MICHAEL "SAVAGE" WEINER, TERRORIST?

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RIGHT-WING HATE-MONGER TARGETS LEGITIMATE MEDIA CRITICS

YOUTUBE: MEDIA MATTERS
"A Savage Nation Indeed"
The Weiner speaks!


RABID CONSERVATIVE THREATENS TO POST "ENEMIES" PHOTOS & "OTHER INFORMATION"

Talk Radio Network & Clear Channel Communications, Like News Corp's Fox News, Tries To Intimidate Moderates & Progressives

These are not idle threats or harmless pranks. We've seen people murdered after being targeted by these Nazi wannabee's. Their threadbare ideology is based upon anger and hatred and violence. Many "conservatives" worship guns and threaten to kill anyone who would take them away. Right-wing extremists in America have perpetrated more violent acts and killed more people than the Left ever did, by far. Al Qaida is nothing compared to the Aryan Nation, the American Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan, et al. They've been around for over a hundred years, shooting and bombing, burning and lynching, terrorizing and intimidating the whole country.

Now the Right has taken control of much of our public airwaves. 24/7/52 they spew hatred and foment violence all across the nation on the radio and on TV. It's not just political bluster or ideological blather now. It's stalking and targeting and calling for violence against civilians and government officials, even the President of the United States. If anyone on the Left had even hinted at this sort of thing, they would have been shut down and locked up long ago.

In a way, the Left is complicit in all this. By failing to use the legitimate tools of the law, they are allowing a spark to become a flame. If Obama and company do not do something about this media-inspired threat, the flame may become a conflagration. That is the expressed intent of the political arsonists on the Right. It needs to be stopped now, legally.

Here's what Spocko had to say about the recent terroristic threats by Michael Savage against Media Matters, and the Left's response. Read the whole story on his site:


SPOCKO'S BRAIN
"Privacy, Violent Rhetoric and Talk Radio: Michael Savage Edition "
Spocko nail the Weiner right on it's head.

' Just how close do we have to be to RTLM (Hutu Power Radio) for anyone to see the parallel and say, "That's enough, the people making these kind of threats are off the air for good."? (You might recall from your watching of Hotel Rwanda that the hosts at RTLM gave information on where the Tutsis were located after talking about crushing the Tutsis like cockroaches. Note: those hosts are now serving jail time for war crimes.) Is it going to take a few more murders of the targets of right wing talk radio host's ire for someone to act? And by someone I mean their own management. And if management doesn't act, showing us in writing the warnings to Savage along with his signed agreement posted on his website that he won't do this, then they need to pay a financial price. That is the only thing that might get them to act. The government will not act unless the EXACT right type of murder or violent assault happens. I don't think that will ever happen. Savage knows he needs to avoid certain words and phrases. He knows that unless it is spoken in-person to the person carrying out the murder the people defending the hosts will work on the "he has his right to free speech!" line. All talk radio and TV hosts know this, so they dance around it and practically demand that the people on the LEFT defend them. '

OUR RESPONSE:


You're just trying to get our hopes up with that story about RTLM, aren't you? Of course, some of us would have to be hacked to death first, but, as long as it isn't me, it's worth it.

Actually, we've had laws against this sort of thing for a long time. They've been "reading the Riot Act" since 1792, aka the Militia Act in the US, now chapter 15 of title 10, United States Code. Peaceful speakers at rallies that got out of hand (usually due to agents provocateurs or police over-reaction) have been prosecuted and even killed just for speaking. Four anarchist leaders were hung just for not discouraging violence in the Haymarket Affair in 1886. The Chicago Seven were charged with "conspiracy" after the police rioted against them in 1968. I think the right deserves a taste of this very old medicine, which is still on the books. It would even be fair, for once. We don't have to actually hang them. We're still liberals. Lethal injection would be fine. After a fair trial, of course.

Howard Stern and Infinity Broadcasting have been fined millions of dollars for his harmless adolescent antics. Several of the broadcast TV 'Nets have been fined for various audio & video "accidents" which merely titillated some and offended others in the audience. The same laws could be used against NewsCorp & ClearChannel, but Obama is not changing Bushco policies on giving the Right a free pass. The law specifically forbids: "Unauthorized, unfair, biased, illegal broadcasts (does NOT include Obscene, Profane or Indecent material)" as well as "Broadcast programs showing obscene, profane, and/or indecent material."

The FEC could also be investigating the endless free campaign commercials on behalf of the GOP disguised as programming by the right-wing 'Nets, but they're not. Violations can be reported in online complaint forms from both agencies, but I've yet to hear of any action.

Part of the problem is, there are just so bloody many of these hate-mongers and rabble-rousers; and they have so many sponsors. Taking action against all of them is impossible, and taking action against just a few of them is ineffectual. Some major action has to be initiated by Obama, or by a citizens' group to make a huge example of one of the main instigators of right-wing terror. They have the RICO Act, the Patriot Acts, the FCC regulations the "Riot Act" and the campaign finance laws. They don't need any new laws. They do need political will.

The thing is, the very same media outlets control, manipulate and distort perceptions of public opinion to the point where the Democrats don't seem to realize that they are in the majority, and that most of us are sick of Savage and his ilk, and want to know why they haven't been shut down. We have to find a way to break through the Blue Dog & Clinton-Bush appointee wall of silence, and demand that Obama do something, while he still can.

He's never going to make friends with these nutjobs. And why should he? They're only 5 or 10% of the electorate, at most. The other 90% are tired of their incitements to violence, fighting words and crying fire in a crowded theater. We need to make the FCC, FEC, FBI and Homeland Security stop them now, before we have a Kristallnacht or a Reichstag Fire. Or worse. That's what we're headed for, if we don't do something about it. How far would an extreme left-wing nutjob get with these kinds of threats and incitements to violence? How many doctors and nurses have to die before these terrorist Republican mullahs have their electronic madrassah's shut down?


SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
"Savage threatens to post photos, 'pertinent information' of his critics"

' Here's the quote: I am calling upon all people in the media who have been harassed by this Stalinist group, Media Matters, to join forces and publish the names of the people in Media Matters and put their pictures up on their Web sites. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. In the next few weeks you can expect me on michaelsavage.com to give you full pictures and other pertinent information about the individuals who are conducting a campaign against Michael Savage and other conservatives in the media. Let's see how they like it. But isn't it interesting that this staunch defender of the First Amendment is trying to bully other people from their lawful exercise of that right? I guess he supports free speech as long as it's speech with which he agrees. What's also interesting to me is the "other pertinent information" part. What information could that be? Their favorite color? How about address, where they work, that sort of thing? You know, the type of information that would be needed by someone if they were, say, stalking a person? So, Savage, go ahead and post that information. But you'd better drop on your knobby knees and pray that none of your mouth-breathing followers gets it in their head to "avenge" the "wrongs" done to you by your "enemies." Or do you like the way you look in stripes? '

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REPUBLICANS SELF-DESTRUCT

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2012 PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS "P*SSY" OUT



ENSIGN & SANFORD FALL ON THEIR PORK-SWORDS

It's A Sign! The Conservatards Know It's Thuh Ay-Und Tahms! SHA-ZAAAAM!!!

Layers of the Onion: First we had soap-opera "Senator" Mark Ensign pretending his former whore for hire was "blackmailing" him. Now we have dorky cracker *ssh*le Mark Sanford, soon-to-be-former Governor of South Carolina and libertarian loon disappearing for almost a week, then resurfacing in a huge pool of bullsh*t.

First his aides said they didn't know where the State's Chief Executive and Commander of the SC National Guard was. In time of war! Then they said they could contact him, but still didn't know where he was. Then they said he was, get this, HIKING on the Appalachian Trail! How stupid are Southrons, anyhoo, that the Guv's lackeys thought they'd believe that? Next, the wayward CEO resurfaced after his SUV was spotted at the Atlanta airport. He claimed, assininely, that he had been in A-R-G-E-N-T-I-N-A ! ! ! Licking Evita's bones, no doubt. Less than a full day later, the retard who was sued by his own Party for refusing Obama's stimulus funds says, naw, I was eatin' ch*cha! All righty, then! WHAT'S NEXT???!!!

The best part: Both conservative Republican Nevada Senator John Ensign AND conservative Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford called for Bill Clinton's resignation when he was caught cheating. Think they'll resign now that they've BOTH been caught cheating? These are the people you f**king IDIOT conservatards WORSHIP. If only you were smart enough to feel stupid! Could you please go crawl up your own conservative *sses and stay there? Thankee! Much obliged!

BWAWWAWAWAHAWHAWHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAHAHAWWAAAAA!!!!!


MCCLATCHY
"Sanford's only the latest GOP rising star to crash and burn"
Grand Old Pissants.

' A number of potential Republican presidential candidates recently have suffered missteps or other circumstances that threaten to shake up the race long before it formally begins. They range from the most politically lethal — public confession of extramarital affairs — to less serious setbacks, such as a botched speech just as the world was watching, or being tapped to serve in the Obama administration. Each of these incidents underscores the high stakes for a party searching eagerly for a new leader to fight back against the Democrats who control Congress and the White House . '

THE NEVADA APPEAL
"Group says Sen. Ensign violated ethics rules"
Mr. Family values used campaign contributions and/ or taxpayer money to pay his whore, aand her husband, and her child.

' A watchdog group alleged Wednesday that Sen. John Ensign violated the Senate's ethics rules by engaging in an affair with a campaign aide who was married to his administrative assistant, then terminating their employment. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also said Ensign, R-Nev., violated ethics and campaign finance rules by failing to report a severance payment to the woman as an in-kind contribution from his campaign or leadership political action committee. Ensign acknowledged last week that he had a consensual affair with a campaign staffer from December 2007 through August 2008. The group followed through Wednesday on an earlier announcement that it would be filing a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee. While Ensign stressed the word consensual in his disclosure, Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group, said the ethics committee needs to investigate whether sexual harassment had occurred. She said it's well established that sexual harassment is a form of discrimination that Senate rules don't allow. Sloan also said that payments to the couple involved, Doug and Cynthia Hampton, merited investigation. '

NBC NEWS: WMBF MYRTLE BEACH, SC
"Sanford: Met with mistress on taxpayer funded trip"
"No stimulus money for schools." The Governor needs the money for whores.

' Following Gov. Mark Sanford's tearful confession of cheating on his wife Wednesday, questions continue to surface as to whether Sanford's trips to Buenos Aires were taxpayer-funded. In a public confession among a pool of reporters and photographers at the statehouse, Sanford admitted to seeing the Argentine woman, known only as "Maria," three times over their yearlong affair. Kara Borie, spokeswoman for the South Carolina Department of Commerce, confirmed Thursday afternoon taxpayer money was used to fund a Brazil trade and investment mission in which Sanford was present for on June 21-28, 2008. "A number of the participants from the Brazil trade and investment mission, at the invitation and suggestion of Secretary Taylor and at their own personal expense, went to Cordoba, Argentina, following the Brazil mission to go bird hunting," Borie added. '

(cross-posted at CoffeeHouseStudio by cosanostradamus)

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SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR FOUND IN GAY LOVE NEST

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MARK SANFORD & NEWT GINGRICH SHACKED UP IN MIAMI BEACH



"AH JEST CAIN'T QUIT 'IM" THE GOVERNOR CRIES

Republicans Signal Shift From Straying Evangelicals To Disaffected GLBTs

After five days off the radar, or gaydar, 2012 Republican Presidential hopeful conservative South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has resurfaced in a leather bar in famously gay Miami Beach, Florida. He was on his way to a religious retreat in Waco, Texas when he stopped in the Columbia International Airport men's toilets, and the rest is history. Or herstory.

"Ah set down, jest tuh thank, an' Ah sawr this big ol' pair uh brown shoes in t'other stawull. One of 'em come toowards meh under the par-tition, and Ah just found myself a-wantin' tuh rub on up agin' it. Tarns out, it was Newt Gingrich! Ah tuk it as a sign. We both canceled our plans and flew straight, er, gay to Mah-ammah."

"After three days of passionate gay love-making, I finally realized, it wasn't women I hated: It was myself!" former Speaker of the House and Nancy Pelosi critic Gingrich stated. "I mean, I divorced a woman on her death-bed, but I went right on and married another woman, and hated her too! But it was ME!!! I hated who I was, and how I couldn't just be me. But that's all over. The games of footsie in remote public toilets are over. This is it."

Governor Sanford took executive action on a bar napkin under his authority as Governor of South Carolina and divorced himself today from his wife of seventeen years Myrtle Magnolia Beach-Sanford of the wealthy Beach clan of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Mssrs Sandford & Gingrich plan to fly to Massachusetts to be married tomorrow. "We realize that this is taking the Republican Party in a whole 'nother direction, especially since Rush Limbaugh will be our bridesmaid. But the Christian fundamentalist thing just hasn't been working for us, personally or politically. They're so judgmental. They think greed is a sin! We're hoping that our own immorality will mesh with the sodomites, and that we can retake the White House and Congress by an appeal to pagan family values. We're hip, now! Totally, like, kewl, man! I have an iPod! Our consultants say it'll work. Teh gaiis are THAT p*ssed at Obama! And hey, if we have to eat a little c**k..." "Hey!" Sanford ejaculated. "Or even a big one, so be it. It's worth it!" Gingrich concluded, kissing the bride to a round of applause from the South Beach crowd. The couple are registered at Bed, Bath & Dungeon.


GOOGLE NEWS
"SC governor's whereabouts unknown, even to wife"
Why should his wife know where he is?

' Where is South Carolina's governor? The lieutenant governor doesn't know, and neither does a state senator who's a close confidante. Even Gov. Mark Sanford's wife is in the dark. Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said he's been told the governor's staff is in contact with the second-term Republican, but Sanford's wife said she hasn't heard from him in several days, including Father's Day. "He was writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids," Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press while vacationing with the couple's four sons at their Sullivans Island beach house. She said she didn't know where he was, but wasn't concerned. Sanford, who's also chairman of the Republican Governors Association, earned a reputation as the nation's most vocal anti-bailout governor by refusing $700 million in federal stimulus money for schools until he lost a court battle earlier this month. His spokesman Joel Sawyer released a statement saying the governor was taking a break after losing the fight. '

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BUMPER STICKERS FOR CHRIST

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AND OTHER NAZI HEROES

WILL NOT FIT ON HYBRIDS:
PERFECT FOR HUMMERS

("What would Jesus shoot?")

From The Bumper-Sticker Minds Of Conservatives

The New Bible is scrawled on bashed-in automobile fenders and pasted in the cracked back windows of pick-up trucks. The morons who pilot these message-driven VEE-hicles don't have time for whole sentences. Grunts suffice. A whole book, even a Good Book is just too much for our Jesus-freaks these days. They have Jesus coloring books, Christ cartoons, divine video games, Xtian DVDs, even Christian rock, for those who prefer to whistle the liturgy.

The real reason they've strayed so far from the New Testament is that they'd really rather be living in the Old Testament. That's where all the intra-familial begettin' & beheadin' is at. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, waterboard for no reason at all. Good old religious torture porn by the chapter and verse. But it's damned, I mean, derned hard goin' for the home-skewld. That's why we've produced these handy bumper stickers that express the true religious feelings of the average red-State redneck. You know, the assholes who put the fundament in fundamentalist?

You're welcome, yawl. Lick 'em before ya stick 'em. That'll he'p yer marriages, too.


Double-click to enlarge, then right-click to download. Hi-rez versions available by request:

("Pregnancy termination is murder, war is just good fun.")

("Let's execute somebody. Anybody.")

("Baby-killer killer on board")

("Jesus loves me, you he hates")

("Defend traditional marriage: Bring a cow as a dowry")

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LET'S LOCK UP THE RIGHT WING

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IT'S TIME TO USE THEIR BAD LAWS AGAINST THEM

RUSH LIMBAUGH, NEWT GINGRICH, PAT ROBERTSON ALL BELONG IN GITMO

Fire Up The Patriot Acts, The RICO Act, And The New Hate Crimes Law Before More Innocent People Are Killed

It would only be justice, poetic justice, if the conservatives were hoist on their own "law & order" petard. They never imagined that laws designed to suppress legitimate dissent, circumvent Constitutional protections of the liberty and property of the accused, and make life easier for the thugs in government could ever be used against them. But they can and they should be used right now and for many years to come to bust up the right-wing redneck & corporate conspiracy to overthrow our democratic government and tear up our freedom-loving Constitution, BEFORE they manage to do that. We'll give them plenty of time to appeal, if conservative judges don't find their pleadings frivolous. But they can sit in safe, helpless silence in Guantanamo while they wait for judgment, just like some of their victims.

Here's the conversation I had recently with Chris Edelson of The Seminal.com, on the subject of "What is the best way to respond to the murder of Dr. George Tiller?"

[CHRIS EDELSON]:

' As I have written, I have been trying to figure out what the best way is to respond to the murder of Dr. George Tiller. I continue to be amazed by the rhetoric of the extreme anti-abortion side (which has managed to appear mainstream, thanks in large part to support from the Republican party). One commenter in this blog claims that Dr. Tiller’s murder was a completely justified “execution”, just punishment for the killings he supposedly committed. I think there are a number of things that are necessary–starting with some long overdue leadership from Republicans who need to stop legitimizing extremism by making clear that it is dangerous and over the line to equate abortion with murder (the Republican party platform suggests that abortion is murder). I’d also like to hear from women who have had abortions so we can get past the caricatured notion that women casually decide to terminate pregnancies. I’m curious to know what others think–please vote in the poll on the side of this page, and leave your comments here: what’s the best way to respond to this despicable act, and how do we take action to prevent more doctors and health care providers from being killed? '

I think we’ve just been way too damned tolerant of intolerance. Other countries have laws that address this sort of terrorism-enabling & inspiring. In fact, we do too: Haven’t Americans who merely send money to charities connected to political organizations in the Middle East been arrested and charged with terrorism? How are these radical anti-choice groups any different? Or the churches and political Parties that support them?

Either we have absolute freedom of speech, or we apply the legal strictures of the same laws in the same way to everyone. Anyone who commits or threatens to commit violence or aggravated harassment of women and their doctors, gays and their children, immigrants, minorities, the disabled or any other real or perceived group should be arrested, charged, tried, convicted, sentenced and imprisoned for a very long time: Life, in the worst cases. Those who support them financially or politically should be treated the same way we treat supporters of Hamas, including national religious leaders and elected officials.

The new hate crimes legislation should be used along with anti-terror laws to round up the worst elements of this “pro-life” mafia, and to put the rest of them on notice. Media outlets that disseminate their violence-inspiring filth should be fined or de-licensed. There really needs to be a very tough crackdown. Every element of our arts & media, our academic and religious organizations, our legal and political establishment, labor and business associations should be called upon to condemn the hate and the terror, and to demand swift justice in every case. It has to be established as an invariable principle: Promoting violence is against the law and will be prosecuted and punished severely in every case. No more tolerance for intolerance.

[CHRIS EDELSON]:

' Thanks for the comment–I think this is very much worth thinking about. I am a staunch free speech advocate and will defend anyone’s peaceful speech, but speech protections are mot absolute, as Justice Holmes made clear nearly a 100 years ago with his famous “you can’t shout fire in a crowded theater” example. It is not ok to use speech to incite imminent violence or unlawful action, as the Supreme Court ruled in the 1969 Brandenburg case that sets the standard. I don’t think legal action is the only way to respond though–it is still lawful for someone to say, in the abstract, that abortion is murder. So the solution here requires something beyond legal action. That’s why I think it is very important for supposedly responsible leaders to condemn this type of speech. Justice Holmes noted that the best response to free speech you disagree with is counterspeech. In this case, I think responsible Republican elected officials, if they truly are responsible people, have a duty to disclaim the incendiary rhetoric from their party platform and to make clear that it is over the line to say abortion is murder and to call doctors who perform abortions mass murderers. There is a way to change the way the abortion debate plays out, and the Republican party has a responsibility to speak out, given the fact that it has helped mainstream the radical anti-abortion movement. '

Agreed. That’s what I meant, in part, when I said that I thought all segments of society should condemn this. I do not, however, expect many Republicans/ conservatives/ fundamentalists to join in. They’re too busy using deliberately inflammatory language and outrageous actions for their own political purposes. That’s why I think the best example would be set by arresting them.

I don’t like the trend in the law toward less rights and more government power. But the RICO Act, the Patriot Acts and this new Hate Crime law could be used to bust up what is by any definition a highly organized if ostensibly diffuse conspiracy designed to generate fear and violence toward their political enemies. From George W. Bush to Eric Rudolph, from Pat Robertson to Scott Roeder, from Rush Limbaugh to Michael Griffin there are links in a chain that has purposely been created, a “movement,” they call it. The Justice Department and Homeland Security should be going after this “movement” with all the vigor and force of law they usually reserve for “leftist” conspirators.

Even if they fail to convict everyone in the chain, they could bust it up, and put the real fear of God in the irresponsible and cynical movement leaders. I’d love to see Dick Cheney or Sean Hannity sitting in the same dock that once held Abbie Hoffman or Daniel Berrigan. The government had no compunction about prosecuting and harassing a movement and a perceived leadership they happened to disagree with, if only because it was in opposition to that government. Let’s see Obama do the same to these actual murderers and their co-conspirators.

As to the civil liberties issues, they will win out in the end, as they should. But, in the meantime, every one of these reprehensible rabble-rousers could be put on notice, have their lives disrupted, and maybe spend some time in the pokey for their intentionally inspirational words and deeds. Fighting words, shouting fire in a crowded theater, obscenity, calling for violence against the government, verbal harassment and terroristic threatening are all already illegal. Let’s see some pre-emptive prosecutions of the Right, for a change, for the lesser crimes they commit every day, before more innocent people die in lawful pursuit of their own rights.
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WHORING HEALTH CARE

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CORPORATE PIMPS ABOUT TO SCORE BIG

YOUTUBE: HBO: REAL TIME
"New Rules with Bill Maher, Ronald Reagan and Greed are NOT Good 5/29/2009"
Cousin Bill gives 'em Hell.


WHY NOTHING GOOD WILL COME OF OBAMA'S HEALTH PLANS

The Whole Political System Is Rotten, And Must Be Reformed In Order To Get Anything Done

When I was involved in real estate in New Jersey back in the 1980's, I met quite a few doctors who were investors in property. They didn't spend much time with patients. They were hustlers, not healers. They built professional suites and office condo's, labs and hospitals, clinics and medical centers, and managed and staffed them with healers, many of them junior hustlers, all working to enrich themselves, not the lives of their patients. This was the new corporate America, soon to be ruled by the CEO's of giant multi-national conglomerates and their lawyers, accountants, MBA's and "creative" financiers. Everything became about money, nothing had any value except in terms of money, not even peoples' lives. If you couldn't put a price on something, then it had no value. These people would do anything for money, and everything was valued solely in terms of money. It was the beginning of the pimping of America. It just seemed the most shocking in medicine, which used to be a humanitarian calling, not a giant whorehouse.

Here we are almost thirty years later, and the prostitution of America is almost complete. The government is now entirely under the control of the corporate pimps. They are about to finish corporatizing medicine with the help of their whores in government. Our very lives will be in their hands on a daily basis, and huge amounts of our money will be directed to the profiteering corp's by Federal law. Quality, accessibility and cost will all get worse, and there will be no effective oversight. We will have no say in how our money is spent. The pimps will rule. Universal single-payer national health care is "off the table." Only private profiteering remains.

As long as private profit is the primary motivating factor in our health care system, there can be no reform. Until public health and making good quality care accessible to all are the dominant motivating factors, the system is never going to work, except as a cash machine for the rich and the corporations they hide behind. It's the basic outlook, the underlying philosophy, the political economics of the thing that are wrong, and nothing will change until those things change.

It has already been demonstrated on a daily basis over many decades that the so-called free market cannot or will not provide good quality healthcare for all. I'm sure that major healthco's all have a chart or a graph showing exactly where the lines are: Those above a certain income level, "A," can afford the best coverage and provide the most profit, if the smallest volume of business. Those below that down to the next lower level, "B," can afford some coverage, at less profit but higher volume. At the very bottom level, "C," the government picks up the tab, but only up to certain income or age levels; but it can be finagled and boondoogled and shortchanged as long as there are no major audits or crackdowns, so it can be very profitable.

All those who fall into the gray area, "D," between B and C simply are not a source of profit to the healthco's, and will not be served. That's where the breakdown really occurs: Those tens of millions of people get sick but don't get treatment. They slow down or drop out at work, and make other people sick around them. They go to emergency rooms at the few remaining public hospitals as a last resort and receive the least effective care at the highest price, which they frequently fail to pay. The taxpayer ends up paying for himself as well as for the poor, the elderly, and the uninsured. Since our tax system has become more regressive, those who earn the most and can afford the best healthcare are the only ones really benefiting from this system, along with the healthco's. In effect, we have a national healthcare plan now, funded by the taxpayers. It just doesn't work for anyone, except the rich and the healthco's.

So it's us, the underserved, over-taxed and overcharged majority, against them, the inefficient, overfed, undertaxed minority. Politically, it would seem to be a no-brainer, if this were actually a democracy. But, as the Courts have accurately noted, corporations are people, in fact a higher class of people, and money is speech, the corporations' speech. So the minority has outvoted the majority consistently for many years and we do not have a healthcare system that benefits everyone today, as a result. Nor are we ever likely to, until we get corporate money out of the system.

That isn't going to happen until we get the corporate whores out of our government and our political Parties. Anybody who thinks that our mean old corporate Daddies are going to let us have just this ONE big lollipop, real universal single-payer national healthcare, or anything like it, is crazy. The corp's have no reason to give in. They own the whole system. Until we change that, there will be no substantive positive change in any area.

What we are really just about to initiate here is the biggest government boondoggle since the permanent war began in 1941. The same kind of Treasury-milking blank check that "defense" has gotten for almost seventy years will now go to the big healthco's. The result will not be free or affordable quality healthcare for all, but some scheme that commits us all to everlastingly ensure the profits of the healthco's by requiring us all to become their customers and pay whatever they require, directly to them and/ or indirectly through the government. There will be no efficiencies enforced or economies of scale, any more than there have been in the defense industry. The "public-private" model will only mean public moneys going for private profits, with questionable benefit for the taxpaying healthcare consumer.

Without universal single-payer national health care, there will be the opposite of reform. But it doesn't matter right now if single-payer or any other idea is on the table or not: As long as mixed-market democratic socialism is off the political table in this country, and as long as corporate money is on that same table, there will never ever be any real reform.

We're going to lose this. And that's a good thing. It will serve as a rallying point to re-take and restructure our political Parties and our political system. It will clearly identify those who are with us, the progressive majority of the American people, and those who are corporate whores. If our political system cannot do the job for us, then it will have to be changed. That will take time, and it will require a lot of effort by a lot of people. But if all those who are now working so hard to patch and prop up an unworkable system turn their attentions to remaking the system itself, there is a vast number of Americans who will be right behind them. This is a fight we CAN win. It is a fight we MUST win.


THE SEMINAL: JASON ROSENBAUM
"The Public Option and Real Health Reform"
From your lips to Big Healthco's ears, Bubbie!

' If we don’t get health care costs down, health reform will not work. People will still go bankrupt, we will still ration care based on ability to pay, and we will still have a health care crisis. And when you get down to it, health care costs are about how much and what medicine your doctor orders for you. Conservatives will accuse those in favor of health reform of taking the easiest way out, in a sense. Health care costs are up? Ok, let’s ration care and drive those costs down. But that’s not what we’re proposing. And, as Gawande so eloquently points out, driving down health care costs and increasing the quality of that care actually can be one and the same. So that’s some pretty good news. One thing about this article leaves me puzzled, though. Gawande seems to set up a conflict between advocacy for a public health insurance option and what he apparently considers “real” health care reform, which is setting up incentives for doctors to provide better care, not just more care. Maybe he’s just reacting to the media coverage around health care reform, which has been largely centered around a public health insurance option. And maybe I’m biased, seeing as I’ve been working to shape that media battle. But I really don’t think it’s either/or. Actually, I think Gawande’s point makes the public health insurance option more critical. I agree with Gawande that we could end up with a public health insurance option that doesn’t foster the right incentives to control costs, and that wouldn’t be a big victory. But while Gawande is proposing some kind of outside board to control these incentives, I wonder if the public health insurance option isn’t the place where these reforms are put into action. '

THE NEW YORKER: ATUL GAWANDE
"The Cost Conundrum"
"Medicine has become a pig trough." And troughs attract pigs, not doctors; businessmen, not healers; profiteers, not care-givers.

' McAllen has another distinction, too: it is one of the most expensive health-care markets in the country. Only Miami—which has much higher labor and living costs—spends more per person on health care. In 2006, Medicare spent fifteen thousand dollars per enrollee here, almost twice the national average. The income per capita is twelve thousand dollars. In other words, Medicare spends three thousand dollars more per person here than the average person earns. The explosive trend in American medical costs seems to have occurred here in an especially intense form. Our country’s health care is by far the most expensive in the world. In Washington, the aim of health-care reform is not just to extend medical coverage to everybody but also to bring costs under control. Spending on doctors, hospitals, drugs, and the like now consumes more than one of every six dollars we earn. The financial burden has damaged the global competitiveness of American businesses and bankrupted millions of families, even those with insurance. It’s also devouring our government. “The greatest threat to America’s fiscal health is not Social Security,” President Barack Obama said in a March speech at the White House. “It’s not the investments that we’ve made to rescue our economy during this crisis. By a wide margin, the biggest threat to our nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health care. It’s not even close.” ... “Come on,” the general surgeon finally said. “We all know these arguments are bullshit. There is overutilization here, pure and simple.” Doctors, he said, were racking up charges with extra tests, services, and procedures. The surgeon came to McAllen in the mid-nineties, and since then, he said, “the way to practice medicine has changed completely. Before, it was about how to do a good job. Now it is about ‘How much will you benefit?’ ” ... The first hospital I visited, McAllen Heart Hospital, is owned by Universal Health Services, a for-profit hospital chain with headquarters in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and revenues of five billion dollars last year. I went to see the hospital’s chief operating officer, Gilda Romero. ... She wasn’t the only person to mention Renaissance. It is the newest hospital in the area. It is physician-owned. And it has a reputation (which it disclaims) for aggressively recruiting high-volume physicians to become investors and send patients there. Physicians who do so receive not only their fee for whatever service they provide but also a percentage of the hospital’s profits from the tests, surgery, or other care patients are given. (In 2007, its profits totalled thirty-four million dollars.) Romero and others argued that this gives physicians an unholy temptation to overorder. ... But they really didn’t know the big picture of what was happening. And, I realized, few people in their position do. Local executives for hospitals and clinics and home-health agencies understand their growth rate and their market share; they know whether they are losing money or making money. They know that if their doctors bring in enough business—surgery, imaging, home-nursing referrals—they make money; and if they get the doctors to bring in more, they make more. But they have only the vaguest notion of whether the doctors are making their communities as healthy as they can, or whether they are more or less efficient than their counterparts elsewhere. A doctor sees a patient in clinic, and has her check into a McAllen hospital for a CT scan, an ultrasound, three rounds of blood tests, another ultrasound, and then surgery to have her gallbladder removed. How is Lawrence Gelman or Gilda Romero to know whether all that is essential, let alone the best possible treatment for the patient? It isn’t what they are responsible or accountable for. ... There was no sign, however, that McAllen’s doctors as a group were trained any differently from El Paso’s. One morning, I met with a hospital administrator who had extensive experience managing for-profit hospitals along the border. He offered a different possible explanation: the culture of money. “In El Paso, if you took a random doctor and looked at his tax returns eighty-five per cent of his income would come from the usual practice of medicine,” he said. But in McAllen, the administrator thought, that percentage would be a lot less. He knew of doctors who owned strip malls, orange groves, apartment complexes—or imaging centers, surgery centers, or another part of the hospital they directed patients to. They had “entrepreneurial spirit,” he said. They were innovative and aggressive in finding ways to increase revenues from patient care. “There’s no lack of work ethic,” he said. But he had often seen financial considerations drive the decisions doctors made for patients—the tests they ordered, the doctors and hospitals they recommended—and it bothered him. Several doctors who were unhappy about the direction medicine had taken in McAllen told me the same thing. “It’s a machine, my friend,” one surgeon explained. ... About fifteen years ago, it seems, something began to change in McAllen. A few leaders of local institutions took profit growth to be a legitimate ethic in the practice of medicine. Not all the doctors accepted this. But they failed to discourage those who did. So here, along the banks of the Rio Grande, in the Square Dance Capital of the World, a medical community came to treat patients the way subprime-mortgage lenders treated home buyers: as profit centers. ... When you look across the spectrum from Grand Junction to McAllen—and the almost threefold difference in the costs of care—you come to realize that we are witnessing a battle for the soul of American medicine. Somewhere in the United States at this moment, a patient with chest pain, or a tumor, or a cough is seeing a doctor. And the damning question we have to ask is whether the doctor is set up to meet the needs of the patient, first and foremost, or to maximize revenue. There is no insurance system that will make the two aims match perfectly. But having a system that does so much to misalign them has proved disastrous. As economists have often pointed out, we pay doctors for quantity, not quality. As they point out less often, we also pay them as individuals, rather than as members of a team working together for their patients. Both practices have made for serious problems. ... The lesson of the high-quality, low-cost communities is that someone has to be accountable for the totality of care. Otherwise, you get a system that has no brakes. You get McAllen. ... "Medicine has become a pig trough here,” he muttered. Dyke is among the few vocal critics of what’s happened in McAllen. “We took a wrong turn when doctors stopped being doctors and became businessmen,” he said. '

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POPE RON-PAUL ENCYCLICAL

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PAULTARDS CELEBRATE MASS IN FED SQUARE

FOR ONCE, LIBERTARIAN (RECOVERING OR CLOSET-REPUBLICAN) PONTIFF IS RIGHT!
MONKEYS CAN TYPE SHAKESPEARE! GIVEN ENOUGH TIME...

Texas Congressman Proposes Audit Of The Federal Reserve: No Papal Bull!

Very old populist hooey, this anti-bank stuff. Pre-dates Jackson. Andrew, not Jesse.

Does Pope Ron-Paul use ATMs? Receive a paycheck? Live in a home that was ever mortgaged? Then he's part of the Federal Reserve System, too. We all are.

We need a banking system. It should not be entirely private, for reasons that ought to be obvious after the last twelve months: Government oversight is not enough, we must have control of our finances. But direct control by politicians on a day-to-day basis is not a good idea, either, as it would subject our personal and business finances to political vendettas and electoral politics. I'm sure most of these anti-bank "libertarians" (closet Republicans & recovering Republicans) would be against THAT.

Having said this, anything that cannot be explained is, by definition, inexplicable, or as Webster would have it, "incapable of being explained, interpreted, or accounted for [an inexplicable disappearance]." Unaccountability seems like the opposite of what you want in a bank.

If it can't be explained, it's probably something somebody doesn't WANT you to know, like whose buddy got what favor to cover whose ass, and why. That ain't banking. That's insider politics and crony capitalism at its' worst. It's our money, and our government, including the Fed. The system works, yeah, but for whose primary benefit? It should be the depositors and the taxpayers, not the bankers and their shareholders, first. A little light on the subject would be a good disinfectant, in case there's any stench of corruption on up in there.

The problem with our system today, and not just the Fed, is that it relies almost exclusively on "conservative" corporatist industry expertise. Our government is full of Wall Street types, defense contractors, agribusiness shills, etc. Is it any wonder that our government's policies are so violently pro-business and anti-worker, anti-consumer, anti-shareholder? Duh. Chickens, meet foxes. They'll be managing your house.

The biggest disappointment, so far, with Obama has been his continuation of this. He could have selected experts from the labor movement or academia, dissenting voices from non-corporate think-tanks and NGOs. There are many with government and industry experience who are not outright whores for the corporations. But he chose the whores, in part because they have more gov't experience. But if the government NEVER listens to or hires non-corporate advocates, then they will NEVER have government experience.

This was a chance to reverse that pernicious trend, and the Dems blew it. This is why people say there is no difference between the two Parties, and why nuts like Paul come into being. But for once, I agree with him: Audit the suckers on a regular basis. And that includes the Treasury, FNMC, FHLMC, the SEC and all the rest of them. Let's just see who's minding the store, and how, and for whom.

Great post, Captain! Read the whole thing, folks!


HUMAN VOICES
"Show me the money"
Thanks to Capt. Fogg for this:

' Sometimes I think Ron Paul's ideas may be too simplistic. This isn't one of them. In a Forbes editorial last week, Congressman Paul called for an audit of the Federal Reserve Bank. Paul of course, doesn't buy the idea that the Fed is necessary to keep inflation low and to promote growth. Truth be told, I've been of the opinion that it has played a part in all but eliminating the 10 - 15 year cycle of boom, panic and collapse that has plagued our economy since the Washington administration. Maybe it has but maybe, as the Congressman claims, it's been the cause of inflation and a drag on growth. Maybe there's a better way and I'm the first to admit I don't know. '

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SAVE TRADITIONAL OREOS

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THE INSTITUTION OF COOKIES IS THREATENED BY GAY OREOS

Gay Oreo Sex

A HINT OF MINT, THE VULGAR "DOUBLE-STUFF," AND GOD HELP US, EVEN CHOCOLATE OREOS!

Molester Oreo

Protect Our Children From These Lifestyle Choices: Even The Slightest Change Could Cause All Cookies To Crumble!

Fellow Christians and cookie worshippers, I have a sad tale to tell you. Perhaps you already know it: Our streets and our supermarkets have been overrun by purveyors of the homosexual snack agenda. That's right, brothers and sisters, the gays are in the aisles we once cherished, turning frozen pizza into panini, substituting arugula for iceberg, and warping our society's delicatessen values to conform to standards that can only be called "French" [shudder]. Where once there was good old American liverwurst, there is now only pâté . Instead of macaroni salad, sexually ambiguous "deli-istas" are purveying hummus. Could they BE any more obvious? Isn't "Hummus" just French for "homos"? Why else would they suddenly start wear prophylactic gloves just to serve up slaw and Swiss cheese? Can I get an "AMEN!!!," people?

B&D Oreos

Praise Jesus, the Republican Party is on top of this, brothers and sisters. The matter of the gay Oreos has been taken up by the Party Chairman himself, Michael Steele. Even though he is at least in part an Afro mulatto black mocha negro African-American colored person of some sort, Chairman Steele is personally offended by the gay Oreos and has pledged the full resources of the GOP, which means those of the entire global corporate world, to defending traditional Oreos. The Defend Intact Traditional Oreos Act is just baby steps away from becoming law, if the deeply perverted mint-Oreo sucking Demoqueers don't stop it. Throw your teabags out the window and shout, "I'm straight as Hell, and I'm not gonna take it up the wazoo!" [Open the window, first.] OUR CHILDREN WILL DIE GODLESS HOMOS IF YOU DON'T!!!!

S&M Oreos

What can you do? Well, it seems like these days a white Christian traditional-Oreo-loving conservative man or woman's vote just doesn't mean a thing. Thank God we managed to preserve the Second Amendment. We are recommending that every true American, by which we mean straight white Christians, download the attached Gun Stamps to purchase discounted firearms for the coming apocalypse, or, as we are rebranding it, Krystal Night, in honor of DITO spokesperson Krystal-Honey Von Nudenbacher, Miss Utah in the Miss Christian Hooters beauticians-college scholarship pageant, who was recently denied her Tenth Amendment right to secede from the union by gay homosexual bloggers only because she has accepted Jesus Christ as her personal savior. She also needs a little help with the drug charges.

Gun Stamps

Fellow white Christian heterosexuals, we know you will do your part as a church-going member of the NRA. Contact your local militia leader in the bar at the VFW, and sign on to our heavily armed crusade to Defend Intact Traditional Oreos, or DITOS. If you can contribute one hundred thousand dollars or more, you will achieve instant Junior DITO-head status, and qualify for preferred seating at the Rapture. You and your loved ones will be guaranteed a place in an all white Christian heterosexual American section of Heaven, in a shining city high on a hill where you can see the Russians, the Democrats and the Homos in Hell.

But wait! There's MORE!! If you act now, you will receive absolutely free of charge a one year subsription to GOP Chairman Steele's personal newsletter, "Traditional Oreo Journal." Operators are standing by, somewhere in Bangladesh.
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SWIFTBOATING NATIONAL HEALTH CARE

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CROOKED REPUBLICAN MILLIONAIRE LAWYER USES OWN MONEY, STOLEN FROM YOU, TO KEEP YOU FROM GETTING HEALTH CARE

NEW MEDIA FIRM
"Health Care For America Now Ad: Rick Scott"
What a DIRT BAG!


DISGRACED HEALTHCO CEO WANTS TO KEEP HIS HANDS IN YOUR POCKETS - FOREVER

His Television Commercials Start The Lies Rolling, Trying To Scare "Harry & Louise" With "Foreign Socialism" And "Government Rationing"

The funny thing is, this scumbag made all the money for these lying horsesh*t ads by rationing health care himself. Companies like his make money by milking the healthy people and killing the sick ones by denying treatment. They routinely deny patients coverage and refuse to cover millions who are too poor to pay their outrageous premiums, but not poor enough for Medicare. As a result, thousands of hard-working Americans die every year due to lack of medical care. All because some greedy rich people and the corporations they hide behind want to keep getting richer and richer and richer, no matter who it hurts.

This is the kind of person that gets a seat at the table in deciding whether we get universal single-payer national health care or some taxpayer-funded corporate healthco boondoggle. This is the sort of corporatist greed-head that now surrounds the President, and pulls the strings of Congress. This is the type of thief and liar we want kept out of the decision-making process.

The healthco's have come forward with a pathetic little proposal that might -might- save a family of five up to -up to- five hundred dollars a year -a year, not a month- after five years -five years. That will only happen if all the healthco's agree on streamlined paperwork, and then implement a whole new system. So, the healthco's big offer is, maybe we can save some chump change if you let us keep ripping you off for trillions of dollars.

Obama seems to be going for it, even though it won't make a dent in the price of his health care plan, which aims to keep feeding the rich by milking the middle classes. Instead of providing government health coverage, or requiring employer health coverage, Obama is going to require you to buy your own private health coverage, just like you are required to buy no-fault car insurance now. How's THAT workin' out for ya? Or are you one of the up to 50% of American drivers who can't afford any car insurance? Or maybe you're one of their victims, still paying extra out of your own pocket.

OK, America, it's time to put a stop to this. Sign the petition below and then click on the links provided to write Obama and your representatives in Congress. If you don't, you or your loved ones may die some day for lack of medical care in the richest country in the history of the world, the one you helped build but got shut out of by these corporations. Do it now. This is happening right now, and you can have an impact if you speak out against it.


SIGN THE PETITION FOR UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER NATIONAL HEALTH CARE IN 2009

LINKS TO EMAIL THE WHITE HOUSE & CONGRESS

THE WASHINGTON POST
"Ex-Hospital CEO Battles Reform Effort"
Money is speech. Thank you, US Supreme Court!

' The television ads that began airing last week feature horror stories from Canada and the United Kingdom: Patients who allegedly suffered long waits for surgeries, couldn't get the drugs they needed, or had to come to the United States for treatment. The effort has alarmed many Democrats and liberal health-care advocates, who are pushing back with attacks highlighting Scott's ouster as head of the Columbia/HCA health-care company amid a fraud investigation in the 1990s. The firm eventually pleaded guilty to charges that it overbilled state and federal health plans, paying a record $1.7 billion in fines. In an ad broadcast in the Washington area and in Scott's home town of Naples, Fla., last week, a group called Health Care for America Now says of Scott: "He and his insurance-company friends make millions from the broken system we have now." The group's national campaign manager, Richard Kirsch, said: "Those attacking reform are really looking to protect their own profits, and he's a perfect messenger for that. His history of making a fortune by destroying quality in the health-care system and ripping off the government is a great example of what's really going on." One senior Democratic staffer involved in the health-care debate said the arguments by Luntz, Scott and others are "distractions" that rely on distortions of the actual debate taking place in the House and Senate. Reform advocates note that many of the problems highlighted by Scott, such as long waits and shoddy care, are already major problems in the United States under the private insurance system. '

YAHOO NEWS
"3 options mulled for gov't health plan"
The more public, the more people covered. The more private, the less people covered.

' The three approaches being discussed are: _Create a plan that resembles Medicare, administered by the Health and Human Services department. _Adopt a Medicare-like plan, but pick an outside party to run it. That way government officials would not directly control the day-to-day operations. _Leave it up to individual states to set up a public insurance plan for their residents. But many key details would still have to be fleshed out. Among them is whether the public plan would be open to everyone, or be limited to small businesses and individuals purchasing coverage on their own. Senators on the Finance Committee will consider the proposals during a closed-door session scheduled for late next week. Committee leaders want to bring a bill to the Senate floor this summer. It's unclear whether a public plan in any form will emerge from Congress. If the public plan were open to all employers and individuals — and if it paid doctors and hospitals the same as Medicare — it would quickly grow to 131 million members, while enrollment in private insurance plans would plummet, the study found. By paying Medicare rates the government plan would be able to set premiums well below what private plans charge. Employers and individuals would rush to sign up. But the results would be far different if the government plan was limited to small employers, individuals and the self-employed. In that smaller-scale scenario, the public plan would get from 17 million to 43 million members, the study said. It found that a government plan could be effective in reducing number of uninsured. '

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"Republicans and the 'Public Option' "
Even the piggies admit that universal single-payer national health can can work, and is inevitable.

' This new entitlement -- like Medicare but open to all ages and all incomes -- would quickly crowd out private insurance as people gravitated to heavily subsidized policies, eventually leading to a single-payer system. So Democrats are trying to seduce diffident Republicans with a Potemkin compromise. A "soft" public option would limit enrollment only to the uninsured or those employed by small businesses, or include promises that the plan will pay market rates. As recently proposed by Chuck Schumer, it would pay claims entirely with premiums and co-pays. But if the plan can't force down reimbursement rates through brute force, and doesn't get taxpayer dollars, why bother to "compete" with private plans? Medicaid was intended as a last resort for the poor but now covers one-third of all long-term care expenses in the U.S. -- that is, it has become a middle-class subsidy for aging parents of the Baby Boomers. Schip was pitched a decade ago as a safety net for poor kids, and some Republicans helped sell it as a free-market reform. But Schip is now open to families that earn up to 300% of the poverty level, or $63,081 for a family of four. In New York, you can qualify at 400% of poverty. Any new federal health plan will inevitably follow the same trajectory, no matter how much Republican Senators might claim they've guaranteed otherwise. The Lewin Group consultants estimate that 119 million people who now have private insurance could potentially be captured by the government under the Obama public option. This is on top of the 90 million already in Medicare or Medicaid. '

ARIZONA DAILY STAR
"A single-payer plan would take greed out of the health-care business"
Here's why we can't continue to feed the healthco's.

' All profit immensely from the present system, which has ratcheted up costs to the point where the United States now spends twice as much on health care as other industrialized countries — $7,129 for every man, woman and child. While the other advanced nations provide excellent medical coverage for all of their citizens, our nation falls shamefully short. More than 47 million Americans — including 9 million children — have no health-care insurance. The two major reasons for this gaping disparity between consumer spending and actual services are the inefficiencies inherent in a system that involves thousands of delivery agents and, sadly, outright greed. The vast private insurance bureaucracy and the forests of paperwork they produce vociferously consume 31 cents of every health-care dollar consumers shell out, according to the advocacy group Physicians for a National Health Program. Funneling that money into a single system run by the federal government would save more than $350 billion per year — more than enough to provide comprehensive health care of the highest quality for all Americans. Some experts believe that the savings from eliminating the pervasive greed in the current system might double that amount although they acknowledge there's no way to calculate that. Ironically, it appears that President Obama and congressional health-care leader Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., may be about to give the insurers the type of reform they have spent millions of dollars lobbying for — despite their posturing as champions of rational change. The proposal by America's Health Insurance Plans would mandate that the federal government force everyone to purchase private health insurance. All Americans would be covered under this scheme, but the feds would step in and subsidize those with health risks that are extremely costly to treat. The idea is to continue to let private health insurers reap obscene profits and continue to make large campaign contributions to compliant candidates. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Health care cost cuts could kick-start reform"
Here's who's bought a seat at the table. And they're trying to stop us from getting "cost-effective" health care, i.e., medicine that works and doesn't kill us, financially.

' Hospitals, insurance companies, drug makers and doctors planned to tell Obama on Monday they'll voluntarily slow their rate increases in coming years in a move that government economists say would create breathing room to help provide health insurance to an estimated 50 million Americans who now go without it. Although the offer from the industry groups doesn't resolve thorny details of a new health care system, it does offer the prospect of freeing a large chunk of money to help pay for coverage. And it puts the private-sector groups in a good position to influence the bill Congress is writing. The industry groups are trying to get on the administration bandwagon for expanded coverage now in the hope they can steer Congress away from legislation that would restrict their profitability in future years. Insurers, for example, want to avoid the creation of a government health plan that would directly compete with them to enroll middle-class workers and their families. Drug makers worry that in the future, new medications might have to pass a cost-benefit test before they can win approval. And hospitals and doctors are concerned the government could dictate what they get paid to care for any patient, not only the elderly and the poor. Obama has courted industry and provider groups, inviting their representatives to the White House. There's a sense among some of the groups that now may be the best time to act before public opinion, fueled by anger over costs, turns against them. '

NY DAILY NEWS
"President Obama to receive $2 trillion health care reform proposal"
Wow! $40 in health care savings a month! And maybe $200 a month in the very distant future! MAYBE!! That only leaves a couple thousand dollars a month to spend for the average family's health care! WHAT A F**KIN' DEAL!!!

' Medical and insurance trade groups and unions will present President Obama with a plan Monday to save families $500 a year in health care costs initially and at least $2,500 annually after five years through mostly administrative changes, senior aides say. Aides are revealing few details, but hint some savings would come from insurers adopting unifclaim forms and other documents. Annual savings to families would grow from $500 to $2,500 within five years as the plan is phased in, aides said. Among the participants at the meeting with Obama will be the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Service Employees International Union, Greater New York Hospital Association and California Hospital Association. '

SIGN THE PETITION FOR UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER NATIONAL HEALTH CARE IN 2009

HEALTHCARE NOW
"I Support HR 676"
Please take two minutes right now. Thanks.

' Whereas: We spend over $2.3 trillion, or $7,500 per capita, for healthcare in the US, yet 42 percent of people under 65 have inadequate or no insurance coverage;

Whereas: The healthcare coverage in the United States is ranked #37 in the world by the World Health Organization and yet we spend almost twice as much as any other country, enough to cover everybody with excellent comprehensive healthcare;

Whereas: A bill has been proposed in Congress, HR-676, non-profit Medicare for All, that outlines a national healthcare program that will provide guaranteed, comprehensive, and affordable quality healthcare and prescription drugs to everyone in the country;

Whereas: Over 59 percent of physicians now support a national, single-payer health insurance system for everyone;

Whereas: HR 676 has been endorsed by 463 union organizations in 49 states including 116 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 39 state AFL-CIO’s;

Whereas: Under this proposed plan, we can pay for a comprehensive national health care program with the same money we are now spending by removing insurance companies — and cover every single person in the United States;

And Whereas: The bill provides money for retraining and giving priority to those whose jobs as administrators in the insurance industry would be lost as a result of this shift;

Be it Resolved That: We call on our members of Congress to pass HR 676, non-profit Medicare for All, so our people and our nation can have the excellent healthcare system we deserve. Healthcare is a human right, and we call on our members of Congress to recognize that right. '

click here to sign

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THAI ONE ON

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DEMOCRACY TAKES TO THE STREETS IN BANGKOK & NEW YORK



THAI VOTERS UNHAPPY WITH POLITICAL GAMES BRING NATION TO HALT;
AMERICAN FAUX-POPULISTS STAGE CORPORATE-SPONSORED "TEA PARTIES" TO AVOID PAYING TAXES

YOUTUBE
"City Hall Tea Party Protest (NYC) 15"
Laid-off stockbrokers at lunchtime?



International Conference Called Off Due To Street Demonstrations In Pataya; Nothing-Burger In D.C.

In Thailand, they don't sit idly by while corrupt incompetent politicians destroy their country and their way of life. They storm the barricades, push back the army and the police, and shut down business and government. Until the will of the people is obeyed, the people obey no man's will.

It seems like a good system. It might be hard to manage in the United States, for a number of reasons. We're a much bigger country, in area and population. It would be difficult to organize a nationwide protest of this nature on an American scale. We're nowhere near as concentrated or centralized as Thailand. Shutting down just Washington DC or New York City wouldn't do it. Mounting simultaneous actions in all the major cities and every State capitol would be nearly impossible, not only logistically but culturally as well. Our very diversity works against mass action on a national scale.

It might not be possible to organize a nation-wide strike of Southern farmers and Northern businessmen, Midwestern factory workers and West Coast professionals, "flinty" New Englanders and "redneck" Texans, conservative Montanans and liberal New Jerseyans, blacks, whites, Asians, Latino's, Native Americans, immigrants, college grads, high school drop-outs, men, women, gays, straights, old, young, Fundamentalists, mainline Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, Hindu's, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, urban, rural, suburban, and exurban Americans.

Even if it were possible, most of the major cities have large forces of crack riot police, and contingency plans that involve the use of deadly force even on peaceful demonstrators. If the local cops could not be counted on to slaughter their own citizens, there is always the State militia, the National Guard, and the regular Army. They have shown a willingness to kill Americans with whom they disagreed politically in the past. And their political masters have no compunction about ordering them to fire on Americans.

There are other ways of bringing a system to a halt. A more workable alternative might be a passive protest, a refusal to work or shop or attend school or travel or invest or comply with regulations or pay taxes. A jamming of phone lines and Internet hubs. Blocking key traffic points in our already gridlocked transportation networks. Cell phones and the Internet could be used to organize localized action on a hit & run basis. Counter-propaganda could be created and disseminated to encourage support for such actions. But coordination would be required that has never existed in the United States, until recently. Coordination requires access to the media. But the media are now entirely controlled by and subservient to the corporations. The faux-populist "movement" know as the Tea Parties is coming from the Right, the recently ousted "Establishment," not the Left.

In Thailand, disruptive actions are being funded by a former Prime Minister who was removed from power for corruption some years ago, and banned from the political process. He has taken it upon himself to disrupt the new government at every turn: First getting two of his own puppets installed as Prime Minister, and then organizing street protests against his puppets' subsequent removal. Poor Thai farmers from the Southeast Asian backwoods are being paid to jam the cities and bring the nation to a halt, while counter-demonstrations against such anti-democratic and corrupt actions have only resulted in a more perfect gridlock. The army and the police do nothing.

There is the possibility of similar action here. The American corporate propaganda network is being used right now to try to effect some sort of nation-wide protest against the US government. Not for the benefit of the people, but for the corporations, who don't want to pay their taxes, even though they wallow in government money themselves. Naive and under-educated fools are being manipulated by the tame corporate media to help the corps keep our money, as in the Bush years.

The corporate leadership of the inchoate racist anti-democratic forces that failed to steal the most recent Presidential & Congressional Elections has been trying to find a way of continuing to destroy the way of life of average Americans ever since "liberal" black Democrat Barack Obama and his allies trounced them at the polls and ran them out of Washington. All the radical Right can do now is attempt sabotage. Much of their support is coming from a foreign businessman, Australian crypto-Nazi Rupert Murdoch, and his cohorts among America's corporate closet Fascists. Fox News has been turned into a kind of rebel radio station broadcasting from the fringes, calling for political assassinations and jamming of the machinery of government.

Why has there been no government action? No investigations, no arrests, no shut-down of these saboteurs? Why have the people not risen up against it? Are Americans so soul-dead that they cannot move a muscle in defense of their own country, their own way of life? Apparently, yes.


REUTERS
"Thailand's "red shirts" revel after summit shutdown"
Now here's a TEA Party! But, as in America, for the wrong side, and guided by the rich.

' Barrelling through a thin line of troops, hundreds of red-shirted anti-government protesters in Thailand hurtled through a plate glass window -- and tumbled into the venue of the East Asia summit. "We've won -- the summit is over," shouted Aey, one of "red shirts" who support ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. "We'll return to Bangkok now, to rejoin the protest there," she added. "We'll finally get Abhisit out." The protesters say Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who came to office four months ago through parliamentary defections engineered by the army, is "illegitimate." Abhisit cancelled the summit after it was stormed and imposed a state of emergency to allow leaders to depart safely. Drivers and motorcyclists sounded horns while protestors on foot, wearing red bandannas, waved red flags and held aloft placards and pictures of Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and is widely believed to be bankrolling the protests. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Rioting follows state of emergency in Thai capital"
"Change" you can get with larger bills.

' Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, regarded by most of the protesters as their leader, called for a revolution and said he might return from overseas exile to lead it. "Now that they have tanks on the streets, it is time for the people to come out in revolution. And when it is necessary, I will come back to the country," he said in a telephoned message broadcast on loudspeakers to followers who surrounded the prime's minister office. Political tensions have simmered since Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in 2006 for alleged corruption and abuse of power. He remains popular for his populist policies in the impoverished countryside, while his opponents — many in urban areas — took to the streets last year to help bring down two pro-Thaksin governments, seizing Bangkok's two airports in November for about a week. '

FOX NEWS
"Tea Party Protests Create Online Sales Boom"
"Explosions" of sales that result in a net loss. A "grass-roots" movement funded by business. Push it, Fox, push it!

' Other independent retailers are reporting similar explosions in sales. "I'm not really positive what we've made this week -- we've been so busy packing things away," said Jay Taylor, COO of Patriot Depot, which sells conservative books and gear online. Taylor, who said tea party stickers and shirts are powering his "recession-proof" business, isn't giving all his proceeds away. "We are making a little money but we're definitely more concerned with getting the message out," he told FOXNews.com. Yet some organizers are seeing costs outweigh their profits -- and are choosing to operate at a loss. Taylor is partnering with the Augusta, Ga.-based Reagan.org to send tens of thousands of tea bags north to Washington for a massive tax day tea dump. Though Reagan.org is asking for about $1 per bag, they estimate they'll end up losing money in the transaction. "What we figure is that we'll probably end up losing a little bit of money on it," said Joshua Bolin, executive director of Reagan.org, who told FOXNews.com that his organization accepted requests to send 30,000 tea bags packing in just the first two days of its promotion. Sink or swim, profit or plunge, online purveyors have been taken aback by the success of their small business ventures. '

HEARST NEWSPAPERS: BEAUMONT ENTERPRISE, BEAUMONT, TEXAS
"Dozens protest taxes at "Tea Party" in Orange"
"Dozens"! WOW! That's WAY more than "TWO'S"! What a "broad-based" "popular" "movement"! Even though the right-wing media is giving out the organizers' schedules & phone numbers! Way to take a side, "journalists"!

' The Tea Party in Orange was part of a national movement. A number of the events will be held Wednesday, the day federal income taxes are due. In Beaumont, a gathering will be held beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the U.S. Post Office on Walden Road near Interstate 10. More information is available through (409) 466-7063. '

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STATE OF THE ANTI-UNION

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UNGRATEFUL IMMIGRANT SON SLAMS AMERICA, CASHES HER CHECKS

REPUBLICANS SEND RADICAL RIGHT-WING RELIGIOUS NUT TO SABOTAGE RECOVERY

YOUTUBE:
"Gov. Bobby Jindals Republican Response To Obama's State of Union Address; Part 1/2, 02-24-09"
I got mine, baby, SCREW you!


Piyush "Bobby" Jindal Wants The U.S. Recovery To F**k Up Like The Louisiana Recovery Did Under Bush

Directly or indirectly, everyone in the Jindal family works for or with the government. And everything they do hurts ordinary Americans. These are the kinds of people you want making and implementing public policy? Hypocrites?

"Republicans are not competent to govern," the crazed Louisiana Governor mewled over and over in his little "Kenneth The Page" voice. (He should know: His Mom works for the G. His brother used to. His Dad does, too, by contract.) Coming on like a perverted Mr. Rogers trying to seduce a child, Billy-Bobby-Booby-Ray-Jimmy-Joe-Jackoff Jindal explained how disaster relief for his State was desperately needed and reluctantly given by the incompetent Bush government, and how that was the reason he was refusing economic disaster relief readily given by the highly competent Obama government. Hunh?

The Repukelickin's could have had one of their fat-assed white Southern morons deliver the SOTU "rebuttal." But they're trying to get away from that tired old white guy thing. Instead, they give us airhead female redneck hypocrite Sarah Palin, dirty trickster & human Oreo cookie Michael "Uncle Tom" Steele, and creationist technocrat Indian immigrant Jindal. Like, maybe we'll vote for them if they quit LOOKING like Repuke's. Why not try a transexual who beats up on lesbians for fun? Or, as corrupt-but-not-yet-indicted incoming GOPer Chairman Steele suggested, some "one-armed midgets." (Exact quote.)

I guess those opinion polls that finally showed America's real attitudes toward Obama (Lovin' him!), the stimulus package (Want it BAD) and Congressional Republicans (Hated 'em) and their obstructionist tactics (QUIT IT!), maybe put a dent in their heads, finally. So no Mitch McConnell, no John Boehner, no John Kyl, no John Cantor. Instead we get Red State Governors cashing their own government checks while turning down unemployment benefits on behalf of their record unemployed workers, and refusing mortgage help on behalf of their record foreclosed homeowners. Naw, it ain't the Party of No. It's the Party of NUTS.

Other Governors have stepped up to take the Red States' share of the rescue moneys. I say give it to 'em. F**k the Red States. They've been collecting more Federal dollars than they paid in taxes every year for many, many years. Let 'em go it alone, if they want to: Give 'em nothing, no-how, not one red Federal cent, ever again. If their citizens don't like it, maybe they could QUIT VOTING REPUBLICAN. They're not even keeping the "n*gg*rs" down, any more, anyway. One of 'em's President now, crackers. Get used to it. Start voting on something besides hatred and prejudice. Like, maybe, your own interests, for a change? And the interests of the Country, which the 'Pukes OBVIOUSLY do not give a sh*t about?

Here's the scoop on Jindal and his lifelong-government-dependent family. They're associated with some REALLY slimy people: Washington DC corporate law firms & political fixers that specialize in screwing reg'lar folks. Corporate polluters that mismanage toxic radioactive waste.:


NOLA.COM
"A Passage from India"
"Bobby's" Mom's a government worker.

' Amar Jindal works for an engineering company called URS and Raj Jindal works for the state Department of Labor. Enjoying life at his home in the Country Club of Louisiana, Amar Jindal is a long way from his humble origins in a rural Punjab village. '

URS.COM
"Washington Division > Federal/National Governments"
Looks like Dady-ji's a G-man too! His company is responsible for the messes at Los Alamos, Hanford and Savannah River, all nuclear nightmare sites. The radioactive trifecta!

' Washington Division manages high risk, technically complex programs and facilities for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), other federal agencies, and the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. As one of the Manhattan Project’s original six industrial partners, the Washington Division has a heritage partnership with the DOE and its predecessor agencies that spans more than six decades. Today, we continue our support of government agencies by safely managing and operating a segment of the world’s remaining nuclear facilities; providing expertise in environmental remediation, hazardous material stabilization, decontamination and decommissioning; and cleaning up more of the Cold War’s chemical and radioactive legacy than any other company. We also help manage and operate national laboratories, including the Idaho National Laboratory, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. We hold long-term contracts for work at the majority of the DOE’s environmental management and nuclear cleanup sites, including the design, construction and current operation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico; cleanup at the Hanford Site along the Columbia River in southeastern Washington State; management of the remediation of radioactive underground waste tanks at the Hanford Site; management and operation of the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York; and previous management and operation of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. '

GIBSON DUNN.COM
"Nikesh Jindal "
Little bro's a g-rat, too!

' Prior to joining OMB, Mr. Jindal was the Senior Counsel at the Department of Energy, where he was actively involved in several key Department initiatives, including the drafting of guidelines implementing a multi-billion dollar loan guarantee program for innovative energy technologies authorized under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Before joining the Department of Energy, Mr.Jindal was a litigation associate at another law firm in Washington, D.C. Mr. Jindal served as a law clerk to the Honorable Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, in Portland, Oregon. '

LAW.COM
"Gibson Dunn Helps to Shape the Supreme Court"
Inside baseball: Jindal's brother's law firm helped insurance companies screw Louisianians out of billions of dollars in Hurricane Katrina money. How? Well, they put two current SCOTUS judges on the bench, and Dubya in the White House. So they got CLOUT, baby, that's how!

' Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's appellate team is on a streak. With warhorse Theodore B. Olson in the lead, the appellate group has won eight of the 11 U.S. Supreme Court cases it has argued during the past three terms. Overall, the firm claimed victory in 75 percent of its high court cases. "Getting 11 cases to the Supreme Court -- then winning eight of them -- in a given stretch is an incredible success," said Paul Watford, co-chair of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation's appellate practice committee and partner in the appellate practice group at Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles. In 2007 and early 2008, Gibson Dunn had four Supreme Court victories and a solid collection of wins in other federal and state appellate courts. What's behind the record? Firepower: Olson is a highly regarded Washington insider, whose 40-plus years in practice and solid conservative credentials have given him a deep understanding of the philosophies of the Supreme Court justices -- two of whom he helped get appointed to the high court as a Bush administration confidant. Helping to shape the court and having a deep affinity for its appointees is one way to get insight into the minds of the justices. "We work hard to give the court our best analysis to find the way that at least five justices will agree with our approach to the case," Olson said. "You can't win every case, but we try to win as many as we can." Richard J. Doren, a Gibson Dunn partner in Los Angeles, brought his national class action defense experience to an appeal involving insurance policyholders and the floods that followed Hurricane Katrina. Doren convinced the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a trial court ruling that insurance covered the flood caused by the breach of New Orleans' levees. With more than 200,000 policyholders, the stakes were very high and the challenge intense. Still, "putting together a good argument -- that's a lot of fun professionally," Doren said. Opposing counsel in the Katrina insurance case, John Ellison, a Reed Smith partner in Philadelphia, said the insurance coverage issues are still being litigated before the Louisiana Supreme Court. He praised Doren's job, then added: "I am still surprised with the result." Olson has worked at the firm since 1965, with two notable intervals: Between 2001 and 2004 he was U.S. solicitor general, and from 1981 to 1984 he was a key presidential adviser in the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel. Olson ranks among lawyers with high court insider status. He represented George W. Bush in the two cases that settled the disputed 2000 presidential election. After helping Bush take office, he advised the president on his two Supreme Court nominees, fellow conservatives John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr., both of whom Olson has known since the 1980s, when all three were Reagan administration legal advisers. "Those have been exciting places to put my foot in the stream," Olson said. "These are really outstanding people. I'm glad I was able to participate in a very small way in their preparation in their confirmation hearings." '

ESQUIRE MAGAZINE
"Bobby Jindal, All American"
"Bobby" ditches his immigrant parents --too foreign & dark-skinned for Republicans. Oh, and he grew up in government housing, BTW.

' Now here was Bobby Jindal on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the glad-handing Mayor of America. "Tell us about your background," Leno said. "First-generation American, correct?" "Born and raised in Baton Rouge," Jindal said with a distinct drawl. He launched into the story of his parents' journey to LSU. "[My dad] walked uphill going to school . . . and coming back from school," Jindal joked. "So your parents have an accent?" Leno asked. The young governor winced, like a bookish kid who's just realized he's wandered into the wrong area of the playground. He looked down into his spidery hands, arranged at the moment as if they were holding an invisible bowl. He searched inside the bowl for the answer to Leno's question. "My dad more than my mom," Jindal said of the accent. "But my dad, you know . . . none of his brothers or sisters got past the fifth grade. . . . He went all the way to college. That's pretty amazing." "When you were born . . . did he say--" Leno bobbled his large head, playing to the studio audience. He put on a corny, over-the-top, Apu-from-The-Simpsons accent: "We will name him Bobby!" The crowd roared. "Nooooo," Jindal protested, faint though distinct, his chin drooping to his chest, clearly mortified. His hands knit together protectively and fell into his lap. The first time he ran for governor, in 2003--his very first attempt at public office of any kind--Jindal lost in a runoff to Kathleen Blanco (the governor during Hurricane Katrina, which hit in 2005). Four days before the runoff, polls showed Jindal with a comfortable 10-point lead. Then Blanco's campaign started running a television ad featuring a picture of a young, very dark-appearing Jindal with his hair disheveled and sticking up. "Wake up, Louisiana! Before it's too late!" viewers were urged. By Election Day, Jindal was trailing Blanco by 3 points. He did especially poorly in what they call Bubba Country, the northern part of the state, usually a Republican stronghold. Over the course of the next four years--during which time he successfully ran for a seat in the House of Representatives, raising so much money in the process that he was able to donate to other GOP candidates around the country, ensuring his election as president of the incoming freshman class of congressmen--Jindal visited northern Louisiana, by his own count, more than seventy-seven times. Many of those visits took place on Sundays at small evangelical churches, where he gave testimony about his conversion from a Hindu to a Roman Catholic. Some churchgoers noted that they had never before heard a Roman testify in quite the way Jindal did, casting his own experience in terms similar to that of a born-again fundamentalist. Reporters noted that Jindal had taken to wearing cowboy boots. The Jindals settled into graduate-student housing near LSU. In the eyes of an immigrant, Louisiana in 1971 was paradise on earth. There were abundant oil and gas reserves, thriving industry, major ports, multiple railroads, jobs aplenty, the guarantee of schooling for all. Amar got a good job with one of the railroads; Raj switched from nuclear physics to the budding field of computer science and was hired by the state of Louisiana as one of its first IT people. (Thirty years later, she is still working in the same department. Technically, Bobby is her boss.) The Jindals lived in a series of apartments for nearly seven years, until the birth of Bobby's younger brother, Nikesh. Today, Nikesh Jindal is a thirty-year-old lawyer in Washington. He went to Dartmouth and Yale--"Quite a shock for a southern boy," he said on the phone recently with a chuckle. Unlike Bobby, he has no southern accent. Nikesh remembers fondly the family's one-story, three-bedroom house in a "small little neighborhood where you knew all the people on the street." When asked if his family ever got together with other Hindu families to worship during holidays, Nikesh, who has never before been interviewed, became flustered. "I'll have to think about it and get back to you on that," he said. (All requests for an interview with Amar and Raj Jindal were declined.) Because he feared the "inevitable confrontation with my very unsympathetic Hindu parents," Bobby simply didn't tell them. He found refuge in his closet, where he studied the Bible by flashlight. In his writings, he would later compare his situation to that of the earliest Christians, worshipping in caves, "hiding from government persecution." '

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Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS: BRING THEM ALL HOME ALIVE, NOW!