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Stop giving them ground.
Author: Raine    Date: 03/25/2010 12:57:22

Last September I wrote a post entitled: They don't represent me. in it, I stated
So many people marched for Civil rights in this nation. People died for the cause. So, the questions I have are: Are we going to let a group of people who want to drag this country back to Jim Crow days frame a debate that they created? Are we going to let a small group of white people decide the direction of this country? Are we going to allow for another civil war to happen? The question I ask of myself: am I going to let those people represent me?
The answer remains the same: they don't represent me. Last June I wrote:
They are ratcheting up this environment of fear and hatred, toward our administration, towards abortion rights activists, towards women, towards Blacks, towards Hispanics, towards Jews, towards Muslims, towards liberals -- towards anyone who isn't a white conservative it seems. We've written about this on the blog before.

When a man is killed at a museum that is a memorial to remind people of the horrors of hate-crimes, we have a problem. When radio hosts defend murder we have an even bigger problem. Domestic Terrorism is alive and well in America. I wish that the right wing could understand that. Instead, it appears they support it.

Things are getting dangerous out there. That DHS report was correct. There ARE those who would undermine this great nation and make it less secure by justifying their own violent agenda by whatever means necessary. They would seek to create terror in the hearts and minds of those they find disagreements with. I have said it before, and I will say it again, it is Domestic Terror. Those that are complicit in fanning the flames of hatred regarding this terror must stop denying culpability. Words matter.

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37 comments (Latest Comment: 03/26/2010 13:32:25 by Al from WV)

Sound and Fury
Author: BobR    Date: 03/24/2010 10:32:46

It's all over but the shouting now. Yesterday President Obama signed health care reform into law, putting into place what some people consider one more plank in the platform of equality: equal access to health care. The shouting, however, continues and will continue through at least the elections at the end of this year. Most of the shouting is coming from the right-wing, though some comes from the left as well.

The biggest complaint from both the left AND the right is the so-called "unfunded mandate". The idea behind the "mandate" is that if everyone is covered, then money is saved by the elimination of taxpayer-funded emergency room care. The biggest complaint is that citizens are being forced to get coverage even if they can't afford it, and must pay a penalty if they don't. The left thinks there should be a "public option"; the right thinks the whole idea is unconstitutional.
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49 comments (Latest Comment: 03/25/2010 02:21:38 by livingonli)

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 03/23/2010 10:34:16

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,561st day in Iraq and our 3,089th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4385
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4246
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3922
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3526
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 157

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,025
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 671
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,457
Journalists - Iraq: 338
Academics Killed - Iraq: 437

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 974, 448, 200, 000 . 00



We'll stay domestic today. I've recently run across a veteran's website that deals with something virtually unknown among the public...soldiers that were poisoned by their drinking water right here in the United States. We'll start first with the story of Paul Buckley, USMC (Ret.), who served his country in the mid 1980s at Camp Lejeune...

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60 comments (Latest Comment: 03/24/2010 01:52:25 by livingonli)

Yes We Did!
Author: Raine    Date: 03/22/2010 09:51:00

I don't even know where to begin. I am exhausted, and tired and I haven't gone to bed yet. I took a boat load of pictures, and some aren't as great as I would like--- but the day was amazing. My voice is shot. This was great day for America -- even for the Tea Partiers who, despite their claims that 'freedom was being taken away' -- they were allowed to exercise it -- without having to be in a 'Free Speech Zone" (and, without, as I learned -- a permit for a protest.)
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24 comments (Latest Comment: 03/23/2010 02:57:37 by livingonli)

No No-No-No-No, No No No ....Tough Shit
Author: velveeta jones    Date: 03/21/2010 14:23:39

So, you don't have Health Insurance? Well, go get you some, right now! What? The insurance company won't insure you due to your HiV/Cancer/Brain Tumor/Ingrown toenail? Well, I suppose you should have stayed healthy. Too bad that you had to have unprotected sex/ worked in that factory that used carcinogens/ ate junk food/ gotten born.

Meantime, if that growth growing in your abdomen gets so large that you can no longer fit through the Wal-Mart doors so you can buy that box of Krsipy Kreme donuts and a XXXXXL Mens T-Shirt with the Eagle poised in front of the waving American flag, then you'll need to get yourself to the Emergency Room, tout de suite. Never mind that your fellow countrymen will have to pick up the tab for this while the guys that would deny you the insurance that might have cured you way before this became an expensive procedure that puts your life in danger are getting a big bonus.

Just, for God's sake: don't have an abortion. Anything but that! Even though it's your right as an American to do so.
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17 comments (Latest Comment: 03/22/2010 02:44:36 by clintster)

Let's Talk Taxes
Author: TriSec    Date: 03/20/2010 12:32:57

Good Morning!

In a couple of hours, Mrs. TriSec and I will be carting a dumptruck full of papers to our local tax preparer for the necessary evil of living in these United States.

It's sure going to be an interesting one...between all the jobs I had last year, unemployment, cashing in some stock options, and raiding our IRA to stay afloat. I'm hoping we'll break even...I'd sure hate to owe even more money we don't have.

You and I and the whole world knows that the filing deadline is April 15...but what about Tax Freedom Day?

Every year, the Tax Foundation publishes a "tax freedom day" report. This is the day that all of your taxes for the year are paid to Uncle Sam, and everything you make after that technically belongs to you.

Last year, that date was April 13. Curiously, they have yet to publish this year's date...although the report notes that it's in a state of flux, depending on how the economic recovery goes. Turns out that things like the bailouts, ARRA, and stimulus funds do indeed have an impact on how much tax we all owe.

Republicans have made a large amount of hay over the past year by decrying how expensive health care reform would be for us all. In doing the preliminaries this year, I found that we paid almost $5,000 for COBRA coverage. And that's only because we were on two rounds of ARRA subsidies. I shudder to think how much more it would have been out of pocket. (by my guess, somewhere over $8,000 if I paid for it all.)

CBO says that healthcare reform would cost $940 billion over the next ten years. But seeing that we're just past an anniversary, let's see how the Republican's baby has done over the past seven years. We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$973, 358, 750, 000 . 00


At the current population of these United States, that's $3,051.01 per person. Not per working person, or taxable person, that's per every man, woman, and child alive in the United States at the moment you read this.

Funny that we can afford to kill people, but we can't afford to keep people alive, isn't it?


 
5 comments (Latest Comment: 03/20/2010 23:51:27 by Will in Chicago)

A Flower Blooms in the Desert
Author: BobR    Date: 03/19/2010 11:29:40

"9/11 changed everything", the saying goes. While there's a certain amount of hyperbole there, there's no denying that it created ripples in the pond, causing changes both great and small. It's made the experience of commercial flight something to be dreaded. In 2001, it opened people's eyes to the reality that there is a big world out there beyond our borders. A large percentage of the populace who couldn't even find Afghanistan on the map were getting a crash course on Islam, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda.

Most westerners, and particularly those of a liberal bent, were shocked and angered to see women treated like cattle, wearing bhurkas that completely covered them head to toe. As the U.S. attacked that country, there was some hope that besides destroying the machinery of terrorism, we could free the women from their chains. There was hope of creating a secular society.
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41 comments (Latest Comment: 03/19/2010 22:54:39 by Raine)

Coming together to go forward.
Author: Raine    Date: 03/18/2010 12:42:43

I want to thank Dennis Kucinich today. Yesterday he announced that he will be voting for the healthcare reform bill even with his objections. I've been a harsh critic of him regarding this issue, so I was happy he changed his mind, even though I also saw the anguish it caused him. Yesterday he stated:

"One of the things that has bothered me is the attempt to try to delegitimize his presidency. That hurts the nation when that happens," the Cleveland congressman said, sounding genuinely anguished. "We have to be very careful" that "President Obama's presidency not be destroyed by this debate ... Even though I have many differences with him on policy, there's something much bigger at stake here for America."

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49 comments (Latest Comment: 03/19/2010 01:02:08 by livingonli)

Erin Go Braugh
Author: BobR    Date: 03/17/2010 12:30:25

Tis St. Patrick's Day, let the festivities begin! As everyone in America knows, today is the day when everyone claims some Irish lineage, wears tacky green clothing, and gets blotto drunk. Somehow, this is supposed to celebrate the rich tapestry of Irish history. The reality of course, is that it's just another excuse to get drunk, wear silly clothes, and party. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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54 comments (Latest Comment: 03/17/2010 22:33:41 by TriSec)

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 03/16/2010 10:33:20

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,554th day in Iraq and our 3,082nd day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from America's ongoing wars...

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4384
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4245
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3921
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3525
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 156

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,020
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 665
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,457
Journalists - Iraq: 338
Academics Killed - Iraq: 437


We find this morning's cost of war passing through:
$ 971, 825, 000, 000 .00



We'll start this morning with WWII. A few days back, Raine posted a blog about International Women's Day. It made for a opportunity for Congress to recognize a little-known group of WWII aviators, the WASPs, or "Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots".

During the war, these women undertook flight training, and were handed the controls of America's top weapons of war. They flew these aircraft around the United States from the factories to the bases, and ferried them overseas to war where our male pilots would then take them into combat.

After the war, they all went back to civilian life, and their role in the war was virtually forgotten and unrecognized.

Continue reading...

25 comments (Latest Comment: 03/17/2010 00:09:04 by livingonli)

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