Displaying 4,921 To 4,950 Of 5,146 Comments The High Costs of Private Contractors The fury I feel at this – and hope that Congress is finally exerting the strength over these despicable contractors – is compunded by emails that get forwarded to me from Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Whether the assaults on women come from contractors or within the military, too often they and soldiers in general get sent to RW chaplains rather than qualified psychologists. One anonymous report from a rape victim reported that when she went to talk to said chaplain, he told her that it was God’s judgment on her for not being a good “Christian” (wrong denomination apparently) so she should suck it up and live a better life. The rates of suicide among our troops can be tied quite directly to the sources of their “counseling”. I’ve had some very serious discussions with veterans’ advocacy groups that showed me the men and women most likely to commit suicide are those counseled by chaplains from the RW fundamentalist, End Times view of Christianity. The troubled troops are also told that if they had been “good Christians” they’d not be bothered at ALL by the deaths around them, the actions they saw and took, the horrors of war. So it’s all THEIR OWN fault that they are traumatized by the killings of civilians, children, women – those were just Muslims, so God wanted them dead. Trauma, guilt, horror – those are “unChristian” emotions. The disgust I feel about this nation’s unrelenting march toward fundamentalism in our military – and even our civilian world – cannot be articulated. I fear that as the phony progressives, in both the secular and faith communities – hold Obama to an impossible standard, and as they revile Congress for trying to balance the disparate wants of a diverse nation – failure to vote will allow these people to return. This morning’s paper said that the bright star of Congress, Republican Keven McCarthy, is rallying his troops to bring about a Republican majority in 2010. It’s not that independents and progressives will vote for that – it’s that they won’t vote at ALL allowing the Palins and their ilk to return to dominate Congress. I blame HP in large part for this. The failure to keep the eye on what is really being achieved, what a horrendous mess Obama has inherited, and how measured and LEGAL he has been in his responses – all that has been dismissed by the progressives who rely on hype and simplistic analysis. We live in a world where “God ain’t it awful” and “they’re all alike” are our only interpretations of actions. If we let the RW come back into power, it will be horrid. I fear the progressive and even liberal part of our nation’s inability to understand how hard governance is. Too many of my allies would rather just curse the darkness. We’re simply too used to it. I am truly scared for the nation and therefore the world. » Posted By choicelady On December 27, 2009 @ 10:49 am Emerald – It is the power of humans directing energies toward good that can make a difference. We share your sorrow, fear, and hope all rolled into one. Sending you and your sister our energies for her improvement is all we can do, but it is ALL that we ALL do! We hope for the best news for you and for her. You both are in our hearts. » Posted By choicelady On December 27, 2009 @ 10:30 am Emerald – that is SO fine! Smithfield ham and latkes – WOW! I think you’ve hit on the essence of multi-culturalism! It’s the one way we whitebread folks can begin to enjoy being American. Incorporating new friends and therefore new traditions into our lives. I love it! Thanks for a great sense of NEW tradition! » Posted By choicelady On December 27, 2009 @ 11:00 am Cher and all – what fascinating information about Christmas and all the links to other religions. Dec. 25 seems to be a biggie for birthdays. Who’d have thunk it? I’m so WASP I buzz. So let me tell you about MY take on Christmas. I was raised in a predominantly secular household but sufficiently grounded in the culture of the 1950s that my parents imparted the story – the creche AND Santa – so we’d blend in even if they did not really believe it. I am a Christmas nut – I LOVE Christmas. Why? Well, because I really do feel the hope and possibilities of Christmas – peace, humanity, hope, joy. It’s not religious so much as humane. But there is another secure I have to tell you. When you’re Anglo-Saxon in origin and thus represent the dominant culture of America, you have nothing else to celebrate. I grew up first in a working class Italian neighborhood, and I envied all my Catholic friends who had saints days, Italian festivales, CULTURE. I have nothing. Being Anglo Saxon, Christmas is IT – it’s the only thing you’ve got. As I got older and got to know Jewish families, I thought Hanukkah was the cat’s meow – maybe my loot was better, but you Jews got EIGHT DAYS OF CELEBRATION. We got one. Period. Being Anglo Saxon, being the dominant American culture purveyor, you are SO whitebread that nothing stands out. Nothing at ALL. So I envy anyone who has a deep link to a history outside the US experience, I envy faiths that lie outside Christianity. Now as an adult, I’ve been to my nephew’s bar mitzvah and have celebrated Ramadan with the iftar. I’m here to say that if Christians had to learn a different language, spend 3 hours of public display to be confirmed in the faith or had to spend an entire month fasting sunup to sundown, there’s be 7 Christians in the world – and I wouldn’t be one of them. So yes, I see the lure of Christmas in all its glory, but you should know that we who celebrate it secretly wish we had more – the depth and diversity of your faiths, your cultures, your identity. We’re not hyphenated. We’re just, well, us. We have no roots. We’re just here. We have no place to “go home” – we’ve nowhere to go. So while you envy the massive commercialism and showiness of Christmas, feel a bit sad for us. We’re doing this because, at the end of the day, it’s all we have. We’re making the most of a culture that has no “there there”. And we pay off the bills for our potlatch mentality that exists to compensate for our awareness that we have no definition, no substance, no focus. We aren’t to be envied, we’re to be pitied. So keep things in perspective. We’re doing the best we can. » Posted By choicelady On December 25, 2009 @ 9:04 pm Oh, Scher- how awful! It boggles the mind that the very people who will be best helped by this “black man” in the White House are among the last to see a semblance of reason. There is a huge disconnect in America between what is real (no one is being silenced, least of all the RW, no one’s guns are being taken away, no one is being forced into a Gulag health clinic) the hate persists. The best I can determine is that people whose lives don’t work – and clearly your ersatz brother-in-law’s life DOES NOT WORK – have to blame someone. Rather than taking on the invisible – giant corporations – it’s vastly easier to blame your neighbors and visible symbols. White Americans don’t want to think about their equals – Black Americans – both of who are being harmed by the choices our economic “leaders” have made over the past three decades, but coming together seems to elude too many on both sides. It’s SO MUCH EASIER to blame each other because how do you fight multinational corporations??? Racism and hate are the last refuges of the utterly powerless. The KKK built on that in the 19th Century so that the two forces of impoverished dirt farmers would not look up and see that they were being equally exploited by large plantation owners and the incoming industrialists. It’s too easy to say pity him. He’s in your face, choosing to be ignorant, choosing to spread easy lies, choosing to be a loser with pretentions of superiority. In your face, just keep doing what you’re doing – refuting him. I have an opposite problem – a liberal relative who is rich as Croesus who does give to Obama, but hoards his money otherwise and has no connection with human beings on anything like a meaningful level. He upsets me in some of the same ways – it’s all talk, no action, and his personal and professional life is actually one of not insignificant exploitation of others. So his “politics” are meaningless. I suspect he’s part of the “god ain’t it awful Obama is a dud” crowd who wanted instant grafication politically. He’d never DREAM of feeding the homeless much less working to end their condition even as he deplores it. Those of us who both talk the talk AND walk the walk are not numerous. Please know that we are here together with you because we believe in the same things you do. You can’t pick your family but you can pick your friends. That’s why we’ve all come together at the Planet. Merry Christmas, Scher – it’s not a lot, but we ARE here for you! Now excuse me – we ARE feeding the homeless and I have a ham to glaze and beans to heat and potatoes to mash to haul a couple of blocks over to the park. And I’m a LOT happier than both your brother-in-law and my own relative. Bet you are, too! » Posted By choicelady On December 25, 2009 @ 7:56 am The Tea Party is Biting the Hand that Feeds Them? Would seem more potent to boycott companies that shipped jobs overseas and ripped off the taxpayers in the process. Since everytime a company closes, they take an accelerated write down and get CASH back from the government, you’d think someone would object to that, now wouldn’t you? Makes me think that more of the tea bag folks are not the mainstream, out of work blue collar folks they pretend to be. I suspect a lot are pretty well off and want to stay that way. This nation has no “socialist” agenda – but it has a long history of rip offs of ordinary people by large corporations. Why is that not a source of outrage to the majority? » Posted By choicelady On December 24, 2009 @ 1:14 pm The Senate Passes Healthcare Reform Bill 60-39 Hi KQuark- Good brief and gorgeous photo. Hope you’re feeling better and will have a lovely holiday. One quick comment – we’ve not lost the public option yet. That may well come back in Conference Committee. I have a side by side comparison of the bills, and they each have strengths, though the House bill, overall, is better, IMHO. I heard Obama this morning (I have been up since before dawn – it still is – to see this) and heard commentators say that he is prepared, unlike “Mission Accomplished” Bush, to give the Conference Committee time to do this well. I actually remain optimistic that the things we want will largely prevail. Our (meaning my organization and other faith groups) have one caveat – No public option? Then no individual mandate in the private market. We are unmoveable on that, since it could and would be a disaster for Americans of middling means. I am hopeful that the Senate plan will kick in. This is to immediately create a high-risk pool to cover those with chronic or life-threatening diseases who’ve been uninsured 6 or more months. Since this includes you, I believe, it would be a major boon to you and so many others. That is something I’m urging our members to fight for in your honor (though I’m not saying that save for “someone I know” who needs this help.) So – this major milestone is just that. There is still great amounts of work to be done, but I am quite hopeful that we will get not only reform but major reform early in 2010. Wow. This is already historic. Let’s hope for more! » Posted By choicelady On December 24, 2009 @ 7:00 am Hey Sally, Kalima, et al. – I can’t pull up the Funnies this morning. I get the whole page of “leave your comment” but no funnies upon which to comment. I get other posts just fine, so this exceeds my technical capacities that aren’t that swift to begin with! » Posted By choicelady On April 27, 2014 @ 9:58 am I just posted the update on ACA enrollments for review – and I’ve now exhausted my tech know how. I’d do more, but I don’t EVEN UNDERSTAND most of the questions! I put myself into your capable hands, AdLib and Kalima! Help! Hope this is useful? Let me know if you need anything from me. I will be unavailable for a time this afternoon in a meeting, but I will be home tonight. Thanks for encouraging me to do this – it made me FEEL better looking at the progress. Feel bad for Murph though – he is getting NO help from MO. Thanks! » Posted By choicelady On November 19, 2013 @ 1:22 pm I wanna see it, I do, I do!!! Murph’s stuff is awesome. As is everyone else’s, to be sure, but this is VERY intriguing. » Posted By choicelady On November 6, 2011 @ 2:35 pm Hi- Can’t reply to anything on Smedley’s article? No red “Reply” buttons, and it won’t open a new comment. ?????? » Posted By choicelady On March 16, 2011 @ 3:22 pm Almost There on HCR… Or Are We? Hi Scher (as opposed to Cher) – Here is the rub. This goes to conference committee where the aspects of the bill that differ between House and Senate are hammered out. I believe the public option will prevail (one has only to look at the roller-coaster plunge in support when that exited the Senate bill!) Many aspects of the bill differ in degree, but some are huge, and I read that Obama is pressing for the House bill in most cases. I am horrified that pundits everywhere seem to think the Senate bill is the “done deal” when it most certainly is NOT. Obama apparently got stupid yesterday and said he’d not campaigned on the public option – which he DID; he’s not usually that foolish – but the fact remains that he has pushed it. Consequently, if and when it returns in the conference bill, that is when he, Reid, and Pelosi will get tough with the Blue Dogs, and I do think you will see both the cloture vote AND passage of a pretty decent bill. Appropos of the discussion about our faulty American media – I really am aghast at the lousy reporting. A basic Civics 101 would seem essential, but Lawrence O’Donnell subbing for Olbermann, ought to damned well know better since he was staff to Moynihan! How could he NOT know the procedure? So – must we not look to his need to hyperventilate as being more important than his need for factual and informative reporting? Hooray for Rachel – she almost always gets it right. But the rest? Hysteria rules. Bah. » Posted By choicelady On December 23, 2009 @ 8:06 pm Marion – Where to start??? Wow – simply Wow!!! I deal daily with the whining Dems who have lost any sense of Civics 101, and you have captured all I have written and felts and believed “out here” trying to push some sense into people. I find myself shunned by some, disbelieved by others, ignored by many. And you’ve put your finger on it ALL. One tiny disagreement – I LOVED Olbermann’s hourlong discussion of health care. But that’s the only thing with which I disagree – and that’s just personal preference I think. Wow. This should be basic reading in every precinct, Dem headquarter, school room, senior center, and civic center in America. It’s probably asking too much to ship it to every elected official, but maybe one could send the link? I’ll ponder that. Thank you so much for taking the time to pull this together. You have well and truly defined so many problems, and so many problem MAKERS. Awesome! » Posted By choicelady On December 23, 2009 @ 9:38 pm Scher – this is SO true! I really laughed because you’ve totally nailed it! We have two cats, one a bad-tempered 15-year-old female shorthair and the other a sweet – to us – 3-year-old male Maine Coon cat. Both were abandoned, and we took them in. However, we’d had the female as an “only cat” for 7 years before the little guy showed up. She was NOT happy to have him, and we had to live in a “duplex” with gates for over two years before we could let them be together. Accommodation is what led me to understand the function of butt-in-your-face – when she gets all hyper with the male, he turns around, sticks his butt in her face, she sniffs, and – FOR WHATEVER REASON – all is well. Apparently this is considered the highest form of greeting and peacemaking which is why we waking sleepers get to see the flip side of our cats first thing in the morning. Realizing THEY think it’s cool, we’ve given up and just take it as our due. Years ago, Dick Van Dyke did a riff on cats vs. dogs noting that if a dog does something wrong, there is huge guilt and remorse and efforts to make up and be loved. Let a cat do something, and the response is a bored, “You talkin’ to ME?” I’ve rarely seen an indifferent dog or a guilty cat. I love them both, but I realize at the bottom, I’m pretty much nothing but a can opener who supplies fringe benefits such as scratches. And that applies equally to the cats or the dogs. Oh, well. » Posted By choicelady On December 23, 2009 @ 9:54 pm Scheherazade, you have hit precisely the right note with this! Thank you. I heard this on NPR yesterday and could NOT believe my ears! You’re so right that if it were a movie, it would be a box office smash about the buffonery of our national security people, gullible enough to believe this man. Who, first principles, would believe someone who said he and ONLY he could decipher the “code” he was supposedly hearing? Any elementary teacher would ask arithmetic students to show their work – why did the security people NOT ask him for proof he HAD such a sophisticated program it bypassed all of the nation’s??? I think we were so eager to have a mortal enemy that anything that reinforced our goal was considered just fine. Some day I suspect that, as in 1962 with the Cuban missle crisis, we will find out just how close we have come under Bush and Cheney to real disaster beyond 9/11. In some ways we were led by two of the most tyrannical people ever. In other ways, it was Laurel & Hardy. Both are being shown to have been equally dangerous. Thanks for spelling this out. It’s something every American should know. » Posted By choicelady On December 23, 2009 @ 10:30 am No Matter What Americans Say They Want a Leviathan in Charge I think it’s the tendency to overlook the gift we have of being enegaged. Obama is not weak at all – he’s measured and thoughtful. What we want is not a strong president but a bombastic one. Strength is not manifest only in that, but we wanted someone who’d make us feel good with instant gratification by solving every problem, and getting revenge on Bush. The Leviathan means we don’t have to do anything, and we can’t see how fantastic it is to have real say once again. » Posted By choicelady On December 23, 2009 @ 10:22 am KQuark- outstanding summary of the bifurcated American psyche. All along you’ve consistently noted that Obama is doing what he said he would do, and the pseudo-progressives yelp because they did not really listen. We spent nearly a decade hollering against the Imperial Presidency. It was not just Bush – that legacy goes well back in time to at least LBJ and appeared off and on throughout our history. Political science scholars have analyzed “strong” presidents vs “weak” ones, have rated “presidential congresses” vs those that were not. The approval always seems to come down on the side of a strong president that drags congress along behind him. The problem with that is precisely what Obama said during the campaign – real democracy comes if and only if the people are engaged. I fear that most of the people I know who worked their socks off to elect Obama then assumed they could sit back and cheer as he did everything FOR us. And that he would include getting revenge for everything Bush had done. What Obama is giving us is a major gift, but like spoiled kids, we can’t see the value. He is telling us that we need to keep up the same work, momentum, process that we had during the campaign. Democracy is messy and requires constant engagement. He is letting us have our say. He is also a total realist. Susan Thistlethwaite, former head of Chicago Theology Seminary and now a fellow at the Center for American Progress, wrote a powerful item on Obama’s Oslo speech. She noted it departed from decades, perhaps centuries, of “just war” theory. She said Obama has altered for all time our attitudes about war and peace. It is well worth reading. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/12/thistlethwaite_wapo.html We have the chance to renew a nation that is vastly more democratic that it may ever have been. We have a chance to be fully engaged – to end the perception that citizen voices do not matter at all – and yet our progressive allies are often as whiny and discontent as the tea bag folks. You remember that horrid moment when Bush said being a dictator would be so much easier? Well, it would be easier for us as well. Having at least a Leviathan means we would not have to pay attention to anything at all. People are disappointed in Obama because he is not Bush with better values. I, for one, think he’s the most admirable president I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, and I feel engaged with my government as never before. Amazing. » Posted By choicelady On December 23, 2009 @ 10:18 am Welfare Kings and Queens in Congress SueinCA – Fantastic post! It would be lovely to see this splashed across the front pages of all these hypocrites’ (escribacat’s perfectly spelled best term!) hometown papers! Does anyone recall the two Michigan brothers who gave aid and comfort to Tim McVeigh? They were rabidly, slaveringly anti-government BUT also took farm subsidies. The root of this hate lies in utter selfishness – they want money going to only themselves, not to – you know, “them”. The deep racism and xenophobia of these people is beyond disgusting. Sue – yesterday a long-time staff person in our state legislature told me that I would be shocked to hear how many Republicans are perfectly happy to have California crash and burn, to have the government die from lack of funding, to have the state fold entirely. To non-Californians – we are the only state that requires a 2/3 vote to pass both budget AND tax increases or even rate restorations, and we do not have a 2/3 majority of Dems. We are dying from a lack of revenue, so programs for the people teetering on the precipice financially are being whacked. And the Republicans LOVE it. In January the Governor (yes – the two-bit B actor) will propose massive eliminations – not cuts but eradication – of ALL WELFARE SUPPORT. That will put 1.4 million people, mostly children, on the street – and the Republicans LOVE it. Then they will try to eliminate Healthy Families, the SCHIP program that helps families buy insurance for their kids. And he will call for us to cut medical care, and cut in home care (see KQuark on the move to get people home – in CA with NO help at all.) And we will underfund the schools and give university students another 37% tuition hike. Screw the middle class and the poor! That will make California wonderful again, won’t it? But they gave Hollywood a huge tax break, multinational corporations got $2.5 billion per year in breaks, and we are the only state that has no oil extraction tax. NONE. So the rich get filthy richer, and the poor get tossed in the gutter. Subsidize the Rich! That’s our state motto! Eureka! Thank you SueinCA for shining this light on the nasty underbelly of the anti-government, anti-American hypocrites. They are despicable! » Posted By choicelady On December 22, 2009 @ 10:23 pm Survivorman Circa 2009: Somewhere in NE Georgia Hospital Dear KQuark – I am so sorry you’re going through this and now, a season when you should be at home. I hope the reference to pizza means you are and that this is behind you? My deepest “heart friend” is a cop in the Midwest who is battling prostate cancer that has metastasized, and I love him dearly but fear terribly that he will not beat it. I know he’s going through this, too – and then fell in the hospital and crunched a neck vertebra. (NO one deserves all that!) I will send this to him, because he will like it a lot. Thank you! I have a question for all – where is Thelonius? I’ve not seen a post from him in a very long time. Is he OK? I hope so! Does anyone know? KQuark, I know you’re not religious (I’m not either despite my job) so I will just say you are in my heart. I know we all send you our thoughts and energies to get better and stay better and remain OUT OF THE HOSPITAL! » Posted By choicelady On December 22, 2009 @ 10:08 pm nellie – that is the issue. Division for power! On the faith side, there is already a split between Faith in Public Life (no reason you folks should know it) that has supposedly brought progressives together, but in fact shut out the “left” who are the REAL progressives. I’m one of them. The key divisions – and I know this will shock you (hah!) revolve around the “common ground” issues of abortion rights and full inclusion of GLBTQ people. The “common ground” centers on people such as Jim Wallis and Jennifer Butler at Faith in Public Life. Wallis is great on many issues but is unyielding on these two issues, more or less being in sync with evangelicals everywhere who won’t entertain the simple humanity of GLBTQ people or respect the moral agency of women. Faith in Public Life is linked to the Office of Faith Based Initiatives. Between Butler and DuBois at the OFBI, they determine who gets heard in and out of the White House. It ain’t me. Within the LEFT religious community, however, the fragmentation gets more weird. There are several empire builders who want to drive out some of us so they can claim the “Wallis” equalivalent position as our leaders. Rabbi Michael Lerner (who is friends with Wallis but disagrees with him) is one, though there are royal contenders in various ranks. The result is a competitive world of fund grabbing and media dominance. Mind you, if you have NO idea what I’m talking about, you can see how slim the pickings ARE. We’re fighting over very small rewards. So far. We in the left faith-o-sphere are so peripheralized, not becaue of numbers but because of lack of attention to us, that we are meaningless nationally. I am the workhorse person of the CA Left faith community. I do the daily slog of teaching, training, mobilizing, and encouraging rank and file progressives in the pews to stand up and be heard. Because of my personality, I do a great deal of work with individuals and congregations – a lot of hand holding and soothing. The other groups are led largely by men, clergy, who’d NEVER do that. But it is part of our strength that I have a one-to-one relationship with a great many people across CA. Because I’m not flashy and have no serious money, I’m pushed out of decision making. My whole organization is pushed out. But we are the largest such organization in America! We have the capacity, because people trust us and me, to speak about the thorny issues of human sexual equality and abortion and many other things. We are trusted. But we can’t do much more than we do if we are locked out of funding. So, in a world of enormous potential to speak for the Common Good and revise a great deal of the national angst over individualism vs. community, we could be major leaders. But we’re barely noticed by the would=be royalty, and becaue they’ve done a better job of fund raising than we, we may be screwed, we may disappear. And that would be a huge loss on many levels. So yes – I am deeply worried about this division. It’s no longer the right I fear (though I still do). It’s my FRIENDS! » Posted By choicelady On December 22, 2009 @ 9:06 am I’m in. I have some very good allies on HuffPo who blog. Chris Rodda for one (Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s researcher who writes amazing revelations on Christian extremism for them.) But she is given NO real promotion by HuffPo – if I did not get her stuff directly and then go from the link to her blog, I’d never know she was there! I am SO impressed at the background you all have unearthed about HuffPo. It explains volumes about its turn to the right and its attacks on Obama. KQuark – your analysis of Obama’s accomplishments on health and the comparison to FDR is excellent. It highlights the clear fact that we have radically different sets of “progressives” and that there is some real danger from the one, self-aggrandizing set. I am concerned about what I see in empire building among the so-called progressives, and I will tell you that from my corner of this world, the faith community is fragmented, too. It is split into three pieces with the Arianna-linked group in ascendance and willing – VERY willing – to sell the rest of us down the river. It’s not even theory or principle differences so much as raw, naked power. Jesus wept. (I’ve been trying to find a place to work that in! Only Bible verse I know!) So because I think I’m getting screwed over by one of Arianna’s bloggers here in CA, I am definitely IN. Just let me know what to do. You have my permission to use my ‘handle’ – and several people in the rest of the blogosphere already know it so carries some weight. I never thought I’d live to see the day when progressives sold out so fast. Thought it would take longer. Huh. Go figure… » Posted By choicelady On December 22, 2009 @ 8:28 am MEDIA COVERAGE OF HEALTH CARE REFORM Cher – this is outstanding! Thank you! I am in total agreement with this analysis. We sent progressive, pro-reform clergy into some of the more contentious town halls in CA. Every one reported back to us that they – wearing clerical collars – had calmed the meetings at which point the media LEFT. No coverage of their work, no coverage of the calmer discussions that actually led to some good questions and answers – nope, the media left when the fight ended. The FACT the fight ended through calm intervention by people of faith ought to have been NEWS, but it was not. My organization also lobbies – and we worked the six CA Blue Dogs and turned every one of them. Think THAT got noticed? Nope. In CA-1, Mike Thompson’s district, we were the ONLY group working on him to support the public option. He came out in favor three weeks after our folks weighed in. Think anyone cared? Nope. I am sick of the media and its disgusting biases. There is a man in Sacramento who works for a cable outlet handling the Capitol news, and he thinks he’s Glenn Beck. He got tossed out of the Press Club events because he’s so damned rude. I think I’m the ONLY person who ever got the better of him, and as a consequence, he won’t talk to me at all. But he’s in a position of authority. He decides what plays. Bah! The health care issue actually involved some really good serious policy discussions around the nation. Too bad no one knows it unless you were part of the groups. Even the blogosphere was guilty of too much hyperventilating! What bothers me a lot is how little people understand how Congress works, and that just fuels the crazies who take advantage of the ignorance – who ARE ignorant and press their zealotry without having a clue what they’re doing. Time for some media reform, I’d say. At the turn of the last century and even in the 50s journalism really sucked. “Yellow Dog” journalists suddenly were turned out – what happened? There have been periods of amazing reporting, and periods of total crap. What I do not know is what moved news from crap to solid reporting? If we knew that, maybe we could do it again? » Posted By choicelady On December 21, 2009 @ 9:42 pm Oh, AdLib – you KNOW I love this! You have better theology in this post than the RW does in all their sermons and rants. I just LOVE this – and I cherish the spam folder for prayers!! Hooo – haven’t laughed that hard in quite some time. Thank you so much!!!! » Posted By choicelady On December 21, 2009 @ 9:46 pm Again – the Senate bill is NOT the end, but the beginning. Conference Committee is where the action will be, where we will get BACK the public option. A small article this morning said Obama is pushing to make the final bill in sync with the House, not the Senate. The public nosedive in support came when the public option was left OUT, not when it was in. Support for the House version was at over 67%. Senate followed suit til the public option died. So the Reeps can say what they want, but the American public dislikes the Senate version and ONLY because it was weakened so much. Give the people what we want. A public option that gives us really affordable health care coverage for EVERYONE. Then the polls will reflect reality, not Matlin’s weird take on, well, everything. » Posted By choicelady On December 21, 2009 @ 1:58 pm She is beyond comprehension. That they continue to air her uninformed and bizarre views boggles the mind. Obama has been very strategic about health care. After all comes out of Conference Committee (Senate members are the progressives save for Baucus whose knowledge of finance is actually GOOD and who seems to be cowed by his girlfriend scandal) – Reid, Dodd, Harkin, Rockefeller. Can’t do better. Don’t know the House yet – Conyers looks sure. Once it’s back to the Senate, THAT is when I believe Reid and Obama will lean on recalcitrant Dems to get the cloture vote and votes for the bill. I believe, since I read this this morning, that Obama is pressing for the HOUSE bill to prevail – with public option. We are not used to a thoughtful, adult, reflective, calm, drama-free president. So we think he is not doing anything, when, in fact, he’s doing a LOT. He is the most strategic thinker I’ve seen in my lifetime, and if this does prevail as we hope, it will make manifest his calm deliberation about both product and process. We all just have to get used to it – it’s quite a change from The Decider, isn’t it? Thank GOD (or whoever, or no one…) » Posted By choicelady On December 21, 2009 @ 12:28 pm Tonight’s recipe: Pasta, olive oil, garlic, bread crumbs, red pepper PatsyT – I MAKE THIS TOO! Cottage cheese is perfect, KS – it’s a lighter and less caloric version of ricotta. This is a delicious recipe, and I’m over the moon to be reminded how good that can be! Trust us, KevenSeven – it’s delicious. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 11:36 pm Oooo KevenSeven, this is to die for. I am severely wheat intolerant, but I have rice pasta that is actually GOOD and can make a breadcrumbless version. My mouth is watering. And I have seen this marvelous Depression-era cooking video. I also own my mothers’ ration cookbook from WW II with very reasonable and useful recipes that save money and stretch things a very long way. Even after the war, that’s how my mother cooked – lean, tasty, nutritious, satisfying and CHEAP. But nothing as yummy as KevenSeven’s recipe! Yum! » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 11:33 pm The 7 Mountains of Influence In Culture and Why You Should Be Concerned That is not what, as a trained historian (you MAY try this at home), I know of Islam and the Arab world. They did not abandon science for religion but did both. Religious identity re-kindled thanks, yes, to the Crusades – wouldn’t you? Nothing like getting gutted by crusaders to toughen your identity. But their scholars were highly valued, and they absolutely revered all learning, especially science and math as well as philosophy. They were our intellectual caretakers when Europe was in massive disarray and ignorance. They continued to add to our pool of knowledge until the 19th and 20th C. when the West made them subordinate colonies of European nations. Now they’re just trying to build national movements. But many Islamic people are among some of the world’s intellectual leaders today. » Posted By choicelady On December 21, 2009 @ 2:40 pm kesmarn – I’m so sorry this is happening to your family members! I find this not only terribly scary but very sad. What the lure is absolutely escapes me! Year ago I had a Jewish (secular Jew) professor whose kids “went over” – started believing in the Rapture and all. This was after the “I found it” movement started in the 70s. It swept up a lot of kids. I hope most of them moved on, but you never know. I don’t know how many of you remember the “I found it” movement, but it featured bold black letters on a yellow background for bumper stickers. The whole slogan was “I found it – Jesus Christ is my savior” or something like that. One day I saw one with a Star of David that said “We never lost it.” LOVED it! Great comeback. But ONLY in Los Angeles would you have seen the next one I spotted, same colors, same graphics, that said, Yup. Only in LA. » Posted By choicelady On December 21, 2009 @ 2:20 pm Yikes – I left that out???? Definitely losing it. Of course – it’s the quintessential movement. Thanks for the correction. Can’t believe I did that… » Posted By choicelady On December 21, 2009 @ 2:15 pmComments Posted By choicelady
“I AM it.”
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