Veterans' Day 2007 - Lest We Forget

by: Foiled Goil

As in Flanders, the fields of France saw some of the heaviest fighting in WWI and many American soldiers died and were buried in those fields. Red paper poppies are a symbol of the war dead because of the real poppies that bloom all over the battlefield graveyards in France. Because of that symbolism, red poppies have been sold since 1922 (the first nationwide official Poppy Sale) for Memorial Day and Veterans' Day as a way for the Veterans of Foreign Wars to raise money for disabled Veterans.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

~ Lt. Colonel John McCrae, MD ( 1872-1918 )
Canadian Army

The song "No Man's Land" (also known as "The Green Fields of France" and "Willie McBride") was written in 1976 by Scottish-born Eric Bogle, who now lives in Australia.

This version ("The Green Fields of France") is by the group Dropkick Murphys:



The "war to end all wars" didn't end war at all.

Oh, Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

House Passes AMT Tax Relief Act, H.R. 3996

by: Foiled Goil

The Gavel, November 9, 2007:

...The House passed the the Temporary Tax Relief Act of 2007, H.R. 3996 by a vote of 216-193, which would provide millions of middle-class families with tax cuts and help grow our economy without increasing the national debt. The Temporary Tax Relief Act will provide immediate tax relief for working families by preventing 23 million middle class families from paying higher taxes this April. The legislation also closes unfair tax loopholes that benefit Wall Street millionaires and cost middle class taxpayers billions. The Republican Party had an opportunity to offer a substitute, but declined to do so, having decried the PAYGO rules instituted during this Congress which would have prevented new deficit spending.

The bill passed without a single Republican vote, and Republicans declined to offer any alternative after denouncing the PAYGO rules.

This bill contains must-pass provisions that provide Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) relief and extend a number of popular tax provisions set to expire this year. It also includes an increased refundable child credit and a deduction for property taxes paid by homeowners. Specifically, the bill would:

Cut Taxes for Millions of Middle-Class Families

• Protect 23 million middle-class families from being hit by the Alternative Minimum Tax;
• Provide 30 million homeowners with property tax relief;
• Help 12 million children by expanding the child tax credit;
• Benefit 11 million families through the State and local sales tax deduction;
• Help 4.5 million families better afford college with the tuition deduction;
• Save 3.4 million teachers money with a deduction for classroom expenses; and
• Provide thousands of American troops in combat with tax relief under the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Restore Tax Fairness

• Close tax loopholes that allow the privileged few on Wall Street to pay a lower tax rate on their income than other hardworking Americans, such as teachers and firefighters.
• Stop hedge fund managers and corporate CEOs from escaping income taxes by using offshore tax havens as unlimited retirement accounts, while middle-class families play by the rules and pay their fair share of taxes.

Ensure Fiscal Responsibility

• Reverse years of failed Republican policies that have mortgaged our grandchildren�s future with additional foreign-owned debt.
• Protect future generations by not asking them to finance current tax cuts. Republican policies have resulted in $9 trillion of national debt, with an average daily interest payment of more than $1 billion. Each American�s share of this debt exceeds $30,000 per person.
• Responsibly pay for middle-class tax relief by cracking down on special-interest tax breaks for the privileged few.

Grow the Economy

• Extend the R&D; tax credit to promote innovation and high-paying jobs.
• Provide tax relief to millions of homeowners suffering from the current housing crisis.
• Ensure long-term economic growth by adhering to pay-as-you-go budget rules. These rules helped produce record budget surpluses and a robust economy in the 1990s by mandating no new deficit spending.

More about the Temporary Tax Relief Act from
the House Ways and Means Committee ( pdf ).

A Couple of Quotes for Veteran's Day

by: Minstrel Boy

From a couple of veterans.

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we�ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn�t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn�t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its �finger men� to point out enemies, its �muscle men� to destroy enemies, its �brain men� to plan war preparations, and a �Big Boss� Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country�s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

Major General Smedley Butler USMC 1933

You may read his short book (Smedley Butler "Old Gimlet Eye" was a laconic man)
"War is a Racket" in full HERE

It is interesting to note that General Butler received TWO Medals of Honor. He was nobody's pacifist, he held the "war as a last resort for survival" position that many of us who have known combat tend to occupy.

Now, we turn to Dwight David Eisenhower the man our publisher at Big Brass Blog (where this is crossposted) describes as the last true Republican.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together

Again, we have a distinguished military man. Eisenhower did not have the dash and elan of MacArthur. He wasn't as vain either. He was, more than anything else, a superb organizer and politician. He recognised the various talents of the men around him and tried to use them to achieve victory in Europe. That meant he had to deal with personalities as varied as Patton and Bradley (who under Ike's direction worked together on three campaigns, twice with Patton in command, and once with Bradley), he also had to balance the egos and meager forces of the Free Poles, the Free French under DeGaulle, and the mincing egomaniac Bernard Law Montgomery. Eisenhower was in many ways the most essential component of allied success. No matter what else he accomplished he held that alliance together and led it superbly to victory. He was also a much more involved and hands on policy president than we suspected at the time. We thought he was all about rounds of golf and single malt whiskey afterward. It was far from the truth.

Now, go here.

The above Rolling Stone article about the abuses, frauds and outright criminal looting of our treasury by "contractors" in Iraq and Afghanistan show how little attention we were paying when the two great men I initially quoted were speaking their truth to us.

harp and sword

Rickie Lee Jones Lets One Rip

by: Konagod

About two weeks ago I clipped a card out of the New York Times offering 25 free music downloads from emusic.

Last weekend I registered to get my free tunes. Obviously, it required a credit card so they could route me to a fee-based program after my trial period ended. I must admit after poking around I wasn't impressed. Many albums I wanted I couldn't find. Many artists I searched only seemed to be available on some type of compilation disc. That ain't konacool.

So I decided to find 25 songs I wanted and get the hell out. I selected Rickie Lee Jones' latest, Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, and Joni Mitchell's Shine. I had 2 songs left and I picked some single or EP thing from the Arcade Fire which had 2 songs on it.

I got all this for free. And then I cancelled my account. I'd call that a bargain, the best I ever had.




Last weekend I uploaded all the new goods to my Zen player and at work today I decided to give ole' Rickie a listen. I really haven't heard any of her stuff since "Chuck E.'s In Love" made a splash off her 1978 self-titled LP.

Right off the bat with "Nobody Knows My Name", I was intrigued. By the time the 2nd track, "Gethsemane" began to play, I had a feeling I might be hooked.

I'm not going to publicly draw comparisons between this album and so many other artists I appreciate... at least not yet. I never like to do that because I don't want to spoil any surprises for others. Draw what you will from this.

I will not call this a flawless piece of work. I've only listened to it once, and I felt there was a lull about two-thirds of the way through the album but it soon revived itself. It's unfortunate that I was listening at the office because I had to pause a few times and maybe that lull was a result of losing the momentum.

Once I listen to this a 2nd, 3rd and 4th time I'll have a clearer assessment.

Lots of creative sparks here--plenty of them. She sounds like she's going through a transformation throughout the album in a way that's reminiscent of Van Morrison's performances on his classic album Astral Weeks." -- Amazon.com

There's a major spiritual thread running through this music, which was one of the few things I'd heard about the album before listening to it. I wasn't sure what to expect. I sure didn't want to be subjected any kind of weird proselytizing, or hearing all about how wonderful Jesus is.

I'm very glad I didn't allow my preconceived notions to interfere with my inquisitiveness. Otherwise, I would have missed out on something I think I'm going to enjoy.




Happy Friday Damn, no "music" tags on this blog. Why am I always the one to push the limits?

Another Soundtrack Bite From Today

by: Minstrel Boy

I'm taking a break from my packing chores. My producer friend calls. He's stressing because when he talks with folks in our business they all tell him that this is one of the worst impasse situations any of them have ever seen. I reminded him about our plans to start playing and that I'll be out there next week. It wasn't working. He's stressing.

Then I reminded him about one of the final scenes in a crappy movie, made from a charming musical stage production, made from a pretty cool series of articles. From the pen of my dear friend Dolly Parton, written for the movie Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (although Louis Grizzard who wrote the original sued the production company to rename the movie "Smokey and the Bandit Go to the Whorehouse," he lost)

Anyway, the scene is that these whores are sitting around the house after it's been shut down. I reminded my friend that we're just a couple of old whores who've been shut down by the authorities, again. I started singing it to him. Then we were singing together. Two old whores muddling through the best we can.

Here's a soundtrack clip, with pictures of our young women who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. If they can be "fine and dandy" where they are, I can be bloody marvelous where I am.



Here's the lyrics if you want to sing with us.

Hey, maybe I'll dye my hair
Maybe I'll move somewhere
Maybe I'll get a car
Maybe I'll drive so far
They'll all lose track
Me, I'll bounce right back

Maybe I'll sleep real late
Maybe I'll lose some weight
Maybe I'll clear my junk
Maybe I'll just get drunk on apple wine
Me, I'll be just

Fine and Dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow bring me way down

I'll be fine and dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow get me way down

Hey, maybe I'll learn to sew
Maybe I'll just lie low
Maybe I'll hit the bars
Maybe I'll count the stars until dawn
Me, I will go on

Maybe I'll settle down
Maybe I'll just leave town
Maybe I'll have some fun
Maybe I'll meet someone
And make him mine
Me, I'll be just

Fine and dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy christmas
I'm barely getting throung tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow bring me way down

I'll be fine and dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow bring me way down

I'll be fine and dandy
Lord it's like a hard candy christmas
I'm barely getting through tomorrow
But still I won't let
Sorrow bring me way down

'Cause I'll be fine
(I'll be fine)
Oh, I'll be fine

harp and sword

All I can Stands, can't Stands no More

by: blackdog

Just as I got to Konagod's post on a creature not so unique to a strange state that holds most of its place in the world (!) to being somewhat better than Mississippi in certain ways (!) and having finally succeeded in getting a native son in the Whitehouse, albeit with the loss of a dim majority in the Congress and neverending "scandals" that were ruthlessly pursued by many righteous types that even after years of pursuit with seemingly unlimited funds, never, ever got more than a blowjob uncovered, as I had worked myself up to a rant of prodigious proportions, I found that the comments section was closed.

Wow, that almost wore me out.

I felt that I had been douched with icewater, or maybe doused. The creature referenced above is the x-governor of Arkieville, a screacher named Mike Huckabee, commonly known to many as the Huckster. Not that he is one, but the name fits a little. Any screacher with political ambitions should be held to a somewhat higher level of scrutiny, and if they receive any measurable support at all from any other tax-exempt structure, be that a church or a cardboard box, then place them on the tax roles and clobber them. At least in a secular (sigh) society this is what should be. After all, even screachers are still human, or at least once were. The political virus can change much. Digression? Maybe wandering.

As I was living in another country (the soveriegn State of California) at the time that the third republican governor of Arkieville since reconstruction was elected, I cannot and will not be held responsible for anything that comes from now on due to events beyond my control. Actually I liked the first, Rockefeller, he dragged Arkieville out of the 19th century kicking and screaming all the way after way too many years of Gub'nor Fawgrass, who represented the worst of Southern machine politics and constantly stood in the way of change in a hick state that desperately need a brush-up of it's image. For those that question that, check out Petit Jean, or Heifer International. Gov Rockefeller was Nelson's brother, back when there was such a thing as a "liberal" republican, and the evangelicals were just a nuisance, best treated with a flyswatter. Just thinking about Petit Jean Mountain (well, a big damn hill anyway) sorta chokes me up a bit. A real nice place. Part of the Ouachita structure, just off the Arkansas River, and where the Rockefeller's did some neat stuff.

There. That should prove that I am not entirely a partisan piece of toilet paper, however I do pay attention to just where I be applied. But don't ask me to mention the next repub that made it to the gub'nors office, He made it because a former governor named Clinton raised auto registration fees by $5. No shit. And of course even then his wife was suspect, she just had to use her maiden name all the time. And they drove a Fiat, one of them foreign cars. Plus, they was both college educated. Not alot of Arkies have much truck (spelled FORD) with that. Forget that Bill Clinton's first elected position was AG for the state, and that for the first time in the history of Arkieville a consumer protection approach was adopted and placed into effect by him. It has died since then, lasted about three following AGs.

But I do digress, I wish someone would pay me for that.

When I left Arkieville for California back in 1989 I almost felt like an Okie. With a big Ryder truck towing my little Nissan I thought it would be appropriate to have a "California or Bust" banner flying around. The speed limit then was 55, remember? I took I-40 all the way, and even then just getting out of Arkieville was a trial. The ancient fleaway (finished when I was much younger) even at 55 would beat the crap out of you. Don't even think about your stuff in the rental truck. Once into Oklahoma it got a little better, but there were many stretches where it was just a bad, but not much worse. Amazingly, when into California at Needles suddenly the fleaway became so much better. Little did I know that I was on the way to a culture clash, but I digress again.

Anyroad, sometime after I had settled in California Arkieville elected a former Baptist screacher named Huckabee to be the fearless leader. But at the time, the evangelicals all over the nation had been doing their homework and rubbing their knots and bruises from a multitude of losses. Once upon a time these sorts were considered by most to be eccentric, way off base, lunatics. But not anymore, and they were now in the game with a vengeance, "family values" and other assorted shit phrases became the battle cry and for some reason (ignorance) the cry gathered many. With a right-wing Baptist screacher in the gub'nors palace for the next 10 years (2-yr and two 4-year terms) there was all the time in the world to watch Arkieville and Mississippi scramble over who was really dead last in the good 'ol USA.

Here I'm not very clear, but it seems every state that borders Arkieville suddenly adopted a lottery or outright gambling. Baby needs a new pair of shoes, and Arkieville became the only one that didn't have them. Some of the best two-lane highways in the state led to casinos somewhere else. At the same time, the fleaway system was becoming a nightmare, it would literally knock your vehicle out of gear, and the speedlimit was again raised to 70mph which didn't help. The volume of heavy truck traffic had exploded, and not squat was spent to make improvements to this thang I call infrastructure. Some still wonder about the role of gub'ment.

To attempt to tie this up, the huckster was able to get through the legislature a major highway improvement bill to rebuild the state's fleaways. With them in such a terribly bad condition this was easily passed by the dim legislature, since evidently most Arkies were about to bear arms so that they could get more than 10,000 miles out of their tires.

This seems to be the only accomplishment that Huckabee can claim. But hell, even I could have convinced the idiots in the capitol to do this, so no big deal.

Also, on a trip down the Arkansas River, the Huckster knocked off a prop leaving the dock around Ft. Smith. Oops. I been a few places on a few rivers but I never lost a prop. Now that Huckabee has been endorsed by some screacher or other down Texas way (surprise!!) makes you wonder what form of dementia afflicts 'ol Pat Robertson who today endorsed the red-nosed reindeer.

Hats off to Konagod, you should consider this as a comment to your earlier post. And as I am still here in the vast sinkhole of the mind sometimes called "the Grand Prairie" (could be the Ozarks!) somebody throw me a lifeline.

Senate Approves Michael Mukasey For Attorney General

by: Foiled Goil

US Senate Roll Call Vote:

Vote Number: 407
Vote Date: November 8, 2007, 11:04 PM
Required For Majority: 1/2
Vote Result: Nomination Confirmed
Nomination Number: PN958
Nomination Description: Michael B. Mukasey, of NY, to be Attorney General

Vote Counts:

YEAs 53
NAYs 40
Not Voting 7

Congress Overrides Water Resources Veto

by: Foiled Goil

Congress hands Bush first veto override

Associated Press:

President Bush suffered the first veto override of his seven-year-old presidency Thursday as the Senate enacted a $23 billion water resources bill despite his protest that it was filled with unnecessary projects.

The 79-14 vote included 34 Republicans who defied the president. Enactment was a foregone conclusion, but it still marked a milestone for a president who spent his first six years with a much friendlier Congress controlled by his Republican Party.

Alternate reality comedy interlude:

Bush's spokeswoman portrayed the issue as a divide between a budget-conscious president and a big-spending Congress.

"The president is standing up for the taxpayers," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "No one is surprised that this veto is overridden. We understand that members of Congress are going to support the projects in their districts. Budgeting is about making choices and defining priorities � it doesn't mean you can have everything. This bill doesn't make the difficult choices; it says we can fund every idea out there. That's not a responsible way to budget."

We now return you to our scheduled program:

The House voted 361-54 to override the veto Tuesday. Both votes easily exceeded the two-thirds majority needed in each chamber to negate a presidential veto.

Democrats are sure to remind such Republicans of their rejection of Bush's budgetary concerns when debate turns to several spending bills he also vows to veto.

Update On Stuff Going On

by: Minstrel Boy

The last week has been pretty full with different meetings and talks with folks that matter in my life. I've come to a couple of decisions. Remembering that nothing is engraved in stone, this is more of a sailing course than a steaming course. Wind and tide will have a great deal to do with the destination. The old sailing masters used to understand well that while Singapore is the port of choice, given the vagaries of wind and tide Brisbane will do just as well, if only to take on fresh water and vegetables.

First Things First is one of the wisest clichés that you find on the walls at most AA meetings. Following that dictum I have some unignorable priorities to deal with. Top of the list is my own physical health. I have been having some serious problems lately with my left leg and hip (old war wounds). They need tending. I talked with a trusted sawbones who is ready to go through some diagnostics and formulate a plan of attack. While that is going on I'm also going to break the fuck down and go to the goddamned dentist. I've put it off and put it off and put it off, not for any good reason either. I have great dental coverage. I just hate the fucking dentist. I feel like Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man the whole time. I hate the way it smells, tastes, sounds, and most of all, feels. I'm going to go and do it. I've found a dentist who assures me that he can make having X-rays taken a religious experience. So, I'm going to do it. Both the surgeon and the dental guy are in the San Diego area. That's where I'm going.

Another factor in all of this is that my mother is in the same area and her Parkinson's has been progressing as that disease tends to do. She needs more looking after than she is getting.

Yet another factor is that a very old, very good friend of mine is a producer who is also sidelined by the WGA strike. He and I were talking on the phone about how it feels to be closer to sixty to fifty and be faced with life as we know it changing suddenly yet again. We have promised ourselves to get back together playing. San Diego has a great live music scene.

Our tentative plan is to start out with very old stuff, played in the very old style. Our twist on it will be to add in our totally new high tech shit. By using my new Line 6 amps and PA gear, his ultra new top of the line Sony Digital Movie Camera and a laptop we will be able to offer anybody who catches our show a visual and audio mix, right off our soundboard, right there, that night. If they bring their own memory stick we will be able to download the night's show right there for them, or we will have a good supply of them they can buy at cost. Music. For. Free. If they want the visuals, if they promise to post it on YouTube and shit, they can have that stuff for free too. We figure that if we have people walking around with our shows in their iPods saying "Listen to this shit" and people download or merely watch our YouTube stuff the audience we are seeking will find its own way to us rather than us having having to travel our butts off (and if i'm having serious ortho work done traveling won't be in the cards).

I'm also going to be laying the groundwork to re-open my truffle shop.

The ranch here in Arizona will still be here. The only change will be that my son is going to be the main resident. When he's finished guiding this elk season he plans to take wildlife management and business courses at ASU and will keep the home fires burning. He graciously tells me that I can keep my key and drop by unannounced. The horses will stay here for the time being. Although, at Christmas, ownership and primary care of Sally the Mustang will transfer to my beautiful niece. She is at a point where she really wants her own horse and she and Sally are a perfect fit. She will take over feeding and maintenance chores too. That's the price of ownership. I don't even know if my old beat up skeleton will allow me to keep riding once the surgeon's done. That's the totally suck out loud part of growing older after an active life.

We shall see. That's the course I've plotted for the immediate future. I figure to keep posting on the progress and stuff. And feel free, please, feel free to bust my chops if one of the first posts about my new life does not include me whining about dental work. After all, this trip while we are sailing for Singapore might easily turn into Brisbane, or Papeete, or. . .who fucking knows but the wind and tide wait for no man.


UPDATE

Just as I posted this I remembered that I made a solemn promise to MedSchoolGirl and all my other children that I will quit smoking. Expect lots of whining about that shit too.
harp and sword

Bush and the Dems: More Socialism for Right-wing Welfare Queens

by: Dark Wraith

Congress is preparing to pass a budget bill for the Department of Health and Human Services that includes $141 million—$4 million more than President Bush requested—for "community-based, abstinence-only" education, even though a meta-study just released by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reports, "There does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners."

Hence, and once again, we have a supposedly Democratic majority in Congress not only refusing to oppose a failed program of the Bush Administration, but actually throwing him and his cohorts—this time the intrusive, Christian evangelicals—more money than he even asked for to keep a miserable welfare trough bubbling over.

Hello? Hello?! Is anybody out there in Progressive Land receiving the signal from Clueville?

Wait... wait! I think I've decoded it.

Here we go:

You, dear suckers, have been scammed.

Duped.

Had.

Screwed.

Power-drilled with a 400 horsepower Black-and-Decker pneumatic.

Yo. Dudes. That's gonna leave a mark.

Boy, that sure was harsh, wasn't it? Unfortunately, Clueville isn't particularly known for nuance in its signals.

Neither, of course, are Democrats when they want your votes but not your values.

---

ENDA Passes

by: Foiled Goil

Employment Non-Discrimination Act Is Passed

The Gavel:

House Passes ENDA

The House has just passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), H.R. 3685, by a vote of 235-184.

This bill will prohibit employers, employment agencies and labor unions from using an individual's sexual orientation as the basis for employment decisions, such as hiring, firing, promotion or compensation. The bill extends federal employment protections to gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers similar to those already provided to a person based on race, religion, sex, national origin, age or disability.

Bringing this nondiscrimination bill to the House Floor is an historic occasion. This bill has been introduced in every Congress since 1975. In the 94th Congress, on January 14, 1975, Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY) introduced the first bill to prohibit sexual-orientation discrimination. And in every Congress since then, legislation prohibiting sexual-orientation discrimination has been introduced. However, this year, Congress is making history. The October 18th vote by the Education and Labor Committee to report this bill to the floor was the first vote ever taken on this critical legislation in the House of Representatives.

Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), H.R. 3685.

Congressional Democrats and the Synonyms They Own

by: Dark Wraith

The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to send the articles of impeachment against Vice President Richard Cheney—introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)—to committee where they can quietly die. It seems the Republicans were taunting the Democrats into a full-blown floor debate, convincing the House leadership that such an open discussion would humiliate the Democrats by making them look mean-spirited, vengeful, and unpatriotic; so the Democrats soaked their diapers and killed Kucinich's latest effort to bring Cheney to congressional justice.

Let us now pause, if only briefly, to give thanks to the majority of the House Democrats, without whom no one would ever have realized how many words there are in the English language for compromised, cowardly, cowering, faint-hearted, fearful, feeble, groveling, gutless, impotent, inadequate, ineffective, irresolute, lily-livered, phony, poodle-oriented, self-serving, slithering, spineless, submissive, testicle-deficient, timid, toadish, useless, vacillating, valueless, weak-kneed, wimpy, worthless, wussie men and women who pretend to be some kind of bulwark of opposition to the madness, criminality, and venality of George W. Bush and his puppet master.

Indeed, for all they lack in any semblance of courage, for all they lack in any shred of claim to honorable action, the majority of the Democrats of the 110th Congress are certainly entitled to the honor of a Thesaurus section all their own under the heading "donkey" with a cross-reference to "total jackass."

I Don't Heart Huckabees

by: Konagod

Mike Huckabee came to the Lone Star State on Sunday to troll for support in two churches, if you can believe that, and actually picked up a major vote of confidence from Pastor Jack Graham of the Prestonwood Baptist Church -- one of the largest in the country. I think that qualifies as a megachurch (or McChurch). With 28,000 members, if it were a town in Huckabee's home state of Arkansas, it would be among the top 15 in population. (And as txrad commented sarcastically to me, I'm sure they run a soup kitchen.)

Keep a close eye on this politician/musician/comedian. He's a shrewd one.



From the Dallas Morning News:

Pastor Jack Graham told the congregation of Prestonwood Baptist Church before Mr. Huckabee's sermon that Christian values have a crucial role in the political process. Although Dr. Graham said his church doesn't endorse candidates, his praise for Mr. Huckabee was unambiguous.

"It's very important that we vote our values, that we select folks and nominate folks who stand by principle and who live and proclaim and legislate according to the values we cherish," he said to enthusiastic applause.

Dr. Graham said the sermon from Mr. Huckabee, who is an ordained Southern Baptist minister, was a message of "God's word from God's man."

The "legislate according to the values we cherish" portion of that comment is the obvious code phrase meaning pretty much everything that Jesus preached against, or would have preached against had he lived in our current times.

"The more people hear Mike Huckabee, the more they like him," Dr. Graham said. "Everywhere he goes, in small groups as well as big groups, people are saying: 'This is a man who is saying what I think. This is man who is representing what I believe.'"

Carolyn Asher of Fort Worth drove to Plano Sunday morning to hear Mr. Huckabee. She said that his sermon solidified her support for him, and she compared him to President Bush.

"He upholds the values I believe in," Ms. Asher said. "He believes in Jesus, and he's not afraid to say so."

Oh dear God... excuse me, I think I need to pray. Did these people learn nothing from the past 6 1/2 years?

That is not a rhetorical question.

Mr. Huckabee gave up his work as a pastor to enter politics and become one of Arkansas' longest-serving governors.

He famously lost 110 pounds in the past few years and started running marathons. And as a little-known governor of a small Southern state, he started a presidential campaign that was given little chance to make a national splash.

Well, maybe he should have kept that extra weight on.

But seriously, for a governor so consumed with health, I find it very ironic that he served so long in Arkansas, and the state is still ranked 48th in health, according to a report released by the United Health Foundation.

From The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

The annual report said Arkansas� strengths included a low prevalence of binge drinking and a moderate rate of high school graduation. Weaknesses included a high percentage of children in poverty, a high premature death rate, a high rate of cancer deaths, and low immunization coverage.

I guess he doesn't chalk that up as one of his proud accomplishments.


Crossposted from konagod

Elements of Two Policy Initiatives

by: Dark Wraith

Among the wide-ranging topics in the Open Forum of November 5, 2007, at The Dark Wraith Forums, I explain that among the articles on which I am currently working are two that focus on policy initiatives addressing current matters of national importance. Neither of these constructions is anywhere near the level of detail to be offered as a stand-alone, usable policy product; however, in the interest of making the ideas known to a wide audience, I am herewith reprinting both of the nascent proposals. I am open to your thoughts on these ideas; and, if you find them meritorious, I encourage you to pass them along.

Policy Initiative One: The American Child Health Insurance Act
Every child born a citizen of the United States of America will be vested by the U.S. Treasury with a medical savings account holding the sum of $250,000. This program will be an entitlement regardless of the means of the parents or other guardian, and funds from it are usable by the same rules that apply to medical savings accounts as they are currently defined under relevant federal law. Parents or other guardian may purchase private or public insurance in the form of a major health plan that supplements or provides an umbrella. Any funds that remain in the account when the child reaches the age of majority roll over into a medical savings account under his or her own name. This program would be financed by a general payroll tax similar to the Medicare tax now in existence.

With respect to this initiative, the devil is in the detail of getting an honest fix on what the level of such a tax would have to be to make the program actuarially sound, although it looks right now to me as if it would have to be in the range of two percent of gross income. That's pretty brutal in a country so addicted to low-low taxes and constant, pandering promises of still more tax cuts on top of those low-low taxes.

Another giant point to make is that, no, this doesn't "solve" the "healthcare crisis" in America; in fact, it will make the overall problem worse because it will give people money to throw at the spiraling cost of healthcare. To deal with that issue, complex, parallel legislation would be required, first, to force absolute pricing transparency on every healthcare provider in the nation and, second, to amend the rules for tax-exempt expenditures from medical savings accounts so that only cost-efficient spending would not result in taxability of funds so disbursed.

And finally, dealing with the healthcare needs of the general American population is most certainly not the aim of this initiative: this is to make sure every child in this country has the same access to the healthcare available. It is not about welfare for the poor, and it is not about a giveaway to those who do not need a giveaway; it's about establishing a standard of public policy that every child should grow up with the same right to be well to the extent that medical science can do that. With no apology to Jack Kennedy and his fine-sounding rhetoric, it is high time that we stop asking kids what they can do for their country before we show them what their country is doing for them.

Policy Initiative Two: The Homeowners' Mortgage Guarantee Trust Act
Few are the articles that go on about the current mortgage lending crisis in which mention is made of the fact that anyone who takes out a mortgage with a loan-to-value ratio of 80 percent or more is forced by the lender to purchase mortgage insurance. This shows up in a borrower's payments as a premium charged as a pass-through by the lender from a mortgage insurance company like MGIC, the Mortgage Guarantee Insurance Corporation. Essentially, what this insurance does is guarantee the lender that any difference between the disposal value in liquidation of a house and the balance on the loan will be covered by the mortgage insurance policy. That's right: lenders force their mortgagees to purchase and pay the premiums on an insurance policy that completely protects the lenders: if a mortgagee defaults on the loan and subsequently has the property taken by the lender, that lender is covered for any "loss" in selling the property to pay off the loan. In other words, mortgagees and their families are being displaced by the millions, their credit records are being ruined, their lives are being radically disrupted, their kids are getting all kinds of harmed by the disruptions to their sense of place and well-being; and through all of this financial human tragedy, the lenders are coming out smelling like roses because the people to whom they lent the money—the people from whom they ultimately took the property—indemnified them with real money against material loss.

This needs to stop. That means legislation requiring lenders to bear the risk of their own credit-making decisions. More importantly, it means parallel legislation requiring that lenders stop shaking their mortgagees down for insurance premiums to protect the banks and, instead, start requiring that mortgagees purchase insurance to cover the payments in the event of financial difficulties. The particulars of how this kind of insurance would work are complicated, but the general outline would be something to the effect that the insurance would perform under certification by a third-party—probably governmental—administrative system that would assess when a mortgagee had reached a point where the mortgage payments were an essential component of overall insolvency. In such event and determination, the payments would be taken over in whole or in part by the insurance provider, and a clock would begin for the mortgagee: after a certain number of months, the house on which the mortgage existed would have to be put up for sale, and if it didn't sell at the outstanding balance of the mortgage by the end of a pre-determined number of additional months, the insurance carrier would purchase the property at the outstanding balance of the mortgage and pay it off. This would, of course, leave the family without its home, but it would provide for a considerable amount of time in which the borrower could get back into shape financially, and even if he or she couldn't, the resulting loss of the home would not wreck the person's credit rating and future prospects for borrowing to get something more modest and less costly in terms of payments.


Obviously, both of these proposals will need considerable work insofar as details with regard to legislatively mandated administration, taxation, and other matters. Furthermore, neither of these has any chance of becoming law until the current President is out of office. In fact, neither of these proposals has any chance of being championed by several of the Democratic candidates who could replace President Bush. That having been noted, policy debate on universal coverage for American children and on loss mitigation for financially distressed homeowners desperately needs an infusion of new ideas to force the two issues into prominence in the upcoming, 2008 national elections.

In the absence of serious, concerted effort on the part of politicians and candidates to meaningfully and gravely address difficult—perhaps even unglamorous—issues of importance, the unconscionably tedious is herewith, once again in this republic, on parade: a citizen is offering his own ideas... and in a public forum, no less.


The Dark Wraith asks, "If a crisis crashes to the ground in a forest of shrubbery, does anyone hear the sound of the bush scurrying away to let it land on the Democratic weeds?"

Writers On Strike

by: Minstrel Boy

I understand the writer's position. It is not unreasonable. One of the real dangers I see with that position is that most of the producers and studios they are dealing with are not "show folks." If the entire television industry collapses, the studios fall and the entertainment industry degenerates further into an abyss of "reality" shows and FoxNews, the agents of that destruction will shrug their shoulders and go off to peddle the same junk bonds and engineering the stripping of assets and firing of all employees six months from retirement that they were doing before their uncles got them jobs in Hollywood.

The last writers strike was an absolute bitch. A lot of very good writers ended up waiting tables beside the actors who were hoping for a script to take them out of the coffee shop.

For the best information I've seen on the strike, for up to the minute information on progress in negotiations or a lack of progess in those same negotiations look to United Hollywood

I'm already planning my life without them. It's too bad. That is, however, how life goes. I was looking for a way to survive as a musician when I found the jingle game and it was very good to me for a very long time. I needed to be able to stay home and actually be present in the lives of my children, I needed a stable and safe environment to teach myself how to live a clean and sober life. It gave me all of those things.

If it is time to move on, I do so from a position of strength and confidence that I got from my time in this part of the industry.

Thanks Hollywood. I will never forget and will always be thankful for the second chance you gave to me and my children. What ever happens We'll always have Paris. Here's looking at YOU kids.

harlan county