Civil and Honest Conversations?

Who is this man talking to? Was he speaking to the 46 Million people without insurance? Was he talking to the untold MILLIONS that are underinsured? Or the people forced to go to the RAM gatherings across the US?

He must be talking to some coffer who is worried that the “civil and honest conversation” about Single Payer, right?

When I listen to this guy speak, knowing that he has garnered more money from Big Meds than all of the rest combined, I hear nothing but lie after lie after lie.

But he ain’t trying to kill your grandmother (I don’t think he gives a fuck about your grandmother). He is doing nothing more than continuing the staus quo and smoothly blinding you to believe him. He laughs in the face of the right-wing fruitcakes who are following their “Tea-bagger”, “Death Panel” talking points, all-the-while he pockets more cashola and protects America from the only sane, civil and honest healthcare system.

There is but one reason this man and his cronies aren’t letting Single Payer in this debate… MONEY.

PERIOD.

From OpenSecrets.orgOpenSecrets.org

Health providers, insurers and pharmaceutical companies have taken multiple approaches to winning over the federal lawmakers shaping the legislation. The health sector boosted its campaign contributions compared to the last presidential cycle, to $167.7 million in 2008 from $123.7 million in 2004. The various health industries have also steadily increased their lobbying efforts, from $448.1 million in 2007 to $484.4 million in 2008. So far this year, the sector has paid lobbyists $126.8 million to do its bidding on Capitol Hill. And those expenditures will only increase as the chairs of the five main committees working on health care legislation continue to iron out the details: Will the plan include a government insurance option? Will Congress mandate that all individuals, including the 47 million that are currently uninsured, purchase health insurance? And where will the money come from to pay for the reforms? The health sector–which includes some industries that are diametrically opposed to one another in their answers to these questions–eclipses all other sectors but the financial sector in lobbying spending since 1998, putting $3.4 billion into its efforts.

B’Man’s Hypocrite Watch: Glenn Beck And The Greatest HealthCare Rip-Off In The World

Do you keep hearing the nutbags keep telling us that we have the greatest healthcare in the world? Seems like there is a penchant for uttering such easily destroyed claims by the fools trying to bullshit you, my fellow rednecks. If you are listening to Rush or Hannity, you are hearing about the horrible healthcare elsewhere in the world and how we have the best, you have to start asking yourself the questions like, If U.S. Health Care’s So Good, Why Do Other People Live Longer (h/t AfterDowningStreet originally at McClatchy):

By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg | Sacramento Bee

Ask around for the healthiest country in the world, and the United States won’t come close to topping the list.

People live longer in just about every industrialized nation, from Canada to our north, throughout much of Europe, and around the Pacific in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

New mothers and their babies also face a rockier start here, with U.S. infant and maternal death rates double some of our industrialized peers.

As debate swirls in Washington and at town halls nationwide over health care reform, there is also a more fundamental question — what about health?

Could policymakers change our medical system in ways that would make America a healthier country?

Of course, there are things that each and every American can do to help themselves be healthier (eat healthier, exercise, etc) and the McClatchy article reports that having more and better access to Primary care is instrumental:

Among them are strengthening primary care, finding ways to encourage better diet and exercise, and effectively reforming how health care is financed, said Dr. James G. Kahn, a professor of health policy and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco.

People do better in nations that encourage them to have a regular primary care provider, Kahn said, perhaps partly because regular, front-line care helps bolster healthy habits.

“Even in the United States, in locations with a higher concentration of primary care providers, people have somewhat better outcomes and also lower costs,” he said.

Generally speaking, one can estimate that the more someone spends on something, the better he will fair. But in the US HealthCare Complex, this seems to be the opposite. The more we spend, the worse care we get. Bernard at A Tiny Revolution explains:

Rip Off Inc. II

By: Bernard Chazelle

The US spends at least twice as much per person on health care as any other country on earth.

In the 70s, American social scientists introduced the concept of “amenable mortality,” which tallies “the number of deaths from certain causes before age 75 that are potentially preventable with timely and effective health care.”

In a study of 19 countries, including the US, 14 Western European countries, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, the US ranks dead last.

According to the authors, if the U.S. had been able reduce amenable mortality to the average rate achieved by the three top-performing countries, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths annually by the end of the study period.No doubt those hard-working doctors, insurers, hospital administrators, and drug manufacturers deserve their hard-earned pennies.

If there is nothing else you take away from this post, realize that the people on the TeeVee that you trust so much and think are “Patriots” are nothing more than shills earning their money. Just like Glenn Beck, depending on who is paying his bills, CNN or FOX, totally depends upon how he thinks about his healthcare, telling me that maybe FOX has better coverage or Beck is a liar (of course, Beck is a liar):

more about “Video: Glenn Beck’s Operation | The D…“, posted with vodpod

B’Man’s Redneck Watch: RealMan Just Don’t Want It

Sen Bernie Sanders addresses “RealMan” about what he thinks he don’t want:

Senator Sanders Unfiltered: Lies, Fibs and Anti-Reformers

Get weekly Senator Sanders Unfiltered episodes delivered to you on Facebook, Twitter, or email. Sign up at: http://sandersunfiltered.com And, be part of Senator Sanders weekly show. Submit your video question via Twitvid with #Sanders. http://twitvid.com

I got news for you, RealMan, Ole BuelahMan, here, doesn’t want it because I have taken the time to understand what is in it. Unlike you, I haven’t fallen for the Glenn Beck, Hannity, O’Liely meme. I see what what is transpiring right before our eyes (a wonderfully enriching gift to the Insurance Companies and little true reform for anyone). I wish you would help me  fight for the ultimate in health care… Single Payer, Not-For-Profit “Medicare-For-All”. Something like Canada’s system that has an 86% Approval Rating (via Undernews):

FOUR OF FIVE CANADIANS LIKE THEIR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

Andre Picard, Globe & Mail, CA – An overwhelming 86 per cent of Canadians favor “public solutions” for bolstering medicare, according to a new poll. . . “With more than eight in 10 Canadians supporting public solutions to make public health care stronger, there is compelling evidence that Canadians across all demographics would prefer a public over a for-profit health-care system,” said Nik Nanos, president of Nanos Research.
A recent report by Health Canada found that 85 per cent of Canadians were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with health-care services overall. That level was unchanged from 2005, the last time the survey was conducted.

I am nowhere near that satisfied with my healthcare, are you, RealMan?

And what about you “Progressive” RealMen? You still backing the plan because Mr Obama has made more money in campaign donations than any other politician in history (again, Undernews)?

Timothy P. Carney, DC Examiner – Barack Obama last year received more campaign cash from health maintenance organizations than any politician before him ever did — and it’s not even close.

Obama raised more than $1.4 million in 2008 from the employees and executives of “Health Services/HMOs” as the Center for Responsive Politics labels them — or “villains” as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls them. That’s more than the combined haul of every Republican nominee since Ronald Reagan left office.

These numbers don’t prove that Obama is owned by the health insurers. But they deflate the liberal claim that Republicans and “reform” protesters are shills for the industry…

…On insurer campaign cash, the Democrats win hands down. First, there’s Obama, the all-time champion in raising money from HMOs. . . The second-highest recipient ever of HMO money is Hillary Clinton. . . The Nbr 2 GOP recipient last election (after presidential nominee John McCain) was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who created his own Obamacare in the Bay State.

So far this election, 65 percent of HMO money has gone to Democratic candidates, up from 60 percent last cycle.

The top recipient of HMO money this election is Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, and the top House recipient is Rep. Henry Waxman, the “reform” author in the House.

Yep. Did you ever really believe them? Any of them?

I’d say its time to find a whole new slew that will ONLY support HR676 (From Dave Lindorff’s piece at AfterDowningStreet):

The so-called “reform” bill that is going to emerge from the current process is going to be the legislative equivalent of road kill, barely recognizeable either as health care or as a “reform.” It will be a Christmas present for the insurance industry, the hospital industry and the phramaceutical industry, all three of which struck secret deals behind closed doors with the White House.

It will set back health reform in America a generation, will require everyone to buy inadequate and overpriced insurance, overpriced drugs and to go to overpriced hospitals. And the cost of healthcare to individuals, businesses, and the nation as a whole (already the highest in the modern industrial world), will continue to soar.

This is not a case where the right thing to do is push for any bill, and then try to move on. This is a case where Obama and the Democrats have whored themselves out to the greedy industry that is causing all the problems, and are pushing a plan that is worse than nothing.

We should all be working to kill this whole thing and start over, with HR 676.

If Congress won’t do it, we need to start working for a new Congress in 2010 that will.

No Democrat running for House or Senate in 2010 who isn’t solidly for expanding Medicare to all should get a single vote.

You might notice that I link often to AfterDowningStreet and UNDERNEWS and want to give a shoutout for the excellent work that David Swanson and growing contributors) and a special howdy to Sam Smith at UNDERNEWS and the work he does. Read the QUESTIONS SHOULD YOU FIND YOURSELF AT A MICROPHONE AT A ‘TOWN MEETING’ for a great rundown on Single Payer issues and how to explain it in everyday terms.

Go To Hell

Nice one-man looping/layering song by an indie musician

David Ford: Go To Hell

more about “Nice one-man looping/layering song by…“, posted with vodpod

The FIX Is In

That’s what I told Kelso this morning.

I am having a few conversations with some folks that are pushing for the “Public Option”, because they have given up on Single Payer. They are interested in our story, but in a review of the story, it was listed that BuelahLady and I agree that Single Payer is not feasible and that we agree to help get whatever “public option” is available passed.

I’m sorry, but I can’t do it. I cannot live with myself if I knew I had kowtowed to the meme they set forth… that I would agree with Obama ’09, no matter what Obama ’03 said.

Forgive me, but that is simply falling for the “Fix” (just like the Ass-Kissing Sycophants I highlight around here do with abandon). The Fix is that Mr Obama lied in ’03 and the real Obama is in charge now. Mr Obama, the reTHUGlican party and the majority of the DemoRat party (known in these parts collectively as the Demublican Party) have sold you, the gullible United Sheople of America (TM), on an “option” that only profits Big Insurance. It makes sure that their campaign funding continues, because they simply will not stand up to the Corporations that own them.

Rednecks, this is NOT rocket science to figure this out (I have linked to Max Baucus’s coffers before, so give it another read to figure out why this man and others like him would keep Single payer off the table). It is easy to type in your favorite owned congresscritter’s name to see where they get their money…, or, more aptly,  how they vote.

Without your awakening, we are setting ourselves up for more of the same, but worse. Undernews covers it well (and it may be too late, proving, again, how gullible Americans are):

OBAMA & REPUBLICANS HAVE SABOTAGED SUPPORT FOR SINGLE PAYER

Progressive Review – Only 32% of voters nationwide favor a single-payer health care system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% are opposed to a single-payer plan.

Fifty-two percent believe such a system would lead to a lower quality of care while 13% believe care would improve. Twenty-seven percent think that the quality of care would remain about the same.

Forty-five percent also say a single-payer system would lead to higher health care costs while 24% think lower costs would result. Nineteen percent think prices would remain about the same.

There’s wide political disagreement over the single-payer issue. Sixty-two percent of Democrats favor a single-payer system, but 87% of Republicans are opposed to one. As for those not affiliated with either major party, 22% favor a single-payer approach while 63% are opposed.

As recently as March a CBS-New York Times poll found that 59% of Americans answer yes to the question: “Should the government in Washington provide national health insurance, or is this something that should be left only to private enterprise?” This paralleled a poll a year earlier that found that 64% said the federal government should guarantee health insurance for all Americans.

Since March there has been a concentrated effort by the Democratic extremist middle – led by Barack Obama – and the Republican right to undermine support for single payer as they met the demands of private insurers. It seems to have worked.

I Told You It Was A Wicked Garden

BuelahGirl said, “It looks like butt cheeks”.

She has never seen (and will never see, as long as I can prevent it) what I believe it looks like.

My Last Post? I Cannot Come Up With Two More Positive All-Inclusive Videos Than These Two…

…yet, I know that even on my own spot it’s the “peace” and “inclusion” parts that piss everyone off, from the haters like “No_slappz” to my fine colleagues who have a different focus than I do (grinding the Republican Party to dust).

I’m frustrated, man.  I’m going to stick with it because I do like it and think it’s important, I suppose.  But I sure could use a word or two of encouragement.  I just don’t think I’m effective and that bums me out no end.

http://thedisbrimstone-dailypitchfork.blogspot.com/2009/08/two-most-common-sense-universally.html

Getting Real with HealthCare: Decapitate The Health Insurance Companies

Cut their heads off… What? Too gruesome?

I am talking about the 1300 Health Insurance Companies that are “for profit”. I am talking about killing health insurance companies, disbanding their entire reason for being… to suck the life and every dollar possible out of you, Mr and Mrs America. I know that some of you rednecks are going to town halls to fight Socialized medicine, even though your grandparents are living because of “Socialized medicine”.

One thing I wish you would do as you scream from the top of your lungs how you want the government to keep its hands off your Medicare, can you please put the few remaining untainted brain cells together and decide what you really want and not what the TV Fools are telling you what you want. This is no “right vs left” or “Dem vs Rep” or “Liberal vs Conservative” argument, anymore. It is simply a bunch of rednecks who have been brainwashed into believing that what is good enough for your Senator (and the president and other government officials) is not good enough for you. That what is good enough for your sweet little old grandmother is actually Socialism. That the VA benefits that your cousin gets after serving in that shithole we created called Iraq (which was no shithole before our intervention) is not good enough for every American. Or that the fire department or police force is just more Socialism.

Give me a break. How many rednecks are actually this stupid?

Stop listening to their lies and understand that they have “plants” in with the Biggest media outlets that give them little to no reason to explain this rationally to you. Instead they use scare tactics that border on ludicrous and the so-called Progressives fall for it just like the so-called Conservatives do. Like good little Sheople following their own tainted Shepherd.

From AfterDowningStreet quoting a portion of an article in FAIR by Kate Murphy:

While a recent New York Times/CBS poll (6/20/09) has found yet again that the majority of Americans believe the government would both provide better coverage and keep costs lower than private insurance companies, a single-payer plan as an option for healthcare reform continues to be underrepresented in the media (Extra!, 6/09). A single-payer plan would allow the delivery of healthcare to remain private, but the government would pay for it out of a single federal health insurance fund. Like Medicare or Canada’s healthcare program, it would cut out the middleman by bypassing private health insurance companies. But such companies are well-represented on the boards of directors of media conglomerates—a factor that may help explain the blackout of such a popular possibility for reform.

When a director from one company sits on the board of directors of another company, that’s known as an interlocking directorate. For example, directors of the New York Times Co. also sit on the boards of several other large companies, including Chevron, Verizon and Ticketmaster. These directors are expected to act in the best interest of each company they direct; when one of the corporations in question is a media company, this can pose a conflict. Would someone who sits on a media company’s board object to coverage that damages another company that board member directs? Extra! has pointed out this conflict in the past (e.g., 9–10/01), noting that “even if these board members do not attempt to influence coverage of their businesses, their presence likely suffices to make media executives think twice about covering certain stories.”

A recent FAIR study of nine major media corporations and their major outlets, Disney (ABC), General Electric (NBC), CBS, Time Warner (CNN, Time), News Corporation (Fox), New York Times Co., Washington Post Co. (Newsweek), Tribune Co. (Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times) and Gannett (USA Today) found connections to six different insurance companies. Five out of the nine media corporations studied shared a director with an insurance company; two insurance companies—Chubb and Berkshire Hathaway—were represented by more than one media corporation director.

Let’s break it down as simply as possible. There is one major middle man (Health Insurance Companies) that needs to go and it is the same one that is causing the greatest issues in this debate. But it isn’t JUST the health insurance crooks that benefit immensely from your illness. There are the integrated News/Health Insurance agencies called the interlocking directorates discussed above. And there is Big meds. Just follow the money:

PHARMA CEOS MAKE HUGE SALARIES

Unsilent Generation – One aspect of the health care reform battle which gets little attention is the cushy environment of the drug company executive. Fiercepharma blog, which tracks the industry not long ago ran a listing of all the dough these CEOs make.. . . Figures are for 2008.

1. Bill Weldon – Johnson & Johnson – $29.4M
2. Miles White – Abbott Laboratories – $28.3M
3. Bernard Poussot – Wyeth – $25M
4. Jim Cornelius – Bristol-Myers Squibb – $25M
5. Richard Clark – Merck – $19.9M
6. Robert Parkinson – Baxter International – $16M
7. David Vasella – Novartis – $15.1M
8. Jeffrey Kindler – Pfizer – $14.8M
9. Frank Baldino – Cephalon – $14.5M
10. John Lechleiter – Eli Lilly – $13M

The argument isn’t that we must simply get rid of the Health Insurance Monsters and their 10-25% profits or overhead. We must also begin to rethink the issues of healthcare being “for profit”. And, please, don’t argue that Doctors need to make a lot of money, I am not arguing that. I am talking about the “PROFIT” motive. Think about “profit” as suggested in this wiki article:

Accounting profit is the difference between price and the costs of bringing to market whatever it is that is accounted as an enterprise (whether by harvest, extraction, manufacture, or purchase) in terms of the component costs of delivered goods and/or services and any operating or other expenses.

The problem isn’t controlled salaries for Doctors, etc, (which is part of the “costs”), but is more related to the other egregious profits that are generated by Health Insurance companies and Medicine producers. To solve the problem, we need to work on various fronts, but Health Insurance is the quickest way to immediate savings. Single Payer is taking out that middle man and if you are going to argue from a “conservative” standpoint, you better add this term to your vocabulary. Truly, the most fiscally conservative solution is Single Payer, Not-for-profit healthcare. This is unarguable. AND, it is the most scoailly liberal stance (so all of you that are sufficed by the “Public Option” need to realize that you are simply feeding the beast).

President Obama and every Congressperson understands this, too. Their argument is that we need some hybrid as to not cause too much disruption, but let me explain that none of the “Public Option” plans will fix the problem. Why, because the problem is the “profit” motive. Of course, those people are getting their fair share of Health Insurance campaign donations, so they aren’t about to rock the boat (which is amazing since they get the same type of Tax payer paid coverage for themselves and their families… speaking of hypocritical). Let me add something that Russell at Single-Payer Action wrote that explains some of this quite well:

In Defense of Disruption

What do:

Rush Limbaugh

Barack Obama

Newt Gingrich

Nancy Pelosi

PhRMA

Families USA

America’s Health Insurance Plans

AARP

Harry Reid

Mitch McConnell

and Fox News

have in common?

They are all freaked out by single payer.

They have all bought the corporate line:

The market has a central place in health insurance.

In contrast, the majority of doctors.

The majority of nurses.

And the majority of the American people are not freaked out by single payer.

To the contrary.

They favor single payer.

They all agree — the market has no place in health insurance.

Single payer would eliminate the 1,300 private payers (insurance companies).

And replace them with one public single payer.

As Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine puts it:

Single payer is not only the best option.

It’s the only option that will control costs and cover everyone.

…

There really is only one real answer:

A single-payer system will not ration health care or put the government in charge of your doctor. The real rationing of health care is happening now, where tens of millions do not have any access to health care at all. With a single-payer system you will not have to worry about being out of network or at a preferred provider or any of the other hoops that the insurance industry has fashioned.

President Obama said in a speech six years ago that the only reason single-payer proponents should tolerate delay is “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.” All that has happened, and nothing is happening. There are bills to bring a single-payer system in both the House and the Senate, but they get short shrift. Even though they would save money and cover everyone, there is no big-money constituency pushing for their passage. Instead, insurance industry lobbyists have thrown all they have at preventing real reform.

How can someone, or a family, be able to pursue life, liberty and happiness without health care? Can you imagine having a child and not having health coverage? Health care in this country should run similarly to how we pay for the fire department and police — there is no public option for these services with wealthy people having a private system that guarantees them better care. There is no reason for health care to be on a two-tier, separate-and-unequal regime.

A single-payer health care system is efficient and effective. Everybody in. Nobody out.

It’s time for real health care reform.

Well, there is always this solution (I have highlighted their work before here and here):

THE PUBLIC HEALTHCARE YOU DON’T HEAR ABOUT

Coburn Dukehart, NPR – some of what I saw at the county fairgrounds in Wise, Va., last month left me wordless.

For two-and-a-half days, about 800 doctors, nurses, dentists and optometrists treated 2,700 uninsured and underinsured people, most from Appalachia. No one was asked for an insurance card. There were no co-pays. And there were no bills.

A Tennessee-based group called Remote Area Medical, or RAM, arranged the volunteer help, brought in donated equipment and supplies and paid for everything else. . .

What: Health care providers saw 2,715 patients and performed 2,671 medical exams, 1,088 eye tests and 1,850 dental exams. They extracted 3,857 teeth and put in 1,628 fillings.

Who: Patients came from 16 states; 30 percent were repeat patients.

Of the patients, 51 percent are uninsured, 40.3 percent are on Medicaid or Medicare, and just 7.3 percent have employer or private insurance. Fewer than 1 percent of patients have dental or vision insurance.

Twenty-six percent of the people are employed, 40.6 are unemployed, 4.7 percent are retired and 4.8 percent are children.

Cost: The organizers paid about $250,000 out of pocket to run the event, and they provided an estimated $1.5 million worth of care. . .

Close to 4,000 teeth ended up in buckets. Some 20-year-olds had every tooth pulled. A 4-year-old had every tooth filled. Out of the hundreds treated, only 11 had dental insurance.

I arrived home from Virginia with a badly infected finger. It was swollen, red and painful. So I drove to the doctor, presented my insurance card and wrote a check for $15 for the co-pay. My doctor took a scalpel to the infection and sent me to the pharmacy for antibiotics. All that took an hour. . .

I have never felt so privileged to have a good job and good insurance and easy access to care without long drives and long nights and a yearlong wait.

The next RAM free clinic begins Tuesday in the Forum, the former basketball arena outside Los Angeles. Doctors, dentists and optometrists will work 12 hours a day for eight days. Organizers expect to treat 10,000 people.

Bringing Iraqis A Better Life?

Sabah al-Baghdadi – Iraq: Disastrous and Shocking Official Statistics

from Gorillas Guides by Editors

The following official governmental statistics, up to December 2008, show the disastrous conditions prevalent in Iraq since the American invasion and occupation of that country.

Translated and adapted from Arabic by Khalil Nakhleh

1. One million widowed Iraqi women (according to Iraqi Ministry of Women Affairs).

2. Four million orphaned Iraqi children (according to estimates by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning).

3. Two and a half million (2,500,000) Iraqis killed (according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Forensic Medicine).

4. 800,000 Iraqis have disappeared in secret holding places connected with the different ruling parties (according to registered complaints at the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior).

5. 340,000 Iraqi prisoners, detained without charge, in U.S. army prisons, the prisons of the Iraqi government, and the prisons in the Kurdistan District (according to Iraqi, Arab, international and UN human rights organizations and agencies).  US occupying forces admit officially that the number of Iraqi detainees in their prisons is about 120,000.

6. Four and a half million (4,500,000) Iraqis are refugees outside Iraq (according to statistics of those seeking passports (category C) from the General Directorate of Passports.

7. Two and a half million (2,500,000) Iraqis are refugees inside Iraq (according to the Iraqi Ministry of Refugees).

8. 76,000 registered Iraqi cases of AIDS; this number did not exceed 114 cases before the invasion and occupation of Iraq (according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health).

9. Frightening spread of the use of addictive drugs imported from Iran, among youth (according to the Iraqi Ministry of Health and the Center for Combating Drugs and Addictions).  I have written a series of well-researched articles about the various methods used to smuggle drugs, some of which are highly toxic, and how they are collected in different storage places in the southern districts, under the total control of some of the parties and the militias participating in the government, and how the profits from these drugs are used to buy (pay off) government officials, in order to gain their support and silence, and to finance their election campaigns.

10.  Three out of every four marriages end up in divorce since the invasion and occupation of Iraq (according to Iraqi Ministry of Health).

11.  More than 40% of the Iraqi people are under the poverty line (according to the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights).  I believe, however, that the actual percentage is much higher, and surpasses 55%.

12.  Decline in the level and quality of basic and tertiary education, according to statements made by officials in UNESCO, which led this organization to refuse to recognize university degrees issued by Iraqi tertiary institutions (universities and colleges).

13.  Tens of thousands of forged university degrees are granted to high government officials, high ranking officers, directors generals, and senior officials of political parties (according to statements and statistics from the Iraqi Honesty and Transparency Commission).

14.  There exist about 550 political bodies and party coalitions (according to the Iraqi Independent Public Elections Commission), and, as of today, there is no law regulating this large number of political bodies.

15.  There exist about 11,400 civil society organizations (according to the Iraqi ministries of the Interior, Justice and Social Welfare).  These organizations have public and secret objectives, and it is not clear what these are, and how they are financed.

16.  There are 126 security companies controlled by foreign secret service agencies, and registered at the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. The declared objective of these companies is to protect foreign embassies, foreign diplomats, and visiting VIPs.  However, their hidden objectives are unknown.  In this case, what is the value of having today one million persons under arms in Iraq, distributed among the Ministries of Defense, the Interior, the various governmental security agencies, in addition to the security agencies of the various ruling parties.

17.  There are 43 officially registered armed militias connected to parties.

18.  There are 220 newspapers and media publications financed by foreign secret service agencies (according to Iraqi Journalist Union).  The specific objectives of these publications is to do brainwashing of Iraqis, to remove their thinking about the various projects aiming at fragmenting Iraq into sectarian, regional, and ethnic mini-states, and to destroy their national identity.

19.  There are 45 TV channels financed by foreign secret service agencies (according to statements by the Management of Nilesat and Arabsat satellite service providers).

20.  There are 67 radio stations financed by foreign secret service agencies (according to statements by the Iraqi Information Commission).

21.  There are 4 networks of digital communications, the estimated value of each is 12 billion dollars, financed in favor of party leaders. Among which are the following companies:

Kork Company owned exclusively by Mas’aoud Barazani (the President of the Kurdistan District);

Assia Company owned exclusively by Jalal Talbani (the President of Iraq);

Zein Company (Kuwaiti), 50% is owned by Ahmad Jalabi and the Islamic Da’wah Party;

Atheer Company owned exclusively by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim.

22.  There are more than 11,400 official and unofficial party headquarters. These could be the offices of fake contracting company, or an NGO, or a political group.  However, these headquarters in reality are public premises for the Iraqi government that were taken over from their legitimate owners after they were eliminated, or forced to vacate and seek refuge somewhere else.  All are paid for from the Iraqi national budget.

This is only the tip of the iceberg of what’s happening in “their new democratic Iraq”, since the American invasion and occupation of the country.

The article appeared originally in www.kanaanonline.org, no. 1973, on 30.7.2009.

Sabah al-Baghdadi is an independent Iraqi journalist and researcher; he may be reached at sabahalbaghdadi@maktoob.com.

Translated and adapted by Dr. Khalil Nakhleh:

Dr. Khalil Nakhleh is an independent Palestinian researcher and development consultant; he may be reached at abusama@palnet.com.

Source: Sabah al-Baghdadi – Iraq: Disastrous and Shocking Official Statistics | Palestine Think Tank

Don’t Let The Purple Mink Fool Ya…

Does This Purple Mink Make Me Look Gay?
The rise of no homo and the changing face of hip-hop homophobia.
By Jonah  Weiner AP
Kanye West In August, 2005, three weeks before his nationally televised declaration that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” Kanye West made a statement he’d later describe as braver and more difficult than his attack on the White House. Hip-hop, he told MTV, was supposed to be about “speaking your mind and about breaking down barriers, but everyone in hip-hop discriminates against gay people … I wanna just come on TV and just tell my rappers, tell my friends, ‘Yo, stop it.’ ” Taking on Bush was a perfectly hip-hop move, but taking on homophobia, West feared, could be career suicide. Undeterred, he revisited the subject in a November 2005 interview, discussing his love for his openly gay cousin, not to mention his conflicted but evolving attitude toward his interior decorator. West’s call for tolerance remains the highest-profile rebuke of gay-bashing that hip-hop has seen.
But old habits die hard, and last week, West amended his position somewhat on “Run This Town,” a new Jay-Z single on which the Chicago rapper is a featured guest. “It’s crazy how you can go from being Joe Blow,” West begins his rap, “to everybody on your dick—no homo.” No homo, to those unfamiliar with the term, is a phrase added to statements in order to rid them of possible homosexual double-entendre. (“You’ve got beautiful balls,” you tell your friend at the bocce game—”no homo.”) No homo began life as East Harlem slang in the early ’90s, and in the early aughts it entered the hip-hop lexicon via the Harlem rapper Cam’ron and his Diplomats crew. Lil Wayne brought the term into the mainstream, sprinkling “no homo” caveats across cameos, mix tapes, and his Tha Carter III LP, which was 2008′s best-selling album. (Jay-Z has used the word pause in a similar way.)
The term’s appearance in hip-hop coincided with the rise of the so-called “down-low brother,” a closeted black figure often demonized as a disease-spreading boogeyman, invisible by definition and thus potentially, frightfully, everywhere. Saying “no homo” might have started as a way for rappers to acknowledge and distance themselves from the down-low phenomenon. As the phrase has spread, many have decried no homo as depressingly retrograde, a pigheaded “That’s what she said” for homophobes. But the term functions in a more complicated way than a simple slur. As society becomes increasingly gay-tolerant, hip-hop is reassessing its relationship to homosexuality and, albeit in a hedged and roundabout way, it’s possible that no homo is helping to make hip-hop a gayer place.
I once asked Method Man whether he thought we’d ever see an openly gay gangsta rapper. He grew visibly agitated. “You can’t be fuckin’ people in the ass and say you’re gangsta,” he responded. As Kanye West has observed, gay and hip-hop have traditionally functioned as mutually exclusive terms, Venn diagrams that don’t touch (and get really testy at the suggestion that they might, you know, want to). In 1989, Big Daddy Kane summed up the reigning attitude: “The Big Daddy law is anti-faggot.” When DMX insulted rivals 10 years later by rapping, “Y’all niggas remind me of a strip club/ ‘Cause every time you come around it’s like I just gotta get my dick sucked,” hip-hop was still so aggressively understood as hetero-centric that it was inconceivable to DMX that there might be anything the least bit gay about his fantasy of a roomful of men fellating him.
No homo tweaks this dynamic because it allows, implicitly, that rap is a place where gayness can in fact be expressed by the guy on the mic, not just scorned in others. In the very act of trying to “purify” an utterance of any gayness, after all, the no homo tag must contaminate it first—it’s both a denial and a flashing neon arrow. This isn’t to suggest that saying no homo is a radical act, but there’s an appealing sense in which the phrase refuses to function as tidily as some of its boosters might like. This is especially striking in those cases when rappers add no homo to statements of sexual pleasure we’d otherwise have no reason to think of as gay. “No homo, I go hard,” Chamillionaire rapped on a recent mix tape, implying that an erection is inherently homosexual. Even more absurdly, when Cam’ron named a song “Silky (No Homo),” it was hard to decide what he was disavowing. The emotions of sadness and longing expressed in the lyrics? Or the tactile sensation of silkiness itself?
Often, no homo appears not just as a disclaimer but as a punch line, a See what I did there? that flaunts one’s cleverness. “Just shot a video with R. Kelly, but no homo though,” Lil Wayne rapped in 2007. In this line—a sly nod to both a music video co-starring Wayne and Kelly and to the R&B singer’s alleged sex tape—no homo isn’t an afterthought; it’s the keystone that holds the whole joke together. A funny side effect here is that the no homo vogue doubtless encourages rappers not only to scrutinize everything they say for trace gayness, but to actively think up gay double-entendres just so that they can cap them off with no homo kickers.
Beyond this, there’s a sense in which no homo, rather than limiting self-expression in hip-hop, actually helps to expand it. We see this play out in the rhymes and personas of the term’s most famous practitioners. Cam’ron and the Diplomats are, ironically, among the most homoerotic MCs in rap. They wear pink and purple furs and brag regularly about how good they look. In the video for “Pop Champagne,” Jim Jones and Juelz Santana giddily douse each other with frothy white geysers of bubbly. On Cam’ron’s “Hey Ma,” he describes having sex with a female paramour with seven vague words—”She was up in the Range, man”—but when the girl leaves, he immediately calls Santana to narrate the act in detail and, in a sense, to enjoy and consummate it fully. Similarly, Lil Wayne has been photographed kissing his mentor, the rapper Baby, on the lips and cultivates a shirtless, slithering, rock-star-worthy air of libertine sexuality. Kanye West attends runway shows, keeps an entourage of designer-clad dandies, and blogs regularly about design. When these rappers say “no homo,” it can seem a bit like a gentleman’s agreement, nodding to the status quo while smuggling in a fuller, less hamstrung notion of masculinity. This is still a concession to homophobia, but one that enables a less rigid definition of the hip-hop self than we’ve seen before. It’s far from a coup, but, in a way, it’s progress.
[my opinion is that it is not progress, it is anti-law suit, lol]

After Mehsud

After Mehsud The rest of the Pakistani Taliban won’t be such easy targets.
By Nicholas Schmidle Washington Post
Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud Earlier this summer, the Taliban released a DVD that suggested Baitullah Mehsud was losing his mojo. Unlike other propaganda videos, which show Taliban cadres conducting real ambushes in Afghanistan or firing rockets in the heavily forested hills along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, this one made me think that the Bad News Bears had landed in South Waziristan. A couple dozen guys jogged in circles, ran through some military drills, and fired their Kalashnikovs into the dirt, before forming a circle and dancing a traditional Pashtun jig.

A few weeks after this pitiful DVD was made available, a CIA-controlled Predator drone demolished the “training camp.” Then Mehsud’s information center was targeted and destroyed. In fact, since Barack Obama took office in January, American drones have attacked Mehsud’s territory 15 times. Early on Wednesday morning, while Mehsud was receiving medical treatment for a failing kidney at his father-in-law’s home, yet another missile struck, this time killing Mehsud’s father-in-law, his wife, and, as top Taliban deputies confirmed Friday, Baitullah Mehsud himself.
Mehsud’s rise—and his ability to draw the attention and resources of the CIA—was meteoric by terrorist standards. Osama Bin Laden had to bomb the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania before he warranted a barrage of cruise missiles. And while Mehsud had threatened the United States, he hadn’t yet proved his ability to match bluster with action. What he had done, however, was to organize attacks against U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and oversee a string of bombings in Pakistan, including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, according to U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Mehsud splashed onto the scene in the late summer of 2007 with a round of suicide attacks on Pakistani forces. Having vowed revenge for the government raid on Islamabad’s Red Mosque that July, he officially launched his jihad against the world’s second-largest, and only nuclear-armed, Muslim state. In August 2007, his men kidnapped around 200 Pakistani soldiers; one of Mehsud’s teenage minions decapitated a soldier because he was a Shiite. Two months later, on the eve of Benazir Bhutto’s planned return from exile, Mehsud reportedly said he would “welcome her with his men.” Within hours of her plane landing in Karachi, two bombs exploded near her motorcade and killed more than 135 people. In December 2007, Mehsud crowned himself amir, or head, of the Pakistani Taliban.
So, does Mehsud’s death mean the end of the Pakistani Taliban? Not by a long shot. The Taliban are a regenerative militia; historically, the death of one Taliban member has only spurred others to avenge the fallen one’s death. Several commanders are waiting to take over from Mehsud, including Qari Hussein, Mehsud’s ruthless deputy, who is thought to be most responsible for training suicide bombers. Whether Hussein or another lieutenant takes over, they’ll be hoping to strike back.
The question is not what they want to do, it’s what they can do. The fact is that Mehsud’s brand had been pretty weak of late. After a sophisticated bomb-and-gun ambush on a police training site outside of Lahore in late March, one Mehsud deputy (and potential successor) pledged to carry out two attacks a week until the drone strikes stopped. The drone strikes didn’t stop, but the attacks never came. Then, shortly after a shooting rampage at an immigration center in Binghamton, N.Y., that left 13 people dead this April, Mehsud told Reuters, “I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to U.S. drone attacks.” When the lone gunman turned out to be a 41-year-old Vietnamese guy, people began to wonder if Mehsud’s kidney problems were affecting his reason. The decision to release scenes of prancing Taliban cast further doubts.
But in the war against al-Qaida, where symbols, DVDs, and audiotapes carry so much weight, Mehsud’s death is a huge victory for both the United States and Pakistan. I imagine his elimination might be comparable to that of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—even though al-Qaida in Iraq continued after Zarqawi, it was never the same. Without their near mythical leader (whose stature had grown as a result of all the assassination attempts he had dodged), the Pakistani Taliban may find themselves in a similar, declining trajectory.
Still, in the often shaky counterterrorism alliance between the United States and Pakistan, Mehsud was an easy target. Picture two circles, with America’s greatest enemies in one and Pakistan’s top foes in another: Baitullah Mehsud landed squarely in the overlap. The Pakistanis were willing to supply the intelligence, and the United States was willing the fly the drones to get him.
Now the hard part begins. Since the CIA has demonstrated its ability to pinpoint “high-level targets,” it will want to go after other top Taliban leaders in Pakistan, such as Maulvi Nazir in South Waziristan and Jalaluddin Haqqani in North Waziristan. But Pakistan’s military and security establishment perceives both men, who focus their fighting in Afghanistan and not in Pakistan, as national security assets more than threats. And there’s no magic drone strike to fix that.
Now what?
Shouldn’t some one hollar ‘Check’ and ‘Checkmate’?

The Money Masters – How International Bankers Gained Control of America

h/t to Mike Templar in Comments for pointing out this movie that explains how Big Money ended up owning this county.

more about “The Money Masters – How International…“, posted with vodpod

Welcome To My Worlds

I think this was one of my better “meta”-pieces in that I kind of cover the waterfront with what we’re trying to do you and I and the millions who don’t have spokespeople. I thought I conveyed a lot of info and put up plenty of good links and two fun videos, but this feels like a dead one over my spot for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on.

I hope your readers enjoy it.

http://thedisbrimstone-dailypitchfork.blogspot.com/2009/08/latina-did-shave-my-head-yesterday.html

Richard Noggin Saturday: A Dialogue With A Wing-Nut

There is a man that I once sold for (he was a president of a fairly large company that deals in automation components). I don’t know all the details of his life, but I do understand that he was raised in Europe (Sweden or Switzerland) and made his way to America with a German company, to set up their business and run it for them. He ended up retiring and now does what I did (until I shut my business down recently). During the past few years, he and I stayed in touch, because I respected him and have recommended his new company to several of the same Principals because he is excellent in front of customers.

However, I have been a part of his email mailing list and the more personal we became, the more he let his true colors show.

In the beginning of the following string of communications (all names are removed to protect privacy), it became clear to me that he still thinks he is the president and can talk down to his underlings. It also became quite clear that he is a racist and an Elitist who seems to believe everything Rush and the right-wing crazies on TV and radio say. Now, the first message I received was forwarded by a mutual friend and copied to “The Pres” and it was simply a graphic:

I responded to the guy who sent it (Z-Man, and copying The Pres in courtesy) with this:

Z-Man,

If anyone believes, even for a second, that this country has become “Socialist”, they are ignorant to the truth. What we see going on is a merging of Corporate Control of our government. This is not Socialism, this is called Fascism.

And this didn’t begin or is caused by Democrats, for this has been going on for some time. We were warned long ago about this. We were warned about the Military Industrial Complex taking over, but look what has happened, primarily under the Republican side of the nasty two-headed monster that has so many of the American Sheople falling all over themselves to prop up that bogus divide. We only have one party that manipulates the mass of the Sheople, but continues the steady move towards Corptocracy, and yes, Fascism.

IMO, the best thing this country can do is stop that bullshit. Stop allowing these talking heads (aka paid sycophants) to form your opinion and actually think about what is truly happening. Stop allowing them to mind meld you people into this false “left vs right”, “Rep vs Dem”, “liberal vs conservative” crap. It has become hogwash and those still in it are only hurting this nation.

Socialism? Hell, I’d welcome it with open arms compared the Fascism that has taken us over. Smart people should understand the difference.

Turn off Fox News, for God’s sake (all of TV, for that matter). Tell Rush to go get some more Oxycontins. Tell Olbermann to go back to sports.

There is certainly hoodwinking and obfuscation going on, but I wish the smartest people I knew could get past the rhetoric and see the facts as they are, not as Hannity, Beck, Shultz, Maddow paint it for them. And you sure as hell cannot trust but about three of the 535 congress people voted in. You wanna know how to tell… follow the money.

Its time to wake up. Its almost too late.

Not too bad, at least compared to my online persona here (I can get pretty rude and crude). But then, I received this from The Pres:

My good friend BuelahMan,

Have you lost our mind?

Just remember, I grew up in Europe. I have lived and breathed Socialism.  Why do you think I left Europe?

I think I need to take you to the wood shed and have a little heart to heart talk with you.

If anyone is practicing Fascism, it is definitely our new and arrogant President and his Hollywood Cronies.  For Gods sakes, Obama comes from Chicago and unfortunately the whole Nation now has to experience how corrupt politics really can be. Quite frankly I cannot wait for 1.20.2013 to come around.

Need one little favor; please don’t report this e-mail to the White House!  In case you don’t understand this request I’d be happy to fill you in.

But I still love you man!

The Pres

Did you notice how he immediately assumed that I was defending Mr Obama, when, in fact, I was saying that the Socialist stance doesn’t describe what is happening. You see, this is the problem with these folks and with the Two-Party paradigm that blinds them. This is a brilliant man. Successful. Rich, perhaps (far more money than I). But, I am a redneck from Tennessee who truly understands what “taking to the woodshed” means, and it has little to do with talking. I also don’t work FOR this guy anymore, so I don’t take too kindly to that sort of rhetoric:

Hi Pres,

You speak well for the Right-wing of the two headed monster that has made many Americans “Sheople”. I don’t speak for the other head, I am against both. The best thing we could ever do is change our electoral system and get Big Money’s influence out of it.

What I am saying is that imo this “left vs right” paradigm is not helpful, nor truthful. It is a distraction I hoped to explain to you in that last email. I do not deny Obama is now leading the Friendly Fascist state we are in. But he is just the other ugly head. George W Bush was the Unfriendly Fascist. And many of those before him had their particular head of the twins they worked for.

I wonder, did you consider George W Bush a good president and a truthful man? I don’t and I don’t think Obama is either, nor Clinton, nor HW, nor Reagan, etc, etc. It is no secret that we were lied to to go to war and that the war profiteers are doing quite well (along with Big Oil). Its no surprise that Obama knows this and promised to get us out, but look at the truth.

Wages are being forced down, but Obama didn’t start that. The credit economy and housing bubble didn’t start with “Chicago Politics” (I laughed at that one). All of this has been in the making for decades and is finally culminating into what we are experiencing today. Big Banking didn’t take control under Obama (or W, for that matter). The Federal Reserve must go. The Big Banking entities should have been shut down, not bailed out. But the last two presidents brought in folks from those entities to run the show and look what it got us… I’m living it right now and am shutting down my business within the next 30 days.

I am surprised that all of this isn’t obvious to you.

An Empire is what we have become… owned by large corporate interests… a fact that cannot be denied anymore and it sure didn’t start with Obama. And please, I am not an Obama supporter. In the last election, I first supported Dennis Kucinich because of his Peace stance and because he, like I, saw the run-up to the Afghan and Iraq wars as bogus lies. Hell, I petitioned to get Nader on the ballot because of the obvious nature of the false two party paradigm. I voted for Perot, for God’s sake.

Look at the voting records. Look at the actions. They are basically the same, except for the wedge issues the Sheople fall for. But when it comes to Corporate Control and Empire, there is virtually no difference. Obama is simply carrying forward the agenda set before him. No change, except ratcheting up the downfall.

Please look beyond the diversions… the purposeful sleight of hand. There is but one thing different between W and O… color (well, and Obama is “smoother” than W).

Woodshed? That isn’t used for talking, as I understand it. Down here, we don’t make it ten feet into the yard “to talk”.

I would never raise a hand against you, sir. In a million years. But I would try to talk sense into you. But Rush and his like won’t. They are paid well to keep this divide going and frankly, I don’t fall for it. I am trying to transcend their rhetoric (or Olbermann’s, etc).

As for 2013, how are you going to take down a Dictator? Just asking…

Personally, I’d like to see a Kucinich/Paul ticket, if the Dictatorship isn’t finalized and we can stop it.

At least those two are truthful and don’t get their money from Big Business like the others do/did.

I do love you, Pres. You have always been a dear friend and I respect you immensely. But in this case, you are misguided in that you blame just one side of the ugly two heads. We really need to get past that, as a nation. Or, nothing will change (and I don’t like being played as a fool and gullible lemming, which is what they do to us).

I woke up to the game many years ago.

Take care,

OK, I did say “Sheople”, but was pretty tame and calm. I took about 20 minutes to write that, trying to NOT offend, but to grab the scruff of the neck and say, “Surely you know better”. But he doesn’t and neither do many of these ideologues. I basically explained politics as I see it, without being too accusatory or belittling (you can be the judge of whether or not I crossed the line).

But here is where it got interesting, in that 99% of what I was trying to convey (did you get my point?) was ignored and he found one tidbit to focus on and responded with this:

Hi BuelahMan,

Quite frankly you have me totally baffled, my good friend.

Do you know Kucinich’s political history?  Did you know that he was the only Mayor of a  major US City that had to declare bankruptcy?  The name of this city, in case you did not know, is Cleveland!  The only reason why this guy has a political career is because of the UAW, Teamsters Union, etc.  Since you live in the South and in a State that still has the right to work law – which will soon change if Obama has his way – you would not know anything about Unions.

Lastly, I did not know you were this sensitive and I believe that it’s best for both of us that we end it right here and just simply agree to disagree.

Cordially,

The Pres

My heart is aflutter with sensitivity, as all of you regular readers know. But notice something: the conversation suddenly changes. Notice how The Pres KNOWS what I understand about unions and since I am from “The South”, I must be stupid and ignorant like all good rednecks. Forget the fact that I have lived here longer than he has. Forget the fact that I can trace my roots back before the USA became the USA. Forget the truth about what I know and actually was a member of.

No, focus on the one thing about Dennis Kucinich (which, although true, is only a small portion of that story). It suddenly became too much for him to handle and I became the sensitive one. This is a tactic well known by the wing-nut right: sleight of hand when confronted with truth. Should I have let her die there? Not on your life:

Hi Pres,

You sure do ask a lot of questions, just to “end it right here”.

Just so you know, I worked with the UAW for 7 years and was a member of one back in ’79-81. There is also more to the Kucinich story. Due to his principled stance of not selling the the city owned power company, he saved Clevelanders 100′s of millions of dollars since, and that, primarily, was what got him elected.

He also believes in The Constitution and peace (just as I do).

Clarification may not kill sacred cows.

Take care, Pres.

OK, I know the “sacred cows” thingy was a bit over the top, but snarking is my thing.

Now, he didn’t seem to want to drop it, after all and added his commentary to the email I sent, instead of simply replying with his own (he changed tact and I can only assume I pushed his buttons a bit with that last one):

BuelahMan, do you know what bankruptcy is? It means you stiff all those that have supplied you goods and services in good faith!  BuelahMan, let’s just end it right here.  I really don’t follow your logic, or shall I say ideology.

Short and sweet, wasn’t it? Nevermind the issues I brought up about the Banking Bailout and how they should have gone bankrupt, just as I have been forced into the same thing. And for God’s sake, I am not defending Kucinch, but trying to explain the “rest of the story” that he won’t get regurgitated into his little beak by Hannity and the rest. Nevermind that we have been “friends” for 12 years or so. Nevermind the kudos I have given him and he ended up gaining product to rep. Nevermind all of that. Just shut up when I tell you to shut up. But BuelahMan don’t play like that:

Pres,

My apologies. I didn’t realize that ideological discussions with friends was so difficult for you. That being said, this will be my last transmission to you on such subjects.

For The Record:

Look back thru and re-read who I addressed my email to (I copied you in courtesy since you were copied in the original email). Look who was the first to question someone’s knowledge. Look who was the first to mention woodsheds, etc. Who was the first to assume I know nothing about certain individuals or the Union or Socialism? Is this normal behavior with your “friends”?

Ideologically, and obviously as far as race relations are concerned (Please see the email I received from him about three weeks before), we are nothing alike. That doesn’t surprise me in the least (for we have approached this subject before). But, dear Sir, you are no longer the president of a Principal I rep and I don’t take kindly to your approach and accusations when you don’t know what you are talking about regarding what I have lived and have studied in great detail. Strong arming me doesn’t work when I don’t work for you, Pres. I know precisely what I am talking about and since you picked out one of the most obscure issues I mentioned and totally ignored the most prescient ones, it makes me wonder what your motive is.

I thought friends are friends, even in disagreement. But, your taking such a tact, at this point in my life, doesn’t make me feel “loved” by a “friend”. It is offensive and it is my nature to let you know that. That’s just the way it is.

So sure, its dropped, but I wish you would be just a smidgen more open and understanding of a “friend”. At least down here, that is the way friends relate.

I wish you all the best, Pres.

There is something about money and influence that changes people into some holier-than-thou attitude. I don’t have the patience or desire to take it without explaining exactly how I feel and see the world. Especially when it is among “friends”. But, I also understand that some “friends” aren’t true “friends”. It isn’t about agreeing, it is about listening. Its about the dialogue that is imperative right now. For, in many ways, the man and I agree, but his right-wing Sheople-like hypnosis doesn’t even allow him to see the similarities or places where we can stand in agreement that will hopefully make this country a better place.

So, in honor of “The Pres”, his shining glory is illuminated for all to see (which was the catalyst for my ire, even before I became obviously angry):

Government TO TAX ASPIRIN……

I JUST HEARD THAT they are GOING TO
IMPOSE A 40% TAX ON ASPIRIN BECAUSE
IT’S WHITE AND IT WORKS.

You see, Mr Pres, don’t make assumptions about rednecks and think they are all racists. Don’t think that we are all ignorant. Don’t think that we all love Rush and hang on his every word. Don’t think that just because we reside in the deep south that we haven’t experienced things or have not taken the time to educate ourselves. It makes you look like a Dick Head.

Quite Frankly, The “Public Options” Are All Pretty Good

Re-post of something I just put up at the DIS BRIMSTONE – DAILY PITCHFORK

What the fuck’s wrong with having a LOT of public options, really?

OK. First things first. Barack Obama is NOT a “socialist.” I wish he were one. Then, maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t be such a corporatist prick and he’d have some sense of the value of the people rather than just the White powerful. If you don’t think the White powerful are at the top of his dance card, ask yourself whether he has more White Republicans and DLC Democrats in positions of authority around him or more of a variety from the Big Sammy tapestry.

Nevertheless, as much as the BushBaManuel Cheney quadruplet presidency has fucked with Medicare and the VA benefit, they are both still better than what most Americans have and are very much not what the Obama-Baucus plan is offering and they’re certainly not the brutality that the Republicans are offering.

[We can discuss the "libertarian" option of people paying what they can in proportion to what they have in terms of wealth and human capital but that's a much larger discussion and somewhat afield from the one point I want to make here. It's not what I think works best but it's better than what either "party" is offering. It is also way too theoretical and applicable to smaller, closed-societies than is appropriate for Big Sammy.]

My point is that not only is Universal Single Payer health care a social good. Public and/or subsidized higher public education works GREAT, too. “Oxbridge” is one/two terrific example[s]. So is the Sorbonne. So is Salamanca. So is Moscow State.

Now, did everyone realize that four of the finest universities in Big Sammy were also part of this same “socialist” plan the Europeans use? No. Well, wake the fuck up. West Point. Annapolis. Colorado Springs. The Citadel.

Top college not Ivy League

I dare a Wingnut to argue that point. I really do.