Jane, I think your thoughts on “Shaking off the hangover” are on the mark. GREAT effort, a wonderful close for a most hypocritical year, it embodies the BEST of Blogging. How about attaching a “print” button to your Blogs (or telling us how to do it if it’s there), so we can more easily share your painstaking efforts?
Happy New Year!

p.s. I don’t believe it’s possible to say more in fewer words than you did on msnbc this a.m.

OK, so the left and right agree on no mandate. And yes, we want people to have access to affordable health care. How? In this piece, more time should have been spent on ideas to reach that goal (or at least one idea from each). I am not hearing a lot of ideas from the right and the left (not all, of course) seem to be shying away from pushing single-payer. We all know the solution. For-profit health care coverage and care does not work. Thus, we need to go to a non-profit system where we expand the risk pool and all contribute for the health and well-being of our nation!!

Happy New Year, Patriot Jane!

We spent the early morning reveling in our new parenthood of a 5-year old son, adopted on 12/22, just in time for Christmas. And recovering from new son’s first tantrum, where he screamed at the top of his lungs:

“I don’t like Washington, DC! I’m not going to live in Washington, DC!
When I grow up, I’m going to close down that whole Capitol Building.”

Hubby, muttering under his breath: “go for it! the sooner the better.”
Me, trying desperately to keep a straight face.

Sure takes the edge off a tantrum when the kid has the right politics!
We’ll be sending him to your house for training, Jane!

Good on ya, Jane. Nothin’ like startin’ to hammer ‘em on day 1 of the new decade.

Happy New Year.

Congratulations on new son, politically correct to boot!

And Jane, well done.

Great clip, Jane. You have really influenced the debate, and big time!

Great that the talking point here is Health Care, not Health Insurance. Finally!

G’Morning, All.
Me? Watching Anatomy of a Murder. Was going to watch The Parade, but got sucked in my George C. and James.
Jane, I think it’s interesting that they bill you as Producer and Writer before Founder of Firedoglake. I’d like to see Woman who understands economics, government and communication. But, that’s prolly too much and not as specific as Producer. Tee Hee. Good think you aren’t a former Pole Dancer or Blow Job Giver. They’d put that up next to your pretty little face.

Happy New Year to Jane and everyone and a toast to areas of mutual agreement.

(p.s. I don’t drink so I”m holding up a piece of toast, I hope that works”

And Jane, particular kudos for pioneering the ends of the political spectrum working together against the corporatists in D.C. It could be the best idea of 2010.

Regarding a name for this new unholy alliance of mandated corporate “worse than a tax”…. where gov’t acts as enforcement arm of Big Insurance, inc…

What shall we name this new creature? Chimera?

I kind of like neo-feudalism as a description but it’s too much in the mouth. If this need to be a point of agreement between left and right, the “worse than a tax” needs a name.

Contest?

The only way our way too polarized factions will accomplish anything is to work together in the areas we have in common. Great move. Positive move.

Worse than a tax works for me. It’s not too long and it is spot on and understandable by everyone.

Medvedev’s doing that Russian thing, being interviewed for hours, now showing on cspan. Much more in-depth Qs and As than you would ever see on U.S. TV.

Happy New Year Jane Hamsher !

that kid at Politico actually got it right – “Independent Political Force”

congratulations and blessings to your family !

your initial announcement in the threads really choked me up and reminded me that hope is real and not a brand after all

Speaking of polarized, current temp here is 9 degrees, windchill -8. Last warm day before it gets REALLY cold.

Off to seize the day, see ya later.

Nice job Jane, and a very good way to start off the new year. Let’s hope it’s good one.

We certainly have a big task awaiting from mandates to a new war looming in Yemen. Good to see you’re up and ready to go from day one.

staying in doors and out of the cold.

Listening to the vienna philharmonic new years eve concert on npr.

Happy New Year, Jane! You looked wonderful and spoke beautifully on that clip.

I hope that you will take a few moments to celebrate how far FDL has come! Its influence has expanded enormously, thanks to your intelligence, energy, savvy, and leadership. I’m so happy that we have you to help point the way forward and push the system, it means a great deal to me (and many others, I’m sure).

I remain unconvinced of the wisdom of a Right/Left alliance.

History indicates that marriages of convenience, political or otherwise, seldom, if ever, achieve positive results.

My guess is that the center holds and we muddle forward in a half-assed, haltng, progressive manner.

What channel!

I agree that the mandate to buy private insurance has to be taken out of this bill. The private insurance industry is celebrating right now knowing they’ll be getting 30 million more customers who will be forced to buy their high priced product. It’s not right. They’d better do something about this, and quick. Without an affordable public option for all Americans to choose from whether they already have insurance or not, this mandate isn’t right.

You consider it an alliance of convenience for people to work together where we have a common interest?
Doesn’t mean we’re all moving in together forever. Just means combining resources and stategies towards a goal that helps everyone. Maybe?

Turner Movie Classics. That one’s over, but there’s another Jimmy Stewart movie on.

Good morning, and Happy New Year, Jane. And thank you for being such a resounding voice and providing FireDogLake as a forum for others to express our views. Maybe there’s a place for the insurance pukes in health care, like emptying bedpans or changing colostomy bags. I’m sure they just want to play a useful part in the work.

I’m wit oldgold.

Congratulations.

And a wish for more to accept that challenge. Teach the children…

I also think there’s a more general realignment going on, stemming most immediately from Clinton’s discovering the third way, making the Ds no longer responsive to the voters. Not sure how it will work out, but it is clear that something must be done, and in the absence of knowing what that something is, all kinds of experiments are OK. Some will fail & some will succeed.

Yep, left and right working together on single issues. When we go our separate ways there will be no fuss about who gets the dog and who gets stuck with the kids. :-)

The Mandate Tax…?

An old friend from C-U wrote and recorded, “She Got the Dog and I Got the Sony”!

Thank you. I think that’s the channel I watched a Sherlock Holmes marathon on a few weeks ago.

That’s okay. I know how stubborn you can be. *g*

Yep. That was last weekend. I watched too.

Medvedev asked about O. Sez he’s a good listener, and responds to what you say. Relationship is fairly good. Q: So why the delay in the new START treaty? A: Because the issues are so complicated, then goes on to explain some.

Can you imagine such an intelligent discussion here?

Ah, the good old days when C-U had a music scene.

Doesn’t incorporate the “worse than a tax” notion, which is critical.

It’s what I think, isn’t that what everyone here is all about?

Appaloosa

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace, business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Oct 31, 1936

Well,goes to show ,everything old is new again.

Thanks for putting the “fire” in Firedog,Jane…and Happy New Year to all.

New Shrlock Holmes movie sucks. Dark and violent, with no redeeming features.

Tramped some hills this brisk morning, worse than a tax is exactly right.

This is a second TARP bailout/parachute for the derived instrument crowd

to play with. From the beginning, I worried about Obama and the insurance

lobby… unfortunately those concerns were well founded. The democratic

instinct of the Democratic Party was lobotomized by Clintonism. Send Igor

out for another brain and try again.

forget about ‘left and right’, I think of Walter Reuther and his alliances with a) da commies and b) his later hooking up with Fitzsimmons to form Alliance for Labor Action in response to Meany’s intransgience

ol Walter would have appreciated what Jane is doing

The French electronic duo band? Just kidding, I know who you mean.

Jane, you and FDL are a breath of fresh air.
Sites like think progress and the daily Kos have become appendages to the democratic Party which is 49% of the problem and tolerate little dissent .
What I appreciate here ( FDL) is the hands on , go after em approach and the thought as of late that the progressives and the libertarians may find some common ground and close the circle around the neck of our farce of a political system .
We need to take concrete steps to dismantle the corporate control of our democracy !
Thanx and Happy new year to all . You folks are awesome !

USA, UK, USSR: Allies in WW2. Positive results.

Have you ever noticed there seem to be scores of British actors who can portray Americans convincingly but few if any Americans who are adept at playing Brits?

I’m certain there are some, just can’t think of any.

Dark and violent, with no redeeming features.

Sounds like a description of American foreign policy since 2000.

Sure, the Cold War was a win-win scenario. :-)

Lot longer than that.

Where was Katherine going with “We want to get people care rather than coverage.” That sounds like a national healthcare system, which I think is a great idea.

And Aussies

!

The collusion of government to further business interest by force is called “Fascism”. A perfectly apt term in this case since mandating direct payments to insurers by an unwilling and non-consenting public is being demanded by the government by force of law or else a penalty is incurred. That term, Fascism, could not have a more precise instance than what this government is demanding.

And it also shows where it’s sympathies are, with business and against the public. And of course the public across the spectrum is rightly indignant and outraged. This mandate can not be complied with and a legal challenge should not permit such a dangerous precedent.

Right, and they’re drunk all the time. Just kidding (or not).

Great job (as always), Jane!

Happy New Year, you Happy Warrior, you!

Johnny Depp as JM Barrie in Neverland –
phew! that was gonna drive me crazy

and I like Zellwigger as Beatrix Potter

lol, I knew someone was gonna bring that up.

You know, I always suspected the Geico Gecko was a fascist tool.

Dominic West in the Wire was insanely good. Not only played an American but nailed the Bal’more accent.

How does the Association of American Physicians think that HCR will happen without a public option or universal care? Kathryn Serkes says that the AAPS wants health care for citizens. How does she think this will happen?

Wouldn’t the right-leaning Supreme Court consider a law requiring citizens to buy a specific product from a private corporation on threat of punishment by the IRS to be somewhat, umm, unconstitutional? If I don’t pay the fine and eventually get charged, do I go to debtor’s prison?

If Walmart starts giving more money to congresscritters than insurance companies, will there be a new patriotic act requiring me to spend a portion of my disposable income at Walmart?

During ‘Nam the gov’t actually believed it had the legal right to my body for it’s own devious ends. I said NO then, too. Several of my friends and associates did jail time in federal prisons.

Kevin Spacey?

wiki: In February 2003, Spacey announced that he was returning to London to become the artistic director of the Old Vic, one of the city’s oldest theatres.

Agreed.

Also agree that the alliance is not so much about “left/right,” as much as We-the-People/Corporatist.

Looks to me like that meme (alliance) is moving forward and is not going back; I am pleased that people who aren’t comfortable with that can express their feelings and still be “on the bus.”

{{{ Jane }}}

As a Canuck, I find it appalling that so many on the left are trumpeting the talking points that an affordable national health care system was always impossible to achieve in America.

This p.o.v. demonstrates why the Right has been so dominant in politics for so long.

I knew there had to be some.

That’s a hard one to do.

The Bad Mandate Tax?

Happy New Year to you, Jane, and to all the Firepups. I don’t post much, but I read almost everything. And I thank you all for your passion and activism.

Happy New Year Everybody !

I’m of the opinion Serkes is just McCaughey 2.0 – new and improved but without the blatantly stoopid

What? It’s New Years in Canada too?

Happy New Year, Petro.

congratulations and blessings to your family !

your initial announcement in the threads really choked me up and reminded me that hope is real and not a brand after all

I missed the initial announcement, could someone point me to it? Congrats to posaune on the new child!

And happiest of new years to my Firepup friends. We are getting snow here, with more on the way.

Mandatory insurance at this point, without any way of controlling cost of premiums, deductibles, co-pays well devastate the people in this country. This is all about the mid-terms now, the democrats are going to continue to tell the American people, how this is going to be so great for them. Everything the insurance industry ever wanted is in this bill and if the American people think it’s been tough so far they ain’t seen nothing yet.

I am not a Democrat. I am not a Republican. I am American. Obama and Congress are attempt to take the little guys money and give it to multi-national corporations.

These elites believe you have too much. If you have decent insurance, they will tax you. Are you a member of a Union? Obama wants to tax you.

Are you a teacher or a nurse? Obama wants to tax you. Why? Because the executives of the insurance industry need better bonuses and it costs a lot to build fortified gated communities to keep the riff-raff out.

What’s next? Social security. They want to privatize it so banks can roll the dice with you retirement.

See comment @ 4, if I’m not mistaken.

Happy New Year, msmolly.

Can’t speak for everyone else here. Just me. I tend to go with the, On the essentials, we agree, and in all other matters, think and let think.

“Tee Hee. Good think you aren’t a former Pole Dancer or Blow Job Giver. They’d put that up next to your pretty little face.”

This kind of sexist crap is not in the least amusing. Sexualizing public women is one of they ways the opposition tries to reduce their effectiveness.

Sorry to start off the new year complaining but please lets’ us not do this to Jane.

And a Happy one to you. Haven’t seen you in a long time. Thought you might have disappeared in a snow bank :)

Dear Jane, Thank You for taking the time to speak to us via msnbc what a wonderful way to start out 2010. Heres lookin at you, kid!

was too bucks down to celebrate last night, plan to join the revelry tardy a.s.a.p.

I am in the process of composing a letter to a Senator on the urgent need to at least kill the mandate, will post a paste of it.

we should never forget John Paul Jones most famous words.

Like Canadian Thanksgiving, our New Year comes a month earlier !

That’s a joke, but lots of Murkans have bought it ! *g*

Not if your an accomplished actor. It’s, like what they trained and practiced really hard to do.

LOL … it’s been cold here but every time it starts to snow, temps warm up and it changes to rain. We’re s’posed to get some snow this week, so the kiddies will be happy.

Jane got shorted in the ability to respond to the last comment about the difference between medical care and insurance coverage. That would have presented such a nice opportunity to pivot. And acknowlege that Bernie Sanders’s community health clinics do exactly that and that you could very well strip out the rest of the bill and fund community health clinics to serve the entire population. (VA for all)

But great job being clear about what is going on, Jane.

The oligarchy organizations such as Wall Street Banks, Automotive and Oil have demonstrated that they do not work in the interests of the public. More over all of them seem to be able to find a way to buy off Washington, independent of party (D,R,I. We are feeding the health insurance industry to be stronger oligarchies.

The thing I do not see in the Health bill is sustainability. Specifically where are the cost containment stuctures which can help small business.

This whole thing is a mess and defies understanding by the general population

here ya go :D

Nah, I meant for residents of Baltimore. “g”

Don’t have to apologize to me. Your comment accusing me of sexist whatever doesn’t bring me down at all. I know what I meant. I’d say sorry to be the first to bring it out of you, but if it wasn’t me, it woulda been something else pretty darn quick, I’m guessing.

You wear a merkin?

Please don’t flip your wig. “g”

{{{ demi }}} … I couldn’t unnerstand that comment either.

Would that be “frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn?”
Uh, no. Maybe “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Darn it, can’t seem to get it right. I’ll think of it later. :( :)

Thanks, I’ll give it a pass. Saw “It’s Complicated” … what a riot !

Happy New Year, Jane. Thanks for all that you do. And don’t let the bastids grind you down.

What I was saying was…that her being a producer and screenwriter doesn’t have the same bearing as her education, her knowledge and what she’s doing as founder here. If she had had a questionable career like the ones I mentioned, they would have used that too.
I’m surprised you didn’t get what I was saying. I bet Jane got it and the point is I was replying to her.

Sorry if I speak over some peoples heads.
And, thanks for all the support.

Thanks, cbl2. I was out of town and involved in family stuff and not able to read all the way through all of the threads, so I missed it. Very heartwarming!

There ya go again Jane , agreeing with the other side !

Why not work with the other side on points we agree upon ?

No biggie, dear. Thread seems to be on the wane. New one upstairs.

Really must get busy, see ya later.

Cynthia Kouril has a new post up on the FP: “New Yorkers Brave Cold Rain, Dick Cheney’s Fears to Rock in the New Year”

LOL!! My 5 year old just screams about wanting to play on the Wii.

It’s not about you or your fantasies.

It’s about distractions from Jane’s message and respect for public women.

ajmc – “I have not yet begun to fight”. I didn’t really think it was “don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.”
Have a Happy New Year.

No, once when the bastidz were overtaking our humble Navy, an Officer told Capt. Jones that the situation was hopeless and we should turn and run, Capt. Jones held the telescope up to his glass eye and said something like “I don’t see a superior force any where, hold a steady course!” Capn Jones said WE HAVE NOT YET EVEN BEGUN TO FIGHT. i rest my case.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I spent my morning writing a letter to the editor of the local paper about the state and national Republicans’ ramp up to stampede ND voters against Dorgan and Pomeroy in 2010…nah gonna let it happen without a fight on my watch….

Then I went out and bought birthday goodies for my grandson who turns seven next week.

All of a piece, I’d say.

Bill Clinton wanted a corporate/Democratic Party relationship – and as stated in Hillary’s book, shot down single payer folks (Hillary being one as I was there listening to our lobbyists as the head of Sun Life’s US Tax Department – when Hillary was shot down our lobbyists had a party). So do not us “Clintonism” as a term as they are very different persons – besides Bill did not turn “relationship” into “run by corporations” – a Fascists state of affairs – it took Bush – Bush cut gov employment rolls by outsourcing both military and gov jobs at a cost that exceeded what would have been the cost if they had remained military and gov jobs – and which hid the fact that those contractors then used Indian and other foreign job seekers to spend our tax dollars on.

Regarding a name for this new unholy alliance of mandated corporate “worse than a tax”…. where gov’t acts as enforcement arm of Big Insurance, inc…

What shall we name this new creature? Chimera?

I think Worse than a Tax does well as a title.

Good for you.

I’m not the one with fantasies around here. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

Forcing the Main Street rabble to financially bail out the Wall Street nobility is another such instance of Fascism.

that was incredible jane, katherine actually soumded like a progressive, “we need health care not health insurance”

jane, you did it, you moved the right closer to the center

well done

fwiw, i can attest to the benefits of a healthcare insurance mandate.

living in MA, the reports note that the new system is running out of money, and 21% still don’t buy in. i suspect that the latter group is in the middle class, caught in that no-man’s land of not poor enough to qualify for complete coverage and not rich enough to actually afford it.

i personally know of folks in this latter category who are constantly scrambling to shift coverage from carrier to carrier for their kids, and buy in once a year or so to get adult checkups. the penalty is not enough incentive to go full hog.

but, for those many very poor who could not even cobble together any kind of coverage, and did not qualify for medicaid/medicare, the system has been a godsend. i cannot begin to tell you, this part is no joke. it has made an enormous difference for those just pushed over the edge in the past. an enormous difference. that group includes many kids, utterly crucial.

don’t get me wrong; you won’t find an individual whose principles are more liberal or progressive than i am. if i were a dictator, i would just kick ass and take no prisoners on this and a whole host of other issues, like the doj, torture, our occupations of so many other countries, the planet, …you know the list.

but none of us is a dictator, and that includes obama. i abhor the political climate we find ourselves in, and it may well be that obama is just another one of these. but it might also be that he recognizes that this aircraft carrier can’t change direction on a dime; this will take very careful adjustments so the whole ship of state does not capsize.

i applaud him for at least not taking the ‘decider’ approach to legislation; that’s the job of congress. and our job as citizens is to keep their feets to the fire. but i am not interested in insisting this one man shoulder all the responsibility for the state of things (bravo to the WH for calling out the big dick on this) or for what happens going forward with regard to legislation. he’s tacking to the constitution here and butting out, as he should.

i also have to say i have been a bit embarrassed by the histrionics from the far left in assessing most matters obama. it fits the bell curve, i suppose, but it doesn’t fit reality. of course we progressives feel our positions on so many issues is the ‘correct’ one, etc., but so do therightwingnuts. just believing you’re right is not viable currency in a democracy, but persuading a majority IS. falling into hyperbolic reactions that are too often reflections of those same rightwingnuts will not persuade anyone of anything except that there is no difference between the two polarities.

we really need to be more strategic about our approach; rejecting this bill is just cutting our noses off to spite our faces. that reality thang needs to apply here, however, noxious it might be. many millions will benefit from this bill, however fundamentally flawed it might be. would anyone really deny those folks insurance just because this legislation is so imperfect??

we have a common ground that is going to be hard marketing against, a mutual fear of corporate power in government

if we can exploit that we can move together on quite a few issues

Maybe Jane can hold up a small sign saying “WORSE than a TAX” when being talked over,or cut short, on these TV interviews.

Just hold up the placard for the camera to see.

Where do we order the Tee shirts?

a mandate is liveable if you are given options, that’s why we are incensed the public option was abandoned

but when you are forced by law to buy from a monopoly you will pay dearly

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs.

We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Oct 31, 1936

Sounds like he doesn’t need any training, he’s already got DC wired!

In response to posaune @ 4

Your 5 year old son is onto something. Washington DC is the occult capital of America and I can prove it. Search “DC Street Sorcery” and view this most revealing documentary. No wonder nothing good comes out of DC but wars, fraud, lies, bribery and corruption.

So you thought the Obama campaign was wrong for wanting to bring right and left together?

How about Alan Grayson joining with Ron Paul to audit the Fed? Was that a mistake?

Nah, Fannie/Freddie bailout on Christmas Eve beat it for 2nd TARP bailout. Health care insurance industry bailout will be third.

fuck all that. ditch the mandate. I saw how much power those COCKSUCKERS already weild. Im not about just GIVING whats left to banks and insurance industry. I dont want to be a serf. AND just FYI. i dont have health care of any kind, and i Have not, for most of my adult life. I cant afford to pay I am self employed. I just get by.

Happy New Year everyone!
Jane, you are such a blessing, what can I say. Keep up the fantastic work you and all the Pups do. Goodness…I feel so much more hopeful these days than I have in a long, long time. I now have faith that maybe we really can change things in this country.
Love ya!

“rejecting this bill is just cutting our noses off to spite our faces.”

Systemic problems will not be fixed by half assed remedies. You’re just shifting the cost of the inadequacy of offered solutions from the poor to the less poor. On offer is a choice between a ‘Dog and Pony’ show, or the shifting of’ chairs on the Titanic’.

After 8 years of Bush and the endless work by progressives to put Obama in office the lesser of 2 evils approach is over . The democrats must never again be allowed to take the progressive vote for granted .
Obama was elected by both progressive and libertarian voters who fell for the constitutional law professor schtick as well as faux progressive campaign rhetoric .
A cynical exercise in manipulating the voting public by the corporations puppets.

“If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends, you talk to your enemies.” — Moshe Dayan

… Kathryn Serkes says that the AAPS wants health care for citizens. How does she think this will happen?

That was the question I had as this piece ended. Maybe she thinks we’ll go back to the mythical good-old-days when good insurance was affordable and there were good jobs for everyone? Our ship of state turned away from that possibility before we ever got there, and I’d bet it would take more than a generation to get there if we could ever get a congress willing to buck the big money interests.

I wonder how long working with the other end of the spectrum might last.

What ideas do you have for the mid term elections? Primary corporatists?
You have been so effective this year but Washington and Wall street are so entrenched that getting election reform legislation sponsored might be something to promote. Act Blue could be the tool.

Jane I just wanted to tell you that I support you 100%. I am ashamed by the mocking and criticisms of your positions over at DKOS and other “Liberal” sites. There seems to be an Obama reflexisive defensiveness running amok nowadays, too bad. If any real progressive takes a few minutes to REALLY evaluate your work they would certainly agree with you. Happy New YEAR!

Jane , have you ever thought to use your celebrity status to proprose , as some have, …. a general strike ?

Jane, you do us proud, and working on New Yea’s! Thanks very much and a great interview. It’s quite interesting to see the left and the right agree and to watch the hollow center do nothing other than protecting the status quo and attacking back aimlessly. Keep it up and we are behind you. We shall remain active and focused.

Non cooperation with evil is as much a duty as doing good .
Mahatma Gandhi

The strike idea seems intriguing. It’s non-violent and effective in many European countries. Wonder if it will pick up here.

Why are we asking women to give up their reproductive rights so this can happen?

I seriously want to know why Obama thinks that’s an acceptable “ask” of women in the situation.

Liberals Begin to Bail on Obama
The Awful Truth

By RALPH NADER

Those long-hoping, long-enduring members of the liberal intelligentsia are starting to break away from the least-worst mindset that muted their criticisms of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign.

They still believe that the President is far better than his Republican counterpart would have been. Some still believe that sometime, somewhere, Obama will show his liberal stripes. But they no longer believe they should stay loyally silent in the face of the escalating war in Afghanistan, the near collapse of key provisions in the health insurance legislation, the likely anemic financial regulation bill, or the obeisance to the bailed out Wall Street gamblers. Remember this Administration more easily embraces bonuses for fat cats than adequate investment in public jobs.

Of all the loyalists, among the first to stray was Bob Herbert, columnist for The New York Times. He wondered about his friends telling him that Obama treats their causes and them “as if they have nowhere to go.” Then there was the stalwart Obamaist, the brainy Gary Wills, who broke with Obama over Afghanistan in a stern essay of admonition.

[Edited by Moderator: We ask that you never duplicate entire articles due to the laws governing copyright and fair use. Just give a few pertinent paragraphs and then use a link. In the future, please provide the link in your comment. Thank you]

“Alan Grayson joining with Ron Paul to audit the Fed” = awesome

That’s why I think we should begin our organizing efforts with women, not on the basis of the right to an abortion, but on their right to privacy and owning their own bodies.

“Worse than a Tax” says it all.

I spent the New Years morning shoveling off the ice rink — which is still a bit on the large side. Luckily an ice fisherman thought pushing snow was more fun than looking down his hole. I didn’t even have to go into a Tom Sawyer pitch.

My bad … I understood your comment very well but not the other person’s response.

Chris Floyd has another exceptional piece up at his site Empire Burlesque. Truly, its a must read. Here’s an excerpt:

Update on Our Brave New Slavery: Yes, It Applies to American Citizens, Too
Written by Chris Floyd

Wednesday, 30 December 2009 01:11

I wrote a piece here a few days ago on a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, in which the justices agreed with the passionate plea of the Obama Administration to uphold — and establish as legal precedent — some of the most egregious of the Bush Administration’s authoritarian perversions. This was the gist of the ruling:

The Supreme Court acquiesced to the president’s fervent request and, in a one-line ruling, let stand a lower court decision that declared torture an ordinary, expected consequence of military detention, while introducing a shocking new precedent for all future courts to follow: anyone who is arbitrarily declared a “suspected enemy combatant” by the president or his designated minions is no longer a “person.” They will simply cease to exist as a legal entity. They will have no inherent rights, no human rights, no legal standing whatsoever — save whatever modicum of process the government arbitrarily deigns to grant them from time to time, with its ever-shifting tribunals and show trials.

One of the attorneys involved in the case rightly likened the ruling to the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the Court declared that any person of African descent brought to the United States as a slave — or their descendants, even if they had been freed — could never be citizens of the United States and were not protected by the Constitution. They were non-persons under the law; sub-humans.

I noted the grim irony that this principle of non-personhood had now been reintroduced into the law of the land by our first African-American president. (But this is only to be expected, given the law of opposites that so often governs American politics: only a lifelong Red-baiter like Nixon could make an opening to Communist China; only a supposed liberal like Bill Clinton could gut the federal welfare system. And only an African-American president could reintroduce the principle of slavery and get away with it. No doubt it will be a woman president who finally re-imposes a total ban on abortion.)

Linky to follow

@139

Welcome to Chris Floyd’s Empire BurlesqueChris Floyd – Empire Burlesque – High Crimes and Low Comedy in the American Imperium.
http://www.chris-floyd.com/ – Cached – Similar

“(But this is only to be expected, given the law of opposites that so often governs American politics: only a lifelong Red-baiter like Nixon could make an opening to Communist China; only a supposed liberal like Bill Clinton could gut the federal welfare system. And only an African-American president could reintroduce the principle of slavery and get away with it. No doubt it will be a woman president who finally re-imposes a total ban on abortion.)”

Baked into a rotten System, – so, how about we tinker with it on the fringe?!?

Well, we’ve got our very own little Tinkerbell right here.

Damn good start!

Great job Jane. You are such a good public speaker.

Am reading a history book..A New Age Now Begins by Page Smith..about our countries start.

Mass. mandated it’s citizens to go to church. I am of the opinion, people keep a lot of family traits generation to generation. Mass. was not liberal.Some say it is linking it to the Kennedys.Mandating going to church and now buying health insurance is very old England. Not breaking away at all.

Think we are in a similiar time now because of the internet. New ideas tearing down old misconceptions. Like religious freedom.

Since you ask, I’m trying to think if any women were allowed to participate in writing either bill.

Let’s see hmmm the long history of health care is it’s womens’ business, oh wait, that was before there was big money involved.

Don’t think we can afford to tinker with the fringe, too late. We have to go right to the heart of the mess, but we have to decide exactly what that is. Campaign reform, health care, etc.?

You’re ABSOLUTELY right on this! Why do we accept their right to frame the argument. It is ALL about control over & of women. Why isn’t anyone in Congress jumping up and down about Gov’t. insurance subsidizing Viagra purchases?

And then there’s the corporate Mayo Clinic. Bloomberg today reports that Arizona Mayo facility will no longer accept Medicare patients.

[Edited by Moderator: Please include links with your articles. Also, if you have lengthy articles, please just include the first few paragraphs due to fair use laws. Thank you.]

Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients

By David Olmos

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) — The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government’s largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman. The decision, which Yardley called a two-year pilot project, won’t affect other Mayo facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

Obama in June cited the nonprofit Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for offering “the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm.” Mayo’s move to drop Medicare patients may be copied by family doctors, some of whom have stopped accepting new patients from the program, said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a telephone interview yesterday.

“Many physicians have said, ‘I simply cannot afford to keep taking care of Medicare patients,’” said Heim, a family doctor who practices in Laurinburg, North Carolina. “If you truly know your business costs and you are losing money, it doesn’t make sense to do more of it.”

Gary Wills is always tremendous read, one of our Country’s few consistently GREAT essayists.

Happy new year, Jane — and keep up the good work.

This is merely a rhetorical observation, but in the discourse about reproductive rights, I have seen NO discussion relating to male birth control-such as vasectomies.

WHERE is the hum about this?

Is this not against the teachings of some churches as it interferes with the possibility of procreation-indeed ,that is its intended purpose?

WHY and HOW is that different from a woman being told she cannot use birth control, or have abortions?

WHY is a man accorded the right over his reproductive capacities but not a woman?

Exactly !
The FDL club has been doing great on this front and as I heard said on another thread here perhaps creating our own nonprofit entities such as alternative health providers ,banks , insurance companies ect .
What was the old IWW saying … ? Building a new society in the shell of the old .

That’s part of the problem. Here at FDL as elsewhere, we’re often a bit too parochial, and sometimes seemingly aimless, where the Structural failures are concerned.

Leftists, Liberals—and Losers?
How and why progressives must unite for real change.

the linky is not to suggest that the author has the answers, rather that these questions are not being sufficiently broadly debated as to their pros and cons.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5314/leftists_liberalsand_losers/

Slavoj Zizek @ RSA (video) could also stimulate a fruitful conversation @ FDL.

I’ve seen nothing in Obama’s term to illustrate he ever intended to bring right & left together. Instead, Like Clinton, he’s worked tirelessly to move the left to the right. He’s spared little in his attacks on those who won’t concede to his power. He’s an embarrassment to those who bought into his charade of “hope” and “change”. Unfortunately, we elected the as President a guy who’s smarter & a better communicator than Clarence Thomas but who’s way too similar for my likes! It’s pretty clear his overarching need has been to gain the favor of those elites who scorn ideals he preaches about way to smoothly. What a waste, I can’t help but wonder what his Mother would think?

Spent an hour Googling the sickening interconnections between the Carlyle Group and Industrial Wind development proposed on BLM lands in Harry Reid’s Nevada.

And the latest behind-the-scenes development buzz about the “Water-Power Nexus”.

Just wait ’til the Obama Admin does an Energy Bill – with Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary to sell out the public lands to aid and abet water and power grabs.

The lesson Obama drew from his mother’s experiance with the HCSystem was to escape that fate by running into the arms of Power codling sycophancy.

And only an African-American president could reintroduce the principle of slavery and get away with it.

Have been listening to a 25 CD version of “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family” by Annette Gordon-Reed. This is a fascinating multi-generational history of the family of Jefferson’s 35 year mistress, but also a wide ranging analysis of some of the many implications of non-personhood of slavery that Jefferson not only condoned but used to its maximum capacity to suit his arrogant, self-centered needs.

I will never again have any appreciation for Jefferson; he was a total prick in so many ways and on so many levels.

And I’m deeply grateful for this dispassionate but very moving depiction of 18th and early 19th century slavery. Lord have mercy.

RE the current political situation generally and health care reform specifically, this is what I wrote in my 2009 Christmas letter:

MY YEAR HAD BEGUN WITH A STRUGGLE TO RECLAIM HOPE FOR MANY REASONS, i ENTERED THIS DECEMBER WITH THE SAME STRUGGLES:

POLITICAL CRISES: I’d voted for Obama and had hoped for real righteous change, relieved at last that my total disgust and contempt and rage against the BushCo regime might come to an end. Little did I know then that the Bush ghosts continue to dominate our institutions. The ObamaCo regime has simply proven to be Bush light, and in some cases perhaps unforgiveably worse. My heart is broken and I’m enraged by the massive corrupt corporatists control of Obama and Congress, whose economic and health care reform policies continue to enrich the wealthy and powerful elite, with scant help for the needs and rights of ordinary people.

There is no REAL health care reform, no REAL commitment to peace, no REAL justice, no REAL end to all the BushCo implemented and stood for. Old and new bastards still reign and I continue in despair, despising the corruptions filled Senate HCR bill, longing for a better HCR bill. I CONTINUE TO PRAY THAT GOD WILL REDEEMETHE PROPOSED BILLS FOR A JUST FRAMEWORK FOR REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM. I BID YOUR PRAYERS FOR THE SAME.

I should add that I have no real hope for that prayer’s affirmative resolution. I see no parting of the Red Sea or Resurrection in the forseeable future.

Lord have mercy on us all.

Nevertheless, blessings to all at FDL

Oh, yeah! The road to Neo feudal serfdom is the apple of Obama’s eye. We better get out of our still verdant ‘la-la land’ and start organizing against this New Third Order Reich shit!

1st pUnder bmaz, Christmas Nuts & Bolts:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/12/24/christmas-nuts-bolts/

Thank you, bmaz and our lioness, Marcy. Truly. You are the only ones who make it possible for me to cough through this national march to serfdom.

And tonight our little fellow fell asleep in our laps watching the Night Before Christmas! How good is that?

How about a peoples’ union?

American citizens creating their OWN union-I guarantee that would be one hell of a lobby!

Unionited citizens of the United States of America.

Congratulations posuane , I am convinced that love is the only thing worth being attached to and that the more we have of it to give the greater our awareness of the miracle unfolding around us becomes .

You are absolutely correct, of course. Why should our tax dollars pay for vasectomy or male birth control of any kind.

Happy New Year!

It’s so good to see you out there, Jane, you’re really good at those. Your response to the red meat CLINTON! TAX! thing was pure beauty. It’s interesting to watch right wingers come to the realization, “Huh, I agree with her!?!”. Also very good to see so many women on TV lately as authorities on public policy. Way to ring in the new year!

Neo feudal serfdom (and destruction of the deserts and forests and birds in public wild lands) for Las Vegas and other City-State faux-prosperity.

The hinterlands laid barren by aquifer mining and industrial “renewables”. And the city-state can claim aquifer mining and long distance transport — that is “carbon-neutral” or “offset” or get “credits” or something – because the water is pumped by giant bird and bat killing wind farms.

The facilities and infrastructure for the power and water Bubbles controlled and manipulated a la Enron by the Usual Suspects. These will be bubbles – but the water part is so essential it is more than a Bubble.

@154

This may be of particular interest to you:

Native Americans buy back land, put it in trust – washingtonpost.comDec 27, 2009 … Tribes buy back land, put it in trust. Native American tribes tired of waiting for the U.S. government to honor centuries-old treaties are …
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/…/AR2009122701589.html

Government, Indians to settle suit over 1880s land trusts …Dec 8, 2009 … But its origins go back to the administration of President Grover … U.S. settles over American Indian lands held in trust for $1.4 billion …
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/…/AR2009120802549.html

NOTE: A year or so ago, I ran across an amazing map that showed what percentage of our Nation’s Parks and public lands had been allegedly hocked to foreign interests as collateral for loans.

I cannot recall the site, and the PC and hard drive have long been rendered “moot”.

Thank you for your reply.

I can assure you, if an edict was issued that it is illegal for men to receive vasectomies-or even the intimation of a threat -you could hear the cry and hue all the way to the other side of time space continuum.

And THAT’S the point that NEEDS to be made.

You want action, you want traction-tell men they are no longer legally entitled to vasectomies-

NOW you can bring up the hollowness and hypocrisy over women’s rights and the dichotomy of the double standard.

WTF- does Goldman have bets on women’s ovaries or something? /S

This makes sense, but here’s part of the problem: The most politically savvy of the SP advocates was Teddy Kennedy, and he’s no longer with us.

FDL initially backed the public option since there was much more verbal support for it in DC than there was for single payer, and the congressional organizing for the PO was better than for single payer — whose congressional backers started running away from it once it actually was set for a floor vote.

1/1/10
Dear Jane,
Happy New Year
Thank you for all your good work.

The mandate thing is the same just a little different from the municipal sports stadium building boom foisted on the public by the corporate/government cabal. In Seattle the public voted overwhelming multiple times to not fund construction of major new sports stadiums but our government in its wisdom over rode the will of the people and built them anyway.
Now Seattle is closing public schools, parks etc. cause they are broke but that’s OK cause we are still paying for the stadiums. Its worse in other cities. Look at the situation in Detroit with the Silverdome. There is no historical precedent which would justify our trusting the government or their corporate masters on this health mandate. It is simply horrible policy.

Conrad C. Elledge

Also, this is particularly salient to your water issues, Sagesse.

PDF] I’m A Pimpin Turtle…: Bus…File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – Quick View
Bush Buys 100000 Acres on border of Paraguay & Brazil … in Chaco, Paraguay atop the aquifer. The Reverend Moon has purchased 1482600 acres in Chaco, …
http://www.nogw.com/download2/%5E8_bush_100k_acres_pg.pdf – Similar

“Paul Krugman blogs that progressives who are deeply dismayed about the shortcomings of the Senate bill “should hold onto that feeling! History suggests that this reform will get much better over time — but only if people keep demanding improvements.” He draws encouragement from the success of the Social Security privatization fight five years ago.”
http://www.tompaine.com/

The obvious fallacy in Krugman’s reasoning is STUNNING!

does In Order to Form A More Perfect Union ring any bells?

Brilliant.

@170

DING-DING-DING !!!

Folks, we have a winner!

One caveat, however, never let the “more perfect” become an enemy of the “good”. *G*

FDL initially backed the public option since there was much more verbal support for it in DC than there was for single payer,

maybe that’s so. but that’s not what jane said in aug 2008 or in feb 2009. and just to make sure it’s clear — i agree that in 2008 there was more support for the public/private plan in DC if you mean among the dem party elite (who had, after all, sold it to the top three presidential candidates first). but outside of DC single payer was the top choice, especially among democrats and especially among grass roots universal healthcare activists. it took a campaign of tens of millions dollars (and a dishonest campaign to boot) to sell the dem’s neoliberal policy (even though the dems didn’t deliver and i now wonder if that wasn’t the plan all along).

p.s. here’s some great recent history in this series: Two-thirds of Americans support Medicare-for-all part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6

Insist that Biden rules the filibuster out of order, ( recall Frist’s support among the Republicans for a nuclear option!) and kill the fuck!! Then kill this bill, then go after passing hr 676.

happy new year to all. hope this is a good one.

you’re a gem, selise.
happy new year.

Thank you! I remember that Bush land deal, but didn’t know about the aquifer. These fellows are getting positioned for this century’s version of NAWAPA once infrastructure is built to freely move “resources” a la NAFTA

http://www.schillerinstitute.org/economy/maps/maps2.html

Ken Salazar’s Interior will do all it can to oblige. Unless people dig deeper into the Obama Admin. energy hype, and start looking critically at the centralized energy model that the American public is being sold under the mantra that all new infrastructure and all new renewables (the front for putting in some of this infrastructure) are good.

I am pondering how life in the wilderness would be….Setting up communes may be one of the solutions to dropping out of this criminal society of thieves and bandits running the country…

The New Left and Radicals of the 1960s, yes, including the Black Panthers were correct about the evils of the corporate-military state then and that analysis is still relevant now….

The Beasts of the Earth sit in offical power positions in Washington, D.C. and this means all official power people who are ruining America and have been since the Vietnam era.

Is it “anger” or disappointment transmuted into more DETERMINATION

Privatize the profits socialize the losses.

Jane and FDL teammates Happy New Year

Fellow Pup’s this is my first effort to contact the Executive Branch.

regarding #174 : Whatever will be said about Dr. Frist, I will NEVER forget that He could have pissed on Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2 easily, and He had the CLASS not to, thereby being remebered as someone whom took His Oath Seriously. In those days the pubbies thought that rove was a genious and they though that they would rule all of us for a generation. The infamous parlimentary cheap trick was “though up” by Trent Lott, what I said to Sen. Lott via his Office was : “if you ruin the Senate for all hereafter, could you picture a future where the far-left would pass a Federal Law mandating that we all must wear rainbow colored unisex jump-suits, drink a coke a cola, hold hands and sing kum-by-ya or face prison? I don’t know if it helped, but I gave it my best college try. If the far right gets the chance they will take Women’s Rights back to the stone age. i rest my case.

A little Patience, Pups. Thank God our Framers saw the Wisdom of 2 Houses of Congress.

didn’t intend to be a speed bump on our discourse.

###

Honorable Joe Biden Vice President and President of the United States Senate.

Yo Joe,

You are a stand up guy, what’s with the robin-hood-in-reverse bit? Been doing some indoor painting with improper ventilation have we? What are you people smokin up there in D.C.? Seriously what we need right now regarding Health Care Reform is the traveling Health Clinic, referrenced on the Ed Show, the Democrats are looking like the 3 stooges episode of “limozine liberals solve our problems” meet abbot and costello’s who’s on first.

Our Economy is bust, if the Democrats best answer is to try to force us to buy insurance that we don’t want or else, I assure you, we will fire as many Democrats as possible come November.

HAPPY NEW-YEAR

Sincerely,

A.J. Max Cherbonneaux

“The combination of economic and political power in the same hands is a sure recipe for tyranny.”
–Rose and Milton Friedman in ” Free to Choose”

The orcs are massing as we speak

Watch for Teapartyer backlash to Obama/Reid/Lieberman’s fake health care reform at the state of the union.

It’s time for a second declaration of independence

And RNC’s leadership is already working on their mid-term election attack — promising to repeal any reform when they return to power in congress.

“What about those who dwell in the mountain?”

How does the president of the senate figure into the 60 vote filibuster rule, if at all?

59 + veepee, anyone?

I have the land , you can move there anytime if you’ll work for the good of the people and practice compassion . It belongs to the universe but I’m taking care of it for the moment .

Nice take down of the ‘Lion of the Senate’ by Teddy Kennedy, as recorded by Alexander Cockburn:

“Teddy Kennedy’s disasters were vivid. His legislative triumphs, draped in this week’s obituaries with respectful homage, were far less colorful but they were actually devastating for the very constituencies – working people, organized labor – whose champion he claimed to be. Though the obituarists have glowingly evoked Kennedy’s 46-year stint in the US Senate and, as ‘the last liberal’, his mastery of the legislative process, they miss the all-important fact that it was out of Kennedy’s Senate office that came two momentous slabs of legislation that signalled the onset of the neo-liberal era: deregulation of trucking and aviation. They were a disaster for organized labor and the working conditions and pay of people in those industries.

The theorists of deregulation were Stephen Breyer who was Kennedy’s chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee and Alfred Kahn, out of Cornell. Prominent on Kennedy’s dereg team was David Boies. Breyer now sits on the US Supreme Court, an unswerving shill for the corporate sector.

In the mid to late 1970s these Kennedy rent-a-thinkers began to tout deregulation as the answer to low productivity and bureaucratic and corporate inertia. Famous at that time was a screed by Breyer, then a Harvard Law School professor, quantifying such things as environmental pollution in terms of assessable and fungible “risks” which could be bought and sold in the market place. (The Natural Resources Defense Council, adorned by Ted’s nephew, Robert Kennedy Jr., has long espoused this disastrous approach.)

The two prongs of Kennedy’s deregulatory attack – later decorated with the political label “neo-liberalism” – were aimed at airlines and trucking, and Kennedy’s man, Alfred Kahn was duly installed by Jimmy Carter at the Civil Aeronautics Board to introduce the cleansing winds of competition into the industry. By and large, airline deregulation went down well with the press and, for a time, with the public, who rejoiced in the bargains offered by the small fry such as People’s Express, and by the big fry striking back. The few critics who said that within a few years the nation would be left with five or six airlines, oligopoly and higher fares, were mostly ignored.

[more]

Now the Republicans scream “socialism” at exactly what Nixon proposed and Kennedy”

[modnote: to respect the author's copyright, please post a small portion and then link back to the source, thank you.]

Jane, I’ve been a long time follower of yours online, and finally registered here at FDL. You are becoming an icon to the progressive blogs online and rightfully so. Please accept my sincerest wishes for a Happy New Year, and please, please, please continue the good fight that you are! The USA needs public figures to stand up and say no more to the political status quo regardless of party. Corruption, greed and corporate ransacking of America and the world must end. You have at least started people talking. Please keep up the good work.

I really believe the Senate bill if enacted would do more harm than good, and that’s a valid reason for rejecting it. The Medicaid expansion will help some families at the low end of the income spectrum, but do you really believe that most families will be able to afford the mandated premiums, deductibles and co-payments of this bill? The subsidies are inadequate and will be the target of every deficit hawk–even if the subsidies were adequate, they would bankrupt the country because there are NO cost controls in this bill. People will have to pay for insurance but be unable to afford health care. Once people realize what this will cost them, there’s going to be a ferocious backlash against any group/any person that supported this bill.

I spent my morning on MSNBC talking about right/left opposition to the mandate. What about you?

I watched the authors of a book about Molly Ivins talk about her life on C-Span 2. Very interesting to hear how she was taught at Columbia that to be an objective journalist, you must regurgitate both sides of an issue and not inject any analysis or you’ll be accused of having an agenda.

I can’t believe that’s what the powers that be think being objective means. No wonder the 4th estate is in such bad shape.

Ivins wasn’t having it though, lucky for us.

Nice to see you Jane on MSNBC fighting the good fight!

- Tom

Jane, thanks for all you do. You’re one of the few beacons of light I can see in a darkening political universe.

Jane, i think this coalition building is extremely far-sighted and wise. Some kind of coalition is going to be necessary to break the power of the corporate hold on washington. only question about its efficacity; will people be able to come together on the common cause?

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

Article I, Section 3, Paragaph 4

The VP could not provide the 60th vote to break a filibuster.

If you don’t do anything the rest of today or this weekend Please LISTEN TO THIS INTERVIEW:

Scott Horton Interviews Kurt Haskell from December 31, 2009

Kurt Haskell, Detroit area attorney and passenger on the “Christmas bomber” flight 253, discusses the arrest of a second man that an FBI agent insinuated was carrying a bomb, the inconsistent statements from the FBI and US Customs – particularly from spokesman Ron Smith – and an account of the sharply dressed man of Indian appearance who helped suspected bomber Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab board the plane in the Netherlands.

MP3 here. (26:38)

Kurt Haskell is an attorney in the Detroit suburb of Taylor. He was a passenger on terrorist-attacked Northwest Airlines Flight 253 and has given numerous accounts of his experience to the media.

http://antiwar.com/radio/2009/12/31/kurt-haskell/

Read this Article:

Is the Detroit Nigerian “Terrorist” A Patsy?
By Bruce A. Dixon
Created 12/30/2009 – 12:18
by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

“….The bumbling Nigerian “terrorist” who set his lap on fire on board an airliner in Detroit Christmas day will provide days or weeks of conveniently hysterical headlines, along with excuses to target West Africa and Yemen for extra special attention from the American military, and the usual host of justifications for existing US policies in what used to be called ‘the war on terror’. But the similarities between his case, and that of incompetent “terrorists” in Fort Dix New Jersey, in Miami’s Liberty City and elsewhere raise serious questions about the whole incident….”

Read the entire article @:
http://tns1.blackagendareport.com/?q=print/content/detroit-nigerian-terrorist-patsy

thanks, og -happy new year.

The Black Agenda Report site has some very interesting pieces-and I have gone there often for a distinct perspective on todays’ political doin’s.

Great little site that has gone underappreciated,imho.

Just like Inner City Press. That’s a humdinger,for sure.But I rarely see it mentioned here -except for yours truly. *g*

Dear Jane and fellow pups

Got some work where there will not be any internet connections for a few days.

Thank You All for being stand up United States Citizens. I shudder to think where our Nations future could end up without good people like FDL.

See you when I see you. I will keep you in my heart, Always.

I like it! Take care.

I am in the process of composing a letter to a Senator on the urgent need to at least kill the mandate, will post a paste of it.

ajmc: not to be a kill-joy, but . . . I used to be responsible for answering mail in a Congressional office [House]. My advice to you is not to spend tons of time perfecting your arguments, etc.

Particularly if your letter is going to a Senate office, your member of Congress will NEVER see it. [If it's going to a House member, there's maybe a 10% chance.]

Mail coming into a Congressional office is screened & divided up — doled out to the various underlings according to subject matter. The underling constructs a response [usually coordinated with the Legislative Assistant on that subject matter], produces the letter, and gets it signed with an “autopen” [if we're talking "real" mail as opposed to e-mail].

The ONLY weight your carefully crafted arguments will have is on the “tally sheet” the legislative secretaries may use to report on mail. E.g., 20% of incoming oppose health care legislation because they think it’s socialism; 26% oppose because bill doesn’t go far enough; 34% support, quoting Obama cliches.

So, go ahead and send in your communication. Just don’t have any illusions about “affecting” your Congresscritter with your reasoning.

It’s quantity, not quality, that counts. So your cause can best be served by enlisting lots of other folks to write/call/e-mail.

The most significant thing I saw in Jane’s Aug 2008 and Feb 2009 posts that you indicated was this, written around the time Obama was just accepting the nomination:

If you’re looking for meaningful health care changes in the next administration, I’m going to suggest that historical evidence indicates you’re going to have to do more than sit back and hope the Democrats deliver.

Jane wrote that in Aug 2008. She was right. And she worked her ass off to get them to deliver. Impressive.

The Democratic Party needs an enema.

What the Democratic Party needs is to DISBAND! Think about it: when it’s convenient for explaining why they can’t unite for the obvious needs of constituents our elected Dems talk of the difficulties “herding cats”. When it’s time to do the bidding of their corporate benefactors they stand together for the good of the party.
The Democratic Party is bankrupt of ideals, passion and character, anyone who votes again for its candidates deserves the results which are sure to follow.

Dude, that is so republican of you. Come out of your shell a little more.

That’s it, defend our elected Dems. They’ve certainly shown they deserve our loyalty. After all, at least they’re not Repubs, huh? MAYBE AT SOME POINT YOU’LL CONSIDER, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE between the two parties?

I don’t see why that means dems should ‘disband’, or did you mean both parties?

dis⋅band  /dɪsˈbænd/
–verb 1. to break up or dissolve (an organization) ….

Yes, I know the definition. Are you feeling ok?

the issue was not about sitting back and doing nothing. it was about what to do. i still don’t understand what possible rational there could be for pre-compromising (ie abandoning the grass roots’ progressive policy in favor of the party elite neoliberal policy) and indeed think it was a big mistake and even a betrayal of the grass roots sp activists who were excluded from discussion and even the “health care daily news”. maybe i’m wrong about that, if you think that was the right choice, can you please explain it to me?

and now that i’ve read glenn smith’s paper, The Logic of the Health Care Debate, i think it was even more of a disaster, if glenn and his coauthors are right about the neoliberal arguments moving the public to the conservative (not progressive) positioin.

finally, my working hypothesis is now that progressives were conned (i’ve listen to the presentations at tba 2008 and i’ve seen much of the disinformation campaign from hcan and allies over the past year – lies wouldn’t be necessary if an honest argument would do). it’s frustrating to be punked, but i think that’s what happened.

Truth is, ALL Democrats should be sick – of Obama, Senate Dems & working for months to raise money & votes because we actually bouught their carny-like sales pitch. Remember “Change you can believe in”?
You remember the “Democratic Party”? It WAS the party of the people.
As for Repubs, when the dust settles I expect GW (Chauncey to his friends) will be remembered as one of our most accomplished Presidents at achieving his & his cronies’s stated objectives. My favorite will always be burying the country in debt to stop Dems. wanton penchant for spending.

Good work Jane.

The right needs to be pressed harder: are they for a safety net or not?

In the words of Eisenhower:

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.

Even Ron Paul has always couched his ideal of the state “withered away” in the caveat that there are many people who depend on government to stave of disintegration therefor the change must be gradual.

The left has given up communism upon seeing that it leads to no good. Can libertarians be decent enough to admit that pure free markets also lead to nothing good?

Bottom line: we will always debate over the magnitude of the safety net, but right now we need to unite to restore government of, by, and for the people.

Okay, so the Left and the Right agree on some things. Interesting, tantalizing; maybe we can somehow combine forces, but what’s the next concrete step? I’m guessing you have a plan to put this convergence of ideas to work in future battles. Senator Hamsher? President Hamsher? You have my vote for sure, but it would help to know more about your plans so I can explain to my friends why they should back you too.

JANE, HAPPY NEW YEAR and I hope you and other PROGRESSIVES are ready and prepared for the work that lies ahead. For example are we prepared to take out five DEM Senators and half of the BLUEDOGS and as many REP as we can. Bottom line it going to take lots of money for a sustain effort for the year 2010 period. Here is the plan I will let you do the math. One million progressives,liberal,independents who are prepared to give up ten dollars per month for the entire year to lay the ground work for there defeat. By the way Obama has set himself up for defeat if he keeps down the path he is pursuing. However,what he fails understand is he thinks we are going put up with these watered down bill that do nothing for the people. We know the REP want him to fail period. At the same time he is catering to those who want him to fail,but you know that already. I am one of those who gave money and work for his campaign not anymore. So what I am saying in a nutshell Obama is not what he claims to be. So we need to treat him accordingly and not back down and speak the truth period. By the way it would not be a bad idea to start looking for Obama replacement sooner than later. The sooner we start the better off we all shall be JANE

What is the point of electing more progressives when the President is against you?I guess i have post Obama depression.This is my first post here you are all wonderful people.Jane thanks for all your brave,brave work!Watch your back though,they will be after you.

Well, you know what they say man,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5smPcN8AoE

I agree with this article and we must take on Obama and not back down. By the way while we are doing what needs to be done let start looking for Obama replacement now not later.

This is about marshaling all of our resources and asking others to sacfrice some time and money to move the country forward. At the same time we know now Obama is not going to do what he was elected to do. So it time we outline an alternative to his weak watered down policies and to call him out period. By the way it also time to start looking for Obama replacement for President. I have offered a plan and I hope it considered on this blog.

“I spent my morning on MSNBC talking about right/left opposition to the mandate. What about you?”

I’ve been reading this:

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1793-Where-We-Are,-Where-Were-Heading-2010.html

“What I was saying was…that her being a producer and screenwriter doesn’t have the same bearing as her education, her knowledge and what she’s doing as founder here. If she had had a questionable career like the ones I mentioned, they would have used that too.”

I get what you’re saying. They’d like to imply she’s not a “policy wonk” like the great Ezra Klein, natural born boy-genius.

It’s hard to admit to being a hope dope. We were punked by Obama and the sooner we face up to that reality, the better. Jane, you are doing a great job. Thank you. I have friends who are Teabaggers. We argued and fot and came to the conclusion that we agree on one thing: the Mandate is unjust and an affront to American Liberty. She warned me way back when that Obama was a phoney. I’ll have to admit to her one day that she was right. My Teabagger friend is on Medicare and she’s almost ready to admit that Medicare-for-all is the way to go. Maybe then her adult sons would have health care. The thing to do is not to write these people off. Most of them are not rich Republican types.

I hope there is an understanding we are being played for fools,but also understanding the situation in which we find ourselves action is needed. By the way JANE I have figure out the amount or share I will contribute for the next three years 120.00 for 10. 120.00 for 11 and 120.00 for 2012 do the math for one million of us for the next three year. With the right kind of plan it can be done. By the way I agree with you about Hillary and what she would have done the same as OBAMA.In case you are interest I have never voted for a REP because what they stood or said never appeal to me or made any sense. So I await your plan like it or not you are leader.It a case of doing what we must to get what we want period. My first act of showing I mean business I got a request from Obama for a donation I tore up the envelope and threw it in the garbage NOT DRINKING THE KOOL AIDE ANYMORE

Great video! Both of you were civil and coherent and succinct.