.Common Sense
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LAT: Medical bills behind most bankruptcies in 2007

06-25-09 8:52 A GMT-08
Almost 78% of medical related bankruptcies were in spite of the affected families carrying private health insurance at the onset of their medical problems. We can haz public option plez?

NYT: Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists

06-25-09 8:42 A GMT-08
Oops! Money flowed to Taliban and terrorists before 911. The Saudis try to dig out from under a growing pile of evidence.

Public Favors Public Option in HealthCare Plan

06-22-09 12:59 P GMT-08
Having a public option also the best way to keep costs under control. Write or call your Congress person and ask them to make sure the American public is given a real choice and health care reform is given a real chance.

My favorite Mainstream Picture of Iranian Demonstrations

06-18-09 10:35 A GMT-08
Read the yellow sign. I think that says it all.

Foreign Policy: What's Really Behind Israel's Call for 'Natural Growth' of Settlements in West Bank

06-15-09 2:49 P GMT-08
I also contend that what is at stake here is cheap (free) land for 'settlers'. Imagine the popularity of the government that can offer such a deal for adventurous types. That's why Olmert wanted to seize Lebanon up to the Litani when Israel was considering giving back West Bank. What politician dares go against the hunger for cheap land in Israel?

Reuters: Spring Break Swine Flu May Have Been Around for Over a Decade

06-12-09 1:24 A GMT-08
The immediate ancestors of H1N1 Swine flu that emerged from Mexico during Spring Break are likely to have been around for more than a decade. The current outbreak most likely started in January in that nation. More evidence that the Mexican govt doesn't really care about its people.

Pension Groups Take Chrysler Sale to Supreme Court

06-08-09 4:54 P GMT-08
Also, owners of previously purchased vehicles are worried about the car company's liability if their automobiles are shown to be defective.

Spreading Rogue Protein Responsible for Alzheimers

06-08-09 4:34 P GMT-08
A rogue protein called tau can spread throughout the Alzheimers' brain to destroy tissue. The protein is being compared to the "prion" of vJCD (and mad cow disease).

Slate: Tragic -- Former Animal Tester Exposes the New Cruelties

06-07-09 6:03 A GMT-08
Are new methods really better than old ones?

Washington Post: Sotomayor's Gun Rights Decision Similar To New Ruling by Revered Conservative Circuit Court Judge

06-03-09 6:01 P GMT-08
7th Circuit panel found the knock down of DC's gun right law was okay. 2nd amendment applies only to federal govt or federal enclave like DC. The Decision was a unanimous ruling by 3 Republican appt jurists including Richard Posner.

Badtux: It's Not Just Doctors That Gun Goons and Religionists Are Targeting. Judges are often threatened, too.

06-02-09 3:46 P GMT-08
The new motto of the US: If someone doesn't agree with you, you hunt 'em down and kill 'em, apparently.

Tweet Tees

05-31-09 5:10 P GMT-08
How about 1 that says "Can't breath! Need more room." or "We can haz 200 letters B4 we scratch ur eyes out?"

Signs Say Recession Ending. Will We Bump Along the Bottom?

05-28-09 5:51 P GMT-08
I'm guessing yes, because the Wall Street banks who got the money don't want to lend it. They'd like to make Obama look bad so they can have their War and 'Tax Cuts for the Rich' Party back on top.

John Yoo Attacking Sotomayor

05-28-09 5:20 P GMT-08
Probably the best thing he's done in a decade. She'd be a shoe-in if this were a general vote with his 'help'.

NYT: When the Justices Ask Questions, Be Prepared to Lose the Case

05-26-09 3:15 P GMT-08
The side of a case before the US Supreme Court that gets more questions from the bench is statistically more likely to lose, but even more important is which side gets more negative words spoken about it (and the report did not indicate --to my understanding-- that those disparaging messages had to come from the bench). What's next? Rap slams at the Supreme Court? But one lawyer says study taught her to shut up when a judge was questioning the opposition.

Centrist Print Journalists Say Shut up, Sit Down, and Get Your Ideas From Us!

05-26-09 12:56 A GMT-08
Well, I call the center right because the center has shifted so far to the right, but I see I'm agreeing with the blogger about the propaganda style coming from the newspaper crowd. And MSN is furious about losing control of the American psyche. And watching the Baltimore Sun journo start ranting himself over "cable news" esp MSNBC's stars (no bias there? yeah, right) is priceless.

Firedoglake: Reagan's Anti-tax Strongholds Feeling Bite of Recession the Worst

05-25-09 3:54 P GMT-08
Discussion of cities and economy of scale, but also of how Big Money co-opts (through their wheel greasing money) Judeo-Christian conservatives. Author believes all that money now is gone, but haven't we seen some of that bailout money we gave the big banks being diverted to politics especially surrounding EFCA? Also a lot of political donations can be hidden by donating to the Chamber of Commerce and other non profits w/o disclosure who can then use it for 'political education' as long as they refrain from endorsing specific candidates. Hat tip @ericgrant at Twitter.com

Twitter is the New Cave Art?

05-25-09 2:31 P GMT-08
Well, maybe it's not quite as long lasting, though I think I've read some posts from early newlists that come from the mid eighties. They were often approaching twitter like brevity. Even for the early adopters, scientists and computer geeks sending up anything on those sloooowwwww dial up connections from comparatively snail speed computers to glaciially updating BB services a little script was a big thing. Hat tip @irasocol at Twitter.com

WP -- Former Senator Bob Graham: Eye's Forward on Intelligence

05-24-09 7:18 A GMT-08
Graham's revelations that CIA records do not coincide with his meticulous ones in re when they talked to him in his role on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Why they need better record keeping.

Washington Post: Revealing the Hidden Cost Of Credit Cards

05-24-09 7:10 A GMT-08
Notes the fact that the person who pays his or her bill every month is using free money services paid by the rest of us. Now that the Congress and Obama have put constraints on the gouging of the rest of us capitalism with do what it does best, go after those who are getting the service for free.

NASA New Head is Former Shuttle Commander

05-23-09 7:08 P GMT-08
That has to be good for safety.

Civil Union Reality May Keep Adopted Children From Bedsides of Dying Parent

05-23-09 7:04 P GMT-08
It is not, is never actually the same. Plus it is a way to tell families they are second class citizens.

NY Times. Californian doesn't even even charge for the extraction of oil in state?

05-22-09 4:53 P GMT-08
In a report mostly going over the talking points of California's search for money and the federal government denying loan guarantees the Jennifer Steinhauer talks about CA starting to charge for oil extraction. ???? WE HAVEN'T BEEN DOING THAT?

The Above Linkblogs Might Contain "Borrowed" links.

Linkblogs do not substantially contribute traffic to my blog that I can discover. They all go offsite, and are often accessed from my blog. It's possible to access them from the RSS according to my settings. Still, even if I were to get ads clicking on a linkblog from the RSS won't drive more people to my blog than otherwise because they leave my resources. (Note to self, do more posts, less LBs with sources I find). I explain because I sometimes borrow links from people at Twitter, and often forget who put them up. (To fellow Twitterers: If you have a link to your blog, I will point it there, but Twitter, being impermanent, cannot hold your link for people to discover from there. I only 'borrow' them to get news out to as many people as I can who might not have seen the reports and videos found by the smart people I follow at Twitter or find in search rooms.

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Forget McBush. John McCain is Turning Into Nixon-Agnew. New ads show the Republican Team's Meanspirited and Misleading Tactics

posted 07-31-08

McCain's staff is having him okay lies and nastiness with a hint of racism. 

This isn't a 527 group or even the RNC but the senator himself descending into the lower depths of murky politics.

Two ads released in the last week bear Senator John McCain's approval.

The first one lied when it said that Barack Obama didn't go to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center because he couldn't take photographers or reporters with him. 

As Mike Shear and Dan Balz wrote in the Washington Post report "" :

For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.

...

The essence of McCain's allegation is that Obama planned to take a media entourage, including television cameras, to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany during his week-long foreign trip, and that he canceled the visit when he learned he could not do so. "I know that, according to reports, that he wanted to bring media people and cameras and his campaign staffers," McCain said Monday night on CNN's "Larry King Live."

The Obama campaign has denied that was the reason he called off the visit. In fact, there is no evidence that he planned to take anyone to the American hospital other than a military adviser, whose status as a campaign staff member sparked last-minute concern among Pentagon officials that the visit would be an improper political event.

And the McCain camp continues to lie on the subject even offering bogus evidence.

The Post article continues:

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said again yesterday that the Republican's version of events is correct, and that Obama canceled the visit because he was not allowed to take reporters and cameras into the hospital.

"It is safe to say that, according to press reports, Barack Obama avoided, skipped, canceled the visit because of those reasons," he said. "We're not making a leap here."

Asked repeatedly for the "reports," Bounds provided three examples, none of which alleged that Obama had wanted to take members of the media to the hospital.

and 

A reconstruction of the circumstances surrounding Obama's decision not to visit Landstuhl, based on firsthand reporting from the trip, shows that his campaign never contemplated taking the media with him.

And, of course there are more details at the original linked above if you need them. 

Fact Check.Org  also examined that ad out and found it wanting in " " subtitled: "A McCain TV spot falsely insinuates that Obama canceled his visit because "the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras."

But now the McCain camp has a new ad showing people that Barack Obama isn't like most Americans.  The camp of the guy who can't keep his mind on important facts and has anger management problems equates Barack Obama with Paris Hilton and implies that Senator Obama is just a pop star phenomenum hoping that you'll forget Team Obama with 300 prime foreign policy experts from all sides of the questions as described by Elizabeth Bumiller in the New York Times, or his talks in the past few days with a couple of Pauls who have agreed to work with the Senator Obama on economic policy.  That would be Paul O'Neill the first treasure secretary of the Bush administration, and the near legendary former fed chief Paul Volker.  (Some consider O'Neil near legendary too, but it's hard to ignore the way Volker is talked about so I put it in.) 

More details on the economic summit come out in AFP report "

Obama's economic panel included former treasury secretary Robert Rubin, ex-Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, billionaire investor Warren Buffett and Google chairman Eric Schmidt.

Boosting Obama's appeal for a break with partisan politics, two ex-members of President George W. Bush's administration -- Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill and Securities and Exchange commissioner William Donaldson -- also attended.

So Obama is much more than a pop star.  

But no matter the McCain camp  has other allegations to make about Obama. 

Another Fact Check.Org  report "" talks about those allegations:

The announcer then asks whether Obama is ready to lead before informing us that Obama opposes offshore drilling and "says he'll raise taxes on electricity." The cheering crowds are replaced by ominous music as the suddenly serious announcer intones, "Higher taxes. Foreign Oil. That's the real Obama."

The McCain campaign sent reporters a set of "ad facts" to accompany the new spot. But the campaign's sole source for its charge that Obama wants to raise taxes on electricity is a short Feb. 19 interview that Obama gave to Carlos Guerra, a reporter with the San Antonio Express-News. Obama does in fact say, "What we ought to tax is dirty energy, like coal and, to a lesser extent, natural gas." But that quote is out of context. Obama and Guerra are discussing possible ways to fund education.

...

We asked the McCain campaign if it had any other information on which to base this "taxes on electricity" claim, and we received no response. We looked, but could find no instance of Obama making mention of a tax on electricity or any other reference to a "dirty energy" tax. In any case, no such policy proposals are currently part of his public platform.

 And see the rest of the Fact Check. Org article as linked immediately above for the entirety of what they have discerned on Obama's and McCain's policies on cap and trade systems.

They also note the significance of using Paris and Britney, but I also feel a note of Nixon's Silent Majority campaign.

The McCain people are saying "Barack Obama ain't like us, Honey".  (Shades of "Society's Child")

I hate to tell Mr. McCain.  I may be white like him, but I sure as Hell am not a grumpy old fool like he is.  If there really is a majority that wants to be like McCain, then they've sunk even lower than they did for George W. Bush.  And I'm glad I'm not one of them. 

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