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More Casualties from the War In Iraq
It's becoming more and more clear that the war in Iraq is taking a much heavier toll on the soldiers than was previously thought. The New York Times reported that there have been 121 cases of Iraq /Afghanistan veterans commiting homicide after there return from the war, a third of the cases involving family members- including a two year old child. The stories of normal men and women committing terrible acts of violence are horrible to read, and proves to us once more that our country is not properly taking care of its warriors. The Armed Forces are failing in their responsibility to ensure that our brave veterans are ready for reintegration into society:
"Few of these 121 war veterans received more than a cursory mental health screening at the end of their deployments, according to interviews with the veterans, lawyers, relatives and prosecutors. Many displayed symptoms of combat trauma after their return, those interviews show, but they were not evaluated for or received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder until after they were arrested for homicides."
This failure is inexcusable. The Armed Forces need to step up and deal with this issue, and not simply ignore it - "“The Marine way...was to suck it up.” Well, "sucking it up" has led to the deaths of 121 innocent civilians. It's time to change their policy, and give veterans the treatment they deserve.
from the Obama '08 blog:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/sarahramey/CG75#comments
Re: "At what cost democracy?" Kucinich recount NH
By Nancy M. 40 minutes ago
From the Kucinich website:
Help Defend the Integrity of Our Voting System
Once again, America is faced with questions about the integrity of machine-counted ballots and about the rights of Americans to decide for themselves who they should be allowed to vote for in this crucial Presidential election.
The vote counts in New Hampshire are suspicious....
Because of the unexplained disparities between hand-counted and machine-counted ballots in New Hampshire, Dennis has asked for a recount. "I am not making this request in the expectation that a recount will significantly affect the number of votes that were cast on my behalf," Dennis said in his letter to the Secretary of State of New Hampshire. But, he cited “serious and credible reports, allegations and rumors" that question the integrity of the machine-controlled process.
If New Hampshire agrees to a recount, this campaign will have to pay for it. And we can't investigate what happened in New Hampshire - or protect every other state in the Union - without your help.
http://www.dennis4president.com/go/homepage-items/help-defend-the-integrity-of-our-voting-system/
If you go to the link above, the paragraph listed above is a link to the donation form. ...
Dean's first. Dean Democrats have the power!
Treatment of our returning service personnel is a national shame. We MUST address this issue.
One amazing fellow who returned from Iraq (a teacher whose National Guard unit was deployed), is now running for Congress in my district, against an entrenched Repub. Jon Powers is a Grassroots allstar. Jon started a program called WAR KIDS RELIEF to try to keep young Iraqi boys from being recruited. Read more at
http://theshapeofdays.com/2006/03/30/war...
Or check the video on Jon's campaign website
www.powersforcongress.com
Than VOTE for Jon as an All Star - he truly IS!
Jane
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/01/clinton_obama_c.html
Clinton, Obama campaigns tangle over abortionEmail|Link|Comments (0) Posted by Scott Helman, Political Reporter January 14, 2008 06:30 PM
A flier Barack Obama's campaign is distributing to voters in Nevada, which votes Saturday.
Among the many questions posed by last week's New Hampshire primary was whether Hillary Clinton's fliers attacking Barack Obama on reproductive rights helped her pick up key women voters in the closing days of the campaign. With votes in Nevada and South Carolina looming, Obama's campaign is trying to preempt further attacks in this vein.
At issue are several "present" votes that Obama cast on abortion-related bills while a member of the Illinois Senate. Clinton's campaign argues that the votes betray a lack of leadership on Obama's part. Obama's campaign says the present votes were part of a coordinated legislative strategy with abortion-rights activists.
On a conference call with reporters today, Ellen Malcolm, president of the abortion-rights group EMILY's List, which has endorsed Clinton, sought to contrast Obama's record with that of Clinton, whom she said had been a strong abortion-rights voice as a US senator. "It's that kind of leadership we're looking for in our Democratic nominee," Malcolm said.
But Obama's campaign released excerpts of a letter Malcolm sent to Obama in 2006 thanking him for speaking at one of the group's events. Her letter, according to Obama's campaign, included this handwritten note: "You were terrific and really lit a fire with our members! Thanks so much!!"
...
oops.... better link to Jon's site
http://www.powersforcongress.com/
Jane
It's not possible to make a valid comparison between 1953 and 2008 for the simple reason that so many more people are getting paid for the work they do now than they did before.
Indeed, I would argue that a significant proportion of the "growth" of the economy is simply a consequence of more money (which is easy to count) being used to mediate transactions. In other words, no more useful work is actually being done. Even the apparent increase in longevity is less related to advanced medical technology than it is to public health and sanitation measures which were instituted BEFORE the 1950s. Not to mention that a significant proportion of health care is having to compensate for the effects of industrial wastes and pollutants, externalities which were not addressed by a "growing" economy because making sure wastes are non-toxic and don't pollute the environment isn't "economic." If they had to pay for all the waste, they might not ever make a profit.
3.
...
It’s Not Just ‘Ayes’ and ‘Nays’: Obama’s Votes in Illinois Echo
Published: December 20, 2007...Pam Sutherland, president of Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, said Mr. Obama was one of the senators with a strong stand for abortion rights whom the organization approached about using the strategy. Ms. Sutherland said the Republicans were trying to force Democrats from conservative districts to register politically controversial no votes.
Ms. Sutherland said Mr. Obama had initially resisted the strategy because he wanted to vote against the anti-abortion measures.
“He said, ‘I’m opposed to this,’” she recalled.
But the organization argued that a present vote would be difficult for Republicans to use in campaign literature against Democrats from moderate and conservative districts who favored abortion rights.
Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general who was in the Illinois Senate with Mr. Obama from 1998 through 2002, said she and Mr. Obama voted present on the anti-abortion bills.
“It’s just plain wrong to imply that voting present reflected a lack of leadership,” Ms. Madigan said. “In fact, it was the exact opposite.”
...
David Mamet on Hillary (from Huffpo)
And what about Hillary’s tearful turnaround?
Well, I only heard something on the radio. I don’t think I’m misquoting her. She said, “I have so many opportunities for America.”* [Long pause.] That’s kind of wonderfully revelatory. It’s not that there are so many opportunities for America, but she has so many opportunities for America.
------
rdorgan thx for link to Kucinich site for recount.
Michael is OK if he would just learn how Yanks spell color and favor, etc. LOL
Pat -- we really are all African. I spent $100 to get my DNA done at N'al Geographic and sure enuf that's where my ancient ancestors started out, trekking through the middle East and ending up in the British Isles -- of course you'd have to convince some of the validity of DNA testing.
So is the debate only on MSNBC? I hope O cleans H's clock.
bbl
HOW LONG DOES THE USA HAVE?
This is the most interesting thing I've read in a long time. The sad thing about it, you can see it coming.
I have always heard about this democracy countdown. It is interesting to see it in print. God help us, not that we deserve it.
How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.'
'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.'
'From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.'
'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'
'During those 200 years, those
nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. >From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. >From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. >From courage to liberty;
4. >From liberty to abundance;
5. >From abundance to complacency;
6. >From complacency to apathy;
7. >From apathy to dependence;
8. >From dependence back into bondage'
Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:
Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29
Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000
Bush: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2R
Bush: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: 'In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country.
Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare...' Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the 'complacency and apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegal and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.
Next Article » How Cell Phones are Killing Birds 
Migratory birds are known to use the geomagnetic field as a source of compass information. Scientists have shown that oscillating magnetic fields disrupt the orientation behavior of migratory birds.
Researchers found that robins were disoriented when exposed to a vertically aligned, broadband or a single-frequency field.
According to Alasdair Philips of Powerwatch,
"... medium- and short-wave frequencies have been used since the 1930s with little evidence of any effect on bird behavior. But since the mobile phone networks went up there have been increasing reports of birds, especially homing pigeons, getting lost. Research now needs to look at the effects of base station signals, particularly in view of the disorientating effects of EMR 'noise' reported in this study."
Daniel
How about deleting Federal lands from those western states Bush won and recomputing your republican propoganda?
virtually every single county that touches the Mississippi River voted Democratic in 2006
could it be that a world view of commerce leads one to appreciate Democratic candidates, that the movement of the water prevents stagnation of thought, that the programs of FDR that brought us the lock and dam system that has enabled the US to feed hundreds of millions around the world, gives an appreciation of a government sponsored infrastructure that is the envy of the world, and when Democrats returned to power they funded the water projects
what a fine legacy,
* rdorgan
Tue, 01/15/08
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I would imagine the rhetoric will be toned down quite some tonite.................. would stick to the issues...enough damage has been done on both sides.............edwards appears unscathed in all this................I like his underdog role now.........I think the Obama/Clinton camps have alienated each other and their possible new supporters...........some may seek that 3rd alternative, the "safe" alternative...................
Dont expect any fireworks....................it will be politically corect, although i hope DK ruffles a few feathers..............
Repuplican farmers are the biggest welfare queens of Iowa driving their John Deere green new combines.
From the NYSE ...
Dow Jones Industrial Average
12,550.05 -228.10 / -1.79%
Jan 15 2:08pm ET †
http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/dow/
==============
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DJI, also called the DJIA, Dow 30, or informally the Dow Jones or The Dow) is one of several stock market indices created by nineteenth century Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow. Dow compiled the index as a way to gauge the performance of the industrial component of America's stock markets. It is the oldest continuing U.S. market index, aside from the Dow Jones Transportation Average, which Dow also created.
Today, the averages consists of 30 of the largest and most widely held public companies in the United States. The "industrial" portion of the name is largely historical—many of the 30 modern components have little to do with heavy industry. To compensate for the effects of stock splits and other adjustments, it is currently a scaled average, not the actual average of the prices of its component stocks—the sum of the component prices is divided by a divisor, which changes whenever one of the component stocks has a stock spilt or stock dividend, to generate the value of the index.
[...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_I...
Daniel quoted a "Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota." I wanted to point out my suspicion that Professor Olson teaches at Hamlin, not at its sister school, Hemline, or Whatsamatta U. in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota.
Euro vs USD
http://www.dailyfx.com/currency-rooms/eu...
That's Hamline, not Hamlin. Nothing like replacing one error with another.
The NASDAQ
http://www.nasdaq.com/
======
The NASDAQ (acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange. It is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the United States. With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and on average trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market.[1]
It was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), who divested themselves of it in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. It is owned and operated by The NASDAQ Stock Market, the stock of which was listed on its own stock exchange in 2002, and is monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
[...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASDAQ
The "footsie" (FTSE) from London
================
http://www.londonstockexchange.com/en-gb...
***********
FTSE Group is a British provider of stock market indices and associated data services. FTSE operates the well known FTSE 100 Index and FTSE 250 Index as well as over 60,000 other indices, including 600 real-time indices. There are currently six main groups of indices: Global Equity, Regional and Partner, Fixed Income, Alternative Investment, Responsible Investment and Governance, and Non-Market Cap Weighted. Fees from the use of index information and associated services generate the revenues necessary to continue operations. FTSE has offices in London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, San Francisco, Beijing, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.
The FTSE was created in 1962 as the FTSE All Share-Index. The letters F-T-S-E are no longer an abbreviation although they represent that FTSE is a joint venture between the Financial Times (F-T) and London Stock Exchange (S-E). In 1982 the FTSE 100 was introduced, representing about 80 percent of the London Stock Exchange's value. In 1995 FTSE Group was made an independent company. The first of several overseas offices was opened in New York City in 1999, Paris in early 2000, and Hong Kong, Frankfurt, and San Francisco in 2001. Madrid was opened 2002, and Tokyo in 2003.
[...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTSE_Group
The CAC 40 from Paris ...
============
http://money.cnn.com/data/cac40/
*********
The CAC 40, which takes its name from the Paris Bourse's early automation system Cotation Assistée en Continu (Continuous Assisted Quotation), is a benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a capitalization-weighted measure of the 40 most significant values among the 100 highest market caps on the Paris Bourse (now Euronext Paris). It is one of the main national indices of the pan-European stock exchange group Euronext alongside Brussels' BEL20, Lisbon's PSI-20 and Amsterdam's AEX.
[...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAC_40
The DAX
===========
http://deutsche-boerse.com/dbag/dispatch...
***********
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (German: FWB® Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) is a stock exchange located in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is one of the biggest and most efficient exchange places in the world. It is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse, which also owns the European futures exchange Eurex and clearing company Clearstream.
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange has over 90 percent of turnover in the German market and a big share in the European market. Here the Frankfurt Stock Exchange floor trading loses, but in fast developing and expanding electronic trading (Xetra trading system) the FSE gains in European and international trade: partner-exchanges adopted the Xetra (trading system) (as the Vienna Stock Exchange in 1999, the Irish Stock Exchange in 2000 and the Budapest Stock Exchange in 2003); consolidation continues.
Mainly through Xetra, the German stock market was opened to foreign investors and market participants. About 47% of the 300 market participants in Frankfurt come from abroad.
[...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_S...
Those are just a few of the many exchanges that will continue to decide the US financial future.
Actually, Tom, I was rather enchanted by the thought of *Hemline* University.
It sent all sorts of visions through my head.
Now gone ... believe it or not, we are once again packing: this time not for a full-scale move, thank God, just some mementoes that we want to spare the prospective heirs from having to deal with international legal successor hassle.
But packing of any sort does get old. Fast.
Unpacking is almost worse.
the old (first generation Latinos) versus the new (second generation Latinos):
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/early-line/2008/jan/15/hispanic-state-legislator-goes-obama/
Hispanic state legislator goes ObamaBy David McGrath Schwartz · January 15, 2008 · 11:04 AM
Assemblyman Mo Denis, one of only two Hispanic legislators in Nevada, endorsed Illinois Sen. Barack Obama this morning, adding to Obama’s hope that he can cross old racial barriers and win Latino support.
Denis had been supporting New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who withdrew from the race last week. Denis, of Las Vegas, said he made his decision after conversations with the Obama campaign.
...
Denis, 46, is less dynamic but watching him last month as he canvassed a working class neighborhood for Richardson showed that he has ample standing among Hispanics. The second-term Assemblyman is also president of the state Parent Teacher Association.
The New York Times has a story today about Obama’s attempt to reach out to Hispanics and bridge a racial divide between the black and Hispanic communities that is more pronounced among older, first-generation Latinos.
Denis said one of his questions for Obama was whether the candidate “would give preference to African Americans compared to other communities. The campaign said no, he wants to work together.”
...
Bayh Looks Solid as Running-Mate Material
http://www.collegenews.org/x6474.xml
A Hillary Clinton - Evan Bayh Ticket for 2008?
http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/ar...
12/20/07
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/tags/evan%2...
Is It Too Late for Tom Vilsack?
The Observer blog today prophesies that Hillary will pick former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as a running mate if she wins the Iowa Caucus (speaking of the Observer blog, have you noticed that the whole paper has suddenly become a blog? Was this somehow inevitable?). But we can't help but disagree. Back in October, we predicted Hillary will choose Evan Bayh instead. Now, we're pretty sure not even Hillary has made up her mind. She's a smart lady and didn't get where she is today by not knowing the advantage of leading a few dudes on at the same time. But if anything, the fickle nature of Hillary's Iowa poll numbers shows that having Vilsack (a campaign co-chair) on her team doesn't guarantee a sure win in the swing state. In which case, he'll seem like a much less potent force in the general election. Sure, we haven't heard as much from Bayh lately, and he's not as much of an attack dog for his mistress, but we say don't count him out. A lot of stuff is going to fall into place in January and February, and the VP pick is going to be upon us before we know it. We're just saying, don't forget about the hot dude.
Vilsack for V.P.? Depends On How The Caucuses Go [Politicker/NYO]
Earlier: In Which We Predict Hill Will Take a Bayh in '08
I wish the MSM would focus upon the anti-choice Congresscritter's misogynistic (DLC Democrats' votes).
...as well as all of the Rethug misogynists who are running for patriarchal fool in thief--and shrub, natch.
Ahem.
There's *nothing* wrong w/Obama's voting record in that regard (I am not a supporter, BTW).
Why any woman in this country would tolerate it is beyond belief--that's akin to slave voting for a slaveowner in an election.
Ask 'em all why caregiving children and elders isn't financially compensated--the same is true of infusing funding into the Family Medical Leave Act; and dismantling welfare deform entirely.
Women lose over $1.5M in just freebie caregiving & loss of bennies over their lifespans, due to freebie labor (which is otherwise hired out).
...for starters.
Oh...and enforcement of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 would be peachy, too.
Yes, I said 1963.
...speaking of "slavery," human rights, & MLK.
Billary hasn't accomplished diddly within the past "35 years," folks.
Thanks to those who've voted for Chellie thus far--she's a feminist pitbull.
Always has been.
Is running against 5 males in her primary (CD#1--which is presently Rep. Tom Allen's Rep. seat--down in 'librul' Maine). Unfortunately, I can't vote for Chellie, but she still has very strong support up here from her '02 Senate race against Collins--and Hannah Pingree (D-North Haven) represents CD#2 in the Maine House of Reps. (Majority Leader).
Tom's attempting to replace complicit & utterly useless Susan Collins.
My ActBlue page for Tom & Chellie.
www.tomallen.org
Chellie's endorsers (Moi twice--that's cool--I don't mind @all)!
McCain is in full voice with his Iraq until ...forever...
I suspect he is helping get our troops and the Iraqis killed.
Al Queda overplayed their hand and angered the Sunnis so much they now hate au Queda more then us. So in our infinite wisdom, we arm the Sunnis to fight al Queda. Of course, when they are done wiping out al Queda, then they will turn their guns (which we gave them) on us.
The two Shitte organizations are lieing low for a while for opposite reasons. The Iran-backed Shiites are cooling to see what the results of the US backed Iran bashing are. The rest of the region is ignoring Iran and Iran is forming new alliances with the neighbors. The US is becoming less and less relevent in the area. The al Sadr Shiites have declared a slow down wehile we have a heavy fist, knowing we really can't keep it very long (regardless of what McCain sez). So while this slow down was going on (the violence is ramping up again), we should have been working to get out of town. Have Bush put on his flight suit, declare "Mission Accomplished", toss the keys up in the air like a bride tossing a bouquet of flowers, and leave.
Now we have McCain saying the force increase is the reason things were so good and more force is needed longer. The Iraqis are probably saying if the US is staying forever, we are fighting forever. So things are ramping back up again. Dems are partly the cause for not reigning in Bush on his budget figuring people dieing is good for Dem votes.
Hemline university? I want to see their brochure.
it's show time:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-de-zengotita/a-defining-moment-for-the_b_81502.html
January 15, 2008
A Defining Moment for The Clintons: The Lawsuit Against Nevada's Culinary Workers Union
Posted January 14, 2008 | 09:11 PM (EST)
...
the Clinton campaign is supporting, if not actually inciting, a Nevada State Teachers Association lawsuit against the Culinary Workers Union. The reason? The Culinary Workers Union has arranged for its members to caucus in their workplaces, to cast their votes in the hotels and casinos that support that state's economy instead of taking time off to get to polling places -- at the risk of getting fired.
That lawsuit was filed right after the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama.
Gosh. What a coincidence. It's an unfair disadvantage, the teachers union lawsuit says -- they are supporting Hillary -- to let all those maids and bellboys vote while they are on the job.
The caucus is on the 19th. It's a Saturday. I guess the teachers are going to be -- really busy compared to those maids and bellboys?
I don't know this for a fact but my guess is that the Nevada's Teachers Association is more entrenched in the state power hierarchy than the Culinary Workers Union. It's more white, more middle class. I bet the teachers are much more spread out, demographically and geographically, firmly ensconced in tenured security.
The Culinary Workers Union, on the other hand, represents all ... the people who clean hotel rooms in Las Vegas and Reno. Living and working from day to day.
If the Clintons don't repudiate this lawsuit, Obama and Edwards have a giant, gaping opportunity to nail them to the wall of cynical win-at-any price entitlement. There is no way they want to be in this position on the national screen. It's a short term stop-gap, a sign of fear, that they are even doing this. If they don't repudiate this lawsuit, it will be an albatross around their necks that will be dangle like a leaden anchor into super-duper Tuesday on Feb the 5th
...
Time for some humour on the blog...........we miss ya, Dennis..................
http://www.nsea-nv.org/contact.htm
Lynn Warne , President
lynn.warne@nsea-nv.org
Terry Hickman, Executive Director
terry.hickman@nsea-nv.org
Debbie Cahill, Deputy Executive Director
debbie.cahill@nsea-nv.org
+++
I emailed the above this email (filling in the --- with the applicable name and title):
Dear ----- –
My younger brother in Connecticut is a high school teacher. I’ve come to learn to admire and appreciate all the hard work that teachers perform, through seeing the work that he sets out to and accomplishes every day.
That being said, I am writing this letter, in all due respect to yourself (as ---- of the Nevada State Education Association) and all your members, to indicate that I feel that if the NSEA brings a lawsuit to fruition in Nevada this week -- asking that nine polling stations on the casino strip be closed -- that that would be disenfranchising a fellow union's [aka Culinary Workers Union] members from voting. Please look at the big picture and realize that “we are all in this together”, us workers. I respectfully request that the lawsuit be dropped from consideration. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read this letter. Sincerely,11.
Annilow -
Only on MSNBC on tv, starts 9pm EST tonight.
Watch the Jan. 15th 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidates' Debate — the first debate since the New Hampshire primaries — on MSNBC TV and MSNBC.com to see if your question is asked.
Brian Williams will be the moderator and he will be joined by Tim Russert.Natalie Morales will ask the candidates your questions.
NBC News, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, 100 Black Men of America, IMPACTO, the African American Democratic Leadership Council and the College of Southern Nevada will co-sponsor the debate among the Democratic candidates. The debate will take place at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas, Nev., from 6-8 p.m. PST.
The entire mess that the Bush Administration has created in Iraq/Afghanistan is sickening.
Oprah joins Discovery to create her OWN cable channel
By David Lieberman, USA TODAYNEW YORK — Oprah Winfrey's media empire is about to get a lot bigger with the announcement Tuesday of a deal with Discovery Communication (DISCA) for her own cable channel.The cable-and-Internet joint venture will include a network she'll run called OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.
Let's hope Oprah can deliver some straight-forward, honest news on her new channel. If she does, the channel will be sure to be as popular as Olbermann's show is.
The New York Times reported that there have been 121 cases of Iraq /Afghanistan veterans commiting homicide after there return from the war
How would that compare with 300,000 persons in the general population. Is it higher or lower?? Without that knowledge how can you judge that number. What if it was lower. Would that mean they learned to deal with stress better than the normal person. If it was higher does it mean they desensitized to the violence?? Just saying 121 without a reference is just another anti military piece in the NYT and that would be a daily occurrence.
Bayh Looks Solid as Running-Mate Material
http://www.collegenews.org/x6474.xml
A Hillary Clinton - Evan Bayh Ticket for 2008?
http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/ar...
Curious how Bayh is popping up all over the place the past few days -- he was TV earlier promoting Hillary. Are they pre-screening him as VP -- when she's only squeaked to one win -- as a rehash of the old inevitability ploy?
30.
Susan
You're entitled to your opinion, but I wondered if you have noticed that Clinton does not exactly fly high around here.
38. Thanks rdorgan -- I'll try to watch a stream -- COMCAST raised my rate and removed MSNBC. What a great organization.
Dancing, singing or modeling? Hmm. Asked to choose what reality TV program she would prefer to compete on, Hillary Rodham Clinton chose the popular ‘‘Dancing With the Stars.’’
‘‘In my dreams I would be on ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ but in reality I would have to choose my limited talents and of them dancing is better than singing,’’ Clinton said Monday during a taping of ‘‘The Tyra Banks Show.’’ ‘‘You do not want me to sing.’’
That was an apparent reference to her off-key rendition of ‘‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’’ which has made the rounds on YouTube.
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/pe...
Ugh I so dislike Comcast, I don't care how many times you can watch something On Demand.
I have the Dish and they haven't raised my rates in over a year, and then it was only two bucks. I get HBO, Showtime and 120 channels, plus my locals, all for $70 a month.
Might be worth checking out Annilow.
Need more Barry Manilow!! :)
Bayh? Vilsack? You know, I'm liking Huck better and better -- he has a great sense of humor.
Latest Nevada poll...this race is not over by any means!
Monday, January 14, 2008 New Poll: Democratic race in Nevada a dead heat
A new poll by the Reno Gazette-Journal shows a neck-and-neck three-way race among Democrats for Saturday's caucus. On the Republican side, U.S. Sen. John McCain has taken his first lead in Nevada of the election season, and Mitt Romney, who has been working Nevada harder than any other Republican, is trailing in fourth place.
A look at the top line results (more will be posted later this morning):
Barack Obama: 32 percent
Hillary Clinton: 30 percent
John Edwards: 27 percent
12:45 PT and I'm going to get some lunch
55 degrees and overcast
You're entitled to your opinion, but I wondered if you have noticed that Clinton does not exactly fly high around here.
A good way of knowing what kind of propaganda the campaigns are pushing can be gotten from the cut and pastes of their supporters. Looks like Hillary wants to get people used to the idea of Evan Bayh as her "inevitable" VP.
Maybe that's what's wrong with the bees -- cell phones? Magnetic fields?
A new poll by the Reno Gazette-Journal shows a neck-and-neck three-way race among Democrats for Saturday's caucus.
It's presumed that Obama's big union endorsement will bring many organized voters for him to the caucuses, thereby skewing the current polling much more in his favor. That's why Hillary's teachers' union is desperately trying to prevent them from being able to caucus where they work.
•Female voters are sticking with Clinton. The New York senator lost among female voters in Iowa but won them back in New Hampshire. She was supported by 50% of women in four combined USA TODAY surveys in November and December and by the same number now. Obama's support has climbed to 31% from 21%.
•African-American voters are moving to Obama. Clinton led among blacks by 23 percentage points in late 2007, 56%-33%, but Obama now leads by 25 points, 57%-32%. Former South Carolina Democratic chairman Dick Harpootlian, who supports the Illinois senator, says the victory in Iowa convinced black voters elsewhere that Obama was a viable candidate.
•Young people have shifted to Obama. Clinton led among voters under 30 by 17 points in late 2007, 45%-28%. That's turned around: Obama leads by 57%-29%.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-14-poll-monday_N.htm?imw=Y
First Responder Confronts Kucinich on 9/11 Aid
Luke Rudkowski & Aaron Dykes / JonesReport | January 15, 2008
David Miller, a first responder suffering from Mesothelioma (related to asbestos exposure) confronted Congressman Dennis Kucinich to demand he do more to represent the dire needs of the some 50,000 rescue workers sick and dying from exposure to toxic air at ground zero.
Kucinich pointed out that he has been part of previous hearings on the subject, but agreed to have a private meeting with the 9/11 Health Advocacy Group, the Feal Good Foundation and WeAreChange.org to address the critical issues related to 9/11 health.
Miller is one among many who struggles with not only his health, but the associated costs of medication and living expenses (while being too sick to work), all without financial assistance from any official agencies, local or federal.
One of the biggest barriers for first responders has been the refusal to recognize
US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search
National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a "walk in the park," according to an interview published in the New Yorker's print edition today.
Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act �will be a walk in the park compared to this,� McConnell said. �this is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we're going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.�
The article, which profiles the 65-year-old former admiral appointed by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to oversee all of America's intelligence agencies, was not published on the New Yorker's Web site.
(Article Continues Below)
McConnell is developing a Cyber-Security Policy, still in the draft stage, which will closely police Internet activity.
"Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the autority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search," author Lawrence Wright pens.
�Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation, he said," Wright adds. "Giorgio warned me, 'We have a saying in this business: �Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.'"
A zero-sum game is one in which gains by one side come at the expense of the other. In other words -- McConnell's aide believes greater security can only come at privacy's expense.
The number of worthy candidates for Grassroots All-Star can be overwhelming. I love hearing from supporters about the great work they do. They deserve our admiration.
Against the possiblity that there are so many good options that it is daunting to decide on only three, I would just like to mention that Nancy Skinner is running to unseat this stupid paperweight, Bush toadie Joe Knollenberg, and has made DFA proud by extolling its virtues, along with those of presidential candidate and party chair Howard Dean, over the airwaves for maximum effect. She is tireless.
If it helps, you can opt for Nancy because you heard good things about her and can vote with confidence that she would make you pleased and proud you supported her once she attains office. It's just a suggestion.
Kurt Nimmo
Truth News
January 15, 2008
It’s a fantastic activism tool: impromptu groups such as We Are Change confront a former president or a corporate media anchor and within a few hours a video appears on the internet for millions of people to see.
Be forewarned, though, because soon enough all of this will be used against you for crimes against the state, thanks to National Intelligence director Mike McConnell.
“If you’re worried about online privacy, try this on for size,” writes p2pnet.net. “US intelligence agencies may soon have access to any and all emails, file transfers or web searches.”
“The proposals from National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, which have entered into a draft of US Cyber-Security Policy, would legitimize data trawling on a scale that would make the current controversy about warrantless wiretapping seem like much ado about nothing,” the Register explains. “Intelligence agencies have long angled for this kind of surveillance ability. The infrastructure and computing power needed to tap into Americans’ email and web search history may already exist. However a change of president, to say nothing of a Democratic Congress, may represent a block on such ambitions.”
Oh, road apples. It will roll through Congress like a run-away freight train and land on whatever selected president’s desk for signature and enactment, that is unless the next president is Ron Paul.
Of course, this formality will simply codify what is already going on, as the government has snooped our communications for decades now. Lawrence Wright, writing for the New Yorker, suggests “that this kind of monitoring is already going on. He spoke to an AT& T employee, Mark Klein, who claimed that he installed data switching systems in the company’s exchange that copied all internet traffic to the National Security Agency.” Klein “claimed that he installed data switching systems” for this very purpose.
If you think this effort is to track down a dead and buried al-Qaeda leader and his motley crew of cave-dwelling Muslims, I have a bridge to sell you in the Sonoran Desert.
It’s was designed and deployed to keep tabs on you, so if you don’t want to be inserted in the government’s terrorist database, you best stay away from the We Are Change website, Infowars, and the site where you are now reading this, to name but three. Chances are you’re in calmer, safer, and less shark infested waters surfing porno websites.
In the old days, in East Germany, the Stasi used civilian informants to snoop and infiltrate all aspects of life. It is said one in every seven East Germans worked for the secret police. It was highly effective in snuffing out dissent.
But all of that pales in comparison with the high-tech snoop system now in place here in the United States. If you use a telephone, send email, or cruise the web you have a virtual electronic Stasi informer looking over your shoulder at all times. Not even Orwell imagined such an effective and fearsome system for monitoring citizens.
For now, you will be allowed to read those articles on Prison Planet. But keep in mind that a massive database housed on a networked series of super-duper liquid nitrogen cooled Cray computers somewhere in the basement of the NSA, CIA, or the Pentagon — or all three and then some — are actively cataloging every URL you visit, every email you send urging a coworker or relative to investigate the 9/11 inside job, every phone call you make regardless of content. Moments after I post this on Truth News, it will be tucked away for future reference, part of an electronic dossier that may be used against me at any moment.
In the not too distant future, our Volksgerichtshof, or People’s Court, will likely parallel in ominous ways the one created by Hitler and the Nazis to convict citizens of “political offenses” and high treason against the fascist state. Such a kangaroo court is but one “terrorist event” away from convening. Our domestic Gitmos in the guise of FEMA camps await.
In the meantime, our rulers are quietly assembling the evidence against you.
If you want to be safe, you may want to click off this page now and surf over to PornoTube.
BOOKS 'In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto' by Michael Pollan
The author of 'The Omnivore's Dilemma' advises us to escape the Western diet.
In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, Michael Pollan quotes Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, on the farm bill now before Congress: "This is not just a farm bill. It's a food bill, and Americans who eat want a stake in it." Pollan may be skeptical about whether American eaters can thwart passage of a bill that includes $42 billion in subsidies for the big cash crops -- corn, wheat, rice, soybeans and cotton -- but he firmly believes that "the eaters have spoken [and] a new politics has sprouted up." ...
full article: http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la...
---
Obsessed With Nutrition? That’s an Eating Disorder By JANET MASLIN
Not all scientific study of Mars is about extraterrestrial exploration. Some of it is about chocolate. Scientists at Mars Corporation have found evidence that the flavanols in cocoa have beneficial effects on the heart, thus allowing Mars to market products like its health-minded Rich Chocolate Indulgence Beverage.
In the same spirit, nutritionism has lately helped to justify vitamin-enriched Diet Coke, bread bolstered with the Omega-3 fatty acids more readily found in fish oil, and many other new improvements on what Michael Pollan calls “the tangible material formerly known as food.”
Goaded by “the silence of the yams,” Mr. Pollan wants to help old-fashioned edibles fight back. So he has written “In Defense of Food,” a tough, witty, cogent rebuttal to the proposition that food can be reduced to its nutritional components without the loss of something essential. “We know how to break down a kernel of corn or grain of wheat into its chemical parts, but we have no idea how to put it back together again,” he writes. full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/books/...
---
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
by Michael Pollan Book: http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9781594...
Kurt Nimmo
Truth News
January 15, 2008
In Bushzarro world, up is down, black is white, and the Second Amendment permits the government to make firearm possession illegal.
“Since ‘unrestricted’ private ownership of guns clearly threatens the public safety, the 2nd Amendment can be interpreted to allow a variety of gun restrictions, according to the Bush administration,” reports . “The argument was delivered by U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the ongoing arguments over the legality of a District of Columbia ban on handguns in homes, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.”Clement was an understudy of the neocon Laurence H. Silberman, a federal judge appointed co-chair of the Iraq Intelligence Commission — the official excuse making body designated to minimize the impact of neocon lies about Iraq — and the reactionary Supreme Antonin Scalia, a member of the Federalist Society, a fascist club aligned with the American Enterprise Institute, the CIA asset Richard Mellon Scaife, and a smattering of neocons, including Bill Kristol, the latest edition to the “liberal” New York Times. “Clement clerked for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia and worked as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism and Property Rights. He joined the Department of Justice in 2001 and moved into his current position in 2005.”
“Clement is the Bush administration’s chief lawyer before the court, and submitted the arguments in the case that is to determine whether the D.C. limit is constitutional. He said the 2nd Amendment, ‘protects an individual right to possess firearms, including for private purposes unrelated to militia operations,’ and noted the D.C. ban probably goes too far,” WorldNetDaily continues.
However, Clement argues that nothing “in the 2nd Amendment properly understood… calls for invalidation of the numerous federal laws regulating firearms.” In other words, according to Clement and the neocons, you have a right to possess firearms under the Constitution while at the same time the government has the right to make possession of firearms illegal. In Bushzarro world, up is down, black is white, and Orwellian doublethink – the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously – rules the day.
It should come as no surprise the neocons are gun-grabbers while at the same time claiming to be conservatives. “Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” the neocon sock puppet Bush told Republican Congressional leaders back in 2005 when some of them complained about the USA Patriot Act. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”
Neocon guru Leo Strauss “abhorred liberal democracy,” not the modern version of lefty liberalism, but classic liberalism, i.e., natural rights of the sort at the bedrock of the Constitution. He engendered this hatred of individual rights in his followers, including Allan Bloom, Henry Jaffa, Irving Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, and many others, a handful now at the very pinnacle of power and pulling Bush’s strings. Strauss’ vision was of “a hierarchical society based on natural inequalities and welded together with the fanatical devotion state religion engenders,” writes Michael Doliner.
Strauss’s political program is designed to counter the ills of liberalism. He believed in, and proposed, a state religion as a way of reviving absolutes, countering free thought, and enforcing a cohesive unity. Strauss argued against a society containing a multiplicity of coexisting religions and goals, which would break the society apart. He thought that ordinary people should not be exposed to reason. To rely on reason is to look into the abyss, for reason provided no comforting absolutes to shield one against the blank sky. Strauss opposed not reason itself, but reason stripped of its secrecy. Reason is for the few, not the many. The Enlightenment, the exposing of reason, was the beginning of the disaster. A reliance on reason, as opposed to religion, produced “modernity” which is nothing more than nihilism made political.
Jeffrey Steinberg expands on this:
The hallmark of Strauss’ approach to philosophy was his hatred of the modern world, his belief in a totalitarian system, run by “philosophers,” who rejected all universal principles of natural law, but saw their mission as absolute rulers, who lied and deceived a foolish “populist” mass, and used both religion and politics as a means of disseminating myths that kept the general population in clueless servitude. For Strauss and all of his protégés (Strauss personally had 100 Ph.D. students, and the “Straussians” now dominate most university political science and philosophy departments), the greatest object of hatred was the United States itself, which they viewed as nothing better than a weak, pathetic replay of “liberal democratic” Weimar Germany.
It stands to reason, then, that the hated, resented, and feared masses should be stripped of all rights, including the bedrock right promised by the Second Amendment, as they may eventually come to their senses, abandon Faux News and propaganda catapulted, storm the castle, and bring the warmongering and liberty hating protégés of Strauss to justice.
As Hitler, Mao, and Stalin realized — in fact as all dictators and tyrants understand — in order to run roughshod over the people and enslave them, you have to disarm them first and foremost.
It is the job of U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement to begin this process.
Sphere: Related ContentAnnilow
Tue, 01/15/08
Reply to this
38. Thanks rdorgan -- I'll try to watch a stream -- COMCAST raised my rate and removed MSNBC. What a great organization.
You are apparently a big fan of prison shows from Lockup to Lockdown, to Behind the Walls, or whatever stupid name they have for their nightly "shows" on life behind bars. By the way, think of the wages they have to pay their "stars". Some guy named Snake probably signs the release for $5 and two packs of smokes.
53.
Annilow
Tue, 01/15/08
BINGO but it's more the cell towers
Electromagnetic microwave technolgy needs a lot more testing.
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/conten...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RJxLH2eY...
54.
Joan~ hmmm, interestingly it doesn't break down where African-American women stand. My guess would be with Barack.
Both Obama and Edwards have to defeat BOTH Clintons. Sometimes it is hard to tell which Clinton is runing for the job.
bubba is drooling..so many interns, so little time.
yep, we need him prowling the halls again.
Cryptogon
January 15th, 2008
WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
You’re going to cut, Ben.
Don’t even give me any of this “dilemma” nonsense. The Fed can continue to cut, and keep the coke heads on Wall Street twitching for another few weeks or months, or not, and crash the whole damn show. Those appear to be the options, as far as I can tell.
I’ve got to look at some charts. 74.50 on the U.S. Dollar Index must be taken out. If not, all of us gold hoarding dollar bear freaks might need to take evasive action, hedge, cover some positions, etc.
I’ll try to post a USDX chart later today.
HINT: I’m already thinking about laying on a hedge with some Feb DIA and QQQQ puts, but I know it’s just insurance, because, Ben, dammit, you’re going to cut.
Wholesale inflation last year shot up by the largest amount in 26 years while retailers suffered their worst December shopping season in five years as mounting economic woes caused consumers to put away their wallets.The Labor Department reported that wholesale inflation was up 6.3 percent for all of 2007, reflecting a huge increase for the year in various types of energy costs ranging from gasoline to home heating oil.
Meanwhile, retail sales fell by 0.4 percent in December, the worst showing in six months, the Commerce Department reported. Consumer confidence has plunged, reflecting the worsening housing slump and a lingering credit crisis.
For inflation, the year ended on a more positive note, with wholesale prices falling by 0.1 percent in December. That reflected decreasing costs last month for gasoline and other energy products. It was a significant slowdown after prices had soared by 3.2 percent in November, which had been the biggest one-month increase in 34 years.
The combination of rising inflation pressures and a weak economy represent a dilemma for the Federal Reserve over whether to cut rates to boost economic growth even at the risk of making inflation worse.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last week sent a strong signal that the Fed is more worried at the moment about weak growth than inflation — given a series of weaker-than-expected data in recent weeks. He is expected to give an economic outlook update on Thursday to the House Budget Committee.
The economy skidded to a virtual standstill in the final three months of last year, raising fears the country could fall into a recession, unable to withstand the multiple blows from the prolonged downturn in housing, a severe credit crisis and soaring energy costs.
Already, unemployment is rising. The jobless rate jumped to 5 percent in December, up from 4.7 percent in November. That was the biggest one-month surge in unemployment since October 2001 in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The various economic threats have sent consumer confidence plunging and pushed the economy to the top of voters’ concerns. Political leaders have responded, with President Bush, Democrats in Congress and presidential candidates from both parties putting forward economic stimulus proposals.
The 6.3 percent increase in the Producer Price Index, which measures cost pressures before they reach the consumer, followed a much more moderate 1.1 percent increase in 2006.
It was the biggest annual price gain since a 6.3 percent rise in 1981, a year when the Federal Reserve was aggressively raising interest rates in a successful effort to combat a decade-long bout of stagflation, rising inflation in conjunction with weak economic growth.
The big increase last year reflected the fact that energy prices rose by 18.4 percent after having declined by 2 percent in 2006. It was the biggest annual increase in energy costs at the wholesale level since they rose by 23.9 percent in 2005.
bubba is drooling..so many interns, so little time.
yep, we need him prowling the halls again.
Now that you're a Democrat or whatever, please leave that kind of talk to the Republicans.
44.
Joan* In*Florida
Tue, 01/15/08
I'm not a Clinton fan by any means and I can't stand Evan Bayh. He's pro-life and is a past President of the DLC.
My hubby and I went to college with Evan Bayh. I've been watching his politics for years. He not is Dad that is for sure.
Latest ResultsCandidate rankings last updated at 9:20 A.M. PST, Tuesday, January 15.
Page is updated frequently. Please "refresh" your screen to see the most recent results.
1. Sen. Barack Obama
2. Sen. John Edwards
3. Sen. Hillary Clinton 
4. Rep. Dennis Kucinich 
5. Gov. Bill Richardson *
6. Sen. Mike Gravel 
1. Rep. Ron Paul 
2. Gov. Mike Huckabee
3. Sen. John McCain
4. Mayor Rudy Giuliani
5. Gov. Mitt Romney
6. Sen. Fred Thompson
7. Rep. Duncan Hunter
1. Sen. Barack Obama
2. Sen. John Edwards
3. Rep. Dennis Kucinich 4. Sen. Hillary Clinton 5. Gov. Bill Richardson * 6. Sen. Mike Gravel 1. Rep. Ron Paul
2. Sen. John McCain
3. Gov. Mike Huckabee
4. Gov. Mitt Romney 5. Mayor Rudy Giuliani
6. Sen. Fred Thompson 
7. Rep. Duncan Hunter 
1. Sen. Barack Obama 2. Sen. John Edwards 
3. Sen. Hillary Clinton 4. Rep. Dennis Kucinich 5. Gov. Bill Richardson * 6. Sen. Mike Gravel 1. Rep. Ron Paul 2. Sen. John McCain 3. Gov. Mitt Romney 4. Mayor Rudy Giuliani 5. Gov. Mike Huckabee 6. Sen. Fred Thompson 7. Rep. Duncan Hunter 
1. Sen. Barack Obama 2. Sen. John Edwards 3. Sen. Hillary Clinton 4. Rep. Dennis Kucinich 
5. Gov. Bill Richardson *
6. Sen. Mike Gravel
1. Rep. Ron Paul 2. Sen. John McCain 3. Gov. Mitt Romney 4. Gov. Mike Huckabee 5. Sen. Fred Thompson 6. Rep. Duncan Hunter 7. Mayor Rudy Giuliani
1. Sen. Barack Obama 2. Sen. John Edwards 3. Sen. Hillary Clinton 4. Rep. Dennis Kucinich 5. Gov. Bill Richardson * 6. Sen. Mike Gravel 1. Rep. Ron Paul 2. Sen. John McCain 3. Gov. Mike Huckabee 4. Mayor Rudy Giuliani 5. Sen. Fred Thompson 6. Gov. Mitt Romney 7. Rep. Duncan Hunter 
1. Sen. Barack Obama 2. Sen. John Edwards 3. Rep. Dennis Kucinich 4. Sen. Hillary Clinton 5. Gov. Bill Richardson * 6. Sen. Mike Gravel 1. Rep. Ron Paul 2. Sen. John McCain 3. Gov. Mike Huckabee 4. Gov. Mitt Romney 5. Sen. Fred Thompson 6. Mayor Rudy Giuliani 7. Rep. Duncan Hunter
1. Sen. Barack Obama 2. Sen. John Edwards 3. Sen. Hillary Clinton 4. Rep. Dennis Kucinich 5. Sen. Mike Gravel 6. Gov. Bill Richardson * 1. Gov. Mike Huckabee 2. Rep. Ron Paul 3. Sen. John McCain 4. Sen. Fred Thompson 5. Mayor Rudy Giuliani 6. Gov. Mitt Romney 7. Rep. Duncan Hunter 
* Bill Richardson exited race 1/10/07.
Phil Specht
Tue, 01/15/08
Reply to this
Daniel
How about deleting Federal lands from those western states Bush won and recomputing your republican propoganda? sorry but im no ta repubilican an as for prooganda that would be the main stream media, i dont fall for the cfr members like edwards total inside man
good grief, I didn't mean to take up half the thread!
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/rvhartk...
Rupert Vance Hartke
Lieutenant, United States Navy
Seaman, United States Coast Guard
United States Senator
Former Senator Hartke buried
By Scripps Howard News Service
September 16, 2003
...Former Senator Vance Hartke, a liberal Indiana Democrat whose staunch opposition to the Vietnam War put him at odds with President Lyndon B. Johnson, died Sunday from heart failure. He was 84.
Hartke, who set up a law practice in Falls Church, Virginia, after he was defeated for re-election in 1976, died in a suburban Virginia hospital after being rushed there Saturday with chest pains, said his son, Jan. He had undergone open-heart surgery three years ago.
Hartke was the mayor of Evansville, Indiana, when he was first elected to the Senate in 1958. He was soon befriended by Johnson, the party's majority leader, who awarded him choice assignments on the powerful Finance and Commerce committees.
After winning re-election to a second term six years later, Hartke used his committee posts to advance Johnson's Great Society agenda, helping craft legislation creating student loan programs and new veterans benefits.
"In the late 1950s and the 1960s, he was one of the strongest voices for Medicare," retired Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., recalled Monday. "He took a real lead on that (despite) a lot of opposition in the state of Indiana. He was not afraid to take a tough, controversial stand."
Hartke used his chairmanship of Commerce's transportation subcommittee to make automakers equip cars with seat belts and other safety equipment, and helped establish Amtrak and Conrail. He also was instrumental in creating the International Executive Service Corps, an organization, modeled after the Peace Corps, that sent retired U.S. businessmen to poor countries to help turn small businesses into large ones.
The split between Hartke and Johnson occurred in 1965, when Hartke aligned himself with other Senate Democrats opposed to the Vietnam war. The group included J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota and George McGovern of South Dakota.
Hartke's opposition to Vietnam later earned him a spot on Richard Nixon's enemies list, but Hartke refused to hold a grudge against Nixon.
"That's neither here nor there," Hartke told The Indianapolis Star in 1991. "That's in the past."
Hartke won a third term in 1970 after a recount, a narrow victory marred by his Vietnam stance. He lost his Senate seat in 1976 to Republican Richard Lugar.
Hamilton said Hartke had an encyclopedic memory of projects in every Indiana county and recalled putting in 15- and 18-hour days campaigning with him.
"He revitalized Democratic politics in the state of Indiana," Hamilton said. "He brought tremendous energy to it. He was a genuine populist. His great passion was for ordinary Americans." ...
...Sen. Vance Hartke, 84, Dies; Early Foe of War in Vietnam July 29, 2003
Former senator Vance Hartke (D-Indiana), who supported President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs but broke with him over the Vietnam War, died July 27, 2003, at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He was 84.
The three-term senator, who had remained in the Washington area to practice law after losing his 1976 bid for reelection, died of a heart ailment.
Sen. Hartke's opposition came in the mid-1960s, relatively early in the course of the escalation of the U.S. commitment in Vietnam.
His son, Jan, recalled yesterday how he sat at the time with his father and his mother, Martha Hartke, in the family kitchen in Falls Church as his father spoke about his feelings and his decision.
"It was a major discussion, for hours," Jan Hartke said. "I remember he just said, 'Look, I think this war is morally wrong, and it's going to destroy everything we are trying to do in the Great Society.
" 'And I'm going to oppose it.' "
On May 15, 1966, more than two years before the fissures in American society caused by the war were dramatized at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, a peace demonstration was held in Washington.
The protesters, said to number 8,000 to 11,000, carried signs with quotations from prominent senators. One was from Senator Hartke.
"Escalation breeds escalation," it read.
Earlier that year, on Jan. 27, a letter had been presented to Johnson calling for a suspension of the bombing of North Vietnam. Senator Hartke was one of six senators who drafted it.
In March 1966, syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak quoted an unnamed "liberal Senator" as saying, "The peace group has no leader but what leadership we get comes from Hartke."
For Sen. Hartke, opposing the president had been difficult, his son said. He had been "a huge friend of Johnson at the time . . . enormously close."
An account of a 1998 interview with the senator, published in the Mishawaka (Indiana) Tribune, said Johnson retaliated in a variety of ways, at one point calling Senator Hartke a "two-bit mayor from a two-bit town."
Senator Hartke had once been mayor of Evansville.
He told the Indiana newspaper that he had responded, "Well, maybe I'm a two-bit mayor, but I'll tell you one thing: Evansville never was a two-bit town."
Jan Hartke said that before Johnson died, the former president sent a letter of reconciliation to Sen. Hartke, noting not only the times the two men had "fought with each other," but also that "they had fought many great battles together."
Beyond his antiwar stance, Sen. Hartke was credited with important roles in the passage of measures that created or supported student loan programs, veterans' benefits, Medicare, Head Start and rail transportation systems.
He also helped spearhead the automobile safety movement on Capitol Hill and developed an organization modeled on the Peace Corps that helped small overseas businesses.
He also was praised for winning passage of a measure making kidney dialysis more widely available. A statement entered into the Congressional Record in honor of his 80th birthday four years ago credited the measure with saving 500,000 lives.
Ralph Nader (let's hope he doesn't run again) makes some very good points about what the Presidential candidates (except of course for Dennis and Mike) are unwilling (or afraid) to discuss.
http://www.counterpunch.org/nader01152008.html
* You won't hear a call for a national crackdown on the corporate crime, fraud, and abuse that have robbed trillions of dollars from workers, investors, pension holders, taxpayers and consumers. Among the reforms that won't be suggested are providing resources to prosecute executive crooks and laws to democratize corporate governance so shareholders have real power. Candidates will not shout for a payback of ill-gotten gains, to rein in executive pay, or to demand corporate sunshine laws.
* You won't hear a demand that workers receive a living wage instead of a minimum wage. There will be no backing for a repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which has blocked more than 40 million workers from forming or joining trade unions to improve wages and benefits above Wal-Mart or McDonald's levels.
* You won't hear for a call for a withdrawal from the WTO and NAFTA. Renegotiated trade agreements should stick to trade while labor, environmental, and consumer rights are advanced by separate treaties without being subordinated to the dictates of international commerce.
* You won't hear a call for our income tax system to be substantially revamped so that workers can keep more of their wages while we tax the things we like least, such as pollution, stock speculation, addictive industries, and energy guzzling technologies. Nor will you hear that corporations should be required to pay their fair share; corporate tax contributions as a percent of the overall federal revenue stream have been declining for 50 years.
* You won't hear a call for a single payer health system. Almost sixty years after President Truman first proposed it, we still need health insurance for everyone, a program with quality and cost controls and an emphasis on prevention. Full Medicare for everyone will save thousands of lives a year while maintaining patient choice of doctors and hospitals within a competitive private health care delivery system.
* There is no reason to believe that the candidates will stand up to the commercial interests profiting from our current energy situation. We need a major environmental health agenda that challenges these entrenched interests with major new initiatives in solar energy, doubling motor vehicle fuel efficiency, and other quantified sustainable and clean energy technologies. Nor will there be adequate recognition that current fossil fuels are producing not just global warming, but also cancer, respiratory diseases, and geopolitical entanglements. Finally, there will be no calls for ending environmental racism that leads to more contaminated water, air, and toxic dumps in poorer neighborhoods.
* The candidates will not demand a reduction in the military budget that devours half the federal government's operating expenditures at a time when there is no Soviet Union or other major state enemy in the world. Studies by the General Accounting Office and internal Pentagon assessments support the judgment of many retired admirals and generals that a wasteful defense weakens our country and distorts priorities at home.
* You won't hear a consistent clarion call for electoral reform. Both parties have shamelessly engaged in gerrymandering, a process that guarantees reelection of their candidates at the expense of frustrated voters. Nor will there be serious proposals that millions of law-abiding ex-felons be allowed to vote.
Other electoral reforms should include reducing barriers to candidates, same day registration, a voter verified paper record for electronic voting, run-off voting to insure winners receive a majority vote, binding none-of-the-above choices and most important, full public financing to guarantee clean elections.
* You won't hear much about a failed war on drugs that costs nearly $50 billion annually. And the major candidates will not argue that addicts should be treated rather than imprisoned. Nor should observers hope for any call to repeal the "three strikes and you're out" laws that have needlessly filled our jails or to end mandatory sentencing that hamstrings our judges.
* The candidates will ignore the diverse Israeli peace movement whose members have developed accords for a two state solution with their Palestinian and American counterparts. It is time to replace the Washington puppet show with a real Washington peace show for the security of the American, Palestinian, and Israeli people.
* You won't hear the candidates stand up to business interests that have backed changes to our civil justice system that restrict or close the courtroom to wrongfully injured and cheated individuals, but not to corporations. Where is the vocal campaign against fraud and injury upon innocent patients, consumers, and workers? We should make it easier for consumers to band together and defend themselves against harmful practices in the marketplace.
Voters should visit the webpages of the major party candidates. See what they say, and see what they do not say. Then email or send a letter to any or all the candidates and ask them why they are avoiding these issues. Breaking the taboos won't start with the candidates. Maybe it can start with the voters.
Hartke used his chairmanship of Commerce's transportation subcommittee to make automakers equip cars with seat belts and other safety equipment, and helped establish Amtrak and Conrail. He also was instrumental in creating the International Executive Service Corps, an organization, modeled after the Peace Corps, that sent retired U.S. businessmen to poor countries to help turn small businesses into large ones
He was not afraid to take a tough, controversial stand."
Sen. Hartke was credited with important roles in the passage of measures that created or supported student loan programs, veterans' benefits, Medicare, Head Start and rail transportation systems.
Hamilton said. "He brought tremendous energy to it. He was a genuine populist. His great passion was for ordinary Americans." ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time for another populist, this time for President, and no, not Huck.
Time for another populist, this time for President, and no, not Huck.
One person''s populist is another's Bush enabler.
Nader needs to read John Edwards' web site. He is wrong on most of his points as regards to Edwards positions..
My Dad loved Vance Hartke. So did my entire Hoosier family. He was the voice of middle class working people.
Huron John
Tue, 01/15/08
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Good post.......and I am glad myself and others will take a moral and ethical stand........and not vote for either of these candidates...............enough is enough.
Bloomberg will pack 'em in if he runs. He's basically a progressive (more so than the leading Dems) and if he articulates a populist message, he'll attract votes from indies (especially), but also Dems and sane Repugs (if there are any nowadays)..
Nader needs to read John Edwards' web site. He is wrong on most of his points as regards to Edwards positions..
Nice to learn that Phil. His message is getting lost in all the backbiting from C&O supporters (and from the unforgiving Sitka).
Joan* In*Florida the polls are wrong the media is right? the exit poll are also wrong the media is right its not we the people its we the media who decide the winners, obama an paul are the true leaders of all the polls funny went the people vote its all wrong.
Copyright infringement warnings falling on deaf ears, I see.
Interesting tid bit.....
Thom Hartman just took one of his surprise flash polls. Results, Edwares 40, Kucinich 18, Obama and Clinton 5 and 7. The interesting part is somebody voted for Howard Dean, and Thom said, "Now THAT'S interesting.
Daniel
I don't think that is what the poll says but who knows. The winners all have their pics in the slots. Whatever it means is Greek to me:))
~~~~~~~~~~~
We won't be watching the "debate" tonight -- again. These things are no longer anything but entertainment for the media, not for real information. It also gives the cable news and others something more to muddle the real political news with.
audrey 85 - I miss Thom since they shut down the local AAR station - I should listen to him more on the internet. one vote for Gore too, I see!
81.
John
Bloomberg is a Democrat, then a Republican, then, if he runs an Independent.
Not very many voters would throw away their vote on an Independent, especially one who doesn't seem to know who or what he really stands for. Big money is also becoming unbecoming, as you can see from Romney's campaign and formerly Steve Forbes tries to buy the presidency.
bbl --
More about Senator Vance Hartke(IN)
...After becoming that city's mayor, Sen. Hartke integrated Evansville's swimming pools. His two-year tenure began in 1956, not long after the Supreme Court ruled that public school segregation was unlawful.
The city was in the southern part of the state, and "we had people calling the house with all the hate stuff," the senator's son said.
However, Jan Hartke said, the action was in accord with his father's belief that "government could do great good for people."
Sen. Hartke had seven children, 16 grandchildren, and one great-grandson, and another of his core beliefs was in the importance of keeping his family together, Jan Hartke said. Once he attended four of the children's basketball games in 24 hours.
The firm in which he practiced after being defeated by Republican Richard G. Lugar is called Hartke & Hartke, and several of his children practiced or worked in it with him.
He was the author of several books, including "The American Crisis in Vietnam" (1968) and "You and Your Senator" (1970).
He had been chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs and made a short-lived attempt to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972 as an antiwar candidate. ...
enter, if you dare.......
http://blogforamerica.com/view/23546#com...
hi chili, et.al. :-)
Just back from a pleasant lunch with paine and found a
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