Mornin’, BT.

Fuck the Blue Dogs and the rest of the ConservaDems.

Lemme axe this, and I am serious, do you think these BD’s don’t represent their constituents?

Sure would like to see a copy of that Blue Dog letter. I’m especially interested to know their reasons for not wanting

a “Medicare-like” structure for a public option.

Did a quick Web search, but came up empty. Can anybody help?

TOTAL FLEECING OF US LAMBS CONTINUES

AIG Seeks Clearance For More Bonuses
$2.4 Million in Executive Payments Due Next Week

By Brady Dennis and David Cho
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 10, 2009

American International Group is preparing to pay millions of dollars more in bonuses to several dozen top corporate executives after an earlier round of payments four months ago set off a national furor.

On this issue, they don’t represent their constituents. They are practicing knee-jerk defensive politics.

Hard to say. For the ones that have been in Congress for a while I’d give a qualified yes to representing their constituents. With gerrymandered districts, however, it’s hard to tell.

Had about 20 anti-public option folks demonstrating in front of Sen Bill Nelson’s office in Tampa yesterday. Interviewed by WMNF one of them parroted almost every one of the anti talking points.

OH YEA….a POX on every blue dog and their family…ALL OF PHAROHS house

Simple: “It’s the next step on the slippery slope to SOCIALISM!!!”

Perhaps someone should indulge the Blue Dogs and offer a bill to eliminate Medicare in their districts, since it is such an offensive program to them. All in the name of fiscal responsibility, you know.

/s

See this at Seminal?

Yea, that’s how Marion got Barrow.

yes,and by all means,close the public libraries,and fire depts…in the POOR districts only,of course…snark

One more idiot gored to death at Pamplona. I watched the running of the bulls once but had sense enough not to be on the street.

No, no, in the RICH districts. They’re the ones against socialism so they don’t need socialized services. Let ‘em put out their own damn fires, catch their own crooks and educate their own children.

18 times and no one got there, jeezee!

they WOULD LOVE TO HAVE a private police and militia,to keep the unwashed out!

Oh right, I know the usual claptrap, but I’m just curious about what (if anything) they’re willing to commit to as reasons in this letter. My guess is that they offer no rationale.

What are those maniacs thinking about? Next thing you know they’ll be flying down some narrow canal in a PBR with dudes all up in the bushes with RPG’s and shit!

Yeah, I thought the same thing when I first read about the incident. I’d been on the dude like white on rice.

Silverstein will start some firefights with his posts. Looking forward to it.

Been there and done that, too. *g*

Didn’t figure anyone else would know wtf I was talking about. . .or most anywhoo.

More exciting than watching bulls slippin’ n’ slidin’ in bullshit.

Well the opposite of socialized is anti-social…conservatives just don’t like people, they hate poor people.

You read Galloway’s 100,000 reasons not to mourn Mac?

I’m relatively certain my initial sentence appears in that letter. Maybe not in those exact words, but the substance of it will be the message. “We as a country were built on freedom from government, and the market economy. Increasing, rather than decreasing, government intervention in the health care system is the path of socialism. This is a path we must resist at all costs.”

close your ears
ALL POLS NEED TO SEEK AND OBTAIN PRIVATE INSURANCE FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR FAMILIES……………period full stop

I have now. One of the guys who does maintenance for us and I were talking the other day and he was telling me about some of these guys in boot camp, how they recycled them until they were ready to be cannon fodder. What do they call DI’s in the Army? These guys gave those poor dudes no end of hell.

I thought I was doin’ the right thing but these guys never had a clue and never had a chance.

You’re probably right. I keep forgetting that these people are not at all interested in evidence-based argumentation.

What are their names? What districts do they represent? Are they running for re-election? What is their contact information?

make no mistake,we WILL HAVE A PANDEMIC,people without insurance will spread it faster
goddamned these PEA/PEE brains

WE NEED A GOVERNMENT PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM…period

microbes are not choosy about hosts

I thought the BDs represented their campaign contributors. Is that wrong?

anyone have a list of the ugly 40 who signed this letter?

Just read the brief bio of Jillian Bandes over at Townhall. Used to work at The Weekly Neocon. The fresh new face of the Party of NO.

Conservative T-Shirt ad shows a young girl wearing a shirt says “I’d Rather Be Waterboarding.” Classy.

Thanks Raven,

I am going to use this article for a Vietnam Forum that I am team teaching this PM.

Thanks much for the link as well as for all your wisdom on these topics. You too, SD.

Heh, I’m so wise I kept asking “May I have more, please.”

Do we have people lined up to primary them? Who is running in Nebraska, Montana against the corporatists.

i got the flu last winter while visiting the doctors office for a UTI…THE STOOOOOPIT IT BURNS it too k3 weeks to go away

I listened to Hemingway’s Sun Also Rises a couple of months ago. Still don’t understand why they do the run with the bulls.

Speaking of Hemingway, apparently he was a failed KGB spy.

The Blue Dogs should be asked to curb themselves and barring that, change parties.

A very impressive video.

First of all Schuster is the toughest interviewer in the business today. Excellent work on his part. He was well prepared, and had practiced his responses.

Gregg was very well coached and stuck to the official talking points. Schuster was unable to rattle him or get him off message. But progressives should take note of his talking points, because they’ll be coming up all over the place.

Hey SD
same Shiiite different pooper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82py_wk5vE4

The purpose of this event is the transport of the bulls from the off-site corrals where they had spent the night, to the bullring where they would be killed in the evening. Youngsters would jump among them to show off their bravado.

From Wiki. That’s the way it used to be. Bulls slated for the corrida are handled differently now.

Yep. Hemingway has good descriptions not only of the event itself, but of how bulls are transported to Pamploma, how to recognize a “good” bull, i.e., one that will put up a real fight, and a great deal about a particular bull fighter. So I sort of get it intellectually, and have been to a bullfight in Mexico City and one in Madrid, but I still don’t understand it in an emotional way.

Good Morning: I once heard Linda Elerbee reporting on this…I’ll never forget. Her report: Bull, 100s; Idiots, 2. ;)) But, keeps up with the same ol’ score.

the virus never leaves the body, it just becomes inactive until it breaks out again.

———————
thats right people,once you catch a VIRUS ANY VIRUS you always have it…Public Health makes sense,Is anybody listening

one reason i dislike Spain,in Portugal,they do not kill the bulls

I followed El Cordobes around for a season. I couldn’t/wouldn’t go to a bullfight now if my life depended on it.

Yeah, there’s always 1 or 2 who get nailed every year.

Anything short of a mass movement in favour of the public option is going to result in its failure. The people want it, but there is no organization (certainly not the Democratic Party) who can channel that desire effectively. Polls don’t do the trick. Meetings and demonstrations do the trick. If the Democratic Party were a real party, and not just an assemblage of private entrepreneurs under a single big tent, there might be some hope. But it isn’t.

Sixty years of anti-socialist preaching in our schools and colleges have achieved their aim. Even fairly sensible people think anything government touches starts a terrible incurable disease. It’s sad, no, it’s pitiful.

Nagi the Manx has discovered the keyboard. I’m in deep doo doo now.

But the slaughtered bulls in Spain (in wandering around after the bullfight I actually came across the place where they slaughter them, and watched the whole amazing thing. Unfortunately, I had used all my film on the fight so couldn’t take pics), are used for meat, hides, etc., just like any dead cattle. I also can appreciate the skill and the ritual involved in the sport. What I don’t get is why humans get off on tormenting the poor animal.

Hey, SD. I think Angela really likes her home. She has a beautiful, sweet face. She truly can climb on almost everything in my home (sigh). I guess I’ll adjust…she really is a doll. How is Gigi today?

one of them parroted almost every one of the anti talking points.

Someone needs to catalog those “anti” talking points. These fools are very well coached but they have only a limited supply of points that they keep on recycling.

Good question. Also, I’d like to hear what people think about Tricare, the system that covers the military. Most comments I have heard about Tricare are that people are happy with it, but I don’t know why or what the difference from Medicare is. If that is so, I wonder if the argument that Shuster touched on…i.e., if it’s good enough for our soldiers, why isn’t it good enough for everyone…might be a good one to pick up.

Nothing like walking into a local butcher shop and see the head of a bull killed on Sunday afternoon prominently displayed on top of the meat case.

4 legs good,2 not so much…imo

well yea,cause really …they are illogical,and insensible

Gigi’s feeding tube came out sometime Wednesday night. Took her in first thing yesterday. Vet tried to put in a shorter, softer tube but couldn’t get food through it so she had to spend the night. Should pick her up this afternoon. Tube that was inserted was the only length he had and prolly got caught on something. Hopefully he’s gotten a shorter tube this time.

Hey

The only thing I question, and Galloway is one of my favorites, is the contention that they “all” were sent to the Nam. Most, probably, but all is pretty strong. I went to Korea first and there were about 40,000 troops there so “some” must have made that trip. The real point is this program combined with deferments for those in college resulted in a terrible inequality. Also, the measures that put these folks in that position often were part and parcel of socio-economic disadvantage that impacted their test performance but not their character. Some of the best people I ever new were in that boat.

Is that a snark, or do they actually do that? I’m not sure the meat is used for human consumption; seems like it might be too tough, but I’ve exhausted my thin knowlege of bullfighting.

poor zippy…buonna fortuna

How about 6 legs? Got a beehive last week, just beginning to read about bee society, which is really amazing.

you have inspired me to try it too
whatfun!

Christy is upstairs…

Hell, the Russian’s at Stalingrad boiled their belts to eat.

Good luck. I have a professional beekeeper who will maintain it for me, and if I get really interested I’ll learn enough to do it myself. Will you have similar help, or are you on your own. If you like, I have a reading list from my beekeeper. I’m off now, but will check back later to see if you’d like some recommendations.

Yum, jerky.

i love the garb

http://www.easttexasbeekeepers…..eepers.jpg

Wow, the girls in my high school wore Beehives!

No snark. Supposedly the head is a great trophy for the butcher shop, flies and all. The meat is sold just as we would sell beef here. If you order a steak in a town with a corrida it may well have come from a bull killed the previous Sunday. That was 45 years ago, though. Damn, has it been that long? JHFC

im looking into it now,heard its not very difficult,im exploring the possibilities
goodluck,..id love to have your list

That must have created quite a buzz.

I cooked a 250 lb hog for a wedding last year and the Mexican family across the street was very happy to get “la cabesa de puerco (sp))!

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

bbl

Waste not, want not.

Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do
Or do without

Awww…Im Sorry for you boht…that’s really hard. I hope there’s some good news when you go back…let us know. Thanks, SD

I’m headed down the Atlanta Highway
Lookin for that Love getaway

Senator Jud Gregg is just working hard for the money. That’s no different from what he’s been doing his whole political career. What is different is the economy, which his party blew up after running up the national debt for tax cuts for the wealthy, labor outsourcing, privatizing whatever government functions could be privatized, and phony wars based on phony intelligence.

What is different is the economy and the whole system of employer-based private health care, which is collapsing in this severe economic downturn. You have to take the position that as a matter of policy protecting the interests of the corporations that provide private health care insurance is more essential to the real American economy than either a single payer universal health care system or a public option. But no facts are offered to buttress Senator Gregg’s decision, simply beliefs about a free market system that has failed disatrously because it requires smoke and mirrors and a sympathatic hand on the Fed’s tiller to make it work until it inevitably crashes.

Senator Gregg’s beliefs and the principles he derives therefrom are fundamentally at odds with reality. That is the larger philosophical battle looming behind this particular fight. That is why the GOP and the Blue Dog Democrats reject a single payer universal health care system and the public option. They reject it because it indicts their way of thinking about reality. The reality is that single payer or public option would help people afford more medical coverage, and leave substantial savings that could then be spent, saved or invested in our economy. A single payer or public option, therefore, would make our whole economy more efficent while ensuring the necessary access to affordable health care that every American deserves to have.

The GOP and Senator Gregg and the Blue Dog Democrats are wrong on this issue, and demonstrably so. But it is a measure of their delusion that they will use their political power to fight the public option becuase they cannot allow reality to affect their decision making.

On a personal note, I find the Blue Dog Democrats to be the worst actors in all this. They always want to have it both ways. They want the party affiliation with the Democrats, because of its connotation that Democrats believe the government can and should patch the holes that the free markets create and exploit to make life better for all Americans. But they love to claim the fiscal conservative mantle as an excuse to do nothing that actually acts as a corrective to the free market crony capitalistic system that prevails in America. And they happen to be fairly unintelligent about all economic matters, as opposed to the narrow business concerns of their free market sponsors which they too easily absorb, and some of them are out and out stupid and corrupt.

The Blue Dogs are an interesting mixture of stupid and spineless. I have no use for them and, indeed, they are no use to ordinary Americans who toil for their daily bread so that these motherfuckers can gut punch them over and over again.

It’s always problematic when the fate of millions is in the hands of a couple dozen wankers.

Nice tie.

Good Morning BT and Puppies!

I hope this is EPU enuf for an OT.

Just want to report we arrived at our new digs. Even our 2 kitties are absolutely thrilled with our new little cottage (with some help from the presence of our old furniture simply sitting on a different point in the universe.

‘Puter obviously up and running just fine, so I can now visit the Lake again. It was a shaky few days there without my daily cuppa and Lake visit. Our new cable connection also returns C-Span 2 to our grasp, so we’re back to being almost operational, but too tired to make much sense for a while yet.

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy! This is progress.

Please return to your regular programming, and I’ll enjoy lurking off ‘n on and catching up on the news when and as I can. Busy week in D.C., I see. ‘Bout time. Go gettum’ Dawgs!

Dragon, if you’re around, one of our little tigers just bonked me in the forehead and patted my typing hands with her constantly kneading “happy toes” — sending a message to you and your clan, I ’spect.. She’s as picky as MarthaStew., so that speaks volumes. She and her brother LOVE the new digs, thank dog!

Good Health Care for ALL.

and

P. E. A. C. E.

Welcome…a lovely new casa. Seems like you did that with remarkable ease, poise, calm, elan……so about the cats…..what is it about paws and Mr. Computer (as a grandson used to say)Seems like a keyboard must be very comfy. Enjoy your new comfort….

I’ll catch up to you on another thread. I’m just in for a minute to load another audiobook disc on my ipod.

I agree that the Blue Dogs are wankers and think they certainly should be pressured and primaried and defeated for their lack of representation of their constituents. However, the idea that “the Republicans are not the problem” is nonsense. No matter who they represent and which section of the country they come from, these people will vote no to either single payer or a strong public option. Now you can’t tell me that everyone of these folks is representing the interests of their constituents by taking that kind of position, or is not vulnerable on their continued support the profits of the health insurance companies at the expense of the voters. I think that perhaps as many as 8 Republican Senators are vulnerable on the issue when and if they next have to run: Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, Snowe, Collins, Thune, Vitter (who’s probably vulnerable on a whole host of things), and Voinovich. Perhaps there needs to be some effort to whip them too, and not just the Blue Dogs and ConservaDems. Similarly, there are still some Republicans left in the House in the Midwest and West who could be whipped, especially in swing states like Missouri. And, of course, Peter King should be vulnerable on this issue in New York state.

Thanks RevBev. Smaller, easier on old joints. Kitties boarded by the gal we got them from. All de same furniture. Not fancy, just home. We had a lotta help from our kids, and we’ll still have plenty chores to catch up with, since I brought all the good usable stuff we no longer need and couldn’t find homes for before we left. Always have used 2nd-hand and passed it on when we could. So it worked out well, but we’re blotto mentally, so I’ll try not to trumpet too loudly on the toobz, but when the kits are happy, we’re happy. And our real kids are a treasure.

Obviously epu’d, but- have to say I had never heard of the “Project 100,000.” Part of my brain was still mumbling “but, but that sounds like an urban legend,” when Raven and Southern Dragon attested to their own experience with some of the 100,000.

Who would’ve thunk there was even more appalling stuff to learn about the Vietnam War?

Re: Gregg and others using Republican talking points – we may not need to put together a list; Bill Moyers mentioned on his show tonight about health care/insurance that earlier this year a memo written by (who else?) Frank Luntz was leaked with alll the talking points to use.

Moyers played a damning series of clips of members of Congress using all the main points, just like parrots.
Since this was tv, not a site with a link to follow, I’m not sure whre it’s to be found, but if it’s been leaked, it’s on the toobz somewhere, no?
Oh, and Adie – welcome back! Glad you’re moved, and astonished that your kitties “love” the new place. Never heard of such a thing! None of mine ever took kindly to a move, old furniture or not.