Tuesday Open Thread

GO profiles 50 Most Powerful Folks in DC....Rahm Emanuel tops list.

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/200911...

*BREAKING NEWS*


Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) is planning to announce Wednesday that he will resign his seat to take a Middle East policy job.

Where is Miranda??? Your boy Oran Juice Jones was just on Hip Hop Honors!!

*dead*

Where'd they dig him up from???? ROFLMAO

Oh, Lawd! LaToya Jackson is in the audience for DWTS. Can u say "thirsty"?

Will the WH Latin Music celebration air on TV?

Yes...check for your local PBS listing time here:
http://www.pbs.org/inperformanceatthewhitehouse...

I was wondering same thing? I want to be able to see it clearly!

Lindsey Graham Faces Tea Party Fury: "Traitor," "Democrat In Drag," "Half-A-Sissy" (VIDEO)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/lindse...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) faced an eruption of rage from Tea Party activists at a town hall meeting Tuesday for his decision to work with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on climate change and clean energy legislation.

In a New York Times op-ed published Sunday, Graham and Kerry discussed their commitment to achieving bipartisan legislation.

Sen. Graham has also independently expressed his own concerns on global warming:

I think the planet is heating up. I think CO2 emissions are damaging the environment and this dependence on foreign oil is a natural disaster in the making. Let's do something about it. I'd like to solve a problem, and if it's on President Obama's watch, it doesn't bother me one bit if it makes the country better off.


This unhinged response is reflected in the conservative blogosphere, where Graham has been called a "fake Republican," "RINO" (Republican in name only), a "traitor," "disgrace," "asshat," "democrat in drag," and a "wussypants, girly-man, half-a-sissy":




What? Whoa....They went there! Ouch!

"Half-a-sissy"? Obviously, they haven't been paying attention.

ROTFLMMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello, God? It's me, Sepia.

Could you hook a sista up with the formula to get abs like Shakira?

Thanks.

Amen.

lmao!

LOL!

Truthseek alert on JJP. She's hating big time.

Truthseeker is just a simple skank. Pity her.

True!

And? Fuck her. Responding to her bullshit legitmizes it. Leave that dog alone before her fleas jump on you.

Amen! That chick needs to be on everyone's "scroll by" list.

Exactly! She isn't worth the energy to push the submit button! Ugh!

O lord!!

Did anyone see this?

The Secret Service and local police are investigating after a swastika was found carved into a Massachusetts golf course green next to President Barack Obama's name.

Saw it at the local paper's site and just now at Think Progress - there's a picture. Read the comments.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/13/obama-golf-...

The Boston Herald reports that vandals used the heels of their shoes or cleats to scrape the message into the grass:





These ignorant racist bigots should just jump off the highest cliff!

I wrote some on it at my teeny blog. There's an explanation. I'd do it out, but when I don't feel good, don't feel like typing something I already have. Make sense? I'm counting on to read between the lines.

DAYUM...this country!!

Live Streaming for WH Latin Music Concert:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/

Eva Longoria and Gloria Estephan look fabulous!. Damn, check out Sheila E., and Jose Felliciano.

My stream keeps fading in and out.

Did you hear Lopez...talking about how they could not take the centerpieces.

Sasha and Malia look wonderful

Mine keeps fading in and out too. LOL! Geroge is a hoot! You know PBO and FLOTUS are cracking up at that. Those girls are glowing, thriving... love them.

Nice! Thanks. Latina Night! I see our "Wise Latina" is in the audience.

Yes...she is just smiling.

That is a bad dress Sheila E. has on beating them drums!!

What is Marc Anthony doing prancing back & forth?
I never knew what his claim to fame was anyway

There's Jimmy Smits...joking bout how he saw Sasha likin Anthony!!


Awww soooky...here comes Thalia!! the men are loving this.


love and passionate frenzy

O shyt!! she asked...MrPresident will you dance with me!!

Ah shit, Sharika or whatever her name is asked the POTUS to dance. the damn pic froze. She shook Michelle's hand first. Did he actually dance with her?

Yes Girl!!! He salsa'd up those same moves we saw on ELLEN!!

hahahaha...it was funny...he ain't too rhytmic...got that PRESIDENTIAL decorum going.

Go head Obama!!

Lopez killing me talking about he is running out of pre-approved material and that his thoughts have been pre-screened!!

Tee hee. It must have been for a hot minute. before we knew it he was
walking back to his table LOL!

The POTUS saves all his rhythm for Michelle.

You know it...and that Thalia knew she BEST acknowledge FLOTUS...Michelle was gracious and grasped her hand as she worked away with her man , POTUS....POTUS was not too keen on the whole idea...but he went along.

I think he is VERY conscious with Malia and Sasha being there

EvaLongoria talking about being there makes her realize one day they will hve a Latino President...and she not talking about JimmySmits!!!

bwaayayaya but a real President.

ctfu

hahahaha...it was funny...he ain't too rhytmic...


Yes! He hasn't been too rhytmic! lol

Lopez has me cracking up...he just said...in the short time we have been in here LouDobbs has petitioned to build a wall around this tent.!!

Then he said...who is he going to get to build it, where are the workers?

lol lol


I'm giving up on this funkystream...it will be on TPT @ 9:30 Thursday for us Shanti....can't handle all this fading

Lopez has me cracking up...he just said...in the short time we have been in here LouDobbs has petitioned to build a wall around this tent.!!

Then he said...who is he going to get to build it, where are the workers?


Uh oh!

Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eva campaigning for a Latina POTUS, and she don't mean "Jimmy Smits.'

I thought the comment was really in poor taste frankly...you a guest at the WH talking about you hoping for a LatinoPrez...whatEVER...

JoseFeliciano coming UP now...he congratulatin Obama on the NPP ...and said it was amazing what he has done to get countries to start talking to one another in the short time he has been Prez.

then he added cause sometimes I can't even get my wife to talk to me, lol


He is playing that guitar...it sounds woooonderful...very romantic as usual

Eva couldn't help herself. She slipped into her *Desperate
Housewives*role.... Yet, I can understand why she felt compelled to
say it. If Barack
Hussein Obama can become POTUS, so can Hector Antonio Garcia one day. Just
sayin...

Desire Rogers is smokin beautiful too!

Girl MarcAnthony got everyONE UP!!

Dancing ...POTUS whole table rockin on their feet!!

Marc is the ELVIS of Salsa!

Yes, he rocked them.

I'm loving it!

Finale!!!

Gloria Estevan!!

talking bout PARTY in the WH!!

The family that dances together... Too cool! Malia & Sasha playing drums.. Love it!

Is there going to be a replay available somewhere? I'm watching Vh-1's Hip Hop Honors. It's pretty dope so far.

It will probably be posted on white house.gov in a day or two.

POTUS and daughters walking up on stage!!

POTUS salsing with Sasha, FLOTUS salsaing with malia

Now Malia on Sheila E's drums.

too cute!!

Wise Latina on stage too!!

THIS is a MILESTONE!!


Americans have been waiting for health care reform for far too long. And as of today, reform is headed to the House and Senate floors for the first time ever.


Yes. WE. CAN!!

It is indeed MONUMENTAL! Let's Git-er done.

There you have it, BITCHES!

Say it again!

Yep. It's on like Donkey Kong!

lol lol...YEAH baby!!

I can't get that darn document to copy & paste for the ANTI HealthCareReform talkingpoints

seems like it is a picture...and I sure do not want to type all that text
but I want those GovernmentRunPlan points so folks will know them when they hear them

LaRap, you posting a thread on this?

Should I?

I can't get that image of talking points to copy.

Guess it would make a nice thread.

You think you wanna do it? You got more skillz than me...and it will be faster.

Gracie, I'll start the thread and post the 3 page talking points, you do
the rest!

OK

Lemme know if you need any help getting those images on the thread, ok!

Threads up but
The images are too tiny...to read

Yes, you can do it, LRW. What image are you referring to?

The one here:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009...

Deeds sharpens attack on McDonnell

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28224...


Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds used a prime-time debate Monday to sharpen his portrayal of Republican Bob McDonnell as hostile to women and captive to the religious right.


Deeds, opening up a fresh line of attack, brought up McDonnell’s tenure on the board at Regent University, the Virginia Beach Christian conservative school where the Republican received his master’s degree and wrote the controversial thesis which has dominated much of the campaign.


“As a member of the Board of Visitors at Regent University, he supported a policy that had a blatant bias in favor of hiring men,” Deeds said during an hour-long forum that was broadcast statewide.


McDonnell, a former state Attorney General, served on the Regent board from 1996 to 2004, during which time the institution had an equal opportunity rule "consistent with a scriptural family policy” – a reference to a Bible passage which states that women are to submit to their husbands.


Deeds, a state senator, twice referred to the policy during the debate. McDonnell didn’t directly respond either time.


The Democrat’s attempt to specifically highlight his rival’s connections to Regent dovetails with a new commercial he released today, aimed at vote-rich and moderate Northern Virginia.



What's up D?

It's an attempt to revive Thesisgate....and doesn't merit much of a response. Most people have gotten tired of Deeds' negativity.

McDonnell, the Taliban candidate.

hehehehehehe

Madoff Reportedly Gets In Prison Fight Over... The Stock Market

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/madoff...

For all of his billions in faked profits, convicted Ponzi Schemer Bernie Madoff recently got into a very real fight with a fellow inmate over the stock market, according to The New York Post.

Madoff, of course, is serving a 150-year prison sentence for a massive $68 billion fraud. The altercation, according to The New York Post, was over the state of the market and involved another older inmate, who left the fight "red-faced." Madoff's toughness, apparently, impressed a fellow inmate at the Butner, North Carolina facility that was quoted by the Post.

It's not the first fight involving jailed financiers in recent weeks. Last month, Allen Stanford sustained injuries, including "two black eyes and a broken nose" while fighting with another inmate.

This summer, a noted prison consultant offered this advice to Bernie Madoff about how to deal with his prison term. Among other things, the consultant suggested that Madoff should look for a job serving cappuccino in the prison Commissary Trust Fund.

"When White Collar Criminals Attack!", next on The Geraldo Show!

LOL! I guess with a 150 year prison sentence, Madoff aint nothing better to do than go cruising for a bruising.

Long before the complete meltdown of the financial industry last fall, Senator Byron Dorgan warned us about the risks posed by one of the key ingredients in that catastrophe: the complex financial packages known as derivatives. In a Washington Monthly cover story, "Very Risky Business" (October 1994), the North Dakota Democrat predicted with uncanny precision what actually happened in September 2008 -- the cascading failures of large lending institutions, the collapse of Fannie Mae, taxpayer-funded bailouts -- and speculated that a derivatives-driven financial crisis would eventually leave Americans "nostalgic for the days of the $500 billion savings-and-loan collapse."

In 1999, Dorgan was one of eight senators to vote against the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed Depression-era banking regulation, cautioning at the time that deregulation "would raise the likelihood of future massive taxpayer bailouts."

Ten years and trillions of taxpayer dollars later, Sen. Dorgan is one of Congress' leading voices for financial re-regulation. Please join Sen. Dorgan at the New America Foundation for a conversation on how we arrived at the crisis and what common-sense regulations are needed to make sure it never happens again.

If you're in the area, the event begins Thursday morning, at the NAF offices in D.C., at 8 a.m. The discussion will be moderated by the New America Foundation's Michael Lind.

To RSVP, follow the link. For those outside D.C., there will be a live webcast at the same site.

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2009/risky_bus...

ANTI-HEALTH CARE REFORM Talking Points

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2009...

WEESee You, health care reform talking points!

Good get, WRB! You've got to "know thy enemy".

This is for laRapierWit:

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=794...

LMAO!

ctfu


Well, someone else besides me getting in trouble over
dat blasted Cocks.

Too dang funny!

BWA HA HA HA

LOL! Does this mean LaRapier's gonna get suspended too?! BWA HA HA!

Nooooo, I'll take the bad chair...

*stompingfeetjerkingbody to corner*

LOL! Come on out that corner, young lady....

LMAO!!

BWA HA HA HA HA

**Tears**

Please don't let D see this! Imagine that, a quarterback with the name Smelley playing for the South Carolina Gamecocks! Jokes overload! lol

A Smelley Cock? That's usually indicative of something clinical.

Everybody's got jokes......

Smelley was the quarterback, D!

I can't believe they had someone with a name as Smelley on the team!

Unbelievable! lol

Smelly doesn't play for SC anymore. Thank goodness!!!

Nobel Jury Defends Obama Decision: We Disagree That He Has Done Nothing

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/nobel-...


OSLO — Members of the Norwegian committee that gave Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize are strongly defending their choice against a storm of criticism that the award was premature and a potential liability for the U.S. president.

Asked to comment on the uproar following Friday's announcement, four members of the five-seat panel told The Associated Press that they had expected the decision to generate both surprise and criticism.

Three of them rejected the notion that Obama hadn't accomplished anything to deserve the award, while the fourth declined to answer that question. A fifth member didn't answer calls seeking comment.

"We simply disagree that he has done nothing," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told the AP on Tuesday. "He got the prize for what he has done."

Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe.

"All these things have contributed to – I wouldn't say a safer world – but a world with less tension," Jagland said by phone from the French city of Strasbourg, where he was attending meetings in his other role as secretary-general of the Council of Europe.

He said most world leaders were positive about the award and that most of the criticism was coming from the media and from Obama's political rivals.

"I take note of it. My response is only the judgment of the committee, which was unanimous," he said, adding that the award to Obama followed the guidelines set forth by Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, who established the Nobel Prizes in his 1895 will.




hahahahahaha

Let the republicans whine all they want. PBO has only begun bitches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am really rocking to that Promo Video....!! It is just awesome!!

I wonder where it will be displayed.

Barry Rocks! ;)

I am still watching CSPAN on tv. I am laughing my a** off. Poor GOP!!! I know those folks are thinking sthu! Keep watching these goons on CSPAN ya'll.

They are talking healthcare = money to illegal aliens = increased debt for children and grandchildren = lack of transparency in the Obama administration = increase in taxes for folks making less than $250K = conspiracy against the American people = rationing . . . . they are throwing the whole kitchen sink into this one.

Wait. . . wait . . . "the war on terror will not defeat us . . . we will defeat ourselves". Collapse through fiscal mismanagement. Read the history."

Clearly brother man didn't read the history of the previous 8 years. Then he broke out the picture of a blond haired 2 year old girl with a sign protesting at a tea party. Pitiful.

Give those guys an Emmy.

DAMN the GOP are getting slapped by callers from all directions on C-SPAN.

Let the health care reform negotiations begin!

I caught the last end of a woman yelling at John Cornyn at the GOP press conference! I saw it on MSNBC!

There was a guy standing BEHIND the good ole white boyz (Grassley, that dude from Utah, Coryn was in the background, and ?) who was holding up a sign that said "SINGLE PAYER NOW!" It was on MSNBC. I kept trying to get a screen grab but my TV wasn't cooperating. LOL.

yep she said -- why did you kill Single Payer and not even bother to discuss it. Then he responded -- Aaahh how about a question from the media? lololol

Yes, he ignored her! lol

What did the GOP expect?

The "single payer signs" got more attention than whatever the rethugs were saying.

John Cornyn ignored that woman but she was letting him have it!

"But the voices dominating today’s GOP are far more ridiculous, overheated and sinister than any of the muscled actors over whom the McMahons presided. And Washington Republicans seem more willing to declare professional wrestling legit than to distance themselves from their party’s de facto leaders.

In one corner, there is President Obama, leading a serious effort to forge consensus on issues like health reform and energy independence. In the other, a tag-team of right-wing fear-mongers: radio host Rush Limbaugh, Fox News personality Glenn Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Just this week, Limbaugh dubbed youth violence “a liberal problem.” Beck, who joined Rush in celebrating Chicago’s failure to win the 2016 Olympic Games, has said Obama demonstrates a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” Sarah Palin — a hero to far-right bloviators everywhere — has continued her attacks from the campaign, accusing the president of supporting a “death panel” as part of health reform. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Palin told her Facebook friends that “Glenn Beck is doing an extraordinary job” in covering the White House.

Once upon a time, there were Republicans who would act like adults when political differences took an ugly turn.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) did battle with President Bill Clinton over balancing the budget in the 1990s. But after several days of a government shutdown, Dole took to the Senate floor to tell his party: “Enough is enough.” Former Republican Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) was no shrinking violet in challenging Democratic policies either. But sensing the possibility for real healthcare reform, Frist said that if he were still in the Senate, “I would end up voting for it. As leader, I would take heat for it. … That’s what leadership is all about.” This summer, former first lady Laura Bush defended Obama’s back-to-school speech from opponents’ body-slams, declaring that it was “really important for everyone to respect the president of the United States.”

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/john-del-...

Mr Budowsky seems to know a thing or two:

"I am fed up with those Democratic strategists who parade to cable-news shows and pollute the pages of newspapers with the pap that the way for Democrats to win in 2010 is to throw mud at Republicans.

snip

As James Carville might say: It’s the jobs, stupid. Many Democratic strategists don’t care much about policy, but for anxious Americans who elected Democrats, it’s all about policy.

Democrats will do more to win in 2010 by creating 2 million new jobs than by spending $20 million to pay Democratic strategists to produce dirt-caked television ads.

Democrats should wage a policy war to create jobs. They should attack rising credit card interest rates and skyrocketing healthcare premiums. They should attack the foreclosure wave from bankers who take huge bailouts and pay themselves gargantuan bonuses.

Democrats should attack when insurers issue a bogus report on the eve of the Finance Committee vote on healthcare that is an attempt to frighten consumers, a land-grab for more gluttonous profits, an expression of contempt for the committee and a humiliation of its chairman.

Democrats should pass the public option that is supported by a majority of voters and attack those who put insurance-industry profits ahead of the health of Main Street America. Democratic strategists need to learn to attack not the body fat of Republicans, but the fat cats that reap unearned income and unfair profits from the Gilded Age status quo that Americans elected Democrats to change."




read more:

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/brent-bud...

***Breaking News****

Senate Finance Cmte votes 14-9 to pass health care overhaul bill.



GO Congress!!


President Obama you are going to go down in history for signing this bill

I'm watching now!

Damn!! Women in the Sciences are just being preyed ON!



A UCLA student has been charged with attempted premeditated murder in the slashing of a classmate's throat during a chemistry lab.

The district attorney's office says 20-year-old Damon Thompson will be arraigned Tuesday. He is being held on $1 million bail.

Thomas is accused of attacking a female student he was standing next to during the lab at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prosecutors say the attack on Thursday was unprovoked, and that he stabbed her five times.

Witnesses say Thomas walked calmly into a student information office after the attack and told a staff member he had stabbed someone.

The victim was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Her condition has been improving.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/200910...

Jesus Christ!

What? Did he just snap or what?

I don't know. But I can say that majoring in the sciences can be some intense mind altering shyt. At certain points, your brain is just overloaded with all types of scientific data at a cellular level that you can dissociate from the world...cause your focus is on the micro not macro reality. It can make you wonder some crazy things.

Like Damon could have wondered if her cells would scream as they died from lack of oxygen as they hit a higher atmospheric pressure and what would that do to the chemical synthesis of red blood cells.

I'on't KNOW what made the brother trip.

But I bet it was some bizarre scientific curiousity.

Personally, I recall when taking biochem, P&A and physics at the same time...knowing that everything was a cell and that we just can't see all the activity that is going on..and then learning about the electricity in physics coupled with the physiologic human dynamics in P&A...I wondered why electric sockets couldn't think, cause they had electrical current running through them just like the synapses in the brain. Yes, I know that was trippin, but at the time..it was an earnest query in my head...cause I knew that cells are moving all around us even when we cannot see them with our naked eye...when you focused on microbes, and cardiac cells, and liver cells and how they are all differentiated but yet similiar..you can start thinking some wierd shyt...especially about plants cause those phuckers look stone cold dead, but their is a beehive of activity constantly..you just can't see it. There is life at the cellular level and it is fascinatingly crazy.

Science can be hellacious if you are taking a heavy load and immersed in in for over 10 hours a day, stuck inside in labs for 3-4 hours daily...sometimes it just creates a mental discconnect.

Don't give a shit "what made the brother trip." He can do it now in a mental institution at a prison. I'm sick of men - period - attacking women for no gotdamned reason other than they can.

Oh - yeah - and I've studied science with a heavy load - undergraduate degree in Biology, but I sure as shit never thought about offing my lab partner. Not even in microbiology - and that one class I got a C in and was ACTUALLY satisfied with it.

"Don't give a shit "what made the brother trip." He can do it now in a mental institution at a prison."

I was not justifying. SG asked a question...and I was just statin how folks minds can disconnect from reality when heavily immersed in science.

Biology ain't a heavy science, it's a life science.
unlike chemistry which is abstract

Okay - I understand.

Hmmm - I think you & I have gone around before about this: My Biology degree included all kinds of 'ologies including Microbiology, Cell Biology - along with Chemistry & Physics - both of which I loved!

Still don't care 'what made the brother trip' - fwiw.

For heavenssakes! What is going on???

Man Says Boss Carried Out Threat To Fire Him for Voting for Obama

Elliot Snell sued KK Office Solutions in Wyandotte County Court. The email warned that if Obama were elected, all salespeople will have to pool their sales commissions to give underachieving salespeople a "fair shake;" that hourly employees will pool their wages, including overtime, to help those who are "too busy to for overtime;" that top management was to be referred to as "the government," and would be exempt from pooling because the law doesn't apply to it; and that the last few people hired "should clean out their desks."
The email, included in the complaint, continued: "Don't feel bad though, because President Obama will give you free healthcare, free handouts, free oil for heating your home, free food stamps, and he'll let you stay in hour home for as long as you want even if you can't pay your mortgage. If you appeal directly to our democratic congress [sic], you might even get a free flat screen TV and a coupon for free haircuts ..." It concludes: "If for any reason you are not happy with the new policies, you many want to rethink your vote on November 4th," followed by Brandt's signature and title.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/10/13/Man_Sa...

oh.no.he.didn't.!

What astounding ignorance! I mean really! SMDH!

SMH.............that owner was so arrogant he put that in an email for all the world to now see. Did he really think he could get away with that? Oh wait...yeah, the ignoramus did think that.

W.E.E. Peeps Tuesday Link Sweep is up.

The health care reform bill poised to be approved by the Senate Finance Committee will have bipartisan support -- Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) of Maine endorsed the legislation this afternoon. But while the bill may be good enough for a Republican, it's not good enough for Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman, who has been trashing the reform effort for months, told Don Imus today he opposes the Baucus bill, and again argued that he doesn't even like the idea of working on health care reform.

"I've been saying for a couple of months now that I'm concerned, that I'm concerned that there's a danger that we're trying to do too much here and the president is trying to do two good things. But doing them at once in the middle of a recession may be hard to pull off."

This is just so absurd. Health care reform, if it passes, will take years to be implemented. There's no reason for a recession to interfere with fixing a broken system, but even if that were a driving factor, this recession will end before 2013. Lieberman must know this, which means he's looking for excuses, even cheap ones, to oppose reform.

Asked if he's be willing to support the Baucus bill, Lieberman said he could not. Asked why, he added, "I'm afraid that in the end, the Baucus bill is actually going to raise the price of insurance for most of the people in the country."

So, Lieberman is parroting AHIP arguments the day after the claim was debunked.

For what it's worth, it doesn't matter too much whether Lieberman is willing to vote for health care reform -- it matters a great deal whether Lieberman is willing to vote with Republicans on a filibuster. At this point, Lieberman has proven himself willing to betray just about anyone and everyone, so how he'll behave on the Senate floor remains entirely unpredictable.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/indiv...

In a late-effort push to alter or torpedo health care reform, the major lobby for private insurers has made a multi-state, million-dollar ad purchase claiming that seniors will see their care cut under Democrat-crafted legislation.

America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), which released a highly critical (and widely criticized) report slamming the Senate Finance Committee's reform proposal, has quietly put out a new spot claiming that millions of seniors will see their Medicare slashed by Congress.

"Is it right to ask 10 million seniors on Medicare advantage for more than their fair share?" the ad asks. "Congress is proposing over 100 billion in cuts to Medicare advantage. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says many seniors will see cuts in benefits."


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/ahip-a...

Sec. Hillary Clinton Diplomacy abroad
by zizi

While the beltway villagers wallow in their insipid pettiness ridiculing the President's Nobel Peace Prize, our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been out there carrying out this administration's fine-tuned diplomacy work without flashiness. Over the weekend she was present along with EU and Swiss officials as Turkey and Armenia after more than 90 years of enmity, overcame a last minute snag and signed a historic Agreement to normalize Diplomatic Relations between the two countries.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/12/152124/41

Go head Hill, dont even pay attention to the knuckledraggers in the media too stupid to pay attention to the work you're actually doing, instead trying to rehash the primaries.

Republican Snowe Backs Healthcare Overhaul

By REUTERS
Published: October 13, 2009

Filed at 1:04 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Olympia Snowe said on Tuesday she will back the Finance Committee's sweeping healthcare overhaul, becoming the first Republican in Congress to back a healthcare reform measure.

Snowe said her vote does not mean she will support later versions of the healthcare legislation.

(Reporting by John Whitesides, editing by Sandra Maler)

I watched her on CSPAN this morning and wondered who the heck is this woman and does she support the program or not? lol she had a lot of stipulations.

RNC: Jackie Robinson Was A Republican

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/rnc-ja...


The Republican National Committee released a new website on Tuesday that goes to great lengths to depict the party as open to minority interests.

The most obvious example comes on the "Heroes" page where the RNC pinpoints 16 figures who were "Patriots: American Heroes & Famous Republicans." The list includes seven African-Americans, one Hispanic-American, and four women. Only four white men are included, three of whom had direct ties to the advancement of civil rights in America. Former President Abraham Lincoln made the list, as did former Justice Frank Johnson, who was instrumental in court decisions that helped end segregation in the South. Finally, there was former Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois, who helped write and pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But the GOP may have muddled is message by including individuals who would scoff at today's Republican Party.


As pointed out by a Democratic source, the inclusion of baseball star Jackie Robinson on the list seems particularly egregious. The former Dodger, who broke baseball's color barrier, was far from a die-in-the-wool conservative. Robinson's ties to the GOP seemed more driven by a personal admiration for Nelson Rockefeller -- the New Yorker who would end up being vice president under Gerald Ford -- then it was core ideological convictions. In his biography, Robinson said that as the Republican Party leadership tilted towards Barry Goldwater conservatives, he began to have "a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany."




Is this suppose to lure more blacks to the Republican Party? Please! I mean really!
After all the insults and race baiting the republicans have done to POC....Is Jackie Robinson being a republican suppose to suddenly change that and blacks will come in droves to the republican party? **Rolling My Eyes**

Where is the ice for my eyes, Sepia?

(sigh)

Jesus, be a fence. Please.

...cause if that's the best I have to work with, I'm gonna get slapped a lot.

*pointing and laughing*

*bangs head on keyboard*

Teh stupid!!! It burns!!!

My favorite part --

"Writing on page 340 of the autobiography, "I Never Had It Made", Robinson went so far as to insist that he be called an independent, "since I've never identified myself with one party or another in politics." In 1968 he campaigned for Hubert Humphrey.

"I was not as sold on the Republican party as I was on the governor," Robinson wrote of Rockefeller. "Every chance I got, while I was campaigning, I said plainly what I thought of the right-wing Republicans and the harm they were doing. I felt the GOP was a minority party in term of numbers of registered voters and could not win unless they updated their social philosophy and sponsored candidates and principles to attract the young, the black, and the independent voter. I said this often from public, and frequently Republican, platforms. By and large Republicans had ignored blacks and sometimes handpicked a few servile leaders in the black community to be their token "niggers." How would I sound trying to go all out to sell Republicans to black people? They're not buying. They know better."

"I admit freely that I think, live, and breathe black first and foremost. "

"I admit freely that I think, live, and breathe black first and foremost. "

AMEN, Mr. Robinson!

GASP! Hush your mouth, Val!!

Debunked right there!!!!!!

See how easy that was to debunk? Is the RNC stupid, desperate, or just doesn't care?

is there a D option for all of the above? If so, then the answer is D.

Here ya go, sis *hands you an ice pack*

They tried the same thing last year by saying Dr. King was a Republican. What they fail to realize is a couple of things:

1. The Republican Party back then was NOT the same as today's Republican Party.

2. Tauting Black Republicans who are dead as an example of the party's inclusiveness don't mean a thing if you continue with your Dixiecrat ways in the here and now.

Thanks sis!

Such a soothing relief from the burning stoopid!

VA completes first phase of daunting health records program, CIO says
Agency making progress on re-evaluating IT programs

By Alice LipowiczOct 08, 2009
The Veterans Affairs Department has completed work on the first phase of the Lifetime Virtual Electronic Record and is now preparing to put the records on a national health exchange platform, VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker said today.

Baker also said that the department is "making good progress" on evaluating, and in some cases restarting, the 45 information technology projects he temporarily halted in June, but he avoided going into detail. He spoke at a breakfast hosted by market research firm Input.


President Barack Obama officially announced the lifetime record program in April to develop a comprehensive digital medical record for every military service member. The record will contain information from both Defense Department health services and VA health services. A DOD/VA interagency office has been developing interoperability between those medical record systems since 2007.

Baker said the interoperability work is finished and described it as the first of three phases for the lifetime virtual record project. “Phase One is done,” Baker said. “We have the best interoperability between two health systems in the country.”

http://fcw.com/Articles/2009/10/08/Roger-Baker-...

Congress poised to kill DOD's pay-for-performance system
Congress tells DOD to shut down NSPS program by 2012

By Matthew Weigelt Oct 08, 2009
Congress is closing the door on the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) in the conference report on the fiscal 2010 National Defense Authorization Act .
NSPS is the pay-for-performance compensation system used by several organizations in the Defense Department. The system consists of a performance management process used to evaluate employees, flexible job classifications and a pay system based on performance.

Labor unions have criticized the program, saying it weakens workplace rights of DOD civilian employees, including the right to collective bargaining.

Lawmakers want the program gone by Jan. 1, 2012, under the terms of the authorization bill. Civilian employees would move to existing personnel systems. About 205,000 of DOD's 865,000 civilian employees are in NSPS. Employees under NSPS will be shifted to the statutory pay system, although an employee’s salary won’t decrease if there is a difference between the pay levels, the report released Oct. 7 states.

http://fcw.com/Articles/2009/10/08/NSPS-ended-2...

Obama bans texting while driving

If you're a federal employee and drving somewhere on business, don't even think about sending or reading text messages. President Obama has put the full weight of his office behind an effort to ban the practice government-wide, in an executive order issued Oct. 1.

That means no messages to the boss to ask about your next meeting, and no messages to your wife to request meat loaf for dinner. Even if you really like meat loaf and are pretty sure she's planning baked fish again.

The order doesn't apply to contractors, but it does direct executive departments and agencies to encourage contractors to adopt similar rules.

http://fcw.com/blogs/insider/2009/10/obama-bans...

Excellent.

Good! It's too dangerous!

C-SPAN has a lot of informational programs on Education, Healthcare etc. today.

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN_wm.aspx

I have been listening while I work.

Military discussions covered Diversity in the military and addressed trending across the nation for recruiting.

Talked about reduction in African Americans registering in the Army and increase in hispanics in the Navy.

Talked about plans to address recruiting and address diversity issues.
Talked about increasing amt of minority petty officers and military commanders
Talked about strategy to appeal to more women
Talked about the economy and it's impact in recruiting etc.

Good conversations today.

White House Talks DADT With Lieberman
By Kerry Eleveld
Shortly after President Barack Obama pledged Saturday to end “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the Administration’s highest-ranking LGBT official said the White House is speaking with certain senators about strategies for repealing the policy -- specifically Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“On ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ this administration is talking directly to the Hill -- we are in direct discussions with Senator Lieberman,” John Berry, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, told The Advocate.

Read on.

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2009/10...

Incredible promotional video.

"The entire financial services industry got a regulatory nastygram from the administration at 2 p.m. today when President Obama unveiled his proposal for financial regulatory reform legislation, urging Congress to pass the package by year's end.

In the hot seat are the financial institutions that peddled risky loans, crummy credit card terms, over-the-counter derivatives, and those pesky credit default swaps -- products and practices that, in words Obama used earlier this year, triggered "a cascade of mistakes and missed opportunities" that resulted in economic crisis.

Today's message: Sorry, boys, regulation is back."

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/10/0...


Tell them what you think, WH looking for citizen input:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/calling-all-inve...

"Baucus says, "It has been more than 22 years since the Finance Committee met for eight days" on a single bill. "


"it's worth pointing out that the minority is out in force. Every Republican on the committee appears to be present and accounted for. At the same time, the only Democrats sitting in right now are Baucus, Rockefeller, Lincoln, Wyden, Bill Nelson, and Menendez."


"Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) lowers the boom on health insurers and the fraudulent report they released yesterday, attacking the Finance bill "The insurance industry should be ashamed of [the PricewaterhouseCooper] report... it's frankly a powerful argument for...a public plan."



"PricewaterhouseCooper has admitted that the controversial report they released yesterday is accurate inasmuch as it analyzed only those provisions that would have the effect of increasing health insurance costs, without factoring in the countervailing provisions that would decrease those costs. It's a bit like noting that the Red Sox scored six runs last night, without noting that the Angels scored seven, knocking the Sox out of the post-season."

liveblogging of Finance Cmte meeting


http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/sena...

Good Morning Wee Family...

I will be posting something similar to this later on today, especially concerning John Harwood.

Booman as always expresses my sentiments exactly.

You tell 'em Booman.

Can I Vent?
Yesterday was probably the most embarrassing day yet for the progressive blogosphere during the short reign of the Obama administration. So, now is probably a good time to just let loose and register my disgust with the movement I've been a part of for the last five years.
If you supported Obama during the primaries, you know who you are and this does not necessarily apply to you. For the rest of you, you spent the primaries either shilling for Clinton and telling us our guy was all talk and no show, or you spent them bitching that David Plouffe wouldn't respond to and obey your emailed wisdom. As soon as he won the presidency, you started bitching about his appointments. As soon as he became president, you started bitching about his messaging, his framing, his agenda, and his lack of deference to your opinion. I want to know where the point was in this process when Obama was supposed to conclude that you were his allies and that you were responsible for his victory. When was he supposed to conclude that he owed you something, or that you had any respect for him, or that you credited his good intentions, or that you understood the myriad responsibilities of the job might mean that your pet issues might have to wait six months, a year, or two years to get to the top of his agenda.

You call him a warmonger, but he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. He ends torture and allows his Attorney General to investigate it, and you call him a torturer. He tries to enact health care reform with a robust public option and you accuse him of seeking every opportunity to sell-out to the insurance industry. He bails out the cratering financial services industry and prevents a second Great Depression, and you accuse him of selling his soul to corporate CEO's. I'm not saying that all of these criticisms lack validity. I'm not saying that people shouldn't advocate for the things they care about passionately. I just want to know where you get the fucking idea that an anonymous White House staffer who gets asked about all this criticism would feel obligated to show you deference and respect.

What's he supposed to say? That all the criticism is right on the mark?

The truth of the matter is, right or wrong, the progressive blogosphere has been a more severe and on point critic of the Obama administration than any teabagger. And, in many ways, that is to the community's credit. We don't embrace the cheerleader's role and that gives us more credibility. When the president screws up, we're willing to call him on it. But, Jesus Christ, do you expect the administration to lie down and say, 'Thank you, sir, may I have another'?

If you berate them for not closing Guantanamo fast enough, not ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell fast enough, not evacuating Iraq fast enough, not passing a health care bill fast enough, and so on...do you not expect one their number to at some point push back and point out that making these kind of changes takes time and is a bit difficult?

And, where the hell do you get off taking it personally? Aren't you the ones accusing them of being whores to the insurance industry and Wall Street and the military-industrial complex? Do you think they are going to find that criticism generous and well-intended?

Criticism is fine. But the sense of entitlement involved here is staggering. Ooh, some big, bad White House adviser defended the administration against one more heated attack. My feelings are hurt. Guess what? You should get over it.

I think the White House is willing to listen to criticism from their allies. From you? Not so much.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/10/13/1...

Great post. What I find funny is that these are the same people who say that the people they criticize are thin skinned if the don't positively react to their criticism. I guess they can dish it out, but can't take it.

Criticism is fine. But the sense of entitlement involved here is staggering


AINT THAT THE DAMN TRUTH!!!!!!! That sense of entitlement really gets under my skin! I'm so sick of these folks, OOOOOOOOOOOO....he really broke that down!

Check 'em, Boo!!

In other words, President Barack Hussein Obama is NOT your nigger!

Couldn't have said it better myself. I cut back on reading most of those blogs a long time ago because of the nonstop pouting, backseat driving, and Chicken Little panicking that went down during the campaign. Stopped altogether when they started bitching about was PBO was/was not doing a week (a week ?!?) after the election and saying he's not much better than Bush. And now these folks have the nerve to be offended with they finally get called out on it? Grow up.

I am sooooo SICK of the 'progressive' blogosphere!!

They are nothing but PUMA's every single one of them. If you check their blogs during the time of the primaries they were all HRC supporters. None of them wanted Obama, not even when it was clear in February following SuperTuesday that there was NO WAY HRC could be the nominee...she simply never led with delegates but those fauxgressives...decided they would use actual votes to keep HRC hoisted on a dillusional pedastal.

They are STILL angry and resentful that Obama won...which is why they spewed all that hate about the NobelPeacePrize...to them it represented just another time that Obama won when he should not have.

They never ever look at the facts...I mean commonsense would tell them...the man has to be doing a helluva lot right...cause you just don't keep winning if you are really a loser.

President BarackHusseinObama is a winner...clear and simple...and they hate that!

Well, well, well. Now I know where Webb disappeared to yesterday. A promo video? That's pretty major for a blog! Nice work!

Thanks CG, didn't mean to disappear--I helped Barry out with it.

Yep!

WEE got Rhythm!!

Barry

Love the promo video! You did great. You're just too cool!:)

Thanks SG2, Glad You Like.

Insurance Dispute Heats Up Before Vote
Industry Group, White House Spar Over Premiums

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Tensions between the White House and insurers exploded into open warfare Monday, with the two sides arguing over what the financial impact of comprehensive health-care legislation moving through Congress would be for average Americans.

As the Senate Finance Committee prepared to vote Tuesday on a 10-year, $829 billion bill, the insurance lobby warned that under the legislation insurance premiums could rise faster and higher than projected.

The Obama administration said the industry analysis was deeply flawed, and its allies lambasted the industry for hypocrisy and an "11th-hour attack" intended to rob President Obama of a victory on his top domestic priority.

"Health insurance companies have been laughing all the way to the bank for generations while people suffer," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) "The industry stands today as the greatest impediment to real health-care reform."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

This is some REAL mess!!! HightensionDRAMA!

and this is HISTORIC...not since 1912 has a Healthcare Bill gotten this far!!

Landmark VOTE today!!

"The finance panel's vote marks a watershed in the quest to overhaul the country's health-care system. Not since Theodore Roosevelt proposed universal health care during the 1912 presidential campaign has any such bill come this far. "

So you best believe the insurers are pulling out all the stops...fearmongering too!!


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

Kewl promo video, Webb!

Can't wait to see who our first guess blogger will be!

Thanks Sepia, i'm looking forward to seeing the guest blogger too.

Wow..just wow!!

This new site is FABULOUS....so glad I found it.

That promo is FANTASTIC!!

Thanks Whiterosebuddy, nice 2 meet ya!

Hello wrb,

Welcome! I agree with you, the promo is fantabulous!

Heeey SG and Shanti!!

Morning y'all

Welcome to WSY, whiterosebuddy! :-)

This segment from JonStewart is just awesome...he skewers the MSM, specifically CNN...I have had these same thoughts many times watching the news...they just don't fact check anymore.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/daily-...

Great promo

Thanks MsKitty!

No pressure. LOL.

LoL, no pressure.

Hello RoseMontague!

Good seeing you this morning. Post away... :)

Loving the video promo of WEESEEYOU! It's A New Day!

I gleefully anticipate the arrival and post of our first Guest Blogger. :-)

Thanks Shanti!

I think the video promo is great too!

Glad you like PBomb!