Monthly Archives: October 2009

A “terror-industrial complex”..?

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That there is a “terror industrial complex” shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, though the story of Colin Powell referring to it in an interview seems to have slipped by all the MSM.

From The Raw Story:

When MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann welcomed three former members of Monty Python to Countdown on Wednesday, his biggest surprise was a question from Terry Gilliam, “How come that Colin Powell interview about the terror-industrial complex didn’t become a bigger story?”Olbermann was taken aback by the question, but by the next day he had uncovered Powell’s September 12, 2007 interview with GQ Magazine. Powell’s apology in that interview for his use of faulty intelligence prior to the Iraq War grabbed the headlines at the time, but he also delivered a far less-noticed warning against what Olbermann now calls “an entire aspect of the nexus of politics and terror.”

Naomi Klein talks about this at the end of her book “The Shock Doctrine“. She refers to it as “disaster capitalism complex”, and she talks specifically about the move towards “homeland security”, private armies, etc.. towards the end as the wave of the future, and the opportunity presented for these corporations with this endless “War on Terror”. She talked about “losing the peace incentive”.

What incentive is there for peace when there is so much money [profits] to be made, and power to be had… It’s big business, the wave of the future, and it’s booming. In fact, there is no real incentive for people to NOT be ‘terrorized’.. Peace is bad for business.

Ouch..

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US military says 4 US troopers die in blast as Afghan panel finishes count

“The deaths bring to 25 the number of American service members killed in Afghanistan this month, according to an Associated Press count.”

That brings the total to date of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan to 877. For the best and most current reporting on what is happening in Afghanistan, go to Informed Comment and read up starting with today’s post called “Afghanistan Election Run-Off, Italian Scandal, Lahore Attacks on Eve of Obama Decision“.

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Jeff Danziger, Syndicated Political Cartoonist

Maddow confronts ‘parasitic’ astroturf leader

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And confront she does.. Remember the signs with the red hands reading “Hands Off My Healthcare“?

Remember this? Americans for Prosperity Compares Health Care Reform To Holocaust, Tells Protesters To Put ‘Fear Of God’ In Members Of Congress

[Following a video of a rally of a Patients First bus tour event in Pueblo, CO]: Patients First is a project of Americans for Prosperity–one of the key conservative interests groups helping to organize the town hall protests we’ve been covering. The speaker repeats the debunked conservative canard that Democratic health care reform will mandate physician assisted suicide. “Adolf Hitler issued six million end of life orders–he called his program the final solution. I kind of wonder what we’re going to call ours.”

And after comparing Democratic health care reform efforts to the murderous regimes of Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot, the speaker advises his audience to “go to offices of members of Congress and put the fear of god in them.”

Last night Rachel Maddow had Americans for Prosperity‘s president Tim Phillips, talking to him about his so-called “grassroots” organization, and about the nature of the corporate-backed political advocacy. To say that this discussion was riveting is the understatement of the century.

It continues to amaze me how much grit Rachel has while maintaining absolute focus and respectfulness throughout her interviewing. She was seriously tough, and it ended well. Intense, and yet dignified debate. The hypocrisy of this man is astounding.

Rachel Maddow is a class act. The interview is in two parts:

Part 1:

Part 2:

GOP Blocks Another Attempt to Extend Unemployment Benefits

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In the most under-reported story of the week, the Republican’s have, yet again, screwed over the people who have been hardest hit by the recession. This is the second time this month that the GOP has blocked extending unemployment benefits.

Washington Independent’s Mike Lillis wrote:

Last week, Senate Democratic leaders rolled out a proposal to extend unemployment insurance by 14 weeks — with an extra six weeks thrown in for those states where jobless figures have topped 8.5 percent — only to have Republicans block the measure on the chamber floor.

Well, today it happened again.

According to the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Democrats on Tuesday asked for consent to pass the bill, only to be shot down by GOP leaders.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Republicans aren’t objecting to the extension, but to how it’s funded. (The Democrats’ plan would tap an expiring surtax on businesses, while the Republicans want to use unspent money from the stimulus bill.)

The House has already passed its version of the extension. With unemployment numbers creeping up each month, the pressure’s on the Senate to work out a deal quickly.

The saddest thing about this story is not the story itself (which is disgusting enough), but the comments by regular American people who responded to this story and the desperation some of them are feeling. I have posted the following comments as they were written.

My unemployment benefits ran out in August and I am barely holding on. I am watching daily to see if this bill will be passed. I lost my job and went from a salary of comfortable salary to $450.00 a week.my family and I was able to live off of our saving for a while but now we are dependent on UI benefits. My husband was layed off and we are only surviving on his benefits. We are in jeopardy of losing our home. We’ve already lost both cars and have had to cut our expenses substantially. As the weather changed we are afraid to use our heater and we are bundling up for fear of not being able to pay the bill our heating bill.. . I need the GOP to get off their high horses and live a day in my life. I guess if you haven’t been affected by the economy then you don’t get it. I will just continue to pray.

I wish people would stop playing the blame game, and realize it doesn’t matter who we vote in or out!

And…

well i finally got enough money to buy a little groceries for the kids and the rent never thought i would have to do what i did to get it but necessity out ways legality,all because these assholes aren’t in our shoes, so they can take there sweet time because the crime rate will go up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It would be nice if the GOP would leave their bubble of knee-jerk obstruction to see real American’s who are suffering. Their lives should not be used as political pawns by a party who wants every opportunity to create a Democratic Waterloo.

Thankfully, not all is lost. More comments and commentary below the fold.
Continue reading →

The Watering Hole: October 15 – Science in 1959

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This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments on any subject.

Technology day – In the mid to late 1950′s awareness of a new vacuum tube technology was just dueling with the newly rising transistor.

These tubes used magnesium oxide in the cathode as an electron source instead of the normal titanium dioxide. They were called “Cold Cathode Electron Tubes” because they relied on electronic fields rather than boiling off electrons at temperatures of about 800 degrees Fahrenheit  and gave the transistor a run for the money until the integrated circuit leveled the field (You can scrool up and down this link (April 1959 issue of Popular Science) for the most interesting and sometimes humorous links in the fields of science and advertising.)

Health bills in Congress won’t fix doctor shortage

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From McClatchy:

Even as Congress moves to expand health insurance coverage to millions of Americans, it’s doing little to ensure there will be enough primary care doctors to meet the expected surge in demand for treatment, experts say.

The American Academy of Family Physicians predicts that the shortage of family doctors will reach 40,000 in the next 10 years, as medical schools send about half the needed number of graduates into primary care medicine. The overall shortage of doctors is expected to increase to nearly 160,000 by 2025, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

“I don’t see anything in the legislation that will greatly increase the primary care pipeline,” said Dr. Russell Robertson, the chairman of the Council on Graduate Medical Education, which advises Congress.

In addition to making sure patients have access to care, increasing the number and proportion of primary care doctors is crucial to lowering health costs, Robertson said. Primary care doctors make up about a third of all physicians, though in most industrialized nations they make up half.

“You can’t reduce health costs without increasing the supply of primary care doctors,” Robertson said.

Read more…

More on this directly from the American Academy of Family Practice.

“You can’t reduce health costs without increasing the supply of primary care doctors..”

This is absolutely true! We as a nation have got to find a way to incentivize medical students to go into family practice instead of going for the specialties where the big money is. The trend is definitely moving in the wrong direction..

If you want to do something to make your voice heard on real healthcare reform..

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From CommonDreams:

Citizens and Health Care Providers Will Risk Arrest at Health Insurance Offices in Nine Cities Across the Country on Thursday

Civil disobedience is part of a national mobilization to end insurance abuse and win real health care reform

WASHINGTON – October 13 – Citizens and health care providers are participating in sit-ins at health insurance offices in nine cities across the country on Thursday to call for real reform that addresses the real cause of the health care crisis, the insurance companies. Within the past 16 days, over 700 people have signed up to risk arrest by sitting down in an insurance company office and refusing to leave, demanding the immediate approval of lifesavaing doctor-recommended treatment and an end to denial of care.

For locations across the country, dates and times, and contact information,
go here.

The actions are the start of a national movement, coordinated by the group Mobilization for Health Care for All, of people who are fed up with the state of health care in this country, fed up with the state of the health care debate in this country, and are putting themselves on the line for real health care reform. Chanting messages such as “patients not profits,” participants in the actions are expected to say that insurance companies that deny people the care that they need for profit are the real death panels. They will show that the legislation currently in the limelight fails to address the real problem, the insurance companies. Read on…

Diving headlong into the ‘graveyard of empires’..

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As we fill more graveyards at home..

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Support Troops Swelling U.S. Force in Afghanistan
Additional Deployments Not Announced and Rarely Noted

The additional troops are primarily support forces, including engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police. Their deployment has received little mention by officials at the Pentagon and the White House, who have spoken more publicly about the combat troops who have been sent to Afghanistan.

The deployment of the support troops to Afghanistan brings the total increase approved by Obama to 34,000. The buildup has raised the number of U.S. troops deployed to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan above the peak during the Iraq “surge” that President George W. Bush ordered, officials said… (Continue reading)

There is a reason Afghanistan is known as the “Graveyard of Empires”..

You might want to read this as well..

Democrats and Afghanistan: What’s at Stake by Glenn Greenwald

All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World

In case you missed it..

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On Bill Moyers Journal [PBS] of Friday Oct. 9, 2009, Bill Moyers discussed health-industry lobbying and its ties to political legislators, particularly Baucus, who are shaping the current health-care reform bills with guests Simon Johnson and Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).

Continue reading →

Weiner: Misleading insurance report proves public option necessary

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I was glad to see this interview last night. It is a good followup to Briseadh na Faire’s post yesterday “The October Surprise – Health Insurance Style.”

From Raw Replay:

MSNBC’s David Shuster is joined by Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-NY, to discuss a new report commissioned by the health insurance industry which is being used to threaten a hike in health care premiums.

“CNN—nobody leaves more things ‘there’..”

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This was brilliant! And, RIDICULOUS! Jon Stewart totally exposes how utterly lame the ‘news’ is (targeting CNN) when it comes to fact-checking the outrageous claims politicians and pundits make, but CNN seems to have the time and tools to ‘fact-check’ an SNL sketch..

OMG. Fair and balanced, or, just they are just a lot of noise.

We’ll leave it there…

Raw Replay:

CNN recently fact checked a Saturday Night Live sketch that criticized President Barack Obama. Jon Stewart wants to know why the network can’t be bothered to fact check Republican lawmakers that site bogus health care reform statistics.

The October Surprise – Health Insurance Style.

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Here we are, approaching Mid-October. Nights are colder, and the first winter storm approaches California. August, with the town-hall meetings packed with people eager not to learn, but to shout down those who would share information, seems so long ago.

And the health care debate drags on. Republicans know the best way to kill a bill is to delay it to death. That’s why all of their important legislation during the previous administration was always passed in a crisis.

But it’s hard to say we’re in a crisis over health care. The thousands of Americans who die at the hands of their insurance company’s denial of benefits or outright cancellation of coverage don’t die in one location, at one time. Continue reading →

All The Dopey People

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Ever wonder why some people think the stupidest things? Maybe the people they’re listening to aren’t all that smart.

All The Dopey People
Original Words and Music “Eleanor Rigby”, by John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Additional lyrics by Wayne A. Schneider

Ah, look at all the dopey people
Ah, look at all the dopey people

Billy O’Reilly
Spits out the lies from a search
Of the websites he’s been.
Lives in a dream

Works on the TV,
Wearing his hate that he keeps
In the heart of his core.
Who is it for?

All the dopey people,
Where do their views come from?
All the dopey people,
Where do they all go wrong?

Hannity’s Ego
Writing the words Continue reading →