Of course she didn’t. But she did call me and was sorry that I was unable to join in on the town hall conference call (some of the latest and greatest technology available).

Congressman Blackburn Msg

Wow, what a chipper woman. It might help had you not called my FAX line, for goodness sake. I am sure I would be interested in asking you about those 71 that will die in our district simply due to the lack of health insurance. Rep Grayson mentioned them in this series of videos starting with the following:

And speaking of which, I’d like to share the list that Chris Kromm of Facing South (written by Sue Sturgis)  sent me that shows the numbers per congressman of folks in the south that will die due to lack of health insurance. I’m sure you can shrug this off just like Jesus did:

• Alabama District 1, Joe Bonner: 114 dead
• Alabama District 3, Mike Rogers: 88 dead
• Alabama District 4, Robert Aderholt: 114 dead
• Alabama District 6, Spencer Bachus: 69 dead
• Arkansas District 3, John Boozman: 151 dead
• Florida District 1, Jeff Miller: 130 dead
• Florida District 4, Ander Crenshaw: 116 dead
• Florida District 5, Ginny Brown-Waite: 200 dead
• Florida District 6, Cliff Stearns: 152 dead
• Florida District 7, John Mica: 143 dead
• Florida District 9, Gus Bilirakis: 129 dead
• Florida District 10, Bill Young: 138 dead
• Florida District 12, Adam Putnam: 133 dead
• Florida District 13, Vern Buchanan: 160 dead
• Florida District 14, Connie Mack: 159 dead
• Florida District 15, Bill Posey: 152 dead
• Florida District 16, Thomas Rooney: 165 dead
• Florida District 18, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen: 199 dead
• Florida District 21, Lincoln Diaz-Balart: 195 dead
• Florida District 25, Mario Diaz-Balart: 195 dead
• Georgia District 1, Jack Kingston: 123 dead
• Georgia District 3, Lynn Westmoreland: 102 dead
• Georgia District 6, Tom Price: 100 dead
• Georgia District 7, John Linder: 156 dead
• Georgia District 9, Nathan Deal: 159 dead
• Georgia District 10, Paul Broun: 120 dead
• Georgia District 11, Phil Gingrey: 113 dead
• Kentucky District 1, Ed Whitfield: 113 dead
• Kentucky District 2, Brett Guthrie: 102 dead
• Kentucky District 4, Geoff Davis: 83 dead
• Kentucky District 5, Harold Rogers: 130 dead
• Louisiana District 1, Steve Scalise: 111 dead
• Louisiana District 2, Joseph Cao: 98 dead
• Louisiana District 4, John Fleming: [garbled on video]
• Louisiana District 5, Rodney Alexander: 132 dead
• Louisiana District 6, Bill Cassidy: 105 dead
• Louisiana District 7, Charles Boustany: 112 dead
• Mississippi District 3, Gregg Harper: 117 dead
• North Carolina District 3, Walter Jones: 100 dead
• North Carolina District 5, Virginia Foxx: 97 dead
• North Carolina District 6, Howard Coble: 103 dead
• North Carolina District 9, Sue Myrick: 82 dead
• North Carolina District 10, Patrick McHenry: 101 dead
• South Carolina District 1, Henry Brown: 157 dead
• South Carolina District 2. Joe Wilson: 118 dead
• South Carolina District 3, Gresham Barrett: 112 dead
• South Carolina District 4, Bob Inglis: 133 dead
• Tennessee District 1, Phil Roe: 110 dead
• Tennessee District 2, John Duncan: 85 dead
• Tennessee District 3, Zach Wamp: 94 dead
• Tennessee District 7, Marsha Blackburn: 71 dead
• Texas District 1, Louie Gohmert: 155 dead
• Texas District 2, Ted Poe: 126 dead
• Texas District 3, Sam Johnson, 144 dead
• Texas District 4, Ralph Hall: 134 dead
• Texas District 5, Jeb Hensarling: 151 dead
• Texas District 6, Joe Barton: 136 dead
• Texas District 7, John Culberson: 103 dead
• Texas District 8, Kevin Brady: 132 dead
• Texas District 10, Mike McCaul: 127 dead
• Texas District 11, Michael Conaway: 164 dead
• Texas District 12, Kay Granger: 156 dead
• Texas District 13, Mack Thornberry: 144 dead
• Texas District 14, Ron Paul: 146 dead
• Texas District 19, Randy Neugebauer: 132 dead
• Texas District 21, Lamar Smith: 119 dead
• Texas District 22, Pete Olson: 150 dead
• Texas District 24, Kenny Marchant: 138 dead
• Texas District 26, Michael Burgess: 162 dead
• Texas District 31, John Carter: 124 dead
• Texas District 32, Pete Sessions: 209 dead
• Virginia District 1, Robert Whitman: 68 dead
• Virginia District 4, Randy Forbes: 93 dead
• Virginia District 6, Bob Goodlatte: 99 dead
• Virginia District 7, Eric Cantor: 76 dead
• Virginia District 10, Frank Wolf: 81 dead
• West Virginia District 2, Shelly Moore Capito: 102 dead

I dunno bout you, but that seems like a lot of dead folk. I’m sure they are all dead beats, anyway, right?

At least we won’t starve to death (h/t A Tiny Revolution):

Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood.

“The current recession is likely to generate for children in the United States the greatest level of material deprivation that we will see in our professional lifetimes,” Stanford pediatrician Dr. Paul Wise wrote.

The analysis is in line with other recent research suggesting that more than 40 percent of U.S. children will live in poverty or near-poverty by age 17.

Right. Just more dead beats, huh?

Originally found here.

The last two ole’Babes remind me of me and my best friend!!!

Oh, the irony of it all.

Indivisible? Dude, Com’on. I know how embarrassing that must have been… choking when making a speech in front of red-meat starving idolaters. Wait, that’s right. That’s what you do for a living.

So what caused the man’s little mis-quote? Why would he not be able to remember the one word, “indivisible”?

Because that particular party, especially that faction of it (and the Demo’s are just as guilty but don’t have the same red-meat starving idolaters smacking their lips over such roadkill) are set up to DIVIDE. THAT is what they do. That is what the fake two party system is intended to do… keep just enough of the air heads on both sides divided so they can pass the mantle back and forth every 4 to 8 years.

When will you wake up?

As I was re-reading information on the Pledge of Allegiance, just to see how well Rep Akin’s research is conducted before these embarrassing speeches, I came across something I had never seen before (and Akin and most others conveniently fail to discuss, but is poignant in our current times): we were instructed way back to use the Bellamy Salute when making this pledge.

What do you think?

Bellamy Salute During Pledge of Allegiance

Somehow or another, I am not surprised.

I had met two very young men/soldiers directly after these insane and non-justified wars began. These two lads met in Iraq. They both were somber and had just gotten matching tatoos. “Only the dead see the end of war” Plato.
There is blood on the hands of many many people for these things, along with the ’silent’ voters!!!

Fort Hood has felt the strain of repeated deployments
Base leads Army posts in number of suicides since Iraq invasion

By Ann Scott TysonWashington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 6, 2009

Fort Hood, the Texas military base that was the scene of a mass shooting Thursday, has been hard hit by the growing strain on the Army from multiple combat deployments — with its personnel suffering the highest number of suicides among Army installations since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to official data– 8,000+.

After many years of lengthy war zone rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army personnel are experiencing record rates of suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other mental health problems, as well as worsening alcohol and drug abuse.

The psychological toll on the all-volunteer force today is unprecedented, Army officials say, acknowledging that they do not know how much the Army can sustain before it breaks — making the health of the force a major consideration in President Obama’s current deliberations over sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
It’s unclear what motivated the Army psychiatrist who is thought to have opened fire on fellow soldiers Thursday, although it’s clear he had worked in settings where the effects of combat stress were pervasive.
A small but increasing number of soldiers undergoing the mental strain of repeated combat deployments are taking lives — often their own.
This year, 117 active-duty Army soldiers were reported to have committed suicide, with 81 of those cases confirmed — up from 103 suicides during the same period last year. Ten suicides have been reported at Fort Hood this year; more than 75 of its personnel have committed suicide last year. Fort Hood’s high number of suicides is also linked to the fact that it is the Army’s largest base, with more than 53,000 soldiers.
These numbers do not include the extended deaths of wives being killed due to PTSD. An estimated 30 percent of those returning from combat suffer mental health symptoms such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. Such problems grow worse with repeated deployments and the constant exposure to danger and the sights, smells and emotions of seeing others killed or wounded, according to Army mental health surveys.
Those who treat the mentally wounded, including doctors such as Hasan, are not immune from the symptoms. It is not uncommon for therapists who treat patients for post-traumatic stress disorder to experience some symptoms vicariously after hearing account after account of the horrors of the battlefield.

Hasan was a psychiatry intern at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from June 2003 to July 2009, Army officials said. In that position, he probably treated soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Violent outbursts such as shootings by soldiers at Army bases have occurred in recent years, including at Fort Hood, where several killings were reported over the past two years.
Historically, one of the worst shooting incidents involving soldiers took place Oct. 27, 1995, at Towle Stadium at Fort Bragg, N.C., when a soldier opened fire on paratroopers in a formation, killing one Army officer and wounding 18 others

I wrote about Taiwan here with a breakdown of how their system is implemented and who and what it covers and for how much. Today, I received a letter from my friend Doctor Sutherland, who is the TN Chair of PNHP. He expressed delight in the fact that our calls this week must have made a difference, because the Wiener Amendment is again going to be voted on (probably Saturday):

Politics are unpredictable! The Weiner amendment for Single-Payer is now back on the floor of the House thanks to calls, emails and faxes sent to the Congressional leaders this past week.
This is our last big push to get true health care reform passed this year. Please call your Congressperson tomorrow and flood their switchboard with our voices to pass Single-Payer. The public is confused and tired of the way the Congress has tried to cobble more of the same dysfunction on our broken system- give them a simple and efficient plan to vote on to get true health care reform now.
Push for “Improved and Expanded Medicare for All”! Send this out to all your colleagues and families and friends.

Health care is a human right.

I have been to this man’s house and spent time with him. He is wealthy and has a very renowned practice in Memphis. He could keep his mouth shut because he and his wife are set for life. But just like many of the other Doctors that are ready to fight for Universal Healthcare, even to the extent of going to jail for it, I believe he sees the injustices and wants change. There isn’t a dubious rationale that I can imagine and I have a great deal of respect for him and his views. He went farther to add Ida Hellander’s letter to members and activists:

Dear PNHP Board and Activists,

Quick update and “last call” for lobbying your Representative to support Medicare for All!

The latest news from Capital Hill is that there could be a vote on the Weiner amendment for single payer as soon as this Friday, although it may not come up until Saturday.  The House is expected to vote on the Democrats’ bill at 6 p.m. Saturday.  The Kucinich amendment did not make it into the final bill, and is dead.

Last minute calls to encourage your Representative to vote “yes” on the Weiner amendment for single payer are encouraged.  The Congressional Switchboard number is (202) 224-3121.

As Harvard health economist William Hsiao told the New York Times yesterday “you can have universal coverage and good quality health care while still managing to control costs. But you have to have a single-payer system to do it.”

In solidarity,

 

Ida Hellander

Its not too late to make a difference. Call.

But, also read detail about a system that was implemented in Taiwan and how, who and why they did it in this fashion (remembering that we, America, is the only industrialized wealthy nation IN THE WORLD that doesn’t implement something similar.

Health Care Abroad: Taiwan

By Anne Underwood
New York Times
Prescriptions blog
Nov. 3, 2009

William Hsiao is a professor of economics at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the 2004 book “Getting Health Reform Right.” He served as a health care adviser to the Taiwan government in the 1990s, when officials decided to reform that country’s health care system and to introduce universal coverage. He spoke with Anne Underwood, a freelance writer.

Q. Taiwan instituted universal insurance in 1995. What was the health care system like before?

A. Only a portion of the people were insured, including civil servants, employees of large firms and farmers. The military had its own system of coverage. But 45 percent of the population did not have insurance, and they faced financial barriers to access to health care. President Lee Teng-hui felt strongly that he wanted to do something concrete and visible for all the citizens. He thought of introducing national health insurance to touch the lives of all the people. There was a sense in Taiwan that health care is needed by everyone and a country has to assure everyone equal access.

Q. How did you become involved in the health care reform process?

A. The government initially appointed four Taiwanese professors to lead a task force of technical experts. But the four professors all had different ideas. It was like a wagon drawn by four horses, with each going in a different direction and nobody driving. After a year of this, government officials realized there was a problem. In addition, they wanted someone who understood health systems and health care abroad and what lessons other countries could offer to Taiwan. The domestic experts did not have much international experience.

I was invited to a three-day workshop, where they tested me. At the end, I was put in charge of the task force of four professors and 16 other technical experts. It turned out to be a big advantage that I’m not Taiwanese and had no aspirations of getting a job in Taiwan. At the end of the day, our recommendations and findings were perceived as more objective and free of self-interest.

Q. What was your assignment as head of this task force?

A. We had to design a national health insurance plan for Taiwan, based on international experience. Government officials wanted to understand how other advanced countries fund and organize health care and learn from their successes and failures, so I made a study of the systems in six high-income countries – the United States, the U.K., Germany, France, Canada, Singapore and Japan.

Q. And what was your conclusion at the end of this study?

A. We adopted a single-payer system along the Canadian lines. I did not invent it. I’m just in the transfer-of-knowledge business.

Q. Why did you choose the Canadian model?

A. Canada has a single-payer system with universal insurance coverage. It offers people free choice of doctors and hospitals, and it has competition on the delivery side between public and private hospitals. The quality of health services is very high, and people were very satisfied with the system from the 1980s through the mid-1990s.

Unfortunately, in the early-to-mid 1990s, Canada went through a severe recession for four or five years. The budget became very tight. The government underfunded national health insurance, which led to long waiting lines for elective surgery, MRIs and so forth. But when Canada adequately financed its N.H.I., it was a very good system.

Q. In Taiwan, can people choose any doctor or hospital they want?

A. Yes, any provider. Americans talk about choice. But in fact, insurance plans in this country restrict what providers you can go to. Canada gives its citizens more choice of providers. So does Germany. So does England. So does Taiwan.

Q. How comprehensive is the coverage?

A. It covers prevention, primary care and hospitalization, among other things.

Q. I‘ve read that it also covers Chinese massage, acupuncture, traditional herbal medicine, mental health care, dental, vision and long-term care.

A. Yes, these services are covered. We tried to design a benefit package that would give people what they value. For many Taiwanese, that includes traditional Chinese medicine. Though Chinese medicine is not 100 percent proven to be medically effective, people believe in it. And some therapies have been proven effective. For example, when acupuncture is given in certain spots, it stimulates the brain to release opiates.

Q. The Taiwanese system also covers home care.

A. You need home care by visiting nurses for people who are chronically ill or bedridden. It’s not rocket science to recognize this. Some people argue that the patients should pay for home care themselves. But if people have to pay out of pocket, they might not ask for visiting nurse services and their illnesses may get much worse. Then they will need to be hospitalized.

Q. Is the system very expensive?

A. Expensive is a relative term. Taiwan spends 6 percent of G.D.P. on health care, compared to 16 percent in the United States.

Q. How much do people have to pay?

A. If you’re employed, your employer pays 60 percent of your premium. The employee pays 30 percent, and the government subsidizes 10 percent. The government fully subsidizes the premiums for the poor and gives partial subsidies to veterans, the self-employed and farmers.

Q. How much is the typical premium?

A. The total insurance premium for employed workers is 4.6 percent of wages. That’s much lower than in the United States, where the average is between 12 and 20 percent of wages for those who are covered by their employers.

Q. Are there co-pays, too?

A. Yes. The task force felt that service should not be totally free or else people might waste services. For example, we studied what happened in Taiwan when some insurance policies gave prescription drugs free to everyone. One-third of the drugs dispensed were never taken but thrown away. You can imagine, if you have free office visits, some people will say, “I have this little ache. I’ll go see the doctor because it’s free.” We wanted to moderate this waste.

Q. How high are co-pays?

A. The charge is $2 for a visit to a clinic and about $4 to a hospital outpatient department. The co-pay for hospitalization is now 10 percent for the first 30 days and 20 percent for the days beyond 30 days. For prescriptions, it’s 20 percent of the cost of the drug, but capped at $6 for each prescription. Taiwan also sets a ceiling on the total co-pays, so patients won’t face bankruptcy.

Q. How long did it take to implement this program?

A. Less than a year. Mr. Lee pushed through the legislation in four to five months, because an election was coming. Then he asked for the new system to be implemented six months after that – and they did it.

Q. What percent of the population is now insured?

A. Within the first year, Taiwan managed to insure 95 percent of the population. That increased that by another percent or so each year, until they reached 98 percent. They had trouble with that last 2 percent, because some were living overseas and others were homeless. The government literally sent people to find the homeless under bridges and enroll them. Now they have close to 99 percent enrollment.

Q. Has this translated into better life expectancy or lower complication rates from major diseases?

A. There is evidence of positive health results for select diseases, like cardiovascular disease and kidney failure. But overall, it’s really difficult to say that national health insurance has improved the aggregate health status, because mortality and life expectancy are crude measurements, not precise enough to pick up the impact of more health care. That said, life expectancy is improving, and mortality is dropping. And everyone now has access to good health care.

Q. What does the system do particularly well?

A. In addition to covering everyone, it has a uniform system of electronic health records. Every patient has a Smart Card. When you go in for services, the physician puts the card into his computer. You give him the code to access your records, which are all stored on the card – what medications you’ve taken, what tests, along with the results, the last time you saw another physician. With a single, unified electronic system, it improves treatment and it also vastly reduces claims processing. Hospitals and doctors get paid in a week or two. It’s a paperless system. That’s why it keeps administrative costs down to 2.3 percent of the total premium. In the United States, it’s more than 10 percent.

Taiwan was also able to control health-expenditure increases very well in the early years. Unfortunately, now that the government budget is tight, it is overdoing it.

Q. What are the system’s weaknesses?

A. In the legislative process, compromises had to be made. First, the president yielded on payment reform, so Taiwan kept its fee-for-service payment system. Unfortunately, that encourages doctors and hospitals to give more treatment in order to boost their income.

Second, the Taiwanese system doesn’t have a systematic way to monitor and improve quality of care.

Third, in the legislative process, they rejected a provision to adjust the premium automatically when the national health system depletes its reserves. In every country, health care costs are increasing faster than wages. When that happens, the premium has to go up. But that provision wasn’t incorporated into the law. As a result, the system is running a deficit. National health insurance tries to cut the fees for hospital and physician services. But eventually these fee reductions will adversely affect the quality of health care.

Q. What’s the most important lesson that Americans can learn from the Taiwanese example?

A. You can have universal coverage and good quality health care while still managing to control costs. But you have to have a single-payer system to do it.

Originally found here.

Of course it reminds me about cat-Scratch fever… so illness transmitting back and forth are not that far fetched, but going from human to animal just seems a bit, well a bit– mankind manipulated in the first place. I sincerely believe that the swine flu was manmade out of some crappy testing somewhere… or a by product of germ warfare testing. See, I told you I am an old jaded hippie!

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2009/11/cat_catches_swine_flu.html?hpid=topnews

Cat catches swine flu
Does the swine flu pandemic pose a threat to your pet? Yes, according to a report out today from the American Veterinary Medical Association.
A cat in Iowa has tested positive for the H1N1 virus, state officials confirmed this morning, “marking the first time a cat has been diagnosed with this strain of influenza,” the association said in a statement.
“The cat, which has recovered, is believed to have caught the virus from someone in the household who was sick with H1N1. There are no indications that the cat passed the virus on to any other animals or people,” the statement said.
The cat is 13 years old, and state health officials said two of the three family members that own the cat had suffered “influenza-like illness” before the cat got sick.They recovered too.
Before this kitty was diagnosed with the swine flu, the virus had been found in humans, pigs, birds and ferrets, the association said.
It is well known that some viruses can be transmitted from people to their pets so the case of the Iowa cat isn’t a surprise. But the case is prompting the association, along with the American Association of Feline Practitioners, to remind pet owners “they should monitor their pets’ health very closely, no matter what type of animal, and visit a veterinarian if there are any signs of illness.”
The association is tracking all instances of H1N1 in animals and posting updates on its Web site.

Pete at DrugWarRant shared these two stories of elections that prove many more Americans are gaining some sanity (as of 8:45AM CST DrugWarRant’s website is down). The tide turns:

A Win In Maine

Medical marijuana users in Maine will be able to buy their pot at licensed dispensaries after voters approved a bill that expands the state’s existing medical marijuana law.

The new law allows patients to buy marijuana at nonprofit dispensaries. It also expands the medical conditions under which people can be prescribed the drug.

In unofficial returns, Question 5 was leading 60 percent to 40 percent with half of precincts reporting.

Original link found here.

Another story of sanity:

Legalized

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — The skiing town of Breckenridge voted Tuesday night by a margin of nearly 3 to 1 to legalize the adult possession of marijuana.

Breckenridge voters passed Measure 2F, which removes criminal penalties from the town code for the private possession of up to one ounce of marijuana by adults 21 and older. The ordinance also removes criminal penalties for the possession of bongs, pipes and other drug paraphernalia.

It passed 73 percent to 27 percent.

Original link found here.

You can read the official firing of me and Diane Valencen at THE PITCHFORK blog along with my diplomatic comments to Cav. Those remarks were true insofar as I´d be happy to continue running the sports contests. It certainly had nothing to do with my writing ability. My style and phraseology was copied by EVERYONE there.

All that really happened was nothing! Diane got angry with me and stupidly challenged me to a physical fight. I don´t hit women. Never have, never will. Silliness.

Furthermore, I believe in non-violence except for self-defense. I grew up in a working class neighborhood into a family which was loving, but Old School. My father used to be very violent as a profession almost when he was a young adult. I was exposed to things that are not really appropriate for a young age. I was mature enough to PASS on doing that shit except in rare cases of self-defense. I pride myself in my belief in non violence to the point that when I noticed a violent streak in my son, I discussed it with him and got him into a boxing program here in Panama so he could learn self-discipline and sportsmanship and forget about violence as a “solution.” (NB: thanks Jay Midnyte for the Bobby Seale lecture you tube. His decription of the image and reality of the Panthers fit very well in an adult way with what I´ve stressed with my son).

People are supposed to have arguments from time to time and then shake hands and forget what happened. If anything, I think my worst crime was to agree with No_slappz on an arcane but significant point with regard to the drift THE PITCHFORK took since Obama got elected.

Three malign strains evolved (1) The blog accepted everything, especially war and exploitation, that the Democrat Party was about. They excused errors and violence. I was the only writer there to damn not cheerlead Israel´s ethnic-cleansing of Gazans in December. Ironically, I was only one of three Jews on the staff. Fred Schwartz came around to my way of thinking. Rebekkah Rubenstein never did

(2) The blog took on and expanded what is sometimes called “WHITE MAN´S BURDEN.” In my understanding of the phrase it means a knee-jerk liberalism which involves useless big government hand-outs and rules which take the position that black Americans are incapable of evil or error and that all fault lies with White Southern Christians among politicians and electorate without ever ASKING both sides what their grievances are. Moreover, THE PITCHFORK neglected entirely such iconoclast pacifists as Rep Dr Ron Paul and Rep Walter Jones, Jr, who have the best anti-war voting record among all Republicans and most Democrats. I mentioned this as a news story. Nothing.

If Cavalor ever bothered to check the Black Agenda Report, his eyes would have been opened to a whole other way of radical African-American thought on the problems in the White Southern community. They expect all White Americans and Black Americans to be somewhat to very racist in their thinking but that doesn´t change the legitimate economic plight that the Town and Tea people were expressing perhaps in undiplomatic language but real nonetheless. Meanwhile, rich liberal Democrats who already had corporate health plans poured praise on Baucus and Obama as they engineered more corporate theft. I don´t know what liberal Democrats even believe in anymore, but it sure wasn´t Conyers and Kucinich´s HR 676 which was tied with Paul/Kucinich´s HR 1207 for being as close to perfect as any American piece of legislatiion in the past 30 years. They claim to be a “news organization”. I mentioned that these were big stories. Nothing.

In fact, other than myself and Schwartz, no writer at the PITCHFORK had anything but silence or opprobrium for some of the stronger voices for peace,freedom and justice like Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, John Conyers, Jim McGovern, Jared Polis, Alan Grayson (before he got famous), Jim McDermott, Maurice Hinchey, Barbara Lee, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Steve Cohen, Tammy Baldwin, Don Payne, Keith Ellison, Donna Edwards, Bobby Rush, Luis Gutierrez, Raul Grijalva, Nydia Velasquez, Marcy Kaptur, Dianne Watson, Bill Delahunt, pr CYNTHIA McKINNEY,etc…If the name wasn´t Obama, Emanuel, or a retrograde Democrat or Republican “centrist,” nobody there could be bothered.

I´m not sure if my worst crime at the PITCHFORK was agreeing with No_slappz that the PITCHFORK was laughably “knee jerk,” my praise for Cynthia McKinney, Piedad Codoba, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, or BarryScheck and Peter Neufeld of THE INNOCENCE PROJECT. In reviewing criminal cases which hung on DNA evidence, Scheck and Neufeld´s record in appeals court was 240-0! The PITCHFORK is now very strict on ¨law and order” because Obama and Holder are.

(3) The PITCHFORK is now a shy neo-conservative and semi-proud neo-liberal blog. They have no criticism of any note for the governments of ISRAEL, COLOMBIA, PERU, COSTA RICA, RWANDA, THE DARFUR REGION, THE SOMALI bloodthirsty RIGHT, NIGERIA, EGYPT, SYRIA, LIBYA, ZIMBABWE, MEXICO, CANADA, PAKISTAN´s MILITARY JUNTA, pre Kevin RUDD AUSTRALIA or of course the neo-liberal governments of SPAIN, ITALY, FRANCE, THE NETHERLANDS, nor of couse the UNITED KINGDMOM.

They lend no support to new democracies like VENEZUELA, ECUADOR, BOLIVIA, PARAGUAY, URUGUAY, ARGENTINA, CHILE, BRAZIL EL SALVADOR or LIBERIA. They jumped on a “sexy” issue like HONDURAS but got off quick when t became clear the coup was authored by OBAMA, CLINTON, KISSINGER, BRZESINSKI, NEGROPONTE, COLIN POWELL, OSCAR ARIAS and OTTO REICH. When BlackwaterXe and Colombian Army and paramilitary forces crossed the Venezuela border and a battle ensued, I was the only one to report it there and was fired not long after. THE PITCHFORK has a PIEDAD CORDOBA link but support the Uribe/Bermudez governmnent because OBAMA does and because an honorable Conservative, ATTORNEY GENERAL MARIO IRGURAN would have enough evidence to indict ERIC HOLDER for conspiracy to commit murder as well as aiding and abbetting in the CHIQUITA massacre, should IRGURAN introduce the DELAHUNT SUB-COMMITTEE MINUTES. OR 60 MINUTES, if W and O´s William Brownfield didn´t have a gun to Irguran´s head!

It´s all a seamless fake pro-blackism web as HOLDER, like OBAMA, is the kind of Negro Whites like: compliant and all about neo-liberal IMF theft. THE PITCHFORK´s record on LGBTQ issues is equally pathetic even from erstwhile EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, Diane Valencen. I presume that they continue to take their cues from Obama and the DEMOCRAT MAINSTREAM ON THAT CRIME.

In the end, it was the RON PAUL THIRD PARTY CONFERENCE youtube and an amazing truth which was out there but missed by all of us in SEPTEMBER of 2008. Paul explains at one point that Green Party nominee Cythnia McKinney had contacted Ron Paul and gave Paul a great case for why he should endorse JOHN McCAIN instead of her, Nader, Barr and Baldwin. She said that she firmly believed that McCAIN would never be as violent, Zionist, and expansionist as Barack Obama would be. Ron Paul and Cynthia McKinney are beyond THE PITCHFORK´s understanding because of Paul and McKinney´s anti-Zionism anti-War anti-American Black Holocaust/Privatized concentration camp policies. I was furious with she said that she was only interested in “winners” and that Paul, Kucinich, McKinney, McGovern, and even Pope John Paul II would be more corrupt than Obama in the office of the presidency. I offered the opinion that I was friendly with a number of McKinney supportes in Buckhead and had Diane given a shit, I would have explained that they believed McKinney best BECAUSE OF HER PEACEABLE ANTI-ZIONISM AND THAT THEY WERE SICK OF HAVING ISRAEL´S ATROCITIES IN THEIR NAMES. FURTHERMORE, MS McKINNEY´S FATHER WAS A GOOD MAN AND ALWAYS GOOD TO GEORGIA´s JEWISH COMMUNITY.

The most revealing aspect of THE PITCHFORK´s indifferent attitude to news and change, was when they were off on Joe Wilson´s “mean name” for Obama being the greatest sin against humanity even and at the same time were all overthemselves for giving Jay Midnyte a link. I asked editor why this business of Wilson he had acually become something of a Black Power cult figure and the censure vote featured “nays” by pacfists Delahunt and Kucinich, but missed WHY giving Jay a big link was important. The color of Jay´s skin is relevant to those who focus on such stuff, but Jay´s having a link was important because HE´S AN ECONOMICS AND FINANCE PRODIGY! I am known as one of the better emerging markets quants around, but Im embarassed to say that once Jay has prob/stat, calculus, and operation research down, he´ll be better than me at the game.

If I didn´t believe that I would not have written Dr Faber a personalized letter on FB on Jay´s behalf and I would not have offered him a part-time job analyzing Brazilian and Venezuelan corporate debt for me. The latter offer was postponed and scratched by Obama´s PLAN COLOMBIA. As the BLACK AGENDA REPORT said of Van Jones and David Paterson: “Is that anyway to treat a brother?” I don´t know about any of that, but I know Obama fucked real lives up and a chance for Jay and I to make some money.

Yes, I am furious with Barack Obama having put me in a series of interlocking problems having to do with my partner´s adolscent children´s safety and education, with my money, and with my own safety for the rest of my life. The pre-cursor of all of this: the 1-party system´s fascist insistence on seeing groups not individuals.

Kelso´s Nuts love you

An example of a real, conservative Republican with a real, progressive view:

Jessica Corry

h/t Pete at Drug War Rant

My wish is that each and every little girl whose parent is away from home right now soon cries exactly the same kind of tears as this little girl cries:

more about “The Return from Iraq – Video“, posted with vodpod

I have experienced that very same emotion, back in ‘69 when my dad returned from VN unexpectedly. It is a feeling that I will never forget the rest of my life. It was likely one of the most joyful moments in my life… but totally mind-blowing, just like it blew her mind.

I want all our men and women to come home from these bogus wars and occupations only set forth to enrich the mongers who put us there.

I want every child to experience this moment of relief from fear and awestruck love of knowing they are back from harm.