Berlin Hauptbahnhof

Pictures from Germany, October 2010

Marmor Palais, Potsdam

Pictures from Germany, October 2010

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Bu$hCo DHHS: Politicizing kids’ health

Unbelievable.

On January 14, less than two weeks ago, Louisiana’s Democratic governor Kathleen Blanco left office as Republican Bobby Jindal was sworn in.

And guess what! An expansion of Louisiana’s children’s health insurance program the Feds resisted when Governor Blanco proposed it, is now suddenly A-OK!

State health Secretary Alan Levine said he’s optimistic that the state will win federal approval to expand its health insurance program for children after a Friday meeting in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials had balked at a similar proposal by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

Now those same officials appear receptive and gave the state some constructive ideas for making the plan approvable, Levine said in a telephone interview Friday.

Under the proposed expansion, children who live in homes with a family income of up to two-and-a-half times the federal poverty level (about $50,000 for a family of four) would receive coverage. The present state program covers children in homes with incomes up to twice the federal poverty level (about $40,000 for a family of four).

Apparently, when it comes to the health of children in a state with a Democratic governor,

Federal officials have been concerned about the impact an expansion would have on the federal budget shortfall as well as the potential of the program moving children from private to government insurance.


But it seems now, budget shortfalls and the scary, scary threat of Socialized Medicine are IOKIYAR (or more precisely, It's Okay If Your State Has A Republican Governor, or IOIYSHRG. Maybe that’s because Republicans are more in tune with the notion that government programs shouldn’t help people unless the corporatocracy has a chance to cash in:

Levine said federal officials seemed to want the state to use some health care dollars to purchase private insurance.

Oh, and this is scary. Be very, very afraid when a Bu$hCo hack wants to help you "re-tool" something:

Levine said Leavitt also offered to help the state in the "retooling, remodeling of our health care system."
Governor Blanco apparently got the same offer from Leavitt, but

Blanco rejected the plan Leavitt promoted as one that would leave too many uninsured Louisianans without health care coverage.

Leavitt wants more private sector involvement in the delivery of health care to the poor and uninsured. He advocates a move away from the charity-hospital based system.

And, no doubt, a move toward funneling more federal taxpayer money to the Bu$hCo corporate cronies in the health "care" biz.

It would take a whole new diary to adequately catalog the extent to which greedy partisan hacks have come to infect every corner of our Federal government under the Bush Administration, so why would you really expect the Department of Health and Human Services to be immune? Because the words "health" and "human" are in the name??

Monday, January 21, 2008

"...it is where we begin."

Sen. Barack Obama's speech Sunday, January 20 at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church; 33 minutes and well worth watching. I invite you to reflect on his theme of unity as "the great need of the hour", and how this relates to the many problems and challenges that face our country and our world.



Meanwhile, closer to home: a small Louisiana town prays for peace as a white supremacist group prepares to rally "against" Dr. King and the teenagers known as the Jena 6.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Conservative Clone Factory

Weird. Is there some kind of conservative borg-hive where they just stamp these guys out on an assembly line? But note that the HomoPhobot XL comes with a solid tie and flag lapel pin, while the Econotron 9000 has a striped tie (lapel pin sold separately, to increase profit margin).





Well, no matter how you slice 'n' dice the parade of stars that is the Republican presidential candidate lineup, Richard Viguerie's "three-legged stool" model for conservative electoral viability is looking very rickety these days. No matter how hard you try, one or two of the legs keeps falling out and it just doesn't seem safe to sit on anymore. Might be time to haul it out to the curb.

That's on full display here, where you see Club For Growth's Pat Toomey (representing the economic/greedy corporatist wing) duking it out with Family Research Council's Tony Perkins (of the social issues/wingnut wing). Toomey can barely spit out the name Huckabee, while Perkins seems to think that even mentioning Rudy! in the same sentence as the words "Republican nominee" could doom the country to the dreaded takeover by the Militant Gays. (Bonus! If you pull the string on the back of the HomoPhobot XL, it will say "The social conservatives took a hike and they came back with a Huck". Look for earlier HomoPhobot versions to be upgraded with this clever bit of programming).

After a few minutes of adolescent "neener-neener" squabbling over whose candidate is the real conservative, Tweety steps in and informs his interview subjects that the consensus candidate will be The Mitten, if not for president than for McCain's VP. Toomey is having none of it, and flashes Tweety the kind of look you give the guy who hogs all the food at your party, barfs on your rug, and then asks you for a ride home. Tony seems okay with a Mitten candidacy though...probably because Tony knows Mitt is really just an older model Econotron recently upgraded with the new HomoPhobot chipset.



Oh, and congratulations Mitt on your key endorsement Thursday from "The" Daily Kos!! So let's see, that makes two silvers, one gold, and one Orange!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Bill O'Reilly: Defender of the Constitution

Who knew?

First, how about a quick retrospective of some of BillO's finest moments in First Amendment advocacy:



Now, Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films have a new clip showing the now infamous (having been immortalized on Countdown Puppet Theatre) O'Reilly shoving incident. Nothing like watching a boor like O'Reilly accusing someone else of being "low class". The Greenwald clip then segues into a troubling reminder of what Fox is likely to have in store should Obama become the Democratic nominee: the madrassa smear, the bogus flag lapel pin hysteria, even accusations of being a Communist.

It's amazing that anybody actually watches Fox News (except out of morbid fascination, like the same reason people stop to look at car wrecks), but too many of our fellow citizens still buy the crap the Murdoch machine is selling. Hopefully the Ron Paul supporters can wake up a few more people to the journalistic travesty that is Fox News.

Don't forget to sign the petition expressing your support for Obama's continued refusal to appear on Fox. He's done pretty well for himself without them so far.


Monday, January 7, 2008

Chickens come home to roost at Faux Noize

After years of peddling their propaganda, Fox News reaps what they have sown. When you're pushing a blatantly political agenda, you can call it "news" all you want, but eventually you're gonna wind up pissing off the viewers who don't support your candidate of choice (Rudy!) and/or make those who support the candidate you're trying to bury (Ron Paul) really mad, as in near-riot mad. As in stalking Sean Hannity mad.

Is this more evidence of the widening rifts within the Republican Party? If Fox News provided a sort of "groupthink glue" that helped the thing hold together, then what does this portend?

Tell Cafferty what you think about Congress' fear of impeachment

Cross-posted at Daily Kos:


This hour's viewer question for the Cafferty File is:


6 p.m.: Why won't Congress impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney?

Write in and tell him what you think!

Late update: Jack's gone home for the day, but you can still read the article and post a comment about this subject on his
blog. Add your voice to the flood of comments already there, to let Jack know this is a story that matters to people. Who knows, maybe he will even convince The Beard to talk more about it.

The question was prompted by this weekend's
editorial in the Washington Post, in which George McGovern calls for the impeachment of both Bush and Cheney.

Is it possible that the impeachment movement is finally gaining the notice of the corporate-owned media? Recall that Congressman Robert Wexler had a heck of a time getting anyone to publish his editorial on impeachment, just a few short weeks ago. Is it possible that 182,687 (as of right now--sign if you haven't done so already; he is trying for a quarter-million signatures before Congress reconvenes) people signing Wexler's petition calling for impeachment hearings, made the COM sit up and take notice?

Ouch. Cafferty on right now, reading some of the
scathing responses. Keep it up everybody! Impeachment has to be a people-powered movement, since the beltway establishment obviously doesn't want to touch it. The Clinton impeachment had most of its support inside the beltway, that's a big part of why it failed. The Nixon impeachment proceedings drove him from power because the people got behind it. Now if only our Democratic leadership in Congress could be made to comprehend that simple but important distinction.

Update 2: Still one of the
best arguments in favor of impeachment that I have personally seen, with the most compelling case being made by conservative legal scholar Bruce Fein. He appeared along with The Nation's John Nichols on Bill Moyers Journal last summer.

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