Ted Kennedy champion for the people

By: David Phillips

Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy died at age 77 from brain cancer this past Tuesday and he will truly be missed.

In his 46 years in the Senate Kennedy sponsored or co-sponsored thousands of pieces of legislation, from Civil rights to health care, he fought for all Americans, the peoples champion. But it was Universal Health care that Senator Kennedy referred to as “the fight of his life.”

Ted Kennedy was a champion for the people; he was first elected to the Senate in 1962 by the state of Massachusetts and reelected seven times. In 1980 Kennedy ran for President losing the Democratic Party nomination to President Jimmy Carter. That was the only time Senator Kennedy sought the presidency.

Senator Kennedy was often referred to as the “Lion of the Senate” by his peers on both sides of the aisle. He mastered the art of persuasion and compromise to move legislation to a majority vote in the Senate.

A few of his programs and legislation that Senator Kennedy ushered through include, the S-CHIP program that provides health care to millions of children, COBRA which allows those who lose their jobs to keep their health insurance by directly paying the premiums, The American Disabilities Act, Medicare prescriptions drug benefits, OSHA, The Voting Rights act and Equal Pay for Women. His list of accomplishments is far-reaching.

Senator Kennedy once said of himself during a flap over the Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, “I define Liberalism in the Country”. Senator Kennedy’s fight for the working class, the children and the seniors of our nation, truly justifies that statement. .

David is also the Las Vegas Democrat Examiner and you can read more of his columns here

Shocking BBC US health care documentary produced by Panorama is must-see TV!

Sen. Inhofe Says US is 'Reaching a Revolution'
US News

Religious fanatic Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) told his constituents this week that the United States is on the verge of a revolution.

    Inhofe took the opportunity to blame Democrats for a bevy of issues. He lashed out at democrats for overtaking the government and spending billions of dollars on unpopular packages. He said government is becoming too big and overreaching its boundaries.

    “People are not buying these concepts that are completely foreign to America,” Inhofe said. “We’re almost reaching a revolution in this country.”

Inhofe also announced that he doesn’t intend to read the health care legislation before voting against it.

    “I don’t have to read it, or know what’s in it. I’m going to oppose it anyways,” he said.

Republican leaders across the country denounced Inhofe’s radical rhetoric and determined ignorance ... oh, wait. No, they didn’t.

Anti-reform town hall attendees are unable to locate Iraq on a map.

Many town hall protesters enjoy boasting to federal lawmakers about how knowledgeable they are about public policy. For example, at a town hall meeting with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) yesterday, an attendee stood up and declared, “I have taken the time to look at certain provisions of a bill on the Internet and I can quote…the sections and the page.” But the Omaha City Weekly went to a recent town hall hosted by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and found that the health care protesters actually aren’t all that informed about public policy. They asked 40 pro-reform and 40 anti-reform attendees to locate Iraq on a map. The results:

    A full 75%, 30 of 40 pro-reform attendees, could identify Iraq in its rather eye-catching, dead center position on the map. Only 52.5 %, 21 of 40 anti-reformers could do so. [...]

    More telling was the startling reactions I got while conducting the test. Pro-reform people, even those geographically challenged few who laughed out loud at the futility of the task before them, portrayed a uniformly agreeable front. Most gave a knowing, touch_-like nod and smile. I received no negative comments, none at all, from that group.

    The same could not be said of the other camp. Far from it.

    One gentleman practically knocked the clipboard out of my hand in jabbing - angrily and correctly – at the country that (John Kerry was right) represented the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place.

    Many sneered. Most at least glowered. Four accused the test itself of being somehow biased.

One anti-reform Vietnam veteran also responded, “Why the hell should I care where Iraq is?”

US has 'scrapped plan for missile shield in eastern Europe'
By Katherine Butler and Shaun Walker

Moving to avoid a rift with Moscow, Barack Obama has "all but abandoned" plans to locate parts of a controversial US missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, a leading Polish newspaper claimed yesterday.

The Warsaw daily Gazeta Wyborcza said that the Pentagon has been asked to explore switching planned interceptor rocket sites from the two east European states to Israel, Turkey, the Balkans or to mobile launchers on warships. Asked about the claim, a Pentagon spokesman last night said the missile shield plans were still being reviewed. "No final decisions have been made regarding missile defence in Europe" he said.

The threats and rhetoric surrounding the missile defence plans, a key plank of defence policy under the Bush administration, contributed as much as any other issue to the souring of relations between Moscow and Washington in recent years.

In 2007, then-President Vladimir Putin compared the plans to the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960s. He warned that if the plan went ahead, Russia would be forced to point nuclear missiles at European cities. Since then, the Kremlin has brushed aside repeated US claims that the shield would be aimed not at Russia but at Iran, North Korea and other rogue states. Moscow has insisted that the shield's deployment would compromise Russian strategic security.

With the Obama administration's promise to "reset" relations with Russia, came the President's decision to launch a strategic review of the defence shield. Controversy erupted earlier this year when rumours surfaced of a secret letter written by Mr Obama to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev allegedly hinting that the White House would back away if Russia offered help on reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Publicly, both sides have insisted that there is no horse-trading to be done over the issue. At a summit in Moscow last month Mr Obama promised only to take Russia's concerns into account. This was nevertheless a marked change of rhetoric. The Bush administration had repeatedly stated that what Russia thought was irrelevant.

Summary

Our inbox has been overrun with messages asking us to weigh in on a mammoth list of claims about the House health care bill. The chain e-mail purports to give "a few highlights" from the first half of the bill, but the list of 48 assertions is filled with falsehoods, exaggerations and misinterpretations. We examined each of the e-mail’s claims, finding 26 of them to be false and 18 to be misleading, only partly true or half true. Only four are accurate. A few of our "highlights":

• The e-mail claims that page 30 of the bill says that "a government committee will decide what treatments … you get," but that page refers to a "private-public advisory committee" that would "recommend" what minimum benefits would be included in basic, enhanced and premium insurance plans.
• The e-mail says that "non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services" but points to a provision that prohibits discrimination in health care based on "personal characteristics." Another provision explicity forbids "federal payment for undocumented aliens."
• It says "[g]overnment will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals." This provision isn’t about children with learning disabilities; instead, it pertains to restricted enrollment in "special needs" plans, a category of Medicare Advantage plans. Enrollment is already restricted. The bill extends the ability to do that.
• It claims that a section about "Community-based Home Medical Services" means "more payoffs for ACORN." ACORN does not provide medical home services. The e-mail interprets any reference to the word "community" to be some kind of payoff for ACORN. That’s nonsense.

Analysis

This chain e-mail claims to give a run-down of what’s in the House health care bill, H.R. 3200. Instead, it shows evidence of a reading comprehension problem on the part of the author. Some of our more enterprising readers have even taken it upon themselves to debunk a few of the assertions, sending us their notes and encouraging us to write about it. We applaud your fact-checking skills and your skepticism. And skepticism is warranted.

Chain e-mail: Subject: A few highlights from the first 500 pages of the Healthcare bill in congress Contact your Representatives and let them know how you feel about this. We, as a country, cannot afford another 1000 page bill to go through congress without being read. Another 500 pages to go. I have highlighted a few of the items that are down right unconstitutional. ⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full text ⬏

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Rex Rammell Obama hunting tags

By: David Phillips

August 31, 2009

Yodas World

Idaho 2010 gubernatorial hopeful Rex Rammell has refused to apologize for his “joke” about issuing hunting tags for President Obama, saying in a statement, "Anyone who understands the law knows I was just joking, because Idaho has no jurisdiction to issue hunting tags in Washington, D.C."

In his original so called “joke” at a republican rally last Tuesday in Twin Falls the State's upcoming wolf hunt was brought up and the cost of the hunting tags which sell for $11.50.

Someone from the audience shouted a question about "Obama tags," Rammell responded, "The Obama tags? We'd buy some of those."

In his statement he refuses to apologize for that “joke” he basically is saying that if Idaho could issue hunting tags for Washington DC he would. Again he is supposedly just joking.

Republicans and the right wing talking heads think it’s engaging to talk about hunting President Obama or bringing guns to town hall meetings with the President in attendance,.

At the town hall meeting in New Hampshire that featured President Obama a couple of weeks ago there was one man with a gun outside the building in which the town hall was given. At a second town hall meeting in Arizona a few days later there were twelve men outside the building with guns when the President was holding the town hall meeting.

Now there are republicans "joking" about hunting President Obama as if he were an animal. What has the Secret Service, the FBI, or the local police done about any of these incidents, nothing. But because none of these agencies would discuss any ongoing investigations if there were one, we don’t know for sure.

By doing nothing the first time when one man showed up with a gun, and appearing to do nothing the second time when twelve men showed up with guns, the Secret Service and other policing agencies are making it seem as if it’s OK to bring your guns to political events where the President of the United States will be present, because they won't do anything.

It only takes one guy with one gun and the Secret Service has opened the door just by appearing to do nothing.

David Phillips also writes for the Examiner.com and is their Las Vegas Democrat Examiner, you can read more of David’s column’s here.

CNN boots 'noisy,' 'predictable' radio hosts off its shows

Radio talk show hosts offer little more than "noise" and "predictable" opinions -- so they won't be invited to talk on CNN shows anymore, says an exclusive report at MediaBistro's TV Newser blog.

Blogger Chris Arlens reports: "TVNewser has learned, and a CNN spokesperson confirms, that in his morning editorial meeting today, CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein asked his show producers to avoid booking talk radio hosts."

Continues Arlens, "'Complex issues require world class reporting,' Klein is quoted as saying, adding that talk radio hosts too often add to the noise, and that what they say is 'all too predictable.'"

Arlens points out that several of the news network's hosts and regular contributors host radio shows, most notably Lou Dobbs, but "they are presumably not affected by this."

Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars opines, "Although we didn't get rid of Lou Dobbs, it looks like the stink we raised is having an impact."

Dobbs has recently been the target of media watchdog groups who have raised the alarm about his coverage of the birther controversy, a story that even Dobbs' own boss doesn't want the CNN host covering.

TV Newser names a few of the people it expects will no longer be appearing on CNN thanks to its new policy: liberal talk show host Stephanie Miller and conservative radio hosts Michael Medved and Ben Ferguson are singled out.

-- Daniel Tencer

Translating Sarah
By Madeleine Begun Kane

The media’s mean, so I quit:
(That’s the message that Palin has writ.)
And you don’t need a title
To do something vital.
I’m betting she runs against Mitt.

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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