Monday Morning News and Views

Hurricane Ida batters coast of Cancun, Mexico

Good Morning, Conflucians! This morning more than ever, I’m so grateful for all of you, and so glad we have this blog where we can discuss, argue and rant about politics and news events. I can’t begin to imagine what I would have done with out TC and all of you Conflucians over the past couple of years. Thank you all for being here! I hope you have a marvelous Monday, despite the bad news.

This has been a very tough weekend to be a liberal who saw through Obama from the beginning when so many other other people who previously seemed sane and reasonable just gulped down the Koolaid and adjusted their blinders so as to see only “hope ‘n change” filtered through their rose-colored glasses. I don’t enjoy saying “I told you so” anymore. The consequences of electing an inexperienced, narcissistic, apparently amoral, misogynistic, homophobic man to the presidency are becoming all too clear. And those results are tragic.

From where I sit, the pain of the unconscionable betrayal of women by the President and the U.S. House of Representatives still feels fresh. Stateofdisbelief said it so well yesterday in a comment on Quixote’s post:

Yep. Last night was it for me. They can all pound. F#$K Sestak, F#$K Specter, F#$K Holden. I am done. No help. No phone calls. No canvassing. No money. No vote.

I hate them all.

There is no one that can argue with a straight face that women should vote for Democrats. There is nothing. They burnt the bridge.

It’s over for me too. I can never again consider myself a Democrat. We need a new party to represent those of us who were FDR, JFK, LBJ, WJC, HRC Democrats–there is no longer room in our former party for liberals who believe in equal rights for all and compassion for our fellow humans. Both of the parties now represent only the superrich and giant multinational banks and corporations. We’re on our own now. As Quixote wrote so eloquently:

But women are just, as always, the expendable canaries in the coal mine. Their rights are toast, which means so are everyone else’s.

I’m going to shout that: WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE TOAST WHICH MEANS SO ARE EVERYONE ELSE’S.

Rights are for all. When only some people have them, they’re just privileges. And privileges can be taken away….

The right to control one’s own person is fundamental. Even the right not to be murdered is secondary, since killing is allowed in self-defence.

So what’s happening in the news this morning? It’s hard for me to work up much enthusiasm for surfing the ‘net right now, but I’ll post a few links and you can add your own in the comments.

It looks like Hurricane Ida has weakened to a Category 1, so I hope Dakinikat and her fellow N’awlins citizens will be able to safely weather the storm. Fingers crossed.

Hurricane Ida chugged toward the Gulf Coast, and despite warnings extending more than 200 miles across several states, residents seemed to take the first Atlantic hurricane to target the U.S. this season in stride.

Authorities said the hurricane weakened early Monday to a Category 1 storm, with 90 mph winds, and could make landfall as early as Tuesday morning.

The New York Times has a very good story on the background of the shooting at Fort Hood.
Fort Hood Gunman gave signals Before his Rampage

Major Hasan’s behavior in the months and weeks leading up to the shooting bespeaks a troubled man full of contradictions. He lived frugally in a run-down apartment, yet made a good salary and spent more than $1,100 on the pistol the authorities said he used in the shootings.

He was described as gentle and kindly by many neighbors, quick with a smile or a hello, yet he complained bitterly to people at his mosque about the oppression of Muslims in the Army. He had few friends, and even the men he interacted with at the mosque saw him as a strange figure whom they never fully accepted into their circle.

It is beginning to look like Major Hasan was a very likely suffering from clinical depression at the very least. He had turned to his religion for solace, but he needed much more help than any religion could provide. Sadly, it appears that many of his superiors either ignored or simply did not notice the ominous signs and they did not listen to those who tried to warn them.

During his years in Washington, Major Hasan turned increasingly toward Islam, relatives and classmates said. In part, he was seeking solace after the death of his parents, in 1998 and 2001.

Mr. Hamad, the uncle, said Major Hasan took the death of his parents hard, isolating himself and delving into books on Islam rather than socializing. “But this was a few years ago, and I thought he had coped with it,” Mr. Hamad said.

Major Hasan also seemed to believe that his mosques could help him find a wife, preferably one of Arab descent, he told imams. Faizul Khan, the former imam at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md., said he knew women who had been interested in Major Hasan because he had a good job. But he did not find any of them pious enough, the imam said.

Though Major Hasan told his cousins that he planned to marry sometime this year, he was not known to have ever had a girlfriend, relatives said.

Hasan had had major misgivings about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since at least 2004.

During his time at Walter Reed and the Uniformed Services University, Major Hasan also became increasingly vocal in his opposition to the wars. He knew much about the harsh realities of combat from having counseled returning soldiers, and he was deeply concerned about having to deploy. But over the past five years, he also began openly opposing the wars on religious grounds.

A former classmate in the master’s degree program said Major Hasan gave a PowerPoint presentation about a year ago in an environmental health seminar titled “Why the War on Terror Is a War on Islam.” He did not socialize with his classmates, other than to argue in the hallways on why the wars were wrong.

The former classmate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of working for the military and not being authorized to speak publicly, said that some students complained to their professors about Major Hasan, but that no action had been taken. “It didn’t cross my mind that he was dangerous,” the former classmate said. “He’s a chubby, bald guy. He wasn’t threatening.”

I hope that this story will be carefully investigated and that information on the investigation will be readily available to the public and members of the military. It is essential that we learn as much as possible about what led up to this unprecedented event. This man killed or wounded more than 40 people on the largest military base in the U.S. Understanding how it could have happened and preventing such horrible events in the future is essential.

Here are a few links to the latest blog posts responding to the horrendous bill the House regurgitated on Saturday night.

Why this person is still at the Daily Cheeto, I can’t fathom: I’m Done Talking About Abortion, by Angry Mouse (Warning: this post has more than 1300 comments) Here’s an exerpt:

My autonomy is not about your religious beliefs. My autonomy is not about your “concerns.” My autonomy is not about your arbitrary belief that rape victims are entitled to reproductive health care, but women who “use it as contraception” or “change their minds” or “forget to use birth control” are somehow not entitled to reproductive health care.

I refuse to argue the minutia anymore. I refuse to beg for the right to be a full and equal citizen. I refuse to be taken for granted by the Democratic party, who tells me I have no choice but to vote Democrat in elections, and then congratulates itself for its big tent when it comes time to vote on legislation.

Don’t tell me how you feel about abortion. I don’t care how you feel about abortion.

Tell me how you feel about my rights. Tell me whether you believe I am a full and equal citizen. Tell me whether you really believe the Democratic party stands for women.

It is time for every member of the Democratic party to answer one simple question:

Do you believe in equal rights for women?

Amen, sister!

Open Left: Where Health Care Reform Stands Now: Who’s Selling Out Whom For What

For a long time I’ve read that the bright red line for many progressives was a robust public option. None of the bills, including the House bill, have [sic] a robust public option. In addition, the Stupak amendment removes practical access to abortions for many women.

It appears that the bright red line was not a robust public option. The bright red line was, and is, guaranteed issue. As long as a bill has guaranteed issue (in exchange for which insurance companies insist on an indvidual mandate, aka, cost sharing and forced customers) any other sacrifice is acceptable.

This health care “reform”, if passed in this form or worse, which it will be if it is passed at all, will blow apart eventually, because it will not contain costs or ‘bend the cost curve” and the US economy simply cannot indefinitely afford health care costs which rise faster than inflation or wages. But for as long as it lasts, it will help some people at the cost of other, generally younger and poorer people.

If progressives really meant that a robust public option was their minimum requirement, when Medicare +5 failed they would have gone into opposition. They didn’t, therefore it wasn’t their minimum requirement. It remains to be seen if enough progressives really will vote against a final bill which still contains the Stupak amendment. Given progressives failure to live up to their threats to pull support if no robust public option was in the bill, I am forced to suspect that if Stupak is in the final bill, the final bill will pass.

I can only hope the DINOs in the Senate will defeat this bill, but will our “pro-life” majority non-leader really pass up the change to restrict abortions for not only poor, but also middle class women?

Reclusive Leftist: Rachel Maddow is becoming post-rational

Murphy writes: If the Democrats won’t stand up for women, why should women stand up for the Democrats?

WHY THE HELL DO AMERICAN WOMEN NOT HAVE A CRITICAL MASS OF POWER IN WASHINGTON D.C. TO PROTECT EVEN BASIC FREEDOMS???

Turkana at The Left Coaster: No Celebrating Until EVERYONE Has Health Care

Marcia Angell, MD at Huffpo: Is the House Health Care Bill Better than Nothing?

It’s absolutely tragic that President Obama and most of our members of Congress do not agree with Hillary Clinton on the issue of equal rights for women.

UPDATE (h/t stateofdisbelief): The Urban Dictionary now has multiple “definitions” for the word Stupak.

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