Blue Dogs Need Go the Way of the Passenger Pigeon.

The Blue Dog Democrats, the fiscally conservative, socially conservative inepts need to go to the way of the passenger pigeon.  They need to be extinct.  They serve no useful purpose other than for bragging rights for Democrats so they can  pretend that they control the legislative process in the Congress of the United States.
It is historical fact that the congressional democrats have been totally unable to govern this Nation since at least the time of Harry Truman and perhaps beyond that.  There seems to be no such thing as party unity or party discipline. Whipping democrats is akin to herding cats.  Will Rogers was absolutely correct when he said that he belonged to no organized political party, he was a Democrat.
I know their are ancient historical reasons for the Demoratic Party's political impotence all the way  back to Reconstruction and beyond even to the days of the evil of human slavery and its identical  horror the slaughter of the Native American Peoples, the twin foundations of Manifest Destiny.  The Congress has for decade upon decade done the bidding of the business trusts and huge corporations roundly condemned by President Theodore Roosevelt.  Nothing is going to change until we take the evils of money out of our political system, give up the insane idea that money equals speech and begin to publicly fund election campaigns.  Blue Dog Democrats either need to be democrats or get the hell out..  It is time for Americans to understand that corporations aren't entitled to representation in the Congress. "We the People" in the preamble of the Constitution means just what it says.  Take back the government of the United States! Put it back where it belongs in the hands of the People.

Those Fucking Blue Dog Democrats!!

           Jay Rockefeller's public option failed in the Senate Finance Committee failed today.   The Democrats and Republicans voting against it said that it would put the bloated, corporate-welfare supported health insurers out of business.  They said  Baucus says he voted against it because it won't pass on the floor but that he really is in favor of a public option..   He's also a man of conviction and feels duty-bound to earn the 3.7 million dollars he;s been paid in campaign contributions by the health care industry.  It's nice to see he's honest and stays bought once bought.Corporations have no right to life!  Reform that mandates that people to buy coverage from insurance companies and does not control those companies and just funnels money to them from the subscribers is not reform. It's corporate welfare.

Finally I Found My Way to the Grocery Store!

  And among the other treasures I found, I brought home some tequila and margarita mix! Oh joy!  Oh happy times.  I even convinced one of my neighbors, dear sweet Vivian, to come over and drink some with me.  It was very nice we haven't had a chance to visit since she split from her husband.  We talked about all sorts of stuff.  We talked about her divorce, her ex-husband, her daughter (my niece), her house and our neighborhood.  We even talked about the medical establishment. It was quite fun.  Thankfully the heat has moderated.  Hopefully tomorrow will be cooler.  This visit has assuaged a bit my bone-numbing loneliness.

Only in Orange County, California!

This morning's Orange County Register, formerly known as the Santa Ana Register carries a story about how anyone who is so inclined can purchase a mattress for $30,000 at either of the two Bloomingdale's here in Orange County.  As an aside the Register's  parent company, Freedom Communications, Inc. has recently filed a chapter 11 petition in Delaware.  You can read this faux (not Fox) article here.  I guess the Register is getting money from wherever it can find it.  I wonder what the Register charged for that 'news.'
In my view anyone who, in this day and age, is willing to spend $30,000 on mattress should be marched out to the nearest brick wall and shot dead. Don't these folks realize that the unemployment rate in California is 12.2% of the available work force, and if you counted the unemployed honestly you could add at least 170,000 of our fellow citizens to that figure?  Don't these folks realize that the economy is in the tank?  Don't they realize how many of their fellow citizens lack for medical care?   Haven't they noticed that GM which was the main beneficiary of the auto bail out of a few months ago is back at it again and pushing gas guzzling SUVs  as the solution to peoples' problems in their current advertising campaigns on television?  Don't they realize that Wall Street wunderkind are back pushing securitized ponzi schemes?

Random Stuff.

My friend sent me an email today, actually he forwarded me an email because it was interesting.  The author of that email herself forwarded another email in which the original sender speculated and pondered societal issues that are front and central in the opening decade of the 21st Century.  Or at least what he thought were central to to him.  He started his essay with a definition of a politician. That's what really caught my attention to the essay and caused me to read it.  His definition of  a politician was something to the effect that a 'politician is the only person who can  invent a problem and then campaign against it.'  I immediately thought of some of the election cycle campaigns of the last few election cycles in which the GOP invented serious problems in the body politic and then waged horrific campaigns against those 'serious problems.'   I am speaking of course of issues like queers wanting to marry other queers and issues like people who have a point of view about something and want to burn flags to make their point.  They then went on to propose amendments to constitutions, state and federal, to outlaw those practices--or thoughts of those practices-- and thereby save the civilized world from doom and damnation and also ensuring their own election to whatever office it was they coveted.
That author then proceeded to elaborate on that and I found his biggest issue was that he was being taxed to death.  He complained about some two hundred taxes that he had no use for, including those that brought him water, education, fire protection, police protection, sewer services, parks, recreation and all the other societal evils he was warring on.   That's when I lost interest in that "I have mine, fuck you Bozo" bullshit.   Guys like that are part of what's very wrong in America today.

Oh My Gawd!

I have discovered a fellow who bills himself as a misanthrope. His name is Jay Brannan. I dont believe he's really misanthropic, but if he wants to call himself that, I can understand where he's coming from.  I really like his point of view on the part of his persona that is gay and his view of its place in his life.  He has made me ponder some of the things that I have felt and said in the past. I will probably write more about him as I think about him and his vision more. I am going to buy some of his music.  He has a blog on blogspot: You can read it here  He also has a webpage with lots of his music on it.  You can visit it here and listen to his music. Don't steal it, buy it..

Doesn't This Say It All!

I found this cartoon on the web today and I think it is brilliant.  It certainly shows the mindset of the Cave Dwellers who have been convinced to vote against their own personal and financial interests by the Corporations who always vote for their own financial interests (with their dollars, stolen from the Cave Dwellers).

Max Baucus' Bill DoA?

Last night Lawrence O'Donnell, a former chief of staff of the Senate Finance Committee stated on the Keith Olbermann show that Baucus' newly unveiled 'plan' to reform health insurance was one democratic defection short of death.  He stated quite clearly and emphatically that the Montana 'democrat' could not afford another defecting dem.  He was referring to Sen. Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) statement that he could not and would not support the Baucus bill without a public option to control the appetites of the health insurance industry.  Today Maria Cantwell (D-WA) announced her opposition to the Billion Dollar Gift to the health care insurance industry.  Does this mean the bill and the max tax included in it are dead on arrival?

Dick Cheney's Secret Surgery.

It is reported that former vice president, Dick Cheney, is in surgery at the George Washington Medical Center to repair a stenosis of his spine.  I have heard it on good authority that he is hospitalized not to repair his spine but to have his gua'uld parasite removed.  The surgery is very tricky and requires that the gua'old first be anesthetized so that it doesn't kill itself and its human host.  We all send our good thoughts to Mr.Cheney and his family and pray that he survives this very serious surgery.

Max Baucus Continues to Suckle.

Max Baucus, chairman of the senate finance committee after much labor has brought forth in the Land the aborted fetus of a plan to provide health care to the millions of Americans currently without healthcare.  He achieved this marvelous feat by searching in the Desert of Bipartisanship for concessions asked for by the Cave Dwellers and then pasted them onto the desires, wishes and demands of the Corporations by whom he is employed.  He got no agreement from the Dave Dwellers even though he gave them what they wanted but he has guaranteed his right to suckle at the teat of the health insurance industry.  Good job, Max.

President Jimmy Carter Recognizes Racism When He Sees It.

President Carter was asked today what part racism played in Representative Joe Wilson's (R-SC) intemperate, rude and disgraceful outburst in the House of Representatives on the night that President Obama addressed the Congress in joint session on the topic of reforming the health care delivery system.   Carter a former governor of Georgia and a man raised and educated in the south minced no words and pointed out that a great many opponents of Mr. Obama as president are terribly uncomfortable with the fact that the President of the US is a black man.  Maureen Dowd said much the same thing over the weekend.

My Dear Friend Since Ancient Times.

Has published a local magazine for many years and recently published an op-ed piece that is very much worth reading and taking to heart.  It can be found here and I urge you to read it.

My Favorite Cave Dweller Protest Sign.

    This sign does more than anything I have seen to convince me that the great mass of  Cave Dwellers really are terminally stupid and really deserve to be interviewed by the Health Insurance Companies' Death Panels.

New Graduate Program in Georgraphy at South Carolina University.

I heard today a major unnamed university in South Carolina will commence a new graduate program in its school of geography. Come June of 2011 it will confer its first master of science degree in the geography of the Appalachian Trail Region.

Matt Taibbi Explains How YOU Will Be Fucked by Heathcare Reform.

This morning I read a ten day old article by Matt Taibbi of the Rollingstone Magazine. In this long article he explains how we got to where we are in this debate that is mostly like a fixed shell game. He points out how Mr. Backus of Montana and his Gang of Six have high jacked thei legislative process to protect the economic interests of the health insurance industry which the Gang of Six is 'ethically' bound by payment of money to protect. Matt is not afraid to call a whore a whore and does so on many different occasions in this op-ed piece. I wish someone could say that Matt is lying about this but unfortunately I cannot.

Maureen Dowd Scores One.

Maureen Dowd's Op-Ed piece in this morning's New York Times hit the nail square on the head. It is aptly entitled "Boy, Oh Boy" and ties the GOP politicians of South Carolina into their total disbelief that a man of bi-racial ancestry is the President of the US. This just really sticks in their craws. It is something I have believed for a long time. The GOP politicians south of the Mason-Dixon Line are the unreconstructed intellectual and moral descendants of slavers and segregationists. Ms. Dowd recites a Litany of the historical Racism of South Carolina. however she fails to point out in this litany that South Carolina on December 20, 1860 was the very first of the Confederate States to attempt secession from the Union. It's the home of John C. Calhoun who first gave birth to the concept of Nullification, the location of Fort Sumter, the home of Strom Thurmond who was the nominee of the Dixiecrats in the 1948 presidential election, the home of Mark Sanford the foremost authority in the world on the Applachian Trail and of Argentine Salsa Romances and the home state of Joe Wilson who lied to America from the historic floor of the House of Representatives about lying and insulted the President in his quest to be the John C. Calhoun of the twenty-first century. She probably also ought to have listed the connections that South Carolina has to bible-thumping racist christianism.

Lawyers' Lessened Free Speech Rights.

Again the New York Times runs an interesting and provocative article. Th is one concerns the rights of lawyers to speak their minds about their colleagues and judges before whom they appear. There is one discipline story that I find very interesting it is the story of the lawyer, who was not working as a lawyer, who sat on trial jury and after the verdict was in and the jury discharged wrote about his experiences on the jury. As far as I know there is nothing that prohibits a juror from voluntarily discussing his experiences as a juror. Why he would be disciplined for that is a bit beyond me. He can't do what any other trial juror can do voluntarily after discharge? That really bothers me. Such a rule seems like so much buffalo chips.

Ain't It the Truth!

This is a marvelous Auth cartoon describing the current state of the Healthcare debate in the United States. This is what happens when you have a Congress beholden to the Richest Guys in America. Americans need to go forth and let Congress know that we demand healtcare for all. It's a human right. We need to tell those Cave Dwellers, like Joe Wilson, that the penalty for denying human rights to Americans is a trip home and a search for a real job.

No Health Insurance for Illegal Humans?

wish someone would explain something to me. I fail to understand the holy furor over making sure illegal human beings can't buy medical insurance under any of the pending bills in Congress. It seems to me that's all we are talking about, who can buy insurance in order to provide for medical care. No one is applying for free medical care. It seems that since the Cave Dweller, Joe Wilson, shouted down the President that the Gang of Six including our own fool, Senator Bauckus, is working on a mechanism for verifying that no illegal human beings will be served. This verification system will no doubt be very expensive and probably won't even work anyway. Denial of insurance coverage to certain classes of people will have the effect that they will go to the emergency room and get the most expensive treatment available. That will (and does) cost the American taxpayer many billions of dollars each and every year. Wouldn't it be cheaper to the taxpayer to just allow everyone to purchase coverage and be done with it and eliminate the emergency room expense? Some of the Cave Dwellers are pushing another idea: eliminate the federal subsidy and payments for emergency room services and push health care providers into bankruptcy.In the event of pandemics and epidemics such as the promised H1N1 pandemic is it prudent to deny health services to anyone? Isn't that piss poor public health policy?

Take It Like a Man, Mike.

The story of the sexual escapades of the former Yorba Linda Assembly member who abruptly resigned from office yesterday after a local TV station played excerpts from a tape in which the Family Values Champion bragged of his sexual exploits to another Assembly member has suddenly changed. Mike Duvall, stud extraordinaire, now says he wasn't having an affair with the lobbyist for Sempra Energy he was just guilty of "inappropriate storytelling." This is reported today in the Los Angeles Times. The self-admitted 54 year old liar, who never graduated from high school, now wants us to believe he just engaged in junior high-schoolish adolescent behavior by making up stories about the lobbyist and another woman to impress his colleague on the Assembly committee he served on. Gee whiz, Mike, is your ego bigger than your penis? Have you no shame? Can't you go quietly into the sunset and return to selling insurance? No matter which story is true, you have acted the fool. Now shut up, take your medicine, and get on with your life. Take it like a man!

Congratulations to Assemblyman Mike Duvall (now Ret).

Another failing for a leading family values campaigner who practices the Do as I say not as I Do brand of family values. Well I was concerned in reading the LA Times article that Mr. Duvall might have confessed to engaging in a menage a trois type of behavior. However I was wrong, he was a typical Cave Dweller type of alpha male engaging in serial fornicative behavior. Apparently one of his two mistresses is a lobbyist for the Sempra Energy Company ("Glad to be of Service!").
Mr. Duvall has suddenly returned to his wife and family in shame in the lovely conservative Orange County city of Yorba Linda. I bet if I looked I could see evidence of fire and brimstone to the northeast of me. Good luck to you, sir, in your new endeavors on behalf of the citizens of your former Assembly district. God bless! I am happy heterosexual marriage is safe in your embrace.

Wal*Mart Pushes On.

There is an article today at Time.com about Project Impact which is the retailer's new push to squish what's left of the competition. It involves brighter stores, friendly staff, and other of the usual cosmetic changes all in the hope of bringing up the stock price for large and institutional investors. My question is where are they keeping the slaves and child laborers who are making the shoddy merchandise Wal*Mart pushes?

Wow! I Can Hardly Believe It.

I watched part of President Obama's speech to the school children of America. I had no idea I was being both hypnotized and indoctrinated at the same time. When it was over I had an almost irrepressible urge to play on the Jungle Jim at the local school while singing old socialist hymns. That was simply astonishing!

Astonishing Doesn't Do This Justice.

My friend sent me this link. It's long and it's loud so turn the volume down. It is simply an exquisite piece of art, sand painting. Enjoy!

The Scammers Are Back! Count Your Fingers!

There is a most interesting article in today's New York Times. Wall Street Bankers are up to their old tricks. Remember how the health insurance industry health insurance reform by worrying the world that Dreaded Death Panels would be created to kill off poor sick Gramma because she too sick and old to be worthy of health care? Well Wall Street Gambling Interests are putting together a new security, or a new ponzi scheme if you wish. This one also involves your grandmother, she was so useful to them with health care, they figure that they will bring the dear old lady back for an encore. Basically Wall Street wants to buy Gramma's life insurance policy for some small premium over it's surrender value. Surrender Value is what an insurance company will willingly pay to the owner of the a policy to get off the hook so that if Gramma dies they won't have to pay out any money to the beneficiaries. Enter the WSBs. They go to Gramma say if you sell your policy back to the life insurance right now they will you say $400,000 for the policy, if Gramma doesn't sell her policy back to the insurance company and she dies the insurance company will have to pay the face value of the policy, say one million dollars to the named beneficiaries. Now if Gramma needs the money that can be a tempting offer. If the WSBs say offer her $500,000 for the same policy, that is an even greater and sweeter temptation to poor old Gramma. Let's say she accepts the offer and now has a half million dollars to squirrel away somewhere and to pay her expenses with. The WSBs leap with joy because they pay the premiums now and keep the policy in force. If Gramma had sold the policy back to the life insurance company it would no longer be in force. The WSBs now gather up bunches of these policies they have purchased and "securitize" them. You have heard this term before...it's what the WSBs did with mortgages of the past several years during the real estate "boom". "Securitize" simply means they turn Gramma's life policy into a security and start selling interests in the policy and promise high returns to people who buy interests in these securities. These interests are generally in the form of fractional interests in the policies underlying these securities. WSBs now have an interest in poor Gramma dying off quickly because when she dies they get the payout less whatever is owed to the investors in the way of interest payouts is theirs to keep. WSBs now have will have an interest in how long dear old Gramma lives. She want her to die quickly, the quicker the better for them. They are marketing your grandmother to the world and betting she dies sooner than later.