Open Thread
By driftglass Thursday Jul 16, 2009 7:30pm
The Onion (edited for safe-for-work viewing, see original here) finally gets the 40-year-old headline right. The interactive website commemorating today's anniversary is worth the click.
40 years ago we were a nation that spent billions of dollars on the crap shoot of putting three men on top of 3,200 tons of hellfire wrapped in an aluminum skin and firing the whole thing at a dead rock 240,000 miles away because our destiny demanded it.
40 years later we are a nation that will not spend billions to keep its 300 million citizens alive, healthy and productive because the insurance industry lobbyists who own our politicians forbid it.
[Blue Gal's taking the night off to celebrate her birthday. Have a good one, BG.] Open Thread in comments...
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... are being retired in two years, with no firm plans to continue any space programs.
How sad.
Someone will go back to discover fantastic lunar goodies at some point. Too bad everyone gets in your face when you start building rocket ships, but someone will do it with international help.
It's not the end of space programmes. Other countries have great interest too. Korea is starting its own space programme now, as has China, and many other nations.
My hope is it is for peaceful, scientific purposes and not militarising space. Is our world (are we humans) smart enough to see that?
Americans still do not realize what is happening right before their eyes.
Our country is being transfered to the Global Empire which is a mixture of what was American corportions going in partnership with countries / businesses overseas to become a World Global Empire which will control every single policies of this planet...
There is no longer a USA , that fact has disappeared and we have been sold to foreign countries like Britain , China , India and others to purge any and all control Americans had..
We no longer have any social programs , manufacturing plants , jobs or agencies to support any of our infrastructure projects.
We have foreign country with our manufacturing plants which have their employees running straight thru our boarders with goods which were made in our country and now have been outsourced.
How many Americans agreed to let our government create a credit card in our name and our childrens name to pay This Banking Empire money to expand their business , pay themselve large salaries / bonuses , outsource jobs while we lose our jobs , wages are cut , retirement is flushed down the toilet while we lose our homes back to the very persons which not only caused it but are buying back and making a profit from our disaster..
Americans still do not realize what is happening right before their eyes.
Our country is being transfered to the Global Empire which is a mixture of what was American corportions going in partnership with countries / businesses overseas to become a World Global Empire which will control every single policies of this planet...
There is no longer a USA , that fact has disappeared and we have been sold to foreign countries like Britain , China , India and others to purge any and all control Americans had..
We no longer have any social programs , manufacturing plants , jobs or agencies to support any of our infrastructure projects.
We have foreign country with our manufacturing plants which have their employees running straight thru our boarders with goods which were made in our country and now have been outsourced.
How many Americans agreed to let our government create a credit card in our name and our childrens name to pay This Banking Empire money to expand their business , pay themselve large salaries / bonuses , outsource jobs while we lose our jobs , wages are cut , retirement is flushed down the toilet while we lose our homes back to the very persons which not only caused it but are buying back and making a profit from our disaster..
Should unit...
I still cannot believe that they have not come clean on the real scandal: where's the green Moon Cheese?!
Regards,
Tengrain
"40 years ago we were a nation that spent billions of dollars on the crap shoot of putting three men on top of 3,200 tons of hellfire wrapped in an aluminum skin and firing the whole thing at a dead rock 240,000 miles away because our destiny demanded it.
40 years later we are a nation that will not spend billions to keep its 300 million citizens alive, healthy and productive because the insurance industry lobbyists who own our politicians forbid it."
That's because in between now and then Saint Ronnie came along and taught us that greed was a virtue. Love thyself and screw thy neighbor.
Neocons have the blood of an entire society and culture on their hands.
I doubt that the young'ns can appreciate that we were bored by Apollo 15. Been there. Done that. And, _of_course_, we would have 2001, a Space Odyssey space stations by now. Instead, we got an idiocracy dumbed down with hate, fear, greed and creationism.
and my father was part of the program. They used computers but a lot of work was done on slide rules. Not to overdo the "greatest generation" thing but we have gone from being a nation of people with a can-do attitude, don't take charity, and don't complain, to one with a lot of self-entitled, weak-spined whiners.
The plus side is there are a lot more open-minded people out there, so if we could get our hard-working mojo back we might recover from what I agree is a 30-year Republican/Neo-lib work over.
I remember watching the lift-off at school. We had the black-and-white classroom TV on all day when they landed. The WHOLE FUCKING WORLD watched that day (at least, those that had TV). Is there anything that can unite us all like that again? Anything that doesn't have to do with somebody dying or being killed? Can't think of a single thing.
What a sad world this has become.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cnn/susan...
:)
Hedonistically chasing that elusive perfect yarn.
Happy happies BG!
I do back a space program, but one accomplished through probes and robots and satellites. There is absolutely NO reason for humans to go in space. Space makes antarctica look like spring in Bali. We were not designed for the moon, or Mars, and we certainly were not designed to live in tin cans orbiting anywhere in a near vacuum.
Send machines to tell us about the universe. That will suffice. We don't need some testosterone poisoned goofball stomping around on planets we have no business attending. That is SO 19th century.
To all the boosters of manned space flight: GROW UP.
Bullocks!
I agree about the robots and probes, but people are a little too sensitive about the loss of life in space exploration. We didn't worry about losing explorers 500 years ago, why would we let it stop us now?
Get some balls America, invade space, not countries!
perhaps?
Aren't bullocks large bovine creatures that pull ploughs?
The survival of the human race depends on exploration and the eventual colonization of space. All it takes is one asteroid, a mile in diameter hitting the Earth, not to mention the possibility of some nutjob launching a missle and starting a nuclear war, and poof, we're all gone.
That is what Neil Armstrong meant by a "giant leap for mankind".
In order for us to evolve, we must expand beyond the confines of the planet Earth.
So that's why we're such a fucked up, brutal, self destructive virus of a species? We haven't evolved because we haven't yet expanded "beyond the confines of planet Earth"? Once we do that, it'll all be better, right?
We haven't fucking EVOLVED one (insert unit of measurement here) since WE became WE. We can dress up and do a lot of more technical shit, but we're still as primitive as the least of any of the ancient tribes.
Present company excluded, of course.
Apparently some of us are more evolved than others.
Because we haven't "evolved" by your standards, humanity should do nothing to preserve itself. You know NOTHING of sociology, or history, otherwise you'd understand that what you just said was complete crap.
What self loathing? I said present company excluded, didn't I? (Is there HTML for a smiley face?)
the survival of the human race depends on our ability to adapt to prevailing conditions on planet earth until we evolve into some other kind of species.
It is VASTLY cheaper to monitor, track, and deflect an asteroid of any size than it is to put people permanently in space.
Regarding nuclear war, it is perfectly feasible to have a limited nuclear war. In fact, that is the only kind that is "winnable". Proof? WW2. If N. Korea (for example) launched a missile and nuked, I dunno... Los Angeles, it would not be the end of the world. It would be the end of Los Angeles and North Korea.
We cannot and will not expand beyond the Earth, period. We cannot because we don't have the resources. We will not because in very short order, the focus of civilisation is going to shift from expansion to a contraction controlled or otherwise.
We could establish a limited colony on mars with only a fraction of the money we spend on our nuclear arsenal, using a lot of technology that was developed back in the 60's.
Check out Zubrins "The Case for Mars" to see what I'm talking about.
one good solar flare, and you're colony gets a terminal case of sun burn, and all the electronics fry.
There is no air there.
The soil is filled with perchlorate.
It's a dead world for a good reason, and no amount of investment will change that.
The real danger to the human race isn't meteors, it's ourselves. Our population keeps growing every day, and what with climate change, the world is LITERALLY getting smaller. What will we do when there's no land left for anybody? Unless we want to start killing people off (or getting REALLY serious about birth control), space is the only way we can go.
To hell with meteors, asteroids, or Giant Mutant Star Goats - we need space exploration just to have somewhere else to GO.
We don't have the resources. We are facing a die off. Deal.
EXPLORE! Or stay home. It's a choice. It's just another part of us that makes us human. Makes us DIFFERENT.
Explore, and stay home, but the one that explores gets the goodies first.
how about this: STOP INVADING.
For the members of Apollo I, Grissom, Chafee and White, the members of the shuttles Challenger and Columbia, and their families I say fuck you tweakerbelle. Apollo 11 was the pinnacle of human technological progress. Since then we have militarized space with your probes, robots and satellites. Exploration was the last best effort we made to better ourselves as a species. We wasted as much money last month on bailing out banks as we did going to the moon. The discoveries and knowledge we gained from MANNED space flight is benefitting your life in ways you will never bother to know.
Tang!
Poon!
I do like WD40.
My tool kit is: WD40, a hammer, a screwdriver, and duct tape.
(gays!)
memory foam! so comfortable!
Computers! :)
The space program is to our civilisation what the pyramids were to the ancient egyptian civilisation: masterful examples of what could be done with the technology a hand. Thousands of people died building the pyramids. That doesn't mean we should continue building pyramids.
We are not built for space travel, and very shortly (in historical time scales) we will not have the spare material resources to send up probes much less people. We need to focus on cleaning up the earth and developing a sustainable civilisation that is not like the only other previous example we have of a sustainable civilisation: the neolithic. Space travel will end, soon, and the more we piss away resources on putting people in space, the less able we will in finding out FACTS about the solar system, our Galaxy, and the Universe in general, as nearly all the great leaps in knowledge have come from PROBES (viz Venera, Mars Rover, Voyager, etc.) and SATELLITES (viz. Hubble Space Telescope, etc.). People went to the moon and brought back rocks. We can send machines to do that.
...and what it's done for us and yet so opinionated about it that it's not even funny.
Oh, and machines would likely have never been able to eyeble the most important "rocks" that were brought back from the moon. It took a human mind and a human eye to search for and spot them.
and I am quite aware of what industrial civilisation is doing to the planet.
The "human" eye could have been done remotely and done BETTER by a mechanical eye as it can see in the ultraviolet and infrared. Not having to bring food, oxygen and water to the moon would allow a variety of systems to go, analyse and then remotely select what is needed, then send MORE of it back to earth. Instead of apollo, there could have been DOZENS of such landers sent in the 1980s / 90s/ 00s, but this failed due to the testosterone poisoning of of half the human race and its pinheaded urge to pee on / dig up / and otherwise destroy anything that doesn't move.
The countless devices we use everyday as a direct result of the manned space program.
Velcro, plastics, clothes, not to mention the very technology we are using to read this blog is from the space program.
It is the only government program that returned big bucks to the economy.
We have more power in a phone today than Apollo had for its computers.
We weren't designed to float on the sea, either, or, walk across deserts and glaciers. Your point is ludicrous.
And of course the top of Mt. Everest is not habitable by human beings in their natural state. And yet Edmond Hillary said he went "because it's there". We evolved as a naked species, and made clothes to adapt to environments that otherwise would have killed our delicate bodies.
We weren't "designed" to fly either, but we do it all the time.
In the evolution department, we seem to have hit a glass ceiling. At least while the GOP is around.
of the differences in scale and technology and sustainability of wooden boats and fur clad neolithic hunters living with the animals of the arctic.
...his point is right on the money given the advances in technology we've experienced since ship building days. I thank Dog people like you are in the minority, or else we really would be in trouble. There were people like you during every step of the way. "We should stop wasting time developing air travel!" "There's no sense in spending more money researching new ship designs!" etc., etc.
but.... The old "let robots do it" meme has been around for a very long time. One must remember is that all any computer knows is one of two states state 0 and state 1.
The most advanced computer pales in elegance and complexity to a human brain.
We do have the technology now to drive into deep space, at less risk and less cost, with a larger payload. My uncle worked on NERVA years ago, which was the design of a very high energy (many times higher than a chemical rocket) engine using a nuclear reaction. But we are stuck in the technology first developed practically, by Robert Goddard in the 1930's.
I believe that to reach out and to explore is inherent in the human species. Whether as a species we "deserve" to reach out, is another discussion. I believe, that as a species, exploration does cause us to evolve.
It is likely hard for anyone not alive at the time to understand this, but the manned space program began, for the first time, a turn towards peaceful pursuits. JFK was beginning to work with Khrushchev for joint space exploration. That effort was crushed on a bleak November day in Dallas. But for one tiny slice of time, it united the world! It was joy that circled this tiny blue marble floating in the cosmos. We are tiny, and we are fragile - far more so than people think - but I believe, that we will learn to grow as a species, and lose our tribal nature. We saw that born, when Neil Armstrong made that step off the LEM. A tiny but historically important first step.
I do not want to belittle the achievements of the non-human exploratory programs, they are legend - The Voyagers push out ever farther, and have both now crossed the helio-shock - Their signals are still coming in, although fainter all the time. Two robotic explorers (that have far outlived their design specification) continue to push our knowledge of Mars.
I don't mean to be so verbose - but at one time, people said that if you went 20 MPH in a train the air would be sucked out of your lungs and you would die. We must explore! - it is us!!. We must learn to explore wisely, or we will perish.
JFK said, when he challenged us to go to the moon in that decade, that we must do it not because it is easy, but rather because it is hard. Virgil I (Gus) Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffe climbed into that untested machine, and made the ultimate sacrifice for every human being.
It's one of the high points in my life that I was alive to see those slow scan black and white frames as Armstrong made that giant leap for mankind. I will never forget it, nor seeing Walter Cronkite lose it, out of pure joy and amazement.
Endgame by Derrick Jensen
The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter
Collapse by Jared Diamond
The space program is of no consequence.
We were "designed"????
End of story.
That's like saying I can learn everything that I need to learn about the world from a little computer on my desk without leaving the confines of the four walls that surround me. Some things just have to be experienced for themselves.
As for me, if I was ever given a chance to go into space, I would not hesitate.
Every time a rocket is launched through the ozone layers it is eaten up "like Pac Man" going through it.
I say that until we have figured out a way to properly manage THIS planet and all it's many life forms, then we should just stay put and stop destroying the Earth's protective ozone mantel with idiotic space missions.
Between NASA and The Pentagon/NSA/CIA/DIA...it's time to take the toys away from the boys.
We need access to quality medical care, not the supporting of more military war crimes/space games.
Oddly, I agree with everyone (above).
I think space exploration is as natural as any other human endeavour. We are curious and always wanting to learn new things. We won't stop even if some results are bad. Nor should we. But, it should be managed internationally with clear goals, not through rivalries. Not because of ego-trips and macho-guy-leaders wanting to piss further than the next guy.
(I swear, half of what goes on on this planet is directly related to testosterone and who has the biggest dick.) (Yes, we are very much beasts there: a pride of lions.)
Yet, of utmost importance is grappling with the destruction of our planet. We don't have any viable other place to go, not now, and not soon. We must control/reduce human activity and waste here on Earth, NOW!
Once we can tame human lust, desire, and greed (all from ego), we can proceed to higher goals in a united fashion, as earthlings, not as opponents.
There's no reason we can't do both at the same time. We must end our usual political games, domestically and internationally, but the beast within suffers from excessive pride and ego.
You see why Cheney won..Shot gun and all...
But what's with the censorship? Is it illegal to say "Fuck" on the internet?
I'm guessing that some of the big rags would have liked to have used profanity on the front page at certain times, though.
These guys said it on a billboard.
Yes it is. Be expecting the internet police to come busting through your front door any minute.
hey blue-gal.......... happy birthday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Healthcare...
this may help.
Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.
Thought the fine folks at C+L might like this read.
http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Republican_Sex...
Just a reminder of who what we are up against...hahaha
Maddow asks Buchanan if.. are you happy that we have a latino on the supreme court or almost, for the first time, is that a positive thing for the country? Buchanan says ... NO? what a @#$@#$!
Don't have cable, but she alluded to the fact that she'd be asking "Uncle Pat" this question.
"Uncle Pat" my ass. The guy's a total dick.
posted the clip below ;)
Really scary stuff.
Not for the sex scandals, but for the idea that they are The Chosen Elite, accountable to no one but themselves.
Jul 15 Part One
Rachel Maddow - C Street Overview & Steve Largent: What accountability?
Jul 15 Part Two
Rachel Maddow - C Street Overview: Author Jeff Sharlet
Jul 16
Rachel Maddow - The Christian Mafia & The GOP
But I thought the Republicans always saw themselves as "The Chosen Elite". I'm sure that's what "Uncle" Pat Buchanan thinks.
Hillary Clinton (D) is a member of The Family too.
Now that's scary.
...I usually have the TV on to my right with the sound muted, just for some visual "white-noise" and to catch a worthy news item if it pops up. Since it's July in Central Florida I also do it to keep abreast of the really nasty thunderstorms we usually get.
So, the other day I flipped the channel to Fox (O.K., I know, but the Sotomajor hearings are REALLY boring with the sound off!) And guess who was on? Beck. Now down below on a previous post, C&Ler's weighed in with their opinions on that sack of dog mess. And, of course, I agree. I've never been able to stomach him for more than 20 seconds — tops. But next time folks, try him with sound OFF!
I haven't watched a more affected, self-obsessed, drama queen since so many years ago when, in a shopping mall's food court, I caught the antics of several teen girls talking at a distant table. All wild gestures, over-the-top, slack-jawed, head tilting and bug-eyed, eyebrow action. Like mimes on acid. Really, really bad mimes.
Strangely enough, the mental image that kept coming to mind was Divine in Hairspray.
I hope you guys watched her shred Buchanan's racist behind. I hope C&L puts up that clip. It was incredible.
Rachel Maddow is ON FIRE!
posted the clip below ;)
..to avoid going bankrupt. What he meant was likely that the stimulus spending will hopefully avert a financial crisis of, if nothing else, a complete retreat from consumer spending and inducing mass financial panic.
It reminds me of Dubya and his "I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market"
Jul 16:
Rachel Maddow Show - Pat Buchanan with freshly-laundered white sheet, blasts Sotomayor
(From FireDogLake channel on YouTube)
He deserves a prize for that performance. Fuck. Wonder which chapter of the clan he belongs to? Old white guys!!
PS Happy birthday bluegal!!
If affirmative action is such a bad thing and discriminates against white men, um, how come most (if not all) the billionaires in America are white? Just askin".
The Dems have no problems overriding Barry's veto over over-priced military equipment, but they seem to view health care reform as "expensive". Paulson has a lot to hide. Barry honors the heroes who made his Presidency possible at the NAACP. Our "free" market health care system managed to give a lot of patients some free hepatitis. Sotomayor wins over some Republicans. A couple of teen girls don't think robbing a place is enough, so they bake a cat in the oven.
healthier than - not a nation of sick fat people. Hence, the need for better health care than what was needed 40 years ago.
Don't worry. I won't ask how old you are.
They only launched 40 years ago today. I'm old enough to remember watching it on the TV,,,
yipes!
Me too. My parents woke us up. My baby brother wanted to watch it live, so he went to the window. We told him he had to watch it on TV, but he wasn't having any of that, so he went back to bed.
:)
From her interview:
Scalia has contradicted himself several times on the issue.
In 2004, he argued that the discussion of foreign cases in U.S. constitutional opinions is "wrong," perhaps even unconstitutional.
In 2009, Scalia wrote in his Caperton dissent that a "Talmudic maxim instructs with respect to the Scripture: 'Turn it over, and turn it over, for all is therein.' The Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Aboth, Ch. V, Mishnah 22 (I. Epstein ed. 1935)."
So I guess for SCOTUS, international law is one of those do as I say, not as I do things. ;o}
I still say they didn't stop something they weren't doing. How do you stop a train if you haven't started it moving?
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/071509.html
"We do not torutre." Let's see what happens. Could be interesting.
[I've never made the mistake of believing these guys (R) or (D)]
of when theonion did an article covering a fireside chat by FDR that consisted of pretty much nothing but curse words...but he's a liberal, so what else would you expect? *rolls eyes*
I'm sure you have a link.
If you want to see the editing staff of theonion at their creative and most transgressive, check them out on 'the aristocrats'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk
How could I forget? School's out for summer (for me), and for good too, as I'm moving from Korea in 18 days. Woo-hoo.
Now I'm an unemployed bum. Hooray!!! I'm gonna float, and be unemployed in Europe (for now). Off into the ether.
PS after 12 years of DENIAL, I'm happy to say Prague (my new home-to-be) is herbally friendly!!!!!!! Oh, my lucky stars!!
a guy named Czaragorn that used to post over at Bradblog that lives in Prague, maybe Brad could put you in touch with him.
in the peoples business again
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?contex...
I noticed how sanitary this article is in not mentioning the US corporations in Honduras, nor mentioning the heavy Zionist presence which, as Wayne Madsen says always implicates Mossad. Negroponte is a notorious Zionist as is Kissenger. This coup de tat, unlike the one in the US was not so quiet was it? But at least the whole world knows who the perps are. US as usual!!
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/15/honduras
Any one who questions the benefits of manned space travel needs to read Robert Heinlein's testimony to congress found in Expanded Universe. In it he details exactly how he was kept alive and restored to full health by technology developed for the moon shots.
Looks like he cheated on the taxpayers' dime.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1247797179828...
Anyone see The Daily Show last night? One of our own here at C&L was quoted by Jon Stewart concerning Lindsey Graham. Congrats to theWalrus.
Sat, 09/27/2008 - 13:09 — theWalrus
Lindsey Graham is a disgusting slimeball of the first order.
It was pure awesomeness.
sorry.
CALLING HIM OUT WHEN HE IS WRONG: Obama Approves Logging in Biggest US Rainforest - Is the Green Honeymoon Over?
- http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/obama...
It had to happen eventually, I suppose--Obama eventually had to make a move that would anger environmentalists across the board. Sure, some were already concerned with his lack of involvement in climate action, and others were calling for him to do more about issues like mountaintop removal mining. But now, the Obama administration has made a clear cut decision (O bad puns, how I love thee) that's going to piss off greens of all stripe--it approved a logging contract in a roadless national forest. One that just so happens to be the biggest rain forest in the US.
Disillusioned Environmentalists Turn on Obama as Compromiser - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/us/politics...
34 Nobel winners write Obama about lack of support for energy R&D in climate/energy bill - http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-16-34-no...
Concerned about the lack of stable and specific funding for energy research and development in the ACES bill, 34 Nobel Prize laureates have written to President Obama asking him to urge Congress to send him a bill that commits to the $15 billion for R&D that the president originally proposed.
Sarah Palin Wants to Be Poster Child of Anti-Science and GOP Fear Mongering - http://www.desmogblog.com/sarah-palin-wants-b...
They couldn't pick a 'better' moron to be in that extinctionist cesspool driver seat....
Senate Republicans Won't Block Vote on Sotomayor, Just as BuzzFlash Predicted. They Needed Their Show to Throw Raw Meat to Their Racist Base. But Now They Don't Want to Actually Defeat a Latina and Lose Even More Hispanic Votes.
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/...
Still scared to do the right thing now (hopefully later): No Obama Single-Payer Doc: White House Nixes Appearance on ABC News: By Russell Mokhiber
- http://www.singlepayeraction.org/blog/?p=1175
David Scheiner is a family doctor based in Chicago. For 22 years — until 2007 — he was Barack Obama’s doctor. On Wednesday June 24, ABC News held an hour long health care forum at the White House featuring an interview with President Obama — with questions from a live audience. ABC News producers thought it would be great to surprise Obama by flying in his former doctor from Chicago. Dr. David Scheiner could ask his former patient a question or two.
ABC News producer Annie Allen set everything up with Dr. Scheiner. Dr. Scheiner was excited. He canceled about 40 patient visits — two days worth. It cost his practice about $5,000. -- On the Sunday before the event, Dr. Scheiner talked with Annie Allen and everything was a go. “They said I was going to be there at the White House and everything was fine,” Scheiner told Single Payer Action.
“We talked for about an hour on Sunday. I was going to ask a question directly of the President. They thought it was great. I was his doctor for 23 years. And I was going to surprise him. Sunday night I got an e-mail from Annie Allen saying everything was okay.” -- Only one problem. Scheiner, it turns out, has been critical of Obama’s health care plan. It won’t work, he says. Scheiner says We Need Single Payer Health Care instead.
Urgent: Single Payer on the Table in Energy and Commerce Today: by Kevin Zeese - http://www.prosperityagenda.us/node/874
HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to everyone residing in the U. S. HR 676 would cover every person for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, hearing services including hearing aids, chiropractic, durable medical equipment, palliative care, and long term care.
HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 would save hundreds of billions annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs. In the current Congress, HR 676 has 85 co-sponsors in addition to Conyers. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced SB 703, a single payer bill in the Senate. The Democratic leadership bill, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, fails to control costs, does not provide health care for all, undermines the economy and makes job growth more difficult.
"Affordable" health insurance in the Democratic bill means if you make $88,000 per year you will spend 19% of your income on health care that you are required to buy -- or you get additional taxes added to your tax bill. And, it will choke the economy. Small businesses, $400,000 and up, will face a penalty of 8% of their payroll if they do not provide health insurance. How is that going to help avoid the jobless recovery that seems to be occurring? In fact, this provision ensures a jobless recovery.
Just as the PATRIOT Act was the opposite of its name, the Affordable Health Choices Act is unaffordable. It wrecks havoc on the already weak economy in order to provide the insurance industry, whose profits have increased from $2.4 billion to $12.9 billion from 2000 to 2007, with hundreds of billions (a low estimate) in new revenue . This bill is pay to play corruption on display in Washington, DC. -- Act Now -- Urge every member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee to vote for the single payer amendment, HR 676.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE WIDELY. Here is a model email to Members of Committee.
Sean Hannity is yet again BuzzFlash's Media Putz of the Week. For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America
- http://blog.buzzflash.com/honors/194
Cenk Uygur: What Would Happen If Goldman Went Under? - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/what...
That's called looting the store. They're taking most of the money the company made and giving it to themselves. Who cares about the long term health of the company? The employees don't own it anymore. If they can take most of the money for themselves before it gets to the shareholders and do long term damage to the company, why not do it? What do they have to lose? It's not their company, but the check they take home is their money to keep.
Future generations will look back at this shaking their heads in disgust, not believing our idiotic faith in banks & 'financial institutions'....
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round: Now he comes crawling back: Secessionist Gov. Rick Perry now seeking federal stimulus funds.
- http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/16/perry-fol...
Political theater...the only thing Republicans do right...
Well as long as they're doing good, I guess 'the economy' is 'doing ok': Another TARP recipient posts huge profit: JPMorgan Chase announces a $2.7 billion second-quarter profit.
- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/business/gl...
There are two economies....there's the 'masters of the universe' financial paper money economy (not worth the paper its printed on) and then there's the middle class driven REAL GDP (actual production of goods/services - tangible wealth) which is ignored by so-called con-servative 'economic experts' which is being destroyed by a belief in tooth fairy 'trickle down' BS...
Political Dinosaur profile: VIDEO: Buchanan declares Sotomayor a "militant liberal Latina" - http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2009...
Rachel...I think last night was the night you needed to realize NOT to have him on anymore...
Now he tells us: Lindsey "I love David Brooks" Graham concludes Sonia Sotomayor is not an 'activist' judge. - http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/16/graham-so...
Reality vs Storytelling - Battle rages on: Why would they think public schools should teach religion? Conservative Education 'Experts' Want Less Lincoln And More Jesus In Texas Textbooks
- http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/16/conservat...
Ouch!!! MI jobless rate hits 15.2% - http://www.freep.com/article/20090715/BUSINES...
Jeff "crackhead" Sessions has a truth moment: Jeff Sessions: "We're Going To Do That Crack Cocaine Thing" (VIDEO)
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/16/jeff...
Corporatrist Dem. Senator Max Baucus Chastises President Obama on Healthcare Reform. What's Going on Here?
- http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/16...
'Blue Dogs' aren't moderates, 'centrists'....they are Republicrats....simple as that...
Another "C" Street Adulterous Affair, This One Alleging Actual Adulterous Boinking in the Secretive, Religious Cabal "C" Street Residence/Spiritual Warrior Center
- http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2009...
Quick, someone secure a plane reservation to Argentina, because someone else is about to be run out of town by his (ex) wife:
Former Congressman and C Street resident Chip Pickering's estranged wife has filed a lawsuit against Pickering's alleged mistress. Leisha Pickering is suing Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection.
Rep. Pickering, a Republican from Mississippi, allegedly continued seeing his college sweetheart while they were both married. According to the suit, some of the "wrongful conduct" occurred at the C Street facility for Christian congressmen -- the same one where Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) have lived, and where Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has recently sought counseling.
'Evil' Liberal Hollywood update: Matt Damon Launches Water.org for Safe Water in Developing Countries (Video) - http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/matt-...
What's Jon Voight doing lately, except pimping the NRA?
California Now Home to 50,000 Solar Panel Installations - http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/calif...
The 15 most sustainable U.S. cities - http://www.grist.org/article/index/2009-07-16...
Seattle is the most sustainable big city in the nation, according to a list compiled by Smarter Cities, an NRDC project that looks at the progress American cities are making toward going green. Not surprisingly, San Francisco and Portland are the runners-up.
"Doc" Tom "Execute All Abortion Doctors" Coburn, Member of the Mafia-like "C Street Family, is the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week
- http://blog.buzzflash.com/honors/195
POLITICAL IRONY: Special Republican are Hypocrisy's Bitch Edition
http://politicalirony.com/2009/07/17/the-most...
An excellent article at Five Thirty Eight points out that while conservatives claim that the Democrats want to appoint “liberal activist judges” to the Supreme Court, statistically, the most activist court in in modern history was the Rehnquist Court, a conservative court.
http://politicalirony.com/2009/07/17/republic...
So when Republicans try to scare you by throwing around terms like single payer or socialized medicine, it isn’t because they won’t work or won’t be popular, they are scared that they will work and they will be popular. Of course, that’s if the Republicans don’t manage to purposely make health care reform horrible (like they did with the prescription drug benefit they added to Medicare).
40 years ago, Apollo 11 was the culmination of America's can-do attitude. Today, we're reduced to watching Republicans say the reason we can't afford healthcare for Americans is that the economy sucks - not a drop of ownership for that mess.
As for 'man has no place in space' - baloney. As John F. Kennedy put it, "But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may as well ask, 'Why climb the highest mountain?' 'Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic?' 'Why does Rice play Texas?' - We choose to go to the Moon and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
Loss of life? Even Gus Grissom acknowledged that possibility and accepted it.
Of course, I'm biased. My late father-in-law did the initial physicals on the Mercury astronauts while at Brooks AFB in Texas.
to hear some of your father-in-law's stories! Did he ever relate them to you or write them down? I've heard stories about the astronauts when they were getting physicals at Lovelace in Albuquerque too. Funny stuff.
And thank you for the full JFK quote - I paraphrased it in my somewhat verbose post.
Because they have to. NCAA scheduling.
But thanks, too, for the full quote--not heard often enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrhTUfBY1vA
Police in the UK with helicopters and jackboots raid a family BBQ, their crime, to advertise it on Facebook.
This is what happens when police are bored and overstaffed, and they find real crime to be too tiresome and dangerous.
Echoes of that US raid on that Democratic party fundraiser on the word of one abusive heckling Repug neighbour.
was a jack booted thug too, I remember
in the UK??? They have gone from "Bobbies" to jack booted thugs! Anyone see "V"??
Three days to go until the landing. Quite an interesting recreation complete with real time radio transmissions from Apollo 11 and mission control, and sweet graphics.
http://wechoosethemoon.org/
79 hours until the Eagle lands, and stage 7 (Moon orbit transition) in 52 hours
I've got it on now. Here's some Apollo 11 trivia:
As Serendipitydude noted above, Mike Collins navigated the entire mission by slide rule calculations.
The onboard computers of the LEM completely failed during the final approach, and Armstrong landed it manually with about 10 seconds of fuel left. Probably a good thing, as the computers were going to put them down on top of a rock the size of a volkswagen.
Armstrong was nearly killed TWICE before the moon shot. Once on Gemini 8 when the ship started spinning wildly out of control. The other time, he had to eject literally seconds before a LEM trainer he was piloting malfunctioned and crashed in a huge fireball.
Armstrong got the nod as the first to walk on the moon because he was NOT a military man. NASA wanted a civilian to be the first. I miss the days of integrity and foresight.
Happy birthday Gal, good on ya!
try this one for outrage; Gil Scott Heron from 1970.
lyrics;
A rat done bit my sister Nell with Whitey on the moon.
Her face and arms began to swell and Whitey's on the moon.
I can't pay no doctor bills but Whitey's on the moon.
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still while Whitey's on the moon.
The man just upped my rent last night cuz Whitey's on the moon.
No hot water, no toilets, no lights but Whitey's on the moon.
I wonder why he's uppin me. Cuz Whitey's on the moon?
I was already givin' him fifty a week but now Whitey's on the moon.
Taxes takin' my whole damn check,
The junkies makin' me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin' up,
And as if all that shit wasn't enough:
A rat done bit my sister Nell with Whitey on the moon.
Her face and arms began to swell but Whitey's on the moon.
Was all that money I made last year for Whitey on the moon?
How come there ain't no money here? Hmm! Whitey's on the moon.
Ya know, I just about had my fill of Whitey on the moon.
I think I'll send these doctor bills airmail special....
to Whitey on the moon.
But I wish the original was bigger. I'd love to have it printed out as a poster, but the print in the articles isn't really big enough.
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