One Question

How many men die each year due to pregnancy related risks?

Read more!

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.

Read more!

Wouldn't You Like to Be a DFH, Too?

Here you go, Id, this one is for you!

Read more!

Anyone Watching?

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

This is amazing television. Truly amazing.

Though I have it on the SPAN because I get sick of the MSNBC bastards thinking that their comments on what is going on are more important than what is actually being said.

Dammit. Work phone rang when Slaughter was speaking. Louise Slaughter is my hero...I will have to watch her later.

Use the thread to tell me what you think. Are you pissy? Do you think that Obama is losing this debate?

Or, are you keeping an open mind and listening to what the experts are saying?

Let me know.

I believe that real health care reform will be passed. I believe that it will happen because the Dems know that they will lose their shit in November if it doesn't. I just hope that they heed the words of Dr. Dean and make it go into effect now!

President Obama is looking like the adult and the Pukes, of course, look like the tools that they are. Heh.

Read more!

YES, It Has Come to This

Will Marry for Health Insurance dot com.

Not a joke. The real deal. Desperate woman with a story that I can very much relate to.

Fuck.

H/T to Thom Hartmann for interviewing her today.

Read more!

TEOTWAWKI

People prepared for TEOTWAWKI... an acronym for "the end of the world as we know it."

"I refer to myself as a modern survivalist, which means I don’t do without," Spirko explained. "I have a nice TV; I have nice furniture. We are not living in the sticks, but I take all of these things very seriously."

Spirko, an Army veteran and self-described "stark-raving-mad Libertarian," is part of a growing movement of people who are preparing for a disaster natural, economic or man-made. Referred to as "modern survivalists" or "preppers," they are taking steps to protect and provide for their families should something bad happen.

Theirs is a different breed of survivalist, far from the right-wing militants or religious extremists who hole up in bunkers, live off the land and wait for the apocalypse.

Preppers are regular people with regular jobs who decided after 9/11, after Hurricane Katrina or when their 401(k)s tanked that they can’t rely on someone else to help them if something goes awry.

Justified in these tough economic times? Scared of the Socialist Black President? Watching too much FAUX News and Glenn Beck? Smart or fringe lunatics?

Read more!

Where Were You?

Where were you when Senator Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States? Did you go to any parties? Any balls? Did you get to dress up? Was it enjoyable or do you wish that you would have done something different?

I hope that whatever you did that it was marked with many memories. This will be one of those events that people will ask in the future, "Where were you, what were you doing?"

Read more!

Top Stories of 2008?

The AP's Top 10 2008 stories:

1. U.S. ELECTION.

2. ECONOMIC MELTDOWN.

3. OIL PRICES.

4. IRAQ.

5. BEIJING OLYMPICS.

6. CHINESE EARTHQUAKE.

7. SARAH PALIN.

8. MUMBAI TERRORISM.

9. HILLARY CLINTON.

10. RUSSIA-GEORGIA WAR.

Stories that almost made the Top 10 included Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 84,000 people in Myanmar; Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which wreaked deadly damage in the Caribbean and on the U.S. Gulf Coast; and the seesaw fate of same-sex marriage in California, where a court ruling approving it was later overturned by a ballot measure.

Several write-in votes were cast for two developments that occurred too late to be included on the AP ballot — the indictment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the efforts of struggling U.S. automakers to get a federal bailout. The alleged financial scam involving Bernard Madoff also was revealed too late to make the ballot...

Sarah Palin at 7? Maybe if you combine it with John McCain's failure to select a more qualified V/P pick. I think the Environmental disaster in Tennessee should be in the top 10.

What are your top stories of 2008?

Plans tonight anyone? New Year Eve Open Thread.

Read more!

A Feel Good Story of the Holiday Season

Who here can't resist "throwing a big shoe" at bu$h? I know I can't... what this young man did took some "Grande Huevos" and should be taught in schools as a way of protesting any corrupt regime, government or monarchy. Anything to delay the (illegal) process of an out going pResident from screwing over the populace during their last 60 days in office.

Tim DeChristopher Throws Utah Oil And Gas Drilling Leases Auction Into Chaos

An environmental activist tainted an auction of oil and gas drilling leases Friday by bidding up parcels of land by hundreds of thousands of dollars without any intention of paying for them, a federal official said.

The process was thrown into chaos and the bidding halted for a time before the auction was closed, with 116 parcels totaling 148,598 acres having sold for $7.2 million plus fees.

"He's tainted the entire auction," said Kent Hoffman, deputy state director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Utah.

Hoffman said buyers will have 10 days to reconsider and withdraw their bids if they think they paid too much.

Tim DeChristopher, a 27-year-old University of Utah economics student, said his plan was to disrupt the auction and he feels he accomplished his goal.

DeChristopher won the bidding on 13 parcels, auction records show, and drove up the price of several other pieces of land.

"I thought I could be effective by making bids, driving up prices for others and winning some bids myself," the Salt Lake City man said.

Some bidders said they were forced to bid thousands of dollars more for their parcels, while others fumed that they lost their bids...

My wish for the Holiday Season is that Tim DeChristopher has a lot of donations to help his legal fund and the federal court drags this into the Obama Administration. Then an immediate pardon from Obama.

We will know right away if Obama will fight for what is environmentally right! This case will also test Ken Salazar upon confirmation: Will he fight big corporations and their explotation of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management? Or will he stand with the environmentalist?

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

Read more!

Let's Play

The TeeVees are all in a twitter over who Obama will appoint as Labor Secretary.

Although he is desperately needed at the UAW, I think that it would send a great message to appoint Gettelfinger.

If not Gettelfinger, I would like to see John Edwards. I know. I know. However, I think that Edwards proved that he will take on the business, corporate and monied interests in a big way.

Who would you like to see nominated?

Read more!

What I Refuse to Learn

Discouragement is the death of most good ideas. And so it is with Idiosynchronic’s shoe plan. I refuse to allow discouragement and a bunch of cranky turn the page cynics to ruin a good idea. Spplttt! Phoeey! No way.

First of all, Id, what can we do to help? Seriously. What tasks do you need help with? The answer is always “no” until you ask.

I saw over on TLC that one of the commenters had already sent a pair of size 10 shoes. It is happening organically; we will just take the organic movement and add to it. The idea is to make certain that enough people send the shoes that the media picks it up. They are still reporting on the story – we have a short period of time.

This is what I see as the steps that need to occur.

1. Do not get discouraged by the dicks. There are always dicks...we shall overcome!

2. I do not have Adobe. Does anyone here have the ability to create a PDF?

3. Let's actually get the PDF created before we proceed. Let's keep it simple. What are the things that should be included in the PDF?

a. A statement. My vote is for something like "We stand with the citizens of Iraq. We are sorry for the invasion and the destruction of your country. This is for the women and the children" [or whatever it was that the journalist said...it will not take long to find the quote.]

b. Something to the effect of "Mr. Muntadar al-Zaidi should be released immediately and President Bush should apologize for not coming to his aid sooner. Although we do not advocate violence in any way, we understand the frustration of the Iraqi people and Mr. Muntadar al-Zaidi should be released and an envoy should be sent to hear him, to understand his concerns and to understand why he felt that he needed to take the actions that he did. The only way that healing can happen is for open dialogue to take place."

c. “These shoes are a statement of our frustration. The American people have been ignored for far too long in this process. You work for us. We do not want this occupation in Iraq to continue. Bring the troops home now."

d. “These shoes should be donated to x, y, z and a... [List the charities, contact info and the recycler.]"

e. What else should we include? Trying to keep it simple - but what else do you think that we should include?

4. Include also shipping options. SoS votes UPS [are they completely US and completely Union? Let's state that.] I like the USPS, because the post office has been suffering for so long and these are government jobs and government monies so it will help the National Debt. Government jobs are Union [at least they had that right up until last week when Dubya changed some BS rule.]

5. After the PDF is created then we all need to branch out and post where ever we can. I will post at TPM, someone post again at KOS (we can all go and recommend) someone can post again at TLC (maybe we can email Erin) and someone can post at HuffPo, SoS can post at Left is Right, I will post at PAS (not that anyone goes there...but the web crawlers will pick up the words) and we should make sure that we include a link to the stories at NYT and WaPo, etc because those links bring traffic.

Let's get busy. We can do this with very little effort. Especially if we act as a team.

(Note: previously posted in the comments.)

Read more!

Sons-a-Bitches

Those Southern fucks killed the bill.

Those gawddammed Southern Senators - who hate the unions and love their foreign automaker's plants - killed the auto bailout bill.

How these bastards think that they can get away with this is beyond me. Do they think that we will not remember? Do they think that we will allow them to kill manufacturing, American Manufacturing, and not come after them when they are up for re-election? Do they really think that President Obama, with his army of friggin' email organizers, will allow them to run for re-election without us going door to door and reminding everyone that they killed the unions, manufacturing and brought on the next Republican Great Depression!?

Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!

Please, call the Congress tomorrow. Make three calls. Call both your Senators and your Representative and tell them what you want.

The Bastards.

UPDATE: Support the auto industry here, and at the UAW

UPDATE 2: (by id) The Senate vote, by yea or nay. Courtesy of dday, who says:

The 52 votes don't include Biden, Kerry (in Europe, I believe), Kennedy and Wyden (?). Add in those 4 plus Reid (who voted no for procedural reasons) and you're 3 votes away. Lame ducks Gordon Smith, John Sununu and Series of Toobz Stevens sat this out by not voting. Merkley, Shaheen and Begich would be likely to vote yes, and add in Biden and Obama's successors (whenever that is) and you have more than the votes needed to pass this come Jan. 6 when the new Congress is sworn in

So the automakers have to hold on for 25 more days as the new Congress will convene on January 6th.

Read more!

I Disagree

Even after the reprieve of two movies today, I am already bored with the whole Blagojevich crap.

I found this interesting though.

Jane Hamsher thinks that if Caroline Kennedy wants the NY Senate Seat, then she should campaign for it.

I get her point. I do. She says that we do not need political dynasties, blah, blattity, blah. The thing is though that the Kennedys already are a political dynasty. We can't stop that. It already happened, years before I was born.

I say, get over it. If New York does not mind, then neither do I. Also, it is only for two years and then she will have to campaign for it.

Caroline Kennedy is a progressive and everything that she has done she has done with humility and honor. Give it to her. Or not. Truth is, it is not up to us, it is up to the Governor of New York. That is what our laws say. I'll abide with whatever Patterson does. I won't complain or cheer. Honestly, with Bush still in office for another 41 days, we have a whole lot of other shit to worry about.

What do you think?

Read more!

Open Thread

What to talk about today. Obama citizenship case will not be heard by SCOTUS. People are still dying in Iraq. Little bu$h is still pResident for another 40 some odd 42 days. And I'm still pissed at paradox for not explaining what P-Dip did wrong. Here's an open thread.And here is the rest of it.

Read more!

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.

Read more!

Honesty to Return to the Veterans Administration?

General (Ret.) Eric Shinseki is named to lead the Veterans Administration. Anyone who disagreed with and was fired because of Rumsfield and Wolfowitz earns my respect. That means he is a straight shooter, no bullshit. He also happens to be a 2 tour Veteran of Vietnam who lost part of his foot stepping on a land mine. The first Asian-American 4 star General and leader of the Joints Chief of Staff.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has this to say about Shinseki:

"IAVA applauds President-elect Obama and the transition team for making this historic selection. General Shinseki has a record of courage and honesty, and is a bold choice to lead the VA into the future. The President-elect has demonstrated an understanding of the urgency of the issues facing America's veterans by making this announcement early. General Shinseki is widely-respected, honest and experienced. He is a man that has always put patriotism ahead of politics, and is held in high regard by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. IAVA looks forward to supporting him to implement the historic change that is needed at the VA.

As a wounded, decorated, combat veteran, and the first Asian American in US History to be a four-star general, General Shinseki, has the potential to be an effective and dedicated advocate for veterans of all generations.

This is a critical time for veterans. One in five veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are facing serious mental health injuries like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or depression. Wounded veterans are waiting months, sometimes years, to receive disability benefits. The struggling U.S. economy is hitting new veterans especially hard. And the new GI Bill, which will make college affordable to every veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, must be implemented by August 2009.

General Shinseki has a monumental task before him. To address these issues will require real leadership that encourages active VA outreach and transparency. We encourage General Shinseki to move quickly to add Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans to key positions in his senior staff.

President-elect Obama made veterans' issues a priority in his campaign, and Michelle Obama has called military families one of the issues she cares most about. We look forward to working closely with General Shinseki and the new Administration to ensure every veteran in this country gets the care and support they have earned."

And here is the rest of it.

Read more!

What Does this Say?

Yesterday kiddo and I were working out in the yard (believe it or not our grass is still growing – I even have a very confused Easter Lily that is ready to bloom. I have covered her at night for the last month so that she does not freeze, but we did not have our first actual frost until Saturday.) Anyhow, kiddo and I were working out in the yard and he said to me:

“My friend Anthony’s mom is a big-time Democrat too. She stays in her pajamas and blogs all day when she isn’t working too…[this was not the purpose of his story – his story was actually about Anthony's shirt] …He has a t-shirt that says ‘THINK – it’s still allowed – for now’.”

What does this say? I am still not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing or if it is just a terribly funny reality.

I did not ask him if Anthony’s mom was sick as well, I just said that he should “hook us up because we would probably get along great,” (as long as we could do it via IM and not actually have to talk to each other, or anything as radical as that.)

Read more!

One Guy, 2 Seats, One for each cheek

So I'm reading the summary of Inside Washington from last Saturday . . it occurred to me during a graf from Colby King, about how Kerry wants to be Secretary of State (and that this week its rumoured that Sen. Clinton was asked to be SoS), there's no reason I know of for the Secretary of State and the Vice-President to be the same person.

Vice-President and Secretary of State Biden.

Man, it's ultimate power of the sort that makes you want to flip out and kill someone.

Anyway, the only technical objection I can think of is that the SecState is pretty damn busy - it's not like the Vice-President's duties are a 24/7 position, but the occasional time a guy (or gal) would have to do his VP thing is going to just put one more burden on someone trying to be Secretary of State. The Obama Administration might have to find another permanent stand-in for state funerals, or something.

I've always suspected that what made Dick Cheney so dangerous as the VP was the large amounts of idle time on his hands, his experience, and a complacent boss willing to let his minions do it all. Joe Biden is almost as much of a threat as Cheney except Obama doesn't outsource. However, Cheney's now set the precedent. Giving Joe the State Department would give him something to do rather than sitting in the undisclosed location and hatching nefarious plans.

It's just an idle thought . .

Read more!