The republicans are not even the least bit interested in bipartisanship. I understand Obama's need to have consensus but that is a dream that will not come true. At this time in history, this is all about not allowing the democrats to have success. I don't believe that it is all an astroturf effort. I have listened to rush et al and the craziness in is in full effect. What my hope is that they get so extreme that even their most ardent supporters start to scratch their heads and wrinkle their collective brows. But what is more likely to happen is an extremist attack against the administration. The democrats need to ensure that all needs are met and to push this through. We need reform and once it is in place those gripped by the fear of socialism, death panels, forced circumcision, etc. will realize that the those stirring the pot had no basis for their fear mongering. Some might continue to support them but I believe the majority will feel betrayed and not just a bit silly...
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I hold my nose and read a godawful blog in the Houston Chronicle occassionally which I will not reference here as I do not want to promote this kind of crazy. But I did read a good comment that I thought was worth posting as it is concise and factual. "Nazism is fascism, by the way, which is far right. Socialism is an economic system, not a form of government. Socialism provides greater individual freedom, not less. Totalitarianism is not socialism. Fascism is not socialism. Big government is not socialism. Our present oligarchy is not socialism. Conservatives aren't freedom loving. Conservatives by definition, don't want change. That is why all government is conservative--the role of government is to protect--you can't protect what hasn't come yet. That is why all politicians are conservative: you can't win voters who don't exist yet. That is why popular movements bring the real changes in society, and laws, governments and other institutions catch up late...
I am a huge, huge Whale Wars/Sea Shepherd supporter. My husband and I dVR it and watch, spellbound. It's funny. I have changed a lot of practices, habits in my life based on my love for the dependents in this world. I am moved to tears AND to action by the blatant cruelty we inflict on those that cannot fight back. I have seen endless, countless videos of the most horrific examples of the daily torture we inflict on animals and on children. I have seen it all. Literally. And I am also extremely aware of what happens when hunters hunt and kill their prey. I know. I have seen it. But last night was still horrifying. The part that caught me and threw me around, emotionally, was seeing this glorious animal fighting for TWENTY FIVE MINUTES while the harpoon was still in his head, having been shot six or seven times, he fought with all his might. The blast of water from his blowhole was what made it unbearable. Knowing that this animal took 25 MINUTES to slowly choke and drown on its own...
Why the shouting? I think I know the answer, in fact I know that I know. But I wrestle with this. I understand the anger. I understand that feeling of not being heard, of the country that you love and live in careening recklessly, out of control towards impending doom. I felt that way. I empathize, deeply, I honestly do. I remember the despair and outrage at being called a terrorist, unpatriotic (whatever that really is), an aider and abettor, a conspiracy theorist. I get that. I also understand how in all that darkness and disillusionment that spark of someone else, someone out there that heard me and felt as I did. How that voice speaking is like a life line, a buoy in a raging sea. I get that. But never did I think it was a good idea to go and shout at someone trying to explain something. Regardless of their point of view. Sure, I got angry with friends and family that kept on and on about how wrong I was. I was incensed. I couldn't understand how they didn't SEE it. No mat...
Obama wants to kill your grandma Five right-wing myths about healthcare reform, and the facts By Mike Madden Turning America socialist apparently wasn't enough for him -- now President Obama is trying to make old people kill themselves, callously deny important medical procedures, funnel tax dollars to abortion clinics and wiggle the government's way into every doctor's office in America. At least, that's the sense you might have about the healthcare reform proposals Congress is considering from listening to opponents describe them. Already, conservative activists have erupted against the plan, with protesters hanging Democratic lawmakers in effigy and disrupting town hall meetings . As both the House and the Senate clear out of the Capitol for the month, expect the viral buzz -- and the TV battle -- about what's in the bills to grow louder and louder. The White House finally seems to have realized that the administration can't win the policy debate without a...
Josh will be gone mid-August. Gone to UT. He graduates on June 6th and then we are mere months from his departure. It's crazy. The images I have of that kid, the memories are fantastic. From the nights when I would have to lay in the crib to comfort him back to sleep when he was just a tiny guy to his crazy climbs to the top of just about anything from the age of 18 months to the look on his face when he got an Iphone to My God! There are too many strong, vivid colorful memories of a boy that was so ill fitting to this world - that felt out of step, felt inferior, and odd in comparison to his peers to a confident, funny, bold beauty. His easy going demeanor veils a driven, ambitious motivated kid that has found what he loves to do. At 17! What a gift. I adore him. I adore his humor. His empathy. His out of nowhere flash of kindness. I love who he has become. I love that others have found him and have brought him around to the realization that he has a lot to offer. He is braver so...
Are you fucking kidding me? The rightwing has gone off the deep end. Biden and Obama go out for a burger which I think is beyond belief that this is considered news. Regardless, they are in an absolute frenzy with Obama NOT having ketchup and having the audacity to request a spicy mustard which transforms into an elitist request for Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard. Are you getting this? This is all they got? I am continually stunned by what people will allow into their brains via their ears. I can only imagine what kind of national crisis it would cause if he requested a veggie burger. God forbid. I know. I know. I shouldn't even listen. When Rush is talking about the purity of the party damning the moderates, I have to say, it's like all my dreams coming true. Here they are literally opening the exit door and tossing people out because they aren't conservative enough. They don't even get that the democrats won because they were seen as the party of inclusion. Instead of ...
Believe Me, It’s Torture What more can be added to the debate over U.S. interrogation methods, and whether waterboarding is torture? Try firsthand experience. The author undergoes the controversial drowning technique, at the hands of men who once trained American soldiers to resist—not inflict—it. by Christopher Hitchens August 2008 Here is the most chilling way I can find of stating the matter. Until recently, “waterboarding” was something that Americans did to other Americans. It was inflicted, and endured, by those members of the Special Forces who underwent the advanced form of training known as sere (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape). In these harsh exercises, brave men and women were introduced to the sorts of barbarism that they might expect to meet at the hands of a lawless foe who disregarded the Geneva Conventions. But it was something that Americans were being trained to resist, not to inflict. Exploring this narrow but deep distinction, on a gorgeous day last May I fou...
All this nonsense about America being founded by Christians establishing a Christian nation. The Founding Fathers John Adams"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." Thomas Jefferson"Christianity...[has become] the most perverted system that ever shone on man....Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus." "I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy-day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity."--- Benjamin Franklin, Works, Vol. VII, p. 75
So, it's been about 24 hours since I had Marley's head in my hands, locked eyes with him and felt the spirit of that beautiful animal leave. Thursday we witnessed the dizzying descent. He seemed to plummet. Unable to put any weight on his back legs, his spirit still pushing him to play. He was would fall and then pull himself up and then collapse again. We made him as comfortable as possible, giving him three aspirins and some "pet ease" which knocked him out until the following day. The next day, he seemed a bit better. I carried him to the car, went by Burger King and got him two bacon cheese burgers and went to the park. He was so happy. He walked and sniffed and had that lovely smile on his face...even as his body betrayed him. He wanted to go further but he simply couldn't. So we sat on a blanket and he ate his treats with his head on my lap. We sat together absorbed in the beauty of the day, the joy of just being together. All in all we were in th...
My Marley It’s hard to put the words to the memories I have of Marley. My beloved dog of almost 16 years, he was a co-parent to my toddler boys when I was alone. He guarded my house, my yard, me and the boys from all that would harm us. He played games with the boys that made them squeal with laughter. He would allow them to tug relentlessly on his ears and lips and tongue. He would follow them and herd them away from danger. If they ventured out too far in the surf for Marley’s liking, he would be out there, swimming if he had to, to guide them gently back to the shore. He ran with them, he lay with them, he played and frolicked with them. As they grew older, and their interests inevitably strayed from home into the outside world, he waited for them. Any scrap of attention was enough, any scratch on the head or pat on the back was adequate. He smiled to the point a wide gleeful grin that inevitably made all that saw him, smile back. He was a tolerant, yet firm guide to the uneducated ...
Health Reform Without a Public Plan: The German Model By Uwe E. Reinhardt Uwe E. Reinhardt is an economics professor at Princeton. In the previous two posts , I sought to explain why the public health insurance plan that Barack Obama had firmly promised during the presidential campaign appears to have become a deal-breaker in President Obama’s quest to sign a genuinely bipartisan health reform bill later this year. What if that plan were sacrificed on the altar of bipartisanship? Would it be the end of meaningful health reform? Not necessarily, if the health systems of the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland are any guide. None of these countries uses a government-run, Medicare-like health insurance plan. They all rely on purely private, nonprofit or for-profit insurers that are goaded by tight regulation to work toward socially desired ends. And they do so at average per-capita health-care costs far below those of the United States — costs in Germany and the Netherlands are less t...
This just makes me so proud to be a Texas resident. Lawmaker defends comment on Asians Call for voters to simplify their names not racially motivated, Terrell Republican says By R.G. RATCLIFFE AUSTIN — A North Texas legislator during House testimony on voter identification legislation said Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.” The comments caused the Texas Democratic Party on Wednesday to demand an apology from state Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell. But a spokesman for Brown said her comments were only an attempt to overcome problems with identifying Asian names for voting purposes. The exchange occurred late Tuesday as the House Elections Committee heard testimony from Ramey Ko, a representative of the Organization of Chinese Americans. Ko told the committee that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent often have problems voting and other forms of identification because they may have a legal transliterated name and then a common Engli...
This from Kathy Freston: I've written extensively on the consequences of eating meat - on our health , our sense of "right living" , and on the environment . It is one of those daily practices that has such a broad and deep effect that I think it merits looking at over and over again, from all the different perspectives. Sometimes, solutions to the world's biggest problems are right in front of us. The following statistics are eye-opening, to say the least. If everyone went vegetarian just for one day, the U.S. would save: ● 100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months; ● 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year; ● 70 million gallons of gas--enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare; ● 3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware; ● 33 tons of antibiotics. If everyone went vegetarian...
There has been a lot said, usually from those that comment from the periphery - refusing to get involved in the very real dilemna our country faces in its treatment of animals -about PETA euthanizing animals. I understood immediately why this was probably the case but it was speculation. I have removed the disturbing photos that went along with the article but I think that it is important to fathom what these people see on a day in day out basis. From Ingrid Newkirk: In my first year working at a grossly substandard animal shelter in Maryland, I forced myself to go in early to euthanize dogs by holding them in my arms and gently helping them escape an uncaring world without trauma or pain and to spare them from being stabbed haphazardly—while they were fully conscious, terrified and aware—in the general vicinity of their hearts with needles blunt from reuse and left to thrash on the floor until they finally died by the callous people who would arrive later to do the job. I always wonde...
HBO Series I have been " DVR'ing " the HBO series Death of a Factory Farm. I hadn't been able to watch it for one reason or another - being out of town, working, extracurricular events that needed my attendance. But I had today off and once the cleaning service left, I caught up on some of the shows I had recorded. I skipped over the HBO series several times. It's not like I haven't seen what goes on. I have. I have witnessed such unbelievable cruelty from my fellow man - towards companion animals, those used in entertainment and for experimentation. I have seen turkeys and chickens being sodomized and raped. I have seen dogs being skinned alive. I have seen whales being harpooned and sharks being caught and thrown back to drown after their dorsal fin is cut from their body. I have seen the Japanese trap dolphins in a cove and then execute the most horrendous cruelty that it gives me nightmares. To say that I am deeply, deeply sensitive to these image...
Listening to rush and hannity yesterday I was stunned that people during Obama's town hall meeting were asking for new kitchens and bathrooms and more money to compensate them for their MickeyD job that they have had for four years, free gas, free this, free that. Honestly. A new kitchen? Some people don't understand what this whole stimulus package is supposed to be a-stimulatin'. But those rascals did it again! Caught me believing them! Crazy ME! This is hannity/rush SPIN! The kitchen/bathroom request? Comes from a homeless woman that made a desperate plea for someone, anyone to please address the fact that hundreds of thousands of people, mostly children, are without a place to sleep, to live. The compensation for a job? That was from a college student that is trying to work and go to school and is worried about not getting a job when he is done. The free gas? There they go again. It was in snippets from someone talking, taken out of context in order to promote this obam...
History I have always had an issue with "corporate" America...being involved in it. Maybe it's a pride issue. Maybe I can't stand having people consider themselves better than anyone else or "dog and pony shows". Maybe I can't allow others to take credit for my work. I want to believe that I have avoided the office environment for all my adult life because there is something in me in regards to my sense of justice and fair play that makes existing in that environment too unnatural, too damaging to who I believe myself to be. When I write something like that it makes me shudder a bit thinking how that might sound. I am by no means a person that has lofty opinions of herself. I actually admire those that can work within the system to get things done. That has been a sense that I have gained since my current employ. I admire and yes, envy a little, those that can play the game and move forward...without undermining their integrity OR become slimy and sli...