Bartcop: "A thousand people have donated over $16,000 to Dennis Kucinich since yesterday to thank him for standing up for what he believes in. We'll be asking him to return it." Jane Hamsher of Firedog Lake firedoglake.com
Wait, why is Firedoglake against HC reform? Michael Moore hates this bill, but he says we still need to pass it.
I don't have time for a war with Firedoglake, but if Obama can't deliver on watered-down health care, that'll make him the lamest duck I've seen in the 30 years I've been paying attention to politics.
The GOP will eat him up and spit him out and probably impeach him. Do we want to go thru that again or would we rather back our president?
< Bart does a shot >
Damn, I see Firedoglake has raised $21, 341 in their current fund-raiser.
Is there good money in killing health care?
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"I think the Slaughter Rule is probably unconstitutional. My background in law and constitutional issues suggests to me it's unconstitutional." - Mike Pence, the Indiana handjob who said shopping in an outdoor bazaar in Baghdad in 2005 was a lot like shopping in the malls in Indianapolis Link
"Yeah, sure." - Pence, when asked if he had used the Slaughter Rule himself on three occasions Link
And speaking of the Slaughterhouse Rule: Stenography As Journalism Classic: Christian News Service Publishes Lies by Rep. Dreier (R-Closet) about 'Slaughter Rule' Without Balance or Rebuttal
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Keep DADT - but apply it to homophobes
Earlier this week, I wrote that about 75% of the American public oppose the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy toward gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendereds, and transsexuals. And why not? The LGBT community has gone pretty much mainstream. In retrospect, the strategy of gays coming out of the closet worked. Normal people who were secretly gay became openly gay -- but still normal. I'd think that coming out would take a tremendous amount of personal courage, so I can only imagine how satisfying it must be to see that strategy paying off.But what about the military; what do people serving or who have served think of repealing DADT? The pentagon is preparing to study the issue with a poll of their own, but we don't have to wait. A poll commissioned by the Vet Voice Foundation asked that question and the answer is, frankly, complicated.
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In Minnesota, James Wallace Fall, 58, is accused of marrying his ten-year-old niece. Fall insists that he is a "prophet of God." He insists that the marriage is sanctioned by the Bible, which is full of accounts of figures with multiple and often adolescent wives.
Continue reading 'Fall From Grace: "Prophet of God" Charged After "Marrying" Ten Year Old Niece'
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Heartless bastards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ik4f1dRbP8&feature=player_embedded
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Rep. Michele "Crazy Eyes" Bachmann says that if the president's health care reform bill passes, Americans should not pay their taxes.
"But mark my words, the American people aren't gonna take this lying down," Bachmann later said. "We aren't gonna play their game, we're not gonna pay their taxes. They want us to pay for this? Because we don't have to. We don't have to. We don't have to follow a bill that isn't law. That's not the American way, and that's not what we're going to do." Bachmann continued. "Because it's one-party rule now in Washington, D.C. Their Chicago tactics, their Chicago friends, twisting Democrats' arms, threatening their own team members with ethics charges and a submission. This handful of people thinks they can enforce their will on 300 million Americans? They're not gonna do that. This is dictatorial, what they are doing. We are not compelled to follow a non-law just because Obama and Pelosi tells us we have to.
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The Last Piece Towards Victory?
Perhaps the final piece leading to passage of a landmark health reform bill fell into place today when the long-awaited Congressional Budget Office scoring was released of a consensus Democratic health reform bill. The CBO analysis finds that although the bill costs $940 billion over the first decade, (or a fraction of the cost of the Iraq war and occupation) the bill shaves $130 billion in deficit spending in its first decade, and a whopping $1.2 trillion in its second decade. And the bill does this while extending health care coverage to 95 percent of Americans, eliminating a large part of the nearly 45,000 deaths a year in this country from our current GOP-mandated health care system.
House and Senate Democratic leaders are almost "giddy" today at the news, and are using the data from the nonpartisan CBO to tout the deficit reduction benefits of the consensus Democratic measure. It is now assumed that the CBO estimate will help sway holdout Democrats who were concerned about costs into voting for the measure, while Republicans continue to oppose it even though their cost issue has been now obliterated. In fact, with the cost issue now off the table, Democrats and the White House are free to slam the GOP as being supportive of a costly, deadly status quo that enriches their campaign contributors while the country goes broke and their constituents face financial ruin, and worse.
The bill is not perfect, and may not be a solid policy bill, but it saves money, cuts our projected deficits, and covers millions more Americans and allows them to avoid financial ruin caused by the GOP-mandated dysfunctional system that corporate money has cemented into place. Yes, it forces Americans to buy insurance from the same bad actors who bought the current travesty, but if the GOP wants to attempt to unravel this after the 2010 elections, Democrats can simply threaten to match their effort with a renewed effort at a public option or Medicare-for-all.
In fact, with the cost issue settled as well as possible at this point in time, Democrats should pivot from a defensive posture to an aggressive posture and take credit for this bill's coverage and cost-cutting benefits. Democrats should ask voters why every single congressional Republican is against deficit reduction, and favors unimpeded profits for the industry and continued misery for Main Street.
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Hitchens rips into the guilty monster occupying the Vatican. Good stuff.
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Morford: Dear Texas: Please shut up. Sincerely, history
Hey, kids! Here's something I bet you didn't know: Black people? Back in 1800 or whenever? They liked being slaves. True! Many savvy, industrious Negroes actually volunteered for that fine, desirable position. It was a completely balanced, fair, hugely successful system, until those damn liberals came along and ruined everything. I know, right? What a shame.
Keep reading: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/03/17/notes031710.DTL
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Is that a pubic hair in her drink?
Virginia warns wife of Justice Clarence Thomas her group is violating law
State officials tell Virginia Thomas that her conservative advocacy group, Liberty Central Inc., must comply with a law that requires registration before seeking donations.
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Jed Lewison points us to a report on the latest anti-health care offensive from the right wing noise machine: Malkin, Limbaugh and Beck are attacking an 11 year old kid whose mother died.
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Balls of steel ... That would be Lt. Dan Choi:
Lt. Dan Choi, the openly gay Iraq war veteran who has been an outspoken opponent of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, was arrested Thursday after chaining himself to a fence at the White House.
The Advocate reports that Choi, along with former Army infantryman Jim Pietrangelo, was arrested after chaining themselves to the fence following a rally in Washington for repeal of the policy, which bans gay men and women from serving openly in the military.
Dennis Kucinich's wife only looked taller
