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Comments Posted By choicelady

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A GOP Collection of Nursery Rhymes

Very witty and delicious send ups of the parties who would be reciting them! The originals were part of my Little Golden Book collection. Would this be the Little Leaden Book?

These goobers would think your parodies quite admirable because, of course, they lack any sense of self reflection. For your loyal fans and loving admirers, we thank you for giving us a delicious laugh and having something to hold over the goobers’ heads.

Thank you!!!

» Posted By choicelady On May 20, 2013 @ 8:22 pm

The Republican Guide to Whose Deaths Matter and Whose Don’t

I AM SO FURIOUS!!! The IRS did its job investigating the claims of the Tea Party to have tax exempt status. The GOP WROTE THOSE LAWS – and now the IRS is bad for enforcing them???? EVERY ONE OF US in the non profit world has crawled over broken glass to get our tax exempt status – we’ve jumped through hoops, proven we do not use tax-deductible donations for political work but the BAGGERS are being PERSECUTED??? Then we have to set up a 501-c-4 in order to do NON partisan advocacy – did they? Some years ago we got a visit from the IRS telling us to do that – or else.

The Tea PARTY is clearly riding a thin line – they ARE often partisan, so being investigated to make sure they are not abusing other tax payers is ESSENTIAL.

If liberal groups have to endure this – what the HELL is wrong with making sure Baggers have to prove their status, too?

The RW wants selective enforcement of the law. They want to have special privileges and a free pass on all they do.

NO MORE! I HAVE HAD IT WITH THE DOUBLE STANDARDS IN AMERICA. The conservatives are the ones doing the persecuting and are NOT victims. They are grifters looking always for a free ride. They are the TAKERS. May they rot in hell.

» Posted By choicelady On May 13, 2013 @ 4:40 pm

Eeeuuuwww – probably right, but ick.

» Posted By choicelady On May 10, 2013 @ 6:23 pm

I do have to disagree with one thing: I don’t think “Gohmert” is a no-brainer.

I think it is a rude digestive noise as in “he cut a Gohmert at the table last night”.

» Posted By choicelady On May 8, 2013 @ 3:42 pm

Indeed you’re correct, Sue. And when he was Gubnor, George W. Bush directed that fragile neo-nates, those ‘precious post fetuses’ would just have to DIE if their parents had no insurance.

I was a colleague of one of those killed in Benghazi. He would NOT be appreciating being made into a political football. Even Romney pretended to know him, such a despicable appropriation and one apparently false, so disgusting that our colleague’s parents demanded Romney STFU.

The truth is clear – yes indeed the funding for state department security was cut by the GOP, and as a result there were insufficient forces present to help stop the upheaval. And yes, it is clear that this was organized but that the thugs rushed in taking advantage of the craven Christian in FL burning the Q’ran. They were waiting for an excuse, and that jerk handed it to them. But are we hearing anything about THAT? Noooooo.

Four lives, all used wrongly and disgustingly to promote an anti-Obama, anti-Clinton agenda, but everyone else’s worth? Not obvious at all.

» Posted By choicelady On May 7, 2013 @ 3:49 pm

Weekend Music Thread–Crazies, Lunatics and Mayhem

KT – your musical knowledge is awesome, but this week’s selections are giving me hives! It was ALL offset by your throwaway comment about “has that much cheese fallen off the crackers” which made me laugh OUT LOUD which, given the topic, is pretty swell.

Thanks as always for sharing your love of music, your amazing ability to pick the right stuff, and for great comments. However, with all the anger and hostility here and in the world, I think I’m going to listen to Lawrence Welk and chill.

Too much insanity so I am opting – today – for inanity.

NOT without respect for your work, your insights, and your gifts to us all!

» Posted By choicelady On May 4, 2013 @ 9:23 pm

Keeping World War III a Secret

We all will have to pay attention to our own history in the sit-down strikes. More to the point, the Pittston Coal Strike in the late 1980s took very different tactics.

There are going to be clashes – and it will differ markedly depending on WHERE. Not all PDs have been federalized. The reaction to Occupy was very different around the nation – not all PDs reacted the same. Portland, Seattle (even after their clash in 1999 with the WTO protesters) Denver, etc. were NOT violent. Sacramento was a major non-event, too. NY was very much federalized after 9/11 – there was a CIA agent IN the NYPD until Obama found out in 2011 and removed said person. Oakland is just its own horror – deep embedded racism is decades deep.

We need history and strategy and we also need to know that we stand on the shoulders of our recent and more distant past – we now have rights and petitions for justice won during the 30s, 60s and 70s by those who suffered real deprivations in civil rights as they were arrested, prosecuted, deprived of basics. Those in labor, civil rights, and anti-war movements all paid the price to win rights we can demand today.

That said – the right will constantly try to push back on our rights, no question. But the ground has been laid, the media actually DO make these injustices clear (not from nobility but because it’s part of a ‘bleeds/leads’ mentality) and we have lawyers by the thousands looking after exactly these things.

So we can learn if we will how to move us ahead without losing ground, and that is priceless. It is the missing link I see – knowing HOW to take advantage of what we have gained. Smart strategies are essential to solid outcomes.

» Posted By choicelady On May 1, 2013 @ 12:45 pm

Very well said, AdLib. As a trained historian (don’t try this at home without a good guide) I know this is part of a century-plus continuum, that the progressive movement, the New Deal, the Great Society all were major threats to the Great and Powerful, and they have determined to get their power and the money BACK.

Over the past 40 years they have made constant inroads on social welfare, and the collapse of the world economy was their best chance to bring it home – it was the moment they could impose ‘austerity’ and pretend that didn’t mean making the poor bail out the rich.

But it’s NOT working. In nation after nation it has become clear that the wealthy – those who created the hell – are engaged in what Jacob Hacker called “The Great Risk Shift”. Only the US under PBO’s guidance have avoided the worst impacts.

I see this as the last gasp of a dying Moby Dick. It will not go well for many of us, but it never has in dark and troubled times. But from so many nations we are seeing resistance including here – and it will fundamentally change the way we organize production, benefits, outcomes, decision making. Will it happen in our lifetime? Possibly. But it WILL happen. It always does. No matter how powerful the rich seem to be, they fall. The hubris alone does them in, and the will of the people commands major policy changes. Setbacks WILL occur, but they will not prevail.

We gave the bastards a chance. They blew it. Now they, not we, will have to pay the piper and begin dancing to a new tune, one WE write.

That is the arc of history – it bends toward justice. Today is no exception.

» Posted By choicelady On April 30, 2013 @ 7:40 pm

Republicans Love America, They Just Hate Its Principles

There is a bill up in the CA legislature to penalize large corporations who dump their employees into Medi-Cal rather than pay for health insurance. To do that, they also have to pay such LOW wages they qualify for Medi-Cal in the first place.

These corporations defend their right of personhood, holler via lobbyists against welfare, but deny ANY “personal responsibility” for their actions in exploiting taxpayer paid for systems for their own advantage.

Anyone in CA who feels so moved to support AB 880 (Jimmy Gomez-Los Angeles) can contact the chair of Assembly Health Committee, Richard Pan (Sacramento) at 916-319-2009 to urge passage of this bill. Gomez’s LA office is 213-483-5151 to thank him for closing the “Wal-Mart Loophole” and strengthening our safety net finances.

Corporate personhood did NOT exist in the Constitution prior to Citizens United. The justices drew that conclusion from case law that, like their decision, was predicated on a CLERK’s summary of the 1886 Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad decision in which the sitting SCOTUS did NOT come to that conclusion but the clerk thought it had. So from a clerk’s notes, our corporate use of the 14th Amendment has progressed. Is that stupid or what?

So now if we have decided “corporations are people, too, my friend” then let them pull up their big boy socks and act as they always tell others to do – assume your responsibilities. Give decent wages, pay good benefits, assume your obligations under law, and stop weaseling out of your duties. And never EVER shove your chores off on others!

In other words – start acting like the Americans you claim to admire instead of, oh, the Romneys.

» Posted By choicelady On April 25, 2013 @ 11:26 am

BREAKING NEWS: Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Killed – Police Pursuing One Other

I heard several law enforcement people say that Tamarlan died as a result of his brother’s running over him with the car. Apparently the younger brother gunned the vehicle at the police who jumped away from Tamarlan who was then run over by the younger brother. Deliberate? Incompetent? What a very bizarre thing. Wonder if the younger brother took this opportunity to get rid of the older brother’s influence over him? No one has said more about it in recent days, but that is a nagging question – why???

» Posted By choicelady On April 25, 2013 @ 3:28 pm

Gutless Shame in the American House of Lords

Hi- Had to work two weeks ago, then at a conference last week, so I hope to be back on Vox this coming Friday. Miss you, too!

» Posted By choicelady On April 24, 2013 @ 2:52 pm

Thank you, Murph. Very well said. When representative democracy no longer represents the very explicit will of the people, it needs to be retooled. We will not forget the Senators who were craven in their refusal to support even this weakened bill.

We will NOT forget. Not.

» Posted By choicelady On April 20, 2013 @ 5:23 pm

At the end of the day, the brothers were caught by police, NOT by a Rambo wannabe. Some dipshit southern legislators said Bostonians were cowering in their homes wishing they had AR-15s. Nope. They were following directions and trusting the police. No one was running around armed and adding to the danger. They believed in their sworn officials and were not irrational to do so. The worst thing that could have happened was for untrained gun slingers to add to the fray – especially since one of them accosted an unarmed Muslim mother pushing her baby in a stroller. Everyone – not Muslims – around the woman came, unarmed, to her aid and shoved the guy away.

Gun slingers add nothing but danger to the mix. The police were amazing, and they did what they were trained and capable of doing.

That’s our ‘well regulated militia’ in action, thanks.

» Posted By choicelady On April 20, 2013 @ 5:18 pm

BREAKING NEWS: Explosions at Finish Line of Boston Marathon

Sally – Yes, I do that. I try to get the view from all sides, not political ones – visual ones. Can I SEE something that makes it clear? Can I understand it if I get a different view?

I know the woman blown up in a bombing done by Eric Rudolph. I watched those stories TRYING to make sense of what had happened to her, to the people at the Olympics, to the people at the reproductive clinic in a general medical practice building.

It’s the “trying to make sense” part that I need. Since 1976 when a friend lost his beloved wife and a valued colleague in the Pinochet-directed bombing in Embassy Row in DC, I have tried and tried to make sense of the violence of the right and religious right.

EAch time I come to terms with it. But I have yet to make sense of it.

Maybe that’s good.

So I read widely, watch a LOT of news from different sources. I just freaking want to understand this.

And I never will.

» Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2013 @ 8:40 pm

AdLib – I understand what you’re saying, but as one too experienced with this, I watch, over and over and over. Why?

I want to understand it. I want to know every piece of evidence and whom it indicts. I want to get a sense of who the victims are – my inability to be of ANY use to them is incredibly painful to me.

Seeing this, again and again, makes things clear for me. What happened? Where? Does anyone have more evidence that is new? Tell me so I can figure this out, deal with the fears it raises in me, see if I can determine how to avoid it, end it, emotionally react to it.

I just heard from my brother in MA that the device was ‘homemade’ as opposed to being stolen munitions. It had shrapnel added – and that raised my hackles. THAT was the signature of Eric Rudolph and his ilk. That is not the signature of Al Qae’da. It’s these kinds of things that keep me glued to the repeats – trying to wrap my mind around it and quiet my fear, trying to get room in my heart for my own memories, and thinking of ways to help those so horribly harmed today.

That is why many of us stay glued to the TV, blogs, online news. For us it’s not whoring – it is the real function of media: helping us get a handle on the bad stuff. It literally is the least they and we can do.

» Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2013 @ 3:32 pm

KT – I did as well. I did grad research at the Boston Public Library, directly across from the first two bombs, and at the original Mass archives now at the JFK library. Reports of two undetonated bombs, one at a hotel, another not yet disclosed.

I am beyond sick at heart. Many of you know I’ve had too much experience with this. Whoever is responsible – and experts say everyone will claim “credit” – they are despicable and yet solid in their belief they are justified. Solid in the belief that this somehow “changes things”. Solid in their belief they just did something noble.

Well – it changes NOTHING save for the awful impact on the lives of the innocent. Apparently the first two bombs occurred AFTER the main runners, the professionals, had crossed the line, so the targets were ordinary people. And they are evil – why? The two who died the 100 who are maimed – why?

NOTHING has ever gotten better from terrorist actions. Nothing.

I cannot stand the mindset of those who think they have an exalted right to do harm. They always make things worse.

In the famous rally: “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!” Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1. How’d that turn out for them? Not well, if one recalls.

So many died in Oklahoma City, April 19, 1995. So many died on 9/11/01. Two also died in September 1976. One died in Atlanta 1996, another in Birmingham 1998. In all cases it added up to – nothing.

In no case did any good come of it for anyone. None. And yet the self righteous let slip the dogs of war against their own or other innocent people.

Do we ever learn? Apparently some never do.

» Posted By choicelady On April 15, 2013 @ 2:41 pm

Weekend Music Thread- Springtime and Change of Seasons

Thank you, KT – and if you chose the photo, thanks for that, too since fields of blue flowers always make me think of spring.

Lovely idea, lovely offerings. Much obliged.

» Posted By choicelady On April 6, 2013 @ 1:35 pm

Chained CPI – Grand Betrayal, Social Security Fix, or Something Else?

Hi funk – finally back to my computer to read and reply. VERY good assessment indeed.

One political issue that we keep forgetting – the proposal is linked to another: if and ONLY if there are tax increases on the rich will CCPI be considered. This is less of a policy proposal from the president than it is a “gotcha”. CCPI was proposed by conservatives, and by putting it out there coupled inextricably with tax increases, PBO has shown that, once again, they will not entertain their OWN proposal if they have to entertain his.

CCPI has been approved by the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities, the progressive analysts of all things fiscal, because it embraces, thanks to the President, the protections for very low income, SS-dependent people. But it will not become law – we will never EVER get a vote on this either due to the GOP mindset that if President Obama likes it, they must repudiate it. They also cannot tolerate the idea that increasing taxes is part of the package.

Seeing CCPI as a political more than a policy move changes everything. Too bad even the hair on fire left can’t tell what’s happening even when other show them the way as you have done.

CCPI will not happen. You can thank Boehner for its never coming to pass!!!

» Posted By choicelady On June 1, 2013 @ 7:52 am

Las Hermanas Mirabal – Las Mariposas

Oh wow, Sue, this is stunning. I vaguely recall hearing about the murder, some years AFTER the fact, but really knew none of the details and thus none of the courage.

I have found, over the years, the degree of brutality in Central and South America that we supported until recently to be beyond comprehension. We trained so many of the warlord thugs in the School of the Americas, teaching them the very techniques used by the Gestapo so that, in the interests of “freedom” (anti-communist dictators) they could repress all manner of reforms that would benefit ordinary people. From daSilva in Brazil to Pinochet in Chile to Rios Montt in Guatamala we have consistently been on the side of repressive and brutal dictators.

Friends of mine were victims. One, a U.S. Methodist minister, was arrested and tortured in Brazil, another blown up in the car with his wife and Orlando Letelier, both of whom died in front of him. I am terrified of that set of policies returning since the forces behind such actions were and are still alive and well in our own government, in the CIA and other agencies. It is one of many reasons that Obama is hated by the Right for his massive change in policy. The most powerful forces behine the scenes are those of The Family who have paid off these agents of repression and who have used their US based power to enlist the CIA in continuing the violence and brutality.

In Latin America one of the factors behind the good has been the Catholic Church, the worker priests who allied with the repressed. They as well have been killed and tortured. So much for respecting “religion”. In Guatamala and many other nations, the Dominionists, deeply wedded to the “Ryan” notions of capitalism triumphant never mind faith values, are vying to win the people away from the Church, and even John Paul chastized his own priests for their ‘disrespect’ of authority telling them to provide charity NOT fight for justice. One hopes – HOPES – that Francis will be different, but there is a rumor he turned people over to the dictators in Argentina, contributing to the numbers of “the disaapeareds”. Don’t know if it’s true, but it’s very disturbing to think he was no different.

These four women represent the face of those who, from time immemorial, risked everything to stand for their cause of justice. Their story is powerful, and it is very little known even with the film. Thank you for giving shape, form, and face to who they were and are.

Oh that we should have such courage!

» Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2013 @ 12:29 pm

Gay Marriage Undermines Christian Marriage…to the GOP

Sue – I think you are right on the money. I’d LOVE to see the GOP extremists carved off the party and slapped onto the Constitution Party. The latter even with them would be a minority third party drawing off votes and rendering them both utterly impotent. That’s what George Wallace did in the 1960s to the Dems against McGovern.

For conspiracy buffs, I was told (did not read this for myself) that when Wallace was shot in 1972 by Arthur Bremmer, the authorities arrived at Bremmer’s apartment – his name and location had NOT been publicly disclosed – they found Watergate ‘plumbers’ already there. So how did they know, and by what right did they enter? Who was REALLY behind removing the Southern guy from the race and building on the GOP Southern Strategy??? These sorts of smoking guns NEVER get pursued.

The GOP kept building its strength on drawing in the disaffected conservatives who cannot abide changes that are inclusive. But as they became more and more consolidated, the discipline and solidarity they have long showed is now fracturing. It’s not just fiscal v social conservatives but open power grabs by various individuals across those distinctions. They will not stand. And if the true believers go over to the Constitution Party to pound the drum against things such as marriage equality, they will be decades out of office.

But Dems need to pay attention to that as well – those divisions already exist in the party. They need to prevent the fragmentation that is still just burbling under the surface.

» Posted By choicelady On March 28, 2013 @ 2:23 pm

VERY helpful background information, Murph. Thank you!

» Posted By choicelady On March 28, 2013 @ 2:10 pm

The same folk are still running scared at RACIAL equality. They will NEVER get over this so long as they hold to the belief that some people are more ‘equal than others’ in the best Animal Farm tradition.

» Posted By choicelady On March 28, 2013 @ 2:06 pm

I and most of our denominational members would agree with you and the Tao.

I have a decent relationship with this man 95% of the time, but I will NOT back down on our principles yet won’t work myself into a lather over his silly exclusion. I am SO GLAD I can laugh at this!

The ONE objection I have to the verse is = I for SURE don’t want this man as my charge! He has to grow up on his own.

“Human kindness, overflowing, and I think it’s gonna rain today.”

I am fine. If I cannot be hurt by this, then progress has ALREADY been made on the healthy adult front.

» Posted By choicelady On March 27, 2013 @ 8:54 pm

The Council in Texas remains pretty conservative, but I’m having some trouble reconciling their even having a ROLE in this since they weren’t a denomination or church but a kind of policy/resource office for a lot of churches. I can’t fathom how they’d ever have been involved in something like a funeral. That said, Texas IMPACT, the lobbying group and separate entirely from the Council, is pretty cool. I know the Director, and she ROCKS. I actually know nothing at all about the Council, but if it turned out to STILL be to the right of Attila the Hun, I’d be sorry but not surprised. It IS Texas, after all!

» Posted By choicelady On March 27, 2013 @ 8:50 pm

Hmmm kes – I think you’ve just pinpointed the reason why, no matter who we are, no matter the age, sex, race, ethnicity, experience, class, or status – we are all possessed of the belief we are better than average drivers.

» Posted By choicelady On March 27, 2013 @ 4:32 pm

Well it DOES miss the Good Samaritan story – the Samaritan was the most hated foe of Jews but was the identity of the man who helped the Jew overwhelmed by robbers and left for dead. Loving one’s enemies does NOT mean having to give up your principles, but it does mean – well, not locking them out of your conference room when they are coming to support your work!

I am actually sort of fond of the guy who did this, but he really is immature when I do something he doesn’t like. I detest many of the THINGS he does around his and the Church’s views, but I don’t do that back to him. For this reason they think we’re not principled – but if principle means a fight to the death, then we missed the MUCH larger issue of the Samaritan. And Jesus. And the whole damned thing.

How odd that I, barely a participant in any organized religion, practice what the fundamentals tell me to do and he never does.

I really do love your ridicule – these things DO generate either outrage (exhausting) or humor (energizing!) You help us choose the healthier way! Thanks, AdLib!

» Posted By choicelady On March 27, 2013 @ 2:15 pm

Since my organization took the lead on a faith amicus on behalf of marriage equality, I’m very proud of the work we’ve done to undermine the religious right.

I want to have two bumper stickers. One would say “God bless the world, no exceptions.” The other “I’m doing my best to piss off the religious right.”

So I had a meeting at the office of the Catholic Conference today. The Director knows we headed the amicus FOR marriage equality. Amazingly the office conference room was locked and the meeting moved elsewhere. Never happened before. Hmmmm. Should I take this personally? Well – I am, and laughing every inch of the way. But I’ve championed the Church’s right to be its own self and respected where its rights did not trample anyone else’s. I have yet to have that reciprocated. If the lockout was personal, it says waaaay more about them than it does me.

Just as a point of interest, I looked up when the Vatican pardoned Galileo. It was 1992 – 350 years AFTER he died, and about 380 from the time he first published and was censured and censored.

Saying the Vatican is behind the curve is a major understatement.

So if they want to lock out their Protestant friend, oh well. I shall survive. Not sure they will. There are signs across our area at Catholic churches, “Catholics come home.” Well it might help if first they cleaned house?

» Posted By choicelady On March 26, 2013 @ 10:15 pm

FOUND: Paul Ryan’s Lost Budget!

The perfidy of the Right since at least WW II stems in almost its entirety from the dread of communism now morphing into secular humanism and other ‘terrors’.

Watching these Tea Party bumpkins foaming at the mouth over faux outrages when their heroes were outright treasonous is beyond toleration.

I do not doubt for one second that the compilation of Cheney with The Family – the neo cons with the Dominionists – is incredibly dangerous, and I dread what they might be able to pull off that would be designed to harm this nation and ‘prove’ the need for their RW leadership. The only thing we have going for us is that the memory of their lies and understanding of their extremism has endured.

But these are the same people who tried a coup against FDR and this time they are better connected. I do not take them lightly – if Nixon and Reagan were willing to do anything at all to get elected, it makes me wonder what lies beneath the new call from the GOP to ‘sell’ their message. Never turn your back on ’em.

» Posted By choicelady On March 19, 2013 @ 8:41 am

OMG – the GOP hasn’t changed. Did anyone hear Rachel tonight on Nixon’s TREASON? He secretly intervened five days before the 1968 election to stop LBJ’s imminent peace arrangement so Nixon could win! The info about what Nixon was doing had been obtained by Hoover from an illegal wiretap, so it could not be made public, and Nixon’s promises to South Vietnam to assure HE would bring the peace and warning them not to accept LBJ’s terms led to five more years, tens of thousands of US and Vietnamese deaths.

LBJ called it out – TREASON. And nothing could be done.

Now – to get the whole story on Iran and the hostages in 1980…

I guess I always figured Nixon was dirty, but I never though he was THAT dirty. Thought that level of corruption started with Reagan. Wow.

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2013 @ 7:13 pm

kes – the GOP did not have good upbringings. If they had, they would know “saying so doesn’t make it so.”

Poor dears. So rude and such bumpkins.

» Posted By choicelady On March 18, 2013 @ 7:07 pm