I Want to Save a Child's Sight!

Monday, February 28, 2005

Sports Roundup

It's Spring Training!!!
Cubs Offense: Aramis Ramirez [Ramirez] Pitching: [Pitching] [Closers] [Cubs]
The Cubs will miss Matt Clement. [Clement] But, Zambrano has matured [Zambrano] [Cubs]

The Bears snagged stud WR Muhsin Muhammad on Saturday to be the team's #1 receiver. The Bears also cut embattled WR David Terrell today. And The NFL Combine is in full swing. It's almost Draft Day!!! [Bears] [Tribune] [Analysis] [CBS] [Terrell] [CBS] [Combine] [2005 Draft]

UNC held on to win a wild one at Maryland yesterday, 85-83. They played their second straight game without star Rashad McCants. David Noel came up big with 12 points in relief, and Sean May had his sixth-straight double-double of the season with 22 and 11.
North Carolina improves to 24-3 overall, and 12-2 in the ACC. [CBS] [InsideCarolina] [IC] [Box] [AP Poll]

Lies, Hypocrisy, and Lies

Dowd: "The only balance W. likes is the slavering, Pravda-like "Fair and Balanced" coverage Fox News provides. Mr. Bush pledges to spread democracy while his officials strive to create a Potemkin press village at home. This White House seems to prefer softball questions from a self-advertised male escort with a fake name to hardball questions from journalists with real names; it prefers tossing journalists who protect their sources into the gulag to giving up the officials who broke the law by leaking the name of their own C.I.A. agent." [NYT]

Herbert: "As a nation, does the United States have a conscience? Or is anything and everything O.K. in post-9/11 America? If torture and the denial of due process are O.K., why not murder? When the government can just make people vanish - which it can, and which it does - where is the line that we, as a nation, dare not cross?" [NYT]

What has happened to this nation? We're now ok w/ torture, pollution, an economy in the dumpster, lies, hypocrisy, lies, and did I mention lies? Somebody pinch the collective nation, it's time to wake up.

More disgusting acts of Republicanism. [NYTE] And Wal-Mart is still the Devil.

Friday, February 25, 2005

Disgusting Lies

Krugman: "The slime campaign has begun against AARP, which opposes Social Security privatization. There's no hard evidence that the people involved - some of them also responsible for the "Swift Boat" election smear - are taking orders from the White House. So you're free to believe that this is an independent venture. You're also free to believe in the tooth fairy." [NYT]
Isn't it disgusting how the "swift boat veterans" can keep sliming anyone they want with their LIES to push their agenda!? But, like Mike says, expect a lot of coverage of the "Real AARP Agenda" on all the cable news networks. [Kos] [IsolatedIncident]

Herbert: "If John Ashcroft was right, then I was staring into the malevolent, duplicitous eyes of pure evil, the eyes of a man with the mass murder of Americans on his mind. But all I could really see was a polite, unassuming, neatly dressed guy who looked like a suburban Little League coach." [NYT]

This nation has lost its soul. There was a time when the press reported the tragedies of war, and of torture. It was as repugnant then as it is now. The difference? Reporting.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Aging Right-Wing Trash-Talkers Say the Darnest Things

Rich: "That politicians and public scolds like these have succeeded in the temporary laundering of live TV shows, and even "Saving Private Ryan," is a symptom of the political moment. It won't last long. The power of the free market, for better or worse, will prevail, and the market tells us that it is still the American way to lament indecency even while gobbling it up. This is the year that Sports Illustrated for the first time published the number for its subscribers to phone if they wanted to skip the swimsuit issue - and almost no one called. Sandra Dee really is dead, and no fire-and-brimstone speeches by James Dobson are going to bring her back." [NYT]

Friedman: "When a country lives on borrowed time, borrowed money and borrowed energy, it is just begging the markets to discipline it in their own way at their own time. As I said, usually the markets do it in an orderly way - except when they don't." [NYT] [NYTE]

Dowd: "Once again, just as W. runs into political trouble, he floats above the fray while the help takes out his opponents. Just as John McCain was smeared by Bush supporters in 2000, Swift Boat assassins can rid the president of any meddlesome adversaries now." [NYT]

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Are You Happy??????

Bipartisan panel slams NCLB: "A bipartisan panel of state lawmakers that studied the effectiveness of President Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative assailed it today as a flawed, convoluted and unconstitutional education reform effort that had usurped state and local control of public schools." [NYT]

So, do you think that people would start to realize that No Child Left Behind is a mess!? Maybe it's an unfunded mandate that DOESN'T WORK!!! Are you red-staters happy now??? Are you?????

Here's an article about the stem cell debate in California. Can we just get down to business of actually trying to help people, and cure diseases rather than worry about a clump of cells in a petri dish!?!?!?! [NYT]

Kristof: "During past genocides against Armenians, Jews and Cambodians, it was possible to claim that we didn't fully know what was going on. This time, President Bush, Congress and the European Parliament have already declared genocide to be under way. And we have photos. This time, we have no excuse." [NYT]

Bush always gets credit for his social security proposals...but, has anyone in the general public really taken a look at them? The longer this stays on the table, the less-attractive it becomes. Wake up Sheeple!!!!!!!!! [NYT]

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Wag the Dog

Krugman: "My point is that Mr. Bush's critics are falling unnecessarily into a trap if they focus only on domestic policies and allow Mr. Bush to keep his undeserved reputation as someone who keeps Americans safe. National security policy should not be a refuge to which Mr. Bush can flee when his domestic agenda falls apart." [NYT]

What has this guy done to deserve any of the credit given to him for "protecting" the Nation??? Invade Iraq; basically putting up recruiting posters for Middle East terrorism? Check.

Tackling Election Reform: "The Democratic Senate bill, introduced last week by Senators Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry and Frank Lautenberg, is now the gold standard for election reform. It would require not only paper records, but recounts in 2 percent of all polling places or precincts, and restrictions on political activity by voting machine manufacturers." [NYT]

I wrote about this issue this past weekend. (Thanks again to Scott of Brewtown Politico). We need to adopt some form of meaningful reform, SOON. The Republican plan is a start, but it doesn't go far enough to address the issues with such people as the Secretaries of State, and voting machine manufacturers.

It's really great to hear that the rates of AIDS are decreasing in the children of American and Europe, but shouldn't we then transition to Africa? [NYT]

What's up for Howard Dean and the Democrats, "post-scream." [NYT]

The social issues fueling the race for the Oscars. [NYT]

Monday, February 21, 2005

The Simpsons

Marge's sister Patty came out last night on The Simpsons: "In the ongoing culture wars over whether gays should have the right to marry, an animated question reared its head on Sunday prime-time television: as goes "The Simpsons," does the nation go, too?" [NYT] [Tribune] [TheSimpsons] [Famous Moments of Gay TV Past] [BBC]
Check out the Fox site that was promoted during last night's episode: [SpringfieldIsForGayLoversOfMarriage]

So, on the show, Springfield legalizes gay marriage to raise money and boost tourism. I'm still trying to figure out why gay marriage is so bad? Doesn't everyone deserve to love and be loved in return?

Ignoring Cancer

Herbert: "It may be that most Americans would prefer not to know about these practices, which are nothing less than malignant cells that are already spreading in the nation's soul. Denial is often the first response to the most painful realities. But most Americans also know what happens when a cancer is ignored." [NYT]

Proof-Positive that the Conservative ideology doesn't work: "A number right-wing Washington, D.C. politicians have headed back to their states as newly-elected governors. And their behavior, once they leave Beltway fantasyland for the real world, shows just how out of touch today’s conservative ideology is with solving real problems." [ThinkProgress] [Kos]

It's all about gutting spending on critical programs (like Medicaid). These conservative politicians ram their agenda through Congress, then they go back home, and see that oh wait...it DOESN'T WORK!!! Then they come back and try to address reality, not just push an ideology, and wait...the Progressive agenda works! [WP] [CommonDreams]

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Voting Holiday

Saw this on Brewtown Politico: "Senator Clinton pushes voting holiday, allowing ex-cons to vote."

In addition to creating a federal holiday for voting, this bill would:

-Require paper receipts for votes
-Authorize $500 million to help states make the changes in voting systems and equipment
-Allow ex-felons to vote. Currently an estimated 4.7 million Americans are barred from voting because of their criminal records
-Require adoption of the changes in time for the 2006 election [USAT] [FindLaw]

You can sign the petition at the Friends of Hillary website. [FriendsOfHillary]

Isn't it about time for meaningful election reform!? I would love to see election day as a federal holiday, if only for selfish reasons of not having to take a day off of work to work for a campaign. Paper receipts are a must-have. I have no issue with ex-felons being allowed to vote. If you've served your time, then you should get your rights back. I agree w/ Scott, that making it a holiday will be harder because of the Constitution. But this reform is LONG overdue.

Friday, February 18, 2005

Deference

So, when the foremost economist in the US says that he supports private accounts, but, well maybe we should stop and consider it. What are we supposed to think? I think Greenspan is a right-wing shill. The Bushies have made him a lot richer, so, he says whatever they want him to say. Rove, tug on his arm string...maybe it will punch him in the eye.

Krugman: "But Mr. Greenspan is no longer entitled to such deference. By repeatedly shilling for whatever the Bush administration wants, he has betrayed the trust placed in Fed chairmen, and deserves to be treated as just another partisan hack." [NYT]

Herbert: "Extraordinary rendition is antithetical to everything Americans are supposed to believe in. It violates American law. It violates international law. And it is a profound violation of our own most fundamental moral imperative - that there are limits to the way we treat other human beings, even in a time of war and great fear." [NYT]

It's really great when we can make the rules, then break them whenever we feel like it. Why should we treat others with respect???

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Right-Wing Shillery! Wake Up Sheeple!

Rich: "When the Bush administration isn't using taxpayers' money to buy its own fake news, it does everything it can to shut out and pillory real reporters who might tell Americans what is happening in what is, at least in theory, their own government. Paul Farhi of The Washington Post discovered that even at an inaugural ball he was assigned "minders" - attractive women who wouldn't give him their full names - to let the revelers know that Big Brother was watching should they be tempted to say anything remotely off message." [NYT]

Dowd: "It's hard to believe the White House could hit rock bottom on credibility again, but it has, in a bizarre maelstrom that plays like a dark comedy. How does it credential a man with a double life and a secret past?" [NYT]

Wow...the press just has NO credibility right now. You can't trust anything that you hear on cable news, local news, or pretty much anywhere you are hearing a "white house correspondent." Just watch "The Daily Show" and be happy. [Salon] [MediaMatters]

*Check out this "Social In-Security" calculator. [Calculator] Just enter your average annual salary, and the year you were born, and it calculates how much the Bush privatization plan will cut from your benefits. On my salary alone, my cut is OVER $5,000!!!

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Abstinence-Only=NOT WORKING

Kristof: "You see, for all the carnage in President Bush's budget, one program is being showered with additional cash - almost three times as much as it got in 2001. It's "abstinence only" sex education, and the best research suggests that it will cost far more lives than the Clinton administration's much more notorious sex scandal."
"Other developed countries focus much more on contraception. The upshot is that while teenagers in the U.S. have about as much sexual activity as teenagers in Canada or Europe, Americans girls are four times as likely as German girls to become pregnant, almost five times as likely as French girls to have a baby, and more than seven times as likely as Dutch girls to have an abortion. Young Americans are five times as likely to have H.I.V. as young Germans, and teenagers' gonorrhea rate is 70 times higher in the U.S. than in the Netherlands or France." [NYT] [WP]

Ok, let's think about this...Congressman Waxman (D-CA) conducted studies of abstinence-only programs, and found that 11 of 13 curricula contains errors and distortions. I agree with Kristof, abstinence is a big part of it. But, try to tell that to a 17-year old boy. We have to be teaching protection and the PROPER way to use protection.
[IsolatedIncident] [Waxman] [PlannedParenthood]
Kos: "Abortions are up during Bush's term. Divorces are up during Bush's term. And, thanks to abstinence-only education, it looks like teen sex is also up during Bush's term." [Kos]

Rogue Nation?

However you feel about the global treaty to curb global warming, you can't deny the fact that the US is the largest polluter, and is doing virtually nothing to slow pollution spewed into our environment.

"The planet faces many environmental challenges, but none of them come close to global warming. In the past month new studies have shown that the trigger point for severe climate change may be closer than previously thought, and the possible consequences even more severe. Just to slow the pace of this rapid warming will require every possible response, from more efficient cars to fewer sprawling suburbs to more trains to - well, the list is pretty well endless." [Op-Ed]

Sign HERE to tell the auto industry to innovate, not litigate! "Today marks a major milestone. With Kyoto, the world is moving forward to address global warming. While the Bush administration blocks national legislation, we should pressure industry to take the lead, before it's too late."
[NYT] [CNN] [Annatopia] [Kyoto] [Exxon] [Kos] [LCV] [Yahoo]

Hope Springs Eternal

Hope Springs Eternal. Snow blankets many of the parks, fields, and stadiums where baseball will be played in 2 short months. Players have moved to warmer climates to start their journeys toward the elusive ring. Lord of the Rings??? No, Spring Training!!!
I can't express how excited I am for Spring Training to start! Cubs pitchers and catchers report today, with the first full workout tomorrow. The Brewers report on Saturday.

After a disappointing 2004 season which saw a end of season collapse for the Cubs, and a All-Star breakdown for the Brewers, bring it on! The Cubs try to make it three winning seasons in a row, and the Brewers try to break the streak of 12 losing seasons.

HOORAY for spring baseball!!! I've included a bunch of links related to the Cubs and Brewers spring training, as well as NL and NL Central previews. There is an interview with Mark Prior, and an article about Sosa. Also, check out what's in the sauce! [Spring Preview] [NL Outlook] [Cubs] [Brewers] [Tribune] [Tribune Preview] [Prior] [Sosa] [Gammons] [Fox] [Bartman Ball]

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

For Our Future

New DNC Chairman Dean's plan for the future of the Democratic Party:
  • Show Up! Never concede a single state, county, district, or voter. Build a truly national party that wages a permanent campaign in all 50 states.
  • Strengthen State Parties and the Grassroots. Better integrate state and national party operations and support Democrats organizing in local communities.
  • Focus on Our Core Values. Articulate core Democratic values strongly and clearly, and show people how our agenda for reform reflects those values.
  • Take Advantage of Cutting-Edge Technologies. Leverage the Internet and cutting-edge technologies to better organize, empower, and communicate with people.
  • Train Tomorrow's Leaders. Strengthen our leadership institutes so we can recruit new talent, cultivate new leaders, and elect Democrats at every level of office.

Click HERE to read the plan, and sign the petition. If we all work together, we can take our party, and our country back!!!

Click HERE to reject Bush's budget, a budget that squanders all of our futures!

What You Are, What I Am

You know what...I don't care. I don't care what you look like. I don't care what color your skin is, or your hair, or your eyes. I don't care what God you worship. I don't care if you are gay or straight.
These statements make a lot of people angry. But really, what does it matter? Try tolerance as a moral value.

A lot of publicity has been given recently (to those paying attention to politics) to Maya Keyes, the daughter of Republican journeyman, Alan Keyes. She "came out" as a lesbian during her father's campaign for the US Senate out of Illinois. What makes this so controversial is the fact that the elder Keyes came out numerous times in speeches and appearances railing against gays and gay rights.
"Keyes’ strong objection to gay rights had become a major issue in the campaign after he’d been lured, in a radio interview, into agreeing that vice-president Dick Cheney’s gay daughter was a “selfish hedonist.” When these remarks turned into a national kerfuffle, Keyes misled the public when he discussed how he would respond “if” he had a gay daughter."

The Keyes family, according to a Washingon Post article, have thrown Maya out of the house for being "a liberal queer." They told her that her sexuality is "wrong and sinful." Wow, wrong and sinful?
What could possibly be wrong about finding happiness and love in this world? I don't care how you get down, live your life. If God loves everyone, then he loves you too. These conservatives just drive me insane. Their "morals" are so backwards. Try tolerance as a moral value. [Tribune] [Zorn] [ChiReader] [WP]

Dean-ocrats

Krugman: "The Republicans know the America they want, and they are not afraid to use any means to get there," Howard Dean said in accepting the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. "But there is something that this administration and the Republican Party are very afraid of. It is that we may actually begin fighting for what we believe." [NYT]

Anyone that says Dean is a radical lefty, is an idiot. These are the same people that tried to portray Kerry as a "radical liberal," when he was anything but. Dean had the temerity to question what is happening in the country and the world. How dare anyone question the mighty Bush Administration!???!? And, Krugman is right, picking Dean isn't about moving to the left, it's about making a stand.

Thinking

Herbert: "Arthur Miller, in his autobiography, "Timebends," quoted the great physicist Hans Bethe as saying, "Well, I come down in the morning and I take up a pencil and I try to think. ..."
It's a notion that appears to have gone the way of the rotary phone. Americans not only seem to be doing less serious thinking lately, they seem to have less and less tolerance for those who spend their time wrestling with important and complex matters. " [NYT]

Is this what our culture has become??? "If you can't say it in 30 seconds, you have to move on. God made man and the godless evolutionists are on the run. Donald Trump ("You're fired!") and Paris Hilton ("That's hot!") are cultural icons. Ignorance is in. The nation is at war and its appetite for torture may be undermining the very essence of the American character, but the public at large seems much more interested in what Martha will do when she gets out of prison and what Jacko will do if he has to go in."

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Social Insecurity

An article from the LA Times about Chile's privatized social security plan: "The government "painted this wonderful picture of private accounts," Pardo said. "They fooled me. They fooled us all."
Chile switched to private accounts in 1981, along with about two dozen other countries. After some initial success, people are starting to fall through the cracks; either they got into the government-promoted system too late, or they have lost extensive and sizeable amounts of money to high management fees. [LA Times]
Here is Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) plan. [Rockefeller]

Pushing the conservative agenda: "Corporate America, the financial services industry, conservative think tanks, much of the Washington trade association community, the Republican Party and GOP lobbyists and consultants are prepared to spend $200 million or more to influence the outcome of two of the toughest legislative fights in recent memory." [WP]

Here's David Sirota's take on the "class action sellouts."
I can't believe that Obama voted for this either...WTF!?! [Sirota] [Kos]

Budget cuts: "In the new list, the president asked legislators to eliminate programs worth $4.3 billion from education, $1 billion from health and $1.5 billion from law enforcement. Reductions include cuts totaling $2.5 billion from agriculture, $690 million from health and $470 million from housing."
That's right, keep America dumb, sick, and without protection. [Seattle]

Leave No Mullah Behind

Friedman: "By adamantly refusing to do anything to improve energy conservation in America, or to phase in a $1-a-gallon gasoline tax on American drivers, or to demand increased mileage from Detroit's automakers, or to develop a crash program for renewable sources of energy, the Bush team is - as others have noted - financing both sides of the war on terrorism. We are financing the U.S. armed forces with our tax dollars, and, through our profligate use of energy, we are generating huge windfall profits for Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, where the cash is used to insulate the regimes from any pressure to open up their economies, liberate their women or modernize their schools, and where it ends up instead financing madrassas, mosques and militants fundamentally opposed to the progressive, pluralistic agenda America is trying to promote. Now how smart is that?"

Yeah, how about we think about what we are really doing, and what we are saying. The actions don't match the rhetoric do they!? [NYT]

Saturday, February 12, 2005

The Good Doctor is In!

The Democrats have a new leader. The 447-member board elected Howard Dean as Chairman of the DNC today.
All I can say is, it's ABOUT TIME!!! People try to paint Dean as a northern-elitist liberal...what garbage! Look at the man's record: he's socially liberal, but conservative fiscally.
We need someone who is not republican-lite. We need someone that will communicate our values, and share what we believe in. We need someone that will fight for Democrats in all 50 states, in every county, at every level.
The Good Doctor is In!
[DNC] [Share Your Ideas] [Acceptance Speech] [NYT] [Yahoo] [WP] [Reuters] [Donate]

Friday, February 11, 2005

Clumps of Cells

Massachusetts Governor Romney is a MORON: "Moira McCarthy Stanford, past president of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, said that her 13-year-old daughter, Lauren, who has diabetes, had "had a medical appointment every two hours of her life for the past eight years" and that "her fingertips are shredded from 30,000 times that she pricked her finger."

What more is it going to take for these religious zealots to realize that killing a clump of cells might just be worth saving humanity from the scourge of diabetes, parkinson's, MS, etc...what is it going to take??? [NYT] [Op-Ed] [Boston Globe]

Fight on against the right-wing lies on social security! [Thereisnocrisis]

Torture, American Style

Krugman: "It may sound shrill to describe President Bush as someone who takes food from the mouths of babes and gives the proceeds to his millionaire friends. Yet his latest budget proposal is top-down class warfare in action. And it offers the Democrats an opportunity, if they're willing to take it." [NYT]

Herbert: "Our henchmen in places like Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Uzbekistan and Jordan are torturing terror suspects at the behest of a nation - the United States - that just went through a national election in which the issue of moral values was supposed to have been decisive. How in the world did we become a country in which gays' getting married is considered an abomination, but torture is O.K.?" [NYT]

Dowd: "But Bush officials prefer to write the script, or "create their own reality," as one Bushie put it, whenever they can. Besides the W.M.D. scare, there was the Kabuki "Ask President Bush" campaign sessions where voters had to take written pledges of support before they were allowed in, and the micromanaged town hall debates, where Bush strategists would not allow truly undecided voters to ask W. questions. And don't forget the administration's payments to conservative "journalists" to sell programs they would have promoted anyway." [NYT]

Rich: "What makes some feel betrayed and angry after seeing "Million Dollar Baby" is exactly what makes many more stop and think: one of Hollywood's most durable cowboys is saying that it's not always morning in America, and that it may take more than faith to get us through the night." [NYT]

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

The Farns is Gone

The Cubs traded reliever Kyle Farnsworth (and the infamous "player to be named later") to the Detroit Tigers for P Roberto Novoa, 3B Scott Moore, and OF Clarence "Bo" Flowers. Farnsworth struggled last season, and had career numbers of 22-37 with a 4.78 ERA in 343 games for the Cubs. He ranks third in club annals in relief appearances (317) -- and has fanned 381 batters in 334 2/3 innings while working out of the bullpen. [Cubs] [CBS] [MLB]

MLB Spring Preview of the NL Central: Cards/Cubs/Astros/Reds/Pirates/Brewers.
[Cubs Spring Training Preview] [Depth Chart]

Around the Horn: [Catchers] [Corners] [Mid Inf] [Outfielders] [Starters] [Bullpen]

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Spearing the Beast

Krugman: "President Bush isn't trying to reform Social Security. He isn't even trying to "partially privatize" it. His plan is, in essence, to dismantle the program, replacing it with a system that may be social but doesn't provide security. And the goal, as with his tax cuts, is to undermine the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt." [NYT]

For anyone interested in a progressive organization on Milwaukee's Northshore, check out Grassroots Northshore. I started working with this group during the campaign, when it was known as Grassroots Shorewood. [Grassroots Northshore] [Join!]

One of the main issues being discussed by Grassroots Northshore is TABOR, or the tax-payers bill of rights. Colorado enacted TABOR in the mid-1990's, and hardest hit has been the school and university system. Some facts:
Wisconsin ranks 50th in the nation in share of taxes paid by businesses.
Wisconsin ranks 16th in the nation in spending.

Ok, listen: taxes are always too high, and no one likes paying them. But, I bet you like it when your house is on fire, and the fire department shows up. Or when the garbage man comes and removes all the garbage, or when the school bus comes to pick up your kids. If you don't think that this Administration has raised taxes, think again! They have cut funding to the states in a MAJOR way. This forces the states to find a way to make up for the lost revenue. Your property taxes go up to fund schools that are already pinched, and to provide even the most basic of services.

Bushonomics

More on this disaster of a budget.
Education: "Financing at the state level for the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program would be eliminated, and about $2 billion would be cut from other high school programs, including vocational education and efforts like Upward Bound, Gear Up and Talent Search that help prepare students from disadvantaged backgrounds for college." [NYT]

This budget imposes $5.3 billion in new, regressive taxes, including new taxes that will increase the price of a six pack of beer, an airline ticket and prescription drugs for veterans. Meanwhile, the budget cuts funding for education, public health and environmental protection and includes $1.4 trillion in new tax cuts for the wealthy. Welcome to Bushonomics.

The Shell Game: fuzzy math indicates that the budget deficit in 2006 will be $390 billion. BUT, that includes $1 billion in revenue from drilling in ANWR, AND excludes the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, and the $2 trillion social security package.

Kicking the poor: The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities sums it up: "The number of poor went up for the third straight year in 2003, the share of total income that goes to the bottom two-fifths of households has fallen to one of its lowest levels since the end of World War II, and the number of people lacking health insurance rose to 45 million in 2003, the highest level on record." [CAP]

Medicare: The industry-backed prescription drug bill President Bush jammed through Congress is a bad law that keeps getting worse. While the bill was pending before Congress, the administration promised the bill would cost $400 billion over 10 years and threatened to fire the Medicare actuary who knew that figure was too low. Later, the administration revised its estimated price tag to $534 billion over 10 years, largely due to excessive payments to private insurers and HMOs. Now, in the most recent budget, the Bush administration estimates the bill will cost $395 billion over five years. In the meantime, drug companies have already jacked up their prices enough to offset any discount to seniors. [CAP]

Sex: Even though the Administration-backed programs were packed with lies, Bush continues to increase funding to abstinence-only programs. Bush is calling for increased funding of $39 million to a whopping total of $209 million. [CAP]

Clean water: Bush's budget is proposing to reduce federal funds that states use to improve water quality by $369 million. The new budget would call for an amount of $730 million, down from $1.98 billion four years ago. [CAP]

Monday, February 07, 2005

Hazardous To Your Health

Mercury is a poisonous material. Currently, it is found as a preservative in many of the vaccines we give our kids and expectant mothers. This website exposes and educates about the danger that is becoming very pervasive in our industrialized society. It also explores the links to autism in children.
Please, write to your Senators and tell them to vote "NO" on S.3, that would prevent States from banning mercury in vaccines or in regulating drugs and biologics.
[NoMercury.org] [S.3 Bill]

Herbert: "During the whole time we were at Guantánamo," said Shafiq Rasul, "we were at a high level of fear. When we first got there the level was sky-high. At the beginning we were terrified that we might be killed at any minute. The guards would say to us, 'We could kill you at any time.' They would say, 'The world doesn't know you're here. Nobody knows you're here. All they know is that you're missing, and we could kill you and no one would know.' "
[NYT] [ChelseaGreen]

Here's the ongoing cost of the quagmire in Iraq. [CostofWar]

Meat Ax

"The conservative ideological agenda on the economy has hit full stride: aggressively slash taxes on the wealthy; run up huge budget deficits; then push for massive cuts in critical domestic spending under the guise of fiscal responsibility. President Bush will introduce a budget today that is so callous Vice President Cheney felt compelled yesterday to assure viewers of Fox News that "it's not something we've done with a meat ax." Just as with its push for privatizing Social Security, the White House plans "an elaborate marketing strategy to sell the cuts to voters and lawmakers." The message: they aren't cutting government programs for the needy, they are "centralizing government services and saving tax payer money." America doesn't need to be sold another product. America needs a responsible budget that allocates resources to where they are most needed. (Share your thoughts on the budget at ThinkProgress.org.)" [CAP] [NYT] [Tribune] [Yahoo]

Among the "needed" cuts: Job training cut by $500 million. Slashed funding for police and firefighters. Cutting veteran's benefits and doubling the drug co-payments for veterans. Big cuts in bioterrorism protection. And, of course, leaving the poor out in the cold.

But, we NEED to privatize Social Security and extend the tax cuts for the wealthy!!!

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Return...

After a long (felt short), very emotional week, I have returned. My Wife's Father passed away this past Tuesday, after suffering for several years with Parkinson's and dementia. This past week has forced me to reconsider my entire belief structure.

I bought a new computer (right before this past weeks events transpired), a Dell 8400. Nice machine. Now I can at least do something at home!

All in all, it's been a trying, emotional journey this past week. But, we've come out on the other side, hoping for better times. 2005 so far, has sucked. Here's to an improving year!

But, We WANT Boobs!

Rich: "That our government is now both intimidating PBS and awarding public money to pundits to enforce "moral values" agendas demonizing certain families is the ugliest fallout of the campaign against indecency. That campaign cannot really banish salaciousness from pop culture, a rank impossibility in a market economy where red and blue customers are united in their infatuation with "Desperate Housewives." But it can create public policy that discriminates against anyone on the hit list of moral values zealots. Inane as it may seem that Ms. Spellings is conducting a witch hunt against Buster or that James Dobson has taken aim at SpongeBob SquarePants, there's a method to their seeming idiocy: the cartoon surrogates are deliberately chosen to camouflage the harshness of their assault on nonanimated, flesh-and-blood people." [NYT]

Dowd on morals [NYT]