A new march of dimes for health care and ending the Iraq war and more.
by www.democratz.org on 22 March 2010 4:45 am
Yes I have a new action which does not involve a boycott. LOL

See it here

http://liberal.posterous.com/the-new-march-of-dimes
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Arnold Schwarzenegger Vastly Unpopular
by spincitysd on 22 March 2010 1:28 am
More Californians disapprove of the job performance of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger than any governor in modern state history including Gray Davis, who was ousted by Schwarzenegger in a popular uprising, according to a Field Poll released today.

Seventy-one percent of California voters surveyed said they disapprove of Schwarzenegger’s handling of the job, while 23 percent approve. The low ratings are shared across all demographics including party affiliation, region of the state, age and race or ethnicity.

“Schwarzenegger still has a persona that appeals to people, but the real problem is he’s presiding over a terrible time in California history and he doesn’t seem to have made it any better,” said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo.

The governor’s numbers are nearly identical to those of Davis in the run-up to the recall. In August 2003, 70 percent of California disapproved of how Davis did the job while 22 percent approved.

Snip

Ah-Nuld was great moderate hope of Republicans when he got elected after Gray Davis’ recall. There was talk of him becoming a senator, even President (with a little help of a constitutional amendment.)

But California is an ungovernable mess thanks to Prop 13. I’m amazed that any politician would want the job of Governor of the Golden State. It is a job that just eats you up and spits you out.

Schwarzenegger went off the rails when public employees unions took a serious dislike to the man. His reelection was more a reflection of the feckless Democratic opposition than any great love for the former film star.

Still much of Schwarzenegger’s problems stem from the collapse of the California real estate market. The state took a devastating hit on property values thanks to the housing melt down. That had a knock on effect on the tax base as funds dried up from collapsing property values.

Unable to raise taxes because of Prop 13 super-majority requirements the Governator is forced to slash and burn large chunks of the public sphere. It has gotten so bad that the present budget is actually below what economist say is the absolute minimum of funds the state needs to operate efficiently.

Still hope springs eternal with Republican Meg Whitman and former Governor Jerry Brown contesting for the top slot. Frankly I don’t see how Meg Whitman’s running of high tech giant Ebay is actually going to help her if she gets the nod. Sacramento is not Silicon Vally and her promises of fiscally parsimonious behavior will run up against the harsh realities of the Golden State fairly quickly. Maybe once she gets out of the primaries she will move to more realistic policy prescriptions.

Whoever wins the Governor’s seat will have to figure out how to fix a political system that is toxic and dysfunctional. They will have to deal with a political system that rewards an obstructionist, hard-line Republican minority that is maniacally anti-tax, anti-spending, anti-government, and anti-reality.

They will also have to deal with a initiative system that has totally spiraled out of control. Once a way for the public to overcome the power of special interest; the initiative process has now been hijacked by those same special interests. The legislature has been steadily and progressively handcuffed by propositions leaving little wiggle room for inventive thinking. Prop 13 is the sin qua non of this anti-government ideology as are term limits.

The only silver lining might be that things are so bad in the Golden State that the public may be willing to contemplate major reforms in how the state does business. Still, never underestimate the electorates love of facile solutions that make actual governing harder.

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Israel: Settlement Construction Will Continue In East Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Says
by mwfolsom on 21 March 2010 7:21 pm
This as proof positive that Israel is more interested in building settlements than it is in peace. Knowing that they can’t have both they have made their choice.

Sadly we know that Obama & Co and the Senate and House will fold.
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Did Tea Party Racial Slurs Really Happen?
by Noogan on 21 March 2010 6:41 pm
I never condone any racial or gender or ethnic epithet; and I’ve had them hurled at me many a time over Israeli/Palestinian issues. That said; I am hesitant to find this report credible. After reading the whole article in its entirety at the Yahoo news site, I was profoundly suprised to find that there was not one independent verification of the allegations.

This McClatchy News story was one of the top articles on Yahoo on Saturday Night:

Tea party protesters use racial epithet against Georgia’s John Lewis

Demonstrators outside the U.S. Capitol , angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted “nigger” Saturday at U.S. Rep. John Lewis , a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama march in the 1960s.

The protesters also shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus , lawmakers said.

“They were shouting, sort of harassing,” Lewis said. “But, it’s okay, I’ve faced this before. It reminded me of the 60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean.”

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver , D- Mo. , said he was a few yards behind Lewis and distinctly heard “nigger.”

“It was a chorus,” Cleaver said. “In a way, I feel sorry for those people who are doing this nasty stuff – they’re being whipped up. I decided I wouldn’t be angry with any of them.”

Protestors also used a slur as they confronted Rep. Barney Frank , D- Mass. , an openly gay member of Congress . A writer for Huffington Post said the crowd called Frank a “faggot.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3457015

Did this really happen?

It’s not clear that it did happen from this video. Because none of the claims of racist slurs coming from the protesters in DC have been substantiated by any credible or objective source. This is all coming from these Democratic Congressmen. And, while I’d like to believe that John Lewis and Mr. Cleaver are ethical men, I have a hard time with the TIMING and the sources being just these three partisans, who clearly would love to smear their opponents.

Could this really be race-baiting by Democrats at the final hour of the health-care bill? Because as everyone knows, it certainly wouldn’t be the FIRST TIME that black Democrats have played the race card.

Here’s video of the event:

I don’t see the despicable behavior in these videos. Do you?

A Tea-Party leader condemned the alleged epithets and obscenities.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/21/tea-party-leader-condemns-racial-slurs-hurled-black-lawmakers/

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NBC – Stupak to Vote Yes on Health Care Vote
by djjl on 21 March 2010 5:12 pm
Hell has frozen over?
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‘Current Knesset is the most racist in Israeli history’
by Ramsgate on 21 March 2010 2:58 pm
News you won’t find in the US.

Haaretz reports that:

The Israeli government passed at least 21 bills aimed at discriminating against the country’s Arab citizens making the current Knesset as being the most racist Israeli parliament since the country’s founding, according to a report released Sunday by civil rights groups.

The Coalition Against Racism and the Mossawa Center, which works to promote equality, claimed that the proposed legislation seeks to de-legitimize Israel’s Arab citizens by decreasing their civil rights. The report’s data show that in 2008 there were 11 bills defined as racist presented to the Knesset while in 2009 there were 12 such bills.

In 2010, the report’s authors claim, there were no less than 21 bills proposed that included discriminatory elements against the country’s Arab citizens.
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Neda’s Fiance Visits Israel
by Liberalastheycome on 21 March 2010 2:20 am
The fiancé of Neda Agha-Soltan, who was killed during protests in Teheran following the Iranian elections last year, visited Israel as guest of Channel 2, the station reported Friday evening.

Soltan’s death was caught on a video widely disseminated through the Internet and on news outlets, and she has become a symbol of the Iranian opposition.

Caspian Makan was tortured by the Iranian government and escaped to Canada following Neda’s death.

He had said his dream was to come to Israel.

Now, that Makan landed here, he will have the honor of meeting President Shimon Peres.

“I have come here out of the brotherhood of nations,” Makan told Channel 2.

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The Healthcare Bill: 10 Things You Need to Know
by lynnette on 21 March 2010 1:28 am
This is a handy, concise summary of the highlights of the bill, for those that want more details on it.
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Teabaggers displaying their true colors at last.
by Ramsgate on 20 March 2010 9:22 pm
The truth will out.

The Hill reports of Tea Partiers being openly racist towards African-American Congressmen.

Also James Clyburn was quoted on Twitter: “People saying things today I’ve not heard since 1960 when I was marching 2 try & get off the back of bus.”

Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) claimed Saturday that health care protesters at the Capitol directed racial epithets at Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) as he walked outside.

Carson, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus along with Lewis, told The Hill that protesters called Lewis the N-word.

http://2su.de/YcW

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Obama’s health plan? It isnt Obama’s anything
by Marc Rubin on 20 March 2010 2:52 pm
The mainstream news media still insists on calling healthcare reform “Obama’s health plan” and ” Obama’s number one domestic priority”.But the truth is, it isn’t Obama’s anything. In fact Obama has so little to do with healthcare reform he was planning on being out of the country when the historic vote will be taken. But it doesnt stop him from trying ot take the credit.

What will be passed on Sunday is not Obama’s plan. This is the bill that came out of the Baucus committee and was passed the senate with zero input from Obama. And It’s a bill that many Democrats in the House and senate felt was inadequate and needed to do more. It was a bill that staunch health care supporters like Tom Harkin and Bernie Sanders and many others said they would support but called it “better than nothing”. Obama had nothing to do with it. Obama was so hands off and so disengaged that Democratic staffers for months complained there was no direction, no ideas, no conviction from the White House at all.

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DADT: Who The Hell Is THIS goober?
by spincitysd on 20 March 2010 9:26 am
US general: Gay Dutch soldiers caused Srebrenica massacre

John Sheehan, a former Nato commander, sparks outrage over claims homosexual soldiers weakened the Dutch army.

Snip

Wow, just wow.
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The Rains Come To Haiti PtII
by spincitysd on 20 March 2010 9:20 am
One of the heaviest rainfalls since Haiti’s 12 January earthquake swamped camps for the homeless yesterday, sweeping screaming residents into the water and causing panic.

The overnight downpour sent water flowing down the slopes of a former golf course that serves as a temporary home for 45,000 people.

There were no reports of deaths in the camp, a town-size maze of tents near the country club used by the US army’s 82nd Airborne as a forward operating base. But the deluge terrified families who two months ago survived the collapse of their homes in the earthquake.

“I was on one side [of the tent], the children were on the other and I was trying to push the water out,” said Jackquine Exama, a 34-year-old mother of seven.

Aid workers said people were swept screaming into torrents which ripped down school tents.

“They were crying. There was fear down there. It was chaos,” said Jim Wilson, of the aid group Praecipio.

The camp refugees used sticks and bare hands to dig drainage ditches around their homes.

Another camp, on the outskirts of Cité Soleil several miles away, was also flooded.

Officials need to move many of the 1.3 million people displaced by the earthquake before the rainy season starts next month. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told reporters at the golf-course camp on Sunday that the people living there were in particular danger.

But after two months of searching and wrangling with landowners, the government has still not opened any of the five promised relocation sites, which are better able to withstand rain and aftershocks, on the capital’s north-eastern outskirts.

Snip

Get ready for epic Haitian Disaster Part 2. It is an El Nino year and that means much more rain for some areas of the world.
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I Want Obama To Fail
by Billy Glad on 19 March 2010 3:59 pm
Unlike most Americans, I don’t like Barack Obama. I never have. I think he’s a hustler, an opportunist and a manufactured celebrity. He’s probably the most inexperienced and the least prepared President we’ve ever elected.

Even George W. Bush, whom I’ve often compared to a chimp for his simian agility and tenacity, came to office with executive experience and a seasoned team, mostly inherited from his father. He also had the advantage of having been mentored by Bob Bullock, a particularly successful Texas politician and executive.

Executive experience does matter, because it gives a candidate for President a chance to build a team that can figure out what he wants and how to get it for him before he takes office.

The downside to Bush was what he did with his experience and the way, under pressure, his simian traits emerged.

I miss George W. Bush’s chimp-like agility and tenacity. Did you see him dodge those shoes? Oh my god. If Bush hadn’t been wearing pants that day, that Muntadhar al-Zeidi guy would have caught a face full of poop.

And Bush was tenacious as hell. Not like Obama, who, as people like Glenn Greenwald have pointed out, sometimes acts like a coward. Bush was a real man. Or chimp as the case may be. He knew how to stay the course.

Chimps can do that. As a matter of fact, their tenacity makes them easy to catch. You just soak a rag in sugar water. Then you stuff the rag into a narrow-necked bottle and tie the bottle to a tree. The chimp comes along, forces his hand into the bottle and grabs the sugar rag. Now the chimp is caught. He can’t get his fist out of the bottle while he’s holding the rag, and he can’t let go. The chimp can’t figure out that all he has to do to get away is let go of that rag. You put a leash on the chimp, break the bottle and lead the chimp off. That’s how you turn a chimp into a chump.

But nobody can say the chimp changed his mind or gave up the fight like Obama and the “Progressives” in Congress did. That’s not in a chimp’s character. And character is something that doesn’t change.

That goes for Obama’s character as well. I don’t think the Progressive wing of the party is going to be able to whip Obama — or his Congressional colleagues — into shape by shaming them into some semblance of “manhood” by constantly accusing them of cowardice.

In Obama’s case, the charge that he folds under pressure doesn’t ring true. I think a more reasonable explanation is his inexperience caused him to leave a lot on the table — and, as Taylor has pointed out, some of what he has left on the table has real consequences for women, particularly if language in the bill leads to a re-examination of Roe by the present Supreme Court.

Although it would be satisfying for me to see Obama fail, I can’t think of a single battle — including the battle to reform health insurance — that I don’t want him to win.

It bothers me that Obama turned out to just another corporate candidate. It galls me that his inexperience and the inexperience of the administration he’s cobbled together have made his efforts to turn the economy around and to reform health insurance such cliff-hangers, but those problems have to be solved, and, for the next few years, if he doesn’t solve them, nobody will.

The same goes for the Middle East peace process, Iranian and North Korean nukes, the Taliban and al Qaeda. I don’t like Obama, but he’s got the job. As much as I want him to fail, I want him to succeed. And I don’t want to goad him into becoming as inflexible as Bush.

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Anti-Defamation League Goes After Petraeus, Calls His Views ‘Dangerous’ (bumped)
by mwfolsom on 19 March 2010 1:40 pm
We all knew this was coming – it was just a matter of time till somebody went after Petraeus for speaking the truth. He should have known that no American citizen is allowed to say such things least they be called anti-semitic or an Israel hater.

By-the-by, don’t miss the comments. They show that the clock is ticking on American subservience to any and all Israeli wishes. I can only hope that the forces of Israel in the US really go after Petraeus. That will open up lots of eyes to what AIPAC and the ADL are up to.
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Propaganda 2.0 – Israel’s Ministry of Disinformation
by mwfolsom on 19 March 2010 5:18 am
Folks:

Read this some time ago and finally re-found it -

From the beginning of the article:

“With Israel’s foreign ministry organising volunteers to flood news websites with pro-Israeli comments, Propaganda 2.0 is here.

The hasbara brigade strikes again! You always hear about Israeli attempts at media manipulation. Everyone knows it’s going on but usually the process happens through cyber insurgents like those involved with Giyus (and its media monitoring software, Megaphone). Now, we know that the Israeli foreign ministry itself is orchestrating propaganda efforts designed to flood news websites with pro-Israel arguments and information.”

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