Think about it; meditate; daven: it is plain and simple.
Support Steve Raby for the Fifth in Alabama.
I will vote for him and I will campaign for him. I will campaign for him with enthusiasm, for I have seen the Rottweiler in the other party and he is apparently an abused pit bull sick and disturbed.
The Republican Party base works to expel moderates and conservatives. Yeah, you read me correctly, “expel moderates and conservatives.”
Those groups on the right you and they may spuriously call conservative are not. They are a mix of racists, neo conservatives (war mongers and imperialists), social conservatives (majorities over rights), religious zealots (they talk to god and she answers), war mongers (repeated so you remember) all guided by corporatists who make profit from folk whose atavistic human impulses they manipulate.
In the Democratic Party we have folk right and left, and many more graduated between.
Sometimes stories happen because of planning; other times serendipity intervenes, which is how we got to the conversation we’ll be having today.
In an exchange of comments on the Blue Hampshire site, I proposed an idea that could be of real value to unions, workers...and surprisingly, employers.
If things worked out correctly, not only would lots of people feel a real desire to have unions represent them, but employers would potentially be coming to unions looking to forge relationships, and, just to make it better, this plan bypasses virtually all of the tools and techniques employers use to shut out union organizers.
Since I just thought this up myself, I’m really not sure exactly how practical the whole thing is, and the last part of the discussion today will be provided by you, as I ask you to sound off on whether this plan could work, and if so, how it could be made better.
It’s a new week...so let’s all put our heads together and rebuild the labor movement, shall we?
I am here unhealthy drunk on, a bottle of Vitiano 2008, a wine peppery and bawdy, while I watch Netroots on C-span, and really glad to hear Senator Al Franken. He may occupy the seat of smartest, humane senator in the senate. I liked him on Saturday Night Live, but I like him more in the senate.
My progression to progressive so subtle that I didn’t notice. There are still a few good ideas from the right, except no one on the right says them in public. In fact, some folk on the left state them, which proves them more thoughtful than most folk on the right. The right will not accept any ideas expressed on the left even if the original source is on the right.
I grade President Obama low, perhaps a C plus, but must confess that what he got us is better than before. Much better, I confess. Republicans’ grade, F minus. Their grade is that high, and not lower, because of Senators Collins, Snowe, Brown, and Graham. Yes, Lindsey.
I’m drunk so my brain wanders.
“ * This year, children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied health insurance coverage. “ * This year, health care plans will allow young people to remain on their parents' insurance policy up until their 26th birthday. “ * This year, insurance companies will be banned from dropping people from coverage when they get sick, and they will be banned from implementing lifetime caps on coverage. “ * This year, adults who are uninsured because of pre-existing conditions will have access to affordable insurance through a temporary subsidized high-risk pool. “ * This year, small businesses that choose to offer coverage will begin to receive tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums to help make employee coverage more affordable. “ * This year, new private plans will be required to provide free preventive care: no co-payments and no deductibles for preventive services. “ * This year, early retirees will have help in the form of a temporary re-insurance program to help offset the costs of expensive premiums for employers and retirees age 55-64. “ * This year, seniors who fall into the Medicare Part D 'donut hole' coverage gap will receive a $250 rebate to help pay for prescription drugs.“
Now this last is stupid. $250.00 dollars does not really fix the problem; the remedy is to change the law so that the donut hole does not exist.
Alabamans I am drunk but you may be stupid!
I will awake tomorrow with a hangover.
You will not awake from your atavistic stupor, unless you decide to vote for folk who advocate for you, for your self interest.
Your hangover is that you live in the daily stupor that you have lived in for decades, and you will be poorer, your children poorer, and the country declines a little bit more.
Simple honest speech, courteous and kind has not worked. I call you stupid. You vote against your interest.
Go to the links above and read the actual features of the health care bill. Use the intelligence that a long line of hominids evolved, died, extincted themselves, to produce you.
I usually limit myself to one shot of Knob Creek or Booker’s, one glass of wine, one glass of Takara Plum wine, one bottle of Guinness Stout or Pilsner, or one shot of Laphroaig 25 year old. Tonight I get really drunk for the first time in two decades because I am confused by the acts of Alabamans.
Why do you vote against your self interest?
Why do you vote for Alabama Republicans?
If you lived in Maine, I could understand a vote for Senator Collins or Senator Snowe, but you live in Alabama and you vote for Alabama Republicans.
There has been some progress, Alabamans are the second fattest, second to Mississippi.
Total Itemized Contributions † $10,404,293 25 Total to Democrats $3,347,264 27 Percent to Democrats 32.2% 42 Total to Republicans $6,969,362 20 Percent to Republicans 67.0% 10
I am too drunk to go fetch for you the donors to the Democrats and Republicans. I amaze myself that I can still type.
There is some ferment in me besides wine.
Why do you vote for Senator Sessions and Shelby; they vote in the senate to starve and impoverish you.
Why do you vote for Republicans?
I am drunk and my hangover will last an hour or so next morn.
Your hangover will last for decades.
“Qui bibit, dormit; qui dormit, non peccat; qui non peccat, sanctus est; ergo qui bibit sanctus est.” I guess I’m a progressive saint now.
******************************************* Next morn. I’m sober. No hangover, perhaps because I hydrate. I should edit what I wrote last night. Naahhh.
The climate bill blame game has begun. When I first started writing this post about the so-called death of the climate bill, I literally pointed the finger at just about everyone, including myself. The anger poured out, and I was frank in my assessment as well as unforgiving in the motives behind this latest setback.
After I was done with my self-loathing tantrum, the kids ran in the door from camp and I was swept up in the lovely reality of my family's banter. It is summer, so the pace in our home is a bit more relaxed in the evening. We aren't quite as quick to rush through dinner, toss the kids in a bath, and then march them off to bed. Ice cream and extra cuddles are relished, and I am reminded each year at this time why I do this job.
Later, after progeny were tucked in, I went back to my draft blog post to spruce it up. I reread my rage, disappointment, and irrational ramblings and was embarrassed. And I asked myself "What good is all this blame going to do?"
At the end of the day, it is my kids - and your kids - who lose when we implode. If you think kids have a lot to say about their parents now on Dr. Phil, can you imagine what our children will say in 50 years should we fail to get our act together?
The country should be ready for this. The facts are on our side. As we witness the worst industry-caused environmental catastrophe in our history, the worst coal mining disaster in 40 years, and sweat through the hottest first 6 months of any year on record, it is clear that there's never been a more urgent time to move forward with a smart clean energy and climate plan.
It's been a while since we had to have a real heart-to-heart, the Obama Administration and I, and last time it was because Rahm Emanuel had been a bit snippy toward those of us who are carrying the water for this Administration.
We need to have another one of those conversations today; this time the circumstances are a lot more positive-in fact, if the Administration follows my suggestions here, we have a real chance to put the Democrats on the road to victory, not just this November, but also in 2012.
What I'm proposing will create hundreds of thousands, if not millions of jobs, and it will stimulate millions more as we create a national source of discount electrical power that can be used by business and consumers alike.
Here's the best part: it's no "pie in the sky" promotion I'm offering here; we've already done the same thing before, it's been working out well for almost three quarters of a century...and even better than all that...my idea first pays for itself, and then...it actually makes the Federal Government a profit, forever after.
As is often the case, the "mainstream" media nowadays is pushing a "conventional wisdom" line that has only one major problem – it’s largely or completely wrong. In this case, the "wisdom" is that voting for limits on carbon pollution is bad politics. The polling indicates it’s far more complicated than that.
For instance, the latest CBS/NY Times poll indicates that nearly 90% of Americans believe U.S. energy policy needs either "fundamental changes’ or "to be completely rebuilt," while 97% of Americans are "angry" or "bothered" by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Those percentages hardly appear to indicate a status quo, "conventional wisdom" electorate on this issue, or an automatic political downside to making fundamental changes in U.S. energy policy.
Perhaps that is why, when you actually look at the 17 Democrats up for reelection this year (Bayh, Bennet, Boxer, Burris, Dodd, Dorgan, Feingold, Gillibrand, Inouye, Leahy, Lincoln, Mikulski, Murray, Reid, Schumer, Specter, Wyden) and subtract out those retiring (Bayh, Burris, Dodd, Dorgan) or defeated in a primary (Specter), you find that the vast majority – all except for Blanche Lincoln - are in favor of climate and energy legislation. Let’s take a look.
I don't write many diaries these days since I have so much to do in preparation for relocation, but I cross-posted this one here and on my own blog.
Apparently on Tuesday the South Carolina Democratic voters have shown why there isn't any Democrats or progressives on the ballot to challenge seating U.S. Senate Jim "Demented" DeMint (google the son-of-b*tch and see why I call him "demented").
I miss them good old days when white folk at least said, nigra. I’m sentimental for them good old days. Maybe I will go out and buy a banjo today.
One noticeable tack of some Republican argument in the election is to oppose that nigger in the White House. They substitute liberal and socialist for the image that soils their lily brains, nigger.
I almost wish that they could just say it aloud. It’s allowed, protected constitutionally.
I won’t even cut them with my switchblade or burn down my own neighborhood.
Who do I fool? I live in an tame integrated neighborhood with enough white folk to gentle the dark ones.
I’m the only rough neck here, my thuggery intellectual or bombastic, and subliminally seductive.
I expect Republican party to harbor evil ships of fools. I expect them to believe that one uppity nigger, or one renegade white nigger lover will bring down Anglo Saxon civilization.
I don’t expect that from Democrats, but got that almost (almost) the other day when one accused me of jeopardizing the whole Democrat agenda because I mentioned one minor MINOR reason I supported a candidate. Lil old me has the power to crash the hopes of the Democratic party.
I’m not a Democrat yet, save in my brain. I haven’t been to a meeting yet. I haven’t signed the pledge to thwart the attempts of the gentle Angles and Saxons to take back their country. Take it back from that, that...in the White House.
Perhaps the Cats will forgive my use of it since to too many Republicans (and a few Democrats) I’m just another nigger too, one who writes once pristine western civilization to degradation.
I add that phrase, “Take back our country,” to the list of phrases that compel me to load my flintlock, leave it by the door. It competes with “the good old days” for number one on my list of phrases that warn me of danger.
I have to take back my country one day from the one in which Tomtom Jefferson beat out such lofty ideals that he couldn’t live by: back to the country that existed before the big bang when niggers behaved.
My granny was a Republican, her son a Democrat. The elder hated the southern Democrats and all Democrats; the son knew the complexities. Bob Jones for example got the black vote as far as I know. Senator Sparkman was not demonized by my pa.
Among Democrats the allies of black folk were the politicians who didn't immediately want to lynch you.
Most of your ancestors, even close ones, your grandparents for example, committed moral sins of commission, more often sins of omission.
In the fifties and sixties Democrats inhabited the more racist party in an America more racist than now. Check the vote percentages for the 64 Civil Rights Act.
Even if Senator Sparkman was a member of the Klan, it does not tarnish his grandson, and it doesn't lead me to demonize him. I don't excuse the behaviour, but I understand it. Humans are distinguished, set apart from the other animal by opposable thumb, higher intelligence, self awareness, and the uncanny ability to become arse holes.
If I avoided the friendship of folk who have or had some racist tinge in their attitudes and behaviour, I'd have no friends.
I have friends who were Klan members, but now have seen the dark. And it has become a beacon in the glare.
It seems that many of those who are regular guests of this space are committed to a worldview based on some degree of reason and rationality.
That’s a handy thing if the “Covert Alarm Locator Apparatus” in your Isaac Daniel® Compass Global 1000 GPS sneakers should happen to fail and you need to find your way back to where the rest of us are; sadly, not all voters are equipped with such a helpful worldview.
Luckily for them, there are lots of conservative “mouth organs” ready to fill the “information gap”.
They send out lots of emails every day, spreading their Word, and as a public service I receive several of them; this to help keep track of just what’s out there, exactly.
If you ever wondered why otherwise normal people believe some of the craziest things about “Obama’s Secret Death Care And National Virgin Sacrifice Program”, have a look at some of the things I get every single day, and it might all make a bit more sense.
LANGUAGE WARNING: Today’s story is uncharacteristically blunt, and from this moment forward we will be using lots of inappropriate language in making our points.
It is by now fairly well known that Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, had a bit of a blow-up with liberals who were ready to start running ads against “blue dog” Democrats who were working very hard to shut down the health care reform effort.
Now we’re not gonna get in the middle of that argument today; instead, since we’re finally getting a chance to talk, I figured me and Rahm could get a few other things out of the way that have been on everyone’s mind for the past year or so.
Joe Lieberman's giveaway to Connecticut insurance companies health care bill gets 33% support.
Stalin has a 37% favorability rating.
However... add the public option back to the bill and support for is soars to 59%.
My favorite question:
President Obama has said he favors a public health insurance option. Senator Joe Lieberman is widely credited with forcing Senate Democrats to take the public option off the table in order to win his vote. Do you think President Obama should have done more to pressure Lieberman to allow the public option to move forward?
YES
NO
NOT SURE
ALL
63%
29%
8%
Men
59%
34%
7%
Women
67%
24%
9%
Democrats
87%
10%
3%
Republicans
13%
76%
11%
Independents
72%
18%
10%
Look at those numbers for the coveted "Independent" vote!
In 2006, Karl Rove confidently predicted a Republican sweep - in defiance of poll numbers - calling his calculations "THE math." What kind of math is Harry Reid using? Not to mention the Democratic leadership and President Obama....
They're getting ready to pass a bill that barely a third of Americans support when they could instead pass real reform with a public option supported by 59%.
Hey, I wasn't a math major, but even I can see which is the better deal - both for the Democrats and for the country.
The political and societal 'what ifs' are some of the most interesting things that occur in modern times. What I'm talking about are the things in conventional wisdom or in scholarly thought are the things assumed not likely to occur. However, some of these things have been defeated due to circumstance or sheer luck, but it happened. Case and point, the Commonwealth of Virginia elected it first black governor with L. Douglas Wilder back in 1989 although just 7 years prior California failed doing the same with the candidacy of Tom Bradley thus we have the political theory known as the Bradley effect. Nevertheless, a Southern state was the first to actually elect self-identified black governor to its office.
We strive to be, if anything, a participatory space around here, and I’ve had a question come to my inbox that is very much deserving of our attention.
To make a long story short, our questioner wants to know why, on the one hand, despite the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, also known as the “stimulus”), unemployment in the construction industry continues to increase, and, on the other hand, why there is such a giant disparity, on a state-by-state basis, in the cost of saving a job?
They’re great questions, and, having done a bit of research, I think I have some cogent answers.
I've ranted about different factions and the infighting under the so called democratic big tent.
Frankly, I don't see how one can be both Conservative and a Democrat. Democrats are pro choice. Conservatives are pro life as long as it's in the womb. Democrats are pro equal rights and civil rights. Democrats are pro labor and pro union, Conservatives are pro-prayer in school and pro "traditional family". Conservatives favorite Congressmen are Jim Marshall and Jim Taylor, Democrats favorite Congressmen are John Lewis, Robert Wexler and Dennis Kuchinich.
I am very happy to be a BIG D democrat. However, we may be at our most vulnerable time and we must be very wise in how we position ourselves and how we move forward.
One thing I will say about Davis's candidacy, it is pitting democrat vs democrat, white vs black, conservative vs liberal, white progressives vs black progressives, pro choice vs anti choice, north AL vs south AL, rural voters vs urban voters. And some call me "divisive"? Go figure.
Alabama Democrats likely need more Populism and Progressivism from their Chairman than prayer and publishing.
The democratic party is not pure or perfect because it's been infiltrated by those who don't share democratic party principles or values. Candidates and elected officials feel free to take our money and our votes for granted and pander to those who might vote for them (or not) at the expense of those who have to vote for them because they have no where to go.
Bash and smear me all you want. You aren't hurting me. You're hurting our party and our country.
Links below the fold just in case the ones in the diary don't work.
Fortunately, I missed the live media coverage of the Traveling Teabagger Freak Show "Super Bowl of Freedom" yesterday, but this account of it in the Washington Post is truly choice:
In the front of the protest, a sign showed President Obama in white coat, his face painted to look like the Joker. The sign, visible to the lawmakers as they looked into the cameras, carried a plea to "Stop Obamunism." A few steps farther was the guy holding a sign announcing "Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds" [sic], accusing Obama of being part of a Jewish plot to introduce the antichrist.
But the best of Bachmann's recruits were a few rows into the crowd, holding aloft a pair of 5-by-8-foot banners proclaiming "National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau, Germany, 1945." Both banners showed close-up photographs of Holocaust victims, many of them children.
Immediately in front of this colorful scenery, various House Republicans signed autographs and shook hands with the demonstrators.
[...]
By the time it was over, medics had administered government-run health care to at least five people in the crowd who were stricken as they denounced government-run health care.
But Bachmann overlooked this irony as she said farewell to her recruits.
How much more of this does Harry Reid need to see? Has Holy Joe ("I think I'm the most important guy in the Senate") Lieberman been struck blind?
Paging Parker Griffith: too bad you aren't a psychiatrist because some of these people obviously need mental health care. Will you be proud to stand with them and vote against the Democratic bill? Will Bobby Bright be proud? How about Artur Davis?
The choice is yours. Give us a reason to vote for you, or we sit home. And you aren't going to make up the margins with conservative voters. They already know exactly who they're voting for, and it ain't you.
Republicans Robert F. McDonnell who is now Governor Elect, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and state Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, who is now Attorney General, Elect. As the washington post noted, "by some accounts, the three represent the most conservative Republican ticket to run in Virginia in many years."
The Rude Pundit breaks it all down as only The Rude Pundit can in The Rude Pundit Style. Warning, raw.
Forget what the assholes on TV are saying about the various elections and initiatives from last night. Who gives a shit what Michael Steele is crowing about?
Across the country, Democrats still hold 60 legislative chambers and control 55 percent of the nation's partisan legislative seats. Our current position remains a solid one heading into the final election before the Census and the next round of Congressional and legislative redistricting.
We've heard about selective prosecutions and political prosecutions under the George W. Bush Department of Justice. But the Alex Latifi case in Alabama can best be described as a "racial prosecution." And that makes it one of the ugliest Bush fiascoes of all.
So it's the day of the big speech, Mr. President, and we got trouble with a capital "T" right here in Health Care City.
What are you gonna do? Do we follow the traditional Democratic Party legislative process of passing...something...at any cost, assuming the entire time that the Left and the Netroots will "go along with the program", or is there a risk that the calculus doesn't work as well today as it did in 1994 and 1996?
Well, lucky for you, I'm a fake consultant, and I know a few things about your "target market", so before you answer that question...we need to talk.
T.H.E. Social Work Agency Adoption home studies & care management services in the North Alabama area.
Licensed, certified, caring social workers. blog advertising is good for you
