by-step instructions.
We'll share the photo petition—pictures of thousands of MoveOn members holding
up signs saying why they or a loved one can't afford to wait forreal
health carereform—with
Congress and the media.
Through our "We can't afford to wait: Public Option NOW!" vigils next week, by
delivering photo albums to eachmember
of Congress, and by making sure your stories are heard in the news
media, we'll help bring the debate back to what really matters.
It's too easy for Congress to get mired in the politics of health care, and
forget the substance. By reminding them about the true cost of inaction in a
visible and visceral way, we can make sure the needs of real Americans are
front and center when our senators and representatives head back to Washington
to vote on health care reform.
Can you submit a photo today and remind Congress why America can't afford to
wait for real reform?
ITEM: I think Ruben Boling explains why progressives have lost faith in the
Obama administration. Just substitute "healthcare reform" for "Asteroid 2" and
there we are.
One
very important point: You will get health care. The question is what kind. Do
you want to be forced to pay, and without the public option there will no
limits on what the insurance companies can charge, upwards of 15 to 25 percent
of your salary to buy what would arguably be the worst kind of health care.
Think of it as liability only insurance for health care but you'll have to buy
it. And if you don't buy it? You'll get civil or criminal penalties. You might
go to jail if you choose not to pay 18 percent (or more)of your salary toward
health care. You can actually end up in jail for missing a court date in order
to talk about as little as a 300 dollar debt. Yes, that's a personal story.
I'm not in jail yet but its the kind of "law" that seems to be targeted more
and more at poor people.
One more point: we want the public option in order to save the Obama
presidency. Because right now, the only question that the current
administration is answering is "How do you elect a black republican to the
highest office in the land?" Answer: "You run him as a Democrat".
It's actually very simple: He hasn't delivered on any of our issues and
has shown the annoying tendency to move right whenever he's being pressured by
the usual big money suspects. The Big Four for progressives, just as a
reminder, are health care reform, the prosecution of bush administration war
criminals, EFCA and a meaningful climate change bill.
We want these things not just because we would like them but because
they're essential for another Obama presidential run. I suppose if we didn't
want them or care about these issues we would have voted Republican and gotten
exactly what we asked for, plus tax cuts. So imagine our surprise as we look
upon the landscape and notice that we might be going 0 for 4.
A number of progressive writers have spoken about this over the last
several days or so. First up is Paul Krugman
ITEM: Actually, there are two videos like this out there. One features an
elderly Israeli men being told "Heil Hitler" by some Ker Razy anti health care
activist. I thought he was going to slug her. And, frankly, I think that would
have been appropriate. The NAZI argument by the anti public option crowd is
pretty bad...Yes, I used to compare the Bush regime to fascists, not necessarily
Hitler, because, like Hitler, the Bush regime seemed to like to kill lots and
lots of people for money and power.
Naomi Wolf
even wrote a book about it. Just to repeat, Barack Obama is working to help
insure 100 million uninsured and underinsured people. Swastikas don't
immediately come to mind here. Check out that video
here. The second video features Barney Frank in fine form telling this woman
she's silly in so many words. That's because she's silly. You can check out the
second video here.
I've received word from Jane and others at
Firedoglake that we now have over 60 progressives in the House of
Representatives who are absolutely furious with the White House's backtracking
on the public option, and diminishing it as an essential cost containment for
affordability of insurance premiums.
Let me be clear again today as I was last
night:
You'll have health insurance, but it won't
be affordable. Because if we allow the White House and the Senate moderates to
give away the store to the insurance companies on the public option, you know
what's going to happen next? Subsidies would be pared back as the next starting
point for conservatives. And after the Democrats give in on subsidies to get
"bipartisan" votes, the next starting point might be the community rating where
the 2:1 requires that you as an adult, doesn't pay more than twice the premiums
of a young adult.
You know what's in the Baucus "Fauc-Us"
bill draft language from two months ago? A community rating of 7:1. That makes
health insurance near unaffordable for most adults.
You know I voted for Obama but I did not come away that
impressed with what I saw this Saturday morning
from longtime aide, friend and confidante Valerie Jarrett. Ms. Jarrett spoke
for about an hour and a half during the last day of Netroots Nation, the
annual get together of Kossacks and fellow travelers who schoomze and network
and can afford to pay about several hundred dollars to do so. Hey, if I wasn't
reporting this I couldn't afford to go. I got a press pass worth 200 bucks.
The format was that Baratunde Thurston was to lob her
questions, mostly softballs apparently, and she was to hit away but I felt
that I didn't really learn very much other than "give us time" and "I trust
Obama". Those are beginning to not be very satisfying answers when you're
continuing a lot of shockingly bad Bush policies.
Here's a sample of what Valerie gave us. So, Baratunde reads a
question that asks what blogs, specifically the president reads, and whether
he reads them on a Mac or a PC. She answers back that the president reads lots
of blogs but couldn't or didn't know (more likely) which ones he read and that
she can't tell you whether he uses a Mac or a PC. Do you feel more informed,
about anything?
Or here's another one: Baratunde reads another question off his
computer and this time it's about Tom Daschle. And she goes on about what a
cool and swell and great guy Tom is. I'm trying to get what world she's
coming from. Actually, its clear now that Daschle would have been a horrible
addition. First,
he rejoined some awful insurance lobbying firm that pays more money than God
to promote evil policies. Second, even though he says he likes the public
option, he came out against it in his role as insurance company hack. Here's
the thing: would he have ever left the insurance industry even if he had
joined the administration? And does Kent Conrad want a cushy job as an
insurance hack lobbyist as well? Must be.
Or, and here's another one, she actually had the nerve to talk
about how the Obama administration has limited the influence of lobbyists in
his White House. She must not have
read all those stories about how he cut
backroom deals with Big Pharma that would have undercut House and Senate
efforts to regulate these industries. I think this story was broken by the
Huffington Post by the way, thus forcing an Obama ally into some real
journalism.
Did I mention that there was slight hissing and even some boos?
Well, its not Valerie. Its the record of the administration. Valerie is a
professional and has to back the boss. But if you really wanted a concise
picture of the administration so far,
I really think this Ian Walsh post hits it on the head.
Miscellania: Healthcare, Unemployment, Resistance and Obama by: Ian Welsh
Sat Aug 08, 2009 at 22:00
After visiting Victoria for a week, let's do a quick roundup post
Healthcare: I remain convinced that nothing that will come out of this
Congress won't be pretty awful. My current belief is that what will be passed
will mandate everyone buy insurance but because of inadequate cost controls
and subsidies will leave ordinary people forced to buy insurance which will
increase in price faster than wages. The optimistic view would be that once
everyone is in the system, pressure will build to make the system actually
work. We'll see, even if true, there'll be a lot of pain in between.
Unemployment: According to the BLS, the economy lost 274,000 jobs, but the
unemployment rate dropped from 9.5% to 9.4%. Welcome to the world of
statistics that don't mean what you think they do. People who want jobs, but
who are convinced they can't get one and so aren't looking actively don't
count as unemployed. So the number of employed people can go down and the
unemployment rate can go down. In other words, we're a long way from things
getting better, they're just getting worse more slowly.
Resistance: The American right has decided on a policy of resistance to Obama
which can be summed up as "thuggery". People are being trained and financed to
go out and shout down Democrats or intimidate them. There has already been
some violence, there will be more. The Obama administration thought they could
avoid the rise of the refusnik right by refusing to act on most social issues,
which is why they abandoned their promises to gays and have generally been
unwilling to move on other social issues. They took the lesson of the Clinton
administration to be "don't inflame the fanatics on the right-avoid social
issues, and don't slash the military". They were, of course, wrong: the
radical right (and there is hardly a non-radical right left) will oppose Obama
no matter what he does and if Obama is unwilling to use to the full might of
the administrative apparatus against them, they will simply take advantage of
his weakness to escalate. Tactics which are seen to work, will not be
abandoned, to the contrary, they will be used more and more.
Obama: Obama's active period is about over. Health care "reform", if he gets
it through, will probably be the last major policy. While there are rises and
falls, his overall popularity is trending down and that will probably
continue. The "honeymoon" is over, and it was used primarily to shove through
a lousy stimulus that won't lead to enough of a recovery, and with luck (for
him) a bad global warming bill and health reform that isn't. Fortunately,
banks and financial firms have been bailed out and are making lots of money,
and should be in a position to reward Obama with significant funding in future
elections.
Unless they decide that the Republicans will give them everything they want,
too.
Add to that Republican weakness, and Obama's inner circle may think they're
still cruising for reelection. I'm not so sure. Counting on your enemy's
weakness is a dangerous tactic, especially when you are doing little to ensure
that they remain weak or that you remain strong.
I really think that's the truth of the last six months of the
Obama administration. I will forgive him for everything if he manages to pass
a strong public option and I'm in a positiion to buy affordable healthcare. If
not, that smattering of hisses and boos will turn into a chorus, and hit a
depressingly high note right around the 2010 and 2012 election cycles.
Netroots Nation, the
annual gathering of Kossacks (derived from the Daily Kos,
a political must read by
the way) and fellow travelers, ends today In Pittsburgh and I hope to do some
reporting on Saturday's events..
I did attend Thursday evening's events at this year's Netroots nation and I
ran into people who, and I'm probably incorrect about this, I felt that I had
known fairly well because I had read so much of their work and seen so many of
their youtube vids.
One of those persons that I met in the flesh was Jack Cole, one of the elder
retired spokesman for a really sane group called Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition. Every police officer involved in LEAP has done their share of drug
arrests which, according to Jack at least, they feel a certain amount of shame
about. I think Jack described the work he was doing with LEAP as a kind of
penance.
This is a person and a group that I discovered entirely through Youtube and I
believe they held a session on decriminalization on Friday which unfortunately I
couldn't attend. But here are some of the Youtube vids I first discovered and I
immediately put them on rotation at the
Acid Jazz Channel. (One note: Jack Cole appears second in this vid and is
not Norm Stamper. Repeat: Jack Cole is not Norm Stamper.)
And here's Norm Stamper's interview with Reason magazine:
I did ask Jack one question that I was kind of curious about: I had noticed
that most of the cops in LEAP were retired and I asked him if there were any
active duty policemen who were members of the organization and was that
dangerous? He told me there were 5 to 7 active duty police officers who were
members of LEAP, although one of them had been fired but he won a big lawsuit
worth over 800000 dollars. Apparently, he can't actually do any police work
anymore but they can't fire him either. So, there might be a bit of a risk there
for active duty police officers to get involved in LEAP. Or a big payday.
Now, Atrios is a
guy I've been reading about and watching for the last several years now. One of
the things that I thought really revealed the Real Him was this video segment on
Philly bloggers where I swear he was trying to hide. He just didn't look
comfortable as a public figure. And sure enough when I spoke to him he was quite
reserved and circumspect. I suppose if you were the kind of person who described
people you met as to how well they conform to Star Trek stereotypes then Atrios
would be a Vulcan. I thought that at any moment he was going to urge me to
always look toward logic and to harness my human half. Or something. I made sure
to ask him what he thought of our urban hellhole of a city and how he enjoyed
our public transit system. I just had to.
One specific question, as opposed to meandering, that I did toss his way is
if he trusted the Obama economic team or the Hellish ilk known as Rubin,
Geithner and Summers, with just a dash of Rahm. I sort of got the impression
that he didn't from his "the recession isn't over" talk but I wasn't sure. His
answer: a fairly unambigous "no". We chatted a bit more and then he was off.
Related: I noticed that he wrote about
Dwelling House Savings and Loan getting "EATED". But its not qute the same
kind of "EATED" that he usually talks about. Dwelling House is, or was I guess,
a black owned bank that didn't collapse because of the bubble. They were robbed,
apparently by hackers who weren't black nationalists. Truly a very sad story.
Its being taken over by PNC but here's the thing: the reason you had a black
owned bank is that the PNCs of the world weren't loaning to poor and working
class black folk. How does this help exactly? Will the bank's mission be
retained? i have my doubts.
More Related: One thing I forgot to thank him for, as an
African American, are his many angry rants against
the Bell Curve crowd. ("Did you know black people were inferior...oh its not
racism. Its just science!
Feel better now?...not at all like eugenics...") I was always glad to read that
but I never understood why he was passionate about this issue. Until I found out
that his wife is African American. I guess that would explain it, that and
wanting to have kids who aren't marked at birth as being inferior by way of Hue.
Anyway, thanks for doing that. Some of us appreciate that more than others.
What Should Have Been Published
August 14
ITEM:
I have been wearing my
Progressive Examiner hat this week and I've been sneaking
around Netroots Nation for as long as I can. I can't swear over there (Well, I
can frakkin' swear...they haven't banned that yet but they have banned WTF...WTF?)
but at least they have accessible permalinks.
What Should Have Been Published
August 11
ITEM: You know, even if we lose, and by "we" I mean the 100 million
Americans like myself who either don't have healthcare or are underinsured, I'm
beginning to respect the president's efforts on my behalf. With this kind of
effort Malia and Sasha might get to attend that fancy private school as opposed
to that scary Hell school in the Wire.
(Reference here.)
First, here's a snippet of the Obama's townhall today where he demolishes
much of the silliness behind crazy gun carrying right wing yelling points, such
as the death panels:
Then there's a pretty good ad that spells out some of the advantages of the
President's plan. Bad news: not clear how this will be done if no public option
passes.
And here: back to today's town hall, he explains in depth about how the
White House reform plans will help the average person. Again, I really really
appreciate this as someone who's uninsured.
August 7 PDT
ITEM: Sorry for the lack of posts.
As per usual I've had other concerns in my life, nothing earth shattering but
time consuming.
ITEM: I wrote my initial reactions
to the Sodini shootings over at my Pittsburgh Progressive Examiner niche. I'll
just repeat what I wrote because I'm lazy.
I've provided yet another mirrored copy and an explanation as to why its
important and why that's news.
I wanted to comment more about this in my
next column and I wanted to make sure you could access it. I do think this is
news and its an interesting peek into a psychopath. But I have to admit: I
really think if someone had reached out to him or if he had manned up and
reached out to the proper psychiatric authorities I don't think the shootings
would have happened.
By the way, your corporate media masters
have called this a "blog". Even though he's a computer expert Sodini didn't
use any major blogging software. Looks like he set up a webpage with just the
most minimal of HTML and went at it. People wonder why people reading this
weren't inspired to call their local law enforcement agency. One: it might not
have been published until just before the shootings. Two, if you make no
attempt to promote yourself or your blog trust me you can pretty much post
anything on the Internet and it will remain virtually anonymous. I know
whereof I speak as a guy who actively promotes his own work. Its not easy. One
more point: I kept the names in but I removed the personal addresses. Not
exactly a love letter to various relatives.
I'll probably write more about this later,
but I didn't find this guy's complaints all that unusual or, dare I say it, far
off the mark. People keep saying "Well, he had that good job...!" but if you
read the diary its clear he was never secure in that job and thought he was
going to be laid off any minute. That's the American condition by the way. In a
lot of ways, the United States is kind of a fucked up place to live. Its a
pressure cooker where you have ready access to high powered firearms. Not a good
combination probably. When you don't have health care your country is telling
you in very clear terms that it doesn't give a fuck about you. Really, it is.
More on this later where I take a look at the local blogosphere reaction and
where I try to answer Maria's question of "What can be done..."
ITEM: Speaking of the health care
I'm not getting...Yesterday I thought it was 50/50 that a strong public option
could be passed until I heard about that sweetheart deal Obama and Rahm (I blame
everything on Rahm...) tried
to arrange with Big Pharma. Horrible really. Now it looks like its 30/70
against. I swear if Obama negotiated for his two kids the way he negotiates for
the public interest they wouldn't be attending Sidwell Friends. They would be
the newest enrollees in that
scary training for prison
school that was
featured in The Wire. What's worse, Obama would be calling it a "great
victory for consumers" because no one managed to have consensual threeway sex
with Malia this year or that Sasha didn't get the White House burnt down cause
she snitched....See, that's the "bipartisanship" that Grassley and Baucus wanted
for his kids so he got a deal done and its all good now.
Great ads keep coming from the pro public
option side, though. Here's one from MoveOn equating insurance companies to
sharks which is insulting to sharks because they don't kill as many people.
July 30
ITEM:
Big news on the healthcare front. First, Jane Hamsher:
Dear Friend,
It's working. Your phone calls are
making the difference.
The progressive caucus is finally realizing it can stand up for a real public
option. Yesterday progressive members actually blocked the Blue Dogs from
watering down health care reform - for the time being.
What does it mean? We need to push harder than ever to get members to take the
pledge to protect a real public option. Call, call, call. Click here to get the phone numbers of progressive
members of Congress and start calling. We need to flood progressive members' offices with calls. When you
call, ask if the member will Take the Pledge to vote against any health care
bill that doesn't have a public plan which is:
available nationwide
on day one
and accountable to Congress and
the voters
This is our best chance yet to make
sure health care reform includes a real public option. Already 14 members
have taken this pledge. We need at least 26 more to stop a bad bill.
Click here to get their phone numbers and start calling.
Could this be the beginning of something new in the
Congressional Progressive Caucus?
The progressives in Congress threw a revolt over the compromises to
the Blue Dog Democrats, and delayed the mark-up of the House
Tri-Committee health care bill from yesterday to today at 10 am.
They
forced the Democratic leadership to meet with them to hear out
their concerns about the watering down of the public option in the
Tri-Committee bill.
However, the White House and the Democratic
leadership got worried, and started making phone calls to twist some
arms to make sure the progressives stay in line to swallow any crap.
This is where you come in. We NEED you to call
the progressives on our target list below to make sure they continue
to STAND UP for us on health care reform!
It's working. Your relentless phone calls are making
the difference. The progressive caucus is finally realizing it can stand
up for a real public option.
What does it
mean? We need to push harder than ever to get members to take
the pledge. Flood progressive members offices with calls and
ask them to
Take the Pledge to vote against any health care bill that doesn't have
a strong public option.
Also, since the mark-up on the Energy and Commerce
Committee is today at 10 a.m., we NEED you to call
the progressives on the committee since some of them may be wavering into
accepting the Blue Dog compromise. Tell them to offer amendments to
restore the public option!
Some supporters of the public plan on the committee
said they could live with the changes. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) said
the briefing of committee Democrats made her "more inclined to support"
the Blue Dog amendments.
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who serves on the
committee, said the compromise "eviscerates" the public plan.
And he's frustrated that the agreement was
presented to committee members as "take it or leave it."
But he still may vote for it, because he's
concerned that if the bill stalls in committee, House leaders will
simply bypass the committee. Engel
said he's undecided.
Please TELL Rep. Eliot Engel
NOT TO support the compromises by the Blue Dog
Democrats that weaken the public option, and ask him how he can support
the paring back of the subsidies for the middle class, the establishment
of fake state-based co-operatives which will do NOTHING
to reduce costs, and the weakening of the public option.
Here's Rep. Eliot Engel's phone number for you to
call:
CALL Rep.
Eliot Engel at
202-225-2464
And we have another target--Rep. Jan Schakowsky.
She's the one that ALWAYS leads the fold-in of the
progressives into accepting whatever shit sandwich comes out of the House,
like the weakened ACES bill, the
war supplemental vote, and other legislation that progressives were
forced to accept.
It's why the White House called her to twist her arms
into accepting the compromise from the Blue Dogs and convince her to
pressure the other progressives into accepting the same. Did
you know that Rep. Jan Schakowsky's in the charge of health policy for the
Congressional Progressive Caucus? It's why she's our big
target.
Please TELL Rep. Jan
Schakowsky NOT TO support the compromises by the
Blue Dog Democrats that weaken the public option, and ask her
HOW she can support the paring back of the subsidies for the
middle class, the establishment of fake state-based cooperatives which
will do NOTHING to reduce costs, and the weakening
of the public option.
CALL Rep.
Jan Schakowsky at
202-225-2111
We'll also NEED you to CALL the other Democrats on the Energy and Commerce
Committee below to ask them NOT TO support the
compromises by the Blue Dog Democrats that weaken the public option, the
paring back of subsidies for the middle class, and the establishment of
state-based cooperatives that do nothing to reduce costs.
And here's an e-mail from the Congressional
Progressive Caucus asking for more attendees to come to their press
conference at 2:30PM today. If you know anyone in the DC/MD/VA area, PLEASE GO to the press conference!
Today, the Energy and Commerce committee accepted a
compromise with the Blue Dogs which would have the effect of crippling
the public option. (As reported, it specifically makes it so that the
public option no longer pays Medicare+5%, but instead has to
individually negotiate rates with providers. In addition to dramatically
increasing the overall cost of reform, this has a big negative impact on
the public option’s ability to jumpstart operations.)
This compromise is in direct conflict with one of
the core tenets of the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s criteria for a
robust public option. The belief appears to be that the progressives
will once again just roll over.
Not this time. Not this fight.
Tomorrow afternoon, the CPC will be holding a press
conference in conjunction with their allied caucuses the CBC, CHC, and
CAPAC. They are going to draw a very clear line in the sand –
unambiguously and so brightly it’ll be seen all the way at the White
House. We need the largest crowd we can get at the press conference:
Thursday July 30, 2009
2:30 pm
At the triangle on the southeast side of the Capitol
This is the first real moment in which the
progressives inside of Congress are being tested for their resolve on
healthcare. And this is the most significant ask they’ve made of
progressives outside of Congress in the day-to-day fight.
Please help.
Can you also please help nyceve, Jane Hamsher, me,
and others in this fight for health reform by
donating to our fight?
PLEASE RECOMMEND THIS DIARY so others can see
the phone numbers and call today!
Want to fight back against the crappy "Fauc-us" so-called health reform bill
by Senator Baucus? We NEED you guys to put even more
pressure on the House today with your phone calls! We're going to
need the progressives, the Democratic leadership, and the chairs of the
Tri-Caucus to push back against any CRAPPY legislation that doesn't involve
a public option!
We need you to tell the Democratic leadership,
the White House, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and the Tri-Caucus to
STAND UP TO THE BLUE DOGS and to the Baucus "Fauc-us" health bill!
It's why we have to keep up with the phone calls today! Please CALL Speaker Pelosi, Hoyer, Clyburn, and the White House
with these talking points below! Remember, first thank them for supporting
the House Tri-Committee health care plan, and then tell them why they can't
go on vacation before dealing with health care reform, and NOT to support
the crappy Senate Finance legislation:
I'm calling to thank [Name of Member] for supporting the House
health care plan, and for supporting the public option and the national
insurance exchange. I don't want Congress to go on vacation
before they deal with the passage of health care reform! As an
American who's faced denials of claims and has been facing higher
insurance premiums, the public option and the national insurance exchange
is NECESSARY to hold down the costs of private
insurance and give us the kind of care we need. Please DO NOT
delay the passage of health care reform in the House. We need
you guys to stay in and work for us.Also, I've
been hearing that the Blue Dog Democrats want to cut back subsidies for my
family, that they want a fake state-based co-op plan, and have a trigger
on the national insurance exchange by having it as state-based insurance
exchanges at first.What they want is unacceptable
for me and my family. Don't give into their demands. I'm an
American who needs the choice of the national insurance exchange and the
public option.
CALL Speaker Nancy Pelosi at
(202)
225-4965
and try her local office at
(415)
556-4862
if you can't get through.
CALL House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at
(202)
225-3130
CALL House Majority Whip James Clyburn at
(202)
226-3210
July 23 PST
ITEM: I've
been writing more over at my
new post of Pittsburgh Progressive Examiner because I have to submit three
to five posts a week. I'm still not as productive as Atrios. But I tend to get
better with time. We'll see.
Here's one recent headline. Keep in mind
that while you can't participate in Thursday's noon rally you can still tweet
and/or facebook our very legitimate Democratic Party Senator Arlen Specter and
urge him to stop the gutting of the Clean Air Act.
I had no idea that the Clean Air Act
actually needed saving but apparently its in some trouble. It looks like
that underwhelming climate change bill would actually weaken Clean Air Act
protections. Tell me again, as a lifelong and loyal democratic party member,
how the dems in charge will make things better?
First, from the Huffington Post.
Here's the title:
MoveOn.org, which drove support for the bill in its early
stages, has now shifted its focus. Rather than using its weight to propel it
through the House, the group is hammering the bill for gutting the Clean Air
Act. Log onto its homepage and the
first message sent your way is a warning that the "current version of the
energy bill would repeal a key part of the Clean Air Act -- revoking Obama's
authority to crack down on global warming pollution from dirty coal plants."
The language causing the heat comes in section 311 of the bill: "No standard
of performance shall be established under section 111" -- the section of the
Clean Air Act that regulates coal-fired plants -- "for capped greenhouse gas
emissions from a capped source unless the Administrator determines that such
standards are appropriate because of effects that do not include climate
change effects."
In
other words, no carbon regulation.
"We need that authority to go back and clean up these old
coal plants and the current bill would repeal, in large measure, that
authority," said Josh Dorner, a Sierra Club spokesman.
Democracy for American thinks you
should tell Attorney General Eric holder to prosecute Bush administrations
officials.
Recently, Newsweek broke big news. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder may be on
the verge of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate cases of torture
from the Bush era.
This
is a major step in the right direction. If we hope to ever hold Bush or Cheney
or Karl Rove accountable for their reckless disregard of the Constitution, we
need the Attorney General to get the process started.
The
problem is there's enormous political pressure to sweep the past under the
rug. The fact Attorney General Holder is sending signals that he may move
forward despite this pressure shows real courage. But courage alone is not
enough. We need action. Attorney General Holder needs to hear from you.
ITEM: Obama is starting to fight hard for real healthcare reform and
its about fucking time. Remember:
2012 is
looking like a nightmare of record level unemployment. His climate change
bill won't
change the climate and worse it won't create enough green jobs. And as
I predicted, EFCA
is being weakened as we speak. I'm trying to figure out how he wins
reelection if he pisses off the average worker, the environmental movement and
labor. The answer is "he can't" unless he passes historic healthcare reform
which improves the well being of every single American. Its his only shot.
I also like the fact that he's running this ad below in
Pittsburgh and other key blue dog spots throughout the country.
It targets both Jason Altmire, who has not come out in favor
of
an immediate public option probably because his former job title was that of
"insurance lobbyist" and John Murtha
who signed that horrible dems pro life petition against health care reform.
(See...You have a bill that would, according to the Senate HELP committee,
insure up to 97.3 percent of Americans, save and insure perhaps one third of the
nation or over 100 million people who are uninsured or underinsured, not to
mention ease suffering and misery and hardship throughout the nation so you
oppose it because you're...Pro Life? I mean, can I have a WTF from the audience
please...?) (Note all the Pennsylvania
dems and Marcy Marcy Marcy Kaptur...how could you have signed that?)
More of this "Battlin' Barrack", please. ("He's Battlin'...!")
ITEM: I keep forgetting to post this but the Regional
Monitoring Equity Project, an outlet of BPEP that's actually watching and
wondering where all that stimulus money is going and if it actually benefits
disadvantaged communities, has a meeting Wednesday night at the Hill House. If
you want to keep up to date on what they've been doing check
out the website here. I have
caught the last two Jake Wheatley meetings at the state level about where the
stimulus dollars are going and judging from those hearings it looks as if the
stimulus monies will reach, possibly, hundreds of black hands, which isn't
nearly enough to make a dent in unemployment or joblessness rates. More black
people probably benefit from the lottery. But I could have read those meetings
wrong. I'm going to email Jake and ask him to forward me his final report.
July 13
ITEM: I think the E Rocket bike is a
winner though expensive. Like the British announcer said "Was keen on it until I
heard the price." But the $40000 price would come down once it was mass
produced. It looks like there's less there than in motorcycles or mopeds. It
would end up costing in the 2000 dollar range. It looks like a fantastic ride.
It apparently amplifies your pedaling power by a factor of 50. Wow. How does it
do that? I guess this is the kind of product that I wish was being built in the
U S of A.
July 10th PST
ITEM: Sorry for the long breaks
between formal posts, although I am posting at other places oddly enough. I'm
just not always posting here. I also have a space problem which I'm trying to
figure out. Even though my provider gives me 12 gigs I'm limited to 200
megabytes with this old server they have me on. I can switch to a better server
but the last time I did that with Majic 12 the site was down for about a week
and I'm not sure if redirects would even work. So I'm trying to figure out my
next move. I should decide within the next week or so.
ITEM: I think I've used this before as a holiday item. That's because its
cool.
ITEM: New youtube hero puts July 4th and the healthcare battle in
perspective:
July 3rd
ITEM: I should get
one of these bracelets. Two
stunning pro public option ads came to my attention the other day. One is by
MoveOn which is raising money to put this on the airwaves. Out here on the
Internets, of course, we can provide your artificial progressive consensual
reality free and easy.
And this guy Lee Stranahan, an uninsured guy who's taking on
the insurance industry, does fantastic progressive ads. Check
out his whole page.
June 26 PST
ITEM:
I've looked deep into my soul and I have nothing
pertinent or interesting to say about the deaths of Michael Jackson or Farrah
Fawcett. She was never my favorite angel anyway. I liked the smart one. I am
guessing that if you look elsewhere you may find some news about those people.
July 3rd
ITEM: I should get
one of these bracelets. Two
stunning pro public option ads came to my attention the other day. One is by
MoveOn which is raising money to put this on the airwaves. Out here on the
Internets, of course, we can provide your artificial progressive consensual
reality free and easy.
And this guy Lee Stranahan, an uninsured guy who's taking on
the insurance industry, does fantastic progressive ads. Check
out his whole page.
June 26 PST
ITEM:
I've looked deep into my soul and I have nothing
pertinent or interesting to say about the deaths of Michael Jackson or Farrah
Fawcett. She was never my favorite angel anyway. I liked the smart one. I am
guessing that if you look elsewhere you may find some news about those people.
June 24 PST
ITEM: I really liked John Platz's
Flatz's photos of Pittsburgh, which I saw at the Three Rivers Arts Festival.
You can
find his website here.
ITEM: Two new healthcare blogs that report on the
public option.
Healthcare for America Now and
PA Health Access Network
Related: Yesterday I hurt my ankle (true story). My choices were to walk it
off or risk spending up to a thousand dollars in some emergency care room. So,
and here's where the drama kicks in....wait for it...I chose walking it off!
This has been another exciting chapter in the book that is known as "Living
Without Healthcare".
ITEM: Its Battle of the Vids time. Which insurance
sketch is funnier? Can anyone stop Monty Python and Mr. Devious? Why am I doing
almost whole posts composed of nothing but questions? No, really...why?
vs. Firecare
June 23 PST
A Late Tuesday Night/Wednesday
Morning Around the Internets
ITEM: One of the reasons I'm not crying about dead
newspapers is that they're completely ineffective about reporting about the
really important things. Last time I checked I couldn't even find an editorial
about the public option at the "liberal" paper the Post Gazette. Also, see if
the Post Gazette has done any reporting on something called ""The Anti
Counterfeiting Trade Agreement". Truth be told the corporate media isn't really
allowed to write critically about these trade deals--e.g.,
NAFTA or the WTO-- that
essentially supersede and undermine our sorry excuse for a democracy. I suppose,
like in many other areas, if I want to really learn about something then I
should look on the Internet, while that's still legal of course.
Glyn sez, "The Anti Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement [ed: a secret, non-UN treaty that rich countries are cooking
up that will criminalize copyright infringement, sending non-commercial
file-sharers to prison; authorize border guards to search your hard-drive and
personal electronics for copyright infringements; and require governments to
give media giants the power to decide who should and shouldn't have Internet
access, without having to prove anything in a court of law] has been making
its way in secret for some time, a coalition of consumer groups have now
demanded that the text of the directive be made public.
For example, even though our government has
shown some restraint by not just criminalizing file trading (probably because
the worst infringers are rich white college kids...gawd help us all if
infringement was something only poor black kids did...) and there was a great
French court decision calling the use of the Internet a human right, you might
still find yourself in jail for downloading music or tv videos if this trade
agreement goes into effect.
ITEM: Above: Very talented
artist named Kana who I saw at the Three River Arts Festival.
Below: Funny political cartoon about Iran. What's not
so funny is while its kind of cool to see people fight back you're not really
sure if this will end well. You have to sustain national strikes and protests
for...how long actually? Weeks? How do you live while you do that? The truly
horrible thing about the stolen presidential elections of 2000 and 2004--aside
from the fact that our window to stop climate change may have closed and that
he's succeeding in killing us all--is that its given a blank check to every thug
and junta on earth to do the same thing. We've seen several dicey elections in
Africa from the usual suspects. The last national election in Mexico appeared to
be stolen. Their posture seems to be "Yeah, we stole it...what are you going to
do about it? Vote harder...?"
Because what can decent people do? Iran is now busy arresting
protesters and preparing show trials no doubt. There really isn't an alternative
except counter force. Are you prepared to face down soldiers and policemen? Its
quite clear, at least in this country and no doubt Iran, that they're quite
prepared to shoot you. How many martyrs will it take? With that said, I wish the
Iranian people luck. Perhaps they will fight for something worthwhile and get
it. It has been known to happen on the rare occasion.
ITEM: What you can do to fight for a public option for
healthcare. From MoveOn:
Dear MoveOn member,
Health care reform is in trouble in the Senate.
Conservatives in Congress, including some Democrats, are trying to kill
Obama's public health insurance option not by opposing it outright, but by
pushing weak half-measures and calling them "public plans."1 The latest is a
proposal for small, regional "co-ops" that would have no chance of competing
against insurance companies to bring costs down.2
If we act immediately, we have a good shot at defeating ploys like the
"co-op." The key is to make it clear that we support a strong public health
insurance option and lay out exactly what that means.
Click below and we'll fax a flier in your name (for free!) to Sens. Casey and
Specter that sets the bar for a strong public health insurance option. Faxes
come directly into the office, so staffers are guaranteed to see them. And if
enough of us send faxes, staffers will pass the flier on to their senator.
It's up to us to remind our senators that an overwhelming majority of
Americans—83%—supports a public health insurance option,3 and that weak
half-measures like the "co-op" plan are no substitute for real reform.
The flier says: "A strong public health insurance option must be part of
health care reform this year," and outlines key criteria that a plan must be
based upon:
* Available to all of us: A strong public health insurance option should be
available to anyone who chooses to participate. If you like your current plan,
you can keep it; if you want to participate in the public health insurance
plan, you can choose that.
* A national plan with real bargaining clout: In order to truly control costs
and compete with private health insurance plans, a strong public health
insurance option must be available nationwide.
* Ready on day one: Every day we wait on real reform, health care costs
continue to rise. A strong public health insurance option with a broad network
of providers right out of the gate is key to building a competitive program
that will help control costs.
* A truly public plan: To ensure it's held to the highest standards of
accountability, a public health insurance option must be truly publicly
run—accountable and transparent to Congress and to voters.
If thousands of us send faxes to Senate offices this week, we can make sure
that message is heard loud and clear. Can you fax Sens. Casey and Specter
today? Click below and we'll send one for you:
http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=FSPA_2.FSPA_1&cp_id=967&id=16427-3053238-Iqn5plx&t=4
Thanks for all that you do.
–Patrick S., Kat, Justin, Wes, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "A Public Health Plan," The New York Times, June 21, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51519&id=16427-3053238-Iqn5plx&t=5
2. "A co-op for the public option? Let's talk principles," The Now! Blog, June
12, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51498&id=16427-3053238-Iqn5plx&t=6
3. "New Poll Shows Tremendous Support for Public Health Care Option," Blog for
Our Future, June 15, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51510&id=16427-3053238-Iqn5plx&t=7
What Should Have Been Published
June 18th
ITEM: This is from Aimee Manion,
a fellow IUPer (I went there for four years but never graduated...) who was at
last week's Art Festival. And
she's cute, too.
ITEM: I've been unable to post because I've been trying to get my high
speed FIOs connection fixed. So far, I've spent about an hour and a half on the
phone and I've failed to get anyone to help me with anything. I spent an hour
Thursday waiting online before speaking to a live person. This live person
couldn't identify me by my online account number and I was promptly
disconnected. I then called later that night and messed around for a half hour
only to find out that their hours for answering that kind of call were over. The
service has been fantastic and there hasn't been a single outage in about six
months but their support is terrible. They seem determined to make it a Hellish
unbearable ordeal. I'll keep at it.
June 14th PST
ITEM: I'll be featuring the best artists (IMHO) I saw at the Three
Rivers Arts Festival all this week.
This is Mr. Hooper.
He's from Nashville. Looks like he's ready for the
cover of Juxtapoz.
ITEM: Healthcare, for me, will be the defining moment of the Obama
administration. If he manages to pass a strong health care bill with a public
option--and not some mealy mouthed coop plan or an option made worthless by a 7
year to infinity "trigger"--then I think he'll be reelected. Right now, he's
doing terribly on the entirety of the Big Three, or Four if you read Glenn
Greenwald's constant and irritating reports about Barry's "no snitchin' " policy
when it comes to Republican war crimes. The Big Three include healthcare, EFCA
and a real climate change bill. His climate change bill, which I canvassed on
several weeks ago while waving around John Fetterman's picture on a flyer,
simply won't get it done as it was written as it passed out of Waxmen's US House
committee. Today, there was an AP report that he's considering Kent Conrad's
coop idea so he can get bipartisan support. Look, the goal of the government
isn't to be bipartisan. It's to pass a bill that provides a real health care
alternative to upwards of 40 million Americans. Chris Bowers wrote the
definitive piece on this topic here. I don't want to get "along" with or
"work" with the Republicans. They're an evil party. You're an evil party, by the
way, when you always frak over the public interest on behalf of rich fatcats.
That's the very definition of the Republican Party. Turns out, though, that may
be a lot of democrats as well. We've always suspected the Blue Dogs and Ben
Nelsons of the world but I was kind of hoping the President would be on my side.
So far, not so much.
The Big Payoff for the president if he were to pass real health care reform
is that it almost guarantees his reelection. For example, I'm not happy with a
lot of the president's policies but could I afford to vote against him if I had
real healthcare? No I couldn't. The reason why I couldn't is that I know that if
the Republicans were to retake the White House their first order of business
would be destroying meaningful health care reform. That's the nature of the
Scorpion. There would be upwards of 40 million previously uninsured Americans
just like me who simply couldn't afford a Democratic Party loss.
Here's the worst case scenario: Obama fails to pass meaningful health care
reform. His climate change bill passes congress but it not only doesn't help the
climate but there would be no incentives--as environmentalists have argued--to
actually create "green jobs." Zippo. They won't be building wind turbines in
Braddock because the utility companies will have no incentive to do so. Third,
well, if he punts on both climate change and healthcare we can imagine how hard
he'll fight for a meaningful EFCA bill. Not much. Keep in mind that Penny
Pritzker, billionaire benefactor and rainmaker, has
already been reported to oppose EFCA because she happens to be a hotel
magnate, who benefits from keeping the hotel "help" reliably under a Living
Wage. And don't get me started on Barry's "no snitchin" policy on Republican War
Crimes.
(You know, the really interesting thing about Barry's "no snitchin" policy is
that Republican judges--which dems never seem to block--can actually abide by
the constitution and screw Obama's presidency at the same time. Read Greenwald's
point five.)
If that worst case scenario comes to pass and if he's 0 for 4 on those
important issues, then I don't see how he gets reelected. I think he might even
have a problem getting the nomination again. I would be looking at my options
during the primaries... Dick "the banks run this town" Durbin would be nice...
Related: Bill Maher sums it up nicely. "This is not what I voted for."
The American Medical Association
came out against a public option for healthcare. The President has reaffirmed
his support for it. The next weeks will show what Obama is made of -- whether
he's willing and able to take on the most formidable lobbying coalition he has
faced so far on an issue that will define his presidency.
And make no mistake: A public
option large enough to have bargaining leverage to drive down drug prices and
private-insurance premiums is the defining issue of universal healthcare. It's
the only way to make healthcare affordable. It's the only way to prevent
Medicare and Medicaid from eating up future federal budgets. An ersatz public option -- whether
Kent Conrad's non-profit cooperatives, Olympia Snowe's "trigger," or regulated
state-run plans -- won't do squat.
The last president to successfully
take on the giant healthcare lobbies was LBJ. He got Medicare and Medicaid
enacted because he weighed into the details, twisted congressional arms,
threatened and cajoled, drew lines in the sand, and went to war against the
AMA and the other giant lobbyists standing in the way.
The question now is how much LBJ is in Barack Obama.
The big guns are out and they're
firing. All major lobbying firms in Washington -- many of them brimming with
ex-members of Congress -- are now crawling all over the Hill. Lots of money is
on the table. AMA's political action committee has contributed $9.8 million to
congressional candidates since 2000, and its lobbying arm is one of the most
formidable on the Hill. Meanwhile, Big Insurance and Big Pharma are increasing
their firepower. The five largest private insurers and their trade group
America's Health Insurance Plans spent a total of $6.4 million on lobbying in
the first quarter of this year, up more than $1 million from the first quarter
last year, and are spending even more now. United Health Group spent $1.5
million in the first quarter, up 34 percent from the $1.1 million it spent in
the first quarter last year. Aetna spent $809,793 between January and the end
of March, up 41 percent from last year. Pfizer, the world's biggest drugmaker,
spent more than $6.1 million on lobbying between January and March, more than
double what it spent last year. It also spent nearly $3.3 million lobbying in
the fourth quarter of 2008. Every one of them is upping their spending.
Some congressional Democrats are
willing and able to stand up to this barrage. Many are not. They need cover
from the White House.
The President can't do this alone.
You must weigh in and get everyone you know to weigh in, too. Bombard your
senators and representatives. Organize and mobilize others. And let the White
House know how strongly you feel. This is one of those battles that define a
presidency. But more importantly, it's one of those battles that define the
state of American democracy.
PLEASE CALL the White House and let President Obama
know that you don't want him to consider the "7-year trigger" for the public
option. Let him know that you're ANGRY that he's doing this. Tell him it won't
be REAL health care reform without an immediately available, strong, robust
Medicare-like public option.
CALL the White House at:
202-456-1111
and E-MAIL them as well!
PLEASE CALL these Senators on the Senate Finance
Committee today to demand a strong, robust affordable Medicare-like public
option. Here's a list of talking points below:
Tell Senator [Name] that you DO NOT want the
7-year trigger for the public option and take it off the table, and that you
want him to support an affordable strong, robust Medicare-like public option.
We NEED a strong, robust Medicare-like public option NOW OPEN TO ALL AMERICANS
AND AFFORDABLE, not more of the SAME broken system that's given us
unaffordable premiums, little private insurance coverage, and rising co-pays.
Also, DON'T TAX OUR EMPLOYER HEALTH BENEFITS. Instead, follow the proposal by
President Obama to tax the wealthy above $250,000, eliminate the overpayments
in Medicare Advantage, and put tax capital gains to help fund health care
reform.
Please CALL Senator Max Baucus at
(202)
224-2651 Please CALL Senator Charles Schumer at
202-224-6542 Please CALL Senator Edward Kennedy at
(202)
224-4543 Please CALL Senator John Rockefeller at
(202)
224-6472 Please CALL Senator Ron Wyden at
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She
did leave behind, as one writer put it at her web forum, a large amount of
stunning work. Broadcast is one of the reasons that I started the Acid Jazz
Channel. I wanted to showcase bands that I thought were producing really good
work but weren't getting any airplay or videoplay. I've never seen a Broadcast
video on MTV for example. But we will always have her music to remember her
with.
Download
Big
Boy Icon/Astro Boy hairdo but she's clearly talented. Its like Fishbone had a
daughter. She's also consciously science fictional, as seen by her appearance
in Stargate Universe of all places. I just never heard a song of hers that
caught my fancy. Until now. I really love this video. It also has a nice
science-fictional feel to it.
admin 
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statesman
of stature. Someone had asked him a legitimate question about his record and
he showed, I thought, a disturbing flash of anger that reminded me of
Montgomery Burns of Simpson's fame. It just seemed quite unseemly. That wasn't
a guy who would get my vote, at least for 10 seconds anyway. For the record, I
also thought Specter's 2nd worst moment was when he danced around ending the
filibuster in the senate. It was clear that he hadn't an answer or more than
likely didn't want to end the Senate's powergrab supermajority. He should have
said either yes or no. He kind of danced around and didn't really answer the
guy's question. Here's a question for Sestak: "Would Specter support the
nuclear option in the senate if it meant passing a public health care plan
that had a public option? Or any other meaningful legislation?".jpg)
just didn't look ready for primetime as a professional political speaker.
Politicians have to speak well, especially if they're being outspent by a
zillion dollars. He also had the worst moment of the night when answering a
question about Marijuana legalization. First, he said, and I'm paraphrasing,
that he would continue to lock people up for the crime. But he also spoke
about the "Drug Menace" and seemed to imply that Crack and Heroin and
Marijuana were somehow equal things when in fact they're clearly not. No one
is arguing that Crack has medicinal value.And the more he spoke about how
evil the evil drugs were, kind of like that "Drugs are bad mmmmkay" guy on
South Park, the audience started to reply with boos and some low level
hissing. I just don't see him winning the nomination.
