Jack & Jill Politics

Good Morning.Last night a great American left us.Sen.Kennedy always fought to improve the lives for people who had no voice.But thru us the Dream lives on
Bob Marley-”three little birds”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RntL-2uwt_g

RIP, Sen. Kennedy.

It's August and the winds of war are blowing.
The PRC is talking about a ban on export of rare metals t the worlds's economy.

Sleep on Mr Kennedy and THANKS for all that you have done for ALL OF US! You shall never be forgotten!

GOD BLESS!

Great, thought provoking piece, and a brilliant use of analogy to the healthcare plan.

I'm the daughter of a former sharecropper, and I can tell you me and my sibblings are most fortunate that my dad was smart enough to see the writing on the wall early enough to gain access and own acreage.

Ignorance is no excuse.

Tim Wise is an accomplished, and I might point out, white author who has something to say about this political race…

THIS IS YOUR NATION ON WHITE PRIVILEGE
By Tim Wise

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because 'every family has challenges,' even as black and Latino families with similar 'challenges' are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a 'fuckin' redneck,' like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll 'kick their fuckin' ass,' and talk about how you like to 'shoot shit' for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're 'untested.'?

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words 'under God' in the pledge of allegiance because 'if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me,' and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the 'under God' part wasn't added until the 1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.?

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.?

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was 'Alaska first,' and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.?

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor–and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college–you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.?

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a 'second look.'?

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.?

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.?

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a 'trick question,' while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.?

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a 'light' burden.?

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole 'change' thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain?

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

The GOP Domestic Agenda
Posted by Zandar
WaPo's Steven Pearlstein runs the numbers on Michael Steele's “GOP Patient's Rights Plan” announcement yesterday and comes up with the number zero, as in the number of domestic programs the GOP plan will allow for besides Medicare in 2035.
The plan came to light as a result of an op-ed piece this week in The Washington Post in which the party chairman committed the GOP to spending an ever-increasing share of the federal budget, and the national income, on Medicare. When combined with other Republican promises — to balance the budget, protect defense spending and never, ever raise anyone's taxes — the inescapable inference is that the government would run out of money for every other domestic program sometime around 2035.
Steele's stunning announcement brings the conservative strategy of “starving the beast” to a new level. Under the guise of protecting the elderly, Republicans hope to realize their dream of eliminating half a dozen Cabinet agencies, firing tens of thousands of government workers and ending government regulation as we know it.

Steele's op-ed was the latest salvo in his party's campaign to defeat President Obama's health-care reform effort at all costs and build public support for a Republican alternative that remains, to this day, a closely held secret. The new Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights, however, hints at the outlines of the GOP domestic strategy.

Steele promised that under the Republican health plan, runaway Medicare spending would continue unabated. Not only would that mean no cuts in benefits, but it would ensure that reimbursement rates to doctors, hospitals and drugmakers would continue to rise faster than inflation, regardless of how much they earn or how unnecessary or wasteful the services they provide. Any effort to contain future spending growth, Republicans now believe, is nothing more than a “raid” on Medicare, the government-run health plan that Republicans were against before they were for it.

The country's top Republican official also vowed to cut off all federal funding for research to determine what are the most effective treatments for heart disease, cancer, diabetes and even that new scourge, restless leg syndrome. Left unclear was whether he prefers to have such research done by the pharmaceutical and medical-device industries, but one suspects that is the case.

On the issue of end-of-life care, Steele was uncompromising: In a Republican world, no government funds could be used to pay doctors to provide information about living wills, hospices or palliative care, whether seniors and their families ask for it or not.

“Government programs that seem benign at first can become anything but,” Steele explained in articulating the new philosophy. Once back in power, look for Republicans to apply the same approach to issues such as flu vaccinations, disaster relief and air traffic control.

War and Medicare. Everything else, let the private sector handle. And no, I don't believe Pearlstein is being hyperbolic here. Pledging zero cuts for Medicare and zero tax increases means other things will have to be eliminated eventually, period. It's simple mathematics.

But that's Republican math for you.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2009/08/gop-domes…

I am too emotional about Ted Kennedy to speak on his passing, and I'm sure people are exhausted to disgusted with the health care debate. But I just read this column by ROSS DOUTHAT (been out of the loop the last few days with a family matter), and thought it was worth posting. Whether you are a progressive Democrat threatening to vote against a health care bill absent of a public option or a Blue Dog Democrat unwilling to support one with a public option, the one thing that both groups will have in common is that the Democratic Party as a whole will be punished in 2010 for their inability to govern as a majority party. Whether you're taking a principled stand on the public option in Blue states or cowering in Red States, not one Democrat will go unpunished, and that's something every congressional and Senate Democrat better think long and hard about. And that includes Black progressives. Black voters by and large will NOT tolerate even the appearance of betrayal to the President even if it is on a principled stand. The effect of hurting this President will have the same impact as intent in the hearts and minds of Black folks. Ross calls health care the test of the Democratic Party’s ability to govern. And he's right. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/opinion/24dou…

AFTERNOON OPEN THREAD IS UP

New Orleans pumping stations have bad pumps. WTF?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-08-25-…

Bet you a dollar that somehow,somewhere the bush crime syndicate have their greasy fingers involved.

Muhhamad Ali visits Ricky Hatton's gym. Hatton doesn't recognize him1
Just kidding. Ali is much taller than Punchedyouout.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_spo…

Tim Wise is indeed one person who gets it. He was with Roland Martin on Tom Joyner Monday morning and spoke of this.