ImpeachBush

Saturday Stuff

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:54 GMT

"A new generation of patriots?" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

And "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!" huh? Read this.

(h/t Dependable Renegade via Eschaton - once more, here's the thing on "Nate," and this is the clip where he appears.)

...and by the way, congratulations go out to the Senate Dems who voted to allow debate to begin on health care reform (would have been reprehensible to vote no, not that that's stopped some of them in the past...now, just have the little demagoguery and debate show, go to reconciliation and GET THIS DONE!!)...

...and yes, I realize this is a rather shameless plug for an X-box game, but I like the game and the song is pretty cool too, so here it is.

Friday Stuff

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:27 GMT

Pap has a cautionary lesson for the "teabaggers," assuming they had sense enough to listen; however, I don't think any politician, particularly Obama, should take young voters for granted - yes, assuming the blessed day comes when health care reform is passed, he's going to have to give them something else, and "doubling down" on Afghanistan is going to push them away even more (a long-overdue executive order banning DADT enforcement would be a nice "payoff" also - watch the stuff about "gray hair," Pap :-)...

...and I really liked "Oxford Comma" from these guys, and this is a fun little tune also.

Where The Rubber Meets The Road (11/20/09)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:08 GMT

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week (most of last week's votes had to do with health care, which I realize I've posted on ad nauseum already - the vote to begin debate in the Senate happens tomorrow evening).

House

Democrats' health bill. Voting 220-215, the House passed a bill (HR 3962)] that would provide affordable medical insurance to about 36 million uncovered U.S. residents while overhauling insurance-industry practices in ways that benefit the sick, the well, the uninsured, and the insured. The bill, which awaits Senate action, would extend coverage to about 96 percent of the non-elderly population by 2019 while not adding to the national debt.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), and Joe Sestak (D., Pa.).

Voting no: John Adler (D., N.J.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Republicans' health bill. Voting 176-258, the House defeated a Republican alternative to HR 3962 (above) that would grant states tens of billions of dollars over 10 years as an incentive for them to expand health-insurance coverage and reduce insurance premiums for their residents.

A yes vote backed the GOP alternative.

Voting yes: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, LoBiondo, Pitts, and Smith.

Voting no: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Holden, Murphy, Schwartz, and Sestak.

Holden and Adler could've supported the Repugs' joke of an alternative here, as long as they chose to bail on their party on the one that mattered - at least that would've been consistent.

Dispute over abortion. Voting 240-194, the House amended HR 3962 (above) to prohibit the bill's public option from funding abortions and bar those with premiums subsidized by taxpayers from buying private policies that contain abortion coverage. The amendment went beyond "Hyde Amendment" language already in the bill that would bar federal funding of abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother.

A yes vote was to adopt the amendment.

Voting yes: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, Holden, LoBiondo, Pitts, and Smith.

Voting no: Adler, Andrews, Brady, Fattah, Murphy, Schwartz, and Sestak.

So Tim Holden opposes health care, but supports the Stupak-Pitts pro-sepsis coathanger abortion amendment in spite of that.

I just want to make sure that we have that on the record, that's all.

Senate

Judge Andre Davis. Voting 72-16, the Senate confirmed federal Judge Andre M. Davis, 60, of the Maryland District Court, for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. This gives Democratic appointees a 6-5 majority on the Richmond-based court, which hears appeals from federal courts in Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Senate has confirmed seven of President Obama's district and appellate court nominees.

A yes vote was to confirm Davis.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Ted Kaufman (D., Del.), Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), and Arlen Specter (D., Pa.).

As noted here about Judge Davis, he was nominated by former President Clinton in 2000, but under something called the "Thurmond Rule" that barred consideration of judicial appointments during an election year (dumb, but consider the source), the Senate couldn't act on his appointment. Well, Dubya came along and passed over Davis for eight years, leaving it up to President Obama to renominate Davis, which he did last April. Congratulations on your long-overdue confirmation, Judge Davis.

This week, the Senate took up health care and resumed debate on 2010 budgets for veterans' programs and military construction. The House schedule was to be announced.

Russia Today: Plague or Plan?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:36 GMT

Friday Mashup (11/20/09)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:51 GMT

(And I also posted here about a political matter close to home.)

As I noted yesterday, “Holy Joe” Lieberman decided to hold his Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on the Fort Hood shootings.

And as noted here, he had a hard time getting people to testify (awwww)…

Mr. Lieberman’s hearing made only limited headway because the Obama administration has refused his requests for witnesses from the F.B.I. and the Defense Department.

Mr. Lieberman said he had spoken with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Mr. Gates, who told him they would cooperate with his inquiry, but did not want to compromise the criminal investigation.

Ah, but he was able to get one “name” figure anyway…

As a result, Mr. Lieberman proceeded with several nongovernment experts and former officials, including Frances Fragos Townsend, formerly the homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush.

And what did Fran have to say? Well…

Ms. Townsend expressed concern that “political correctness” and fear of intruding on Major Hasan’s free speech rights might have interfered with the sharing of information earlier this year, when an F.B.I.-led counterterrorism team examined his e-mail exchanges with Anwar al-Awlaki, a well-known radical Islamist cleric, but found nothing amiss.

I guess this is what you can expect from someone who issued a report on Hurricane Katrina that was “incomplete,” said it was “offensive and crippling” that she actually had to worry about being subpoenaed in the course of doing her job (horrors!), and said that Osama bin Laden was “virtually impotent” (all noted here, though I also praised her for going against the wishes of “Deadeye Dick” Cheney here; I guess such praise was premature).

Actually, if all Lieberman needed was someone to mouth right-wing talking points, he could have called Glenn Beck as a witness. He would have been just as credible as Townsend, and he probably would have gotten better TV ratings on CSPAN from his intended target audience.

Also, I should note that, to probably no one’s surprise whatsoever, Christine Flowers of the Philadelphia Daily News thinks the Stupak-Pitts pro-sepsis coat hanger abortion amendment (here) is hilarious (OK, the reaction to it from those dreaded liberals, I mean).

Sick…

…(and) what I found particularly smirk-inducing was the total silence from these same quarters over recent decades as the Catholic Church threw its weight behind health-care reform. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama could have had no better champion than the leaders of the church who consistently criticized both Republicans and Democrats in Washington for failing to address the needs of the indigent and lower-middle class.

Instead of responding to Flowers’ dog-whistle antics and trying to engage her in something close to intelligent dialogue on this (a fool’s errand in her case), I thought it best to link to this post instead from Natasha Chart of Open Left here, who tells us the following…

I remember the day in 1997 when I listened to my doctor tell me that I had a very large ovarian cyst, also, that I was likely to have a miscarriage. She said it was good that my body seemed to be taking care of things on its own, because the cyst could rupture and hemorrhage and they couldn't operate if I was pregnant because it was a Catholic hospital.

My doctor wasn't mean about it, she just couldn't give me this operation that she'd told me about a minute previous I needed to avert a threat to my life.

I was lucky that I miscarried. As the hormone-induced changes in the cyst caused pain that made it hard to stand upright in a matter of days, it's a good that I didn't have to go through the trouble of finding another hospital covered under my insurance. I went quickly from the terror of waiting to know if I could get that operation to the grim realities of going through it and recovering.

It turned out all right, but I've always remembered since then that I once sat helpless in a doctor's office watching her eyes slide away from mine to the floor as she refused to say anything when I pressed her to tell me what would happen if there wasn't a natural miscarriage. She just skipped ahead to how someone with my blood test results wasn't going to be pregnant much longer.

Opponents of abortion like to center their arguments around the fetus and talk about whether it's a person. Which basically means to me that they don't think women are people with the basic right to determine the conditions of their lives and what will happen to their bodies, who can be forced to suffer or die because it will make someone else feel better.

I would ask that you read all of her post, and then tell me what a compassionate, conservative Catholic Flowers supposedly is (I’ll try not to laugh too loudly if you do, but I won’t guarantee anything).

Oh, and another thing, Christine: I should tell you that, in all of the time that I have attended church, I have never heard anyone from the pulpit who “consistently criticiz(ed) both Republicans and Democrats in Washington for failing to address the needs of the indigent and lower-middle class.”

With that in mind, though, if you want to get an idea of how this country has fared on the poverty issue under Republican versus Democratic presidents, the Census bureau put some numbers together cited in this post, and except for President Carter (though not for lack of trying to combat it, I’m sure), this country fared worse under the Repugs.

And in other faith-related news, Richard Viguerie (someone else who gives Catholics a bad name, IMHO) has been encouraging his brood not to contribute to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development “because of the pro-abortion and homosexual organizations that are funded by CCHD,” as he put it here.

In response, this editorial tells us the following…

In Baltimore, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development helped the United Workers Association win a salary increase for cleaners at Camden Yards, strengthens the mission of the Maryland Disability Law Center and assists Neighborhood Housing Services to combat predatory "pay day" lending by developing micro-lending in communities that lack access to banks. In other cities, grants have helped groups fighting for better working conditions on behalf of farm workers. McDonald's, Yum Brands, Burger King and other fast food chains now pay tomato pickers more for their backbreaking labor in the fields because of these efforts. Just this year, the campaign awarded more than $7 million to grass-roots community organizations across the country. The campaign's Poverty USA initiative, which raises awareness about the impact of poverty on families, has been recognized as one of the best public service programs in the nation.

For centuries, Catholic social teaching has emphasized the obligation to care for our struggling neighbors on the margins of society. This is why Catholic Charities USA oversees the most extensive social services network for the poor outside of the federal government, and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development provides low-income citizens with the tools to improve their own lives.

As more Americans lose jobs and health care, faith-based community organizers offer critical lifelines to those who are only a layoff or medical scare away from poverty. This work is more important than ever. Census figures show the number of people falling into poverty increased by more than 2 million last year. Nearly 40 million Americans now live below the poverty line, the highest level since 1960.

The ACORN scandals should not define the proud legacy of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The bishops' initiative has distinguished itself for the past four decades and deserves the support of all Americans who recognize the silent genocide of poverty as a political and moral failure unworthy of a great nation.

Amen to that.

And finally, though this is a week old I know, this communicates another reason why social justice is important as far as I’m concerned; that is, to stand up to the intolerant ravings that are spreading this country faster than the H1N1 virus, particularly when one side is responsible for it, but it is somehow excused because the other side of the ideological chasm is guilty of the dreaded “partisanship” also.

With that in mind, I would like to state the following for the record…

I never threatened conservative interest groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers or the Chamber of Commerce, organizations that are typically antagonistic towards Democrats in general (here).

I never said any Democrat/liberal/progressive/whatever should “prepare for war” with conservatives (here).

I never “prayed” for Dubya’s days to “be few” (yes, I had my Bush Countdown clock on this site, but that was for the end of his time in office, not the end of his life - here).

And I would have never imagined bringing a gun to a Republican presidential campaign event (here).

And I sure as hell never threatened a police officer (nor would I ever even entertain such a thought) after Dubya was installed as president in 2000 and (arguably) voted back to office in 2004 (here).

And I hope it goes without saying that I would never kill innocent church parishioners either (here).

So the next time you read David Zurawik or some other pundit whining about how MSNBC and Fix Noise are supposed to be equally partisan, remember that Rachel Maddow has never alleged that the president was a mass murderer (here) and Keith Olbermann has never smeared anyone he disagreed with by nicknaming them as “killer” (here).

And let’s all hope and pray that it doesn’t take anyone else’s death to make that point plainly understood once and for all.