Ablogination

Still on vacation, but I managed to lift enough fingers to type, and flip off the paperboy for not getting the fucking paper on the porch. Again.

Happiness is being a cranky old man.

Here’s to a better tomorrow. Because today, we live in one very, very fucked up world.

Time for a break from the political grind and the losers called politicians that we trust with our lives knowing all along that they don’t give a Reindeer’s ass about us.

Our Christmas offering….

One of the most powerful broadcasting firms in the nation, and champion of Right Wing propaganda, has filed for failure.
Administrative ineptitude is obvious, but the fact that America is waking up to the damage the Republicans have done to this country both economically and socially is the core issue. Those who promoted the Right Wing agenda are beginning to feel the sting of America’s resentment.
The fall of Citadel is a crystal clear reminder to the Right that Americans know who put us in the troubled times we face.

The Dumbest Decade in Business has shown us giant corporation after giant corporation falling flat on their faces due to irresponsible leadership at the highest levels. In some cases, this is good.
Citadel Broadcasting is an abomination among information networks.
Staunch supporters of BushCo and all Right Wing entities, Citadel shamelessly promoted Republican propaganda throughout the dark years (2000-2008).

Here in the South East, our local joke of a pseudo-Rock n Roll radio station, 101.5 WQUT FM, is Citadel owned. They preached, and still proudly preach, the Right Wing screed that brought this nation to an all time low.
From fake, Citadel created PSAs against important issues such as Health Care reform and compensation for recording artists to the actual blacklisting of anti-war artists such as Neil Young and Steve Earle, WQUT(Citadel) and it’s corporate kiss ass program director, John Patrick, served the lie machine of the Bush Regime on bended knee and did so with a willingness that would make any sock puppet proud.
Citadel is also responsible for wastes of time and space such as Don Imus and Disney/ABC Fascist radio. Not to mention over 100 radio stations throughout the country spewing Right Wing lies and silencing truthful voices in true Corporate Fascist style.

Citadel, a classic example of monopoly-gone-wrong is second only to ClearChannel, another Right Wing establishment, in broadcasting power. Farid Suleman, the latest failure of a CEO, is the folly behind Citadel’s demise.
The company was founded in 1984 in Phoenix, AZ by Larry Wilson as Citadel Associates Limited Partnership. In 1990 it was renamed Citadel Associates Montana Limited Partnership for the purpose of owning and operating stations in Montana that were formerly owned by CALP. A year later, Citadel Broadcasting was officially incorporated and in 1992 it acquired all of the radio stations owned by its predecessors. Within a decade, Citadel expanded to 26 states. Within that time period, it absorbed all Bloomington Broadcasting radio holdings and 11 stations from Dick Broadcasting Company and also acquired 3 radio stations from Slone Broadcasting, Inc. and Slone Radio, LLC. In 2001, Larry Wilson sold Citadel to Forstmann Little for $2.1 billion. By that time, the company had grown to 205 stations in 42 markets.

Of course Citadel will get bailed out and continue to spread lies and abuse it’s position as a media outlet. Kinda like the FOX News of radio. But at least we know that when the most powerful of Right Wing broadcasting corporations bites the dust, the tide is turning.

Their creditors should refuse them. But they won’t. Hopefully continued failure is all that awaits Citadel Broadcasting in the future.

Thunder Valley is well protected from the worst nature has to offer. And though Kingsport, Johnson City and SW Virginia are getting annihilated, the snow here is pretty much just the beauty of nature at her finest.

Too slippery to drive home. Got food, got beer, got weed, stayin’ here.

UPDATE: Measured eight inches on the roof of the car. It’s been a long time since Bristol had anywhere near that much.
Thinkin’ ’bout building a snowman with a big plastic bong in his hand. Toasty the Snow Man…
Has a ring to it. ;-]_~

When all the petals are pulled off, you no longer have a flower. Just a stick that used to be one.

Howard Dean, Sen. Bernie Sanders, all the Liberal pundits…
There is only one correct thing to do.
Kill this hen-pecked Health Care bill, bring it back immediately as a budgetary issue aimed at extending Medicare to all Americans (single payer), Reconcile, pass it with 51 votes.

To hell with Republicans, to hell with Joe Lieberman and Conservative Democrats. The vast majority of the American public favor the Public Option. Single Payer is even better.

The great Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders offered an amendment to install single payer. Repiglikans asked for a “reading” as a stall tactic (Lord knows it would take ten years for a Republican to read anything). Sanders pulled the amendment and thwarted the stall, but not before he spoke for 30 mins on the floor…

“I would like to support it, but I’m not there yet,” Sanders said. “The only way I will know that you’re going to have real cost containment and comprehensive universal health care is a Medicare-for-all, single-payer bill - and that’s certainly not going to pass. If you don’t have that, then at least you have to provide real competition for the private insurance companies through a public option.”

Sanders, of course, is correct.
Howard Dean, today, challenged Obama (who seems to have lost his balls again) and publicly condemned the aberration that once was a decent piece of legislation coming from the House.
It’s good for Obama to hear this because as much as I admire some of the things he’s accomplished, nobody likes a president who’s a chicken shit. That’s one of the reasons Bush was such a disgrace. Cowardice.
Dr. Dean, on the other hand, has never failed to man-up in his life….

Health-care bill wouldn’t bring real reform

By Howard Dean
Thursday, December 17, 2009

If I were a senator, I would not vote for the current health-care bill. Any measure that expands private insurers’ monopoly over health care and transfers millions of taxpayer dollars to private corporations is not real health-care reform. Real reform would insert competition into insurance markets, force insurers to cut unnecessary administrative expenses and spend health-care dollars caring for people. Real reform would significantly lower costs, improve the delivery of health care and give all Americans a meaningful choice of coverage. The current Senate bill accomplishes none of these.

Real health-care reform is supposed to eliminate discrimination based on preexisting conditions. But the legislation allows insurance companies to charge older Americans up to three times as much as younger Americans, pricing them out of coverage. The bill was supposed to give Americans choices about what kind of system they wanted to enroll in. Instead, it fines Americans if they do not sign up with an insurance company, which may take up to 30 percent of your premium dollars and spend it on CEO salaries – in the range of $20 million a year – and on return on equity for the company’s shareholders. Few Americans will see any benefit until 2014, by which time premiums are likely to have doubled. In short, the winners in this bill are insurance companies; the American taxpayer is about to be fleeced with a bailout in a situation that dwarfs even what happened at AIG.

From the very beginning of this debate, progressives have argued that a public option or a Medicare buy-in would restore competition and hold the private health insurance industry accountable. Progressives understood that a public plan would give Americans real choices about what kind of system they wanted to be in and how they wanted to spend their money. Yet Washington has decided, once again, that the American people cannot be trusted to choose for themselves. Your money goes to insurers, whether or not you want it to.

To be clear, I’m not giving up on health-care reform. The legislation does have some good points, such as expanding Medicaid and permanently increasing the federal government’s contribution to it. It invests critical dollars in public health, wellness and prevention programs; extends the life of the Medicare trust fund; and allows young Americans to stay on their parents’ health-care plans until they turn 27. Small businesses struggling with rising health-care costs will receive a tax credit, and primary-care physicians will see increases in their Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates.

Improvements can still be made in the Senate, and I hope that Senate Democrats will work on this bill as it moves to conference. If lawmakers are interested in ensuring that government affordability credits are spent on health-care benefits rather than insurers’ salaries, they need to require state-based exchanges, which act as prudent purchasers and select only the most efficient insurers. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) offered this amendment during the Finance Committee markup, and Democrats should include it in the final legislation. A stripped-down version of the current bill that included these provisions would be worth passing.

In Washington, when major bills near final passage, an inside-the-Beltway mentality takes hold. Any bill becomes a victory. Clear thinking is thrown out the window for political calculus. In the heat of battle, decisions are being made that set an irreversible course for how future health reform is done. The result is legislation that has been crafted to get votes, not to reform health care.

I have worked for health-care reform all my political life. In my home state of Vermont we have accomplished universal health care for children under 18 and real insurance reform – which not only bans discrimination against preexisting conditions but also prevents insurers from charging outrageous sums for policies as a way of keeping out high-risk people. I know health reform when I see it, and there isn’t much left in the Senate bill. I reluctantly conclude that, as it stands, this bill would do more harm than good to the future of America.

The writer is a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, a Medical Doctor and was governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2002.

First, the Public Option remains NON NEGOTIABLE.
Second, Senate rules must be officially changed in order to push the Progressive agenda through. We can’t continue to allow a Zionist Pig like Lieberman to run roughshod over the American People.
Third, and most of all, Obama has to remember his own words.
In his Nobel speech he talked about people who don’t want peace, who don’t seek common ground due to their evil wants and desires. People who cannot be reasoned with.
Like Al-Qaida, Republicans, DemoCons and Joe Lieberman cannot be reasoned with. Therefor they must be trampled under foot like so many ants.
Barack Obama began with “coverage for all". Now we have coverage according to Lieberman. I wonder how it feels to be the President of the United States and be made Joe Lieberman’s bitch. Glad I don’t know at this point. But Obama is about to find out if he doesn’t ball up a fist and start socking people up.

Not a hair, Mr. President. You don’t have one hair on your ass if you let a handful of un-American filth take this epic effort, shit on the people, and wipe their asses with it.

Obama, Harry Reid….man the fuck up or just admit that you can’t handle it and resign. The nation can wait no longer.

Heh,
“there is nothing hidden that will not be known"….

So, it may take time. But then again, there are these things we love called “leaks” that happen from time to time.
Regardless, 22 Million BushCo White House emails have been recovered. We all know there are explicit reasons for the Bush Regime having tried to dispose of them. They’re called “guilt” and “shame” and “deception".
That’s why Bush lied about them. Bush said “no emails were missing". He must have “misspoke” I guess.

Anyway, these emails contain lots and lots of correspondence between the oval office (Cheney) and the DOJ under Gonzales. Related to the Bush administration’s illegal firing of top federal prosecutors in 2006.
Count on it.

I’ve got my beer, popcorn and all the time in the world. Let the show begin.

Thanx for saving us the trouble and expense of getting rid of you. Though you may think that your resignations are some sort of protest, the fact is that it’s a reflection of your cowardice.
You’ve taken money from corporate interests and shit on the people of this country, and the state of Tennessee, for your whole careers.
We were gearing up to find and fund your primary challengers. Now we don’t have to.

Many thanx.

John Tanner (TN-8) and Bart Gordon (TN-6). Two of the Blue Dogshit Democrats who have stood firmly along side Republicans in opposing anything and everything progressive that the majority has done or tried to do have announced that they will “not be seeking re-election".
In the relatively young and ongoing effort to reform the Democratic party from Republican Lite to actual Democratic, removing Blue Dog Democrats from office undoubtedly would be one of the toughest and most risk-laden aspects of change.
But, reform would be impossible without it. That’s why this great news is such music to our ears. Having these trucks (Truck: Someone who loads up, takes off, and never gives back) end their useless tenures on their own only makes a tough job easier.

The road to party reform is long and uphill all the way. We thank these two…gentlemen…for their assistance.

And no, this is not anything more than a few Dinosaurs knowing when their welcome is worn. Actually, seeing more of them leave would be welcome.
We will still have to fight to be rid of other losers such as Baucus, Lincoln, Ross etc. But at least the tip of the ice is now cracked.
Twelve Republicans have “defected” and announced that they are seeking other office. Only four Dems have “retired” and six others will seek other elected positions such as Governorships and Senate seats.
18 Republicans defected during 2008.

So for the Republifucks out there who would just love for this to be some sort of sign that the GOP is making a comeback…
The Democratic Congressional Committee has about a 10M dollar advantage over it’s Republican counterpart as of October ‘09.

Nope. This is just a small but significant step in the growing Progressive movement. All Blue Dogshits must go. One way or another. If they wish to retire and avoid the ass kicking. That’s probably a wise thing to do.

Chickenshit cowards. That’s what they are. Bought and paid for trash.
The Senate Blue Dogshits intentionally killed the meaning of the Health Reform movement. It became no longer about the people of this nation, but instead, they made it about appeasing a handful of Anti-American vermin serving the best interests of their corporate masters.
They will pay dearly for their treachery at the polls.

This is certainly not the end. But it is near.
We’ll have the usual reports by the usual defeatist idiots, both MSM and Blogger alike, proclaiming “The Public Option Is Dead!” It’s not dead yet, but the filth have injured her severely.

The Next Steps:

Reid will seek “cloture” (end of debate) and that takes 60 votes if Scum filibuster. That’s the reason for the shameless capitulation.
If Reid gets the 60 votes to end debate the “final passage” vote will ensue. A simple majority of 51 votes is all that’s needed for passage.

Then comes reconciliation. The House and Senate will appoint a “conference committee” consisting of members from each chamber. That committee will meet to reconcile the House and Senate Bills into one piece of legislation.
(This is where we look for House Leadership to carefully choose committee members.)
60 votes will be needed just to form the committee as Repigs may attempt to block is inception.
If differences are reconciled the committee produces a “Conference Report", the final version of the legislation. It is debated again in both chambers but no amendments are permitted.

Then, it’s back to the pathetic Senate for 60 more votes. If passed, It goes to Obama for ink.

There’s still a ways to go. If House and Senate Progressives stand and fight there is still a chance. Would someone please find a backbone somewhere on the Hill?
The fact that Procedural Reconciliation has not been used to pass the PO is disgraceful. Reid and the Senate Democrats are about to throw it all away.

Only the weakest of the weak quit the fight before it’s done. The House Progressive Caucus is upset.
One of the few American politicians with any real guts, Progressive Caucus leader Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, had this to say about the Senate’s ineptitude…

Grijalva Calls Emerging Senate Compromise Inadequate For Working Families, Questions Lack of Public Option
Tuesday December 08, 2009

Washington, DC – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today declared the widely reported compromises in the emerging Senate health care bill “troubling” and “not even reminiscent of a public option.”

Senate and White House leaders, he said, “have already compromised far too much. At some point in this process, the question became not what was the best policy for the American people, but what could be done to appease a recalcitrant handful who have negotiated in bad faith. We need strong leadership so close to the finish line, not efforts to water down a bill to the breaking point in a misguided attempt to win votes that were never there.”

Grijalva said reports that the Senate is now moving toward the creation of a non-profit board to provide insurance, instead of an authentic public option, should “worry the millions of Americans who are counting on this bill to create affordable insurance and help them enjoy a fair marketplace.” He emphasized that the House has already rejected such an approach, which essentially mirrors the health co-ops dismissed by most analysts as ineffective.

“A non-public option without government support will not bring down prices, expand coverage or provide competition for private companies,” Grijalva said. “Voters will instantly recognize it as a whitewash of the problem we have spent the better part of this year trying to fix. They would be right to criticize any plan that fails to address their concerns, and they will be doubly right to reject this one.”

Building a national health co-op from scratch would be an “unruly and excessively time-consuming process,” Grijalva said. Such a plan “would forfeit the economic advantages – such as building on Medicare’s provider network – that would make a public insurance program competitive.”

Grijalva added that modeling a plan on the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program that exclusively offers private insurance plans, as the Senate is reportedly considering, is not equivalent to a public option. Similarly, lowering the age of Medicare eligibility by five or 10 years “does not create enough private sector competition, which we desperately need to benefit working families,” he said.

“We need a public option, period,” Grijalva said. “I cannot support a system that forces Americans to buy private insurance and then allows those companies to collect government subsidies without competition. Our final health care bill should be based on policy outcomes and the needs of consumers, and the direction the Senate is taking does not give me confidence.”

No matter what the outcome, Liberals. We must pledge to make the following scumbags pay with their careers for stabbing their country and people in the back….

Joe Lieberman - I - Connecticut
Max Baucus - D - Nebraska
Tom Carper - D - Delaware
Kent Conrad - D - North Dakota
Mary Landrieu - D - Louisiana
Blanche Lincoln - D - Arkansas
Bill Nelson - D - Florida

The House Version of the Public Option would be in the Senate version now were it not for these few traitors. Lieberman especially.
We must never let up on them. Even once they’re un-elected.

With the possible exception of Texas, there is no more pathetic, offensive and down right blasphemous branch of the GOP than we have in the State of Tennessee.
Now, they even think Jason Mumpower is Jesus. Thank God that’s not true. I’d hate to think that all faith got me was an eternity at the foot of a Food City checkout line.

Tim Rudd, the dramatically gluttonous member of the TNGOP executive committee, recently sent out an email to his fellow idiots concerning the status of TN House speaker, Kent Williams, as a member of the TN Republican party.
A year ago, Williams, a Carter County Republican, joined Democrats in preventing Jason Mumpower from becoming speaker of the House.
Having Mumpower as SOTH would be akin to having Peewee Herman as your child’s nanny. So his thwarting was a very good thing.
Now, still whining and crying, Mumpower and the TNGOP are seeking to remove Williams from the Grand Ole Pussy rank and file.
Williams should consider himself honored. The only thing worse than being a member of the TNGOP is being a member of NAMBLA.
Actually, about the same.

Crown of Horns

But the really interesting aspect of this latest TNGOP face plant is the shockingly juvenile blasphemy they have indulged in.
Rudd, the glutton, has compared a Republican prayer session that Mumpower and Williams both participated in to the prayer Jesus gave at the last supper. Directly comparing Jason Mumpower, an idiot, to Jesus. Our Lord.

Then once again, Rudd compares Williams to Judas Iscariot which puts Mumpower in the sandals of Christ.

Thanx to our good friend, Elmer Gantry, for this very telling video…

The TNGOP’s exploitation of the savior is nothing new. That’s the only way they can get votes. By manipulating the faith of believers, and the blindness of fools, and lying their way to political gain. We saw this in it’s most raw form with miserably failed TN-1 Congressional Rep. David Davis. We see it with Mumpower, Ron Ramsey, saw it with Jim Holcomb. Any John Gregory-backed Taliban candidate is equally as guilty.
(Gregory+King Pharm+Thief+TNGOP)

Though the TNGOP is always good for a horse laugh or two, they are also very dangerous to the people of this state. When morons, thieves, liars and hypocrites are in charge, we get matching results.
The great state of Tennessee deserves far better than the amusing collection of miscreants and morally challenged goofballs that now make up our state gov’t.

So, TNGOP…And especially you, Jabba the Rudd. For all you do, this blog’s for you.

We knew it. All Conservotards have acute morality deficiencies. No matter what their political affiliation.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy either…

Well, Max. They say there’s nothing hidden that will not be revealed…with a little help.
Say goodbye to your Senate seat, asswipe.
Lieberman, Conrad, Ross…What’s under your rugs?
Never mind, no reason to speak up. We’ll find out anyway. Because someone somewhere will never stop looking. This is just the beginning. A mild, wakey uppy bitch slap, but enough to make ol’ Max look like a dirty old man.
Should have waited until AFTER the divorce, Max.

A fitting example for those who should be supporting the Public Option. Karma is a motherfucker, no?

From Main Justice:

By Andrew Ramonas | December 4, 2009

A Department of Justice official who is in a relationship with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) withdrew as a finalist for Montana U.S. Attorney to live with the senator in Washington, a Baucus spokesperson confirmed to Main Justice today.

Melodee Hanes, the Montana senator’s former state director, withdrew earlier this year after Baucus sent her name and two others to the White House as his recommendations for the state’s top federal prosecuting job….

…..Baucus spokesman, Matsdorf, told Main Justice that the relationship between Baucus and Hanes began in the summer of 2008. Hanes and Thomas Bennett, her ex-husband, divorced in December 2008. Baucus and his ex-wife, Wanda, announced their divorce in April 2009.