New to Radio B.O.N.K.

Am doing my damndest to run Workers Independent News at the top of every hour on Radio B.O.N.K. If you can't catch it on my little station, hit up their Web site on a daily basis and give them a listen. It is good stuff.

Chess Instead of Checkers

President Barack Hussein Obama is a brilliant genius. Cribbing as I often do from liberal talker Thom Hartmann, but I agree with him: Obama's announcement today on off-shore drilling is a political master stroke. What the President has achieved by backing offshore drilling—and, yes, I realize it does break a campaign promise, but what the heck—is to shoot the Republigoats in the kneecaps when it comes to the debate about energy policy. He has co-opted the only somewhat legitimate policy point that was offered by the McWeirdsmile campaign in 2008. He has, in one fell swoop, shut them down completely on this issue. Just you watch. Republigoats will either have to commend President Obama for embracing "drill baby drill," or they'll have to forward the ludicrous argument that they no longer support it now that he has. I'm sure that this lunatic bunch will choose the latter and will continue to look like the Upper Class Twits that they are.

Boo

Three essential paragraphs from today's Eugene Robinson regarding yesterday's "Hutaree" arrests:

The episode highlights the obvious: For decades now, the most serious threat of domestic terrorism has come from the growing ranks of paranoid, anti-government hate groups that draw their inspiration, vocabulary and anger from the far right. It is disingenuous for mainstream purveyors of incendiary far-right rhetoric to dismiss groups such as the Hutaree by saying that there are "crazies on both sides." This simply is not true. ... It is dishonest for right-wing commentators to insist on an equivalence that does not exist. The danger of political violence in this country comes overwhelmingly from one direction—the right, not the left. The vitriolic, anti-government hate speech that is spewed on talk radio every day—and, quite regularly, at Tea Party rallies—is calibrated not to inform but to incite.

It is stunning, absolutely stunning, to hear Prudence Palin out-and-out deny the straight line that exists between her rhetoric since the summer of 2008 and the violent atmosphere in which we live today. I will go on out and say it: The responsibility for this condition rests almost solely on the shoulders of one Prudence Palin. Every time this horrific woman comes to the table with some baseless yet terror-inducing charge, "Obama consorts with terrorists," "Obama wants 'death panels,'" every time she does this, it's a call to arms for some bunch of troglodytes or another. Robinson does not even mention terrorism on the behalf of those who oppose a woman's right to choose. All of the following people have been convicted of a violent crime against providers of the safe and legal procedure in these Untied States of America known as abortion: Michael Griffin, Paul Hill, John Salvi, Eric Rudolph, James Kopp, Shelley Shannon, Matt Goldsby, Jimmy Simmons, Kathy Simmons, Kaye Wiggins, and, of course, Scott Roeder, among others. Talk about a crowd that "pals around" with terrorists.

A Note on Those BS Lawsuits

The challenges to the health care reform legislation are for the most part political posturing. There is, unfortunately, not a GOOP attorney general in the land who does not want to be Governor, then maybe President, and the path to power currently opened appears to lead through this silliness. Of course, there has never in our history been a more partisan Supreme Court than this one, and I have no doubt that Antonio Scalito and company would destroy the legislation if they possibly could. Hopefully, Justice Stevens will not retire, and Justice Ginsburg will live until after this case is heard. You have to dig through the bullshit pretty deep to see what the real issues are. Here are a couple of comforting notes. The first issue is the claim that the "mandate" that citizens buy health insurance is unconstitutional because it forces citizens to buy a product from a private company. Of course the states mandate that people buy car insurance, but that is squarely within the state's "health and welfare" powers and is not on point. More relevant is the fact that the federal government does mandate the purchase of flood insurance for some homeowners. The distinction there is that the flood insurance is a single payer, FEDERAL program, so the government is not mandating purchase from a private corporation. The most useful point is the fact that the "mandate" is not a mandate. The legislation levies a tax on people who do not have health insurance. They are not required to buy insurance, but if they do, they don't pay the tax. In short, there is no mandate. The taxpayer has an option not to buy insuance at all. And because the measure is the exercise of the federal government's taxing authority, it is, in the words of the Supreme Court, "plenary" and is constitutional. The second argument of interest is that the expansion of Medicare is an unconstitutional violation of the Tenth Amendment. (The states' rights clause.) Couple notes about this. First, if it is unconstitutional to expand Medicare, isn't it unconstitutional to have it in the first place? The likely reason it is not unconstitutional in the first place is that it is voluntary. States are not required to provide Medicare for their citizens. They can stop taking the federal money and drop the program at any time. Let's see how many of those hot dog attorneys general are willing to run for Governor on that platform.

A Congressman With Guts

Spinning for the Pope

Pope Benny Ratzinger has his own take on the sordid tale of priests buggering boys in the USA and in Ireland and in Germany. "Petty gossip," he says. Forgetaboutit! In the meantime, the Pope's Propaganda Ministry was out in force over the weekend, with everybody and his auntie trying to put a palatable spin on Pope Benny's fumbling complicity in the Catholic Church's cover up of sex abuse. The New York Times ran an article that says that the Pope was a "doctrine" guy, not a "detail" guy, so he would naturally miss priests buggering altar boys in the sanctuary after mass. In the Times OPEd section, there is a guy who claims that Pope Benny did more than anyone to resolve the problem of priests who like to bone little boys. Really. I am serious. John Allen, (curiously the same guy who is advancing the "doctrine" guy theory) a correspondent for the National Catholic reporter, says that about 10 years ago, Pope Benny, while heading up the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was given the job of handling all sex abuse complaints in the church. Allen says that the then Cardinal Joe Ratzinger read all the complaints that came to the Vatican and became something of an authority on the ways little boys get buggered. Then he took "administrative " action. In 60 percent of the cases he apparently defrocked the offending priests. He also urged a "zero tolerance" policy on the priesthood. So for the first time, I guess, the Vatican took a position that it should not sweep this stuff under the rug. Then it proceeded to sweep it all under the rug. Obviously, the first aim of the Vatican's new policy was to handle the matter internally. In other words, protect the Church. The Church did not choose to do what any other citizen would think is natural in such circumstances… report it to the authorities. There are cases where the Church deliberately took steps to cover up abuse… for example forcing children to swear themselves to secrecy… there is no evidence that the Church's new policy included reporting to the authorities. No reports were made to the police in the 60 percent of the cases where Cardinal Joe actually booted out the offenders… turning them loose on unsuspecting communities. And the 40 percent of cases in which the church took no action? No action, I guess, even though there was enough evidence for the Vatican to investigate. Would there not also have been enough evidence to pass along to law enforcement officials who would have had more direct access to witnesses and the accused and may have been better positioned to determine the truth than a handful of priests on the other side of the ocean? The Pope's personal history in these cases is anything but clean. While he was Archbishop of Munich a known bugger was transferred into his diocese and turned loose on an unsuspecting parish. And the New York Times reported this week that The Archbishop of Milwaulkee specifically asked Cardinal Joe for permission to defrock a priest accused of molesting more than 200 boys at a school for the deaf. The Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who appears to have had a glory hole in his confessional, was instead transferred to a rural parish, where he was free to sin again. We understand, of course that Cardinals are not to be bothered with the petty concerns of young boys trying to protect their own asses. They have important people to suck up to … that's how they get to be Cardinals, and how Cardinals get to be Pope. The Times reports that at one point in Cardinal Ratty's career, he refused to take a meeting with a delegation of local priests, but had time to meet with Ruth Carter Stapleton, an American evangelist and sister to President Jimmy Carter. (I suspect he was trying even then to form alliance with American evangelists in an effort to take over destroy our Constitutional freedoms.) The Pope has many times demonstrated his concern for doctrine. The Times also reports that while ignoring his own buggering scandal, he refused to allow a Munich University to hire a scholar that the Pope considered too liberal. He has worked hard to reinstate formerly banned priests who practiced the Latin liturgy and refused to recognize the reforms of the Vatican Council, one of whom was a notorious anti-Semite. He was a prime mover in the decision to ex-communicate a Rochester, NY parish because it encouraged women and gay people to participate in the Mass. He gladly invited the Conservative wing of the Episcopalian Church back into the fold, without reservations, when they refused to recognize a gay bishop. The Pope is without doubt doctrinal. He is not a moral leader. He does not have the courage to stand for what is right, and he has dedicated his career to dragging the Church back into the dark ages.

Attention Tea Partiers: The Sequel

Symbolically, many of you are complaining that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid themselves are exempt from health care reform. I have news for you regarding this symbolism. Today is Nancy Pelosi's birthday. She is 70. Harry Reid's birthday is Dec. 2. He will be 71. Both of them have been eligible for Medicare for approximately five years each. Nyah nyah.

Bring It On

There is a dumbass GOOP blogger in Alabama who is telling everyone to throw bricks through the windows of Democratic Party offices. The reasoning is that if they throw bricks now, we will all be scared into reestablishing the neofacist Mecca of George W.Busch. If we do not heed their warnings, they will shoot us with their guns. This guy, whose name is Mike Vanderbooger, had urged all his patrons to restore their arsenals, be sure they have plenty of provisions at hand, and prepare for revolution. Three million patriots, he claims, are cleaning their guns and preparing for war. I really don't expect much to come of this. There are only cowards in Alabama… a fact they amply demonstrated by quivering in their boots over the prospect of having terrorist trials in New York. Be that as it may, Mr. Vanderbooger's "knuckle under or we will kill you" threats sound very familiar. House GOOP leader John Boner said Ohio Democratic Representative Steve Driehaus may be a "dead man" if he goes home to his district. Last year Boner, speaking before a hysterical crowd of dumbass rednecks who were shouting "Bring Out Pelosi" (they apparently had plans for the speaker), urged them on, shouting that "Pelosicare is the greatest threat to freedom that I have seen in the 19 years I've been in Washington." (He apparently missed the part about Busch's laws allowing federal agents to sneak into your house and wiretap your phones at will.) Representative Michelle Bachmann (GOOP-MI) has suggested that a revolution is necessary every now and then (and seems to think this may be a good time for one.) She has also said her constituents should be "armed and dangerous." Rep. Steve Kling (GOOP IA) complemented the work of the guy who crashed his plane into the IRS building in Austin, TX. On the Senate side, Sen. Tom Cobman of Texas vowed to take vengeance on any Congressman who votes for the health care bill by refusing to allow him or her to be get a federal appointment if they ever need one. Sen. Jim Demented (GOOP-SC) said last summer, "It's the people's government. And the people are going to have to take it back." And of course Sara Paling has suggested that her minions "need to reload." The attitude of these dumbasses, most of them from the south, reminds me of the hotheads who led the southern states into treason in 1860. They were sure to a man that any southern gentleman was the equal of a hundred Yankees, and all they had to do was make a show of force and the Union would dissolve. These calculations were wrong headed and crazy in 1860, and they are wrongheaded and crazy today. I cannot imagine that the government doesn't already have a number of these nutjobs in its sights. Moreover not all liberals are going to be pushed around by a bunch of right wing thugs, and I suspect this nut Vanderbooger may have sounded the alarm. In the words of the Great Moron, "Bring it On."

Hmmmm...the Sequel

By the way. As it turns out, Eric Cantor was LYING. Or, as Cody put it: Cantor's "Backwards B" Moment. How big a moron does Eric Cantor think you are? Salon says you can't even identify his office from outside. Schmuck.

Attention Tea-Partiers:

Ahem. IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO EXEMPT ITSELF FROM LEGISLATION. Congress has exempted itself from FOIA, from OSHA, from anti-discriminatory statutes, from minimum wage laws, honoraria, and probably a buncha more. Exempting itself and the executive from health care legislation is NOT an aberration. I didn't say it's RIGHT. I said it's COMMON. Let's deal in facts, people, and not talking points.

Hmmmm...

Isn't Eric Cantor's protestation that his office was shot at, too, kind of like saying that you have lots of black friends when someone accuses you of racism? (On second thought, yes, it's especially like that, but only after you're caught wearing the hood and cape and standing before the kerosene-soaked wooden cross with a torch.)

Sorry? I Can't Hear You Over The Sound Of How Awesome Rachel Maddow Is.

Rachel Maddow took out this full-page ad in the Boston Globe. I have cropped it and blown it up so you might actually be able to read it.

Ugly Poo-Poo

I'm not sure why the ongoing fever pitch of ugly behavior in these Untied States of America is causing any sense of surprise among anyone who's been paying attention. The reactions and the stories you've been seeing of late are not new and they are not random or accidental. The spitting on a congressman and the gay and racial epithets hurled as reported last weekend, you don't think that's the same force that drove James W. von Brunn to make his way to the Holocaust Museum in June 2009? You don't think the same force that caused Congresswoman Louise Slaughter's Rochester office to get pelted with a brick is the same force that caused Raymond Hunter Geisel's arrest for allegedly threatening to assassinate then-candidate Barack Obama in August 2008? There is an ugliness brewing in America. It is a nebulous, corrupted, churning cloud of poo-poo. And it is billowing. It is not random, and it is not by accident, and it is not merely driven by racism, though that is one of its most powerful currents. Paranoia, fear, anti-abortionism, ignorance, economic despair, there are so many ingredients in this shit-storm that Martha Stewart would have trouble divining a recipe from it. But it's there, and I emphasize that it is not there by accident. Remember this?

Remember, then-candidate Obama had been a child when Bill Ayers was blowing shit up. And yet, Prudence Palin was one of the most out-front and most unspoken when it came to America's newest "ism." In fact, I'd say that in this, the post-Dubya era, she was the pioneer of talking as ugly as you can to whip up a frenzy. Guess what she's doing today? She's campaigning for John McWeirdsmile in sunny Arizona. Despite John Boner's lame protestations of late, his party is one that does not take this ugly cloud seriously. But, as our good friend Rachel Maddow pointed out to us, such firing up by our political leaders can have horribly tragic consequences. Go on, watch it, and be sure to perk up your ears at 3:45.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So Now Does He Get a Profile in Courage?

My brother just sent me a post from Esquire in which Dennis Kucinich talks about what caused him to vote against his principles and support the Democratic Party in the health care bill. It is a very thoughtful piece about the role of a principled legislator at a "pivotal moment in history" where the forces of politics and principle collide. He notes there were originally 77 Congresspersons who said they would oppose any legislation that did not have a public option, and only two (Kucinich and Eric Massa, who is no longer in Congress) voted against it. He worries that now he is being cast in a "Ralph Nadar" role and could have been blamed forever for giving the victory to the GOOP. He concludes that while the health care bill is not much, it's a start, and he will have a lot of work to do to make it better. More importantly, he believes a loss would weaken the President and empower the GOOP, leading to gridlock and stagnation. Passing the bill will pivot history "toward a very exciting time where the Obama presidency gets a chance to hit the reset button." Kucinich's tells us how a man might change his mind and decide to surf along on the tide of history in order to fight another day. It is not a surprise, it is the argument I expected he would make. It's hard thing to go against the Party and vote with the forces of evil, even if you are right. I understand why Dennis voted the way he did, but I am still not sure it was right. If he had voted against the bill, The GOOP might have won in 2010 and 2012, but the health care system would collapse under the weight of its own corruption. The GOOP would be powerless to fix it... would probably not do anything to fix it because GOOPers don't believe in fixing anything...and another Democrat would win and be in a position to fix it for good... or chaos would reign and the USA would continue on its road to being a third rate power. Either way would be more interesting, and prove once and for all the point that the GOOP does not know what the fuck it is doing. The legislation the President just signed into law is a net gain … a clear victory… for the insurance industry and drug industries, which avoided any meaningful change in the rules. There is no public option, no Medicare for all, no importing less expensive drugs from Canada, no bulk price negotiations, and no insurers' anti-trust exemption. Note that insurance company stock is up over 70 percent. That's probably because they are getting 32 million new, paid customers. The citizens get some minimal protection from preexisting condition discrimination, but there is no meaningful limit on what they can be charged for the privilege. Poor people get subsidized health care, which is the only meaningful change. In short Obama is a winner, but the corporations prove once again that they own Washington and the Congress and the Presidency. What price victory, eh? http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x241696

I Shot The Tariff

I relish in reminding people that on Oct. 23, 2008, Alan Greenspan, who had to admit the following to a Congressional committee:

Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders' equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief.

Now comes a similarly mind-blowing admission: Bill Clinton has, to an extent, admitted that countries may find it necessary to protect their own markets.

Decades of inexpensive imports — especially rice from the United States — punctuated with abundant aid in various crises have destroyed local agriculture and left impoverished countries such as Haiti unable to feed themselves. While those policies have been criticized for years in aid worker circles, world leaders focused on fixing Haiti are admitting for the first time that loosening trade barriers has only exacerbated hunger in Haiti and elsewhere. They're led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton — now U.N. special envoy to Haiti — who publicly apologized this month for championing policies that destroyed Haiti's rice production. Clinton in the mid-1990s encouraged the impoverished country to dramatically cut tariffs on imported U.S. rice. "It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake," Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 10. "I had to live every day with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else."

President Obama and the U.S. Senate is stepping up a little on this issue, squinting and furrowing a brow at China, which is good. But there's more comprehensive work to be done regarding trade. As it stands today, American trade policy is insane; so-called "free trade" has done nothing but export our most basic cherished industries, industries that not only produced manufactured goods but that also once fortified the backbone of the national infrastructure. Were that Mr. Clinton could only make the leap and apply his apology to the broader picture.

Toles Nails It, The Post Eddy Board Fumbles

Toles just nailed it. Meanwhile, the Post editorial board kind of stumbles, though I think they accidentally said something correct:

But we also believe that neither party has a monopoly on good ideas. When it came to health care, the Democrats were right to emphasize the morality and efficiency of universal coverage. But the bill could have been improved with the inclusion of more Republican ideas—by giving consumers more "skin in the game," for example, to promote cost control, or by reforming the nation's crapshoot of a malpractice system.

Actually, the Republigoat Party has proven itself in the past decade or three to be fairly bereft of good ideas. Tweety Matthews is quite fond of asking Republigoats point blank, what has your party done for America, and the Republigoats can hardly ever answer the question. Republigoat ideas center on revering the corporate state above and at the expense of all else, and this idea has proven to be downright destructive. As for HCR, the fact is that the bill is ass-full of Republigoat ideas. The very idea of the individual mandate—an idea President Obama campaigned against but came to champion—came from the annals of the Heritage Foundation. The "conservative's" chronic complaint that the main problem is somehow that we don't allow these assholes to conduct business across state lines is answered definitively with the Exchange. This bill is an incredibly restrained effort at reform. It is a conservative bill. It is the very stab at reform the Republigoats wanted to make back when the Clintons were trying to accomplish this in the '90s. The Post editorial board did say something correct, though I think they did it by accident: The law that stands won't do enough to control costs. Two or three essential clauses are missing; there is not attempt toward antitrust reform, there is no public option, and there is no provision to allow Medicare to negotiate prices on pharmaceuticals. The hope is that we can someday revisit and tweak. Perhaps. But that sort of thing can only happen when the pee-stream media takes off the goggles that makes it think that the Republigoats are of any value to this country whatsoever.

Red Stripe

Here's a fun little fact for you. Jamaica has universal health care. Jamaica.

The Democratic 'No' Votes

Rep. John Adler (N.J.) Rep. Jason Altmire (Pa.) Rep. Michael Arcuri (N.Y.) Rep. John Barrow (Ga.) Rep. Marion Berry (Ark.) Rep. Dan Boren (Okla.) Rep. Rick Boucher (Va.) Rep. Bobby Bright (Ala.) Rep. Ben Chandler (Ky.) Rep. Travis Childers (Miss.) Rep. Artur Davis (Ala.) Rep. Lincoln Davis (Tenn.) Rep. Chet Edwards (Texas) Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (S.D.) Rep. Tim Holden (Pa.) Rep. Larry Kissell (N.C.) Rep. Frank Kratovil (Md.) Rep. Dan Lipinski (Ill.) Rep. Stephen Lynch (Mass.) Rep. Jim Marshall (Ga.) Rep. Jim Matheson (Utah) Rep. Mike McIntyre (N.C.) Rep. Mike McMahon (N.Y.) Rep. Charlie Melancon (La.) Rep. Walt Minnick (Idaho) Rep. Glenn Nye (Va.) Rep. Collin Peterson (Minn.) Rep. Mike Ross (Ark.) Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.) Rep. Ike Skelton (Mo.) Rep. Zack Space (Ohio) Rep. John Tanner (Tenn.) Rep. Gene Taylor (Miss.) Rep. Harry Teague (N.M.) Thanks to The Huffington Post.

Nonsense

I may have stumbled upon a good way to counter conservative hysteria over the passage yesterday of health care reform. An old pal of mine with whom I now keep up via Facedbook had posted something about waking up this morning in a "socialist republic." I try to be demure about political discussions on Facedbook, though sometimes it's like Odysseus at Scylla. With this one, the damned ropes snapped. The response just rang in my head and my fingers were typing and there it was. "You're a cool guy and all. But that is nonsense." Calling out the nonsense for what it is? Is that perhaps a better response than pointing out the facts that the bill what passed has no way and no how anything to do with involving the federal government in the health care sector, aside from a little bit of regulatin'? Is it better to just label it for what it is than to explain? Maybe.

The Bill Is Bigger Than The Bill

I saw two men yesterday who couldn't help but force a reflection regarding yesterday's historic vote. The first was at Home Depot. He was a white guy maybe some younger than I. He was wearing a hoodie and I think cammos. He was wearing one shoe. The bare foot was all black and blue. He started murmuring about how he wished he could get a girl to find him attractive... The second was a gentleman whom I could not help but refer to as "Mister Magoo." He was crossing the street and was on a medical-issue stainless-steel cane. He was limping, but you just knew that his problems went far deeper than a bum leg. You could tell it required a lot of strategy for him to cross the street. Before the light turned green my way he had actually made it, and he walked over and started looking at a bus schedule. My thought on both of these fellas was jeez, somebody ought to help that guy. This, I think, will be the consequence of yesterday's historic vote in the House of Representatives—and I think the Republigoats understand this—that, while the bill itself is a paltry version of what it needs to be, its overall cultural impact will be quite effective at carrying its reforms further. What this country has become was illustrated quite vividly in this video, in which a man—apparently a victims of Parkinson's disease—sat down to counter-protest and was mocked severely by a bunch of ugly white boys:

But that is what this country has become, in regards to most issues, but especially on the issue of health care: The expectation is that care requires dollars, not that care will be forthcoming regardless of the depth of your pockets. Love or hate Olbermann's hour-long rant on this subject, recently replayed on MSNBC, but his allusion to Dickensian Britain was no stretch. Scrooge lives. And today, he sarcastically hurls dollar bills at a sick guy. Rep. John Larson, head of the Democratic Caucus, today lists ten immediate changes you'll see now that reform has passed. They are striking improvements to be sure. But I hope and believe that the passage of this bill, as imperfect and incomplete as it is, will accomplish a larger net effect than its provisions. I hope and believe that people will see the changes, will feel the changes, and that tides will turn; that Americans will cease thinking of health care as just another commodity.

Paul Warner Powell

If the only choice I had left in the world were to either be killed or to spend the rest of my life behind bars, it would take me not a second to bare my forearm's underside to my captors. That is the truth laid bare. It is the most honest assessment I can offer regarding my own position regarding the death penalty. If I, personally, had to choose between life and my own personal liberty, I myself would simply want to go. I assume that there are others like me. Which is why it is my opinion personally that putting an inmate to death is little more than a mercy killing, that keeping him alive in captivity to die of his body's own accord, to repent without result, to live with his own dreadful actions, to steep forever in the prison environment, that is the real ultimate punishment. Besides, as I have argued before, I believe that the death penalty chokes to death the revolutionary spirit upon which this country was founded. No nation that considers death to be the worst it can do to you actually values liberty over life. The death penalty renders Patrick Henry's spirited call to be as valuable as one-half a box of Milk Duds. As The Washington Post and Shitty Corporate Mouthpiece reports with a certain sense of glee this morning, Virginia executed a man last night. Paul Warner Powell, 31, was declared dead at 9:09 p.m. Thursday, convicted of a brutal rape and murder in Man-asses in 1999. Powell's crime, to which he confessed, was horrific—no doubt. He murdered a teen-age girl and then waited for her sister to come home so that he could rape her and leave her for dead, and his motivation as it turns out was that he was all in a fuss because one of them was dating a black man. Kristie Reed survived.

"I need to know that he's gone, that we don't have to deal with this anymore," said Kristie Reed, now 25 and an advocate for rape victims. "I was totally against the death penalty before this happened, and I didn't know why people would want to do it. But those people haven't been through what we've been through. Now I'm totally for it. He definitely deserves to die. He needs to die for what he did to Stacie."

The quote, the story, the execution, somehow it's tempting to nod one's head and go yeah, that's right. And if Ms. Reed finds solace in Powell's death, then perhaps there is good from it. But I have a hunch that not every murder victim family member finds that the perpetrators' death brings peace because in a fucked up scenario such as that there simply is no complete peace to be found, ever. What the death penalty does manage to do, though, is to create more victims. Mr. Powell, as monstrous as were his deeds, probably had a mother or a sister or an aunt or somebody who misses him today. They are victims, too. Regardless. I am one who is convinced that, last night, Paul Warner Powell got an easy out. Anyone really interested in punishing him would see him in a 6-by-9 cell for the rest of his natural life.

Jon Stein-Beck

If you watch one embed on the Series of Tubes today, please make it the following: This:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Intro - Progressivism Is Cancer
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Then this:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Conservative Libertarian
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Jon Stewart has never, and I mean never, been so on the mark.

It's In Pelosi's Hands

Question

Received today in the GMail, emphasis theirs:

Aaron, Mark Warner is only a freshman Senator, but according to a prominent Capitol Hill publication, he's already becoming known as "a powerful player in Congress." This morning, the Hill highlighted some of things Senator Warner has accomplished in his first term, and I wanted to make sure you had a chance to read the article. Among other things, the Hill noted that Senator Warner scored "a rare and significant bipartisan victory" when he led a group a freshmen in securing the adoption of "a package of amendments to contain costs, encourage innovation and promote accountability across the healthcare system." Senator Warner has also "won rave reviews from business leaders" - and even Republicans. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), who has worked closely with Warner on Wall Street reform, called him "the best partner anybody could possibly imagine."

Why in the hell do they think that's a plus? Hey, guess what? Your senator is really great at kissing Republigoat ass! WOO-HOO, SCORE!

The Hill even took notice of our efforts here at Forward Together PAC to support candidates who, like Senator Warner, are willing to put partisanship aside and create a new atmosphere where our elected officials work together to get things done.

Yes, that's worked out so well for us! What. The frak. Thank you, Forward Together PAC for inviting me to send you some of my munny today. I think I'll pass.

Victory Garden?

Entertaining little bit in the FOOD section today—that by the way was why you didn't find a paper this morning, PB. Sorry, Wednesday is a day to revel in recipes whilst busing to the office—whereby Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast lists valid reasons why one of Michelle Obama's anti-obesity efforts might not be such a brilliant idea. In a word, RATS, among other issues.

Because vegetable gardens are a food source for pests, create liabilities for children with food allergies and have other associated concerns, the Department of Facilities Management staff has not approved gardens designed to produce food," he wrote. Food gardens posed other problems as well, Weast said. Vegetable gardens are extremely labor-intensive and require extensive watering and weeding. That the prime harvest takes place in the summer when students and teachers are on vacation was also a concern.

Also:

Last October, Donna Marchick, a program administrator at the Department of Facilities Management, informed teachers at Maryvale Elementary School that food was not permitted to be grown on school grounds. "As you know," she wrote, "food-bearing plants attract pests. Maryland law restricts the use of pesticides on school grounds. Therefore, planting of food bearing plants is prohibited by MCPS."

What a couplea scrooges! Bah! Humbug! (Not mentioned in said article, the fact that these Untied States once upon a time saw fit to ban child labor...and if you don't think gardening is labor, then you've never dug tomatoes...) These are not bad ideas when you say them out loud, of course. Let's get the kids away from their video games, get them outside in the sun, have them dig around in the dirt, give them some exercise and pound on their work ethic, and get them closer to Gaia and to learning more about food and what it takes to git it. It looks great on paper. But there's a reason that such notions have traditionally been carried on by a strictly extra-curricular tradition known as "4-H." I think Mr. Weast and Mr. Marchick have hit on a few. Sorry, Mrs. Obama.

Virginia's Temporary Sanity

Something happened to me yesterday morning that I never thought would. I SWAPPED open the front page of yesterday's The Washington Post and Shitty Corporate Mouthpiece, and what was written there made me laugh. Not just a tee-hee, but a full-out belly laugh. And the thing I was laughing at had nothing to do with Jon Edwards' love child. No, friends. Today, I laughed my fool head off at a budget story. This has never happened to me before, and I find it unlikely that it will ever happen again. Virginia's 2010 budget is has the fine distinction of being simultaneously a disaster and a joke. Here are some details, with emphasis provided upon the most egregious detail:

Funding for schools will drop $646 million over the next two years; the state will also cut more than $1 billion from health programs. Class sizes will rise. A prison will close, judges who die or retire won't be replaced and funding for local sheriff's offices will drop 6 percent. Only 250 more mentally disabled adults will receive money to get community-based services, in a state where the waiting list for such services numbers 6,000 and is growing. Employees will take a furlough day this year, the state will borrow $620 million in cash from its retirement plan for employees and future employees will be asked to retire later and contribute more to their pensions.

That. Is apeshit. Insane. Virginia is slashing health programs and education. And it's going to float the state on the backs of its workers, raiding pension funds, an idea that always works so well in the corporate world. But. Here is my favorite part of the story.

"We tried to keep our word," said House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem). "We knew times were tough, but the state has to live within its means, just as families have to live within theirs."

Shrug. Oh, well. Tough shit for everyone. I'm noticing a pattern when it comes to "conservatives." They are fond of anthropomorphizing. A zygote is a person. Corporations are people. And now, the state of Virginia is a "family." But. It is not a family. It is a governmental entity. As such, the state of Virginia does not get its money by working, as does a family. The state of Virginia gets its money via taxation, like it or not. And, in order to stick to what I consider to be a cynical promise about taxes, this administration is determined to relegate the state to being stupider, sicker, and broker, not to mention one that shuns queers and continues with the outlandish charge that the President is not an American citizen. Stay classy, Virginia!

Kill The Bill

The fact is that without a robust pubic option the health care reform bill is almost useless bullshit and we are better off without it. The Senate Bill, even if improved by House amendments, only looks like an Improvement. In fact the insurance companies will still be able to suck millions of dollars out of the health care system to no good use we can see, except perhaps to pay millions of dollars a year in salaries to useless executives, and the average citizen will not have substantially better health care. Better to let the system fester a little longer. On the whole, the proposed bill is disappointing in many ways. It will only fix pre-existing conditions for children in its first four years. It will cover all pre-existing conditions after 2014, but allow insurance companies to charge triple rates for coverage. It forces Americans to continue to pay outrageous prices for drugs while the same products are available at a fraction of the cost in Canada, Mexico, France, Britain and Japan. It allows insurance companies to operate without antitrust restraint, carving up markets and maintaining monopoly positions that allow them to accrue greater profits without fear of competition. I have a hard time being sympathetic with the argument that passage of the health care bill is a political imperative, a disaster for the Democratic Party. Big deal. The President of the United States, riding an unprecedented landslide, with the largest congressional majority in years, declared early in the game that he would not include a public option in his bill. The Senate Democrats wasted months negotiating with a GOOP that was not interested in reaching a conclusion that benefits the citizens of the United States. In fact some key Democrats have been less than enthusiastic about a working health care reform bill. In short, it's the Democratic Party's choice to come up with a bill that only looks like it answers the need for reform. Let the Democratic Party live with it. I think it's safe to say that if no health care reform passes, the wheels will start to fall off the health care system bus pretty quickly. Costs will rise drastically, more and more people will be uninsured, Medicaid will go bankrupt, emergency rooms will fill up, only rich people will be able to get health care. Will that be crisis enough for these asshats to fix it?

The Madness of HCR

I hope they finally pass health care reform this week simply so that we can stop hearing about it. But let's be clear about one thing: What passes this week will be more of a necessary political victory rather than being a necessary policy victory. Yes, there are some nice little chestnuts in there, including a legislated end to discrimination based on pre-existing conditions. But, let's be honest. The thing is useless without a public option. Here's the thing about regulative legislation: It requires enforcement. And this is a country that now sports a political party that, when it acquires power, immediately begins doing everything it can to strip the federal government of its enforcement powers. A public option would be a control above and beyond the purview of regulation and enforcement. It is a true market solution to the problem of escalating premiums. A public option would force insurance companies to become more competitive, to slash overhead, to stop paying their CEOs $57,000 an hour. And it would be far more difficult for Republigoats to jab sticks between its spokes. This is why they don't like it. It is too disruptive to their ongoing mission to cripple government. It is too organic and too effective. And that, ladles and jelly-spoons, is why we probably won't have a public option! Yay!

There's Always Home Schooling

Home schooling has, traditionally, been a resort of conservatives. This trend is likely to change now. For the record, if you're a Thom Hartmann listener, you've known for quite some time that the Tejas Bored of Edumacation could possibly decide to gut its curriculum in favor of "conservatism." You also understand that the bizarre changes made to that state's curriculum actually affects that of at least half or more of the country. Since Tejas is one of the biggest customers for textbooks, their curriculum decisions affect more than just Tejas. My favorite part of the story, I think, is thus:

The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum's world history standards on Enlightenment thinking, "replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin."

"Replacing" him? "Replacing" him? There's only enough room in a kid's head for so many historical figures? Here's another one, a head scratcher considering point #1:

Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state." "I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state," said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. "I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution."

So, if you're convinced that a separation idea doesn't exist, why do you need to banish the dude who first said it was in there? Brainiac. There is so much more to this lovely story. Of course, there is the insistence in the new curriculum that the United States is a "republic" (because, you know, "democracy" sounds too much like that other political party) (and by the way, the United States is actually a "constitutionally limited representative democratic republic"). Here. Giggle at this:

Board member Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, objected to a standard for a high school sociology course that addressed the difference between sex and gender. It was eliminated in a 9-to-6 vote. She worried that a discussion of that issue would lead students into the world of 'transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else.'"

When the mighty Frank Zappa said on "Crossfire" that he feared this country was becoming a "fascist theocracy," Bob Novak, who liked to reveal the identities of covert CIA operatives in the newspaper, scowled at him, oh wait, that was just his normal face, and said, oh, come on, Mister Zappa. What do you think now, Bob? (Oh, wait. You don't think anything. You're dead.)

Sex Scandals Are Still Fun

Nothing like a good sex scandal involving politics or priests. Now it's my own congressman putting on the most embarrassing denial since Larry Craig claimed never to have been gay. I am not especially enjoying this one, but on the whole, try as the GOOP will to make the current round belong to the Democratic Party, we win these battles. The real tragedy of Eric Massa (who I know personally) is that he was a damn good congressman, a hard working Progressive who took principled stands on tough issues… like Afghanistan and single payer health care. He, like Larry Craig, is in many ways a victim of a culture that causes many citizens to suppress their true selves. If Eric Massa ran again as a gay man I would be there running with him. Eric made a few big mistakes in bowing out… pointing fingers at Nancy and Rahm, for example. But he also pulled off a major coup… getting on Glennn's Moron Show for an entire hour. Once inside the viper's nest, he gave Beck nothing useful and managed to score a couple of points. He said a good first step towards fixing Washington's problems would be for the GOOP to stop lying about the facts. He also suggested there would be no real solutions until we had real campaign finance reform. No one has ever been able to say anything quite so true on Fox News without being censored or shouted down. Beck, who is preprogrammed by his handlers to spew facist silliness for hours at a time… was left speechless. Johnny Boner is trying to make Massa's story read like 2006, when it was discovered that the GOOP leadership had been covering up Mark Foley's forays into the Senate Page's dormitory for years. Massa has not been on the Hill for years, and the matter was sent to the Ethics Committee as soon as it was clear that there was really an issue to be investigated. Of course, Massa is gone and Larry Craig is still in the Senate. So is David "Whore House" Vetter, and John "Man your Wife is Hot" Ensign. (There is an investigation ongoing about Ensign's payoff to the cuckholded aid, but none into his groping of his staffer's wife.) On the whole having them stay around is a net gain for the good guys. Every time Vetter takes a stand, we can remind the world that he likes to get his bone polished by whores. Larry Craig does not speak out for fear of someone talking about his wide stance (which is, face it, a weirder story even than tickle fighting). John Ensign gives us a wonderful way to remind the world of the evil conspiracy of C Street, where Ensign was living when he was boning the lady. C Street is owned by The Family, a Christofacist Sect that has the support of many top politicos, and which helped cover up Ensign's little problem. (Allegheny Mark Sanford also found comfort there, and its members have been involved in promoting homophobic genocide in Africa.) At any rate, we close out the week with two new sex scandals in the GOOP. California State Senator Ray Ashburn, a notorious gay basher and supporter of Proposition 8, was caught drunk driving with a young man in his car after leaving a gay bar. One hardly needs to say more, except that this guy actually came out and admitted he is gay. (Maybe Massa should take note.) Equally interesting is the disclosure by Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn that he once went skinny dipping with a 14-year-old girl. He did not bone her, but he and his wife did pay her $150,000 to keep her mouth shut. The child (now 40) and Mr Garn have now gone public. (I believe he is the son of former Senate Banking Committee Chair Jake Garn whose drive to deregulate got us where we are today. ) Seems to me that Mr. Garn's real lack of judgement was paying the bribe, not not boning the child. Another one bites the dust, one way or another.

Exhuming McCarthy

I do not spill much digital ink on the obviously crazy person called "Glenn Beck." It's not that I think it is beneath this space, or that I'm trying not to contribute to his spotlight. It's more that I don't think I could add anything more; that I would find it difficult to provide additional, useful insight on the guy. I did purchase a domain name that I really should be more active on: glennbeckistan.com. Considering that Sen. Byrd has recently used the phrase, perhaps I should get on it. I dunno. Does BB really need another frakking blog? And wouldn't that mean I'd actually have to watch this madman? I am grateful, though, for a few things regarding Beck. For starters, it is tempting as this post title shows to compare him to Joe McCarthy. Plus, you get to lift from a really bitchin' R.E.M. song. But there is a stark difference between Beck and old Joe: Glenn Beck does not chair a Senate subcommittee. Thank goodness. Second, a striking similarity between the two, in that Beck is starting to trip over his own shoes as did McCarthy. McCarthy was just fine so long as he was investigating the State Department or Hollywood. Then he decided to go after Commies at the Pentagon. The Army said well the hell with this and decided to hold some hearings of their own, going after McCarthy and his chief counsel on unrelated charges. The Army didn't get anything on Joe himself, but he certainly didn't look good on the TV, especially as under fire from Ed Murrow as he was. He was censured and rendered a lame duck in office until he died. One can only hope that Beck has also gone after the wrong leviathan, taking on the churches for any promotion of the great evil that Beck says is "social justice." The problem with Beck though is that his position offers him a very comfy cushion of non-accountability. But who knows. Maybe the churches can finally shame this shameless bastard into shutting the hell up.

New Digs

Looks nice, doesn't it?

Administrative Note

I'd like to give Dreamhost another shake. So if you have a few problems with the site today, it should straighten up shortly.

WE'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!

Imagine that. I have gotten to quote the finest television program ever created twice on this blog's title in two days. What do you know. Anyways. Out in Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert has signed a law under which a woman can be charged with murder for having a miscarriage. That's right. A woman can be jailed and charged with murder for losing her baby. See, there was this Utah teen who got knocked up and then paid a friend $150 to beat the crap out of her. This attempt at homemade abortion failed. But, of course, a bunch of conservative white guys decided they needed an app for that. So they passed the "Criminal Homicide and Abortion Amendments," and they hope to pass it along as model legislation for other states. Now I'm not about to argue that I think that a pregnant woman should have every right to ask a friend to punch her in the gut. However, I would argue that this was an act of a young woman who did not feel that she had many other options. I betcha if you grow up in Utah, getting pregnant puts a bit of a mark on your forehead. Anotherwords, I'm saying that perhaps the state of Utah isn't the kind of place that's forgiving and/or accepting of a young woman who happens to get knocked up. You know. Maybe she wasn't no Juno MacGuff is what I'm saying. As we have discussed previously, laws that prohibit abortions are bad and do not work. Presently, there is a woman in Nicaragua—which has out-and-out banned all abortion—who has an aggressive cancer but is prohibited from seeking treatment because she is pregnant. The woman is, by the way, already the mother of a 10-year-old girl. Her country has decided that she will not get to see her daughter turn 11. The law in Nicaragua—created to guarantee that President Danny Ortega would have the church's political support—has had a general chilling affect on health care for women, as Amnesty International has reported. Doctors are reluctant to treat even healthy pregnant women, fearing they might be held liable if something happened. And problems with access for pregnant women translates directly to problems with access for women generally. I will say it again for the benefit of all of my "anti" readers: There is no law in the known universe that can actually prevent a woman from having an abortion. If saving cute little babies is your actual intent, then empowering women, not disempowering women, is the only logical way to actually achieve that end. Throwing a little girl in jail because she asked a friend to punch her in the stomach does not actually save the baby in question. Creating a culture where women feel safe and powerful, that is how you save the cute little babies. And laws like the one they just passed in Utah achieve the exact opposite of that. Trust women already. Jeez.

Thank You Speaker Pelosi

On May 8, 2009, this blog correctly diagnosed the health care crisis in these Untied States of America. We argued that the real problem with health care in these Untied States of America is that, in order to have access to health care, you have to have a job. Untether one from the other, I wrote, and you'll not only drastically improve health care, but you'll also create at our society's very foundation a more innovative, more entrepreneurial nation. Last evening, appearing on the Rachel Maddow Show, a leader of the Democratic Party at long last picked up and ran with this argument.

Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer, a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance. Or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risks, but not be job-locked because a child has a child has asthma or diabetes or someone in the family is bipolar. You name it, any condition is job-locking. Think of a situation where we can be internationally competitive because we don't have this weight on us that other countries, that other businesses really don't have in other countries because they don't have this expense of health care which will all be reined in, those costs, under this bill.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Yowsa.

It may surprise nobody to learn that much of my college career was spent as editorial page editor for the student newspaper. I was a prolific columnist and a ranting raving editorial writer. During I think my third go-round at the job, the editor decided I kind of needed an anchor because, as you can see here, I'm somewhat of a lefty. I had a staff of two, one politically neutral and one a conservative Republigoat. Thing is, the conservative Republigoat was actually a fairly reasonable guy. I know! And he and I could actually talk about stuff! I know! And in the process, we managed to put together a pretty bitchin' editorial page. Anyways, last evening, I reconnected with this fella via Facebook. And guess which current president he voted for in 2008? Seems that Bush II pissed this guy off so badly that he's voting Democratic these days. I hope I'm not writing anything out of school here. But. I am saying. There is hope.

Yes, Virginia, There Are Homosexuals

Hey, Virginia. Meet me at camera 3. What the hell are you so surprised about? August 30, 2009. The Washington Post and Shitty Corporate Mouthpiece reports:

At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell submitted a master's thesis to the evangelical school he was attending in Virginia Beach in which he described working women and feminists as "detrimental" to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators." He described as "illogical" a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples.

Nobody in Virginia should now be surprised that the McDonnell administration is moving to undo protections against discrimination for gay people in the state. Nobody. Not to mention, nobody should be surprised that McDonnell's horrible, shitty, no-good ideas that he trumpeted on the campaign trail to fix Virginia's transportation infrastructure aren't going anywhere. They were horrible, shitty, no-good ideas, and I told you they were goddamnit. There is nothing surprising about this Republigoat governor. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. He ran as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Why is everyone acting so surpised that he's a god-damned wolf?

The Washington Post and Shitty Corporate Mouthpiece

Why do we here at the Serious Poo-Poo Institute of Technology (S.P.I.T.) refer to the hometown newspaper by its full formal name, The Washington Post and Shitty Corporate Mouthpiece? In part because The Washington Post and Shitty Corporate Mouthpiece has recently hired this asshole as a columnist.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Marc Thiessen Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Say what you like about Bob Novak, who used to enjoy publicly identifying covert CIA operatives in the newspaper. But at least he came from a time when, generally, news columnists had to have an actual background in journalism. I like to think there was a time when a former presidential speech writer and would be laughed the hell out the delivery entrance, resume in hand, of any decent newspaper. The Huffington Post has embedded the rest of the interview.

Cylons Look Like Us Now

The lead story in today's edition of The Washington Post And Shitty Corporate Mouthpiece is all about the arrest of a petite white blonde Amurkin lady from Pennsylvania of all places who was apparently plotting a little jihad of her own. Now, the impression I get from the story is that she was just some frakking moron who probably couldn't blow up a balloon. Most of these cases are like that. Face it. Anyone possessing any modicum of intellectual power does not consider murder, or bombing, or flying planes into buildings to be a reasonable avocation. You can tell me until you're blue that the Unabomber was a child prodigy and all that, I don't care. He was still a damned moron. Anyway, I don't know why this story merits attention above the fold on the front page of The Washington Post And Shitty Corporate Mouthpiece. We here at the imaginary think-tank Crack Whores for Good Government have said ever since September 2001 that "fighting" "terrorism" was a stupid vapid stupid dumb stupid notion, especially if one for some reason elevates as more deadly the brand of terrorism exercised by brown people who do not eat meat of the cloven-footed beasts. Terrorism is any moron with a bomb and a dream. Why is this such a shocker now?

Noodling Around

Q: Dear Aaron. Are the homemade noodles at the Heidelberg worth the $3.50? A: Hells yeah.

Let Your Fingers Do The Walking

Have just called my senators and my congressman regarding health care reform. I find it helps to open with a question for the staffer you're talking to. My question today was, where is so-and-so on health care reform right now? Answers from senators Webb and Warner's staff were the same: The senator voted for the Senate version of the bill but has not issued a statement regarding reconciliation. I then told the staffers that I support efforts to pass the bill using reconciliation and encouraged them to sign on to the Bennet letter. My congressman, Jim Moran, of course is representing his district well, being on the record for the reconciliation process. I told the staffer that I supported that position and also thanked the Congressman again for voting against the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. I thank him for this every time I see him or contact his office. Every time. If you're in Virginia/NoVa and feel like giving these nice people a call, here are the numbers: Sen. Webb: 202/224-4024 Sen. Warner: 202/224-2023 Congressman Moran: 202/225-4376

New Rule

Some of our four or so of our regular readers may find the following statement to be a bit abrasive. But, there you go.

New rule: Anyone who says, "there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans" doesn't know what the fuck they're talking about.

I know that progressive commie liberals such as myself aren't exactly squirting themselves at this point regarding the Obama presidency. But a person who somehow reckons that a McWeirdsmile presidency would have been just as good as what we have today? I'm sorry, that person has gefilte fish between his ears.

Dear Congressman Jim Moran,

Just a picky style note for you sir. It's only "VISA" when you're referring to the credit card. "Visa" in regular sentence case will suffice when you're referring to the permissions people require to cross borders. Thanks. BBB

Save The Post Office! Pass Universal Health Care!

PB has noted yet another of what are surely many surprising consequences of a universal health care system: More reasonable alternatives for women in labor. Here's another one, courtesy of my favorite radio talker, Thom Hartmann. The U.S. Post Office, you see, is mandated to pre-pay health care benefits for its retirees, a cost of approximately $5 billion a year. Part of Postmaster General John Potter's plan to cut costs is to end this mandate. Of course, as U.S. News & World Report notes, such a move would require approval by the union and by Congress. Fat chance. A single-payer system, though, or a Medicare buy-in or outright expansion would nip that $5 billion cost right in the nuts, now, wouldn't it?

Amazing How That Single Payer Thing Works

In the USA, any woman who once has a Caesarean birth automatically gets a Caesarean the next time she has a baby. That's because it has been declared by the medical establishment to the best i.e. safest way to do it, even though it is much more expensive, and not a great choice for the mother, and often not even necessary. There is a hospital in New Mexico that does not routinely do Caesareans second time around, and in fact has the lowest Caesarean rate in the country. The hospital is successful because it uses midwives, it has doctors close at hand at all times, and it does not have a profit motive for doing Caesarean births. The hospital serves Native American communities (mostly Navajo and Hopi) an it is entirely funded by the federal government. It's a single payer system, and it works to hold down the cost of services while maximizing the benefits to the patients. You can read all about it in the NYT. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/health/07birth.html?scp=1&sq=hopi%20hospital&st=cse

Dear Mister President

You gave a rousing speech this afternoon regarding health care reform. It was on television and everything. Congratulations. How many people do you reckon actually saw it? When your predecessor wanted to conduct an illegal, immoral, and unnecessary war, what did he do? Did he give a rousing speech in the afternoon? No. He put on a suit and appropriated the airwaves in prime time. He looked America right in the eyes and told her why he was taking her to war. And he got what he wanted. Does this give you any ideas, Mr. President? Hmmmmm?

YEs. YOu Did Read It HEre First!

From the New YOrk Post, no less: The video that unleashed a firestorm of criticism on the activist group ACORN was a "heavily edited" splice job that only made it appear as though the organization's workers were advising a pimp and prostitute on how to get a mortgage, sources said yesterday. The findings by the Brooklyn DA, following a 5½-month probe into the video, secretly recorded by conservative provocateurs James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, means that no charges will be filed. Many of the seemingly crime-encouraging answers were taken out of context so as to appear more sinister, sources said. http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/acorn_set_up_by_vidiots_da_x16IroTf4AsXCI19nttFLL#ixzz0hGbfcyhR

I Don't Know...

...why we should suddenly expect the profession of "air traffic controller" to be taken seriously following Ronald Raygun's treatment of it in 1981. That is all.

Arizona's Only Half Bad Housing Plan

The Arizona legislature has a novel plan to forestall home foreclosures. They want to allow foreclosed homeowners to stay in the house for an additional year as renters. Not a bad idea, but it has its faults. First, we should point out that Arizona is home to more foreclosed houses than almost anyplace but Las Vegas. It is worth pointing out that underwater housing and foreclosures are problems tied to poor personal decisions, and the people who made those decisions are now demanding that someone bail them out. Don't get me wrong. I think one of the only ways out of this mess is to prop those people up, but I also bet that they will vote for some right wing teabagger nut this year, not for the party that has done the most to bail them out… the Democratic Party. Now lets consider the consequences of allowing the displaced to stay in place as renters. What this means is that people will be paying money to the bank for a year without getting any credit for the payments. So the debt will continue on the bank's books, even though the borrower is still making some form of payment to the bank. This looks like a politician's trick to me. Get the masses past the election without being thrown out of the house and without squeezing the mortgage holders. Everyone is happy all around. Here is a better plan. Pass a moratorium on foreclosures. Nothing will force the mortgage boys to the table faster. They want to foreclose because it's the only way they know to get the junk off their books. The fact that it will clog the market with junk is of no consequence to them. Neither is the fact that it will leave many people broke and homeless. Put an end to foreclosures indefinitely and demand that mortgage companies develop a plan for working out each bad loan. You make the people happy and actually force the lenders to sit down and talk rationally with the borrowers. That is a much better result.

In A Name Part II

National Journal is one of those smug inside-the-beltway rags that carries on the corporate right wing banner for official Washington. They asked me (via email) to take a survey on the promise that I would be contributing to the public debate. The survey turned out to be a marketing survey aimed at figuring out what makes NJ so fucked up. At the end of the survey, they ask for party affiliation. Are you a member of the Democrat Party or the Republican Party? Now we know why they are so fucked up.

What's In A Name

We need to stop calling it the "estate tax" and start calling it the "democracy tax." 'Cause that's what it is.

A Cup A Cup A Cup A Cup A Cup

Oh dear gods. I mean, I guess it was inevitable. I mean, so long as there's a group of wackos running around calling themselves the "Tea Party Movement," there might as well be a damned "coffee party" as well. I've just heard about the thing on the Thom Hartmann show since I haven't gotten around to perusing the whole damned issue of today's The Washington Post and Shitty Corporate News Outlet. But apparently, yes, there is a coffee party. And though I've just heard of it, it annoys the living hell out of me. Creating a "coffee party movement," you see, only further legitimizes the "tea party" assholes. It just smacks of sour grapes; it yields the "tea party" franchise to the Obama-as-Hitler sign holders. This "tea party movement" is stocked with morons who seriously believe Glenn Beck and Bob Basso's portrayal of Thomas Paine as a neo-con. It is stocked with people who do not actually understand what the Boston Tea Party, the historical event they claim fuels and inspires them, actually was, that it was a protest not just against government or taxes, but against the slimy collusion of government and a top-heavy multi-national corporation. These people, fueled by corporate dollars, at the beck and call of their own worst interests, these folks should not be legitimized by a smarmy copycat, by a group that says fine, you build your pillow fort in the bedroom, I'll just move to the living room, so there. And the message the group has chosen, that they want legislators to work better together and blah blah blah, well. Could the timing be any worse considering the massive fault lines that were revealed from the Blair House on Thursday? As E.J. Dionne points out beautifully today in the aforementioned The Washington Post and Shitty Corporate News Outlet, partisanship is broiling here in Washington, and to discount it is to fail to understand contemporary politics. The fact is that the two political parties in the United States disagree violently about the role of government and are currently duking it out over the subject with ball peen hammers and sharp-toed boots. Handing the "tea party movement" a de facto legitimization and calling for cooperation in Congress isn't going stop the hammering, raucous battle—certainly not so long as a Republigoat can look you in the eye regarding HCR and can seriously say, ya know, screw it, let's trash it and start over, what do you say?

You Saw It Here First

We gladly take credit when other writers take up notions we here at KIAV have been advocating. Thus, we point out this NYT Op Ed suggesting that we find a permanent home for the Olympics. Find the KIAV Original, A New Olympic Game, posted on October 3, 2009.