Eclectablog

Wait. Due process is now just being "politically correct"?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:23:00 +0000

A few days ago, I wrote a diary for the Daily Kos that's part of a series I call "Forays Into Freeperville" where I got to the Free Republic and cull out some of the most over-the-top, insane comments I can find. It's not hard to find them, of course, and I suppose a bit of my soul dies each time I go there.

The last one I did covered the topic of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the odious Fort Hood shooter. I doubt there are many people in this country that will defend him. Certainly there are those who would show a bit of compassion and ask why he went off his nut and killed his fellow soldiers. But, at the end of the discussion, nobody is asking for him to be treated any differently than any other mass murderer.

But there's been a shift of late in discussions about due process and civil rights and how to treat criminals. Where we were once a country that prided itself holding due process and civil rights in high esteem, there is now an element on the conservative side that sneers when due process must be allowed to proceed or when civil rights are invoked. Indeed, these people see this as just being "politically correct". As if we're going through the motions to coddle the alleged perpetrator at the expense of rationality and the needs of the victims.

Good gods, when did this happen?

Here are a couple of examples of comments regarding Hasan that illustrate my point. They are taken from the comments to articles posted at the Free Republic and are, admittedly some of the more fringey perspectives you'll find. But they illustrate the concept very well.

This is from someone who calls themself TYVets:

As soon as Hasan the terrorist is well enough, waterboard him until he is drained of all information.

Then put him on trial.

To hell with niceties and political correctness.

This is from yorkie01 in response to President Obama's request not to jump to conclusions until all the facts are available:

Barry, you’re hardly in a position to hand out advice like this. How quickly you forget how fast you ran to Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates’ side or to Honduran former president Zelaya’s side. Your sophomoric zeal in favor of your positions is insane. Hasan, a muslim, was in a room filled with military men and women while he raised pistols and fired indiscriminately at our troops. This is Islamic terrorism striking terror in the hearts and minds of those affected as well as our nation. FBI, stay out of this! Military tribunal, no political correctness - apply Whabbi Sharia law tactics. End the pathetic sycophantical slobbering by our leftwing appeasers.

In the first example, the writer suggests that bans on torture are simply exercises in political correctness. The second writer has no need for the due process laws we have in this country, they would proceed directly to the punishment.

Honestly, one commenter, grey whiskers simply posted this picture:

Today I spent a couple of hours driving to a customer's location in North Carolina and had the dubious "pleasure" of listening to the Glenn Beck show on satellite radio. Glenn's out recovering from appendicitis surgery but the host, Pat, filled in nicely. A number of callers called in to rail against the political correctness of this country and one caller in particular was outraged that Hasan is going to get a military trial. In the caller's mind, Hasan is a terrorist and should be dealt with like we deal with all our terrorists, presumably tortured and then killed.

I'm struggling to get my mind around this. Why would conservatives, a group of people who hold our American Constitution in such high regard that it appears to be second only to the Bible, be moving away from the bedrock, fundamental elements that are outlined in the Constitution? If you read through my other diary, you get a real sense that things like a fair trial, a right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, a presumption of innocence until proven otherwise and a number of other most basic inalienable rights are now some perverse subordination to the whims of liberals.

Many of these people are the same folks who will scour the 10th Amendment for the most tenuous of arguments to avoid having their states participate in health care reform. Yet when it comes to the very clear and obvious rules set forth in that great document, they see their use as something weak and undesirable.

I'm not sure what to do with this realization. I don't know if they are capable of hearing us when we point this out to them. Or if they are even capable of having a civil discussion about this topic.

But I do think we need to be vigilant.

The term "liberal" all but become invective in the hands of conservatives over the past few decades. That was because they used consistently and relentlessly as a way of negatively branding those they disagreed with. The expression "political correctness" followed the same path. We must be intensely vigilant that they are not able to do the same thing to the rights that we all share as Americans. Things like civil rights, due process rights and the right to never, ever, under any circumstances be tortured by your government must not only kept from being viewed as weak or "politically correct", they must be continuously be held in the highest esteem and constantly renewed. For these are the things that do make our country great and that distinguish us from our enemies.

I'm just sayin'...

GOP takes measure of HCR bill. No, I mean LITERALLY.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:34:00 +0000

I'm on so many goddam email lists. Some how I managed to stay on MI-08 Representative Mike Roger's list. He's often viewed as a "moderate" Republican but he's anything but.

This morning, his latest email graced my inbox and in it, he takes measure of H.R. 3962, the House bill to reform health care insurance in this country.

No, I mean he really takes measure of it.

With a ruler.

Speaker Pelosi and House Democrat leaders have announced plans to vote on a massive, 1,990 page, 20-pound health reform bill. Here is what the bill looks like:

Oooo! Scary! Bills that are tall should be FEEEEEEEEEEARRRED!!!

Look! It's almost 11 INCHES TALL!!! How can it possibly be good? It is TALL and from the Obamacrats so it MUST be eeeeeeeevil!!!

What the heck is it with Republicans and their fear of large bills? Do they honestly think they can enact comprehensive reform of an industry that makes up upwards of 15% of our national economy with just a handful of pages?

Here's John Boehner doing a similar photo-op sans the ruler:

And Rep. Steve Scalise from Louisiana:

Yes, that right thar is some seriously frightening legislation. You can just tell.

'Cause it's tall.

Whatevs.

I'm just sayin'...

Kitteh Boxin'

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:15:00 +0000

A little kitteh boxin' for your viewin' pleasure:

And in THIS cornah...

I'm just sayin'...

Punkins, Punkins, Punkins! The coolest punkins evah!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:42:00 +0000

I love Halloween but I'm not much of a punkin carver. However, I love looking at them. Here's a bunch of the coolest punkins I could find on the web.

Well, except this one. It was taken by my wife:

From her Flickr page:

I'm posting this in honor of my father whose favorite holiday was halloween. Every year until I was 18 we carved pumpkins together. They were all night projects carving crazy detailed pumpkins of things like skeletons and wolves.

This photo was taken in college for my senior project of mixed lighting. It was taken with a Pentex K1000 inherited from my father. I'm posting as a thank you to my dad who gave me both an appreciation for the carved pumpkin and a love for photography.

First, here are a few awesome ones from Pumpkin Way. I love these so much I made myself some computer wallpaper which you can see HERE

Here's the Big Mac punkin:

An irregular punkin and some spray paint can make for a creeee-eeeepy punkin:

Cool elephant punkin:

Here's a selection of amazing punkins from Villafane Studios:

Here's the Vogue (yes, that Vogue) punkin. It comes with How-To Instructions. Totally not kidding:

A scary jQuery for the geeky coders out there:

The United States of Punkins:

On the patriotic theme, we have the Statue of Liberty punkin:

One for Pulp Fiction fans, it's The Gimp punkin:

One of my favorite movies from one of my favorite directors, it's The Birds punkin, a great tribute to the amazing Alfred Hitchcock:

The most creative Squid punkin:

And then the Spiral Sliced punkin:

The Gollum punkin, my preshessssss:

The inevitable Hopey McHopington punkin:

Heath Ledger as The Joker punkin:

Boris Karloff's FrankenPunkin:

Okay, can I just say some people are overachievers???

Gotsta have some skeleton punkins like this crazy one:

And another one from Villafane Studios:

And a Spider Man punkin!

Here's the Pi punkin (or, more accurately "Punkin Pi"):

One more. This one is from this year and was carved by my wife from two of our garden peppers:

Okay, one more. Not a punkin but scary nonetheless. This is me, Eclectablog the Plumber, last year on Halloween. My wife and I stopped by the Arbor Brewing Company in Ann Arbor for a beer after a hard day's work preparing for the weekend's GOTV effort we were leading. Who should walk in but Sarah Palin. This picture was actually on the Huffington Post!

I'm just sayin'...Happy Halloween!

The Politics of Formaldehyde: As goes Calif., so goes the U.S.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:25:00 +0000

Cross-posted at DK Greenroots.

After Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of families from Louisiana and Mississippi, displaced by the storm that destroyed their homes, were placed in trailers provided by the federal government. Almost immediately calls began to come in to FEMA complaining about breathing problems and other maladies as a result of staying in the trailers.

It turns out the building materials in the trailers, primarily the carpeting and, even more so, the wood paneling, were emitting formaldehyde at up to 400 times the legal limits. As usual, there was a government cover-up to downplay the negative health impacts of formaldehyde, a known cancer suspect agent and highly toxic gas.

But that's not what this blog entry is about.

It's about efforts by the Obama administration (through the EPA) and a Democratic Senator, Amy Klobuchar, to make sure this NEVER happens again and to ensure the safety of ALL Americans when it comes to formaldehyde in their homes.

A couple of years ago, the state of California, through the California Air Resources Board (CARB), announced that it was moving toward new regulations dramatically limiting the emissions of formaldehyde by wood composites and engineered wood panels used in the manufacture of housing. The companies making the formaldehyde-emitting resins shrieked. The wood composites manufacturers freaked. An advertising blitz downplaying the problem was immediately launched. But, in the end, CARB prevailed and in 2007 they passed the new legislation. Phase One went into effect January 1st of this year and Phase Two which lowers allowable emission rates follows in 2011.

Because the California market is so huge and because they generally lead the way on health and environmental legislation, manufacturers of the types of materials that are polluting the Katrina trailers have had to make big changes across the board (no pun intended.) In other words, they don't just make a product for California because it's not practical. They've changed ALL of their operations. And that's a good thing

So despite the hue and cry from industry and anti-regulatory forces, groups that condemned CARB's actions, the real winners are the consumers in the USA. We'll all be a bit safer after this, thanks to California.

But now the regulatory effort is going beyond California's CARB regulation. First, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) got involved:

Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

On December 3, 2008, EPA published in the Federal Register an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) that:

Describes EPA's initial steps to investigate potential actions to protect against risks posed by formaldehyde emitted from pressed wood products used in manufactured homes and other places;

Requests comment, information and data relating to formaldehyde emissions from pressed wood products.

On January 30, 2009 EPA announced in the Federal Register that it was extending the comment period on the ANPR for 45 days and that it would holding one additional public meeting to enable more complete public participation.

This rulemaking is in progress but it has become as political football. Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter is blocking the appointment of Paul Anastas to a position as EPA's assistant administrator in charge of its Office of Research and Development. Anastas is known as the "Father of Green Chemistry" and is a superb choice for this position. However, Vitter wants the EPA to study formaldehyde more. What's that? A Republican Senator using delay tactics to prevent sensible consumer protection? What. Are. The. Odds???

After his nomination back in May, a key Senate panel easily approved Anastas in July. But now, Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter is blocking Anastas' nomination because he wants the EPA to submit to a review of its formaldehyde risk assessment by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS). [...] The agency disagrees with Vitter's position and believes additional research is unnecessary. 'The research has been done and we are ready to move forward,' states agency spokesperson Adora Andy. The concern is that an NAS study could delay resolution and action on formaldehyde toxicity.

In the meantime, Democrats in Congress aren't waiting around. On September 11th, United Press International (UPI) reported that Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced legislation to curb indoor emissions of formaldehyde. Mike Crapo (R-ID) was a co-sponsor. From her press release regarding S. 1660 - The Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Act:

“I’ve always believed that the first responsibility of government is to protect its citizens,” said Klobuchar. “High levels of formaldehyde are a health threat. This bill will establish national standards that, when fully phased-in, will be the strongest in the world. These standards will both protect public health and ensure an even playing field between domestic wood products and foreign imports.” Klobuchar added: “This legislation is pro-industry, pro-consumer, pro-environment and pro-public health. Its passage will be a legislative grand slam.” Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said, “I would like to thank Senator Klobuchar for her leadership on this issue, and I am pleased to lend my support to this legislation, which will supply manufacturers of composite wood products with a uniform standard for formaldehyde in wood products. In addition to providing certainty for industry, this bill aims to achieve important public health benefits as well.”

Now that's bipartisanship you can believe in! More from an article by the Wall Street Journal:

Currently, there is no federal standard for formaldehyde emissions in most homes. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has set limits on formaldehyde in plywood and particleboard, but they apply specifically to materials used to build prefabricated and mobile homes. Under the proposed legislation, composite wood products sold in the U.S. would have to meet formaldehyde-emission standards of about 0.09 parts per million by January 2012, matching standards recently adopted by California.

Of course, the makers of formaldehyde resins aren't going to take this lying down and you can expect serious pushback from them. From the UPI article:

Betsy Natz, executive director of the Formaldehyde Council Inc., said in a statement the council has yet to review the proposed legislation but research indicates "there is essentially no risk" from the typical exposure to the preservative in U.S.-made products.

Tell that to all those people who got gassed out in their Katrina trailers, lady. I work closely with this industry. There are alternative and much safer resins available and they are making major inroads at displacing the use of urea-formaldehyde and phenol-formaldehyde resins. In fact, the entire process could be used as a case study for the impacts on markets of consumer protection regulation. As a void is created, other technologies rush in to fill it and the winners are the companies that can solve a technological problem in the safest, most cost-effective way. Stay tuned as the Politics of Formaldehyde play themselves out over the next year or so. And, while your at it, here are three things you can do to help the process along: 1. Call or write Senator Vitter and ask him to quit delaying the appointment of Paul Anastas to a position as EPA's assistant administrator in charge of its Office of Research and Development.

Contact information for Senator Vitter: Website HERE Email webpage HERE Washington, D.C. Office 516 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Main: (202) 224-4623 Fax: (202) 228-5061 Other offices can be found HERE

2. Contact Senators Klobuchar and Crapo and thank them for their legislation.

Contact information for Senator Klobuchar: Website HERE Email page HERE Washington, DC office 302 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 phone: 202-224-3244 fax: 202-228-2186 Other offices HERE Contact information for Senator Crapo: Website HERE Email page HERE Washington, DC office 239 Dirksen Senate Building Washington, DC 20510 Phone: (202) 224-6142 Fax: (202) 228-1375 Other offices HERE

3. Contact your own Senator and urge them to support Klobuchar's bill, S. 1660 - The Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Act.

Once again, California has led the nation in progressive initiatives. And what's happening here in the USA will spread across the globe. Although wood is not used as a housing material nearly as much in other parts of the world, there is a great deal of housing construction material made from wood composites that are imported into North America and they will be affected by these actions as well.

I'm just sayin'...

Before we break out the champagne for Harry Reid...

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:01:00 +0000

Fifty votes to pass a bill out of the Senate. That's what we need. We don't need fifty-one. We don't need sixty. We need fifty. Vice president Biden would cast the tie-breaking vote and the bill moves on.

We have sixty Senators that are in the Democratic caucus but we can lose ten of them and still pass a bill.

So why are we heaping praise on Reid? Because he put something in the health insurance reform bill that a majority of Americans want and a majority of Democrats want? That makes him some sort of hero. For cryin' out loud, we shouldn't even be discussing IF he would do this!

The only reason we're talking about it is because Reid can't count on 20% of his caucus not to jump ship and vote against cloture that would end a Republican filibuster.

That's not leadership and I'm not cheering him.

Personally, I never believed there was any question about whether or not Reid would put some sort of public option in the combined Senate bill. He's an astute enough politician to know that if he didn't his days as a Senator Majority Leader were surely numbered. Hell, maybe even his days as a Senator.

But we've had to spend the past week watching him hem and haw over whether he would put a public option in and would it have a trigger and would it have an opt-in or an opt-out clause and would rates be tied somehow to Medicare blah blah blah...

None of this should have even been an issue. Reid should have come to this point knowing that he had the solid support of his caucus and that they would all vote to shut down a filibuster when the time came to vote. Hell, ten of them could vote against the bill itself if they wanted, they just need to allow it to go to a vote. Instead, he's got such little control over his caucus that we have to appease Conservadems that are barely to the left of most Republicans and probably more conservative than a couple of them.

And Olympia Snowe? Why the hell should we give a flying fuck what she thinks about this bill? Her vote on the Senate Finance Committee didn't mean a damn thing and this one shouldn't have either. Sure, voting against her party took guts but who gives a damn if it prevents elections from having consequences?

You know what? I bet the right isn't talking about how gutsy Blanche Lincoln is. Or Ben Nelson. Or Mary Landrieu. They know damn well Democrats, under Harry Reid's leadership won't inflict any consequences on them. How can they be called gutsy if they aren't risking anything? Instead we have to dick around arguing about the nuances of a triggeredtriggerlessoptinoptoutMedicare+5 yada yada yada public option so we can appease these people. So much for being disciplined...

I'm sure a bunch of you lay this at the president's doorstep but I don't. Getting legislation passed is the job of Congress and Harry Reid is the Senate Majority Leader. The president has done his job of setting the agenda and getting people to express their desires to their members of Congress. They all know by now what we want. Now it's up to them to deliver. Nancy Pelosi seems to get that.

So, yeah, Harry. Great. You put the public option in. Hooray.

But something tells me if we had someone like Alan Grayson in your seat, someone willing to tell the country in plainspeak that people are going BANKRUPT every day and that people are DYING every day because of lack of action, we'd be much farther down the road toward something truly progressive, foreward-thinking and helpful to the citizens of our country. Just think what this would look like with someone like Grayson willing to publicly name names and call out and publicly shame these recalcitrant DINOs who won't vote to end a filibuster so that the public knows just who they are and what they are doing, unlike you, Harry, who won't even tell us who all these people are!

I think I'll just hold off on the champagne until we replace Harry Reid with someone like that.

I'm just sayin'...

The Truth About Rick Astley

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Finally, the truth about Rick Astley revealed:

[Source]

I'm just sayin'...

Methinks the health insurance cos. doth protest too much

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:55:00 +0000

This week Democrats in both houses of Congress started down the road of stripping exemption from antitrust laws from the health insurance industry.

This has them all adither.

From the Associated Press:

Responding to the day's developments, the industry said the legislation was based on a misperception of existing law. "We believe that health insurers have not been engaging in anticompetitive conduct and that McCarran-Ferguson does not provide a shield for such conduct," Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of American's Health Insurance Plans, wrote to Rep. John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the Houses Judiciary Committee.

"Thus, the bills attempt to remedy a problem that does not exist," she wrote.

Really? Then why would this legislation bother you? Methinks thou doth protest too much.

During the debates over the Patriot Act, we heard time and again that people who aren't doing anything wrong have nothing to worry about. Not plotting against the government? Not engaging in terrorist activities? Then you have nothing to worry about if the federal government snoops on your private phone conversations or emails. Not breaking any laws? Then you have nothing to worry about with those laws, right?

So, why complain then, if the health insurance industry claims they aren't engaging in collusion, price setting, market allocation and other anticompetitive conduct? Why would they care if Congress passes laws stopping them from doing things they claim they aren't doing?

I can't be sure but it hasn't stopped them from caring or complaining:

AHIP, Washington, has written to the leaders of the House and Senate judiciary committees to oppose S. 1681 and H.R. 3596, bills that seek to roll back the antitrust exemption provisions of the McCarran-Ferguson Act for health and medical malpractice insurers.

And this, from Leigh Ann Pusey, president and CEO of the American Insurance Association:

This bill would completely disrupt the industry's business environment and create substantial legal uncertainty and unnecessary litigation. Any repeal of McCarran will undercut the primary purpose of antitrust laws, which are designed to promote market competition free from government or private interference.

Boy, talk about protesting too much...

Senator Leahy agrees with me:

“Insurers should not object to being subject to the same antitrust laws as everyone else. If they are operating in an appropriate way, they should have nothing to fear. It is time for Congress to stick up for consumers, rather than roll over for the insurance industry.”

Well said, Senator, well said.

So, again, why are they complaining about a law preventing them from doing what they say that are NOT doing?

I think we all know the answer to that one. Typically, when someone complains this vociferously about being asked to stop doing something they claim they aren't doing, in reality, they're doing it.

And it would be nice if they'd (a) stop lying about it and (b) stop "doing it" to us.

In other words:

[Graphic by Eclectablog]

I'm just sayin'...

Ocote Soul Sounds LIVE!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:29:00 +0000

Ocote Soul Sounds:

Check 'em out. They are HOT!

Dueling flutes?! Oh yeah..

I'm just sayin'...

Lazy Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:41:00 +0000

Took the day off work to enjoy the one and only Indian Summer day of 2009.

Got some food + beer:

Put in on the Huron River (along with a buncha other smart folks):

Then enjoyed the day on the river, photographing, drinking and floating:

Even met up with some friends on the river. Life is good.

Oh, and tonight? Thievery Corporation concert at the Royal Oak Music Theater. Oh, yeah.
(Blogged from my iPhone while in my kayak on the river.)

I'm just sayin'...

The Power of Organizing for America - Yes we WILL!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:49:00 +0000

316,296 calls to members of Congress in one day. THAT'S the power of Organizing for America.

Time to Deliver phone call drive to members of Congress proved the power of OFA and how it will be a major force to contend with in future legislative debates and elections.

The goal was 100,000 calls and commits to call in support of President Obama's health insurance reform plan. The result was, well, unbelievable.

316,296 CALLS!

The 100,000 call goal for the day was smashed by 2:30 p.m. And that was before the evening phone banks across the country had even gotten started.

I arrived about 25 minutes late to the Ann Arbor phone bank in my area. I was handed the last call sheet and was done 45 minutes later. We literally had so many volunteer phone bankers that we ran out of lists.

I talked to a variety of people as I was calling and every one of them said they support the president's plan as he outlined it to the joint session of Congress last month. Every one of them said they would commit to calling their member of Congress. Most of them said they were for a strong public option and were happy to hear the president is too.

Here's how OFA head Mitch Stewart put it in an email to us this morning:

Your voice was overwhelming -- with reports in the media of congressional offices "completely crushed with calls." CBS News described your effort as an "onslaught." And a congressional aide was quoted with a common response, saying their office was deluged by "pretty much non-stop health care calls from OFA."

You set a new OFA record, you caught the national media's attention, and you certainly put Congress on notice.

But there's a bit more to this achievement. Underlying the effort are lists of Obama supporters, people identified during the campaign of being in support of the president and his goals.

These lists of supportive Democrats were honed and refined throughout the entire spring, summer and fall of 2008. The Voter Action Network (VAN) database was improved and strengthened by OFA volunteers as they called and knocked on the doors of a staggering and unprecedented number of voters, culling out the non-supporters, the wrong numbers/addresses and adding email addresses to the mix.

What the Democrats have in their hands now is access to gigantic pool of people who now feel empowered by the election of Barack Obama to the White House and who will be ready to step up in 2010 and beyond to work for other Democrats to get them elected at the local, state and federal levels.

Yesterday showed the power of what OFA can do. Grassroots volunteers, guided by neighborhood team leaders and a small handful of paid staff at the state and regional level, CAN make a difference. They CAN speak with a loud voice in a way that gets noticed.

Yes we can. Yes we did. Yes we will.

I'm just sayin'...

U$ Chamb. of Commerce: all Bang Flag gun, no ammo

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:31:00 +0000

Over $10 million per month to lobby Congress, that is.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is under a lot of heat these days. Between being considered persona non grata by the Obama administration and being punk'd by a progressive activist group to losing scads of members due to their positions on climate change legislation and health care reform, they are in the news a LOT lately. And not in a good way.

But that hasn't stopped them from spending over a $34 million last quarter to lobby Congress.

Yup. They spent $34.7 MILLION last quarter to influence the federal government. That's more than the next 18 largest-spending companies put together.

Here’s what the White House is up against as it tries to cut the legs out from underneath the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce: $34.7 million.

That’s the jaw-dropping amount the Chamber shelled out to influence the federal government in the third quarter of 2009, according to a report filed with the Senate on Monday.

The figure is greater than the sum of the next 18 highest filers so far, including the Chamber’s separate Institute for Legal Reform, who combined to spend $30.9 million. Many third-quarter reports will not be filed until tomorrow, when they are due.

And what are they getting for their money?

Losing the fight to kill health insurance reform.
Mass defections from the likes of Apple, multiple energy companies and Levi Strauss & Co.
National ridicule for being the butt of hoax this week.
A complete diss from the Obama administration.
Anti-green energy campaigns are ignored and ridiculed.
A public perception that's starting to see them, more than ever before, as a spokesgroup for corporate greed, particularly in light of their call for a new "Scopes Monkey Trial" on global climate change.

Yesterday, they were questioned by radio talk show host Warren Olney as to why they are supporting Big Banks when this seems counter to the interests of their members:

Warren Olney: “Mr. Hirschmann, back to you. Are you serving the interests of your own members, if you resist the idea of breaking up the big banks?” David Hirschmann (leading the Chamber’s financial lobbying efforts): “I just don’t think the question is whether we need to break up the big banks. The question is how do we ensure that the kinds of practices that they engaged in — and others outside the banking system — don’t happen any more. Which is why we pointed to transparency in areas like derivatives and leverage.”

Seeking Alpha's Simon Johnson put it this way:

There is a long tradition in the United States of big business trampling on independent entrepreneurs, and of those entrepreneurs fighting back through the ballot box. This time around, big banks captured their regulators, badly damaged small firms, and look set to do it again. Why is the Chamber of Commerce refusing to stand up for small business?

Why indeed? And why have they been claiming to represent "more than 3 million businesses and organizations" when the actual number is about a tenth of that? It appears that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has become the exclusive club of the largest, greediest, most self-serving of the nation's businesses. While this has probably been true for decades, Americans are starting to actually notice. Meanwhile, those companies that care about our workers, our environment and our citizens' health care plight are defecting and heaping ridicule on them.

They may think they can spend huge sums of money to change the course of the country but, with all of this negative publicity, the handwriting appears to be on the wall. Like their ~~"grassroots"~~ astro-turf minions in the Tea Party Patriots (who are still begging for money, by the way) and those shipped in to attend "Energy Citizens" rallies, they are a lot of noise with very little long-term impact. When Americans see the role they are playing in meddling in federal policy and in efforts to make our world a better place, their campaigns and ads become just a lot of noise with no impact: all Bang Flag Gun and no ammo.

And that, as someone once said, is a Good Thing.

Oh, one more thing: in an interesting bit of irony, I visited the Chamber of Commerce website today and saw this:

Notice the error message?

ChamberofCommerce.com its out of date for technical problems...

Boy, I'll say... heh, heh

I'm just sayin'...

Detroit News STILL has ACORN Derangement Syndrome

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:34:00 +0000

In Sunday's edition of the combined Detroit Free Press and Detroit News (they publish jointly on Sundays), Detroit News Editorial Page editor and all around numbskull Nolan Findlay had an editorial titled "Bet on it: ACORN will be back".

The mind-blowing thing about it is that man like Nolan, immersed daily in the news of the day/week/year, still manages to either be willfully ignorant of the facts or to intentionally lie about those facts.

ACORN may be down, but don't count it out.

The elaborate propaganda apparatus
erected to support the Obama agenda is already at work spinning the downfall of the community organization into a vicious right-wing plot to destroy the presidency of Barack Obama, who sprouted from ACORN.

[...]

...ACORN was caught registering cartoon characters and dead people to vote...

Nice, Nolan. Don't worry about getting your facts straight.

Rachel Maddow has done an amazing job of
debunking much of the hoo-hah surrounding ACORN (video HERE.) She has made the point, as others have, that ACORN has never been found guilty of ANY voter registration fraud. When they found that some people had registered fictitious names (like "Mickey Mouse") they reported it. By law they were forced to turn in the registrations but they pointed them out to officials. They were not "caught registering cartoon characters and dead people". Sorry, Nolan. That didn't happen.

And, yes, some of their employees were caught doing what look like some ridiculous things (although one of them did report what he had seen after the fact.) But that doesn't characterize the entire organization.

Unless, of course, you suffer from ACORN Derangement Syndrome.

And, really. Obama "sprouted from" ACORN? Hardly. Barack Obama sprouted from his work as a community organizer for the Gamaliel Foundation, hired by Mike Kruglik when he was a young man. Obama's connections to ACORN have been rather tenuous and most of the claims made about these connections by the McCain campaign last year have been debunked or shown to be half-truths. TocqueDeville had great diary a year ago that dissected this topic in detail. Great read, even a year later.

I wonder if Findlay thought that Enron should be shut down after employees
were caught on tape plotting to drive up energy prices by shutting down power plants? Or if all military contractors that have been ACTUALLY found guilty of gaming the federal procurement system and ripping off American taxpayers should be forced to close their doors?

My guess: no. He wouldn't even give such things a second thought because you don't hold the entire company responsible for actions of a few idiots that work for that company.

It's a sad fact that even those who should know better continue to suffer from ACORN Derangement Syndrome. I guess it's a testament to the power of groups of people working together to enfranchise otherwise powerless or voiceless groups of Americans. I suppose it's also something to be glad about when our political opponents have to stoop to such low levels to win races and debates that they will create phony outrage and then perpetuate lies long-since disproven just to have a shot a one day regaining their power.

If you ask me, they need to get medical treatment for their ACORN Derangement Syndrome first.

That is, if it wasn't a pre-existing condition.

I'm just sayin'...

Sen. Kyl: "I'm not sure people die because they don't have health ins."

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:01:00 +0000

Watching Meet the Press this morning, I was shocked to hear Senator John Kyl say this:

I'm not sure that it's a fact that more and more people die because they don't have health insurance. But because they don't have health insurance, the care is not delivered in the best and most efficient way.

Uh, dude, you're a goddam SENATOR! Haven't you been PAYING ATTENTION???!!!

This isn't rocket science, Senator. A Harvard study found that 45.000 people a year die due to lack of health care coverage.

I know it.

Proponents of health care reform know it.

Pretty much any thinking person that is paying the least modicum of attention knows this.

FactCheck.org even says:

Now, on to the tough question: Is the 45,000 figure accurate? We can’t say for sure, but scores of other studies also conclude that persons without health insurance have a higher chance of dying prematurely than those with health insurance.

People ARE dying because they don't have access to health care insurance. They postpone treatments, they quit taking medications, they wait until things are SO bad that they need emergency care.

And some of them die.

Quit pretending that you aren't aware of this. It's common knowledge.

Perhaps if you weren't so beholden to the health insurance industry ($106,000 since 2004), you'd be able to see what everyone else already knows:

People ARE dying because they don't have access to health care insurance.

I'm just sayin'...

Michigan GOP leadership holds state budget hostage

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:32:00 +0000

It's no secret that Michigan's economy is in big trouble. We lead the nation in unemployment. Wages are going down for those that remain employed and, according to Republican Senate Maj. Leader Mike Bishop, that's a good thing:

State Senate Majority Leader Michael Bishop (R) says...[t]he state...needs to change its image and "create an environment where taxes are low, labor costs are low, and not send so many negative vibes."

That's our Republican leadership in Michigan, fighting to keep wages of our workers low.

Well Bishop has now gone a step further and is now holding the entire state budget hostage.

Details after the jump.

Michigan's fiscal year ended on September 30th and, for two hours, our government went unfunded until at 2 in the morning a stop gap bill was passed. Our House is controlled by Democrats and we have a Democratic governor, Jennifer Granholm. However, the Senate is controlled by the Republicans. The relationship between Majority Leader Mike Bishop and Governor Granholm is adversarial at best, toxic at worst.

The state is now operating under an temporary extension of last year's budget that expires on Halloween. In the meantime, the Congress has been toiling long hours to get a budget deal hammered out. At risk are things like K-12 per-pupil expenditures for schools, Medicaid, money local governments use for police and fire protection, and funding for "The Michigan Promise".

That last one is particularly ironic. Several years ago, Michigan enacted the Michigan Promise scholarship. This scholarship, worth up to $4,000 to Michigan student who stay in Michigan and go to college here. But, the "promise" has turned out to be more of a "tease". Because Republicans want a cuts-only budget, with no additional revenue enhancement, the "Promise" may very well go away.

So much for the kids. Just throw 'em there under the bus, Mike.

This week, the Congress passed 15 budget bills to keep the state going. However, because Bishop wants to play games, he's holding back six of the bills and won't give them to the governor to sign. Seriously. The Congress has passed them, he just won't give them to the governor.

Granholm has a line-item veto and Bishop is afraid she'll veto some or all of the bills so he's holding onto them to keep her from doing it.

Bishop is, as you might imagine, being eviscerated in the press.

From the Detroit Free Press:

A meeting between Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop Wednesday did little to clear any of the fog building in advance of another potential showdown, which this time around would occur on Halloween. Certainly the Republican-majority Senate could take a step in the right direction today by moving the six remaining budget bills to Granholm, so she can sign them, veto them or exercise her line-item veto power.

[...]

Without additional funding from somewhere, all Medicaid payments from the state will be slashed by 8% from what doctors, hospitals and other institutions were receiving a year ago. It won't help anyone if hospitals and nursing homes start to go out of business, or if doctors refuse to take more Medicaid patients. The Senate admirably made some hard choices early last summer when it passed budget bills that kept the state's books in balance without any new sources of revenue. But even they may have assumed that the 8% Medicaid cut was merely an opening bid. Surely they do not want to leave a legacy of closed nursing homes and failing hospitals.

Every day that the Senate refuses to act, whether on a few tax compromises or on moving budget bills to the governor, is a day lost to discussion of long-term changes.

From the Lansing State Journal:

Michigan is two weeks into its budget year without an actual budget. The Senate, per its constitutional duty, has been approving budget bills. Some have been sent to the governor's desk for enactment into law, or veto.

Other budget bills haven't reached Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The Senate's holding them back - for political reasons.

[...]

Bishop, though, seems to be betting on a little brinkmanship to carry the day. If he can keep budget bills off Granholm's desk until the end of October - until the end of the one-month reprieve purchased two weeks ago - he may force Granholm to sign aboard. Alternatively, he can try to blame her for the whole mess if Nov. 1 arrives without a complete budget.

That may be Bishop's agenda. It shouldn't be Michigan's.

This has been going on for over a week. Michigan is saddled with 15+% unemployment (TWICE that in Detroit) and Mike Bishop is playing brinkmanship games. Fortunately, it looks like he might give the bills to the Governor some time next week.

This is the face of today's GOP. Reject any new ways to raise revenues, cut essential programs to the bone while killing others, and then play political chess up until the last minute to prevent any sort of real dialog.

The sad part is, Republicans have a good chance of regaining the Governor's office in 2010.

I'm just sayin'...

Grab a damn mop

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:00:00 +0000

President Obama has a way of putting it all in perspective sometimes:

"I'm busy, Nancy's busy with her mop cleaning up somebody else's mess. We don't want somebody sitting back saying you're not holding the mop the right way.

"Why don't you grab a mop? Why don't you help clean up?

[mocking voice] "'You're not mopping fast enough.' 'That's a socialist mop.'

"Grab a mop! Let's get to work."

Hells yeah.

I'm just sayin'...

Welcome, Michigan Liberal friends!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:34:00 +0000

I am sponsoring the Michigan Liberal website for a couple of days. It's a terrific site for anything related to progressive issues in Michigan and I highly encourage you to (a) visit and (b) support it with a little financial help. Totally worth the investment, in my opinion.

I'm just sayin'...

P.S. If you are feeling eclectafriendly, please vote for my blog before 10 pm tonight (Friday) so that my link will stay up all weekend. Thanks!

Last night we were ALL Rush Limbaugh

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:36:00 +0000

Were you feeling a bit balding, fat, hard-of-hearing and Oxycontin-addled last night?

Sometime last evening did you feel racist, misogynistic, homophobic and sickeningly conservative?

Well, there's a reason for that. According to tsquare over at Red State, last night, we were all Rush Limbaugh. Seriously. The title of his essay was "Tonight... We Are All Rush Limbaugh".

It turns out that denying Rush in his attempt to be part of a group intending to purchase the St. Louis Rams is equivalent to a combination of minorities being denied civil rights, millions of people being exterminated by the Nazis and downtrodden people all over the planet be kept from the most basic human right to pursue their dreams.

Earlier this evening, as most of you now know, one of our own, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, while taking withering fire, crashed and burned.

Tonight, Rush is no longer ‘just’ a radio personality.
Tonight, Rush is no longer ‘just’ a NFL owner denied
Tonight, Rush is us. And we are him.

Tonight Rush became the metaphor for all of us... every man woman and child in this great nation of ours.

Wait. His middle name is Hudson?

Here's the essay in its entirety. I won't, of course, link to Red State [shudder...]

Earlier this evening, as most of you now know, one of our own, Rush Hudson Limbaugh, while taking withering fire, crashed and burned.

Tonight, Rush is no longer ‘just’ a radio personality.
Tonight, Rush is no longer ‘just’ a NFL owner denied
Tonight, Rush is us. And we are him.

Tonight Rush became the metaphor for all of us... every man woman and child in this great nation of ours.

The enemy of this great nation, the enemy of you and me, Rush’s enemy... those on the left, inside and outside of this nation abhor success... and when faced with it will destroy it... by any and all means possible.

We all have our dreams in life... such as they might be. Rush dreamed of being an owner in the NFL.

Tonight the left proved that they will stop at nothing to end our dreams. Our dreams of success and happiness devastate their need to dominate and control you and me... and well everything and everyone.

Chrysler bondholders
GM dealers
Bankers and stockbrokers
Small business owners
Medical Doctors
Oppressed people wanting freedom around the world

The left can not and will not allow anyone to realize their dreams

Tonight a light went out... a dream died... it died from political correctness

Tonight we are under withering fire, we on the right those in the middle,

Tonight our values are under withering fire, those thoughts ideas and dreams that made this great nation are under withering fire

Will your light of your dreams be next?

Will my dreams be next?

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

- Pastor Martin Niemöller

Tonight... We Are All Rush Limbaugh

Yes, that's right. The rights of every freedom-loving earthling are now in jeopardy because a fat, racist radio show personality has been denied his life-long dream to own a professional sports team. And the bankers and stockbrokers. Oh, Lord in heaven above, who will save the BANKERS AND STOCKBROKERS???!

Who, I ask you, will save us from the liberals who want to snuff out the light that burns inside every person when "the left can not and will not allow anyone to realize their dreams"???

But, whoa, whoa whoa. Wait just a second. When they came for socialists, communists and trade unionists, weren't the Dittoheads and Red Staters cheering? No, seriously, dude, YOU GUYS were the ones that came for those groups!

[head asplodes from hypocrisy overload...]

The seriousness of this post was actually questioned by some of the Red Staters themselves but that was quickly squelched and it quickly became apparent that it was NOT a joke. The comments are actually worth a read for the pure comedy they contain. Here's a couple of the funnier ones:

JadedByPolitics:

NO this isn't a joke! Rush has NEVER said anything racist....
the left LIED and they LIED all over the news thereby creating a condition that the NFL could not tolerate but the bottom line is THEY LIED! They must PAY and WE are the one’s who will be next if Rush and WE do not make them suffer over this abomination.

Deskpilot has a solution:

If you don't already have tickets, pull an Al Sharpton and boycott NFL EVERYTHING for the weekend.
No TV, No ESPN, No Olberdork.

Soak up all the NCAA you can on Saturday

On Sunday, Enjoy your family, clean the gutters, put a nice trim on the yard instead of a hurried mow.

I love that they are for an all-out boycott ...err... unless you already have tickets and stuff.

But the best commentary of all is, of course, over at Wonkette

In fact, I think the way to end this diary is with a quote from artpepper:

When a drug-addled racist can’t purchase an NFL team, the terrorists have won.

I'm just sayin'...

Popcorn time! Conservative-on-Conservative Action!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:30:00 +0000

I'll admit it right here and now: I absolutely LOVE watching conservative-on-conservative action.

No, not that kind of action, you perv. THIS kind of action:

At a Graham town hall in Greenville yesterday, activist Harry Kimball of “RINO HUNT” protested by constructing a display that depicted Graham, as well as moderates like Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), being flushed down a toilet:

KIMBALL: This is for every RINO who has failed to represent us. [...] [the toilet represents] flushing them, flushing them

Honey, pop us some popcorn.

Here's the vid:

At the town hall meeting, Graham basically told his detractors to go Cheney themselves:

GRAHAM: I’m going to grow this party, I’m not going to let it get [inaudible], I’m not going to let it be hijacked by Ron Paul. [...] I’m going to find people in Maine, Delaware, Illinois, other places...

AUDIENCE: Move there!

GRAHAM: ...that can win as Republicans, and I’m going to go up, and we’re going to move this party, and this country forward, and if you don’t like it, you can leave.

Oh, SNAP!

Or how about this little bit o' fun?

An argument has broken out, perhaps inevitably, between Tea Party activists and one of the groups that has laid claim to the Tea Party mantle. The self-described grassroots activists in Tea Party Patriots and the American Liberty Alliance see the Tea Party Express as a sham organization, using the political heft of the movement to push a bland, partisan Republican agenda. Privately and publicly, they accuse the Tea Party Express of being an “astroturf” outfit, a scheme for Republican strategists and candidates to take advantage of a movement that was chugging along fine without them.

“Right now,” said Tea Party Patriots national organizer Jenny Beth Martin, “we can’t be involved with PACs. We want to make sure the organizations we align with are in line with our core values–that they’re not just supporting one party over the other. There could be a point to the Tea Party Express, but I don’t think its goal is the best goal.”

Oh, really? The Tea Party Patriots and the Tea Party Expressers are fighting? Oh, that's just beautiful. Gimme some of that action, Jim.

The local organizers didn’t want the Express to come [to Houston]; the Express put their cities on the map anyway. In response, Houston Tea Party organizer Josh Parker released a blistering statement declaring that his group did “not promote, support, or endorse the activities of the ‘Our Country Deserves Better’ PAC and its ‘Tea Party Express’ bus tour,” and that “a growing number of Tea Party organizers in the country are disclaiming any association with TPE.” A Houston organizer, Judy Holloway, grumbled, “I call it the astro-turf express.”

SNAP, SNAP, and double SNAP!

And then there's the Republicans threatening Olympia Snowe saying they will deny her an all-but-certain peach position, filling a vacancy in an important Senate committee:

A Senate Democrat on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee said Republicans on the panel are threatening to vote against Snowe, who is in line for the senior GOP post that is about to come open.

“Wake up,” the Democrat told a reporter last week when questioned if the Republicans would retaliate against Snowe for crossing party lines.

Yeah, dude, wake the eff UP! Snowe is about to pay for her transgression. That's whatchya might call a "Senate SNAP"!

A little closer to home (for me), here in Michigan, there was much to-do about the Republican Policy Conference that happened recently on Mackinac Island. Turns out some of the contenders got a bunch of college students up there, luring them with free rooms and, apparently, free booze even though they were underage and swayed the straw poll by getting the kids to vote for them. One girl blogged about it and then subsequently wrote an apology letter to one of the candidates saying she couldn't drink at HIS party, just his opponents' parties.

Date: Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 12:29 PM

Subject: Dear Rick Snyder

Dear Mr. Snyder,

It was with great regret when I read the Detroit News story this morning that implied your campaign had anything to do with my blog posting. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. The fact is, when I tried to attend your gathering on Saturday night, I was turned away at the door because I was not 21. Even more so, the only gubernatorial parties I attended were ones hosted by Attorney General Mike Cox and Sheriff Mike Bouchard. While I am not willing to discuss this with the media, I do think it is important that the record is set straight on this matter.

Sincerely,

Vanessa Oblinger

BUT Newsflash: SHE didn't write the letter, staffers for the candidate did. Apparently it was a nice technique to smear his opponents who include Michigan Attorney General, Republican Mike Cox (yes, that's his real name.)

Can I get a "Coed-SNAP"???

While all political parties face internecine fighting like this, it has traditionally been progressives that have suffered the most from it. But now it's the conservatives that are fighting amongst themselves in ways that dilute their strength. I think you can trace the origin of this recent phenomenon to the McCain campaign, particularly after he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. The sniping back and forth between members of his campaign staff began almost immediately (and quite publicly) and, well, it's been Popcorn Time since then.

Did I happen to mention how much I love this?

I'm just sayin'...

Michael Steele: Dumb Effing "Cow on the Tracks"

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:28:00 +0000

This is positively brilliant.

Warning: contains scene of animal death by train.

Transcript:

Fox Newscaster: Very quickly, Chairman Steele, the feeling in some circles is that this health care train has left the station with the president at the wheel and that Republicans better jump on board.

Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele: Well I'm the cow on the tracks and you're gonna hafta stop that train to get this cow off the tracks to move forward.

[Cut to video of cow getting pasted by a train with the conductor saying, "Oh, you dumb fucker..."]

I'm just sayin'...

I know Ann Arbor is awesome. So does the American Planning Association

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:22:00 +0000

The American Planning Association has chosen Ann Arbor's South Main Street as one of its Top Ten "Great Places in America: Streets"

And to those of us that live here, that's no surprise.

I'm just sayin'...

Getting ready for 2010 - this is gonna get UGLY

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

Every election year, I lament how much worse, how much nastier the rhetoric is from the last election year. In the back of mind, though, is a little voice that says, "Dude, this NOTHING. Wait until NEXT year!"

And, of course, I'm right. The following election year is worse than the last.

But 2010? Folks, this one is going to be ugly beyond anything we've seen so far. If anyone thinks the right wing has gone as far off the edge as they can and still be politically viable, they are deceiving themselves.

Within 8 months or so, the Democrats in power will have enacted a series of laws and programs that will be a dramatic departure from the past eight years and the terror this is evoking in the right wingers is going to precipitate a pitched battle unlike anything we've seen yet.

So. What do we do about that?

In 2008, the race for MI-07 between incumbent Tim Walberg and Mark Schauer was one of the most expensive in the country with $3.5 million being spent between the two of them. Walberg had a tremendous amount of support from the odious Club for Growth and both the RNCC and the DNCC got in on the act. All of these groups poured their resources into producing some of the most over-the-top mailings I've ever seen including one saying Schauer wanted to allow adults to send pornography to children.

Well, Walberg's back in it again this time around and, after Schauer votes for the progressive measures that will inevitably be passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress, Walberg and Club for Growth will have plenty of ammunition. And that's just one local example of hundreds across the country.

On the national scale, things will be even worse. If anyone thinks we've seen the last of Obama-as-Hitler or Obama-as-the-Joker, they are sadly wrong. In fact, after health insurance reform passes and solid environmental/clean energy legislation passes and we lessen our military jackboot print around the globe, the forces on the right are going to be terrified. The fact that the USA is no longer the country they grew up in is already a fact. Barack Obama's presidency simply stomps that home for them. And they are not going to take it sitting down.

We can not anticipate just how bad their attack will be.

Could any of us have predicted we see African Americans carrying signs depicting Obama as Adolf Hitler?

Photo by Anne C. Savage
Could any of us have predicted we'd see the right use claims that progressives want to euthanize the elderly?
Could any of us have predicted the right would accuse progressives of using political party affiliation or race as a way to deny health care?
Could any of us have predicted our political opponents would cheer when America lost an Olympics bid?
Could any of us have predicted that conservatives would spin our president winning the Nobel Peace prize as hurting him and the country?
Could any of us have predicted that the Republican candidates for vice-president would actually accuse the Democratic candidate for president for having un-American views?
Could any of us have predicted that people would bring guns to appearances by the president and display them openly or show up to rallies in Washington with signs claiming "Unarmed...THIS time"?
Could any of us have predicted that wingnuts on the right would suggest that the president of the United States wasn't a citizen and was, very likely a secret Muslim with intentions of subverting our country and that this message would be mouthed by actual members of Congress?
Could any of us have predicted that governors of more than one state would openly talk of secession if health insurance reform was passed?

Things are already over the top from what we might have expected but now we have the likes of the Teabaggers and the secessionists added to the mix. It's going to be so much worse than we realize and we have to be prepared for that. So what's the answer? Here are a few suggestions:

Promote strong, outspoken Democratic leaders to positions of power within the party and within Congress. I'd like to formally nominate Alan Grayson to be immediately promoted to Speaker of the House. I like Nancy Pelosi just fine but if we had someone like Grayson at the helm, think...just THINK about how different the dynamic would be in that chamber. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. And there are others that have stepped up and will continue to step up following Grayson's lead. We need these people in charge of the DNC and of every major committee in Congress.
Always ask for more than you expect and negotiate back down to what you can live with. In my opinion, the main reason we're quibbling over a weak public option in the health insurance reform debate is because we weren't, as a party, aggressive enough in pushing for a single-payer system. Had we "gone there", we'd be negotiating back to something far stronger than a public option and we likely wouldn't even be asking about whether or not states should be allowed to opt out or if this should be some regional thing. Is this principle of negotiation such a mystery to our Democratic Congressional representatives? By doing this, we will maintain the upper hand and the voters will Democrats as STRONG, not waffley and that will help our chances greatly in 2010 and beyond.
Call right-wingers out, in public, in very direct and unambiguous terms EVERY SINGLE TIME they utter absurd lies and fact-challenged statements. It's long past time for us to "take the high" road and simply assume the voters will see these shams for what they are. Americans need to hear Democrats standing up for themselves and they need to see true leadership, including calling a fucking lie a fucking lie and not settling for letting the media set the record straight.

Graphic by eclectablog
Whenever possible, encourage the internecine battles being waged inside the right wing organizations and within the Republican Party. Democrats get their asses handed to them time and time again because we're fractured and diverse when it comes to staying on message. Well, right now the Republicans are in the same boat. On one side you've got so-called "moderate" Republicans like Olympia Snowe, on the other side you've got the Teabaggers, Freepers and LaRouchebags, and in the middle is a continuum of ineffective, leaderless, rudderless Republican "leaders" who risk pissing off everyone...independents, far-right nutjobs and moderate (reasonable?) Republicans. We need to keep those fires stoked and burning so that they burn down their own house for a change. Hell, even the Teabaggers and Tea Partiers are arguing!!!

We've got to be ready for the ugly onslaught that WILL take place in 2010 and beyond. While we progressives may like to see even stronger reforms and legislation passed, Democrats are going to pass these bills. And the victories we DO win, even if they are milder than we like, will still be seen as severely threatening to our foes. When that happens, like a cornered wild animal, they will respond visciously and unpredictably.

There's no way to predict what dung our political opponents will fling at us in the coming battles. But, by strengthening our party NOW, showing real leadership NOW, and building on these things over the next year, we can be in a much stronger position come election day.

I'm just sayin'...

Panic in Detroit: 35,000 line up for federal poverty help, conservatives laugh

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:53:00 +0000

From the Recommended List at Daily Kos.

Something happened in Detroit on Wednesday this week that flew beneath the radar of many Americans. Nearly 35,000 Detroiters converged on Cobo Hall to get one of the 5,000 applications for federal aid to people in poverty.

Via the Detroit News:

They came by foot, wheelchair, bicycle and car. About six left by ambulance after tensions rose and people were trampled, according to a paramedic on the scene. One unfortunate soul got his car booted.

Detroiters were trying to pick up 5,000 federal assistance applications from the city at Cobo because Detroit received nearly $15.2 million in federal dollars under the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, which is for temporary financial assistance and housing services to individuals and families who are homeless, or who would be homeless without this help.

People in wheelchairs and others using canes were being leaned on by people too weak to stand. Emergency medical technicians on the scene said they treated applicants who were injured during the rush to get inside the venue.

Meanwhile, conservatives laugh.

This is the reality of poverty in the USA today. 35,000 people show up for a chance at one of 5,000 applications for assistance. In the process, scuffles break out causing injuries. More from the Detroit Free Press:

The economic tsunami washing over metro Detroit swept its casualties to the doors of Cobo Center on Wednesday in the form of 35,000 people so desperate for help with mortgage and utility bills that threats were made, fights broke out and people were nearly trampled.

It was one of the most dramatic signs to date of how deeply joblessness and the home foreclosure crisis have pushed people from the lower and middle ends of the economic scale to seek help wherever they can.

City officials said a total of about 65,000 people over the past few days have gotten applications -- due next Wednesday -- for a share of $15.2 million in federal stimulus money to help people avoid foreclosure or quickly rebound from homelessness.

Ultimately, as few as 3,500 people may receive the help.

By Andre J. Jackson, Detroit Free Press

Michigan, as most know, leads the country in unemployment levels. Across the state, 15.2% of Michiganders are without jobs. In Detroit, it's even more dire with 27.8%. When those who have given up are included, the number is well over 1 in 3.

Over one-third of the people in Detroit live below the federal poverty level.

"It's probably the worst hunger crisis we've seen in our history," said Anne Schenk, spokeswoman for Detroit's Gleaners Community Food Bank, the state's largest food bank, serving five counties in southeast Michigan.

Here's video from the Associated Press:

Rush Limbaugh, of course, used this sad occurrence to make references to "Obama's America" and to denigrate poor, uneducated Detroiters who live their lives on less money per year than Limbaugh makes in an hour.

From Crooks and Liars comes the Limbaugh audio:

There's a transcript available at Limbaugh's webpage entitled "Detroit's Model Citizens Line Up for Money from Obama's 'Stash'". It's sickening.

After spending several minutes playing cherry-picked interviews with people who clearly know nothing about the source of the funds, Limbaugh describes all Detroiters and those seeking federal assistance like this:

"Dumb, uninformed, shockingly, saddeningly stupid, the model citizen for Barack Obama and the Democrat Party [...]

There you have it, model citizens in Obama's America. 'I don't know, it's coming from Obama's stash. He loves us!' That's exactly what Obama wants these people to think. And this is what socialism gets you. If these people think it's bad now trying to get money, wait until Obama fully enacts everything in his plan."

Read the comments in the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News articles to see how this is playing out in the minds of conservatives. Take a Foray Into Freeperville (the loathesome Free Republic website) and search on the tag "Detroit" to see just how funny conservatives think this is.

This is real poverty. This is nearly half the people of a major metropolitan city without work. This is the real face of homelessness, hunger, fear, crime and desperation. It's in our states. It's in our cities. It's in our communities.

And for the conservative right, it's worth a good laugh.

I'm just sayin'...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=
UPDATE: If you wish to help out some of the more outstanding groups in the Detroit area that are helping impoverished people, I would direct your attention to these four specifically:

Capuchin Soup Kitchen whose donation page is HERE

and

The Gleaners Community Food Bank whose donation page is HERE

and

Focus: Hope whose donation page is HERE

and

The Heat and Warmth Fund (THAW) whose donation page is HERE

Thank you.

Stuffed Deliciousness from the Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:07:00 +0000

Last weekend's harvest of bell peppers and Beaver Dam peppers got turned into "Mexican" stuffed peppers that now reside in the freezer.

It started with a sinkful of deliciousness:

The day before we had made a huge pot of stuffing that's mainly peppers, onions, chilies, black beans, more chilies, tomatoes, rice and more chiles along with some awesome spices, vegetable broth and lots of chilies. We simmered it for about 90 minutes and then refrigerated it overnight.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, I slaughtered the peppers by lopping off the caps and scooping out the seeds and veins. Notice the caps to the right there? They got diced up and tossed into the freezer.

Finally, I stuffed 'em and froze them overnight. Once frozen, they got put into Ziploc bags for eating, slathered in homemade enchilada sauce on cold, wintery nights. Final yield was about 40 peppers.

Yummerz.

I'm just sayin'...

Is it okay to wish Rush Limbaugh gets the swine flu???

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Savage) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:12:00 +0000

Watch this YouTube video, especially from 0:25 to 0:40.

Transcript:

Fat Radio Show Host (Rush Limbaugh): "And now you've got Kathleen Sebelius saying 'you MUST TAKE THE PIG FLU VACCINE! YOU MUST TAKE IT!!!' Screw YOU, Ms. Sebelius. I am NOT going to take it precisely because you're now telling me I must."

Look, I'm the most pacifist/Zen/Quaker dude you're likely to meet. Seriously, I let bugs go outside rather than squashing them inside. I forgive my home-schooling, Obama-hating, racist, mouth-breathing co-worker for his shit and am nice to him. I pretty much assume everyone has something -- something -- redeeming about them.

But, when I watch Rush Limbaugh go completely bat-shit crazy and REFUSING to get the H1N1 virus vaccine simply because it was suggested by a member of President Obama's administration, I can not help but wish he gets the virus. I want him to get sick with the H1N1 flu. I want him to miss a week of work suffering with a severe sore throat, sweats and chills, a nasty cough, a splitting headache and, hell, maybe even some diarrhea and vomiting. I want him to suffer from all the other wonderful symptoms you get with the swine flu.

Is that wrong?

I'm just askin'...