Throw Your Bible In The Trash

Seriously, the Bible has caused more horror and trauma on this planet than any other text in history. The Koran, obviously, comes in a close second - although it's right up there neck and neck as concerns body count, some 250 million allegedly murdered in the name of Christianity, while some 270 million are claimed to have been killed in the name of Islam. As concerns looking at the Bible as some sort of "moral guide" from the very finger of God, it's time to toss the whole shebang into the circular file, the trash heap, the dustbin of history.


The Bible is little more than one culture's propaganda.  It is not the "Word of God" - that's the propaganda.

The Bible is a collection of mummified myths, fabulous fairytales and hideous horror stories, with a bit of history mixed in to give it legitimacy.  Even this biblical "history" is so slanted that, on the few instances where it has been confirmed by external sources, these sources take the opposite perspective of the Israelite claims.

To illustrate the true value of the Bible, many years ago I was teasing an Israeli acquaintance, Uri, about the lack of culture in ancient Israel.

"But Uri," I said, "The ancient Jews had no real art, no grand architecture, no armies, navies - nada!"

"Aha!" answered he, "But we got the Book!"

The fact is that other than serving as a valuable cultural artifact on its face, the Bible is virtually useless in today's modern society as concerns numerous subjects, including technology, science, medicine and, yes, philosophy and spirituality. Modern society is far ahead of the Stone Age technology and mentality found in the Bible. Trying to live by such an outdated and specious text is only making humanity deranged.

As the great freethinker Robert Ingersoll said:

If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament he would be a criminal. If he would strictly follow the teachings of the New, he would be insane.

The bottom line is that we need no such old scriptures to lead our lives righteously.  We can use our innate decency, morality, intelligence and humanity.  We can produce new "scriptures" that are not culturally bigoted, displaying their writers as "chosen people" above all others, or sexist, ranting on and on about a male god and his son, while women are continually denigrated purely because of their gender.

As an example of how useless such "moral" writings can be, Bangladeshi natives thought so little of their "holy scriptures" that when a cow ate the banana leaves they were written on, nobody paid much attention.

Sources & Further Reading

Victims of the Christian Faith
270 Million Killed in the Name of Islam
33 Million Killed by God in the Bible
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The Tme Is NOW!

republicunts - I Mean "teabaggers" Show True Colors - NOT Red. White and Blue

Does This Sound Familiar???

From Democratic Underground

That's what my partner and I will be faced with shortly. As soon as all of this starts, I'll be able to let you all know firsthand what the experience is like for a truly poor family--except that since nobody wants to "push" for GLBT equality right now, we'll be a family living under the rules for a single person with no dependents.

My partner and I have a soon-to-be-ten year old son. She's 43, I'm 30, and we're both full-time college students. I go to school and then stay home in the evenings with our son (because childcare would cost about as much as I'd make at the jobs available around here anyway.) Rhythm goes to school during the day, then works evenings as a cook in a local pub for $8.00 an hour. It was the best job she could find that is walkable, because we don't have a car and the bus service in the evenings around here is not adequate for anything better. It's part-time; on a good week, she might get 25 hours.

We live as a married couple with a child--a family--but the government considers us to be two single people, one of whom has a dependent, while the other (legally) does not. Our son and I receive Medicaid (for now) because the government considers my school attendance to be a "good enough" excuse for not having a job right now, although as soon as my son is considered old enough to be home by himself in the evenings, that will change. Rhythm has no health insurance at all. She hasn't seen a doctor in years, even though her eyesight is diminishing and she has an acute family history of diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. I live in terror that the diabetes and the eyesight problems are related, but we have no way to know for sure right now, and no way to DO anything about it even if we DID know.

Rhythm is not eligible for Medicaid because she's physically capable of working and does not have any *legal* dependents. We know this, because we've already tried applying for it (and my thanks to Midlodemocrat for doing her best to help us, even though it didn't work out.) She was denied. I've heard that the new rules raise the income qualification level, which is great, but thanks to the 1996 PRWORA Act (welfare reform), each state gets to decide its OWN qualification rules. The federal government's guidelines are not universally adhered to, nor do they need to be thanks to that act. On a side note, if Obama REALLY wants to make a difference for the poor, overturning PRWORA would be the most effective, humane thing that he could ever, ever do.

Anyway--here's what West Virginia has decided about who they consider "qualified" for Medicaid:
Determining Eligibility for Medicaid

Except in the case of pregnant women and children up to age 19 years, eligibility for Medicaid is based on categorical relatedness, income and assets.

Categorical relatedness means that an applicant must be a member of a family with a child who is deprived of support due to the absence, incapacity or unemployment of a parent(s). If the applicant has no children under age 18, the individual must be age 65 or over, blind or disabled.

The second factor considered is an applicant's income and assets. Income is any money a family or individual receives such as wages, pensions, retirement benefits or support payments. Assets include money in the bank, property other than the homestead, and the cash or loan value of certain life insurance.

When applying for Medicaid, you will be asked about your income and assets you own. DHHR staff will inform you of any documentation needed at the time of your application.

The eligibility of pregnant women and children up to age 19 for Medicaid is determined solely on income. There is no asset test. Pregnant women must provide a medical statement confirming pregnancy.

http://www.wvdhhr.org/bms/oMedPolicyCor/bms_hcpc_Guide_...

Since the law doesn't recognize Rhythm as part of a family with a child (even though she IS), and since she isn't blind, disabled, or over 65...she's not eligible, no matter HOW low her income is. So Medicaid is not a possibility. When the time comes that Rhythm is forced to buy health insurance through the exchange, she will receive a subsidy in an amount meant for a single, able-bodied adult with no children--in other words, $1,384 for an entire year. (I got that number here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... . I assure you, she is not eligible for any kind of "family" rate.)

Her income is about $800 a month. Hers is the ONLY income we have, for reasons I explained above. We get a little extra in financial aid to help out, but not very much--it's enough to pay most of the rent every month. We have a boarder in our third bedroom who pays the rest of the rent for this place. Rhythm's income pays all utilities, a third of the groceries (my Food Stamps take care of the other 2/3's) and all of the household item expenses (like toilet paper and soap--not stuff we can just stop buying.) That's it. We have no savings, no expendable income, and no "extra" money ANYWHERE. If you want to see a family that is LITERALLY living from one paycheck to another with nothing else to spare, well, welcome to my world.

So how are we going to afford an extra $219 a month for her health insurance? The short answer is that we CAN'T, so she'll have to apply for the hardship exemption--and if we're lucky, she'll get it. Which will leave her with no health care at all. Just the same as now. If the other "proud liberals" in this country could be bothered to put forth HALF of the money, time, and internet "activism" toward GLBT equality as they do toward forcing this bill through, maybe it would be different. Maybe the higher subsidy for someone who's taking care of a legally-recognized FAMILY would be enough to offset our actual costs, and she could have healthcare--even if only a crappy policy that covers little and has a huge deductible. Half a loaf is better than none at all, right?

Well not for us, because Rhythm's getting nothing whether the bill passes or not. All we can expect is the addition of some more red tape, made necessary because she'll have to prove that she's too poor to afford insurance. And IF the government decides that Rhythm appears to be capable of affording her premium "on paper" (where our family doesn't exist and therefore doesn't matter), she'll get rejected for the hardship exemption and end up forking over money to the IRS. I think she'll be approved for it, but you'll have to forgive me if I'm more than a little bitter about the fact that the BEST my beloved partner can hope for is that she WON'T get smacked by the IRS.

And other members of my family are screwed too, just in different ways. We're all poor, and this is going to hurt every single one of us with the exception of my dying Mom, who was approved for disability Medicaid today (thank god) although there's some red tape that might hurt us there, too. I really wish people would stop pretending like this bill is meant to help the poor. It isn't. It's meant to help certain select elements of the middle class, and a few poor people who meet strict guidelines and live in compassionate states with lenient Medicaid qualification rules MIGHT benefit too. Just as many (if not more) poor people stand a fair chance of getting nothing at all at best, or royally screwed at worst. GLBT and certain hetero couples (unmarried, cohabitating, with kids that are only the "legal dependents" of ONE partner) are getting the worst deal of all.

So I guess we'll just keep using the emergency room as the only healthcare available to us, and hope like hell that maybe SOMEDAY everyone else who's supposedly on "our" side will find it politically expedient to actually fight (which means RISKING something) for the equality and social justice that this nation SORELY lacks. I won't be holding my breath, but I suppose it's theoretically possible--IF we can elect some leaders who care more about doing the right thing NOW than about getting re-elected later. And that is probably the biggest and most unlikely IF of all.

Proof That republicans Have Lost Their Fucking Minds

(from ThinkProgress)

Even though the turnout was less than expected, as Rachel Maddow put it, what they lacked in bodies, they made up for in exclamation points. One of those politicos responsible for a quite a bit of the punctuation of the day was Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX). Gohmert, who you'll remember has previously insisted that private health insurance would be taken away from Americans with the passing of this bill and promised to cancel the stimulus bill if the Republicans retook the majority in 2010, had to ratchet up the crazy in order to keep up with Michelle Bachmann. And boy, did he go over the cliff into Crazy Town:

Gohmert elicited cheers from the crowd when he made a graphic and disturbing claim about the bill:

GOHMERT: I brought the bill that’s being talking about. Now I don’t want to offend anybody, I’m sure that there are people here who think abortion is okay, and I don’t want to make you sick, but I brought an abortion to show you today. [...]
There’s a whole lot of demons going on. There’s a lot of demons around here apparently.

Going along with my theory that everything Republicans accuse Democrats of generally is a projection of their own guilt, I think it's safe to assume that Gohmert is actually admitting to his own demonic possession.

It's the only explanation that I can think of for his bombastic, lying, disgusting rhetoric.

A Great Big Fuck You To The republicans

Source: Washington Post

After laying the groundwork for a decisive vote this week on the Senate's health-care bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Monday that she might attempt to pass the measure without having members vote on it.

Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers "deem" the health-care bill to be passed.

The tactic -- known as a "self-executing rule" or a "deem and pass" -- has been commonly used, although never to pass legislation as momentous as the $875 billion health-care bill. It is one of three options that Pelosi said she is considering for a late-week House vote, but she added that she prefers it because it would politically protect lawmakers who are reluctant to publicly support the measure.

"It's more insider and process-oriented than most people want to know," the speaker said in a roundtable discussion with bloggers Monday. "But I like it," she said, "because people don't have to vote on the Senate bill."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

I think that it is fantastic that the Democrats are FINALLY giving the republicans a taste of what America had to endure under the bush regime. 

Despite the crying coming from the republican sorority sisters, this IS for the "greater good" of America.

Which is why republicans oppose it so vehemently. 

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Healh Care WILL Pass

The debate is over. The time for action is NOW.

And when the public sees it was DEMOCRATS who finally had the GUTS to break the century-old logjam on healthcare reform and that the sky has not fallen because of it, and the system actually gets better, they know damn well Dems will be CREDITED and REWARDED.

Dems WILL also pass more jobs bills, a banking bill, and an energy bill. The economy will most likely be doing somewhat better by fall.

And what does the republicunt sorority offer?

FEAR.

THAT is why they are trying to kill everything. It is their ONLY hope for major gains in the fall. Well, I think the asshats are in for a little surprise. Americans want ACTION, and Dems are working to deliver it. The republicunts are going to be seen as THE PARTY OF NO and NOTHING.

That's all folks.

Where Is Kelly Copeland Now?

Remember?

Does anyone remember November 2008?

Remember how we felt the jubilation an inmate must feel upon release from prison?

More importantly, does anyone remember why we felt that way?

After enduring the worst 8 years of our lives under the murderous, traitorous and morally bankrupt leadership of republican tyranny, we elected what we hoped would be our savior. With promises of hope and change America ushered out an eight year cancer that has left deep and permanent wounds in the tied body of our nation.

Remember?



Are we asking too much too soon of our young leader?

How long will it take for him to accomplish the tasks he was elected to do?

How long will it take him to say FUCK YOU to the obstructionist repblicunt pieces of shit that got us into this trouble in the first place?

I STILL think Obama is doing a pretty decent job as President considering what he inherited and what choice did we have anyway in November of 2008?

But I sure as hell wish he would remember he IS the President after all and stop playing footsie with the enemies that want to see him fail.

And REMEMBER what America expected of him.

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How Is THIS Guys god Different Than Bin Laden's god?

At a time when some people confuse losing an election with living under tyranny, it’s perhaps no surprise that a day set aside for marking past presidents’ birth has become, for some, a day for praying for the current president’s death.

Praying for President Obama’s death has become a sick cottage industry for some evangelicals on the lunatic fringe. Bumper stickers, T-shirts, and teddy bears are sold with the wholesome-sounding slogan “Pray for Obama” but tagged with the more troublesome “Psalm 109:8”—which reads “May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership” followed by “May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.”

“If you have an evil leader above you, you pray that Satan will stand by his side and you ask God to make his children fatherless.” 

In Wingnut circles, it’s known as the “Imprecatory Prayer.” Offered not just from select pulpits, but increasingly expressed through tweets and forwarded via email, this decidedly un-Christian Christian subculture has found its most enthusiastic advocates in a few Obama Derangement Syndrome-afflicted preachers—notably Orange County’s Wiley Drake and Arizona’s Steven L. Anderson.

Pastor Wiley Drake kicked off this Presidents’ Day Weekend with an email blast to his supporters saying “Imprecatory Prayer is now our DUTY” and announcing a daily teleconference call to advance the cause. Drake has been an enthusiastic advocate of imprecatory prayer since he announced that God answered his call with the murder of Kansas abortion clinic doctor George Tiller in church last May. “George Tiller was far greater in his atrocities than Adolf Hitler,” Drake said at the time, “so I am happy. I am glad that he is dead.” This emboldened him to add “the usurper that is in the White House … B. Hussein Obama” to the list said in his church on Sundays.

Sadly, Drake is not a complete fringe figure. He served as a second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in ‘06 and ‘07. In ‘08, he received 47,000 votes as the vice-presidential nominee of the American Independent Party, alongside conservative activist Alan Keyes, Obama’s GOP opponent when he was elected to the Senate in 2004. I drove out to visit him in December for a profile in my book Wingnuts. I wanted to get a better sense of what someone is like who would pray for the president’s death.

Drake’s First Southern Baptist Church stands less than a mile from Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park in Orange County. It’s a beige cinderblock building constructed in the 1950s. In its front yard, a broken wooden set of Ten Commandments juts out of a rock while a sign reading “ETERNITY” hangs over a flickering Coke machine. Out back, a genial gray-haired man greeted me, looking every inch the Western grandfather of five. He was wearing a red shirt with black suspenders and a senior citizen-friendly big-buttoned cellphone hung on a string around his neck. Wiley ushered me back into the empty church, past a sign saying “God Bless America,” and we sat in the front pew.

“I’m known as a birther, you know. I don’t believe Obama was born in this country. He’s an illegal alien and so forth,” Wiley told me, matter-of-factly. “And so I began to pray what the Bible teaches us to pray and that is imprecatory prayer. An imprecatory prayer is very strong. Imprecatory prayer in Psalms 109, for example, says if you have an evil leader above you, you pray that Satan will stand by his side and you ask God to make his children fatherless and his wife a widow and that his time in office be short… Other Psalms say when they speak evil, God will break out their teeth and when they run to do destruction God will break their legs.”

To those offended by the idea of praying for death, Wiley shrugs. “I’m praying the word of God. I didn’t write it. Don’t get mad at me.”

What a fucking douche-nozzle.
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Mounting Proof That republicans Hate America

I just read this in an article about Michael Connell's suspicious death
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

"Ohio’s secretary of state in 2004 was a fiercely partisan Christian named Ken Blackwell. Blackwell had hired a company called GDC Limited to run the IT systems, which had subcontracted the job to Michael Connell’s company, GovTech. Connell had in turn sub-contracted SMARTech, an IT firm based in Chattanooga, to act, it was claimed, as a backup server.

“By looking at the URLs on the Web site, we discovered that there were three points on election night when SMARTech’s computers took over from the secretary of state,” says Arnebeck. “It is during that period that we believe votes were manipulated.”

In computer jargon it is known as a man-in-the-middle attack.

“At the time I didn’t know who SMARTech were,” says IT expert Stephen Spoonamore, opening a file on his computer showing the Internet architecture map of the 2004 Ohio election. He points to a red box in the bottom right-hand corner showing SMARTech’s server.

“Then I found out: They host Rove’s e-mails. They host the RNC’s Web site. They host George Bush’s Web site.” His voice rises in disbelief.

“I go, ‘Holy shit, this is a man-in-the-middle attack! These guys have programmed the state’s computers to talk to a company with ties 
to the Republican Party.’ It’s brilliant.”

With his wiry hair and designer glasses, Spoonamore looks like a character in a Tim Burton movie. A lifelong Republican, he is also one of the world’s acknowledged experts on cybersecurity, with a résumé that includes work for the U.S. armed forces and the FBI. In his spare time he has devoted thousands of hours to investigating cyberfraud in American elections. “I know I sound crazy when I talk about this stuff. No one wants to believe it.

They say, ‘No one would steal an election.’

Then I go, ‘Yeah, they would.

And that’s exactly what they did.’ ”...

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republicans Embarrass Themselves Yet AGAIN

National GOP leaders are doing damage control today after a Politico scoop lifted the curtain on the party's plan to tap voters' "fear" in the coming campaign season. The PR problem started when an absent-minded attendee at the Republican National Committee (RNC) confab on February 18 in Boca Grande, Florida, left a 72-page document from its 2010 strategizing session in a hotel room. 

From The Are You Fucking Kidding Me Department

"Oh, sure. Look, it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to have millions and millions of people who have no health insurance and yet who can go to the emergency room and get entirely free care for which they have no responsibility, particularly if they are people who have sufficient means to pay their own way."

This pearl of enlightenment comes from former GOP Presidential candidate Mitt "The Nit Wit" Romney.

Proving ONCE AGAIN how out of touch with reality republicans TRULY are.

Job Hunting and Credit Checks

Sixty percent of employers recently surveyed by the Society for Human Resources Management said they run credit checks on job applicants, compared with 42 percent in a somewhat similar survey in 2006.This is yet ANOTHER ridiculous practice that slave owners - oopsey I mean employers -  initiated under republicunt rule that America suffered during the first decade of the 21st century.

Employers use the excuse that these checks give them valuable information about an applicant's honesty and sense of responsibility. 

Interesting logic there but it IS bullshit logic of the highest magnitude. 

Wisconsin state Rep. Kim Hixson drafted a bill in his state shortly after hearing from Terry Becker, an auto mechanic who struggled to find work.

Becker said it all started with medical bills that piled up when his now 10-year-old son began having seizures as a toddler. In the first year alone, Becker ran up $25,000 in medical debt.

Over 4 1/2 months, he was turned down for at least eight positions for which he had authorized the employer to conduct a credit check, Becker said. He said one potential employer told him, "If your credit is bad, then you'll steal from me."

What a crock of shit.


I'll get into the problems associated with this insanity in a moment but first I would like to reveal the REAL reason employers are doing this. There are many actually.



They OBVIOUSLY have no confidence in judging people they meet. They lack the common sense that even the lowest life forms possess. This is evidenced when they have job fairs or meet and greets that produce hundreds of applicants, the hours of sifting through thousands of resumes and weeks spent interviewing prospective employees to fill one or two positions within heir company.


So they came up with the idea of complicating this further by subjecting applicants to "background screenings"  but the problem here was cost. A REAL background check is quite expensive and these idiot business owners didn't want to spend this kind of money - ESPECIALLY for the shear volume of applicants lining up for their $10 an hour (if you're lucky) position offered.

I remember assclown bush at a townhall style meeting where he was introduced to a single mother with two children that had THREE JOBS. The idiot son of an asshole thought this was a good thing, smirked and called it uniquely American. How "uniquely American" it was for a mother to have someone else raise her children because she spends all of her waking hours trying to keep a roof over her head and food on the table.


But a credit check is MUCH cheaper to run on someone.


So the bottom line reasoning is that the are too cheap.


Now let's look at the problems this creates.


First, in NO WAY does a persons credit report reflect their ability to accomplish a task or duty in any job.In fact, the credit reports DO NOT eve reflect an accurate picture of a persons credit history. The are inaccurate. They contain mistakes. THEY ARE WRONG.

In my opinion they are completely worthless.


Secondly, and I'm shocked that no one else is mentioning this, that the constant inquiries produced in a job search damages a persons credit even more.


Let's set the record straight ere folks. IF, as a business owner or hiring manager or director of personnel or what ever else you choose to call your self because of your low self esteem and need to feel important, you don't ave the ability to hire someone by simply talking with them and using your instincts you DO NOT deserve to be in the position you covet. 


You are a complete and udder fucking moron.

Under federal law, prospective employers must get written permission from applicants to run a credit check on them. But consumer advocates say most job applicants do not feel they are in a position to say no.  



It is the American job seeker that allows this by putting up with this abusive treatment. It is the WORKER  after all that is extending credit to your employer by giving them your blood, sweat and tears each week in return for expected payment and in hopes that their check clears.


Perhaps it is US that should run credit checks on THEM.

With All Doo-doo Respect...

With All Doo-doo Respect

From Paul Slansky at THE HUFFINGTON POST:

 Lost in the coverage of President Obama’s too-gentle smackdown of John McCain at the health care reform summit – I would have preferred to have heard something like, “You know, John, instead of whining about all of my broken promises, why don’t you take this opportunity to apologize to your fellow citizens for inflicting that morally-impaired harridan Sarah Palin on them?” – was something sublime that passed this bitter old hack’s lips while he was using his allotted time to remind viewers how consumed with resentment he still is about entering the history books as the first white man to lose a presidential election to a (half) white man.

 Health care legislation, McCain bellyached, was drawn up not in full public view, as the president had pledged it would be, but was “produced behind closed doors,” in the kinds of back rooms that McCain himself had hidden out in decades earlier while working on behalf of his old buddy Charles Keating, architect of the nation’s biggest savings and loan collapse. Griped McCain about the health bill, “It was produced with unsavory – I say that with respect – deal-making.”




Keep reading →

Economic Inequality

 

Although economic growth has been an important driver of human progress in the past, we in the developed world must now look elsewhere for improvements in our quality of life.

As our quality of life is so often defined in terms of material living standards and national income and debt per person, it might seem un-American to even think about sacrificing our quality of life for what we know we need to do to survive the currently challenging economic times.

As Americans, we need to see and act upon the writing on the wall. I have been teling people for years now about the pitfalls of credit cards and now - these same people, the ones that did not heed my advice, the ones that thought I was just some crazy ass radical – are suffering financially because they can no longer afford their unnecessary and useless trinkets  they were used to buying.

Although economic growth has been the most important driver of human progress in the past and still has a crucial role to play in improving lives in developing countries – two of which our military has invaded and occupied - we in America must now look elsewhere for further improvements in the real quality of life.

America, although in my humble opinion is STIL the land of opportunity, its just that the opportunities are more difficult to find, we are also the land of inequality. Studies show that the bigger the income differences between the rich and poor in a country, the worse it does. The relationship could not have been clearer: the greater the inequality the more socially dysfunctional societies become and that is what I see happening in America right now.

Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, Though income inequality has been growing for some time, what is even more disturbing is of wealth distribution in America. where the top 1% of American earners took home more than half of total wages in the entire country, a level that's higher than any other year since the “Great Depression” and THAT lasted 10 years.

The current financial crisis America finds itself in has spurred many policymakers to meet challenges with bold, creative, non-partisan solutions but AS USUAL AND AS HISTORY HAS SHOWN, republicans are focusing their effort to thwart any chance of national economic recovery.

But what would you expect from a country that suffered 8 years under the rule of george bush, the republicans and all the failed polices that went along with their regime of terror?

And it was AMERICANS that were stupid enough to vote for the idiots in the first place.

So you have to ask yourself – are YOU Fed Up yet?

Let Me Make This Perfectly Clear

The current GOP echo-chamber that is endlessly

chanting "start over" with "blank sheet of paper" on HCR is nothing but disrespectful political hacks looking the people in the eye and lying through their teeth. The "incrementalism" that they so passionately urge as a solution to the partisan gridlock (which THEY have engineered!) is designed not to achieve progress, but to stop HCR and, in the bargain, pass several of their pet projects. The Republican chorus earnestly pleads with the Democrats to "adopt a series of cost-cutting measures upon which there is general agreement". They go on to list medical malpractice reform, buying insurance across state lines and other relatively minor issues which, they say, could be "on the President's desk" in short order. Yeah, right. This amounts to saying, as Republicans always seem to get around to saying, "Give us what we want first and then we'll discuss what you unAmerican socialists want". Their idea of "tort reform" or "medical malpractice reform" is simply to put a cap on a patient's right to recover damages for a doctor's negligence. If you or I run a red light and cause someone permanent and painful injuries, none of our assets are shielded from recovery; i.e., there are no limits on the amount of the judgment that the injured person could get against us. If, however, the same injuries resulted from medical malpractice, Republicans want to assure the doctor that damages for pain and suffering, for example, won't be permitted to exceed $250,000. Sound fair? That is the type of elitist "got mine, to hell with you" CRAP that these smarmy bastards are trying to peddle as "true bipartisanship" and "the reasoned approach". They need to be called on it EACH time they trot it out and we should be raising hell with any talking heard that let's them get away with it.

The Time Is NOW!

The Health Care Summit: Monsters Under The Bed

By Susie Madrak Friday Feb 26, 2010 7:00pm

I can't say it's a surprise that congressional Republicans think it would be great to start over with health care, or that they're in favor of "incremental" changes. (I'd love to see them get "incremental" health surgery.)

And I can't say it's a surprise that they had virtually nothing useful to offer.

What I realized, though (and maybe this is the driving force behind Obama's puzzling, sometimes infuriating compromises) is that to many Republicans, their illogical fantasies are akin to a child's night terrors. We know there aren't any monsters under the bed, but your child doesn't. So you go through the motions of shooing the monsters away so your child can sleep.

We know that tort reform has such small influence on malpractice premiums that it's virtually meaningless. Any rational person who looks at the research knows this. What you have are a lot of people making what they claim are factual assertions that are nothing more than an intellectual construct to support their emotion-driven conclusion.

We know that selling insurance across state lines doesn't solve the health care crisis, either.
We know that the fastest increases in costly diseases are being driven by environmental pollutants and contaminants, so eating right and exercising doesn't solve the health care crisis, either.

But we're left with a Congress where roughly half of them believe their fairy tales. And since the ideological wars are driven by true believers, we simply don't have the time to convert each of them, one by one, to the realities we face.

Which is simply my long-winded way of saying that Harry Reid needs to shove good healthcare legislation through using reconciliation, right now. No more waiting.

People are dying, every single day. President Obama, we don't need any more to die while you patiently reassure the Republicans about the monsters under the bed.

Get. It. Done. NOW.

We May Have More Medals At The Olympics But Canada Gets Last Laugh

DAMN THEM CANUCKS!!!

 

Last Night My Father Asked Me To Kill Him

If this story of Keith Olbermann and his personal experience with health care in America doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you are a heartless bastard.


Unforunately, I would guess that this same story is happening every day in every hospital across America.


Families are being torn because the people in power - the people WE elected - play their little political games while those we love die - or want to die.


This should NOT be an issue in America today Yet we constantly make the same mistakes of electing politicians that continue to lay in bed with, in this case, insurance company lobbyists.


Its time to WAKE THE FUCK UP America.


A medical decision should be a decision made between the patient, the patients family AND A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL - NOT A FACELESS INSURANCE COMPANY!



What I had done, conferring with the resident in ICU, the conversation about my father's panicky, not-in-complete-control-of-his-faculties demand that all treatment stop, about the options and the consequences and the compromise - the sedation -- the help for a brave man who just needed a break... that conversation, that one -- was what these ghouls who are walking into Blair House tomorrow morning decided to call "Death Panels."

Your right to have that conversation with a doctor -- not the government, but a doctor -- and your right to have insurance pay for his expertise on what your options are when Dad says "kill me" or what your options are when Dad is in a coma and can't tell you a damn thing, or what your options are when everybody is healthy and happy and coherent and you're just planning ahead -- your right to have the guidance and the reassurance of a professional who can lay that out for you... that's a quote "death panel."






It's a life panel.

A life panel -- it can save the pain of the patient and the family -- it is the difference between you guessing what happens next, and you being informed about what probably will, and that's the difference between you sleeping at night or second-guessing and third-guessing and thirtieth-guessing.

And it can also be the place where the family says 'we want you to keep him alive no matter what, we believe in miracles' and the doctor saying yes. Nobody gets to say no except the patient and the family.

It's a life panel. And damn those who call it otherwise to hell.


 I wish Keith and his father well. 

Being Searched By The Police

If a police officer asks your permission to search, you are under no obligation to consent. The only reason he's asking you is because he doesn't have enough evidence to search without your consent. If you consent to a search request you give up one of the most important constitutional rights you have—your Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

A majority of avoidable police searches occur because citizens naively waive their Fourth Amendment rights by consenting to warrantless searches. As a general rule, if a person consents to a warrantless search, the search automatically becomes reasonable and therefore legal. Consequently, whatever an officer finds during such a search can be used to convict the person.

Don't expect a police officer to tell you about your right not to consent. Police officers are not required by law to inform you of your rights before asking you to consent to a search. In addition, police officers are trained to use their authority to get people to consent to a search, and most people are predisposed to comply with any request a police officer makes. For example, the average motorist stopped by a police officer who asks them, "Would you mind if I search your vehicle, please?" will probably consent to the officer's search without realizing that they have every right to deny the officer's request.

If, for any reason you don't want the officer digging through your belongings, you should refuse  to consent by saying something like, "Officer, I know you want to do your job, but I do not consent to any searches of my private property." If the officer still proceeds to search you and finds illegal contraband, your attorney can argue that the contraband was discovered through an illegal search and hence should be thrown out of court.

You should never hesitate to assert your constitutional rights.

Just say "no!" 

AVAILABLE HERE!!!!!  

A Man With A Plan

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, has proposed lowering the age to qualify for early Social Security benefits to 60 from age 62 for the first 1 million people who apply. He assumes that all the people who would take advantage of this opportunity are currently employed. Thus, according to him, the proposal would automatically lead to the opening up of 1 million job vacancies.

This is not a new idea. As historian William Graebner has documented, the Social Security program itself was partly conceived in order to encourage older workers to leave the labor force so as to create employment opportunities for younger workers.* That’s why those receiving Social Security benefits were long prohibited from earning more than a token amount of wage income.

This is a $15 billion bill funded by the bailout and stimulus. Kucinich estimates that by offering retirement two years early, a million workers will leave their jobs, creating opportunities for those actively looking for work.

Although the plan sounds good in theory, I’m not convinced it would work in practice.

But at least he HAS a plan.

 CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO!!!

The fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution limits the powers of the police to perform
searches and seizures, requiring that any such search or seizure performed be "reasonable." br>

Generally, satisfaction of this "reasonableness" requirement necessitates that police officers
obtain prior judicial approval in the form of an arrest or search warrant before a search or seizure is performed. Recognizing the impracticality of officers obtaining arrest or search warrants prior to every search or seizure, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized a number of exceptions to the
warrant requirement that allow, under certain circumstances, searches and seizures to be
reasonably performed without prior judicial approval.

This book is a MUST for ANYONE that may run into a cop one day.

WAKE THE FUCK UP AMERICA!

It's easy to miss the threat of someone who's misinformed, paranoid and more than a little crazy. But when that someone has oodles and oodles of dollars, organizing prowess, and private ownership of a significant book-publishing company and a television network, you'd better watch out.



The fodder for ridicule provided by the weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference gave progressive journalists, including me, the opportunity to have lots of gleeful word fun examining the internecine battles over gay rights and torture, Ron Paul's victory in the presidential straw poll, Ann Coulter's tired act. Glenn Beck's medicine show -- and a host of other madness.
But ridicule is not activism. It makes us feel better, assuring us of our superiority while the other side gathers steam for the fight ahead.
I do not mean to dismiss the work of the many tireless progressive activists engaged in keeping health-care reform alive, keeping progressive media vibrant, bringing feminism to a new generation, or fighting labor's good fight. Nor do I mean to dis the funders and major donors of progressive causes. But unless progressive leaders truly reassess, at an operational and structural level, the organization of the right, I will remain doubtful of our ability to compete at the moment when the right has found a cause around which to unite: hatred of all things Obama.
It wasn't the predictable program at CPAC that brought me to this point: not the panel on the ostensible global warming hoax or the one on "Saving Freedom From the Tax Collectors," or the speeches by U.S. senators calling the president a tyrant and a socialist. I've been covering the right a long time; I'm used to that kind of thing.
No, it was my tour through a seemingly endless exhibit hall that rang my alarm bell -- table after table piled with glossy, slickly produced literature, trinkets and treats. The whiff of underfunding that so often pervades the exhibit halls of progressive confabs was hard to locate here.
I got a bright yellow bag, gratis, emblazoned with the letters 'NRA". Newsmax gave me a deck of Ronald Reagan playing cards (a different Reagan quote on each card).
The Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute supplied me with a nicely produced date book featuring photographs of the right's leading ladies: Phyllis Schlafly, Bay Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, all shot specifically for that calendar in a kind of uniform of white shirt and jeans (except for Phyllis, who wore a skirt).
From Let Freedom Ring, I picked up a high-quality black bumper sticker with the word "ARROGANT" printed in white, except for the "O", which was replaced by the logo of the Obama for President campaign.
It's not the goodies on offer in the hall that are the right's treasure, but rather the financial backing the easy dispensing of tchotchkes and nachas represents.
Also prominent in the hall were a number of for-profit companies there seeking new business from conservative groups, whether for Web site design and hosting, campaign organizing or data mining.
Near the front of the hall was Eagle Publishing, the parent company of Regnery Publishing and Human Events magazine. Regnery's authors include Michelle Malkin, Newt Gingrich, Laura Ingraham, and a host of right-wing notables. They have a knack for creating bestsellers, which is not as hard as it looks when you've got a hall that big full of groups willing to buy these books in bulk to give away as premiums for membership and or other purposes.

republicans Get A Taste Of Thei Own Medicine

 

Unfortunately, Kansans have never had to consult their doctors about prolonged exposure to a sane Republican Legislature.

But there was a glimpse of sanity yesterday, when Republican men - who seem to like to tell women what to do with their bodies - got a taste of their own medicine.

During a debate on a bill dealing with insurance regulations, Rep. Pete DeGraaf (R-Mulvane) got an amendment added that would require women to buy separate insurance policies that covered abortions.  It passed 73-45.

Assuming what's good for the goose is good for the gander, Rep. Ann Mah (D-Topeka) proposed an amendment that would require men to buy separate insurance policies that covered erectile dysfunction drugs.  She pointed out that many insurance plans don't cover birth control, and asked why it was then fair to have women pay “the cost of Viagra for all the old guys who want to have sex?”

Mah's amendment passed 64-35.  Nineteen legislators who voted on the previous abortion amendment were strangely unable to rise in opposition.  And somewhere, Bob Dole spit out his Pepsi.

Since the House had also added an anti-smoking amendment, the Republican leadership saw it had prematurely lost control of the chamber (that usually only happens on the budget), so Rep. Virgil Peck (R-Technicolor Dreamcoat) proposed sending the bill back to committee, which the exhausted House promptly did.

Here We Grow Again - Under Dem LEADERSHIP

republicunt Hypocrisy

Sarah Attacks

Check out THIS shit:

http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/palins-lawyer-threatens-bloggers-media

During her now 10 month-long media victimization campaign, Sarah Palin has time and again revealed her fundamental misunderstanding of the First Amendment and Americans' free speech rights. Now as she prepares to exit the Alaska Governor's mansion, her confusion - and thin skin - is again on display.

On the Fourth of July of all days, Palin's lawyer Thomas Van Flein issued a warning that his client would bring defamation claims against bloggers and media alike speculating on rumors of a criminal investigation involving the Governor.

So the gauntlet has been thrown dow and I will GLADLY accept the challenge from this dumb fucking inbred cunt.

I can give a rats ass about her criminal activity as an Alaskan elected official. I have confidence that the American justice system will prevail there. I want to expose this "familt values" bitch for having the family values of the Addams Family.

Let's look at her whore daughter that couldn't keep her young legs together and got knocked up AS A MINOR by someone that just kicked her to the curb - AFTER Palin's VP bid of course.

Let's also explore the possibility of Todd Palin, Sarah's faithful lap dog companion husband, being Bristol's baby daddy.

Let's look at this deeply disturbed inbred "Hills Have Eyes" family of mutants.

So what are you and your idiot legal team going to do about this you inbred Alaskan cunt?

Yeah....didn't think so bitch.

I'm Fed Up and I'm Back!

I am your worst nightmare.

I am a Fed Up American.

I'm a self-confessed techno-utopian left-wing capitalist marketing junkie that loves to push the envelope and pioneer new horizons.

I have no fear and I LOVE a good challenge.

I strive to be number one because coming in second just means that you’re the first loser.

I am lazy to a fault and am always looking for the easier way of doing things. I dare to dream and I enjoy the extreme.

I have a soft heart but a hard hand. I believe the money I make belongs to me and not some midlevel governmental fuckhead taxing the very air that I breathe and bleed me like a gutted dear, draining me of my hard earned cash.

I don’t believe in religion, miracles or divine visions of bible characters that appear in food products or in the form of stains. I don’t believe that anyone EVER died listening to rock music or any other genre of music, except for rap – that shit sucks.

I don’t believe owning a gun makes a person a killer but why would you own a gun if you don’t plan on killing something? I don’t believe that being a minority, woman or member of any group, race or belief in fantasy should qualify you for any special treatment that other people cannot receive. And if being an illegal immigrant is illegal and we know who these people are, why are they not in jail for their illegal activity?

I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, or just living in the United States, you'd better speak English motherfucker. I will never use the excuse "it's for the children" as a shield for any of my unpopular opinions or actions and as a matter of fact I think children suck. Yeah, I said it. They are pains in the ass to their parents and society and if they are to be paraded around in public they better god damned well know how to behave and interact with the public or be subject to arrest and a possible quarantine until they can act properly.

I believe everyone has a right to pray to his or her god or gods, just leave the rest of us out of it. I don’t give a shit about what fantasyland you live in. And I sure the fuck don’t want you saving my sole.

My heroes are Anthony Robbins, Donald Trump, and whoever that guy that told Dick Cheney to go fuck himself after Katrina on CNN. I don't hate the rich, I don't pity the poor and I know wrestling is fake so shut the fuck up if I’m watching it already.

I've never owned a slave, or was a slave, I didn't wander forty years in the desert after getting chased out of Egypt, I haven't burned any witches or been persecuted by the Turks and neither have you, so shut the fuck up about that too.

I want to know which church is it exactly where the Reverend Jesse Jackson preaches and where he gets his money from. I think the cops need to go back to law enforcement and forget about revenue enforcement and I also think they have the right to pull your ass over only if you are breaking the law, not to just harass you about not wearing a seat belt.

I think if you are too stupid to know how a ballot works, I don't want you deciding who should be running the most powerful nation in the world for the next four years.

I think if you are in the passing lane, and not passing, your license should be revoked, and you should be forced to ride the bus until you promise to never delay the rest of us again.

I believe that it doesn't take a village to raise a child, it only takes two reasonably intelligent and responsible parents. I don’t give a rats ass if you are a single parent and don’t want to hear that you are. You will not get my sympathy for being irresponsible enough to get knocked up without being positively sure before making the lifetime commitment to your baby daddy.

I'm neither angry nor disenfranchised, pissed off or pissed on, mad, livid, annoyed, fuming, irritated or irate no matter how desperately the stupid republicunts would like everyone to believe otherwise.

And I think Dr. Seuss was a genius.

I am a proud fucking liberal and I excel in places you only dreamed of so don’t try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor. So fuck yourself.

These are just SOME of the things that make me a Fed Up American so kiss my ass if you don’t like it.

Thanks A Bunch

Job losses rise in Dec., unemployment 7.2 pct.

December figures cap a year featuring job losses every month

Pat Sullivan / AP BREAKING NEWS

WASHINGTON - Trying to survive a deepening recession, employers are cutting their work forces to the bone, leaving more Americans unemployed and with dim prospects of finding a new job any time soon.The Labor Department reported Friday that the jobless rate rose to 7.2 percent in December and payrolls dropped by 524,000 jobs, capping a year when job losses were logged every month and presaging more job losses to come.MORE AT AP LINK: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090109/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/f...

Jobless rate jumps to 7.2 percent in December

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON – The government says the nation's unemployment rate bolted to 7.2 percent in December, the highest since early 1993, as employers slashed 524,000 jobs.The Labor Department's report underscores the terrible toll of the deepening recession and highlights the hard task President-elect Barack Obama faces in resuscitating the flat-lined economy. For all of 2008, the economy lost 2.6 million jobs. That was the most since 1945, when nearly 2.8 million jobs were lost, although the number of jobs in the U.S. has more than tripled since then.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to survive a deepening recession, employers are cutting their work forces to the bone, leaving more Americans unemployed and with dim prospects of finding a new job any time soon.- snip -If the conservative 2.4 million estimate of net payroll reductions for 2008 proves correct, it would mark the first annual job loss since the previous recession in 2001. It also would be the worst year of job losses since 1945, when employers slashed nearly 2.8 million jobs, though the number of jobs in the U.S. has more than tripled since then.MORE AT LINKRead more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28574446

Hey, all you ignorant, delusional STUPID REPUBLICUNTS and willfully ignorant Americans:

Thanks a bunch.

What About Perfume?

Okay, enough is fucking enough.

Those anti-smoker pussies are stepping WAAAAAAY over the line. I read this article and felt that it's high time to take a stand and I'm not even a smoker.

Source: New York Times

Parents who smoke often open a window or turn on a fan to clear the air of
second-hand smoke, but experts now have identified another smoking-related
threat to children’s health that isn’t as easy to get rid of: third-hand
smoke.

That’s the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of
gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention
cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after smoke has cleared from a room.
The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials
that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re
crawling or playing on the floor.Doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children
in Boston coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe these chemicals in a
new study that focused on the risks they pose to infants and children.

The study was published in this month’s issue of the journal
Pediatrics....Third-hand smoke is what one smells when a smoker gets in an
elevator after going outside for a cigarette...

But its okay for people to have to endure that toxic, choking bath in perfume that some women wear to the point of making your eyes burn and tear? Causing one to choke and turn away in disgust. Especially when you think about the reasons these less than hygenic trollups douche themselves with the odor that is more foul smelling than any cigarette smoke - be it first hand second or eve THIRD hand - that I have ever smelled.

And who made the rule that the world revolves around children anyway? Fuck the children! If these sons and daughters of moronic contempt are our future, our world is doomed. Let's face it, your children are becoming more and more stupid with each passing generation.

The smoking bans in public places have done nothing but destroy revenue for the already struggling business, restaurant and bar owner.

Funny thing is that these non smoking advocates are the same big headed mongoloid busy bodies that harass women at abortion clinics and consider themselves hockey moms and pit bulls.

If smoking upsets these mutants so much, I think I'll get me a pack of lucky's and annoy them myself.

Fed Up American 2009

"The environment you fashion out of your thoughts, your beliefs, your ideals, your philosophy is the only climate you will ever live in."
- Dr. Stephen Covey

Okay, we’re in a new year now.

We been hearing from a lot of people, talking about “change” and “hope.” Well, I’m writing this article to tell you that the “goal setting” or “waiting for just the right moment” or the “woe is me, the economy sucks” or whatever your personal situation is, the honeymoon is over.
It’s time to take action. Its time to “own it.”

Don’t get me wrong, you can always keep them in your back pocket for a later point in time when you need them. But we are all in our individual holes, dealing with our own personal life issues whatever they may be and we all could stand some improvement. There are area’s we all need to “change.”

Keep your eye on the original inspiration. If they idea felt right when you started out. If the vision – if the dream – felt good and was exciting to you, if it motivated you to do something, if you felt the need for “change,” it is still right today.

That’s a fact.

Never lose sight of your vision because you hit a bump in the road or if things aren’t happening quick enough for you. Every great accomplishment – any great achievement – comes with some pains - some growing pains - some set backs. This is the price you have to pay. It needs to be paid. Success can come quickly but seldom does it happen overnight. Success always come with challenges, doubts and trials. Taking action on what works could be the “change” you need in your life.

Brainstorm with people. Lean on them for advice, a listening ear, emotional support, guidance, motivation – whatever – just never be a “lone wolf.” They ultimately die off. Deal with like-minded individuals by networking with people who can confirm that what you are experiencing is normal, expected and necessary.

“Change” will happen when you take immediate action. You need to live it, to eat, breathe and sleep it but most importantly, you need to share it with others.

So as we start 2009, let us “change” what needs to be carried out. It all starts within the individual first.

Change starts with me.

Change starts with you.

And change starts now.