B’Man’s Patriot Watch: Dennis Kucinich

60% of Bankruptcies Are Because Of Hospital Bills! 80% of Them Are Insured!

I have paid BCBS insurance premiums or have been covered thru an employer via the same company since 1998 (or so). With our medical needs, BuelahLady’s being the most costly, we have been forced into the Big B. Because I had excellent credit, whenever their were overages, I simply tapped into whatever credit or credit card I needed to pay the bills. This eventually added up after her 3 back surgeries and my 2 back surgeries and BuelahGirl’s unnecessary multiple surgeries on adnoids, sinuses, etc (that could have been avoided by alergy shots) until we are way over $60K in debt, own no home and live as meagerly as humnanly possible, including growing my own food and doing some odd jobs for a few extra bucks, while still working my ass off trying to sell shit to people who don’t or CAN’T buy it.

What you need to understand is that I am not the regular ditch digger (even tho I have dug many ditches in my life), but have 3 technical college degrees and associated technical skills that took me from a high tech field service engineer who was the “go-to” man on various pieces of equipment the Japanese Company I worked for manufactured and sold in the USA (the company was TDK). They sent me to Japan and all over the world to sell, install and train people on equipment that started at $250,000 apiece.

I am no slouch with my abilities.

That company, after my warnings for two years that if they didn’t change the design to keep up with the competition (like Panasonic, Phillips, Fuji and others) that we would lose marketshare and eventually I would be out of a job. They refused to change and I changed my focus more to robots by moving to another domestic manufacturer. Within 2 years, they basically had folded their equipment division (or downsized to the point of irrelevancy) and I am sure I would have lost my job, had I stuck around.

I worked as a Project Engineer/Manager for  the domestic manufacturing company, then moved into Engineering Management. However, I saw that this company’s business style was shady and I decided to jump ship before the place was closed and started my career in sales and integration management. Within 2 years, that factory closed down.

I then worked for a robotics integrator that focused on automatic welding applications, managing the robotics division of the company. Within a year, I saw the “One Sell Wonder” (the owner of that company could sell anything to anybody, ONE TIME, then they realized what a crook and liar he was and would never allow us to quote again). I left the company and within a year, that division was gone and the company virtually bankrupt.

I decided to move on into Manufacturer’s Rep sales (at the time was the penultimate goal for a technically oriented Capital Equipment Salesman). This was the Top. Finally Made It!

Now look. Business is virtually dead, even for the ultimate salesman.

All along the way, I have had predictions that have come true, even in the face of those calling me a doomsayer. But, by God, I have been right each and every time, so I trust my instincts immensely.

But even with having the ultimate saleman’s job, the insurance and healthcare issues have totally broken us. Period.

So, when Dennis makes these speeches, I understand precisely where he is coming from and can only continue to warn the rest of you who apparently have NO foresight, whatsoever.

You Investigate A Blowjob For 5 Years, But Not The Bush Crimes?

Marcy Wheeler is today’s hero.

(Matt Lewis Was PWNED)

h/t Earth2Obama

B’Man’s Sycophantic Ass-Kissers Watch: John Amato at Crooks and Liars

I was banned from the fucktard’s site. No reason given, but from the number of in-coming links from there and seeing that many of the readers there agree with me that Single-Payer, Not-for-profit healthcare should be FORCED on to the table (Excuse me, people, you realize they work FOR us, right?). It seems evident that my message goes heavily against the grain in the mind of an ass-kissing sycophant who must gather whatever popularity and power he can by turning against the true needs and desires of Americans, especially Progressives.

Today, Master Ass-Kisser, himself, posted about having Nancy Pelosi on for a live chat to discuss America’s Affordable Health Choices Act

I hope that her shit is more palatable than Mr Obama’s. In my mind, all shit is something to avoid, but not Johnny Boy. Mmm Mmm.

I want to know why it is that so many American “Progressives” have suddenly stopped fighting for real change (I think I know the answer to my question). Why is it that you Sheople jump on board with a water-carrying asshat like Amato, when you know he has bedded down with the Power Mongering Demublican Party? He gets his pat on the head and a little backing and man o man having fun with those celeb’s… but what do you get?

Fucked. That’s what.

I watched this shit for 8 years as you other dumbasses fell for “The Godly Man” W and his criminally, evil ways. I watched as “Bushies” formed and basically defended and supported each and every horrific thing he and his cronies did. What I did not expect, at the time, was to have those who kept saying they wanted change to turn into Bushies. For that is precisely what Kos, C&L and many other so-called “Progressive” sites have done (become what they so hated for the last 8 years). Do you fools not see the hypocrisy and irony in your actions?

Do you realize that it is the REAL Progressives, like me, who are pushing for change and NOT willing to satisfy for the status quo of them “letting us eat cake”? That those fake progressive sites are now nothing more than a caricature of their previous object of their hatred, the Bushies.

But there is a way even without these slaves to the Dem Party. Let me show you how another REAL Progressive without the shit on his lips addresses this issue:

Did you see that, Johnny Boy? How about the rest of you jerkoffs who are only capable of toeing the line they want you to toe? Aren’t you embarrassed to call yourselves Progressive when regression and capitulation is your only method? You see Johnny Boy, when someone is a Patriot, they don’t fall on their knees and gobble the Elitist goober just to stroke their own ego. They stand up to the ones that are standing in the way of PROGRESS.

What I am saying is that these money-grubbing, ass-licking, water-carrying sites like Amatos’ are just the other face of the Two Party system. With John, he is too ignorant to have planned it, so I can only assume that he is simply liking the attention, money and the time he gets to sit with Arianna and the few opportunities he gets to speak with Olbermann. I don’t know what, exactly, it is about these folks, except it must be some sense of need for attention and the limelight. It sure as hell isn’t about what is best for this country.

The other explanation would be that they are complicit. I don’t think so. John isn’t smart enough.

But, he is dumb enough to allow the Demublican Party to rule what the agenda for his site is. This is obvious when it comes to one of the most crucial issues facing us today… our healthcare. Unfortunately, he and those others are unaware or just plain too stupid to see how what they are ass-kissing about is going to be a dismal failure and we will have them and their stupid ass-kissing fools to blame for it.

Thank goodness we have a different voice than the sycophantic ass-kissers out there:

D Is For Deception

Yesterday, the House Democrats unveiled their health care reform bill.

Even if it passes, it is bound to fail.

Why?

Because it keeps the insurance industry in the game.

It will cost a trillion dollars over ten years.

It won’t cover tens of millions of Americans.

It won’t control costs.

And it’s a bailout for the insurance industry.

Only a single payer — everybody in, nobody out — national health insurance bill (co-sponsored by 85 members of the House — most recently by Congressman John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania)) will hit the grand slam — cover everyone, save money, control costs, and fix a broken health care system.

But what struck me yesterday while watching the Democrats was the depth of their deception.

There was Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

Both heaping praise upon and honoring Congressman John Dingell (D-Michigan).

And his father — John Dingell, Sr.

John Dingell, Sr. represented Michigan’s 15th district for 22 years until his death in 1955.

John Dingell, Jr. has represented the district ever since.

But not once during the press conference did anyone mention that it was John Dingell, Sr. who first introduced a single payer bill in Congress in 1943.

And it was Democratic leaders in Congress and President Barack Obama who took single payer off the table.

The Republicans will tell you straight up — we’re for big business.

Single payer is socialism.

And that’s why we’re against single payer.

When the Democrats are out of power, they will tell you what you want to hear — we’re for single payer.

They then take power, and all of a sudden, they are against single payer.

Take Henry Waxman (D-California) as a case in point.

For years, Henry Waxman was a co-sponsor of HR 676 — the single payer bill in the House.

Until earlier this year, when he became part of the leadership in the House.

Then Waxman took his name off the single payer bill.

In 2003, Barack Obama said he was for single payer.

Obama said at the time that we would have single payer in America only when the Democrats took back the White House and Congress.

Last year, Obama and the Democrats took back the White House and Congress.

And now President Obama is opposed to single payer.

The reality is that there is only one solution to the health care crisis — get the insurance companies out of health care.

The Democrats are now engaged in what Dr. Marcia Angell — former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine — calls “the futility of piecemeal tinkering.”

Angell and a majority of doctors in the United States — and a majority of the American people — believe that only a major single payer overhaul will get the job done.

That’s why we’re challenging the Democrats around the country.

And we will continue to challenge them, and the health insurance industry to whom they are beholden, until single payer becomes a reality in America.

We’re in it for the long haul.

Thanks to your generosity, Single Payer Action has directly confronted Democratic leaders including:

Congressman Henry Waxman (D-California)

Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York)

Senator Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota)

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland)

First Lady Michelle Obama

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut)

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California)

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon)

White House Health Czar Nancy Ann DeParle

Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana).

And we’re planning to ratchet up the confrontation when Congress heads home for the August recess.

We have more than 20 single payer activists in our network now — and the list continues to grow.

The idea is to build a national core group of activists who will challenge members of Congress in non-violent direct confrontation.

To demand an answer — why are you ignoring the plight of the American people?

And to demand action — put single payer on the table now.

We need your help now to fund and expand this network in time for next month’s Congressional recess.

So, please, donate now — whatever you can afford — $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000.

So that we can confront the corporate Democrats in August.

And remember, only two days left on our special book offer.

If you donate $100 or more now, we will send you a copy, hot off the press, of Theresa Amato’s hard cover, 379-page masterpiece — Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny (The New Press, June 2009).

Autographed by Ralph Nader — who wrote the foreword to the book.

Phil Donahue said this about Grand Illusion: “Theresa Amato takes the biggest swing — not a jab, but a roundhouse punch — at America’s corrupt electoral system.”

So, don’t delay.

Please donate now.

So that we can challenge the corporate Democrats on their home turf in August.

Together, we can make the difference.

Onward to a life-saving, cost-saving single payer.

Russell Mokhiber

Healthcare: Change the Debate

From a true American Patriot:

Support a Real Public Option

Dear Friends,

In mid-May, in an effort to reach consensus, President Obama secured a deal with the health insurance companies to trim 1.5% of their costs each year for ten years saving a total of $2 trillion dollars, which would be reprogrammed into healthcare. Just two days after the announcement at the White House the insurance companies reneged on the deal which was designed to protect and increase their revenue at least 35%

The insurance companies reneged on the deal because they refuse any restraint on increasing premiums, copays and deductibles – core to their profits. No wonder a recent USA Today poll found that only four percent of Americans trust insurance companies. This is within the margin of error, which means it is possible that NO ONE TRUSTS insurance companies.

Then why does Congress trust the insurance companies? Yesterday HR 3200 “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act,” a 1000 page bill was delivered to members. The title of the bill raises a question: “Affordable” for whom?.

Of $2.4 trillion spent annually for health care in America, fully $800 billion goes for the activities of the for-profit insurer-based system. This means one of every three health care dollars is siphoned off for corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing and the cost of paper work, (which can be anywhere between 15 – 35% in the private sector as compared to Medicare, the single payer plan which has only 3% administrative costs).

50 million Americans are uninsured and another 50 million are under insured while for-profit insurance companies divert precious health care dollars to non-health care purposes. Eliminate the for-profit health care system and its extraordinary overhead, put the money into healthcare and everyone will be covered, everyone will be able to afford health care.

Today three committees will begin marking up and amending HR3200. In this, one of the most momentous public policy debates in the past 70 years, single payer, the only viable “public option,” the one that makes sound business sense, controls costs and covers everyone was taken off the table.

In contrast to HR3200 … HR676 calls for a universal single-payer health care system in the United States, Medicare for All. It has over 85 co-sponsors in Congress with the support of millions of Americans and countless physicians and nurses. How does HR-676 control costs and cover everyone? It cuts out the for-profit middle men and delivers care directly to consumers and Medicare acts as the single payer of bills. It also recognizes that under the current system for-profit insurance companies make money NOT providing health care.

This week is the time to break the hold which the insurance companies have on our political process. Tell Congress to stand up to the insurance companies. Ask members to sign on to the only real public option, HR 676, a single-payer healthcare system.

Hundreds of local labor unions, thousands of physicians and millions of Americans are standing behind us. With a draft of HR3200 now circulating, It is up to each and every one of us to organize and rally for the cause of single-payer healthcare. Change the debate. Now is the time.

The time to act is now!

Sincerely Yours,

PS – Over the next several months, I will be engaging all of you with frequent updates and will ask you to continue a movement to fight for what needs to be done now; ending this war in Iraq and stopping the escalation in Afghanistan, attaining true single-payer healthcare for all Americans, standing up for my brothers and sisters of organized labor.

After you have contacted your member of Congress, please tell us your thoughts and ideas on how you are organizing your friends and neighbors towards a single-payer movement and all of the other issues that are important to us.

Contact us at feedback@kucinich.us

At Least Mortimer Agrees With Me

While most of you folks are ignoring the criticality of the current situation, I have been trying to warn you about the impending doom heading our way. You may feel good about those “green shoots” that don’t exist or the fact that your employer is paying for your health insurance. You may be making good money at the moment and simply disregarding any “bad news” as pessimistic and relate me and others like me to “giving up”. I haven’t given up shit, yet, that’s why I bother continuing what seems like a slow beating of my head against a brick wall.

But I read the following from Mortimer Zuckerman that was posted at Global Research and it breaks down the details as well as anyone else I have read. If you think, even for a second, that the economy has hit bottom and things are starting to look upwards, you better change your eyewear or your brain cells.

The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think

by Mortimer Zuckerman

The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary estimate for job losses for June is 467,000, which means 7.2 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession. The cumulative job losses over the last six months have been greater than for any other half year period since World War II, including the military demobilization after the war. The job losses are also now equal to the net job gains over the previous nine years, making this the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion.

Here are 10 reasons we are in even more trouble than the 9.5% unemployment rate indicates:

- June’s total assumed 185,000 people at work who probably were not. The government could not identify them; it made an assumption about trends. But many of the mythical jobs are in industries that have absolutely no job creation, e.g., finance. When the official numbers are adjusted over the next several months, June will look worse.

- More companies are asking employees to take unpaid leave. These people don’t count on the unemployment roll.

- No fewer than 1.4 million people wanted or were available for work in the last 12 months but were not counted. Why? Because they hadn’t searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey.

- The number of workers taking part-time jobs due to the slack economy, a kind of stealth underemployment, has doubled in this recession to about nine million, or 5.8% of the work force. Add those whose hours have been cut to those who cannot find a full-time job and the total unemployed rises to 16.5%, putting the number of involuntarily idle in the range of 25 million.

- The average work week for rank-and-file employees in the private sector, roughly 80% of the work force, slipped to 33 hours. That’s 48 minutes a week less than before the recession began, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data 45 years ago. Full-time workers are being downgraded to part time as businesses slash labor costs to remain above water, and factories are operating at only 65% of capacity. If Americans were still clocking those extra 48 minutes a week now, the same aggregate amount of work would get done with 3.3 million fewer employees, which means that if it were not for the shorter work week the jobless rate would be 11.7%, not 9.5% (which far exceeds the 8% rate projected by the Obama administration).

- The average length of official unemployment increased to 24.5 weeks, the longest since government began tracking this data in 1948. The number of long-term unemployed (i.e., for 27 weeks or more) has now jumped to 4.4 million, an all-time high.

- The average worker saw no wage gains in June, with average compensation running flat at $18.53 an hour.

- The goods producing sector is losing the most jobs — 223,000 in the last report alone.

- The prospects for job creation are equally distressing. The likelihood is that when economic activity picks up, employers will first choose to increase hours for existing workers and bring part-time workers back to full time. Many unemployed workers looking for jobs once the recovery begins will discover that jobs as good as the ones they lost are almost impossible to find because many layoffs have been permanent. Instead of shrinking operations, companies have shut down whole business units or made sweeping structural changes in the way they conduct business. General Motors and Chrysler, closed hundreds of dealerships and reduced brands. Citigroup and Bank of America cut tens of thousands of positions and exited many parts of the world of finance.

Job losses may last well into 2010 to hit an unemployment peak close to 11%. That unemployment rate may be sustained for an extended period.

Can we find comfort in the fact that employment has long been considered a lagging indicator? It is conventionally seen as having limited predictive power since employment reflects decisions taken earlier in the business cycle. But today is different. Unemployment has doubled to 9.5% from 4.8% in only 16 months, a rate so fast it may influence future economic behavior and outlook.

How could this happen when Washington has thrown trillions of dollars into the pot, including the famous $787 billion in stimulus spending that was supposed to yield $1.50 in growth for every dollar spent? For a start, too much of the money went to transfer payments such as Medicaid, jobless benefits and the like that do nothing for jobs and growth. The spending that creates new jobs is new spending, particularly on infrastructure. It amounts to less than 10% of the stimulus package today.

About 40% of U.S. workers believe the recession will continue for another full year, and their pessimism is justified. As paychecks shrink and disappear, consumers are more hesitant to spend and won’t lead the economy out of the doldrums quickly enough.

It may have made him unpopular in parts of the Obama administration, but Vice President Joe Biden was right when he said a week ago that the administration misread how bad the economy was and how effective the stimulus would be. It was supposed to be about jobs but it wasn’t. The Recovery Act was a single piece of legislation but it included thousands of funding schemes for tens of thousands of projects, and those programs are stuck in the bureaucracy as the government releases the funds with typical inefficiency.

Another $150 billion, which was allocated to state coffers to continue programs like Medicaid, did not add new jobs; hundreds of billions were set aside for tax cuts and for new benefits for the poor and the unemployed, and they did not add new jobs. Now state budgets are drowning in red ink as jobless claims and Medicaid bills climb.

Next year state budgets will have depleted their initial rescue dollars. Absent another rescue plan, they will have no choice but to slash spending, raise taxes, or both. State and local governments, representing about 15% of the economy, are beginning the worst contraction in postwar history amid a deficit of $166 billion for fiscal 2010, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and a gap of $350 billion in fiscal 2011.

Households overburdened with historic levels of debt will also be saving more. The savings rate has already jumped to almost 7% of after-tax income from 0% in 2007, and it is still going up. Every dollar of saving comes out of consumption. Since consumer spending is the economy’s main driver, we are going to have a weak consumer sector and many businesses simply won’t have the means or the need to hire employees. After the 1990-91 recessions, consumers went out and bought houses, cars and other expensive goods. This time, the combination of a weak job picture and a severe credit crunch means that people won’t be able to get the financing for big expenditures, and those who can borrow will be reluctant to do so. The paycheck has returned as the primary source of spending.

This process is nowhere near complete and, until it is, the economy will barely grow if it does at all, and it may well oscillate between sluggish growth and modest decline for the next several years until the rebalancing of excessive debt has been completed. Until then, the economy will be deprived of adequate profits and cash flow, and businesses will not start to hire nor race to make capital expenditures when they have vast idle capacity.

No wonder poll after poll shows a steady erosion of confidence in the stimulus. So what kind of second-act stimulus should we look for? Something that might have a real multiplier effect, not a congressional wish list of pet programs. It is critical that the Obama administration not play politics with the issue. The time to get ready for a serious infrastructure program is now. It’s a shame Washington didn’t get it right the first time.

Mortimer Zuckerman is chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report.

Global Research Articles by Mortimer Zuckerman

Prematurely Born-Again Christian Suffers Complications

more about “Prematurely Born-Again Christian Suff…“, posted with vodpod

Where Do I Sign Up?

from my friend Davis Fleetwood at Operation Itch

When I was in the FSU oil-share trading business…

…we used to have a little joke.  Someone would say something about Turkmenistan and the chorus would go up “Don’t laugh at Turkmenistan…That’s how you get a private plane!”

Having observed what happened with Cindy Sheehan and the Tillman Family — brushed off as pests by the masters of war and cast off by pseudo-pacifists jealous of some perceived “celebrity” — I’m not going deeply into my career of 15 years ago.  Suffice it to say that I know a lot about natural resources finance in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the rest of the FSU.  I’ve written extensively on the subject in the 1990s for such publications as GRANT’S INTEREST RATE OBSERVER and EMERGING MARKETS INVESTOR (a subsidiary of RISK MAGAZINE published out of London).

We had a discussion here not long ago about the differences between “hedge funds” and the largest US commingled banks.   I was on the hedge fund side at the time, which preceded the elimination of Glass-Stegall.  Thus, even the prop desks of the big US investment banks were themselves taking risks they’d have to bear themselves without expecting any bailouts.  Certain people like Nick Leeson at Barings, Ltd., (not American but same idea) tried to take advantage of an implicit “moral hazard” in the system: meaning bet the house to the limit your boss will allow and if you’re right, you’ll get a huge bonus; if you’re wrong worst that can happen is you’ll get fired and get a new job in a month.  It didn’t work out that way for Leeson.  Barings went under but in Europe there’s no “too big to fail”.  The capitalist system worked in the sense that ING took over Barings by assuming the debt caused by Leeson’s dice roll and created the ING/Barings Emerging Markets, S.A. (Netherlands) subsidiary. Leeson went to prison for 6 years.

Soon after that…NO MORE GLASS-STEGALL…YES “TOO BIG TO FAIL”.  Hmm.

Back to Turkmenistan and one of the reasons “we”, meaning “you” (not you B’Man, but “you” Big Sammy) are doubled and tripled up in South Central Asia now is that the USA no longer wants capitalism to work.  It no longer wants hedge fund managers who are willing to take calculated risks nor European institutions willing to pick up the pieces of a failed venture it deems still offers value at the right price.  The USA certainly doesn’t understand why its oil and gas reserves are under Russian, Kazakh, and Turkmen land!!!  That NATO is part of this shows where a formerly “capitalist democratic  republican self-governing” Western Europe is now relative to where it was when  was in the game.

West’s Afghan War And Drive Into Caspian Sea Basin by Rick Rozoff

Getting Banned From C&L Is A Sign I Am Doing Something Good For America

Heh. I hear ya, John.

What is the very best way to continue your ass kissing of Barack Obama and all things Demublican Party without being held accountable? Ban those who hold your ass accountable.

Amato’s LittleGreenFootballs for Demmies.

I trust you don’t think this will stop me from pointing out what a sycophantic ass kisser you are, do you? Or how you are misleading true Progressives to their doom? Or address the idiocy of those who post at your Demublican Party shithole that are enamored with your ass kissing abilities (maybe hoping to get a little shit on their noses, as well)?

I didn’t think so.

Its better that real Progressives get banned from your shithole, isn’t it, John? Easier that way.

How Barack Obama Became A One Term President

I wrote an article last Sept called “How Bush Became a Three Term President“. In it, I made the leap that the current build up of forces was to prepare for an Iranian invasion and laid out maps with arrows and such of where our forces are (and how they are being strategically placed for something… I was looking at invasion). At that point in time, I had only considered the idea that Obama might be a black Bush, but wasn’t fully convinced (even though I knew he was wrong for this country).

There was even scuttlebutt from last March (as I re-accounted in Sept last year in an article I posted called, “Could This Be The Beginning of a Bush Dictatorship?“. I made a mistake in that I didn’t consider Obama a direct extension of the Bush Policies (for even I thought he was too smart to play off the old set of rules after what we had experienced for 8 years). Boy, was I wrong.

Essentially, Obama is Bush, just dark brown, in color, so in many ways, I was correct about his third term and dictatorship.

However, he screwed up, but it always takes Americans a long time to figure this stuff out. The day the man said the following to the Illinois AFL-CIO, on June 30, 2003 (see the video at the link):

“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program.” (applause) “I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”

That was the day that he made his bed with Progressives. This was one crucial point in his emergence as Messiah for the Demublican Party that he had us. That he appeared to be real and someone who actually cared about the people of this country.

However, we have seen the truth in full spectrum since then. We have witnessed more promises made, insinuations that previous illegal and immoral behavior in the Executive Branch were over… that we would treat people with dignity and respect and give them a trial, etc… that we would come out of Iraq (and a whole host of other lying bullshit). He promised so many things to get you to vote for him that at this point, virtually all of it is lies or stretches of truth or simply our misunderstanding of what he was eluding to to get our vote (let me rephrase that: YOUR vote).

I have been frequenting some of the big “Progressive” blogs around and as kelso points out, perhaps the ownership of the blogs are Obamasskissers and Party sycophantic clowns, but the commenters are by and large agreeing with me, especially regarding healthcare. Many times the Clown will post something about the piss-poor “Public-Option” plan and the commenters (including me) will take them to task for bending over and allowing it shoved to the hilt without warning, lube or protection. Does it make any difference? Probably not because the “Big Blogs” are getting their day in the spotlight and they got there by lending Obama the hand he needed to lie his way into office (all the while the Amatos, Huffington’s, Atrios’, etc, etc, etc are enjoying their spotlight as the country is being divided and conquered right before their eyes). I would think it criminal, but it is probably more just wanton awestruck star worship.

Well, fuck them. You aren’t getting what you need from those assholes if they are going to kow-tow to a lying asshole like (insert name of the Senator/Congressman/President here). What you need, as a real American Patriot, is an entity that will fight for you, not their bottom line or opportunity to rub elbows with the evil complicit bastards who are doing this to us. You need to hold these places and people accountable and let them know how they are failing you and America. Believe me, I do. Every chance I get.

So, back to my post point: Barack Hussein Obama basically won this election from his ability to form the perception of people on various issues, a crucial one being health-care. If you do revisit the video I linked to above, he was caught in a bald faced lie in the POTUS Dem debate. THAT lie was instrumental in getting him elected (I don’t think I will bother going through all the other campaign lies and innuendo he was capable of).

But it was that lie that will cost him his job in a few years. Dave Lindorff at ThisCantBeHappening puts it like this:

Furthermore, his apparent failure to deliver on this key initiative will deal a body blow to his political clout on other initiatives, such as tackling climate change and dealing with an acute economic crisis.

If I’m right that health reform is dead, so is Barack Obama’s presidency. President Bill Clinton’s new administration foundered early on following his shameless backdown on a pledge to guarantee the right of gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. It never recovered. President Obama’s new administration is foundering on his equally shameless backdown on a promise to establish a system of quality affordable health care for all.

I almost come away from Dave’s writing thinking that he still believes that Barack is just doing this shit for political expediency. I am past that now. Sure, he may be a pussy when it comes to his political stances, but I think it simply means that he will say almost anything to anyone to get elected. And from the past 8 years (or more) experience, it apparently doesn’t matter one bit if these people lie and cheat us. You dumbasses seem to like it.

Mr Obama has been “in-your-face” and immensely untruthful. Shit, I was looking for change and you see what we got… the same old shit in a darker skin suit.

That’s What Alaska Gets, Electing A MILF Instead of a Stalin!

Now Romney is our only hope…

h/t Undeniable Liberalism

“The Select Few Who Actually Get It Done”

‘The Select Few’ Are Cashing in: Shocking Corruption at the Washington Post

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, AlterNet.

If you want to know what really matters in Washington, don’t go to Capitol Hill for one of those hearings, or pay attention to those staged White House “town meetings.” They’re just for show. What really happens — the serious business of Washington — happens in the shadows, out of sight, off the record. Only occasionally — and usually only because someone high up stumbles — do we get a glimpse of just how pervasive the corruption has become.

Case in point: Katharine Weymouth, the publisher of The Washington Post — one of the most powerful people in DC — invited top officials from the White House, the Cabinet and Congress to her home for an intimate, off-the-record dinner to discuss health care reform with some of her reporters and editors covering the story.

But CEOs and lobbyists from the health care industry were invited, too, provided they forked over $25,000 a head — or up to a quarter of a million if they want to sponsor a whole series of these cozy get-togethers. And what is the inducement offered? Nothing less, the invitation read, than “an exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will get it done.”

The invitation reminds the CEO’s and lobbyists that they will be buying access to “those powerful few in business and policy making who are forwarding, legislating and reporting on the issues…

“Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No.” The invitation promises this private, intimate and off-the-record dinner is an extension “of The Washington Post brand of journalistic inquiry into the issues, a unique opportunity for stakeholders to hear and be heard.”

Let that sink in. In this case, the “stakeholders” in health care reform do not include the rabble — the folks across the country who actually need quality health care but can’t afford it. . .

No, before you can cross the threshold to reach “the select few who will actually get it done,” you must first cross the palm of some outstretched hand. The Washington Post dinner was canceled after a copy of the invite was leaked to the web site Politico.com, by a health care lobbyist, of all people. The paper said it was a misunderstanding — the document was a draft that had been mailed out prematurely by its marketing department. There’s noblesse oblige for you — blame it on the hired help. . .

According to one poll after another, a majority of Americans not only want a public option in health care, they also think that growing inequality is bad for the country, that corporations have too much power over policy, that money in politics is the root of all evil, that working families and poor communities need and deserve public support if the market system fails to generate shared prosperity.

But when the insiders in Washington have finished tearing worthy intentions apart and devouring flesh from bone, none of these reforms happen. “Oh,” they say, “it’s all about compromise. All in the nature of the give-and-take-negotiating of a representative democracy.”. . .

It’s not about compromise. It’s not about what the public wants. It’s about money — the golden ticket to “the select few who actually get it done.”

When Congress passed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, “the select few” made sure it no longer contained the cramdown provision that would have allowed judges to readjust mortgages. The one provision that would have helped homeowners the most was removed in favor of an industry that pours hundreds of millions into political campaigns. . .

Everyone knows the credit ratings agencies were co-conspirators with Wall Street in the shameful wilding that brought on the financial meltdown. But when the Obama administration came up with new reforms to prevent another crisis, the credit ratings agencies were given a pass. They’d been excused by “the select few who actually get it done.”

And by the time an energy bill emerged from the House of Representatives the other day, “the select few who actually get it done” had given away billions of dollars worth of emission permits and offsets. As The New York Times reported, while the legislation worked its way to the House floor, “It grew fat with compromises, carve-outs, concessions and out-and-out gifts,” expanding from 648 pages to 1400 as it spread its largesse among big oil and gas, utility companies and agribusiness.

This week, the public interest groups Common Cause and the Center for Responsive Politics reported that, “According to lobby disclosure reports, 34 energy companies registered in the first quarter of 2009 to lobby Congress around the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. This group of companies spent a total of $23.7 million — or $260,000 a day — lobbying members of Congress in January, February and March.

“Many of these same companies also made large contributions to the members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which has jurisdiction over the legislation and held a hearing this week on the proposed ‘cap and trade’ system energy companies are fighting. Data shows oil and gas companies, mining companies and electric utilities combined have given more than $2 million just to the 19 members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee since 2007, the start of the last full election cycle.”

It’s happening to health care as well. Even the pro-business magazine, The Economist, says America has the worst system in the developed world, controlled by executives who are not held to account and investors whose primary goal is raising share price and increasing profit — while wasting $450 billion dollars in redundant administrative costs and leaving nearly 50 million uninsured.

Enter “the select few who actually get it done.” Three out of four of the big health care firms lobbying on Capitol Hill have former members of Congress or government staff members on the payroll — more than 350 of them — and they’re all fighting hard to prevent a public option, at a rate in excess of $1.4 million a day.

Health care policy has become insider heaven. Even Nancy-Ann DeParle, the White House health reform director, served on the boards of several major health care corporations. . .

That’s how it works. And it works that way because we let it. The game goes on and the insiders keep dealing themselves winning hands. Nothing will change — nothing — until the money lenders are tossed out of the temple, the ATM’s are wrested from the marble halls, and we tear down the sign they’ve placed on government — the one that reads, “For Sale.”

h/t UnderNews

B’Man’s Hypocrite Watch: Crooks and Liars (Democratic Party Clowns?)

I write about this site every now and again, moreso to point out their feigned “Progressiveness” in light of what is truly happening: puckering up to suck the shit directly from Mr Barack Obama’s ass (along with virtually anyone in the Dem Party). In Nicolle’s latest post, she plainly spells it out for Single Payer advocates, precisely the agenda for C&L (and it is NOT for the betterment or for real Progressive change). She then warns the real progressives who bother to read at their site to not bother with the Single Payer issue and to step back with them (I call that regression, not progression) and support the alternative plan (yes, alternative in that the crooks and liars will still be supported by the evil bastards, the health insurance companies).

Is this your idea of being a “Progressive”, Nicolle?

Now before any of you start dismissing the campaign because it’s not single payer–please keep in mind that single payer is not on the table, nor is it likely to be on this go-round of health care reform. Obama has said that it would be too “disruptive” to the existing system. Our goal–and I speak for Blue America’s campaign and presumably PCCC as well–is to fight for the most vibrant public option possible currently and then to keep incrementally fighting for something closer and more akin to a single payer.

I believe strongly that we will eventually come around on single payer in this country. But we need to work for it tactically and intelligently, or we risk having the whole thing blow up in our faces as it did in 1993.

Gosh, Nicolle: you must be under the impression that Mr Obama is Emperor or The Messiah. Either that, or you came away from Mr Bush’s reign and decided that, yes, the POTUS is God. Somehow, Nicolle, you have become the antithesis of progressiveness. You are a water carrier, Nicolle. I hope you take heed to that description, for there are none better suited for you and your boss at this moment in time (I have had a C&L’s poster tell me what a great boss John is… good boss or not, he is fucking WRONG and this country will suffer because of his brand of ass kissing in politics).

No, what this parody of a progressive blog has done has turned into another Democratic party mouthpiece, much like the LittleGreenFootballs or Malkin’s site for the Republican Party. Although, John Amato “thinks” he is progressive, all he has been able to accomplish is bring even more of the crucial issues back to the right (or “middle”, as is described). But we all (those of us with some sanity left, anyway) understand that what is now the middle is the Right. Been that way for decades, now. So, I must laugh my ass off at these sycophantic assholes who claim the moniker of Progressive, yet, are playing right into the Conservative, Elitist’s playbook.

I didn’t think they could be so stupid and oblivious, but it is true. They are that stupid and oblivious.

I wanted to think that the motive is honorable (and with some of the posters, I feel it is), but the overall scope and breadth of C&L is not Progressive. Hardly. Just like the previous administration’s ability to claim their “conservative” name, John Amato and website is only a facade… an illusion to progressiveness… claiming the name and acting like a Bushie.

But it is BIG, isn’t it? That and a whole bunch of my ass expulsions get you nothing in this country. Being BIG, but thwarting the idea is paramount to selling your soul to the devil; but in this case, John is too stupid to realize he has sold out. He is living for the devil… promoting the devil’s agenda, yet is too god damned stupid to realize it.

Reread Nicolle’s comment and think to yourself of how it is these very types that have stopped the progressive movement in its tracks. Calls for the Public Option, which is just another way for Americans to get fucked, and to delay what Nicolle calls inevitable, is the height of hypocrisy and the sign of an entity that is corrupt, not one that is smart. It is owned by Big Money’s influence and the desire of John Amato to rub elbows with the Party Leaders and hopefully secure a role in the MSM, maybe.

The reason we didn’t get it during Clinton’s term was for the same kowtowing rationale Amato (and now Nicolle) give. Sorry, but I think that strategy is a piece of shit, just like the ideology of Demublican politics that have overtaken and rule C&L.

Crooks and Liars has its chance and they are blowing it. And I am calling them on it.

Get your C&L lips off of Barack’s ass and stand for REAL Progressive change.

B’Man’s Sabbath Watch: Zionists are Godless Criminal Thugs

Neturei Karta Spokesman Rabbi Daud Salah tells it like it is on Aug 6, 2006 in this Al-Jazeera interview

If the impact of AIPAC & Zionists’ damage to U.S. Interests in the Middle East & Muslim World could be measured, the number would be in zillions of dollars. Through manipulating U.S. national elections & forcing the U.S. foreign policy towards fanatic (faith-based) objectives in blindly supporting even the most reactionary & fascist-oriented policies of apartheid Israel, AIPAC, Zionists & their traitor agents operating within the U.S. executive & legislative branches are working against the strategic & long-term interets of the United States all over the World & particularly in the Middle East & among the 1.5 billion Muslim population of the World. The U.S. national government has been hijacked by AIPAC & Zionists.

h/t DeProgram

Get Your Head Out of Your Ass and Start Being Honest With Yourself

So says a person who describes himself as: 50% Motherfucker. 50% Son Of A Bitch.

And I like it.

Here we have a person who says what I say, but one hell of a lot more eloquently (which is not difficult, in and of itself). But to do so with the same basic understanding is exhilarating to me (of course I have kelso, Lynda and a few others who do this same regular upgrade to my bullshit… its just nice seeing it elsewhere). I recommend highly visiting and reading the article at The Black Sun Gazette, but essentially what the author is saying is that if you haven’t figured out that Obama is a smiling and sophisticated Bush, you aren’t paying attention and you need to get your head out of your ass and be honest for a change. Stop lying to yourself, fake Progressive. Stop wishing that all the lies he said to convince your gullible ass to vote for his corrupt ass didn’t happen, or worse just ignore them:

There are a number of issues which I will ignore for now, at least in terms of making the case. I would, however, like to state that if you do not agree with me that Barack Obama is a hatchet  man for the American ruling class you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the state. Further, I would suggest that you are engaged in a serious and concerted effort at remaining ignorant of the goals and tactics of the current administration both domestically and abroad. Since a number of people engaged in such self-delusion are intelligent friends of mine I would like to say quite simply: get your head out of your ass and start being honest with yourself. The differences between the Obama administration and the Bush administration are largely cultural and tactical. They pursue the same course of action, albeit one is smarter than another. The problem with America isn’t that we need a smarter ruler.

That’s right. We don’t need someone smarter, if they are just as corrupt as the previous ones for the last 30 years or more. It has become commonplace for the man to lie with abandon now, since the election. He has had zero problems with totally denying his campaign promises and various lies before and as a Senator. It is obvious as the hair on your ass that he is a liar and thief of the trust of Americans everywhere.

In this vein, I am not impressed with Mr Obama’s message to us today posted at Earth2Obama and below:

Jerkoff

He tells us that the Recovery Act has stopped the country’s economic free fall and states a couple of statistics as fodder. The problem is that we are still in a free fall and anyone with half a braincell left sees it and knows it. We are still losing jobs close to the 1/2 Million mark per month, when we need over 200K every month added just to keep up with population growth. I am not impressed with the man’s continuous pointing out the previous Administration’s culpability in the current disaster, when he voted for it (conveniently NOT telling you that) and has exasperated it ten fold since taking over. I am not impressed that he has only continued the previous criminal’s behavior, yet still thinks you dumbass rednecks will still fall for his bullshit.

We aren’t all imbeciles or brainwashed sycophants, Mr Obama.  Some of us ARE paying attention and are not corralled by your fake paradigm. We understand bullshit when we smell it and see it and hear it, dude. People paying attention have access to the numbers, dumbass, but you must count on the mass of folks who would rather “trust” your lying ass than their own judgment and reasoning abilities. This is your strength… it is the only thing you have left after revealing the true you… your ability to hold on to the brainwashed fools who still believe you are “different” or want something other than what the oligarchy wants.

But back to the article called, “Final Word: The Fake Left“, that Nick Hate penned: he examines the paradox of the tired old “Left/Right” paradigm, explaining how those on “The Left” who are trying to soften Capitalism (in its form) and make it more maleable and conducive to normal poor folks is a massive failure and can end up with many dead in uprisings as the working class get pissed and the ruling class uses force to put them down. It happens often in this country, but our collective recall abilities usually only are accessable if we are trying to remember when Michael Jackson had a broad nose last.

IMO, He is correct in the following:

It’s an oft-stated fact on the left that “radical” comes from some ancient language’s word meaning “to get to the root of.” What this means, simply, is that radicalization is important. But it’s not nearly enough. Radicalization can be led in many directions- toward fascism, toward conciliation with the ruling class, toward a revolutionary organization of society along the lines of social equality. I know which I’ll fight for. Those of you continuing to attempt to find common ground with those who would perpetuate this system are either severely deluded or active agents of reaction.

Again: we do not seek the same goal at a more moderate pace. You seek to shore up capitalism and make it “nicer.” I seek to smash it and replace it with the rule of those who produce wealth. The difference could not be any starker.