One of the supposed advantages of the Baucus health proposal is its lower “costs” compared to the rival House bills. By economist James Kwak at The Baseline Scenario correct calls this “voodoo savings.”

• Russia insufficiently appeased.
• Cue the wingnut freakout!
• But, of course…
• Bring them home.
• Another successful Bush administration program.
• Co-ops are a terrible idea.
• A public option petition.

Chuck Grassley, lies like a true villager

Peter Paul and Mary – Early Morning Rain.

What’s on your mind?

Why do health insurance companies hate women?

Poor Roger Ailes. Obama is going on CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, Univision . . . but not Fox News. Maybe a phone call to Rahm can clear this all up.

Maxwell-Gunther Dispatch.com, the web news site for personnel and interested partisans of Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, reported on September 17 that Col. (Dr.) James W. Walter has been awarded the Air Medal “for his meritorious service on delicate assignments providing medical care to enemy detainees.”

From January 2007 to 2009 as the senior detainee movement flight surgeon, he provided 106 combat hours of support to the 14 Joint Task

Each year on September 17, our Nation celebrates Constitution & Citizenship Day, established by Congress to commemorate both the signing of our founding document and the millions of individuals who have become Americans over the past two hundred years.

How appropriate Michael Moore premiered “Capitalism: A Love Story” in Pittsburgh this week, to coincide with our 26th AFL-CIO Convention. Moore, in an action spearheaded by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), marched with AFL-CIO delegates to the movie theater, and afterward, encouraged all of us to sponsor it in theaters throughout the country, because, as he says at the end of the film, he needs help to spark the populist revolution.

He’ll have a great partner with the new leadership of the AFL-CIO. Late yesterday, delegates elected Richard Trumka president, Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer, and re-elected Arlene Holt Baker executive vice president. The team is a mini-revolution in itself: It’s the first time the top leadership of the AFL-CIO includes two women, and Shuler, 39, is the youngest-ever unionist ever to hold so high a position in the labor movement.