September 7, 2009 archive

Thinking Of The Union Members I have Known

Today is Labor Day. Hopefully you will be taking some time off and either are reading this after taking a break from yard work or better on Tuesday. Labor Day has always had a special place in the Dog’s life. The Dog is the Grandson and Nephew and Cousin of several life long UAW workers. Growing up in Michigan this is not an uncommon experience, but living here in the West, he finds it stunning how people view unions and the Labor movement in general. Today the Dog would like to take a little time and give a bit of tribute to the Union members in the Dog’s family.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Another tired sports metaphor:…3-2-1 Obama shoots

Over dinner at a Thai restaurant in Pittsburg during NN09, we were discussing the level of wing nuttery at town hall meetings.

I suggested that we should show Obama some patience because the screamers would increase their level of crazy and marginalize themselves, soon to be followed by the Republican base baiters and Blue Dogs.

I said that perhaps Obama would then step forward coolly an calmly and cut their nuts off.

Someone then aptly called this Obama’s Rope-a-Dope.  

Well, since The Big O enjoys his hoops, I have changed that tired sports metaphor to this new tired sports metaphor.

Obama at the buzzer for 3.  It’s good! Game over

Obama and the ProgCauc Win The Battle for the White House

Simulposted at DailyKos

With one sentence from today’s speech:


And I continue to believe that a public option within the basket of insurance choices would help improve quality and bring down costs.

No waffling, no ‘slivers,’ no qualifications. No more trial balloons. As strong and direct a statement as, heh, Obama is capable of making.

He will NOT allow Rahm and Axelrod to compromise away the Public Option. The battle of The White House, compromise vs standing firm on the PO, has been won.

Principle over “Pragmatism.” Real reality in giving the Voters what they overwhelmingly want as opposed to the faux reality of the Teabaggers and Town-hallers…and the Republicans who tried to use them to get Obama to abandon the Public Option. Standing firm when a seemingly huge contingent of Baucus’s and Grassley’s and Nelson’s….and Rahm’s…. were pushing another Democratic Cave.

Obama’s speech to the schoolkids on health care: a play

Note: A story told on a holiday ought to be able to meander.  So, pull up a chair….

I posted this on Big Orange to a resounding thud and I am determined to give more people a chance to enjoy it despite its length.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I want to thank Ms. Daniels for allowing me to attend her classroom here at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, where eight years ago this week former President Bush famously read “My Pet Goat” to her second-grade students as planes destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and crashed into the Pentagon.

As you know, Senators Baucus, Conrad, Enzi, and Grassley asked me to change the date of my address to Congress on health care because Fox News had scheduled a one-hour prime time Glenn Beck special on “The Morality of Political Violence” opposite it.  In the interests of bipartisanship, I concurred, but I could not agree to the October 2012 date that they suggested.

As I was already scheduled to address schoolchildren today, and as all schools who objected to the supposed politicization of such an event have already withdraw from the process and accepted the alternative Glenn Beck children’s show that Fox News has provided, I’ve decided to combine my two speeches.

Four at Four

  1. The NY Times reports U.S. lead as the world’s top arms supplier grows. “The United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new” study from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

    The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before…

    The growth in weapons sales by the United States last year was particularly noticeable against worldwide trends. The value of global arms sales in 2008 was $55.2 billion, a drop of 7.6 percent from 2007 and the lowest total for international weapons agreements since 2005.

    The increase in American weapons sales around the world “was attributable not only to major new orders from clients in the Near East and in Asia, but also to the continuation of significant equipment and support services contracts with a broad-based number of U.S. clients globally,” according to the study, titled “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations.”

Four at Four continues with American homelessness and unemployment, an update from Afghanistan, and useless in Iraq.

Obama’s Cincinnati Speech — Sure He Can — And He Did

(crossposted from orange)

Just finished watching President Obama’s speech in Cincinnati.

I really liked it.  And it put to rest something that has truly disturbed me when it comes to the notion that President Obama should not … and even CANnot, show anger.

I thought he showed a whole lot of anger.  I thought he showed it very well.

When he spoke about those who are lying about his health care reform, those who say we’re trying to “kill granny,” and he said he had “one question” for them — “what is YOUR solution?”

I saw the anger.  I saw it blaze in his eyes.

I have to wonder why folks think that for Obama to show anger he has to go hysterical and lose his temper.  And I have to wonder why those of us who have counseled that he should show his anger have been admonished to see this is a racial issue.

I understand the historical context.  I understand that for generations if a Black man showed his anger, trouble followed both him and his family.

I understand that.

What I don’t understand is the misunderstanding, the assumption towards what most folks like me mean when we say we want to see Obama’s anger.

It’s a sterotype in itself, that assumption.

He showed anger and passion in that speech.  It was a real barn burner, imo, after a kind of slow start.  And I think it was good for him, as well, to be in the midst of the kinds of folks who worked so hard to put him in office, for him to get that jolt of support and be reminded of the great energy of his campaign.

He didn’t waffle, he didn’t get wonkish.  He spoke about health care using a big narrative, connecting it to families and workers and the strength of our economy.  He showed his anger with what we are ALL angry with — greed, selfishness, an old way of doing business that benefited the few at the expense of the many.

He showed anger in his own way and I felt that and applauded it.

I hope he shows that passion and anger this week when he speaks before Congress.  I hope he can show the American people that he is angry FOR us, that he understands what too many folks are suffering.

And I hope that finally, the notion that Obama cannot show anger will end, that we won’t fear for him any more when it comes to that reality.

Is Health Care a Commodity, or a basic Human Right? with Poll

Well according to this former HMO Medical Director, she traded Necessary Patients Care, for Career Advancement and a 6-figure Salary:

Linda Peeno MD, testifies



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Question: Are the Patients, who are Denied Care, to save the Insurance Companies Money — DO those Patients have a RIGHT to their Health Care?

Or are Those Patients simply a Commodity — a “Cost Center” — that must be constantly constrained?  

Four at Four

  1. The NY Times reports U.S. lead as the world’s top arms supplier grows. “The United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new” study from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

    The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before…

    The growth in weapons sales by the United States last year was particularly noticeable against worldwide trends. The value of global arms sales in 2008 was $55.2 billion, a drop of 7.6 percent from 2007 and the lowest total for international weapons agreements since 2005.

    The increase in American weapons sales around the world “was attributable not only to major new orders from clients in the Near East and in Asia, but also to the continuation of significant equipment and support services contracts with a broad-based number of U.S. clients globally,” according to the study, titled “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations.”

Four at Four continues with American homelessness and unemployment, an update from Afghanistan, and useless in Iraq.

Four at Four

  1. The NY Times reports U.S. lead as the world’s top arms supplier grows. “The United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new” study from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

    The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before…

    The growth in weapons sales by the United States last year was particularly noticeable against worldwide trends. The value of global arms sales in 2008 was $55.2 billion, a drop of 7.6 percent from 2007 and the lowest total for international weapons agreements since 2005.

    The increase in American weapons sales around the world “was attributable not only to major new orders from clients in the Near East and in Asia, but also to the continuation of significant equipment and support services contracts with a broad-based number of U.S. clients globally,” according to the study, titled “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations.”

Four at Four continues with American homelessness and unemployment, an update from Afghanistan, and useless in Iraq.

Four at Four

  1. The NY Times reports U.S. lead as the world’s top arms supplier grows. “The United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new” study from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

    The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before…

    The growth in weapons sales by the United States last year was particularly noticeable against worldwide trends. The value of global arms sales in 2008 was $55.2 billion, a drop of 7.6 percent from 2007 and the lowest total for international weapons agreements since 2005.

    The increase in American weapons sales around the world “was attributable not only to major new orders from clients in the Near East and in Asia, but also to the continuation of significant equipment and support services contracts with a broad-based number of U.S. clients globally,” according to the study, titled “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations.”

Four at Four continues with American homelessness and unemployment, an update from Afghanistan, and useless in Iraq.

Four at Four

  1. The NY Times reports U.S. lead as the world’s top arms supplier grows. “The United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new” study from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

    The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before…

    The growth in weapons sales by the United States last year was particularly noticeable against worldwide trends. The value of global arms sales in 2008 was $55.2 billion, a drop of 7.6 percent from 2007 and the lowest total for international weapons agreements since 2005.

    The increase in American weapons sales around the world “was attributable not only to major new orders from clients in the Near East and in Asia, but also to the continuation of significant equipment and support services contracts with a broad-based number of U.S. clients globally,” according to the study, titled “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations.”

Four at Four continues with American homelessness and unemployment, an update from Afghanistan, and useless in Iraq.

Matt Taibbi – Sick and Wrong

This is a teaser. Read the whole thing here.

Sick and Wrong

How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it

By Matt Taibbi

Let’s start with the obvious: America has not only the worst but the dumbest health care system in the developed world. It’s become a black leprosy eating away at the American experiment – a bureaucracy so insipid and mean and illogical that even our darkest criminal minds wouldn’t be equal to dreaming it up on purpose.

The system doesn’t work for anyone. It cheats patients and leaves them to die, denies insurance to 47 million Americans, forces hospitals to spend billions haggling over claims, and systematically bleeds and harasses doctors with the specter of catastrophic litigation. Even as a mechanism for delivering bonuses to insurance-company fat cats, it’s a miserable failure: Greedy insurance bosses who spent a generation denying preventive care to patients now see their profits sapped by millions of customers who enter the system only when they’re sick with incurably expensive illnesses.

The cost of all of this to society, in illness and death and lost productivity and a soaring federal deficit and plain old anxiety and anger, is incalculable – and that’s the good news. The bad news is our failed health care system won’t get fixed, because it exists entirely within the confines of yet another failed system: the political entity known as the United States of America.

Just as we have a medical system that is not really designed to care for the sick, we have a government that is not equipped to fix actual crises. What our government is good at is something else entirely: effecting the appearance of action, while leaving the actual reform behind in a diabolical labyrinth of ingenious legislative maneuvers.

Over the course of this summer, those two failed systems have collided in a spectacular crossroads moment in American history. We have an urgent national emergency on the one hand, and on the other, a comfortable majority of ostensibly simpatico Democrats who were elected by an angry population, in large part, specifically to reform health care. When they all sat down in Washington to tackle the problem, it amounted to a referendum on whether or not we actually have a functioning government.

It’s a situation that one would have thought would be sobering enough to snap Congress into real action for once. Instead, they did the exact opposite, doubling down on the same-old, same-old and laboring day and night in the halls of the Capitol to deliver us a tour de force of old thinking and legislative trickery, as if that’s what we really wanted. Almost every single one of the main players – from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Blue Dog turncoat Max Baucus – found some unforeseeable, unique-to-them way to fuck this thing up. Even Ted Kennedy, for whom successful health care reform was to be the great vindicating achievement of his career, and Barack Obama, whose entire presidency will likely be judged by this bill, managed to come up small when the lights came on.

We might look back on this summer someday and think of it as the moment when our government lost us for good. It was that bad.

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