Remembering 9-11
I have to give him all the due credit: Obama gave a great speech yesterday.
Obama calls for unity as America remembers the 9/11 dead
Americans marked the eighth anniversary of the September 11 atrocities yesterday with modest ceremonies and a call from their President to rediscover the “common purpose” they found after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
In New York, relatives of each of the hijackers’ victims read out their names at Ground Zero, in keeping with tradition. Some offered short remembrances of their loved ones.
World Trade Center’s steel beam to be part of 9/11 memorial
After terrorist attacks, the ‘last column’ became a place where emergency responders and family members taped notes and photos of lost loved ones.
What actually happened after that ominous day?
Eight Years after 9/11: The Bloody Legacy of Cheney’s Failures
After 9/11, Dick Cheney took the reins in America. The ‘war on terror’ was his idea, and it led to real wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — and to the torture he approved and defends. While Cheney is writing a memoir to influence how people see his role, the rest of the world would just prefer to get on with cleaning up his mess — with him out of the picture.
Health Care (Pseudo-)Reform
Obama takes the show on the road. I’m giving him credit to showing some willingness to fight for his policy, whatever it is at this point.
Obama to push health care plan at Minnesota rally
President Barack Obama, citing new government data showing that nearly half of all Americans live without health insurance in a 10-year period, says the situation will only worsen without the overhaul legislation he wants Congress to send him.
Politics
At least some see the value of Hillary Clinton idea of giving a lot of weight to women’s plight around the world.
The potential in Hillary Clinton’s global campaign for women
Women’s rights are becoming a signature issue for America’s top diplomat. In her official travels, Mrs. Clinton talks with women, meets with female activists, and presses the twin challenges of women’s rights and abuse with political leaders. She wants US development aid to focus more on women, and has appointed the first US ambassador for global women’s issues.
The Bush administration, too, championed women’s rights, especially in Muslim countries such as Afghanistan. But no secretary of State has sought to make women as high a priority as Clinton is attempting. It’s a potentially powerful shift. If she can pull it off.
The only thing you are not allowed to be in the vicinity of Obama and his administration is a Liberal. The only group not allowed to loudly express its wishes on policy matters is the progressive block ( such as “Progressives shouldn’t ruin health care reform by insisting on the public option”). As Glenn Ford from Black Agenda Report puts brilliantly it: “The president behaves as if progressives are his primary problem in forging a grand, ‘nonpartisan’ consensus.”
The Van Jones Affair: An “Unfriendly Environment” for Progressives at the White House
A shining progressive star of the Obama administration was unceremoniously dismissed to satisfy the McCarthyites of the GOP. But it must be noted that “Glenn Beck didn’t fire Van Jones, Obama did.” Jones’ “talents are best put to use outside of this ‘progressive-unfriendly’ administration.”
Sorry Dakinikat. It looks like the anti-Obama sentiment will save David Vitter.
Obama Factor Plays to Tarnished Senator’s Advantage
What came as a surprise to many here is how he became a strong early favorite going into his 2010 re-election race. That turnabout is largely due to one person. “Along comes Obama,” said Elliott Stonecipher, a political analyst and demographer based in Shreveport, “and it changed everything.”
It is difficult to overstate President Obama’s unpopularity in most of Louisiana. He lost handily to Senator John McCain here, picking up only 14 percent of the white vote (the state is roughly two-thirds white). His health care plan is unpopular. His cap-and-trade plan to reduce greenhouse gases, in a state so dependent on oil and gas, is anathema.
Around The Nation
Looks like Annie Leibowitz can breathe a sigh of relief.
Annie Leibovitz avoids bankruptcy
The celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz has avoided bankruptcy after she bought back control of her photographs and homes following a renegotiation of a $24 million loan from a finance company that was threatening to take them from her.
Is this senseless violence ever going to stop? I’m afraid I know the answer but I hope I’m wrong.
Antiabortion Activist Shot to Death
A 33-year-old man fatally shot an antiabortion activist Friday outside a high school as horrified parents and students watched, authorities said. When police arrested him, the gunman said he was involved in the killing of a gravel pit owner earlier that day.
The law is the law, even if it’s a silly one.
Dismissed marijuana charge raises judge’s ire
A federal judge says Andrew M. Sullivan, the British author, editor, and political commentator, did not deserve preferential treatment from prosecutors who dropped a marijuana possession charge after the journalist was recently caught smoking a joint on a federally owned beach on Cape Cod.
Economy Watch
(Shamelessly stolen from Barry Ritholtz)
No kidding, Larry.
Summers: Unemployment Will Remain ‘Unacceptably High’ for Years
Summers said that while there has been substantial normalization in the economy, financial conditions in commercial real estate continue to struggle, and “the availability of capital to small businesses remain very tight and credit is in short supply.”
In news that the financial markets will no doubt find interesting, Summers said that the Obama administration officials have no interest in “prematurely withdrawing public support for credit flow” — tax dollars to encourage financial institution loans to citizens and businesses. The former Treasury Secretary for President Bill Clinton argued withdrawing support too quickly would repeat mistakes made by Japan during its fabled “Lost Decade” and the U.S. in 1937 and 1938.
Oh noes! If this goes the way “health-care reform”, I can already see the result: The financial industry would love the proposal, the consumers would be crying their eyeballs out, Right-wing freaks will be screaming about “government takeover of finance, socialism, death panels”.
Obama launches push for financial regulatory reform
The Obama administration is launching a broad push for action on financial regulatory reform, returning to a key legislative priority even as the debate over healthcare consumes the U.S. Congress.
President Barack Obama’s speech in New York on Monday, a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers led to a worldwide financial crisis, will push for further measures to safeguard the financial system, officials said.
Wall Streets is already shaking in its boots, in anticipation of the (cough cough) “reform”.
A Year After a Cataclysm, Little Change on Wall St.
One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the surprise is not how much has changed in the financial industry, but how little.
Backstopped by huge federal guarantees, the biggest banks have restructured only around the edges. Employment in the industry has fallen just 8 percent since last September. Only a handful of big hedge funds have closed. Pay is already returning to precrash levels, topped by the 30,000 employees of Goldman Sachs, who are on track to earn an average of $700,000 this year. Nor are major pay cuts likely, according to a report last week from J.P. Morgan Securities. Executives at most big banks have kept their jobs. Financial stocks have soared since their winter lows.
A really nice analysis.
Doubt, Worry and Fear: New York Faces Dramatic Consequences of Crisis
The global financial crisis began in Manhattan, and its effects are being felt far more strongly there than elsewhere. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the situation is critical. Millions are fighting to keep their jobs. Is what is happening in New York today a harbinger of the fate of the rest of the world?
A billion here, a billion there. Who cares. Just watch Paulson and his Treasury Department, along with Congress play with Monopoly money. This can’t be real.
Good Billions After Bad
As the Bush administration waned, the Treasury shoveled more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in tarp funds into the financial system—without restrictions, accountability, or even common sense. The authors reveal how much of it ended up in the wrong hands, doing the opposite of what was needed.
[…]
[O]nce the money left the building, the government lost all track of it. The Treasury Department knew where it had sent the money, but nothing about what was done with it. Did the money aid the recovery? Was it spent for the purposes Congress intended? Did it save banks from collapse? Paulson’s Treasury Department had no idea, and didn’t seem to care. It never required the banks to explain what they did with this unprecedented infusion of capital.
Op-ed Columns
It’s Peggy Noonan, but “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while”.
The Children of 9/11 Grow Up
College students talk about how the attack shaped their lives.
Michael Pollan, author of the superb bestsellers “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” and “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” suggest we make the quality of our food ought part of any heath care reform. Process food is not very helpful
Big Food vs. Big Insurance
No one disputes that the $2.3 trillion we devote to the health care industry is often spent unwisely, but the fact that the United States spends twice as much per person as most European countries on health care can be substantially explained, as a study released last month says, by our being fatter. Even the most efficient health care system that the administration could hope to devise would still confront a rising tide of chronic disease linked to diet.
That’s why our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take on and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry.
George McGovern has a simple solution, but I’m afraid it’s one of those crazy Liberal ideas.
It’s Simple: Medicare for All
Around The World
Shorter Berlusconi: “So what if I like pretty young babes? Even if I’m 150 years old.”
Berlusconi Rejects Swipes at His Lifestyle
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Thursday rejected criticism that his government had been weakened by months of scrutiny over his personal life, and defended his penchant for “beautiful women.”
I remember that some doofus “looked into [Putin’s] soul” and presumably saw great things. So rejoice: He’s here to stay.
Vladimir Putin hints that he could return to lead Russia until 2024
Vladimir Putin has given his strongest hint yet that he is considering a return to the Kremlin, a move that could allow the combative Russian leader to stay in power until 2024.
Speaking at the Novo-Ogaryovo official residence outside Moscow, Mr Putin insisted that swapping places with Dimitri Medvedev, the President, was no more sinister than the Labour leadership agreement in which Gordon Brown took Tony Blair’s job.
Did Netanyahu go hiking the Appalachian trail?
Netanyahu mystery trip sets off flap in Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu dropped out of sight for most of a day this week, a mysterious absence that has set off feverish speculation about what the Israeli leader was up to—and accusations he lied to cover up a clandestine trip to Moscow.
After initially issuing a vague statement about visiting a top-secret Mossad installation inside Israel, Netanyahu kept silent Thursday as reports emerged that he flew to Moscow aboard a private jet for urgent talks on Iran.
what a sad ending!
Ex–Taiwan President Chen Sentenced to Life
It was a dramatic fall from grace for the man once called the “Son of Taiwan.” Former President Chen Shui-bian and First Lady Wu Shu-chen were sentenced to life in prison by the Taipei District Court on Friday, nine years after Chen became the first politician from Taiwan’s long-time opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to take the island’s top post.
From The World of Science
It’s a tough tough world out there if you don’t fit the “norm” as the rest of us know it
‘I was treated like a circus sideshow’
Janet (who wishes to remain anonymous) knows how Caster Semenya feels. She describes the trauma of growing up in the medical hinterland between the sexes
[…]
A diagnosis of intersex is made when a person is genetically, biologically or physically different from the accepted norms. True hermaphrodites, with both sets of genitals, exist only in mythology, and the term is loathed by sufferers, who consider it medically inaccurate and demeaning.
However, some babies are born with ambiguous genitals which leave their sex unclear. They may resemble those of a female with a large clitoris and the labia fused together, or they may look like those of a male with a small penis and an empty scrotum. Surgery may be carried out so the baby can be assigned as either male or female.
Others are born with genetic abnormalities. The sex of a baby is established in the womb according to whether they have an XX chromosome pair (female) or XY (male). The commonest gender disorders are chromosomal abnormalities such as Turner’s syndrome (X0, where the second X chromosome is missing), which affects one in 10,000 girls, and Klinefelter’s syndrome (XXY or XXXY) affecting one in 1,000 boys.
Odds & Ends
At least it has to be worth it.
Man steals beer, demands to finish it before going to jail
A man arrested for stealing a beer became argumentative when the deputy wouldn’t let him finish the beer before he went to jail.
Never get a woman mad. Imagine what can happen if you get 3 against you.
Women face trial for staged motel tryst ending with glued penis
A Wisconsin judge ruled there is enough evidence for four women to stand trial for their roles in a staged motel tryst that ended with a man tied to a bed, his penis super-glued to his stomach, a lawyer for one of the women said Wednesday.
[…]
The 37-year-old man, who is in custody on charges in an unrelated case, delivered his testimony wearing an orange jailhouse jumpsuit.“I was telling them they couldn’t do this, that it’s assault. Hello, let me leave,” the alleged victim said
When is Riverdaughter moving in? Didn’t Mark Penn show how much money bloggers with a certain number of hits were making? We’ve passed 7 million hits.
Hip-hop stars make Alpine, New Jersey, the richest place you’ve never heard of
Forget about West Palm Beach or Beverly Hills. The super-rich have a new favourite playground. A little-known cliff-top community in New Jersey has become the most expensive place to live in the US with lavish mansions on tree-lined boulevards commanding an average sale price of $4.14m
HAVE A NICE SATURDAY!!!
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The Confluence 
Good morning, MABlue!
I know you meant David Vitter. How on earth can that guy face his Senate colleagues when he knows that they know he hired a hooker to spank him while he wore diapers? Maybe because a lot of his colleagues wear diapers too? I just don’t get it. How do we end up with such idiots controlling our public policy?
Because the voters are even bigger idiots.
Oh yes. It was a typo. Thx.
That’s a great question. Maybe some of them know what that’s like. (I mean the spanking and all the rest).
Americans marked the eighth anniversary of the September 11 atrocities yesterday with modest ceremonies and a call from their President to rediscover the “common purpose” they found after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
What common purpose? Discriminating against Arabs and Hindus and other funny talking brown people?
Or is he planning on invading another country that had nothing to do with the attacks?
Come on, myiq. Our *common purpose* is to support the giant corporations by sacrificing our minds, bodies, and souls to feed their endless, all-encompassing greed.
There was an opportunity in that tragedy and Bush squandered it.
Very much so….However Bush 2 Inc saw a diffirent opportunity and did not squandered it .
Not just discriminating, hating. In certain circles, it’s the socially acceptable form of bigotry.
I’m really happy for Annie Liebowitz. That’s great news.
Did POTUS make it to NY yesterday? Seems like the.appropriate thing to do.
No – iirc Obama delivered his 9/11 speech at the Pentagon.
There was an attack at the Pentagon too, you know. Many people from the Boston area were on the planes. There were memorials here too. And in PA.
The Failbots have found a new crusade to spend their time and money on. Not ending the war, health care reform or global warming. Not even something mundane but useful like fighting illiteracy.
They are determined to defeat Joe Wilson because he called Teh Precious a liar.. They’ve already raised a $1 million
Good!
a PPP poll yesterday had 62% of Wilson’s constituents opposing his outburst. However, it will be an up hill climb for Miller because that district is VERY Fox News and GOP.
Holder refuses to hold Bush DOJ official accountable for lying to Congress!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/11/AR2009091102238_Comments.html
Here’s detailed info on the cretin —
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012304133_pf.html
Holder’s messages are it’s OK to lie to Congress – AND it’s OK to wield an intimidating weapon outside a polling precinct!
ugh
You realize the trap we are in: we want our government to come up with solutions to health care, financial risk taking that takes us down, unemployment, stagnant wages and the list goes on. But it is not our government and has not been for a long, long time. The reality is that in a global economy global corporations do not need American workers to make huge profits. They may no longer need the American consumer. When Chinese, Indian and African billions become the global economic consumer market ,as they are, then we are more and more irrelevant. The global corporations just need the US government to protect their profitability and stay out of their way.
If we can not get solutions that work for us from our government, then where do we go? what do we do? How could we create the equivalent of a single-payer health care system without the government? Could we create a consumer – we-the- people corporation? Can we do anything other than sit around and say—God ain’t it awful?
I think we’re post-relevant. I recently re-watched the movie The Corporation and I frankly don’t see how we can ever get the globe back.
jangles, I am in need of something positive and constructive too. I know where I have placed a modicum of hope. Where do you find it?
Right now I am coming up crickets.
I always think of Billy Mays
I’m just giving him credit for going out there and fight for his healthcare plan. So far, he has been comfortably sitting back and letting others go do the fighting, although no one really knew what he wanted. I still don’t know, even after THE speech.
The 9-11 speech from yesterday was actually good. I read it.
I can’t give him credit for fighting to bail out the insurance companies with blood money from poor people. Sorry, no can do.
Which health care plan?
I liked Obama’s health care speech. Although he didn’t mention the “public option”, he promoted it.
But I don’t understand – what part of his speech negated the public option to the point of critics claming it’s off the table?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/obama-health-care-speech_n_281265.html
https://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/and-you-wonder-why-we-cant-have-a-public-option/
OK – thanks.
I just keep wondering how longggggg Obama will be open to “new ideas” – which seems to be code for critics to negate the public option.
He lied repeatedly through the speech–what’s to love, his faux-preacher delivery? Ick.
Really???
Has any Obama speech ever made a difference?
To quote myiq2xu.
Show me the goods. Save a life that would’ve died for lack of healthcare.
Amen!
So did Obama … off the teleprompter.
Yep…just like Billy Mays
I noticed this too. Obama is out “fighting” for this piece of crap because he knows his legacy depends on it. It is Obama fighting for his own legendary status IMO. He sold out real reform early on. He always fights hard when it’s about his own image.
You forgot the lasting effect of bestest speech: Joe Wilson – day 3 – still going strong!
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/joe-wilson-part-deux/
Hopefully, Wilson’s outburst will be his “macaca.”
nagahappen~
S.C.’s Wilson Rakes In $750,000 in Less Than 48 Hours; Opponent Tops $1 Million
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/09/scs_wilson_rakes_in_750000_in.html
Hey, I don’t have a problem with someone yelling that Obama is a “liar.” He is.
I mad it a point not to post ANY item on Wilson. He’s a little imbecile and I don’t think he deserves so much attention.
We have a president, not a king. Congress members hold constitutional offices just like the POTUS
How come when the POTUS makes a speech in front of Congress they don’t get to ask questions afterward? You see the POTUS take questions from the media (and even members of the public at Potemkin town halls.)
MOC’s aren’t even allowed to dissent or protest. They are supposed to either sit silently or perform multiple standing ovations. If congress can’t penetrate the bubble of sycophancy that surrounds the POTUS what about the rest of us?
Presidential speeches and addresses to Congress are nothing but propaganda these days. If Congress can’t do anything but agree with POTUS or STFU they might as well stay home and watch the speech on television. (That way they can play drinking games too)
Decorum and politeness are nice but us foul mouthed bloggers don’t use them and we do fine.
What’s really amusing is that nobody is talking about Obama’s greatest speech ever (until the next one) they are talking about Joe Wilson.
And after all the hubbub about Wilson, Baucus caves to GOP and gives Wilson a leg to stand on…funny that.
{{{applauding}}}
That was front-page worthy my friend
whenever I see the TOTUS on TV I scream “you lie” too.
My screams are incoherent venting of rage. That’s why they took away my television privileges.
Are you censoring our morning news?
Weekly news quiz —
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4250964
Horrible. I hope the bank exec get fired.
Did Wells Fargo Exec Party in Bank-Owned Malibu Beach House?
Banker Squatted in Foreclosed Home Abandoned by Couple Swindled by Madoff
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/wells-fargo-exec-parties-bank-owned-malibu-spread/story?id=8551403
George McGovern has a simple solution, but I’m afraid it’s one of those crazy Liberal ideas.
It’s Simple: Medicare for All
Where was this article in May?? or earlier in the summer? Since such ideas are long gone off the table , exactly what is the point of publishing it now ?
To remind us of what has been pushed aside?
I still don’t understand why Democrats started the discussion by shortchanging themselves.
Has anyone in that gang ever taken Negotiation 101?
Maybe those who believe the intend was NEVER to truly reform health care have a point.
They intended a ” reform” all right … But the reform they intend was even more dollars into the insurance compaines straining coffers .
Oh, they’ve got their negotiations chops on.
Bingo
He may not be anywhere near the list of my favorite economists, But Greg Mankiw makes a great catch in THE Speech:
I took that to mean that once it becomes clear that the deficit is going to increase, Obama will use that as his chance to get rid of Social Security. That way he can achieve the dream of his favorite President, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
The TEA partiers, comprised mostly of Repubs, don’t seem to realize they’re protesting Bush’s negligence that got us into this financial and housing mess.
Just saw a TEA party sign at the protest in DC today –
“Forclose on the White House” – possibly written by a “moran”?
I find the tea partay vision of government rather myopic. That said, there was some conservative anger at the time of Bush bailouts too. So there’s that. I still don’t get their politics. Now the elected members of the GOP on the other hand, how they can talk about Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility with a straight face is really something. Where were they when Bush was making a mess for the next president to clean up? And, for that matter what were Harry Reid and Nancy “impeachment is off the table” Pelosi doing in Congress after the Dems took control of both houses?
But that’s the beauty of well written and played kabuki. It only appears that a mess was made and left for the next president to “clean up.” In this case, they’ve skillfully moved from one scene to the next and their new leading man is ready to carry out and complete what was begun by the prior.
The only change that happened in 2008 was a PR change.
Yeah, they went from Ronald McDonald to Billy Mays
Don’t get me wrong, the barrier broken was long overdue to be broken and while the way it was overcome wasn’t a way that earned my vote, I was still glad to see that barrier become a thing of the past. But, it’s lulled people nto thinking we have fundamental change from Bush policies when in fact we don’t.
The teaparties misplace anger. It’s just more of Government is the problem but it’s only the problem because Republicans have screwed up things so badly they’ve made it a problem. Meanwhile, the real robber barons are pickpocketing the teaparty people while they’re protesting. They’re mistaken government incompetency and their watchdog and regulation role as theft. If we got corporate money out of politics, it would solve so much.
At least the teaparty people are protesting. At least they are deeply skeptical about the bailouts of Wall St., GM etc. At least they question any idea that O is a saint and a savior.
Of course they’re protesting – there’s a Democrat (DINO) in the Oval Office.
Protests lose their effectiveness when the protesters at bat-shit crazy and dumber than a bag of hammers.
“Stop the government takeover of Medicare!”
Republicans certainly screwed things up during Bush II but when I read about the Dem involvement in Fannie and Freddie and see their cuddling up to K St. I don’t think they get a pass. I would not call the management of the O admin. much of an improvement to date.
oops. I just wrote my post, and then saw yours Jangles, which states almost the same thing. I concur…
But it is NOT just the Republicans. The Dems had both houses of Congress, and Frank, Dodd and Co. were the ones instrumental in the Fannie/Freddie mess that was at the heart of the toxic asset implosion. And now, who is bailing out the corporations–the White House and both Dem houses of Congress. I am not defending the nightmare of the Bush years, but it is not accurate to turn it all into the “evil” Republicans.
I also do not agree with the dismissal of 1.2-2 million estimated people (of course WAPO described it as “tens of thousands” the way they used to minimize the anti-war protests) that showed up to protest today as all tea party right wing nutbags. They are American citizens. Many of them are good people who are afraid because the middle class is being devastated. Both parties enable that with their mouths at the corporate teet.
The whole fuss about illegals getting health care may be mute:
Mexico Offers Health Insurance to Migrants in the United States
http://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/121/33350/mexico-offers-health-insurance-migrants-united-states.html
Looks like Mexico is about to provide universal health care and a public option.
Meanwhile, lots of Americans are going to Mexico for reasonably priced health care, as I posted in the news links yesterday.
I just want to say that I feel really bad for Caster Semenya. Whatever physical anomalies she may have, her identity is that of a girl. She is still only a teenager. Her greatest achievement has been tarnished for her. People are saying things that they do not really know about. I read that she must not have ovaries and she must know this. The only way you would know is by never having a period. Athletes frequently do not have periods, and for it to begin in adolescence, you must have a certain amount of body fat. I was an athletic girl (not world class either) and did not even start periods until I was her age. (Personally, I thought it was great to not have to deal with all that.) I felt unfeminine because I was firm instead of soft. Oh, now that is what people want to be. In my twenties I was asked to do fashion modeling and even pin-up modeling. (Neither appealed to me.) Even though I have done research and published on adolescent sexuality, I do not consider myself an expert. I certainly do not consider the people pointing to her as too masculine to be any kind of experts.
I really wonder what all this must feel like for an 18 yrs old from some township in South Africa.
It’s really sad.
They love her in South Africa. I think the media coverage has been disgusting. She’s not a “hermaphrodite.”
I think it’s really sad, too. All this publicity, the invasion of her privacy, and now they’re going to take away her medal. I really can’t think of anything worse for a teen ager to go thru. I hope she can face all of this head on and come out strong.
plus, being transsexed is a challenge in any society, I can’t imagine this is going to be easy for her as she lives her life.
What would be really cool is if a bunch of female athletes decided to stand by her, to treat her as someone who has a disability that perhaps disqualifies her technically but still makes her accomplishments something worth celebrating, perhaps even more so because she has a lot to deal with.
It’s really a shame that gender matters so much in athletics and sports. I don’t know how you change it, but I think we need to. I wish we had classes and divisions, like heavy weights and lightweights instead of simply male and female.
People are really cruel. I hope she has a support system able to let her that the problem isn’t her, the problem is people’s understanding of things.
COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY.
Banks are pumping govt bailouts into stocks instead of lending. The systemic problems have not changed.
They’re using it buy bank stocks and merge themselves into oligopoly/cartel status so they have huge market shares and can earn huge profits and do what they want to their customers.
This article is about Feinstein’s skepticism of Obama’s numbers, but this passage below caught my eye. Why is it that when this charlatan puts on his best vaudeville show, people just suspend critical thinking and cheer? It angers me that he gets away with it, and his ego gets another big boost, despite his lies and hypocrisies. “I have a gift,” he told Harry Reid. Yea, the gift of bamboozlement.
Feinstein skeptical about health care costs
Polls show gains
There is little doubt that Obama made gains with his speech. Polls showed a double-digit bump in public support. Democrats appear re-energized. Pelosi indicated for the first time that she is open to compromise on the public option, a signal that liberal Democrats will fall in line.
“This is about a goal. It’s not about provisions,” Pelosi said, echoing Obama’s lead. But she also postponed any House vote until the Senate Finance Committee passes its long-delayed bill, an acknowledgement that it will be the template.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/09/12/MNBR19LPMV.DTL
Why on earth do more people on the left not get that the Baucus BS is the template? They listen to that speech and hear a defense of liberalism and think all their pushing him paid off…………..wtf?
They only hear the end of the speech, Dear Barack from Teddy.
A double digit bump? Have people lost their minds. Do they believe that this mess is going to pay for itself? That there will be no addition to the deficit? Do they not get that the payments for this pile of crap and the cutbacks in medicare start in 2010 an the limited benefits will not begin until 2013?
Well thank O and all the above that at least the employees of Goldman are back at work at their highest salaries with no worries about getting taxed on their “cadillac” healthcare.
Obama on 60 minutes (airs tomorrow):
What a crock, if the “reform” doesn’t go in effect until 2013 and doesn’t fully roll out until 2018, then what incentive does he have to get it right?
The “patriots” among us who have gathered in DC are live on c-span if anyone’s interested. Dick Armey is speaking now. Pffft.
It is too bad that the teaparty protests have become so co-opted by the right. I think in the townhall phase there was a pretty broad range of protesting going on. I think a whole lot of ordinary folks get it real clear that trillions of taxpayer $$$ have gone to bail out the very people who caused all this, the average joe has lost any sense of security and is struggling to hang on by a thread. I think a whole lot of ordinary people get that they are going to pay and pay and pay to save the cajones of the perps.
You’re right, lots of ordinary people do know what’s happening and want some outlet. The Right will give them that outlet. The Left could do the same except for one basic problem. While they love ordinary folks as a group, they really don’t seem to like ordinary people as individuals. It’s hard to call someone an ally while you’re looking down your nose at them.
I’d be out of place at a Tea Party holding up a sign that said “Obama is Bush III” while explaining to people that Obama IS NOT a socialist.
Then some wingnut would call me an Obot and it would be on.
“I am no more of an Obot than you are a communist.”
“Did you just call me a commie you pinko sumbitch?
🙂
enter the clowns…
bo.s law firm
Diddee Scerwimm and Howwe…