Ablogination

Way to go, Progressive Caucus. I guess those endless emails Americans sent you were heeded. In record time no less.
It was your job to stand for the Public Option and you did it well.

All we ask now is that you remain rock solid and continue to oppose the obstructionist Blue Dogshits to the very end. We, of course, will stand with you.
Health care reform without a Public Option is useless.
Please continue to oppose anything less. This fight is by no means over.

Thanx for being the only Democrats with any manner of courage.

It took all of 24 hrs for the Progressive Democrats in Congress to put their collective foot in the Blue Dog/Republican Lite’s collective ass.
Thankfully, the great leader, Dennis Kucinich, is a far better “power broker” than the rookie scumbag, Mike Ross D/R-Arkansas. Mike Ross, firmly in the pocket of the Big Pharmaceutical industry, led the failed attempt to derail Health Reform.

Firedog Lake has some perspective on Ross…

….Thanks, Mike! Your commitment to the financial well-being of our country is admirable.

This is probably just a coincidence.

A pharmacist, Ross founded Ross Pharmacy Inc. He sold the business in 2007, but according to his 2008 financial disclosure form, he and wife Holly still “own 100% of stock” in the company, which pays dividends over $100,000 a year. Holly Ross is also listed as employed by Super D Drug Acquisition Co.

And while Ross rakes it in, nearly 1 in 5 residents of Arkansas are without health insurance.

Guess who’s his biggest sugar daddy?

The health industry was the #1 sector contributing to Ross last year. OpenSecrets.org lists $261,000 in contributions from individuals and PAC’s from health care businesses….

But yesterday, the Progressive Caucus stood up and proclaimed, in no uncertain terms, that any legislation that did not contain a Public Option to insure all Americans the right to health care was going to be defeated.
That’s when the true majority asserted it’s self and the lowly Blue Dogshit turned tail and ran.

From The Associated Press:

WASHINGTON — Democrats on a key House committee said Friday they have patched up their differences on a health care overhaul, and went back to work confident they can advance the complex legislation.

“We have agreed we need to pull together,” said Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Liberals, moderates, and conservatives negotiated late into the night Thursday to reach a deal that would restore some subsidies to help low-to-middle income people pay their health insurance premiums, would preserve a strong public insurance option, and would cut drug costs more deeply, Waxman said.

No details of the deal were immediately available, but Waxman said he intends to formally present it to the committee later in the day, and the panel should pass the bill Friday afternoon.

The full committee resumed its deliberations on the sweeping legislation that seeks to hold down costs and provide health care to nearly all the nation’s 50 million uninsured.

The last-minute agreement mollified liberals who were outraged by a deal Waxman struck earlier in the week with conservatives known as the Blue Dog Democrats. Friday, lawmakers from both camps joined him to say they were now in accord.

It didn’t take long for the Democratic Left to shout down the obstructionists and uplift the Aggressive Progressives. We’re not finished either. Not by a damn sight.
We will not allow the likes of Mike Ross and other such greedy pigs to deprive the children of America of their wellness.

Many thanx and mucho respecto to these fine, courageous Americans of the Democratic Progressive Caucus…

Co-Chairs
Hon. Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07)
Hon. Lynn Woolsey (CA-06)

Vice Chairs
Hon. Diane Watson (CA-33)
Hon. Keith Ellison (MN-05)
Hon. Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-18)
Hon. Mazie Hirono (HI-02)
Hon. Dennis Kucinich (OH-10)
Hon. Donna F. Edwards (MD-04)
Hon. Alan Grayson (FL-08)

Senate Members
Hon. Bernie Sanders (VT)
Hon. Tom Udall (NM)

House Members
Hon. Neil Abercrombie (HI-01)
Hon. Tammy Baldwin (WI-02)
Hon. Xavier Becerra (CA-31)
Hon. Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)
Hon. Robert Brady (PA-01)
Hon. Corrine Brown (FL-03)
Hon. Michael Capuano (MA-08)
Hon. André Carson (IN-07)
Hon. Donna Christensen (VI-AL)
Hon. Judy Chu (CA-32)
Hon. Yvette Clarke (NY-11)
Hon. William “Lacy” Clay (MO-01)
Hon. Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05)
Hon. Steve Cohen (TN-09)
Hon. John Conyers (MI-14)
Hon. Elijah Cummings (MD-07)
Hon. Danny Davis (IL-07)
Hon. Peter DeFazio (OR-04)
Hon. Rosa DeLauro (CT-03)
Hon. Sam Farr (CA-17)
Hon. Chaka Fattah (PA-02)
Hon. Bob Filner (CA-51)
Hon. Barney Frank (MA-04)
Hon. Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11)
Hon. Luis Gutierrez (IL-04)
Hon. John Hall (NY-19)
Hon. Phil Hare (IL-17)
Hon. Alcee Hastings (FL-23)
Hon. Maurice Hinchey (NY-22)
Hon. Michael Honda (CA-15)
Hon. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-02)
Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30)
Hon. Hank Johnson (GA-04)
Hon. Marcy Kaptur (OH-09)
Hon. Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI-13)
Hon. Barbara Lee (CA-09)
Hon. John Lewis (GA-05)
Hon. David Loebsack (IA-02)
Hon. Ben R. Lujan (NM-3)
Hon. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14)
Hon. Ed Markey (MA-07)
Hon. Eric Massa (NY-29)
Hon. Jim McDermott (WA-07)
Hon. James McGovern (MA-03)
Hon. George Miller (CA-07)
Hon. Gwen Moore (WI-04)
Hon. Jim Moran (VA-08)
Hon. Jerrold Nadler (NY-08)
Hon. Eleanor Holmes-Norton (DC-AL)
Hon. John Olver (MA-01)
Hon. Frank Pallone (NJ-06)
Hon. Ed Pastor (AZ-04)
Hon. Donald Payne (NJ-10)
Hon. Chellie Pingree (ME-01)
Hon. Jared Polis (CO-02)
Hon. Charles Rangel (NY-15)
Hon. Laura Richardson (CA-37)
Hon. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34)
Hon. Bobby Rush (IL-01)
Hon. Linda Sánchez (CA-47)
Hon. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09)
Hon. José Serrano (NY-16)
Hon. Louise Slaughter (NY-28)
Hon. Pete Stark (CA-13)
Hon. Bennie Thompson (MS-02)
Hon. John Tierney (MA-06)
Hon. Nydia Velazquez (NY-12)
Hon. Maxine Waters (CA-35)
Hon. Mel Watt (NC-12)
Hon. Henry Waxman (CA-30)
Hon. Peter Welch (VT-AL)
Hon. Robert Wexler (FL-19)

Steve Cohen took the pledge. Right on, Steve-o.

Fuck these bastards. I mean fuck them. No lubrication, no mercy.
The Blue Dog Depublicans have no agenda other than derailing an effective health care reform. They’re not trying to cut costs, they’re trying to cut America’s throat.

Like their Republican cohorts, Blue Dogshits have promoted “compromise” that is good for HMOs and other such abominations of American health care, but decidedly bad for the average American.
With the Blue Dogshit plans, roughly 85% of “small” businesses (500,000 and up is NOT small biz) will be exempt from the mandatory aspects of the legislation as opposed to exemption for real small business (less than 250,000).
This will put working Americans right back where they are now if they’re employer decides not to participate. Having to pay roughly $12′000 per year for health insurance or be penalized.

Fuck the Blue Dogshits.

They have made it easier for medium and big business to refuse to provide health care plans for their employees, and at the same time, made it more expensive. Yet without easing up on the individual mandates which will break the backs of working Americans. Especially those who make lower wages.

These are not Democrats, they’re dogs. No matter what the color they are scurvy, Jackal blooded dogs.
Thankfully, the Progressive Caucus has finally stood up and put their foot down.
No public option, no useless health care legislation.

From the LA Times:

“It’s the moderates that give [Democrats] their majority,” said Will Marshall, president of the centrist Progressive Policy Institute. “The bigger the Democratic majority grows, the more moderate it becomes. Democrats are a center-left coalition, so big legislative initiatives need to be shaped accordingly.”

House leaders bowed to that reality this week. Facing the prospect that a group of conservative Democrats in the 52-member Blue Dog Coalition might block a healthcare bill from moving through the Energy and Commerce Committee, they modified the bill.

The backlash was swift and severe.

“We’re at a point where there’s no retreat, and we can and must hold the line,” said Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

In a letter, the liberal lawmakers attacked the deal.

“We regard the agreement reached by Chairman Waxman and several Blue Dog members of the committee as fundamentally unacceptable,” they wrote. “This agreement is not a step forward toward a good healthcare bill, but a large step backward.”

Will Marshall. Do you folks remember Will Marshall? The former founding member and Iraq War Signatory of the infamous bastion of treason known as the PNAC.

Now it’s all clear. The Blue Dogshits/DLC/PNAC war on the American people is in full tilt boogie trying to help the Republican micro-minority defeat progress and discredit the President.
It’s time to wage war on these vermin. Time to shout and blog them down just like we did BushCo until they are no more.
These people are the enemy and must be subjected to as much of our derision as we can possibly muster.
We must expose them and aim our efforts at their political demise.

Netroots and the Progressive Caucus must stand firm regardless of the consequences. We must crush these traitors and ram the Public Option, which is favored by a vast majority of Americans, down their reptilian throats.
Our future, our economy, our children’s health is on the line. We must not allow these sub-humanoids to destroy the dream of a healthier nation and people.
That’s their objective, destroy. But only if we allow them to.

It’s a simple question. How many free-world countries can you name where the citizens have to pitch a tent and wait all day for care?

Canada? No. Anywhere in Europe? No. Venezuela? Cuba? No.
India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia? No. Israel? Iran?
Nope.
Wow, kinda got out of the “free-world” there and the answer is still “no".
Perhaps there are others, but at the moment all I can think of is us. The good ol’ US of A is the only nation I can think of where this kind of disgrace is present.
And we’re the last place where it should be found.

The annual Remote Area Medical clinic, or RAM, has once again shown it’s deep, abiding love for it’s fellow citizens and shouldered the responsibility of providing dental and other health care for people who, in spite of working hard every day, have no access to any kind of health care.

This fine article by Deb McCown at the Bristol Herald Courier tells the tale.

RAM: A roll of Charmin in a sea of shit

Earl Neikirk/Bristol Herald Courier

By Debra McCown
Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: July 25, 2009

WISE, Va. – It’s not yet 5 a.m., but people are emerging from their cars, a few scurrying to pack up tents and camp stoves, bustling to be ready, hoping to have the opportunity to receive health care.
As wisps of pink sunlight began coloring the clouds, the masses huddle at the gate under a misty dawn, waiting for their numbers to be called.

The grassy parking lot is full. Beyond the fence, the cars are stacked up for miles. A snake of headlights is visible in the semi-dark along the curvy length of Hurricane Road, waiting to access the Wise County Fairgrounds.

These are the modern-day breadlines: people desperate not for food, but for health care.

“We are working taxpaying jobs, paying taxes, and we can’t get insurance because we make $6.55 an hour,” said Laura Head, 32, of Rogersville, Tenn., the first person in line Friday for the first day of the Remote Area Medical clinic, an annual three-day event offering free medical care. “This is really a great beneficial thing, but it doesn’t have to be this way; we could all have insurance.”

A single mother of three who mows yards and moves trailers for a living, Head said she arrived at the fairgrounds Tuesday, to camp out at the fairgrounds until the health fair began Friday morning. Her motivation was simple: severe, constant pain.

Close to two years ago, her boyfriend smashed her teeth, she said – but, without the $6,000 needed to have the teeth pulled she has endured infection after infection, making literally 100 visits to the emergency room for antibiotics and pain medication.

She’s been billed between $240 and $290 a visit, she said – and, even after racking up bills far higher than the cost of extracting the teeth, she was stuck with them.

“I wanted my teeth fixed and I wanted my health problems to be taken care of,” she said when asked why she took such great lengths to be first in line. “I wanted to make sure mine got done.”

Scott Syverud, an emergency room doctor at the University of Virginia who came to volunteer at RAM, said Head’s problem is not unique; dental pain is the most common complaint at American emergency departments.

“I see it every day and every night,” Syverud said. “This is what I see in the emergency department every day, it’s just bigger here. It’s harder to ignore.”

The lack of access to health and dental care is not an Appalachian problem, he said – it’s a problem all across the nation.

“Emergency rooms act as the safety net in this system,” he said, “and that’s at the breaking point.”

Even as a national health care reform bill is prepared for debate in Congress, more than 1,400 volunteers descended on Wise on Friday, with hundreds more signed up for the weekend – but even they were not enough to help everyone seeking care.

“We’ve never had the traffic problem that we had this morning,” said Teresa Gardner, executive director of the Health Wagon, the local organization that coordinates the event. “It’s a record-setting day for sure.”

The work will continue today and Sunday.

Stan Brock, the founder of RAM, said 1,600 numbers were given out Friday to people seeking care – compared with 1,200 last year on the first day. He said the event here has grown every year.

“It’s been like this for years and years and years,” Brock said. “This is not a recent phenomenon, and it’s not peculiar to Southwest Virginia. … Two weeks from now we’ll be in Los Angeles, Calif. – same problem.”

The RAM event, in its 10th year in Wise County, is based on a model designed for the third world, Gardner said – but it’s needed right here in Virginia.

“Our success is a failure of the health care system,” she said. “We’ll get breast cancer [diagnoses] most likely, cervical cancer, lung cancer … about 40 to 50 percent of the patients will require follow-up.”

She said she knows of a young woman, 19 or 20 years old, who is dying of cervical cancer for the simple reason that she didn’t have the money for follow-up care after an abnormal screening result.

Paula Meade, a nurse with the Health Wagon, said she often sees patients who have cut back on their blood pressure medication or other needed care because of cost – and, as a result, come to her with permanent organ damage and worsening health.

She said with economic troubles and rising bills, more people are trying to cut corners – and often they do it with their health, meeting short-term financial obligations at the expense of long-term well-being.

“This is not the solution,” said R. Edward Howell, CEO of the UVA Health System, who also was at the event Friday. “I’ve been registering patients and they all ask the same question: ‘Can I get it all in today, or am I going to have to sleep in my car and come back tomorrow?’ That’s not the way to do it.”

Howell said the solution to America’s health care situation is a complex problem with a complex set of solutions: More patient responsibility for health, more health care workers, more access in remote areas, some mechanism to enable people to pay for care.

There is no simple, easy solution, he said – but he’s glad Washington is engaged in the conversation.

Meanwhile, the people here are busy doing their best to fill in the health care gap.

As the morning sun crested over the mountain Friday, the fairgrounds were bustling – people filling rows of chairs in the waiting line as volunteers in medical scrubs shared goodies and information.

“We recommend that you brush for two minutes every day,” Tori White, a third-year dental student at East Tennessee State University, told those in a growing line of patients waiting their turn for dental care. “And then we ask you to floss every day because a lot of bacteria like to hide between your teeth.”

White said a lot of the dental problems people face could be prevented with education – sometimes something as simple as an explanation on the importance of brushing teeth daily to prevent decay.

While many patients here said the government could do more to help them with medical and dental care, others said they were just glad for the chance to get help now, to stop their pain.

“I’m grateful to be here,” said Jerry Moore, 42, of Big Stone Gap, as we waited in a long line for dental care. “It’s a wonderful place.”

dmccown@bristolnews.com

It’s a beautiful thing, the work done by RAM and it’s blessed staff. But it doesn’t need to be this way. National Health Care will provide the medical personnel of RAM with the capacity to do even more to help others.
But under the present, broken system, they struggle as much to provide as people do to find the care they need.

Americans, sitting in a tent all day to get their child’s teeth worked on.

We should be ashamed. Ashamed enough to contact our representatives and demand, not ask, demand that they support health care reform and the single payer public option.
If your Rep. is a Republican or a Blue Dogshit Democrat. You might remind them that the lion’s share of the shame is theirs and theirs alone.

Blue Dogshit Coalition:

Blue Dog Leadership Team

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Administration
Rep. Baron Hill (IN-09), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy
Rep. Charlie Melancon (LA-03), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Communications
Rep. Heath Shuler (NC-11), Blue Dog Whip

Blue Dog Members

Altmire, Jason (PA-04)
Arcuri, Mike (NY-24)
Baca, Joe (CA-43)
Barrow, John (GA-12)
Berry, Marion (AR-01)
Bishop, Sanford (GA-02)
Boren, Dan (OK-02)
Boswell, Leonard (IA-03)
Boyd, Allen (FL-02)
Bright, Bobby (AL-02)
Cardoza, Dennis (CA-18)
Carney, Christopher (PA-10)
Chandler, Ben (KY-06)
Childers, Travis (MS-01)
Cooper, Jim (TN-05)
Costa, Jim (CA-20)
Cuellar, Henry (TX-28)
Dahlkemper, Kathy (PA-03)
Davis, Lincoln (TN-04)
Donnelly, Joe (IN-02)
Ellsworth, Brad (IN-08)
Giffords, Gabrielle (AZ-08)
Gordon, Bart (TN-06)
Griffith, Parker (AL-05)
Harman, Jane (CA-36)
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie (SD)
Hill, Baron (IN-09)
Holden, Tim (PA-17)
Kratovil, Jr., Frank (MD-01)
McIntyre, Mike (NC-07)
Marshall, Jim (GA-03)
Matheson, Jim (UT-02)
Melancon, Charlie (LA-03)
Michaud, Mike (ME-02)
Minnick, Walt (ID-01)
Mitchell, Harry (AZ-05)
Moore, Dennis (KS-03)
Murphy, Patrick (PA-08)
Nye, Glenn (VA-02)
Peterson, Collin (MN-07)
Pomeroy, Earl (ND)
Ross, Mike (AR-04)
Salazar, John (CO-03)
Sanchez, Loretta (CA-47)
Schiff, Adam (CA-29)
Scott, David (GA-13)
Shuler, Heath (NC-11)
Space, Zack (OH-18)
Tanner, John (TN-08)
Taylor, Gene (MS-04)
Thompson, Mike (CA-01)
Wilson, Charles (OH-06)

It’s done.
Oakland California has become the first city in the nation to do the right thing concerning Marijuana. They have made it perfectly, legally legitimate.

Thank God for smart people.

“Measure F” (as in Fuck the anti-MJ crowd) was approved by the people of Oakland in a landslide. Oakland has just become the prototype of American progress.

Since the 1930s, asshats, fucktards, and ordinary scum have assailed Marijuana. Lying through their teeth like the diabolical filth that they are, they succeeded for a long time in casting a cloud of fear around God’s wonderful gift. Their efforts have proven to be, as predicted, very much in vain thanx to the people and gov’t of Oakland, CA.
And, thanx to President Obama who has brought a decidedly intelligent attitude concerning Marijuana to the highest reaches of our leadership.
From Richard Nixon to George Dubya Bush and every president in between we have seen nothing but sheer ignorance and bold faced lies.
This fine piece of writing from Mother Jones by way of the November Coalition explains it all.

From ABC:

“The voters of Oakland have sent a message to the nation that cannabis is better treated as a legitimate, tax-paying business than as a cause of crime and futile law-enforcement expenditures,” says Dale Gieringer, California state coordinator for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The city estimates that the measure will raise $294,000 in additional tax revenue in 2010 and more in future years. Some say the measure will provide funds to help offset the city’s current $83 million deficit as well as allow police to direct their limited resources to more serious crimes and drug offenses…

The precedent has finally been set. Other communities, states, and hopefully the nation should and will follow suit.

Oh sure, it will take a long time to smooth things out. There will be more innocent people jailed and otherwise brought to harm by the “opponents” of freedom and truth.
But the decisive battle has been won. We are victorious.
And we deserve it.

Many have suffered and died while fighting for truth and justice. Their sacrifice has brought us to this day.
Oakland will prosper and the rest of the nation will see the truth.

Yeah, there are those who don’t and won’t face the truth and will continue to lie and deceive others about Marijuana. But fuck them.
If they don’t like it they can move to the North Pole or some shit like that because we simply don’t care what they think.
The foundation of the Drug War, America’s longest and costliest (in terms of money) war, has been crushed. The greatest battle of this “war” has been fought and we have won.

Rejoice.

;-]_~

It’s really too bad. One of the main problems politicians of any stripe have is that fact that a majority of them are out of touch socialite types that have no clue what the average person goes through. Especially when it comes to trying to get health care.

So, Congress is going on vacation instead of showing some guts and passing health care reform when it’s needed. That time being YESTER-FUCKING-DAY.

Figures. The few real people that there are in Congress are busting their asses trying to get Americans on a healthier track and meanwhile, the spinless wonders that make up the majority of both houses are thinking about the Bahamas.
Republicans, Blue Dogshits and those who prefer to sit quivering in their chairs are doing everything they can to derail progress and for nothing more than the Insurance Industry money that fills their bank accounts.

Bart Gordon of Tennessee, Blue Dogshit, is a shining example of greed-before-people predatory politics.
How much has Gordon received from the Health Care Industry? $951,000 from PACS and $195, 979–that’s OVER $1 Million

Gordon’s Big Campaign Donors Include:

· The American Medical Association

Who came out about the house health care bill this week

· National Health Care Corp

Which he incidentally sponsored a bill about this session

· Altria Group

Formerly Phillip Morris

Well, while you’re sipping umbrella drinks and laying by the pool, Mr. Gordon, try and remember that the rest of us are simply trying to keep ourselves and our families healthy. We know you don’t care. That’s not the issue.
The issue is that you work for us and we’re telling you to do it. And we will make you pay with your offices if you don’t.
Now you Blue Poodles get your pathetic little asses back into the mix and help the President pass this highly inadequate but better than nothing Health Reform. We already know it’s about the money. You’re not hiding behind urban and rural, “too expensive” and other such strawman speak.

While you waste time stalling, things like this are happening…

Date: 5/13/2009
Media Contact: SAMHSA Press Office
Telephone: 240-276-2130
Majority of America’s 2 Million Adolescents Suffering from Depression Episodes Did Not Receive Treatment in the Past Year
Adolescents without health insurance were less than half as likely to get treatment as those with Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or private health insurance coverage

A new report which coincides with Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day reveals that 8.2 percent (2 million) youths aged 12 to 17 experienced at least one major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year. Only about two-fifths (38.9 percent) of these adolescents received treatment during this period according to the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The report also found that health insurance coverage seemed to be a major factor in determining whether adolescents experiencing MDEs in the past year received treatment. Among these adolescents, those without health insurance coverage were far less likely to have received treatment (17.2 percent) than those with Medicaid/CHIP (42.9 percent) or private health insurance (40.6 percent).

Based on a nationwide SAMHSA survey, Major Depressive Episode and Treatment among Adolescents also reveals the types of treatments adolescents received for MDEs. The report shows that among treated adolescents:

• 58.8 percent saw or spoke with a counselor
• 36.8 percent saw or spoke with a psychologist
• 27.3 percent saw or spoke with a psychiatrist or psychotherapist
• 26.6 percent saw or spoke with a general practitioner or family doctor

In addition, the report shows that less than half (46.8 percent) of adolescents who received treatment for an MDE in the past year used prescription medication for their condition.

“This report contributes to the growing realization that much more must be done to meet enormous mental health needs of our young people,” said SAMHSA’s Acting Administrator, Eric Broderick, D.D.S, M.P.H. “This report, along with the enactment of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and the recent landmark report by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine on children’s mental health, highlight our nation’s growing concern and commitment to alleviating the damage and suffering inflicted by untreated mental disorders on children, their families and their communities.”

The report is drawn from SAMHSA’s 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which collected data from a representative sample of approximately 22,000 adolescents throughout the United States.

An MDE is defined as a period of two weeks or longer during which there is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure and at least four other symptoms that reflect a change in functioning, including problems with sleep, eating, energy, concentration, and self-image.

And this…

18,000 deaths blamed on lack of insurance

By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — More than 18,000 adults in the USA die each year because they are uninsured and can’t get proper health care, researchers report in a landmark study released Tuesday.

The 193-page report, “Care Without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late,” examines the plight of 30 million — one in seven — working-age Americans whose employers don’t provide insurance and who don’t qualify for government medical care.

About 10 million children lack insurance; elderly Americans are covered by Medicare.

It is the second in a planned series of six reports by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) examining the impact of the nation’s fragmented health system. The IOM is a non-profit organization of experts that advises Congress on health issues.

Overall, the researchers say, 18,314 people die in the USA each year because they lack preventive services, a timely diagnosis or appropriate care.

The estimated death toll includes about 1,400 people with high blood pressure, 400 to 600 with breast cancer and 1,500 diagnosed with HIV.

“Our purpose is simply to deliver the facts, and the facts are unequivocal,” says Reed Tuckson, an author of the report and vice president for consumer health at UnitedHealth Group in Minnetonka, Minn.

Among the study’s findings is a comparison of the uninsured with the insured:

* Uninsured people with colon or breast cancer face a 50% higher risk of death.
* Uninsured trauma victims are less likely to be admitted to the hospital, receive the full range of needed services, and are 37% more likely to die of their injuries.
* About 25% of adult diabetics without insurance for a year or more went without a checkup for two years. That boosts their risk of death, blindness and amputations resulting from poor circulation.

Being uninsured also magnifies the risk of death and disability for chronically sick and mentally ill patients, poor people and minorities, who disproportionately lack access to medical care, the landmark study states.

“The report documents the immense consequence of having 40 million uninsured people out there,” says Ray Werntz, a consumer health expert with the Employee Benefit Research Institute. “We need to elevate the problem in the national conscience.”

Calculating the cost in human suffering, he says, “is one way to get there.”

All I can really do is tell you people how it is. If you supported Single Payer health care this would be over by now. All Americans would be covered in the most efficient and economically feasible manner available.

I guess I could pray that you find your humanity too. And perhaps that you remember who it is that pays for your family’s health care.

Oh boy. It’s things like this that really makes a Liberal Blogger’s day…week…month…

Other than a weekend at a Malyasian Opium Den, there are few things more fun than catching those Republicans bastions of morality being bastions of hypocrisy.
And this one is a doozy.

With Republican moralists being caught cheating on their lawfully wedded spouses at an alarming rate, and acting all holier-than-thou about it, It doesn’t surprise us at all when Rachel Maddow of MSNBC breaks the story of the nice, little “church” at “C” Street in Washington and the little club called “The Family".
A “Christian” (not) organization with some very interesting members. And even more interesting fellowship activities.

Senators Brownback, Ensign, Coburn… Representative Zack Wamp (Repig-TN and Goobernatorial candidate), Representative Chip Pickering, former congressman and NFL football star, Steve Largent and the “Honorable” Governor of South Carolina, Marc Sanford amongst others.
All members of the happy little “church".
Why are they so happy? Well, because they’re getting laid, of course…

This will be a fun one to follow. Won’t it, Mr. Wamp?

Hat Tip to Art Hughes at TNDP

You know, Barack. I luv ya, man. So far you’ve done more for this country than any Repiglican and all too many Democraps have in many decades.
But I’m confused, brove. Why are you kneeling when you should be standing tall?

You have got to show more go, Barack. Bill Maher recently made a fine point when he appeared on Countdown with the Olbermench and I have no choice but to agree with him. If George Bush was pushing universal health care he’d have it by now.
No one hates to say that more than I do, but it’s true.
Pragmatism is making you look weak, Mr. President. We do not need to even consider Republicans on this issue and should stop doing so immediately.

What are you thinking? You’re going to blow this if you keep playing these games with our health care. Our majority is solid and the majority of Americans want revamped health care and even more want the Public Option.

You have got to be, well… more like Bush. That piece of shit got what he wanted. He got it because he wouldn’t relent until he got it and he came down on anyone in his own party who failed to comply. What is it you don’t understand? Unlike Bush you have what’s right and just on your side.
Bush was full of evil and still got what he wanted because he used the power he had.
You shouldn’t even be considering the Republican view because they never considered us when they had the majority.
You should be threatening the BlueDogshit back-stabbing vermin with campaigning against them if they don’t get their heads out of the corporate asses they suck like the slime-faced bottom feeders they are.

If we don’t get true universal health care (Single Payer is best) now we will likely never get it.
Are you really prepared to let this opportunity slip through our fingers when it’s so close we can reach out and touch it?
You’re the President of the United Fucking States of America, Barack. Do you understand that? Do you understand the scope of the power you wield?

Those conservanoid BlueDogshit scumbags are not trying to be the “middle". They’re doing the bidding of their corporate and Republican masters. They’re opposing you out of greed and your people are the ones who will suffer if you let these bastards push you around.
You are the “decider” Barack. You are the only one, maybe the only one we’ll ever have who has the people behind you and the governing majority to get this done and if you don’t stand up to those who put industry before people and get this shit done you will be remembered as having failed in the most important social aspect of your Presidency. The health and well being of your people.

We love you, we stand beside you. But you have to dig deep and find the courage to put your foot down and tell the obstructionist BlueDogshits to shut up, get in line, or else.
This is your moment of truth, Barack. Nothing you do after this, no matter what it is, will save your legacy if you wax weak and fail on health care.
Nothing.

It’s crunch time.

Put your foot down, Barack. Not your knee.

HR 3200 “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act", is now before Congress. But as the name might indicate, it’s only “affordable” to those who can afford it.

President Obama, in an unfortunate attempt to be unnecessarily “pragmatic", recently made a deal with Insurance Companies apparently believing that this industry could somehow be trusted to do the right thing for country and people.
This is the Obama naivety that we mentioned in the ‘08 primary.
We said they couldn’t be trusted. The President thought differently. He was wrong.

The story so far: on May 11 the White House called a news conference to announce that major players in health care, including the American Hospital Association and the lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans, had come together to support a national effort to control health care costs.

The fact sheet on the meeting, one has to say, was classic Obama in its message of post-partisanship and, um, hope. “For too long, politics and point-scoring have prevented our country from tackling this growing crisis,” it said, adding, “The American people are eager to put the old Washington ways behind them.”

But just three days later the hospital association insisted that it had not, in fact, promised what the president said it had promised — that it had made no commitment to the administration’s goal of reducing the rate at which health care costs are rising by 1.5 percentage points a year. And the head of the insurance lobby said that the idea was merely to “ramp up” savings, whatever that means.

Meanwhile, the insurance industry is busily lobbying Congress to block one crucial element of health care reform, the public option — that is, offering Americans the right to buy insurance directly from the government as well as from private insurance companies. And at least some insurers are gearing up for a major smear campaign. - Paul Krugman

These Insurance Companies reneged because increasing premiums, copays and deductibles is their real path to payday.
That’s why Obama, as our leader, should take and not ask. You don’t ask termites to stop eating your house, you fumigate.
According to the great Congressman from Ohio, Dennis Kucinich, HR 3200 is not as affordable to taxpayers as it’s being represented as.

…Of $2.4 trillion spent annually for health care in America, fully $800 billion goes for the activities of the for-profit insurer-based system. This means one of every three health care dollars is siphoned off for corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing and the cost of paper work, (which can be anywhere between 15 - 35% in the private sector as compared to Medicare, the single payer plan which has only 3% administrative costs).

50 million Americans are uninsured and another 50 million are under insured while for-profit insurance companies divert precious health care dollars to non-health care purposes. Eliminate the for-profit health care system and its extraordinary overhead, put the money into healthcare and everyone will be covered, everyone will be able to afford health care.

HR 676 is simply the best choice for the people of this country when it comes to health care.
It may not be all that great for the corporate whores in the big offices, but then again, why should we care? Our well being certainly isn’t the first priority on their list. Or the second, third, etc.
We’re their watering trough and if we happen to be dry, they pass us up.
They don’t care if your kid dies, or you die, or whoever. They care about profits and because they joyfully put money before people, they have no right to make a dime beyond what we the people allow them to make.

Unlike HR 3200, HR 676 demands universal, single-payer health care in America. Essentially Medicare for all Americans. HR 676 now boasts 93 Cosponsors in congress and the highly impassioned support of physicians and nurses across the nation. HR-676 controls costs and covers all of us. Much like a good, old fashioned neighborhood drug deal, it cuts out the middle man ( a massive chunk of the cost) and hooks up health care directly to you. Medicare acts as the “single payer” of all costs.
This is the perfect system. As close as we’ll ever get anyway.

Time to lean hard on those ridiculous lops (prison yard terminology for Loss of Privileges) we vote for and demand they support the best path to help us care for our selves and our families.
Time to let them all know, especially our President, that just because we voted for them, or are even fond of them, that they work for us and we will have what we want or they will suffer career wise.

HR 676: Single Payer Health Care.
93 Congressional Cosponsors and growing.

Send the mail and make the calls. Let’s get this job done once and for all. Anything less is what we’ll be stuck with and there’s nothing worse than a bad job. And that’s exactly what HR 3200 is, a bad job of lookin’ out.

Those of us on the Left always said that Cheney was pulling the strings. Now, we all know it to be true.
The Traitor, Dick Cheney, did in fact commandeer the CIA and order them to withhold from Congress and Senate, plans for assassination attempts on Al Qaida operatives and suspects.

Assassinating this enemy, whatever name you want to call it, is a good idea. There’s no reason for any Religofascist to be left alive no matter what the religion.
The question is, why didn’t Dick Cheney allow the plans to proceed/continue? That should be rather obvious…

Examine first this article from the NY Times.

In his 2006 book “State of War,” James Risen wrote that the C.I.A. set up paramilitary teams shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks to hunt down top Qaeda operatives. Mr. Risen, a reporter for The New York Times, wrote that the operation was soon disbanded before the C.I.A. carried out any operations. But the spy agency continued to develop plans to focus on Qaeda operatives, and top C.I.A. officials were briefed periodically about the progress of these efforts, the officials familiar with the program said.

Why? Why was the operation canceled? It could have saved countless innocent lives on the ground.
Because Gerald Ford banned assassination in 1976? No. It’s successfully argued that such a ban does not extend to enemies in the field.

Why? Because had such a discretionary route been taken, there would have been no need to fabricate evidence in an effort to attack Iraq. No war in Iraq, no multi-Billion dollar no-bid contracts for Halliburton. Dick Cheney’s own personal money machine.

Iraq has become an important profit center – contracts there netted the company $900 million for the quarter, 15 percent of its operating budget. The Iraq contracts are cost-plus: the government reimburses the company for its costs, then adds on a profit of 2 percent to 7 percent. Critics say this creates a perverse incentive: the more you spend, the more you make. The Pentagon says this type of flexible contract is necessary in a war zone.

It’s all coming McChrystal clear now.

That which we’ve stated all along is true. Iraq was attacked largely for the filthy lucre contracts. From Blackwater’s guns to Halliburton’s “rebuilding” that never happened contracts.

The single greatest beneficiary of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary. KBR has been paid nearly $32 billion since 2001. In May, April Stephenson, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, testified that KBR was linked to “the vast majority” of war-zone fraud cases and a majority of the $13 billion in “questioned” or “unsupported” costs. According to Agency, it sent the inspector general “a total of 32 cases of suspected overbilling, bribery and other violations since 2004.”

Of course Cheney didn’t want Congress to know. They would have approved the more humane, practical, and less-expensive-to-the-tax-payer methods.
But instead, the greed-laden subhumanoid withheld the idea and let it fade. It was the one thing that would have ruined Cheney’s get rich quick by slaughtering innocent people plans.
Cheney saw opportunity and being the vermin he is, figured blood soaked money spends just as well.

A nation betrayed and deceived by it’s own Vice President. A country full of innocent people laid waste. 4322 of America’s finest, dead, and tens of thousands wounded.
All for another huge chunk of the American taxpayer’s money.

I truly hope that AG Holder finds the balls to investigate this matter as Sen. Feinstein suggested. Because with this, the exposing of Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert CIA operative, and countless other transgressions…Dick Cheney is not fit to breathe the same air as the rest of us.

Oh, and the part where Hayden lies through his Neo-Con teeth by saying the plans were never tried…
Remember what the late, great Seymour Hersh said long ago…
“…Congress has no oversight of it. It’s an executive assassination wing, essentially. And it’s been going on and on and on. And just today in the Times there was a story saying that its leader, a three-star admiral named McRaven, ordered a stop to certain activities because there were so many collateral deaths. It’s been going in—under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or to the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving.”

According to Hersh, the program was carried out by the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC. The former head of JSOC, Stanley McChrystal, is now Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan.

Well done, council members. This is the kind of good lookin’ out we elected people like David Shumaker for.
It’s comforting to know that there are those who will stand up to the fools and degenerates in the TN Legislature and protect our citizens on a community level.

The Bristol Herald Courier has done a fine job of supporting sanity in this community and they bring us this fine statement from the Editorial Board…

By Bristol Herald Courier Editorial Board

Published: July 10, 2009

Getting a statewide bill passed that allows citizens to carry firearms into parks became one of the most drawn out and messiest battles of the 2009 Tennessee General Assembly.

Gov. Phil Bredesen ultimately vetoed the bill, the legislature swiftly overrode it and the law will take effect Sept. 1.

But Tennessee lawmakers left an opening for localities to decide for themselves, which begs the question: Why did they spend all those weeks fighting and wrangling?

On Tuesday, the Bristol Tennessee City Council took advantage of that loophole. On a 3-2 vote, council members said bring the picnic basket when you enter a city-owned park, but leave the gun at home.

Johnson City officials approved a similar handgun ban last week. Other cities, including Memphis, Chattanooga and Nashville, are considering their own measures.

Bristol Tenn.’s decision was supported by City Manager Jeff Broughton and Police Chief Blaine Wade.

Council members David Shumaker, Margaret Feierabend and Mayor Fred Testa voted to ban firearms in city parks. Joel Staton and James Messimer opposed the measure.

Shumaker said he was uncomfortable with people bringing guns into public parks because they are “a weapon designed for a human being to kill another human being.”

Staton called Shumaker’s view “ridiculous” and said the resolution unfairly targets legal handgun owners who are properly trained and would carry them openly.

We support the City Council’s decision on a variety of levels, including safety and local autonomy. The Tennessee legislature left the final decision to the localities. The City Council’s vote considered the recommendations of the city manager and the police chief, both of whom oppose people carrying firearms into city parks.

Some supporters have argued that the ban is an infringement on Second Amendment rights. Perhaps they will challenge the law.

But they should begin in Nashville, where state lawmakers agreed to create this loophole for localities. And Bristol, Tenn., is among several so far that have decided to ban firearms in city parks.

Opponents also should consider the parallels with other places – like public schools – where firearm prohibitions already exist with public support.

Public parks, like public schools, are designed for children and families – and that justifies a different set of rules regarding firearms.

We believe the Bristol Tennessee City Council acted in the interest of safety for the majority of its residents when it voted to ban firearms from city parks. Shumaker, who noted that he owns firearms, said he sees no reason for residents to carry handguns in heavily populated areas such as parks.

We believe the presence of guns in such places could lead to escalated harm if people carrying the weapons overreact to confrontations. It’s one thing if an argument leads to a fist fight, but what if both people are carrying firearms?…

I do appreciate the courage of the Bristol City Council on this issue.
The last thing we need is a bunch of trigger-happy Conservanoid goofballs endangering our children in our city parks while they play John Wayne with they’re new gun.

The thing that amazes me with these types is that they seem to think that they would be capable of stopping some criminal element in a worst case scenario.
Fact is, these hide-in-the-gun-cabinet types would either open fire and hit nothing but innocent bystanders (probably children), or you’d find them and their gun hiding under a picnic table peeing themselves in fear.
Paper silhouette targets don’t prepare people for battle. These people are much like the gang members in big cities that pull drive-by shootings and hit everyone but the intended target. A bunch of loose cannons and walking time bombs.

We don’t need them making our recreation areas dangerous when they’re not.
Get it through your heads, trigger tarts. YOU are the element that’s dangerous to our families.

Honorable mention to a man I was previously unsure of, Councilman Fred Testa. I never expected intelligent decision making from Testa after having met him. But I’m pleased to be found wrong in this case.

Joel Staton’s seat will be the next target when elections roll around again.

Good job BCC.

Just a couple of vids and a quick comment.

Here’s an example of just how cruel people, in this case Hispanic, can be toward animals. Such cruelty exists in all cultures, but Spanish culture is by far the most prolific when it comes to this particular brand of cruelty…

Now here we have an example of even more cruelty known as The Running of the Bulls. This despicable event takes place regularly in Pamplona, Spain.
During the “running", the bulls often don’t want to run. They do what they can to avoid their attackers including backing into alleys and fighting the sub-humanoid vermin off.
In order to induce “running” the vermin resort to such tactics as throwing boiling water on the animals and using fire.

This year, the Bulls got one…

Finally, justice.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee has fallen off the turnip truck and now that this imbecilic resolution has been offered and the Democratic party has been dragged into it, there’s no way to be silent about it.

Michael Jackson. The guy was a fucking joke.
Sorry, but rarely have I ever seen a more ridiculous specimen in modern music. Michael Jackson made Marilyn Manson look like Mary Poppins.

I do sympathize to the extent that I remember him as a cute, mega-talented seven year old on the Jackson 5 TV show. But that’s where it ends.
I have no respect for anyone who had the world in the palm of their hand and threw it all away to be some sort of side-show freak and that’s what MJ was. A freak.
An arrogant, self-absorbed, eccentric stage-whore who for some reason thought it was ok to have other people’s children sleep with him.

Oh, and disco still sucks, so his music was even more annoying than his physical appearance and his creepy behavior.

I’m sorry he’s dead, but this funeral idol worship reminds me of the Republican ghouls dragging Ronald Reagan’s rotted corpse around the country like a float in the Macy’s parade.
It’s not like Mike was Dick Cheney or some other sub-human life form, but he certainly wasn’t any kind of martyr or anything remotely close.

The fact that Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee sponsored this resolution is disturbing. First, this is a type of resolution that reeks of Republican shallowness. It’s like passing a resolution to honor Toby Keith. I mean WTF?
With health care and countless other important issues before congress Lee should have known this could cause the party problems and basically make us look like idiots.

Michael Jackson gave to charity etc etc…True.
So have I but I don’t see any honor captainkona resolutions being offered up.
Michael Jackson made music and sold a lot of records…True.
So did Roy Orbison and his music, by contrast, didn’t suck. But no reso for the Orbster either.
Rep. Lee, you were either grandstanding or you’ve become a complete schmuck over the last few years. Whichever it is, it’s not good.

Thanx go out to Speaker Pelosi for nipping this foolishness in the bud before it became a distraction to the really important matters at hand.

And of course, I don’t want to end this post without mentioning the inescapable fact that Republican Politicians have no business pointing fingers and calling people “pedophiles” when they are the worst of the worst when it comes to child sexual abuse.

I honestly hope this goofy crap stops now.

I’ll keep this brief due to the fact that I just scored a sack of stinky, sticky, stony, BUDS and I don’t want to waste too much time commenting on vermin while there’s tree to trim…

T. Boone Pickens is a piece of shit. But you knew that, didn’t you? For those who didn’t I’ll illustrate once again that my comments characterizing Pickens as excrement are spot on.

In an article from the Washington Post, we find that Pickens is scrapping his Mean Green Wind Machine plans for all sorts of lame reasons that prove conclusively that Pickens is the kind of Scum that will never do anything unless he makes millions from it.

From the WAPO:

Pickens Calls Off Plans For Vast Texas Wind Farm

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 8, 2009

T. Boone Pickens has temporarily shelved plans to build the world’s biggest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle because of tight credit markets and low natural gas prices, and his company Mesa Power is looking for other projects that could use the $2 billion worth of wind turbines already on order.

Pickens unveiled plans in 2007 for the 4,000-megawatt wind farm – big enough to power 1.3 million homes – at a projected cost of $10 billion. In May 2008, Pickens ordered 667 wind turbines from General Electric for the first of four project phases. Mesa is scheduled to begin taking delivery in 2011.

The project was a symbol of the oilman’s commitment to his high-profile campaign to slash the nation’s dependence on foreign oil with a combination of wind power and the use of natural gas in vehicles.

“Boone still remains committed and focused on developing wind energy in the United States,” said Jay Rosser, a spokesman for Pickens’s BP Capital Management. “The timing is not as aggressive as he originally outlined because of the collapse of the capital markets and because of the steep downturn of natural gas prices.” (Many utilities are choosing natural gas to generate electricity.)

Absolute bullshit.

In other words, Pickens no longer stands to make a billion on the project so it’s off.

This man is a joke. He talked all that crap while Repigs were running for office and now it’s no longer valuable as a project because McBush lost and can’t give him untold tax dollars to line his pockets with. Thought you were going to a big Halliburton style payday at the taxpayer’s expense did you, T?
The “Pickens Plan", his plan to Pickens the taxpayer’s pockets, was launched in July 2008.
The Scum lost. So what does Pickens do? He drops his sudden love for environment and clean air and the people of this country.
Imagine, to have all that wealth and still be a transparent, self-serving dirtbag.

This latest abandonment of duty to country (much like Palin quitting) is what we as a nation have come to expect from the Right Wing Fringe.

And of course, let’s not forget that T. Boone Pickens was the sack of horse turds that bankrolled the Swift Boat Cowards for Lies that unsuccessfully tried to smear John Kerry’s military record during the 2004 Presidential elections.
Pickens later ate his words. Better yet, Kerry folded them up and shoved them up Pickens’ yellow Texas ass.

Just another shining example of the fact that Republicans care for only two things. Money and money.

Build a wind tower, T. Then promptly climb to the top and jump if you would be so kind.

Here’s a vid from FUX News where Pickens get’s caught in his lies and his fellow son-of-a-jackal, Sean Hannity, tries to save him.

T. Boone Pickens. The environmentalist.

What a fucking snail.

…Oh, God. It just never ends with this loser. The biggest joke of a Governor (with the exception maybe of Ahhnold) in the nation, and miserably failed VP candidate in 2008, seemingly can’t let a single week go by without making a complete and total fool of herself.

Excellent.
This walking, talking 404 error message is doing for the GOP what panty hose did for finger fucking.
Now, (LOL) now, Scary Sara Palin has chosen to QUIT her elected office and abandon her SWORN responsibilities to the state of Alaska and it’s people.
What a great VP she would have been, huh?
Simply amazing (and kinda humorous). The GOP is once again driven further into it’s grave as a result of the single dumbest American (yes, even dumber than Bush) that ever strapped on heels.

It’s hilarious to watch. Conservanoids across the nation attempting to decipher and analyze and speculate as to the “motivation” behind Failin’ Palin and her display of weakness and selfishness.
No need to analyze…
Palin has stated that she QUIT because she wanted to save the people the money it’s taking to conduct the ongoing ETHICS investigations into her office and her conduct.
No mystery. She’s guilty of something and she’s bailing out before they find it.
Simple as that.

Show you my boobs for some extra ammo?
You betcha!

No, there’s no deep, strategic aspect of her QUITTING. She’s the same Sara Palin that ran with McLame for the Presidency. Delusional, conceited, self-absorbed and completely and totally out to lunch.

Marvelous. Couldn’t ask for more.
I only hope that McLame is right when he says “Palin will have a leadership role".
Between Palindrome, the Tea Bag Fags, Rush Limbaugh and the entire cast of characters the GOP brings to the circus, Democrats are feeling pretty damn comfortable with our majority.

Keep up the fine work Republicans (you fucking idiots). We’re looking forward to turning out even bigger than we did in ‘08 and wiping our collective ass with your collective shirt.

Heh, Gets better every day.

Oh, yeah. Palin’s lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, says he’s going to sue bloggers for bad mouthing his skank….

To the extent several websites, most notably liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, are now claiming as “fact” that Governor Palin resigned because she is “under federal investigation” for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation. This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law. The Alaska Constitution protects the right of free speech, while simultaneously holding those “responsible for the abuse of that right.” Alaska Constitution Art. I, Sec. 5. LINK These falsehoods abuse the right to free speech; continuing to publish these falsehoods of criminal activity is reckless, done without any regard for the truth, and is actionable.

Thomas Van Flein, for
Governor Sarah Palin

Mr. Van Flein, fuck you.
How’s that for court room dialect?

Finally, the first Fascist-Free Fourth of the last decade.

We have so yearned to celebrate genuine independence, but during the Eight Years of Evil we found celebrating freedom to be a little difficult.
It’s not easy to feel free with a dictatorship where an elected government should be.
With vote fraud, Mullahs in the White House,
NSA/AT&T/Quest/Verison spying on average Americans and other such treasonous activity perpetrated by our own un-elected officials, feeling free becomes wishful thinking, not fact of life in America.

So today we are happy to wish all real Americans a very happy Independence Day.

Whew, that felt good.