Personhood Amendment

Goddammit.

Perhaps it is time that we introduce a new Personhood Amendment? Something to the effect that “Women are full human beings, with full rights over their bodies and complete freedom to make decisions respecting their bodies, health and futures.”

All of this new controversy over requiring that health insurance plans, regardless of where they are offered, cover birth control without copay, is absolutely absurd.

I have heard enough from Newt & Rick & Mitt & Ron Paul about ‘religious freedom’ and what an attack on the Catholic Church that this has been. Well, for thousands of years the Catholic Church, and other male dominated power structures, have been attacking women and our autonomy and it is about fucking time for a little push back.

This is not about abortion. This is not about birth control. This is not about the group of cells that may or may not be duplicating in someone’s uterus.

This is about Women.



This whole bullshit argument is about whether or not women can be trusted to think and decide for themselves what is best for themselves and their body and their future - or whether they need the state, or a man, telling them what they can or cannot do.

Women understand how our bodies work. We understand, and can comprehend, the multitude of issues that arise from our reproductive health and, thankfully, there are [still] organizations that can assist us in getting the care that we need.

Despite all of the arguments to the contrary, women are capable of making these decisions ourselves.

It is very simple: either I have control over my body or someone else does.

These arguments have always been about controlling women and limiting their abilities to control their own lives. Take away a woman’s choice about her own fertility and you limit every choice that that woman will ever be able to make for the rest of her life.

When, in this country, will we finally decide that women are full persons with all of the rights of a full person? Oh, that’s right, we have been trying to get a women’s ‘personhood amendment’ passed for 89 years and counting.

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Apparently THIS Revolution Will NOT Be Televised

As I watched the National protests in support of Unions and the people of Wisconsin, on-line, yesterday, I kept searching the teevee for evidence of coverage. The local news networks were not covering it, the national news networks were not covering it, the cable news networks were not covering it and – extremely disappointingly – CSPAN was not covering it. I even flipped periodically to Fox “News” to see if they were covering the national response to the attack on the used-to-be-middle-class. Fox had more coverage than any other network, however it was spun towards the myth of the Unions being greedy thugs and the protests as something to be feared. (CNN, sadly, were instead talking about the Tea Party and its two year anniversary.)

When it comes to the used-to-be-middle-class, we are left out of the national dialogue, despite the millions in the streets.

More on the flip side about why these protests matter,why America needs to be informed of them and about them, and why they are occurring.

This morning, watching the Sunday shows, the same black-out of the nationwide protests continued. MTP at least included Rich Trumka; a rare representative of actual people, on the Sunday chat fests. Though he was not given enough opportunity to really talk about what is occurring across the country. Emanuel Cleaver did OK but there is really crappy, if existent at all (though I find no evidence for it) Democratic messaging on the real fight here.

There are numerous reasons for these protests and numerous reasons that we all – left, right, center, independent, Democratic, Republican, Tea Party and Socialist – should be celebrating and supporting the protests and the protestors: they are fighting for the survival of our country which is contingent on the survival of its people.

First of all, this is not a budget fight. Public sector employees are not responsible for our budget deficits.
Bush tax cuts and the second Republican Great Depression are what is driving our deficits (PDF) and what created our massive National Debt. There is only one reason to even be discussing deficits now; the Right wants to blur the line and pretend that cash-strapped governments (state and local and federal) are the reason that the American people are broke. They are interrelated but the cause and effect formula is backwards.

The Right pretends that jobs are some gift from business owners and, now, governments. They have repeated the meme for so long now that business “creates jobs,” that our entire national debate centers around how best to blow the cocks of big business rather than the incredible shrinking wealth of what was once the middle class. Never mind wage stagnation “business needs certainty.” The used-to-be-middle-class would like some certainty too.

No business creates jobs just to create jobs – as evidenced by the shitload of money that the corporations are hoarding. The corporations do not “create jobs”; employees provide services to employers for a fee (payrolls); DEMAND creates jobs. There is no demand because the people are freakin’ broke. Or, I should say, the majority of the people are freakin’ broke.

In addition, lowering the deficit does not lead to jobs – unemployment leads to budget deficits. Somehow the Republicans believe that the more that they fire people, cut their benefits (which are part of a payroll package not some give-away) and lower their payrolls, the lower the unemployment rate will be. How many people do they have to fire before the unemployment rate reaches zero?

There were coast-to-coast protests yesterday. Protests of the American people standing up for the American people. Coast-to-fucking coast. My guess is that very few Americans know this and even fewer understand why the protests affect them and matter to them: Apparently THIS revolution will NOT be televised.


Update: John Nichols breaks down why this all matters much better than I did.

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Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary!

After 61 days of waiting, Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis finally gets past "The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee". Finally *raises hands towards the heavens*, if she is approved by the full Senate... a pro-Union, pro-safety, pro-green job, pro-healthcare Labor Secretary.

Could this be President Obama's Frances Perkins? I hope for all of us she is half what Perkins was!

Of course for me it's the sheer happiness I get from watching the Repbuli-cons worst nightmare become Labor Secretary... an empowered, pro-Labor, petite Hispanic Woman (reminds me of my wife). Hilda Solis is the polar opposite of these republi-con slimeballs. She had to work twice as hard to achieve her position, is probably the poorest member of Obama's cabinet and truly cares about working class Americans.
Let's have a big shout out for Hilda Solis!

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Apoplectic

First of all, I love that word. There are some words that are just plain fun and some that are fun to say (one of my favorites is "Odierno" - say it a few times with the emphasis on the "o"s - fun, isn't it?) Secondly, apoplectic is what every single pundit was today, over the gawd damned Daschle withdrawal.

What is the deal?

I do believe that Idio was correct, this is Monica on steroids and it is bad. I hope that the Dems wake the fuck up now and do not try to deal with the Wingnuts. The friggin' Wingnuts and their buddies, "The Liberal Media," are just falling all over themselves to see who can say that the Obama Presidency is an abject failure first.

It is the media's fault that they are so quick to grab the GOP narrative on everything rather than report the stoopid news as it really is...and they do not even report the fucking news. We have to find the actual news ourselves because the media is so busy trying to make scandals where none exist [target: Democrats] and so busy ignoring actual scandals and catastrophes [target: Republicans.]

I was so furious today because our fucking country is going down the shitter and it is going down quick - due to the Republican hacks who fucked us endlessly. The People got busy and threw the bums out. The media seems not to notice that the villagers are restless and instead of reporting on what is really wrong, what we are really mad about, these pricks spend all of their time creating problems where none exist. Why do the media dumb asses hate this country??

Listen, and this is to us impatient Liberals too, Obama was handed over a shitstorm of nasty that he has barely even had the time to uncover, the GOP are being the obstructionists that they are (I do not think that they are capable of being anything else - even when they are in charge,) the GOP has managed to block Obama's Cabinet on top of their other sabotage activity, the media is reaming him endlessly and the whole fucking country is asking him why everything isn't better yet and because the whole world has not miraculously changed in the two fucking weeks that he has been in office does that mean that he has broken his campaign promises?

Jeebus people. Everyone is freaking out because Bushco has not yet been indicted and is not yet sitting in prison when Obama's Attorney General was not even sworn in until today! Crap!

Let's all just take a deep breath, settle down, relax, take a chill pill and at least allow Obama to have his staff in place and sworn in before we demand that all things be better. Apoplexy be damned!

/Rant over.

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Fuck Bi-Partisanship

I am done. It is only one week into this new flowery world of getting along with the rabid Right and I.Am.Done.

(Rest of the rant on the flip side.)

These bastards are spreading their lies and their fairy tales all across the TeeVees all weekend and the gawd-damned Democrats – who we elected to stand up against these dickwads – are clueless as to how to play this game of political theatre. Do we not have one single friggin’ Democratic spokesperson who can speak in sound bites? Is there no one on that Hill who can get our message across? What is wrong with these people? Jeebus.

Then, I hear on the MSNBC this morning, and also find it here, that the Democrats might drop the Medicare change provision from the stimulus that waives the waiver waiting period for contraception to be included in state programs. Are you kidding me?! Just because gawd damned John Boehner released a sound bite about birth control that freaked the Dems out they are going to cave rather than explain to the sheeple what this provision really does? That pisses me off to no end. (What you are reading now is an only slightly expanded upon version of what the staffers at my Senator’s and Representative’s office heard this morning…)

I realize that that the pundits spun this provision to sound like we were becoming China in advocating birth control…but, it was not a mandate for Christ sake – it was offering people choices! When people have to cut costs what is the first to go? Usually it is medications that we justify that we can “skimp” on. After you have cut every other friggin’ thing out of your life that you can, then we start to look for things that are “luxury.” And, unfortunately, birth control can end up on that list because people play the denial head games like “I’ll be careful.” Well, gawd damn it you stupid Right Wing pricks, it only takes one!

Then, your cut of the $25 dollars - that we might pay for birth control pills - turns into thousands and thousands of dollars to pay for a child that was not wanted to begin with. Then you have a kid growing up in poverty who has to deal with all of the crap that poverty brings and will, quite often, end up in the “system” where we are paying for them in one way or another – either through institutions or because they end up having babies while they are still babies and the friggin’ cycle continues just because you tight assed “conservative” freaks cannot abide by paying for a low income families birth control. Gawd you are stupid!

I realize that Obama’s goal of “one Country” and “we are all in this together” is a noble one. I get it. I also get that it makes sense when we are dealing with reasonable people. I can do that in my personal life with some Right-Wing people who are human and who understand compromise. Yes, it can work.

However, the Republican Hacks on Capitol Hill are not reasonable. They still cannot even take responsibility for the disaster that they caused. They cannot admit that they were the ones who screwed everything up. These assholes do not understand that it is their philosophy that wrecked everything.

President Obama: You cannot work with these people to restore good government because the core of their philosophy is that “government does not work.” Sorry, Dude, but this is what they believe. When you go to them, to work out this legislation and “compromise” you will never, truly, find any common ground.

You are standing on different fucking planets…Ours is the planet of a government that can work for the people, theirs is a planet where government’s only role is to give “tax cuts” to the wealthy and the corporations. They do not give a shit about the majority of us – we are only here to make their beds and serve their meals and cut their lawns and fill their privately run (but federally funded) prisons. These people are criminal hacks and they are Anti-American. Sorry, but you cannot “work with them.” There are only a handful of reasonable, moderate Republicans left and they have no voice inside their caucus; the rest of them are Fascist Pigs. To hell with them.

The American people get it. The American people took the 8 years of Bill Clinton and compared them to the 8 years of George Bush and said “hey, I rather liked the peace and prosperity of the Clinton years…let’s do that again.” And this – Democratic Party – is why you were elected. This is why we worked our asses off and dug deep into our pockets to elect you assholes. Now, our request is friggin’ simple: Act Like the Democrats That We Elected You to Be!

/Rant Over

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Irreconcilable Headlines

I find it absolutely incomprehensible that these headlines can coexist:

Flood of Foreclosures: It’s Worse than You Think

Record Number of Families Seek Refuge in Shelters (Note: Link is to the NYT section dedicated to homelessness. YES, there is an entire section.)

The picture at the top of the Truthout article has a caption which reads:

Ezekiel Pierre Sejour stands in front of an empty, foreclosed home that he and his mother Marie Nadine Pierre, were moved into by the Miami group Take Back the Land after she lost her jobs and could no longer pay her loans. Take Back the Land moves homeless families into empty foreclosed homes in Miami and provides legal protection from eviction. (Photo: Getty Images)

This is exactly what should be happening all across the country.

The article says that banks are holding inventory for a number of reasons and this inventory is not being listed on the MLS. The problem with not listing these homes is that not only does it offer us horrible and incomplete data, but it keeps the homes empty, longer. The longer that the homes remain empty, the worse shape that they are in and the more money that it costs to get them to the point where they are saleable.

The banks are holding them because flooding the market with the true numbers will lower home prices substantially, everywhere. Who among us would want to continue to pay our mortgages if the value of our homes were to suddenly drop below the amount that we owe? How many of us would just walk away? That is a problem.

Another reason that the banks are not listing the homes is because they want to sell them in bulk to investors. This will be just grand; we can return to the days of slum-lords and serfdom, where just a few wealthy people own all of the homes and the rest of us lose our power of negotiation.

This is George W. Bush's "Ownership Society." This is exactly what he had in mind.

The rich will really have all of the power, owning all of the properties; the people who have to rent from them will just have to be happy with what they get. AND, we will all be renters. Brown water coming out of kitchen sinks, holes in the walls that rodents use as entry points, bugs and other nasties…get used to it…this will be the country that they are trying to create for us. Still.

Despite the election of Barack Obama and the very loud, unified, cry of “No More” heard across this country – the moneyed interests, the banks and the investments houses still are trying to enact Dickens’s England where the cry heard is “please sir, may I have some more.”

Dammit. Enough.

I believe that the many organizations dedicated to ending homelessness are already on it, that they are already moving towards the solutions necessary.

I hope that the Congress is listening and reconciles these two headlines so that people no longer lose their homes and that the millions already sitting empty become housing for those living in cars and on the streets. A country with this much wealth has no excuse for Tent Cities or too full shelters.

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Hello, Hello, Hello

Is There Anybody Out There?!

I get it, everyone is busy and sick and completely bored by the blogosphere. The fight was won. Bushco and his criminal crew are gone in just a few short days. We are on to a new chapter in this country...a blissful new chapter of Peace and Love. [Pay no attention to the multiple wars and the economy in the crapper.]

There is nothing left to fight for. Right?

Wrong.

Dammit. We have more work to do than we did when we were fighting the criminality of the Bush Administration and the corrupt Republican Congress over these last 8 long fucking years.

Obama needs a movement.

And, the thing is, Obama recognizes this. Obama knows that he will not be able to implement any significant change unless the people are louder than the lobbyists. It is not enough to police the Democratic Congress and then bitch about it when they do wrong. This will not get us anywhere except for providing us a place to come and bitch and agree with each other. This is not what we need.

This is what Change.gov is all about. It is also why Obama continues to send us a zillion emails. It is not about fundraising right now...we won. There will not be an election for President for four years. All of this communication with us is not for show - it is because Obama needs a movement. Without us screaming louder than the frickin' lobbyists the change will not happen.

There is also Change.org which is a division of Democrats.com. This is the people's side of the Change movement. (Don't go to change.com unless you want to jack-off; change.com is the underwear manufacturer.)

The bottom line, even though we are tired and we are bored, we have work to do. I warned about the let-down and people seemed to agree with me that it would happen. I thought that it would have happened earlier and been over by now...but, I am thinking, the Holidays might have postponed it and might have added to it (family really is a pain in the ass.)

Consider this the pep-talk. (I can only give them, I have a hard time actually following them up with action - so I expect you all, my friends, to call me on it when I start whining...) We have work to do people. Our blog should be more active than it was while fighting the GOP. There are hearings to watch and policing of the Congress to do. Phone calls to make and letters to write. Volunteering to participate in. Movements to initiate. Media to watchdog.

Just nod if you can hear me - Is there anyone at home?

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Holiday Open Thread

OMG, Toyota's posting it's first operating loss since 1950! It's all the Unions fault... damn Unions, causing Toyota to go broke... oh yeah, Toyota doesn't have Union workers.
UPDATE: Just when I get flippant about Toyota and Unions, emptywheel puts out a great article on Toyota being a model for success.

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Solstice, Wonderful Kwanzaa and Happy New Year.

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Myths and Fairytales

MTP is pretty interesting this morning. Gregory is actually having a discussion with Fiorina, Romney, Granholm, Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google,) and the CEO of Wal-Mart Lee Scott.

The myths and fairytales are flying out of the mouths of the liars.

(Yep, there is more. Note: edited to use the there's more feature.)

1. The UAW workers do not make $73 per hour.

This was a myth started by a WSJ reporter, who took all of the wages, all of the retirement health care costs, all of the pension costs, all of the current workers health care costs, all of the current workers vacation, sick leave, etc costs plus the wages of the CEOs and then divided it by the hours worked by the current employees. That is how that number was arrived at.

The same result would happen if you took all government employees and added in all pensions, etc and then divided it by the current hours worked by current employees. It is a BS number.

If Bill Gates walked into a bar with 5 people, the average net worth of the people in the bar would be many millions of dollars. Think people, think.

2. The talks in the Senate did not break down over the UAW not agreeing to cut their wages in 2009.

Gettelfinger had an agreement with Corker. Corker did not have the clout in his Caucus to bring it about (or his Caucus sent him out there as a sacrifice.) They had an agreement. It fell apart with the Republicans when Corker brought it back. The GOP had no intention of negotiating. From the beginning they had no intention. It was all political theatre.

The UAW never should have even tried to negotiate with those lying fucks. They did so in good faith, and they have learned their lesson.

3. We do not have the "second highest business tax rate in the world."

Bullshit. We have more tax loopholes than any other country in the world. The larger that you are the more loopholes that you can take advantage of. There is a building in the Cayman Islands that holds almost 20,000 corporations that should be US businesses. They have a PO Box in the Caymans to avoid paying US taxes.

4. Businesses do not "create jobs." This is the greatest myth perpetuated by the Right.

Demand creates jobs. Employees offer their services to companies. Employees create wealth for business owners. (Good luck Lee Scott, CEO of Walmart - try selling your cheap crap without your thousands of underpaid employees. I'd like to see you in that blue vest.)

Please use this thread to list other BS myths perpetuated by the Right Wing. I know that it could go on forever, so, maybe just stick to the ones being thrown out today, on the morning shows. Even those will take up a ton of bandwidth.

5. Just because Obama is from Chicago does not mean that he is responsible for every friggin' thing that happens in Illinois. This is a molehill not a mountain. The media needs to quit hyperventilating about this crap and start focusing on the actual crimes being performed by the Bush Administration.

Oh, and PS: That gawddamned commercial about "the faces of lawsuit abuse" commercial is crap. There is not really a "lawsuit abuse" problem. This is one more BS meme put forward by the Right. The same old crap that blames trial lawyers for everything.

The law is there to protect the people from the government and the corporations and the powerful - not the other way around. Unfortunately, the law is not always used as it was intended - to save us from them, but that is only because enough people do not understand the history of our founding and why our laws and Constitution were written as such.

We need civics education and we need it badly.

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Obama’s First Scandal

The RNC demands to know “what did Obama know, and when did he know it?!?!”

The media has had their tits in wringers for two days now. All that the talking heads seem to be able to do is express their abject horror about how Blagojevich is the most corrupt politician ever [and he is a Democrat in Chicago and there are all kinds of webs and strings and common friends of Blagojevich and Obama.] There has been more insinuating on the TeeVees the last two days, than one usually receives in a topless bar in Canada.

It is worse than guilt by association; it is The Hunting of the President – The Sequel.

Id talked about this not long ago. We have actually discussed in several threads how this will be “the 90s on meth.” I am afraid that it might be worse. If we allow them even an inch on the rope that they are tying into a noose, if we let them draw even one line on their map to the witch hunt, it will easily get out of control. We have to stop this now…even before the oath. We cannot allow the Right Wing nuts to control the narrative. We have to quit bringing knives to gunfights and quit putting our faith in “the process.”

The process has changed and it is time that we Liberals figure out what game that we are really playing. We can’t allow goals to be scored while we are still trying to figure out the rules. It is a whole new ballgame now. One need only look at the hypocrisy of the “Great Chicago Scandal of 2008!” Consider that were actual connections between Right Wing Queen Palin and seven-time convicted felon Ted Stevens and we never saw the media reporting on these connections or even mentioning Stevens and Palin in the same sentence. The standard is so double that it has been divided into something that is not even a standard at all.

We might have to lower our standards a little to figure it out; I am not advocating immorality or the ends justify the means. All that I am saying is that when we are swimming around with a bunch of bottom feeders we cannot always expect to use the sunlight to see.

I do agree that Coyote is right, laugh at the bastards and call their absurdity what it is. I also think that we need additional strategies. I see things getting awfully ugly – the Right is digging in their heels and they are hanging on tight. They will not give up their hundred year rule wet-dream easily, they just won’t.

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David Fucking Gregory?

Are you gawddamned kidding me?!

Look, I get it, Brokaw was killing MTP. I know that in his "attempt" to be fair he overdid the whole Right-Wing friggin' stance on everything; and that this was the last thing that the American people wanted, but you do not fix that by going even further to the Right.

Jeebus, NBC. What.Are.You.Thinking!!??

David friggin' Gregory has killed your 6 pm programming with his "Race to the Whitehouse" show, AKA "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." Now, you really want to put the last nail in the coffin of MTP?! You really want MTP to die with Tim?!

Admittedly, I loved Tim Russert. I really did. I cried for 3 days when he died.

I just think that the talent to choose from was a much greater pool than the likes of gawddamned David Gregory. Any friggin' body would have been better.

My vote was for Phil Donahue or Bill Moyers. At this point though - anyone but Gregory would do.

Jeebus. It feels like the end of an era.

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The Big Three

The current problem of “The Big Three” is not one of their own making – it is a problem of the media. Until we fix the current messaging of the media (including the Left) we cannot win this one.

By “winning” I mean saving American manufacturing.

(Yep, there's more. Click 'read more' for the rest of it.)

Pelosi just came out and said, of the Auto Companies, that “until they show us the plan, we won’t show them the money.”

The auto makers have, in fact, fucked themselves over the years. They have lied to the Congress, they have lied to the people, they married themselves to the oil companies, they have not put forward the products that the people need and in some cases they have pulled products off the market that the people wanted (see: “Who Killed the Electric Car.”) Yes, they have fucked themselves – and yes, they caused a lot of this – but that is not the current problem.

I am so frustrated with the reporting over this $25 Billion dollar Bridge Loan. [It is a loan, not a bailout. The auto makers have already promised to pay interest and have come up with terms, etc.] It has been just absolute bullshit. The media did not spend 1/10 of the time discussing the Trillion Dollar Bailout (that already happened,) that they have spent arguing about how horrible this Bridge Loan would be.

I am glad that people are discussing this (the other bailout should have been discussed as well,) but the myths that are being floated, just suck. Take a look at some of the crap written.

Chrysler is not publicly owned – so ‘fuck em.’

GOP suddenly care about being fiscally responsible.

And gawd-dammit it is not about the executives.

And, for christsakes, enough of the whole corporate jet BS. These executives could have ridden together, but their jets are not just for “comfort and convenience” – they also serve as offices so that the CEOs can continue to work, while traveling.

Enough about the Executives. Enough about the jets. Enough about how filing for bankruptcy. (Filing for bankruptcy will not work with “The Big Three.” Referring to the automotive industry as “The Big Three” ought to be the first clue as to why bankruptcy is not an option. If one fails, the others go. In addition, they will not be able to restructure, because they cannot get loans: see: the Credit Crisis in the US. Also, people tend to not buy vehicles from auto companies that are in bankruptcy because people would like to know that their warranties will be honored and they cannot be honored by a company that might not be there when you need to use your warranty. The people who think bankruptcy is an option (like Romney,) are Dumb asses.)

Enough about the unions and legacy costs being the problem. The legacy costs and the unions are not the problem. Killing the unions has long been the goal of these assholes and the BS reporting of the media helps to serve this beast. The real motivation of the Right is to destroy the unions. (This is probably the real motivation behind the media corps crappy 'reporting' as well.)

In addition, I have heard the GOP talking points about how “small business is the backbone of America” and that the government should invest in “small business.” What is the great benefit of “small business” and why might the Right Wing wish to promote it so: no benefits, no retirement, that explains the GOP's love of small business. I like small businesses too - I work for one, but small businesses do not have the ability to pay for healthcare or retirement and in many cases cannot pay the best wages either. The greatest benefit to small business - the greatest investment that government could make - would be Universal Healthcare and a restructuring of our retirement system. (This would also be the greatest benefit to the auto makers...more on that later.)

The GOP care only about the wealthy, they do not care about the middle class. They have proven this repeatedly and I have a hard time believing that they still have any constituency at all.

Meanwhile, the Dow is down, down, down under 8,000. That is a 50% drop.

In other grim financial news, the Feds are guarding against deflation. Deflation is a really bad thing.

There are some great charts here on the history of job losses. The article goes on to say:

“The best read on total establishment job creation during the latest expansion is 7.2 million jobs. So far the economy has lost 1,179,000 jobs or 16.66%. So let's assume we see a rate of job destruction on parallel with the worst rate in the last 60 years. That would bring total job destruction to 3.6 million.

Now -- remember that we've already lost 1.2 million jobs. This means we have an addition 2.4 million to go. At a 240,000/month job loss clip (the rate we saw last month) we've got 10 months of heavy job losses left. That places the end of the news of terrible job losses somewhere next summer. And that assumes we'll see a rate of job destruction on par with the worst rate of the last 60 years.”

Looking at the above situation, it only makes the auto industry situation more dire. If we lose the, minimum of, 3,000,000 jobs that the auto industry will take down with it we are looking at a serious, serious financial situation. The idea that any lawmakers would even toy with the notion of not helping the auto industry is unfathomable to me.

We have to save manufacturing in the United States of America. It is a National Security issue. It is a moral issue – we are talking about the very survival of millions and millions of people and their families.

I am so disgusted that the GOP thinks that the jobs of bankers are more valuable to the US than the jobs of auto workers and their suppliers. The GOP also thinks that employees of “The Big Three” earn too much money. In addition, they do not like the competition of the union workers wages with their non-union constituency. Many of the Republican Senators speaking out against this bridge loan represent non-American automobile manufacturers who employ non-union auto workers in their non-union states. (Free Market my ass.)

The greatest untold story in all of this is that the auto manufacturers do have new business plans. The problem is that the media has not reported it that way so the Dems have to play the game and put off the vote until December 2nd.

So, now it is up to the auto makers, us, and the media, to report the truth. Two out of the three companies (Ford and Chrysler) have CEOs who are new to them and new to the auto industry. They were all turning a profit 1st quarter this year – the credit crunch has killed them. Auto sales have dropped some 30-45%. It is just a horrible situation for them. The Big Three has also renegotiated all of the contracts with UAW, the workers have offered a ton of concessions and they have begun to retool for more environmentally sound vehicles. In addition, GM is introducing to the marketplace some fabulous new battery technology.

I have also not heard but a few small blips that some of the real problems with the auto companies and their contracts is that we do not have Universal Healthcare and we have really shitty structuring of retirement costs. The media also will not report on this and God Bless Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) for saying it when they give her a mike.

I know that the auto companies have, in the past, made horrible decisions. But that was then and this is now. We must save American manufacturing, unions, good wages and the American Dream. This is really what it is all about. It is time that we reframe it in this way.

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Some Doctor's Offices Have Better Magazines Than Others (And Some Doctor's Receptionists Let You Take Them if You Ask!)

(note from id - I edited this for size, it was driving me nuts!)

(Picture courtesy of "Discover" magazine.)

Sometime within the last few weeks I was in my Rheumatologist's office and found my way to an issue of "Scientific American." It was a current issue, which is a really big deal in a doctor's office.

This issue, October 2008, has the article "Web Science: Studying the Internet to Protect Our Future." Very cool article with some fascinating charts.

In summary, the article outlines a relatively new science, beginning in late 2006, of studying the Web.

The article defines it as

“This new discipline will model the Web’s structure, articulate the architectural principles that have fueled its phenomenal growth, and discover how online human interactions are driven by and can change social conventions. It will elucidate the principles that can ensure that the network continues to grow productively and settle complex issues such as privacy protection and intellectual-property rights. To achieve these ends, Web science will draw on mathematics, physics, computer science, psychology, ecology, sociology, law, political science, economics, and more.”

The article then goes into the mathematical algorithms involved in “PageRank” and the need to “engineer out” properties such as “link farms.” The article continues discussing how the study of the Web and the understanding of scale-free networks has led to a cross application of disciplines by applying “power-law degree” distributions to business alliances and even using it at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to

“improve its models of sexual disease transmission and has helped biologists better understand protein interactions.”

As if the above weren’t fascinating enough, the article then began to discuss the impact of blogs. The leading graphs discuss the origin of the phrase “six degrees of separation” [damn I love Etymology] and then goes on to admit that no one really knows the size of the blogosphere.

"It is difficult to estimate the size of the blogosphere accurately. David Sifry’s leading blog search engine, called Technorati, was tracking more than 112 million blogs worldwide in May of this year, a number that may include only a mere fraction of the 72 million blogs purportedly in China. Whatever the size, the explosive growth demands an explanation. Arguably, the introduction of very simple mechanisms, especially TrackBack, facilitated the growth. If a blogger writes an entry commenting on or referring to an entry at another blog, TrackBack notifies the original blog with a “ping.” This notification enables the original blog to display summaries of all the comments and links to them. In this way, conversations arise spanning several blogs and rapidly form networks of individuals interested in particular themes. And here again large portions of the blog structure become linked via short paths—not only the blogs and bloggers themselves but also the topics and entries made."

The article goes into the rise of “Semantic Web.” From my vantage point this is nothing more than drilling down information to get you as close as possible to what you are actually looking for. However, for Web Scientists and Web Designers it has actually led to a new programming language,

"Engineers have devised powerful foundations for the Semantic Web, notably the primary language—the Resource Description Framework (RDF)—which is layered on top of the basic HTML and other protocols that form Web pages. RDF gives meaning to data through sets of “triples.” Each triple resembles the subject, verb and object of a sentence. For example, a triple can assert that “person X” [subject] “is a sister of” [verb] “person Y” [object]. A series of triples can determine that [car X] [is brand] [To¬yota]; that [car X] [condition is] [used]; that [car X] [costs] [$7,500]; that [car X] [is located in] [Lenox]; and that [Lenox] [is located in] [western Massachusetts]. Together these triples can conclude that car X is indeed a proper answer to our query. This simple triple structure turns out to be a natural way to describe a large majority of the data processed by machines. The subjects, verbs and objects are each identified by a Universal Resource Identifier (URI)—an address just like that used for Web pages. Thus, anyone can define a new concept, or a new verb, by defining a URI for it on the Web."

The physical magazine has a very cool map of the blogosphere, which I had to find in Discover Mag so that I could post it. The Discover article explains it better anyway. (It also reminds me of the cartoon map of the blogosphere that I have spent so long looking for now, because I do not remember where I saw it, that I am now bored to death with this entire post.)

This science of new science might lead to a discipline devoted to studying exactly how Obama won the election. Funny how science works that way.

For more information on next generation web technology, I found this forum of forums while doing this research.

If I were more ambitious (and maybe more well) then I might be interested in pursuing something in this direction. I find the convergence of sociology, poli-sci, psychology, math and technology pretty cool. However, since I am not that ambitious (and tend to get bored easily) maybe I will just pursue a subscription to “Scientific American.” Kiddo wants it for Christmas anyway, so I could kill two birds with one stone [that was a metaphor, never would I advocate the killing of any birds with any number of stones.]

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Post Election Depression

I got up a few minutes after 5 this morning. It was not just adjusting to Daylight Savings Time, it is also the anticipation of VOTING DAY.

I seriously cannot believe that it is here.

For the last many weeks my life has been filled with pre-election and post-election plans. Everything that has come into my consciousness has been tempered with "that is after Election Day," or "before." Truly, it has been bizarre just how much energy has been invested in today. Extraordinary really.

What happens tomorrow? (Or, more likely, the day after tomorrow...because tomorrow I suspect that they will still be counting votes because there will be so many more votes than they have prepared for.) Back to the point, though, what will my life be like when there is no more election to obsess on?

I am not talking about a depression and anger that will occur if Obama does not win. I am not even going there. I am counting on him winning, and I refuse to go into the "what ifs" otherwise. What I am talking about is the natural letdown that always occurs when the end comes to a very large investment.

There is the after Christmas depression - which is always worse if I am the one who hosts the holiday because I have invested so much into it. There is the after a major test depression; remember finals, when there should have been relief, but instead there was an enormous feeling of "what now!?" There is the after the convention depression. Every time that I have ever attended a convention, for any purpose, there is always a depression - a let down - that occurs when it is over.

I think that this is natural human nature, that whenever we invest ourselves in something, when that event is over there is a chemical reaction to that excess energy. In other words, whenever we have amped up our energy level to deal with an event (even a good one) there is a reaction to that level of increased energy when it is no longer needed.

I think that this let down will be greater the more invested that people have been in this campaign. The more work involved, the greater the depression. I am assuming that there will be a tremendous amount of joy, excitement, relief (especially relief, that this one is not stolen too) but it will also be tempered with a funk. The degree of the funk proportional to the investment in the outcome.

So, please, friends, be gentle with each other. I know that certain people [me] are more sensitive to these kinds of adjustments than others. I suspect that I will be a little short with people, extra tired, perhaps on the couch for a while...trying to pull it together. I have been very ill lately but I have not allowed myself to really fall apart because I have an election to deal with. When this is over I am guessing that I might relax and actually experience the intensity of my sick.

Just a little warning of what might be going on with the people we love. Just a little warning of what might be going on with me. (Also, it is nice to write supposing the outcome that I am pulling for, even if the subject matter is a downer.) Be gentle, we are almost there.

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Voter Suppression in Arizona

Yesterday, Mrs. Seven of Six and I voted early here in Arizona.

The Wife likes to get on me about my paranoia over voter suppression. Low and behold, "mi espousa", was almost ruled ineligible for voting because according to registration records, the year she was born didn't match her drivers license. She was born in 1957, somehow, in a week it miraculously changed to 1937. The thing is, I made sure to check last week, as per Anjha's orders, with the county recorders office to verify we were registered, at the time, all was copasetic.

The wife couldn't believe it, she told the fellow Hispanic female poll worker, "I've been voting in Arizona for 5 years now, all of a sudden there is a discrepancy with my date of birth?" I mumbled under my breath, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, "Voter Suppression!" The young poll worker made a call, then commented, "It must have been a typo." Right... we believe that.

Mrs. Seven was a little bit more pissed than usual. She ranted on, "What if I waited until election day to vote? Would they have been so kind as to make that phone call while hundreds waited in line?" Now my wife is convinced our Republi-con Secretary of State, Jan Brewer and Republi-con Maricopa County Recorder, Helen Purcell, are purging Hispanic Democratic voters from the rolls.

Then I pulled one of my high pitched Jon Stewart imitations, "Told you so!" She smacked me in the arm!

Cross posted at LEFT is RIGHT

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Good For Campbell Brown & MSM

My highlights:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- You may find it hard to believe that this remains an issue in this campaign, but it does.

The candidates, both candidates, are still getting questions about Barack Obama's ethnicity and religion. If you are even semi-informed, then by now you already know that of course, Barack Obama is an American.

Of course, Barack Obama is a Christian. Yet just a few days ago, there was a woman at a rally for John McCain incorrectly calling Obama an Arab:

Woman at rally: I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab.

Sen. John McCain: No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That's what this campaign is all about. He's not, thank you.

Now, I commend Sen. McCain for correcting that woman, for setting the record straight. But I do have one question -- so what if he was?

So what if Obama was Arab or Muslim? So what if John McCain was Arab or Muslim? Would it matter?


When did that become a disqualifier for higher office in our country? When did Arab and Muslim become dirty words? The equivalent of dishonorable or radical?

Whenever this gets raised, the implication is that there is something wrong with being an Arab-American or a Muslim. And the media is complicit here, too.

We've all been too quick to accept the idea that calling someone Muslim is a slur.

I feel like I am stating the obvious here, but apparently it needs to be said: There is a difference between radical Muslims who support jihad against America and Muslims who want to practice their religion freely and have normal lives like anyone else.

There are more than 1.2 million Arab-Americans and about 7 million Muslim-Americans, former Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, successful business people, normal average Americans from all walks of life.

These are the people being maligned here, and we can only imagine how this conversation plays in the Muslim world. We can't tolerate this ignorance -- not in the media, not on the campaign trail.

Of course, he's not an Arab. Of course, he's not a Muslim. But honestly, it shouldn't matter.

Of course I bet Brown was channeling Digby here but I can't find Digby's article.

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Infuriating Dickheads!

We are finely starting to get some cool mornings here in Arizona, we can open up our windows and get some fresh air. Get my "cup of Joe", sit down and read my paper, relax, turn on the tube... what do I see reported from CNN... a 2 minute segment being done on an article I just read about from the Christian Science Monitor.

What a dickhead John Roberts... reporting the story on conservative preacher dickheads who support dickhead, John McCain!

Pulpit politics: Pastors to defy IRS
Some plan to endorse a candidate Sunday, challenging federal rules that limit partisan activity by tax-exempt groups.

During sermons this Sunday, some 35 pastors across the country will tell their congregations which presidential candidate they should vote for, "

Their endorsements represent a direct challenge to federal tax law, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations from engaging in partisan political activity.

The clergy have embraced that risk, hoping their actions will trigger an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, which would then enable a Christian legal advocacy group to take the IRS to court and challenge the constitutionality of the ban.

The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a conservative legal group based in Arizona, recruited the pastors for "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" to press their claim that the IRS tax code violates the free speech of religious leaders.

"I have a First Amendment right to say whatever I want to say, and I've never thought it was appropriate that as a pastor I could not share my political concerns with the congregation," says the Rev. Gus Booth, pastor at Warroad Community Church in Warroad, Minn.

Mr. Booth will endorse Sen. John McCain on Sunday, and has already told his congregation that as Christians, they could not vote for Sen. Barack Obama due to his position on abortion.

MIXING RELIGION AND POLITICS

For other clergy – and legal experts – this is not a question of free speech, but an act contrary to the law that could also be dangerous for religion, potentially dividing and politicizing congregations.

"This is not a free speech issue," says the Rev. Eric Williams, pastor of North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus, Ohio. "Any person, including a pastor, can endorse a candidate as a private individual. And if a church wants to do it, it can give up its tax-exempt status."

He and another Ohio pastor held a press conference Sept. 8 inviting clergy to preach against such partisan activity, and more than 100 pastors in several states did so on Sept. 21, says Mr. Williams.

The Ohio pastors also sent a complaint to the IRS requesting an investigation of the ADF and whether its initiative violated its charity status. They had the support of three former IRS officials who criticized the ADF for encouraging clergy to violate the law by endorsing political candidates.

According to the ADF, this is not about endorsing candidates, but about protecting religious expression and about who regulates what is said from the pulpit.

"We believe the decision about whether to address candidates should rest with the pastor and congregation, not the government," says Erik Stanley, the ADF's senior legal counsel.

This is religious speech, not political speech, because the pastors evaluate candidates in light of the Scripture, he says.

The prohibition against partisan activity by charitable groups was enacted by Congress in 1954, and the statute has been upheld in the courts. In three cases, courts have concluded it does not violate the Constitution's free speech clause, according to Robert Tuttle, professor of law and religion at George Washington University in Washington.

In a national poll released in August, two-thirds of American adults say that churches should not come out in favor of one political candidate over another. The Pew poll shows widespread agreement, including among Republicans and white Evangelicals (both at 64 percent).

Also, under the IRS rules, clergy are free to discuss any issues of public concern in their sermons, and houses of worship can engage in nonpartisan voter-registration and civic education.

PREVIOUS CHALLENGES FAILED

At various times, bills have been introduced in Congress attempting to change or repeal the rule limiting partisan activity – most recently in 2004 – but they have not passed.

The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance (IA) in Washington, D.C., sees the current initiative as part of a political strategy.

"It is not accidental that the people who want the church to take on a political identity are the people who argue there's no separation of church and state in the Constitution and that there's been a misinterpretation of religious liberty all along," he says.

In response to the ADF's initiative, the IA launched a campaign to have clergy sign a six-point pledge to uphold standards of nonpartisanship during the election campaign. Several hundred of them have done so.

"As a minister, I want religion in this nation to have the credibility, integrity, and authority to be a force for reconciliation and healing, for bringing a divided nation together, not contributing to further divisiveness," Dr. Gaddy says.

If houses of worship became "bastions of political partisanship, that would be a blow to the positive power of religion."

Mr. Booth disagrees, saying that "absolutely" churches should be able to engage in political activity, since the Bible calls for taking the gospel into every aspect of life.

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which mails letters to churches alerting them to the IRS rules and has reported alleged violators to the IRS, issued a warning that, "Taking part in this reckless stunt is a one-way ticket to loss of tax exemption."

The IRS says its first goal has always been education on the issue. It plans to "monitor the situation and take action as appropriate."

These shitbirds want their congregation to vote for John McCain, fine, put your money where your mouth is. Doesn't matter that McCain's running mate believes dinosaurs and man walked the earth together 6,000 years ago. Pay the fucking piper... in these days of current financial crisis we need the federal coffers filled from law breaking souls.

I couldn't agree more with Rev. Eric Williams, say what you want, just be willing to give up your "tax exempt status". And a big shout out to Rev. C. Welton Gaddy for pointing out it's "political strategy" and "As a minister, I want religion in this nation to have the credibility, integrity, and authority to be a force for reconciliation and healing, for bringing a divided nation together, not contributing to further divisiveness..." YA THINK!

OK, now that I have it out of my system... I'm going back to enjoying my pleasant morning, my "cup of Joe", read the paper in peace, probably go outside and enjoy the cool breeze (70's), turn off the boob tube and ignore the infuriating dickheads!

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Do We Really Trust bu$h To Have Carte Blanche... Again?

Why don't I trust the bu$h administration on their rush to rescue our financial giants? Could it be that we were blindly hurried into the Patriot Act... or was it the fast moving attack on Iraq... hell, it's really both. And both have been huge blunders. The bu$h administration has a record of screwing the pooch on way too many items over the years... and we are supposed to just let him have Carte Blanche?
More after selections of the N.Y. Times article.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration on Saturday formally proposed a vast bailout of financial institutions in the United States, requesting unfettered authority for the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in distressed mortgage-related assets from the private firms.

The proposal, not quite three pages long, was stunning for its stark simplicity. It would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt.

“This is a big package, because it was a big problem,” President Bush said Saturday at a White House news conference...

Some Congressional Republicans warned Democrats not to overreach...

The administration’s plan would allow the Treasury to hire staff members and engage outside firms to help manage its purchases. And officials said that the administration envisioned enlisting several outside firms to help run the effort to buy up mortgage-related assets...

You have got to be kidding me right? "...unfettered authority...?" Like Cheney? Like Rummy? Like "Gonzo"? Like "heck of a job" Brownie? Sorry, I've been down this road before... you're incompetent bu$h and so is your staff. If Paulson was so great why has the problem gotten so huge?

bu$h telling me it's a "big problem" does not ease my fears or bode well with me... I don't trust the man. A man I call "King Midas in Reverse!" I can sense a real rip off of the American people here, name one thing he has successfully done for U.S. citizens. Or better yet, reel off all the things bu$h and his cronies have benefitted from when they expedite policy at the expense of the American public.

"Some Congressional Republicans warned Democrats not to overreach..." WTF? Who the fuck are they to tell our Democratic congressional leaders "not to overreach..." I hope they "overreach" and finally protect the electorate from bu$hco.

"...the administration envisioned enlisting several outside firms to help run the effort to buy up mortgage-related assets..." This sounds like outsourcing of jobs and special contracts to me, ala Iraq. How much will this cost? Who will be doing the work? The same schmoes who were working on Wall St. and got us into this mess?

In conclusion, I don't trust a fucking thing bu$h proposes, especially when he is trying to ramrod a plan down the American public's throat. We've been screwed too many times before.

Of course I'm no economist, but Paul Krugman is and he agrees with me: No Deal.

I hate to say this, but looking at the plan as leaked, I have to say no deal. Not unless Treasury explains, very clearly, why this is supposed to work, other than through having taxpayers pay premium prices for lousy assets...

Here’s the thing: historically, financial system rescues have involved seizing the troubled institutions and guaranteeing their debts; only after that did the government try to repackage and sell their assets. The feds took over S&Ls first, protecting their depositors, then transferred their bad assets to the RTC. The Swedes took over troubled banks, again protecting their depositors, before transferring their assets to their equivalent institutions.

The Treasury plan, by contrast, looks like an attempt to restore confidence in the financial system — that is, convince creditors of troubled institutions that everything’s OK — simply by buying assets off these institutions. This will only work if the prices Treasury pays are much higher than current market prices; that, in turn, can only be true either if this is mainly a liquidity problem — which seems doubtful — or if Treasury is going to be paying a huge premium, in effect throwing taxpayers’ money at the financial world.

And there’s no quid pro quo here — nothing that gives taxpayers a stake in the upside, nothing that ensures that the money is used to stabilize the system rather than reward the undeserving.

I hope I’m wrong about this. But let me say it again: Treasury needs to explain why this is supposed to work — not try to panic Congress into giving it a blank check. Otherwise, no deal.

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Time is Ending

Or starting again. Or stopping. Or going backwards. Or some such shit.

I really did not feel like reading all about it. It is a whole lot of scientific mumbo jumbo, and it is early yet.

I know that the pictures are really cool.

I know that some big questions could be answered.

And, I understand that they are re-creating the Big Bang.

I have no idea what will happen when the Large Hadron Collider goes off (if that's what it does,) or starts up, or whatever. It may have absolutely no affect on any of us.

Still, I wonder, should these scientist really be fucking around with forces that they have no idea how to control?

(There is no more.)

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Beelzebub Still Has His Minions at Work

The headline reads: Justice Staffers Won't Be Prosecuted For Illegal Hiring Practices.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday... "not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only violations of the civil service laws."

I'll use that as my defense if I ever get arrested... should work, eh?

Of course those strong armed Democrats were on the ball with a public tongue lashing:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said Mukasey "seems intent on insulating this administration from accountability."

The Vermont Democrat said Mukasey's remarks "appear premature based on the facts and evidence that congressional investigators and the inspector general have uncovered so far" in the hiring scandal. "We must continue to pursue the truth and facts, and hold any wrongdoers accountable," Leahy said.

After Leahy's wag of the finger, I could swear I saw a picture of bu$h doing a tex-ass jig... no, that was only in my head, I guess. But Beelzebub did say in his most hideous voice, "I have many more crimes to commit before I leave office!"

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