It isn't just what Hadassah Lieberman's evil husband, Joe is doing. She's really awful too. Christopher at From the Left has made a passionate argument for her firing.

The Firedog Lake Action Alert I received in via email and which From the Left cited includes this brief and damaging summary.

Donations to find a cure for cancer should not be used to pay the salary of Hadassah Lieberman, former employee of the pharmaceutical and insurance lobbying complex and wife of Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who is pledging to kill health care reform while millions go untreated.

We're calling on Susan G. Komen for the cure and celebrity donors like Ellen DeGeneres and Christie Brinkley to be mindful of where their money is going.

Sign our letter to Susan G. Komen for the cure:
"I call for Susan G. Komen for the cure to ask Hadassah Lieberman to step down as a compensated "Global Ambassador" for the organization in light of the inherent conflict of interest her continued presence brings."

My personal message that was included as part of the Action Alert was brief and to the point.

If you keep this former lobbyist for the same corporations that are murdering middle class and poor women with breast cancer, you are sending the message that you only care about rich women's health.

Please Participate in This Important Action!

Jane Hamsher, founder of FiredogLake has been tireless in fighting corruption in DC. It's too bad we can't clone her. Ms. Hamsher also is a breast cancer survivor.



 

Remember when the Democrats told us that things would change if they got the magic 60 votes? It sounds like a cruel joke now.

Core Democratic constituencies like queers, women, people of color, unions, environmentalists, seniors, the middle class and the poor have been repeatedly ignored and betrayed while wealthy donors have been given blank checks made out of government funds. The culture of corruption in the Senate and the House goes way beyond politicians who admit to being Republicans.

What do we do about it? 2010 needs to be the year of primary challenges. Here are my current top candidates for them. (Note: a lot of really shitty Phonycrats aren't running in 2010.)

1) Harry Reid
Why hasn't Reid taken away Lieberbush's committee chair? Why hasn't Reid pushed through the public option via budget reconciliation? The answer is quite simple. Reid opposes the public option because he is bought and paid for by the HMOs and health insurers, yet he knows that openly pushing that agenda would get him the wrath of real Democrats who are sick and tired of being screwed over by corrupt politicians. So, he insists on going the regular legislative route which can be filibustered by 41 votes. He knows there aren't 60 votes for the public option, but there easily are 51.

Reid is just as much of a Gopper as any other Gopper in the Senate. It is disgraceful that this right wing extremist is allowed to be leader of the Senate Democrats. Nevada voters should primary his corrupt ass right out of office.

2) Evan Bayh
Bayh is, was, and always will be a sleazebag. He is a leader in the so called Democratic Leadership Council, which should really be called the Democratic Liquidation Council. The DLC has worked tirelessly to pressure Democrats into acting like racist, sexist, heterosexist, corrupt, war mongering Republicans.

Bayh has voted for unconscionable restrictions on government funding for abortions and has cast a reprehensible vote against late term abortions. He just joined other Phonycrats in trying to make it illegal for insurance to cover abortion. This Gopper in disguise has worked to block the public option when he really should be fighting for single payer healthcare. He has done nothing to fight climate change or to support any other issue Democrats care about. He needs to be turned out of office.

3) Blanche Lincoln
Tell me again why she says she's a Democrat. I can't figure it out. She has done nothing to support the Democratic Party's agenda in the Senate. She spends all her time trying to out Republican the Republicans. Bah!

4) Byron Dorgan
This bought politician wants to weaken already horribly weak climate change legislation in the Senate. To make things even worse, he wants to use climate change in order to shovel government money at Big Coal. Dorgan has refused to support the Public Option and has supported draconian abortion restrictions pushed by ultra misogynist "Democrat" Ben Nelson.

5) Kirsten Gillibrand
Gillibrand "represents" one of the most liberal states in the country, yet she has provided absolutely no leadership on liberal concerns or any other matters. In fact, on lgbt issues, she has been downright vicious. She pushed for a temporary moratorium on the military ban, which may sound nice. But, look at the history. The elected Bush administration temporarily suspended most enforcement of the ban during the first US/Iraq War, only to kick out the queers who fought in the war after it was over. The Gillibrand approach is another cannon fodder approach to queers in the military. Aside from that, she mostly has been sitting on the sidelines and collecting a hefty paycheck.

But, what would you expect from Gillibrand, who is part of the same corrupt GOP political machine as Al D'Amato and convicted criminal Joe Bruno. New York deserves way, way better than this.

On Primary Challenges and Democracy
In a fully functioning democracy, every primary in every party would be contested. We are far from there, but the least we can do is to promote primary challenges against the worst of the DINOs.

Photo: SanFranAnnie

 

Let's face it. Every argument in denial of human made Global Warming originates from a person or organization paid for by Big Oil and/or Big Coal. The ideas might be spread across the rightist noise machine (which includes all the cable networks, the nightly news, and the major daily papers), but we know where it all comes from.

I must say I'm astonished by the latest talking point. The game is to point to celebrities who supposedly are hypocritical about their own behavior and say look, "That means Global Warming is a hoax." Setting aside questions about carbon offsets and the need for public figures to have security in a society which is psychotically obsessed with celebrity, there is one question any sensible person should be asking?

Why would anyone answer a scientific question based on the behavior of celebrities?

The whole scam is such an obvious appeal to emotions it isn't even funny. Meanwhile, our Arctic ice sheets are getting thinner, brush fires in Mediterranean climates get worse, and drought becomes a bigger and bigger problem for farmers.

The Maldives is an island nation that will be underwater if the world doesn't stop putting so much carbon into the air. On 12/8/09, Democracy Now! had an interview with with fifteen-year-old Maldives climate ambassador, Mohamed Axam Maumoon, whose behavior is far more mature than that of so many adults in the world. Here's a quote with real information on how our choices affect others.

First of all, I would like to tell everybody what’s wrong. I mean, why are we worried? We are worried because, as you said, Maldives isn’t higher than seven meters—seven feet, sorry, and, well, most of the places are just only one meter above sea level, which is only 3.5 feet, I believe. And we are a small island country. Most of the islands average one kilometer in diameter. And we have got 1,197 islands, and only 200 of them are suitable to be inhabited. And we are living at the very edge, as everybody is now talking about, because our country is so—so fragile, in the sense that we are only protected by the natural barriers, such as the coral reefs and the white sandy beaches. But other than that, we haven’t got the necessary need and necessary finance to actually build, let’s say, barriers, artificial barriers around the island. So we are completely subjected to climate change and global warming and the third factor, which is sea level rise.

Climate change also affects the weather, and it brings out weather anomalies such as the frequency of storms are increasing, and the force also increases. So, even though that naturally our country, our people has survived for 2,500 years on that small island state, we are still under threat right now, because our barriers have been destroyed by our mistakes, because of CO2 emissions from everywhere, to be general.

Read the whole interview or view video of Democracy Now! coverage of the climate summit.



 

We live in a society where we are expected to base our self worth on how much cheap plastic crap from China we buy on credit from Wal-Mart (for less) before we die without healthcare.

In comments on a post on Progressive Eruptions, I finally bothered to write a concise explanation of the predatory loan crisis. I thought I would repeat it here, edited a bit for clarity.

"Subprime loans" is a euphemism for predatory loans. The loans that sparked the crisis were designed not to be paid back. The banksters deliberately designed them with huge interest rate escalations which were much, much higher than those in traditional ARMs.

The scam was to force people out of their homes in order for the banks to make money after selling them in foreclosure. What went wrong for the banksters? They got too greedy. They issued far too many of these mortgages which all failed within a relatively short period of time. That caused housing prices to plummet, and the mortgage paper which was based on these predatory mortgages went bad.

You won't read points of view like this in the New York Times.

Photo: dorkula (Carrie Sloan)

 

 

Firedog Lake Has an Action Alert (Hat Tip Ten Percent) demanding that Obama fight to put the public option back into healthcare legislation in the Senate. Obama has been largely AWOL from the process, and he has listened more to bought politicians like Joe Lieberbush than he has to liberal Democrats who defeated Hillary Clinton in the primary. Little did we know that Obama would be almost as terrible as Ms. Clinton.

Here's what I wrote, for what it's worth.

This is a Republican wealthcare plan, not a Democratic healthcare plan. Why should I vote for Democrats if I get this kind of crap thrown at me? The Green Party looks better every day.

While you were wasting time planning an escalation of a war against the same Taliban you are negotiating with, the HMOs took over the process in the Senate and middle class Americans got screwed. I'm so sick of you acting like the only people that matter are the super rich. You are so much like Bush it isn't even funny.

I also emailed the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee with this little message:

Subject: No Public Option, No Money, No Votes
Body: That goes for you and every Democratic Senator.

You can email those fuckers too: info@dscc.org

You know that the Democratic Party is a joke when grassroot Democrats have to spend more time pressuring Democratic politicians than Republican ones.

Illustration: ddogbreath

 

It's time for me to catch up on my charitable giving and political donations before the year is up. Like I did last year, I figured it would be a good idea to amplify the impact of my giving by mentioning the recipients on my blog in hopes that others will support these worthwhile organizations.

amFAR:
amFAR combines support with medical research with aggressive public policy advocacy in dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis. This organization has the sense of urgency that so many seem to lack these days.

Doctors Without Borders:
The multitude of wars and other human rights violations around the world are creating far more need for medical services than most of us would even like to think about. Supporting this organization is a way to help ease the damage while we try to stop and prevent the wars that are causing it.

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR):
FAIR does an excellent job of exposing the far right bias of the corporate media without allowing itself to become beholden to any politician or party. If you don't like the constant flow of bullshit from so many media outlets, supporting FAIR is something you can do about it.

Freedom From Religion Foundation:
One thing that sets FFRF apart from other groups in this area is that they are not shy about taking state/church separation cases from plaintiffs who are atheists. I also like the actions they have taken to make freethinkers visible. As assaults on the Establishment Clause continue or even escalate in the Obama era, a strong organization fighting for the civil rights of atheists and agnostics is even more important than before.

Gay Men's Health Crisis:
This was one of the pioneering AIDS service providers and still provides important services here in NYC. Please support a local AIDS charity in your area. The need is even greater now that we are in a recession and funding is tight.

Manhattan's LGBT Center:
LGBT centers play a vital role in the queer community. They provide social services. They also provide safe meeting spaces for a variety of health, cultural, political, and recreational activities provided by other organizations. Finding a place for an lgbt group can be a major challenge in a city without one. Please support your local center.

Medical Students for Choice:
The campaigns of harassment and outright terror against doctors who perform abortions have had a chilling effect on the availability of abortion. We need to find ways to support the courageous and honorable medical students who choose this vital area of care as part of their future practices.

Pride @ Work:
Here's a way to support organized labor and queer civil rights issues at the same time. This lgbt labor group does important activism in both areas.

In case you haven't heard, Sen. Ben Nelson, Sen. Bob KKKasey, and the Republicans in the Senate are off on another sexist and racist jihad. (NPR 12/7/09)

Monday afternoon, Democratic Senator of Nebraska Ben Nelson, introduced an amendment that would prevent private insurers who participate in the new insurance marketplaces called "exchanges" from offering abortion coverage to women who get public subsides. The wording of the amendment looks similar to the one offered by Democratic Representative Bart Stupak of Michigan, and accepted into the House version of the bill. It caused major rifts among Democrats.

The Nelson amendment is sponsored by just one other Democrat, Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, plus seven Republicans.

The kind of venomous hatred and bigotry in this amendment should have absolutely no place in American politics. Abortion is a basic human right of women that only the most fanatical of knucklewalkers oppose. Let's not forget that bigots like Nelson and KKKasey are also motivated by the Christian Right's desire to force white women to have more white babies. These two Phonycrats are poster children for everything that is miserable, corrupt, and hateful in American politics. They also are strong arguments in favor of the Green Party.

The National Partnership for Women and Families has an Action Alert fighting this sickening act of bigotry. Here's text from the email they sent me.

Dear Thomas,

We’re now one step closer to securing the meaningful health care reform you need and deserve with passage of Senator Barbara Mikulski’s amendment to improve coverage and affordability of women’s preventive health services.

But the threat to abortion rights is as real as ever. And we need your help.

Today, we expect Senators Nelson (D-NE) and Hatch (R-UT) to offer an outrageous amendment paralleling the House Stupak language which would ban abortion coverage in public and private insurance plans that receive federal funds. But the underlying bill already contains significant compromise language that precludes federal funds from being used for abortion services.

This attack on abortion rights is unprecedented — and threatens to take away coverage most women currently have today.

Make your voice heard — right now!

The kind of rhetoric spewed by bigots like KKKasey and Nelson has terrible consequences. Dr. Tiller, a great American hero, was murdered by a terrorist who was motivated by the lies told by the anti choice religious extremists. Opponents need to be held accountable for the consequences of their irresponsible and dishonest propaganda.

I should also point out that there is no secular, factual basis for opposing abortion. The facts of the argument are all in favor of that perfectly legitimate procedure. Laws against abortion are efforts to use the power of the state to shove religious beliefs down the throats of people who don't share them. Laws against abortion are unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and are blatantly discriminatory against atheists.

Please Take Action to Stop this Sinister Amendment!

Photo: Leo Reynolds

 

Those of us who were following the Obama transition last year in order to read the proverbial tea leaves on his administration were really worried. There were way too many Clinton administration retreads and a particularly embarrassing Bush regime retread. Our worries turned out to have been justified, with Obama running a failed, Clintonian Republican administration so far. President Obama needs to clean house. Here are some high powered appointees that desperately need to go.

Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel
When an administration is adrift and flailing in terms of both message and policy, there has to be a serious problem at this position. An inept Clinton administration retread, Emanuel first came to national prominence by abusing his position at the DCCC to divert campaign contributions from anti Iraq War contributors to corrupt, pro Iraq war Phonycrats. He also diverted a lot of money to misogynist extremists who don't even recognize the inalienable right of women to choose on abortion.

Emanuel has pursued his Phonycrat agenda in the White House as well. He has favored the banksters over the middle class, HMOs over patients, and bigots over targets of their bigotry. He has absolutely nothing positive to offer and needs to go immediately.

Secretary of Defense: Robert Gates
This corrupt Bush regime official never should have been kept on in the first place. His efforts to drag on the Iraq War indefinitely are what we should expect from someone completely beholden to Big Oil, the mercenary corporations, and the arms merchants. He represents everything that is corrupt and reprehensible about the neoconservative cabal that has way too much power in DC.

Robert Gates hates American values as much as the Christian Coalition and Al Qaeda. He is a dangerous enemy of this country, and he needs to be fired ASAP.

Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton
Ms. Clinton is one of the least diplomatic people outside of the World Wrestling Federation and rightist talk radio. At best, she has been ham fisted. At worst, she has continued the campaign she started in 2007 to try to get us into a war with Iran, and she has deliberately stirred the pot in Palestine by showing favoritism to the apartheid Israeli government.

This is precisely what we would expect from a militant, Christian fundamentalist like Ms. Clinton, but it is reprehensible that an Obama administration has this bellicose blowhard as Secretary of State. Clinton's good words on the human rights of women have been rendered meaningless by her endless Crusades to slaughter women who aren't Christian and who aren't white. Obama should cut her loose show she can cash in by writing her bitter and self absorbed autobiography.

Director of the National Economic Council: Lawrence Summers
If you need any clue on why Summers was such a terrible hire in the first place, this quote from the Wikipedia article on him should clarify things quickly.

Upon the death of libertarian economist Milton Friedman, Summers wrote an Op-Ed in The New York Times entitled "The Great Liberator" arguing that "any honest Democrat will admit that we are now all Friedmanites." Summers wrote that while Friedman made real contributions to monetary policy, his real contribution was "in convincing people of the importance of allowing free markets to operate."

This was a flat out lie. No Democrat is a Friedmanite. Only Phonycrat frauds are Friedmanites.

Lionizing Milton Friedman, one of the most murderous kleptocrats in world history, should be enough to have kept Obama from hiring a monster like Summers. Yet, Summers' record in the Clinton Administration was even more reprehensible and dangerous. Summers efforts to push through financial deregulation and corrupt trade deals like NAFTA and the GATT agreement that created the World Trade organization make Summers one of the people most responsible for causing the Crash of 2008.

In his current position, Summers has been a stone wall blocking real Wall St. reform. He is so corrupt that he doesn't even support undoing all of financial deregulation that he supported before, much less an additional crackdown on the banksters and brokesters that is desperately needed to protect the long term stability of our economy. He has steered bailout money to the rich while screwing over the middle class and the poor. He has pushed the involvement of wasteful, corrupt, and deadly HMOs in healthcare "reform" instead of supporting the more humane and cost effective single payer alternative.

If Obama doesn't want another crash to destroy his presidency, he needs to fire Summers and reverse that monster's extreme right economic policies.

Photo: jurvetson

 

Photo: carbonnyc

Today's press release from Americans United for Separation of Church and State brings welcome news.

A federal appeals court made the right call today by striking down religious presentations given at mandatory meetings at the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s office, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. ran afoul of the law by inviting the Fellowship of the Christian Centurions, a group that seeks to evangelize law-enforcement officers in its religious doctrines, to give proselytizing talks at meetings that deputy sheriffs were required to attend.

Americans United Executive Director the Rev. Barry W. Lynn welcomed the decision, which he called “a strong reaffirmation of religious liberty.”

Said Lynn, “Sheriff Clarke is free to engage in whatever religious activities he wants in his personal time, but he has no right to use official channels to impose religion on his staff.”

Americans United filed an amicus brief in the Milwaukee Deputy Sheriff’s Association v. Clarke case, siding with two deputies who objected to the religious presentations.

It seems like an distant ideal to live in a country where people aren't always trying to shove their religion down the throats of people who don't want it.

Also, the issue of separation of church and state isn't getting anywhere near the attention it deserves. This is primarily due to the corporate media's methodical pandering to militant, Christian fundamentalists. That's why people who support the First Amendment need to be the media.

So far, President Obama has had a mixed record on state/church separation. In his speeches, Obama brings religion into politics in wildly inappropriate ways that remind me of Bush. Obama also has expanded Bush's hate based initiatives to shift federal funding away from inclusive charities and give it to religious charities instead. It also is important to remember that the whole Rick Warren debacle was truly shameful.

While his rhetoric and his policy positions have violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (and the civil rights of atheists in the process), his judicial appointments seem better. From what I've managed to read so far, it looks like the judges President Obama appoints will be more inclined to uphold and defend the First Amendment than Obama or most politicians in either party.

 

World AIDS Day was never meant to be a passive acknowledgment of HIV and AIDS. It is a call to action. Here are three things you can do:

Join AMFAR in Calling for an End to the Syringe Exchange Funding Ban
From their Action Alert:

One quarter of all reported AIDS cases in the United States are attributed to injection drug use, which is a major driver of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Eight federally commissioned reports have found that syringe exchange programs are effective public health interventions that dramatically reduce rates of HIV infection without increasing drug use. Syringe exchange programs also provide critical health care services including HIV testing, counseling, education, and referral to drug addiction treatment centers.

Despite the effectiveness of syringe exchange programs, current programs can only meet a fraction of the need due to the federal funding ban. Help amfAR lift this ban and ensure that these important, effective programs are available to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS!

The NAACP supports this effort as well.

Please Sign the Petition!