Month: August 2009

A reader writes:

As voters we needed to know that Biblical Prophecy was a factor in his decisions. Were Cheney and Rumsfeld on the same page? Did Colin Powell know this? Did the former CJCS know that the men and women and the institution that he was tasked to protect were were being spent because of what is in Revelations?

Let's get Cheney back on Meet the Press. Let's have Haircut Gregory ask him how much Revelations played in Bush policy decisions.

If you think the networks or MSM will ask Bush or Cheney this question and ask them if Chirac made this up, you need to move to a counry where mainstream journalists are unafraid of those in power and less eager to book them on their Sunday shows than ask them real questions that would tick them off. The Sunday shows are platforms for the power elites to convey their propaganda through vessels like Stephanopoulos or Gregory. They are not intended to grill or expose the lies of politicians. And God knows, David Gregory must never, ever take a position.

Words of profound wisdom and self-awareness:

"It’s gay. If one more person asks me if I have a Twitter, I’m going to tell them, ‘Twitter this shit, motherfucker. I don’t have anything to say, and what I have to say is not that relevant. Anything that is relevant, I’m going to bottle it up and then squeeze it onto a record somewhere."

Another story of needless excessive force against a grandfather celebrating a baptism in his own backyard. They tased a pregnant woman trying to help him withstand the police assault:

I'm posting my own birth certificate. It's after the jump:

Right-wing blogger Steve Gilbert gets clever with Obama's health-care logo:

The Larouchies are using the same meme. Limbaugh is repeating the Obama = Hitler line. But Scott Lamb's visual response is much more clever:

Wings over a circle! It's vaguely reminiscent of other famous logos, too:

A reader writes:

August, 2001: In the backyard of our modest home, we erect the "George W. Bush Memorial Jungle Gym" for our four kids, purchased at Toys R Us with our $600 Tax "Rebate" (which later came out of our potential tax refund, if I remember correctly). August, 2009: Sitting in our driveway is our new gas efficient, and more importantly, reliable, Honda CRV purchased ONLY because of the new $4500 Cash for Clunkers program.

Contrasting the two in terms of helpfulness to our family finances:

2001: we really didn't need the jungle gym. We had a two-income family at the time, and could have afforded to buy the thing had we prioritized it. Later that fall, I unexpectedly lost my job and began what has become an eight year journey back from economic hell. Had I known, I would have put the damn check in the bank.

2009: We have struggled, but as of this year, we are finally able to pay all our bills and not have to rob Peter to pay Paul. We (my husband, me and my two college age sons) have been driving vehicles for years that were paid for, but ranged in age from 12-18 years old, were gas guzzlers, and constantly required expensive major repairs. After I graduate in December with a BS degree in nursing, I have had offers and expect to work right away. What has been years of fear, compulsive avoidance of spending or accruing credit debt, literally not being able to pay utility bills and buy groceries, we had a definite sense that we would drive our vehicles until their wheels flew off (that literally did on one) before giving ourselves another car payment.

However, this month, all that fear gave way to a sense that this was the opportunity of a lifetime, that things are getting better, and that this purchase was a necessary and reasonable risk. You do the math on the benefits to our economy from the two. Bush put us into the national crisis we are in right now.

Obama's plans will slowly, but steadily bring things back.

A reader writes:

I am a 37 year old clergyman serving a Protestant Mainline church, who is of Euro-American descent with a wife and two sons under 4. I have watched my healthcare costs skyrocket in the last 10 years. When I began work post seminary, the cost of the standard plan offered by my denomination for two of us was $4000. It seemed reasonable in 1999 and was a whopping 8% of my salary. Well since then costs have gone up each year by 20% or more. We have added our two children to our family since I began working, and the cost of my family’s healthcare plan is now $22000 this year. This currently represents 1/3 of my salary, and the cost has increased $7000 in the last three years alone.

I look at these numbers and wonder, “Will insurance for my family be $100,000 in ten more years? $500,000 in 20?” I already know some clergy who work for health insurance only, and churches are already having difficulties in this depressed economy.

I wonder how in the world it is that people cannot see the present danger in this situation. How many churches will be unable to provide health insurance for clergy if serious health care reform is not undertaken? How many businesses will be unable to offer insurance because they can’t afford to?

I find myself angry seeing staged demonstrations at town hall meetings, and boggles my mind that the demonstrators I see on television are older white men and women, many of whom are on Medicare.

Daniel Indiviglio makes a compelling argument.

This incredible performance only gets better: