Jack & Jill Politics

medical sales jobs have been lost as medical suppliers prepare for Obamacare.

http://www.gorillamedicalsales.com

Obama's health care reform will cost this nation 500,000 more jobs. Can we afford this? In my business, medical sales, we have already lost 20,000 jobs in medical sales.

http://www.gorillamedicalsales.com/blog

AFTERNOON OPEN THREAD IS UP

"African American problems. Deeds has had exceptional difficulty attracting black voters. The endorsement of BET co-founder Sheila Johnson sapped all the energy from his efforts to reach out. Why didn't Gov. Tim Kaine throw himself in front of Johnson's ambitious decision to endorse McDonnell? There are different theories. Assuming that racial pride plays a role in enhancing black turnout, Obama's links to Deeds are few; and it's hard for black voters, per se, to see how their lives would be made any better, or worse, by having Deeds in power. Democrats haven't yet figured out how to campaign for black votes without responding to an archetypal "black voter." Doug Wilder's endorsement? Wilder always plays Hamlet, but his eventual nod seems to have been assumed and not worked for. That was a mistake."

This is from Ambinder's column. Again the stage is being set that when/if Deeds loses on Tuesday, the blame will be heaped on black Virginians. Where is the evidence that black people don't like Deeds and won't vote for him? Because Sheila Johnson and Doug Wilder say so? Most people are not checking for Doug Wilder these days and Sheila Johnson doesn't spend her time with black folks, she spends her time schmoozing it up with the white folks in Horse Country. If you ask the average black person about "Sheila Johnson" they will not know who you are talking about, and if they do she will be referred to as "that BET lady."

"it's hard for black voters, per se, to see how their lives would be made any better, or worse, by having Deeds in power. "

excellent point. That is the core the issue.

And it's also hard for white voters, per se, to see how their lives would be made any better, or worse, by having Deeds in power.

THAT is the core issue, not whether black voters are enthusiastic for Deeds or not. WHITE VOTERS are not enthusiastic for Deeds and they never were from the time he won the primary. So all of this "black folks won't vote for Deeds" smacks of the same racism that led people to say "Black folks are only voting 9 to 1 for Obama because he's black" even though Black folks vote 9 to 1 for whoever the Democratic nominee is, regardless of color. Last time I checked, Al Gore was a pasty, stiff white guy and he got 90% of the black vote when he ran back in '00. In fact he got more of the black vote than Clinton did either time he ran.

So I need for "white progressives" to stop blaming Deeds' loss on "black folks not voting for him" and get real as to why THEY won't vote for him.

The Great Risk Shift: Understanding American Capitalism
by bruh3, Mon Oct 26, 2009 at 10:54:59 AM EST

The bailout of the banking industry was the result of decades of Reagan policy making carried out by both Democratic and Republican neoliberals that shifted risk from corporations to the American public. It is only the tip of iceberg. This shifting of risk is the flip side of the coin to wage stagnation and deflation that acts to increase the debt and loses of the American people.

To understand, why this is the case requires an understanding of what risk is. This is not an easy task. However, to have a working definition, let's just say that risk is the chance in any given transaction for one to be a winner or a loser. It is the concept of working the odds. What are the odds that you will obtain a job that will cover your debt from college? What are the odds that you will have enough money to pay for health care premiums and save money? What are odds of bank failure if they are too big to fail?
Read More
http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/10/26/105459/11

Ahh,Something is not kosher here.President Obama you need to put your foot down and say NO MAS!!!
GMAC Needs A THIRD Bailout Of At Least $2.8 Billion
http://www.businessinsider.com/gmac-needs-a-thi...

The Filibuster, Democracy, and the Public Option
by Trey Rentz, Tue Oct 27, 2009 at 09:26:17 PM EST

Obama, in his short tenure as leader of the free world - has made amazing strides. Facing his first test as a leader, he chose to support a strong healthcare reform package that contained meaningful provisions to enable competition, better healthcare, lower cost and options where none existed before.

Senators like Joseph Lieberman, the Bush Republicans, and members of the GOP who have been squarely opposed to any kind of meaningful reform - are planning to participate in something called a filibuster.

A filibuster is when American citizens subsidize the US Senate to do absolutely nothing for them, whatsoever. Senators get up before the body of gathered - or as the case may be - absent - representatives, and draw salary for having done such things as read their wife's favorite recipes, from a recipe book - read the dictionary, and go over long articles written in journals and magazines. In general, the form of debate that Joseph Lieberman is stating he will be interested in joining - is a maneuver that attempts to shut down the senate by making it impossible to act.

The Public have spoken loudly about their option. According to a recent Wall Street Journal Poll, 72% of Americans support this meaningful healthcare reform and all Americans support, through their taxes, the salaries and lifestyles of those senators who will be participating in the filibuster against the reform they requested and supported - which also happens to be the reform that the GOP has openly stated they will try to destroy simply to humiliate our president and make it his "Waterloo" (their words, not mine)(after all, it +was+ a great song by Abba, too.. wasn't it).

And yet the wheels of democracy turn to support the minority and give them strength. And that is what makes the senate great - the filibuster makes the senate a civil chamber, and gives power to those such as the Bush Republicans - whose power was rightly taken away from them after abuses and misgovernance left our country an economic wreck, deeply involved in an expensive war of convenience against a country that did not attack us - and the greatest expansion of both government secrecy and government size - in the history of our country.

Another historical moment approaches. The changing of the guard to a new, effective, transparent, and responsive government. Led by Barack Obama, and Sen. Harry Reid.

It is the evolution of democracy - the era of smart government approaches. Lobbyism , and its 1.2 million dollar per day price tagged attempt to subvert democracy - has seen a staggering defeat in the transport of a bill to the floor with strong measures for reform and change.

And lobbyism will not be saved by men like Joe Lieberman, and the Republican party. This is where the filibuster will be rightly seen as a tool to help keep the Senate honorable, and honest - and at the same time - it will also be where Americans will be able to see with stunning clarity exactly what wasting time will look like.

The question of whether or not attempting to filibuster a hugely popular president, trying to bring about hugely popular reform - is a waste of time. Is left to the reader.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/10/27/212617/10

Health Care “Opt Out” Baits a Trap for US Republicans
Posted by Al Giordano - October 27, 2009 at 10:05 am

Prior to October 20, just a week ago, the “conventional wisdom” among Washington DC-centric pundits and bloggers was that the so-called “public option” on the upcoming national health care bill was dead in the water.

Since October 20, the same voices have shifted to a presumption that the public option – in which the US government would create its own health program (much like it already has for members of Congress) to compete with private insurance companies, bring their prices down, and offer another option to citizens – is now a done deal and the remaining question is what kind of public option will be approved by Congress.

What changed on October 20 to so radically shift the beltway CW?

315,023 phone calls – deployed by Organizing for America, President Obama’s grassroots political arm – that flooded the US Capitol switchboard in a single day: that, and that alone, is what shifted the ground beneath the health care debate. Those that participated in organizing that warning shot know it even while many who did not lift a finger for it look for other explanations for this positive shift in the discourse.

Opponents have framed the public option as a stealth first step to a national “single payer” plan of universal national health care administrated by the government, and they may well be proved right about that in years to come. Meanwhile, the fact that the President, years ago as an Illinois state senator, supported a single payer solution, has been bandied about by some proponents this year as evidence that he either sold out “the base” (what some white college educated progressives call, um, some white college educated progressives) or that his attention to practical realities somehow indicate that he lacks a political backbone.

It’s been an entire summer of silliness from both of those camps; from the “Obama is a socialist” club to “Obama is another Bush” chorus, the infantile nature of so much of US politics has been on full display with the health care debate as its fulcrum.

Although during this same Summer of Shove of 2009, the President was repeatedly clear on his desire for a public option in the health care law that has eluded every administration since that of Harry Truman in the 1940s and 50s, he was accused again and again of not really wanting it or seeking it. Daily Kos blogger Brooklynbadboy offers an entertaining inventory of pundits and bloggers who “declared the public option dead.”

Among them are those like the whiny voice of blogger Jane Hamsher - still bitter that Obama beat her candidate Clinton in the primaries - who on August 17 declared, “Many people are rightly upset that the White House is sending stronger and stronger signals that they are willing to jettison a public option. What was once the defining feature of the Obama health care plan has now been dismissed with a bipartisan flourish.” Then on September 10 repeated, “the White House has been trying to get out from under th e burden of supporting the public option for weeks.” Then on September 18 re-repeated, “President Obama has been desperate to ditch the public option for weeks.”

Such prattling has been duly featured at the Huffington Post along with daily “reports” (read: rumors based mainly on the statements of unnamed sources inside the beltway, but played as hard news) to feed the HuffPo editorial line, which goes like this: Obama doesn’t want a public option on health care and so “the base” (white college educated progressives, especially of the blogging tendency) has to “make him do it.”

That narrative has been a good example of the typical self-aggrandizing attempt by a certain tendency to insist that the story is about them (most of whom already do have health insurance, by the way, and don’t mix very much with we hoi polloi that do not).

-(Part 1 of 2)

Everyone seems to be close to the edge this morning! With good reasons

At least three doctors will be risking arrest in civil disobedience actions during Mobilization for Healthcare for All's third wave of actions this week, which are being held to demand an end to insurance abuse and to demand real health care reform for all.

Ken Weinberg, who will be risking arrest at the Wellpoint Offices in New York City, says it dawned on him that this is a moral issue, he needs to be out there, and he is risking arrest because he doesn't know what else to do.

“I've met with my senators and congressman and nothing works,” says Weinberg. “I think what really pushed me over was the new study that came out from Harvard that showed that 45,000 people die each year because they don't have health insurance and that to me is criminal.”

Weinberg adds, “Our elected representatives are so in the pockets of the insurance companies that they're not doing anything. They're not responsive to the American people. So, this is a wake up call to them as well. “

Matt Hendrickson, who will be risking arrest at the Cigna Offices in Glendale near downtown Los Angeles, says he's “inspired by the people that have already gotten arrested in the last three weeks.”

“They're just as angry as I am by how the private insurance industry is ruining our healthcare system,” says Hendrickson.

Additionally, Hendrickson cites the fact that 50 percent of his patients either have no insurance or they are underinsured, being a self-employed doctor whose premiums are going up 15% a year, and previous human rights movements (civil rights, anti-war, self-determination, etc) as reasons for being willing to risk arrest.

Margaret Flowers, who will be risking arrest at Carefirst Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Baltimore, Maryland on Thursday, explains that as the Senate Finance Committee hearing started hearings on health care single-payer advocates were excluded. This really showed Flowers that America's democratic process was not in tact and functioning.

She explains at the first meeting “there were 41 people that testified. They had AHIP, Pharma, and Big Business ” but nobody was there "that really represented the health providers and the patient's point of view." And, there definitely was no person advocating for a national health care program.

So, at the second Finance Committee hearing on May 5th, she and other single payer advocates showed up at the hearing to ask why their voices weren't being included in the debate.

Since the spring, there has been an effort to discount and outright ignore the single-payer action movement that has been carrying out several campaigns to push back against anti-health care reform agendas and improve any reform that may funnel or divert money into the hands of insurance companies for profits instead of patient care.

Doctors Risking Arrest for Healthcare for All, Challenging a System That Makes Doctors Complicit

Reading my Trib this morning and there is a very sad story about 91 dead in Peshawar. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/...

Also there is an interesting blurb about George Schultz of all people on recognizing the tribal nature of Afghanistan. I think he was on to something. We've got to understand how people think and work there or we are doomed no matter what we do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Afghanistan is a "bottom-up" country with a scattered population that has never been held together by a strong central government, Schultz said. And while the West wants to build up the army and national police to fight off the insurgency, the local leaders - sometimes called warlords -- only see the national army as a challenge to their authority, he said.
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog...
~~~~~~~~~~~~

FLOTUS on the cover of Glamour! She's beautiful!!!! I think we should all go out and buy several copies each to make this the best selling issue ever, after that controversy some time ago that Glamour had with black women and our hair.

http://mrs-o.org/newdata/2009/10/28/high-wattag...

WOW

Fabulous photo of her. Here's part of the article
http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smit...

Reid, Durbin Open To Majority Vote To Beat Health Care Filibuster
As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid works to cobble together the 60 votes he needs to overcome an expected Republican attempt to block a floor vote on health care, there is still one powerful parliamentary weapon he could draw from his back pocket.
Read More
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/28/reid-d...

Did you all take Dick's survey?

http://www.dickdurbin.com/PublicOptionPoll

We are gearing up for a bloggers war in one corner we have
I'm done with Fire Dog Lake. This is a bridge too far for me.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/28/79...

And in this corner
Why I Am Leaving Daily Kos – Public Option Bait and Switch
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/11262

This remind me of the primaries where Kos was behind President Obama and Firedoglake more or less was for Secretary of State Clinton.If nothing else this should get good seeing who gets the best flames in.

FDL never got over the primaries. DKos blogger slinkerwink and her master, Jane Hamsher, always try to tear down the President.

Fuck 'em. Haters gonna hate, no matter what.

Word

Check out Al Giordano
(I tried to post it here twice, but no go).

Bingo Al gets it.I have been saying the same thing.Let the redumblicans opt out and they wont have to wait for the rapture because the wrath of the voters will show them the door.
If Jane and her minions are still crying over hillary guess what?
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/8783/m1c109a1d...

I am stealing this quote from one of Al's poster Tootles because I love it...

I am OVER IT.

As a veteran of fighting the DLC's takeover of the Democratic Party 1992 and their disastrous policies that helped contribute to our current situation, I find it really curious that these progressive "purists" call out other people when Clinton and their DLC-ilk got us into this economic and electoral trouble in the first place. Young progressives like me and many others were shone the door because we weren’t buying their large turd sandwich that they were peddling in the 90s. These fools love to talk about Obama throwing people off the bus. During the DLC days, progressives were not even allowed onto the bus. If you see interviews with Bill Clinton, he always disparages progressives.

To me, Jane Hamsher, David Sirota et al. are ignorant fools. I cannot believe anyone takes them seriously. Let alone clicking on any of their sites or repeating any of their drivel. Where were these fools when this ish started going down? I hear crickets. This stuff didn't start with Bush II and Iraq. A lot of the radical Milton Friedman stuff went down during Clinton’s second term when the DLC worked WITH Republicans to undo a lot of safeguards that were put in place to protect the American people.

Do not get me started about keeping the interests rates artificially low that started during HIS presidency. I have been yelling about that for literally for 12 years now. I remember hearing from neighbors who were excited that they could borrow more money because it was so cheap. Now, I have to hear from Hamsher and her hairy band of morons of how Obama is not doing enough in his first-ten months to help homeowners, who many are now underwater because of the housing bubble, caused by some of these manipulative policies.

They meanwhile supported Clinton’s wife, who shared up until the very end of her sad candidacy, a commitment to her husband’s failed ideology, her husband’s failed advisors and her husband’s failed campaign methodology of race baiting to suppress the vote during the primaries (big clue: it doesn’t help you or down-ticket candidates in the general election).

Do not lecture me about Obama ruining your progressive-purity parade, thank you. If you wanted progressive purity, you should have picked Kucinich. He may not have won, but you would have had your purity and a leg to stand on. Most progressives jumped on the DLC and centrist candidates’ bandwagons from the beginning. Now, you act surprised and betrayed when the centrist candidate does centrist things.

It is important to talk about the DLC. The Blue Dogs, as they are now known, are actually the DLC. Good old Joe Lieberman was also DLC. Had Clinton won, they would have been in control of the party. If you think the Democratic party stinks now, what would you think when the Blue Dogs are in charge and could really care less about your progressive opinions and feelings?

Hamsher and others like her picked the wrong candidate and now they cannot back down. They need to now prove that they were right by showing us how horrible Obama is, even though they picked the worst candidate of all, the DLC Democrat in the first place. You know the people, who did not push back against Reaganomics when they were in power but embraced it and helped move its policies into reality.

If you do not think this is about the primaries, you are deluding yourself. Some of Obama’s biggest critics are former Clinton supporters that despite her excessive race baiting were surprisingly never turned off about her candidacy. There was a trivial article in the NY Times this weekend about how Obama does not play sports with women and it is a frat atmosphere in the White House. Coincidently Democratic strategist, Dee Dee Meyers and her perpetual outrage of all things not-Clinton was its main source.

Hamsher and her ilk hurt the process because they make stuff up (i.e. Obama really supported the trigger and duped us all) and then create a cycle of outrage and pearl clutching that dominates the small sliver of media attention that is already dominated by Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, teabaggers and birthers. Instead of talking about what is in each bill or the strategy (and covering ALL the bases), we hear about the hyperventilating of the poutrage crew, the pushback from their outrage, and then we discover, in passing, the poutrage crew was actually wrong. Wash, rinse and repeat, as Al has eloquently put it.

Are you tired of this cycle on the 50th time around? I sure am. I cannot believe people allow themselves to get caught up in it even after the tenth time. The funny part is when they are proven wrong, they act like nothing ever happened and start the cycle immediately again.

Like yesterday. This weekend was like cycle 51 of the poutrage cycle. We heard that Obama really supports the trigger option and has sold us out because of some unnamed Democratic strategist (it could have been Dee Dee Meyers for all we know). In spite of the White House, Harry Reid is now the progressive patron of the public option. TPM doubled-down on the fail this weekend by pushing this story, even though Obama, Valerie Jarrett and all the people around him kept saying the President prefers the public option. On Monday, Chuck Schumer let it out of the bag that Obama did not think Reid had the votes for the public option. Low and behold, we heard yesterday that Reid might not really have the votes after he stated otherwise.

John Cole took time from making fun of Republicans to point this out while the poutrage crew was quietly dropping the issue. They immediately moved onto attacking Reid and Obama for letting Lieberman caucus with the Democrats, not a word about how they sucked up all the air from the conversation this weekend on false information.

It is just easier to throw spitballs at Obama for not fixing 30 years of reactionary policies and infrastructure in 10 months than to get to work about finding, funding and electioneering for better candidates in 2010 and beyond, doing this all by holding together our large and very fragile coalition.


Really, progressives need to take a page from the conservative grassroots movement over the last 40 years. They took over the school boards, city councils, local seats of office, etc. It does not end with the presidency. After getting Obama elected, we now need to replace a whole lot of senators, representatives, governors, mayors, city council and school board members. Our work is just beginning.

So in a round about way, Hamsher’s harm is that she distracts from the bigger work that the coalition needs to do. It is a lot of wasted energy over a lot of NOTHIN’. Progressives would do themselves a favor if they would ignore her and her ilk. Progressives and their respective bloggers also need to wean themselves off of this useless poutrage cycle.

Do we need to push Obama? Yes, we do. Do we need to criticize him? Yes we do. To make stuff up about what he thinks and his secret motives and then hyperventilate about it is irresponsible and counterproductive.

Wow. What a breath of fresh air in the midst of so much putridity.

I told a friend that I found it very curious that all of a sudden Clinton loyalists have been all over the television crapping all over Obama of late. She thought I was about to start ripping into the Clintons again (she loves them both but isn't a loyalist, so she can be persuaded) and told me to give it up. I told her the only thing worse than the Clintons are their blind followers who seek to take down anyone who has ever done their king and queen any wrong. As they perceive it, of course. They smile in your face and stab you in your back. All of them can jump into the fire pit.

When Lanny Davis showed up on the Ed Show, I knew it was time to turn off politics again.

STANDING OVATION!

Wow, what a GREAT rant! Loves it!

Condensed Readers digest version.
Jane and your ilk Just STFU

Whenever you have a moment, please go here and vote for my little godson. His contestant # is 323165396. Thanks so much in advance! :)

http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/

he's so cute :)

thanks so much rikyrah!  :)

Intel Panel: CIA Misled Lawmakers On Torture, Other Issues
The CIA misled Congress about its torture program and other issues, Democrats on the House Intelligence committee are asserting as the committee continues to probe the matter.

In a hearing of the House Intelligence committee this afternoon, Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jan Schakowsky, both Democrats, pointed to at least five instances going back to at least 2001 in which the C.I.A. withheld information from or lied to Congress.

Schakowsky said that an ongoing committee probe had found that the CIA is afflicted by a "large disease" of misleading and even lying to lawmakers about intelligence activities.

Earlier this year, Speaker Nancy Pelosi charged that the agency had lied to her about its enhanced interrogation techniques program, during a September 2002 briefing -- provoking outrage from Republicans. But that episode was among the examples that Schakowsky and Eshoo pointed to today.

• Another concerned the top secret program to assassinate al Qaeda operatives which CIA director Leon Panetta first told Congress about in June.

• A third concerned the CIA's 2005 destruction of videotapes showing the interrogation of al Qaeda operatives.

• And a fourth, already known, related to the shooting down of a plane carrying missionaries over Peru in 2001, information about which was concealed form Congress.

In response, a CIA spokesman did not specifically challenge the committee's findings, telling The Hill:


It is the policy of the Central Intelligence Agency to be clear and candid with the United States Congress. Director Panetta has made a relationship of trust, confidence, and respect a top priority.
Late Update: This post originally incorrectly reported that the intelligence committee's probe was complete and had issued findings. In fact, the probe is ongoing and today's allegations were made by some Democrats on the committee.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/...

My former govenor is stinking it up to high heaven.....

By Dan Kane
The (Raleigh) News & Observer
RALEIGH — Internal documents from former Gov. Mike Easley's campaign committee suggest a concerted effort to run donations illegally through the N.C. Democratic Party to circumvent contribution limits.

The evidence, released Tuesday by the State Board of Elections, included internal campaign memos that outlined ways to extract more money from donors than they could get with straightforward contributions to Easley's two campaigns for governor.

The board's questions about the memos were greeted with denials and fuzzy memories from two Easley campaign officials and a top donor. And attorneys for the state Democratic Party contended that Easley's campaign gave to the party far more than it got.

The board heard from Easley's former campaign treasurer, lobbyist Dave Horne; finance director Michael Hayden and strategist Mac McCorkle. Gary Allen, a Charlotte-area developer and major contributor, also testified about two $50,000 contributions he gave to the party in 2003 and 2004.

None said they were involved in or were aware of efforts to use the party to funnel large contributions to Easley's campaigns in 2000 and 2004.

"I would never intentionally break the law," said Hayden, who has also worked on governor's campaigns in South Carolina and Oklahoma.


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/sto...


They pulled a hmmmm I wanna show my kids a movie.... how do I justify this in my lesson plans....

These folks are out of control. They are making repubs look like choir boys.

My prediction of a Dallas Cowboy collapse against the Atlanta Falcons was flat wrong. I'm happy for that. We saw the most complete game from the Dallas Cowboys in over two years. Who would've guessed? As a lifelong Cowboy fan I wonder what this week will hold.

Yesterday, a New York Times editorial had a lukewarm endorsement for a second stimulus package for our ailing economy. Republicans are already yelling at Obama has created a jobless recovery. Yet, they seem to have no understanding of how a recovery works. First, businesses began to make money and stop hemorrhaging money. Then, once there is enough demand for more product, businesses began to higher, again. Unfortunately, when we stand back and look at how our economy has changed over the last 30 years, we must ask ourselves, where are the jobs going to come from? Over the last 30 years, Republicans have stressed that corporations must be leaner and more efficient. This is cause corporations to push jobs overseas. Meaning, that there are less jobs here at home. So, I fear, as businesses begin to recover jobs will be created overseas and here at home. (more here...)

The jobs are the last thing to join the party. Timing is on Obama's side they are coming. Companies have been in defense mode for the last year. They have been rebuilding their cash reserves eventually the executives are going to have to be aggressive and to do that they have to hire. Let the Repubs have their moment.

100% correct but the Republican noise machine is trying to whip up fears among Americans that Obama's plan is not working.

What some people fail to realize is that most of these numbers are a look back. GDP was up last quarter 3.6 percent. It may not feel like it but the recession is officially over. If you do any historical research of any recession. The numbers improve and the last thing to come are the jobs.

They have also started focusing more on getting cheaper lines of credit to small businesses which are really going to drive job growth. I think the next 6 months are pivotal to turning things around.

Hadassah Lieberman's Ties to the Insurance Industry
by Tomaline
Share this on Twitter - Hadassah Lieberman's Ties to the Insurance Industry Wed Oct 28, 2009 at 02:57:50 AM PDT
More Reasons For Joe Lieberman to Oppose the Public Option

Tomaline's diary :: :: Sen. Lieberman has long been known to cultivate the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, which provide jobs in his home state and contributions to his campaign fund. But he has literally been sleeping with one of their Washington representatives ever since his wife, Hadassah, joined Hill & Knowlton last year. The legendary lobbying and PR firm hired her as a "senior counselor" in its "health and pharmaceuticals practice."

This news marked Hadassah Lieberman’s return to consulting after more than a decade of retirement. "I have had a life-long commitment to helping people gain better health care," she said in the press release announcing her new job. "I am excited about the opportunity to work with the talented team at Hill & Knowlton to counsel a terrific stable of clients toward that same goal.

It would be uplifting to imagine that Hill & Knowlton—after spending the past decade as a defendant in tobacco class-action lawsuits because of its role in propaganda disputing the deadly effects of smoking—is now devoted to improving everybody’s health. More likely, the firm remains devoted to improving the profits of its clientele, which has historically included Enron, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, Saudis, Kuwaitis, American International Group and Boeing.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/28/79...

Cyberattacks: Espionage now, sabotage soon
An analysis of recent cyberattacks on Korea and the US suggests that the nations with advanced digital sabotage capabilities have, so far, kept them in check... but it also says that we're only a few years from this technology filtering down to non-state actors.
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/10/re...

When I find article I will post it. U.S. officials were caught at IT expo abroad soliciting programmers to hack U.S. Internet users ala telecom invasion into privacy. The question is who is the cyberattacker working for?

CIA To Monitor Internet Chatter For Anti-Government Sentiment

House Bill Taps Largest Firms to Pay for U.S. Financial Rescues
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087...

The "too big to fails" are "too big" because of systemic robbery from the public, its time someone make them return the money they have stolen:

Wall Street created $7 billion in bonds for housing and schools. The tax-exempt deals were a ruse; banks and advisers collected millions in fees and investment gains. The public got nothing.
Broken Promises

You have to go back to Glass Stegall and break these firms up so they have clear lines of responsiblity. If this means they become small margin businesses so what. The interrellated effects on the economy were proved back in 1998 when Long Term Capital collapsed for mucking around in the government bond market.
You couldn't bankrupt AIG because except for the CDS compotent the insurance companies which were sound, the bankruptcy would have gutted IRA's, Keogh's and insurance policies.
There is a way around this. Go to the FED's of other countries and declare force majeure to declare all the CDS void. The economy will take another hit as junk bond status returns to bonds w/ higher ratings because multiple idiots sold insurance on them(CDS can best be described as Glad air freshener for shit bonds). The threat of world wide catastrophe disappears and stabilzation will occur quickly

Good Morning.Your Mid Week Jam Enjoy
Slave - Just A Touch Of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5KyBwSiQTc

To quote Run-D.M.C.:

"G--damn that DJ made my day!"

thanks dj

"Can we spend some time....."

The governors of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi completed a move we first reported several months ago, setting up a non-profit group to bolster their chances of getting jobs from award of the KC-45 tanker contract.

Governors Bob Riley (R-Ala), Haley Barbour (R-Miss.), and Bobby Jindal (R– La.) launched The Aerospace Alliance, intended to “establish the Gulf Coast and surrounding region as a world class aerospace, space and aviation corridor.”

As the press release about the new group said: “Members will advocate for policies, programs and specific aerospace projects on the local, state and national level.”

Southern Guvs Start Tanker Group

---

After years of organized looting from their captured populaces southern politicians look elsewhere for funds.

More socialism for the people who hate socialism.Refit the factories of Detroit,Ft.Wayne Illinois and Ohio to build the Tankers.Not one red cent for secessionist.

DON'T AWARD THEIR ASS WITH SHIT! FUCK EM'

Tell 'em how you really feel!

Central Bucks parents want answers.

A standing-room-only crowd packed the district's school board meeting Tuesday night asking how officials plan to deal with what some parents are calling a racist cartoon.

The cartoon, which was on a math class work sheet at Lenape Middle School, featured a photo of a black man wearing a straw hat, shirt and suspenders, with his mostly toothless mouth wide open. As if to underscore the man's stupidity, at the bottom of the picture was written, "NO WAI!!!"

The mother of the only black student in the class contacted the district Monday about the offensive cartoon.

Her son had been teased by another child when the assignment was distributed.

Parents, most of whom were black, took the podium...

Parents call for district sensitivity training

Milton H. Jones, Jr., Chairman and President, 100 Black Men of Atlanta, Inc., and John T. Grant, Jr., CEO, along with Members of the Board of Directors are pleased to announce a contribution of $84,000 from The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation to 100 Black Men of Atlanta, Inc. in support of the 2009 Capital Campaign. “On behalf of our students, we sincerely thank The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation., stated Chairman Jones. “This contribution is directed to our building fund development efforts, which includes expansion and technology upgrades to our 100 Resource Learning Center, Computer Lab, Library and Robotics Lab,” The facility houses the organization’s Project Success Program, a college preparatory and tuition assistance program that has been successfully educating youth for 22 years.

Wachovia Wells Fargo Donates $84,000 to 100 Black Men Of Atlanta, Inc.

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Will 100 Black Men one day walk the hall of Wells Fargo shame like Tavis?

Probably not. Groups are less susceptible to pressure than indidviduals. I suspect 100 Black Men is very divierisified in backgrounds compared to an institutionalized group like the NAACP.

Do you think the "new and improved" Wells Fargo have decided to change its predatory practices targeting POC?

Yes. they have destroyed their name in the marketplace. They will be closed shortly if this adminsitrat.ion has any stones

NO

do leopards really change their spots? I am sure they will find another way to stick it to POC.

My oh-so-brilliant and ethical academic friend was asked how to deal with a sensitive issue of capitalization by another academic recently. I found her answer is so thought-provoking, I am sharing it here.

Question: If I am speaking specifically of a black or white pastor, do I capitalize Black or White? What about if I'm speaking of the Black church or the Black Church?

Answer: Oh, this one is a big ol' can of worms! Some people capitalize Black but not white, perhaps on the theory that the capital "B" affords a certain respect to a more-or-less unified ethnic group, whereas "white" does not refer to any particular ethnicity. So, for example, it could be argued that the expression "the Black church" or "Black churches" suggests the existence of some shared characteristics -- ritual practices, theology, inculturation -- among those churches, perhaps as a result of the history of people of African descent in this country. But the parallel expression "the White church" does not usually evoke a similar idea, in fact it sounds odd: because there is no identifiably "white" way of worshiping.

Some folks capitalize "Black" but not "white" because the latter refers to a dominant -- and therefore paradoxically invisible -- grouping, whose hegemony dictates the "normal," from which identifiable ethnic or racial groups can be recognized as deviating -- or less pejoratively -- differing. So the "different" groups get capitalized (e.g., Latinos, Asians) in distinction from the norm, which is "white." In this view, "Black" has as much claim to capitalization as "Latino."

More recently, the advocates of the field of White Studies -- which is in part the study of white hegemony and in part the study of particular ethnic strains within white America ("America" being a term I usually render "United States", because America is bigger than the U.S. -- but that's another kettle of fish!). So these folks, in an attempt to indicate the illegitimacy of a white norm, capitalize "White" to indicate its place as one among many groups, rather than as the true north from which all others deviate.

Some folks prefer to render both "black" and "white" in lower case, thereby avoiding the problem. I think this is common practice among many sociologists.

Should we write "Black" or "black"?

I don't find the issue of capital B or lower case a big one

Capitalize it...for me... too many times of me reading old newspapers and seeing the lowercase 'negro'.

AfricanAmericans are not an ethnic group. We are a racial group. I would try and move the usage for AA's from Black/black to AA.