Ok I'm just putting this out there as a question. OccupyPhilly has a Ron Paul campaign tent at probably the most visible, 'best' corner of the plaza they're using (Dilworth Plaza in front of City Hall and across from the main Center City transit hub). To me, what the Occupy Wall Street movement was originally about, was rage against the Wall Streeters for ruining the economy and basically getting off scot-free ... and not even accepting reasonable regulations. The core tenet of Ron Paul, as ...

We are in a recession because the economy isn't growing*. Companies lay off workers because there is no demand for their product or service, and that is because nobody is buying. Why is nobody buying? Either they can't afford it, or they don't need it. 'Supply-side economics' (in quotes because it's bulls**t, aka voodoo 'economics'): a. Give money back to the corporate owners and they will invest in making more things. (voodoo because: refer back to reason for the recession.) or b. Loosen reg...

(Link) The American experience overflows with examples of ordinary people — the working class — siding with corporations and the powerful against their own economic interests. The most tragic example is the nearly 300,000 Confederate soldiers, the “Johnnie Rebs,” who died to preserve slavery, the South’s “peculiar institution” that undercut the value of their own labor and reduced their income. ... As another Labor Day arrives, it’s not hard to see many in the present-day workforce doing the...

(I rarely post OPs. I made a response on another thread and just writing it made me so pissed off at the attitude I was responding to, I thought I'd post it separately and see what others think.) Planned Parenthood saves lives and prevents abortions. It does allow women to get abortions who need them, but that's like 3% of what they do. And they don't use tax dollars for it. They also fund some adoptions. Here is the Politifact analysis in response to Kyl's Big Admitted Lie: (Link)/ The cr...

So they make heroes of the people who did do it. Until we have universal service in this country, where everyone* has to experience the reality, you will have soldier worship. (You may have it still, but at least there will be some personal experience tempering it for more people) But on the flip side, some 'soldier worship' is deserved, in my opinion. (Disclaimer: I served 8 years). Why? because however and whyever they got there, once they're in, they're trained, usually successfully, to sta...

 
kind of makes the point. :) What I heard somewhere ... it was either NPR or KYW (owned by CBS): "Colbert stayed in character almost the entire time, and now some are saying that his appearance was a waste of time and taxpayer dollars" because he didn't reply "seriously". OMFG these people have no clue, if they didn't even understand what he was saying even when he was "in character". :banghead: yeah, 'some people' ALWAYS say SOMETHING those *****s want to report.

I've been looking for this reference and found it today. And I figured it was time for something substantive to be posted about our Senate candidate. :) U.S. Rep. Joseph Sestak, D-7 of Edgmont, was the most productive of 42 Democratic freshman congressmen in 2007, according to a compilation of bills and amendments drawn up by the office of Majority Leader U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md. Sestak, a retired Navy admiral who toppled longtime incumbent Republican Curt Weldon last year, was able to ...

(Link) Fri May 28, 2010 at 11:01:04 AM EDT Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/24-26. Likely voters. MoE 4% (5/10-12 results) Joe Sestak (D) 43 (40) Pat Toomey (R) 40 (45) That's quite the primary victory bounce, +8 points. Where did the numbers shift? Sestak Toomey Democrats: 76 (73) 8 (11) Republicans: 6 (4) 82 (84) Independents: 35 (30) 35 (44) Sestak enjoyed a net gain of +6 among Democrats, +4 among Republicans, and +14 among Independents. That'll do the tr...

Poor babies. :) (Link) Dem enthusiasm has been lacking in primary races around the country this year, but the battle between Sen. Arlen Specter (D) and Rep. Joe Sestak (D) cost the GOP a House seat, according to a post-game analysis from the pollster who handled the race for the NRCC. In a post mortem memo, Public Opinion Strategies partner Gene Ulm wrote that GOP turnout in the race to replace the late Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) was actually up, but that Dem excitement over the SEN primary dro...

Here's what the article says: (Link) Brown was further convinced during a 40-mile bike ride he went on this morning with Senator John Kerry. “We recognize that there’s going to be some fixes here, more than likely, and the conference committee,” Brown said after voting. “I’m satisfied that all of our efforts – Senator Kerry and my efforts – will benefit and protect jobs in Massachusetts.” “I spoke at length over a 40 mile bike-ride with Senator Kerry about it,” Brown added. “He’s a very good...

I've just read one too many threads where some poster is opining about the relative liberalness of one candidate vs. another, or that one is 'progressive' or 'liberal' and another is a 'conservadem', where those arguments begin with something like "from what I hear ..." Um, no. Why would anyone go on hearsay? For federal candidates (i.e. Prez, Rep, Senator) there is a nice resource to learn: a) each candidate's voting record and b) how the various interest groups have rated each candidate fo...

Going thru my overstuffed email inbox I ran across a notice from Waterkeeper Alliance, telling me about these cool ties Vineyard Vines (you know, JK's favorite tiemaker)is making for them: (Link) (scroll down to see the tie. it really is very, very nice, imho.) Anyway if any of you still have time to watch the Senate and keep an eye on ties, it would be fun to see if this one shows up on our favorite Senator. Or any other Senator for that matter. :) (I saw this and thought right off, I just...

(Link) ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Leaders should have done more to investigate numerous hazing allegations against a gay sailor and others in a unit stationed in Bahrain several years ago, the Navy said Wednesday. The Chief of Naval Operations has sent a letter of counseling to retired Vice Adm. Robert T. Conway, the former Commander, Naval Installations Command, who was the final endorser of a June 2007 investigation that has been criticized for failing to be thorough. The letter notes that ''m...

(Link) Joe Sestak Receives Martin Luther King Spirit Award Announces Renamed Post Office in Honor of the Late Capt. Luther Smith, Local Tuskegee Airman MEDIA, PA - At the annual Martin Luther King Scholarship Gala Saturday evening, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Congressman Joe Sestak was honored for his efforts to enhance Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including his outstanding support for Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. Joe Sestak, who has a close working relationship w...

Here is an example of creative thinking to overcome an issue that is holding up job creation even though the funds were already approved. This is not just for Sestak's state (PA), he is requesting it across the board, even though the article highlights the potential positive impact for PA: (Link)/ In a letter to key members, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Congressman Joe Sestak urged the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to free up federal funding dedicated to the Appalachian...

(Link) Spain launched a campaign for a Europe-wide system of restraint orders aimed at curbing violence against women, calling for crime statistics to be reconfigured to highlight gender violence and for EU legislation offering protection to battered women across national borders. Opening Madrid's six-month rotating presidency of the EU and seeking to build on its progressive governance agenda, Alfredo Rubalcaba, the interior minister, called for a new approach to the problem, for special poli...

I have a good job and that puts me much better off than many, many people today. If I have to tighten my belt a little so some of those others can have even basic health insurance, how fucking selfish would I have to be to complain about that? Oh right, garden variety every day "progressive" selfish, is all I'd have to be. * note that "progressive" is in quotes for a reason.

Heavily tax companies for each H1B they hire. Use the revenue SOLELY to train US workers in the skills that H1Bs are being hired for. Require the companies that hire H1Bs to start hiring from this newly trained talent pool (or they can no longer continue to qualify for H1B workers). Set the H1B hiring tax at the level that is needed to run the program.

Mostly his voting record. Pre conversion to Democrat and being challenged in the Dem primary by Joe Sestak, of course.

(Link) USCIS officials intend to up the ante of verifying and investigating the validity of H-1B visa usage by companies. Immigration officials will ramp up law enforcement to help thwart fraud and quell political pressure that wants to severely limit H-1B visa usage. The United States Customs and Immigrations Services plans to up its enforcement of the law on H-1B visas and the U.S. companies that take advantage of them by conducting 25,000 on-site inspections in 2010. IBM, Microsoft, Oracle,...

Looks like Sanders thinks the good outweighs the bad in the HCR bill. (Link) WASHINGTON - December 19 - A $10 billion investment in community health centers, expected to go to $14 billion when Congress completes work on health care reform legislation, was included in a final series of changes to the Senate bill unveiled today. The provision, which would provide primary care for 25 million more Americans, was requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). He said the additional resources will help...

(I probably didn't need to note who Barbour is for most of you, I know) (Link) Mike Huckabee took a beating from his conservative brethren last month after Maurice Clemmons, a man whose sentence the former Arkansas governor commuted in 2000, shot and killed four police officers in Lakewood, Wash. The scuttlebutt on the right suggested that Clemmons' release may doom Huckabee's chances of winning the Republican nomination for president in 2012. I happen to think Huckabee's getting a raw deal on...

(Link) North of Canada’s capital, underneath an endless expanse of spruce, pine, and birch, ticks what some scientists are calling a carbon bomb: Peat. A thick layer of the black spongy soil, the remnants of ancient forests, wraps the globe’s northern tier. Deeper than 15 feet in places, the peat layer extends over more than 6 million square miles across Russia, Scandinavia, China, Canada, and the United States. Carbon that those forests absorbed from the air over thousands of years is store...

* get out of the car now, and get as far away from it as possible to avoid being barbecued, because several people just told you this and at least some of them are in a position to know what they are talking about; * stay in the car because you REALLY like the song that's playing on the radio, in fact you are recording it on your MP3 player/FM recorder because you haven't heard it in a long long time and don't know when/if you will again (i.e. there is a cost to getting out of the car if the thr...

than in failing to take action on other issues due to skepticism. Be a climate change skeptic all you want, but please stop pumping CO2 into the atmosphere until you can prove that the rise in atmospheric CO2 will not have devastating consequences for future generations (and potentially for many of us alive now). It really is a risk management question and I wish people would stop acting as if the proof has to be 100% before acting. If you found there is a 50% chance that your car will blow up...

Heard this on the news this morning, couldn't believe my ears. Murdoch thinks it's a great idea to make a deal with Microsoft so that his content will only show up there and not in Google. Okay I admit my first thought was "there's got to be an anti-trust violation in there somewhere" but my second thought was: You mean I won't have Fox News articles showing up in my news searches on google anymore? Oh, whatever shall I do? :rofl: Maybe I am missing something here but for now I am just going ...

I've seen this phrase a few times on the internets and can't figure it out ... I must've missed some cultural education somewhere. Is it anything like a "high five"? ugh ... (okay just kidding. ;) like I never ever make a typo. )

1. Governments (should) exist to improve the welfare of their citizens and protect the citizens from predictable and preventable threats while preserving individual rights. 2. The definition of "welfare of their citizens" and the right balance between protection and individual rights are debatable points that should be settled democratically, within the boundary of certain rules. 3. Boundary rules for #2: all people should be treated equally by the government, and not subject to punishment or r...

(Link) The van travels the same route every afternoon. It's important to keep a regular schedule, so that clients know where and when to show up. PreventionWorks executive director, Dr. Philip Terry, says it's an effective way to bring health care to people who wouldn't get it otherwise. "We take clean syringes, we take access to health care, we take access to treatment, access to detox, we take it to the people where they are, where it's needed most," he says. But these programs could effect...

(Link) The form is 10 pages long, starting on page 8 and going to page 17. Whatever you think of abortion or the merits of this law, I hope you will take a look at this form and consider the implications if a similar form were required for other medical interventions. Such as the prescription of Viagra? having a gallbladder operation? heart condition? (did the patient follow a recommended diet prior to the need for treatment?) ... and so forth... I initially found the report about this law rep...