Week In The News: Afghanistan Woes, Santorum, Goldman’s Black Eye

Newton Whale

The dirty little secret that Romney doesn’t want you to know‏: The Affordable Care Act is working.
2.5 million more young adults ages 19 to 26 now have health insurance. The shrinking of the Medicare “donut hole” allowed 3.6 million seniors to save $2.1 billion on their prescription drugs last year. And the ban on insurers refusing to cover pre-existing conditions is saving lives (even among those who opposed so-called “Obamacare”). And even though most of its provisions don’t go into effect until 2014, the data from Oregon and Massachusetts strongly suggest the 30 million people who will gain coverage will be much healthier and more financially secure.In Massachusetts, the 2006 health care reform Governor Mitt Romney signed into law lowered the insured rate from 10 percent to a national low of two percent. Even with its individual mandate, “Romneycare” is extremely popular, enjoying a 3 to 1 margin of support from Bay State residents. Now, a new study by Charles J. Courtemanche and Daniela Zapata published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBR) shows that universal coverage in Massachusetts is indeed making people there healthier. http://papers.nber.org/papers/w17893#fromrss http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BlVz5rmsqTA

William

So when the majority of people in this country say they don’t want Obama care that does not matter?
- Yar
  
  The majority also believes they should not pay higher taxes, that we should eliminate the debt, and that no government service provided to them personally should be cut. Do the right thing and people will understand, eventually. Healthcare is a public good as much as a individual benefit. A healthy nation is more productive. There are many ways to deliver quality healthcare, but to deny the poor, the elderly, the sick who don’t have their own resources to provide for care access is cruel. Survival of the fittest usually involves violence, is that the type of society the majority prefers?
  - Gregg
    
    Obamacare was supposed to lower medical cost, it’s raising them. Obama promised if you liked your plan then you could keep it, you can’t. He railed against the mandate, it’s there. There are over 100 entities exempted because the law is so untenable. Now we learn the cost will be nearly double the original projection.
    
    I don’t call that working.
    - Gregg
      
      Should read 1000.
    - denis
      
      And again, where do you get this info? Of course you
      can keep your plan if you so desire. How do you know insurance costs will rise
      with the fully implemented plan? And have you been reading / listening to
      anything other than Fox News – the republican claim that cost will nearly
      double is false. They completely misinterpreted part the CBO report and left
      out part of the report in their analysis.
    - Gregg
      
      You seem to go from comment to comment asking for proof of things that are common knowledge. How do you miss all of this?
    - denis
      
      More correctly, common opinion to a select few.
    - Gregg
      
      Alrighty then.
    - Anonymous
      
      COMMON KNOWLEDGE??? The only thing “common” in your comment is that it came from YOU. Healthcare costs have been going up at near 8% a year for a decade or more and you want people to expect that just passing a bill that implements a few provisions will halt the rise? If it was that easy, it would have happened a long time ago.
      
      This is a hard problem but data now being collected will help develop ways to efficiently change the system to one that does provide best care for all at reasonable cost.
      
      The Republican approach (now that Obama has stolen Romneycare) is to let those who cannot afford it by themselves just do without. Now with their approach to job growth being “just get a job,” why does that seem familiar?
    - Anonymous
      
      Your comment is disingenuous on a few levels. On one it’s just partisan speech. On another you leave out that with or without The Affordable Care Act, which has not even been fully implemented, health care costs would rise and they do because not one politician or health insurance corporation, or hospital is doing anything to stem the cost. The Affordable Care Act does not do much to stem the rise of health care because most of it was compromised by the health insurance industry.
      
      To go on about The Affordable Care Act as if it’s the way you do makes you feel good I suppose, but the reality is it’s not the cause of health care cost going up. They were going up before Obama became President and unless we, as a nation do some real reform here it’s going to go up after he leaves office.
  - denis
    
    And where do you get this enlightening info that the majority of Americans are against The Affordable Care Act? I suppose the Fox News described Obamacare may meet your conclusion; however, that is not what the plan actually is.
    - Anonymous
      
      Just go to the Media Matters website and you will find post after post DOCUMENTING how the Fox News Channel misrepresents (and that is a kind word) happenings in the world to put the “cause” at Obama’s doorstep when it lies at Republican’s doorstep or neither.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Were you replying to William?
Worried for the country(MA)

Obamacare is another budget buster. CBO accounting gimmicks were used to get it passed. 10 years of revenues to pay for six years of benefits.
- Gregg
  
  It’s completely unworkable.
  - denis
    
    Again, where does your vast expertise come from that determines
    this is a completely unworkable program?
    - Worried for the country(MA)
      
      When you set up a system that raises revenues for 10 years to pay for 6 years of benefits; you are setting up an unsustainable scheme.
      
      It is a gimmick to take advantage of CBO accounting rules.
    - Anonymous
      
      Bullfeathers! You will have to document that to get other than uncritical Republicans to take your word for it. But that is the way Republicans work: say something false and repeat it until everyone accepts it, no matter how often it is shown false. They are the most credulous people on earth, ripe to be flamboosled again and again, like Madoff’s victims.
- denis
  
  And where did you get this information? Where is the
  factual support info for your allegation?
  
  ?
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    We found out what was in it once it was passed!!!
    - denis
      
      who are we? MOst odf the people in my part of Iowa still support what is in the Affordable Care Act when asked about the specifics not the Rush / Fox News distorted generalities.
    - Worried for the country(MA)
      
      LOL. I’m sure their is a conspiracy in the national polls showing Obamacare is extremely unpopular. You sound like the Manhattan journalist who was shocked when Nixon won in a landslide – “I don’t know a single person who voted for Nixon”
      
      I’m just listening to Nancy Pelosi’s chiding when we demanded a review of the bill BEFORE the vote.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Better than the Patriot Act of Bush.
notafeminista

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/216223-cbo-millions-of-americans-could-lose-their-employer-coverage

Or not.
nj_v2

Mass. has the highest health care costs in the country. The model, and Obamacare are unsustainable. Making people buy crappy private insurance products, over which there is no effective cost control, is not a sustainable solution.

Single payer, universal coverage is the only viable way to do health care. Obama failed to support even a weak, public option alternative in his no-insurance-company-left-behind bill. He hired an insurance company executive to manage the transition.

Hopefully the Supreme Court will invalidate the individual mandate. If not, watch what will happen to prices once the legislation goes into full effect. Time to move to Costa Rica.
- Anonymous
  
  Healthcare costs in Massachusetts were among the highest (if not the highest) BEFORE Romney care; the costs rose at a lower rate last year than most of the rest of the country. Romneycare is NOT raising costs above what would have happened otherwise.
  
  The health reform was always to be a two-step process:
  1) Get everyone covered
  2) Implement cost growth-reducing measures
  
  Last year some major changes were implemented and reduced cost growth is expected. Hospitals, etc. HAVE renegotiated contracts with insurers to reduce the costs in the future.
  
  This IS on track to improve the care/cost picture.
  - notafeminista
    
    Except its not, and by its own existence, cannot.

Ed

There are wars on the verge of breaking out around the world. The U.S. is promoting abortion not only at home but in Latin America and around the world. Are these two connected?

Anonymous

No, but religion is most likely a factor.
- Patrik
  
  Most, likely. I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR yesterday discussing that very topic. One of the reasons rebels to the crown fled England was because of religious persecution, only to religiously persecute the natives of the new land they decided to usurp from them.
  
  Quote from comments: Stefan Reitz: ” Makes me cringe.Fanatics on all sides (West and Middle-East).What ever happend to the virtues of the renaissance and the separation of church and state?Please everybody, feel free to believe in what ever you choose (spaghetti monsters, Deities of any kind, …), but don’t burdon / discriminate against others who may not share your belief. Remember: It is your choice. Nobody gets to choose for you. And you don’t get to choose for anybody else.Personally, I’d much rather see foreign policy guided by knowledge (or science as a means of separating knowledge from belief) than religious belief.”Best regardsStefan
  - notafeminista
    
    You hit the nail on the head. “Nobody gets to choose for you. Don’t burden/discriminate against others who may not share your belief.” Now would the Left PLEASE apply that thinking to their policy proposals across the board?
    - Anonymous
      
      No one is denying religious people the right to practice their religion. They just can’t impose their belief on people who don’t share them and have to follow the same laws as everyone else does. Churches are exempt from that (as well as taxation).
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    EXCELLENT!!
http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp

Do you have any other interests?
Terry Tree Tree

Catholic church promotes Child-Molesting and Child-Abuse, DEMANDING more VICTIMS for priests?
Anonymous

The biggest factor underlying the Arab Spring last year was the rise in food prices due to continuing and growing DROUGHT in the world and the Middle East in particular. Syria has had many farmers give up their farms and move to the cities over the last two or so years. See:

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/03/437051/syria-climate-change-drought-and-social-unrest/

Gregg

I find Obama’s mocking rhetoric regarding gas prices despicable. If he were being straight it’d be one thing but he is not. President Obama brazenly takes credit for production resulting from Bush authorized projects while he has strangled the industries present and future exploration. And he scolds: “Tell me something new”. How condescendingly divisive can one be?

But the big lie is the 2% thing, it is so purposely misleading.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/willis-report/blog/2012/02/27/obamas-2-lie

denis

No confusion where your misinformation comes from when you even post your source and it is Fox News!
- Gregg
  
  That is so lame, don’t you guys have anything else? It’s not Fox News who has all but stopped issuing drilling permits.
  - denis
    
    All but stopped issing drilling permits? Where did that come from [oh don't tell me - Fox News]
    
    According to Politifacts:
    We went first to the Department of the Interior press office, which sent us a link to a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, or BOEMRE, report on the “Status of Well Permits and Plans Subject to Enhanced Safety and Environmental Requirements.”According to the report, 39 shallow-water permits for new wells have been issued since June 8, 2010, when new rules and information requirements were put into effect. Shallow water drilling operations were not affected by the deepwater drilling moratorium following the gulf oil spill. And there were lots more shallow-water well permits issued by the Obama administration prior to June 8, 2010. Remember, Bachmann’s statement referred to permits issued “under the Obama administration since they came into office.”In addition, there have been six deepwater well permits issued since Oct. 12, 2010, when the gulf moratorium was lifted. Five of those were for projects that were under way prior to the moratorium. The operators were required to come back and meet the new, modified standards.
    - Gregg
      
      During Bush’s terms he issued 41,700 permits. I wrote: “… all but stopped issuing drilling permits.” I stand by it. Keep screaming Fox monster if you want to but it’s a problem.
    - Anonymous
      
      But the number of wells drilled fell off steeply as the price of oil did not allow those wells to be profitable. What good is a permit if you cannot sell the oil for a profit after paying out the costs of drilling the well?
      
      That is why the cost of gasoline is so high and will CONTINUE to RISE. The oil from Canada’s Tar Sands is even more expensive to extract and refine.
      
      But DRILL, Baby, DRILL and BANKRUPT, BANKRUPT the energy consumer.
  - denis
    
    Once again, Fox News false info.. Where
    Where do they come up with this misinfo?
    More accurate info would be: [from Politifacts]
    We went first to the Department of the Interior press office, which sent us a link to a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, or BOEMRE, report on the “Status of Well Permits and Plans Subject to Enhanced Safety and Environmental Requirements.”
    
    According to the report, 39 shallow-water permits for new wells have been issued since June 8, 2010, when new rules and information requirements were put into effect. Shallow water drilling operations were not affected by the deepwater drilling moratorium following the gulf oil spill. And there were lots more shallow-water well permits issued by the Obama administration prior to June 8, 2010. Remember, Bachmann’s statement referred to permits issued “under the Obama administration since they came into office.”
    
    In addition, there have been six deepwater well permits issued since Oct. 12, 2010, when the gulf moratorium was lifted. Five of those were for projects that were under way prior to the moratorium. The operators were required to come back and meet the new, modified standards.
    - TFRX
      
      Hey, Fox News was all over this with accuracy: They said expanding domestic oil drilling will not significantly lower prices, and the only way to reduce our vulnerability to gas price spikes is to use less oil.
      
      Of course, that in 2008 with $4 gas, when Fox News’ objective was to prop up a GOP admin, not defeat a Democratic president up for reelection.
    - Anonymous
      
      Both the WSJ and Cato Institute (originally the Charles Koch Foundation) agree that Obama is not responsible for the increase in gasoline prices:
      
      http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/03/14/444075/wsj-and-cato-agree-romney-gas-price-promises-would-just-increase-big-oil-profits/
- Pete
  
  What is inaccurate about the Fox News report? What would your stance be on Obama’s rhetoric be if it the points raised in the Fox report were confirmed to be true by another source?
  - Gregg
    
    It’s unfortunate other outlets are not so eager to report the simple truth. I’d happily link to HuffPo or MSNBC if they were doing there job.
    - denis
      
      what a lame excuse… if it is not reported as you want it to be reported it must be wrong or they “aren’t doing their job.”
    - Gregg
      
      Yea, I think an accurate definition of “oil reserves” is important when the President cites it while making lame excuses for $4/gal gas. Call me crazy.
    - Anonymous
      
      Done! Actually, you are just not smart enough to cover your tracks. But that would take a whole lot of smarts because the truth is obvious to anyone who does any real investigation beyond just listening to the Republican line (lies).
    - Anonymous
      
      The WSJ and the Cato Institute do NOT agree with Fox:
      
      http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/03/14/444075/wsj-and-cato-agree-romney-gas-price-promises-would-just-increase-big-oil-profits/
Worried for the country(MA)

The President was mocking the GOP as flat earthers yesterday. He then went on and slandered Rutherford B. Hayes with a factually inaccurate account of Hayes and the telephone.

There is a great piece on RCP about Obama’s constant flubbing of history in his speeches.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/03/16/obama_flubs_us_history_–_again_113502.html
- Gregg
  
  I saw the Hayes thing. What’s worse than his being so wrong is the intent to use the story to insult people. He really is quite nasty.
  - denis
    
    Your hero Ronald Reagan is the one that made the “Hayes thing” part of the inaccurate folk lore history so frequently used in the U.S.A.
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    Notice that he spoke at a community college campus. He didn’t have the courage to give that speech to an audience that truly depends on buying gas. Try giving that speech to a bunch of truckers.
nj_v2

Greggg once again proves that people who rely on Fox So-called News are generally more misinformed than the general population.

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/11/22/374434/fox-news-viewers-misinformed-study-jon-stewart/The other half of “technically recoverable” is “economically recoverable.” The undeveloped sources are much more expensive and much more environmentally risky than what we’ve been pumping for the last 100 years.And development of exotic U.S. sources would do little to either boost domestic supply or lower price.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4542853/ns/us_news-environment/#.T2M95OpikdUThe industry and Yergin’s IER estimates of new reserves are almost laughably optimistic, significantly exaggerated according to more sober assessments.http://www.getreallist.com/wishful-thinking-yergin-and-the-worry-nots.html

It is not possible to drill our way out of the coming energy problems. If you think gas is expensive now, just wait a few years as supply continues to drop and demand continues or increases.
- Gregg
  
  Please, that ol’ canard again? The problem is Obama, he said he wanted high gas prices and he got them. Don’t watch Fox if you don’t want to, I don’t care. The facts of the article are unassailable.
  - nj_v2
    
    Typical Greggg; confronted with actual facts, he ignores them, mumbles incoherently, then slinks away.
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    It’s OK because now they are bowing to the Saudi Kings and begging for new production.
    - Anonymous
      
      That was GWB’s “shtick!” Who do you think will buy that old clunker?
  - nj_v2
    
    You wouldn’t know a fact if you tripped over it.
    
    The “‘ol canard” is actually a supportable theory. Even a cursory examination of projected energy needs against known fossil fuel supplies shows that even an accelerated mining/drilling program can’t keep up with demand, and will create a cascade of environmental consequences.
Terry Tree Tree

SEVERAL land oil wells in my small area of East Tenn. were drilled, then GELLED, to keep a well from producing! The drillers had sold over 100% of the well in stock, and would be paying over $1.50 to investors, for every $1.00 pumped from the well!

THIS is the REAL energy policy that was in effect under ‘W’, and probably before!�
IF drillers thought there was a REAL energy shortage, they would be traitors, in addition to frauds, and thieves?
Anonymous

Show the SENTENCE where Obama says the equivalent of: “My policies have increased …” He has EVERY RIGHT to say the TRUTH, that the production of oil in the U.S. has risen to the highest since 2003, and that the proportion of imported oil is the lowest in decades because of the lower use and higher U.S. production.

Please stop deliberately misstating the facts.

Worried for the country(MA)

Axelrod was on CNN with Erin Burnett last night and he was digging himself a big hole defending Bill Maher. To Burnett’s credit she took him to task. It was fun watching him squirm. He gave some lame excuse about not giving back the $1M donation Maher gave to the Obama superPAC run by Obama spokesman, Bill Burton.

Anonymous

MAHER: To compare that to Rush is ridiculous – he went after a civilian about very specific behavior, that was a lie, speaking for a party that has systematically gone after women’s rights all year, on the public airwaves. I used a rude word about a public figure who gives as good as she gets, who’s called people “terrorist” and “unAmerican.” Sarah Barracuda. The First Amendment was specifically designed for citizens to insult politicians. Libel laws were written to protect law students speaking out on political issues from getting called whores by Oxycontin addicts.
TAPPER: What about all the clips of you saying rather “edgy” things – offensive to many people, no doubt – from your show on HBO, “Real Time”?
MAHER: Of course if you take out of context over 10 years snippets inside comedy bits you can make anyone look bad – and sometimes, I have been! Not perfect, but not misogyny. In general, this is an obvious right wing attempt to dredge up some old shit about me to deflect from their self-inflicted problems. They are the kings of false equivalencies.
And through it all, I have defended Rush’s right to stay on the air! Not what he said, that was disgusting – but the right to not disappear because people who don’t even listen to you don’t like what you said. That really bothers me. I never hear Rush Limbaugh unless a guy in the next truck at a stop light has it on; it would be arrogant for me to say “he has to disappear” and deprive the people who do listen to him of what they like. We all have different tastes and different opinions, that’s America.
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  What is the point of this interview?
  
  I don’t see any apology from Maher calling Paliln a c*nt. And how is that “out of context”?
  
  At least Letterman apologized for saying Palin’s teenage daughter was doing A-Rod.
  
  No one is calling for censorship of Maher but some on the left are trying to shut down Rush. The hypocrisy is stunning. It is clear they don’t truly care about misogyny but only political gain.
  - TFRX
    
    Please continue comparing a couple of one-offs by Letterman and Maher to someone who got a fecking award from a GOP majority for his efforts propagandizing for the right wing.
    
    Please continue claiming those two things make up for Limbaugh’s four dozen utterances, based in willfull ignorance and outright lies about what she said to Congress, over several days, and possibly ending in a defamtion suit. It looks so good on you.
    
    Please continue comparing the abandonment of advertisers from Limbaugh with whatever you thought about the death threats the Dixie Chicks got.
    
    Your fake politeness doesn’t cover up your real ignorance.
    - Worried for the country(MA)
      
      Maher – one offs? That is hilarious. Maher has a pattern of insulting women (and many others too). He even admitted in the Tapper interview that he took the ‘Palin is a c*nt show’ all across the country.
      
      Bringing up Rush is a deflection. And Rush did apologize.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      You call THAT an apology?�
      You are SO LIBERAL!
    - TFRX
      
      “Rush did apolgize”. Like a child dragged by the ear after his baseball went through a neighbor’s window.
      
      Rush has been pulling this shite for a quarter of a century. And finally he picked on the wrong target.
      
      Fox and the rest of the propaganda press trotted out Maher as a right-wing false equivalency after Rush finally picked on the wrong target: Elite female grad student from a univ where our Beltway Inbreds’ relatives attend.
      
      It could have been Cokie Roberts’ granddaughter.
    - Anonymous
      
      Where was the apology for saying Fluke should make and post on the Internet videos of her sex life?
      
      And his “apology” was weaker than the usual “I am sorry anything I said offended you.”
TFRX

Yeah, Maher’s calling that law student a slut and prostitute and demanding taxpayers should get a sex tape for their money was beyond the pale.

Oh, wait.
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  Classic deflection.
  - Anonymous
    
    From a “master”!

notafeminista

….and in other news….

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/216223-cbo-millions-of-americans-could-lose-their-employer-coverage

Ellen Dibble

The Guardian newspaper out of the UK published links to the leaked Assad email heist, provided by someone in the Syrian opposition, and in response (apparently) suffered some cyber blocking. Google Assad emails Guardian and take your pick. Apparently this is the “second wind” of the Julian Assange Wikileaks phenomenon (or was it inevitable). The opposition notes and takes strength and direction, somehow, from how “blase” (Guardian’s word) the regime is, and also where advice comes from (Iran, in-laws), and which i-tunes were purchased, for instance. If public opinion (Hollywood style) is a political force, take note. The documents are linked from this site at “Browse the document”: �
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/assad-emails

Ellen Dibble

Speaking of public opinion in politics, or rather shifting toward public opinion in the judicial system, or the court of public opinion, consider the power of the powerful, specifically Strauss-Kahn. It’s easy to imagine that there lies a thriller about certain “interests” setting him up — for a Watergate plumbers style fee — for a fall. Do you suppose writers, fiction or otherwise, could be interested in fleshing that out? And could anyone expedite that into a movie while the issue is simmering at large? Apparently. Anyone want to play the part? Gerard Depardieu does. �
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17397494

Terry Tree Tree

Now, ANYONE can smell like a Child-Molester and Child-Abuser! Pope-perfume is to be on the market? Will they name it ‘Pedophile Priest’?

kelty

Terry where have you been????
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  You missed me? I have to make a living when I can, do rescues, fight fires, and go to meetings of non-profits like fire and rescue.
  - kelty
    
    Yes, I noticed you hadn’t been posting and wondered. Good to see you back.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Nice to hear that I was missed. I have seen Moda comment that he missed me, too!
    - nj_v2
      
      I had almost forgotten about the pedophile priests.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Until APPRIPRIATE action is taken, I hope NONE forget the HYPOCRICY!

Ellen Dibble

There is a White House photo of Obama, the photo of the day for yesterday, petting Bo. This the day after Cameron was there. And the news shows Israel preparing to be bombed, expecting this, and this because they otherwise expect to be nuked. I have a visceral feeling that Iran would not dare nuke Israel. There would be the devil to pay. However, it feels to me that the die is cast, the dice are cast, and the issue is fixed. Boatloads of Iranian bank holdings are being ferried across to Qatar where the banks can actually transfer money on their behalf. But it feels as if something is about to happen, that not being the sudden breakout of peace. When the news suggests to me, look at Bo, take your eye off the ball, then I look at the ball.

ana

It sounds like you have a better feel for and understanding of these issues than the POTUS.
Where do you get your innformation?
- Ellen Dibble
  
  No, I think POTUS is taking charge, a-la FDR with his little dog when the going got tough, playing at cool and collected. Maybe actually Being cool and collected. That’s him. If anyone is losing the “feel,” in my humble opinion, it’s the media. And maybe they have their “reasons.” When I take my cue from a White House photograph rather than from CBS or CNN or the BBC, that’s something actually my history teacher in 8th grade taught me: that’s the “telling” moment in time. At critical moments in history, the magicians come out of the woodwork. �
  No, I’m not sure, but that’s the way I responded to that photo. Why did the photographer or his staff select that particular photo…
  - TFRX
    
    Ellen, strictly speaking, when did the media last have the feel to lose?
    
    When they all decided Hans (I Got Iraq Right) Blix was a blind fool?

Terry Tree Tree

The U.S. should MAKE SURE whether that Sargeant acted alone! These stupid and attrocious acts make the U.S. look worse and worse!

TFRX

Texas, the national laboratory of bad government*, has a go at the Voting Rights Act.

*Kansas, Mississippi and South Carolina: You’ve got competition.

notafeminista

Fear monger.

Michiganjf

Austin, Texas has already seen several days at 85-90 degrees this year DURING WINTER!!!!

Last, year, we set records for drought AND heat, with over 100 days in a row of 100+ degree temperatures!!

From the looks of it, we’re on pace to have an even WORSE year this year!

Still, Republicans are Climate Change deniers and can’t think past their GOP (Grand Oil Party) sell-out rhetoric of pulling every bit of carbon possible out of the ground and spewing it into the atmosphere.

BRILLIANT!

Worried for the country(MA)

“2012′s relatively light snowfall is the result of two atmospheric
processes, according to climatologist Bill Patzert of NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. One is the La Niña conditions in
the Pacific, which result in less moist air crossing the continental
United States. The other is a strong Arctic Oscillation that keeps cold
arctic air around the North Pole and away from more southern latitudes.”

No AGW according to NASA; just natural weather patterns.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  Man-influenced-climate is SO EASY to prove.
  With a planet spinning, with MANY factors to consider, WHY would you expect the effects to be the same world-wide, and uniform?
  MUCH of the man-influenced-climate-change, is from POLLUTING sources, therefore reducing them has more than one benefit!
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    I don’t think there any skeptical climate scientist that dispute global warming AND that CO2 contributes. They only question the magnitude and danger of the effect. Also, many believe that there are OTHER natural cycles that dominate the CO2 affect.
    
    Is CO2 a pollutant or a plant food?
    - nj_v2
      
      The answers to stupid questions are useless.
      
      Simplifying complex systems to a mindless, either/or question shows how little you understand about the science involved.
    - Anonymous
      
      Worried for the Country is only worried for HIS vision of the country, where the rich live like Medieval Kings (with modern amenities) and the rest live like serfs.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Water is necessary for life as we know it, BUT, too much, and people and plants DIE!
      Do you gamble your mortgage money at a casino, where the house has a big advantage?
    - Anonymous
      
      Check with Senator Inhofe! But seriously, the deniers are fighting in a retreating style, from total denial, to allowing warming, to grudgingly admitting man MAY have SOME effect, to minimizing that effect, saying there is no need to mitigate it now. There are deniers spread out across this spectrum, all arguing like the cigarette manufacturers so they can continue making gobs of money at human quality of life expense.
      
      The latest, a WSJ OpEd last month by sixteen “scientists,” is demolished by William D. Nordhaus, an economist (with wide-ranging fields of respected work, including a decade or so on environmental mitigation costs) in The New York Review of Books:
      
      http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/mar/22/why-global-warming-skeptics-are-wrong/
      
      His work shows backup for the low cost of mitigation versus the high cost of trying to “adapt” to the coming disruption due to unmitigated Climate Change, as concluded by the International Energy Agency (a quite stodgy group):
      
      http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/11/09/364895/iea-global-warming-delaying-action-is-a-false-economy/
Gregg

Tell that to eastern Europe where they had temperatures reaching 100 year lows. It’s a global thing, remember?
- nj_v2
  
  ^ Terminal Fox-bot Greggg is now an expert on global climate change.
  
  http://www.espon.eu/main/Menu_Publications/Menu_MapsOfTheMonth/map1201.html
  - Gregg
    
    “Aggregate potential”? I’m just talking about record lows, that’s all. Are you endorsing Michiganjf’s “look out the window” science?
    - Michiganjf
      
      Braindead reply from Gregg…
      
      Climate change models show clearly we’ll now see weather and temperature extremes like we’ve never seen before… both high and low, in both northern and southern hemispheres, with wide variation regionally across the planet.
      
      The key here (for braindead Republicans) is “EXTREMES.”
      
      Get it, genius?
    - Gregg
      
      “Never seen before”? The Bronze age was hotter for one. What melted numerous Ice ages? Oh, never mind. Fear what you please.
    - Michiganjf
      
      Oh, you were here to see the Ice Age?
      
      well… neither was anyone since historical recordkeeping for weather began.
      
      … Like I said, “extremes like we’ve never seen before…”
    - nj_v2
      
      Greggg demurrs: “What melted numerous Ice ages?”
      
      Hint: It wasn’t carbon dioxide from human activity.
    - Anonymous
      
      I believe Michiganjf is talking about the last 10,000 or so years which is the period during which all of civilization as we know it was developed, and a period where the climate has not had the kinds of extremes that Climate Change WILL bring. The life humans live today will not be sustainable in the extremes that unmitigated CO2 emissions will cause.
  - Four Elements
    
    I may be wrong, but I read somewhere that climate change is affecting the Gulf Stream so that it cannot warm Europe, resulting in a severe cooling-down in winter. So local cooling may be a result of global warming.
    - Anonymous
      
      This possibility is mostly a possibility and attempts to determine actual changes have so far been unsuccessful. But such changes will most likely have periods much longer than the data that currently exists in accuracy and detail to achieve results with enough confidence. But the world is chaotic and there well could be “tipping points” that are not currently understood that might change this picture; but right now the threat of big changes in the thermohaline circulation is unlikely in the near future.
Michiganjf

Tornadoes in New York City, tornadoes in Hawaii, and right now, on the MSNBC front page, “Rare, early season tornadoes…”

… Keep up the brain-dead denial!

AC

I thought the afghanis do not believe in holding lunatics accountable for their actions…so, wouldnt it show good faith if we hand him over? he’s going to get the same verdict anywhere, wouldn’t he?

Terry Tree Tree

Wind-Turbines and Solar Collectors can start producing energy as soon as they are installed and hooked up to the grid! Many other renewables can too!
   Oil requires finding, drilling (with LOTS of dry holes), pumping, truck transport from the well, usually to a long-haul tanker, trucked to rail, transported to a refinery, refining, transport to a distribution terminal, tanked,transported to wholesale distributorships, tanked, transported to the fuel stations, THEN you can put into your vehicle, and get the use of it!
   HOW can anyone say that renewables will be more expensive, without all the subsidies, and other Corporate Welfare to the oil industry?
    Coal is about the same!

Worried for the country(MA)

I’m still waiting for the first wind or solar car.
- Chris_in_Cambridge
  
  It’s coming. With better batteries, wind becomes a more viable source of energy (the wind blows stronger at night), and that electricity can be used to power vehicles.
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    Wind or solar will never work as a base load electrical power source without a viable, economic storage mechanism.
    
    Electric cars will be viable long before economic base load wind and solar happens.
    
    The only scalable carbon free electrical power source is nuclear. We just need to find a way to make it safer and cheaper. Thorium molten salt -LFTR – might do the trick but it is at least ten years out.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Which will be easier and quicker to solve, Electrical Storage, or Nuclear Waste and Danger?�
      Nuclear Waste and Danger has been around for almost 70 years! STILL NOT solved!
    - Worried for the country(MA)
      
      LFTR eats the nuclear waste. It IS a solution to nuclear waste.
      
      The country’s entire nuclear waste volume would then fit in the volume of a Best Buy store and would need containment for only 300 years.
    - nj_v2
      
      Thorium exists in theory only. No working, full-scale model exists.
      
      “Eating nuclear waste” is such an obviously spurious claim, that it indicate The Worried One has no clue about which he speaks.
      
      http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2010-09-08/thorium-reactors-—-new-free-lunch
      
      http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=3101
      
      http://helian.net/blog/2010/09/01/nuclear-weapons/subcritical-thorium-reactors-dr-rubbias-really-bad-idea/
    - Worried for the country(MA)
      
      Molten salt reactors were built by the US government in the 60s.
      
      I said in my previous post it would take at least 10 years for deployment to work out the engineering details. However, there are no significant barriers like fusion power AND it is inherently safe because they use a ‘freeze plug’ that allows the molten salt to automatically drain into a passive cooling tank if ANY problem is encountered.
      
      The articles you posted are a joke. Check out the google tech talks on LFTR or the web site energyfromthorium.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      A Nuclear Physicist that I know, says the Thorium Reactor did NOT work, and was a HUGE money-pit! He worked on it!
    - nj_v2
      
      Your silver-bullet, nuke cheerleading is heartwarming.
      
      You forgot to tell us that thorium watts will be too cheap to meter.
      
      Get back to us when they build a working, full-scale prototype.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Fusion reactors have been 25 years in the future, for the past 60 years! It remains that 25 years into the future now?
      LFTR is HOW far into the future?
      Nuclear powered vehicles were going to be the norm, by now, according to my sixth-grade text-book, in the early 60′s!
- Ellen Dibble
  
  That car will be wind and solar if the energy in the grid derives from those sources. Yesterday’s newspaper, at gazettenet.com featured a solar array here in town to power four houses and apparently yield to the grid. This is the part that is interesting. “A reverse meter installed as part of the system will keep track of how much power is generated, and that amount will be used to offset the cost of power [he] uses at his home and law practice.” See Power Play. “What makes Hyperion Systems model unique is a design that calls for elevating the array over farmland to allow crops to grow unaffected” (photo of cows circulating underneath). … Hyperion’s system, which .. is patent-pending, provides owners flexibility to remove the panels if needed or tip them for better solar capacity…” Wow.
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    Cool.
    
    It still isn’t competitive for base load power but I welcome the improvements.
    
    The dirty secret is every one of these solar panels installed is heavily subsidized by rate payers that don’t have solar. This is one reason that electric rates have been creeping up even though natural gas prices have fallen through the floor.
    - Ellen Dibble
      
      I am glad to pay a little more in taxes and utility rates if it enables game-changers like that company, and those local individuals, to start the shift. Because of them, the chance for these new technologies to compete with the old fuel sources begins to exist. And the “cost” of gas and coal — to our health, for starters, but to the planet, and to our tax bill, apparently, in many decades of government subsidies — doesn’t show up at the gas pump. As you say, we all pay that. But no, it isn’t that obvious.
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    Thanks Ellen! This is one that I wasn’t aware of!
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  BOTH have been available for YEARS!
- Steve
  
  Bicycle but is tough on the uphills
Worried for the country(MA)

“HOW can anyone say that renewables will be more expensive”

Terry, we have a wind farm development in MA that they are trying to ram down our throats. The contracts that the utilities have signed are a minimum of 3X the cost of traditional power sources. This is AFTER massive federal and state subsidies to the wind farm.

No, renewables are not competitive.

This is why the energy secretary was rooting for $8-$9 gasoline because renewables might have a chance at that price.
- AC
  
  ? please visit the ISO New England Website:
  http://www.iso-ne.com/
  they have actual time data for you to view. including the problems with developing wind renewables in MA, tho it can be done in select areas.
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  I am rooting for renewables to be competitive with ‘cheap’ oil and coal.
  
  However, I’m not opening an algae farm any time soon.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  Oil, coal, and natural gas have MANY times the equipment, and transportation costs, BEFORE the energy gets to the consumer.�
  Entrenched interests have a personal GREED reason to make the costs as high as possible.�
  NOT that the costs are actually higher!
- TFRX
  
  That word “rooting”: I don’t think you mean what you think it means.
  
  Where do you think you are, Fox Nation?
Terry Tree Tree

I didn’t EVEN get into the costs of FOREIGN oil?
NOR did I reflect ALL the costs of the pollutions!

Ellen Dibble

Freeland is answering caller John’s question about: Notice the US in Iraq and Afghanistan is staying on Iran’s flanks, maybe till the nuclear issue with the last hostile country — something like that.�
I hear that Afghanistan is chiefly a concern for Pakistan, because Pakistan’s water is not from Pakistan. It’s from Afghanistan (and from China). So they want a puppet government in Afghanistan. They have to have that.
So a nuclear Iran would seem to be facing Pakistan, facing off to Pakistan. Looking ahead a ways. I mean, to use it against Israel would be stupid, simply playing to local hatreds. I don’t think Israel is actually a threat to Iran. (I could certainly be wrong.)

Sawyerfarm2006

Please stop you guys are just jumping on! You need to think about what started this war and if you really want to talk seriously speak to the fact that the Taliban is not and never was al-Qaeda. But instead you play like any President had a choice about Afghanistan

Terry Tree Tree

Was it the Afghan Government, or ALL the innocent civillians, children, women, that acted against the U.S.?
- Sawyerfarm2006
  
  Neither it was al-Qaeda!
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    Ratio of ACTUAL al-Qaeda members killed, compared to the innocent children,women, and men in that area?
    Average number of dollars spent to accomplish each al-Qaeda member kill?

SteveV

I served in the Army during the Vietnam War. All the rhetoric sounds familiar,
from our government and military. I remember how that ended and fear a similar
fate awaits us in Afghanistan. We haven’t learned a thing from history.

nj_v2

Sure we’ve learned something. The political so-called leaders need to ratchet up the fear-inducing propaganda to ever-higher levels to get people to go along with their war mongering.

Communism was enough then, now it’s nukes in the hands of “unstable” leaders.

Ellen Dibble

Do the Taliban, if they were to reinstate themselves, want to host al Qaeda? Wouldn’t that be sort of idiotic? Haven’t they learned that, whatever else… So I’d think we can leave. But apparently the question is, does Pakistan want al Qaeda.�
No, I like to think not. �
But I think they (whoever “they” is in Pakistan) do deals with anyone who can keep a modicum of influence in Afghanistan — the more the better.

AndyF

If this country lasts another hundred years (which his highly in question with the bozos we have running for President) we still wont learn from our own past. But think about this…

Korean War – Quagmire, thousands killed, no resolution
Vietnam – Quagmire, thousands killed, we lost, period.
Iraq – A Quagmire begun with outright lies, thousands killed, and we end up right where we started – Iraq is a basket case.
Afghanistan – Quagmore, thousands killed, now a basket case we cant win because like the wars before it, there is no definition of what victory would be.

We are, without doubt, the stupidest society in the history of all mankind, and worse, we dont even learn from our own stupidity.

…and so, we just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over and over again, and that leaves radio and television programs like On Point dealing with situations that are FAR from the real problem – us, and our addiction to war as a solution – when our very own history shows it is rarely if ever a solution – it is in fact just the Mother of a myriad of ‘other’ problems we then argue and debate about, never getting to the root cause.

Does anyone remember that our initial goal was to get Osama bin Laden? That was 10 years ago, and he is dead. Now we dont even really know why we are there. Sure, lots of people have lots of explanations in buzz phrases, but NO ONE is talking about the root cause – our endless addiction to war.

Four Elements

Great point. So often people (i.e. media and experts) focus on the superficial “news” and avoid any kind of penetrating analytical thinking to discover root causes. Is that because the “public” is too stupid or lazy to be interested in anything else? Or because the media is?
Keep_Listening

Don’t forget an excuse that is always put forth to keep any war going: “We can’t let all those soldiers having died in vain.”

Chris_in_Cambridge

This idea that the extended primary race is about Republican discontent with Romney is pure media fantasy. The nature of this race has everything to do with the way primary races were scheduled this year (fewer delegates chosen before March), and almost nothing to do with the appeal of Mitt Romney as a candidate.

Worried for the country(MA)

Good call.

SuperPACs are also keeping the weaker candidates alive longer.
Keep_Listening

I don’t believe that the revolving success of candidates such as Bachmann, Herman 9-9-9 Cain, Perry, Santorum, and Gingrich are the fault of the primary race schedule. It’s the result of the Establishment putting forth a candidate that (rightly so) can’t convince the Tea Party and Evangelical Christian ideologues that he is really extreme enough for them. Of course, the SuperPacs have just exacerbated the problem.

Kevin Iungerman

Most of Obama’s republican challengers have previously
been among the most strident advocates of American military intervention in
Afghanistan; now in a mercurial turnabout, they are calling for precipitous
withdrawal and questioning the President’s leadership; yet they simultaneously
are stoking up the public for a war with Iran as well as an unlimited military
alliance with Israel! Troubled as things are, I want Obama to stay at the
helm. I shudder at the possibility of a right wing American Christian fundamentalist
coming to power with a god on our side mentality. I see little practical
difference between such individuals and the Taliban

Fredlinskip

“a right wing American Christian fundamentalist
coming to power with a god on our side mentality”
You mean sorta like W?

Michiganjf

Clinton and Summers at the center of bank/investment bank deregulation??!!!!

Jack!!!!

Have you forgotten the main driving force there, Republican Phil Gramm???!!

Michiganjf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Gramm

Rex

Would a windmill on a car produce more energy than it’s drag?

http://gregorycamp.wordpress.com/ Greg Camp

Nope. It’s physics–the energy to move it forward would be more than the energy gained.
- Rex
  
  Well then,
  
  Romney & car windmills: 1
  Gingrich & Volt gun racks: 0
Anonymous

How about a dog on a treadmill hooked up to a generator?
- nj_v2
  
  You could put a solar panel on your dog.
  - Jasoturner
    
    Name him “Sparky”?
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  Was THAT what Governor Romney was experimenting with?
- TFRX
  
  I don’t know how many of those dogs bred to turn spits holding roasts over fires (the roasts, not the dogs) still exist.
Jasoturner

Thermodynamically impossible.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  Thermodynamics? Fluid Mechanics.
  Anything is impossible to those that see them as impossible! DaVinci’s detractors, anyone?
  - Jasoturner
    
    Nah, that would get you wading into crazy details needlessly. The only force acting on the windmill is the the drag force. Energy cannot be created or destroyed (first law) so the output from the windmill cannot exceed the input. Thus, the windmill output cannot exceed the drag energy without violating one off the most solid laws in physical science. And in fact, we know that for all real processes, the output would be less.
    
    This can also be demonstrated heuristically. If the windmill could put out more power than the force driving the windmill blades, then one could in principle build a windmill that could run a fan that would in turn keep the windmill running and could produce some free energy. This would be a perpetual motion machine.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Perpetual Motion Machines are NOT granted Patents, because the U.S.P.T.O. says they are impossible, whether they WORK, or not!
    - Jasoturner
      
      Um, I don’t know how to say this gracefully, but PMMs are physically impossible. They do not, and cannot, work. That was part of my point.

Terry Tree Tree

ANOTHER bankster goes honest enough, to tell the truth about the attitude of the banksters!
Conflicts of interest, and MUCH outright FRAUD, and other CRIMES by the 1%.

Terry Tree Tree

ANYONE worried that Iran, N. Korea, or anyone else will build walls around our wind-generators, or BIG umbrellas over our solar collectors?

Ellen Dibble

Who is this woman saying the Goldman-Sachs departure letter was written by a disgruntled person, and such people exist in every organization, and it was irresponsible for the New York Times to publish the letter? Doesn’t she know anyone who has been fleeced by a supposedly concerned and responsible investment organization? Or are people embarrassed to admit to having been (or seemed to have been) treated like this? (Victims not wanting to be identified…) Starting about 1999, it seems to me, it was considered acceptable by the big firms (and small) to treat clients like muppets, whatever that means: dishonestly. Or with divergent interests, to put it another way.

Anonymous

I found myself asking where had Mr. Smith been?
Goldman Sachs has a long history of this kind of corporate culture going back to the 1920′s. They did this then and they are doing it now. I’m not surprised but the difference here is that the size and scope of firms such as Sachs is so large that it effects the economy and everyone in it.
Witness Bank of America, talk about a toxic entity.
- Still Here
  
  Gee who to believe, a disgruntled employee or somebody who knows absolutely nothing and is motivated entirely by envy and sour grapes.
Worried for the country(MA)

I think muppet is english slang for ignoramus.
- Ellen Dibble
  
  If these bankers didn’t have so much power (money), then we’d be saying they are the ignoramuses — ignorami — because they can’t see the larger picture, which is where the majority of us live.
Terry Tree Tree

Muppet means you’re controlled by the hand up your rear!

Maria D.

I grew up in Colombia and left in the early 60′s. I grew up worrying to be killed by the guerrillas. 50 years later the guerrillas are stronger. We will not win in Afganistan, it is a non winning situation and so much money and lives are wasted. It is time for us to get out of that awful non winning situation. Afganistan is composed of 3 tribes that do not even like each other, they are faithful to their own tribe and nothing else. Colombia is a Western society, but even with the help of USA the guerrilla continue their terror to this day…

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ellery-Tuck/100000121509965 Ellery Tuck

The Keystone pipeline is not a real issue. The real issue is where it will cross for environmental reasons, not if it will be constructed. Unfortunately, it will not reduce gas prices as this additional amount of oil will simply be refined, and shipped over seas, just as refiners are doing now with excess gas production. It does not stay in the US, to reduce our prices. What the GOP failed to admit is world demand sets prices, not the President of the United States.

Worried for the country(MA)

No Ellery. It is not just world demand but also world supply. Also, there is price disparity on the world markets based on where that supply is. For instance, the Libyan war affected European prices much more than US prices. A pipeline of Canadian oil directly to US refineries will have depressing effect on US prices.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  HOW will Iran and N. Korea STOP our wind, solar, and renewable energy supplies?
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    HOW will Iran and N. Korea stop the oil coming in from Canada and the Keystone XL pipeline? How about Anwar in Alaska?
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Are THOSE energy supplies as UNLIMITED, and ABUNDANT, as renewables?
- nj_v2
  
  Petroleum and gas prices would be as likely (or more likely) to go up as down post Keystone. Local perturbations (Libyan war) come and go, and have little long-term affect.
  
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/will-the-keystone-xl-pipeline-lower-gasoline-prices/2012/03/01/gIQAtWkXlR_blog.html
  
  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-01/keystone-oil-pipeline-seen-raising-gas-prices-in-midwest-energy.html
  
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/02/keystone-pipeline-gas-prices_n_1316782.html

Dennis_in_Omaha

Ms. Freeland is mistaken. She is giving Republicans bad advice this time.

1. The Keystone XL pipeline is not delayed at all. The portion not in question starting in Texas is already under construction. The portion in question was not even scheduled to be built yet.

2. President Obama and (R) Gov Heineman of Nebraska both agreed to a slightly longer pipeline. That means slightly more jobs.

3. It was (R) Boener who forced a “cancellation” of the project. Continued tax breaks for working class people were made a bargaining chip for supporting the original route and their owners. The paperwork has already been re-filed and the new route is already being purchased and staked out.

3a. And, here is the suspicious question: Which members of congress own
land along the original route and how have they been voting?

4. There is a new delicious talking point now. During the debates, ALL the Republican candidates said they supported states rights whenever they want to be free to pollute or curb women’s rights. Apparently, this does not apply to Nebraska. Now President Obama is the new defender of States’ rights against a foreign corporation.

5. This pipeline will RAISE gas prices if subsidies for GASOLINE EXPORTS continue.

5a. Subsidies for oil tanker ships allow foreign companies, including the Chinese government, to raise their bids for gasoline. These higher bids, along with the increased use of gasoline, and the use of diesel by tanker ships, raise the price domestically.

6. This pipeline will RAISE the price of gas because the refineries are in Texas. If Transcanada were really serious about US production, they would build the refinery in NE corner of Nebreaska.

6a. The price of gasoline is lower in Houston than in Indiana because there is a longer pipeline to Indiana, and wasted fuel in delivering gas there.

6b. If the pipeline terminated in NE, then gas prices in the North could go down. But the intention is clear. Increased export of gasoline, and higher bids for oil by foreign countries.

Ellen Dibble

Somewhere I heard that the bidding war from the instant algorithms in action now on stock markets are responsible for a huge portion of the price of gas. Twenty percent or so, maybe it was forty percent. Anyway, the suggestion was: Could the Congress put a damper on the millisecond trading, at least as to gas? Which would bring down the price dramatically almost with the stroke of a pen? Obama’s?
I might have heard this on PBS Newshour, Paul Solman’s report on stock trading last night, but in combination with other reports.
Worried for the country(MA)

Then why didn’t President say everything you did?

Because it is poppycock.

He could have last year when his spokesman said the decision would be delayed until after the 2012 election and all the greenies like Robert Redford cheered.

A leader would have said that we will get this done as quickly as possible as soon as we work out the kinks.
Michiganjf

Nice!
William

Obama took his marching orders from the radical green party on the pipeline..
- John in Amherst
  
  The groups opposed to the pipeline included several GOP politicians who listened to their constituents’ concerns about routing a giant oil pipeline over the Ogalala aquifer that supplies drinking and irrigating water to a large section of the Midwest. Obama has not killed the pipeline, he has delayed it until a different route can be found.
  - William
    
    The State Department found no problems with this project. The Sec. of State, Mrs. Clinton is no pro-oil Conservative.
- nj_v2
  
  Not to mention the Republican governor of Nebraska.
  
  Seriously, do you right wingdingers deliberately try to become parodies of yourselves, or does it just kind of happen naturally?
- Zero
  
  Anybody notice that republicans have turned environmentalism into radicalism.
  
  I am personally ambivalent about the oil situation, but it is pretty horrible when a political movement, that has science on its side, is being demonized.
Bob Gardner

Great point about the states rights angle. I wish the Republican contenders had been asked about states rights in this context, as well as in connection to vermont’s attempt to shut down a nuclear reactor. Bob Gardner
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  GREAT POINTS!!

JHWillson

Once again during the coverage of the auto bailout, On Point and it’s guests totally ignore the 20,000 plus Delphi Salaried Retirees (and minor union retirees) who had their pensions stolen by the Obama administration. Current litigation in Michigan Federal Court has compelled the PBGC to comply with discovery process subpoenas. U.S. Treasury continues to obstruct by moving to quash same. Why were UAW pensions made whole? Why won’t the Obama administration correct this grave injustice? Background and information at: http://www.delphisalariedretirees.org/delphi/

Worried for the country(MA)

Were Delphi salaried retirees campaign contributors?
No?

I guess you are out of luck.
- JHWillson
  
  Not out of luck yet. The fight for our pensions continues. The Obama administration should never have allowed this injustice in the first place. Retirees who lost all health and life insurance benefits promised by GM/Delphi then lost up to 70% of their pensions. The administration, PBGC and US Treasury continue to obstruct our litigation in Federal courts. So much for transparency, hope and change.
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    What would you have gotten with the ‘W’ administration?
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    Good luck.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

How about Enron?
Terry Tree Tree

Salaried employees were too arrogant to join a union?
Confident in their own abilities to negotiate and protect themselves from the always benevolent and generous company executives, that EARN all their pay, BONE-USes, and other benefits?

John in Amherst

Afghanistan is a disaster of our own making. Bush lost focus on it to attack Iraq, and tried to fight the Afghan war on the cheap, shortchanging both our forces there, and the rebuilding efforts that could have swayed Afghan hearts and minds. Simultaneously, he eroded our military through “stop loss re-deployments” so that he could avoid re-instating the draft (and thereby draw the somnolent US public’s attention to the strategic blunder of conducting unfocussed wars while cutting taxes and telling the US public it was their duty to go shopping). The whole festering mess got fobbed off to President Obama, who has had to negotiate not just the twisted and corrupt politics in Afghanistan, and the tarnished image of the US abroad, but the GOP here yapping at his heels at every step as he attempts to bring the wars “onto budget” and pay down their costs.

It is a horrendous tragedy that one of our over-stressed soldiers went insane and killed women and children. But any impulse to treat this criminal behavior with compassion must be tempered by the fact that it is an appalling act not just of murder, but of treason, as he grievously harmed our national interests. His act will no doubt lead to more in the way of retributive killings of US aid workers and military personnel. There can be no excuses and no delays in rendering justice.

William

A lesson from our disaster in Vietnam and Afghanistan would have to indicate not to send massive number of our troops to fight another country’s war. Bush was right in not sending too many troops because the locals will just sit back and let us die. They have no ownership and just suck off our goodwill. We did the same thing in Vietnam.
- John in Amherst
  
  There is an ongoing civil war not just in Afghanistan, but in most of the Islamic world, between religious fanatics and those of differing or less fervent persuasions. A basic problem for the West is that Islamic fanatics seek to expand beyond civil wars, and take on anyone and everyone who they regard as infidels. In this sense, what is happening with the Taliban and Al Quaida in Afghanistan IS our war as well as “their war”.
  We tend to forget that the West also went through a period of religious civil wars and exporting coercive and bloody conversion to Christianity during European reformation and colonialism. We can only hope our own home grown religious fanatics do not ascend to power again, lest we get to know “their war” (fanatics versus those of more pragmatic secular views) in a much more personal sense both here, and abroad.
  - http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
    
    Similar religious fanatics are trying to start a war in the US for the same reasons. Religion should be banned for the relic of the Dark Ages it is.
    - John in Amherst
      
      Religion a relic of dark ages? A bit harsh. I’d say it’s an attempt by mankind to deal with the feelings of spirituality that pervade human experience and transcend cultures. The fact that there are so many religions and variations on the theme of divinity suggests that there may be something to the human capacity to have spiritual longings and a need to fulfill them. And also that it would be wrong to assume any one religion has got it right. THIS is why religion and politics must remain separate.
  - William
    
    To many people in this country we have been under assault by Liberalism for quite some time. To Liberals, Liberalism is a religion and they are always liberals first and nothing else matters.
    - John in Amherst
      
      So what is the right religion, and which of its followers are just virtuous and deserve to rule? Sounds like conservative Catholics are OK, but liberation theology Catholics not. Jesuits OK? They are pretty intellectual… How about Southern baptists? They the true believers, while those Episcopalians don’t make the grade? Of course Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus are all hell-bound and unworthy to rule, right William? The point is when one group thinks they have a direct line to God and deserve to impose their morals through coercion and state law, they have entered into dark and cynical politics. There are those who prefer to make their own moral choices, and stand before God as their judge, not some hierophant who proclaims that he knows God’s will and has his endorsement to enforce it.
    - Zero
      
      Was freeing slaves liberal-minded or conservative-minded? Was women’s right to vote liberal-minded or conservative-minded? Was civil rights liberal-minded or conservative-minded? Why did we fight Vietnam? Why did we fight Korea? Why did we fight Iraq twice? Why did Reagan cause a genocide in Central America?
      
      If liberalism is a religion, at least it is a religion that respects human life and equality.
- http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
  
  How could you possibly say Bush was right? History has proven that he is a fraud. A corrupt and intellecutally bankrupt person who “led” the US into the strategic blunder of the ages. He should be in jail for the rest of his life.
  - William
    
    Well, if Bush was a fraud what about Clinton? Clinton was the guy that pushed hard for the Iraq Liberation Act which led us into that war. Should he not be given some credit for his failed idea of “Iraq Liberation Act?”.
    - John in Amherst
      
      What led us into war was W seeking to avenge Saddam’s attempt to kill his father, and the neo-cons like Rice, Cheney, etc., who had a lust for cheap oil and a delusion that they could “sow the seeds of democracy”.
    - William
      
      What led us into wars overseas the last 50 years was the Kennedy doctrine ” “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
    - John in Amherst
      
      right. so it was Kennedy’s fault.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Thank you for explaining that to the American people.
Afghanistan was the war not Iraq. As I wrote a million times on this message board.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA

Bush = moral and intellectual bankruptcy.
- Worried for the country(MA)
  
  Obama = incompetent and failure.
  
  See how that works.
  - http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
    
    Another Republican AMNESIAC I see. Enjoy your delusion.
  - TFRX
    
    Your comment has been tabled anonymously and will not appear until 60% of the thread approve.
    
    You really like putting a polite face on the WATB GOP, don’t you?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

Built the pipeline and the gas prices will still remain the same.

Still Here

I guarantee you they won’t stay the same.
- http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
  
  If, by your comment, you are saying thate the pipeline will lower prices in the US. I gurantee that you are completely WRONG.
  - Worried for the country(MA)
    
    Let’s build it and see who is right.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Will YOU put enough money in escrow to pay for ANY damages, and eat and drink ALL the spillage? WITHOUT a seemingly crooked pay-out system, and the other crimes and frauds of BP and cohorts in crime?
    - http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
      
      No way. The supporters will be there for the profits. When it comes time to pay for damage done, they will be like they are on the Maury show: Who’s Da Baby’s Daddy? They will disavow all knowledge and responsibility and will vanish into the night.
    - Still Here
      
      There are millions of miles of pipelines in the US. Yours is a non-issue.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      They are LEAKING, and causing problems. The companies are weaselling out of their obligations, and people like you support them?
    - http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
      
      Spoken like a true right wing Republican. If you had any knowledge of business, economics and the world oil market you would know I am right. My guess is that you do, and all you speak is propaganda.
      
      Let’s NOT build it, period.
    - Still Here
      
      Spoken like someone who doesn’t care about the tens of thousands of long-term jobs that would be created. How selfish!
    - TFRX
      
      Please look up the “magical job year”. It’s a special term created to impress bumpkins or fools such as yourself.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      TransCanada admitted that it would be more like 13,000 jobs or less! That was a few months ago. They’ve probably admitted it will be less, by now, facing so much investigation by interested parties.
- Anonymous
  
  No, they are going to rise because of speculation and the market. Nothing to do with a pipeline. We could put up drill rigs on and fracking rigs all over the place and the price of gas in this country will not change due to our production. The only way for that to happen is if the oil companies and the refineries are nationalized.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
    
    finally we agreed. thank you.
  - Gregg
    
    12 cents a gallon in Venezuela, we could go all Chavez an keep it.
    - Anonymous
      
      Exactly, but we are not Venezuela.
  - Still Here
    
    Spoken like a utopian socialist who can’t understand simple supply demand realities. Please provide one piece of evidence that speculation has a sustained impact on gas prices.
    - Anonymous
      
      You’re not serious? I’m not a socialist and you seem to have a comprehension issue. Did I advocate for a nationalized take over of the oil companies?
      No, I merely pointed out that the only way to have complete control over the price is by doing so.
      
      Oil is a commodity that is traded on the market. Hence, speculation is part of the game.
    - TFRX
      
      If he doesn’t call one of us (anything left of an arbitrary line) a socialist every day, he gets hauled into Foxnation’s kangaroo court.
    - nj_v2
      
      Whenever someone invokes “socialist,” one can be pretty sure one is dealing with a Foxbot/Rushbo-dittohead.
      
      The rest of Here’s posting history corroborates it. These people operate in some sort of altered reality.
    - Zero
      
      Here is a lengthy article on oil speculation. I don’t know what your problem is–speculation actually distorts supply and demand ‘realities.’ Anyway, here is your evidence.
      
      http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18560_162-4707770.html

Terry

Why, Chrystia, do you think the rejection of the Keystone Energy Pipeline a bad move for Obama. I think it is a good thing. He is standing up and saying we are not sacrificing our water and our land for the dirtiest form of oil on the planet. We are not sacrificing private land for some damned corporation. Besides, the oil prices are not rising because of the pipeline prices are rising because of speculators spooked over Iran and Syria.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA

Exactly correct. I live in a State where there was a big fuss over the pipeline going thru our sensitive lands. TransCanada’s story is nothing but propaganda. There is NO long term job growth, and the oil is all going to the world market (likely China) and will not reduce the cost of gasoline in the US by one cent.
William

If the pipeline is so bad why did the State Department approve it. After all, Mrs. Clinton is no pro-oil Liberal, but even she recognized it was a good project to build.

U.S. Vet.

“From Tom’s Reading List”

The New York Times (LOL)

The same New York Times that was caught fabricating facts and stories.

The same New York Times which is on the verge of bankruptcy because of all the subscribers that they have lost due to their liberally biased and inaccurate reporting.

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA

Loss of subscribers has nothing to do with biased and inaccurate reporting. You may have heard of this little invention called the internet?? Careful, your right wing extremist colors are showing. Wouldn’t you be happier watching Fox and panting in front of the radio listening to Rush Windbag?
nj_v2

“Liberally biased” Yeah, “LOL.”

All that “liberal bias” when they were acting as BushCo stenographers in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion.

Maybe you should share your definition of liberal”with us.

Still Here

How about This American Life’s black eye?

nj_v2

Yeah, how about it?

They admitted their mistake, they devote an entire show to explain how it happened, setting the record straight, exploring the original issue in more depth.

Where else in journalism does that happen?
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  While Rush Limbaugh ‘apologizes’ for chosing the wrong words?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

iOnePoint:

The Apple company has manipulated consumer behavior by releasing new Ipad every year or every 6 months. The world actually buys the bait. ipad2 was released on March of 2011.

Dee

Jack Beatty is simply putting too much blame on Obama for�
choosing the path of escalation in Afghanistan as I believe�
he hasn’t gone near enough to the sources of where the�
real blame lies when he point to General Petraus……

Nevertheless, I believe Jack Beatty is on the right track trac-
ing the problem to Gen Petreaus plan…However, I feel that’s not getting even close to the middle of this blame and the forces who sold America out to the Afghanistan escalation
plan….

I believe Jack should do more tracing back to the Zionist apologists in the Senate such as Joe Lieberman, John Mc�
Cain , Lindsey Graham, Jon Kyle, Orrin Hatch and Mitch�
Mc Connell. Let’s not forget those shameful Zionist apol-
ogists in the House also such John Boehner, Eric Cantor�
and Paul Ryan (I believe some of tmembers in the Hse�
and Senate called them AIPAC’s errand boys )

Plus a host of other Right Think Tanks in Washington and�
Zionist Organizations in the US and around the world…

The finger must be pointed to them also if one reads The�
Isreal Lobby by John Mershaimer & Stephen Walt below.�
for the failure now we are seeing unraveling in Afghanistan today which Obama endorsed I believe despite his better�
angels….

Of course, one must keep in mind such individuals in our�
government are those I have remain nameless on Wall St.
are simply lap dogs for Corporate American & the America�
Oligarchy (or should I call them the gangster class who are lawless in their orientation towards others around the world�
and who have advocated torture of “enemy combatants” and�
a targeted killing policy in violation of Universal human Rights and International laws. Especially, the Covenant on civil and political rights article 6 which ties directly into the Right to�
Life Law. This Law prohibits the taking of anyone’s life even�
in a state of national emergency…..Dee

In Afghanistan , A Threat to Plunder , NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/opinion/20collier.html

The Israeli lobby, John Mearshaimer and Stephen Walt�
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/john-mearsheimer/the-israel-
lobby (Please make sure you read this thru and note how�
the Zionist apologists have driven this escalation into Iraq,�
and now Libya, Syria and Iran today and of course the�
disaster unraveling in Afghanistan today…I believe It’s all�
part of the same ruthless and lawlessness Zionist/ Neocon mentality toda—bringing us endless wars and leaving those
Middle East counties in ruins and peoples’ lives in ruins. …

Guest

On Point,

Can you please talk about UNESCO’s funding soon?

Thanks! I love the show.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/world/middleeast/cutting-off-unesco-us-may-put-iraq-programs-at-risk.html

http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2012/03/16/3092193/daily-show-trashes-us-cutoff-of-unesco-funding

Dee

Who is behind cutting aid to UNESCO …..

I imagine, if you trace the roots of those who are behind cutting funds to UNESO —you will find it is Zionist Apologists the Neo-cons in the US Hse and Senate doing their bidding…..

The lies and propaganda waged against the Palestinian peo-
ple and others in the region is ahocking and it is illustrated�
below in the following column about who really wants to blow up the Middle East today….See URL

That isn’t to say the Iranian and Syrian regimes don’t need to reform themselves . They most certainly do–but so does the Zionist Regime. I find it more vicious in so many other ways.

The daily entrapment of Palestinian people behind barred�
wire and a stone walll to promote Zionist land theft of their homeland is beyond the pale and it shows the fascist like�
traits running through the Zionist extremists today….

In addition, the appallng double standard there while they advocate crippling sanctions against Iran and Syria and the Palestinian people and militants they want all their aid up�
front which is unheard of in other countries receiving US�
aid…And it seems to me –they don’t seem to give a damn about Americans experiencing financial stress while they�
build illegal settlements to beat the band —in violation of�
international law and human rights in the territories. Dee

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/15/projection_its_the_neocons_and_likudniks_who_are_s/

Geography of occupation…Dr, Salman Abu Sitta�
http://www.plands.org/videos/005.html

William

For all the money wasted on the Palestinian people they seem to be just as inept and corrupt as always. At least Israel is a much more capable and honest country.
- John in Amherst
  
  Capable perhaps. They did develop nukes on their own. In secret, while denying it. Honest? When it serves their needs, like other countries. Israel has also benefited from an enormous amount of financial and technical assistance from wealthy patrons and states like the US.
  The basic problem in the middle east: two different groups, both of whom are convinced theirs is the one and only god, and that god’s job description includes “real estate broker”. Too bad the more secular Jews and Palestinians can’t work things out in the absence of the more extreme religious fanatical elements in their groups.
  - William
    
    Europe has greatly benefited from NATO, largely funded by the USA for 60 years and allowing them to reduce their spending on defense and increase spending on the welfare state. The Palestinians contine to vote for thugs to run their affairs and until the thugs get killed or change their ways there will be no peace.
- Hidan
  
  Honest and capable. lol
  
  Honesty -Israel is based on a Garrison State mentality and bibi and many of the top officials lies all the time along with the Israeli lobby.
  
  Capable- It’s a welfare state without U.S. blind veto power it be let or worst than most of the Middle Eastern Countries. U.S. subsidies there it’s military and pretty much gives it’s tech that it than sells back to the U.S.
  
  I give you the PLO is pretty corrupt but compared to all the Former PM and Presidents in Israel nailed for corruption doesn’t look that bad.

Gregg

The Friday night news dump reveals Obama is moving forward with the contraception mandate and his war on religious freedom.

Anonymous

Waging war, such hyperbole.
One could say that the Catholic Church has been waging a religious war against women for centuries.
- Gregg
  
  The catholic church cannot mandate squat. Is the first amendment meaningless in your view?
  - Anonymous
    
    And yet they do.
    What does the First Amendment have to do with how the busniess end of a Church entity can or cannot create their own rules in regards to health insurance?
    
    This has been the rule of law in a whole host of states for years, and the Catholic church has said nothing about it until now. Me thinks I smell a rat.
    - notafeminista
      
      You don’t go to prison if you don’t follow the tenets of the Catholic faith. Hence the first amendment.
      
      There really is a disconnect.
    - Zero
      
      You also don’t have to be a person of faith to agree with and follow the central morals Jesus laid down. (Central morals that not only the religious right ignores but goes against.)
    - notafeminista
      
      If one does not accept the idea of Jesus then why would one accept the central morals he laid down? It’s like saying one accepts the central morals of the Easter Bunny.
    - Zero
      
      Is it impossible that I shan’t accept the moral of forgiveness and charity if I don’t believe in Jesus? I don’t have to believe Socrates was a real man to agree or disagree with what he said. “Do unto others as they would do unto you” is an idea much older than Christianity.
      
      Jesus said to help the poor, the sick and so on, especially if one has ample means to do so (if you know what I mean). I agree–It is immoral to not help the suffering, especially if one has the means to do so. This is one of the most beautiful morals laid out by the New Testament, yet it is largely ignored not only by the religious right but most of the world.
      
      I don’t have to be a Christian to have morality. But you do have to see people as you see yourself in order to have the cognitive empathy to make moral decisions. Unfortunately, because religion tends to construct hierarchies of people, empathy erodes; hence, why religion is the most destructive force in the world.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      FEW ‘Christians’
      put their life at risk, to help their fellow child, woman, and man, spending their own money to do so?
    - Anonymous
      
      This not about the First Amendment. It’s about health insurance. Which many states have mandating for years without a peep from the Catholic Church.
      You’re right about one thing the Catholic Church has no say in regards to controlling women now even though they use rhetoric that is does imply that it wants to control woman’s health issues.
      In the US over 95% percent of Catholic women apparently use some form of birth control. My comment was more in a historical sense, which I did mention.
    - notafeminista
      
      Well. As TRFX says, “anec is not a sufficient prefix for data.”
    - Anonymous
      
      What the hell are you one about? What does this have to do with how health insurance is regulated?
John in Amherst

How is it that to the Righteous Right, it interferes with their religious freedom to prevent them from imposing their religious and moral views on the rest of society?
- Gregg
  
  So, being opposed to the US government forcing Catholic institutions to provide insurance that covers contraception means “imposing their religious and moral views on the rest of society”? There’s a disconnect.
  - John in Amherst
    
    Medical Insurance coverage is coverage is designed to cover medical needs, it is not morality enforcement coverage. The US has decided that birth control is a medical practice. The notion that employers can pick a la carte coverage for their employees’ medical issues is enforced morality. What is next? Denying coverage for HIV treatment because people who got HIV engaged in an act the church sees as immoral? Do Jewish institutions get to stipulate all their medical insurance plans must provide for the circumcision of employees’ male children, wanted or not? “Good Catholics” will follow church teachings and choose not to use birth control. “Bad Catholics”, and everyone else who does not believe every sex act must be potential procreation can make another choice. If we lived in a nation that was officially Catholic, your argument might have validity. We do not.
    - Gregg
      
      “The notion that employers can pick a la carte coverage for their employees’ medical issues is enforced morality.”
      
      That’s where you lose me. The employer can offer whatever they want. The consumer can purchase whatever they want. No one is denied anything. No one is forced to do anything. That is until now.
    - Anonymous
      
      No Gregg, the can not if they are in a state that has laws that regulate health insurance coverage.
  - TFRX
    
    They can just discriminate against hiring those “sluts and prostitutes”, can’t they?
    
    Why not? Why don’t they?
    
    The disconnect is between every market-competing church-run (yet tax-exempt) school and hospital (for example) which can’t discriminate in hiring, yet fools pretend they can discriminate against in insuring.
TFRX

You give non-believers a bad name. Stop discarding my religious liberty in the hope that the Fundie Protestants or US CathCouncil of Bishops won’t turn on you next.
- Gregg
  
  They can’t touch me.
  - John in Amherst
    
    Not yet. Hopefully never.
  - Fredlinskip
    
    Many are of the belief you’re already “touched”.
    Just kidding Gregg- LIGHTEN UP.
  - TFRX
    
    Why? Do you have photographs that the back page of the NYPost would sploosh over?
Zero

Freedom of allowing religious affiliated business to wave laws that other businesses have to follow…sounds like a good war to me.

…Quit the bs war on religion, Gregg.
- Gregg
  
  What law requires contraception be covered?
  - Zero
    
    Obamacare requires that businesses to provide contraception.
    
    If you want to argue to logistics and ethics of business law, fine. But it is complete bs to say this is an attack on religion.
    - Gregg
      
      Obamacare is in direct conflict with the Bill of Rights. I call that a war on religion.
    - Zero
      
      How so?
      
      You are just speaking out of your ass Gregg. Please explain why religious affiliated businesses should be allowed to wave laws that every other business has to follow? That is my question that you have evaded for weeks. In fact, it is unconstitutional for religious affiliated businesses to have undo wavers of law because the churches would have unfair advantages within state laws, which is a breach of separation of church and state–it is just the church intruding its sway on the state (and not the other way around, which is what you think it is).
      
      It is okay to admit you are wrong. You don’t have to do it now, but when Obamacare passes the Supreme Court, you would look solipsistic if you didn’t (not that you don’t already).
    - Gregg
      
      So it’s unconstitutional to give waivers (defined as not forcing Catholics to violate their millenia old tenets) to laws that are unconstitutional?
      
      Alrighty then.
    - Zero
      
      If Catholic affiliated businesses don’t want to violate their tents, then they can stay in their churches and not have business enterprises. Get it through your head, in American Law, a business is not the same as a church.
    - Anonymous
      
      There are currently 26 states that have laws requiring insurers that cover prescription drugs also provide coverage for any Food and Drug
      Administration (FDA)-approved contraceptive.
      
      Twenty-one states offer exemptions from contraceptive coverage, usually for religious reasons, for insurers or employers in their policies.
      
      February 2012, President Obama announced a final policy to exempt churches and similar organizations from covering contraception on the basis of their religious objections and instead, requiring employers’ insurance companies to offer contraception coverage
      to women directly and free of charge.
      
      The above information is from the link below:
      
      http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/health/insurance-coverage-for-contraception-state-laws.aspx
    - Gregg
      
      So.
Terry Tree Tree

IF the Catholics took proper care of the Child-Molesters, Child-Abusers, and the clergy and membership that PROTECTED these criminals, they would have more moral ground to stand on? NOT MUCH, because their own membership and clergy pick and choose the ‘moral’ parts that they follow, yet DEMAND to dictate to others to follow ALL?
ANY ‘religion’ that is that trashy, would disappear, if they cleaned up their own mess before saying ANYTHING to anyone else about morals?

JonS

Obama’s biggest failure as President is his failure to demonstrate presidential leadership on any major domestic or foreign issue. Latest example are the events in Afghanistan. He announces 14 months ago the half-hearted surge while at the same time the date of our withdrawal. It belies common sense that the message communicated to allies and enemies is that the US is not truly committed to success in Afghanistan so plan accordingly. For someone who prefers making speeches over the hard slog of governing, it is remarkable that he’s never addressed the American people on why success in Afghanistan was in the national interest. Recall in 2008 he described Afghanistan as a war of necessity. Is it any wonder that more and more people are calling for a an earlier timetable for withdrawal?

It’s laughable that the only audiences that Obama appears before are the UAW, recipients of bailouts and his version of crony capitalism, and wide-eyed innocent students of all ages. Absent from his campaign speech is any mention of stimulus spending , Obamacare , Dodd-Frank etc. Listening to him ,you’d think Bush and the Republicans were in charge the last three years. The only domestic accomplishment he touts is saving GM and Chrysler . Great , the $70 billion spent to prop up Fiat/Chrysler and GM’s UAW has succeeded. What he doesn’t say is the automotive industry would have survived anyway, albeit possibly looking differently than it does today. Ford, Nissan , Toyota and other transplants would have filled the gap. What he doesn’t say is that many of the bondholders who were screwed in the Chrysler bankruptcy were pension funds held by public employees , etc. Indeed the Supreme court appeal of the Chrysler bankruptcy was filed by pension funds representing Indiana police unions and other public employees.

Zero

So GM and Chrysler should have gone under on the faith that the other car companies would have hired their workers…? Is it not nice that there is more competition and less monopoly in the auto market? Is not GM and Chrysler on track to pay back the loans with interests? What you don’t say is that the AMERICAN auto industry would not have survived (at the very least it would have been greatly diminished).

Here is the truth. Before the stimulus GDP was contracting at 8% and what you republicans say it that we should have let that continue. Do you have any idea what unemployment looks like when GDP contracts at 8%? After the stimulus the economy has yet to contract again. It came close during the Euro crisis over the summer, but that was it. The stimulus was imperative, and if McCain would have won, he would have done a stimulus too. It is just dirty politicking from the right. What you can argue is the way in which the stimulus is done. You can look at the way Bush did the stimulus and compare it to what Obama did, which is quite different.

As for Afghanistan, why would further success in Afghanistan be in America’s interests? It seems to me that we are creating more terrorists than killing them by staying in Afghanistan. You are assuming a paradigm of why more war is good that is frail at best.

And I believe that surge happened before a host of prominent terrorists were killed and/or captured. Personally, I like having a president that actually goes after terrorists despite what country they are in–rather than leading the American into a war based on false premises. To me, the former is a real leader, and the latter is an emotional cowboy willing to send thousands off people to their deaths on a speculative hunch.
- Rewalkme
  
  Mr. JonS: Whether you and your Confederate Republicans don’t care if a robust US Auto Industry survives and prospers, is just like not caring that that people going bankrupt because of Medical Bills, or College becomes unaffordable, burdening graduates with exorbitant debt, is their tough luck. Civil, Marital, and Woman’s right don’t count with smug, proudly uninformed, if not down right stupid people such as your self.
      In the pre-Civil War South there were 3 classes:
  1) black slaves, 2) poor white dirt farmers with no slaves,
  and 3)the Slave Owning Aristocracy.
     The South turned Republican after LBJ’s 1965 Civil Rights Bill. Not Lincoln, but Jefferson Davis and Ronald Reagan, who called Medicare a “a Communist Methodology” are your saints.
      But the working man and the middle class will not go down without a fight that could be another Civil War.
  �
  MarkE
  �
    �
     The Party once known as
  - Fredlinskip
    
    You’re response leaves me a bit confused.
    Are you of belief Jon is Republican??
    - Fredlinskip
      
      Oops- question was supposed to be:
      Are you of belief Zero is Republican?
    - Fredlinskip
      
      NEVER MIND- I see now though you were replying to Zero, you were speaking of Jon.
      (Need learn how to retract/change comments)
  - JonS
    
    If I could understand your post , I’d respond . Unfortunately , I can’t delve into your rambling babbling incoherence…
- JonS
  
  Several points deserve responding. First, GM is an American car company but Chrysler is not. It is an “Italian” company now that it is controlled by Fiat. Fiat got Chrysler for virtually nothing other than its contribution of technology to Chrysler. Second, the automotive industry is very competitive unlike other industries. The top 3 companies have no more than 60% market share and top 4 probably 75% , typically an oligopoly. Moreover , market shares and positions are very fluent with many new entrants ( Hyundai, Kia , etc). Per US Supreme court antitrust law, a company would need at least a 90% share to be treated as a monopolist. Finally, you assume that if GM or Chrysler were liquidated, that their market share would not have been absorbed by other companies , such as Ford ,Honda, Nissan , Toyota , etc. It is the hallmark of a vibrant competitive economy that the vacuum created by a bankrupt liquidated company will be filled by better managed and financially secure competitors. The demand for GM/ Chrysler cars will go elsewhere –it will not disappear . And those companies that benefit from GM’s demise will produce more cars ,and hire more workers. They just won’t be UAW workers . Yes there’s dislocation in an industry until that happens but ultimately the market corrects and the strong survive. What Obama did was save UAW union jobs. Nothing more –but he accomplished that at the expense of the thousands of people whose pension funds loaned money to GM and Chrysler through secured bonds and got peanuts. That’s why the Indiana state police pension fund ( Indiana State Police Pension Trust v. Chrysler ) whose bonds were wiped out in the Chrysler bankruptcy. Think about it –in the future , if a car company ( or any company with unions) got into trouble and needed cash , would any company , bank , or pension fund loan money to a car company due to concerns that secured creditor positions may not be protected? They’d be crazy to loan money to a company in need due to concerns they may not be responsibly investing their member money.
  
  As far as Afghanistan is concerned, my criticism of Obama centers on his failure to demonstrate Presidential leadership on any issue, Afghanistan being the latest example. Whether or not one supports and earlier withdrawal, the fact is he announce a “limited ” surge and a departure date not tied to success. By trying to satisfy everyone , nothing gets accomplished. At least Bush ordered his surge in Iraq but did not link it to anything other than accomplishing his objectives. Obama leads from behind. As campaigner -in-chief , he does not deserve to be re-elected. In my lifetime , I cannot recall any president whose public statements, speeches , etc were so disconnected from what he does and how he “governs”. He is divisive , hyper-partisan, and his resort to class warfare is disgusting. For these reasons and others , I hope for change.
  - Zero
    
    First, Chrysler is manufacturing here in America, thus it is an American manufacturer. I am sure Obama stipulated that manufacturing had to stay in America. (The auto bailout was heavily stipulated unlike the bank bailout.) The demand for cars is always constant, which I believe I acknowledged previously. But you assume that the jobs would be redistributed to other car companies not located in Detroit or America at large. Unemployment would have increased significantly. One thing republicans ignore is that GDP was contracting at 8% before the stimulus–asking the market to work itself out would have been insane since we were bordering along the line of a depression. Yes, Obama saved jobs, and he saved union jobs, and he stipulated that the unions employees had to have higher pay…my question to you is what the hell is wrong with that? What is wrong with the American worker taking home a bigger paycheck at the cost of the CEOs and Executive paychecks? Obama made over a million people’s lives much better–is that not what a president is suppose to do?
    
    The best thing about the auto bailout is that the government nationalized it briefly, cleaned it out, restructured it, and it is working just fine, and on track to pay back the loans with interest. I don’t see how this was a bad policy.
    
    Now, where you can criticize Obama and where I criticize Obama is that during the bank bailout, he continued the same methodology as Bush by handing money over to them without stipulations. Bush and Obama should have done what Iceland did, which was to nationalize the banks briefly, clean it up (which would have entailed home loan mortgages and student debt), and reintroduce it with Glass-Steagall regulations.
    
    When you say “ultimately markets correct themselves” keep in mind that GDP was contracting at 8%. That means about 3 million jobs lost without a stimulus, and probably a depression.
    
    As for Obama on leadership and foreign policy, I think he is one of the best foreign policy presidents America has had. Bush led us into Iraq with his gut and not his brain. Obama voted against Iraq. If you think Iraq was worth it, you are in a shrinking minority. I stopped supporting Afghanistan a year before the found bin Laden–and I criticize Obama for not abandoning the mission. It’s not worth thousands of lives and billions of dollars.
    
    Next, do you really want to go there with the “class warfare” crap. First, you republicans have started the class warfare. Proposing a 3% tax increase on the wealthy (a tax rate that was in place during the boom-time 90s) is not radical and it is not class warfare. In fact, it is quite conservative if you look at the broader history of the American tax code. Obama is far far far right of republican Dwight Eisenhower. The only thing radical is the republicans reaction to such a modest proposal. The republican reaction to a 3% tax hike on people who won’t be hurt by it is kind of violent and ominous. I haven’t seen anything like this outside a history book on the French Revolution. Why can’t republicans be the party of Eisenhower instead of Barry Goldwater?
    
    Seriously, if you think a 3% tax hike is “class warfare,” you need to try to cleans yourself of propaganda.
    - JonS
      
      If Chrysler is an “American manufacturer”, then so is Toyota , Nissan, Daimler Benz, BMW , etc because they all have manufacturing operations in the US–so what’s the concern if demand for GM and Chrysler cars shifted to these “American Manufacturers? These would still be American jobs , just not UAW jobs. And they’d be employed in far more successful and efficient companies with far more secure jobs. Your claim that the bailouts will be cost-neutral is wrong. Even the white House estimates that the bailouts will ultimately cost taxpayers about $14billion dollars. And this does not include the $18 billion in inherited accumulated net operating losses that GM was allowed to keep. This is unheard of –normally companies that enter bankruptcy are greatly limited from doing this because the IRS does not want companies buying assets solely for tax arbitrage or tax avoidance. By keeping this tax loss “asset”, it will be years before GM will pay any corporate income tax! Thus Obama gave GM a massive tax benefit to the UAW/GM at the expense of taxpayers and its competitors , thereby distorting the market as bailouts always do.�
      Obama claims that GM recently experienced “the highest profit in its 100year history”. It would be interesting to hear how GM’s effective tax rate compares with warren Buffet’s secretary’s.
      
      Obama has no clue how the private sector operates and the kind of distortions and disruptions that his policies have created. The bailouts have sent the message that if a politically connected industry is in trouble ,the government may step in, rearrange the existing normal creditor priorities , and dictate the result it wants. Lenders will be very hesitant to extend credit under these circumstances thereby making it much harder and much more costly for a troubled company to obtain credit in the future.
    - TFRX
      
      When the next Republican is in the White House, go to some right-wing blog and pledge your purity case then, to them.
      
      And, “no clue how the private sector works” sounds like every right-winger who says “confidence” when the economists say “demand”.
    - JonS
      
      Obama has never worked in the private sector and it shows. Too many on this board assume you can promote policies and programs with no “cost to society, ie. that there is a “free lunch”. Sorry but there is no such thing as a ” free lunch”. Printing more money and borrowing from China and elsewhere doesn’t create wealth although I suspect there are many who post here that believe that.
    - TFRX
      
      For 8 years, Republican rule (and I mean rule), 5 years of “expansion”, not a whiff of a balanced budget.
      
      And you really have to stop pretending the mainstream fetish for “CEO president” means squat.
      
      Unless you want a president who fires customers. Because CEOs do that all the time.
    - Gregg
      
      I can beat that: For forty years Democrats ran the show and you have to
      go back nearly all of it to see a balanced budget. Then Newt and the
      Republican revolution of 1994. Vadda bing vadda boom, balanced budget.
      Speaking of Budgets, Obama has none (balanced or otherwise). He hasn’t
      from the get go. The last Obama budget to come to a vote went down 97-0.
      You’ve got a lot of nerve bringing up budgets.
    - Zero
      
      And he has worked in the private sector for an international business. But you guys tend to overvalue this crap. Bush was a business man, horrible president. What business experience did Clinton have, but he was a great president.
    - Modavations
      
      What’s your point.How many years ago when last you smiled.Who is persuaded by your College kid sarcasm.Oh I forgot you’ve got Tourettes.
    - JonS
      
      It would be nice if you actually addressed the point made in my post
    - Modavations
      
      Why bother.This kid is nothing more then mental masturbation.The argument goes in one ear and out the other.He should apply at the circus as a contortionist
    - Modavations
      
      The Dem.’s Crony Capitalism is Hitlers Fascism.The companies stay in private hands and the govt.controls the bosses.
    - Zero
      
      The white house doesn’t estimate that bailouts is cost neutral, the CBO project the figures that America will actually make money on the companies.
      
      The problem with most of your argument, and most of the republicans argument is that it is faith-based economics. You are assuming that the that the manufacturing is the same in America, which it is clearly more so for GM and Chrysler, and you are assuming that the other companies would need more hands to produce more supply, which I agree with, but not to the extent that you their employment would grow.
      
      $14B is the current debt, which is on track to be paid back.
      
      The autobail out is doing exactly what is was set out to do. What was written on paper is becoming reality. If Mitt Romney with all his private sector experience were in charge, unemployment would have shot up in the teens, more companies would have cut jobs because of the greater drop in demand, and the recession would have lasted longer.
      
      Also, look how Iceland did their bailout where government was politically ‘connected’ to the private industry briefly–it worked out fine, like the auto bailout is working. But the bank bailout is not a good, yet government is not ‘connected.’ So I wouldn’t assume that government is necessarily stupid all the time–republicans are the one that says government is the problem, but curiously enough, when they are in power, they are the ones that screw up government.
Terry Tree Tree

You didn’t mention the $ 20 MILLION BONE-US, that Rick Waggoner got for bankrkupting GM?�
NOR ALL the other EXECUTE-ives, that have received BONE-USes for bankrupting companies?
- Modavations
  
  How’s the movie going.Terry is starring as the Pervert Priest in the remake of the Man From N.A.M.B.L.A….When I see Terry coming, I move the Kiddies to a secure room
  - TFRX
    
    To whomever is moderating this board:
    
    Someone here called someone else a child molester.
    
    Isn’t it time to do the job of moderating?
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    Moda has posted that he has read EVERYTHING, speaks EVERY language, Has made lying statements, REPEATEDLY about me-even thought we have never met, to my knowledge?�
       Moda claims that he has bought a million incandescent light bulbs, because he refuses to use cfl, or LED lamps?
       ANY reason to believe ANYTHING he says?
       His repulsive statements about me being a child-molester, or playing a child-molesting priest, is UNCALLED FOR! It is a gross LIE, and harmful to my reputation, just because I keep reminding people here of the gross HYPOCRICY of the Catholics?
    - Modavations
      
      Those who obsess about Pedophile Priests(30 posts one day alone),were,in my opinion ,molested.Those who obsess psychotically, are often,abusers themselves .Those who repeatedly call attention to their Volunteer firefighting,often turn out to be Firebugs.
      As for,guppies,Mercury,BC,Lead,.etc., when the person knows the context,yet continues the smear,one can expect”tit for tat”
    - Modavations
      
      Terry,Terry,Terry….Were you not such an ideologue,you would understand these are questions of freedom….Don’t tell me what lights to use,don’t tell me what sugar to use,don’t tell me what car to drive,don’t tell Churches to forget the Conscience clause and keep the gestapo out of my kids’ lunch pail.
      
      By the way you and Ms Shatowsky are so wrong.20,000 high paying XL Pipeline jobs are indeed,a big deal
  - nj_v2
    
    Honestly, WBUR, WTF?!
    
    How much garbage are y’all going to allow to be posted in this forum before you set up a simple set of standards and enforce them?
    
    Ten, one-sentence guidelines would do it. Hire an intern to moderate. It’s really not that difficult.
    - Modavations
      
      Do you not understand the concept of free speech?What good is a forum that only speaks Leftisms?It becomes an AA meeting.This is Pluralist America,not Orwells 1984..Frankly you offend free thinkers.More pathetically,you feel your opinions are unquestionably correct,no others need be posted.
    - Anonymous
      
      Your idea of “Pluralist America” seems pretty exclusive on the face of it.
      You seem to think this is a pluralistic society for you and your political mindset.
      
      You are right that you are in the guidelines of free speech. However so are others.
      I’m also under the same umbrella of free speech and I say, have you no sense of decency? Are you so bored and scarce half made up that you need to post all this dribble day in and day out?
      
      You cross the line of free speech when you start to make accusations about someone being a child molester. And you do so in ways that are pretty offensive.
      The diatribes are just what they seem, pointless rhetoric designed to get a response.
    - Modavations
      
      Mothman
    - Modavations
      
      Do you not think it strange that one would shriek over thirty times in one day ,about Pedophile Priests.That’s in one day!!!!Now read my psychological work up below.Furthermore,I’ll bet my intuition about our mate is correct.
    - Anonymous
      
      Well, that’s your intuition and I for one do not see a need to post on it.
- Modavations
  
  Did Tom A.explain to you why he uses zillions and kizillions?.He said he’d give you a buzz.I told him you were to dumb.He said,,,,,”I know,I know”
- JonS
  
  If Waggoner’s salary was $o , do you honestly think GM would have avoided bankruptcy? The compensation CEOs get does not cause corporate bankruptcies. Are CEOs deserving of these salaries –by all means no but are movie stars or pro athletes deserving of what they get paid? The truth is , salaried workers at GM have suffered much more than union workers. Salaried employees have lost much of their their pension benefits , have had bonuses and salary curtailed and medical benefits reduced. But existing UAW workers have not had to suffer any significant cutbacks.
- Modavations
  
  Bone-us…..TerryTT and his obsession…..Hmmmm
- Brett
  
  Aren’t you really just playing the blog forum equivalent of “pull my finger” with that comment? …I’ll bet your joke killed at the local Middle school’s recess yard.
Modavations

Senator Obama…I will accept only public financing….Pres.Obama…Please doNate to my super pac.
SeN.ObaMA….$4.00 PER GALLON GAS IS A FRIGGIN WAR CRIME….pRES.oBAMA…MY HANDS ARE TIED….sEN.oBAMA….IT’S TRAITOROUS TO RAISE THE DEBT CEILING….pRES.oBAMA…DEFICITS DON ‘T MATTER……Sen.OBAMA…we’re going to be the most open Presidency…..Pres.Obama…The hearings on Govt.Openess will be held behinD closed doors.Sen.Obama….no lobbyistS…Pres.Obama nothing but GolDman BANKERS FOR ME….

fINALLY.pRESZ.oBAMA WAS THE ONLY VOTE OUT OF 100 TO ACCEPT INFANTICIDE OF ABORTED CHILDREN BORN ALIVE.

Fredlinskip

Now if Gingrich promised to lower gas prices to what they were last year of Clinton admin (11 short years ago), I’d be impressed:

Under $1

Gregg

That may be asking a little much. How about the $1.67/gal. (or so) Obama inherited from Bush?
- fredlinskip
  
  Well at least we haven’t hit the over $4 price average we had 5 months before ’08 election, yet.
  
  Why is it that gas prices seem to spike before national elections anyway?- especially when there is a Democrat incumbent in office?
  - Modavations
    
    I’d answer,but this would just lead to hours of your usual mental masturbation.Pull yourself from your busy Sunday and tell us why JFK lowered the tax rates.
    - Fredlinskip
      
      With such a respectful approach how can I resist answering.
      I don’t know why Kennedy lowered tax rates for higher income brackets down from 91%- he probably should have raised them instead, because the economy had been doing pretty well at the time.
      
      Maybe it was because he was a 1%er?
    - Modavations
      
      Guess!!!
- TFRX
  
  Scratch a “reasonable right winger”, find someone who measures trough-to-crest or crest-to-trough.
  - Modavations
    
    make a point.When was the last time you smiled.
    - TFRX
      
      Making an ass out of you and you again, eh?
    - Gregg
      
      I’ll take this opportunity to say, I smiled several times today and laughed out loud more than once. It’s not just an acronym. Life is good.

Zero

AP just released the 911 tapes during the murder of the young man in Florida. Everybody in America should be forced to listen to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeNIDYQ5jQg

Hidan

sad
Anonymous

This is one very sad story about race and class.
My question is why on earth is a Neighborhood Watch patrol person allowed to be armed? This kind of vigilante mindset is very dangerous for any community. As this horrible unjustified killing clearly illustrates.
- Modavations
  
  And just what are the facts?
  - Anonymous
    
    That this man shot an unarmed 17 year old African American kid who was the someones child. What is wrong with you?
    - Modavations
      
      alleged.That’s my friggin point
    - Anonymous
      
      But a 17 year old unarmed kid is dead, due to this mans actions. That is a fact.
    - magee tats magee
      
      u do realize that rich white people in gated communities in the south are generally racist why didn’t he drive instead of walking its like rich white people in inner cities they don’t walk

Dee

Re: William and his honest Israeli state….

“For all the money wasted on the Palestinian people they seem to be just as inept and corrupt as always. At least, Israel is a much more capable and honest country.”�
“The Palestinians contine to vote for thugs to run their affairs and until the thugs get killed or change their ways there will be no peace.”

William.

I pity your continued blindness to the ongoing lawlessness and corrupt�
Zionist state of Israel and its Regime in the Palestinian territories . And while you seem to continue to swallow Zionist propagandists –many like myself in the US see the truth in Sir John Trouthback ‘s memo to the British Foreign Minister, Ernest Bevin on June 2 1948 noting that Americans were responsible for the creation of “a gangster state ” headed by “an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders.” ( cited by Israeli historian Avi Shlaim from the British Public Records in his NYT column below, see URL below.)

That same moral outraged exists today among many Americans�
with Israeli officials and their mobster arm in AIPAC who continued�
to force American politicians hand to do their bidding with the illegal
misappropriations of US tax payers dollars and arms in violation of�
Federal Laws to known Human Rights abusers….

Especially, the expansion of illegal settlements in defiance of inter-inational law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, “The Occupying�
power shall not deport or transfer part of its own civilian population�
into the territory it occupies.”

And now that wider spread of lawlessness and escalation into Iraq�
and Afghanistan , Yemen , Libya today. And the calls for a regime change in Syria (arming the so called Free Syrian Army , See URL�
about this ) and an attack on Iran’s nuclear..(Many countries today
have nuclear capability and no one suggested taking out their cap-
ability. Not even the US during the 40 yrs of the Cold War with the�
Soviet Union. )

Israel has been warned repeatedly of the impact of moral outraged�
by the world towards its ruthless disregard for the law in the Pales-
tinian Territories and its war mongering in the region by the former�
Attorney General http://www.seruv.org.il/english/article.asp?msgid=77&type=article ) and by Abba Eban in his NYT Op-Ed�
Feb. 28,1988.

“If we insist on ruling an entire territory and population (which was�
never envisioned when we made the dramatic breakthrough to Jew-
ish statehood), we shall lose our Jewish majority , our democratic�
principles, our hope of ultimate peace, the propspect of avoiding war,
the maintenance of international friendships , the durability of the�
Egyptian treaty relationships and any chance of a national consensus
home. The status quo is the least viable and most catastrophic of all
Israeli options.”

In addition, to the 60 yrs to its Peace Process (Sham) from the Scanton Mission on behalf of President Nixon in 1970 to the Quartet’s Roadmap to Peace in 2004— while building Settlements to beat the band…

Thus many Americans and others around the world feel utterly deceived by Israeli officials dishonesty and corruption from first being forced to re-cognize Israel as “a Jewish state” during the Truman years (see the URL below by late Richard Holbrooke ) and later by Senator Fulbright in the Senate to bring a sense of justice and fairness to the Palestinian plight.
(see the URLs below on this also.)

Now, it seems there are few people in the Senate & House willing to�
speak out against this mobster arm of the Zionst Regime today–AIPAC.

Yet luckily many Americans have their number today and they will take to the streets again and oppose Neocons and Zionist Suicidal policies in the Middle East-except next time I imagine it will be a ground swell… (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29108) Dee

Postscript : And ask for the corrupt and lawless state of Israel–it will lose moral support to maintain the state as its former Attorney General Michael Ben Yair and Israeli official Abba Eban warned above in his NYT Op-Ed above…

Projection: it’s the Neocons and Likudniks Who Are Suicidal http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/15/projection_its_the_neocons_and_likudniks_who_are_s/)

The Real obstacle to peace is Sharon, not Arafat……NYT 2003�
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/24/opinion/24iht-edshlaim_ed3_.html

Washington’s Battle over Israel’s Birth….Richard Holbrooke�
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/06/AR2008050602447.html

Senator Fulbright, Israel Controls the US Senate�
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/08/295131.shtml

Modavations

This Afternoon a guy named Ira Glass,did a mea culpa.Evidently the stories his pal had written about FoxConn(?),were all lies….I’m sure Mr.Glass was about to be “outed” and thus the admission.
Dems are funny folk.They want us to forget that the founder of the Republican Party freed the slaves. That their heroes Stalin,Mao,Hitler were just misunderstood.That if we gave Communism one more try,it would surely work.
I could never understand why Lefty’s post on NPR.It’s talking to the choir.Then it dawned on me this is an AA meeting,for washed up Bolsheviks..
Mr.Clooney flies in on his private jet to psychologically bleed for Africa.Mr.Clooney, every ghetto in America is a hell hole and Khartoum,is probably safer.

Terry Tree Tree

Have ALL networks that played James O’Keefe’s mis-leading, and often out-right lying ‘interviews’, done as well as Ira Glass?�
O’Keefe admitted in an interview, that he totally mis-lead with his ‘stories’, on purpose!�
Ira Glass said they vetted the Foxxcon story, just NOT WELL ENOUGH?
- Modavations
  
  Arn’t you one of the guys who went on and on about Apple(the Greeeeeedy greeeeedies) and kids jumping out of windows?

Dee

addendum…

Previous demonstrations & protest against a US strike on Iran�
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29108

Juan

Santorum is now saying he’ll have a porn czar in his administration to “root out” pornographic material that “his administration deems obscene.” …Just what we need, another overpaid bureaucrat acting as morality cop. What’s up with those Repubs? Santorum is coming up with “big ideas” like a government-run anti-porn department, Newt wants to turn our children into low-paid factory workers and Romney wants only to help his buddies at the country club (to hell with average working Americans I guess is his thinking, but who knows; I don’t even think Romney imagines being president, just winning the election).

Terry Tree Tree

Santorum has CLEANED UP his own religious group? I thought he is Catholic?�
Stinking Pedophile priests are NOT worse than porn, in Rick’s mind?�
- Modavations
  
  Those who obsess, tend to be guilty of what they obsess.
  - Brett
    
    Yep…well, that’s what Freud thought, anyway…Of course, that was so long ago.
    
    …In fact, what you say (and what Freud thought) is completely wrong. If you felt like it, you could go through a few of the many studies done over the years, and those prove that the diametric opposite of what you say is actually true: those who obsess are less likely “to be guilty of what they obsess,” to borrow one of your aforementioned phrases.
    - Modavations
      
      freud said it all boils down to Chicks.Freud and Einstein have never been repudiated.To what do you refer?Firebugs are often frustrated wanna be firefighters.Mall Cops are frustrated Policemen….And I guarantee you Terry was molested by Priests.The rest I leave to you.
    - Modavations
      
      Explain to me why you think someone would post over 30 times in one day,about Pedophile Priests.This is in one day.Terry has been going on forever.Your thoughts Bro B(Dr.B today).PS-I asked Terry do you think about this crapola when you sleep?He said yes,Pedophile Priests molest at all hours
    - Modavations
      
      Talked to my cuz who counsels drug addicts.He said my theory is valid,that there are no clinical terms.I then googled and came up short.Just articles on sexual obsessions.Tell me what you’ve read and where I can find it?
    - Brett
      
      Freud, God love him (“j”), was an interesting and valuable character in the history of psychology; and, as a historical figure, he should be honored and remembered within that context only. He helped usher in a sea-change of thinking about mental health issues. Generally speaking, prior to Freud (and I’m simplifying a bit), such matters were viewed as being the result of demonic possession. After Freud, it was thought that perhaps talking to the person and finding out something about his/her troubles (and perspective on those troubles) just might give some insight into the origin of the problem. However, his ideas on what he called “obsessional neurosis” were typical of his other ideas (based, by the way, almost entirely on his very first session with his very first patient and on two basic categories of mental “afflictions” of the day, i.e., hysteria and melancholia), that “abnormal” behavior was caused by the patient’s parents (namely the mother) and by sexual repression. I suspect, being raised in a family of women (several sisters, no brothers and a very strong mother figure), and being at odds with his father all of his life (with whom Freud had quite the contentious relationship), not to mention living in Victorian times and being very chauvinistic toward his wife, Freud might just have been a product of his times more so than a great timeless thinker. Of course, that’s just my take on Freud. If Freud had devoted himself to science instead of his more bourgeois concerns, we’d have had more of a legacy from him, I’m convinced, but he was more of a pseudo-intellectual who desired prestige than he was a scientist who employed critical thinking.
      
      Freud’s views on OCD are considered dated and of no therapeutic value anymore. OCD, as a distinct disorder, is considered to have an etiology of neurological malfunction, i.e., it’s a brain disease and not a result of mistreatment in childhood. There’s a Dr. Jenike at McLean hospital in your state who might just know a thing or two about what I’m saying. Also, there has been a lot of interesting research at the Yale University of medicine which could take what I’m saying a lot farther for you. In fact, a Dr. Goodman there created “YBOCS,” a scale for evaluating symptoms in making proper diagnoses. At any rate, the old view of obsessions, compulsions, and the like, changed considerably from the 1960′s through the 1980′s, with refinements to those changes happening in the last twenty years or so.
      
      Now, to your main curiosity. You seem to want to make synonymous such things as behaviors and thoughts, and you also want to make the causes of certain specific behaviors directly related to the origins of certain thoughts. While those four things in some cases may be related, they are different, and their relationships are complicated if not complex. You also wish to confuse those impulses which drive desire with manifestations that may result from desire being suppressed, and vice versa; which, again, in some cases, may be related but can’t be empirically demonstrated for one to conclude causal relationships. If you wish to be seen as rational, you can no more conclude that Triple T was molested as a child than I can conclude that you are obsessed with Triple T.

david

Hey guys!!!
Just wanted to remind you folks, less you have forgotten to check, our National debt is now $15.5 TRILLION!!!!!

Gregg

Dang that Bush!
- Fredlinskip
  
  You know it just occurred to me- in all the discussions I’ve had with you I don’t know if I ever mentioned:
  
  I’m not a big W fan.
  - Modavations
    
    The import is wha?t.I’m no fan of Pres.Obama and so what!!!I’m sure you’re a fan of JFK.Tell us why you think he dropped the tax rates.Here’s a hint….The same reason that Bush dropped the rates!!!!
    - Fredlinskip
      
      There’s a bit of difference from lowering tax rates down from 91%, than lowering them down from 39%.
      
      Lowering from 91% MAY HAVE been beneficial to economy.
      
      Lowering from 39% benefited only those who like huge national debts and deficits, and an economy that benefits the few- a category you apparently fall into.
    - Modavations
      
      Mental masturbation.Why did he lower the rates?.He states many times why he did so.Did you see the breakdown of where the Bush Tax Cuts wentThere are many accessable speeches by JFK.Read a few(takes 10 minutes) and report back,please
- Still Here
  
  Which one? Or both? Or their great grand pappy? Oh, who cares, they’re all to blame!
- magee tats magee
  
  walker bush got screwed over by the economy bubble popping i don’t know how much was his fault but it wasn’t all his fault he is being blamed like Herbert hover tho this all happened before. he couldn’t do anything it was the risk banks took this generation of bankers never went though a depression so loans were “why not” and it spiraled
Zero

And what would reduce the deficit faster than anything else…the Bush Tax Cuts.
- Modavations
  
  36% went to the poor,6% to the rich,the rest to the middle.The rich portion is 70 billion a year.The interest on the debt is 457Billion this year alone.To quote Herr Carville,”it’s the spending stupid”

Still Here

Domestic oil and gas exploration could be the engine to drive this economy, if only Obama cared about American jobs.

Longfellow’s Evangeline

Tom and all, I saw a video on Youtube that shows us what is wrong with American education, racism, isolationism and how man and animal can learn from each other. Please, just take a look, first you lol, than you admire greatly, then you think long and hard about music, dance, relationships, and learning about one another. Title of video is El Baile Profesional (HD) – Merengue. (I think my own mother danced around her pie when she put the merengue on top. Merengue, and pie’s inspire the dance. All is ready. Here is link if it will copy. You’ll see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_lA2kRol4k&feature=BFa&list=FL6tsgMyj_49_akrUW7CLZSg&lf=plcp

Guests

From Tom’s Reading List