But I'll believe it when I see it. With Harry Reid at the helm, any threats made by the U.S. Senate toward the insurance industry have a slim chance of coming to fruition. But while we're talking about yanking the insurance industry's anti-trust exemption, why not include a provision to jerk the tax-exempt status of churches, synagogues, and mosques? Times are hard (except for those on Wall St.) and communities need all the help they can get.
Late for work ...
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The best explanation I've heard ...
About why Obama should have won the Nobel. Michael Moore via Maru:
I'm down wid dat.
...
The simple fact that he was elected was reason enough for him to be the recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Because on that day the murderous actions of the Bush/Cheney years were totally and thoroughly rebuked. One man -- a man who opposed the War in Iraq from the beginning -- offered to end the insanity. The world has stood by in utter horror for the past eight years as they watched the descendants of Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson light the fuse of our own self-destruction. We flipped off the nations on this planet by abandoning Kyoto and then proceeded to melt eight more years worth of the polar ice caps. We invaded two nations that didn't attack us, failed to find the real terrorists and, in effect, ignited our own wave of terror. People all over the world wondered if we had gone mad.
And if all that wasn't enough, the outgoing Joker presided over the worst global financial collapse since the Great Depression.
...
I'm down wid dat.
And ...
As if you didn't know, Tom Friedman is still an idiot.
...
More importantly, I thought we understood that this kind of adolescent, swaggering attitude turned out not to be the best way to deal with the rest of the world. I guess it's a sign of maturity that Friedman isn't advocating shock and awe this time, but it's clear he hasn't yet grokked the fact that the US can't rely on bombast and bombs to deal with foreign governments, legitimate or not.
Quote of the Day - Zwei
Athenae:
... It is entirely possible to hold in one's mind the idea that Obama is the best president we've had in a long time, and that he's not doing enough on X, Y or Z to move things along.
McDonald's At The Louvre
Thanks, YubaNet.
From the looks of the lady making the comment, her fries follow her wherever she goes too...
GOP Claims Olympia Snowe Was Born in Kenya
Andy Borowitz via YubaNet
Just moments after she broke with fellow Republicans and voted in favor of health care reform, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) came under fire from the GOP for allegedly lying about her nation of birth.
"This vote is going to raise suspicions, once again, that Sen. Snowe was born in Kenya," said GOP Chairman Michael Steele. "We demand that she prove, once and for all, that she is definitely not Kenyan."
Orly Taitz, leader of the so-called "birther" movement, said that Sen. Snowe's vote was "textbook Kenyan" behavior: "She's putting her tribe first."
Elsewhere, the Rev. Moon married 10,000 people, putting him slightly ahead of Liza Minnelli.
Ready to eat your face and scream
Mark Morford is talking about horror/apocalypse movies, and manages to talk about the far right in that context. As long as we have ignorant Repugs, I don't need to go see any horror movies.
As long as it's a massacree of us godless librul commie fucks, I guess. The christards have been willingly duped to twist the whole concept of what they claim to believe in into something that would horrify Jesus. Probably make a good horror movie.
I mean, we adore violence, mayhem, the id unleashed. We are eternally fascinated by our own decay and demise, enthralled by our most disturbing fantasies, everyone not so secretly wishing they really could turn into a zombie, vampire, werewolf or a hundred other misunderstood mutant monsters because, well, that's what we all like to think we are, right? Some noble, misunderstood beast? Hey, I get it.
What's more, fear is where the money is. Fear is where the power is. Who wants to hear a tale where everyone wakes up to their divine natures, where suddenly everyone in town starts channeling the Dalai Lama and no one steals anything or molests anyone or calls the president a commie socialist Nazi whilst humping their Bible and quoting their gun? Oh wait, that's backwards. Or not.
Even the laughable "Left Behind" series of apocalypse porn books written for undereducated Christian paranoids traffics in the same violence-drenched, juvenile chyme as your average dimestore horror flick. Turns out even Christian euphoria and enlightenment are bathed in gunfire and blood. After all, everyone knows Jesus loves nothing more than a good, flesh-rending massacre, right?
As long as it's a massacree of us godless librul commie fucks, I guess. The christards have been willingly duped to twist the whole concept of what they claim to believe in into something that would horrify Jesus. Probably make a good horror movie.
For Zappatistas
Article in LATimes.
Now there's a headline that catches your eye. Yes it turns out that late Frank Zappa, the restless musical genius who may have been the most committed inconoclast in the history of rock, was a pal to the late Jack Kirby, the cosmic dreamer who is arguably the second most essential figure in the history of the American comic book. (You have to put Superman at first.)
Quote of the Day
The first little bit of a good article by Robert Parry on the reasoning behind Obama's Nobel:
Last year, Barack Obama did something extraordinary for the cause of world peace. He built a campaign that wrested control of the U.S. government from a gang of duplicitous warmongers.
"If you need a goat f****d, CNN will do it!"
Funny and sad but true at the same time, Jon Stewart roasts CNN and by extension, cable 'news'.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| CNN Leaves It There | ||||
| ||||
Brings a whole new level ...
To the term "Eat Me". God, I love the French:
Paris Chocolate Fashion Show: feast for chocolate lovers
Irony and Satire are dead ...
Been saying it since the Chimp's first term. Even Gordon, our eternal optimist, has to label his satirical posts as such because people will believe they're real. Hey, the truth is more ironic than The Onion nowadays. To wit:
Sigh ...
...
"We're not going to be the party of angry white guys," [Self-hating closeted homosexual Sen. Lindsay] Graham told the irate, overwhelmingly Caucasian crowd, apparently ignoring the obvious irony of his directive.
...
Sigh ...
Great thanks to our pal UL for the link.
Is this where the line forms ...
To kiss Olympia Snowe's old white ass?
Is she a Democrat? No. Will she bring other Republican votes with her on the final health care bill? Probably (almost certainly) not.
Mr. Obama, one Republican vote, given so grudgingly, does not bipartisanship make. Fuck Olympia Snowe and all the Republicans (and their corporate puppeteers) and give the overwhelming majority of Americans what they want. A publicly supported health care program that is good and affordable.
President Obama appeared in the Rose Garden late Tuesday afternoon to hail the Senate Finance Committee's passage of a health-care overhaul bill - singling out Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Me.) for her "courage" and "seriousness of purpose."
...
Is she a Democrat? No. Will she bring other Republican votes with her on the final health care bill? Probably (almost certainly) not.
Mr. Obama, one Republican vote, given so grudgingly, does not bipartisanship make. Fuck Olympia Snowe and all the Republicans (and their corporate puppeteers) and give the overwhelming majority of Americans what they want. A publicly supported health care program that is good and affordable.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Light to none blogging today
A part broke on my motorcycle (Imagine that! It's only nine years old!) and I gotta go to Reno and get a replacement so I'll have a running bike until the snow flies. See yas later.
Yeah, why not?
Jill just had to have a procedure and after a successful outcome asks a question:
Fortunately, like Jill, the Mrs. and I have good health insurance. They've always been there to put me back together and the Mrs.' week-long stay (with surgery) in Sloan-Kettering a few years back would have bankrupted us (or brought us really close to the edge) were it not for our insurance.
There are many Americans one hospitalization, one surgical procedure, one emergency room visit away from financial ruin. We have people debating whether or not to allow undocumented immigrants die from their illnesses instead of someone paying to treat them.
For those taking the insurance companies' side in this, I have a question of my own: Where's your humanity?
With what the insurance companies spend ensuring their position and monopolies (don't forget, they lobby Congress all the time, not just when something of this much import to them is on the table), they could have insured everyone in America who needed it. It is disgraceful on both the insurance companies' part and those in Congress who enable them.
Jill agrees with me on another point:
American health care policy has become a form of legalized robbery, the same way defense contractors were allowed to loot the Treasury at the height of the Iraq War. It's time for guys like Harry Reid (and you too, Mr. President) to grow some nut and call it like it is. The insurance companies and their elected cohorts have traded their humanity for profit and campaign donations. It has to stop now.
...
I'm fortunate in that even if I do have to pay for it, it won't bankrupt me. I would guess that this is not the case for up to 90% of Americans. The difference between me and Republicans is that I ask "Why can't everyone have this", whereas Republicans say "I get my health care -- fuck you."
...
Fortunately, like Jill, the Mrs. and I have good health insurance. They've always been there to put me back together and the Mrs.' week-long stay (with surgery) in Sloan-Kettering a few years back would have bankrupted us (or brought us really close to the edge) were it not for our insurance.
There are many Americans one hospitalization, one surgical procedure, one emergency room visit away from financial ruin. We have people debating whether or not to allow undocumented immigrants die from their illnesses instead of someone paying to treat them.
...
There are six insurance company lobbyists for every member of Congress. These lobbyists have spent $380 million in the last few months buying the minds of American Idiots and the votes of Congresscritters so that their gravy train will keep on rolling. That's enough to pay the premiums for family coverage for over 29,000 families. Assuming $5000 per colonoscopy (WITH anesthesia), that's enough to pay for 76,000 colonoscopies. Even if you believe that insurance company executives are entitled to eight-figure compensation packages, do you also think that lobbying is the best way to spend $380,000,000? [my em]
...
For those taking the insurance companies' side in this, I have a question of my own: Where's your humanity?
With what the insurance companies spend ensuring their position and monopolies (don't forget, they lobby Congress all the time, not just when something of this much import to them is on the table), they could have insured everyone in America who needed it. It is disgraceful on both the insurance companies' part and those in Congress who enable them.
Jill agrees with me on another point:
...
Here's how Wikipedia defines "protection racket":
...
American health care policy has become a form of legalized robbery, the same way defense contractors were allowed to loot the Treasury at the height of the Iraq War. It's time for guys like Harry Reid (and you too, Mr. President) to grow some nut and call it like it is. The insurance companies and their elected cohorts have traded their humanity for profit and campaign donations. It has to stop now.
Quote of the Day
Digby:
... Personally, I think that a report put out by my cat would be more reliable than one that was put out by the insurance companies. (And he's not even an economist.) ...
Monday, October 12, 2009
Quote of the Day
Dave Zirin, sports editor of The Nation on TRMS about Rushole's past drug use re owning a team:
No shit!
Maybe video later.
"If OxyContin keeps Limbaugh from owning an NFL team, it truly is the miracle drug!"
No shit!
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
It's called extortion ...
Being it's Columbus Day, this is quite apropos. The Mothers And Fathers Italian Association used to call it "protection".
"Ey, ya nevah know when ya might have a fiah or some punks wanna trow a rock tru yer windah. We make shuah dat don't happen ... for a small weekly payment, ya heah."
I guess the insurance industry finally decided they weren't going to get the kind of sweetheart deals that PHarma and the Hospitals got, so they've gone on the warpath by holding a gun to ... er ... releasing a "cost projection" report about the effects of health care reform. I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that it says they will raise premiums sky high if reforms are passed.
...
"Ey, ya nevah know when ya might have a fiah or some punks wanna trow a rock tru yer windah. We make shuah dat don't happen ... for a small weekly payment, ya heah."
Quasi-Holiday Bonus Music Blogging
Since today is kinda sorta a holiday, I thought I'd slip in a little bonus music.
Guy Clark performing with Emmylou Harris at the 2005 Americana awards, with Shawn Camp on the fiddle.
Guy Clark w/Emmylou Harris ~ Dublin Blues
Thanks to Txmusicam.
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