One step forward, two steps back

July 27, 2009

By: David Phillips

Yoda’s World

I watched one of my all time favorite movies this past weekend from years gone by: "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" where Jimmy Stewart fights the Big Powerful Media in his State (from the Senate floor) that controlled the newspapers the radio and the politicians in his State...Seems in many ways that that which is old in politics works as well today as it did 60 years ago, the only things that have changed are the technologies in communications and the scope and reach of today’s media organizations.

I’ll tell ya, watching that movie helps one to remember what is truly great about our country and our democracy. It also shows how big media can control and shape the perspectives of any issue with the voting public.

Speaking of controlling the perspectives of the voting public, I have a very bad feeling about any quality healthcare program coming out of Congress, I can feel the lobbyists controlling the conversations and the politicians, just as if all of congress is a puppet and the lobbyists are pulling the strings, which they are. 350 health care lobbyists descended upon Washington DC a couple of weeks ago, and between them and the right wing spin machine, things are not looking good.

And I blame President Obama for not getting out in front of this issue from the get go, it seems that after he held his round table talks with various health care industry reps during his first few weeks in office then he just stepped aside and left it up to the Democrats in Congress who seem to have their heads up their collective asses...President Obama is now saying it's no big deal that nothing will have been passed before the August recess.

President Obama and the DNC are finally using their bully pulpits to call out Democrats and Republicans...The DNC has started to run ads in the districts of 10 Democrats talking about health care and where their representative stands...I just fear it may be too little to late...But I hope I’m wrong.

Anyhow, now President Obama says he's OK with the progress as long as we are moving the conversation forward and he says he's OK with a Bill before the end of the year, I am also fine with that, but it is President Obama who is putting his rear end on the line if nothing gets done by the end of this year...

And finally, “Birthers’ those that refuse to accept that President Obama is an American are demanding that they see President Obama’s birth certificate. Am I the only one who finds it a little off color that the right wing “Birther” fringe dwellers (the same group who think President Obama is a Muslim) have never had a problem with the previous 43 US Presidents birth certificates until a BLACK President was elected?

Two years ago Obama made his birth certificate available to the WORLD, he posted it on line,  made it available to numerous news organizations which  verified its authenticity, even the far right web site World Net Daily posted it on their web site saying that it was indeed real...SCOTUS even told these nut jobs that there are NO question...

But that’s not good enough for these whack jobs, now the BIRTHERS say that even his birth certificate is false...This "controversy" is a manufactured one...There is NO controversy, there is no question...What there is, is HATE and IGNORANCE from these whack jobs...The GOP leaders for the most part continue to fuel these whack jobs by not coming out and denouncing their lunacy which just makes the GOP look complicit in fueling their hate and ignorance.

This is a far right twisted controversy that has no merit...It was Obama who first made the decision to make his certificate available and do you know why, because right wingers were saying his middle name was Mohamed and Obama wanted to clear that up, that it was not Mohamed but Hussein.

There were 8 Democrats and 11 Republicans who were running for President and can you guess how many of them made their birth certificates available to the world?...The black guy running made his birth certificate available and not a single White candidates did.

One step forward, two steps back. 

HOUSE PASSES "PAY AS YOU GO" BUDGET BILL

The House voted 265-166 for a bill that would require new tax cuts and certain spending to be offset by cost reductions or tax increases elsewhere in the budget.

Supporters said the "pay as you go" bill is key to impose discipline on Congress. It would require automatic spending cuts across the board if a year-end review shows that the cost of bills Congress has passed do not balance with revenues.

Social Security payments, Medicaid and food stamps would be exempted.

Most Republicans voted against the bill, saying it had too many loopholes that would allow Congress to disguise new spending. They said it was weaker than a similar law that was in effect during the 1990s.

Republicans offered an alternative that they said would put tighter caps on spending.

But critics said it focused too much on cutting spending and not enough on raising taxes as a way to achieving a pay-as-you-go balance.

The Republican plan was defeated, 169-259.

Vote blocks concealed weapons bill
Owners could have carried guns across state lines

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted last week to block a bill that would have expanded gun rights by allowing licensed owners of firearms to carry concealed weapons into other states.

Senators voted 58-39 to shelve an amendment by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. Although Thune won support from a majority, he needed 60 votes to prevail under a deal reached among senators.

The amendment would have required individual states to honor concealed weapons permits issued by other states even as the rules for carrying guns might vary from state to state.

All but two states, Wisconsin and Illinois, allow licensed gun owners to carry a hidden weapon. The amendment, strongly supported by the National Rifle Association, would have required the traveling gun owner to honor local laws that might bar hidden weapons in restaurants and other places.

Thune argued expanding the right to carry concealed guns would reduce crime. Thugs would think twice about committing a crime not knowing if their victim might be armed, he said.

The amendment "will allow law-abiding individuals to travel, without complication, throughout the 48 states that currently permit some form of conceal and carry," Thune said. "Law-abiding individuals have the right to self-defense."

Opponents argued the amendment would trample a state's right to determine who can legally carry guns within its borders.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said although 12 states already allow gun owners from neighboring states to carry concealed weapons, 25 make the decision selectively and 11 do not allow visitors to carry hidden guns.

"The Thune amendment is a direct assault on those states," Durbin said. "Congress should not require one state's laws to trump another's."

Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., voted for the Thune amendment.

Political blogs are atwitter
By: Madeleine Begun Kane

Political blogs are atwitter
With news of Gov. Palin, the quitter.
Is it scandal or plans
To join prez also-rans?
Once aglitter, she’s GOP litter.

Ex-Fox News Producer Gets 10 Years for Child Porn
Associated Press

A federal judge has sentenced a former Fox News Channel producer to 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Aaron Bruns was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Prosecutors had recommended the 10-year term, citing Bruns' prior conviction on similar charges.

Authorities arrested Bruns in February after investigators said he had been sharing pornography on a social networking Web site. Bruns pleaded guilty in May to possession of child pornography.

Bruns covered Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2008 and later was a general producer in Washington, covering politics.

CNN’s Howard Kurtz Criticizes CNN’s Lou Dobbs For Giving Airtime To ‘Birther’ Conspiracies

ThinkProgress.org

Last week, ThinkProgress noted that CNN’s Lou Dobbs is one of the most high-profile “birthers” in America, continuing to demand that Obama present a “long form” birth certificate to prove his citizenship. Dobbs’ focus on the story has been so bad that CNN President Jon Klein eventually sent an e-mail to staffers of “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” declaring that the “birther” story is “dead,” though he later backed down a bit. Dobbs has responded to his critics by calling them “limp-minded, lily-livered lefties” who don’t like that he had “the temerity to inquire as to where the birth certificate was.”

On his Reliable Sources show today, CNN’s Howard Kurtz criticized Dobbs and others in the media who have given airtime to the “fringe of the fringe” that is the “birther” crowd. “These are ludicrous claims, there is no factual basis for them,” said Kurtz. “Why give the birthers any airtime?” He then specifically criticized Dobbs for not acting “responsible”:

KURTZ: Callie Crossley, Lou Dobbs on his radio show said, “I believe the president is a citizen of the United States.” But he keeps raising these questions, complaining about criticism from “limp-minded, lily-livered lefties.” Is it responsible for Dobbs and others to go on the air, talk about these claims, demand proof, when we have seen a copy of the birth certificate? When Hawaii officials say that Barack Obama was born there in 1961?

CROSSLEY: It absolutely is not responsible.

Watch it:

There's a one-in-two chance that the water reservoirs of the Colorado River will dry up by 2050 if water management practices remain unchanged in our warming world, a new study finds.

Roughly 30 million people — including many in Arizona and Southern California — depend on the Colorado River for drinking and irrigation water.

The Colorado River system is enduring its 10th year of drought, with the reservoir system currently at 59 percent of capacity, about the same as this time last year.

Previous studies have warned of the potential for water shortages with the drier conditions in the West brought about by climate change. The region's growing population has also put pressure on the water supplies of the desert West.

The researchers, including Balaji Rajagopalan of the University of Colorado in Boulder, examined the effects of a range of reductions to the water flowing through the Colorado River and held in local reservoirs, as well as how different water management strategies might affect those water levels.

Rajagopalan and his colleagues found that even under the harshest drying caused by climate change, the large storage capacity of reservoirs on the Colorado might help sustain water supply for a few decades, but only if new management practices are enacted.

"This study, along with others that predict future flow reductions in the Colorado River Basin, suggests that water managers should begin to re-think current water management practices during the next few years, before the more serious effects of climate change appear," Rajagopalan said.

US Senators Tied to Religious Cult...

The powerful and secretive group known as the Fellowship Foundation or the “Family” is quickly gaining notoriety, due to its links to two scandal-plagued Republicans, Senator John Ensign of Nevada and Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

According to the Washington Post, however, the Fellowship Foundation is itself linked to an even more secretive religious organization — Youth With a Mission (YWAM), whose Washington, DC branch owns the “C Street House” where Ensign has lived and where Sanford has participated in Bible study.

A diarist at Daily Kos points out that “YWAM founder leader Loren Cunningham has publicly outlined a vision for Christian world-control,” which involves establishing domination over government, education, business, the media, and other areas.

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