Displaying 4,951 To 4,980 Of 5,146 Comments The 7 Mountains of Influence In Culture and Why You Should Be Concerned Since I work for a very progressive faith organization that actually lobbies – keep your heart beating – we come at it from the other way around. We urge our members to define what they believe is moral and just – dollars for essential programs, human rights, abolition of torture, health care for all (we support single payer) – just as anyone defines their morality, secular or not. We NEVER – NOT EVER – impose our views ON legislation. We have not only no interest in building a theocracy, we actively work AGAINST it which is why I’m personally on a couple of hit lists, our offices have been broken into, and when W was in office, we had our email hacked. (Long story about how I know that. Another post.) Coming from your base of morality, whatever the source, is fine so long as you don’t impose your freaking sectarian views on anyone else. So we speak from a general moral and democratic point of view. It’s just what informs our view, not what we insist you must share. From that standpoint, we are 180-degrees different from the Religious Right, and we do stand on our right to participate in this manner. We are devoted to the separation of church and state, but that does not mean we cannot express our views even as they originate in moral theology. It’s not tricky to us, but some fear even our involvement, but we know we’ve got the legal separation down, and that we do carry influence along with every other citizen, every other view. That part we believe is fine. So I lobby – registered and all – with a completely clean conscience since I am the absolutely last person who’d ever try to get a RELIGIOUS test into law. Hah! No freaking WAY. But – I admit – it IS fun sometimes to show up in support of things like marriage equality and women’s right to choose with my Ex. Dir. in his clerical collar. Does make for double takes. And we do our best, daily, to piss off the religious right. And we usually succeed. Atheists have nothing to worry about from us – we support any and all views just as long as they are humane, compassionate, and peaceful toward others. Morality does NOT come from God or a church. It comes from within one’s heart, and never mind what you believe. We have no desire to convert since we’re not all that clear what WE believe – it’s all still a big question. But we do stand for justice. On that, we’re immoveable. And we reach 6.5 million people in CA who think pretty much the same. You just don’t know it. » Posted By choicelady On December 21, 2009 @ 2:11 pm Not sure whom you mean here – it was the Islamic world that SAVED math and science all during the Dark Ages of Europe. With the c.1483 (I think that’s the date) fall of Constantinople that had welcomed scholars from all parts of the world irrespective of faith, the learning that had been protected but isolated in Constantinople, the scholars scattered, and the breadth of knowledge re-emerged in Europe and the Mid East once again. the Renaissance would never have occurred without the protection the Islamic scholars gave to Greek, Roman, Egyptian and some Celtic learning. The Mulsims did not supress it. They saved it; ALL of it. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 11:27 pm You are right. They are known as predispensational Dominionists meaning they have to rid the world of evil (us) in order to bring their own Dominion over the world so Christ will return. Mind you – it’s nowhere in the Bible, but hey. They also have some that say there’s a code in the Bible that says the Beatitudes (love thy neighbor, etc.) no longer apply, so they’re free to eradicate Muslims, secularists, gays and lesbians, pro-choice people, on and on and on. If you look up James Hagee (who endorsed McCain until there was such an uproar McCain rejected the endorsement) you will get an eyeful. Look up Second Coming, End Times, or anything of that ilk, and you will get even more. They are NOT Christians in anything like the meaning of the term. They embrace Old Testament rules (you know – selling your daughters into slavery) but Jesus so they can claim that acceptance means they’re going to heaven. They believe in the Rapture – the saved or elect will be swept immediately into heaven (hope they leave their wallets) followed by 7 years of Tribulation. In Tribulation the full scale battle of good and evil will occur, and if you missed the Rapture, you can redeem yourself and go later. At the end of the Tribulation, Jesus will return. Now as a prefix to all of this there are prophecies to fulfill one of which is rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem. Thus these lovely pseudo-Christians have a branch that have become huge Zionists not because they love Jews – they loathe them – but because it’s very essential to have a toe in Israel and thus a toehold on that Temple. Christian Zionists are part of the Bush-Cheney-Xe Corporation people who started the wars in Iraq just to do away with all Muslims. Mr. Prince SAID so. He’s one of them. Are your eyes crossing yet? I will leave the rest to a good Google search. Are they dangerous??? To quote one of them – you betcha. Don’t brush them off. For 8 years they ran the world. Tom Delay is one, all of the Family, for their very thin theology, support the notion. They are hugely dangerous and can’t be let near “The Button” or anything else that matters. And the mainstream Christian world IS NOT PART OF THIS. They hate US too. At least I’m in very good company. Hope this helps. You are correct. I’m sorry that’s true. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 11:22 pm Cough – Ummm – Bernard – it ain’t true. We have been so overwhelmed by conservative versions of “religion” we don’t recall that it was people of faith who LED most of the US transformational movements from anti-slavery to pro-labor to women’s right to anti-war. Progressive people of faith have used the principles of the Common Good to speak strongly for justice everywhere. Apartheid would not have ended without Desmond Tutu. We in the progressive faith movement are well and truly overshadowed by the nastiness and weirdness (admit it – Palin’s witch hunting minister is WEIRD) who don’t remotely speak for anything like the majority. But wow are they good media! You haven’t a clue how much of what we do is totally ignored by the press and television – did you know that over 500 interfaith people went to Lieberman’s home to press him to support universal health care? No? Neither did I until someone told me on a conference call. Didn’t show up in MY paper! I can’t get OpEds published because the belief among editors is that speaking out for justice is B-O-R-I-N-G. MUCH more interesting to publish people spewing hate. Religion, better describes as spiritual life or faith, is simply NOT the sole province of ONLY small minded people! For members of our denominations (Protestants, NOT fundamentalist or evangelical) those coming together do so for insight, thoughtful discernment and ACTION on major issues of our day, all on the progressive side of the concerns. So please don’t tar us all with the same brush. We just are not seen – doesn’t mean we’re the minority OR that we aren’t here. Look a bit harder, and you’ll find us, marching, working, fighting for the very same things you do. We will even share our sandwiches with you. It’s that loaves and fishes thingy… » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 11:12 pm Oh, my – I so agree! Rage against an unseen foe sure supplants rage against one’s own ineptitude and feelings of incompetence. The “born again” people are that because so often their previous histories are so awful, and they have discovered they have NO judgment at all. So rules are very comforting, and leaving the future to preachers is much safer. I really do understand your story. Been there, done that! But I never found superstitious hate a better way to go. I don’t understand how people embrace religion that is so scary and full of violence. What comfort does that give? Yikes! » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 7:47 pm I am NOT a theologian, but that ROCKS! Thanks! » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 7:42 pm You mean they HAVE a prefrontal cortex? I figured the pre-requisite was a lobotomy, wouldn’t you think? » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 7:03 pm One of our key denominations! Our super best activists are UCC! Definitely would talk off line – but I’m SUCH a techoignoramus – how do we connect??? » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 7:01 pm KQuark – you are SO correct about the military and the Christian take over. We support an organization you may know, Military Religious Freedom Foundation, that is fighting tooth and nail to get these people OUT of power and influence in all parts of our nation’s military, including the academies. Mikey Weinstein, the founder, believes in total religious freedom, and he and his kids, all USAF grads, have experienced the most amazing hate and discrimination. He sends me posts (names removed) just brimming with hate for him as a Jew and for anyone (like my organization) who believes different faiths AND non-belief have equal weight to fundamentalist Christianity. http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org is the web site. Very much worth viewing. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 6:59 pm Thank you , bito – I occasionally post on religiondispatches.org. I’ve been a bit too busy lately, but it IS a great site! I think my ‘handle’ there is Churchlady, but I can’t remember for sure. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 6:52 pm You sure their motto wasn’t “Work over the World”? It would at least have meant they and their leader kept their promise… : ) » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 6:50 pm Nellie – Sharlet’s book made very clear they admire the Nazis. You are not at all wrong to sense that. They, the Family, were the forces behind bringing to America the unrepentent Nazis right after WW II. If this gives you cold chills, it should! We need the Irish “prayer” – Good Lord deliver me from my enemies, and if you cannot remove them, turn their ankles so I will know them by their limping. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 5:31 pm SueinCA – your write up was BOFFO and I could NOT have said it better!!! You let me wax prophetic (that IS a joke!) about the parts that have long concerned me a lot. BTW – we both are in CA, so we have a long view since most of these bozos are in the East and are not so present here. Thank GOD (also a snark.) Thank you for raising the issues, making the links. It’s heavy lifting, beautifully done. Thank you! » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 5:29 pm You are correct to be very, VERY concerned about these people. They are linked to the Family – though the disputes over leadership are perhaps a reason to be hopeful. Still and all, they are not likely to yield to progressives or even fairly mainstream people, not when they think they are “called”. When Jeff Sharlet wrote about this network, he did not find smoking guns about things I think need investigating – JFK, RFK, MLK, Jr. These people are linked to secular people who, having agreed to defer to The Family and to these folks as far as religious dominance goes, are also in high places – and the CIA. We are in a very strange place and time – according to a certain view of the world, we are at the end of the Sixth Millenium of Creation. Four thousand years from Adam and Eve to Christ, and two thousand from Christ until …? They are predispensationalist meaning they insist that the evil forces of the world (us) need to be removed or stopped or Christ will NOT return. Thus they feel called also to kill those who they believe stand in the way. They won’t stop. If you ever want to be VERY depressed, read the 1950s book, “When Prophecy Fails” – it shows that the failure of the prophecy (in that case UFO landings) does NOT make them open their eyes but reinforces the belief. Americans are peculiarly drawn to magical thinking, and this is the top of the heap. They disdain science but embrace genetic modification to help prophecy along. One “sign” they believe is the presence of the pure red heifer with no more than 3 white hairs. Since that has never occurred naturally, they “help” it along with genetic modification. I have read there are three to five of them now. As with Hitler who renamed himself (birth name Adolph Schicklegruber – probably Jewish in origin) to “fulfill” Nostradamus’ prophecy that “Histler” would rise to create the 1000-year Reich, these people muddle reality to obtain whatever they think “proves” their vision. As with Hitler, it is doomed. Hitler lasted 13 years not 1000, and left a wake of disaster behind him. My injunction to them would be = if you REALLY believe in prophecy, don’t mix in. It shows NO trust in God at all! But of course, they are NOT listening to me! They are truly scary and will stop at- what? Nothing. They believe every bit of their own hype so will do whatever they believe will work. I think they may have done it before. Can we stop them this time? The clear light that Sharlet has shined on them makes this much easier to counter, but it is NOT impossible that we have grave danger ahead. They are in a lather over Obama, see him truly as Satan, and who knows where that will lead them? Everyone needs to focus on this and these people. They have received some important setbacks, but they will not give up. There may be dangerous days ahead for Obama, for us, for the world. It’s up to us to do whatever we can to spread real hope and joy and peace and humanity. That is the only thing that can stop them. We need to be present for the good, because they are all too present for the sheer evil they have created to justify their own power and domination of everything. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 5:00 pm Senate Reaches Health Care Reform Agreement I’ll give it a shot. I think the Conference Committee will include: 1. A public option will be restored. Public outcry will make this work. Party discipline will get the vote. You cannot morally have a mandate without this. Bet it gets implemented before 2014, too. 2. IMMEDIATE coverage for those with chronic or life-threatening problems who’ve been uninsured 6 or more months. This is IN the Senate bill, BTW. 3. Roll over of SCHIP (subsidized coverage for kids) into an equally affordable program that will NOT have to be renewed every 5 years. (House bill) 4. Abolition of the exemption of insurance corporations from anti-trust regulation. (EVeryone) 5. A clamp-down on rates of the private insurance companies with respect to “risk rates” (age, sex, etc.) that will lower the disparities between people. Even if we older folks pay twice what younger ones do, I now pay 450% more, so that would help! (Version of the Senate bill.) 6. Abolition of the rake-off in Medicare to private intermediaries that do nothing we could not do for ourselves in picking the Medicare Advantage Plan B companies. Money saved will be directed to higher provider reimbursement rates. Some doctors are no longer able to afford to take many Medicare patients – thanks, W, for screwing us over this way. 7. Close the damned doughnut hole in Part D. (both bills, last I knew.) 8. Allow legal immigrants to be enrolled immediately and undocumented immigrants to buy privately in the exchange. Good for us all to keep people healthy. (The purchase arrangement is in the House bill – don’t know if the 5 year wait was eliminated in the Manger’s Amendments or not but it must be done.) 9. Much more money to rural areas, to community clinics so that even the newly insured via the public option, actually have somewhere to GO. (Both bills last I read.) 10. Payments to your doc so you can have “end of life” discussions before the end of your life! Advanced directives too often are made with no conversation with your doc – and that can lead to misunderstandings. We need to pay docs for these conversations. (If it was taken out, put it back – it was once in both bills.) 11. Medicare will bargain for drug rates and allow the importation of FDA-approved cheaper drugs from Canada. (Can’t recall which bill or bills, but they are still discussing it in blogs, so…) 12.Raise the Medicaid coverage to at least 133% of the Federal Poverty Level (no significant costs to the insured) and maybe 150%. Take away states’ ability to change the eligibility level, and give the states more money for coverage. (The two houses differ on the eligibility ceiling, but they both say this. I hope for 150%.) Finally- Five minutes after the health bill passes and is signed into law, we will move on PhRMA and knock out their non-competitive stance on ALL federal (and maybe even state) negotiations on costs. (Obama SAID some many moths ago that while this was not in any bill now, nothing at all stopped Congress and us from pursuing this after health care reform was done. Hardly anyone noticed he’d said that, but I heard it, and I believe it can happen.) So – does that help? I think these 12 things are secure. PhRMA is another fight, but I think the drug corporation monopoly and price gouging days are OVER. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 8:14 pm You have NO idea how much those of us in the progressive or even mainstream faith communities are SICK TO DEATH of these people praying for the demise of health reform. I hardly have a pipeline to God, but honestly do they REALLY believe that if God hears people’s prayers, God would hear THOSE prayers? This is disgusting, it certainly does not comport with anything remotely “Christian” as I understand theology and history, and they are just sick puppies to want more people to die for lack of care. I can’t find one single source in the Bible or any other theological writing that says God loves the insurance companies. Just CANNOT FIND THAT! » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 7:54 pm I had the pleasure of having dinner with Trumka once. He is amazing, delightful, and smart as all get out. I’m honored to think we’re in the same place on this. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 7:50 pm I totally agree – our progressive faith organization is absolutely, 100% against a mandate in the private market. That is sheer evil! But I bet the public option comes back in Conference Committee, and survives because of the outrage we all have expressed. Never doubt your power! Voices outweigh even money on Capitol Hill. Seen it before on big issues – people CAN take back America. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 5:40 pm Honest, folks – the Senate could put in a bill that says, SB XXX – everything is hunky dory with our current system, and no change is needed, and they would STILL have to deal with HR 3962 from the House. The Conference Committee appointees are all liberal save for Baucus who’s laboring under his girlfriend scandal, and I think what will emerge will be good – far better than the Senate bill. Then the gloves come off, what Matt Taibi (Rolling Stone) calls the “rubber hoses” come out, and Reid and Obama lay it on the line. Move this to the floor, end filibuster, or you will lose chairmanships, committee appointments, and every DIME of federal money for your state. Since you can threaten this only ONCE, that would be the time! When it goes into conference committee, that IS when our work begins. Be stouthearted – this is NOT over just because the Senate bill sucks (a technical term, you understand…) » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 5:38 pm Now, now Pepe – you’re sounding like Arianna! He’s right, but what’s “righter” (in the sense of more correct) is that we still have the Conference Committee, and that means the House bill will provide enormous opportunity for a much better bill. Biden knows that. The Senate bill is NOT the end! I dont’ want Biden to resign. He’s very good! And I don’t want you to mimic Arianna – YOU’RE too good for that! » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 10:52 am Good post! I’d like to encourage everyone to remember – what goes IN from the Senate is NOT the defining moment of what comes OUT of Conference Committee! The House will have HUGE input, can restore the Capps’ Amendment (Lois Capps is one of my organization’s members), can restore the public option, and on and on. The Senate Conference members, with the exception of Baucus, is all progressives. When it comes OUT of Conference Committee, if these and other provisions have triumphed, the Senate CAN either force the two holdouts, L and N, to vote for cloture OR go “nuclear”. Do NOT give up working for a GREAT bill coming out of Conference. The signs are good, the momentum from our pressure is superb. We can prevail on many of our issues. Keep working! » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 10:49 am Thank you, whatsthatsound, but I have a “checkered past” and will be hornswoggled if I’ll let the religous right at me! I’m also a darned sight more effective doing what I’m doing! Cranky women usually are better on the sidelines keeping the elected folks honest! But that’s very kind of you to say! » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 5:44 pm Thanks, all of you, for your kind words. I’m glad, bito, that you understand first hand, what change in America is like! S-L-O-W! KQuark is so correct that the progressive pundits are not always our friends. Some of you know that a progressive ally of mine really is trying to screw my organization over – we inside the progressive world are not immune to this kind of individualism, even with our views. We need to collaborate, we need to give each “actor” in our world his or her or its due because this effort is too big for any one of us to do alone. But we’re sometimes our own worst enemies. I think my strength is my willingness to support groups and individuals whose work is not mine – I fulfill the old theater adage: show up and hit your marks. I’m there for others. I’m also TIRED of not getting loyalty BACK, but it does not mean I will cut anyone out unless I have very good reason. We are too small a universe to undermine ANY good work others are doing even if it’s not ours. We all want community, but that of necessity means honoring others. We sometimes have to remember that the strength of community is tolerating – celebrating – our differences in approach, resources, message, work, personality. We progressives don’t have the discipline that the Right has or had. They did not dis one another, and that’s how they got where they are or were. We progressives are awfully quick to criticize our peers, when we should be focused on Cheney, Bush, Xe, the Family, and all the hairsprayed religious zealots. We should NOT be picking one another off! We will never have the discipline of the Right since being different is our strength, but we CAN honor those differences. Otherwise we just gripe. I love Keith and Rachel for showing us the steaming underbelly of the Right – but we surely do not want to emulate that! We all contribute. We all make a huge difference. It’s way too early in the game to give up or be discouraged. WAY too early! The dirtiest four-letter word in the English language is WAIT. I know that from lousy drivers, and from my impatient allies. But waiting and continuing to work for what we want is precisely what we need to do. Dirty word or not – it’s essential. And then the GOOD four-letter word – HOPE. I still have it and encourgage all of us to share it. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 10:25 am Hi Cher- I am NOT demoralized by this administration! I think he is well on his way to making massive changes we have all claimed we want, including shifting authority back to Congress and restoring the rule of law. What we all miss – and did not realize we wanted – is the clarity that comes from executive orders, an imperial presidency that is just on OUR side. The rule of law is very ponderous and quiet. I think we all are discovering how unfamiliar we are with democracy. Remember that Bill Clinto did less, accomplished less on our behalf, made far more errors (remember the revolving door Supreme Court nominees etc.?) and was on a crash and burn route until after Oklahoma City where his calm leadership finally made him shine? We think of him as effective, but only second term, and only then because he followed the Wall Street groupthink on selling our birthright for a mess of pottage. Obama has already done huge things, and I think you will discover that our final health care plan is vastly better than the Senate version since he and Reid quietly have put nothing but progressives and one cowed Blue Dog (Baucus has shut up due to his personal scandal) on Conference Committee. We are so used to the Bush-Cheney-Reagan bombast that we don’t know how to react to calm, drama-free leadership. Far too much hyperventilating has come from OUR “lefty” media that has not learned to 1. verify facts or 2. stand down and WAIT before insisting the sky is falling. Even Rachel, one of the most careful commentators EVER, gets ahead of the information now and then. My advice about being demoralized? Deep, cleansing breaths. We need to WATCH and we need to WAIT because it took 60 years to build this mess (WW II on) and it won’t change overnight. And what of the powerful Right? I think they’re damned scary, but the Seven Days in May factors just aren’t present. Obama’s relationship with the Joint Chiefs is vastly better than Kennedy’s ever was. They are different people; he is less naive than JFK. The Shadow Right – Cheney, Xe Corp., C Street – now they are damned scary and may well be a serious threat domestically and internationally. They MUST be investigated and soon!!! They violate the Logan Act every time they give aid and comfort to foreign governments and support tyrants in opposition to our national goals. But they ARE being exposed both through work such as Sharlet’s “The Family” and legally as in the court briefs against Prince. And C Street has become a laughingstock – Best Little Whorehouse in DC! I think over time you will see more and more people pulling away from that kind of power mad phony Christianity! It’s corrupt and corrupting, and it is losing steam. Look what moral outrage did in driving Warren FINALLY to public denounce the death to gays legislation in Uganda. That would NEVER have happened before now. And – fundamental to the feeling of efficacy and the feeling of discouragement – is how much we are engaged with speaking our minds and raising our voices. Obama said his job was to return democratic practices to us, the people. I think, because I mobilize a very large organization in the progressive Christian world to speak against torture, for real health care, for LGBTQ rights and women’s right to make her own moral decisions, because that is my daily work, and because I do this directly with several thousand core people and vastly more “out there” I don’t know – because I feel involved and engaged and connected – I DO FEEL I MAKE A DIFFERENCE – and so do our members. We make things change. Belonging – sort of – to MoveOn etc. is not the same. The power of efficacy is being with people in the same room, working for the same goal. Some of us are less able to do that depending on where we live, but that is the power of the campaign, and it CAN continue. JOIN something and actually GO to see a legislator – thank them if they’re good, and tell them what you really want if they are not. If you can’t go, write or call. But find a group with which to ally where you see real people now and then. HUGE difference! It is engagement that the progressives lack – we don’t have it anymore because we thought it was over when we got Obama elected. Nope. That’s when democratic advocacy started, not when it ended. So no, I am not discouraged. I really like what I see Obama doing, and I really see change. What does discourage me though is why so few of us nationally really do see the transformation this nation is undergoing. We need to recover our sense of community. We need to recover our commitment to work. We need to remember what we wanted and then realize when we have it. Then we might not be discouraged at all. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 8:19 am Amen, but there is no real cost control on premiums yet, and it CAN be made better. See above for my thoughts about that. » Posted By choicelady On December 19, 2009 @ 10:52 am Really good post! Now, I’d like to give you my view as a lobbyist (not in DC) and see what you all think. Reid put ONLY progressives, including himself, on the Conference Committee. Baucus is the only Blue Dog but has problems facing censure at least for his cheesy handling of promoting his girfriend. He’s quite subdued, so I’m of the belief he’s a lot more compliant than he was. What goes to Conference Committee (CC) from the Senate is almost irrelevant. In CC it is my belief much of what is in the House bill will prevail, plus a restoration of the Capps’ Amendment on abortion which allows a woman to obtain that option with her own money but does not prohibit federal funds for her other health care. I believe the sudden nose dive in public support coupled with an amazing upsurge in voices of labor, the faith community, the progressives such as MoveOn, and the general public have sent a signal loudly and clearly that we WANT a public option and real fair play in this bill. CC will NOT have to take the Senate bill. All this uproar in the media presumes somehow that this is the last word, and it is NOT. When the CC bill comes to the floors of the respective houses, THAT is when the gloves will come off. Matt Taibi from Rolling Stone noted that in the past presidents and congressional leaders have “brought out the rubber hoses” – threatened loss of committee status, NO money for the person’s state, etc. But since you can do that only ONCE, the time for that is not this week – give the troglodytes what they want to get cloture – but it WILL be when the bill comes to the floors after CC rewrites. For Reid and Obama to do this NOW is to assure Lieberman and Nelson move to the right. To wait til after the Conference Committee is to use muscle when it is needed AND most effective. So that is my hope. I have historic precedent on my side, I have public energy on my side, and I have the make up of the SENATE CC members on my side. I don’t play on Capitol Hill, so I might be too optimistic, but that’s what I believe is going on. Does money talk on Capitol Hill??? Do bears… Of course. But what talks as loudly is citizen VOTES. With so many groups in a fury about the Senate capitulation to the insurance industry, that can and is greatly offsetting the money interests. Public pressure has REAL impact, and we cannot let up our efforts. The focus must be on the Conference Committe, and our “ask” must be persistent and unrelenting. It is the moral course, the democratic course, and the humane course, and we are united in our desires, so we cannot be ignored. The handwriting is on the wall for us to get BACK what we want. Have hope, but work like hell through CC to get a real reform out of Congress! » Posted By choicelady On December 19, 2009 @ 10:51 am The Senate bill, no matter what, is only half the story. With the pick of nothing but four progressives and one muzzled conservative (caught plying favors for his girlfriend), the very real possibility is that they are passing on Lieberman, not fighting here so they GET a bill, working it massively over in Conference Committee with the very much better House bill, THEN telling Lieberman – vote or get busted off all your committees. If they do that NOW, he could decide to call their bluff when cloture is essential in the final, crucial vote. You can only threaten him ONCE. The move of the FINAL bill is what matters, NOT the Senate bill. We all must work the Conference Committee – that is where the final language with essential programs and bill elements will be worked out. That Reid has ONLY progressives (and muzzled Baucus) is outstanding and says all that we need to know. Hold the indignation and criticism over Lieberman – this is entirely tactical, and it’s the right thing to do. I am heartily encouraged by Reid’s choices, the calm that lets Lieberman THINK he won, and the real possibility that Conference Committee will give us BACK all the good stuff AND stuff Lieberman in a closet. KEEP SPEAKING UP ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT IN THE BILL!!! This is NOT over! PS – I posted this only to scroll down to see all of you eastern folks were heading to bed. Getting up a head of steam and speaking my mind really loses some oomph when there is no one there to read it. LOL!!!!! G’night all you folks out there. Talk at you (youze?) tomorrow. » Posted By choicelady On December 18, 2009 @ 9:05 pm Friday Music Thread – Mood Enhancers Thank you Rarest, Patsy, Kalima! What happened is that a long-time ally totally screwed my organization out of a major grant. After weeks of my aiding him in developing said grant supposedly with both our organizations doing parts of the work, he dumped us out leaving us with no funding. It’s a lot about the money, but it’s discovering that he betrayed my years of friendship and alliance that is disastrous. I knew he was empire building. Never thought it would be on our back. I think what really sucked was his lofty tone of superiority as if we’d done something wrong. He changed the focus of work implying we were stupid and naive to want to do what he and I had begun negotiating. Not only is it a personal betrayal, it leaves my organization teetering on having to close. I’m devastated. We may pull this out, working feverishly on that with other sources, but I am furious, and I don’t know what to do. I never thought that this person, with whom I am very close, would ever do what he has criticized OTHER groups doing to his. It was dishonest and dishonorable and totally unnecessary. I am very grateful to you all for the support. I am not personally in fiancial peril, but my organization may be, and we have worked like dogs over the past 8 years to get us to be really effective. Now is NOT the time to eradicate our voice! Damn. » Posted By choicelady On December 19, 2009 @ 11:01 am I’m older than that, but don’t remotely LOOK it, of course. Most of this is new to me, save the 150yo classical and Lennon. Thanks everyone for sharing. I am a Christmas nut and usually very happy, but today is in the top ten of worst days of my life, so I came here and got, if not cheered up, at least calmed down. Thanks to all! » Posted By choicelady On December 18, 2009 @ 8:51 pm GREAT post AdLib. We are encouraging Reid to do precisely that, if he cannot use his force of committee appointment or the President won’t use the calm but certain threat of reduced federal support to the recalcitrant senators’ home states. It IS the only way. Thank you for being so clear, providing the background on the “nuclear option” and giving us all another set of actions to pursue. » Posted By choicelady On December 20, 2009 @ 10:44 amComments Posted By choicelady
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