The Confluence Of Left And Right

Think about this.

The right fears the left and the left fears the right.

But when neither gets what they desire from from our elected officials will we merge?

I think we will.

Another Thing I Will Not Be Getting

Here is the thing.

I'm still holding out hope that we get a really good health care bill passed but I have started to come to the conclusion that I not going to get as much as I wanted. The reality is that you do not turn an aircraft carrier on a dime and the long slow turn that might end up heading the ship in the direction I want might take awhile, years actually, and I'm OK with that.

What upsets me most is that like Alan Grayson says, "people are dying every day due to lack of health care services".

So the insurance companies wear me down emotionally and make me accept less than I hoped for and so it goes.

The only person I can count on is me. Not that there are not many who feel like I do but over time they are at the mercy of their emotions and circumstances.

This would be an appropriate time for me to say lets all get together and pray but but it would much more productive to...


watch this!

Bomb Dropped On Thanksgiving Weekend

Here's the deal. (added 10/31/09 This is what I hope happens I guess a reality bomb went of near me today)

The current HCR (health care reform) bill is so lousy and expensive so watch the roll out over the next four weeks as to just how much it will cost all of those who have no insurance and it's mandatory sanctions.

This is far from over, Barack is going to make the insurance companies spend so much money fighting the inevitable HCR that we all want he will win.

Remember the current process is not of his doing and is what another branch of government has proposed.

He only asked the legislative branch to come up with a solution to deal with HCR.

He is going to drop the hammer around turkey day and when families are getting together around Thanksgiving and Christmas and no doubt the subject of HCR will be bantered about and the mandated expense of buying insurance causes people to think about the money they must send to insurance companies to be able for themselves, their children or parents to see a doctor manifests the reality bomb of goes off.

Aces over eights!

Single payer here we come!

Again! Here is how we get single payer

I posted this last month and call me crazy, but...





It is actually very simple. Propose that anyone who presently has no health coverage be forced to BUY insurance from Cigna, United Health Care, Blue Blue/Blue Shield or whatever insurance company controls the portion of their state where they live and if they do not then there will me monetary penalties for not doing so. The uprising of people, who for whatever reason don't presently have coverage due to age,young and willing to take the risk, middle age where their employer might not offer any or the cost is to high and those that are just willing to roll the dice and go to the emergency room and worry later about paying or not, would put the folks we saw in August at the town halls and other events look very small. I'd bet that polling of mandated coverage will come in at 80/20% against it.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

HOWS THAT SINGLE PAYER LOOKING NOW!

The Front Lines Of A War

Oh. I'm sure some (guess?) folks will say the posts on his website were made up and designed to make his point, but?

They cannot deny the reality that they most likely are not.

It saddens me that some put money ahead of life.

If You Want to hear and see more of Grayson's dissertation on the evils of our governments inability to protect us from the people who are killing "Americans" every day just go to the utube and watch. I've seen enough!

Aces Over Eights

Kinda Like Duct Tape And Plastic Wrap

These are the averages of those that get infected and die.

Are you surprised?

Laws Are How We Roll HCR Soon To Be Law

The passage of a public option is important because it codifies the ability of our government to be involved in providing health care.

Precedent set.

Just imagine the amendments that might occur to the law over the next 4 years to get to single payer and provide all of us with what we want today.

All good things take time.

These amendments will be voted on and passed just like that new bridge or new rail station going up in your town that was passed late on a November night when the people in Washington were anxious to get home for the holidays.

Oh! I,m sure that they will speed a few things up that play to the voters and maybe provide health care for some of those without to insure reelection but the majority of the long term benefits will occur over the next 4 years insuring a Democratic majority for years.

Genius I'm tellin' you. He's good, hell he's great!

Now all we do is make sure public option gets voted into law.

He's taken that knife out of his back, yeah that knife, and sharpened the point so it goes in painlessly.

More Ingersol

HERE

The Wizard of AARP

read this

Yeah Like This Is News

Republicans bash Dems over health care proposals

very lame, very lame!

Religion Flow Chart

h/t Holy Taco

Dave Chappelle's Favorite Family

One of my favorite clips from his show.

Will The White House and Representative Yeild?

NO!











NO!

Maine can get theyah from heyah Phillips help

This is so touching and prescient to what we are doing as a country. We don't know it all, this man proudly displays what he knows and we must learn from his experience. Those that have walked the path of life are our most important assets. He is a Republican and i respect him for his views. Who wouldn't? Rational, respective and speaking like an American.

Ingersoll! He gets it right

Daily dose of Ingersoll. Great reading.

We've got a self made emergency on our hands!!!

This is the bridge that connects our region to our neighbors in Vermont and now it is closed making 3500 cars a day look for alternative ways to cross the lake. The states of Vermont and New York have known about it's poor condition for years and applied band aid solutions to whatever popped up all of a sudden every couple of years.

Two years ago the state of New York started rebuilding the pier and monument the is in the state park on their side to the tune of 2 million Georges and I remember crossing over the bridge and thinking that maybe the money would be better spent on the bridge. Well?

Is this happening in your area? Find out before you are in our position. Jobs are being lost, business' will close and the press conferences and newspaper articles will not provide 1 GD dollar for those effected by poor planning and inaction by our elected officials.

Get ready America. If you live in a rural area away from the masses of people who choose to live where all of the big box stores are. This could be your next crisis.

The bridge is 80 years old and made of steel. Not todays steel, but 81 year old steel and it has done it's job and more but our politicians were more concerned about rebuilding a monument than making sure that somebody who lives in Vermont and works in New York can get to work. "eyes off the ball" do little justice to those people.

It is certainly going to be a lesson in how government works over the next several weeks.

read below and you will get a better picture.



So under the heading, seemed like a good idea at the time we have this.

Just How Committed Are We To Saving Oil?

My intentions were right but my research was wrong. Motor oil is a by product of the refinement process for gasoline and so we still need to focus on the ways to reduce our gasoline usage. Shucks!



A customer came in today and picked up their new car and while I was reviewing the service schedule with them I was struck as to like the teabaggers and the birthers many well intentioned folks have a difficultly in changing years old habits and are recalcitrant to change.

Ford recommends that you change your oil under most operating conditions every 7500 miles and it would be reasonable to think that this is a conservative view of just how long an engine today can go without changing the oil. Read this.

The reason I bring this up is that if everyone who bought a new car or truck started changing oil at 7500 miles instead of 3000, how much oil could we save. How about 10 million barrels a year. One days present usage. Not much in the scheme of things, but a start.

This guy from the prarie is OK!

Petulance and Peace Prize
Garrison Keillor



October 14, 2009

Evidently some people were disappointed that Dick Cheney didn't receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and believe me, I sympathize -- I thought Philip Roth should've gotten the literature prize instead of that grumpy Romanian lady with the severe hair -- but it was Barack Obama whom the Norwegians wanted to come visit Oslo in December and stand on the balcony of the Grand Hotel and wave to the crowd along Karl Johans Gate, and, face it, Obama is going to draw a bigger crowd than Cheney would have. When a man has shot somebody in the face with a shotgun, people are going to be reluctant to line up en masse in his presence lest he get excited again. As for Cheney's boss, he was an unlikely pick for the Peace Prize after it was revealed by a White House speechwriter in a recent memoir that George W. Bush once said, "I whupped Gary Bauer's ass ... ." Boasting about ass-whupping is not the mark of a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The correct word is "whipping."

Going to Oslo in December and sitting through a black-tie banquet with a bunch of wooden-faced Norwegians and eating herring and delivering a speech larded with bromides about international cooperation and no jokes is not what I'd consider a good time, frankly. Oslo is rather dark and murky in December. The sun rises during the first coffee break and sets right after lunch and this does not make for a festive mood. This isn't Carnival in Rio De Janeiro.

Some conservative pundit suggested the president should've declined the prize. But it is not gracious to reject a compliment. One should accept it with modesty, as Obama did. The prize isn't about you, it's about Peace, or Literature, or Homecoming, or Champion Hog or Male Vocalist of the Year, so walk up there, smile, say thank you and sit down.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth that you hear among Republicans is 68 percent envy and 32 percent sour grapes. Here is an idealistic, articulate young president who is enormously popular everywhere in the world except in the states of the Confederacy, and here sit the 28 percent of the American people who still thought Bush was doing a heckuva job at the end, gnashing their teeth, hoping and praying for something horrible to make the president look bad, which is not a good place for a political party to be, hoping for the country to slide into chaos. When you bet against America, you are choosing long odds.

A person can run down the list of all that's wrong with this country, but the country has a history of rising to challenges, turning away from demagogues and doing what needs to be done. We are a passionately patriotic people. We have limited patience for fools, such as the ones who now dominate the right. Conservatism is a powerful strain in American life that ordinarily passes as common sense. Save for a rainy day. Don't foul the nest. Don't burn your bridges. Don't sacrifice the future for short-term profit. But when it contradicts itself and becomes weighted down with bigotry and cynicism, it doesn't hold water anymore.

F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." And conservatives tried to keep functioning through the Bush administration but the contradictions wore them down, and last fall, when the federal government wrote a blank check to stave off collapse of the financial sector, conservative principles came crashing to the ground, and now all they have in common is that they don't like President Obama. OK, but resentment of an American president being honored by the Norwegians is not a good point from which to build a Republican revival. Petulant fury isn't a winning hand in politics. Get over it.

Tribune Media Services Garrison Keillor is a radio host and author. oldscout@prairiehome.us

One year from now game

I'm starting a post that we will debate one year from now. Make your comments and we'll see how much things have changed in a year. There are many questions that we as a country are presented with and here is my list of challenging items.

Iraq
Afghanistan
Health Care
General Motors and Chrysler
Rush Limbaugh
Glenn Beck
Michael Steel
AIG
Lindsey Graham
Alan Grayson
Fox News
Price of gas

make your predictions and 1 year from now we'll come back to this post and laugh or cry.

Oh! One more.

Michelle Bachman

Here we go!

As I have said earlier. The proposal will be that those without health insurance must get them some. The only place that they see that happening is from our present providers, you know the guy's who heart the big profits and like they are going to give the uninsured a break because they all of a sudden grew a heart. Not happenin'.

So let's move forward, oh this HCR is far from over, and when masses get the news that they must buy health insurance or be fined so as to lower the cost to those that do...

Tee time please.

There is going to be a tsunami of all of the folks who teabagged and birthered and god knows what else and railed and rallied against Obama will be begging him to provide them a single payer system to save them from having to send the insurance companies a check every month, less they go to jail for non payment.

Ther was a time in America when you got your paycheck and cashed it and at the end of the year you settled up with the government for the money you owed in taxes and when the government found that the majority of the people had spent the money on other things decided that we'll just collect it from your employer before they pay you. Has the bell of success rung yet. Health care for all is not that far away.

Granted we'll pay more in taxes but it's a question off all in and all done. Everybody pays! Is it socialism? No! It is a tax just like the gas tax that pays for the highways you drive on and any number of things that we use on a daily basis.

Barack has done a great job!

Humorous and entertaining...

Health Care "INDUSTRY"?

Industry=Corporation=Profit=Investment=Profit=ROI=Additional Investment=Greater Profit=More ROI wanted= you can see where this is going. Or has gone....

The Adults Are On Stage

Pointing Out Politics As Spectator Sport

I'm Not sure what significance it has , funny? Sad?

Unsure what to think about this.

I've Finally Translated Al 'queda Into English

GET THE OUT OF MY COUNTRY

What's Going In My World

The downturn in the economy has produced many changes in America and around the world and due to it's deepness will expose itself in many way in the months and years to come. The issue I am addressing is how you as a consumer will be effected as you leave your house and, having made the decision to buy car, be it used or new.

Consider the atmosphere a year ago as sales of automobiles decreased at many if not all automotive retailer by 50% and more. Hell some are not even here any more. Yet I have have not heard or read of the plight of the salespeople who given the choice and many times not of choosing another profession have left the business.

Money talks.

Many of these salespeople who had great aspirations of being the next Jackie Cooper had their hopes dashed by the downturn and found different jobs.

So who are the people left convincing you to step up and make the payment for your new ride? The dedicated men and woman who have built a reputation based upon honesty, straight forward conversations and concern for your next purchase from them and have a carburetor for a heart.

Many of us love this business and this is all we know. Looks i am sure that as with any group there are bad apples who get all of the attention when they do something sly and underhanded and in most cases are guilty of outright lies.

The fact is we as a group would not survive were it not for our connection both personally and professionally to our customers.

Nothing is 100% in life and we might get into a squabble over warranty issues, but you must understand that it is not our money paying for your blown motor at 60,001 miles or in the case of some 100,001. It is the manufacturers money being spent and they are just insurance companies, guarding their dollars.

So who is going to greet you when you walk into a dealership next week or next year.

The guys and gals who weathered the storm and made a living regardless of how bad it got. We have customers, those that come back with their children and cousins and friends and walk in and ask us what do you think because we are still here in this economic nightmare because we have cars in our blood and its all we know.

The thing you must understand is that is a business and profit is part of the equation.

Alan G. Everyones Favorite

Another Toy I'll Never Get!!!!

Man I want one of these now....

Do You Believe In Miracles?

As many of Adirondack Lifestyle blog readers know, Lake Placid, New York is famous for a very special moment in the history of sports. It was here in Lake Placid that commentator Al Michaels asked viewers the question, "Do you believe in miracles?" branding the moment when the 1980 US hockey team beat the Soviet Union on their way to win one of the most famous Olympic gold medals ever collected. The under-dog United States team's defeat of the Russians, the "Miracle on Ice" also spawned two movies. The re-creation of coach Herb Brooks locker room speech is now legendary in the realm of sports films. It has always been one of my favorite cheesey film scenes and gives me goose bumps no matter how many times I see the movies. The four-year-old boy in today's video obviously enjoyed the movie too! It should come as no surprise that Lake Placid is a big hockey town with many hockey moms like Kim, my colleague at the real estate office, who made my morning when she showed me the clip.

Those God Damned Troops Need What?

Look, I work in the car biz and most, although not all, managers I have worked under are more concerned about anything but the car biz on a daily basis. girlfriends, the new boat,snowmobile or whatever. They believe that all of the pesky salespeople are just something they have to put up with. They hold very low opinions of them, as they are "managers" and have risen above their co workers in both stature and intelligence. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard a manager say, "that stupid bastard couldn't close a door" I'd be living in Aspen. The auto salesperson today is just a means to an end for these guys. Don't get me started on the owners! I'm sure you get the point.

Then I read this:


Survivors in Afghanistan Need Immediate Help - 56 Soldiers Lost EVERYTHING

* Oct 6, 2009 at 8:00 AM
* 28 comments

UPDATE as of 7 OCT 1430 hrs

We do NOT need fleece blankets, wash clothes or towels. Still need everything else on the list below

UPDATE as of 7 OCT 09 1300 hrs

STILL NEED

Winter Wool Hiking Socks - mostly size 9-12 but a few 13+

ACU tshirts - Need 50 size large

Boxer briefs - have received none. Need 6 small, 60 medium, 42 large and 4 XLarge

Towels and wash clothes - Need 40 sets of each, darker colors preferred

Fleece throw size blankets - Need 30

Donations towards the purchase of both winter and summer PT clothes

Donations towards the replacement of name tapes, unit patches, etc. for their new uniforms.

DO NOT NEED

Athletic shoes

Gloves

White socks

Toiletries

Shower Shoes

UPDATE as of 6 OCT 09 2130 hrs

I'm still working through a list of emails from so many of you. THANK YOU. And thank you for your patience. I don't have the speadsheet update in full yet but I do know that we are mostly still in need of:

ACU tshirts - see original post for sizes and quanitities

Waterproof winter gloves (dark colors)

Balaclavas

Socks - white and winter wool for hiking

12 pairs of shower shoes

Pillows

Towels and wash clothes

PT clothes - winter and summer

Cash donations towards the purchase of athlectic shoes for PT

Shaving cream

WE DO NOT NEED any more

Toiletries - Razors, toothbrushes, toothpaste

Thank you all so much for the great response. I will do my best to get some solid numbers to you by end of day tomorrow.

UPDATE AS OF 6 OCT 09 1400 hrs

All winter knit hats have been donated

10 sets of twin sheets have been donated

30 pairs of shower shoes have been donated

2 pairs of size Medium ACUs have been donated (even though we weren't asking for those but HOOAH)

$325.00 in cash has been committed

About 20 individuals and organizations have contacted me and are going to donate but I don't have specific items or amounts yet. Hope to have more info by end of day or tomorrow.

A couple of people have inquired as to why we need to know what and how many items they are donating. The reason is because we want to keep up with the items to make sure we cover all they need and don't have excess in some areas and not enough in others. I will continue to update here as I get firm committments about what is being donated. Most of all we appreciate ALL of you for pitching in and working on this as a team with us. We will be "briefing" the CSM via email tonight. I will post his reply here (assuming he has time to respond).

Like so many of you my heart has been heavy since the news of the attacks on our posts in Afghanistan on Saturday. The families of the Fallen are first and foremost in my thoughts and prayers. May God give them strength and comfort as they prepare to lay their loved ones to rest and may they always know that there are many of us out here who will ALWAYS remember their sons, brothers, fathers and husbands.

On another note, my great friend and troop support partner, Bob Connolly and I have been in direct contact with the unit's CSM after learning that the base was destroyed and the men lost all of their belongs except the clothes on their backs. The Army is working to replace uniforms for the men. But they need assistance with other personal items. And they NEED TO KNOW that we are thinking about them over here, too.

Please contact me IMMEDIATELY to help fill their "needs" list below.

Socks (both white socks and winter wool hiking socks)

MED - 24
LG - 22
XL - 10

Underwear (boxers and boxer briefs

SM - 3
MED - 30
LG - 21
XL - 2

tshirts (must be Army ACU tshirts - Army will issue for immediate need but extras are always helpful)

SM - 3
MED - 30
LG - 21
XL - 2

PT shorts (or long pants) and shirts

SM - 3
MED - 30
LG - 21
XL - 2

Shower shoes

MED - 24
LG - 22
XL - 10

Towels, wash clothes, twin sheet sets, pillows, blankets (fleece)- Need 56 sets

Razors, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shaving cream - Need enough for 56 men

Running shoes - we are awaiting specific sizes

The above items are the "immediate" needs.

Other suggestions are:

balaclavas, knit caps to fit under helmets (dark colors), winter gloves (dark colors and preferably water proof)

iPods, DVDs, MP3 players and movies, batteries, digital cameras.

Please contact me ASAP via emial tankerbabelc@gmail.com. We want to work to assure every Soldier is covered with basics first so it is important that we track the donated items. If you prefer to make a monetary donation I can give you information to do so.

Bob is getting some goodie boxes out to them today just to let the know we are behind them. We need to get these other items in route ASAP.

Many thanks!

These guys at the Pentagon have the same attitude. Their bonus system is not money but moving up the chain of command and hence acquiring more power.

Next time you see a five star general's car, I don't think you"ll see a support the troops bumper sticker on it.

h/t http://tankerbabelc985.vox.com/

I Wonder What Flavor The Kool Aid Was

They word "delusional" comes to mind....

The How To Take Back America conference held in St. Louis September 25 and 26 drew some 600 activists and, according to organizers, 100,000 online viewers. The gathering was an expanded version of the annual conference held by Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, co-hosted this year by radio personality and far-right activist Janet Folger Porter and promoted by other right-wing bloggers and radio shows.

Conference leaders and participants were both fearful and optimistic: fearful that if the Obama administration gets its way, freedom in America will give way to servitude to a tyrannical socialist government; and optimistic that Americans are angry enough to resist that tyranny and will sweep Democrats out of power in House elections in 2010.

Joining conference participants and echoing the themes were presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and several Republican Members of Congress, including Michele Bachmann (MN), Trent Franks (AZ), Steve King (IA), and Tom McClintock (CA).

Among the themes of the conference:

a continued merging of messaging and organizing among the Religious Right and “teabagger” right
the fervent belief that America is at a tipping point between freedom and fascist power: President Obama and his congressional allies are on the verge of delivering America into Socialism, Communism, and/or Nazi-style tyranny, and that government is therefore to be feared and resisted
optimism that the tea bag movement and anti-health-reform town halls are a sign that Americans are prepared to resist that tyranny
extreme opposition to Democratic health care reform efforts, with some support for the congressional Republican alternative and some demands for a no-compromise approach that would involve ending all government involvement in health care, including Medicare
recent attacks on ACORN are just part of a larger effort to target progressive community organizing groups and their religious supporters and “defund the left”
hostility not only to same-sex marriage but also to any legal protections for LGBT Americans and same-sex couples
a new push to use “abortion as black genocide” as a wedge between African Americans and pro-choice progressives built around a new “documentary” portraying abortion as 21st century genocide
American exceptionalism – the belief that America’s founding was divinely inspired and the nation has been uniquely blessed by God – is alive and well, though America is now living under a curse for having elected Barack Obama
activists don’t need a majority to take back America; if their minority or “remnant” is committed enough God will use them

Pageant Walkin'

Pageant Walkin',Pageant Walkin',Pageant Walkin',Pageant Walkin',Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'Pageant Walkin'

I just get a kick out this phrase, I am not sure why but just reading it puts a smile on my face. hahahahahahahah

Tell Me This Girl Is Not The Next Bonnie Raitt

This guy is genius! Every day he wakes up and does his job and speaks in complete sentences, does what he believes to be right and all along the way he leaves small pieces of bread that the republicans pick up and follow the trail of hate, bigotry, and their devotion to see him fail is stronger than their Patriotism.

He has played them so far like no one I have ever seen in politics. They go on Fox and as they are digesting the bait fed to them by our President, they show all of the country their shortcomings as both Americans and politicians.

The problem I see for them is that they have no leader other than themselves as a group, they are more like the lemmings being led over a cliff, only motivated by their hatred of a black president who is a Democrat, who's only focus is to keep following the trail of bread crumbs and at some point when they find themselves at the bottom of a cliff all bloodied and stunned by what has happened will they realize they have been played.

And find themselves here

Michelle, I Gotta Tell You Something

" I shrunk the Republican Party "

Word Marinated In Snark

John Cole/Balloon Juice says,

This is going to be funny as hell. I can’t wait to check this out of the library- because I’ll be damned if I give the Wasilla Wingnut a penny.

I’m personally looking forward to the chapter on how to cook meth in a snowstorm using only a Bowie knife, a King James Bible, and a moose antler. Should be awesome.