Putting a poppy…

Putting a poppy… 7 November 2009

Posted by marisacat in Culture of Death, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, WAR!.
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A plot of crosses to mark the losses of those men and women who have died in Afghanistan [Guardian]

…a posy, a poem over the horror. Well… at least the poppy is timely.

As for the rest, the wretched week past.. tossing the dots in the air, wondering if they fall in a pattern… I’d say we are dotless. Our dots are soap bubbles.

One thing I do hear rising – bubble like! – from the after-event of all the events, amid the CYA-ing, the bitching, the moaning, is Democratic calls for a draft.

The posturing to come is horrific.

*****

Honorable mention…

SMBIVA has up two posts on the ditch we are in. Very smart too.

It’s a no-win situation for meliorists. If they align with them, they’re going to be suckered into a corporate “worse the better” strategy every time. It’s amoral collegiality, and it works. The only electoral beneficiary is the Republican Party. The rest of the victory, needless to say, stays with their sponsors.

And one most deliciously lambasts Orange Boy.. and his “shooting up” posts.

Vote! For your drug of choice!

Along the way, in comments at SMBIVA, someone posts in full Ishmael Reed’s June 2008 post on The Big Let Down. A nice re-read. Especially as we are wallowing in the so-very-predictable ”BLD”.

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Comments»

1. catnip - 7 November 2009: Yikes. The health care debate has infiltrated one of my favourite diversions: the Apartment Therapy site.

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marisacat - 7 November 2009: hmm advise them this is a thought crime. They need ot rethink their foolhardy actions. Words. Whatever.

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catnip - 7 November 2009: I do like the red cross medicine cabinet – but it’s the usual blah blah in the comments.

Tuning into CSPAN – there’s Nancy on the floor (all dressed in red, ironically).

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Madman in the Marketplace - 7 November 2009: it’s so the blood on her hands won’t stand out so much.

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marisacat - 7 November 2009: Rouge Marie Antoinette. Congress is the flock of sheep at the little farm.

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marisacat - 7 November 2009: hmm I find the red crosses as a design motif a tad intimidating. Very WW1 und 2 however.

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2. marisacat - 7 November 2009: Such drama. The deal, such as it is, was not to diverge from Hyde Amendment language. Reproductive rights groups were told months ago, changing the Hyde Amendment was a no go under Pastor Obama. And his choir.

Boehner: GOP will back Stupak abortion restrictions

Rumors have been flying this morning about a stealth plan for Republicans — who are almost universally opposed to abortion — to vote “present” on the Democratic compromise restricting federal funding for abortion.

That could scuttle the Democrat’s hastily-arranged health care endgame, by leaving a bloc of several dozens conservatives with nothing to show for their last minute anti-abortion push.

But Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) swatted them down saying he knew of no organized effort to sabotage the vote and planned to whip the 177-member GOP conference in favor of Stupak.

“We are for the Stupak amendment,” Boehner told reporters just now.

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catnip - 7 November 2009: I listened to some of that debate and all I could think was, what century is this again? And they’re still discussing abortion?

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3. catnip - 7 November 2009: BTW, Mike Pence mentioned Jesus Christ.

DRINK!

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4. Madman in the Marketplace - 7 November 2009: Stupak rubs it in:

4:18 PM ET — Rep. Stupak on progressives: You can’t be crying wolf all the time because you lose your wolfiness.

For weeks, the Congressional Progressive Caucus threatened to withhold substantial support from the health care bill if it didn’t include a robust public option tied to Medicare rates. For weeks, a gang of pro-life Blue Dogs threatened to withhold the support of at least 40 members — to “take down the rule,” in House speak — if it didn’t include language tightly restricting reproductive rights.

There is no robust public option, but the abortion language is in.

HuffPost asked Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), the lead Blue Dog negotiator, why he succeeded and the progressives failed.

“Because I didn’t threat[en]. These are the facts,” he said.

But you did threaten, a reporter pointed out.

No, Stupak said, it wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. “No, they know I’ll vote against the rule,” he said.

Stupak said the Blue Dogs have gradually been sending a message to leadership and that much of it goes back to a previous vote involving an appropriations bill that Blue Dogs wanted to include pro-life language.

In July, the House considered a Financial Services Appropriations bill that would allow publicly-funded abortions in the District of Columbia. Stupak and allies were not allowed an amendment, so they sought to “take down the rule” — in other words, round up enough votes to deny he bill a chance to get voted on on the floor. When time expired, the pro-lifers had prevailed. But Pelosi held the vote open for extra time and persuaded four members to switch their votes.

They didn’t win in the end, Stupak said, but they accomplished their goal.

“We wanted to send a message,” he said. “We went back and I said, ‘See, I can take down your rule.’”

He has held his fire since then, saving his strength for the health care bill.

“Now, I have not threatened that every time that we went to Rules Committee and we didn’t always get our pro-life amendments, I did not try to take down any rules. You have to pick your fights at the right time. You can’t be crying wolf all the time because you lose your wolfiness. You lose your credibility,” he said. “So I’m not going to lose my credibility. So you use it at certain times when it’s appropriate.”

– Ryan Grim

He is, of course, right.

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catnip - 7 November 2009: “you lose your wolfiness”

lol

But he is right, as you said.

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5. catnip - 7 November 2009: Weiny’s up.

(I wouldn’t be watching this if my landlord had been able to install my satellite receiver today. Although there are some entertaining drama Saturday nite queens in congress…)

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catnip - 7 November 2009: ooops…”drama” queens…(and I’m sure there are some queens as well..)

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6. catnip - 7 November 2009: Some Rep from TX: Umm, dude (Mr Speaker) where’s the bi-ill?

Mon dieu…

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7. catnip - 7 November 2009: Boehner just pronounced “hyperbole” as “hyper-bowl”.

Mon dieu, again.

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8. catnip - 7 November 2009: Intermission

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9. wu ming - 7 November 2009: every time you think they’ve scraped the bottom, dems figure out a new way to fuck you. kucinich and co. are looking pretty dumb for withdrawing their amendments.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 7 November 2009: not dumb … they’d served their purpose, that’s all. They’re honey traps to keep lefties voting/contributing, that’s all.

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marisacat - 7 November 2009: It’s a Plan with a schedule.. I don’t think they struggle at all after the Big Bad Bear catches them in his teeth.

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10. catnip - 7 November 2009: House approves Stupak amendment. 240-194

There you go.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 7 November 2009: tough titties, chickies … suck it up for the good of the party. And that goes for you fags, too.

Peace out, bitches!

/donk leadership>

PS: don’t forget to contribute!

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11. BooHooHooMan - 7 November 2009: So when does this poodle and jackass show move on to the Senate where it will be fillibustered and shredded?

Oh, I’m sorry , I forgot…
Harry “Man Nubbies” Reid will save the day…

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catnip - 7 November 2009: He’s polishing his Everlasts as we speak.

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BooHooHooMan - 7 November 2009: I’m just wondering..is it illegal to send the Senate Majority Leader a complimentary bottle of baby lotion to oil up the saggy frondules (not a word) to get ready for the “Big Fight”???

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marisacat - 7 November 2009: BTW, I read to day that lest Little Lefties Leave, Sanford of VT is taking up the SIngle Payer Scam… he has a bill he is retailoring to be like the one Kuc and Conyers dropped.

The Game shalll continue.

As Nina Totenberg said, “the stupid abortion issue will not be stopping the HC bill”.

God’s in his heaven, Ob is in the WH and … so on.

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12. Madman in the Marketplace - 7 November 2009: Some interesting backstory on the whole Stupek thing

Led by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., a member of the Capitol Hill religious cult known as The Family, and spurred on by the Catholic bishops, anti-abortion Dems are contesting the fact that some small number of private insurance plans offered via the bill’s insurance exchange scheme may offer coverage for abortion — even therapeutic abortion. Where the federal dollars come in is via the subsidies for which lower-income people would be eligible for buying insurance through the exchange.

Politico’s Patrick O’Connor reports on the church’s influence at the negotiating table:

Negotiators are working closely with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to finalize language the church can accept. Vulnerable anti-abortion Democrats don’t want to support any bill that the bishops haven’t signed off on.

Last time I looked, abortion was a legal medical procedure in the United States. The changes the church wants would virtually forbid abortion coverage, even for women carrying fetuses without a chance of surviving outside the womb. The church seeks to codify its contempt for women into U.S. law, dooming a woman already facing a tragic pregnancy to compromise her life and health — mental and physical — apparently for the sin of having had sex.

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catnip - 7 November 2009: And who are the Dems going to listen to? Kossacks making desperate phone calls or Catholic Bishops?

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13. catnip - 7 November 2009: The so-called health care bill has passed, apparently.

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BooHooHooMan - 7 November 2009: As did that so called cheeseburger I picked up at the drive thru earlier this evening. TMI, I know..but hey…LOL.

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catnip - 7 November 2009: You should have gone for the fish instead.

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marisacat - 7 November 2009: geez loueez.. the BBC just sent a Breaking News email that it did.

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14. marisacat - 7 November 2009: And of course all the dedicated Dem Libber Blahgger Boys (cue the Josh Marshall team, etc.) will write about it. Bitch moan bitch. Moan at the bitch, etc. As if they cared.

As Michelle Bachman and other gargoyles of the R party do the Democrats work for them.

I am so glad I wised up.

No one said freedom was pretty

By Dana Milbank
Friday, November 6, 2009

The call to arms went out last week.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who made her name suggesting that Barack Obama and other Democrats have “anti-American” views, appeared on Fox News on Friday night and urged Americans to come to Washington to protest: “We need to pay a house call on Nancy Pelosi and tell her what she can do with the Pelosi health-care plan.”

They came as directed, about 5,000 tea-party regulars and antiabortion activists, to the West Lawn of the Capitol on Thursday for what Bachmann called a “Super Bowl of Freedom,” sponsored by Republican members of Congress. And what a game it was.

Many of the demonstrators chanted “Weasel Queen,” their pet name for the speaker of the House. Others wore masks of Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.); they were covered in fake blood and carrying dolls representing aborted fetuses, as the Grim Reaper led them in chains to hell.

In the front of the protest, a sign showed President Obama in white coat, his face painted to look like the Joker. The sign, visible to the lawmakers as they looked into the cameras, carried a plea to “Stop Obamunism.” A few steps farther was the guy holding a sign announcing “Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds” [sic], accusing Obama of being part of a Jewish plot to introduce the antichrist.

But the best of Bachmann’s recruits were a few rows into the crowd, holding aloft a pair of 5-by-8-foot banners proclaiming “National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau, Germany, 1945.” Both banners showed close-up photographs of Holocaust victims, many of them children. . . . . . .

This just makes me laugh.. pissants and creeps all togther, from the R gargoyles to thieves and egomaniacs like Wright.

As you’d expect at a political protest, the messages on signs and buttons were provocative: “Waterboard Congress,” “A Commie Is in the House.”

But this protest was unusual because it was an official House GOP event, and because some of the remarks on the stage were as outrageous as those in the crowd. The actor Jon Voight, standing with the lawmakers, said of Obama: “Could it be he has had 20 years of subconscious programming by Reverend Wright to damn America?” . . . .

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15. Madman in the Marketplace - 7 November 2009: Rollcall on the your uteri are belong to us vote.

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16. BooHooHooMan - 7 November 2009: The Health Care Donner Party On to the Senate!

The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American emigrants caught up in the “westering fever” of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–1847, some of them resorted to cannibalism

LOL. To my way of thinking,
(speculation, of the highest quality, LOLx2) I see it playing out this way…The Banksters need need NEED that money, the Wall Street Guys, the InsCo investment funds indistinguishable from the banks, the brokerage houses, all is intertwined in the CDS clusterfuck that merely has been put on pause…

The operational guys ,obviously they wanna kill it… manufacturers, (those left) distributors, they won’t pick up another dime in costs..While Reid, poor Harry, needs to be seen as a fighter.

But the real deal is Schumer.
Schumer needs to be seen
- fronting for the Bill
-while carrying the Biz Agenda, also
- while fucking Harry every which way out of his job…

LOL. Bottom line, the GOP will do what they do, a given,
while Schumer will abet the Blue Dogs and Lieberschnitzel,
the thing will be stripped down to nothing, and EVERYBODY everybody will blame Harry…putting that fuck out of his misery.
Sadly, Harry is the cannibalEEE in this Spaghetti Western.

Cue Schumer as Leader, this Health Care ‘Fight” (LOL) the vehicle to do it, Perhaps even before midterms, and definitely with or without Harry surviving his re-election.

Schumers organization has been at this game for , like, EVAH, you can see it right down to the blogturds from New York on DK…Then Markos, that shill..ginning up the Schumer move, had a squib up following the recess floundering that He’d rather have Schumer as Leader in the minority than with Reid leading 75…

I’ll take a Chuck Schumer-run Senate with 57 Democrats (bye bye Reid, Lieberman, and Lincoln) than a Harry Reid-run one with 75 Democrats.

We need ~~MORE~~ Less , I MEAN LESS and Better Democrats!…

LOL. What FARCE.

Followed by the Lesser of the Lesser Astroturfers amplifying it..

Markos then got an appearance on MSNBC, one I saw, maybe more on the OlberMatthewMaddowman circuit …to chat it UP.

Of course, placement on the FDL Fight Club too. Then Janie can hamster the shit out of it on her guest appearances…

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17. wu ming - 7 November 2009: not a few netroots champions on that list.

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marisacat - 7 November 2009: I saw Stephanie Herseth took the advice of the Right to declare herslef a “No” ahead of time – and thus not be bothered with the Whips coming to her.

Master’s Voice, etc.

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18. marisacat - 7 November 2009: Never let a crisis go to waste (wasn’t that Rahm? back in the GE?). Of course Republicans and Righties are using it too… (I await the calls for hearings… Popcorn futures! Get in on the ground floor! )

[D]ebate on the House floor had already begun when Obama strode into a closed-door meeting of the Democratic rank and file across the street from the Capitol to make a final personal appeal to them to pass his top domestic priority. While the session was private, he later said he had told the rank and file “that opportunities like this come around maybe once in a generation…. This is their moment, this is our moment, to live up to the trust that the American people have placed in us…”

“I urge members of Congress to rise to this moment. Answer the call of history, and vote yes for health insurance reform for America,” he said.

Participants also said Obama had referred to this week’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed. His remarks put in perspective that the hardships soldiers endure for the country are “what sacrifice really is,” as opposed to “casting a vote that might lose an election for you,” said Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J. . . . .

I suspect the Dems are polishing the lilting rhetoric speeches (and I suspect the internal polling on his numbers is scary) for a call to the draft. To prove their patriotism of course.

Thanks be to Jeebus I don’t care anymore.

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catnip - 7 November 2009: Did he levitate Nancy? Because that would have been awesome.

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marisacat - 7 November 2009: I think it is safe to say that Nan almost levitated herself. With help from the US Council of Catholic Bitches. Oops i mean Bishops. Or maybe I mean BITCHES…

Stupak, during the vote on the final bill, didn’t stick around long. He cast his vote quickly and shook the hand of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), then headed over to the GOP side, where he was warmly welcomed.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a strident partisan, was the first to greet him, shaking his hand and slapping him on the back. Stupak then found Cantor and Young, shook their hands, and retired from the floor to the Republican cloakroom.

Cao’s vote was a mere bonus for Democrats, whose spontaneous floor celebration radically outdid the reaction of the Yankees to winning the World Series recently. The normally stoic Pelosi had tears streaming down her cheek. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) bent over and vigorously pumped her fist. Arms were thrown in the air; hugs all around.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/08/health-care-passes-the-sc_n_349783.html&cp

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catnip - 7 November 2009: Yay mandates!

Umm…

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catnip - 7 November 2009: Shorter Obama: Win one for the flipper!

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19. marisacat - 7 November 2009: The Dems can call it “bi partisan”.

Louisiana Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao was the only Republican to cross the aisle and vote for the bill. Thirty-nine Democrats voted against it.

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marisacat - 7 November 2009: Awww. And look how they did it. Using Pro Life Dems. And of course a tickle from the Pro Life WH. (I still say, did Josh Dubois preach in tongues at his fundie church in Cambridge? Before attaching himself to Ob in 2005.)

So… is Ob FDR yet? Is it soup yet?

[A]lmost every eye in the chamber darted to the far end of the GOP side, where the last possibility for a bipartisan bill sat wedged between Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), both of whom were leaning on him, both literally and figuratively.

The White House, two sources told HuffPost, had been working hard to win the vote of Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.), a freshman in a strongly Democratic district. The pro-life Cao’s vote came into play when an amendment from Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) passed overwhelmingly, greatly restricting reproductive rights.

After several minutes, Cao cast a yes vote from his seat, making the bill bipartisan. Reps. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Mike Honda (D-Calif.) waded into the Republican side of the aisle to get to Cao, rub his shoulders and slap him on the back.

Cantor stormed out as the Democrats applauded their defector. . . . .

Their big win. Can’t wait til 2013 when the final bill kicks in.

Apparently some Dems cried on the House floor, they were so overcome iwth their greatness!

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catnip - 7 November 2009: I’m surprised Cantor didn’t knee the guy to stop his vote. Because that’s just the kind of guy Cantor is.

they were so overcome iwth their greatness!

Did they speak in tongues?

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marisacat - 7 November 2009: After their tongues developed a forked adaptation, yes they did fall to the floor and commence to babble. So it shall be recorded.

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeit the years are gonna be long.

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20. catnip - 7 November 2009: So, is there like a chicken in every pot now? Or chicken soup at least? Or what, exactly?

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21. marisacat - 7 November 2009: Oh the posturing. And Kuc gets to be the tiniest rooster on earth.

[N]ot even the extreme pro-life amendment could dampen enthusiasm. “We’ll live to fight that battle,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), a passionate supporter of reproductive freedom. [oh give me a fucking break!!] “It took a hundred years to do health care. Nothing can dim that.”

Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said it was the hardest vote he’d ever whipped. “We crossed a threshold tonight,” he said. “This was a tough deal.”

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who’d fought for a stronger public option, was fired up, too. “I’m ecstatic. I think it was great,” he said, before adding that he wasn’t happy with the Stupak amendment or the weaker public option. [I long ago stopped caring that he won... tarred as he ws daily by FOX as a "terrorist plant" he quickly converted to squishy Dem abortion language and Pro Ob splutter... to think I gave a shit... ]

As he spoke, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) walked by, handing reporters a statement explaining why he’d been the only liberal to oppose the bill.

Would you have changed your vote if yours was the deciding tally?

“No,” said Kucinich. He then added cryptically: “I could’ve been, but that would’ve been up to the White House.” Kucinich is pushing for inclusion of an amendment that would allow individual states to implement single-payer health care without being sued by insurance companies.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/08/health-care-passes-the-sc_n_349783.html&cp

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22. catnip - 7 November 2009: The tough guy weighs in:

HCR Passes: Kucinich Can Bite Me

by BooMan23

239 comments (239 new)

Yes, bite him Dennis. Please?

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marisacat - 8 November 2009: someone slip Dennis a note that the Tough Guy does not bite back. He lies down and moans for ads….

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BooHooHooMan - 8 November 2009: Oh little Boober’s just lonely and lost…

I’d have to hold my nose to vote this bill, too, but look around, Dennis. You’re all alone. Again.

Boober, boober, boober…the runt of the Party sucklings and Dummmmb.
I mean, at least kos is drawing milk from the Donk titties..
While Booman is left hoping for milk out of the ass end of the beast.

So keep holdin’ that nose, there, Boober.. a’course, maneuvering those nasty ass Donk cheeks out the way to get some air might help…

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23. marisacat - 8 November 2009: Newsflash. A headline (Detroit Free Press) I spotted at Google…

“Cleric: Suspect in Fort Hood Massacre Was Conflicted”.

Who needs SNL.

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24. marisacat - 8 November 2009: hmm somebody at The Guardian had a sit down with Chomsky. It’s good.

Says US FP is straight up Mafia.
(I don’t think that makes Ob a don however! A don’s lackey maybe…. )

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Madman in the Marketplace - 8 November 2009: oh, thanks for that!

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25. marisacat - 8 November 2009: Valiant Blahger Boys:

Stupak’s Thanks for Trying to Defend Human Life [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Left-wing blogger Atrios asked his readers how he could Santorum Stupak. When Senator Santorum was in the Senate, his name was made into something repulsive on the Internet, thanks to sex columnist Dan Savage. An so Atrios has just Tweeted:

Stupak (n) – The sepsis commonly experienced after unsafe back alley abortions

11/07 07:57 PMShare

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BooHooHooMan - 8 November 2009: Atrios (v) – the derivative attempt at turning a memorable phrase for the Ages off of parochial internet bar chatter.

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BooHooHooMan - 8 November 2009: .
see Bart Stupak - (D) 1st Congressional District of Michigan

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BooHooHooMan - 8 November 2009: Politico’s lede:

All Eyes on Reid

O ya – this should end well.

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26. marisacat - 8 November 2009: Meet the Press: Govs. Barbour, Rendell; roundtable with David Brooks, E.J. Dionne, Rachel Maddow, Mike Murphy

This Week: Michael Steele, Tim Kaine; roundtable with George Will, Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, Donna Brazile, Frank Luntz

Face the Nation: Dick Armey, Ed Rollins, Rep. Wasserman Schultz, Sen. Menendez

State of the Union: Gov.-elect McDonnell, Bill McInturff, Peter Hart

Fox News Sunday: Gov.-elect McDonnell, Chris Van Hollen, Rep. Pence, Sen. Lieberman

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catnip - 8 November 2009: This Week: Michael Steele, Tim Kaine; roundtable with George Will, Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, Donna Brazile, Frank Luntz

Wow. Does that sound like fun or what??

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Madman in the Marketplace - 8 November 2009: Tim Kaine is so pathetically bad.

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marisacat - 8 November 2009: just starting here.

Did he wear long pants? If so I want to see the note from his mother that he can.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 8 November 2009: he may as well not show up. The usual Republican bullying, responding with whining about “my turn” and a bunch of meaningless poll numbers.

How do you lose to a clown like Steele?

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marisacat - 8 November 2009: Gen Casej up now. As fully operational brain wise as a beheaded chicken.

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27. catnip - 8 November 2009: Hype.

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28. Madman in the Marketplace - 8 November 2009: This is interesting:

That was the world that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, inhabited until Thursday, when he was accused of one of the worst mass shootings ever on a military base in the United States, an attack that killed 13 and left dozens wounded. Five of the dead were fellow therapists, the Army said.

Major Hasan’s motives are still being investigated. But those who work day in and day out treating the psychological wounds of the country’s warriors say Thursday’s rampage has put a spotlight on the strains of their profession and of the patients they treat.

Major Hasan was one of a thin line of military therapists trying to hold off a rising tide of need. So far this year, 117 soldiers on active duty were reported to have committed suicide. The Army has only 408 psychiatrists — military, civilian and contractors — serving about 553,000 active-duty troops around the world. As a result, some soldiers home from war, suffering from nightmares and panic attacks, say they have waited almost a year to see a psychiatrist.

Many military professionals, meanwhile, describe crushing schedules with 10 or more patients a day, most struggling with devastating trauma or mutilated bodies that are the product of war and the highly advanced care that kept them alive.

Some of those hired to heal others end up needing help themselves. Some go home at night too depressed to talk to their children. Others, like Bret A. Moore, a former Army psychologist at Fort Hood, ultimately quit.

“I planned for a career in the military, but I burned out” after about five years, he said.

The biggest problem, Dr. Moore said, was “compassion fatigue.”

That’s a coverage rate of 0.07% of the Army being mental health care providers.

I think it’s interesting that he attacked a class including therapists. Was he trying to “save” them from deployment? Hurt soldiers by making them unavailable?

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catnip - 8 November 2009: Tough to say. If he has PTSD, who knows what his cues or motives were? And I say that as a “wounded healer” who had chronic PTSD for years. The recovery process is one long, hard slog – even with excellent help (which I had).

If it was PTSD, his triggers could have varied from a sight to a smell to, well, that remains to be seen in his case. When you’re affected by a trigger, rationality goes out the window even though part of you knows it’s an unreal state of mind. The resulting actions then might not make much sense. So, untangling his actual motive might be difficult unless he eventually reveals it. I understand he’s off the ventilator.

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marisacat - 8 November 2009: I am waiting for someone to detail when he re-upped. And some details as to the contract he signed with the Army in exchange for the paid medical education.

Have to say IOZ had two perfect lines on the killing (which required 5 re-loads apparently) .. one line, shocked by violence on a mil base. Oh my… and that perhaps the shooter mistook the hall for a wedding party.

Sums it up…

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catnip - 8 November 2009: perhaps the shooter mistook the hall for a wedding party.

No doubt.

Meanwhile, back at the attention-grabbing ranch:

Senior US Senator Joe Lieberman says he plans to open a congressional investigation into last week’s deadly shooting at a Texas army base.

Mr Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told Fox TV that he wanted to find out whether it was a terrorist attack.

Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim army major, is suspected of killing 13 people.

Mr Lieberman also said he hoped to determine whether the army missed signs that Maj Hasan harboured extreme views.

Raise your hand if you’re in the army and you DON’T have extreme views…like the view that killing people=freedom, for example.

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marisacat - 8 November 2009: well as I see it Democrats are using the PTSD angle (and there will be no changes in numbers of mental health professionals… nor in the what happens in a war theatre) hand wringing in public over the pain the pain the pain … to play to their shredded and compromised anti war base… and the righties/Republicans are using the Terra Terra Terra angle. I will nto be surprised to see them call for and maybe get hearings on who did what… FBI etc… Gen Casey who is head of the Army is expendable.. and so on. Taint The Foundling… etc.

Neither “story” works for me frankly til we know more. And the government side is badly compromised by both Munley and Hasan “coming to life” as well as accomplices with beginning story lines (“at least one surrounded” in a named building, then 2 held then released, then a third held… with no more word)…

So they have a mess on their hands. Re-working the mess to lone shooter, who snapped. Hell they may yet pull the plug on him.

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29. catnip - 8 November 2009: This is gruesome:

A warship built with steel salvaged from the World Trade Center has been put into service in New York.

It’s like a floating tombstone loaded with artillery.

Secretary of State and former New York Senator Hillary Clinton, who spoke at the ceremony, described the ship as “a symbol of our unshakable resolve – this is a city built of steel”.

Or a boat built on revenge. Take your pick.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 8 November 2009: I think it sums up the American character perfectly. We worship death, we use deaths as an excuse to deal out more death. We profit from death, celebrate death, spread death. This is a country where a state like Oklahoma, which essentially started as a huge open-air concentration camp for relocated American Indians, uses Indian symbols like medicine wheels on their license plates.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 8 November 2009: meant to add that this warship fits perfectly.

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marisacat - 8 November 2009: yes a very special boat. One they have no problem calling an “assault” ship. The fig leaf of “defense” is gone.

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30. Madman in the Marketplace - 8 November 2009: Teabaggers make Cokie feel icky.

Why can’t people learn to mask their hate behind pretty words and paternal smiles, like her old-line friends in DC? It keeps cocktail parties SO much more pleasant.

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ms_xeno - 8 November 2009: I fucking hate the term “teabaggers.” Have I mentioned that lately?

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31. BooHooHooMan - 8 November 2009: What a difference a week makes!
Well… not where the bluffers and losers are concerned.
Adam Lambert aka “clammyc” , apologist, Democrat astroturfer and Party suckling blogger on Blue Jersey and dailykos…

Is Christie cracking under the pressure of a sinking campaign?
by: Adam L a/k/a clammyc
Thu Oct 29, 2009 at 03:27:04 PM EDT
A couple of weeks back, I asked if Christie was choking down the homestretch as the double digit leads were evaporating as summer turned to fall and attention started being paid to this race.

Uhm, no – I guess he didn’t now, did he?
Beat your wife much, clammy?
Or just your meat?

A horrible showing for the “winner”
by: Adam L a/k/a clammyc
Wed Nov 04, 2009 at 09:25:22 AM EST
Sigh. Promoted from the diaries by Rosi.

If Chris Christie couldn’t get more than 50% of the vote against a highly unpopular incumbent in the worst political environment for incumbents in a long time, then that speaks volumes about him and his campaign.

How cute. Quotation marks.
Well that “winner” happened to just kick your “ass” and will be booting the lot of your patronage retainer friends out of their “jobs”.

With a 700 Thousand Plus Democratic voter registration advantage, three trips in state by Obama, appearances by Clinton and Biden repeatedly. Not to mention the Neutered Poodle Rooters much vaunted role…

Oh I dunno, clammy:: Does that suck much?

I know, I know. It’s “rough”. It was “make or break”. “Critical”.
And Christie “won“.
Just pretend he’s not Governor. You know- like how the
“Democratic” state did regarding the “juice” of “President” Obama.

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32. ms_xeno - 8 November 2009: LJ this morning had the inevitable peabrains earnestly explaining that “I’m pro-choice, but pay for it yourself, Whores.” (In much nicer terms than that, of course. Because we’re all so touchy-feely out here.)

This is what I mean when I try to explain to people from out of town that they shouldn’t bother to move here. There really is nothing at the end of the liberal-prog rainbow but the same old self-absorbed, short-sighted bullshit from the same small-minded fucks: little hipster Babbits who can’t see a fucking thing past their own turned-up noses. (With the appropriate [lower case!] greenwashing added, of course.)

So long as the President is a nominal liberal, it’s okay to spout off like a fucking Rightwing scold. Go, us!

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33. Madman in the Marketplace - 8 November 2009: Fuck them all:

Marcy Kaptur praises Bart Stupak… Eric Massa and Dennis Kucinich vote NO… Anti-abortionists can’t shut up…

Sun, 11/08/2009 – 12:34am — hipparchia

Marcy Kaptur is on C-Span right now talking glowingly about the anti-women’s rights addition to the Insurance Industry Protection Act.

Sigh.

Now somebody else [Christopher Smith] is up, talking about the huge number of babies who would have been killed and all the mothers who would have been wounded without the intervention of the brave right-to-life souls who got this amendment into the bill.

Eric Massa and Dennis Kucinich voted against the bill. Thank you.

Alan Grayson, John Conyers, and Anthony Weiner voted for the bill. Hard to blame them, as there are good things tucked into this bill among all the other stuff we could really have done without. Thanks, guys [not].

One Republican voted for it. Bipartisanshit! Yay!

Some Blue Dogs appear to have voted against it.

So everybody’s going to get health care, except for people who can’t prove they’re here legally, except for people who will be able to afford the premiums but have nothing left over for actual care, and except for people who have a uterus but not enough money to free themselves from forced pregnancy.

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34. marisacat - 8 November 2009: … ….

We are not totally stupid out here…

New USC/LA Times poll suggests 80% of residents believe the state is on the wrong track, most believe next governor won’t be able to fix it

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35. Madman in the Marketplace - 8 November 2009: Police handing out tickets for air fresheners

Ermir Spahiu was pulled over by police for his window-mounted GPS unit. For Tina Ross, it was her handicapped placard. And Mark Hubbard was nailed for an air freshener. All three Illinois drivers were stopped for what they thought were innocent items placed near their windshields.

“It really threw me for a loop,” said Hubbard, recalling his 2008 encounter with Rolling Meadows police over a 2-inch scented medallion that dangled from his rearview mirror.

An increasing number of drivers are being cited for windshield and window obstructions, which can include anything an officer deems to “materially obstruct” a driver’s vision. The only exceptions are government-issued items such as I-PASS boxes and parking stickers.

Since 2004, the number of motorists stopped by state police for breaking the obscure law has jumped 91 percent. In 2004, about 20,000 drivers were warned or cited, most of them receiving warnings. This year, the number is expected to hit about 38,000.

Offenders can expect little sympathy from Master Sgt. Isaiah Vega of the Illinois State Police.

“Driving is a privilege, and drivers should take every precaution,” he said. Hanging anything from the rear-view-mirror “could be a dangerous if not deadly error,” Vega said.

But civil-rights advocates and defense lawyers see something else in the stops: an arbitrary excuse to pull over drivers and proceed to a more invasive search. A recent court decision in Illinois and a bill making its way through the Michigan legislature indicate a sharpening of those concerns.

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36. catnip - 8 November 2009: Maddow: Democratic women will REVOLT over Stupak-Pitts if it is not removed in Conference
by MinistryOfTruth

589 comments (589 new)

Oh, really?

Wake me up when that party starts.

I expect it’ll be a long nap.

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catnip - 8 November 2009: I forgot to add:

Send money now!!

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marisacat - 8 November 2009: oh Maddow. Well.. there be some educatin’ going on in the coming months.

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37. BooHooHooMan - 8 November 2009: And this, the lllllatest from the wreck list at DK

Lindsay Graham: Bill Dead on Arrival
by Julie Gulden

{insert further irrelevant whine and moan here}
Oh that Lindsay.
That Fuckety fuck Lindsey, voting the agenda he runs on.

{transition now to 70 level chess game fantasy}

Prolly an opening negotiating gambit. O ya.
Plenty of room to negotiate.
One look at the newly P.O.’d Harry all fired up and ready to go and ..and …and…It’s a done deal, baby! No Prollem!

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38. marisacat - 8 November 2009: gnu

LINK

……….. …………..

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