Dan Rather Lawsuit Against CBS TOSSED In Entirety

So this falls under the sub-title that, you'll never win when you take on the media moguls. Did the courts even bother to validate Rather's story on whether or not Bush was given preferential treatment during his Vietnam War-era service in the Texas Air National Guard? Or was the money all that mattered? The bigger debate (and more frightening for CBS) was why he was released and whether or not the story that got him fired was true and factual to begin with... provided anyone was interested in the pursuit of justice. If this was the case, the money is secondary and payment could have been dismissed. But a truth and a blatant unfairness and cover up could have been none the less exposed and revealed. The press,including (and especially) the major networks were bound and gagged when it came to questioning the Bush administration. But I see this did not concern the court very much. It's all "show me the money!"
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Public Option Amendments Fail In Senate Finance Committee

National polls have shown that (of those polled) 65% of the American people are in favor of the public option. SO why the debate? Unless the message behind it all is that we are not truly represented and what the people may want in this instance or any other is irrelevant. We are not governed by the will of the people. We are ruled by the few and the elite who will decide what they think is best for us. It is time for us to flood these "servants of the people" with emails, letters and phone calls until they wake up and listen to the voice of the people! Then write down their names so you can help vote them out in their next bid for election. I sure hope this gives some perspective to the flag waving, rah-rah crowd and the "let's bring democracy to other countries" set. Who's going to bring democracy to America?? Because it was nowhere to be found on the Senate Finance committee today. Damned Skippy!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Public Option Debate Poised To Explode In Senate Tuesday

I got an idea, get these grifters to stop modeling their Brooks brothers suits, get them in jeans and working clothes like the majority of Americans wear, put them in chamber and lock the doors from the outside until they come up with something that truly serves the people of America. Make them stop the posturing and the false sincerity and pompus "gentlemen" stump speeches and speak in plain down home terms and stop skirting around every tangent outlying the issue and get something done without hiding behind the formalities. And then, once they've hashed something out, let the peope vote on it. Sure that might be expensive, but we spend lots more in the country for less. And let's start replacing tv sitcoms, reality TV and CSI dramas with live coverage from the floor on every channel so the American people can't avoid but get a little civic information to replace the mindless "entertainment" that helps keep them in the dark on these issues and who actually works in gov't and who is just taking up oxygen....Oh, if only I ruled the world!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

U.S. Seeking Tougher Sanctions Against Iran

The Iranians claim they filed the changes in their nuclear programs 18 months before completion as it is stipulated. They have agreed to the inspections. And still, even over a weekend, more and more calls for tougher and tougher sanctions continue to fill the news. What more need the Iranians do in order to comply with the nonproliferation treaty they willingly signed not as a punishment but as an act of cooperation and good will. I'm afraid that this situation, just like the Iraq situation in 2002/2003 is about to begin spiraling out of countrol until it becomes irrepairable and once again civilians will pay with their lives. One need not send in troops or jet with missiles to create collateral damage. Unecessary overbearing sanctions will do just as well to destroy an economy, starve people, decay infrastructure and deny people basic services which are needed ty the people. Sanctions are little more than what was known as extortion in an earlier time. Play ball with the mob...you did ok, DOn't play with the mob, you find your shipments don't arrive on time, another black maket replaced free enterprise. Hospitals do without and at the lowest level people like you and I find shortages in basic everday goods and services. Make our governmet think twice about this approach. The sabre rattling grows stronger even with every consession the Iranians concede to. This could get ugly soon...over nothing. We've seen it all before.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Issues Ultimatum To Iran On Nukes

Here's a hypothisis that may not be too far off of being a possibility: Mixing it up with Iran could be an opening gambit for generating new interest in a draft. This would improve the unemployment situation, provide an expansion of our pillar industries... the DOD and thus inject a fresh avenue for cash flow into a tanked economy. A large enough incurrsion with Iran (which is good for business) and those in favor of such a scheme, would immediately start reviving interest in a draft due to our military being stretched so thin that we we no longer have the resources to put "boots on the ground" in Iran. Currently the contracted mercenaries out number our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan almost three to one, at more than 10 times the cost we spend on our troops, equipment and logistics. If we're gong to have any teeth at all to show Iran,...we need troops. If we want to curb unemployment we need jobs. And if we want to improve the economy quickly, war or a police action has always proved effective for us to this end.



Just a theory. And one I'm sure is being discussed behind closed gov't doors, given that scads of options are likely being considered there. Winter is coming on in America, be sure to avoid the draft.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: Iran Has Secret Nuclear Facility

BO, Focus, Dammit!!

The economy is in the tank, Americans are jobless and those who work are paying more taxes than ever. Tens of millions of Americans are health careless. We have two wars going on that are draining us dry, dividing the country and ain't worth a bucket of spit towards bettering the world or this country. Banks are spending taxpayer money like it's a gift from above and our representatives are lapping up industry dollars through lobbyists as if they've been on the desert for a week.

And you want to start kicking around yet another country because (GASP!) they might be trying to come up to a level playing field in the nuclear sciences? Where was the American indignation when Pakistan, India and Israel went queitly ahead and developed their nuclear programs either for energy or for an arsenal??

What bout Brazil? They're practically on our border by comparison to Iran and they have nuclear power.

But I can see how easy it is to become side tracked.

The difference is, Mr.President, I can afford to become sidetracked. You can't.

Keep your eye on the ball, Mr. President. And Iran isn't even in the same ball park you should be playing in right now.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

G20 Protesters Ordered To Stop March By Pittsburgh Police

Here's a viddie on what today's G20 summit is about.
Dr. Paul is not an anarchist.
Then too, it's quite hard to say how many of the protestors are aware of anything he is talking about.
Note the lack of face cover and stocking cap in the video.
Click the Youtube link to see Paul's interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfViLcDakag

Click here to read the the Article on the protest at HuffingtonPost

Political Historian Garry Wills: Obama Still Runs Bush's Secret Empire

I happen to like President Obama. He is far from perfect, true. And in some ways he scares me a little. Remember the scene in Karate Kid, when Miagi tells The Kid, "Karate do. Karate, no do. Stand in middle get crushed like grape!"....well more and more it appears to me that BO isn't inclined to stand tough on one side or the other. It's fairly obvious from down here that BO has maintained several of the stickier characteristics of the Bush administration. And stories like this just shed more light on others. The problem is, if BO doesn't make his mind up on what he actually wants us to feel he's committed to and finds comfort in the one leg up and one leg down pose of the Leaping Crane position, on the bow of the rowboat, it won't be long before he and all of us are taking a big and unexpected bath because nothing of any great measure, will be resolved or repaired in this country during his presidency. BO! Please. Change do. Change, no do. Stand in middle, we all get cushed like grape.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Biden Afghanistan Plan Gaining Traction In Obama White House

Schools, hospitals, medicine, infrastructure, industry to develop a GNP besides poppies, agricultural means and technologies, minimize troop/weapons use except for self defense in delivering these goods. Winning the hearts and minds of people does not take troops and weaponry. It takes giving them what they need to rise up and become a productive and self determined nation with pride in itself. Thus far our purposes in Afghanistan have been self serving and hinged on revenge and control of natural resources. You win no one's heart and mind when you are exploiting them for your own purposes. You just kill and maim them and in return, they live to return the slight. Give the Afghanis what they need to become a viable state entity instead of spending on expanding our own empire and pentagon pipe dreams and this is a winnable situation. A country for them and lots of jobs and a place to produce product for American companies. We could do this on what we currently spend on mercenaries alone in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it can't be a secondary concern. We have to do it because we mean it, or even a goat herder will still see though our genuine motivations...as they can and do now.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Who Owns Your Mortgage? "Produce The Note" Movement Helps Stall Foreclosures

At first blush it may not appear to be civil, ethical or moral to stall housing foreclosures by demanding that the "lender" have their paper work together to substantiate their claim to the property. But on a larger scale it forces the banks and the Federal Reserve to stare into a gapping hole in the system that they both profit from. It could very well benefit us all in the pulling in the reigns of having an economy and currency system that is built on little but promises and lots less substance. A system like this is fine if you have a huge corporation or the gov't behind you when such promisory exchanges are made. It's a completely un-level playing field in an economy whose currency is to be of equal value reagrdless of the status or size of either the "lender" or the "borrower". While the banking industry can lend money stictly as an accounting entry, by what authority have they to do this. As it is, these "lenders" can acquire, sell, and forclose on "borrowers" arbitrarily, when quite often, they can show no tangible claim to the properties other than a "he said" from another institution. Let Jane and Joe Public try that when trying to purchase or sell their house, their cars or for that matter, groceries. So let these folks balk and call the banking industry on the technicalities of it's authority. They are doing us all a solid.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bill Clinton: Carter Wrong On Obama And Racism

Whether Carter is right or wrong in his assessment of the role racism is playing in opposition to the Obama administration only leaves a gap in understanding the "vitriol" (America's new, most overly used word) surrounding the comments, opinions and protests pointedly directed towards our Chief of State. Portrails of the President and his administration as nazis and witch doctors, even some people wearing white face, all to the exclusion of pin pointing whic aspects of any policy is at the root of this oppositon would still indicate that there is certainly more involved than American politics as usual. It's obviously clear why Bo and Bill would reject any claims of racism. To accept it would only tear the fabric of discourse even further, muddy the waters and incite even further ideological division among the American people. To indicate that race is an issue in these times would be tantamount to playing the victim, which in turn would have the opposition, (whose genuine motives and means of expressing their political dissatisfaction remain unprovable) "victims" as well . From the point of view of those who appear to be honestly attempting to seek resolution, this would be no place to begin from. Understandable. But for former President Carter, there may be a larger issue facing America. And he is certainly correct in attempting to resolve it in this or any instance.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

McChrystal Afghanistan Assessment: More Forces Or "Mission Failure"

"Mission failure"??? Uh, what's the "mission" this week? Is it to bring democracy to the Afghans? Is it to neutralize the Taliban? Is it all for the capture of Osama? Is it to help Karzai maintain the poppy production, which is Afghan's only GNP? Is it a neat place to test and deploy some our more advanced and unmanned equipment? Is it just a policing action to enhance our own foot print in the middle east? Is it to have a presence in and near Pakistan, finally? Or is it to secure the geography so a pipeline can be built and made secure to route oil and thus eliminate the need for other middle east countries to use expensive tankers to get product to the world market? Pick one already, please. So we'll know what to expect when we decide to undertake a similar "mission" in Iran at the first opportunity. "Mission failure"??? You gotta have a mission, first.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

GOP Leadership Worried About Damage To Party's Reputation From Base

Take alook at this woman's thought processes and this photo and try to tell me we don't have a problem with prescription drug abuse in America.
She espouses ideas that are the size of gnats and her pupils are the the size of dimes!
If for no other reason, legalize pot for Michelle.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Maybe..."it can't happen here".

In spite of my own personal doubts I have been a staunch supporter of the principles and possibilities that our leadership and representatives could in fact deliver on the promise of an all encompassing health care reform package that would shore up the medical needs of millions of Americans who are either uninsured and/or under insured due to the predatory nature of the industries connected with it and the fiscal motivation of those who make policy. I support the cause probably more than most and would like to think that a plan will emerge that will generally (and finally) beneift the American people.

But as the facts roll out about Senators on commitees that are "gifted" millions of dollars by the very industries that would be "brought in and online" for such a program, for the sole purpose of having them legislate policy that would ultimately primarily benefit those industries and the status quo, it giving me great pause, second thoughts and lack of hope for the medical relief of the American people.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/18/baucus-bill-sticks-to-pha_n_290639.html

Debtor's Revolt: Woman Refuses To Pay Off Bank Of America Credit Card (VIDEO)

You go G-u-u-r-r-l-l-l!!!!

The banks are raising the interest rate to the American people 100% with one hand and taking bllions of dollars in taxpayer provided bail out money with the other.
Everyone should learn to live on a pay as you go basis and then just let those worthless pieces of plastic begin filling up the lobbies of BOA and every other shark operation until they can't even clear a path to their offices.
Read the Article and see the viddie at HuffingtonPost

If you think the protest in DC was an anti-Health Care Reform rally, guess again.

These are the preexisting conditions that are killing this country.

This was for all intent and purposes an anti-Obama rally. You betcha' and damn Skippy.

Look again at the footage and the photos of these crowds from today and then try to convince yourself that these people were genuinely interested in supply side economics or were nothing more than rational people protesting taxation or the HCR. Hell, the current economy was of Republican making over the last 8 years. Can you pick out a sign or placard that showed even the slightest tinge of dissatisfaction over the party responsible for that? No.

The vast majority of signs, slogans and the rhetoric that followed were primarily basic personal attacks on the current administration and in a nut shell what the complaining masses were there to say today was inspired by the invitation of the extremist right column in this country, and the cheerleaders on the right who coordinated the rally and lit the burning cross on the media's lawn.

So discuss the activities of the day all you like folks and analyze the common causes for the shift in the economy and how that plays into the health care debate. But don't kid yourselves.

These people came to shout out the equivalent of, "We cannot abide losing the last election to a black President! And as long as we have a shield of any sort to hide behind, be it taxation, the health care initiative, whatever; we will willingly provide the Republican party with whatever furthers their political agenda leading up to the 2012 elections."

The Right has lit the fire and these folks have been stirred up real good. Their only objective is to get the black guy out of the White House or make him look as bad as possible to America and the world in the process. And they are doing it by walking over the dead bodies of their fellow Americans who can neither afford, find, secure or retain health care expenses as they are today and are certain to be tomorrow.

The Industrialist party has got us where "they" want us, indecisive, filled with misinformation, and hate until we've become politically impotent and merely cattle for the farming. One hundred years of expecting reform and not getting it will pretty much take it out of you.

But we're still #37 in health care for our citizens, people...and dropping like a stone in the ratings with each passing day that nothing is done.
And for this the people in Washington today chant, Rah. Rah. Rah. Feel the pride. Call your President and his posse Nazis and present your best efforts at spelling in your native tongue.

I look with hesitancy forward to the day these folks, whipped into a frenzy by the Extremist Right Column of the Industrialist party find that they supported the abortion of an HCR under the guise of racism and that in all likelihood they will eventually find themselves one day dying for because of their own contributions.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Joe Wilson Voted To Provide Taxpayer Money For Illegal Immigrants' Healthcare

And this is the very same guy that shouted out "You lie!" at the President in a joint session of Congress as though he was against this very same issue.

Listen...when these guys get to the point in their political careers where it's obvious that they no longer remember what the hell they actually stand for, let's have an immediate and automatic term limit imposed on them, Ok? No big hoopla. Just calmly walk them to their office and have them clean out their desk.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Rep. Joe Wilson Yells Out "You Lie!" During Obama Health Care Speech (VIDEO)

Wilson is a perfect specimen of the extremist right column that is driven to usurp any forward motion towards solving this country's 100 year social and domestic policy deficits. His rude and inaccurate interruption at an inappropriate time and in an inappropriate setting (which through fact checking bears out that he knew nothing of which he spoke) is indicative of the loose cannon... allow no one a view in opposition to your own...facts be damned... hell bent on being right in spite of all facts to the contrary attitude that we've seen for months in public debate over health care reform proposals in town meetings...where some fllow extremist right columnists have even brandished rifles in the parking lots of presidential appearances.

His outburst exposed him as the same sort of troglodyte in a Brooks Brother's suit that more than likely helped orchestrate the slew of fear generating lies that has thwarted the work of other good people of genuine effort to distribute health care to millions of people who desperately need it.

We now have a prime suspect in the allegiance that has come up with “death panels”, “higher taxation” scares, the forfeit of choice in physicians and the Socialism slanders and falsehoods we have been barraged with from Rush to Hannity to Fox News. Wilson owes not only the President and Congress an apology. He need publicly apologize directly to the people of America for his intentional dismissal of the rules of conduct and then roll up his sleeves and work markedly harder towards the betterment of any and all legislation which would improve upon the quality of life for American citizens rather than showing a continued willingness to only have concerns, accurate or otherwise to attempt to simply win the debate and deflate the popularity of a president for what simple deduction makes appear to be purely political and/or racial purposes.
If any private citizen even at an informal town hall or Bush appearance had done this, they would have been forced to the ground, possibly tasered and escorted off the premises.

It has taken place over less provocation.

Wilson should not get a free pass.

(And am I mistaken or are those two guys on either side of Wilson, clones?)

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

"We're Number 37!"

If there is a song for our times...this is it!
Way to go Paul Hipp!!
Lyrics are spot on and drum tight.

I predict this viddie will go viral in about a heart beat!
[Click the link below for Huffington Post to see it.]
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: "We Do Intend To Get Something Done This Year"

I don't think for a minute that any health care plan proposed is going to stand up well besides what other westernized, modern nations are already providing to their people. We may get a savings over existing costs. But we will still be at the mercy of the insurance industry with their exception (waeasel) clauses and denials of services for "pre-existing conditions" which allow them to cut off people (or a gov't) that pays the premiums. That is of course if any proposal at all meets the criteria and the approval of the insurers, care provider and pharm industries...and their botton line, profit.

And that's the problem, really. For all the talk of wishing to provide affordable health care for the people of America, the bottom line as seen by Congress is to appear to be doing the noble thing like so many other countries have managed to do, and to in fact appease the lobby moneys that help people in high public office maintain their war chests for pending re-elections.

It's unfortunately a "promise them anything. Give them as little as you can possibly get away with." situation that the American people are once more placed in no matter what if anything gets a majority vote.

You see, in this way America suffers from a pre-existing condition and service has been denied for decades. Come up with a definitively workable health plan for the people as it is in England, France and elsewhere and maybe we can find and cure America's leadership from it's addiction to the health industry dollar.

If we can (and do) provide universal health care in Iraq and Afghanistan without the boondoggle...why can't we do it for our own, right here?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" Premieres In Venice To Great Reviews

When capitalism becomes synonymous and interchangable with democracy as it has in modern America, and its expansion grows like a cancer to include the total global village making it impossible for people to survive but for the purpose of being collectively farmed to further nourish the beast, then it is an evil. I find this to be a given truth. Find your own contradictory truths if you must. But Michael Moore is not the story here to initiate thought and debate no matter how many people choose to use him as an instrument to deflect from the uncomfortable truths he either deliberately or accidently sheds light on with his work in films.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Let's face it...

...there's not a single thing that this President can propose that wouldn't meet with the same group of people complaining and obstructing any forward motion for this country's progress. Well, lucky you if you have all you need and don't need anything from the gov't.

Yet, that is.

And don't kid yourself. You already do.

Your minimal middle class taxes already bring you the luxuries that you reap from gov't programs at a fraction of their actual cost.

On your current contributions alone, you couldn't keep the street lights on in your neighborhood, the fire department running or the police department in clean uniforms.

Medicare and a few dozen other programs are steeped in socialism, including the 700 billion dollars for the housing financial bail out (signed by the Bush Administration) funding for our military, the highways you drive on and public schooling.

Instead of chattering your complaints like a bunch of monkeys in the trees, why don't you tell all of us how you would expect the repairs be made to the inadequacies in our domestic spending rather than digging your heels in like a rented mule and taking every opportunity to simply nay-say every proposal that comes out of this administration that would help refinance an already socialized system that has not kept up with the needs of it's citizenry since FDR.

We're in this together, whether you are sitting pretty or not. And you are part of a Republc that was founded "for, of and by the people". Whether the President is Bush, Clinton, Bush or Obama makes no difference. Get on board or jump overboard and swim on your own somewhere else. We've got a boat to row here. Grab an oar or go off somewhere and continue to only care about fending for yourself. Please!

Stop the insanity! No Need For Rush to Hannity!!

Really.
All you Goobers are way out of line.
If Obama walked on water, you would complain that he did so because he was a terrible swimmer.
A little more about the country and a little less about your pinheaded view.
The party of Bush/Cheney is no longer in the oval office.
Build a bridge and get over it.

USA Has Biggest Summer In Cable History

Spring for a movie sometime, if you haven't lately. Ok...a matinee if you prefer. Sometimes they have cheaper prices. Sometimes. Here's what you spend on average. $8.50 per ticket. Three people costs $25.50. Snacks? Ok...how about a large popcorn and a couple of medium sized soft drinks. Nothing fancy, just movie watching basics. That's another $14 bucks. You've just spent $39.50 for a 2 hour viewing experience for you and two friends. That's more than a yearly salary for hard labor in many countries.

Does anybody wonder why the movie business is limping along these days and the cable industry (who charges perhaps twice this much for a month's worth of unlimited viewing) is booming?

Hello! We're in a bad economy at the moment. Unless you're a financial or auto business that's being bailed out by the Feds you might consider getting a bit more for your entertainment dollar these days.

Add to this the efforts by the cable industry to provide viewing option based on what people seem to want to watch, superior writing and directing over network television and a wide scope of variety and there's no contest. In fact there's no need for this obvious situation to become a news event at all. It's an explanation of the blatantly obvious.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

U.S. To Boost Combat Force In Afghanistan With 14,000 Troops

I voted for Obama, too.

Since his coming to term, he has back tracked on these issues and others to the point where they are almost indistinquishable to those of the previous administration which in speeches he railed against and promised to reverse.

I'm convinced at this point that the system will only allow us the option to vote for one of the two candidates (one on the left and one on the right) that best represent the advance and continuation of the status quo and who will continue the same course that has been engineered by industry and big money in America.
Making matters worse the press is part of that push in each presidential election, swaying public opinion and ensuring the success of either heir apparent they are directed to.
It's unfortunate. Obama appeared to represent a definitive change for America. All we seem to be getting for all that lip service is more of the same, with a new tact being taken by the administration in informing the public of what is going on and the delivery of rhetoric that makes the same tired national approaches and agendas more palatable to the masses.

Rebecca Johnston, Mother Of Four Featured In Obama Infomercial, Is Headed To Boot Camp

It's a shame that in America so many feel that their only option and economic way out is to consign oneself to the military and possible harm to life and limb at the expense of home and family....just to feed the war machine which is slowly becoming our #1 export.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost