Displaying 601 To 630 Of 5,146 Comments Sure thing! I know when people get furious about church exemptions we’re thinking of the huge RW churches that disregard the mandates against partisan campaigning and pounding the pulpit insisting congregants must vote GOP. Those abuses outrage the rest of us who are very careful. It is OK for churches to have NON partisan ballot guides at coffee hour etc. But I’ve seen way too much partisan lobbying and insistence from those who get not just tax exemptions but tax DEDUCTIBLE donations that they then use to promote partisan agendas. Not supposed to promote even NON partisan ones with tax deductible money. So whipping away their tax exempt status is the right thing to do. Will it happen now? No. And that infuriates me even more. The IRS just got emasculated for the time being, and I am sorely peeved since a number of us have smoking gun evidence against at least two entities and now know it won’t be used. I realize squeaky wheel gets the grease, but my colleagues and allies are not willing to be the balance to the religious right yet. We really are too nice! And we’re not prepared to take the heat or deliver it to both the IRS and this administration. We have to stop giving corporations and abusive non profits a free ride. But that takes courage and political commitment, and right now this administration is focusing on getting things done that they cannot do as long as Congress continues to make this “persecution” a hot topic. Damn! » Posted By choicelady On May 16, 2013 @ 7:31 am Any word on her condition, Kalima? We are sending thoughts, prayers, energies, karma her way! » Posted By choicelady On May 15, 2013 @ 8:48 pm Nirek – that sounds good, but the reason for non profit status is the contributions non-profits and churches make to the Common Good. If you were to tax those progressive entities that do the work you care about, they would dissolve. They are that fragile for the most part. Only the large, RW mega churches would survive, and then where would you be? My organization, a c-3 and a c-4 obeying the laws and doing education and advocacy on principles and issues of the general welfare is ALWAYS teetering on the brink of financial ruin. The Left overall has very little money. Our fave saying is that people are paid millions to screw up the world – we volunteer to fix it. So now you want to TAX us on the paltry donations and some grants we get? The better way is to make FOR PROFIT groups pay the taxes they really owe but finagle to hide or reduce with huge tax breaks. Don’t put it on the little church on the corner that is handing out good to the poor. We go – NO one picks up the work we do, the help we give. Tax progressive groups, and all you will have is Rove’s voice. NON profit status exits to help us help our fellow humans. Making sure that we abide by the laws is excellent (my organization surely DOES). But taxing us assures our death. We DO pay sales and personal income taxes, but if you taxed our meager income (which is NOT profit going to anyone but to our work) we’re doomed. And by our demise, so are you. » Posted By choicelady On May 15, 2013 @ 8:46 pm To our beloved friend, kes – we know you are facing some real difficulties, have to put yourself into the hands of the medical profession you know ALL too well, and that this will keep you away from us for some time. Well – good. Good you’re taking care of yourself. Good you’re fixing what needs a tune up, and good you have the time and space to take recover without pressure or coercion or worries. And good from all of us TO you as we unite our collective energies, focus on your healing, and give you strength both physical and spiritual to get your through all this. Good because we love you, we will miss you, and because we want you to come back to us whole, complete, restored, renewed, and we send you energies so that can come to pass. We all are here, kes. We all are focused on you now. We send love, prayers, energies, karma, whatever each of us has. It’s all yours. Grow well. Come back stronger than before. We are here, arms wide open to take you back in. We love you. Namaste. Shalom. Salaam. Peace. » Posted By choicelady On May 13, 2013 @ 7:22 pm Oh kes – sigh. SO sorry you have to go through this. After my husband’s angio last December, we figured the ONLY way to look at the experience was as a “tune up”. Back, charged up, and ready to keep on keepin’ on. You know we will send every ounce of energy we have to you, prayers, funk’s Karma coupons, whatever you need. We love you and want you well ASAP and just wish we weren’t so far flung we can’t be there. I make boffo chicken soup, but it’s so hard to email or even air express! Where is modern science and ‘beam me up, Scotty’ when you need them? Be well, be mindful of how many of us are here for you, and come back healed and let us know how you are. We love you, girlfriend. We are with you no matter where we are. » Posted By choicelady On May 12, 2013 @ 2:31 pm So…Wayne LaPierre says Bostonians today wish they’d had a gun at the marathon? Whom, please, would they have shot? What earthly use is a gun against a bomb when the bomber is LONG GONE? Can’t fix stupid. CAN call it out! » Posted By choicelady On May 4, 2013 @ 9:18 pm Nirek and kes – this goes well beyond stupid. America has always had a tin foil hat contingent, but starting with the moon landing in 1969, it has become a force of rage and destruction, not stupidity. These assertions are designed to erode confidence in our government, our system, our principles. They are being espoused by people who want revolution, even anarchy, to further their own interests, damn the consequences. From Sovereign Citizens (McVeigh was one) to the NRA and beyond, they want an armed uprising against this president, Congress, us. Conspiracy theories are nothing new; we had those in the 18th and 19th centuries who claimed Masons or the Illuminati were conspiring to overthrow the U.S., but at least they WANTED a united states of America. Today’s people want either a theocracy, a totalitarian regime or both. Or, possibly no government at all. There are deep reasons for us to distrust various administrations – think of the lies by Nixon, the Gulf of Tonkin (where even LBJ was lied to), the lingering unexplained conspiracies that likely underpin the 1963 and 1968 assassinations of key leaders,the Iran-Contra debacle, the School of the Americas – the list is long, the actions despicable. However, the lies were and are perpetrated by the RIGHT, not liberals for it’s only the ultra right – C Street, Koch brothers, etc. – who have the power and the money to pull them off. It is only the Right who have access to rogue CIA agents and others who work in the name and at the behest of those same interests We are seeing seriously dangerous yet at the moment perfectly legal assertions. The one powerful counterbalance is those of us who continue to assert provable truth. The vast majority of Americans do NOT subscribe to the rants of the Right. They might have done at one time (too many were willing to believe in ‘welfare queens’ and other distortions) but no longer. The dangerous players are largely known, watched, controlled. But it’s not stupidity that drives this force of slavering delusion, it is outright hate of our government, of democracy, of the Bill of Rights, of all human rights. This force cannot be dismissed and must not be discounted. They are not likely to win – but they can and I think will create major havoc along the way. » Posted By choicelady On May 4, 2013 @ 1:09 pm Now THAT made me laugh out loud!!! Exactly – it’s the funny side of awful. Thanks for a good laugh, AdLib! » Posted By choicelady On May 2, 2013 @ 7:30 pm kes – KT below nailed it. They already do. OMG. » Posted By choicelady On May 2, 2013 @ 7:28 pm How is a $300 gun NOT emptying Dad’s wallet??? I am reasonably middle clas and couldn’t afford that. » Posted By choicelady On May 2, 2013 @ 7:27 pm Hey – Mississippi and Alabama let very young girls marry if their parents OK it. Remember Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 year old cousin? LEGALLY? We are not dealing with good judgement here. We are dealing with people whose entire conteporary history is grounded in century-old economic and rural traditions of necessity but whose good sense around adult supervision and social supports is now eroded. In “olden days” when young kids were taught to hunt and use guns at very young ages, adults were with them 24/7. Now they are not. Tragedy was inevitable. » Posted By choicelady On May 2, 2013 @ 7:25 pm OK – it’s now profoundly clear. We are dealing with The Terrible Twos where you fool your kid into eating vegetables by denying them to the kid – “It’s for adults only, you are too young to eat them!” OMG. And we thought Vitter’s diaper fetish was only that – not evidence of his mental age! I do NOT want to know who else needs to be powdered… » Posted By choicelady On May 2, 2013 @ 7:21 pm kes – I can say from personal experience, that it is a profound good that they DO have each other. Honestly – no one else can REALLY understand the pain. It’s often irrational, and it cries out not for revenge but acknowledgement and recognition. The rest of us can’t do it as often or as profoundly as they need. So having each other gives UNSPOKEN understanding and support which will be priceless in their recovery. But yes – how horrible they have to. » Posted By choicelady On May 2, 2013 @ 7:17 pm This is getting almost as sordid as the LA race of the crooked incumbent Governor v the KKK’s David Duke. LA voters had bumper stickers that read: “Vote for the crook. It’s important.” Yikes. » Posted By choicelady On May 1, 2013 @ 8:01 pm He obviously was cover. You cannot EVER talk sense to paranoid delusion,kes. I’m glad your friend is physically recovering, and I hope he can find help getting past the PTSD. It’s a horrid burden, and my thoughts are with him! » Posted By choicelady On May 1, 2013 @ 7:59 pm The family was admitted as refugees by George W. Bush’s administration. That is all you have to know. I’ve started seeing wild-eyed conspiracy fanatics on otherwise rational sites. They are promoting the “it’s all a fake” lines, “didn’t ever happen” ideas, and not a shred of fact to back up these assertions. Yes – I saw the woman – she did NOT have a backpack. These slavering assertions would make sense under Republicans where clear evidence has existed that this nation engaged in secret and horrible actions. But they make NO sense under Clinton or Obama. There simply is no smoking gun – and in fact the clear evidence is that we are far more open and transparent than ever. Why these people NEED to hate our government is absolutely a mystery. Watergate, CIA wet sanctions, School of the Americas, support of tyrants – all GOP or their corporate and Dominionist allies. I guess anti-democratic movements have to find danger in pro democracy ones. Otherwise, how could they bamboozle us? Except – it’s no longer working. Not at all. For which I’m very thankful. » Posted By choicelady On May 1, 2013 @ 7:57 pm Parents who should say, “Washed my brains this morning and can’t do a THING with them!” When you are a True Believer in almost anything polemical, you will generally come to tragedy. Think how well the NRA might do if they first expressed ANY sorrow over the victims, and then supported what the American public wants. Those who slavishly follow the NRA instead of their neighbors increasingly seem to come in harm’s way. I could be mean and chalk it up to the Darwin Principle that means they get wiped out and don’t reproduce, but too often it’s the kids, who may not be warped, who die. Everyone on the right sure talks a lot about ‘personal responsibility’, but it’s funny how much that’s about YOU and almost never about ME. How these parents will live with themselves is deeply worrisom, and yet it’s NOT our responsibility unless and until we do know them. I hope sorrow wakes them up. But it probably won’t. » Posted By choicelady On May 1, 2013 @ 7:48 pm I so appreciate the fact I am working in a hermetically sealed office today – no TV and no familiar way to stream live events (I would have had to LOOK, and who needs that?) So I am blissfully un-Bushed. Got a LOT of good work done, though! It is my intention to do whatever I can to undermine W at every turn. Ahhhhh. A sigh of satisfaction! » Posted By choicelady On April 25, 2013 @ 3:21 pm Wow I loved that show! I think it was rerun on Nickelodeon some years ago. With the passing of Annette, maybe they’ll bring it back? » Posted By choicelady On April 10, 2013 @ 5:16 pm The sidebar news story that the TVA, a New Deal legacy, may be sold is horrifying to me! It’s a rural electrical cooperative, one of the best, most efficient, and cheapest utilities in America. It was built with OUR TAX MONEY (well, OK – none of us was born then, but still…) so where do they get off SELLING IT? All through the plains the shelter belts of trees planted by the CCC to control topsoil erosion AND to stabilize climate are being torn out. Why? Because despite their being federal property, they encroach on a couple of acres of land that the large harvesting machinery has to negotiate. But what right do they have to DO that? To sell our federally paid for electrical cooperative? It’s not theirs to sell, to rip out, to destroy. We need MORE of this, not less! It keeps costs reasonable, keeps operators honest, and benefits millions who obtain the service. Reaganomics/Thatcherism strikes again. » Posted By choicelady On April 10, 2013 @ 5:13 pm OMG Sally – I’m so sorry he and you and your whole family went through that! Why people in rural areas loved Reagan is beyond me – his treatment of family farmers was despicable. Why can’t people see who is selling them out even with the pretty blather? Good for your father for not allowing himself to be deceived! I wish things had been better for you all. » Posted By choicelady On April 10, 2013 @ 5:07 pm VERY good, AB. “Bobbie Sands” is an excellent name. I remember him well. I met his brother, Sean, who played Irish rebellion music at a hall in Pawtucket, RI not long after Bobby’s death. It was very painful to think of his loss for no good reason. Thatcher was a whore to the rich, and her damage was long lasting. I agree with everyone who says her lasting impact, and that of her bud, Ronnie, is what we’re swimming against today. That she had not a grain of compassion for Bobby says everything you need to know about that philosophy. She was a slightly more discreet version of the Baggers who cheer at the idea of people dying for lack of insurance. She and Ron gave those people permission to be vile. Some freaking legacy. » Posted By choicelady On April 10, 2013 @ 5:05 pm She fought a valiant struggle against MS, too. I loved her when she was on the Mikey Mouse Club – she just radiated calm self assurance, strength, and poise, and gave 1950s girls a different, NON fluttery way to be female. She was never credited with feminism – I think she never thought about it – but she was the first adolescent pop star whose self presentation was that of a confident woman. Grace under fire all the time. She will be missed indeed. » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2013 @ 9:35 pm Tonight Lawrence O’Donnell tried to make out that she was still a socialist, that she is the equivalent of today’s Dems, and I’m SO ANGRY at the inaccuracies I could upchuck! She was as wretched as Ayn Rand in her loathing of working people, protection for wealth no matter how it was gained, and her slavering devotion to privatizing absolutely everything no matter how poorly it ran or whom it hurt. I understand what O’Donnell was trying to do, but he’s dead wrong, and giving Maggie ANY kind of pass on support for social welfare is a joke. He damned well ought to know better. Bah! I’m SO sorry your family was hurt by Thatcherism. I hear stories from so many people that reflect yours that I have to wonder what in the world is left good to say about her. Whom did she benefit? Only the very wealthy and very few of them. Horrid woman. Glad she’s gone. » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2013 @ 9:31 pm Wow, Sally – you are giving a LOT more credit than I’d have thought! Very warm hearted of you! LOL!!! » Posted By choicelady On April 8, 2013 @ 9:26 pm Never thought I’d say it, but try Wal-Mart. Their formulary is large and designed for older people on Medicare. You can get a month of standard generics (so much depends on what) for $4-5 each. Walgreens does the same, but their formulary is a little smaller. Good luck! Closing the donut hole is a main “good” of the ACA, but it is taking far too long. » Posted By choicelady On April 6, 2013 @ 12:33 pm Good for you! Hard, horrible time. I was living in TN when it happened. We did not have riots. We suddenly had NO Black people anywhere – not at the college, not on the streets, not anywhere at work. No one. It was the scariest and sadest thing ever. I went to bed that night so depressed – woke up crying riddled with sorrow AND guilt over the loss of this amazing man. » Posted By choicelady On April 6, 2013 @ 12:30 pm Oh, booooooo! Love it! » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2013 @ 12:35 pm GREAT story! Thanks! » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2013 @ 12:34 pm LFer – you cannot be condemned for “purchasing under fire” or, rather, WATER. As G-d exempted the Jews from having to be kosher in times of danger, so we all exempt you from having to endure a flood. That is – NOW – a very funny story. Bet it wasn’t so funny then? One does what one must. We all get it! » Posted By choicelady On April 1, 2013 @ 12:33 pmComments Posted By choicelady
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