The WAWG Blog

Many Wealthy Dodge Their Tax Responsibilities by Hiding Income in Overseas Accounts – Thursday is the deadline for Americans to come clean about the money they have hidden offshore, in places like Swiss bank accounts. No one can say with certainty how much money is out there — the accounts are secret — but the hoard may be tens of billions of dollars.

Several thousand wealthy people have come forward, hoping to avoid large fines or possibly even prison. But many others are still weighing their options. The choice is stark: They can confess and pay the penalties, or gamble that they will not get caught. With the deadline only days away, tax lawyers say they are being inundated by anxious clients.

“We’re seeing a flood of people,” said Scott D. Michel, a tax lawyer in Washington. His firm, Caplin & Drysdale, has 350 clients who are preparing to report their offshore accounts to the Internal Revenue Service. The firm has 14 lawyers handling their cases, one of which involves a tax bill of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Americans Are Forced to Self-Ration Health Care – Among the most pernicious and blatantly false Republican talking points designed to obstruct health care reform is the fear-mongering claim that Democratic proposals will lead to “rationing.” Of course, with almost 50 million uninsured and another 25 million underinsured, Mitch McConnell’s dystopian future of a system which “denies, delays, or rations health care” is already today’s nightmare for millions of Americans. But as it turns out, recent studies show that the market failure that is the crumbling U.S. health care system is producing a another, often hidden crisis: self-rationing.

As McClatchy reported last week, a new Consumers Union survey revealed that due to skyrocketing costs and reductions in coverage, Americans are forced to deny themselves needed medical treatment. Among the findings of CU’s poll of a 1,002 respondents:

In the new poll 59 percent said that the cost of their health care had increased more than their other expenses over the past two years. Fifty-one percent said they had faced difficult health care choices in the past year. The most common responses were putting off a doctor visit because of cost (28 percent), not being unable to afford medical bills or medication (25 percent), and putting off a medical procedure because of cost (22 percent).

Twenty-eight percent said they had lost or experienced cutbacks in their health care coverage in the past year. The greatest concerns about health care expressed by respondents were a major financial loss or setback from medical cost due to an illness or accident (73 percent), not being able to afford health care in the future (73 percent), necessary care being denied or rationed by health insurance companies (73 percent), and the prospect of rising costs forcing them to choose between health care and other necessities (64 percent).

Those dismal results echoed the shocking revelations from an April 2009 Thomson Reuters survey.

That poll of 12,000 people not only found that employer-provided health care coverage had plummeted to 54.9% in 2009 from 59% in early 2008, but that 20% of Americans have postponed or delayed medical care. That 1 in 5 figure is a staggering jump from 15.9% in 2006.

The Republican 10 Point Plan for Health Care

1. 50 Million Uninsured in America
2. Another 25 Million Underinsured
3. Employer-Based Coverage Plummets Below 60%
4. Employer Health Costs to Jump by 9% in 2010
5. One in Five Americans Forced to Postpone Care
6. 62% of U.S. Bankruptcies Involve Medical Bills
7. Current Health Care Costs Already Fueling Job Losses
8. 94% of Health Insurance Markets in U.S Now “Highly Concentrated”
9. Dramatic Decline in Emergency Room Capacity
10. Perpetuating Red State Health Care Failure

Bush Administration Covered up Global Warming Finding, Then Deliberately Kept Them From Democrats – An e-mail message buried by the Bush administration because of its conclusions on global warming surfaced Tuesday, nearly two years after it was first sent to the White House and never opened.

The Bush administration, and then EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, refused to release the document when it was written in 2007, and labeled it “deliberative, do not distribute” to Democratic lawmakers. The White House instead allowed three senators to review it in July 2008, when excerpts were released.

The e-mail and the 28-page document attached to it, released Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency, show that back in December of 2007 the agency concluded that six gases linked to global warming pose dangers to public welfare, and wanted to take steps to regulate their release from automobiles and the burning of gasoline.

The document specifically cites global warming’s effects on air quality, agriculture, forestry, water resources and coastal areas as endangering public welfare.

Fox News’ Unbalanced Coverage of Protests – Fox News covered nearly every tea party protest in America (no matter how small) but did not send a reporter, or even a camera crew, to cover Sunday’s gay rights March on Washington. They only devoted a total of 4 minutes to even mention the gay rights march.

Regards,

Jim

Insurance Company Refuses to Cover 4-Month-Old Baby Because He’s Too Fat – Alex Lange is a chubby, dimpled, healthy and happy 4-month-old. But in the cold, calculating numbered charts of insurance companies, he is fat. That’s why he is being turned down for health insurance. And that’s why he is a weighty symbol of a problem in the health care reform debate.

Insurance companies can turn down people with pre-existing conditions who aren’t covered in a group health care plan. Rocky Mountain Health Plans turned him down, saying insurers don’t take babies over the 95th percentile, no matter how healthy they are.

“I could understand if we could control what he’s eating. But he’s 4 months old. He’s breast-feeding. We can’t put him on the Atkins diet or on a treadmill,” his frustrated father, Bernie Lange, told the Post. “There is just something absurd about denying an infant.”

In Washington, Revolving Doors are Bad for Your Health – Polls show the overwhelming majority of Americans favor a non-profit alternative — like Medicare — that would give the private health insurance industry some competition. But if so many Americans and the President himself want that public option, how come we’re not getting one?

Because, the medicine has been poisoned from day one, in part because of that same revolving door that Congresswoman Kaptur and Simon Johnson were just talking about. Movers and shakers rotate between government and the lucrative private sector at a speed so dizzying they forget who they’re working for.

SEN. MAX BAUCUS: Our plan does not include a public option.

BILL MOYERS: Take a close look at that woman sitting behind Montana Senator Max Baucus. He’s the Democrat who’s the Chairman of the Finance Committee. Liz Fowler is her name. And now get this. She used to work for WellPoint, the largest health insurer in the country. She was Vice President of Public Policy. And now she’s working for the very committee with the most power to give her old company and the entire industry exactly what they want: higher profits, and no competition from alternative non-profit coverage that could lower costs and premiums.

I’m not making this up. Here’s another little eye-opener. The woman who was Baucus’ top health advisor before he hired Liz Fowler? Her name is Michelle Easton. Why did she leave the Committee? To go to work — where else? — at a firm representing the same company Liz Fowler worked for WellPoint. As a lobbyist.
It’s the old Washington shell game. Lobbyist out, lobbyist in. And it’s why they always win.

Speculator Getting $100 Million For Nothing of Value to the Rest of the World – The way in which oil speculator Andrew J. Hall is going to get his $100 million demonstrates clearly why we need to return to the 91 percent top bracket income taxes of the Eisenhower years.

Hall was scheduled to get nearly $100 million in bonuses for his services he and his firm Philbro provided to Citigroup. (Philbro is currently a subsidiary of Citigroup.) He earned his keep by using Citigroup capital to play the oil markets, which he did successfully. It’s unclear if his actions resulted in any real economic value–no part of our economy functions more efficiently and no one has fuel in their gas tank they wouldn’t have had because of his commodity trades. More than likely it resulted in a slight increase in overall oil prices that we all pay.

Sean Hannity Tries to Pull a Fast One on Michael Moore With Doctored Video – Someone really should have thought twice before letting Sean Hannity embarrass himself with the failed stunt he tried in his interview with Michael Moore, the second half of which aired last night on Fox.

Hannity wanted to make a point about how health care in Cuba is so much worse than it is in the USA — in contradistinction to Moore’s own reportage — so he offered what he called special video footage he had been provided of a “hospital” in Cuba.

What we then see is a rattletrap mess with old beds and rotting toilets, etc. But Moore notices what should be obvious: There are no patients, either.

Ah, but wait! We shortly see footage of patients in a hospital. But they’re in an obviously different building (or at least wing), because this room is clean and the beds and equipment sanitary and well-tended. But we only get to see them for a few seconds before — swoop! — off we go back to the rat’s nest.

Which is obviously an abandoned hospital or wing, which is certainly not unheard of, even in the USA.
Moore, of course, laughs at all of this with glee. Hannity quickly changes the subject, since his oh-so-convincing video evidence just makes him look as bad as he has recently in his Jennings Jihad.

Pilots on Food Stamps – by Michael Moore
… The plane landed and I stepped into the cockpit. “Read this,” the first officer said. He handed me a letter from the airline to him. It was headlined “LETTER OF CONCERN.” It seems this poor fellow had taken three sick days in the past year. The letter was a warning not to take another one — or else.

“Great,” I said. “Just what I want — you coming to work sick, flying me up in the air and asking to borrow the barf bag from my seatback pocket.”

He then showed me his pay stub. He took home $405 this week. My life was completely and totally in his hands for the past hour and he’s paid less than the kid who delivers my pizza.

I told the guys that I have a whole section in my new movie about how pilots are treated (using pilots as only one example of how people’s wages have been slashed and the middle class decimated). In the movie I interview a pilot for a major airline who made $17,000 last year. For four months he was eligible — and received — food stamps. Another pilot in the film has a second job as a dog walker.

“I have a second job!,” the two pilots said in unison. One is a substitute teacher. The other works in a coffee shop. You know, maybe it’s just me, but the two occupations whose workers shouldn’t be humpin’ a second job are brain surgeons and airline pilots. Call me crazy.

I told them about how Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger (the pilot who safely landed the jet in the Hudson River) had testified in Congress that no pilot he knows wants any of their children to become a pilot. Pilots, he said, are completely demoralized. He spoke of how his pay has been cut 40% and his own pension eliminated. Most of the TV news didn’t cover his remarks and the congressmen quickly forgot them. They just wanted him to play the role of “HERO,” but he was on a more important mission. He’s in my movie.
“I hadn’t heard anywhere that this stuff about the airlines is in this new movie,” the pilot said.

“No, you wouldn’t,” I replied. “The press likes to talk about me, not the movie.”

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) Holds Up Unemployment Extension, Hundreds Of Thousands Fall Off Rolls – Key Senate Democrats tried unsuccessfully today to quickly pass legislation to give jobless workers in Michigan and other hard-hit states an additional 20 weeks of unemployment benefits.

That delays action on the high-stakes issue until at least next week.

But when Reid asked senators to quickly pass the bill under a speedy procedure, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., objected. That’s enough to prevent a quick vote.

Georgia Restaurant Owner Uses N-Word on Anti-Health Care Reform Sign Attacking Obama – An Atlanta, Georgia area restaurant owner with a history of racially provocative behavior is attracting renewed attention with a sign outside his restaurant saying “Obamas plan for healthcare: N****r rig it.”

“When you walk into the Georgia Peach Oyster Bar in Paulding County, you feel like you’ve walked into a different era,” CBS Atlanta reports. “Behind the pool table’s a mannequin in a Ku Klux Klan costume.”
“The centerpiece, presiding over the bar, is a portrait of Jesse Jackson, and it takes a minute to realize the reason,” the report continues. “Next to the painting is a cartoon of a black boy with a certain body part caught in a fence hole. ‘Yep, old Jesse got his pecker caught, too, didn’t he?’ boomed Lanzo. … He proudly displays the bar’s menu, emblazoned on the front with a drawing of a Klansman in a hammock. The hammock is formed by two lynched black men whose feet are roped together.”

Texas Governor Replaces Another Member of Key Investigative Committee – What’s He Hidding? – After a state-funded report revealed in August that Texas may have executed an innocent man under the watch of Governor Rick Perry, the Texas Republican currently facing a steep re-election climb was quick to act in his own best interest.

He replaced three members on the key committee charged with investigating the report’s truth, installing what CNN called a “political ally” to head up the Texas Forensic Science Commission.

Sunday, the cable news network reported that Perry had moved to replace a fourth member of the commission, reaching the legal limit of how many members he can seat. The five other members are selected by the attorney general and lieutenant governor.

Perry’s political ally who now leads the commission was quick to postpone a hearing in which the committee would have heard from the author of the report that suggested Cameron Todd Willingham may have been innocent.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Aggressive Opposition to Anything For Average Americans – Thomas J. Donohue, the combative head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, isn’t one to step away from a fight. Donohue is renowned for his bulldog style.

The Chamber has moved sharply to oppose much of the legislation and many of the regulations and policies streaming out of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress on health care, labor issues, and finance. In a move some see as little short of a declaration of war on the White House, Donohue has been crisscrossing the country to raise $100 million to launch the “Campaign for Free Enterprise.”

As proof of the Chamber’s flawed approach, Democrats point to its recent leading role in what many saw as an over-the-top attack on the Administration’s plans for an agency to protect consumers from predatory lenders.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce: What Can You Do? – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of Tom Donahue, has gone from a well respected trade organization to an extremist political organization dedicated to corrupting American democracy by elevating the profits of big corporations over the well being of the citizens they serve. The most recent example of this corrupt behavior is the Chamber’s announcement that it is spending more than $100 million to defeat initiatives to protect the environment and provide affordable health care to everyone.

The Chamber is the biggest lobbying operation in the United States, spending billions of dollars on behalf of bi g business over the past decade to corrupt the political system. Polluters like Big Coal, Big Asbestos, and Big Oil only need call the Chamber to stop any accountability for their toxic destruction. Wall Street banks and CEOs need only make sure that they have paid their Chamber dues to ensure that they can continue to rip off the taxpayers. And killers like Big Tobacco need only form a partnership with the Chamber to ensure that they will be given immunity from lawsuits that seek accountability for the death and sickness of millions of Americans.

Tom Donahue has turned the once respected and even-handed Chamber into an extremist organization, bragging that the Chamber gutted the Clinton tobacco settlement, killed the Clinton health care plan, and scuttled previous oversight of Wall Street and the banking system. Now the Chamber is spending tens of millions on ads and lobbyists to stop health care for all, protect polluters from accountability, and shield the financial industry from government regulation.

Support the Troops? Taylor, Texas Doesn’t Want Veteran’s Facility – A California company wants to convert an empty facility formerly used as nursing home into a trauma assistance center for as many as 88 female veterans, including those who have been sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers.

But some Taylor residents say they don’t want the facility in their town.

“It would put veterans in a situation where they are going to a town that doesn’t want them,” said Cherri Wolbrueck, co-owner of a Taylor bookstore. She talked about her opposition after attending a zoning board meeting where representatives of the company — Center Point Inc., based in San Rafael, Calif. — spoke.

Wolbrueck lives across the street from the proposed facility where veterans would live. She said she fears that veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder might attack residents in the Buttermilk Hill neighborhood.

Laura Lambe, the executive vice president of Texas Center Point Inc., which would operate the facility and is a subsidiary of the California company, said the veterans who would be served at the facility would not be a danger to the community.

“We have a moral obligation to help veterans,” said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, an advocacy group based in Washington. “Veterans are the kind of neighbors we want, and it’s safe to be around them.”

Lou Dobbs’ Dangerous Brand of Journalism – Lou Dobbs’ brand of journalism is dangerous to America — and it’s time to fight back.

This week, the CNN anchor broadcast his radio show from the conference of anti-immigrant hate group FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Founded by a white nationalist, FAIR was linked earlier this year to vigilantes in Arizona who brutally murdered 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father in their home.

The appearance at FAIR is just the latest example of Dobbs using his status as a CNN anchor to spread fear about Latinos and immigrants. Dobbs’ show on CNN is riddled with faulty reporting and conspiracy theories like the “Birther” movement, and he has publicly pledged to oppose any policy President Obama puts forth. Yet, CNN continues to broadcast the Lou Dobbs Tonight as a “news” program. That needs to end.

It’s time we said ¡Basta! Enough is enough. Please join me in demanding that CNN drop Dobbs from its network.

Regards,

Jim

Rush Limbaugh’s NASA Conspiracy – In a breathless rant during Thursday’s show, Limbaugh claimed NASA’s mission in search of water on the moon is really a trial run for the 30,000-pound “Massive Ordnance Penetrator” bomb being developed by the Department of Defense.

Responding to one of his callers who suggested that bombing the moon may be viewed as an “aggressive” act by creatures potentially living there, Rush agreed and took the notion 10 steps further, half-way attacking President Obama in the process. At the end, Limbaugh suggests dropping the bomb on Iran.
Here is a transcript directly from Limbaugh’s Web site.

CIGNA Employee Flips Off Mother Of Dead Girl Denied Transplant – Hilda and Krikor Sarkisyan went to CIGNA’s Philadelphia headquarters, along with supporters from the California Nurses Association, to confront the CEO Edward Hanway over the death of her 17-year-old child.

In 2007, Nataline Sarkisyan was denied a liver transplant by the company, on the grounds that the operation was “too experimental” to be covered. Nine days later it changed its mind, in response to protests outside its office. It was too late: Nataline died hours later.

“CIGNA killed my daughter,” Nataline’s mother Hilda told security. “I want an apology.” Sarkisyan was not able to speak to Hanway; a communications specialist talked to her instead. After their conversation, employees heckled the group from a balcony; one man gave them the finger. CIGNA called the police and had the family and their friends escorted from the building.

Be a Good Deeder: Sign This Petition – “Any Democratic senators who support a Republican attempt to block a vote on health care reform should be stripped of their leadership titles. Americans deserve a clean up-or-down vote on health care.”

Over 38,300 people have signed — can we break 50,000 before we deliver signatures to Harry Reid?

Republicans Had Plenty of Time to Fix Health Care and Did Nothing – In an CNBC debate with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) today, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) railed against a government takeover of health care until CNBC host John Harwood interjected and asked him, “Congressman, do you not agree that the private market is failing the American patient right now?” Paul agreed that we “do not have a market system working in health care today,” and said, “Let’s fix health care, let’s fix insurance, let’s make sure the uninsured get insured, let’s make sure we have a fix for people with pre-existing conditions.” Frank then interjected and called Ryan out:

FRANK: I just want to ask Paul one question. … When did you figure that out? Because apparently for the 12 years that the Republicans were in control — eight of which had a Republican president — that hadn’t occurred to you. So I’m glad you now understand that. Can you tell me at what moment the revelation occurred?

RYAN: First of all, I introduced on this subject about six years ago.

FRANK: You had control of the Congress. Why didn’t the Republican Congress fix it?

RYAN: I will have a moment of bipartisan agreement. We should have fixed this under our watch and I’m frustrated we didn’t.

Republican Candidate Shoots at Target with Democratic Opponents Initials – During a weekly GOP meeting held at a gun range, South Florida Republican candidate Robert Lowry shot at a target with the letters “DWS” – a not-so-veiled reference to Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Organizer Ed Napolitano defended the gathering, as well as the use of targets that appeared to be gunmen with traditional Arab head scarves.

“That’s our right,” said Napolitano, president of the Southeast Broward Republican Club. “If we want to shoot at targets that look like that, we’re going to go ahead and do that.”

Conservative Politicians Party With PACs – House Minority Leader John Boehner, Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, North Carolina Senator Richard Burr and Iowa Congressman Tom Latham were seen by ABC News at the famed Greenbrier resort in West Virginia for a July golf outing paid for by a PAC. Dubbed “Americans for a Conservative Course,” the event raised money for the lawmakers’ ‘leadership PACs’ – funds that are separate from politicians’ campaign committees. Campaign finance watchdogs say that politicians use the PACs as “political slush funds” – financing political ambitions and sometimes a lifestyle that is often otherwise beyond their means.

Derivatives Lobby Pushes New Democrats To Water Down Reform Bill – JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse lobbied New Dem Reps. Mike McMahon (D-N.Y.) and Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) “to expand the ways the legislation allows dealers and major investors to trade the contracts.” The result of the banks’ lobbying effort seems to be draft legislation that could actually exempt most financial firms from a wide swath of derivatives regulations. At stake in the legislation could be a significant portion of the tens of billions of dollars that commercial banks make in the largely unregulated derivatives market each year. U.S. banks made $5.2 billion in the second quarter of 2009, a 225 percent increase from the same period last year.

The Right-Wing Smear Campaign Against Kevin Jennings – The right wing has a new target: Kevin Jennings, whom President Obama appointed Assistant Deputy Secretary at the Department of Education for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools (OSDFS). The Family Research Council (FRC) launched the “Stop Kevin Jennings” campaign this week. Here’s an example of their misinformation:

FRC CLAIM: “Jennings is viciously hostile to religion.”
FACT: Rev. Serene Jones, President of UTS, disputed any claims that Jennings was anti-religion:
In my role as the president [of UTS], and as pastor, I have met few people as deeply Christian and as deeply committed to the work of justice in the world than Kevin Jennings. He’s a man of enormous faith, and not just in terms of prayer and church attendance — both of which he does devoutly — but in terms of his care for the poor, the suffering, the children, the vulnerable in our society. […]
He’s an active member of the board at Union Theological Seminary and Kevin Jennings tithes, not only in terms of his use of money, but his use of his time and his values and I just wonder how many of the people who are attacking him have taken their own faith serious enough to make the kind of financial, moral, vocational commitment that Kevin Jennings has made with his life.

Republican Congressman Calls President Obama “an Enemy of Humanity” – Last week, Arizona Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) called President Obama “an enemy of humanity” in his speech at the “How to Take Back America Conference” (where one workshop was called “How to Recognize Living under Nazis & Communists”).

Obama Impeachment Suggested By GOP Dirty Trickster – A popular, ideologically extreme website has begun pushing the idea that President Obama should be impeached. And the person leading the charge is the notorious Republican dirty trickster responsible for the infamous (and racially explosive) Willie Horton ads that derailed the campaign of Michael Dukakis.

WorldNetDaily– the hard-right website that has trafficked the most outlandish rumors about the Obama presidency, including pushing the “birther” conspiracy — is now circulating an article suggesting that the president should be booted from office. The effort is being spearheaded by the longtime GOP operative Floyd Brown, who has launched his own online Impeach Obama Campaign.

Who is the Real Roadblock to Healthcare Reform? – Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans in Congress oppose healthcare reforms. They want, as Limbaugh proclaimed, the president to fail. But they aren’t the major roadblocks to the change we need. What stands in the way is the organized power of the entrenched lobbies that have a direct stake in limiting change, and are willing to spend hundreds of millions to obstruct it. Their legions are less angry citizens, than sophisticated lobbyists, increasingly Democrats, many of them retired legislators. They deliver campaign contributions, not votes. They threaten negative campaign ads, not authentic citizen uprisings.

With literally billions at stake, progressives will never be able to match the money of the industries fighting off change. Our only chance is to make their money toxic — to expose the contributions, the lobbyists, the inside deals — and to make legislators understand the president was right when he said we can’t let the permanent lobbies define what is possible in the nation’s capital.

The struggle over health care reform is now reaching its climax. The backroom struggle over energy and financial reform is already fierce. It is time for Democrats to unite to get these done. It is time for the two or three Senate Republicans with any iota of independence to put country over party and be part of the solution. But most of all, it is time for us to follow the money, to track the contributions, expose the lobbyists, and challenge the legislators in both parties who hope to benefit by serving special interests rather than representing their constituents.

Check out opensecrets.org where the Center for Responsive Politics tracks contributions. Take a look at their study with the Sunlight Foundation on the lobbyists undermining health care reform. Get angry, not cynical. Let your legislators hear from you — and join with your neighbors to demand that they represent you and not the interests that are writing campaign checks.

Click image for more detail.

TV Media Cited Non-Existant CBO ‘Report’ At Least 81 Times In Past Six Days – Last Tuesday, the AP reported on a leaked Congressional Budget Office (CBO) “analysis” that had concluded that “it will take years before an infrastructure spending program proposed” by President Barack Obama “will boost the economy.” Conservatives, such as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), quickly pounced on the story, claiming the CBO had proved that “government spending isn’t going to get our economy back on track.”

After the AP first wrote up the “report,” the rest of the media piled on the story. In a new analysis, ThinkProgress has found that since the AP’s report last Tuesday, the CBO report has been cited at least 81 times on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, the Sunday shows and the network newscasts in order raise questions about Obama’s recovery plan.

However, the CBO report being touted by conservatives and the media isn’t an actual report. “We did not issue any report, any analysis or any study,” a CBO aide told the Huffington Post.

Tom DeLay Says, ‘I have no idea’ if Obama is US citizen – Tom DeLay, once known as the Republican House majority leader and now known for his illustrious turn on Dancing With The Stars, says he has “no idea” if President Barack Obama is a citizen of the United States.

DeLay, who has in the past made comments seemingly sympathetic to the “birther” movement trying to prove that Obama is not eligible to be president, made his statement in an interview with Newsweek on Wednesday.

Asked by Newsweek’s Ramin Setoodeh about an August interview at MSNBC in which he challenged the president to produce a birth certificate, DeLay said: “You have to show a birth certificate to play Little League baseball. It’s a question that should be answered. It’s in the Constitution that you have to be a natural-born citizen of the United States to be president.”

“Do you think he isn’t a citizen?” Setoodeh asked.

“I have no idea,” DeLay responded.

What the World Needs Now is Beer 😉 – Nobel insiders revealed that the President’s “beer summit” at the White House put him over the top to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

“The committee was definitely split down the middle right up until the end,” said Agot Valle, a Norwegian politician and member of the five-person Nobel committee. But, according to Ms. Valle, “someone brought up the beer summit, and we all agreed that that was awesome.”

Ms. Valle said she hoped that Mr. Obama’s victory would be seen not only as a victory for him, but “as a tribute to the healing power of beer.”

Regards,

Jim

Health Insurance Company WellPoint Sued an Entire State to Increase Profits – Netting $2.5 billion in profits last year wasn’t enough for WellPoint, the nation’s largest health insurance company. Now, WellPoint’s affiliate, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is suing the state of Maine for refusing to guarantee it a profit margin in the midst of a painful recession.

UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley Makes $464,000 Every DayAre you sick of it yet?

If the insurance companies win, we lose. Fight back!

Glenn Beck Made Fun of Competitor’s Wife’s Miscarriage – When Glenn Beck had a falling out with a former radio-show partner named Bruce Kelly, who became a competitor in the Phoenix market, Beck became known as “the king of dirty tricks,” for antics such as this:

“A couple days after Kelly’s wife, Terry, had a miscarriage, Beck called her live on the air and says, ‘We hear you had a miscarriage,’ ” remembers Brad Miller, a former Y95 DJ and Clear Channel programmer. “When Terry said, ‘Yes,’ Beck proceeded to joke about how Bruce [Kelly] apparently can’t do anything right — about he can’t even have a baby.”

The GOP’s New Foreign Policy: Undermine American Diplomacy – An interesting pattern has been emerging in the Republican Party’s handling of foreign policy: Individual GOP officials are now making a regular point of not only formulating an alternative foreign policy, to be presented to the American people and debated in Congress — they’re acting on it too, and undermining the official White House policies at multiple turns:

• Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is visiting Honduras in order to support the recent military coup against a leftist president, which has been opposed by the Obama administration and all the surrounding countries in the region. (Late Update: DeMint’s office says he is not taking sides during his visit to the current Honduran leadership, denying the New York Times reports that this was his intention.)
• Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) will be going to the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen, bringing a “Truth Squad” to tell foreign officials there that the American government will not take any action: “Now, I want to make sure that those attending the Copenhagen conference know what is really happening in the United States Senate.”
• House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) traveled to Israel, where he spoke out against President Obama’s opposition to expanded settlements. He also defended Israel on the eviction of two Arab families from a house in east Jerusalem, which had been criticized by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
• Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) boasted in June that he told Chinese officials not to trust America’s budget numbers. “One of the messages I had — because we need to build trust and confidence in our number one creditor,” said Kirk, “is that the budget numbers that the US government had put forward should not be believed.” Since then, he has declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate.

Bush Administration Blocked Efforts to Prevent Housing Crisis – Federal regulators in the Bush administration blocked attempts by state governments to prevent predatory lending practices that resulted in the financial crisis now stalking the American economy, a new study from the University of North Carolina says.

In 2004, the Office of the Currency Comptroller, an obscure regulatory agency tasked with ensuring the fiscal soundness of America’s banks, invoked an 1863 law to give itself the power to override state laws against predatory lending. The OCC told states they could not enforce predatory-lending laws, and all banks would be subject only to less-strict federal laws.

Now, a research paper (PDF) from UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center for Community Capital shows that those anti-predatory lending laws had actually worked. States that had stricter regulations on issuing mortgages were found to have fewer foreclosures.

“We believe that these findings are remarkable, since they suggest an important and yet unexplored link between [anti-predatory lending laws] and foreclosures,” the study’s authors state.

The study may be the first scientific evidence to back up claims made by many critics that the Bush administration and earlier administrations allowed last year’s financial crisis to happen by not enforcing common-sense regulations on lenders.

Conservatives Wrong About Cause of Housing Crisis – Many conservatives have blamed the housing crisis on the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, “intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound operations.”

However, University of Michigan Law Professor Michael Barr, a specialist in banking and finance law, flatly rejected claims that the CRA was “a significant factor in the current crisis. CRA was enacted more than 30 years ago. It would be quite odd if this 30-year old law suddenly caused an explosion in bad subprime loans from 2002-2007….Subprime mortgages were mostly made by mortgage brokers and lenders and securitized by investment banks — institutions not covered by CRA. CRA only covers banks and thrifts, and these institutions mostly have not suffered to the same extent or kind from bad lending as the non-CRA-covered institutions at the core of the current crisis. The problem here is not CRA. It is what the late former Fed Governor Ned Gramlich called ‘the giant hole in the supervisory safety net’ — bad lending by firms outside the banking sector’s rules for prudential supervision, capital requirements, consumer protection and yes, the CRA.”

Along similar lines, University of Oregon economist Marc Thoma also cited for the Huffington Post the long delay between enactment of CRA and the current crisis and the fact that only 20 percent of subprime loans were made by CRA-regulated lenders, adding two other points: that “subprime loans grew twice as fast in institutions that did not have to meet the conditions of the CRA” and that the scope of coverage of CRA was reduced in 2004 under the Bush administration, “but even though fewer banks were subject to CRA restrictions, the growth of the subprime market continued unabated.”

This idea of faulting the CRA originated in the anti-regulation wing of the far right, and the goal is to blame government intervention for the current economic meltdown, and to score political points by blaming Democrats.

Some Gun Show Vendors Will Sell to Anyone

The NRA likes to claim that “the gun show loophole is a myth.” However, a report produced by the New York mayor’s office investigation of gun shows — which, along with videos, reveals that 63 percent of the gun vendors approached by the team were willing to sell to a person who told them they couldn’t pass the background check.

At approximately 5,000 gun shows each year in 32 states, criminals and terrorists are allowed to purchase firearms from private gun dealers without an ID or background check. Although many gun dealers are federally licensed and therefore legally required to contact the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to ensure that a prospective purchaser is not prohibited from possessing firearms, private sellers have no such requirement.

In purchases attempted on 30 private sellers, the undercover investigator showed interest in buying a gun by asking about stopping power or by dry-firing the weapon. After agreeing on a price, the undercover would indicate that he probably couldn’t pass a background check. At that point, the seller is required by law to refuse the sale – but only 11 out of 30 sellers did so. Investigators found private dealers who failed these integrity tests at every show, including two sellers who failed at multiple shows. In total, 19 of the 30 private sellers approached failed the integrity test.

Homeless Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Stealing Box of Cereal – Here’s an example where the punishment doesn’t quite seem to fit the crime.

A Florida man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday for stealing a $4.99 box of Lucky Charms and a $1.59 can of evaporated milk. Remember, we said he was a cereal stealer, not a serial killer.

Last time we checked, those pots of gold and blue diamonds were made of marshmallows, not real jewels. It’s not like he kidnapped or killed the creepy little leprechaun.

The judge threw the book at Mark Anthony Griffin because he was a “prison releasee reoffender,” a weird way of saying he had been in jail before. The Lakeland Ledger reports Griffin was convicted in 2007 of burglary and grand theft.

Griffin is a homeless man, and while that doesn’t make what he did right, it’s hard to imagine that crime, which amounts to around $7 with tax, is worth the thousands of tax payer dollars it will take to house him in a state penal facility.

The judge who sentenced Griffin seems to agree, but said he was bound by the law to give the reoffender the mandatory minimum.

“Personally, I think the money could have been better spent in treatment rather than incarceration for 15 years, but that is not my decision,” Bartow Judge Donald Jacobsen said. “It seems to me that treatment would be a far better resolution of this.”

Sea Otter Playing Up Effects of Oil Spill According to Oil Company Executives 😉 – Executives from the Shell Oil Company blasted a floundering, oil-covered sea otter Monday, accusing the small aquatic mammal of grossly exaggerating the effects of last month’s hazardous petroleum spill.

According to Shell president Marvin Odum, the otter has been putting on “quite a show” in front of rescue workers and clean-up crews, and is making the 860,000-gallon, three-mile-wide toxic slick seem like a much bigger deal than it actually is.

“He’s fine,” said Odum, referring to the 40-pound sea creature, who was found washed ashore and appeared to be suffering from anaphylactic shock. “Trust me, before all of the cameras and reporters showed up, our little buddy here was having no problem at all cleaning himself off. Now, all of a sudden, it’s severe spastic convulsions this and complete kidney failure that.”

“Seriously, come on,” the Shell executive continued. “Talk about laying it on thick.”

On Saturday, Shell chairman Jorma J. Ollila issued a statement accusing the sea mammal of being a master manipulator, and said that what the otter really needs to do is grow up.

Ollila went on to praise a number of petroleum-soaked seals, pelicans, and sea turtles in the contaminated area, commending them for remaining absolutely still and silent, and not “making a big production” out of the environmental disaster when rescue and camera crews arrived at the scene.

Regards,

Jim

Michele Bachmann Says Michele Bachmann Will Beat Democrats to Death to Pass Health Reform – In a Fox News radio interview Monday, when asked whether the House Democratic leadership would give members of their party “Christmas tree ornaments” in an effort to effectively bribe members to vote for healthcare reform, Conservative Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann (Nut, Crazyland) said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) could resort to violence. “She’ll either beat them to death, bludgeon them to death…or she’ll try to buy them off,” Bachmann quipped.

Huckabee Sends Web Viewers to His PAC Under the Guise of Signing a Petition – On two Fox News shows, Fox host Mike Huckabee directed viewers to “go to balancecutsave.com,” urging them to sign a petition telling Congress to “balance the budget,” “cut their spending,” and “save American families”; however, balancecutsave.com redirects visitors to a web page soliciting donations for Huckabee’s political action committee, which financially supports Republican candidates and also pays Huckabee’s daughter’s salary. Huckabee is the latest Fox News personality to ask viewers to visit PAC websites without disclosing the website’s nature or whether they stand to gain financially from viewers’ donations.

Betsy McCaughey Tells More Health Care Lies – Betsy McCaughey is a famous liar whom the media keep inviting on their programs to continue to lie about health care, instead of banishing her to some wilderness, where she belongs, to lie to woodland creatures. And so, today she ended up on Dylan Ratigan’s Morning Meeting with Representative Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.). There was a brief, mad moment where I thought that this might end well, but it didn’t.

I’m getting used to the tactics McCaughey deploys in situations like this: heavy-duty pretense that she supports health care reform, the Palin-esque answer-a-question-with-an-answer-to-a-question-of-her-liking technique, the ability to quickly provide information and opinion that’s completely beside the point, et cetera. Unfortunately, Ratigan wanted to have a discussion on health care competition and cost containment, and that didn’t dovetail too well with what McCaughey prefers to do in such a debate: set aside all substantive issues so that she can fearmonger about seniors being killed by the government.

McCaughey did her best, though, defaulting to the secondary position of insisting that there wasn’t enough tort reform in the bill. Ratigan was quick to point out that as a cost-containment measure, tort reform would be a spectacularly insignificant one: “Why would you start with tort reform when you have an aniti-trust exemption for insurance companies?” Weiner attempted to inject actual facts, noting that the CBO determined that eliminating 30 percent of all tort claims would yield marginal savings of .04 percent, because most of the states already cap tort claims.

And so, McCaughey just unleashed her SENIOR CITIZEN HEALTH CARE APOCALYPSE nonsense, accusing Weiner of being ignorant and telling Ratigan that he wasn’t a “fair moderator,” to which Ratigan replied, “Well, you’re not a fair answerer.” Ratigan gamely attempted to get McCaughey to reconcile how she’d continue to provide the current level of unsustainable funding to Medicare without updating the system to address its inefficiencies, to no avail.

McCAUGHEY: This will go down in history as one of the most browbeating interviews in television history.
RATIGAN: I hope that it does, and maybe you’ll learn to go on television to answer questions as opposed to casting accusations.

Conservative Tycoon is Behind the Tea Party Movement – For months, liberal researchers from the Center for American Progress to Firedoglake to the Rachel Maddow Show have pored over the financial records of libertarian tycoon David Koch to see just how deep his influence ran within the Tea Party movement. On Saturday, speaking at the Defending the American Dream Summit sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, Koch did it for them. Walking onstage at a morning rally, holding a Washington Award that he was about to give to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C), Koch took credit for launching one of the key organizations of the conservative insurrection. “Days like to today bring to reality the vision of our board of directors, when we founded this organization five years ago,” said Koch.

U.S. Near Bottom on Treating Preventable Deaths – As Congress presses forward with landmark legislation to revamp the nation’s health-care system, lawmakers are grappling with a troubling question: Are Americans dying too soon?

The answer is yes. When it comes to “preventable deaths” — an array of illnesses and injuries that should not kill at an early age — the United States trails other industrialized nations and has been falling further behind over the past decade.

Although the United States now spends $2.4 trillion a year on medical care — vastly more per capita than comparable countries — the nation ranks near the bottom on premature deaths caused by illnesses such as diabetes, epilepsy, stroke, influenza, ulcers and pneumonia, according to research by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund published in the journal Health Affairs.

Regards,

Jim

Conservative Bible Project to Change Bible to Make it Less Liberal – The eager young men at Conservapedia are p.o.’d that the Bible might be seen as too liberal. So they’ve come up with the Wiki-style Conservative Bible Project, to make sure the Lord doesn’t go all wobbly on us. Among the changes they would like to see:

1. Framework against liberal bias
2. Avoiding unisex, “gender inclusive” language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
3. Exclude later-inserted liberal passages
4. Utilize powerful new conservative terms as they develop
5. Not Dumbed Down
6. Prefer conciseness over liberal wordiness

Notice that from number 1, these guys feel that these guys feel that the early church councils that canonized Scripture were biased. Number 2 seems to say that they think women need to stay in their place. Numbers 3 and 4 say the Bible shouldn’t have any liberal stuff in it, but it’s ok if they insert some new conservative stuff that they haven’t even dreamed up yet. And numbers 5 and 6 seem to conflict (No big words, please).

You really need to read the whole Conservapedia entry to grasp how crazy this is. It’s like what you’d get if you crossed the Jesus Seminar with the College Republican chapter at a rural institution of Bible learnin’.

WellPoint Insurance Cuts Workers’ Health Insurance Benefits – WellPoint health insurance company, which has encouraged its employees to lobby against health care reform, is now cutting their benefits.

The insurance giant plans to raise deductibles and premiums for some of its employee health benefits. “Your cost per paycheck will probably increase,” said a memo to Wellpoint employees that was obtained by Bloomberg News. WellPoint illegally pressured California employees this summer to fight health care reform, according to Consumer Watchdog.

WellPoint’s CEO, Angela Brady, made nearly $10 million in 2008.

Democratic Candidate’s Stutter Mocked By Prominent Endorser Of Republican Candidate In Virginia Gubernatorial Race – The Virginia gubernatorial race took an ugly turn this past weekend when a prominent endorser for Republican Bob McDonnell mocked the slight stutter of Democrat candidate Creigh Deeds.

At a rally for McDonnell’s campaign, Sheila Johnson was taped discussing the importance of communication skills in the state’s next governor. “We need someone who can really communicate,” she said. “And Bob McDonnell can communicate. The other people that I talk to, especially his o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-opponent… could not articulate what needed to be done.” After ribbing the Democratic candidate, Johnson lets out a slight laugh before insisting that, “communication is hugely important.”

The National Stuttering Association release d the following statement condemning Johnson’s remark. “[We have] a question for Sheila Johnson, who ridiculed Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds’ stuttering. Do you also make fun of people in wheelchairs, or do you believe that stuttering is the only disability it’s okay to ridicule?”

22 Year Old Dead From Swine Flu Because Of Delayed Care Due to No Health Care Insurance – Friends say Miami University graduate Kimberly Young died this week after reportedly suffering from swine flu delayed getting medical treatment because she did not have health insurance. She was working at least two jobs in Oxford after graduating with a double major in December 2008. Young became ill about two weeks ago, but didn’t seek care initially because she didn’t have health insurance and was worried about the cost, according to Brent Mowery, her friend and former roommate.

Mowery said Young eventually went to an urgent care facility in Hamilton where she was given pain medication and then sent home. On Tuesday, Sept. 22, Young’s condition suddenly worsened and her roommate drove her to McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford, where she was flown in critical condition to University Hospital in Cincinnati.

Senators Who Oppose “Socialized” Health Insurance Voted for “Socialized” Property Insurance – The Republicans who oppose health care reform and the conservative Democrats who oppose a public option have deeply principled, philosophical objections to the concept of government insurance—except when insurance companies benefit from it.

The big arguments against the public option have been these: that the government is incapable of running an insurance plan, that the free-market provides consumers with better choices, that socialized insurance will have unfair advantages. But as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David K. Johnston recently reported, these arguments do not stop some of the big opponents of socialized insurance for voting for socialized insurance when that insurance is not for the wellbeing of people but of property and insurance companies.

When the Senate Finance Committee voted against including the option in its version of health care reform, Republicans were joined by a handful of Democrats. But each of them voted just last year in support of government-run insurance, that insurance however protects property.

(You see, government involvement in property insurance is a good thing since rich people have more property, and the poor have nearly none.)

Many Employed People Now Get Health Coverage From Taxpayers – Ohio says more than 100,000 Ohio employees of major retail and restaurant chains get health insurance not from the companies but from taxpayers, through Medicaid. A report released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services shows Walmart has more than 15,000 Ohio workers receiving Medicaid coverage for the poor and disabled, more than any other company on the list. The retail giant is Ohio’s largest employer with more than 54,000 workers. The report notes that some Ohioans who could be insured through their employer opt for Medicaid instead because it costs them less or offers them more coverage.

Texas Utilities’ Rejection of Stimulus Funds Could Lead to Higher Bills for Customers – The companies building Texas’ $5 billion renewable-energy transmission network have decided against seeking stimulus funding that could have saved money for consumers. The decision was made last month in a little-noticed hearing of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, where regulators agreed with the companies that stimulus funds came with regulations that could slow construction. One commissioner, Kenneth W. Anderson Jr., told the companies, “The juice may not be worth the squeeze.”

The $750 million in loan guarantees for transmission was a signature piece of the stimulus law, which was crafted with an eye to help create millions of green jobs. In particular, Congress hoped the stimulus would help finance the transmission needed to move renewable energy from the Texas Panhandle and other remote locations to urban areas that need the power.

What Are Our Priorities: Cure Millions of Disease or Give a Tax Break to the Billionaires? – Consider how we dealt with smallpox. That airborne virus, with its fevers reaching 106 F and signature pus-filled skin eruptions, was the greatest killer of man ever known. The cost of erradicating smallpox: $300 million.

By contrast, the price paid to defeat humanity’s greatest foe wouldn’t cover a 24-hour day of Iraqi combat operations. In Wall Street bailout terms, there’s no way to even talk about sums this tiny. To do that, we have to go the level of overcompensated individuals. So, sure, $300 million could eradicate history’s greatest killer of humans — yet the same sum wouldn’t cover the bonus pool for the executives of the insurance company AIG after its great meltdown. It’s less than what just one man, Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld, pulled down over the past 5 years.

These are sad economic times, sadder still when you consider the tsunamis of wealth going to waste: four trillion dollars for Wall Street welfare queens; somewhere from one to three trillion for anyone affluent enough to own a top hat and a monocle; another trillion or so (and counting) for our current military escapades abroad.

For $200 million of public money we can take a walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ himself, curing millions of leprosy. A truly inspiring future is, as always, easily within reach, if we choose it.

Or we can just give Hank Paulson a tax break. Maybe throw in a credenza by way of thanks.

Toxic Coal Ash Being Used in Everything from Golf Courses to Carpeting in Schools to Kitchen Counters – Leslie Stahl on Sunday’s 60 Minutes did an in-depth look at the problems with the by-products of coal production, commonly known as coal ash. Coal ash contains many toxic medals, including arsenic, which unchecked, can leak into ground water and be extremely hazardous to breathe. Stahl starts with a look at devastating coal ash spill that engulfed homes and destroyed whole communities in Tennessee in 2008 with a flood of a billion gallons of toxic sludge. This was the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the US. This disaster brought the issue of coal ash to the national spotlight, and Stahl moves on to how coal ash is not labeled a hazardous waste by the EPA, and is currently being used as filler in everything from golf courses to carpeting in schools to kitchen counters.

The Politics of Spite – There was what President Obama likes to call a teachable moment last week, when the International Olympic Committee rejected Chicago’s bid to be host of the 2016 Summer Games.

“Cheers erupted” at the headquarters of the conservative Weekly Standard, according to a blog post by a member of the magazine’s staff, with the headline “Obama loses! Obama loses!” Rush Limbaugh declared himself “gleeful.” “World Rejects Obama,” gloated the Drudge Report. And so on.
So what did we learn from this moment? For one thing, we learned that the modern conservative movement, which dominates the modern Republican Party, has the emotional maturity of a bratty 13-year-old.

If Republicans [Conservatives Without Conscience] think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America. [They hate what America has changed to with the last election. Their vision of American is a theocracy. If they can’t have what they want, then no one can and they will help destroy America in the process. Some are domestic terrorists just looking to punish those not like them.]

Regards,

Jim

John Dean called them “right-wing authoritarians” in Conservatives Without Conscience (CWC). George Lakoff’s research, documented in The Political Mind, described their ideal family model as the “Strict Father Model.” Frank Schaeffer writes in Crazy for God, that he and his father helped train these “domestic terrorists” who are out to destroy a nation that is not made in their image.

Here is John Dean’s description of this group of single-minded American citizens:

Probably about 20 to 25 percent of the adult American population is so right-wing authoritarian, so scared, so self-righteous, so ill-informed, and so dogmatic that nothing you can say or do will change their minds. They would march [scare] America into a dictatorship and probably feel that things had improved as a result. … And they are so submissive to their leaders that they will believe and do virtually anything they are told. They are not going to let up and they are not going away.

The Strict Father Model, as discussed by George Lakoff in The Political Mind, is based partly on the use of punishment by a male authoritarian to teach his children ‘right’ from ‘wrong.’ This punishment ranges from James Dobson’s use of objects other than the hand to eliminate the “defiance” of infants as young as 15 to 18 months, to name calling by load-mouthed talking heads, to killing doctors who perform abortions, to preemptive war to spread democracy.

The Political Mind includes the following references to punishment as a critical element in the strict father family model:

You need a strict father because kids are born bad, in the sense that they just do what they want to do, and don’t know right from wrong. They need to be punished strictly and painfully when they do wrong, ….

Mapped onto politics, the strict father model explains why conservatism is concerned with authority, with obedience, with discipline and with punishment.

The pregnant teenager has disobeyed her father and should be punished …

And why are conservatives [without conscience] punitive? It is assumed, in a strict father family, that the only way to teach a child right from wrong is to punish him for doing wrong. The lack of punishment is seen as a moral failing of the strict father. Moreover, the point of punishment – that is, physical “discipline” – is to get children to discipline themselves mentally so that they will do what the father says ….

Since a refusal to punish for an offense is seen as a moral failing by a conservative, conservatives insist on strict punishment ….

In the strict father model, there is an individual responsibility and direct action operating: the father gives a directive, the child is expected to carry it out, and if not, the father punishes. …

Lakoff also highlighted the link between the strict father family model and fundamentalist Christians – CWCs.

Why are fundamentalist Christians conservative? Because they view God as a strict father: Obey my commandments and you go to heaven: if not, you go to hell. Well, I’ll give you a second chance. You can be “born again.” Now obey my commands (as interpreted by your minister) and you go to heaven; otherwise you go to hell: authority, obedience, discipline, punishment.

This explains why James Dobson, the leading exponent of strict father childrearing, is a political conservative, [and] a fundamentalist Christian ….

Frank Schaeffer, a former founder of the religious right, exposes the strict father fundamentalist Christians in his book, Crazy for God, and the extremes of some to ‘punish’ America for what it has become. If they can’t “take America back,” they eagerly await its end time.

Crazy for God is a personal story about the rise of the religious right under the guidance of his father, Dr. Francis Schaeffer. His parents started as fundamentalist missionaries then went on to work with Presidents Reagan, Ford, George H. W. Bush and Congressman Jack Kemp. Frank and his father, together with Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Falwell, and Dr. C. Evert Koop (Surgeon-General in the Reagan Administration) helped found the Religious Right, the pro life movement, and turned religion into a political movement. “One of the reasons I left the movement … it was becoming increasingly extreme. … violence … vandalism … intimidation … an insurgency … turning America into a theocracy … a western version of Iran …”

Look at what the extremist CWCs are doing to education in Texas.   Look at what Texas CWCs have done to abortion.

Frank’s father, Francis, wrote a book, A Christian Manifesto. In this book Francis Schaeffer advocated the overthrow of the government when the political process failed to meet their fundamentalist beliefs. His father was “setting the groundwork for individuals to decide that the line [Electing a black president, performing an abortion, stopping prayer in public school, taking their guns, etc] had been crossed.” Once the line is crossed, domestic terrorism is an option.

Since the publishing of A Christian Manifesto and the death of his father, Frank Schaeffer says the domestic terrorism mantra has been taken up by Fox News and some bloviated media voices. The result is “… violence … vandalism … intimidation … an insurgency ….” Frank Schaeffer states that just as the Justice Department is investigating foreign terrorists, they should be investigating domestic terrorists. “We have a group of people in this country who are Christian, who are fundamentalist, who have within their midst, individuals who are incredibly dangerous who are waiting to go off like bombs ready to explode with the fuse lit.”

These extremist CWCs, according to Mr. Schaeffer have “a philosophical view of the world which essentially has become fundamentally anti-American.” They even hate these United States – it is now fascist. The government of the United States is evil under its new leadership. The United States has crossed too many CWC lines. In their minds, “America is so lacking in measuring up to [their] standards, that they literally want to overthrow the order that we now know.” They consider this new world order as illegitimate and “They believe they are doing God’s work.”

The CWC messengers all use “code words” to scare their followers into action. These code words allowed them to say what they said to each other in private in public. Occasionally, they slip and their private thoughts become public statements, which they later try to retract, such as 9/11 and Katrina were caused by America crossing one of their lines in the sand.

They so hate America that they “are rooting for the Apocalypse.” All those not like them “must die.” The worse the news gets, the sooner the end times will arrive. They appreciate the work of the war-mongering neocons and the chaos war brings. “The more chaos in the world, the better as far as they are concerned. It’s all signs that Jesus is on his way back. They are going to escape in the rapture. … Any body not exactly like [them] will now be killed. … Out of these groups will come some very dangerous individuals.”

Anyone care for a military coup?

The DOJ needs to monitor our evangelical, fundamentalist domestic terrorists just like they monitor international terrorists. “There are people who are inciting what we would call our unhinged lunatic fringe. … If they can’t win democratically through the election process, they will take that itself as a sign of the end times.”

In 2008, “We came within an ace of the fringe of the fringe actually becoming the heart of the American Political System.” The mainstream, non-authoritarian, conservatism of William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater has been replaced by the far right of the far right with Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee.

Evangelical Christian leadership must be challenged to pull back from its message of hate. Moderate members of Pro Life activist groups must blow the whistle on those who would commit violent acts. The DOJ and other law enforcement must take seriously the possibility of domestic terrorism and put it on an equal footing with international terrorists.

Within the Conservatives without Conscience, there is an extremist group – “The fringe of the fringe.” This group was raised within the ideal Strict Father Model and taught to accept authority without question. Their parental authority uses strong physical punishment to enforce what he believes is right. Their religious authority uses politics to create a culture war and identify the enemies of their imaginary theocratic America. Their media authority names their enemies and defines their failures. Their economic authority makes sure the religious and media authoritarians are funded even when they can’t make it on their own.

These “domestic terrorists” understand that failure requires punishment – punishment that will teach their enemy, as they were taught, the rightness of the “far right of the far right.”

This “fringe of the fringe” group believes that if they cannot ‘retrain’ or remake their enemies in their own image, then they will pray for the end times and create the chaos that proves the end times are at hand.

Our government needs to protect all American citizens from all terrorists – foreign and domestic.

Glenn Beck Uses Vicks VapoRub to Cry on Cue – Notice that he says, after the Vick’s is applied and it’s not working as fast as he’d like, “My eyes are getting used to it,” which, to me, means he’s used this trick often.

Why Congress is Not as Serious About Health Care as the Average Citizen – While most Americans have to go with whatever their employer offers, members have a choice of 10 plans that offer access to a national network of doctors. “Lawmakers also get special treatment at Washington’s federal medical facilities and, for a few hundred dollars a month, access to their own pharmacy and doctors, nurses and medical technicians standing by in an office conveniently located between the House and Senate chambers.

And this fall, while members of Congress toil in the U.S. Capitol, working to decide how or even whether to reform the country’s health care system, one floor below them an elaborate Navy medical clinic — described by those who have seen it as something akin to a modern community hospital — will be standing by, on-call and ready to provide Congress with some of the country’s best and most efficient government-run health care.

Texas State Board of Education Ready to Distort Social Studies – The board has begun its revision to the social studies curriculum standards for grades K – 12, and the process has already veered into troubling territory:

• Far-right members of the board and the so-called “experts” they appointed have expressed their intention to distort American history, teaching students that the Founders intended our government to be based on a conservative, fundamentalist interpretation of the Christian Bible.
• Those same experts have questioned the the inclusion of prominent civil rights figures like Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall in the standards.
• The latest draft standards include a mandate for students to study conservative activists and groups like Newt Gingrich and the Moral Majority.

What can you do?

The board is accepting public comments on a preliminary draft of the social studies standards until Friday, October 9. Conservative groups around the state have already rallied their members, issuing phony and hysterical warnings about “the pernicious influence of liberal ideologues.”

If you want the next generation of Texas students to have an accurate curriculum based on mainstream scholarship and not political and religious ideology, it’s important that the board hears from you.

Let TFN know that are you interested in submitting comments. TFN will send you all the information you need to express your concerns to the board.

The Problem with Capitalism – Capitalism does a number of things very well: it helps create an entrepreneurial spirit, it gets people motivated to come up with new ideas and that’s a good thing. But on the other hand, especially since the Reagan era, what we have seen in this country is an unfettered type of cowboy capitalism, and the result of that has been, that the people on top have made out like bandits and many of them are bandits. Today in America we have a situation that is quickly moving out of control. (Now go see Michael Moore’s new movie.)

National Association of Undertakers Backs GOP Health Plan 😉 – Congressional Republicans received key backing today for their health care plan, picking up support from the National Association of Undertakers.

The funeral directors’ group, which represents undertakers, embalmers and hearse drivers across the country, gave the GOP plan a big thumbs up, saying in a press release, “Finally, a health care plan that works for us.”

The endorsement from the undertakers’ association was the second major endorsement in two days for the GOP plan, which yesterday picked up support from the National Association of Viruses and Bacteria.

Regards,

Jim

What is the American Way: Hoarding by a Few or Providing for the Common Good? – It’s great to know that during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans, according to Forbes, actually increased by $30 billion. Collectively, those 400 have $1.57 trillion in wealth. It’s hard to get your mind around a number like that. The way I do it is to imagine that we were still living during the great radical Eisenhower era of the 1950s when marginal income tax rates hit 91 percent. Taxes were high back in the 1950s because people understood that constraining wild extremes of wealth would make our country stronger and prevent another depression.

Had we kept those high progressive taxes in place, instead of removing them, especially during the Reagan era, the Forbes 400 might each be worth “only” $100 million instead of $3.9 billion each. So let’s imagine that the rest of their wealth, about $1.53 trillion, were available for the public good.

What does $1.53 trillion buy?

· It’s more than enough to insure the uninsured for the next twenty years or more.
· It’s more than enough to create a Manhattan Project to solve global warming by developing renewable energy and a green, sustainable manufacturing sector.
· And here’s my favorite: It’s more than enough to endow every public college and university in the country so that all of our children could gain access to higher education for free, forever!
Instead, we embarked on a grand experiment to see what would happen if we deregulated finance and changed the tax code so that millionaires could turn into billionaires. And even after that experiment failed in the most spectacular way, our system seems trapped into staying on the same deregulated path.

Instead of free higher education, health care and a sustainable economy, we got a fantasy finance boom and bust on Wall Street which crashed the real economy. We have our 400 billionaires, and we have 29 million unemployed and underemployed Americans. We have an infrastructure in shambles. We have an environment in crisis. We have a health care system that would make Rube Goldberg proud. And we have the worst income distribution since 1929.

Texas Governor Dismisses Members of Panel Probing 2004 Execution – Texas Gov. Rick Perry has shaken up a state commission that is probing whether a man executed in 2004 belonged on death row. Perry’s move forces the commission to delay a scheduled hearing on the case. The governor acted two days before the commission was to hear from an expert who has cast doubt about the quality of the arson investigation that helped convict Cameron Todd Willingham of murder in the deaths of his three daughters in a fire at their home.

Death-penalty opponents say a thorough review of the Willingham case may force Texas to admit that it executed an innocent man. The Texas governor and others, however, say they remain convinced of Willingham’s guilt.

Perry replaced the chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and declined to reappoint two commission members. The commission was to hear testimony Friday from Craig Beyler, an arson investigation expert. He wrote the latest of three reports critical of the testimony that helped prosecutors convict Willingham of murder in 1992.

Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project — which assists prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing — called the governor’s decision “troubling.” He compared it to a series of resignations and firings that happened one night in October 1973 as President Richard Nixon sought to thwart an investigation into the Watergate scandal. “This is like the Saturday night massacre,” Scheck said in a statement. “Rather than let this important hearing go forward … the Governor fires the independent chairman and two other members of this Commission. It’s like Nixon firing [special Watergate prosecutor] Archibald Cox to avoid turning over the Watergate tapes.”

Republican National Committee Sponsors Group That Talked of Military Coup Against the President – Last month, the Republican National Committee used Newsmax’s email list — probably for a fee — to solicit donations and support.

Newsmax — which published (and later unpublished) a column saying it’s not “unrealistic” that there may be a “military intervention” against President Obama — names the RNC as “our sponsor” in the email, which is signed by RNC chair Michael Steele.

Michele Bachmann Says Health Care Reform Will Result in “Sex Clinics” In Schools – Last night on the House floor, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) spoke to Congress about “school based health clinics” (SBHC), labeling the clinics discussed in current House health care legislation as “sex clinics.” The conservative congresswoman suggested that if health care reform passes, the nation’s schools might begin offering abortions to students.

Section 2511 of the health care bill referred to by Bachmann, makes no mention of abortion. The concept of “school based health care clinics” was introduced under the notion that students achieve higher academic performance when they are healthy and receive adequate medical attention.

Fox News Trying to Turn a Point of Pride into a Moment of Shame – Fox News continued its disregard for the facts in an attempt to smear the Administration’s efforts to win the Olympics for the United States. In the past, hosting the Olympics has been a source of pride and unity for the country, but once again Fox News’ Glenn Beck program has shown that nothing is worthy of respect if it can be used as part of a partisan attack to boost ratings. (Here are some examples of the Fox lies:)

FOX RHETORIC: BECK SAID VANCOUVER LOST $1 BILLION WHEN IT “HAD THE OLYMPICS.” Glenn Beck said, “Vancouver lost, how much was it? they lost a billion dollars when they had the Olympics.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]
REALITY: VANCOUVER’S OLYMPICS WILL NOT TAKE PLACE UNTIL 2010. Vancouver will host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games from February 12 – 28, 2010 and March 12-21, 2010, respectively. [Vancouver2010.com, accessed 9/29/09]

FOX RHETORIC: VALERIE JARRETT “WAS LAST SEEN WITH THE NEA.” Beck’s guest, FOX News contributor Pat Caddell, said, “[Obama] is going to go [to Copenhagen] with Valerie Jarrett who was last seen with the NEA pumping up their use of, you know, money.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]
REALITY: VALERIE JARRETT WAS NOT ON THE NEA CONFERENCE CALL. Valerie Jarrett was not a participant in the August 10, 2009 United We Serve/NEA conference call.

FOX RHETORIC: CHICAGO IS CLOSING THE GOVERNMENT SEVERAL DAYS A WEEK BECAUSE THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO BE OPEN. Beck’s guest Caddell said, “Chicago is closing the government several days a week because they cannot afford to be open. They are going to go and reward — this is the biggest scandal.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]
REALITY: CHICAGO HAS HAD ONE REDUCED-SERVICE DAY IN 2009, AND WILL HAVE TWO MORE ON THE FRIDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING AND ON CHRISTMAS EVE.

FOX RHETORIC: VALERIE JARRETT WILL BENEFIT FINANCIALLY. Beck asked, “Is it possible that she is going to benefit if the Olympics come to Chicago?” Caddell responded, “Well, that’s the word. She has certainly had a lot of dealings going on in real estate.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]
REALITY: UPON ENTERING GOVERNMENT, VALERIE JARRETT DIVESTED ALL HER REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT HOLDINGS EXCEPT FOR A SINGLE INVESTMENT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE OLYMPIC BID. Valerie Jarrett divested all her investment real estate holdings upon entering government except for a single real estate holding that she was unable to sell. This single real estate investment has been determined by White House Counsel and the independent Office of Government Ethics to present no conflict of interest in performing her duties as a White House advisor. It has nothing to do with the Olympic bid.

We Are Not Having a Rational Debate About Health Care Reform – Is there anyone left willing to talk about health care reform calmly? At this point, the dialogue has become so partisan and stained that it seems that the only decision anyone needs to make is which team they’re on; then it becomes just a matter of saying anything you have to in order to win.

Here are some facts. There are three factors that are critical to every health care system: Quality, Cost, and Access. On all of them, the United States performs poorly.

· It is a fact is that The United States spends about two to three times per person what most other countries spend. In 2007, we spent more than $7000 per person on health care. The UK spent less than $3000 per person. And we can quibble about the other differences between those two systems, but they’ve made a conscious decision to have an extra $4000 per person to spend on other things. Imagine if we had another $1.2 trillion dollars to play with.
· It is a fact that our quality is middling at best and sometimes shockingly bad. And we can argue which is the best metric to pick to judge a health care system’s quality, but the truth is that it doesn’t matter. Life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal mortality, immunizations for children, immunizations for the elderly, the number of CAT scanners, the number of practicing physicians, continuity of care, and – most importantly – the number of preventable years of life lost – on all of them, every single one, the United States is sometimes in the middle and often at the bottom when compared to similar countries.
· And, as one of the few countries that does not have universal coverage of its citizens, it is a fact that our access isn’t good. The latest census data showed that there are 46 million Americans who were without health insurance for all of last year. Almost half of those people have full-time jobs and are working. Many more have part-time jobs, or are retired, disabled, or stay-at-home parents. More than 15% of them are children. The uninsured aren’t shiftless, they aren’t lazy, and they didn’t choose this.

Regards,

Jim

Republican-leaning website Newsmax published the following on Tuesday: – “There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the Obama problem. Don’t dismiss it as unrealistic. America isn’t the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn’t mean it won’t.”

The writer then goes on to describe that our nation’s military is sworn to defend the Constitution, which he says is being trampled by the President, and says the country won’t be as America by the 2012 election, etc. (Get it? He’s implying that we can’t wait for the election, that something must be done now. But he is so coy as to never say do it, just that it could happen, but he does imply how military people could justify it.)

It’s not the first time that this website has published hate and lies:

· After the mysterious disappearance of Chandra Levy in 2001, contributor John LeBoutillier allegedly posted a speculative column on the site about the sex life of Representative Gary Condit, with whom Levy had an affair. The column quickly circulated among media members, even though Newsmax editors pulled it from the site.
· On May 26, 2000, Newsmax published an article claiming Hillary Clinton refused to meet with the Gold Star Mothers. According to the Gold Star Mothers organization, this was false and “Senator Clinton greeted us graciously on Gold Star Mothers Sunday, 2005. This story was also debunked at other websites and eventually led to a retraction by NewsMax.
· A 2005 NewsMax.com report about Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, claiming he was “teaming up” with rock band U2 for a fund raiser, gained considerable attention. Santorum had actually purchased 66 tickets to a sold-out show and was reselling these to campaign supporters at $1,000 per seat. The band issued a statement denying it was involved in the practice, saying, “U2 concerts are categorically not fund-raisers for any politician; they are rock concerts for U2 fans.”[12] Rather than admitting the error and issuing a correction, Newsmax simply changed its article about the fund-raiser without telling readers it had been changed, stating that the story was misinterpreted.
· During the debate over the failed 2007 Immigration Bill, Newsmax popularized opposition to an alleged “North American Union,” a dystopian vision of a future America where “NAU citizens no longer spend dollars or salute Old Glory. They spend ‘ameros’.”
· On August 9, 2007, Newsmax freelance reporter, Jim Davis, reported that Barack Obama was in attendance on July 22, 2007 during a controversial sermon giving by Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. at Trinity United Church of Christ in South Chicago, Obama’s place of worship. The claim that Obama was in attendance for this particular sermon was repeated by Newsmax as fact again on March 16, 2008. A July 22, 2007 speaking schedule for the National Council for La Raza in Miami, Florida shows Obama as a scheduled speaker for 1:30pm. Video confirms he attended the conference and spoke during his allotted time. New York Times op-ed author, William Kristol, who relied upon the erroneous Newsmax articles in an op-ed article in the New York Times on March 17, 2008, provided the following retraction and apology later in the day, “In this column, I cite a report that Sen. Obama had attended services at Trinity Church on July 22, 2007. The Obama campaign has provided information showing that Sen. Obama did not attend Trinity that day. I regret the error.” However, Davis later explained that Obama had attended the early morning service at Trinity United at 7:30 a.m., leaving sufficient time for him to travel by private jet to Miami; and the La Raza website confirms that Obama did not arrive until 1:50 p.m. Eastern time. Newsmax reports receiving confirmation from the Obama campaign that the candidate’s private jet did not leave Chicago until 8:50 a.m. A Washington Post fact checker has reported that the issue has not been resolved to his satisfaction one way or the other.

· Newsmax claimed that Barack Obama’s Vatican ambassador had been rejected several times for being “insufficiently pro-life.” The Catholic News Service and Time magazine confirmed on April 9, 2009 that Newsmax’s story was false.

Regards,

Jim